indirect and interpretative choice even in actions which in the particulars are necessary viz. when that was deliberated of and chosen which made them so All our actions in a necessitous state are indirectly and interpretatively voluntary and chosen when the necessity it self is of our own choosing In the particulars 't is true we are not free to refuse them but the reason why we are not is because we our selves chuse to be so For although our present actions are necessary yet once it was in our power to have kept them free and that which causes us now to act indeliberately and without consideration was it self once freely deliberated of and chosen So that all those actions which are now necessary in the particulars were as the Schools speak voluntary in the cause which is an indirect choice and interpretative volition And as for those actions which are chosen only indirectly and implicitely viz. in the free choice of that cause which made them afterwards to be all necessary they may very fairly be imputed to us and interpreted to be our own For in all reason the natural and immediate effects of a mans own free and deliberate choice may be charged upon him and if he chooses his necessity it is fit that he should answer for it and bear the punishment of those sins which he commits under it What is a matter of any mans choice may be an article of his accusation and a matter of his punishment also But now as for this necessity of sinning it is a necessity of mens own choosing For they wilfully threw themselves into it in choosing the cause of it and so may very justly be made to answer for all that which they commit under it All the effects of their present necessity if they are traced up will terminate upon their own will for they hang upon that file of actions which had beginning from their own choice and being thus chosen by them they may justly be charged upon them As for such effects indeed as are so remote that a mans understanding in the honest and sincere use of it cannot see them although he do choose the cause yet neither God nor men will look upon him to have chosen them For there can be no choice where there is no knowledge because a man must see a thing before he will and choose it But when effects lye near and obvious to any ordinary capacity if it do but use an honest diligence as most mens necessity of sinning doth to those free actions which produce it there it is only mens sloth and negligence if they do not discern it and if they chuse blindfold when if they would open their eyes they might see it is all one in God's account as if they did see it For it is against all reason in the world that the sinful neglects of men should take away 〈◊〉 rights of God He has given them faculties wherewith to see things before they chuse them and he requires that they should And if they will not use them that is their own fault but what he requires of them he will still exact and punish them for what is done as for a chosen action So that as for those sins which men have chosen in their next and discernable Cause although they are not free to chuse or refuse them in the Particulars themselves they are a part of their account at the last Judgment What is chosen indirectly and by interpretation is looked on as their own and if it be evil will be imputed to them for their condemnation But now several of mens sins are of this last sort For as we saw of some particular actions that they are chosen in the Particulars directly and expresly so are there likewise several others which in the Particulars cannot be refused but were chosen in the general in the free choice of that Cause which has made them all afterwards necessary so that they are voluntary only indirectly and chosen by interpretation For there is nothing so common in the World as for men by their free choice of some sins to bring themselves into a necessity of others they freely will and chuse some which necessarily cause and effect more Now those things which may bring men into this necessity are such and so many as make them inconsiderate and hasty For therefore it is that in the Particulars we cannot expresly chuse or refuse several sins because we cannot stay particularly and expresly to consider of them We have brought our selves to such a pass that they slip from us without reasoning and enquiring about them For either our understanding is diverted that it cannot or so well acquainted with them that it need not look upon them to observe and consider them And since we do not particularly consider of them when they come we cannot expresly will and chuse them but forasmuch as we chose the cause of this inconsideration we are said to chuse them indirectly and by interpretation And as for the wilful and chosen Causes of such inconsideration I shall discourse of them under these two sorts viz. as causing such inconsideration in sins either 1. Of commission or doing what is forbidden 2. Of omission or neglecting to do what is commanded 1. For those causes of inconsideration in our sins of commission which make us venture on them without all doubt or disquisition they are these First Drunkenness Secondly Some indulged passion Thirdly Habit or custom of sinning For all these when once we have consented to them take away either wholly or in great measure all further freedom and make us will and chuse what is evil indeliberately and without consideration First As for Drunkenness we find daily in those persons who are subject to it that it so disorders and unsettles all the intellectual powers that they have scarce any use of them at all For their memory fails and their judgment forsakes them They have no thoughts for that present time of good or evil of expedient or inexpedient Their reason is overwhelmed and quite asleep and there is nothing that is awake and active in them but their bodily lusts and sensual passions which then hurry them on to any thing that falls in their way without the least opposition So that they are wholly governed by their appetites and for that time unbridled passions of lust or cruelty or envy or revenge They blab out that which in their right wits they would conceal and do what in a sober mode they would condemn And so little is there of that reason and understanding in all their speeches and behaviour which appears in them when the drunken fit is over that any man may plainly see how for that present it is removed from them So that they act rashly and irrationally more like brute Beasts than men committing rapes or robberies or bloodshed or any other mad frolicks and sinful extravagancies without any deliberation or consideration at all And Secondly As for an
Conscience no man can be innocently ignorant Of what others he may This ignorance is necessary to all men for some time and to some for all their lives Mens sins upon it are not damning Of sins involuntary through our ignorance of the present actions being included in the known Law and meant by it The causes of this ignorance First The difference between good and evil in some actions being not in kind but only in degree Secondly The limitedness of most Laws which admit of exceptions Thirdly The indirect obligations which pass upon several indifferent actions Fourthly The clashing of several Laws whence one is transgressed in pursuit of another the great errour upon this score iâ— in the case of zeal Fifthly The clashing of Laws with opinions or prejudices 461 CHAP. VI. Of Prejudice The Contents The nature of prejudice It a cause of ignorance of our Duty The difference betwixt things being proposed to a free and empty and to a prejudiced or prepossessed mind An evident proposal sufficient to make a free mind understand its Duty but besides it a confutation of its repugnant prejudice is necessary to a mind that is prepossessed An account of several Opinions which make men ignorant of several instances of Duty One prejudice that nothing is lawful in Gods Worship but what is authorized by an express command or example of Scripture the acts of sin that are justified by this prejudice Another that all private men are publick Protectors of Religion and the Christian Faith the acts of sin justified by this Opinions Other Opinions cause a sinful neglect of the Sacraments These are incident to some honest and obedient hearts An account of other prejudices as that Christ is a Temporal King the acts of disobedience authorized by this Opinion That a good end will justifie an evil action the acts of sin upon this perswasion That Dominion is founded in Grace the disobedient acts avowed by this Principle These are more disobedient and damning The case stated what prejudices are consistent with and what destroy salvation Some prejudices get into mens minds not through a disobedient heart but through weakness of understanding and fallibility of the means of knowledge These are consistent with a state of salvation An instance of this in the prejudice of the Apostles about preaching of the Gospel to all Nations Other prejudices get into mens minds through damning lusts or sins A brief account of the influence of mens lusts and vices upon their Opinions This is illustrated in the Gnosticks They were famous for covetousness and worldly compliances and for impure lusts and excess in bodily pleasures The effect of these in producing agreeable Opinions Another of their vices was a turbulent and seditious humour Their Opinion was answerable A further illustration of it from the Pharisees An account of their vices and the influence which they had in begetting vile perswasions This influence of mens lust upon their judgments proved from the Scriptures The damnableness of such prejudices as enter this way Certain marks whereby to judge when prejudices proceed from unmortified lusts As first If the sin whereto the prejudice serves is unmortified in them Secondly If it lye so near to the prejudice that we could not but see that it ministred to it when we embraced it Thirdly Though it lye more remote if we still adhere to it when we plainly see that some unquestionable and notorious Laws are evacuated or infringed by it A Rule to prevent disobedient prejudices viz. Let Laws be the Rule whereby to judge of truth in opinions not opinions the Rule whereby to measure the Obligation of Laws Some Reasons of this viz. Because Laws are more plain and certain but opinions are more difficult and dubious Obedience to Laws is the end of revealed truth and so fit to measure it not to be measured by it 480 CHAP. VII A sixth cause of ignorance of the present actions being comprehended under a known Law And of the excusableness of our transgressions upon both these sorts of ignorance The Contents All the forementioned causes of ignorance of our present actions being included in the known Law are such to knowing and learned men Besides them the difficult and obscure nature of several sins is a general cause of it to the rude and unlearned Sins upon this ignorance as well as upon ignorance of the Law it self unchosen and so consistent with a state of Grace and Salvation Where there is something of choice in it they extenuate the sin and abate the punishment though they do not wholly excuse it The excuse for these actions is only whilst we are plainly ignorant they are damning when we are enlightened so far as to doubt of them but pardonable whilst we are in darkness or errour This excuse is for both the modes of ignorance 1. Forgetfulness 2. Errour All this pardon hitherto discoursed of upon the account of ignorance of either sort is no further than the ignorance it self is involuntary The wilfulness of some mens ignorance The several steps in voluntary ignorance The causes of it Two things required to render ignorance involuntary 1. An honest heart 2. An honest industry What measures necessary to the acceptance of this industry Gods candor in judging of its sufficiency This Discourse upon this first cause of an innocent involuntariness viz. ignorance summed up 522 CHAP. VIII Of sins consistent through the second Cause of an innocent involuntariness viz. inconsideration The Contents Consideration is necessary to choice Some sins are inconsiderate Three innocent causes of inconsideration 1. Suddenness and surprize of opportunity An account of this The involuntariness of it Slips upon it are consistent 2. Weariness of our thinking powers or understandings An account of this and of its involuntariness The consistence of our transgressions by reason of it 3. Discomposure or disturbance of them An account of this The causes of it are Drunkenness or a strong Passion Drunkenness is always our own fault Our Passions grow strong in us sometimes by our own indulgence and then they are our damning sin and we must suffer for the evil that we commit under them sometimes through the suddenness and greatness of outward Objects and then they are pardonable and our inconsiderate slips upon them are excusable The passions which have good for their Object as Love Desire c. cannot by any force of outward objects be so suddenly forced upon us But the passions which have evil as grief anger and fear especially often are The reason of this difference Inconsideration upon the latter excusable but not upon the former This difference made by our Saviour in a case where both were criminal Excusable slips upon discomposure of our thinking powers are such as proceed from an unwill'd sudden grief or anger but especially from a sudden fear No fear is involuntary but what is sudden and sins upon deliberate fear are damning but upon unwill'd sudden fear grief or anger consistent
and practise all other Vertues that are gainful not because we love God but only because we love mony We may be just and honest and seemingly religious not for the sake of a Commandment but of our own credit because the contrary practice would wound our good Name in the world and stain our reputation And now when our own lusts and vices our carnal pleasures and temporal advantages strike in after this manner with Gods Laws and command the same service which he enjoins us we may pretend if we will and as too oft we do that all is for his sake and that these performances which are really owing to our own self-interests come from us upon the account of Religion and Obedience And when we falsifie and feign thus it is flat dissimulation It is no more but acting the part of an obedient and religious man seeing like an Actor on the Stage we are that person whom we represent not in inward truth and reality but only in outward shew and appearance which is the very nature of hypocrisie But for a man to be sincere in Gods service is the same as really to intend that obedience which he professes It is inwardly and truly to will and do that for his sake which in outward shew and appearance we would be thought to do It is nothing else as the Psalmist says but truth in the inward parts Psal. 51.6 the having our inward design and intention to agree with our outward profession and being verily and indeed those obedient persons which we pretend to be And as for this sincerity of our performance of what God requires viz. our doing it for his sake and because he commands it it is altogether necessary to make such performance become obedience and to qualifie us for the rewards of those that obey For without it we do not observe Gods will but our own his Command had no share in what we did because it had been done although he had said nothing so that in our performance of it we served not him but our own selves And what has God to thank us for if we do nothing but our own pleasure Wherein do we serve him by acting only according to our own liking That cannot be charged on him which is not designed for him and if we do what he commands no otherwise than thus it is all one as if we had done nothing But if ever we expect that God should judge us at the last Day to have obeyed him we must be sincere in our obedient performances For the Lord looketh not on the outward appearance and pretence saith Samuel but he looks on the inward intention and design which is the heart 1 Sam. 16.7 He saves as the Psalmist tells us the upright in heart Psal. 7.10 And again As for the upright in heart they and they alone shall glory Psal. 64.10 For it is not from the bare outward appearance and profession but from the heart says Solomon that proceed the issues of life Prov. 4.23 And this is plainly declared in the express words of the Law it self For it accepts not a heartless service nor accounts it self obeyed by what was never intended for it But thus it bespeaks us The Lord thy God requires thee to serve him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. For he is a great God a mighty and a terrible to all that do otherwise and who in his Judgement regardeth not persons nor to corrupt him taketh rewards Deut. 10.12 17. And the Apostle tells the Philippians that their being sincere is the way to be without offence till the Day of Christ Phil. 1.10 And thus we see that to render our obedience acceptable at the last Day it is absolutely necessary that it be sincere and unfeigned We must do what Gods Laws prescribe not only because our own credit or interest sometimes requires it but because God has commanded it In all our obedient performances our heart and design must go along with him before ever he will recompence and reward us So that 't is plain we cannot obey God either against our will and intention or without them seeing our wills and intentions themselves are the very life and soul of our obedience The prime part of our Duty consists in the directing of our Design for even that which is done agreeably to Gods Command must be aimed and intended for him or else it will never be owned and approved by him But that we may the better judge of this sincerity of our service which is measured by our intention and design we must take notice of a two-fold intention For it is either 1. Actual and express Or 2. Habitual and implicite Now it is this latter which is always and indispensably required to the sincerity of our service but as for the former it is not always necessary though oftentimes it be Intention is the tendency of the soul towards some end which it likes and which it thinks to compass and endeavour after And this is one prime requisite in the actions of men and that which distinguisheth our operations from the actions of brute Beasts for what they do proceeds from the necessary force of uncontriving Nature and instinct but what we from reason and design And the cause of this difference is this Because God has given the brute Beasts no higher Guide and Commander of their actions than appetite and passion whose motions are not chosen with freedom and raised in them by reason and thought but merely by the necessitating force of outward objects themselves and those impressions which they make upon them For they act altogether through love and hatred hopes and fears and they love and hate not through reason and discourse but through the natural and mechanical suitableness or offensiveness of those objects which they act for But as for us men he has put all our actions under the power and in the disposal not of outward things but of something within us even our own free will They are not imposed upon us by the force of any thing without us but are freely chosen by us we are not their Instruments but their Authours they flow from our own pleasure and undetermined choice Now as our actions are at the disposal and command of our wills so do our wills themselves command and dispose of them not blindly and by chance but always for some reason and upon some design For in themselves they are indifferent to make us either omit or act neglect or exert them And therefore to determine our wills one way rather than the other to act them rather than to let them alone they must be moved and perswaded by such Arguments as are fit to win upon them Now that which can move and gain upon our wills is only goodness We will and desire nothing but what we think is good for us and which tends some way or other to better and advantage us For what we
too strong for us and hurries us on whether we will or no. For in every step which the passion makes it doth still the more disturb our Spirits and thereby disable all the power of our reason and consideration So that proportionably as it encreases our consideration and together with that our choice and liberty is lessened and impaired But at the first whilst it is young and of small strength it is in the power of our own wills either to indulge it or to stop and repress it And therefore if it get ground upon us it is by our own liking because either we expresly chuse to stay upon it and thereby to feed and foment it or wilfully neglect to use that power which we have over it in curbing and straining it And when once we have of our own choice permitted it to go too far then is it got without our reach and goes on further without asking our leave whether we will or no. And herein lyes the great errour of men viz. in that they freely and deliberately consent to the first beginnings of sin and by their own voluntary yielding too far they make all that follows to be plainly necessary For the lustful man deliberately and wilfully permits his wanton fancy to sport it self with impure thoughts and lascivious imaginations till by degrees his passion gathers strength and his lusts grow so high that all his powers of reason and Religion are scattered and clouded and rendred wholly unable to subdue it The angry man freely and deliberately hearkens to exasperating suggestions and cherisheth discontents so long till at last his passion is got beyond his reach and flies out into all the unconsidered instances of rage and fury And the Case is the same in fear in envy in love and hatred and other passions Men first consent to the first steps and beginnings of a sinful lust and when they have deliberately yielded to it a little way they begin by degrees to be forced and driven by it For all progress in a vicious lust is like a motion down hill men may begin it where they please but if once they are entred they cannot stop where they please All vice stands upon a Precipice and therefore although we may stay our selves at the first setting out yet we cannot in the middle But although when once we have gone too far it be not at our own choice whether or no we shall go further yet was it in the free power of our own wills not to have gone so far as we did The entring so far into the passion was an effect of our own will and free deliberation and if this make that necessary which is done afterwards that is a necessity of our own chusing So that whatsoever our after actions are this cause of them is a matter of our own will and freely chosen And then as for the third cause of indeliberate sins viz. a custome and habit of sinning that is plainly a matter of our own free choosing For it is frequent acts that make a habit and they are all free and at our own disposal Because the necessity arises from the habit and doth not go before it so that all those actions which preceded and were the causes of it were free and undetermined Wherefore as for that indeliberateness in sinning which ariseth from an habit and custome of sin it doth not in any wise lessen or excuse a sinfull action Nay instead of that it aggravates and augments it For this is sin improved up to the height and become not so much a matter of choice as of nature And to sin thus is to sin as the Devils themselves do from a natural Spring and Principle without the help of thinking and disputing Upon which accounts as it is the most advanced state of sin so must it be of suffering likewise this state of reigning and prevailing habits of sin being as S t Paul calls it a body of death Rom. 7.23 24. All which aggravation both of sin and suffering it has because it is an aggregate and collected body of many wilfull and presumptuous sins For before men come so far they have deliberately chosen and willfully neglected to refrain from all those precedent actions which have advanced the strength of sin to that pitch and have made it to be not so much a temptation or a refusable motive as a binding Law and necessitating nature So that although those sinfull actions which flow from us after that we are come to a habit of sin are indeliberate and unchosen Yet as for our evil habit it self which is the cause of them it was produced by a combination of wilfull sins and was in all the antecedent degrees a matter of choice and deliberation And lastly as for the cause of our involuntary omissions viz. our neglect of those means which are necessary to our performance of those things which are commanded this is clearly our own fault and comes to pass only because we choose it and have a mind to it For the reason why we neglect the means is because we will not use them We have time enough wherein to deliberate and consider of them and thereby to choose and practise them but we will not use it to that purpose The means and helps to chastity to meekness to contentedness and other virtues are all before us and we have power to put them in practice if we think fitting For it is just the same for that matter with the endowments of our wills as with those of our minds and bodies We can see and consider of the means of begetting knowledge and learning in our minds and of those receits and rules which are to promote the health of our bodies and upon such consideration we not only can but ordinarily do make choice of them and put them in practice And although it happen much otherwise with those wise directions and helpfull rules that are given for the attainment of virtue which are read ordinarily only to be known but not to be practised yet is it in the choice of our own wills to make use of them if we please as well as of the other The neglect of them is a wilfull neglect for therefore we do not use them because we choose to omit them So that although when once we neglect the means it be not at our choice after that to attain the virtue yet that neglect it self was The omissions in themselves it may be are not chosen because they cannot be refused but that negligence which is the cause of their being so is plainly an effect of our own choice and deliberation Thus then it plainly appears that our sinfull commissions upon drunkenness passionateness and custome of sinning and our sinfull omissions upon our neglect of the means and instruments of virtue all which are indeliberate and unchosen in themselves were yet deliberately chosen in their causes So that all our necessity in them is a necessity of
our own making seeing it was at our own choice whether ever we should have come under it although when once we are subject to it it be no longer at our liberty whether or no we shall be acted by it And since all these sins which are thus indeliberate in themselves were yet so freely chosen and deliberated in their causes they are all imputable to us and fit to be charged upon us They were chosen indirectly and interpretatively in the choice of that cause which made them all afterwards to be almost if not wholly necessary For either we did deliberate or which is all one we had time enough to have deliberated as we ought before we chose our own necessity So that these sinfull actions which are unchosen and unconsidered in themselves are yet imputable to us and fit to be charged upon us as our own because we chose them by an indirect and interpretative volition As therefore there are some sins which are expresly will'd in the particulars by an express choice and deliberation so likewise are there several others which are expresly and deliberately willed only in their cause but in their own particulars are not chosen otherwise than indirectly and by interpretation And both these together take up the compass of our wilfull and chosen sins For either we expresly think and deliberately consider of the sinfull action when we commit it or we expresly and deliberately thought upon that cause when we chose it which makes us now to sin without thinking and deliberation And by all this it appears now at length how considerateness and deliberation is implyed in every wilfull sin For the sinfull action is seen and considered or it is our faults if it be not since we had both time and powers for such consideration either in it self or in its cause and being it is thus a matter of our consideration it is likewise a matter of our choice and a wilfull action And thus having shewn what sinfull actions are voluntary and chosen I proceed now to shew 2. That none of them is consistent with a state of grace but deadly and damning As for our wilfull sins they are all as we have seen of a most heinous nature being indeed nothing less than a contempt of Gods Authority a sinning presumptuously and with a high hand They are a plain disavowing of Gods will and renouncing of his Soveraignty they are acted in a way of defiance and are not the unavoidable slips of an honest and well-meaning servant but the high affronts of an open rebel So that no favourite or child of God can ever be guilty of them or he must cease to continue such if he be Because they interrupt all favour and friendship and put God and him into a state of hostility and defiance seeing they are nothing less than a renouncing of his Authority at least in that instance and a casting off his Law And this lawlesness or rejecting of the Law is that very word whereby S t John describes sin For sin sayes he is the transgression as we render it but more fully it should be the renouncing of the Law 1 Joh. 3.4 In which sense of sin for a wilfull and rebellious one he tells us that whosoever abides in God sins not vers 6 being indeed no longer a child of God if he do but of the Devil vers 8. They deprive us of all the benefits of Christs sacrifice so long as we continue in them and of all the blessings purchased for us by his death This was their effect under the Law of Moses and it is so much rather under the Gospel of Christ. For the sentence which that Law pronounced upon all presumptuous and wilfull offenders was death without mercy The soul that doth ought presumptuously the same by his contemptuous sin reproacheth the Lord and that soul shall be cut off from among his people Numb 15.30 If ever it could be proved against him by that dispensation there was no hope for him For he that despised or contemptuously transgressed Moses's Law died without mercy saith the Apostle being convicted under the testimony of two or three witnesses Hebr. 10.28 For even those very sins for which under the Law God had appointed an attonement were no longer to be attoned for than they were committed involuntarily and through ignorance In the fourth Chapter of Leviticus we are told that as for those sins which are committed against any of those Commandments which concerned things not to be done if they were acted involuntarily and unwillingly they should be allowed the benefit of an expiation and the sacrifices for that purpose are there prescribed But if they were acted wilfully and advisedly then had they no right to the expiation there promised nor would any sacrifices be accepted for them but that punishment must unavoidably be undergone which in the Law was threatned to them For to name no more this we are plainly told of two instances viz. the contemptuous making of perfume and eating of blood after both had been forbidden Whosoever shall contemptuously make any perfume like to that which was commanded to be made vers 35. to smell thereto that soul shall not be expiated by sacrifice but cut off from his people Exod. 30.38 And whatsoever man there be that eateth any manner of blood viz. willingly and wilfully the ignorant and involuntary transgressions of this and the like prohibitions being attoneable Lev. 4. I will even set my face against that soul and will cut him off from among his people Levit. 17.10 Thus severe was the sentence and thus unavoidable was the penalty of all wilfull sins under the Law of Moses And by how much the ministration of Christ is nobler than the ministration of Moses was by so much shall the punishment of all wilfull and contemptuous sins against the Law of Christ be more severe than it was for those against the Law of Moses And this is the Apostles own argument For if that word of the Law threatning death which was spoken unto Moses on Mount Sinai by the mediation only of Angels was stedfast and every transgression of it received the just recompence of that death which it threatned such persons dying without mercy How shall we Christians hope to escape it if we wilfully neglect and contemn those Laws which are published to us by so great a means of salvation as the Gospel is which was at first spoken to us not by Angels but by the Lord Jesus Christ himself who is far above all Angels being indeed the Son of God himself Hebr. 2.2 3. Surely as the Apostle argues in another place if he who despised even Moses's Law died without mercy for that contempt we ought to think with our selves not of how much less but of how much sorer punishment he shall be judged worthy who by wilfull sinning and despising of his Laws doth in a manner tread under foot not Moses but the Son of God
of several of his dearest Saints who have experienced the truth of it By all which it appears that so long as we are guilty of no other slips but such as these we are safe in Gods favour and secure of his promises we shall be accepted by him although we live and dye in them And thus at length it appears what sins are truly and innocently involuntary viz. those which are acted ignorantly and unwittingly and that they do not unsaint a man or destroy his state of Grace and Salvation but consist with it CHAP. V. Of these involuntary and consistent sins particularly and of the first cause of innocent involuntariness viz. Ignorance The CONTENTS A twofold knowledge necessary to choice viz. a general understanding and particular consideration Consistent sins are either sins of ignorance or of inconsideration Of sins involuntary through ignorance of the general Law which makes a duty How there is still room for it in the world Of crying sins which are against Natural Conscience no man can be innocently ignorant Of what others he may This ignorance is necessary to all men for some time and to some for all their lives Mens sins upon it are not damning Of sins involuntary through our ignorance of the present actions being included in the known Law and meant by it The causes of this ignorance First The difference between Good and Evil in some actions being not in kind but only in degree Secondly The limitedness of most Laws which admit of exceptions Thirdly The indirect obligations which pass upon several indifferent actions Fourthly The clashing of several Laws whence one is transgressed in pursute of another the great errour upon this score is in the case of zeal Fifthly The clashing of Laws with opinions or prejudices BUt in regard this consistence of our ignorant and unconsidered slips is a matter of so great account in the quieting and comforting of troubled and fearfull Consciences I will yet proceed to enquire of it more distinctly and to shew what particular ignorances those are which will cause that innocent involuntariness which Christs Gospel doth not punish as has been already shewn but graciously dispense with To him that knows to do good saith S t James and doth it not to him 't is sin Jam. 4.17 And the reason why it is so is this because that sin which a man knows and sees he wills and chooses but if he commit sin when he sees it not it is not imputed to him for a sin because it is not chosen by him That we may clearly understand then what ignorance renders any sin involuntary and therefore unpunishable it is very proper to enquire what knowledge is necessary unto choice and fit to make any sin to be esteemed voluntary and chosen Now to our choice of any sin there is a two-fold knowledge necessary First An habitual and general knowledge that the action is sinfull Secondly An actual use and exercise of that knowledge in a particular animadvertence and express thinking upon what we know which is consideration Both these are necessary to a chosen sin for we must both know an action to be a sin and also actually bethink our selves and consider of its sinfulness before we can be said to chuse the sin and wilfully to disobey in it 1. Before we can be said to chuse the sinfulness of any action it is necessary that we know habitually and in the general that the action whensoever it is committed is sinfull I call that an habitual and general knowledge when we are not to learn of any sinfull action that there is a Law that forbids it nor are in any doubts or darkness in our own thoughts whether it be a sin or no. But if it is proposed to our minds they are already resolved about it and need not further to enquire of it they know and judge it to be a sin when they are asked the question and that is their standing opinion and fixt perswasion And this knowledge because it is no more of one particular action than of another I call general and because it is fixt and permanent having grown into a lasting impression and habitual judgment of the mind I call an habitual knowledge Now that we may be said to chuse to sin and disobey in any particular action it is necessary that we have this general and habitual knowledge of its sinfulness For if we do not understand that although we do chuse the action yet we cannot be esteemed to chuse the sin since our will may be all the while innocent and obedient and ready to refuse the action if it were made to see that it is sinful We can have no choice of that whereof we have no apprehension for the will as it is truly said is a blind faculty and can chuse nothing till it be represented and proposed to it by the understanding So that if our minds are in darkness about any action and have no knowledge of its being forbidden our wills can have no share in chusing of the sin but since it was unknown it must be also involuntary and unchosen But besides this general and habitual knowledge of the sinfulness of any action there is moreover necessarily required to our choice of it 2. An actual use and exercise of that knowledge in a particular animadvertence and express thinking upon what we know which is consideration For there is no knowledge that directs and influences our choice further than we actually attend to it and consider of it but if at any time we did not think of it it is all one as if we did not know it Nothing is a motive to our will further than it is heeded and attended to at the time of willing and unless we see and consider of it then when we are to chuse upon it For in this Case the Civilians Maxim is very true That which doth not appear to be is of no more account than if really it were not at all That any sin then may be said to be willed and chosen by us it is necessary that it occur to our thoughts and be present to our minds at the time of chusing of it For if we transgress when we do not think of it our heart may be innocent all the while and our will incur no disobedience at all since if we did but consider of the sin we would by no means embrace but utterly refuse it So that all that can be charged upon us in such Cases is only the hast and errour of our understandings but not any rebellion in our wills for our heart is good although the outward action appear to be evil Now since both a general knowledge and a particular consideration are necessary in every wilful and chosen sin the involuntariness of any transgressions may arise from the want of either of them So that those sins are justly reputed to be involuntary and unchosen which proceed 1. From the want of the general knowledge
much less out-done by the best of men in pity and kindness Which is the argument from which our Saviour himself concludes that God will give the holy spirit at our prayers because that men themselves who are infinitely below him in goodness will give good gifts to them that ask them Luk. 11.13 Let us therefore take care in the first place to secure our selves of an obedient heart and to give such evidence of an honest industry as any kind hearted honest man would accept of and then we may have just reason to be confident that although our endeavour is weak and imperfect being much hindred and often interrupted yet shall it still be esteemed sufficient For Christ himself who is to judge of its sufficiency is no stranger to our weaknesses but having felt them in himself he is prone to pity and pardon them in us He experimented the backwardness of our flesh and the number of our distractions and the tiredness of our powers and the insinuations and strength of temptations So that having such an High Priest to intercede for us at present and to judge us at the last day who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities having been tempted himself in all points even as we are let us come boldly unto the throne of Grace as the Apostle exhorts us that we may obtain mercy for what we cannot master as well as find grace in a seasonable time of need to conquer what he expects we should overcome Hebr. 4.15 16. And this mercifull connivance at our imperfections and gracious acceptance of our weak endeavours we may with the greater reason and assurance hope for because Christ our Judge will be most candid and benign in putting the best sense and in interpreting most to our advantage all those our actions and endeavours which shall then be brought before him Whereof he has given us a clear instance in that most favourable construction which he made of that Charity that was shewn unto his Brethren by those on his right hand Mat. 25. For although it was not expressed to him but only to their fellow Christians for his sake yet because their kindness reached him in the intention of their minds and what they did to his servants for his sake they would have done to himself much rather could they have met with an opportunity he resented it as if it had been really shown to his own person For when they say unto him Lord when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee or naked and cloathed thee c. he answers inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren I take the affection for the performance and interpret it as if you had done it unto me vers 40. When therefore the sufficiency of our endeavours fater the knowledge of our Duty is come to be enquired into by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ we may be assured that it will have a favourable tryal It it to be censured by a candid equitable and benign judge who will interpret it to our advantage as much nay more than any good natured honest man would So that if our industry after the knowledge of Gods will be in such a measure as a candid and benign man would judge to be a sufficient effect of an obedient heart and of an honest purpose Christ will judge it to be so too And where our Ignorance of any of Christs Laws is joyned with an honest heart and remains after such an industry we may take comfort to our selves and be confident that it is involuntary and innocent If we are desirous to know Gods Laws and read good Books frequent Sermons hearken to any good instructions which we meet with and that according to our opportunities and in such measure as any good man would interpret to be an honest endeavour after the knowledge of our Duty if it were to himself if after all this I say in some points we are still Ignorant our Ignorance is involuntary and shall not harm us it is not chosen by us and therefore it never will condemn us And thus we have seen what ignorances excuse our slips and transgressions which are committed under them and when those Ignorances are themselves involuntary and innocent so as that we may comfortably expect to be excused upon the account of them And the summ of all that has been hitherto discoursed upon this subject is this That as for the Laws themselves all men must needs be ignorant of some of them for some time and some men for all their lives because they want either ability or opportunity to understand them And as for their present actions being comprehended under them that many men of all sorts and capacities after that they have known the General Laws will still be ignorant of it likewise For as for the wise and learned the small and meer gradual difference between good and evil in some instances the allowed exceptions from the generality of others the indirect force and obligation of a third sort and the frequent clashing and enterfering whether of Laws with Laws or of Laws with their repugnant prejudices and opinions will be sure to make them very often overlook it And as for the rude and ignorant that besides all these causes of such ignorance which are common to them with learned men the difficult and obscure nature of several Vices and Virtues themselves which are plainly and expresly forbidden or injoyn'd will be of force sufficient to make the generality of them in many instances not to understand it And as for the pardon and excuse of our ignorance and unknown transgressions from all or any of these causes that it is involuntary and innocent so long as it is joyned with an honest heart and remains after an honest industry and begins then only to be our wilful sin and an Article of our condemnation when our Lusts or Vices introduce it and we have a mind to it and take no pains against it or what is the consummation and height of all industriously labour and endeavour after it And this may suffice to have spoken of the first sort of want of Knowledge which as I said above produces an uncondemning involuntariness viz. Ignorance when we commit sin because we do not know the sinfulness of our present action or the Law which we sin against CHAP. VIII Of Sins consistent through the second Cause of an innocent Involuntariness viz. Inconsideration The CONTENTS Consideration is necessary to choice Some sins are inconsiderate Three innocent causes of inconsideration 1. Suddenness and surprize of opportunity An account of this The involuntariness of it Slips upon it are consistent 2. Weariness of our thinking powers or understandings An account of this and of its involuntariness The consistence of our Transgressions by reason of it 3. Discomposure or disturbance of them An account of this The causes of it are Drunkenness or a strong Passion Drunkenness is always our own fault Our
sufferings Where it needs to be defended disobedience is no fit means to preserve it because God cannot be honoured nor Religion served by it Religion and the love of God is only the colour but the true and real cause of such disobedience is a want of Religion and too great a love of mens own selves Men are liable to be deceived by this pretence from a wrong Notion of Religion for religious opinions and professions A true Notion of Religion for religious practice upon a religious belief as it implies both faith and obedience The danger of disobedience upon this pretence The practice of all religious men in this case Of Religion in the narrow acceptation for religious professions and opinions The commendable way of mens preserving it First By acting within their own sphere Secondly By the use only of lawful means Thirdly By a zeal in the first place for the practice of religious Laws and next to that for the free profession of religious opinions 330 CHAP. VII Of the two remaining pretences for a partial obedience The Contents The second pretence for the allowed practice of some sins whilst men obey in others is the serving of their necessities by sinful arts in times of indigence An account of mens disobedience upon this pretence The vanity of it and the danger of disobeying through it A third pretence is bodily temper and complexion age and way of life A representation of mens disobedience upon this pretence The vanity of it and the danger of sinning through it No justifying Plea for disobedience from our age Nor from our way of life Nor from our natural temper and complexion So that this integrity of the Object is excusable upon no pretence It was always required to mens acceptance 355 CHAP. VIII Of obeying with all the heart and all the soul c. The Contents Of obeying God with all the heart and with all the strength c. It includes not all desire and endeavour after other things but it implies First Sincerity Secondly Fervency Thirdly Integrity or obeying not some but all the Laws of God These three include all that is contained in it which is shown from their obedience who are said in Scripture to have fulfilled it Integrity implies sincerity and fervency and love with all the heart is explained in the places where it is mentioned by loving him entirely Sincerity and uprightness the Conditions of an acceptable Obedience This a hard Condition in the degeneracy of our manners but that is our own fault It was easie and universally performed by the primitive Christians This shown from the Characters of the Apostles and of the primitive Writers Hence it was that they could despise Death and even provoke Martyrdom Some Pleas from our impotence against the strictness of this Obedience which are considered in the next Book 370 BOOK IV. Shewing what defects are consistent with a regenerate state and dispensed with in the Gospel CHAP. I. Shewing in general that some sins are consistent with a state of Grace The Contents SOme failings consistent with a state of Grace This shewn in the general First From the necessity of humane Nature which cannot live without them Secondly From sundry examples of pious men who had right to life whilst they lived in them 385 CHAP. II. Of the nature of these consistent slips more particularly The Contents Our unchosen sins are consistent with a state of Grace but our wilful and chosen ones destroy it All things are made good or evil a matter of reward or punishment by a Law Laws are given for the guidance and reward only of our voluntary and chosen actions This proved first from the clear reason of the thing Where it is inferred from the nature of Laws which is to oblige from that way that all Laws have of obliging which is not by forcing but perswading men from the dueness of rewards and punishments commendations and reproofs from the applause or accusations of mens own Consciences upon their obedience or transgressions Secondly From the express declarations of Scripture 396 CHAP. III. Of the nature and danger of voluntary sins The Contents The nature of a wilful and a deliberate sin Why it is called a despising of Gods Law a sinning presumptuously and with a high hand Wilful sins of two sorts viz. some chosen directly and expresly others only indirectly and by interpretation Of direct and interpretative volition Things chosen in the latter way justly imputable Of the voluntary causes of inconsideration in sins of commission which are drunkenness an indulged passion or a habit of sin Of the power of these to make men inconsiderate The cause of inconsideration in sins of omission viz. Neglect of the means of acquiring Vertue Of the voluntariness of all these causes Of the voluntariness of drunkenness when it mâ—y be looked upon as involuntary Of the voluntariness of an indulged passion mens great errour lies in indulging the beginnings of sin Of the voluntariness and crying guilt of a habit of sin Of the voluntariness of mens neglect of the means of Vertue No wilful sin is consistent with a state of Grace but all are damning A distinct account of the effect of wilful sins viz. when they only destroy our acceptance for the present and when moreover they greatly wound and endanger that habitual Vertue which is the foundation of it and which should again restore us to it for the time to come These last are particularly taken notice of in the accounts of God 409 CHAP. IV. Of the nature of involuntary sins and of their consistence with a state of salvation The Contents Of involuntary actions Of what account the forced actions of the Body are in Morals Two causes of involuntariness First The violence of mens passions It doth not excuse Secondly The ignorance of their understandings This is the cause of all our consistent failings and the sins that are involuntary upon this account are consistent with a state of salvation This proved 1. From their unavoidableness The causes of it in what sense any particular sin among them is said to be avoidable 2. From the nature of God A representation of God's nature from his own Word and mens experience The Argument drawn from it for the consistence of such failings 3. From the nature and declarations of the Gospel It is fitted to beget a cheerful and filial confidence and therefore is called the Spirit of Adoption The Argument from this The Scripture Declarations and Examples in this matter These Arguments summed up 440 CHAP. V. Of these involuntary and consistent sins particularly and of the first cause of innocent involuntariness viz. ignorance The Contents A twofold knowledg necessary to choice viz. a general understanding and particular consideration Consistent sins are either sins of ignorance or of inconsideration Of sins involuntary through ignorance of the general Law which makes a Duty How there is still room for it in the World Of crying sins which are against natural
occur in common speech If we advise a man to trust his Physician or his Lawyer our meaning is not barely that he should give credit to them but together with that that he shew the effect of such credit in following and observing them If we are earnest with any man to hearken to some advice that is given him we intend not by hearkning to express barely his giving ear to it but besides that his suffering the effects of such attention in practising and obeying it And thus we commonly say that we have got a Cold when we mean a Disease upon cold or a Surfeit when we understand a sickness upon Surfeiting In these and many other instances which might be mentioned we daily find that in the speech and usage of men the cause alone is oft times named when the effect is withal intended and accordingly understood to be expressed and that both are meant when barely one is spoken The effect doth so hang upon its cause and so naturally and evidently follow after it that we look upon it as a needless thing to express its coming after when once we have named its cause which goes before but we ordinarily judge it to be sufficiently mentioned when we have expressed that cause which as is evident to us all produces and infers it And as it is thus in the speech of men so is it in the language of God too He talks to us in our own way and uses such forms of speech and figurative expressions as are in common use among our selves And to seek no further for instances of this than these that lye before us he expresses our works and obedience by our knowledge our repentance our love and such other causes and principles as effect and produce it For we must take notice of this also that our outward works and actions depend upon a train of powers within us which as springs and causes of them order and effect them For our passions excite to them our understandings consider of them and direct them our wills command and choose them and then afterwards in pursuance of all these our bodily powers execute and exert them The actions of a man flow from all the ingredients of the humane nature each principle contributes its share and bears a part towards it For from the constitution of our natural frame our actions are placed wholly in the power of our own wills and our wills are set in a middle station to be moved by our appetites and passions and guided and directed by our minds or intellects We do and perform nothing but what we will neither do we will any thing but what we know and desire what our reason and passion inclines and directs to And because these three inward faculties our minds and wills and passions give being and beginning to our outward works and practice therefore are they by the Masters of moral Philosophy and Divinity ordinarily called the Causes and Principles of Humane Actions But these three principles of humane actions in genecal lye not more open to produce good than evil They are all under the unrestrain'd power of our own free will it is that which determines them either for God or against him but in themselves they are indifferently fitted and serve equally to bring forth acts of Obedience or of disobedience and sin To make these principles therefore of works or actions in general to become principles of good works and obedience there are other nearer tempers and qualifications required which may determine them that in themselves are free to both to effect one and be Authours of such actions only whereby we serve and obey God And this is done by the nearer and more immediate efficiency of Faith Repentance Love and the like For he who knows Gods Laws and believes his Gospel with his understanding who in his heart loves God and hates Sin whose will is utterly resolved for good and against evil he it is whose faculties in themselves indifferent are thus determinately disposed who is ready and prepared to perform his duty His Faith directs him to those Laws which he is to obey and to all the powerful motives to Obedience it shews him how it is bound upon him by all the Joys of Heaven and by all the Pains of Hell and this quickens his passions and confirms all good resolutions and makes him in his will and heart to purpose and desire it And when both his mind his will and passions which were before indifferent are thus gained over and determinately fixed for it in the efficiency of inward principles there is no more to be done but he is in the ready way to work and perform it in outward operation So that as our minds wills and passions are principles of humane actions in general whether good or evil these nearer dispositions our Faith Repentance c. are principles particularly of good works and obedience And since our obedient actions proceed in this manner from the power and efficiency of these principles God according to our own way of expressing things is wont many times only to name them when he intends withal to express our obedience it self which results from them Although he barely mention one yet he understands both and in speaking of the cause he would be taken to imply the effect likewise Thus when he promises Pardon and Salvation to our knowledge and belief of his Gospel to our Repentance from our Sins to our Love and Fear of God which with several others are those preparatory dispositions that fix and determine our minds wills and passions indifferent in themselves to effect Obedient actions he doth not in any wise intend that these shall Save us and procure Pardon for us without Obedience but only by signifying and implying it Wheresoever Mercy and Salvation at the last day are promised and this condition of our working and obeying is not mentioned it is always meant and understood That which such mercy was promised to is either the cause of our Obedience or the effect and sign of it the speech is metonymical and more was meant by it than was expressed Though the word was not named yet the thing was intended for obedience is ever requisite to pardon and nothing has Mercy promised to it in the last Judgment but what some way or other is a sign of it or produces and effects it This I might well take for granted upon the strength of that proof which has been already urged for our Obedience being the sole condition of our being acquitted at that day But because the interest of souls is so much concerned in it I will be yet more particular and proceed to show further that this sence and explication of all such places is the very same that God himself has expressly put upon them For concerning all those things whereto he has promised a favourable sentence at the last Judgment he assures us that they are of no account with him nor will be owned
believe is insignificant and useless we contemn and what is hurtful and evil from the first Principle of our Natures self-love we straightway entertain with hatred and avoidance but never with love and good will So that whensoever we will and chuse to act rather than to sit still it is always for some end which we propose to our selves and by reason of some good or other which we expect to get by it For no man will be at pains for nothing or labour without aiming at any recompence but some end or goodness there must still be which is to move our wills and make them choose rather to act than to sit idle All our Actions therefore are only as means and there is alwayes some end or other of them which we propose to our selves to reap from them something which we like and which we think they tend to that makes us employ our Powers in the production of them And this eying or aiming at the End or Motive whereunto we see our Action tends and for the sake whereof we set about it is our Intention of it Thus we see that all our Actions agree in this that they are chosen for the sake of some end and exerted upon some intention and design But in the manner of this Intention there is some difference For sometimes in acting we actually and expresly think of and look up to that End or Good which we are moved by and act for and operate in direct order and respect to it which is an actual and express intention But at other times we do not look expresly further than the act it self but through a setled Intention before made and as to its full force in determining of our Wills towards that Good which we act for yet continuing we readily do what tends towards it without ever expresly eying or designing of it Our former Intention was so full and so effectual that it has determined our choice of the action so far as that our Wills need nothing more to make them command that it be done than to be offer'd the opportunity of doing it They are sufficiently moved by the End for which the Action is to be undertaken and their constant temper and inclination is to bend after it So that when a particular Action occurs which is to be chosen for the sake of it they need not actually to think of it and look up to it but are sufficiently inclined to act in order to it through their habitual tendency and propension towards it And this being no express intuition and particular designing of the end which we act for but only a setled tendency and inclination in the soul after it which through long use and custome is become its constant temper and habitual it may be called an habitual or implicit intention Now both these sorts of Intention have their place as in all our other Actions so particularly in those of Virtue and Obedience For sometimes our performances of those things which God requires are studied and deliberate we pause at them before we exert them and think and perswade our selves into the production of them And in regard the great motive or end of exerting them viz. Gods command and injunction of them is the great Argument to win us over to them when we take time and ponder so we act through a particular and express intention But then at other times we do what God enjoyns before we are aware we need not deliberate about it or argue our selves into the practice of it but stand ready to perform it as soon as opportunity is offered And here the will being already inclined of it self to exert the action because God has commanded it it needs no arguments to move nor any express intuition of the end to perswade it but indeliberately chooses to obey out of its own habitual temper and implicit intention And as for the cause of this difference of our Intention in doing those things which God commands it is plainly the different degrees and perfection of our Obedience For when our Virtue and Obedience are of small strength and in an imperfect degree there our Lusts have a considerable Power with us as well as our Religion and although they have not force enough eventually to hinder yet they have so much as will suffice them to contend with and to oppose the doing of our duty So that even when we do obey in this state and close with Gods command it is by a strife and a war by conflict and victory Now here our wills are in doubt what way they shall determine their choice for they are canvassed and beset on both sides both by God and by our own Flesh by our Duty and our Appetites And to enable Religion to prevail with them in this conflict above our Passions there is a necessity of representing all its force and of setting all its motives before them that thereby they may be induced to strike in with it and to choose what it commandeth But now as for the main end and motive of all our Religious Services it is Gods having injoyned and commanded them It is for his sake that we perform them that we may endear our selves to him by doing of his pleasure So that to enable us to choose obedience to Gods Laws rather than to our own Lusts we must set him and his command before us They are the end for which we are to work the motive and argument that must bear us out and make us effectually willing to do what we are required In this state then of strong lusts and imperfect obedience to enable us to choose to do what God injoyns when our own Lusts do powerfully incline us to do the contrary we have need of an actual thought and intuition of God and his command which is the great end and motive that must determine us for him and bear down all that opposition which our Lusts make against him So that all the obedience which we perform here is through a particular and express intention But then on the other side when our Virtue and Obedience is of full growth and we are so accustomed to do what God requires that now we find no reluctance or opposition to it but use has made it become not so much our considerate choice as our natural and indeliberate performance here our wills are ready of themselves to embrace the instance wherein we are to obey as soon as it is offered We need not to consider and think our selves into a choice and practice of that which is commanded for our natural bent and habitual tendency is towards it and nothing more is wanting to our performance of it than our being shew'd it The Action of Obedience is chosen before it is offered and all our Principles of working stand ready and prepared for it For the intention of serving God is confirmed without all reserve and the decree of our wills is past already to perform what we
the rest Whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her or so long till his heart consent to commit lewdness with her if he could he though he never meet with an opportunity to act it or before any hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Matth. 5.28 No man then may venture to will and chuse any one sin and yet presume he is innocent For if fear or shame or interest or other bye-motive and worldly end or want of opportunity hinder him from the outward acting and compleating of his sin yet if his heart stands for it and all the while he wills and chuses it he is guilty in the Accounts of God as if he had committed it We disobey in willing as well as in doing and shall suffer for a wicked choice as well as for a wicked practice So that as ever we hope to have our obedience to the forementioned Laws avail us unto life and pardon at the last Day we must take care to perform it as with our minds and affections so with our hearts or wills likewise As for these three faculties therefore viz. our minds our wills and our affections they must necessarily be devoted to God's service to make up an intire obedience As ever we hope for Heaven we must employ our minds upon God and his Laws so far at least till we love them in our souls and chuse them in our hearts with full purpose and resolution of performing them Our understandings must consider of our duty and of the motives to obedience so long and so well till our affections are inflamed with a desire of it and our wills are firmly resolved upon it And as ever we expect to escape the torments of Hell we must take care that we entertain no thoughts or desires of any sin so long till in our hearts we become concerned for it and willing to fulfil it But if we will look on it it must be in order to loath and disdain it We must consider how disingenuous how shameful and how mischievous a thing it is and indulge to no apprehensions of it in our minds that are like to insnare either our choice or practice nor dwell upon any but those that are apt to kindle our indignation and zeal against it and arm our wills with full purpose to overcome it This must be the use and exercise of all our inward powers and principles of action They must be used as instruments of good life and made the great Springs and productive Causes of all vertuous practice and obedience It is this holy and obedient practice that is the end whereto all these obedient thoughts desires and resolutions are directed so that if they fall short of this they miss of their chief effect and appear to be weak and idle things that are insignificant and useless CHAP. III. Of Obedience with the fourth faculty viz. our executive or bodily powers and outward operations The CONTENTS God is to be obeyed with the fourth faculty viz. our executive or bodily powers and outward operations The great difficulty of Obedience in this instance Four false grounds whereupon men shift off the necessity of this service with their works and actions First A hope to be saved for a true belief or orthodox opinions Mens confidence in this represented The folly of it Orthodox faith and professions no further available than they produce obedient works and actions Secondly A hope of salvation upon an obedience of idle desires and ineffective wishes An opinion of some Casuists That a desire of Grace is Grace refuted This stated and a distinct explication of what is promised to the desire of Obedience and what to Obedience it self The pretence for this acceptance of idle desires from Gal. 5.17 considered An account when the will and desire is taken for the deed and performance That Text 2 Cor. 8.11 12. plainly vindicated Thirdly A hope of being saved notwithstanding they do sin because they are insnared into it through the strength of temptations The folly of this Our own lusts make temptations strong The Grace of the Gospel is sufficient to overcome them Fourthly A hope of being excused because they transgress with an unwilling mind These mens state represented Vnwillingness in sin a mitigation but no sufficient excuse Some strugling in most actions both of good and bad men The strife of the Flesh and Spirit Two sorts of men feel nothing of it viz. the Saints in Heaven after the Resurrection and some prostigate sinners here now on Earth All good men and the generality of evil are subject to it in this life Mens peremptory will and last choice determines their condition A Fourth faculty that is indispensably necessary to the integrity of our Obedience and which is the chief end and perfection and gets acceptance for all the rest is our strength or bodily and executive powers For the completion and crown of all we must do as well as think and desire and our obedient choice must end in an obedient practice For all our inward motions are in order to outward operations they must go on to good effects before they are fit for the great reward we must work as well as desire and not only will but do our duty because upon nothing less than that we shall at the last day be accepted This indeed is the severe service and the distastfull part of duty It is a matter of much labour and pains of much strife and contention For the doing of our Duty is the top of all every hinderance must be removed and every difficulty overcome before we can attain to it Our scruples and gainsaying reasonings must be silenced our discouraging fears quieted and all our repugnant desires cooled or conquered Every doubt of our minds must be solved and every hostile lust subdued e're we can act what we are required A secret wish or a sudden desire of Obedience may start up in our souls unawares and there is not much opposition made to it because our lusts receive no great hurt from it For the pleasure of our lusts lies in acting and fulfilling them they are secure of their own delights so long as they are of our practice And therefore they will allow us to think of good to spend a faint wish a sudden inclination or a fruitless desire upon it But if once we would go on to do our Duty and to work Obedience then begins the conflict Our Lusts then bestir themselves with might and main and set every faculty awork to resist and defeat it For our thoughts begin to argue and to pick quarrels with our Duty They suggest all its difficulties and dammages They represent all the pains of the undertaking to cool our love the appendant dangers to raise our fears and the great hazards to shake our hopes and make us despair of success For the sake of our sins we arm all discouraging passions and quite stifle all the obedient suggestions of our consciences For
Vriah and adulterating his wife For upon that he felt both these losses which I have mention'd viz. the laying waste of the virtuous temper of his own spirit and the deprivation of the good spirit of God For this sin being so long in acting as it must needs be since it required such a train of wicked plots and contrivances to the consummation of it he must needs feel all the opposition that could be made from the checks of his own Conscience and from the restraints of the Spirit of God And when he had born down both for the satisfaction of his lust and trampled them under foot for the consummation of his sin then doth he begin to feel the want and to be all in fear of losing the habitual rectitude of his own spirit which by so many contrary actions implyed in that one great one he had almost quite destroyed and of suffering the desertion of Gods spirit which by his continued provocations contained in it likewise he had well nigh abandon'd For to this purpose we find him complaining and crying out in his Psalm of repentance for that great transgression whereof at the 14 th verse he makes express mention Create or new make in me a clean heart O God sayes he and renew a right spirit within me And besides that cast me not away neither from thy presence nor take thy holy spirit from me Psal. 51.10 11. So that as for the effect of wilfull sins it is plainly this All wilfull sins whatsoever destroy our state of acceptance with God and put us into a state of enmity and death for the present But as for those among them which lay waste the Conscience they effect not that only but moreover they destroy that virtuous habit and grieve nay sometimes drive away that good spirit whereby we should restore our selves to it for the time to come And because this latter sort have the mischievous effect in making our return thus dubious and difficult they are particularly taken notice of in the accounts of God Thus for instance David had committed several deadly sins for some whereof he had undergone severe punishment as particularly for that proud presumptuous offence of his in numbring of the people 2 Sam. 24.1 10 13 c. But these made no notable decay or devastation in the virtuous temper of his soul for his own heart admonished him of the evil which he had done and he repented quickly and rose again without delay and so was presently restored to what he was before But as for his sin in the matter of Vriah it was a lasting work and took up a long deliberation and contrivance It made his Conscience hard and insensible for his own heart did not smite him into a change nor enable him to repent without a monitor So that his stay in this crying sin was long and his return both difficult and dangerous And therefore in that character which is given of him by the Holy Ghost when all the rest are buried in silence this sin particularly is expresly specified David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life save only in the matter of Vriah the Hittite 1 Kings 15.5 Thus then as for this first part of our enquiry we see plainly of all our wilful sins that they are not consistent with a state of Grace and salvation but that they are all deadly and damning for the present if we dye under them without repenting of them and as for the future that they do all of them wound and weaken but some almost quite destroy that habitual inherent Grace whereby we should recover our selves to the state of pardon for the time to come CHAP. IV. Of the nature of involuntary sins and of their consistence with a state of salvation The CONTENTS Of involuntary actions Of what account the forced actions of the Body are in morals Two causes of involuntariness First The violence of mens passions It doth not excuse Secondly The ignorance of their understandings This is the cause of all our consistent failings and the sins that are involuntary upon this account are consistent with a state of salvation This proved 1. From their unavoidableness The Causes of it in what sense any particular sin among them is said to be avoidable 2. From the nature of God A representation of God's nature from his own Word and mens experience The Argument drawn from it for the consistence of such failings 3. From the nature and declarations of the Gospel It is fitted to beget a cheerful and filial confidence and therefore is called the Spirit of Adoption The Argument from this The Scripture-Declarations and Examples in this matter These Arguments summed up THE second sort of sins are such as are involuntary and unchosen and these are consistent with a state of salvation and such as Christ's Gospel doth not eternally threaten but graciously bears and in great mercy dispenseth with As for the involuntariness of mens actions that which produces and effects it is not any force from without upon our will it self All the things in the material world can never bind and compel the will of man seeing it is no physical bodily thing so as that any bodily force might act upon it Nothing in the world can make us will and like that which we do not like the will of man is liable to no compulsion it has this priviledge above all other things on the Earth that nothing about it can force or constrain it but that still it wills and chuses as it self pleaseth As for the actions of men indeed they are mixt things Because they flow from the whole man both Body and Soul and beginning in the mind or will within are consummate in our outward and bodily operation And as for the last of these viz. our bodily operation it may be forced forasmuch as one Body is liable to the force and compulsion of another Thus for instance a chast Matrons Body may be violently ravished A peaceable mans hand may by the overpowering strength of another man be made the forced instrument of anothers murther The bodily work and operation can be forced seeing other Bodies more powerful than it self can compel it And in this sence the Schools understand the word action viz. only for the action of the Body when they make one kind of involuntary actions to be involuntary by violence or compulsion that being a thing whereto not the will it self but the body only can be liable But now these forced actions of the Body although in Nature they be looked upon as actions yet in morality they are esteemed as none at all That is Laws which are the Rules of good and evil and the measure of mens manners take no notice of them nor look upon themselves to be either broken or kept by them because it is not the Body and Carkass
stay beyond that time which we are to act in if we do act at all Besides our powers of action especially where there is any strong temptation of pleasure or profit to act for are forward of themselves and ready to spring out upon the first occasion As soon as the temptation is offered to our thoughts our wills indeliberately approve and all our bodily and active powers by an unconsidered emanation start up to pursue and endeavour after it whence thinking and considering is necessary not to raise but to stop and restrain them And then if either our thoughts have been otherwise engaged and so cannot readily withdraw themselves to consider of a new object or if our thinking powers themselves are dull and heavy and thereby unfit to consider of it we presently and indeliberately go on to act the thing without all pausing and due consideration For this other reason of inconsideration also viz. the want of power or indisposition of our thinking faculty it self is not a thing wholly subject to our own will to chuse whether or when we shall fall under it Because in this state of our souls during their being here united to our Bodies they make use of our bodily powers in their use of reason and in the very exercise of thought and consideration and therefore even in them they are liable to be changed and altered just as our Bodies are For in a brisk and healthy Body our thoughts are free and quick and easie but if our Bodies are dull and indisposed our minds are so too A heaviness in our heads will make us heavy in our apprehensions and a discomposure in our Spirits whether through the strength of Wine or of a violent passion will make us discomposed and incoherent in our thoughts also And if there be an utter perverting or blasting of our bodily powers as is often seen in the bodily Diseases of Epilepsies Phrensies Apoplexies and the like there will be the same perversion or utter extinction of our conceptions likewise But now these indispositions of our Bodies which thus unfit our very souls for thought and due consideration are not in our power to order when and where they shall seize upon us For our Bodies are liable to be thus acted upon by any other Bodies of the world whether we will or no. A heavy air or an indisposing accident will work a change in our bodily temper without our leave and when once that is indisposed we cannot hinder our thoughts themselves from being indisposed too And since it is not in our power at all times to chuse whether or no we will pause and consider although we can avoid offending in those Cases wherein we can consider of it yet is it manifest that we cannot avoid offence in all Indeed if we take any particular action and in our own thoughts separate it from any particular time and from the Chain of other particular actions amongst which it lyes we shall be apt to affirm that it is such whereof we can think and consider For take any action by it self and being aware of it we can let other things alone and watch for it particularly and when we do so we are sure to find one time or other when our understandings are disposed for a due deliberation and fit and able to consider of it But then we must take notice that this supposed state of an action as separate from the Crowd of other actions and determined to no time is only imaginary and in speculation For when we come to practise them though in some we have time and power enough yet in others we find that we have not Because either they come in the throng of other business and then our thoughts being hotly employed upon other things cannot so easily be drawn from them upon the sudden to consider of them or if they call upon us when we have time to consider in yet it happens that our faculties are heavy and indisposed and so we exert them still without due consideration When we think of any particular action by it self therefore we take it out of the throng of business wherein it is involved and out of that time wherein we are indisposed and then we are bold to conclude that we can consider of it But when we come to practise it we find that our former speculation supposed false and that it comes mixt with a crowd of other things or in a time when we have troubled and discomposed thoughts So that how subject soever it was to our consideration in that separate state wherein we imagined it yet have we no power to consider of it in that throng of business or indisposition of faculties wherein we find it And this is verily the Case of several of our slips and transgressions For look upon any of the particulars by it self and take it asunder from the rest and then we shall be confident that we may bethink our selves and consider of it But take it as indeed it lyes among the mixt Crowd of other actions or as offered to our indisposed understandings and then we shall find that it slips from us without all consideration And this as I take it is intended by a great man when he tells us of sins of pardonable infirmitie that the liberty which they seem to have when we consider them in special and asunder they indeed have not when we consider them in the general viz. as involved in the crowd of other actions amongst whom they lye and altogether Upon which account of their having in them no choice and consideration he questions whether they contain that which can in strictness and propriety of speech be called sin And indeed if we understand the same by sin which S t John doth when he gives the explication of it 1 John 3.4 viz. a rejecting or contemning of the Law in which sence only a state of Grace is destroyed by it and he who is born of God cannot commit it they have not For men cannot be said to reject and despise a Law when they do not see and consider of it The liberty then which we have about those slips and transgressions which we do not know and consider of is in effect no liberty at all For we neither chuse the disobedient action it self nor the cause of it We do not chuse the sinful action it self because we do not know or consider of it Nor do we chuse the inconsideration because it is not left to our liberty whether in some of our actions we should be inconsiderate or no. And since our slips and failings which are thus involuntary by ignorance cannot be chosen or refused 't is plain that they cannot be avoided And as for all those things which we cannot avoid it is clear from what has been said above that the Gospel doth not eternally threaten us nor will God ever condemn us for them But that these slips and transgressions which being thus unknown
make use of bread and wine which were those things that he used The blood of Christ is not offered if there be no wine in the cup to represent it and how can we ever hope to drink wine with him in his Fathers Kingdom if we drink it not at his Table here on Earth So that in the good Fathers judgment the Duty was express the Law binding and the transgression dangerous But yet as for those innocent and well-meaning souls who had no opportunity to be told of it but were bred up in a contrary way under the authority of a tradition that opposed it and therefore in the simplicity of their hearts were ignorant of it They says he even whilst they do transgress shall go unpunished Their simplicity and ignorance shall excuse them whilst our knowledg will certainly condemn us they shall be pardoned because they could not know it but we shall be punished because when we might have known and kept it if we would we neglected and despised it In the mean time herein is Gods great mercy shown to us and for this should we return most hearty thanks to him that even now when he plainly instructs us in that which under pain of his displeasure we are to do hereafter he at the same time pardons us for all that which through simplicity and honest ignorance we have already done And as this innocent unwill'd ignorance of the Law it self excuses all those transgressions which we incur by reason of it so doth 2. The second sort of ignorance viz. the ignorance of the thing it self which the Law injoyns or forbids when we know not that our present action is included in it or meant by it Gods Laws as all others run in general terms and never go to reckon up all particular actions which are with them or against them but leave the judging and discerning of that to our own selves He tells us that theft and revenge are sinfull but leaves us to inform our selves what actions are thievish and revengefull He teaches us that Covetousness is forbidden but he puts us to see of the action before us that it be covetous and the same he doth in every other Law For that which he expresly mentions is the general name of the action which he forbids but as for the particular application he leaves that to our own selves Now here is the wide place for the ignorance and errours of all sorts of men For what Arrian sayes of happiness and misery is equally true of sin and duty in the application of the acknowledged notion or law to particular things or actions is the cause of all our evils here the great scene of ignorance in morals the field of doubting and dispute lies The great controversies which men have either in their own thoughts or with Gods ministers is not so much whether evil-speaking back-biting censoriousness unpeaceableness drunkenness sensuality or any such prohibited vice be a sin For as to that the Law is express the very word is mentioned in it and he that reads or hears the Law if he attend to what he reads or hears cannot but observe and understand it But the great doubt is whether this or that particular action which they are about to commit be indeed a censorious an unpeaceable a sensual or a drunken action And the Reasons of this are several For 1. In some actions although we know the general Law yet we know not whether the particular action be comprehended under it because what is forbidden in the Law differs from what is innocent not in kind but only in degree For a great part of our appetites and actions are neither determined to good nor ill in their whole nature but only as they are in certain measures The use of meats and drinks within due bounds is harmless but beyond that 't is intemperance the desire and search of money in a moderate degree is lawfull but above that 't is Covetousness the modest pursute of honour and promotion is innocent but when it exceeds it is ambition to have just thoughts of a mans self is allowable but to be puffed up with over-high conceits is pride and so it is in several other instances A great many passions and actions are not alwayes sinful but so far only as they are deficient or exceed Which holding true of several virtues and vices made Aristotle lay it down as a part of the nature of virtue in general that it is something consisting in mediocrity and agreeably that vice is something consisting in defectiveness or excess Now the actions which are prohibited by several Laws not coming under the compass of the Laws in their whole natures but only when they are arrived to certain measures and degrees herein after we have known the general Law lies the difficulty and unresolvedness whether or no the present action falls under it For it is a very hard thing and it may be impossible to any humane understanding to fix the exact bounds and utmost limits of virtue and vice to draw a line precisely between them and tell to a tittle how many degrees are innocent and the just place where the excess begins Here the Wise and Learned themselves are at a loss and much more the rude and ignorant so that in Laws of this nature they may many times mistake their sin for their liberty and allowance and go beyond the innocent degree when they do not know it 2. In other actions although we do know the general Law yet many times we are ignorant of the present actions being comprehended under it because the Law is not absolute and unlimited but admits of several exceptions whereof we may mistake the present action to be one The great and general Laws of Christ as of any other Legislator have several cases which are not included in the general name of the duty injoyned or of the sin prohibited in the Law but are exempt from it What Duty is injoyned in more universal words than that of Peace but yet in several cases we not only may but out of Duty must nourish contention For we are bid to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jud. vers 3. We must be concerned for God and Religion when others concern themselves against them We are not tamely and unaffectedly to see Gods Laws cancelled or our countries peace disturbed but must strive and contend with as much wise zeal and active courage and with infinitely more honour and peace of mind to maintain and defend than ill men do to oppose and destroy them Again what Law is delivered in fuller and plainer terms than that of forgiving injuries but yet there are several cases wherein we may justly seek amends for them For we may bring a malefactor to condign punishment or an injurious man to restitution and the like is observable of other Laws Now those actions which come under the general name of the sin
which is transgressed yet we take our present action not to be comprized under it because of some prejudices which exempt it There is oft-times a clashing and enterfering of Laws and Opinions as well as of one Law with another For men entertain several perswasions which are inconsistent with some instances of Duty and that make them look upon themselves in those cases not to be obliged by them Their Opinion justifies one thing when the Law commands another it contracts its force and evacuates its obligation and makes them venture confidently upon several actions whereby the Law is transgressed by making them first to believe that in those actions they are not obliged by it And because this is so universal a cause of Ignorance and Errour and so powerfull in making men both overlook Gods plain Laws and even whilst they consider of them evacuate and undermine them I think it very needfull to be more full in its explication and shall therefore state it more largely in the next Chapter CHAP. VI. Of Prejudice The CONTENTS The nature of Prejudice It a cause of Ignorance of our Duty The difference betwixt things being proposed to a free and empty and to a prejudiced or prepossessed mind An evident proposal sufficient to make a free mind understand its duty but besides it a confutation of its repugnant prejudice is necessary to a mind that is prepossessed An account of several Opinions which make men ignorant of several instances of Duty One prejudice that nothing is lawfull in Gods worship but what is authorized by an express command or example of Scripture the acts of sin that are justified by this prejudice Another that all private men are publick protectors of Religion and the Christian Faith the acts of sin justified by this Opinion Other Opinions cause a sinfull neglect of the Sacraments These are incident to some honest and obedient hearts An account of other prejudices as that Christ is a Temporal King the acts of disobedience authorized by this Opinion That a good end will justifie an evil action the acts of sin upon this perswasion That Dominion is founded in Grace the disobedient acts avow'd by this Principle These are more disobedient and damning The case stated what prejudices are consistent with and what destroy salvation Some prejudices get into mens minds not through a disobedient heart but through weakness of understanding and fallibility of the means of knowledge These are consistent with a state of salvation An instance of this in the prejudice of the Apostles about preaching of the Gospel to all Nations Other prejudices get into mens minds through damning lusts or sins A brief account of the influence of mens lusts and vices upon their Opinions This is illustrated in the Gnosticks They were famous for covetousness and worldly compliances and for impure lusts and excess in bodily pleasures The effect of these in producing agreeable Opinions Another of their vices was a turbulent and seditious humour Their Opinion was answerable A further illustration of it from the Pharisees An account of their vices and the influence which they had in begetting vile perswasions This influence of mens lusts upon their judgments proved from the Scriptures The damnableness of such prejudices as enter this way Certain marks whereby to judge when prejudices proceed from unmortified lusts As first If the sin whereto the prejudice serves is unmortified in them Secondly If it lye so near to the prejudice that we could not but see that it ministred to it when we embraced it Thirdly Though it lye more remote if we still adhere to it when we plainly see that some unquestionable and notorious Laws are evacuated or infringed by it A Rule to prevent disobedient prejudices viz. Let Laws be the Rule whereby to judge of truth in opinions not opinions the Rule whereby to measure the Obligation of Laws Some Reasons of this viz. Because Laws are more plain and certain but opinions are more difficult and dubious Obedience to Laws is the end of revealed truth and so fit to measure it not to be measured by it A Prejudice is a false Principle or such a former false Judgment whereby we afterwards examine and judge amiss in others For all our rational judgment of things is by Principles when we determine of the truth or falshood of such as are suspicious and doubtful by their agreeableness or repugnance to such others as we think are true and certain So that those opinions which first take possession of our minds are the Rules and Standards which all others that seek to enter after must be tryed by And if these anticipations of Judgment are true and solid if they are taken up upon good reason and mature deliberation they are right Maxims of knowledg and Principles of understanding But if they are false and faulty and entertain'd upon weak grounds through haste and rashness they are false Rules and Principles of errour And because they hinder us in our after-judgments making us judge amiss of things as they needs must who judge according to a false measure they are called prejudices And these are a most general Cause of the errours and ignorances of men For we are ignorant many times of our Duty and mistake a sinful action for a lawful liberty when no want of plainness in God's revelations or in the nature of Vertues and Vices nor any want of opportunity to be told of them but some of these hindrances of our own minds are the causes of our ignorance Those very Duties which are brought clear and open to our understandings are sometimes either not at all or very maimedly and imperfectly understood because our minds are blocked up by a contrary belief which makes us not to attend to them but either wholly to overlook or in great measure to evacuate and undermine them Our prejudice has got possession of our souls and suffers not even a plain and clear Duty to be entertained if it makes against it but either throws it out all or pares off so much of it as is inconsistent with it For one errour begets another in practice as well as in speculation so that if we have an erroneous belief which contradicts our Duty it is but rational that we should erroneously evacuate or impair our Duty likewise So long therefore as the prejudice is entertained if the Duty be never so plainly expressed or loudly proposed to our minds it must needs be excluded or only so much of it gain our notice and belief as doth not thwart the prejudice but agrees with it To understand this we are to take notice that any Truths or Duties which are proposed to our understandings have a very different success when they are offered to a free and empty from what they have when they are proposed to a prejudiced and prepossessed mind For with the former any Duty is sufficiently qualified to beget a right understanding and belief if it be plainly and in clear
fair and likely and withal it is most secure It is sure to preserve obedience because it admits of nothing that interferes with it and it is also very likely to preserve truth for it is most certain that no Doctrine can ever come from God which encourages or justifies any wickedness so that not only an obedient heart but even a free and impartial reason must quit the Principle if it appear to draw after it an evil consequence To settle Principles and Rules of Judgment then especially for simple and unlearned minds the first enquiry ought to be not what is true or false but what is good or evil For since the knowledge of this is more plain and obvious easie and accessible to all but to them most especially 't is evident that as all others so particularly they if they would secure even Truth as well as Duty must begin with Laws as their Principle and from thence make their inference to Doctrines and Opinions To avoid sinfull errours and disobedient prejudices they must use Laws and Duties as the measure whereby to judge of notions not notions and opinions as the standard whereby to measure and interpret plain Laws CHAP. VII A sixth cause of ignorance of the present actions being comprehended under a known Law And of the excusableness of our transgressions upon both these sorts of ignorance The CONTENTS All the forementioned causes of ignorance of our present actions being included in the known Law are such to knowing and learned men Besides them the difficult and obscure nature of several sins is a general cause of it to the rude and unlearned Sins upon this ignorance as well as upon ignorance of the Law it self unchosen and so consistent with a state of Grace and Salvation Where there is something of choice in it they extenuate the sin and abate the punishment though they do not wholly excuse it The excuse for these actions is only whilst we are plainly ignorant they are damning when we are enlightned so far as to doubt of them but pardonable whil'st we are in darkness or errour This excuse is for both the modes of ignorance 1. Forgetfulness 2. Errour All this pardon hitherto discoursed of upon the account of ignorance of either sort is no further than the ignorance it self is involuntary The willfulness of some mens ignorance The several steps in voluntary ignorance The causes of it Two things required to render ignorance involuntary 1. An honest heart 2. An honest industry What measures necessary to the acceptance of this industry Gods candour in judging of its sufficiency This discourse upon this first cause of an innocent involuntariness viz. ignorance summed up THus upon all these accounts which are mention'd in the two former Chapters we see it will often happen that although in the general we do know the Law which forbids any sin yet shall we still be ignorant of our present actions being comprehended under it For the small and barely gradual difference between Good and Evil the limitedness of most Laws the indirect obligations which pass upon some indifferent actions the clashing and enterfering of some of Christs Laws sometimes with other commands and sometimes with our own prejudices and prepossessed Opinions are also many reasons why after we know the General Laws that forbid them we shall still venture upon several particular actions through ignorance of their being forbidden And yet besides all these which are causes of such ignorance to the most knowing men and to those who have great parts and learning there will be moreover one great and general cause of it to the more rude and ignorant and that is the difficult and to them obscure nature of the sin it self which in the Law is expresly and by name forbidden For how many of them who hear it may be of the Law against censoriousness lasciviousness uncleanness carnality sensuality refusing of the Cross and other things do not well understand what those words mean Alas the greater number of men in the world have but very rude and imperfect notices of things they see them only in a huddle and by halves And as it is in their knowledge of other things so is it in their understanding of Sin and Duty likewise For their sight and sence of them is dark and defective and albeit they have some general and confused apprehensions of them yet is not their knowledge so clear and distinct as that they are thereby enabled to judge of every particular action whether it falls under any of them or no. And since they have but such half and imperfect notions of several sins it is no wonder although they know the General Law if they venture upon several actions which really come under it not knowing that they do And thus we see that besides the ignorance of the Law it self there is also another sort of ignorance which will be a cause of sin to several men of all sorts and that is their ignorance of their present actions being comprehended under the letter of the Law and meant by it But now as for those transgressions which men of an honest heart are guilty of through this ignorance of their own actions being included in the Law when they do know the Law that includes it They do not put them out of a state of Grace but consist with it For this Ignorance is mens unhappiness rather than their fault it is not an Ignorance of their own choosing seeing their will and choice is against it For they desire to be free from it and strive to prevent it and endeavour according to those abilities and opportunities which God has afforded them to get right and true apprehensions of all Gods will that they may perform and of every evil action that they may avoid it But it is the difficulty and intricateness of things which renders them ignorant and that is not of their making For the sins forbidden are not easily distinguished from the Liberty allow'd or from the Duty commanded in some cases and therefore it is that they mistake them and are ignorant of the sinfulness of their present action when their knowledge of it should enable them if they would to avoid it And since it has so little of their own will and the men even when by reason of their ignorance they transgress are industriously desirous to know their Duty and prepared to practise it so far as they understand it it shall have nothing of Gods anger It is altogether a pardonable slip and a pitiable instance and that is enough to recommend it to Gods mercy For he is never rigorous and severe in a case that is prepared for pity and pardon so that he will not punish but graciously forgive it And if it were otherwise who could possibly be saved For this ignorance of their present actions being comprehended in the words of the known Law is such as the wisest men have been subject to and they among the rest who were
Passions grow strong in us sometimes by our own indulgence and then they are our damning sin and we must suffer for the evil that we commit under them sometimes through the suddenness and greatness of outward objects and then they are pardonable and our inconsiderate slips upon them are excusable The Passions which have Good for their object as Love Desire c. cannot by any force of outward objects be so suddenly forced upon us But the Passions which have Evil as Grief Anger and Fear especially often are The reason of this difference Inconsideration upon the latter excusable but not upon the former This difference made by our Saviour in a case where both were criminal Excusable slips upon discomposure of our thinking powers are such as proceed from an unwill'd sudden Grief or Anger but especially from a sudden Fear No fear is involuntary but what is sudden and sins upon deliberate fear are damning but upon unwill'd sudden Fear Grief or Anger consistent with Salvation Cautions about inconsiderate sins to prevent false confidence No sin is innocently inconsiderate 1. Where we have time and an undisturbed understanding 2. Where the sin is mischievous or greatly criminal 3. When we do not strive against it We must endeavour against all involuntary Failings though we cannot resolve against them 4. When we are not sorry after we have committed it nor beg pardon for it 5. When it is committed with observation A summary Repetition of this fourth Book HAving in the foregoing Chapters discoursed largely of the first cause of an innocent Involuntariness viz. Ignorance of our Duty or want of a general Knowledge I proceed now to the second viz. want of particular Animadvertence and Consideration of what we know which is Inconsiderateness And this is the second way of rendring our Transgressions pardonably involuntary which I proposed above namely when in any sinful action we do not bethink our selves and consider of its sinfulness It is not all knowledge of our Duty that renders every particular sin against it chosen and voluntary For a knowledge that is only general and at such time as the thing occurs to our thoughts and we are asked the Question will not do but as all our choice is of particular actions so must our knowledge be likewise Before we can be said to chuse a particular action we must see and know it particularly and if we act it without thinking we act it also without chusing seeing all choice is upon sight and knowledge of what is chosen But now this is the case in several of our Transgressions they slide from us without this actual application of our minds to them For we do not think and consider of the evil of them when we commit them and so their sinfulness being unseen it is withal unchosen They are of the number of our involuntary sins and such as implying nothing of our own will shall have nothing of Gods anger who will not punish but graciously bear with them And these slips stealing from us without our considering and thinking on them or adverting in the application of our minds to them are called by these several names which are all of the same signification viz. sins of inadvertency incogitancy and inconsideration Which because they are such as through the weakness of our Natures we are continually subject to and liable daily to incur are stiled in another word sins of daily incursion Now as for this second sort of sins our inconsiderate Transgressions they may steal from us involuntarily and innocently upon as many grounds as there may be innocent causes of inconsiderate actions And as for the unwill'd and therefore innocent causes of inconsideration they are reducible to these three 1. Suddenness and surprize of Opportunity 2. Weariness and 3. Discomposure and disturbance of our thinking powers wherewith we should consider 1. The first cause of inconsideration in our Actions whereupon we venture upon some sin without thinking or considering of it is the suddenness of the Opportunity and the surprize of Temptation It falls out unexpectedly and stays for us at such time as our minds are otherwise employ'd and so we act it without considering because it lyes ready and prepared for us just then when we have no leisure for thinking and consideration And the first beginnings of a sinful Passion whether of Anger of Envy c. and the unadvised slips of the Tongue in rash censuring in uncharitable speaking in indeliberate backbiting and the like generally enter this way For they come upon us in the throng of Conversation and opportunities are offered for them before we foresee them and so we spring out indeliberately to act and exert them And this inconsideration is such as we cannot avoid For we have no freedom of acting where we want a freedom of thinking seeing we cannot chuse without consideration But as for these inconsiderate slips they steal from us before we can bethink our selves and stay not for our consideration but run before it For our operative Powers when they are spurr'd on by any thing of an inward desire or of a remaining corrupt inclination and who as long as he lives here can be wholly free from it are ready of themselves to spring out into Action and Practice upon the first offer of Temptation and stand in need of reason and consideration not to raise and excite but to restrain and repress them So that upon the offer of a fit occasion we act many times amiss before we are aware and we cannot help it because we cannot deliberate and consider of it But as these slips of surprize are such as we cannot avoid so are they such withal wherefore God will not exact a severe account of us He will not punish but pity us for them and in great mercy dispense with them For they are necessarily incident to all men they have been incurr'd by his best servants but were never looked upon to be of that provoking nature as to put them out of his favour or to interrupt their state of salvation and acceptance Just Noah through his ignorance of the strength of Wine was surprized into one sin for he was drunken before he was aware or could discern what effects the fruits of his new Vineyard would have upon him Noah drank wine says Moses and was drunken Gen. 9.21 But this was perfectly a mixture of surprize and ignorance for his wits had left him before he was aware and before he ever knew that the Wine which he drunk would drive them from him For it was at his first planting of a Vineyard before he understood what measure of it would cause intoxication He began says the Text to be a Husbandman and he planted a Vineyard and he drank of the wine of his new Vineyard and was drunken v. 20 21. The great Apostle Paul himself was guilty of one sudden slip towards Ananias the High Priest who whilst his mind was intent upon his Speech which he was
before an unerring and uncorrupt Judge who can neither be bribed nor deceived and who cannot mistake them or wrongfully condemn them howsoever they may mistake or wrongfully condemn themselves And since it is so they are really safe in their own goodness when they most of all suspect their own danger and secure from evil even whilst they are afraid of falling under it But although every good man is in this safety let his understanding of himself be what it will yet if in any of those things which he takes to be a matter of life or death he judges wrong of himself and thinks erroneously he can enjoy no peace and comfort He will go to Heaven full of fears and forbodeing thoughts and never think himself in the way to Bliss till he is actually inthroned in it and possessed of it He will meet indeed with happiness in the end but he will have no sight or expectation of it in the way for all his life long he will be tormented with doubts and suspicions fears and jealousies and be still by turns concluding himself lost as to the next World though he be lost no where but in his own fancy And this imagined future misery will bring him under a real one for the present it will make him have sad thoughts and a sorrowful heart it will bereave him of all joy and peace and almost overwhelm him in groundless perplexity and vexation But that pious Souls may not fear where no fear is nor torment themselves with unreasonable expectations having before shewn what that condition really is which renders any mans a safe condition I will go on now to remove their groundless scruples and mistakes concerning it by shewing what and of what force those things are which are wont without any sufficient reason to disquiet the minds and to disturb the peace of good and safe but mistaken Christians about it And as for the causes of good mens fears so far as I have been able to learn them they are chiefly these that follow 1. Good men are wont to call in question the saveableness of their present and the happiness of their future state because after all their care against them they find that some motions of the flesh some stirrings of their lusts some thoughts of evil do still arise up in them They feel themselves subject to delightsom fancies and desires of forbidden things They are liable to a lustful thought a covetous wish an insurrection of anger of envy and of several other damning sins 'T is true indeed that these lusts do not reign in them because they do not consent to their instigations nor do what they would have them They can only inhabit and stir in them but have not strength enough to give Laws to them for they repress them before they get so far and prevail over them before they go on to fulfil what they inclined to Not any of these sinful lusts whereof they are afraid has got so much power over them as to carry them on either to consent to them or to fulfil them for though they may think on some forbidden things in their minds or desire them in their hearts yet do they not will and chuse any of them and least of all do they work and practise them They may perhaps have a thought and fancy a wish and inclination after unchast pleasures but they correct themselves there and go no further for they never in their hearts consent to an unlawful embrace nor ever proceed to an unclean action In a sudden motion of anger it may be they may have several expressions of wrath and instances of revenge occur to their thoughts and obtruding themselves upon their fancy but they stop there and go no higher for they do not consent to utter an injurious word or to commit a spiteful action and the same they experience by themselves in other instances In all which several forbidden things will get into their thoughts and desires and steal from them a wish or inclination but when once they have done that they can do no more being unable either to gain their consent or to command their practice so as that they should not only desire but also chuse and fulfil them But although they do not suffer sin to reign in them so as to consent to it or to fulfil it in the lusts thereof yet they fear lest their very thoughts and inclinations after it should prove damnable For God requires the obedience of our whole man of the mind and affections as well as of our wills and actions and he is disobeyed by any as well as by all our faculties And seeing every sin is forbidden under pain of death who knows but that this admission of sin into our thoughts and desires is a deadly transgression This is one great cause of fear and a rock of offence to truly honest and good men But to take off all doubt and scruple upon this account we must know that our impotent lusts and ineffective desires of evil things if they are able to get no further than a thought or a wish though at present they are a matter of our exercise and humiliation yet at the Day of Judgment they shall be no Article of death or condemnation For Christs Gospel doth not sentence us severely upon these first motions of a lust or beginnings of a sin no if they arrive no higher than fancy and inclination through the merits of Christs Sacrifice there is Grace enough in store for them and in the Gospel account they are not grown up to be a matter of Death nor come within the Confines of destruction That I may speak with the more distinctness to this Point I will here shew these two things 1. That for our feeble lusts and desires after evil which are unconsented to and unfulfilled we shall not at the last day be condemned 2. For what lusts and desires of them we shall 1. I say For our feeble lusts and desires of evil which are unconsented to and unfulfilled at the day of Judgment no man otherwise good shall ever be condemned God will never sentence us to Hell for every sudden desire an inclination after sinful things but if it rests there and goes no further than bare desire he will pardon and pass it by but not eternally avenge it To speak distinctly to this Point these lustings and desires are considerable either as to their first birth or as to their indulged and allowed continuance the first are never damning and the latter many times are no Article of condemnation As for our bodily lusts and desires of evil in their first birth I say they are never damning nor shall any man who is otherwise vertuous and obedient be ever judged to dye for them And if it were otherwise who could possibly be saved For as long as we live in this World we have all of us these first motions of appetites after evil things more or less and there
matter of condemnation although before it were uncondemning For then when lust hath conceived by being in some imperfected measure willed and consented to it bringeth forth answerable to its conception which is but an imperfect sort of production an imperfect embryo of sin and this embryo of sin when by a full choice and perfect consent and much more when by action and practice it is finished bringeth forth its proper wages death Jam. 1.14 15. Although these lustings and desires therefore which good men complain of may justly be an imployment of their watchfulness and care yet ought they not to be a cause of their fear or scruple For it shall not bring upon them those evils which they are afraid of nor ever prove their ruine and destruction The evil thing is entertained only in a thought or a wish they lust after it and are tempted by it but that is all for they do not consent to the temptation And since their lusts go no further than thus they shall not harm them when Christ comes to Judgment nor ever bring them into condemnation CHAP. V. Of two other Causes of groundless Scruple to good Souls The CONTENTS A second cause of scruple is their unaffectedness or distraction sometimes in their prayers Attention disturbed often whether we will or no. A particular cause of it in fervent prayers Fervency and affection not depending so much upon the command of our wills as upon the temper of our bodies Fervency is unconstant in them whose temper is fit for it God measures us not by the fixedness of our thoughts or the warmth of our tempers but by the choice of our wills and the obedience of our lives Other qualifications in prayer are sufficient to have our prayers heard when these are wanting Yea those Vertues which make our prayers acceptable are more eminently shown in our obedience so that it would bring down to us the blessings of prayer should it prove in those respects defective A third cause of scruple is the danger of idle or impertinent words mentioned Matth. 12.36 The scruple upon this represented The practical errour of a morose behaviour incurred upon it This discountenanced by the light of Nature and by Christianity The benefits and place of serious Discourse Pleasureable conversation a great Field of Vertue The idle words Matth. 12 not every vain and useless but false slanderous and reproachful words this proved from the place ANother thing which disquiets the hearts of good and honest men and makes them needlesly to call in question the saveableness of their present state and their title to salvation is the coldness and unaffectedness the unsettledness and distractions which they find in themselves when they are at prayers Good people are wont to cry out of desertions to think that God has thrown them off and that his Spirit has forsaken them if at any time they find a great distraction and dulness of Spirit in their devotions and a great abatement of that zeal and fervency that fixedness and attention which they have happily enjoyed at other times But this is a great mistake from mens ignorance of Gods Laws and of their own selves For God has no where told them that he will judge them at the last day by the steadiness and fixedness the tide and fervency of their devotions but by the integrity of their hearts and the uprightness of their obedience The last Sentence shall not pass upon men according to the heat of their affections but according to the goodness of their lives So that if they have been careful to practise all God's Commandments according to their power and opportunities and this of prayer among the rest in such sort as their unavoidable infirmities would suffer them they shall be safe in that Judgment notwithstanding any inequality in their bodily tempers or unconstancy and abatement in their bodily affections To state this business so as that we may neither be unnecessarily scrupulous about these qualifications of our prayers when we cannot nor on the other side irreligiously careless of them when we might enjoy them I shall say something of their necessity when they can be had as well as of that allowance which God will make to them when through any bodily indispositions or unforeseen accidents they cannot If we would put up our prayers to God in such manner as it is fit for us to offer them in or for him to hear them we must make them with a due fixedness and attention of mind and fervency of affection We must offer them up with a due fixedness and attention of mind Our thoughts must go along with our lips and our souls must be intent upon the business which we are about when we are making our prayers to God We must not expect that he should mind those vain words and mere talk which we do not or that he should hear us when we do not hear our selves No it is the work of the Soul and not the bare labour of the lips which he attends to so that if only our Tongues pray but our minds are straying this is as good as no prayer at all We must offer them up also with much earnestness of desire and fervency of affection We must shew that we put a price upon a mercy before we are fit to receive it for otherwise there is no assurance that we shall be duely thankful for it We must not seem cold and indifferent after it for that is a sign that we can almost be as well content without it But we must be eager in our desire and express a fervency of affection after it such as we are wont to use in the pursuit of any thing which we greatly value and this is an inducement for God to give us that which he sees we so dearly love it sets a price upon his blessings and shews the measure of our own vertuous inclinations and therefore he will encourage and reward it The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man says S t James availeth much Jam. 5.16 Thus are a due attention of mind and a fervent heat of desire in devotion such qualifications as are necessary to render our prayers becoming either us to offer or God to hear so that we must always strive and according to our power and present circumstances endeavour after them We must take care as much as we can to compose our thoughts when we pray to draw them off from other things for some time before and still to bring them back again when at any time we find them wandring And we must endeavour also by a due sense of the necessity the greatness and undeservedness of Gods mercies to heighten our affections and make them bend vigorously and eagerly after those things which we pray for that so God seeing we are serious and in earnest with him he may be induced to grant those benefits which we desire of him But then on the other hand if after all our care