Galatians 19 and 20 verses The works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication laciviousness uncleanness Idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulation wrath strife seditious heresies envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like they are exceedingly in love with these and spare not to commit them so far forth as they come not within the compass of mens laws to be punished yea and many times they leap over the laws of God and the land wallow in swinish pleasures and sinful surfeting follow their brutish appetites their sinful and sensual desires give no law to their unbridled passions to their loose carriages to their dissolute behaviours to their unjust practises the restraint neither of Gods laws nor of mens can keep them within bounds but they break both and pursue their evil courses with all vehemency and violence And are such as the Scripture speaketh of the unjust Judge They neither fear God nor 18 Luke 4 ver regard man but oppress the poor grind their faces undo the fatherless and widows against all law and equity and yet they have no sence nor feeling of their sins they are touched with no remorse for them The terror of the law which doometh death and damnation to the breach of the least of Gods Commandments the horror of their own guilty consciences when they see their sins laid before them in their own ugly plight shape and form doth not make them so to groan under the burden of their sins that they should see what a sweet thing it is to have a Saviour what a happiness it is to be a Christian They are not so wearied with the heavy load and burden of their sins that they should seek and finde rest in Christ Jesus But they 5 Wis 7 8 ver weary themselves in the way of wickednes and never say what hath pride profited us Or what good hath riches with our vanting brought us till they groan out this in hell where they are never like to have part in God or inheritance in Christ These now are the wicked and such as these they are in the flesh and fulfil the desires of the flesh and of the minde and sure some such men as these the Apostle yieldeth and granteth that there may be They have not their understanding informed nor their reason rectified Their talk is of bullocks and they know 〈◊〉 how to give the kine fodder or their discourse is of their wares and their merchandise and they know how to buy and sell and get gain But they are strangers in Israel unacquainted with the mysteries of Christ and his kingdom That Christ came down from heaven and 13 Act. 23 ver was inclosed in the virgins womb that he was born of the seed of David and took flesh for our redemption his Priestly his Princely his Prophetical office his being God his being Man the necessity of his being both for our redemption His humiliation his exaltation his humility that he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross his exaltation his rising again from the dead his glorification his leading captivity captive These are things that they have small knowledge of or if they have some confused knowledge of the fall of Adam of the corrupt state and condition of all mankind since the fall of the impossibility of keeping Gods Laws and Commandements and of the necessity of a Saviour to free us from the curse of sin which is death and from the punishment of the breach of Gods Laws which is damnation have they now a lively 5 Gal. 6 ver faith that worketh by love to purge their consciences from dead works to serve the living Lord Do they believe in Jesus Christ and him crucified yet they believe that there is one God and one Mediator between 2 Tim. 2 c. 5 ver God and man the man Christ Jesus Yea S. Iames telleth them that the 2 Jam. 19 ver devils believe and tremble But do they believe that Christ died for their sins and rose again for their 4 Rom. 8 ver justification yea they believe that Christ died for the sins of the whole world and more particularly for 1 Tim. 4 c. 10 ver theirs and they are ready at any time when they are weary and heavy laden with the burden of their sins to apply Christ and his merits to themselves for the remission of them and therefore they make no question but they are truly engraffed into Christ and made lively members of his body yea they weary Christ with the load and burden of their sins and make him their pack-horse to bear their iniquities and as God speaketh by his Prophet He is pressed under them as a cart is pressed that 2 Amos 13 ver as full of sheaves But do they so groan under the burden of their sins that they desire to be rid of them and to purge them out of their hearts Doth their faith in Christ for the remission of their sins increase their hatred of 2 Cor. 7 c. 1 ver sin and their desire to cleanse themselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit Hereby they shall know whether they be in Christ or no They that are Christs the Apostle telleth us have crucified the flesh with the affections 5 Gal. 24 ver and lusts Unless therefore men crucifie the flesh and mortifie their earthly members fornication uncleanness immoderate affection evil concupiscence covetousness and the like they are not in Christ but are still in the flesh and whatsoever right or title they may plead to Christ they are carnally they are earthly minded Let not sin reign in your mortal 6 Rom. 12 ver bodies that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof If then mens hearts and consciences tell them that they are not renewed in the spirit of their 4 Eph. 23. minde their hearts are set upon evil the thoughts of their hearts are evil and 6 Gen. 5 ver that continually the evil desires of the flesh they swarm there and the carnal desires of the mind they nourish and cherish them please themselves in them take a great deal of delight to suffer their mindes to wander after vain pleasures and sinful delights and as for the inward corruption of the heart they give no stay nor stop to it For the proneness and propensity of the heart to evil and the indisposition thereof to do good they see it not or if they do they love it with all their heart and desire to live and die in this polluted estate this corrupted condition over run with sin and iniquity Their heart is corrupt their conscience defiled and yet they are touched with no remorse for the inward pollution of their souls for the outward defilement of their bodies but make sin their solace and iniquity their pastime and if God do so work by his word by the good motions of his Spirit by
A DESCRIPTION OF THE NATURAL CONDITION OF Being in the flesh A SERMON Preached by NICHOLAS SMYTH Mr of Arts and Preacher of Gods Word And published at the request of some private friends for the publique good Prov. 23. ver 23. Buy the truth and sell it not also wisdom instruction and understanding Iob 19. ver 28. But ye should say why persecute we him seeing the root of the matter is found in him Printed by J. Owsley for Rich. Knowls 1657. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER CHristian Reader it is well known unto the world that the Church of Rome hath a long time arrogated to her self to be the outward visible Church out of which there is no salvation and hath excluded all others which will not hold of her and acknowledge her to be the mother Church from all hopes of heaven and happiness And divers moderate and temperate Christians of all Churches yeilding a possibility of salvation to many ignorant seduced Christians who live in that Church or hold of her and not being willing to usurpe upon Gods prerogative to judge either the Church in general to be no Church or any particular members of the same to be no Christians they make use of their adversaries charity and by the glorious name of the Church out of which there is no salvation which they restrain onely to themselves deceive multitudes We have a long time expected a blessed reformation and have with sighes and prayers and tears desired of God that a general assembly of Divines might be called wherein the errours of the Church of Rome and more particularly this dangerous and pernicious errour of theirs in casting all out of the Church which will not comply with them in their errours and gross absurdities might have been condemned But instead thereof there are risen up in this land divers Sectaries who appropriate salvation to themselves and their own companies and exclude all others from the Kingdom of heaven I shall name none of them but leave them to the judgement of God and the verdict of their own consciences But divers Sectaries there be who make the world believe that they are the Elect of God or the companies wherein the Elect lie hid And our charity being the like to them that it is to the Church of Rome we conceiving that there are among them some ignorantly seduced Christians who are the true Elect of God and not daring to usurpe upon Gods prerogative to judge any of them They make advantage of our charity and make the world believe that there can be no safety for any that look for salvation but by flying to them and their companies So that by this means the Church of God is miserably distracted there scarce seemeth to be any face of a Church So that Mr. Plâ—dell in a speech in Parliament made Feb. thâ— 8. 1641. as a worthy member of the honourable Assembly of Parliament of the great Parliament at its first sitting did fear it would come to pass we see it is come to pass We have rather changed our Pilot then our condition and if we be come out of Rome have onely shifted places to finde our ruin But yet we hope that God will in due time deliver us from all those men and companies of men that disturb the quiet and peace of the Church and Common-wealth Though our charity be never so great toward them and we will not judge them yet if they be guilty they cannot escape the judgement of God nor the verdict of their own consciences I have here in a plain Sermon described the natural condition of being in in the flesh so that all that read the Sermon if they be not willingly ignorant or wilfully sinful may know whether they themselves be in Christ or whether they be in the flesh and I am perswaded that all that read this Sermon if they be truly regenerate spiritual not carnal they will abstain from all rash censuring of the present condition and from all uncharitable and unchristian judging of the future and the final condition of their brethren It is my request to thee Christian Reader that thou wouldst not be carried away with the sway of the times rashly to censure or uncharitably to judge others but that thou wouldest in all humility of heart judge thy self and if in this Sermon thou findest any new lights yet if they be true lights acknowledge as the author doth that they come from above from the Father of lights who is pleased in dark times by the light of his word and by the light of his holy spirit to inlighten his Church Read then the Sermon without prejudice and if thou reapest any benefit by it give God the praise and pray for the increase of knowledge and grace in him who is and will remain Thine in the work of Grace NICHOLAS SMYTH A DESCRIPTION of the NATURAL CONDITION OF Being in the Fesh Rom. 8. ver 8. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God THat hereditary stain and original corruption which we all drew from the loins of our first parents Christian and beloved brethren it sticketh fast and close unto us and so long as we carry about us this body of clay this burden of flesh we can never be perfectly rid of it And the weight and burden of sin doth so press and weigh down a true Christian that it causeth him to cry out almost dispairingly with the Apostle S. Paul O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin But as we say in Philosophy elementa in suo loco neque gravant neque levant the elements in their proper place they are neither light nor heavy So is it with sins when they are in their proper place the hearts of wicked men they weigh nothing there and whether they be light sins or heavy they are insensible of the burden of them and if hypocrites complain of sin in others and true Christians of sin in themselves they that are fleshly minded meer natural men as they know not what sin is so they feel not the burden of it And if they be not over curious to see sin in others they are not over careful to see or amend it in themselves and therefore they think themselves of all others in a happy condition who neither trouble them selves with others sins nor yet with their own Whereas in truth there is no peace promised but to the troubled conscience no quiet nor rest but to the burdened soul those that are weary and heavy laden with the burden of their sins While therfore these men are pleasing themselves with this vain phantasie and thinking that they of all others have right to heaven and to earth too The Spirit of God in the Scripture meeteth with them and sheweth them that they may please themselves but they cannot they do not please God while they remain in their natural condition without purging sin out of their hearts So then they that are
9 Psal 6 ver have respect to all Gods commandements and hate sin indifferently his own sins as well as other mens and his hatred should shew it self especially against those sins to which he seeth the greatest proneness and propensity in his own heart They are very few but they have their hearts set upon some sins or other they suffer them to lie and roust there they will not part with them or purge them out The bent of their affections is not set against sin is not set upon good their heart meditateth mischief and they stirre up strife and contension all the day long They may blear the eyes of the world with dawbing policies and skin over their corruptions but their heart is not right neither toward God nor toward their neighbour Indoluit orbis Christianus factum se videns Arianum The whole Christian world was overspread with Arianisme and Scismes and Heresies they abound in every place and multitudes of men there are that cause sects and divisions sins and surfetings they increase and multiply continually and sinners they thronge in the streets All tables 28 Isaiah â— ver are full of vomit and filthiness from the least of them unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness and from the Prophet unto the 6 Jer. 13 ver Priest every one dealeth falsely Some few onely excepted as S. Iohn hath it the whole world lieth in wickedness 1 Joh. 5 c. 9 ver tumbleth and walloweth in this sinful condition their hearts are uncleansed unsanctified unreformed even sinkes of sin and the spreading contagion of sin and iniquity it overrunneth all places and persons and few there be that are not infected with this plague and leprosie of sin Some have it in their forehead and it riseth up as it did in Uzziah his 2 Cor. 26 c. 9 ver 3 Isaiah 9 ver They declare their sin as Sodom they hide it not Others have it in their heart their sore rankleth and festereth inwardly and their wound is in curable others their loins are filled 38 Psal 7 ver with a loathsom disease and there is no whole part in their flesh others their feet are swift to shed bloud others 1 Prov. 16 ver 49 Gen. 5 ver 55 Psal 20 ver 69 Psal 23 ver their hands are instruments of cruelty others their eyes are blinded that they see not they have the eyes of their understanding darkned so that they know not what sin is and how should they then amend it Many too many there be who have not one but many sins reigning in them who walk and war after the flesh and fulfil the desires of their evil and corrupt mindes so that it is no marvel though the Apostle setteth it forth in the plural number They that are in the flesh Having thus described the Natural Condition of being in the flesh having shewed what it is to be in the flesh and having made it plain that there are numbers and multitudes of men who live and lie in this sinful condition overrun with iniquity and drowned as I may say in the lusts of the flesh It remaineth that I come to shew what it is that maketh this condition so miserable and so deplorable a condition It may seem to be a happy condition and no marvel if there be multitudes that are in love with sin and the greatest part please themselves in their natural condition and have some sin or other which they propound unto themselves as their cheifest happiness felicity and contentment in this life for sin it is sweet and the task of repentance it is tedious bitter and irksome and the child-bearing pangs of a woman in travail are not so painful and laborious as are the travailing pains of those that are born again in whom new birth is wrought A troubled conscience and a minde disquieted with the burden of sin it is above all the troubles and tribulations that can happen to a man in this life Seeing then sin is so sweet and the task of repentance so bitter tedious and irksome not to strive against sin but to enjoy the pleasures and profits of this life there is no misery at all in this condition but a great deal of happiness and if it were not for that which followeth in this text of Scripture who might not wish to remain still in his natural condition without purging sin out of his heart So then that which maketh this condition so miserable a condition it is this that men while they are in love with this supposed happiness they lose that which is their true happiness their summum bonum and their chief felicitv Gods favourable countenance Nothing can content the soul but God nothing can satisfie the heart but the Trinity and while men remain in this condition without purging sin out of their hearts they are deprived of this felicity they are debarred of this happiness So then this condition of being out of the state of grace maketh men miserable because those that are out of the state of grace and not truly regenerate cannot please God And so I pass to the third thing the 3 Doctrin inference that the Apostle doth inferre and the conclusion that he gathereth to set forth the misery of those that are in their natural condition They cannot please God The Apostles meaning when he saith those that are in the flesh cannot please God Is not that it is all one whether they do good or whether they do evil their vices and their virtues finde the like acceptance at Gods hands their gloriousest virtues are but glittering sins their best actions are abominable they are in the flesh out of Christ and whatsoever they do they cannot please God These are the exceptions that the Sectaries of these times make not onely against the actions of those who are meer natural men unreconciled unconverted but against the actions of those that are spiritual and more truly engraffed into Christ then themselves And these Sectaries they do dilate and spread themselves every where and where there are fewest of them there are two many of them Yet for my part I am and ever shall be so charitable as to believe that there are among them some ignorantly seduced Christians who desire above all things to fear God and to serve him and for the elects sake that are among them shall speak unto them all as unto Saints and unto brethren and all that I shall at this time say is but this If these men cannot be perswaded to have a little more charity it were to be wished that they would be perswaded to have a little more humility if saith Iob I wash myself with snow water 9 Job 30 31 ver and make my hands never so clean yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own clothes shall abhor me And the holy Father S. Augustin sheweth how imperfect the actions of the best are that none
can be found innocent if God should deal with them according to the rigour of his justice Vae August confess laudabili vitae hominum si remota miserecordia discutias eam Wo unto the most praise-worthy life of men if God shall examine it without mercy And so Arnobius Arno. in Psal Vae nobis si quod debeamus exegerit vel quod debet rediderit Wo unto us all if God should exact of us what we owe or are indebted unto him or return unto us according to our deserts I beseech you beloved brethren whosoever you are can you do any thing to please God have you any righteousness that is not stained survay your own best actions abhor your selves in dust ashes your most lovely virtues your goodliest actions they receive such a tincture from the corrupt channel from whence they proceed that you must needs see nothing but a menstruous cloth have you any thing to glory of before God take heed least he enter into judgement with you you will find that all flesh hath corrupted it self before God and that you have nothing but what others have imperfect goodness But yet goodness it is Gods gift and the effect of our Saviours sufferings and though it be imperfect in all in regard we are not subjects capable of perfect goodness yet God as he wroketh it in all so he loveth it and is pleased with it in all that he worketh it And whether he worketh it by restraining grace in those that are in their natural condition or by saving grace in those that are in their spiritual condition he is pleased with it accepteth it will reward it for Christs sake Some good works that are wrought by restraining grace they are as lovely in the sight of men and as pleasing in the sight of God as are those that are wrought by saving grace And God as he worketh so he is pleased with and accepteth of goodness in every body It was Gods speech to Cain if thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted He accepteth of every body when they do well he will reward his own works and will be no mans debter for goodness He hath rewarded you he will reward you he doth reward you for works of piety for deeds of charity for any thing that is good So then this is not the meaning of the words howsoever some please to descant and paraphrase upon them that those that are in the flesh their best actions are abominable their goodness imperfect and they cannot please God for so are the actions of the best Saints living and some actions that are wrought by restraining grace are as perfect as those that are wrought by saving grace though both of them are imperfect and God is pleased to accept of imperfect goodness for Christs sake and reward it Onely herein is the difference those good deeds that proceed from restraining grace they have the promise onely of a temporary reward but those good deeds that proceed from saving grace they entitle men to heaven and salvation So then the meaning of the Apostles words as it may appear plainly to those that are not minded wilfully to pervert the Scritures is this They that are unreconciled unconverted unrenewed in the spirit of their mindes they cannot so please God that he should accept of their imperfect obedience and entitle them to heaven and deliver them from hell This then is the miserable condition of all those who have not felt the inward Covenant the circumcision of the heart in whom restraining grace hath wrought onely a hatred of some few sins and a love of some few vertues and the saving grace of Gods Spirit hath not inlightened the understanding with the knowledge of all sins which by the search of reason can be found to be sins nor reformed the will that there should be a hatred of all sins nor rectified the affections that so this hatred of sin should increase more and more But they do good by fits and by starts as they are taught by custome and example of others as they are induced unto it by Gods mercies and his judgements or as it pleaseth him sometimes to work extraordinarily in their hearts by his word and the good motions of his Spirit Such as these they are in the flesh and cannot please God that is they are out of Gods favour the wrath of God abideth upon them they have no hopes of heaven nor of happiness after this life And what more miserable condition can there be then this It is a life no life when Gods frowning and ireful countenance is toward men When men have no assurance of heaven no hopes in their death their consciences tell them that they have lived so that they shall never see God nor enjoy the company nor presence of the blessed Angels but shall have their portion 20 Revel 10 ver in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone with the devil and his angels Sure the wrath of God for sin it causeth men to pine and languish away in despair When thou with rebukes 39 Psal 11 ver doest chasten a man for sin thou causest his beauty to consume away like a moth fretting a garment and who can 76 Psal 7 ver stand when thou art angry saith the Psalmist If God please to hide away his face from his Saints from his servants for a moment in a little 54 Isaiah 6 ver wrath nothing can afford them comfort And when he teareth the wicked in his wrath for the multitude of their transgressions as some time his hand is heavy upon them here for their sins his wrath is a burden unsupportable Let then their own experience of the heaviness of Gods wrath when he afflicteth them for a short time for their sins in his wrath teach them what a miserable condion it is to be such men with whom God will be angry for ever If so be then that God be pleased with mens good works with their hearty sighes and earnest groans their weeping and howling and their repentance for sin If God see these things and be pleased with them yet if he be not so pleased with them that he should accept of mens good works of their repentance for sin that so they should be delivered from his wrath and have hopes of heaven and happiness what are they the better And yet unless men be inwardly renewed in the spirit of their mindes and have felt a change of the whole minde of the whole man they shall not be intitled to heaven they shall not be delivered from hell This then is the misery of those who remain unreconciled unconverted whose hearts are unchanged unaltered they are liable to Gods curse and eternal damnation Heaven they have no part nor portion in it Christian Reader whosoever thou art think now think I say if it be possible for thee to conceive the greatness of this misery what a miserable condition it is when men
and he be become a gracious father unto you in Christ Jesus is your hatred of sin general your love of goodness universal do you increase and grow every day more and more in grace and goodness in your hatred and opposition of sin Have you a care of the inward man as well as of the outward and do you look more to the heart then to the outward actions is not there some secret darling bosome and beloved sin upon which your heart is set which you defend and maintain against all that Gods Ministers can say against it and will not be convinced in conscience of it or acknowledge it to be a sin do you not call your pride decency your lust love your drunkenness goodfellowship your malice zeal your covetousness thrift Or is there not some secret sin like Herod his incest which you defend to be lawful ye may know concerning your selves in what terms you stand with God whether you be in Christ or whether you be in the flesh unless ye be ignorant persons and know not what the desires of the flesh mean But yet though it be an easie matter to know this concerning your selves yet it is the hardest matter of a thousand to know this concerning others whether they be in the faith or no. Restraining grace it may work as perfect a hatred of some sins and as perfect a love of some graces and virtues as saving grace They who outwardly appear very wicked men they may hate some vices with as perfect a hatred as it is possible for men to do who carry about them a body of flesh and love some virtues with as perfect a love as it is possible for men to do who live since the fall of Adam yea restraining grace may work such a reformation of the outward man and of the inward man too that there may not be many sins in the heart unpurged out We read of Herod how he reformed himself in many things at Iohns preaching and he had not many sins with which he was greatly in love beside his incest And Iehu beside his state policy he had not many sins upon which his heart was set And whether it be constraint of laws restraint of shame custome and example of others that teacheth men to do well whether God work by his mercies or by his judgements by his word or by the good motions of his Spirit by fits and by starts extraordinarily Or whether there be a constant and a continued work of the spirit whether there be a general hatred of sin whether mens obedience to Gods laws and commandments be total or partial Whether there be many sins reigning in men or one darling sin upon which their heart is set unpurged out These are secrets known onely to God who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins This men must see unless they will shut their eyes against a known truth that there is in all men living a hatred of some vices and a love of some virtues and though it be restraining grace that worketh in the most yet for ought we know or ought to judge it is saving grace that worketh in all And that there should be in a Christian Common-wealth this distinction of the godly and the wicked for my part I see no reason for it Charity thinketh no evil but is easily perswaded to believe that all the congregation of the Lord is holy This is a certain truth we cannot certainly know and ought not peremtorily to judge of any men or company of men that they are in the whole tenour of their lives wicked men or profane persons or that they are in the whole tenour of their lives hypocrits or false christians But if men may probably conjecture of a great many that they are sinners or hypocrits know them by their fruits because it outwardly appeareth to the world that many sins reign in them What use should they make of their knowledge Let them abstain from their company and not partake with them in their sins If necessity or some occasion of business force them into their company let them soberly admonish them of their faults that they may amend let them reprove and rebuke them sharply if they doe not amend let them informe against them that they may be reformed if their sins be capital or scandalous punishable by the laws of the land let them mourn in secret because they do pray in private that they may not continually dishonour God by their unlawful deeds their open profanes and their secret hypocrisie these things are good and acceptable in the sight of God If beside these you can think of any lawful means to reduce men from their sins their open profaness and their secret hypocrisie on God his name use it But as for all slandring and traducing men for sin all casting out their names and evil all rash censuring of their present condition all uncharitable and unchristian judging of their future as final condition let not these things be once named among you as becometh saints For my part I know no man so flagitiously sinful that I dare determine of him that he is in the state of condemnation though I see him in the acts of impiety for I know there is a salve for this sore his repentant tears And if I say that such a one is a saint in the state of grace and hath right to the kingdome of heaven when he doth well I say no more then charity bindeth me to speak when I see a man that is suspected to have sinned the sin against the holy Ghost I may peradventure think that there is small hopes of remission for such a one because he cannot repent yet I shall be sparing to terme such an one a reprobate when I fee him sin and shall be bold to say he is a saint when he doth well Be charitable and judge of no mans final condition ye cannot certainly know and therefore ought not to say of any men lining though they be never so hainously sinful that they are in the state of condemnation And yet still there are a number a multitude the whole world lieth in wickedness walloweth and tumbleth in this sinful condition in this polluted estate their conscience is defiled their heart is corrupt set upon sin they have no sence nor feeling of their sins they are touched with no remorse for them they will not weed them out of their hearts and though others may not and we dare not judge them any otherwise then as God judgeth them yet unless they will judge and condemne them selves and endeavour to purge sin out of their hearts we must leave them where we found them in the flesh insuch a condition wherein they cannot please God nor have right to the kingdome of heaven but are liable to God his curse and eternal damnation for so they see the scripture speaketh so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God But I shall rather 3 Ephes 16 17 18. 19 ver pray for such as are in the flesh that God would grant them according to the riches if his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit according to the inner man that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith that they being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth And length and depth and height and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg that they may be 1 Pet. 10. 4 ver filled with the fulness of God and have right to an inheritance incorruptible immortal undefiled not fading away reserved in the heavens for them Amen FINIS