my mind which strives against it and prevails over it and makes me practise contrary to what my mind approves So that when being enclined by Gods Law I would do good then being over-ruled by the law of sin I cannot but evil is laid before me and present with me Gods Law I say I serve with the mind For I delight in the Law of God after the inner man of my mind and conscience But all this while I only approve of it but no more For all the effect which it has upon me is only to create a liking of it in my mind But as for my practice and Outward performance it is under anothers power For I see another opposite Law viz. that of Lust and Sin which is seated in my bodily members not only warring against the Law of God in my mind but conquering also and prevailing over it bringing me into captivity that absolute sort of subjection and slavery to practise the Law of Sin which is seated in my members And since I am so far enslaved to the Law of Lust and Sin when the Law of God undertakes me that even that Law it self which God has appointed for my remedy is not able to rescue and deliver me I have too great reason to cry out O! wretched man that I am who shall deliver me since this Law given me by Moses is not able to do it from the slavery and misery of this body of death This indeed was our condition under the Law which shews at once the Laws holiness and goodness and withall its inability and weakness because notwithstanding it offer'd some Grace yet was not that enough but that during our subjection under it we commonly served sin still But now as for that slavish service of sin which a bare Jew who has no other help against it but Moses's Law complains of and longs to be delivered from that as I told you at first we Christians through the surpassing Grace of Christs Gospel are delivered from already So that to such a complaining Jew as I have here personated I Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ can readily make answer Alter your subjection and you shall alter your service too for in becoming subject unto Christ instead of the Law you shall become servants of God instead of serving sin I thank God there is a way now in Christ for such deliverance or as it is read by some copies the Grace of God which comes through Jesus Christ our Lord shall deliver you although the Law could not which came by Moses But without this Grace I must still tell you that the Law it self will not generally have any such effect upon you seeing as I said it will only awaken your conscience but not reform your practice So then to shut up this discourse this you must still conclude upon that whilst you continue subject to the Law you will serve sin in your practice however you may disapprove it in your minds For I my self or the same I under the Law who with the mind as has been often observed serve in approving the Law of God do yet with the flesh so long as it has nothing else but the Law to restrain it serve in practising the Law of Sin But to return to what I said vers 5 6. of the last Chapter from whence we have hitherto diverted to answer this objection I say having by this passage from subjection to the Law to subjection unto Christ upon the Laws being abolished changed our service together with our subjection and become servants now not unto Sin but unto Christ All we Christians are safe from that Death which the Law of the members brought forth fruit to Chap. 7. vers 5. and have right to that Eternal Life which as I said is the gift of God to all his servants Chap. 6. vers 22 23. So that what reason soever a poor Jew under the Law who serves and obeys Sin may have to cry out of the body of Death yet we Christians who began to serve God upon our becoming subject unto Christ may comfort our selves to see that we are delivered from it And therefore whatever there be to a striving but yet unconquering Jew there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus's Religion because they are such who have changed their service together with their subjection and walk not now after the Flesh as they did formerly whilst the Law held them in subjection but after the Spirit This change of service I say is wrought in all true Christians by the Law of Christ although it could not generally be wrought in the Jews by the bare Law of Moses For the Law and power of the Spirit of life which is given to us in Christ Jesus and is expresly promised in his Religion though it were not in the Law of Moses that enabling Spirit I say hath made me Christian free from the so often mentioned Law of sin and from the punishment of it Death For what the Law of Moses could not do towards our deliverance from the service of sin in that it was too weak through the overpowering wickedness of the Law of lust in the Flesh even that hath God done in sending his own Son Jesus Christ in the likeness of sinful Flesh and in making him a Sacrifice for sin that in his death he might found his own Religion whereby he hath condemned and destroyed what the Law of Moses was overcome by viz. the Law of sin seated in the Flesh. So that by the help of Christs Law perfecting what the Law of Moses wanted the righteousness which was shown to us and required of us in the Book of the Law of Moses might be performed and fulfilled in us Christians although it was not ordinarily in the bare Jews because we are such who being Christs Subjects must be his Servants likewise and in our works and practice walk not after the lusts of the Flesh but after the motions of the Spirit Thus have I given a Paraphrase upon this involved and so much mistaken Chapter Wherein I have largely and as I hope truly represented the Apostles meaning his design and manner of arguing in this place In all which we see he intends not at all to give a Character of himself or of any other regenerate man but only of a midling Sinner who sins against his Conscience and transgresses with reluctance Which Transgressor of a middle rank he particularly represents under the person of an awaked but as yet unregenerate Jew who was one on whom the Law of Moses had wrought some change but could not work enough being able only to awaken his Conscience but not to reform his practice So that all that is there said in that seventh Chapter of willing but not performing c. only sets off the weakness and imperfection of the Law of Moses as to the making men compleatly obedient
failings which are our unavoidable ones because we have no power to avoid where we have no liberty to will and chuse and since they are such as we cannot help they are such likewise as God pities and such as the Gospel doth not punish but graciously pardon and dispense with CHAP. III. Of the nature and danger of voluntary sins The CONTENTS The nature of a wilfill and a deliberate sin Why it is called a despising of Gods Law a sinning presumptuously and with a high hand Wilfull 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 virtue Of the voluntariness of all these causes Of the voluntariness of drunkenness when it may 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 virtue No wilfull sin is consistent with a state of Grace but all are damning A distinct account of the effect of wilfull sins viz. when they only destroy our acceptance for the present and when moreover they greatly wound and endanger that habitual virtue 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 HAving thus clearly shown in the General that all the dispensation and allowance for our consistent slips under the Gospel comes not from the nakedness and want of penalty in any of Christs Laws but only from the imperfection and involuntariness of our own actions I will descend now to consider particularly what those consistent slips and transgressions are In the management whereof I shall shew these two things First That our voluntary and chosen sins and transgressions of any of Christs Laws are not consistent with a state of Grace and Salvation but are deadly and damnable Secondly That our involuntary and unchosen slips are consistent and such as Christs Gospel doth not eternally threaten but graciously bear and dispense with First I say No voluntary sin or chosen transgression of any of Christs Laws is consistent with a state of Grace and Salvation but is deadly and damning To make this out it will be very requisite to show 1. What sinfull actions are voluntary and chosen And 2. That none of them is consistent with a state of Grace but deadly and damning 1. What sins and transgressions are voluntary and chosen Then we commit a wilfull chosen sin when we see and consider of the sinfulness of any action which we are tempted to and after that choose to act and perform it Every chosen sin is a sin against Knowledge for the will is a blind faculty and can choose nothing till our mind proposeth it All choice is an act of Reason and Vnderstanding a preferring one thing before another and we must view and consider both before we can prefer either That which suggests the sinfulness of any action to us and sets the evil of it before us when we are about to choose it is our Conscience For God has placed this Monitor of every mans Duty in every mans breast to tell him upon every occasion what he requires from him And till such time as men have debauched their understandings into a gross mistake of their Duty so as to call Evil Good and Good Evil and God in his just anger has given them up to a reprobate mind or a mind void of judgment their own consciences will keep them in mind of Gods Laws and not suffer them to transgress without reproof So that every wilfull sin is a sin against a mans own mind or conscience Nay further so long as mens hearts are soft and their consciences are tender and before such time as they are wholly enslaved to their appetites and quite hardened in sin their consciences especially in some great and frightfull instances will not only suggest and represent their Duty but argue also and debate against their lusts for the practice and performance of it And then men are not won at the first offer nor consent to fulfill the sin upon the first assault of the temptation but are drawn in after a long deliberation and debate and dispute the matter with themselves before they submit to it For when mens consciences do not nakedly suggest but moreover plead the cause and urge the observance of their Duty there are arguments on both sides to render the choice at first somewhat doubtfull The Law of God promises an infinite reward to the action of obedience and threatens an endless punishment if we disobey both which are future and to be expected in the next world And the temptation inducing us to sin presents us with a fair shew of sensitiv pleasure profit or honour if we practise and threatens us with all the contrary evils if we neglect it both which it sets before us as things present to be felt and enjoy'd by us even now whilst we are here in this world Now these are great motives on both sides each of them bidding fair for our consent Our minds or consciences suggest the first and our fleshly appetites and carnal reason represent the latter and for a good while these two advocates solicite the cause on both sides and distract and divide our wills between them So that when at last the temptation doth overcome and the Law of Lust in the members prevails over the Law of God in the mind yet is that after a strife and a war after a tedious toyle and much contention And these wilfull sins because we underwent a great conflict in our own minds about them and past through a long deliberation in an alternate succession of desires and aversations hopes and fears imperfect choices and refusals e're the consent of our wills was gain'd over to the commission of them are call'd deliberate sins Every wilfull chosen sin then is a sin against knowledge and against conscience when our own heart rebukes and checks us at the time of sinning telling us that God hath forbidden that which we are about to do notwithstanding which we presume to do it And if it happen to be in an instance that is greatly criminal and frightfull unto Conscience which therefore puts us upon demurs and creates dispute and arguing then is it not only a known but a deliberate sin also Nay where we have time and there is a sufficient space to consider in between the opportunity and the action if we know that the action is sinfull and are not in
last and will trouble himself no more about them but leave them wholly to themselves And this God plainly intimates concerning incorrigible Ephraim who was just then about to be abandoned and to be given up to the unmasterable wickedness of his own heart How shall I give thee up says he O Ephraim how shall I deliver thee O Israel Hos. 11.8 And our Saviour says the same over intractable Jerusalem O! if thou hadst but known at least in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace with God but now it is too late for they are hid from thine eyes Luk. 19.42 This I confess is a state of sin which is desperate and irrecoverable not for that repentance is no sure means of remission but because when once men are come thus far God deserts them so that they never can repent of them But as for the time when any man is come up to this unpardonable pitch that only God in Heaven knows No man can say I am beyond my time of repentance because without a special Revelation no man can understand it And therefore let a man have sinned never so long yet cannot that discourage him from repenting because if he set himself seriously about it for ought he knows God will pity him and afford him his Grace and Spirit which is never wanting to such as heartily desire it to aid and strengthen him in his repentance Nay indeed if a man be come so far as to bethink himself and to be apprehensive of his danger and to be convinced of the destructiveness of his sinful courses there is no question to be made but that he will For the tide is turned and the change is begun already and that is a thing which needed God's Grace as much as any thing that is yet remaining For a cariere in wickedness is like running down hill the great difficulty is to make the first stop but when once that is done to return again is much more easie And therefore if a man has received so much Grace as makes him break off his evil courses for the present and stand and deliberate with himself whether or no he shall proceed in it he need not doubt if he will go on to endeavour as he has begun but that he shall have more till at last he is fully enabled to perfect and compleat it He has an experimental evidence that his time of Grace is not past he may be sure it is still with him because it helps and works in him For it is Grace that brings him on to what he is and if he be but as willing to be aided by it as it is ready to assist him it will not fail to carry him on further Gods Grace will still grow upon him as his own endeavours do so that if he make good use of this he shall have more For this is laid down by our Lord as a certain Rule of Divine dispensations To him that hath that is maketh a right use of that Grace which he hath shall more be given even in abundance Mat. 25.29 Whatsoever irreconcileableness therefore there may be and truly is in some states of sin when men have gone on beyond their time of Grace yet he who has so much Grace as to doubt and question to fear and scruple has great reason to think that as for his part he is not past Grace but under it For an irrecoverable sinner is commonly one that is hardned he transgresses without sense and goes on without fear he is infatuated with his lusts and lull'd asleep in his sin and scarce ever comes to himself till he awakes in Damnation But if once he begins especially in the time of health either through a severe reproof or a severe providence to interrupt his sin for the present and to apprehend the evil of it and if from thence he goes on to good desires and holy purposes of well-doing then he feels that Grace which he is afraid he wants and that good Spirit works in him which he suspects to have deserted him He is not in this irrecoverable state but is going on towards a good recovery Indeed if his Conscience is awakned in the height of horror and extremity of despair so that he is obstinate against all good advice and dead to all endeavour and continues to be so this is not an effect of Grace and a step towards repentance but a terror of Judgment and a fore-taste of Hell If it deads all industry by excluding all hope if he complain of his estate without seeking to get out of it and despair without all amendment this fear of heart and terror of soul 't is true doth not bring him nearer unto life and pardon but by secuing him faster in his sin it shuts him up a closer Prisoner of Condemnation But if he be so apprehensive of his danger as to run from it if he has so much hope as will put him upon trying all means and using his best endeavours if upon his apprehensions of his present evil state he fears and desires and resolves and strives to get quit of it he is not deprived of a good Providence or of a gracious Spirit but enjoys the benefit of them and is conducted by them He is in the way to Life and under the recovering methods of Grace Gods holy Spirit has not for ever abandoned him but has begun again to work in him And thus at last it appears that as for all the wilful sins of any Christian man they are in no wise desperate and helpless but the Gospel has reached out a remedy for them to all who are willing to make use of it For let them but particularly repent of them and amend them and then they are safe from them So long as they continue in the profession of the Christian Faith and do not apostatize from it there is no sin whatsoever which they wilfully commit but is pardonable upon their repentance If once they honestly undo the fault and conscientiously forsake it their work is done for their penitent reformation shall make them innocent and whatever punishment the Law may threaten to any sins when God comes to Judgment he will not exact it of any man who has been thus reclaimed from them Do we find our selves guilty then of any unretracted wilful sins and thereby subject to a dreadful sentence according to those measures that have in great largeness been hitherto discoursed of Let us particularly repent of them and begin to amend them and then we are safe from it and shall most certainly prevent it Have any voluntary faults put us out of a state of favour and made us obnoxious to the severities of Judgment let us reform them and do so no more and repair the breach which ensued upon them and we are surely pardoned For the Gospel of Christ doth not in any wise intend to amaze and astonish us or to affright us from amendment by putting us into a despair
noble and excellent reward we are in a safe state and have no need to disquiet our Souls with fears and jealousies lest they should eternally miscarry If any person then has used Gods Grace and improved his Talents to this measure he has not been unprofitable and useless but has profited so far as is necessary to his happiness He is bound indeed still to advance higher and in every instance of Vertue to improve further but this he is not under the loss of Heaven but only under the danger of falling back into such a state of sin as would destroy the hopes of it again and the forfeiture of greater glory and rewards there when an intire obedience in all chosen instances and a particular reformation and repentance of all wilful sins is once secured there is so much growth in grace as is absolotely necessary an exalted pitch and compleat measures of this obedience with more ease and pleasure constancy and evenness with less mixture of voluntary sins which need particular repentance and with a greater freedom from innocent and unwilled infirmities is necessary to more absolute degrees and greater hights of glory but till that can be had this is sufficient to a mans salvation Several other scruples there are which are wont to disquiet and perplex the minds of good and honest people who are safe in Gods account although their Case seems never so hazardous in their own And of this sort are their fears that their obedience is unsincere because they have an eye at their own good and a respect to their own safety since they serve God in hopes to be better by him and out of a fear should they disobey of suffering evil from him They are afraid also that it is defective in a main Point for they cannot love and serve him in that comprehensive latitude which the Commandment requires viz. With all their heart and with all their soul and with all their mind They doubt they are past Grace and Pardon because they have sinned after that they have been enlightned and that wilfully and the Apostles affirms that for such there remains no more Sacrifice for sins Heb. 10.26 These doubts are still apt to disturb their peace and make sad their hearts and some others of like nature But of these and several others I have given sufficient Accounts above such as I hope may satisfie any reasonable man who is capable to read and to consider of them and thither I refer the Reader not thinking fit here to repeat them And thus at last we have seen when an honest and entire obedience is taken care for in the first place how plainly groundless those fears are which are wont to perplex the thoughts of good and safe yet ignorant and misguided people about their state of happiness and salvation And now I have done with all those points which I thought necessary to be enquired into to the end that I might shew every man now before-hand how he stands prepared for the next world and which at the beginning of this whole Discourse I proposed to treat of I have shown what that condition is of bliss or misery which the Gospel indispensably exacts of us and that as I take it so particularly that no man who will be at the pains to read and consider of it can overlook or mistake it what those defects are which it bears and dispenseth with what those remedies and means of reconciliation are which it has provided for us and when all these are taken care for how groundless all those other scruples are which are wont to disquiet honest minds about the goodness of their present state and their title to eternal salvation And upon the whole matter the sum of all amounts to this that when Christ shall come to sit in judgment at the last day and to pass sentence of life or death upon every man according to the direction of his Gospel he will pronounce upon every man according to his works If he has honestly and entirely obey'd the whole will of God in all the particular Laws before-mention'd never willfully and deliberately offending in any one instance nor indulging himself in the practice of any thing which he knows to be a sin he is safe in the Accounts of the last Judgment and shall never come into Condemnation Nay if he has been a damnable offender and has willfully transgressed either in one instance or in many in frequent repetitions of his sin or in few yet if he repent of it before death seize him and amend it ere he is haled away to Judgment he is safe still For he shall be judged according as his works then are when God comes to enquire of them so that if ever he be found in an honest obedience observing everything which he sees to be his duty and willfully venturing upon nothing which his Conscience tells him is sinful he is found in the state of Grace and Pardon and if he die in it he shall be saved All his unwill'd ignorances and innocent unadvisednesses upon his Prayers for pardon and his mercifulness and forgiveness of other men shall be abated all his other causes of fear and scruple shall be overlooked they shall not be brought against him to his Condemnation but in the honest and entire obedience which he hath performed in that shall he live If then we have an honest heart and walk so as our own Conscience has nothing whereof to accuse us we may meet Death with a good Courage and go out of the World with comfortable Expectations For if we have an honest and a tender heart whensoever we sin willfully and against our Consciences our own Souls will be our Remembrancers They will be a witness against us both whilst we are in this World and after we are taken out of it and brought to Judgment Mens Consciences says the Apostle shall accuse or excuse them in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men according to my Gospel Rom. 2.15 Indeed if men have harden'd their hearts in wickedness and sin'd themselves out of the belief of their duty having come to call evil good and good evil then their Consciences having no further sense of sin will have no accusations upon it But if they really believe the Gospel and study to know their duty and desire to observe it and are afraid to offend in any thing which they see is sinful whilst thus their heart is soft and their Conscience tender they cannot venture upon any sin with open Eyes but that their own hearts will both check them before and smite them afterwards They will have a witness against them in their own bosoms which will scourge and awake them so that they cannot approach death without a sense of their sin nor go out of the World without discerning themselves to be guilty If our own Conscience then cannot accuse us of the wilful and presumptuous breach of any of Gods Commandments and we know
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 544 BOOK V. Of those Remedies which restore men to a state of Salvation when they are fallen from it and of some needless Scruples concerning it CHAP. I. Of Repentance which restores us to God's Favour after Sins of all sorts The Contents THE rigour of the Mosaick Law is taken away by Christ who came to preach Pardon upon Repentance where that denounced an unavoidable punishment Repentance is the great Remedy God heartily desires mens Repentance and promises Forgiveness to it This has been preached in all times The Remedy for our unknown sins They are uncapable of a particular Prayer and Repentance but are forgiven upon a general one The Remedy of wilful sins is a particular Repentance That is available for their pardon for wilful sins after Baptism as well as before it Two places which seem to deny all pardon to wilful sins after Baptism cleared the wilful sin Heb. 10.26 is not any wilful transgression of any particular Law of Christ which have all been pardoned but a wilful apostasie from his whole Religion which is proved from sundry things there spoken of it The falling away mentioned Heb. 6 is like wise apostasie from Christianity which is shewn from those things which they are said to fall from and those others which are said to be implied in their falling An account of the desperate state of these men The state of some habitual Sinners desperate and irreclaimable by reason their period of Grace is over but this is no discouragement to any mans Repentance 568 CHAP. II. Of Reconciliation and Restitution upon those Sins whereby we have offended or injured our Brethren The Contents Of the necessity of Reconciliation upon Sins whereby we have offended and of Restitution upon others whereby we have injured our Brethren In sin three things considerable the offence against God and the offence and injury against men Sins whereby God alone is offended are sufficiently repented of and pardonable upon reformation and amendment Those whereby we have also offended or injured our Brethren are not sufficiently repented of or pardonable upon that alone unless moreover we seek to be reconciled and make restitution These two means of pardon for affronts and injuries against men are necessary fruits of a sincere and sufficient repentance Of sins whereby we have justly offended our Brethren Their ill effects represented which are to be redressed by penitential acknowledgments and seeking to be reconciled These penitential acknowledgments necessary only to appease these whom by our sin we have offended and so unnecessary when they know nothing of our offence Where they do Reconciliation is necessary so far only as it can be had and where we have an opportunity of seeking it This Discourse upon Reconciliation summed up Of sins of injustice whereby we have injured men Reparation ordinarily necessary to a sincere and always to a sufficient Repentance of them 'T is necessary moreover in it self as an instance of strict Justice An account of particular injuries how to be repaired where the injured persons can and how where they cannot receive it Restitution necessary whether our Brethren know themselves to be injured by us or no. It is due only upon sins of injustice Of the perfect right which we have to things of strict Justice and of the imperfect right which we have to things of Charity whence the performance of them is sometimes called righteousness In sins of in justice reparation due so far only as we can and according as we have opportunity to make it In judging of a just opportunity caution given that we be neither too strict so as more than needs to prejudice our selves nor too loose so as to over-charge our Neighbours This Discourse of reparation upon injuries summed up 601 CHAP. III. Of the Remedy for involuntary sins The Contents Involuntary sins imply something of our own fault and so 't is fit we should be sorry for them and beg pardon They had a remedy under Moses's Law and have now likewise under Christ's Gospel We are qualified for their pardon not by a particular repentance and reformation but in the general by our obedience in all our wilful and chosen actions in particular by our prayers for Gods pardon and our Charity and forgiveness of the sins of other men This Discourse of Repentance summed up An Application to particular Offenders whether voluntary or involuntary A Summary of all that has been hitherto discoursed 623 CHAP. IV. Of such groundless Scruples as make safe but weak Minds doubt of their Title to Salvation The Contents Pious minds scrupulous Their condition is safe even then but uncomfortable Several needless grounds of their fears 1. Ineffective desires of evil This represented No man otherwise good shall be condemned for ineffective lusts and thoughts of evil These are considerable either as to their first birth or indulged continuance The first stirrings of lusts after evil things are unavoidable The after-entertainment is by our own indulgence Even these are uncondemning so long as they neither are consented to nor fulfilled being in themselves not deadly under the Gospel but a temptation to deadly and damning sins The way whereby sin wins upon men and the nature and force of temptation To be tempted is no sin which is proved from the nature of temptation from Adams being tempted before be sinned and from Christ's being tempted who knew no sin Degrees in temptation or in lusts of evil Some are checked quickly and are not permitted long to parly This happens only in grown men and perfect Christians and that too not in all instances These certainly are not damning Others stay longer and strive and contend with our mind or conscience although at last they are vanquished by it This happens ordinarily to younger Converts and in extraordinary temptations to grown Christians These still are uncondemning which is shewn from Gal. 5.16 17 and from the instance of our Saviour Christ. What lusts and desires of evil are damning They are condemning when they make us consent to a damning sin A distinct account of the several sâ—eps to a sinful action A proof of this that from their gaining of our consent in all the after-steps they are mortal Our lusts must be mortified to that degree as to be disabled from carrying us on thâ—s far This is done when men become true Christians The better men are the less difficulty and self-denial do they find in mortification Watchfulness and strife still necessary The danger of indulging to
ignorance about it by having either never heard of it or quite forgot it we sin wilfully whether our conscience check us for it and we consider of it or no. For wheresoever we can consider we can choose there being motives on both sides sufficient to determine our choice on either And as for all those sins which we know whensoever we have time we can think and consider of them For all thought is free and if we have leisure we may employ it according to our own liking We cannot think 't is true of many things at once but we can consider of any one and employ our minds upon it when and how long we please So that in all such leisurely transgressions if we acted inconsiderately our inconsideration was our own fault and entred only because we suffered it and had a mind to it In all such actions therefore as we know are sinfull every transgression with time and leisure is voluntary and chosen For either we saw and considered it before we ventured on it or we might have seen it if we would Our thoughts indeed are our own so that even at such times as we have leisure to consider we may still if we please transgress without all consideration But if we do that is not our mishap but our fault and we must answer for it For where God has given us both Power and Time wherein to see and consider he most justly expects and will certainly exact at our hands an account of what is done as of a known and considerate action So that not only our considerate and deliberate transgressions but such others likewise as are unconsidered shall be judged wilfull sins if they are acted leisurely and are in such instances as we know are sinfull These sins of time and leisure of knowledge and of deliberation are our voluntary wilfull sins And as for them they are all of a heinous guilt and a crying nature every commission of them is a despising of Gods Law For when we sin wilfully both our duty and our sin being set before us and both being compared and thought of by us we despise and reject obedience to the Law and willingly and advisedly whilst we consider both prefer the obedience of our sin before it Upon which account our sinning wilfully is called a despising of the Law Hebr. 10.28 And forasmuch as such despising of the Law which is nothing less than the will of Almighty God who is most extreamly offended by it and can most severely punish it is an act of the greatest boldness and presumption therefore are our wilfull and chosen sins stiled in another word presumptuous sins Psal. 19.13 And since such presuming with open eyes to despise Gods Law is a profest rejecting of his Law and Authority an open casting off his yoke and rebelling against his Soveraignty doing willingly and advisedly what he forbids and setting up our own will in opposition to his which is the highest instance of pride and insolence and opposing God therefore are our wilfull sins said to be acted through rebellious pride and with a high hand Numb 15.30 31. But now as for these sins which being thus considered and deliberate are voluntary and chosen they are not all either considered or deliberated of willed or chosen in the same way For even among our wilfull sins we must observe this difference First Some of them are chosen expresly and directly Secondly Others are chosen only indirectly and by interpretation 1. Some sins are chosen expresly and directly And such are all those sinfull actions whereto the consideration and thoughts of our minds are particularly directed and which we eye and view before we choose and act them They are such sins whereat we deliberate and pause doubt and demur when we have a conflict and dispute in our own minds whether we should commit or keep off from them And such direct choice and express volition happens when men sin with some tenderness and sense of conscience They cannot choose the sin as soon as it is offered but they undergo a succession of fears and desires For the temptation solicites them to work the sin and their conscience being awakened by Gods Law would deter them from it so that they have a particular and express consideration of both sides before they act either As for this way of sinning therefore by express choice and direct volition it is incident ordinarily not to all sinners whatsoever but only to those of a middle rate whose consciences being not quite hardened as yet make them transgress with reluctance and remorse But besides these there are 2. Other sinfull actions which are not chosen directly and expresly but only indirectly and by interpretation By an indirect and interpretative choice I mean an express choice of such a state of things as makes some sinfull actions after that to be no longer a matter of free choice but almost necessary and unavoidable For some things are in our power at first either to do or omit them but by some free actions of our own we can if we will put that power out of our own hands so as afterwards we cannot if we would keep off from them Thus a servant for instance who is strong and healthy can if he please perform his masters will and do what he requires of him But if he choose either to maim his body or to impair his health he has parted with his own ability and his omission of the things enjoyned him after that is no longer a matter of choice but of necessity A wealthy man can easily if he will give every man his own and honestly discharge those debts wherein he may stand ingaged to other men But if he choose to waste his estate and to throw away his riches he is no longer able to do what he should but detains the goods of other men thenceforward not because he will not but for that he cannot help it Now these omissions of the lame sick servant and this dishonesty of the impoverished man in this necessitous state of things whereinto they have thrown themselves are no matter of particular and express choice because as the case stands it is not in their power to refuse them But yet they were chosen by them indirectly and in the general when they chose to put themselves into this necessitous state wherein being once placed they should not have the power thenceforward to avoid them So that indirectly and implicitely they have chosen to do that which particularly and directly it is not at their choice to avoid And because that which they do now under this necessity of their own making is interpreted to them and charged upon them by virtue of their former choice as if now in every particular they did expresly choose it therefore do I say it is chosen by Interpretation i. e. it is imputed to them and may be exacted of them as if they had chosen it expresly This then is an
Parents or by the authority and instruction of spiritual guides they imbibed it at first in the simplicity of their souls and since that have continually been used to it and bred up in it So that although they never serve that sin whereto it ministers in other instances but alwayes fear and conscientiously avoid it yet where this prejudicate Opinion warrants it they do These Prejudices I say are not altogether inconsistent with an honest and obedient heart but are sometimes entertained by innocent and religious men although many others damnably disobey in them But then there are many others which are of a more heinous and damning nature which although some well-meaning men may pardonably admit at first before they have seen the damnable consequences and effects of them yet very few can adhere to when they are set before them without being in danger if repentance intervene not to be damn'd for them Of which sort among several others I take these to be that follow Some are possessed with an odd belief that Christ is a Temporal and Secular King in Sion i. e. the Church on Earth and that his subjects are to fight for his Interests and for the protection of his Religion with the same worldly force and armed violence that the subjects of other secular Princes use And as for Earthly Kings since they are but Deputies and Delegates of Christ the Supream King of all that they are no further to be submitted to than they act serviceably and subordinately under him but that they may yea ought to be persecuted as Enemies and Apostates from King Jesus if in any thing they oppose and act against him Now when men have once imbibed this Principle they run on furiously as every man must who understands it into all the mischiefs of Rebellion and Bloodshed For in all Instances where this prejudice leads them to it they utterly overlook as things not belonging to them all the plain Laws of Honour and Reverence Submission and Obedience to Governours of Justice and Charitableness Mercy and Peaceableness towards their Fellow-subjects and burst out violently into contempt of Governours and reproachfull usage and speaking evil of Dignities into revenge and fierceness strife and bitterness sedition and tumults spoils and robberies murders and bloodshed and into all other licentious and extravagant effects of a most unjust war and horrible rebellion In all which they think that they only fight Gods battles and spoil and slay his enemies and like good Subjects and Soldiers of the Lord of Hosts with all their might maintain his Rights and serve his Interest For all this rebellion against earthly Kings they esteem to be nothing else but a proof of their Loyalty and just Allegiance to King Jesus the Soveraign Lord of all who by these worldly means must Rule on Earth although he dwells in Heaven Others to exalt the Temporal Monarchy and Grandeur of Christs pretended Vicar here on Earth have imbibed this Principle that a good end will justifie any action and that all is lawfull which is necessary and profitable for the advancement of the Churches Interest And having once sucked in this venemous Opinion in all those actions wherein it is any wayes concerned there is no Precept so plain which they cannot overlook nor any obligation so sacred which they do not cancel They stick not at the breach of all the most exalted and sublime Laws of Christ. For instead of being meek and gentle they are fierce and furious instead of being slow to wrath they are enemies without provocation instead of forgiving injuries they are violent to revenge them instead of doing good to enemies they are eager to destroy them instead of taking up the Cross and bearing it with patience themselves they are utterly impatient till by any means they can force it upon others Nay they burst through the most notorious and weighty Laws of Humanity and Nature in dissimulation and equivocations in lies and perjuries in sowing strife and all manner of unpeaceableness in spoils and robberies murders and assassinations treasons and rebellions which even natural conscience where it has any force at all must needs tremble and be amazed at But yet all this time they think that they are doing Gods work whil'st indeed they are subverting his whole Religion for their poisonous Principle bears them out through all and they are confident that what they do will be accepted for his service because it is intended for the advancement of his Church Some again of the more extravagant Anabaptists entertained a wild Opinion that all Dominion is founded in Grace and that nothing but virtue and holiness can give any man a title to his possessions And when once they had believed this they acted but agreeably to their own Principle in overlooking all the plain Laws of Justice and Honesty in all those instances where this Doctrine would warrant the contrary and in exercising all sorts of fraud couzenage spoils and robberies where they had power and opportunity to commit them For their spoiling of their neighbours they esteemed to be like Israels spoiling of the Egyptians viz. a taking away that which belonged not to them seeing God had given it away from them It were endless to recount all the enormously wicked and disobedient Opinions which ill men take up in favour of their beloved sins For some overlook the plain duties of temperance mortification and self-denial because they are sensual and fleshly and others give no heed to the manifest duty of paying tythes because they are loth to part with their money When Christ preached up a charitable use of the unrighteous Mammon the Pharisees who were covetous would not believe and understand but derided him Luk. 16.14 And the same way it fares with other duties when mens unmortified lusts which are struck at by them are opposed against them By these instances and many more which might be mention'd it clearly appears how destructive many mens consciences or prejudicate Opinions are of several parts of Religion and the Divine Laws They do in great measure cancel the force of Duty and make men transgress in several instances against known Laws by making them first to believe that in those cases they do not oblige them But now to determine which of these prejudices is pardonable and consistent with a justified state and which destroys and interrupts it we must observe in them this difference First That some of them get into mens minds or consciences not through any thing of an evil and disobedient heart but only through weakness of understanding or fallibility of the means of knowledge and these are consistent with a state of Grace and Salvation 2. That others get into mens consciences through some damnable lusts and vices and they are deadly and damning First Some prejudices which lead men into sin and disobedience get into their consciences not through any thing of an evil and disobedient heart but only through weakness of understanding and
defiled for they have lost all sense of purity and Duty being unto every good work reprobate or void of judgment Tit. 1.15 16. They overlooked and disbelieved all the Christian Laws of passive valour and patient courage of generosity and contentedness of mortification and self-denial chastity and temperance and fell into those lewd opinions for which they were so infamous in the Apostolick Age and will be still among all men that are but competently sober to the Worlds end For they introduced into the World the scandalously vile and profligate opinions that all filthy and unnatural uncleannesses that denying Christ to be come in the flesh in times of persecution and that our Jesus was he are parts of Christian liberty and things lawful and allowable in a knowing in a spiritual in a perfect man Turning by this means as S t Jude says the Grace of God and his Gospel which under the highest pains forbids and punishes them into a liberty and allowance of these their Characteristick Vices viz. lasciviousness with all manner of filthiness and denying when they are in danger to suffer for him the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ Jude 4. Another instance of their behaviour we have set down in relation to the Publick and that is this They were of a proud and ungovernable of a haughty and turbulent a querulous and seditious humour Their temper is to be presumptuous and self-willed 2 Pet. 2.10 which they evidence every where by despising Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities Jud. 8 and by murmuring and complaining as men that are always discontented and never pleased with any administration of affairs ver 16. And agreeable to this ungovernableness of their lives and tempers were the licentious principles and opinions of their minds For they were the men who promised their Followers liberty from all subjection 2 Pet. 2.19 and who despised all Masters and Governours as being by the new Character of Christianity become their Brethren and therefore as they argued from that Title now only equal to them not superior as they must be who would pretend to rule and govern them 1 Tim. 6.1 2. The Abettors of which Doctrine S t Paul assures Timothy do in reality know nothing notwithstanding all the false show of that swoln Title knowing men which they so vainly arrogate to themselves ver 4. The wicked Sect of the Pharisees who were the reproach of the Jewish as these filthy Gnosticks were of the Christian Name were of a life and temper proud and ambitious covetous and rapacious whose heart and inside as well as their life and practice was all rottenness and disobedience For if we would have a character of them our Saviour himself has given us one in the 23 d of S t Matthew's Gospel which is most compleat and particular wherein a combination of these several vices are set to make up their description First Vain-glory. All their works they did to be seen of men vers 5. Secondly Pride and Ambition They loved the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the Synagogues and greetings in the publick markets and to be called of men Rabbi Rabbi that is to say Master or Doctor vers 6 7. Thirdly Covetousness Fraud and Rapaciousness For besides that S t Luke informs us of their being covetous Luk. 16.14 we are told here that they would most prophanely abuse the most sacred things for their covetous ends and make long prayers only for a pretence that thereby they might be enabled more easily and without suspicion to devour even Orphans and Widows houses vers 14 being indeed whatsoever they might outwardly appear to be all extortion and excess within vers 25. Fourthly Hypocrisie For they would dissemble even in their most solemn performances and use Religion only as a stalking-horse to worldly designs They made long prayers only for a pretence vers 14 what they made clean was only the outside vers 25 for that indeed they beautified but still they were all stench and rottenness within vers 27. In summ they said but did not they bound heavy burdens on other mens shoulders but would not touch them themselves with one of their fingers vers 3 4. Yea take them even at the best where they were Religious and that they will be found to have been only in trifles but not in substantial Duties for they strained at gnats at the same time that they swallow'd Camels they paid tythe of cheap and inconsiderable things such as mint and annise and cummin but they omitted all the weightier matters of the Law as Judgment Mercy and Faith vers 23 24. And since they were men of this character thus unmortified in their lusts and thus vicious and irreligious in their practice what can in reason be expected but that they should be full of debauchery and disobedience in their consciences and perswasions also And so accordingly we find they were For when Christ preached to them the Doctrine of Charity and Liberality in opposition to their miserable worldly way they being covetous instead of believing fell a mocking and deriding him Luk. 16.14 And as they treated Christ in this particular so did they likewise in all the rest of his Religion For finding that it required such humility sincerity honesty contentedness and heavenly-mindedness as were inconsistent with these unmortified lusts of theirs which I have mention'd they would not own and embrace but for that reason especially reject and disbelieve it Nay further even in their own acknowledged way they took up several disobedient prejudices to serve their lusts and either wholly evacuated or in great part impair'd several Laws by admitting such erroneous perswasions as undermined them For to gratifie their haughty and stubborn their petted and revengeful humour they entertain'd a conceit that if they did but say it is Corban or a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me i. e. I bind my self by the vow or oath call'd Corban never more to do any good to thee which was a form of oath in use among the Jews they should be freed from all obligation of the fifth Commandment requiring honour service or relief to their Father or Mother Mat. 15.4 5 6. And many other things like to this our Saviour tells us they did Mark 7.13 But not to enquire further about particulars we are plainly assured of them in the general that they transgressed rejected and evacuated the Laws of God through the erroneous perswasions and prejudicate belief of their traditions Mat. 15.3 6. Mark 7.9 Thus natural and obvious it is for a wicked life to work a disobedient belief and for mens unmortified lusts and passions which set themselves against Gods Laws to convey such prejudices into their consciences as will evacuate and overthrow them Their unbelief enters through the corruption of their heart and is therefore called an evil heart of unbelief Heb. 3.12 they are hardened into a want of all sense and conscience
accepted for his pardon Whatsoever therefore his sins be if he please to make use of it he is provided of his remedy Repentance shall surely save his Soul and make atonement for all his offences So that of whatsoever nature number or degree his faults have been after once he has thus repented of them they shall never be imputed to him but through the Merits of Christs Death and the Grace of his Gospel they shall be looked upon as if they had never been And thus at last we have seen what that condition is which the Gospel indispensably exacts of us towards our acceptance in the last Judgment what those defects are whereof it allows and what those Salvo's for all sorts of disobedience which it offers For it requires an entire obedience of all our voluntary actions it bears with all our innocently involuntary failings and it admits us to recover our former state when once we have lost it or to persevere in it when we enjoy it by a particular repentance and amendment of all our wilful sins and by our prayers and charity for our involuntary ones This then is the true Test whereby at the last Day we must all be tryed If we have obeyed entirely and have been guilty of no wilful sin or if when we have we did not rest in it but repented and amended it and where there was any repaired the wrong and sought to be reconciled and if we have beg'd pardon for all our involuntary slips and have been diligent in shewing charity and mercy and forgiveness to atone for them then are we innocent in the accounts of the Gospel and when Christ comes to judge us we shall hear the joyful Sentence of Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you Mat. 25.34 This repentance and obedience will bear us out and secure our happiness but less than it nothing in the world will For God will take vengeance saith S t Paul on all that obey not the Gospel of Christ 2 Thess. 1.8 and Except you repent says our Saviour you shall all perish Luk. 13.5 And thus having shewn what condition that is which the Gospel indispensably exacts to our acceptance in the last Judgment what defects are consistent with it and what remedies when once 't is lost shall again restore to it I shall now proceed to that which I proposed in the fourth and last place namely to remove those groundless scruples which perplex the minds of good and safe but yet erring and misguided people concerning it whereof I shall discourse in the remaining Chapters CHAP. IV. Of such groundless Scruples as make safe but weak Minds doubt of their Title to Salvation The CONTENTS Pious minds scrupulous Their condition is safe even then but uncomfortable Several needless grounds of their fears 1. Ineffective desires of evil This represented No man otherwise good shall be condemned for ineffective lusts and thoughts of evil These are considerable either as to their first birth or indulged continuance The first stirrings of lusts after evil things are unavoidable The after-entertainment is by our own indulgence Even these are uncondemning so long as they neither are consented to nor fulfilled being in themselves not deadly under the Gospel but a temptation to deadly and damning sins The way whereby sin wins upon men and the nature and force of temptation To be tempted is no sin which is proved from the nature of temptation from Adams being tempted before he sinned and from Christs being tempted who knew no sin Degrees in temptation or in lusts of evil Some are checked quickly and are not permitted long to parly This happens only in grown men and perfect Christians and that too not in all instances These certainly are not damning Others stay longer and strive and contend with our mind or conscience although at last they are vanquished by it This happens ordinarily to younger Converts and in extraordinary temptations to grown Christians These still are uncondemning which is shewn from Gal. 5.16 17 and from the instance of our Saviour Christ. What lusts and desires of evil are damning They are condemning when they make us consent to a damning sin A distinct account of the several steps to a sinful action A proof of this that from their gaining of our consent in all the after-steps they are mortal Our lusts must be mortified to that degree as to be disabled from carrying us on thus far This is done when men become true Christians The better men are the less difficulty and self-denial do they find in mortification Watchfulness and strife still necessary The danger of indulging to temptations or to lusts and desires of evil This point summed up IN matters of Religion and another World nothing is more ordinarily observable than that those people are wont to have the greatest fears who have the least reason for them For good Christians although they think the best of others are generally very suspicious of themselves They have a deep sense of the danger of sin and a full conviction of the fatal end of disobedience and that makes them think that in a matter wherein it so highly concerns them not to be mistaken they can never be over-jealous of their own hearts or too cautious lest after all those insupportable punishments of sin should fall to be their own portion And this they do especially if in any material point whereupon as to the Sentence of Life or Death the Gospel lays a great stress they are ignorant and erroneous For there are no terrors in the world that are comparable to those of Religion nor have any men upon earth so much reason to be afraid as they who are in danger to fall under them And therefore if there is any thing which will be of great account in the last Judgment or what is all one which they think will be severely accounted for and they either find themselves to be guilty of it or which comes to the same thing fansie that they are they must needs be fearfully perplexed and deprived of all peace and comfort though really they are in the greatest safety 'T is true indeed that in the end they shall be no losers nor shall their mistaken fears ever be fulfilled upon them because at the last Day God will judge them according to his own Rule and not according to their errours and misapprehensions of it so that if they have really done all that which he requires to Heaven and Happiness he will think well of them notwithstanding they think never so hardly of themselves Their errors shall in no wise pervert his Truth for he sees what they are howsoever they may mistake it and if he sees them to be righteous his sentence will follow his own knowledge and he will declare to all the world that they are so This is the security of all good men as it is the eternal terror and astonishment of all hypocrites and sinners that they shall be brought