There is no doubt but that an evil man may be convinced of his sin and vileness and that even to anguish and torment The Gâ—ntiles saith the Apostle Rom. ii 14 which have not the Law shew the works of the Law written in their hearts their thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another Conscience often stings and disquiets the vilest sinners and sometimes extorts from them lamentable confessions of their sins and earnest declamations against them They may weep bitterly at their remembrance and be under great heaviness and dejection upon their occasion They may speak vehemently against sin themselves and love to have others to handle it severely All this bad men may do upon the score of natural fear and self love and the apprehension of a future Iudgment And now such convictions will naturally beget some endeavours A convinced understanding will have some influence upon the will and affections The mind in the unregenerate may lust against the flesh as that doth against it So that 2. such a meer animal man may promise and purpose and endeavour in some pretty considerable measure but then he goes not on with full resolution but wavers and stops and turns about again and lets the law of the members that of death and sin to prevail over him His endeavour is remiss and consequently ineffectual it makes no conquests and will not signifie He sins on though with some regret and his very unwillingness to sin while he commits it is so far from lessening that it aggravates his fault It argues that he sins against conscience and conviction and that sin is strong and reigns 'T is true indeed St. Paul Rom. 7. makes such a description seemingly of himself as one might think concluded him under this state He saith vers 8. That sin wrought in him all manner of concupiscence vers 9. That sin revived and he died vers 14. That he was carnal and again sold under sin vers 20. That sin dwelt in him and wrought that which he would not vers 23. That the law of his Members led him into captivity to the law of sin and vers 25. That he obeyed the law of sin If this be so and St. Paul a regenerate man was in this state it will follow that seeking and feeble endeavour that overcometh no difficulty may yet procure an entrance and he that is come hitherto viz. to endeavour is safe enough though he do not conquer This Objection presseth not only against this head but against my whole Discourse and the Text it self Therefore to answer it I say That the Apostle here is not to be understood of himself but he describes the state of an unregenerate man though he speaks in the first person a Figure that was ordinary with this Apostle and frequent enough in common speech Thus we say I am thus and thus and did so and so when we are describing a state or actions in which perhaps we in person are not concerned In this sense the best Expositors understand these expressions and those excellent Divines of our own Bishop Taylor and Dr. Hammond and others have noted to us That this description is directly contrary to all the Characters of a regenerate man given elsewhere by this and the other Apostles As he is said to be dead to sin Rom. vi 11 Free from sin and the servant of Righteousness Rom vi 18 That he walks not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. viii 1 â—hat the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made him free from the law of sin and death Rom. viii 2 That he overcometh the world Joh. 5.4 He sinneth not 1 Joh iii. 6 He hath crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts Gal. v. 24 Which Characters of a truly regenerate person if they be compared with those above-cited out of Rom. vii it will appear that they are as contrary as 't is possible to speak and by this 't is evident that they describe the two contrary states For can the regenerate be full of all manner of concupiscence and at the same time be crucified to the flesh and ill affections and lusts one in whom sin revives while he dies and yet one that is dead to sin carnal and yet not walking after the flesh but after the Spirit sold under sin and yet free from sin Having sin dwelling in him and a captive to sin and obeying the law of sin and yet free from the law of sin and death How can these things consist To tell us 'T is so and 't is not so and to twist such contradictions into Orthodox Paradoxes are pretty things to please Fools and Children but the wiser sort care not for such riddles as are not sense I think 't is evident enough then that the Apostle in that mistaken Chapter relates the feeble impotent condition of one that was convinced and strove a little but not to purpose And if we find our selves comprised by that description though we may be never so sensible of the evil and danger of a sinful course and may endeavour some small matter but without success we are yet under that evil and obnoxious to that danger For he that strives in earnest conquers at last and advanceth still though all the work be not dâ—ne at once So that if we endeavour and gain nothing our endeavour is peccant and wants Faith or Prayer for Divine aids or constancy or vigor and so Though we may seek we shall not be able to enter But 3 An Imperfect striver may overcome sin in some Instances and yet in that do not great matter neither if he lies down and goes no further There are some sins we out-grow by age or are indisposed to them by bodily infirmity or diverted by occasions and it may be by other sins and some are contrary to worldly Interests to our credit or health or profit and when we have been in any great degree prejudiced by them in these we fall out with those sins and cease from them and so by resolution and disuse we master them at last fully which if we went on and attempted upon all the rest were something But when we stop short in these petty victories our general state is not altered He that conquers some evil appetites is yet a slave to others and though he hath prevailed over some difficulties yet the main ones are yet behind Thus the imperfâ—ct striver masters it may be his beastly appetite to intemperate drinking but is yet under the power of love of Riches and vain pleasure He ceaseth from open debauchery but entertains spiritual wickedness in his heart He will not Swear but will backbite and rail He will not be Drunk but will damn a man for not being of his opinion He will not prophane the Sabbath but will defraud his Neighbour Now these half conquests when we rest in them are as good as none at all Then shall I not be ashamed when I have regard
that our natures are much vitiated and depraved and this makes our business in the way of Religion diâ—ficult For our work is to cleanse our Natures and to destroy those evil Inclinations to crucifie the old man Rom. vi 6 and to purge out the old leven 1 Cor. v. 7 This is Religion and the way of happiness which must needs be very difficult and uneasie For the vices of Inclination are very dear and grateful to us They are our right hands and our right eyes and esteemed as our selves So that to cut off and pluck out these and to bid defiance to and wage war against our selves to destroy the first-born of our natures and to lop off our own limbs This cannot but be very irksom and displeasant imployment this is one chief business and a considerable thing that makes Religion difficult SECT III. II. ANother difficulty ariseth from the Influence of the Senses We are creatures of sense and sensible things do most powerfully move us we are born Children and live at first the life of â—easts That Age receives deep impressions and those are made by the senses whose interest grows strong and establisht in us before we come to the use of reason and after we have arrived to the exercise of that sensible objects still possess our affections and sway our wills and fill our Imaginations and influence our Understandings so that we love and hate we desire and choose we phancy and we discourse according to those impressions And hence it is that we are enamour'd of trifles and fly from our happiness and pursue Vexation and embrace misery and imagine perversely and reason childishly For the influence of the body and its senses are the chief Fountains of of sin and Folly and Temptation Upon which accounts it was that the Platonical Philosophers declaim'd so earnestly against the body and asâ—crib'd all evils and mischief to iâ— calling vice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corporeae pesteâ— material evils and bodily plaguâ— â— And the Apostle that understooâ— it better calls sin by the name 〈◊〉 Flesh. Gal. v. 17 Works of the flesâ— Gal. v. 19 Law of the Memberâ— Rom. vii 23 and cries out upâ—on the body of this death Rom. viâ—24 And now this is our natural conâ—dition a state subject to the prevaâ—lent influences of sense and so sinâ— and temptation by them And ' tâ—â— our work in Religion to mortiâ— the body Rom. viii 13 and 〈◊〉 cease from making provision for tâ—â— Flesh Rom. xiii 14 and from fulfilling the lusts thereof Gal. v. 14â— To render our selves dead to thâ— prevalent life of sense and sinâ— Rom. vi 8 and 11. v. and to arise to a new Life Rom. vi 4. The Life of righteousness and Faith Hab. ii 4 A Life that hath other Principles and other pleasures other objects and other ends and such as neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor any of the senses perceived Yea this is a Life that is exercised in contradiction to the judgments of sense It s joy is Tribulation Iam. i. 2 It 's Glory reproaches 2 Pet. iv 14 It 's height is lowness Luke xiv 11 It 's greatness in being meanest Mat. xx 27 And it's riches in having nothing 2 Cor. vi 10 To such a Life as this Religion is to raise us and it must needs be difficult to make us who are so much Brutes to be so much Angels us who seem to live by nothing else but sense to live by nothing less This with a witness is an hard and uneasie work and another difficulty in Religion SECT IV. III. A Third proceeds from the natural disorder and ragâ— of our passions Our Corrupt natures are like the troubled Sea Isa. lvii 20 And our passions are the waves of that Ocean that tumble and swell and keep a mighty noise They dash against the rocks and break one against another and our peace and happiness is shipwrackt by them Our passions make us miserable We are sometimes stifled by their numbers and confounded by their disorders and torn to pieces by their violence mounted to the clouds by ambition and thrown down to the deep by despair scorcht by the flames of Lust and overwhelm'd by the waters of unstable desire Passions fight one against another and all against reason they prevail over the mind and have usurpt the Government of our Actions and involve us in continual guilt and misery This is the natural state of man and our work in the way of Religion is to restrain this violence and to rectifie these disorders and to reduce those rebellious powers under the Empire and Government of the mind their Soveraign And so to regain the divine image which consists much in the order of our faculties and the subjection of the Brutish to the reasonable powers This I say Religion aims at to raise us to the perfection of our natures by mortifying those members Coâ— iii. 5 our unruly passions and dâ—â—sires and crucifying the flesh witâ— its affections and lusts Gal. v. 24 Anâ— thereby to make us humble iâ— Prosperity quiet in Adversity mâ—eâ— under provocations steady amid temptations modest in our desirâ—s temperate in our injoyments constâ—â—â— to our resolutions and contented iâ— all conditions Here is our greaâ— business and our work is this Anâ— certainly 't is no easie thing to brinâ— order out of a Chaos and to speaâ— a tempest into a calm to resist torrent and to stop and turn thâ— tyde to subdue a rebellious rabble and to change them from tyranniâ—cal Masters to modest and obedienâ— servants These no doubt arâ— works of difficulty enough and thesâ— must be our imployment in the waâ— of Religion and on this score also the Gate is straight SECT V. IV. OUR work in Religion is yet more difficult upon the account of Custom to which we are subject and by which we are swayed much This is vulgarly said to be another nature and the Apostle calls it by that name 1 Cor. xi 14 Doth not nature it self teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him By the word Nature the best Interpreters say onely Custom is meant since long hair is not declared shameful by the Law and Light of Nature taken in it's chief and properest sense For then it had never been permitted to the Nazarites But the contrary custom in the Nations that used it not made it seem shameful and indecent â— There are other places in Scripture and antient Authors wherein Naâ—ture is put for Custom But I muâ—â— not insist on this the thing I aâ— about is That custom is very powerâ—ful and as it makes a kind of Naâ—ture so many times it masters anâ— subdues it Wild creatures are hereby made gentle and familiar and those that naturally are tame enougâ— are made to degenerate into wildness by it And now besides the original deâ—pravities of our natures we havâ— contracted many vitious habits by corrupt and evil usages which we were drawn into at
to all thy Commandments saith the Kingly Prophet Psal. cxix 6 'T is shameful to give off when our work is but half done what we do casts the greater reproach upon us for what we omit To cease to be prophane is something as a passage but nothing for an end We are not Saints as soon as we are civil 'T is not only gross sins that are to be overcome The wages of sin is death not only of the great and capital but of the smallest if they are indulged The Pharisee applauded himself that he was not like the Extortioners Adulterers and unjust nor like the Publican that came to pray with him Luk. xviii 11 and yet he went away never the more justified The unwise Virgins were no profligate livers and yet they were shut out He that will enter must strive against every corrupt appetite and inclination A less leak will sink a Ship as well as a greater if no care be taken of it A Consumption will kill as well as the Plague yea sometimes the less Disease may in the event prove more deadly than the greater for small distempers may be neglected till they become incurable when as the great ones awaken us to speedy care for a remedy A small hurt in the finger slighted may prove a gangreen when a great wound in the head by seasonable applications is cured 'T is unsafe then to content our selves with this that our sins are not foul and great those we account little ones may prove as fatal yea they are sometimes more dangerous For we are apt to think them none at all or Venial infirmities that may consist with a state of grace and Divine favour we excuse and make Apologies for them and fancy that Hearing and Prayer and Confession are atonements enough for these Upon which accounts I am apt to believe that the less notorious Vices have ruined as many as the greatest Abominations Hell doth not consist only of Drunkards and Swearers and Sabbath-breakers No the demure Pharisee the plausible Hypocrite and formal Professor have their place also in that lake of fire The great impieties do often startle and awaken conscience and beget strong convictions and so sometimes excite resolution and vigorous striving while men hug themselves in their lesser sins and carry them unrepented to their graves The sum is We may overcome some sins and turn from the grosser sort of wickedness and yet if we endeavour not to subdue the rest we are still in the condition of unregeneracy and death and though we thus seek we shall not enter 4. A Man may perform many duties of Religion and that with relish and delight and yet miscarry As 1. He may be earnest and swift to hear and follow Sermons constantly from one place to another and be exceedingly pleased and affected with the Word and yet be an evil Man and in a bad state Herod heard Iohn Baptist gladly Mark vi 20 and he that received the seed into stony places received it joyfully Mat. xiii 20 Zeal for hearing doth not always arise from a conscientious desire to learn in order to practise but sometimes it proceeds from an itch after novelty and notions or an ambition to be famed for Godliness or the importunity of natural conscience that will not be satisfied except we do something or a desire to get matter to feed our opinions or to furnish us with pious discourse I say earnestness to hear ariseth very often from some of these and when it doth so we gain but little by it yea we are dangerously tempted to take this for an infallible token of our Saintship and so to content our selves with this Religion of the ear and to disturb every body with the abundance of our disputes and talk while we neglect our own spirits and let our unmortified affections and inclinations rest in quiet under the shadow of these specious services So that when a great affection to hearing seiseth upon an evil man 't is odds but it doth him hurt It puffs him up in the conceit of his Godliness and makes him pragmatical troublesome and censorious He turns his food into poyson Among bad men those are certainly the worst that have an opinion of their being godly and such are those that have itching ears under the power of vitious habits and inclinations An earnest diligent hearer then may be one of those who seeks and is shut out And so may 2. He that Fasts much and severely The Iews were exceedingly given to fasting and they were very severe in it They abstained from all things pleasant to them and put on sackcloth and sowre looks and mourned bitterly and hung down the head and sate in ashes so that one might have taken these for very holy penitent mortified people that had a great antipathy against their sins and abhorrence of themselves for them And yet God complains of these strict severe Fasters Zach. vii 5 That they did not Fast unto him but fasted for strife and debate Isa. lviii 4 Their Fasts were not such as he had chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burden and to let the oppressed free vers 6. But they continued notwithstanding their Fasts and Gods admonitions by his Prophets to oppress the widow and fatherless and poor Zach. vii 10 Thus meer natural and evil men sometimes put on the garb of Mortification and exercise rigors upon their bodies and external persons in exchange for the indulgences they allow their beloved appetites and while the strict Discipline reacheth no further though we keep days and fast often yet this will not put us beyond the condition of the Pharisee who fasted twice in the week as himself boasted Luke xviii 12 And 3. An imperfect striver may be very much given to pious and religious discourses He may love to be talking of Divine things especially of the love of Christ to sinners which he may frequently speak of with much earnestness and affection and have that dear name always at his tongues end to begin and close all his sayings and to fill up the void places when he wants what to say next and yet this may be a bad man who never felt those Divine things he talks of and never loved Christ heartily and as he ought 'T was observed before that there are some who have a sort of Devoutness and Religion in their particular Complexion and if such are talkative as many times they are they will easily run into such discourses as agree with their temper and take pleasure in them for that reason and for this also because they are apt to gain us reverence and the good opinion of those with whom we converse And such as are by nature disposed for this faculty may easily get it by imitation and remembrance of the devout forms they hear and read so that there may be nothing Divine in all this nothing but what may consist with unmortified lusts and affections And though such talk