For it is pretended that God sees no Sin in his People and that as there is no Condemnation so there is nothing condemnable in them who are in Christ Jesus but those things which in them that are out of Christ are formally Sins lose their Malignity and are no Sins in them that are in him There was once a Book printed in London Anno 1656. and with the Approbation and Commendation of most of the leading Ministers there especially of the Independant Party in which there is this memorable Passage In case you be at any time by sreason of the weakness of your Faith or strength of your Temptation prevailed with to transgress any of Christ's Commands beware you do not thereupon take occasion to call Christ's Love to you into question but believe firmly that he loves you as dearly as he did before you transgressed For this is a certain Truth as no Good in you or done by you did or can move Christ to love you the more so no Evil in you or done by you can move him to love you the less This Book was called The Marrow of Modern Divinity And it might truly be called of Modern Divinity indeed for I am sure there is nothing of the Primitive Ancient Divinity in it Those good Men those famous Lights of Christ's Church neither knew nor taught any such Doctrines but as they found by sad Experience that none while here were so perfect as not to transgress the Laws of Christ so they were far enough from thinking that those Transgressions were not formal Sins even in the best of Men. And therefore as they taught with St. John 1 John 1.8 that if the best Men said they had no Sins they would deceive themselves and the Truth c. so they taught too that daily confessing of our Sins daily Repentance for them and daily Applications to the Mercies of God and Merits of Christ for the pardon of them was necessary for the most Righteous while they liv'd in this World 2. But how then are we to understand this Passage in our Text Why I think we shall best and most distinctly do this by considering that there are two Parts of the Law or two Things considerable in it the Preceptive if I may so speak i. e. the Thing commanded or forbid and the Sanction i. e. the Punishment threatned to enforce Respect to it 1. There are some that adventute to say and perhaps if well understood safely enough that the first was not given for a Righteous Man Their Reason is because a good Man needs not the Direction of an external Law to shew him his Duty because he is in some Sense a Law to himself as our Apostle speaks Rom. 2.14 he finds it written upon the Table of his own Heart and Mind and needs not say who shall ascend into Heaven c. to fetch him the Knowledge of it from thence as some interpret another Passage in the same Epistle Thus it was saith Ireneus with the good Men that liv'd before Moses they had no written Law nor needed any because they found as I said before the great Lines of Duty written upon their own Minds Now it is in its proportion true of all good Men since and what need they the Pedagogie of a Law to teach them their Duty that understand it well enough if they will attend to the Instruction of their own Minds and Consciences But I will not adventure to lay all the weight of this Saying only upon this Exposition though I confess it hath very good Authority to plead for I do not think this inward Light so very clear in Men but that they may want a clearer Director and Guide in many Cases and I am sure the best Men have gladly accepted and acknowledged the Benefit of the written Law and Revelation of God 2. I would therefore rather think that this Speech of our Apostle respects the Sanction of the Law I mean the Penal part of it i. e. which commands such Duties and forbids such Sins under the Penalty of Sufferings and Punishments in case of neglelecting the one and committing the other And this I think may be said not to be made for a Righteous Man in these two respects 1. That it is not the Impellent of his Duty or not the great Argument that influenceth his Obedience He serves his God and doth his Duty willingly and from a vital Principle within and so needs not the Rod of the Law to whip him to it For what need of a Law saith St. Chrysostom to force them to Duty who do it willingly of their own Accord by the Influences as well as Assistance of God's Spirit and Grace and I find St. Augustin St. Hierome and others quoted to the same purpose And this seems to be favoured by what our Apostle speaks so often of the Gospel Spirit in opposition to the legal calling one the Spirit of Love as 2 Tim. 1.7 and the other of Bondage as Rom. 8.15 one therefore is called the Spirit of a Child which doth his Duty out of filial Respect and Love the other of a Slave who doth what he doth only for Fear I am not of some ranting Enthusiasts Opinion that it is altogether below a Good Man to have either any regard to Reward or Punishment I think Hope and Fear two very useful Passions in Man while he is in this State and that it is not unbecoming Good Men to be influenced in some Measure by them Though I do believe that the more a Man improves in the Divine Life the more he gets from under their Government and the less he needs them and in time arrives to that setled State and that sweet Relish of God and Goodness as to be able with the good Man of old to say Amor meus pondus meum Love is the great Weight that sets my Mind in Motion and the prevailing Argument in all my Duty and Services to my God 2. The Penal part of the Law is not made for a Righteous Man because he is not obnoxious to it nor within the reach of it The Penalty of the Law is to be inflicted upon those only that transgress the Law which a Righteous Man so far as he is righteous doth not and for what he doth amiss God will accept his Repentance as a deletery of his Guilt for the sake of what his Saviour hath done and suffered for him Being made free from Sin he is freed from the Curse due to Sin and so in this Sense as well as some others is not under the Law but under Grace This shall suffice for the Explanation of this Negative part of the Text The Law was not made for a Righteous Man 2. The next is the Positive but for the Lawless and Disobedient i. e. for Sinners in general and for those notorious Sinners in particular which are afterwards mentioned as a just Reflection upon those impure Gnosticks who taking upon them to be the most
Gospel reputed a righteous Man and shall be accepted as such But now to come to our purpose how is the Law said not to be made for such a one Hath a good Man no Interest in the Law nor may he expect the benefit thereof is not a good Man at all concerned to regard God's Laws or is he not chargeable with Sin if he happen to transgress them doth this favour those wild freaks of Antinomianism that we have heard vented in this loose Age that a Child of God is not concern'd about the drudgery of Duty or obliged to it that it is no great matter whether he regard the Law of God or not He is justified by Faith in Christ and whether he observe the Law or transgress it is no great Matter the one shall no more help on than the other shall prejudice his Salvation But must we understand this Speech of our Apostle to any such purpose or in Patronage of it God forbid This were to abuse the Law indeed and perhaps in a much worse sense than these Hereticks did So that you see it will be needful to give the true sense of this Speech of our Apostle and rescue it from those gross Abuses that have been put upon it and those wild Inferences that have been deduced from it in this Enthusiastick Age. To which purpose I observe first negatively that we must not understand this Saying absolutely or think that it holds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Schools speak as if either 1. A good Man were not at all concerned in the Law or had not right to claim the Benefit of it in any case for it is both his protection from Evil and remedy against it and he may warrantably apply to it for both these ends So that in this sense the reverse to the Text is true the Law is made for the Righteous and not for the Sinner It is made to protect the Innocent and not the Guilty to secure good Men from Wrong and to repair them when they receive it It is a wild freakish Conceit to think the contrary as some ancient Hereticks and a present Spawn of them among us pretend to do as if by a seeming over-strictness in this and some other both Doctrines and Practices they would conceal or compensate for their Looseness and Blasphemy in others There is an extremity I must confess in this as there is usually in most Cases of this Nature and the Apostle seems to tax it in the Christians at Corinth that is to go to Law for every Trifle and to implead Men presently for every little Trespass to take every Advantage in Law that another Man's Ignorance and Simplicity may give us to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 righteous evermuch as Solomon calls it Eccl. 7.16 for many Cases may happen in which it will not become a good Man or is hardly consistent with that Character to be rigorous in Prosecuting another though in strictness the Law may be on his side Lesser Injuries were much better to be born than rigorously to be Prosecuted And our Saviour seems not only to Advise but Command it in that seeming hard Saying S. Mat. 5.19 20. the meaning of which is only this that it were much better and wiser in many Cases to put up lesser and tolerable Injuries than revengefully to Prosecute him that offer'd them and force him to make the utmost reparation But where there are Extremities there is usually a just and vertuous Medium and so there is in this Case and that is the warrantableness of a good Man's expecting the protection of Law in all Cases and pleading the Benefit of it in some For the great fundamental Reason and Intention of Law is that an Innocent Person should be protected from Evil in all Cases and suffer it in none 2. We must not so interpret this Saying as if a good Man were not under the obligation of Law or not in duty bound to regard and obey both the Laws of God and of his Country too as much as any other Man There hath a wild Doctrine indeed been propagated in these looser Ages that a good Man is above Law and manumitted from it is a Freeman in Christ and must not be the Servant of Men. Dominion and Property is founded in Grace and the Saints are to give Laws to others and not to receive Laws from them What Mischief hath been done under the Umbrage of this Doctrine and what barbarous things it hath been pleaded in vindication of those that have either considered some late Passages in this Nation or read the Story of the wild proceedings of the Anabaptists in Germany before are able to tell you And were it not that the Jesuits Morals are well known and their Avowing not only the Innocency but Merit of the most unchristian things that are done for the Interest of their Church it might be thought impossible that Men that wear the Profession of Christianity should so unlearn their good Religion as to commit such things under pretence of it But that this Inference also is far from being warranted by any thing our Apostle means in this Saying is evident For 1. The Divine Laws are the Rule of a good Man's Life and Actions and the Gospel is so far from tasking these or discharging good Men from them that it ties the Obligation to them closer and more strongly And this is spoken so expresly both by our Saviour Mat. 5.17 and our own Apostle too Rom. 3. ult that none can well mistake it 2. And we find the same Apostle as express too as to a good Man's Obligation to the Laws of his King and Country and as long as the five first Verses of the 13th Chapter to the Romans are uncancelled there will be no avoiding of it nor any pretence of Saintship or Clergyship either if you will give me leave to make a Word that can excuse or discharge from it For according to the Doctrine in that place those that think otherwise and act upon those Thoughts may receive to themselves Damnation with a non obstante either to their being Clergymen or Saints 3. No nor 3dly must we so expound this Passage as either to teach or think that a Righteous Man doth not sin or offend God if he do in any thing transgress his Law I confess so far as any Man is Righteous so far he is from transgressing God's Law and in proportion to his failing in any Duty which that Law requires or committing any Evil which it forbids so far he falls short of the Character of a Righteous Man But this being as I said before a State of Imperfection in which saith Solomon there is not a righteous Man that sinneth not some Transgressions of the Law are incident to a Righteous Man but these must not be exempted from being Sins I enter this Remark in opposition to another freakish Opinion that hath been propagated in consequence of the Antinomian Doctrines touched at before
refin'd Expounders of the Law were in the mean time the most gross and lewd Transgressors of it To our understanding of this there will need the less to be said after what hath been offer'd upon the former To proceed therefore here in the same Method we did before 1. I observe first Negatively The Law was not made for the Lawless and Disobedient c. either first to indulge them in their Wickedness or 2dly protect them in doing amiss or 3dly secure them from Punishment when they have done so We are by no means to think the Apostle means any such things and it were a gross misunderstanding the Reason and Design of Law to think so The same Apostle tells us That Magistrates are appointed for the Punishment of Evil-doers and the Law is the Instrument by which they punish them And it were as gross a perverting the End of Laws to slacken them in favour of an ill Man as it would be to stretch and tenter them to the Prejudice and Punishment of the Innocent and Good 2. The meaning then positively must be in some such Particulars as these that follow Either first as to the directing part of the Law to shew wicked Men their Duty and to mark out their Sins and perhaps this may be asserted not without good Reason For though the great Lines of Duty and the difference between Good and Evil be drawn pretty clear upon the Minds of all Men and a Sense thereof wrought into the very Contexture of Human Nature so that there is no pulling it out without quite unravelling the whole Yet it may reasonably be presumed that this Sense is much weakned and distorted and this Innate Light greatly obscured in most Wicked Men And I would fain hope that a great part of the Wickedness commited in the World is done out of Ignorance as much or more than Wilfulness I would not willingly think so ill of Human Nature or allow it to be degenerated to such monstrous degrees as that all Men that sin do so of malicious Wickedness as the Psalmist speaks Most Wicked Men I hope do not know when they do amiss at least do not actually consider that they do so So that upon both Reasons the Law may be said to be wisely made for a Wicked Man to supply the Light of his own Mind which he hath obscured and to force him to advert to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that kind Monitor in his own Breast which he by his wicked Arts hath endeavoured to silence and stop the Mouth of However this be it may to be sure be safely asserted that the Law was made for a Wicked Man up-these two Reasons that follow 2. That it might restrain and curb the Evil Propensions of Men and keep them in from breaking out into those Wickednesses that they are so very prone unto This is certainly the chief Design and Aim of Laws not only by their Light to mark out all those Instances of Vice which are so destructive to Men themselves and especially to the Community of which they are Members just as Buoys and Sea-marks are set to give notice to Marriners of Rocks and Shelves that they may take care in time to avoid them but also by their Sanctions and Threatnings of Punishment to fright Men from them For as well as Men love Sin they love not the Suffering for it and as violent and impetuous as their Inclinations are to the one yet they may be checked and awed by the other Fear and Love are two most powerful Passions in Human Nature and until all Wicked Men have quite put off these or surmounted the force of them the Sanctions of Law will have some effect upon them because they cannot allow themselves to transgress and incur those Penalties till they have quite lost all love and respect to themselves or quite extinguished all fear of Suffering And whatever we may see to induce us to believe that hardened Sinners have done both these yet I am apt to believe that they are far from them They do in truth but put a bold Face upon a bad Matter They sin not that they care not for Suffering but that they hope they may escape it They feel some secret Checks and uneasie Bodings of Danger in their own Minds and Consciences but they study Arts to weaken the Power of the one and disargue the Presages of the other and then they venture upon Sin with less regret or controul But certainly while the sense and fear of Suffering is fresh upon their Minds self-love and fear will have some hold upon them and then the threatnings of the Law will have some hold of them too so as in some measure to be a curb and restraint upon them So that Laws are wisely and with great reason made to this purpose and while humane Nature remains in any measure like it self they will not fail of some effect upon Men. And it is owing chiefly to these and God's immediate Interposition with them that the World is not quite over-run with Wickedness and Confusion long before this time 3. But there is a third Reason upon which the Law may be said to be made for a Wicked Man and no doubt but the Apostle had respect to it and that is it is made for his Correction and Punishment This is also one great end of the Law though I think but collateral and consequential for as I think it would be a reflection upon Law to say that it directly intends Punishment and Suffering so I think it as great a Mistake to say that a Man obeys the Law by suffering the Penalty threatned by it as well as by doing the Duty commanded in it Upon which Reason I profess that to me there are some Difficulties in the Doctrine of Active and Passive Obedience as they are commonly received which I can never get over till I can be perswaded to believe that a Man is as obedient a Subject in dying for Treason as in yielding faithful Allegiance to his Prince But I return to what I was saying that though Laws are made to restrain Men from sinning yet they are made too to punish them for sinning and without this all their threatnings of Punishment were to little purpose it would avail but little as to the end of Law to threaten Suffering and Punishment to Offenders if it were not intended to execute what is threatned and as perhaps will be said by and by if sometimes when there is occasion that which was threatned be not actually executed But I will stay no longer upon this Doctrinal part of my Discourse but proceed immediately to the second II. General which is to make it as useful as I can by drawing some Inferences from it which will shew this Discourse not to be wholly impertinent or irrelative to the Reason of this Convention 1. And first I observe from what hath been said what a happiness it is to the World in general and to Nations in
A SERMON Preach'd at the ASSIZES Held for the County of Surrey AT Kingston upon Thames March 30. 1699. By HENRY HESKETH Rector of Charlewood and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty London Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1699. To the Right Honourable Sir JOHN HOLT Kt. Lord Chief Justice of England and One of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council MY LORD IT is by Your Lordship's Command for such any signification of Your Desire shall always be to me that this Discourse is made thus Publick and the Kindness that you have shewed to the Author makes it Duty in him to lay it with all Humility and Thankfulness at your Feet I did not think that there was any thing in it to recommend it to such a kind Acceptance unless Honesty and Plain-dealing come in Reputation again But when I saw Your Lordship's Thoughts seconded by the Worthy Gentlemen upon the Bench and Grand Jury too I confess I was affected not so much with the favour shew'd to my self God knows as with the joyful hope that the true Spirit and Temper of Religion breathed in those Persons who by the Influence they have upon as well as Interest in their Country may happily propagate it to others below them May God Almighty verifie the Presage and inspire them with Zeal in this Noble Design May that Heavenly Dew which now I begin to hope is fallen upon the top of Hermon refresh not only the immediate Declensions but at last Water the very Fields of Zion And may Your Lordship and all those Worthy Persons rejoice in those Blessings which God hath promised to give there to all good Men now and in those greater Portions of Bliss that he hath provided for such hereafter This is and shall be the daily Prayer of My LORD Your Lordship 's Most humble and obedient Servant HENRY HESKETH 1 TIM i. 9. Knowing this that the Law is not made for a Righteous Man but for the Lawless and Disobedient for the Vngodly and for Sinners for Vnholy and Prophane c. THE Connexion of these Words is not so very plain but that we may pertinently enough stay to clear it and the rather because doing that may let us easilier into the meaning of them The Apostle had in the precedent Verses reflected with some smartness upon a company of pretended Apostles and false Teachers that had crept into the Conventions of Christians who pretending to a more perfect understanding of the Law than other Men boasted themselves to be the only true Teachers of it and seeming to penetrate deeper into the more abstruse sence thereof they took occasion to teach the belief of some strange mystical Genealogies and to amuse Men's Heads with needless though curious Speculations and Questions of no use either to Faith or Manners It is very probable the Apostle meant that primitive Sect of the Gnosticks so called from their pretending to a deeper and more exact Knowledge of the Mysteries of Christian Religion than others and his speaking of their busying themselves about Genealogies c. makes it very clear that he meant that Pestilent Sect which made a great noise with these a Specimen of which the Learned Grotius gives us in his Notes upon this place Having reflected upon these high Law Preachers with a design to warn Timothy and others to beware of them lest what he had said might be misinterpreted as if he meant to disparage or undervalue the Law he tells us ver 8. that the Law is good if it be used lawfully i. e. to that end and purpose for which it was made which was not to imploy Men in Genealogies and vain Janglings but to excite them to the doing of that good which it commanded as well as to restrain them from the Evil it forbid And when Men use it themselves and teach others to use it to these Ends they use it as they should and when they preach it up to this End they do laudably and well But it was not so very proper and pertinent to make such a noise with preaching the Law to Christians who if they answer'd their Character were good Men for whom the Law was not intended for we ought to know this that the Law was not made for a Righteous Man but for the Lawless and Disobedient for the Ungodly and for Sinners for Unholy and Profane c. In speaking to which Words I shall crave your Patience only while I do these two general things I. Endeavour to give the true sense and meaning of them II. And then endeavour to make that sense as useful to us as I can by drawing some such Inferences from it as may be pertinent to this Meeting and the end of it I. I begin with the first in which it will be needful to shew 1. In what sense and upon what reason it is here said that the Law is not made for a righteous Man 2. In what sense and upon what reason it is said to be made for the Lawless and Disobedient for the Ungodly and for Sinners in general and especially for such profane and wicked Persons as he afterwards particularly instanceth in These two I think will be enough on this first general for I do not think it so needful to waste our time in giving the Notion of a Righteous Man for whom the Law is said not to be made This is plain enough in Holy Scripture if Men would let it be so and had not some ill Ends in perplexing the Notion of it I confess there are two Notions of a Righteous Man as well as of Righteousness in Scripture the one more restrained and then it signifies a Just Man and the other more lax and large and then it is the same as a Good Man i. e. one that is careful to do his Duty in all the Instances of it respecting God his Brother or himself which our Apostle expresseth by living soberly and righteously and godly in this World Tit. 2.12 It is commonly taken in this sense and I believe almost always so where it is singly named and when one of the other words are not joyned with it as in this place and a hundred more both in the V. and N.T. and the word is very proper in this sense For as all Duty of what nature soever is founded in Justice and the variations of one are but so many Instances of the other so a good Man is properly called a righteous or a just Man because he is just to his God just to his Neighbour and just to himself Not alas that he is always exactly so and comes up to the Rule in every thing for this is a state of Imperfection and Weakness wherein the very best Men are sometimes born down by surprize and the violence of Temptations c. but being sincerely so to his Power begging Pardon for what he falls short in and striving still to do better he is upon the gracious Terms of the