as a good plea at that Bar when they are separate from Obedience but then only when they effect and work it But when he says that Faith Repentance Love or any other thing shall save us he means not all or any but only a working Faith an obedient Repentance an active Love a Faith Love and Repentance which do not overlook Obedience but accompany and produce it So that first or last Obedience is still that wherein all the rest must concenter and agree that alone condition which our judge will accept and which we may safely trust to And this will fully appear by running over the particulars CHAP. II. Of Pardon promised to Faith Knowledge and being in Christ. The CONTENTS Of Pardon and happiness promised to Faith and Knowledge Of the nature of Faith in general Of natural Jewish and Christian Faith Of this last as justifying and saving Of the fitness of Christian Faith and Knowledge to produce Obedience Pardon promised to them no further than they are productive of it Of Pardon promised to being in Christ. Christ sometimes signifies the Christian Religion sometimes the Christian Church Being in Christ is being of Christs Religion or a member of Christs Church The fitness of these to effect Obedience Pardon promised to them no further than they do FIRST this condition of our acceptance which is to mete out to us our last doom of Bliss and Mercy and whereto Life and Pardon are promised at the last day is sometimes called knowledge or what is only a more particular way of knowing a knowing upon witness or testimony Faith By or upon the account of his knowledge or the knowledge of him shall my Righteous Servant when he sits to judge them justifie many says God of our Judge and Saviour Christ by the Prophet Isaiah Isa. 53.11 And this is Life Eternal says our Lord himself to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Joh. 17.3 And then as for Faith which is the particular way of knowledge among us Christians who owe all that we know in order to Heaven and happiness to the witness and testimony of Jesus Christ the places which promise Life and Pardon unto it are to be met with in abundance Whosoever believes on me says our Saviour shall not perish but have Everlasting Life Joh. 3.15 16. And again This is the will of him that sent me that whosoever believes on me may have Everlasting Life Joh. 6.40 And when he sends out his Apostles after his Resurrection to proclaim the terms of Mercy and Salvation to all the world he bids them say Whosoever believeth and is Baptized shall be saved Mar. 16.16 Faith or belief in the general is a thinking something to be true upon the testimony of those persons who declare it And herein it differs from other sorts of knowledge because in them we believe upon the evidence and apparent reason of the things themselves but in this upon the witness and authority of those persons who reveal them For then we are said to know when we assent upon the Authority of things but then to believe when we assent upon the Authority of persons when not the evidence of the things revealed but the word and testimony of the revealer make us give credit to his Revelation This is the nature of Faith in general it is a giving credit to a thing or taking it to be true upon the testimony or authority of such persons as declare it And according to the difference of this testimony our Faith upon it is differenced and distinguished also For if we believe any thing upon the bare word of a man it is an Humane if upon the bare word and testimony of God it is a Divine Faith Divine Faith then is nothing else but a belief of Divine Revelations a taking any thing to be true because God has told us it is so And therefore we may be said to have Divine Faith of as many things as God has any way attested or revealed to us And for Gods Revelations they have been derived to us in several ways and by several instruments For some things God has revealed to us by the light of Nature That light came from him and is his Revelation For the spirit of a Man is the Candle of the Lord which as S t John saith in another case of our Saviour enlightens every man that cometh into the world Joh. 1.9 And in this general sence of Faith for a natural Faith or a belief of all natural Revelations all matters of knowledge are likewise matters of Faith because at last all natural light and evidence of things rests upon Gods Revelation that very evidence being no otherwise a proof to us that things are true than we are assured that God is the Author of it and that it is his Testimony and declaration to them that they are so And by this way of Revelation this natural light God has declared to us two great foundations of all Religion his own existence and his Providence that there is a God and that he will love and reward all such as serve and worship him The belief of which Articles so testified S t Paul affirms to be a part of Faith yea a part so fundamental as is absolutely necessary to our pleasing of God and to all Religion without Faith saith he it is impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that HE IS and that he is A REWARDER of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 Other things God has revealed not by the light of nature seeing they are such things as that alone could never have discovered to us but either by his own immediate voice or inspiration or by the mediation and message of inspired men By the former he revealed to Noah the Drowning of the old world Gen. 6.13 the belief whereof is called Noah's Faith Heb. 11.7 To Abraham his having a numerous Issue by his Wife Sarah when as yet they had no Child and in all appearance were too old ever to expect one Gen. 15.5 6 and Chap. 17.17 19. the belief whereof is likewise call'd Abraham's Faith Heb. 11.17 18 19. To Moses his passing over all the houses of the Israelites where he should see the Blood of the Paschal Lamb sprinkled for a Token when he would slay all the First-born throughout all the Land of Egypt Exod. 12.12 13. the belief of which Revelation is also call'd the Faith of Moses Heb. 11.28 By the latter he reveal'd his will more largely to the whole people of Israel by the mouth and mediation of his Servant Moses and because both God and Man concurr'd in this Testimony their belief of his message was their Faith not in God only but together with him in his Servant Moses too For because the Law and Religion which they received though it came originally from God was yet derived down to them immediately by his Ministry and they knew no otherwise what
God had spoken to them than by his Testimony and upon his Authority therefore are they said in believing and embracing that Divine Law which was delivered to them by Moses to believe not the Lord alone but also his Servant Moses Exod. 14.31 Joh. 5.46 to be Baptized into Moses 1 Cor. 10.2 to be Moses's Disciples Joh. 9.28 to trust or place their hope in Moses Joh. 5.45 to obey or hearken unto Moses Luk. 16.31 But the most clear and full Revelation that God ever made of his will to men was by the message and mediation of his own Son Jesus Christ. For God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the Jews by Moses and to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son Heb. 1.1 And the belief of his Gospel or taking for certain Truths upon his Authority all those things which he has declared to us in Gods Name is call'd the Christian as the other was the Mosaick Faith For he being the great Author and deriver of this last and greatest Revelation of God down to us and our belief of it being upon his immediate Authority he being as S t Paul says the Authour and finisher of our Faith Heb. 12.2 Our belief of it is called not only Faith towards God Heb. 6.1 but also Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20.21 And because the knowledge of our whole Religion got into our minds this way upon our submission to Christs Authority and our Faith or belief of his Testimony therefore is our Religion it self most commonly in the Scriptures called our Faith The Preaching of it is called Preaching the Faith Gal. 1.23 the hearing of it hearing of Faith Gal. 3.2 the profession of it a profession of Faith Heb. 10.23 the contending for it a striving for the Faith Phil. 1.27 the erring in it an erring from the Faith 1 Tim. 6.10 the falling from it a making shipwrack of the Faith 1 Tim. 1.19 obedience to it the obedience of Faith Rom. 1.5 and the Righteousness required in it and effected by it the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4.11.13 So that in like manner as the Mosaick Faith was a belief of the Divinity of the Mosaick Law and Religion upon the Authority of Moses the Christian Faith is a belief of the Divine institution of our Christian Religion upon the Authority of Christ. It is a taking upon his word all those things for truths of God which he has declared to us in Gods Name A belief begot in us by vertue of his Testimony that all his Doctrines are Gods Truths that all his Laws are Gods Precepts that all his promises are Gods Promises and that all his threats are Gods threatnings in sum that that whole Religion and Gospel which Christ has delivered to us in Gods Name is the very Religion and Word of God The belief of all this upon the Authority of Christ makes our Faith Christian and the good effects of it upon our hearts and lives make it justifying and saving For when by vertue of this Faith we truly Repent and sincerely obey which is the great condition as we have seen whereupon at the last day we must all be pardoned and justified Eternally it is a justifying as when by vertue of it we are saved and delivered from the dominion and service of our Sins which as the Angel hath assured us are those principal evils that Christ came to save us from it is a saving Faith This is the nature of our Christian knowledge and our Christian Faith And as for it now it is the very fundamental cause and natural spring of all our Christian service and obedience For it is because we believe Jesus to be the Lord because we know those Laws which he has given us and give credit to him when he tells us of the insupportable punishments which he will one day inflict for sin and of the glorious rewards which he will confer upon obedience It is by means of our knowledge and belief of all these in our minds I say that we serve and obey him in our outward actions It is our knowledge and belief that lets us see the reasonableness of his Precepts the power of his Assistances the glory of his Rewards and the terror of his Punishments and in all respects convinces us of the beauty and profit of Obedience And this sight and conviction in our minds cannot well miss of gaining our hearts and resolutions For the belief of his endless judgments will raise our fears the belief of his infinite rewards will quicken our hopes the belief of his inexpressible kindness will kindle our love and by all these our souls will be led Captive into eager desires and firm resolutions and be fully purposed to keep Gods Laws that so they may avoid that terrible Death which he threatens and attain those matchless joys which he promises to our Obedience And when once by means of this faith and knowledge Gods Laws have gain'd both our wills and passions which are the inward springs and causes of them they cannot fail of being obeyed in our works and actions which are produced by them But we shall quickly go on to perform what we resolve and to do what we desire and so in very deed fulfill and obey them Upon which account of our Christian Faith having so mighty an influence upon our Christian and obedient practice our obedience it self as being the effect of it and produced by it is call'd the obedience of Faith Rom. 16.26 The Righteousness which it exacts of us and cooperates to work in us the Righteousness of Faith Gal 5.5 Our Christian warfar or striving against Sin is called the good sight of Faith 1 Tim 6.12 And because in this contest our great succors which protect us and keep us from fainting and at last make us victorious are some points or promises of our Religious belief therefore it is stiled a shield and a breast-plate of Faith 1 Thess. 5.8 and S t John affirms plainly that this is the victory over the world even our Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 And for this reason it is because our Faith and knowledge are so powerful a cause and principle of our Obedience that God speaks so great things of them and has made such valuable promises to them He never intends to reward the Faith and knowledge of our minds further than they effect the obedience of our actions It is only when they are carryed on to this effect when they become an obedient knowledge and a working Faith that they confer a right to the promised reward and are available to our Salvation For when in the places mentioned or in any other God promises that he who knows Christ or believes in Christ shall live he speaks metonymically and means Faith and knowledge with this effect of a working service and obedience As for knowledge 't is plain that God accepts it no otherwise
occur in common speech If we advise a man to trust his Physician or his Lawyer our meaning is not barely that he should give credit to them but together with that that he shew the effect of such credit in following and observing them If we are earnest with any man to hearken to some advice that is given him we intend not by hearkning to express barely his giving ear to it but besides that his suffering the effects of such attention in practising and obeying it And thus we commonly say that we have got a Cold when we mean a Disease upon cold or a Surfeit when we understand a sickness upon Surfeiting In these and many other instances which might be mentioned we daily find that in the speech and usage of men the cause alone is oft times named when the effect is withal intended and accordingly understood to be expressed and that both are meant when barely one is spoken The effect doth so hang upon its cause and so naturally and evidently follow after it that we look upon it as a needless thing to express its coming after when once we have named its cause which goes before but we ordinarily judge it to be sufficiently mentioned when we have expressed that cause which as is evident to us all produces and infers it And as it is thus in the speech of men so is it in the language of God too He talks to us in our own way and uses such forms of speech and figurative expressions as are in common use among our selves And to seek no further for instances of this than these that lye before us he expresses our works and obedience by our knowledge our repentance our love and such other causes and principles as effect and produce it For we must take notice of this also that our outward works and actions depend upon a train of powers within us which as springs and causes of them order and effect them For our passions excite to them our understandings consider of them and direct them our wills command and choose them and then afterwards in pursuance of all these our bodily powers execute and exert them The actions of a man flow from all the ingredients of the humane nature each principle contributes its share and bears a part towards it For from the constitution of our natural frame our actions are placed wholly in the power of our own wills and our wills are set in a middle station to be moved by our appetites and passions and guided and directed by our minds or intellects We do and perform nothing but what we will neither do we will any thing but what we know and desire what our reason and passion inclines and directs to And because these three inward faculties our minds and wills and passions give being and beginning to our outward works and practice therefore are they by the Masters of moral Philosophy and Divinity ordinarily called the Causes and Principles of Humane Actions But these three principles of humane actions in genecal lye not more open to produce good than evil They are all under the unrestrain'd power of our own free will it is that which determines them either for God or against him but in themselves they are indifferently fitted and serve equally to bring forth acts of Obedience or of disobedience and sin To make these principles therefore of works or actions in general to become principles of good works and obedience there are other nearer tempers and qualifications required which may determine them that in themselves are free to both to effect one and be Authours of such actions only whereby we serve and obey God And this is done by the nearer and more immediate efficiency of Faith Repentance Love and the like For he who knows Gods Laws and believes his Gospel with his understanding who in his heart loves God and hates Sin whose will is utterly resolved for good and against evil he it is whose faculties in themselves indifferent are thus determinately disposed who is ready and prepared to perform his duty His Faith directs him to those Laws which he is to obey and to all the powerful motives to Obedience it shews him how it is bound upon him by all the Joys of Heaven and by all the Pains of Hell and this quickens his passions and confirms all good resolutions and makes him in his will and heart to purpose and desire it And when both his mind his will and passions which were before indifferent are thus gained over and determinately fixed for it in the efficiency of inward principles there is no more to be done but he is in the ready way to work and perform it in outward operation So that as our minds wills and passions are principles of humane actions in general whether good or evil these nearer dispositions our Faith Repentance c. are principles particularly of good works and obedience And since our obedient actions proceed in this manner from the power and efficiency of these principles God according to our own way of expressing things is wont many times only to name them when he intends withal to express our obedience it self which results from them Although he barely mention one yet he understands both and in speaking of the cause he would be taken to imply the effect likewise Thus when he promises Pardon and Salvation to our knowledge and belief of his Gospel to our Repentance from our Sins to our Love and Fear of God which with several others are those preparatory dispositions that fix and determine our minds wills and passions indifferent in themselves to effect Obedient actions he doth not in any wise intend that these shall Save us and procure Pardon for us without Obedience but only by signifying and implying it Wheresoever Mercy and Salvation at the last day are promised and this condition of our working and obeying is not mentioned it is always meant and understood That which such mercy was promised to is either the cause of our Obedience or the effect and sign of it the speech is metonymical and more was meant by it than was expressed Though the word was not named yet the thing was intended for obedience is ever requisite to pardon and nothing has Mercy promised to it in the last Judgment but what some way or other is a sign of it or produces and effects it This I might well take for granted upon the strength of that proof which has been already urged for our Obedience being the sole condition of our being acquitted at that day But because the interest of souls is so much concerned in it I will be yet more particular and proceed to show further that this sence and explication of all such places is the very same that God himself has expressly put upon them For concerning all those things whereto he has promised a favourable sentence at the last Judgment he assures us that they are of no account with him nor will be owned
and poor that we cannot give any thing else but honour to him As on the other side to do evil to him is only to dishonour him For he is out of our power as for any other injury and there is no way possible left for us to reach him but only by our contumelious usage and disrespect of him To do no evil I say but to be kind and serviceable to God is nothing more but to honour him It implies our having in our minds honourable opinions of him and expressing in our carriage and behaviour a respect and acknowledgment of those glorious Attributes and Perfections which are in him The former viz. the high opinion of his Excellencies those particularly which are instances of Power and Goodness in our minds is called Honour The latter viz. the expressions of this honourable opinion and acknowledgment in our thoughts words or actions is called worship And this worship is an acknowledgment either 1. Of his Truth and Knowledge in believing his Word and taking things upon his Authority seeing he neither can be deceived himself nor will deceive us which is Faith 2. Of his Power and Goodness 1. In our good-will or kind affection for him as a most beneficial and lovely Being which is called LOVE And this as it effects a warm concernedness for his honour chiefly when any thing opposes it is zeal 2. In relying on him for the supply of our wants as one that is most able and ready to relieve them which is trust and dependance A particular effecâ— whereof is a hopeful making known our desires to him in begging such good things at his hands as we stand in need of which is Prayer 3. Of his bounty and beneficence in a grateful sense and affectionate owning that all the good things which we receive proceed from him which is thankfulness 4. Of his Power and Justice in an awful backwardness to offend him in regard he will not excuse and can most severely punish all Offenders which is fear 5. Of his Wisdom and Rule or Authority 1. In acquiescing in his Disposals as being most wise and most authentick which is submission or resignedness 2. In performing his Commands as requiring things most fit for us and most due from us which is obedience These are those particular effects which flow from our love of God and which make up that part of Duty which he requires from us towards himself And opposite to this love of God and these effects and expressions of it which are made our Duty and particularly commanded under this Head are our hatred and ill-will at him with all the particular ways of expressing it which are the contrary instances of sin and those very Vices that are forbidden Now God as I said being out of our reach as to any possible way of being injured by us or suffering evil from us otherwise than by our vilifying him and lessening of his honour the prime effect of our hatred of him can be no other than our dishonouring him And this may be instanced 1. In denying either his Being or Existence that he is God which is Atheism or his Cognizance and Government of the World which is Epicurism or denying Providence 2. In thinking or speaking reproachfully of him which is blasphemy And this when it is such a disfiguration of his Being or Nature as makes him an arbitrary foolish and odious God is superstition 3. In having other Gods besides him or worshipping him alone by false and lying Similitudes and limiting Resemblances as are all material Images not in true and spiritual manner as he is a God which is Idolatry And for the former sort of Idolatry viz. worshipping other Gods besides him if it be a worshipping of wicked Spirits and that by contracting with them it is witchcraft or sorcery 4. In acting cross to all his honourable Attributes and Perfections and behaving our selves in such disrespectful sort as instead of honouring and acknowledging doth disown and reproach them And these Actings are either 1. Inwardly in our minds when by some work of theirs we deny or reproach either 1. His Truth and Knowledge by giving no heed nor taking any notice of what he says but continuing ignorant of his word and pleasure which the Apostle calls foolishness An effect whereof is acting against it rashly and inconsiderately which is headiness Or when we do know it by giving no credit or assent to it but doubting or distrusting it which is unbelief 2. His Power and Goodness 1. By our ill-will and wishes to him when we grieve at any thing that makes for him and take delight in such things as we our selves or others can devise either against himself or against Vertue and Goodness which as bearing his own Image he ownes above all things and is most tender of and this is called hating of God Which as 't is shown in an unconcernedness at such things as dishonour and affront him or his Religion is coldness or want of zeal 2. By our distrust of him and his Providence when we dare not rely upon him for a supply of those things which we stand in need of as if he were either careless and mattered not what becomes of us or envious and grudged to have any of those good things which we want to befal us which is distrust One effect whereof is our omitting to seek unto him as expecting nothing from him which is not praying to him 3. His bounty and beneficence by an utter disregard of what he doth for us when we either wholly overlook or after some small time forget it and are not touched with any grateful sense or affectionate resentments upon it which is unthankfulness 4. His Power and Justice by a bold venturing upon any thing that offends him as if we neither valued his favour nor displeasure which is fearlessness 2. Outwardly In our lives and practice when by something in them we reproach and vilifie either 1. His Wisdom and Authority 1. In disputing and striving against his Disposals when we quarrel at them as unwisely ordered and would correct and better them our selves which is contumacy or repining 2. In breaking his Commands when we reject his pleasure and prefer our own which is disobedience 2. His Name when we use it irreverently by invoking or calling upon him to judge us according to our faithfulness in what we speak either customarily and lightly upon trivial or no occasions which is common swearing Or falsly when we either at present mean or afterwards perform no such thing as we promised or affirmed before him which is perjury 3. His Word or Ministers or other things consecrated to him when we treat and use them as vile and common things in a careless unmannerly way or as it often happens in mirth and mockery which is prophaneness And these are such expressions and effects of our hatred of God as make up the Body of impiety or transgressions immediately against God himself all which
of the elect of God holy and beloved humbleness of mind Col. 3.12 It is this poverty and lowliness of Spirit which must prepare us for eternal happiness Blessed are the poor in Spirit Matth. 5.3 For as our Saviour says 't is by learning of him who is meek and lowly that we shall find both here and hereafter rest to our souls Matth. 11.29 And for all the rest their Sanction is expressed in these ensuing places Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life John 6.27 This is a necessary evidence of our being risen with Christ now at present If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth Col. 3.1 2 and a necessary condition to our being blessed with him for ever hereafter the blessedness which our Saviour pronounces being to those which hunger and thirst after righteousness Matth. 5.6 Add to temperance patience for he that lacketh these is blind and shall not be looked on as a new man seeing he has forgot that he was purged from his old sins 2 Pet. 1.6 9. The fruit of the Spirit saith S t Paul is temperance or continence and it is against this among others that there is no Law to condemn it Gal. 5.23 And to the Hebrews he says that they have need of patience to inherit the promises of life and happiness Heb. 10.36 and therefore they must not cast away but hold fast their confidence or couragious and open owning even of a suffering Religion which hath great recompence of reward ver 35. It bring to them only who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and immortality that God will give eternal life Rom. 2.7 Dearly Beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul to vanquish and destroy it 1 Pet. 2.11 This abstinence is one chief thing which we were called to at our Call to Christianity God hath not called us to uncleanness saith S t Paul but unto holiness or purity and cleanness For this is the will of God which you are first to perform before you expect his reward your purity or sanctification and particularly in one instance wherein you are so generally defective that you abstain from fornication and every one of you possess his Vessel or Body in purity or sanctification and honour And this Commandment you know we gave you by the Lord Jesus's order so that whosoever among you despiseth it despiseth not man but God 1 Thess. 4.2 3 4 7 8. For the wisdom which cometh from above and which must carry us thither is in the first place pure or chast James 3.17 Love not the world nor the things of the world for if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2.15 For the esteem and friendship of the world is in very deed downright enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God James 4.4 Godliness if it be joined with contentment is great gain saith S t Paul 1 Tim. 6.6 And our being content with such things as we have is reckoned a part of that Grace whereby we must serve God acceptably and be secured from his wrath who where he is angred is a consuming fire Heb. 12.28 to the fifth Verse of the thirteenth Chapter Christ said unto them all If any man will come after me and be accounted one of my Disciples let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me Luke 9.23 If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body saith S t Paul you shall live Rom. 8.13 Yea its affections and desires as well as its sinful actions are to be deaded and brought under For they that are Christ's whom he will own for his at the last Day and reward accordingly have crucified the Flesh with the affections and lusts or desires thereof Gal. 5.24 They who would not be accounted in Gods judgment as Children of the night and of darkness S t Paul says plainly must watch and be sober 1 Thess. 5.5 6. For watching is necessary unto bliss Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find watching Luke 12.37 And give diligence to make your calling and election sure saith S t Peter for this is one of those things which if you do you shall never fall either from your duty or your reward 2 Pet. 1.10 Thus are all the particular Laws recited in the first Class sobriety expresly bound upon us by all our hopes of Heaven and our obedience to them plainly necessary to our life and pardon when we come to be judged according to them And the Sanction is the same for all the Particulars of the second Class our piety towards God as will appear by the following Scriptures Them that honour me saith God I will honour or make honourable but they who despise me shall on the other hand be as lightly set by 1 Sam. 2.30 And if any man be a worshipper of God him said the man who had received his sight most truly he heareth John 9.31 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 For this is the will of him that sent me saith our Saviour that whosoever believeth on me may have everlasting life John 6.40 And what we hear of Faith is also said of Knowledge For this is life eternal saith Christ to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 17.3 The good things which neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard i. e. the joys of Heaven are laid up for those who love God 1 Cor. 2.9 And if any man love God the same is known or accepted by him 1 Cor. 8.3 It is he who believes Christs promises or hopes on him that shall never be ashamed Rom. 10.11 And we trust in God saith S t Paul who is the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe or trust in him 1 Tim. 4.10 And a cheerful dependence upon Gods Providence for our food and maintenance c. and not being sollicitous about them is one of the Particulars of Christ's Law Matth. 6.25 the sanction whereof is expressed in the fifth Chapter in these words He who breaks the least oâ— these Commandments shall be least in the Kingdom oâ— Heaven i. e. according to the Hebrew manner of speaking he shall be none at all ver 19. Pray without ceasing 1 Thess. 5.17 It is this that must bring all blessings down upon us For the promise is Ask and you shall have Matth. 7.7 But no Petition being put up no Grant can in reason
become infinitely our greatest self-interest and render it impossible for us not to serve our own advantage in the highest measure if we do obey at all And since Gods Laws themselves propose such incomparable Arguments to perswade us to obedience they can never forbid us to have an eye to them or to be excited to obedience by them For the very end why God annexes such allurements to his Commands is that they may be a motive to win our choice and make us willing to obey them But now our wills are moved by nothing further than they desire it and intend to purchase it We cannot be drawn by it longer than we have an eye to it nor can we endeavour after it further than we design to obtain it For we must always design the end before we chuse the means since it is only for the sake and hopes of that that the trouble of these is undertaken So that if any thing must be the final cause and encouragement of our endeavour it must be the matter of our intention and design also And therefore seeing God himself has placed such infinite advantages and self-interests at the end of our Duty to perswade and excite us to a willing performance of it 't is evident he designs first of all that we should have an eye to them in obeying because otherwise it is not possible that we should be moved by them Nay so far is God from forbidding all respect to our own advantage in our obedient performances of his Laws that 3. In asserting so clearly as he has done the necessity of faith to our obedience he plainly tells us that If we must obey at all it cannot be denied us Faith is a most necessary Principle of all natural as well as Gospel service For without faith saith S t Paul it is impossible for any man whether he be Heathen or Christian to please God because he that cometh to God in whatsoever Religion must believe thus much of him at least that he is and also that he is a rewarder of all them that seek him without an eye whereat no man would ever be perswaded to seek after him Heb. 11.6 And as for the belief of the Gospel in particular which is the faith of us Christians so necessary is it to make us obey the Laws of Christ that our obedience as being effected by it is called the obedience of faith Rom. 16.26 and disobedient men in the Scripture language are ordinarily styled unbelievers and disobedience unbelief But now what is there in our faith so indispensably necessary to effect this obedience but our belief as S t Paul says of Gods readiness to reward us and of those advantageous promises which the Gospel proposes to us upon our performance of it And how is it possible for our belief of them to carry us on to obey further than we concern our selves for those things which are promised and intend by such obedience to procure them The Gospel indeed has furnished us with all manner of Motives if we will believe it without which it is not possible that we should be moved by it It tells us of a most surpassing love and infinite kindness which God and Christ have shown to us and if we believe this it is fit to raise in us a most exalted love which will make us perform any thing for their sakes out of very gratitude Now this is a most noble and ingenuous Principle of obedience which although it have something has yet the least of self-love in it But it is weak and insufficient unable of it self to carry us far and to bear us through our whole Duty And therefore besides it for a perfect supply of all our wants we have in it moreover the greatest good things and such as we are most in love with promised to our obedience and the greatest evils such as we most fear threatned if we disobey And if we believe these we must take obedience to be our highest not service only but self-interest and that no temptation can either promise or threaten so much to our own self-love as God doth And this indeed carries us through all and makes us obey intirely It overcomes every difficulty and overballances all contrary inticements But this it doth only so far as we intend to purchase all those surpassing advantages by our obedience which infinitely exceed all those other inticements that are attained by men who disobey And as this respect to our own advantage in our obedient performances is nothing more than the condition of our Nature absolutely requires than the necessity of Faith supposes and than Gods Law it self offers and proposes to us so neither is it any thing more 4. Than the best men have always used who yet were graciously accepted upon such obedience For just Noah obeyed Gods Law through the fear of that destruction which it threatned and with a design of escaping it himself when all the wicked of the World should be overwhelmed in it Noah saith the Text was moved with fear to the preparing of his Ark as God had commanded and to the saving of his house thereby And for that very reason because he believed Gods threatning and was effectually afraid of it he is in that very place called an Heir of the righteousness which is by Faith Heb. 11.7 The obedience of Moses is ascribed in plain words to his design upon those rewards which God had promised and which he hoped to compass by it For he had respect saith the Apostle to the recompence of reward Heb. 11.26 And to put it beyond all doubt that this respect to our own advantage in our performance of Gods Laws is not only the necessity of some men but as I said before the very frame and constitution of the humane nature we are told that it was found in it in the highest advancement which it either ever did or possibly can receive I mean in our Saviour Christ himself For even of his obedience and of the highest instance of it his death it self the Apostle assures us that it was performed through a design upon his own advantage as well as upon that Glory which would thereby redound to God It was says he for the sake of the joy that was set before him that he endured the Cross and despised the shame of it Heb. 12.2 Thus upon all these accounts it appears that the having respect to our own advantage in our obedience to Gods Laws is not only an innocent but an absolutely necessary thing God can never be offended with it because the necessity of our nature requires it because his own Laws propose it because our faith is made effectual by it and lastly because the best men that ever lived have stood in need of it and obeyed through it And since some respect to our own good and intention of our own advantage in Gods service is so plainly lawful that surely must be such where the good things
take up with their leavings Nay what is yet more by such a partial and squeamish belief as this we do not only give or take at our own liking from that attribute of his which in believing we would be thought to honour viz. his Truth but even where we seem to submit to it we wrong and pervert it For we wrest his sense and spoil his meaning and undermine all that he intends So that even that which we do believe is not his mind but our own For the true meaning of his Promises which run all upon condition of our Obedience we pervert the force of all his threatnings which denounce woes to every sin and transgression we cancel We do as much as in us lies to corrupt his Word and to belie his very Gospel We make his whole Religion signifie another thing than what he intended For we make it allow what he forbids and encourage such as he threatens and save those whom at the day of Judgment he will condemn And since this perverse faith and knowledge which believes what it likes and is infidel to all the rest which sets up one part of his Word against another by making his Promises to undermine his Precepts and the Truth of his Doctrines to render all his threatnings false and useless I say since such an untowardly partial and gainsaying knowledge and belief as this is in very deed so plain a Libel to his Person so hateful a violence to his Truth and such a contradicting piece of Infidelity to his Gospel it can never be thought to be that Obedience which he commands and encourages but such a piece of contumelious flattery and fawning disobedience as he will most severely punish and condemn But if we believe his whole Gospel and besides the faith of his Doctrines and Promises take moreover all his Precepts to be such as he injoyns and all his threatnings in their true meaning to be such as he will execute and yet for all that in our works and practice despise and sin against them then is such our faith and knowledge so far from rendring our condition safe and comfortable that in very deed it makes it quite desperate and utterly bereft of all colour and excuse For it takes from us all plea for disobedience and leaves us not so much as the common refuge of all misdoing the pretence that we did offend but did not know it It makes every sin which we commit to be acted with a high hand and all our offences to become contempt our disobedience rebellion and our transgressions presumptuous For we sin then with open eyes we know Gods Commands but refuse to practise them we discern our duty but despise it It makes us not only to renounce his Authority but also to defie his Power For we know his Almighty Strength but we will not fear it we see his dreadfull threatnings but yet dare to commit the things which he has threatned in despite of them We see and believe that our Death is entailed upon our disobedience but for all that we choose and run upon it We contemn all his Commands and set light by all his Promises and despise all his Threatnings We see and believe them all but prefer the pleasure of our sins before them and transgress in open affront to them And such a state as this every man must needs see is so far from gaining his favour and ascertaining his acceptance that in reality it is a continued heightning of every provocation an habitual hostility and state of crying sin But if ever our Orthodox Faith and Professions avail us unto Life and Pardon they must end in our Obedient Works and Actions We must do that which we know God requires and practise that Pure Religion which we profess If ye know these things sayes our Saviour happy are ye if ye do them Joh. 13.17 It is not every verbal Professor every one that saith unto me or calls me Lord Lord that shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he only that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 7.21 We are condemn'd out of our own mouths if we commend Christs Religion whilst we contemn and disobey it Every word which we speak in its behalf is a charge against our own selves and every Plea which we make for it is to us an accusation For if it be a Religion so pure so good so worthy of God and so beneficial to men as we profess it is the more unpardonable wretches we that transgress and act against it All the praises which we heap upon our Duty are a most bitter invective upon our own practice and the more we commend Christs Religion and Laws the more we condemn our own transgressions so that now God in exacting the punishment be it as severe as it well can only executes our own sentence We are made the worse for our knowledge if our Actions are not ruled by it for it shews plainly that our Lusts are most obstinate and our wills most wicked when for all we are clearly shewed the Laws the Promises and the threats of God we can yet despise them all and for the short pleasure of a silly sin transgress and act against them And since it doth thus enhanse our Sin we may be sure that it will proportionably encrease our punishment For he that knows his masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes Luk. 12.47 And thus we see that this thinking to be saved by the labour of our minds without any works of our lives and practice and coming to Heaven barely by a True Belief and Orthodox Opinions and Right Professions without ever obeying in our works and actions is one of those false and delusive grounds whereupon men shift off the necessity of this service with all their strength the service of their Actions And another false ground of shifting off the same service is 2. The delusive confidence which wicked men have of being saved at the last Day for an obedience of idle desires and ineffective wishes It is a strange conceit which some people have been taught viz. that the desire of Grace is Grace and that God will at the last Day judge men to have obeyed although they have not wrought but only desired it There is a complaisant sort of Casuistry and a much easier than ever God made that has been brought into the World which bids men to hope well though they do nothing so long as they find in themselves a desire that they could do it They wish they were what God expects and that they performed what he commands but they do no more but wish it They sit still and work no more now they have wished it than they did before Theirs is a weakly infant-desire it just lives but that is all it can effect nothing For the smallest lust is too strong for it and the least temptation over-bears it the desire of the Vertue is hush'd when
utterly unpardonable and hopeless For our Lord himself in this very Chapter encourages their hopes by giving them a promise that some further means should still be used to cure their Infidelity after that they had blasphemed this telling these very men that the sign of his Death and Resurrection with the other evidences of the Holy Ghost which were to ensue upon it should be a further argument to satisfie them in what they inquired after viz. his being the Messiah or the Son of God For when certain of the Pharisees presently upon his finishing this Discourse of their Blaspheming of the Holy Spirit v. 37 made Answer to him saying Master we would see a sign from thee to confirm to us the truth of that pretension he answered as S t Matthew goes on an evil and an Adulterous Generation seeketh a sign and there shall no further sign be given it but only the sign of the Prophet Jonas and that indeed shall For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales Belly and was afterwards deliver'd out of it to go and preach to the Ninevites so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth and after that rise again to preach by his Apostles to you and all the world sending to you for a further evidence still the Holy Ghost v. 38 39 40. So that as for this blasphemy of the spirit wherewith the Pharisees reviled it it was not utterly unpardonable but was still within the possibility of pardon For after they had committed it Christ promised them a further Argument in his Resurrection after the Example of Jonas which should be a new sign added to all that they had already seen to gain them over to faith or belief and thereby to pardon and forgiveness every sin being pardonable to him that believeth And this pardonableness of blaspheming of the spirit our Lord further intimates in that very place by a wary change of the phrase when he comes to speak of the unpardonableness of it calling the unpardonable blasphemy not a blasphemy against the spirit although it was the spirit which was indeed blasphemed v. 24 and whereof he had just made mention v. 28 but a blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which being as S t John says not yet given could not yet be blasphemed v. 31 32. But Thirdly The desperate and unpardonable sin here mentioned which shall never be forgiven neither in this world nor in that which is to come is a sin against the last and greatest evidence of all viz. the gift of tongues of prophecy and of other things called the Holy Ghost In all the other evidence that came before to win men to a belief of Christ's Religion which is the only means of pardon to the World God had still a reserve and resolved upon some further course if they proved ineffectual If the testimony of John Baptist to Christ's being the Lamb of God if the message of an Angel at his conception the Star at his birth and the Quire of Angels at his entrance into the World if the innocency of his life the wisdom of his words and the mightiness of his wonders in commanding the winds and seas in curing diseases in casting out Devils in restoring the weak to strength and the dead to life if all these prove unsuccessful and unable to perswade an Infidel and perverse Generation yet still God resolves to try one means more which before that time the World never saw nor heard of and that is the ample and most full effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles at Pentecost and upon others at the imposition of their hands for a long time after This further evidence shall still be given to subdue the stubbornness of mens unbelief which had proved too hard for all the former When I am departed from you says our Saviour to his Apostles I will send the Holy Ghost who is the Comforter or Advocate unto you And when he is come he shall plead my Cause more convincingly than the operations of the Spirit have done hitherto For he shall reprove and convince the world and those who remained Infidels after they had seen all the evidence of the Spirit of their own sin in not believing on me and of my righteousness and truth in saying I am the Messiah because he shall shew that I am owned above and am gone to my Father whence I have sent him down so plentifully upon you John 16.8 9 10. But when once God had given this proof he had done all that he designed for this is the last remedy which he had decreed to make use of to cure the infidelity of an unbelieving Age. So that if men shall use it as they have done all that went before and if instead of being perswaded by it they shall proceed not only to sleight and despise but what is more to revile and blaspheme it as they have already done with the Spirit then is the irreversible Decree gone out against them and God is unalterably resolved to strive no more with them but to let them dye in their unbelief If they should be won by it indeed and believe upon it be their former offences what they will no less than a blaspheming of the Spirit yet may they justly expect to be pardoned For the offer of Grace is universal Whosoever believes and is baptized shall be saved Mark 16.16 and nothing is impossible to him that believeth Mark 9.23 But when once men have gone so far as to be guilty of it their sin is unpardonable because their Faith is impossible For they have rejected all the evidence which any man can urge for their conviction seeing they have despised all that which God has offered Their infidelity is stronger than can be cured by any Argument that Christ either has or will afford to prevail over it so that they must dye in their sin and there is no hope for them Indeed if God so please there is no question but that after they have once blasphemed it he can still so melt and soften fashion and prepare their minds that afterwards they shall hearken to the incomparable evidence of the Spirit and the Holy Ghost which to any honest mind are irresistible But this sin is of so provoking a nature that when once they are guilty of it he will not He has past an irreversible Decree upon them never more to meddle with them so that they never will be pardoned because as things stand they never will be reclaimed Which is the very reason which the Apostle himself gives of the desperate state of Apostate Christians For by renouncing of that faith which upon the evidence both of the spirit and the Holy Ghost they had been before convinced of they despite says he the Spirit of Grace as it implies both the Spirit and the Holy Ghost too so that as for them it is impossible to renew them again unto
repentance that being such a sin as God will never give repentance to Heb. 6.6 The sinning against the Holy Ghost in this sence then as it denotes the gift of tongues of prophecy c. which is the last evidence that God is resolved to make use of for the conversion of an unbelieving World is that unpardonable sin which shall never be forgiven And yet even here in this limited and contracted sence of the word Holy Ghost we must still proceed with some caution For it is not every affront and dishonour that is put upon these gifts which is the sin here styled irremissible Simon Magus cast a very high indignity and reproach upon them in his actions for he went about to purchase the gift of tongues and other sacred illuminations called the Holy Ghost which fell upon men at the imposition of the Apostles hands as if they had been only a trick to get money or a fit thing to drive a trade withal and make a gainful merchandise When Simon saw that through the laying on of the hands of the Apostles the Holy Ghost was given he offered them money says S t Luke saying Give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost Acts 8.18 19. This was a very great abuse and a most unworthy comparing of the heavenly and holy Spirit of God to a mercetable ware and vendible commodity thinking it fit to serve any ends and to minister to the basest purposes of filthy lucre and covetousness But yet this sin against the Holy Ghost in its strictest acceptation was not the unpardonable sin it came very near it indeed and would hardly be remitted but still in all likelihood it was remissible And therefore S t Peter although he be very severe upon this sordid man for the high affront doth not yet pronounce an irreversible doom of damnation upon him but on the contrary exhorts him to repent that the sin of his heart may be forgiven Repent says he of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee ver 22. But that which is the desperately damning sin against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven either in this world or in that which is to come is the sinning against it not by interpretation only in our actions but directly in our words and expressions It is our speaking reproachfully and slanderously of it as the Pharisees did of the spirit when they attributed it to Beelzebub And therefore it is expresly called the speaking blasphemously against the Holy Ghost Whosoever speaketh blasphemously against the Holy Ghost when he shall come it shall never be forgiven him neither in this world nor in the world to come Matth. 12.21 32. The great weight lyes in that for this heavy doom he denounced upon them says S t Mark because they said he hath an unclean spirit Mark 3 30. And thus at length we see what that sin against the Holy Ghost is whose doom is so dreadful and whose case is so desperate under the Gospel It is nothing less than a slandering and reviling instead of owning and assenting to that last evidence which God has given us of the truth of the Gospel in the gifts of tongues prophecy and other extraordinary illuminations called the Holy Ghost So that no man who ownes Christ's Religion and thinks he was no Impostor and believes that these miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were no magical shows or diabolical delusions can ever be guilty of it No before he arrive to that he must not only be an Infidel to the faith but also a Blasphemer of it he must not only disbelieve this last and greatest evidence but disparage and rail against it If then there be any man who ownes Christ's Authority and obeys his Laws and believes his Gospel and hopes in its promises and fears its threatnings and expects that every word of that Covenant which was confirmed to us by the infallible evidence of the Spirit and the Holy Ghost shall come to pass he is not more guiltless of any sin than of this against the Holy Ghost for he doth not so much as sleight and disparage but ownes and submits to it If good men therefore are afraid by reason of the irremissibleness of the sin against the Holy Ghost they fear where they need not and their scruple is utterly unreasonable and groundless For let it be as unpardonable as it will that shall not hurt them for they can never suffer by it since whilst they continue such as now they are they cannot possibly be guilty of it or of any thing that comes near it CHAP. VII The Conclusion The CONTENTS Some other causless scruples The point of growth in Grace more largely stated A summary repetition of this whole Discourse They may dye with courage whose Conscience doth not accuse them This accusation must not be for idle words distractions in Prayer c. but for a wilful transgression of some Law of Piety Sobriety c. above mentioned It must further be particular and express not general and roving If an honest mans heart condemn him not for some such unrepented sins God never will BEsides these scruples already mentioned some good minds may be put in fear and doubt of the safety of their present state because S t John says that whosoever is born of God sinneth not being no longer a child of God if he do 1 Joh. 3.6 9. But the sin here spoken of as was observed above is defined by S t John himself at the fourth verse of this Chapter to be not every deviation or going beside the Law but a wilful transgression and rejecting of the Law it self And this indeed is inconsistent with a regenerate state and puts us out of Gods favour making us liable to eternal destruction But then the case for these sins is not desperate seeing if once we forsake them and repent of them we are as safe again as ever we were before we committed them For our repentance will set us straight and if we transgress not wilfully again we are without the reach of condemnation Others doubt whether when once they have wilfully sinned they ever can repent or shall afterwards be pardoned because they read of Esau that after he had sold his birth-right with the blessing that attended it when he would have inherited it afterwards he was rejected and found no place of a change of mind or repentance though he sought it carefully with tears Heb. 12.17 In answer to this it will be sufficient to observe that this change of mind or repentance which Esau sought but could not find was not in himself but in his Father Isaac It was not in himself I say for there he did find a place for it being he was really possessed of it For he was heartily sorry for his former folly in parting with his birth-right and for his present unhappiness in being