and unprofitable were noted by the word it self which we translate idle yet is it no unusual thing in the Scriptures by several words to mean and intend more than in their literal sense they do express Thus are the abominable works of darkness mentioned Eph. 5 called unfruitful works where the meaning surely is not only that they bring in no profit or advantage but also that they are most deadly and mischievous v. 11 and the wicked servant spoken of Mat. 25 is called the unprofitable servant v. 30. And after the same use of speech our words which do not only tend to none but to very ill fruit may be called idle or unprofitable words And so they are in this place For the idle words whereof our Saviour speaks v. 36 are such words as are not only idle and unprofitable but positively wicked and evil being indeed false slanderous and reviling words as will appear from the consideration of these particulars For the words which are threatned in that 36. ver are such as are a sign not of a trifling but of an evil heart How can ye says he being evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh So that as a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth or speaketh good things an evil man likewise out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things v. 34 35. And being the fruits of an evil heart they are the signs not of an impertinent but of an evil man The tree is corrupt says he if the fruit be corrupt for the tree is known by its fruits v. 33. And since they are such words as are thus sinful in themselves and an argument of so much sin in us they shall in the last Judgment be charged upon us to condemn us For by thy words says he as well as actions thou shalt be justified and by thy words if they be such idle words as I mean thou shalt be condemned v. 37. The words then which are spoken of in this place from the 33. to the 38. ver are such as are a sign of a wicked heart as make a wicked man and render us in the last Judgment liable to condemnation But now words of this black dye and of these mischievous effects are not every idle and impertinent but false slanderous railing or otherwise sinful and forbidden words But false and slanderous words are especially struck at in this place such as were those lying and contumelious ones that occasioned all this discourse when the Jews most reproachfully charged his Miracles upon the Devil telling him that he cast out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils v. 24. Upon occasion of which black calumny he proceeds in all the following verses to warn them against such blasphemous speeches demonstrating clearly the unreasonableness of them v. 25 to 31 the sinfulness of them ver 33 34 35 and the mischievous effects of them in the two next verses Such reproachful words as these let me tell you says he you shall be called to an account for as well as for your works and actions I say unto you and you may believe me for you will find it true that every idle or slanderous and reproachful word such as now you have spoken against me that men shall speak they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment For when that day comes think you of it as you please now mens words as well as their actions shall be called to an account by thy words thou shalt be justified and if they have been such as yours now are by thy words thou shalt be condemned ver 36 37. And thus by all this it appears that the idle word here threatned by our Lord is not every word that is vain and useless but only such as are railing false or slanderous And in this sense some Manuscripts read the place For in the Book of Steph. it is not every idle but every wicked word that men shall speak they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment So that as for this third scruple it is as groundless as was the former no good man need to be disquieted by it since they shall never be condemned for it CHAP. VI. Of the Sin against the Holy Ghost which is a fourth cause of scruple The CONTENTS Some good mens fear upon this account What is meaâ—â— in Scripture by the Holy Ghost Holy Ghost or Spirit is taken for the gifts or effects of it whether they be first ordinary either in our minds and understandings or in our wills and tempers or secondly extraordinary and miraculous Extraordinary gifts of all sorts proceed from one and the same Spirit or Holy Ghost upon which account any of them indifferently are sometimes called Spirit sometimes Holy Ghost Holy Ghost and Spirit are frequently distinguished and then by Holy Ghost is meant extraordinary gifts respecting the understanding by Spirit extraordinary gifts respecting the executive powers The summ of this Explication of the Holy Ghost What sin against it is unpardonable To sin against the Holy Ghost is to dishonour him This is done in every act of sin but these are not unpardonable What the unpardonable sin is Of sin against the ordinary endowments of the Holy Ghost whether of mind or will the several degrees in this all of them are pardonable Of sin against the Spirit Blaspheming of this comes very near it and was the sin of the Pharisees Mat. 12 but it was pardonable Of sinning against the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost the last means of reducing men to believe the Gospel that Covenant of Repentance The sin against it is unpardonable because such sinners are irreclamable All dishonour of this is not unpardonable for Simon Magus dishonoured it in actions who was yet capable of pardon but only a blaspheming of it in words No man is guilty of it whilst he continues Christian. ANother causless ground of fear which disquiets the minds and affrights the hearts of good Christian people is the sin against the Holy Ghost They hear very dreadful things spoken of it for our Saviour Christ who knew it best and who at the last Day is to judge of it has told us plainly before-hand that he who blasphemeth the Holy Ghost shall never be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come Mat. 12.32 or as S t Mark expresses it he shall never have forgiveness but is liable to eternal damnation Mark 3.29 This is a fearful Sentence upon a desperate sin and seeing they are in darkness about it and do not well understand it they know not but that they themselves may be guilty of it nay some of a timorous temper and abused minds go further and think that they really are But to cure their fears and to quiet their minds in this matter there needs nothing more be done than to give them right apprehensions and a clear
Conscience no man can be innocently ignorant Of what others he may This ignorance is necessary to all men for some time and to some for all their lives Mens sins upon it are not damning Of sins involuntary through our ignorance of the present actions being included in the known Law and meant by it The causes of this ignorance First The difference between good and evil in some actions being not in kind but only in degree Secondly The limitedness of most Laws which admit of exceptions Thirdly The indirect obligations which pass upon several indifferent actions Fourthly The clashing of several Laws whence one is transgressed in pursuit of another the great errour upon this score iâ— in the case of zeal Fifthly The clashing of Laws with opinions or prejudices 461 CHAP. VI. Of Prejudice The Contents The nature of prejudice It a cause of ignorance of our Duty The difference betwixt things being proposed to a free and empty and to a prejudiced or prepossessed mind An evident proposal sufficient to make a free mind understand its Duty but besides it a confutation of its repugnant prejudice is necessary to a mind that is prepossessed An account of several Opinions which make men ignorant of several instances of Duty One prejudice that nothing is lawful in Gods Worship but what is authorized by an express command or example of Scripture the acts of sin that are justified by this prejudice Another that all private men are publick Protectors of Religion and the Christian Faith the acts of sin justified by this Opinions Other Opinions cause a sinful neglect of the Sacraments These are incident to some honest and obedient hearts An account of other prejudices as that Christ is a Temporal King the acts of disobedience authorized by this Opinion That a good end will justifie an evil action the acts of sin upon this perswasion That Dominion is founded in Grace the disobedient acts avowed by this Principle These are more disobedient and damning The case stated what prejudices are consistent with and what destroy salvation Some prejudices get into mens minds not through a disobedient heart but through weakness of understanding and fallibility of the means of knowledge These are consistent with a state of salvation An instance of this in the prejudice of the Apostles about preaching of the Gospel to all Nations Other prejudices get into mens minds through damning lusts or sins A brief account of the influence of mens lusts and vices upon their Opinions This is illustrated in the Gnosticks They were famous for covetousness and worldly compliances and for impure lusts and excess in bodily pleasures The effect of these in producing agreeable Opinions Another of their vices was a turbulent and seditious humour Their Opinion was answerable A further illustration of it from the Pharisees An account of their vices and the influence which they had in begetting vile perswasions This influence of mens lust upon their judgments proved from the Scriptures The damnableness of such prejudices as enter this way Certain marks whereby to judge when prejudices proceed from unmortified lusts As first If the sin whereto the prejudice serves is unmortified in them Secondly If it lye so near to the prejudice that we could not but see that it ministred to it when we embraced it Thirdly Though it lye more remote if we still adhere to it when we plainly see that some unquestionable and notorious Laws are evacuated or infringed by it A Rule to prevent disobedient prejudices viz. Let Laws be the Rule whereby to judge of truth in opinions not opinions the Rule whereby to measure the Obligation of Laws Some Reasons of this viz. Because Laws are more plain and certain but opinions are more difficult and dubious Obedience to Laws is the end of revealed truth and so fit to measure it not to be measured by it 480 CHAP. VII A sixth cause of ignorance of the present actions being comprehended under a known Law And of the excusableness of our transgressions upon both these sorts of ignorance The Contents All the forementioned causes of ignorance of our present actions being included in the known Law are such to knowing and learned men Besides them the difficult and obscure nature of several sins is a general cause of it to the rude and unlearned Sins upon this ignorance as well as upon ignorance of the Law it self unchosen and so consistent with a state of Grace and Salvation Where there is something of choice in it they extenuate the sin and abate the punishment though they do not wholly excuse it The excuse for these actions is only whilst we are plainly ignorant they are damning when we are enlightened so far as to doubt of them but pardonable whilst we are in darkness or errour This excuse is for both the modes of ignorance 1. Forgetfulness 2. Errour All this pardon hitherto discoursed of upon the account of ignorance of either sort is no further than the ignorance it self is involuntary The wilfulness of some mens ignorance The several steps in voluntary ignorance The causes of it Two things required to render ignorance involuntary 1. An honest heart 2. An honest industry What measures necessary to the acceptance of this industry Gods candor in judging of its sufficiency This Discourse upon this first cause of an innocent involuntariness viz. ignorance summed up 522 CHAP. VIII Of sins consistent through the second Cause of an innocent involuntariness viz. inconsideration The Contents Consideration is necessary to choice Some sins are inconsiderate Three innocent causes of inconsideration 1. Suddenness and surprize of opportunity An account of this The involuntariness of it Slips upon it are consistent 2. Weariness of our thinking powers or understandings An account of this and of its involuntariness The consistence of our transgressions by reason of it 3. Discomposure or disturbance of them An account of this The causes of it are Drunkenness or a strong Passion Drunkenness is always our own fault Our Passions grow strong in us sometimes by our own indulgence and then they are our damning sin and we must suffer for the evil that we commit under them sometimes through the suddenness and greatness of outward Objects and then they are pardonable and our inconsiderate slips upon them are excusable The passions which have good for their Object as Love Desire c. cannot by any force of outward objects be so suddenly forced upon us But the passions which have evil as grief anger and fear especially often are The reason of this difference Inconsideration upon the latter excusable but not upon the former This difference made by our Saviour in a case where both were criminal Excusable slips upon discomposure of our thinking powers are such as proceed from an unwill'd sudden grief or anger but especially from a sudden fear No fear is involuntary but what is sudden and sins upon deliberate fear are damning but upon unwill'd sudden fear grief or anger consistent
returning Repent and TVRN to God and do works meet for Repentance Acts 26.20 Repent and turn from all your transgressions and so iniquity shall not be your ruine Ezek. 18.30 For it is only when the wicked man TVRNETH away from his wickedness that he hath committed and in his works DOTH that which is lawful and right that he shall save his soul alive vers 27. Let no man therefore think that he ever savingly repents of any damning sin so long as he perseveres to practise and repeat it â—his Repentance must deliver him from sin before it rescue him from suffering for 't is then only when the wicked man forsakes his way and returns unto the Lord that God will have mercy upon him and abundantly pardon Isa. 55.7 And as for that part of Repentance viz. Regeneration a New Nature or a New Creature God tells us plainly that he accepts of them no further than they are principles of a new service and we obey with them The new Creature in Christs Religion is a being Created as St. Paul speaks unto good WORKS which God hath before ordained for us that we should walk in them Eph. 2.10 It is our actions which must evidence our nature the tree says our Saviour is known by its fruits so that we must either make the fruit good as well as the tree is good or if the fruit be evil the tree will be known to be so too Matt. 12.33 For do men gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles Even so a good tree CANNOT bring forth evil fruit neither CAN a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit by their fruits therefore you shall know them Matt. 7.16 17 18. Nothing less than a good life will be allowed either by God or Men for a sufficient proof of a good heart nor any thing below a new Conversation and Obedience will pass for a good evidence of a new Nature Doth a Fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter saith S t James can the Fig-tree bear Olive-berries or a Vine Figs Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you Let HIM show out of a good CONVERSATION his works with meekness of wisdom Jam. 3.11 12 13. Let no man therefore dare to think himself regenerate and born of God so long as he is disobedient and his works are sinful For whosoever is born of God doth not COMMIT sin because his seed his new nature remaineth in him and through the determining power and strength of that he is almost come to this that he cannot sin it is become the bent of his nature to do otherwise he is born of God Joh. 3.9 If any man therefore would pass a true judgment upon his nature whether it be the new or old Man from God or from the Devil let him consult his works and actions those undissembling effects of it and from thence he may have a sure evidence which will not deceive him For in this as S t John goes on in the next words is manifested who are Children of God and who are Children of the Devil whosoever DOTH not Righteousness is not of God vers 10. So that when Christ comes to judge us according to his Gospel we see plainly that no repentance will bear us out nor any pretended regeneration or new Nature avail us unto life but that only which either implies or ends in our Obedience For no man can with any show of reason hope to be acquitted and rewarded at that Bar but he that repents unto amendment that is Created unto good works and is born again to a new practice and obedience One case indeed there is wherein a new birth will surely save a man without a new practice and that is when a man is forthwith called away upon the change before any opportunities of action come Some men are listed into Gods service late at the eleventh hour of the day Matt. 20.6 They have just time to become obedient in will and purpose but not in life and practice they have no leisure left them to work in but the night comes suddenly upon them when all the time of labour is at an end And this is the case of all dying Penitents And here indeed the will shall be accepted for the deed For in heart and mind such Penitents are become Gods honest servants their desires are in great strength and their inward purposes are come up to effectual degrees that want nothing but time wherein to show themselves and are sufficient whensoever an opportunity should occur to beget a change of life and to make their actions answer them So that if they are destitute of an entire obedience and have not as yet evidenced their change of nature in their change of practice that is not for want of inward readiness but of outward opportunities and therefore it is not so ' much their fault as their unhappiness And when God sees it is thus he takes the inward will and choice for the outward service and performance He judges us by our wills which are in our own power and not by chance and fortune which are utterly without it This he doth in evil actions as shall be shown afterwards the will in them is taken for the deed and if once our hearts are effectually resolved and fully set upon them in his account we are guilty of them though by some intervening accidents we are hindred from committing them And since as S t Bernard argues undeniably in this matter he is much more prone to pity than he is to punish and had far rather interpret things to our profit than to our prejudice we may be sure that our obedient purposes shall have as much force to the full as our disobedient have and that an effectual will in them when nothing but time is wanting to perform in shall pass for the deed likewise God is by no means forward to seek our hurt and to take advantages of our necessities but in this and all other cases where there is first an effectually willing mind and nothing but opportunity is wanting to an answerable practice he takes as S t Paul says the will for the deed and accepts men according to that sufficient and effectual desire which they have and not according to that outward performance which through some unhappy and preventing accidents they have not 2 Cor. 8.12 And of this we have a clear instance in one dying Penitent the Thief upon the Cross. His return was late indeed he begun not to befit himself for the next world till he was in his departure out of this His conversion was in his very last hour under the pangs of Death and at the instant of Execution But when Christ saw that his change of heart was true full and sufficient and needed nothing but opportunity to show it self effectual he tells him that it should serve his turn and secure his happiness Because he would have been obedient in his practice
with all thy heart or will and with all thy soul or affections and with all thy strength or executive and bodily powers and with all thy mind or understanding Luke 10.25 26 27 28. Obedience with all these powers and with our whole Nature is the means of life and the indispensable condition of our eternal happiness First We must keep all Gods Commandments with our minds or understandings It is a dangerous conceit for any man to phansie that he may be as sinful as he will in his thoughts so long as he only loves and chuses projects and contrives for the forbidden instance in his mind but doth not proceed so far as to obey it in his outward practice For at the last Day we must be called to account and justified or condemned by the counsels and imaginations of our minds as well as by the works of our lives For not only the works and practice but also the thoughts of the wicked or of wickedness are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 15.26 The thought of foolishness is sin Prov. 24.9 And since God forbids and hates them as ever we hope for his favour we must repent of them and forsake them Let the wicked man forsake his thoughts saith the Prophet and turn them from his sin unto the Lord and then he will have mercy upon him and abundantly pardon him Isai. 55.7 For the warfare that God has set us after which we are to attain the reward of eternal happiness is a casting down imaginations as the Apostle tells us and bringing into captivity every rebellious thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. In particular this obedience of our minds to the Law of God must be as a doing what he enjoins so likewise a keeping off from every thing which he forbids First In our imaginations We must not phansie it in our minds with love and delight nor indulge to any thoughts of it with such pleasure as may be a bait to our choice and weaken our aversation and hatred of it and thereby ensnare us into the practice of it Our warfare as we have heard from the Apostle must not be against actions only but against imaginations also and insnaring phancies of evil casting down rebellious imaginations and making every thought obedient to the Laws of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. And in the old world when the imaginations of mens thoughts were always evil it repented the Lord that he had made man insomuch as he resolved to destroy him Gen. 6.5 6 7. Secondly In our counsels and contrivances We must not study what means are fittest what times are best and what manner is most advantageous for the acting of our sins They must no more have our care and contrivance than our service and obedience For if we cast about in our thoughts and consult about the most commodious way of committing any sin although all our designs be defeated before we come to any effect yet shall we be damned for our contrivance as well as we should for the compleat action And this our Lord himself has plainly determined in one instance and the Case is the same in all the rest For of the contrivances and machinations of murther he assures us That they as well as murther it self are of the number of those things which pollute a man and so utterly unfit him for Heaven where nothing can ever enter that is polluted or unclean Out of the heart saith he proceed evil thoughts or murtherous machinations and besides them compleat murthers adulteries c. and these defile the man Matth. 15 19. And as for that particular sort of contriving for sin which is the height and perfection of villany viz. the inventing of new and before unknown ways of transgressing it of all others is sure to meet with the severest punishment and to thrust men down into the deepest Abyss of Hell Of this sort are all invention of new Oaths new Nick-names or evil speakings new frauds and methods of couzenage new incentives of lust new modes of drinking and arts of intemperance But of these and of all others that are like unto them God will one day exact a most rigorous and terrible account For he that deviseth to do evil saith Solomon although he himself doth not act but only devise it he shall be called and dealt with as a mischievous and wicked person Prov. 24.8 And S t Pauls words are full to this purpose For he tells us expresly that in the judgment of God inventers of evil things shall be declared worthy of death Rom. 1.30 32. As for our minds or understandings then they are one faculty which is plainly implied in the Integrity of our service and without the obedience whereof at the last day God will not accept us And another faculty implied in it likewise is Secondly Our Soul or Affections It is a vain thing for any man to love and set his heart upon any particular sin and yet for all that to expect that God should love and reward him If I regard iniquity in my heart saith the Psalmist the Lord will not hear me Psal. 66.18 No man as our Saviour sayes can serve two masters for if he love the one for his sake when their interests enterfere he will hate the other so that we cannot serve God if with our affections we continue to serve sin Mat. 6.24 To pretend obedience to God and yet to love what he sorbids to make a show of his service and yet in our very hearts to hanker after his vilest enemies whom above all things his soul abhors this surely is not honestly to serve but grosly to collogue and slatly to dissemble with him For in very deed if any man love sin he sides with Gods enemy but for the service and fear of the Lord it is to hate evil Prov. 8.13 If ever we expect that God should accept our works we must offer up our affections with them For if our hearts go along with our lusts whilst our practice is against them we serve God only against our wills we submit to him as a slave doth to a tyrannous Lord not through any kindness for him but through a hatefull fear of him We utterly dislike what he bids us but yet we do it only because we dare not do otherwise But now this is such a way of performing obedience as God will never endure to accept of For he scorns to be served by a slavish fear and an unwilling mind he will never look upon a heartless sacrifice but it is the affection that we do it with which makes him set a price upon any thing that we do and our love that he regards more than our performance For this is that very thing which was thought fit to be mentioned in the command it self Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind Mat. 22.37 'T is true indeed we do not find our affection so quick and
of the Earth but bare understanding of them doth not make him partake with them or subject to be punished for them But to make these meer apprehensions and imaginations either of good or evil an instance of obedience or disobedience they must be causes and principles of an obedient or disobedient choice or practice For our inward thoughts and imaginations are Springs and Principles both of our inward choice and also of our outward operations And the service which God requires of them is the service of the principle He demands the obedience of our minds as a means and in order to a further obedience of our hearts and actions He expects that we should think so long and so often upon the absoluteness of his authority the kindness of his Nature the reasonableness of his Commands the glory of his rewards and the terrour of his punishments till in our hearts we chuse those things which he has commanded and perform them in our works and practice For our thoughts of him and of his Laws are not in themselves Obedience but only a Spring and Principle of it and a good step and degree towards it Our knowledge shall be judged an acceptable service as it carries us on to performance but no otherwise For hereby alone says S t John we know that we know him with such knowledge as shall be accepted by him if we keep his Commandments 1 John 2.3 And on the other side our bare imaginations and apprehensions of some forbidden sin are then only disobedient when they carry us on to chuse or practise those things that are sinful We must go on from thought to choice or practice before the vices thought of become our own and our apprehensions of sin become themselves sinful For the thoughts of sin have the sinfulness of means and causes they are sinful so far as they help on either our consent or performance So our Saviour has determined in one instance viz. that of lustful looks and apprehensions Matth. 5. He that looks upon a woman so long as to lust after her or to consent in his heart to the enjoyment of her he hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart ver 28. As for our thoughts and imaginations then we see what obedience in them is required to our acceptance and when they are disobedient and will destroy us For our counsels and contrivances of evil are always sinful and so are all such simple thoughts and apprehensions as have particular Laws imposed upon them And as for our imaginations and apprehensions of things commanded or forbidden by any other Laws they are imperfect things and not fully grown up to the perfect Stature either of obedience or of disobedience So that they are neither punished nor rewarded in themselves but so far only as they are causes and principles of an obedient or disobedient choice or actions And then as for our affections their measures are the very same with those already mentioned of our bare imaginations and simple apprehensions For their service and obedience is that of the principle and their Sentence shall be according to those effects either in our wills or practice which flow from it If we love and desire obedience so far as to chuse and act it this degree of affection will gain us God's love and favour and secure his rewards but less than it no other shall He that keeps my Commandments saith Christ he it is that loveth me and they only who so love me in obeying me shall be beloved again of my Father and I will love them John 14.15 21. But if our love and desire of evil things carry us on to chuse or act any instance of disobedience for the sake of that which is loved and desired then are our affections sinful and such as will destroy us The desire of evil is not so truly the state of mortal sin as of dangerous temptation it is not deadly in it self but kills by carrying us on to a sinful and deadly choice and actions For when once it has got to that degree it is obnoxious to a dreadful Sentence Whereof the Psalmist gives us one instance in the love of violence Him that loveth violence the soul of the Lord hateth Psal. 11.5 And S t John says the same of the love of lying and the Case is alike in every other sin Without in outer darkness are murtherers and whatsoever loveth or maketh a lye Rev. 22.15 And thus we see what measure of obedience is required in these two faculties and what kinds and degrees of thoughts and affections are to be used or restrained to make theirs an acceptable Service For we must abstain from all evil counsels and contrivances from all simple apprehensions which are particularly forbidden and put in use all such as are particularly enjoined and as for all other our bare thoughts and imaginations and all our affections and desires we must fix them upon our Duty so long till they make us perform it and never suffer them to issue out upon evil so far till they carry us on either to chuse or practise it But besides these two faculties viz. our minds and affections there is yet another whose service is necessary to render ours an acceptable obedience and that is Thirdly Our hearts or wills also It is an absurd Dream for any man to think of serving God without his will because without that none of his actions can be called his own For that only is imputed to us which is chosen by us and which it was in the power of our own wills either to promote or hinder no man deserving praise or being liable to answer for what he could not help But of all persons God most of all regards our hearts in all our performances He perfectly discerns them and he estimates our services according to them So that it is not possible for any of us to obey him unwillingly in regard the choice of our will and heart it self is that which renders any action a saving and acceptable obedience For out of the heart as Solomon saith proceed the issues of life Prov. 4.23 The choice then as well as the practice of our Duty is plainly necessary to render it available to our salvation But on the other side if we chuse sin although we miss of opportunity to act it the bare choice without the practice is sufficient to our condemnation For even by that when we proceed no further our heart has gone astray from God and we are polluted by the sin which we resolve upon in our own choice since out of the heart as our Saviour tells us proceeds the pollution of the man Matth. 15.19 20. We may commit all sort of transgressions and incurr the punishment of them merely by consenting to them inwardly in our hearts without ever compleating them in our outward operation For our Lord himself has thus determined it in one instance and the Case is the same in all
produce it For 2. Men are subject to be carried on to work what is both without and against their habitual liking and inclination through ignorance And this is the great source and intire cause of all our consistent slips and pardonable infirmities As for the will of man it is a blind faculty it can chuse nothing till the understanding shows it That is we cannot desire or will a thing before we see it nothing can be chosen which is not apprehended So that if at any time we offend through ignorance or inconsideration and do amiss either because we did not understand our Duty or because we did not think of it unless our ignorance and inconsideration be themselves damnable and charged upon us to our condemnation nothing else will For God will impute nothing to us at the last Day either to save or to destroy us but what proceeded from our own will and choice and therefore if any sinful action be innocently involuntary it is likewise uncondemning And this now is the Case of all our slips and transgressions of the Law of God which are consistent with a state of Grace and salvation We act them without understanding or considering of them and so they are involuntary and unchosen For in some of them we do not think or consider of what we do at all and in others although we know the action yet are we ignorant of the sinfulness of it so that even in the choice of that this still remains unchosen For sin and obedience is not all acting of a thing but an acting of it with certain ends and designs If we would be thought to obey Gods Law we must do it because he requires it and if we be judged to have sinned against it it will be for doing something when we saw that he had forbidden it For that service which God requires is not a heartless service but a service of the will and choice So that we must do what he enjoins for his sake and because his Law requires it if we expect that he should take himself to be obeyed in it and we must chuse to do whâ—t we know is against his Law for the sake of sin before we need to fear that he will punish us as men that have sinned against him Obedience then and disobedience besides the action require likewise the eye and intention viz. the chusing of what we do because his Law commands it or the chusing it when we know that his Law has forbidden it But if this knowledge of his Law be wanting although we chuse the evil action yet do we not chuse the sin because we do not see that it is sinful For we would not chuse it if we knew that he had forbid it so that in our hearts there is no contempt of him or disobedience at all When therefore at any time we knowingly and deliberately chuse an action which we do not know to be sinful except that ignorance be our own fault whatever the action be as to it self yet as to its relation to the Law viz. its sinfulness and disobedience it is not will'd and chosen For since we did not see its sinfulness we could not chuse and consent to it So that there is no rebellion in our wills whatsoever there may seem to be in our action but they may notwithstanding it be still intirely subject unto God and ready to obey him in every thing wherein they see he has laid his Commands upon them As some of our consistent slips and transgressions therefore are not thought of or considered at all so others although they are known and considered in themselves are yet unknown under that relation of sinful actions so that the sin is all the while unseen and therefore involuntary and unchosen Now as for these slips and transgressions which are thus unknown and thereby involuntary they are consistent with a state of Grace and such as Christs Gospel doth not eternally threaten but in great mercy bear and graciously dispense with To convince us of the truth whereof besides all that has been above discoursed upon this Argument it is first considerable that all these involuntary failings upon ignorance or want of knowledge are unavoidable and God we know will never damn any man for doing that which could not be avoided For no man can chuse to shun that which he doth not see but his understanding must first discern and apprehend a thing before his will is in any capacity to refuse it And forasmuch as these slips are no matter of our sight and knowledge they can be none of our refusal and avoidance Indeed if a man should pause and deliberate watch and examine at all times albeit he might still be subject to one sort of involuntary actions viz. that which arises from his ignorance of his Duty yet would he not be liable to the other which results from this inconsideration of it For where a man has time and his Powers are awake so that he is fit to look about him his thoughts are his own and he may fix them upon the consideration of what he pleases And where he has the power to consider of any action he has the power likewise to avoid it And this is that which is pleaded in behalf of mens ability to keep all Gods Commands intirely and to live wholly without sin by Atticus in S t Hierome Thus much we say That a man may live without all sin if he will for such time and place as his mind is intent and his care is at stretch and his bodily infirmities will suffer him to continue so But as for this power of avoiding all involuntary sins which arise from inconsideration it is no power at all For herein we must know lyes every mans unavoidable weakness and infirmity that whereas our obedience is required at all times this fitness is only in some certain time and place For no man is always in that good condition to be wise and well-disposed watchful and standing upon his Guard But he forgets when he should remember and his faculties are asleep when they should be awake and he is diverted by other business and hindred by intervening accidents So that sometimes either he has not leisure to consider in or his faculties are not well disposed and his thoughts free and at his own command so as when he has time duly to consider in it And this evil state which thus unfits a man for consideration is not always in his own power and at his own choice whether he shall fall under it or no. For as for the want of time a man in this world is placed in a crowd of business and whilst his thoughts are hot in the pursuit of one another many times waits for him And because opportunities do not stay till we are at leisure we must take them when we find them so that we act oftentimes without considering since if we should stay to think we should
which is transgressed yet we take our present action not to be comprized under it because of some prejudices which exempt it There is oft-times a clashing and enterfering of Laws and Opinions as well as of one Law with another For men entertain several perswasions which are inconsistent with some instances of Duty and that make them look upon themselves in those cases not to be obliged by them Their Opinion justifies one thing when the Law commands another it contracts its force and evacuates its obligation and makes them venture confidently upon several actions whereby the Law is transgressed by making them first to believe that in those actions they are not obliged by it And because this is so universal a cause of Ignorance and Errour and so powerfull in making men both overlook Gods plain Laws and even whilst they consider of them evacuate and undermine them I think it very needfull to be more full in its explication and shall therefore state it more largely in the next Chapter CHAP. VI. Of Prejudice The CONTENTS The nature of Prejudice It a cause of Ignorance of our Duty The difference betwixt things being proposed to a free and empty and to a prejudiced or prepossessed mind An evident proposal sufficient to make a free mind understand its duty but besides it a confutation of its repugnant prejudice is necessary to a mind that is prepossessed An account of several Opinions which make men ignorant of several instances of Duty One prejudice that nothing is lawfull in Gods worship but what is authorized by an express command or example of Scripture the acts of sin that are justified by this prejudice Another that all private men are publick protectors of Religion and the Christian Faith the acts of sin justified by this Opinion Other Opinions cause a sinfull neglect of the Sacraments These are incident to some honest and obedient hearts An account of other prejudices as that Christ is a Temporal King the acts of disobedience authorized by this Opinion That a good end will justifie an evil action the acts of sin upon this perswasion That Dominion is founded in Grace the disobedient acts avow'd by this Principle These are more disobedient and damning The case stated what prejudices are consistent with and what destroy salvation Some prejudices get into mens minds not through a disobedient heart but through weakness of understanding and fallibility of the means of knowledge These are consistent with a state of salvation An instance of this in the prejudice of the Apostles about preaching of the Gospel to all Nations Other prejudices get into mens minds through damning lusts or sins A brief account of the influence of mens lusts and vices upon their Opinions This is illustrated in the Gnosticks They were famous for covetousness and worldly compliances and for impure lusts and excess in bodily pleasures The effect of these in producing agreeable Opinions Another of their vices was a turbulent and seditious humour Their Opinion was answerable A further illustration of it from the Pharisees An account of their vices and the influence which they had in begetting vile perswasions This influence of mens lusts upon their judgments proved from the Scriptures The damnableness of such prejudices as enter this way Certain marks whereby to judge when prejudices proceed from unmortified lusts As first If the sin whereto the prejudice serves is unmortified in them Secondly If it lye so near to the prejudice that we could not but see that it ministred to it when we embraced it Thirdly Though it lye more remote if we still adhere to it when we plainly see that some unquestionable and notorious Laws are evacuated or infringed by it A Rule to prevent disobedient prejudices viz. Let Laws be the Rule whereby to judge of truth in opinions not opinions the Rule whereby to measure the Obligation of Laws Some Reasons of this viz. Because Laws are more plain and certain but opinions are more difficult and dubious Obedience to Laws is the end of revealed truth and so fit to measure it not to be measured by it A Prejudice is a false Principle or such a former false Judgment whereby we afterwards examine and judge amiss in others For all our rational judgment of things is by Principles when we determine of the truth or falshood of such as are suspicious and doubtful by their agreeableness or repugnance to such others as we think are true and certain So that those opinions which first take possession of our minds are the Rules and Standards which all others that seek to enter after must be tryed by And if these anticipations of Judgment are true and solid if they are taken up upon good reason and mature deliberation they are right Maxims of knowledg and Principles of understanding But if they are false and faulty and entertain'd upon weak grounds through haste and rashness they are false Rules and Principles of errour And because they hinder us in our after-judgments making us judge amiss of things as they needs must who judge according to a false measure they are called prejudices And these are a most general Cause of the errours and ignorances of men For we are ignorant many times of our Duty and mistake a sinful action for a lawful liberty when no want of plainness in God's revelations or in the nature of Vertues and Vices nor any want of opportunity to be told of them but some of these hindrances of our own minds are the causes of our ignorance Those very Duties which are brought clear and open to our understandings are sometimes either not at all or very maimedly and imperfectly understood because our minds are blocked up by a contrary belief which makes us not to attend to them but either wholly to overlook or in great measure to evacuate and undermine them Our prejudice has got possession of our souls and suffers not even a plain and clear Duty to be entertained if it makes against it but either throws it out all or pares off so much of it as is inconsistent with it For one errour begets another in practice as well as in speculation so that if we have an erroneous belief which contradicts our Duty it is but rational that we should erroneously evacuate or impair our Duty likewise So long therefore as the prejudice is entertained if the Duty be never so plainly expressed or loudly proposed to our minds it must needs be excluded or only so much of it gain our notice and belief as doth not thwart the prejudice but agrees with it To understand this we are to take notice that any Truths or Duties which are proposed to our understandings have a very different success when they are offered to a free and empty from what they have when they are proposed to a prejudiced and prepossessed mind For with the former any Duty is sufficiently qualified to beget a right understanding and belief if it be plainly and in clear
Parents or by the authority and instruction of spiritual guides they imbibed it at first in the simplicity of their souls and since that have continually been used to it and bred up in it So that although they never serve that sin whereto it ministers in other instances but alwayes fear and conscientiously avoid it yet where this prejudicate Opinion warrants it they do These Prejudices I say are not altogether inconsistent with an honest and obedient heart but are sometimes entertained by innocent and religious men although many others damnably disobey in them But then there are many others which are of a more heinous and damning nature which although some well-meaning men may pardonably admit at first before they have seen the damnable consequences and effects of them yet very few can adhere to when they are set before them without being in danger if repentance intervene not to be damn'd for them Of which sort among several others I take these to be that follow Some are possessed with an odd belief that Christ is a Temporal and Secular King in Sion i. e. the Church on Earth and that his subjects are to fight for his Interests and for the protection of his Religion with the same worldly force and armed violence that the subjects of other secular Princes use And as for Earthly Kings since they are but Deputies and Delegates of Christ the Supream King of all that they are no further to be submitted to than they act serviceably and subordinately under him but that they may yea ought to be persecuted as Enemies and Apostates from King Jesus if in any thing they oppose and act against him Now when men have once imbibed this Principle they run on furiously as every man must who understands it into all the mischiefs of Rebellion and Bloodshed For in all Instances where this prejudice leads them to it they utterly overlook as things not belonging to them all the plain Laws of Honour and Reverence Submission and Obedience to Governours of Justice and Charitableness Mercy and Peaceableness towards their Fellow-subjects and burst out violently into contempt of Governours and reproachfull usage and speaking evil of Dignities into revenge and fierceness strife and bitterness sedition and tumults spoils and robberies murders and bloodshed and into all other licentious and extravagant effects of a most unjust war and horrible rebellion In all which they think that they only fight Gods battles and spoil and slay his enemies and like good Subjects and Soldiers of the Lord of Hosts with all their might maintain his Rights and serve his Interest For all this rebellion against earthly Kings they esteem to be nothing else but a proof of their Loyalty and just Allegiance to King Jesus the Soveraign Lord of all who by these worldly means must Rule on Earth although he dwells in Heaven Others to exalt the Temporal Monarchy and Grandeur of Christs pretended Vicar here on Earth have imbibed this Principle that a good end will justifie any action and that all is lawfull which is necessary and profitable for the advancement of the Churches Interest And having once sucked in this venemous Opinion in all those actions wherein it is any wayes concerned there is no Precept so plain which they cannot overlook nor any obligation so sacred which they do not cancel They stick not at the breach of all the most exalted and sublime Laws of Christ. For instead of being meek and gentle they are fierce and furious instead of being slow to wrath they are enemies without provocation instead of forgiving injuries they are violent to revenge them instead of doing good to enemies they are eager to destroy them instead of taking up the Cross and bearing it with patience themselves they are utterly impatient till by any means they can force it upon others Nay they burst through the most notorious and weighty Laws of Humanity and Nature in dissimulation and equivocations in lies and perjuries in sowing strife and all manner of unpeaceableness in spoils and robberies murders and assassinations treasons and rebellions which even natural conscience where it has any force at all must needs tremble and be amazed at But yet all this time they think that they are doing Gods work whil'st indeed they are subverting his whole Religion for their poisonous Principle bears them out through all and they are confident that what they do will be accepted for his service because it is intended for the advancement of his Church Some again of the more extravagant Anabaptists entertained a wild Opinion that all Dominion is founded in Grace and that nothing but virtue and holiness can give any man a title to his possessions And when once they had believed this they acted but agreeably to their own Principle in overlooking all the plain Laws of Justice and Honesty in all those instances where this Doctrine would warrant the contrary and in exercising all sorts of fraud couzenage spoils and robberies where they had power and opportunity to commit them For their spoiling of their neighbours they esteemed to be like Israels spoiling of the Egyptians viz. a taking away that which belonged not to them seeing God had given it away from them It were endless to recount all the enormously wicked and disobedient Opinions which ill men take up in favour of their beloved sins For some overlook the plain duties of temperance mortification and self-denial because they are sensual and fleshly and others give no heed to the manifest duty of paying tythes because they are loth to part with their money When Christ preached up a charitable use of the unrighteous Mammon the Pharisees who were covetous would not believe and understand but derided him Luk. 16.14 And the same way it fares with other duties when mens unmortified lusts which are struck at by them are opposed against them By these instances and many more which might be mention'd it clearly appears how destructive many mens consciences or prejudicate Opinions are of several parts of Religion and the Divine Laws They do in great measure cancel the force of Duty and make men transgress in several instances against known Laws by making them first to believe that in those cases they do not oblige them But now to determine which of these prejudices is pardonable and consistent with a justified state and which destroys and interrupts it we must observe in them this difference First That some of them get into mens minds or consciences not through any thing of an evil and disobedient heart but only through weakness of understanding or fallibility of the means of knowledge and these are consistent with a state of Grace and Salvation 2. That others get into mens consciences through some damnable lusts and vices and they are deadly and damning First Some prejudices which lead men into sin and disobedience get into their consciences not through any thing of an evil and disobedient heart but only through weakness of understanding and
fallibility of the means of knowledge and these do not destroy but consist with a state of Grace and Salvation They get not into mens understandings by means of an evil and disobedient heart For it is not any love which they have for the damning sins of pride ambition sensuality covetousness unpeaceableness faction or the like which makes them willing to believe those Opinions true that are in favour of them When they take up their prejudice they do not see so far as these ill effects nor discern how any of these sins is served by it and therefore they cannot be thought to admit it with this design to serve them in it Nay further what is the best sign of all that lust or disobedience which the prejudice happens to minister to in some instance is mortified and subdued in them and so cannot have any such influence upon them For sometimes those very men who in such instances as their prejudice avows it are irreverent and disrespectful pragmatical and disobedient to their Governours or the like in all other cases wherein their Opinion is unconcerned are most respectfull quiet and obedient Humility and modesty peaceableness and quietness submission and obedience are both their temper and their practice For they love and approve and in the ordinary course and constant tenour of their lives conscientiously observe them and nothing under such prejudicate Opinion as makes them believe them to be unlawfull in some cases could over-rule that love and obedience which they have for them and prevail upon them so far as to act against them So that with these men it is not the disobedient temper of their hearts which makes their conscience err but the errour and prejudice of their conscience which makes their practice disobedient In such men therefore as are thus qualified who do not see those sins which their prejudice ministers to when they admit it and in all the other actions of their lives except where by this prejudice they are over-ruled shew plainly that they have mortified and overcome it 't is clear that the prejudice did not get into their consciences by any influence of an evil and disobedient heart But that which made way for it was only their natural weakness of understanding or the fallibility of the means of knowledge They are not of an understanding sufficient to examine things exactly when they embrace their prejudice for their Reason then is dim and short-sighted weak and unexperienced unable throughly to search into the natures of things and to judge of the various weight and just force of reasons to sift and ransack separate and distinguish between solidity and show truth and falsehood But those arguments whereupon they believe and upon the credit whereof they take up Opinions are education and converse the instruction of spiritual guides the short reasonings of their neighbours and acquaintance or the authority of such books or persons as they are ordered to read and directed to submit to These are the motives to their belief and the arguments whereupon they are induced to think one Opinion right and another wrong and the only means which they have of discerning between truth and falsehood But now all these means are in no wise certain they are an argument of belief indeed and the best that such men have but yet they are far from being infallibly conclusive Sometimes they lead men right but at other times they lead them wrong for they are not at all determined one way but in several men and at several times according as it happens they minister both to truth and falsehood In matters that are primarily of belief and speculation in Religion they lead a hundred men to errour where they lead one to Truth For there are an hundred Religions in the world whereof one alone is true and every one has this to plead in its own behalf that it is the Religion of the Place and Party where it is believed The Professors of it are drawn to assent to it upon these Arguments viz. because they have been Bred up to it by the care of their Parents and Teachers and confirmed in it by long Vse and Converse It was Education and Custome the Authority of their Spiritual Guides and the common Perswasion of their Countrey which made them both at first to believe and still to adhere to it And every one in these points having these Arguments to plead for his own belief against the belief of every other man who differs from him since of all these different Beliefs one alone is true these Arguments must be allow'd indeed to minister to Truth in that but in all the rest to serve the Interest of Falsehood In matters of Duty and Practice 't is true there is infinitely more accord and good agreement For almost all the laws of nature w ch make up by far the greatest part of every Christians Duty are the Catholick Religion of all sober Sects and Parties in the world So that these Arguments of Custome and Education are tolerably good and right guides to mens Consciences how ill soever they are to their speculative Opinions because although they carry them into a wrong belief yet will they lead them into a righteous practice But although in these practical Notions and Opinions they are commonly a right yet sometimes and to several persons they prove a wrong instrument For even in matters of Duty and Practice men are no more secure from errour than they are from disobedience nor more certain that they shall have no mistakes about them than that they shall not go beyond them They have and till they come to Heaven ever will have erroneous Opinions as well as practices so that these motives Education and Custome and Authority will never be wanting in the world to instill into weak and undiscerning minds such Opinions as will in some instances and degrees evacuate and undermine some duties And since there will never be wanting in the world such fallible Arguments and means of knowing nor such weak and unexperienced understandings as must of necessity make use of them 't is plain that several disobedient prejudices will in all times get into mens minds not through any wickedness or disobedience of their hearts but only through the natural weakness of their minds and the fallibility of the means of knowledge And when any prejudices which lead to disobedience enter this way they do not put us out of Gods favour or destroy a state of Grace and Salvation but consist with it For in our whole action of disobedience upon them there is nothing that should provoke Gods wrath and punitive displeasure against us He will not be at enmity with us either for acting according to our erroneous Conscience or if the errour was thus innocent for having an erroneous conscience for our rule of action He will not be offended at us I say for acting according to our erroneous conscience for whether our conscience be true or
defiled for they have lost all sense of purity and Duty being unto every good work reprobate or void of judgment Tit. 1.15 16. They overlooked and disbelieved all the Christian Laws of passive valour and patient courage of generosity and contentedness of mortification and self-denial chastity and temperance and fell into those lewd opinions for which they were so infamous in the Apostolick Age and will be still among all men that are but competently sober to the Worlds end For they introduced into the World the scandalously vile and profligate opinions that all filthy and unnatural uncleannesses that denying Christ to be come in the flesh in times of persecution and that our Jesus was he are parts of Christian liberty and things lawful and allowable in a knowing in a spiritual in a perfect man Turning by this means as S t Jude says the Grace of God and his Gospel which under the highest pains forbids and punishes them into a liberty and allowance of these their Characteristick Vices viz. lasciviousness with all manner of filthiness and denying when they are in danger to suffer for him the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ Jude 4. Another instance of their behaviour we have set down in relation to the Publick and that is this They were of a proud and ungovernable of a haughty and turbulent a querulous and seditious humour Their temper is to be presumptuous and self-willed 2 Pet. 2.10 which they evidence every where by despising Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities Jud. 8 and by murmuring and complaining as men that are always discontented and never pleased with any administration of affairs ver 16. And agreeable to this ungovernableness of their lives and tempers were the licentious principles and opinions of their minds For they were the men who promised their Followers liberty from all subjection 2 Pet. 2.19 and who despised all Masters and Governours as being by the new Character of Christianity become their Brethren and therefore as they argued from that Title now only equal to them not superior as they must be who would pretend to rule and govern them 1 Tim. 6.1 2. The Abettors of which Doctrine S t Paul assures Timothy do in reality know nothing notwithstanding all the false show of that swoln Title knowing men which they so vainly arrogate to themselves ver 4. The wicked Sect of the Pharisees who were the reproach of the Jewish as these filthy Gnosticks were of the Christian Name were of a life and temper proud and ambitious covetous and rapacious whose heart and inside as well as their life and practice was all rottenness and disobedience For if we would have a character of them our Saviour himself has given us one in the 23 d of S t Matthew's Gospel which is most compleat and particular wherein a combination of these several vices are set to make up their description First Vain-glory. All their works they did to be seen of men vers 5. Secondly Pride and Ambition They loved the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the Synagogues and greetings in the publick markets and to be called of men Rabbi Rabbi that is to say Master or Doctor vers 6 7. Thirdly Covetousness Fraud and Rapaciousness For besides that S t Luke informs us of their being covetous Luk. 16.14 we are told here that they would most prophanely abuse the most sacred things for their covetous ends and make long prayers only for a pretence that thereby they might be enabled more easily and without suspicion to devour even Orphans and Widows houses vers 14 being indeed whatsoever they might outwardly appear to be all extortion and excess within vers 25. Fourthly Hypocrisie For they would dissemble even in their most solemn performances and use Religion only as a stalking-horse to worldly designs They made long prayers only for a pretence vers 14 what they made clean was only the outside vers 25 for that indeed they beautified but still they were all stench and rottenness within vers 27. In summ they said but did not they bound heavy burdens on other mens shoulders but would not touch them themselves with one of their fingers vers 3 4. Yea take them even at the best where they were Religious and that they will be found to have been only in trifles but not in substantial Duties for they strained at gnats at the same time that they swallow'd Camels they paid tythe of cheap and inconsiderable things such as mint and annise and cummin but they omitted all the weightier matters of the Law as Judgment Mercy and Faith vers 23 24. And since they were men of this character thus unmortified in their lusts and thus vicious and irreligious in their practice what can in reason be expected but that they should be full of debauchery and disobedience in their consciences and perswasions also And so accordingly we find they were For when Christ preached to them the Doctrine of Charity and Liberality in opposition to their miserable worldly way they being covetous instead of believing fell a mocking and deriding him Luk. 16.14 And as they treated Christ in this particular so did they likewise in all the rest of his Religion For finding that it required such humility sincerity honesty contentedness and heavenly-mindedness as were inconsistent with these unmortified lusts of theirs which I have mention'd they would not own and embrace but for that reason especially reject and disbelieve it Nay further even in their own acknowledged way they took up several disobedient prejudices to serve their lusts and either wholly evacuated or in great part impair'd several Laws by admitting such erroneous perswasions as undermined them For to gratifie their haughty and stubborn their petted and revengeful humour they entertain'd a conceit that if they did but say it is Corban or a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me i. e. I bind my self by the vow or oath call'd Corban never more to do any good to thee which was a form of oath in use among the Jews they should be freed from all obligation of the fifth Commandment requiring honour service or relief to their Father or Mother Mat. 15.4 5 6. And many other things like to this our Saviour tells us they did Mark 7.13 But not to enquire further about particulars we are plainly assured of them in the general that they transgressed rejected and evacuated the Laws of God through the erroneous perswasions and prejudicate belief of their traditions Mat. 15.3 6. Mark 7.9 Thus natural and obvious it is for a wicked life to work a disobedient belief and for mens unmortified lusts and passions which set themselves against Gods Laws to convey such prejudices into their consciences as will evacuate and overthrow them Their unbelief enters through the corruption of their heart and is therefore called an evil heart of unbelief Heb. 3.12 they are hardened into a want of all sense and conscience
our disobedient conscience and corrupt perswasion It is not only the errour of our conscience which makes us serve the sin for we serve it equally in other instances where that is wholly unconcerned The Sin is unmortified and imperious it carries us on to transgress where it is further'd by the errour of our consciences and where it wants it But it is the wickedness of our hearts which makes us to be wicked in our judgments and to espouse such Opinions as encourage and defend it For when any lust is so strong in us as to rule our practice it will be sure to lay a corrupt byass upon our wills so that we shall be apt still to judge in favour of it and be very partial in all those Opinions wherein it has any interest And therefore several disobedient prejudices will be taken up to serve a turn and we shall work our selves up into a belief of them for the sins sake which is justified and protected by them Is any man therefore of a temper and conversation that is fierce and contentious busie and restless forward to give Laws and impatient to submit to them 'T is no wonder if he takes up Opinions that justifie contempt of Governours that avow Alteration and Disturbance and countenance Faction Sedition and a Civil War For the ungovernableness of his Conscience is but agreeable to the ungovernableness of his Practice the Sin reign'd first in his heart and life and was from thence with ease instill'd into his Opinion and Perswasion Is any man habitually inclined to Pride and Ambition Wrath and Malice Revenge and Cruelty is he greedy of Gain and a slave to sensual Delights and bodily Pleasures He is prepared for any of those Vile Opinions which overturn all Laws to promote Christs Temporal Power on Earth or to advance the secular greatness of his pretended Vicar and Holy Church and for any others of like nature For the unmortified lusts are a Law to him in his life before they come to govern in his conscience he is first wicked and rebellious in his heart and that makes him to admit of such wicked Opinions into his understanding In these men then the case is plain it is clearly seen how they came by their disobedient prejudices for their lives and conversations show that abundantly Disobedience reign'd first in their hearts and thence got into their consciences and perswasions Secondly If the disobedience and the prejudice lay so near and were so close conjoyn'd that a man could not but see one when he saw the other it is still imputable to his wicked lusts and vices For he discerned how obedience was impair'd and how the Sin was served by it when he first gave credit to it and therefore he was plainly acted by a want of virtue and an evil heart For if he had been touched with any love of virtue he could not have allowed of that which he knew would evacuate and undermine it but he would have shewn much more forwardness to reject the Opinion for the sake of the sin than to embrace it upon any appearances of argument and reason So that his prejudice enter'd through an aversation to that instance of obedience which it undermined and it was his love to the wicked lust which was advanced by it that made way for it He willingly and designedly served the sin and he saw how much the Opinion contributed to it and therefore he readily embraced it Nay further Thirdly If the sinfull consequences were not discerned when a man at first embraced it yet if they are such as are of a plain unquestionable guilt and greatly sinfull and when he is shewed afterwards how they follow from it he still stands by it and adheres to it however the prejudicate Opinion might enter at the first yet it holds possession by a heart that is wicked and disobedient Some sins there are whose guilt is not altogether so clear and indisputable but that an innocent and honest although a weak and erring mind may sometimes question and overlook it And thus many truly religious souls do not think that their refusing to observe the commands of men about the ceremonies of divine worship is disobedience or that their over-acting in the cause of God and Religion is pragmaticalness For these sins among several others although they are plain and obvious to an unprejudiced and piercing understanding which is able to discern the grounds and reasons of things and fairly to consider of them Yet to such minds as have fallen unhappily under some mistaken notions and false prepossessions they are not evident whence many men that have honest and obedient hearts do yet err and judge amiss concerning them But then several other sins are so open and notorious that no sober mind and virtuous inclination can ever have any doubts about them Thus for instance no honest man who is willing fairly and seriously to consider things can ever question I think that killing without Commission from Authority and due process of Law is Murther that spoils without judicial course are robbery that appearing in Arms against the supreme Sovereign Power or men commissioned by him is Rebellion that intoxicating use of Wine is Drunkenness and a promiscuous use of Women Adultery or Fornication These sins and many others are of so open and notorious a nature that no man of an ordinary wit if he has any competent degrees of honesty can ever apprehend them to be other than damnably sinful And if any man has any opinions which in any cases justifie some of these if he continues to hold them still after he sees how these sins follow from them which he must needs do when he practises and incurrs them because the opinions lead him on to them 't is plain that his opinion holds possession of his mind because his heart is wicked simplicity and ignorance it may be gave it entrance but sin and disobedience enable it to persevere If the man indeed was only simple and short-sighted rash and forward at the first and either had not understanding or patience enough to look on so far as the sinful consequences when he gave it entrance his lusts and vices at that time could have no share in it because he did not see how they could be served by it and so far the simplicity of a well-mâ—aning mind and the obedient temper of an honest heart and a good intention may plead his excuse for his otherwise wicked and disobedient perswasion But if afterwards he persists in it when he sees all the iniquity and disobedience that flows from it and goes on to cancel and transgress notorious and weighty Laws upon the assurance of it 't is manifest then that his heart is wicked and that he is influenced more by a reigning sin than by a cogent reason For if his heart were acted by a full resolution of obedience and a love of Vertue he would quickly renounce such opinions when once he saw such
of the pleasure which accompanies it and from that apprehension of its pleasurableness he begins to love and from that loved he goes on straightway to desire it And now his will being sollicited by his lust or bodily desire consents to the fulfilling of it And this consent being once gained the next thing in order is to deliberate and contrive what company what time and what place are fittest for it And when by comparing all things together he comes to make a judgment of that he immediately chuses and resolves upon it and that being done there is nothing remaining further but to execute what he has resolved and go on to the performance of it This then is the method and progress from our lusting and desiring of any thing that is evil to our acting and committing it It begins in delight and love and desire and thence goes on to our consenting to it to our contrivance for it to our resolutions upon it and after all these to our practice and performance of it Now so long as the evil is entertained only in a short delightsom thought or love or desires and rests there but goes no further it is not so much our damning sin as our dangerous temptation it will be connived at and at the last Day we shall not be condemned for it For thus far the sin is only solliciting our choice but has not got it and as yet we have not committed a mortal crime but are only under a tryal whether we will be drawn to the commission of it or no. But if once our wills consent to it then begins the sting and there the danger enters for the lusting after evil so far as to consent to it and much more so as to contrive for it or to fulfil it makes us liable to death and eternal condemnation For our own choice as we heard above makes any sin damning so that if by means of the tempting lust any sin has prevailed so far it is become a deadly offence and subjects us to destruction Lust says S t James when it has conceived or is imperfectly consented to answering to conception which is an imperfect information bringeth forth sin and sin when by being perfectly consented to it is finished bringeth forth death which is the wages of it Jam. 1.15 And that our lusts after any sin are then damnably sinful when they are gone beyond desire and are come on either to our consent or contrivance or actual performance appears further from these instances in them all three If we lust so long after any evil thing as to consent to the sinful enjoyment of it we are guilty of all that punishment which is threatned to it He that looks upon a woman says our Saviour so long as to lust after her or to consent in his heart to the enjoyment of her he hath committed adultery already with her in his heart Mat. 5.28 If we lust so long as to contrive for it which is a degree further we are more guilty of the sin and more liable to the punishment of it still The inclinations and contrivances of murder as was observed above are reckoned among those things which pollute a man and thereby unfit him for entring into Heaven where nothing can ever have admittance that is unclean as well as murder it self is Mat. 15.19 But if our lust after any sinful enjoyment carry us on not only to consent to it or to contrive for it but what is the perfection of all to work and fulfil it then has it ensnared us into as much mischief as it can and is become dangerous and damning with a witness For then it has prevailed with us to compleat our sin and give the last hand to it it has brought us under that which is most of all threatned for now we fulfil the lusts of the flesh Gal. 5.16 19 we work iniquity Mat. 7.23 And if we continue to do this not only for once or twice but in constant returns and in a fixt course and tenure of action then as our sin is grown higher the acts thereof being more numerous and the guilt more crying so will our punishment also be more dreadfully severe And this is called walking after the flesh 2 Pet. 2.10 and living after the flesh Rom. 8.13 And this being a state of wasted virtue and habitual reigning sin it is not only through its obnoxiousness to punishment a state of death but also through its hardness of cure and difficult recovery a state of great doubt and danger likewise So that as for all these further degrees from the consent of our wills onward if our lusts after any sin have gone on to them they are deadly and damning For the same Law in the members which wars against the law of the mind so as thus to captivate and triumph over it is as the Law of sin so as the Apostle says the Law of death too Rom. 7.23.24 All our lustings after evil therefore when once they come to be consented to although before they were connived at are thenceforth deadly and damning So that whosoever hopes to be saved at the last Day from the punishment of them must thus far mortifie and kill them Mortifie says S t Paul those desires which are seated in your earthly members Col. 3.5 for it is only if you through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body that you shall live Rom. 8.13 As to these damnable degrees all fleshly lusts must of necessity be crucified in all good Christian men for no man will be reputed to belong to Christ till this change is wrought in him They that are Christs says the same Apostle have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 Mortifie and crucifie them I say we must not so as to have no fleshly appetites and bodily desires of evil for then must we have no bodily desires at all Because our lusts themselves as was observed do not distinguish of lawful or unlawful but are naturally moved by an agreeable object whether it be with God or against him But we must mortifie them to that degree as that they never be able to win us over to consent to any forbidden thing for their gratification They must never have so much interest in our hearts as to make us prefer them before our duty and chuse to perform what they bid us rather than what God doth Some stirrings and ineffective motions of them which cannot prevail against God nor gain over the consent of our wills to any thing that he has forbidden are dispensed with they are the stage of temptation but not of death for God bears with them and the mortified men themselves do daily feel and labour under them But it is the prevailing strength of our lusts after evil things when they get our consent to them and carry us on to transgress Gods Laws to fulfil them this conquering power of fleshly lusts I say it is which is to
noble and excellent reward we are in a safe state and have no need to disquiet our Souls with fears and jealousies lest they should eternally miscarry If any person then has used Gods Grace and improved his Talents to this measure he has not been unprofitable and useless but has profited so far as is necessary to his happiness He is bound indeed still to advance higher and in every instance of Vertue to improve further but this he is not under the loss of Heaven but only under the danger of falling back into such a state of sin as would destroy the hopes of it again and the forfeiture of greater glory and rewards there when an intire obedience in all chosen instances and a particular reformation and repentance of all wilful sins is once secured there is so much growth in grace as is absolotely necessary an exalted pitch and compleat measures of this obedience with more ease and pleasure constancy and evenness with less mixture of voluntary sins which need particular repentance and with a greater freedom from innocent and unwilled infirmities is necessary to more absolute degrees and greater hights of glory but till that can be had this is sufficient to a mans salvation Several other scruples there are which are wont to disquiet and perplex the minds of good and honest people who are safe in Gods account although their Case seems never so hazardous in their own And of this sort are their fears that their obedience is unsincere because they have an eye at their own good and a respect to their own safety since they serve God in hopes to be better by him and out of a fear should they disobey of suffering evil from him They are afraid also that it is defective in a main Point for they cannot love and serve him in that comprehensive latitude which the Commandment requires viz. With all their heart and with all their soul and with all their mind They doubt they are past Grace and Pardon because they have sinned after that they have been enlightned and that wilfully and the Apostles affirms that for such there remains no more Sacrifice for sins Heb. 10.26 These doubts are still apt to disturb their peace and make sad their hearts and some others of like nature But of these and several others I have given sufficient Accounts above such as I hope may satisfie any reasonable man who is capable to read and to consider of them and thither I refer the Reader not thinking fit here to repeat them And thus at last we have seen when an honest and entire obedience is taken care for in the first place how plainly groundless those fears are which are wont to perplex the thoughts of good and safe yet ignorant and misguided people about their state of happiness and salvation And now I have done with all those points which I thought necessary to be enquired into to the end that I might shew every man now before-hand how he stands prepared for the next world and which at the beginning of this whole Discourse I proposed to treat of I have shown what that condition is of bliss or misery which the Gospel indispensably exacts of us and that as I take it so particularly that no man who will be at the pains to read and consider of it can overlook or mistake it what those defects are which it bears and dispenseth with what those remedies and means of reconciliation are which it has provided for us and when all these are taken care for how groundless all those other scruples are which are wont to disquiet honest minds about the goodness of their present state and their title to eternal salvation And upon the whole matter the sum of all amounts to this that when Christ shall come to sit in judgment at the last day and to pass sentence of life or death upon every man according to the direction of his Gospel he will pronounce upon every man according to his works If he has honestly and entirely obey'd the whole will of God in all the particular Laws before-mention'd never willfully and deliberately offending in any one instance nor indulging himself in the practice of any thing which he knows to be a sin he is safe in the Accounts of the last Judgment and shall never come into Condemnation Nay if he has been a damnable offender and has willfully transgressed either in one instance or in many in frequent repetitions of his sin or in few yet if he repent of it before death seize him and amend it ere he is haled away to Judgment he is safe still For he shall be judged according as his works then are when God comes to enquire of them so that if ever he be found in an honest obedience observing everything which he sees to be his duty and willfully venturing upon nothing which his Conscience tells him is sinful he is found in the state of Grace and Pardon and if he die in it he shall be saved All his unwill'd ignorances and innocent unadvisednesses upon his Prayers for pardon and his mercifulness and forgiveness of other men shall be abated all his other causes of fear and scruple shall be overlooked they shall not be brought against him to his Condemnation but in the honest and entire obedience which he hath performed in that shall he live If then we have an honest heart and walk so as our own Conscience has nothing whereof to accuse us we may meet Death with a good Courage and go out of the World with comfortable Expectations For if we have an honest and a tender heart whensoever we sin willfully and against our Consciences our own Souls will be our Remembrancers They will be a witness against us both whilst we are in this World and after we are taken out of it and brought to Judgment Mens Consciences says the Apostle shall accuse or excuse them in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men according to my Gospel Rom. 2.15 Indeed if men have harden'd their hearts in wickedness and sin'd themselves out of the belief of their duty having come to call evil good and good evil then their Consciences having no further sense of sin will have no accusations upon it But if they really believe the Gospel and study to know their duty and desire to observe it and are afraid to offend in any thing which they see is sinful whilst thus their heart is soft and their Conscience tender they cannot venture upon any sin with open Eyes but that their own hearts will both check them before and smite them afterwards They will have a witness against them in their own bosoms which will scourge and awake them so that they cannot approach death without a sense of their sin nor go out of the World without discerning themselves to be guilty If our own Conscience then cannot accuse us of the wilful and presumptuous breach of any of Gods Commandments and we know