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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A59581 The reward of diligence By Lewes Sharpe, rector of Moreton-Hampstead in the county of Devon. Sharpe, Lewes. 1679 (1679) Wing S3007D; ESTC R220244 49,063 109

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to the Grace and Mercy of a Saviour And because Jesus Christ told the Priests and Elders that the Publicans and Harlots did go into the Kingdom of God before them Mat. 21.31 Therefore say they the excess of wickedness is a better qualification to make men capable Subjects of regenerating Grace than moral Vertues and common Graces Sect. 47. Ans This Objection seemeth to intimate to us that God doth Love that which Nature it self doth Loath and as if that were nearest to God which is furthest from Goodness and that they which are more like Devils than men were most likely to become Christians and Heaven were beholding to Hell for Saints I cannot but think that Agrippa who was almost perswaded to be a Christian was better disposed towards Christianity than Saul was when he breathed out threatnings and slaughters against any that professed it Acts 9.1.2 and certainly the Scribe which was not far from the Kingdom of God Mar. 12.34 was fitter for and nearer to an entrance into it than those Scribes Pharisees and Hypocrites were who did shut the Kingdom of Heaven against others and would not go in themselves nor suffer those who were entring to go in Mat. 23.13 And the Young man which had observed all the Commandements of God from his youth up and yet lacked one thing Mar. 10.21 was not so much indisposed to the Power of Religion and so unmeet for the Kingdom of God as Ahab was when he sold himself to work Evil in the sight of the Lord 1 King 21.20 or any other which wanteth more things and rejecteth the Commandements of God and hath no fear of God before his eyes and speaketh against the Holy Ghost Hos 4.6 Rom. 3.18 Mat. 12.32 or as he who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctifyed an unholy thing and hath done despight unto the Spirit of Grace Heb. 10.29 For my part I cannot believe that he is ever likely to become a Saint who lives as if he were a Devil renouncing the dictates of Nature and the restraints of Grace Surely a just and an honest man is more nearly related to a Christian than a Thief or an Oppressor or a Deceiver and he that walketh humbly meekly soberly charitably instructing the Ignorant relieving the Poor extending compassions to the Prisoners and captives acknowledging his unworthiness by reason of Sin begging Pardon of God and falleth down and worshippeth God in hope of Reconciliation and Salvation as every one man doth which liveth in the practice of moral Vertues and common Graces is more likely to become a sound Believer than he which walketh proudly stubbornly riotously faring deliciously every day without regard to the hungry and needy scorning at Godliness and Honesty and despising the means of Grace and Mercy I shall conclude with the recital of the concurrent suffrage of the Profound Bradwardine A servile fear saith he a sight of some inconvenience and the moral habit of Vertue do very much withhold from Sin incline to good Works and so prepare and dispose to Charity and Grace and Works truly pleasing and acceptable Bradw De Gausa Dei l. 16. c. 37. With whom Mr. Robert Bolton consented who saith that moral Honesty and outward Religiousness are in themselves good and necessary and a good step to Christianity I now proceed to consider what Inferences and Consequences are deducible from my Position Sect. 48. First then the Reason why so few are spiritually converted and saved is because few do faithfully employ their Natural Abilities and common Graces or in the words of our Saviour because they seeing see not and hearing they hear not neither do they understand and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaias which saith by hearing they shall hear and shall not understand and seeing they shall see and not perceive for this peoples Heart is waxed gross and their Ears are dull of hearing and their Eyes have they closed lest at any time they should see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and should understand with their Hearts and should be converted and I should heal them Mat. 13.13 14 15. q. d. They have Faculties and Powers naturally capable of observing and understanding the Miracles I have wrought amongst them and the Doctrine I have preached to them and of receiving blessed Advantages from them but they have not stirred up themselves to the use of them this way but have carryed it as if they had neither Ears to hear what was said nor Eyes to see what was done nor reasonable Souls to perceive the End unto which both as Means referred and they are just such another sort of People as they were which the Prophet speaks of who were so judicially besotted by the predominancy of an obstinate stubborn Will that they wilfully stop their Ears and shut their Eyes and run on like mad Men upon their Ruine and Destruction they so perversely abuse their natural Abilities and common Graces as if they purposely signed to render themselves in disposed for and uncapable of Conversion and Salvation and by the just Judgment of God for their neglect and contempt of the means of Conversion and Salvation are so confirmed and hardened in their brutish Stupidity and Sensualities that they are never likely to become stirring and active in the use of their natural Abilities and gracious Assistances and therefore never likely to be converted and saved Sect. 49. There was never any man in the World at least under the Gospel who dyed in his Sins and was damned for them which endeavoured the best he could to be saved When God commandeth men to repent and to be converted that their Sins might be blotted out Act. 3.19 and to make a new Heart and a new Spirit and to turn themselves that they may not dye but live These Commands suppose that they have Powers naturally capable of yielding Obedience to them for otherwise these Commands would be grievous to them and God would tempt them above what they are able which his Justice and Goodness will not suffer him to do and being given to unregenerate men which are morally weakened by sinful corruptions and with an express reference to their corruptions which render them averse from and hinder the performance of Obedience to Gods Commands they also suppose such a supereffluence of gracious Power from God as is sufficient to remove this weakness and to conquer this Hinderance of obedience for otherwise they would not be capable Subjects of these and the like Laws and God would exact from them that which they could not do and would promise them forgiveness of Sin and Life upon an impossible condition which his Graciousness and Wisdom will not suffer him to do This as I conceive is the purport of the New Covenant founded upon Christs Mediatorial Obedience to relieve Man respectively to his Moral Impotency I mean to vouchsafe him sufficient Means to remove the hindrances he