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A61882 Fourteen sermons heretofore preached IIII. Ad clervm, III. Ad magistratvm, VII. Ad popvlvm / by Robert Sanderson ...; Sermons. Selections Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. 1657 (1657) Wing S605; ESTC R13890 499,470 466

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not see and more inexcusable because thou shuttest thine eyes against the light lest thou shouldst see and be converted and God should heal thee Briefly they wanted the light thou shunnest it they lived in darkness thou delightest in it their ignorance was simple thine affected and wilful And therefore although we doubt not but that the times of their ignorance God winked at yet thou hast no warrant to presume that God will also in these times wink at thee who rejectest the counsel of God against thine own soul and for want of love and affection to the truth art justly given over to strong delusions to believe fables and to put thy confidence in things that are lies So much for that matter Secondly here is a needful admonition for us all not to flatter our selves for our ignorance of those things that concern us in our general or particular Callings as if for that ignorance our reckoning should be easier at the day of judgement Ignorance indeed excuseth sometimes sometimes lesseneth a fault but yet not all ignorance all faults not wilful and affected ignorance any fault Nay it is so far from doing that that on the contrary it maketh the offence much more grievous and the offender much more inexcusable A heedless servant that neither knoweth nor doth his Masters will deserveth some stripes A stubborn servant that knoweth it and yet transgresseth it deserveth more stripes But worse than them both is that ungracious servant who fearing his Master will appoint him something he had rather let alone keepeth himself out of the way beforehand and mich●th in a corner out of sight of purpose that he might not know his Masters will that so he may after stand upon it when he is chidden and say He knew it not such an untoward servant deserveth yet more stripes Would the Spirit of God think you in the Scripture so often cal upon us to get the knowledge of Gods will and to increase therein or would he commence his suit against a land and enter his action against the people thereof for want of such knowledge if ignorance were better or safer O it is a fearful thing for a man to shun instruction and to say he desireth not the knowledge of God N●●uerunt intelligere ut bene agerent When men are once come to that pass that they will not understand nor seek after God when they hate the light because they take pleasure in the works of darkness when they are afraid to know too much lest their hearts should condemn them for not doing thereafter when like the deaf Adder they stop their ears against the voyce of the charmer for fear they should be charmed by the power of that voyce out of their crooked and Serpentine courses when they are so resolved to take freedom to sin that they chuse to be still Ignorant rather than hazard the foregoing of any part of that freedom what do they but even run on blindfold into hell and through inner poast along unto utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Frustrà sibi de ignorantiâ blandiuntur saith S. Bernard qui ut liberiùs peccent libenter ignorant Saint Paul so speaketh of such men as if their case were desperate If any man be ignorant let him be ignorant as who say if he will needs be wilful at his peril be it But as many as desire to walk in the fear of God with upright and sincere hearts let them thirst after the knowledge of God and his will as the Hart after the rivers of waters let them cry after knowledge and lift up their voices for understanding let them seek it as silver and dig for it as for hid treasures let their feet tread often in Gods Courts and even wear the thresholds of his house let them delight in his holy Ordinances and rejoyce in the light of his Word depending upon the ministery thereof with unsatisfied ears and unwearted attention and feeding thereon with uncloyed appetites that so they may see and hear and learn and understand and believe and obey and increase in wisedom and in grace and in favour with God and all good men But then in the third place consider that if all ignorance will not excuse an offender though some do how canst thou hope to finde any colour of excuse or extenuation that sinnest wilfully with knowledge and against the light of thine own conscience The least sin thus committed is in some degree a Presumptuous sin and carryeth with it a contempt of God and in that regard is greater than any sin of Ignorance To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is a sin saith Saint Iames Sin beyond all plea of excuse Saint Paul though he were a Persecutor of the Truth a Blasphemer of the Lord and injurious to the Brethren yet he obtained Mercy because he did all that ignorantly His bare ignorance was not enough to justifie him but he stood need of Gods mercy or else he had perished in those sins for all his ignorance But yet who can tell whether ever he should have found that mercy if he had done the same things and not in ignorance Ignorance then though it do not deserve pardon yet it often findeth it because it is not joyned with open contempt of him that is able to pardon But he that sinneth against knowledge doth Ponere obicem if you will allow the phrase and it may be allowed in this sense he doth not only provoke the Iustice of God by his sin as every other sinner doth but he doth also damb up the Mercy of God by his contempt and doth his part to shut himself out for ever from all possibility of pardon unless the boundless over-flowing mercy of God come in upon him with a strong tide and with an unresisted current break it self a passage through Do this then my beloved Brethren Labour to get knowledge labour to increase your knowledge labour to abound in knowledge but beware you rest not in your knowledge Rather give all diligence to adde to your knowledge Temperance and Patience and Godliness and brotherly kindeness and Charity and other good graces Without these your knowledge is unprofitable nay damnable Qui apponit scientiam apponit dolorem is true in this sense also He that increaseth knowledge unless his care of obedience rise in some good proportion with it doth but lay more rods in steep for his own back and increase the number of his stripes and adde to the weight and measure of his own most just condemnation Know this that although Integrity of heart may stand with some ignorances as Abimelech here pleadeth it and God alloweth it yet that mans heart is devoid of all singlenesse and sincerity who alloweth himself in any course he knoweth to be sinful or taketh this liberty to
reward for the service he did against Tyrus because therein though he neither intended any such thing nor so much as knew it he yet was the instrument to work Gods purpose upon and against Tyrus And then how much more will God reward temporally the service and obedience of such as purposely and knowingly endeavour an outward conformity unto the holy will and pleasure of God though with strong and predominant mixture of their owne corrupt appetites and ends therewithall Now the Reasons why God should thus outwardly reward the outward works of Hypocrites are First the manifestation of his own Goodnesse that we might know how willing he is to cherish the least spark of any goodness in any man be it natural or moral or whatever other goodnesse it be that he might thereby encourage us so to labour the improvement of those good things in us as to make our selves capable of greater rewards Secondly his Iustice and equity in measuring unto Sinners and Hypocrites exactly according to the measure they mete unto him They serve him with graces which are not true graces indeed he rewardeth them with blessings which are not indeed true blessings Somewhat they must do to God and therefore they affoord him a little temporary obedience and there is all the service he shall have from them Somewhat God will do for them and in requitall alloweth them a little temporary favour and there is all the reward they must look for from him Here is Quid pro Quo. They give God the outward work but without any hearty affection to him God giveth them the outward benefit but without any hearty affection to them For want of which hearty affection on both sides it cometh to passe that neither is the outward work truly acceptable to him nor the outward benefit truly profitable to them A third reason of Gods thus graciously dealing even with Hypocrites may be assigned with reference to his own dear Children and chosen for whose good especially next under his own glory all the passages of his divine providence both upon them and others are disposed in such sort as they are as for whose comfort this manner of proceeding maketh very much and sundry wayes as I shall by and by touch in the Inferences from this Observation whereunto I now come because it is time I should draw towards a Conclusion And first by what hath been already said a way is opened for the clearing of Gods Holinesse in these his proceedings If sometimes he temporally reward Hypocrites is it not either for their own or for their works sake as if he either accepted their Persons or approved their Obedience No it is but Lex Talionis he dealeth with them as they deal with him They do him but eye-service and he giveth them but eye-wages Indeed God can neither be deceived nor deceive yet as they would deceive God in their service with such obedience as falleth short of true obedience so they are deceived in their pay from him with such blessings as fall short of true blessings And all this may well stand with Gods both Iustice and Holinesse Secondly it appeareth from the premises that Gods thus dealing with wicked and unsanctified men in thus rewarding their outward good things giveth no warrant nor strength at all either to that Popish corrupt doctrine of Meritum congrui in deserving the first grace by the right use of Naturals or to that rotten principle and foundation of the whole frame of Pelagianisme Facienti quod in se est Deus non potest non debet denegare gratiam We know God rewards his own true and spirituall graces in us with increase of those graces here and with glory hereafter we see God rewardeth even false and outward and seeming graces natural and moral good things with outward and temporal favours And all this is most agreeable to his infinite both Iustice and Mercy and may stand with the infinite Purity and Holinesse of his nature But this were rather to make God an unjust and unholy God to bind him to reward the outward and sinfull works of Hypocrites for the best natural or moral works without grace are but such with true saving grace and inward sanctification Other Inferences and uses more might be added as viz. Thirdly for our Imitation by Gods example to take knowledge of and to commend and to cherish even in wicked men those natural or moral parts that are eminent in them and whatsoever good thing they do in outward actual conformity to the revealed will and law of God And fourthly for Exhortation to such as do not yet find any comfortable assurance that their obedience and good works are true and sincere yet to go on and not to grow weary of well doing knowing that their labour is not altogether in vain in as much as their works though perhaps done in Hypocrisie shall procure them temporal blessings here and some abatement withall I adde that by the way of stripes and everlasting punishment hereafter But I passe by all these and the like Uses and commend but one more unto you and that is it which I named before as one Reason of the point observed viz. the Comfort of Gods dear Children and Servants and that sundry wayes First here is comfort for them against a Temptation which often assaulteth them and that with much violence and danger arising from the sense and observation of the prosperity and flourishing estate of the wicked in this world We may see in the Psalmes and elsewhere how frequently and strongly David Iob and Ieremy and other godly ones were assailed with this temptation For thy instruction then and to arm thee against this so common and universal a temptation if thou shalt see fooles on horseback ungodly ones laden with wealth with honour with ease Hypocrites blessed with the fat of the earth and the due of heaven and abundance of all the comforts of this life yet be not thou discomforted at it or disquieted with it Do not fret thy self because of the ungodly neither be thou envious at evil doers Thou expectest for thine inward obedience an unproportionable reward in the life to come do not therefore grudge their outward obedience a proportionable reward in this life Some good things or other thou mayest think there are in them for which God bestoweth those outward blessings upon them But consider withall that as they have their reward here so they have all their reward here and whatsoever their present prosperity be yet the time will come and that ere long be when The hope of the Hypocrite shall wither and The end of the wicked shall be cut off Again here is a second Comfort for the godly against temporal afflictions and it ariseth thus As Gods love and favour goeth not alwayes with those temporal benefits he bestoweth so on the other side Gods wrath and displeasure goeth not alwayes with