failings which are our unavoidable ones because we have no power to avoid where we have no liberty to will and chuse and since they are such as we cannot help they are such likewise as God pities and such as the Gospel doth not punish but graciously pardon and dispense with CHAP. III. Of the nature and danger of voluntary sins The CONTENTS The nature of a wilfill and a deliberate sin Why it is called a despising of Gods Law a sinning presumptuously and with a high hand Wilfull sins of two sorts viz. some chosen directly and expresly others only indirectly and by interpretation Of direct and interpretative volition Things chosen in the latter way justly imputable Of the voluntary causes of inconsideration in sins of commission which are drunkenness an indulged passion or a habit of sin Of the power of these to make men inconsiderate The cause of inconsideration in sins of omission viz. Neglect of the means of acquiring virtue Of the voluntariness of all these causes Of the voluntariness of drunkenness when it may be looked upon as involuntary Of the voluntariness of an indulged passion mens great errour lies in indulging the beginnings of sin Of the voluntariness and crying guilt of a habit of sin Of the voluntariness of mens neglect of the means of virtue No wilfull sin is consistent with a state of Grace but all are damning A distinct account of the effect of wilfull sins viz. when they only destroy our acceptance for the present and when moreover they greatly wound and endanger that habitual virtue which is the foundation of it and which should again restore us to it for the time to come These last are particularly taken notice of in the accounts of God HAving thus clearly shown in the General that all the dispensation and allowance for our consistent slips under the Gospel comes not from the nakedness and want of penalty in any of Christs Laws but only from the imperfection and involuntariness of our own actions I will descend now to consider particularly what those consistent slips and transgressions are In the management whereof I shall shew these two things First That our voluntary and chosen sins and transgressions of any of Christs Laws are not consistent with a state of Grace and Salvation but are deadly and damnable Secondly That our involuntary and unchosen slips are consistent and such as Christs Gospel doth not eternally threaten but graciously bear and dispense with First I say No voluntary sin or chosen transgression of any of Christs Laws is consistent with a state of Grace and Salvation but is deadly and damning To make this out it will be very requisite to show 1. What sinfull actions are voluntary and chosen And 2. That none of them is consistent with a state of Grace but deadly and damning 1. What sins and transgressions are voluntary and chosen Then we commit a wilfull chosen sin when we see and consider of the sinfulness of any action which we are tempted to and after that choose to act and perform it Every chosen sin is a sin against Knowledge for the will is a blind faculty and can choose nothing till our mind proposeth it All choice is an act of Reason and Vnderstanding a preferring one thing before another and we must view and consider both before we can prefer either That which suggests the sinfulness of any action to us and sets the evil of it before us when we are about to choose it is our Conscience For God has placed this Monitor of every mans Duty in every mans breast to tell him upon every occasion what he requires from him And till such time as men have debauched their understandings into a gross mistake of their Duty so as to call Evil Good and Good Evil and God in his just anger has given them up to a reprobate mind or a mind void of judgment their own consciences will keep them in mind of Gods Laws and not suffer them to transgress without reproof So that every wilfull sin is a sin against a mans own mind or conscience Nay further so long as mens hearts are soft and their consciences are tender and before such time as they are wholly enslaved to their appetites and quite hardened in sin their consciences especially in some great and frightfull instances will not only suggest and represent their Duty but argue also and debate against their lusts for the practice and performance of it And then men are not won at the first offer nor consent to fulfill the sin upon the first assault of the temptation but are drawn in after a long deliberation and debate and dispute the matter with themselves before they submit to it For when mens consciences do not nakedly suggest but moreover plead the cause and urge the observance of their Duty there are arguments on both sides to render the choice at first somewhat doubtfull The Law of God promises an infinite reward to the action of obedience and threatens an endless punishment if we disobey both which are future and to be expected in the next world And the temptation inducing us to sin presents us with a fair shew of sensitiv pleasure profit or honour if we practise and threatens us with all the contrary evils if we neglect it both which it sets before us as things present to be felt and enjoy'd by us even now whilst we are here in this world Now these are great motives on both sides each of them bidding fair for our consent Our minds or consciences suggest the first and our fleshly appetites and carnal reason represent the latter and for a good while these two advocates solicite the cause on both sides and distract and divide our wills between them So that when at last the temptation doth overcome and the Law of Lust in the members prevails over the Law of God in the mind yet is that after a strife and a war after a tedious toyle and much contention And these wilfull sins because we underwent a great conflict in our own minds about them and past through a long deliberation in an alternate succession of desires and aversations hopes and fears imperfect choices and refusals e're the consent of our wills was gain'd over to the commission of them are call'd deliberate sins Every wilfull chosen sin then is a sin against knowledge and against conscience when our own heart rebukes and checks us at the time of sinning telling us that God hath forbidden that which we are about to do notwithstanding which we presume to do it And if it happen to be in an instance that is greatly criminal and frightfull unto Conscience which therefore puts us upon demurs and creates dispute and arguing then is it not only a known but a deliberate sin also Nay where we have time and there is a sufficient space to consider in between the opportunity and the action if we know that the action is sinfull and are not in
do so too he should be least or none at all in the Kingdom of Heaven ver 19. Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer sin to rest upon him I am the Lord who will surely punish thee if thou neglect this Lev. 19.17 18. But when any man by such charitable admonition doth convent a Sinner from the errour of his way let him for his encouragement know this says S t James that he shall save a soul of him who is reproved from death and besides that shall hide also a multitude of his own sins James 5.19 20. And as for the method of performing this what course we are to take and how far we are to proceed in it our Saviour has set that down according to what had obtained in the Jewish custom Matth. 18. For there in the case of private injuries which are no fit Subject of Church censures that are exercised only upon open and scandalous Sinners he prescribes thus If thy Brother shall trespass against thee take this course to reclaim him Go first and tell him of his fault privately between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee and amend upon thy admonition thy work is done and without any more ado thou hast gained thy Brother But if he be not to be won thus easily and will not hear thee admonishing him thus privately by thy self alone then give not over but go one step further take with thee one or two more to join with thee in thy admonition that by the authority of their concurrence he may be the more prevail'd upon and that the reproof now appearing not in thy mouth alone but also in the mouths of thy two or three Witnesses every word may have the more effect and be the firmlier established And if he shall be incorrigible still and neglect to hear both thee and them too yet give him not over for a lost man but try one means more which is the last that I enjoin thee Pick out a select Assembly and choice Company of men who are more in number than thou tookest before and tell it unto that Church or Assembly and reprove him before all them But if he prove obstinate against this last means and neglect to hear them then thou hast discharged thy self and needest to look no further after him but mayest let him be unto thee thenceforward as a lost and hardened man whose Conversion thou art no longer bound in vain to labour after such as we are wont to express by a heathen man and a Publican ver 15 16 17. Take heed lest by any means this Christian Liberty of yours become a stumbling Block or scandal to those that are weak by seducing and encouraging them on the authority of your example to do that against their Conscience which you who know more do according to it and so through thy knowledge shall the weak Brother perish for whom Christ dyed But when ye sin so against the Brethren and by such unrestrained liberty wound their weak Consciences you sin against Christ 1 Cor 8.9 11 12. It is a most uncharitable thing and without Charity all things else will profit nothing 1 Cor. 13.3 For if thy Brother be grieved or scandalized with thy liberty in meat or other things now walkest thou not charitably if for all that thou abstain not from it destroy not him therefore with thy meat for whom Christ dyed Rom. 14.15 But if any man will still be prone to give offence his Sentence is severe and dreadful For he that shall offend or scandalize one of these little Ones which believe in me it were better for him that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Matth. 18.6 And thus are all the particular Laws of Charity and Justice also imposed with the same strictness and under the same necessity with the former And that the sanction is the same in the Particulars of the next Class viz. Peace will appear by what follows Follow peace with all men without which no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 It is not enough that we accept of it when it is offered but we must enquire it out and seek after it nay if it be denied us at first we must endeavour after it still and ensue it when it flyes from us and that not coldly or carelesly with weak desires or little industry but with the greatest concern and utmost diligence that possibly we can He that will love life and see good days saith S t Peter let him seek peace and ensue it 1 Pet. 3.10 11. Be of the same mind saith S t Paul among those Laws which he enjoins by his Apostolical Authority Rom. 12. one towards another mind not high things but condescend to men of low estate If it be possible and as much as in you lies live peaceably with all men ver 16 18. Yea we must pay dear for it rather than want it and bear long and suffer much from men before we contend with them and use all arts and shew all kindness to pacifie and reconcile them Not rendring evil for evil or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing or benediction knowing this That we are thereunto called in Christianity that from our Lord Christ who was so exemplary for it we should inherit this Vertue of speaking well and kindly of men or blessing 1 Pet. 3.9 I say unto you says our Saviour resist not the evil or injurious man which is the way to inflame and consummate contention but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also and if any man will sue thee at the Law and take away thy Coat bear a little more and rather than contend with him let him have thy Cloak also Mat. 5.39 40. Which Precepts with all the others delivered in that Sermon are bound upon us as was observed under the forfeiture of all right to happiness and Heaven ver 19. The wisdom which cometh from above and which must raise us thither is peaceable saith S t James Jam. 3.17 And S t Paul reckons it as one of the Commandments which were given to the Thessalonians by the Lord Jesus that they should study even so as to be ambitious of it to be quiet or to acquiesce in their present state and not to interrupt the quiet and tranquillity of other men and to do their own business 1 Thess. 4.2 11. The method of procuring pardon for injustice is prescribed thus in the Law of Moses If a man commit a trespass against another man and be guilty he shall come and recompence his trespass with the Principle thereof and over and above that add unto it the fifth part thereof more and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed Numb 5.6 7. And Christ
ignorance about it by having either never heard of it or quite forgot it we sin wilfully whether our conscience check us for it and we consider of it or no. For wheresoever we can consider we can choose there being motives on both sides sufficient to determine our choice on either And as for all those sins which we know whensoever we have time we can think and consider of them For all thought is free and if we have leisure we may employ it according to our own liking We cannot think 't is true of many things at once but we can consider of any one and employ our minds upon it when and how long we please So that in all such leisurely transgressions if we acted inconsiderately our inconsideration was our own fault and entred only because we suffered it and had a mind to it In all such actions therefore as we know are sinfull every transgression with time and leisure is voluntary and chosen For either we saw and considered it before we ventured on it or we might have seen it if we would Our thoughts indeed are our own so that even at such times as we have leisure to consider we may still if we please transgress without all consideration But if we do that is not our mishap but our fault and we must answer for it For where God has given us both Power and Time wherein to see and consider he most justly expects and will certainly exact at our hands an account of what is done as of a known and considerate action So that not only our considerate and deliberate transgressions but such others likewise as are unconsidered shall be judged wilfull sins if they are acted leisurely and are in such instances as we know are sinfull These sins of time and leisure of knowledge and of deliberation are our voluntary wilfull sins And as for them they are all of a heinous guilt and a crying nature every commission of them is a despising of Gods Law For when we sin wilfully both our duty and our sin being set before us and both being compared and thought of by us we despise and reject obedience to the Law and willingly and advisedly whilst we consider both prefer the obedience of our sin before it Upon which account our sinning wilfully is called a despising of the Law Hebr. 10.28 And forasmuch as such despising of the Law which is nothing less than the will of Almighty God who is most extreamly offended by it and can most severely punish it is an act of the greatest boldness and presumption therefore are our wilfull and chosen sins stiled in another word presumptuous sins Psal. 19.13 And since such presuming with open eyes to despise Gods Law is a profest rejecting of his Law and Authority an open casting off his yoke and rebelling against his Soveraignty doing willingly and advisedly what he forbids and setting up our own will in opposition to his which is the highest instance of pride and insolence and opposing God therefore are our wilfull sins said to be acted through rebellious pride and with a high hand Numb 15.30 31. But now as for these sins which being thus considered and deliberate are voluntary and chosen they are not all either considered or deliberated of willed or chosen in the same way For even among our wilfull sins we must observe this difference First Some of them are chosen expresly and directly Secondly Others are chosen only indirectly and by interpretation 1. Some sins are chosen expresly and directly And such are all those sinfull actions whereto the consideration and thoughts of our minds are particularly directed and which we eye and view before we choose and act them They are such sins whereat we deliberate and pause doubt and demur when we have a conflict and dispute in our own minds whether we should commit or keep off from them And such direct choice and express volition happens when men sin with some tenderness and sense of conscience They cannot choose the sin as soon as it is offered but they undergo a succession of fears and desires For the temptation solicites them to work the sin and their conscience being awakened by Gods Law would deter them from it so that they have a particular and express consideration of both sides before they act either As for this way of sinning therefore by express choice and direct volition it is incident ordinarily not to all sinners whatsoever but only to those of a middle rate whose consciences being not quite hardened as yet make them transgress with reluctance and remorse But besides these there are 2. Other sinfull actions which are not chosen directly and expresly but only indirectly and by interpretation By an indirect and interpretative choice I mean an express choice of such a state of things as makes some sinfull actions after that to be no longer a matter of free choice but almost necessary and unavoidable For some things are in our power at first either to do or omit them but by some free actions of our own we can if we will put that power out of our own hands so as afterwards we cannot if we would keep off from them Thus a servant for instance who is strong and healthy can if he please perform his masters will and do what he requires of him But if he choose either to maim his body or to impair his health he has parted with his own ability and his omission of the things enjoyned him after that is no longer a matter of choice but of necessity A wealthy man can easily if he will give every man his own and honestly discharge those debts wherein he may stand ingaged to other men But if he choose to waste his estate and to throw away his riches he is no longer able to do what he should but detains the goods of other men thenceforward not because he will not but for that he cannot help it Now these omissions of the lame sick servant and this dishonesty of the impoverished man in this necessitous state of things whereinto they have thrown themselves are no matter of particular and express choice because as the case stands it is not in their power to refuse them But yet they were chosen by them indirectly and in the general when they chose to put themselves into this necessitous state wherein being once placed they should not have the power thenceforward to avoid them So that indirectly and implicitely they have chosen to do that which particularly and directly it is not at their choice to avoid And because that which they do now under this necessity of their own making is interpreted to them and charged upon them by virtue of their former choice as if now in every particular they did expresly choose it therefore do I say it is chosen by Interpretation i. e. it is imputed to them and may be exacted of them as if they had chosen it expresly This then is an
of several of his dearest Saints who have experienced the truth of it By all which it appears that so long as we are guilty of no other slips but such as these we are safe in Gods favour and secure of his promises we shall be accepted by him although we live and dye in them And thus at length it appears what sins are truly and innocently involuntary viz. those which are acted ignorantly and unwittingly and that they do not unsaint a man or destroy his state of Grace and Salvation but consist with it CHAP. V. Of these involuntary and consistent sins particularly and of the first cause of innocent involuntariness viz. Ignorance The CONTENTS A twofold knowledge necessary to choice viz. a general understanding and particular consideration Consistent sins are either sins of ignorance or of inconsideration Of sins involuntary through ignorance of the general Law which makes a duty How there is still room for it in the world Of crying sins which are against Natural 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 pursute of another the great errour upon this score is in the case of zeal Fifthly The clashing of Laws with opinions or prejudices BUt in regard this consistence of our ignorant and unconsidered slips is a matter of so great account in the quieting and comforting of troubled and fearfull Consciences I will yet proceed to enquire of it more distinctly and to shew what particular ignorances those are which will cause that innocent involuntariness which Christs Gospel doth not punish as has been already shewn but graciously dispense with To him that knows to do good saith S t James and doth it not to him 't is sin Jam. 4.17 And the reason why it is so is this because that sin which a man knows and sees he wills and chooses but if he commit sin when he sees it not it is not imputed to him for a sin because it is not chosen by him That we may clearly understand then what ignorance renders any sin involuntary and therefore unpunishable it is very proper to enquire what knowledge is necessary unto choice and fit to make any sin to be esteemed voluntary and chosen Now to our choice of any sin there is a two-fold knowledge necessary First An habitual and general knowledge that the action is sinfull Secondly An actual use and exercise of that knowledge in a particular animadvertence and express thinking upon what we know which is consideration Both these are necessary to a chosen sin for we must both know an action to be a sin and also actually bethink our selves and consider of its sinfulness before we can be said to chuse the sin and wilfully to disobey in it 1. Before we can be said to chuse the sinfulness of any action it is necessary that we know habitually and in the general that the action whensoever it is committed is sinfull I call that an habitual and general knowledge when we are not to learn of any sinfull action that there is a Law that forbids it nor are in any doubts or darkness in our own thoughts whether it be a sin or no. But if it is proposed to our minds they are already resolved about it and need not further to enquire of it they know and judge it to be a sin when they are asked the question and that is their standing opinion and fixt perswasion And this knowledge because it is no more of one particular action than of another I call general and because it is fixt and permanent having grown into a lasting impression and habitual judgment of the mind I call an habitual knowledge Now that we may be said to chuse to sin and disobey in any particular action it is necessary that we have this general and habitual knowledge of its sinfulness For if we do not understand that although we do chuse the action yet we cannot be esteemed to chuse the sin since our will may be all the while innocent and obedient and ready to refuse the action if it were made to see that it is sinful We can have no choice of that whereof we have no apprehension for the will as it is truly said is a blind faculty and can chuse nothing till it be represented and proposed to it by the understanding So that if our minds are in darkness about any action and have no knowledge of its being forbidden our wills can have no share in chusing of the sin but since it was unknown it must be also involuntary and unchosen But besides this general and habitual knowledge of the sinfulness of any action there is moreover necessarily required to our choice of it 2. An actual use and exercise of that knowledge in a particular animadvertence and express thinking upon what we know which is consideration For there is no knowledge that directs and influences our choice further than we actually attend to it and consider of it but if at any time we did not think of it it is all one as if we did not know it Nothing is a motive to our will further than it is heeded and attended to at the time of willing and unless we see and consider of it then when we are to chuse upon it For in this Case the Civilians Maxim is very true That which doth not appear to be is of no more account than if really it were not at all That any sin then may be said to be willed and chosen by us it is necessary that it occur to our thoughts and be present to our minds at the time of chusing of it For if we transgress when we do not think of it our heart may be innocent all the while and our will incur no disobedience at all since if we did but consider of the sin we would by no means embrace but utterly refuse it So that all that can be charged upon us in such Cases is only the hast and errour of our understandings but not any rebellion in our wills for our heart is good although the outward action appear to be evil Now since both a general knowledge and a particular consideration are necessary in every wilful and chosen sin the involuntariness of any transgressions may arise from the want of either of them So that those sins are justly reputed to be involuntary and unchosen which proceed 1. From the want of the general knowledge
most eminently skill'd in all the Laws of God S t Paul is not certain but that some such ignorance adhered to himself I know or am conscious of nothing by my self saith he but yet I am not hereby justified because some such sins may have escaped my knowledge 1 Cor. 4.4 Why sayes S t Chrysostome should the Apostle say that he is not thereby justified although he is conscious of nothing by himself wherefore he should be condemned because it might so happen that he had committed several acts of sin which at the time of action for all his knowledge of the Laws themselves he did not know were sinfull And this is no more than holy David the man after Gods own heart thought he had reason to suspect himself for before him who says he can understand his errours cleanse thou me from my secret faults Psal. 19.12 The best men in all times whether Jews or Christians have been subject to miscarriages through this sort of ignorance and God who is never wanting to the necessities of his servants has alwayes provided a sufficient atonement and propitiation for them For under the Law if any honest Israelite happen'd to do any thing which was forbidden to be done by the Commandment of the Lord and wist not that it was forbidden Moses appointed the Priests to make an expiation for him and several atonements for that purpose are set down Levit. 4. And under the Gospel our Saviour Christ by whom Grace and Favour is said to be given much more largely than it was by the Law of Moses has provided us of a much more powerfull and valuable propitiation He himself by virtue of his own sacrifice atones for all such unknown offences as well as the Jewish Priests did by their Sacrifices which were prescribed in the Law of Moses For in comparison of the two Priesthoods as to that part of their Office which lay in making these atonements S t Paul assures us that like as the Jewish Priests had so Christ can have compassion upon the ignorant Heb. 5.2 As for those transgressions then which are therefore involuntary and unchosen because we do not know that the Law which they are against doth comprehend them they shall not finally damn any man So long as we have an honest heart that is ready to perform what it knows and unfeignedly desirous and industrious to know more that it may perform it likewise if in some things still we happen ignorantly to offend such ignorant offences shall not prove our ruine For our ignorance will excuse our sin and make it consistent with Gods Favour and with all the hopes and happiness of heaven Nay even where our heart is not so honest as it should be and we are ignorant of the present actions being comprized under that sin which the Law forbids through our own fault yet even there our ignorance although it cannot wholly excuse doth still extenuate our sin and proportionably abate our punishment Perhaps it is our rashness or inconsiderateness or violent pursuit of some opinions and prejudice against others which makes us judge wrong of some particular actions and not to see that they are included in the prohibition of some known Law when really they are Nay so far may our mistake go as not only to judge them to be no sinfull breaches of these Laws but moreover to be virtuous performances of others For our Saviour tells his Disciples that the time was coming when even they who killed them should think that thereby they did God good service Joh. 16.2 And S t Paul sayes plainly that he verily thought with himself that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth Acts 26.9 All which murders and persecutions they were ignorantly guilty of not as if they did not know the Laws against murder and persecution but because they thought their present actions to be unconcern'd in them and not forbid by them nay on the contrary to be warranted and injoyn'd by other Laws requiring zeal for God and judgment against false Prophets Now this Ignorance was such as they might very well have prevented had they been calm and considerate humble and teachable and would have hearkned honestly and with an even mind to that evidence which Christ gave of his being the Messiah which was sufficient to convince any honest mind And this patience humility and teachableness were in their own Power to have exercised if they would so that they were ignorant in good measure through their own choice and by a wilful neglect of those means which would have brought them to a true belief and a right understanding And since their Ignorance was thus a matter of their own choice it is their sin and they must answer for it But although being as I say their own fault it could not wholly excuse yet was it fit to lessen and mitigate their crime and to abate their punishment Their account should be less by reason of their Ignorance and the sinfull actions being committed with an honest heart through a misguided understanding were much more prepared for pardon than otherwise they would have been And this Christ himself has plainly taught us when he uses it as an argument with his Father for the forgiveness of that sinfull murder of the Jews whereof they were guilty in his Crucifixion Father sayes he forgive them for they know not what they do their killing of me they take to be no sinful murther of an innocent and anointed person but a virtuous execution of a lying Prophet Luk. 23.34 And this likewise S t Paul experienced I obtained Mercy sayes he for persecuting the Church of God because I did it ignorantly not thinking it to be a sinfull persecution but a pious service 1 Tim. 1.13 Yea if the culpaâ—le ignorance be either of the Law it self or of our present actions being contained under it â—â—though God should not call us to repentance for what we ignorantly committed and so to pardon yet even unpardoned we shall undergo a much lighter punishment by reason of our ignorance than we should have suffered had we sinned in knowledge For in this Point the words of our Lord and Judge are express He who knew not his Masters will and did things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes Luke 12.48 This allowance the Gospel makes for our sinful actions so long as we are ignorant that the Laws which they are against do include and comprehend them Whilst our Consciences are in darkness about them and we do not see that we transgress in them though that ignorance were in good measure culpably wilful we should obtain a milder punishment but if it were involuntary and innocent we shall be fully acquitted and excused This allowance I say there is whilst our sin is ignorant and our Consciences do not see that the known Law is transgressed by our sinful action But if our Consciences should come to know so
one sort or other 1 Joh. 1.9 I should recite almost the whole New Testament if I were to repeat all that the Scriptures affirm in this point But by what I have already offered I take it to be clear beyond all doubt and scruple that the Gospel-Covenant is a Covenant of remission of sins upon repentance God most earnestly desires that we should repent and he is most truly and faithfully willing to forgive us all our former sins upon our true repentance Nay I might add he is not only willing but extremely joyful and glad of the occasion For it is his highest pleasure to go out and meet a returning Soul and the joy of his heart to embrace a reclaimed Penitent as our Saviour has most clearly intimated to us in the most welcome reception of the returning Prodigal Luk. 15.11 12 c. There is a general joy in the Heavenly Court says our Saviour again and in the presence of all the Angels of God even over any one sinner that repenteth Luk. 15.10 nay there is more joy over one penitent than there is over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance v. 7. Thus had God provided us of a means which will most certainly restore us to his favour He has not left us in our forlorn state but has prescribed us this method of repentance to recover us out of it and to be the great Instrument of our Pardon and Reconciliation And this remedy is adequate to all our needs and able to regain all that which our sins at any time have made us lose For it will repair the breach upon all sorts of offences whether they be our known or unknown our voluntary or involuntary sins Of all which I shall now proceed to speak particularly This remedy of repentance I say God has fitted for all sorts of transgressions whether they be 1. Our known or 2. Our unknown and secret sins 1. Our unknown and secret sins have the benefit of this remedy and that whereupon God will pardon them is a general repentance and a general prayer for forgiveness As for several both of our voluntary and involuntary sins they are secret and concealed from us and quite without our knowledge and remembrance We are wholly ignorant and in the dark about them and our Consciences have no more sense of them than they have of those which we were never guilty of For as for our involuntary sins in some of them we are wholly ignorant and never think them sinful and in others we are inconsiderate and do not many times observe that we sin in them And as for our voluntary and wilful sins though we know full well and observe when we at first commit them yet doth our knowledge of them as of other things slip out of our minds by degrees and through length of time and throng of other thoughts at last we quite forget them And these sins being thus quite out of our thoughts and wholly secret and unknown to us we cannot particularly either beg pardon for them or repent of them We cannot I say particularly beg pardon for them For no man can become a suiter in behalf of he knows not whom nor recommend any thing to Gods mercy before he has discovered it himself And since these particular sins are secret and unknown they cannot be the matter of a particular prayer and recommendation Nor can we particularly repent of them As for our wilful sins indeed whether we remember them or have forgot them the case is the same as to one prime part of a particular repentance viz. our forsaking of them and beginning to obey that particular known Law which we had wilfully sinned against We must retract every voluntary sin by a voluntary obedience and without this we can have no just hopes of pardon For there is no hopes of salvation to any man but upon a particular obedience to all known Laws so that when once he sees and understands a Duty he must obey it particularly before he can expect to live by it But now as for those Laws which are transgressed by our wilful sins they are all known since we could not will and chuse to disobey them unless we saw and knew our selves to be bound by them So that whether we had sinned against them formerly or no whether we remember it or have forgot it obedience to them is our present Duty and a Duty too so necessary that without it we cannot be saved If therefore we have sinned against any such known Law we must amend it and leave off wilfully to repeat it for our obedience to all them is necessary to our pardon and whether we remember or have forgot that we transgressed formerly as to the present it is all one for we must chuse to obey now As for our wilful sins then which being long since acted are now quite forgotten and unknown one great act of a particular repentance is necessary to their pardon viz. conversion or new obedience and reformation For all wilful sins are transgressions of known Laws and whether a man has broken or kept it formerly a present obedience in all chosen actions to every such particular Law is necessary to put him into a state of mercy and salvation But as for other acts of a particular repentance viz. confession sorrow detestation and the like there is no place for them about any of our Secret whether they be voluntary or involuntary sins For no man can confess he knows not what nor grieve he understands not why nor hate and detest he knows not whom so that he must particularly know his sins before he can be thus particular in his repentance of them A particular prayer and repentance then have no place about our unknown sins they are not capable to be exercised about them and therefore they cannot be exacted for the pardon of them But that prayer and repentance whereof they are capable and whereupon God will graciously forgive them is indefinite and general These may very well be used about them For we may all understand thus much by our selves that we are all Sinners and are guilty of much more than we know and can remember Several sins slipt from us at first without our knowledge and observation and several others which were at first observed were afterwards forgotten And when we know this general number although we are not able to recover any particular instance we may very well be sorry for it and beg God to forgive it and so expiate them as much as may be by a general prayer and repentance And this remedy God has assigned for our unknown sins and when we make use of it he will forgive them Holy David was very sensible that he laboured under many such secret faults and by this means of a general penitential prayer he endeavours to procure their pardon Who says he can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from my secret faults Psal. 19.12 And because such
indirect and interpretative choice even in actions which in the particulars are necessary viz. when that was deliberated of and chosen which made them so All our actions in a necessitous state are indirectly and interpretatively voluntary and chosen when the necessity it self is of our own choosing In the particulars 't is true we are not free to refuse them but the reason why we are not is because we our selves chuse to be so For although our present actions are necessary yet once it was in our power to have kept them free and that which causes us now to act indeliberately and without consideration was it self once freely deliberated of and chosen So that all those actions which are now necessary in the particulars were as the Schools speak voluntary in the cause which is an indirect choice and interpretative volition And as for those actions which are chosen only indirectly and implicitely viz. in the free choice of that cause which made them afterwards to be all necessary they may very fairly be imputed to us and interpreted to be our own For in all reason the natural and immediate effects of a mans own free and deliberate choice may be charged upon him and if he chooses his necessity it is fit that he should answer for it and bear the punishment of those sins which he commits under it What is a matter of any mans choice may be an article of his accusation and a matter of his punishment also But now as for this necessity of sinning it is a necessity of mens own choosing For they wilfully threw themselves into it in choosing the cause of it and so may very justly be made to answer for all that which they commit under it All the effects of their present necessity if they are traced up will terminate upon their own will for they hang upon that file of actions which had beginning from their own choice and being thus chosen by them they may justly be charged upon them As for such effects indeed as are so remote that a mans understanding in the honest and sincere use of it cannot see them although he do choose the cause yet neither God nor men will look upon him to have chosen them For there can be no choice where there is no knowledge because a man must see a thing before he will and choose it But when effects lye near and obvious to any ordinary capacity if it do but use an honest diligence as most mens necessity of sinning doth to those free actions which produce it there it is only mens sloth and negligence if they do not discern it and if they chuse blindfold when if they would open their eyes they might see it is all one in God's account as if they did see it For it is against all reason in the world that the sinful neglects of men should take away 〈◊〉 rights of God He has given them faculties wherewith to see things before they chuse them and he requires that they should And if they will not use them that is their own fault but what he requires of them he will still exact and punish them for what is done as for a chosen action So that as for those sins which men have chosen in their next and discernable Cause although they are not free to chuse or refuse them in the Particulars themselves they are a part of their account at the last Judgment What is chosen indirectly and by interpretation is looked on as their own and if it be evil will be imputed to them for their condemnation But now several of mens sins are of this last sort For as we saw of some particular actions that they are chosen in the Particulars directly and expresly so are there likewise several others which in the Particulars cannot be refused but were chosen in the general in the free choice of that Cause which has made them all afterwards necessary so that they are voluntary only indirectly and chosen by interpretation For there is nothing so common in the World as for men by their free choice of some sins to bring themselves into a necessity of others they freely will and chuse some which necessarily cause and effect more Now those things which may bring men into this necessity are such and so many as make them inconsiderate and hasty For therefore it is that in the Particulars we cannot expresly chuse or refuse several sins because we cannot stay particularly and expresly to consider of them We have brought our selves to such a pass that they slip from us without reasoning and enquiring about them For either our understanding is diverted that it cannot or so well acquainted with them that it need not look upon them to observe and consider them And since we do not particularly consider of them when they come we cannot expresly will and chuse them but forasmuch as we chose the cause of this inconsideration we are said to chuse them indirectly and by interpretation And as for the wilful and chosen Causes of such inconsideration I shall discourse of them under these two sorts viz. as causing such inconsideration in sins either 1. Of commission or doing what is forbidden 2. Of omission or neglecting to do what is commanded 1. For those causes of inconsideration in our sins of commission which make us venture on them without all doubt or disquisition they are these First Drunkenness Secondly Some indulged passion Thirdly Habit or custom of sinning For all these when once we have consented to them take away either wholly or in great measure all further freedom and make us will and chuse what is evil indeliberately and without consideration First As for Drunkenness we find daily in those persons who are subject to it that it so disorders and unsettles all the intellectual powers that they have scarce any use of them at all For their memory fails and their judgment forsakes them They have no thoughts for that present time of good or evil of expedient or inexpedient Their reason is overwhelmed and quite asleep and there is nothing that is awake and active in them but their bodily lusts and sensual passions which then hurry them on to any thing that falls in their way without the least opposition So that they are wholly governed by their appetites and for that time unbridled passions of lust or cruelty or envy or revenge They blab out that which in their right wits they would conceal and do what in a sober mode they would condemn And so little is there of that reason and understanding in all their speeches and behaviour which appears in them when the drunken fit is over that any man may plainly see how for that present it is removed from them So that they act rashly and irrationally more like brute Beasts than men committing rapes or robberies or bloodshed or any other mad frolicks and sinful extravagancies without any deliberation or consideration at all And Secondly As for an
of both these so that unto it there is required First An honest heart Secondly An honest industry First In all involuntary ignorance it is necessary that we have an honest heart We have S t Paul's word for it that our receiving of the love of the truth is necessary to a saving belief and understanding of it They who believed not the truth but believed lyes fell into that miscarriage by this means says he because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved 2 Thess. 2.10 11 12. And our Saviour has taught us that an obedient heart is the surest step to a right understanding If any man will or is willing to do God's will he shall know of the Doctrine which I preach whether it be of God John 7.17 The heart or will must in the first place be obedient and unfeignedly desirous to know Gods will not that it may question and dispute but practise and obey it For a failure here spoils all besides because the Heart and Will is the Principle of all our actions and if it be against obeying any Law it will be also against understanding it and so will be sure to make us neglect and omit more or less the means of coming to the knowledge of it To prevent therefore all wilful defects afterwards care must be taken in the first place that our hearts be honest and truly desirous to be shewn our Duty be it what it will They must entertain no Lusts which will prejudice them against Gods Laws and make them willing either to overlook or to pervert them But they must come with an entire obedience and resignation being ready and desirous to hearken to whatsoever God shall say and resolv'd to practise it whensoever they shall understand it Of their sincerity in which last besides their own sense and feeling they cannot have a greater Argument than their being careful to be found in the practice of so much as they know already without which it is not to be expected that they should be perfecter in their practice by knowing more This Honesty and obedience of the Heart then is necessary in the first place to make our ignorance involuntary because we should wilfully omit the means of knowledge and become thereby wilfully ignorant if we wanted it But then as an effect of this Honesty of the heart to make our ignorance involuntary and innocent there is yet further required Secondly An honest Industry For the knowledge of our Duty as was observed is not to be got without our own search but we must inquire after it and make use of the means of obtaining it before we shall be possessed of it We must read good Books which will teach us Gods Will but especially the Bible we must be constant and careful to hear Sermons attend diligently to the instructions of our spiritual Guides whom God has set over us for that very purpose We must submit our selves to be catechised by our Governours taught by our Superiours and admonished by our Equals begging always a Blessing from God to set home upon our Souls all their instructions And after all we must be careful without prejudice or partiality to think and meditate upon those things which we read or hear that we may the better understand them and that they may not suddenly slip from us but we may remember and retain them All these are such means as God has appointed for the attainment of spiritual knowledge and laid in our way to a right understanding of his Will And they are such as he has placed in every mans power for any of us to use who are so minded So that if we are ignorant of our Duty through the want of them we are ignorant because we our selves would have it so But if ever we expect that our ignorance should be judged involuntary we must industriously use all those means of knowledge which are under the power of our own wills whereby we may prevent it And as for the measures of this industry viz. what time is to be laid out upon it and what pains are to be taken in it that is so much as in every one according to their several abilities and opportunities would be interpreted an effect of an honestly obedient heart and of an unfeigned desire to know our duty by any honest man For God has not given all men either the same abilities or opportunities for knowledge and since he has not he doth not expect the same measures from them He doth not reap where he has not sown but that which he exacts is that every man according to his opportunities should use and improve that talent be it more or less which was intrusted with him as we are taught in the Parable of the Talents Mat. 25. And to name that once for all we have this laid down by our Saviour as an universal maxime of Gods Government unto whomsoever much is given of them shall much be required Which is the very same equitable proceeding that is daily in use among our selves For to whom men have committed much of him they will exact the more Luk. 12.48 If any man therefore is industrious after the knowledge of Gods will according to the measure of those abilities and opportunities which God has given him he is industrious according to that measure which God requires of him All men have not the same leisure for some are necessarily taken up by their place and way of life in much business some in less some have their time at their own disposal some are subject to the ordering of others And all have not the same abilities and opportunities for some are able by study and reading to inform themselves some have constant need of the help and instruction of others some have most wise and understanding teachers and may have their assistance when they will others have men of meaner parts and attainments and opportunity of hearing them more seldom But now of all these whose leisure and opportunities are thus different God doth not in any wise exact the same measure No one shall be excused for what another shall be punished but if every man endeavours according to his opportunities he has done his Duty and God has accepted him And in the proportioning of this where there is first an honest heart God is not hard to please For he knows that besides their Duty men have much other business to mind which his own constitution of Humane Nature has made necessary and he allows of it The endeavours which he exacts of us are not the endeavours of Angels but of men who are soon wearied and much distracted having so many other things to employ us But he accepts of such a measure of industry in the use of all the means of knowledge as would be interpreted for an effect of an hearty desire to know his Laws by any honest man For where there is first an obedient heart God will not be equalled and
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 with Salvation Cautions about inconsiderate sins to prevent false confidence No sin is innocently inconsiderate 1. Where we have time and an undisturbed understanding 2. Where the sin is mischievous or greatly criminal 3. When we do not strive against it We must endeavour against all involuntary Failings though we cannot resolve against them 4. When we are not sorry after we have committed it nor beg pardon for it 5. When it is committed with observation A summary Repetition of this fourth Book HAving in the foregoing Chapters discoursed largely of the first cause of an innocent Involuntariness viz. Ignorance of our Duty or want of a general Knowledge I proceed now to the second viz. want of particular Animadvertence and Consideration of what we know which is Inconsiderateness And this is the second way of rendring our Transgressions pardonably involuntary which I proposed above namely when in any sinful action we do not bethink our selves and consider of its sinfulness It is not all knowledge of our Duty that renders every particular sin against it chosen and voluntary For a knowledge that is only general and at such time as the thing occurs to our thoughts and we are asked the Question will not do but as all our choice is of particular actions so must our knowledge be likewise Before we can be said to chuse a particular action we must see and know it particularly and if we act it without thinking we act it also without chusing seeing all choice is upon sight and knowledge of what is chosen But now this is the case in several of our Transgressions they slide from us without this actual application of our minds to them For we do not think and consider of the evil of them when we commit them and so their sinfulness being unseen it is withal unchosen They are of the number of our involuntary sins and such as implying nothing of our own will shall have nothing of Gods anger who will not punish but graciously bear with them And these slips stealing from us without our considering and thinking on them or adverting in the application of our minds to them are called by these several names which are all of the same signification viz. sins of inadvertency incogitancy and inconsideration Which because they are such as through the weakness of our Natures we are continually subject to and liable daily to incur are stiled in another word sins of daily incursion Now as for this second sort of sins our inconsiderate Transgressions they may steal from us involuntarily and innocently upon as many grounds as there may be innocent causes of inconsiderate actions And as for the unwill'd and therefore innocent causes of inconsideration they are reducible to these three 1. Suddenness and surprize of Opportunity 2. Weariness and 3. Discomposure and disturbance of our thinking powers wherewith we should consider 1. The first cause of inconsideration in our Actions whereupon we venture upon some sin without thinking or considering of it is the suddenness of the Opportunity and the surprize of Temptation It falls out unexpectedly and stays for us at such time as our minds are otherwise employ'd and so we act it without considering because it lyes ready and prepared for us just then when we have no leisure for thinking and consideration And the first beginnings of a sinful Passion whether of Anger of Envy c. and the unadvised slips of the Tongue in rash censuring in uncharitable speaking in indeliberate backbiting and the like generally enter this way For they come upon us in the throng of Conversation and opportunities are offered for them before we foresee them and so we spring out indeliberately to act and exert them And this inconsideration is such as we cannot avoid For we have no freedom of acting where we want a freedom of thinking seeing we cannot chuse without consideration But as for these inconsiderate slips they steal from us before we can bethink our selves and stay not for our consideration but run before it For our operative Powers when they are spurr'd on by any thing of an inward desire or of a remaining corrupt inclination and who as long as he lives here can be wholly free from it are ready of themselves to spring out into Action and Practice upon the first offer of Temptation and stand in need of reason and consideration not to raise and excite but to restrain and repress them So that upon the offer of a fit occasion we act many times amiss before we are aware and we cannot help it because we cannot deliberate and consider of it But as these slips of surprize are such as we cannot avoid so are they such withal wherefore God will not exact a severe account of us He will not punish but pity us for them and in great mercy dispense with them For they are necessarily incident to all men they have been incurr'd by his best servants but were never looked upon to be of that provoking nature as to put them out of his favour or to interrupt their state of salvation and acceptance Just Noah through his ignorance of the strength of Wine was surprized into one sin for he was drunken before he was aware or could discern what effects the fruits of his new Vineyard would have upon him Noah drank wine says Moses and was drunken Gen. 9.21 But this was perfectly a mixture of surprize and ignorance for his wits had left him before he was aware and before he ever knew that the Wine which he drunk would drive them from him For it was at his first planting of a Vineyard before he understood what measure of it would cause intoxication He began says the Text to be a Husbandman and he planted a Vineyard and he drank of the wine of his new Vineyard and was drunken v. 20 21. The great Apostle Paul himself was guilty of one sudden slip towards Ananias the High Priest who whilst his mind was intent upon his Speech which he was