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
as in all sins of ignorance 2. From the want of particular animadvertence as in all sins of inconsideration 1. The first Cause of an innocent and pardonable involuntariness is ignorance of our Duty when we venture to do what God forbids because we do not know that he has forbidden it And this ignorance may enter upon two accounts either First From our ignorance or mistake of the Law it self when we know not that God has made any such Law as our present action is a transgression of Or Secondly From our ignorance or mistake of the thing it self which the Law enjoins or forbids when we know not that our present action comes under that which in the known Law is enjoined or forbidden Thus for instance a man may sin by backbiting censoriousness c. either because he knows not that backbiting and censoriousness are things prohibited or because he knows not that what he doth is censuring and backbiting And either way the errour may be confined to his understanding and the transgression be no where else but in his mind but may not reach his heart or will at all For he would neither utter the backbiting nor censorious word if he knew that it were against God's will but for this very reason he ventures on them because he knows not that actions of that kind are forbidden or that his is of that forbidden kind of actions First The first sort of ignorance which can effect an innocent involuntariness is our ignorance of the general Law which makes a Duty when we know not that God has given any such Commandment as our present action is a transgression of All the Laws of Christ are not known by every man but some are ignorant of one or other of them Nay there is no man how perfect soever his knowledg of them be at present but at some time he did not know them He had a time of learning before he attained to a compleat understanding of them For our knowledge of them as of all things else is gradual it goes on by steps and from the notice of one proceeds to the notice of another So that even the wise and learned themselves do not at all times see all those things which Christ has required of them but pass through a long time of ignorance before they arrive at that pitch of compleat knowledge But then there are others who have neither abilities nor opportunities to know every particular Law of Christ in a longer time nor some it may be in their whole lives For how many men are there in the world whose understanding is slow and who come to apprehend things with great difficulty And as their faculties are narrow so are their opportunies very small For although they are most heartily willing and desirous to see all that God has required of them that they may keep and practise it yet their education has been so poor that they cannot read it the place which Gods Providence has allotted for them is so destitute that they are far from them who should instruct them in it their condition in the world is so subject and dependant that they have little time and leisure of their own wherein to seek instruction and their apprehensions are so slow and their memories so frail that it is not much of it at a time which they can retain when they have got the freedome of it They are servants or poor men and must be working for their bodily maintenance when they should be in search of spiritual Doctrine Indeed through the infinite goodness and gracious Providence of God it seldome happens if at all that they who have honest hearts which stand ready and prepared to obey his Laws in Christian Countries live long without the means of understanding them For although they themselves cannot read yet if they desire it and seek after it they cannot miss of Christian people and of Christian Guides who will be most ready and willing to instruct them So that no man amongst them whose heart is first desirous of it can ever be supposed to want all opportunities of coming to the knowledg of his Duty But then we must consider that knowledge of our Duty is a word of a great latitude and has many parts and degrees in it For our Duty takes up a great compass no less than all the particular Laws which are contained under the general Precepts of Piety Sobriety Justice Charity Peaceableness And although every mans opportunities will serve him to know some and to understand the most general and comprehensive yet will they not enable him to understand all Our whole Duty 't is true both towards God and men is comprehended in that one Law of Love which as S t Paul says is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 So that if every man had but the wit and parts the time and leisure to make deductions and to run this general Law into as many particular instances and expressions as it would reach to in the knowledge of that one Law which is soon learned he might have it within his own power when he would to understand all the rest which are contained within the compass of those two great Branches and general Heads of Duty But alas it is not every common head no nor very many even of the wise and learned who are so quick and ready so full and comprehensive in making inferences But they have need to be showed the particulars and are not able of themselves to collect them by a tedious and comprehensive train of consequences So that even when they have learned their obligation to the most material and general Precepts of the Gospel yet may there be several Particular ones still remaining which not only the poor and ignorant but they also who think themselves to be more wise and learned do not see and take themselves to be obliged by As for the crying sins of Perjury Adultery Murther Theft Oppression Lying Slander and the like which even natural Conscience without the assistance and instruction of Christ's Gospel would be afraid of these 't is true no man who is grown up to years of common reason and discretion can be ignorant of and yet be innocent But then besides these there are many other sins which are not of so black a Die or of so mischievous a Nature which many of them who profess the Gospel through the littleness of their abilities their leisure or opportunities do not understand to be sinful Their Consciences are not afraid of them nor check them either before or after they have committed them For how many are there of the Professors of Christ's Religion who never think of being called to an account for lasciviousness and uncleanness for passionateness and uncourteousness for backbiting and censoriousness for disturbing the publick peace and speaking evil of Dignities for not speaking well of an enemy or not praying for him or for the like Breaches of several other particular Laws
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
false it is the only rule that we can act by We cannot perform duty without we understand it nor obey Laws before we have some knowledge of them we must judge what is commanded before we can observe it and whether we judge right or wrong we have no way to obey but by acting according to such judgment Yea if our Conscience does err and innocently mistake our Duty yet whil'st we follow it in the simplicity of our hearts we perform the life and soul of Obedience even when we erroneously transgress it For we do the mistaken action out of an obedient intention we exert it for Gods sake in an acknowledgement of his Authority and a resignation to his pleasure and this is so truly the life and spirit of an acceptable obedience that in case of such erroneous belief we should sinfully and damnably disobey should we neglect it So that if the errour of our conscience it self be inoffensive God will not take offence at our well meant and obediently design'd performance of that which our conscience erroneously tells us we are bound in duty to perform Nor will God be offended at us for having such a scandal or rock of offence as this prejudice and errour of our conscience is if the errour it self is thus innocent He will not take it ill that we did not judge that to be our Duty which the Principle we had to judge by told us was no Duty or it may be a breach of Duty and a sin For this was truly to judge by Principles and to have recourse in judgement to the best and likeliest notions which we could find in our own minds which way of passing judgment is all that we have and the very method which he himself has prescribed us Neither will he be angry at us for admitting such false Opinions into our minds as should afterwards misguide us if it were not our sins and passions but the ordinary way and usual means of knowledge which got them entrance For when the very same means of information and discourse which carry us on to truth in other opinions mislead us into errour and mistake in these we erre in the honesty of our hearts and in the use of means and ordinary endeavours so that nothing remains for our errour to be charged upon but either a weakness of understanding or an ill fortune either that using fallible means we were not so wise as to avoid being deceived by them or that we had the ill hap to be guided by them in such an instance when errour lay at the end of them And since these Causes of errour are only our weakness and unhappiness but not our fault and disobedience God will graciously bear with us and will not be extream to punish us for them Or if we happen to erre in an instance wherein he will exact obedience he will at least bear with us so long till besides the plain declarations of our Duty and the common means of knowing it we have had moreover such accumulation of proof and clearing of the Case as will if we are not wanting to our selves answer all our exceptions and bear down all our prejudices against it And of this we have a clear instance in the errour of the Apostles about the discharge of that great Duty of preaching the Gospel to all Nations immediately after Christ's ascension He had enjoined this in a Command as plain one would think as words can make it All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Go ye therefore and teach not the Jews only to whom I sent you at first but all Nations Matth. 28.18 19 preaching remission of sins upon repentance to all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Luke 24.47 But for all this Precept was so express and this Declaration of their Duty was so plain and evident yet was it not of it self sufficient to give them an understanding of it For those prepossessions which they lay under drew such a Veil before their eyes and linked their minds so fast to a contrary belief that they took no notice of it nor ever thought their contrary practice to be forbid by it They thought still that Israel was Gods peculiar people that the Jews were the only seed of Abraham and that the great Prophet Messiah whom Moses told them God would one Day raise up among them for eminence and extraordinariness of Divine Commission like unto him was to be theirs peculiarly to whom God had promised him These prejudices and anticipations of Judgment had been instilled into their young and tender minds by the early care of their Parents and fomented by the instruction of their Teachers and daily more and more confirmed in them by conversation and an uninterrupted custom of perswasion And being thus forcibly impressed upon them they had so blocked up their obedient and well-meaning minds that when a plain Command required them to practise contrary to this belief they did not understand but overlook it Insomuch that Peter himself was not convinced of it by the manifest injunction of a clear Law but stood in need to have his doubts solved and his exceptions answered and his former prejudices confuted and overborn by such accumulation of proof and evidence as God was pleased to give him in a most condescensive Dispute upon that Subject by an after and repeated Revelation Acts 10. and 11. Chapâ—ers But now this ignorance of their Duty which was so plainly delivered in the words of a clear Law did not put them out of Gods favour because it was occasioned only by such hindrances as were consistent with an honest heart or such whereto not their sins and passions but their natural weakness of understanding and their education and custom those fallible means of knowledge had betrayed them For God still lovingly embraced them he bore with their weaknesses and helped their infirmities he pitied their ignorance whilst they laboured under it and because he saw it was fit and necessary that they should get quit of it he graciously afforded them a further and more powerful evidence whereby to overcome it And all this pardon and forbearance I say they found because their prejudices were consistent with an honest heart since they were begot in them not by any lusts or vices but only by their weakness of understanding and the fallibility of the means of knowledge But as some prejudices which lead to sin and disobedience get into mens Consciences only through weakness of understanding and fallibility of means which are therefore consistent with a state of favour and salvation so are there 2. Several others which are got into their Conscences through the assistance of their lusts and vices and these are deadly and damning Mens lusts and vices have a great influence upon their minds and the chief hand many times in molding of their judgments and opinions And therefore we may know mens manners by their perswasions about their Duty before ever we see their practices
be ignorant of their Duty and that is the reason why they do not understand it For either they shut their eyes and will not see it or they are idle and careless and will not enquire after it or they bend their wits at the instigation of their lusts to dispute against it that after they have darkened and confounded it in their own thoughts they may mince or evacuate mistake or disbelieve it So that if at last they do not know it it is because they do not desire the knowledge of it or will be at no pains for it or take pains against it to supplant and disguise it And these are they who are not ignorant against their wills but as S t Peter says willingly ignorant 2 Pet. 3.5 And as for such ignorance as this it will by no means excuse us before God but if we will be ignorant God's will and pleasure is that we shall suffer for our sinful ignorance and for all those sins that we commit under it which we might and should have seen and avoided For all those Laws which are ignorantly transgressed by us threaten death and the ignorance being of our own chusing takes nothing off so that death and damnation rest upon us But that ignorance which can be pleaded to excuse us before God must be an ignorance that is involuntary an ignorance which in the constitution of our nature is imposed upon us and is not chosen by us And a right understanding of this difference in ignorance being of so great moment I shall before I dismiss this Point observe when our ignorance is voluntary and when it is involuntary First I will show when our ignorance is â—â—voluntary As for the knowledge of our Duty like as of all other things it doth not spring up in our souls as an Herb doth out of the ground nor drop into us as the rain doth from a Cloud but it must be sought for and endeavoured after and unless we use the means of acquiring it we must be content to live without it The means of obtaining the knowledge of God's Laws and of the innocence and sinfulness of our own actions are the reading of his Word the attendance upon his Ministers the thinking or considering upon what we read or hear in our own minds and praying to God to make all these means effectual for our information and if ever we expect to know God's will we must put these in practice But now whether we will make use of these or no is plainly in our own choice and at our own pleasure For if we will we may exercise and if we will we may as well neglect them And when both these are before us if we refuse to make use of the means of understanding and wilfully neglect the methods of attaining to the knowledg of sin and Duty good and evil if we sit down without the knowledg of Gods Law it is because we would our selves and our ignorance is a voluntary and a wilful ignorance And this is the first way of our ignorance's becoming voluntary viz. when it is so upon a voluntary neglect of those means which are necessary to attain knowledge And this in the Schools is called a supine slothful careless ignorance And if it be of such things as lay near in our way and might have been known without much pains or much seeking it is called gross or affected ignorance But besides this sort of wilful ignorance of our Duty through a wilful neglect of those means which are necessary to the knowledge of it there is another which is higher and more enormous and that is Secondly When we do not only sleight the means of knowing God's Law but moreover use those of confounding or mistaking it For our knowledge of things is then made perfect and useful when it is clear and distinct and our assent and belief of things is then gained when their evidence is represented and duly considered of But now as for the employing of mens thoughts in clearing or confounding believing or disbelieving of the Laws of God it is perfectly in their own power whether to use it on one side or on the other And commonly it is their pleasure to use it on the worse For they will consider only of the difficulties and intricacies of Gods Laws which may darken and disturb confound and perplex their thoughts about them and attend only to such exceptions as they can make against them which may unsettle their minds either about the meaning or the truth of them so that after all their reading and considering of them they shall not understand but err and mistake them As it happens to all those who had disputed themselves out of the knowledge of their Duty until as Isaiah says they call evil good and good evil put darkness for light and light for darkness Isai. 5.20 And when men are ignorant of their Duty because they chose thus to endeavour it and take pains for it this ignorance is voluntary and wilful with a witness These two reasons of mens being ignorant of their Duty viz. their neglect of such means as are necessary to the knowledge of it or their use of the contrary means of confounding or discrediting it are the causes of their wilful ignorance And that which makes them guilty of both these is either the gross idleness or the profligate wickedness of their hearts which are wholly inslaved to some beloved lust or sin They are wretchedly idle and therefore they will not learn their Duty because that is painful they are greatly wicked and so care not for the knowledge of the Law because that would disquiet them Men love darkness says our Saviour better than light because their works are evil they hate the light and will not come to it lest their deeds should be reproved by it John 3.19 20. Because they hate and fear the Law they neglect the means of knowing it nay they pick quarrels with it and endeavour all they can to perplex or darken to evacuate or disparage it So that our ignorance is then wilful when we are therefore ignorant because we neglect the means of knowledge or industriously endeavour to be mistaken And that because we are either too idle to learn or too wicked to care for the knowledge of our Duty The idleness and wickedness of our hearts is the first spring and the neglect of means and industrious perverting of the truth are the great productive instruments of our wilful ignorance Which is therefore called voluntary and wilful because the Principle and the Instruments the motive and the means to it are both under the power and choice of our own wills And these things making our ignorance wilful viz. a wilful neglect of the means of knowledge or a wilful perverting of those Laws which we are to know we shall easily discern Secondly What ignorance is unwilled and involuntary namely that which implies a freedome from and an absence
much less out-done by the best of men in pity and kindness Which is the argument from which our Saviour himself concludes that God will give the holy spirit at our prayers because that men themselves who are infinitely below him in goodness will give good gifts to them that ask them Luk. 11.13 Let us therefore take care in the first place to secure our selves of an obedient heart and to give such evidence of an honest industry as any kind hearted honest man would accept of and then we may have just reason to be confident that although our endeavour is weak and imperfect being much hindred and often interrupted yet shall it still be esteemed sufficient For Christ himself who is to judge of its sufficiency is no stranger to our weaknesses but having felt them in himself he is prone to pity and pardon them in us He experimented the backwardness of our flesh and the number of our distractions and the tiredness of our powers and the insinuations and strength of temptations So that having such an High Priest to intercede for us at present and to judge us at the last day who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities having been tempted himself in all points even as we are let us come boldly unto the throne of Grace as the Apostle exhorts us that we may obtain mercy for what we cannot master as well as find grace in a seasonable time of need to conquer what he expects we should overcome Hebr. 4.15 16. And this mercifull connivance at our imperfections and gracious acceptance of our weak endeavours we may with the greater reason and assurance hope for because Christ our Judge will be most candid and benign in putting the best sense and in interpreting most to our advantage all those our actions and endeavours which shall then be brought before him Whereof he has given us a clear instance in that most favourable construction which he made of that Charity that was shewn unto his Brethren by those on his right hand Mat. 25. For although it was not expressed to him but only to their fellow Christians for his sake yet because their kindness reached him in the intention of their minds and what they did to his servants for his sake they would have done to himself much rather could they have met with an opportunity he resented it as if it had been really shown to his own person For when they say unto him Lord when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee or naked and cloathed thee c. he answers inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren I take the affection for the performance and interpret it as if you had done it unto me vers 40. When therefore the sufficiency of our endeavours fater the knowledge of our Duty is come to be enquired into by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ we may be assured that it will have a favourable tryal It it to be censured by a candid equitable and benign judge who will interpret it to our advantage as much nay more than any good natured honest man would So that if our industry after the knowledge of Gods will be in such a measure as a candid and benign man would judge to be a sufficient effect of an obedient heart and of an honest purpose Christ will judge it to be so too And where our Ignorance of any of Christs Laws is joyned with an honest heart and remains after such an industry we may take comfort to our selves and be confident that it is involuntary and innocent If we are desirous to know Gods Laws and read good Books frequent Sermons hearken to any good instructions which we meet with and that according to our opportunities and in such measure as any good man would interpret to be an honest endeavour after the knowledge of our Duty if it were to himself if after all this I say in some points we are still Ignorant our Ignorance is involuntary and shall not harm us it is not chosen by us and therefore it never will condemn us And thus we have seen what ignorances excuse our slips and transgressions which are committed under them and when those Ignorances are themselves involuntary and innocent so as that we may comfortably expect to be excused upon the account of them And the summ of all that has been hitherto discoursed upon this subject is this That as for the Laws themselves all men must needs be ignorant of some of them for some time and some men for all their lives because they want either ability or opportunity to understand them And as for their present actions being comprehended under them that many men of all sorts and capacities after that they have known the General Laws will still be ignorant of it likewise For as for the wise and learned the small and meer gradual difference between good and evil in some instances the allowed exceptions from the generality of others the indirect force and obligation of a third sort and the frequent clashing and enterfering whether of Laws with Laws or of Laws with their repugnant prejudices and opinions will be sure to make them very often overlook it And as for the rude and ignorant that besides all these causes of such ignorance which are common to them with learned men the difficult and obscure nature of several Vices and Virtues themselves which are plainly and expresly forbidden or injoyn'd will be of force sufficient to make the generality of them in many instances not to understand it And as for the pardon and excuse of our ignorance and unknown transgressions from all or any of these causes that it is involuntary and innocent so long as it is joyned with an honest heart and remains after an honest industry and begins then only to be our wilful sin and an Article of our condemnation when our Lusts or Vices introduce it and we have a mind to it and take no pains against it or what is the consummation and height of all industriously labour and endeavour after it And this may suffice to have spoken of the first sort of want of Knowledge which as I said above produces an uncondemning involuntariness viz. Ignorance when we commit sin because we do not know the sinfulness of our present action or the Law which we sin against 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
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
he has most strictly forbidden So that for our whole Duty towards God which is implied in the general Law of piety or godliness it contains in it all these effects of LOVE which are commanded Duties as ungodliness or impiety contains all these expressions of hatred which are so many particular forbidden sins The Laws commanding are the Law of honour of worship of faith of love of zeal of trust and dependance of prayer of thankfulness of fear of submission and resignedness of obedience And the Laws forbidding are the Law against dishonour against atheism against denying Providence against blasphemy against superstition against idolatry against witchcraft and sorcery against foolishness against headiness against unbelief against hating God against want of zeal against distrust of him against not praying to him against unthankfulness against fearlesness against contumacy or repining against disobedience against common swearing against perjury against prophaneness And then as for the 2. Sort of Love our love to men it implies in it all the Duties contained in the third Branch of S t Paul's Division viz. righteousness as shall be shewn in the next Chapter CHAP. III. Of the particular Duties contained under Justice and Charity The CONTENTS Of the particular Duties contained under Justice and Charity Both are only expressions of Love which is the fulfilling of the Law Of the particular sins against both Of scandal Of the combination of Justice and Charity in a state that results from both viz. Peace Of the several Duties comprehended under it Of the particular sins reducible to unpeaceableness Of the latitude of the word Neighbour to whom all these dutiful expressions are due It s narrowness in the Jewish sense It s universality in the Christian. FOR the third general Duty righteousness or our Duty towards our Neighbour our love of men will lead us into the several Laws which it containeth For the first effect of love our doing no hurt or injury to any man founds all the Laws of Justice and the latter our doing good and showing all kindness founds all the particular Laws of Charity in which two are comprehended all those several Duties which God has enjoyned towards other men The first I say founds all the particular Laws of Justice For in that we do no evil or injury to our Neighbour nor hurt him by prejudicing his just Rights or taking away from him any thing that is his is implied that we do not wrong or endammage him 1. In his Life by taking it away either 1. In private force and violent assassination which is murder 2. Under colour of Justice by a false charge of capital crimes which is false witness 2. In his reputation by sullying or impairing it through a lying and false imputation of disparaging things to him which is slander or calumny 3. In his belief and expectation by reproaching and abusing it either 1. By deceiving him against his Right to his hurt in a false speech of what is past or present which is lying 2. By frustrating his expectations which were raised by our promise of something that is to come which is unfaithfulness or perfidy 4. In his Bed by invading that which the Contract of Marriage has made inviolable which is adultery 5. In his Goods or Estate and all wrong herein proceeds from our unsatisfiedness with our own and our greedy longing and ungovernable desire of that which is his which is covetousness The effects and instances whereof are 1. In taking away from him that which is his either 1. Directly By secret or open force and without his knowledg and consent which is stealing or robbery 2. Indirectly or by forcing his allowance and extorting a necessitated consent from him Which is done by taking advantage 1. Of his impotence and inability to resist and contend with us which is oppression 2. Of his necessity when he cannot be without something which we have and so is forced to take it upon our own terms which is extortion and depressing in bargaining 3. Of his ignorance when we outwit him and trepan and over-reach him in Bargaining and Commerce which is circumvention fraud or deceit The wiliness and subtle Art wherein is called craftiness 2. In denying all kindnesses and good things to him in unmercifulness uncharitableness c. Of which I shall discourse under the next Head All these Particulars of Justice now mentioned are natural effects of love to our Neighbour in as much as it makes us keep off from offering any injury or doing any evil to him Upon which account S t Paul says of it that as for these particular Laws of Justice it fulfils them all Which he shows by an induction of such Particulars as I have named He that loveth another saith he hath fulfilled the Law viz. that part of it which requires Duties of Justice towards others For this Thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet which are the five last Commandments of the Decalogue and if there be any other Commandment it is briefly comprehended in this Saying Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Now Love worketh no ill neither these nor any other to his Neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.8 â— 10. And as this first effect of Love to our Neighbour viz. it s keeping us back from offering any injury or doing any evil to him contain in it all the Laws of Justice so doth its other effect our doing all good offices and shewing kindness to them comprehend in it all the particular Laws of Charity wherewith we stand obliged towards other men Love is not only innocent and harmless and careful to create no trouble nor occasion any prejudice but moreover it is all kindness benevolence and good nature and diligent in creating all the pleasure and delight it can to it s beloved Now this goodness kind-heartedness or desire to please and delight others will be an universal cause of beneficence or doing good to them and make us cast to please them in so many ways and advantage them in so many relations as we can at any time be placed in In particular it will effect these Vertues in the Cases following 1. As to what we see them to be in themselves and in this respect it produces in us 1. If they are worthy and vertuous a great opinion and venerable esteem for them which is honour 2. If they have honest hearts but yet are weak in judgment and knowledg a compassionate sense of their weakness and an endeavour to relieve them which is pity and succour And if this weakness be instanced in judging those things to be a matter of sin and so unlawful for them to do which no Law of God has forbidden and which therefore we who better understand it see plainly that we lawfully may do and our practice of it before them who distrusting their own skill are swayed more by
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
either we soften our sin by excuses or justifie it by arguments or overlook it by ignorance heedless inconsideration and forgetfulness Either we will act it rashly through the power of a strong lust and not consider it at all or else think of it only to lessen or defend it And when by the opposition of our Lusts to the perfecting and performing of our Duty our spiritual strengths are thus weakned and our lusts advanced when our passions rise and our minds plead against it then is the strife and there 's the toil and difficulty of obedience And because in this obedience of our works and actions there is so much difficulty therefore are most people so desirous to shift it off and so forward to take up with any thing which will save them the labour of it They perswade themselves that God will admit of easier terms and build their hopes upon cheaper services in particular upon these Four First A true belief or orthodox opinions Secondly An obedience of idle desires and ineffective wishes And if for all these they continue still to do what God forbids and to work disobedience then their hope is to be saved notwithstanding it because Thirdly Their falling is through the power of a great and overpowering temptation which they see and resist but cannot prevail over So that Fourthly Their transgression is with reluctance and unwillingness their service of Sin is an unwilling and a slavish service 1. The first false ground whereby men elude all the necessity of serving God with their strength or executive powers in outward works and operations is their confidence of being saved for a true belief or a right knowledge in religious matters and orthodox opinions They turn all Religion into a matter of study and speculation as if it required only a good head and a discerning judgment They make it a matter of skill but not of practice an exercise of wit and parts but not a rule of action For the faith which they expect should save them with some men goes no further than the mind and consists barely in right notions and apprehensions They take it to be nothing more but an understanding what Christ has said a being able to reason upon it and to argue for it and in their own minds approving and consenting to it And that not to all that Christ has revealed neither For the Precepts or Commands it overlooks and doth not meddle with the threatnings it either considers not at all or if it do it takes them not to be due to that whereunto God has fixed them viz. disobedience of practice but only to ignorance and unbelief But all that which their faith eyes and which their minds solely or at least principally approve of is the historical passages of Christs life and death the doctrinal points which he has told us concerning God or himself and the comfortable promises of the Gospel They believe what Christ is what he has done and suffered for us and what he has promised to us they think right in all the Religious Controversies that are on foot in the world joyning themselves with the Orthodox men and siding as they presume with the true Opinion they profess Christs Religion and are Members of his Church and adhere to the right party of Christians and to the purest Congregation and that they conclude is enough to bring them to Heaven But if any think as God be praised many do that God requires more than the bare service of our minds and right apprehensions yet even a great part of them fancy that all which he requires besides is only the obedience of their tongues and discourses If they believe with the mind and confess with the mouth although they are rebellious and reprobate in their practice they are satisfied of their Godly estate and presume that God is so too Their Religion is made up of lip-service for they think to content God by heavenly talk and pious conference by larding all their discourses with the Name of God and shreds of Scripture all their conversation is holy phrase and sanctified form of speaking and this they hope will attone for all the lewdness and disobedience of their lives and actions And if they proceed yet further to a Faith that reacheth beyond the mind and the tongue and think it necessary that it sink down from the head into the heart yet there they will allow God to expect no great matters They hope he will be well pleased although it summon not up all our Affections for his service if it produce in us these two easie passions which are raised without much adoe and may well be spared viz. a strong confidence and a warm zeal If to make it saving it must imply a joynt concurrence of our Affections it shall be only of these two It shall add hope to knowledge and be a belief that God will save sinners with a special hope and fancifull confidence that he will in particular save them It shall add Zeal to Orthodoxy a warm heart to a sound head and be no more but a maintaining of and stickling for right opinions and against erroneous and false ones with heat and fierceness Thus do men delude themselves into great confidences and vain expectations from a faith that is without fruit from an orthodox but empty knowledge which is void of all obedient practice But a knowledge and belief which is not more comprehensive in its nature nor has other effects than these they will find to their cost in the event of things is miserably delusive and vain It will serve to no other end but the heightning of their crimes and the encreasing of their condemnation For do but consider If we will believe and understand Christs Doctrines and his Promises but overlook or deny his Laws and Precepts what is this but instead of honour and service to affront and renounce him By picking and choosing at this rate we cast off his power of molding for us a Religion and fixing the terms of his own mercy and make to our selves a condition of our own salvation We follow him so far only as we please our selves but no further The compass of our belief it self is not bounded by his authority or measured according to his mind but our own For we understand and assent not to every thing that he has said but only to what we our selves like We refuse to take every thing upon his word and credit him in what he speaks no longer than it agrees with us If we believe him it is only where we matter not whether what he sayes be true or no but we either give no heed to him or flatly disbelieve him where we have any temptation His veracity and truth it self has no power over our very minds beyond what our own lusts and beloved sins will suffer it but the Devil and the World must be served in the first place by our Opinions and God must be forced to
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
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
make use of bread and wine which were those things that he used The blood of Christ is not offered if there be no wine in the cup to represent it and how can we ever hope to drink wine with him in his Fathers Kingdom if we drink it not at his Table here on Earth So that in the good Fathers judgment the Duty was express the Law binding and the transgression dangerous But yet as for those innocent and well-meaning souls who had no opportunity to be told of it but were bred up in a contrary way under the authority of a tradition that opposed it and therefore in the simplicity of their hearts were ignorant of it They says he even whilst they do transgress shall go unpunished Their simplicity and ignorance shall excuse them whilst our knowledg will certainly condemn us they shall be pardoned because they could not know it but we shall be punished because when we might have known and kept it if we would we neglected and despised it In the mean time herein is Gods great mercy shown to us and for this should we return most hearty thanks to him that even now when he plainly instructs us in that which under pain of his displeasure we are to do hereafter he at the same time pardons us for all that which through simplicity and honest ignorance we have already done And as this innocent unwill'd ignorance of the Law it self excuses all those transgressions which we incur by reason of it so doth 2. The second sort of ignorance viz. the ignorance of the thing it self which the Law injoyns or forbids when we know not that our present action is included in it or meant by it Gods Laws as all others run in general terms and never go to reckon up all particular actions which are with them or against them but leave the judging and discerning of that to our own selves He tells us that theft and revenge are sinfull but leaves us to inform our selves what actions are thievish and revengefull He teaches us that Covetousness is forbidden but he puts us to see of the action before us that it be covetous and the same he doth in every other Law For that which he expresly mentions is the general name of the action which he forbids but as for the particular application he leaves that to our own selves Now here is the wide place for the ignorance and errours of all sorts of men For what Arrian sayes of happiness and misery is equally true of sin and duty in the application of the acknowledged notion or law to particular things or actions is the cause of all our evils here the great scene of ignorance in morals the field of doubting and dispute lies The great controversies which men have either in their own thoughts or with Gods ministers is not so much whether evil-speaking back-biting censoriousness unpeaceableness drunkenness sensuality or any such prohibited vice be a sin For as to that the Law is express the very word is mentioned in it and he that reads or hears the Law if he attend to what he reads or hears cannot but observe and understand it But the great doubt is whether this or that particular action which they are about to commit be indeed a censorious an unpeaceable a sensual or a drunken action And the Reasons of this are several For 1. In some actions although we know the general Law yet we know not whether the particular action be comprehended under it because what is forbidden in the Law differs from what is innocent not in kind but only in degree For a great part of our appetites and actions are neither determined to good nor ill in their whole nature but only as they are in certain measures The use of meats and drinks within due bounds is harmless but beyond that 't is intemperance the desire and search of money in a moderate degree is lawfull but above that 't is Covetousness the modest pursute of honour and promotion is innocent but when it exceeds it is ambition to have just thoughts of a mans self is allowable but to be puffed up with over-high conceits is pride and so it is in several other instances A great many passions and actions are not alwayes sinful but so far only as they are deficient or exceed Which holding true of several virtues and vices made Aristotle lay it down as a part of the nature of virtue in general that it is something consisting in mediocrity and agreeably that vice is something consisting in defectiveness or excess Now the actions which are prohibited by several Laws not coming under the compass of the Laws in their whole natures but only when they are arrived to certain measures and degrees herein after we have known the general Law lies the difficulty and unresolvedness whether or no the present action falls under it For it is a very hard thing and it may be impossible to any humane understanding to fix the exact bounds and utmost limits of virtue and vice to draw a line precisely between them and tell to a tittle how many degrees are innocent and the just place where the excess begins Here the Wise and Learned themselves are at a loss and much more the rude and ignorant so that in Laws of this nature they may many times mistake their sin for their liberty and allowance and go beyond the innocent degree when they do not know it 2. In other actions although we do know the general Law yet many times we are ignorant of the present actions being comprehended under it because the Law is not absolute and unlimited but admits of several exceptions whereof we may mistake the present action to be one The great and general Laws of Christ as of any other Legislator have several cases which are not included in the general name of the duty injoyned or of the sin prohibited in the Law but are exempt from it What Duty is injoyned in more universal words than that of Peace but yet in several cases we not only may but out of Duty must nourish contention For we are bid to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jud. vers 3. We must be concerned for God and Religion when others concern themselves against them We are not tamely and unaffectedly to see Gods Laws cancelled or our countries peace disturbed but must strive and contend with as much wise zeal and active courage and with infinitely more honour and peace of mind to maintain and defend than ill men do to oppose and destroy them Again what Law is delivered in fuller and plainer terms than that of forgiving injuries but yet there are several cases wherein we may justly seek amends for them For we may bring a malefactor to condign punishment or an injurious man to restitution and the like is observable of other Laws Now those actions which come under the general name of the sin
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
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
of their offences through the deceitfulness of sin vers 13. And this effect is obvious and ordinary for not only the nature of things but even the just judgement of God concur to it Nothing being more common than for those men who hold the truth as S t Paul sayes in unrighteousness of living and even whil'st they know God do not glorifie him by their service and obedience which are due to him and are our way of glorifying him as God nor are thankfull in their hearts and actions to lose that knowledge and to become vain in their imaginations their foolish heart being darkned by Gods giving them over to a reprobate mind or a mind void of all true judgment to do those things which are not convenient not knowing they are so Rom. 1.18 21 28. But now as for these prejudices which get into our consciences and perswasions not through any force of reason which compells but through the witchcraft of lusts and vices which enveagle and make us willing and desirous to believe them they will not excuse us because they are themselves sinfull and deserve damnation For they enter at an ill door and win upon us through a reigning lust or a damning sin and therefore they are so far from excusing those transgressions which flow from them that in themselves they are instances and effects of a deadly offence and if repentance intervene not will certainly prove desperate and damning S t Paul in breathing out threatnings against all believers and in persecuting of the Church acted only according to the best of his own Judgment and Opinion For he verily thought with himself that he not only might but ought to do several things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth Acts 26.9 But as this Opinion was his sin so would his transgressions upon it have proved his condemnation had not God shewn pity on him in calling him to repentance and conversion whereby alone it was that he obtained mercy and pardon I was sayes he a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy by that Grace of God conferr'd upon me at my conversion which was exceeding abundant with these two fundamental Graces which are a most prolifick spring of all the rest viz. Faith and Love which is in Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 1.13 14. The Jews who blasphemed and crucified our Saviour did nothing against their own conscience for their Opinion bore them out in all that practice in regard they judged it to be no sinfull murther but a most necessary act of Justice upon a great impostor and a most laudable and legal execution I wot Brethren sayes S t Peter that through ignorance ye did it as did not you only but also your rulers Acts 3.14 15 17. But forasmuch as this Ignorance was their own fault and their prejudices were owing to their own vices in regard that for this reason alone their minds would not receive a true belief of Christ and his Laws because they plainly contradicted their sinfull lusts and practices therefore should it by no means excuse them but if their repentance did not prevent it it would most certainly in the end prove deadly and damning For their crucifixion of him he tells them was by wicked hands Acts 2.23 and it was only upon their repentance and conversion that their sins of blasphemy and murder should be blotted out Acts 3.19 Again the transgressions of the Pharisees were justified by their own Opinions for they looked upon themselves notwithstanding them to be holy men and favourites of Heaven But proceeding as we have seen they did from unmortified lusts and a wicked life they rendred them obnoxious to damnation How can you escape the damnation of hell Mat. 23.33 The sins of the Gnosticks notwithstanding they were warranted by their disobedient Principles were of a damnable nature for their heresies and disobedient Principles themselves being the effects of disobedient and wicked hearts deserved damnation and are called by S t Peter in that Chapter where he recounts them and with great zeal inveighs against them damnable heresies 2 Pet. 2.1 They are works of the flesh or the products of unmortified lusts and carnal practices and must therefore share in the same judgment with other fleshâ—â— works amongst whom they are reckon'd The works of the flesh sayes S t Paul are manifest seditions heresies envyings murders drunkenness of the which I tell you that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5.19 20 21. If we will transgress our Duty by disbelieving it first and giving credit to such Opinions as destroy the obligation of it our disbelief of our Duty will by no means excuse our sin or rescue us from condemnation For to disbelieve the Laws and threatnings of Christ is the very worst part of unbelief and the most hatefull and deadly instance of infidelity And as for unbelievers sayes S t John or those men who will not believe Religion or the best part of it Laws and Duties but seek to evade its force after that God has plainly told them of it they shall have their part in the Lake which burns with fire and brimstone Rev. 21.8 Men without understanding who will not see their Duty because they are blinded by such lusts as fight against it in the judgment of God are worthy of death Rom. 1.31 32. The reason why their consciences adhere to such Opinions as utterly destroy their Duty is only because their lusts and vices have made them hate and turn away from it And as for every such prejudice against a Duty as proceeds from our aversation to it it is of a great guilt and liable to a very severe punishment For in this S t Paul is peremptory All they shall be damned who believe a lye and believe not the truth through the pleasure which they take in unrighteousness They shall perish because they receive not the LOVE of the Truth that they may be saved by it 2 Thess. 2.10 11 12. When our disobedient prejudices therefore enter upon this score and are begot in us through a wicked heart and through some reigning lusts and vices which are served by them but not by any weakness of understanding or such fallibility of means as may betray even an honest heart into them they are subject to a sad doom and a severe censure they will by no means plead our excuse but are an Article of our condemnation And as for some marks whereby to judge whether our disobedient prejudices proceed from this deadly Principle our unmortified lusts and vices and thereupon are of this dangerous and damning nature or no we may observe these Characters and judge according to these measures First If that Lust or Sin whereto our prejudice is subservient be strong and powerfull if it reign in us and in the ordinary course and custome of our lives gives laws to us the corruption and disobedience of our heart is plainly the cause of
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