drift of the Parable is made plain and perspicuous to an ordinary capacity Wherefore now I proceed to handle the particular branches of it of which there are these three most remarkable in the Parable and which as I have already intimated are the designed subject of the subsequent discourse First we have here a graphical description of the state and condition of an habitual sinner before repentance from vers 11. to vers 17. Secondly a type or portraicture of true repentance and turning to God from vers 17. to vers 20. Thirdly an Emblematical representation of God's unspeakable mercy in the gracious reception of such penitents from vers 20. to the end of the Chapter but especially to vers 24. Of these three points I will treat in order according as the series of the Parable leads me But yet because I apprehend it will be not onely profitable in it self but also peculiarly subservient to the present design that before I apply my self to a direct prosecution of the traces of the Parable I give a strict and Philosophical account of the Nature of Sin and the several Stations of Sinners as which will give both light and weight especially to the first of the mentioned particulars and in good measure to all the rest This therefore I will endeavour in the next immediate Chapter CHAP. III. Of the Nature of Sin and of the divers States of Sinners THE CONTENTS § I. A definition of sin the three sorts of Laws mankind is under viz. Natural Divine and Humane All sin is a violation of some or other of them The mischief of mistake herein § II. A law that obliges must be known or knowable Several ways of promulging the Divine Laws The guilt of sin rises in proportion to the clearnesse of the promulgation of that law whereof it is a violation The mischiefs of mistake herein and the remedy § III. All sin is voluntary Cautions for the right understanding of that assertion the proofs of the truth of it and absurd consequences of the contrary § IV. A passage of S. James Chap. I. vers 13. c. explained and the nativity of sin thereby discovered § V. The usefulnesse of the foregoing definition and explication The distinction between presumptuous sins and sins of infirmity and their different effects § VI. Of reluctancy of Conscience and whether that extenuates or increases the guilt of sin § VII Of the several states and mansions of sinners upon the consideration of which return is made to the Parable § I. IF we take just measures of the nature of sin at least so far as it falls under our present consideration for it is not within the compass of my subject to treat of Original sin it is thus to be Defined namely Sin is a voluntary breach of a known Law Or to speak more fully and distinctly there are these three things concurrent to make man guilty or to denominate any action of his sinfull 1. That by some act or omission of his there be a going contrary to and violation of some Law in being 2. That the Law so violated be such as is or might have been known to the Offender 3. That the Action or Omission by which such Law is violated be consented to and the breach voluntary All these three things together in conjunction are the ingredients which make up the deadly poyson of sin And for defect of due consideration of the necessary concurrence of all of them to that unhappy production It is hard to say whether greater Errours have ensued in Doctrine or more Vices in practice whether more perplexities have infested mens Consciences or more uncharitableness hath imbittered their Spirits For if the first ingredient be left out Sin is thereby rendred either nothing at all or of so indefinite and uncertain a nature as that loose and profane men will laugh at it and on the contrary good and devout persons will never be free from suspicions of it If the second be omitted the consequence will be that severe and sad judgments will be passed upon the finall estate of the greatest part of mankind and therewith very unworthy reflections be made upon the Divine Majesty And if the third branch be omitted the number of sins will be vastly multiplied but the nature and guilt thereof so extenuated as that men will be tempted to be more afraid of God then of sinning against him But all this and a great deale more will better appear upon a breif explication of the particulars First then wherever there is sin there is a breach of some Law in being this though it be not the full and adequate notion yet is the first reason of sin And accordingly we may easily observe that in most if not in all Languages the very words that are made use of to express moral evil or sin do all import the breach of some Law or rule of action Especially the Hebrew Tongue which is most significant in this kind hath three words most usuall in the case which we find all together Psal 32. v. 1 2. and all leading us directly to this notion of sin Blessed is be whose Transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity The first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render transgression properly signifying to pass set Bounds or transgress prefixed Limits The second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate sin denoteth a missing of the aim or mark we were to have directed our selves towards And the last of the three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iniquity implies the making of a crooked and wandring path So that we see whatever kind condition or degree of sin it be that is spoken of it is still expressed by respect to some Law or Rule in deviation from which it consists The like may be observed in the Greek Tongue in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and generally in other Languages But we need not insist upon niceties when that which we are saying is the express assertion of two Apostles St. Paul and St. John the former telling us Rom. 4. 15. Where there is no Law there is no Transgression The other Ep. 1. chap. 3. vers 4. He that sinneth transgresseth also the Law for sin is a transgression of the Law Now for that Law which sin is a violation of it is threefold viz. Either first the Law of nature and reason that is those differences of good and evill which the mind of man is of it self able to collect by attentive consideration of the nature of God and our relation to him the state of the whole Creation and the mutuall aspects of the severall parts thereof upon each other and upon our selves of which we shall have occasion to speak more hereafter Or secondly the express and positive declarations of the Divine will concerning things to be done or avoided by us which is commonly called Revelation or Divine Law Or thirdly the
institutions commands and prohibitions of such men as it hath pleased God to invest with Authority under himself of obliging others which we call Humane Law To these some would adde Custome as a fourth rule of action because they observe there are many cases wherein all the former ceasing wise and good men are wont to govern themselves by laudable and prevailing customs but this so far as it is obliging may be reduced to Humane Law Others also would adde the Law of Charity or of avoiding scandall as a fifth but this is both provided for by the positive Law of God and also deducible from naturall principles Therefore the three aforesaid measures comprize all that which can fall under the notion of Law and consequently every such thing as is to be esteemed a sin must consist in a deviation from or going cross to either all or some one or other of them For it is evident of it self that every thing is free till something restrain and circumscribe it and it cannot be evill but good to make use of that liberty which derogates from no other which infringes no Authority being retrenched by none And it is as evident that we owe account of our selves and carriage only to God ultimately forasmuch as we derive our being and we have and are from him and him only he therefore who gave us our being and all our powers and faculties and their respective accommodations and who continually supports us in the exercise of them may justly prescribe to us and set us what boundaries shall seem fit to his infinite Wisedome Now there are but three ways wherein he hath imposed any obligation or restraint upon us viz. Either by such footsteps of his Will as the mind of man may trace in the order of the Creation those intimations of good and evill which are interwoven in the very nature and order of things and to be observed by naturall reason Or secondly by extraordinary interposition expresly dictating his mind and will to the sons of men Or lastly delegating Authority to those whom his Providence hath constituted in Superiority to prescribe to us in all such things as were not foreprized by the two former i. e. that in all cases where neither the Laws of nature nor the Divine Law were infringed there it was his will we should govern our selves by the Laws of men These I say are all the ways God hath thought fit and all that are imaginable of laying any obligation upon us Therefore wherever there is sin either some plain dictate of Reason is contradicted or some positive Law of God violated or the Sanction of human authority opposed and where neither of these is done there can be no sin upon the forecited reason of the Apostle where there is no law there is no transgression WHICH plain truth we have thus carefully deduced principally for the prevention or remedy of two mistakes very rife in this matter The former is of certain honest and well-meaning but timorous and superstitious persons who not content to approve themselves to the aforesaid measures nor thinking it sufficient for their security that neither the Law of Nature nor any expresse either divine or humane Law disallow their actions are afraid of their own shadows and suspect sin and danger they know not why nor whence their heart misgives them when there is nothing in the case but either that the thing they are about is contrary to the course of their education or forbidden by the imperious dictate of some person to whose usurped authority they have prostituted their judgments Now would such persons be induced to consider that lawfull and unlawfull are relative terms and respect some definite rule or other which must determine any action to be this or that that God is well pleased that his laws be observed and is not so severe and rigid as to oblige us negatively that is that we shall doe nothing but what he commands that there is a great field of liberty interjacent between expresse sin and expresse duty and in that we may expatiate without offence that all actions are good within that scope and though they admit of such different degrees as that some may be much better then others yet none are evil that touch not upon the bounds and limits of Law If I say these things were considered which are no more then the effect of what I said before then would those honest minds be undeceived and enfranchised who for want of such consideration are put to the unhappy choice either to be dispoiled of all liberty or deprived of all peace besides that by such jealousies they tempt both themselves and others to think hardly of God and consequently of that provoke all such men as are strangers to Religion to nauseate and abhorr it THE other mistake which we here seek to prevent is of those that quite contrary to the former are so far from thinking the three Rules of Action we laid down to be insufficient that they persuade themselves it is no great matter for Law or Rule The persuasion of a man 's own conscience an honest intention and a zeal of God are able to bear out and justifie an undertaking though against the expresse and literal direction of some Law in being This conceit strange as it is hath neverthelesse had its Patrons and Proselytes both amongst Jews and Christians and been the cause of mischief enough to both Now it is true that it is within the power of Conscience to make that which was before indifferent in the general to become good and laudable in particular or contrariwise by its dissent to render it evil and vicious because God having given it a judicature its consent is to be had in what we doe in which sense I take it that of the Apostle is to be understood Whatsoever is not of faith is sin and for that reason an erring conscience as I shall shew by and by is also some mitigation of a miscarriage in practice But it is far from that prerogative of being able to legitimate any action prohibited by any of the aforesaid rules for it is but a Judge not a Law and must be governed by the measures forelaid Or if we allow too that the light of conscience is one of those measures as we doe yet must it not bear down both the other that is it is onely a Law and justifies an action when neither divine nor humane Laws have restrained it and not else Wherefore upon the whole matter it is apparent that the three Rules aforesaid in conjunction make up the standard of good and evil every thing is a sin that goes contrary to any of them and nothing is so that doth not § II. 2. BUT Secondly to render any action of ours culpable it is not sufficient that some Law in being be broken unlesse that Law be also promulged i. e. such as is or may be known for otherwise in effect it is no Law
for deliberation there could be no perfect judgment and consequently but an imperfect consent AGAIN whilest a man is bending himself with all his might against some one extreme which he knows to be evil and therefore carefully declines he may perhaps in detestation of that incline too much to the other or whilest a man endeavours diligently to carry on both the affairs of this life and the concerns of Religion too it may happen that the solicitude and cares of the former may sometimes unseasonably crowd in and disturb him in the latter Nay once more through the infirmity of memory compared with the multiplicity of affairs which a wise and good man's care extends to it may not infrequently fall out that such a person for the present forgets or omits some duty of Religion Now it cannot be said that any of these cases are perfectly involuntary because it was not impossible but that extraordinary diligence and watchfullness might have provided against them nevertheless they are not deliberate sins nor was there any full consent of the will to them as is evident both by what we have said already and also by this that such persons we speak of very quickly feel remorse for them their hearts smite them upon the first reflexion upon what hath past and they presently recover themselves and double their watch and guard where they have thus found themselves overtaken These therefore and all other of the nature of these are properly called sins of infirmity BUT now on the other side when the matter of fact is notorious and palpable that it can admit of no dispute whether it be evil or no when a man is not surprized but makes his election doth not insensibly slip awry whilest he was in his right way but takes a wrong course is not overborn by an huge fear but is allured by the pleasures of sense when he hath time to consider and yet resolves upon that which is forbidden him here is little or nothing to extenuate the fact or mitigate his guilt it is a voluntary and therefore a presumptuous sin Such a distinction as this David seems to make Psal 19. 12 13. when he prays that he may understand his errours to the intent that with holy Joh where he had done iniquity he might doe so no more but earnestly begs that he may be kept from presumptuous sins i. e. from such voluntary and wilfull miscarriages as we have but now spoken of so saith he shall I be innocent and free from the great transgression For though sins of infirmity in the most proper sense are not without guilt at least if God should proceed in rigour with men yet in consideration of the goodness of God together with the evident pitiableness of their own circumstances they leave no horrour upon the mind no stain or ill mark upon the person much less a scar or a maim but the other besides their great guilt either terribly afflict or lay waste and stupify the Conscience they harden the heart break the powers of the soul and quench the Spirit of God as we shall have occasion to speak more at large hereafter AT present I think it may be very pertinent to observe that whereas S. John Ep. 1. Chap. 3. vers 4. seems to give a brief and compendious description of sin in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Sin is a transgression of the Law it is not altogether improbable but that the Apostle intended to express something more then is commonly understood by those words in English for besides that it seems a flat saying he that sinneth transgresseth the Law for sin is a transgression of the Law it is noted moreover by Learned men that the Apostle calls not sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which had been the most proper word to denote a meer breach or transgression of the Law but uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a great deal more namely lawlesness and dissoluteness the living without or casting off the yoke of the Law for so we find it elsewhere used in Scripture particularly 1 Tim. 1. 9. where we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lawless and disobedient or ungovernable joyned together And thus the phrase of the Apostle before us will import not so much the meer matter of sin viz. the violation of a Law but the aggravation of it as a presumptuous sin namely the wilfullness and stubbornness of the sinner And if this gloss may be allowed we shall with much ease be able to understand a following passage in this Apostle which hath not a little exercised the heads of Divines nor less perplexed the Consciences of many serious persons Viz. vers 9. of this Chapter he writes thus he that is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Now if we take sin strictly and rigorously here for every thing that is contrary to the perfection of the Divine Law then it will be absolutely necessary that by the phrase he that is born of God we can understand none but our Saviour himself which is altogether besides the business forasmuch as he only was without sin in that sense but if we take the phrase in the latitude before intimated that is for voluntary wilfull and deliberate sins then the sense is both easie and comfortable namely that the man who is truely a Christian having not only the profession but the new nature temper and spirit of the Gospel though being a man and so incompassed with temptations and difficulties as every one is in this world he cannot avoid all surreptions yet the powerfull principles of Christianity setled in his heart will not fail to preserve him at least ordinarily from rebellion and wilfull disobedience AND this way of interpreting these and the like passages of the New Testament is strongly countenanced by what we find Luk. 1. 6. where it is said of Zachary and Elizabeth that they were both of them righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless That is they were sincerely good and vertuous persons their hearts were principled with the fear and love of God and though they were not without the errours and failings incident to humanity yet they strictly made Conscience of their duty and did not deliberately depart from the way of God's commandments And that passage concerning David 1 King 15. 5. seems sufficient to put the matter out of doubt where it is said David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing he commanded him all the days of his life save only in the matter of Vriah the Hittite Notwithstanding the Scripture reckons up several failings of David his passion for Absalom his numbring the People his approaching too near the Lord 's Annointed when he cut off the skirt of Saul's Garment for which his heart smote him his despondency
And that government would justly be accounted arbitrary and tyrannical and the Sovereign rather thought to lie at catch for the penalty then to desire just obedience who shall impute that for a fault which he had not given sufficient caution against by a plain declaration of his will and pleasure For non esse non apparere aequiparantur in Jure that which cannot appear is in Laws all one as if it were not at all because an unknown Law can have no influence upon those it should concern neither directing them what to do nor forewarning what to avoid neither giving notice of their duty nor their danger and consequently works neither upon their reason nor their passion and therefore not at all IT is true that all Laws have not the same way and manner of publication for even amongst men several Nations have their several and peculiar forms of doing it The old Romans by Tables hung up in the Market and places of publick congresse some have done the same thing by the voice of a publick Herald or by the sound of Trumpet c. but however they differed in the circumstance they all agreed in the thing that Laws were not perfect and obliging till they were promulged And so it is with the Laws of God Almighty he never expects that men should govern themselves by the secret decrees of Heaven nor leaves them to guesse at the transactions in his Cabinet-Counsel but first publishes his Law and then requires conformity to it though that in divers manners as it seemed best to his divine wisedom Sometimes he exprest himself by an audible voice from Heaven wherein the Angels were employed as his Ministers namely when he gave his Laws upon Mount Sinai other times by inspiration of Prophets and Holy Men and making them the Interpreters of his mind to the world When to give the more full assurance that it was he that sent and instructed them he was wont also to send along with them some miraculous power or other as his Credential Letters under his privy Signet But most gloriously of all did he proclaim his mind when he sent his Son into the world whose every circumstance from the miracles of his Birth to the glories of his Resurrection and Ascension sufficiently proclaimed him the Messias the Messenger of the Covenant AND for the Laws of Nature these though by some perverse men they have been denied to have the nature of Laws obligatory because they have not had the like solemnity of publication as others have had yet forasmuch as these have either been written upon the fleshly tables of men's hearts where all that will look inward may read them or rather as I have intimated already are ingraven and inserted into the very nature of things and texture of the universe where whosoever hath not unmanned himself and debauched his reason may be able to discover them And besides they have manifestly the sanction of rewards and punishments in the constant experience of good and evil attending the observation and contempt of them respectively upon which accounts they must needs seem to all honest and unprejudiced minds sufficiently promulged SO that constantly some way or other according as it seemed best to him God hath always been pleased to make his mind sufficiently and certainly known to all those upon whom he intended it should have the force and obligation of a Law and he never required obedience otherwise then in proportion to such manifestation Accordingly we observe that when he had given Laws to the people of the Jews and proclaimed them very gloriously and solemnly as aforesaid yet in regard such proclamation could not certainly reach to all other Nations for that as well as for other reasons he did not exact of any other people conformity to those institutions nor judged them thereby So the Apostle assures us Rom. 2. 12. Such as have sinned without the Law shall perish without the Law and as many as have sinned under the Law shall be judged by the Law AND it is further very remarkable that even the Gospell it self which was what the Religion of the Jews was not namely an Institution fitted for all Countries Nations and Ages and which therefore our Lord Christ took care by his Apostles as his Heralds to proclaim all the world over This Gospell I say till it was fully published and untill men had time given them to consider well of it and to overcome their prejudices against it made a favourable interpretation of men's unbelief This I take to be the import of those words of our Saviour Joh. 9. 39. 41. For judgment am I come into the world that they that see not might see and that they that see might be made blind If ye were blind ye should have no sin but now ye say we see therefore your sin remaineth And to the same purpose Joh. 15. 22. If I had not come and spoken amongst them they had not had sin but now they have no cloak for their sin And of the truth of this S. Paul himself was a great instance for so he tells us 1 Tim. 1. 13. I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief q. d. I lay under mighty prejudices by reason of my education in the stiff way of a Pharisee and it required a great sincerity to be willing to listen to new proposals a huge sagacity to be able to see through those mists that were cast before my eyes and a most generous resolution to break through these and all other difficulties in consideration whereof God was pleased to make abatements of the guilt of my unbelief in proportion to the temptations I had thereto It is indeed both a well known and as well received a Maxime Ignorantia Juris non excusat that it is no excuse of a fault to say non putâram I did not know the Law because when a Law is once promulged every man is bound to take notice of it and it can be imputed to nothing else but supine and affected ignorance if he shall then continue ignorant Notwithstanding upon the self same supposition it seems to be granted that where the case is otherwise that is where the Law not being sufficiently published cannot be known by an honest diligence there ignorance is no fault because indeed as I said there the Law is no Law THOSE who consider not this point must needs be tempted to passe very dismal and damnatory sentences against the greatest part of mankind and consequently cannot avoid very hard thoughts of God for the prevention of both which great evils as also to confirm what hath been now said there is nothing more usefull then to study well the Parable of our Saviour concerning the Talents Matt. 25. 14. by the due consideration whereof we shall amongst other instructions be led into the apprehension that God proceeds not with men Arithmetically but Geometrically and that the vertue or vice which God rewards or punishes
malum or that there is no being absolutely evil as the Manichees imagined so it is very questionable whether the very Devil himself do nothing but what is evil but it is out of all question with me that the worst and most viciously inclined men do some good And for those that can assert the most vertuous actions of unregenerate men to be express sins they may pretend what Patrons they will of their opinion but I am sure neither Scripture nor reason will countenance it for though it be true that the best actions of such men are not acceptable as the conditions of eternal life because they are disjoined from habitual sanctification and true holiness yet that they are not therefore sins will sufficiently appear by what we have said not long since in the description of the nature of sin Neither because they are defective in some circumstances do they cease to be good or become sins for then the best performances of the best men in this world would be sins too because they are also defective in circumstances 2. THE second or rather first rank of sinners consists of such as live in the habitual practice of great and enormous sins whether of one kind or of many I confess at the first sight one would think these should be divided into two classes whereof the first should be those profligate wretches and sons of Belial who perfectly abandon themselves to the temptation of the Devil and the fury of their own lusts and adde drunkenness to thirst as the Scripture expresseth it or run from one kind of sin to another with a kind of greediness as if were it possible they loved evil for its own sake or had a spite both at God and their own souls And the second should be those more reserved and cautious sinners who perhaps may carry it very demurely in many respects but maintain some bosome sin which is as dear to them as their right eye and as necessary as their right hand and this they hope God will indulge them Oh it is a little one and their souls shall live I say I should in civility have provided these a form by themselves and not set them with the open and scandalous sinners but that I observe God makes no difference between them His servants ye are saith the Apostle to whom ye obey and it is no matter whether a man have many Masters or one he is equally a slave that is led captive either way And so 8. James in that most remarkable passage Chap. 2. vers 10. Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all Of which seeming Paradox he gives account in the next Verse For he that said Do not commit adultery said also Do not kill c. i. e. The reverence of every branch of God's Law is built upon the consideration of his sovereignty and right to prescribe to us which he impeaches whosoever dispenses with himself in the habitual breach of any one of his commands For whatever particular he chooses to transgress in he derogates from the authority of the whole Besides it is to be considered that all sins cannot stand together some sins are as repugnant and contradictory to each other as all are to vertue and moreover non omnis fert omnia tellus it may be not the humour or interest or not sutable to the constitution of some man to act some sin when yet it is neither love of vertue nor the fear of God which makes him abstain from it These therefore are justly joyned together namely all such as live in the habitual practice of one or more notorious sins 3. A THIRD rank are such as though they live not in the habit yet are guilty of the act of some very great and flagitious crime for there are some sins very deadly even in single acts as either containing a complication of many wickednesses together as sacriledge adultery sedition or such as can never be revoked nor amends be made for them as taking away a man's life or never repeated nor repented of as to murther a man's self and several others Now these being of so deadly a nature every man that hath any sense of vertue or care of his own soul ought ever to be sufficiently guarded against them and at utter defiance of them and he that can be so careless as to be found guilty of any such betrays the great Atheism and security of his heart And for this reason the miscarriage of David in the business of Bathshebah and Vriah lays such an horrible blot upon him and needed all that repentance whereof we have the footsteps in the 51. Psalm 4. THE fourth and last rank are they that avoid both the habit and the act of greater sins yet allow themselves in the frequent commission of lesser and persevere in them without repentance By lesser sins I mean both such as I reckoned up before under the name of infirmities and more particularly such as these following When a man dares not give himself up to beastly sensuality yet will too much humour and caress his body in meats and drinks and pleasures or will not steal and couzen but will be covetous and have his heart too much upon the world that dares not cast off the duties of Religion but will indulge himself to be remiss and flat in them and several of this nature too easie to be observed Now these kinds of sins are the more dangerous in that partly our Consciences not being presently startled at them as at greater crimes we more easily admit them or they insensibly steal upon us from whence it comes to pass that they become frequent and so arise to a great number and seem to equal that way what they have not in weight These therefore if they be suffered to pass unregarded grow to a great danger since no danger is little when once it is esteemed so and besides though these may pass for inadvertencies when they are once or rarely committed yet it must be a vicious neglect of our selves when they are frequent and ordinary forasmuch as all sincere vertue is awakened to greater diligence by every sensible declension to which adde especially that whatsoever sin and how little soever it be is not repented of when it is come to our knowledge is by that means become a voluntary transgression increasing its guilt ex post pacto These are the principal stations of sin or the several ways upon which a man is denominated a sinner in the language of Scripture and of wise men BUT to the end we may render this important point as clear as we can and now also come more directly to the Parable before us we will take notice of the Psalmist David's distribution of sinners into a three-fold Classis Psal 1. vers 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the
then whatever the merits of the cause be the inferiour powers without dispute apply themselves to the execution For to use another allusion Reason is as the Card which directs the course and shews what is fittest to be done but the Will is as the Helm and Rudder that turns about the whole Fabrick This is that which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. not a lawlesness or authority to do what we will nor yet an ability to effect whatever we please but a capacity within our selves of determining our selves and making our own choice NOW that we have indeed such a capacity is matter of daily experience for we cannot but have observed that oftentimes when Reason and Religion have recommended such things to us and convinced us of the importance of them yet we have followed our passions notwithstanding and done quite contrary to the clearest dictates of our mind in the words of the Apostle Rom. 7. 23. We have found a law in our members rebelling against the law of our mind and leading us captive to the law of sin And contrariwise sometimes we have checked and subdued the importunities of our passions and cast the Scale on the side of Conscience and Religion and both these out of the freedom of our own Souls It is true that very ordinarily in the former of these cases the Devil may promote the business by his temptations and in the latter it is certain as we heretofore have given caution that there is the concurrence of the Divine Grace and influence of the Holy Spirit but both in the one and the other man acts freely nevertheless suffering no violence nor compulsion For though there can be no doubt but that God who made man and can dissolve him when he pleases by the exercise of his Omnipotence may controul the elections of men or overrule them to whatsoever he will yet it is not reasonable to think he will or doth ordinarily doe so Determine them to evil he cannot upon the account either of his own purity justice or wisedom and for his over-bearing them to the doing of that which is good besides that we cannot understand how it leaves any room for reward in such a case it seems as much to reproach his wisedom in the first creation of such beings as to display his power in controuling their actions and elections and would be as unseemly a Phaenomenon as for him to cross and pervert the common course of naturall causes AND for the Devil though he by the order of his Creation be of an higher rank and of greater power then we yet he is by no means able to force our wills or to rescind the decrees of a free mind God permits him to use his cunning and to shew his malice in contriving baits to allure and catch us and several ways to give us disturbance but if he should allow him to force us we may be sure there should never have been any one good man in the world THE objects that present themselves to us from without can but court our acceptance not obtrude themselves upon us they knock at our door but cannot break in upon us or they present us motives to alter our resolutions but it is in our power still whether we will revoke them FOR Example and the common usage of the world the power of which is so much magnified by some men as if they thought it sufficient to make an apology for all our follies It is so inconsiderable in this case that if we duely consider its efficacy we must pronounce of it that it works only metaphorically not physically and is at most but an Ideal cause if we will call it so sufficient to abuse men of soft and easie minds but not the manly and generous As for the lower and meerly animal powers in us they as we noted before may corrupt the imagination and begin to form a seditious party within us but it is still in the power of the will till it dethrones it self so to suppress them that they shall never be successfull in their rebellion BUT then in the last place for Reason it self which some men governing themselves by an old maxime voluntas semper sequitur dictamen intellect ûs suppose to prescribe so authoritatively to the will as that the priviledge of freedom belongs rather to the former then the latter if that were true i. e. if the will must proceed upon the dictates of reason there would be no such thing as liberty at all because it is not in our power what light our understandings shall have and as I have noted before we cannot believe what we will nor understand things otherwise then they are represented to us therefore if the will have not a power of acting contrary to our understanding as perfect a fatality is introduced as is to be found amongst natural agents Besides we find by constant observation of our selves and the world that in passion in love in the pursuit of riches and honour and most of our prosecutions we sometimes follow our reason sometimes go before it and sometimes quite cross it It is true indeed we ordinarily have some either reason or pretence of reason or other to countenance our elections because otherwise it could not be called choice where there is no end propounded or design aimed at which I think is all that the aforesaid obsolete maxime intends Nevertheless since it is manifest we oftentimes follow that which we know not to be the best reason even then when we follow it we may thereby be sufficiently convinced of the arbitrary power of our own wills THIS which we have been asserting is a truth of that importance that the denial thereof cuts the very sinews of all industry destroys the differences of good and evil takes away all principles of Conscience all arguments of Repentance as we have shewed before and herewith makes that natural passion of ingenuous shame which mankind is peculiarly endowed with utterly senseless and unaccountable But the truth of this supposed we easily understand both the nature and force of Resolution which is the only thing we have aimed at TO proceed therefore The Son in the Text conscious of this truth and as well sensible of his own liberty as certain of the necessity of taking some course or other to relieve himself saith in the words before recited I will arise I will go to my Father I will say unto him c. And the Resolutions of every Penitent are to the same effect viz. I will not fit with my hands folded up as a man infatuated and fitted for destruction I will spend no more time doubting and disputing nor abandon my self to desperation I 'le endeavour both to cease to do evil and to learn to do well I will take shame to my self acknowledge my folly and accept the punishment of my iniquity I will earnestly deprecate the divine displeasure and implore his mercy and pardon In short whatsoever