one Point he is guilty of all How is this agreeable with the Equity of the Gospel to make a Breach of one Part to be a violation of the whole Law Since he cannot keep the Law and break it at the same time and so far as he did keep it he could not be guilty of the Breach of it but if he offended but in one Point he must keep all the rest It is not enough to say that the Chain of the whole is broken and the Authority of the Law-giver contemned for there is a great difference between breaking a Chain and breaking it all to Pieces there is no such Contempt in the Breach of one Command as of all and he that keeps all the rest seems to shew more regard to his Authority in keeping the other Parts of the Law than Contempt in that wherein he offends What then is the Apostle's meaning It is that the Gospel doth not allow any wilfull Breach of the Law of God in any one kind or sort whatsoever as appears by the following words For he that said Do not commit Adultery said also Do not kill now if thou commit no Adultery yet if thou kill thou art become a Transgressor of the Law What is before said that he is guilty of all is here explained that he is a Transgressor of the Law This cannot therefore be understood of any sudden Act of Passion and Surprise nor of any Failings as to the Manner of our Duties but of a wilfull deliberate Practice of some one known Sin although the Person may be carefull to avoid many others because this is not consistent with that Integrity of Mind and that sincere Regard to God and his Laws which every good Christian ought to have and so being guilty of the whole Law is to be understood with respect to the Favour of God which can no more be expected where there is a wilfull persisting in any one known Transgression of the Law than if he were guilty of all As to Sins of Omission the words of the Text taken in their full Extent have a very mortifying Consideration in them For it is much easier to know to do good than to practise it It is hard for Men under the plain Precepts of the Gospel not to know how to do good but who is there that can say he doth all the good he knows We all know we ought to love God with all our heart and soul and strength and our Neighbour as our selves yet who can pretend to do it in the utmost latitude and extent of our Duty So that what St. Paul saith of the Law is true of the Text that it concludes all under Sin For as our Apostle saith in many things we offend all And the more we know the more we offend as he tells us in these words To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is fin What Advantage then have we by the Gospel since the more we know of our Duty the worse our Condition is if we do not practise it and we know so much more to be our Duty than we can hope to practise that this Expression seems to leave Mankind in a more deplorable Condition under the Light of the Gospel than if we had never heard of it For if the Sin be aggravated by knowing our Duty and not doing it it must proportionably be lessened by having no Opportunities to know it Therefore for the clearing the Sense of the Apostle in these words and for the right understanding the just Measures of our Duty and the due Aggravation of our Sins it will be necessary to state and clear the Nature and Extent of Sins of Omission Or to shew how far this Rule of the Apostle holds To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is Sin To do good here doth not barely imply something that is lawfull and commendable which it is some way in our Power to do but that to which we are under some Obligation so that it becomes our Duty to do it For a Sin of Omission must suppose an Obligation since every Sin must be a Transgression of the Law But there are several sorts of things that are good and there are different kinds of Obligation and from hence arises the Difficulty of stating the Nature of Sins of Omission which some are too little sensible of and some too much But it is in it self a Subject of so important a Nature and so seldom spoken to that I shall at this time endeavour to clear it And in order thereto we must enquire I. Into that Good which we are obliged to do II. The Nature of the Obligation we are under to do it I. As to the Good which we are obliged to do that may be considered two ways 1. With respect to God and so it implies the Duty we owe on the Account of the Relation we stand in to him 2. With respect to one another and so it implies not meer Duty but something beneficial and advantageous to others which we are in a Capacity to do 1. Our Duty with respect to God is either 1. That of our Minds which lie in internal Acts which we are bound to perform towards him 2. That which consists in external Acts of Duty and Service to him 1. The Duty which we owe to God in our Minds which is not barely to know him but frequently to consider and think of him as our Maker and Benefactor It is a strange Incogitancy in Mankind to live as without God in the World to suffer the Cares and Thoughts and Business of this World to justle God out of our Minds whom we ought in the first Place to regard If we could free our Minds from that Disorder and Confusion they are under by the strong Impressions of sensible Objects and the false Idea's of Imagination they would think of nothing so freely so frequently so delightfully as the Divine Perfections For God being the most perfect Mind other Minds that are created by him do naturally tend towards him as their Centre and are uneasie and restless like the Needle touched with the Load-stone till they are fixed towards him We meet with too many things which divert and draw them another way but it is certainly one of the most necessary Duties lying upon us to call back our Thoughts from too busie and eager a Pursuit of Earthly things and to fix them in the serious Thoughts of God and another World It is the Opinion of Aquinas and the older Casuists that assoon as ever any Person is come to the use of his Reason he is not only bound to think of God but to love him as his chief Good and that it is the most dangerous Sin of Omission not to do it The latter Casuists who think this Doctrine too severe as to the first use of Reason yet cannot deny it to hold assoon as any come to the Knowledge of
Yet taking altogether our Saviour tells them They ought to watch and pray that they enter not into Temptation and he gives the Reason for it in the following words The Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak 2. In which words he gives an account of the reason of the Inconstancy and Insufficiency of good Resolutions viz. that although the Spirit be willing yet there is something we carry about us which weakens our best Resolutions and betrays us into Temptations our Flesh is weak which being so near us as to be a part of our selves makes our Case more dangerous and enforces the necessity of Watchfulness and Prayer But here arises one of the most useful necessary and important Cases that relates to practical Christianity which I shall first set down in its full Force and then endeavour to clear it The Case is this how far and in what Circumstances the weakness of the Flesh doth lessen the guilt of Sin which is committed by it If it be not an Extenuation of the Sin why doth our Saviour mention it in such a manner And if it be then these Inconveniencies follow 1. It seems to abate the necessity of our Care and Watchfulness if the Sin be lessened through the weakness of the Flesh which is unavoidable in this imperfect State 2. It seems to be a fair Plea and Excuse for the greatest part of the Sins of Mankind For 1. The Original inclination to Sin in Mankind comes from the weakness of the Flesh the very frame of humane Nature being such as exposes them to continual Temptations There is a natural Combat between the Flesh and the Spirit for the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other as the Apostle speaks and all Mankind find it too true Now wherever the Flesh is there are Inclinations agreeable to it and these being contrary to the Dictates of the Mind all the Sins of the Flesh will appear to come from the weakness of the Flesh. 2. The frequent Commission of the same Sins will be laid upon the weakness of the Flesh. For the generality of Mankind do not sin out of defiance to God or his Laws or with an obstinate Resolution to sin for they know their Duty and wish they could perform it but alas The Flesh is too hard for the Spirit in them They have many Convictions in their Minds many good Purposes and serious Resolutions at some times and if they do sin it is not with their whole Wills for they have great strugglings and checks of Conscience within even while they commit those Sins And therefore what can their continuing in sin be so properly attributed to as to the weakness of the Flesh. 3. Relapses into the same sin after Repentance seems to proceed from the weakness of the Flesh. For he that hath once smarted severely for his Sins and suffered under the Agonies of Conscience for them he that hath gone so far as not meerly to lament his Folly and to abhor his Wickedness but to make solemn Vows and Promises and Resolutions never more to return to the Practice of them it is hard to conceive that such a one should fall into his Sins again with his whole Mind and Soul for the Light of Conscience when it is once throughly kindled is not easily put out it is a secret Fire which burns inward and can hardly be extinguished and all those who sin against Conscience the Dictates of their Minds are right while they commit their Sins and therefore even these Sins seem to be excused by the weakness of the Flesh. But on the other side the Scripture is plain and express that Sins which do come from the Flesh do exclude from the Kingdom of Heaven The works of the Flesh are manifest saith St. Paul Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness c. Drunkenness Revelling and such like which are properly Sins of the Flesh. Of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And in another place For this ye know that no Whoremonger nor unclean Person nor Covetous Man who is an Idolater hath any Inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometâ— the wrath of God on the Children of Disobedience Would God be so severe under the Dispensation of his Mercy to punish Mankind with utter exclusion from Heaven and eternal Misery for Sins which came meerly from the weakness of the Flesh Then indeed there were just cause to bewail the sad Condition of Humanity born under one Law to another bound created Sick commanded to be Sound But God will vindicate his Justice at the great Day and Mankind shall be fully satisfied that none shall be damned for the meer weakness of the Flesh but for the Sins of their Will and Choice That as they had evil Inclinations from the Flesh so they had good Inclinations from the Grace of God and the Law of their Minds ought to have governed and kept under the Law of their Members that others by the same Assistance which was offered to them have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts thereof That the Grace of God doth enable them to deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World That if Men do fail of the Grace of God it is through their own fault that those who relapse into sin after Repentance and escaping the pollutions of the World Their latter end is worse than the beginning and in short If Men do live after the Flesh they shall die but if through the Spirit they do mortifie the Deeds of the Body they shall live All which shews That there is so great a Possibility of fubduing the Inclinations of the Flesh that if Men neglect it and give way to the fulfilling of them this very thing will be imputed to them as a wilfull and damning Sin But here the Difficulty still rises for Christ supposes that his own Disciples even the most forward and the best resolved might fall through the infirmity of the Flesh and they did so upon no great Temptation as appears by St. Peter's denying his Master in so dreadful a manner upon so slight a Provocation as the Damsels saying to him Thou also wast wâ—â—h Jesus of Galilee What a mean low and timorous Spirit had possessed St. Peter at that time Was this he who but a few hours before said That though he should die with him he would not deny him Lord what is Man Verily in his best Estate he is altogether Vanity What St. Peter deny his Lord who made that Confession of him which Christ owned was not revealed to him by Flesh and Blood but by his Father in Heaven viz. That he was
of Reason and there is less of time and Deliberation and Contrivance in the one than in the other But when Anger goes inward instead of breaking forth when it gets to the Heart it then degenerates into Malice and Revenge and then it hath the greatest Aggravations going along with it 3. As to the manner of Committing If it be committed Presumptuously it is so much the more aggravated And that consists in these things 1. The lowest degree of Presumption is when a Sin is committed of set Purpose not only with Deliberation but with Contrivance Design and Resolution Thus by the Law a Man was said to kill his Neighbour Presumptuously when he lay in wait to do it Thus the Psalmist opposes presumptuous Sins to those which are committed through Ignorance or Inadvertency And where there is a Will bent and set to commit Sin there must be an inward and secret Contempt of God and his Laws as Nehemiah expresses the presumptuous sinning of their Forefathers They dealt proudly and harden'd their Necks and hearkend not to the Commandments and refused to obey So that where there is obstinacy and wilful Continuance in Sin there Men are said to sin Presumptuously If it be done with open Contempt and Defiance to God and his Law This the Scripture calls sinning with a high Hand and such who do are said to reproach the Lord and to despise the word of the Lord. This saith Maimonides is beyond sinning out of Inclination or from the Power of evil Habits or Custom but it is with a malicious Design to bring the Law of God into Contempt and Dishonour And this in respect of the Gospel is the sinning wilfully which the Author to the Hebrews speaks of whereby they tread under foot the Son of God and count the Blood of the Covenant an unholy thing and do despite to the Spirit of Grace Which implies a malicious Design to reproach the Gospel 2. As to Infirmities with respect to our present State the meaning is what those failings are which are consistent with a State of Grace and Salvation now under the Gospel To resolve this we have but one certain Rule that is whatever failings are consistent with the Terms of Salvation are allowed for Infirmities by the Gospel And so Infirmities are opposed to such Sins as put those who commit them out of the State of Grace and Salvation If God were so strict under the Covenant of Grace as to require perfect and unsinning Obedience there could be no allowance for Infirmities because even those are a breach of the Law of God and a Deviation from a perfect Rule And if God should be exact to mark all Irregularities or whatever is done amiss who can stand before his Tribunal The best Men in the world have reason to pray with the Psalmist Enter not into Judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no Man living be justified For if God were so severe to make no Abatements for Failings and Imperfections it were impossible for Mankind to be saved But what then doth the Gospel mean with all its Promises of Salvation and the hopes it gives of eternal Life If Christ's own Disciples were in a State of Salvation there must be an allowance made for Infirmities and Imperfections which we find them often charged with in the History of our Saviour What meant their vain and eager Disputes about Superiority and Pre-eminence and that at the most unseasonable time when they were at Table with him just before his Suffering Lord what a time was this for them to contend who should be accounted the greatest What meant that passionate Zeal in James and John to call for Fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans when they knew it was not a particular dis-respect to our Saviour which made them so rude but the common Quarrel between the Samaritans and the Jews How many Errors and Mistakes were they liable to even while our Saviour taught them and those about very weighty Points as the Nature of his Kingdom the necessity of his Death and Resurrection What Fears and Dejections and disorders were they all under upon our Saviour's apprehension though but a little before they had all resolved to die with him rather than forsake him What was there now under all these Infirmities which made these Disciples to be in a State of Salvation Nothing certainly but their hearty and sincere Love to Christ which they manifested before by their constant adhering to him and afterwards by continuing to serve him So that our Rule in this Case is That whatever is consistent with the Love of Christ and with a sincere and constant endeavour to do his Will will be allowed for Infirmities under the Gospel i. e. for such Irregularities which are consistent with a State of Salvation To make this Rule more useful we must consider 1. What Failings are not consistent with it 2. What sort of Failings are consistent 1. What Failings are not consistent And those are of three kinds 1. Such as come from an habitual Carelessness or a general Neglect of our Duty with respect to God and another World When Persons do not regard what Duties they omit or what Sins they Practise it is impossible they should have any true Love to God or to their own Souls For the first thing which springs from thence is a Care to please God without which there is no Salvation But there are too many in the world who regard no more than how to live easily and pleasantly in it a fair Estate and Reputation and therefore avoid great and scandalous Sins and the gross Neglect of God's publick Worship but never mind inward and secret Sins such as evil Habits the violence of Passions the vanity of their Minds being carried away with the pleasing Temptations of a deceitful World without serious considering or looking into their own Temper and Disposition which may be very vain and sensual and therefore unfit for Heaven though they be not remarkable for Profaneness or any gross Impiety But the Gospel requires a spiritual Temper and Disposition of Soul to qualifie Persons for Heaven and where ever that is there will be a constant Care to avoid being overcome by the Temptations of an alluring and sinful World 2. The habitual Practice of any known Sins such I mean as the Scripture saith Those who commit them shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And as to these St. James his Rule is Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one Point he is guilty of all This seems to be very severe Doctrine now under the Covenant of Mercy but we are to consider that by one Point he doth not mean any one Act of sin for he saith afterwards That in many things we offend all but he means any one sort or kind of known Sins It was a common Doctrine among the Jews that if a Person were remarkable for keeping
to the Divine Perfections which are all wholly Spiritual then from the same Râ—ason we must remove all Perturbations from it which are as inconsistent with the absolute Perfection of it as Eyes and Ears and Hands and Feet are although they are all mention'd in Scripture From whence we justly inferr that there is a wonderfull Condescention to the ordinary Capacities and common Apprehensions of Mankind in the Language of Scripture concerning the Divine Nature which makes deeper impressions on meaner understandings and those who are of finer thoughts will see cause to attribute only such a Sense of things relating to God as is consistent with his Infinite and Divine Perfections But what now shall we say to this Tenderness and Compassion of God towards penitent Sinners Can he be moved by our Trouble and Sorrow and Acts of Contrition for our Sins If we be righteous what doth it profit the Almighty And if we be evil how can it hurt him And if when we have sinned we repent we do no more than is fitting for us but why should we imagine the Great and Wise God should have Compassion upon us when we become sensible of our own Folly For when we sin against God wilfully deliberately knowingly habitually we do what lies in us to provoke him to Wrath and Indignation against us we reject his wise Government we slight his righteous Laws we preferr the pleasing our corrupt Inclinations and sensual Lusts before our heavenly Father And what can be more provoking to him than to be so despised by one who had his Being and all the Comforts of Life from him Suppose now such a disobedient rebellious Son as here in the Parable be made sensible of his Folly is his Father bound to receive him Was it not his own choice to go from him If he hath suffered by his Folly he may thank himself for it and if his Father lets him alone in it he hath no cause to complain But such was the Tenderness of the Father towards his repenting Son that he shew'd the greatest Compassion imaginable for he did not stay at home expecting his Son 's solemn Submission before his Family but he ran towards him and fell upon his Neck and kissed him What Conceptions now ought we to have of God's Compassion towards penitent Sinners answerable to all this This I shall endeavour to clear in these Particulars 1. That God's hatred is not primarily against Persons who are his Creatures but against that which is evil which is none of his making and against Persons only so far as they are corrupted with Evil. Thou lovest Righteousness and hatest Wickedness faith the Psalmist God hates nothing for its own sake but Sin and for the sake of that he hates all Workers of Iniquity 2. There may be Good-will towards the Person of a Sinner at the same time when God discovers the hatred of his Sins I do not say God takes any Pleasure in him while he goes on in Sin for that is against the Eternal Rules of Righteousness in God but that he may have so much Good-will towards him as to design to reduce him from his evil Ways And this every Father finds in himself towards a disobedient Son while he hates his evil Courses yet he would make use of the best Methods to bring him to himself and to his Duty And upon this is grounded that Love and Kindness of God towards Mankind in sending his Son to be our Saviour and all the Promises and Invitations which are made to Sinners in the Doctrine of the Gospel 3. It is very agreeable to Infinite Wisdom and Goodness for God to shew himself full of Pity and Compassion towards penitent Sinners i. e. so as to forgive them their former Sins and to receive them into his Favour For Pity and Compassion in God is to be judged not according to the inward Motions we find in our selves but according to these two things 1. A readiness to do good to his Creatures according to their Necessities Which being in general is his Bounty and Goodness but considered with respect to the Persons of Sinners it is his Clemency or readiness to forgive and with respect to the Punishment they deserve by their Sins it is his Mercy and Pity Which in us is Aegritudo ex Miseriâ— alterius and therefore called Misericordia because the Heart is touched with the Sense of another's Misery but we are not so to apprehend it in God but that such is the Goodness of God towards repenting Sinners that he is as willing to shew Mercy as they are to repent 2. God's Pity and Compassion lies in the proper Effects of it which here in the Case of the Prodigal were passing by his former Extravagances and receiving him into as much Favour as if he had not gone astray This my Son was dead and is alive again was lost and is found Those who think they stand not in need of so much pardoning Mercy as others do are apt to repine at the Favour shew'd to great Sinners when they repent and therefore the Elder Brother could not bear the expressing so much kindness towards such a disobedient Son though now a Penitent But that there is nothing disagreeing to Infinite Wisdom and Goodness in such Compassion towards penitent Sinners will more fully appear if we consider 1. That God is not bound to deal with Sinners according to the utmost Rigour and Severity of his Justice Because he is under no fatal Necessity no superiour Law and therefore may act freely in the forgiving Offenders as seems best to his Infinite Wisdom The whole Race of Mankind is a perpetual Evidence that God doth not act according to the strictness of his Justice for if he had dealt with them after their Sins or rewarded them according to their Iniquities their Spirits would have failed before him and the Souls which he had made they had been long since destroy'd from the Face of the Earth and not suffer'd to continue in their Provocations But God hath not only forborn Sinners long when he might justly have punished them but he gives them many real Blessings and Comforts of Life freely and bountifully Now if God deal so mercifully with Sinners while they continue such is there not greater Reason to suppose he will be far more so when they cease to be such 2. A penitent Sinner doth what in him lies to vindicate God's Honour I do not say he can make satisfaction to Divine Justice for that is impossible for him to do and God hath provided for that by his own Son whom he hath made a Propitiation for the Sins of the World But a true Penitent takes all the Shame and Dishonour to himself he clears the Justice of God's Government and the Equity of his Laws and owns himself guilty of unspeakable Folly in his Disobedience O how justly saith he might God have taken me away in the midst of my Sins when my Conscience checked
me for my Sins and yet I had no heart to repent of them When I could not but see my danger and yet was unwilling to come out of it I can never be sufficiently thankfull for so great a Mercy as his bringing me to my self hath been I had gone on in the same secure stupid senseless Condition that others lie in if he had not throughly awaken'd me and roused me out of my impenitent State How dreadfull had my Condition for ever been if my first awakening had been in the Flames of Hell Nothing but infinite Goodness and Patience would have waited so long for the Repentance of such an Offender as I have been I have sinned so often that I am ashamed to think of the Number of my Transgressions so deeply that I am confounded at the thoughts of them so foolishly that I am unworthy to be called thy Son who have acted so unlike thy Children so the prodigal Son here speaks to his Father And if thou wouldst admit me but to the meanest Condition of thy Servants I shall ever esteem it as the greatest Privilege of my Life and endeavour to serve Thee for the future tho' in the lowest Capacity Thus the repenting Prodigal goes on v 19. And in a suitable Manner every true Penitent behaves himself towards God with great Humility and a deep Sense of his own Unworthiness and is thereby rendred more capable of Divine Favour For God reâ—steth the proud but giveth grace to the humble And therefore it is very agreeable to infinite Wisdom and Goodness to shew pity towards a truly humble and penitent Sinner For a broken and contrite heart he will not despise 3. If God were not so full of Compassion to penitent Sinners there would have been no incouragement for Sinners to repent but they must have sunk into everlasting Despair For if God should forgive none that Sin then all Mankind must be condemned to Eternal Misery for all have sinned and there is not a just Man upon Earth who sinneth not and so the best and worst and all forts of Sinners must here suffer together which would have taken away all the Notion of any such thing as Mercy and Clemency in God towards Mankind But if we set bounds to it as to some particular kinds and degrees of sinning we limit that which is infinite we determine what we know not viz. how far God's Mercy doth extend we destroy the Power of Divine Grace in changing and reforming the worst of Men. But the Scriture hath recorded some remarkable Instances of great Sinners who have been great Penitents and upon that have been pardon'd such as Manasses and some others that no penitent Sinner might be discouraged in the Work of Repentance For a true Penitent searching to the bottom and setting all his Sins before him with their several Aggravations can be kept from Despair by nothing less than the Infinite Mercy of God to those who truly repent 4. Because there is nothing so provoking in Sin as obstinate Impenitency and Continuance in it It is true God hates all Sin for its own sake but not all equally some Sins being of a higher Nature than others are being against plainer Light stronger Convictions more easie Commands stricter Obligations than others are but yet it is the Temper of a Sinner's Mind which is most provoking when Sins are committed not through Infirmity or sudden Surprize or a violent Temptation but habitually knowingly wilfully especially when they are done in Contempt of God and his Laws and with an obstinate Resolution to continue in the Practice of them This is so provoking to God that the chief Reason of the severe Punishments of Sinners in another World is taken from thence because God hates obstinate and impenitent Sinners And thus he will by no means acquit the Guilty There is a Sin unto death saith St. John and there is a Sin not unto death There is a Sin unto death which Christ hath said he will never pardon and that is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost a Sin which none who do truly own Christianity are capable of committing But is there then no Sin unto death to them Yes it is possible for Men who have clear Convictions in their minds of the Truth of the Gospel to act so plainly and wilfully and directly against it as either to provoke God to take them away by an extraordinary Judgment and so it is properly a Sin unto death or to withdraw his Grace from them and leave them to the hardness of their own Hearts and so it becomes a Sin unto a Spiritual death But besides these Cases every wilfull Sinner who adds Impenitency to his Sin commits the Sin unto death because there is no other Condition of Pardon allow'd by the Gospel without true Repentance How infinite is the Goodness of God that excludes no Sinners from the hopes of Pardon who have a heart to repent sinâ—erely of their Sins And how just is God in the final Punishment of those Sinners who still go on in their Sins and refuse to repent after all the Invitations and Incouragements which are given them to that End Can we in Reason suppose that God should stoop lower towards Sinners than to offer them pardon of former Sins if they do repent and to tell them they must expect no Mercy in another World if they do not repent But suppose we are come thus far that we are convinced we must repent what Course and Method must we take in order to it Of this briefly and so to conclude Secondly I know no better than to follow the Example of the prodigal Son here And in the first place to form a present sincere fixed and peremptory Resolution of doâ—ng it I will arise and go to my Father c. If we suffer Convictions to cool upon our Minds the force and spirit of them will soon be gone It hath been of late observed by the strictest Enquirers into Nature that the beginnings of Life are very small and hardly discernible It is but as a spark that appears and may easily be exstinguished but if it be incouraged by a continual heat a wonderfull Alteration soon follows and the distinct parts begin to be formed the first which is discerned is the Eye but the Fountain of Life is in the Heart and when the Course of the Bloud is there setled the other parts come to their due formation with greater quickness This may be a Representation of the first Beginnings of Spiritual Life that which answers to the Eye is the Conviction of the Mind where the inward Change first appears that which answers to the Heart is Resolution and when that is fixed a mighty Reformation will soon follow But Spiritual Life as well as Natural is in its first Beginnings a very nice and tender thing it may be easily stopt and very hardly recovered It is therefore of very great Concernment to keep up the Warmth of our
they have not the Heart and Courage to examine them whether they be reasonable or not but rather choose to return to their former Opiates than undergo the trouble of an effectual Cure by a hearty Repentance and coming to themselves as the prodigal Son in the Parable did when his Hardship had brought him to Consideration We do not know what had become of him if he had been wise and frugal in his Pleasures if he had taken care of a good Stock and a plentifull Subsistence but he first came to be pinched with want before he was awakened to repent But we have in Scripture a more remarkable Instance of the stupifying Nature of sensual Pleasures and that was in David after his Sins of Adultery and Murther It is a wonder how a Man of such a tender Conscience in other things should continue so long under the Guilt of these Enormities without being awakened to Repentance Did he not know these to be great Sins And did not his Conscience charge him with the Guilt of them How came he then to need a Prophet to be sent to him and to deal so plainly with him as to tell him Thou art the Man But this is a plain Evidence how much the Pleasures of Sin are apt to stupifie Men's Consciences so far that unless God by his Grace be pleased to awaken them thoroughly they never come to a sincere and hearty Repentance David saw nothing more as to the Guilt of his Sins when he penn'd his 51st Psalm than his own Reason and Natural Conscience might inform him before but he had quite another Sense of his Sins then his Heart was broken and his Soul wounded under the Apprehension of God's Displeasure and this makes him pray so earnestly and so importunately to God for the Pardon of his Sins And if it were thus in the case of a Man otherwise after God's own heart i. e. afraid of offending him and carefull to please him what may we imagine it to be in those who in the time of Youth walk in the way of their hearts and in the sight of their eyes i. e. allowing themselves in all sensual Inclinations and pursuing carnal Delights so far till they have lost all Sense of God and another World and such as these nothing but the powerfull Influences of Divine Grace can awaken and recover 3. The third Reason is A General Presumption upon God's Mercy The first thing which Sinners in the Heat of their Youth and Pursuit of their Lusts aim at is to think as little as may be of what they are doing or what will be the Consequence of their Actions For every thought of themselves is very uneasie to them and every thought of God is much more so therefore they drive away all such Thoughts by one Means or other by Sleep Diversion Company and such publick Entertainments as rather heighten and inflame their Vices than correct them If all this will not do but there will be some melancholy Hours wherein Conscience begins to rouze it self and to awaken the Sinner to some Sense of his Folly then he is ready to hearken with Pleasure to any Raileries against Religion and Morality and admires the Wit of any one who dares say a bold and sharp thing against the Wisdom of all Ages and of the best Men in them And one or two such Sayings without Proof are cried up as far beyond the best Rules of Morality or the Evidence of natural and revealed Religion Any Sceptical Disputes are sufficient Demonstrations to them and the most unreasonable Cavils against Religion are embraced because against the thing they hate and even a Jest against the Day of Judgment shall signifie more with them than the strongest Arguments in the World to prove it The true Reason is they love their Vices and hate every thing which makes them uneasie to them and nothing doth more so than the thoughts of a Judgment to come But suppose after all the terrible and frequent Expressions of Scripture concerning the Day of Judgment joyned with the Reasonableness of the thing do make such Impression on their Minds that they cannot wholly shake off the Fears and Apprehensions of it then their last Endeavour is to mitigate and lessen them from a General Presumption of God's Mercifull Nature and therefore they are willing to suppose that however God to keep the World in awe hath threatned them with the dreadfull Severities of the Great Day yet as a tender Father who threatens his disobedient Son in order to reclaim him with no less than disinheriting him for ever yet when it comes to Execution he may relent not from his Son's Deserts but his own Compassion so they hope or believe or are willing to do so that God at the Great Day will not proceed according to the Rigour which he hath threatned to use And to comfort themselves in these hopes they find out all possible Extenuations of their Sins If we say they had been created purely intellectual Beings free from this load of Flesh and the Inclinations which are natural to it then it had been more reasonable to have called us to a strict Account for every Action of our Lives for then every Inclination to Evil must have come from our Minds but now our Bodies corrupt and draw them aside and the Inclinations to Evil grow faster than our Reason which should check and restrain them And when those Inclinations are strongest Men have not that Judgment which is necessary to the Government of unruly Passions So that the very Frame of humane Nature seems to plead for Sins committed in the Heat and Violence of Youth Besides such is the Strictness and Purity of the Law of God and so great the Weakness and Disability the Ignorance and Inadvertency of Mankind that if God will make no Allowance for humane Frailty who can stand before his Tribunal And if any Allowance be made for Sins of Infirmity there are so many Abatements to be made for Sins committed through sudden Passion through Mistake through the unavoidable Impotency of humane Nature in this degenerate Condition that the Severity of that Day is not much to be feared This is the utmost of the Sinner's Plea against the Severity of the Day of Judgment But to shew how faulty it is I shall offer these Considerations 1. That God will certainly Judge the World in Righteousness and therefore none shall have Cause to complain of the Harshness or Severity of his Proceedings For this Righteousness is not the Rigour of Justice but that Equity which hath a Regard to the Circumstances of Actions and the Abatement and Extenuation of Faults which arise from them 2. None shall suffer at that Day but for their wilfull Impenitency and obstinate Continuance in Sin For this is not only agreeable to the Mercifull Nature of God to forgive repenting Sinners but it is one of the great Designs of the Gospel to assure Mankind of it by the
not seem to confine the Consequences here mention'd to another World altho' the full Accomplishment of them be only there to be expected but if we attend to his Scope and Design in the End of the foregoing Chapter and the Beginning of this we shall find that even in this Life the result of a carnal Mind is a sort of a Spiritual Death and of a Spiritual Mind is Life and Peace For when St. Paul in the 7â—h Chapter had represented himself as carnal and sold under Sin although there were great strugglings between the Convictions of his Conscience and the strength of carnal Inclinations yet as long as the latter prevailed so that he could not do the things that his Mind and Reason told him he ought to do but did those things which he was convinced be ought not to have done The more he reflected upon himself the more sad and miserable he found his Condition to be as appears by that Emphatical expression which follow'd upon it O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death But he no sooner finds hopes of Delivery and Escape out of that Estate but he breaks forth into Transport of Joy and inward Satisfaction Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Not meerly a Victory over Death but over Sin too And so he begins this Chapter after a triumphant manner There is therefore no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit For the Lord of the Spirit of Life which was in Christ Jesus hath made me â—â—ee from the Law of Sin and Death He that groaned under his Captivity before to the Law of Sin doth now rejoyce in his Deliverance from it by the Grace of the Gospel For what could not be done by natural Freedom by the Power of the Law and the Force of Reason is brought to pass by the Assistance of Divine Grace given to the Souls of Men by Jesus Christ. For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh What was that which the Law could not do It could awaken convince terrifie and confound the Consciences of Sinners under the Sense and Apprehension of their Sins but it could neither satisfie the Justice of God nor the Minds of Men it could not remove the Guilt nor take away the Force and Power of Sin But God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinfull Flesh and for sin condemned sin in the Flesh i. e. Jesus Christ becoming an expiatory Sacrifice for Sin took off the damning Power of Sin and by the prevailing Efficacy of his Grace subdued the strength and force of it to such a degree That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit How could this be if St. Paul still considered himself in the same Condition he did in the foregoing Chapter For if he were still in Captivity to the Law of Sin in his Members how was it possible that the Righteousness of the Law should be fulfilled in him How could he walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit if the Good which he would he did not and the Evil which he would not that he did For these things are so repugnant to each other that when they are spoken of the same Person it must be under different Considerations the one of him as meerly under the Power of the Law the other as under the Grace and Influence of the Gospel The one was like rough and a churlish sort of Physick which searches into every Part and puts all the ill Humours of the Body into Motion and makes a general Disturbance and Uneasiness within but yet lets them remain where they were the other is like a gentle but more effecutal Remedy which carries off the Strength and Power of inward Corruptions and alters the Habit and Temper and puts quite another Disposition into us which produces very different Effects upon us For instead of Horrour and Despair and inward Anguish and Confusion there will follow a new Life of Joy and Peace here and Eternal Happiness hereafter And this is what the Apostle means in the Words of the Text To be carnally minded c. Wherein are two things which very much deserve our Consideration I. The different Tempers of Men's Minds some are carnally and others spiritually minded II. The different Consequences which follow them To be carnally minded is Death but to be spiritually minded is Life and Peace I. The different Tempers of Men's Minds The different Denominations are taken from the Flesh and the Spirit which are here represented as two Principles so different from each other that the same Person cannot be supposed to be acted by both of them For as the Apostle saith in the foregoing Words They that are after the Flesh do mind the things of the Flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit Where the Flesh in a Moral sense takes in all our sensual Inclinations which are sinfull either in their Nature or Degree The Spirit is that Divine Principle which possesses the Mind with the Love and Esteem of Spiritual things and keeps our natural Inclinations within the Compass of God's Law To be carnally minded is to be under the Influence of carnal things so as to make the Pursuit of them our chief Design To be spiritually minded is to have so deep and just a Sense of God and his Law upon our Minds as to make it our business to please him and therefore to subdue all such Inclinations which are repugnant to his Will But here lies the main Difficulty how to judge concerning this matter so as to be able to determine whether we our selves be carnally or spiritually minded Which is a thing of so great Consequence for us to know that the Peace of our Minds the true Comfort of our Lives our due Preparation for Death and a happy Eternity do all depend upon And yet that this is a real Difficulty will appear from these Considerations 1. It requires a greater Knowledge of our selves as to our spiritual Condition than most Persons in the World can pretend to For it is not a slight and superficial View of our selves not a transient sudden Reflection nor a partial Inquiry into our inward Passions and the Course of our Actions which can make us capable of passing a true Judgment upon the Temper of our Minds but there must be a true Light a serious and diligent Search frequent Recollection free and deliberate Thoughts long Observation and due Comparison of our selves with our selves and with the Law of God before we can form a just Opinion as to the prevailing Temper and Disposition of our Minds It 's true this is not necessary in all Persons for some and I am afraid too many are so carnally minded that
Difficulty still increaseth and therefore it is time to come to the Resolution of it and that will be by shewing that the Difference between the carnal and spiritual Mind lies in these three Things 1. In the deliberate Judgment and Choice 2. In the prevailing Interest 3. In the constant Rule and Measure of Actions 1. In the deliberate Judgment and Choice For the main difference as to the carnal and spiritual Mind lies in the different End which is aimed at by them Where the chief End is the pleasing our selves and the enjoying of any thing as our Happiness under the Supream Good whatever Thoughts and Intentions we may at some times have to repent of our Sins and turn our Souls from the Love of Sin to the Love of God as long as we continue pursuing a wrong End we have too great Reason to conclude our Minds to be yet carnal and sold under sin For while the Apostle represents himself so he tells us he had his Conscience thoroughly awakened with the Sense of his Sins even of those which the World is least apt to be sensible of inward and secret Sins he was not only convinced of the Excellency and Purity of the Law but had some Pleasure and Satisfaction in it he had some hearty desires to be rid of his beloved Sins but yet they were too hard for him he sighed and lamented under his deplorable Condition but till the Grace of God came to set him free he was in a miserable and hopeless State But how is it that the Grace of God thus refines and purifies the Minds of Men so as of Carnal to make them Spiritual when the same Passions and Inclinations remain A Change there must be and that real and spiritual and therefore in our best Faculties viz. our Understandings and our Wills not by a Revelation of New Objects to the Mind nor by offering any Force upon the Will but by fixing the Judgment of the Mind and the Choice of the Will upon the best and most desirable Objects which is God himself as the Supreme Good The Turn of the Soul which makes one spiritually minded must not be only from gross and sensual Inclinations but from every other kind of Good which stands in Competition with the Supreme A truly spiritual Mind is one that is possessed with the Love of God above all and that values other things as they tend to the Enjoyment of Him God must be the only Center of his Hopes and Designs for in him alone his true Happiness consists As the Psalmist expresses it Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth I desire besides thee Whatever falls short of this may agree to a carnal Mind but a carnal Mind can never love God as he ought to be loved not with a Supreme transcendent Degree of Love which is alone proper and suitable to him All other kind of Love is beneath his Infinite Goodness and Perfections and to love him as we do his Creatures is to do him the greatest Dishonour for it levels their Perfections and supposes them to deserve the same Degree of Affection from us But there may be many spiritual Notions in Men's minds about God and Religion about mystical Unions and the Participations of Divine Love many seeming Spiritual Raptures and Ecstasies and yet there may not be this spiritual Mind For the Heats of Enthusiasm may seem to be very Spiritual but are of another kind they are Spiritual as they are the Effects of a great heating of the Spirits by the Force of a vehement Imagination which hath been often accompanied with as vehement an Inclination to sensual Pleasures which shews the plain Difference between an exalted Fancy and a spiritual Mind A Spiritual Mind is such a one as is not only throughly convinced of the Reality of Spiritual things but of their Excellency and Desirableness above any others that can be offer'd to our Choice It sees through all the glittering Vanities of this World and soars above the most tempting and bewitching Follies of Mankind here It frequently retires from the Noise and Confusion the Hurry and Vexation of Worldly Affairs that it may converse more freely with invisible Objects not meerly by way of Contemplation but by raising the Affections of the Soul towards them as the things which it hath chosen for its Happiness And this makes a wonderfull Alteration in the thoughts that these different Tempers have concerning the same things I do not deny but those who have carnal Minds may have some raised and spiritual Thoughts but they are too cold and speculative they may have noble and refined Speculations about the invisible World may be fully convinced that the things which are seen could not be what they are were it not for the things which are not seen and that the things which are not seen are of incomparably greater value than those which are so much more admired because they are seen But we must not conclude that because Men do really believe Spiritual things therefore they are spiritually minded for that were to suppose all to be Saints who are not Atheists but there must be such a due Preference in our Minds of that Invisible and Eternal State above all that is accounted great and desirable here as gives a just Denomination to one that he is spiritually minded i. e. that his Mind and Soul is fixed upon another World as his proper Happiness and other things are regarded and valued in subserviency to it 2. A Spiritual Mind is discerned by the Prevailing Interest For as long as we are made up of Flesh and Spirit there will and must be a Combat between them For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would And yet the same Apostle soon after adds They that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts the Meaning is that in some particular Instances and less remarkable Cases the Flesh may sometimes be too hard for the Spirit but in all notorious Instances of the Lusts of the Flesh which he reckons up and in the main Issue of all lesser Combats the Spirit will be too hard for the Flesh in those who are spiritually minded as the Flesh will be too hard for the Spirit at last in those who are carnally minded If we look on them in the time of the Combat it will be hard to judge which is most likely to prevail but those may have the better in some particular Skirmishes who may lose very much in the State of the War a good Man may be foiled by Surprise or under some disadvantage but he will recover himself and it may be gain Ground by his Falls and a bad Man may in some fits of Devotion seem so spiritually minded that one might be apt to think he were quite changed till he returns
an uncertain Oral Tradition which can hardly hold the same from one End of the Town to another but by unquestionable Writings of such Authority that the Christians would rather die than deliver up their Books And in these are all those Circumstances contained which we are bound to believe as Christians among which this is one of the Chief that God sent his Son into the World for the Salvation of Mankind To summ up all I desire those who after all this pretend that they are willing to believe as much as they can and those who are liable to any Suggestions of Infidelity to consider seriously with themselves whether there can be a greater and more noble Design more becoming the Wisdom Power and Goodness of God to carry on than that of rescuing Mankind out of a miserable State and putting them into a certain way of Eternal Happiness Whether such a Design must not be discovered in some particular Age of the World with all the Circumstances relating to it Whether that Age were not the fittest of all others wherein the most remarkable Prophecies were to be accomplished as to the Coming of the Mâ—ssias while the second Temple was standing Whether the Difficulties as to humane Testimonies be not equal to all Ages and Things Whether because it is possible for all Men to deceive it be reasonable to inferr that all Men are deceived and that there is nothing but Illusion and Imposture in the World and that all Men lye and deceive for the sake of lying and deceiving But if there be a Difference to be made between Men and between Testimonies then we are to examine the different Characters of Truth and Falshood and give our Assent according to them And if after the severest Examination we do not find sufficient Reason to believe that God sent his Son into the World for the Salvation of Mankind upon such Testimonies as are given of it we must conclude all Mankind to be made up of Fraud and Imposture and that there is no such thing as Sincerity and Honesty in the World or that if there be it is not possible for others to discern it Which are such fatal Reproaches upon humane Nature that no one who pretends to any Regard to it can be guilty of For if they be Universally true they must condemn themselves if not wè must see some very particular Reason why we should not rather think them deceived than fix such an indelible Blot upon the Reputation of Mankind And surely it is a great Advantage to the Truth of Religion to find that it cannot be overthrown but by such Methods as equally overturn all Truth and Certainty and that the Faith of Christianity stands not only upon the same Bottom with the common Faith of Mankind But if we reject such Assurance as is offer'd us for the Faith of the Gospel our Infidelity cannot be the Effect of Reason and Argument but of a causeless Suspicion and unreasonable Mistrust of the best Part of Mankind Who have most firmly believed the Truth of these things and have led the most holy and exemplary Lives in hopes of a Blessed Immortality And if the Testimony of any Persons deserves to be taken before others it must be of such who could have no Design upon this World but were resolved by Faith and Patience to prepare for a better To conclude For us who believe and own the Truth of this great and fundamental Article of the Christian Faith we have something else to do than meerly to vindicate and assert it This at some times is more necessary than at others and I heartily wish this were none of them I am willing to hope the best of all who in such an Age of Infidelity have the Courage and Zeal to own the Faith of this Day viz. That God sent his Son into the World in order to the making us for ever happy And I hope none who profess themselves Christians this Day will ever be discouraged by the Mocks and Flouts of Infidels so as to let go the Anchor of their Hope or mistrust the Foundation of their Faith It is as great a Piece of Wisdom to know when to believe as when not to believe and it is as certain an Argument of a weak Mind to be always doubting as to be over-forward in believing For the Soil must be very bad that can bear no Foundation But withall let us not flatter our selves only that we have a better Faith than others For how miserable will our Case be if we have nothing but a superficial Faith and a sort of Anniversary Devotion We can never thank God too much for the Blessing of this Day but God expects something more from us than meerly the giving him solemn Thanks once a Year for sending his Son into the World We must endeavour to answer the End of God's sending him i. e. to save us first from our Sins and then from the wrath to come This is the Method which God himself hath appointed not barely from his own Will and Pleasure but from the necessary Order and Reason of Things For otherwise a Man might be rewarded for doing amiss and punished for performing his Duty If we therefore ever hope for any Benefit by this coming of Christ into the World we must apply our Minds to consider seriously on what Conditions we may reasonably hope for Salvation by him Can they think that Christ came to so little Purpose as to save Men in their Sins If that were to be hoped there had been no need of his coming but it is a hard Work indeed to save us from them The Guilt must be expiated and the Power subdued the former Christ hath done but he expects and with great Reason that we should deny ungodly and worldly Lusts and work out our own Salvation with Fear and Trembling SERMON X. CONCERNING Sins of Omission Preached before the King and Queen AT WHITE-HALL ON March 18th 1693 4 being Midlent-Sunday St. James IV. 17. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is Sin ALthough our Apostle in this Epistle calls the Gospel the Law of Liberty yet to prevent any Misconstruction thereof as though it allowed a Liberty to sin we no where find more strict and severe Passages against it than in this Epistle both with respect to Sins of Commission and Sins of Omission As to Sins of Commission his Expression seems hardly consistent with the Grace of the Gospel For whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one Point he is guilty of all Hath the Law of Moses any thing more apt to terrifie the Consciences of Men if not to drive them into despair than this It is not If one breaks the whole Law then it had been no wonder if he were guilty of all even under the Gospel which doth not take away the force of the Moral Law But If he keep the whole Law and yet offend in
God if the want of knowing him be not through their own Fault Assoon as they know God they confess that they are bound to love him but are they not bound to know him assoon as they are capable What allowance may be made in the Cases of gross Ignorance or natural Stupidity we are not concerhed to enquire but we now speak of those who have all Advantages and Opportunities of knowing God betimes and as to such their Ignorance is so far from being an Excuse that it is their Sin And that can never excuse from a Fault but when it is no Fault to be ignorant But Not to know God when Persons know so many other things in the World besides him is so much greater a Fault because all those other things lead them to the Knowledge of him So that I take it for granted that no Man of Understanding can avoid the Knowledge of God without shutting his Eye against the clearest Light without darkening his Understanding by unreasonable Prejudices without Confusion of Thought and Perplexity of Mind without groundless Imaginations and ridiculous Suppositions and most commonly not without very disorderly Passions and vicious Habits which make the very Thoughts of God uneasie to his Mind But suppose we do own and believe a God are we bound always to be thinking of him Must we spend our time in Contemplation of him and neglect all our Affairs here If not what are the bounds of our Duty which we may not omit without Sin There are two things which are necessary for us to do with respect to God in our Minds 1. To have frequent and serious Thoughts of him without which it will be impossile to keep our Minds in that Temper which they ought to be in For the Thoughts of God keep up a vigorous Sense of Religion inflame our Devotion calm our Passions and are the most powerfull Check against the Force of Temptations And therefore we ought to allow our selves fit Times of Retirement for Recollection and Consideration wherein we draw in our Thoughts from the Business and Impertinencies of this Life and even these go a great way in that which looks like Business that we may converse with God and our own Minds And those who do not sometimes withdraw from the Noise and Hurry the Dust and Confusion of this World must be great Strangers both to God and themselves and mind any thing rather than their chiefest Interest But I am afraid there are too many among us of whom the Psalmist's words are too true God is not in all their thoughts I wish there were not some who would make good another Reading of those words viz. All their thoughts are there is no God But I think not so much their deliberate Thoughts as their Wishes and Desires But those can never alter the Nature of things and therefore the wisest thing they can do is to make the Thoughts of God desirable to them and that can be only by reconciling themselves to him by a hearty and sincere Repentance 2. We are always bound to have an habitual Temper and Disposition of Mind towards God This is that which is commonly called the Love of God and is opposed to the Love of Sin Which doth not consist in sudden and transient Acts of Complacency and Delight in him but in a firm Purpose and Resolution of Mind to obey him The Jews think that the fundamental Precept of the Law as to the Love of God with all their heart and soul and strength goes no farther than that they should do that which the Law requires as to the Worship and Service of God But certainly the Love of God must go deeper and rise higher or else it will never come up to the great Design of Religion which is not only to do those outward Acts of Service which he commands and expects from us but to bring our Souls nearer to him to make him our chief End and to direct the Course of our Lives and the Acts of our Obedience in order to it Now this is a Duty towards God so necessary to our Happiness that we must be always obliged to it and at all times although it be an Affirmative Precept For the true Reason of the Difference of Obligation is from the Nature of the Commands and not from the Manner of Expressing them either Negatively or Affirmatively The Reason of the perpetual Obligation of Negative Precepts is that it can never be lawfull to do what God forbids but it may be sometimes lawfull to omit what he requires because the Circumstances may make it not to be a Duty at that time But when an Affirmative Precept is of that Nature that no Circumstances can alter the Obligation of it then it binds as much as a Negative And so it is as to the Command of true Repentance and turning from the Love of Sin to the Love of God for no Man can be in such Circumstances wherein he is not bound to do it But as to particular Acts of Repentance and of the Love of God supposing that habitual Temper the Obligation of them is according to the proper Seasons and Occasions of them When a Sinner is conscious to himself of fresh Acts of Sin he is bound to renew his Repentance and the Omission of it adds to his Guilt and when God calls Men to Repentance in a more than ordinary Manner by strong Convictions of Conscience or some awakening Providence or by some solemn Times of Fasting he is guilty of a farther Aggravation of his Sin if he neglects those Seasons of performing the proper Acts of Repentance But suppose we do know God and have this habitual Love to him as our chief End doth this come up to all that Mankind owes to God Do we know him and love him and serve him as we ought to do Do we not fail in the Manner and Degree of those very Duties which we in some Measure perform And are not these Failings Omissions And will not these Omissions be charged upon us as Sins How then can Mankind hope to escape the Wrath of God against those who continue in the Practice of Sin To answer this we must distinguish between Omission as a Defect and as a Wilfull Sin We must say as St. James doth In many things we offend all and in all things I am afraid we offend some way or other if God would be exact to mark what is done amiss But here lies the main Point as to this Matter how far God will charge those things upon us as Omissions which in us come rather from want of Power than of Will to do them I do not mean of Natural Faculties for those we have entire but of Moral Power i. e. of such a Measure of Divine Grace as will enable us to do things beyond the Imperfection and Infirmity of our present State which in this fallen Condition is like that of a Man under a Dead-Palsie who hath all the
any one Precept of the Law especially such as respected God and his Worship that would make amends for all the rest and this was the true Reason why the Pharisees made long Prayers and yet devoured Widows Houses for they thought the Duties of the first Table would excuse the neglect of the other But S. James saith If a Man keep all the rest of the Law and yet allows himself in the wilful breach of any one Point that implies such a Contempt of the Lawgiver as renders him as obnoxious to Divine Justice as if he had broken the whole But here a great difference is to be made between a single Act committed through the Power of Temptation against a contrary habit of Vertue and the habitual Practice of known Sins It is possible for a sober Man to be surprized into an Act of Intemperance and to be overcome by the strength of Wine but see the difference between such a one and one that hath a habit of Intemperance The one goes on in his Course and hath lost the very Sense of his Sin and the Power of resisting it and by degrees thinks he cannot live without it the other looks with Indignation upon himself for his Folly he repents presently and resolves to avoid all occasions of being guilty of the like Folly And the same holds as to other Sins if Persons do love God and their Souls and be overcome with Temptations they presently repent with great Sincerity and return no more to the Practice of it 3. All Acts of known Sins presumptuously committed are inconsistent with a constant and sincere Endeavour to please God Where there is true Friendship among Men it is not presently broke by every Neglect or sudden Heat and Passion but if a Man sets himself with Study and Deliberation to affront another that is a reasonable Cause to break off any Pretence of Friendship because such an Action was not consistent with the love of a Friend so it is with notorious Sins committed wilfully and deliberately notwithstanding all the Motions to the contrary from God's Honour and Justice and Soveraignty and from the Commands and Threatnings of the Gospel these are inconsistent with being in a State of Friendship with God which is all one with a State of Salvation Not that all who commit them must immediately or necessarily be damned for them but tho' hereby they renounce any Title to Friendship with God and all their hopes as long as they continue in such a State without true and hearty Repentance are vain and groundless And to entertain such hopes notwithstanding such sins is properly the Sin of Presumption which is Confidence of anothers Favour without any Reason for it 2. By these we may now easily understand what those Failings are which the Gospel allows for Infirmities viz. such which are unavoidable by us in this imperfect State notwithstanding a constant and sincere Endeavour to please God by doing his Will God knoweth our frame and remembreth that we are but dust Not meer Dust for then it were to no purpose to take Care to save our Souls but a Mixture and Composition of dull heavy lumpish Matter and a sprightly vigorous active Soul which grows uneasie by being fettred and clogged and distracted in its best and freest Motions by it The Soul can hardly raise it self above this Region of Darkness and Temptation and attempt a Flight towards the State of Serenity and Happiness above but it is pulled down by that weight which hangs upon it and diverted by the various and restless Impertinency of wandring Imaginations The most watchful Mind cannot prevent all the disorders of a roving Fancy in the midst of our more serious Devotions If we set our selves to fix our Minds upon the best Objects and to prevent any wandring thoughts the Success seldom answers our Design and our thoughts are gone before we are aware of it Our Minds are like a Ship tossed upon the rowling Waves but although we cannot hinder their unequal Motion we may steer their Course to the Port we aim at But beside the Extravagancies of Imagination our Desires are hard to be kept within their due Bounds there are many Failings in our best Duties great Coldness and Lukewarmness at least in our Devotions and yet too great Proneness to think well of our selves for them though God knows our Omissions and Neglects are so many and those we do perform are so mean and slight that we have more cause to pray to God to forgive than to hope he will accept our mean Performances But yet I do not say our best Actions are Sins for there is a real difference between Actions imperfectly good and morally evil in these the Substance is bad but in the other the Acts themselves are good but only lessen'd by the manner of doing them And to these Failings in our best Actions we must add the great unevenness in our Tempers the Inconstancy of our Resolutions the uneasiness of our Minds under the Troubles of Life arising from want of due Resignation and Submission to the Will of God the many secret lurking Passions within us which are called the Motions to sin and S. James styles The lust which conceives and brings forth sin and St. Paul The Law in our Members warring against the Law in our Minds which may give a great deal of disturbance where it cannot prevail It is a sad thing to read the Complaints of such Persons as St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Jerom about the inward Motions to sin after an Age spent in Mortifications and when their Bodies were wither'd with Age and broken with Diseases and hard Usage But there is a greater Instance than these of St. Paul himself who after all his Perils by Land and by Sea after all his Watchfulness and Fastings and Prayers yet he was forced to keep under his Body and to bring it in Subjection lest that by any means saith he ' when I have preached to others I my self become a cast-away But still there is a great difference between pursuing the things of the Spirit with the Reluctancy of the Flesh and pursuing the things of the Flesh with the reluctancy of the Spirit the former shews only the Motions of the Flesh which being subdued are but Infirmities but the latter do not cease to be wilful Sins tho' there be inward struggling in the Commission of them and the prevailing Party ought to give the Denomination to the Person whether carnal or spiritual For They that are after the Flesh do mind the things of the Flesh but they that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit And according to the great Design and Tenour of our Lives and Actions will be our Character in this World and recompence in another Nothing now remains but to conclude with recommending to you the Duties of Watchâ—ulness and Prayer 1. Watchfulness which is a constant Care of our selves and Actions We walk as
Parts of a Man but not the Power of moving them And where God by his Grace doth recover Mankind to a new Life yet there are such Remainders of the former Deadness upon us as makes us unable to do that which we most desire to do and do fail in the Manner of Performance where we are sincere as to our Purpose and Design But will God lay these moral Defects or Infirmities of our corrupt Nature on us as wilfull Sins now under the Gospel God forbid I do not question God's Right to command us all that which is just in it self and he hath given us Faculties to do but I consider him as a gracious Lord towards a decayed Tenant of whom if he be willing to pay what he is able he will not exact the uttermost Farthing As a compassionate Commander to a wounded Soldier who is willing to accept what Service he is able to do although he fails in many Points of his Duty As the good Samaritan which poured in Wine and Oil into the Wounds which he had not made and diseharged the Debt which he had not contracted If God were not infinitely gracious and mercifull there were little hopes for us to avoid Punishment but since he is pleased to deal with us upon the Terms of a new Covenant we have reason to hope that he will not charge Involuntary Neglects and Moral Disabilities upon us as Sins of Omission 2. There are Duties of External Worship and Service owing to God and how shall we know when the Omission of these becomes a Sin to us For these are not always necessary and sometimes we may be hindred from them To answer this I lay down these Rules I. A constant or habitual Neglect of those Duties which God hath appointed for his Worship and Service cannot be without a Sin of Omission because that must arise from an evil Temper and Disposition of Mind When it comes from a Contempt of God and his Service it must be a Sin because the Reason of it is a very great one When it comes barely from a careless indifferent slothfull Temper which is glad of any Excuses for the Neglect or Omission of them it argues very little Sense of Religion or Regard to God and his Service when they are so ready to find an Excuse for their Fault But some are ready to justifie themselves in such a Neglect as though all the outward Worship of God were meer Ceremony and only a decent way of entertaining the People with some outward Pomp and Shew of Devotion towards a Divine Majesty I am afraid such hardly mention a Divine Majesty but in a Complement however we are willing to believe that they do own such a Being but they think it a vain thing to serve him as though he could be moved by our Prayers to him or Praises of him We do not deny that God is infinitely above all our Services But is that a Reason why we should not serve him in the way he requires it from us He doth not want our Services but we want his Favour and Blessings and can we expect them when we slight that little Service in comparison of the time he allows for other Imployments which he expects from us If we had nothing but the Light of Nature to direct us we should conclude it very reasonable that Mankind should own their Creator by some outward and publick and stated Ways and Times of Worship For this is no more than natural Justice to own our Maker and Benefactor and can it become less necessary when he hath declared himself pleased with the Performance of them and made great Promises to those who call upon him But this say they is the greatest Difficulty of all to understand what Effect our Prayers can have upon the Eternal Counsels of Heaven since they are already fixed and cannot be reversed by our Prayers As great as this Difficulty is the true Point of it is only this Whether we are to believe and trust the frequent and repeated Promises of God altho' we are not able to comprehend how the Efficacy of our Prayers is taken in as a necessary Condition towards the Execution of God's Eternal Purposes For if they are Conditions as the Scripture often tells us then we may easily understand what is meant by the Efficacy of Prayers and as to the manner of reconciling such contingent Conditions with God's Eternal Purposes it is a Difficulty which will afford perpetual Matter of Dispute but ought no more to hinder us from plain Duties than a Man should be from going a necessary Journey till he be satisfied whether the Earth moves about the Sun or the Sun about the Earth II. Whether the Omission of such publâ—ck Duties of Divine Worship be a Sin or not depends very much on the Reason and Occasion of it For if it be a wilfull Neglect it doth imply a Degree of Contempt and that cannot be without Sin And that is a wilfull Neglect when nothing but an Act of a Man 's own Will hinders him from serving God in publick I do not mean only at the very time but if he hath by some former Act of his Will brought an Incapacity upon himself that want of Power doth not excuse when the Impotency arises from a voluntary Act of his own If it be intended on purpose to hinder it is as wilfull in its Cause as if there were no such Impediment For although the actual Impediment be the immediate Cause of the Omission yet it is the Design and Purpose which makes it wilfull But if Persons by an Act of Providence without their own Fault be hindred from the Worship of God as by long Sickness no one can say that this Omission is wilfull and therefore cannot be accounted a Sin But if a Person by his Intemperance and Debauchery hath brought himself into an Incapacity of attending on the Service of God we cannot say that the actual Omission was wilfull but we may justly say that the original Cause was so and that it cannot excuse the Omission II. But besides the Duties which we owe to God there are such which we owe to one another which cannot be omitted without Sin But here the stating of the Case seems yet more difficult since there is not so plain an Authority to oblige nor such a Relation to each other as we stand in to God And besides the Circumstances of humane Affairs are oftentimes so intricate and perplexed that it is very hard for Persons to know their Duties and much more to practise them But there are certainly such Duties which we owe both to the Publick and to one another and it may be of some Use to us to understand the force of the Obligation and what those are which cannot be Omitted without Sin 1. As to the Publick and concerning that we may take Notice of two Rules 1. Those Duties cannot be omitted without Sin which cannot be omitted without Prejudice to the publick Good
By which I do not mean any fancifull Notions or Pretences to it but the true and real publick Interest of the Nation which consists in the Preservation of our Religion and Laws The main Duty of this kind which I shall insist upon is the laying aside all Heats and Animosities and Distinctions of Parties and minding and carrying on that which is the undoubted common Interest of us all What is the Meaning of all those Jealousies and Suspicions which are among us when we all profess to own the same Religion the same Laws and the same Government This is a very melancholy Subject to speak of for this unseasonable Difference of Parties among our selves is like a flaming Meteor in the Air we can hardly keep our selves from looking upon it and yet cannot behold it without some kind of Terror and Amazement It is disputed among the Casuists whether if a Man sees two Men fighting with each other he be bound to part them to his own Hazard and the general Resolution is that if he be in a private Capacity he is not but in a publick he is I hope the publick Capacity I appear in here at this time will excuse my interposing to allay such Heats and Animosities as are not only of dangerous Consequence but great Sins And therefore unless I would be guilty of omitting a Duty my self I must and will lay open the Mischief of such divided Interests as the Difference of Parties carries along with them When God had given Children to Rebekah while they were yet unborn and in their Mother's Womb she found them struggling within her to such a Degree as made her in a Consternation to cry out If it be so why am I thus i. e. If God hath given me these Children for Blessings What is the meaning of this struggling between them And it is said her Concernment was so great that she went to enquire of the Lord. Some think that Melchisedek was still living at Salem and that she went to him to consult about the Consequence of it and he was a very proper Person for it for he was King of Righteousness and King of Peace And those are the best Antidotes against the Strugglings and Animosities of those who have the same common Interest and Obligations We need not to consult any Oracle in this Case for St. Paul hath told us that if we bite and devour one another not like Canibals but like different Parties living in Hatred and Malice and Animosity to each other take heed saith he that ye be not consumed one of another As if he had said Things cannot always continue at this pass the inward Fires if not suppressed will break out at last and in Probability end in your mutual Destruction Nothing hath more puzzled the Wits of Men in this inquisitive Age than to give an Account of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea but a great Man of our Nation hath told us that we need not run to the Moon or other remoter Causes for the true Reason of it is nothing else but the clashing of the Waters of two mighty Seas crossing each other and therefore where there are no such contrary Motions there is no such Ebbing and Flowing We have too much of this Ebbing and Flowing upon Land both as to our Condition and Expectation But whence comes it Is it not from two Parties among us crossing and striving to overtop and overpower each other And till we unite and join in the same common Current we have little Cause to hope for a State of Peace and Tranquility Our Saviour tells us a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand I need not tell you of what Kingdom he speaks but it was such a one where there would be no Subtilty or Diligence wanting in the several Parties as to carrying on their Designs but he looks on an united common Interest so necessary to the Preservation of Government that he declares that no kind of Society can be supported without it If we then regard the Interest of our Nation or of our Religion if we would avoid the Shame and Reproach of destroying by our Divisions what we pretended to value above our Lives we must lay aside our mutual Jealousies and Suspicions we must abate our Heats and Animosities we must unite and join in the things that belong to our Peace But if they be hid from our eyes then I am afraid what St. Paul said of the Gospel may be too truly applied to the things of our Peace If they be hid they are hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this World hath blinded their eyes For it is too apparent that the true Ground of the Contention of the several Parties is not Matter of Conscience or Religion or the common Interest of the Nation but about Power and Superiority over each other which if it be carried on in humane Probability can end in nothing but mutual Destruction Which God of his Mercy prevent II. Men cannot without Sin omit the doing those Duties which their Places do require from them For those are intended for a publick Benefit Those who study to be quiet and to do their own business are not only the best Christians but the best Instruments of the publick Good Whereas Men of turbulent restless and ambitious Minds who make abundance of Noise and Clamour are like Wasps always flying and buzzing about and very angry and peevish and discontented but are nothing so usefull as the more silent and industrious Bees which make the best of every thing and serve the common Interest by it Every Society of Men is a Body made up of Head and Members knit and compacted together by Joints and Bands but all have their several Uses and Functions and while these are duly performed the whole is preserved but if the Feet should mutiny against the other Parts because they bear the Burthen of the whole or the Stomach that it is loaded and oppressed with what serves for the Nourishment of all or the Head that it must direct and contrive and manage all what would the Effect be of such Complaints and Discontents at their own Share but that the whole Body must suffer by them While all the Materials of a Building are kept in their due Place and Order the whole is strengthened and supported but if they start out of their Places and tumble one upon another the whole must fall There are always some who love to carry on their own Ends under publick Pretences and if those be not attained they matter not what becomes of all other Interests although their own must suffer with the rest These are like the Ivy to a flourishing Tree which seems to embrace it and stick close to it but it is for its own Advantage but at the same time it weakens it and hinders its Growth and if it falls it must perish together with it But there are others who by the very