6. Both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin As it is written therâ— is none righteous no not one There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God They are all gone out of the way they are altogetheâ— become unprofitable there is none that doeth good no not one Their throat 〈◊〉 an open sepulchre the poison of Asps is under their lips there is no fear of Goâ— before their eies Rom. 3. 9. to 20. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughtâ— murâ—bers adulteries fornications thefts false witnesse blasphemies Mat. 15. 19. see Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Whence come warrs and fightings among you comâ— they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members James 4. 1. Unâ—â— them that are unbelieving is nothing pure but even their minde and conscienâ—â— is defiled Tit. 1. 15. I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my minde and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin which is my members O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death c Rom. 7. 14. to 25. where the Apostle speaks all this and a gret deal more of himself see Ephes. 2. 2 3. Gal. 3. 10. Yet how many that gâ—ieve for their other sins who are never troubled for their Original corruption which should above all be bewailed even as the mother and nurse of all the rest and thought worthy not of our sighs alone but of our tears For this is the great wheel of the Clock that sets all the other wheels a moving while it seems to move slowest And never did any truly and orderly repent that began not here esteeming it the most foul and hateful of all as David Psal 51. 5. And Paul crying out of it as the most secret deceitful and powerful evil Rom. 7. 23 24. And indeed if wee but clearly saw the foulnesse and deceitfulnesse of it we would not suffer our eies to sleep nor our cye-lids to slumber until a happy charge had wrought these hearts of ours which by nature are no better then so many styes of unclean Divels to become habitations for the God of Jacob Sect. XI We are the cursed seed of rebellious parents neither need we any more to condemne uâ— then what we brought into the world with us In Adam the root of all we all so sinned that if we had no inherent sin of our own this imputed sin of his were enough to damne us Our first Parents were the root we are the branches if the root be bitter the branches cannot be better They were the fountain wee the springs if the sountains be filthy so must the spangs Whence it is that holy David cries out Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Psal 51. 5. Tantillus puer tantus peccator saith Saint Austin when a little childe I was a great sinner As in the little and tender bud is infolded the leaf the blossom and the fruit so even in the heart of a young child there is a bundle and pack of folly laid up as Solomon affirms Pov. 22. 15. And as Moses speaks The thoughts of man's heart are evil even from his childhood Gen. 6. 5. 8. 21. We brought a world of sin into the world with us and were condemned so soon as conceived we were adjudged to eternal death before we lived a temporal life As admit thou hadst never offended in the least thought word or deed all thy life yea admit thou couldst now keep all the Commandements actually and spiritually yet all this were nothing it could not keep thee out of Hell since that Original sin which we drew from the loins of our first Parents is enough to damn us Sin and corruption are the riches that we bequeath to our children rebellion the inheritance that we have purchased for them death the wages that we have procured them God made us after his own Image but by sin we have turned the image of God into the image of Satan Yea like Satan we can do nothing else but sin and make others sin too who would not so sin but for us As a furnace continually sparkles as the raging Seafoams and easts up mire and diet and as a filthy dunghill does continnally reak forth and evaporate â—â—â—ous â—doâ—â— so do our hearts naturally stream forth unsavery eructations unholy lusts and motions even continually As O the infinitely intricate windings and turnings of the dark labyrinths of man's heart who finds not in himself an indisposition of mind to all good and an inclination to all evill O the strange monsters the ugly odious hidious fiends the swarms litters legions of noisome lusts that are couched in the stinking sties of every one of our decetful hearts insomuch that if all our thoughts did but break forth into action we should not com far short of the Divels themselvs Sect. XII And as the healthiest body is subject to the mortallest disease so there is no sin so odious unto which of our selvs we are not sufficiently inclinable For Original sin in which we are all born and bred containeth in it self the seeds of all sins that fearful sin against the Holy Ghost it self not excepted Such venemous natures we have that never was there any villany committed by any forlorn miscreant whereunto we have not a disposition in our selves Insomuch that we ought to be humbled even for those very sins from which we are in a manner exempt For that Coins envy Ishmaels scofing Rabshâ—ka's railing Shimei's cursing Senacheribs balsphemy Doegs murther Pharaohs cruelty Sodoms lust Judas his treason Julians apostacie c. are not our sins and as much predominant in us as they were in each of them it is onely God's free grace and goodnesse For all of them should have been thine and my sins if God had left us to our selves Lord faith Saint Austin thou lust forgiven me those sins which I have done and those sins which onely by thy grace I have not done they were done in our inclination to them and even that inclination needs God's mercy If we escape temptation it is his mercie if we stand in temptation it is his mercie if our wills consent not it is his mercie if we consent and the act be hindered it is his mercy if we fall and rise again by repentance all is his mercy We cry out of Cain Judas Julian the Sodomites alas they are but glasses to see our own faces in For as in water face arswereth to face so doth the heart of man to man Sayes Solomon Prov. 27. 19. even hating of God is by the Holy Ghost charged upon all men Rom. 1. 30. John 15. 23. 24. 25. Wee are all cut out of the same piece and as there is the same nature of all Lyons so of all men There is no part power function or faculty either of our souls or bodies which is not become a ready instrument to dishonour God our heart is a
root of all corruption a seed plot of all sin our eyes are eyes of vanity our ears are ears of folly our mouthes mouthes of deceit our hands hands of iniquity and every part does dishonour God which yet would be glorified of him The understanding which was given us to learn virtue is apt now to apprehend nothing but sin the will which was given us to affect righteousnesse is apt now to love nothing but wickednesse the memory which was given us to remember good things is apt now to keep nothing but evill things c. For sin like a spreading leaprosie is so grown over us that from the crown of our heads to the sole of our feet there is nothing whole therein but wounds and swellings and sores full of corruption To be short wee are as Trailors condemned to suffer eternall torments in Hell-fire being only repricved for a time Sect. XIII And so much of Originall sin which is the pravity naughtiness and corruption of our Nature Psal. 51. 5. Now of actuall sin which is the transgression of Gods law 1 John 3. 4. when evill thoughts are consented unto and performed in outward deeds James 1. 15. Touching which we are to know and take notice that The Law of God is spirituall and therefore requireth not only outward obedience in word and deed but also inward in mind and heart and that chiefly neither doth it forbid onely the committing of outward sins in word and deed but also all the secret corruptions of the mind and heart Rom. 7. 13 14 15. Matth. 5. 21 22 27 28. 1 John 3. 15. Again where any duty is commanded there the means which tend thereto are enjoyned and where any vice is forbidden there the occasions provocations and alurments tending thereto are also forbidden Again It is not enough to do that which is good for substance except wee do it well also in regard of circumstances as namely that it flows from a pious and good heart sanctified by the holy Ghost and be done in faith obedience to the word humility saving knowledg and sincere love to God zeal of his glory and a desire to edifie and win others of which I might give you many examples as of the Jewes fasting Isa. 58. 3 to 8. of those reprobates preaching in Christs name and casting out devills Matth. 7-21 22 23. of Cains sacrificiing 1 John 3. 12. He offered and God abhorred because he cared not for the manner to do it well God cared not for his offering though the act was good Simon Magus believed Herod listned Felix feared Saul obeyed Jezabell fasted the Phaâ—â—sees prayed but because they did not believe so hear so fear so obey so fast so and pray so as God required and as is before related they were never the more regarded for what they did For love is the fountain of obedience and all externall obedience to God without inward love is hyppocrisie whereas Christ commends to his disciples the care of keeping his commandements aright as the utmost testimony of their love unto him John 15. 10. Sect. XIV Which being so how oft and how many wayes do we all offend For if we but narrowly look into our hearts and lives we shall easily perceive that there is not one of those righteous precepts set down Exodus 20. which we have not broken ten thousand times and ten thousand wayes Yea O God may the best of us say there is no vein in me that is not full of the blood of thy Son whom I have crucifyed and crucifyed again by multiplying many and often repeating the same sinâ— there is no artery in me that hath not the spirit of errour the spirit of pride of passion of lust the spirit of giddinesse in it no bone in me that is not hardened with the custome of sin nourished and supplied with the marrow of sin no sinews no ligaments which do not tye and chain sin and sin together Yea If we but watch over our own hearts narrowly one day we shall find an army of unclean thoughts and desires there perpetually fighting against our souls Whereby wee are continually tempted drawn away inticed through our own concupiscence As how many temptations come in by those Cink-ports the senses how many more by Satans injections presenting to the affections things absent from the sences but most of all by lust it selfe a thing not created yet as quick as thought tumblieg over a thousand desires in one houre For the devill and our flesh meet together every day and houre to ingender new sins which is the reason our sins are counted among those things which are infinite as the hairs of our head the sands of the Sea the stars of Heaven We are swift to all evill but to all good immoveable when we do evil wee do it cheerfully and quickly and easily but if we do any good wee do it faintly and rawly and slackly We have used all our wisedome to commit the foolishness of sin our whole conversation hath been to serve Satan and fulfill the lusts of the flesh We even suck in iniquity like water and draw on sin as it were with cart-ropes Isai. 5. 18. It hath been the course of our whole life to leave that which God commands and to do that which he forbids The Word and Spirit may work in us some flashes of desire and purposes of better obedience but we are constant in nothing but perpetuall offending onely therein we cease not for when we are waking our flesh tempts us to wickednesse if wee are sleeping it sollicits us to filthinesse What ever God commands we do the contrary We prophane his daies contemne his Ordinances resist his Word grieve his Spirit misuse his messengers hate our reprovers slander and persecute his people seduce our friends give ill example to our neighborurs open the mouths of God's and our enemiâ—s to blaspheme that glorious Name after which we are called and the truth we professe Yea we have done more against God in one week then we have done for him ever since we were born and whereas the least of Gods mercies is greater then all the courtesies of men we are not so thankful to him for them all as we are to a friend for some one good turn Sect. XV Neither are we sufficient of our selves to think much lesse to speak least of all to do ought that is good 2 Cor. 3. 5. Joh. 15. 4 5. There is so much wearisomnesse pride passion lust envy ignorance awkwardnesse hypocrisie infidelitie vain thoughts unprofitablenesse and the like cleaving to our best actions to defile them that even our praying and fasting and repenting our hearing believing and giving our holiest communication our most brotherly admonition c. are in themselves as filthy raggs Isa. 64. 6. were they not accepted in Christ covered with his righteousnesse and washed white in his most pretious blood Our very righteousnesse is as a menstruous cloth Isa. 64. 6. What then is our sinfulnesse As
among men there is given none other name vnder Heaven whereby we must be saved Acts. 4. 12. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6 23. I am the resurection and the life be that believeth in me although he were dead yet shall he live John 11. 25. You hath he quickned that were dead in trespasses and sins Ephe. 2. 1. God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved John 3. 16. to 20. God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more then being now justified by his blood we shal be saved from wrath through him For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Rom. 5. 6 to 11. read to the end of the Chapter See more Joh. 1. 29. Acts 13. 39. Rom. 6. 4 to 23. 8. 2 3. 10. 3 4. 1 Cor. 15. 56. Colos. 1. 14. Gal. 3. 22. Heb. 9. 28. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20. 1 Joh. 3. 8. Sect. XVIII As Christ was a sinner only by the imputation of our sins so wee are just onely by the imputation of his righteousness Our good works were they never so many and rare cannot justify us or deserve any thing at Gods hands it is onely in Christ that they are accepted and only for Christ that they are rewarded Yea the opinion of thine own righteousness makes thy condition far worse then the wickedest mans alive For Christ that came to save all weary and heavy laden sinners be they never so wicked neither came to save or once to call thee that hast no sin but art righteous enough without him As hear his own words to the proud Pharisees who had the same thoughts of themselvs as thou hast They that be whole need not a Physitian but they theâ—â— are sick I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance The â—â—st sheep of the house of Israel Mat. 9. 13. 10. 6. 15. 24. 18. 11. Nor can any soul be so dangerously sick as thou who art least sensible of thy being sick Briefly untill with Saint Paul thou renouncest thine own righteousness seest thy self the greatest of sinners art able to discern sin in every thing thou canst think speak or do and that thy very righteousnesse is no better then a menstruous cloth Isa. 64. 6. thou canst have no part in Christ And until Christ shall become thine by Regeneration and a lively faith Thou art bound to keep the whole Law actually and spiritually with thy whole man thy whole life or else suffer eternal death and destruction of body and soul in Hell for thy not keeping it So that thou hast yet to answer and I pray mind it seriously for all the sins that ever thou hast committed who art not able to answer for one of the least of them For the wages of sin any sin be it never so small is eternal death Rom. 6. 23. Gal. 2. 16 19 20 21. Neither let Satan nor thy own deceitful heart delude thee in thinking that thou hast faith when thine own words declare the contrary Nor would I ask any more evidence against thee in this then thine own mouth in saying that thou never doubtest in all thy life for this makes it plain that thou never hadst faith nor ever knewest what faith means For he who never doubted never believed and Satan hath none so sure as those whom he never yet assaulted Sect. XIX But this being a main fundamental point which every man is bound to know I will more particularly and fully explain it as thus Man being in a most miserable and undone condition by reason of Originall and actuall sin and of the curse due to both being liable to all miseries in this life and adjudged to suffer eternall torments in hell-fire after death having no possibility to escape the fierce wrath of Almighty God who had already pronounced sentence upon him When neither Heaven Earth nor Hell could have yielded any satisfactory thing besides Christ that could have satisfied Gods justice and merited Heaven for us then O then God of his infinite wisdome and goodness did not onely find out a way to satisfie his justice and the Law but even gave us his own Son out of his bosom and his Son gave himselfe to dye even the most shamefull painfull and cursed death of the Cross to redeem us that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3. 16. A mercy bestowed and a way found out that may astonish all the Sons of men on earth and Angels in Heaven Wherefore wonder at this you that wonder at nothing that the eternall God would die to redeem our worse then lost souls that we might not dye eternally O the deepness of Gods love O the unmeasurable measure of his bounty O Son of God who can sufficiently extoll thy love or commend thy pity or extoll thy praise It was a wonder that thou madest us for thy self more that thou madest thy self man for us but most of all that thou shouldest unmake thy selfe that thou shouldest dye to save us Which salvation stands in two things First in freeing and delivering us from Hell secondly in the possession of Heaven and eternall life Christ by his death merits the first for us and by his obedience fulfilling the law merits the second The parts of our justification are likewise two the remission of our sins and the imputation of Christs righteousness whereby we have freedome from all evill here and the perfection of all good and happiness in Heaven Insomuch that all those Millions of mercies that we have received from before and since we were born either for soul or body even to the least bit of bread we eat or shall injoy to eternity Christ of his free grace hath purchased for us with the price of his own pretious blood For which see Psal. 68. 19. and 145. 15 16. and 75. 6 7. Hear this all you that care to be saved God will pardon all your sins he will give you an eternal crown of glory in heaven if you unfainedly repent and wholly rely upon Christ for your salvation by a lively faith and that because he is just for although the Lord cannot in justice let sin go unpunished for the wages of sin is eternal death Rom. 6. 23. death in the person if not in the surety Yet Christ hath sufficiently satisfied for all the sins of the faithful and paid their debt even to the utmost farthing as is evident by Isa. 53. 4. 5. a Cor. 5. 21. Heb. 9. 26. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Rom. 3. 25 26. 1. Joh.