unlawfully had it power and opportunity for those first Motions and Inclinations are necessary and unavoidable arising from the frame and constitution of our Nature and the Mechanism of our Body Blood and Spirits so that we can no more help or prevent them than we can the senses of Pain and Pleasure or the Appetites of Thirst or Hunger or the Motions and Impressions of outward Objects made upon our Senses and therefore they are not simply evil but good in themselves so far as they are Natural and intended by God to serve the good of the World and of particular Persons and the wise ends of Providence but as they are irregular and inordinate excessive and immoderate and destroy those ends for which God intended them so far they are sinful and when any of those Natural Appetites or Sensual Inclinations grow too strong and unruly and are not kept under the government of Reason or within the bounds of Vertue and Religion then they carry Men to all loosness and wickedness and make them commit Sin and Uncleanness with greediness A good Man may with St. Paul be very sensible and complain of this body of sin and of death and of the law of sin that is in his members of many irregular Appetites and undue Passions and weak and foolish imaginations and unreasonable desires and inclinations of too quick gusts of Sensual things and too much deadness of Spiritual of having too many thoughts and designs for Earthly and present things and too little zeal and affection for things Heavenly that are a thousand times more valuable These are imperfections that are in the best of us and we see that they are so and are very sensible and complain of them but yet we cannot wholly avoid them but after all our thoughts and all our care they still return upon us and the Flesh will lust against the Spirit and there will be a perpetual war and struggle between them but if the Spirit do so far prevail by the helps of Grace and considerations of Religion that it do never yield to any wilful Sin it shall then be rewarded as a Conquerour which though it did not wholly subdue and drive out that homebred enemy yet kept it alwayes under and made it submit to its Government and not keep up an open Rebellion against it Of this I have largely discoursed in the Third Section of the Third Chapter I proceed now to those Sins which are known wilful and presumptuous habitual and reigning in us any one of which is inconsistent with a good State and excludes us out of Gods Favour here and Heaven hereafter such as the Psalmist in the forequoted place prayes against Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over me All known and wilful Sins are presumptuous as being done in defiance of a Divine Authority that we know has forbid them and in contempt of God and his Laws to whom we owe all Honour and Obedience and notwithstanding all those threatnings and severe punishments that God has denounced against them He that sins wilfully after he has received the knowledge of the truth of these things there remains nothing for him but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries This is despising the Law of God thus wittingly and wilfully to break it and is sinning with a high hand and a most presumptuous boldness when we choose to do that which we know is most highly displeasing to Heaven and which God has laid all the obligations he possibly can upon us not to do When any such Sin gets dominion over us so that it becomes customary and habitual to us it makes us the Devils slaves and captives at his Will and shows that he is our Master and that we are the Servants of Sin and overcome by that and brought in bondage to it that it prevails upon our Minds above all the Power of Reason and Principles of Religion and that we choose it above all the great things of Heaven and another World that Religion offers to us and think it more desirable than any of those and had rather gratifie a paltry Lust and a foolish Inclination than save our Souls and have all the favour of God that we prefer it before any other good and let it have the ascendant in our Love and Affections above all other things for it is utterly inconsistent with any Love of God or any due regard to him and banishes all Principles of Religion out of our Minds and destroyes all sincerity and uprightness of Heart towards God and abandons us to a state of enmity with him and everlasting destruction hereafter This I have shown is true of every wilful and chosen and known Sin I shall now from the distinction I have given you of these Sins from those of Infirmity Ignorance and Inadvertency make the following Inferences and Remarks 1. That those Sins of Infirmity are to be Repented of i. e. we are to be sorry for them and pray God to forgive them Though they do not destroy our good state nor deprive us of Gods Favour here or Heaven hereafter yet they are such as are to be matter of Trouble and Sorrow and Humiliation to us and we are dayly to pray God to forgive us our Trespasses as Christ has taught us in the Lords Prayer and the Psalmist in the place before mentioned prayes God to cleanse him from his secret faults as well as to keep him back from presumptuous Sins For 2. These are true and proper Sins and though they are not charged upon us to our Condemnation yet this is by the great Favour and Mercy of God and by Vertue of the Gracious Covenant made in Christ with Mankind for otherwise God in Rigour and Justice might punish and condemn us for them The Papists hold a distinction between Sins Mortal and Venial in their own Nature i. e. that some Sins are in themselves damnable and others not which the Protestants have generally opposed for this Reason because all Sin is in it self Mortal and in its own Nature deserves Death as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a breach and transgression of a Divine Law whose sanction is Death but it is pardonable only by Gods Mercy on the account of its circumstances which make it more excusable with a good and merciful God but that it is not of it self venial or so little as not to deserve Punishment they prove from hence that we are bound to pray God to forgive it Now it is pure Grace and Favour for God to forgive and what he is not obliged to and if he is not obliged to pardon it he may punish it were it not for his Mercy and Goodness and the Gracious Covenant he has made with us in the Gospel This should therefore 3. Make us very sensible of Gods infinite Mercy and kind dealing with us by the Covenant of Grace How many innumerable Sins and
shall deliver me from this body of death he comfortably replies to himself I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord ver 25. i. e. there is a remedy for it by Christ and Christianity and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death ver 2. chap. 8. The Answer to the other Objection will be fully given in the next Section SECT II. The Differences of Sins what are and what are not consistent with a good State THAT all Men are Sinners not only Experience but the Scriptures do in many places assure us that there is not a righteous man upon earth who sinneth not that in many things we offend all and that if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us by which is not only meant that no Man is wholly free from all manner of Sin in the whole course of his Life or can pass all his dayes without falling into some Sin or other but that no part of his Life even when he is come to his best State a State of Grace and Vertue is so perfect as to be quite sinless and without any Sin of what kind soever so that he should not be obliged to beg Pardon of God and say dayly Forgive us our Trespasses Now this as it is matter of Humiliation to the best Men so it is turn'd to another use and quite different purpose by the worst they comfort themselves in all their greatest Sins that all Men are Sinners as well as themselves that none are free from all Sins and let them that are so cast the first stone at them they plainly confound hereby the different states of good and bad Men and are not willing to distinguish or make such a true judgment as the Scripture does plainly between them for the same Scripture that tells us all are Sinners and hath concluded all under Sin yet declare that every wilful Sin is damnable and that they who commit it and live in the practice of it shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that he who shall keep all the law besides and yet offend in any one point is guilty of all and shall be punish'd as truly though not so fully for one wilful unrepented Sin as for more There is no way to reconcile this and take off any seeming difficulty about it but by that plain difference which both Scripture and Reason allow between Sins that some of them are Sins of Frailty and Infirmity which are unavoidable to us in our present state and which are consistent with a good one and which the best of Men cannot live wholly without whilst they are in this Body of Flesh and Blood and that others are wilful and presumptuous known and deliberate Sins which are committed with full consent of the Mind and against a plain Law of God and with that presumption and disobedience that makes them unpardonable without a particular Repentance and a perfect Amendment It concerns us very carefully to distinguish and know the difference between those and not to erre to be sure on the wrong side by judging too kindly of our Sins and calling those Infirmities and Weaknesses which are Sins of Wilfulness and Presumption nor can we without judging right and avoiding Mistakes on either hand judge truly and comfortably of our selves and know what our Spiritual state is or what condition we are in as to God and another World The only way to be safe is to avoid every Sin at least every wilful Sin and to grow up to as high a degree of Vertue and Goodness as we can and to get as much mastery over all our Imperfections and Infirmities as is possible but since some Sins and Frailties will cleave to us whilst we carry this body of Sin and of Death about us we may use the Psalmists excellent Prayer both for our Instruction and our Devotion Psal 19.12 13. Who can understand his errors Cleanse thou me from secret faults keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression where he gives us an account of several sorts of Sins 1. Such as he calls Errors and secret Faults by which are meant Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity which we are to pray God to forgive and free us from as well as from others 2. Presumptuous Sins which implye such as are both known and wilful and those 3. such as have dominion over one a reigning habitual prevailing power now if we be kept free from these latter though not the former we are safe and out of danger in a state of sincerity and favour with God and shall be treated as Righteous and Good Men notwithstanding those lesser Faults Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression i. e. from any such Sin as shall indanger my Soul and expose it to Misery and Damnation I shall consider and explain these several sorts of Sins 1. Errors and secret Faults Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity such as we knew not to be Sins when we committed them either by a downright ignorance and not knowing any Law of God that forbad them or by thoughtlesness surprize and inconsideration being unawares engaged in them before we could think or consider As to Sins of Ignorance our Saviour told the Pharisees John 9.41 If ye were blind ye should have no sin i. e. If ye had been perfectly ignorant of the Messiahs coming into the World and had had no knowledge of this by the Prophesies of old and by the Miracles which ye see me do then your Infidelity and Unbelief had been excusable and without Sin Where Christianity is not revealed as to the Heathen World where Faith is not proposed to Men with those Arguments and Reasons which should perswade to it there God will not condemn them for their Ignorance which they could no way help and which was only their misfortune and not their fault Our Blessed Saviour sayes of the Jews If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin Joh. 15.22 i. e. the Sin of Disbelieving and Rejecting him as to other Sins known by their own Law those they had been answerable for to God as St. Paul sayes As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law Rom. 2.12 and as many as have sinned without law shall perish without law i. e. the Gentiles who had not the Law of Moses shall be condemned for their Sins by the Law of Nature It has been an uncharitable Question whether any of the Gentiles should be saved Now tho' they cannot be saved in an ordinary way by Vertue of the Christian Covenant to which they have no title or claim yet God may in extraordinary Mercy let all Mankind have the benefit of it and save them by Christ though they know him not
of God as when ye called me wine-bibber and glutton and a friend of Publicans and Sinners but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost if ye use any reproachful sayings against the Spirit of God by which I do my Miracles this shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come Neither here nor as some of you vainly expect hereafter but shall be certainly and severely punish'd in both Now here is no mention at all nor the least intimation of those other Sins in which some have placed this Sin against the Holy Ghost as in final Impenitence which the Pharisees could not then be charged with not Apostacy from Christianity which they had not at all professed nor were by this very likely to do nor denying the Truth for fear of Suffering as in the instance of Francis Spira which is often said to be his Sin nor any of the six Sins in which the Schoolmen have placed it as Envying our Brothers Graces Impugning the known Truth Obstinacy Impenitency Desperation and Presumption which two latter are unluckily put together to make this one Sin when they are so contrary to themselves Whatever mixture there might be of these or any of these or the like Sins in the Minds of the Pharisees who committed this Sin against the Holy Ghost yet those are no more this particular Sin here meant by our Saviour than Pride and Covetousness and other Sins that might go a great way and be no small causes to bring them to this Sin and dispose their Minds for it but St. Mark sets the thing beyond all dispute in chap. 3. ver 28.29 30. where he relates these words of our Saviour thus Verily I say unto you all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost shall never have forgiveness but is in danger of eternal damnation And then he gives the reason of our Saviours saying all this to them namely because they said he hath an unclean Spirit i. e. a Diabolical and impure one which makes it as manifest as can be desired that this their Sin was their blaspheming and speaking so reproachfully of the Holy Ghost which was in Christ as if that were not the Holy Spirit of God but an unclean and a Devilish Spirit How great and horrid a Sin this was will appear from these four Considerations 1. It tended to destroy the whole Truth of Christianity and consequently to rob the World of all the benefit it has by it There could nothing so malicious be contrived to undermine the Foundation of the Gospel as this assertion of the Pharisees that our Saviour wrought his Miracles by the help of an evil or unclean Spirit for this was to make him a Magician a confederate with the Devil and so to represent his Religion as a work and contrivance of Hell that could tend only to the mischief and destruction of the World For if no good thing could come out of Galilee as in a Proverbial derision they gave out to the People to be sure no good thing could come from Hell and from evil Spirits The Devil would never lend his Power had he been able to promote or establish any thing but a false Religion that should withdraw the World from the Worship of the true God The greatest demonstration for the Truth of Christianity were the Miracles of Christ as he often appeals to them John 10.37 38. John 14.11 Mat. 11.4 and if these were done not by a Divine but a Diabolical Power and by a compact with the Devil they are then the greatest Arguments against it for then it may be only a mystery of iniquity brought into the World by him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.9 20. as Antichristianism is described 2. It tends not only to undermine the Truth of Christianity but of all Revelation whatever from God The greatest proof and demonstration that can be given to any Prophet that comes from God to reveal his Will to Men is his working of Miracles and satisfying those he is sent to that he has a Divine Authority and Commission by his showing his Credentials from God who would never suffer a Cheat and Impostor to do such mighty works as must necessarily cheat and deceive those that see them Now if notwithstanding that he teach nothing contrary to the Nature of God nor of Good and Evil and yet perform such wonderful Miracles as can be done only by the Finger of God and by a Divine Power if we will still suspect this then we can never be satisfied of the truth of any revelation from Heaven and so the Pharisees did not only undermine Christianity but even their own Law for it might with as much reason be said that Moses and the Prophets who pretended to come from God and wrought Miracles to show they did so yet were only the Prophets and Embassadors of the Devil and did all their Miracles by his Power as of Christ 3. This must proceed from a very spightful temper and malicious humour that made them speak this against their Consciences and the sense of their own Minds Sure they who were eye-witnesses of his Miracles and so had the best and fullest evidence of the truth of them and who heard the excellency of his Discourses and Sermons in which was nothing contrary to the Worship of the true God or the Moral Duties of Religion they must as our Saviour once told them know both him and also whence he was John 7.28 When they must be convinced that he was both an innocent and good Man himself and that his Doctrine commanded the highest Vertue and Goodness and tended to destroy the whole Power and Interest of the Devil in the World they could not surely believe themselves or think this their black charge was true but when they saw the People amazed at his healing a Demoniack and saying Is not this the Son of David Matth. 12.23 And so they feared that they should have lost their Power and Authority together with their Law and that the People should have left them and followed him then they gave out this vile and abominable reflection upon him that he did all this by the Power of the Devil which was the utmost shift that Malice could invent to blind the eyes of others against a Truth which they could hardly be supposed not to see themselves 4. It was the most taunting reproachful Slander against God and his Holy Spirit that could possibly be and therefore is alwayes called Blasphemy which is the most daring provoking and transcendent Crime against God that can be and proceeds from the most contemptuous and scornful most wretched and depraved temper of Mind To slander and calumniate the Son of Man was a great Sin to call a sober and temperate Person a
Religion if we are so fond of them that we will break through those to obtain them and prefer the short gratifications of Sin and Flesh for a season before the better Pleasures of Vertue and Innocence and the Glorious Rewards of them for ever then our choice is foolish and unreasonable and our destruction wilful and unavoidable The Spirit proposes to us the dictates of Wisdom and Reason and shows us both the folly and undecency of being thus governed by our lower Appetites and being led away by those like Brutes that have no understanding and not living up to the dignity of our Nature and letting our Reason curb and controll those sensual inclinations And it further layes before us the great obligations of Religion and the strong and powerful considerations of another World and by all these it prevails upon all that seriously think and consider let their Carnal Inclinations be never so strong and the Lustings of their Flesh never so fierce and violent tho' their first Motions cannot be quite hindered and supprest and the fire of Concupiscence cannot be quite extinguish'd and put out yet it may be kept under and hindered from ever blazing out from ever gaining any consent of the Will to what is unlawful and from ever committing it by outward deed or action and while it does so it is safe though it be still tryed though it be in a state of perpetual warfare and the Flesh be such an intestine enemy as cannot be wholly destroyed but like the Canaanites its Lusts may be still a thorn in our side to vex us Num. 33. and to buffet us 2 Cor. 12.7 yet we may still master and conquer it and keep it under and make it subject as a Vassal to the Laws of Reason and Religion It would be moe easie and more happy if we brought it into a condition that it could never stir or rebel or rise up against the Spirit but it may be as great Vertue and greater Victory and more highly rewardable to struggle and overcome and like Socrates though by Nature and Constitution we are never so perverse and ill disposed yet to become otherwise by thought and Philosophy and to owe our Vertue though not to our temper yet to our care and circumspection to the power of Grace and Religion That will change our Hearts and our Tempers and renew us inwardly in our Minds and instead of stony Hearts give us Hearts of Flesh Ezek. 36.26 and instead of Fleshly and Earthly Desires give us Spiritual and Heavenly ones and whatever we are by Nature make us meek and gentle sober and temperate pure and chast and entirely Vertuous by Principle Habit and Resolution 'T is very happy when a Natural Temper disposes us to acquire those Christian Vertues when the Soil is kindly and fitted for them to take root and grow up in it but we must prepare and cultivate it and weed out those corruptions that are in it till we plant it with all those Graces and it bring forth those Fruits of the Divine and Spiritual Life though we are at never so much care and pains about them How we may bring the Spirit to prevail alwayes over the Flesh and to conquer the Lustings of it and by what means we may lessen the Power of one and increase that of the other I am in the Third place to consider 1. These Lustings of the Flesh so far as Natural are not Sinful but but may be consistent with the contrary Principle of the Spirit when kept within due bounds and governed by the Laws of Vertue and Religion We cannot be without such Passions Appetites and Inclinations whilst we have Body and Flesh about us and these are part of Gods Creation and not made in vain but put in us for good ends so far as they were designed by God and Nature They were not given us to torment and vex us with unsatisfied Desires and impatient Appetites like Tantalus his Punishment to have the daintiest Fruit before him and be set up to the Chin in a cool River and yet not taste the one nor quench his thirst with a drop of the other No Religion does not tye us up from any proper Natural Enjoyments with a touch not taste not handle not but allowes us the satisfying and gratifying our Natural Appetites and Desires within the bounds of Vertue Decency and Lawfulness It lets us eat of all the Trees and Fruits and Dainties of this Earthly Paradise only it keeps us from the forbidden Fruit and suffers us not to gratifie our Desires brutishly and unreasonably and without regard to publick and private good which is more to be regarded than any Mans particular humour or pleasure God therefore as we are Rational Creatures who are to promote the universal Happiness of the whole World has given us such Laws as conduce to that end and we are alwayes to observe them and not transgress the limits and prescriptions by which he has bounded our Sensual Desires and Inclinations and without destroying them has made them useful and serviceable to the wise ends of his Providence So that we are not bound with the Stoicks to root up those nor with the Asceticks to deny our selves such gratifications as are Innocent and Decent Lawful and Useful But 2. We are to destroy the Excesses and Irregularities of them which are vicious mischievous and unbecoming and this Religion means when it bids us mortifie our earthly members and crucifie the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts and pluck out a right eye and cut off a right hand when they offend us or draw us to Sin not that we are to destroy hereby any part of our Nature or any of the Passions and Inclinations resulting from it but so far as they are unnatural and immoderate inflamed and heightened by folly and fancy and exceed the measures both of Nature and Reason Vertue and Religion and exceed the bounds both of Humane and Divine Laws so far we are to destroy kill and mortifie them for they become then mischievous and pernicious to the World and bring shameful and miserable effects along with them and are a reproach and a dishonour to our Reason and our Nature as being contrary to and below both The frame and make of our Bodies require to be sustained with Meat and Drink and the Natural Appetites of Hunger and Thirst are to be gratified with what is acceptable to the Taste and Palate but when this runs into Luxury Gluttony and Drunkenness when Vanity Brutishness and Debauchery mixes it self with our Meat and Drink then these Natural Appetites are vicious and immoderate forced beyond Nature by Folly Fancy and Custom and our Table becomes a Snare and a Sin to us We cannot but desire the good things the conveniences the plenty the riches of this World for we see the usefulness and the necessity of them to our present Life but to desire them so immoderately as not to be content with a moderate
good State I have shown more largely before Chap. 1. Sect. 4. 2. The Scripture not only forbids every wilful Sin but excludes it out of Heaven and declares that every wilful Sinner of what kind soever shall not enter into it as neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10. i. e. whoever are to be denominated such by the practice of their Lives and habit of their Minds by their living and dying in any of those Sins whatsoever or in any one of them This is plainly adjudged by the Gospel which is the Rule God will judge us by at the last day and by that Rule we may judge our selves now and all other judgments of our selves are false and deceitful Whatever Sinner finds himself in the number of that black Catalogue may see his Name as it were in the dead Warrant and nothing but timely Repentance and Amendment before he dyes can blot it out The Sentence of Damnation is as positive and express against all or any such Sinners as the Sentence of Death is against Treason or Felony by the Civil Law and no hopes to escape the Knowledge or Justice of infinite Wisdom and infinite Power and therefore whoever is cast by any one such Inditement and found guilty of any such Capital and Mortal Crime can never escape before the Divine Tribunal the process of which is laid open to us by the Gospel and by that we should judge our selves now as impartially as we know God will hereafter 3. The Reason of this is plain namely of Gods forbidding every wilful Sin upon pain of Damnation and excluding every such Sinner out of Heaven for otherwise he could have forbidden no Sin but must have laid open all his Laws to be broken and trampled on by the disobedience and unruliness of his Creatures for had he suffered every one of Mankind to live in impunity under any one wilful though single Sin such as his particular inclination or his interest would most incline to by this means he would have opened a gap for the breach of all his Laws so that none of them should have been duely observed but all of them broken by parts and by piecemeal by some Sinner or other one would have chosen to have gratified his Revenge another his Lust one would have wallowed in Drunkenness another have persued his Gain by all the methods of Fraud and Unrighteousness and according as Mens inward tempers and outward temptations had been so they would have chosen or indulged every one of them their beloved Sin and so God must have given up all his Authority and his Government to some or other of the vitious inclinations of his Creatures if he had not forbid all Sin whatever upon pain of Damnation and excluded it without exception out of Heaven 4. One such wilful Sin is such an Affront Contempt and Disobedience to the Divine Authority in general as involves in it an Universal guilt and breach of the whole Law of God thus St. James saith He that shall keep the whole law besides and yet offend in one point is guilty of all James 2.10 for this reason 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 ver 11. i. e. the same Power and Authority of God gives Sanction to all his Laws and 't is a vertual disowning and disclaimer of that wilfully to disobey it and rebel against it and openly oppose it in any case which he does who lives in any one known and wilful Sin and is to be accounted an Enemy and Traytor to Heaven and punisht as such who renounces its absolute Power and Right to Govern him in all things and subverts the whole foundation of Obedience and Submission to it 5. One such wilful Sin or vile Lust if it be suffered to prevail upon the Mind expels all true Principles of Vertue and Religion out of it or shows it to be devoy'd of any such as being utterly inconsistent with them for he that alloweth himself in any sinful liberty or unlawful practice contrary to the plain Rules of Religion can never have a due and just sense of that upon his Mind nor be supposed in any other things to be governed by such considerations of God and Heaven and Religion as are the true principles of all Vertue and Goodness where those are not in the heart all seeming Acts of Vertue and Religion lose their form and worth and excellency and are but the spurious Off-spring of Chance Humour or Interest for he that does any good action or abstains from any bad one out of Regard to Religion and the Considerations of God and another World would for the same reasons act uniformly and not allow himself to live contrary to those in any other instances nor comply with the most darling lust or strongest temptation when contrary to those but if he does so in any case he may as well do it in others for this shows that he is swayed and governed by some other Principles than those of Religion A sense of Honour as 't is call'd or not doing a thing base and scandalous in the opinion of others or a prudent Caution and Discretion in serving our present Interest these may keep many Men from some Vices that would destroy their Credit or their present Advantage but if there be no other foundation for them it is not Vertue and Religion but only Art and Managery which may have its reward here but will never be rewarded in Heaven and this is what some commonly mean by a Moral Man but 't is a mistake for this is only a Man of Conduct and Cunning whereas Morality is founded upon true and certain and Eternal Principles and Reasons of Vertue but he that acts not by those nor any Principles of Religion will be a Knave for his Interest and a Secret Sinner for his Lusts and make his Conscience give way as oft as there is occasion to his Convenience or Inclination for in other sins which the Custom and Opinion of the World have not made so infamous or so disadvantagious there he can be notoriously guilty and break the plain Rules of Vertue and Religion He that can do so by indulging himself in any wilful Sin as he corrupts and spoils all his other seeming Vertues by making them to be base born and not to proceed from a Religious and Vertuous Stock so he throws off all true Principles of Religion and shows that he has no true Root or genuine Seed of it in his heart 6. Such an one lyes open to all other Sins and may for the same reason commit any that he allows himself in one when the mind is thus prostituted and debaucht by consenting to any one particular unlawful Lust it would
grow common to all others if it had the same temptation to invite and the same opportunity to commit them and 't is only for want of those that it is not universally lewd and wicked and given up to commit all uncleanness with greediness what should hinder or restrain him from all other Sins who gives way to any one plain and great one if he were assaulted by the like temptation in any other place he would yield to it and comply with it even in the grossest manner for he has lost his guard and the security of his Vertue and by such a wide and open breach made in his Conscience all other sins might enter and the whole Legion take possession of him There can be no true Reason to preserve him from any or from all sins who knowingly and wilfully allows himself in any one 7. Any such sin is utterly inconsistent with true sincerity and this we know is absolutely necessary to our good state though perfection of Obedience is not 't is truely and commonly said that God requires not absolute perfection of us but only true sincerity because the best Men cannot attain to the one and he must be a very bad one who hath not the other but there is a perfection of parts and degrees we are not bound to the highest degrees of every Vertue in order to a State of Grace and Goodness but we are to have such a perfection of parts as to performe every Duty and every Vertue required of us and to be without every willful Sin contrary to the Divine Law for less than this will not amount to true sincerity that shall commend us to God and approve us to him who knows our hearts for whilst he sees there any one sin that we love more than we do him which we prize and value above his favour and all that he can give us even Heaven it self he cannot think our hearts are upright towards him or that we sincerely love him for can he sincerely love God who does any wilful thing that he knows is infinitely displeasing to him And can it be consistent with the faithfulness and integrity of friendship to do the most injurious and the most disobliging thing imaginable Can he love his Prince or the Government where he lives who endeavours in any thing to subvert and destroy that Authority by an open standing out and breaking their Laws There may be indeed a Personal Love to an Earthly Prince distinct from Obedience to his Laws and so some would have to God and Christ for he may be capable of receiving other Pledges and Testimonies of it and may be many other ways obliged by us because he may have a Distinct Interest or Inclination different from his laws but this cannot be in God whose Laws are always agreeable to his Nature and the result of his own infinite Wisdom and Reason and he can never be pleased with any that act contrary to them nor is capable of receiving any other grateful or acceptable thing from us but only Obedience to his Commands so that by this only we that are his Creatures can oblige him and testifie the sincerity of our Love to him as St. John says This is the love of God that we keep his commandments 1 John 5.3 There is no other certain sign or expression of our Loving God but obeying him and no sign of Loving him with all our heart and soul and mind but obeying him Universally and not dividing and sharing out our Love to him and our sins and suffering any of our vile Lusts to be his Rivals and Competitors in our Affections Whilst we allow our selves in any known and wilful sin we take part with that which is an Enemy to God we harbour and nourish a known Traytor to him in our breasts and if we will not give it up we break with God and Declare open Enmity against him and will rather part with him and his friendship than part with a Paltry and a Vile Lust whilst we thus indulge any darling Sin and secret Wickedness in our heart as God cannot love us so neither can we sincerely love him but whatever showes and pretences of kindness and respect we may show to him otherwaies whatever Courtship and Honour we may give to him by the Ceremonies of Worship and the External Rights and Offices of Religion yet he will account us only false and treacherous and hypocritical Wretches and not accept of any thing else we offer to him For 8 Allowing our selves in one such darling Sin or beloved Lust spoils all our Religious Duties and makes them both unacceptable to God and us unfit to performe them as we ought He that allows himself in any secret Sin and unlawful Lust how must he be sunk into a sensual State that will keep him from rising to Spiritual Thoughts and Exercises his Mind is taken up with other apprehensions and idea's of different objects which he prefers to all the things of Religion and these sink down his mind and bemire it in flesh and sense that it cannot use its wings or rational faculties and mount upwards to the purer objects of Faith and Religion Those vitious inclinations must quench and put out the fire of Devotion and make the mind move sluggishly and heavily in such an improper work and damp all its Religious Ardors and Affections When a Man out of a Natural Sense of God cannot excuse himself wholly from worshipping and praying to him for I speak not of such as have cast off all Religion but only such as allow themselves in one wicked Lust or unlawful Liberty how must it be a violence to him to pray against a Sin and beg pardon of it and Grace to forsake it when he secretly resolves to keep it and has no true and full design in his mind to leave it What a struggle must there be between his Conscience that is awakened by his Devotion and his sensual Appetite which is so fond of the Sin that nothing can keep him from it and who when he is deploring himself in the holy Offices yet intends to commit it the next opportunity What horrid Mockery and impudent Banter is this with the great and awful Majesty of God And what wretched Hypocrisie to make shows of great Honour and Address to him when our hearts are not right with him and we must know that he well knows they are not so No Man could have the face to be so impudent to another as to come and make great court to him and express great Respect and Reverence and Kindness for him when he knew at the same time that the other also knew that this was all false and hypocritical and that he took all occasions at other times to affront and contemne and disoblige him And yet thus every Man does who under all his Devotion and seeming Piety nourishes a secret sin and an unlawful Lust and demurely covers a vile fraud or injustice or any immorality