Inadvertency in compleat Acts of crying Sins Secondly There is no pretence for Inadvertency if we had any Misgivings within or Warnings without concerning that particular Sin into which we fell afterwards much less if we cherish ill Motions till they grow too strong for us And Last of all if we repeat the same Sin frequently and contemptuously And to this I may add he cannot be said to Sin through Surprise who throws himself into the Way of Temptation even though he be conscious of his own Infirmity 3ly As to those Moral Defects which flow from natural Infirmity they will not destroy us if the Infirmity it self be pardonable There are Infirmities which we acquire Infirmities which grow stronger by Indulgence Infirmities which continue meerly because we do not take Pains to subdue them Our Moral Defects must not flow from these kinds of Infirmities but from such as considering Human Nature and the State of this World 't is impossible utterly to root out These moral Defects will do us no harm if First we take Care to settle in our Minds the Habits of those Vertues that are directly opposite to them Secondly If we watch and fight against our natural Infirmities and endeavour to reduce our Appetites even our natural Appetites within strict and narrow Bounds Thirdly If we wash off the Stains of our Slips and Defects by a general Repentance For upon the Notion I have here given of Venial Sin Repentance appears to be very necessary for I require in them something of Voluntary someting of Freedom enough to make an Action sinful though not to prove the Heart corrupt or wicked And because the Degrees of Voluntary and Involuntary are not so easily distinguishable from one another 't is plain our best security against any ill Consequence of our Defects and Frailties is a Godly Sorrow And therefore I wonder not if David charge himself more severely than God does my Sins are more in number than the hairs of my head this was a Confession that became the Humility and Sollicitude of a Penitent That became the Reflections of a wise and Perfect Man and the Corruption of Human Nature the Alloy of Human Performances the slips and Defects the Interruptions Neglects and Deviations of the best Life CHAP. VI. Of Liberty as it imports Freedom or Deliverance from Mortal Sin HERE I will Enquiry into three Things 1. What Mortal Sin is or what kind of Sins they be which are on all hands acknowledg'd to be Inconsistent with a state of Grace and Favour 2. How far the Perfect Man must be set free or deliver'd from this kind of Sins or how remote he is from the Guilt of them 3. Which way this Liberty may be best attained S. 1. The First thing necessary is to state the Notion of that Sin which passes under the Name of Mortal Wilful Presumptuous or Deliberate Sin For these in Writers are equivalent Terms and promiscuously used to signifie one and the same thing Sin saith St. John 1 Ep. 3.4 is the Transgression of the Law This is a plain and full Definition too of Sin For the Law of God is the Rule of Moral Actions 't is the Standard and Measure of Right and Wrong of moral Good and Evil whatever is not within the Compass of the Law is not within the Compass of Morality neither whatever cannot be comprehended within this Definition cannot have in it the entire and compleat Notion of Sin or which is all one it cannot be Sin in a strict proper and adequate Sense of the Word Hence St. John in the same Verse tells us That whosoer sinneth transgresseth a Law and St. Paul Rom. 4.15 where there is no Law there is no Transgression Sin then must alwaies suppose a Law without which there can be neither Vice nor Vertue Righteousness nor Wickedness For these are nothing else but the Violation or Observation of the Law of God or Habits and States resulting from the one or the other But this is not all Two Things more must be remark'd to render this Definition which the Apostle gives us of Sin clear and full First The Law must be sufficiently reveal'd Secondly The Transgression of it must be truly Voluntary 1. By sufficient Revelation of a Divine Law every one understands That the Law must be so publish'd to the Man who is to be govern'd by it that the Authority and Sense of it may be if it be not his own fault render'd evident to him If the Divine Authority of any Rule or Precept be doubtful and uncertain the Obligation of it will be so too And it is as necessary that the sense of the Law should be evident as its Authority The Law that is pen'd in dark and ambiguous Terms is properly speaking no Law at all Since the Mind of the Law-giver is not sufficiently made known by it Whatever is necessarily to be forborn or done by us must be fully and clearly prescribed in the Law of God and if it be not it can never be necessary Men through Weakness or Design may Enact Laws that are but a heap of Letters a Crowd of dubious Delphick Sentences But God can never do so because this is repugnant both to his Wisdom and Goodness and to the very End of a Law too which is to be a Rule not a Snare 't is to give Understanding to the Simple to be a Light to our Feet and a Lamp to our Paths not like an Ignis fatuus to betray us into Brakes and Precipices and Ruin and Death 2. Transgression must be a Voluntary one And this imports two Things 1. A Knowledge of Law 2. A Consent to the Breach of it First As to the Knowledge of the Law All that I have to say here in few words is That Ignorance of the Law excuses a Transgression when it is it self excusable but if the Ignorance it self be Criminal the effect of it must be so too We must never think of excusing our Sins by alledging an Ignorance into which not our own Incapacity or any other reasonable Cause but Neglect or Contempt of the Truth or some other vicious Lust or Passion has betray'd us Secondly As to the Consent of the Will This is necessary to demonstrate any Action sinful or vertuous without this the Mind will be no Partner in the Sin and by Consequence cannot be involved in the Guilt of it Whatever we cannot help is our Misfortune not our Fault Actions meerly natural or meerly forc'd can neither be good nor evil The concurrence of Reason and Choice is indispensably necessary to the Morality of an Action All this is plainly taught us by St. James 1.14 15. But every Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and enticed then when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth Sin and Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death Which words do certainly imply That the Spring and Principle of Sin is within our selves That 't is our natural Corruption that entices
and allures us and 't is our Consent to its Enticements that gives Being to Sin and defiles us with Guilt From all this now put together 't is easie to conclude what sort of a Description we are to form of Mortal Sin 'T is such a Transgression of the Law of God as is vicious in its Original deliberate in its Commission and Mischievous in its Tendencies or Effects The Heart is corrupted and misled by some Lust or other and so consents to the Breach of the Moral Law of God a Law of Eternal and Immutable Goodness or if the Sin consists in the Breach of any Positive Law it must yet imply in it some moral Obliquity in the Will or in the Tendency of the Action or both So that Presumptuous or Mortal Sin call it by what Name we Will is a Deliberate Transgression of a known Law of God tending to the Dishonour of God the Injury of our Neighbour or the Depravation of our Nature Such are those sins which the Prophet Isaiah exhorts those who will repent to cease from And such are those we have a Catalogue of Eph. 5. Gal. 5. and elsewhere Now the Works of the Flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such-like These are the sins of which as of so many Members the Body of sin consists These constitute the old Man These are sometimes called the filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit Vngodliness Wickedness Iniquity the Lusts of the Flesh worldly Lusts and such-like These and the like sins have as I said in them very apparent Symptoms of Malignity and Mortality They are always the Effect of some carnal and worldly Lusts prevailing over the Law of the Mind and they imply a contempt of God Injustice to our Neighbour and some kind of Defilement and Pollution of our Nature And that these are the plain Indications of such a Guilt as excludes a Man from Heaven and the Favour of God is very plain from the account which the Scripture gives us both of the Origine and Influence of sin from the Care it takes to fortifie the Heart against all Infection from the constant Representations it makes us of the shamefulness and the Mischief of sin even in Reference to this World as well as the other I cannot see any thing further necessary to the Explication of Deliberate or Presumptuous sin unless it be here fit to add That it is Mortal though it proceed no further than the Heart There is no need at all that it should be brought forth into Action to render it Fatal and Damnable This is evident not only from the Nature of Divine Worship which must be entire sincere and spiritual and therefore can no more be reconciled to the Wickedness of our Hearts than of our Actions but also from the express words of our Saviour Out of the Heart proceed Fornication Adultery Theft c. And elsewhere he pronounces the Adultery of the Heart Damnable as well as that of the Body Mat. 5.28 But I say unto you that whosoever looketh upon a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery already with her in his Heart S. 2. I am next to give some account of the Liberty of Perfect Man in reference to the sin I have been discoursing of I shall not need to stop at any General or Preliminary Observations as That Abstinence from sin regards all the Commandments of God alike and to do otherwise were to mutilate and maim Religion and to dishonour God while we pretend to worship and obey Him For the Breach of any single Commandment is a manifest Violation of the Majesty and Authority of God whatever Observance we may pay all the rest 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 Jam. 2.11 That the Restraints Man is to lay upon himself relate no less to the Lusts of the Soul than the Actions of the Body Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5.10 That to begin well will avail us little unless we finish well too Universality Sincerity and Perseverance are generally acknowledged to be essential and indispensable Properties of Saving Justifying Faith These things therefore being but just mentioned I proceed to the Point to be enquir'd into and resolve 1. To be free from the Dominion and Power of Mortal Sin is the first and lowest step this is indispensable to sincerity and absolutely necessary to Salvation Let not Sin reign in your mortal Bodies to fulfil the Lusts thereof Rom. 6.12 And the advancing thus far does I acknowledge constitute Man in a state of Grace For in Scripture Men are Denominated righteous or wicked not from single Acts of Vice or Vertue but from the Prevalence and Dominion from the Habit or Custom of the one or the other know ye not that to whom ye yeild your selves Servants to obey his Servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of Sin unto Death or of Obedience unto Righteousness Rom. 6.16 But then I must here add two Remarks by way of Caution 1st We must not presume too soon of Victory over an Habitual Sin An evil Habit is not soon broken off nor is it an easie Matter to resolve when we have set our selves free from the Power of it Sometimes the Temptation does not present it self as often as it was wont or not with the same Advantages sometimes one Vice restrains us from another sometimes worldly Considerations or some little Change in our Temper without any thorough Change in our Minds puts us out of humour for a little while with a darling Sin and sometimes the Force and Clearness of Conviction produces some pious Fits which though they do not utterly vanquish a Lust do yet force it to give way and retreat for a while and interrupt that Love which they do not exstinguish All this may be and the work not yet be done nor our Liberty yet gain'd If therefore we fall though but now and then and though at some Distance of time into the same sin we have great reason to be jealous of its Power and our Safety Nay though we restrain our selves from the outward Commission of it if yet we feel a strong Propension to it if we discern our selves ready to take fire on the Appearance of a Temptation if we are fond of approaching as near it as we can and are pleas'd with those Indulgencies which are very near a kin to it we have reason to doubt that our Conquest is not yet entire Nay the Truth is we cannot be on good Grounds assured that we are Masters of our selves till we have a setled Aversion for the sin which before we doted on and shun the Occasions which before
Matter of Fact that the most Perfect upon Earth are not without Frailties and Infirmities and such Infirmities as discover themselves in actual Slips and Errors But the Question is whether these are to be accounted Sins I must confess if we strictly follow the Language of the Scripture we should rather call them by some other Name for this does so generally understand by Sin a Deliberate Transgression of the Law of God that it will be very difficult to produce many Texts wherein the Word Sin is used in any other sense As to Legal Pollutions I have not much considered the matter But as to Moral ones I am in some Degree confident that the word Sin does generally signifie such a Transgression as by the Gospel Covenant is punishable with Death and rarely does it occur in any other sense I say rarely for if I be not much mistaken the Scripture does sometimes call those Infirmities I am now talking of Sin But what if it did not 'T is plain That every Deviation from the Law of God if it has any Concurrence of the will in it is in strict speaking Sin and 't is as plain that the Scripture does frequently give us such Descriptions and Characters and such Names of these Sins of Infirmity as do oblige us both to strive and watch against them and repent of them For it calls them Spots Errors Defects Slips and the like But what is Lastly most to my purpose it is plain That this Distinction of Sins into Mortal and Venial or Sins of Infirmity has its Foundation in express Texts of Scripture Numerous are the Texts cited to this purpose But he that will deal fairly must confess that they are most of them improperly and impertinently urged as relating either to Falls into Temporal Calamity or to Mortal not Venial Sins or to the Sins of an unregenerate State or to a comparative Impurity I mean the Impurity of Man with respect to God a Form of Expression frequent in Job I will therefore content my self to cite three or four which seem not liable to these Exceptions Deut 32.4 they have corrupted themselves their Spot is not the spot of his Children They are a perverse and crooked Generation Here two things seem to be pointed out to us plainly First That the Children of God are not without their Spots Secondly That these are not of the same Nature with those of the wicked in comparison with whose wilful and perverse Transgressions the Children of God are elsewhere pronounced blameless without Offence without Spot Psal 19.12 13. Who can understand his Errors cleanse thou me from secret Faults keep back also thy Servant from presumptuous Sins let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great Transgression Here again the Psalmist seems to me to place Uprightness in Freedom from Deliberate or Mortal Sin and to admit of another sort of Transgressions into which even upright Men slip sometimes Nor does the Psalmist here only assert Venial Sins but he seems to me to suggest the Springs and Sources of them namely some secret Dispositions in our Nature to Folly and Error which he prays God to cleanse and free him from more and more cleanse thou me from secret Faults The word Fault is not in the Original but something of that kind must be supplied to render the sense entire in our Language The words of Solomon Prov. 20.9 seem to relate to this Corruption lurking in us and never utterly to be extirpated Who can say I have made my Heart clean I am pure from my Sin For if this should be applied to Mortal Sin every one sees that it will contradict a hundred places in Scripture which attribute to Righteous Men Purity of Heart and Deliverance from Sin Lastly James 3.2 we are told plainly that in many things we offend all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Sinners only but Righteous and Upright Men have their Defects and Slips And accordingly there is not any Life which we have the History of in Scripture how excellent soever the Person be but we meet with some of these recorded as will appear from those several Instances I shall produce when I come to describe the Nature of these Sins And certainly when David says of himself my Sins are more in number than the hairs of my head He that shall interpret this Place of Mortal or Presumptuous Sins will both contradict the Scriptures which acquit him except in the matter of Vriah and highly wrong the Memory of David making him a Prodigy of Wickedness instead of a Saint Nor does that make any thing against me which he adds in the next Words my heart fails me or that in the foregoing Verse mine Iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up For I do not affirm that the Psalmist here has regard only to Sins of Infirmity exclusively of others no he reckons all together and so discerns the one aggravated by the other and the Guilt of all together very far enhansed Nor do I Secondly interess my self here in that Dispute between Protestants and Papists whether Sins of Infirmity are not damnable in their own Nature though not imputed under the Covevenant of Grace Nor do I Lastly examine what a vast Heap of Sins of Infirmity may amount to though the Gilt of this or that alone were not so fatal I have then I think proved the matter in Question having shewed both from the Experience of Mankind and the Scripture That the best Men have their Infirmities and Defects And that these may properly enough be called Sins I think it superfluous to prove that they consist with a state of Salvation since 't is not by any that I know of denied and may be easily enough made out from what I have already said I am now to Enquire S. 2. What these Sins be and how distinguished from Mortal or Damnable ones To this purpose we may distinguish Human Actions under which I comprise both Internal and External into three sorts Voluntary Involuntary and Mixt. § 1. There are Actions properly and truly Voluntary such are those deliberate Transgressions of a Divine Law which Man commits in Opposition to the direct Remonstrances of Conscience he knows the Action is forbid he sees the Turpitude and Obliquity of it he is not ignorant of the punishment denounced against it and yet he ventures upon it This is plainly Mortal Damnable Sin and I cannot think that any Circumstance or Pretence whatever can render it Venial And therefore I must be pardoned if I cannot be of their Opinion who supposed that the smalness of the Matter the Reluctancy of Conscience or the Length and Force of a Temptation can so soften and mitigate a Voluntary Transgression as to diminish it into a Sin of Infirmity 1. As to the smalness of the Matter Some cannot but think those Transgressions Venial which are for the Matter of them so
10.13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to Man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it The Design of which Words is certainly to encourage Christians against the bigest Temptations by an Assurance of Relief from God proportionable to our Necessities and consequently must imply that if we yield to a Temptation 't is our own fault God expects we should stand firm under the highest Trials Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Rev. 2.10 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Rev. 3.21 But whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven Matt. 10.33 If therefore by Sins of Infirmity Men mean such as are consistent with the state of Grace i. e. such as good Men may frequently fall into without forfeiting the Peace of Conscience and the Favour of God I cannot possibly think that any Deliberate Sin can be such upon the score of the Temptation or that any of those Sins reckoned in the Catalogue Gal. 5. and Eph. 5. can be such on the account of the Violence or Perseverance with which they attack us But Secondly if by Sins of Infirmity they mean such Sins as Righteous Men are liable to I know not what they are from which they are exempted But if Lastly by Sins of Infirmity they mean such for which God is more easily entreated then there is no Question to be made but that there is a Difference in Sins which is to be estimated by the different Measures of Grace and Knowledge by the different Degrees of Deliberation and Surprise and by the Force or Weakness the Continuance or Shortness of a Temptation And Finally by the different Effects and Tendencies of Sins To all which I do not question but that the Spirit has regard in those Directions which it gives us for our Behaviour towards such as fall Gal. 6.1 Brethren if a Man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the Spirit of Meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted And of some have compassion making a difference And others save with fear pulling them out of the fire Jude 22 23. § 2. A Second sort of Actions are such as we call Involuntary that is those wherein we exercise no Deliberation no Choice Some have reduced Sins of Infirmity to this Head but with what Colour of Reason any one may judge For since Actions truly Involuntary are neither the Object of the Understanding nor Will 't is hard to conceive what Morality there can be in them The Grounds on which this Opinion is built are such as these First the Measure say they of Good and Evil is the Law of God But Involuntary and unavoidable Actions are not a proper Subject of Laws for to what purpose is it to prescribe Rules or to propose Rewards and Punishments to such Actions as are no way subject to our Choice Secondly they tell us 't is inconsistent with the Goodness of God and the Riches of Gospel Grace to impute those things to a Man as Damnable Sins which fall not within the Compass of his Power of Deliberation Now I must confess I am so far from denying any Actions that can lay a just claim to this Apology to be Venial that I cannot forbear thinking that they are not sinful For where there is no Law there is no Transgression But how does this way of arguing for the Excusableness of Involuntary Transgressions consist with those other Doctrines which they maintain concerning them namely That we are bound to Repentance for them That these Sins are not Venial in their own Nature but only through the Favour of God For the Law taken in its Rigour denounces Death against all Sin in general without Limitation or Exception so that if God should judge rigorously even Involuntary Sin would fall under that Sentence the wages of Sin is Death This I must confess seems to me very incoherent For if an Action be of that Nature that it cannot properly be the Matter or Subject of a Law how can it fall under the Condemnation of Law If it be of that Nature that it is incapable of any Moral Regulation nor subject to the Influence of Reward or Punishment how can it be meer Matter of Grace that a Man is not Damned for it In a word if an Action be truly and properly Involuntary it can by no means be Sin and if it be Voluntary it is subject to the Regulation of Laws 'T is a proper Instance of Deliberation and Freedom and capable of Rewards and Punishments And the Truth is the one needs no Apology and the other is not capable of any the one is a Mortal Sin and the other no Sin at all And therefore we must look for Venial Sin in some other Species of Action § 3. The last Class of Actions are those which are of a mixt Nature partly Voluntary and partly Involuntary And here I think we must place Sins of Infirmity by whatever Names we may call them For these surely if they are be rankt as by all they are amongst Actual Sins must be such Actions as have in them something of Voluntary something of Involuntary much of Human Frailty and something of Sinful much of unavoidable and something of Moral Obliquity These are the Transgressions which the Scripture seems to me to intend by Errors Defects Slips Motes the Spots of God's Children and these certainly if any must be the Sins that can consist with a state of Grace For these do not imply a Deliberate Wickedness in the Will much less an Habitual one nay they do not include in them any Wickedness at all strictly speaking but are truly the Effects of Human Frailty and the unhappy Circumstances of this Mortal Life Thus then I describe a Venial Sin it has in it so much of Voluntary as to mak it Sin so much of Involuntary as to make it Frailty it has so much of the Will in it that it is capable of being reduced and yet so much of Necessity in it it is never utterly to be extirpated it has some thing in it Criminal enough to oblige us to watch against it repent of it and yet so much in it pitiable and excusable as to entitle us to Pardon under the Covenant of Grace And thus I distinguish Venial from Mortal Sin Mortal Sin proceeds from a Heart either Habitually corrupted or deceived and captived for the time but Venial Sin results from the Imperfections and Infelicities of our Nature and our State Mortal Sin is truly Voluntary and Deliberate in the Rice and Birth of it and mischievous and injurious in its Consequence But
Appearance of it and 't is hard to imagine that a sincere Man who does indeed strain at a Gnat should swallow a Camel He that preserves the Tenderness of Conscience as he will have an Aversion for small Sins so will he have an Horror for great ones Thirdly The Mind of a Christian ought to be possessed and awed by the Fear of God and that not a slight and transient but a deep and lasting one The Psalmist was not content to say I am afraid of thy Judments but to express how thoroughly this Fear had seized him he adds my flesh trembleth for Fear of thee Psal 119. And certainly this Fear is a sort of impenetrable Armour which extinguishes all the fiery Darts of the Devil In vain is the Suddenness or the Briskness of a Temptation unless we first lay aside this Shield Fourthly We are bound to be always on our Watch and Guard and therefore if we relax our Discipline if we live secure and careless if we rashly cast our selves upon Dangers our Sin then will be but the Consequence of our Folly and therefore one Error cannot be an Excuse or an Apology for another I think therefore the Apology of Surprise should be confin'd and limited to slight Offences it cannot properly have room in great ones or if it have it may be urged in Mitigation of our Punishment but never I doubt for total Impunity 3. Lastly Venial Sin has its Rise from the Defects and Imperfections of our Nature and the disadvantageous Circumstances of our State Here come in the Failures and Defects in the Measures and Degrees of Duty if these can be properly reckon'd for Sins I say if they can For I do not see that this is a good Argument we are bound to the highest Degree of Love by that Law thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart therefore whatsoever falls short of the highest and most absolute Degree of Love is a Sin For at this Rate whatever were short of Perfection would be Sin We must love nothing better than God nothing equal to Him This will constitute us in a State of Sincerity What is further required is that we are bound to aim at and pursue after the highest and most perfect Degrees of Love but we are not bound under Pain of Damnation to attain them But on the other hand I readily grant that our falling short in the Degrees of Faith Love Hope and the like may be properly reckoned amongst Sins when they spring from Defects of Vigilance and Industry And if these Defects be such as can consist with Sincerity then are the Imperfections or the Abatements of our Virtues pardonable and then only Here again fall in Omissions wandring Thoughts Dulness and Heaviness in Duty the short Titillations of some irregular Fancies Forgetfulness slight and short Fits of Envy Discontent Anger Ambition Gaiety of Mind Thus we find the Disciples falling asleep when they should have pray'd Mat. 26. and David praying quicken thou me Psal 119. Thus his Soul too was often cast down and disquieted within him Psal 42. 2 Chron. 30.18 19. Job cursed the Day of his Birth In short our Natures are Human not Angelical and our State is full of Variety of Accidents that they are too apt to discompose the Mind and divert it from its great End The Ebbs and Flows of Blood and Spirits and an unlucky constitution or a Distemper the Multitude or Confusion of Affairs the Violence or the Length of Tryals the Ease and Flattery of Prosperity the Weariness of the Body or of the Mind the Incommodiousness of Fortune Roughness of Conversation these and a thousand other things are apt to produce Defects and Failures in our Obedience short Disorders in our Affections and such Emotions and Eruptions as abundantly prove the best to be but Men and the highest Perfection if it be but Human to be wanting and defective I think I have now omitted nothing necessary to form a true Notion of Sin of Infirmity My next business therefore is to consider S. 3. How far the Liberty of the Perfect Man in respect of Venial Sin ought to be extended There is great Affinity between Venial and Original Sin and therefore the Perfect Man's Liberty as it relates to the one and the other consists in much the same Degrees and is to be attain'd by the same Method so that I might well enough dismiss this Subject and pass on to Mortal Sin But reflecting on the Nature of Man how prone we are to Sin and yet how apt we are to think well of our selves I judge it necessary to guard the Doctrine of Venial Sin by some few Rules which may at once serve to secure our sincerity and point out the Perfection we are to aspire to 1st then If we would prevent any fatal event of Sins flowing from Ignorance we must take care that our Ignorance it self be not Criminal and that it will not be if our Hearts be sincerely disposed to do our Duty and if we use moral Diligence to know it if we be impartial humble and honest and have that Concern for the Knowledge and Practise of our Duty that is in some sort proportionable to the Importance of it The Ignorance that arises from natural Incapacity or want of sufficient Revelation is invincible and therefore innocent Joh. 9.41 Jesus said unto them if ye were blind ye should have no Sin but now ye say we see therefore your Sin remaineth and 15.22 if I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had Sin but now they have no cloke for their Sins This Rule must be understood of necessary Knowledge in General and more legible and conspicuous Lines of Duty Both which notwithstanding there may be room for Sins of Infirmity to enter where Mortal ones cannot there may be imperfect Dispositions of Mind and latent Prejudices there may be Instances of Duty of a slighter moment there may be several Circumstances and small Emergencies that may either be without the Aim or escape the Discovery of a moral Search that is of a Human one which though it be without Hypocrisie is yet not without more or less Frailty As to Perfection it differs in this as it does in other Cases from sincerity only in the Degrees by which it is advanced above it He that will be Perfect must search for Wisdom as for hid Treasures his Delight must be in the Law of the Lord and in his Law must be meditate day and night his Thirst of Truth must be more eager and impatient his Diligence more wakeful more circumspect more particular more steady and constant than that of the Beginner or of one who is no farther advanced than such Measures of Faith and Love as are indispensably necessary to Sincerity will carry him 2ly Sins that are occasion'd by Surprise and Inadvertency will not prove destructive if the Inadvertency it self be in a manner innocent That is First there is no room for
we courted till we be possess'd of a Habit of that Vertue which is a direct Contradiction to it and take as much pleasure in the Obedience as ever we did in the Transgression of a Divine Command 2ly There are some Sins of that provoking Nature so criminal in their Birth and mischievous in their Consequences That one single Act or Commission of one of these is equivalent to a Habit of others such is Murther Idolatry Perjury Adultery these cannot be committed without renouncing Humanity as well as Christianity without resisting the Instincts and Impulses of Nature as well as the Eight of the Gospel and the Grace of the Spirit We must break thorough a great many Difficulties and Terrors e're we can come at these Sins we must commit many other in order to commit one of these we must deliberate long resolve desperately and in Defiance of God and Conscience and what is the Effect of Habit in other Instances is a necessary Preparative in these that is Obduration In this Case therefore the unhappy Man that has been guilty of any one of these must not look upon himself as set free when he is come to a Resolution of never repeating it again But then when he loaths and abhors himself in Dust and Ashes when he has made the utmost Reparation of the Wrong he is capable of when if the Interest of Vertue require it he is content to be oppress'd with Shame and Sufferings when in one word a long and constant Course of Mortification Prayers Tears and good Works have washed off the Stain and Guilt 2. We must be free not only from a Habit but from single Acts of deliberate presumptuous Sin The Reason is plain Mortal Sin cannot be committed without wounding the Conscience grieving the Spirit and renouncing our Hopes in God through Christ for the time at least The wages of Sin is Death is true not only of Habits but single Acts of Deliberate Sin Death is the penalty the Sanction of every Commandment and the Commandment does not prohibit Habits only but single Acts too Nor is there indeed any room for Doubt or Dispute here but in one Case which is If a Righteous Man should be taken off in the very Commission of a Sin which he was fallen into Here indeed much may be said and with much Uncertainty But the Resolution of this Point does not as far as I can see minister to any good or necessary End and therefore I will leave it to God In all other Cases every thing is clear and plain For if the Servant of God fall into a presumptuous Sin 't is universally acknowledg'd that he cannot recover his Station but by Repentance If he repent presently he is safe but if he continue in his Sin if he repeat it he passes into a state of Wickedness widens the Breach between God and his Soul declines insensibly into a Habit of sin and renders his Wound more and more incurable 'T is to little purpose I think here to consider the vast Difference there is in the Commission even of the same sin between a Child of God and a Child of Wrath because a Child of God must not commit it at all if he do though it be with Reluctancy though it be as it were with an imperfect Consent and with a divided Soul though the Awe of Religion and Conscience seems not utterly to have forsaken him even in the midst of his sin though his Heart smite him the very Minute it is finish'd and Repentance and Remorse take off the Relish of the unhappy Draught yet still 't is Sin 't is in its Nature Damnable and nothing but the Blood of Jesus can purge the Guilt 3. The Perfect Man may be supposed not only actually to abstain from Mortal Sin but to be advanced so far in the Mortification of all his inordinate Affections as to do it with Ease and Pleasure with Constancy and Delight For it must reasonably be presumed that his Victory over ungodly and worldly Lust is more confirm'd and absolute his Abhorrence of them more deep and sensible more fixt and lasting than that of a Beginner or Babe in Christ The Regenerate at first fears the Consequence of sin but by Degrees he hates the Sin it self The Purity of his Soul renders him now incapable of finding any pleasure in what he doted on before and the Love of God and Vertue raiseth him above the Temptations which he was wont to fall by old things are past away and all things are become new 4. Lastly The Perfect Man's Abstinence is not only more easie and steady but more entire and compleat also than that of others He has a regard to the End and Design of the Law to the Perfection of his Nature to the Purity and Elevation of his Sowl and therefore he expounds the Prohibitions of the Law in the most enlarg'd Sense and interprets them by a Spirit of Faith and Love He is not content to refrain from Actions directly criminal but shuns every Appearance of Evil and labours to mortifie all the Dispositions and Tendencies of his Nature towards it and to decline whatever Circumstances of Life are apt to betray the Soul into a Love of this World or the Body he has crucified the World and the Body too That Pleasure that Honour that Power that Profit which captives the Sinners tempts and tries and disquiets the Novice is but a burthen a trouble to him he finds no Gust no relish in these things He is so far from Intemperance so far from Wantonness so far from Pride and Vanity that could he without any Disadvantage to the Interest of Religion he would imitate the Meanness the Plainness the Laboriousness the Self-denial of our Saviour's Life not only in Disposition and Affection of his Soul but even in his outward State and Deportment and would prefer it far above the Pomp and Shew of Life In one word he enquires not how far he may Enjoy and be Safe but how far he may deny himself and be wise he is so far from desiring forbidden Satisfactions that he is unwilling and afraid to find too much Satisfaction in the natural and necessary Actions of an animal Life I need not prove this to any one who has read the foregoing Chapters for it is what I have been doing throughout this Treatise It is nothing but what is consonant to the whole Tenour of the Scripture and to the Example of the best Times And 't is conformable to what the best Authors have writ who have any thing of Life and Spirit in their Works or have any true Notion of the great Design of Christian Religion which is an heavenly Conversation Let any one but cast his Eye on St. Basil or any other after him who aim'd at the same thing I now do the promoting Holiness in the World in the Beauty and Perfection of it and he will acknowledge that I am far from having carried this matter too high I
more frequently required of or attributed to the Perfect Man in Scripture then Zeal and Fervency of Spirit in the ways of God and no wonder For when Actions flow at once from Principles and Custom when they spring from Love and are attended by Pleasure and are incited and quicken'd by Faith and Hope too How can it be but that we should repeat 'em with some Eagerness and feel an Holy Impatience as often as we are hindered or disappointed And as the Nature of the Thing shews that thus it ought to be so are there innumerable Instances in the Old Testament and the New which make it evident that thus it was Shall I mention the example of our Lord who went about doing good Act. 10.38 Shall I propose the Labours and Travils of St. Paul These Patterns it may be will be judged by some too bright and dazling a Light for us to look on or at least too Perfect for us to copy after and yet St. John tells us that he who says he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked 1 Joh. 2.6 and we are exhorted to be followers of the Apostles as they were of Christ But if the Fervency of Christ and St. Paul seemed to have soar'd out of the reach of our imitation we have Inferiour Instances enough to prove the Zeal and Fruitfulness of Habitual Goodness Thus David says of himself Psal 119.10 with my whole Heart have I sought thee and Josiah 2 King 23.25 is said to have turned to the Lord with all his Soul and with all his Might How fervent was Anna wo departed not from the Temple but served God with Fastings and Prayers night and day Luk. 2.37 how Charitable Tabitha who was full of good Works and Alms-deeds which she did Act. 9.36 Where shall I place Cornelius With what words shall I set out his Virtues with what but those of the Holy Ghost Act. 10.2 He was a devout Man and one that feared God with all his House which gave much Alms to the people and prayed to God alway But peradventure some may imagine that there is something singular and extraordinary in these Eminent Persons which we must never hope to equal but must be content to follow them at a vast Distance Well let this be so What have we to say to whole Churches animated by the same Spirit of Zeal What are we to think of the Churches of Macedonia whose Charity St. Paul thus magnifies 2 Cor. 8.2 3. in a great trial of Affliction the abundance of their Joy and their deep Poverty abounded to the Riches of their Liberality For to their power I bear record yea and beyond their power they were willing of themselves And St. Paul declares himself perswaded of the Romans that they were full of goodness filled with all knowledge Rom. 15.14 And of the Corinthians he testifies that they were enriched in every thing and came behind in no gift 1 Cor. 1.5 6. that they did abound in all things in Faith in diligence c. 2 Cor. 8.7 I will stop here 't is in vain to heap up more Instances I have said enough to shew that Vigour and Fervency in the Service of God is no miraculous Gift no extraordinary Prerogative of some peculiar Favorite of Heaven but the natural and inseparable Property of a well confirmed Habit of Holiness Lastly is Constancy and Steadiness the Property of an Habit It is an undoubted Property of Perfection too In Scripture Good Men are every where represented as standing fast in the Faith steadfast and unmovable in the works of God holding fast their Integrity In one word as constantly following after Righteousness and maintaining a good Conscience towards God and Man And so Natural is This to one Habitually good that St. John affirms of such a one that he cannot sin 1 Joh. 3.9 whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his Seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Accordingly Job is said to have feared God and eschewed Evil which must be understood of the constant course of his Life Zachary and Elizabeth are said to be Righteous walking in all the Commandments of God blameless Luk. 1.6 Enoch Noah David and other excellent Persons who are pronounc'd by God Righteous and Just and Perfect are said in Scripture to walk with God to serve Him with a Perfect Heart with a full purpose of Heart to cleave to him and the like And this is that Constancy which Christians are often exhorted to watch ye stand fast in the Faith quit ye like Men be strong 1 Cor. 16.13 And of which the first followers of our Lord left us such remarkable Examples The Disciples are said to have been continually in the Temple blessing and praising God Luk. 24. And the first Christians are said to have continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers Acts 2.42 Thus I think I have sufficiently cleared my Notion of Perfection from Scripture Nor need I multiply more Texts to prove what I think no Man can doubt of unless he mistake the main Design and End of the Gospel which is to raise and exalt us to a steady Habit of Holiness The end of the Commandment saith St. Paul 1 Tim. 1.5 is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfeigned This is the utmost Perfection Man is capable of to have his Mind enlightned and his Heart purified and to be inform'd acted and influenc'd by Faith and Love as by a vital principle And all this is Essential to Habitual Goodness If any one desire further Light or Satisfaction in this Matter let him read the eighth Chapter to the Romans and he will soon acknowledge that he there finds the substance of what I have hiterto advanced There though the Word it self be not found the thing called Perfection is described in all the Strength and Beauty in all the Pleasure and Advantages of it There the Disciple of Jesus is represented as one who walks not after the Flesh but after the Spirit as one whom the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set free from the Law of Sin and Death one who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not mind or relish the things of the Flesh but the things of the Spirit one in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells He does not stand at the Door and knock he does not make a transient visit but here he reigns and rules and inhabits One finally in whom the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is life because of Righteousness And the Result of all this is the Joy and Confidence the Security and Transport that becomes the Child of God Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to Fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are
the Children of God and if Children then Heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ And now 't is no wonder if the Perfect Man long for the Revelation of the Glory of the Sons of God if he cry out in Rapture if God be for me who can be against me who shall lay any thing to the Charge of God's Elect who shall seperate me from the Love of Christ and so on If any one would see the Perfect Man described in Fewer words he needs but cast his Eye on Rom. 6.22 But now being made free from Sin and become Servants to God ye have your Fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting Life CHAP. II. This Notion of Perfection countenanced by all sides AFter I have shewed that this Notion of Perfection is warranted by Reason and Scripture I see not why I should be very Solicitous whether it do or do not clash with the Opinions of Men. But the Truth is if we examine not so much the Expressions and Words as the Sense and Meaning of all Parties about this Matter we shall find them well enough agreed in it at the bottom And 't is no wonder if notwithstanding several incidental Disputes they should yet agree in the Main Since the Experience of Mankind does easily teach us what sort of Perfection Human Nature is capable of and what can or can not actually be attained by Man The Pelagians did not contend for an Angelical Perfection nor St. Austin deny such a one as was truly suitable to Man the one could not be so far a Stranger to Human Nature as to exempt it in Reality from those Errors and Defects which the best of Men complain of and labour against Nor was St. Austin so little acquainted with the Power of the Gospel and of the Spirit as not to be well enough assured that Man might be Habitually Good and that such were influenced and acted by a firm Faith and a fervent Love and well grounded Hope The Dispute between Them then concerning Perfection did not consist in This whether Men might be Habitually good This was in Reality acknowledg'd on Both sides Nor whether the best Men were subject to Defects for This too Both sides could not but be sensible of but in these two things especially First what was to be attributed to Grace what to Nature And this relates not to the Definition or Essence of Perfection but to the Source and Origine of it Secondly whether those Irregular Motions Defects and Errors to which the best Men were subject were to be accounted Sins or not Neither the one side nor the other then as far as I can discern did in truth mistake the Nature of Human Perfection Each placed it in Habitual Righteousness The one contended for no more nor did the other contend for less in the Perfect Man And when the one asserted him free from Sin he did not assert him free from Defects And while the other would not allow the best Man to be without Sin they did not by Sin understand any thing else but such Disorders Oppositions to or Deviations from the Law of God as the Pelagian himself must needs own to be in the Perfect Man The Dispute then was not what Man might or might not attain to for Both sides agreed him capable of the same Habitual Righteousness Both sides allowed Him subject to the same Frailties But one side would have these Frailties accounted Sins and the other would not Numerous indeed have been the Controversies between the Popish and Reformed Churches about Precept and Counsel Mortal and Venial Sin the Possibility of fulfilling the Law of God the Merit of Good Works and such-like But after all if we enquire what that Height of Virtue is to which the best of Men may arrive what those Frailties and Infirmities are to which they are subject 't were I think easie to shew that the Wise and Good are on all hands agreed about this Nor does it much concern my present purpose in what sense or on what account Papists think some sins Venial and Protestants deny them to be so since neither the one nor the other exempt the Perfect Man from Infirmities nor assert any other Height or Perfection then what consists in a consummate and well establish'd Habit of Virtue Some Men may and do talk very extravagantly But it is very hard to imagine that Sober and Pious Men should run in with them Such when they talk of Fulfilling the Law of God and keeping his Commandments must surely understand this of the Law of God in a Gracious and Equitable sense And this is no more then what the Scripture asserts of every sincere Christian When they talk of I know not what transcendant Perfection in Monkery they must surely mean nothing more then that Poverty Chastity and Obedience are Heroick Instances of Faith and Love of Poverty of Spirit and Purity of Heart and that an Ascetick Discipline is the most compendious and effectual way to a Consummate Habit of Righteousness Finally by the Distinction of Precept and Counsel such can never intend surely more then This that we are obliged to some things under pain of Damnation to others by the Hopes of greater Degrees of Glory For 't is not easie for me to comprehend that any Man whose Judgment is not enslav'd to the Dictates of his Party should deny either of these two Truths 1. That whatever is neither forbidden nor commanded by any Law of God is Indifferent 2. That no Man can do more then love the Lord his God with all his Heart with all his Soul and with all his Might and his Neighbour as himself I say there is no Degree or Instance of Obedience that is not comprised within the Latitude and Perfection of these Words But whatever some of the Church of Rome or it may be the greater part of it may think This 't is plain was the Sense of the Ancients St. Austin (a) Quaecunque non jubentur sed speciali consilio monentur tum recté fiunt cum referuntur ad deligendum Deum proximum propter Deum Aug. Euch. cap. 121. could never understand any Merit or Excellence in those things that were Matter of Counsel not Precept unless they flowed from and had regard to the Love of God and our Neighbour And Cassian's (b) Ac proinde ea quibus qualitates Statutas videmus tempora quae sic observata sanctificant ut omissa non polluant Media esse manifestum est ut puta Naptias agriculturam divitias solitudinis Remotionem c. Cassian Colla. Patr. Talem igitur Definitionem supra Jejunii c. Nec in ipso spei nostrae terminum defigamus sed ut per ipsum ad puritatem Cordis Apostolicam Charitatem pervenire possimus ibid. Excellent Monks resolved all the value of such things to consist in their tendency to promote Apostolical Purity and Charity And Gregory Nazianzen (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg.
Nazian thought it very extravagant to pretend to be Perfecter then the Rule and Exacter then the Law The Quakers have made much noise and stir about the Doctrine of Perfection and have reflected very severely on others as subverting the great Design of our Redemption which is Deliverance from Sin and upholding the Kingdom of Darkness But with what Justice will easily appear when I have represented their Sense which I will do very Impartially and in as few and plain words as I can Mr. W. P. (d) A Key opening c. tells us that They are so far Infallible and Perfect as they are led by the Spirit This is indeed true but 't is meer trifling For This is an Infallibility and Perfection which no man denies who believes in the Holy Ghost since whoever follows His Guidance must be in the right unless the Holy Ghost himself be in the wrong He urges 't is true a great number of Scriptures to shew they are his own words that a State of Perfection from Sin though not in fulness of Wisdom and Glory is attainable in this Life But this is too dark and short a hint to infer the Sense of his Party from it Mr. Ed. Burroughs (e) Principles of Truth c. is more full We believe saith he that the Saints upon Earth may receive forgiveness of Sins and may be perfectly freed from the Body of Sin and Death and in Christ may be perfect and without Sin and may have victory over all Temptations by Faith in Jesus Christ And we believe every Saint that is called of God ought to press after Perfection and to over-come the Devil and all his Temptations upon Earth And we Believe they that faithfully wait for it shall obtain it and shall be presented without Sin in the Image of the Father And such walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit and are in Covenant with God and their sins are blotted out and remembred no more for they cease to commit sin being Born of the Seed of God If by Sin here he means as he seems to do Deliberate or Presumptuous Sin I do not think any Establish'd Church whether Protestant or Popish Teaches otherwise Mr. Barclay (f) Apol. Thes 8. goes very Methodically to work and first sets down the state of the Question then confutes those that differ from Him answers their Objections out of Scripture and lastly establishes his own Doctrine As to the Perfection which he asserts he lets us know That it is to be derived from the Spirit of Christ that it consists not in an Impossibility of Sinning but a Possibility of not Sinning And that his Perfect Man is capable of Daily Growth and Improvement When to This I have added that he speaks all along of That which we call Wilful Sin as appears from his Description of it for he calls it Iniquity Wickedness Impurity the Service of Satan and attributes such Effects to it as belong not at all to what we call Sins of Infirmity when I say This is added to render his Sense clear I can readily subscribe to him For I know no such Doctrines in our Church as Those which he there opposes namely that the Regenerate are to live in Sin and that their Good Works are Impure and Sinful But then he either mistakes the Main Point in Debate or prudently declines it For the Question is not whether good Men may live in Mortal or Wilful Sin but whether good Men are not subject to Frailties and Infirmities which are indeed Sins though not imputable under the Covenant of Grace Whether the Quakers are not in this Point Pelagians I do not now inquire because if they be they are already considered Two things there are in Mr. Barclay's state of the Question which I cannot so well approve of the One is that he expresses himself so injudiciously about the growth and improvement of his Perfect Man that he seems to forget the Difference the Scriptures make between Babes and full Grown Men in Christ and to place Perfection so low in reference to Positive Righteousness or Virtue as if it consisted in Negative only or ceasing from Sin The Other is That though he does not peremptorily affirm a State of Impeccability attainable in this Life yet he seems inclined to Believe it and imagines it countenanced by 1 Joh. 3.9 But he ought to have consider'd That whatever Impeccability may be inferr'd from that Text it is attributed not to some extraordinary Persons but to all whosoever they be that are Born of God but this is out of my way All that I am to observe upon the whole is that These Men place Perfection especially in refraining from Sin I advance higher and place it in a well-setled Habit of Righteousness And I believe they will be as little dissatisfied with me for this as I am with them for asserting the Perfect Man freed from Sin For as Mr. Barclay expresses himself I think he has in reality no Adversaries but Antinomians and Ranters As to That Perfection which is magnified by Mistical Writers some of Them have only darken'd and obscured the plain Sense of the Gospel by figurative and unintelligible Terms Those of Them which write with more Life and Heat than other Men ordinarily do recommend nothing but that Holiness which begins in the Fear and is consummate in the Love of God which enlightens the Mind purifies the Heart and fixes and unites Man to his Soveraign Good that is God And I am sure I shall not differ with These There are I confess almost innumerable sayings of the Fathers which sufficiently testifie how little Friends they were to Perfection in such a Notion of it as is too generally embraced in the Church of Rome The Primitive Spirit breathed Nothing but Humility It was a professed Enemy to All self-Confidence and Arrogance to Supererogation and Merit and it invited Men earnestly to reflect upon the Sins and Slips of Life and on that Opposition which the Law of the Body maintains against the Law of the Mind in some Degree or other in the Best Men. This Consideration forced the Bishop of Condome to that plain and honest Confession Itaque Justitia Nostra licet per Charitatis Infusionem sit vera c. though our Righteousness because of that Love which the Spirit sheds abroad in our Hearts be Sincere and Real yet is it not absolute and consummate because of the Opposition of Concupiscence So that it is an indispensable Duty of Christianity to be perpetually bewailing the Errors of Life Wherefore we are oblig'd humbly to confess with St. Austin That our Righteousness in this Life consists rather in the pardon of our Sins then in the perfection of our Virtues All this is undoubtedly true but concerns not me I never Dream of any man's passing the Course of Life without Sin Nor do I contend for such a Perfection as St. Austin calls Absolute which will admit of no Increase and
is All the claim the Sinner lays to Pleasure is confin'd to the Present Moment which is extreamly short and extreamly uncertain the Time that is Past and to Come he quits all Pretention to or ought to do so As to the time Past the thing is self evident For the Sinner looking back sees his Pleasures and Satisfactions the Good Man his Tryals and Temptations past and gone The Sinner sees an end of his Beauty and his Strength the Good Man of his Weaknesses and Follies the one when he looks back is encountred with Sin and Folly Wickedness and Shame the other with Repentance and Good Works Guilt and Fear haunt the Reflections of the one Peace and Hope attend those of the other As to the time to come the Atheist hath no Prospect at all beyond the Grave the Wicked Christian a very dismal one the weak and Imperfect a doubtful one only the Wise and Perfect an assured joyful and delightful one And this puts me in mind of that which is the proper Fruit of Perfection and the truest and greatest Pleasure of Human Life that is Assurance assurance of the Pardon of Sin assurance of the Divine Favour assurance of Immortality and Glory Need I prove that Assurance is an unspeakable Pleasure One would think that to Man who is daily engag'd in a Conflict with some Evil or other it were superfluous to prove that it is a mighty Pleasure to be rais'd though not above the Assault though not above the Reach yet above the Venom and Malignity of Evils To be fill'd with Joy and Strength and Confidence to ride triumphant under the Protection of the Divine Favour and see the Sea of Life swell and toss it self in vain in vain threaten the Bark it cannot sink in vain invade the Cable it cannot burst One would think that to Man who lives all his Life long in Bondage for fear of Death it should be a surprizing Delight to see Death lie gasping at his Feet Naked and Impotent without Sting without Terror One would finally think that to Man who lives rather by Hope then Enjoyment it should not be necessary to prove that the Christian's Hope whose Confidence is greater its Objects more glorious and its Success more certain than that of any worldly Fancy or Project is full of Pleasure and that it is a delightful Prospect to see the Heavens opened and Jesus our Jesus our Prince and Saviour sitting at the Right Hand of God Thus I have I think sufficiently made out the Subserviency of Perfection to the Happiness of this present Life which was the thing propos'd to be done in this Chapter Nor can I imagine what Objections can be sprung to invalidate what I have said unless there be any thing of Colour in these two 1. To reap the Pleasure will some one say which you have discrib'd here it requires something of an exalted Genius some Compass of Understanding some Sagacity and Penetration To this I Answer I grant indeed that some of those Pleasures which I have reckon'd up as belonging to the Perfect Man demand a Spirit rais'd a little above the Vulgar But the richest Pleasures not the most Polish'd and Elevated Spirits but the most Devout and Charitable Souls are best capable of Such are the Peace and Tranquility which arises from the Conquest and Reduction of all inordinate affections the satisfaction which accompanies a sincere and vigorous discharge of Duty and our Reflections upon it the Security and Rest which flows from Self-resignation and Confidence in the Divine Protection And lastly the Joy that springs from the full assurance of Hope But 2ly It may be Objected 't is true all these things seem to hang together well enough in Speculation but when we come to examine the matter of fact we are almost tempted to think that all which you have said to prove the ways of Wisdom ways of Pleasantness and all her Paths Peace amounts to no more then a pretty Amusement of the Mind and a Visionary Scheme of Happiness For how few are there if any who feel all this to be truth and Experiment the Pleasure you talk of How few are they in whom we can discover any signs of this Spiritual joy or fruits of a Divine Tranquility or Security I answer in a word The examples of a perfect and mature Vertue are very few Religion runs very low and the Love of God and Goodness in the Bosoms of most Christians suffers such an allay and mixture that it is no wonder at all if so imperfect a State breed but very weak and imperfect Hopes very faint and doubtful joys But I shall have occasion to examine the force of this Objection more fully when I come to the Obstacles of Perfection CHAP. V. Of the Attainment of Perfection Particularly an account of the Manner by which Man Advances or grows up to it I Have in the first second and third Chapters explain'd the Notion of Religious Perfection In the fourth Chapter I have insisted on two effects of it Assurance and Pleasure My method therefore now leads me to the Attainment of Perfection Here I will do too things 1st I will trace out the several Steps and Advances of the Christian towards it and draw up as it were a short History of his Spiritual Progress from the very Infancy of Vertue to its Maturity and Manhood 2ly I will discourse briefly of the Motives and Means of Perfection Of the Christian's Progress towards Perfection Many are the Figures and Metaphors by which the Scripture describes this alluding one while to the Formation Nourishment and Growth of the Natural man another while to that of Plants and Vegetables One while to the dawning and increasing Light that shines more and more to the perfect Day Another while to that succession of Labours and Expectations which the Husbandman runs through from Plowing to the Harvest But of all the Similes which the Spirit makes use of to this end there is one especially that seems to me to give us the truest and the liveliest Image of the Change of a Sinner into a Saint The Scripture represents Sin as a state of Bondage and Righteousness as a state of Liberty and teaches us that by the same steps by which an enslaved and oppressed People arrive at their Secular by the very same does the Christian at his Spiritual Liberty and Happiness First then as soon as any Judgment or Mercy or any other sort of Call awakens and penetrates the Sinner as soon as a clear Light breaks in upon him and makes him see and consider his own state he is presently agitated by various Passions according to his different Guilt and Temper or the different Calls and Motives by which he is wrought upon One while Fear another while Shame one while Indignation another while Hope fills his Soul He resents the Tyranny and complains of the Persecution of his Lusts he upbraids himself with his folly and discovers a meanness and shamefulness in
Anchorite or Hermite was at first little better then a Pious Extravagant I will not say how much worse he is now Meditation and Prayer are excellent Duties but Meekness and Charity Mercy and Zeal are not one jot inferiour to them The World is an excellent School to a good Christian the Follies and the Miseries the Tryals and Temptations of it do not only exercise and employ our Vertue but cultivate and improve it They afford us both Instruction and Discipline and naturally Advance us on towards a solid Wisdom and a well-setled Power over our selves 'T is our own fault if every Accident that befalls us and every one whom we converse with do not teach us somewhat occasion some wise Reflection or enkindle some Pious Affection in us We do not reflect on our Words and Actions we do not observe the motions of our own Hearts as diligently as we ought we make little or no Application of what we see or hear nor learn any thing from the Wisdom and the Vertue the Folly and the Madness of Man and the consequences of both And so we neither improve our Knowledge nor our Vertue but are the same to day we were yesterday and Life wastes away in common Accidents and customary Actions with as little alteration in us as in our Affairs Whereas were we mindful as we ought of our true Interest and desirous to reap some spiritual Benefit from every thing the Vertues of Good Men would enkindle our Emulation and the Folly and Madness of Sinners would confirm our abhorrence for Sin from one we should learn Content from another Industry here we should see a Charm in Meekness and Charity there in Humility in this Man we should see Reason to admire Discretion and Command of himself in that Courage and Constancy Assiduity and Perseverance Nor would it be less useful to us to observe how Vanity exposes one and Peevishness torments another how Pride and Ambition embroil a third and how hateful and contemptible Avarice renders a fourth and to trace all that variety of ruin which Lust and Prodigality Disorder and Sloth leave behind them And as this kind of Observations will fill us with solid and useful Knowledge so will a diligent attention to the Rules of Righteousness and discretion in all the common and daily actions of Life enrich us with true Vertue Religion is not to be confin'd to the Church and to the Closet nor to be exercised only in Prayers and Sacraments Meditation and Alms but every where we are in the Presence of God and every Word every Action is capable of Morality Our Defects and Infirmities betray themselves in the daily Accidents and the common Conversation of Life and here they draw after them very important Consequences and therefore here they are to be watched over regulated and govern'd as well as in our more solemn Actions 'T is to the Vertues or the Errors of our common Conversation and ordinary Deportment that we owe both our Friends and Enemies our good or bad Character abroad our Domestick Peace or Troubles and in a high degree the improvement or depravation of our Minds Let no Man then that will be Perfect or Happy abandon himself to his Humours or Inclinations in his Carriage towards his Acquaintance his Children his Servants Let no Man that will be Perfect or Happy follow Prejudice or Fashion in the common and customary Actions of Life But let him assure himself that by a daily endeavour to conform these more and more to the excellent Rules of the Gospel he is to train up himself by degrees to the most absolute Wisdom and the most Perfect Vertue he is capable of And to this end he must first know himself and those he has to do with he must discern the proper Season and the just Occasion of every Vertue and then he must apply himself to the acquiring the Perfection of it by the daily Exercise of it even in those things which for want of due Reflection do not commonly seem of any great Importance To one that is thus dispos'd the dulness or the carelesness of a Servant the stubbornness of a Child the soureness of a Parent the Inconstancy of Friends the Coldness of Relations the Neglect or Ingratitude of the World will all prove extreamly useful and beneficial every thing will instruct him every thing will afford an opportunity of exercising some Vertue or another so that such a one shall be daily learning daily growing better and wiser § 2. The two great Instruments not of Regeneration only but also of Perseverance and Perfection are the Word and the Spirit of God This no Man doubts that is a Christian And therefore I will not go about to prove it Nor will I at present discourse of the Energy and Operation of the one and the other or examine what each is in its self or wherein the one differs from the other 'T is abundantly enough if we be assured that the Gospel and the Spirit are proper and sufficient Means to attain the great Ends I have mentioned namely our Converversion and Perfection And that they are so is very plain from those Texts which do expresly assert That the Gospel contains all those Truths that are necessary to the clear Exposition of our Duty or to the moving and obliging us to the Practice of it And that the Spirit implies a supply of all that supernatural strength be it what it will that is necessary to enable us not only to will but to do that which the Gospel convinces us to be our Duty Such are Rom. 8.2 For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death 2 Tim. 3.16 17. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness That the Man of God may be Perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works 2 Cor. 12.9 And he said unto me my Grace is sufficient for thee for my Strength is made perfect in weakness Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my Infirmities that the Power of Christ may rest upon me 1 Pet. 1.5 Who are kept by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time 'T is needless to multiply Texts on this occasion otherwise 't were very easie to shew That all things necessary to Life and Godliness are contain'd in the Word and Spirit that what ever is necessarily to be wrought in us to prepare us for or entitle us to Eternal Salvation is ascribed to the Gospel and the Spirit This truth then being unquestionable that the Gospel and the Spirit are the two great Instruments of Perfection we may from hence infer two Rules which are of the most Universal use and of the most powerful efficacy in the pursuit of Perfection 1. We cannot have too great a Value too great a Passion for the Book of God nor fix
who were Eye witnesses of the Resurrection and Ascention of the Blessed Jesus The Doctrine of one God and a Judgment to come may receive much light and strength from natural Reason And whatever establishes a revealed Truth will be so far from diminishing that it will increase the Vertue and Efficacy of it All the Caution I think fit to give here is that we be sure that the Ground be Plain and Firm on which we build the Belief of an Illuminating Truth Philosophy in many cases is clear and convictive St. Paul himself amongst the Gentiles frequently appeals to Reason But too often we call our Fancy Philosophy and obtrude upon the World the wild and undigested Theories of a warm and confident Imagination for new Discoveries What strange stuff was Gnostick Philosophy once What did it produce but the Corruption of the Christian Faith And what can be expected from Mystick Enthusiastick Philosophy or Divinity in any Age any Man may guess without any deep Penetration Nor do I doubt but that all judicious and experienced Men do as much despise and nauseate the Blendures and Mixtures of pretended Philosophy with our Faith and Morals as the World generally does the subtilties and perplexities of the Schools For my part I can't endure to have my Religion lean upon the rotten props of precarious Notions I admire I love the Elevations and Enlargements of Soul But I can have no value for unaccountable Amusements or Rambles of Fancy An itch of Novelty or Curiosity has a Tincture in it of our Original Corruption I ever suspect an Opinion that carries an Air of Novelty in it and do always prefer a vulgar Truth before refined Error They are vulgar Truths which like vulgar Blessings are of most use and truest worth And surely our Saviour thought so when he thanked his Father that he had hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto Babes And when he himself taught the People with power and authority and not as the Scribes he did advance no subtil Theories but bright and dazling useful and convictive Truths This minds me of another property of Illuminating Knowledge 2. This Knowledge must not be obscure and confused but Distinct and Clear Where the Images of things are slight faint and vanishing they move Men but very weakly and affect them but very coldly especially in such Matters as are not subject to our Senses And this I perswade my self is one chief Reason why those glorious and wonderful Objects God a Judgment to come Heaven and Hell do strike us so feebly and operate so little We have generally no lively distinct and clear Conception of them It being otherwise impossible That things in their own Nature dreadful and amazing should excite in us no Fear or that things in their own Nature infinitely amiable should enkindle in us no Passion no Desire The Notions we have of Spiritual and Invisible Things are dim dusky and imperfect Our Thoughts pass over them so slightly that they scarce retain any print or traces of them Now this sort of Knowledge will never do the work These drousie notices of things will never ferment and raise our Passions for Heaven high enough to confront and combate those we have for the World From hence we may give a fair account what the use is of Prophetick Retirement and Prophetick Eloquence What is the purpose of all those Schemes and Tropes which occur in inspired Writings And why the best of Men have ever so much affected Solitude and Retreats from the noise and the hurry of the World Serious frequent and devout Contemplation is necessary to form in our Minds clear distinct and sprightly Notions And to communicate these well to the World they must be expressed in moving Language in living Tropes and Figures Ah! Did we but consider this we should sure allot more time to the study of Divine Truths and we should not think that to discover them throughly it were enough to let our Thoughts glance upon them But we should survey and ponder them with all the exactness and diligence that were necessary to make lasting and distinct impressions upon us Could we know by Intuition doubtless wonderful Objects would raise very extraordinary Passions in us But this we cannot let us come as near it as we can Only let us avoid forming absurd and false Notions of things whilst we endeavour after distinct and clear ones Spiritual things do not answer Corporeal like Face to Face in a Glass And therefore though to give some light to things that are above us we may find out all the Resemblances of them we can in those things we are acquainted with here below yet we must still remember that the one do vastly exceed the other and that we cannot thus get a just and adequate Notion of them 3. This Knowledge must not be in the Understanding crude and undigested but it must be throughly concocted and turned into Nourishment Blood and Spirits We must know the true value and use of every Principle of every Truth and be able readily to apply them For what does it signifie how important Truths are in themselves if they are not so to me What does it avail that they are impregnated with Life and Power if I feel not any such Influence Of what use is the Knowledge of Gospel Promises to me if I reap no Comfort from them Or the Knowledge of Gospel Threats if they are unable to curb and restrain my Passions And so is it with other Truths What will it avail me that I know the Life of Man consists not in the multitude of the things which he possesses if notwithstanding I cannot content my self with a Competency That Righteousness is the chief Good and the richest Treasure of the Soul of Man if notwithstanding I seek this World and the things of it with a more early and passionate Concern That sin and pain are the most considerable if not only Evils of Man if notwithstanding I be cast down and broken under every Adversity And thus I might go on and shew you that the Knowledge which is not digested into Nourishment is if not a burden of no benefit to us 'T is plain that is to me nothing worth which I make no use of We must then follow the advice of Solomon and never quit the Search and Meditation of Truth till we grow intimate and familiar with it and so have it always ready for a Guide and Guard for our Support and Strength and for our Delight and Pleasure We must bind it about our Heart as he speaks and tie it as an Ornament about our Neck Then when we go forth it shall lead us when we sleep it shall keep us and when we awake it shall talk with us For the commandment is a Lamp and the Law is light and reproofs of Instruction are the way of Life Prov. 6. In a word nothing can render the most important Truths powerful and operative in us
but such a Digestion of them by serious and devout Meditation as may in a manner incorporate them with us And this the Scripture plainly teaches when to signifie the Force and Vertue of the Gospel above that of the Law it uses these words For this is the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their Minds and write them in their Hearts Heb. 8.10 intimating that no Laws no Principles can ever influence us till they be deeply imprinted in our Hearts To wind up all There are several kinds of Knowledge of the same Truths There is a Knowledge which serves us only as Pisga's top did Moses to shew us Canaan but not to bring us into it There is again a Knowledge which serves us only as the Talent did the wicked Servants not to procure Rewards but Punishments And finally there is a Knowledge which like the Talents in the Hand of the faithful and good Steward enriches us first and recommends us afterwards to higher Trusts and Dignities which improves and perfects our Nature first and then puts us into possession of such Blessings as only Nature thus improved and perfected is capable of And this Knowledge must not be a slight superficial and undigested one it must not be a confused and obscure a weak and imperfect one This is not the Knowledge which will bring forth those excellent Fruits which we have reason to expect from true Illumination But it must be a Knowledge that has all the quite contrary Characters even such as I have before described at large That this is an Observation of the greatest weight and moment is evident to any one who will give himself leave to make any Reflection on the present State of Christianity For how does the power of Darkness prevail amidst the Light of the Gospel How has the Devil erected his Throne in the midst of that Church which should be the Kingdom of God and Sin and Death reign where Life and Immortality are Preached Whence is this Are Men ignorant of those Truths which make up the Systeme of true Wisdom This is not easie to be imagined scarcely of the darkest corners of the Popish Churches much less of ours And therefore we must conclude that this is because our Knowledge is not such as it ought to be with respect to its clearness certainty and Digestion CHAP. II. Of the Fruits and Attainments of Illumination HAving dispatched the Notion of Illumination in the foregoing Chapter and shew'd both what Truths and what sort of Knowledge of them is requisite to it I am next to treat 1. Of the Fruits And 2. Of the Attainment of it S. 1. As to the Fruits of Illumination I have the less need to insist upon them because whatever can be said on this Head has been in a manner anticipated All the Characters of Illuminating Truth and Illuminating Knowledge being such as sufficiently declare the blessed effects of true Illumination I will therefore be very short on this Head and only just mention two Advantages of Illumination As the use of Light is especially twofold to Delight and Guide us so do we reap two benefits from Illumination 1. The first and most immediate one is That it sets the whole Man and the whole Life right that it fixes our Affections on their proper and natural Object and directs all our Actions to their true End I do not mean that the Vnderstanding constantly and necessarily influences and determines the Will. Expeperience tells us that we have a fatal Liberty That our Affections are too often independant of our Reason that we sin against the Dictates of Conscience that we pursue false Pleasure and a false Interest in opposition to the True and in plain opposition to our Judgment too at least to a sedate and calm one And the Reason of all this is because we consist of two different and repugnant Principles a Body and a Soul and are solicited by two different Worlds a temporal and an eternal one But all this notwithstanding 't is certain that Illumination in the Mind has a mighty Influence upon us For it is continually exciting in us wise Desires and excellent purposes 'T is always alluring and inviting us towards our Sovereign Good and restraining and detering us from Sin and Death It alarms disquiets disturbs and persecutes us as often as we err and wander from the Path of Life In one word the great Work of Illumination is to be always representing the Beauties and Pleasures and the Beatitude and Glory of Vertue and remonstrating the Evils and Dishonours the Deformities and Dangers of Vice so that a Man will never be at rest who has this Light within him till it be either extinguished or obeyed 2. This Light within us if it be followed and complied with not mud-died and disturbed if it be not quenched and extinguished by wilful Sin or unpardonable Oscitancy and Remisness if in a word its Influence be not interrupted disperses all our Fears as well as Errors creates an unspeakable Tranquility in the Soul spreads over us a calm and glorious Sky and makes every thing in us and about us look gay and verdant and beautiful The Dissipation of Pagan Darkness and all Participations or Resemblances of it Deliverance from a state of Bondage and Wrath the Peace of God the Love of Jesus the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost the Immortality of the Soul the Resurrection of the Body the Perfection and Blessedness of Eternity good God! what surprizing what ravishing Themes are these for the thoughts of an enlightened Soul to dwell upon Blessed and Happy is he who enjoys this Pleasure upon Earth And that we may I am now to Discourse S. 2. Of the Attainment of Illumination Now whatever advice can relate to this may be reduced under two Heads 1. What Qualifications do render Man capable of Illumination 2. What it is that one duly qualified is to do in Pursuit of it § 1. To begin with the Qualifications requisite to Illumination One Man is distinguished from another several ways By his Estate or Fortune by Natural or acquired Endowments and by Moral Dispositions and each of these may have some though a very different Influence upon Human Perfection For if we enquire after only the Essence and Integrity of Perfection then are there two or three Moral Qualifications which are all that is required in order to this But if we enquire after the largeness of its Stature the Symmetry of its Features the Lustre of its Complexion and the Elegance of its dress then may we allow something to be ascribed to Fortune to Nature and a liberal Education This is an Observation very necessary to be made For though every Man may be capable of Perfection that is Habitual Holiness if it be not his own fault yet is not every Man capable of being equally Perfect because of that accidental Variety which I have suggested and
consequently acceptable to all faithful Christians in the next CHAP. III. Of Liberty AFter Illumination which is the Perfection of the Vnderstanding follows Liberty which is the Perfection of the Will In Treating of which I shall First give an account of Liberty in General And then discourse of the several Parts of it as it regards Wickedness Vnfruitfulness Human Infirmities and Original Corruption § 1. What Liberty is There have been several Mistakes about this Matter But these have been so absurd or extravagant so designing or sensual that they Need not I think a serious Refutation However 't is necessary in a word or two to remove this Rubbish and Lumber out of my way that I may build up and establish the Truth more easily and regularly Some then have placed Christian Liberty in Deliverance from the Mosaick Yoke But this is to make our Liberty consist in Freedom from a Yoke to which we were never subject and to make our Glorious Redemption from the Tyranny of Sin and the Misery that attends it dwindle into an Immunity from external Rites and Observances 'T is true the Mosaick Institution as far as it consisted in outward Observances and Typical Rites is now dissolved The Messias being come who was the Substance of those Shadows and the Beauty of Holiness being unfolded and displayed without any Vail upon her Face But what is this to Ecclesiastical Authority Or to those Ecclesiastical Institutions which are no Part of the Mosaick Yoke From the Abrogation indeed or Abolition of Ritual and Typical Religion one may infer First That Christianity must be a Rational Worship of Moral Spiritual Service And therefore Secondly That Human Institutions when they enjoyn any thing as a necessary and essential Part of Religion which God has not made so or when they impose such Riâ—es as through the Number or Nature of them cherish Superstition obscure the Gospel weaken its Force or prove burthensome to us are to be rejected and not complied with Thus much is plain and nothing farther There have been Others who have run into more intolerable Errors For some have placed Christian Liberty in Exemption from the Laws of Man And Others advancing higher in Exemption even from the moral and immutable Laws of God But the Folly and Wickedness of these Opinions sufficiently confute them Since 't is notorious to every one that Disobedience and Anarchy is as flat a Contradiction to the Peaceableness as Voluptuousness and Luxury is to the Purity of that Wisdom which is from above But how absurd and wicked soever these Notions are yet do we find them greedily embraced and industriously propagated at this day And behold with Amazement the baffled and despicable Gnosticks Priscilianists Libertines and I know not what other spawn of Hell reviving in Deists and Atheists These indeed do not advance their Errours under a Pretence of Christian Liberty but which is more ingenious and less scandalous of the two in open Defiance and confessed Opposition to Christianity They tell us that we impose upon the World false and fantastick Notions of Vertue and Liberty That Religion does enslave Man not set him free awing the Mind by groundless and superstitious Principles and restraining and infringing our true and natural Liberty Which if we will believe them consists in giving Nature its full swing letting loose the Reins to the most head-strong Lusts and the wildest and the most corrupt Imaginations But to this 't is easie to answer That while these Men attempt to establish their Errours and fortifie their Minds in them by Arguments of some sort or other as they do 't is plain that they suppose and acknowledge with us That we ought to be ruled and governed by Reason And if this be true then by undeniable Consequence true Liberty must consist not in doing what we list but what we ought not in following our Lust or Fancy but our Reason not in being exempt from Law but in being a Law to our selves And then I appeal to all the World whether the Discipline of Vertue or Libertinism whether the Schools of Epicurus or Christ be the way to true Liberty I appeal to the Experience of Mankind whether Spiritual or Sensual Pleasure whether the Love of God and Vertue or the Love of the World and Body be the more like to qualifie and dispose us to obey the Dictates of sober and solid Reason But the Truth is here is no need of Arguments The Lives and Fortunes of Atheists and Deists proclaim aloud what a glorious kind of Liberty they are like to bless the World with 2 Pet. 2.19 Whilst they promise Liberty they themselves are the Servants of Corruption And this Corruption draws on their Ruin The dishonourable and miserable Courses in which these poor Wretches are plunged and in which generally they perish before their time are such an open Contradiction to Reason that no Man doubts but that they have abandoned its Conduct that they have given themselves up to that of Lust and Humour And that they earnestly endeavour to force or betray their Reason into a Compliance to Screen themselves from the reproach and disturbance of their own Minds and from the shame and contempt of the World I have dwelt long enough on this Argument 'T is now time to pass on and resolve what Christian Liberty really is This is in a manner evident from what has been suggested already For if Reason be the governing Faculty in Man then the Liberty of Man must consist in his Subjection to Reason And so Christian Liberty will be nothing else but Subjection to Reason enlighten'd by Revelation Two things therefore are Essential to true Liberty A clear and unbiassed Judgment and a Power and Capacity of Acting conformable to it This is a very short but full Account of Liberty Darkness and Impotence constitute our Slavery Light and Strength our Freedom Man is then free when his Reason is not awed by vile Fears or bribed by viler Hopes When it is not tumultuosly transported and hurried away by Lusts and Passions nor cheated and deluded by the guilded appearances of Sophisticated Good but it deliberates impartially and commands effectually And because the great Obstacle of this Liberty is Sin because natural and contracted Corruption are the Fetters in which we are bound because the Law in the Body wars against the Law in the Mind obscuring the Light and enfeebling the Authority of Reason hence it is that Christian Liberty is as truly as commonly described by a Dominion over the Body by the subduing our corrupt Affections and by Deliverance from Sin This Notion of Liberty may be sufficiently established upon that Account of Servitude or Bondage which the Apostle gives us Rom. 7. where he represents it as consisting in Impotence or Inability to do those things which God commands and Reason approves for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not ver 18. Liberty therefore must on
the contrary consist in being able not only to will but to do good in obeying those Commandments which we cannot but acknowledge to be holy and just and good And this is the very Notion which our Lord and Master gives us of it Joh. 8. For when the Jews bragg'd of their Freedom he lets them know that Freedom could not consist with Subjection to Sin he that committeth Sin is the Servant of Sin ver 34. That honourable Parentage and the Freedom of the Body was but a false and ludicrous Appearance of Liberty that if they would be free indeed the Son must make them so ver 36. i. e. they must by his Spirit and Doctrine be rescued from the Servitude of Lust and Errour and be set at Liberty to work Righteousness If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed and ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free ver 31 32. Finally not to multiply Proofs of a truth that is scarce liable to be controverted as the Apostle describes the Bondage of a Sinner in Rom. 7. so does he the Liberty of a Saint in Rom. 8. For there ver 2. he tells us That the Law of the Spirit of Life has set the true Christian free from the Law of Sin and Death And then he lets us know wherein this Liberty consists in walking not after the Flesh but after the Spirit in the Mortification of the Body of Sin and Restitution of the Mind to its just Empire and Authority If Christ be in you the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteousness ver 10. And all this is the same thing with his Description of Liberty Chapter 6. where 't is nothing else but for a Man to be made free from Sin and become the Servant of God Thus then we have a plain account of Bondage and Liberty Yet for the clearer understanding of both it will not be amiss to observe that they are each capable of different Degrees and both the one and the other may be more or less entire compleat and absolute according to the different Progress of Men in Vice and Vertue Thus in some Men not their Will only but their very Reason is enslaved Their Vnderstanding is so far infatuated their Affections so entirely captived that there is no Conflict at all between the Mind and the Body they commit Sin without any Reluctancy before-hand or any Remorse afterwards their sâ—ared Conscience making no Remonstrance inflicting no wounds nor denouncing any Threats This is the last Degree of Vassalage Such are said in Scripture to be dead in Trespasses and Sins Others there are in whom their Lust and Appetite prevails indeed but not without Opposition They Reason rightly and which is the natural Result of this have some Desires and wishes of Righteousness but through the Prevalency of the Body they are unable to act and live conformable to their Reason Their Vnderstanding has indeed Light but not Authority It consents to the Law of God but it has no Power no Force to make it be obeyed it produces indeed some good Inclinations Purposes and Efforts but they prove weak and ineffectual ones and unable to grapple with the stronger Passion raised by the Body And as Bondage so Liberty is of different Degrees and different Strength For though Liberty may be able to subsist where there is much Opposition from the Body yet 't is plain that Liberty is most absolute and compleat where the Opposition is least where the Body is reduced to an entire Submission and Obsequiousness and the Spirit reigns with an uncontroul'd and unlimited Authority And this latter is that Liberty which I would have my Perfect man possessed of I know very well 't is commonly taught by some that there is no such State But I think this Doctrine if it be throughly considered has neither Scripture Reason nor Experience to support it For as to those Places Rom. 7. and Gal. 5. urged in favour of an almost Incessant strong and too-frequently prevalent lusting of the Flesh against the Spirit it has been often answered and proved too that they are so far from belonging to the Perfect that they belong not to the Regenerate But on the contrary those Texts that represent the Yoke of Christ easie and his burden light which affirm the Commandments of Christ not to be grievous to such as are made Perfect in Love do all bear witness to that Liberty which I contend for Nor does Reason favour my Opinion less than Scripture For if the Perfect man be a New Creature if he be transformed into a New Nature if his Body be dead to sin and his Spirit live to Righteousness in one word if the World be as much crucified to him as he to it I cannot see why it should not be easie for him to act consonant to his Nature why he should not with Pleasure and Readiness follow that Spirit and obey those Affections which reign and rule in him Nor can I see why a Habit of Righteousness should not have the same Properties with other Habits that is be attended with ease and pleasure in its Operations and Actions 'T is true I can easily see why the Habits of Righteousness are acquired with more Difficulty than those of any other kind but I say I cannot see when they are acquired why they should not be as natural and delightful to us as any other Lastly how degenerate soever Ages past have been or the present is I dare not so far distrust the Goodness of my Cause or the Vertue of Mankind as not to refer my self willingly in this point to the Decision of Experience I am very well assured that Truth and Justice Devotion and Charity Honour and Integrity are to a great many so dear and delightful so natural so easie that it is hard to determine whether they are more strongly moved by a sense of Duty or the Instigations of Love and Inclination and that they cannot do a base thing without the utmost Mortification and Violence to their Nature Nor is all this to be wondred at if we again reflect on what I just now intimated that the Perfect Man is a new Creature transformed daily from Glory to Glory that he is moved by new Affections raised and fortified by new Principles that he is animated by a Divine Energy and sees all things by a truer and brighter Light through which the things of God appear lovely and beautiful the things of the World Deformed and worthless just as to him who views them through a Microscope the Works of God appear exact and elegant but those of Man coarse and bungling and ugly My Opinion then which asserts the absolute Liberty of the Perfect Man is sufficiently proved here and in Chap. the first And if I thought it were not I could easily reinforce it with fresh Recruits For the glorious Characters that are given us in Scripture of the Liberty of
the Children of God and the blessed Fruit of it Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost would easily furnish me with invincible Arguments Nor would the contrary Opinion ever have been able to have kept the Field so long as it has done had it not been favoured by a weak and decayed Piety by the Fondnesses of Men for themselves in spight of their Sins and Frailties and by many mistaken Texts But that this Matter may if possible be freed from all Objections 1. I here distinguish between Inordinate and Natural Affections By Inordinate Affections I mean the Tendencies of the Soul towards that which is Vnlawful by Natural its Propension to the Body with which it is invested the Desire of its Health and Ease and the Conveniencies and Necessaries of Life for this end Now when Religion enjoyns Repugnances to the former Appetites the Obedience of the Perfect Man has no Reluctancy in it but when it enjoyns things as sometimes occasionally it does which thwart and cross the latter here the Obedience even of Christ himself could not be exempt from Conflict for our Natural Appetites in this sense of them will never be put off till our Bodies be I think this is so clear it needs not be illustrated by Instances or else 't were easie to shew that though good men have practised Temperance Chastity Charity and other Vertues of this kind with ease and pleasure too yet has Nature shrunk and startled at Persecution and Martyrdom though even here too the Courage and Resolution of some hath appear'd to be much above what Human Nature ever seem'd capable of 2. I do not in the least suppose that Nature is so changed but that the Inclinations to sinful Pleasure or Profit or any other forbidden Object will soon revive again even in the Perfect Man unless he keep a watch and guard upon himself and pass the time of his sojourning here in fear Not to be subject to disorderly Desires not to be liable to irregular Motions is the Priviledge of Souls when stript of a Mortal Body or cloath'd with an Immortal one Till then the Conjunction of Flesh and Blood will ever render the poor Soul obnoxious to carnal and worldly Appetites And the natural Appetites of the Body do so easily pass those Bounds that divide them from sinful ones that the best of men can never be secure but when the Mind is taken up in Contemplation Devotion good Works or engaged in the Prosecution of some just and honest Design or amused by some innocent Recreation for in these Cases the Body is either made the Instrument of Righteousness or at least wise 't is innocently busied and diverted from those Objects to which it has too too impetuous a Tendency I have now I think sufficiently stated the Notion of true Liberty and I hope sufficiently guarded it And have nothing to do but to proceed to the Fruits of it Which will serve for so many Motives or Inducements to its Attainment § 2. Of the Fruits of Liberty These may be reduced under four Heads 1. Sin being a great Evil Deliverance from it is great Happiness 2. A second Fruit of this Liberty is Good Works 3. It gives us a near Relation to God 4. The great and last Fruit of it is Eternal Life These are all comprised by the Apostle in Rom. 6.2.1 22 23. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death But now being made free from Sin and become Servants to God ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting Life For the wages of sin is Death but the Gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And these are the great Ends which the Gospel that perfect Law of Liberty aims at and for which it was Preached to the World as appears from those Words of our Lord to St. Paul Acts 26.17 18. unto whom now I send thee to open their Eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of Sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by Faith that is in me I will here insist on these Blessed Effects of Christian Liberty not only because the Design of the Chapter demands it but also to prevent the being obliged to any tedious Repetition of them hereafter under every distinct Branch of Christian Liberty § 1. Sin is a great Evil and therefore Deliverance from the Dominion of it is a great Good To make this evident we need but reflect a little on the Nature and Effects of Sin If we enquire into the Nature of Sin we shall find that it is founded in the Subversion of the Dignity and defacing the Beauty of Human Nature and that it consists in the Darkness of our Understanding the Depravity of our Affections and the Feebleness and Impotence of the Will The Vnderstanding of a Sinner is incapable of discerning the Certainty and Force of Divine Truths the Loveliness of Vertue the unspeakable Pleasure which now flows from the great and precious Promises of the Gospel and the incomparably greater which will one day flow from the Accomplishment and Fruition of them His Affections which if fix't and bent on Vertue had been Incentives as they were designed by God to noble and worthy Actions being biass'd and perverted do now hurry him on to lewd and wicked ones And by these the Mind if at any time it chance to be awakened and render'd sensible of its Happiness and Duty is over-power'd and oppress'd If this were not the true State of a Sinner if the strength of Sin did not thus consist in the Disorder and Impotence of all the Faculties of the Soul whence is it that the Sinner acts as he does Is it not evident that his understanding is infatuated when he lives as if he were meerly wholly Body As if he had no Soul or none but one resulting from and dissolv'd with its Temperament and Contexture One designed to no higher purpose than to contrive minister to and partake in its Sensualities Is it not evident that He has little expectation of another World who laies up his Treasures only in this and lives as if he were Born only to make Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof 'T is true all Sinners are not equally stupid or obdurate but even in those in whom some sparks of Vnderstanding and Conscience remain unextinguished how are the weak Desires of Vertue baffled and over-power'd by the much stronger Passions which they have for the Body and the World Do they not find themselves reduced to that wretched state of Bondage wherein the good that they would do that they do not but the evil that they would not do that is present with them 'T is plain then that Sin is a Disease in our Nature that it not only extinguishes the Grace of the Spirit and obliterates the Image of God stampt
on the Soul in its Creation but also scatters and diffuses I know not what Venome and Infection thorough it that makes it eagerly pursue its own Misery 'T is a Disease that produces more intollerable Effects in the Soul than any whatever can in the Body The Predominancy of any noxious Humour can breed no Pain no Disturbance equal to that of a Predominant Passionâ— no Scars or Ruins which the worst Disease leaves behind it are half so deformed and loathsom as those of Vice Nay that last Change which Death it self produces when it converts a beautiful Body into Dust and Rottenness is not half so contemptible or hateful as that of Sin when it transforms Man into a Beast or Devil If we do not yet sufficiently comprehend the Nature of Sin by viewing it as it exists in our Minds and Hearts we may Contemplate it in our Actions And here 't is Blindness and Folly Rashness and Madness Incogitance Levity Falshood and Cowardise 't is every thing that is mean and base and all this aggravated by the most accursed Ingratitude that Human Nature is capable of These and the like Reflections on the Nature of Sin cannot chuse but render it hateful And if Secondly we make any serious ones on the Effects of it they cannot fail of rendering it frightful and dreadful to us These Effects may be especially reduced to Three 1. The ill Influence Sin has upon our Temporal Concerns 2. Guilt And 3. Fear As to the First of these I shall only say that we suffer very few Evils but what are owing to our own Sins that it is very rarely any Calamity befalls us but we may put our Finger on the Fountain the Sin I mean from whence the Mischief flows Whence come Wars and Fighting amongst you saith St. James come they not from your Lusts which war in your Members This is every jot as applicable to Private as Publick Contentions and where Envy Strife and Contention is no evil Work no Disaster will be long absent I might run through all the different kinds of Evils that infest the Body or embroil the Fortune that blast our Hopes or stain our Desires and easily shew that they all generally spring from our Vices Nay what is worse yet I could shew that Sin converts our good things into evil and our Enjoyments into Punishments that it renders the slightest Evils intollerable turns Scratches into Wounds and Wounds into Gangrenes But this is too copious a subject and would insensibly render me Voluminous when I would be as short as possibly I can A Second Effect of Sin is Guilt which is nothing else but a Consciousness of having done ill and an Obligation to Punishment resulting from it And though Men often Sin with Hopes of Impunity yet it is hard to imagine even on this supposal that they should sin without suffering the Reproaches of their own Minds which surely must be very uneasie to them To be perpetually vex't at ones own Folly to commit those things which we inwardly condemn and be in continual Pain lest they should come to Light to be always displeased at ones self and afraid not only of the Reflections of others but our own This is methinks a great Evil did no other attend our sin But Thirdly Fear is almost inseparably joyned with Guilt for Guilt does not only damp the Chearfulness and enfeeble the Vigour of the Mind it does not only destroy that Confidence Man would otherwise naturally have in God and render him Cowardly and Pusillanimous but it terrifies his Soul with Melancholy Apprehensions and makes him live continually in fear of Death and Punishment And thus the Scripture represents the state of a sinner The wicked flee when none pursue but the righteous are bold as a lion Prov. 28.1 If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things 1 John 3.2 There is no peace to the wicked saith the Lord Isa 48.22 To deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2.15 The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness has surpised the Hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Isa 23.14 Nor let any one wonder that notwithstanding the outward Gaiety of the sinner the Spirit thus describes the inward Condition of his Soul As long as Men retain the Belief of a God it is impossible they should wholly free themselves from the Fear of him They may indeed forget him in the Fits of Lust or Passion but in their Intermissions his Terrours will return upon them with more Violence Again as long as Men retain the common Principles of Truth and Justice if they acknowledge but the Obligation of that universal Law Thou shalt do to others as thou wouldest they should do unto thee 't is impossible they should reflect on their sins without Regret and uneasiness for there is no sin but has more or less Repugnancy in it to Truth Justice and Goodness Finally as long as Men are perswaded that there is such a Faculty as Conscience that God has prescribed them a Law and that they are accountable to Him the natural Conscience cannot chuse but by Fits and upon Occasions scourge and torture lance and gash them And 't is a hard matter to wear out these Notions they are so natural and obvious the Proofs of them are so clear their Reputation and Authority in the World is so well established and the Providence of God so frequently inculcates them Men may easily wear out all sense of the Beauty and of their Obligations to the Heights and Perfections of Vertue but they cannot so easily do this in reference to Virtue in general because 't is temper'd and accommodated to Human Nature and Society and necessary to the tollerable well-being of the World Men may soon I confess extinguish their Christianity but not Humanity and while this remains Sin will leave a Stain and Guilt behind it and Guilt will be attended by uneasiness and Fear The very Pagans who had advanced so far in Wickedness as to be given up to all dishonourable Passions and to commit all Vncleanness with Greediness had not yet so mortified and stupified their Consciences but that it gave them much Disturbance Rom. 1. ver 32. 't is said of them that they knew the Judgment of God that they which committed such things were worthy of Death And Rom. 2.15 their Consciences are said to accuse and condemn them And 't is of very wicked Men that the Author to the Hebrews affirms that through fear of Death they were all their life time subject to bondage But are there not will some say many Ingenious and Brave Spirits who have dispersed these vain Spectres and burst those superstitious Fetters by which you labour to scare and enslave the World I do not doubt indeed but that there are too many who have vigorously endeavour'd to cashier all Principles of Natural
Parts and Gallantry Blessed God! to what Degree of Madness and Stupidity may Men of the finest Natural Parts sink when abandon'd by Thee or rather when they themselves abandon Thee and that Light which Thou hast set up in the World Our Lord and Master thought the Profits and Pleasures of the whole World a poor Compensation for the Loss of the Soul What is a Man profited if he gain the whole World c. Matth. 16. But these Men rather than it should not perish for ever will charge through Shame and Pain Remorse and Sickness and all the Obstacles that God has set between us and a desperate Height of Wickedness 4. Though a Sinner may come to that Pass as to suppress his Conscience and master his Fears yet he must ever be conscious to himself of the Fruitlesness and the Meanness of a Course of Sin He must needs be inwardly sensible that he has wearied himself to commit Iniquity to no purpose that his Mind has been restless and tempestuous like a troubled Sea casting up its own Mire and Dirt He must be conscious to himself that he is false and unjust unconstant and ingrateful and in Bondage to such Lusts as are mean and poor and injurious to his Repose and which he has often wished himself free from And this no doubt must be a blessed Condition when a Man 's own Mind does to his face assure him that he is that very thing which all the World condemns and scorns and which he cannot endure to be charg'd with without resenting it as the highest Affront Certainly it were better that all the World should call me Fool and Knave and Villain than that I should call my self so and know it to be true My Peace and Happiness depends upon my own Opinion of my self not that of others 't is the inward sentiments that I have of my self that raise or deject me and my Mind can no more be pleased with any Sensation but its own than the Body can be gratified by the Relishes of another's Palate 5. The more insensible a Sinner grows the more intollerable is the Disorder and Distraction which Sin produces in his Affairs While Men are under any little restraints of Conscience while they are held in by Scruples and Fears and Fits of Regret while in a Word they Sin with any Modesty so long Sin will tollerably comport with their Interest and Reputation but as soon as they grow insensible and impudent they pass all bounds and there is nothing so dear and considerable to them which they will not Sacrifice to their Wickedness Now Wife and Children Friends Estate Laws Vows Compacts Oaths are no stronger Ties to them than Sampson's Wit hs or Cords Such a one as this is very well described in the Prophet Thou art a swift Dromedary traversing her ways a wild Ass used to the Wilderness that snuffeth up the Wind at her pleasure in her occasion who can turn her away Jer. 2.22 And again he is fitly represented to an Horse rushing into the Battel He has as much Contempt for his safety and Happiness as for Reason and Religion he defies Shame Ruin and Death as much as he does God and Providence in one word with an impudent and lewd stupidity he makes all the hast he can to be undone and since he will be so it were well if he could be undone alone I am sure we have too many Instances at this Day of the miserable and fatal Effects of Atheism and Deism to leave any room to doubt whether I have strained the point here or no. Upon the whole it does appear that Sin is a great Evil and that the Evil of it is not lessen'd but increased by Obduration And from hence the Proposition infer'd does naturally follow that Deliverance from it is a great Good so great that if we estimate it by the Evil there is in Sin Health to the Sick Liberty to the Captive Day to the benighted weary and wandring Traveller a Calm a Port to Passengers in a Storm Pardon to Men adjudged to Death are but weak and imperfect Images or Resemblances of it A Disease will at worst terminate with the Body and Life and Pain will have an End together But the Pain that Sin causes will endure to all Eternity for the Worm dies not and the Fire will not be quenched The Errour of the Traveller will be corrected by the approaching Day and his Weariness refreshed at the next Stage he comes to but he that errs impenitently from the Path of Life is lost for ever When the Day of Grace is once set upon him no Light shall e're recal his wandring Feet into the Path of Righteousness and Peace no Ease no Refreshment shall e're relieve his Toil and Misery Whilest the Feet of the Captive are loaded with Fetters his Soul may enjoy its truest Liberty and in the midst of Dangers and Dungeons like Paul and Silas he may sing Songs of Praise and Triumph but the Captivity of Sin defiles oppresses and enslaves the Mind and delivers up the miserable Man to those intollerable and endless Evils which inexorable Justice and Almighty Wrath inflicts upon Ingratitude and Obstinacy A Storm can but wreck the Body a frail and worthless Bark the Soul will escape safe to Shore the Blessed Shore where the happy Inhabitants enjoy an undisturbed an Everlasting Calm but Sin makes Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience and he that perishes in it does but pass into a more miserable state for on the wicked God will rain Snares Fire and Brimstone storm and tempest this shall be their portion forever Psal 11. And Lastly a Pardon sends back a Condemned Criminal to Life that is to Sins and Sufferings to toils and troubles which Death if Death were the utmost he had to fear would have freed him from But he that is once delivered from Sin is past from Death to Life and from this Life of Faith of Love of Hope shall soon pass to another of Fruition and Glory § 2. A Second Fruit of Liberty is Good Works Here I will shew Two things First and this but briefly that the Works of Righteousness contribute mightily to our Happiness and that immediately Secondly That Deliverance from Sin removes the great Obstacles and Impediments of Righteousness and throws off that Weight which would otherwise encumber and tire us in our Race 1. Holiness is no small Pleasure no small Advantage to him who is exercised therein When Nature is renewed and restored the Works of Righteousness are properly and truly the Works of Nature and to do good to Man and offer up our Praises and Devotions to God is to gratifie the strongest and most delightful Inclinations we have These indeed are at first stifled and oppressed by Original Corruption false Principles and Vicious Customs But when once they have broke through these like Seeds through the Earthy Coats they are enclosed and imprisoned in and are impregnated warmed and cherished by
an Heavenly Influence they naturally shoot up into good works Vertue has a Coelestial Original and a Coelestial Tendency from God it comes and towards God it moves and can it be otherwise than amiable and pleasant Vertue is all Beauty all Harmony and Order and therefore we may view and review consider and reflect upon it with Delight It procures us the Favour of God and Man it makes our Affairs naturally run smoothly and calmly on and fills our Minds with Courage Chearfulness and good Hopes In one word Diversion and Amusements give us a Fanciful Pleasure an Animal sensitive Life a short and mean one Sin a deceitful false and fatal one Only Vertue a pure a rational a glorious and lasting one And this is enough to be said here the Loveliness of Holiness being a subject which ever and anon I have occasion to engage in 2. I am next to shew that Deliverance from Sin removes the Impediments of Vertue This will easily be made out by examining what Influence selfishness sensuality and the Love of this World which are the three great Principles or Sources of Wickedness have upon the several Parts of Evangelical Righteousness 1. The first Part is that which contains those Duties that more immediately relate to our selves These are especially two Sobriety and Temperance By Sobriety I mean a serious and impartial Examination of things or such a state of Mind as qualifies us for it By Temperance I mean the moderation of our Affections and Enjoyments even in lawful and allowed Instances From these proceed Vigilance Industry Prudence Fortitude or Patience and Steadiness of mind in the Prosecution of what is best Without these 't is in vain to expect either Devotion towards God or Justice and Charity towards Man Nay nothing good or great can be accomplished without them since without them we have no ground to hope for either the Assistance of Divine Grace or the Protection and Concurrence of Divine Providence Only the pure and chast Soul is a fit Temple for the Residence of the Spirit and the Providence of God watches over none or at least none have Reason to expect it should but such as are themselves vigilant and industrious But now how repugnant to how inconsistent with those Vertues is that Infatuation of Mind and that Debauchery of Affections wherein Sin consists How incapable either of Sobriety or Temperance do selfishness Sensuality and the Love of this World render us What a false Estimate of things do they cause us to form How insatiable do they render us in our Desire of such things as have but false and empty Appearances of Good and how imperiously do they precipitate us into those Sins which are the Pollution and Dishonour of our Nature On the contrary let man be but once enlightned by Faith let him but once come to believe that his Soul is himself that he is a Stranger and Pilgrim upon Earth that Heaven is his Country and that to do good Works is to lay up his Treasure in it let him I say but once believe this and then how Sober how Temperate how Wise how Vigilant and Industrious will he grow And this he will soon be induced to believe if he be not actually under the Influence of vicious Principles and vicious Customs When the Mind is undeceived and disabused and the Affections disengaged 't is natural to Man to think calmly and to Desire and Enjoy with a Moderation suited to just and sober Notions of worldly things for this is to think and act as a Man A Second Part of Holiness regards God as its immediate Object and consists in the Fear and Love of Him in Dependance and Self-Resignation in Contemplation and Devotion As to this 't is plain that whoever is under the Dominion of any Sin must be an Enemy or at least a Stranger to it The Infidel knows no God and the Wicked will not or dares not approach one Their Guilt or their Aversion keeps them from it Selfishness Sensuality and the Love of the World are inconsistent with the Love of the Father and all the several Duties we owe him They alienate the Minds of Men from Him and set up other Gods in his room Hence the Covetous are pronounced guilty of Idolatry Col. 3.5 and the Luxurious and Vnclean are said to make their Belly their God and to glory in their shame Phil. 3.19 But as soon as a poor Man discerns that he has set his Heart upon false Goods as soon as he finds himself cheated and deceived in all his Expectations by the World and is convinced that God is his proper and his Sovereign Good how natural is it to turn his Desires and Hopes from the Creature upon the Creator How natural is it to contemplate his Greatness and Goodness to thirst impatiently for his Favour and dread his Displeasure And such a Man will certainly make the Worship of God a great part at least of the Business and Employment of Life With this he will begin and with this he will end the Day nor will he rest here his Soul will be ever and anon mounting towards Heaven in Ejaculations and there will be scarce any Action any Event that will not excite him to praise and adore God or engage him in some wise Reflections on his Attributes But all this will the Loose and Atheistical say may be well spar'd 't is only a vain and idle Amusement War and Peace Business and Trade have no Dependance upon it Kingdoms and Common-wealths may stand and flourish and sensible Men may be rich and happy without it But to this I answer Religion towards God is the Foundation of all true Vertue towards our Neighbour Laws would want the better part of their Authority if they were not enforced by an Awe of God the wisest Counsels would have no Effect did not Vertue and Religion help to execute them Kingdoms and Common-wealths would be dissolved and burst to pieces if they were not united and held in by these bonds and Wickedness would reduce the World to one great Solitude and Ruin were it not tempered and restrained not only by the Vertues and Examples but by the Supplications and Intercessions too of devout Men. Finally this is an Objection fit for none to make but the Sottish and the Ignorant Men of desperate Confidence and little Knowledge For who ever is able to consider by what Motives Mankind has ever been wont to be most strongly affected by what Principles the World has ever been led and governed how great an Interest even Superstition has had either in the Civilizing and Reforming Barbarous Nations or the Martial Successes of the first Founders of Monarchies and the like whoever I say is able to reflect though but slightly on these things can never be so silly as to demand what the use of Religion is or to imagin it possible to root up its Authority in the World The Third Part of Holiness regards our Neighbour and consists
this Chapter is grown much too big already And to the consideration of the Fruit of this Liberty which I have so long insisted on nothing more needs to be added but the Observation of those Rules which I shall lay down in the following Chapters For whatever Advice will secure the several Parts of our Liberty will consequently secure the whole I will therefore close this Chapter here with a brief Exhortation to endeavour after Deliverance from Sin How many and powerful Motives have we to it Would we free our selves from the Evils of this Life let us dam up the Source of them which is Sin Would we surmount the Fear of Death let us disarm it of its Sting and this is Sin Would we perfect and accomplish our Natures with all excellent Qualities 't is Righteousness wherein consists the Image of God and Participation of the Divine Nature 't is the cleansing our selves from all Filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit and the perfecting Holiness in the fear of God that must transform us from Glory to Glory Would we be Masters of the most glorious Fortunes 't is Righteousness that will make us Heirs of God and Joynt-Heirs with Christ 't is the Conquest of our Sins and the abounding in good Works that will make us rich towards God and lay up for us a good Foundation for the Life to come Are we ambitious of Honour let us free our selves from the servitude of Sin 'T is Vertue only that is truly honourable and Praise-worthy and nothing surely can entitle us to so noble a Relation for this allies us to God For as our Saviour speaks they only are the Children of Abraham who do the Works of Abraham the Children of God who do the Works of God These are they who are born again not of the Will of the Flesh or of the Will of Man but of God These are they who are incorporated into the Body of Christ and being ruled and animated by his Spirit are entitled to all the blessed Effects of his Merit and Intercession These are they in a word who have overcome and will one day sit down with Christ in his Throne even as He also overcame and is set down with his Father in his Throne Rev. 3.21 Good God! how absurd and perverse all our Desires and Projects are We complain of the Evils of the World and yet we hugg the Causes of them and cherish those Vices whose fatal Wounds are ever big with numerous and intollerable Plagues We fear Death and would get rid of this Fear not by disarming but sharpning its Sting not by subduing but forgetting it We love Wealth and Treasure but 't is that which is Temporal not Eternal We receive Honour one of another but we seek not that which comes from God only We are fond of Ease and Pleasure and at the same time we wander from those Paths of Wisdom which alone can bring us to it For in a word 't is this Christian Liberty that makes Men truly free not the being in bondage to no Man but to no Sin not the doing what we list but what we ought 'T is Christian Liberty that makes us truly great and truly glorious for this alone renders us Serviceable to others and Easie to our selves Benefactors to the World and delightsome at home 't is Christian Liberty makes us truly prosperous truly fortunate because it makes us truly happy filling us with Joy and Peace and making us abound in hope through the Power of the Holy Ghost CHAP. IV. Of Liberty as it relates to Original Sin WHatever Difficulties the Doctrine of Original Sin really be involved in or seem at least to some to be so they will not concern me who am no further obliged to consider it than as it is an Impediment of Perfection For though there be much Disputes about Original Sin there is little or none about Original Corruption the Reality of this is generally acknowledged though the Guilt the Sinfulness or Immorality of it be controverted And though there be Diversity of Opinions concerning the Effects of Original Corruption in Eternity yet there is no Doubt at all made but that it incites and instigates us to actual Sin and is the Seed-plot of Human Folly and Wickedness All Men I think are agreed that there is a Byass and strong Propension in our Nature towards the Things of the World and the Body That the subordination of the Body to the Soul and of the Soul to God wherein consists Righteousness is subverted and overthrown That we have Appetites which clash with and oppose the Commands of God not only when they threaten Violence to our Nature as in the Cases of Confession and Martyrdom but also when they only prune its Luxuriancy and Extravagance That we do not only desire sensitive Pleasure but even to that Degree that it hurries and transports us beyond the Bounds that Reason and Religion set us We have not only an Aversion for Pain and Toil and Death but to that Excess that it tempts us to renounce God and our Duty for the sake of Carnal Ease and Temporal safety And finally that we are so backward to entertain the Belief of revealed Truths so prone to terminate our Thoughts on and confine our Desires within this visible World as our Portion and to look upon our selves no other than the mortal and corruptible Inhabitants of it that this makes us selfish and sordid proud and ambitious false subtle and contentious to the endless Disturbance of Mankind and our selves That this I say is the state of Nature that this is the Corruption we Labour under all Men I think are agreed And no wonder for did a Controversie arise about this there would be no need to appeal any further for the Decision of it than to ones own Experience this would tell every one that thus it is in Fact and Reason if we will consult it will tell us why it is so for what other than this can be the Condition of Man who enters the World with a Soul so dark and destitute of Divine Light so deeply immerced and plung'd into Flesh and Blood so tenderly and intimately affected by Bodily Sensations and with a Body so adapted and suited to the Things of this World and fastened to it by the Charms of Pleasure and the Bonds of Interest Convenience and Necessity This Account of Original Corruption agrees very well with that St. Paul gives us of it Rom. 7. and elsewhere And with that Assertion of our Lord and Master on which he builds the necessity of Regeneration by Water and the Holy Spirit Joh. 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Having thus briefly explained what I mean in this Chapter by Original Sin I am next to consider these two Things 1. How far this Distemper of Nature is curable 2. Which way this Cure is to be effected As to the first Enquiry I would
not be understood to proceed in it with a regard to all the Regenerate in General but only to the Perfect for the strength of Original Sin cannot but be very different in new Converts or Babes in Grace and in such as are advanced to an Habit of Righteousness This being premised I think I may on good Ground resolve That Original Sin in the Perfect Man may be so far reduced and master'd as to give him but very rare and slight Disturbance This seems to me evident from the great Change that must be wrought in him who is converted from a Sinner into a Saint If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are past away behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5.17 and it is hard to conceive this new Nature without new Propensions and Inclinations not only different from but repugnant to our former Original and Corrupt ones or at least we must suppose this new Creation so far to have reformed and corrected the Man that Original Corruption has lost the Strength and Force which before it had This will be more clear yet if we observe never so slightly the several Parts of this great Change First the Soul of an excellent Person is filled with an unfeigned and habitual Sorrow for and Detestation of all Sin I hate saith the Psalmist every false way And how inconsistent is the strength and Heat of corrupt Propensions with the Tears and Aversions of a true Penitent how tame is the Body how pure the Mind when the Man is possess'd with a firm and holy Indignation against Sin when he dissolves in the pious Tenderness of a contrite Spirit Next the Soul of a good Man is possessed with an ardent Love of God and of Jesus with a firm Belief and a steady Hope of a blessed Eternity with enlightened Eyes he beholds the Vanity of all earthly Things and admires the Solidity the Weight and Duration of Heavenly Glory he is risen with Christ and therefore seeks those things that are above where Christ sits on the right hand of God He has set his Affection on things above and not on things on the Earth for he is dead and his Life is hid with Christ in God And must we not now suppose such a one cleansed and purified from all corrupt Affections when the very Bent of his Soul is quite another way must we not suppose the Force and Strength of depraved Nature overpowred and subdued by these heavenly Affections How mortified must such a Man be to the World and to the Body how feeble is the Opposition that inferiour Nature can raise against a Mind invested with so absolute and soveraign Authority and endowed with Light and Strength from above Lastly the Perfect Man has not only crucified the Inordinate and sinful Lusts and Affections of the Body but has also obtained a great Mastery even over the natural Appetites of it how else can it be that his Desires and Hopes are in Heaven that he waits for the Lord from thence that he desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ and groans to be rid of the corruptible Tabernacle of the Body He that is thus above the Body may certainly be concluded to be in some degree above even the most natural Appetites He that has set himself free in a great Measure even from his Aversion to Death and in his Affection at least very much loosen'd the bond the knot that unties Soul and Body may certainly very reasonably be presumed to be much more above all covetous ambitious or wanton Inclinations These are the Grounds on which I attribute to the Perfect Man so high a Degree of Freedom from Original Sin as I do in the Proposition laid down 2ly But yet I do not in the least think that the most Perfect Man upon Earth can so extinguish the sparks of Original Corruption but that if he do not keep a Watch and Guard upon himself they will gather Strength and revive again And the Reason of this is plain because it has a Foundation in our very Nature The Dispute concerning the Existence of Original Corruption in us after Baptism or Regeneration is methinks a very needless one For if it be about the Notion we ought to entertain of it that is whether it be properly Sin or not this is a Contention about Words for what signifies it by what Name we call this Remainder of Original Pravity when all grant that the Stain and Guilt of it is washed off and pardoned But if it be about the Force and Efficacy of it this indeed is a Controversie of some Moment but a very foolish one on one side for to what purpose can it be to say a great many subtil and puzling Things against a Truth that every Man feels and experiments at one time or other Upon the whole then I may thus describe the Liberty of the Perfect Man with respect to Original Sin He has mortified it though not utterly extirpated it he has subdued it though not exterminated it and therefore he is not only free from sinful and inordinate Lusts and Affections but also in a far greater measure than other Men from those Infirmities and Irregularities which are as it were the struglings and Ebullitions of Original Sin not yet sufficiently tam'd He has advanced his Victory very far even over his natural Appetites he has no stronger Inclination for the Body or for the World and the Things of it than such as becomes a Man that is possessed with a deep sense of the Vanity of this World and the Blessedness of another The World is in a high Degree crucified to him and he counts all things but dung and dross in comparison with the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. His Sorrows and his Joys his Desires and his Fears be the occasion never so just or lawful pass not the modest Bounds of a wise Moderation He desires without Impatience cares and contrives hopes and pursues without Anxiety or Sollicitude he is cautious without Fear and Pusillanimity he is sad without Dejection or Despondency and Pleasant without Vanity All this indeed shews him not only to have conquered Sin and Folly but in a great Measure also his natural Propension to them But after all this happy Creature must remember that he is still in the Body in the Body whose Appetites will soon pass beyond their due Bounds if he be indulgent or careless he must remember that he is not immutably holy his Understanding is not so clear and bright but that it may be deceived nor the Bent of his Affections so strongly set upon good but that they may be perverted and therefore he must be sober and vigilant and fear always Thus have I stated the Cureableness of our Original Corruption And as I think I have plainly the Countenance of Scripture so I do not see that I in the least clash with that Clause in the Ninth Article of our Church
slight and insignificant that they seem to be attended by no mischievous Con̄sequence nor to offer any Dishonour to God nor Injustice to Man But I doubt this Notion of Venial Sin has no Solidity in it For either Men perform such Actions Deliberately or Indeliberately knowing them to be sinful or believing them to be innocent Now if we perform any Action Deliberately and knowing it to be sinful we never ought to look upon this as a little Sin much less a Venial one The Reason of this is plain The First Notion that every Man has of Sin is that it is forbidden by and displeasing to God and then to do that deliberately which we know will provoke God is an Argument of a fearless and irreligious Heart a Heart destitute of the Love of God the Love of Righteousness and Heaven But if a Man transgress in a trifling Instance indeliberately this alters the Case for the Matter not being of Importance enough to excite the Intention and Application of the Mind and there being consequently no Malignity of the Will in an Action where there was no Concurrence of the Judgment I cannot but think this may very well pass for an Human Infirmity for all the fault that can be here laid to the Charge of Man is Incogitancy or Inadvertency and that too as excusable a one as can be Lastly where the Matter of an Action is very trifling and inconsiderable and draws after it no ill Consequence either with respect to God or Man in this Case if a Man judge it no Sin I cannot think it i◠any to him though by a Nice and Scrupulous Construction it may fall within the Compass of some Divine Prohibition The Distinction of the Schoolmen is good enough here it is besides the Law but not against it or it is against the Letter but not the Design and Intention of the Law of God I cannot think that it is consistent with the Infinite Goodness of God to punish such things as these with Eternal Misery or that it can become a Man of sense seriously to afflict his Soul for them I cannot for my Life perswade my self that I should provoke God if passing thorough a Field of my Neighbour's Corn or Pease I should pull off an Ear or Cod or passing through his Orchard should eat an Apple The Notion I have of God and the great End and Design of his Laws will not suffer me to entertain such trifling weak and superstitious Fancies And here I cannot but take notice of two Things which very much perplex the Minds of some good People that is an Idle Word and Jesting concerning both which 't is very plain That such are miserably mistaken and that they are no sins at all unless unreasonable and superstitious scruples make them so This I say on supposition that by Idle word they mean only such talk as does not tend to Edification and by Jesting only that which is Innocent and Divertive By an Idle Word Matt. 12. our Saviour plainly means a blasphemous Word if that saying of our Saviour of every idle Word c. be to be limited and confined by the sense of the Context For the occasion of that Assertion of our Lord was the Blasphemy which the Jews belch'd out against his Miracles Or if our Lord here on this occasion advances a general Doctrine then by an Idle Word we must understand a wicked one proceeding from a corrupt and naughty Heart and tending as directly to promote Impiety as gracious and wholsome Discourse does to promote Edification This is evident from ver 25. a good Man out of the good treasure of the Heart bringeth forth good things and an evil Man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things And ver 37. for by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned By Jesting Eph. 5.4 The Apostle understands the modish Raillery of the Greeks which was generally made up of Prophaneness and Wantonness or brisk and sharp Ironies This is plain both from the Company we find it in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filthiness and Foolish Speaking and from the Character given it in common with the other two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the very same that is given the most infamous and vilest Lusts and Passions Rom. 1.28 Things not convenient is a diminutive Expression implying such things as contain much Turpitude and Wickedness in them Beza as appears by his Notes read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place foolish speaking or not and Jesting which as he observes makes Jesting the same thing with foolish Speaking or Buffoonry And justifies that Jesting which consists in a pleasant and divertive Facetiousness from 1 King 18.27 2 King 3.23 Isa 14.11 2. Some think that the meer Reluctancy and Opposition of Conscience against Sin is sufficient to constitute a Sin of Infirmity And this has received no small Countenance from such an Interpretation of Rom. 7. as makes Holiness to be nothing else but a Vicissitude of Desires and Actions repugnant to one another But at this rate no Man's Sins would be Damning but his whose Conscience were sear'd and when ones Heart did condemn one God would be sure to acquit one which agrees very ill with St. John If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things 1 Joh. 3.21 No man unless arrived at a Reprobate Sense can do that which is evil without Reluctancy for his Conscience will forbid him as long as it has the least Degree of Tenderness in it and restrain him as far as it has power And as to Rom. 7. it has been abundantly consider'd and I think sufficiently proved to belong to those who are the Servants of Sin as Rom. 8. does to those who are set free St. Austin indeed tells us that he understood that Chapter at first as the Pelageans did for a Person under the Law and under the Power of Sin But that he found himself constrained afterwards to understand it of St. Paul himself I will not examin the Solidity of his Reasons 'T is enough to me that his Change of Opinion does Religion no harm For he is so far from making a state of Holiness to consist with Acts of Deliberate Sin against Conscience that he will not excuse so much as rebellious Motions and Appetites if consented to All that he contends for in a good Man from this Chapter is That Lapsed Nature will sometimes exert it self even in the best Men in disorderly and distemper'd Appetites 3. Others Lastly will have those Sins into which we fall either over-power'd by the strength or wearied out by the Assiduity or Length of a Temptation pass for Infirmities But this Opinion has as little ground as the two former I can find no Scripture that countenances this Notion There are indeed some of great Reputation who have promoted it But I think the words of St. Paul make against it 1 Cor.
Venial Sin is very far Indeliberate in its Beginning and if not indulged almost harmless in its Effects Deficiency is as it were the Essence of the one Malignity of the other in the one we see more of Frailty in the other more of Wickedness in the one something nearly ally'd to Necessity in the other to Presumption the one is the Transgression of the Law of Perfection the other of the Law of Sincerity the one is repugnant to the Letter the other to the Design and End of the Law the one is a Violation of God's Commands taken in the most favourable Construction the other a Violation of them in a rigorous one That this was the Notion of St. Austin St. Jerome and others who impugn'd the sinless Perfection of the Pelagians is very plain 1. From the Distinction they made between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crimen and Peccatum i. e. between Wickedness and Defects between Crimes and Faults for this is plainly the Sense wherein they used those Words And next from those very clear and lively Descriptions of Venial Sin which occur frequently in St. Austin after whom 't is well known others writ Such is that * Fit ut per Ignorantiam vel Infirmitatem non exertis adversus eam totis viribus voluntatis eidem ad illicita etiam nonnulla cedamus tanto magis crebrius quanto deteriores tanto minus rarius quanto meliores sumus Tom. 7. De Peccat Rem P. 689. through Ignorance or Infirmity for want of exerting our utmost strength against Concupiscence we are drawn away by it to some unlawful things and the worse we are so much the more and the oftner but the better we are so much the less and the seldomer do we give way to it And thus †Hoc nos dicimus posse Hominem non peccare si velit pro tempore pro loco pro imbecillitate corporea quamdiu intentus est Animus quamdiu chorda nullo vitio laxatur in Cithera Dial. 3. adv Pelag p. 201. St. Jerome imputes Venial Sin to our not making use of our utmost Strength and Diligence I might content my self with having given this general Description of Sins of Infirmity did I not know how ill a Talent some have at Application of Generals to any particular Case and how little satisfactory such Account is to the weak and scrupulous For the sake of these therefore I think fit to be a little more distinct and particular on this Argument In Venial Sin then two Things must be considered 1. The matter of it 2. The manner of Committing it 1. As to the Matter I conceive it ought to be slight and inconsiderable There is no room for a Venial Sin in things of a crying provoking Nature as in Adultery Idolatry Murther for in these the Injustice and Wickedness with respect to God and Man is palpable and formidable and can never for ought I see be extenuated by any Circumstances into Sins of Infirmity But when I say the Matter of the Sin of Infirmity must not be a detestable and crying Provocation I do not mean to extend this to the first Tendencies and Dispositions even towards such Sins Thus though Adultery cannot be a Venial Sin yet the first Sallies of the Desire the first Glances and Wandrings of the Eye may And the same thing may be said of the first Motions towards any other Sin 2. As to the next thing to be considered in a Venial Sin that is the manner of committing it it must proceed from Ignorance Frailty or Surprise 1. From Ignorance By Ignorance I do not mean that which is utterly invincible but that which has some Defect some Frailty some Degree of Negligence it it Of this kind I take those Errors to be against which David prays Psal 19.12 who can understand his Errors cleanse thou me from secret faults He that considers Human Nature and the Power of Education the Influence of Prejudices which we suck in betimes and such-like will easily acknowledge that there may be such Errors When we have used a moral Diligence in examining our Lives and trying our own Hearts Yet considering the vast Variety of Duties we are to run through no humble Man can be confident that he has omitted nothing that he is mistaken in nothing This I take to be the sense of Solomon Prov. 20.9 who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my Sin And this I take to be the sense of St. Paul 1 Cor. 4.4 For I know nothing by my self yet am I not hereby justified but he that judgeth me is the Lord. There are Mistakes and Errors which might indeed have been prevented or removed by the strictest Impartiality and the strictest Diligence But alas how often do good Men fall short of both these how common is it for good Men to be too far transported by the best of Principles even Zeal how often do good Men mix their Errors in Reproof and Reprehension and in the one and the other they discern it not 2. Surprise and Inadvertency is another thing that renders Sin Venial The Multitude of Affairs and Temptations the Suddenness and Unexpectedness of some unusual Temptation or something of this kind may betray a good Man into some Slips or Errors in Word or Deed. This I take to be the Case of Sarah when she said I laughed not of Jonah when he replied upon God I do well to be angry Jon. 3. Of David when he pronounced rashly do thou and Zibah divide the Land 2 Sam. 16.4 Of Saul and Barnabas when they broke out into Heat and Anger But that which was a Sin of Infirmity in the beginning became I doubt a Deliberate one in the end when they parted from one another Some extend this Circumstance of Surprise to excuse Sins which imply notorious Wickedness and are of very ill Consequence But I think very erroneously 'T is true these Sins of Surprise whatever the matter of them be are generally conceived to be much extenuated through want of Opportunity to summon our strength and to make use of mature and sober Deliberation especially where the Temptation is not only sudden but violent too For in this case the Soldier of Christ taken as it were in an Ambush or blown up with a Mine seems to be lost and defeated before he discern his Danger I do not doubt then but this suddenness of a Temptation does very much diminish the Guilt of a Sin But we ought to remember too that there are many things that do abate and take off from this Excuse As First It is not easie to conceive how any thing that is a direct Wickedness that is a Sin of a deeper Die than ordinary on the account of its mischievous Consequences should make its Approach so silently and so suddenly that we should fall into it indiscernably Secondly The Christian is bound to shun not only every Evil but every
often repeated breeds a kind of Indifference or Lukewarmness and soon passes into Coldness and Insensibleness and this often ends in a reprobate Mind and an utter Aversion for Religion 2ly We must endeavour some way or other to compensate the Omission of a Duty to make up by Charity what we have defalc'd from Devotion or to supply by short Ejaculations what we have been forc'd to retrench from fix'd and regular Offices of Prayer And he that watches for Opportunities either of Improvement or doing Good will I believe never have Reason to complain of the want of them God will put into his hands either the one or the other and for the Choice he cannot do better than follow God's 3ly A single Omission must never proceed from a sinful Motive from a Love of the World or Indulgence to the Body Necessity or Charity is the only just and proper Apology for it Instrumental or Positive Duties may give way to moral ones the Religion of the Means to the Religion of the End and in Moral Duties the less may give way to the greater But Duty must never give way to Sin nor Religion to Interest or Pleasure Having thus briefly given an account what Omission of Duty is and what is not sinful and consequently so setled the notion of Idleness that neither the careless nor the scrupulous can easily mistake their Case I will now propose such Considetations as I judge most likely to deter Men from it and such Advice as may be the best Guard and Preservative against it 1. The First Thing I would have every one lay to heart is That a State of Idleness is a State of damnable Sin Idleness is directly repugnant to the great Ends of God both in our Creation and Redemption As to our Creation can we imagine that God who created not any thing but for some excellent End should Create Man for none or for a silly one The Spirit within us is an active and vivacious Principle our rational Faculties capacitate and qualifie us for doing Good this is the proper Work of Reason the truest and most natural Pleasure of a rational Soul Who can think now that our wise Creatour lighted this Candle within us that we might oppress and stifle it by Negligence and Idleness That he contriv'd and destin'd such a Mind to squander and fool away its Talents in Vanity and Impertinence As to our Redemption 't is evident both what the Design of it is and how opposite Idleness is to it Christ gave himself for us to Redeem us from all Iniquity and to purifie to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Tit. 2.14 and this is what our Regeneration or Sanctification aims at We are God's Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them Eph. 2.10 How little then can a useless and barred Life answer the Expectations of God What a miserable Return must it be to the Blood of his Son and how utterly must it disappoint all the purposes of his Word and Spirit But What need I argue further the Truth I contend for is the express and constant Doctrine of the Scriptures is not Idleness and fulness of Bread reckoned amongst the Sins of Sodom what means the Sentence against the barren Fig-tree Luke 13.7 but the Destruction and Damnation of the Idle and the Sluggish the Indignation of God is not enkindled against the Barrenness of Trees but Men. What can be plainer than the Condemnation of the unprofitable Servant who perished because he had not improved his Talent Matt. 25.38 and how frequently does the Apostle declare himself against the idle and disorderly and all this proceeds upon plain and necessary Grounds Our Lord was an Example of Vertue as well as Innocence and he did not only refrain from doing Evil but he went about doing good We can never satisfie the Intention of Divine Precepts by Negative Righteousness when God prohibits the Filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit he enjoyns the perfecting Holiness in his Fear when he forbids us to do evil he at the same time prescribes the learning to do well What need I multiply more Words Idleness is a flat Contradiction to Faith Hope Charity to Fear Vigilance Mortification and therefore certainly must be a damning Sin These are all active and vigorous Principles but Idleness enfeebles and dis-spirits manacles and fetters us These are pure strict and self-denying Principles but Idleness is soft and indulgent These Conquer the World and the Body raise and exalt the Mind but Idleness is far from enterprising any thing from attempting any thing that is good it pompers the Body and effeminates and dissolves the Mind and finally whatever Innocence or Inoffensiveness it may pretend to it does not only terminate in Sin but has its Beginning from it from Stupidity and Ignorance from Vanity and Levity from Softness and Sensuality from some prevailing Lust or other 2. Next after the Nature the Consequences of Idleness are to be considered and if it be taken in the utmost Latitude there is scarce any Sin which is more justly liable to so many tragical Accusations for it is the Parent of Dishonour and Poverty and of most of the Sins and Calamities of this mortal Life But at present I view it only as it is drawn with a half Face and that the much less deformed of the two I consider it here as pretending to Innocence and flattering it self with the Hopes of Happiness And yet even thus supposing it as harmless and inoffensive as it can be yet still these will be the miserable Effects of it It will rob Religion and the World of the Service due to both it will bereave us of the Pleasure of Life and the Comfort of Death and send us down at last to a cursed Eternity For where are the Vertues that should maintain the Order and Beauty of Human Society that should relieve and redress the Miseries of the World where are the Vertues that should vindicate the Honour of Religion and demonstrate its Divinity as effectually as Predictions or Miracles can do where are the bright Examples that should convert the unbelieving part of Mankind and inflame the believing part with a generous Emulation Certainly the lazy Christian the slothful Servant can pretend to nothing of this kind As to the Pleasure of Life if true and lasting if pure and spiritual 't is easie to discern from what Fountains it must be drawn Nothing but Poverty of Spirit can procure our Peace nothing but Purity of Heart our Pleasure But ah how far are the Idle and Unactive from these Vertues Faith Love and Hope are the Seeds of them Victories and Triumphs Devotion Alms and good Works the Fruits of them But what a stranger to these is the Drone and Sluggard Then for the Comfort of Death it must proceed from a well spent Life he that sees nothing but a vast Solitude and Wilderness behind him
aside the natural Right which He has over him as his Creature and to transact with him as free and Master of himself But this is all infinite condescension Secondly it seems unsuitable to the infinite Goodness of God to bereave Man of the Life and Happiness he has once conferr'd upon him unless he forfeits it by some Demerit The Gifts and calling of God are without Repentance nor can I think how Death which has so much Evil in it could have enter'd the World if Sin had not enter'd it first In this Sense unsinning Obedience gives a kind of right to the Continuance of those good things which are at first the meer Effects of Divine Grace and Bounty Lastly a Covenant of Works being once establish'd 't is plain that as Sin forfeits Life so Obedience must give a right to it and as the Penitent could not be restored but by an Act of Grace so he that commits no Sin would need no Pardon But then Life it self and an Ability to work Righteousness must be owing to Grace antecedent to the Covenant and so such a one would have whereof to boast comparatively with respect to others who fell but not before God The Sum of all is Man has nothing to render to God but what he has received from him and therefore can offer him nothing but his own Which is no very good Foundation for Merit But suppose him absolute Master of himself Suppose him holding all things independent of God Can the Service of a few Days merit Immortality and Glory Angelical Perfection and a Crown He must be made up of Vanity and Presumption that dares affirm this 3. God stands in no need of our Service and 't is our own not his Interest we promote by it The Foundation of Merit amongst Men is Impotence and Want the Prince wants the Service and Tribute of the Subject the Subject the Protection of the Prince the Rich needs the Ministry and the Labour of the Poor the Poor Support and Maintenance from the Rich. And it is thus in Imaginary as well as Real Wants The Luxury and Pleasure of one must be provided for and supported by the Care and Vigilance of others and the Pomp and the Pride of one part of the World cannot subsist but on the Servitude of the other In these Cases therefore mutual Wants create mutual Rights and mutual Merit But this is not the Case between God and Man God is not subject to any Wants or Necessities Nor is his Glory or Happiness capable of Diminution or Increase He is a Monarch that needs no Tribute to Support his Grandeur nor any Strength or Power besides his own to guard his Throne If we revolt or rebel we cannot injure Him if we be loyal and obedient we cannot profit Him He has all Fulness all Perfection in himself He is an Almighty and All-sufficient God But on the quite contrary though God have no Wants we have many and though his Majesty and Felicity be subject to no Vicissitude we are subject to many Our Service to God therefore is our own Interest and our Obedience is design'd to procure our own Advantage we need we daily need his Support and Protection we depend entirely on His Favour and Patronage in him we live and move and have our Being and from Him as from an inexhaustible Fountain we derive all the Streams of Good by which we are refreshed and improved To know and love Him is our Wisdom to depend upon Him our Happiness and Security to serve and worship Him our Perfection and Liberty to enjoy Him will be our Heaven and those Glimpses of his Presence which we are vouchsafed thorough the Spirit in this Life are the Pledges and Foretaste of it This is the constant Voice of Scripture Every good Gift and every perfect Gift is from above and cometh from the Father of Lights Jam. 1.17 If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the World is mine and the Fulness thereof Will I eat the Flesh of Bulls or drink the Blood of Goats Offer unto God Thanksgiving and pay thy Vows unto the most high and call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psal 50.12 13. c. If thou be Righteous what givest thou unto him thy Wickedness may hurt a Man c. Job 35.7 8. SECT III. Of the Impediments of Perfection THough I have been all along carrying on the Design of this Section that is the Removing the Obstacles of Perfection yet I easily foresaw there might be some which would not be reduc'd within the Compass of the foregoing Heads For these therefore I reserv'd this Place These are Five 1. Too easie and loose a Notion of Religion 2. An Opinion that Perfection is not attainable 3. That Religion is an Enemy to Pleasure 4. The Love of the World in a higher Degree at least than will consist with Perfection 5. The Infirmity of the Flesh § 1. Some seem to have entertain'd such a Notion of Religion as if Moderation here were as necessary as any where else They look upon Zeal as as an Excess of Righteousness and can be well enough content to want Degrees of Glory if they can but save their Souls To which End they can see no Necessity of Perfection Now I would beseech such seriously to lay to Heart that Salvation and Damnation are Things of no common Importance and therefore it highly concerns them not to be mistaken in the Notion they form to themselves of Religion For the Nature of Things will not be altered by their Fancies nor will God be mocked or imposed on If we will deal sincerely with our selves as in this Case it certainly behoves us to do we must frame our Idea of Religion not from the Opinions the Manners or the Fashions of the World but from the Scriptures And we must not interpret these by our own Inclinations but we must judge of the Duties they prescribe by those Descriptions of them by those Properties and Effects which we find there We must weigh the Design and End of Religion which is to promote the Glory of God and the Good of Man and to raise us above the World and the Body and see how our Platform or Model of Religion suits with it And if after we have done this we are not fully satisfied in the true Bounds and Limits which part Vice and Vertue it cannot but be safest for us to err on the right hand We ought always to remember too That the repeated Exhortations in Scripture to Diligence and that the most earnest and indefatigable to Vigilance to Fear and Trembling to Patience to Steadfastness and such-like are utterly inconsistent with an easier lazy gentile Religion That the Life of Jesus is the fairest and fullest Comment on his Doctrine and That we never are to follow the Examples of a corrupt World but of the best Men and the best Ages This this one thing alone will convince