themselves may be made better And that 's the third Use which I shall briefly make of this point and so I shall conclude Use 3. Is it so That those good works that flow from a good Principle are pleasing to God Why then we see the necessity of Regeneration Christ saith in 3 John 3. Verily verily There 's a strong and a double asseveration Verily verily I say unto you except a man be born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of God We are not born with this pure heart with this good conscience with this faith unfeigned which are the requisites to a good work in the Text. We are not born with these for Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Not one Not one among the sons of men Job 14. 4. A pure heart a good conscience faith unfeigned are the issues of the new birth Education cannot make the heart pure It must be Revelation which makes the heart pure Good Education it may change the Life and the Conversation As they say To study Arts and Philosophy it takes off the roughness that is in mans nature didicisse fideliter artes Emollit mores and doth smooth them and frame them very much for excellent uses Good literature and education it may civilize but it cannot spiritualize It may change a mans course but it cannot change his nature that 's only done by Regeneration Now I say a mans state his nature must be changed he must have a pure heart which we never have till our natures are changed He must be good before he can do good spiritually Mark that word of the Apostle Ephes 2. 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Mark it here are good works But how do we come to these good works Why we are his workmanship saith he we are his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God works us before we can work for him he makes us good before we can do good Saith he We are his workmanship And then created or so created in Christ Jesus to good works We by union to Jesus Christ come to have a spiritual principle to carry us out in the doing of all good works Here 's your way You must be Gods workmanship before you can do Gods work You must be new creatures created in Christ Jesus unto good works before you can do them A Crab-tree will never yield pleasant fruit untill you change the nature of it Take a Crab-tree and plant it in the best soil that you have and water it and dress it and prune it as much as you can yet this Crab-tree will bear nothing but Crabs sowre fruit till you come to graft it and then your grafting of it doth change the nature of the stock and it hath another principle and so then it brings forth good fruit So it is in this case Take the best natured man in the world plant him in the best soil in the best ground in Church-ground plant him in the house of God and there let him be watered by the rain of holy Doctrine and let him be drest and cultivated every day yet he will bring forth nothing but Crabs nothing but unsavoury fruit till he himself be changed Though he be under all those spiritual means yet till those means have wrought effectually in him his actions are all unsavoury 'T is only by our implantation into Jesus Christ that we become fit to do good so as is acceptable unto God 'T is this that makes the change For as in nature the graft doth change the stock so in grace the stock doth change the grafted branch As we are grafted into Christ he changes the branch being planted into Christ by the power of the Spirit we are then made like him and then we bring forth fruits of righteousness which are to the glory of God by him Mark the expression Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ That is by vertue of union with Christ of implantation and ingrafture into Christ When once it is thus then all your fruits are sweet fruit and pleasant fruit it is well tasted Why it is done First From a principle of life in Christ And Secondly It is done from a principle of Love unto Christ and then when your works whether respecting God or man are thus done then they are the fulfilling and the final end of the Commandment For then they come from the pure heart Of which hereafter if God will I may speak And so much at the present of the point in General That until there be a good Principle there cannot be a good work SERMON II. Jan. 6. 1672. 1 TIM 1. 5. Now the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfeigned HAving shewed that every good work which is to answer to the Commandment of God must flow from a good spring I shall now come to speak of the springs from whence they flow Beginning with that which is first in the Text A pure heart The end of the Commandment is charity out of a pure heart A pure heart is the point I am now to speak to and the matter I am to make discovery about It being in order in this Text the first of those three most blessed springs out of which all duties well pleasing unto God must proceed A pure heart Two things are here to be spoken to First What is meant by heart And Secondly What by purity of heart And so put both together A pure heart For the first I need not stay to spend time to shew you what is meant by the heart It being that which you have so often heard By heart the Scripture often intends the whole inner man And sometimes it intends some special faculties of the inner man The understanding is noted by the heart the will by the heart the affections by the heart the conscience by the heart And in this large sense we are to take the word heart here only bating the reference of it unto Conscience which is spoken of as the second distinct spring from whence good actions flow The heart then here is the understanding the will the affections Indeed what ever lyes in the bosome of man you may call his heart Yet I shall not prosecute the point in this distinctness of these particular faculties of the soul shewing how the understanding is pure which is by its freedome from error and clear light in divine truths How the Will is pure which is by its freedom from the bondage from the obstinacy and rebellion which doth naturally wholly possess it and by having a freedome in choosing good and refusing that which is evil Nor shall I stay strictly to shew what the purity of the affections is namely their freedom from all inordinacy and irregularity either as to the object upon which they are fixt or as to the
therefore of the Spirit can purge it out The fire of afflictions will not purge out the impurities of the heart The fire of Hell will not fetch out the dross that is in the hearts of the damned Nothing but the blood of Christ nothing but the Spirit of Christ are able to do it The blood of Christ meritoriously the Spirit efficiently and efficaciously And then Thirdly The heart re-made pure is so made Instrumentally by the Word The Word of God is pure it is as Silver purified in the fire seven times And the Word of God is a purifier instrumentally and the usual way by which the heart is re-made pure is by the Word Christ saith John 15. 3. Ye are clean How Through the Word that I have spoken And in general the Apostle in Ephes 5. 22 26. saith That Jesus Christ doth sanctifie and cleanse his Church with the washing of water by the Word With the washing of water that is with the Spirit But what 's the instrument By the Word This way is purity of heart commonly and usually wrought by the Word And Fourthly The heart is made pure applicatorily by Faith Acts 15. 9. He put no difference between us and them saith the Apostle that is between Jews and Gentiles having purified their hearts by faith God works faith in the heart and then faith purifies the heart by applying the blood of Christ and by receiving the Spirit and by working the soul to a submission to the holy Word and Will of God So that thus in these wayes the heart is re-made pure and of this re-made pure heart it is that the Text speaks That 's the spring out of which holy and acceptable works to the Lord doth flow Obj. But some may say Is there any such thing as a pure heart We find those questions somewhat rife in the Book of Job What is man that he should be clean So in Chap. 15. 14. Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman Chap. 25. 4. And Solomon saith expresly in Prov. 20. 9. Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin It is plain then by these Scriptures that there is no such thing as a pure heart Answ I answer briefly in three things to these Scriptures and to all Scriptures of a like Import When the Scripture speaks thus It doth teach us either First that no man is born with a pure heart or it teaches us Secondly That no man by his own power hath made his heart pure or Thirdly it teaches us that no heart is made pure in this world with an absolutely perfect purity Indeed the best purity which the heart attains to in this world hath a mixture of much impurity in it so that thus indeed there is no heart pure That is there is no heart Legally pure strictly pure but there are thousands of hearts through Grace that are sincerely pure that are Evangelically pure and so esteemed in the thoughts of God and so exprest in his word If any shall say you tell us there is an Evangelical purity what mean you by it when may the heart be said to be Evangelically pure I answer thus the heart is Evangelically When the heart may be said to be Evangelically pure pure though there be sin dwelling in us or an in-dwelling sin and though sin is stirring hath strong motions in us makes war in our souls from day to day though sin doth some times prevail and give us that foil yet notwithstanding all this when First the soul iâ— free from the Command of every sin Secondly When the soul is freed from the customary practice of every sin and Thirdly When the soul is free from the love of any sin then the soul is Evangelically pure Indeed sin will hide sin will stirr and I cannot warrant any man in the world that is a man of the purest heart in the world but that his sin may possibly give him a foil But this is certain he that hath an Evangelical purity is free from the commanding power of sin and from that constant and customary practice of sin and from the love of sin A man of a pure heart may have a special sin that is a sin to which he is more inclined than to any other Sometimes through the constitution of his body sometimes through his occasions and in the way of his calling there are many things which do indanger men to some special sin now though I say a good man may have a special sin a sin that he finds his heart most running out after in which sense David call's some iniquities his Iniquity Psal 111. 23. I have kept my self saith he from mine Iniquity that is from the Iniquity that did most beset him A good man then may have a special sin which haunts him which dogs him and besets him but yet he hath not a beloved sin Evangelical purity and the love of sin cannot consist together he that hath a pure heart cannot play with his sin cannot sport with his sin cannot take content in thinking of sin either past or what may be to come As they in the Prophet this day is thus with us and to morrow shall be more abundant No he cannot please himself thus in reference to any sin So that I conclude it the pure heart is freed if he be Evangelically freed from sin in all these notions and so he is the Person here meant in the text from whom all holy actions may proceed acceptably to the Lord and that may serve for the opening of this point for I intend to dispatch it at this time I shall make some use of it Use First To stir up all to consider whether they have this pure heart yea or no. You see the importance of it it is one of the springs out of which every action that is pleasing to God according to his appointmemt must flow therefore it stands us much upon lest we loose all things that we work To have a good assurance in our own bosoms that we have a pure heart in our bosoms and we had need consider it For First 't is most sure that many think they have pure hearts and have them not Solomon hath an expression saith he there are a Generation that are pure in their own own eyes and yet are not cleansed from their wickedness Chap. 30. 12. It 's an easie matter to be pure in our own eyes and yet remain altogether unclean A Generation pure in their own eyes And St. Augustin speaks of a sort of people who would needs be called Cathorists and saith he they do call themselves so they most proudly and odiously call themselves the pure ones But according to his discovery of them they were not cleansed from their wickedness and how many are thus indeed clean in their own eyes and yet are unclean And Secondly There are many that are clean not only in their own eyes but in the eyes of other men
those consuming Flames Bridges Remains being eight Sermons viz. Of Mans Blessedness 2. Affections Rightly placed 3. How to walk with God in our Calling 4. O Good and Bad Company 5. The Carnality of Professors 6. What our Work is and how to be done 7. Soul Resignation into the hands of God 8. Thâ— Dignity and Duty of Gods Called Ones Which was the last that ever waâ— preacht by that Learned and Judiciouâ— Divine Mr. William Bridge late Preacheâ— of the Word of God at Yarmouth A Discourse of Christs coming And the Influence which the Expectation there of hath on all manner of holy Conversation and Godliness By Theophilus Gale There are some other Pieces of the Reverend Author of these Sermons preparing for the Press 1 TIM 1. 5. Now the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfeigned THE holy Apostle St. Paul as appears in the beginning of the Chapter and Epistle finds some at Ephesus who troubled the Church with needless and with fruitless Doctrine and therefore if you consult the third and fourth Verses of this Chapter you will find he besought Timothy to abide at Ephesus when he went into Macedonia that he might charge some that they teach no other Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teach Doctrines contrary to what he had taught or Doctrines contrary to the General Tenour of the Gospel Such Teachers he calls accursed Gal. 1. 8. He would have him warn them at the fourth Verse Not to give heed to Fables and endless Genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in Faith Timothy was besought by St. Paul to give this charge to and concerning the Teachers at Ephesus And because those Fabulists and Genealogists were great pretenders to the Law therefore the Apostle tells them That the Law leads to the embracing of one another in love not to the imbroyling of one another in needless questions or in the venting of them and this he speaks in the Verse now Read The end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfained In which words we have two things First An Assertion laid down Secondly We have a limitation to the Assertion The Assertion is laid down in the beginning of the Verse The end of the Commandment is Charity The Assertion is limited in the close of the Verse 'T is Charity not Charity at large but Charity thus qualified or thus circumstantiated 'T is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfeigned I shall first explicate the Assertion and then shew its Connexion with the limitation and give at the present one General Point of Doctrine from the whole Verse The end of the Commandment is Charity For the explication of this Assertion I must shew three things 1. What 's meant here by the Commandment 2. What 's meant by the end of the Commandment 3. What that Charity in special is which is the end of the Commandment And when I have briefly done these three things we shall come to a Point The end of the Commandment is Charity but what 's this Commandment The word which we here translate Commandment is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the ordinary word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Commandment but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the word properly signifies as Criticks tell us A charge given by Judges or Superiours concerning somewhat to be done or forborn and thus 't is used in Acts 5. 28. where the High Priests tell the Apostles Did not we straitly command you that you should not teach in thiâ— Name Did not we straitly Command you The Greek there is an Hebraism in which St. Luke doth there express the minds of the Scribes and Pharisees Did not we straitly command you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Did not we command you with a Command which we veâ—y well render according to the sense of the Idiom Did not we strictly command you Or as Mr. Beza renders it Did not we command you again and again And in the very same sense doth the Apostle use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the 18th Verse of the first of Timothy This charge I commit unto thee Why now if we should take the word Commandment in this strict sense it may have a special reference to the third and fourth Verses going before the Text whereas I toucht before St. Paul besought Timothy to charge some that they teach no other Doctrine To charge them or to Command them 'T is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the root of the word which we render Commandment I charge thee to lay this Commandment upon them So we may well render it I command they teach no other Doctrine As if he had said the end why I besought thee to give that charge or Command was to promote charity whereas those other Doctrines did but breed questions and those questions breed Contentions among the Churches and among the Brethren the End of the Commandment the reason why I gave them that Commandment was to maintain love among Brethren Yea for as much as the Apostle at the 7. vers speaks of those who desire to be Teachers of the Law and in the 8. and 9. verses proceeds to speak of the nature and use of the Law I conceive the Word Commandment may be extended to the whole Law of God or to the whole Revelation or the mind of God concerning things to be done or forborn by us And so here is a figure here 's a change of number the singular is put for the plural Commandment for Commandments and indeed as the Doctrine of Grace is nothing else but a Collection of promises so the Law is nothing else but a Collection of precepts and in this sense saith Mr. Calvin here by the word Commandment we may take in all the Commandments of God Not only those that are exprest in the Decalogue but those which are scattered quite through the Holy Scriptures The end of the Commandment or of the Commandments the whole Revealed will of God concerning the Agenda or things to be done It is charity or it is Love and so much for the first thing what we are to understand by the Commandment Secondly what is the end of the Commandment the end of the Commandment is charity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 end may be taken in a threefold notion First The end it notes the conclusion and Period of a thing the conclusion of all things so the Apostle Peter in his 1 Epist 4. 7. The end of all things is at hand and it 's well for us to Remember that If the end of all things were at hand in the Apostles time how near is the end now the end the Period of all this visible world it is at hand Be ye therefore watchful and sober Secondly End notes as much as the Aim design plot scope of any Action what