Regenerate are not Elect. The former may and do often the later cannot fall finally from Grace Concerning the former and Them alone all the Scriptures I have urged and argued from must be understood For the later are onely They who do indure unto the End Onely They that overcome and so are said to have a right to the Tree of life The Elect are onely They that can finally never fall for if they could they could not have been elected to life eternal And yet even of These I am to say in the second place that they fall totally and for a Time many of them and of the Best too Not onely Solomon and Aaron and David himself in the Old Testament but all the Apostles in the New and S. Peter above them all are uncontrouble Examples of This sad Truth if Idolatry and Adultery and wilfull Murther if Lying and Cursing and wilfull Perjury and a repeated abjuration of Jesus Christ are Sins inconsistent with saving Grace and the inhabitation of God the Holy Ghost 'T is true indeed that The Elect who fall away for a time into Deadly Sins and so by consequence whilst impenitent into a State of Damnation cannot possibly die 'till they have repented because they have This Seal upon them The Lord knoweth them that are His. But This which is offer'd as an Answer to what I say is an irrefragable Argument to evince the Truth of it For if David for example could not die till he repented it is for this reason onely that he could not be sav'd without Repentance and that before he repented he was in a State of Condemnation Saving Grace and Impenitence cannot simul semel be in one and the same Man 'T is the Condition of the great and precious promises in the Gospel and in effect the whole Covenant 'twixt God and Man that all shall be saved with repentance and None without it Hear ye me Asa and all Judah and Benjamin said The Spirit of God by Azariah The Lord is with you whilst ye be with Him and if ye seek him he will be found of you but if ye forsake him he will forsake you So again by The Prophet Ezekiel When the righteous turneth from his righteousness and committeth iniquity he shall even die thereby and if the wicked walk in the Statutes of life he shall surely live Promises and Threats are both alike conditional not onely under the Law but as expresly under the Gospel It is the saying of Christ himself Whosoever shall confess me before men Him shall the Son of man also confess before the Angels of God But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the Angels of God 'T is S. Paul 's to the Christians who were at Rome in his days that God will render to every man according to his works To them who seek for Glory by continuance in well-doing aeternal life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the Truth Indignation and Wrath. And again If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live And yet more plainly to our purpose in his Epistle to the Colossians You who were Enemies in your minds by wicked works hath he reconcil'd if ye continue in the faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard And in like manner to the Corinthians Ye are saved by the Gospel if ye hold fast or keep in memory what I preached unto you unless ye have believ'd in vain The Epistle to the Hebrews is very full to this purpose We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our Confidence stedfast unto the end Whose House we are if we hold fast the Confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the End Now the Just shall live by Faith But if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him Plainly intimating in This what is taken for granted in the very next verse that from the same kind of Faith by which it is said the Just shall live there were some in the best of Times who drew back unto Perdition Heb. 10. 39. § 11. What now is the Advantage we are to make of all This and what the Lesson which all these Scriptures are apt to teach us Truly the lesson is plainly This That if the End of our Prayers if the End of our Hopes the End of all our Endeavours is but Conditional and All the Promises of the Gospel are made unto us with an If we do so and so we must not now boast of our being Christians as the Hebrews once did of their being Israelities We must not glory in our being the younger Brethren or Members of Jesus Christ as They in their being the Seed of Abraham We must not pride it in the Church as They did commonly in the Temple Nor insult over the Jews as They did foolishly over the Gentiles For if God spared not Them who were the natural Branches We must also take heed lest he also spare not us If They were broken off for their unbelief and we by Faith are grafted in the proper use we are to make of the observation is that we boast not against the Branches that we be not high-minded but rather fear for we bear not the Root but the Root us We must consider both the Goodness and Severity of God and the Grounds of Both on them that fell Severity but towards us Goodness with an If we continue in his Goodness Otherwise we shall be broken off too and They shall be grafted in again if they do not still abide in their unbelief We cannot reasonably desire a clearer State of this matter than in That whole Passage of the Eleventh Chapter to the Romans And therefore seeing it is imploy'd by our blessed Lord that even The Salt of the Earth may lose its Savour and become good for nothing but to be utterly cast out and trodden under foot that a Branch of the true Vine may lose its Verdure and become good for nothing but to be cast into the Fire I thought it good as S. Peter speaks to put you in mind of these things although ye know them already and are established in the Truth And still I think it good with the same S. Peter to press the giving all diligence for the making of our calling and election sure I think it good with S. Peter to say Beware lest ye also being led away with the Error of the Wicked fall from your own stedfastness If God was so provoked by the Children of Israel to whom the Conditional Promise was made that he swore in his Wrath they should not enter into his Rest because they fail'd of the Condition on which the promise was made Then I may
to approach unto Christ himself with a Depart from me O Lord for I am a Sinfull man They would not separate from us Then like those Idolaters in Isaiah with a Stand farther off come not near to us for we are holier than you But rather like the Lepers under the Law of Leprosie would cover their faces with Confusion and stand aloof from God's House accusing themselves of their Vncleanness or like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Primitive Times of Discipline falling down flat upon their faces not in the Church but the Churchyard at an humble Distance would beg the Charity of Their Prayers whom they saw entring into God's House at the Times of Prayer Were they such Separatists as These and from such a Principle as This from the excesses onely of Meekness and not of Pride we should receive them with the Embraces of Arms and Hearts we should readily afford them even the Right hand of Fellowship we should conclude the Holy Ghost had so descended upon their Souls as once he did upon the Heads of the 12 Apostles or rather upon the Hearts of thâ—se 3000 who at S. Peter's one Sermon were added to them Though not in the Edifying Gifts which were bestowed upon the former yet in the Sanctifying Graces which were infused into the latter § 12. But having spoken enough already of Trying the Spirits in other men I think it fit to say something of Trying them also in our selves For considering the words of the Prophet Jeremy The Heart of man is deceitfull above all things and that 't is given to very few few I mean in comparison to know what Spirits they are of I guess it concerns us all in general and every one of us in particular to resume the whole Text and bring it home unto our selves to search and try our own Hearts and to examin our own Spirits whether or no they are of God 'T was the Precept of Pythagoras to every man of his Sect that he should bring himself to the Test or call himself to an Accompt every Evening of his whole Life with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what he had done in That Day which he ought to have omitted and what good thing he had omitted which 't was his Duty to have done Nor was he to suffer himself to sleep till he had made up this Reckoning three several Times So 't was the Precept of S. Paul in his 2 d Epistle to the Corinthians Examin your selves whether ye be in the Faith meaning That Faith which does work by Love all manner of Obedience to the Law of Christ's Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prove or try your own selves whether ye have not yet received the True Faith of Christ or whether having once received ye still retain it Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates So S. Paul reason'd with his Corinthians and so must we with or within our selves Know we not that Christ is in us by the Presence of his Spirit and by the Power of his Word and by the evident effects of His Operation Such as our Sorrow for our sins past our hatred of our selves in Remembrance of them and our stedfast Resolutions of better life Know we not that Christ is in us by such Evidences as These If we do Then let us treat him in such a manner as may become so Divine a Guest But if we do not we have some reason to fear lest we have sinn'd-away our Saviour as arrant Reprobates and Castaways as men unworthy to be call'd Christians as men who either are not at all Regenerate or else are fallen from That State of Regeneration which we were in or to express it with S. Paul as men who have received the Grace of God in vain And as it concerns us on all occasions to try the Spirit which is in us whether 't is a good or an evil Spirit so most especially does it concern us at such a Time as This is when we Tread in God's Courts to offer up the Gospel-sacrifice of Supplication and Thanksgiving to hear His Word to partake of his Sacraments Duties equally belonging to the first Sunday of the month For the Bread of God's Children must not be cast unto the Dogs and the Food which is Spiritual belongs to Them onely who can spiritually discern it and who live not after the Flesh but after the Spirit I do not mean after every Spirit for there are many more than good as I shew'd before but after The Spirit that is of God The Spirit of Holiness and Truth The Spirit of Vnity and Love The Spirit of Meekness and of Order The Spirit of Singleness and Sincerity The Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding The Spirit of Counsel and Ghostly Strength The Spirit of Knowledge and true Godliness and lastly The Spirit of God's Holy Fear as the divine Prophet Isaiah expresseth him resting upon Christ of whom the good King Hezekiah was but a Type in That place Unto all which if I should add The Spirit of Promise with S. Paul and The Spirit of Prophecy with S. John The Spirit of Grace with holy Zachary and The Spirit of Glory with S. Peter I should but say The same Spirit in the vindicating of whom from the many False Spirits which in this last Age especially have been debauching the Christian World I have imploy'd the little Time which is allow'd for this Part of our Morning Service To Him therefore with The Father in their Unity with The Son Sing we Hosannahs and Hallelujahs Blessing Glory Honour and Power To Him that liveth for evermore OF The exceeding Sinfulness OF SCHISM In how many GREAT REGARDS It is worse than HAERESIE AND Why more damning than other Crimes 2 THESS 3. 6. Now we command you Brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye withdraw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly § 1. A TEXT exciting us to a Duty which does equally invite and command Attention For the Duty is introduced with as important an Obtestation as is any-where us'd in S. Paul's Epistles and it must certainly be a matter of exceeding great moment which could extort from our Apostle so great and signal an Obtestation He calls us Brethren for we are now in the place of the Thessalonians to win our Love and to shew his own But withall he commands us as God's Embassador that he may make as good impression upon our Fear too We may take his whole Meaning in This plain Paraphrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We charge you and that by virtue of our Commission or in the power of our Apostleship in the name and the behalf by the Bowells and the Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ as ye will answer it at the great and terrible Day of Discrimination the Day wherein the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from
Satan have the very same Character in holy Scripture A man is tempted saith S. James when drawn away of his own Lust and inticed More than which cannot be said of the Devil himself who cannot drive us by force into any Sin but onely draw us by Flattery or morally drive us by panick Fears Now the very same Warrier which sometimes is call'd by the name of Flesh is elsewhere termed the carnal Mind which is as much as to say the fleshly Spirit The carnal Mind saith S. Paul is enmity against God for it is not subject to his Law nor indeed can it be It is so naturally a Rebel that it can never be any other so long as it remaineth a carnal Mind A very natural thing it is for the Son of the Bond-woman even in Abraham's own house to hate and persecute the Son of the free And even in Abraham's own Person it was as natural for the Flesh to war against the Spirit Esau kick'd against Jacob whilst both were yet in their Mother 's Womb. And even Jacob himself although as peaceable as he was plain had yet a Law in his Members as it were lifting up the heel against the Law in his Mind The best of Men are but Men and therefore at their best will still be subject to Corruption Some Canaanites will be left in the holiest Land S. Paul himself had fears and fightings as well within as without And notwithstanding his Abundance as well of Grace as of Revelations he had a thorn in the Flesh which did exceedingly terrifie and wound his Spirit Nor was David more afflicted by envious Saul than his inward man was vexed by the hostilities of the outward When our Spirits are most willing to do the will of our Lord we are forced to complain that our Flesh is weak and in that very weakness does one of its chiefest strengths lie Even then when we can say Lord we believe we have great reason to add help thou our unbelief Let the Flesh like the Thief I mean the unconverted Thief on our Saviour's Cross be bound up and Crucified yet like the very same Thief it will continue to resist or revile the Spirit As when the Taylor in the Apologue had stopt the mouth of his scolding Wife She was able still to rail with her finger's ends An Apologue not so light as the moral of it is grave and serious For the Spirit and the Flesh are in Aristotle's Comparison as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. as the Husband and the Wife and so the moral of the Apologue may be affirmed to be This. Whilst Fleshly Lusts have a Being are unmortified and alive let congruous Grace do what it can so long as it is not irresistible there will be Hostilities against the Spirit For were it possible for the Flesh to cease from warring against the Spirit a Man might possibly be innocent on this Side Heaven Which because he cannot be the Carnal mind by sound Consequence must needs be at enmity with God Hence it is that Rank Atheists are very commonly Rank Wits too full of Artifices and Tricks very skilfull to destroy Themselves and others And 't is an Enmity so much the worse even because it is Spiritual as well as Carnal or to use S. Paul's language a Carnal mind For the Spirit of a man which by nature goeth upwards when like the Spirit of a beast it tendeth downwards quite against its own nature and as it were clings unto the Earth by being Carnal it is not onely a strong but a subtil Enemy It wageth war against the Soul that is itself as well by stratagem as by force It is a Treacherous cologuing deceiptfull Thing And though it seems to be but one of those three Brigades whereof the Devil 's whole Army is said by S. John to be compos'd the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life yet has it all the lower World to serve for its Armory or Magazin Profit and Pleasure and Pomps and Vanities Beauty and Honour and Strength and Greatness and to express it in a word All the Darts of the Flesh which it does shoot after the measure that the Devil gives Aim against the Spirit are commonly drawn out of that one Quiver that is to say the Carnal mind § 16. Since then our Enemies are such as have been describ'd so strongly so subtilly so incessantly warring against the Soul A Soul adorn'd with God's Image and indu'd with his Spirit and redeem'd with his Blood and sustein'd with his Grace and in a capacity of his Glory our very Dangers may serve for Orators to incourage and incite us in our Encounters And our Dangers are to be measur'd by the preciousness of the Subject or Prize we fight for And this is here expressed to be the Soul That 's the Helena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ball or Apple of contention thrown as 't were between us and our Fleshly Lusts We asserting it to God and They to Satan We contending for its Safety and They contriving its Destruction Now so infinite is the difference between the values to be put upon Souls and Bodies that He who rejoyced in those Afflictions which did but war against the Body did groan and tremble under the Lusts which still did war against his Soul And in comparison of the hurt which may happen unto the Soul we are forbidden to fear them that can kill the Body For what is the Body in its original but Dust and Ashes what at the best of its Consistence but a fair Nursery of Diseases And what when parted from the Soul but the food of Worms whereas the Soul is That Spouse which God hath betrothed to himself Hos 2. 19 20. Not a Citizen onely of Heaven but Heaven it self as S. Gregory and S. Bernard are pleas'd to call her And therefore if the Warriers or Fleshly Lusts I now speak of do fight against our immortal Souls it concerns us as much as our Souls are worth to war against by abstaining from Fleshly Lusts By which if ever we are conquer'd we are undone As being dead whilst we live to use S. Paul's Oxumoron and which is a great deal sadder as being to live when we are dead too although it be onely to die for ever or rather to be for ever dying These are some of those foolish and hurtfull Lusts which drown the Soul in misery and perdition They transform the whole man into a State of Brutality They cast us out of his presence in whose presence is life and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore For when 't is said by the Apostle That if we live after the Flesh we shall die his meaning cannot but be This That we shall certainly be damn'd For They that live after the Spirit must die the first Death and Therefore This
or strike us dead without a blow just as Peter did Ananias for our usurping That Authority to preach God's Word which our Schismaticks and Enthusiasts of each Extreme are wont to arrogate as a Right belonging onely to themselves But God knows we have too many who need no working of Signs and Wonders to deceive them so very fond they are of Novelties in Religion it self that they are often drawn from it without a Miracle Yea if the True Prophet from Judah could suffer himself to be deceiv'd by the cunning False Prophet who dwelt in Bethel 1 King 13. 18. for which not the False but the True Prophet was slain v. 24. how apt are others to be deceiv'd who are no Prophets at all Very great need therefore we have to Try Pretenders to the Spirit before we Trust them whether or no they have indeed a Prophetick Spirit and whether they speak the mind of God by any Immediate Revelation § 6. A general Rule whereby to try them though 't is particularly apply'd S. John sets down in the next verse after my Text Hereby know ye the Spirit of God Every Spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God A Text whose pithy Brevity makes it difficult and obscure and so it stands in some need of an Explication I take its meaning to be This. Every Spirit which confesseth or every Pretender who owns our Saviour not onely by word of Mouth but in Life and Practice and from the Heart both as Jesus a Saviour and as Christ a King too Every one who does own him as well by his Faith as his Confession and as well by his Obedience as by his Faith to be the onely true Shiloh that was to come Every one who does own him to be come in the Flesh too not onely in his Divine but in his Humane Nature also which Cerinthus and Ebion and Simon Magus did deny unto whom in particular S. John alludes in this place lastly Every one who owns him in his Exinanition in his most despicable Condition which made his Friends to fly from him and Peter himself to disavow him Every one who does own him in his tremendous Crucifixion his Death and Burial and confesseth him even so to be the Son of the living God or God manifest in the Flesh 'T is plain that every such Spirit must be concluded to be of God So that if any shall here object against S. John's Rule of Triall that many Hereticks and Schismaticks do confess Jesus Christ to be come in the Flesh who notwithstanding are of the Devil and not of God Two Answers are to be given for the Objector's behoof and satisfaction one from Estius and another from Tirinus Though the Substance of them Both I have anticipated already Estius answers that S. John did direct This Rule against the Hereticks of his own Times who denied Jesus Christ to have come in the Flesh and such were those Three whom I nam'd a little before Which Answer is indeed good but not sufficient Tirinus therefore adds fitly that by our Confessing Jesus Christ to have come in the Flesh is meant our Confessing and Believing to wit our practical Believing that Jesus Christ is the Messias both a Saviour and a Prince as S. Peter calls him who gives Repentance unto Israel and Forgiveness of sins Not Forgiveness without Repentance nor Forgiveness before Repentance but Repentance in the first place and Forgiveness in the second In which very order both of Dignity and Nature S. Peter had exhorted to Both before ch 3. v. 19. Repent and be converted that your Sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And all sincere Repentance implies Obedience as the same S. Peter argues Act. 5. 32. This Answer is very good and sufficient too unless by being too short it may be also too obscure or not sufficiently perspicuous to some of the slowest apprehensions for which defect in the next place I shall endeavour to make amends § 7. And because where the Touchstone it self is False all sorts of Trial must needs be foolish Therefore Pretenders to the Spirit are to be try'd by such a Touchstone as needeth not it self Another Touchstone for its Trial. And such a Touchstone is to be taken out of those plainest Places of Scripture whose sense and meaning is agreed on even by men of All Judgements Texts deliver'd in such clear and univocal Terms that opposite Parties do apprehend them in the very same way And as they never have been yet so they never can be matter of any Cavil or Dispute And because I pretend not to teach my Fellow Teachers or such as need not to be thus taught though the most knowing may not disdain to be put in remembrance of what they know but onely the Ignorant and the Vnstable who for want of due Knowledge or of sufficient Consideration are like Clouds without water carried about of Winds as S. Jude describes them I shall be carefull that every Part of the Test or Criterion I am to give may be short and yet easie and I hope without all Question The several Parts of the Touchstone will be no fewer than 6 or 7. Nor are the Spirits to be try'd by any one or two of them but by All put together whether or no they are of God First The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Truth And therefore if any man who is outwardly of a seeming good Life is yet of very ill Judgement in Fundamentals in Points essential to Christianity as in the Doctrin of Obedience to every Ordinance of Man to the Higher Powers to Them that have the Rule over us and do watch for our Souls a Doctrin running in a Vein throughout the Body of the Gospel and essentially belonging to All Religion especially if he ascribes to a sinfull man not to say The Man of Sin That Incommunicable Attribute of God himself Infallibility and gives to every Priest the Privilege to doe a much greater Miracle than ere was done by Christ Himself so far forth to transubstantiate a piece of Bread as first to make his own Saviour and then to eat him He must needs be misinstructed by the Spirit of Errour and Fascination the Spirit with which he is bewitch'd as S. Paul speaks to the Galatians let his outward Conversation be what it will let his visible Course of life be never so plausible or severe Next The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Holiness and Purity as well as Truth And therefore if any man who is Orthodox is at the same time Dishonest of some good Opinions but evil Practice does hold the Truth but in unrighteousness especially if he takes upon him by That Viper of Morality and all Religion the Jesuites Doctrine of Probability not onely to allow but to incourage and abett the grossest
Villanies in the World without exception He is not season'd by the Holy but the Vnclean Spirit let his Orthodoxie of judgement as to some Fundamentals be what it can An honest Heathen is not so bad as a Christian Knave Thirdly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Vnity and Love And therefore if any sort of men shall take upon them to be Reformers by making Schism by dissolving the Bond of Peace wherein the Vnity of the Spirit is to be kept and shall crumble Religion into as many small Parcells as the Caprices of Idle men shall have the liberty to suggest especially if they shall labour to separate Subjects from their Sovereign by absolving them from their Oaths of Christian Obedience and Fidelity or by instructing them to swear with a Design to be forsworn They are miss-led by That Spirit whose Name is Legion even the Spirit of Division That old and cunning Serpent which deceiveth the whole World Fourthly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Meekness and of Order And therefore if any despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities and in pretense of being the Meek ones who are by right of Promise to inherit the Earth demurely tread upon Crowns and Crosiers and love to be levelling with their Feet whatsoever according to God's special Providence does overtop them by Head and Shoulders especially if they presume to place the single Bishop of Rome above General Councils invest him with a Power to excommunicate Kings and subvert whole Kingdoms and make the People hope to Merit by the most prodigious Murthers They must be led by That Spirit which is called The Angel of the Bottomless Pit Abaddon and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Destroyer even the Spirit which is still working in the Children of Disobedience Fiftly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Sincerity induing All whom He inhabits with an absolute Simplicity and Singleness of Heart And therefore They who do hold up their Left hand to God but their Right against their Governours having Godliness in their Profession but practical Atheism in their Lives hating Idols from the Teeth outwards but loving Sacriledge from the Heart crying down Superstition but preaching up the Creature-comforts flowing from Plunder which they call Providence declaring with zeal against the Prelates but ever voting up the Papacy of their Superintendents declaiming much against the Sectaries who are not of their Denomination but breaking down the Hedge of Discipline whereby the Herds are to be kept from God's Inclosure especially They who have invented the Art of Aequivocating and Cheating the Art of Swearing any thing safely by mental Exceptions and Reservations the Art of Couzenage by the Contract they call Mohatra and the like must needs be acted by that Spirit whom the Scripture has expressed by the Father of Lies even the Spirit of Hypocrisie That black Prince of Darkness which transforms himself with ease into an Angel of light Sixtly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Knowledge and Wisedom and Vnderstanding And therefore if any man cites Scripture against the whole Tenor and Stream of Scripture and wanders into the wrong way even by That very Word which does direct him into the Right one especially if he levells the Canon of Scripture with the Apocrypha and makes the Pure Word of God to truckle humbly under Tradition whereby it becomes of none effect if men so learned and so acute and so sagacious as the Jesuites after all the heinous things they have done and taught are so far from discerning what Spirit they are of that they utterly mistake an Evil Spirit for a Good one a Spirit from Hell for one from Heaven the Spirit which reigns in the Court of Rome for the Spirit which guides in the Church of England if they can think it the Top of Piety to advance the Lord Jesus quite against the Lord Christ and make the Christian Religion the greatest Transgression of Itself which moves the Jansenists to call them The Antichristian Society if they can take it for the Comble of Christian Merit and Perfection to espouse and put in practice this Turkish Maxime that Religion is to be propagated where 't is possible by the Sword They must needs be possess'd by the Spirit of Slumber the Spirit of dead Sleep the God of this World which blindeth the mind for so the Devil is once call'd 2 Cor. 4. 4. What I have thus drawn out at length our Blessed Lord does wind up into This short Bottom Matth. 7. 20. Ye shall know them by their Fruits But the Fruits of That Spirit that is of God are reckon'd up by S. Paul to be such as These Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Meekness Goodness and the like And therefore They who in stead of loving Enemies do persecute and oppress the mystical Members of the same Body whereof Christ is the Head who lay the Cross of Christ Jesus on Christian Shoulders robbing one of a Living another of a Liberty a third of a Life and this for no other Crime than being constantly Conscientious and very real Friends to All because the Flatterers of None though able to injure or to oblige them must needs be managed by That carnal and unclean Spirit which makes them so fruitfull and so abounding in the works of the Flesh such as Hatred Variance Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies and the like § 8. Now if All these Particulars be laid together in our minds I suppose we have a Touchstone to Try the Spirits of Pretenders whether or no they are of God and such a Touchstone as needs not it self another Touchstone to be Try'd by But because the best Touchstone is nothing worth to such as know not how to use it we shall doe well to take notice of one Rule more in the using of it For considering how many Vices do too much border and confine upon several Vertues and how many Lies are more plausible to flesh and bloud than many Truths and hardly any thing can be so false but may have Colours and Probabilities to set it off being neatly laid on by men ingeniously wicked and that a multitude of Ignaro's do often swallow the grossest Errours presented to them in the Disguise of the greatest Truths by not distinguishing Words as they ought from Things and blending one thing with another and taking them down all at once without any masticating or chewing I say for This reason we must not pass our last Judgement upon Pretenders to the Spirit untill we have made our selves acquainted as well with their Habits as with their Acts as well with the main or general current of their Lives as with the meer conduct and carryings on of their Designs with the Means they make use of as well as with the End they pretend to aim at with the Building which is erected as well
is divinely undeceivable Take away This and all her other Impositions will fall to ruin of Themselves But by the Help of This Errour All the rest must needs be swallow'd how gross soever To wit That the 2 Books of Maccabees and All the rest of the Apocrypha are as much the Word of God as the 5 Books of Moses or any other at least since the Canons of the Council at Trent to whose Authority forsooth The Holy Scriptures owe Theirs That in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper it is the Interest and the Duty of every Christian to be a Canibal even materially and grosly to eat and drink the Flesh and Bloud of The Man Christ Jesus That the single Bishop of Rome is the Vniversal Pastor Head and Monarch over the whole Catholick Church both Diffusive and Representative though in an absolute Contradiction to Four famous Councils which with the Papalins themselves do pass for General to wit of Pisa Constance Basil and Siena Not to insist on those other Councils of Chalcedon Constantinople Antioch and Africa That there must be an Infallible Judge of Controversies on Earth over and above the Word of God Though they who say it are not agreed who the Judge of them should be whether the Diffusive or Representative or That which They call the Virtual Church Catholick or Their Principium Vnitatis as they call the Bishop of Rome who proudly Lords it over them All. That though nothing is to be added to The Apostles own Creed consisting of but 12 Articles Each Apostle casting in One as Ruffinus tells us yet the 12 more at least thereto added by Pius Quartus and the Council of Trent are to be sworn to and Believed as of equal Necessity to Life Aeternal To sum up all in a word No Contradiction can be so gross no Absurdity so great as not to be readily entertained by Those Jesuited Bigots who have beforehand devoured and swallow'd down without chewing That Breeding Blasphemy and Falshood That the Pope is as Infallible as Jesus Christ as often as he speaks ex Cathedrâ even without a General Council not in Questions onely of Right but in those of Fact also Let no man therefore deceive us with his pretended Infallibility more than with his being God or wholly Impeccable upon Earth For He who cannot be deceiv'd can as little Sin they are Attributes peculiar to God alone § 18. But now 't is time that I proceed to the second general Member of Sub-Division by which a Caveat was enter'd against Deceipts of all sorts as well of the best as the worst of Men. For As heed is to be taken that no evil man deceive us by good Appearances and Praetenses so there is use of as great heed that no good man deceive us against his will by the evil Example of his Miscarriage There being at least as much danger of the one as of the other If we allow our selves to think we may safely do what some very good People have done before us the consequence of it will be This that we shall imitate the worst in the best of Men and leave the best to be Their peculiar And therefore here 't is very fit for our observation that 't was not said by our Saviour Matth. 10. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beware of Men that is of Some men Those of the Consistories or Sanedrim amongst the Jews who yet are aimed at in especial manner But with an article praefixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beware of Men that is of all men in general not excepting the very best For let Erasmus and Vatablus say what they will the praefixing of the article seems to import the whole species as Tostatus and Casaubon at least do judge Let us not say therefore with Bellarmin that so good a Woman as Sarah had never prompted her Husband to lie with Hagar if she had not well known it to have been lawfull No nor yet with a greater man that Abram might dissemble and tell a lie to save his life Nor think the better of Adultery or wilfull Murther for being committed even by David after a state of Regeneration Nor look upon Incest itself as venial because 't was acted even by Lot who in the holy Scripture is stiled Righteous Nor imagin it does the rather consist with Wisedom to be Idolatrous for that Solomon Himself did worship Idols who is renowned for his Wisedom throughout the World Nor be so illogical as to conclude in the behalf of Polygamy because so honest a man as Jacob had two Wives at once and is no where reproved in all the Scripture Nor may we give an ear to Them who do excuse the worst Impieties of all such men as have been Regenerate by imputing them wholly to the infirmity of the flesh and not as well to the filthiness of the Spirit Some there are who are serious in the use of such Logick be it spoken to the disgrace of their wit and learning though it is patcht up of nothing but one gross Fallacy à benè divisis ad malè conjuncta Many things are very false in a compound sense which being divided are very true and many are true being compounded which in sensu diviso are very false David was holy and committed wilfull Murther in conjunction with Adultery But it was not committed by holy David for This would imply a Contradiction in adjecto He was holy before and holy after but in a state of Vnholiness and Condemnation whilst he lay snoring in his impieties as he did for some months without repentance So Solomon was wise and a Worshipper of Idols But he was not Then wise when he stood guilty of Idol-Worship Solomon and Solomon were just as different as Peter in the Hall and behind the Door or as the Book of Kings and the Book of Ecclesiastes When That impiety was committed it was by Solomon the Fool who recover'd not his Wisedom till he repented that is to say till he amended and chang'd his life till he became a new Creature and brought forth fruits meet for Repentance § 19. And if heed is to be taken that no good man deceive us we may not sure neglect Him who has nothing of good but in bare appearance If the former may deceive us by the example of his Sin well may the later deceive us too by the lying sanctity of his life Then let not any man deceive us by any means Neither by giving smooth Speeches nor by wearing rough Garments Neither by using Foxes words nor by having Sheeps Cloathing Neither by Spirit nor by Letter Not by the current of his Prosperity not by the reddiness of his Praying not by the commonness of his Preaching not by the plausible Demureness called the Godliness of his Practice For the Devil were but a Dunce in case he could not fish whilst he is angling after Souls with more Baits than These and too contemptible a
its Prosecution § 5. But being seriously desirous to speak as usefully as I can and that within the Time allow'd I am to take and give notice of three sorts of Libertines in these our days who either have wilfully transcrib'd or else have stumbl'd accidentally upon some of the worst of Haeresies in the Primitive Times and are as dangerous to others as destructive to Themselves Some are of opinion that if Vessels of Election they cannot Sin do what they can They are placed in such a state of Impeccability that on a supposal of their willingness they are not able to do amiss And This expresly was the Haeresie of The infamous Manichaeus as S. Jerome tells Ctesiphon adding also that Priscilian was a Bird of that Feather Others are of opinion that though they can commit Sin God cannot see it in his Elect. And This expresly was the Haeresie of Marcus who taught the poor and rich Women whom he debauch'd and made His that they might fearlesly and freely be as voluptuous as they pleas'd because by vertue of their Redemption they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at once inapprehensible and invisible to the Judge Just as Homer feign'd Pallas to have cover'd her self with Pluto's Helmet that so she might not be seen by Mars A Privilege as sensless as That which was allow'd to the Ring of Gyges There is a Third sort of Thinkers who say that God can see Sin but cannot punish it in his Elect or impute it to them and that they are so sure-footed that though they slip never so grosly or stumble never so often yet for all That they can never fall not only not finally but but not so much as for a Time And This expresly was the Haeresie of Jovinian which S. Jerome in a whole Book has very effectually confuted that They who once have been regenerate in the Laver of Baptism cannot be tempted by the Devil so as to cease being regenerate We have the Sum of all Three and the Sequel too in the one Valentinian Haeresie which was one of the first and the worst of all as the holy Father and Martyr Irenaeus shews it at large What the Malignity of it is and to how deep a degree of Wickedness 't is apt at least in its nature to betray them that own it They Themselves have best told us by This Similitude That as a Mass of pure Gold in the foulest Dirt does not lose so much as its beauty much less its nature but still retains the whole goodness and worth of Gold so let the Saints that is Themselves lie and wallow whilst they will in the Mire of Sins and in those Sins especially whereof the Scripture saith plainly that they who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God yet they cannot thereby lose their spirituality and perfection They cannot cease from being Branches of That true Vine into which they were once ingrafted § 6. Now that other mens Dangers may be employ'd to keep us safe and that other mens real Miseries may be improv'd to our being Happy we must convince our selves throughly of the Truth of this Doctrin which in my Text is most clearly and unavoidably imply'd To wit that He who now stands in a Christian State of Repentance and Conversion and a blotting out of Sins which is Justification may possibly fall into a dangerous yea and a damnable Condition unless he takes such strict heed as our blessed Apostle does here injoyn And here I cannot but be sorry that so clear a Text as This should stand in need of any Sermon to give it Evidence That our Apostle's Exhortation should be so little argumentative in some mens minds that we must light up our Candles to shew his Sun I much admire that those Libertines who think they stand in no need of this holy Caveat are not sufficiently convinc'd by their own Experience that since their having been regenerate in the Sacrament of Baptism which is no less than Circumcision a Seal of the righteousness of Faith they have faln into deadly and wasting Sins Lord how many Sons and Daughters of our one Common Mother the Church of England have renounced the very Baptism by which alone they were Christianiz'd have abandon'd the House of Prayer and in it the Lord's Table and on it the outward Sign of invisible Grace have fallen away before our faces into the scandalous commissions of Schism and Haeresie have turn'd apostates from the Faith which was once deliver'd unto the Saints have indulgently marched on in the ways of Corah in the Sins of Sacrilege and Rebellion and still are snoring in the Impieties of being heady high-minded Despisers of Dominion and Evil speakers of Dignities ever Opposers of Authority ordain'd by God which is to be a worse Thing than a Common Drunkard § 7. How many Examples are there in Scripture of final Apostasie from Grace or from a State of Regeneration enough to dit the widest Mouth of the daring'st Gnostick How many of God's peculiar people under the Law did fall away from their acknowledgment of the onely true God into the worst of all Sins which is Idolatry and into the worst of all Idolatries which is the worshipping of Devils and into the worst of that worst too not by offering their Sheep and Oxen but their own Sons and their own Daughters unto Devils How did the faithfull City become an Harlot how did her Silver become arrant Dross She was once full of Judgment Righteousness lodged in her but now Murtherers Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horribly afraid as God himself spake by the Prophet Jeremy for my People have committed two evils forsaken me the fountain of living waters and bewn them out Cisterns broken Cisterns which hold no water Hast thou not procured this unto thy self in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God I had planted thee a noble Vine wholly a right seed How then art thou turned into the degenerate Plant of a strange Vine unto me Nor is it onely under the Legal but under the Gospel Dispensation that many begin to build well on a good foundation but do not finish Many end in the flesh who began in the Spirit and Many are called but few are chosen Many are sanctified but few are sav'd Many are justified for a time but very few in comparison do persevere unto the End That saying of our Saviour Matth. 24. 12 13. The love of many shall wax cold but he that indureth unto the end shall be saved S. Paul reflecting on has explained Thus That some in the later times shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils speaking lyes in hypocrisie having their Conscience seared with an hot iron There the word in the Original is very observable They shall depart saith the English 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek They
that as much as in us lies we ought to be affected like God himself and so by a necessary consequence we are to hate those that hate Him because they are such as are hated by Him For so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does very naturally import although it is not observ'd in our English Bibles And therefore by this the Prophet David seeks to prove his Affection to God Almighty Do not I hate them O Lord that hate Thee yea I hate them right sore Or as the New Translation hath it yea I hate them with a perfect hatred Why then saith our Apostle Follow Peace even with All men not excepting the Worst of all § 10. We see the Objection is very specious But strike one Text against another as a flint against steel and there will leap from both together both Fire and Light too The Answer to it is to be taken from Rom. 12. 18. and thence forwards unto the end If it is possible as much as in you lies live peaceably with all men He does not peremptorily say live peaceably with all men at all adventure let the Case be what it will But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it is possible and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as in you lies Whereby 't is evidently imply'd that in diverse hard cases it is Impossible it does not lie in our power to be at Peace with all the world All that God requires of us is to imploy our poor utmost in order to it Whilst we hate the Malefactor we must have charity for the Man so as to pity his being sick of habitual Sin and supplicate God for his Amendment Follow Peace we must with Them who fly as fast as we can follow it And to the end we may attain it we must endeavour at least to win them by all good means Such as is the not avenging our selves but giving place unto wrath feeding our Enemies when they are hungry and when they are thirsty giving them Drink For by so doing we shall heap saith the Apostle Coals of Fire upon their Heads Not that this can be spoken of any mischievous kind of charity For it is meant of nothing else but the Fire of Love And Love is fitly compar'd to Fire because it has both a purging and melting Faculty in its Nature The Metaphor is taken from the custom of the Founder who when he cannot melt his Metal by putting Coals of Fire under it does heap some Fire upon it too So we must heap the Fire of Love upon our Enemies Heads not to consume them in their Impenitence but to melt them into Repentance and change of Life At once to purifie the Dross and to mollifie the hardness with which their hearts are affected towards us But if at last our Malacticks are us'd in vain we must then indeed proceed to the severer Methods of Charity which is Charity never the less for being attended with severity A Rod being ordain'd for the Back of Fools who will not be wrought upon at all by the Spirit of Meekness 1 Cor. 4. ult When men are the worse for being pardon'd and even corrupt themselves with Goodness we must not be so over-cruel as to punish them with Impunity For God in great Mercy hath given us Magistrates to be his Ministers of wrath and his Executers of vengeance Nor are they liable unto any more noxious failing than that of bearing the Sword in vain Hereon is founded both the Lawfulness and the Necessity also of War upon some Occasions as being That without which Peace it self cannot be kept The Law of Nature and of Nations That of Moses and of Christ and the best mens Examples permit it to us As it were easie to evince were This a Time or Place for it And what I say of the Civil is just as true of the Spiritual Sword The highest Act of Christian charity that can be shown to the obdurate is to deliver them up to Satan for the Destruction of the Flesh because it is to this wholesom end That their Spirits may be sav'd in the Day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5. 5. Thus we see what is meant by Peace with All men how far forth it is extended and how it admits of a Limitation § 11. Another Objection may be rais'd from the Pronoun Which because it is in the Greek not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so may seem to relate rather to Holiness than to Peace As if our Duty towards God were a great Requisite to Salvation but not our Duty towards our Neighbour Whereas in Truth the very discharge of our Duty towards our Neighbour is one of the great and main Duties we owe to God Peace and Holiness are such Twin-Sisters as are not like the Tindaridae or Twins of Leda who after the manner of two Buckets whereof the one is going up and the other down did take their Turns in Heaven and Hell But like the Twins of Hippocrates or the two Friends in Valerius who neither could live nor die asunder He that follows not Peace does fly from Holiness or follows it onely to drive it from him Why then saith our Apostle not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which Things nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which Peace but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which Holiness no man living shall see the Lord § 12. The Answer is that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of an aequivocal signification as being equally of the Masculine and Neuter Gender But some there are in the world of eminent Learning and Reputation who taking it up by the wrong handle have unhappily fastened upon a wrong signification and so have set up Holiness to the prejudice of Peace Meerly for want of consideration That the Relative Which in this place is the Neuter Gender and hath not any single word for its Antecedent but the whole Clause going before It is not in a divided sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which Holiness but in sensu composito 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which Following of Peace and Holiness united Whereby we are given to understand That there cannot be such a Thing as a Godly Rebel or Holy Boutifeu because the Subject excludes the Adjunct To say that such or such a Man is a most conscionable Schismatick or a religious exciter unto Sedition whilst he fights away his Conscience to win its Liberty and sacrifices Peaces to pretended Holiness is to affirm both Parts of a Contradiction He that is of an unpeaceable must needs be of an unholy Spirit For as Peace without Holiness is but Adherence unto a Faction so Holiness without Peace is but Hypocrisie They that are so superstitious as to strain at Gnats such as the Authorized Rites of Cross and Surpliss whilst they are also so prophane as to swallow Camels such as are the crying Sins of Schism and Sacrilege cannot well be call'd Followers but onely Persecuters of Peace
an honest Conversation and abstain from Fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul Thus S. Peter's Exhortation is very Affectionate and Earnest And taking our selves to be the Persons to whom the Exhortative does belong We have it inforced upon our hearts by Five strong Arguments or Motives All the worthier of our Attention because arising out of the Text. The First Argument is taken from the Condition of the Persons to whom the earnest Exhortation is here directed We are Citizens of Heaven and but Strangers upon Earth and therefore we must live as becometh Strangers Nor are we Strangers onely but Pilgrims Not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of our own Country but withall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Travellers in a strange one For this I take to be the difference between these Two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strangers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pilgrims That though they are Both out of their Country yet the former have an Aboad but the later none Those have some kind of Rest but These are always in a Journy Those inhabit a foreign Country whilst These are onely passing through it And seeing this is our Condition that we relate to this World not as Strangers onely but Passengers Men whose Houses are but as Inns and whose Life is but a Pilgrimage it concerns us to walk as becometh Pilgrims that is to manage our Conversation with so much wariness and fear as not to lie open to just Reproof The Second Argument is taken from the Quality of the Things in opposition to which our Apostle's Exhortation is here contriv'd These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such Fleshly Lusts as are very pleasant Flatterers but no true Friends For though they are fawning upon the Flesh yet they are not at all the less but the greater Enemies to the Spirit And how desirable soever they may appear unto the Body yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are implacably though invisibly ever warring against the Soul The Third Argument is taken from the Consideration of our Credit with the Enemies of Christ amongst whom we live Our Conversation is to be honest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Gentiles And that for this reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That however they do maliciously they may not deservedly speak against us Whereas in case we live dishonestly and indulgently to our Lusts we shall help them to excuse if not to justifie their Malignities against our Persons and our Profession And they will have a just ground whereupon to defame us as Evil-Doers The Fourth Argument is taken from the Consideration of our Enemies Welfare To wit their present Conversion and future Safety In whose sight if we converse as becometh Christ's Servants by our abstaining from Fleshly Lusts and having an honest Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text They then will look upon us with reverence and judge of our Principles by our good Works We shall not onely stop their Mouths but weaken the violence of their Hands and help to mollifie their Hearts and become happily instrumental to the salvation of their Souls The Fifth Argument is taken from the Glory of God and its great Advancement We must indeavour so to live as to adorn the Doctrine of Jesus Christ Our Conversation must be such as becomes the Gospel Our way of Walking must be exemplary and our Behaviour must be exact that Christ's Religion being credited his Kingdom also may be inlarged whilst by the Allective of our Example men will be won from their corruptions and shew forth the Praises of our God who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light And this as 't is the last so 't is the best and chiefest Argument for our punctual abstaining from Fleshly Lusts and having an honest Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Men by seeing our good works may not glorifie Vs but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may glorifie God in the Day of Visitation § 3. These are all S. Peter's Arguments Nor have I stept either beyond or beside the Text for the finding of them And for the pressing of the Duty He here injoyns never were there more or better Arguments in the world by any Pen-man contriv'd into fewer Words Before I insist upon any Argument whereby to inforce the Exhortation I must first of all explain the Exhortation it self First observing the importance of Fleshly Lusts and then what is meant by abstaining from them In order to the First two Things are to be known How we ought to understand the moral use of the word Flesh especially as it is taken in Several parts of the New Testament and what is meant by the Lustings of it By the word Flesh in the New Testament is very commonly meant the Appetite This is the seat of our Affections the subject matter of Vice and Virtue Our Affections are ever conversant in pursuing or eschewing in injoying or in suffering their several Objects Their Objects in the general are Good or Evil. And both are consider'd in Themselves or in relation to the Circumstances wherewith they happen to be cloath'd Good consider'd in it self is at once both the Object and Cause of Love But in relation to its Circumstances it is productive of other Passions For if present it causeth Joy and if absent it breeds Desire Again the Good which is Absent is either attainable or it is not If the former it causeth Hope and if the later it breeds Despair In like manner an evil Object is to be taken in its absolute or in its relative Consideration In the former 't is productive of simple Hatred but in the later it produceth either Sorrow or Aversation The First if it is present and if absent then the Second Again the evil that is absent is either avoidable or it is not If the former it causeth Boldness but if the later it causeth Fear Thus we briefly see the Rivulets of all our Passions or Affections together with the Fountain from whence they flow Now so many of our Affections as are reducible to Desire may be called not improperly our several Lusts Things so necessary and natural and indifferent in themselves that being abstractively and precisely and antecedently consider'd they are equally in an aptitude of becoming both the matter of Vice and Virtue But when extravagant as to the Object or exorbitant as to the Measure Then they are and are justly call'd either the Lusts of the Flesh or the Fleshly Lusts § 4. Now 't is observable in the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament that Lust is many times Synonymous both with Avarice and Desire The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latin concupiscere does equally Signifie them all And thence it is that all Three have been promiscuously us'd in our English Bibles For there we meet as well with lawfull as with unlawfull Lusts and as well with a good as an evil Avarice and with Both as they are taken in the innocent
sense of our Desires Nay there we meet with such a Lusting as is not onely lawfull but also eminently good We have an Example of the first Deut. 12. 15. Thou mayest kill and eat Flesh in all thy Gates whatsoever thy Soul lusteth after that is whatever it desireth or hath an Appetite unto We have an Instance of the second in the First Epistle to the Corinthians where though 't is said that no Covetous shall ever inherit the Kingdom of God yet there are things which we must Covet and Covet earnestly saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 12. 31. We have a Specimen of the Third too Gal. 5. 17. Whereas the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit so doth the Spirit against the Flesh And this does shew us what is meant by the Law in the Members and the Law in the Mind which are said to be warring that is to be Lusting against each other Rom. 7. 23. the last of which is as good as the first is evil § 5. But here we must not impose that obvious Fallacy on our selves which is à benè divisis ad malè conjuncta For though the Flesh and the Lusts being in Sensu diviso have both their innocent Significations yet in Sensu composito they ever signifie what is sinfull Nor onely the Breaches of any one but of several Precepts in the Decalogue For in the Epistle to the Galatians not Adultery onely but Murthers not Fornication onely but Witchcraft Idolatry Seditions Haeresies are reckon'd up by S. Paul amongst the works of the Flesh and that in perfect opposition to the Fruits of the Spirit Nor is it onely said in the last Precept of the Decalogue Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's Wife But not his House not his Servant not his Oxe not his Ass no nor any thing else that is thy Neighbours So that all evil Covetings are Fleshly Lusts in respect of the Principle from which they come though not always of the Object towards which they tend Though in regard unto the later they are not all Lustings after the Flesh yet in regard unto the former they all are Lustings of the Flesh or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fleshly Lusts 'T was such a Lust of Curosity joyn'd with another of Ambition which made Eve eat of forbidden fruit 'T was such a Fleshly Lust of Envy which made Cain murther his Brother Abel 'T was such a Fleshly Lust of Avarice which made an Achan lay hold of the golden Wedge Nor was it less a Fleshly Lust which moved Absolon to compass his Father's Kingdom than That by which he defiled his Father's Concubines § 6. Now from all these Fleshly Lusts we are exhorted to abstain as may appear by their Antithesis to such a Christian Conversation as is not onely to be chast but universally honest among the Gentiles And yet from those in special manner are we exhorted to abstain which are peculiarly compriz'd in the seventh Precept of the Decalogue and are expressed by the name of lascivious Lusts 1 Pet. 4. 3. For those were chiefly the Fleshly Lusts of the Gnosticks from whose unclean course of life the Jewish Christians of the Dispersion were here dehorted And so they signifie with S. John when he reduces all the Army of our Spiritual Warriers to Three Brigades and makes an eminent Distinction of the Lust of the Flesh both from the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life § 7. But what kind of Abstinence is here intended not such a complete and total Abstinence as is from all kinds of Lusting without exception For This may seem as vain a Task as to Abstain from being Men since 't is evident from the Confessions both of Saxony and Helvetia as also from the 9th of our 39 Articles That Concupiscence remains in the most regenerate To which implicit Objection I answer Thus. That though the Precept for abstaining does refer both to the Object and Act of Lusting yet it is with this Difference that we must totally abstain from the things Lusted after and as much as in us lies from the Lust it self For if we cannot prevent a Lust from ever entring into the heart yet we can and must keep it from breaking forth into our Actions and from the Presence of the Temptation which leads to Both. Many pretend to Disabilities to which they have not a real Title It clearly lies in our power to make a Covenant with our Eyes to set a Watch over our Ears to keep the Door of our Lips to thrust Impediments in the way betwixt Us and Danger and by the help of God's Grace which is not wanting unto any who are not wanting unto It it also lies in our Power to keep a Guard about our Hearts to put a Bridle upon our Wills and give a check to the Cariere of wild Affections So that if I may paraphrase S. Peter's Exhortation it will in the whole amount to This Dearly beloved I beseech you as arrant Foreigners and Exoticks on this side Heaven that ye religiously abstain from forbidden Objects in the general and especially from Those which are most Treacherous to the Flesh Give not any satisfaction to carnal motions and be not any whit indulgent to loose Desires Make no provision for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof But keep it rather from Incentives and try to starve it As it wars against you so do you against it Besiege it closely on every side Block up all its Avenues Intercept its Provisions by Prayer and Fasting Reduce the Flesh to such an Exigence for want of Victuals and Ammunition as may effectually compel it to make a Surrender unto the Spirit Put your selves with Resolution into a moral Impossibility of being worsted And in order thereunto Abstain not onely from the Food of your Fleshly Lusts but withall from the Borders and Confines of it not onely from the All that may cause uncleanness but from all that may occasion the things that cause it § 8. For here 't is worthy our observation in the management of our warfare against those Enemies which do often the more successfully because invisibly war against us That we are otherwise to encounter with the Temptations of the Irascible than with the other more insnaring ones of the concupiscible Faculty The onely way to quell the first is indeed by Fighting but the way to beat the second must be by Flight The way to vanquish those Allurements of Flesh and Blood which are vulgarly express'd by the name of Beauties is not boldly to contend with but rather prudently to abstain from the Presence of them We commonly reckon that a Garrison is little less than half taken when it admits of any parley with its Besiegers To enter into a Treaty is the Beginning of a Surrender and then with a greater force of reason He that approaches so very near as to wrestle with the Temptations He ought to fly and entertains so much commerce as to combat with
a Christian as 't is a Pilgrimage of the Body from Earth to Earth for Dust thou art and unto Dust shalt thou return said God to Adam and a Pilgrimage of the Soul from Heaven to Heaven for the Spirit shall return to God that gave it saith the Royal Ecclesiastes so as truly is it a warfare of Soul and Body in conjunction whereof That fights for Heaven and This for Hell The former under God's Banner and the later under the Devil 's The Flesh and the Spirit are so unequally match'd that however nearly wedded they are incessantly falling out Each may say unto the other nec possum vivere cum te nec sine te For however unwilling they are to part they are seldom or never at Agreement There is a Law in the members so continually warring against the Law of the mind that the Flesh still lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh And these are contrary the one to the other Now 't is the nature still of Contraries very earnestly to indeavour a mutual overthrow And they must Both be well beaten brought down and refracted ere they can peaceably cohabit under one and the same Roof Which kind of Peace may be effected betwixt another sort of Contraries for Heat and Cold may agree together in a Lukewarmness white and black in mixt Colours Day and Night in a Crepusculum however These two last are but privatively oppos'd but in this moral Contrariety 'twixt the Spirit and the Flesh it never can be the reason is because when the Spirit is most indulgently at Peace with the Flesh the Flesh is then the most dangerous and fatal Enemy to the Spirit Exactly such an Enemy as Joab was to Abner when he took him aside and slew him peaceably Or as the very same Joab to Captain Amasa when he saluted him as a Brother inquir'd after his health as a kind Physician offer'd to kiss him as a Dear Friend that so he might civilly and sweetly smite him under the fifth Rib. Or as the two Sons of Rimmon to Righteous Ishbosheth when making as if they would fetch some Wheat they kill'd him slylie in his own House and quietly resting upon his Bed Or as Judeth to Olofernes when she pleas'd him into Destruction and maliciously made him in love with her Conversation when she ravish'd him with her Beauty that she might kill him with the fruit of his kindness to her stole his Heart whilst he was waking that whilst he slept she might take his Head too And exactly such an Enemy is the Flesh unto the Spirit when the Spirit gives no disturbance but dwells in quietness with the Flesh For then the Lusts of the Flesh do give the Spirit such wounds as it cannot feel Wounds indued with such a numming Narcotick Quality as hurts the Spirit without offense and by killing it very pleasantly sends it insensibly to Hell Nor are any whit the less but the more certainly destroy'd for being laid into a sleep by an over-great Dose of Opium Hence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 invisible Wars and indiscernable Insurrections from which the antient Greek Liturgies were wont to pray for a Cessation For when the Soul is so degenerate as even to doat upon the Body Then does the Body with most advantage insensibly war against the Soul The treacherous Lusts of the Flesh like the treacherous Assassinates of Olofernes and Ishbosheth assault the Spirit in its own House and which is the worst of all Supercherie as they find it fast asleep in the Bed of Carnal Security Nor is it onely not awak'd by the Blows they give it but it rather sleeps the faster for being struck just as if it were struck by the Rod of Hermes That when at last it shall awake either in This or another World it may not be to escape but to see its Ruin § 14. So that the War I now speak of is more than Civil or Domestick For there we war against others but here against our own selves A Man's Enemies saith the Prophet are those of his own House And indeed the greatest Enemies excepting those of his own Heart This especially being the Field wherein the Lusts of the Flesh do still incamp against the Spirit and give it Battle and strive to bring it into Captivity to the Law of Sin And because the whole Man does consist of these two Flesh and Spirit Body and Soul matter and form as essential Parts of his Composition it cannot but follow that we our selves are incessantly warring against our selves To wit our selves as we are Animals against our selves as we are Men. Our selves as we are Men against our selves as we are Christians Our selves as we are Carnal against our selves as we are Spiritual Again it follows that we our selves are the greatest Enemies to our selves because we arm our vile Members against our Mind For what our English Translation does call the Instruments is in S. Paul's own language the Armour of unrighteousness And by the help of this Armour we Arm our base Appetites against our Wills and our brutish Affections against our Reasons We use our selves as unmercifully as Samson's Enemies did Him We strive to pluck out our inward Eyes and to deliver our selves bound to Sin and Satan We side with the old man against the new Abet the outward man in us against the inward are such Enemies to our selves as to despoil our selves of Grace whereby as much as in us lies and without Repentance we make our selves incapable of Bliss and Glory § 15. But when I speak of a War between the Flesh and the Spirit I do not mean onely the visible and gross Body of Flesh which of it self is but passive and cannot fight No 't is the animated Flesh the Flesh that is capable of Lusting It is a fleshliness of Spirit and a carnality of Reason which is arm'd with a Wisedom fetch'd up from Hell and stands in hostile opposition to that which cometh down from Heaven Jam 3. 14 15 16. And accordingly when God had upbraided Israel with their being a foolish and sottish People and void of all understanding he gave the reason of it in this That they were wise to do evil Jer. 4. 22. Observe the pithy Brevity of That Expression Because they were Wise they were therefore Foolish Their Wisedom did not onely consist with Folly but in That sort of Wisedom their Folly and Sottishness did consist This is that Wisedom of the Flesh which exalteth it self against the Knowledge of God 2 Cor. 10. 5. It is an Earthy Sensual Devilish wisdom as God Himself by his Apostle is pleas'd to call it And 't is with very great reason he calls it Devilish because the Lust of the Flesh which is its Wisedom is a direct Devil within us as having a faculty to intice us and to draw us quite away from fighting under Christ's Banner Therefore 't is that Lust and
Infirmities Yea when our Infirmities are so potent as to disable us even from praying and from crying out for help the Spirit interceedeth for us with Groans which cannot be uttered And at the intercession of such a Spirit our Spiritual Enemies will fly as the walls of Jericho did fall at the sound of a Trumpet 'T was by the help of This Spirit that though the Enemies of David were still in hand to swallow him up yet he was able still to say He would not fear what Flesh could do unto him Whilst the weapons of our warfare are not Carnal but Spiritual They are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong Holds casting down Imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against God and bringing into captivity every Thought to the obedience of Christ Our weapons indeed are mighty but 't is through God who does not onely guide our Feet but also lifts up our Hands and directs our Blows and often strikes for us Himself too And yet the Victory which he wins his Goodness placeth to our Accompt His is the Glory of the Conquest but Ours the Comfort And This accordingly was the Incouragement our Saviour gave to his Apostles Be of good Comfort I have overcome the World The Sting of Death which is Sin He hath pluck'd out for us The strength of Sin which is the Law He hath weaken'd in our behalf He hath routed our common Enemy and looks that We should follow the chase Which the Apostle well considering did seem with one and the same Breath to turn his out-cry into an Eulogy his complaint into a Jubily his Temptations of Despair into Joy and Triumph For no sooner had he said O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death But in the next words he added I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Nay farther yet He does not onely say in another place Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ But also invents a new Word to shew the greatness of our Victory above that of others Through Him that loved us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Text we do not onely overcome but are more than Conquerors Indeed without Him our strength is weakness our Wisedom Folly and accordingly the Apostle does very appositely exhort us to be strong in the Lord and in the Power of His might Eph. 6. 10. And when 't is said by S. John Ye are of God little Children and have overcome them he gives this Reason Because greater is He that is in You than he that is in the World For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World and this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith 1 Joh. 5. 4. This must therefore be our Prayer That Christ may dwell in our Hearts by Faith And this will then be our Incouragement That being strengthned with might in the Inward man we shall be able to stand in the evil Day § 19. But we have yet another Incouragement to wrestle with and to fight against Fleshly Lusts from the exceeding great Richness of our Reward For when we can say with the Apostle we have fought the god fight we may also say with him in the same Assurance because upon the same Ground Henceforth is laid up for us a Crown of Righteousness Betwixt which two there is so vast a Disproportion that the Fight is for a moment and the Sufferings growing from it do quickly wither whereas the Crown is immarcescible such as cannot but injoy an eternal Spring And therefore S. Paul vvas not out in his Reckoning vvhen he reckon'd that the Sufferings and amongst Them the Self-denials of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Rom. 8. 18. Which kind of Sufferings and Self-denials do not onely praecede but even work for us a weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. And the reason of This expression may be argued even from hence That to fight against the Flesh so far forth as to mortifie and put it to Death which are the literal importance of the Apostles two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to make our selves Partakers of the sufferings of Christ Which sufferings of Christ do not onely occasion but clearly work for us a weight of Glory And for this very end do we partake of Christ's sufferings by Self-denials on his Accompt That when his Glory shall be revealed we may also rejoyce with exceeding Joy 1 Pet. 4. 13. Yea the bare consideration of such an unspeakable Reward did put S. Paul upon Rejoycing not onely after but in his Sufferings and Self-denials Col. 1. 24. A Reward great enough to make a Coward turn Fighter For who would not fight even for fear that he shall lose such a Reward The onely thing we have to fear is our not fighting enough to win the Prize we fight for Now every Fighter says our Apostle and so say all Agonistick Writers is to keep a strict Diet. S. Paul's words are He must be temperate in all Things Alluding plainly to the Olympicks in which the Combatans were dieted for forty Days Every Man had his Lent whereby to fit him for his Encounter and his Abstinence was his Armour whereby to guard him from a Defeat And if They were so Abstemious to gain a corruptible Crown how much more should we abstain for the gaining of a Crown which is not liable to corruption not onely an exceeding but an aeternal weight of Glory Such was the Logick with which S. Paul argued and such was the Rule of his Acting too For saith He I so run not as uncertainly So fight I not as one that beateth the Air. But I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection His own words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I fight as a Pancratiast that is as a Cuffer and Wrestler too I beat my Body black and blue I make an arrant Slave of it lay upon it both the Yoke and the Cross of Christ subdue my Flesh unto my Spirit deny my self the use of my Christian Liberty suffer the loss of many things which I might lawfully injoy that by any means I may attain to the Resurrection of the Dead that by any means possible I may apprehend That for which I am also apprehended of Christ Jesus All which I take to be imported by those two words 1 Cor. 9. 27. Where by the way we may observe of our Apostle S. Paul He did not war against Another's but against his own Body For he knew his own Body was the worst Enemy to his Soul and that to save himself from it was to keep it under He knew the Flesh to be so sturdy and so implacable a Rebel that if he should suffer it to thrive and to get an Head he would
Laws than the Laws allow Him in his being lawless or no longer than they are usefull and pleasant to him as when they avenge him upon his Enemies protect him in his Liberty and assert him in his Estate deserves not those Benefits of Propriety and safety the Laws afford him Sixthly that as many as do avow themselves Protestants and yet divide from the Church of England do contribute a great deal more towards the bringing in of Popery than All the Emissaries of Rome could have done without them § 10. If we earnestly desire at least as much as in us lies to put an end to all Schisms and Separations to procure or promote the publick Peace of this Nation and in That the publick Safety by procuring and promoting Vniformity in Religion and a general Conformity to the Laws we live under we must be restless in convincing all the People we can converse with of these Six things Not onely by making them unable to deny but by making them able to assert the Truth of them and thereby to be Converters of other men We must never be at rest nor let Them be so until they are perfect in these Particulars Or if not in all yet especially in the chief As that though the Laws of God cannot possibly depend on the Laws of Men but vice versâ yet our Obedience to God's own Laws does depend on our Obedience to Those of Men. They onely differ by the Distinction of mediate and immediate And so they are Termini Convertibiles for the immediate Laws of Men are the mediate Laws of God And that by force of This Text never enough to be repeated and chew'd upon Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake And why for the Lord's sake if not because the Lord hath so appointed What God does mediately command by his several Deputies his Moses and his Aaron his Zerubbabel and his Joshua and all his succeeding Legislators in Church and State He does as really and as truly and as bindingly command as what He immediately commands by a Voice from Heaven In so much that the Distinction of mediate and immediate does no ways alter the Obligation or make God's Law either more or less His. Now though the Doctrine of Obedience unto the mediate Commands of God is very learnedly and piously and frequently preach'd in many Places yet it has not universally its wish'd effect because not preach'd as a Fundamental as essential to our Religion and as of absolute Necessity to the Salvation of the Soul The Doctrine cannot be press'd enough until 't is press'd in This Notion For Liberty is so sweet and Obligation so distastfull to most mens Palates that they will never make Conscience of being punctually Obedient to human Ordinances and Laws whilst they are flatter'd that their Souls may be sav'd without it § 11. Touching the several Ways and Means whereby This Work is to be done I am plainly of This opinion That though it may be well done from out the Pulpit in such profitable Discourses as we commonly call Sermons yet very much better it may be done out of the Pew in the more primitive way of Preaching and the more profitable I think which is Catechizing But best of all by private Conference wherein we deal with our Dissenters one by one and give them the reasonable Advantage which in the publick they cannot have of alledging all they can for their Separation and of objecting all they can against our Church from which they separate and by consequence against the 33 Acts of Parliament by which our Liturgy and Church do remain establish'd For This Advantage given to Them by a Private Conference gives Vs also the Advantage of giving clear and full Answers to their Objections Which if we do to their Satisfaction we shall gain them back to God and to His Spouse our Dear Mother The Church of England This we certainly shall do if their Error is but of Weakness and so consistent with an honest well meaning Spirit whereas if of Wilfulness Pride and Stomach Then indeed they are possess'd with such a Deaf and Dumb Spirit as of which without a Miracle we are not able to dispossess them And so we may lawfully give them over as incurable Patients on whom All Remedies are cast away As we may lawfully cease to cast that which is holy unto Dogs For in good Earnest of the two I do esteem it a lesser Miracle to make the Blind man to see or the Deaf to hear than either the Wilfull to believe or the Obstinate to submit to the clearest Reason The onely Charity left for Such is to deliver them up to Satan I will not say for the Destruction but Humiliation of the Flesh that so if by any means possible their Spirits may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus § 12. If what I have said is not sufficient to reach the end I aim at I will try what success I may happen to obtain by a shorter Method The Method of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus a very Noble Roman of known Integrity Who being accused before the People in a very long Oration by Varius Sucronensis an envious Knave defended himself in a very short one or to say truly in None at all For disdaining to contend with his base Enemy in words He onely ask'd the Roman People this Question Which of the Two ye men of Rome think ye the worthier of your Belief Varius Sucronensis who does confidently affirm Aemilius Scaurus to be Guilty or Aemilius Scaurus rather who does protest that he is Innocent Upon which words alone the Person accused was acquitted and the Envious Accuser severely censur'd In a manner not unlike I shall onely say Here. The great Apostle S. Peter as the Holy Ghost's Penman bids us all submit our selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake Whether to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as sent by Him But certain men of these Times crept in unawares who despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities who think themselves of more knowledge and greater Authority than S. Peter do as absolutely forbid as S. Peter bids us They will not have us submit to any Ordinance of Man either Subordinate or Supreme But they will have us for the Lord's sake to recalcitrate rather and kick at every Ordinance of Man as incroaching too much on our Christian Liberty Now if I ask which of the Two S. Peter or His Enemies we ought to follow or obey very confident I am ye will say S. Peter These I think are words enough to have been us'd at This Time upon the grounds I have to hope that No more are needfull A CAVEAT Touching the Danger of REFUSING THOSE CAVEATS Our LORD hath given us in His GOSPEL HEB. 12. 25. See that ye Refuse not Him that speaketh For if They escaped not who refused Him that spake on Earth much more shall not We escape if we turn away from
the flight of our Comprehension And though evidently credible are not evidently True how True soever in Themselves They have evidence enough to require our Faith though not enough to beget our Knowledge Thus the Trinity in Vnity is as evident in it self as the Godhead is but not so evident unto us And humane Faith may be so strong as to exclude from the Agent all kind of doubting though not from All Objects a Possibility that they are false For nothing can exclude This but Knowledge properly so call'd to which a Certainty is as essential as Credibility is to Faith And the absolute impossibility that the Mysteries of God should admit of falshood ariseth onely from the Verity and Veracity of the Godhead not from the steadiness or the strength much less from the Nature of our Belief But there are other things in Religion which though they are not more True than the Trinity in Unity are yet for all that more Truly Known Thus the Evidence I have of God's Existence is so much greater than my Evidence of his being Three in one or the Scriptures being his Word that I am certain of the former because I know it and I doubt not of the later because I stedfastly believe it My Assurance of the one makes me infallible in my assent which I cannot say I am through my Confidence of the other unless I have it by a miraculous and immediate Illumination as fully as the Apostles their Gift of Tongues Thus the Ground of the Difference of the things spoken of in our Religion is the Difference of the Ground upon which they stand to wit a greater or lesser Evidence to our short sighted Souls not a greater or lesser Truth and Reality of their Beings For neither our Knowledge nor our Belief have any influence on the Things we Believe or Know. § 17. This Distinction being premis'd I proceed thus to argue and thereby to answer the Quaere made Every man's Vnderstanding is too too sawcy with his Will in pretending it is its Priviledge to give a judgement universally of Truth and Falshood an Error not the less grievous for its having been occasion'd by a very great Truth For though 't is the office of the Intellect in the Intellect's own Court to pass a verdict upon Things within its Cognizance yet in such Transcendentals as are very much without and above its verge or by a natural Right and Title beyond all humane Comprehension a good understanding will confess It must not determine but obey For to know things exactly does onely denominate us Learned but not Religious good Philosophers indeed but not good Men. The word Religion and the Thing being well consider'd as 't is by few and but seldom Its ratio formalis will be found not to stand in proud Knowledge but meek Obedience And in Obedience of the whole Man as well of the Soul as of the Body And in the Soul too we owe an absolute Obedience of all our Faculties to God of our Appetites our Wills our Vnderstandings Science and Religion do herein differ more especially that in the first our Understandings direct the Will but in the second they concur in submission with it in That our Reason may command as a proud Dictatrix but in This she must obey as a most Teachable Disciple And for This there is very great reason For 't is so natural to Religion to have its Mysteries or Objects peculiar to Faith alone that neither the Greeks nor the Barbarians could ever indure to be without them And if there are few Mechanick Arts which have not their Mysteries and Secrets unknown to All who are not Artists what an unnatural thing were it if the Mystery of Godliness God manifest in the Flesh or the Religion of the True God who is Incomprehensible should have nothing conteined in it beyond the fathom or flight of a finite reason What man knows the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 11. And truly if it were otherwise where were the Merit or the Mystery or the Necessity of Believing on which so great a stress in Scripture is every where laid by our Lord Himself We find in our Gospel these two rational Expressions The Obedience of Faith Rom. 16. 26. and the Law of Faith Rom. 3. 27. 'T is the Obedience of our Faith which is so pleasing unto God as that without This it is impossible for us to please Him Heb. 11. 6. If Faith it self were not Obedience unto That which is called the Law of Faith and to the Lawgiver himself who hath commanded us to Believe It would not be so meritorious or so rewardable in its Nature as now it is For herein chiefly does consist the excellent Nature of Religion and of all religious Worship and withall the rationability of the immensity of our Reward that 't is attended with Self-denial and a Resignedness of the All that is most excellent in our Souls unto the Will of that Object we thus adore Whereas if we absolutely Knew whatsoever by our Religion we are obliged to Acknowledge or were we obliged to acknowledge what we see or feel onely there could not be possibly such a Thing as real Virtue in our Assent when 't would be impossible not to assent to what we should distinctly Know and as impossible not to acknowledge what with our brutish and common Senses we see or feel Necessity and Vertue are incompatible in All but in God Himself And even in Him speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they differ too Our Knowledge indeed may be call'd a Physical but not a religious or moral Virtue There are Virtues indeed which do lead to Knowledge and Knowledge truly so call'd does dispose to Virtues But naked Science is a meer Intellectual Habit wherein the Devils themselves excel and was never yet reckon'd an Ethick Virtue The reason of all which is plain and obvious For the Object of a Man's Knowledge does compel his assent whereas the Object of his Faith does but invite it To matters of Faith our Assent is due but to matters of Knowledge 't is unavoidable Our Knowledge shews onely we are intelligent in our nature but our Faith shews in us also the Grace of Meekness That indeed infers the Conspicuity of the Object but This which is more the Flexibility of the Will To sum up the difference in a word by light of knowledge it appears that we are a reasoning sort of Creatures but by the Obedience of our Faith that we are Religious ones § 18. From these Premises I infer we ought not to trouble our selves at all that we cannot fully Know so far forth as we can Believe For God has given us Knowledge enough if we live not up to it to greaten our future Condemnation and the knowledge which He denies us is not necessary at all to our future safety
And seeing 't is one of God's Attributes to be by Nature Incomprehensible who were he not so could not be God 'T is fit the learnedst of his Creatures should be contentedly in the Dark as to many things the firm Belief of which things they stick not to testifie with their Blood If we believe the Will of God to be revealed in his Word and therein the Three Subsistences in but one and the same Substance we may not be vext with the Experience of our being yet unqualify'd to comprehend how it should be For whatsoever things they are we are commanded but to Believe it cannot possibly be a Sin not to be able to know exactly But 't is a Sin to be disquieted that the sublimest Things of God do exceed our Reach and that whilst we are finite Infinite Things will be above us To comprehend what is finite a finite Intellect is sufficient and as sufficient also it is to Apprehend what is Infinite though not at all to comprehend it so great and wide the difference is between an Apprehensive and a Comprehensive knowledge but an Adaequate knowledge of God is onely competent to God As for Certainty and Knowledge God has wisely dealt to us such fit Proportions that we have Ground enough given us in God's own Word to want with comfort what we have not and to injoy what we have with Moderation 'T is there we are assured of a threefold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Full assurance A Full assurance of Faith Heb. 10. 22. A Full assurance of Hope Heb. 6. 11. A Full assurance of Vnderstanding Col. 2. 2. The last imports a full Knowledge of what is Knowable in God and fit or good for us to Know which leads us on to an Acknowledgement of the Mysteries of God in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisedom and Knowledge And this does prompt me to observe S. Paul's Distinction between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Things of God which may be known Rom. 1. 19. and the other Things of God which are Hidden from us Col. 2. 3. As for God's Existence from everlasting to everlasting his omnipresence his omnipotence his all-sufficience and his omniscience his Truth and Justice his Love and Goodness and the like in respect of all These we perfectly Know whom we Believe We have literally speaking a Full assurance of Vnderstanding But for the Trinity of Persons the Incarnation of God the Son his Circumcision his Crucifixion his Satisfaction for all our Sins the Resurrection of our Bodies and Immortality of our Souls in respect of all These we rather Believe whom we have known We have in These a Full assurance of Faith and Hope onely And the perfection of our knowing the things of God which may be known is Ground enough for our Believing the things of God which are Hidden from us § 19. Of what has hitherto been said Two good Vses may here be made The one of Confutation the other of Comfort That belongs to Those men who are affectedly Vnbelievers This will redound unto our selves when in meer humane frailty we sometimes waver And Both together will be an Answer to the Third Quaere which I propos'd touching the Powers and the Effects and the great Benefits of Believing as well as of knowing whom we believe clearly implied in the Text by the Causal For as That imports S. Paul's Reason why he was not asham'd of the things he suffer'd For this Cause says He to Timothy I suffer these things But I am not asham'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For I know whom I have believed § 20. First to the Wilfull Vnbeliever who does affect being Incredulous and casts about for all Colours to nourish the humour in himself I shall argue Thus. That He who is so thick-headed as to alledge he is not sure there is a Life after Death and a Day of Judgement must needs confess himself so Dull too as not to be surer that there is None And 't is sufficient to oblige a prudent Person to live exactly upon the account of Prudence onely that a life after Death and so a Judgment if he does not yet fully know it may happen to him for ought he Knows And that Aeternity of Punishments as well as of Rewards is barely Possible And that the Negative is not Demonstrable any more than the Affirmative Yea that the Negative cannot be possibly because a Negative but the Affirmative as it is such has a passive power at least which the Negative has not of being the subject of Demonstration For thus the Existence of a Deity may be demonstrated by a Person who is of greater Perspicuity than the man who Doubts of it though not by Him who is so stupid and in a manner so unman'd as to be able to make a Doubt in so clear a Case Whereas the Negative to This that a Deity does not exsist can be demonstrated by None how acute soever nor was ever yet pretended to be Demonstrable by Any The most insipid of Fools is able to say there is no God and it can be but said by the wittiest Atheist But to return to That Instance which was of an Article of our Faith and of Faith alone to wit a Punishment Aeternal or a Life after Death or a Day of Judgment I say an Evil which is uncertain and by consequence so contingent as that it may or may not be must be provided against in Policy if not in Conscience or Religion by one who would not be a Fool as well as an Epicure or an Atheist A Lazarus may be sent out of Abraham's Bosom though de facto none is and a Dives out of the Deep too to certifie the Truth of an Heaven and Hell upon a supposal that such there are But on a supposal that there are not nor an Existence after Death 'T is plain that None can be sent to us with a Certificate that there is None From whence 't is evident that the Believer must needs be much on the safest side because the Object of his Belief is under an evident Possibility of Demonstration whereas the Contrary to This is flatly Impossible to be prov'd Besides there is This great Difference too that if the Believer is deceiv'd he does but lose the short pleasures of vitious living but if the Incredulous is deceiv'd He incurs the long Torments or rather endless and so not long which will be one day the Wages of it § 21. But in dealing as I now do with the obstinate Skeptick or the affected Vnbeliever I onely argue from his own Principles of carnal Reason and common Sense And have spoken onely of Faith as the Child of Fear which is of the Flesh Not a word of That Faith which is the Fruit of Spirit and is not acquired but infus'd nor the product of Art but a work of Grace The Faith imported in my Text is of a far more sublime and transcendent