and he be become a gracious father unto you in Christ Jesus is your hatred of sin general your love of goodness universal do you increase and grow every day more and more in grace and goodness in your hatred and opposition of sin Have you a care of the inward man as well as of the outward and do you look more to the heart then to the outward actions is not there some secret darling bosome and beloved sin upon which your heart is set which you defend and maintain against all that Gods Ministers can say against it and will not be convinced in conscience of it or acknowledge it to be a sin do you not call your pride decency your lust love your drunkenness goodfellowship your malice zeal your covetousness thrift Or is there not some secret sin like Herod his incest which you defend to be lawful ye may know concerning your selves in what terms you stand with God whether you be in Christ or whether you be in the flesh unless ye be ignorant persons and know not what the desires of the flesh mean But yet though it be an easie matter to know this concerning your selves yet it is the hardest matter of a thousand to know this concerning others whether they be in the faith or no. Restraining grace it may work as perfect a hatred of some sins and as perfect a love of some graces and virtues as saving grace They who outwardly appear very wicked men they may hate some vices with as perfect a hatred as it is possible for men to do who carry about them a body of flesh and love some virtues with as perfect a love as it is possible for men to do who live since the fall of Adam yea restraining grace may work such a reformation of the outward man and of the inward man too that there may not be many sins in the heart unpurged out We read of Herod how he reformed himself in many things at Iohns preaching and he had not many sins with which he was greatly in love beside his incest And Iehu beside his state policy he had not many sins upon which his heart was set And whether it be constraint of laws restraint of shame custome and example of others that teacheth men to do well whether God work by his mercies or by his judgements by his word or by the good motions of his Spirit by fits and by starts extraordinarily Or whether there be a constant and a continued work of the spirit whether there be a general hatred of sin whether mens obedience to Gods laws and commandments be total or partial Whether there be many sins reigning in men or one darling sin upon which their heart is set unpurged out These are secrets known onely to God who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins This men must see unless they will shut their eyes against a known truth that there is in all men living a hatred of some vices and a love of some virtues and though it be restraining grace that worketh in the most yet for ought we know or ought to judge it is saving grace that worketh in all And that there should be in a Christian Common-wealth this distinction of the godly and the wicked for my part I see no reason for it Charity thinketh no evil but is easily perswaded to believe that all the congregation of the Lord is holy This is a certain truth we cannot certainly know and ought not peremtorily to judge of any men or company of men that they are in the whole tenour of their lives wicked men or profane persons or that they are in the whole tenour of their lives hypocrits or false christians But if men may probably conjecture of a great many that they are sinners or hypocrits know them by their fruits because it outwardly appeareth to the world that many sins reign in them What use should they make of their knowledge Let them abstain from their company and not partake with them in their sins If necessity or some occasion of business force them into their company let them soberly admonish them of their faults that they may amend let them reprove and rebuke them sharply if they doe not amend let them informe against them that they may be reformed if their sins be capital or scandalous punishable by the laws of the land let them mourn in secret because they do pray in private that they may not continually dishonour God by their unlawful deeds their open profanes and their secret hypocrisie these things are good and acceptable in the sight of God If beside these you can think of any lawful means to reduce men from their sins their open profaness and their secret hypocrisie on God his name use it But as for all slandring and traducing men for sin all casting out their names and evil all rash censuring of their present condition all uncharitable and unchristian judging of their future as final condition let not these things be once named among you as becometh saints For my part I know no man so flagitiously sinful that I dare determine of him that he is in the state of condemnation though I see him in the acts of impiety for I know there is a salve for this sore his repentant tears And if I say that such a one is a saint in the state of grace and hath right to the kingdome of heaven when he doth well I say no more then charity bindeth me to speak when I see a man that is suspected to have sinned the sin against the holy Ghost I may peradventure think that there is small hopes of remission for such a one because he cannot repent yet I shall be sparing to terme such an one a reprobate when I fee him sin and shall be bold to say he is a saint when he doth well Be charitable and judge of no mans final condition ye cannot certainly know and therefore ought not to say of any men lining though they be never so hainously sinful that they are in the state of condemnation And yet still there are a number a multitude the whole world lieth in wickedness walloweth and tumbleth in this sinful condition in this polluted estate their conscience is defiled their heart is corrupt set upon sin they have no sence nor feeling of their sins they are touched with no remorse for them they will not weed them out of their hearts and though others may not and we dare not judge them any otherwise then as God judgeth them yet unless they will judge and condemne them selves and endeavour to purge sin out of their hearts we must leave them where we found them in the flesh insuch a condition wherein they cannot please God nor have right to the kingdome of heaven but are liable to God his curse and eternal damnation for so they see the scripture speaketh so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God But I shall rather 3 Ephes 16 17 18. 19 ver pray for such as are in the flesh that God would grant them according to the riches if his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit according to the inner man that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith that they being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth And length and depth and height and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg that they may be 1 Pet. 10. 4 ver filled with the fulness of God and have right to an inheritance incorruptible immortal undefiled not fading away reserved in the heavens for them Amen FINIS
can be found innocent if God should deal with them according to the rigour of his justice Vae August confess laudabili vitae hominum si remota miserecordia discutias eam Wo unto the most praise-worthy life of men if God shall examine it without mercy And so Arnobius Arno. in Psal Vae nobis si quod debeamus exegerit vel quod debet rediderit Wo unto us all if God should exact of us what we owe or are indebted unto him or return unto us according to our deserts I beseech you beloved brethren whosoever you are can you do any thing to please God have you any righteousness that is not stained survay your own best actions abhor your selves in dust ashes your most lovely virtues your goodliest actions they receive such a tincture from the corrupt channel from whence they proceed that you must needs see nothing but a menstruous cloth have you any thing to glory of before God take heed least he enter into judgement with you you will find that all flesh hath corrupted it self before God and that you have nothing but what others have imperfect goodness But yet goodness it is Gods gift and the effect of our Saviours sufferings and though it be imperfect in all in regard we are not subjects capable of perfect goodness yet God as he wroketh it in all so he loveth it and is pleased with it in all that he worketh it And whether he worketh it by restraining grace in those that are in their natural condition or by saving grace in those that are in their spiritual condition he is pleased with it accepteth it will reward it for Christs sake Some good works that are wrought by restraining grace they are as lovely in the sight of men and as pleasing in the sight of God as are those that are wrought by saving grace And God as he worketh so he is pleased with and accepteth of goodness in every body It was Gods speech to Cain if thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted He accepteth of every body when they do well he will reward his own works and will be no mans debter for goodness He hath rewarded you he will reward you he doth reward you for works of piety for deeds of charity for any thing that is good So then this is not the meaning of the words howsoever some please to descant and paraphrase upon them that those that are in the flesh their best actions are abominable their goodness imperfect and they cannot please God for so are the actions of the best Saints living and some actions that are wrought by restraining grace are as perfect as those that are wrought by saving grace though both of them are imperfect and God is pleased to accept of imperfect goodness for Christs sake and reward it Onely herein is the difference those good deeds that proceed from restraining grace they have the promise onely of a temporary reward but those good deeds that proceed from saving grace they entitle men to heaven and salvation So then the meaning of the Apostles words as it may appear plainly to those that are not minded wilfully to pervert the Scritures is this They that are unreconciled unconverted unrenewed in the spirit of their mindes they cannot so please God that he should accept of their imperfect obedience and entitle them to heaven and deliver them from hell This then is the miserable condition of all those who have not felt the inward Covenant the circumcision of the heart in whom restraining grace hath wrought onely a hatred of some few sins and a love of some few vertues and the saving grace of Gods Spirit hath not inlightened the understanding with the knowledge of all sins which by the search of reason can be found to be sins nor reformed the will that there should be a hatred of all sins nor rectified the affections that so this hatred of sin should increase more and more But they do good by fits and by starts as they are taught by custome and example of others as they are induced unto it by Gods mercies and his judgements or as it pleaseth him sometimes to work extraordinarily in their hearts by his word and the good motions of his Spirit Such as these they are in the flesh and cannot please God that is they are out of Gods favour the wrath of God abideth upon them they have no hopes of heaven nor of happiness after this life And what more miserable condition can there be then this It is a life no life when Gods frowning and ireful countenance is toward men When men have no assurance of heaven no hopes in their death their consciences tell them that they have lived so that they shall never see God nor enjoy the company nor presence of the blessed Angels but shall have their portion 20 Revel 10 ver in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone with the devil and his angels Sure the wrath of God for sin it causeth men to pine and languish away in despair When thou with rebukes 39 Psal 11 ver doest chasten a man for sin thou causest his beauty to consume away like a moth fretting a garment and who can 76 Psal 7 ver stand when thou art angry saith the Psalmist If God please to hide away his face from his Saints from his servants for a moment in a little 54 Isaiah 6 ver wrath nothing can afford them comfort And when he teareth the wicked in his wrath for the multitude of their transgressions as some time his hand is heavy upon them here for their sins his wrath is a burden unsupportable Let then their own experience of the heaviness of Gods wrath when he afflicteth them for a short time for their sins in his wrath teach them what a miserable condion it is to be such men with whom God will be angry for ever If so be then that God be pleased with mens good works with their hearty sighes and earnest groans their weeping and howling and their repentance for sin If God see these things and be pleased with them yet if he be not so pleased with them that he should accept of mens good works of their repentance for sin that so they should be delivered from his wrath and have hopes of heaven and happiness what are they the better And yet unless men be inwardly renewed in the spirit of their mindes and have felt a change of the whole minde of the whole man they shall not be intitled to heaven they shall not be delivered from hell This then is the misery of those who remain unreconciled unconverted whose hearts are unchanged unaltered they are liable to Gods curse and eternal damnation Heaven they have no part nor portion in it Christian Reader whosoever thou art think now think I say if it be possible for thee to conceive the greatness of this misery what a miserable condition it is when men
Galatians 19 and 20 verses The works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication laciviousness uncleanness Idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulation wrath strife seditious heresies envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like they are exceedingly in love with these and spare not to commit them so far forth as they come not within the compass of mens laws to be punished yea and many times they leap over the laws of God and the land wallow in swinish pleasures and sinful surfeting follow their brutish appetites their sinful and sensual desires give no law to their unbridled passions to their loose carriages to their dissolute behaviours to their unjust practises the restraint neither of Gods laws nor of mens can keep them within bounds but they break both and pursue their evil courses with all vehemency and violence And are such as the Scripture speaketh of the unjust Judge They neither fear God nor 18 Luke 4 ver regard man but oppress the poor grind their faces undo the fatherless and widows against all law and equity and yet they have no sence nor feeling of their sins they are touched with no remorse for them The terror of the law which doometh death and damnation to the breach of the least of Gods Commandments the horror of their own guilty consciences when they see their sins laid before them in their own ugly plight shape and form doth not make them so to groan under the burden of their sins that they should see what a sweet thing it is to have a Saviour what a happiness it is to be a Christian They are not so wearied with the heavy load and burden of their sins that they should seek and finde rest in Christ Jesus But they 5 Wis 7 8 ver weary themselves in the way of wickednes and never say what hath pride profited us Or what good hath riches with our vanting brought us till they groan out this in hell where they are never like to have part in God or inheritance in Christ These now are the wicked and such as these they are in the flesh and fulfil the desires of the flesh and of the minde and sure some such men as these the Apostle yieldeth and granteth that there may be They have not their understanding informed nor their reason rectified Their talk is of bullocks and they know 〈◊〉 how to give the kine fodder or their discourse is of their wares and their merchandise and they know how to buy and sell and get gain But they are strangers in Israel unacquainted with the mysteries of Christ and his kingdom That Christ came down from heaven and 13 Act. 23 ver was inclosed in the virgins womb that he was born of the seed of David and took flesh for our redemption his Priestly his Princely his Prophetical office his being God his being Man the necessity of his being both for our redemption His humiliation his exaltation his humility that he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross his exaltation his rising again from the dead his glorification his leading captivity captive These are things that they have small knowledge of or if they have some confused knowledge of the fall of Adam of the corrupt state and condition of all mankind since the fall of the impossibility of keeping Gods Laws and Commandements and of the necessity of a Saviour to free us from the curse of sin which is death and from the punishment of the breach of Gods Laws which is damnation have they now a lively 5 Gal. 6 ver faith that worketh by love to purge their consciences from dead works to serve the living Lord Do they believe in Jesus Christ and him crucified yet they believe that there is one God and one Mediator between 2 Tim. 2 c. 5 ver God and man the man Christ Jesus Yea S. Iames telleth them that the 2 Jam. 19 ver devils believe and tremble But do they believe that Christ died for their sins and rose again for their 4 Rom. 8 ver justification yea they believe that Christ died for the sins of the whole world and more particularly for 1 Tim. 4 c. 10 ver theirs and they are ready at any time when they are weary and heavy laden with the burden of their sins to apply Christ and his merits to themselves for the remission of them and therefore they make no question but they are truly engraffed into Christ and made lively members of his body yea they weary Christ with the load and burden of their sins and make him their pack-horse to bear their iniquities and as God speaketh by his Prophet He is pressed under them as a cart is pressed that 2 Amos 13 ver as full of sheaves But do they so groan under the burden of their sins that they desire to be rid of them and to purge them out of their hearts Doth their faith in Christ for the remission of their sins increase their hatred of 2 Cor. 7 c. 1 ver sin and their desire to cleanse themselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit Hereby they shall know whether they be in Christ or no They that are Christs the Apostle telleth us have crucified the flesh with the affections 5 Gal. 24 ver and lusts Unless therefore men crucifie the flesh and mortifie their earthly members fornication uncleanness immoderate affection evil concupiscence covetousness and the like they are not in Christ but are still in the flesh and whatsoever right or title they may plead to Christ they are carnally they are earthly minded Let not sin reign in your mortal 6 Rom. 12 ver bodies that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof If then mens hearts and consciences tell them that they are not renewed in the spirit of their 4 Eph. 23. minde their hearts are set upon evil the thoughts of their hearts are evil and 6 Gen. 5 ver that continually the evil desires of the flesh they swarm there and the carnal desires of the mind they nourish and cherish them please themselves in them take a great deal of delight to suffer their mindes to wander after vain pleasures and sinful delights and as for the inward corruption of the heart they give no stay nor stop to it For the proneness and propensity of the heart to evil and the indisposition thereof to do good they see it not or if they do they love it with all their heart and desire to live and die in this polluted estate this corrupted condition over run with sin and iniquity Their heart is corrupt their conscience defiled and yet they are touched with no remorse for the inward pollution of their souls for the outward defilement of their bodies but make sin their solace and iniquity their pastime and if God do so work by his word by the good motions of his Spirit by
his mercies by his judgements as to restrain them from some open enormious crimes If there be some few virtues that they love and some few vices that they hate and their corruption doth not shew it self in the commission of them yet when they hear of an inward change of the whole minde of the whole man of a general hatred of sin and a general love of goodness that so God might accept of their imperfect obedience for Christs sake and intitle them to heaven and salvation this they cannot endure To fear all their waies with the holy man Iob and to refrain their feet 1 Job 5 ver 119 Psal 101 ver from every evil path with the Psalmist this they will not admit of They have not onely one but many sins reigning in them and many virtues there be which Gods Ministers have made appear to their understanding are exceeding lovely and yet they will not practise them Their heart is not whole within them the mass of corruption lieth there still The old leaven is not 1 Cor. 5 c. 7 ver purged out that so it may be a new lump There is the same proneness and propensity of the heart to evil and the same indisposition to do good And excepting that the restraining grace of Gods Spirit doth restrain them from the commission of some sins and enable them to do some good their practise for the general it is to do evil and not to do good Such as these there are and such as these they are in the flesh and make 3 Rom. 14 ver provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof And thus I leave the first thing implied in the words that some may be involved in this natural 2 Doctrin condition and be in the flesh As the Apostle yieldeth that some may be in this condition so he further granteth that a great many are in this condition it is set forth in the plural number they that are in the flesh And so I proceed to prove that which is plainly expressed and come in the second place to show that there are numbers and multitudes that are in the flesh our Saviour in the seventh of S. Matthews Gospel telleth us that wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in thereat And every where in Scripture we have the multitude of wicked men described and set forth unto us S. Paul layeth it down in his Epistle to the Romans as the Psalmist had before set it down and the wiseman in his Proverbs 3 Rom. the 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 verses They are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one their throat is an open sepulchre With their tongues they have used deceit the poyson of aspes is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are in their waies and the way of peace they have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes And the Psalmist bringeth in God wondring at the multitude of wicked men Have they no knowledge that they 14 Psal 4 ver are all such workers of mischief eating up my people as it were bread and call not upon God Nos numerus sumus fruges consumere nati we were all of us so in our natural condition and no doubt but there are still a number a multitude of Epicurean people who think they are born onely to eat and to drink 12 Joh. 19 ver and to enjoy the sinful pleasures of of this life Though the world went 6 Joh. 26 ver after Christ and the multitudes followed him yet it was but for loaves for carnal and by respects and he had but few true disciples and they were not many in whom the word of God did take place They were not all Israelites that were of Israel Neither are they now all truly converted that live in the bosome of the Church Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea a remnant shall be saved They are but a remnant a few a small company that have saving grace whereby the soul should be converted Many are called but few 20 Matth 16 ver 2 Tim. â— c. 21 ver are chosen to be vessels of honour sanctified and meet for the masters use The many the number the multitude they have not felt the inward 31 Jerm 33 ver Covenant the circumcision of the heart whereby God should put his law in their hearts and write it in their inward parts there is no truth in their inward parts their inward parts are very wickedness They say 5 Psal 9 ver as it is in Iob Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes 21 Job 14 ver God would have healed them but they would not They love to lie in this polluted estate this sinful condition And as for the inward corruption of the heart they do not desire that it should be abolished they will not purge it out yea and many multitudes there are of such kinde of men They go by companies into 23 Prov. 20 ver 5 Jer. 7. ver 64 Psal 5. ver the Taverns they assemble themselves by troops into the harlots houses they meet together and commune of laying snares they encourage one another in unjust practises and their onely care is to buy 5 Jam. 13 ver 1 Thes 4 c. 6 ver and sell and get gain and go beyond their neighbours in bargaining but among these multidudes of evil men there are but a few godly Christians a few good men A world of sinners there were in the dayes of Noah but one Noah a preacher of righteousness A great many of filthy and unclean Sodomites but one righteous Lot whose soul was vexed with the filthy Conversation of the unclean Sodomites And S. Peter reckoning up the multitude of sinners that were in the dayes of Noah and in the dayes of Lot sheweth that there should be the like multitude of sinners in the world unto the worlds end And as Gods vengeance did not sleep against the multitude of sinners that were in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot so neither should it sleep against the multitude of sinners that shloud be in the world unto the worlds end But cheifly Gods vengeance should shew it self against those who walk after the flesh in the lusts of uncleanness presumptuous are they self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil 2 Pet. 2 c. 10 ver of dignities Wilful sinners then there are who walk after the flesh and commit all uncleanness with greediness And many such evil disposed persons there are who make a sport of sin and pastime of iniquity and who is there almost that his heart should stand affected as the Psalmist speaketh that he should