and Living Faith that worketh by Love which is the very Essence of the New Creature or Regenerate Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be imputed or accounted for Righteousness under the Gospel-dispensation where God will not proceed according to Legal Rigour and Severity with his fallen Creatures but according to that Equity and ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Philosopher tells us is the Truest Justice But our onely design is to caution against that Antinomian Error which is too often insinuated under the Notion of Imputed Righteousness as if there were no necessity of Inherent Righteousness and a Real Victory over Sin in order to Salvation but that an Imputed or Imaginary one might serve the turn Which Error springing up very early amongst the Gnostick-Christians S. John gives a seasonable Antidote against it 1 John 3. 7. Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth Righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous and in Chap. 2. v. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a Liar and the Truth is not in him To which purpose is that also in his first Chap. v. 5. This is the Message which we have heard of him and declare to you That God is Light and in him is no Darkness at all If we say that we have Fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and doe not the Truth But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have Fellowship one with another and the Bloud of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Wherefore the same Apostle in that Epistle tells us of overcoming the Wicked one Chap. 2. 14. and of overcoming the World by our Faith in Christ Chap. 5. 4. And in the Apocalyps he propoundeth from Christ himself divers remarkable Promises to him that overcometh That he shall eat of the Tree of life that is in the midst of the Paradise of God c. 2. v. 7. That he shall not be hurt of the Second Death v. II. That he shall have the hidden Manna and a white Stone with a new Name written in it which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it v. 17. That he will give him the morning Star v. 28. That he shall be clothed in white Raiment and his name shall not be blotted out of the Book of Life c. 3. v. 5. That he shall be a Pillar in the Temple of God v. 12. and That he shall sit with Christ in his Throne as he overcame and sate down with his Father in his Throne v. 21. The Condition of all which Promises being Overcoming we may well conclude from thence that there is a Real and not an Imaginary Victory onely to be obtained over the Power of Sin as well as the Guilt of it Nay it is true and very observable that those Places which are usually quoted as the Foundation of an Imputed Righteousness in some other sense then what we have before mentioned are indeed no otherwise to be understood then of a Real Inward Righteousness that is wrought or infused by the Spirit of Christ. As that principal one Philip. 3. v. 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord that I may win him and be found in him not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith Where Christ whom the Apostle desires to win and to be found in and the Righteousness which is through the Faith of Christ and the Righteousness which is of God through Faith are no External Imputed Righteousness but the Real Inward Righteousness of the New Creature wrought by the Spirit of Christ through Faith which is opposed here to our own Righteousness and the Righteousness which is of the Law that is the Righteousness of outward Works done by our own Natural power according to the Letter of the Law in our Unregenerate state for so the following words explain the meaning That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable unto his Death If by any means I might attain to the Resurrection of the dead And this same Inward and Real Righteousness is often elsewhere called Christ and the New man that is said to be In us and which we are exhorted to Put on not by Conceit or Imagination onely but by real Conformity to his Nature and Participation of his Spirit And whereas the Magnifiers of Free Grace in an Antinomian sense and the Decriers of Inherent Righteousness commonly conceive that the Free Grace of God consists in nothing but either in the Pardon of Sin and Exemption from Punishment or the Imputation of an External Holiness and accounting men Just freely without any Condition but onely the mere Believing of this that they are so accounted and that Faith is no otherwise considered in the Gospel then in order to the Believing of this Imputation and that our own Works when they are comparatively undervalued to Grace and Faith are to be taken for all Inherent Righteousness and Holiness even the New Creature it self That all these are Errors as it might be abundantly proved from sundry other places of Scripture so it may sufficiently appear from that one Ephes. 2. v. 4 c. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ by Grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together That in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his Grace and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus For by Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of Works left any man should boast For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works For when we are here said to be saved by Grace it is plain that the Apostle means by Saved inwardly Quickned and Sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Grotius well here is Purgari à Vittis which inward Sanctification is here attributed to God's Free Grace and denied to our selves and to Works the meaning whereof is that it is not effected by our own Works whether of outward Morality or Legal Ceremonies done by our Natural power in the Unregenerate state but by the quickning and enlivening Spirit of Christ inwardly creating us a-new And lastly Faith is plainly made the Instrument of this inward Sanctification that is not wrought by our own Works but the Grace and Spirit of Christ. Whence we may well conclude That the true Object of the Christian Faith is not onely the Bloud of Christ shed upon the Cross for the Remission of Sin but also the renewing Spirit of Christ for the inward conquering and mortifying of it and the Quickning or Raising of us to an Heavenly Life And I dare be bold
otherwise altogether unwarrantable in themselves may notwithstanding be justified by Zeal for God and good Ends. But God needs no mans Zeal to promote an Imaginary Interest of his in the World by doing unjust things for him Will you speak wickedly for God or talk deceitfully for him will you accept his Person 'T was the generous Expostulation of Job with his Friends and he tells them in the following words that this was nothing else but to mock God as one man mocketh another True Divine Zeal is no Corybantick Fury but a calm and regular Heat guided and managed by Light and Prudence and carried out principally neither for nor against Indifferent Rites and unnecessary Opinions but those things that are immutably Good and Fundamental to Christianity alwaies acknowledging a due Subordination to that Authority Civil and Ecclesiastical that is over us Lastly Some there are whose pretence to Religion and the Spirit is founded in nothing else but a Faculty of Rhetoricating and extemporizing with Zeal and Fervency which they take to be nothing less then Divine Inspiration and that which the Scripture calls Praying in the Holy Ghost an undoubted Character of a person truly Regenerated Which being a great delusion whereby many are hindred from seeking after the real effects of the Divine Spirit by idolizing instead thereof that which is merely Natural if not Artificial I think it not impertinent here to speak a little of it And certainly that which is frequently attained to in the very height by persons grosly hypocritical and debauched can never be concluded to be Divine Inspiration or to proceed from any higher Principle then mere Natural Enthusiasm For there is not onely a Poetical Enthusiasm of which Plato discourseth in his Ion but though Oratory be a more sober thing a Rhetorical Enthusiasm also that makes men very eloquent affectionate and bewitching in their language beyond what the power of any bare Art and Precepts could inable them unto insomuch that both these Poets and Orators have oftentimes conceited themselves to be indeed divinely inspired as those known Verses testify Est Deus in nobis agitante calescimus illo and Sedibus aethereis Spiritus ille venit And concerning Orators the like might be proved if the time would here permit by sundry Testimonies But I shall here instance onely in Aristides a famous Orator who not onely speaks positively of himself as inspired in his Oratiòns but affirms the same also concerning Rhetorick in general when it is extraordinary that it comes by immediate Inspiration as Oracles and Prophecies doe and not from Art or Nature Wherefore it is not at all to be wondred at if when men are employed in Religious and Devotional Exercises the same Natural Enthusiasm especially having the advantage of Religious Melancholy which makes men still more Enthusiastical should so wing and inspire the Phancies of these Religious Orators as to make them wonderfully fluent eloquent and rapturous so that they beget strange Passions in their Auditors and conclude themselves to be Divinely inspired Whereas notwithstanding they may have no more of Divine Inspiration in all this then those Poets and Orators before mentioned had that is to say be no otherwise inspired then by a Rhetorical Hypochondriacal Enthusiasm that is merely Natural But it is farre from my Intention here to disparage the sincere and ardent Affections of devout Souls naturally and freely breathing out their earnest Desires unto God in private although perhaps this be not without some kind of Enthusiasm also For Enthusiasm as well as Zeal and other Natural things may be well used and being rightly circumstantiated and subservient to a better principle become irreprehensible Some have observed that no great work of the Brain that begot much admiration in the World was ever atchieved without some kind of Enthusiasm and the same may be affirmed of the most transcendently Vertuous and Heroical Actions But then the Goodness of these Actions is never to be estimated merely by the Degree of Enthusiastick Heat and Ardor that is in them but by such other Laws and Circumstances as Moralize humane Actions Wherefore my meaning as I said before is onely this To caution against that Vulgar and Popular Error of mistaking the Natural and Enthusiastick Fervour of mens spirits and the Ebulliency of their Phancy when it is tinctur'd with Religion and idolizing of it instead of the supernatural Grace of God's Holy Spirit and of looking for the Effect of Religion and Demonstration of God's Spirit principally in Words and Talk or thinking that God is chiefly glorified with a loud Noise and long Speeches For the true Demonstration of God's Holy Spirit is no-where to be look'd for but in Life and Action or such earnest and affectionate breathings after a farther participation of the Divine Image as are accompanied with real and unfeigned endeavours after the same which is the true Praying in the Holy Ghost though there be no extemporaneous effusion of words And therefore when some Corinthians were puffed up by reason of a Faculty which they had of Rhetoricating Religiously S. Paul like an Apostle tells them that he would come amongst them and know not the Speech of them that were puffed up but the Power For the Kingdome of God saith he consisteth not in Word but in Power and Life Wherefore laying aside these and such like childish mistakes and things that are little to the purpose let us seriously apply our selves to the main Work of our Religion that is to mortify and vanquish our Sinful Lusts by the Assistence of God's Holy Spirit through Faith in Christ that so being Dead to Sin here we may live with God eternally hereafter The End Verse 17. Rom. 4. In Iggereth Teman Psal. 106. Luke 24. 1 Cor. 15. 27. Verse 24. Verse 28. 2 Cor. 3. Revel 3. 19. 1 Pet. 4. 1. Prov. 17. 15. Phll. 3. 12. 1 Joh. 3. 9. Ezck. 20. 25. * See Gemara in Chetuboth cap. 13. Ein Is-rael num 50. * In Nachalath Avoth cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the very same with the opinion of the Christians that hold that after the Resurrection men shall not eat drink marry or be given in marriage or die again but continue eternally in those Bodies resembling the Heavenly Bodies and these they vulgarly call Glorified Bodies 1 Cor. 4. 19.
Soul yet it has no just Title much less a Right of Inheritance in it For Sin is but a Stranger and Foreiner in the Soul an Usurper and Intruder into the Lord's Inheritance Sin it is no Nature as S. Austin and others of the Fathers often inculcate but an adventitious and extraneous thing and the true and ancient Nature of the Soul of Man suffers violence under it and is oppressed by it It is nothing else but the Preternatural state of Rational Beings and therefore we have no reason to think it must needs be perpetual and unalterable It is a strange thing that a jarring Instrument by the hand of a skilful Musician should ever be set in tune again Doubtless if an Instrument of Musick were a Living thing it would be sensible of Harmony as its proper state and abhorre Discord and Dissonancy as a thing preternatural to it The Soul of Man was Harmonical as God at first made it till Sin disordering the Strings and Faculties put it out of tune and marr'd the Musick of it but doubtless that Great Harmostes that tunes the whole World and makes all things keep their Times and Measures is able to set this lesser Instrument in Tune again Sin is but a Disease and Dyscrasie in the Soul Righteousness is the Health and natural Complexion of it and there is a Propension in the nature of every thing to return to its proper state and to cast off whatever is heterogeneous to it And some Physicians tell us that Medicaments are but subservient to Nature by removing obstructions and impediments but Nature it self and the inward Archoeus released and set at liberty works the Cure Bodies when they are bent out of their Place and violently forced out of the natural Position of their Parts have a Spring of their own and an inward strong Propension to return to their own natural Posture which produceth that Motion of Restitution that Philosophers endeavour to give a reason of As for example Air may be forced into much a lesser room then it would naturally expand itself into but whilst it is under this Violence it hath a Spring or strong Conatus to return to its proper state of which several ingenious Observations have been lately published by a Learned hand Now Sin being a Violent and preternatural state and a Sinner's returning to God and Righteousness being Motus Restitutionis Liberationis whereby the Soul is restored to its true Freedome and ancient Nature why should there not be such an Elater or Spring in the Soul quickened and enlivened by Divine Grace such a natural Conatus of returning to its proper state again Doubtless there is and the Scripture seems sometimes to acknowledge it and call it by the name of Spirit when it speaketh of our free acting in God's waies from an inward Principle For the Spirit is not alwaies to be taken for a Breath or Impulse from without but also for an inward Propension of the Soul awakened and revived in it to return to its proper state as it is Intellectual and then to act freely in it according to its ancient Nature For if the Spirit were a mere External Force acting upon the Soul without the concurrence of an Innate Principle then to be acted by the Spirit would be a state of Violence to the Soul which it could not delight alwaies to continue under whereas the state of the Spirit is a state of Freedome and not of Violence as the Apostle witnesseth when he calls it the Freedome of the Spirit It is the Soul 's acting from an inward Spring and Principle of its own Intellectual nature not by a mere outward Impulse like a Boat that is tugged on by Oars or driven by a strong blast of Wind. Wherefore the Soul 's returning from Sin to Righteousness which is its Primitive Nature must needs have great advantages it going on Secundo flumine according to the genuine Current of its true Intellectual nature and having besides the assistence of a gentle Gale of the Divine Spirit from without to help it forwards Why should it be thought so great an impossibility for men willingly to doe that which is agreeable to the Laws of Goodness since this is the genuine Nature of the Soul when once it is freed from mistakes and encumbrances from that which is heterogeneous and adventitious to it that cloggs it and oppresses it and every Life and Nature acts freely according to its own Propensions Why should it seem strange that the Superiour Faculties of the Soul should become predominant since they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Lordly nature and made to rule and the Inferiour Faculties of a servile Temper and made to be subject Why should it seem impossible for Equity Light and Reason to be inthroned in the Soul of Man again and there to command and govern those exorbitant Affections that do so lawlesly rebel against them For if some grave Commanders and Generals have been able by the Majesty of their very looks to hush and silence a disorderly and mutinous Rout of Souldiers certainly Reason re-enthroned in her Majestick Seat and re-invested with her ancient Power and Authority which is natural and not usurped would much more easily be able to check and controll the tumultuous Rabble of Lusts and Passions in us Doubtless God hath no other Design upon us in Religion and the Gospel of his Son then what is for our good and to restore us to the Rectitude and Perfection of our own Beings Wherefore he seeks to redeem and call off our Affections from the perishing Vanities of this World which being so infinitely below us do debase and pollute our Spirits wherefore he would not have us to addict ourselves wholly to the Gratifications of our lower Faculties which are but the Brute in us but he would have the Best in us to be uppermost the Man to rule the Brute and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that that is of God in us to rule our Manly and Rational Faculties He would not have us Narcissus-like to be alwaies courting our own Shadow in the Stream for according to the ancient Democritical Philosophy this whole visible World is nothing else but mere extended Bulk and hath nothing Real in it but Atomes or Particles of a different Magnitude diversely placed and agitated in a continual Whirlpool But all the Colour Beauty and Varnish all that which charms and bewitches us in these Objects without us is nothing but the Vital Sensations and Relishes of our own Souls This gives all the Paint and Lustre to those Beauties which we court and fall in love withall without us which are otherwise as devoid of Reality and as Phantastical as the Colours of the Rainbow So that this Outward World is not unfitly compared to an inchanted Palace which seems indeed mighty pleasing and ravishing to our deluded Sense whereas all is but imaginary and a mere prestigious Shew Those things which we are enamoured with thinking
them to be without us being nothing but the Vital Energies of our own Spirits In a word God would have Man to be a Living Temple for himself to dwell in and his Faculties Instruments to be used and employed by him which need not be thought impossible if that be true that Philosophy tells us that there is Cognatio quaedam a certain near Kindred and Alliance between the Soul and God Lastly we must observe though this inward Victory over Sin be no otherwise to be effected then by the Spirit of Christ through Faith and by a Divine Operation in us so that in a certain sense we may be said to be Passive thereunto yet notwithstanding we must not dream any such thing as if our Active Cooperation and Concurrence were not also necessarily required thereunto For as there is a Spirit of God in Nature which produceth Vegetables and Minerals which humane Art and Industry could never be able to effect namely that Spiritus intus alens which the Poet speaks of which yet notwithstanding doth not work Absolutely Unconditionately and Omnipotently but requireth certain Preparations Conditions and Dispositions in the Matter which it works upon For unless the Husbandman plow the Ground and sow the Seed the Spirit of God in Nature will not give any increase In like manner the Scripture tells us that the Divine Spirit of Grace doth not work Absolutely Unconditionately and Irresistibly in the Souls of men but requireth certain Preparations Conditions and Cooperations in us forasmuch as it may both be quenched and stirred up or excited in us And indeed unless we plow up the Fallow-ground of our hearts and sow to our selves in Righteousness as the Prophet speaks by our earnest endeavours we cannot expect that the Divine Spirit of Grace will showr down that Heavenly increase upon us Wherefore if we would attain to a Victory over Sin by the Spirit of Christ we must endeavour to fight a good Fight and run a good Race and to enter in at the streight gate that so overcoming we may receive the Crown of Life And thus much shall suffice to have spoken at this time concerning the First Particular The Victory over Sin I Shall now proceed to speak something briefly to the Two other Victories that remain which are attainable also by Christ over the Law and Death And the Law may be considered two manner of waies First as an outward Covenant of Works that pronounceth Death and Condemnation to all that do not yield absolute and entire Obedience to whatever is therein commanded and which imposed also with the same Severity a multitude of outward Ceremonial Observations which had no intrinsecal Goodness at all in them but kept men in a state of Bondage and Servility Now the Law in this sense as it is an outward Letter and Covenant of Works is already conquered externally for us by Christ's Death upon the Cross Galat. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree That the Blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the Promise of the Spirit through Faith And he hath thereby freed us also from our Obligation to those Commandments that were not Good having broken down the Middle-wall of Partition that was betwixt Jew and Gentile abolishing in his Flesh the Enmity even the Law of Commandments Ephes. 2. 14 15. And blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and taking it out of the way nailing it to his Cross Coloss. 2. 14. Secondly The Law is sometimes also considered in Scripture as an inward state of Minde wrought by the Law and Truth of God whether written outwardly in the Letter of the Scripture or inwardly in the Conscience prevailing onely so farre as to beget a Conviction of mens Duty and of the Wrath of God against Sin but not inabling them with inward strength and power to doe what is commanded willingly out of a Love of it It is such a State when men are onely Passive to God's Law and unwillingly subject to it as an Enemy for fear of Wrath and Vengeance And this must needs be a state of miserable Bondage and Servility Distraction and Perplexity of minde when men are at once strongly convinced of the Wrath of God against Sin and yet under the power of their Lusts haling and dragging of them to the commission of it It is that state as I conceive which S. Paul describes Rom. 7. after this manner The Law is Spiritual but I am Carnal sold under Sin for that which I doe I allow not for what I would that doe I not but what I hate that doe I. And again I see another Law in my Members warring against my Minde and bringing me into Captivity under the Law of Sin O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Now from the Law in this sense that is from the Bondage and Servility of the Legal state we are not delivered nor made Conquerors by what Christ did outwardly upon the Cross as some imagine as if he had there purchas'd for us an Indulgence to sin without controll but by the inward working of his Holy Spirit freeing us from the Power and Bondage of Sin and unbewitching us from the Love of it Wherefore there is a double Freedome from this Legal state to be taken notice of a True a False Freedome which I cannot better explain then by using the Apostle's own Similitude in the beginning of the 7. Chap. Know ye not Brethren that the Law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth or rather as long as It that is the Law liveth For the Woman which hath an Husband is bound by the Law to her Husband so long as he liveth but if her Husband be dead she is loosed from the Law of the Husband So then if while her Husband liveth she be married to another man she shall be called an adulteress but if her Husband be dead she is free from that Law so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man Where the Law is compared to an Husband and one that is under the Law or in a Legal state to a Woman that hath an Husband And as there are two waies by which a Woman may be freed from her Husband The one if she break loose from him whilst he yet liveth contrary to the Laws of Wedlock and marry to another man which is an undue and unlawful Freedome for then she is justly styled an Adulteress Another if she stay till her Husband be dead and then being free from the Law of her Husband does lawfully marry to another man In like manner there are two waies by which men may be freed from the Law as it is an inward state of Bondage and Servility The first is when
men do illegally and unlawfully break loose from the Law which is their Husband whilst he is yet alive and ought to have Dominion over them and marry themselves to another Husband which Husband 's name is Carnal Liberty or Licentiousness too often miscalled in these latter Times by the name of Christian Liberty and such as these may well be styled in the Scripture-language Adulterers and Adulteresses But there is another Freedome from the Law which is a due and just Freedome when we do not make our selves free before the time violently breaking loose from it but when we stay till the Law which is our Husband is dead and the Compulsory power of it taken away by the Mortification of our Lusts and Affections and so marry another Husband which is Christ or the Spirit of Righteousness Rom. 8. 2. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death Wherefore there are Three general states of Men in order to God and Religion that may be here taken notice of The First is of those that are alive to Sin and dead to the Law This the Apostle speaks of Rom. 7. 9. I was alive without the Law once These are those whose Consciences are not yet considerably awakened to any Sense of their Duty nor to the Discrimination of Good and Evil but sin freely without any check or controll without any disquieting Remorse of Conscience The Second is when men are at once alive both to the Law and Sin to the Conviction of the one and the Power and Love of the other both these strugling together within the Bowels of the Soul checking and controlling one another This is a broken confounded and shatter'd state and these in the Apostles language are said to be Slain by the Law I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died And the Commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death For Sin taking occasion by the Commandment deceived me and by it Slew me Here is no Peace Rest nor Comfort to be had in this state mens Souls being distracted and divided by an intestine and civil Warr between the Law of the Minde and the Law of the Members conflicting with one another Wherefore the Third state is when men are dead both to the Law and Sin and alive unto God and Righteousness the Law of the Spirit of Life freeing them from the Law of Sin and Death In the First of these Three states which is the most wretched and deplorable of all we are Sin 's Free-men that is free to commit Sin without check or controll In the Second we are Bondmen to God and Righteousness and serve God out of a Principle of Fear and according to an outward Rule onely Children of Hagar the Bond-maid and of the Letter In the Third we are God's Free-men and Sons and serve him in the Newness of the Spirit out of a Love to God and Righteousness Children of the New Testament and of Sarah the Free-woman Wherefore here are Two Mistakes or Errors to be taken notice of that defeat and disappoint the Design of Christ in giving us Victory over the Law The first is of those that we have already mentioned that seek to themselves a Freedome from the Bondage of the Law otherwise then by Christ and the Spirit of Righteousness namely in a way of Carnal Liberty and Licentiousness whereby instead of being Bond-men to God and Righteousness they become perfect Free-men to Sin and Wickedness which is the most deplorable Thraldome in the World Wherefore these men instead of going forward from the Second state unto higher Perfection wheel back again unto the First just as if the Children of Israel after they had been brought out of Egypt and travelled awhile in the Desert of Arabia where the Law was given instead of entring into Canaan should have wheeled back into Egypt and then enjoying the Garlick and Onions and Flesh-pots thereof should persuade themselves that this was indeed the true Land of Promise that floweth with Milk and Honey And there is very great danger lest when men have been tired out by wandring a long time in the dry and barren Wilderness of the Law where they cannot enjoy the Pleasure of Sin as formerly and yet have not arrived to the relish and love of Righteousness by reason of their Impatience they should at last make more haste then good speed being seduced by some false shews of Freedome that are very tempting to such weary Travellers and promise much comfort and refreshment to them inviting them to sit down under their shadow Such as are a Self-chosen Holiness Ceremonial Righteousness Opinionative Zeal The Tree of Knowledge mistaken for the Tree of Life High-flown Enthusiasm and Seraphicism Epicurizing Philosophy Antinomian Liberty under the pretence of Free Grace and a gospel-Gospel-Spirit The Second Mistake that is here to be heeded is of those that would by all means persuade themselves that there is no higher State of Christian Perfection to be aimed at or hoped for in this Life then this Legal State That the Good they would doe they doe not the Evil they would not doe that they doe That the Law of Sin in their Members still leads them Captive from the Law of their Minds having no other Ground at all for this but a novel Interpretation of one Paragraph in the Epistle to the Romans contrary to other express Places of Scripture and the Sense of all ancient Interpreters and yet with so much zeal as if it were a principal part of the Gospel-Faith to believe this which is indeed arrant Infidelity and as if it were no less then Presumption or Impiety to expect a Living Law written upon our Hearts But this is nothing else but instead of seeking Liberty out of the Bondage of the Law to fall in love with our Bonds and Fetters and plainly to deny the Victory over the Law by Christ and to affirm that the Gospel is but the Ministration of a dead and killing Letter not of the Spirit that quickneth and maketh alive I Come now in the Third and last place to the Victory over Death expressed by the Resurrection of the Body to Life and Immortality which as it was meritoriously procured for us by Christ's dying upon the Cross his Resurrection afterward being an assured pledge of the same to us so it will be really effected at last by the same Spirit of Christ that gives us Victory over Sin here Rom. 8. 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you As if he should have said If the Spirit of Christ dwell in you regenerating and renewing your Souls the very same Spirit hereafter shall also immortalize your very Bodies Avicen the Mahumetan Philosopher in his Almahad hath a conceit That the
that there is nothing at all for them to doe but confidently to believe that all is already done for them all imputed and accounted to them that they are dearly beloved of God without any Conditions or Qualifications to make them lovely But such a Faith as this is nothing else but mere Phancy and carnal Imagination proceeding from that natural Self-love whereby men fondly dote upon themselves and are apt to think that God loves them as fondly and as partially as they love themselves tying his affection to their particular outward Persons their very Flesh and Bloud hereby making God a Being like to themselves that is wholly acted by arbitrary Self-will Fondness and Partiality and perverting the whole Nature and Design of Religion which is not mere Phantastry and an histrionical Shew but a real Victory over the real Evil of Sin without which God can neither take pleasure in any mans Person nor can there be a possibility of being happy a real turning of the Soul from Darkness unto Light from the Power of Satan unto God Again Some there are that instead of Walking in the Narrow way that Christ commendeth to us of subduing and mortifying our sinful Lusts make to themselves certain other Narrow waies of affected Singularity in things that belong not to Life and Godliness outward Strictnesses and Severities of their own chusing and devising and then persuade themselves that this is the Streight gate and Narrow way of Christ that leadeth unto Life Whereas these are indeed nothing else but some particular Paths and narrow Slices cut out of the Broad way For though they have an outward and seeming narrowness yet they are so broad within that Camels with their Burthens may easily pass through them These instead of taking up Christ's Cross upon them make to themselves certain Crosses of their own and then laying them upon their Shoulders and carrying them please themselves with a conceit that they bear the Cross of Christ whereas in truth and reality they are many times too much strangers to that Cross of his by which the World should be crucified to them and they unto the World Some place all their Religion in endless Scrupulosities about Indifferent things neglecting in the mean time the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the more weighty things both of Law and Gospel and as our Saviour farther expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 straining at a Gnat and swallowing a Camel that is being not so scrupulous as they ought to be about the Substantials of Religion and a Good life For as we ought not to place the chief of our Religion in the mere Observation of outward Rites and Ceremonies whilest in the mean time we hypocritically neglect the Morals and Substantials which may deservedly be branded with the name of Superstition So we ought to know that it is equal Superstition to have such an abhorrence of Indifferent things as to make it the main of our Religion to abstain from them Both of these arguing equal Ignorance of the Nature of God as if he were some morose humorous and captious Being and of that Righteousness which the Kingdome of God consisteth in as if these Outward and Indifferent things could either hallow or defile our Souls or as if Salvation and Damnation did depend upon the mere using or not using of them The Apostle himself instructeth us that the Kingdome of God consisteth no more in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no more in Uncircumcision then in Circumcision that is no more in not using outward Ceremonies and Indifferent things then in using of them Wherefore the Negative Superstition is equal to the Positive and both of them alike call off mens attention from the main things of Religion by engaging them overmuch in Small and Little things But the sober Christian that neither places all his Religion in external observances nor yet is superstitiously Anti-ceremonial as he will think himself obliged to have a due regard to the Commands of lawful Authority in Adiaphorous things and to preferre the Peace and Unity of the Christian Church and the observation of the Royal Law of Charity before the Satisfaction of any Private Humour or Interest so he will be aware of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which many run into of banishing away all the Solemnity of external Worship the Observation of the Lord's Day and of the Christian Sacraments under the Notion of Ceremonies quite out of the World To conclude Unless there be a due and timely regard had to the Commands of lawful Authority in Indifferent things and to Order Peace and Unity in the Church it may easily be foreseen that the Reformed part of Christendome will at length be brought first to Confusion by crumbling into infinite Sects and Divisions and then to utter Ruine Again Many mistake the Vices of their Natural complexion for Supernatural and Divine Graces Some think dull and stupid Melancholy to be Christian Mortification Others that turbulent and fiery Zeal is the vigour of the Spirit Whereas Zeal is one of those things that Aristotle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a middle Nature neither Good nor Bad in it self but which as it is circumstantiated may indifferently become either Vertue or Vice For there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle calls it a bitter Zeal which is contrary to all Christian Love and Charity and is nothing else but the Vices of Acerbity Envy Malice Cruelty tinctur'd and gilded over with a Religious shew And there may be also a Turbulent and Factious Zeal when men under a pretence of acting for the Glory of God violate just and lawful Authority in order to the advancement of their own private Self-interest Indeed there was amongst the Jews a certain Right called Jus Zelotarum or the Right of Zelots whereby private persons acted by a Zeal for God might doe immediate execution upon some Malefactors without expecting the Sentence of any Court of Judicature And some conceive that our Saviour by this Right of Zelots did whip the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple and overturn the Tables of Money-changers because he was never questioned by the Jews for it But this was then a Legal and Regular thing permitted by the publick Laws of that Nation in some certain Cases yet so as that those Zelots were afterward accountable to the Sanhedrin for what they did However a little before the destruction of the Temple as Josephus tells us there were a Crew of desperate Miscreants that abusing this Right and calling themselves by the name of Kannain i. e. Zelots made a pretence from hence to commit most villainous actions And I wish some had not too much entertain'd this opinion that Private persons might reform Publick Abuses whether belonging to the Ecclesiastical or the Civil Polity without and against the consent of the Supreme Magistrate in a Turbulent manner Jure Zelotarum by the Right of Zelots nay and that Actions that are