that we might do what he forbids without undergoing what he threatens We only ask leave to sin and crave a liberty to transgress without suffering and desire that we might break his Laws but that he would not punish us And what man now dare presume that such shameless desires as these should be granted to him That God should desert his Laws and alter his Religion and cast off his government over men when they request it For in very deed we see that to desire him to forgive us whilst we are going on in our sins is in effect to put up all these frontless and abominably impudent petitions to him And then as for the other sort of petitions our asking for any vertue or grace without putting forth any endeavours after it it is as certain to meet with no good answer as the other For to pray thus is plainly to play the hypocrite with God Almighty and flatly to dissemble with him It is to beg what we do not care for to ask what we refuse to pretend desire for all praying is desiring for that which we account is worth no endeavour And what a miserable piece of falshood is this now when a man makes his actions most palpably to give the lye to his words He tells God that he earnestly desires his help to work in him a pure heart but yet he will do nothing for it nor avoid the least occasion of uncleanness He begs his grace to assist him to a meek and patient spirit but when he is off his knees his work is done for he never after uses any means to procure it or takes any care to nourish and preserve those degrees of it which he hath already Surely any man of common understanding must needs see that such desires as these were never in his heart but only from the teeth forward In reality he cares not what becomes of the graces which he has prayed for and was no farther concerned about them than that he might be able barely to say that he had asked them Or at best if he did desire them at all yet was his desire far from that degree which he pretends it was a weak wish rather than a desire an imperfect inclination that could effect nothing It may be he had rather have that grace which he asks than go without it but he had rather want it than be at any pains for it He loves and desires the least ease far more than the vertue and is resolved to keep that although he loses this So that although he do think the grace which he prays for to be worth something yet he esteems it next to nothing he judges it to be worth no pains and deserving no endeavour and so has either no desires of it at all or such weak and feeble ones as are just as good as none Yea it is well if many times his heart is not set against those very graces that he begs whilst he is asking of them which is more than barely being unconcerned for them For how often doth it happen that a man prays for charity whilst he is in love with malice that he begs sobriety whilst his heart is upon drunkenness that he asks justice whilst his affections hanker after deceitfulness and wrong This in very deed is the case of most if not of all impenitent and wicked men For they love their Sins and resolve to continue in them and yet even then pray for such Graces as are contrary to them Now here it is plain that their heart doth not go along with their tongues they are not willing to lose that which they pray to God they may leave and are afraid to receive that which they beg to have They only pretend desire but are possessed in truth with hatred and aversation And then as for all the good promises which they make to God in their Prayers viz. That if he will forgive them they will never do so any more but become new men and watch more carefully and sin more seldom and obey more constantly and universally so long as their Prayers are thus unendeavouring and idle all this is but meer wind vain hypocrisie and deceitful talk For if when their prayers are over they take no care still to perform that obedience which they promised whilst they were at them is it not clear to every eye that all is cheat and falshood and that they lye and dissemble in these their promises as well as we saw they did in their professions All their engagements are stark nought they meant no such thing whilst they made them nor ever after think upon them to make them good and fulfil them And can any man now be so intolerably weak and shamefully blind as to imagine that God should reward such idle talk as all these unendeavouring prayers for grace are and give a blessing upon such hypocritical din and feigned language To dissemble thus with God Almighty is not to honour but to abuse him and so fits us not for any expressions of his love but only of his wrath and indignation It is to pass affronts instead of begging kindness to make a mockery of his condescensions and to turn that sacred and inestimable liberty which he has graciously indulged mankind of making known their desires to him for a supply and satisfaction of them into a fraudulent trick and opprobrious couzenage And since all these unendeavouring prayers for Gods grace are an hypocrisie so gross and a mockery so reproachful we must needs conclude that he will utterly reject them as well as our prayers for pardon whilst we continue in our sins and instead of granting and fulfilling deride and avenge them But if ever we hope to have our Prayers heard the true and only way is to observe S t John's rule of asking only what is according to Gods will For this says he is the confidence which we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us 1 Joh. 5.14 And what that will of God is concerning any of those things which we have to pray for we can learn no where but from his Holy Gospel Now in that we are plainly told that as for Pardon his peremptory will is That no man shall meet with it but he only who has Repented and obeyed him REPENT says S t Peter that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3.19 And except you REPENT says our Saviour you shall all Perish Luk. 13.3 For when we are all brought to Christs Tribunal at the great day to be there Eternally acquitted or condemned we are taught in the most express words that Judgment shall pass upon every man according to his WORKS Rev. 20.12 13 So that if we would ask pardon and forgiveness according to Gods will and in such sort as he has promised to grant it and we may justly hope to receive it we must desire it in Repentance and in true resolutions and readiness to obey And
the opportunity of the Sin returns for notwithstanding all the contrary desire this is acted at the next offer Obedience is not desired so much as their ease for they love it not so well as to be at the necessary pains for it It is a squeamish delicate desire it would obey if that could be without trouble but it will undergo nothing for obedience But this is a conceit as strange as it is destructive and such wherewith the simplest of men suffer themselves to be imposed upon in no other matters but only this which most of all requires their care and caution viz. the eternal welfare of their souls and the truth of their obedience For who ever took his desire of gain to be gain his desire of ease to be ease his desire of meat to be food his desire of cloaths to be rayment or his desire of knowledg to be knowledg And why then must that be true in Religion which is always false in common life and the desire of Grace be said to be Grace and the desire of obedience obedience Our desires are one thing but the thing desired is another Our desires are within but the object desired is without us Our desires are our own but the thing desired is wanting For so far is our desire of any thing from being the very thing it self which is desired that it is not always joined with it but we possess one whilst we are without the other For alas we find that those things which we need and have a mind to do not come at the beck of a desire nor are procured by a wish but we must do more than desire them endeavour after them and work or act for them or else we shall sit without them A man doth not presently possess meat because he is hungry or is Owner of a great Estate because he is covetous no he must labour and seek as well as desire both for the one and the other or else let him desire what he will he shall get neither 'T is true a desire of money is a great preparative to get money and a desire of knowledg a good disposition to attain knowledg because our appetites and desires are of all the passions the great and most immediate Spring of our outward works and operations For delight begets love and love ends in desire and desire carries us on to work and labour for the thing desired We seek after a thing because we long for it and take pains about it because we desire it And thus our desires of Grace and Obedience are Grace and Obedience That is Our desire of Grace is not Grace it self nor our desire of Obedience Obedience but a good step and degree towards them It is so metonymically it is the Principle and the Cause of it For therefore we acquire Grace and perform Obedience because we desire them We should take no pains about them were it not for our desires of them but because we have a mind to them therefore we labour after them But till our desires come on to this effect they have no title to the rewards of it Because although they are a gift of Gods Grace 't is true as well as Obedience it self is yet are they not that Grace which in the Judgment shall entitle us to pardon and happiness For the promise to the Desire of Obedience is one but the promise to Obedience it self is another If we sincerely desire to do Gods will i. e. if we desire it so as according to the best of our power to endeavour after it the promise to that is That we shall be inabled to do it For one promise of the New Covenant is That God will grant unto us to serve him in holiness and righteousness Luke 1.74 75 which he will then do when we desire it of him by giving his holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 But if we do indeed obey it the promise to that is That we shall be saved by it For Christ is become the Authour of eternal salvation to them that obey him Heb. 5.9 And it is said expresly of them that obey That they shall have right to the tree of life Rev. 22.14 So that to the honest desire of obedience all that God promises is the power to perform and work obedience but that whereunto mercy and life is promised is nothing less than obedience it self For to the working out our salvation it is required as S t Paul says that we be wrought upon not only to will what God commands but also to do it Phil. 2.12 13. The great pretence whereby men of idle unworking desires would plead for their unfruitfulness and support their hopes of a happy Sentence under a life of disobedience is a mistaken sence of these words of S t Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Gal. 5.17 Which words they interpret thus The Spirit in all good men lusteth against the Flesh but not so far as to prevail over it for although they may will and desire with the Spirit yet they cannot do those things which they would And if this be so 't is plain that we have warrant enough to hope for mercy notwithstanding we only desire but are not able to perform But this is a plain perverting of the Apostles words from the Apostles own meaning For although he says that the lusting is on both sides both of the Flesh against the Spirit and of the Spirit against the Flesh yet as for the ineffectiveness or not doing what is willed and desired that he charges only upon one He leaves it purely and solely to the Fleshes share which can indeed lust and desire evil things even in regenerate men but is not able to prevail so far as to work and effect them because the over-ruling will of the Spirit checks and restrains it Through the victorious lusting of the Spirit against the Flesh saith he it comes to pass that you cannot do or do not those things which from the instigation of your Flesh you desire and would do And to shew this to be his sense I need do no more than set down his words in that order wherein they stand which is as follows This I say then Walk in the Spirit and you shall not work and fulfil the lusts of the Flesh. Not work and fulfil them I say notwithstanding you will still feel an ineffective and unconquering stirring of them For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these two are contrary one to the other So that in walking or working as I said after the lustings and desires of the Spirit you fulfil not the lusts of the Flesh which are contrary to it ye cannot do or you do not the things that your Flesh lusts after which yet through its lusting ye would ver 16 17. Whereas
sufferings Where it needs to be defended disobedience is no fit means to preserve it because God cannot be honoured nor Religion served by it Religion and the love of God is only the colour but the true and real cause of such disobedience is a want of Religion and too great a love of mens own selves Men are liable to be deceived by this pretence from a wrong Notion of Religion for religious opinions and professions A true Notion of Religion for religious practice upon a religious belief as it implies both faith and obedience The danger of disobedience upon this pretence The practice of all religious men in this case Of Religion in the narrow acceptation for religious professions and opinions The commendable way of mens preserving it First By acting within their own sphere Secondly By the use only of lawful means Thirdly By a zeal in the first place for the practice of religious Laws and next to that for the free profession of religious opinions 330 CHAP. VII Of the two remaining pretences for a partial obedience The Contents The second pretence for the allowed practice of some sins whilst men obey in others is the serving of their necessities by sinful arts in times of indigence An account of mens disobedience upon this pretence The vanity of it and the danger of disobeying through it A third pretence is bodily temper and complexion age and way of life A representation of mens disobedience upon this pretence The vanity of it and the danger of sinning through it No justifying Plea for disobedience from our age Nor from our way of life Nor from our natural temper and complexion So that this integrity of the Object is excusable upon no pretence It was always required to mens acceptance 355 CHAP. VIII Of obeying with all the heart and all the soul c. The Contents Of obeying God with all the heart and with all the strength c. It includes not all desire and endeavour after other things but it implies First Sincerity Secondly Fervency Thirdly Integrity or obeying not some but all the Laws of God These three include all that is contained in it which is shown from their obedience who are said in Scripture to have fulfilled it Integrity implies sincerity and fervency and love with all the heart is explained in the places where it is mentioned by loving him entirely Sincerity and uprightness the Conditions of an acceptable Obedience This a hard Condition in the degeneracy of our manners but that is our own fault It was easie and universally performed by the primitive Christians This shown from the Characters of the Apostles and of the primitive Writers Hence it was that they could despise Death and even provoke Martyrdom Some Pleas from our impotence against the strictness of this Obedience which are considered in the next Book 370 BOOK IV. Shewing what defects are consistent with a regenerate state and dispensed with in the Gospel CHAP. I. Shewing in general that some sins are consistent with a state of Grace The Contents SOme failings consistent with a state of Grace This shewn in the general First From the necessity of humane Nature which cannot live without them Secondly From sundry examples of pious men who had right to life whilst they lived in them 385 CHAP. II. Of the nature of these consistent slips more particularly The Contents Our unchosen sins are consistent with a state of Grace but our wilful and chosen ones destroy it All things are made good or evil a matter of reward or punishment by a Law Laws are given for the guidance and reward only of our voluntary and chosen actions This proved first from the clear reason of the thing Where it is inferred from the nature of Laws which is to oblige from that way that all Laws have of obliging which is not by forcing but perswading men from the dueness of rewards and punishments commendations and reproofs from the applause or accusations of mens own Consciences upon their obedience or transgressions Secondly From the express declarations of Scripture 396 CHAP. III. Of the nature and danger of voluntary sins The Contents The nature of a wilful and a deliberate sin Why it is called a despising of Gods Law a sinning presumptuously and with a high hand Wilful sins of two sorts viz. some chosen directly and expresly others only indirectly and by interpretation Of direct and interpretative volition Things chosen in the latter way justly imputable Of the voluntary causes of inconsideration in sins of commission which are drunkenness an indulged passion or a habit of sin Of the power of these to make men inconsiderate The cause of inconsideration in sins of omission viz. Neglect of the means of acquiring Vertue Of the voluntariness of all these causes Of the voluntariness of drunkenness when it mâ—y be looked upon as involuntary Of the voluntariness of an indulged passion mens great errour lies in indulging the beginnings of sin Of the voluntariness and crying guilt of a habit of sin Of the voluntariness of mens neglect of the means of Vertue No wilful sin is consistent with a state of Grace but all are damning A distinct account of the effect of wilful sins viz. when they only destroy our acceptance for the present and when moreover they greatly wound and endanger that habitual Vertue which is the foundation of it and which should again restore us to it for the time to come These last are particularly taken notice of in the accounts of God 409 CHAP. IV. Of the nature of involuntary sins and of their consistence with a state of salvation The Contents Of involuntary actions Of what account the forced actions of the Body are in Morals Two causes of involuntariness First The violence of mens passions It doth not excuse Secondly The ignorance of their understandings This is the cause of all our consistent failings and the sins that are involuntary upon this account are consistent with a state of salvation This proved 1. From their unavoidableness The causes of it in what sense any particular sin among them is said to be avoidable 2. From the nature of God A representation of God's nature from his own Word and mens experience The Argument drawn from it for the consistence of such failings 3. From the nature and declarations of the Gospel It is fitted to beget a cheerful and filial confidence and therefore is called the Spirit of Adoption The Argument from this The Scripture Declarations and Examples in this matter These Arguments summed up 440 CHAP. V. Of these involuntary and consistent sins particularly and of the first cause of innocent involuntariness viz. ignorance The Contents A twofold knowledg necessary to choice viz. a general understanding and particular consideration Consistent sins are either sins of ignorance or of inconsideration Of sins involuntary through ignorance of the general Law which makes a Duty How there is still room for it in the World Of crying sins which are against natural
temptations or to lusts and desires of evil This Point summed up 63â— CHAP. V. Of two other causes of groundless Scruple to good Souls The Contents A second cause of scruple is their uâ—affectedness or distraction sometimes in their prayers Of the necessity of fixedness and fervency in Devotion when we can and of Gods readiness to dispense with them when we cannot enjoy them Attention disturbed often whether we will or no. A particular cause of it in fervent prayers Fervency and affection not depending so much upon the command of our wills as upon the temper of our Bodies Fervency is unconstant in them whose temper is fit for it God measures us not by the fixedness of our thoughts or the warmth of our tempers but by the choice of our wills and the obedience of our lives Other qualifications in prayer are sufficient to have our prayers heard when these are wanting Yea those Vertues which make our prayers acceptable are more eminently shown in our Obedience so that it would bring down to us the blessings of prayer should it prove in those respects defective A third cause of scruple is the danger of idle or impertinent words mentioned Mat. 12.36 The scruples upon this represented The practical errour of a morose behaviour incurred upon it This discountenanced by the light of Nature and by Christianity The benefits and place of serious Discourse Pleasurable conversation a great Field of Vertue The idle words Mat. 12 not every vain and useless but false slanderous and reproachful words this proved from the place 664 CHAP. VI. Of the sin against the Holy Ghost which is a fourth cause of scruple The Contents Some good mens fear upon this account What is meant in Scripture by the Holy Ghost Holy Ghost or Spirit is taken for the gifts or effects of it whether they be first ordinary either in our minds or understandings or in our wills and tempers or secondly extraordinary and miraculous Extraordinary gifts of all sorts proceed from one and the same Spirit or Holy Ghost upon which account any of them indifferently are sometimes called Spirit sometimes Holy Ghost Holy Ghost and Spirit are frequently distinguished and then by Holy Ghost is meant extraordinary gifts respecting the understanding by Spirit extraordinary gifts respecting the executive powers The summ of the explication of this Holy Ghost What sin against it is unpardonable To sin against the Holy Ghost is to dishonour him This is done in every act of sin but these are not unpardonable What the unpardonable sin is Of sin against the ordinary endowments of the Holy Ghost whether of mind or will the several degrees in this all of them are pardonable Of sin against the Spirit Blaspheming of this comes very near it and was the sin of the Pharisees Mat. 12 but it was pardonable Of sinning against the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost the last means of reducing men to believe the Gospel that Covenant of Repentance The sin against it is unpardonable because such Sinners are irreclamable All dishonour of this is not unpardonable for Simon Magus dishonoured it in actions who was yet capable of pardon but only a blaspheming of it in words No man is guilty of it whilst he continues Christian. 681 CHAP. VII The Conclusion The Contents Some other causless scruples The Point of growth in Grace more largely stated A summary repetition of this whole Discourse They may dye with courage whose Conscience doth not accuse them This accusation must not be for idle words distractions in Prayer c. but for a wilful transgression of some Law of Pieey Sobriety c. above mentioned It must further be particular and express not general and roving If an honest mans heart condemn him not for some such unrepented sins God never will 700 THE INTRODUCTION ROM viij 1 There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit The Contents Religious men inquisitive after their future State Three Articles of Christian belief cause such inquisitiveness The Articles of Eternal Life and the Resurrection make men desire satisfaction The Article of the last Judgment encourages the search and points out a way towards it A proposal of the present design and the matters treated of in the ensuing Discourse AMong all those things which employ the minds of Religious and Considerate men there is none that is so much a matter of their thoughtful care and solicitous enquiries as their Eternal happiness or Misery in the next World For in Christs Religion there are three great Articles which being believed and seriously considered by a nature restlessly desirous of its own happiness and such ours is must needs render it very inquisitive after some security of its future good estate and they are these The Immortality of the Soul the Resurrection of the Body and the great Day of Doom or last Judgment Whosoever is firmly perswaded of these three as every man is or at least pretends to be who professes himself a Christian he assuredly believes that when this Life is over both his Body and Soul shall live again and be endlessly Delighted or Tormented Comforted or Distressed in the next world according as their condition is when they leave this For by the Doctrine of Eternal Life he is assured that his Soul shall live and be adjudged to an Eternal bliss or misery By the Article of the Resurrection he is perswaded that his Body with all its powers shall spring out of the dust and be again enlivened with its ancient Soul to be a sharer of its state and joyntly to undergo an endless train of most exquisite woes or pleasures And since it is the very frame and fundamental principle of our Natures studiously to pursue Pleasure and to fly as fast from Pain to seek good and to avoid evil These states of future Happiness and Misery are such as no man who sees and believes them can possibly be unaffected with or unconcern'd in But whosoever in his own thoughts views and beholds them must needs find all his faculties awake and through an innate care and natural instinct solicitously inquisitive after that lot which shall fall to their own share Now if this endless happiness and misery both of Soul and Body in the next world were only casual and contingent the gift of blind chance or partial and arbitrary favour then would the belief of it perplex us indeed with fears and misgiving thoughts but never encourage us on to any exact care or diligent enquiry It would be in vain for us to seek what we could never find and downright folly to endeavour after satisfaction and certainty in things which are utterly casual and Arbitrary For what comes by chance is neither foreseen by us nor subject to us And what is given arbitrarily without all rule or reason is as fickle and unconstant as Arbitrary will it self is It cannot be prevented by any endeavours because it doth not
enable men to do what it commanded is true still For the Law did not promise it although several both before and under the Law enjoyed it but they who had the benefit of it received it not from the Covenant of the Law but from the Covenant of Grace and the Gospel which has been more or less on foot through all times ever since the World began And in this Covenant since Christ has given us the last Edition and perfection of it both these great defects of the Mosaick Law which rendered it so unable to work this intire reformation and obedience are fully supplied For in every Page of Christ's Gospel what is so legible as the promise of eternal life The joys of Heaven are as much insisted on by Christ as the delights of Canaan were by Moses And then as for the other promise viz. that of the Spirit it is now as plainly revealed as words can make it For we need not to guess at it by signs or to presume it from probabilities or to believe it upon Syllogism and consequence but Christ has spoke out so as to be understood by every capacity God will give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 Now because the Law of Moses laboured under these two great defects which are happily supplied by the Gospel of Christ by reason whereof it was very unable to effect that reformation of the World which was necessary therefore doth the Apostle in several places speak very meanly of it as of a weak and ineffective Instrument He affirms plainly and proves also That it neither could nor did make men throughly good and that therefore God was forced in the fulness of time to make known and in Christ's death to establish a better If there had been a Law given by Moses which could have given life then saith he verily righteousness should not have needed to be sought by another Covenant but have been by the Law But this we see it could not for the Scripture hath concluded all those who lived under it to be still under the dominion of sin that so since the Law of Moses could not do it the promise of eternal life of the Spirit and of other things which we have by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to work and effect it to those that believe Gal. 3.21 22. Something indeed the Law did towards it for it armed their consciences against sin so that they could not take their full swing and transgress without all fear and remorse And this was some restraint and kept them from being so ill by far as otherwise they would have been although it was not able to make them so good as they should And to lay this hank upon sin and to check it in some measure till such time as the Gospel should be more clearly revealed to subdue it perfectly was that very end for which the Law was at first given and whereto so long as it was in force it served Wherefore saith he serveth the Law of Moses It was added to the rude draught of the Gospel-Covenant made with Abraham because of the transgressions of men which grew very high that it might in some degree restrain them till Jesus Christ the seed of Abraham should come to whom as to the head and in behalf of his Church the promise of such Grace as would restrain it fully was made And to fit it the more for imprinting an awe upon peoples Consciences whereby it might lay this restraint upon sin it was ordained at the first giving of it by terrible fire and thundrings made by the Angels which were so dreadful that the people desired of God that those formidable Angels might be no more employed in delivering it to them but that it might be put into the hands of another Mediator viz. Moses who was a man like unto themselves Gal. 3.19 But although this restraint upon Sin were something yet was it far from sufficient so that still it is true of the Law of Moses that notwithstanding it could begin yet it could finish and make nothing perfect but that it was the bringing in of a better hope than was warranted by the Law which should do that Heb. 7.19 And as for this imperfection and faultiness which the Apostle imputes to the first Covenant or Law of Moses in these and other places it is nothing more as he observes than God himself has charged upon it when he speaks of establishing a better instead of it For if the first Covenant by Moses had been faultless and void of imperfection then should no place have been sought for the introduction of the second which it is plain there was For finding fault with them for their breach of the first Covenant he saith in Jer. 31.31 the dayes come when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel such as shall make me to be for ever unto them a God and enable them to be unto me an obedient People Heb. 8.7 8 9 10. Now this Inability of the Law of Moses to work a compleat conquest over sin and a thorow reformation which the Apostle affirms so clearly in these other places he sets out more largely and particularly in that seventh Chapter to the Romans For from the beginning of this Discourse which I have taken at the 14 th Verse of the 6 th Chapter to the end of it at the 5 th vers of the 8 th this weakness and inability of the Law is that still which is every where endeavour'd to be made out and which returns upon us as the conclusion and inference from every argument Sin must not have dominion over you saith he because you are not under the Law where is the place of its reigning but under the Grace of Christ at the 14. verse of the 6 th Chapter And in the 7 th it is taken notice of at every turn When you were in the flesh or under the Law which from its consisting so much of Carnal Ordinances and giving the flesh so much advantage is called flesh Galat. 3.3 the motions of sin which were encouraged by the weakness of the Law brought forth fruit unto death but now being delivered from the weak Law you serve in newness of spirit not as you did then in the oldness of the letter vers 5 6. Sin taking occasion or advantage over the weak Commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence vers 8. When the weak Commandment came sin revived and I died vers 9. Sin taking occasion or advantage by the Commandment slew me vers 11. by which prevailing over the Commandment it appears to be exceeding sinfull vers 13. And at the end of the discourse at the 8 th Chapter we are told again of the Law of Moses being weak through the conquering power of the flesh which made it necessary for God to send his own Son with a better Law which was strong enough to rescue us not of the dominion of
Vriah and adulterating his wife For upon that he felt both these losses which I have mention'd viz. the laying waste of the virtuous temper of his own spirit and the deprivation of the good spirit of God For this sin being so long in acting as it must needs be since it required such a train of wicked plots and contrivances to the consummation of it he must needs feel all the opposition that could be made from the checks of his own Conscience and from the restraints of the Spirit of God And when he had born down both for the satisfaction of his lust and trampled them under foot for the consummation of his sin then doth he begin to feel the want and to be all in fear of losing the habitual rectitude of his own spirit which by so many contrary actions implyed in that one great one he had almost quite destroyed and of suffering the desertion of Gods spirit which by his continued provocations contained in it likewise he had well nigh abandon'd For to this purpose we find him complaining and crying out in his Psalm of repentance for that great transgression whereof at the 14 th verse he makes express mention Create or new make in me a clean heart O God sayes he and renew a right spirit within me And besides that cast me not away neither from thy presence nor take thy holy spirit from me Psal. 51.10 11. So that as for the effect of wilfull sins it is plainly this All wilfull sins whatsoever destroy our state of acceptance with God and put us into a state of enmity and death for the present But as for those among them which lay waste the Conscience they effect not that only but moreover they destroy that virtuous habit and grieve nay sometimes drive away that good spirit whereby we should restore our selves to it for the time to come And because this latter sort have the mischievous effect in making our return thus dubious and difficult they are particularly taken notice of in the accounts of God Thus for instance David had committed several deadly sins for some whereof he had undergone severe punishment as particularly for that proud presumptuous offence of his in numbring of the people 2 Sam. 24.1 10 13 c. But these made no notable decay or devastation in the virtuous temper of his soul for his own heart admonished him of the evil which he had done and he repented quickly and rose again without delay and so was presently restored to what he was before But as for his sin in the matter of Vriah it was a lasting work and took up a long deliberation and contrivance It made his Conscience hard and insensible for his own heart did not smite him into a change nor enable him to repent without a monitor So that his stay in this crying sin was long and his return both difficult and dangerous And therefore in that character which is given of him by the Holy Ghost when all the rest are buried in silence this sin particularly is expresly specified David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life save only in the matter of Vriah the Hittite 1 Kings 15.5 Thus then as for this first part of our enquiry we see plainly of all our wilful sins that they are not consistent with a state of Grace and salvation but that they are all deadly and damning for the present if we dye under them without repenting of them and as for the future that they do all of them wound and weaken but some almost quite destroy that habitual inherent Grace whereby we should recover our selves to the state of pardon for the time to come CHAP. IV. Of the nature of involuntary sins and of their consistence with a state of salvation The CONTENTS Of involuntary actions Of what account the forced actions of the Body are in morals Two causes of involuntariness First The violence of mens passions It doth not excuse Secondly The ignorance of their understandings This is the cause of all our consistent failings and the sins that are involuntary upon this account are consistent with a state of salvation This proved 1. From their unavoidableness The Causes of it in what sense any particular sin among them is said to be avoidable 2. From the nature of God A representation of God's nature from his own Word and mens experience The Argument drawn from it for the consistence of such failings 3. From the nature and declarations of the Gospel It is fitted to beget a cheerful and filial confidence and therefore is called the Spirit of Adoption The Argument from this The Scripture-Declarations and Examples in this matter These Arguments summed up THE second sort of sins are such as are involuntary and unchosen and these are consistent with a state of salvation and such as Christ's Gospel doth not eternally threaten but graciously bears and in great mercy dispenseth with As for the involuntariness of mens actions that which produces and effects it is not any force from without upon our will it self All the things in the material world can never bind and compel the will of man seeing it is no physical bodily thing so as that any bodily force might act upon it Nothing in the world can make us will and like that which we do not like the will of man is liable to no compulsion it has this priviledge above all other things on the Earth that nothing about it can force or constrain it but that still it wills and chuses as it self pleaseth As for the actions of men indeed they are mixt things Because they flow from the whole man both Body and Soul and beginning in the mind or will within are consummate in our outward and bodily operation And as for the last of these viz. our bodily operation it may be forced forasmuch as one Body is liable to the force and compulsion of another Thus for instance a chast Matrons Body may be violently ravished A peaceable mans hand may by the overpowering strength of another man be made the forced instrument of anothers murther The bodily work and operation can be forced seeing other Bodies more powerful than it self can compel it And in this sence the Schools understand the word action viz. only for the action of the Body when they make one kind of involuntary actions to be involuntary by violence or compulsion that being a thing whereto not the will it self but the body only can be liable But now these forced actions of the Body although in Nature they be looked upon as actions yet in morality they are esteemed as none at all That is Laws which are the Rules of good and evil and the measure of mens manners take no notice of them nor look upon themselves to be either broken or kept by them because it is not the Body and Carkass
For Christ need never have come into the World for that end since the Law had rendred us accursed and miserable enough already But he came on a quite contrary Errand to be the Minister of Life and Pardon and not to seal us up to eternal Death upon the first wilful transgression but to procure for us remission of all our deadly and damning sins and to restore us out of a state of Enmity and Death to a state of Mercy and Reconciliation He came to find out a remedy for all our evils and to prescribe us a way of recovering our selves when we had fallen by any sin so that although none of us all have lived free from it yet in the event sin shall not be our ruine And that remedy which God has provided us for this purpose is Repentance He doth not abandon us upon the commission of every sin but he is heartily desirous that we should repent of it and when we do so he has obliged himself by his Truth and Faithfulness to forgive it He is heartily desirous I say that whensoever we commit any sin we should repent of it If we dare take his own word he tells us as he lives that he doth not delight in the death of any sinner but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn you turn you as he goes on from your evil ways for why will you dye O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 And this all the World experience by him in his long-suffering and forbearance with them For he doth not exact the punishment so soon as we have incurred it but expects long to see if we will return and repent that then he may with honour pardon and remit it this being as S t Paul assures us the end of his forbearance and long-suffering to lead us to repentance Rom. 2.4 And what S t Paul says that we all experience For during all that time wherein he bears with us how restless and unwearied earnest and affectionate are his endeavours for this purpose He admonishes us of our faults by his Word and by his Ministers he invites us to return by his Love and by his Promises he moves us to bethink our selves by his Spirit and by his Providences and if we are stubborn and not to be thus gently won by these methods of mildness he seeks to reclaim us by a blessed and a most affectionate force and violence For he corrects us with his Rod and visits us in chastisement and never ceases to try all means of reducing us to a sense of our sin and repentance till we are become plainly incorrigible and utterly rebellious and so fit for nothing but to be swallowed up of ruine And yet even then his desire of reclaiming us is so strong and his love so affectionate that he scarce knows how to give us over How shall I give thee up saith he O Ephraim how shall I deliver thee O Israel Hos. 11.8 And when we do repent I say he has obliged himself by his Truth and Faithfulness most graciously to forgive us This was the Doctrine of the Prophets Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord says Isaiah for he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isa. 55.7 If the wicked man says God by Ezekiel will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not dye All his transgressions which he hath formerly committed shall not be mentioned unto him but in his righteousness that he hath done since he shall live For have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should dye saith the Lord God and not that he should turn from his ways and live Ezek. 18 21 22 23. This iâ— the great Doctrine of the Gospel which is a Covenant of remission of sins upon Repentance Repentance is its great Article and fundamental Truth and is therefore called by S t Paul the Foundation of Repentance Heb. 6.1 For that which was taught to all the World in all the degrees of Publication of the Gospel was that now God called all men to repent and that he would forgive them all their sins upon their true repentance S t John the Baptist who was Christs Herald and Fore-runner at his entrance upon that work begins with it John says S t Luke in all the Country about Jordan came preaching the Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins Luk. 3.3 Our Lord and Saviour Christ himself when he comes after to proclaim his own Gospel goes on with it Jesus began to preach says S t Matthew and to say Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand Mat. 4.17 And when he left the World the Commission which he gives to his Apostles is to proceed on still in the Promulgation of it to all the World as he had done to the people of the Jews For at the last time of his being with them just before his Ascension into Heaven when as S t Matthew tells us he commissioned them to preach to all mankind those instructions which he gave to them S t Luke informs us were that repentance and remission of sins should be preached to all Nations in his Name beginning at Jerusalem Luk. 24.47 This was the chief thing which they had in Commission and the summ and substance of their Embassy For that Ministry which was committed to them was a Ministry of reconciling God and men by this means as St. Paul says or a Ministry of Reconciliation so that they were Ambassadours for Christ as though God did beseech men by them and they as Christs Deputies who is the prime Mediator did pray them in his stead to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5.19.20 And when the Apostles came to execute their Orders the publishing of this was all their care and practice For they all of them went about preaching in all places and to all persons repentance for the remission of sins St. Peter in his first Sermon thus exhorts the people Repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins Act. 2.38 and so again Act. 3. Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out v. 19. And the same he proclaims more generally in his second Epistle assuring all Christians that the Lord is not willing that any man should perish but that all should come to repentance which is sure to prevent it 2 Pet. 3.9 St. Paul preaches to the Athenians that now God had commanded all men every where to repent Act. 17.30 And St. John assures us that by virtue of that Gospel-Covenant which was confirmed with us in Christs Blood if with repenting hearts we confess our sins he is faithful to his word and just to his promise to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from the guilt and stain of all unrighteousness of
tryal whether or no we will renounce him It is the great proof and argument how dearly we love him and how closely and faithfully our wills adhere to him It shews how obedience is uppermost in our hearts and that we will rather deny our dearest lusts and importunate desires than venture for their sakes to offend him So that to be tempted is no instance of damning disobedience but a plain proof how much we will lose and suffer rather than we will disobey It is a tryal of us how we prefer God and our Duty before other things even those that are most dear to us of all things in the world besides We do not sin damnably then in being tempted so long as we consent not to it but manfully resist and overcome the temptation And this is evident from hence because those very men who have lived most free from sin have not for all that lived free from temptation Even Adam himself before he knew what sin was and during his state of Innocence was liable to be tempted For the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil whereof God had forbidden him to eat was alluring to his eyes and an incentive to his lust as well as any other Tree of the Garden And because it was so the Woman was won to eat of it through the strength of such desire after it notwithstanding God had commanded her to abstain from it The woman saw that the Tree was good for food and pleasant to the eye and she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and by the same inducement she drew in her Husband and gave it unto him and he did eat also Gen. 3.6 And the second Adam who was most entirely innocent and guilty of no sort of sin was yet liable to temptation like as we are being in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Heb. 4.15 Nay says the Apostle it was necessary that he should be so that by what he felt in himself he might the better know how to shew mercy and have compassion upon us In all things says he it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful as well as a faithful High Priest for in that he himself hath suffer'd being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted Heb. 2.17 18. As for our being tempted then or invited to any sin by our bare lusts and inclinations after it in it self and before it has got any further it is no deadly sin or damnable transgression It is the scene of good endeavour the tryal of obedience a test of our great love and preference of God and his Law before all the world besides yea even before our own dearest lusts and our own selves It is nothing more than befel Adam before he had sinned or than befel Christ who never knew sin and therefore in it self bare lust and desire or being tempted and invited to sin cannot be damnably sinful As for our Lusts or Temptations 't is true they differ in degrees according as our desires of that evil which we are tempted to are indulged and have advanced more or less For sometimes a lust may stir but as soon as ever it is observed it is again extinguished The pleasure of the sin whether by being seen or fansied raises in us a sudden thought or desire after it but the lust is expelled as soon as it is discovered it is not suffered to remain and dwell in us but is presently thrown out with indignation For we turn away our fancy from the evil thing and will not endure to think upon it or to continue craving and lusting after it And this is a power over our own desires and a way of breaking the strength of temptation which is incident only to grown men and to perfect Christians and that not in all instances of temptation but only in such as are not extraordinary in themselves and which have been often vanquished and triumphed over It is in such cases where use has made the conquest easie and long custom of ceasing and turning away from the inveigling desire has taken off all the difficulty so that now we are able to silence and subdue the lust as soon as we discern it And as for these feeble desires and impotent temptations there is no question but that a good Christian may be under them and yet be in no danger of being condemned for them But then at other times our lusts live longer and advance higher they grow up to good degrees till they are able to contend and strive against our mind and conscience so that even when at last they are denied and our wills chuse to do what God commands in spite of them yet is it after much struggling and opposition The flesh lusteth against the spirit as well as the spirit lusteth against the flesh and although at last the fleshly lusts are overpower'd and cannot prevail with our wills to chuse on their side yet do they strive hard and contend for it And here a lust is not presently subdued as soon as it is discerned but it strives and struggles it can make head against the Law in the mind although it cannot overcome it it has some interest in the will although it have not an interest sufficient for the will hearkens to it for some time and considers of what it offers notwithstanding at last it reject its suit and through the sollicitations of a more powerful Favourite resolves against it And this power our lusts have in us whilst we are young Converts and of a more imperfect goodness nay in some very great temptations indeed such as are the fear of death and bodily torments especially they will struggle thus in those who are the most perfect Christians of all But now when our lusts are in this dâ—gree so as to stay upon our Souls for some time and to strive against our spirits for the consent of our wills before they are â—inally denied it yet if they go no further than bare lust and our wills do not after all their struggling consent to them or chuse the evil thing which is craved by them they are still uncondemning and incident to an Heir of Salvation And this as I take it is clear from what S t Paul himself says of the truly regenerate or of those who in his words walk in the spirit For in them he says plainly that the flesh lusteth against the spirit albeit it is not able to prevail over it so that even in doing what the spirit commands them they do against the contrary will and lusting of the flesh which gainsays it The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh so that even in fulfilling the will of the spirit you contradict another will of your lusts and cannot do or do not the things that you would Gal. 5.16 17. Nay even Christ himself who knew no sin nor ever committed any thing which
explication of this sin for if they once knew what it is they would be at ease from such tormenting suspicions and unreasonable fears about it To explain this I will consider 1. What is meant in Scripture by the Holy Ghost 2. What is meant here by sinning against it 1. What is meant in Scripture by the Holy Ghost By the word Holy Ghost or holy Spirit according to an usual Metonymie of the giver for the gift or of the cause for the effect is very often meant the gifts or effects of the holy Spirit whether they be such as he ordinarily produces in us or such as are extraordinary and miraculous Sometimes it signifies such gifts and dispositions whether of mind or temper as the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God is wont ordinarily to produce in men It notes I say the good qualifications of our minds or understandings which as all other good gifts are wrought in us by the Spirit and derived to us from God Thus a man endued with wisdom and discretion such as Joseph advised Pharaoh to set over all the Land of Egypt is called a man in whom the Spirit of God is Gen. 41.33 38 and the Spirit of the Lord mentioned Isai. 11 is in the very next words explained by the Spirit of wisdom the Spirit of understanding the Spirit of counsel the Spirit of knowledge and the Spirit of quick understanding vers 2 3. It signifies also the vertuous tempers and good qualifications of our hearts which like as the former were are given us of God Thus that good and charitable temper which is so exemplary in God and which is wrought in our souls by him is called the Spirit of God 1 John 4. If we love one another God dwells in us so that hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us that loving temper of his Spirit ver 12 13. The temper which was so observable in Christ is called the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.9 the temper of Elias is called the spirit of Elias Luke 1.17 the Spirit of the Lord is explained by the Spirit of the fear of the Lord Isai. 11.2 and that spirit which God hath given us says S t Paul is not the spirit of fear but the spirit of power of love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 Thus doth the Spirit of God signifie many times in Scripture those ordinary gifts and Graces which are the good effects of the Spirit But besides these effects of it in the good endowments and perfections of our natural faculties whether of mind or temper which are common and ordinary sometimes it signifies more especially those gifts which are extraordinary and miraculous Of which sort are the gift of tongues of prophecy of healing Diseases without any natural means and performing other miraculous operations so famous in the first times of the Gospel Thus for example that Saying I will pour out in those days of my Spirit is interpreted by this in the next words And they shall prophesie Acts 2.18 And the elder Brothers which was a double share of the prophetick power of Elias is called a double portion of his Spirit 2 Kin. 2.9 And the Corinthians zealous pursuit of the miraculous and extraordinary gifts of prophecy speaking with tongues healing diseases and working miracles is called by the Apostle their being zealous of Spirits or as we translate it of spiritual gifts 1 Cor. 14.12 Now as for these extraordinary gifts they are all wrought in us by the same cause and proceed from the same Principle viz. the holy Spirit of God or the holy Ghost There are in the Church now in our times saith the Apostle diversities of gifts but yet one and the same Spirit is the Donor of them all For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom or of Gospel truths and revelations to another the word of knowledg or discerning of remote things and prophetical predictions by the same Spirit to another faith of his being Divinely assisted to produce supernatural effects to another miraculous gifts of healing Diseases without use of means by the same Spirit to another the working of miracles or the utmost activity and energy of powers in the highest instances and effects of them of which sort are raising the Dead casting out Devils inflicting bodily torments on contumacious Sinners c. to another prophecy or exposition of Scripture and inspired Hymns to another discerning of Spirits both in seeing into mens spiritual thoughts and intentions and also in discerning who wrought true Miracles and who Satanical Delusions who were divinely inspired and who were mere Pretenders to another the ecstatick gift of speaking divers kinds of tongues in such rapturous transports as permitted them not to stay to interpret what they said and made them afterwards forget it to another the gift of interpreting into the vulgar language of any in the Congregation those strange tongues But all these diversities of gifts worketh that one and the self same Spirit dividing all these different gifts to every man severally as he will 1 Cor. 12.4 8 9 10 11. And seeing it is the same Spirit or Holy Ghost which is the Authour and Giver of them all therefore are they all indifferently called by either name For sometimes all these extraordinary gifts both the power of miracles and the gift of tongues and prophecy are called the Spirit Thus when the Apostles began to speak with tongues and to prophesie as well as to work miracles and heal diseases it is said that the Spirit was poured out upon them Acts 2.17 18 19 and all these varieties of gifts oâ— one sort or other which are reckoned up by S t Paul in this twelfth Chapter to the Corinthians are attributed to the Spirit and said to be wrought by it and the Apostles being filled with the Holy Ghost and speaking with tongues is called their speaking by the spirit they were all filled with the Holy Ghost says S t Luke and began to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance Acts 2.4 And in like manner at other times all these same powers whether of understanding or action of tongues or miracles are called the Holy Ghost Thus the gifts of signs and wonders and divers miracles are reckoned among the gifts of the Holy Ghost Heb. God says Saint Paul bearing the Apostles witness with signs and wonders and divers miracles and other gifts of the Holy Ghost ver 4. And the signs and wonders which were done by the hands of the Apostles particularly that of healing the lame man so much taken notice of Acts 3 is said to be the witness of the Holy Ghost Acts 5.12 32. Thus I say by reason that all these extraordinary gifts whether relating to our minds in knowledge and speaking with tongues or to our executive powers in healing diseases and working miracles proceed all from the self same Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit the gifts of either sort are called
indifferently by either name being sometimes called the Spirit and sometimes the Holy Ghost But although as I say for this reason the words Spirit and Holy Ghost are sometimes used promiscuously to signifie all or any of these extraordinary gifts indifferently yet what is very material to our purpose sometimes nay very frequently they are distinguished And then by the Holy Ghost is meant not all extraordinary gifts indifferently but particularly those which respect our understandings not executive powers consisting rather in illumination than in power and action of which sort are the gift of tongues of prophecy of discerning Spirits of knowledg of revelation and such like Thus the lying against that part of the gift of discerning Spirits which consisted in understanding the thoughts and purposes of the heart is called lying to the Holy Ghost For so S t Peter who was endowed with this gift tells Ananias when he would have imposed upon him Why hath Satan filled thine heart saith he to lye to the Holy Ghost Acts 5.3 And S t Stephen's being filled with an extraordinary revelation of Christ's sitting at God's right hand in Heaven is called his being filled with the Holy Ghost Acts 7.55 But more especially the gift of Tongues and Prophecy is dignified with that name Thus in the 10 th Chapter of the Acts when the Gentiles in Cornelius's house begun to speak with Tongues upon S t Peters preaching it is said that the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word and that on the Gentiles was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost v. 44 45 46. The Disciples at Ephesus who being baptized with the Baptism of John cannot be supposed ignorant of the many miraculous Cures so much talked of among the Jews and of the strange effects of the Spirit in Jesus whom John preached did yet tell Paul that they had not so much as heard of the Holy Ghost Act. 19.2 which might very well be because the Holy Ghost or gift of Tongues and Prophecy were not given till after Jesus was glorified Joh. 7.39 But upon the preaching of S t Paul they were made partakers of it for when Paul laid his hands on them the Holy Ghost came upon them and they spake with tongues and prophesied Act. 19.6 And to name no more instances in this matter that place which I now hinted in the 7 th Chapter of S t John is a full proof of this restrained acceptation For there after all the instances of curing diseases casting out Devils and other effects of the Spirit in miraculous operations which Christ shewed wheresoever he came it is yet expresly affirmed that the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified by his Exaltation to the right hand of God v. 39. The Holy Ghost i. e. these gifts of Tongues of Prophecy and the like which are all that remained still to be shed abroad and which came upon the Apostles at the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost Act. 2. Thus is the Holy Ghost set to denote not all the miraculous and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit promiscuously but particularly those which respect the mind or understanding such as the gift of Tongues of Prophecy of deep Knowledge and the like And on the other side as for the word Spirit it is set to express not all extraordinary gifts and effects of the Spirit in general but those by name which respect our executive not knowing powers and which consist not in illumination but in action Of which sort are the gift of healing diseases of casting out Devils of raising the dead and other miraculous operations Thus the miraculous courage and valour which was given to Othoniel is called the Spirit of the Lord Judg. 3.10 as is that likewise which was given to Gideon Judg. 6.34 and the miraculous strength of Samson is called the Spirit of the Lord upon Samson Judg. 14.6 And upon Christs working the miraculous cure upon the man with the withered hand S t Matthew applies to him that saying of the Prophet the Spirit of the Lord came upon him Mat. 12.18 and his casting out Devils he himself attributes to the Spirit of God I says he by the spirit of God cast out devils v. 28. As by the Holy Ghost therefore are meant particularly the gifts of illumination in Tongues and Prophecy so by the Spirit are signified the gifts of Power in healing diseases casting out Devils and doing mighty and miraculous works And both these together take up the full compass of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit and are both distinctly expressed by S t Peter when he says that Jesus was anointed with the holy Ghost and with Power Act. 10.38 These then are the several meanings of the words Holy Ghost and holy Spirit They denote as the third Person in the Trinity the Holy Ghost himself so also those gifts and effects which proceed from him Whether those gifts are ordinary either in the endowments of our minds or the vertuous tempers and dispositions of our wills and hearts or extraordinary and miraculous Wherein yet we must observe this difference that the gifts of the executive powers in healing diseases casting out Devils working Miracles are by a peculiar name called the Spirit and the gifts of the knowing or understanding Faculties in Prophecies Revelations speaking with divers sorts of Tongues are by a contradistinct name called the Holy Ghost And thus having shewn what is meant by the Holy Ghost I proceed now to show 2. What is meant by sinning against it and which of all those which are committed against it is the unpardonable sin The only way whereby any men are capable to sin against God as was observed is by affront and dishonour for God is out of our reach for any other sort of injury and we cannot otherwise hurt him than by shewing our contempt and disrepect of him And in regard the Holy Ghost in his own person is very and essential God this must needs be the only way whereby we can sin against him likewise We cannot injure him in his Nature but only in his Honour but then we sin against him when we walk cross to him and oppose him or any way slight and contemn undervalue or reproach him or any of those excellent and Divine gifts which proceed from him Now this we do more or less in every sin For this Spirit of God is an universal instrument of faith and good life it has taken the utmost care by miracles and other its convictive evidences to evince the truth of Christs Doctrine and doth now still by his daily suggestions and sollicitations excite men to the observance of it And seeing the Spirit of God has shown it self so much concerned for our faith and obedience every act of unbelief and disobedience is a direct opposition to it and reproach of it and therefore is a sin against it But every such sin is not the unpardonable fault here mentioned For our very
wilful sins themselves as has been shewn are not desperate under Christs Religion the Gospel being a Covenant that doth not damn men upon all voluntary sin but encourages their repentance with the promise of pardon so that although all our sins are against God and his Spirit they are not irremissible but will be remitted to every man who repents of them It is not every sin against the Spirit of God then which this place in S t Matthew threatens so severely But the unpardonable sin is a sin by it self it has something peculiar in it from all other sins which by shutting us out from all possibility of repentance excludes it from all hopes of being forgiven And indeed it is plainly this It is a sinning against the Holy Ghost in the last sense as it signifies not only the power of miracles but also the gift of tongues and other illuminations of the Holy Ghost which came down upon the Apostles at Pentecost and it is such a sinning against these as is particularly by reviling and blaspheming them This and none other I take to be the sin here mentioned For the clearer discerning whereof we will consider the sins against the Holy Ghost in all the acceptations before laid down and in all of them except the last we shall find room for pardon and remission First then to sin against the Holy Ghost as it signifies the ordinary endowments and vertuous tempers of our minds and wills is not the unpardonable sin that is here spoken of For every sin against any particular vertue is a sin against the Holy Ghost in that sense Every act of drunkenness for instance is against the gift of sobriety and every act of uncleanness is against the gift of continency and so it is in the several actions of all other sorts of sin But now as for all these the great offer and invitation of the Gospel is that men would accept of mercy upon repentance The Incestuous Corinthian sinned deeply against the grace of chastity and he repented and was forgiven S t Peter denied his Lord and upon his repentance he was also pardoned and the same Grace has been allowed as we have seen to all other wilful sinners Nay in this sort of sinning against the Holy Ghost viz. by sinning against those Christian gifts and graces which he works in us there is mercy to very great degrees For sometimes we do not hearken to his holy motions but fall into lesser sins and offensive indecencies notwithstanding all his vertuous suggestions and endeavours to the contrary and then he is troubled and grieved at us Eph. 4.30 And at other times we venture upon more hainous crimes which quite lay waste the conscience and undo all the vertuous temper and resolution of our souls so that we lie long in our impenitence as David did in the matter of Vriah and are almost hardned in our wicked way before we are able again to recover out of it and in these offences the Spirit has been so much affronted and his importunate suggestions so frequently thrown out that he is almost ready to forsake us and to leave us to our selves so that it may be called a quenching of him 1 Thess. 5.19 But although the last of these especially be very dangerous yet is neither of them desperate But after we have been guilty of them God continues still to make offers and invitations and by his long-sufferance and his gracious providences and the repeated calls of his Word and Ministers he still endeavours to recover us to pardon by recalling us to repentance Yea the holy Spirit it self makes fresh assaults upon us and tries again whether we will hearken to it and be relieved by it as it was with David after he had complained of his being deprived of Gods presence and of the holy Spirit 's being taken from him Psal. 51.11 and as it is with every other reclaimed back-slider The sinning against the Holy Ghost therefore in this sense as it signifies the ordinary gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost is far from being the unpardonable sin and is manifestly under the grace of pardon and repentance Secondly Nor is a sin against the extraordinary gifts of casting out Devils healing diseases working miracles or other things called the Spirit that unpardonable sin which is here intended To blaspheme the Spirit 't is true comes very near it and when men are once gone on to that God is very nigh giving of them up and using no more means about them to bring them either to Faith or Repentance which are the only way to pardon and forgiveness But although this pitch of sin be extreme dangerous yet in great likelihood it is not wholly desperate for after all the dirt that men had thrown upon this evidence viz. the miraculous operation wrought by Christ whilst he continued upon earth God was still pleased to use some means further to bring them to believe and that was the evidence of the Holy Ghost which came down to compleat all after that Jesus was glorified Act. 2. This great proof which was to be poured out upon the Disciples at Pentecost and upon other Christians at the Imposition of their hands for a good while after might effect that wherein the other had failed and be acknowledged by those very men who had blasphemed the former So that their case notwithstanding it were gone extreme far was not for all that quite hopeless because one remedy still remained which God resolved he would use to reclaim them though after that he would try no more The blaspheming of the Spirit then was very near the unpardonable because unamendable sin but yet it was not fully grown up to it it was in the next degree to unpardonable but yet if it went no further it might be pardoned still And of this I think we have a clear proof even in those blasphemous Pharisees whose reviling of the Spirit was the occasion of all this discourse For as for the Spirit they blasphemed it in this very Chapter when upon occasion of the miraculous cure of the man with the withered hand v. 13 and of Christs casting out of Devils v. 28 both which were so manifestly wrought before their eyes that none of them durst question or deny the working of them they go blasphemously to charge these evident effects of the Spirit upon the power of Magick and to say that these works of God were performed by the Devil For when these mighty effects of the Spirit were urged to them in behalf of Jesus they answered and said says S t Matthew this Fellow doth not cast out Devils but by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils v. 24. Here is a reproach to these miraculous gifts of the Spirit as great as can be invented for it is nothing less than an attributing them to the most foul and loathsom Fiends in Nature even to the very Devils themselves But yet this Blasphemy as dangerous as it was is not
repentance that being such a sin as God will never give repentance to Heb. 6.6 The sinning against the Holy Ghost in this sence then as it denotes the gift of tongues of prophecy c. which is the last evidence that God is resolved to make use of for the conversion of an unbelieving World is that unpardonable sin which shall never be forgiven And yet even here in this limited and contracted sence of the word Holy Ghost we must still proceed with some caution For it is not every affront and dishonour that is put upon these gifts which is the sin here styled irremissible Simon Magus cast a very high indignity and reproach upon them in his actions for he went about to purchase the gift of tongues and other sacred illuminations called the Holy Ghost which fell upon men at the imposition of the Apostles hands as if they had been only a trick to get money or a fit thing to drive a trade withal and make a gainful merchandise When Simon saw that through the laying on of the hands of the Apostles the Holy Ghost was given he offered them money says S t Luke saying Give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost Acts 8.18 19. This was a very great abuse and a most unworthy comparing of the heavenly and holy Spirit of God to a mercetable ware and vendible commodity thinking it fit to serve any ends and to minister to the basest purposes of filthy lucre and covetousness But yet this sin against the Holy Ghost in its strictest acceptation was not the unpardonable sin it came very near it indeed and would hardly be remitted but still in all likelihood it was remissible And therefore S t Peter although he be very severe upon this sordid man for the high affront doth not yet pronounce an irreversible doom of damnation upon him but on the contrary exhorts him to repent that the sin of his heart may be forgiven Repent says he of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee ver 22. But that which is the desperately damning sin against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven either in this world or in that which is to come is the sinning against it not by interpretation only in our actions but directly in our words and expressions It is our speaking reproachfully and slanderously of it as the Pharisees did of the spirit when they attributed it to Beelzebub And therefore it is expresly called the speaking blasphemously against the Holy Ghost Whosoever speaketh blasphemously against the Holy Ghost when he shall come it shall never be forgiven him neither in this world nor in the world to come Matth. 12.21 32. The great weight lyes in that for this heavy doom he denounced upon them says S t Mark because they said he hath an unclean spirit Mark 3 30. And thus at length we see what that sin against the Holy Ghost is whose doom is so dreadful and whose case is so desperate under the Gospel It is nothing less than a slandering and reviling instead of owning and assenting to that last evidence which God has given us of the truth of the Gospel in the gifts of tongues prophecy and other extraordinary illuminations called the Holy Ghost So that no man who ownes Christ's Religion and thinks he was no Impostor and believes that these miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were no magical shows or diabolical delusions can ever be guilty of it No before he arrive to that he must not only be an Infidel to the faith but also a Blasphemer of it he must not only disbelieve this last and greatest evidence but disparage and rail against it If then there be any man who ownes Christ's Authority and obeys his Laws and believes his Gospel and hopes in its promises and fears its threatnings and expects that every word of that Covenant which was confirmed to us by the infallible evidence of the Spirit and the Holy Ghost shall come to pass he is not more guiltless of any sin than of this against the Holy Ghost for he doth not so much as sleight and disparage but ownes and submits to it If good men therefore are afraid by reason of the irremissibleness of the sin against the Holy Ghost they fear where they need not and their scruple is utterly unreasonable and groundless For let it be as unpardonable as it will that shall not hurt them for they can never suffer by it since whilst they continue such as now they are they cannot possibly be guilty of it or of any thing that comes near it CHAP. VII The Conclusion The CONTENTS Some other causless scruples The point of growth in Grace more largely stated A summary repetition of this whole Discourse They may dye with courage whose Conscience doth not accuse them This accusation must not be for idle words distractions in Prayer c. but for a wilful transgression of some Law of Piety Sobriety c. above mentioned It must further be particular and express not general and roving If an honest mans heart condemn him not for some such unrepented sins God never will BEsides these scruples already mentioned some good minds may be put in fear and doubt of the safety of their present state because S t John says that whosoever is born of God sinneth not being no longer a child of God if he do 1 Joh. 3.6 9. But the sin here spoken of as was observed above is defined by S t John himself at the fourth verse of this Chapter to be not every deviation or going beside the Law but a wilful transgression and rejecting of the Law it self And this indeed is inconsistent with a regenerate state and puts us out of Gods favour making us liable to eternal destruction But then the case for these sins is not desperate seeing if once we forsake them and repent of them we are as safe again as ever we were before we committed them For our repentance will set us straight and if we transgress not wilfully again we are without the reach of condemnation Others doubt whether when once they have wilfully sinned they ever can repent or shall afterwards be pardoned because they read of Esau that after he had sold his birth-right with the blessing that attended it when he would have inherited it afterwards he was rejected and found no place of a change of mind or repentance though he sought it carefully with tears Heb. 12.17 In answer to this it will be sufficient to observe that this change of mind or repentance which Esau sought but could not find was not in himself but in his Father Isaac It was not in himself I say for there he did find a place for it being he was really possessed of it For he was heartily sorry for his former folly in parting with his birth-right and for his present unhappiness in being
of none but what we have repented of we have just reason to take a good heart to our selves and to wait for death in hopeful expectations If our own hearts condemn us not says Saint John then have we confidence towards God 1 John 3.21 There is no sin that will damn us but a wilful one and when we sin wilfully if our heart is soft and honest we sin willingly and against our Conscience our own heart sees and observes it before and will keep us in mind of it after we have committed it So that if any man has a vertuous and a tender heart a heart that is truly dâ—sirous to obey obey God and afraid in any thing to offend him when his Conscience is silent he may justly conclude that his Condition is safe for if it doth not condemn him God never will An honest mans heart I say must condemn him before he have sufficient reason to condemn himself And that too not for every idle word or every fruitless lust or every dulness of spirit and distraction in prayer and coldness in devotion or such other mistaken marks whereby too many are wont to judge of their title to salvation No Heaven and Hell are not made to depend upon these things but although a man be guilty of them he may be eternally happy notwithstanding them But that accusation of his Conscience which may give an honest man just reason to condemn himself must be an accusation for a wilful breach or deliberate transgression of some particular Law of Sobriety Piety Justice Charity Peaceableness it must accuse him of an unrepented breach of some of those Laws above mentioned which God has plainly made the terms of life and the condition of salvation And the accusation for the breach of these Laws must be particular and express not general and roving For some are of so suspicious and timorous a temper that they are still suspecting and condemning of themselves when they know not for what reason They will indict themselves as men that have sinned greatly but they cannot shew wherein they judge of themselves not from any reason or experience but at a venture and by chance they speak not so truly their opinions as their fears not what their understandings see and discern but what their melancholy suggests to them For ask them as to any one Particular of the Laws of God and run them all over and their Consciences cannot charge them with any wilful which is withal an unrepented transgression of it But let them overlook all Particulars and pass a judgment of themselves only in general when they do not judge from particular instances which are true evidence but only from groundless and small presumptions and then they pass a hard sentence upon themselves and conclude that their sins are very great and their condition dangerous But no man shall be sentenced at the last Day for Notions and Generalities but it is our particular sins which must then condemn us For God's Laws bind us all in single actions and if our own Consciences cannot condemn us for any one wilful which is withal an unrepented action God will not condemn us for them altogether If our own heart therefore doth not accuse us for the particular wilful and unrepented breaches of some or other of those Laws above mentioned which God has made the indispensable condition of our acceptance we are secure as to the next World and may comfortably hope to be acquitted in the last Judgment Being conscious of no wilful sin but what we have repented of and by mercy and forgiveness of other men and our prayers to God begging pardon for our involuntary sins we shall have nothing that will lye heavy upon us at the last Day but may go out of the World with ease and dye in comfort Our departure hence may be in peace because our appearance at Gods Tribunal shall surely be in safety For we shall have no worse charged upon us there than we are able here to charge upon our selves but leaving this World in a good Conscience we shall be sentenced in the next to a glorious reward and bid to enter into our Masters joy there to live with our Lord for ever and ever Amen Soli Deo Gloria FINIS * 1 Joh. 2 17-29 ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clâ—m Ro. 1. Epist. ad Cor. c. 30. a Gal. 3.19 b Matt 1.21 c Jam. 2.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Rom. Ep. 1. ad Cor. c. 31. e Quid est â—ide liter Christo credere â— est fideliter Dei mandata servare Salvian de Gub. l. 3. p. 67. Ed. Oxon. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Rom. 1. Ep. ad Cor. c. 10. f Matt. 25.34 35 3â— c. g Heb. 1.17 19. h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wrought to his works or to make him work i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k Neâ— Christianus esse videtur qui Christiani nominis opus non agit Salvian de Gub. l 4. p. Ed. Ox. 90. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Noah's preaching Righteousness and Repentance before the flood 2 Pet. 2.5 and 1 Pet. 3.20 is thus expessed by St. Clement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Epist. ad Cor. c. 9. c Prophetarum Filii And in the like sence among the Gentiles Poetarum Filii d Jer. 8.6 So St. Clement uses the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 promiscuously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And what in the Septuagint whom he follows in Citations is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ezek. 33.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. he giving the sence though not the words according to the Apostolical usage expresses thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Rom. 1. Ep. ad Cor. c. 7.8 And agreeably to this the compilers of our Liturgy in the Sentences before Morning Service in our Old Common Prayer Books translate Matt. 3.2 Repent ye for the Kingdom of God is at hand thus Amend your lives for the Kingdom c. As on the other side they expound Ezek. 18.21 If the wicked turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right c. thus At what time soever a sinner repenteth c. Quid planius quà m quod voluntas pro facto reputâ—tur ubi factum exclâ—dic necessitas nisi forte putetur in malo quà m in bono efficacior inveniri voluntas apud Deum qui charitas est promptioresset ad ulciscendum quam ad remunerandum misericors miserator Dominus Bernard Ep. ad Hugonem de Sancto Victore quae est Ep. 77. p. op 1458. f Quid dicam nescio quid promittam penitus ignoro revocare ab inquisitione ultimi remedii periclitantes durum impium spondere autem aliquid in tam sera cautione temerarium Salv. de Avaritia l. 1. p. 363. Ed. Oxon. a Levit. 26.40.42 b Novum monstri genus â—adem
could in strict justice be worthy of death was yet subject to such a conflict of flesh and spirit as this now mentioned His very Death and Passion which was the very consummation and highest part of his obedience was not without great struggling of his flesh and a long and earnest conflict of his bodily desires against it For he was in a strange fear and discomposure about it he began says S t Mark to be sore amazed Mark 14.34 And when he had recovered himself a little from the maze of that sudden fright he prays against it O my Father if it he possible let this cup pass from me Mat. 26.39 And when his request was not granted at first he makes a fresh address wherein he is more importunate being in his Agony says S t Luke he prayed more earnestly Luk. 22.44 his supplications he offered up with strong crying and tears Hebr. 5.7 All this strife and opposition did the desire of life and the bodily appetite after ease and safety together with the sense of God's wrath and high displeasure raise in him against this obedience of his sufferings But because all this was only lust and desire which although it lasted some time and discomposed him much was not yet able to gain any thing of his will and consent to it therefore notwithstanding it was he perfectly innocent All that can be said is That he was tempted by the desires of his Flesh against this great and last instance of obedience but he did not yield or consent to the temptation Thus then as for the lusts and desires of our Flesh whether they be suddenly rejected and make no resistance or are longer liv'd and contend much if they have got no consent of our wills to the fulfilling of them nor any choice of the evil which is craved by them they are only a temptation to a damning sin but in themselves thus far they are not damning As for these motions and lustings after evil things then that are unconsented to and unfulfilled which are the complaint and fear of good men they shall not harm them or be charged upon them to their condemnation But when God comes to judgment he will pardon and pass them by and not eternally punish and avenge for them And having shewn thus for what lusts and desires of evil we shall at the last day be pardoned I come now 2. To shew for which of them we shall be condemned And as for this we have in great part our answer to it already For our lusts are then damnable and dangerously evil when they are effectual instruments and temptations to damning evils and carry us on either to chuse or practise them For they are the great Favourites and Seducers of our wills and thereby the Authors of our actions they first bring us to chuse and consent to the deadly sin whereby they are gratified and then to act it and when they are gone on to either of these they are an Article of our condemnation They are uncondemning till they come so far but if once they have got us to consent to the alluring sin from that consent begins their sting and both it and all that follows it make us liable to eternal destruction To make this Discourse more clear I will here set down those several steps whereby we ascend to the completion and are carried on to the working and commission of any sin 1. At the representation of the object which is to tempt us to it whether it be an unchast embrace an unlawful gain or the like either by what we feel of it now if it be before our senses or by what we fansie if it is in our imagination our flesh is pleased and delighted with it And from this pleasure it naturally goes on to love and from loving to desire it And desire or lust is the last step among the passions for delight begets love and love ends in desire but when once we are come to desire a thing our passions have done their part and all that in them lyes towards the action 2. When in the appetite or animal soul the sin has gone thus far the next step is that to gratifie this desire or lust of our Flesh our wills should consent to it For our wills are the Disposers of all that follows so that unless they consent to get that which the Flesh so much desires there can nothing more be done towards it But if they do consent to the desire and intend to fulfil it then 3. Our understanding and contrivance is employed in deliberating and consulting what time what place what means are fittest to accomplish it with the least difficulty and the most delight and to the greatest advantage And when our minds have seen which to prefer and fix upon then 4. Our wills resolve upon them and make choice of them And when this is done the last Decree is past and all the time of doubting and deliberation is over so that nothing more remains but 5. To apply our bodily powers to perform our resolutions in the execution and commission of that which was resolved upon This is the natural order of our faculties and the process that is observed by our principles of action in their completion and final commission of any sin The first beginning is in the lower soul for that is the inlet of all sin and the seat of temptation and there it is that sin hath all its strength and insnaring power upon which account it is called by S t Paul a Law in the Members Rom. 7.23 And when these lusts of our Flesh have won the consent of our wills they are secure of all our after-contrivances for it and of our actual performance and execution of it For both our thoughts and our bodily powers are at the Command of our own wills so that if at the instigation of our lusts our wills have once consented to the sin they will quickly set our heads awork to contrive for it and our hands and other bodily powers to execute and fulfil it And in this method our Principles of action move when we act with full deliberation and when they are all employed Sometimes indeed there is no contrivance at all because none is needful as it happens when the opportunity of the sin is present with us and just before us at such time as we consent to it so that nothing more is wanting but only to act and fulfil it But when the opportunity is absent and we are put to forecast and contrive for it then is the process of our faculties in that very order which I have here described For an instance and illustration of this we will take the sin of drunkenness and the process will appear to be in that order which I have mentioned For in a man whose inclination that way disposes him to be tempted by it the fancy of it in himself or the having it suggested by another gives him a thought