stream a River that suffic'd that people and their cattle out of a Rock How in the midst of lightning and thunder God himself promulgated his Law to the whole Nation audibly at once How his glorious presence shew'd it self in all necessities upon the Ark in which the Tables of the Law were laid up How the waters of the river Jordan fled from that Ark both waies flow'd upwards to give passage to the people into Canaan How the walls of Jericho without any other battery any other force but that the Ark was there fell down before it But to name no more If these be true that power by which these were wrought was great enough to give that Law require obedience to it and reward it and to punish all transgression according to the tenor of these Scriptures that is it was God and he that wrote those Scriptures must have had communication with and bin inspir'd from God to write them But 2. whether they were true or no according as they are recorded in those Scriptures that whole people from the greatest almost to the least must know because they are recorded as all don not only in the presence of them all but as the objects and the entertainments of their senses every one so that if they were forg'd not one of the whole Nation could be ignorant of it And then 3. If they knew them forg'd all that 600000. men besides their wives and families should endure this Moses having brought them forth only into a wilderness there to lay such a heavy Law and so severe a yoke upon them with such penalties annext to every least transgression and adjure them to observe it on account of all those prodigies that had bin wrought among them and upbraid them with stiffneckedness rebellion and appeal to their own senses for the truth of all this and record all to posterity in this Scripture cause all to be read before them and that they should bear all this from him they knew so impudent a deceiver and conveigh that Scripture and the faith of it to their posterity ground their so strict so chargeable Religion on that book which they were certain had no word of truth in it this sure transcends belief and possibility T is certain therefore since the Jews of that age did perform the services requir'd and in performing them according as that book directs did teach their children the great works that God had don in their sight therefore they believ'd those Miracles and Scriptures And since it was impossible that they should be deceiv'd if they believ'd them they were true their posterity receiv'd from them the faith of this and so deriv'd it on that neither Gods dread judgments nor mans cruelty can yet shake it Now had they not bin don and on that account conveigh'd when ever they were broacht and that book first appeard the men of that age must needs know their Fathers never had perform'd such services had such a book read to them constantly nor told them of such Miracles that had bin wrought and therefore it was impossible that they could have believ'd it had bin so from Moses if it had bin true that it had first begun to be taught in their own time or in theirs with whom they liv'd And this discourse must be of force concerning every age if we ascend until we come to that of Moses wherein all was effected Yet besides this they had also that perpetual Miracle in the High Priests Pectoral the Oracle of Vrim and Thummim that did keep alive their faith and strengthen it and they had Prophets constantly foretelling as from God things that were somtimes suddenly to come to pass and somtimes not till many ages after the event of which depended often on the will of those that would not of some hundred years be born others on Gods own immediat will and hand and therefore none but God could look into foretel and bring to pass all those events Now such were Jeremies predictions of the taking of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people and the express number of years it would continue Esays naming Cyrus who was to release it near two hundred years e're he was born All Daniels prophecies particularly that must eminent one of the Messiah this Christ Jesus of whose Scriptures we are next to speak That that Jesus whom Cornelius Tacitus the heathen historian in the fifteenth book of his Annals calls Christiani dogmatis autorem the Author of the Christian Doctrine did work Miracles and prophesy both Jews and learned Heathens do confess But these Books tell us when he first began to preach he publicly cast out a Devil in the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and at even when the whole City was assembled he heal'd all their sick and cast out many Devils which confest before all that he was the Son of God Then he cast out a Legion of such mischievous malign Spirits as having got license drove two thousand Swine headlong into the Sea and choakt them which was known to the whole Country of the Gadarens Before the Pharisees and Doctors that came out of all the Cities both of Galilee and Jewry and Jerusalem and so great a crowd as forc'd them to unroof the house to come to him he freed one from his palsy and his sins A multitude was witness of the death of Jairus's daughter and bewailing her laught him to scorn that undertook to raise her yet he call'd her into life And on a feast day in the Temple before all the people he recover'd one that had lain lame eight and thirty years and when a widows son was carried to his funeral and all the City follow'd him he only toucht the bier and bid him live With two fishes and five loaves he fed 5000 men besides women and children and with what they left they fill'd twelve baskets when one basket carried all before they ate so that they were convinc'd he was that Prophet that was to come into the world and with seven loaves he fill'd 4000 afterwards and seven baskets He commanded a dumb spirit out of him that had bin Lunatic vext with a Devil from his infancy before the people and the Scribes whom his Disciples could not cast out And when Lazarus had bin dead four daies and buried till he stank yet at his call altho bound hand and foot with grave cloaths he came forth all the multitude beholding From so many more I chose out these because they are reported don before the people and the Scribes and Pharisees and Doctors I might name his Prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the propagation and continuance of his Religion even of the womans box of Spikenard which event hath made notorious to the world But his death was so even at the present when if the rending of the veil of the Temple was
evitavit Qua alii ambiunt Cui rectius visum Ecclesiam defendere instruere ornare Quam regere Laboribus studiisque perpetuis exhaustus Morte si quis alius praematura Obiit Vir desideratissimus Januarii XXVII An. M.DC.LXXX Aetatis LX. Nobile sibi monumentum Areae adjacentis latus occidentale Quod à fundamentis propriis impensis struxit Vivus sibi statuit Brevem hanc Tabellam Haeredes defuncto posuere TABLE of the First VOLUME 1 Pet. 4. 1. He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin Pag. 1. Psalm 7â— 1. Truly God is loving to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart 15. Levit. 16. 31. Ye shall afflict your soul by a statute for ever 29. John 15. 14. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you 43. Ezek. 33. 2. Why will ye die 57. Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee 69. Mark 1. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. 81. 1 John 5. 4. This is the victory which overcometh the world even our faith 95. Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ. 109. Luke 9. 55. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of 123. Luke 16. 30 31. Nay father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And he said unto him if they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho one rose from the dead 137. Luke 2. 34. Behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against Pag. 151. James 4. 7. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you 165. Phil. 3. 18. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enimies of the cross of Christ. 181. Mark 10. 15. Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child he shall not enter therein 195. Acts 13. 2. The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them 209. Hos. 3. 9. Afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their king and shall fear the Lord and his goodness 227. Matt. 5. 44. But I say unto you love your enimies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you 243. TABLE of the Second VOLUME 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation thro faith which is in Christ Jesus Pag. 1. Rom. 6. 3. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptiz'd into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death 21. Matt. 9. 13. Go ye and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Pag. 36. Psalm 102. 13 14. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for the time to favor her yea the set time is come For thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof 50. Acts 24. 16. And herein I exercise my self to have alwaies a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man 65. Matt. 5. 4. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted 79. 1 John 3. 3. Every man that has this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure 93. Isaiah 26. 20. Come my people enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast 107. Matt. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest 118. 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory thro our Lord Jesus Christ. 133. Psalm 17. 15. As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness 143. John 20. 28. My Lord and my God 157. Mark 9. 24. Lord I believe help thou my unbelief 170. Matt. 5. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven 191. 2 Cor. 6. 2. Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation 201. 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed 215. Luke 16. 8. The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light 230. Matt. 6. 22 23. The light of the body is the eie if therefore thy eie be single thy whole body shall be full of light But if thy eie be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness 247. Serm. 2. 261. Serm. 3. 272. Serm. 4. 284. Serm. 5. 296. THE Divine Autority AND USEFULNESS OF THE Holy Scripture ASSERTED IN A SERMON On the 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iâ—sus THE words are part of St. Pauls reasoning by which he presseth Timothy to hold fast the truth he had receiv'd and not let evil men seducers work him out of what he had bin taught urging to this end both the autority of the Teacher himself who had secur'd the truth of his doctrine by infallible evidence and beyond that as if that were a more effectual enforcement pressing him with his own education in the Scriptures how he had bin nurst up in that faith suckt the Religion with his milk that it was grown the very habit of his mind that which would strengthen him into a perfect man in Christ and make him wise unto salvation if he did continue in the faith and practice of it which he proves in the remaining verses of the Chapter In the words read there are three things observable 1. Here is a state suppos'd Salvation and put too as of such concernment that attaining it is lookt upon as wisdom wise unto salvation Now since true wisdom must express it self both in the end that it proposeth and the means it chooseth for that end to be pursued with and attain'd by and take care both these have all conditions that can justifie the undertaking and secure the prudence of it and this wisedom to salvation therefore must suppose both theâ—e in order to them both we have here 2. That which with all divine advantage does propose this end and also does prescribe most perfect means for the attaining it and that is Holy Scripture through faith which is in Christ Jesus Thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus Holy Scripture probably of the Old Testament for there was hardly any other Timothy could know from a child scarce any other being written then The faith of
that requires strict evidence in things of faith which cannot bear it he that calls for Mathematical demonstration nor will believe on easier terms yet is so credulous and so unwary that he can believe so many things which by the nature and the disposition of mankind I have demonstrated not possible which yet must be true unless these Scriptures be from God 't is plain he does not seek for certainty but for a pretence of not believing would fain have his Infidelity and Atheism look more excusable and is not fit to be disputed with but to be exploded But if these Scriptures be from God then whatsoever they affirm with modesty I may conclude is true And therefore when St Luke Acts 1. 1. declares his former treatise contain'd all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up since Christ before he did ascend taught every thing that was requir'd to be believ'd and don in order to salvation and more too therefore if his Gospel did contain all that he taught and did since it did not contain all absolutly it must needs mean it contained all that was necessary or it must mean nothing And since the same St Luke in the beginning of that Gospel does affirm he wrot it that Theophilus might know the certainty of those things wherein he had bin instructed 'T is plain he avers that the certain knowledg of all those things wherein the having bin instructed made Theophilus a Christian might be had out of the Gospel and when St Paul says here that the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus and St John in his 20 chap. v. 31. that tho he had not wrot all the things that Jesus did yet those that he had wrot were written that we might believe that Jesus was the Christ the son of God and that believing we might have life through his name 'T is evident the Scriptures say that what was written was sufficient to work that belief which was sufficient to life and salvation as far as the credenda do concur to it And when St Paul in that verse that succeeds my text in most express particular words sets down the usefulness of Scripture in each several duty of a man of God or Preacher of the Gospel both for Doctrine of faith for reproof or correction of manners and instruction unto righteousness and tells you Gods express end in inspiring it and consequently its ability when so inspir'd was that the man of God might be made perfect throughly furnisht unto every good work that belongs to his whole office 't is most certain that what is sufficient for that office to instruct reprove correct and teach in must needs be sufficient to believe and practise in for all men i. e. what my text affirms they are able to make us wise unto salvation I might call in Tradition universal to bear witness to this truth for holy Scriptures if having once demonstrated that they are Gods word when that does affirm it and bears witness to it there were need of any other And this I dare boldly say that if the Scripture did say as expresly that the Pope had a supremacy or soveraignty over the whole Church or that he or the Roman Church were infallible their definition or the living voice of their present Church a most sure rule of faith as it doth say Scripture is able to make us wise unto salvation those Articles would suffer no dispute it would be blasphemy or sacriledg to limit or explain them by distinctions when those sayings of the perfectness of Scriptures are forc'd to bear many Then we should have no complaints of the obscurity of those books if those articles were either in the Greek or Hebrew they would never say the Bible were not fit to be a Rule of Faith because the Language were unknown to the unlearned and they could not be infallibly secure of the Translation were they there they would account them sure enough who think them plain enough already there and that we must believe them because Thou art Peter Feed my sheep and Tell the Church are there And for him that shall affirm all necessaries that must make us wise unto salvation are not in the Scripture 't is impossible to give a rational account how it should come to pass that some are there the rest are not It must be either on design or else by chance Now 1. That God should design when very many things that were not necessary were to be written that the main and fundamental ones should be omitted and when of the necessaries most he did design for Scripture then He should not suffer the Apostles to write the remainder of them and yet what he would not suffer them to write design'd that the Trent Fathers who I hope have perfected the Catalogue should write all of these since 't is not possible to give a reason 't is not therefore rational to affirm it was upon design But 2. If he shall say it only happen'd so by chance he does affront both Scriptures and Gods Holy Spirit who as they affirm inspir'd them for this very end to bring men to the faith and to salvation But there is no place for chance in those things that are don in order to an end by the design impulse and motion of the infinit wisdom of Gods Holy Spirit He certainly does most unworthily reproch his Maker who can think it possible that what he did design expressly and on that account alone to attain such an end by namely that men should believe and be sav'd and inspire it for that purpose should yet fail not be sufficient for that purpose And sure if it be sufficient it contains all necessaries otherwise it were deficient in the main yea so clearly also as that they for whose salvation they are intended may with use of such methods as are obvious and agreed upon by all men understand them for otherwise they could not be sufficient if men could not be instructed by them in things necessary both to faith and life they could not make them wise unto salvation I must confess the Scripture labors under a great prejudice against this doctrine from the different sense and interpretations that are made of it even in the most fundamental points by them that grant it is the word of God when yet all use the same means to find out the meaning and no doubt they seek sincerely after it But yet I think it evident this happens not from the obscurity of Scripture since it is not only in the most express texts but also if you should suppose the doctrins were as plain set down there as words can express them yet there are such principles assum'd into the faith of different sects as must oblige them to interpret diversly the same plain words I am not so vain as to imagin that no places are obscure in
it is sure if the man should suspend his action or have reason not to act according to his erring conscience he never can have reason to act according to a conscience well inform'd for it is plain his conscience does as much propose the error as his duty as it does the truth the man as really believes the one is to be don as the other and hath no reason to make difference and therefore if at any time he must follow his conscience he alwais must and t' will be sin to act against it be it what it will But then you 'l hope it will excuse to act according to it No alas this is but the other rock it is sin too to act according to it The proofs are very pregnant Gen. 12. 17. Because of Sara Abraham's wife the Lord plagu'd Pharaoh with great plagues and all his house namely those that had commended her before him v. 15. and so had contributed to the offence On the same account he plagu'd Abimelech Gen. 20. 17. altho in the 6 v. God saith he knew Abimelech did it in the integrity of his heart and tho Abimelech did plead the same to God he did it innocently v. 5. yet in the 9. v. he expostulates with Abraham what have I offended thee that thou hast brought on me and on my Kingdom a great sin Again St Paul affirms of his own nation Rom. 10. 2. that it was out of zeal to God and his Law they persevered in infidelity and opposition to Christs doctrins yet for that very opposition he affirms that they were hardned and design'd to everlasting perdition And Christ saith of the same Jews John 16. 2. that the time would come when they that kill'd his Apostles and Ministers should think they did God service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 think they offer'd an oblation The error was so strong it made the sin look like Religion and Attonement yet that zeal and conscience was plagu'd with wrath that came upon them to the uttermost even to an utter extirpation or to restrain our selves to our Apostle he saith of himself v. 1. of the foregoing chapter I have liv'd in all good conscience before God until this day and therefore when against Christ's reformation he defended the Mosaic Law and persecuted the opposers of it he did all out of a good mind according to the dictates of his conscience sincerely what he was perswaded that he ought to do and now if conscience could excuse here was enough of that a good Conscience and could his fiery persecutions by vertue of that conscience be christian'd holy Zeal could his pure heart make his bloody hands undefil'd Oh no! 't was blasphemy and persecution and injury for all 't was conscience If this seem strange that acting thus according to the conscience should make men such sinners since all facts are estimated cheifly by the heart that they proceed from by the good or bad mind they are don with that is by the conscience of the doer we must know that where the error is not the effect of any carnal prepossession or principle but truely error there the sinfulness in this case lies not altogether formally in acting so according to their conscience unless first the conscience take up perswasions give sentence without a sufficient inquisition when there is the least appearance of a danger that 't is plain such a perswasion may engage us in a state of sin we must examin strictly and this seems the case of Pharaoh and Abimelech they were glad to think Sarah was Abrahams sister therefore made no close inquiry were content with his once saying so and on that account altho the one and afterwards the other took her in the innocency of their heart the text saith they committed a great sin for which God did plague them Especially 2dly if men have bin call'd on to consider had the opportunity of means of conviction such as God will judg sufficient in their circumstances then retaining those perswasions following such an error gives it that which is equivalent to wilfulness makes the guilt This was the Jews case and St Pauls tho Moses Law were given by God himself confirm'd by wonders and by such a constant series of Gods most immediate dispensations as might give them just cause to believe it was their certain duty to adhere to it yet when God judg'd Christs works together with the Prophecies that went of him had given a sufficient testimony to his Reformation the Jews resisting that tho out of zeal to God and in obedience to his Law and to their Guides the Priests and Sanhedrim were harden'd to excision for it or if as 't is most certain they were leaven'd into aversation to Christs doctrine by their expectation of a pompous Messiah his Religion did not serve their sensual ends 't is to be fear'd the same do's influence the more sincere and erring party of the Church of Rome yet St. Paul also tho out of a good conscience doing so esteem'd himself the chief of sinners for so doing 'T is the too hasty taking up or the too obstinate retaining this erroneous conscience makes the sin it does ingage into be so exceeding sinful therefore certainly whoever lets their conscience be surpriz'd by prejudice or warmth of mind much more ambition pride revenge or incidental discontents and disobligation reputation of a party interest design if these or any sensuality tho but lurking indiscernably for the heart is deceitful above all things who can know it have given any tincture to the heart and pufft a passion into conscience or if in the uprightness of their heart they took up their perswasions yet if they retain them in the least on any such account or else however if they do not hearken to examin any calls or means which God does either by his Providence or Ministers offer the opportunities of for their conviction specially if by seeing good and wise men do judg otherwise they have any cause to doubt and yet persist still and retain the error it is this that spoils the Conscience so that while it errs it does ensnare the man entangles him in a necessity of sinning leads him into such labyrinths of guilt that whatsoever he does he offends if he do what his erring conscience dictates to him then he sins against God's Law if he forbear he sins then against God's Vicegerent his own Conscience there is the guilt of his deed here the guilt of his heart which does oblige a man to follow that which it is sin to follow and which makes him he must and ought to do that which he must not ought not to do And then the onely application to such a Conscience is to advise the laying it aside to rectify the error good counsel this indeed but hardest to be taken in the world For that a man may set himself to rectify he must know himself in an error and if he know that he hath not
come thence too quite discourag'd them broke all their confidence and faith they must have their Provisions and their Deity too nearer cry out for Flesh-pots and the Calf of Egypt that their meat and God too may be present And altho God always answer'd their complaints by satisfying of them miracle sustain'd them constantly yet as Moses told them Deut. 29. 2 3 4. Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and unto all his servants and unto all his land the great temtations which thine eyes have seen the signs and those great miracles yet ye had not an heart to understand and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day they had no sense of them but what brute beasts were capable of having onely gaz'd as lookers on them did not mind consider and much less discern how great he was that wrought those wonders and how able ready and desirous to supply whatever they could need or he had promis'd and that whatsoever they might want 't was sure they should not want a miracle to furnish and by consequence had all obligation that could be imagin'd to believe in trust upon him and his promises But of this they were not sensible made no such reasonings but when ever any thing they had a mind to was not present or when any danger look'd upon them disbeliev'd and murmur'd still flew in his very face insomuch that God says Num. 14. 11. How long will this people provoke me and how long will it be ere they believe me Now after all those strong most operative ways of making faith they still persisting in their incredulity and most unreasonable and sensless doubtings not believing him is but consequent they would not hearken to him and be wrought on or perswaded by him but resisted his will always and as it must follow grew more and more stubborn and inflexible that is stiff-neck'd as God calls them having their hearts harden'd For it is the nature of things harden'd to be such intractables And being so to that degree that Miracles God's most effectual method could make no impression on them that he labor'd in vain with them he must needs abandon them and give them over as incorrigible and so having worn out all his methods and by consequence all his forbearance he swore they should not enter in Canaan and however he endur'd them to live fourty years their opportunity was dead and their day ended I might tell you how the same ill temper of that Nation looking after present earthly satisfactions consequently for a temporal Messiah made them disbelieve and hardned them against Christ's miracles and teachings but that former instance serves my turn and when St Paul proposes this Example to the Christians as a warning that they suffer not their day to pass them least they be shut out of their eternal rest their heavenly Canaan he expresly cautions them against the same two things that they fall not by the same ensample of unbelief Heb. 4. 11. and that their hearts be not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3. 13. Christ's Miracles if they did not make faith of his person and commission of the duties promises and threats of the Gospel to the Jews when present with them we may fear their efficacy may be fainter in men at this distance and if strong inclinations to the present howsoever sinful satisfactions of their appetites together with long practice and converse in them have got a great love to them 't is most certain that this will not suffer them to receive the love of the Gospel no not of its promises and blessednesses all which are so averse and opposite to those satisfactions and not loving it it is impossible they can be willing to give credit to it Yea those sensual affections blind the Understanding so that indeed it discerns not the truth of it and engage the heart so that it gives no great heed to it and then as Attention to it doth the belief of it must decay The man is onely such a stupid Auditor of what is recorded in Scripture as the Jews in the wilderness were Spectators of it without faith or reflection he considers not himself concern'd much in whatever it proposes whether by injunction threat or invitation whether it do promise blessedness or denounce judgment and so grows insensible of his condition as to either and then coming thus to have no sense of his condition therefore neither hath he any fear by reason of it i. e. so far his heart is hardned and so going on continuing in that state it is so perfectly And what that is Pharaoh can inform us 'T is such an heart as admits no compunction tho you let fly all God's arrows at it No respect to God what grounds soever of experienc'd goodness he have for it softens it if you beseech him on God's part he is not mov'd nor yields altho you threaten him if God invite him by prosperity and kindness he is ungrateful and he grows more dissolute but if he scourge him he grows either senseless or else furious and desperate shameless here fearless of hereafter of all humane things regardless of Divine contemtuous all past things are most perfectly past to him he remembers nothing of the good or evil so as to consider or make use of either and altho he throw away the present yet as if the future would never arrive altho you lay before him certain death and the ensuing two Eternities it is not possible to move him to provide for that Futurity And then when neither present past nor future can work any thing upon him how is it possible to change him Now 't is no wonder if God give him over when his state is thus unalterable Indeed as this condition when 't is grown thus irreversible makes the state of Hell here as to sinning so it seems to make the state of it hereafter as to suffering adding weight and in some sort Eternity to its torments for with the other grounds that shew it just for God to plague the little transient satisfactions of our sins with an immortal worm and everlasting burnings this also is one that the Sinner's appetite and resolution to sin is endless and as much as in him lies eternal and were he not cut off from the commission his iniquity would be immortal And it does appear so certainly when if God set him out a time for his Repentance and their Reconciliation and how great soever he have made his heaps if he do not seal up the sum with this hard-heartedness and persevering obstinacy if while there is yet any sand to run he will consider and take up then God will pass by all the rest and cancel the whole reckoning if yet he will refuse this mercy will go on to fill his Ephah and commits even while the life of his Repentance is breathing out its last while the possibilities of
no such command and it were not my duty for till then I knew nothing of it this alone therefore do's propose and apply duty to us and consequently whether that which it proposes be my duty really in it self or no yet I must needs look upon it as so having no other direction imaginable what to do or forbear but what my conscience some way instructed tells me God or my Governors have commanded or forbid me So that if I am resolv'd in my mind of the sinfulness and obliquity of an action propos'd tho really the thing be innocent yet to me in my present circumstance 't will be utterly unlawful and tho the action be innocent the agent will be guilty 2. That God hath plac'd the conscience in us as the only next and immediate rule of all our actions according to which they are to be directed which if they be not they are faulty as every thing that swerves from its rule is not right tho what I have said will sufficiently prove yet Scripture do's confirm when it saies Rom. 14. 23. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin that is to say whatsoever is contrary to the perswasion of lawfulness that is in other words contrary to conscience is sin whatsoever he do's as long as he thinks in conscience he should not do it he sins whether the thing be sin or no as that was no sin of which he there spake And reason good for we are so far honest hearted lovers of God as we embrace that which our hearts are really possest is his service and our duty and hate the contrary that is as we follow our conscience conscience being nothing but the persuasion that this is duty which if we go against 't is sure we like and follow that which in our thoughts is vicious and wicked be it what it will in it self to us 't is so 't is sure the inclinations and the actions pursue vice when they pursue that which they cannot look upon but as vice Conscience therefore is the rule from which 't is sin to recede 'T is with fair pretence to reason said that nothing can be a rule which is it self crooked and irregular That which is strait is indeed said to be index sui obliqui and having justified its own rectitude becomes qualified to be a test of right and wrong in others For certainly if the man knew what God's Law do's require of him in that case the conscience do's not erre if he do not know what God's word do's require how can he follow it against that which his conscience tells him God requires And it is certain if the man should suspend his action and have not reason to act according to his erring conscience he never can have reason to act according to a conscience well-inform'd not when it tells him God is to be lov'd for it is sure his conscience do's as much propose the error as his duty as it do's the truth the man as really believes the one is to be don as the other and hath no reason to make difference and therefore if at any time he must follow his conscience he must alwaies and it will be sin to act against it be it what it will But then you 'l hope it will excuse to act according to it Oh no alas for that 's the second thing in this case of erring conscience if a man act according to his conscience he sins too if he act against the Law of God Scripture will furnish me with several examples and proofs of this and 't is a doctrine worth the taking notice of it having prov'd to so many persons a plea for actions otherwise abominable they follow'd their conscience 't was it may be mistake in judgment but 't was uprightness of heart sincerity of conscience Now to take off this color which I shall do with all imaginable plainess Our Savior John 16. 2. foretells to his Disciples they shall put you out of their Synagogues yea the time will come that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he do's offer God an oblation or worship shall think it not only lawful but acceptable to God and of the nature of a Sacrifice which propitiates for other offences to put you to death See here a conscience bravely glos'd when the error look'd like Religion and Attonement a color not at all strange to our daies in such another case and yet these Jews that did so for of them he speaks were given up to the direst punishments that ever any nation did groan under Of the same Jews S. Paul saies Rom. 10. 2. I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledg that is I must testify of them that they are very many of them great zealots for their Law as that which is commanded them by God and so in their way and heart zealous to have God obeied only for want of knowledg they are mistaken in their zeal Here is strong conscience granted in these Jews and that built up upon a Law of God then indeed outdated which yet thro a zealous earnestness they were ignorant of but yet the following this zeal and conscience was plagued with total induration of of that people c. 11. 8 9 10. Nor was this S. Pauls heat against that persecuting nation but that Apostle do's more plainly yet and home to our matter say of himself Acts 23. 1. I have liv'd in all good conscience before God until this day I have all my life long even when I was a defender of the Mosaical Law against Christ's reformation acted sincerely and uprightly according to my conscience and again 2 Tim. 1. 3. I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience i. e. whom I have obeied sincerely all my time even when thro ignorance I persecuted the Christian faith doing according to the dictate of my conscience and as I was perswaded I ought to do And now if conscience will excuse there was enough of that a good conscience and a pure conscience and will his fiery persecutions nâ—w by vertue of his conscience be Christned holy zeal shall the pure conscience make his bloudy hands to be undefil'd Oh no 't was Blasphemy and injury and persecution for all 't was conscience 1 Tim. 1. 13. I was before a blasphemer c. and notwithstanding I did it all in the uprightness and sincerity of my heart I am the chief of sinners v. 15. And let us not suppose these aggravations were laid on by S. Paul upon himself because of his unbelief that that was the only thing that gave guilt to his actions and that we thro faith and assurance shall escape if we do such gross actions out of an erring conscience For on the contrary S. Paul do's bring his unbelief not as the Aggravation but the Apology of his crimes he pleads that for himself v. 13. and he finds
2 Tim. 3. 8. nor by a wretchless unconcerndness take up with slight appearances and receive a vulgar error for a sacred revelation and having mens persons in admiration Jude 16. believe as doctrines the devices or commandments of men Matt. 15. 9. not to consider what this celebrated Teacher or this Sect and Party say but make our resort to the Law and to the Testament what Law of God there is for or against this action For in this case it is most true There is one Law-giver who can save and destroy James 4. 12. and if sin be the transgression of a law 1 John 3. 4. it inevitably follows that where no law is there is no transgression Rom. 4. 15. And yet 't is strange to see how men amuse and embarras themselves in things that have no bottom or foundation in Scripture and in the mean time omit the weighty matters of the law judgement mercy and faith Thirdly if I have bin engag'd in any practices of which by the contrary practices of other sober rational men I see there may be reason if not to doubt yet to search into them then I 'le take the same course in order to the settling or the rectifying of my judgment and especially if any obligations to the contrary have got possession of me if obedience and meekness and peace of the State or Church or any sacred bond in a word if any commands of Superiors or engagements to them seem strong for the other side then nothing but clear Law of God or my Superiors shall fixe me Fourthly where things are not absolutely convincing on either side and there is no clear Law on neither or else so much like Law on both sides here as I must suspend if possible my action for these must needs make doubts so if I be necessitated to act on one side or other then if my conscience do mistake according to the degree of my diligence in examining so will be the degrees of my guilt If I have search't to my utmost and so offend out of an ignorance I could not overcome it is the constant doctrine of all that the mercy of our God by the tenure of the Gospel will not impute the error to a person otherwise of holy life but if there was a means of knowing that either heat or any other thing did hurry me from a sufficient consideration thereof according to my means so is my sin Abimelech had a competent ground to think that Sarah was not Abrahams wife when both herself and he had told him so and upon that he saies he took her to him in the integrity of his heart his conscience reasonably well-inform'd telling him that he might do it and yet God pâ—nisheth his hast he determin'd too speedily his desire was too quick did not proceed by those slow steps that a good careful conscience do's move with that will examin with all strictness where he discerns there will be gross sin on the other side The Jews had a strong prejudice against Christ's reformation of the Law by those so many promises of Scripture that their sacrifices should be eternal and when for many ages they had bin brought up in a Religion so own'd by God and were so harden'd in that Religion by all their Teachers 't was no wonder they rejected the Apostles preaching out of conscience of their own Religion Paul himself had don so and yet God gives them up to final induration for it because they had sufficient means of knowing Christ was sent by God to reform their Religion for have they not heard Rom. 10. 18. Thy diligence therefore shall alleviate the fault and where it is us'd in a good measure probably will not suffer the conscience to be long positive and peremtory in a mistake but at the most will let it only be a doubting conscience which how far 't is an evil eie and how we are to guide our selves out of that darkness it do's lead into we must now shew A doubting conscience may be either in things of very little moment and also where there is very little light to guide it and then we only call it scrupulous or else in things of consequence and of these we now treat and the Position is that he that acts according to a doubting conscience sins and this evil eie leads into utter darkness The Aphorism is a certain reveled pronunc't truth he that doubteth is damn'd if he eat Rom. 14. 23. However sacred the tribunal of conscience can be thought to be it must not stand in competition with the Throne of Almighty God and oblige us to do that which the Divine Command has interdicted or to leave that undon the doing of which he has expresly charg'd upon us It was thought to be a tyrannous hardship which the Egyptian task-masters put upon the Israelites that they should be beaten because they made not brick when they had no straw to make it with but it would seem a more tyrannous cruelty to punish them if they made and also to punish if they did not make it But so it is he who chuses to do that which his conscience suggests he ought to avoid as being ill and resolves to omit that which he judges or believes he ought to do as being good has all the inordination of mind that constitutes the most flagrant guilt he pursues evil and turns away from good apprehended to be such and so has that depravation of mind that constitutes a Devil But on the other side our opinions cannot alter the real natures of things nor will my belief that my act is laudable make it to be so any more than my fancy that Poisons are wholsome food will free them from their noxious venim and render them restoratives and cordials In like manner my adventuring on an action which I think is bad upon the cold reserve of a possibility that it may be otherwise involves the desperate resolution of doing it howsoever which differs very little from doing it tho I know it to be certainly unlawful But a doubting conscience admits of a counterpoise from a contrary doubt and there is fear of sin as on the one so also on the other part I am uncertain whether I may not do ill in acting and yet whether I may not do worse in forbearing or thus I am not sure that what I enterprize is lawful but yet I have no ground to believe it is unlawful Now from this exigent thus declared I might deduce resolutions in many cases of our life As 1. When there is no ground to build a certain judgment on of either side but it is only probable the thing is not sin and consequently I cannot be sure it is not yet if upon that probability I act this is clear different from the state of the doubting conscience for tho I may have some doubt 't is possible the thing may not be good yet having honestly examined it I have no reason to think it
still proves them in the right But I shall do it from a plain notorious effect nor do I know what else can be more seasonable than while some men seem to stand candidates for sufferings and choose Sedition and Schism rather than lose the reputation of not being afflicted with their Party and while others plead the merits of affliction and Trumpet out their having suffered as a pretence for the ambition and the covetousness the luxuries and intemperance and all the other vices of prosperity which their late sufferings have before hand expiated while it is thus on each side to give both a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby to judg the Case which my Text here presents for He that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin The words make a single Proposition and therefore cannot well be taken asunder nor indeed need they the Terms being very well understood The Subject every one is willing to assume to himself no one I believe that hears me but will say he hath suffer'd in the Flesh. Therefore we have no more to do but to see whether the other Term agree as universally which certainly it must if our Proposition here hold good if He that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin Therefore in order to this I shall offer at Three things First Discourse of the truth of the Proposition in General and see if we can discern how necessary and how effectual this Instrument of Reformation is whether it be such as may build a confidence of asserting That He who hath suffered hath ceased from Sin Secondly Because discoursing in General is not so practical and useful I shall endeavour to discover in particular By what Artifice of method the Flesh engageth men into courses of sin and how it works them up to the height of it and then see how sufferings blast that method and make the Arts of the flesh either unpracticable or too weak Thirdly I will attempt to view our own concerns in all this propose to consideration Whether this method hath had this effect on us or Whether indeed it be as easie to confute God's Word as to break his Commandments and contrive that his truth shall no more stand than his will does but notwithstanding Scriptures bold affirmation here yet they that have suffered have not ceas'd from Sin and if so then to propose the danger and infer Christ's Application that at least we begin to cease and sin no more least a worse thing come unto us I. He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from Sin None but He and He certainly When it appear'd that Eden had too much of Garden for innocence to dwell in and although man were made upright yet amidst such delights he could not be so a whole day but of the many inventions he found out the first was to destroy himself immediately and under the shadow of the Tree of life he wrought out death and made the Walks of Paradise lead him towards Hell God saw himself concern'd to take another course He sets a guard of fire about Eden about the place of pleasure as well as in the place of torments and there was as much need of flame to keep man out of Paradise as flame to fright him from Hell He makes the Earth not spring with Garden any more but bring forth thorns and briars that might scratch and tear man in the pursuit of things below which if the Soul should cleave and cling unto the Earth might gore and stab it in the embrace Nothing but sufferings will do us good The Earth was most accurst to man when it was all Paradise nothing but the malediction could make it safe and bless it to us our happiness must be inflicted executed on us and we must be goaded into blessedness and therefore God hath put afflictions into every dispensation since the first Among the Jews sin did receive immediate punishment by the tenour of the Covenant and though the retributions of our Covenant be set at distance as far remote as Hell yet Christ has drest his very promises in sackcloth and in ashes tears and trouble when he would recompence heroick vertue he says it shall receive an hundred fold with persecution Mar. x. 30. and he does grant us sufferings To you it is given in the behalf of Christ to suffer Phil. 1. 29. so that the sting of the Serpent is now the tempter his bitings and his venom moving us to obedience as much as his lying tongue did our first Parents to rebellion and when he does fulfill Gods threat and wound the heel he only drives us faster away from him and makes us haste to him that flies to meet us with healing under his wings This method God hath always us'd and the experience confirm'd by the blood of all Ages even from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of this season of all the Prophets that went before us and the Apostles that came after them as if those were men inspir'd for ruine and what ever Judgment they denounc'd it was their own burden and as if these were men chosen out for and delegated to Persecution men appointed unto death as St. Paul expounds their Office none escap'd and the next succeeding times of Primitive Christianity were but Centuries of Martyrdom so many years of Fire and Faggot and worse tortures This method hath not past by any Grandeur but of those great ones that have been eminently good their afflictions have vy'd with their Majesty the Calendar hath had as much share of them as the Chronicle the Martyrology as the Annals and their blood not their Purple put them in the Rubrick Gods Furnace made Crowns splendid gave them a Majesty of shine and an Imperial glory and so all our Crowns indeed must be prepar'd in the Furnace he that told us we must be Baptiz'd with fire saw there was something in us that the Christians water will not cleanse Baptism may wash sullays but not dross away That must be washt in flame and nothing else but fire will take away our base alloy And it cannot be otherwise never was there any other way to Glory for when God was to bring many Sons to glory he sanctified the very Captain of our salvation through sufferings Heb. ii 10. Who though he were a Son and that the Son of God yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered Heb. v. v. 8. This therefore is the only and most effectual way of teaching it when God speaks in Judgment and indeed he counts all other of his Voices but as silence in comparison of this and though he gave his Law in Thunder and sent his Prophets dayly to denounce wrath to transgression yet he reckons of all this as if he had said nothing till he speak Plagues and command afflictions Psal. l. 21. after a Catalogue of sins he tells the man these things hast thou done and I kept silence though my Law