Christ for the pardon of sin and not also in his power for the Mortification of it In short Is it possible that faith in Christ's blood for the forgiveness of sin should be the onely act which justifieth a sinner when such a multitude of plain Texts assure us that he died also to make us holy and that his death was designed to deliver us from dying in order to a farther end namely to this that we should live unto him who died for us I will never trust my discursive Faculty so long as I live no not in the plainest and most undoubted cases if I am mistaken here And will take the boldness to tell those who are displeased with this account of Iustifying Faith that in my opinion it is impossible they should once think of any other if they did as seriously weigh and throughly consider the Design of Christianity as they ought to do I the more insist upon this because those persons explication of this point hath been greatly lyable to be used to ill purposes by insincere persons and hath given infinite advantage to the dangerous errour of Antinomianism And for my part I must confess that I would not willingly be he that should undertake to encounter one of the champions of that foul cause with the admission of this principle That faith justifieth onely as it apprehendeth the merits and righteousness of Iesus Christ I must certainly have great luck or my adversary but little cunning if I were not forced to repent me of such an Engagement Secondly And as for the other Doctrine of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness we learn from the Design of Christianity that this is the true explication of it Namely That it consists in dealing with sincerely righteous persons as if they were perfectly so for the sake and upon the account of Christ's Righteousness The grand intent of the Gospel being to make us partakers of an Inward and Real Righteousness and it being but a secondary one that we should be accepted and rewarded as if we were completely righteous it is not possible that any other notion of this Doctrine should have truth in it For as from thence it appeareth that there can be no such Imputation of Christ's Righteousness offered in the Gospel as serveth to make men remiss in their prosecution of an Inward Righteousness So is it manifest likewise That that Doctrine is designed for a motive to quicken and excite men in their endeavours after such a Righteousness as this is So far is it from tending to cause in us an undervaluing and sleight esteem of it that as sure as that the Ultimate design of Christianity is to indue us with it it must be intended for no other purpose but to farther and promote that business And it is effectual thereunto in that manner that we shewed the exceeding great and precious Promises of the Gospel are But because both these points are discussed in the Free Discourse I have said so little of the former and will proceed no fâ—…rther on this but refer the Reader thither and to other much more elaborate Discourses for his fuller satisfaction And indeed it was enough for me in this place to shew That the notion laid down in that Book of both these Doctrines doth evidently follow from that Proposition which is the Subject of this Treatise CHAP. XX. The Fifth Inference That we Learn from the Design of Christianity the Great Measure and Standard whereby we are to judge of Doctrines How we are to judge of the Truth of Doctrines FIfthly we learn from what hath been said of the Design of Christianity what is the Great measure and standard whereby we are to judge of Doctrines both whether they are true or false and in what degree necessary to be received or rejected First we understand how to judge of the Truth of Doctrines We may be certain that seeing the Design of Christianity is to make men holy whatsoever opinions do either directly or in their evident consequences obstruct the promoting of it are perfectly false and with as great peremptoriness and confidence as they may be by some that call themselves Christians obtruded upon us they are not of Christ nor any part of his Religion And those which do appear to us to discourage from serious endeavours after piety and true vertue we ought for that reason while we have such an opinion of them most vehemently to suspect them to be erroneous For it being the business of our Saviour's coming into the world and of his blessed Gospel effectually to perswade us to use our utmost diligence in subduing our lusts and qualifying our Souls by purity and holiness for the enjoyment of God and to make our endeavours successful for that purpose we may be undoubtedly assured that he hath not either by himself immediately or by his Apostles delivered any thing that opposeth this Design If saith S. Paul I build again the things that I destroyed I make my self a Transgressor And no man that hath in him the least of a Christian will once suspect that the perfectly wise as well as holy Jesus should so manage the business he hath undertaken as what he builds with one hand to pull down with the other and frustrate that Design by some Doctrines which he promoteth by others Those Doctrines on the other hand which in their own nature do evidently tend to the serving of this Design of Christianity we may conclude are most true and genuine And those which upon our serious considering of them we are perswaded do so we ought upon that account to have a kindness for them and to believe them of an higher than humane Original And therefore those which give the most honourable accounts of God his nature and dealing with the sons of men that most magnifie his grace and best vindicate his Holiness Justice and Goodness do commend themselves to our belief with infinite advantage Because the most worthy conceptions of the Deity are extremely helpful and likewise necessary to the loving of God and serving him as becometh us and have a mighty influence into the ordering and regulation of our whole man as might be largly shewn Those Doctrines again that most discountenance all sins both against the first and second Table and best enable to answer all pleas and pretences for security and carelesness that are most highly agreeable to the innate Dictates of our minds and least gratifie and please our carnal part we may from the consideration of the Design of Christianity be greatly perswaded of the Truth of them And on the Contrary Those which are apt to instil into mens minds any unlovely notions of the Divine Nature that disparage his Holiness or lessen his kindness and good will to his Creation and the obligations of the generality of the world to him and his Son Jesus and so make his grace a narrow and scanty thing or that naturally cast any dishonorable reflections on any
the Truth that they might be saved God shall send them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strength of delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thess. 2 10. The forementioned particulars do of themselves lead to the most dangerous errours how much more then must they needs so do when they are backed on with the Divine Vengeance But if honesty and an Obedient temper of Soul will secure from the other causes of errour and seduction it will in so doing secure from this last So that it is manifest that a sincere desire of Righteousness and true Holiness will not fail to help men to a thorow-belief and sufficient understanding of that Book which is onely designed to indue them with it And that nothing can occasion the contrary but a wilful adhering to some one or other immorality and that this hath a very great aptness so to do So that it is not the least matter of wonder to see men of excellent wits and brave accomplishments either fall into gross errours or even into a flat disbelief of the Christian Religion As strange as this may seem to some it appears from our past Discourse that there is not any real cause of admiration in it For other endowments of as excellent use as they may be when accompanied with that of an obedient temper must needs do more hurt than good to the Souls that are adorned and graced with them when separated from it and occasion those vices that may well make way for Heresies And it is certain that an acute wit when it hath not a purified sense going along with it is so far from being a sufficient praerequisite to the right understanding of Evangelical truths that it is as notable an Engine as the Grand Deceiver can desire to make use of in order to the bringing about his mischievous designs upon the person that is Master of it So that indeed it is on the contrary rather matter of wonder that any man that hath a naughty Will should have a good Iudgement in gospel-Gospel-truths though both his natural and acquired parts should be ne'r so great And again we may without the least breach of Charity presume that whosoever to whom Christianity is sufficiently made known doth either disbelieve it or any of the Fundamentals of it his Heart is much more in fault than is his Head and that he hath darkened his Discerning faculty and greatly dimmed the Eye of his Soul by entertaining some filthy lust that sends up a thick sog and mist of vapours to it If any man teach otherwise saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 6. 3. and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Iesus Christ and to the Doctrine that is according to Godliness he is proud c. not he is weak and cannot but he is wicked and will not understand the Truth And by the way this Discourse may conduce to the no small encouragement of the weaker sort Let such be but heartily solicitous about doing God's Will and having the Design of the Gospel effected in them and they need fear that their weakness will betray them into the wrong way to Blessedness CHAP. XXVII The Last Inference That we are taught by the Design of Christianity wherein the Essence Power and Life of it consisteth Instances of what kind of things it doth not consist in For what Ends the several Exercises of Piety and Devotion are injoyned How God is Glorified by men and by what means Whom it is our duty to esteem and carry our selves towards as true Christians That by following the Example of Christ and making his Life our Pattern we shall assure our selves that the Design of Christianity is effected in us and that we are indued with the Power of it LAstly We learn from the Doctrine of the Design of Christianity wherein the Essence Power and Life of it consisteth viz. In a good state and habit of mind in a holy frame and temper of Soul whereby it esteemeth God as the Chiefest good preferreth him and his Son Jesus before all the world and prizeth above all things an interest in the Divine Perfections such as Iustice and Righteousness universal Charity Goodness Mercy and Patience and all kinds of Purity From whence doth naturally proceed a hearty complyance with all the Holy Precepts of the Gospel and sincere endeavours to perform all those actions which are agreeable to them are necessary expressions of those and the like vertues and means for the obtaining and encrease of them and to avoid the Contrary The Kingdom of God or Christianity is not meat and drink but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost as Saint Paul tells us Rom. 14. 17. That is it doth not consist in any merely external matters or bodily exercises which elsewhere he saith do profit but little And as not in such as he there meaneth viz. things of a perfectly indifferent nature and neither good nor evil so neither in such as are very good and laudable for the matter of them It is onely their flowing from an inward Principle of Holiness that denominateth any whatsoever Christian actions But such as are onely occasioned by certain external inducements and motives and proceed not from any good temper and disposition of Soul be they never so commendable in themselves bespeak not him that performeth them to be a true and sincere Christian. He is not a Iew saith the same Apostle that is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision that is outward in the flesh But he is a Iew that is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2. 28 29. That is he onely is a true child of Abraham who in the purity of the heart obeyeth those substantial Laws that are imposed by God upon him And if no one that doth not thus might properly be called a Iew or child of Abraham much less can the name of a Christian and a Disciple of the Holy Iesus be due to him He it is evident is onely so in whom the Design of Christianity is in some measure accomplish'd And it appears from what hath been said that its Design is Primarily and immediately upon the Nature which being rectified and renewed will certainly discover it self so to be throughout the whole life For a good tree will not bring forth corrupt fruit nor a corrupt tree good fruit as our Saviour hath said Were it possible as it is not that we should forbear all outward acts of sin and yet our Souls cleave to it we could not but be destitute of the Life and Power of Christianity And should we abound never so much in the exercise of good duties if our design in so doing be to gratifie any lust and serve some carnal interest they will be so far from Christian actions that they may
the first sight assured of the truth of the contents of it For no man in his wits can in the least question the Veracity of him whom even natural light assures us can be no other than Truth it self Secondly Those good Principles that the Heathens by the greatest improvement of their Reason could at best conclude but very probable are made undoubtedly Certain to us Christians by Revelation As First That of the Immortality of our Souls The vulgar sort of Heathens who were apt to believe any thing that was by Tradition handed down to them 't is confessed did not seem to doubt of the truth of this Doctrine but to take it for granted which no question is also to be imputed to the special Providence of God and not merely to their Credulity But the more learned and sagacious that would not easily be imposed on nor believe any farther than they saw cause though by Arguments drawn from the notions they had truly conceived of the Nature of Humane Souls they have diverse of them undertaken to prove them Immortal yet could their Arguments raise the best of them no higher than a great opinion of their Immortality Cato read Plato of the Immortality of the Soul as he lay bleeding to death with great delight but that argues not that he had any more than great hopes of the truth of it Socrates did so believe it that he parted with this life in expectation of another but yet he plainly and ingenuously confessed to his friends that it was not certain Cicero that sometimes expresseth great confidence concerning the truth of it doth for the most part speak so of it that any one may see that he thought the Doctrine no better than probable He discourseth of it in his book de Senectute as that which he rather could not endure to think might be false than as that which he had no doubt of the truth of And after he had there instanced in several Arguments which he thought had weight in them for the proof thereof and expressed a longing to see his Ancestors and the brave men he had once known and which he had heard of read and written of he thus concludes that whole Discourse If I erre in believing the Souls immortality I erre willingly neither so long as I live will I suffer this errour which so much delights me to be wrested from me But if when I am dead I shall be void of all sense as certain little Philosophers think I do not fear to have this errour of mine laught at by dead Philosophers But now the Gospel hath given us the highest assurance possible of the truth of this Doctrine Life and immortality are said to be brought to light by it He who declared himself to be the Son of God with power gave men a sensible demonstration of it in his own person by his Resurrection from the Dead and Ascention into Heaven And both by himself and his Apostles who were also indued with a power of working the greatest of Miracles for the confirmation of the truth of what they said did very frequently and most plainly preach it Secondly The Doctrine of Rewards and Punishments in the life to come which is for substance the same with the former according to our behaviour in this life the learned Heathens did generally declare their belief of which they grounded upon the Justice Holiness and Goodness of the Divine Nature They considered that Good men were often exercised with great calamities and that bad men very frequently were greatly prosperous and abounded with all earthly felicities And therefore thought it very reasonable to believe that God would in another life shew his hatred of Sin and love of Goodness by making a plain discrimination between the conditions of vertuous and wicked persons by punishing these and rewarding those without exception But this though it was in their opinion a very probable argument yet they looked not on it as that which amounted to a Demonstration For they could not but be aware That that Doctrine which was so generally received by them viz. That Vertue is in all conditions a Reward and Vice a Punishment to it self did very much blunt the edge of it And that other very harsh one That all things besides Vertue and Vice are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither good nor evil did render it as the perfect Stoicks did seem too well to understand too too insignificant But I must confess that Hierocles who as hath been said did not admit that notion but in a very qualified sence saith of those that think their Souls mortal and consequently that vertue will hereafter have no reward that when they dispute in the behalf of vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they rather talk wittily than truly and in good earnest The excellent Socrutes himself when he was going to drink off the fatal drug thus said to those that were then present with him I am now going to end my days whereas your lives will be prolonged but whether you or I upon this account are the more happy is known to none but God only intimating that he did not look upon it as absolutely certain that he should have any Reward in another world for doing so heroically vertuous an act as chusing Martyrdom for the Doctrine of the Unity of the Godhead But now what is more frequently or clearly declared in the Gospel than that there will be Rewards and Punishments in the world to come sutable to mens actions in this world than that Christ will come a second time to judge the world in righteousness and that all must appear before his Iudgment-seat to receive according to what they have done whether it be good or whether it be evil 2 Cor. 5. 10. Thirdly That mens sins shall be forgiven upon true Repentance from the consideration of the Goodness and Mercy of God the Heathens were likewise perswaded or rather hoped But we Christians have the strongest assurance imaginable given us of it by the most solemn and often reiterated promises of God himself and not onely that some or most but also that all without exception and the most heinous impieties upon condition of their being sincerely forsaken shall in and through Christ be freely forgiven to those that have been guilty of them Fourthly The Doctrine of God's readiness to assist men by his special grace in their endeavours after Vertue could be no more at the best than probable in the judgement of the Heathens but we have in the Gospel the most express promises thereof made to us for our infinitely great encouragement Tully in his Book de Naturâ Deorum saith that their City Rome and Greece had brought forth many singular men of which it is to be believed none arrived to such a height nisi Deo juvante but by the help of God And after he tells us that Nemo vir magnus sine aliquo afflatu Divino unquam fuit No excellent man was ever made so
not our Relations or our Friends onely but also all Mankind and to do good to all without exception though especially to the Houshold of Faith to good men Nay our Saviour hath laid a strict charge upon us not to exclude our malicious enemies from our love that is of benevolence but to pray for them that despitefully use us and to Bless those that Curse us Which Law as harshly as it sounds to Carnal Persons they themselves cannot but acknowledge that what it enjoyneth is heroically and highly vertuous Secondly The Christian Precepts require the most Intensive Holiness Not onely Negative but Positive as was now intimated that is Not onely the forbearance of what is evil but the performance also of what is good Not onely Holiness of Actions and Words but likewise of Affections and Thoughts The worship of God with the Spirit as well as with the outward man a Holy frame and habit of mind as well as a holy life They forbid cherishing sin in the heart as well as practising it in the Conversation They make Iusting after a Woman Adultery as well as the Gross Act of Uncleanness They make Malice Murther as well as Killing They forbid Coveting no less than defrauding and being in love with this worlds goods as much as getting them by unlawful means And I shall digress so far as to say That there is infinite Reason that Thoughts and the inward workings of mens souls should be restrained by Laws upon these two accounts First Because Irregular Thoughts and Affections are the immediate Depravers of Mens Natures and therefore it is as necessary in order to the design of making men Holy that these should be forbidden as that evil Actions and Words should But suppose this were otherwise Yet Secondly Laws made against evil words and Actions would signifie very little if men were left at liberty as to their Thoughts and Affections It would be to very little purpose to forbid men to do evil if they might think and love it For where the sparks of Sin are kept glowing in the Soul how can they be kept from breaking out into a Flame in the Life From the abundance of the Heart the Mouth will speak and the Hands act But to proceed The Precepts of the Gospel command us not onely to perform good Actions but also to do them after a right manner with right ends c. or in one word from good Principles Whatsoever we do to do it heartily as to the Lord and not as to men To be fervent in Spirit in our service of God To do all to the glory of God To be holy as he that hath called us is Holy in all manner of Conversation To be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect Which Precepts shew that we ought to imitate him not onely in the matter of our actions but likewise in the qualifications of them Among which that which I said is Essential to true Holiness is a principal one namely To do good actions for those Reasons which moved God to enjoyn them and I adde which make it pleasing to him to perform them himself viz. because they are either in themselves and upon their own account excellent worthy and most fit to be done or are made so to be by some Circumstance Our whole Duty to God and our Neighbour as our Saviour hath told us is comprehended in the love of them But the love of God required by him is a most Intense love we are commanded to love him with all the Heart and Soul mind and strength And that of our Neighbour which he hath made our duty is such as for the kind of it is like the love which we bear to our selves such as will not permit us to wrong him in his good name any more than in his estate or person such as will not allow us rashly to speak or so much as think ill of him such as will cause us to put the best constructions on those actions of his that are capable of various interpretations c. And for the degree such as will make us willing to lay down our very lives for him that is for the promoting of his eternal happiness To summe up all together We are commanded to adde to our faith vertue to vertue knowledge to knowledge temperance to temperance patience to patience Godliness to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly kindness Charity To behave our selves in all respects towards our Creatour as becometh his Creatures and those which are under unspeakable obligations to him Towards one another as becometh those that are indued with the same Common nature and according to the diverse relations engagements and other Circumstances we stand in each to other and Towards our selves according as the Dignity of our Natures require we should In short whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest Whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report whatsoever things have vertue and praise in them are the objects of the Christian Precepts and by them recommended to us Let any one read but our Saviours incomparable Sermon upon the Mount the 12 th to the Romans and the third Chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians and well consider them and it will be strange should he find it difficult to assent to the truth of that Proposition Even Trypho himself in the Dialogue betwixt Iustin Martyr and him confessed that the Precepts contained in the Book called the Gospel are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great and Admirable He saith indeed that they are so admirable as that he suspected them not to be by Humane Nature Observable but in that he spake not unlike to himself that is a prejudiced and Carnal Iew. If it be now objected that notwithstanding what hath been said concerning the Christian Precepts recommending the most elevated Vertue to be practised by us it is acknowledged by all Sober Christians that they are not to be understood in so high a sense as to require of us indefective and unspotted Holiness or at least that our Saviour will accept of and reward that Holiness which is far short of Perfect and therefore he can be no such Great Friend to it as hath been affirmed The answer is very easie and obvious viz. That our Saviour's not rigidly exacting such a degree of Holiness as amounts to Perfection proceeds from hence that the attainment of it is in this state impossible to us and therefore it is not to be attributed to his liking or allowance of the least Sin but to his Special grace and good will to fallen Mankind Nay moreover it proceeds from his passionate desire that we may be as pure and holy as our unhappy Circumstances will admit he well knowing that should he declare that nothing short of Perfection shall be accepted at our hands he would make us desperate and take the most effectual Course to cause us to
own souls And therefore it could do no other than infinitely become the Son of God himself to endure the Cross and despise the shame for the joy that was set before him taking that joy in no other sence than hath been generally understood viz. for the happiness of Heaven consisting in a full enjoyment and undisturbed possession of the Blessed Deity nor is there any reason why we should enquire after any other signification of that word which may exclude this And on the other hand to be diligent in the service of God for fear of hell understanding it as a state perfectly opposite to that which we have been describing is in a like manner from a principle of love to God and true goodness as well as self-love and is no more unworthy of a Son of God than of a mere servant And thus the truth of this proposition That to make men Holy is to confer upon them the greatest of blessings by the little that hath been said is made plainly apparent CHAP. XIII The Second Account of our Saviour's preferring the business of making men holy before any other viz. That this is to do the best service to God An objection answered against the Author's Discourse of the Design of Christianity IT remains secondly to be shewn That to promote the business of Holiness in the world is to do God Almighty the best service And this will be dispatcht in a very few words For is it not without dispute better service to a Prince to reduce Rebels to their Allegiance than to procure a pardon under his Seal for them This is so evidently true that to do this latter except it be in order to the former business is not at all to serve him nay it is to do him the greatest of disservices I need not apply this to our present purpose And therefore to be sure the work of making men holy and bringing over sinners to the obedience of his Father must needs have been much more in the eye of our Blessed Saviour than that of delivering them from their deserved punishments simply and in it self considered For his love to him will be I hope universally acknowledged to be incomparably greater than it is to us as very great as ' t is None can question but that by our Apostacy from God we have most highly dishonoured him we have robbed him of a Right that he can never be willing to let go viz. The obedience that is indispensably due to him as he is our Creator continual Preserver our infinitely bountiful Benefactor and absolute Soveraign And therefore it is as little to be doubted that Christ would in the first place concern himself for the Recovery of that Right And but that both works are carried on together and inseparably involved in each other he must necessarily be very greatly and far more solicitous about the effecting of this Design than of that of delivering wicked Rebels from the mischiefs and miseries they have made themselves lyable to by their disobedience So that laying all these considerations together what in the world can be more indisputable than that our Savious chief and ultimate design in coming from Heaven to us and performing and suffering all he did for us was to turn us from our iniquities to reduce us to intire and universal obedience and to make us partakers of inward real righteousness and true holiness And we cannot from this last discourse but clearly understand that it is most infinitely reasonable and absolutely necessary that it should be so But now if after all this it be objected that I have defended a notion concerning the Design of Christianity different from that which hath hitherto been constantly received by all Christians viz. That it is to display and magnifie the exceeding riches of God's Grace to fallen mankind in his Son Jesus I answer that he will be guilty of very great injustice towards me that shall censure me as labouring in this discourse to propagate any new notion For I have therein endeavoured nothing else but a true explication of the old one it having been grossly misunderstood and is still by very many to their no small prejudice Those therefore that say that the Christian Religion designeth to set forth and glorifie the infinite Grace of God in Jesus Christ to wretched sinners and withall understand what they say as they speak most truly so do they assert the very same thing that I have done For as hath been shewn not only the Grace of God is abundantly displaied and made manifest in the Gospel to sinners for this end that they â—…ay thereby be effectually moved and perswaded to forsake their sins but also the principal Grace that is there exhibited doth consist in delivering us from the power of them Whosoever will acknowledge sin to be as we have proved it is in its own nature the greatest of all evils and holiness the chiefest of all blessings will not find it easie to deny this And besides as we have likewise shewn men are not capable of God's pardoning Grace till they have truly repented them of all their sins that is have in will and affection sincerely left them And also that if they were caPable of it so long as they continue vile slaves to their lusts that Grace by being bestowed upon them cannot make them happy nor yet cause them to cease from being very miserable in regard of their disquieting and tormenting nature in which is laid the foundation of Hell it self The free Grace of God is infinitely more magnified in renewing our Natures than it could be in the bare justification of our persons And to justifie a wicked man while he continueth so if it were possible for God to do it would far more disparage his Iustice and Holiness than advance his Grace and Kindness Especially since his forgiving sin would signifie so little if it be not accompanied with the destruction of it In short then doth God most signally glorifie himself in the world when he most of all communicates himself that is his Glorious perfections to the souls of men And then do they most Glorifie God when they most partake of them and are rendered most like unto him But because nothing is I perceive more generally mistaken than the notion of Gods Glorifying himself I will adde something more for the better understanding of this and I am conscious to my self that I cannot do it so well as in the words of the Excellent man we a while since quoted Mr. Iohn Smith sometimes Fellow of Queens College in Cambridge When God seeks his own Glory he doth not so much endeavour any thing without himself He did not bring this stately Fabrick of the universe into being that he might for such a monument of his mighty Power and Beneficence gain some Panegyricks or Applause from a little of that fading breath which he had made Neither was that Gracious Contrivance of restoring lapsed men to himself a
on mens wills to use their utmost endeavour to subdue their lusts and to acquire vertuous habits yet this grace is not such as that there is no possibility of refusing or quenching it Nor is it fit it should seeing mankind is indued with a principle of freedom and that this principle is as Essential as any other to the Humane Nature I will add that this is one immediate cause of the unsuccessfulness of the Gospel to which it is very much to be attributed Namely mens strange and unaccountable mistaking the Design of it Multitudes of those that profess Christianity are so grosly inconsiderate not to say worse as to conceive no better of it than as a Science and a matter of Speculation And take themselves though against the clearest evidences of the contrary imaginable for true and genuine Christians either because they have a general belief of the truth of the Christian Religion and profess themselves the Disciples of Christ Jesus in contradistinction from Iews Mahometans and Pagans and in and through him alone expect salvation Or because they have so far acquainted themselves with the Doctrine of the Gospel as to be able to talk and dispute and to make themselves pass for knowing People Or because they have joyned themselves to that party of Christians which they presume are of the Purest and most Reformed Model and are zealous sticklers for their peculiar forms and discriminating sentiments and as stiff opposers of all other that are contrary to them Now the Gospel must necessarily be as ineffectual to the rectifying of such mens minds and Reformation of their Manners while they have so wretchedly too low an opinion of its Design as if it really had no better And so long as they take it for granted that its main intention is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make them Orthodox not Vertuous it cannot be thought that they should be ever the more Holy nay 't is a thousand to one but they will be in one kind or other the more unholy for their Christianity And lastly There are several untoward opinions very unhappily instilled into professors of Christianity which render the Truths of the Gospel they retain a belief of insignificant and unsuccessful as to the bettering either of their hearts or lives as infinitely apt and of as mighty efficacy as they are in themselves for those great purposes 2. Secondly Whereas it was said also that the Generality of Heathens live in diverse respects better lives than do multitudes and even the Generality of those that profess Christianity it is so far from being difficult to give a satisfactory account how this may be without disparaging our excellent Religion that it is to be expected that those people should be even much the worse for it that refuse to be bettered by it It is an old Maxime that Corruptio optimi est pessima The best things being spoiled do prove to be the very worst And according to this nothing less is to be looked for than that degenerated Christians should be the vilest of all persons And it is also certain that the best things when abused do ordinarily serve to the worst purposes of which there may be given innumerable Instances And so it is in this present case S. Paul told the Corinthians that he and the other Apostles were a savour of death unto death as well as of life unto life And our Saviour gave the Pharisees to understand That for judgement he was come into the world that those that see not might see and that those that see might be made blind that is That it would be a certain consequent of his coming not onely that poor ignorant Creatures should be turned from darkness to light but also that those which have the light and shut their eyes against it should be judicially blinded And the forementioned Apostle in the first Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans saith of those that held the truth in unrighteousness that would not suffer it to have any good effect upon them through their close adhering to their filthy lusts that God gave them up to the most unnatural villainies permitted them to commit them by withholding all restraints from them and likewise gave them over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a reprobate mind So that from the just judgment of God it is I say to be expected that depraved Christians should be the most wicked of all people And therefore it is so far from being matter of wonder that those that will not be converted by the Gospel should be so many of them very horribly prophane that it is rather so that all those which having for any considerable time lived under the preaching of it continue disobedient to it should not be such In the purest ages of the Church were degenerated Christians made in this kind most fearful Examples of the Divine Vengeance And so utterly forsaken of God that they became if we may believe Irenaeus Tertullian and others of the Antient Fathers not one whit better than Incarnate Devils Nor were there to be found in the whole world in those days and but rarely since such abominable and most execrable Caytiffs as they were I have sometimes admired that humane nature should be capable of such a monstrous depravation as several stories recorded of them do bespeak them to have contracted But 3. Thirdly If we must needs judge of the efficacy of the Gospel for the making men Holy by its success herein Let us cast our eyes back upon the First ages of Christianity and then we shall find it an easie matter to satisfie our selves concerning it though we should understand no more of Christianity than the effects it produced in those days For though there were then a sort of people that sometimes called themselves Christians that were as was now said the most desperately wicked Creatures that ever the earth bare yet these were esteemed by all others that were known by that name as no whit more of their number than the Pagans and Iews that defied Christ. And their Religion was a motly thing that consisted of Christianity Iudaism and Paganism all blended together and therefore in regard of their mere profession they could be no more truly called Christians than Iews or Pagans Or rather to speak properly they were of no Religion at all but would sometimes comply with the Iews and at other times with the Heathens and joyned readily with both in persecuting the Christians And in short the Samaritans might with less impropriety be called Iews than these Gnostiques Christians 'T is also confessed that the orthodox Christians were calumniated by the Heathens as flat Atheists but their only pretence for so doing was their refusing to worship their false Gods And they likewise accused them of the beastliest and most horrid practices but it is sufficiently evident that they were beholden to the Gnostiques for those accusations who being accounted Christians did by their being notoriously guilty of
person of the most holy Trinity must needs be false As also those that make Religion to be a mere Passive thing wholly God's work and not at all ours or that cramp men and perswade them that they are utterly void of the least ability to co-operate with the grace of God or to do any thing towards their own salvation or any way whatsoever discourage them from the diligent prosecution of Holiness or deprive us of any help afforded us towards our gaining and growth in grace either by putting a slur upon the written word in advancing above it the light within men and in Enthusiastical pretences to immediate Revelations c. Or else by teaching men to sleight any one Ordinance of the Gospel c. Or such Doctrines as tend to introduce confusion into the Church of Christ and to deprive it of all Government and Order or in short that give countenance to any Immorality whatsoever I say as sure as the Christian Religion is true and that what we have proved to be the Design thereof is so such Doctrines as these must needs be false What our Saviour saith of false Prophets is as true of most Doctrines By their fruits you shall know them we may understand whether they have any relation to Christianity or no by the Design they drive at and their evident consequences And I may adde that we may make a shrewd guess what those particular wayes and modes of Religion are which the various Sects we are cantonized into have espoused to themselves and are so fond of by the proper and most distinguishing effects of them If we perceive that they make the great sticklers for them to differ from others chiefly in unconcernednes about the most important substantial duties of Morality and in laying the greatest weight upon certain little Trifles and placing their Religion in mere externals or that the things whereby they are most peculiarly discriminated from other folk are spiritual pride and fond conceitedness of themselves and a scornful and fierce behaviour towards those that approve not of their way uncharitableness morosity and peevishness a seditious ungovernable and untameable spirit c. I say if we observe such as these to be the most distinguishing effects of their several Modes and Forms we have sufficient reason from thence alone greatly to presume that they have not the stamp of Ius Christianum upon them that they are not of Christ but of their own invention The wisdom that is from above is quite another thing and begets perfectly other kind of effects as shall be shewn hereafter But to return The Design of the Gospel is as was said the Great Standard by which we are to judge of the Truth of Opinions Those that seem to us to oppose this Design we are bound to suspect because they do so but those which apparently do this we must with heartiest indignation reject And though we should meet with some places of Scripture that at first sight may seem to favour them we may not be stumbled upon that account but be confident that whatsoever is their true meaning as sure as they have God for their Author they cannot possibly patronize any such Doctrines And lastly in examining which of two opinions is true that oppose each other and do seem to be much a like befriended by the holy Scriptures it is doubtless a very safe course to consider as impartially as we can which doth tend most to serve the great End of Christianity and to prefer that which we are perswaded doth so CHAP. XXI How we are to judge of the Necessity of Doctrines either to be embraced or rejected A brief discourse of the Nature of Points Fundamental How we may know whether we embrace all such and whether we hold not any destructive and damnable Errours SEcondly The Design of Christianity is the great measure whereby we are to judge as of the Truth so also of the Necessity of Doctrines either to be embraced or rejected First We may thereby understand in what degree we ought to esteem those Necessary to be by all received which we our selves are convinc'd of the Truth of or which of such are Fundamental Points of the Christian Faith and which not First It is plain That in the general those and those only are primarily and in their own nature Fundamentals which are absolutely necessary to accomplish in us that Design Such as without the knowledge and belief of which it is impossible to acquire that Inward Righteousness and true Holiness which the Christian Religion aimeth at the introduction of It is in it self absolutely necessary not to be ignorant of or disbelieve any of those Points upon which the effecting of the great business of the Gospel in us doth necessarily depend The particulars of these I shall not stand to enumerate because as will appear from what will be said anon it is not needful to have a just Table of them And besides any one that understands wherein the nature of true Holiness lyeth may be able sufficiently to inform himself what they are Secondly It is as evident That those points of Faith are secondarily Fundamental the disbelief of which cannot consist with true Holiness in those to whom the Gospel is sufficiently made known although they are not in their own nature such as that Holiness is not in some degree or other attainable without the belief of them And in the number of these are all such Doctrines as are with indisputable clearness revealed to us Now the belief of these though it is not in it self any more than in higher or lower degrees profitable yet is it even absolutely necessary from an external cause though not from the nature of the Points themselves viz. In regard of their being delivered with such abundant perspicuity as that nothing can cause men to refuse to admit them but that which argueth them to be stark naught and to have some unworthy and base end in so doing But we must take notice here that all such Points as these are not of equal necessity to be received by all Christians because that in regard of the diversity of their capacities educations and other means and advantages some of them may be most plainly perceived by some to be delivered in the Scriptures which cannot be so by others with the like ease And in the second place what hath been said of Fundamental Truths is applicable by the Rule of Contraries to the opposite Errours as I need not shew Now then would we know whether we embrace all the Fundamentals of Christianity and are guilty of no damnable and destructive errours among the great diversity and contrariety of Opinions that this kingdom abounds with I think I may say above all other parts of Christendom our onely way is to examine our selves impartially after this manner Am I sincerely willing to obey my Creatour and Redeemer in all things commanded by them Do I entertain and harbour no lust in my
that all that have the conduct of Souls committed to them should do the like S. Paul exhorted Timothy first to take heed to himself and then to the Doctrine and the former advice was of no whit less necessity and importance than was the latter For as woful experience assureth us a Minister of a careless and loose life let his parts and ability in preaching be never so great nay though he should behave himself never so faithfully in the Pulpit and be zealous against the very vices he himself is guilty of which would be very strange if he should must needs do more hurt incomparably than he can do good And though as some of them will tell them it is the Peoples duty to do as they say and not as they do yet is there nothing more impossible than to teach them effectually that Lesson Mankind as we had before occasion to shew is mightily addicted to imitation and Examples especially those of Governors and Teachers have a greater force upon people ordinarily than have Instructions but chiefly bad Examples in regard of their natural proneness to vice than good Instructions Had not the Apostles expressed as great a care of what they did as of what they said how they lived as how they preached Christianity would without doubt have been so far from prevailing and getting ground as it hath done that it could not have long survived its Blessed Author if it had not bid adiue to the world with him Most men do what we can will judge of our Sermons by our Conversations and if they see these bad they will not think those good nor the Doctrines contained in them practicable seeing they have no better effect upon those that preach them And besides no man will be thought to be serious and in good earnest in pressing those duties upon others which he makes no conscience of performing himself Nay every man's judgement in Divine things may warrantably be suspected that is of a wicked and vicious Life And those that are conscious to themselves that they are not able to pass a judgement upon Doctrines may not be blamed if they question their Minister's Orthodoxy while they observe in him any kind of Immorality and see that he lives to the satisfaction of any one Lust. For the promise of knowing the Truth is made onely to such as continue in Christ's words that is that are obedient to his Precepts And I adde that such a one 's talks of Heaven and Hell are like to prevail very little upon his Auditors or to be at all heeded by the greatest part of them while they consider that the Preacher hath a soul to save as well as they And therefore the love that they bear to their lusts with the Devil's help will easily perswade them that either these things are but mere sictions or else that the one may be obtained and the other escaped upon far easier terms than he talks of But as for those few in whom the sense of true Vertue and Piety have made so deep an impression as that they have never the slighter opinion of the necessity thereof in regard of their Minister's wicked Example the prejudice that they cannot but conceive against him renders his discourses insipid and unaffecting to them and so they ordinarily take all opportunities to turn their backs upon him and at length quite forsake him And then if they are not as understanding as well meaning people are too easily drawn away from all other Churches when they have left their own and become a prey to some demure and fairly pretending Sectary And I am very certain from my own observation that no one thing hath so conduced to the prejudice of our Church of England and done the separating parties so much service as the scandalous lives of some that exercise the Ministerial Function in her The late Excellent Bishop of Down and Connar hath this memorable passage in a Sermon he preached to the University at Dublin If ye become burning shining Lights if ye do not detain the Truth in unrighteousness if ye walk in light and live in the Spirit your Doctrine will be true and that truth will prevail But if you live wickedly scandalously every little Schismalick will put you to shame draw Disciples after him and abuse your flocks and feed them with Coloâ—…ynths and Hemlock and place Heresie in the chair appointed for your Religion But to hasten to the dispatch of this unpleasant Topick wicked ministers are of all other ill-livers the most scandalous for they lay the greatest stumbling block of any whatsoever before mens souls and what our Saviour said of the Scribes and Pharisees may in an especial manner be applyed to them viz. that they will neither enter into heaven themselves nor yet suffer them that are entering to go in so far are they from saving themselves and those that hear them But I would to God such would well lay to heart those sad words of our Saviour Luke 17. 1 2. It is impossible but that offences will come but woe unto him through whom they come it were better for him that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the Sea c. And those words are not more effectual to scare them than are these following of a Heathen viz. Tully concerning vicious Philosophers to shame them into a better life saith he in his Tusculan Questions the second book Quotusquisque Philosophorunâ—… invenitur qui sit ita moratus c. What one of many Philosophers is there who so behaves himself and is of such a mind and life as Reason requireth which accounteth his Doctrine not a boast of Science but a law of life which obeyeth himself and is governed by his own precepts We may see some so light and vain that it would have been better for them to be wholly ignorant and never to have learn d any thing others so covetous of money thirsty of praise and honour and many such slaves to their lusts ut cum eorum vitâ mirabiliter pugnet oratio That their lives do marvellously contradict their Doctrine Quod quidem mihi videtur esse turpissimum c. Which to me seems the most filthy and abominable of all things For as he which professing himself a Grammarian speaks barbarously and who being desirous to be accounted a Musician sings scurvily is so much the more shame-worthy for his being defective in that the knowledge and skill of which he arrogates to himself so a Philosopher in ratione vitae peccans miscarrying in his manners is in this respect the baser and more wretched Creature that in the office of which he will needs be a Master he doth amiss artemque vitae professus delinquit in vitâ and prosessing the art of well-living or of teaching others to live well is faulty and miscarrieth in his own life Could this excellent Heathen thus inveigh against wicked Philosophers what Satyre can be tart and