God is said to give over the abominable Heathen to a Reprobate Mind As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to an Injudicious and Undiscerning Mind When Men abandon themselves to Wickedness and Impiety God withdraws his Grace from them and by his secret and just Judgment they are deprived of the Faculty of discerning between Truth and Error between Good and Evil. 2 Thes 2. 10 11 12. It is said that the Man of Sin should come with all deceiveableness of Unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be Saved And that for this Cause God would send them strong delusion that they should believe a Lye that they all might be Damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in Unrighteousness And it is just with God that Men of Vicious Inclinations and Practices should be exposed to the Cheat of the grossest and vilest Impostors God's Providence is concerned for Men of honest Minds and sincere Intentions But if Men take pleasure in Unrighteousness God takes no further care of them but delivers them up to their own hearts Lusts to be seduced into all those Errors into which their own vain Imaginations and their foolish hearts are apt to lead them Thus have I endeavoured as briefly as I could to shew that an honest Mind that sincerely desires and endeavours to do the Will of God is the best security against fatal Errors and Mistakes in Matters of Religion both because it disposeth a Man to make a true Judgment of Divine Things and because the Providence of God is more especially concerned for the security of such Persons There remains â—an Objection to be answered to which this Discourse may seem liable but this together with the Inferences which may be made from this Discourse I shall referr to another opportunity The Second SERMON ON JOHN VII 17. If any Man will do his Will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self I Made entrance into these words the last Day in which our Saviour declares to us that an honest and sincere Mind and an hearty Desire and Endeavour to do the Will of God is the best Security and Preservative against dangerous Errors and Mistakes in Matters of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if any Man desire to do his Will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self Now there are I told you two great Mistakes in Religion To reject any thing which really is from God and to receive and entertain any thing as from God which is not really from him And therefore I proposed from this Text to shew how a sincere Desire and Endeavour to do the Will of God is a security to Men against both these Dangers namely upon these two Accounts First Because he who sincerely Desires and Endeavours to do the Will of God is hereby better qualified and disposed to make a right Judgment of Spiritual and Divine Things and that for these two Reasons I. Because such a Person hath a truer Notion of God and Divine Things He that resembleth God most is like to understand him best because he finds those Perfections in some measure in himself which he Contemplates in the Divine Nature and nothing gives a Man so sure a Notion of Things as Practice and Experience II. Because such a Person is more Impartial in his search and enquiry after Truth and therefore more likely to find it and to discern it from Error That Man only stands fair for the entertainment of Truth who is under the Power and Dominion of no Vice or Lust because he hath nothing to corrupt or bribe him to seduce him and draw him aside in his enquiry after Truth He hath no manner of concernment that the contrary Proposition should be true having the indifferency of a Traveller and no other Interest but to find out the right way to Heaven and to walk in it But if a Man be biass'd by any Lust and addicted to any vicious Practice he is then an interested Person and concern'd to make a partial Judgment of Things and is under a great Temptation to Infidelity when the Truths of God are proposed to him because whatever the Evidence for them be he cannot but be unwilling to own the Truths of those Doctrines which are so contrary to his inclination and interest Secondly Another Reason why they who sincerely desire to do the Will of God have a greater security in discerning Truth from Error is because the Providence of God is more especially concern'd to preserve such Persons from dangerous Errors and Mistakes in Things which concern their Eternal Salvation When Men are of a teachable Temper of an humble and obedient frame of Mind God loves to reveal himself and his Truth to them Psal 25. 9. The Meek will he guide in Judgment and the Meek will he teach his way The proper disposition of a Scholar is to be willing to Learn and that which in Religion we are to Learn is what is the good and acceptable Will of God that we may do it for Practice is the end of Knowledge If ye know these Things saith our Saviour happy are ye if ye do them It is necessary to know the Will of God but we are only happy in the doing of it and if any Man be desirous to do the Will of God his Goodness is such that he will take effectual care to secure such a one against dangerous and fatal Errors He that hath an honest Mind and would do the Will of God if he knew it God will not suffer him to remain ignorant of it or to be mistaken about it in any necessary Point of Faith or Practice Thus far I have gone I shall now proceed to remove an Objection to which this Discourse may seem liable and then draw some Inferâ—nces from the whole After all that hath been said some perhaps may ask Is every good Man then secure from all Error and Mistake in Matters of Religion This is a mighty Priviledge indeed But do not we find the contrary in Experience That an honest Heart and a weak Head do often meet together For answer to this I shall lay down these following Propositions First That if there were any necessity that a good Man should be secured from all manner of Error and Mistake in Religion this Probity of Mind and sincere desire to do the Will of God is the best way to do it because such a Temper and Disposition of Mind gives a Man the best advantages to discern betwixt Truth and Error and God is most likely to reveal his Will to such Persons But there is no necessity of this because a Man may be a good Man and go to Heaven notwithstanding a great many Mistakes in Religion about things not necessary For while we are in this
laid it up in a Napkin and according to our Saviour's Rule have long since forfeited it for not making use of it And whereas it is pretended that the Scripture is but a dead Râ—lâ— which can end no Controversies without a Living Judge ready at hand to interpret and apply that Rule upon emergent Occasions the same Objection lies against them unless a General Council which is their Living Judge were always sitting For the Dâ—finitions of their Councils in Writing are liable to the same and greater Objections than the Written Rule of the Scriptures The Summ of all is this In Differences about lesser Matters mutual Charity and Forbearance will secure the Peace of the Church tho' the Differences remain undecided and in greater Matters an Infallible Rule searched into with an honest Mind and due Diligence and with the help of good Instruction is more likely to extinguish and put an end to such Differences than any Infallible Judge if there were one because an humble and honest Mind is more likely to yield to Reason than a perverse and cavilling Temper is to submit to the Sentence of an Infallible Judge unless it were back'd with an Inquisition The Church of Rome supposeth her self Infallible and yet notwithstanding that she finds that some question and deny her Infallibility and then her Sentence signifies nothing And of those who own it many dispute the sense and meaning of her Sentence and whether they deny the Infallibility of her Sentence or dispute the Sense of it in neither of these Cases will it prove effectual to the deciding of any Difference But after all this Provision which we pretend God hath made for honest and sincere Minds Do we not see that Men fall into dangerous and damnable Errors who yet cannot without great Uncharitableness be supposed not to be sincerely desirous to know the Truth and to do the Will of God To this I shall briefly return these Two Things I. That the same Errors are not equally damnable to all The innocent and humanly speaking almost invincible Prejudices of Education in some Persons even against a Fundamental Truth the different Capacities of Men and the different Means of Conviction afforded to them the greater and lesser degrees of Obstinacy and a faulty Will in opposing the Truths proposed to them all these and perhaps several other Considerations besides may make a great difference in the guilt of Mens Errors and the danger of them II. When all is done the Matter must be left to God who only knowâ—th the Hearts of all the Children of Men. We cannot see into the Hearts of Men nor know all their Circumstances and how they may have provoked God to forsake them and give them up to Error and Delusion because they would not receive the truth in the love of it that they might be saved And as on the one hand God will consider all Mens Circumstances and the Disadvantages they were under for coming to the knowledge of the Truth and make allowance to Men for their invincible Errors and forgive them upon a general Repentance So on the other hand he who sees the insincerity of Men and that the Errors of their Understandings did proceâ—d from gross Faults of their Lives will deal with them accordingly But if Men be honest and sincere God who hath said if any Man will do his Will he shall know of the Doctrine will certainly be as good as his word It now remains only to draw some Inferences from this Discourse and they shall be these three First From this Text and what hath been Discoursed upon it we may infer how slender and ill-grounded the pretence of the Church of Rome to Infallibility is whether they place it in the Pope or in a General Council or in both The last is the most general Opinion and yet it is hard to understand how Infallibility can result from the Pope's Confirmation of a General Council when neither the Council was Infallible in framing its Definitions nor the Pope in Confirming them If the Council were Infallible in framing them then they needed no Confirmation If they were not then Infallibility is only in the Pope that confirms them and then it is the Pope only that is Infallible But no Man that reads these words of our Saviour if any Man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine would ever imagine that the Bishop of Rome whoever he shall happen to be were secured from all fatal Errors in Matters of Faith much less that he were Endowed with an Infallible Spirit in Judging what Doctrines are from God and what not For it cannot be denied but that many of their Popes have been notoriously Wicked and Vicious in their Lives Nay Bellarmine himself acknowledgeth that for a Succession of Fifty Popes together there was not one Pious and Virtuous Man that sate in that Chair and some of their Popes have been Condemned and Deposed for Heresie and yet after all this the Pope and the governing part of that Church would bear the World in hand that he is Infallible But if this Saying of our Saviour be true that if any Man will do his will he shall know of his Doctrine whether it be of God then every honest Man that sincerely desires to do the Will of God hath a fairer pretence to Infallibility and a clearer Text for it than is to be found in the whole Bible for the Infallibility of the Bishop of Rome What would the Church of Rome give that theâ—e were but as express a Text in Scripture for the Infallibility of their Popes as this is for the security of every good Man in his Judgment of Doctrines which makes Infallibility needless What an unsufferable Noise and what endless Triumphs would they make upon it if it had been any where said in the Bible That if any Man be Bishop of Rome and sit in St. Peter's Chair he shall know of my Doctrine whether it be of God Had there been but such a Text as this we should never have been troubled with their impertinent citation of Texts and their remote and blind Inferences from Pasce Oves and super hanc Petram Feed my Sheep and upon this Rock will I build my Church to prove the Pope's Infallibility And yet no Man of Sense or Reason ever extended the Text I am speaking to so far as to attempt to prove from it the Infallibility of every good Man but only his security from â—atal Errors and Mistakes in Religion The largest Promises that are made in Scripture of security from Error and Mistake about Divine Things are made to good Men who sincerely desire to do the Will of God And if this be so we must conclude several Popes to have been the furthest from Infallibility of any Men in the World And indeed there is not a more compendious way to perswade Men that the Christian Religion is a Fable than to set up a Lewd and Vicious Man for the Oracle
for Revealed Religion the only design of that is to revive and improve the Natural Notions which we have of God and all our Reasonings about Divine Revelation are necessarily gathered by our Natural Notions of Religion And therefore he that sincerely endeavours to do the will of God is not apt to be imposed upon by the vain and confident pretences of Divine Revelation but if any Doctrine be proposed to him which pretends to come from God he measures it by those steady and sure Notions which he hath of the Divine Nature and Perâ—ections and by those he will easily discern whether it be worthy of God or not and likely to proceeed from him He will consider the nature and tendency of it and whether it be as the Apostle expresses it a Doctrine according to Godliness such as is agreeable to the Divine Nature and Perfections and tends to make us like to God If it be not tho' an Angel from Heaven should bring it he will not receive it If it be he will not reject it upon every idle pretence and frivolous exception that prejudiced and ill minded Men may make against it but after he is satisfied of the reasonableness and purity of the Doctrine he will accept of such evidence and confirmation of it as is fit for God to give to his own Revelations and if the Person that brings it hath the attestation of Miracles which is necessary in case it be a new Doctrine and if he carry on no Earthly Interest and Design by it but does by his Life and Actions make it evident that he aims at the glory of God and the good of Men in this case a good Man whose mind is free from passion and prejudice will easily assent that this Man's Doctrine is of God and that he does not speak of himself This was the Evidence which our Saviour offered to the Jews in vindication of himself and his Doctrine Joh. 7. 18. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh his glory that sent him the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him as if he had said hereby may you distinguish one that really comes from God from an Impostor If any Man seek his own glory you may conclude that God hath not sent him but whatever he pretends that he speaks of himself but he who by his Life and the course of his Actions demonstrates that he seeks the honour of God and not any interest and advantage of his own the same is true and there is no unrighteousness in him that is no falsehood or design to deceive for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does sometimes signifie you may conclude such an one to be no Deceiver or Impostor And if any Man sincerely desires and endeavours to do the will of God he may by such Marks and Characters as these judge of any Doctrine that pretends to be from God whether it be so or not This is the first Reason because he that sincerely desires and endeavours to do the will of God hath the truest notion of God and of Divine Things Secondly Such a Person is more impartial in his search and enquiry after Truth and therefore more likely to find it and to discern it from Error He that hath an honest mind and sincerely endeavours to do the will of God is not apt to be swayed and biassed by any Interest or Lust for his great Interest is to please God and he makes all his other Interests and concernments to stoop and yield to that But if a Man be governed by any earthly Interest or Design he will measure all things by that and is not at liberty to entertain any thing that crosses it and to judge equally of any Doctrine that is opposite to his Interest This our Saviour gives for a Reason why the great Rabbies and Teachers among the Jews did not believe and embrace his Doctrine John 5. 44. How can ye believe which receive honour one of another If Men have any other design in Religigion than to please God and to advance his Honour and Glory in the World no wonder if they be apt to reject the most Divine Truths because these are Calculated not to approve us to Men but to God And as Vain-Glory and a desire of the Applause of Men so likewise doth every other Lust make a Man partial in his Judgment of things and clap a false Biass upon his Understanding which carries it off from Truth and makes it to lean towards that side of the Question which is most favourable to the Interest of his Lusts A vicious Man is not willing to entertain those Truths which would cross and check him in his course He hath made the Truth his Enemy and therefore he thinks himself concern'd to oppose it and rise up against it The light of it offends him and therefore he shuts his Eyes that he may not see it Those holy and pure Doctrines which are from God reprove the Lusts of Men and discover the Deformity of them and therefore no wonder if bad Men be so hard to be reconciled to them This account our Saviour likewise gives of the fierce Enmity of the Jews to him and his Doctrine Joâ— 3. 19 20. Light is come into the World and Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil for every one that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved The vicious Inclinations of Men are a dead weight upon their Understandings and able to draw down the Scales against the clearest Truths For tho' it be absolutely in no Man's power to believe or to dis-believe what he will yet Men's Lives have many times a great influence upon their Understandings to make Assent easie or difficult and as we are forward to believe what we have a mind to so are we very backward and slow in yielding our Assent to any thing that crosseth our Inclinations Men that allow themselves in ungodliness and worldly lusts will not easily believe those Doctrines which charge Men so strictly with all manner of Holiness and Purity This is the way which the Devil hath always used to blind the eyes of Men that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ might not shine into them And certainly the most effectual way to keep Men in Infidelity is to debauch them in their Lives therefore the Apostle gives this as the reason of the Infidelity of Men in the last times 2 Thes 2. 12. They believed not the Truth but had pleasure in Unrighteousness When Men once abandon themselves to lewd and vicious practices Infidelity becomes their Interest because they have no other way to defend and excuse a wicked Life but by denying the Truth which opposeth it and finds fault with it That Man only stands fair for the entertainment of Truth who is under the Dominion of no Vice or Lust because he hath nothing to corrupt or bribe him to
elsewhere expresly makes it the Condition of our Eternal Salvation Heb. 5. 9. Christ is there said to be the Author of Eternal Salvation to them that obey him thereby implying that none shall be saved by Christ but those that obey the Gospel Heb. 12. 14. Follow Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. Rom. 2. 7 8 9. To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality God will give Eternal Life but to them who are contentious and obey not the Truth that is the Gospel but obey Unrighteousness Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of man that doth Evil. I cannot well imagine what can reasonably be answered to such plain Texts but I will tell you what is commonly answered namely That God gives the Condition which he requires and therefore though these Promises run in a Conditional Form yet in truth they are absolute because he that makes a Promise to another upon a Condition which he will also perform doth in effect make an absolute Promise As if a Man promised another such an Estate upon Condition he pay such a Summ for it and does promise withal to furnish him with that Summ this in effect amounts to an absolute Promise of the Estate And this is very well argued if the Case were thus But God hath no where promised to work the Condition in us without the concurrence of our own Endeavours God may and oftentimes doth prevent Men by his Grace but he hath no where promised to give his Holy Spirit but to them that ask it of him And he hath no where promised to continue his grace and assistance to us unless we will use our sincere Endeavours nay in case we do not he hath threatned to take away his grace and assistance from us And if this be so then the Promises of the Gospel do not only seem to be Conditional but are really so And it is a wonder that any Man should doubt of this who considers how frequently in the New Testament the Gospel is represented to us under the notion of a Covenant since a Covenant in the very nature of it doth imply a mutual Obligation between the Parties that enter into it But if the Gospel contain only Blessings which are promised on God's part without any thing required to be done and performed on our part in order to the obtaining of those Blessings then the Gospel is nothing else but a Promise or Deed of Gift making over certain Benefits and Blessings to us but can in no propriety of Language in the World be called a Covenant But if there be some things required on our part in order to our being made partakers of the Promises which God hath made to us as the Scripture every where tells us there is then the Promises are plainly Conditional To instance in the Promise of Forgiveness of Sins Repent that your Sins may be blotted out that is upon this Condition that ye Repent of your Sins they shall be forgiven and not otherwise Can there be any plainer Condition in the World than is in those Words of our Saviour If ye forgive Men their Trespasses your Heaâ—enly Father will also forgive your Trespasses but if ye forgive not Men their Trespasses neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your Trespasses This is so far from being any prejudice to the freeness of Gods grace who is infinitely gracious in offering such great Blessings to us upon any Condition that we can perform yet it were one of the absurdest things in the World to imagine that God should grant to Men forgiveness of Sins and Eternal Life let them behave themselves as they Will. Fourthly The last thing I proposed for the explaining of this Doctrine of the Promises of God was to consider when Men may be said to have a right to these Promises so as to be able upon good grounds to apply them to themselves And the Answer to this is very plain and easie namely when they find the Conditions of these Promises in themselves and not till then When a Man hath truly repented of his Sins so as to forsake them and lead a new Life and when he does from his heart forgive those that have offended him and hath laid down all animosity against them and thoughts of Revenge then hath he a right to the Promise of Pardon and Forgiveness and may apply to himself in particular what the Scripture saith in general that God will blot out all his Transgressions and remember his Iniquities no more When a Man doth constantly and earnestly implore the assistance of God's Holy Spirit and is ready to yield to the motions of it and does faithfully make use of that strength and assistance which God affords him then he may expect the continuance of his grace and further degrees of it When a Man makes it the constant and sinsincere endeavour of his Life to please God and to walk in all the Ordinances and Commandments of the Lord blameless and is effectually taught by the grace of God to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godlily in this present World then he may with comfort and joy wait for the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ then he may with confidence depend upon God in sure and certain hope of that Eternal Life which God that cannot lie hath promised When he can say with St. Paul I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith then he may likewise triumph as he did henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which God the Righâ—eous Judge shall give me in that day Upon these terms and in these Cases Men may upon good grounds apply to themselves these exceeding great and precious Promises of the Gospel and so far as any Man is doubtful and uncertain of the performance of the Conditions which the Gospel requires so far he must necessarily question his Right and Title to the Blessings promised And if any Man think this Doctrine too uncomfortable and be willing to reject it upon this account I shall only say this that Men may cheat themselves if they please but most certainly they will never find any true and solid Comfort in any other This is a plain and sensible account of a Mans Confidence and good hopes in the Promises of God but for a Man to apply any Promise to himself before he finds the Condition in himself is not Faith but either Fancy or Presumption And therefore it is a very preposterous course which many take to advise and exhort Men with so much earnestness to apply the Promises of God to themselves and to tell them that they are guilty of great unbelief in not doint it That which is proper to exhort Men to is to â—ndeavour to perform the Condition upon which God hath promised any Blessing to