mind or conscience as was the case of the better sort of Heathens or by the Law of Moses as the Jews were in our Saviours time Or lastly by the benefit of a Christian education as the state of those among our selves is who come to examine the truth of the Gospel and to enquire more nearly into the sense of it Suppose we a man already instructed by any of these means in the fundamental rules of practice desirous of further knowledge and satisfaction in the doctrine of the Gospel he must be careful to live up to those principles he is already instructed in resolving also to submit obediently to whatsoever else upon his further enquiry he shall find to be his duty Such a man thus prepared by doing his duty and thus resolved to do the will of God as far as it shall be made known to him such a one is the person to whom this promise of our Savior doth belong 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 proceed to the second thing propounded to shew the certainty of success to those that seek for knowledge with this preparation and here it will not be amiss to consider briefly in what sense this promise is to be understood before we undertake to prove the certainty of it We are to observe therefore that this promise of our Saviour is not to be understood so universally as though no man who was sincerely resolved to obey God shall fall into any kind of errours in matters of Religion For this is contradicted by the constant experience of all Ages for it would be very uncharitable to suppose that among most of the dissenting parties in Religion who maintain great controversies with one another there should not be some persons truly devout and sincere on both sides We are not therefore to suppose that a man truly religious shall not err at all but that he shall not be led into such errors as are dangerous to or inconsistent with his salvation And indeed the promise in this place is not set down in so general terms as that they should seem to require any larger interpretation than this I am speaking of If any man will do his will saith our Saviour he shall know of the doctrine I now beliver to you whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self Which cannot reasonably be extended beyond these two things 1. He shall receive satisfaction concerning the truth of Christian Religion in general that it is a doctrine truly divine and heavenly and that the author of it came from God and delivered his mind and will 2. He that will do the will of God shall be satisfied also concerning those particular truths which are indispensably necessary for him to know in order to his salvation These two things will be the undoubted effects of a religious frame of mind of a sincere resolution to do the will of God and will certainly be made good to all who seek for knowledge with that preparation and this we have great reason to be assured of whether we consider 1. The natural influence that a religious temper of mind hath upon the understanding to make it fit for the reception of divine truth 2. The peculiar blessing and assistance of Gods good spirit which always accompanies a truly religious man to guide him into all truth which is necessary for him I will begin with the former and shall endeavour to shew that the practice of religious Duties hath a natural efficacy upon the mind to clear its discerning faculties to make it capable of understanding and giving a full assent to the doctrine of the Gospel And this I shall make appear by instancing in some particular duties which are of a natural obligation which no man can be ignorant of each of which singly considered hath a very immediate influence upon the understanding to make it capable of divine knowledge In consideration of which it will also appear that the contrary vices to these are the onely causes of dangerous and damnable errors The Duties I shall particularly insist on are these 1. Simplicity of mind without prejudice 2. Purity of heart and affections 3. Humility 4. Calmness of Temper 5. Prayer to God These are all Duties of a natural obligation and therefore he that comes to examin the truth of the Gospel cannot be presumed ignorant of nor unwilling to practise them if he seek for knowledge with that preparation I have been speaking of 1. He that examines the doctrine of the Gospel with this intention to satisfie his conscience concerning those things that are necessary for him to believe and do resolving by Gods grace to do the will of God as far as it shal be made known to him such a one will bring with him an honest simplicity of mind not biassed by prejudice or preconceived opinions such a one will consider with himself that the truth of things doth not depend upon his own fancy or petty reasonings that a strong imagination cannot make those things Articles of Faith which God hath not revealed and therefore he will bring with him no preconceived opinion which he will not be ready to lay aside upon sufficient evidence to the contrary he will not endeavour to distort and wrest the plain words of Scripture to that sense of things which he formerly had but will readily yield up all his former notions to the authority of divine revelation That we are naturally obliged to this simplicity of judgment in all enquiries after truth is evident because in all manner of disputes this is one of the first things we challenge from our Adversary as our undoubted right that he would hear what we have to say without prejudice and therefore we also ought to bring with us to a religious debate the same free and unprejudiced minds which we expect from others And indeed this temper of mind is highly necessary and very advantageous to prepare us for the reception of truth For certainly the power of prejudice is very great to darken mens minds and to mould them into such apprehensions as are most suitable to it And therefore it is easie to observe how men who are engaged in a Party and prepossessed with the distinguishing opinions of their Sect easily find ways to pervert the plainest places of Scripture to their own sense to make it agree with the Analogy of their Faith that is of their darling Notions When I speak of laying aside prejudice in the search after divine truth I do not understand that we must call in question all kind of preconceptions we have had concerning religious matters Some things there are in Religion of so great certainty and evidence that though an Angel from Heaven should teach us otherwise we ought not to receive him Such are those preconceptions we have concerning the Being and Attributes of God that he is most wise just powerful faithful
allowing those that differ from them any probable hopes of salvation He that considers this must necessarily suppose one of these two things Either that the way of obtaining the knowledge of divine truth is not sufficiently plain and certain so that all that use a due diligence in the search after it may reasonably hope to obtain it Or secondly that the generality of Christians that maintain so wide differences about matters of Religion do not seek for knowledge after a right manner The former of these viz. that the way of salvation is not sufficiently plain and that all who use a due diligence in the search of it may not reasonably hope to find it this cannot be granted without injury and affront to the divine goodness and justice For since the eternal welfare of all Christians doth depend upon their due performance of the condition of Christianity and this cannot be performed without a competent knowledge of those things that are revealed in the Gospel if these things were so dark and obscure that even the plainest Christian might not attain to as great a degree of knowledge as is necessary for him it would then follow that God had not taken sufficient care of his people to make the way of salvation known to them and withall that he dealt very hardly and unmercifully with the greatest part of them in excluding them from the means of knowledge when yet he hath annexed so great a penalty to the want of it as their falling short of that eternal inheritance to which they are called in the Gospel The true reason therefore why so many enquirers after knowledge do miscarry in their design and are led away into strange and dangerous opinions is not because the knowledge of the truth is so hard to be obtained but because there are but few that apply themselves to the search of it after a due manner It cannot therefore but seem necessary that while we all pretend to seek after knowledge and to desire to be informed in those important truths revealed in the Gospel that we first of all endeavour to satisfie our selves concerning the true way and method by which the knowledge we seek after is to be obtained and this our Saviour hath directed us to in these words 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 In the fore-going Verses of this Chapter we read that there was great murmuring among the people concerning our Saviour who about that time begun to shew himself to Israel and there was great variety of opinions concerning him Some said he is a good man others said nay but he deceiveth the people Now to decide this controversie concerning himself and the doctrine he taught he gives them this plain direction if any man will do his will intimating thereby that they who thus disputed concerning him had not that true frame of mind that was fit for his reception that they were not willing to obey God whatever they pretended and therefore that it was in vain for them to be so inquisitive about him For to what purpose should they look for further revelations and instructions from God when they refused obedience to that doctrine they had already received and which they knew to be divine For to this purpose he upbraids them v. 19. Did not Moses give you the Law and yet none of you keepeth the Law So then had the Jews been obedient observers of the Law as they pretended great admiration of it they could not have found so many difficulties in their owning our Saviour for the true Messias they would then easily have understood that he came from God and that the doctrine he taught was truly divine and heavenly and that he did not endeavour to destroy the Law and the Prophets as they were wont to object against him but that he did eminently and exactly fulfil them But not to insist on this strict connexion of the words with the foregoing and following Verses I shall now consider them not as having any peculiar respect to the Jews but as they are a general rule for all enquirers after divine truth If any man whosoever he be Jew or Gentile will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self In handling of these words I shall first endeavour to explain the nature of the condition which our Saviour here requires in order to the search of divine truth 2. I shall shew the certainty of success to all such as seek for knowledge after this manner here required 1. For the condition it self 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 This condition implies in it these four things 1. A previous sense of the divine Soveraignty over us and our obligation to do whatsover God commands This belief of the Supreme Authority of God is antecedently necessary to all enquiries after divine truth For he that would be satisfied concerning the truth of any particular kind of Religion must in the first place suppose that some religious worship is due from men to God and this is of so natural an evidence and obligation that there neither is nor hath been any Nation of the World wherein they have not had a sense of the Being of God and of his supreme right to give Laws to Mankind and that our well-being and happiness doth depend upon our doing those things which are well-pleasing to him and therefore we find that how far soever the Nations of the World had erred concerning the Nature of God oft-times attributing to him those unworthy passions and practices which a wise man would be ashamed of yet still they thought it necessary to find out some way of expressing their homage to him And though the ways of Worship devised by the Heathens were commonly very absurd and ridiculous yet thus much is abundantly evident from their practice that they owned an obligation to a religious worship of God and had a sense of his soveraignty and right to govern them and to dispose of them as he pleaseth And this sense of his divine Soveraignty is necessarily supposed in this condition If any man will do his will For no man can intend to do the will of God who is not before persuaded that he ought to do it whensoever it is made known to him 2. This condition if any man will do his will implies or presupposes a serious desire to know the will of God in order to practice and a diligent use of those means of instruction which God hath afforded us as viz. a search of the Scripture a sober use of our Reason in the examination of it a diligent attendance on those spiritual Guides which God hath set over us for our instruction in the way of righteousness and prayer to God for the guidance and assistance of
joy which it affords us in this spiritual Race which infinitely over-ballances all the false pleasures we forsake and all the difficulties we undergo in undertaking this enterprize And lastly I might put you in mind of the great danger reproach and confusion of face which will certainly attend us if by our negligence and indifference we fall short of this glorious prize all which arguments ought to have a mighty influence upon us to awake and excite our utmost industry and vigour to promote our vigilance and to confirm strengthen and maintain our courage constancy and resolution to go on stedfastly in the ways of holiness and to run with patience the Race set before us But the prosecution of these and the like arguments would be too large a scope for the time allotted to this exercise and the words of the Text confine my thoughts to a more particular consideration of the example of the Saints Martyrs and holy Confessors who have gone before us in this glorious Race and have already finished their course with patience Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight c. The word Martyr or Witness in an Ecclesiastical sense is usually restrained to such onely who have laid down their lives in testimony of the truth of the Gospel but in the language of holy Scripture I find no such limitation of it Any of these who were either great examples of obedience and faith in God any who bare witness to divine truth though they were not called to suffer death for that testimony being indifferently stiled by that name The Fathers mentioned in the former Chapter cannot all be accounted Martyrs in the stricter sense however they all help to make up the number which by reason of the multitude of them is here called a Cloud of Witnesses Now the force of their witness and example to engage us in a like diligence and constancy in running the Race set before us I shall endeavour to represent in these following particulars 1. They were witnesses of the truth and faithfulness and goodness of God in whom we believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him and therefore that our labour and industry in our Christian Race shall not be in vain I mention this truth more particularly because it seems to be the onely Creed which all the Saints recited in the former Chapter agreed in Some of them 't is true had a great prospect and hope of a Messias to come Abraham rejoiced to see his day Jacobs prophecy of him is very punctual and particular The other Prophets give witness to him But yet it appears not that all there mentioned had any knowledge at all either that he was to come or what he should do or suffer for the World And therefore the Apostle in the beginning of the Chapter lays down that viz. That God is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him as the fundamental Article of their Belief in confidence of which they willingly underwent so many Trials and Temptations with such bravery and undaunted resolution If therefore we look upon these men onely as giving testimony to this truth yet this alone is sufficient reason for our imitation of them and doth justifie the wisdom of our choice in being religious and serving the same God on whom they believed and forsaking all in obedience to him as they did before us Since we have the same convictions of Reason that they had that our God whom we serve is a Rewarder of those that put their trust in him and are further confirmed in our belief of this by their patience and constancy in the same Profession and by their chearful suffering Persecution for it By their suffering we have this satisfaction at least that we are not singular in this our persuasion concerning God and that he hath not been without his Witnesses in all Ages who have laid down their lives in this Faith and Assurance and therefore we ought to be stedfast in it without wavering Now if any should object that the numbers of those who have died in this Faith though they are here called a Cloud of Witnesses are yet but a very few in comparison of those who have lived without God in the World and have despised and rejected all hopes of a future reward To this it is easie to reply that the credit of any testimony doth not depend on the number and noise of those that affirm any thing but from the manner of the evidence they give Now a few men who give sufficient proof that they understand perfectly what they say and do and would not deceive others are more to be valued as Witnesses than ten thousand of the ruder multitude who take up reports upon trust and if you come to examine them they shrink into nothing They said something they know not what but know not whence they had it nor why they said it The case is the same in matters of religion those that have been truly pious and religious have in all Ages been men of the clearest and best understandings that have always been able to give a reason of their Hope that was in them and to satisfie the World that they did not pretend this for any temporal advantage they did deliberately and chearfully expose themselves to the most severe Trials and Persecutions for their testimony of it not accepting deliverance as the Apostle speaketh that they might obtain a better resurrection This was the case of those Heroick Spirits recited in the foregoing Chapter They were men of found mind as appears by the glorious things they did and suffered many of which are at large recorded in sacred Story They knew the value of life as well as others they were sensible of disgrace and pain and want and could have no reason to expose themselves to these things without a mighty evidence and conviction of the truth of what they believed concerning God of the greatness of his Power that he was able to reward them after this life of the greatness of his Wisdom that he knew when and how to do it better than they could choose of the Justice of his Providence that he would certainly do it But then on the contrary for those that have rejected this belief or at least have not lived answerably to it it is plain that much the greatest part of them are onely a rash inconsiderate multitude of no understanding in these matters who never took time to think whether Religion had any real foundation in Nature or Reason or not and therefore these are not competent Judges in the case and not to be regarded as Witnesses For those others who have lived wickedly and have yet had some reason to consider of the grounds and obligations of a religious course of life it is plain that these are most of them self-condemned and act against the conviction of their