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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61882	Fourteen sermons heretofore preached IIII. Ad clervm, III. Ad magistratvm, VII. Ad popvlvm / by Robert Sanderson ...; Sermons. Selections	Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.	1657 (1657)	Wing S605; ESTC R13890	499,470	466

himself to continue and persist in any known ungodlinesse And thus much for our second Observation I adde but a Third and that taken from the very thing which Abimelech here pleadeth viz. the integrity of his heart considered together with his present personal estate and condition I dare not say he was a Cast-away for what knoweth any man how God might after this time and even from these beginnings deal with him in the riches of his mercy But at the time when the things storied in this chapter were done Abimelech doubtlesse was an unbeleever a stranger to the covenant of God made with Abraham and so in the state of a carnal and meer natural man And yet both he pleadeth and God approveth the innocency and integrity of his heart in this businesse Yea I know that thou diddest this in the integrity of thine heart Note hence That in an unbeleever and natural man and therefore also in a wicked person and a cast-away for as to the present state the unregenerate and the Reprobate are equally incapable of good things there may be truth and singlenesse and integrity of heart in some particular Actions We use to teach and that truly according to the plain evidence of Scripture and the judgement of the ancient Fathers against the contrary tenet of the later Church of Rome that all the works of unbeleevers and natural men are not only stained with sin for so are the best works of the faithful too but also are really and truly sins both in their own nature because they spring from a corrupt fountain for That which is born of the flesh is flesh and it is impossible that a corrupt tree should bring forth good fruit and also in Gods estimation because he beholdeth them as out of Christ in and through whom alone he is well pleased St. Augustines judgement concerning such mens works is well known who pronounceth of the best of them that they are but splendida peccata glorious sins and the best of them are indeed no better We may not say therefore that there was in Abimelechs heart as nor in the heart of any man a legal integrity as if his person or any of his actions were innocent and free from sin in that perfection which the Law requireth Neither yet can we say there was in his heart as nor in the heart of any unbeleever an Evangelical integrity as if his person were accepted and for the persons sake all or any of his actions approved with God accepting them as perfect through the supply of the abundant perfections of Christ then to come That first and legall integrity supposeth the righteousnesse of works which no man hath this latter and Evangelical integrity the righteousnesse of Faith which no unbeliever hath no mans heart being either legally perfect that is in Adam or Evangelically perfect that is out of Christ. But there is ● third kinde of integrity of heart inferiour to both these which God here acknowledgeth in Abimelech and of which only we affirm that it may be found in an unbeliever and a Reprobate and that is a Natural or Moral integrity when the heart of a meer natural man is careful to follow the direction and guidance of right reason according to that light of Nature or Revelation which is in him without hollownesse halting and hypocrisie Rectus usus Naturalium we might well call it the term were fit enough to expresse it had not the Papists and some other Sectaries by sowring it with the leaven of their Pelagianism rendred it suspicious The Philosophers and learned among the Heathen by that which they call a good conscience understand no other thing then this very Integrity whereof we now speak Not that an Unbeliever can have a good conscience taken in strict propriety of truth and in a spiritual sense For the whole man being corrupted through the fall of Adam the conscience also is wrapped in the common pollution so that to them that are defiled and unbeleeving nothing is pure but even their minde and conscience is defiled as speaketh S. Paul Tit. 1. and being so defiled can never be made good till their hearts be sprinkled from that pollution by the bloud of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God and till the Conscience be purged by the same bloud from dead works to serve the living God as speaketh the same Apostle Heb. 9. and 10. But yet a good Conscience in that sense as they meant it a Conscience morally good many of them had who never had Faith in Christ nor so much as the least inckling of the Doctrine of Salvation By which Not having the Law they were a Law unto themselves doing by nature many of the things contained in the Law and chusing rather to undergo the greatest miseries as shame torment exile yea death it self or any thing that could befall them than wilfully to transgresse those rules and notions and dictates of piety and equity which the God of Nature had imprinted in their Consciences Could heathen men and unbeleevers have taken so much comfort in the testimony of an excusing Conscience as it appeareth many of them did if such a Conscience were not in the kinde that is Morally Good Or how else could St. Paul have made that protestat●on he did in the Councel Men and Brethren I have lived in all good conscience before God untill this day At least if he meant to include as most of the learned conceive he did the whole time of his life as well before his conversion as after Balaam was but a cursed Hypocrite and therefore it was but a copy of his countenance and no better for his heart even then hankered after the wages of unrighteousnesse when he looked a squint upon Balaks liberal offer with this answer If Balak would give me his house full of gold and silver I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do lesse or more But I assure my self many thousands of unbeleevers in the world free from his hypocrisie would not for ten times as much as he there spake of have gone beyond the Rules of the Law of Nature written in their hearts to have done either lesse or more Abimelech seemeth to be so affected at least in this particular action and passage with Abraham wherein God thus approveth his integrity Yea I know that thou diddest this in the integrity of thy heart The Reason of which moral integrity in men unregenerate and meerly natural is that Imperium Rationis that power of natural Conscience and Reason which it hath and exerciseth over the whole man doing the office of a Law-giver and having the strength of a law They are a law unto themselves saith the Apostle Rom. 2. As a Law it prescribeth what is to be done as a Law it commandeth that what is prescribed be done as a Law it proposeth rewards and punishments accordingly

Callings too As the Lord hath called every one vers 20. When therefore we speak of the choice of a Calling you are not so to understand it as if it were left free for us ever to make our choice where and as we list The choice that is left to us is no other but a conscionable enquiry which way God calleth us and a conscionable care to take that way So that if it shall once appear that God calleth us this way or that way there is no more place for choice all that we have to doe is to obey Obsequium sufficit esse meum The enquiries we are to make ordinarily are as you shall hear anon what lawfulnesse there is in the thing what abilities there are in us what warrant we have from without But all these must cease when God once expresseth himself and calleth us with an audible voice No more enquiry then into the thing how lawfull it is If God bid Peter kill and eat and send him to preach unto the Gentiles there is no answering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so Lord nor alleging the uncleannesse of the meat or the unlawfullnesse of going into the way of the Gentiles Injusta justa habenda what God will have clean he must not account common His very call to any thing maketh it lawfull No more enquiry into our selves how able we are If God call Moses one of a slow speech and not eloquent from the sheep-fold to plead for his people before a Tyrant or Gideon a mean stripling of a small family and Tribe from the threshing floor to deliver Israel out of the hands of their oppressors or Ieremy a very child and one that could not speak from his cottage in Anathoth to set him over nations and kingdoms to root out and to plant or Amos a plain countrey fruit-gatherer from the Herd in Tekoah to prophesie at Bethel and in the Kings Court it is a fruitlesse and unseasonable modesty to allege unsufficiency or unworthinesse Iuvat idem Qui jubet Where he setteth on work he giveth strength to goe through with it His very calling of any man maketh him able No more enquiry into outward means what warrant we have If God call Paul to be an Apostle and to bear his name before the Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel it is needlesse to conferr with flesh and bloud or to seek confirmation at Ierusalem from them which were Apostles before him by the imposition of their hands Gods work in him supplyeth abundantly the want of those solemnities and Paul is as good an Apostle as the best of them although he be an Apostle not of men neither by man Gods calling any man to any office sealeth his warrant Non tutum renuisse Deo Away with all excuses and pretences and delayes when God calleth submit thy will subdue thy reason answer his Call as Samuel was taught to do Speak Lord for thy servant heareth If it were expedient for us that God should still deal with us as he did long with the Iewish and a while with the infant Christian Church by immediate inspirations and call us either by secret Enthusiasms or sensible insinuations as he did many of them into the way wherein he would have us walk the Rule for our Choice would be easie or rather there would need no Rule at all because indeed there would be left no choice at all but this only even to get up and be doing to put our selves speedily into that way whereunto he did point us But since the wisdom of GOD hath thought it better for us to take counsel from his written word which he hath left us for our ordinary direction in this and all other difficulties rather than to depend upon immediate and extraordinary inspirations it will be very profitable for us to draw thence some few Rules whereby to make reasonable judgement concerning any course of life whether that it be whereunto God hath called us or no. The Rules as I have partly intimated already may be reduced to three heads according as the enquiries we are to make in this businesse are of three sorts For they either concern the course it self or else our selves that should use it or else thirdly those that have right and power over us in it If there be a fail in any of these as if either the course it self be not lawful or we not competently fit for it or our superiours will not allow of us or it we may well think God hath not called us thither God is just and will not call any man to that which is not honest and good God is all-sufficient and will not call any man to that which is above the proportion of his strength God is wonderfull in his providence and will not call any man to that whereto he will not open him a fair and orderly passage Somewhat by your patience of each of these And first of the Course we intend Wherein let these be our Enquiries First whether the thing be simply and in it self lawful or no Secondly whether it be lawfull so as to be made a Calling or no Thirdly whether it will be profitable or rather hurtfull to the Common-wealth Now observe the Rules The first Rule this Adventure not on any course without good assurance that it be in it self lawful The ground of this Rule is plain and evident For it cannot be that God who hateth and forbiddeth and punisheth every sinne in every man should call any man to the practice of any sin Let him that stole steal no more saith S. Paul But rather let him labour with his hands the thing that is good Ephes. 4. If it be not something that is good it is good for him to hold his hands off let him be sure God never called him to labour in that and he were as good hold to his old trade and steal still as labour with his hands the thing that is not good If Diana of Ephesus be an Idol Demetrius his occupation must down he must make no more silver shrines for Diana though by that craft he have his wealth Tertullian excellently enlargeth himself in this argument in his Book de Idololatria strongly disapproving their practice who being Christians yet got their living by making Statues and Images and other ornaments to sell to Heathen Idolaters Offenders against this Rule are not only such as live by Stealing and Robbing and Piracy and Purse-cutting and Witch-craft and other such like ungodly practices as are made capital even by the Lawes of Men and punishable by death but all such also as maintain themselves by or get their living in any course absolutely condemned by the Law of God howsoever they may find amongst men either expresse allowance as Whores and Baudes do in the holy Mother Church of Rome or at least some kind of toleration by connivence as