[Sidenote: See Prov. xxviii. 9; Prov. xv. 26, 8; Prov. xxi. 27; Isa.

i. 13, 14.]

_Direct._ XXVI. Against this consider, that if you had never so many good works, they are all but your duty, and make no satisfaction for your sin. But what good works can you do, that shall save a wicked soul? and that G.o.d will accept without your hearts? Your hearts must be first cleansed, and yourselves devoted and sanctified to G.o.d: for an evil tree will bring forth evil fruit: first make the tree good, and the fruit will be good. It is the love of G.o.d, and the hatred of sin, and a holy and heavenly life, which are the good works that G.o.d chiefly calleth for; and faith, and repentance, and conversion in order to these. And will G.o.d take your lip-labour, or the leavings of your flesh by way of alms, while the world and fleshly pleasure have your hearts? Indeed, you do no work that is truly good. The matter may be good; but you poison it with bad principles and ends. "The carnal mind is not subject to the law of G.o.d, nor indeed can be; but is enmity to G.o.d," Rom. viii. 6, 7.

_Tempt._ XXVII. Some are tempted to think, that G.o.d will not condemn them because they are poor and afflicted in this life, and have their sufferings here: and that he that condemneth the rich for not showing mercy to the poor, will himself show them mercy.

_Direct._ XXVII. Hath he not showed you mercy? And is it not mercy which you vilify and refuse? even Christ, and his Spirit, and holy communion with G.o.d? or must G.o.d show you the mercy of glory, without the mercy of grace? which is a contradiction. Strange! that the same men that will not be entreated to accept of mercy, nor let it save them, are yet saying, that G.o.d will be merciful and save them.

[Sidenote: See Heb. xi. 6, 7, 9, 10]

And for your poverty and suffering, is it not against your will? you cannot deny it: and will G.o.d save any man for that which is against his will? You would have riches, and honour, and pleasure, and your good things in this life, as well as others, if you could tell how: you love the world as well as others, if you could get more of it. And to be carnal and worldly for so poor a pittance, and to love the world when you suffer in it, doth make you more inexcusable than the rich.

The devils have suffered more than you, and so have many thousand souls in h.e.l.l; and yet they shall be saved never the more. If you are poor in the world, but rich in faith and holiness, then you may well expect salvation, James ii. 5. But if your sufferings make you no more holy, they do but aggravate your sin.

_Tempt._ XXVIII. Also the devil blindeth sinners, by keeping them ignorant of the nature and power of holiness of heart and life. They know it not by any experience; and he will not let them see it and judge of it in the Scripture, where it is to be seen without any mixed contraries; but he points them only to professors of holiness, and commonly to the weakest and the worst of them, and to that which is worst in them, and showeth them the miscarriages of hypocrites, and the falls of the weaker sort of christians, and then tells them, This is their G.o.dliness and religion; they are all alike.

_Direct._ XXVIII. But it is easy to see, how these men deceive and condemn themselves. This is as if you should plead that a beast is wiser than a man, because some men are drunk, and some are pa.s.sionate, and some are mad. Drunkenness and pa.s.sions, which are the disturbances of reason, are no disgrace to reason, but to themselves: nor were they a disgrace themselves, if reason which they hinder were not honourable. So no man's sins are a disgrace to holiness, which condemneth them: nor were they bad themselves, if holiness were not good, which they oppose. It is no disgrace to the daylight or sun, that there is night and darkness: nor were darkness bad, if light were not good. Will you refuse health, because some men are sick? nay, will you rather choose to be dead, because the living have infirmities? The devil's reasoning is foolisher than this! Holiness is of absolute necessity to salvation. If many that do more than you, are as bad as you imagine, what a case then are you in, that have not near so much as they! If they that make it their greatest care to please G.o.d, and be saved, are as very hypocrites as the devil would persuade you, what a hopeless case then are you in, that come far short of them! If so, you must do more than they, and not less, if you will be saved; or else out of your own mouths will you be condemned.

_Tempt._ XXIX. Another way of the tempter is, by drawing them desperately to venture their souls; come on them what will, they will put it to the venture, rather than live so strict a life.

_Direct._ XXIX. But, O man, consider what thou dost, and who will have the loss of it! and how quickly it may be too late to recall thy adventure! What should put thee on so mad a resolution? Is sin so good? is h.e.l.l so easy? is thy soul so contemptible? is heaven such a trifle? is G.o.d so hard a master? is his work so grievous, and his way so bad? doth he require any thing unreasonable of you? hath G.o.d set you such a grievous task, that it is better venture on d.a.m.nation than perform it? You cannot believe this, if you believe him to be G.o.d.

Come near, and think more deliberately on it, and you will find you might better run from your food, your friend, your life, than from your G.o.d, and from a holy life, when you run but into sin and h.e.l.l.

_Tempt._ x.x.x. Another great temptation is, in making them believe that their sins are but such common infirmities as the best have: they cannot deny but they have their faults; but are not all men sinners?

They hope that they are not reigning, unpardoned sins.

_Direct._ x.x.x. But, oh how great a difference is between a converted and an unconverted sinner! between the failings of a child and the contempt of a rebel! between a sinner that hath no gross or mortal sin, and hateth, bewaileth, and striveth against his infirmities; and a sinner that loveth his sin, and is loth to leave it, and maketh light of it, and loveth not a holy life. G.o.d will one day show you a difference between these two, when you see that there are sinners that are justified and saved, and sinners that are condemned.

_Tempt._ I. But here are many subordinate temptations, by which Satan persuades them that their sins are but infirmities: one is, because their sin is but in the heart, and appeareth not in outward deeds: and they take _restraint_ for sanctification.

_Direct._ I. Alas! man, the life and reign of sin is in the heart; that is its garrison and throne: the life of sin lieth in the prevalence of your l.u.s.ts within, against the power of reason and will. All outward sins are but acts of obedience to the reigning sin within; and a gathering tribute for this, which is the king. For this it is that they make provision, Rom. xiii. 14. On this all is consumed, James iv. 3.

Original sin may be reigning sin (as a king may be born a king). Sin certainly reigneth, till the soul be converted and born again.

_Tempt._ II. The devil tells them it is but an infirmity, because it is no open, gross, disgraceful sin: it is hard to believe that they are in danger of h.e.l.l, for sins which are accounted small.

_Direct._ II. But do you think it is no mortal, heinous sin, to be void of the love of G.o.d and holiness? to love the flesh and the world above him? to set more by earth than heaven, and do more for it?

However they show themselves, these are the great and mortal sins. Sin is not less dangerous for lying secret in the heart. The root and heart are usually unseen. Some kings (as in China, Persia, &c.) keep out of sight for the honour of their majesty. Kings are the spring of government; but actions of state are executed by officers. When you see a man go, or work, you know that it is something within which is the cause of all. If sin appeared without, as it is within, it would lose much of its power and majesty. Then ministers, and friends, and every good man would cast a stone at it; but its secrecy is its peace.

The devil himself prevaileth by keeping out of sight. If he were seen, he would be less obeyed. So it is with the reigning sins of the heart.

Pride and covetousness may be reigning sins, though they appear not in any notorious, disgraceful course of life. David's hiding his sin, or Rachel her idol, made them not the better. It is a mercy to some men, that G.o.d permitteth them to fall into some open, scandalous sin, which may tend to humble them, who would not have been humbled nor convinced by heart-sins alone. See Jer. iv. 14; Hosea vii. 6, 7. An oven is hottest when it is stopped.

_Tempt._ III. Satan tells them, they are not unpardoned, reigning sins, because they are common in the world. If all that are as bad as I must be condemned, say they, G.o.d help a great number.

_Direct._ III. But know you not that reigning sin is much more common than saving holiness? and that the gate is wide, and the way is broad, that leadeth to destruction, and many go in at it? Salvation is as rare as holiness; and d.a.m.nation as common as reigning sin, where it is not cured. This sign therefore makes against you.

_Tempt._ IV. But, saith the tempter, they are such sins as you see good men commit: you play at the same games as they: you do but what you see them do; and they are pardoned.

_Direct._ IV. You must judge the man by his works, and not the works by the man. And there is more to be looked at, than the bare matter of an act. A good man and a bad may play at the same game, but not with the same end, nor with the same love to sport, nor so frequently and long to the loss of time. Many drops may wear a stone: many stripes with small twigs may draw blood. Many mean men in a senate have been as great kings: you may have many of these little sins set all together, which plainly make up a carnal life. The power of a sin is more considerable than the outward show. A poor man, if he be in the place of a magistrate, may be a ruler. And a sin materially small, and such as better men commit, may be a sin in power and rule with you, and concur with others which are greater.

_Tempt._ V. But, saith the tempter, they are but sins of omission, and such are not reigning sins.

_Direct._ V. Sins of omission are always accompanied with some positive, sensual affection to the creature, which diverteth the soul, and causeth the omission. And so omission is no small part of the reigning sin. The not using of reason and the will for G.o.d, and for the mastering of sensuality, is much of the state of unG.o.dliness in man. Denying G.o.d the heart and life, is no small sin. G.o.d made you to do good, and not only to do no harm: else a stone or corpse were as good a christian as you; for they do less harm than you. If sin have a negative voice in your religion, whether G.o.d shall be worshipped and obeyed or not, it is your king: it may show its power as well by commanding you not to pray, and not to consider, and not to read, as in commanding you to be drunk or swear. The wicked are described by omissions: such as "will not seek after G.o.d: G.o.d is not in all his thoughts," Psal. x. 4. Such as "know not G.o.d, and call not on his name," Jer. x. 25. That have "no truth, or mercy, or knowledge of G.o.d," Hos. iv. 1. That "feed not, clothe not, visit not" Christ in his members, Matt. xxv.; that hide their talents, Matt. xxv. Indeed, if G.o.d have not your heart, the creature hath it; and so it is omission and commission that go together in your reigning sin.

_Tempt._ VI. But, saith the tempter, they are but sins of ignorance, and therefore they are not reigning sins: at least you are not certain that they are sins.

_Direct._ VI. And indeed do you not know that it is a sin to love the world better than G.o.d? and fleshly pleasure better than G.o.d's service?

and riches better than grace and holiness? and to do more for the body than for the soul, and for earth than for heaven? Are you uncertain whether these are sins? And do you not feel that they are your sins?

You cannot pretend ignorance for these. But what causeth your ignorance? Is it because you would fain know, and cannot? Do you read, and hear, and study, and inquire, and pray for knowledge, and yet cannot know? Or is it not because you would not know, or think it not worth the pains to get it; or because you love your sin? And will such wilful ignorance as this excuse you? No; it doth make your sin the greater. It showeth the greater dominion of sin, when it can use thee as the Philistines did Samson, put out thy eyes, and make a drudge of thee; and conquer thy reason, and make thee believe that evil is good and good is evil. Now it hath mastered the princ.i.p.al fortress of thy soul, when thy understanding is mastered by it. He is reconciled indeed to his enemy, who taketh him to be a friend. Do you not know, that G.o.d should have your heart, and heaven should have your chiefest care and diligence; and that you should make the word of G.o.d your rule, and your delight, and meditation day and night? If you know not these things, it is because you would not know them: and it is a miserable case to be given up to a blinded mind! Take heed, lest at last you commit the horridest sins, and do not know them to be sins.

For such there are that mock at G.o.dliness, and persecute christians and ministers of Christ, and know not that they do ill; but think they do G.o.d service, John xvi. 2. If a man will make himself drunk, and then kill, and steal, and abuse his neighbours, and say, I knew not that I did ill, it shall not excuse him. This is your case. You are drunken with the love of fleshly pleasure and worldly things, and these carry you so away, that you have neither heart nor time to study the Scriptures, and hear, and think what G.o.d saith to you, and then say that you did not know.

_Tempt._ VII. But, saith the tempter, it cannot be a mortal reigning sin, because it is not committed with the whole heart, nor without some struggling and resistance: dost thou not feel the Spirit striving against the flesh? and so it is with the regenerate, Gal. v. 17; Rom.

vii. 20-23. The good which thou dost not do, thou wouldst do; and the evil which thou dost, thou wouldst not do; so then it is no more thou that dost it, but sin that dwelleth in thee. In a sensual unregenerate person, there is but one party, there is nothing but flesh; but thou feelest the combat between the flesh and the Spirit within thee.

[Sidenote: What resistance of sin may be in the unG.o.dly.]

_Direct._ VII. This is a snare so subtle and dangerous, that you have need of eyes in your head to escape it. Understand therefore, that as to the two texts of Scripture, much abused by the tempter, they speak not at all of mortal reigning sin, but of the unwilling infirmities of such as had subdued all such sin, and walked not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; and whose wills were habitually bent to good; and fain would have been perfect, and not have been guilty of an idle thought, or word, or of any imperfection in their holiest service, but lived up to all that the law requireth: but this they could not do, because the flesh did cast many stops before the will in the performance. But this is nothing to the case of one that liveth in gross sin, and an unG.o.dly life, and hath strivings and convictions, and uneffectual wishes to be better and to turn, but never doth it. This is but sinning against conscience, and resisting the Spirit that would convert you; and it maketh you worthy of many stripes, as being rebellious against the importunities of grace. Sin may be resisted where it is never conquered; it may reign nevertheless for some contradiction. Every one that resisteth the king, doth not depose him from his throne. It is a dangerous deceit to think that every good desire that contradicteth sin, doth conquer it, and is a sign of saving grace. It must be a desire after a state of G.o.dliness, and an effectual desire too. There are degrees of power: some may have a less and limited power, and yet be rulers. As the evil spirits that possessed men's bodies, were a legion in one, and but one in others, yet both were possessed; so is it here.

Grace is not without resistance in a holy soul; there are some remnants of corruption in the will itself, resisting the good; and yet it followeth not that grace doth not rule. So is it in the sin of the unregenerate. No man in this life is so good as he will be in heaven, or so bad as he will be in h.e.l.l; therefore none is void of all moral good.

And the least good will resist evil, in its degree, as light doth darkness. As in these cases:

1. There is in the unregenerate a remnant of natural knowledge and conscience. Some discoveries of G.o.d and his will there are in his works: G.o.d hath not left himself without witness. See Acts xiv. 17; xvii. 27; Rom. i. 19, 20; ii. 7-9. This light and law of nature governed the heathens; and this in its measure resisteth sin, and a.s.sisteth conscience.

2. When supernatural extrinsic revelation in the Scripture, is added to the light and law of nature, and the unG.o.dly have all the same law as the best; it may do more.

3. Moreover, an unG.o.dly man may live under a most powerful preacher, that will never let him alone in his sins, and may stir up much fear in him, and many good purposes, and almost persuade him to be a true christian; and not only to have some ineffectual wishings and strivings against sin, but to do many things after the preacher, as Herod did after John, and to escape the common pollutions of the world, 2 Pet. ii. 20.

4. Some sharp affliction, added to the rest, may make him seem to others a true penitent: when he is stopped in his course of sin, as Balaam was by the angel, with a drawn sword, and seeth that he cannot go on but in danger of his life; and that G.o.d is still meeting him with some cross, and hedging up his way with thorns (for such mercy he showeth to some of the unG.o.dly); this may not only breed resistance of sin, but some reformation. When the Babylonians were planted in Samaria they feared not G.o.d, and he sent lions among them; and then they feared him, and sent up some kind of service to him, performed by a base sort of priests; "they feared the Lord, and served their own G.o.ds," thinking it was safest to please all, 2 Kings xvii. 25, 32, 33.

Affliction maketh bad men likest to the good.

5. Good education and company may do very much: it may help them to much knowledge, and make them professors of strict religion; and constant companions with those that fear sin, and avoid it; and therefore they must needs go far then, as Joash did all the days of Jehoiada, 2 Chron. xxiv. 2. As plants and fruits change with the soil by transplantation, and as the climate maketh some blackmoors and some white; so education and converse have so great a power on the mind, that they come next to grace, and are oft the means of it.

6. And G.o.d giveth to many, internally, some grace of the Spirit, which is not proper to them that are saved, but common or preparatory only.

And this may make much resistance against sin, though it do not mortify it. One that should live but under the convictions that Judas had when he hanged himself, I warrant him, would have strivings and combats against sin in him, though he were unsanctified.

7. Yea, the interest and power of one sin may resist another: as covetousness may make much resistance against sensuality and pride of life, and pride may resist all disgraceful sin.

_Tempt._ VIII. But, saith the tempter, it is not unpardoned sin, because thou art sorry and dost repent for it when thou hast committed it; and all sin is pardoned that is repented of.

_Direct._ VIII. All the foresaid causes which may make some resistance of sin in the unG.o.dly, may cause also some sorrow and repenting in them. There is repenting and sorrow for sin in h.e.l.l. All men repent and are sorry at last; but few repent so, as to be pardoned and saved.

When a sinner hath had all the sweetness out of sin that it can yield him, and seeth that it is all gone, and the sting is left behind, no marvel if he repent. I think there is scarce any drunkard, or wh.o.r.emonger, or glutton, (that is not a flat infidel,) but he repenteth of the sin that is past, because he hath had all out of it that it can yield him, and there is nothing left of it that is lovely: but yet he goeth on still, which showeth that his repentance was unsound. True repentance is a thorough change of the heart and life; a turning from sin to a holy life, and such a sorrow for what is past as would not let you do it if it were to do again. If you truly repent, you would not do so again, if you had all the same temptations.

_Tempt._ IX. But, saith the tempter, it is but one sin, and the rest of thy life is good and blameless; and G.o.d judgeth by the greater part of thy life, whether the evil or the good be most.

_Direct._ IX. If a man be a murderer, or a traitor, will you excuse him, because the rest of his life is good, and it is but one sin that he is charged with? One sort of poison may kill a man; and one stab at the heart, though all his body else be whole: you may surfeit on one dish: one leak may sink a ship. James ii. 10, "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, is guilty of all." See Ezek. xviii.

10, 11. Indeed G.o.d doth judge by the bent of thy heart, and the main drift and endeavour of thy life. But canst thou say, that the bent of thy heart, and the main endeavour of thy life, is for G.o.d, and heaven, and holiness? No: if it were, thou wert regenerate; and this would not let thee live in any one beloved, chosen, wilful sin. The bent of a man's heart and life may be sinful, earthly, fleshly, though it run but in the channel of one way of gross sinning: as a man may be covetous, that hath but one trade; and a wh.o.r.emonger, that hath but one wh.o.r.e; and an idolater, that hath but one idol. If thou lovedst G.o.d better, thou wouldst let go thy sin; and if thou love any one sin better than G.o.d, the whole bent of thy heart and life is wicked: for it is not set upon G.o.d and heaven, and therefore is unG.o.dly.

_Tempt._ X. But, saith the tempter, it is not reigning, unpardoned sin, because thou believest in Jesus Christ; and all that believe, are pardoned, and justified from all their sin.

_Direct._ X. He that savingly believeth in Christ, doth take him entirely for his Saviour and Governor; and giveth up himself to be saved, sanctified, and ruled by him. As trusting your physician, implieth that you take his medicines, and follow his advice, and so trust him; and not that you trust to be cured while you disobey him, by bare trusting: so is it as to your faith and trust in Christ; it is a belief or trust, that he will save all those that are ruled by him in order to salvation. "He is the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him," Heb. v. 9. If you believe in Christ, you believe Christ: and if you believe Christ, you believe "that except a man be converted, and born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven," John iii. 3, 5; Matt. xviii. 3; and that he that is "in Christ, is a new creature; old things are past away, and all is become new," 2 Cor. v. 17; and that "without holiness none shall see G.o.d,"

Heb. xii. 14; and that "no fornicator, effeminate, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners, murderers, liars, shall enter into, or have any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ," 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10; Eph. v. 4-6; Rev. xxi. 27; xxii. 14, 15. If you believe Christ, you must believe that you cannot be saved unless you be converted. It is the devil, and not Christ, that telleth you, you may be pardoned and saved in an unholy, unregenerate state: and it is sad, that men should believe the devil, and call this a believing in Christ, and think to be saved for so believing; as if false faith and presumption pleased G.o.d! Christ will not save men for believing a lie, and believing the father of lies before him; nor will he save all that are confident they shall be saved. If you think you have any part in Christ, remember Rom. viii. 9, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his."[45]