08. Sermon VI. "Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience,"
Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.—
Eph. v. 6.
THE apostle had argued ab incongruo, from what was indecent and misbecoming in us; now a periculo, from the danger of such practices. There is pana damni, the punishment of loss, exclusion from the kingdom of God; and pana sensus, the punishment of sense, the hazard of God's eternal wrath and displeasure: 'Let no man deceive you,' &c.
In the text we have two things—
1. A caution, 'Let no man deceive you with vain words.'
2. A commination, 'For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.'
First, The caution is against error, and showeth the certainty of their punishment, whatever false teachers whispered to the contrary. This is premised that we may neither deceive ourselves nor suffer ourselves to be deceived by others.
1. That we may not deceive ourselves. Frequent warnings are given against this self-flattery: 1 Cor. vi. 9, 'Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God;' 1 John iii. 7, 'Little children, let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is righteous;' 1 Cor. xv. 33, 'Be not deceived; evil communication corrupts good manners;' Gal. vi. 7, 'Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for what a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' Men do what they can to live securely and undisturbedly in their sins, and to guard their hearts against the apprehension of all danger and punishment.
2. That we may not be deceived by others. There were false teachers in those early days, that countenanced profane and licentious christians; some that taught fornication was an indifferent thing, or at least no such great matter, or not so dangerous; that a man might be righteous, and yet live in sin; that a bare profession of faith without a strict life was enough to salvation; which poison was greedily sucked up by careless christians, who were convinced of the truth of christianity, but as yet had no power to overcome their lusts. It is strange that such gross conceits should possess their minds. But there is that which the apostle calleth 'a reprobate sense or mind,' Rom. i. 28. There is such an efficacy of error and deception in our corrupt natures, that men soon hear in this ear, and please themselves with the thoughts of impunity, though they live in gross sins: 2 Peter ii. 18, 'They allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.'
Secondly, A denunciation of God's wrath, 'Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.' You have it again, Col. iii. 6.
In which words observe—
1. The evil denounced, 'The wrath of God cometh.'
2. The meritorious procuring cause, 'For these things.'
3. The persons, or proper seat and subject of his vengeance, 'Upon the children of disobedience.'
1. The evil denounced, 'The wrath of God cometh;' meaning by 'wrath,' punishment from God, who is angry and displeased with these sins. And it is said, 'it cometh;' it is an allusion to a thing that falleth from a higher place, and crusheth those upon whom it falleth. So this wrath is said to be poured down upon them from heaven: Ps. xi. 6, 'Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup;' that is, their judgment shall be terrible, irresistible, and remediless. So Rom. i. 18, 'For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.' They cannot make a wall against heaven to keep off that which shall come upon them from thence.
2. The meritorious procuring cause, 'For these things,' fornication, uncleanness, and such like gross sins. God is not severe upon ordinary failings and frailties, but these sins are of another nature.
3. The persons upon whom this vengeance cometh; it shall light 'upon the children of disobedience.' What children of disobedience signifieth I shall show anon. Some by it here understand infidels, as if that were the argument: How could these things be tolerable in christians, when they were the sins for which God plagued the heathens or infidels? Or rather, take the common sense; children of disobedience are such as live in an open defiance of God's precepts, and will by no means be reclaimed, and forsake their sins, or be persuaded to seek after God, and his healing and renewing grace. And so it teacheth us two notes—
[1.] Those that are given to these sins are to be reckoned among the children of disobedience, or accounted rebels to God. Though they be christians in name, yet they are heathens, profane christians, that never heartily obeyed the gospel, nor thoroughly renounced their heathenish impurities: 'As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts of your ignorance,' 1 Peter i. 14. Τέκνα ὑπακοῆς, 'obedient children,' are opposite to these υἱοὺς τῆς ἀπειθείας, 'children of disobedience,' that profess obedience, and yet relapse into their old practices.
[2.] That the wrath of God lighteth not upon them that have once fallen into these sins, or it may be often, in their unregeneracy, but afterwards repent and return to an holy life, but upon the 'children of disobedience,' that remain obstinate and impenitent, and will not be reduced from this impure course of living.
Doct. 1. That all those words which promise impunity or immunity from the wrath of God to gross open sinners are vain words.
They are vain, because they cannot make good what they promise, being expressly both against the light of nature and scripture. And here I shall inquire—
1. What are the vain words wherewith sinners usually deceive themselves.
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2. How it cometh to pass that such gross self-flattery can ever possess their minds.
I. What are the vain words or pretences by which they usually harden their hearts?
1. That God will not call them to an account, or punish them for their sins. That there is such a thought in their minds appeareth plainly in their actions to any discerning beholder: Zeph. i. 12, 'I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled upon their lees, that say in their hearts, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.' There are implicit thoughts and explicit thoughts; explicit thoughts are what we actually and inwardly conceive in our minds, and do expressly think of; implicit thoughts are the latent principles which lurk in our hearts, which, though they do not bubble up into actual thoughts and opinions, yet secretly govern us and taint our actions. And these are usually called in the scripture, 'Saying in their hearts,' and are known by interpreting and running up our actions into their proper principle; for man being a reasonable creature, it is supposed that all he doth is influenced by some reasonings of his mind, either more close or reserved, or more apparent and open. And now, though we in bashfulness and unconfidence of their truth for a while suppress our principles, yet their force and influence is too discernible in our actions. As, for instance, men that live securely in open sins, condemned not only by the light of scripture but nature, surely they are influenced by this thought, that either there is no God, or that he is careless of human affairs, and will not call them to an account whether they do good or evil: Ps. xxxvi. 1, 'The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes;' that is, their lewd life showeth that they have no reverence of God, and plainly bespeaketh this thought in their mind and observation, that either they think there is no God, or that he is a senseless idol, and taketh no notice of human affairs so as to call men to any account for them; for what could they do more wickedly if they were professedly leavened and plainly possessed with these opinions? But these are but vain words; for if there be no God, how could things fall into this order and proportion wherein we see them? Scripture and nature, reason and conscience, will tell thee there is a God. Look within thee, without thee, upward, downward, round about thee, everything thou seest, hearest, and feelest, proclaimeth a God to thee. And if there be a God, doth he not take notice of what men do? Surely there is such a thing as good and evil, vice and virtue, sin and holiness; the one worthy of blame, the other of praise. If it be not so, whence is it that we all affect to be counted honest and good; to seem so at least, if we have no mind to be so? The most wicked are offended to be taken for such as they are, and endeavour to cover their vices with the appearance of virtue and goodness. If all things were utterly indifferent in their own nature, it were no more crime for a man to kill his father than his neighbour's dog, or to rob and murder men in the woods than to hunt a hare, to lie and forswear in our dealings than to be honest, just, and sincere. Surely there is a God, and there is moral good and evil; and if it be so, will not God punish the evil and reward the good? If you think he will not, it is because he hath no right, or no power, or no will to do it. You cannot say no right, because man is his creature, and therefore his subject. You cannot say no power, for our life is in his hands. Now if he will not trouble himself with human affairs, or mind what is done here below, if he is neither pleased with our good deeds nor angry with our offences, why then hath he made a law with a sanction? This is against all sense, reason, and experience. It is against the purity of his holy nature that he should be indifferent to good or evil, and wholly connive at the disorders of mankind. How then can we pray to him for mercies, or praise him for benefits? Or could there be any such thing in men towards God as fear and hope; fear that God will avenge their misdoings, or hope that he will support them in a righteous cause? Which yet is against the universal sentiment of all mankind and common experience; for God doth daily make known himself by punishments and benefits: Heb. ii. 2, 'For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward,' &c.; Rom. i. 18, 'But the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men;' Acts xiv. 17, 'He left not himself without a witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.' We see the effects of his wrath in pestilences, tempests, inundations, and of his goodness in fruitful seasons. Therefore why will you cherish such vain thoughts, as if God would never call you to an account, when he is known by the judgments which he executeth daily?
2. That God will be merciful to them; though they sin against him, they shall notwithstanding escape well enough; that he will not be severe against his creatures. But you reflect but upon one part of God's nature, his mercy, without his holiness and justice, and so fancy an unreasonable indulgence in God. You lessen his holiness: Ps. i. 21, 'Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself.' They feign God to be what they would have him to be, and judge of his goodness by their own interest. A good man is troubled and grieved and offended with the impurities of others: 2 Peter ii. 7, 8, 'And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked; for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.' And yet a good man is but a partaker of the divine nature, hath but some strictures of it. Besides, you overlook his justice, which belongeth to his office as governor of the world, as if he would be merciful however men are qualified.
But doth not God deal with us in pure mercy, without any respect to qualifications?
I answer—We must distinguish between the mercy which God exerciseth as a free lord, and the mercy which he exerciseth as a righteous governor. The one is spoken of Rom. ix. 16, 'So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.' The other, 1 Cor. ix. 24, 'So run that you may obtain.' There is a mercy that he showeth in converting some as a free lord, and a mercy that he showeth as a righteous governor, in
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rewarding and punishing. The first is not that you depend upon, for you are yet in your sins, and care not to come out of them; and the second you cannot presume of, that you shall find mercy though you go on in your sins; for God, that is arbitrary in his gifts, is not so in his judgments. Mercy is for the support of the penitent. There is a duty God requireth of us before we can expect it from him: Isa. lv. 7, 'Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.' It is their cordial and thy poison: Ps. lxviii. 20, 21, 'He that is our God is a God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.' Besides, you abuse God's mercy, and put it to the worst use, when you think it shall spare all and pardon all: Jude 4, 'Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.' They only make a dung-cart of God's mercy to carry away all their filth; for God will show mercy only to true penitents: Ps. cxxx. 7, 'Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him there is plenteous redemption.' Mercy is wrested from its proper use to increase our carnal security and boldness in sinning, and not to invite us to return to God. Well, then, according to rule, licentious persons cannot expect mercy, or they that impenitently live in a course of sin hope that they shall escape his vindictive justice.
3. That they are christians, and by external profession have received the faith of Christ. But the name will not save you without the power: 2 Tim. ii. 19, 'And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.' Christ came to save sinners, but from their sins, not in their sins: Mat. i. 21, 'He shall save his people from their sins.' And you mistake the nature of faith if you think it lieth in a strong confidence, and freedom from trouble for sin. No; it is a hearty consent of subjection to Christ. He is not the best christian that hath least trouble, but the least cause for it. Otherwise to wink hard, and shut our eyes against all knowledge of christian duty and obedience, would make the best faith. No; this is a purifying as well as a comforting grace: Acts xv. 9, 'Purifying their hearts by faith.' And they are the best christians where Christ performeth most of his office in turning them to God: Acts iii. 26, 'God having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.'
4. That none is perfect, and the rarest saints have fallen into as great faults, and so are persuaded that these gross sins are but frailties and human infirmities. Si David, cur non et ego?—If David fell, why may not I? was an old excuse in Salvian's time. They fell into sin, but did they wallow and lie in it? Will you live in sin, because in some rare case some of God's choicest servants have fallen into it? Is the rest of your lives like theirs? Did not they smart grievously for these sins? and was not their repentance as remarkable as their fall? Surely there is a difference between imperfection and wickedness, as there is between falling by the stumbling of an horse into the wire, and wallowing therein in our drunkenness, or between the drowning of fields in a land-flood, and their being overflown by every tide.
5. Others say they are justified, and depend on the righteousness of Christ. You may, if you have a right to it; but, 1 John iii. 7, 'He that doeth righteousness is righteous.' Where Christ is made righteousness, he is also made sanctification: 1 Cor. i. 30, 'But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.' You have very great cause to doubt of your justification when you constantly live in sin. There are some sins which are not consistent with sincerity and an interest in Christ's righteousness; otherwise there were no distinction between the godly and the ungodly: but the scripture tells us the distinction is clear and manifest: 1 John iii. 10, 'In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness, is not of God.' It is strange and groundless arguing, I am justified, therefore my sins of oppression, drunkenness, fornication, &c., shall do me no harm; but it is sound arguing, I live in ordinary wilful heinous sins, therefore I am not justified or sincere, nor can I by the laws of christianity look upon myself such, the scripture witnesses, as shall obtain acceptance with God.
6. That if they be in an unjustified estate for the present, they hope they shall repent at last, and then they will leave off their sins, and cry God mercy. But you live in flat disobedience to God for the present: Heb. iii. 7, 'The Holy Ghost saith, To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.' And besides, you only presume of future grace out of self-love, but can be content that God be dishonoured longer, provided that at length you may be saved. And besides, you leave a necessary indispensable duty to great uncertainties. God may take you away in the next act of sin, as he took away Zimri and Cosbi, and Korah and his accomplices, and so leave you no space to call for mercy; or you may be smitten with an apoplexy, lethargy, or some stupid disease, that shall take away all opportunity of making your peace with God. If we were sure of repentance, it is great folly to play the mountebank with our own souls, and give ourselves a deadly wound to try the strength of a plaster or sovereign unguent; or drink poison, and contract a surfeit, in expectation to remove the distemper by a vomit. The presuming delayers are usually given up to hardness of heart, so as that they never repent: Gen. vi. 3, 'My Spirit shall not always strive with man.' Therefore to defer the forsaking of wilful sins and known enormities is to run a desperate hazard in the most momentous case. The grieved Spirit may at length be tired and wearied out, and you may grow more sottish and blockish every day. Therefore these are but vain words.
7. That they do make amends for a course of sin in one kind by abounding in other duties; as some that live in uncleanness will be charitable, hoping to expiate the offences of a filthy life by charity, and so make alms a sin-offering, which should be a thank-offering: Heb. xiii. 16, 'But to do good and to communicate forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.' So some will be just, and do no wrong, yet cannot deny their intemperance: Ezek. xxxiii. 13, 'If he trust in his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered;' that is, upon that account, or presumption of his other righteousness and good qualities. The apostle taxeth this want of entire and uniform obedience: Rom. ii. 22, 'Thou that abhorrest
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idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?' The Jews' form was abhorring idols; but they were entangled in a crime as enormous, and robbed God of his offerings. Most men's goodness is but to hide their secret indulgence to some other lewd practice or sinful course wherein they live. I say, to hide it, not only from the world, but their own hearts, as if our delinquency in some things might be excused by a supererogation in other duties; as the Jews hoped to repair their want of mercy by a multitude of sacrifices; as the stomach, when it hath no solid food, filleth itself with wind. But God will be obeyed in all things: 'God spake all these words,' Exod. xx. 1. The same authority that forbids stealing forbids adultery; therefore we must be complete in all the will of God. These are some of the sorry fig-leaves by which men hope to cover their nakedness, those sandy foundations upon which they build their hopes.
II. The reasons how it cometh to pass that such gross self-flattery can possess their minds. Though it be as plain as noon-day that they that live in gross sins shall be damned, yet the most profane have good thoughts of their condition.
1. The causes lie in themselves; as—
[1.] Self-love, which is very partial, and loath to think of the evil of our condition: Prov. xvi. 2, 'All the ways of man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits.' Alas! few bring their actions to the balance of the sanctuary, and desire to know the worst by themselves.
[2.] Unbelief of God's word and divine promises and threatenings. Unbelief and obstinate impenitency always go together. God hath his word, and they have their word. Now rather than believe God's word, they will put it to the venture and trial, whose word shall stand, God's or theirs? Jer. xliv. 28, 'And all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, mine or theirs;' that is to say, which shall be fulfilled and made good, their foolish confidence or God's threatenings?
[3.] Non-attendance to God's warnings, if they are not guilty of express unbelief: Mat. xxii. 5, 'But they made light of it;' Eccles. v. 1, 'Keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools; for they consider not that they do evil;' compared with Acts xvi. 14, 'Whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.'
[4.] Non-application: Job v. 27, 'Lo! this, we have searched it; hear it, and know it for thy good;' Rom. viii. 31, 'What shall we say to these things?' Jer. viii. 6, 'No man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?' Now when men neither believe, nor consider, nor apply, no wonder if self-love carrieth it; and in the greatest soul-dangers they flatter themselves into a fool's paradise, that they shall do well enough though they live in their sins.
2. The devil joineth with our self-love, and lulleth us asleep in our carnal security and abuse of grace: Gen. iii. 4, 5, 'And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.' In the first temptation he peremptorily denieth the terror of the curse, as if it were a vain scarecrow.
As the cunning huntsman playeth least in sight till the beast be gotten into the snare and toil; all is hushed and quiet, and then he appeareth with shouts and outcries: so Satan glutteth men with carnal delights, and taketh care their pleasures be not disturbed with any thoughts of the world to come, or serious minding of their danger, till they are past remedy, and then torments with despairing fears as much as he hardened us before with presumptuous thoughts of mercy. He that now tempts you to disobey the command, at death or sickness will tempt you to distrust the promise.
3. He stirreth up instruments, that, with the charms of false doctrine, he may hinder the sight of sin and fears of judgment, and strengthen the hands of the wicked: Jer. xxiii. 17, 'They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.' They confirm people in their wickedness, and keep them from repentance, by bearing them in hand, that God will be merciful to them; and if they can but trust in the merits of Christ, or God's mercy, they are safe. These are those that are said to 'daub with untempered mortar,' Ezek. xiii. 10, and to 'sew pillows under men's arms,' ver. 18; that is, lull men asleep in their sins. The church of God hath ever been troubled with such unskilful and unfaithful guides, and daubers with untempered mortar; and they are found in every party that delude poor drossy unsanctified souls with promises of peace and pardon, and by loose strains of grace hinder their conversion.
Use. Let no man deceive you.
1. It is sure you are not justified while you are yet in your sins. Men are first regenerated and then pardoned: Acts xxvi. 18, 'To open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sin.' Till you are converted you cannot determine your right. So in the golden chain, sanctification is one necessary link. It is not omitted by the apostle, but included in one of the things there mentioned: Rom. viii. 30, 'Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.' Sanctification is included in effectual calling; there is initial sanctification, and the progress of it is in the word 'glorified,' for it is a part of glory. You cannot imagine God can err in judgment; and justification is an act of judgment, as condemnation is; he deemeth and accounteth none just but those who are really changed. There is sententia legis and sententia judicis, the sentence of the law and the sentence of the judge; the sentence of the law is justification constitutive, the sentence of the judge is justification declarative.
2. How much God is concerned to right himself, the honour of his providence, and the truth of his word, against such as flatter themselves in their sins: Deut. xxix. 19, 20, 'And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.' When men excuse or
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extenuate the greatest sins, and the danger of them, when they think light of them, or presume of impunity, God is concerned to vindicate himself.
Doct. 2. It should deter us from wilful and heinous sins to think of the wrath of God that shall come upon those that live in them.
First, It is a powerful motive; for God's wrath is very terrible. It is God's anger makes us truly miserable, and not man's. God is our supreme Judge, and God liveth for ever. Man's anger is finite and limited: Heb. x. 31, 'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.' The great and mighty men are afraid of this: Rev. vi. 15-17, 'The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, shall hide themselves in dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; and say to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?' and the thing itself showeth it. Consider—
1. The intension of this wrath. It is compared to a 'consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29. It is a fire that burneth, not only to the ground or the surface of the earth, but to the lowest hell: Deut. xxxii. 22, 'For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell;' that should not only manifest itself by visible judgments in the world, but invisible and unknown judgments in the world to come. There is often a standing out against God by our obstinacy and rebellion; but there is no standing before him when his anger is kindled but a little. It can not only destroy the body, and those bodily things which gratify it, but it can light upon the conscience and the souls of men. Here if but a spark of his wrath light upon the conscience, what a burden are men to themselves?
2. As to extension; the wrath of God compriseth all those evils which are the fruit of sin, be they bodily or spiritual, in life or death, or after death. It is said, Deut. xxix. 21, 'The Lord shall separate him unto evil;' ver. 27, 'The anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book.' The book of the law is full of curses to the sinner; it hath a mouth to speak terrible things. But, Deut. xxviii. 61, 'And also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee until thou be destroyed.' What is written or unwritten, revealed in the word or dispensed in providences, by way of plague or punishment, that is included in the wrath of God.
3. For duration; the wrath of God 'abideth' on the impenitent, John iii. 36, and that not for a while, but 'for ever.' We despise God who is an infinite good, and forsake eternal happiness for a little temporal delight; and therefore the punishment is eternal. A wound may be received in an instant that is never healed. A man may suddenly slip into a pit out of which he shall never recover; he may be in a moment bound with a chain that shall never be loosed. Now can we remain in carnal security whilst this wrath of God hangeth over our heads?
Secondly, It is a kindly motive. That is a question whether it be so or no, therefore let us state the matter.
1. We are principally to avoid sin as sin and as displeasing to God: Gen. xxxix. 9, 'How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?' If we see not the evil of sin in itself as well as in the effects, we may be tempted to think God is unjust in over-punishing it. And true repentance lieth in hating sin as sin, for the evil that is in it as well as after it, as it is a repugnancy to God's will, or a transgression of his law.
2. We must abstain from it, as it will bring down wrath and judgment upon us. So God urgeth this argument, Ezek. xviii. 30, 'Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.' Not only our obligations to God should hold us to our duty, but our fear of his dreadful displeasure.
3. The pæna damni, to fear the punishment of loss, is out of question. Timor separationis a Deo includitur in charitate—A man cannot love God and not fear the loss of his favour. To a gracious heart this is more grievous than all the fire and brimstone of hell. The soul that placeth its happiness in acceptance with God, and the enjoyment of God, is afraid to lose him: 2 Cor. v. 8, 'We are confident, I say, and willing, rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord;' 1 Cor. ix. 27, 'Lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.'
4. The pæna sensus, the punishment of sense, is necessary also to quicken men to their duty, and to guard their love, and to show that God doth not make little reckoning of sin; for, 2 Cor. v. 11, 'Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.' This is necessary in case of great deadness and numbness of conscience, and especially when a man is apt to miscarry by boisterous temptations, such as great fears and passionate and pleasing lusts. Fears: Luke xii. 4, 5, 'Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: Fear him which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.' As one nail driveth out another, so the fear of God driveth out the fear of men and pleasing lusts: Rom. viii. 13, 'If you live after the flesh, ye shall die.'
5. The effect which it must produce is not such a fear as driveth us from God, but bringeth us to him; not torment, and perplexity, and despairing anguish (1 John iv. 18, 'Fear hath torment'), but flight and caution. We ought to represent it as a great evil, from whence we must fly by faith and repentance: Mat. iii. 7, 'Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?' and Heb. vi. 18; to quicken us in our flight to Christ, and taking sanctuary at the grace of the gospel; and to engage us to more thankfulness for our deliverance by Christ: 1 Thes. i. 10, 'And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come;' and so keep at a distance from those things that may bring the wrath of God upon us.
6. Punishments on others are for our warning. When God's judgments are upon others for sin, his hand is to be observed with great reverence; as David: Ps. exix. 119, 120, 'Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross: my flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments.' Naturalists say a lion will tremble to
[SER. VI.
see a dog beaten before him: Ps. iii. 6, 'The righteous shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him.' It is observable in the text, he doth not say the wrath of God shall come upon you, but upon 'the children of disobedience;' for he speaketh to the Ephesians as believers, or persons justified and sanctified. And it teacheth us that the dreadful wrath of God, that lighteth on reprobates, is for our warning. Though we do not look upon it as the portion of our cup, yet we must look upon it as debitum peccati, as an evil that God doth inflict for such sins; therefore that sin ought to be shunned by the saints. God scourgeth and punisheth the wicked in our sight, that the regenerate may make use of their experience, and by their dying horrors, when they come to feel the effects of these sins, may tremble the more, and abhor those sins which are so displeasing to God.
Use. To teach us in what rank to place principles of obedience. There are several principles by which men are acted and influenced.
1. Some are false and rotten; as custom: Zech. vii. 3, 'As I have done these so many years.' Vainglory: 'To be seen of men,' Mat. vi. 1. Rapine: Mat. xxiii. 14, 'To devour widows' houses.' Envy: Phil. i. 15, 16, 'Some preach Christ out of envy and strife, and some also out of good will: the one preach Christ out of contention, not sincerely.'
2. Some are more tolerable; as the hope of temporal mercies: Hosea vii. 14, 'They have not cried unto me with their hearts when they howled upon their bed: they assemble themselves for corn and wine.' Fear of temporal judgments: Isa. lviii. 5, 'Is it such a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day unto the Lord?' Jer. ii. 26, 'As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed;' frightened into a little religiousness, when death is at their backs: Ps. lxxviii. 34, 'When he slew them, then they sought him, and they returned and inquired early after God.' To this rank I reckon also fear of hell, when it is alone. They shall be damned; all their duties are a sin-offering, a sleepy sop to appease a guilty conscience; all their repentance is but attrition, not contrition.
3. Some are very good and sound; as when duties are done out of obedience to God, upon the urgings of an enlightened conscience, without the bent of a renewed heart; for a regenerate man obeyeth not only as enjoined, but inclined. The principle is sound in the other, but the heart is not fitted. When a man considereth himself as a creature bound to obey his creator, whether willingly or unwillingly, he must do it: 1 Cor. ix. 16, 17, 'For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of; for necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel: for if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed to me.' There is a bond of duty lying upon us. But now it is better when it is enlarged and fitted by grace: Luke i. 74, 75, 'That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days;' Heb. viii. 10, 'I will put my laws into their mind, and write them upon their hearts;' Ps. xl. 8, 'Thy law is in my heart.' So fear of hell: 'Destruction from God was a terror to me,' Job xxxi. 23. Hope of heaven: Heb. xi. 26, 'He had respect to the recompense of reward.' Their state of happiness is a state of likeness to God. These principles with others do well. So also thankfulness and love to God: Rom. xii. 1, 'Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service;' Titus ii. 11, 'The grace of God, which bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared,' &c.; 1 John iv. 19, 'We love him, because he first loved us.' The glory of God: 1 Cor. x. 31, 'Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' Love to the work for the work's sake, when holiness hath our very hearts: Ps. exix. 140, 'Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it.' And then—
4. Some are rare and excellent; as when we love God not only for his benignity, but holiness, and eye our reward for his sake, and love the glory of God above our own happiness, and can subordinate the happy part of our eternal estate to his glory: Rom. ix. 3, 'For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh.' Now we are brought from one principle to another, from rotten to tolerable, from tolerable to sound, from sound to rare and excellent.
Doct. 3. That their condition is of all most miserable who are not only sinners, but stubborn and obstinate in their sin. The wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.
1. Who are the disobedient? It may be said of two sorts—First of all, men in their natural condition with respect to the law: Rom. viii. 7, 'The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' And, secondly, of those that refuse the gospel: 2 Thes. i. 8, 'In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel;' 1 Peter iv. 17, 'What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel?' viz., those that will not submit themselves to God, or be persuaded to forsake their sins.
2. Now as to the disobedient sinners—(1.) They are slaves to sin: Titus iii. 3, 'We were sometime foolish, disobedient, serving divers lusts.' They do what their lusts bid them, are at the whistle of a temptation; but all the reasons in the world shall not persuade them to do what God commandeth them. (2.) They are of the devil's party: Eph. ii. 2, 'According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.' (3.) They are rebels to God: Job xxiv. 13, 'They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, they abide not in the paths thereof.' They have light enough to condemn their practices, but yet they live in them: 'Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?' Ps. liii. 4. Their light hath no authority to bind them to their duty, but rather irritateth their corruptions: 'They are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith,' Deut. xxxii. 20.
Use. Well, then, let us be none of these. A man may err and straggle out of the way through ignorance, incogitancy, or being overcome by the violent incursion of a temptation, but let us have a care of being children of disobedience. When we wander out of the way of our duty, let us look to God's word for direction in our way, and
[SER. VII.
follow the guidance of it; as the wise men, that took a long journey to see Christ, followed the star that went before them, till it brought them to the house where Christ was, Mat. ii. 9, 10. [See this more largely handled in the next sermon.]
SERMON VII.
Be not ye therefore partakers with them.—EPH. v. 7.
WE have handled in the 6th verse—
1. A caution, 'Let no man deceive you with vain words.'
2. A denunciation, 'For these things' sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience.'
Now I come to—
3. A dissuasion; this is in the text, and is inferred out of the former verse; where we have—
[1.] The evil dissuaded from, συμμέτοχοι αὐτῶν, 'Be not partakers with them,' that is, do not join with them in their evil ways, by committing these and the like sins.
[2.] The reason, 'Therefore;' that is, because the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience, do not join in their sins, that you may not be involved in their punishment; as Rev. xviii. 4, 'Be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.'
Doct. The dreadful estate of the children of disobedience should keep us from joining with them in their evil ways.
Here let me show you—(1.) Who are children of disobedience; (2.) The misery of their condition; (3.) Why this should deter us from being partakers with them.
I. Who are children of disobedience.
1. Those who are not only sinners, but stubborn, obstinate, and ignorant sinners; such as are prone to all evil, and are not only indisposed, but averse from all good. Both parts of the character must be minded. They presently do what lust biddeth them, and are at the beck of a temptation, but all the reasons in the world shall not persuade them to do what God commandeth them. They are as wax to Satan, but as a stone to God. They find an irresistible force in temptations: Prov. vii. 21, 22, 'With her much fair speech she caused him to yield; with the flattery of her lips she forced him. He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks.' But as to good, they are not only weak and indisposed, but cannot endure to be subject to God. The more holy any creature is, the more readily does he obey God: Ps. ciii. 20, 'Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his word.' But for others, a small matter serveth their turn; neither promises nor threatenings will gain them to their duty.
2. This good is either to be determined by the light of nature or the light of the gospel.
[1.] Wicked men are called 'children of disobedience,' because they rebel against the light of nature: Job xxiv. 13, 'They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the way thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.' They have light enough to condemn their practices, yet live in them: Ps. liii. 4, 'Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?' Yes, they know better; but the light hath no authority to bind them to their duty, it doth rather irritate their corruptions than break the force of them; and therefore justly are they left to destruction: Ps. ix. 17, 'The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.' They do not improve the natural impressions of God, and the distinction of good and evil that is written upon their hearts; they drown the voice of reason and conscience.
[2.] Those that have heard the gospel, and will not suffer themselves to be persuaded to embrace the blessed offers made therein, nor will they give up themselves to the obedience of Christ. Their condition is more terrible, for these are desperately sick, and refuse their remedy: 1 Peter iv. 17, 'For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?' Their condition is more deplorable and desperate than that of other men; for they will not enter into the kingdom of God when invited thereunto, though they do so apparently need this healing dispensation. There are two things in the gospel—the doctrine of salvation, what God hath done on his part; and the counsels of salvation, what we must do on our part.
(1.) The doctrine of salvation, or the rich preparations of grace which God hath made for our recovery. On God's part, 'All things are ready,' Mat. xxii. 4. He hath given his Son to die for us, and to be the foundation of that new and better covenant wherein pardon and life are offered to us. But this is coldly entertained by many; either they do not consider it: Mat. xxii. 5, 'They made light of it;' or they do not believe it: 1 Cor. ii. 14, 'For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned;' or they do not apply and improve this blessed offer, that it may be 'the gospel of our salvation,' Eph. i. 13. There is not a cordial assent or lodging the truth in the soul: 'My word hath no place in you,' John viii. 37. Whatever general profession there is made of believing this doctrine, there is no room for it in their hearts, they believe it not heartily so as to affect it, and so as to build upon it for the saving of their souls. It is not received by sound evidence, as is seen by the little influence it hath upon them, by the doubts and questionings that frequently arise in their minds whenever they are serious; by their hatred of those that seriously embrace this truth, by the scorn they cast upon those that improve it to a holy conversation and godliness. Alas! generally it is received in the christian world, as it was said of the reports about Christ's resurrection, as an idle tale or vain dream: Luke xxiv. 11, 'And their words seemed unto them as idle tales, and they believed them not.' And the doctrines of Christ, heaven, and hell, and judgment to come are made matter of scoffing and mockage: 2 Peter iii. 3, 'Knowing this, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?' and the root of men's disobedience is unbelief.
[SER. VII.
(2.) The counsels of salvation, or what we must do on our part, that we may partake of the righteousness and Spirit of Christ: Luke vii. 30, 'But the pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves.' There is the counsel which God giveth us, if we will have sin pardoned and be eternally happy. Many look to what he hath done for us; but they do not seriously consider what he hath required of us. We are to obey the counsels of the gospel, as well as to believe the doctrines of the gospel. Now what hath God required?
(1st.) That we should believe in Christ as the redeemer of the world, with such a faith as may make him precious to us, and value his grace above all the world: 1 Peter ii. 7. 8, 'Unto you therefore which believe he is precious; but unto them which he disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto they were also appointed.' The apostle divideth the hearers of the gospel into believers and disobedient; and there he showeth what Christ is to believers, 'precious,' as the alone refuge and sanctuary of distressed souls, who are ever hungering and thirsting after Christ, and more of his renewing and recovering grace. The other party are the disobedient, and to them he is 'a stone of stumbling,' with allusion to them that travel by land, and 'a rock of offence,' with respect to them that travel by sea. They are loose and careless in this matter (we do not speak of every disobedience, but of wilful disobedience), they are 'a froward generation,' Deut. xxxii. 20. Preach and say what we will, it moveth them not; teach them their duty, warn them of their danger, all is to no purpose; they still reject Christ, and despise his benefits, and refuse to take on them his yoke, or embrace the noble and heavenly life. To the serious and broken-hearted, he is their life, light, food, strength, righteousness, and all; but to others a fancy, or nothing. Believing in Christ is God's great command: 1 John iii. 23, 'And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ.' Therefore it is called 'the obedience of faith;' Rom i. 5, 'Made known to all nations by the obedience of faith,' Rom xvi. 26; 'And bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,' 2 Cor. x. 4. But the rebellions world little valueth God's authority; they are so addicted to paltry vanities, and their own will and lusts, that they slight the offered Saviour, and all the grace he tendereth to them.
(2d.) Repentance is another part of the counsel given to us. Christ told his disciples what they should do to perform their charge: Luke xxiv. 47, 'And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations.' And the apostles pressed it on all that would enter into the gospel kingdom: Acts ii. 38, 'And Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins;' Acts iii. 19, 'Repent, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.' Now repentance implieth an hearty detestation and renunciation of our former ways, whereby we have offended God, and a serious dedication of ourselves to his use and service. Now many regard not this, and though they hear their personal sins reproved, and the curses of the law denounced against them, yet they hold on their course still, and cannot be persuaded to leave those sins; and when God would heal them, they will not be healed, but are wholly led by their corrupt affections, and will not be persuaded to abandon their bewitching lusts: 2 Chron. xxx. 8, 'Now be ye not stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord;' (Hebr. Give your hand unto the Lord). We press men to return, and not keep God out of his right any longer; but we do but water a rock, and seek to mollify a flint, that yieldeth not; nor will they strike hands with God. We cannot bring it to a bargain or thorough conclusion, so as to lay down the buckler, and say, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' Acts ix. 6.
(3d.) New obedience. This is part of the counsel of God to you if you would be saved: Heb. v. 9, 'He is the author of eternal salvation to them that obey him;' Isa. i. 19, 'If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.' And grace teacheth us, Titus ii. 12, 'That, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.' We should be sober as to the government of ourselves, righteous as to our carriage to our neighbour, godly as to the Lord himself, not defrauding him of his due worship, internal and external, love, trust, delight, reverence, daily commerce with him in company and alone. Though we persuade these things by the strongest and most cogent arguments, yet still there are some that will be intemperate, incontinent, that will not live soberly; christians that will not live soberly, that cannot bridle the desires of the flesh; unrighteous christians, that will not make conscience of giving every one their due; and ungodly persons that forget God days without number. Though much of this duty be evident by natural light, and necessary to preserve a comely order in human society, yet neither restraints of conscience nor the laws of men or God will keep them within the bounds of their duty; but men will be disobedient still, and run out into many excesses and disorders, without all shame, especially when they have habituated themselves to some evil custom and practice: Jer. xiii. 23, 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.' Alas! who is able then to preach away the cup out of the drunkard's mouth, or wantonness out of the heart of the unclean person? Yea, to bring vain people to part with a fashion, or a recreation, which hath often been a snare to them? they are brought under the power of these things, and cannot leave them. A child of God may err and straggle out of his way through ignorance or incognitancy, or be overcome and borne down through the violent incursion of a temptation. It fareth with them as with the wise men who came a long journey to seek Christ; when they went out of the way, the star left them, but they stayed not there till the star appeared to them again. So God's people may straggle from their duty, but they do not rest there. But the children of disobedience cannot cease from sin in the several kinds wherein they are captivated: 2 Peter ii. 14, 'Having eyes full of adultery, and cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls; an heart they have exercised with covetous practices: cursed children, they have forsaken the right way.' It is their element, out of which they cannot rest.
[SER. VII.
3. This obstinacy and disobedience is aggravated—
[1.] From the person who is disobeyed. It is not our counsel, but God's. To weary and grieve men who do entreat them to forsake their sins and seek after God, is ill, for they must give an account: Heb. xiii. 17, 'Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief.' But that is not all: Isa. vii. 13, 'Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?' They rebel against God himself while they shake off his authority: Ps. xii. 4, 'Who have said, With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own, who is lord over us?' and refuse to accept his gracious offers: Heb. ii. 3, 'How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?' It redounds to the contempt of God, who hath provided such an excellent salvation for us in Christ. You despise him that speaketh from heaven, as well as weary them that speak on earth: Heb. xii. 25, 'See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.'
[2.] From the manner of the persuasion, which is by the word and Spirit. In the word there are the highest motives to allure, the strongest arguments to persuade, the greatest terrors to scare men out of their sins. For motives, God outbiddeth them that bid most for your hearts; he offereth you an eternal infinite happiness, both for your bodies and souls. A little dreggy delight, profit, honour, or vain pleasure is nothing to it; it is not worthy to be compared with it. In other cases we would take the best bargain; here is life, and pleasure, and honour, for evermore: Ps. xvi. 11, 'In thy presence is fulness of joy; and at thy right hand pleasures for evermore.' Here are the strongest arguments to persuade God's authority: James iv. 12, 'There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy.' Christ's love: 2 Cor. v. 14, 'The love of Christ constraineth us.' For terrors, God doth not tell us of mean penalties, but of a pit without a bottom, a worm that shall never die, a fire that shall never be quenched: Mark ix. 44, 'Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.' Is hell a vain scarecrow, where the damned spirits are perpetually exercised with a bitter remembrance of what is past, a sense of what is present, and a fear of what is to come? If all this will not work, what will do? Ps. lviii. 4, 5, 'Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder, that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.' An allusion to charming for the taming of serpents, which were used in those eastern countries; not to approve them, but to improve a vile practice. Men will hold on their way, say God what he will to the contrary. See the words of the prophet Jeremiah, chap. xiii. 11, 'But the people would not hear.' But this is not all. The motions of the Holy Spirit go along with it: Acts vii. 51, 'Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; ye stop him in his sanctifying work, and refuse the help that God offers, which maketh it the more heinous.
[3.] From the plenty of offers. God hath called often and long: Prov. xxix. 1, 'He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.' It is dangerous to slight frequent warnings; these are obdurate in their sins.
[4.] From the concomitant dispensations of providence. When our obstinacy and resolved continuance in sin is not broken by afflictions; as Pharaoh was Pharaoh still from first to last. Ahaz had a brand set upon him: 2 Chron. xxviii. 22, 'And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord; this is that king Ahaz.' God may break their backs by his judgments, but not their hearts: Prov. xxvii. 22, 'Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.' Spices bruised and pounded are more fit for medicine, but these depart not from their luxury, profaneness, and uncleanness, when they are not softened by mercies: Isa. xxvi. 10, 'Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.' God shall not have their heart for all this; they despise his goodness: Rom ii. 4. 'Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?'
4. This disobedience, the longer it is continued, the more it is increased. There is a natural averseness from God. Take a man in his pure naturals, he hath nothing to incline him to God; but the longer we continue in it, we every day make ourselves seven times more the children of hell. Still it increaseth till it come to the height of senseless judicial hardness of heart: Zech. vii. 11, 12, 'But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ear that they should not hear; yea, they have made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law.' So still they grew more and more disobedient.
II. The misery of their condition. It is either matter of sense or matter of faith; of sight, because of present judgments, or foresight, because of the threatenings of the word.
I. It is matter of sight, as God doth inflict remarkable judgments on obstinate sinners in this life, to teach his children to beware of their sins. These judgments are either spiritual or temporal.
[1.] Spiritual. These men are in a miserable and voluntary servitude both to sin and Satan; and both are the basest masters that anyone can have. To sin: Titus iii. 3, 'For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures.' They do all things which their lusts command, and cannot by any reason be persuaded to shake off this yoke. The less they feel this bondage in themselves, the more dangerous it is, and the more they are obnoxious to it; for then both will and mind is oppressed, and they know no better things. They that are slaves by force are not in so bad a condition as they that are slaves by consent, that sell their souls, their religion, their God, their Christ, their happiness, their all, for a little brutish satisfaction, and are so governed by their carnal affections that they know not how to come out of this thraldom, but suffer the beast to ride the man, and have gotten such an habit and course of sinning, that they are wholly enslaved by these brutish pleasures, and cannot help it. To Satan: The other master
[SER. VII.
is the devil; they are of his party and confederacy: Eph. ii. 2, 'Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience.' Their hearts are Satan's shop and proper workhouse, where his weapons of defiance are formed against God. They carry on a defensive war, shutting up their hearts against all his invitations to repentance and offers of grace, so that God can get no entrance there. An offensive war, as they do not only despise his offers, but hate his ways. Thus God hangeth up some in chains of darkness for a warning to the rest.
[2.] Temporal judgments; for the wrath of God that cometh on the children of disobedience is not to be confined to the other world; much of it cometh upon them here: as when it is said, Heb. xiii. 4, 'Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge;' that is, punish, not only eternally after this life if they repent not, but also temporally in this life; yea, though they may repent, as is evident in David, who, though he repented, yet be suffered grievously for his adultery. If God's own children will act the part of the children of disobedience, they smart for it; for this is necessary to prevent the taint of their example in the world. Well, but these judgments are not lightly to be passed over, especially when they are executed before our eyes, and God cometh near and close to us, for they are the holy and righteous dispensations of the wise God; not things casual, indeterminate, or done at random, nobody knoweth by whom, or to what end and purpose. You cannot imagine that a holy, just, and wise God should have no end and scope in what he doth. The scripture calleth often God's judgments 'his arrows.' Now these are not shot at rovers, as the man that killed Ahab drew a bow at a venture. No; God hath a certain and steady aim at which he levelleth and directeth his shaft; and God's aim is our instruction. All his judgments are speaking lessons and real warnings, that we may not involve ourselves in the same sins, and so in the same punishment. They are appointed, not only for our admiration, but our instruction: Zeph. iii. 7, 'I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction.' God promiseth it to himself that the world will not be so stupid as to run the hazard of the same fearful judgments which have overtaken others: Deut. viii. 19, 20, 'I testify against you this day, that you shall surely perish, as the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord;' Deut. xix. 20, 'And those that remain shall hear, and fear, and henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.' When any malefactor was executed, and found out by God's justice, he expected they should make this use of it: Deut. xvii. 13, 'And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.'
2. It is matter of faith and foresight. And so by this wrath of God is meant eternal destruction, which cometh upon them for their disobedience, which is a sin of the highest nature, and a chief cause of their damnation. At death they feel the sad effects of it: 1 Peter iii. 19, 20, 'By which he also went and preached to the spirits in prison, which were sometimes disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.' They had God's word then, for Noah was 'a preacher of righteousness,' 2 Peter ii. 5. They had the Spirit then, for God saith, Gen. vi. 3, 'My Spirit shall not always strive with man.' Well, then, these children of disobedience, when their body is sent to the grave, the soul is sent to hell; which the psalmist expresseth by being torn in pieces: Ps. i. 22, 'Lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.' So for the day of judgment: 2 Thes. i. 7, 8, 'The Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel.' The great business then is to convince the reprobates of their disobedience. They see then how many warnings and invitations they have despised; so many sermons, so many stings in the conscience. Those that despise his richest grace now, how glad would they be of one favourable look from Christ! It is not simplicity that is their ruin, but obstinacy and impenitency in sin, for which they shall have no excuse or cloak: John xv. 22, 'If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin.'
III. Why this should deter God's people from being partakers with them. Here I shall inquire—(1.) What it is to be partakers with them: (2.) Why God's wrath should deter us from this?
1. What it is to be partakers with them.
[1.] There is a principal sense, and chiefly intended here, that we should not follow their example. We are not so ready to anything as to follow ill examples. Man is a ductile creature; they had need be well resolved for God and holiness who are not carried down the common stream. The example of the multitude hath a great force to pervert mankind: Isa. vi. 5, 'I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips,' Eph. ii. 2, 3, 'The spirit that ruleth in the children of disobedience; among whom also we all had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind;' 1 Peter iv. 2, 'That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh, to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.' It doth at least take off the odiousness of sin, and reconcile the hearts of men to it. It is hard to be singular, and not to follow a multitude, though in an evil way; for by common practice things are authorised: Gal. ii. 13, 'Peter dissembled, and the other Jews dissembled also with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.' Now lest this should prevail with us, the apostle would have us consider the danger; we involve ourselves in the same punishment if we take not heed of the sin: 'Because for these things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience; be not ye therefore partakers with them.' God punisheth the disobedience of his people very sharply.
[2.] There is a limited sense of the phrase: 1 Tim. v. 22, 'Neither be partakers of other men's sins.' There it signifieth not committing the same sins, but being accessory to the sins of others. Some are ringleaders and chief actors in a sinful course; others are assessors and abettors. Now how many ways may we partake of the sins of others?
(1.) By counselling; as Jonadab gave Amnon pernicious counsel how to fulfil his carnal and incestuous desires. 2 Sam. xiii. 5.
(2.) By alluring and enticing; as Prov. i. 10, 'My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.' Hear God persuading rather than a carnal companion enticing.
[SER. VII.
(3.) By consenting; as Ahab did to Jezebel's plot to destroy Naboth, 1 Kings. xxi. 19. His part was less in the sin than hers, therefore his punishment was less than hers; the dogs licked his blood, but they devoured her body.
(4.) By applauding or flattery, and lessening the sin: Rom. i. 32, 'They not only do these things, but have pleasure in those that do them.' So some are glad when they can draw others to drunkenness, or inflame others with lust.
(5.) Conniving, contrary to the duty of our place: 1 Sam. iii. 13, 'I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.' Their sin was a sin of commission, but his a sin of omission, and so he came into a fellowship of the guilt. Now as we should not imitate the sin, and so make it ours, so we should not be any way accessory to these sins, and so be partakers in the guilt, as when we have power to hinder the sin and do it not.
2. Why the wrath of God should deter us from this.
[1.] Because of the impartiality of God's judgment; he will not only punish heathen sinners without the pale, but christian sinners who profess and own the true religion; for there is no acceptance of persons with God: 1 Peter i. 17, 'And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's works.' There by 'person' is meant either Jew or Greek, christian or pagan; if there be any difference, it is worse with them, and wrath will come upon them first, because they know more of God's mind, and have greater obligations and advantages of doing his will: Rom. ii. 9-11, 'Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the gentile; but glory, honour, and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the gentile: for there is no respect of persons with God.'
[2.] Because of the greatness of his mercy. That God will instruct us at their cost, and scaldeth our instruction on their backs, scourgeth them so sorely in our sight, is for a warning to us. And in this sense is that fulfilled, 'Prov. xxi. 18, The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressors for the upright;' that is, God will make them spectacles of his judgment, that he may make us objects of his mercy. Now it is stupidness not to observe the instances of God's wrath on others, that we may not be made instances ourselves. David trembled when he saw Uzzah smitten, 2 Sam. vi. 9; so should we when God avengeth the quarrel of any commandment, as he frequently doth in his providence: Rom. i. 18, 'For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men;' and Heb. ii. 2, 'For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward;' surely then it concerneth us to lay it to heart.
Use 1. To show us that we are not to be idle spectators of God's judgments on others, but judicious observers and improvers of them. Observe here—(1.) The use of observing God's providences on others; (2.) The manner of it.
First, The use and benefit of observing God's providences is great in these particulars—
1. To cure atheism: Ps. lviii. 11, 'So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.' They that know what to think of God's providence before shall find that God doth govern the affairs of the world as a righteous judge. Were men greater students in providence, and did they observe what judgments he bringeth to light every day, they would soon see that God is not indifferent to good and evil, that he taketh care of things below; that the world is not governed by blind chance, but with great wisdom, and justice, and equity. It is not only the cavil of the wicked: Mal. ii. 17, 'Ye have wearied the Lord with your words; yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? when ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?' As if God did approve of wicked men, and were not a just and impartial judge, or there were no providence at all. But it is the temptation of the godly: Ps. lxxiii. 11-13, 'And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world, they increase in riches. Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.' The poet Claudian—
'Res hominum tanta caligine volvi
Aspiceret, betosque diu florere nocentes,
Vexarique pios.'
He much doubted—
'Curarunt superi terras? an nullus inesset
Rector? et incerto fluerent mortalia casu?'
But at length—
'Abstulit hunc tandem Ruffini pœna tumultum,
Absolvitque Deus.'
He would no more call in question God's providence and the just government of the world.
2. To make us more cautious of sin, that we meddle not with it. God's judgments feed our holy fear and awe of God, and so stir up watchfulness and care for our own safety, that we may not fall into like offences, or do anything that is displeasing unto God. We have to do with a just and holy God, who we see is tender of his laws, a God that will not be dallied with. When he beginneth to execute his judgments against the children of disobedience, we should fear for ourselves. When Uzzah was stricken, 'How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?' saith David, 1 Chron. xiii. 12. Will not God be so severe to me if I behave myself irreverently? Certainly it is stupid incognitancy when God puts such examples before our eyes and we are not affected with them. The Gibbonites were more wise and cautious, Josh. ix. 3; when they saw the cities of Ai and Jericho destroyed, and their inhabitants cut off by the sword, they did not expect the coming of Joshua, but sent messengers to him, and by a wile struck up a covenant before he came any farther. Or as that captain, when two before him with their fifties were destroyed by fire, he fell upon his knees before the prophet: 2 Kings i. 13, 14, 'And besought him, and said unto him, O man of God! I pray thee let my life, and the
Q
[SEC. VII.
life of these fifty, be precious in thy sight. Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties, with their fifties; therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight. But our stupidness and blindness is such that we are not moved with these judgments so as to be more cautious: Prov. xxii. 3, 'A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.'
3. To humble us, and make us more earnest in deprecating the wrath of God, and suing out our pardon in Christ. We see sin goeth not unpunished. Alas! if God should enter into judgment with us, who could stand? Ps. exliii. 2. When we see his judgments executed upon others, every humble heart will sue out his pardon. What miserable wretched creatures should we be if God should stir up all his wrath against us!
4. To make us thankful for our mercies and deliverances by Christ, that, when others are spectacles of his wrath, we should be monuments of his mercy and grace. Were it not for the Lord's pardoning and healing grace, we had been in as bad a condition as the worst: Rom. xi. 22, 'Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God; on them which fell, severity; but towards thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise also thou shalt be cut off.' When the Israelites saw the Egyptians drowned in the waters, they saw the more reason to bless God for their own escape; and Moses pens a song of thanksgiving, Exod. xv. Our deserts are in part represented to us in the bitter experience of others. It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not condemned with the world, and left to perish in our sins; but that we see by their sufferings what an evil and bitter thing sin is.
Secondly, The manner of making these observations. This is needful to be stated, because men are apt to misapply providence, and to sit as a coroner's inquest on the souls of their neighbours, and so rather observe things to censure others than for their own caution. These pervert the providences of God, and speak to the grief of others whom God hath wounded. Shimei was one of this sort of men: 2 Sam. xvi. 7, 8, 'Come out, thou bloody man, thou man of Belial: the Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned, and the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of thy son Absalom; and behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man.' As if God had been calling him to an account for the injuries done to Saul's house, and his rebellion against his father-in-law was punished by the rebellion and usurpation of his own son. Such bold glosses and comments do men put upon providence, and make it speak their own language, and so they pry into God's secrets without God's warrant and direction.
Rules concerning the observation of God's providences towards others.
1. Certain it is that judgments on others must be observed. Providence is a comment on the word, and therefore it is stupidness not to take notice of it. They that will not observe God's hand shall feel it. If we will not take the warning at a distance, and by others' smart and rebuke, there is no way left but we ourselves must be taught by experience. He that will plunge himself into a bog or quagmire, where others have miscarried before him, is doubly guilty of folly, because he neither feareth the threatening, nor will take warning by their example and punishment. Observe we must: Amos vi. 2, 'Pass ye unto Caluch, and see; from thence go ye to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border?'
2. This observation must be to a good end; not to censure others, that is malice; or justify ourselves above them, that is pride and self-conceit, condemned by our Lord Christ: Luke xiii. 2-5, 'And Jesus answered and said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower of Sileam fell, and slew them: think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.'
3. In making the observation, we must have a care that we do not make providence speak the language of our fancies.
[1.] There must be a due reasoning from the provocation to the judgment, sed non e contra; not judge of the wickedness of the person by the judgments on the person; as the barbarians at Melita showed little reason and less charity in misconstruing the passage of the viper that fastened on Paul's hand, that therefore 'he was a murderer,' Acts xxviii. 4. The dispensations of God's providence are commonly alike to good and bad, Eccles. ix. 1. By a sudden stroke God may take off the godly as well as the wicked. Josiah died in the same way that Abab did, by an arrow in the battle, after being disguised, 2 Chron. xxxv. 23; Jonathan died in the field by the hand of the uncircumcised, as well as Saul, 1 Sam. xxxi. 1, 2. Did Simon Magus break his neck? so did good old Eli, 1 Sam. iv. 18. We cannot conclude some great sin from the judgment. No; our reasoning must be the contrary: Prov. xxi. 12, 'The righteous man wisely considereth the house of the wicked, but God overthroweth the wicked for their wickedness.'
[2.] Sometimes the sin is clearly written on the judgment, and the name of the sin is engraven on the rod wherewith we are scourged: Judges i. 7, 'As I have done, so God hath requited me.' There are some remarkable circumstances wherein sin and judgment meet: Obad. 15, 'As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee.' The judgments have a signature and impress on them. The Israelites' children were drowned in the waters; so were Pharaoh, and all his nobility, and men of war.
[3.] When the judgment treadeth on the heels of the sin, as Zimri and Cosbi perished in the very act of their sin; and Herod was immediately smitten with lice when he usurped divine honour, Acts xii. 22, 23.
[4.] When by the very means by which they hope to secure themselves, and so, whilst they think to avoid their danger, they hasten and increase it. The builders of Babel, being afraid of scattering, would build a stupendous tower for a place of retreat, Gen. xi. 4. God confounded their language, and by that means they were scattered. Jerobeam, to secure the kingdom to his house, sets up calves at Dan and Bethel, 1 Kings xii. 26-28. This became a snare to his house to cut it off, 1 Kings xiii. 34. The Philistines threatened Samson's wife to burn her and her father's house with fire unless she would betray her husband's secrets, Judges xiv. 15. She doth so, and Samson taking his revenge; they fulfilled what they threatened, Judges xv. 6. The Jews being afraid lest the Romans would take jealousy of the people's following of Christ, consult to kill him, John xi. 48; and for that reason wrath came on them to the uttermost. Zedekiah disobeyed God for fear of mockage, Jer. xxxviii. 19-22; and the Chaldeans, when they had taken the city, put out his eyes, Jer. xxxix. 7. Thus they readily fall into those evils they would most gladly escape. Now it is much for the instruction of the world that these things should be noted.
[5.] When they fall by those means by which they seek to entrap others: Ps. ix. 15, 16, 'The heathens are sunk down in the pit which they made, in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The Lord is known by the judgments which he executeth; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hand. Higgaion, Selah.'
[6.] When the word, κατὰ ῥίτου, in the express letter, is made good on wicked men: Hosea vii. 12, 'I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.' When the word doth fully take effect as it is laid down, it is fully accomplished; and the danger they would not believe they are made to feel. Thus 'every morning he bringeth his judgments to light,' Zeph. iii. 5.
SERMON VIII.
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now ye are light in the Lord: walk as children of light.—Eph. v. 8.
THE apostle having dissuaded them from foul practices, which would be a blemish not only to christians, but heathens, he now exhorteth them to walk suitably to their profession and that blessed estate into which they were translated. Change of state calleth for a different course of life. You were darkness, and if you had so continued, we could look for nothing else from you than the works of darkness. But when you become light in the Lord, you must 'walk as children of the light,' as those that know their way, and see their danger, if they go amiss: 'For ye were sometimes darkness,' &c.
In the words we have—(1.) An antecedent; (2.) A consequent, or an argument and an inference.
First, The antecedent, or argument, is taken from their present compared with their past estate, what they are with what they were. Formerly they were heathens, and did as other heathens do, but they were now become christians; and if christians, they should live christianly. Both estates are spoken of in the abstract, 'darkness' and 'light;' scaus pro sclerati. If we call a wicked man wickedness itself, we say more than if we only said that he were a naughty or wicked
VER. 8.]
SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS Y.
person. To express the extreme misery of the carnal state, 'Ye were darkness;' and the exceeding happiness of the renewed estate, 'Ye are light.'
1. The apostle representeth their past estate, 'Ye were sometimes darkness.' But doth he do well to upbraid them with their former condition? I answer—He doth not upbraid, but exhort. There is a difference between envious exprobation and a christian exhortation. Upbraiding is a remembering the sins of others committed before conversion, with a purpose to reproach and shame them; a practice usual among base spirits, whose eye is evil, because God's hand is good. Christ representeth it in the practice of the elder brother: Luke xv. 30, 'This thy son hath devoured thy living with harlots.' This is sometimes done by the profane, who would fain represent others as bad as themselves, that their own practices may be less odious, because more common; or else in carnal professors, who would shine alone, and therefore envy the reputation of religion to others, yea, begrudge the divine grace vouchsafed to them. But a christian exhortation is a thing quite different; it is a putting others in mind of their former condition, to stir them up to more zeal and thankfulness. To remember it by way of exprobation is unlawful; it is to rake in the filth which God hath covered: Ps. xxxii. 1, 'Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered;' a revoking as much as in us lieth God's grant of grace to them. Ananias objecteth against Paul his former practices, not knowing his change, Acts ix. 13-15. Then Ananias answered, 'Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me.' Satan is called a slanderer, though most of his allegations against the saints are true, because he accuseth them of what God hath pardoned. But enough of this.
2. Their present estate, 'Ye are light in the Lord.' Where—
[1.] The grace received, 'Ye are light.'
[2.] The author of it, 'In the Lord.'
[1.] The grace received, 'Ye are light;' that is, filled with the light of wisdom and holiness. No question the expression heightens the sense; to be enlightened is a great thing in itself, but he speaketh of some eminent and glorious privilege bestowed upon us: 'Ye are light.'
But can it be used of any mere man liable to such imperfections?
(1.) It noteth not their perfection so much as the perfection of the dispensation they are under. Not their perfection, as if there were no darkness in them at all, but the clearness of the gospel which then shined brightly to them. There is a difference between the gospel and believers; the gospel is a perfect light, but we do but imperfectly receive it. Compare two places: 1 John ii. 8, 'The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.' This I understand of the gospel, which was then set afloat, as the sun risen and shining in our horizon. The other place is Rom. xiii. 12, 'The night is far spent, and the day is at hand.' Not wholly gone, but pretty well over; day not altogether come, but it is at hand. This I understand of a christian in his mixed and imperfect state.
(2.) It noteth some good measure and degree of participation, but not complete fruition. Participation it noteth, for otherwise it could not be said that we are not only enlightened, but light itself; not complete fruition, for those that are said to be 'light in the Lord' are presently called 'children of the light;' which doth somewhat abate of the expression.
(3.) It noteth that we have received grace, not only for ourselves, but for the good of others. He that is enlightened receiveth a benefit for himself; but he that is light is to shine forth to direct others: Phil. ii. 15, 'Shining as lights in the world;' and Mat. v. 16, 'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.'
[2.] The author of this grace, 'In the Lord;' that is, Christ; for there is, but 'one Lord,' as well as 'one God and Father of all,' Eph. iv. 5, 6; and whatever good we have, we have it from Christ and in Christ.
The light is said to be in him, and to come from him.
(1.) In opposition to Satan, who is the prince of darkness. The devils are called 'The rulers of the darkness of this world,' Eph. vi. 12; and their kingdom is a kingdom of darkness; but Christ is a fountain of light, and his kingdom the kingdom of light.
(2.) In subordination to God, God is light, and Christ is light. Originally God is light, and in him is no darkness at all; but derivatively Christ as mediator is light: John viii. 12, 'I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.' The Father is a light to whom no man can approach, and before whom the angels cover their faces; but this light is brought near to us by Christ: John iii. 19, 'Light is come into the world.' It is more comfortable to us, as it shineth forth in the person of the mediator, and so the better conveyed to us, he being one in our nature.
But how is this communicated from the Lord?
Ans. He enlighteneth by his word and Spirit. His word: 2 Cor. iv. 4, 'Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.' By his Spirit: Eph. i. 17, 'That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.' The Spirit of wisdom and revelation doth open the eyes of their minds, that so they may be light in the Lord.
Secondly, The consequent or inference. From their change of state he inferreth a change of life. Therefore, before I come more particularly to discuss the force of this argument, let us a little see the necessity or need of this exhortation. For some might argue, If they be 'light in the Lord,' then what need is there to exhort them 'to walk as children of the light?' Is it not all one as to say, If thou beest a sun, shine as a sun; if thou beest fire, burn as fire? So some argued in Augustin's time, as if believers had no need of exhortation, because of the potency and inclination of grace. I answer—
1. There is a difference between natural agents and moral. Natural agents, positis omnibus ad agendum requisitis, inanimate and unreasonable creatures, follow the inclination of their natures or the tendency of their principles of necessity; but such as are endued with understand-
VER 8.]
ing work with a kind of liberty and choice. Fire burneth where it meeteth with matter combustible, but a reasonable creature needeth to be exhorted to perform acts agreeable to his principle; for in reasonable creatures, though the inclination be necessary, the acts are voluntary; therefore though they have an inclination, they need to be quickened by counsel and exhortation. Though it be in vain for us to bid the sun shine, whether we will or no it will do so, if there be no impediment; yet it is not in vain to bid a reasonable creature to walk suitably to his principles.
2. Exhortation is God's appointed means, necessary for us while we are in our imperfect state. Sluggish nature is backward to good, and we have much opposite corruption in us. Earth would be heaven, grace would be glory, our way would be our country, if we could not at all obey the flesh. In heaven the being of sin is abolished; therefore there will be no room for exhortation, there is no preaching there, no calling upon men to serve God, no dissuasions from sin, no corruption remaining in the saints, no liberty left unto them of hearkening to temptations; that liberty which they have as reasonable creatures is swallowed up by the amplitude of their love to God; as the good angels have a liberty which doth not consist in an indifference to good and evil, but in largeness of love to God, and a happy necessity of doing that which is pleasing to him, and an impossibility of doing otherwise.
Doct. That those who are called out of darkness to light have a great obligation upon them to walk as children of light.
1. I shall open the two opposite states, 'darkness' and 'light.'
2. Show that there is a mighty change wrought in them that are called out of the one into the other.
3. That it is good often to compare these two estates, and consider what we are by nature, and what we are by grace.
4. If this change be wrought in us, it must be manifested by a suitable conversation.
I. Let me speak of the two opposite states, 'darkness' and 'light,' and there show you that the carnal estate is an estate of darkness, and the renewed state is a state of light.
1. The carnal estate is an estate of darkness. So the apostle telleth the Ephesians, Ye were not only darksome, but σκότος, darkness itself, for the greater vehemency of the expression.
[1.] The darkness of the understanding is ignorance; they are incapable of discerning between good and evil, know nothing of the nature and will of the true God. These Ephesians were given to curious arts, Acts xix.; they were the flower of all Asia for curious knowledge. But a people that lie in their sins, without the saving knowledge of the gospel, are in great darkness. A drachm of sanctified knowledge is better than all the curious arts in the world, and those most lawful.
But you will say, Thus he spoke of them as heathens; are all carnal men to be accounted darkness? I answer—Yes; they are blind and dark as to those things that relate to God and heaven. To God: Eph. iv. 18, 'Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.' Whatever understanding and quickness of judgment they have in other things, yet they are gross, brutish, and wild in such things as appertain to God and their communion with God. And as to heaven: 2 Peter i. 9, 'He that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off.' 'These things,' that is, the graves of the Spirit. There is a mist upon eternity, and a carnal eye cannot look through it. His eyes are not anointed with spiritual eye-salve; he cannot see these things so as to take off his heart from his vain pleasures.
But you will say, Many carnal men that live in the bosom of the church are orthodox, have good opinions in religion, and great knowledge of the mysteries of salvation. I answer—But this knowledge is neither accompanied with application nor affection to what they know. First, Not with application. It is not a directive light, to show them how to come out of their misery, or to guide their choice: Rom. i. 21, 'They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.' It doth not teach them how to love, and please, or trust in God, as the heathens with their τὸ γνῶστον θεοῦ. So it is with carnal christians: 1 Cor. viii. 2, 3, 'And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man love God, the same is known of him.' Secondly, Nor persuasive, and with affection, so as to change their hearts, so that they may seek after God in Christ. It neither restraineth evil, nor constraineth to that which is good. Light that is unable to discharge its office, to bridle corruptions, is but as darkness: Rom. i. 18, 'They withhold the truth in unrighteousness;' like a prisoner in fetters. It may talk its fill, but can do nothing. It urgeth not to good; they are secure and careless; they are Christ's, but prepare not to do their master's will: Luke xii. 47. It doth not overcome their prejudice against the holy and heavenly life: 1 Cor. ii. 14, 'But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' The name is prized, but the thing hated, Christ's offices and government. Or else if there be any motion towards Christ, it is as their knowledge is. If it be a sensible, awakening, practical knowledge that we have, accordingly will our esteem of Christ be; but if it be a superficial speculative knowledge, either of sin or misery, or of Christ our remedy, our faith is opinionative and superficial; we shall not value him as a saviour indeed; and therefore it is not talking by rote after others which will excuse. There is a vain mind in every unconverted man, and a dark understanding which cannot do its office. Now this is a miserable estate, either to be altogether ignorant, or to have but a speculative traditional knowledge of the things of God; either to have no knowledge, or not that which is directive and persuasive. This breedeth doubtfulness: John xii. 35, 'He that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth;' 1 John ii. 11, 'He that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.' He wandereth in a maze of uncertainties, not knowing whether he goeth right or wrong, whether he be in the way that leadeth to heaven or hell; he liveth by guess, and knoweth not what to fear or hope for.
VER. 8.]
[2.] There is downright and apparent wandering from God. The Greek scholiast saith Paul calleth darkness τὸν ἐν πλύνῃ βίον, a life spent in error; for by their ignorance men run into all profaneness, and become very slaves of sin. To walk in darkness is often put in scripture for living in a course of sin: Prov. iv. 19, 'The way of the wicked is as darkness.' He compares the course of the godly to a growing light, 'that shines more and more unto the perfect day,' ver. 18; and the course of the wicked to a growing darkness, till it comes to the dead of the night.
[3.] Eternal misery is the issue and close of it, called 'outer darkness,' Mat. xxv. 30; and 2 Peter ii. 17, 'To whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever;' because the sunshine of God's presence never cometh there; they are for ever separated from the face of God, and presence and communion with him. Well, then, you see one darkness maketh way for another—the darkness of ignorance for the darkness of sin, and both for everlasting darkness.
2. The renewed estate is an estate of light. Light is a quality pure and unmixed, and implieth both knowledge, holiness, and happiness. Knowledge, as it discovereth all things; holiness, as it is pure, and can shine on the filthiest dunghill without any stain; felicity, as it is the smile of heaven upon the earth. Light is pleasant. Surely this ought to be the more prized by us, because originally man's life is light: John i. 4, 'And the life was the light of men.' Man had a reasonable soul, but it is in a great measure eclipsed by sin. Now, to restore us, Christ's doctrine, which bringeth life, is also light, and the new man begins in light: Col. iii. 10, 'And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him.' When once we receive the saving knowledge of saving truth, then all other things follow which belong to the spiritual life; such truth for the object, such manner of apprehension for the kind as may be saving. This introduceth and leadeth on other things. Because I shall have occasion to speak of it afterwards, I shall say the less now; only show you how great a blessing divine illumination is. Common knowledge of divine things is an excellent gift, though it be cold and weak, and doth not warm the heart with love to the thing known; but the grace of illumination is much more excellent to further the glory of God. The bare gift is used to the interest of the flesh, for fame and esteem in the world: 1 Cor. viii. 1, 'We know that we all have knowledge: knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.' The gift, if it be single and alone, puffeth us up with a lofty conceit and vain ostentation of ourselves and a disdain of others; but the grace keepeth us humble, for the more we know affectively, the more we see our defects, not in knowledge only, but in holiness. And the grace is wrought in us by the special and sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost, and is not only knowledge, but wisdom, and maketh us serious, operative, and full of good fruits: James iii. 17, 'But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated; full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy;' begetting earnest desires and endeavours after the things known: John iv. 10, 'If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him.' Now when our eyes are thus opened, and turned from darkness to light, we begin to be serious christians: Acts xxvi. 18, 'To open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me;' and carry ourselves as those that are affected with their misery and remedy. They talked before of sin as a thing of course, and were wont to marvel why men kept such a deal of do about it; but the case is altered. God hath opened their eyes, and therefore they complain of sin as the greatest burden, and would fain be rid of it at any rate. They also seek after Christ as the only remedy; nothing will satisfy them but Christ: 'All things are dung and dross in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of him,' Phil. iii. 8. And they are resolved to venture all with him and for him: Mat. xiii. 45, 46, 'The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant-man seeking goodly pearls; and when he hath found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.' Certainly then a great privilege it is when God doth thus cure the blindness of our minds, and open and incline our hearts to spiritual and heavenly things; whether you consider—
[1.] The objects known are the highest and most important matters in the world. The knowledge of the profoundest science is questionless more than skill in some low and petty employments. As Themistocles said, To know how to govern a city is more than how to play upon a lute. But to have the saving knowledge of God and the life to come is more than all the admired wisdom of the flesh, or all the common learning of the world. Therefore how much are we bound to praise God if we may be light in the Lord! It is more than to know how to govern kingdoms and commonwealths, and to do the greatest business upon earth. To know God, the first cause of all things, Jesus Christ, who is the restorer of all things, and the Holy Spirit, who cherisheth and preserveth all things, to know his heavenly operations, the nature and action of his several graces, this is the happiness and glory of a man; all other knowledge is a poor low thing to this. Alas! what are all the mysteries of nature to the mysteries of godliness. To know our disease and remedy, danger and cure, our work and end, what is to be believed and practised, what we shall enjoy, and what we must do to obtain it, these are the things do most concern us; all other knowledge is but curious, and hath more of pleasure than profit. To know our own affairs, and our greatest and most necessary affairs, these are the things we should busy ourselves about; other knowledge may be well spared. To know our misery, that we may prevent it; our remedy, that we may look after it in time; our work, that we may perform it; our end, that we may intend it, and be encouraged by it, and what course we must take that we may be everlastingly happy; this is the greatest favour can be bestowed upon us: we should beg it of God.
[2.] The manner of knowing. To see these things with clearness, certainty, efficacy, and power. Now this is diversely expressed in scripture; sometimes to know them 'as we ought to know them,' 1 Cor. viii. 2; 'To know the grace of God in truth,' Col. i. 6; to get a 'spiritual discerning,' 1 Cor. ii. 14; to get not a sight only, but a taste, 1 Peter
VER. 8.]
ii. 3. It is a sweeter knowledge than all learned men have who are ungodly. Others may have more of the words and notions, but less of the thing itself; they have the sign, but true christians the thing signified; they break the shell, but others eat the kernel; they dress the meat, but others feed upon it and digest it; they dig in the mines of knowledge as negroes, but others have the gold. True christians take up religion out of inspiration, but others out of opinion and tradition; they have a divine faith, whilst others have but human credulity; they may talk of what they hear and read from others, but these receive it 'not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.' 1 Thes. i. 5. They are not only affected with the truths they know, but transformed by them, and changed into the divine nature. Now what a mercy is this, that when they might have gone to hell as witless fools, as others do, God hath given them counsel in their reins!
II. That there is a mighty change wrought in them who are called out of one estate into the other. A great difference there is certainly between the carnal and regenerate estate; they differ as much as darkness and light, as death and life, as the new man and the old: 'Ye were sometimes darkness, but are now light in the Lord.' There is a difference between them and themselves, and between them and others; both are of respect in this place. Not, They are darkness and ye are light, but, 'Ye were sometimes darkness, but ye are now light in the Lord;' because the apostle speaketh of the same men; and to this end it is spoken, that they may have no fellowship with evil ones, or be partakers with them in works of darkness. Now both these are proved by the same reasons.
1. Because they have a different principle; the internal principle is not alike in both. Unamquodique operatur secundum suam formam—All things work according to their nature; as fire ascendeth and water descendeth; fishes go to the water, and beasts keep on dry land; it is according to their nature, and that principle of life which they have. The saints have a divine nature: 2 Peter i. 4, 'Whereby ye are made partakers of the divine nature.' And the carnal are scarce men, because they are governed by their sensitive appetite, and so come nearer to the nature of beasts; and so the one are led by the flesh, the other by the Spirit, as is often observed in scripture. But you will say, There is an old nature in God's children, flesh as well as spirit. I answer—
[1.] By concession there is indeed a diversity or contrariety of principles: Gal. v. 17, 'For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary one to the other.' These two powers and principles are of contrary natures and tempers. By the one they delight in the law of God: Rom. vii. 22, 'I delight in the law of God after the inward man;' and avoid sin: 1 John iii. 9, 'Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.' Yet there is corruption, which often opposeth and rebelleth against the new nature, so that its operations are much hindered and obscured.
[2.] Though there be an opposite principle, and though it impede, and hinder, and obscure the operations of the new nature, and the inclination of it be weakened by the back bias of corruption, yet there is a prevalency of the better principle, which doth most usually discover itself in our conversations. Principiata respondent suis principiis—The constant effects declare the prevailing principle. As the children of Israel brought under the Canaanites in the land of promise, and had the chief sway of affairs there, so doth grace abate the power of corruption, and restrain its exorbitancies, that it doth not ordinarily break out. The man is not what he was before: Gal. v. 24, 'They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.' They have crucified, and do crucify it still in their desire and endeavours, and gain more success against it. The work is not quite done, but it is begun, and carried on with an intent to be finished. Already there is enough done to bridle the corrupt nature, and to constitute a plain difference between them and others, who are wholly guided by the flesh. They are differenced from others by change of heart, from themselves by a change of life.
2. As the internal principle of our operation is unlike, so the external rule of our conversations are quite different, viz., the will of God revealed in the word, which they study to know and obey: Eph. v. 10, 'Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord;' ver. 17, 'Be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is;' Rom. xii. 2, 'That ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.'
III. That it is good often to compare those two estates, and to consider what we are by nature and what we are by grace.
First, That we ought frequently to reflect on our former woful estate. The apostle often directeth christians to look back: Eph. ii. 2, 3, 'Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others;' Col. i. 21, 'And you that were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.' God appointed ordinances to this end among the Jews. The passover to remember their bondage in Egypt; and the parents were obliged to interpret it to their children: Exod. xii. 26, 27, 'And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean you by this service? that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses.' So the first-fruits: Deut. xxvi. 5, 'A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation great, mighty, and populous.'
Reasons there are for this—
1. To magnify the riches of God's mercy in our deliverance from that woful estate. We wonder at it more when we compare both together: 1 Peter ii. 9, 'But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;' 1 Tim. i. 13, 'Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief.'
VER. S.]
2 That we may admire his power in the change: 1 Cor. vi. 11, 'And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' That ever our sins should be washed and cleansed: Isa. i. 18, 'Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; and though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.'
3. To keep us humble: 1 Cor. xv. 9, 'For I am the least of the apostles, and am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.' A man may be proud of spiritual enjoyments, so far as he is unholy: 2 Cor. xii. 7, 'And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.' Now, to take us down and to humble us, let us remember the sin and misery we were once in when we knew it not. God will do much to keep gracious souls humble as long as they live. They were once as bad as the worst, and were children of wrath even as others. Though God forgets their sins so as to forgive them, yet they cannot forget them, but are humbled in the remembrance of them; they condemn themselves when God justifieth them: Exck. xx. 34, 'Then shall ye remember your own ways, and all your doings wherein you have been defiled; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed.' They set those sins before their faces, which God hath cast behind his back; not to breed a distrust of God's mercy, but to humble their own souls. Though mercy hath washed, and justified, and sanctified you, yet you were as bad as others; no poverty, beggary, and reproach in the world will be so humbling to them as this.
4. It maketh us more compassionate to others, we having once as blind a mind and as hard a heart as they: Titus iii. 2, 3, 'To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.' We had as bad natures as any, and lay in the same puddle of corruption, were hewn out of the same rock, and digged out of the same pit, and came into the world as naked and destitute of grace as any others. Israel knew the heart of a stranger, therefore they were to pity strangers: Deut. xxiv. 18, 19. 'Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence; therefore I command thee to do this thing. When thou cuttest down thine harvest in the field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it; it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and the widow; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hands.'
5. It maketh us more watchful. A man that hath escaped a dangerous disease or surfeit is very careful from his own experience that he doth not lapse into it again. Alas! too much corruption still remaineth with us; we still have flesh that fighteth against the Spirit, Gal. v. 17. Old lusts soon awaken at the knock of a temptation. Paul groaneth sorely that so much of this carnal nature was left; to find such remnants of that odious sin, which cost us so dear, and had cost us dearer if our Lord Jesus Christ had not paid our ransom. We were darkness;
[SEP. VIII.
but alas! how dark are we still! how far from heaven! how little do we know, and believe, and love! We know but in part, and love God but in part, and serve God with such constant weakness, and the old working warring principle doth often get the advantage of us, and produce some actual sin of thought, word, and deed, that we have need to take heed to ourselves lest we be again brought under the captivity and bondage of the law of sin. Shall we drink once more of the bitter waters? Josh. xxii. 17, 'Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleansed unto this day, though there be a plague in the congregation of the Lord?'
6. It doth quicken us to greater fruitfulness for time to come. Was I so zealous for sin, and shall I not do so much for God? Rom. vi. 19, 'As ye have yielded your members servants unto uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness;' Acts xxvi. 11, 'Being exceeding mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities;' compared with 2 Cor. v. 13, 'For whether we be beside ourselves, it is for God; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.' Since we set out so late, let us mend our pace: 1 Peter iv. 3, 'For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.'
7. It maketh our conversion more evident and sensible, and so quickeneth us to thankfulness and praise. When we compare the two extremes, darkness and light, nature and grace, it doth much hurt to believers, in judging of their condition, to forget what they once were, and not to consider what they now are. The comparing of these two, what they were with what they now are, would make the change more sensible and evident: 2 Cor. v. 17, 'Whosoever is in Christ is a new creature; old things are passed away, and all things are become new.' Old things are passed away, and are passing away still. Our gradual progress in holiness is more insensible, and therefore we may overlook the mercy; but the first work is more sensible, we may find a great change in ourselves. All that belong to God may say, as the blind man, John ix. 25, 'One thing I know, that whereas I was born blind, I now see.' By comparing the two extremes they find they are not the same men they were before. Once they had no delight in communion with God, now it is a trouble to keep out of God's company. Nothing was so tedious and burdensome as the duties of religion, now their hearts are more agreeable to them, and they are sweeter to them than their appointed food. Before they were slight and sluggish, now they are hard at work for God. Before, they abandoned themselves to all manner of carnalities, now they are troubled about the first risings and bubbling up of sin; the conscience which was stupid is made tender; the stream of their thoughts, desires, and endeavours run in another channel; their hearts are altered, life altered, speech altered. And by comparing these extremes it is the ready way to interpret our condition. Men forget the estate they once were in, and the great change which the Spirit of God hath wrought in them, and because such alterations are not wrought in them continually, live in doubt and fear. Look, as the forgetting our poverty and affliction maketh us undervalue
VER. S.]
a more plentiful condition, and those comforts which we should have counted a wonderful mercy before; or when we are recovered from a sickness, and live in health, we forget the tediousness of sickness, and are not thankful for the health which we enjoy; so we undervalue, or overlook, or question the present state of grace, because we forget the unfruitful works of darkness, or the evil disposition and practices of our unregeneracy, and have not such comfortable apprehensions of the mercy which God hath bestowed in our change. Time was when you had little savour of the things of the Spirit, little mind to Christ and holiness, and were wholly given up to the pleasures of the flesh, and profits of the world; but your minds and ways are changed, and you are not the persons that you were, and that will help you to interpret your condition before God.
8. It increaseth your confidence and hopes of eternal life: he that could take us with all our faults, and love us, and pardon us, and heal our natures, and reconcile us to himself, will he not give us eternal life after we begin to obey him, and love him, and serve him in our measure? Rom. v. 9, 10, 'Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.' You cannot be worse than you were at first.
9. It putteth an argument in your hands against sin: Rom. vi. 20, 21, 'For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness: what fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?' and ver. 22, 'But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruits unto holiness.' Shall a servant of God walk as he did when he was a servant of sin? Right-ousness had no whit of your service, why should sin have any part of your service now? especially if you consider how little fruit, benefit, or satisfaction your sins brought you in the time of enjoying them; but now having given over yourselves to the service of God, sanctification must daily increase in you.
Secondly, We ought to remember what we were by nature, so as not to deny what we are by grace: Rom. vi. 17, 'But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin; but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine which was delivered you.' Christ checketh Peter, John xiii. 10, for not owning grace. Though his feet need to be washed, God would not have us deny our renewed estate. Remember your past estate for humiliation, not for your confusion. Remember old sins and old mercies. So David: Ps. xxv. 6, 7, 'Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindnesses; for they have ever been of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O Lord.' Not to tear open the wounds of an healed conscience, not to terrify conscience, but admire mercy, and to 'love much, because much is forgiven,' Luke vii. 47.
IV. This change must be manifested by a suitable conversation: 'Walk as children of the light.' We have the same exhortation, Rom. xiii. 12, 13, 'The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; 'I Thes. v. 5-8, 'Ye are all the children of the light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober: for they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that are drunken, are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation.' Children of the light may refer to the dispensation we are under, or the grace we have received by it.
1. The dispensation we are under, as those that live in the clearness of gospel light are children of the day. Ye are not of the night; walk as children of light, that have the light of the gospel, or becoming that most holy religion which Christ hath taught us. (1.) In the light all blemishes are soon discovered, and so our sins are without excuse; whereas people that have not the gospel, or not so fully preached, are more excusable. Men might plead this, that they knew no better; but now they 'have no cloak for their sin,' John xv. 22. Men have some cloak to hide the odiousness of sin from themselves and others; their ignorance, their infirmity; yea, the Lord himself doth pity men, considering their education, prejudices, temptations; but the gospel holdeth out such convincing light as taketh away all excuse from wicked sinners. (2.) As they are without sin, so without shame, when they sin in the open light: Zeph. iii. 5, 'Every morning, doth be bring his judgment to light; he faileth not, but the unjust knoweth no shame.' While the light of nature is not violated, sin breedeth a bashfulness and unconfidence; but when men despise both the light of nature and scripture, they grow impudent, and lose all tenderness, and awakening of conscience, and outgrow the heart of a man. (3.) Sins are more dangerous and deadly: John iii. 19, 'And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.' It is an affront to the light that shineth to us, gives a double dye to our sins, and so increases our punishment and condemnation.
2. The grace received by it. Now the children of light are those who are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, have a new nature, and a sense of the other world. Luke xvi. 8, the 'lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely; for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.' Surely they should watch and be sober, and plainly distinguish themselves from the carnal world.
[1.] To show their thankfulness for the grace received: Luke i. 74, 75, 'That he would grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.'
[2.] That they may not obstruct the new nature put into them, and hinder its operations, and so grieve the Spirit of God, who would work in them all righteousness, godliness, and holiness: ver. 9, 'For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth.'
[3.] That they may obey the light, and comply with the sense of their duty written on their hearts; otherwise they offer violence, not only to their duty, but to their nature; not only to their rule without, but their conscience within, or the law written upon their hearts: Heb. viii. 10, 'I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.'
[4.] They have tasted of all waters, the bitterness of sin and the sweetness of grace, the terrors of the Lord, and the sweetness of the mercy of God and the grace of Christ; and shall they give way to sin and folly?
[5.] They are posting to a better estate, and preparing for it: Col. i. 12, 'Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.' Therefore for them to walk in works of darkness is more blameworthy, as if the way to hell would bring them to heaven.
Use. Remember it often to your humiliation, lest God permit you to remember it to your confusion. Those whose sins are pardoned may to their sense have their guilt raked out of its grave. It is possible the wounds of an healed conscience may bleed afresh, when we walk not humbly and cautiously. Though God doth not recant his sentence of pardon, yet the sin may occur to us, and ghosts haunt us of those who were long since buried.
SERMON IX.
For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth.—Eph. v. 9.
THESE words do show both how and why we must walk as children of the light; and so are both an explication and confirmation of the former exhortation. An explication, what it is to walk, or how we must walk, 'in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.' A confirmation, or new reason, as the causal particle, 'for,' showeth. The apostle had argued from their profession of being christians. Now from the grace by which they were made christians; they were regenerated by the Holy Ghost. To be light in the Lord and to be renewed by the Spirit is all one thing: and if you be enlightened and regenerated, the fruit of this must be 'All goodness, and righteousness, and truth.'
In the words we have—
1. The author, the Holy Spirit.
2. The fruits of his sanctifying operations enumerated, 'All goodness, and righteousness, and truth.' This is the conversation that may be called 'Walking as children of the light.'
The three words may be taken in a more general sense, or in a more limited and restrained sense. In a general sense: Rom. xv. 14, 'And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness.' So goodness is taken for all saving graces; and righteousness for a preparedness to discharge our duty to God and man. As Zacharias and Elizabeth were both righteous, 'Walking in all the com-
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mandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless,' Luke i. 6. And truth for sincerity, called elsewhere 'The girdle of truth,' Eph. vi. 14. Or in a more limited sense, so goodness is that grace whereby we are inclined to do good to others to the uttermost of our power: Gal. vi. 10, 'Let us do good to all men, especially to them that are of the household of faith.' This goodness is reckoned among the fruits of the Spirit: Gal. v. 22, 'Gentleness, goodness, faith.' Righteousness implieth justice in our dealing, which giveth every one his due: 1 Tim. vi. 11, 'Follow after righteousness.' Truth signifieth fidelity in our speech and actions, when we live free from lying and dissimulation. Now which sense shall we prefer, the general or more limited? It mattereth not much which of them we prefer, for they are not contrary, but subordinate. But that you may conceive aright of the words, let me give you these expository observations—
1. The apostle, for example's sake, mentioneth some parts of the holy life, not to exclude, but imply the rest; for there is a secret 'and such like' understood. When he saith, 'This is the fruit of the Spirit,' you must not think it is all. When we bring a sample of a commodity, we bring a little to show the quality of the rest, not as if that were all we had to sell; so these graces are mentioned, but not to exclude the rest.
2. He instanceth in such graces as concern the second table, kindness, justice, and fidelity, as is usual in such cases. The world is most capable of knowing and approving these things, but they suppose higher graces; for all our goodness, justice, and truth must come from love and obedience to God, and faith in Christ, as their true and proper principle, or else they are but moral virtues, not christian graces: Job J. 1, 'There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright, one that feared God, and eschewed evil.' And Joseph of Arimathea was a good man and a just man, 'who also himself waited for the kingdom of God,' Luke xxiii. 50. When they are accompanied with these higher graces, then these things are good. Sometimes the new creature is described by the state of the heart, as it standeth affected to God and the world to come; so other graces, as fruits of the Spirit, are mentioned: 2 Tim. i. 7, 'For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.' Sometimes the Spirit is spoken of as it fitteth us and frameth us for our duty to man, as here in the text. There is not a more benign thing, that doth more fit us to live peaceably and usefully in human society, than the gospel spirit; and the world looketh to these things, and chooseth these things.
3. These are spoken of as in combination. We must not so follow after one as to neglect the other. Goodness must not make us neglect justice, nor justice, goodness; and in the acts of both we must be sincere and true. Some divide these things: Rom. v. 7, 'For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die;' for one really performing what he pretends to do. Our duty to our neighbour is either negative, not wronging them; or positive, promoting their good. Justice bindeth our hands, and keepeth us from doing hurt to our neighbour, but goodness inclineth us to seek their good by all ways possible. And truth commendeth both. Righteousness keepeth us from the wrong that is done them by open violence, and truth keepeth us from the wrong that may be done them by fraud and deceit. Goodness inclineth to seek our neighbour's good and benefit, and truth bindeth us to seek it sincerely, not in word and tongue only, but in deed and in truth: 1 John iii. 18, 'My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.'
4. I observe that there is a note of universality joined to the word goodness, 'All goodness,' to show this is of chief regard, and that we must not be good in one sort or kind only, but 'fruitful in every good work,' Col. i. 10. A christian should be made up of goodness; his very constitution and trade must be goodness.
5. I observe that these are called fruit, not only by a Hebraism, who are wont to express the works of a man by the term 'fruit;' for man is, or should be a tree of righteousness; but there is a distinction: Gal. v. 19, 22, now the 'works of the flesh' are manifest, but 'the fruit of the Spirit;' so also here compare the text with ver. 11, 'Unfruitful works of darkness.' But why is it called 'fruit?' Partly to show it is the native and genuine product of the Spirit in our hearts, as fruit groweth on a tree; and partly to show that sin is an unprofitable drudgery, but holiness is fruit. There is toil, here benefit: Rom. vi. 21, 22, 'What fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin, and become the servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.' There is no fruit in sin: the work is drudgery, and the reward is death; but holiness is fruit, for it is the way to eternal life.
6. All these graces, and duties consequent, are fruits of the Spirit. The Vulgar read lucis; some Greek copies, τοῦ φωτός; most, τοῦ πνεύματος. The Holy Ghost produceth this fruit in us; he worketh and dwelleth in the hearts of all those who are light in the Lord.
7. He speaketh of habits, not of acts: 'Walking as children of the light,' relateeth more to the acts or exercise of the grace which we have received; but here the apostle speaketh of goodness rather than good works, of justice rather than just works. The habits give facility and easiness to all acts. When the soul is thus constituted, it is hard to do otherwise. So in opposition to the 'Works of darkness' there is 'Putting on the armour of light,' Rom. xiii. 12. The habit is opposed to the act, because the work will follow, when once the heart is framed and fitted for these things.
8. These are ascribed to the Spirit by the apostle for two reasons—
[1.] Partly because of man's incapacity to produce these things of himself. We are not only defective in the duties which concern our commerce with God, but also in the lower hemisphere of duties, those which concern our dealings with men. None is good of himself, but only God: Mat. xix. 17, 'Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God;' that is, originally good. As all the stars derive their light from the sun, so do we receive every good and perfect gift from the Father of lights, James i. 17. God is originally good, but we are good by participation. This was true of man in innocency; but there is another reason for man in his fallen estate, for there we were altogether bent on evil: Ps. xiv. 3, 'There is none that doeth good, no not one.' Surely in that estate, whatever good we do is from the Spirit
[SEC. XI.
of God: Acts xi. 24, 'Barnabas was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith.' We are made so by the Holy Spirit, not born so; none of us love good, and hate evil, and sincerely set ourselves to do that which is holy and righteous, till he hath framed us for this use. Therefore all true goodness and righteousness is from him.
[2.] And partly because all the effects carry such a resemblance with the Spirit. The fruit must be correspondent with the root or nature of the plant on which it grows. If you are made light in the Lord by the Spirit, you will bring forth the fruit of the Spirit in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Goodness; the Spirit is called the good Spirit: Ps. exliii. 10, 'Teach me, for thou art my God; thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness;' Neh. ix. 20, 'Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them.' Now this operation is accordingly; he maketh us good, kind, to love all with a love of benevolence, and our fellow-christians with a love of complacency. So for righteousness, or justice in all our dealings, giving every one his due; this is the fruit of the Spirit; for, Eph. iv. 24, 'The new man is created after God in righteousness and true holiness.' God hath done so much to demonstrate his righteousness, that christians have not the spirit of their religion if they be not righteous. So for truth or fidelity, whereby we carry ourselves sincerely, and free from all hypocrisy and craft. The Spirit is often called the Spirit of truth; and that holiness which he worketh in us is holiness of truth, or true holiness: 'Therefore put away lying,' Eph. iv. 25; it is a sin contrary to the new nature.
9. This Spirit God hath sent among us by the preaching of the gospel; for when he saith, 'Ye are light in the Lord,' it implieth both the knowledge of the gospel and the illumination of the Spirit; the one as concomitant with the other, and settling the belief of it in our hearts. The doctrine of Christ bringeth the Spirit to us, and we receive it by faith: Gal. iii. 2, 'Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?' John vii. 39, 'But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.' We receive the Spirit more plentifully by the gospel than by the law, and we receive it by faith in Christ. Having made this way, I come now to propound a particular point.
Doct. 1. That the Spirit which we receive by the gospel worketh all goodness in the hearts of believers.
To illustrate this point, I shall show—(1.) What is goodness; (2.) How this is the product of the Spirit of the gospel.
I. What is goodness? I answer—Goodness is either moral or beneficial.
1. Moral goodness is our whole duty required by the law of God, whatever is just and equal for us to perform: Deut. xxx. 15, 'I have set before you life and good, death and evil.' Holiness is called good, and sin evil; and the whole duty of man elsewhere is called good: Micah vi. 8, 'He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee?' The totum hominis, the whole duty of man, is bonum hominis, the whole good of man.
2. There is beneficial goodness, which is a branch of the former, and implieth a readiness to do good to others to the utmost of our capacity;
for all good is communicative of itself: Heb. xiii. 16, 'But to do good, and to communicate, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.' This duty must not be forgotten nor neglected, because it showeth the due impress of our religion upon us. Well, then, the first sort of goodness is holiness, the second beneficence.
II. That this is the fruit and product of the Spirit by the gospel.
1. Let us see what the gospel doth to promote this goodness in the world.
2. Upon what grounds we may expect the Spirit to co-operate therewith.
First, What the gospel doth to promote this goodness in the world.
1. By the laws and precepts of it, or the duties it requireth; it requireth us to be good, and to do good.
[1.] To be good; for we are first made good before we can do good: Luke vi. 45, 'A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil: for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.' Every man hath a treasury or storehouse within him, from whence all his actions are brought forth. He that hath an honest heart, or a repository of good purposes and resolutions, in short, whose whole heart is set upon doing good on all occasions, he bringeth forth from thence good actions. Now the design of the christian religion is to make men good and to cure them of all evil; it not only inviteth and persuadeth men to be good, but offereth grace whereby they may become good: Eph. ii. 10, 'For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.' It offereth grace, whereby men may be changed; and being naturally bent to evil, may be disposed and inclined to good. This religion would not have us do good by accident, but by nature, as having our hearts set towards it; and to work not occasionally, but from a habit and a principle of goodness in ourselves, as being thus constituted and framed that we may do it easily and with delight; yea, it is a force if we do the contrary.
[2.] To do good, both as to God and men.
(1.) As to God, the great duty is love; that we should love him, and obey him as our rightful Lord and chief good and happiness. This was our primitive duty, which we owed to our creator; and Christ came not to dissolve, but to establish it. He never intended to rob God of a creature when he made any man a christian; for he 'redeemed us to God by his blood,' Rev. v. 9. That we might love him and serve him; love him with all our hearts, and serve him with all our might, Mat. xxii. 37. Oh, what a good religion is this, where our principal work is love and delight in him whom we serve and worship! We begin our happiness in our duty and love to God, that we may be beloved of him. Whole christianity is but an holy art to teach us the way of loving and enjoying God.
(2.) To do good to men. Certainly that religion is good which only employeth men in doing good, and obligeth us to seek the welfare of others as we would do our own. It enjoineth us 'to do good to all, especially to the household of faith,' Gal. vi. 10. We cannot take delight in all, for some are an offence to the new nature which is in us; but we must do good to all, and seek their happiness. The love
[SER. IX.
of benevolence or good will is opposite to the hatred of enmity, and the love of complacency and delight to the hatred of aversation and offence. We cannot take pleasure in sinners, but yet must do them good. Suppose they have disobliged us, yet enemies are not excepted: Mat. v. 44, 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you.' None can be such enemies to us as we were to God in our natural estate. Now it is the duty of a christian to revenge injuries with courtesies: Rom. xii. 14, 'Bless them which persecute you; bless and curse not; and ver. 21, 'Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.' This doing good God expecteth from men in every capacity and relation. The magistrate is 'the minister of God to thee for good.' Rom. xiii. 4. He is not so much to mind his own greatness as the public benefit. The minister is to seek the good of souls, 'to impart some spiritual gift.' Rom. i. 11, to be an instrument of increasing light or life. Fellow-christians should seek to do good one to another, and value all their talents, not by possession, but use: Luke xvi. 8, 'The lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely.' People in an inferior quality, as servants: Eph. vi. 8, 'Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.' If they make conscience of doing good in their callings and relations, and go about these duties as service to God, and profitable to men, it is a good thing, and accepted by the Lord. Thus the gospel requireth we should still be doing good, something that conduceth to the glory of God and the benefit of others.
2. By the discoveries it maketh. The greatest, truest, and fullest prospect of God's goodness to mankind we have in the gospel. There 'the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared,' Titus iii. 4. When God was displeased for the breach of the first covenant, and man had fallen from his primitive holiness, and brought himself irreparably under guilt and a curse, the Lord took occasion by his misery to open a door of hope to us by Christ, and hath set up a new covenant of righteousness and life founded on the death of his Son, where grace taketh the throne, and the judge is Christ, and the rule is the gospel, and pardon and salvation is offered to all those who with a ready and thankful mind are willing to return to their obedience to God; and God standeth with open arms to receive all those that run for refuge to this covenant, and take sanctuary at this grace, as willing to bestow upon them all kind of mercies and grace to help. Surely this word may well be called 'the good word of God,' Heb. vi. 5, and 'the glad tidings of good things,' Rom. x. 15, the best news that ever was brought to man's ear. Now the impress should be according to the seal; a good religion should breed a good people. When such wonders of goodness are discovered, it should make us more ready for our duty to God and man.
[1.] To God. The love and goodness of God in Christ is the great engine of the gospel, and the great motive and encouragement to persuade us to our duty: 2 Cor. v. 14, 15, 'For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them, and rose again.' God would be obeyed by his people, not as slaves, but as children, and would have the spring and rise of our obedience to be love and gratitude; therefore doth he oblige us at so high a rate, and carry on the tenor of his grace and mercy in such an astonishing and wonderful way, that none of his commandments might be grievous to us, being sweetened by his love. He will be served, not as an imperious sovereign, but as the God of love; not with a grudging mind, but with delight and readiness; not as doing good by force, but as encouraged with a deep sense of this goodness.
[2.] To men. Surely we will imitate what we prize and esteem. No man can be thankful to God who is not merciful to his brother; so much goodness demonstrated will breed goodness in us. When the apostle had asked a contribution to the necessities of the poor saints at Jerusalem, he useth this argument, 2 Cor. viii. 8, 9, 'I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love; for ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.' Christians can want no motives to goodness when they consider the liberality and bounty of God to them in Christ, and those riches of grace provided for them. If they sincerely believe these things, they will have somewhat in their own bosoms that will strongly persuade them not to be wanting to occasions and opportunities of doing good.
3. The examples it propoundeth to our imitation, not mean and blemished ones, such as we may find among our fellow-creatures, but the high and glorious examples of God and Christ himself. There is a good God set before us, that we may not take up with any low pattern of goodness. He is represented to us as all goodness: Ps. exix. 68, 'Thou art good, and doest good.' He is good in his nature, and his work is agreeable to his nature; nothing is wanting to it, or defective in it. Nothing can be added to it to make it better. Ὁ ὄντως ὃν τὸ πρῶτον—Philo. The first being must needs be the first good. As soon as we conceive there is a God, we presently conceive that he is good, as being both the fountain and pattern of all the good that is in the creatures.
[1.] As to his nature, he is originally good, good in himself, and good to others; as the sun hath light in himself, and giveth light to all other things. Essentially good; not only good, but goodness itself. Goodness in us is an accessory quality or superadded gift; but in God it is not a quality, but his essence; as a vessel that is gilded with gold, and a vessel that is all gold; the gilding or lustre is a superadded quality; but in a vessel all of gold, the lustre and the substance is the same. God is infinitely good; the creature's good is limited, but there is nothing to limit the perfection of God, or give it any measure. He is an ocean of goodness without banks or bottom. Alas! what is our drop to this ocean! God is immutably good; his goodness can never be more or less than it is; as there can be no addition to it, so no subtraction from it. Man in his innocency was pericabilis, afterward peccator; but God ever was and is good. Now this is the pattern propounded to us, but his nature is a great deep. Therefore—
[2.] As to his work, he doeth good. What hath God been acting
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upon the great theatre of the world but goodness for these six thousand years? Acts xiv. 17, 'Nevertheless he hath not left himself without a witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.' He left not himself without a witness, ἀγαθοποιῶν, not by taking vengeance of their idolatries, but by inviting benefits. Now this is propounded to our imitation, that our whole life may be nothing else but doing good: Mat. v. 48, 'Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.' It is in Luke vi. 36, 'Be ye therefore merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful;' that is, learn of God how to exercise and show forth your goodness, not in a confined way to friends only, but to enemies; not in a scanty measure, but in full proportion. The other example is Jesus Christ, or God incarnate: Acts x. 38, 'How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power, who went about doing good;' that is, to the bodies and souls of men, giving sight to the blind, limbs to the lame, health to the sick, and life to the dead. Christ did nothing by way of malice and revenge, he used not the power that he had to make men blind, or lame, or to kill any; no, not his worst enemies, when he could easily do it, and justly might have done it. No; he went up and down doing good. He rebuked his disciples when they requested him to destroy those that had condemned them by calling for fire from heaven, telling them, 'They knew not of what spirit they were of,' &c., Luke ix. 55, 56. It was unlike his spirit and design; all his miracles were acts of relief and succour, not pompous nor destructive, bating only his blasting of the unfruitful fig-tree, which was an emblematical warning to the Jews, and suffering the devil's entering into the herd of swine, which was a necessary demonstration of the devil's malice and destructive cruelty, who, if he could not afflict men and destroy men, would enter into the herd of swine that the poor creatures might perish in the sea. I say nothing now of his abundant grace discovered in our redemption. Surely if it be true religion to be like what we worship as God, we must be like this God and this Christ. Certainly goodness should wholly possess us, and dispose of our lives and actions; a religion that holdeth forth such a good God and a good Christ should breed a good people.
4. The arguments by which it enforceth this goodness, or the rewards and encouragements which it offereth, which is the supreme blessedness or the chief good. We all desire good; any good will serve a carnal brutish heart: Ps. iv. 6, 'There be many that say, Who will show us any good?' but the sober and thinking part of mankind will not be put off so; they are groping and feeling about for an eternal good; and grope they may, but still fail of what they seek after, till they come to the gospel to find it. There God hath showed man what is his chief good and proper happiness, or the greatest good that can be attained or imagined, for beyond God there is nothing. And the happiness which the gospel offereth is—
[1.] God reconciled.
[2.] God finally and fully enjoyed. Our happiness by the way consists in reconciliation with God, but at the end of the journey, in the vision and fruition of God; this is happiness indeed.
(1.) Our reconciliation with God through Christ, as soon as we enter into his peace. This is that which we only are capable of here, and the good we are now only admitted unto: Rom. v. 1, 'Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' As soon as ever we turn to him by faith and repentance, he giveth us the pardon of all our sins, and accepteth us in Christ. The sentence of death is reversed, and we are delivered from wrath to come; and not only so, but are also made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. We have a right for the present, though not the possession; and there is a long train of blessings which we enjoy by virtue of this right, as a comfortable sense of the love of God, peace in our own conscience, an interest in the care of God's providence, the audience of our prayers, the moderating and sanctifying of all our afflictions. Now all these should mollify and soften the heart, and melt it into love to God and man. Shall God be so good to us, and we so evil? Surely such a lively sense of God's love and grace should highly and potently promote goodness in the world.
(2.) The vision and fruition of God in the heavenly glory, that is the great good offered to us, when our nature shall be perfected, and by its most perfect acts be employed about the most perfect objects, and God shall be all in all, giving out the fullest communications of his grace, and that for ever. The soul shall be perfect without spot or blemish, and this vile body made like Christ's glorious body, and we shall for ever remain in the sight and love of God; and what is sweeter than his presence? Ps. xvi. 11, 'In thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.' And this without fear of change: 1 Thes. iv. 17, 'And so shall we ever be with the Lord.' If anything be good, this is good, to live for ever in the sight of God, and to love him, and be beloved of him. Now should not all this make us good? and should we not train up ourselves in a way of loving and rejoicing in God now, that in our very work we may have a foretaste of our reward and end? The object of our love and service is good, and what floweth from him but goodness? and what do we expect from him but such goodness as our hearts cannot sufficiently conceive of?
Secondly, Upon what grounds we may expect the Spirit to co-operate herewith.
1. Because God worketh congruously, as with respect to the subject upon which he worketh, so with respect to the object by which he worketh. The subject is the heart of man, and therefore he 'draweth us with the cords of a man,' Hosea xi. 4. The object is the gospel, a good word, or the good knowledge of God, and therefore a suitable means to work goodness in us. There we have good precepts and good promises, and an account of God's wonderful goodness and love in Christ; and 'therefore the fruit of his Spirit is in all goodness.' As the seal is graven, so the wax receiveth the stamp. The seal is the word, the wax is our heart, and the hand that applieth it is the Spirit of God; he is the principal cause, and maketh the gospel effectual to produce in us a frame of heart answerable to the scheme and structure of the word. In short, the good Spirit, by the good word, maketh us good, and so all suiteth.
2. The Spirit produceth this effect as a witness of the truth of the
[SEC. IX.
gospel, which being a supernatural doctrine, needed to be attested from heaven, that the truth of it might be known by the mighty power of God which doth accompany it, working in our hearts effects suitable to the tenor of the word. Whatever doctrine can change the soul of man, and convert it to God, is of God, and owned by God. When such a holy doctrine sanctifieth us, we see the truth of it: John xvii. 17, 'Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.' When such deliverance is published, it maketh us free indeed: John viii. 32, 'And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' When such a heavenly doctrine breedeth in us a heavenly mind: 1 Cor. ii. 12, 'For we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.' When such a spiritual doctrine bringeth in more of the Spirit: 2 Cor. iii. 8, 'How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?' Such a wise doctrine will fill us with wisdom; such a doctrine of grace and goodness breedeth all goodness in us, and so we have God's attestation to his truth.
3. That thereby God may signify his peculiar and elective love to his people. When he worketh all goodness in their hearts by his Spirit, they come to discern that he loveth them by a special love. Love or hatred cannot be known by anything that is before us, any outward dispensation whatsoever, Eccles. ix. 1; but when by the good Spirit of the Lord we are made like God and like Christ, and have the prints of the good word upon us, then we know his love to us: 1 John iv. 13, 'Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.' And what spirit is that but a Spirit of love and goodness? for 'God is love,' ver. 16. Then we transcribe our pattern, and are brought into a conformity to God.
4. God maketh an offer of his grace to invite us to seriousness in attending on this gospel. He excludeth none in the offer, and therefore we must not exclude ourselves. None miss it but those that neglect and forfeit it through their carelessness, and disobedience, and ingratitude. If you would observe the seasons of his sanctifying motions, it would be much better with you: Prov. i. 23, 'Turn ye at my reproof; behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.'
Use 1. Is information.
1. It informeth us how false the prejudices of the world are, who think the life of godliness a severe rigid thing, as if men did put off all good nature as soon as they enter upon the practice of it. No; 'The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness.' There cannot be a more delightful spectacle, unless it be to a man blinded with malice and prejudice and brutish lusts, than to see such a good man as is described in the word of God; for he is one that seeketh to do good to all, and hurt to none; looks for no great matters for himself in the world, bustles not for honour and greatness, but gives place, or at least due respect to all; he condescends to the meanest, envies none, revenges himself on none, but is courteous to all, beneficial to all according to his ability and opportunity. As to God, his business is to love him and live to him; he counteth it his happiness to live with him, and is careful to keep up a due remembrance of him by daily invocation and worship; always rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and liveth in obedience to the motions of the sanctifying Spirit, so that his life is not tainted with the blot of any heinous sin. He is still encouraging himself with the promises of another world, levelling and directing all his actions thither. This is the true good man; and can spite and infidelity object anything against it? You will say, There are few such in the world. Ans. The more the pity, when so many helps and means to effect it. It is the fault of the men, not of the rule. But many such there are; yea, all the children of God are such in some measure. The world seeth it and hateth them, because their holy and heavenly life upbraideth their flesh-pleasing and carnal course.
2. It informeth us that the children of light should be full of goodness, or else they do not improve their advantages. We have a good word to direct us, after we had lost the knowledge of God, and of the world to come, and the way thither; that all this should be revealed to us by Christ clearly and plainly. And not only so, but we have a good Spirit to imprint this knowledge upon our hearts, and to give us a heavenly mind and life. Now what remaineth but that we should be good also? for what should a bad people do with a good religion? This good word, that assureth us of God's readiness to do mankind the greatest good; this good Spirit, whose great office it is to regenerate and make us good. But alas! many are more forward to talk of the word than live by it, and not so careful to walk in the Spirit as to boast of it.
3. That all the goodness that is in us is the fruit of the Spirit; he infuseth the graces, he exciteth the acts; therefore the glory of all that we have and do must be transferred to God. God hath a greater share in all the good that we do than we ourselves. We may say of our best actions, as Augustin of his illegitimate child, 'I had nothing in him but my sin;' nothing is ours but the defect, the good is God's. Again, on Ps. cxxxvii, he saith, Opus tuum vide in me, Domine! non meum, &c.—Regard, O Lord, in me, not my works, but thine own: if thou regardest my works, thou damnest me; if thine own, thou crownest me: since whatsoever good I have, I have it from thee, it is therefore rather thine than mine. Thus humbly and thankfully should we be affected. God is good of himself, good in himself, yea, goodness itself; there is no good above, or besides, or beyond him; it is all from him, if it be good, and therefore to him be all the glory.
Use 2. To exhort us to increase in all goodness. (1.) Moral goodness, which is holiness. Now holiness is the glory of God, and therefore must needs be our excellency: Exod. xv. 11, 'Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?' So that to be holy is to put on the royal robe of the king of all the earth. Surely the more a man partakes of the nature and image of God, the more excellent he is. (2.) Beneficial goodness, or kindness and mercy; this is the first and chiefest name of God. So God told Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 19, 'I will cause all my goodness to pass before thee,' when he proclaimed his name: Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, 'And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for
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[SEC. X.
thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; Ps. xxxiii. 5, 'The whole earth is full of thy goodness;' Ps. exlv. 9, 'The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.' This doth first insinuate with us, and command our respect to him. The first temptation that ever was, was to weaken the conceit of his goodness. Now this is that which we are to imitate, to be good to all, and to do as much good as possibly we can.
SERMON X.
For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth.—Eph. v. 9.
Doct. 2. That one choice fruit of the Spirit wrought in the children of light is righteousness.
To explain this point, I will show you—(1.) What is righteousness; (2.) That this is one of the fruits of the Spirit; (3.) That it is a choice fruit because of the benefits which accrue to us thereby.
I. What is righteousness? Sometimes it is taken as largely as holiness, for that grace which doth incline us to perform our duty to God and man; for there is a righteousness even in godliness, or giving God his due honour and worship: Mat. xxii. 21, 'Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.' More strictly it is taken for that grace which doth dispose and incline us to give every one his due, and is a branch of that love and charity which is the sum of the whole second table: Rom. xiii. 7, 8, 'Render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour. Owe no man anything but to love one another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.' There is a debt of justice that we owe to ordinary men, and of subjection to those whom God hath set over us, which must be discharged. One debt you must still owe to all men, and that is charity, and it must be so paid as that it be always owing. Now here the word 'righteousness' must be taken in a convenient latitude, mixed of both senses,—an inclination to do that which we know to be holy and just. Now this righteousness in christians is a fruit of the Spirit, and so a mark of their union with Christ; and therefore it must be advanced to a higher degree of perfection than that justice in heathens which is the fruit only of a natural conscience in us. It must look like a thing that cometh from a nature renewed and healed, or a divine supernatural principle, which doth not only alter the kind, but advance the degree of it. To evidence which—
1. Let us see what is the office of righteousness.
2. To what an height christianity advanceth it above all other institutions in the world.
First, What is the office and part of justice and righteousness?
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1. To seek the peace and welfare of the several communities and societies in which we live, or in preferring the public good before our own. We owe a debt of love to our country. God directeth his people to seek the good of Babylon while his providence continued them there: Jer. xxix. 7, 'And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace;' that is, in regard of their own interest in the common rest and quietness during their abode there; otherwise we are to pray for the downfall of Babylon. All passengers are concerned in the vessel wherein they are embarked. And if we are to seek the welfare of Babylon, much more are we to seek the welfare of Sion, where we live in christian society: Ps. exxii. 6, 'Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.' A christian community is represented as a body, and in a body the members should have a care one of another, and for the whole: I Cor. xii. 15, 'If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?' Well, then, this is the first part and office of justice, to perform the debt we owe to our country, for public interests must be preferred before private.
2. To give to every man his due; to use faithful dealing in all the duties we owe to others, or in all actions wherein we are employed and entrusted by others. We must be just in our trading and bargaining, according to the value of the things; in paying our debts, and preserving the rights of others, and giving due honour to the eminently holy. Because it is endless to instance in all, therefore there is a general rule: Mat. vii. 12, 'Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.' The equity of the rule is built upon two grounds—the actual equality of all men by nature, and the possible equality of all men by condition and state of life. The actual equality of all men by nature, for they were all made by the same God: Job xxxi. 15, 'Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?' So Mal. ii. 10, 'Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? Why do we then deal treacherously every man against his neighbour?' So Neb. v. 5, 'Our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, and our children as their children.' The possible equality of all men by condition and state of life: we may be brought into the same state. All are alike subject to corruption and calamity. To corruption, therefore be not severe on the failings of others: Gal. vi. 1, 'Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.' To calamity: Heb. xiii. 3, 'Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them: and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.' You may be exposed to like calamities.
3. Fidelity in our relations is another part of justice; for all these relations imply a right which is due to others. So we must be just to superiors and inferiors. Magistrates must be just in governing: 2 Sam. xxiii. 3, 'He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.' And it is said of David, 2 Sam. viii. 15, that 'he executed judgment and justice to all his people.' A good magistrate is νόμος
[SER. X.
ἐμψυχος, a living law. And people must be just in obeying; inferiors in performing their duties to their superiors, children to their parents: Eph. vi. 1, 'Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.' There is a right depending there. Masters to servants: Col. iv. 1, 'Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal.' Wives to their husbands: Col. iii. 18, 'Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.' So proportionably to all other relations.
Secondly, To what a height christianity advanceth these things.
1. Because it deduceth things from a higher principle, the fixed principle of a nature renewed by Christ. There are in it three things —(1.) Another nature put into us, a fixed principle; (2.) And this by the Spirit's operation, and so it is a supernatural principle; (3.) This working after a kindly manner, by faith in Christ, and love to God in Christ, and so it is a forcible principle.
[1.] It is a fixed principle: Eph. iv. 24, 'And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.' When the heart is thus constituted and framed, that to be unjust, or to do anything unjust, is as unsuitable to them as it is for venomous berries to grow upon a choice vine. As it is said of such a one that he did good quia aliter facere non poterat, because he could not do otherwise, the same doth the new nature; it doth more than moral habits: 1 John iii. 9, 'Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.' Now if the same grace that maketh us submissive to God maketh us also just and harmless to men, surely it is a great advantage when righteousness is another nature to us.
[2.] It is a supernatural principle. The mere motion of our own human spirit cannot enforce us, and incline us to righteousness so much as the Spirit of God: 'The gentiles do by nature the things contained in the law,' Rom. ii. 14. But here is a divine power, and so a more perfect principle. Take the human spirit as coming from God ut author natura, as the author of nature: Rom. i. 19, 'Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them;' or ut author gratia, as the author of grace, as God hath renewed them, and given them a new frame: Eph. ii. 10, 'We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.' But here is actual assistance: Ezek. xxxvi. 27, 'I will put my Spirit into you, and cause you to walk in my statutes; and ye shall keep my judgments and do them.' The short is this, nature cannot do as much as grace, nor habitual grace infused so much as grace actually assisted by a divine and powerful assistance.
[3.] It is a forcible and kindly principle; for it is such a principle as worketh by the love of God, and hopes of glory; for 'Faith worketh by love,' Gal. v. 6, as the apostle expresseth it. What will not such a principle do? faith representing what God hath done for us in Christ, and what he will further do. If we look back, what wonders of love doth faith represent to work us to an obedience to God's will! If we look forward, what hopes of glory and blessedness are set before us! Redemption by Christ and hopes of glory are more powerful and forcible principles than any reasons mere bare nature can suggest. No wonder that they who never felt the force of faith and love to God upon their souls do so much cry up bare formality. Take faith as it representeth heaven to us, or our proper felicity in the vision and fruition of God, surely that doth establish righteousness upon sure terms, and advanceth it at a higher rate than all the arguments taken from our worldly interest and conveniences: Acts xxiv. 14-16. 'Believing all things that are written in the law and the prophets: and have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men.' Take the other principle, love to God. Indeed the immediate principle of justice is love to man, for all the second table is comprised in this, to 'love thy neighbour as thyself;' but love to man is but a stream from a higher fountain, which is love to God: 1 John iv. 21, 'And this commandment we have from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also.' Our love to our brother must be both excited and measured by our love to God. We must love all mankind, and all his creatures which bear his image; his natural image in all men, his spiritual image in his saints.
2. Because it measureth and directeth things by a more perfect rule than the law of nature. Our rule is God's word, which is a more pure and perfect rule than so much of the law as remaineth written upon man's heart after the fall. As natural conscience worketh more coldly than a principle of grace or faith working by love, so it is a more imperfect rule and direction to us, and we have a larger understanding of our duty by what God hath revealed in his word than otherwise we could have. We are told, Prov. xv. 21, 'That a man of understanding walketh uprightly.' To be thorough in our duty there needeth to be a large, deep, and solid judgment, sufficiently informed out of the word of God. But what instruction doth the word of God give in this point? To tell you that were to transcribe the whole bible, so far as it concerneth this duty of man to man. But in the general—
[1.] It requireth to be just in all things; to keep a good conscience in the smallest matter; not only in our public and most momentous actions, but justice is to be observed in lesser things as well as in greater; for where heaven and hell are concerned, nothing is little: Luke xvi. 10, 'He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much.' Many will be righteous in some things, but in others dispense with themselves; but the good christian is careful to avoid all evil.
[2.] It requireth us to be just at all times, always exercising righteousness as God giveth opportunity and occasion: Ps. evi. 3, 'Blessed are they which keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times.' Not for a fit or pang, but ever; when it is cross to our interests as well as when it befriendeth them. A christian is to be just to friends and enemies. Many will be just to their friends, but there is nothing so disingenuous, bad, and cruel, but they think they may say it and do it to their enemies; but we must deprive none of their right.
[3.] To be not only just, but strictly just in our dealings: Deut. xvi. 20, 'That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou
[SEC. X.
mayest live, and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.' It is in the margin, and so in the Hebrew, Justice, justice shalt thou follow; that is, exact justice: it should be done in such eminency, that it may appear that God's people are notoriously much better than other men are. If you be but as they, you harden the carnal world, and they think there is no great matter in religion: 1 Thes. v. 21, 'Abstain from all appearance of evil;' at least when the honour of religion lieth at stake. I shall not be shy in giving you an eminent example of justice, which Austin thought fit twice to commemorate in his sermons. 'I shall tell you,' saith he, 'what was done by a very poor man at the time when I lived at Milan; the man that I tell you of was so poor, that he was under an usher of a grammar-school, but a sincere and real christian. This very poor man, who had hardly wherewith to sustain his life, found a purse of two hundred crowns; but being mindful of that justice which God requireth of his people, he set up in some public place a bill, giving notice of what he had found, that if any man had lost such a sum, he should come to such a place, to such a man, and receive it again. He that had lost the money heareth of the bill, cometh to the man, and giving sure tokens that it was his, he fully returned what he had found, without any defalcation or diminution. The other rejoicing that he had heard of his money again, and willing to make some requital, giveth him the tenth part, twenty of these crowns; but he would not take it; he offereth him ten, but he refuseth; at length desireth him that at least he would accept of but five, still the man that found the purse refuseth it. The other seeing the honesty of the man, throweth him the purse, saying, I have lost nothing, if you will take nothing. O my brethren,' saith Austin, 'what a strife was here between an honest finder and a thankful rewarder! The world was the theatre of this conflict, the spectator God. The finder at length being overcome by importunity, taketh what was offered, but presently gave it all to the poor, not reserving one crown for his own use. Consider, my brethren, such a glorious example, and consider what God's law can do upon the heart of the obedient: Justice, justice shalt thou follow.' Thus far he.
[4.] It requireth us to be just, whatever temptation we have to the contrary.
(1.) Of riches and worldly ends, which easily blind the mind, and will tempt us to authorise our usurpations of another's right with fair pretences. But, 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10, 'They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil.' Indulge it, and it will soon make a breach upon your duty; but when the lust of wealth is mortified, temptations have the less power over you. A man that is governed and influenced by carnal interest can never have this habit and disposition of righteousness, to carry it so equitably and fairly in all his dealings; for he that mindeth nothing but his own interest will soon believe that whatever is profitable is lawful; might and force will be right to him. Therefore you are never safe till you have learned to prefer your duty before your interest.
(2.) Of friends, kindred, and relations. We are often tempted to be unjust for their sakes, when it may be we are a little shy in our own case; for there conscience would beggle at it as too gross, but friendship puts an honest pretence upon it. I must love my friend, but usque ad aras; where religion forbids me, I must not keep friendship with men to break amity with God. He is our chief friend, and other obligations cease when his law interposeth by way of bar and restraint. Your friends may be dear to you, but truth and righteousness must be dearer: 2 Sam. xiii. 3, 'But Ammon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimcah, David's brother; and Jonadab was a subtile man.' It was an abuse of friendship when Jonadab would countenance Ammon in his sin, and so his friend proved his greatest foe by his pernicious counsel; though he was a friend to his person or sin, yet a foe to his soul. True friendship is grounded in God and virtue; to do for our friend, where his law is in no danger to be broken, is true friendship: Prov. xxvii. 6, 'Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.' To reprove them, and cross them in their sins, is to promote their salvation. So it holdeth good as to our party. It is gross partiality to aggravate the faults of others, and spare them because they are of our combination and society; because then for interest you lose conscience, when we think all is right and well done by those whom we best like, and all wrong that is never so well done by adversaries. Or else we shall soon fall into gross unrighteousness; as Barnabas was led away by Peter's dissimulation. No; when Peter walked not uprightly, Paul withstood him to the face, Gal. ii. 12. 13. Otherwise we have a stone and a stone, a weight and a weight.
(3.) We must not be drawn to do an unrighteous deed by fear or flattery. Sometimes fear is an evil counsellor, and we run into a snare if we be not fortified against it: Prov. xxix. 25, 'The fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.' Fear must be checked by a sure trust. God can bring us off from an inconvenience better than any injustice of ours. So by flattery many are enticed into evil, which otherwise they could not bring their hearts to commit: Prov. xxvi. 28, 'A flattering mouth worketh ruin;' Prov. xxix. 5, 'A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet;' that by worldly allurements or fair pretences and crafty insinuations draweth others into sin.
(4.) Do nothing unjust even for religion's sake. When men are secure of their end, they cure not what means they use. Alas! we should not step out of God's way for the greatest good in the world. A good end will not warrant an ill action. God needeth not our iniquity to uphold his interest. Christ hath other ways to get up than upon the devil's shoulders. Nothing dishonoureth God more than when men deceive, lie, break oaths, rebel against lawful authority, or use any sinful means to secure and promote religion. It is flat unbelief, and making more haste than good speed, to ease ourselves of our burdens and discontents by any sinful shifts: Job xiii. 7, 'Will ye speak wickedly for God, and talk deceitfully for him?' God needeth not my lie for his glory: Rom. iii. 7, 'For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged a sinner?' He will have no honour tendered to him but by
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[SER. X.
lawful and approved means. It argueth our impatiency and ill thoughts of God when we seek, like Jacob, to get the blessing by a wife.
(5.) Not by opportunity. Be not tempted to be unrighteous or unjust when put into places of power and trust; such have an opportunity of being unrighteous. Many are innocent because they have no opportunity to be otherwise. It is said, John xii. 6, that 'Judas was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.' If we will find the sin, God may righteously find the occasion. And when corrupt affections and suitable temptations and objects meet, it is dangerous to the soul. Well, then, the scripture showeth that we must not depart from our rule and resolution of righteous and just dealing upon any temptation whatsoever. Many resolve to be just, but when the temptation cometh, their resolution is shaken. Oh, remember, the greatest gain will prove a loss and a hard bargain in the issue: Mat. xvi. 26, 'What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?' He that seeketh to pleasure others, or help himself by unjust means, doth but consult shame to himself and his friends.
3. Because it referreth them to a more noble end, which is the glory of God: 1 Cor. x. 31, 'Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God;' Phil. i. 11, 'Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God.' Now he that propoundeth to himself such an end is more exact and thorough in the use of means than another can be that only mindeth his own interest; for the baser the end is the more base are a man's actions; but the nobler end he hath, he liveth at a higher rate than others do. That which is done for God must be done in a godlike manner, or as will become the excellencies of God.
II. That this is one of the fruits of the Spirit. It must needs be so, because it suiteth with his office and personal operations. The Spirit is to be our guide, sanctifier, and comforter. As our guide, he doth direct and enlighten our minds; as our sanctifier, he doth change our hearts; and as our comforter, he doth pacify, and clear, and quiet our consciences. Now this fruit of righteousness is conducible to all these ends, or agreeable with these offices.
1. As our guide, he doth enlighten our minds with saving knowledge; and no knowledge is saving but what endeth in righteousness; as here: 'You are light in the Lord: walk as children of the light; for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness;' Jer. xxii. 16, 'He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me, saith the Lord?' We have no true knowledge of God, either of his nature or of the will of God, till this knowledge influence the duties of our callings and relations; for God is no further savingly known than he is obeyed, and that in all things which belong to our duty.
2. As our sanctifier, he doth change our hearts; and the true fruits of repentance and change of heart are the works of righteousness: Isa. i. 16, 17, 'Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.' This is particularly insisted on as the proper fruit of their change. So Dan. iv. 27, 'Break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor.' Repentance is a breaking off our former course of sin. And to a king that was an open persecutor Daniel preacheth righteousness and mercy. They that continue in their former unjust courses never yet repented. So Zech. viii. 16, 17, 'These are the things which ye shall do, Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord.' God would have their repentance thus expressed. Thus in the general; but more particularly, the fruit and work of the Spirit tendeth to this end, to make us like God, and amiable to God, to fit us for communion with God, and to glorify God in the eyes of the world; and much of this is done by righteousness; certainly nothing is done without it.
[1.] By it we are made like God, and do resemble his divine perfections: Ps. cxlv. 17, 'The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.' There is a perfect holiness in his nature, and a condecency in all his actions; and when our natures are sanctified, and all our actions are righteous and holy, we are framed after this pattern: Eph. iv. 24, 'And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.'
[2.] The work of the Spirit is to make us acceptable and pleasing unto God. Now the just and righteous man is an object of his complacency: Prov. xv. 9, 'The way of the wicked is abomination unto the Lord; but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness.' The Lord loveth all his creatures with a general love, but with a special love he loveth those that bear his image. He doth not love any because they are rich and mighty, fair and beautiful, valiant and strong, but as holy and righteous. So it is said, Prov. xxi. 3, 'To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.' God hath required both, and men should make conscience of both; yet the one is to be preferred before the other, though the one be a duty of the first table, the other of the second; because moral and substantial duties are better than ceremonial. Internal duties are to be preferred before external, and duties evident by natural light before things of positive institution; as appeareth by this, that God doth accept of moral duties without ceremonial observances: 'In every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.' Acts x. 35. But God never accepteth of ceremonial observances without moral duties; he still rejecteth their offerings when they neglected justice: Micah vi. 7, 8, 'Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rains, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?' Again, he dispenseth with ceremonials and externals of religion when they come in competition with moral duties, even of the second table; as David's eating the show-bread when an hungred, Mat. xii. 3, 4. But he never dispenseth with moral duties. Well, then, how right and punctual soever we be in other things, unless we show mercy, and do justice, we are not accepted with God, though we are zealous for or against ceremonies, or are of the strictest party in religion. Indeed, we cannot say they are better than faith, and love, and
[SER. X.
the fear of God, and hope in his grace; for these are the substantial duties of the first table. And compare substantials with substantials, first-table duties are more weighty; but compare internals of the second with externals of the first, moral duties of the second with the ceremonies of the first, duties natural and evident with the merely positive and instituted, these are more weighty. To conclude, let me add that of the psalmist: Ps. xi. 7, 'The righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.'
[3.] Righteousness fitteth for communion with God. True it is the righteous have an easy access to God, and are sure of audience: Ps. xvii. 15, 'As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness.' Saul will not see my face, but this comforteth me, that I can behold thy face. Lord, thou wilt look upon me, be gracious to me, and hear my prayer, because I desire to come before thee in righteousness. God will not hear the prayers of the unjust, nor accept their offerings, 'till judgment run down as a river, and righteousness as a mighty stream,' Amos v. 23, 24; and rejecteth the Jewish fast, Isa. lviii., because they did not loose the bands of wickedness, and undo the heavy burden, and let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke.
[4.] The work of the Spirit is to enable us to glorify God in the eyes of the world, which is very much done by righteousness; for this is very lovely and venerable in the eyes of the worst sort of men. A christian, if he had no other engagement upon him, yet, for the honour of God and the credit of religion, he should do those things which are lovely and comely in themselves, and so esteemed by the world. Natural conscience reverenceth righteousness: Mark vi. 20, 'Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man, and observed him.' When you give every one their due, you bring more honour to God and credit to religion; you can better hold up the credit of it against contradiction. Justice is so lovely a thing, partly as it is a stricture of the image of God; it is said, Prov. xii. 26, 'The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour;' for all excellency and perfection is determined by conformity to God. And partly because the welfare of human society is promoted by it; for 'these things are good and profitable to men,' Titus iii. 8. They are such good things as the world is most capable to know and own. There are some things which none but christians themselves approve, as the positive rites of religion, or the peculiar mysteries thereof. These the carnal world are no capable judges of. Acts xviii. 13-15, 'This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to law. And when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong, or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you; but if it be a question of words, and names, and of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge of such matters.' But there are other things which the world approveth; there are certain common principles wherein we agree. Nature approveth goodness, justice, and truth, as corrupt as it is, though not faith and sacraments. The unbelieving world reverenceth these things as good, and of a divine original.
3. The third office of the Spirit is to be a comforter. Now righteousness affordeth peace of conscience, and quietness and holy security: 2 Cor. i. 12, 'For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our consciences, that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world; ' Ps. xcvii. 11, ' Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart; ' Prov. xxix. 6, ' The righteous doth sing and rejoice; ' that is, whatever befalleth him, good or evil, much or little, in life or death. And he hath comfort in his portion, because what he hath he hath by the fair leave and allowance of God's providence; if it be little, that little is better than more gotten by fraud and injustice: Prov. xvi. 8, ' Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right; ' Ps. xxxvii. 16, ' A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.' Suppose their condition be evil, yet still they have ground of comfort; if scorned or neglected, yet he hath the comfort of his innocent dealing to bear him out; as Samuel when he and his house were laid aside: 1 Sam. xii. 3, ' Behold, here I am; witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed; whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received bribes to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.' If opposed or maligned, as Moses: Num. xvi. 15, ' And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the Lord, Respect not thou their offering; I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them.' If oppressed: Ps. cxix. 121, ' I have done judgment and justice; leave me not to my oppressors.' Suppose death cometh: ' The righteous hath hope in his death,' Prov. xiv. 32; Isa. xxxviii. 3, ' And he said, Remember, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee, in truth, and with a perfect heart.' When he is going the way of all the earth, this will be a comfort to him, that he hath done no wrong, that he hath served God faithfully, and lived with men without guile and deceit. Oh, for the comforts of a dying hour! The crooked, the subtle, the deceitful have them not, but those that walk with a simple plain-hearted honesty.
III. It is a choice fruit of the Spirit.
1. Because it conduceth so much to the good of human society. A christian is a member of a double community, of the church and of the world; the one in order to eternal life, the other in order to the present life: in the latter he is considered as a man, in the former as a christian. Now the righteous are pillars of human societies, that keep up a spirit of truth and justice in the world, without which it would be but as a den of thieves, or filled with liars, deceivers, robbers, enemies. Remota justitia, saith Austin, quid fiunt regna nisi magna latrocinia? The world cannot subsist without justice. 'The king's throne is established by righteousness,' Prov. xvi. 12. The honour and reputation of any nation is kept up: Prov. xiv. 34, ' Righteousness exalteth a nation.' Never did the people of the Jews, nor any other nation whose history is come to our ears, flourish so much as when they were careful and exact in maintaining righteousness. And as to persons, all commerce between man and man is kept up by it. Surely it is God, and not the devil, that governeth the world, and distributeth the rewards and blessings of this life; therefore the way to do well in the world is not lying, cozening, and dissembling, but a strict obedience to God's holy will.
2. Because of the many promises of God, both as to the world to come and the present life. As to the world to come, the question is put, Ps. xv. 1 (and it were well if we would put it oftener), ' Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?' And
[SER. XI.
it is answered, ver. 2, 'He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.' Others are excluded: 1 Cor. vi. 9, 'Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?' So for this world there are many promises. Take a taste: Prov. x. 2, 'Treasures of wickedness profit not; but righteousness delivereth from death.' How soon can God blow upon and blast an ill-gotten estate! Job xx. 12-15, 'Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; though he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his mouth; yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly;' and ver. 26, 'A fire not blown shall consume him;' Job v. 3, 'I have seen the foolish taking root; but suddenly I cursed his habitation.'
Use 1. (1.) To show what a friend religion is to human societies, that placeth so much in righteousness. It preventeth all that is false, bad, unjust or cruel, and teacheth us to be tender, not only over other men's persons and estates, but names. Grace doth not abolish so much of nature as is good, but refine and sublimate it, by causing us to act from higher principles to higher ends, and maketh these duties doubly dear to us, in the flesh and in the Lord.
(2.) It showeth where the safety of christians lieth, in their righteousness. God is their protector: 1 Peter iii. 13, 'Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?' And there is a strong conviction in the consciences of wicked men: 1 Sam. xxiv. 17, 'And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I; for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.' Moral duties are not small things, when the glory of God, the safety of his people, and comfort of our sincerity lieth in them.
Use 2. To press you to get this fruit of the Spirit.
1. Propound to do nothing but what is agreeable to righteousness and honesty: Prov. xii. 5, 'The thoughts of the righteous are right, but the counsels of the wicked are deceit.'
2. Be always exercising righteousness: Ps. cvi. 3, 'Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times.'
3. Teach it to your children: Gen. xviii. 19, 'I know Abraham, that he will command his children, and his household after him; and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do judgment and justice.'
[See more of this in Sermon on Ps. cxix. 121.]
SERMON XI.
Goodness, righteousness, and truth.—Eph. v. 9.
Doct. 3. That to make a christian complete in his carriage towards men, to goodness and righteousness there must be added truth.
Let me inquire here—(1.) What is truth; (2.) That it must be made conscience of by the children of light; (3.) Why truth must be added to goodness and righteousness.
I. What is meant by truth? Ans. Sincerity or uprightness in all our speeches and dealings with men. But because integrity of life, and uprightness in our commerce and dealings with others, is a great branch of righteousness, therefore here we must consider it as an opposite to falsehood or a lie in speech; yet not excluding either godly sincerity, which is the root of it: 'Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,' Ps. li. 6; or internal integrity and righteousness: Jer. v. 1, 'Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth;' where truth is put for integrity of life. But here we take it chiefly for simplicity of speech, without lying and dissimulation; as also it is taken, Ps. xv. 2, 'He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart;' that is, maketh conscience of what he speaketh, ruling his tongue so as it may go with his heart. To understand this sort of truth, we must consider what a lie is. Men are said to lie when they do wittingly or willingly, and with a purpose to deceive by speech, signify to others that which is false. The matter of a lie is falsehood, the formality of it is an intention to deceive; the outward sign is speech. Gestures are a sign by which we discover our mind, but an imperfect sign; the special instrument of human commerce is speech. Now there is a twofold lying—a lying to God, and a lying to men.
1. A lying to God is the worst sort of lying, because it argueth not only falsity and evil hypocrisy, but misbelief or ill thoughts of God, as if he did not know the heart and try the reins, and is contented to be mocked with a false appearance. We lie to God when we put him off with a false appearance and show of what is not in the heart, as if he could be deceived with outsides and vain pretences: Hosea xi. 12, 'Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit;' meaning their false and deceitful pretences of repentance, because they relented a little, and did some outward acts that might be a sign and show of repentance, especially in a time of trouble: Ps. lxxviii. 36, 'Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.' Their hearts were not sincerely set against sin, whatever pangs of devotion they had for the present: Ezek. xxiv. 12, 'She hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her.' When the pot was over the fire, the scum came a-top, and seemed ready to be cast out, but it was swallowed up again; for all their pretences of repentance, they were not cleansed from their open and notorious sins. To this purpose also is another similitude: Hosea vii. 16, 'They return, but not to the Most High; they are like a deceitful bow.' They did not sincerely intend what they promised; as a man that shooteth, but doth not level right, or take care to direct the arrow to the mark. So they cast out promises to get rid of trouble, but do not seriously set their hearts to accomplish them; their repentance was but as a show, they aimed at nothing in it but to deceive God.
2. As to men; and so there are several sorts of lies. We may distinguish them thus—either from the matter, or the end, or the formality used in lying.
(1.) From the matter, and so a lie is twofold—assertory or promissory.
[SER. XI.
[1.] An assertory lie is when a man, in a matter that is past or present, reporteth that as false which he knoweth to be true, and that as true which he knoweth to be false. This is called in scripture speaking with a double heart: Ps. xii. 2, 'They speak vanity every one with his neighbour, with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak;' or with a heart and a heart, as if he had one heart to conceive of the matter as it is, and another heart to furnish the tongue. Instances of this falsehood in our assertions, or untrue relating of things done, are frequent; as Ananias, who brought part of the money for which he sold his possession, instead of the whole: Acts v. 3, 'Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?' It was a lie, and a lie to the Holy Ghost, as being pretended to be done by his motion and inspiration, or because of his presidency in church affairs, where the Holy Ghost doth all.
[2.] A promissory lie is when we promise for the time to come what we never intend to perform; and this is the worse, because it doth not only pervert the end of speech, which is truth, but we also defeat another of that right which we seemed to give him in the thing promised, which is a further degree of injustice, as being not only against veracity, but righteousness. Vain and empty promises are a great evil, when we make show of kindness to others without any intent to do them good: Prov. xix. 22, 'The desire of a man is his kindness; and a poor man is better than a liar.' The meaning is, that which is desired of a man is his favour in such or such a business, wherein he hath power to help you. Now many great men, that covet the praise and reputation of doing a good office or kind turn, are very forward in promises, but fail in performance; and therefore Solomon, who had observed the course of the world, telleth you that a poor man that loveth you, and will do his best, is a surer friend than such great men as only give you good words, or sprinkle you with a little court holy-water, but will do nothing for you.
[2.] From the end; and so there are three sorts of lies—mendacium jocosum, the sporting lie, tending to our recreation and delight; mendacium officiosum, the officious lie, tending to others' profit; and mendacium perniciosum, the pernicious and hurtful lie, tending to our neighbour's prejudice.
(1.) The sporting lie, when an untruth is devised for merriment. I do not remember any instance of this in scripture, unless it may be intended in that place, Hosea vii. 4, 'They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.' They stick not at any sin, so they may make the princes merry. But this I am sure of, that it is a sin to speak an untruth, and we must not make a jest of sin: Prov. xxvi. 19, 'So is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport?' No; if a christian will be merry, he hath other diversions: James v. 13, 'If any be merry, let him sing psalms;' Eph. v. 4, 'Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.' Let him not speak things against the sense of his own mind, especially by false representations traduce the godly, and make religion ridiculous, and say, I am in sport. Idle words are to be accounted for: Mat. xii. 36, 'I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof at the day of judgment.' Let him use harmless recreations, without accusing his brother falsely, or shamming him with devised lies. Now to this sporting lie a fable or parable is not to be reduced, because it is an artificial way of representing truth; as when Jotham bringeth in the trees conferring and consulting about their king, Judges ix. 8. Nor yet such sharp and piercing ironies as we find used by holy men in the scripture; as when Elijah saith, I Kings xviii. 27, 'He is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey; or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked;' for this is a notable way to make truth strike upon the heart with the more force.
(2.) The officious lie, for the help and relief of ourselves or others. Instances we have of this in the scripture. Thus Rebecca teacheth Jacob to lie, that he might gain the blessing, Gen. xxvii.; and the Egyptian midwives saved the male children of the Israelites by feigning they were delivered before they came to them, Exod. i. 17, 18; unless it may be extenuated, that so it was sometimes, and they might send to them to use the help of other women. Though it be so, they feared God, and were rewarded by God. Non remunerata est fallacia, sed benevolentia—Not their lie, but their mercy was rewarded: their mercy was commended, but their infirmity pardoned. So Rahab saved the spies by telling the men of her city that they were gone, when she had hidden them under the stalks of flax, Josh. ii. 5-7. Thus Michal, to save David, feigned that he was sick, I Sam. xiv. 14; and David advised Jonathan to an officious lie for his safety, I Sam. xx. 6; and Hushai by temporising with Absalom, preserved David, 2 Sam. xvi. 17-19; and to divide his counsels, pretendeth hearty affection to him. But we are to live by rule, not by examples; and a good cause must be followed by lawful means; and courage and constancy will do more in these cases than dissimulation, and tend more to the glory of God, and the preservation of ourselves and others.
(3.) There is a pernicious lie, to the hurt and prejudice of others. Of this nature was that first lie by which all mankind was ruined: Gen. iii. 4, 5, 'And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.' And Jacob's children's lie concerning Joseph: Gen. xxxvii. 31, 32, 'This we have found; know now whether it be thy son's coat, yea or no.' And that of the Jewish elders concerning Christ, who said that his disciples stole him away by night, Mat. xxviii. 12-14. All lying is forbidden, but more especially this sort. I say, all these sorts are lies, for the scripture condemneth all without distinction: Eph. iv. 25, 'Wherefore put away all lying.' And all liars are shut out of the new Jerusalem, Rev. xxi. 8. And again, Rev. xxii. 15, 'Whosoever loveth and maketh a lie' is cast into hell. They all violate the natural order which God hath appointed between the heart and the tongue, and the law which he hath given to preserve faith in the world. The sporting lie is unnecessary, for we have other honest recreations wherewith to divert our minds. And though officious lies are not to the hurt but good of others, yet they are to the hurt and prejudice of the truth. A man is not to lie for God, and therefore not for another
[SER. XI.
man; he hindereth a greater good, which is the truth of commerce between mankind, and he hurteth his own soul. Sin depriveth us of a greater good. And Augustin telleth us of one Firmus who was firmus nomine and firmior voluntate, who being interrogated by the persecutors about such a person or persons as he knew concealed, respondit mentiri nec posse nec hominem prodere, and suffered many torments, till he obtained a pardon both for himself and them. But of all lies, the pernicious lie is most pernicious. To deceive others with an untruth, or to lie to their wrong, is both horrible falsehood and injustice.
[3] A lie from the formality used in making it may be distinguished thus—
(1.) A lie committed in ordinary commerce, when we speak of things or persons otherwise than we know to be true. This is a lie; for our words ought always to be agreeable to our minds. Thus Job speaketh of his friends: Job xiii. 4, 'But ye are forgers of lies.' Because they accused him unjustly, though it were not in a juridical process. And Christ of the Jews: John viii. 55, 'And if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you;' and Ps. cix. 2, 'For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me; they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.' Thus impudent backbiters will in secret vent their calumnies and slanders, and avouch the most false things as truth; and so a good man is secretly hurt and wounded many times, and his reputation and service prejudiced when he knoweth it not.
(2.) A lie committed in courts of judicature; as Exod. xxiii. 1, 'Thou shalt not raise a false report; put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.' So ver. 7, 'Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not; for I will not justify the wicked.' Now this is the most heinous sort of lying, because it perverteth God's ordinance, appointed for the finding out of right and wrong, truth and falsehood, and turns a tribunal of justice into a record of iniquity: Ps. xciv. 10, 'He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?' Partly because witnesses are sworn; and perjury, a lie confirmed by an oath, is no small crime: 'God will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain,' Exod. xx. 7. Partly because they are bound to witness the truth, and the whole truth, concerning the fact in hand, which in ordinary commerce we are not bound to do. Indeed in ordinary speech our purpose should be to inform our neighbour, not to deceive him; but we are not bound to inform him in all things, or to make known all that is true in every matter of fact, but when we are called thereto by justice and charity. I must speak falsehood at no time, but I am not bound at every time to speak the whole truth; but in matters of testimony, I must speak all that belongeth to that fact in question, without fraud or collusion. Therefore this is the most criminal sort of lying. Partly because my neighbour is greatly wronged by it; he is wronged by privy detraction, but more evidently wronged by a false testimony in judgment; not only wronged in his reputation, but in his life or estate; not only before a few, but in the face of his country, before all who shall have notice of it; and wronged in a solemn way, not by whispers, but by a sentence given by God's deputies and officers in the throne of judgment or seat of justice.
II. Why must it be made conscience of by the children of light, or those who are 'light in the Lord'?
I answer—For these reasons—
1. Because it is a sin most contrary to the nature of God, who is truth itself; it is not only contrary to his will but to his nature: Titus i. 2, 'In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.' He can do all things, but he cannot lie. What a case had the world been in if God could lie, or were not of undoubted truth! for then we could be sure of nothing; no sure direction by his word, nor comfort by his promises. Therefore lying is a sin that maketh us unlike God. God cannot lie, nor command us to lie. He can command us to take the life of another, for he commanded Abraham to offer Isaac; the life of all creatures are at his dispose. He can command us to take the goods of another, as when the Israelites spoiled the Egyptians of their jewels; for he is the sovereign Lord of all, and can transfer right and property as he pleaseth from man to man: but God cannot lie, nor give command for any to lie, because it is contrary to his nature. And there is an impossibility in the case: Heb. vi. 18, 'That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie;' as it is impossible for God to cease to be God, or to act contrary to his nature. Therefore there cannot be a greater deformity or unlikeness to God than to be given to lying.
2. Because when God was incarnate, and came not only to represent the goodness of the divine nature, but also the holiness of it as a pattern for our imitation, Jesus Christ, this God incarnate, was eminent for this part of holiness, for sincerity and truth: 1 Peter ii. 22, 'Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.' This was Christ's character, and therefore it should be ours; for this is true religion, to imitate what we worship. You know Christ's commendation of Nathanael: John i. 47, 'Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile.' Why an Israelite indeed? Because he was like old Israel; for it is said of Jacob, who is also called Israel, that he was 'a plain man, and dwelt in tents,' Gen. xxv. 27. We may say of a plain-hearted christian, how weak soever he be otherwise, Behold a christian indeed, because he is like Christ. Therefore it is prophesied that in the days of the gospel: Zeph. iii. 13, 'The remnant of Israel shall do no iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth.' They shall be all like Christ. This prophecy intimateth both duty and event; it showeth not only what christians should be, but shall be, if they be true christians. Well, then, this is the essential commendation of a true christian. Some of God's saints may be famous for several graces, but all for truth; Moses for meekness, Phineas for zeal, Abraham for faith, David for devotion; but every one that is born of God, and accepted of God upon the account of Christ, for sincerity and truth. It is made the qualification of the pardoned to have no guile: Ps. xxxii. 2, 'Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.'
3. Nothing maketh us more like the devil, who is a liar from the beginning, and the father of lies: John viii. 44, 'Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do; he was a murderer
[SER. XI.
from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him: when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it.' All sins call him father, but chiefly a lie; for he brought sin into the world by the way of lying at the first. And therefore to be given to lying argueth too much prevalency of the satanical nature. The disposition to lie is the image of the devil, the act is the work of the devil: Acts v. 3, 'Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?' and should the children of light be like the father of lies?
4. It is a sin most contrary to the new nature wrought in the saints, and seemeth to offer more violence to it than other sins. The new nature may be considered doubly, either as to mortification or vivification; the sins we put off, or the graces it produceth; both from the one and the other consideration the scripture reasoneth against lying. From the 'corrupt nature' which is put off: Col. iii. 9, 'Lie not one to another, seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds;' that is, never suggest or say any false thing to the injury of another, since this is a principal part of that corrupt nature which we have put off, and course of life which ye have all renounced. Naturally we are all full of guile and falsehood; now as a battered vessel must be new cast before it be brought into any frame, so till the heart be renewed we are crooked, perverse, deceitful. Now what the new nature renounceth and destroyeth must not be cherished again. Sometimes from the 'new nature' which is put on; as Eph. iv. 24, 25, 'And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness: wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour; for we are members one of another.' Therefore this is a very odious and unseemly sin in a christian, and inconsistent with the grace which he hath received, or contrary to that sincerity and true holiness which is the fruit of regeneration. Therefore God presumeth that his people will hate and abhor this sin: Isa. lxiii. 8, 'For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie.' He expecteth that his children will not deal falsely, nor circumvent and deceive others, since he hath framed them for this very thing, cured and set straight the crooked spirit in them, and disposed and fitted them to deal sincerely, or to do all things as in his sight, according to his will, and for his glory.
5. It is a sin most contrary to human society. Man is by nature ζῶον πολιτικον, a creature fitted for society. Now all society is founded in truth; take away truth and you destroy all human converse, and there could be no living, nor trading, nor dwelling together; for if there be no truth, we are unfit to be trusted, and so it overthroweth all the commerce of the world. If it were lawful to vend counterfeit money without any restraint, how suspicious would men be, and cast away true gold and silver as suspecting all? Now money, which is the material instrument of commerce, is not so necessary as truth and fidelity, which is the root and foundation of it. Therefore God, as for other reasons, so for the good of mankind, hath condemned all lying, that mutual commerce may not be destroyed. Much more doth this hold good where the community is not only human, but christian, and so we all belong to the same mystical body; so the apostle urgeth it: Eph. iv. 25, 'Speak every one truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another.' Members should seek one another's welfare as much as they do their own; and it is monstrous for one member to deceive and defraud another; therefore the Lord commandeth truth, and the Holy Spirit werketh this truth in us, that we may be heartily and really serviceable and faithful one to another, as members of the same body.
6. Lying is a sin very hateful to God, and against which he hath expressed much of his displeasure. Partly by express declaration of his mind. A lying tongue is reckoned among those six things which God hateth: Prov. vi. 17, 'A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood.' Nay, that it may not be forgotten or lost in the crowd, it is again mentioned in ver. 19, 'A false witness that speaketh lies, and him that soweth discord among brethren;' so again, Prov. xii. 21, 22, 'There shall no evil happen to the just; but the wicked shall be filled with mischief: lying lips are an abomination to the Lord; but they that deal truly are his delight.' Now certainly we should hate what God hateth, and love what God loveth; for to nill and will the same things is true amity and agreement. Partly by his threatenings of destruction, both in this life and in the life to come: Ps. v. 6, 'Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing;' Prov. xix. 5, 'He that speaketh lies shall not escape;' first or last God will cut them off as unfit for human converse. The first remarkable instance of God's vengeance in the new testament was for a lie: Acts v. 5, 'And Ananias hearing these words, fell down, and gave up the ghost; and great fear came on all them that heard these things.' And in the life to come: Rev. xxi. 8, 'All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.' Now, when God is so express in denouncing his judgments against such kind of sinners, all that have a tender heart will tremble.
7. It is a sin shameful and odious in the eyes of men. The more common honesty any man hath, the further he is from it, especially the more he hath of the spirit of grace: Prov. xiii. 5, 'A righteous man hateth lying; but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame.' All men hate a liar, because they suspect him; this is that they gain by lying, that they are the less credited, and not believed, even when they speak truth. Therefore it concerneth God's children to keep up the full value of their testimony, and to carry it so that all their words may be received with respect and reverence. Christ used such plainness in his converse as a man, that his word was enough: John xiv. 2, 'If it were not so, I would have told you.' The Persians had such a respect for truth, that he that was three times convicted of a lie was never more to treat or speak in public affairs. Indeed men most guilty of it cannot endure to be charged with it. Zedekiah smote Micaiah on the check when he told him of his lying spirit, 1 Kings xxii. 23, 24. Those that do not abstain from it as sinful count a lie shameful. Though they have no conscience to make a lie before God, yet they count it a disgrace to take the lie from men, because thereby they are judged unfit for human society, or useless, if not dangerous to others.
III. Why this must be added to goodness and righteousness.
1. Because they cannot be preserved without it. Not goodness, for
[SER. XL it will only be a counterfeit show, that endeth in empty words, and promises or pretences of kindness when there is hatred in the heart: 'Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth,' 1 John iii. 18; and again, Rom. xii. 9, 'Let love be without dissimulation; abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.' Many pretend in their professions, speeches, and promises, a great deal of goodness, but in their hearts intend it not, but seek to get loose upon all occasions. Men live by interest more than by conscience; so righteousness cannot be preserved except there be truth; they are seeking some fair pretence for an unjust and wrongful course. When once the heart is hardened in lying, it is fit for all manner of injustice; for a liar will stick at nothing, and most of our injurious practices are covered by a lie: Prov. xii. 17, 'He that speaketh truth showeth forth righteousness; but a false witness, deceit.' They that make no conscience of lying will stick at no manner of unrighteousness; but when their interest leadeth them, will swallow perjury as well as lying, or purloin and overreach others when they have an opportunity. There is no hold of them; for when there is such a gap opened in the conscience, what sin will be kept out? If the laws restrain them from violence, they will do injury to others by deceit, which is so natural to them. And so the security of the world is not sufficiently provided for till truth be joined to the other graces.
2. The life of goodness and righteousness lieth in truth, and so they cannot be thoroughly exercised unless truth be added. Sincerity runs through all the graces. As to the upper part of religion, truth enliveneth all our worship. Where God is sincerely loved and worshipped, he is more thoroughly served and obeyed: Isa. xxxviii. 3, 'Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight;' 1 Chron. xxviii. 9, 'And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind.' Sincerity doth its best. So in the lower hemisphere of duty, truth maketh us more exactly righteous and industriously good. It maketh us more exactly righteous. There are many cases arise about what is just and equal, and surely it is very profitable to have a deep, solid, and large understanding, and where we are at a loss ourselves, to consult with others; but the best resolver of hard questions, next to the Holy Ghost, is in our own bosoms. Sincerity will sooner interpret our duty; it is fleshly wisdom which breedeth all or most of our perplexities. A sincerely righteous man hath that within him that inclines him to righteous things: Prov. xii. 5, 'The thoughts of the righteous are right;' Ps. xxxvii. 31, 'The law of God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.' So it maketh us industriously good. A man truly good is much directed by the inclination of his own heart: Isa. xxxii. 8, 'But the liberal man deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand.' They are always seeking out occasions of doing good: Heb. vi. 10, 'Ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.' And he speaketh there of a labour of love. There needeth not much ado with the sincere, for their hearts are inclined to these things.
Use 1. To reprove many, because they make so little conscience of truth. Lying is a more general and common sin than we imagine. Those expressions intimate it: Rom. iii. 4, 'Let God be true, but every man a liar.' The phrase intimately, that though there be none in God, yet there is much falseness and unfaithfulness in men; and it is said, Ps. lviii. 3, 'The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.' Falsehood and lies are kindly sins to a natural heart, they break out early; before they go, they went astray; the seed of these sins is in them, as if they began to lie as soon as they came out of their mother's womb. And as it is an early sin, so it is universal: Ps. xii. 1, 2, 'The faithful fail from among the children of men, they speak vanity every one with his neighbour, with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.' This is the general disposition of mankind. The most sacred bonds will not bind or hold them to any truth and righteousness; and a man knoweth scarce who to believe, the simplicity of commerce being almost lost in the world.
Use 2. It showeth how much they give suspicion that they are not children of light who have not this truth wrought in them. Some good men may lie, as the scriptures show, but they are not given to lying. The very act is a foul sin; but every lie doth not argue a graceless estate. It is a sin more contrary to sincerity than other sins, yet some few acts are not altogether destructive of it. David prayeth, 'Remove from me the way of lying,' Ps. cxix. 29; that showeth he was too prone to it, he had been too faulty in that kind. How many acts show the habit is very hard to determine; and in so weighty a case as the assurance of salvation, we should not leave the matter suspicious and questionable. He that will sin as often as may stand with saving grace shall never have assurance of his sincerity till he break this course and way of lying by repentance; and for the present there is a bar against his actual entrance into heaven, or a present unfitness, till his reconciliation be made with God.
Use 3. See that ye be found in this grace also, as well as in goodness and righteousness. God is truth, and requireth truth, and delighteth in truth: Ps. li. 6, 'Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts.' It is your strength, as a girdle to your loins: Eph. vi. 14, 'Having your loins girt about with truth.' It is your comfort, downright honesty breedeth rejoicing: 2 Cor. i. 12, 'For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world.' Therefore we should make great conscience of truth, putting away all lying.
The means are these—
1. Get your hearts healed and renewed by the Spirit. Till we have a right spirit, we may speak truth out of interest, or for other reasons; but we are always in danger of being crooked and deceitful, for the old heart is inclined to lying and deceit. It is called the 'old man, which is corrupt according to his deceitful lusts,' Eph. iv. 22. There are swarms of lusts will put us upon it, malice, envy, pride, vainglory, worldly affections.
2. Let us hate it as a horrid sin; do not think it a venial matter: Ps. cxix. 163, 'I hate and abhor lying, but thy law do I love.' A slight hatred is not sufficient to guard us against it.
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3. Remember your spiritual conflict. You never give your enemy so great an advantage as by falsehood and guile of spirit. Satan's weapons against you are wiles and darts; 'wiles,' Eph. vi. 11, and 'fiery darts,' ver. 16. Against his darts or blasphemous thoughts you oppose faith, and against his wiles your strength lieth in downright honesty. Righteousness is your breastplate, and truth your girdle, ver. 14. This will guard you against his temptations, and give you strength and courage in the day of sore trial; it is strength against him both as a tempter and an accuser.
4. Heedfulness, or a constant watch over your tongue: Ps. xxxix. 1, 'I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me;' Ps. exli. 3, 'Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.' And this watch is quickened by the fear of God, in whose sight and hearing we always are.
5. Avoid the causes of lying. I shall mention some of them—
[1.] Pride and self-esteem. We all affect to seem better than we are, and what we want in real worth we make up by lying and foolish boasting. The 'lying tongue,' and 'the tongue that speaketh proud things,' are joined together, Ps. xii. 3.
[2.] Flattery, or a desire to ingratiate ourselves with great ones: Ps. xii. 2, 'With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.' A self-seeker is apt to flatter and fawn upon all that is rich and great and mighty, and to smooth them up with falsehoods and applauses. Flattering and tale-bearing is many men's trade.
[3.] Fear of men and distrust of God. This puts many upon their shifts to avoid their displeasure: Deut. xxxiii. 29, 'Thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee;' that is, feignedly submit themselves to thee.
[4.] Covetousness: Prov. xxi. 6, 'The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death.'
[5.] Doing that which we are ashamed to own; as naughty children and servants commit faults, and then cover them with a lie. Now it is dangerous to stand in need of a lie to help us out; the devil hath a tie upon you.
SERMON XII.
Proving what is acceptable to the Lord.—EPH. v. 10.
THE apostle goeth on further to declare what is required of them that walk as children of the light. Our duty consists of two parts—eschewing evil and doing good. How to do good is shown in this verse; what eschewing evil is required of us, the next verse showeth.
In the words observe—
1. The act, δοκιμάζοντες, 'Proving.'
2. The object, τὸ εὐάρεστον τῷ κυρίῳ, 'What is acceptable (or well-pleasing) to the Lord Christ.'
I. The act, 'proving.' The word signifieth so to prove as to approve and practise.
1. Sometimes it signifieth bare searching or examining: 1 Thes. v. 21, 'Prove all things.' So it noteth an accurate and continual study and endeavour to know God's will, by reading and meditating: Ps. i. 2, 'And in that law doth he meditate day and night.' By hearing and trying, as the Bereans are commended, Acts xvii. 11, 'In that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.' By praying and earnest seeking: Prov. ii. 3, 4, 'Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasure.' This, and the use of all other holy means, is the searching and examining commended to us.
2. Proving is put for approving: Rom. ii. 18, 'And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent.' We must not examine only, but approve what is good and true.
3. Taking upon ourselves an obligation to practise it: Rom. xii. 2, 'And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.' The meaning is, that you may understand and perform your duty: Phil. i. 10, 'That ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.' Approve by adopting into your manners and practices: it is δοκιμάζετε, the same word. Therefore, besides proving and approving, there must be performing, at least an endeavour; otherwise it is a ridiculous thing, and that which will never stand us in any stead, to examine what is pleasing to God, and practise the contrary.
II. The object, that which is pleasing or 'acceptable to the Lord.' There is a difference between things.
1. Some things utterly displease God, as sin: 2 Sam. xi. 27, 'But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.'
2. Some things are not displeasing unto God, as all natural and indifferent actions, which are not forbidden, but allowed by him: Eccles. ix. 7, 'Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.'
3. Other things are commanded by him by a positive law, but have no natural goodness in themselves, setting aside God's command. Now these things are pleasing to God, as man performeth his required duty; but not so pleasing as the weighty things of the law, which have a moral good in them, if God had given no express command in the case. So it is said, Rom. xiv. 17, 18, 'For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost; for he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men.' Mercifulness, peaceableness, delight to do good one to another, these are acts of obedience to Christ, and for his sake will be accepted with God, and are of good report with men. So morals must be preferred before rituals, and the great evangelical duties before moral; as love to God and faith in Christ before acts of goodness and righteousness to men; 'For without faith it is impossible to please God,' Heb. xi. 6. So Acts x. 35, 'But in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him.'
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4. There are some things which do most please God, as things eminently good are acceptable to him in the highest degree; as, for instance, faith in Christ is pleasing to God, but a strong faith is more acceptable than a weak, which needeth props and crutches: John xx. 29, 'Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed;' that is more pleasing and acceptable to God. So love to God is also an acceptable thing, but a fervent love doth more please him: John xiv. 21, 'He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and manifest myself to him;' Ps. exlvii. 11, 'The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.' So for obedience to God: 1 Thes. iv. 1, 'Furthermore then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk, and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.' So for duties to men; the apostle had mentioned 'goodness, righteousness, and truth,' now 'proving what is acceptable to God;' that is, what is the eminent discovery of any of these graces, that you may excel in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. A renewed man should practise all christian graces and virtues in the highest degree, that he may be more pleasing unto God, that he may be eminent in the faith and love of Christ, and goodness and righteousness to men. Therefore we should not barely inquire what is our duty, but what is well-pleasing and most acceptable to God.
Doct. That proving what is acceptable to God is one great duty which belongeth to the children of light.
I shall explain this point by these considerations—
First, Our great end and scope should be to please God, and be accepted with him. The apostle speaketh in his own name, and in the name of all that are like-minded with himself: 2 Cor. v. 9, 'Wherefore we labour, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.' That is a christian's scope and work, and this he carrieth on living or dying. In the body it is his business to please God, out of the body it is his happiness to be accepted with him. While he is in the body, he would be found still in a course of pleasing God; and when he goeth out of the body, he would be found in a state of well-pleasedness and acceptation; one cannot be without the other. And it must needs be so—
1. With respect to God, whose favour is our happiness, whose wrath is our misery, upon whom we depend for life and being and all things. Dependence begets observance. Men take themselves to be obliged to please those on whom they have their whole dependence, and are very careful not to offend them, if possible; and if they be offended, to be speedily reconciled to them. As the men of Tyre, Acts xii. 20, when Herod was highly displeased with them, 'They came with one accord to him, and having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, desired peace, because their country was nourished by the king's country.' The matter stands thus between us and God, his displeasure is our destruction: 1 Cor. x. 5, 'And with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.' His being pleased is our happiness, both here and hereafter. Here we need him, his presence with us, to direct us in our doubts, to relieve us in our straits, to supply us in our wants, to comfort us in all our troubles, and to strengthen us against our weaknesses. Now they that would have the comfort of God's presence and company in all conditions, and have so much to do with God in the world, they ought to set themselves to please God, and observe his will in all things according to his word: John viii. 29, 'And he that hath sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always the things that please him;' 1 John iii. 22, 'And whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things which are pleasing in his sight.' And hereafter our happiness lieth in our presence with God; and indeed the one cannot be without the other. None can live with God hereafter but those that take care to please God before they go hence: Heb. xi. 5, 'By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.'
2. With respect to man, who may be considered either as to his first creation or renovation by Christ. The first creation infers an obligation, our renovation by Christ an inclination to do things grata Deo, acceptable and well-pleasing to God.
[1.] As we are creatures. We were made and sent into the world for this end, that we might approve ourselves by a constant course of obedience to the God that made us, and finally be accepted with him, and received into his glory. The wise God made nothing in vain; and surely he made not man to fill up the number of things, as stones; nor to increase in growth and stature, as plants; nor to eat and drink, and serve appetites, as beasts; but he made us to serve and please and glorify him: Prov. xvi. 4, 'The Lord hath made all things for himself.' All creatures were made to glorify him in their several capacities: Rom. xi. 36, 'For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom be glory for ever. Amen.'
[2.] As we are new creatures we own the old obligation; for we enter into covenant with God to become his servants; and faithful servants have this only aim, to please their master. Therefore all our aim must be, that we may be acceptable unto the Lord; for by entering into covenant we 'choose the things that please him,' Isa. lvi. 4. This is the fixed determination of our souls. We enter into covenant with God that we may become his and do his will. So that we do not only own the obligation, but by the grace of renovation we receive both direction and inclination to do what is pleasing to God. Direction, this is the effect of the renovation of our minds: Rom. xii. 2, 'But be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.' A man in his pure naturals is neither able savingly to understand or do the will of God, but by grace he is fitted for both. Take grace as light, and it fits us to receive God's counsel and direction; and therefore the apostle saith here, 'Ye are light in the Lord; walk as children of the light, proving what is acceptable to the Lord.' Take grace as strength, and it enableth and inclineth us to do what is pleasing in his sight: Heb. xii. 28, 'Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with rever-
[SER. XII.
ence and godly fear.' For it inclineth us to make his glory our scope, and his will our rule; for the tendency of the new creature is to live to God.
3. With respect to the thing itself. The seeking to please God and be accepted with him is so necessary and profitable to us that—
[1.] We cannot be sincere unless this be our aim and scope. One main difference between the sincere and hypocrite is in the end and scope. The one seeketh the approbation of men, the other the approbation of God; the one is fleshly wisdom, the other is godly simplicity and sincerity: 2 Cor. i. 12, 'For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world.' Godly sincerity is making God our witness, approver, and judge. He is sincere whose religion beginneth and endeth in God, acts in truth from God, and purely for God.
[2.] This maketh us serious and watchful, and to keep close to our duty; for the aptitude and fitness of the means is judged of and measured by the end. When we have fixed our end and scope to please God, we will address ourselves to such means as are fitted to that end, and make straight towards it without any wandering. If it be our great end to be accepted with God, and please God, we will take the more care of our actions, that they be agreeable to his will. Whereas otherwise we live at peradventure, neither taking care that we may not offend: Ps. xxxix. 1, 'I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue; I kept my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.' Nor humbling ourselves when we have offended: Jer. viii. 6, 'No man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?' So that the exercise both of watchfulness and repentance dependeth on frequent reflections upon our end.
[3.] This will solace and comfort us under the difficulties of obedience. As (1.) When it is troublesome to confine our desires and actions within the compass of our rule; but when we consider we are not to please the flesh, but to please God, it will help us to mortify the deeds of the body, and to live in a constant course of self-denying obedience. Otherwise, Rom. viii. 8, 'They that are in the flesh cannot please God.' They have another master, the corrupt nature within them, the desires of which they seek to gratify; they are debtors to another lord, ver. 12. So (2.) In reproaches. Men are displeased with a faithful thorough obedience to God, which not only the carnal world, but the spiritual part of the world, so far as it is carnal, disliketh. Therefore when we are censured and traduced, 1 Cor. iv. 13, 'Being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and the off-scouring of all things unto this day.' If God will count me faithful, it is no matter what the world thinketh of me. So (3.) In an afflicted estate. The desire and aim to please God maketh us indifferent to all conditions: Phil. i. 20, 'So Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.' As a traveller taketh the way as he findeth it, foul or fair, so it conduceth to the end of his journey. So that it is absolutely necessary to fix this as our end and scope.
Secondly, We please God by doing what he hath required of us in his word. There are certain things evident by the light of nature which belong to our duty; these must not be overlooked: Micah vi. 8, 'He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?' The things there mentioned are evident by the light of nature. That we should carry ourselves justly towards men, and with reverence and obedience to the divine majesty, is evident by the light of nature, as well as scripture. But the revelation that he hath made of our duty to us by the word is more clear, full, and certain.
1. It is more clear: Ps. exix. 105, 'Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.' The use of a lamp is by night, and the light of the sun shineth by day. Whether it be by day or night with us, we clearly understand our duty by the word of God; in all conditions we may know there how to behave ourselves. Once more, the word 'path' noteth our general choice and course of life; the word 'feet' our particular actions. Now whether the matter that we would be informed of concerneth our choice of the way that leadeth to true happiness, or else the direction of any particular action of ours, still the word directeth a humble and well-disposed mind. So that here our duty is clearly stated: and if a man standeth in awe of the word, and be not divided between conscience on the one side, and lusts and interests on the other, he cannot easily remain in doubtfulness, or miscarry.
2. It is more full; for the book of nature is blurred by man's apostasy from God, and degeneration from his primitive excellency; and our chief good and last end being altered by sin, we strangely mistake things, and weighing them in the balance of the flesh, which we seek to please, we put light for darkness and evil for good: Isa. v. 20, 'Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter;' and so miserably grope in the dark, and cannot see clearly our way to true happiness. And besides, man's condition is such, that he needeth a supernatural remedy by a redeemer, which, depending on the mere grace of God, cannot be found out by bare natural light; for natural light can only judge of things necessary, and not of such things as depend upon the arbitrary will and love of God, as our redemption doth: John iii. 16, 'God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' Besides, nature is dark in things proper to its cognisance. The great lines of our duty are fair and legible, the outward work is written upon our hearts: Rom. ii. 15, 'Which show the work of the law written in their hearts.' Abstinence from gross sins, performance of external duties, some notices of good and evil, are escaped out of the ruins of the fall, and serve in part to convince of sin and mind us of our duty; but that full, entire, spiritual obedience which is due to God is not known by nature. Therefore, besides the candle of the Lord within us, which is reason, God hath set up a lamp in his sanctuary, which is the scripture, to direct us in the way to heaven; and this is clear and full, and compriseth all that is necessary to our duty and happiness.
3. It is more certain, as having a greater stamp and impress of God
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upon it. Everything that hath passed God's hand discovereth its author. The light of nature showeth itself to be of God, much more the light of scripture, wherein he hath discovered more of his wisdom, goodness and power, as being such a revelation of the mind of God as is fit for God to give and us to receive, suited to the nature of God, to preserve a due honour, esteem and reverence of his blessed majesty, and exactly calculated for our necessities, to teach us the way of recovering out of sin, and obtaining our true and proper happiness, and coming attested to us with such evidence from heaven as we cannot rationally withstand: 2 Peter i. 19, 'We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts.' It is surer than the light of nature, as not liable to such debate and uncertainty, which must be cleared before man's duty can be stated to him; and more sure than miracles, oracles, visions, as being put into writing; and a faithful record, as the constant measure, standard, and rule of faith and manners for the use of God's people in all ages. Now it is good to see how David compareth those two revelations of the mind of God, Ps. xix., where he first admireth the brightness of the sun, and then the purity of the law; the joining of both which meditations showeth that the world can be as ill without the word of God as without the light of the sun. What would this inferior world be without the light of the sun, but a great cave and obscure dungeon, where men would creep up and down like worms out of their holes? And besides, the comparing of both together showeth that there are two books wherein we shall do well to study, and both made by God himself, and both manifesting and discovering God to the world—the book of nature and the book of scripture. You cannot look upon the book of the creatures, but in every page and line you will find this truth presented to your eyes, that there is an infinite eternal power that made all things, and is to be owned, reverenced, worshipped, and obeyed by us; this is enough to leave the world without excuse. But in the book of the word you may see more of God and the way to enjoy him. This doth more powerfully convince man of his misery, and clearly show him his remedy. The use which the psalmist makes of these books is notable; of the first, to admire the glory of God by the beauty of the heavens; of the second, to humble and awe man by the purity and strictness of the law, as all religion lieth in the knowledge of God and ourselves. This latter book being more perfect, should be our daily study, to prevent error and mistake, and that we may get the true knowledge of God's will; for many do many things out of zeal and religion which God abhorreth: John xvi. 2, 'The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service.' And others obtrude many things on the faith of believers without warrant: Isa. viii. 20, 'To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.' Examine all things by the rule of God's word, what is conformable to his will, what not, without suffering yourselves to be deceived by false opinions or persuasions. And besides, in our practice we may know what is acceptable, either as to our speeches or actions. As to our speeches: Prov. x. 32, 'The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable; but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness; ' that is, they know what is acceptable to God; they are instructed out of his word how to order their speech for profit, that it may be good, and minister grace to the hearers; others easily bewray the corruption of their hearts by their tongues. So for all our actions towards God and men. For worship, God accepteth that which he hath required; other things are vain oblations: Isa. i. 12, 13, 'When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.' And for our conversation with men, how to show forth righteousness, goodness and truth, we may know what is the will of God in his word; this rule will teach us: Gal. vi. 16, 'As many as walk according to this rule,' &c. Our rule is not left indifferent for us to choose, nor arbitrary for us to impose, but it is fixed in the word of God revealed in the scripture.
Thirdly, If we would know God's mind revealed in his word, we must use search and trial. Δοκιμάζοντες, 'proving,' noteth great diligence and care that we may know the mind of God; for it greatly importeth us, and we are often pressed to it: 1 Thes. v. 21, 'Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.' If we see but a piece of money that hath the king's image stamped upon it, we bring it to the touchstone to see if it be right: do so with doctrines and practices, bring them to the law and to the testimony, see how they agree with God's word: 1 John iv. 1, 'Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.' Every man that teacheth, some spirit or other cometh upon him; therefore try what kind of spirit it is, whether it be a formal worldly spirit, as some fashion their religion according to the world, or a heavenly spirit, which is of God; whether it be a spirit of bitterness against the saints, or a spirit of love, meekness, and gospel sincerity. This is the course we must take if we would know the mind of God in doubtful matters. We must seriously weigh all things in the balance of the sanctuary, read, hear, confer, pray, meditate, use all holy means to know God's will.
I will—(1.) Prove this is a christian's duty; (2.) State it.
1. That it is every christian's duty, in reference to his own warrant and settlement of conscience, to use a judgment of discretion, and not to depend upon the judgment of others; yea, not to satisfy himself barely with the public judgment of the church, but to try things, that he may know that he is in God's way, and wherein he shall be approved and accepted of him.
[1.] Certainly every one that feareth God should be acquainted with his word, and have his senses exercised therein, that by long conversation in holy things he may come to have a discerning faculty. The apostle speaketh of some, Heb. v. 14, 'That have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil;' which are gotten by long use. Therefore much study, meditation, and attention is necessary to find out the true sense and meaning of God's word, that we may discern between good and evil. And still this habit is more to be increased in us. We are told in the book of Job, chap. xxxiv. 3, 'The ear trieth words,
[SER. XII.
as the mouth tasteth meat.' But it had need be a judicious ear that shall as readily distinguish doctrines as the mouth doth meats, as they are hurtful and noxious to us. Now christians being to have this ear of discretion, to try and judge of what is spoken to them, they should be much acquainted with the word of God, to get this habit of spiritual prudence: Prov. xiv. 15, 'The simple believeth every word; but a prudent man looketh well to his going.' Christians should be men of experience and knowledge, free from the itch of fancies and novelties, and free from the distempers of passions, prejudices, and interests, or whatsoever may corrupt their taste. On the other side, God complaineth that his people were strangers to his law: Hosea viii. 12, 'I have written unto them the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.' We should not be strangers to the scriptures; every one (especially in a disputing age, wherein sects abound), according to his measure, should be satisfied of the truth which he professeth, that he be not deceived, and carried away with every foolish insinuation, and so embrace Leah for Rachel, Babel for Sion, and every fond suggestion for the truths of God.
[2.] Because we are not to take up opinions by chance, but by choice: Jer. vi. 16, 'Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, ask for the good old paths, Where is the good way? and walk therein, and ye shall find rest to your souls.' Men in a tempest are sometimes cast upon a place of safety, rather than make thither out of intention and foresight; therefore a man needeth to search and try things; the more he receiveth truth upon evidence, the more firm is his assent, and the more steady and constant is his practice; for then he hath (2 Peter iii. 17) 'a steadfastness of his own,' he doth not stand by the steadfastness of others, or the common consent; he hath proper reasons within himself to sway his assent, or command his practice; therefore a christian is to prove and try all things.
[3.] The judgment of others will be no plea for us in the last day, if we be wrong; for we are to follow the dictates of our own consciences. I say not that we are to follow our own private fancies, but conscience enlightened by the word. So 'the spiritual man judgeth all things,' 1 Cor. ii. 15; that is, for his own satisfaction, otherwise it will not excuse us that we depended on the judgment of others: 'If the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch,' Mat. xv. 14. Not only one, but both; not only the blind leader and guide, but those that are led by them into a wrong way; it endeth at last in perdition.
2. I will state it, since many abuse this principle of trying all things, and upon the pretence of it give over themselves to a vertiginous spirit, wandering in a maze of errors, till at length they come not only to despise their guides, and all the helps which God hath offered in the church, but to cast off all fear of God, and sense of religion itself. Therefore I shall state it.
[1.] We should be so far confirmed in principles and supreme truths, that we should be more ready to maintain than examine them and commit them to the uncertainty of dispute. In things clear and evident, it is a madness to be still doubting and making inquiries: Deut. xii. 30, 'And that thou inquire not after their gods.' It is dangerous to loosen foundation-stones.
[2.] We must not be so still trying and proving as to hold nothing certain in religion. This is to be 'ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,' 2 Tim. iii. 7, and to turn the sureness of the christian faith into a mere scepticism, and distract our minds still with new inquiries.
[3.] Not to try so as to cast ourselves on a temptation. Men take occasion hence to run through all sects and opinions in religion. Why? They say they must try all things; that is, as they interpret it, run into the mouth of danger, and think no harm will come of it. No; the meaning is, in these things which by the providence of God are propounded to you for truths, and come to you in the way of an ordinance: Acts xvii. 11, 'These were more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so.' Or if cast by necessary ordinary conversation on differing parties; or when doubts and scruples arise in our minds. Smothering of doubts breedeth atheism and hardness of heart. Or as to the present truth: 2 Peter i. 12, 'Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of those things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.' So that a man is not to seek snares, and cast himself upon temptations, but when God in his providence puts him in such places and times where satisfaction is necessary, he must exercise himself in the word of God, that he may distinguish between good and evil.
[4.] Some things are controversial in religion, and above the size and capacity of some men's gifts. Now for them to inquire too curiously, or to define rashly in such cases, is against the apostle's rule: Rom. xii. 3, 'For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.' These presume above their measure, and are like little children, that attempt to run before they can go; and therefore they should content themselves with such truths as concern christians in their own vocation. God's gifts are divers, as their callings are in their nature and quality different. The weak in the faith must be received and owned as christians, but not to doubtful disputations: Rom. xiv. 1, 'Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.'
[5.] When we are to prove all things, the meaning is not that we should study controversies, and be able to answer all the cavils of the adversary. That is a special gift required of the minister; he must be able, Titus i. 9, 'To hold fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers.' But every man is bound to search, so as to be resolved as to his own choice and practice. And though every christian cannot answer all things that are objected against the truth, yet he is to be 'fully persuaded in his own mind,' Rom. xiv. 5, and so far to look into things as may make for the settling of his conscience, that he may neither do things necessary to practice rashly, and without deliberation: Prov. xix. 2, 'That the soul be without knowledge is not good; and he that hasteneth with his feet sinneth;' nor after deliberation doubtingly:
[SER. XII.
Rom. xiv. 23, 'He that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith; for whatsoever is not of faith, is sin.'
[6.] We are not so to search as to depend upon our private judgment, or slight the helps which God hath left in the church for the establishing of the truth, even pastors and teachers. Them hath God left in the church, 'that we may not be carried about with every wind of doctrine,' Eph. iv. 11, 14. Men are not to despise the judgment of their teachers in matters of faith, nor rest upon it as infallible. He that hath a bad sight should not throw away his spectacles. Where helps are instituted, and have a special calling, and a special promise of a blessing, they should not be despised. In all necessary things, 'Christ's sheep hear his voice,' John x. 3. But in lower matters, they may be shrewdly mistaken, and work great trouble to the church. Avoid these rocks, and the duty is clear, and of great importance. By searching and proving the truth loseth nothing, as gold doth not by being brought to the touchstone; but you gain much settlement, feel more power and comfort in what you know.
Fourthly, We must search and try, that we may walk as children of the light. The night was made for rest; the light is not given us for rest and idleness, but for work. The apostle prayeth for the Colossians, that they 'might be filled with the knowledge of God's will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that they might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,' Col. i. 9, 10. That is the end of knowledge: Isa. ii. 3, 'He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths;' for the end of learning is practice.
1. The more we fix this end, the sooner shall we get knowledge, and the more will it be increased to us. John vii. 17, he that will do the will of God shall know what doctrine is of God. A humble holy heart, resolved to practise whatsoever shall be the will of God, will not be long left in doubt; the more you make conscience of knowing truths, you shall know more.
2. As we shall know sooner, so we shall know better; we shall approve the truth in our consciences, and find the comfort of what we know in our own souls, if we pursue the practice of it: Phil. i. 9, 10, 'And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment,' αἰσθήσω, in all sense, 'that ye may approve the things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.' We know our duty by the word, but we find the goodness of it by practice and experience.
3. We are not else good faithful servants to God: Luke xii. 47, 'And that servant which knoweth his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.' On the other side, John xiv. 21, 'He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, be it is that loveth me; and be that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and manifest myself to him.' First have, and then keep. Therefore we must search out what is pleasing to God, that we may do it. Knowledge is not to be sought that we may be puffed up with it, and rest in mere knowing, and so please ourselves with idle and useless speculations, but to govern and order our practice.
Use 1. Is for information.
1. That the judgment of discretion must be allowed to all christians. In controversies about religion it is usually asked, Who shall be judge? The church hath a public judgment what doctrines are to be publicly recommended; but every man hath judicium discretionis, a judgment of discretion for himself. God hath given every man a taste for his body, to discern what is wholesome and to discern what is noxious, and so also for his soul and conscience.
2. That the new creature hath great advantages above others of knowing the truth. The Holy Spirit dwelleth in them: 1 John ii. 20, 'Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.' They are light in the Lord; they may go to God for direction with more boldness: Ps. exliii. 10, 'Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God; thy Spirit is good, lead me into the land of uprightness.' They have a promise: Ps. xxv. 14, 'The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant;' Hosea xiv. 9, 'For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein.' The sanctifying Spirit is given to sanctify us, to give us the saving knowledge of God by the word. They know the truths contained there clearly and effectually, which others know superficially.
3. That it is not easy to acquit ourselves as children of the light; much study and search into the scriptures is required of us: Ps. i. 2, 'But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in that law doth he meditate day and night. And much heedfulness, that we walk accordingly; much watchfulness over our hearts: Prov. iv. 23, 'Keep thy heart with all diligence;' and our ways, ver. 26, 'Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.'
Use 2. Is for reproof to several sorts.
1. Some that take no care to know their duty. This is great negligence, or downright hypocrisy: 2 Peter iii. 5, 'But this they are willingly ignorant of;' which in a matter of such importance is damnable: Heb. ii. 3, 'How shall they escape which neglect so great salvation?' They will not inquire, because they have a mind to hate, or no mind to embrace.
2. Some that walk at peradventure, and live rashly, as governed by passion, lust, and appetite, rather than any sure and steady direction: Ps. exix. 133, 'Order my steps in thy word, and let not iniquity have dominion over me.' These cannot escape reigning sins.
3. Some are out in the end, either please the flesh or the lusts of man. The rule is not, what will please the flesh, but to do the will of God: 1 Peter iv. 2, 'That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.' Not what is acceptable to men, but what is pleasing to God: Gal. i. 10, 'For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ.'
[SER. XIII.
SERMON XIII.