obeys the law, even when he doth the works therein contained, but when he doth it with all submissive and loyal affections towards him that commands it: this only is to live unto God, and to bring forth fruit unto him. Thirdly, It must be directed unto holy ends; and those are principally four, to which others are to be subordinate, but not repugnant. First, the glory of God: we must bring forth fruit, and finish our works, and do all that we have to do, with respect unto his glory. Secondly, the edification, service, comfort of the Church: that nothing redound to their offence, but to their profit and salvation. Thirdly, the credit, honour, and passage of the Gospel: that it may be farthered, and not evil spoken of. Fourthly, A man's own salvation that he be not after all his pains a cast-away, but that he may save himself. Fourthly, All the means unto that end must be regular and suitable: evil must not be done to bring good about ; and all the circumstances which accompany the action, must be right too. For as, in the body, there is not only required beauty, but order and proportion; let the face be of never so delicate and choice complexion, yet, if any part be misplaced, it will cause a notable deformity and uncomeliness to it; so in duties, an excellent work may be so misplaced, or mistimed, or attended with such incongruous and unsuitable circumstances, as that it may prove rather a snare of Satan, than a fruit of the Spirit. Lastly, To make it completely acceptable, it must pass through the incense and intercession of Christ, who as he doth, by his merits, take away the guilt of sin from our persons, so, by his intercession, he hideth the pollution and adherency of sin that is in our services, and so giveth us access, and maketh all our duties acceptable by him to God". He hath made us to be priests unto God; and our prayers and good works, as spiritual sacrifices, come up before God. But it is not sufficient, that there be a priest and an offering, except there be an altar too, upon which to offer it; for it is the altar which sanctifieth the offering. Now b Jam. ii. 10, 11. Joh. xv. 8. Joh. xvii. 4. 1 Cor. x. 31. d 1 Cor. x. 32, 33. Col. i. 24. 2 Tim. ii. 10. 2 Cor. i. 6. e 2 Cor. vi. 3, 4. 1 Cor. ix. 19, 23. Phil. i. 12, f 1 Cor. ix. 27. 1 Tim. iv. 16. 1 Pet. i. 9. 8 Rom. iii. 8. b Eph. ii. 18. 1 Pet. ii. 5. i Matth. xxiii, 19. Christ is the altar which sanctifieth all our spiritual sacrifices: "Their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar, and they shall come up with acceptance upon mine altar." These things being thus premised, we conclude, First, A wicked man cannot do those things at all, which are so essentially and inherently good, as that the very opus operatum', or doing of them, is from the Spirit of Christ,--as to love God, to trust him, and depend upon him. For as there are some things in nature, which cannot be counterfeited, or resembled ;—the shape of a man may be pictured, but the life cannot, nor the reason, nor any thing that doth immediately pertain to the essence of man;-so there are some things in grace, which cannot by hypocrisy be done, neither in the thing itself, nor in the manner of doing it; because sincerity, spiritualness, and filial respects belong to the very substance and matter of the duty. Secondly, Other works', whose goodness doth not cleave necessarily to the doing of them, but to the manner of doing them, wicked men may perform: but then they do them only ethically, and 'in conspectu hominum,' with relation to men and manners; not spiritually as unto God, nor in obedience or respect to him. For first, "The spirit of grace is Christ's spirit"," and "our flesh is quite contrary unto it";" and "none have this spirit, but they who have fellowship with the Father and the Son, and are united unto him";" none of which dignities belong to wicked men. Secondly, every thing that is spiritual, is vital; for the Spirit quickeneth. The Spirit of holiness never comes but with a resurrection P: and therefore he is called the Spirit of life.' But now as the persons of wicked men, so their works, are all dead'; and therefore, not being done spiritually and obediently, impossible it is, that they should in any sense please God, whose pure eyes can endure nothing which beareth not, in some, though most remote degree, proportion to his holy nature. But it may be objected, Doth God use to do good to those that hate him, and that even for the things which himself k Isai. lvi. 7. lx. 7. 1 Vide Aug. ep. xlviii. et cont. Julian. Pelag. 1. 4. c. iii. de Nup. et con. lib. 1, cap. iii.-Retract. lib. 1. cap. iii. m Rom. vii. 9. n Gal. v. 17. o 1 Joh. iv. 13. P Rom. i. 4. Rom. viii. 10, 11. q Rom. viii. 2. Heb. ix. 14. 5 Rom. viii. 8. + 2 Pet, i. 4. Gal. iv. 6. X hateth in them? Doth not that work please him, which he is pleased to reward? And we find the works of wicked men in the Scripture rewarded. Ahab" humbled himself before God; and therefore God brought not the evil denounced upon him in his own days. Jehu executed the command of God upon the house of Ahab; and God established the throne of Israel upon him for four generations. Nebuchadnezzar y caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus; and the land of Egypt was given him for wages, and for the labour wherewith he served against it.— To this I answer, That this God doth not to justify or allow wicked men's actions, when they are in show conformable to his will; but first, to shew that his mercy is over all his works, when he is pleased to recompense the actions, which he might justly punish. Secondly, To shew that God will never be upbraided for being any way behind with men. Wicked men are apt to twit God with the unprofitableness of his service, and the unequalness of his ways, to boast that their work hath been more than their wages: and therefore, utterly to stop their mouths, when he shall proceed in judgment with them, he gives them such rewards as are most suitable to their own desires (the hypocrites pray and give alms to be seen of men, and that reward which they desired, they have), such as are most suitable to their services. As they bring him unclean services, so he rendereth unto them unsanctified rewards; as they give him services full of hypocrisy, which doth not please him, so he gives them benefits full of bitterness, which shall not profit them. Thirdly, To preserve human society from violence and outrage: for when wicked courses are from heaven plagued, and moderate prospered, this keeps order and calmness upon the face of mankind, which might otherwise be likely to degenerate into brutishness. Fourthly, To entice and en b u 1 Kings xxi. 29. x 2 Kings x. 30. y Ezek. xxix. 18, 19, 20. Isai. lviii. 3. Mat. iii. 14, 15. Job xxi. 14, 15. Ezek. xxxiii. 20. a Matth. vi. 2,5. b Illud constat inter omnes veraciter pios, neminem sine vera pietate, id est, veri Dei vero cultu, veram posse habere virtutem; nec eam veram esse, quando gloriæ servit humanæ eos tamen, qui cives non sunt civitatis æternæ, utiliores esse terrenæ civitati, quando habent virtutem vel ipsam, quàm si nec ipsam, &c, Aug. de Civ. Dei, l. 5. c. xix. c Scimus Deum sæpe mercedem rependere umbris virtutum, ut ostendat Cal. in Jer. xxxv. 19. sibi placere virtutes ipsas. ་ courage wicked men unto sincere obedience: for thus may they recount with themselves :-'If God thus reward my unclean, how abundantly would he recompense my spiritual services! If he let fall such crumbs unto dogs, how abundantly would he provide for me, if I were his child! If the blessings of his left hand, riches and glory,' be so excellent even to the goats,—how precious would the blessings of his right hand, length of days,' and 'eternal happiness,' be, if I were one of his sheep! So then it is not ex pretio operis,' but only ex largitate donantis.' The reward is not out of the value or price of the work, but out of the bounty of God, who will not leave himself without a witness: but as a master, for encouragement and allurement's sake, will reward the industry of an ignorant scholar, though he blot and deface all that he puts his hand unto; so God, to overcome men by his goodness and bounty, and to draw them to repentance, is pleased to reward the works which he might justly punish. But have not the wicked some measures and proportions of the Spirit given them, by which they are enabled to do those works they do? and is not that a good work which proceedeth from the supplies of the Spirit of God?—To this we answer, First, As it is the influence of the same sun, which ripeneth both the grape and the crab,-and yet though the grape have sweetness from the sun, the crab still retains the sourness which it hath from itself; so it is the same Spirit, which helpeth the faithful in their holy, and the wicked in their moral works, which yet still retain the quality and sourness, and the stock from whence they come. Secondly, We deny them not to be good in suo genere,' that is, morally, and in the sight of men; but yet they are not good in God's sight, so as to procure acceptance with him. For which purpose, we must note, that God gives several proportions of his Spirit, and for several purposes: to some the Spirit to sanctify and renew to others the Spirit to edify and profit withall: to some charity, and to others gifts to some as instruments, that they may walk profitably before men, as Cyrus was anointed for Jacob's d Heb. vi. 4. 1 Cor. xii. 6, 7. e Rom. i. 4. Tit. iii. 5. f 1 Cor. xii. 7. g 1 Cor. xiv. 1. sake": to others as sons and members, that they may walk acceptably before him. But then comes the second case proposed: If a wicked man can do nothing but evil, then, it seems, he ought to leave undone all his alms, prayers, fastings, and religious services, because we are to abstain from every thing, which is polluted with sin; and that which God will not see, man must not do. To this I answer, No, by no means. The poor man at the pool of Bethesda, though utterly impotent and unable to crawl in, when the angel came to stir the waters,did not yet neglect, what lay in his power, to wait at the place, and to endeavour his own cure. Natural impotency can give no excuse to wilful neglect. When Simon Magus' was in the gall of bitterness, yet St. Peter directed him then to pray. Here then these two rules must regulate this case. First, A wicked man's necessity of sinning must not nullify the law of God, which requires the doing of those things, though not with such an unclean heart as he doth them, The impotency of man must not either prejudice God's authority, or diminish his own duty: As, though "where sin abounds, grace doth more abound, yet a man must not sin, that grace may abound; so, though when a wicked man doth the things of the law, he sinneth, yet he must not omit the duty, upon pretence to escape the sin. Secondly, When a thing is evil 'propter fieri,' because it is done, the doing of that thing is unlawful, and intrinscally sinful, and therefore to be avoided: but when a thing done is evil, not because it is done, but because something which should make the doing of it good and acceptable, is omitted, and so it is evil, not in the substance of the thing, but by reason of the defects which cleave unto it,-here this ought still to be done, but the other ought to be left undone. Jehu m was commanded to destroy the house of Ahab; he did so, and thus far he did well; but his ends and God's divide the same action,-God, out of justice, he, out of policy; and therefore though he esteemed it zeal, yet God accounted it murder and shedding of blood: and though, as it was, in substance, the thing which God h Isai. xlv. 1, 4. i 1 Pet. ii. 5. k John v. 7. 1 Acts viii. 22, 23. m2 Kings x. 30. |