The Measures of Christian Obedience, Book 1 · Chapter 1
CHAP. I. Of Obedience, the general condition of happiness.
The CONTENTS.
Obedience the indispensable condition of happiness. The Laws of the Gospel are given as a Rule to it. The Promises are all upon condition of it, and intended to encourage it. All the threatnings are now denounced, and will be executed upon the disobedient. Of those other things whereto Pardon is promised, as well as to obedience. Of Metonymy's. Of the Principles of Humane Actions. Of Principles of Obedience. All those speeches metonymical, where obedience is not express'd, and yet pardon is promised.
THat Condition which the Gospel indispensably requires of us, and which is to mete out to us our last doom of Bliss or Misery, is in the General our Obedience. When we are brought to that Bar, and stand to be judged according to those Laws which are proclaim'd to us in the Gospel, it is only our having kept them, and Repented of all such transgressions of them as we have wilfully been guilty of, which can capacitate us to be rewarded by them. For 'tis just with them, as it is with all other Laws, they never promise any thing but to obedience, but threaten and punish all that disobey. Whosoever breaks and despises them is guilty, they do not comfort but accuse, not acquit but condemn him. For there is no Law that is wisely ordered, but is sufficiently guarded against affront, and back'd with such punishments as will make it every mans interest to fulfil and keep it. The evil threatned, must always by far exceed the pleasure that is reaped by disobedience; so that no man may have any temptation sufficient to bear him out in Sin, or ever hope to be a gainer by his transgression.
This is the tenour of all wise laws, whose enactors have both wit and power sufficient to defend them. They have dreadful Punishments annexed to them, which take place upon disobedience; they encourage and reward the obedient, but severely punish all that dare presume to disobey.
And this is most eminently seen in all the Laws of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He gave them for the compleatest Rules to mens Lives, and has annexed to them most glorious Promises to encourage our obedience, but has made them breath out nothing but woes, and intolerable punishments to all that disobey.
He has given them for Rules of Life, and annexed Rewards as encouragements to obedience. He never intended his Laws for an entertainment of our eyes, but for a Rule for our Actions; not for a matter of talk and discourse, but of practice; not to be complemented by words of honour, and lofty expressions, but to be own'd in our lives, and served by obedience. He is our King, and issues out his Laws as the instruments of his Government: he is our Lord, and they are Rulers for his Service. They must be guides of our Lives and Actions; it is not enough to know and talk of them, but as ever we hope to live by them we must do and keep them. For in the end they will be available to no mans happiness, but his who has conscientiously performed them. In Christ Jesus, or the Christian Religion, says St Paul, nothing avails but keeping of the Commandments of God, 1 Cor. 7.19. Blessed are they, saith St John, who do the Commandments, for they only have right to the Tree of Life, Rev. 22.14. It is not an idle wish, or ineffectual endeavour; but a thorough practice and performance of Christs Laws which can continue us in his Love, and approve us Righteous in his Judgment. If ye keep my Commandments, says he, ye shall abide in my Love, Joh. 15.10. Let no man deceive you, for it is he only that *1 Joh. 2.17-29.doth Righteousness, who in Gods account is Righteous, 1 Joh. 3.7. They only are pronounced Righteous and Sons of God in the Gospels estimation, who walk after the spirit, Rom. 8.4. who are led by the spirit, vers. 14. who bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit, (all words expressing Action and Practice) Gal. 5.16-22. No man therefore will be acquitted and rewarded at that Bar barely for knowing and ‖foreign. Cl…m. Ro. 1. Epist. ad Cor. c. 30.discoursing, for wishing or desiring: but only for working and obeying. Such only the Gospel reckons for true servants now; his servants ye are, not whom you confess in words, but whom in actions you obey, Rom. 6.16. And such only he will honour and reward then. For it is not every one who fawns upon me in his words whilest he reproaches me in his actions; who says unto me, Lord, Lord, that shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he only who doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven: Which will he had just then proclaim'd to them in that Volume of Christian Laws, which was published in the Sermon upon the Mount, whereof this is in part the conclusion, Matt. 7.21. He tells us that when the Son of Man shall come to judgment, he will reward every man according to his works, Matt. 16.27. and he repeats it again in his declaration to St John, Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be, Rev. 22.12 And so it was in that Prophetick sight of the Last Judgment, which this same Apostle had vouchsafed him, Rev. 20. For there, as we are told, when the Sea gave up the Dead which were in it; and Death and Hell delivered up the Dead which were in them; and they all both small and great stood before the Throne, and him that sate thereon: they were judged every man according to his WORKS, vers. 11, 12, 13.
His Laws then Christ has given us, not for talk and discourse, but for action and practice; and his Promises he has annexed to them; not as rewards of idleness, but only of active service and obedience: Wherein if men fail, Gods Rewards belong not to them: they can make no claim or colourable pretence to them because they cannot show that which is to be rewarded by him.
Nay further, if men disobey, they are not only excluded from all glorious hopes; but are moreover put into a desperate state of fears and dreadful expectations. For God has back'd his Laws with threatnings as well as promises: and as they propose most noble rewards to all that are obedient; so likewise do they breath out most intolerable punishments to all that disobey. For every Man at the last day will be declared a Child of wrath, who is a son of disobedience; and he shall most certainly be Damned who dyes without amendment and Repentance, in works which are wilfully and deliberately sinful. Christs Gospel has already judged this long before-hand; and at that day he will confirm it. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels: i. e. when he shall come with his Royal attendance to judge the world, He will take vengeance, says St Paul, on all them that OBEY not his Gospel, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, 2 Thess. 1.7, 8, 9. When he comes in state with the ten thousands of his Saints, it will be to execute Judgment upon all that are ungodly, for all the ungodly DEEDS which they have committed, Jude 14, 15. And when our Lord himself gives a relation of his proceedings at that day, he tells us that whosoever they be, or whatsoever they may pretend, if their works have been disobedient, they shall hear no sentence from him but what consigns them to Eternal Punishment. I will profess thus unto them, says he, I never knew you: Depart from me, ye that WORK iniquity, Matt. 7.23.
This will be the method of Christs Judgment; and these the measures of his Sentence: he will pronounce Mercy and Life upon all that are obedient, but Death and Hell to all that disobey.
And indeed it were hight of folly and madness to expect he should do otherwise, and to fancy that when he comes to judge us, as St Paul says, according to the Laws of his Gospel, he should absolve and reward us, when in our works and actions we have transgressed them. For this were to thwart his own rule, and to go cross to his own measures; it were to encourage those, whom his laws threaten; to acquit such as they condemn: and, in one word, not to judge according to them, as he has expresly declared he will, but against them.
If we would know then what condition we shall be adjudged to in the next world, we must examine what our obedience has been in this. We can have no assurance of a favourable Sentence in that Court, but only the doing of our duty. Our last doom shall turn, not upon our knowing or not knowing, our willing or not willing; but upon our obeying or disobeying. It is in vain to cast about for other marks, and to seek after other evidences: nothing less than this performance of our duty can avail us unto life; and by the merits of Christ, and the grace of his Gospel, it shall.
And thus we see in the general what those terms and that condition are, which, to mete out our last doom of Bliss or Misery, the Gospel indispensably exacts of us. It is nothing less than a working service and obedience, the enquiry to be made at that day being only this, whether we have done what was commanded us. If we have performed what was required of us, we shall be pronounced Righteous, and sentenced to Eternal Life: but if we have wilfully transgressed, and wrought wickedness; without amendment and repentance, we shall then be declared, incorrigible Sinners, and adjudged to Everlasting Death.
This indeed is a very great truth, but yet such as very few are willing to see and to consider of. For obedience is a very laborious service, and a painful task; and they are not many in number who will be content to undergo it. And if a man may have no just hopes upon any thing less than it, the case of most dying men is desperate. But as men will live and dye in sin, so will they live and dye in hopes too. And therefore they catch at softer terms, and build upon an easier condition. And because the Gospel promises Salvation, and a happy sentence to faith, love, repentance, our being in Christ, our knowing Christ, and other things besides obedience: they conclude that they shall be acquitted at that Bar upon the account of any, or all of these, though they do not obey with them. They make Faith, Love, Repentance and the rest, to be something separate from obedience; something which will save them, when that is wanting. So that if they be in Christ, if they know and believe with the mind, and love and repent in their hearts; their hope is to be absolved at the last day, be their lives and actions never so disobedient.
But this is a most dangerous and damning errour. For it makes men secure from danger, till they are past all possibility of recovering out of it; and causes them to trust to a false support so long, till it lets them drop into Hell, and sink down in damnation.
And although it be sufficiently evident from what has been already said, that our obedience is that only thing which will be admitted as a just plea, and as a qualification able to save us in that Court: yet because I would fully subvert all these false grounds, whereupon men support their pernicious hopes and sinful lives together, I will go on to prove it still further.
And this will be most plainly effected by shewing that all those other terms and conditions, whereto the Gospel sometimes promises pardon and happiness, concenter all in this, and save us no otherwise than by being springs and principles of our obedience. They are not opposed to our doing of our duty, and keeping the Commandments; but imply it. For when pardon is promised to Faith, to Love, to Repentance, or any thing else; it is never promised to them as separate from obedience, but as containing it. Obedience is that still for which a man is saved and pardoned; it is not excluded from them, but expressed by them.
In order to a clearer apprehension of the truth of this, I think fit to observe that there is an ordinary figure and form of speech very usual both with God and men, which the Rhetoricians call a Metonymie or Transnomination, and that is a transferring of a word, which is the particular Name of one thing, to express an other. The use of it is this, that in things which have a near relation and dependance upon each other, as particularly the cause and its effect have, the particular name of either may many times signifie both, so that when the name only of one is expressed, yet really both are meant and intended. And then by that word, which in its proper sence stands only for the effect, we are to understand, not it alone, but together with it the cause also that produced it: and by that which properly signifies the cause, we are to mean, not the bare cause alone, but, besides it, the effect which flows from it likewise.
As for the latter of these, the bare naming of the cause when we intend, together with it, to express its natural consequent and effect too; because it is that which chiefly concerns our present business, I will set down some instances of it which daily occur in common speech. If we advise a man to trust his Physician or his Lawyer, our meaning is not barely that he should give credit to them; but together with that, that he shew the effect of such credit, in following and observing them. If we are earnest with any man to hearken to some advice that is given him, we intend not by hearkning to express barely his giving ear to it, but besides that his suffering the effects of such attention in practising and obeying it. And thus we commonly say that we have got a Cold, when we mean a Disease upon cold; or a Surfeit, when we understand a sickness upon Surfeiting. In these, and many other instances which might be mentioned, we daily find that in the speech and usage of men, the cause alone is oft times named, when the effect is withal intended, and accordingly understood, to be expressed; and that both are meant, when barely one is spoken. The effect doth so hang upon its cause, and so naturally and evidently follow after it, that we look upon it as a needless thing to express its coming after, when once we have named its cause which goes before: but we ordinarily judge it to be sufficiently mentioned, when we have expressed that cause which as is evident to us all, produces and infers it.
And as it is thus in the speech of men, so is it in the language of God too. He talks to us in our own way, and uses such forms of speech and figurative expressions, as are in common use among our selves. And to seek no further for instances of this, than these that lye before us, he expresses our works and obedience by our knowledge, our repentance, our love, and such other causes and principles as effect and produce it.
For we must take notice of this also, that our outward works and actions depend upon a train of powers within us, which, as springs and causes of them, order and effect them. For our passions excite to them; our understandings consider of them and direct them; our wills command and choose them; and then afterwards, in pursuance of all these, our bodily powers execute and exert them. The actions of a man flow from all the ingredients of the humane nature, each principle contributes its share, and bears a part towards it. For from the constitution of our natural frame, our actions are placed wholly in the power of our own wills; and our wills are set in a middle station, to be moved by our appetites and passions, and guided and directed by our minds or intellects. We do and perform nothing but what we will; neither do we will any thing but what we know and desire; what our reason and passion inclines and directs to. And because these three inward faculties, our minds, and wills, and passions, give being and beginning to our outward works and practice: therefore are they, by the Masters of moral Philosophy and Divinity, ordinarily called the Causes and Principles of Humane Actions.
But these three principles of humane actions in genecal lye not more open to produce good than evil. They are all under the unrestrain'd power of our own free will: it is that which determines them either for God or against him; but in themselves they are indifferently fitted, and serve equally to bring forth acts of Obedience, or of disobedience and sin. To make these principles therefore of works or actions in general, to become principles of good works and obedience, there are other nearer tempers and qualifications required, which may determine them, that in themselves are free to both, to effect one, and be Authours of such actions only whereby we serve and obey God. And this is done by the nearer and more immediate efficiency of Faith, Repentance, Love, and the like. For he who knows Gods Laws, and believes his Gospel with his understanding; who in his heart loves God, and hates Sin; whose will is utterly resolved for good, and against evil: he it is, whose faculties in themselves indifferent are thus determinately disposed, who is ready and prepared to perform his duty. His Faith directs him to those Laws which he is to obey, and to all the powerful motives to Obedience: it shews him how it is bound upon him by all the Joys of Heaven, and by all the Pains of Hell, and this quickens his passions, and confirms all good resolutions, and makes him in his will and heart to purpose and desire it. And when both his mind, his will, and passions, which were before indifferent, are thus gained over and determinately fixed for it; in the efficiency of inward principles there is no more to be done, but he is in the ready way to work and perform it in outward operation. So that as our minds, wills, and passions, are principles of humane actions in general, whether good or evil: these nearer dispositions, our Faith, Repentance, &c. are principles particularly of good works and obedience.
And since our obedient actions proceed in this manner from the power and efficiency of these principles: God, according to our own way of expressing things, is wont many times only to name them, when he intends withal to express our obedience it self which results from them. Although he barely mention one, yet he understands both; and in speaking of the cause, he would be taken to imply the effect likewise. Thus when he promises Pardon and Salvation to our knowledge and belief of his Gospel, to our Repentance from our Sins, to our Love and Fear of God, which, with several others, are those preparatory dispositions that fix and determine our minds, wills, and passions, indifferent in themselves, to effect Obedient actions; he doth not in any wise intend that these shall Save us, and procure Pardon for us without Obedience, but only by signifying and implying it. Wheresoever Mercy and Salvation at the last day are promised, and this condition of our working and obeying is not mentioned, it is always meant and understood. That which such mercy was promised to, is either the cause of our Obedience, or the effect and sign of it; the speech is metonymical, and more was meant by it than was expressed. Though the word was not named, yet the thing was intended; for obedience is ever requisite to pardon, and nothing has Mercy promised to it in the last Judgment, but what some way or other is a sign of it, or produces and effects it.
This I might well take for granted upon the strength of that proof which has been already urged for our Obedience being the sole condition of our being acquitted at that day. But because the interest of souls is so much concerned in it, I will be yet more particular, and proceed to show further that this sence and explication of all such places is the very same that God himself has expressly put upon them. For concerning all those things, whereto he has promised a favourable sentence at the last Judgment, he assures us that they are of no account with him, nor will be owned as a good plea at that Bar when they are separate from Obedience, but then only when they effect and work it. But when he says that Faith, Repentance, Love, or any other thing shall save us, he means not all, or any, but only a working Faith, an obedient Repentance, an active Love; a Faith, Love, and Repentance, which do not overlook Obedience, but accompany and produce it. So that first or last Obedience is still that wherein all the rest must concenter and agree, that alone condition which our judge will accept, and which we may safely trust to. And this will fully appear by running over the particulars.