The Measures of Christian Obedience, Book 4 · Chapter 4
CHAP. IV. Of the nature of involuntary sins, and of their consistence with a state of salvation.
The CONTENTS.
Of involuntary actions. Of what account the forced actions of the Body are in morals. Two causes of involuntariness. First, The violence of mens passions. It doth not excuse. Secondly, The ignorance of their understandings. This is the cause of all our consistent failings, and the sins that are involuntary upon this account are consistent with a state of salvation. This proved, 1. From their unavoidableness; The Causes of it; in what sense any particular sin among them is said to be avoidable. 2. From the nature of God. A representation of God's nature from his own Word, and mens experience. The Argument drawn from it for the consistence of such failings. 3. From the nature and declarations of the Gospel. It is fitted to beget a cheerful and filial confidence, and therefore is called the Spirit of Adoption. The Argument from this. The Scripture-Declarations and Examples in this matter. These Arguments summed up.
THE second sort of sins are such as are involuntary and unchosen; and these are consistent with a state of salvation, and such as Christ's Gospel doth not eternally threaten, but graciously bears, and in great mercy dispenseth with.
As for the involuntariness of mens actions, that which produces and effects it, is not any force from without upon our will it self. All the things in the material world can never bind and compel the will of man, seeing it is no physical, bodily thing, so as that any bodily force might act upon it. Nothing in the world can make us will and like that which we do not like; the will of man is liable to no aVoluntas non potest cogi. Axioma Scholast.compulsion, it has this priviledge above all other things on the Earth, that nothing about it can force or constrain it, but that still it wills and chuses as it self pleaseth.
As for the actions of men indeed, they are mixt things. Because they flow from the whole man, both Body and Soul; and beginning in the mind or will within, are consummate in our outward and bodily operation. And as for the last of these, viz. our bodily operation, it may be forced, forasmuch as one Body is liable to the force and compulsion of another. Thus, for instance, a chast Matrons Body may be violently ravished. A peaceable mans hand may, by the overpowering strength of another man, be made the forced instrument of anothers murther. The bodily work and operation can be forced, seeing other Bodies more powerful than it self can compel it. And in this sence the Schools understand the word action, viz. only for the action of the Body, when they make one kind of involuntary actions to be involuntary by bInvitae per vim.violence or compulsion; that being a thing whereto not the will it self, but the body only can be liable.
But now these forced actions of the Body, although in Nature they be looked upon as actions, yet in morality they are esteemed as none at all. That is, Laws, which are the Rules of good and evil, and the measure of mens manners, take no notice of them, nor look upon themselves to be either broken or kept by them; because it is not the Body and Carkass, but the whole man, consisting of Soul as well as Body, which Laws are given as a Guide to. So that a ravished Matron, if only her Body suffered, and there was no concurrence of her own consent to it, is as chast and unpolluted in God's account and in the censure of the Law, as is the purest Virgin. And therefore it was a great truth whereby Collatinus and Brutus went about to comfort the poor destowred Lucretia in cMe…tem peccare, non corpus, & …nde consilium abju…rit, …ulpam abiss…. Liv. Dec. …. vers. sin.Livy; It is the mind, say they, which sins, and not the Body; so that in those actions wherein there is nothing of will and deliberation, there is likewise no fault or transgression. And this Case is expresly thus determined, Deut. 22. For in the Case of the ravished Damsel, whose will was no way consenting to it, but who did all that she could against it, it is expresly ordered that to her there is nothing to be done by way of punishment, because in her there is no sin worthy of death; for like as when one man is slain by another, even so is this case; she is not acting, but suffering in it, ver. 26.
As for him indeed who chose thus to force us, 'tis true that the Law will interpret what is done by our Bodies as his action, because he freely chose so to compel us. Our bodily Members, which were forced by him, were his instruments, and not our own; for he it was, and not we ourselves, who ordered and directed them. We were the same in his hands, as a Sword is in the hand of a man, viz. the Instrument only, but not the Agent. So that what was done by us is not our own, but his who was pleased so to make use of us. In him therefore the unlawful action, being willed and chosen, is really a sin and transgression. But in us, since it was not our own, it is looked upon as none. There is nothing charged upon our account for it, more than if it had never been done; because we did not act, but suffer; it had nothing of our own will, and therefore it can be no Article of our condemnation.
So much of any action therefore as is forced, viz. the outward, bodily operation, in the estimate of good and evil, of vice and vertue, is of no account to us whatever it be to others; because it is not our own. For to make any action ours, it must proceed, not from our Bodies, but from our selves, who have Souls as well as Bodies: it must come from the will within, as well as from the body without; and as for our will it self, 'tis plain that it can never be made to chuse involuntarily by force, since it is not subject to any forcible violence and compulsion.
But although those actions which we exert our selves, and wherein we are not merely passive instruments in the hands of others, cannot be made involuntary by any force from without upon the will it self: yet may they become so from something else within us. For our wills are not the only internal Principle of humane actions, but several others concur with them, whereby their choice it self is influenced. Our wills indeed chuse and command our actions; but then our passions move, and our understandings direct and carry away our very wills themselves. So that they are set in a middle Station, being subject to be acted upon and hurried away by some; as well as they are impowered to command, and govern others.
1. Mens wills are subject to be violently acted by their passions, which hurry them on to consent to those things which are both without and against their habitual liking and inclination. When any passion is grown too strong for them, although they are afraid to act that sin which it hales them to, yet can they not withstand it. For the Law of sin in the Members is of more force with them, and prevails more over them, than the Law of God in the mind. So that although they have several exceptions against it, they are not for all that able to refuse it; but they are overcome by it, and yield at last to act it, though unwillingly, and to fulfil it though with trouble and regret.
Now here is an unwillingness, 'tis true, and things are done, which otherwise would not be done, because the power of mens lusts and passions is so strong that their wills cannot restrain them. For all the interest, which the contrary motives of Reason and Religion can make against them, is not able to contend with them. They can and do effect something indeed, so as that the will, when it doth consent to them, doth it not fully and freely, with perfect ease and pleasure; but unwillingly, with fear and reluctance. But yet that which they do is not enough, for the other side prevails, and the will is not able to hold out, but yields at last to fulfil the lust, and to act the sin still.
But now although this be some sort of involuntariness, yet is it not that which will excuse our transgressions, and make all those sins which we commit under it, to be esteemed consistent slips and pardonable infirmities. For this state of unwilling Sinners, as we heard dBook 3. Ch. 4.above, is no state of mercy, but a state of death. It is the state which St Paul describes in the seventh Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, viz. a state of captivity and slavery under sin, ver. 14, 23; and thereupon a state of misery and death, ver. 24. All the Grace which Christs Gospel allows to it, is a Grace of deliverance; a Grace that shall help us out of it, and rescue us from it. In this state of weakness and infirmity Christ found us. For whilst we were yet without strength to help our selves, saith St Paul, Christ dyed for us, Rom. 5.6. But now since he has dyed for us, he will not leave us in it, but rescue and deliver us out of it. For now he having dyed for us, we are likewise to reckon our selves to be dead indeed unto sin for him; that it should no longer master and prevail over us to reign in our mortal bodies so far, as that we should fulfil the lusts thereof, Rom. 6.11, 12. And as for our bodily members, which are the Stage whereon our lusts and passions reign, we are to yield them up now, not any longer instruments of unrighteousness unto the service of sin, but instruments of righteousness unto the service of God, ver. 13.
If therefore we are truly Christians, and such as Christ came to make us, upon our becoming which he has procured Grace and pardon for us, we are not enslaved and led Captives by our passions, but have conquered and subdued them. This St Paul affirms expresly. For they that are Christ's, says he, have crucified the flesh, with the eforeign.passions or affections and lusts, Gal. 5.24.
But then besides our lusts and passions, which although they do make some, cannot yet effect a pardonable unwillingness; there still remains one cause more which may produce it. For
2. Men are subject to be carried on to work what is both without and against their habitual liking and inclination, through ignorance. And this is the great source and intire cause of all our consistent slips and pardonable infirmities.
As for the will of man, it is a blind faculty, it can chuse nothing till the understanding shows it. That is, we cannot desire or will a thing before we see it, nothing can be chosen which is not apprehended. So that if at any time we offend through ignorance or inconsideration, and do amiss either because we did not understand our Duty, or because we did not think of it; unless our ignorance and inconsideration be themselves damnable, and charged upon us to our condemnation, nothing else will. For God will f—Ergo non est cui relle impatetur peccatum nisi vol…nti. Aug. de lib. …rbit. l. 3. c. 17.impute nothing to us at the last Day, either to save, or to destroy us, but what proceeded from our own will and choice; and therefore if any sinful action be innocently involuntary, it is likewise uncondemning.
And this now is the Case of all our slips and transgressions of the Law of God, which are consistent with a state of Grace and salvation. We act them without understanding or considering of them, and so they are involuntary and unchosen. For in some of them we do not think or consider of what we do at all; and in others, although we know the action, yet are we ignorant of the sinfulness of it; so that even in the choice of that this still remains unchosen.
For sin and obedience is not all acting of a thing, but an acting of it with certain ends and designs. If we would be thought to obey Gods Law, we must do it because he requires it; and if we be judged to have sinned against it, it will be for doing something when we saw that he had forbidden it. For that service which God requires is not a heartless service, but a service of the will and choice. So that we must do what he enjoins for his sake, and because his Law requires it, if we expect that he should take himself to be obeyed in it: and we must chuse to do wh…t we gNon sacit aliquid contra Legem Legis ignarus— Nullus potest ejus rei praevaricator esse quam nescit. Salvian de Gub. Dei l. 4. p. 134, 138. Ed. Oxon.know is against his Law, for the sake of sin before we need to fear that he will punish us as men that have sinned against him. Obedience then and disobedience, besides the action, require likewise the eye and intention; viz. the chusing of what we do because his Law commands it, or the chusing it when we know that his Law has forbidden it. But if this knowledge of his Law be wanting, although we chuse the evil action, yet do we not chuse the sin, because we do not see that it is sinful. For we would not chuse it if we knew that he had forbid it, so that in our hearts there is no contempt of him, or disobedience at all.
When therefore at any time we knowingly and deliberately chuse an action which we do not know to be sinful, except that ignorance be our own fault, whatever the action be as to it self, yet as to its relation to the Law, viz. its sinfulness and disobedience, it is not will'd and chosen. For since we did not see its sinfulness, we could not chuse and consent to it. So that there is no rebellion in our wills, whatsoever there may seem to be in our action; but they may notwithstanding it be still intirely subject unto God, and ready to obey him in every thing wherein they see he has laid his Commands upon them.
As some of our consistent slips and transgressions therefore are not thought of, or considered at all; so others, although they are known and considered in themselves, are yet unknown under that relation of sinful actions; so that the sin is all the while unseen, and therefore involuntary and unchosen.
Now as for these slips and transgressions which are thus unknown, and thereby involuntary; they are consistent with a state of Grace, and such as Christs Gospel doth not eternally threaten, but in great mercy bear, and graciously dispense with.
To convince us of the truth whereof, besides all that has been above discoursed upon this Argument, it is first considerable that all these involuntary failings upon ignorance or want of knowledge, are unavoidable, and God, we know, will never damn any man for doing that which could not be avoided. For no man can chuse to shun that which he doth not see, but his understanding must first discern and apprehend a thing, before his will is in any capacity to refuse it. And forasmuch as these slips are no matter of our sight and knowledge, they can be none of our refusal and avoidance.
Indeed if a man should pause and deliberate, watch and examine at all times; albeit he might still be subject to one sort of involuntary actions, viz. that which arises from his ignorance of his Duty; yet would he not be liable to the other which results from this inconsideration of it. For where a man has time, and his Powers are awake, so that he is fit to look about him; his thoughts are his own, and he may fix them upon the consideration of what he pleases. And where he has the power to consider of any action, he has the power likewise to avoid it. And this is that which is pleaded in behalf of mens ability to keep all Gods Commands intirely, and to live wholly without sin, by Atticus in St Hierome: iHoc & nos dicimus, poss… hominem non peccare si velit, pro tempore, pro loco, pro imbecillitate corporea, quamdiu intentus est animus, quamdiu chorda nullo vitio laxatur in cithara. Hieron. Dial. adv. Pel. l. 3. p. 302. Ed. Erasm.Thus much we say, That a man may live without all sin if he will, for such time and place as his mind is intent, and his care is at stretch, and his bodily infirmities will suffer him to continue so.
But as for this power of avoiding all involuntary sins which arise from inconsideration, it is no power at all. For herein we must know lyes every mans unavoidable weakness and infirmity, that whereas our obedience is required at all times, this fitness is only in some certain time and place. For no man is always in that good condition, to be wise and well-disposed, watchful and standing upon his Guard. But he forgets when he should remember, and his faculties are asleep when they should be awake, and he is diverted by other business, and hindred by intervening accidents. So that sometimes either he has not leisure to consider in, or his faculties are not well disposed, and his thoughts free and at his own command, so as, when he has time, duly to consider in it.
And this evil state, which thus unfits a man for consideration, is not always in his own power, and at his own choice whether he shall fall under it or no. For as for the want of time, a man in this world is placed in a crowd of business, and whilst his thoughts are hot in the pursuit of one, another many times waits for him.
And because opportunities do not stay till we are at leisure, we must take them when we find them; so that we act oftentimes without considering, since, if we should stay to think, we should stay beyond that time which we are to act in, if we do act at all. Besides, our powers of action, especially where there is any strong temptation of pleasure or profit to act for, are forward of themselves, and ready to spring out upon the first occasion. As soon as the temptation is offered to our thoughts, our wills indeliberately approve, and all our bodily and active powers, by an unconsidered emanation, start up to pursue and endeavour after it; whence thinking and considering is necessary, not to raise, but to stop and restrain them. And then if either our thoughts have been otherwise engaged, and so cannot readily withdraw themselves to consider of a new object; or if our thinking powers themselves are dull and heavy, and thereby unfit to consider of it: we presently and indeliberately go on to act the thing without all pausing and due consideration.
For this other reason of inconsideration also, viz. the want of power, or indisposition of our thinking faculty it self, is not a thing wholly subject to our own will, to chuse whether, or when we shall fall under it. Because in this state of our souls, during their being here united to our Bodies, they make use of our bodily powers in their use of reason, and in the very exercise of thought and consideration; and therefore even in them they are liable to be changed and altered, just as our Bodies are. For in a brisk and healthy Body, our thoughts are free, and quick, and easie; but if our Bodies are dull and indisposed, our minds are so too. A heaviness in our heads, will make us heavy in our apprehensions; and a discomposure in our Spirits, whether through the strength of Wine, or of a violent passion; will make us discomposed and incoherent in our thoughts also. And if there be an utter perverting, or blasting of our bodily powers, as is often seen in the bodily Diseases of Epilepsies, Phrensies, Apoplexies, and the like; there will be the same perversion, or utter extinction of our conceptions likewise. But now these indispositions of our Bodies, which thus unfit our very souls for thought and due consideration, are not in our power to order when and where they shall seize upon us. For our Bodies are liable to be thus acted upon by any other Bodies of the world, whether we will or no. A heavy air, or an indisposing accident will work a change in our bodily temper without our leave; and when once that is indisposed, we cannot hinder our thoughts themselves from being indisposed too.
And since it is not in our power at all times to chuse whether or no we will pause and consider; although we can avoid offending in those Cases wherein we can consider of it, yet is it manifest that we cannot avoid offence in all.
Indeed if we take any particular action, and in our own thoughts separate it from any particular time, and from the Chain of other particular actions amongst which it lyes; we shall be apt to affirm that it is such whereof we can think and consider. For take any action by it self, and being aware of it, we can let other things alone, and watch for it particularly; and when we do so, we are sure to find one time or other when our understandings are disposed for a due deliberation, and fit and able to consider of it. But then we must take notice that this supposed state of an action, as separate from the Crowd of other actions, and determined to no time, is only imaginary and in speculation. For when we come to practise them, though in some we have time and power enough, yet in others we find that we have not. Because either they come in the throng of other business, and then our thoughts, being hotly employed upon other things, cannot so easily be drawn from them upon the sudden to consider of them: or if they call upon us when we have time to consider in, yet it happens that our faculties are heavy and indisposed, and so we exert them still without due consideration. When we think of any particular action by it self therefore, we take it out of the throng of business wherein it is involved, and out of that time wherein we are indisposed; and then we are bold to conclude that we can consider of it. But when we come to practise it, we find that our former speculation supposed false, and that it comes mixt with a crowd of other things, or in a time when we have troubled and discomposed thoughts: So that how subject soever it was to our consideration in that separate state wherein we imagined it, yet have we no power to consider of it in that throng of business or indisposition of faculties wherein we find it.
And this is verily the Case of several of our slips and transgressions. For look upon any of the particulars by it self, and take it asunder from the rest; and then we shall be confident that we may bethink our selves and consider of it. But take it, as indeed it lyes, among the mixt Crowd of other actions, or as offered to our indisposed understandings; and then we shall find that it slips from us without all consideration.
And this, as I take it, is intended by a great man, when he tells us of sins of pardonable infirmitie, that the kLibertatem eam, quam in specie habere videntur, in sua generalitate considerata non habeant. Grot. de Jure Belli, l. 2. c. 20. §. 19.liberty which they seem to have when we consider them in special and asunder, they indeed have not when we consider them in the general; viz. as involved in the crowd of other actions amongst whom they lye, and altogether. Upon which account of their having in them no choice and consideration, he questions whether they contain that which can in strictness and propriety of speech be called sin. And indeed if we understand the same by sin which St John doth, when he gives the explication of it, 1 John 3.4; (viz. a lforeign.rejecting or contemning of the Law, in which sence only a state of Grace is destroyed by it, and he who is born of God cannot commit it;) they have not. For men cannot be said to reject and mNil contemptu agunt c…lestium praeceptorum, praecepta Domini nes…ientes, &c.— Nemo ignota contemnit, &c, Salv. de Gub. Dei, l. 4. p. 134. & 148. Ed. Oxon.despise a Law, when they do not see and consider of it.
The liberty then which we have about those slips and transgressions which we do not know and consider of, is in effect no liberty at all. For we neither chuse the disobedient action it self, nor the cause of it. We do not chuse the sinful action it self, because we do not know or consider of it: Nor do we chuse the inconsideration, because it is not left to our liberty whether in some of our actions we should be inconsiderate or no.
And since our slips and failings which are thus involuntary by ignorance, cannot be chosen or refused, 'tis plain that they cannot be avoided. And as for all those things which we cannot avoid, it is clear from what has been said above, that the Gospel doth not eternally threaten us, nor will God ever condemn us for them.
But that these slips and transgressions, which being thus unknown are likewise unchosen, and so unavoidable, are not eternally punishable by the Gospel, but consistent with a state of Grace and Salvation, will further appear if we consider,
First, The Nature of God.
Secondly, The nature and plain declarations of the Gospel.
1. I say their consistency with a state of Grace, or Gods favour, will plainly appear if we consider the Nature of God.
God is the most Gracious, Loving, and good natured Being in the whole world. For all the love and kindness that appears among us men proceeds from him, and makes us to resemble him, and to be like unto him. Nay, he is not only Loving, but even Love it self. For God, sayes St John, is Love, and he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him, 1 Joh. 4.16. And if we will take that character which he gives of himself, it is wholly made up of the various instances of Mercy and Goodness. The Lord, sayes he to Moses, the Lord God mercifull and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, Exod. 34.6, 7. All his delight is in exercising Love, and showing kindness. For he swears to us as he lives, that he has no delight at all in the death of a sinner, but had rather that every wicked man should turn from his wickedness, and live, Ezech. 33.11. He is by no means forward to espie faults, or malicious to misconstrue actions, or prone to admit of provocation, or implacably angry when he is once provoked, or cruelly vindictive when once he is angred. The Lord, saith the Psalmist, is mercifull, and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not alwayes chide when he has just reason for it, nor keepeth he his anger for ever, Psal. 103.8, 9. He is not at all of the humour of severe masters, who are prone to take offence; but like a most tender father he is all benignity and goodness. For if any thing be pitiable, he pities it; if any thing is done amiss, he is slow to wrath, and easie to forgive it. Like as a father pitieth his own children, even so the Lord pitieth them that fear him, Psal. 103.13. Nay, take this Love and Pity of a Parent where it is at the highest pitch of all, (viz.) in mothers towards their most helpless, and so most pitiable infants; and yet this tenderness of God doth infinitely exceed it. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, sayes God by his Prophet Isaiah, but I will not forget thee, Isa. 49.15.
Thus Loving, Pitiful, and Benign a Nature do the Scriptures represent God to be. And what they declare of him, all the world have experienced, and found by him. For every impenitent sinner is a lasting monument of his long-suffering and forbearance; and every prosperous event, and deliverance in the world, is an effect of his boundless love and kindness. He is infinitely good beyond all desert, nay, in spite of all provocation. For he is loving even unto the unthankfull and the evil, making his sun to shine, and his rain to fall, and all the other m…r…ies of life to descend upon the unjust as well as upon the just, upon them who contemn, as well as on them who obey him; as our Saviour observed, Mat. 5.45. Luk. 6.35. And this he is to such an astonishing degree, as to bestow upon them, not only the blessings of his substance, of his protection, and of his kind providence: but also, what is a wonder to conceive, for their sakes to part with his own well-beloved, and so much the more beloved, because his only begotten Son. For God, as saith the Apostle, hath recommended his love to us, in that whil'st we were sinners and enemies, Christ his Son came from him, and died for us, Rom. 5.8.
Thus wondrously pitiful, obliging, and good natured then is God, according to that account which both the Scripture, and the Experience of the whole world give of him.
And now let any man think with himself how so surpassing kind, and infinitely gracious a nature as this, is like to be affected with the ignorant, or inconsiderate slips and errours of his Servants? Will he be utterly offended with them, so as quite to cast them off, and for ever to condemn them? No certainly, but in great mercy he will pity and bear with them. For these slips, where we do not consider, or where we err and do not understand our duty, are such instances of disobedience as imply nothing of contempt or of a rebellious heart, nor have any thing of our will in them. They are clearly involuntary, so that whatsoever the action may appear to be, the will it self is innocent. For the disobedience cannot be chosen, since it is not understood; which indeed, in the notion and interpretation of Gods Law, makes it not to be that sin and disobedience which is threatned, but something else: for that sin, as St John tells us, is a rejecting or a renouncing of the Law, whereas in these slips where we do not see it, 'tis plain that we cannot renounce it.
And since they have nothing in them of a disobedient will, or of a rebellous heart; can any man think that so gracious and pitifull a nature should be so highly provoked with them, as for ever to condemn his own honest servants, and otherwise obedient children upon the account of them? Whosoever thou art, who art inclined to think thus, let me advise thee to consider a little what Love is, and whether it can possibly be guilty of such hard usage. If thou hast any competent degrees of that Love and Pity in thine own heart, which are so infinite in God, bethink thy self whether thou could'st do it, for that is the way, and thence take thy measures in judging whether or no God can. Doth any gracious master use that severity towards the oversights and indiscretions of his honest servant? or, to rise yet higher, can any tender Parent show that rigour upon every errour and inconsideration of his heartily obedient child? Is not every good man prone to pass by such offences as are committed unwillingly against him; and the more he has of goodness, is he not still more forward to pardon and bear with them? There is no Nature upon Earth that is kind and pitifull, but will make allowances for those things which proceed from want of understanding, and will pass over those miscarriages which imply nothing of ill will or ill intention. Every good man will overlook and connive at them when they are committed by a perfect stranger; but then most of all when they are incurr'd by his own intimate and dear acquaintance or relations, by his own servant, or his own child. This, I say, every good and loving man doth, and the more he has of love and goodness, the proner still he is to do it. For it is a natural and inseparable effect of charity, so that in what proportion it increases, in the same must this increase likewise. Charity, sayes St Paul, suffereth long, and is kind, charity is not easily provoked, charity thinketh no evil, charity beareth all things, and endureth all things, 1 Cor. 13.4, 5, 7. The more therefore that any man has of charity, the more will he be sure to show of sufferance, of pity, of endurance of such slips and oversights as are consistent with an honest, and otherwise obedient heart.
And now since those imperfect measures and degrees of Love which are found in the hearts of all good men, are of force more than sufficient to make them pity and bear with these slips of honest ignorance and inconsideration: that infinite height of Love which dwells in God Almighty, must needs make him bear with them much rather. For the most loving man upon earth hath not the thousandth part of his affection; the more loving any men are indeed the more still they are like him, but when they are arrived to the highest pitch of what humanity can bear, it is not possible, that they should in any measure equal him. And since Gods Love is infinitely more, his pity and forbearance towards such pitiable oversights, which is a most natural and necessary effect of it, cannot possibly be less than ours is. No, if no kind-hearted loving man would, it must needs be the greatest injury to an infinitely loving God to suspect that ever he should be severe in punishing us for them.
If we ask Gods Pardon then for all our ignorant and inconsiderate slips and failings; he is as ready to give as we are to desire it. And this we are assured of, because it is no more than we daily experience at the hands of every loving and good natured man. For since God cannot be equalled, and much less out-done by the very best of us in kindness; what the weak Love of a man doth every day effect, that certainly the infinite Love of God will effect more abundantly. And as for this way of arguing, it is no more than our Saviour himself uses in another case, when he shows that God will give good gifts unto his children at their request, because all earthly Parents do it unto theirs daily; whenas yet their Love, which makes them grant the good things asked so readily, is infinitely exceeded by the Love of God, Luk. 11.13.
Thus from the consideration of Gods Nature it plainly appears, that those slips and transgressions which are committed involuntarily and unavoidably, because ignorantly and inconsiderately, do not put us out of a state of Grace, but consist with it.
Which will appear yet further, if we consider,
Secondly, The Nature, and plain declarations of the Gospel.
As for the Nature of the Gospel, St Paul affirms plainly that it is of such a temper and genius as tends to ingenerate in the professors of it, not a spirit of fear and slavery, which they are possessed with who serve a rigorous and austere Lord; but a spirit of chearfulness and free confidence, such as they enjoy who serve a gracious and a loving Father. For he tells the Jews at Rome, that in embracing of Christs Gospel they had not received again the spirit of bondage, unto the possessing of their hearts with fears and scruples; but the spirit of adoption, whereby they were emboldened with the chearfulness and confidence of sons to cry unto God, Abba, Father, Rom. 8.15. But now if the condition of the Gospel it self were so severe, as that, according to the tenour of it, these unavoidable slips of inconsideration and ignorance should set God and us at enmity; no Christian man could ever look upon God as upon his tender Father, with this spirit of filial freedom; but must needs fear and dread him as his angry and avenging Lord. And the Gospel requiring more of us under the forfeiture of Gods favour, than any man among us is able to perform; it could not minister to ingenerate in us a spirit of chearfull confidence towards him, but quite contrary to that, to fill us with inextricable doubts and fears of him. As for these slips of ignorance then which cannot be avoided, we may be assured that according to the Gospel they never can be punish'd; for the New Covenant must bear with them, because it cannot ingender in us this spirit of adoption, and filial confidence without such forbearance.
And then as for the Declarations of the Gospel, in this matter they are very clear also. For besides those places that are mentioned above, which show clearly that no involuntary sins are damning, and then certainly that our slips of ignorance are not, seeing they have the greatest plea to involuntariness of any: I say, besides those, this consistence of our unknown and unconsidered slips will be evident from other places also.
And for this, to seek no further, St James's Rule is full and plain. To him that knoweth, or, which comes to the same thing, if he will may know how to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin, Jam. 4.17. If then we have no other sins to answer for, but only these of inconsideration and ignorance, we are guilty of none wherefore we shall be condemned, these unknown sins not being of that number.
And indeed St James's Rule is verified by Scripture instances. For holy David fell through inconsideration and unadvisedness in sundry things; as particularly in an inconsiderate despairing of Gods mercy, Psal. 31.22. and in an excessive sorrow for his Son Absolom, 2 Sam. 18.33. and ch. 19.4. But notwithstanding these, and all other his unadvised slips, he was all the while, a man after Gods own heart, a person upright and acceptably obedient still.
Zacharias and Elizabeth were surprized no question, as well as other people are, into several slips and inconsiderate follies. For one we have mention'd, even in that short account which the Scriptures have given us of them, and that is this; viz. that at the first hearing of the joyful message of the Angel, he is incredulous, and is punished with dumbness for his unbelief, Luk. 1.18, 20. But yet this, and his other involuntary failings of like nature, come not into the account of his sins and disobedience when God speaks of him; for notwithstanding these their infirmities, of both of them we are told, that they were righteous, and that before God, walking in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless, Luk. 1.6.
As for this sort of slips and transgressions therefore, (viz.) our sins of ignorance and inconsideration; we see plainly that they never will be charged upon us to our condemnation. They do not destroy a Saint, or put us out of a state of Grace and Salvation, but consist with it. This must needs be true, for they must be pardoned, because they cannot be avoided. Besides, the love and pitifulness of Gods Nature infers, and the very temper and genius of his Gospel supposes it; the Apostle plainly and fully declares it; and from Gods own mouth we are told of several of his dearest Saints who have experienced the truth of it. By all which it appears, that so long as we are guilty of no other slips but such as these, we are safe in Gods favour, and secure of his promises; we shall be accepted by him, although we live and dye in them.
And thus at length it appears what sins are truly and innocently involuntary; (viz.) those which are acted ignorantly and unwittingly: and that they do not unsaint a man, or destroy his state of Grace and Salvation, but consist with it▪