Thirty-Six Sermons, Collection of sermons 2 · Group of sermons 1 · Sermon 17

Thirty-Six Sermons · Collection of sermons 2 · Group of sermons 1 · Sermon 17

p. 593AD AULAM.

Sermon XVII.

Newport, in the Isle of Wight, Octob. 1648.

Gal. 5. 22, 23.

But the Fruit of the Spirit is Love, Ioy, Peace, Long-suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance: against such there is no Law.

1. HE that shall impartially look upon former and the present times, shall find that of Solomon exactly true, There Eccl. 1. 9.Eccl 1:9is no new thing under the Sun. Vetus fabula, novi histriones. The things we see done are but aaNihil novi video, nihil novi facio. Senec.the same things that have been done: only acted over again by new Persons, and with a few new circumstances. It was in the Apostles times, and the Churches of Galatia, even as it is with us in these days. False Teachers had crept in among them: who by their hypocrisie and pretensions of the Spirit, had so corrupted their Faith, that they were removed after a fort unto another Gospel; Gal. 1. 6.—5. 26.—5. 15.Gal 1:6and so extremely sowred their Charity, that from provoking and envying, they were now grown to biting and devouring one another.

2. The Apostle wondring at this so unexpected a change, (I marvel you are so soon removed, Gal. 1. 6.) to see them so befooled in their understandings, and bewitched in their affections, as to suffer so sore and sudden a decay, in the two most essential parts of Christian Religion, Faith and Charity: thought it high time for him, after he had first well schooled them (O foolish Galatians, who Gal. 3. 1.Gal 3:1hath bewitched you?) to offer his advice towards the allaying of those heats and distempers, that were the causes of this so sad and dangerous an alteration.

3. The remedy he prescribeth for that end (vers. 16.) is short, but very sure, if they will but follow it. Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. As if he had said, You talk much of the Spirit: but you make it little appear in the fruit of your lives, that you are led by the spirit. The Spirit, and p. 594the Flesh, are contraries: and they lust contrary things, vers. 17. If you were as careful to walk in the Spirit, as you are to boast of it, you would not be so forward, as now you are, by cherishing unbrotherly contentions, and sundry other ways to fulfil the lusts of the flesh.

4. A hard thing it is, to bring an overweening Hypocrite to a true understanding of himself: for Pride and Hypocrisie are two such things as few men are willing to own. That they might therefore with better certainty be able to discern whether they were indeed Spiritual, or but yet Carnal: the Apostle proceedeth to describe the Flesh and the Spirit by sundry their different effects. A Catalogue we have for that purpose of the works of the Flesh, in seventeen particulars, in the three next verses before the Text; and then another Catalogue of the Fruits of the spirit, in nine particulars, in the Text it self. Wherein we may observe three things: First, the Notion, or general description of Spiritual Graces, as they are here proposed: they go under this name, The fruit of the spirit. Secondly, the particular Species given under that Name or Notion: they are these nine; Love, Ioy, Peace, Long-suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, and Temperance. Thirdly, a special priviledge belonging to all and every the aforesaid particulars: to wit, Exemption from the Law; Against such there is no Law

5. In the general description (which is like to be our only business at this time) the thing we are to take notice of is, the differences that may be observed, between the Titles under which St. Paul hath entred the several particulars of both sorts: as they are set down, the one in the beginning of verse 19. [The works of the Flesh are manifest, which are these, Adultery, &c.] the other in the beginning of verse. 22. [But the fruit of the Spirit is Love, &c.] And those differences are four. First, those effects of the former sort proceed originally from the Flesh; these from the Spirit. Secondly, those are rather stiled by the name of Works, these by the name of Fruit: the Works of the Flesh, but the Fruit of the Spirit. Thirdly, those are set forth as many and apart, Works, in the Plural: These as many, but united into one, Fruit in the Singular. Fourthly, those are expresly said to be manifest: of these no such thing at all mentioned.

6. The first difference, which ariseth from the nature of the things themselves, as they relate to their several proper causes, is of the four the most obvious and important: and it is this. That whereas the vicious habits and sinful actions catalogued in the former verses, are the production of the Flesh: the Graces and Vertues specified in the Text, are ascribed to the Spirit, as to their proper and original cause. They are not the works of the Flesh, as the former, but the fruit of the Spirit.

7. Where the first Question, that every man will be ready to ask, is, What is here meant by the Spirit? The necessity of expressing supernatural and divine things, by words taken from natural or humane affairs, hath produced another necessity of enlarging the significations of sundry of those words to a very great Latitude. Which is one special cause of the obscurity, which is found in sundry places of holy Scripture, and consequently of the difficulty of giving the proper and genuine sence of such places: and consequently to that (amidst so many interpretations of one and the same place, whilst each contendeth for that sence which himself hath pitched upon) of infinite disputes and controversies in point of Religion. Among which words, three especially I have observed, all of them of very frequent use in the New Testament: which, as they are subject to greater variety of signification than most other words are; so have they ever yet been, and are like to be to the Worlds end, the matter and fuel of very many, and very fierce contentions in the Church. Those three are, Faith, Grace, and Spirit. Truly I am perswaded, if it were possible all men could agree in what p. 595signification each of those three words were to be understood in each place where any of them are found; three full parts at least of four, of those unhappy Controversies that have been held up in the Christian Church would vanish.

8. And of the three this of Spirit hath yet the greatest variety of Significations. God in his Essence; the Person of the Holy Ghost; good Angels; evil Angels; extraordinary gifts, wherewith the Apostles and others in the Primitive times were endowed; the several faculties of the Soul, as Understanding, Affections, and Conscience; the whole Soul of man; supernatural Grace, besides many others not needful now to be remembred; all come under this appellation of Spirit. Much of the ambiguity of the World (I confess) is cut off, when it is opposed to Flesh: yet even then also it wanteth no variety. The Divine and Humane Nature in the Person of Christ; the literal and mystical sence of Scripture; the Ordinances of the Old and New Testament; the Body and the Soul; Sensuality and Reason; the corruption of Nature, and the Grace of God: all these may, according to the peculiar exigence of several places, be understood by the terms of Flesh and Spirit.

9. Generally, the word Spirit in the common notion of it importeth a thing of subtile parts, but of an operative quality. So that the less any thing hath of matter, and the more of vertue, the nearer it cometh to the nature of a Spirit: as the Wind, and the Quintessences of Vegetables or Minerals extracted by Chymical operation. We use to say of a man, that is of a sad, sluggish and flegmatick temper, that he hath no Spirit; but if he belively, active, quick, and vigorous, we then say, he hath spirit in him. It is said of the Queen of Sheba, 1 King. 10. 5.1 Kgs 10:5when she saw the wisdom and royal state of King of Solomon▪ that there was no more spirit left in her: that is, she stood mute and amazed at it, as if she had had no life, speech, sense, or motion in her. The Soul is therefore called a Spirit, because being it self no bodily substance, it yet actuateth and enliveneth the body; and is the inward principle of life thereunto: called therefore, The Spirit Gen. 2. 7. Jam. 2. 26.Gen 2:7Jas 2:26of life; and St. Iames saith, The body without the Spirit is dead: that is, it is a liveless Iump of flesh without the Soul. So that whatsoever is principium agendi internum, the fountain of action or operation, as an inward principle thereof, may in that respect and so far forth borrow the name of a Spirit. Insomuch as the very flesh it self, so far forth as it is the fountain of all those evil works, mentioned in the foregoing verses, may in that respect be called a Spirit: and so is by St. Iames, The Spirit that is in us lusteth after Envy, saith he; that is inJam. 4. 5.Jas 4:5 very deed, the Flesh that is in us: for among the lusts and work of the flesh is envy reckoned in the very next verse before the Text.

10. To come up close to the Point, (for I fear I have kept off too long) as they stand here opposed; by Flesh I take to be clearly meant, aaforeign. Chrys. hic. Joh. 3. 6.John 3:6the Natural Corruption of Man; and by Spirit, the Supernatural Grace of God. Even as the same words are also taken in some other places: as namely in that saying of our Saviour, Ioh. 3. That which is born of the Flesh, is Flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit. Which words may serve as a good Commentary upon this part of the Text: for they do not only warrant the interpretation, but afford us also the reason of it, under the analogy of a twofold Birth or Generation. The Generation, whether of Plants or living Creatures, is effectual by that prolifical vertue which is in the seed. Answerable therefore unto the twofold Birth, spoken of in the Scriptures, there is also a twofold seed. The first Birth, is that of the Old man, by natural generation, whereby we are born the sons of Adam: The second Birth, is that of the New man, by spiritual regeneration, whereby we are born the Sons of God. Answerably whereunto the first seed is Semen Adae, the seed of old Adam, derived unto us by carnal propagation from our natural Parents, who are therefore called, The Fathers of our Flesh, togetherHeb. 12. 9.Heb 12:9 wherewith is also derived that uncleanness or corruption: which upon our p. 596first birth cleaveth so inseparably to our nature, and is the inward principle, from which all the works of the flesh have their emanation. But then there is another seed, Semen Dei, as St. Iohn calleth it, the seed of the second Adam, Iesus Christ, 1 Joh. 3. 9.1 John 3:9God blessed for ever, derived unto us by the communication of his holy Spirit inwardly renewing us; together wherewith is also derived a measure of inherent supernatural grace, as the inward principle, whence all these choice fruits of the Spirit do flow.

11. So that upon the whole matter, these two Points are clear. First, clear it is, that all the wicked practices recited and condemned in the foregoing verses, with all other of like quality, do proceed meerly from aaforeign. Chrysost.the corruption that is in us, from our own depraved minds and wills, without any the least cooperation of the holy Spirit of God therein. It cannot stand with the goodness of God to be the principal, and neither with his goodness nor greatness, to be an Accessory in any sinful action. He cannot be either the Author, or the Abettor of any thing that is evil. Whoso therefore hath committed any sin, let him take heed he do not add another and a worser to it, by charging God with it: rather let him give God and his Spirit the glory, by taking all the blame and shame of it to himself and his own Flesh. All sinful works are works of the Flesh.

12. Secondly, it is clear also, that all the holy affections and performances here mentioned, with all other Christian vertues and graces, accompanying Salvation not here mentioned, though wrought immediately by us, and with the free consent of our own wills, are yet the fruit of Gods Spirit working in us. That is to say. They do not proceed originally from any strength of nature, or any inherent power in mans free-will; nor are they acquired by the culture of Philosophy, the advantages of Education, or any improvement whatsoever of natural abilities by the helps of Art or Industry: but are in truth the proper effects of that supernatural grace, which is given unto us by the good pleasure of God the Father, merited for us by the precious blood of God the Son, and conveyed into our hearts by the sweet and secret inspirations of God the holy Ghost. Love, Ioy, Peace, &c. are fruits, not at all of the Flesh, but meerly and entirely of the Spirit.

13. All those very many passages in the New Testament, which either set forth the unframeableness of our nature to the doing of any thing that is good, [Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think a good thought. In me, that is in 2 Cor. 3. 5. Rom. 7. 18.2 Cor 3:5Rom 7:18my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing; and the like] or else ascribe our best performances to the glory of the grace of God, [Without me you can do nothing. Joh. 15. 7. 2 Cor. 3. 5. Eph. 2. 8. Phil. 2. 13.John 15:72 Cor 3:5Eph 2:8Phil 2:13All our sufficiency is of God. Not of your selves; it is the gift of God. It is God that worketh in you both the will and the deed; and the like] are so many clear confirmations of the Truth. Upon the evidence of which truth it is, that our mother the Church hath taught us in the Publick Service to beg at the hands of Almighty God, that he would …ndue us with the grace of his holy Spirit, to amend our lives according to his holy Word: And again (consonantly to the matter we are how in hand with, almost in terminis) that he would give to all men encrease of grace to hear meekly his word, and to receive it with pure affection, and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. As without which grace it were not possible for us to amend our lives, or to bring forth such fruits, according as God requireth in his holy Word,

14. And the Reason is clear: because as the tree is, such must the fruit be. Do men look to gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Or can they expectMat. 7. 16.Matt 7:16 from a salt Fountain other than brackish water? Certainly, what is born of Flesh, can be no better than Flesh. Who can bring a clean thing out of that which Job 14. 4.Job 14:4is unclean? Or how can any thing that good is proceed from a heart, all the imaginations of the thoughts whereof are only and continually evil? If we wouldGen. 6.Gen 6 p. 593have the Fruit good, reason will (and our Saviour prescribeth the same method) that order be taken, first to make the tree good.

15. But you will say, It is as impossible, so to alter the nature of the Flesh, as to make it bring forth good spiritual fruit: as it is to alter the Nature of a Crab or Thorn, so as to make it bring forth a pleasant Apple. Truly and so it is: if you shall endeavour to mend the fruit by altering the stock, you shall find the labour altogether fruitless. A Crab will be a Crab still, when you have done what you can: and you may as well hope to wash an Ethiopian white, as to purge the Flesh from sinful pollution.

16. The work therefore must be done quite another way: not by alteration, but addition. That is, leaving the old principle to remain as it was, by superinducing, ab extra a new principle, of a different and more kindly quality. We see the experiment of it daily in the graffing of trees. A Crab-stock, if it have a Cyen of some delicate apple artly grafted in it: look what branches are suffered to grow out of the stock it self, they will all follow the nature of the stock, and if they bring forth any fruit at all, it will be sowre and stiptick. But the fruit that groweth from the graft, will be pleasant to the taste, because it followeth the nature of the Graft. We read of foreign, an engrafted word, Jam. 1.Jam. 1. 21.Jas 1:21 Our carnal hearts are the old stock; which, before the Word of God be grafted in it, cannot bring forth any spiritual fruit, acceptable to God: But when by the powerful operation of his holy Spirit, the Word which we hear with our outward ears is inwardly grafted therein, it then bringeth forth the fruit of good living. So that all the bad fruits that appear in our lives come from the old stock, the Flesh: and if there be any good fruit of the Spirit in us▪ it is from the virtue of that word of grace that is grafted in us.

17. It should be our care then, since the Scriptures call so hard upon us for fruits (to be fruitful in good works, to bring forth fruits meet for repentance, Col. 1. 10. Mat. 3. 8, 10.Col 1:10Matt 3:8Matt 3:10&c.) and threaten us with excision and fire if we do not bring forth fruit, and that good fruit too: it should be our care, I say, to bestow (at least) as much diligence about our hearts, as good husbands do about their fruit-trees. They will not suffer any suckers or luxuriant branches to grow from the stock: but as soon as they begin to appear, or at least before they come to any bigness, cut them off, and cast them away. By so doing, the grafts thrive the better, and bring forth fruit both sooner and fairer. God hath entrusted us with the custody and culture of our own hearts, as Adam was put into …he Garden to keep it and Gen. 2. 15.Gen 2:15to dress it: and besides the charge given us in that behalf it behoveth us much for our own good, to keep them with all diligence. If we husband them well,Prov. 4. 23.Prov 4:23 the benefit will be ours: he looketh for no more but his rent (and that an easie rent) the Glory, and the Thanks; the fruits wholly accure to us, as Usufructuaries. But if we be such ill husbands, so careless and improvident, as to let them sylvescere, overgrow with wild and superfluous branches, to hinder the thriving of the grafts, whereby they become ill-liking and unfruitful: we shall neither answer the trust committed to us, nor be able to pay our rent (we shall bring him in no glory) nor do our selves any good: but run behind hand continually, and come to nought at last.

18. It will behove us therefore, if we will have our fruit in holiness, and the Rom. 6. 22. Heb. 12. 15.Rom 6:22Heb 12:15end everlasting life, to look to it betimes: lest some root of bitterness springing up, put us to more trouble than we are aware of for the present, or can be well able to deal withal afterwards. The Flesh will find us work enough to be sure: it is ever and anon putting forth spurns of Avarice, Ambition, Envy, Revenge, Pride, Luxury, some noisom lust or other: like a rotten dunghil, that's rank of weeds. If we neglect them but a little, out of a thought that they can do no great harm yet, or that we shall have time enough to snub them hereafter, we do it to our own certain disadvantage, if not utter undoing: we shall either p. 596duplicate page p. 593duplicate page p. 594never be able to overcome them, or not without very much more labour and difficulty than we might have done at the first.

19. In the mean time, whilst these superfluous excrescencies (foreign, I know not how to call them) are suffered, they draw away the sap to their own nourishment, and so pine and starve the grafts that they never come to good. foreign, saith St. Iames; we translate it, wherefore laying aside: Jam. 1. 21.Jas 1:21perhaps it may import a little more. The whole verse is well worth the further considering, if we had time to insist upon it: it seemeth to allude throughout to the lopping off of those suckers or superfluous branches that hinder the prospering of grafts. As if he had said, If you desire that the holy Word of God, which is to be grafted in your hearts, should bring forth fruit to the saving of your souls; suffer not these filthy and naughty superfluities of fleshly lusts to hinder the growth thereof, but off with them, away with them; and the sooner, the better. That is foreign.

20. I should from this Point before I had left it (but that I have other things to speak to, and may not insist) have pressed two things more. First, the necessity of our Prayers. It is true, our endeavours are necessary: God that doth our▪ work for us, will not do it without us. But without the assistance of his Spirit, all our endeavours are bootless: and we have no reason to persume of his assistance, if we think our selves too good to ask it. We may not think, we have done all our part toward fruit-bearing, when we have planted and watered; until we have earnestly solicited him to do his part too, in giving the encrease, and crowning our endeavours with success.

21. Secondly, a duty of Thankfulness. If by his good blessing upon our prayers and endeavours we have been enabled to bring forth any fruit, such as he will graciously accept: take we heed we do not withdraw the least part of the glory of it from him, to derive it upon our selves, or our own endeavours. Non Psal. 115. 1.Ps 115:1nobis, Domine, non Nobis: Not unto us, O Lord, by no means to us, but to thy Name be the glory. Enough it is for us, that we have the comfort onward, and shall have an unmeasurable reward at the last, for the good we have done (either of both which, is infinitly more than we deserve:) but far be it from us to claim any share in the glory: let all that be to him alone. Whatsoever fruit therefore we bear, or how much soever, let us not be high-minded thereupon, or take too much upon us: For we bear not the root, but the root beareth us; Rom. 11. 18.Rom 11:18and when we have done our utmost endeavors, the fruit we bear is still the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of our endeavours.

22. I have dwelt long upon this first difference, not so much because it was the first (though that somtimes falleth out to be the best excuse we are able to make for such prolixities;) as because it is the most ma…erial, as arising from the different nature of the things spoken of: whereas the three that follow are rather verbal, arising but from the different manner of the Apostles expressions in respect of the words. The first whereof (the second of the whole four) is▪ that the evil effects proceeding from the flesh, are called by the name of Works; and the good effects proceeding from the Spirit are called by the name of Fruits. The Quaery is, Why those and these being both effects alike, they are not either both alike called Works, or both alike called Fruits; but the one Works, the othere Fruit, The works of the Flesh there; here the fruit of the Spirit?

23. For answer whereunto, I shall propose to your choice two Conjectures. The one more Theological, or rather Metaphysical, which is almost as new to me, as perhaps it will seem to you, for it came not into my thoughts till I was upon it:) the other more moral and popular. For the former, take it thus: Where the immediate Agent produceth a work or effect, virtue propriâ, by his own power, and not in the virtue of a superiour Agent: both the work it self produced, and the efficacy of the operation whereby it is produced, are to be p. 595ascribed to him alone; so as it may be said properly and precisely to be his work. But where the immediate Agent operateth virtute ali…nâ, in the strength and virtue of some higher Agent, without which he were not able to produce the effect: tho the work done may even there also be attributed in some so… to the inferior and subordinate Agent, as the immediate cause; yet the efficacy▪ whereby it was wrought, cannot be so properly imputed to him, but ought rather to be ascribed to that higher Agent, in whose virtue he did operate.

24. The Application will make it somewhat plainer. In all humane actions, whether good or bad, the will of Man is the immediate Agent: so that whether we commit a sin, or do a good work, inasmuch as it proceedeth from our free Wills, the work is still our work howsoever. But herein is the difference between good and evil actions; The Will (which is naturally in this depraved estate conrupt, and fleshly) operateth by its own power alone for the producing of a sinful action, without any co-operation at all (as was said already) of God or his holy Spirit: and therefore the sin so produced, is to be ascribed to the fleshly Will, as to the sole and proper cause thereof, and may therefore very rightly be said to be the work of the flesh. But in the producing of any action that is spiritually good, the Will operateth only as a subordinate Agent to the grace of the holy Spirit, and in the power and virtue thereof: and therefore altho **Haec cùm certum sit omnino in nobis actitari spiritu, Dei sunt munira: quia vero cum nostrae volunta…is assensu, nostra sunt merita. Bern. de grat. & lib. …rb. 1 Cor. 1…. 10.1 Cor 1:10the good work may in some sort be said to be our work, because immediately produced by our Wills; yet it is in truth the fruit of that Spirit, and not of our Wills, because it is wrought by the power of that Spirit, and not by any power of our Wills; [Nevertheless, not I, but the grace of God with me, 1 Cor. 15.]

25. If this seem but a subtilty, and satisfy not, let it go: the other I presume will, being it is so plain and popular. The word Fruit most what relateth to some Labour going before. **Terent. Adelph. 5. 4. Phil. 1. 22. 2 Tim. 2. 6.Phil 1:222 Tim 2:6Hoc fructûs pro labore ab his fero, in the Poet. So in the Scriptures, Nevertheless this is the fruit of my labour. The husbandman that first laboureth, must be partaker of the fruit: Labour first, and then Fruit. That which David calleth the labour of the hands, (Thou shalt eat the labour of thy Psal. 128. 2. Prov. 31. 31.Ps 128:2Prov 31:31hands) Psal. 128. Solomon calleth the fruit of the hands, (Give her of the fruit of her hands) Prov. 31.

26. The reason is, because no Man would willingly undergo any toil or labour to no end: he would have something or other in his eye that might in some measure recompence his pains; and that is called the fruit of his labour. Tully therefore joineth **—praemium & fructum officii repetere. Cic antequam ire… in exilium. 1 Cor. 9. 7.1 Cor 9:7proemium and fructum together, as importing the same thing. Who planteth a Vineyard, but in hope to eat of the fruit of it? Or what Husbandman would plow and sow, and plant and prune, and dig and dung, if he did not hope to find it all answered again, when he cometh to inn the Fruits? ††Horat. 2. Epist. 1.Spe fructûs dura ferentes. The first question in every Man's thoughts, when he is importuned to any thing of labour and business, is, ¶¶Ennius.Ecquid erit pretii? Will it be worth my labour? What **Quae tamen inde seges? Quis terrae fructus apertae? Juv. Sat. 7.benefit shall I reap by it? What will be the fruit of my pains?

27. In all deliberations, where two ways are offered to our choice; Wisdom would that we should first weigh, as advisedly and exactly as we can, the labour and the fruit of the one against the other: and as we find those (rightly compared) to be more or less, to make our ††foreign. Homer. I… liad. 9.resolutions accordingly. We are called on hard on both sides: God commandeth us to serve him; Satan and the World solicite us to the service of sin. Promises there are, or Intimations, of Fruit, on both sides: Salvation to our Souls on the one side, Satisfaction to our Lusts on the other. Here then is our business and our wisdom, to compare what is required, and what is offered on both sides: to examine on the one side first, and then on the other, whether the Work exceed the Fruit, or the Fruit the Work.

28. Now the Apostle by the very choice of his words here, hath after a sort p. 596done the business, and determined the Controversy to our hands. In the service of sin, the toil is so great, that in comparison thereof the benefit is as nothing: and in the Service of God the benefit so great, that in comparison thereof the pains is as nothing. Where the Flesh ruleth all, the Work exceedeth the Fruit: and therefore without ever mentioning the Fruit, they are called the Works of the Flesh. But where the Spirit of God ruleth, the Fruit exceedeth the Work: and therefore without ever mentioning the Work, it is called the Fruit of the Spirit.

29. If in this passage only this different manner of speaking had been used by the Apostle, it might perhaps have been taken for a casual expression, unsufficient to ground any collection upon. But look into Eph. 5. and you cannot doubt but it was done of choice, and with this very meaning. Speaking there of the Duties of Holiness, even as here; without any mention of work, he calleth them by the name of Fruit, (The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth, vers. 9.) But by and by, vers. 11. speaking of sinful actions, he doth not only call them Works, as he doth here, but positively and expresly pronounceth them fruitless; (Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness): Works, but without Fruit; unfruitful works of darkness. This justifieth the collection to be evident, and natural, and without enforcement. The ways of sin are very toilsom, yet withal unfruitful: but in all spiritual labour there is profit. The fruit will countervail the pains, and recompence it abundantly. We may not unfitly apply to these two his words in the Comedy, **Terent. Phorm. 2. 2.In his fructus est, in his opera luditur.

30. The paths of sin seem indeed at the first hand, and in the entrance, to be very pleasant and even. The Devil to draw Men in, goeth before like a leveller and smootheth the way for them; but when they are in, he driveth them along, and on they must. Be the way never so dark and slippery, never so crooked or craggy, never so intricate and perplexed: being once engaged, they must go through it per saxa, per ignes; stick at nothing (be it never so contrary to the Laws of God or Men, to all natural, civil, or religious obligations, yea, even to the principles of common humanity and reason) that avarice, ambition, revenge, or any other vicious lust putteth them upon. Ambulavimus vias difficiles: they confess it at last, when it is too late, and befool themselves for it; (We have wearied our selves in the way of wickedness and destruction, we have gone through dangerous ways, &c.) Wisd. 5. They have wearied themselves to work Wisd. 5. 7. Jer. 9. 5. Hab. 2. 13.Wis 5:7Jer 9:5Hab 2:13iniquity, saith the Prophet Ieremiah: and the Prophet Habakkuk, The people labour in the very fire. The Greek word, that signifieth wickedness, cometh of another that signifieth labour, foreign of foreign. And how often in the Scriptures do we meet with such-like Phrases as those, to work wickedness, workers of iniquity, &c. St. Chrysostom's eloquence enlargeth it self, and triumpheth in this argument more frequently, and with greater variety of invention and amplification, than in almost any other: and he cleareth it often and beyond all exception, both by Scripture and Reason, that the life of a wicked or worldly Man, is a very druggery infinitely more toilsom, vexatious and unpleasant, than a godly life is.

31. Now if, after all this droyling, the fruit would (tho but in a scant proportion) answer the pains, it were the more tolerable. But there is no such matter: the Sinner hath but his labour for his pains. Nay, I may say, it were happy for him, if he had but his labour for his pains; and that there were not a worse matter yet behind. The best they can hope in the mean time is nothing but vanity; and vanity is nothing. Man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth Psal. 39. 6.Ps 39:6himself in vain, saith David. The work disquietness; the fruit vanity. The Hab. 2. 13.Hab 2:13people labour in the very fire, you heard but now from the Prophet: his very next words are, they weary themselves for very vanity. St. Peter therefore calleth p. 597the conversation of sinners, a vain conversation. And St. Paul putteth the question1 Pet. 1. 18.1 Pet 1:18 home to their Consciences; after a sort challenging them to answer directly to it, if they could, What fruit had you then in those things? Rom. 6.Rom. 6. 21.Rom 6:21

32. No great reason then, if we well consider it, why we should envy sinners, tho they prosper never so much in wicked designs, and seem to reap the fruit of their labours, in the success of their affairs. All temporal advantages of Wealth, Honour, Power, Pleasure, and the like, which are the utmost fruit that a sinner can fancy to himself of all his labour, have but a shew and semblance, not the truth and reality of Fruit. Both because in the mean time they give not that satisfaction in the enjoyment, which was desired and expected from them in the pursuit: as they write of the Apples of Sodom, that look very fair and full, and tempt the eye, but as soon as touched **Solin. cap. 38.—contacta cinerescunt. Tert. Apol. c. 40.fatiscunt in vagum pulverem; like a fuss-ball, resolve all into dust and smoak. As also because they have a very ill farewel with them at the last. Honey in the mouth perhaps, (and that but perhaps neither) but Gall certainly in the stomach▪ if not rather rank Poison. Know they not it will be bitterness in the end? Shame, Sorrow, and bitter Repentance? And that is the best end imaginable of such bad beginnings. But without repentance, eternal death and damnation not to be avoided: for the Rom. 6. 21.Rom 6:21end of those things (used and continued in) is death.

33. Let us not therefore either envy their prosperity, or yet follow their example. Wherefore should we lay out our mony for that which is not bread, or Isa. 55. 1.Isa 55:1our labour for that which satisfieth not? When we may drive a far easier trade with far more profit another way: have less toyl, and yet reap more fruit. And that is, by walking in the holy ways of God, and taking upon us the yoke of Christ. That, we are told, is an easie yoke, at least in comparison of the other, (that ofMat. 11. 30.Matt 11:30 Satan) and a light burden: and we have no reason to disbelieve it, Truth it self having told us so. Especially considering, that he putteth under the shoulder himself also, and, by helping to bear with us, beareth off in a manner the whole weight from us, leaving no more for us to carry, than by the strength he giveth us he knoweth we are well able to bear, if we will but put to our good 1 Cor. 10. 13.1 Cor 10:13wills, and use that strength. Nay, do but compare the works themselves, and you must conclude, that his Commandments are more equitable, and less grievous 1 Joh. 5. 3.1 John 5:3than are the imperious commands of our own raging and exorbitant lusts. Will not any reasonable Man, upon the hearing of the names of the things only, presently yield that Love, and Ioy, and Peace, and Gentleness, (for example) which are fruits of the Spirit, are far more lovely and desirable, more easy and delightful, fuller of sweetness and calmness, less toilsome and vexatious, than are Hatreds, and Debates, and Emulations, and Seditions, and Murders, and those other Works of the Flesh.

34. Now if, as the task is easier, so the benefit be greater: what can excuse our folly, if we do not give up our selves to be ordered by the guidance of the Spirit in every thing, rather than yield to satisfy the lust's of the flesh in any thing? And the benefit is greater. A sure reward, saith Solomon: For God is not unrighteous Prov. 11. 18. Heb. 6. 10. Psal. 19. 11. Mat. 10. 42.Prov 11:18Heb 6:10Ps 19:11Matt 10:42to forget your labour of Faith and Love. A great reward, saith David; and that many times for a very little work done; the giving of a cup of cold water to refresh a thirsty Soul, shall not want its reward. It is our Apostle's advice elsewhere, that we should always abound in the work of the Lord: and that upon this1 Cor. 15. ult.1 Cor 15 very ground, forasmuch as you know, saith he, that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. If we labour in his work, we shall find the fruit of it in time.

35. Only let us be content to stay the time: and not to be thrusting in the sickle before the corn be half ripe. The Husbandman, when he hath done his work in earing and sowing, doth not look to receive the precious fruits of the earth into his Garners again the next day, or the next month; but he hath long patience for it; Jam. 5. 7.Jas 5:7and whether it chance to be an early harvest, or a late harvest, he waiteth p. 598still, and taketh the season as it falleth. Even so have we need of patience, that Heb. 10. 36.Heb 10:36after we have done the will of God, and suffered according to the will of God, we may receive the promised reward: for in due time we shall reap, if we faint not. Gal. 6. 9.Gal 6:9The final reward is sure, veniens veniet, it will come at last, and not fail us: and it is so great withal (copiosa nimis) that when it cometh, it will abundantlyHeb. 10. 37.Heb 10:37 recompence all our work, yea, and our patience too.

36. Nay, let me say, if that reward were not, nor any other world to come, yet the fruit we reap in the mean, even in this world from a godly life, is incomparably greater than any that the works of the flesh can yield us. Even in the judgment of heathen men, Vertue ever carrieth its reward with it, as being bonum propter se expetendum, a thing to be desired and embraced for its own worth, without respect to any farther reward. And certainly the evenness of the mind, and vacuity from those secret lashes, those horrors and fears that haunt a guilty Conscience; and the sweet comfort and complacency that a righteous Soul findeth in the sincere performance of his bounden duty to God and Man, in eschewing evil and doing good, is a fruit infinitely more valuable than all the pleasures and sensualities of a wicked life. How happy then is he, that trulyRom. 6. 22. Mar. 10. 30.Rom 6:22Mark 10:30 serveth God; who both hath his fruit in holiness onward, (that is the hundred-fold in this life, Mark 10.) and shall in the end have everlasting life to boot.

37. There are of the four differences proposed, two more yet behind: which I must dispatch in few words. The third is, that the Works of the Flesh are spoken of as many, foreign, Works, in the Plural: but the fruit of the Spirit is spoken of as one, foreign, Fruit, in the Singular. Many Works, but one Fruit. There is such a **—ita copulatae connexaeque sunt, ut omnes omnium participes sint, nec alia ab aliâ possit separari. Cic. 5. de finib.—conspiratio, consensusque virtutum. Ibid.—omnes inter se nexae & conjugatae sunt. Id. qu. Tusc. 3. Rom. 2. 22.Rom 2:22connexion of Vertues and Graces, that albeit they differ in their Objects and Natures, yet they are inseparable in the Subject. As when many links make up one chain; pull one, and pull all: So he that hath any one spiritual grace in any degree of truth and eminency, cannot be utterly destitute of any other. But as for sins and vices, it is not so with them: They are not only distinct in their kinds, natures, and definitions (for so are vertues too;) but they may also be divided from one another, and parted asunder in respect of the subject wherein they are. We are told, Rom. 2. (and if we were not told it, we could not but see reason enough in these times to believe it) that a Man may hate Idolatry, a work of the flesh; and yet love Sacrilege well enough, a work of the flesh too. There is no necessity that a Swearer should be an Adulterer, or an Adulterer a Slanderer, or a Slanderer an Oppressor, or an Oppressor a Drunkard, or a Drunkard a Seditious Person; and so of many other.

38. The reason of the difference is, because all spiritual graces look one way: they all run to the same indivisible point, wherein they concenter; to wit, Almighty God, who is bonum incommutabile, unchangeable and one: Even as all moral vertues concenter in the same common point of right reason. But Sins, which turn from God to follow the Creature; and Vices, which are so many deviations from the rule of right reason; do not all necessarily run towards the same point, but may have their several tendencies different one from another. Because though God be one, yet the Creatures are manifold; and although the straight way from one place to another can be but one, yet there may be many croaked turnings, by-paths and deviations. Even as Truth is but one and certain, but Errors are manifold and endless.

39. The Spirit of God whose fruits these are, is first a renewing Spirit. It1. Psal. 51. 10. Gal. 6. 15.Ps 51:10Gal 6:15 createth a new heart in a Man, whereby he becometh a kind of new Creature: it disposeth him to Obedience. And true obedience is copulative: it submitteth to the Commanders will entirely; it doth not pick and chuse. The Spirit of God is secondly a holy Spirit, (the holy Spirit of Discipline): and such a holy Spirit2. Wisd. 1. 4, 5.Wis 1:4Wis 1:5 will not brook to dwell in a Soul that is subject to sin. It will endure no such p. 599intimate: they can no more dwell together, than Light can fellow with darkness. But where any Grace is wanting, there must needs be the contrary sin to fill up the Vacuity: and therefore where that Holy Spirit is, there cannot be a total defect of any holy grace. The Spirit of God is also a loving Spirit; and3. Rom. 5. 5.Rom 5:5 sheddeth abroad the love of God in every heart it taketh possession of. And Love is so comprehensive a Grace, that it includeth all the rest; and so is in effect the fulfilling of the whole Law. There is a thread of Love that runneth through allRom. 13. 10.Rom 13:10 the particular duties and offices of Christian life, and stringeth them like so many rich Pearls into one Chain. See 1 Cor. 13. throughout.

40. A consideration not unuseful, to quicken our care for the subduing of every sinful lust, and our endeavour to have every grace of the Spirit habituated in us. Knowing that so long as we allow our selves in any one sin, suffer any one lust of the Flesh to remain in us unsubdued (at least in respect of desire and endeavour) there cannot be any one true grace of God in us. There are certain common graces of Illumination, which are the effects also of God Spirit, 1 Cor. 12. 1. & 14. 1.1 Cor 12:11 Cor 14:1and are therefore called foreign spiritual gifts: and those indeed are given by dole (Aliu… sic, aliu… verò sic) Knowledg to one, to another Tongues, 1 Cor. 12. 8.—10.1 Cor 12:8to another Healings, Miracles, &c. all by the same Spirit, manifesting himself to sundry persons in sundry kinds and measures, and dividing to every on severally as …e will. But it is nothing so in the special graces of Sanctification: there is no distribution, or division here. Either all, or none. He that certainly wanteth any one (at least in the desire and endeavour) may justly suspect, that all those he seemeth to have, are but so many counterfeits. All this variety of Graces maketh but one Fruit.

41. The last difference is, That the works of the Flesh are expresly said to be manifest, Vers. 19. but no such thing affirmed of the Fruit of the Spirit. The most probable reasons of which difference are, to my seeming, one of these two following▪ First, the commonness and frequency of those above these everywhere abroad in the World. The Works of the Flesh, Adultry, Fornication, U…oleanness, Wantonness, Idolatry, Witchoraft, Hatreds, Emulation, Debate, Wrath, Strifes, Seditions, Heresies, Envyings, Murthers, Gluttony, Drunkenness, and such like (I name them, because the bare re…ital of them will save me the labour of farther proof) do so abound in all places, that you can scarce look beside them. Turn your eyes which way you will, ye shall see cursed examples of some or other of these every day, and in every street, and every corner. Alas, the Works of the Flesh are but too manifest!

42. But the fruits of the Spirit are not so. Love, Peace, Gentleness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance and the rest: these are very thin grown in the World; they are rarities not every where to be met withal. Insomuch as David complainingly crieth out, There is not one godly Man left, Psal. 12. and Psal. 14. There is none that doth good, no not one. And the Prophet Ieremy, when he had run to Jer. 5. 1, &c.Jer 5:1and fro in the streets of Ierusalem for the purpose, to find a Man that executed judgment, and sought after truth, when he had imployed his legs, and his eyes, and his tongue in search; he could not yet find the Man he looked for. Hepps and H…ws grow in every hedge; when choicer fruits are but in some few gardens: and every soil almost yields stones and rubbish; but gold and precious stones are found in very few places.

43. Secondly, the Works of the Flesh may be said to be manifest, and the … of the Spirit not so; with respect to our judgments of them, and the easiness of discerning the one sort more than the other. The works of the Flesh are so manifestly evil, that no man of common sense can lightly be mistaken in them. Murder, Sedition, Drunkenness, Adultery; it is not possible any Man should be of such gross understanding, as to imagine they should be the Fruits of God's holy Spirit: they are udoubtedly, and manifestly, to every Man's p. 600apprehension, the Works of the Flesh. But as for the fruits of the Spirit, they are not so manifest, but that a Man▪ who hath not his senses very well exercised to Heb. 5. 14.Heb 5:14the descerning of good and evil, may be easily deceived therein. Hypocrisy is spun oftentimes of a very fine thread: and the heart of Man abounding with so much hypocrisy as it doth, and so much self-love and uncharitableness withal, is the Jer. 17. 9.Jer 17:9most deceitful thing (yea, and the most decevibable too; actively, and passively both) of any thing in the world. There are on the one side▪ so many Mock-Graces, and specious counter feits, that carry a semblance of spiritual fruit, but are not the things they seem to be: And on the other side, inordinate love of our selves partly, and partly, want of Charity towards our brethren, have so disposed us to a capacity of being deceived; that it is no wonder, if in passing our judgments (especially where our selves are concerned) we be very much and very often mistaken▪ It might rather be a wonder, if we should not be sometimes mistaken.

44. As most Errors claim to be a little akin to some Truths: so most Vices challenge a kind of affinity to some Vertue. Not so much from any proper intrinsecal true resemblance they have with such vertues; as by reason of the common opposition they both have to one and the same contrary Vice. As Prodigality hath some overly likeness with Liberality, and so may hap to be **Decipimur specie recti. Horat. de arte. Fallit enim vitium specie virtutis & umbrâ. Juven. Sat. 14.mistaken for it: for no other cause but this only, that they are both contrary to Covetousness. foreign, saith ††Arist. in Elench.Aristotle truly: fallacy and deception, for the most part, arise from the appearance of some likeness o… similitude; when things that are like, but not the same▪ are taken to be ||foreign. Arist. de insom. cap. 3.the same, because they are like. They that have given us marks of sincerity for the trial of our Graces, have not been able to give us any certain Rules or infallible Characters, whereby to try the sincerity of those Marks; so as to remove all doubtings and possibility of erring.

45. Whence I supose I may safely infer, that the certainty of a Man's present standing in grace, but much more then of his eternal future salvation (although I doubt not but by the mercy of God it may be attainable in this life, and that without extraordinary revelation, in such a measure as may sustain the soul of an honest Christian with comfort) is not yet either so absolutely necessary, nor so void of fears and doubtings, as some perhaps have imagined.

46. Not so necessary, but that a Man may be saved without it. Many a good soul, no doubt, there is in the world, that out of the experience of the falseness of his own heart, and the fear of self-deceit▪ and the sense of his own unworthiness, could never yet attain to be so well persuaded of the sincerity of his own Repentance, Faith, and Obedience, as to think that God would approve of it, and accept it. The censure were very hard, and a great violation it would be of Charity I am sure, (and I think of Truth also) to pronounce such a Man to be out of the State of Salvation; or to call such his dis-persuasion by the name of Despair, and under that name to condemn it. There is a common, but a great mistake in this matter: Despair is far another manner of thing than many take it for. When a Man thinketh himself so incapable of God's pardon, that he groweth thereupon **—desperatione meliorum, haerere prioribus. Hier. Epist. 46.—ne mens incredula—desperet, & semel perditioni animus destinatus, non adhibeat vulneri curationem: quod nequaquam existimat posse curari. Ibid.regardless of all duties, and neither careth what he doth, nor what shall become of him; when he is once come to this resolution, Over shoes, over boots; I know God will never forgive me, and therefore I will never trouble my self to seek his favour in vain: this is to run a deseperate course indeed; this is properly the sin of Despair. But when the fear that God hath not yet pardoned him, prompteth him, to better resolutions, and exciteth him to a greater care of repentance and newness of life, and maketh him more diligent in the performance of all holy duties, that so he may be the more capable of pardon: it is so far from being any way prejudical to his eternal salvation, that it is the readiest way to secure it.

p. 60147. But where the greatest certainty is, that can be attained to in this life, by ordinary means, it is not ordinarily (unless perhaps to some few persons at the very hour of death) so perfect, as to exclude all doubtings. The fruits of the Spirit, where they are true and sincere, being but imperfect in this life; and the truth and sincerity of them being not always so manifest, but that a Man may sometimes be deceived in his judgment concerning the same; it can hardly be, what between the one and the other, (the imperfection of the thing, and the difficulty of judging) but that the Assurance, which is wholly grounded thereupon, and can therefore have no more strength than they can give it, must be subject to Fears, Iealonsies, and Doubtings.

48. I speak not this to shake any Man's comfort (God forbid) but to stir up every Man's care to abound and increase so much the more in all godliness, 2 Pet. 1. 5.2 Pet 1:5and in the fruits of the Spirit; by giving all diligence, by walking in the Spirit, and subduing the Lusts of the Flesh, to make his Calling and Election sure: Sure in it self, that he fail not of Salvation in the end; and sure to him also, as far as he can, that his comfort may be the greater and sounder in the mean time.

Now the God of all Grace and Glory, send the Spirit of his Son plentifully into our Hearts; that we may abound in the Fruits of godly living, to the praise of his Grace, our present comfort in this Life, and the eternal salvation of our Souls in the Day of our Lord Iesus Christ.

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