Natural and Moral Impotency, Discourse · Application 7
ƲSE, 7th.
HOw humbling may this Doctrine of mans Ability and Power (in this right ſenſe) to good, be to us; Yea how neceſſary is it to a right Humiliation? And how influential to make the World guilty before God, that we and they could have done otherwiſe, not only in Adam (as ſome weakly ſpeak) but when we ſinned? Do not ſay, This diſcourſe lifteth a man up. Thou makeſt ill uſe of it, if it have ſuch an effect on thee; it is to glory in your greateſt ſhame, it is like being ſet on fire, with having Water poured on thee. No Doctrine can poſſibly tend more to the debaſing and humbling of men. This ſhould abaſe us in our own eyes, and ſtain our pride; for it demoliſhes, and even pollutes all our Sanctuaries of Refuge. Many are apt to ſay, Alas, What can we do? What can poor fallen Creatures do? Do you blame us? Our Diſability is only true, in a ſenſe wherein it may lay load on us; and in that ſenſe wherein we are a ſhamed to own it; but not in the ſenſe wherein it may excuſe.
If any ſhould ſay, This Doctrine taketh off too many things from being ſins: Methinks others might anſwer for me, that if the man be in an Errour that way, yet he ſeemeth to recompenſe it, by laying greater load then ordinary on thoſe, which all agree to be ſin.
We are wonderful prone to fly to excuſes ever ſince Adam and Eve did ſo before us; yea, and to ſuch excuſes as would lay the fault ultimatly on God: but this layeth us naked to our ſhame.
But if any will ſay, It is not from wicked willfulneſs that they continue in their ſins, let this try. I call you this day, ſaying with Jeremiah, Jer 18.12. Return every man from his evil wayes, and make your wayes and your doings good. Now what will you Anſwer? Either you muſt anſwer, we will with all our hearts do what we can, and then God will accept you, if real, in this; or you will anſwer, as they in the following verſe, We will walk after our own devices, and we will every own do after the imagination of his evil heart; or as they anſwered ſuch a call, Jer. 44.16, 17. As for the word which thou haſt ſpoken unto us, in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee: But we will certainly do whatſoever thing goeth out of our own mouth, &c. You ſee you have no colour to pretend it is from a weakeneſs, diſtinct from voluntary wickedneſs. And if you will yet go on in your neglect of God and his wayes, whereas Chriſt ſaid; Father, forgive them, they know not what they do, I might be provoked to ſay, Father forgive them not, they know what they do. But God forbid I ſhould ſo ſay; God was wrath with Moſes for ſpeaking unadviſedly with his lips, when he ſaid, O ye Rebels!
You that have a deſire to fear God's Name, and in the main are a willing people, did you think it was from want of will to do otherwiſe, when you committed any known ſin, or omitted any known duty? Did you think you had ſo much wilfulneſs left, and ſo little Will to thoſe things you have a Will to, and complain of the neglect of? and ſo much Will to thoſe things you complain of the doing of? When you complain of ſinful weakneſſes, are you not apt to think of them in ſuch expreſſions as Natural weakneſs, and not as being in part wilful wickedneſſes, though they are ſo far as formally ſinful?
Some have ſaid (but I think … not univerſally true) that Omne voluntarium eſt involuntarium, that every voluntary act is in part involuntary. But we may ſay it of almoſt all, if not of every of the duties we perform; Cry out, oh our wilfulneſs to evil! Oh our wickedneſs! Oh our unwillingneſs to good! Thoſe things we have a Will to, we have but little Will to. How many duties do we perform with a half-heart, and with a ſinful indifferency? who counts it their meat and drink to do the Fathers Will? Chriſt went more willingly to ſuffer for us, than we to do any thing for him. When we are doing God's Will, how ſeldome can we ſay, We delight to do thy Will? we go forward it may be, and dare not turn back, but how often like Lot's Wife do we look back? we go forward like thoſe kine that carried the Ark, lowing as they went; we do, and ſuffer for God, murmuring, repining, dicis gratiâ as the phraſe is.
If any ſhall reply, You ſeemed to grant that a man caſting his goods over-board to ſave his life in a Tempeſt, cannot but do it in part unwillingly. No man can with his whole will (ſaith Ariſtotle) thus caſt a way his Eſtate.
I Anſwer; I grant it is ſo in ſuch a caſe, becauſe the man in that caſe is to be a great loſer, and to have no reparation. But ſuppoſe the Merchant had been required to caſt away his goods to ſave his own life, by a Prince that had given him thoſe goods, and all he had beſide; And one able and willing, and faithfully promiſing to make up that loſs; yea, promiſing that if he caſt them away, he ſhould be recompenced an hundred fold; would it not then be ſtrangly irrational to caſt away his Merchandize, murmuring, and with ſuch an half Will? Was your obedience and ſelf-denyal required by one that had never done much for you, and was there to be no reward of your ſelf-denyal, I could not tell how to anſwer you in ſaying, How ſhould we but deny our worldly and fleſhly intereſt, very unwillingly? But when God hath done, and Chriſt done and ſuffered, ſo great things for you, and made ſuch promiſes; then to do duties repining, and like that Paſſenger in the ſtorm that Eraſmus repreſents, who caſt away his goods multa mala precans & Superis & In inferis, What a ſhame is it? We ſhould ſay as the people, when they offered ſo willingly, Of thine own have we given thee, for all things come of thee; and ſhould ſuffer with joy the ſpoyling of our goods, knowing we have in Heaven a more enduring ſubſtance, and rejoyce we are counted worthy to ſuffer for his Name. But Did not Abraham go more willingly to offer up his Son, than we our ſin? He aroſe early in the morning to go about it, we put off.
I grant, In the ſenſe I have before explained, a good man would do more good and cannot. But yet this is a great truth, and is to be the great charge againſt your ſelves. That you can do more good than you do, and will not; You can avoid more evil than you do, and will not.
Friends, though God will pardon you while there is a willing mind in the main, notwithſtanding your great unwillingneſs, while your willingneſs is the prevailing, countenanced bent of your Soul; yet you muſt not pardon your ſelves. Pardon not your ſelves in this unwillingneſs, as you would have God pardon you.