-- CHAPTER IV: The pleas which men who have only morality make for themselves.
Jehu bears himself up: 2 Kings 10:16, 'And he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. So they made him ride in his chariot.'
And thus are those hearers of the word whom the apostle James describes, chap. 1:23, 24, &c., who, by the hearing of the word, had got some stamp and form of religion upon their hearts, though but an inferior work, and deceived themselves by reasoning from it that their state therefore was good: 'If any man seem to be religious,' says he, i. e. to be hot and forward in duties, 'and refrains not his tongue, he deceives his own heart;' for he thinks his religion such as will save him when it will not, where a known sin is thus nourished with it; and he deceives not others only, but his own heart. And it is from the external performances of duties that they plead unto Christ, Mat.
7:22. They urge Christ much with what they had done, how they had prayed and preached in his name. Their own duties deceived them; and in that they are brought in pleading them then, it argues that they were not gross hypocrites, who had deceived men only, but who had deceived themselves, and thought they had such pleas as would be of force before God's tribunal, and therefore are brought in pleading them, which, if they had not judged them good and valid, they would not dared to have done.
CHAPTER IV:
The pleas which men who have only morality make for themselves.
They urge that they do not live in vicious courses; that they refrain from great and notorious sins; that they are honest; that they have some knowledge of the truths of the Christian religion, as well as make a profession of it.—What are the reasons that men are so ready to account any moral righteousness which they have to be grace
We are laying siege and battery to all those false pleas and carnal reasonings (which the apostle calls 'strongholds'), which all sorts of unregenerate men build up for themselves to maintain a good opinion of their estates. We having demolished those of the profane and ignorant sort, whose strength and force are but weak and small, have already sat down before the holds and forts of civil and formal
Christians, whose number, as it is greater, so their fortifications are of more strength, and will hold out a longer siege. Their outworks, such pleas as are drawn from external privileges, which are more common to them and all other unregenerate men, we have already scaled and taken; we will therefore now advance and set forwards towards the main strength and castle of defence; which is in view, and for the outside of it towards men, a fair and goodly one, consisting of much righteousness of their own, founded and fortified much of it by nature, and then repaired and much enlarged by their education in the church; and ere we begin to lay battery against it, let us take a general view of it altogether, and 'go round about it, and tell all the towers thereof,' and descry wherein the great strength of it doth lie.
1. The greatest and eminentest tower belonging to it, is a negative righteousness, and outward abstinence from gross sins, so that they cannot be charged with the gross defilements of the world; so said the pharisee, 'I am no drunkard, no adulterer;' they wallow not in the common mire, and so think themselves pure in their own eyes.
'There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, though they be not washed from their inward filthiness,' as Agur saith, Prov. 30
(which imputation, though these men would fasten and apply to others better than themselves, who are truly holy, yet it will be found that they themselves are the men the Holy Ghost there meant and aimed at); yea, they farther say, that they not only abstain from such sins, but find no great inclination thereunto; yea, they utterly abominate such courses themselves, and are zealous against them to punish and reform them in others.
2. The second is, much good both in their natures and dispositions, many virtues, which are likewise expressed in their lives in many actions that are good: as sweetness, candour, goodness, and ingenuity of nature; meekness, kindness and love to those they live with; pity to others in distress, honesty and integrity of heart in their dealings with men; uprightness in a good and just cause.
3. These, joined with keeping a good conscience, and doing out of conscience that which they do in secret. They say they would not wrong a man that trusts them, no, not in secret; they say they are diligent in their callings, provide for their families, and careful in the places they live in, aim at the public good, and will be missed when they are gone. And though these be the most conspicuous parts of their righteousness, and which they most trust to, and therefore are denominated civil men, the denomination being from that which is most eminent in them; yet to countenance this their honesty the more, and to set it forth and varnish it for grace, they plead they are not devoid of religion neither. Therefore they further plead, and say,
4. We know the truth professed and taught amongst us, and we do assent to it, and do hate and renounce popery, and in our practice we conform to all holy duties publicly professed, and constantly we come to church, as all Christians ought to do, and are conversant in those holy duties with reverence, attention, and devotion (and if they have been more strictly educated, they do sometimes say prayers privately), and unto all this we add faith in Jesus Christ, looking to be saved alone by him.
5. Unto all which goodness they put in many excuses for what they want into the balance to make it weight. It is true, saith such an one,
I am not be scrupulous in every small thing as some are, as in petty oaths and vain speeches; and what need I stand troubling myself with my thoughts, which are so various and infinite? Nor do I much stick to take some liberty in some particular sin; yet it is but my infirmity, and all have their imperfections; and God will not be strict to mark all that is done amiss, nor therefore need I be so.
6. And, again, what though I have not found such a work in me, as some talk of, to see myself in a damnable estate, to have such heartbreakings for my sins, and have not had such longings after Christ, and contempt of and parting with the world, nor such a relish of or running after sermons, and delight in duties; I thank God I know no cause I have to be troubled, I never knew myself in a bad estate, I have been thus well disposed from my youth; I believe in Christ as well as they do, though I do not keep such ado about him, in talking or thinking of him; I do not remember that ever I wanted him, for I believed in him ever since I can remember; I am sorry when I offend and sin, and do heartily ask God mercy, as that publican did, 'God be merciful to me a sinner.' And what though I am not so zealous nor so forward in many duties, as in talking of Scripture matters everywhere where I come, or in teaching and praying, and repeating the word with my family, or confessing my sins, and mourning for them; I have not such gifts as others have, but my heart is good, though I make not such a show; and though I spend the chief of my time and thoughts upon the world, and that all my care and desires, and chief delights, are taken up in getting wealth and honours, and learning, &c., yet I follow but my calling, and I take no unlawful courses to get wealth; and he is worse than an infidel that provides not for his family; nor do I spend time in unlawful pleasures forbidden in the word. Unto which and the like excuses I shall hereafter speak.
This is in brief the model of that goodness, which, like another Babel, they themselves have built to climb up to heaven with, and are bold to set in competition with the truth of holiness in the most regenerate; and, indeed, it is no wonder if nature, having any righteousness of its own, stands upon it, and takes it for grace, without examining of it; for surely, if outward favours from God lead them into such an opinion, and their privileges as living in the church (as was shewn) which are things external and without them, et quæ non fecimus ipsi; if these, I say, do yet flush men in a good opinion of themselves, how much more any righteousness which is their own, and in and from themselves! And therefore Paul, besides
his outward privileges of being circumcised, reckons up as the chief thing he made account of, that righteousness which was his own,
Philip. 3:6–9. And if they esteem and magnify adherent, relative and sacramental righteousness so much, then inherent personal righteousness must needs be much more extolled by them. A man's own righteousness in his own eyes, Oh, it must needs be grace, be it never so little; any abstinence from sin, any virtuous disposition, any religious devout performances: 'All a man's ways are clean in his own eyes,' saith Solomon, Prov. 16:2; which intimates two reasons:
1st, In his own eyes, that is, himself being judge. And therefore, till a man hath new eyes given him from the holy word of God, and be enlightened by a supernatural light accompanying it, which might represent men themselves to them and their condition, as it is set forth in the word, no wonder if they think well of themselves. Now these kind of men are never put out of conceit with themselves by the light of the holy word, revealing their spiritual sinfulness in their natural condition to them, to humble them. Though they hear it, and understand many things in a general manner, so far as natural understanding reaches, yet they have not had such a light as to understand themselves by it, to see their own faces in it, as James speaks; and therefore are but of the first sort of hearers, who did not understand the word, that is, not with an applying or affecting light as the other, the stony and thorny ground did; and, therefore, having but their own eyes, no wonder if their ways be clean in their own judgments and opinions.
2dly. And again, because they look but with their own eyes, their natural light, so because they be their own ways, yea, even all their ways, as Solomon speaks, so as even for the most of their wicked ways, they have some excuses and fair pretences to colour them, but much more their moral virtues, and righteous dealings, and good dispositions, their own righteousness, these must needs be high in their own esteem. Every man is apt to magnify what is his own above the worth of it; and by how much the worth of it is greater, by so much the more a man useth to magnify it. If men have children
which are the fruit of their bodies, they doat on them, as the ape in the fable, that presented its misshapen birth to Jupiter. If men have parts or wit, which are the more noble and fair births of their brain, they much more admire them in themselves than in others. But above all, if corrupt nature comes to have any righteousness bestowed upon it, which is the noblest endowment of all other, oh then, out of question it may be grace! And by how much more men had rather think well of themselves for righteousness and goodness than for any other endowment whatsoever, by so much are they yet made more prone to think well of their own virtues and performances rather than of any other excellency. And therefore
Paul, in that inventory he gives in of what was gain to him, and of most worth, we find no mention made by him of his learning, which in other regards he stood upon; but he stands chiefly upon his righteousness, and virtues, and conformity to the law. And therefore the philosopher also made the practice of virtue to be man's chiefest good, so high an opinion hath nature of its own righteousness.
3dly. And add to this, that to men fallen into such a state of general corruption (as they hear all men are fallen into), any seeming righteousness and goodness must needs seem the more to them, to prize it in that respect, that they hear how corrupt mankind is.
Beggars, we see how proud they are if they get an old suit to cover their nakedness, a little money, to shew that they have some, and this because they are beggars. So we the sons of men, that are bankrupts, and of whom the word says, that by nature we are altogether unrighteous, and that we are but flesh, wherein dwells no good thing; that we should have anything like goodness, it makes us the more conceited, and we think presently, surely it must be grace. So the church of Laodicea says, Rev. 3:17, that she was 'rich, and increased with goods, and had need of nothing;' yet she was 'poor, and blind, and miserable, and wretched.' She had got some old rags of righteousness, some brass shillings and counterfeit pieces of good works and performances; and how proud was she! Therefore no wonder if men 'go about to establish their own righteousness' (as the Jews did, Rom. 10:2), if they advance it and set it up, if it passes and