-- CHAPTER VII: That the moral righteousness of unregenerate men proceeds from the fore-mentioned pr
teach them 'the manner of the God of the land;' and the priests teaching them, they began to fear the Lord, ver. 41. Thus it is with men living in the church, they begin to fear the God of the place, and their devotion is stirred up to serve the true God, the God of the nation and church, and so to profess Christ, yet upon no other ground than if they lived in Turkey they would profess
Mahometanism. It is natural to men to profess the god and religion of the country in which they are. If they lived under popery, they would profess the same; and men living where the true fear of God is professed, the same natural devotion is stirred up towards the true
God, but upon no other ground save natural principles. Thus Paul, Acts 22:3, was zealous towards God; and so those women, who yet opposed Paul, Acts 13:50, are called devout women. I yield indeed it is a work of the Spirit to cause men to assent that Jesus is the Lord; as 1 Cor. 12:3, 'Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man, speaking by the Spirit of God, calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.' But this is yet a common work, and reckoned there among those common gifts of healing, &c. such gifts as are given to the rebellious also, Ps. 68:18.
It was from education that Cain, though wicked, yet went out and sacrificed as well as Abel; there was a fear of God upon his heart that carried him to this duty.
CHAPTER VII:
That the moral righteousness of unregenerate men proceeds from the fore-mentioned principles That the moral righteousness of unregenerate men proceeds from the fore-mentioned principles, evinced, because they are most strict about their duty to their neighbour, but neglect what they owe unto
God.—That they abstain from such sins to which by their natural
disposition they are not inclined, which it is easy for them to do whilst they indulge themselves in other sins.—That they are more strict against those sins which are forbidden and punished by human laws, and more zealous for those duties which they enjoin
Now, let us make application of this, and examine whether the actions of civil men be not from these principles; and that will appear, because they go no further than these may work, than the force of this will carry them; and the streams not going higher than the fountain, it may be discerned that the fountain is but from nature.
1. It appears that that civility that is in most men ariseth but from natural conscience, because the chief things they make most conscience of, are often but duties of the second table, and not of the first. The reason is, because the chief stamps left in natural conscience are duties of the second table, whenas the duties of the first were blurred and dimmed by the fall. Though the heathens had some devotion, yet the main impression of the law was seen in the duties of the second table, as honesty towards themselves and other men, justice in dealing; and these are the freshest stamps which are left. I may compare civility to an old, ruinous monastery, where oftentimes the hall and the kitchen stand fair, but the chapel is ruinated, only here and there you may perceive a pillar or some ruins of it; so in the castle of civility, that part which concerns duties towards men stands fair, men are fairly sober, loving, and ingenuous; but that part that concerns duties towards God is ruinous. Here and there may be found an old remainder, an old piece of a wall, a piece of a duty, something they will do; but the main duties, the great things of the law (which if grace had enlightened thy conscience, thou wouldst make most conscience of), as private prayer, sanctifying the Sabbath, &c. these civil men regard not. And because they have the chiefest respect to good manners, and a fair behaviour among men, and to live like good citizens of the commonwealth, therefore they have the name of civil men.
2. For the virtues thou hast, that they proceed from restraining grace, and a common work of the Spirit, appears by this.
(1.) That thou wantest the chiefest virtues and graces of the gospel.
Though men be temperate, just, &c., yet they know not how to deny themselves, to be broken in spirit for offending God, to be humbled under their natural condition, to walk in a sense of their misery, which are some of the chiefest graces of the gospel. Civil men know not what belongs to these gospel virtues, they want that virtue also to love their enemies, which Christ prescribes: Mat. 5:44, 'But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.' Civil men want such evangelical virtues as these.
And as one saith of humility, that it is not to be found in all Aristotle's ethics, so zeal towards God, and such graces as these, cannot be found in civil men; whereas, if they had their graces from Christ, these would be most abundant in them.
(2.) All those virtues grow in men alone spontaneously, which evidenceth that they proceed from nature. The earth brings forth daisies alone of itself; but if you would have herbs come up, there must be a seed sown. So these good dispositions of meekness and honest dealing, &c., you will find that you had them from your youth; as the young man in Mat. 19:20, who could say, 'All these have I kept from my youth.' But a man that hath graces from Christ, shall find a seed sown in his heart, and the work of conversion wrought by the word.
(3.) These virtues grow not up to an increase, which evidenceth they are not grace, for that is of a growing nature; but the moral man is just now no more than he was twenty years ago. But the graces of the Spirit grow; a man grows more in zeal and love towards God. All graces coming from Christ are of a growing nature, whilst the other are as limbs in dead men. As dead members grow not, or as the parts of a picture grow not, so their virtues do not grow, which argues that
they come not from Christ by the work of sanctification, but from a common work of the Spirit.
(4.) It appears by this that all their goodness is but from nature, because all that abstinence from sin and vicious practices with which they content themselves is only such as they can perform with ease, and what nature inclines them unto, or moral virtues facilitate to them, otherwise such sins as are discovered to be as great sins as those they make conscience of (if dear to them) they do not endeavour to abstain from; and those duties which are above the sphere of nature, they inure not themselves to, though discovered to be as necessary as any other. Thus they pick and choose in the ways of God, and offer sacrifices of what costs them nothing. They sacrifice the lean sins, not the fat; they only pare their nails, but cut not off their right hands, shave the hair upon their eyelids, but pull not out their eyes. What comes alone and easily they will practise, as lazy apprentices in a trade, but what is difficult and out of the common road they set not their hearts unto. Their goodness, therefore, is not universal, as grace is.
3. That all this moral goodness proceeds most from natural wisdom appears by this, that the consideration of fleshly wisdom guides them in their ways, and orders them. The good they do is fed and nourished with motives drawn from the world and worldly wisdom, and not such as are taken out of the word, and upon those they exhort their children to good courses, if at any time they give good counsel.
4. That they have that which is in them by education and modesty, &c., appears, 1st. Because as to sins. What sins the law is most against, those they are most against, and they estimate sins as they are punished by the judges, as Job speaks, chap. 31:11; but for other sins, as breaking the Sabbath, petty oaths, and the like, they slight, and count them nothing, though the law of God forbids them, if the laws of men be
remiss in them. This argues that they have their religion but from the laws of men, because they estimate sins according as the law estimates them.
2dly. The same is evident as to their religious duties, for they are cast into such a mould and pitch for the practice of them as the laws of men cast them into; so much religion as the law requires, so much they profess, and no more. They perform public duties as they are members of a congregation; but take them in a private personal walking with God; those things which the law of God requires and not men, they make no conscience of, as meditating on the law day and night, examining their hearts, &c.
3dly. As for their assent to the principles of religion, they assent to all the articles of faith, and that all men are corrupt by nature, and that they must be justified by faith; but it appears they have it from education, because they have not experimentally found the truth of them in their own hearts. That a man's nature is so vile, they believe it in gross and in the notion; but to have a work upon their hearts, to see in themselves what the word saith of corrupt nature, so as to be humbled by it, this civil men want and never see, which godly men do. So, who in all those great points of original sin, emptiness of all righteousness, and justification by faith, see all these things in their own hearts, they do not believe these only in general, but see all in the particulars of them, and have fetched the experience of them out of the fire, as Luther said of himself, that he thus drew out the doctrine of justification by faith. It is said by Christ, John 7:25, 'He that doth the will of my Father shall know the truth.' A man that lives in the church, and is truly converted to God, knows all the truths that the church professeth by doing of them. He doth not take them up in gross, as civil men do, but he finds them experimentally in his own heart; he knows them by doing, as Christ saith of regenerate men,
John 3:11, 'We speak the things that we have heard, and testify the things that we have seen.' Godly men learn over all the principles of religion anew by their own experience, and this civil men want, and therefore their assent to the principles of religion is but human, and
such as they would have given to Mahometanism and popery if they had been brought up in it.
5. And lastly, that their devotion which they have in holy performances is but natural appears by this, that all the duties they perform do not any way quicken or build up their hearts in grace. If, by all the ordinances they come to, their souls do not thrive; if they go away as they came, and have no communion with God, it shews all is but natural devotion, because their hearts are not established with grace. That which the apostle says of the doctrines of men, may be said of the performance of duties by these men: Heb. 13:9, 'It is a good thing to have the heart established with grace, and not with meats, which do not profit them that are exercised in them.' These men do not find their hearts inflamed with love towards God; they have, indeed, been conversant in duties long, yet they have not found any communion with God in them; their hearts have not been established and built up in grace; they are like a dead body that hath much earth put to it, and yet grows not; so nor do they grow by their performances, they are but bodily exercises to them. This difference of their performances from that which is truly gracious, Paul expresseth, Rom. 7:6, 'We do not serve God in the oldness of the letter, but in newness of spirit.' He compares his former state and the performances thereof with that which he was now in, and with his present performances. Then he served God only in the oldness of the letter, as perhaps when he came to public exercises he was attentive to the letter, but there was not a newness of spirit to accompany the duties. So civil men serve God in the oldness of the letter, and their understandings go along with our sermons and prayers, but without a newness of the Spirit. While men serve God thus, it is nothing else but a mere outward conformity, by reason of the duties that are performed in the places where they live; and this being the state of many men living in the church, the chiefest thing they rely upon is civil righteousness, therefore they are called civil men, for denominatio est à majore.