-- CHAPTER IX: Some objections answered
Last of all, if we consider not only the principles from which these actions proceed; but the event to which they all tend, it will appear, that all the little good they do, and the duties they perform, do but make them take the more liberty in some sin: Jer. 7:9, 10, 'Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?' They came to God's house, and the performance of those duties emboldened them to sin, so as they did but compensare vitia virtutibus, make some amends for their vices by some virtues which they practised.
The harlot paid her vows in Prov. 7:14, and so thought she might commit abomination. Thus as meat feeds but a sick man's disease, so their good actions do but nourish their lusts. They leave one sin to take it out in another, thinking God is not so strict. So, Isa. 58 they were said to fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. These performances encouraged their hearts to do all evil, so as they sinned under the protection of some duty, as the pharisees did, who devoured widows' houses under the pretence of long prayers.
CHAPTER IX:
Some objections answered I shall now consider an objection or two which must be answered.
Obj. If all these virtues in us, and all we have done by the strength of them be sins, then we had as good have been profane for the time past, and have omitted the good we have done, for all comes to one; and so we had as good do for the time to come.
Ans. 1. For the time to come. It is true that a man unregenerate, sins whether he does it or omits it: abstinendo, quia non propter Deum; et faciendo, quia contra legem. For if he abstains from sinning, it is not for God's sake; and if he commits the sin, he apparently offends against the law.
2. But yet the sin is less, in doing the good thou dost, though in a wrong manner, than to omit it.
For, 1st, to omit it, is peccatum per se, in its own natural evil; but to do the good in a wrong manner, is but peccatum per accidens, accidently so. The one is absolutely and fully against the law, and both the spirit and the letter of it also; but thy performance of it in a wrong manner, is but by consequence sinful, and is evil but as against the spiritual part of the law, which concerns the heart and the manner of performance; and God's law requires both matter and manner to be good: Deut. 6:25, 'And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.'
2dly, The sin in the wrong performance lies not in the action primarily, but in the agent originally; so that actio non est omittenda, sed tu corrigendus es, the action is not to be omitted, but thy sinful heart is to be amended. The fault is not in the matter which thou writest, but in thy pen and hand; mend that, and get true skill of guiding thy heart according to thy copy, and all will be well.
And, 3dly, the sinfulness of an action in itself materially good, proceeding thus from this corruption of man's nature, cannot loosen thee from subjection to that duty, which God's peremptory and indispensable command requires. Because thou hast lost grace and power to do things rightly, must God's command be of none effect? If thou failest in the manner, thou art to be humbled for thy swerving from his law, and acknowledge thine inability to do otherwise; yet still thou art bound to do thy duty. We say, where nothing is to be had, the king must lose his right, but it is not so as to God; if there
were no more in it but to acknowledge what is thy duty, thou art to subject thyself as far as thou art able, as unto the outward performance thou art in some measure able.
4thly, Again, to perform it wrong is out of weakness; Rom. 8:3, he says, 'The law was weak through the flesh.' Through the weakness of corrupt nature the law, though performed, could not justify, because that spoiled all man's actions by defects; but to omit the law altogether is wickedness superadded to the weakness of nature; the one comes chiefly from privative sinfulness, but the other from positive; the one comes from a defect in the will, but the other from a wilful neglect.
And, 3, it is not all one to be profane, as to live in the external observances of religion; for in omitting these altogether, and running into vices, instead of the good thou dost: 1st, Thou makest thy sin of a treble guilt; for to omit the duty wholly, is worse than to perform good in a wrong manner, and to be doing evil instead of both, is yet much worse; for the soul being never idle but working, if thou ceasest to do good, it is certain thy soul is busy about mischief; as the sea cannot rest, but it will cast up mire and dirt. In doing good therefore, though in a wrong manner, thou wert less ill occupied, because that doing good kept out doing worse; and, 2dly, though thou sinnest in abstaining from sin, as well as in doing it, yet in the one only, quia non propter Deum, because thou dost not refrain sin out of love to God, but in the other, because therein thou art a rebel against him.
Now to be against God is worse than simply not to be for him; as though it be treason in a subject not to take up arms for his prince, yet to fight against him is much worse. And thus, though Christ bade his disciples to let them alone who cast out devils in his name, and he would have them go on still rather: 'For he that is not against me, is with me,' says he, Mark 9:40, that he meant this only comparatively; for otherwise Christ says, 'He that is not with him, is against him,'
Mat. 12:30, that is, he is in deed and in truth so.
And then again for the time past, whereas thou imaginest thou hadst as good have done no good.
I answer, no, it is not all one. For, 1. Thou shalt be punished less in hell if thou shouldest die ere thou didst get out of this estate, which is Augustine's answer, though hereafter thou shalt have no reward for that imperfect good which thou hast done in thy regenerate* state (as Christ told the pharisees:
'You have your reward,' namely, all here, Mat. 6:2), yet this will moderate and abate thy punishment.
2. They are rewarded here. The pharisees you see by that speech of Christ were rewarded by men, who seeing the profit and benefit of much good which they do, reward them with love and praise again for so doing. They are also rewarded by magistrates, God's vicegerents, who bear not the sword in vain, but are a terror to those that do evil, and a praise to them that do well: Rom. 13:3, 4, 'For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil.' And, 1 Peter 2:14, 15, 'Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.' They are also rewarded by their own consciences, which so far excuse them: Rom. 2:15, 'Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.'
Yea, they are rewarded by God; so Ahab was for humbling himself: 1
Kings 21:29, 'Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me?
Because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house.' So those flatterers were rewarded also, Ps 78:36, 38, 'Nevertheless they
did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not; yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.' For their flattering seeking of God, God omitted their punishment temporal, and in that sense he forgave their sin. And thus God dealt with Jehu: 2 Kings 10:30, 'And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and has done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.' Now thus God doth, because he will reward his own gifts, for it is his gift to be chaste, as he told
Abimelech he kept him, Gen. 20:6; and so it is from God's gift that men are otherwise virtuous, and God loves to crown his own gifts in every kind, of what sort soever. And these virtues, Augustine often calls, Dei munera; and so Paul says of continency, that it was a gift, 1
Cor. 7:7. And indeed God, who useth to overcome with mercies as well as judgments, and to be before hand with all sorts of men, will surely at least be as forward, and go as far in doing good to wicked men, as they shall be to do any good that may be serviceable to him or others; yet therein also observing a proportion. For,
1st, As God thereby hath an outward honour in an outward acknowledgment and subjection, as the action also an outward goodness, so God casts up on them outward rewards, as riches, honours, &c. so God had honour by Nebuchadnezzar's acknowledgment, Daniel 4:36, 37. And God cast honour up on him again, in raising him up to his kingdom. They have outward kindness from God, for the outward kindness which they shewed him, and God deals with them as men deal with flatterers.
But yet, 2dly, as he hath not their hearts, so they have not his, and therefore he receives them not to himself. He deals not with them as friends, but flatterers; but yet as he deals with his own people here in this life, so he deals with these in a fit proportion; that look if his own people sin, yet because their hearts are still for God, though an act of sin pass from them, and so an act of punishment passeth from God;
yet still his heart is with them, because their hearts are with him. So, on the contrary, God deals with the wicked, and he rewards them outwardly for their external acts of goodness; but yet he doth not love them, because they love not him.
3dly, As all their outward performances are sanctified, i. e. good for the matter, but unsanctified for the manner, so the outward things which God bestows are like thereunto, good in themselves, as the actions of these men are; but as their proud courses shew their actions to be evil in the issue and in the event, so in the effect, these outward mercies appear to be given in wrath, as Saul was to the people of Israel. And so David saith of wicked men, that 'their table is made a snare,' Ps. 69:22; it is a snare to their intemperance, and their blessings curses, as it is in the prophet Malachi, chap. 2:2. I will only put in here a caution or two.
(1.) That godly men, who are in covenant with God, must not expect this, that for their dead performances they should be rewarded here as the other are. So God would not release David, though he mourned and prayed, Ps. 32:5, till he was inwardly humbled, and did confess his sin unto God. For, 1st, Since more is to be had from the godly, God will not take brass when he may have gold; he will have meet fruits, meet for them to perform, Heb. 6:7, and in their kind; but he looks for no better of the other than mere outward duties, and therefore rewards them accordingly, because they can do no better.
And, 2dly, the outward mercies which God dispenses to his own children are given in pure, everlasting love; therefore that which draws out that love in rewarding them must be outward good done in love from them. Till, therefore, they are kindly humbled, he will not deliver them, or leave a blessing behind, Joel 2; and so 2 Cor. 7:14, for if he should, it might prove a curse. Yea,