Chapter VII
That the moral righteousness of unregenerate men proceeds from tfie fore-men tioned principles, evinced, because they are most strict about their duty to their
neighbour, but neglect what they owe unto God. That they abstainfrom such
sins to which by their natural disposition they are not inclined, u hich 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 hitman
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 civi
lity, 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 con-
CHAP. VII.j IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 405
science, thou wouldst make most conscience of), as private prayer, sancti
fying 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 thon hast, that they proceed from restraining grace, and
a common work of the Spirit, appears by this.
(1.) That thou wantestthe 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 pre scribes : Mat. v. 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. xix. 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 tkey content themselves is only such as they can perform with ease, and what nature in
clines 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 dis covered 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 sacri
fice 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
406 AN UNEEGENEKATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK X.
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. xxxi. 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 congrega tion ; 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, be
cause 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 vii. 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 iii. 11, We speak the things that we have heard, and testify the things that we have seen.
mer> learn over all the principles of religion anew by their own experi ence, and this civil men want, and therefore their assent to the principles of
Godly
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 com munion 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. xiii. 9,
1 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 ;
CHAP. VIII.] IN EESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 407
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 graci ous, Paul expresseth, Rom. vii. 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 per haps 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 a majore.