Chapter VIII
That these moral actions want the essentials of goodness. That they are defec tive in the manner of their performance, and not directed to their right end.
That iliey also are done without faith in Christ.
Having thus spoken to the total model and compass of their estates in
general, we will now single out each several condition apart, and hear and answer the pleas which they make for themselves.
The first thing that blinds them and preserves them in a good opinion of
their estates is the goodness that seems to be in many of their actions, for
they hear out of the word that unregenerate men in the estate of nature are
said to do no good, to^be altogether unprofitable, Rom. iii. 11, 12, and that an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit, no more than thorns a bunch of
grapes, or the thistles figs, and that every thought and imagination is evil, and only evil continually. Now with me (thinks such a man) I find it is not
so, for I do good, and much good ; good to the poor, I give alms twice a week ; good to my family, I provide for them ; good to the commonwealth, by diligence in my calling ; and I perform many duties of religion that do
glorify God. Will any man say that such actions as these are sins, or that I am altogether unprofitable, and that every imagination in me is con
tinually and only evil ? My actions testify the contrary. And can I imagine but that God will accept and regard what good I do, and consider it, who
accepts the meanest services ? And here indeed they stick. So the pharisees did ; they could not see but what they did was good, and so justified themselves ; and therefore it is to them that Christ spake those speeches, Luke vi. 44, that an evil tree could not bring forth good fruit. And, Mat.
xii. 34, How can ye, being evil, speak good things ? He speaks in oppo sition to their thought of themselves. This rose in Cain s stomach ; he
brought a sacrifice to God as well as Abel, Gen. iv. 3, 4, and was as forward
to do it as he ; and it was a sacrifice, for the matter of it, as good as Abel s, for the first fruits of the earth were commanded to be offered, as well as the
firstlings of the flock, and he saw no reason but that his sacrifice should be
accepted as well as Abel s, and his countenance fell when he saw it rejected. Now what it was that made him think much, you may perceive by God s
reasoning with Cain, ver. 7, If thou do well, shalt thou not be accepted ? Cain thought that he had done as well for his part as Abel for his, and God
408 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK X.
epeaks unto that secret reasoning of his, and tells him the fault lay in his
sacrifice as it came from him, that it was not good, for if it had been such he would have accepted it : If thou dost well, shalt thou not be accepted ? So they, at the latter day, not only before man s tribunal but Christ s, seem to argue and plead what good they had done, as remaining, as might seem, and that there was some good in them which Christ might accept. And that
they thus speak then argues that this is the great thing they stick at for their
estates, which they have most satisfaction in, Mat. vii. 22, 23. And the reason why men are not wholly driven out of themselves, though they cannot deny themselves to be guilty of great and gross sins, is because that yet they cannot see but that many things they do are good, which bolsters them out against the other : but when they come to see not only their evil ways, but also their doings, which are not good, and that those doings which they thought to have been good are indeed void of that goodness which they imagined in them, then it is, and not before, they loathe themselves, Ezek. vi. 9. For answer and discovery of this false goodness these men imagine in
themselves,
1. If we find in many of them the quantity of this goodness, of which
they boast, we shall yet find there is not so much to boast of, for usually the best part of civility lies most in negatives, as that I am no adulterer, no
drunkard, as that pharisee said, &c. ; but there is little affirmative goodness. Whereas grace is an active thing, makes a man zealous of good works : Titus ii. 14,
* Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Grace works as strongly in carrying on to good as in restraining from evil, for vivification and mortification are of equal extent ; and God will judge thee by thy works, not by thy abstinence from evil :
* Cease to do evil, learn to do well, Isa. i. 16, 17, otherwise thou keepest the commandments as beasts
keep the Sabbath, wherein thou art not only to rest and abstain from labour,
so the beasts do, but thou must keep it holy. A man is truly accounted
covetous, though he abstain from unjust practices, if he have his riches shut
up, and he doth not lay them out in good works to himself, and the church, and his family. And in like manner, he is truly wicked, who, though he abstains from evil, yet is not zealous of holy duties. Two negatives make an affirmative in grammar, but ten thousand will not make one in divinity.
But, 2. We will endeavour (through God s assistance) to convince such men that even those few actions, which, in their own eyes and others , seem so godly and glorious, are for the kind of them corrupt and abominable, and that in deed and in truth they do no good ; no, none in anything that ever
they did. Their actions are not only imperfectly good, and in part tainted with sin (as a regenerate man s actions are, being as a good apple that hath some specks of rottenness in it, yet, that being cut out, the apple is pleasant and hath a good relish), but as they come from them they have no true good ness in them ; are not as kindly apples a little corrupted, but as degenerate crabs, as wild grapes, as the Scripture s expression is, which are no way
acceptable to God, or are for his palate. It is true, that if thou wert to be
judged by man s day,* many things which thou dost would pass for current,
and they could not but approve thee and reward thee for them. For what thou dost is good in the appearance and outside of it, and also good and
profitable to men, and do applaud thee, so Rom. xiii. 3, 4. Men s works
are called good in a civil respect when they are outwardly so ; Do that which is good, though but externally so, and thou shalt have praise of * Qu
* law ED.
CHAP. VIII.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 409
magistrates and rulers, says he, who are not a terror to good works, but to
evil. He calls them good works, when for substance they are such, and
though they have by-ends the magistrate meddleth not with them ; but he
* sees not as man sees, 1 Sam. xvi. 7 ; for man doth not nor can look any farther than
that judgeth thee is the Lord, and God
* the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. The pharisees, because men thought and spake well of them (who saw no more but their outward actions), there
fore they out of the flattery of their hearts thought well of themselves also :
so says Christ, Luke xvi. 15, And he said unto them, Ye are they which
justify yourselves before men ; but God knoweth your hearts : for that which
is highly esteemed amongst men is abominable in the sight of God. You
justify yourselves before men (says he), and they had goodness enough to
challenge man s judgment ; but God knows your hearts, whence all the good you do proceeds ; and consider (says he) that that which is in high esteem with men is often an abomination to God, and so, says Christ, are all your good works you boast of. But you will say, It is not only because men
approve what I do as good, but my own conscience also, which is God s
witness, and which knoweth the heart and things of a man, tells me so, and excuseth me.
Therefore, consider 2dly, That many of thy actions may be good in the
eyes of thine own conscience, when yet they are abominable before God. The heathen s consciences did excuse them : Rom. ii. 14,
* For when the Gen
tiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law,
these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves. Had they had no other jury, they had been acquitted in many particulars. Titus, the emperor, when he died, flung open the curtains when he was to die * (when con
science useth to be most awake), and complained that he had not deserved
to die, so fair and good were his actions in his own eyes. But God is greater than thy conscience, and thy actions may be good in thine own eyes when abominable in his. There is a generation (Prov. xxx. 12) that are pure in
their own eyes, who are not yet washed from their filthiness ; nay, conscience
itself in thee is denied (Titus i. 15) and blind. But thou wilt say, My con
science looks into the law which I must be judged by, and finds my actions
agreeable to the law in many things, and are they not good then ?
Therefore, consider 3dly, That there are two parts of the law, inward and
outward, the letter and the spirit ; whereof the one requires the precepts to be done, the other requires a right manner of doing them. This we find, Deut. vi. 25, This is your righteousness, if you observe all these command
ments, as he hath commanded us. Mark it, not only to do the things com manded, but to do them as he hath commanded you ; not only to hear, but to heed, says Christ, how you hear ; not only to give, but to give in sim
plicity ; if to shew mercy, to do it with cheerfulness, Rom. xii. 8. So ser vants are to obey their masters with good will, as to the Lord, Eph. vi. 6, 7; and ministers are to feed their flock, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, 1 Peter v. 2. Now, whilst thou regardest not the manner of doing what the law re
quires, as well as the thing itself the law requires, thou leavest out the soul of that goodness which should inspire the action, and make it truly good. The Gentiles are said, Rom. ii. 14, only to do the things of the law, rd roD
vo^aou, not the law itself. But the law is then said to be fulfilled, 1 Tim. i. 15, when love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned, can run to it; otherwise the work is but a dead work, from which the conscience must be purged as defiling it, Heb. ix. 14, as dead carcases did the Jews. * Suetonius in vita Titi Vespas. c. x.
410 AN UNBEGENEBATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFOBE GOD, [BOOK X.
There is the corpse of goodness in such an action, but the soul is wanting ; there is bodily exercise, but the power is wanting. But to give a more direct conviction that all their good works God reckons sins, this appeareth from
* He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man ; he that sacri-
Isa. Ixvi. 3,
ficeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog s neck ; he that offereth an oblation, as
if he offered swine s blood ; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol :
yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their
abominations, where he parallels their sacrifices to the cutting off a dog s
neck, or the killing of a man.
But you will say, How can this be ? Seeing the things we perform are
good for the substance of them, how came they to be sin ? I answer, though they be good, yet they are turned into sin, and become sin, as coming from
* Let his prayer become sin ;
such persons. Thus David speaks, Ps. cix. 7,
or, as the apostle says in another case, James iv. 17, To them it is sin.
If you ask how that comes to pass, I answer, first, in general, they receive both an external defilement from the estate of the person, and, secondly, an
internal from the corruption of the soul ; they come as proceeding from hearts
* To the defiled and un
corrupted ; both these are intimated, Titus i. 15,
believers all things are defiled. There is noted out, 1, that their state doth
defile all ; and, 2, that the pollution of their minds also, whence all their
* their minds and con
actions proceed, do infect them ; for it is added,
sciences are defiled. They receive an external defilement from the estate
their persons stand in, which, being an estate of wrath and enmity, Eph.
ii. 2, in regard thereof their persons are abominable, and therefore their works ; for as Abel s person was first accepted, then his sacrifices, Heb.
xi. 4, so our persons must be accepted before our works come to be accepted. Natural men fall adoing, and think their works should bring them into
favour ; but that will never be till they get into Christ by believing, and till
by this the state of the person is altered. If a traitor is condemned, all he doth is void in law ; as whether he seal a covenant, make a will, take an
oath, or give in a testimony, it is all invalid, for his person is not good in
law. Now they that believe not are condemned already, says Christ, John
iii. 18 ; and indeed, such being enemies to God, their gifts are no gifts, duocx,
s%6euv aduoa. They say of some precious stones, that being put into a dead man s mouth, they lose their virtue ; so all the prayers of an unregenerate man, though in themselves good, yet in his mouth become sins ; and to the same purpose Solomon says, Prov. xxi. 4, The ploughing of the wicked is
sin. Neither have they only an extrinsecal, adjacent, relative defilement from
the persons and their state, and their sinful other courses, who perform them, but there is also an intrinsecal inherent defilement in the works themselves, as they come from them, in regard of the principles themselves whence they
flow, and which are the root of them ; thus in Titus i. 15. All things are
not said only to be defiled to them, because their persons are defiled, and
their state a state of unbelief, that they are defiled and unbelievers, but also
because the very best principles whence these works should proceed, even
their minds, and the highest and noblest acts of reason, and their con
sciences, which retain the purest and noblest principles moving men to good works ; all these are defiled and corrupted, because the nature of man, whence
they proceed, is not yet purified and renewed by grace and holiness. For
all the virtues they have do but gild and hide some corruption, they do not
change and alter their natures. Now unless the heart be purified, wherein
all our thoughts, and projects, and ends, and purposes, and motions (whence outward acts do flow), are moulded, unless this be purified, all that proceedeth thence, must needs want all true goodness ; for the effect cannot be
CHAP. VIII.] IN BESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 411
better than the cause, nor the fruit better than the root. As Christ says, Mat. vii. 16, 17, Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? A
corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, no, not one ; not only, not ordi
narily, or not many, but not one. For he argues from nature, as a thorn
cannot bring forth one grape, but all that grows out of it are briars and
prickles, unprofitable things, and fit to be burned, so nor can corrupt nature
bring forth any good unto God. And he instanceth in words, Mat. xii. 34,
* How can ye, being evil, speak good things ? Why, there is nothing more
easy than to speak well ; to think well, or to do well, is something difficult.
Well, but Christ says, that they being evil, know not how to speak a good word. Yet the pharisees were often speaking godlily as Christ says, do
as they say but though the words are good for the matter of them, yet their speeches, as they are theirs, are never good, for themselves are evil ;
they may say good things, but they cannot speak good things. Every bite
of a serpent is poisonous, because his nature is envenomed, not only when he bites to hurt, but he poisons the very meat he takes. Now the poison of asps is under wicked men s tongues, Rom. iii. 13 ; and though the words they take into their mouths may be good, as Ps. 1. 16, Why takest
tbou my words into thy mouth ? yet that poison in their hearts, and under their tongues infects them, as they are theirs, and to them they be come poisoned and sinful. For as Job says, chap. xiv. 4, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? not one. So the apostle speaks too, Rom,
* He that is in the flesh cannot please God. As not his person, so none of his actions, though virtues morally good, and sparks of light may be added to that flesh and corruption that is in him, to abate the venom in
viii. 8,
the working of it; yet because the man himself is in that flesh, so that he is overcome with it, and it is the main predominate principle in every action,
therefore they all are poisoned by it. But suppose them without this positive defilement, yet these thy best
actions in a privative relation are sins ; though coming from virtues and
conscience, yet they are sins, because those good principles which must
concur to make an action good are wanting in them. For sin being a pri
vation, the very want of those good principles that should have influence
into the actions, leaves them sinful. For there is no medium between evil
actions and good, as not between the estate of nature and grace. Therefore,
says Solomon, Prov. xxi. 27, The prayer of the wicked is abominable, much more when he offers it with an evil mind ; though he should put no bad end in, yet it would be abominable, because his mind wants those good
principles which should make good the prayer. Now, what says Paul?
1 Tim. i. 15, Love is the fulfilling of the law, out of a pure heart, and of a
good conscience, and faith unfeigned ; all these must join to make up an
action good.
1. If thou wantest love to God, and aiming at his glory as the chiefest end in thy heart, all thou dost is not accepted
: 1 Cor. xiii. 3, If I give my body to be burnt, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Faith must
set love awork, and love must set thee awork, as it did set Mary, and Paul, and all the saints awork. Love to men may set thee a-work, or to thy
children, parents, &c., but if love to God did not, it is nothing. 2. Thy good actions must flow also from a pure heart. The chiefest
thing wherein grace exerciseth itself, and hath the most work to busy itself
with, is within doors, in the heart ; perfect holiness cleanseth the spirit, the
spiritual faculties as well as the flesh, which is the body, 2 Cor. vii. 1 ; but
the civil man looks to outward actions only, and to keep them square and
fair is his chief business. If he cleanseth himself from lusts of the flesh,
412 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK X.
that is, the body, yet he hath no great ado nor care of the lusts of his mind; and the reason is, because the eye of the conscience looks chiefly to the out ward act, to such lusts as tend to gross acts, but not to spiritual lusts ; thus Rom. ii. 14, they are said to do the things of the law, that is, the outward part. And also natural wisdom and the laws of men, which they are guided by, look but to outward acts, and require no more ; but now
grace, having most to do with God, contents not itself with bodily exercise, but frames the heart to inward purity and godliness, and there begins its work. A limner that makes a picture, shadows out the outward parts only ; but nature, in making a living man, begins first to shape and form the most inward parts, the heart, the liver, &c. ; and so doth true godliness begin, Eph. iv. 22. He that knows the truth as it is to be known in Jesus Christ, hath put off not the conversation only, but the lusts. A godly man, he
looks to God, and of all else, desires to approve his heart to him, and above
all keeping, keeps his heart, Prov. iv. 23.
3. Thy good actions must proceed also from a good conscience, void of
base^ends, for the end is the form of the action, quod forma in naturalibus, id finis in moralibus. Now, then, when God is not chiefly aimed at, the form of goodness is wanting. But thou wilt say, Are not such ends as do
respect men good, and therefore will they not make the action good, though God be not principally aimed at ? I answer, No ; for these ends, though in themselves good when subordinate, yet are evil when they are the chief, because then they are unto thee in God s stead, and usurp his place. All ends have their goodness, because they tend to God ; they hold their g odness of him, for God is only good, as Christ says ; therefore now when God
is left out, they become evil ; as noblemen, though when they are subject to the king, they retain their nobility, yet if they go about to usurp his place, they lose it, and become traitors. Now, as kings are the fountain of nobi
lity, so God is of goodness ; and as usurpers may do many good things in the commonwealth, make good laws, &c., as our Richard the Third did, but
yet because he did it as king, it was evil ; had he done all as protector under
that young King Edward the Fifth, it had been praiseworthy. Now, the reason why in these very actions, wherein we do good to men, we should
principally aim at God, is, because though God made those commandments of the second table for the good of men, yet principally that in the obedience
of them, his sovereignty might be acknowledged ; and so as in breaking of
those we are chiefly said to sin against him (as David confesseth in the matter of murder, upon the person of Uriah : Ps. li. 4, Against thee,
against thee only have I sinned ), so also in observing them we must look
higher than men, or else it is a sin. Thus, Eph. vi. 6, 7, servants are to
* obey their masters, doing all
* as to God, not men. But you will say, I aim at God also, and have a respect to him ; and so indeed heathens had some respect to God also ; Cicero monet rempublicam administrandam, quo nihil gratius est Deo. So those wicked men too, Isa.
Ixvi. 5, who cast out their brethren for God s name s sake, and said, Let God be glorified.
I answer, that is true they may have God in their eye also ; as when we do any other thing, we may take many considerations in by the by that are not the mark we fully looked at ; as the eye looks directly but at one thing,
yet it doth look about and take in many things at once. Self-love may have, and hath often, such a respect to God, that it may be glad that God is like
to be gratified and pleased by anything it doth; as there is no enemy (unless one that doth all out of revenge against his enemy), but will be glad if he
pleasures himself, to enlarge it as a kindness to his enemy also, and make
CHAP. VIII.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 413
the most of it, and be glad that he hath pleasured him, and that he can say,
I did this for you. But God is not mocked, but hath a curious eye, and he
will be looked at directly, and not asquint.
4. Last of all, all thy good actions must be out of faith, which engrafts a man into Christ. Ifthou art an unbeliever, let thy works be what they will,
they are defiled to thee, Titus i. 15. To unbelievers to do things out of
strength of virtue and conscience, signifies nothing, because it is not out of
faith : Heb. xi. 6, Without faith it is impossible to please God. Now, to be a believer is a great work, for it is that great work, the work of all works,
the work of God, John vi. 44. When a man doth an action out of faith, he must renounce his own strength ; a man being humbled in the discovery of his former unregenerate estate, and so cut off from the wild stock he did
grow in, from which root all his actions sprung, must be anew engrafted into
Christ, and then his actions will be good and acceptable, else not. The
apostle in Rom. vii. 1-5, shews how that in many unregenerate men, the law to which they are married, and which hath power over their consciences, may beget many children, which outwardly are like the parent, conformable
to the law in the letter, serving God in the letter, but all such God reckons not as fruit to him ; therefore he says, ver. 5, a man must be divorced from the law as a husband, and that is done by a work of humiliation, and he must be married anew to Christ, and then Christ by faith begets an holy and new offspring of holy duties, which are fruit to God indeed ; that is, which he accounteth fruit, relishing nothing but what comes from such a
believer ; and this Paul instanceth in by himself when a pharisee, acknow
ledging, that though the law begat many good actions in him then, yet because he was not married to Christ, they were illegitimate. A man must
also by faith fetch the strength of what he doth from Christ in the doing of
* Without me ye can do nothing. All is nothing if the
it: John v. 4, 5,
strength we do it by be not fetched from Christ ; if from conscience, or the law alone, it is nothing ; and by faith thou must fetch acceptance through Christ s blood, therefore we are bidden to do all in the name of Christ.
5. But last of all, if men would but narrowly observe and examine their best actions, and pry into the principles of them, as they are growing and
budding forth, thence they might easily be convinced that they are evil.
For,
1st, When the good a man doth, he doth out of some corrupt lust directly
(as much of the good many doariseth thence), then there needs little ques tion of it ; as when the devil confessed Christ, that his confession might discredit all other testimony of him ; when the pharisees made long prayers to devour widows houses ; when they preached out of envy, Philip, i. 15 ; when such a lust wholly sets them a-work, and they choose doing good, as a means to accomplish it; as when Jezebel proclaimed a fast to colour Naboth s
death. Of such actions there is no question but that they are evil.
But, 2dly, when the incitation of conscience, and the inclination of virtues
carry men, as then doing this it may be doubted whether they be corrupt or
no. For nothing, says Bellarmine (and so may others think too) is corrupt, but what proceeds from corrupt nature as such. To clear that even then such actions are corrupt, take these considerations.
1. We grant that corrupt nature left to itself, and if not assisted by these
principles, would not have performed that good which it doth. Yet,
2. That though it performs it from the bias of these principles, and left to
its proper motion, it would not do any good without them, yet it may be
said, that still as it is corrupt, so it hath the chief stroke in them. And so
all the actions of men in an unregenerate estate are truly called fruits of the
414 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK X.
flesh, because that is the predominant, swaying principle, even as reason or the will is the predominant principles of a man, and have the great hand, and
stroke, and sway in all human actions. I illustrate and express it by this
similitude : self-love, which is corrupt nature, is (as I have told you), now
since the fall, as the king, set up in all the faculties (as love to God was be
fore), so as it commands all, and hath all the strength of them, and all is at its command and beck. Now this self-love, if it had been let loose alone to it
self, would trade in nothing but what was directly evil, and what made
wholly for itself, and would do nothing that is good, either in order to God or men. But God hath mingled with it the light of conscience, and some moral dispositions to assist it ; so that they all are as a company setting up a factory or trade (as strangers use to do in another dominion), whereof conscience is the governor for the good of the common interest, that self
might not in men s actions wholly engross all, and so men be very devils here in this life. And yet these virtues and principles of conscience do still
trade but as strangers in subordination to this king, self-love, who is not
deposed from his regency a whit by them. They attempt not to undermine
his sovereignty, and to subject this self to God, but trade with the leave, and for the profit only of self-love. For in all their trading they hire and use its ships and vessels to traffic with, that is, those faculties whereof it is
king, which it never lets to stir but for its own ends. They apply themselves
unto, and still urge such considerations as suit one way or other with the reason of this state and self-love s ends. And though indeed they divert and hinder its trading with many gross evils, and obstruct its fetching pleasure thence, and on the contrary put it upon a trade with such things that are of some alliance to God, and which belongs to the kingdom of grace, yet so as
they apply themselves therein to the profit of self-love another way, and in
higher ends of pride, vain-glory, ambitious aims, &c., they suffer this self-
love to take custom and toll out of all, otherwise it would never suffer them
to trade, nor a ship to stir. I may illustrate this farther by the statemaxim of Haman against the Jews, who would not harbour them, nor suffer them any farther than they were for the king s profit; so that if they lived and thrived in his dominions, he must have a fee out of all their wares and
all returns. Thus natural wisdom, that is the counsellor of self-love, which
is the great king in man, seeing this king s profit advance, and the coffers of many self-ends, and respects, and lusts, filled by such external morality, strikes in with conscience and these virtues, and forbids trafficking with many
gross evils that are directly rebels to God, a-nd makes use of these good commodities to fetch gain out of them, for his prince self-love. And so the man being debarred from enjoying other lusts (for he cannot trade with all), strikes in with conscience and these virtues, and makes use of them to please lusts of a higher nature, more state-politic lusts (as I may so call them), by
following what they direct unto. Thus, though he suffers such virtues as
good wares to be brought in, yet still for his own advantage ; so that all the
actions that are done,
1st, Are still principally the acts of corruption, because self-love remains
still king, and only suffers them to be done ; but it is his strength and stock
they traffic with. And so,
2dly, Are positively corrupted, both because self-love never gives his
warrant to have any good done, but to please a lust or an end some way for
himself, which is corrupt. He must have a bribe and consideration out of
all ; and ere a ship stirs, he considers what advantage will it be for me ? Then some lust, pride, or fear of hell steps out, and says, it is for me, and
then he yields, else he would forbid the trade. So that a man doth look
CHAP. IX.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 415
upon all the good he doth, as suitable to some lust, and so it becomes sin unto him ; for it is under that notion and consideration of being pleasing to some lust he doth it, or else not. And therefore Paul, whose trade of life was outwardly within the dominions of the law, and he was one of the sub
jects of it, and was according to the law blameless, yet he says, Eph. ii. 3, that his conversation was spent as well as any other in fulfilling the lusts of
the flesh and mind ; and therefore that humbled him when he saw such
lust in him, though he was moral and virtuous. If corrupt nature had no
lusts but lusts of the flesh, then by abstinence from gross sins, &c., it should be a loser ; but it hath lusts of the mind, which please carnal wisdom and
reason, such as hypocrisy, the credit of goodness, and a thousand the like. Thus a man sees he may very well and profitably, and for the enriching of
himself, use things that are good to please other lusts in things evil and for
bidden. Now that self-love should abuse these ^virtues and these checks of
conscience, which are the good gifts of God, and should pervert their use for
its own ends only, and so corrupt the virtues themselves to serve its turn, this makes the action exceeding sinful. As when it makes use of the virtue
of just dealing, to grow into credit by it, and to get the name of being an honest man, and so by that means to climb into a place of preferment and
trust. So when by their pity and liberality men purchase to themselves a
* Verily ye have your reward, says Christ (Mat. vi. 2), of the
good name,
pharisees ; if they pray, they pray amiss, says James ; why, because they pray for something to spend on their lusts, James iv. 2. And in this re
spect, that fact of Jehu, though done at God s command, and with assistance from God, of zeal and elevation of spirit above what else he could or would have done, is yet made and interpreted a sin of murder, Hosea i. 4. 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. vii. 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. vii. 14, and so thought she might com mit 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. Iviii. 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.