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In the fecond place, I fhall inquire who they are that, in the apostle's fenfe, may be faid to do righteousness. In fhort, they who in the general courfe of their lives do. keep the commandments of God. And thus the fcripture generally expreffeth this matter, by keeping the commandments of God, and by having respect to all his commandments; by obedience to the gospel of Chrift; by being boly in all manner of converfation; by abstaining from all kind of evil; by cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and fpirit; and by practifing holiness in the fear. of God. To which I fhall add the defcription which St. Luke gives us of the righteousness of Zacharias and Elifabeth, Luke i. 6. They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless. All which expreffions do plainly fignify the actual conformity of our lives and actions, in the general courfe and tenor of them, to the laws and commands of God. And this implies thefe two things; that the tenor of our lives and actions be agreeable to thefe laws of God; and that these actions be done with a fincere and upright mind, out of regard to God and ano ther world, and not for low and temporal ends..

And I chufe rather to defcribe a righteous man by the actual conformity of the general courfe of his actions to the law of God, than, as fome have done, by a fincere defire or refolution of obedience. For a defire may be fincere for the time it lafts, and yet vanish before it comes to any real effect. And how innocently feever it was intended, it is certainly a great mistake in divinity, and of very dangerous confequence to the fouls of men, to affirm, that a defire of grace is grace; and, confequently, by the fame reafon, that a defire of obe dience is obedience. A fincere defire and refolution to. be good, is indeed a good beginning, and ought by all means to be cherished and encouraged; but yet it is far enough from being the thing defired, or from being accepted for it in the efteem of God: for God never accepts the defire for the deed, but where there is no poffibility, no opportunity of doing the thing defired; but if there be, and the thing be not done, there is no reafon to imagine that the defire in that cafe fhould be accepted, as if the thing were done. For inftance: If

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a man gives alms according to his ability, and would give more if he were able; in this cafe, the defire is accepted for the deed. And of this cafe it is, and no other, that the Apostle speaks, 2 Cor. viii. 12. If there be firft a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man bath, and not according to that he hath not; that is, God interprets and accepts the charity of men, according to the largeness of their hearts, and not according to the straitneis of their fortunes. But it is a great mistake, to draw a general conclufion from this text, that in all cafes God accepts the will for the deed. For though a man fincerely defire and refolve to reform his. life, as I doubt not many men often do, but do it not when there is time and opportunity for it, these defires. and refolutions are of no account with God; all this righteoufnefs is but as the morning-cloud, and as the early dew which palleth away. Men are not apt to mistake fo grossly in other matters. No man believes hunger to be meat, or thirst to be drink; and yet there is no doubt of the truth and fincerity of thefe natural defires. No man thinks that covetoufness, or a greedy defire to be rich, is an estate; or that ambition, or an infatiable de fire of honour, is really advancement: juft so, and no otherwife, a defire to be good is righteoufnefs. The Apoftle's caution, a little before the text, may fitly be applied to this purpose: Little children, let no man deceive you he that doth righteoufness is righteous, even as he is righteous. Not but that the best of men do fometimes fall through infirmity, and are betrayed by fürprife, and borne down by the violence of temptation; but, if the general courfe of our actions be a doing of righteoufnefs, the grace of the gofpel, in and through the merits. of our blessed Saviour, doth accept of this imper

fect, but fincere obedience.

II. I fhall endeavour to fhew, That, by this mark, every man may with due care and diligence arrive at the certain knowledge of his fpiritual state and condition: By this the children of God are manifeft, and the children of the the devil: Whofoever doth not righteousness is not of God. By which the Apostle means, that this is a real mark of difference betwixt good and bad men, and

that

that whereby they very often manifeft themselves to others; especially when the courfe of their lives is eminently pious and virtuous, or notorioufly impious and wicked. But, because it doth not fo much concern us curioufly to inquire into, much less feverely to cenfure the state of other men, I fhall only confider at present. how far, by this mark and character, every man may make a certain judgement of his own good or bad condition.

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1. By this character, as I have explained it, he that is a bad man may certainly know himfelf to be fo, if he will but confider his condition, and do not wilfully deceive and delude himself. As for thofe who are vitious in the general course of their lives, or have been guilty of the act of fome heinous or notorious fin not yet repented of, their cafe is fo plain for the most part, even to themselves, that they can have no manner of doubt concerning it. Such men ftand continually convicted and condemned by the fentence of their own minds and whenever they reflect upon themselves, which they do as feldom as they can, they are a terror to themselves, and full of amazement, and fearful expec tation of judgement. Not but that even, in fo plain a cafe, many men do ufe great endeavours to cheat themfelves, and would be very glad to find out ways to reconcile a wicked life with the hopes of heaven, and to gain the favour, at leaft the forgivenefs of God, with out repentance, and amendment of their lives.. And to this end, they are willing to confefs their fins, and to undergo any penance that fhall be impofed upon them, that only excepted. which only can do them good; I mean, real reformation.: and, when the prieft hath abfolved them, they would fain believe that God hath forgiven them too. However, they return to their former course; and, being strongly addicted to their lufts, between ftupidity and foolish hopes, they at last come to this defperate refolution, to venture all upon the abfolution of the priest, et valeat quantum valere poteft, it have what effect it can;" though I dare fay, that, in their most serious thoughts, they are horribly afraid it will do them no good.

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And for thofe who are finners of a leffer rate, and perhaps.

perhaps allow themselves only in one kind of vice, they likewife have reafon to conclude themfelves in a bad condition; efpecially if they confider, that he who lives in the breach of any one commandment of God, is guilty of all; because he contemns that authority which enacted the whole law. And it is eafy for any man to difcern the habit of any fin in himself; as, when he frequently commits it, when he takes up no firm refolutions against it, when he ufeth no competent care to avoid the temptations to it, nor puts forth any vigorous endeavours to break off from it, or, however, ftill continues in the practice of it for the customary practice of any known fin, is utterly inconfiftent with fincere refolutions and endeavours against it, there being no greater evidence of the infincerity of refolutions and endeavours in any kind, than ftill to go on to do contrary to them.

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2. By this character likewife, they that are fincerely good may generally be well affured of their good condition, and that they are the children of God. And there are but two things neceffary to evidence this to them; that the general courfe and tenor of their actions be agreeable to the laws of God, and that they be fincere and upright in thofe actions. And both thefe every man may fufficiently know concerning himself: for, if the laws of God be plain, and lie open to every man's understanding, then it is as eafy for every man to know when he obeys God and keeps his commandments, as when he obeys the commands of his father or his prince, and when he keeps the known laws of the land. And no fenfible and confiderate man ever had any doubt of this kind: for if a man can know any thing, he can cer tainly tell when he keeps or breaks a known law; fo that all doubts of this nature are frivolous and idle pretences to cover mens faults, and fuch as they would be afhamed to alledge in any other case.

And a good man may likewife know when he obeys God fincerely. Not but that men often deceive themfelves with an opinion, or at leaft a groundlefs hope of their own fincerity; but if they will deal fairly with themselves, and ufe due care and diligence, there are ve ry few cafes, if any, wherein they m y not know their own fincerity in any act of obedience to God. For what

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can a man know concerning himself, if not the reality of his own intentions? If a man thould in earneft telf me, that he doubted very much whether he had that friendship for me which he made profeffion of, and that he was afraid that his affection to me was not real and fincere; I confefs I fhould doubt of it too: because I fhould certainly conclude, that no man could know that matter fo well as he himself..

And there is no doubt, but whoever hath a hearty kindnefs for another, and a fincere defire to ferve and please him, knows he has it. And accordingly good and holy men in fcripture do every where, with great confidence and affurance, appeal to God concerning the integrity and fincerity of their hearts towards him. Job and David, Hezekiah and Nehemiah, in the Old Testament; and in the New, St Paul for himself and Timothy, make this folemn profeffion of their fincerity, 2 Cor. i. 12. Our rejoicing is this, the teftimony of our confcience, that in fimplicity and godly fincerity we have had our converfation in the world. And I cannot call to mind fo much as any one paffage in fcripture, from whence it can be collected, that any good man ever doubted of his own fincerity. And to fay the truth, it would not be modesty, but impudence in any man, to declare that he fufpects himself of hypocrify; good men have always abhorred the thoughts of it. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and yet he could not bear to have his integrity queftioned. It was a brave and generous fpeech of his, Till I die, I will not remove my integrity from me.

And yet it hath fo happened, that this is become a very common doubt among religious people; and they have been fo unreasonably cherithed in it, as to have it made a confiderable evidence of a man's fincerity, to doubt of it himself. It is indeed faid in fcripture, Jer. xvii. 9. that the heart is deceitful above all things, and defperately wicked, who can know it? which is true con cerning our future intentions and actions; no man knowing how his mind may change hereafter. Little did Hazael think that ever he fhould do those things which the Prophet foretold him. But though this be true in itfelf, yet it is not the meaning of that text. For the Prophet, in that chapter, plainly makes ufe of this confideration, of the falsehood and deceitfulness of man's

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