A DESCRIPTION OF THE NATURAL CONDITION OF Being in the flesh. A SERMON Preached by NICHOLAS SMYTH Mr of Arts and Preacher of God's Word. And published at the request of some private friends for the public good.  Prov. 23. ver. 23. 
Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, instruction, and understanding.  job 19 ver. 28. 
But ye should say; why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in him?  
Printed by J. Owsley, for Rich. Knowls, 1657.   

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.  
CHristian Reader, it is well known unto the world, that the Church of Rome hath a long time arrogated to herself to be the outward visible Church, out of which there is no salvation: and hath excluded all others which will not hold of her, and acknowledge her to be the mother Church, from all hopes of heaven and happiness. And divers moderate and temperate Christians of all Churches, yielding a possibility of salvation to many ignorant seduced Christians, who live in that Church, or hold of her: and not being willing to usurp upon God's prerogative to judge either the Church in general to be no Church, or any particular members of the same to be no Christians: they make use of their adversaries charity, and by the glorious name of the Church out of which there is no salvation (which they restrain only to themselves) deceive multitudes. We have a long time expected a blessed reformation, and have with sighs, and prayers and tears desired of God that a general assembly of Divines might be called, wherein the errors of the Church of Rome, and more particularly this dangerous and pernicious error of theirs in casting all out of the Church which will not comply with them in their errors and gross absurdities, might have been condemned. But instead thereof there are risen up in this land divers Sectaries who appropriate salvation to themselves and their own companies, and exclude all others from the Kingdom of heaven. I shall name none of them, but leave them to the judgement of God and the verdict of their own consciences. But divers Sectaries there be who make the world believe that they are the Elect of God: or the companies wherein the Elect lie hid. And our charity being the like to them that it is to the Church of Rome: we conceiving that there are among them some ignorantly seduced Christians, who are the true Elect of God: and not daring to usurp upon God's prerogative to judge any of them. They make advantage of our charity, and make the world believe that there can be no safety for any that look for salvation, but by flying to them and their companies. So that by this means the Church of God is miserably distracted, there scarce seemeth to be any face of a Church. So that 
Mr. Pl●dell in a speech in Parliament, made Feb. th● 8. 1641.  as a worthy member of the honourable Assembly of Parliament, (of the great Parliament, at its first sitting) did fear it would come to pass, we see it is come to pass. We have rather changed our Pilot then our condition, and (if we be come out of Rome) have only shifted places to find our ruin. But yet we hope that God will in due time deliver us from all those men, and companies of men that disturb the quiet and peace of the Church and Commonwealth: Though our charity be never so great toward them, and we will not judge them: yet if they be guilty they cannot escape the judgement of God, nor the verdict of their own consciences. I have here in a plain Sermon described the natural condition of being in in the flesh, so that all that read the Sermon, if they be not willingly ignorant or wilfully sinful, may know whether they themselves be in Christ or whether they be in the flesh: and I am persuaded that all that read this Sermon, if they be truly regenerate, spiritual not carnal, they will abstain from all rash censuring of the present condition, and from all uncharitable and unchristian judging of the future and the final condition of their brethren. It is my request to thee Christian Reader, that thou wouldst not be carried away with the sway of the times, rashly to censure or uncharitably to judge others, but that thou wouldst in all humility of heart judge thyself: and if in this Sermon thou findest any new lights, yet if they be true lights, acknowledge (as the author doth) that they come from above, from the Father of lights, who is pleased in dark times by the light of his word, and by the light of his holy spirit to enlighten his Church, Read then the Sermon without prejudice: and if thou reapest any benefit by it, give God the praise, and pray for the increase of knowledge and grace in him, who is and will remain,  
Thine in the work of Grace NICHOLAS SMYTH.   

A DESCRIPTION of the NATURAL CONDITION OF Being in the Fesh.  Rom. 8. ver. 8. So then they that are in the flesh, cannot please God. 
THat hereditary stain and original corruption which we all drew from the loins of our first parents, (Christian and beloved brethren) it sticketh fast and close unto us: and so long as we carry about us this body of clay, this burden of flesh, we can never be perfectly rid of it. And the weight and burden of sin doth so press and weigh down a true Christian, that it causeth him to cry out almost dispairingly with the Apostle S. Paul, O miserable man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin? But as we say in Philosophy, elementa in suo loco neque gravant neque levant, the elements in their proper place they are neither light nor heavy. So is it with sins, when they are in their proper place, the hearts of wicked men, they weigh nothing there: and whether they be light sins or heavy, they are insensible of the burden of them: and if hypocrites complain of sin in others, and true Christians of sin in themselves, they that are fleshly minded mere natural men, as they know not what sin is, so they feel not the burden of it. And if they be not over curious to see sin in others, they are not over careful to see or amend it in themselves: and therefore they think themselves of all others in a happy condition, who neither trouble themselves with others sins, nor yet with their own. Whereas in truth there is no peace promised but to the troubled conscience, no quiet nor rest but to the burdened soul: those that are weary and heavy laden with the burden of their sins. While therefore these men are pleasing themselves with this vain fantasy and thinking that they of all others have right to heaven and to earth too: The Spirit of God in the Scripture meeteth with them, and showeth them that they may please themselves, but they cannot, they do not please God, while they remain in their natural condition without purging sin out of their hearts. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. The text it is a conclusion drawn from foregoing premises. The Apostle having in the sixth ver. laid down what a miserable condition it is to be carnally minded, and what a happy condition it is to be spiritually minded: to be carnally minded is death: but to be spiritually minded, is life and peace: In the seventh ver. he layeth down the incompetibility between these two conditions, and showeth that the natural man is not, (and the impossibility that he should be) subject to the law of God, the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be. And then from hence he doth infer this necessary Conclusion, So then they that are in the flesh, cannot please God. In which words the Apostle doth note three things unto us;  
1. He doth 〈◊〉 imply that some may be involved in this natural condition here described and set forth unto us: they may be in the flesh.  
2. He doth grant that a great many are involved in this condition: ye see it is set forth in the plural number, They that are in the flesh; and  
3. There is the inferrence that the Apostle doth infer, or the conclusion that he draweth from thence, They cannot please God.  
First, than I will speak of that which the Apostle implieth here, which is, that some may be involved in this natural condition here described, and be in the flesh. I purpose not to lay down all the acceptions of the word Flesh in Scripture, but to propound only so many as may make for the necessary explication of the meaning of the holy Ghost in this place, where he saith, They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Flesh than it is taken for the body, as it consisteth of bones, sinews, ligaments, blood, arteries, all that material massy fleshly lump which we carry about us: and for this body informed with a living soul, and so it is taken in the 1 Cor. 15. chap. the 50. verse where the Apostle saith, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven: and so it is taken, 1 Pet. 3. chap. 18. verse where the Apostle speaketh of our Saviour, that he was put to death in the flesh. And in this sense are the Apostles words to be understood, 1 Phil. the 24. verse where he telleth the Philippians, that for him to abide in the flesh was more needful for them: that is for him to continue in the body and live upon the earth was better for them. Or else flesh may be taken for the remainder of natural corruption in the regenerate. So it is taken in the 5. of the Gal. 17. ver. the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And so to be in the flesh it is to live in this frail body encompassed about with sins and infirmities, and so the Apostles words may be understood 2 Cor. 10. chap. 3. ver. Though we walk in the flesh yet we do not war after the flesh. Or lastly flesh is taken for natural corruption, for the pravity of our nature, for the proneness and propensity of the heart to evil, and the indisposition thereof to do good: when the evil desires and motions of the flesh reign and bear sway and rule in the heart: and so the Apostles words are to be understood in the 7. Rom. 5. ver. where he layeth down, that when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the Law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Properly in the Apostles meaning they are not said to be in the flesh in this place, who live in the body, for so we are all in the flesh. Neither are they said properly to be in the flesh according to the Apostles meaning in this place, in whom the relics of natural corruption do remain: For so likewise we are all in the flesh, and the relics of sin they will still remain in us, so long as we live in the flesh, until such time as we put off the flesh, and this mortal put on immortality. But according to the true meaning of the Apostles words in 
Rom. 6. 12.  this place they are said to be in the flesh, who suffer sin to reign in their mortal bodies, that they should obey it in the lusts thereof. And so the Apostle describeth the natural condition of all the sons of Adam, and of all sanctified and regenerate persons before their conversion the 2 of the Ephesians 3. ver. we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath. This is the condition that all have been in, and some must needs acknowledge themselves to be still in. They have no knowledge of of Christ or of God, their understanding is not enlightened with the saving doctrine of Christ and his kingdom, Christ crucified is a stumbling block unto them, they esteem it foolishness when they hear it preached, they mock at the resurrection of the dead, and the principles of Christian Religion are so absurd to their natural sense and reason, that they will not down with them by any means. Sin●● they know not what it is, they have no sight of it: or if they have, they have no sense nor feeling of the heinousness of it, and for the inward corruption of the heart they suffer it to lie there without mortifying it: and it is the constraint of the laws of the land that restraineth them from the actual commission of sin, for otherwise they give full sway and swinge to their crooked and corrupt affections, free scope and liberty to themselves in sin, and run their full career in wickedness: and if they can but extricate themselves out of the briers so that the laws of the land should not lay hold of them, they care not to commit all manner of iniquity and impiety. Yea though they hear that the law of God is spiritual, and requireth the obedience of the inward man, and that God looketh more to the heart then to the outward actions, and that a little sin such a sin as it is a question among a great many whether it be a sin, is exceeding heinous in the sight of God if men's hearts be set upon it, so that they will not part with it: Though they hear out of the Scripture that God will call men to account for idle 
2 Mat. 36. ver. 5 Mat. 28 ver. Pet. 2 ch. 14 ver. 5 Matth. 22 ver. 3 Gen. 42. 20 Exod. 17 ver.  words, for wanton looks, for lascivious gestures, for spleeny passions, and revengeful meditations, for but purposes to enrich themselves by the gain of oppression: yet they suffer these evil motions of their corrupt mind, these desires of the flesh, to domineer and bear sway, and reign and rule in their hearts. And as for the works of the flesh which the Apostle reckons up in the 5 of the Galatians, 19 and 20 verses; The works of the flesh are manifest which are these, adultery, fornication, laciviousness, uncleanness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditious heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revel and such like: they are exceedingly in love with these, and spare not to commit them so far forth as they come not within the compass of men's laws to be punished: yea and many times they leap over the laws of God and the land, wallow in swinish pleasures and sinful surfeiting, follow their brutish appetites, their sinful and sensual desires, give no law to their unbridled passions, to their lose carriages, to their dissolute behaviours, to their unjust practices: the restraint neither of God's laws nor of men's can keep them within bounds, but they break both, and pursue their evil courses with all vehemency and violence. And are such as the Scripture speaketh of the unjust Judge; They neither fear God nor 
18 Luke 4 ver.  regard man, but oppress the poor, grind their faces, undo the fatherless and widows, against all law and equity: and yet they have no sense nor feeling of their sins, they are touched with no remorse for them. The terror of the law which doometh death and damnation to the breach of the least of God's Commandments, the horror of their own guilty consciences, when they see their sins laid before them in their own ugly plight, shape, and form: doth not make them so to groan under the burden of their sins, that they should see what a sweet thing it is to have a Saviour, what a happiness it is to be a Christian. They are not so wearied with the heavy load and burden of their sins that they should seek and find rest in Christ Jesus: But they 
5 Wis. 7 & 8 ver.  weary themselves in the way of wickedness, and never say, what hath pride profited us? Or what good hath riches with our vaunting brought us? till they groan out this in hell, where they are never like to have part in God or inheritance in Christ. These now are the wicked, and such as these they are in the flesh, and fulfil the desires of the flesh and of the mind: and sure some such men as these the Apostle yieldeth and granteth that there may be. They have not their understanding informed, nor their reason rectified. Their talk is of bullocks, and they know 〈◊〉 how to give the kine fodder: or their discourse is of their wares and their merchandise, and they know how to buy and sell and get gain. But they are strangers in Israel, unacquainted with the mysteries of Christ and his kingdom: That Christ came down from heaven, and 
13 Act. 23 ver.  was enclosed in the virgin's womb, that he was born of the seed of David, and took flesh for our redemption: his Priestly, his Princely, his Prophetical office: his being God, his being Man, the necessity of his being both for our redemption. His humiliation, his exaltation: his humility, that he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross: his exaltation, his rising again from the dead: his glorification, his leading captivity captive. These are things that they have small knowledge of; or if they have some confused knowledge of the fall of Adam, of the corrupt state and condition of all mankind since the fall, of the impossibility of keeping Gods Laws and Commandments, and of the necessity of a Saviour to free us from the curse of sin, which is death, and from the punishment of the breach of God's Laws, which is damnation: have they now a lively 
5 Gal. 6 ver.  faith that worketh by love to purge their consciences from dead works to serve the living Lord? Do they believe in Jesus Christ and him crucified? yet they believe that there is one God and one Mediator between 
2 Tim. 2 c. 5 ver.  God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Yea S. james telleth them that the 
2 Jam. 19 ver.  devils believe and tremble. But do they believe that Christ died for their sins, and risen again for their 
4 Rom. 8 ver.  justification? yea they believe that Christ died for the sins of the whole world, and more particularly for 
1 Tim. 4 c. 10 ver.  theirs: and they are ready at any time when they are weary and heavy laden with the burden of their sins, to apply Christ and his merits to themselves for the remission of them: and therefore they make no question but they are truly engrafted into Christ, and made lively members of his body: yea they weary Christ with the load and burden of their sins, and make him their packhorse to bear their iniquities, and as God speaketh by his Prophet, He is pressed under them as a cart is pressed that 
2 Amos 13 ver.  as full of sheaves. But do they so groan under the burden of their sins, that they desire to be rid of them, and to purge them out of their hearts? Doth their faith in Christ for the remission of their sins increase their hatred of 
2 Cor. 7 c. 1 ver.  sin, and their desire to cleanse themselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit? Hereby they shall know whether they be in Christ or no: They that are Christ's the Apostle telleth us, have crucified the flesh with the affections 
5 Gal. 24 ver.  and lusts. Unless therefore men crucify the flesh, and mortify their earthly members: fornication uncleanness, immoderate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness and the like: they are not in Christ but are still in the flesh, and whatsoever right or title they may plead to Christ, they are carnally, they are earthly minded. Let not sin reign in your mortal 
6 Rom. 12 ver.  bodies, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. If then men's hearts and consciences tell them, that they are not renewed in the spirit of their 
4 Eph. 23.  mind, their hearts are set upon evil, the thoughts of their hearts are evil, and 
6 Gen. 5 ver.  that continually: the evil desires of the flesh they swarm there, and the carnal desires of the mind they nourish and cherish them, please themselves in them, take a great deal of delight to suffer their minds to wander after vain pleasures and sinful delights: and as for the inward corruption of the heart, they give no stay nor stop to it. For the proneness and propensity of the heart to evil, and the indisposition thereof to do good, they see it not: or if they do they love it with all their heart: and desire to live and die in this polluted estate, this corrupted condition, over run with sin and iniquity. Their heart is corrupt, their conscience defiled, and yet they are touched with no remorse for the inward pollution of their souls, for the outward defilement of their bodies, but make sin their solace, and iniquity their pastime: and if God do so work by his word, by the good motions of his Spirit, by his mercies, by his judgements, as to restrain them from some open enormous crimes: If there be some few virtues that they love, and some few vices that they hate, and their corruption doth not show itself in the commission of them, yet when they hear of an inward change of the whole mind, of the whole man, of a general hatred of sin, and a general love of goodness, that so God might accept of their imperfect obedience for Christ's sake, and entitle them to heaven and salvation, this they cannot endure. To fear all their ways with the holy man job: and to refrain their feet 
1 Job. 5 ver. 119 Psal. 101 ver.  from every evil path with the Psalmist, this they will not admit of. They have not only one, but many sins reigning in them: and many virtues there be which Gods Ministers have made appear to their understanding are exceeding lovely, and yet they will not practise them. Their heart is not whole within them, the mass of corruption lieth there still; The old leaven is not 
1 Cor. 5 c. 7 ver.  purged out, that so it may be a new lump. There is the same proneness and propensity of the heart to evil, and the same indisposition to do good. And excepting that the restraining grace of God's Spirit doth restrain them from the commission of some sins, and enable them to do some good; their practice for the general it is to do evil, and not to do good. Such as these there are, and such as these they are in the flesh and make 
3 Rom. 14 ver.  provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof. And thus I leave the first thing implied in the words that some may be involved in this natural 
2 Doctrine.  condition and be in the flesh. As the Apostle yieldeth that some may be in this condition, so he further granteth that a great many are in this condition, it is set forth in the plural number, they that are in the flesh. And so I proceed to prove that which is plainly expressed and come in the second place to show that there are numbers and multitudes that are in the flesh: our Saviour in the seventh of S. Matthews Gospel telleth us that wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat. And every where in Scripture we have the multitude of wicked men described and set forth unto us. S. Paul layeth it down in his Epistle to the Romans, as the Psalmist had before set it down, and the wiseman in his Proverbs, 3 Rom. the 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 verses; They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doth good, no not one: their throat is an open sepulchre, With their tongues they have used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes. And the Psalmist bringeth in God wondering at the multitude of wicked men; Have they no knowledge that they 
14 Psal. 4 ver.  are all such workers of mischief eating up my people as it were bread, and call not upon God? Nos numerus sumus, & fruges consumere nati, we were all of us so in our natural condition, and no doubt but there are still a number, a multitude of Epicurean people, who think they are born only to eat and to drink 
12 Joh. 19 ver.  and to enjoy the sinful pleasures of of this life. Though the world went 
6 Joh. 26 ver.  after Christ and the multitudes followed him, yet it was but for loaves, for carnal and by respects, and he had but few true disciples and they were not many in whom the word of God did take place. They were not all Israelites that were of Israel. Neither are they now all truly converted, that live in the bosom of the Church. Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. They are but a remnant, a few, a small company that have saving grace whereby the soul should be converted. Many are called, but few 
20 Matth, 16 ver. 2 Tim. ● c. 21 ver.  are chosen to be vessels of honour sanctified and meet for the master's use. The many, the number, the multitude, they have not felt the inward 
31 Jerm. 33 ver.  Covenant, the circumcision of the heart, whereby God should put his law in their hearts and write it in their inward parts, there is no truth in their inward parts, their inward parts are very wickedness. They say, 
5 Psal. 9 ver.  as it is in job; Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. 
21 Job 14 ver.  God would have healed them, but they would not. They love to lie in this polluted estate, this sinful condition: And as for the inward corruption of the heart, they do not desire that it should be abolished: they will not purge it out, yea and many multitudes there are of such kind of men. They go by companies into 
23 Prov. 20 ver. 5 Jer. 7. ver. 64 Psal. 5. ver.  the Taverns: they assemble themselves by troops into the harlot's houses: they meet together and common of laying snares: they encourage one another in unjust practices: and their only care is to buy 
5 Jam. 13 ver. 1 Thes. 4 c. 6 ver.  and sell and get gain, and go beyond their neighbours in bargaining: but among these multidudes of evil men; there are but a few godly Christians, a few good men. A world of sinners there were in the days of Noah but one Noah a preacher of righteousness. A great many of filthy and unclean Sodomites, but one righteous Lot whose soul was vexed with the filthy Conversation of the unclean Sodomites. And S. Peter reckoning up the multitude of sinners that were in the days of Noah, and in the days of Lot showeth that there should be the like multitude of sinners in the world unto the world's end. And as God's vengeance did not sleep against the multitude of sinners that were in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot, so neither should it sleep against the multitude of sinners that shloud be in the world unto the world's end. But chiefly God's vengeance should show itself against those who walk after the flesh, in the lusts of uncleanness presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil 
2 Pet. 2 c. 10 ver.  of dignities. Wilful sinners then there are who walk after the flesh, and commit all uncleanness with greediness. And many such evil disposed persons there are who make a sport of sin, and pastime of iniquity: and who is there almost that his heart should stand affected as the Psalmist speaketh, that he should 
9 Psal. 6 ver.  have respect to all God's commandments? and hate sin indifferently, his own sins as well as other men's, and his hatred should show itself especially against those sins to which he seethe the greatest proneness and propensity in his own heart. They are very few but they have their hearts set upon some sins or other, they suffer them to lie and roost there, they will not part with them or purge them out. The bent of their affections is not set against sin, is not set upon good: their heart meditateth mischief and they stir up strife and contension all the day long. They may blear the eyes of the world with daubing policies, and skin over their corruptions: but their heart is not right neither toward God nor toward their neighbour. Indoluit orbis Christianus factum se videns Arianum. The whole Christian world was overspread with Arianisme, and Schisms and Heresies they abound in every place, and multitudes of men there are that cause sects and divisions: sins and surfeting they increase and multiply continually, and sinners they throng in the streets, All tables 
28 Isaiahs ● ver.  are full of vomit and filthiness, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, every one is given to covetousness, and from the Prophet unto the 
6 Jer. 13 ver.  Priest every one dealeth falsely. Some few only excepted as S. john hath it, the whole world lieth in wickedness, 
1 Joh. 5 c. 9 ver.  tumbleth and walloweth in this sinful condition; their hearts are uncleansed, unsanctified, unreformed, even sinks of sin: and the spreading contagion of sin and iniquity it overrunneth all places and persons, and few there be that are not infected with this plague and leprosy of sin. Some have it in their forehead, and it riseth up as it did in Uzziah his. 
2 Cor. 26 c. 9 ver. 3 Isaiah 9 ver.  They declare their sin as Sodom they hid it not. Others have it in their heart, their sore rankleth and festereth inwardly, and their wound is in curable: others, their loins are filled 
38 Psal. 7 ver.  with a loathsome disease and there is no whole part in their flesh: others, their feet are swift to shed blood: others, 
1 Prov. 16 ver. 49 Gen. 5 ver. 55 Psal. 20 ver. 69 Psal. 23 ver.  their hands are instruments of cruelty: others, their eyes are blinded that they see not; they have the eyes of their understanding darkened so that they know not what sin is, and how should they then amend it? Many, too many there be, who have not one but many sins reigning in them, who walk and war after the flesh, and fulfil the desires of their evil and corrupt minds: so that it is no marvel though the Apostle setteth it forth in the plural number, They that are in the flesh. Having thus described the Natural Condition of being in the flesh, & having showed what it is to be in the flesh and having made it plain that there are numbers and multitudes of men who live and lie in this sinful condition, overrun with iniquity, and drowned as I may say in the lusts of the flesh. It remaineth that I come to show what it is that maketh this condition so miserable and so deplorable a condition: It may seem to be a happy condition, and no marvel if there be multitudes that are in love with sin, and the greatest part please themselves in their natural condition, and have some sin or other which they propound unto themselves as their chiefest happiness, felicity, and contentment in this life: for sin it is sweet and the task of repentance it is tedious bitter and irksome: and the childbearing pangs of a woman in travail are not so painful and laborious, as are the travailing pains of those that are born again, in whom new birth is wrought. A troubled conscience and a mind disquieted with the burden of sin, it is above all the troubles and tribulations that can happen to a man in this life. Seeing then sin is so sweet, and the task of repentance so bitter, tedious and irksome: not to strive against sin, but to enjoy the pleasures and profits of this life, there is no misery at all in this condition, but a great deal of happiness: and if it were not for that which followeth in this text of Scripture, who might not wish to remain still in his natural condition, without purging sin out of his heart. So than that which maketh this condition so miserable a condition it is this, that men while they are in love with this supposed happiness, they lose that which is their true happiness, their summum bonum, and their chief felicitv: Gods favourable countenance. Nothing can content the soul but God, nothing can satisfy the heart but the Trinity, and while men remain in this condition without purging sin out of their hearts, they are deprived of this felicity they are debarred of this happiness. So then this condition of being out of the state of grace, maketh men miserable, because those that are out of the state of grace and not truly regenerate cannot please God.  
And so I pass to the third thing the 
3 Doctrine.  inference that the Apostle doth infer, and the conclusion that he gathereth to set forth the misery of those that are in their natural condition, They cannot please God. The Apostles meaning when he saith, those that are in the flesh cannot please God. Is not, that it is all one whether they do good or whether they do evil, their vices and their virtues find the like acceptance at God's hands, their gloriousest virtues are but glittering sins, their best actions are abominable, they are in the flesh out of Christ, and whatsoever they do they cannot please God. These are the exceptions that the Sectaries of these times make, not only against the actions of those who are mere natural men, unreconciled, unconverted, but against the actions of those that are spiritual, and more truly engrafted into Christ then themselves. And these Sectaries they do dilate and spread themselves every where, and where there are fewest of them there are two many of them. Yet for my part I am and ever shall be so charitable as to believe that there are among them, some ignorantly seduced Christians, who desire above all things to fear God and to serve him, and for the elects sake that are among them, shall speak unto them all as unto Saints, and unto brethren, and all that I shall at this time say is but this; If these men cannot be persuaded to have a little more charity, it were to be wished that they would be persuaded to have a little more humility: if saith job, I wash myself with snow water, 
9 Job 30, 31 for  and make my hands never so clean: yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. And the holy Father S. Augustin showeth how imperfect the actions of the best are, that none can be found innocent if God should deal with them according to the rigour of his justice. Vae 
August. confess.  laudabili vitae hominum si remota miserecordia discutias eam. woe unto the most praiseworthy life of men, if God shall examine it without mercy. And so Arnobius, 
Arno. in Psal.  Vae nobis si quod debeamus exegerit vel quod debet rediderit. woe unto us all if God should exact of us what we own or are indebted unto him: or return unto us according to our deserts. I beseech you beloved brethren whosoever you are, can you do any thing to please God? have you any righteousness that is not stained? survey your own best actions, & abhor yourselves in dust & ashes, your most lovely virtues, your goodliest actions, they receive such a tincture from the corrupt channel from whence they proceed, that you must needs see nothing but a menstruous cloth, have you any thing to glory of before God? take heed lest he enter into judgement with you, you will find that all flesh hath corrupted itself before God, and that you have nothing but what others have imperfect goodness. But yet goodness it is God's gift and the effect of our Saviour's sufferings, and though it be imperfect in all, in regard we are not subjects capable of perfect goodness, yet God as he wroketh it in all, so he loveth it, and is pleased with it in all that he worketh it. And whether he worketh it by restraining grace in those that are in their natural condition, or by saving grace in those that are in their spiritual condition, he is pleased with it, accepteth it, will reward it for Christ's sake. Some good works that are wrought by restraining grace, they are as lovely in the sight of men, and as pleasing in the sight of God, as are those that are wrought by saving grace. And God as he worketh, so he is pleased with, and accepteth of goodness in every body. It was God's speech to Cain, if thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted? He accepteth of every body when they do well, he will reward his own works and will be no man's debtor for goodness. He hath rewarded you, he will reward you, he doth reward you, for works of piety, for deeds of charity, for any thing that is good. So then this is not the meaning of the words (howsoever some please to descant and paraphrase upon them) that those that are in the flesh, their best actions are abominable, their goodness imperfect and they cannot please God: for so are the actions of the best Saints living and some actions that are wrought by restraining grace are as perfect as those that are wrought by saving grace, though both of them are imperfect: and God is pleased to accept of imperfect goodness for Christ's sake and reward it. Only herein is the difference: those good deeds that proceed from restraining grace, they have the promise only of a temporary reward, but those good deeds that proceed from saving grace they entitle men to heaven and salvation. So then the meaning of the Apostles words, (as it may appear plainly to those that are not minded wilfully to pervert the Scriptures) is this: They that are unreconciled, unconverted, unrenewed in the spirit of their minds, they cannot so please God, that he should accept of their imperfect obedience and entitle them to heaven, and deliver them from hell. This then is the miserable condition of all those who have not felt the inward Covenant, the circumcision of the heart, in whom restraining grace hath wrought only a hatred of some few sins, and a love of some few virtues, and the saving grace of God's Spirit hath not enlightened the understanding with the knowledge of all sins which by the search of reason can be found to be sins: nor reform the will that there should be a hatred of all sins nor rectified the affections, that so this hatred of sin should increase more and more. But they do good by fits and by starts, as they are taught by custom and example of others, as they are induced unto it by God's mercies and his judgements, or as it pleaseth him sometimes to work extraordinarily in their hearts by his word and the good motions of his Spirit. Such as these they are in the flesh and cannot please God: that is they are out of God's favour, the wrath of God abideth upon them; they have no hopes of heaven nor of happiness after this life. And what more miserable condition can there be then this? It is a life no life, when Gods frowning and ireful countenance is toward men: When men have no assurance of heaven, no hopes in their death: their consciences tell them that they have lived so, that they shall never see God nor enjoy the company nor presence of the blessed Angels: but shall have their portion 
20 Revel. 10 ver.  in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone with the devil and his angels. Sure the wrath of God for sin it causeth men to pine and languish away in despair. When thou with rebukes 
39 Psal. 11 ver.  dost chasten a man for sin, thou causest his beauty to consume away like a moth fretting a garment: and who can 
76 Psal. 7 ver.  stand when thou art angry saith the Psalmist? If God please to hid away his face from his Saints from his servants, for a moment in a little 
54 Isaiah 6 ver.  wrath, nothing can afford them comfort. And when he teareth the wicked in his wrath for the multitude of their transgressions, (as some time his hand is heavy upon them here for their sins) his wrath is a burden unsupportable. Let then their own experience of the heaviness of God's wrath when he afflicteth them for a short time for their sins in his wrath, teach them what a miserable condion it is to be such men with whom God will be angry for ever. If so be then that God be pleased with men's good works, with their hearty sighs and earnest groans, their weeping and howling and their repentance for sin: If God see these things, and be pleased with them: yet if he be not so pleased with them, that he should accept of men's good works, of their repentance for sin, that so they should be delivered from his wrath, and have hopes of heaven and happiness, what are they the better? And yet unless men be inwardly renewed in the spirit of their minds, and have felt a change of the whole mind, of the whole man, they shall not be entitled to heaven, they shall not be delivered from hell. This then is the misery of those who remain unreconciled, unconverted, whose hearts are unchanged unaltered: they are liable to God's curse and eternal damnation. Heaven they have no part nor portion in it. Christian Reader, whosoever thou art, think now, think I say, (if it be possible for thee to conceive the greatness of this misery) what a miserable condition it is when men shall perish everlastingly, and shall never see God, nor possess the joys of the celestial Paradise. It were a thousand times better for men that they had never been born, then that they should live and die in this defiled condition, this polluted estate. The brute beasts and juments are happier than they, for when they die, their miseries are ended: but there are unspeakable miseries everlasting sorrows appointed to such after death. What creatures are there so loathsome but men might wish to be them and be happy in the change unless they be changed inwardly, and renewed in the spirit of their minds. All other creatures their miseries they end in death, but theirs will but then begin. Those that believe not as it is in S. john's gospel, are condenned already: and when death cometh how frightful will the presence of the angry judge be? and when the great day of his wrath is come they will creep into the holes and cliffs of the rocks, and say to the mountains fall on us, and to the hills cover us. God is pleased with men's good works, and there is none of them forgotten before him. When men repent of there sins he seethe their repentance, and he can, he will lighten his hand of them. God is pleased with goodness in every body, and there is no man's repentance that shall be in vain and to no purpose. But unless men's repentance be true and unfeigned, unless their sorrow for sin increase every day more and more, and there be a settled purpose to weed all sins out of their hearts, they have no hopes to enjoy heaven to escape hell. I beseech you therefore Christian men and women whosoever ye be that read this: as you look to stand in the day of our Lord Jesus, when he shall come in flames of fire to render vengeance to them that know him not, and to them that obey not the Gospel of Christ: seek unto God and desire of him that he would sanctify you throughout, and season your hearts with grace, that so your souls and bodies may be safe in the day of our Lord Jesus. Never rest till you find in your hearts a general hatred of sin, and a general love of goodness and a constant progress in this general hatred of sin and love of goodness, which may entitle you to heaven, and deliver you from hell. If God should hear you at every call, and when you are overborne with grief, upon your repentance for two or three sins to which your hearts are exceedingly prone (which you suspect to be the cause of your misery) deliver you from evil that it should not vex you. If upon your performance of two or three good works, and your charity and humility in the performance of them, he should load you with his earthly favours and his temporal blessings, (as he will be no man's debtor for goodness so he will reward his own gifts in every body) yet if he be not so pleased with your good works, as to accept of them and reward them with heaven and happiness hereafter, what have you gained? how are you advantaged? What will it 
18 Matth. 26 ver.  profit a man to win the whole world, and to lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? If God should give you all that the world can afford, heap upon you his earthly favours, and his temporal blessings; if your conscience upon your deathbed should tell you that you are unreconciled, unconverted, that you have received the reward of your good deeds here, and God should answer you when you cry for mercy as Abraham did Dives and say son, 
16 Luke 24 ver.  remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, and therefore seeing in your life time you received the reward of your good deeds, therefore there are torment's everlasting appointed for you, and joys unspeakable appointed for others. Sure now (when you lay in this case) if God would hear you and grant that you might begin your life again, you would choose with Moses to suffer affliction with the children of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season: And the conceit that Gods over liberal rewarding you with his temporal mercies for your good deeds here, had excluded you from all hopes that he would reward you with his everlasting mercies hereafter, would pierce your hearts with a thousand sorrows: labour then so to please God, that whatsoever reward you receive for your good deeds here, you may have assurance that he will not forget your patience and your labour of love hereafter. To die in God's displeasure it is a misery above all the miseries than can be conceived and imagined: and if you cannot so please God, that he would entitle you to heaven and deliver you from hell when you die: though you have all that the earth can afford you while you live, you will be never the better. And so ye see the greatness of their misery that are in the flesh, they cannot so please God as to have hopes of heaven and happiness.  

The conclusion.  
Having run over this Text of Scripture and having at large described the Natural condition of being in the flesh; I shall shut up all with a charitable conclusion to all you whosoever you are that shall read what is here written. The natural condition of being in the flesh, it hath been described unto you, and it hath been likewise made plain unto you that some there be that are in the flesh, yea a great many, multitudes there are that live and lie in this sinful condition, and few there be (God knoweth) who have their consciences purged from dead works to serve the living 
9 Heb. 14 ver.  Lord, who have felt the powerful and effectual operation of God's Spirit in their hearts, and excepting only this little flock, this few of Christ's sheep, the number, the multitude, 
12 Luke 32 ver.  the whole world lieth in wickedness; walloweth and tumbleth in this sinful condition, in this polluted estate, they are dead in sin, dead 
2 Ephes. 2 ver. 8 Matth. 22 ver. 3 John 18 ver.  for sin, condemned already as the Scripture speaketh, and if they live and die in this sinful condition, hell fire it shall be their portion, and they cannot so please God here that they should have hopes of heaven and happiness hereafter. But yet, though there be million and multitudes that are unreconciled, unconverted, who live and lie in sin without remorse: yet we can know but few, yea we cannot know any of whom we may say these are unconverted, in the state of condemnation, you may know concerning yourselves whether you be in Christ, or whether you be in the flesh. Examine yourselves, prove 
2 Cor. 13 c 5 ver.  your own selves, know ye not your own selves how that jesus Christ is in you expcept ye be reprobates? ye may know concerning yourselves whether ye be reconciled unto God, and he be become a gracious father unto you in Christ Jesus: is your hatred of sin general? your love of goodness universal? do you increase and grow every day more and more in grace and goodness? in your hatred and opposition of sin? Have you a care of the inward man as well as of the outward? and do you look more to the heart then to the outward actions, is not there some secret darling bosom and beloved sin upon which your heart is set, which you defend and maintain, against all that God's Ministers can say against it, and will not be convinced in conscience of it, or acknowledge it to be a sin? do you not call your pride decency? your lust love? your drunkenness good-fellowship? your malice zeal? your covetousness thrift? Or is there not some secret sin like Herod his incest, which you defend to be lawful? ye may know concerning yourselves, in what terms you stand with God, whether you be in Christ or whether you be in the flesh: unless ye be ignorant persons and know not what the desires of the flesh mean. But yet though it be an easy matter to know this concerning yourselves, yet it is the hardest matter of a thousand to know this concerning others, whether they be in the faith or no. Restraining grace it may work as perfect a hatred of some sins, and as perfect a love of some graces and virtues as saving grace. They who outwardly appear very wicked men, they may hate some vices with as perfect a hatred as it is possible for men to do, who carry about them a body of flesh: and love some virtues with as perfect a love, as it is possible for men to do who live since the fall of Adam, yea restraining grace may work such a reformation of the outward man and of the inward man too that there may not be many sins in the heart unpurged out. We read of Herod how he reform himself in many things at john's preaching, and he had not many sins with which he was greatly in love beside his incest. And jehu beside his state policy he had not many sins upon which his heart was set. And whether it be constraint of laws restraint of shame, custom and example of others that teacheth men to do well, whether God work by his mercies or by his judgements, by his word or by the good motions of his Spirit, by fits and by starts extraordinarily. Or whether there be a constant and a continued work of the spirit: whether there be a general hatred of sin, whether men's obedience to God's laws and commandments be total or partial: Whether there be many sins reigning in men or one darling sin upon which their heart is set unpurged out: These are secrets known only to God who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins. This men must see (unless they will shut their eyes against a known truth) that there is in all men living a hatred of some vices, and a love of some virtues, and though it be restraining grace that worketh in the most, yet for aught we know or aught to judge, it is saving grace that worketh in all. And that there should be in a Christian Commonwealth this distinction of the godly and the wicked, for my part I see no reason for it: Charity thinketh no evil, but is easily persuaded to believe that all the congregation of the Lord is holy. This is a certain truth we cannot certainly know, and ought not peremtorily to judge of any men or company of men, that they are in the whole tenor of their lives wicked men or profane persons; or that they are in the whole tenor of their lives hypocrites or false christians. But if men may probably conjecture of a great many that they are sinners or hypocrites, know them by their fruits because it outwardly appeareth to the world that many sins reign in them. What use should they make of their knowledge? Let them abstain from their company and not partake with them in their sins, If necessity or some occasion of business force them into their company, let them soberly admonish them of their faults that they may amend, let them reprove and rebuke them sharply if they do not amend: let them inform against them that they may be reform if their sins be capital or scandalous, punishable by the laws of the land: let them mourn in secret because they do pray in private that they may not continually dishonour God by their unlawful deeds their open profanes and their secret hypocrisy these things are good and acceptable in the sight of God, If beside these you can think of any lawful means to reduce men from their sins, their open profaneness and their secret hypocrisy on God his name use it. But as for all slandering and traducing men for sin, all casting out their names and evil all rash censuring of their present condition; all uncharitable and unchristian judging of their future as final condition, let not these things be once named among you as becometh saints. For my part I know no man so flagitiously sinful that I dare determine of him that he is in the state of condemnation, though I see him in the acts of impiety, for I know there is a salve for this sore, his repentant tears. And if I say that such a one is a saint in the state of grace, and hath right to the kingdom of heaven when he doth well I say no more than charity bindeth me to speak, when I see a man that is suspected to have sinned the sin against the holy Ghost. I may peradventure think that there is small hopes of remission for such a one, because he cannot repent; yet I shall be sparing to term such an one a reprobate when I fee him sin and shall be bold to say he is a saint when he doth well. Be charitable, and judge of no man's final condition: ye cannot certainly know and therefore ought not to say of any men lining though they be never so heinously sinful that they are in the state of condemnation. And yet still there are a number, a multitude, the whole world lieth in wickedness, walloweth and tumbleth in this sinful condition, in this polluted estate, their conscience is defiled their heart is corrupt, set upon sin, they have no sense nor feeling of their sins, they are touched with no remorse for them they will not weed them out of their hearts, and though others may not, and we dare not judge them any otherwise then as God judgeth them: yet unless they will judge and condemn themselves and endeavour to purge, sin out of their hearts we must leave them where we found them in the flesh, insuch a condition wherein they cannot please God, nor have right to the kingdom of heaven but are liable to God his curse and eternal damnation: for so they see the scripture speaketh so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But I shall rather 
3 Ephes. 16, 17, 18. 19 ver.  pray for such as are in the flesh, that God would grant them according to the riches if his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit according to the inner man, that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith, that they being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth. And length, and depth and height: and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that they may be 
1 Pet. 10. 4 ver.  filled with the fullness of God, and have right to an inheritance incorruptible, immortal, undefiled, not fading away, reserved in the heavens for them. Amen.  
FINIS.