how low is That in Comparison of This I am he that prepare Eternal Mansions for you in the Heavens That reserve for you an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled which fadeth not away A Crown which withereth not And hence our Lord is called the Prince of Life Acts 3.10 Not only because he was dead and is alive and for ever will live but also because he was Author of Eternal Life and made it the Reward of Obedience to his Laws And when our Lord shall purchase our poor Obedience at so excessive a Value as the giving of Heaven and the Glory thereof when he might justly command more Rigorous Services without any Rewards further than merely our having of Life and being preserved while we do them what a mighty motive is it for Obedience to these Laws and for our Love to them also Mean is the being Blessed in the City and in the Field in respect of the Happiness that Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard and that hath not ent'red into the Heart of Man to conceive To have Life Eternal and all Joys attending it so that with Improved Souls and Spiritual Bodies we cannot wish them to be greater nor fear them to be less Joys must sutably following a Vertuous Life and so refin'd and sacred that they are worthy of an Immortality for the being possess'd how much doth it surpass a Life's being long in an Earthly Canaan and those more common and sensible Blessings that were given to it Though yet these Earthly Rewards are not wholly excluded by the Heavenly neither but when they shall be expedient for us we shall have them Eternal Blessings under the Gospel do assure us of Temporal so far forth as they shall be for our Good as Temporal under the Mosaick Law did presignifie Eternal ones that should follow For he that spared not his own Son but gave him for us all How shall be not in Him freely give us all things And herein upon much better ground are we placed than Those were who made Virtue to be its own Reward and would have Men even in the midst of Torments though there were no hope of an Alleviation to think that they had a sufficiency of Happiness from it alone This was high and magnificent Talk indeed and if secure from ever being put into Practice it might have rested in Speculation only Virtue would not have been discredited thereby But small Comfort it carried with it when Pains and Troubles were actually to be undergone And a Man on the Rack might almost be thought not un-wise if for the obtaining of ease he would let go such an Happiness For more commended surely is the observance of the Laws of Christ which includeth in it all sorts of Virtue Our Obedience is indeed to be maintain'd if occasion there were even to the loss of all Earthly Enjoyments but then it often in this World hath Plenty and Honour as its Attendants and Reward Or if it so shall be that God in his Wisdom shall suffer it on every Hand to be encompass'd with Afflictions it yet hath somthing to sustain it besides the meer reflecting upon itself to wit the assurance that however its condition at the present be strait and difficult it will not always be so God can and it may be he will give Relaxation and Ease here but if this he shall not do there shall certainly after Death be Joys sufficient when these short Troubles shall be abundantly made up by an Happiness which never shall have an end And this may afford a firm support to Virtue and Administer a Cheerfulness even in the Valley of the Shadow of Death Who is it then that can refuse Obedience to the Laws of our Lord when he thus brings Life and Immortality to Light and promiseth them as Rewards to our Obedience And if the Excellency of the Laws themselves will not prevail upon the Man for his Love how can he stand out against the Happiness that attendeth them Those Christians that endeavour to put far from them this Happiness by esteeming the Obedience to be Low and Mercenary which hath respect to a Reward I very much pity as being such who through sad error deny to themselves the greatest comfort of their Life but very much blame them also in that as much as in them lies they devest the Holy Laws of their Inestimable Ornament and would take from us the Joy that is set before us which was the great support to our Lord in his enduring the Cross and despising the Shame and so may justly be an Encouragement to Vs in the doing of his Will Especially since by reason of our Weakness and Imperfection we have little reason to let go what may so strongly excite us unto and so sweetly confirm us in our Duty But Theophilus for the further securing of Obedience to these Laws there are Eternal Punishments after Death threatned to the Disobedient It is better saith our Lord to enter into Life Maimed than having two Hands to go into Hell into the Fire that never shall be quenched Where their Worm dieth not and where their Fire is not quenched There being a Worm to Gnaw the Man declareth that there is Torment and there being a worm not failing nor dying declareth the perpetuity of the Torment there being a Fire to burn denoteth pain and there being a Fire not quenchable for so the Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie denoteth an Everlasting Duration of that pain In like manner are we to understand those Words of St. Matthew Chap. 25.46 They shall go into Everlasting Punishment i. e. They shall go into that which shall never cease nor have end The Law of Old did indeed in its strictest constitution affix a Curse to wit Death upon every one that continued not in all things Written therein to do them But yet that Rigour was so far Mitigated that when less Punishments were allowed for some Sins Lustings though still forbidden might seem to have no Penalty at all imposed or else were thought to be wip'd off in Course by the Daily Sacrifices Hereupon it was that the Jews if they could abstain from outward Miscarriages were little concerned for inward Rectitude a freedom from Punishment rendring the Law of no weight with them But it is not so in the Laws of our Lord. They cannot be esteem'd to lose their efficacy for want of Punishment annexed Whosoever shall break one of these least Commands and shall teach Men so shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. He shall have no place in it shall be despised and rejected by God in the Day of Judgment Even the Looking upon a Woman to lust after her and the being Angry with a Brother without a Cause are esteemed by our Lawgiver in the same rank with Adultery and Murder and shall be obnoxious to the same kind of Punishment with them Which is well signified by the words in St. Matth.
for so themselves style the Advent of the Messias from Isai 62.2 3. And an Ordinance for ever it was as for ever had relation to the First Age of the World But was not to endure beyond what the Nature thereof would well permit Not for ever and ever as taking in the Age of the VVorld under the Messias And truly we may in a manner say that the Law is not Vilified and Destroy'd by our Lord any more than a House is when from being rough and imperfect it is finished with the greatest Wisdom and Adorned with the most Rich Materials Christianity being the Judaick Religion Heightned and Spiritualiz'd Our Lawgiver himself saith He came not to Destroy the Law and the Prophets And his mentioning the Prophets together with the Law seemeth unto me to be a good explication of what I am now Speaking We do not nor can we think that when Divine Prophecies are come to pass they are vilified and destroy'd Rather say we that they are compleated and that the Compleating them is the Honour and Crown of them If then our Lord hath not destroy'd but by his Coming made good those Prophecies which were of him Why should it be said that he hath Destroyed the Ceremonial Law rather than Fulfilled it Especially when That Law was in great measure as a Type and Prophesie of Him. It is not indeed any more to be so observed as to be reduced in Practice because He whom it did Prefigure hath been Present and Lived among Us just as the expectation of a Prophecie ceaseth when what was Predicted is come to pass But then it hath its use still as also the fulfilled Prophesie have and we are to look both upon the one and the other with a great deal of Reverence and Respect As the Coming of our Blessed Lawgiver and the Purity and Spiritualness of his Government have Crowned and Compleated Them so They do now stand as faithful and evident Witnesses of the Truth of his Coming and of the perfection of his Laws Eubul You have well improved what I said and were a Jew not obstinate in his hatred to our Lord he could not but be sway'd by such considerations Theoph. But let not me hinder you from Speaking to the Second thing to wit That such and only such Laws are injoyn'd by our Lawgiver as have in them an intrinsick Goodness or else are for Ends absolutely Good and such as are discernable by every one Eubul You hindred me not To this therefore we say That the Laws which relate unto God are all of a Refined Nature requiring that his Worship be performed in Spirit and in Truth and are such as shew forth his Spiritualness his Purity his Omniscience and other his Glorious Attributes While we are Commanded to approach unto him with our Hearts and to have them clean and uncorrupt before him the Law hath an inward goodness in it in that it requires us to be Holy as he whom we serve is Holy. And it nourisheth in us right apprehensions of God that his Nature is not Gross and Bodily but that he is present with us and is a discerner of our thoughts A thing which could not be said of some of those actions which in Moses's Law had Relation to Gods immediate Service For wherein could the Spirituality of Gods Nature be inferred from the Blood of Beasts and their Flesh being offered up unto him How could we from these Rites in themselves consider'd be instructed in the Holiness Goodness and Mercy of God These Acts of Worship might seem to be of a Carnal and Gross Nature and though there be places enough in the Old Testament that speak forth God to be a Spiritual and Immaterial Being to be Holy and Good yet from these parts of his Service look'd upon in themselves alone Men could not learn so much Theoph. But Eubulus there are Two Precepts of Christianity respecting Gods immediate Service which may seem not to have any thing of internal Goodness in them and those are the Dipping or Sprinkling of Children with Water in Baptism and the Eating of Bread and Drinking of Wine in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper For what Affinity doth there appear between true Goodness and the Eating a Bit of Bread and Sipping a little Wine Between true Goodness and the Sprinkling a little Water Eubul I deny not Theophilus what you say but then you must Remember the whole that was said viz. That only such Laws are enjoyn'd which have an intrinsick Goodness in them or else are for Ends absolutely Good and such as are discernable by every one By Baptism we are initiated into the Church of Christ becoming Members to him our Head and have the guilt of Sin wash'd away Baptism being instituted for the Remission of Sins Acts 2.38 And we are also thereby made partakers of the benefits of Christs Death into which we are Baptized Rom. 3.6 In which Rite our Lawgiver as in every thing he exceeded what was done before hath amplified his Seal by making it applicable to both Sexes when in Circumcision it was impressed only upon one Thus also the Eating of Bread and Drinking of Wine in the Holy Sacrament are done in Remembrance of the Death and Passion of our Lord. And this Remembrance of him is upon the Account that he hath laid down his Life for Mankind and for ourselves in that Number And so as oft as we do this Worthily and as we ought to do we are afresh entituled to that Salvation which by his Death he hath purchased for us and have God the Father Reconciled unto us Now these are excellent Ends and that to these Ends both Baptism and the Lords Supper were instituted we are expressly told in Holy Writ without any Clouds and Darkness without so much as a word that may have a double or doubtful signification that whoever runs may read Which cannot be said of Sacrifices and some other Significant Rites among the Jews For although they were Types of our Lord as hath been said yet they were not known so to be by the generality of the People And truly it doth not a little Commend the Precepts of Baptism and the Lords Supper that in these great Acts of our Faith our Lawgiver is so far pleased to condescend to our Senses as to make the things that may be Seen and Tasted to be the Conveighers of such inestimable Favours Water and Bread and Wine are indeed things of ordinary use But in so being they import these Divine Priviledges to belong not to the Rich only and the Great but to the Meaner Sort also And very rightly suted they are to the ends for which they were instituted The Washing away of Sins is well signified by the Cleansing of our Bodies with Water And Christs Wounded Body and Spilled Blood are better represented by the lowly Elements of Bread broken and Wine poured out than by more costly and rich Materials they would have been For we are to Remember
Holy Religion by reason of the Abstinence which it enjoyns especially since this Abstinence is used for Ends so much higher than the other and such as are truly excellent So distant Theophilus are the Laws of Christ from the Imputation of Cruelty on the account of Fasting that they allow us ordinarily the moderate Use and on Festival Days whether Civil or Sacred the more plentiful Enjoyment of Gods good Creatures so far as they shall minister to an Innocent or Religious Chearfulness of Body and Soul. Nay even in the very exercise of Fasting our Bodies are not to be enfeebled as some Religious Mens of old were whose Excesses this way will rather be forgiven than rewarded but only made such as they ought to be obedient to the Soul and to God. Yea we thereby contribute to their Health and Welfare which by fulness of Bread and excess of Wine are too often destroyed And what is the chief thing of all we by so doing provide that they shall hereafter to their endless Happiness be Spiritual Bodies If this be cruelty to ourselves I know not Theophilus what will be kindness This is certain that amidst such Acts of Mortification there ariseth a secret but very great Content and Satisfaction He who hath truly tryed knoweth it to be so And then for the Last Fault that they find with these Laws viz. That they bind us to part with our Estates and Lives for the asserting our Religion when meerly some outward Compliance and a denying of some few things only and this no otherwise than in shew for a time would preserve us which say they is a hard saying and who can bear it We answer That we very seldom are brought to these Extremities our holy Religion ordinarily providing that from the sweetness of Nature which it teacheth us to nourish amongst Men we should enjoy both Estates and Lives with Peace and Safety But then Theophilus when our Lives and Welfare are in the usual course of the World so well by our Lawgiver designed and Blessings in his Gospel are made known unto us so much better than Life and all the Enjoyments of it Can it seem so hard a saying that in a seldom and special Exigence we should to the loss of Estate and even of Life itself confess this Lawgiver and bear witness to this Gospel Should our Lord have done so great things for us and permitted us to affirm or deny them as from hopes or fears in this World we should see good He himself would have been much wanting to the Religion he taught and we might with some reason have questioned the Truth of it when its Author was so little concerned for the Esteem and Honour it should have among Men. So that in a right estimate of things upon supposition that the Christian Religion is true our Lord could not in Justice and Wisdom have done less than required the parting with Estate and Life for the maintaining of it And These Men Theophilus however they stand so much upon their Lives and Incomes in this particular will yet be forward enough to venture them for the vindicating of their own Truth and Right or for the asserting the Reputation of a Friend in things on either Hand mean enough And they 'l think that in Generosity they are bound thus to do Why then should they so much shrink of their Courage for the sober and deliberate maintaining of Truth and Priviledges that so highly concern them and of the Honour of their Lord who hath been and is a Friend beyond what the Friendship of all Men in the World were it amass'd together could amount unto Indeed were there an end of all Happiness and Being when this Life should end we could the less blame Men if they upon no Accounts would part with their Lives and upon very few let go their Estates But when Christianity holds out a better Inheritance and a better Life unto those who shall be willing to become Poor or to Dye for the Sake of Christ and his Gospel there is more encouragement to hazard yea to lose all in this cause than in the best cause the World affords beside But whereas it is urged that when a mere outward Compliance and a Denial only of some few things and this no otherwise than in Shew for a Time would preserve us we are then unreasonably required to suffer I would ask What way there is to Confess our Lord and Assert our Religion before Men besides that of outward Gestures and Words For the Heart Men cannot discern and the Thoughts are beyond their Search Where therefore there is an External Compliance with those that are Enemies to Christ and we Say as they Say and Do as they Do we deny Christ before Men as fully as we know how to do And surely the denying of only some things in our Holy Religion cannot be thought to be made amends for by other things being retain'd For by the same reason that One part of Christianity is denied any Other part or All may in the like manner be so too Neither let any one imagine that there can be a denying of Christ which shall be only the Work of the Nerves and Muscles as once a Jew said his confessing of Christ was the Heart in the mean time not consenting and thereby continuing Sound For the Heart must needs be Faulty and False when it shall suffer the Mouth to speak Deceitful Things Our Lords undissembled bearing of Poverty and Want Scandals and Reproaches and his most Faithful Suffering of the most Bitter and Accursed Death for our Welfare doth certainly deserve that when good occasion requires we should openly and fairly undergo the loss of Earthly Enjoyments and of Life itself for his Honour and with the last drop of our Blood bear witness to that Religion for the Confirmation of which he shed his own most pretious Blood. This is the way for us to fill up that which is behind of the Sufferings of Christ in our Flesh For none of his Sufferings for our Expiation are behind Those he hath wholly undergone himself and no Man could joyn with him in them But a room for our Testimony to the Truth of his Gospel he hath left and herein we can share with him in his Sufferings And this let us do willing to lose some few years to come which were we free from Troubles we upon the Account of Mortality could not be sure of rather than cast a blot upon all the years of our Life past Yea disesteeming this whole short Life and all the Pleasures and Profits of it in Comparison of that Crown and Bliss which are prepared for those who are faithful unto Death Though truly our Lord is very desirous that our Lives should be saved rather than destroy'd if by any honest and upright means they so can be And therefore he allows yea commands us if we be persecuted in one City to flee unto another and if with Integrity we can
and in Mercy accepted by God. But the Scripture accounts of it as a thing not ordinary and as it were out of the usual course Let us except that one instance of the Thief on the Cross which is to be looked upon as a special and un-common Example and therefore it stands by itself in the whole Book of God And we shall find the Gospel to promise in the usual Current of it Eternal Rewards to that Obedience only which hath Perseverance joyned with it and which lasts unto not begins at the end of Life He that endureth to the end shall be saved and be thou faithful unto Death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Such considerations as these Theophilus for the true Conception of Faith and Repentance are requisite abroad where so many either do not understand them rightly or else are willing by false arguings to make them serve for quite other than Christian Ends. And to Vs they may be of use at least so far as to stir up our Grief that the favour of our Lord in the Pardoning of Sins should by any be abused to their greater Condemnation Theoph. They not only encline me to grieve for these miserable Men who are so much their own Enemies but do also give me a pleasure in conceiving these instances of Holy Writ mentioned by you more fully and to better advantage than before I did That knowledge being most of all others delightful to me and satisfactory which ariseth from the Laws of our Lord or which is instrumental to the better understanding and practising of them Eubul I am sure These Laws of Faith and Repentance are well worthy our Love as for the Excellence of their Effects so for the Sacredness of their Matter What an inward pleasure is it to conceive the Son of God leaving the Glory of Heaven to live upon Earth and become one among the Sons of Men How may it engage all the Powers of the Soul into a Divine Love while we contemplate him in in the Garden sweating as it were great drops of Blood and shedding afterwards the remainder thereof upon the Cross amidst bitter pains for our Sake This is indeed in itself matter of the sadest kind But in respect of Vs what Wonder and Joy may it not excite But then if we by Faith look upon our Lord as he is Ascended into Heaven to prepare Mansions for us and as he shall come again in the Clouds with great Glory that where He is there We may be also with what an Holy Splendour will our understandings be entertain'd Men are usually taken with great things State and Grandeur though such in appearance only draw the Eyes of the most if really such they be and do carry in them true Worth as here they eminently do they engage the Hearts also of the Wise and the Good. Truly our Faith from the Sweet and Admirable matter it is fraught with may well work by Love Love not only to God and Men but even to the Law likewise by which it is enjoyn'd Such Majesty as is included in our Faith is not I confess to be found in Repentance which consists chiefly in those Actions that are Humble and Lowly But how comely is it that an offending Soul should be humbled before an offended God who at such Submission and Sorrow condescends and accepts it with the greatest Love A Face which hath so Holy a Sadness in it and is wet with such Religious Tears cannot but appear amiable Yea even to the Person who thus repenteth there ariseth a secret Satisfaction in the midst of Sorrow and it is none of the least Chearings to him that he can grieve in earnest for his Sins against so gracious a Father And thus much Theophilus may suffice for the Consideration of the Laws themselves And if like Those who walking over pleasant Fields and flowery Meads as not content alone with Delights in the Way will look back and bring into one prospect what successively and by parts did so much please them we shall turn our Eyes back upon these Laws and behold them in the Bulk which singly were so excellent they will afford us a new Delight in the Review There is none of them that is unsuty and disagreeing to another They are not like that Face whose Features by themselves were beauteous but united were uncomely but they are such as increase each others Lustre and shew a Symmetry altogether Divine Theoph. It is so Eubulus When I consider the Laws which require Duties to God I am the more in love with those which enjoyn my Behaviour towards Men. And when I weigh those that relate to others and myself those towards God appear more advantageously to me and I presently am excited to put them into practice by reverencing loving and praising Him who hath given such Laws unto us Every particular Precept towards God towards Men towards myself enkindles my Affection towards the rest and they Altogether do highly set off and commend to my Love every Particular And this our Love to the Divine Law is not like our Love in many other cases which when we recollect ourselves and betake us to serious Thoughts goes less For the gaining Acceptance and esteem no need is there of those Artifices that the Religious Institutions among the Heathens had which from Hieroglyphicks Fables pompous and divers Superstitions were served up rather to the Imaginative Faculty than to the Understanding and made to please not the Wise so much as the Multitude The Christian Laws fear not the most piercing and critical Eyes looking into them They discovering the greatest Excellency to him who hath the quickest Sight and profoundest Judgment joyn'd with an Upright Mind And therefore our Love to them gets new Strength from Consideration as having Right Reason for a Foundation from which like an House built upon a Rock it may stand strongly and not be cast down nor abated for any Wind or Waters that may come against it Eubul And truly Theophilus I find it a very great Inducement for the raising our Love to these Laws that They of themselves are grievous unto none but as the Manna was are in a sort fitted to every Palate unless to those that are grievously vitiated Who is it that ever had just cause to repent he had yielded Obedience to them To whom in the exercise do they not bring Content and Satisfaction If at any time they seem to create Trouble to a Man it is rather because others trangress them than because he himself observeth them A thing which cannot be said of other Laws Some of those which are profitable for the Community are not so for some particular Men who for the publick Good must be content to bear some private Inconveniences and some advantageous to a few Persons may not be so to a Nation in general Neither is there any thing in its own Nature truly Good which is omitted in their Injunctions nor any thing in
continually in yours without any ceasing or decay for the great Veneration and Love which you express to these Laws Theoph. Truly Eubulus it is impossible there should be any true Happiness without them Should not the Understanding be recovered from that Blindness and Errour which are in it should not the Will be reduced from its Pravity and Perverseness Should not the Affections be delivered from their Tumultuousness and Evil Excesses even Heaven would not be a place of Joy and Bliss For how unagreeable would Glorious Mansions be and an incorruptible Body were the Soul imperfect and vicious in all its Faculties unacquainted with Holiness secretly grudging at God's Will and openly disobeying it What would the Salvation be should Saint with Saint carry it ill-naturedly and enjoy their Immortality only for the Perpetuating of their Dissentions And if to them whose Natures are not fashioned by these Laws Heaven would not afford an Happiness we may be sure Earth will not Which makes me Eubulus to pity those Men as Enemies to their own Welfare who esteem Liberty and Greatness to be then alone truly perfect when they are attended with a Licentiousness doing whatever liketh them without any respect had to the Laws of God or Man. Whereas God himself who is infinite in Majesty and most absolute in Power acteth according to the Eternal Laws of Righteousness and Goodness And it is the perfection of his Greatness and Liberty so to do Eubul What you have said I cannot gainsay but do much approve And though I confess I could never think as some have done that the Scriptures bare saying that they are the Word of God is a sufficient Testimony that they are so yet from the inward Excellence of these Laws and those admirable Motives which are added to them for the securing of our Obedience there is methinks a substantial Proof of their Divinity and Truth Can it be thought that the Devil could ever prompt any Man to make Laws so righteous and good as these are Or that he would promote their Observance with such mighty Rewards such severe Threatnings and such sacred Considerations If so then surely our Saviour's Argument of Satans being divided against himself and his Kingdoms not being able thereby to stand might be altogether as valid in the present case as then it was when the Jews said that Devils were cast out by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils Neither have we more reason to imagine That any Man out of his own falseness and deceit did make these Laws since they are so directly destructive of all falseness and deceit and may justly be supposed to be everlastingly so in that they are recommended to the World with Considerations so powerful and savoury From their own Purity therefore and Goodness they may well be own'd to be the same Divine Precepts which in reality they are Theoph. And let me add That no Man ever deserv'd to be so much honour'd among Men as He hath done who hath given these Laws and beyond all example hath encouraged their practice I cannot but think somtimes how highly the grave Lucretius hath extoll'd and is himself highly extoll'd by some for so doing his Epicurus who endeavour'd to Arm Men against all Fears by the beating down of all Religion and the excluding the Gods from the knowledge of every thing on Earth as being neither pleas'd with good Actions nor offended with evil ones And He so far well doth shew that all other Inventions however very much conducive to the Welfare of Men are yet nothing to be compared to That which will quiet tumultuous Passions and render the Mind well informed and steady Compare saith he with This the great things which others have found out Ceres and Bacchus are much honour'd She as having first taught the way of sowing Corn He as having first instructed Men in planting of Vines But yet without these things Mens Lives may be sustain'd and as report goes some Nations even now do live without them At bene non poterat sine puro pectore vivi but without a Breast well purged a Man can have no happy Life And then he goes on with the Praises of his Philosopher as being worthy a Place among the Gods. But if He had so much Honour who profanely taught Men not to fear what shall our Lord have who with sacred Religion directs Men in the pleasant and right Paths to Happiness Who gives them Laws which will render them easie to themselves and acceptable unto others Who in any Troubles that may befal them affords them the only Methods of Comfort by telling them that God is a Father unto Men in every thing taking care of them and ordering even Afflictions for the good of those who are pious Who makes known everlasting Joys after Death which are prepared for those that live holy Lives and renders the way thereunto not difficult by the help which he continually vouchsafes from above And all this in such a wonderful manner by having loved us even unto Death with a Love much stronger than Death itself Eubul Our Lord doth indeed in these things deserve Honour above all Men and we may often on his account sing that Anthem which at his Birth the Angels sung Glory be to God on high on Earth Peace Good-will towards Men. And I will further say That They who faithfully give up their Names unto him have the Precedency not only of all Those who among the Heathens pretended to the study of Wisdom but also of God's own People the Jews yea in a sort even of David himself who was so dear to him and whom in our Discourse we have had occasion so often to mention For though I cannot but yield that this King had a fair insight into the Kingdom of the Messias and the things belonging unto it there being in his Psalms so many undoubted Descriptions thereof yet it will not be an Untruth to affirm That the meanest Christian among us hath unless it be his own fault more clear Revelations of Christ of Life and Immortality and of the Assistances of the Holy Spirit than David had or any of the Prophets The words of our Lord tending to what I now say are very remarkable Verily I say unto you Among them that are born of Women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist Notwithstanding he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he Matth. 11.11 i. e. However a very great Prophet John was one that above all the rest had the Honour to see our Lord in the Flesh a thing which many Prophets and Kings had desired to see and had not seen it yet the least Disciple or Christian when Christ shall be set at the Right-Hand of God and shall raise up an Heavenly Kingdom upon Earth shall he greater than John. i. e. From the being Baptized with the Holy Ghost and having a larger knowledge of the Divine Will manifested being made acquainted with higher and
Mercy unto those who are so unworthy of it Neither do they rightly infer That God's Mercy which is infinitely more than theirs will be shewn unto them because they themselves would be so merciful to the looser sort of Men as to save them while such from the Punishments which are threatned A great Indignity they offer unto the most Holy God in thus making Him to be such as Themselves are His Mercy is indeed infinitely more than theirs but yet of a Nature altogether different Theirs proceeds from weakness and an evil favouring of Sin And because their love to Righteousness and Holiness is little or none they would therefore effect more for wicked Men than God who hath all Power will do or if we consider his Justice and Wisdom more than with Reverence be it spoken he can do God is not less merciful than they but more just not less pitiful but more holy not beneath them in Compassion but infinitely above them in Wisdom And therefore let them not deceive themselves with vain Words and Thoughts God will in Righteousness inflict those Punishments upon them which they through a Vicious Mercy would have remitted unto others Theoph. I would to God such things as these were truly weighed by Men and urged home upon their own Consciences that they might at last discern the Fallacies they have been willing to put upon themselves even to their everlasting Destruction Eubul We now have Theophilus spoken to all those things which from the first we design'd and have found the Divine Laws to be every way excellent whether we consider The Lawgiver Love having been the primary moving Cause of his giving Laws unto us and this his Love being highly commended from the Greatness of his Person Or the Laws themselves all the troublesom Ceremonies of the Old Law being done away and that in so excellent a manner only such Laws being enjoyn'd as have in them an intrinsick goodness or else are for ends absolutely good and such as are discernable by every one Those Moral Laws which were given to the Jews being by our Lord more fully and clearly given And there being from these Laws a fair way for the pardon of all Sins Or lastly The Motives which are annexed to these Laws for the securing of Obedience whether they be more General relating to the Sacred Laws altogether as their having Eternal Rewards promised to the Observance of them and Eternal Punishments threatned to Disobedience Their having stronger Assistances afforded for the Performance of them than under the Old Law there were And last of all their having such loving Invitations and affectionate Expressions of Kindness joyned with them or whether more Particular belonging to them singly and apart as they respect God or Men in the several Relations they may stand in one to another or as they respect ourselves But though to our Power we have done this yet much short have we come of the Dignity of our subject And while the Apostle asks the Question Who is sufficient for these things We must acknowledge that we are altogether insufficient But since a good part of our Walk is yet to come it will not be amiss from the whole of what hath been said to make some Inferences not unagreeable to our Subject And this Task I am willing should be yours Theophilus who I knew are good at deducing one Truth from another and who will do kindly by me if you will let me be your Auditor now as you have mostly hitherto been mine Theoph. He is most fit to make the Inferences who made the Discourse But if it will not be unacceptable I will endeavour alternately to follow you if you will lead the way Eubul If it must be so only and you will not wholly excuse me I will begin And First Theophilus From the Divine Laws thus consider'd we have if I mistake not a true and just Explication of that place of Scripture Joh. 8.12 I am the Light of the World he that believeth in me shall not walk in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life They are the Words of our Blessed Lord and are to be understood of Him as a Lawgiver so cleerly hath he in his own Person made good those Types that were of him and dispell'd those shadows of things to come so excellently explain'd the Moral Law and given a new lustre to it so throughly Reveal'd Heavenly Rewards and brought Life and Immortality to Light. Hence in the Prophet Malachi He is call'd the Sun of Righteousness and in St. Luke he is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred in our Translation Day-Spring But whether so or the East or Sun-rising it certainly is a Title of our Lord as having done that in Relation to Spirituals and Good Practice which the Sun doth in its Rising and with its Presence viz. put to slight the Darkness wherewith we were encompassed And thus the People that Lived in Evil Practices and in Ignorance of the Divine Laws are said to sit in Darkness and in the shadow of Death Mat. 4.16 and from our Lords coming are said to see great Light and to have Light sprung up unto them Which must necessarily be understood of his instructing them giving them Laws and revealing unto them Eternal Rewards for the quickning their Obedience thereunto And this possibly may give us some insight into that place of Scripture also Which hath been so difficult unto and in a sort the Torture of Interpreters 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ being put to Death in the Flesh but quickned by the Spirit by which also he went and Preached to the Souls in PRISON i. e. to those whose Souls within them were through Ignorance and Evil Practice as in the Darkness of a Prison The Light of Nature being almost quite extinct To These He through the Spirit Preached by the Mouth of Noah By his Laws it is therefore and by other things upon their account Revealed that Christ is the Light of the World. And after the same manner is God the Father said to be Light as having by these Laws through Jesus Christ shewn what He Himself is what he chiefly and most earnestly doth Will Desire and Love insomuch that we cannot likely be mistaken in his Nature unless we will be so either through Perverseness or Negligence Should any of those Heathens who in Relation to Human Welfare had undervaluing Opinions of the Deity have read these Laws with the Inestimable Encouragements annexed unto them they when they had seen the greatest Prosperity to have its allays of Trouble and all Men sooner or later to Die could not any longer have thought that God out of Envy and ill Nature would not permit an unmixt Happiness in this World or that he would keep Immortality to himself as by no means enduring that any should be partakers of it with him It is but the due considering these Sacred Precepts as they proceed from our Lords being given into the World and God cannot but be
for the Welfare of Society are those which are enjoyn'd by God. Such likewise are those that respect ourselves Why the Law is called The Ministration of Death by St. Paul. What he meaneth when he saith He was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and he died And how the Mosaick Law is termed A Yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear P. 1. The Contents of the Second Discourse THE Inducements that Christians have to Love the Divine Law. Love was the moving cause of our Lord 's becoming our Law-giver The Greatness of our Lawgivers Person All the troublesome Ceremonies of the Old Law are done away by the Laws of our Lord and this not by his Will alone but by the admirable manifestation of his Goodness and Wisdom How the Jews urging the Everlastingness of their Law is from hence answered and how their way of Speaking is corrected when they say our Lawgiver hath vilified and destroy'd their Laws Only such Laws are enjoyn'd by our Lord as have in them an Intrinsick Goodness or else are for Ends absolutely Good and such as are discernable by every one Though the Jews had some Inferiour Laws suted to their Temper and Climate which did the better fit them for the observance of those Laws which were Moral yet we have not the less reason to Love the Laws of our Lord because they are all Good without any mixture of such Inferiour Laws which may be agreeable to different Climates where Christians Live and which may promote the Precepts of our Lord are not by those Precepts excluded Christian Laws are such also as will in our Obedience much comply with our particular Way and Temper The Moral Laws which were given to the Jews are by our Lord more fully and clearly given The Laws that respect ourselves are properly belonging io the New Testament At least are there only directly and openly injoyn'd The Objection answer'd that so far is the Christian Law from being more clearly given that it requires us to admit of some things relating to Faith which no one living can conceive how they should be The Reasonableness of making our Vnderstandings to yield to our Faith. P. 35. The Contents of the Third Discourse THE Severities of the Christian Laws are not unreasonable neither do they reduce us to such straights as cannot be gone through without a great deal of uneasiness if at all The Design of our Lord is not to beat down our Natural Inclinations and Appetites but to rectifie them Our Dispositions if well managed not averse from a right Improvement The Laws of Christ do not dash the pleasure of Conversation by threatning idle Words with the Day of Judgment The Loving of Enemies while they persist to be injurious is in itself not unmeet but highly equitable in case the History of our Redemption be true Fasting and Abstinence not unreasonable nor the parting with Estates and Lives for the asserting of the Gospel From the Laws of Christ we have a fair way for the Pardon of all Sins What the Law of Faith requires of us How much it is different from the Old Law. What the Law of Repentance is Too many make Faith and Repentance to stand in opposition to the other Laws of our Lord. How the Laws being done away which was Engraven on Stones is to be understood Repentance for Sin cannot without the greatest Absurdity be wrested to the further and more safe committing of Sin. The Examples of the Thief on the Cross and of the Labourers in the Vineyard at the Eleventh Hour consider'd none of the Divine Laws unsuitable to one another These Laws of themselves are grievous unto none As they have relation only to Civil Society and the welfare of Men in this World they do far surpass those of the most noted Lawgivers they by no means do favour the Opinion that Right of Possession is Founded in Grace And that it is Lawful to resist Sovereign Princes in the Maintenance of True Religion They make the Man truly beautiful within P. 66. The Contents of the Fourth Discourse GEneral Motives relating to these Laws altogether To the Conscionable Observance of them Eternal Rewards are promised yet Earthly ones are not excluded For the securing of our Obedience Eternal Punishments are threatned after Death to the neglect of these Laws The Constituting such Punishments is no more than what is meet to be done Stronger Assistances are afforded for the Performance of these Laws than under Moses there were Most Loving Invitations and Affectionate Expressions are joyned with them We have no reason to complain that there are not now under the Gospel-Law those Visible Expressions of Gods Power and Presence as under the Old Law there were Particular Motives relating to these Laws singly and apart Such as are wholly peculiar to the Gospel or else are there more clearly and convincingly urged than ever they were before It is impossible there should be any True Happiness without these Laws From the inward Excellence of them and those admirable Motives annexed to them there is a substantial Proof of their Divinity and Truth No Man hath ever deserved to be so much honoured among Men as our Lord hath done Those who faithfully give up their Names unto him have the Precedence of all others How it comes to pass that since the Law is so good Assistances so great and Motives so taking there should be so many Disobedient Ones P. 114. The Contents of the Fifth Discourse THough the Generality of Men be Wicked and by occasion of these Laws being given shall suffer the greater Torments hereafter yet it would not thereupon have been better that these Laws should not have been given The impious folly of those Men who are willing to flatter themselves with God's being so much a God of Mercy as that he will not destroy them though they walk contrary to his Laws An Explication of I am the Light of the World. Why Miracles were confined to the first Ages of the Church That Prophecy made good viz. The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb c. The great Goodness of God in making these Laws to reach so wide as the whole World. His great Wisdom and Mercy in putting these his Laws into Writing and enjoyning the frequent Reading and Preaching of them The Reasonableness that these Laws should endure without Abrogation or Change so long as the World shall stand The great expectation which was of this our Lawgiver for so many Ages and in every respect his answering of it may prevail much for Mens Obedience to his Laws The Righteousness and Goodness of these Laws will manifest themselves to those who are sincerely Obedient P. 150. The Contents of the Sixth Discourse NOt a few think themselves secure in their actings if they can shew that some good Men in Holy Writ or some well accounted of since have done the like Examples of Good Men to be imitated no further than
unto the Great Day for more than ordinary Damnation who do only speak evil of Dignities what Flames will be thought hot enough for those who dare with Swords make Resistence Our Religion is justly more dear unto us than our Lives but that it is so is to be shewn by the Obedience which it enjoyns rather than by the Force which it condemns For to assert the Gospel by breaking the Precepts of it is the being true to it in the ways of Falseness which is no better than bringing the Devils Aid into the Cause of God. Theoph. Allow me yet Eubulus to ask thus much Must we sit still and suffer Eubul Rather stand we still Theophilus and see the Salvation of the Lord. He shall not be the less safe who contains himself in those bounds which God hath appointed him And to seek further would be to find a Sin and a Blot rather than a Deliverance He who by his Wisdom and Goodness hath sent our Religion into the World hath Power enough to preserve it as he himself pleaseth And they who say that no security is left to the Christian Religion if the resisting the Higher Powers upon the account thereof be denyed have no strength in what they say unless they can remove God and his Providence out of the World Who will not suffer the Gates of Hell to prevail against his Church Where there shall be a faithful serving of him and the Arms of the Church Prayers and Tears shall be well managed we need not fear but we shall be safe unde the Protection of the Almighty So sweetly peaceable Theophilus are the Laws of Christ and so utterly averse from whatever shall destroy the Welfare either of Princes or Subjects Particularly from the Opinions we have been speaking to which their Owners may be ashamed of as being very great Wrongs to the Name of Christianity Theoph. God grant they may be honestly ashamed of them so will there be more upright Neighbours and more loyal Subjects Eubul One thing Theophilus is proper to these Laws alone They extend even to the Heart and Thoughts ordering and correcting those inward Powers and Faculties which the Eye and Cognizance of Men cannot reach unto That what the best among Men appear to be outwardly they are no less bound to be within Insomuch that were every Breast transparent as that Noble Roman wish'd his to be through which the secretest Motions of the Thoughts might be seen the fairest outside would be but mean in comparison of that excellent Order and exact Harmony which from the right Observance of these Laws would be there discerned But it is time Theophilus to wish you a Good-Night and what remains we will reserve till the Morrow's Evening Theoph. Mine Ears have been all along wholly yours Eubulus and mine Appetite is so far from being appeased by hearing that it is very much quickned I will only wish That your Sleep may be as refreshing to you as your Discourse hath been to me DISCOURSE the Fourth The Contents GEneral Motives relating to these Laws altogether To the Conscionable Observance of them Eternal Rewards are promised yet Earthly ones are not excluded For the securing of our Obedience Eternal Punishments are threatned after Death to the neglect of these Laws The Constituting such Punishments is no more than what is meet to be done Stronger Assistances are afforded for the Performance of these Laws than under Moses there were Most Loving Invitations and Affectionate Expressions are joyned with them We have no reason to complain that there are not now under the Gospel-Law those Visible Expressions of Gods Power and Presence as under the Old Law there were Particular Motives relating to these Laws singly and apart Such as are wholly peculiar to the Gospel or else are there more clearly and convincingly urged than ever they were before It is impossible there should be any True Happiness without these Laws From the inward Excellence of them and those admirable Motives annexed to them there is a substantial Proof of their Divinity and Truth No Man hath ever deserved to be so much honoured among Men as our Lord hath done Those who faithfully give up their Names unto him have the Precedence of all others How it comes to pass that since the Law is so good Assistances so great and Motives so taking there should be so many Disobedient Ones THEOPHILVS YOU are once more well met Eubulus Though even after I parted with you last Night I was not altogether absent from you For so much had you engaged my waking Thoughts that by them my Dreams were also made yours I was your Auditor in my Sleep and I cannot but still think upon it such a strange Pleasure did there seize me from a sense of the Divine Law as while awake I never yet felt EVBVLVS I Think such a Dream not unfit to be reckoned among your Blessings And though God in these Days makes not such use of Dreams as in times of old he did yet the affirming that he hath now so wholly forsaken them as that they are altogether to be excluded from his Favour and esteem'd all alike meerly as Casual or Natural Things is I dare say not a Virtue especially where Men by Religious Thoughts do make way for his Comforts in the Night and in the Morning are ready to entertain them with thankfulness I remember that in Plutarch it is said A Man's progress in Virtue may be perceived from his Dreams if in them he approves of no ill thing and is inclined to Righteous Deeds his Imaginative Faculty being as it were season'd by right Reason and having its Impress upon it And I hope you may without Extravagance or Errour infer somthing of Rational Satisfaction from your Dream Theoph. You would I see put me in the way to do it And I have so far a Satisfaction from my Dream that I am glad I told it you for the Remarks you have made upon it But let not Dreams put us by the Business of our Walk which is the shewing the Motives which are annexed unto the Divine Law for the securing of our Obedience Eubul Well then Theophilus we will go on These Motives are either such as are more General relating to the Divine Laws altogether or more Particular relating to them singly and apart The more General Motives are these 1. Their having Eternal Rewards promised to the Conscionable Observance of them and Eternal Punishments threatned to wilful Disobedience 2. Their having stronger Assistances afforded for the Performance of them than under the Old Law there were 3. Their having such Loving Invitations and Affectionate Expressions of Kindness joyn'd unto them 1. Their having Eternal Rewards promised to the Conscionable Observance of them c. That which is put in the Front of the Decalogue I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage was a great Motive for the Loving of those Laws But
Incorruption they are Sown in Dishonour they shall be raised in Glory They are Sown in Weakness they shall be raised in Power they are Sown Natural Bodies they shall be raised Spiritual This is plainly spoken and not only so but is confirmed by our Lords own Rising from the Dead and becoming the First-Fruits of them that Slept Which implies that as the Harvest followeth the First-Fruits so shall our Christian Friends with all other Holy Men follow our Lord in his Resurrection It is very remarkable that the Holy Scripture gives to the whole Church as united with its Head The Name of Christ Thus 1 Cor. 12.12 As the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body SO ALSO IS CHRIST Whence there may seem an holy Necessity that our Religious Friends should rise from the Dead They are parts of the Church and as the Church and Christ are one He could not be said to be wholly risen unless They likewise should rise from the Dead If there be no Resurrection of the Dead saith the Apostle then is Christ not risen which is true also in this sense His Resurrection would be incompleat and in effect no Resurrection should not his Church which is his Body rise after him What need is there then of so many Lamentations and of such Floods of Tears Why should we be dejected at the Graves of our Friends which we may look upon as the places from which they will arise rather than as the places wherein they are buried And what may yet further contribute to the appeasing of our Sorrow is their rising again never to be sick more Never any more to leave us but to enjoy us and to be enjoyed by us in an Eternity of Happiness For it cannot reasonably be thought that those particular Friendships which were founded in Virtue will not hereafter be continued in Heaven especially since a Religious Faithfulness and Constancy in Affection shall have a good share in the Everlasting Rewards which are there given So that we shall have our Friends again and much more ours than ever they were before Neither even at the present is our Communion with them dissolved by their Death For that Bond which unites us one to another and to our Head is Spiritual and so Death which only divides the Soul from the Body makes no real separation of the Christian who is dead from the Christians who are alive For they who still continue Members of the same Head do also continue Members one of another And the same good Will which our Friends as Christians had to us while they lived we may safely believe they have after they have left us Such as consisteth in the making Supplications unto God that it may be well with us both in Life and Death and in rejoycing at those Spiritual Blessings which are held out unto us for the obtaining that Happiness which they before us have reach'd unto Why then should we grieve as though they were quite lost unto us As though all our Interest in them were buried in their Graves and all that Virtuous Kindness they bore us were wholly extinct We rather may rejoyce that their Love towards us and other Christians is increased and more perfect as their own Happiness is increased and themselves are more perfect Theoph. What you say might administer unto Patience were it not that the Fears of an Hell and the Apprehensions that it may be worse with them now they are dead than it was when they were alive did not so often interpose Eubul But why should we suffer such Fears and Apprehensions to interpose in relation to those Friends who have loved Religion and Virtue and made them visible in their Lives Precious in the sight of God is the death of such And as for those daily Slips and Failures which proceed only from that Weakness which is common to all Mankind they from the Sincerity which hath been in the Heart shall be forgiven Indeed there are some Persons for whom our Hopes cannot be so great and we are not to be blamed if our Griefs be of a larger measure in the Deaths of these But yet we are by no means to pass sentence ourselves upon them but must leave them to stand or fall to their own Master And the same God that commands us to be charitable means that we should be so not only to the Living but the Dead also And if he so strictly enjoyns our Charity towards them we have some reason to hope he will not deny unto them his own Mercy This is certain that however the evil Lives of some Men may render the Thoughts of Death less comfortable to themselves and others yet through our dear Lord's Dying for us Death is in reality become an harmless thing to us as we are Christians and we may Triumphantly use the words of St. Paul O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory Thanks be unto God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Nay though Death to our Bodily Eyes hath Terrour in its Face and is attended with Worms and Corruption yet the same Apostle reckons it a part of the Church's Dowry 1 Cor. 3.22 Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or Life or DEATH or Things present or Things to come all are yours and the same we may esteem it to be in relation to our departed Friends You have seen Theophilus the excellent Motives for Patience on every Hand and for Obedience also to the other Laws that more nearly concern ourselves And truly the conceiving of a Man whose outward actions are all Clean and Chast whose inward Thoughts are Pure and Holy who can part with even Lawful Enjoyments rather than be insnared by them who is contented with his Lot not anxious for the years to come and cheerfully bearing up under present sufferings the conceiving I say of such an one so every way perfect is very pleasant to the thoughts and we cannot sooner think of him than we must Love him the Laws then that form the Man to be such must needs be no less fitted for our Love and Delight and these sure will much be heightned from such pleasing and weighty Inducements Theoph. I 'll confess to you Eubulus from this short account which you have given all my Affections are turn'd into a Love of these Sacred Laws except only that there is some room in my Soul left for Reverence and Admiration of them And I hope while I speak the same Words that the Pious Mr. Herbert did I speak to the utmost the same Truth also viz. That I would not part with one Leaf of these Holy Laws might I have the whole World in Exchange They are able to make would Men permit them an Heaven upon Earth while Peace and Joy and Love would be in the Community and an Holy Calmness and Inexpressible Pleasure in every private Breast Eubul And may such be
shew the Unspeakable Love of God unto us and to instruct us in such a pureness of Devotion towards him as becomes Creatures of Rational Souls to exercise towards their Creator and infinitely Loving Father To instruct us also in such an Amiableness of Deportment towards Men as shall shew that they are heartily loved by us These things cannot be the Design of an Envious and Evil Nature No nor yet of wordly Praise or Profit Not of Profit for they taught the way of being Rich towards God Of laying up of Treasures in Heaven which was the refusing the Mammon of Unrighteousness by giving Alms to the Poor and forsaking Houses and Lands for the Sake of Christ Neither were these Politick Precepts to Teach Men to despise these things that the Teachers themselves might be the more enriched by them for They by their own Example no less than by Precepts had shewed that those wordly things were meanly to be accounted of They forsook all and followed Christ And surely they did altogether as little design Praise to themselves for all which they said or did they spake and acted for the Glory of God. The Pharisees they Condemned for looking after the Praise of Men Matth. 6. And others they infixed a Note of Discredit upon for Loving the Praise of Men more than the Praise of God. They wrote down Precepts for the avoiding of applause in our good actions yea so far were they from the seeking after Praise themselves that they Registred their own and Companions Failings At the Betraying of Jesus all his Disciples cowardly forsook him and fled Matth. 26. And this is writ by one who himself forsook him and fled as well as the rest And St. Peter's denying of his Master is at large described by St. Mark who was his Intimate and Friend And the whole is approved of by St. Peter who had the viewing of St. Mark 's Writings and as is thought by some did dictate the Matter of them From these considerations there is no reason to think that the Penmen of the New Testament wrote Falshoods or things that they did not throughly know to be true Add to these the unlikelyhood that poor Fishermen for such the Disciples as to the greater part were and the rest not much better could raise such a Story of their own Heads so agreeable to the Predictions of the Old Testament and yet false or that they would have done it so contrary to the expectation of the Jews and to their own expectation also a little before Who thought of nothing more than of a Messias who as a King should deliver them from their Earthly Enemies Especially when Indignities Reproaches loss of all Comforts yea of Life itself fell upon them for what they Attested and might have been avoided by their Silence or denying it Such Evils might indeed terrifie Truth and render it forsaken but that they should encourage a feigned thing and bear up Mens Spirits for the spreading of a Lye who is it can imagine Certainly no Man can with any shew of Reason do it Who shall yet further consider that none could possibly be greater encouragers of Speaking Truth than the Apostles were in all their Writings nor greater Enemies to false Speaking than They. For they forbid it under pain of Eternal Damnation Nothing must enter into the New Jerusalem which maketh a Lye And all who do so must have their part in the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the Second Death These are some of those many proofs which confirm the Truth of Scripture Story and whoever is willing notwithstanding such Rational Evidence to disbelieve it is I doubt of such ill Principles and Morals that it is his interest such History should not be true For then there would be no Hell after this Life which should there be one he is conscious to himself would be very hot to Him. Theoph. He would deserve it should be so And none will be forward to pity his Misery who shall thus shut his Ears upon the message of his Happiness But Eubulus the Prophetick part of Scripture is next to have your Eye Eubul The Prophetick is in its way Historical also different only in this Historical tells you what hath been Prophetick tells you what will be and if it be fulfilled long since and written it passeth into a more surprizing sort of History We are much delighted in the account of former Times and not less desirous to know what will be in future And when that which hath been predicted cometh exactly so to pass we are the more taken with it because the Times to come more properly belong unto God and we look upon it as his immediate Hand if any thing be thus made know And hence it is that whatsoever hath the name of a Prophecie needeth nothing else to gain attention and to set itself off amongst the vulgar who in this respect could the less be found fault with were they not too forward to look upon every idle Prognostication as a Prophecie till at last they see the things to be false and themselves to be ridiculous from their Credulity But if ordinary short liv'd Predictions shall be thus attended unto with what delight may those be entertain'd which were of greater note and which God hath ordained as a part of Holy Writ to be Monuments of his Prescience to all Generations I will instance only in those Prophecies which respected our Blessed Saviour so long before his coming which may wonderfully delight us in the exceeding exactness of their being fulfilled what Heart will not be affected that reads the Prophecie of Esay c. 9. so very express concerning our Lord He speaks of Him in it as if he were already come To us a Child is Born to us a Son is given Highly pertinent to him in whom the promises are Yea and Amen and through whom God calleth those things that are not as though they were In which also there is a strange Propriety of Expression as to his Nature To us a Child is Born as Man he could be so to us a Son is given as he was God he could only be Given and not Born. The Time of our Lords Coming so rightly answering to the weeks of Daniel according to which also the Jews expected the Coming of the Messias about the Time our Redeemer came may well be our delight and the more because the wicked Jews seeing Daniel to stand the Christians in so much stead by his Prophecies have since that time made a new division of their Law into Prophetas and Hagiographos and have excluded Him from the number of Prophets and given him none of the highest places among the others whom they made to be of a lower Rank than the Prophets were These Prophecies Behold a Virgin shall bring forth a Son Esai 7.14 And the Lord hath created a new thing in the Earth a Woman shall compass a Man Jer. 31.22 How pleasant are they to the
Understanding when we read them fulfilled in our Lords being conceived of the Holy and born of a Virgin Mother And truly the Prediction Micah 5.2 Of his being born at Bethleem may move us with a more than ordinary delight when we consider how strangely God's Providence was engaged for the fulfilling it All that Taxing which was laid upon the Jewish Nation by Augustus and which required every one to repair to his own City to be Taxed may appear in a special manner to be order'd by God for the bringing Mary unto Bethleem to be delivered of her Son. It was a great way that Joseph and Mary were to go From N zareth in Galile to the City of David in Judea And it might seem ill to have hapned unto Mary at a time when her Condition rather required Rest than was fit for so great a Journey and this too as is not improbable in the depth of Winter But God somtimes is accomplishing his own Will and great things for us when Affairs appear to be cross and unhappy Yea and can order the Councils of Princes at a great distance from them to carry on these Designs which He in his Providence hath laid but which never entred their Hearts to imagine And so it is here We see no means how Mary should have been at Bethleem delivered of her Son there had not the Taxation at that very Time been enjoyn'd Which may shew that She and Joseph had no Thoughts of fulfilling a Prophecy by their journey thither But hence it was that the Son of David was born in the City of David and Divine Wisdom had ordered that of this Man it should be said He was Born there If we look to those Prophecies which were of our Lord's Suffering and Death they are such as may give us a great deal of satisfaction in a Crucified Saviour That of Esai is very express in Chap. 53. He is despised and rejected of Men a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief He hath born our Griefs and carried our Sorrows He was wounded for our Transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities How exactly is his Picture as it were drawn by this Prophet and how pleased may we be with the Likeness though it represents him in Grief and Sorrows So likewise in Daniel Chap. 9.26 After sixty two Weeks shall the Messias be cut off but not for himself Which things are also a good and just Interpretation of our Lord's Behaviour under his Sufferings For should he not have suffered in our stead but died only as our Example and as a Testimony of the Truth of his Doctrine as Socinus and his Followers would have it some things I speak it reverently would not have born a good Colour nor at all have been reconcileable to that Perfection which we must own to be in our Lord. I will instance in one and that is his Sweat in the Garden Consider this without the thoughts of his dying for our Sins and say whether it betrays not too great a fear of Death whether there may not seem to have been greater Instances of undaunted Courage from some Heathen Heroes and from some who have born the Name of Christians than from Christ himself That He should be so much concern'd at a single Death when he knew he died for an Example to others of not fearing Death upon a good occasion what from these Mens Opinions can we think of it But then when we consider that He was wounded for our Transgressions that he struggled with the Wrath of God which was due to all Men and was never to have end that he trod the Wine-press alone and none was with him The uncommonness of his Sweat which was as great drops of Blood may shew forth the greatness of the Burthen that was laid upon him and may make us to wonder at the Power that could at all bear up under such Pressures but by no means to accuse him of Timorousness because his Garments are thus died with Blood. So great and reverend is that Action or Passion rather of our Lord with respect to his Suffering in our stead which otherwise will require a good Invention to make it appear not mean. Add to this that Expression of his My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Had he died only for an Example unto us and a Confirmation of the Truth of what he declared why should he thus have cried out Should we ourselves be called to die for our Holy Religion I cannot say that we might lawfully thus cry unto God We ought rather to submit unto his Will with hopes that he had not forsaken us Somthing else then must be the cause of these his words viz. The pouring out of the full Vials of Gods Wrath upon Him as upon one that bare the Iniquities of us all And this will render his words highly apposite unto and expressive of his Passion which otherwise might seem beyond it So that though we are to conceive of our Lord's Death as an Example unto us for he is said to suffer for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps yet as in his Life there are some things above an Example so in his Death likewise there are which are placed beyond our Imitation We may imitate his Meekness and Patience and Love to Mankind but the height of his Sufferings for the Sins of the World we cannot And some Expressions betokening the Greatness of his Passion whether from his Words or Bloody Sweat must stand alone as highly agreeable to the State of his Agony but not so fit for any besides Himself Thus amiable are these Prophecies to the Considerate Reader not only in so exactly foretelling his Sufferings and Death and thereby vindicating the Honour of our Religion against the Jews who upbraid us with those his Sufferings and Death but also in shewing forth a true Beauty in the now-mention'd Deportment of our Saviour which an horrid Opinion of some who call themselves Christians doth tend to make very unbecoming Nor may the Prophecies of the manner of his Death be less satisfactory unto us to wit They pierced my Hands and my Feet Psal 22.17 And Zach. 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced For how rightly are these fulfilled in his suffering the Roman Crucifixion the Jews having no sort of Punishment in which the Undergoers were thus pierced And this Death being inflicted by the Roman Power directs us to the Satisfaction of another Prophecy viz. The Scepter shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh come But the Power of Life and Death which is the most proper Signification of Scepter being wholly taken from the Jews and exercised in Judea by the Romans may shew that the Messias was come before according to that Prophecy And very remarkable it is that though Jerusalem before our Lord's Birth was Conquered by Pompey the Great yet throughout the Life of Hircanus the High Priest the Reign of Herod the Great and Archelaus