them a Pardon of their Sins so as they may still persist to be Sinful All Sins shall be pardoned for which under the Law strictly considered there was no Hope but not absolutely pardon'd without any further Consideration or Condition The great benefit of Faith is this to wit That instead of perfect Obedience our sincere Endeavours shall be accepted And where These are what Defects soever there be in us they shall all be made up by the Merits of Christ who is our Righteousness But no benefit is there to be expected if we endeavour not at all or be unsincere in our Endeavours The Apostle's words That the Law which was engraven in Stones is done away are to be understood of the Law as it was part of the Covenant with the Jews not as it was a Rule for all Men. In that it was the Law of Nature and written in the Hearts of Men before it was written in Tables it still obligeth and for ever will oblige to Obedience Nor can any one unless he hath bidden a Farewel to all Reason imagine that our Lord would bring the Moral Law into the Gospel delivering it in greater plainness and raising it to an higher Perfection that after all Mens Obedience thereunto should not be necessary or that Faith in Him who came to destroy the Works of the Devil should give a Liberty to the practising those Works To be short Faith though but a single word it be is yet an highly comprehensive one and includeth mighty things in it Such as in good sort do correspond to the infinite and wonderful Love which hath been shewn to Mankind It implyeth a Knowledge of the great Mystery of our Redemption A Closing with the Will of God which is holy and good A sober and right use of Reason A Couragious asserting of our Holy Religion against all Oppositions An unfeigned Love both to God and to Men with a deep sense of our Unworthiness and Affectionate Acknowledgment of our owing all to the Divine Bounty Who are they then can think that if they do but believe it 's no matter how they live And from which of all these Actions which make up the very Being of Faith is there so much as the least Countenance to a loose Conversation Nay there cannot be stronger Obligations to a Sober Righteous and Godly Life than These are and in the exercise of them this Sober Righteous and Godly Life doth consist And how Theophilus can any wrest Repentance for Sin to the further and more safe committing of Sin Shall the Example of the Thief on the Cross which was written for Mens Comfort administer to their Presumption They consider not the Eminency of that poor Malefactor's Faith from which his Repentance did spring It is not altogether improbable that this was the first Opportunity he had of believing in Christ However the time of his believing and hoping for Mercy was very remarkable That when our Lord was in Torments as well as he and was destitute of all Earthly Supports He Then should be sought unto When he was forsaken of his Disciples derided by the Souldiers and reviled by the other Thief as one justly suffering That Then he should be acknowledged as a Lord That Then he should be own'd and his Mercy thus begg'd Lord have Mercy upon me when thou comest in thy Kingdom was a more than ordinary Act of Faith and a Repentance very much heightned from the time in which it was begun and finished But can These who have been Baptized into Christ's Death and have given up their Names unto him as soon almost as they were born and this with Solemn Vows of Fighting Manfully under his Banner against the World the Flesh and the Devil Can These say That some of the Last Days of their Life are the First Opportunities they have had of that Faith which must give Life to their Repentance Should they say it the many outward Calls they have had by God's blessed Word read and heard the many inward Calls of his Holy Spirit moving them to their Duty the many Checks of Conscience they have felt in their sinful and unchristian Practices would be ready to contradict them to their Face And then for the Time though they should be as near their End as the Thief was the case with These and with Him is very different No Hour is there now but in it it may be said That Christ is risen from the Dead Ascended into Heaven hath given Gifts unto Men and hath had all Power given unto him and of these things we have had as great Proofs as can reasonably be desired Which makes the Encouragements of turning unto Christ now to be far greater than in that sad and dismal State of his Passion on the Cross they were Unless These Men could be put in the same Circumstances with the Thief or in some not altogether unlike unto his which cannot likely be while they shall thus from the means of Salvation contrive for their Sins there will be small hopes for them in their late Repentance As for Those who wrought in the Vineyard no sooner than the Eleventh Hour and yet were rewarded alike with the Earliest it is to be understood of those who were called no sooner as is evident from Matth. 20.6.7 About the Eleventh Hour he went out and found others standing idle And saith unto them why stand you idle They say unto him because no Man bath Hired us where by Hiring we are to understand Calling which Calling may have respect either unto single Persons or else Nations Those Persons who have not heard of the Gospel or have not had opportunities of understanding the Mysteries and Precepts of it if as soon as they are acquainted with them and are invited to give their Names unto Christ they shall sincerely do it though it be in respect of their Lives as the Eleventh Hour to the Day they shall not be refused And the like may be said of Nations even at the later end of the World They shall be as dear in the sight of God as those which have had earlier calls But the Receiving a Penny at the Ninth and Eleventh Hour is not to be understood of Them who having been Baptized in their Infancy and outwardly professing Christianity all along have deferred the practice of it till their last years For they were as I may so speak Hired at the first Hour and have idled it ever since And their Idleness is to be esteem'd much different from that of the other The other wrought not because as yet they had no Imployment nor place in the Vineyard But These had Imployment and Place in it and were Unfaithful and Truanty And so may expect Punishment for their early and continued neglect while the other shall have a full Reward for their late Labour late indeed yet as early as their Call. I will not say but the late Obedience of those who have been early called may sometimes be sincere
Actions of no Authority in respect of the Injunctions which from God they declared The Vncertainty Theophilus of Examples next will shew us that they of themselves do not oblige us How many of those Examples shall bind us to Imitation is no where in Scripture told us Some of them carry an open unlawfulness along with them Others may well be question'd whether they be rightly honest or not And others that were lawful and good in the Circumstances they when acted were in will be found not so easie to be fitted for our own and all other Mens Circumstances For they admit of an unaccountable variety and that variety may so much alter the quality of Actions as to make some that are lawful to become sinful and others that we are free to do or not to do to become necessary to be done So that either we must be told in how many Circumstances such Examples will hold good and be imitable and in how many they will become unlawful and inexpedient or else every one must be left to chuse what Examples he will and to apply them how he thinks good The former is a Task that no Man will undertake The later would bring in the greatest Confusion of Practice while some would take the bad Examples others misapply the good and so all Edification and Unity would be overthrown And as the Examples are uncertain so are they insufficient And indeed so far as there is an Uncertainty there is in some sense an Insufficiency For should they be never so full in themselves yet if Mens Understandings should generally be so dim-sighted as that they could not through diversity of Circumstances discern how to take right Measures of their Actions from them they would be insufficient as to us But we shall find a great Deficiency of Examples in Holy Writ in that there are Thousands of Actions which are to be governed by Religion as indeed all our Actions are of which we can find no suitable Example in Scripture I need not Theophilus give you nor myself the trouble of gathering together many Instances of Actions to shew what I now say Let Men in the Diversity of Callings that are in the World and in the many Relations that they stand in unto others consider their own Actions and amidst all the Examples of Scripture they will see themselves left alone not having a sure Light from any of them Whence from the Uncertainty and Insufficiency of the Examples as well as from the want of Authority in the Persons no Examples are Obligatory unto us nor to be imitated any further than they have the Laws of Christ for their Rule and Warrant Theoph. But Eubulus our Blessed Lord wanted no Authority in his Person and his Example was perfect and what Others Example could not do His may may it not Eubul We will therefore consider the Actions of our Lord than whom there never was neither could be a better Pattern in the World and yet we shall find that none of them from his Example merely and without a Law did lay an absolute Obligation upon us to imitate them 1. Some of them were Miraculous Actions and as such we are not bound to imitate them For no Man is obliged to do those things which are beyond the Powers which God ever gave him or hath promised to bestow upon him Such Actions as these are the accomplishments of the Son of God above all others neither hath he nor ever will he impart the Abilities of doing the like unless upon extraordinary occasions and for the obtaining the chiefest Ends the Glory of God and the Salvation of the Souls of Men when they cannot reasonably be compass'd without such Miraculous Actings as at the first spreading the Gospel they could not But ordinarily none will be thought deficient in their Actions because they turn not Water into Wine Cure not Diseases with a Word give not Eyes to the Blind Legs to the Lame and Life to the Dead 2. Some of our Lords Actions were such as proceeded from that Authority and Prerogative which as he was a Prince did belong unto him Of this sort was his sending for the Ass and Colt without so much as having the owners leave or acquainting him with what he did Matth. 21.2 As also was his driving the Buyers and Sellers with a Scourge out of the Temple and overthrowing the Tables of the Money-changers Mat. 21.12 Neither are These to be imitated by us as we are private Men. Whosoever shall take away that which is anothers without his leave and licence and shall use it as their own will be guilty of Injustice And so whosoever as a private Person shall take upon him Magisterially to new Model the Church or the Discipline thereof he usurps that Authority which is due unto our Lord and is imparted to some only who are rightly called thereunto And he deserves the Scourge which our Lord made rather than any Praise for his Actions in this kind 3. Some Actions of our Lord are such as belong to his Mediatory Office by which he interceeds with God for Men not in a Submiss and Precarious manner but by way of Covenant and Merit These we must not imitate He that shall mediate with God upon the account of his own Merit as if he had done whatever was required of him to do and also had supererogated and so might claim as of Right a Reward to himself and somwhat over and above which he might impart to others who have been deficient in their Duty and could therefore expect nothing such an one imitateth Christ no otherwise than to become a Traytor to him and goeth about to share in that Glory which our Lord will not part with to another Nothing but Submission is to be shewn and Imperfection acknowledg'd by us For we have done in every thing less than was our Duty to do and so must account ourselves less than the least of Gods Mercies 4. Some Actions of our Lord are Moral such as respect Righteousness of Life and These we are to imitate But yet These we are not oblig'd unto merely by his Example Now These are such as may be reduced either to the Law of Nature or else to the Gospel as particularly belonging thereunto Those Actions which he did relating to the Law of Nature we also are to do Such are the Worshipping of God the being just unto Men Temperate in our own Persons and such like But the Law within us which as the Apostle saith is written in our Hearts laid an Obligation upon us before to do these things and so the Duty of performing them depends not upon his Example As for those Actions that purely relate unto the Gospel How had we been bound by them unless he had said This I say unto you This do ye Or how could we have known that his Actions should have been imitated unless he had given Laws for the doing the like When we had seen him reproached and bearing
therefore in the beginning of his Sermon upon the Mount He endeavours rightly to instruct the Heart and Soul by acquainting those who are his Followers That They are blessed who are poor in Spirit who are meek who hunger and thirst after righteousness who are pure in Heart c. Which Expressions denote that the Mind should be rightly framed and that They who give up their Names unto him must have their Souls brought into order and adorned He tells them that They are the Salt of the Earth and will be good for nothing unless they endeavour to season others by their exemplary Conversation Matth. 5.13 They are the Light of the World and so they must shine before others that their good Works may be seen and God glorified V. 16. He extends the Commandment of doing no Murther even to the not being angry with another without a cause V. 22. The Precept of not committing Adultery he makes reach even to the forbidding of Lustful Looks and Desires V. 28. He forbids all Divorces unless in the case of Fornication V. 32. He restored Marriage to its Primitive Perfection by prohibiting Polygamy Matth. 19.5 They Two shall be one Flesh Emphatically They Two as exclusive of more which we learn from V. 9. of the same Chapter Whosoever shall put away his Wife except it be for Fornication and shall marry another committeth Adultery For how weak would it have been to pronounce it Adultery for a Man to marry after a Divorce if the adding one Wife to another before a Divorce should be no Adultery And if it shall be said that our Lord orders it as a punishment to him who puts away his Wife not to marry another but permits those to marry more than one who put away none it may be replyed That surely the Punishment might little be feared because it might be so easily avoided For who need care whether he married or not after the putting away a Wife if he might marry as many as he would before And we cannot think that He who is the Wisdom of God should ground any Law upon so sandy a Foundation He disallows of Swearing how true soever in ordinary Conversation Vers 34. He prohibits all Revenge in that we are not to resist an Adversary so as to pay an Injury for an Injury V. 39. He commands Love to be shewed even to Enemies Blessings to be given to those that curse us V. 44. And truly this Command and the foregoing one may seem to be added by our Saviour as not having the Law of Nature for its Foundation according to which the Decalogue was framed but being built upon that Love which our Saviour afterwards did shew when he died for his Enemies For the Law of Nature may seem to allow of this Vt no cui quis noceat nisi lacessitus injuriâ Cic. But when injured he may requite it When we do Alms we must not have respect unto our own Glory but only to the Glory of God and the Good of the Miserable Chap. 6. V. 1. When we Pray and Fast both must be done with a devout secresie that God in both may be chiefly looked unto and the Eye of Men not cared for V. 16. We are commanded while on Earth to have our Hearts in Heaven To lay up Treasures there by laying them out here in Charitable and Virtuous Deeds V. 19. We are forbid to be anxiously concern'd for any things of this World though never so necessary but are with a devout submission to depend upon God and to lay all our cares upon him V. 25. We are commanded not to judge others nor to be Censorious towards them but are to think no evil of them to put the best Interpretation upon their Actions and to look with a strict Eye upon ourselves only Chap. 7.1 2. Yea in all our behaviour towards others to observe that excellent Rule of doing to Them whatsoever we would that They should do unto us What Precepts can there be more full and clear than these are Can the Decalogue be better interpreted than by them Is there not in them a more perfect and spiritual Sense than can be presently discern'd in the Old Law If as David saith Thy Law is pure therefore thy Servant loveth it what Heights of Love must the purity of these Laws raise up in us More largely and clearer by far are our Duties towards God and our Neighbours here delivered far more Reason then have we to love them If we consider the Laws which immediately respect a mans self we shall find that they are much more fully given unto us than under the Old Law they were It hath been observ'd by some that in Moses's Law strictly consider'd there are no Precepts to be found that immediately respect a Mans self And it may seem to be so far true viz. That there are hardly any there but what are included in and deducible from those that primarily look another way And therefore if we will rightly consider things the Laws that respect ourselves are more properly belonging to the New Testament at least are there more directly and openly enjoyn'd Such are the Precepts If our Right Hand offend us to cut it off If our Right Eye to pluck it out Such also are other Precepts tending towards Mortification The preserving not only our Bodies free from Intemperance but the keeping them under that we may be pure and clean both in Body and Soul. The bearing of Afflictions and Injuries with a patient and quiet Spirit and others not unlike unto these Whoever shall look into the Laws given us as we are Christians must needs confess whether they respect God our Neighbour or ourselves that they are at least much more fully and clearly given than before they were If yet some of the greatest purity and Excellence be not added and so we have a great Enducement on this Consideration also to Love them Theoph. By this their Clearness Fulness and Perfection they are fitted for the greatest extension of our Faculties and the most Heroick Endeavours both of our Souls and Bodies Yea could we rise to the highest pitch of Virtue that Mortality is capable of we should find room in them for even yet Nobler Attainments and those such as would require our still pressing forwards till the last Moment of our Lives Whence how answerable are they to that Sacred Infinity which is in God! To whom we can at no time say All these things have we done what lack we yet What Humility may they not nourish in us whose Perfection we still fall short of What Care and Watchfulness that our Obedience may be approved What Prayers to God that his Goodness may help us in our Perseverance and his Mercy pardon us in our Failures But yet Eubulus I wish that what you have said were owned by all as a Truth Some there are whose Auditor I much against my will have been who have said these following things which are direct objections against
thou wash thee with Nitre and take thee much Soap yet thy Iniquity is mark'd before me how canst thou say I am clean Jer. 2.23 And upon the account of the Filthiness of Sin God is said to be of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity Hab. 2.13 Neither doth the New Testament speak otherwise of Disobedience Out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornications Thefts False-witnessings Blasphemies these are the Things which DEFILE the Man Matth. 15.19 And hence the Blood of Christ is said to cleanse us from all Sin. And Baptism is not only a Rite that doth initiate us into Christianity but is termed the Washing of Regeneration as purifying us from the Pollutions of our Natures And truly so odious and foul is Sin that when St. Paul would set it off most in its own Deformity he could find no worse word for it than itself for he calls it sinful Sin Rom. 7.13 The whole Nature of it being nothing else but Pollution Disobedient Persons may indeed in outward shape appear to us Comely and Beautiful And their Discourse and Deportment may in some things be taking enough But could we throughly discern a Soul Deform'd as to all its Faculties could we rightly see the Loathsomness of that Body whose every Member hath been made the Member of Vnrighteousness and wholly infected with the Poyson of Sin all the World could not afford so bad a sight as this Theoph. Nay Eubulus such a stain do vile Practices cast upon a Man that though perchance we never may have seen his Face or he himself may have lived many Ages since we yet shall have abject thoughts of him and a great Disrespect to his Memory And if he be of our own Age and Neigbourhood that our Eyes have somtimes a sight of him how do his Ill Morals infect even his outward Shape That whether we will or no we cannot but have some secret aversion from his Person though by reason of his Degree or Place we dare not always shew it Eubul It is even so as you say Theophilus But as Disobedience to the Divine Law throws a Pollution upon every Faculty of the Soul and Member of the Body so it also gives a further Deformity by bringing a Disorder into the Man and causing that which should be superiour and have chief command in him to be brought under and made to serve His sensitive Appetite getting above his Rational and his Body bearing sway over his Soul. Neither when such Disorder is at home and in his own Breast is it like to stay there alone but in all probability it will spread itself abroad and in the Community For the Discomposures which are there arise first from private Iregularities But not only doth Disobedience to the Divine Law overturn all order in the Man himself and breed Confusion in Kingdoms but what is abundantly worse it induceth a yet higher Disorder into the World Subjecting as it were the Great God of Heaven and Earth and making him to Minister unto his Creatures in the vilest Offices They are his own Words to his Disobedient People of Israel Isai 43.24 Thou hast made Me TO SERVE with thy Sins And what greater Deformity can there be thought of than such Disorder as this that shall reach not only so wide as the Earth but even unto Heaven And who would not hate Disobedience which is the Cause and Source of it Theoph. I can easily grant that from Disobedience to the Divine Laws there ariseth such Deformed Disorder as you speak of in Private Men and in Communities also on Earth But how can it extend itself unto Heaven for the bringing of God under It is his Name I am that I am which denotes the Immutability of his Being and such a Perfection as cannot any way be diminished As he is Omnipotent He cannot be over-power'd by any as He is the All-wise God there is none can Circumvent him As he is perfectly One in his Essence without any the least mixture He can no way be subject to any Alteration And as He is Eternal He not only can never cease to Be but also he cannot ever be less than infinitely perfect and infinitely Blessed Which is altogether inconsistent with serving for that supposeth Weakness and Deficiency Therefore Eubulus since I see you intend it as the chiefest Brand on Disobedience that it maketh the Almighty to be Inferiour and Servile I desire you would explain it to me For the Almighty's saying That by Mens Sins i. e. by the Breaches of his Laws he is made to â—â—â—e is the highest Infamy and Reproach to Disobedience and may render it loathsome to any considering Person And so is Worthy to be insisted on somthing largely by you Eubul In respect of his Nature and Person Theophilus God cannot for the reason you have given be made to serve Sin we with never so high an Hand we cannot put any restraints upon his Nature and be we never so Righteous we cannot render his Person more Blessed And to this Sense is that of Job 35.6 If thou be Righteous what givest thou Him Or what receiveth he of thine Hand If thou Sinnest what dost thou against Him Break his Laws thou mayst and provoke his Justice but thou canst never render Him less Perfect or less Blessed But then we must know that God is pleas'd in Holy Writ to speak after the way and fashion of Men not so as is perfectly agreeing with his own Nature but so as is most sutable to our Understandings and may most prevail with and move us Thus Eye Ear Mouth Arms Heart Feet and such like Members are in Sacred Scripture attributed unto God not that there are any such in reality in Him for He is a Spirit and altogether Incorporeal But that we might by these Sensible Things the better conceive those Perfections which are shadow'd out by them For it is not unworthy of Observation That there are no Members nor Parts of a Man ascribed unto God in Holy Scripture but what do betoken some Excellence or other in Him as his Power his Wisdom his Knowledge his Love and such like And none of those Parts that are as the Apostle terms them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more feeble less honourable or uncomely are any where attributed unto Him. The Jews have a Saying Lumen Supernum nunquam descendit sine Indumento Heavenly Light never descends without some Vail It otherwise would be too bright for our weak Eyes So these Members of the Body which God is pleased to admit of when he speaks of Himself unto Us are but as Coverings to those Excellencies which we could not so well understand should He have spoken sutably to Himself without any respect had unto us And as God doth condescend to our Vnderstandings by speaking unto us after an Human manner and in a way below Himself so in other things He speaks to move and excite our Affections when yet his
them in Action by the Number and Diversity of Laws and bringing them under as it were by Curbs and Bridles whereas otherwise they would have been extravagant and more than they were though that enough a Stiff-necked People Thus were the Laws in many things suted to their Tempers not to Sooth but Govern them But now the Christian Laws are given not to one Nation alone but to the whole World whether Greek or Jew Barbarian or Scythian Bond or Free. And therefore it cannot be expected that Laws should be fitted to every Nation and Climate any otherwise than as they are very agreeable to the Nature and Souls of Men who are willing rightly to discern things and to act accordingly And what multiplicity of Ceremonies and outward Restraints in Judea did more Rational Considerations and Spiritual Motives are now in the wide World to effect But yet those Laws which may be agreeable to the different Climates where Christians Live and which may promote the better observation of those Excellent Precepts of our Lawgiver are not to be excluded Yea God since he hath ceas'd to exercise a Theocracy on Earth hath left a Power in the Hand of his Church for the constituting such Rites and Ceremonies as shall fulfill the Apostle's Rule Let all things be done decently and in order And since our Affections are apt to languish where our senses are no way exercised it will be but requisite for her to exert that Power and Prudence which God hath endowed her with in appointing such outward Gestures and other seemly Usages as may meetly establish a Decency in our Worship and be instrumental to the raising of our Hearts Heaven-wards And I may say God hath allowed this unto his Church as somthing Correspondent to his own Power in the Jewish State of appointing Religious Rites for the better carrying on of his more Sacred Service And then for Civil Magistrates he hath vested them also with a Power of making Laws and therein of using or refusing the Judicial Law of Moses or any part of it so far forth as it shall be more or less useful to the Weal Publick and the securing those Duties both to God and Men which the Sacred Precepts do Command Which Laws of Princes their respective Subjects are by the Divine Law enjoyned Conscionably to obey Now these whether Ecclesiastical or Civil Constitutions may be varied according as the Climate and Disposition of Nations do vary And thereby the number of Sacred Laws is the less and their observance the more facile and certain and the Honour also of Governours is the firmlier established in their being made so Instrumental for the Good of Society wherever they bear rule Theoph. You 'l pardon me Eubulus that by interposing somtimes I delay your progress Though truly I have little reason to repent of my Fault since in the things I doubt of you set me on better ground than for ought I know I am in many things which I seem to be more sure of The Divine Laws may well claim our Love not only in that they are all truely Good and very sutable to Human Nature but also in that they having none other of a Lower rank mixed with them are the more surely and easily known and do likewise afford so good a Scope for Governours to Signalize their Prudence in constituting such Laws which not unagreeable to the Law of God shall be most agreeable to the Temper of those who are under them Eubul As they do allow the exercise of Prudence to Governours so do they also to private Men in Ten Thousand actions of their Lives which are not commanded nor forbidden by the Law of God That following their own Inclinations and doing as shall seem to them best they may have the greater content and satisfaction therefrom This in our private actions is that Liberty which by our Lawgiver is indulged us and is usually termed Christian Liberty As our Actions have relation to the publick and are Subject to the Laws of Superiours it is Christian Liberty to have a power of obeying those Superiours in what they Command how various soever their Commands are whether in a different or in the same Nation so far forth as they shall not be contrary to the Divine Laws And this may be called Christian Liberty in opposition to the Mosaick straitness which required the Jews and all who should be Proselyted unto them to practise those Laws whether Ritual or Civil and none other to the omission of those And though some of those were not to be exercised out of the Land of Judea where their Temple stood and so were forborn of old by the Jews in Babylon and at this day are not observed by them in their dispersions up and down the World yet it was and is esteemed their Calamity thus to be hindred by distance of place from the use of them And one thing more there is Theophilus which I take to be of no mean Concern That the Christian Laws though they be all sutable to our Natures as we are Men yet are such also as in our obedience will much comply with our particular Way and Temper If we are of disposition inclining to Sadness and Melancholy they will allow us to be most Conversant in the Duties of Mortification of Fearing God of Sorrowing for Sin of Renouncing the World and the Vanities thereof If we are of Temper more Lively and Cheerful the more Cheerful Duties of Rejoycing in Gods Mercies of Praising him in his Works of doing him Service in publick Justice and other Virtues Instrumental to the welfare of Society will be permitted unto us And our Lawgiver so Gracious is he will accept us in either of these ways and account his other Laws not to be disobeyed though they be not so frequently drawn out into Practice Whence the Christian Laws although in the Body of them they have none that are made for the particular Tempers of Nations as the Jewish Law had for theirs do yet in all these ways allow a Compliance with Temper and Constitutions and may well be very much Loved upon this account but cannot in any Reason be found fault with as if they did not allow any such thing Theoph. I thank you for what you have said as being instructed well and not a little cheer'd from your discourse But will say no more because I long for the Third thing which renders the Christian Law Worthy to be Loved Viz. That those Moral Laws which were given to the Jews are by our Lawgiver more Fully and Clearly given Eubul Since you are so desirous of it I will not keep you in Suspense As deliver'd by Christ their Scope and Intent is more plainly discern'd He hath vindicated them from the ill Interpretation of the Pharisees and hath placed their Dignity and Excellence not in the Outward Observance alone which the Jews did chiefly aim at but in the Heart especially without which External Performances are little worth And