affirmed to be made by him but he himself for that reason styled the Lord of heaven and earth that is to say for so both the term of heaven and earth and the procedure of that argument shew the Lord of all the world and of all things therein contained PART II. That to have the One true God for our God is to owne him as such both in Soul and Body and in all the faculties and powers of each An account of what acknowledgment is due to God from the Soul and particularly from that great faculty thereof the Vnderstanding Which is shewn to consist first in a right apprehension of his Nature and Attributes secondly in a serious and frequent reflection on them and thirdly in a firm belief of what he affirmeth An enquiry thereupon into the just object of Faith the Congruity or rather essentiality thereof to the Oeconomy of the Gospel and how we owne God for our God by it HAving given you an account in the foregoing discourse of the Nature and Attributes of God together with the infiniteness thereof as also shewn that to have him for our God is no other than to owne him as such it remains only that we enquire how that is to be done and what respect is due unto him as a God For the resolution whereof 1. The first thing I shall return is that we are to owne him both in the inward and outward man For beside that Soul and Body are equally his by right of creation preservation and redemption and consequently an acknowledgement to be made by each we are expresly required by S. Paul to glorifie God in our body and in our spirit which are his 1 Cor. 6.20 But from hence it will follow 2. That we are to owne him for our God in all the faculties and powers both of the one and the other Which is farther confirmed as to the Soul especially by Gods requiring us to love him with all our heart and soul and might Deut. 6.5 Neither let any man say that this concerns only the passion of love and therefore not to be extended to other expresses of it For as we are elsewhere required to fear and trust in the same God which shews that the other are not excluded our Saviour assuring us as he doth * Mat. 22.27 c. that upon that great Commandment hangs all the Law and the Prophets as to our duty to our Maker it is evident it was intended to comprehend all other ways and means whereby we are in a capacity to honour him The only remaining difficulty is what acknowledgment each faculty is to make which accordingly I come now to consider 1. To begin with the Soul because the chief seat of piety and all other vertues and because God professeth especially to require it Where following the usual division of its faculties I will enquire 1. What is due to God from our understanding 2. What is due unto him from our wills and 3. And lastly what is due unto him from our affections 1. Now to owne God in our Vnderstandings which is the first of the faculties before remembred implieth in it these three thing 1. A right apprehension of his Nature and Attributes 2. A serious and frequent reflection on them and 3. And lastly a firm belief of what he affirms 1. Of the first of these there cannot be the least doubt that it is required of us towards the owning him for our God For beside that that is one of the prime acts of our Understanding and therefore to pay God its acknowledgment the neglect thereof casts us unavoidably upon that errour against which this first Commandment was principally intended to fail in our apprehension of God being not to own the nature of God but a fancy and imagination of our own And accordingly as S. Paul stuck not to tell the Athenians that they ought not to think the Godhead was like unto Gold or Silver or stone graven by art and mans device Act. 17.29 So he charges upon the heathen in general the vanity of their imaginations concerning him and which is more makes that the ground of Gods giving them over to those abominable crimes into which they fell Rom. 1.29 Taking it therefore for granted as we very well may that we ought to have a right apprehension of Gods nature and Attributes nothing remains to be enquired into but what that apprehension is from what measures it is to be taken and what is to be done by us toward the attaining and preserving of it Of the two former of these I have discoursed already in the foregoing discourse and must therefore remand you thither for your satisfaction it shall content me and may you to insist upon the last and shew what is to be done by us toward the attaining or preserving it And here very opportunely comes in that which is generally recommended by the Pythagoreans toward the attaining of Philosophical knowledge even the purifying our minds from all those earthly and sensual affections to which we are so fatally inclined For our understandings being apt to judge of things not according as they are in themselves but as they best suit with our corrupt affections till the mind be well purged from these it is impossible we should entertain any apprehensions of God which are not some way or other vitiated by them And accordingly as some of the Heathen because led thereto by their own necessities and appetites have been so stupid as to think the immortal Gods did eat and drink like us so others so depraved in their conceptions as to believe them tainted with the lusts of humane nature to have the same sinful passions and affections with themselves Witness their reporting them to descend from heaven to enjoy female beauties to maintain animosities among themselves and espouse those of men their making some of them the Patrons of fraud and cousenage and others again of intemperance and debauchery their appointing a third sort to preside over the Amours of men and both to kindle and maintain their loose and sometimes unnatural flames Of all which misapprehensions the great if not only cause was the passion they themselves had for them and that esteem and value they were wont to set upon them the Heathen no less fondly than impiously conceiting because these things gratifyed their own corrupt inclinations that they afforded the same gusto to the powers above and were the object of their affections and desires Forasmuch therefore as the minds of men are so apt to be debauched by their corrupt affections it is but necessary towards a right apprehension of God that our hearts should be first purged from them and we become if not wholly spiritual yet less sensual in our desires Now though that may seem a hard task to effect as I doubt not it may prove so at the first to those who have been accustomed to indulge them yet the difficulty will be much diminished and in fine wholly
in them as being bound upon us by an inevitable necessity so being the will of God no less than his precepts they are at least to have the sufferance of ours and be consented to as well as undergone But so we find that old Eli how blameworthy soever as to the doing of Gods will yet thought himself obliged to submit to the sufferance of it 1 Sam. 3.18 For though the message that was brought him was no other than the utter extirpation of his house and which is more delivered in the most heart-breaking terms yet he made no other reply than It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Now though this to some persons at least may seem a harder task than flesh and bloud can readily undergo yet it is not all which the making Gods Will ours importeth and consequently neither all that is required of us towards the owning of God in them For as Seneca words it if we will do that we must non tantum deo parere sed assentiri embracing as well as submitting to whatsoever it layes upon us and receiving it how sad soever with alacrity and cheerfulness For otherwise as was before observed we give God but a part of our Wills and choose it not because we will it but because we cannot avoid it Neither let any man say that this is above the proportion of humane strength and therefore not to be thought to be any part of our duty to the Almighty For as I readily grant it to be above the proportion of humane strength when considered without the assistance of the Divine Grace so that it is not so when accompanied with it is manifest enough from the practice of Job c. 1.21 That holy man notwithstanding all the sad tidings that were brought him blessing God for the loss of his Cattel Servants and Children as well as for his former bestowing of them In the mean time as it is not to be denied to be a very hard task and such to which we had need have some other incentive beside that of our own duty so I shall not be unmindful of supplying you when I come to entreat of that petition of the Lords prayer Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven 2. Having thus entreated of the elicite acts of the Will that is to say of such as proceed immediately from it and withal shewn what tribute is due from each of them to him whom we are commanded to owne for our God it remains we descend to those which are called imperate ones or rather to the Empire of the Will over them For though the acts before remembred are the only immediate acts of the Will yet all the acts of the body and mind are under its controul and move by the guidance of it Thus for instance it is from our Wills that our understandings apply themselves to the consideration of Heaven and Heavenly things from the same Wills that our affections are stirred up to tend to their proper objects Lastly from the same Wills it is that we perform all outward actions whether of Religion or Civility In consideration whereof as it is but necessary they themselves should be rightly disposed and pay the Almighty that tribute which is due from each act of them so to the compleatly owning of God for their God that they make use of that Empire of theirs to bring our other faculties to pay God that Homage and Obedience which he requires For the Will being as it were the Vicegerent of God over this little world of man how can it discharge that trust which is reposed in it if it do not lay its commands upon those subjects of its own and Gods to give him that Honour and Obedience that he requires But from hence it will follow that the Will is to incite the understanding to meditate upon God and the affections to embrace and revere him that it is to lay its commands upon the tongue to chaunt forth his praises and upon the knee to bow down to him and adore him In fine as its Empire extends to the whole man to see that each of them perform their several duties and particularly those of Piety and Devotion In the mean time you may see how much they are deceived who upon a surmise of their hearts being right with God take occasion either wholly to neglect or but perfunctorily perform the outward actions of Religion For if the Heart or Will be Gods Vicegerent over all our other faculties and powers it cannot be right with him if it do not stir them up to pay God that service which he requires of each of them I have but one thing more to add concerning this Empire of the Will but it is such as if attended to may be of excellent use in the conduct of our lives and that is that as this Empire of the Will is very great so it will prove very effectual if it be resolute in what it doth propose Nothing almost being too hard for a mind so resolved especially when accompanied with the divine assistance By vertue of this resolution it is that men overcome many and great difficulties by the same that they put themselves upon matters of the greatest hazard by this that they encounter with enemies that are superiour to them both in number and strength by the same that they oftentimes get the victory of them that resolution of theirs not only making them to exert their own strength to the uttermost but damping the courage of their opponents But so that it fareth with our Spiritual enemies the Scripture hath given us plainly enough to understand because assuring us that however the Devil may press upon the weak and irresolute yet he will flie from us if we have the courage to resist him Being now to pass from the Vnderstanding and Will to the Affections and to shew what tribute each of them is to pay to the Almighty I have been somewhat retarded by the consideration of a duty which the Scriptures often call for I mean Trust in God For beside that it is generally expressed in Metaphorical terms such as depending resting or staying our selves upon God which though they may sometime illustrate that to which they are applied yet do no less often serve to obscure it it may seem somewhat difficult to those who do more intimately consider it to what power of the Soul to referr it or rather whether it do not some way appertain to each of them And indeed upon a serious consideration of the whole matter I am apt to believe it doth which is the reason I have chosen this place for it That the Vnderstanding hath a share in it is evident to me from that belief which it manifestly implies and by which it is oftentimes expressed he that trusts to or upon any person doing it upon the account of that credit which he gives to the affirmation of him upon whom he doth so rely But
removed by considering both how unworthy they are of rational creatures and with what evil consequences they are usually attended For as the pleasures before spoken of are more the pleasures of beasts than men and by them more fully and exquisitely enjoyed so the effect of them is no other than to produce in us low and abject minds crazy diseased and at length putrid bodies The heart being thus purged from all earthly and sensual affections towards which I have over and above represented the most effectual expedients we are in the next place to lift up our minds or thoughts from the contemplation of corporeal beings to the consideration of spiritual ones For as it is not to be expected that they who accustom themselves to look no farther than their senses should ever conceive rightly of a spiritual object it being impossible for mens apprehensions to rise higher than the fountain from which they proceed so that depraved custom was no doubt the first original of the Heathens believing God to have a body like themselves with the infirmities and accidents thereof They inured themselves to consider of nothing but what they saw and felt they chained their thoughts to the things and occurrences of the world and having no knowledge of God but from the Traditions of their fathers they were thereby tempted to conceive of him as corporeal also and that he was only a more glorious one After the same manner as one hath happily compared it that people always bred in Country Towns and Villages judge of those Cities they never saw by proportion to the Market-Town to which they resort or of the Palaces of Princes by the houses of their Landlords Now as to undeceive such people the only way would be to lead them from their own homes and shew them some more glorious Town or House than any they had formerly been acquainted with so I know not a more proper expedient to regulate mens apprehensions concerning God than by inuring them to the consideration of spiritual things such as are for example the nature of our own Understanding and Will the Sciences which perfect the one and the Moral excellencies of the other For as these are the things by which we most resemble him whom we are commanded to own for our God so by the serious consideration thereof we should at length disentangle our selves from the things of sense by which we are fastned to the earth and make both a more free and prosperous flight to Heaven Lastly as it is necessary to have our thoughts lifted up from the contemplation of corporeal beings to the consideration of more refined ones so also if we would attain a right apprehension of God to apply our selves to a serious and deliberate consideration of his immense nature and perfections For as few things are rightly apprehended when either superficially considered or looked upon with a transient eye so much less may we think the nature of God will which cannot be comprehended by us though we should employ our whole life in the consideration of it 2. Having thus dispatched what we have said to be first implied in the owning of God in our Vnderstandings even a right apprehension of his nature and perfections I proceed unto a second which is the recalling of those perfections to our mind and both seriously and frequently contemplating them Which duty I do the rather inculcate as because it is a tribute which God has expresly exacted * Eccl. 12.1 Remember now thy Creatour c. and concerning which therefore there cannot be the least doubt but that we are thus to own him in our Vnderstandings so because the neglect of it seems to me to be the great cause of that irreligion which is in the Christian world For as what through the translation of the Scripture into our own tongue and the constant explication of it it is hardly possible for us to avoid a competent knowledge of our duty so we cannot but in our own thoughts assent to the practice of it and adjudge it both reasonable and profitable to be performed But to what then can we attribute our neglect of what we are so perswaded of but to our own want of consideration For the will naturally and almost necessarily following the dictates of our understanding what should hinder men from doing that which they know to be both reasonable and useful if they kept their eye upon it and contemplated what they could not choose but know And accordingly S. Peter in the first Chapter of his second Epistle doth not only affirm that he would not be negligent to put those he wrote to in remembrance of some things though they knew them and were established in the present truth v. 12. of that chapter but in the 13. verse again that he thought it meet as long as he was in this tabernacle to stir them up by putting them in remembrance and yet a third time v. 15. that he would endeavour that they might be able after his decease to have the same things always in remembrance plainly implying by his so frequent inculcating of the duty of remembrance that it was through the want of that that men apostatized from their duty and neglected those things they were not only perswaded to be just but necessary to their own eternal welfare And indeed as men may learn many things from their own practise no less than from the proper rule of truth the Scriptures wherefore do the profane ones of the world so carefully avoid the conversing with their own thoughts or listning to the advices of religious persons but that they find the revolving them in their minds would even constrain them to their duty and make them abandon those lusts that are inconsistent with it Thus whether we do reflect upon our own practice or Scripture or reason we shall find the great cause of mens irreligion to be the want of such a consideration and consequently that it is no more than necessary to call the things of Religion to our mind and particularly him who is both the object and the Author of it These two things only seem necessary to be added for our more advantageous performing of it 1. That though all the Attributes of God call for our remembrance and accordingly are to have it in their turn yet we are especially to call those to our mind by which our affections are most likely to be influenced and our hearts incited to embrace him For though God do also require to be owned by us in our Vnderstandings yet more especially in our hearts and consequently those Attributes to have the greatest share in our thoughts by which our hearts and affections are most apt to be inflamed 2. Again though all the Attributes of God are to have a share in our remembrance and particularly those which are most operative upon our affections so such of them especially as are most sutable to our present necessities and temper because those are
its own greatness which descends not to any lower abject thoughts which hates nothing without either cause or measure which loves things lovely and according to the proportion of it in fine which makes things lovely that they may become the object of it and be worthy to be received into its embraces And though it be true that there are some excellencies in the creature such as beauty and the like which are not to be found in God yet as the reason thereof is because they are much below him and argue something of imperfection where they are so he is the Fountain even of those inferiour excellencies and must therefore be much more excellent in himself From the excellencies of the divine nature pass we to the measure wherein they are possessed which will shew it yet more to be the object of our Love For beside that they are all in him without any thing of imperfection which hardly falls upon any created beings they are also infinite as that nature is to which they have the honour to belong If God be wise he is so without measure and knoweth whatsoever is to be known if good he is so without bounds and proportionably to his own infinite essence In fine whatsoever he is he is so after the rate of a God and knows no other bounds than what he prescribes unto himself If therefore that which is excellent be a just ground of love God is much more so as not only comprehending all excellencies whatsoever but also in the utmost perfection and degree How great reason we have to love God when considered only as he is in himself I have discoursed hitherto proceed we in the next place to consider him as good to us Under which notion if we look upon him so we shall not only find that which may attract our loves but even constrain us to affect him For not to tell you that by him the Authours of mankind were first created that we our selves were conceived in the womb maintained there and brought forth into the world through his benign influence that we depended upon him when we hung upon our Mothers Breasts that we did so no less when we might seem much more able to have made provision for our selves that we are indebted to him for all the good things we enjoy that we are so for the ability of enjoying them that we are not less nourished by the word of his providence than by the bread we eat that we owe the very nourishment of that to his blessing on us and it that by him we are delivered from those evils we escape that by him we are born up or carried thorough those evils that do at any time befall us To say nothing at all I say of these how considerable soever and how just incentives to our love I shall desire you only to consider his benevolence to our better part and the wayes he hath taken to express it For not contented to say * Isa 33.11 he delights not in the death of a sinner but that he should repent and live which may seem to be rather a negative than a positive kindness or if the latter an imperfect velleity only he hath been from all eternity contriving the Redemption of sinful man he hath from the beginning of time been declaring his gracious purposes concerning it he sent his Son in the fulness of time to accomplish that most excellent work for us he hath laid upon him the iniquities and punishments of us all he hath sent his ever blessed Spirit to fit us for pardon by it he hath sent his Servants the Prophets to publish the tidings of it and the means whereby it is to be obtained he hath called us out of darkness into the glorious light of it he hath moreover given us eyes to behold the brightness of it he hath given us grace to abandon our natural corruptions he hath furnished us with grace to serve him acceptably and with godly fear and love he hath reclaimed us by his Spirit when we have been wandring out of the way he hath upholden us by the same Spirit when we have been ready to faint or fall down in it in fine he continueth to do so till we turn our backs upon him and loveth us till we do in a manner refuse to be beloved All which whosoever shall duly consider will not only conclude him worthy of our Love but of the utmost degree and the most immediate expressions of it the third thing proposed to be discoursed of 3. And here in the first place I shall not doubt to reckon the desire of enjoying his presence whom we love this being the most natural and immediate expression of our Love that I say not of the very essence of it For as Love is nothing else than a passion of the Soul by which it is disposed to unite it self to what it loves so there is no one thing that is more impatient of the absence or more passionately desirous of its proper object 's presence It sets the understanding upon contriving how it may attain it it puts the Will upon a resolution of putting those contrivances in execution it vigorously endeavoureth the removing of all obstacles to the enjoyment of it it greedily layeth hold of all opportunities for the compassing of it in fine it neither giveth it self nor us any rest till it attain what it so panteth after and becometh rather more eager than any way discouraged by the opposition it receives But such ought to be nay such are the effects of our love to God where that love is implanted in the Soul witness the Prophet David's impatience when driven from the house of God his longing desire to appear before him in it And certainly if we had the same love for God that the Prophet had or it may be think our selves possessed of there is no doubt we should be as willing to be found where he promiseth to present himself and both desire to hear him speaking to us as he doth by his servants the Prophets and present our own supplications before him these being the most natural expresses of our love and such which I had almost said we can no more be without than we can hate him whom we cordially affect The same is to be said 2. Of our enjoying of God in Heaven where he doth not only most gloriously but most intimately present himself For as it is impossible for a Soul duly affected with the love of God not to desire the most immediate enjoyment of his presence so we find S. Paul not to have been without this desire though he knew he could not attain it without putting off his earthly Tabernacle he affirming of himself that he was desirous to be dissolved that so he might be admitted into the presence of God and of his Son Which by the way may shew how cold our love generally is even when it carrieth us only to the enjoyment of what we
worship their Gods without Images he adds as from the same Varro * Quod si adhuc inquit mansisset castiùs dii observarentur Cujus sententiae suae testem adhibet inter caetera etiam gentem Judaeam nec dubitat eum locum ita concludere ut dicat qui primi simulachra deorum populis Posuerunt eos civitatibus suis metum dempsisse errorem addidisse prudenter existimans deos facile posse in simulachrorum stoliditate contemni That if it had so continued the Gods would have been more chastly observ'd They who first set up Images of their Gods for the Peoples use having taken away from their Cities that fear which they ought to have of them and involv'd them in erroneous Conceits concerning the Divine Nature Prudently judging as St. Augustine there tells us that the Gods might easily come to be despis'd in the foolishness of Images Forasmuch therefore as the Light of Reason furnisheth us with Arguments against the making an Image of God forasmuch as the Scripture chargeth it upon the Heathen as a Sin and the wiser Heathen consent with them in the disallowance of it we may very well look upon the Prohibition now before us as a part of the Law of Nature and therefore also because the Law of Nature is such of eternal obligation Now though what hath been said might to Minds not prepossess'd sufficiently evidence the unlawfulness of such Images yet because those Prejudices have taught Men to frame certain nice Distinctions to evade the force of the former Arguments I will for a conclusion of this Discourse oppose to them some more particular Assertions answerable to their several Distinctions Whereof the first shall be 1. That painted Images and such as are describ'd upon a Plane are unlawful as well as engraven and protuberant ones Contrary to the Opinions of the Greek and Moscovitish Church and some of our own Western Writers For the evidencing whereof I shall alledge first the Words of that Commandment we are now upon For forbidding as it doth not onely any graven Image but any likeness of any thing that is in heaven or earth it thereby makes other Representations alike unlawful with carved or protuberant ones The same is no less evident from the Reason of the Prohibition in Deuteronomy even because they saw no similitude For a Picture being no less a similitude than a Carved Image that must be supposed to be equally unlawful when it is design'd to represent the Divine Nature Lastly Forasmuch as there is the same or a greater disproportion between the Divine Nature and a Picture if Carved Images be unlawful these also must be suppos'd to be so when they are intended to represent the Deity This onely would be added That the making of Graven Images or other such protuberant ones are most frequently forbidden in the Scripture Not that others were not unlawful as well as they for the general Reason of the Prohibition even the likening him to any thing doth equally strike at all other ways of Representation but because those Images were most in use among the Heathen and because by their Figure they were most apt to make the Simple believe that they were those very things they were design'd to represent or at least that they were impregnated with a Divine Spirit 2. I observe secondly That as Pictures as well as graven Images were forbidden so the Pictures or Images of any Being whatsoever For what other can we rationally deem to be the sense of those Words or the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth Which caution I the rather add to confront an Opinion of Grotius and the Jews who would have the Figures of Living Creatures onely forbidden For though the Images of Living Creatures were mostly in use and most dangerous and therefore probably no other enumerated in the Fourth of Deuteronomy where this matter of Images is entreated of yet as the Expression in the Commandment is too general to admit of such a limitation so if we admit of it we must exclude the Images of the Stars which are certainly no Living Creatures but are notwithstanding faulted by God Amos 5.26 But I have yet another Reason of making the present Observation and without which indeed I should not have troubled you or my self with it And that is the asserting further against the Greeks and those that follow them in this Particular the unlawfulness of Painted as well as Graven Images For whereas it had been urged as it hath been before by us That not onely all Graven Images but all other Likenesses were forbidden according as the Letter of the Commandment imports it is answered by * Explic. Decal praec 2. Grotius That though the Particle we render or be in the Hebrew Text of this place yet it is not in the parallel place in Deuteronomy nor in the Chaldee Paraphrase here Whence saith he it hath hapned that the Hebrews generally thought that of any likeness to be no new Prohibition but to be added by way of explication that we should understand not all graven images to be forbidden such as was that of the Golden Vine in the Temple but such as resembled Living Creatures But to this I have many things to say and such as I think will make it appear to be very vain For first It is not true however Grotius came to say so that the Particle we render or is not in the * Chald. Paraphras verba 1. in Bibl. Polygl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chaldee Paraphrase upon this place as may appear to any that shall consult it That which I suppose occasion'd his mistake was that it is not there in Deuteronomy as neither in the Hebrew Text. I say secondly That the Reading in this place ought in reason to be look'd upon as more entire than that of Deuteronomy and consequently where there is occasion to give Law to it Because the Twentieth Chapter of Exodus is an Account of the Law as deliver'd by God whereas that in the Book of Deuteronomy is onely a Repetition of it which therefore needed not to be exact as having been before set down I say thirdly That if after the Word likeness there had been onely an enumeration of the Living Creatures of Heaven and Earth and the Waters under the Earth so there might have been some pretence to make the Temunah or likeness not comprehensive of all Similitudes but onely a determination of the general Word of Carved Images to such as represented Living Creatures But the Words are general of all things in heaven and earth c. and so no doubt ought to be understood I observe fourthly that as it is not unusual for such a Particle as the Hebrew 1 to be understood even where it is not express'd so the * Sept. Deut. 5.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuagint have represented the force of it in that place
of the Commandment were not to forbid the taking of God's Name unto a lie In the mean time though I affirm the Swearing falsely to be the principal thing struck at my meaning is not to deny but that vain Oaths may also be condemned with them partly because that is the prime importance of the Word shave and partly because I have before laid it for a Ground That under the greater Sins the less also of the same species are forbid But then thirdly if we look upon the Commandment as all Christians ought to do as either explain'd or enlarg'd by our Saviour so no doubt can remain of the unlawfulness of other Oaths beside false ones our Saviour's Words after his rehearsal of the Doctrine of the Law being But I say unto you Swear not at all For the elucidation of which Doctrine and together therewith of our own Obligation from this Commandment I will proceed in this method 1. I shall inquire what Oaths are simply and absolutely forbidden 2. Whether it be lawful in any case to swear by a Creature 3. Whether the Magistrate hath power to exact an Oath 4. Whether and how far he may exact one of the Accused Party 5. What is the Obligation of Oaths 6. And lastly because that is of kin to them and therefore in reason to have a place here entreat of the Nature and Obligation of Vows I. There are a sort of Men who minding more the Letter than the meaning of the Scripture have profess'd to believe themselves and endeavour'd to perswade others that all Oaths are now forbidden What the ground of their Scrupulosity is shall by and by be declar'd This onely would be observ'd in passing That they who in this matter are so tenacious of the Letter are in other things as regardless both of the Letter and the Sense For what hath more the astipulation both of the one and the other than Obedience to Magistrates which yet these scrupulous Persons do as irreligiously cast off But because it matters not much what the Persons are that propugn the Opinion if it have any Foundation in Scripture leaving the Persons of the Objectors we will descend to the Texts on which they relie which are especially that of our Saviour and of St. James The purport of the former whereof is That they should not swear at all but that their communication should be yea yea nay nay the latter That they should not swear neither by heaven nor earth nor any other Oath but simply affirm or deny whatsoever fell into discourse For the clearing of which Texts or rather of the former thereof for every body may see that that of St. James is borrowed from the other I shall first of all propose the contrary Example of St. Paul in those Scriptures which God handed to the Church by him For who can think it our Saviour's intention to forbid all Swearing whatsoever when we find such a one as St. Paul doing so in those Writings wherein he was Divinely inspir'd Now for the Practice of St. Paul in this particular we have several Instances in those Epistles that bear his Name Thus Rom. 1.9 we find him vouching God for a Witness which is the very Formality of an Oath that he did without ceasing make mention of them always in his prayers For God saith he is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his Son that without ceasing I make mention of you in my prayers as in like manner Gal. 1.20 where he gives an account of his Conversion and calling to be an Apostle Now the things which I write unto you behold before God I lie not Lastly Where he speaks of the several Persecutions and Troubles which he suffer'd for the Gospels sake he doth appeal to the same God for the truth of what he said For the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ saith he which is blessed for evermore knoweth that I lie not 2 Cor. 11.31 Which Texts are plain and evident Proofs of St. Paul's swearing and consequently that our Blessed Saviour hath not universally forbidden it Let it remain therefore for a certain truth That all Swearing whatsoever is not forbidden by our Saviour which is the first thing proposed to be proved But as on the one side we are not to think all Oaths whatsoever forbidden so neither onely such which may perhaps be the Refuge of some Men that are made rather by Creatures than by God the opposition in that fore-alledged place being not between swearing by a Creature and by God but between Swearing and a naked Affirmation and Denial For I say unto you saith our Saviour swear not at all neither by heaven for it is God's throne nor by the earth for it is his footstool c. But let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil And accordingly as St. James where he enforceth the same Prohibition to the mention of swearing neither by heaven nor by earth adds neither by any other Oath so it is easie to assign a Reason of our Saviour's instancing in such kind of Oaths without restraining the Prohibition to them even because such kind of Asseverations were less scrupled by the Jews as may appear from a Tract * Lib. de specialibus legibus of Philo Where dehorting Men from swearing at all he yet adds That in case they did they should not swear by the Name of God but by the Health or Memory of their Parents the Sun the Earth and the like these being in his Opinion much more excusable than swearing by the Name of God Whatsoever therefore is the meaning of those Words Swear not at all something more is meant than that we should not swear by the Creatures which what that is I come now more directly to shew 1. And here in the first place I shall not doubt to reckon because the thing principally forbidden all Oaths in our common Conversation For what less can we think meant thereby unless we would have our Saviour's Words signifie just nothing Especially when he himself adds by way of explication Let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil And here give me leave to take up a Lamentation especially in an Age which seems to bid defiance to our Saviour's Precept and that August Name which it would preserve inviolate For as if I do not say Christ had given no Command concerning it but our lips were our own and we had no Superior to controul us every Man almost from the oldest to the youngest calls God to witness in the most trivial and impertinent Affairs at a Game at Tables at a Deal of Cards when a Health is passing about and it may be Intemperance together with it For let the least question be made of any thing that is then acting and an Oath shall presently be brought to confirm it and God be call'd to witness that we
Which it will not be hard for him to discern who comes to it with an unprejudic'd Mind For inasmuch as that Society whereof they are Governours is instituted by God for the Conservation of Religion it will follow that the onely Authority to which they can pretend is to extend no farther than to Matters of Religion or what is necessary to the Conservation of it Which makes a strange that the Church of Rome should pretend to a Power of taking away the Civil Rights of Princes or their Subjects especially when he who is Head even of their Head hath so frankly declar'd that his kingdom is not of this world If the Governours of the Church claim any Power of that nature it must be by the Indulgence of Princes and to it they are to ascribe it Again Forasmuch as the Governours of the Church are but the Ministers of him who is the Great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls whatever Authority they have must be within the Limits of his Discipline who is the Author no less of their Power than it Lastly Forasmuch as that Power which the Governours of the Church have was given for the edification and not for the destruction of those that are to be ruled by it 2 Cor. 10.8 it will follow that that ought to be the Limit of their Commands and consequently also of our Obedience Care onely would be taken that we do not rashly nor indeed without great and manifest reason pronounce of any thing they enjoyn as either not for edification or to the destruction of the Church partly because what is for edification of the Publick is not easily to be judg'd of by Private Persons and partly because there are few things more destructive to the Being of the Church than the dissolution of that Discipline by which it is ty'd together 3. From the Commands of the Governours of the Church as which do for the most part respect things to be done pass we to their Decrees in such Controversies as do arise concerning thâ—se â—â—ings which are to be believ'd where at the same time I shall set down what Authority those our Spiritual Parents may pretend to and what kind of Honour is to be paid by us to it For the resolution whereof I shall no way doubt to affirm first That it is in the Power of those Governours to come to a decision in them and oblige the several Members of the Church not to make any Publick Opposition to them For the Peace of the Church being broken not so much by any thing as by Controversies which may arise concerning those things that are to be believ'd the Governours of the Church to whom the preservation of the Peace thereof is committed must consequently be suppos'd to be furnish'd with such a Power of Decision as shall bind up the several Members thereof from making any Publick Opposition to what they do so decide Which is so reasonable a thing that there is no formed Church in the World which doth not claim such a Power nor any reasonable Man in them which doth not think himself to be so far bound up by it provided the Decision do not entrench upon an Article of Faith nor be impos'd upon ours but recommended as such onely to which Men shall not openly oppose themselves For though it be not lawful for any Man to abjure that which he does believe to be a Truth yet it may be lawful and sometime necessary not to make profession of some Truths if the Peace of the Church be like to be broken by it But beside that the Honour of the Governours of the Church may require an Acquiescence in their Decisions where those Decisions though it may be not exact do not entrench upon an Article of Faith nor are impos'd upon our Belief I do no way doubt but it may also require the exacting a cordial Acknowledgment of them from those that are the Ministers thereof For it being of great importance to the Welfare of the Church that those which are its Teachers should be well perswaded themselves lest as is but too frequent they disperse their Errours among the People it cannot but be thought requisite for those who are the Governours to exact of those Teachers before they be approv'd a cordial Acknowledgment of such Articles of Religion as they shall deem expedient to be publickly profess'd and taught For how shall they otherwise provide for the Welfare of that Church which is committed to their Charge and for which they shall be accountable to Almighty God or those Candidates of the Ministry provide for the Honour of their Governours who shall not be content to make such an Acknowledgment if they do heartily believe the things propos'd or to be excluded from the Office of Teachers if they do not Honour implying an Acknowledgment of all such Power and Authority as is requisite in a Governour for the conservation of that Society over which he is appointed to preside 4. One onely Species of Honour remains of those which are more peculiar to their Function and that is Submission to th Censures of these our Spiritual Parents Of which beside the Admonition of the Author to the Hebrews where he requires us not onely to obey those that have the Rule over us but also to submit our selves a Proof may be fetch'd from the Authority those Governours are invested with of excluding them from the Communion of the Church who shall not shew themselves faithful Members of it For beside that every Member of the Church covenants in Baptism to shew himself a faithful Soldier of Christ Jesus and consequently cannot be thought to have any injury done him if he be debarr'd the Communion of the Church upon the breach of that his Covenant beside that the Scripture doth so far enjoyn it upon particular Persons as to oblige them to withdraw themselves from every Brother that walketh disorderly beside lastly that God hath committed to the Governours of the Church the power of binding and losing and promis'd that what they do so bind and loose on earth shall be bound and loos'd in heaven which the Church of God hath ever understood with reference to the Power of Excommunication and Absolution that Power is no more than necessary for the conservation of the Church in obedience to God and to the wholsom Commands of their Superiours For who will generally be very careful of keeping the Covenants they have made in Baptism if it be not in the Power of the Governours thereof to debar them the Priviledges of that Communion which the more sound Members of the Church enjoy Now forasmuch as it is in the Power of these our Spiritual Parents not onely to command such things as are salutary but to exclude from the Communion of the Church all such as are disorderly walkers if we will give them that Honour which is due to them we must of necessity acquiesce in that their Censure if justly inflicted so long as
they shall think fit to continue it and because that their Censure is in order to our Amendment give them such Proofs of our Sorrow and Repentance as may oblige them to receive us again into the Bosom of that Church out of which we have been ejected for our disorderliness 2. Now though it were to be wish'd that even these kinds of Honour were paid unto the Clergy partly because they are more proper to their Function and partly because the welfare of Religion is more immediately concerned in them yet forasmuch as by the Consent of the World they have been thought worthy of other Honours even such as in themselves savour more of Earth than Heaven I think it not amiss to make these also the Subject of my Inquiry and the rather because they have been of late deny'd them In order whereunto I shall lay for my Foundation that which if it had been heeded would perhaps have made this Question unnecessary I mean the Behaviour of those of Melita to St. Paul and them that travell'd with him Acts 28.20 concerning whom St. Luke there tells us that they honour'd them with many Honours and when they departed laded them with such things as were necessary For there appearing not any the least intimation of those Islanders conversion to the Faith that we should think the Honours they bestow'd upon St. Paul were other than Civil ones and St. Luke who writes the Story and had a share in those Honours remembring this Act of theirs with Commendation and Applause it is evident that Civil Honours are not onely not disagreeable to their Function but also because we are indefinitely commanded to honour them in the number of those that are to be paid For how should we think those other than due which we find both St. Paul and St. Luke to have willingly receiv'd and the latter moreover to have transmitted the Cognisance of to the World as it were by their Example to incite others to the like And though it be true the Text particularizeth not the Honours that were bestow'd upon them and leaves us to collect that they were for the kind Civil ones yet forasmuch as it makes mention of their honouring them with many Honours and moreover expresseth in the same Period their furnishing them with such things as were necessary at their departure I think it but reasonable to collect that whilst the Apostle and his Company were with them they treated them with all kind of Respect in Gesture Language and Entertainment and when they departed no less officiously than courteously accompanied them to their Ship But because in this particular we have to do with envious Men who will not easily be convinc'd of what they are unwilling to believe and because the thing whereof we speak is a matter of Interest in which whatever professions we may make Men will be apt to think we will be partial to our selves therefore to make our Cause so much the more plausible I will both instance in one kind of Civil Honour and shew from Reason the Equity of others Now the Honour that I shall instance in is that of Maintenance because St. Paul hath so expresly asserted the paying of it to the Ministers of Religion Witness first of all that Affirmation of his 1 Cor. 9.14 Where having premis'd many Arguments concerning this Affair and inquir'd in particular whether the Corinthians were not very well satisfied that they who ministred about Holy Things in the Temple were Partakers with it he subjoyns in the next Words Even so hath the Lord ordain'd that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel In which place not onely affirming the necessity of a Maintenance but arguing that necessity from what God had establish'd among the Jews he gives us plainly enough to understand that he meant an Honourable one because the Priests among the Jews were so provided for But so the same Apostle gives us yet more clearly to understand 1 Tim. 5.17 18. where he exhorts that the Elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine because as he there subjoyns the Scripture hath said Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the Corn and the Labourer is worthy of his Reward From which Reason as it is manifest that the thing whereof he entreats is the Maintenance of those who labour in the Word and Doctrine so it is no less manifest from his before expressing it under the Title of Honour and a double one that he meant such a Maintenance as should not onely afford them a Subsistence but above the common Condition of Ordinary Men. Of which even some of those who were otherwise no great Friends to the Clergy were so sensible that one of them did not stick to affirm in the late Long Parliament That they were Scandalous Livings that made so many Scandalous Ministers in the Church Now though from this one Topick because the Reason is the same of all it were easie to infer that those of whom we speak are susceptible of other Civil Honours yet I think it not amiss especially having before promis'd it to add the Suffrage of Reason also Now there are two things which Reason offers toward the confirmation of those outward Marks of Honour which this Church and almost all others have set upon the Ministers of Religion whereof the former respects the generality of those that are under their respective Charges the other the Invitation of such as are to be admitted into them For though to begin with the former there be enough in that Sacred Function to engage Mens Esteem though it had nothing to commend those who were of it beside the Dignity of their Office and the Honourableness of their Work yet forasmuch as the Common sort judge rather by their Eyes than by their Understandings and indeed cannot well do otherwise unless they had more exalted ones how is it possible to think they should ever hold such in reputation upon whom they discern no outward Marks of Honour Especially when they see all other Governours adorned with the like and appearing outwardly as Specious as they are inwardly Great and Glorious For by how much the more their Eyes are dazled with that outward Pomp and Splendor which they do every day behold those Ministers of God in the State to be compass'd with so much the less regard must they be suppos'd to have for his Ministers in the Church upon whom they discern none of the same Greatness Unless as it hapned in the Apostles times they could bear themselves above the Condition of Men and outshine the Laity as much by the miraculousness of their Works as they do them by the outward Marks of Majesty and Greatness There is the same or far greater reason for the Confirmation of those outward Marks of Honour if we consider the necessity there is of them to invite Men of Worth and Parts to
Ancient head by the hand of God no less than that of time Which as it ought in reason to call for our regard for how should we not honour those whom God hath so signally vouchsafed to do so to excite the gratitude of such who have the honour as well as the happiness to wear it 3. From the favour of God wherewith we have said the Hoary Head to be no less encircled than with its Gray Hairs pass we in the third place to that which is no less a ground of Honour even its freedom from those Lusts wherewith younger years are agitated That however among some Persons passing for a reproach yet being indeed its Priviledge and Honour or that I may speak with Solomon in the place so often alluded to its Crown of Glory For is there any thing in the world more dishonourable than Vice nay doth not the World it self confess so much by making some Vice or other always the matter of its reproach or any Age which is more freed by Nature from the temptations to it or more instructed by it to abhor it It hath either none or very languid inclinations to the pleasures of Sense it hath no perception of them or such as is easily corrected It is dead to the World even before it is so it is a stranger to its delights and recreations As if it had already pass'd from Earth to Heaven where all those Earthly delights perish and that Crown of Glory which it wears were a Crown of Glory indeed that is to say an Immortal and Immarcessible one But then if to the no inclinations of that age to sensual pleasures we add its experience of the vanity of them all its knowledge how little of satisfaction there is in them and with how many and how great evils they are commonly attended so we may very well pronounce it to be a very glorious age and to carry away the Crown from all the rest For where there is not only no gust of sensual pleasures but an experimental Knowledge of their Vanity and Vexation how can such persons but despise them and pursue those which are more spiritual and heavenly Not but that the contrary may and sometimes doth happen for God knows there are Boys of above Threescore years of Age but that that is the usual attendant of Old Age and that their Gray Hairs do always dispose them to it 4. Add hereunto and more I shall not need to add to shew the ground of honouring the face of the Old Man such persons by the similitude of their years and likeness of disposition are the usual Companions of our Natural Parents and being such cannot be despis'd without a dishonour to our Parents into whose society they are assum'd 2. Having thus shewn the grounds of honouring the face of the Old Man according as the Scripture prescribes enquire we in the next place what kind of honours we are to afford them And here not to tell you that they are to have a share in our inward esteem because without that as hath been often said all expressions of Honour are but a mockery I shall without more ado descend to those expressions of Honour which either the Scripture or Reason do prescribe But such is 1. The honouring them with our outward gesture rising up or falling down before them the injunction of God in the place before quoted out of Leviticus being Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honour the face of the old man and feare thy God I am the Lord. In which place we have not only an express command for rising up before the hoary head but what is of much more importance the so doing join'd in the same period with the reverence of God himself 2. To respectfulness in our outward behaviour subjoin we the reverencing them with our Tongues whether it be for that is no small sign of honour by suspending the expressions of it at least till Elder men have deliver'd their sentence or speaking with submission and respect For so that I may begin with the former we find Elihu in Job to have proceeded Job 32.7 he there telling us that because he was young and those other Friends of Job very old he was at first afraid and durst not shew them his opinion and not without reason because as he afterwards intimates Wisdom is the priviledge of Old Age in consideration whereof it is but reasonable that the Younger and less wise should give them leave to speak before them But neither is it less evident or rather much more that when we do speak we are to speak with Submission and respect St. Paul in the place before quoted admonishing Timothy a Governour of the Church and how much more then inferiour Persons that he should not rebuke an Elder but intreat him as a Father and the elder Women as Mothers 1 Tim. 5.1 2. and though there be no obedience due to Aged Persons as such because their Superiority implies rather a preeminence than Authority yet inasmuch 3. As they are capable of Honour in Deed as well as in Gesture and Language we are in reason to make our Actions to bespeak our Esteem of them no less than our behaviour and words to that end giving them that assistance which their bodily weaknesses and that relief which both their weaknesses and necessities may require St. Paul in the forequoted Epistle commanding the thus honouring of Widows and particularly the elder ones 4. The only Species of Honour to be spoken of is that of submission to their censures which we shall find to have a place here no less than in other Fathers For though these Fathers as such have no Authority to command and therefore neither to punish yet their great Wisdom and Experience priviledge them to rebuke the disorders of younger persons to which therefore if we give them that Honour which is required we must submit with all patience and meekness Care only would be taken that I may not leave those elder ones without an exhortation that they behave themselves with that Wisdom and Gravity and Sobriety which becomes them For much of the Honour that is due to them being founded upon the presumption of their Wisdom Gravity and Sobriety Reason would if they expect Honour from the younger sort that they should give proof of those in their behaviour and not as too often happens pursue their youthful Lusts or fall into their Follies and Indecencies Of the Honour of Parents whether properly or improperly so stil'd what hath been said may suffice and because that is principally intended of the main concernments of this Commandment But because as was before said it was also intended to comprehend the honour of all that are in any Dignity or Authority therefore for the fuller explication thereof it will be requisite to subjoin somewhat concerning both the one and the other and first of all of those that have any thing of Dignity to commend them Now there are
designed killing by Private Persons to be look'd upon as Murther unless what a Man is put upon in his own necessary Defence A brief Censure of Duels THIS Commandment with those that follow rather pointing at such things as we are to avoid than at those which we are oblig'd to pursue Reason would that we should employ the main of our Endeavours in the discovery of those Sins which this and the other Commandments do forbid Having therefore in my last set before you what regard we ought to have for one anothers Persons and Lives I think it not amiss to consider by what means they may be prejudic'd as from which the present Precept aims especially to secure us In order whereunto because that seems to me to be the most natural way of procedure I will 1. First of all entreat of that which is literally and expresly forbidden and 2. When I have done so proceed to inquire Whether any other Sins are included in it and what those Sins are 1. To begin with that which is literally and expresly forbidden concerning which no doubt can be made but it is the killing of our Neighbour because however the Commandment expresseth no more than Thou shalt not kill yet this and those that follow are resolv'd by St. Paul to be comprehended in loving our Neighbour as our selves Which Resolution of his could not have truth in it if the Crimes that are forbidden had not our Neighbour for the Object of them Taking it therefore for granted that the killing of a Neighbour is the thing here forbidden I will inquire 1. Wherein the Criminalness thereof doth consist 2. What Killing is to be suppos'd to be understood And 3. And lastly What is to be thought of Self-murther and how that is reducible to this Commandment 1. Now though for the Criminalness of Murther it might be enough to alledge that it is a violation of this Commandment and which is more of one of those which were given to Noah which I have shewn to be in themselves of Universal obligation yet because I have undertaken to shew that this as well as the rest is a Violation of the Law of Reason and Nature as well as of God's Positive ones waving the consideration of the other I will betake my self to such Topicks as the Light of Nature will afford us Whereof the first that I shall assign is the particular Affront it offers to the Divine Nature For though Man as such be the immediate Object of its Injuriousness and accordingly so resolved by us yet inasmuch as Man is no other than the Image of God and acknowledg'd so to be no less by the Heathen than by our selves what is thus done to Man must be look'd upon as an Affront to God whose Image is thus defac'd in him Excellent to this purpose is that of Philo * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De spec legibus in the entrance of his Discourse upon this Commandment Murther hath indeed the name of Manslaughter because Man is the Person slain but it is in truth Sacrilege and the greatest of Sacrileges because than Man there is not any thing more Sacred or which is a more express Image of the Divine Reason and Perfection And indeed if even the Images of Emperours have had such a Veneration that it hath been look'd upon as a violation of their Majesty to draw those from them who had fled thither for Succour or which is an Instance better known to us to deface them in their Coins it is easie to suppose it ought to be look'd upon as no mean Crime to deface the Image of God in Man not onely because of the Eminency of the Person represented but of the Representation it self which is of the same nature with its Archetype But let us suppose for once that Murther reach'd no further than the Man and that as it is properly a breach of the Second Table so it had no evil Aspect at all upon the First yet even so we should find it to be criminal enough for all considering Men to stand agast at because of that Injury which it offers to Humane Society which is the Band and Cement of the World For beside that Murther robs it of one of its Members and consequently doth so far weaken it it doth by its evil Example tempt others to do the like and by its noxiousness beget a diffidency in Men towards each other Upon which what can any Man imagine but that others should be drawn to offer the like injury to it or if all cannot be prevail'd upon so far yet to avoid each others Converse and treat with Men not as their Brethren but as their Enemies Which what is it but to bring in that State of War which some though fondly have imagin'd to be the State of Nature Lastly more than which I shall not need to alledge from the Law of Reason and Nature As Murther offers a great injury to Humane Society so it offers an irreparable one to the Party murther'd there being no return from the State of Death to Life and much less if the Person have been taken away in his Sins to a possibility of obtaining Pardon from God which is a thing not to be thought of without horrour For though an Italian it may be may hug himself so much the more in it concerning one of whom it is reported that he made his Enemy abjure his God before he murther'd him that so he might at the same time destroy both Soul and Body yet none that hath the Bowels of a Man can think of it without regret that by his means Men have not onely been depriv'd of the present Life without remedy but condemn'd to an endless Torment Now though this alone might suffice to deter Men from the commission of it which is the reason I have taken no notice at all of the Consequences of Murther in the general Scheme of my Discourse yet I think it not amiss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to represent some of them also to the Consciences of those that are not yet infected with it Whereof the first that I shall assign is the clamorousness thereof in calling for vengeance upon the Murtherer For however it may be with other Sins none of which yet is without a Voice this is importunate for Vengeance and if God will not descend to Earth that will ascend to him and fill his Ears with the News of the Crime and Prayers for a Judgment on the Committer of it 'T was thus as we learn from Moses Gen. 4.10 when Cain had kill'd his Brother Abel Heaven it self was fill'd with the Outcries of the Murther and the many loud Anthems that are sung by those thousands of Angels that inhabit there were drown'd by that single Voice God himself there telling him that the voice of his brothers blood cried unto him from the ground It is true indeed For what should hinder me from making an Objection which it is so easie to assoil