them If we look upon the Apostle's Words from which the former Opinion is taken to wit All things are yours there are these things indeed which much make for the Honour as well as the Benefit of Pious Men. All things are theirs so as that with a Christian Liberty they may use them without esteeming any of them unclean All things are theirs after such a manner as that if they should absolutely stand in need of them God would order them by his Almighty Power for their Service Lastly all things are so theirs that in probability God would not suffer his Sun to shine nor his Rain to fall on the Evil were there not Good Men in the World to value his Providence and Love. But then this is the whole that those Words will bear To say that God hath given the Saints the Right of Possession and authorized them to Ingross all the World to themselves is notoriously false For as the Oeconomy of the World now stands God doth dispose of the possession of things in those ways which all Civil Nations do give consent unto or the particular Laws of Nations allow of whether they be Inheritances by Descent or the Gift of others to us or Purchased by our Money or Acquired by our Labour Where any of these are there is a Right as being God's Gifts to us by those Methods and the depriving us of them by Fraud or Force would be down-right Injustice Add to this that the Right of Possession in these ways is discernable and certain while the founding it in Grace and Holiness gives no sure Light unto us at all For how shall we know who are the Good We see Impiety can wear as good a Face somtimes as the truest Virtue and Mens Hypocrisie may cheat not only others by a specious shew but even themselves too There is nothing I may say more in the dark than true Goodness we cannot be infallible in pronouncing it in another because his Heart and Thoughts in which it peculiarly resides cannot be seen by us And our own Hearts are so deceitful that they oftentimes no less lie hid to ourselves than they do to others And therefore if Grace and Holiness which they will have to be the Ground of Dominion and Possession is so uncertain That Right which from those is so much talk'd of must needs be as uncertain But suppose that such and such should be known undoubtedly to be Religious and Gratious Persons I would ask Have they all the same Right to enjoy every thing or have they not If they have there will this absurdity follow viz. That every one cannot at the same time use what every one hath a Right unto and Quarrels may arise who shall have the Precedence in them If they have not all the same Right how comes equal Grace in many to give an unequal Title A narrower to one than to another Or if it shall evidently prove as it evidently will that Human Laws or Customs and not Grace do make a Distinction of Property why should some others whom those Laws or Customs have by no means condemned be denied the benefit of Property from them Further yet God may possibly bestow these outward good things upon a wicked Man as Encouragements to a better course of Life Somtimes he may throw them upon him as a Scourge and somtimes he may think good to reward with the Blessings of the Earth some good Actions in him when yet his Crimes will not suffer him to have hereafter a place in Heaven And in which of all these cases have not wicked Men a Right to their Estates from God as well as from Men Will any good Man think that he hath any Title to those outward Possessions which God hath conferr'd to draw Men unto Virtue Or will he arrogate to himself as Blessings what God hath made Curses to others Or lastly shall the good things which God hath given as Rewards for some commendable Actions be thought much of envied and claimed when it may be they are all the Recompences which ever shall be given And what wicked Man is there to whom his Estate may not belong in one of these ways And surely to deprive him of it upon the account of Grace in ourselves or Corrupt Nature in him would be Impiety and Presumption towards God and Injustice and Dishonesty towards Man. So unreasonable and contrary to the Law of Righteousness is this first Opinion And is it Theophilus any otherwise with the second I do not know any Laws in the New Testament that are more express and direct than those against the Resisting of Sovereign Princes Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers for there is no Power but of God Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation Rom. 13. And were it that upon the account of Religion we might resist why should the Holy Ghost so peremptorily forbid Resistence under an Emperour who he certainly knew would be a grievous Persecutor of the Gospel But if we look at the first progress of Christianity into the World the case will be evident The Gospel was not forcibly to enter the Territories of any Prince but by its own Excellence accompanied with cogent Arguments and humble Persuasions was to have admittance For indeed it was against the Nature of that which consisteth chiefly in Love to thrust itself upon the World by Acts of Hostility and Violence And if so can we reasonably think that when it is admitted it is to maintain itself by the Sword against those through whose Favour and Kindness it was first received This would be to make it by continuance to put on quite a different Nature from what it primarily had And were it to be such Princes could the less be blamed if they should be scrupulous in giving within their Dominions a place to that which at last might not allow a place to themselves there But surely Christ's Kingdom in its proper Nature is as little of this World as ever it was and so his Servants are as little to fight now as they were when He was upon the Earth It is a very remarkable place in St. Peter 2 Epist 2.10 11. where it is said That God will chiefly reserve those unto the Day of Judgment who are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities And that the holy Angels which are greater in Power and Might bring not railing Accusations against them which must needs be understood of evil Princes For what occasion may there seem for railing Accusations against those Princes that are Pious and Good Now if the blessed Angels with respect to God's Ordinance in them will speak with a kind of Heavenly Modesty and Deference concerning them is it lawful for us think we not only to let loose our Tongues in a bitter and inveighing manner but to lift up our Hands in Treasons and Rebellions against them And if those shall be reserved
own satisfaction also and shall they find fault with them in Religion And if the Holy Laws of Christ shall not only make us fit to live among Men by putting a Bridle on those Inclinations as to the outward Act but shall also render us well-pleasing in the sight of God by keeping up Chastity in the Heart and a Cleanness in the Soul shall any be so devoid of Reason as to urge this as an Argument against the Laws of Christ and not rather be willing to esteem it the Honour of these Laws and the great Credit of those who give Obedience to them This they may be sure of that the prohibiting some Inclinations even as to their most inward Motions however it may seem severe is yet in reality the facilitating of our Obedience as to the whole of it For how easie is it for him to abstain from Adultery who dares not lust The Laws would have been difficult indeed if they had forbidden the Effects and at the same time allow'd the Appetites Yea I might yet further say That there is in our Nature a Principle of Modesty and Shamefacedness which doth as much resist unclean and carnal Actings as our Inclinations may seem to promote them And he who keeps under his Appetite doth not offer so great a Violence to his Nature as he doth who by giving the Reins to his sensual Desires brings Shame and a Blush Disgrace before Men sits more uneasie upon the libidinous Actor than the restraining of his Appetite would have done This later would have been but his private pain if his pain for a time the other lasts the longer for being publick and strikes a greater torment into him by being so Yea though the unclean Person should escape Cognizance of Men yet his own Thoughts would upbraid him as having acted poorly and below the Excellence of a Man. I have Theophilus been as earnest and long upon this Subject as if these Men had been present with us and I wish they had been so if what we have said might have had any good effect upon them I am sure could we regulate their Wills it would be no difficult thing to convince their Understandings That the Laws of our Lord are in respect of Natural Inclinations and Appetites very reasonable yea truly excellent Theoph. Well it would be that if these Men will not by a right managing of their Appetites be Virtuous they were of that Rank of Creatures which by an uncontroul'd yielding to their Inclinations are not Vicious Eubul But let us proceed to another unreasonable thing which they object against the Christian Laws viz. That they dash the pleasure of Conversation by threatning every Word that is impertinent or awry with the dreadful day of Judgment Matt 12.36 which instead of Cheerfulness in a Mans self and Courtesie to his Friends may in Him excite an Anxious Fearfulness and towards Them a silent or Morose deportment It is Theophilus a very great mistake concerning idle Words to think that an innocent Cheerfulness and a kind and Courteous Converse is struck at by our Lord. No were there nothing else his Example might teach us to interpret him otherwise He came not as John the Baptist in a rough and severe manner But Eating and Drinking i. e. in an Amicable Friendly and Sociable way Having the Law of kindness in his Mouth and obliging Men unto him by his Verbal Expressions as well as doing them good by his outward Actions There are two Interpretations of our Lawgivers Speech concerning idle Words One is That by them all such Words are meant as are Un-profitable both to those that speak them and those whom they are spoken unto The other Interpretation is this That all Evil False and reviling Words are primarily meant The occasion of our Lords speaking them being from the Pharisees saying That he cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils Hereupon we are told that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idle Word is somtimes read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evil Word And though the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be the truer Reading yet still it would be but little different for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Vain and Vain is in Scripture-meaning the same with False But Theophilus take whether of these Interpretations you will I cannot see how the pleasure of Conversation will thereby be beaten down He would deserve to be excluded from all Friendly Society who should censure innocent Freedom and cheerful Talk in the number of idle Words If in the midst of worldly cares and trouble they refresh and recreate the Speakers and Hearers how can they be said to be useless to both Nay if they Administer to the Vertues of Courteousness and Affability of Kindness and Friendship the account of them at the last day we may hope will be joyful And so the Anxious Fearfulness and the Silent or Morose Deportment which was talk'd of may be laid aside It is very fit that the Best Member which a Man hath should be under a Law and I readily yield that by Idle Words the Filthiness and Foolish Talking and Jestings that are not convenient and likewise all Malicious and Perverse Speaking are utterly forbidden But by the Prohibition of these and by the Tongues being brought under a Law Conversation is very much promoted which were there no Government over the Mouth would be shrewdly Wounded if not quite overthrown An Ingenious Person would choose the greatest Solitude rather than Company should he there find Tongues let loose to Idle Impertinencies or imploy'd in nothing but Obscenities or Scurrilous and Unsavory Reflections Neither will Conversation be lessen'd or rendred less pleasing by the intermixtion of matters that are more Serious and Profitable And these are reckoned by the most ingenious of all the Poets the best Enjoyments of Society Sermo oritur non de villis domibusque alienis Nec bene necne Lepos Saltet We talk not saith he of other Folks business and affairs nor yet enquire whether such an one Danceth well or no Sed quod magis ad nos pertinet nescire malum est agitamus but what more concerns us and which it would ill become us to be ignorant of That is our Discourse As whether Riches or Vertue make Men Happy Whether Honesty or Profit should be the ground of Friendship What is the Nature of Goodness and wherein it is that the chief Good consisteth Christianity well allows of such Discourse and affords a large Field for it And surely the Heavens or the Earth the effects of Providence at large or those things that more immediately relate to our own or Neighbours advantage may seem little obliged to us if they cannot engage us from idle or disingenuous Speeches Some Theophilus for the avoiding of Idle Words have addicted themselves in all Companies to the talk of Religion and somtimes not to the pleasure of all have been forward to declare their own particular Evidences and the secret
for the Welfare of Society are those which are enjoyn'd by God. Such likewise are those that respect ourselves Why the Law is called The Ministration of Death by St. Paul. What he meaneth when he saith He was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and he died And how the Mosaick Law is termed A Yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear P. 1. The Contents of the Second Discourse THE Inducements that Christians have to Love the Divine Law. Love was the moving cause of our Lord 's becoming our Law-giver The Greatness of our Lawgivers Person All the troublesome Ceremonies of the Old Law are done away by the Laws of our Lord and this not by his Will alone but by the admirable manifestation of his Goodness and Wisdom How the Jews urging the Everlastingness of their Law is from hence answered and how their way of Speaking is corrected when they say our Lawgiver hath vilified and destroy'd their Laws Only such Laws are enjoyn'd by our Lord as have in them an Intrinsick Goodness or else are for Ends absolutely Good and such as are discernable by every one Though the Jews had some Inferiour Laws suted to their Temper and Climate which did the better fit them for the observance of those Laws which were Moral yet we have not the less reason to Love the Laws of our Lord because they are all Good without any mixture of such Inferiour Laws which may be agreeable to different Climates where Christians Live and which may promote the Precepts of our Lord are not by those Precepts excluded Christian Laws are such also as will in our Obedience much comply with our particular Way and Temper The Moral Laws which were given to the Jews are by our Lord more fully and clearly given The Laws that respect ourselves are properly belonging io the New Testament At least are there only directly and openly injoyn'd The Objection answer'd that so far is the Christian Law from being more clearly given that it requires us to admit of some things relating to Faith which no one living can conceive how they should be The Reasonableness of making our Vnderstandings to yield to our Faith. P. 35. The Contents of the Third Discourse THE Severities of the Christian Laws are not unreasonable neither do they reduce us to such straights as cannot be gone through without a great deal of uneasiness if at all The Design of our Lord is not to beat down our Natural Inclinations and Appetites but to rectifie them Our Dispositions if well managed not averse from a right Improvement The Laws of Christ do not dash the pleasure of Conversation by threatning idle Words with the Day of Judgment The Loving of Enemies while they persist to be injurious is in itself not unmeet but highly equitable in case the History of our Redemption be true Fasting and Abstinence not unreasonable nor the parting with Estates and Lives for the asserting of the Gospel From the Laws of Christ we have a fair way for the Pardon of all Sins What the Law of Faith requires of us How much it is different from the Old Law. What the Law of Repentance is Too many make Faith and Repentance to stand in opposition to the other Laws of our Lord. How the Laws being done away which was Engraven on Stones is to be understood Repentance for Sin cannot without the greatest Absurdity be wrested to the further and more safe committing of Sin. The Examples of the Thief on the Cross and of the Labourers in the Vineyard at the Eleventh Hour consider'd none of the Divine Laws unsuitable to one another These Laws of themselves are grievous unto none As they have relation only to Civil Society and the welfare of Men in this World they do far surpass those of the most noted Lawgivers they by no means do favour the Opinion that Right of Possession is Founded in Grace And that it is Lawful to resist Sovereign Princes in the Maintenance of True Religion They make the Man truly beautiful within P. 66. The Contents of the Fourth Discourse GEneral Motives relating to these Laws altogether To the Conscionable Observance of them Eternal Rewards are promised yet Earthly ones are not excluded For the securing of our Obedience Eternal Punishments are threatned after Death to the neglect of these Laws The Constituting such Punishments is no more than what is meet to be done Stronger Assistances are afforded for the Performance of these Laws than under Moses there were Most Loving Invitations and Affectionate Expressions are joyned with them We have no reason to complain that there are not now under the Gospel-Law those Visible Expressions of Gods Power and Presence as under the Old Law there were Particular Motives relating to these Laws singly and apart Such as are wholly peculiar to the Gospel or else are there more clearly and convincingly urged than ever they were before It is impossible there should be any True Happiness without these Laws From the inward Excellence of them and those admirable Motives annexed to them there is a substantial Proof of their Divinity and Truth No Man hath ever deserved to be so much honoured among Men as our Lord hath done Those who faithfully give up their Names unto him have the Precedence of all others How it comes to pass that since the Law is so good Assistances so great and Motives so taking there should be so many Disobedient Ones P. 114. The Contents of the Fifth Discourse THough the Generality of Men be Wicked and by occasion of these Laws being given shall suffer the greater Torments hereafter yet it would not thereupon have been better that these Laws should not have been given The impious folly of those Men who are willing to flatter themselves with God's being so much a God of Mercy as that he will not destroy them though they walk contrary to his Laws An Explication of I am the Light of the World. Why Miracles were confined to the first Ages of the Church That Prophecy made good viz. The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb c. The great Goodness of God in making these Laws to reach so wide as the whole World. His great Wisdom and Mercy in putting these his Laws into Writing and enjoyning the frequent Reading and Preaching of them The Reasonableness that these Laws should endure without Abrogation or Change so long as the World shall stand The great expectation which was of this our Lawgiver for so many Ages and in every respect his answering of it may prevail much for Mens Obedience to his Laws The Righteousness and Goodness of these Laws will manifest themselves to those who are sincerely Obedient P. 150. The Contents of the Sixth Discourse NOt a few think themselves secure in their actings if they can shew that some good Men in Holy Writ or some well accounted of since have done the like Examples of Good Men to be imitated no further than
Theoph. You rightly say what the word Law imports as spoken by our Psalmist God's Will being written at that time no further than as it made up the Jewish Oeconomy As it hath been manifested since it hath relation to Men in a far wider sense wheresoever planted upon the Face of the Earth Yea even those Laws of Moses which are retained in the Evangelical Dispensation cease to bind as they were given by Moses and are Obligatory now from another Lawgiver Jesus Christ But yet still they are to be acknowledged God's Laws and we may even now use these words O how I love thy Law Therefore Eubulus I desire you will shew me these things 1. What the Inducements were to this so great Love in David and other holy Men of old to the Divine Laws 2. What the Inducements are which we Christians have to love them Eubul I see Theophilus the greater share of Discourse must lie upon me but you will have it so and to my power I will obey you As to the Inducements which David and other holy Men of old had to love the Divine Laws they seem to me to arise partly from its pleasing God to give those Laws and partly from the Excellency of the Laws themselves In relation to the former I must confess that the Nature of Men seemeth necessarily to require that Laws should be given unto them For it would have been highly irrational on Mens part not to acknowledge Him as their Lord who gave them a Being and it would be a very great Dishonour unto God should we think that They whom he had made a little lower than the Angels should be left unregarded and lawless But yet when Men had fallen from their Obedience and had in great measure sullied that Law which was imprest on their Natures it was certainly a very great Favour that God in stead of throwing upon them deserved Punishments should chuse a Numerous People to be his Peculiar and should himself repair that Law thus obliterated within by writing it in Tables that it might be discern'd by the Eye Consider Theophilus the Greatness of Him who gives this Law how he needs not the Services of any Creature and also the Ingratitude of Man how he disobeyed the most righteous Law in Paradise where all the Love and Observance which possibly he could shew would not have been too much Consider this I say and the Law if it carry but any favour along with it may certainly for the sake of Him who gave it be justly esteemed and loved Neither is the Time wherein it pleased God to give these Laws unworthy of our Notice So much was the Welfare of Mankind esteemed to depend upon the Writing of Laws that many Nations in after Ages contended for the Dignity of being the first Authors thereof And Greece especially among the Priviledges which she boasts to have held forth to the rest of the World reckons this as one of the the chief But the Honour of having the first Written Laws belongs to the Hebrews alone in comparison of whom as Josephus against Apion proveth the Grecian Legislators were but of yesterday and this Honour is much heightned by God's owning the immediate Relation of a King unto them while he wrote these Laws Now the Benefit of Laws and the Glory of having These given so early and by such an Hand being well understood and rightly valued by our Psalmist who himself was a Ruler and a King might well engage his Love to them Theoph. I acknowledge the Inducement from God's thus giving the Law to be a very fair one Pray Eubulus go on to the other you mentioned viz. The Excellency of the Laws themselves Eubulus Take it in that pious King 's own words Psal 19. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul The Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the Simple The Statuts of the Lord are righteous rejoycing the Heart The Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the Eyes The Fear of the Lord is clean enduring for ever The Judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether More to be desired are they than Gold yea than much fine Gold sweeter also than Honey and the Honey-Comb Moreover by them is thy Servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward Theoph. This is a very high Character indeed of those Laws if there be as I doubt not but there is Truth in the whole Eubul There is Truth in every tittle And this will appear if we shall look upon the Laws which require Duties to Him who is the Lawgiver or to Those from one to another or to Themselves whom these Laws are given unto Pray tell me Theophilus what would you in Right Reason and according to a perfect Harmony of Things have the Duties towards a Prince and Lawgiver to be Theoph. I would desire they should be Fear Love and Gratitude and these shewn upon Grounds every way good There being nothing more comely than that Subjects should be with-held from offending by Fear moved to all Obedience by Love and excited to Acknowledgments of Benefits and Protection by Gratitude More than These I mention not because to These all others I suppose may be reduced and are in effect no other than Expressions of them Eubul All these you shall find to be according to your Wish Your first Duty of Fear is in Deut. 6.13 as also in sundry places more Thou shalt Fear the Lord thy God and serve Him and swear by his Name Their Fear is to be such as not to scare them from him but they are to approach unto him and to do him Service And for the deciding of Controversies and establishing of Truth they are to use his Name solemnly in an Oath And a right good Ground there is for such a Fear from the Power and Justice of God such as can and will inflict Punishments on them when they wilfully transgress and this to the utmost of their Deserts The Destruction of the Old World for its Impiety The Overwhelming of the Egyptians in the Red Sea The Earths opening her Mouth and swallowing up Corah Dathan and Abiram and numerous other Instances of the like Nature were hereof Testimonies sufficient So that this Law of Fearing God as a Prince and Lawgiver manifests itself to be built on a sure and lasting Foundation Your second Duty of Love is commanded Deut. 6.5 Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength It is not to be a faint and an unconstant Love but one that is strong and will not fail For the Loving of God with all the Heart and Soul and Strength doth not only import the greatest vigour of Love but the greatest duration of it also It must not be towards him Now and anon quite off him but the greatest Length it must have as well as the greatest Heighth And the strong Inducements to this Duty were well known
Disease but now mentioned it may seem he was For it is hard to give any other Reason why a Person whose Flesh is cover'd all over with the Leprosie should be pronounced clean and another who had any raw or live-flesh not overspread with it should be unclean Levit. 13.12 unless it were that the power of infection had ceased in the former and did continue in the later I doubt not Theophilus but our Psalmist and holy Men under Moses saw more things belonging to these Laws than any now adays are able to instance in But these may take off the force of what you urged against them as to their want of Reasons and in that respect as to their want of Excellencies Theoph. I willingly yield what indeed I cannot deny to these Laws And desire you will deal by my last Objection as you have done by the foregoing ones Eubul If I forget not it was this That the Precepts which require Fear are such as are enforced upon the account tbat God is Terrible and where so great Terribleness is at the bottom of these Laws the Love to them must needs be the Iess For perfect Love casteth out Fear I must confess that God in the Old Testament did often manifest himself in such a manner as might throw a Terrour into Men And even at the giving of the Law in Mount Sinai there were Thundrings and Lightnings and the Noise of the Trumpet and the Mountain smoaking All which might strike a Terrour and did strike so great an one into the People that they desired Moses to speak unto them and they would hear but should God speak unto them they should die But though this were so yet we may truly say That God chose this way by reason of the inflexible Nature of the People whom more mild and gentle Methods would not so well have prevail'd upon How often in Scripture are they called A stiff-necked People And therefore they were to be trained under the Law as under a School-master not being as yet fit for the highest things but as it were in the lowest Form. Their Duty of Fearing God they are to be excited unto by Means that represented God Terrible or they would not have feared him at all Hereupon those that knew the great Love of God to his People who rather than He would lose Them or They should cast Him off would use the more severe Methods for the keeping them in their Duty and the fitting them for his Favour might well love the Law that enjoyn'd the Fearing of God and the way also that enforced it But yet the Methods which struck such Terrour God was pleased to use only upon some special Occasions and he often if not always intermixed with them Means which were more gentle that this Fear might not be the Fear of a Slave or Captive to his Tyrant but of a Subject to his Prince who looks after those under him with Care and Love though he sometimes injects a Dread into them by his Majesty And this is very remarkable even in the giving of the Law when as we said God manifested his Terrours The Preface to the Decalogue remembers the Israelites of his great Kindnesses to them I am the Lord that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage And in the Second Commandment his visiting the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation of those that hate him is abundantly out-weigh'd by his shewing Mercy unto thousands in them that love him and keep his Commandments Some indeed there have been who have not approved of any Prologue to be put before Laws or any persuasives to be mingled with them it being the part of a Lawgiver by Authority to Command and not by arguments to persuade But though God hath more Power than all other Lawgivers and hath a Will infinitely more perfect than theirs and consequently might give his Laws in the most peremptory manner yet he was pleased to make way for them into the Hearts of his People by Love as well as Fear that as the careless might be affrighted so the more ingenuous might be allured and none kept back from Obedience either by presumption or discouragement I might instance in many places of Scripture pertinent hereunto but I will do it only in two where God is said to be Terrible The former is in Deut. 10.17 18. The Lord your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords a Mighty and Terrible God But then the very next words are He doth execute the Judgment of the Fatherless and the Widow and loveth the Stranger in giving him Food and Raiment The other place is in Nehemiah Chap. 1.5 O Lord of Heaven the great and TERRIBLE God that keepeth COVENANT and MERCY to them that Love him and observe his Commandments How is his Terribleness here mitigated yea set off and made Lovely by his Goodness and Mercy And what better Comment can we give of these Scriptures and many others not unlike them than that of David Psal 130.4 There is Mercy with Thee that thou mayest be Feared Though there hath been a Strong Wind that rent the Mountains and brake in pieces the Rocks though an Earthquake there were and after that a Fire yet God was not so much in any of these or at least delighted not so much to be in these as in the still small Voice And this I think may be sufficient for your Objection and also for the Laws which require Duties to God as a Prince and Lawgiver Better Laws and better grounds for their observance could not be wish'd and so they might well be Loved Theoph. Pray Eubulus proceed to those Laws which require Duties from Men one to another Which I well remember you would have to be considered in the next place to those Laws which respected the Duties to God immediately Eubul For the wellfare of Society a Rational Man would desire that there should be Honour and Respect shew'd unto Superiours by those that are below them and that there should not be oppression and ill nature towards Inferiours from those that are above them but that Righteousness and Kindness should be exercised unto all Now these excellent things are all strictly enjoyn'd by Gods Law. The Duty of Honour and Respect to Superiours the Fifth Command sufficiently requires Honour thy Father and thy Mother i. e. all those who being in Place or Authority above thee are in a larger Sense Fathers and Mothers And since Authority and Dignity were first seated in and did arise from that which was Paternal I suppose that therefore Father and Mother are put for all Superiours And under the Word Honour are comprised all those Duties which in any Circumstances are in right Reason to be shewn from meaner Persons to those that are above them which Circumstances may upon occasion be better conceived than here at the present discoursed of For Superiours not oppressing those who are Infeferiour
Rewards and his immediate Protection If thou shalt hearken unto the Voice of the Lord to observe and do all his Commandments the Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy Store Houses and in all that thou settest thy Hand unto And he shall bless thee in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee He shall give thee Rain in due season to multiply thy Corn and thy Wine so much that the Threshing shall reach unto the Vintage and the Vintage reach unto the Ploughing and thou shalt dwell safely in thy Land And so signal was this safety which they enjoyed that when for the Worshipping of God all the Males were frequently to repair to Jerusalem though their Borders were left Naked and defenceless yet never did their Enemies take that opportunity either to invade or any way molest them According to that Word of Exod. 34.24 Neither shall any man desire thy Land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year And lest their Love to these Laws should from Earthly Prosperity sink into Carelesness as worldly Blessings make oftentimes even that Obedience to be forgotten for which they were sent as a Reward it was kept awake and taught to be Reverential by some miraculous things which attended these Laws Such were the Vrim and the Thummim on the Breast-plate of the High-Priest which when consulted by meet Persons on weighty concerns did by a wonderful power afford answers The Ark of the Testimony from which Oracles were given by an audible Voice The Sacred Fire of the Altar which falling as it were like a Lion on the Sacrifices presently consumed them The appearance of a Cloud somtimes on the Tabernacle and afterward on the Temple to which we may add the open and remarkable effects of Gods Power manifest in Battles and in particular Revenges from Heaven upon presumptuous Sinners God would not have done so wondrously in relation to his Laws had they not been of very high account with him and this might well keep up Life and Vigour in Considering and Devout Mens Love towards them I have Theophilus in my speaking to these Laws asked of you what in Right Reason and according to a perfect Harmony of Things you would have the Duties towards a Prince and Lawgiver to be And I have ventured to say that a Rational Man for the Welfare of Society would wish for such and such Laws And this I think I might well do without offering any injury to these Laws by making Human Reason to be the Judge of them For they are rightly agreeable to our Nature and the true Sentiments thereof But though they are so and by all must be acknowledg'd so to be yet no Nation on Earth was so happy as to have them so established as the Jews had Hereupon it is said Deut. 4.6 Keep ye these Statutes and do these Judgments for this is your Wisdom and Vnderstanding in the sight of the Nations which shall hear all these Statutes and say Surely this great Nation is a Wise and Vnderstanding People for what Nation is there so great which hath Statutes and Judgments so Righteous as all this Law which I set before you this Day And very observable it is as to what I have been speaking viz. That in times of Captivity when the Laws of the Conquer'd are usually changed if not wholly destroyed by the Conquerours these Laws found such favour abroad that they were never as to any part of them alter'd And that the Jewish Nation lived to see the Periods of three noted Monarchies succeeding one another and in an uninterrupted Line did itself continue still the same flourishing and happy unless when careless and disobedient cannot be ascribed to any thing but the Excellency of these Laws and Gods more than ordinary Blessing attending them All which things Theophilus being rightly weighed may shew forth the Madness of Marcion and some others of the Gnostick Crew who impiously pronounced the God of the Old Testamrnt to be an Evil One Morose and Cruel and of a different Nature quite from him to whom the New Testament belongeth Although greater Love is display'd by Christ than under Moses could be discern'd yet that the Old Law proceeded from a Good God who was Merciful and Gracious and who made those his Laws suitable to the Jewish Nation and pertinently significant of better things to come all certainly who will be righteous and considerate in their Thoughts must needs confess with a Detestation and Abhorrence of such Marcionitish Blasphemy Theoph. But since all these Laws whether relating to God or Men are so Excellent and so Worthy to be Loved Why doth St. Paul call them the Ministration of Death 2 Cor. 3.7 And why doth he say he was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin Revived and he Dyed Rom. 7.9 as if he were the worse for the Law and might date his Death from it Why lastly doth S. Peter call the Mosaick Institution a Yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear Act. 15.10 Eubul In answer to your first Scripture wherein the Law is called the Ministration of Death some understand it thus not as if the Law brought no Priviledges with it or rather Death but so as that all the promises which were made to the Obedience of the Law were such as had relation to this Life only and were all terminated in Death And therefore it is observed that the Word Life in all the Books of Moses is never taken otherwise then for this Temporal Life And all the rewards are mention'd only under the Name of Temporal Blessings as may be seen in Deut. 28. and other places Not saith a Worthy Man of our own but that Eternal Rewards were in good measure Revealed to some Excellent Persons of Old and the frequenter afterwards as the coming of Christ drew nearer but these Revelations though vouchsafed by God under the Law did not properly belong to the Law and in strictness of Speaking were not of it It might therefore be well called the Ministration of Death in case the Rewards belonging unto it had thus an end and did cease in Death However the Law might justly have this Appellation because as I before mentioned in the primary Sanction of it Death was the Punishment of Disobedience Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them And though God was pleased to mitigate this Severity in allowing Sacrifices to be an Expiation for some Sins yet the great Transgressions of the Law how repentant soever the Committers might be found no such favour Only lesser Offences and such as proceeded from Imprudence rather than Design were those for which Sacrifices were indulg'd Whilst the Souls that did ought presumptuously whether Strangers or born in the Land were to be cut off from among the People Numb 15.30 31. Which as it may seem made David
be when yet they have the greatest Arguments to convince them that they are May not God exceed their Understandings in things relating to Heaven as much as in things belonging unto Earth And if the things which are seen are in great measure in the Dark to them shall they contradict those things which are not seen meerly because they cannot equal them with their Thoughts Because Christ is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anatomiz'd as it were Naked and open unto Men as Men are unto Him shall they therefore have no Faith in him But as I said before Although the Things we are to believe are high who can throughly know them yet the Law that bids us believe is Clear and Intelligible And it may very well deserve our Love because there are none of these Mysteries which we are to believe but what our Wellfare and Happiness are Founded in and what are instrumental to the Birth and Exercise of those excellent Virtues which the other Laws of our Lord do enjoyn Yea so far as they are Revealed unto us they are to be Rested in not Pryed into And we shall not think amiss if we persuade ourselves they shall hereafter be more fully manifested unto us as a Reward of the Obedience of our Understandings here You 'l excuse me Theophilus that I have been so long on this Answer though truly I could not well help it since the Objection or rather Objectors seem'd to require it Theoph. You shall have your pardon on one Condition that you will be guilty of the like fault in Answering the next Eubul It is very likely I may However I shall not be over Solicitous because I have my pardon before Hand But it begins to be late Every thing is bending Homewards and minds us of what we likewise are to do The next Evening will I hope allow us that Hour which this denies us DISCOURSE the Third The Contents THE Severities of the Christian Laws are not unreasonable neither do they reduce us to such straights as cannot be gone through without a great deal of uneasiness if at all The Design of our Lord is not to beat down our Natural Inclinations and Appetites but to rectifie them Our Dispositions if well managed not averse from a right Improvement The Laws of Christ do not dash the pleasure of Conversation by threatning idle Words with the Day of Judgment The Loving of Enemies while they persist to be injurious is in itself not unmeet but highly equitable in case the History of our Redemption be true Fasting and Abstinence not unreasonable nor the parting with Estates and Lives for the asserting of the Gospel From the Laws of Christ we have a fair way for the Pardon of all Sins What the Law of Faith require of us How much it is different from the Old Law. What the Law of Repentance is Too many make Faith and Repentance to stand in opposition to the other Laws of our Lord. How the Laws being done away which was Engraven on Stones is to be understood Repentance for Sin cannot without the greatest Absurdity be wrested to the further and more safe committing of Sin. The Examples of the Thief on the Cross and of the Labourers in the Vineyard at the Eleventh Hour consider'd None of the Divine Laws unsuitable to one another These Laws of themselves are grievous unto none As they have relation only to Civil Society and the welfare of Men in this World they do far surpass those of the most noted Lawgivers They by no means do favour the Opinion that Right of Possession is Founded in Grace And that it is Lawful to resist Sovereign Princes in the Maintenance of True Religion They make the Man truly beautiful within EVBVLVS AFter that store of Visitants in whose obliging Conversation your Afternoon I hear hath been spent I had thought Theophilus that your Evening Retirement would have been forgot if not wholly hindred and I began to be content that my Walk must to Night be lonely THEOPHILVS NO Eubulus I did not intend to leave you so you see I am at liberty and though I am much Delighted with the Company of Temperate and Ingenious Friends as these to Day were yet I could not forget when they were gone that Eubulus would be here I am I confess much taken with that pleasantness which ariseth from a number of good Friends together but I more enjoy myself with One alone if that One be like my Eubulus The Other smooth my Forehead into Smiles This I will say doth me good at Heart And therefore permit me without further Ceremony to put you in Mind of what will be so Grateful unto me Viz. Your vindicating of the Divine Laws against those who say That granting the Precepts of Christianity are very full and enjoyn'd to a greater Spirituality than in olden Time yet the Severities of them are unreasonable to Vs as we are Men reducing us to such Straights as cannot be gone through without a great deal of Vneasiness if at all And though there be you say none who will not commend a pure Air yet if it be so thin and pure as not to be breath'd in without much difficulty there is no Reason it should be over-delighted in and loved Eubul With Acknowledgments of your kind Expressions to me which I wish I could deserve but am very sensible I do not I would in reference to the Objection of these Men know what those Severities those Straights are which they mean as unreasonable so should we the more clearly answer them Theoph. I remember I heard these things particularly mentioned by them Viz. That the Laws of Christ beat down those Inclinations and Appetites which are Natural unto us That they dash the Pleasure of Conversation by threatning every word that is impertinent or awry with the dreadful Day of Judgment Matth. 12.36 Which instead of Chearfulness in a Mans self and Courtesie to his Friends may in Him excite an anxious Fearfulness and towards them a silent or morose Deportment That they require the Loving of Enemies even while they persist to be injurious which they say deprives us of that sense of Honour and Courage which as we are Men should belong to us and makes way also for new and greater Injuries to be done us That they enjoyn the Macerating the Body with Fasting and Abstinence which what is it but the making a Man cruel to his own Flesh Yea that they bind us to part with our Estates and Lives for the asserting the Gospel when merely some outward Compliance and a Denial of some few things only and this no otherwise than in shew for a time would preserve us Which is an hard saying and who say they can bear it Eubul Truly I think this is the whole they can object and with how little Reason they do it I shall I trust sufficiently shew As to the first viz. That the Laws of Christ beat down those Inclinations and Appetites which are Natural
how low is That in Comparison of This I am he that prepare Eternal Mansions for you in the Heavens That reserve for you an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled which fadeth not away A Crown which withereth not And hence our Lord is called the Prince of Life Acts 3.10 Not only because he was dead and is alive and for ever will live but also because he was Author of Eternal Life and made it the Reward of Obedience to his Laws And when our Lord shall purchase our poor Obedience at so excessive a Value as the giving of Heaven and the Glory thereof when he might justly command more Rigorous Services without any Rewards further than merely our having of Life and being preserved while we do them what a mighty motive is it for Obedience to these Laws and for our Love to them also Mean is the being Blessed in the City and in the Field in respect of the Happiness that Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard and that hath not ent'red into the Heart of Man to conceive To have Life Eternal and all Joys attending it so that with Improved Souls and Spiritual Bodies we cannot wish them to be greater nor fear them to be less Joys must sutably following a Vertuous Life and so refin'd and sacred that they are worthy of an Immortality for the being possess'd how much doth it surpass a Life's being long in an Earthly Canaan and those more common and sensible Blessings that were given to it Though yet these Earthly Rewards are not wholly excluded by the Heavenly neither but when they shall be expedient for us we shall have them Eternal Blessings under the Gospel do assure us of Temporal so far forth as they shall be for our Good as Temporal under the Mosaick Law did presignifie Eternal ones that should follow For he that spared not his own Son but gave him for us all How shall be not in Him freely give us all things And herein upon much better ground are we placed than Those were who made Virtue to be its own Reward and would have Men even in the midst of Torments though there were no hope of an Alleviation to think that they had a sufficiency of Happiness from it alone This was high and magnificent Talk indeed and if secure from ever being put into Practice it might have rested in Speculation only Virtue would not have been discredited thereby But small Comfort it carried with it when Pains and Troubles were actually to be undergone And a Man on the Rack might almost be thought not un-wise if for the obtaining of ease he would let go such an Happiness For more commended surely is the observance of the Laws of Christ which includeth in it all sorts of Virtue Our Obedience is indeed to be maintain'd if occasion there were even to the loss of all Earthly Enjoyments but then it often in this World hath Plenty and Honour as its Attendants and Reward Or if it so shall be that God in his Wisdom shall suffer it on every Hand to be encompass'd with Afflictions it yet hath somthing to sustain it besides the meer reflecting upon itself to wit the assurance that however its condition at the present be strait and difficult it will not always be so God can and it may be he will give Relaxation and Ease here but if this he shall not do there shall certainly after Death be Joys sufficient when these short Troubles shall be abundantly made up by an Happiness which never shall have an end And this may afford a firm support to Virtue and Administer a Cheerfulness even in the Valley of the Shadow of Death Who is it then that can refuse Obedience to the Laws of our Lord when he thus brings Life and Immortality to Light and promiseth them as Rewards to our Obedience And if the Excellency of the Laws themselves will not prevail upon the Man for his Love how can he stand out against the Happiness that attendeth them Those Christians that endeavour to put far from them this Happiness by esteeming the Obedience to be Low and Mercenary which hath respect to a Reward I very much pity as being such who through sad error deny to themselves the greatest comfort of their Life but very much blame them also in that as much as in them lies they devest the Holy Laws of their Inestimable Ornament and would take from us the Joy that is set before us which was the great support to our Lord in his enduring the Cross and despising the Shame and so may justly be an Encouragement to Vs in the doing of his Will Especially since by reason of our Weakness and Imperfection we have little reason to let go what may so strongly excite us unto and so sweetly confirm us in our Duty But Theophilus for the further securing of Obedience to these Laws there are Eternal Punishments after Death threatned to the Disobedient It is better saith our Lord to enter into Life Maimed than having two Hands to go into Hell into the Fire that never shall be quenched Where their Worm dieth not and where their Fire is not quenched There being a Worm to Gnaw the Man declareth that there is Torment and there being a worm not failing nor dying declareth the perpetuity of the Torment there being a Fire to burn denoteth pain and there being a Fire not quenchable for so the Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie denoteth an Everlasting Duration of that pain In like manner are we to understand those Words of St. Matthew Chap. 25.46 They shall go into Everlasting Punishment i. e. They shall go into that which shall never cease nor have end The Law of Old did indeed in its strictest constitution affix a Curse to wit Death upon every one that continued not in all things Written therein to do them But yet that Rigour was so far Mitigated that when less Punishments were allowed for some Sins Lustings though still forbidden might seem to have no Penalty at all imposed or else were thought to be wip'd off in Course by the Daily Sacrifices Hereupon it was that the Jews if they could abstain from outward Miscarriages were little concerned for inward Rectitude a freedom from Punishment rendring the Law of no weight with them But it is not so in the Laws of our Lord. They cannot be esteem'd to lose their efficacy for want of Punishment annexed Whosoever shall break one of these least Commands and shall teach Men so shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. He shall have no place in it shall be despised and rejected by God in the Day of Judgment Even the Looking upon a Woman to lust after her and the being Angry with a Brother without a Cause are esteemed by our Lawgiver in the same rank with Adultery and Murder and shall be obnoxious to the same kind of Punishment with them Which is well signified by the words in St. Matth.
Epistles excepting those only to particular Persons are written to the Holy Brethren To the Churches of God that are sanctified in Jesus Christ And to all that call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus And hereupon we may discern as in a late Book hath been well discoursed that the Holy Scriptures are as it were a Trust committed to every Christian and he is to be so true to his charge as by no means to part with it Yea these Sacred Writings are our Lord's Will and Testament by which a Man becomes an Heir through Jesus Christ And if so then He that is Heir of an Estate hath surely no less right to the Conveyances that make over the Estate than he hath to the Estate itself And therefore if in common Estates upon Earth it will be every Man's Prudence to secure to himself the Deeds upon which the Estates depend In this Heavenly Inheritance it will be every Man 's not Prudence only but Duty to preserve to himself the Writings that conveigh it The reason is because though a Man may without blame somtimes part with an Inheritance on Earth yet with That in Heaven he cannot without the Imputation of Folly and Wickedness and even the exposing of his own Soul to Sale and Servitude The Pleadings of some Men viz. That the permitting the Scriptures to be in the Hands of the common People is the cause of Schisms and Heresies would have more weight with it if in the Ages most fruitful of Schisms and Heresies the Learned had not had therein as great a share as not to say a greater than any others and if where the Vulgar have of late in this matter seem'd most guilty we had not too much reason to believe That even Those who most complain of them have by their secret Emissaries seduced them on purpose into Errors and divided them into Parties when otherwise they would have walked in straiter Paths and been more at Unity amongst themselves But though there hath been by some an ill use made of the Scriptures yet God to whom These Things long before were not hid thought them not reason enough for hindring the Writing of his Will or for the withholding it when written from the Hands of any And his Goodness and Wisdom is herein manifested in that the ill effects which would have proceeded from the not writing his Laws or the denying them to the Eye of the Vulgar would in all probability have been far more and greater than from the contrary And the good effects of their being written and allow'd to the use of all Men are by the blessing of God much greater than the bad Consequences now are Theoph. Inferr'd also may be the Reasonableness that these Laws should endure without Abrogation or Change so long as the World shall stand The Gospel is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Everlasting Gospel Rev. 14.6 Such as never shall cease nor be as to the Laws of it in any case Repeal'd And upon this account it is that the Time from our Lord's Ascension to the End of the World or his Coming to Judgment is called the Last Days in Holy Writ A great many years indeed have passed since these Laws were given by our Lord and a great many more possibly may pass before the Dissolution of the World shall be but yet these are the Last Days because we are not to expect another Dispension nor another Lawgiver For it is He that will be with us in his Laws and by his Spirit unto the End of the World. Better Laws cannot be given None can Imagine how there should be any Other more sutable to Infinite Holiness Justice and Goodness in Him that gives them or more agreeable to the Nature and Soul of Men to whom they are given And so if the Gospel wherein these Laws are be called Everlasting if the Time that shall be to the End of the World together with that which hath already been since these Laws were given hath the Appellation of the Last Days upon the account that a further Declaration of God's Will is not to be expected we from our foregoing Discourse may easily perceive that abundant Reason there is why it so should be And whosoever they be that shall make the Breach of any of the Divine Laws either to be none or a less fault now than in former Ages it was under a Pretence that our Nature groweth weaker every Day than other and must therefore have its Allowances in Disobedience for so they seem too plainly to affirm who say Hodie pro fornicatione neminem esse deponendum quia fragiliora sunt nostra Corpora quà m olim erant Distinct 82 in Gloss do fouly reflect upon our Lawgivers perpetual institution and make those Sacred Precepts which should govern the evil Inclinations of Men to be in effect over-ruled by them which is a thing so extreamly ill that the World must be weak indeed when it is not odious to a Religious Ear. Eubul Your Inferences Theophilus are Right and I cannot at present think of another But that must not hinder your further going on with them Theoph. I have done what I promised following every one of yours with another But if you have made an end your ceasing is my excuse and may well be so Eubul To draw then to a Conclusion of this our Subject I hope in the Consideration of the Divine Laws we have not exceeded the bounds of our Duty by inquiring further than we ought to do Theoph. I think I justly may absolve you from any such fault now committed For though it be a fault over-curiously to pry into the Laws of our Lord as if all the Reasons of them were to be understood by us and though where we do not understand many things in Relation to them we are to acquiesce by persuading ourselves that they are in every respect Holy and Just yet where the reasons of them lie open to view or at least by an Humble and Devout search into them may easily be found out there it will be well-becoming us and no more than Duty to look into them That the Excellences of them may be discern'd by us and that our Love of them and Gods Glory from them may be the more raised and magnified And indeed Eubulus in all your words I have perceived nothing but what is agreeable to so humble a search and so pious an end And I acknowledge myself as much edified thereby so likewise much obliged to you Eubul The Design of our Discourse hath been good And that I trust will cast a Vail upon what Defects soever may have been in it And if it hath administred to your Satisfaction or in the Apostle's words but stirr'd up your pure Mind by way of Remembrance I shall account its doing so to be sufficiently my Reward A good Work it would be Theophilus if upon occasion we could prevail abroad for a due esteem and love of these sacred Laws Men are apt to
And some of these Enemies from the expressness of those Prophecies which respect our Saviours sufferings have been forced to say that there is to be a Suffering Messias as well as a Glorious one though they will not allow the True Messias who is both the One and the Other to be either Theoph. I could desire to be continually fixed on the thoughts of the Prophetick part of Scripture so divinely pleasant is it from the lively Representation of great and sacred things in after-times revealed I doubt not but there will be a true Beauty in that other part of holy Scripture which you termed the ADHORTATIVE Eubul If great Love intermingled with great Art in the enforcing of it can give a Beauty and what can give a greater Beauty than these it is truly amiable And indeed God who knoweth our Frame and Make and can tell what Words will most Sway the Affections of Men hath seemed to let go none that may prevail with them to be such as they ought to be Somtimes enforcing his Exhortations from the Greatness of his Favours the Excellences of his Laws the Natural Desires and Aversations of Men their Forgetfulness and such like I almost wonder how any of the Jews of Old could be Disobedient when they read such Words as these Ask now of the Days that are past since the Day that God Created Man upon the Earth and ask from the One side of Heaven unto the Other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is or hath been heard like it Did ever People hear the Voice of God speaking out of the mid'st of the Fire as Thou hast heard and Live Or hath God assayed to go and take him a Nation from the midst of another Nation by Signs and Wonders and a Mighty Hand Thou shalt therefore keep his Statutes He led thee through the great and terrible Wilderness where there was no Water and he brought thee forth Water out of the Rock of Flint He fed thee there with Manna which thy Fathers knew not Thy Raiment waxed not Old upon thee neither did thy Foot swell these Forty years Therefore shalt thou keep the Commandments of the Lord thy God. And where an Exhortation is set home by the recounting of such mighty Favours it cannot sure but prevail There is nothing usually will take more with a Man than the Reputation of being Wise and Vnderstanding The Excellency of Man consisting in nothing more than in a Power of Discerning and Acting what is good On this ground therefore it is that God builds his Exhortation Keep saith he and do these Statutes and Judgments for this is your Wisdom and Vnderstanding in the sight of the Nations Deut. â— 6 And since a Man will bear any thing better than the Name of Fool and accounteth it a great Discredit to act weakly and below a Man Therefore God so often in Scripture termeth Disobedience Folly and speaketh thus to Transgressors O ye Fools when will you learn Wisdom How long ye simple Ones will ye love Simplicity and Fools hate Knowledge Turn you at my Reproof I look upon Peace and Plenty to be as it were a visible Exhortation and a Persuasive that is palpable and may be felt But because these do somtimes steal away the Heart and are apt to render the Man forgetful of his Gracious Benefactor God in infinite Goodness is pleased to strengthen this Exhortation by Cautioning us when we have eaten and are full not to forget Him to take heed to ourselves and to keep our Souls diligently lest we forget the things which our Eyes have seen and lest we depart from the Lord our God all the days of our Life But should any be so heedless or perverse as not to be prevail'd upon by such Exhortations as these how can they hold out against God's pathetical Pleading with them Thus Ezek. 18 Ye say The Way of the Lord is not equal O House of Israel is not my Way equal are not your Ways unequal If ye offer the Lame and the Sick is it not evil Offer it now unto thy Governour will He be pleased with thee or accept thy Person saith the Lord of Hosts A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master If I then be a Father where is mine Honour If a Master where is my Fear Malac. 1. I will plead with you saith the Lord and with your Childrens Children will I plead For pass over the Isles of Chittim and see and send unto Kedar and consider diligently and see if there be any such thing Hath a Nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods But my People have changed their Glory for that which profiteth not Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord of Hosts For my People have committed two Evils They have forsaken me the Fountain of Living Waters and hewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no Water Jer. 2. Theoph. These are highly moving And in my Opinion no less is that of quickning Mens Obedience even by the better Carriage of Beasts and Fowls I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me The Ox knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib But Israel doth not know my People doth not consider Isai 1. I hearkned and heard but thy spake not aright no Man repented him of his Wickedness saying What have I done Yea the Stork in the Heavens knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming but my People know not the Judgment of the Lord Jer. 8. He will be yet much lower than the Beasts and Fowls who seeing himself out-gone by them will not be ashamed and quicken his pace Eubul There are innumerable other Schemes of Speech which God Almighty useth as if he would not omit so much as one Figure or Topick of sacred Oratory by which the wicked Hearts of Men might be bent to their good And truly all the gracious Methods which under the Legal Dispensation he hath chosen for Persuasives are in force now under the Gospel for the engaging us to Obedience it being through the Blood of Christ that so much Care and Love was then shewed Only what were made Excitements to the Jews are now with the change of some Circumstances enlarged and do belong to the whole World. As for those Exhortations which are more strictly comprized in the Gospel what may we say of them or rather what may we not The New Covenant is so wholly in itself a Persuasive set off with the highest Expressions of Divine Wisdom and Love that where IT alone will not prevail all other Arguments may seem fruitless But that there may nothing be wanting which may work upon the Soul of Man what affectionate Beseechings are there added What earnest Invitations given How are pure Minds stirred up by way of Remembrance What fervent Prayers are made for
Freedom This I doubt not but those words the whole Creation groaneth do signifie not only Men but the rest of the Creatures also which have been for so long a time abused to Unrighteousness Theoph. If thus it be in respect of the Creatures whose Being as to a great part of them is of the more insensible sort we may be sure that He who is a Jealous God of his Honour is more neerly concern'd Eubul Yes Theophilus he is throughly Sensible how Vnworthily in the Creations Thraldom he hath been dealt with and therefore all these things must have the Pollution which hath been thrown upon them to be purged off The Heavens shall pass away with a great Noise and the Elements shall Melt with Fervent Heat and all the Works therein shall be Burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 and so shall be purified from their Corruption and Stains For v. 12. it is said We look for a new Heaven according to his Promise and a New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness all which Expressions though by some they be made to signifie the Dissolution of the Jewish State and the Establishment of the Gospel of Christ in the World yet certainly they have relation to the Last Day the Day of Judgment also if not only unto That And the Fire is denoted as to destroy the Vain Works of Men on the Earth so likewise to purifie those parts of the Creation which have by Men been abused unto Sin and Vanity Theoph. Were the Foul Nature of Disobedience rightly discern'd surely Eubulus all Men would abhor it For could any one on this side Hell be willing to bring such Servitude on God such Thraldom on the Creation and thereby such unspeakable Deformity on Themselves Eubul Such Evils are there in Disobedience that when we think the worst of it we think not bad enough but we have as yet only in part seen it of such an Extensive Nature is this hateful Thing that it would spread itself beyond all Time and Place And so the Actors of it although somthing shorereach'd they be in their Deeds yet are not so in their Will and Desires Yea they may truly be said to affect a kind of Eternity in their Sins The Pleasures of Wickedness in which they make God to Serve as hath been said how sorry are they that they are of no greater a length And did they but know how to do it how forward would they be to stretch them out into an Infinite Duration and bind the Almighty all the way to minister to their Polluted Conversations If Conscience within doth check them full gladly would they remove it for ever out of their Breasts that it might disturb them no more And Him who in Heaven is the Lord of All they would either wholly Dethrone and Dispossess of all his Sovereignty or else would entrust him with it no farther than to Serve their Humours as they upon occasion should call for it Theoph. Pray give a particular Instance or two of what you now say Eubul Take Theophilus the Malicious Man first he cannot it may be do much against them whom he Hates but he hath a Will to punish them Eternally knew he but how And this methinks those severe Curses too much speak out when he Dreadfully upon any Displeasure bids God to Damn Them and as far as his Words and Wishes will do it gives them over unto the Devil to be taken Neither is it any better with the Ambitious Man. He would be always rising above others and the Great God must for ever administer to his Proud Wishes and Designs If he at any time be disappointed in his Hopes and Enterprises he inwardly rageth and is in effect sorry that the Power of the Highest is not so much at least in his Hand as that he may exalt himself above all other Men and continue there without any fear of ever being Lower thus far God must always Serve him and when he should be accustom'd for some time to the greatest Height on Earth we have reason to think he would next wish to be the Supream of Heaven too and to extort the whole Power from the Creator of the World. Some Men perhaps would think that what I have spoken borders too much upon Fancy but Theophilus in Reality it doth not And well for us it is That there is a God above who will not let go his Power That his Laws are fixt and that his Authority in them will never can never be overthrown Happy are we that Heaven will always be his Gift and Hell be never otherwise than in his Disposals Alas what should we do if we and all things else were in the power of some Men How miserable would their Malice and ill Nature make us to be on Earth Upon what light Offences should we be sent quick into Hell How would Heaven lie open to Pride and Ambition How all the Work of our Redemption be trodden under foot And those sacred Laws in so much Righteousness and Mercy given us by our Lord how turn'd into Confusion Nothing is so evil but might they have their Wills God's Power should serve for the accomplishing and perpetuating of it And not only his Holy Name and his Works but his Person and Glorious Attributes should be brought under and made Vassals to their wicked Imaginations and uncontroul'd Impiety Theoph. What could Disobedience do more if God were an Intruder in the World If he used his Power in an Oppressive way and if Man were least of all Creatures fitted for his Service Eubul Here it is Theophilus that Disobedience hath its Loathsomness For so far is the Almighty from being an Intruder that there was no God formed before him neither shall there be any after him nor is there any besides him He is the only Potentate King of Kings and Lord of Lords and so he usurps the Right of none affects no unjust Power The Heavens and the Earth were the Works of his Hands nor hath he ever made over his Right to any other None then can say that he intruded into the World and by Injustice holds the Dominion thereof Neither doth he Rule in an Oppressive way At the first â—â—nstrain'd by no necessity nor owing any thing to any one and needing the Services of none but prompted by his own Goodness alone He through his Power gave Being unto Men. When he had this done He honoured them with the Dominion over all Things in this Lower World but much more he honour'd them in making them such who could discern Him that Created them and could do him Service Indeed the meanest Creatures upon Earth however sensless in their Natures do yet serve God Even Snow and Hail Wind and Storm fulfil his Word but then they know not that they fulfil it and so their Obedience in respect of themselves is less worthy God may more truly be said to serve himself of them according to the Expression of the Prophet Jer. 34.10 than they be said properly
doth vindicate his own Soveraignty and Power which they as much as in them lieth have brought under and trampled upon And this he so doth as that they themselves may look upon it to be God's just Hand and that others also may acknowledge it his doing But then Communities of Men which by their publick Sins make the Almighty to serve are always when those Sins are ripe punished in this World for they cannot with any reason be thought punishable in the next because all Bonds of Civil Society are utterly broken and evacuated by the Death of the Whole Yea and those Private Men who have contributed their share to the Sins of a Nation as such are also oftentimes in some respect punished in this World even after Death by Publick Calamities reaching their Children or other Relations in whom themselves are in a manner still here continued Which to one who rightly considers it sheweth forth God's Righteous Judgments upon them But because it is not always safe to pronounce That the untimely Deaths or unexpected Miseries of some particular Persons are an immediate Stroke of God upon them for their Disobedience for our Christian Charity will not permit this when we know no signal Crimes by them And the great Afflictions of some who are not greater Sinners than other Men and of some whom we have reason to esteem as good Men may caution us in this point not to be over-forward to Judge And because also we see a great many wicked Men to live and become old to be in no Troubles as other Men to die in peace and leave the rest of their Substance for their Babes Therefore we may affirm it as a Truth Viz. That God seeth it fit generally not to cut off those Men nor yet to force them into Obedience who by their Disobedience do thus make him to serve He seeth it fit generally not to cut them off that they may have space for Repentance Thus did he to the Church of Thyatira I gave her saith he space to Repent of her Fornication And for this end may he spare these dealing with them as the Lord did with the Barren Fig-Tree hoping that though they be not fruitful this year they will grow better the next And this the rather because from the thoughts of this Goodness of God unto them they may the more effectually be prevail'd upon to repent Despisest thou saith the Apostle the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God in this his Forbearance and Long-suffering leadeth thee to Repentance A Sorrow for former Sins and an Acknowledgment of God's Soveraignty for the future in Mens giving themselves up to his Service may arise from other Considerations but from none more directly or more forcibly than from that of his sparing them and suffering them to live that they may Repent and Turn unto him Neither may it be a small Motive for his not generally Cutting them off that in case they do not Repent there may from their Freedom from Punishment in this Life be afforded unto us a strong Proof that there will be Another Life after This in which those Sins which are here spared and Unrepented of shall most surely be punished God is a Righteous God and he hath told us plainly by his Prophet Nahum Chap. 1.3 That he will not acquit the Wicked And it is not Unobservable that These Words are put thus to wit The Lord is slow to Anger and great in Power and will not acquit the Wicked As much as to say Though he forbear long yet it is not as if he could not punish yea if they shall go on in their Disobedience and not Repent them of their Misdeeds they most certainly shall have the Reward of their Doings Now in that These Wicked Men who to the utmost of their Power make God to Serve do often live and dye without Punishments they must necessarily be punished after Death or else God will contrary to his Word acquit the Wicked But the Judge of the Earth will do Right though all Men shall be Lyars yet God cannot but be True And therefore he will not Cut them off that he may make them a strong Argument that there will be a Day of Punishments when this World is at an End with them And Lastly Theophilus we may not amiss think he will suffer them to Live that if They Repent not here they themselves may hereafter in the Other World confess that they are justly punished Though Gods sparing their Lives in so much Mercy when they had deserved to be struck Dead or sent Living into Hell were little minded by them on Earth it yet shall at the Great Tribunal have this effect upon them viz. To make them acknowledge that their Damnation is Just because They had so much favour shew'd them and they shut their Eyes upon it And surely as Gods Gracious Designs of Mens Turning unto him and being happy do take off whatever can be Objected against his not presently destroying the Disobedient So the Reputation of his Justice which will by this means be Exalted even among Those that in Hell shall suffer it may abundantly Vindicate Gods Government of the World from being slack and remiss though he do not immediately Condemn unto Death those who make him to Serve by their Sins Theoph. You have throughly satisfied me why God doth not presently Cut those off who are Rebellious But since all Power is his and with a Word He can do it why doth he not Force them into Obedience that his Sovereignty may be acknowledg'd by all and not opposed so much as in appearance by any Eubul One Reason may be Because he would have their Obedience to be their Virtue and such as shall become Rational Creatures to give He as Elihu saith Teacheth Them more than the Beasts of the Earth and maketh Them Wiser than the Fowles of Heaven that they may know what Good and what Evil is and may be sensible of the Favours that are shew'd unto them He hath given them a Will to choose or refuse what things are before them And hath planted Affections in their Souls by which Love and Gratitude may be Exercised Now when they shall endeavour to Understand what is truly Good and also what Gods Loving-kindness to them is when they shall choose that which is best and shall willingly serve Him whom they know to be the Lord of the World and their Lord Loving him for his Goodness and striving to express Thankfulness to him so far as they are able when I say they shall do this they will be Virtuous and shew themselves such as their Nature and Make require they should be But how unagreeable would it be for these Men to be forced contrary to their Mind and Will Wherein would they be Commendable should they do that which they could not help And how unsutable to Love and Gratitude is Violence and Constraint It is Love that is
Favours are obliged to Honour Reverence and Love their Good Master should instead of doing That cause Him to gird himself and to Serve Them till they have Eaten and Drunk and afterwards bid Him to Eat and Drink Whether yet it would not seem much worse to them if these Servants should constrain their Lord to those shameful Actions which the vilest of Slaves would be thought too good for I doubt not but such Servants they would abhor and think no punishments great enough for Them. The Case stands worse in their own making God Serve by their Disobedience For no Earthly Master can deserve so much Honour and Love of a Servant as God doth of Them. Neither can any Servitude even in the most noisome Circumstances be so loathsome to a Master here as the Service of their Sins is unto God. And is it a becoming thing that He who is God over all should be thus Vilified by his own Creatures That He before whom the Angels Cover their Faces and whose Courts We even in our best Services are to approach with Fear and Reverence should be so far profaned as without any regard to his Greatness and Holiness to be brought lower than the meanest of all his Works into a Bondage of itself useful to no good End Sure the Horrid Villany of the thing may make them abominate it Especially since They who of all this lower World are the meetest to Serve God are the alone Creatures that Disobey him All things here even to the meanest Worm that creeps do his Will in their several places and shall Men be the failing yea the Rebellious part of the Creation And instead of serving God with the rest of his Works shall they force those his Works from his Service and themselves make Him by their Sins to Serve Theoph. In good Truth while they thus do they bring the greatest Slavery upon Themselves in that they Serve many Masters and those such as are contrary the one to the Other This Vice bids go That at the same time wills them to stay Covetousness prompts them to hold fast Ambition urges them not to Spare Pride makes them to despise Others and yet to their great uneasiness to fawn that they may rise higher A most uncertain Slavery it is and no less difficult What underhand Contrivances What Glozings with those they cannot abide What Infidelity to them whom thy pretend Friendship unto What Fears of being found out What Evil Industry to keep all private No Servitude can surely be worse Eubul But Theophilus wee 'l now leave these Men Putting up Prayers to God for them that they may remember such things as these bring them seriously to their Minds weigh them in their most deliberate Thoughts and by so doing instead of being Transgressors shew Themselves to be Men. DISCOURSE the Ninth The Contents THe Plea of those is vain who say they never sinned maliciously against the Almighty nor wish'd his Greatness and Power to be less The Difference betwixt Rebellion against God and that against a Temporal Prince Disobedience a defilement in whomsoever it is Not the same Pollution in all Sins What the Sins of Good Men are and how known to be theirs The Sins of wicked Men of a deep Dye wherein they differ from those of pious Men. The Difference between wicked Men How of the worst sort some are more open some more secret in their Sins How the Sins of the less evil sort are to be measur'd The same fairness of Converse not equally innocent unto many A Sin may be a pardonable one to some when the very same to the Eye and Opinion of Men will not be so to others What we are to think of the Heinous Sins of Good Men Registred in Holy Scripture No reason from them for wicked Men to think better of their own Sins God will not esteem the Sins of his Children which are in themselves as great as and the same with the Sins of other Men to be therefore the less because they are committed by those who are his Children How to make a Judgment of our own Sins THEOPHILVS THE great Deformity and Disorder which Disobedience carrieth along with it are not things made probable by Discourse only and then growing less or none when second Thoughts and retired Contemplations are engaged in them The serious Reflection upon what you here last said gave Strength and Confirmation thereunto And from thence my Resolutions against Disobedience as a thing in its own Nature foul and deformed grew the more strong also But Eubulus I have heard some of none of the best Morals endeavouring to extenuate the illness of Disobedience by saying That they never maliciously sinned against the Almighty Never wished his Greatness and Power to be less and by indulging themselves in some things prohibited by the Sacred Laws they gratified indeed their own Inclinations but did no great Injury unto Men much less design'd Ill unto God. Will the Plea of these Men stand them in any stead for the making their Disobedience to be no such thing as yesterday you discours'd of EVBVLVS NO indeed Theophilus will it not For what Quietness soever there may seem to be in their Sins they will be found of dangerous Consequence if nearlier look'd into It is not in Mens Rebellions against God as in those against an Earthly Governour There Tumults are raised Arms are taken up and the Diminution or it may be the Destruction of the Prince wish'd and threatned because he is not out of a possibility of being weakned and destroy'd and such Methods are oftentimes likely enough to effect it But God because he both is and is acknowledg'd to be Immortal and out of the reach of all Force hath no Swords drawn against Him no Designs laid for his Overthrow nay is not by many so much as wished not to be because they know such Wishes are to no purpose Their way therefore of Rebelling is to break his Laws To think him such an one as themselves are One who either cannot or who will not take any notice of them Or it may be to Own Him as to his Attributes to be such as he is yet hoping thereby that their good Opinions of Him will make amends for bad Practices But how little do such Thoughts mitigate their Sins If they shall imagine God to be such who cannot see them is the Robbing him of his Omniscience so small an Offence Because it maketh no Noise and with Calmness layeth Dishonour upon Him whose Eternal Glory it is to know all things is it therefore an excusable good-natur'd fault We may as well call Joab's Carriage to Amasa excusable and good-natur'd when he said Art thou in Health my Brother and then smote him under the fifth Rib. For God's Omniscience cannot more surely be overthrown towards a Man than by such Imaginations which though in appearance mild are deadly in the issue If they shall think that God will not take notice of them is it
can look no higher than to the obtaining somthing in this World if Praise or Profit or Pleasure be the Vltimate of their Endeavours and Aims if the Life and Immortality which by our Lord are brought to Light be little accounted of and not permitted to have any share in what they do their Sins have a Pollution beyond what Good Mens have I do not say that even Religious Men must necessarily with an Actual Intention in every the least Action have respect to Gods Glory and their own Eternal Welfare The Imperfection of their Nature the many Circumstances they may be in and the quickness which is requisite to many of their Actions will not permit this But an Habitual Intention for Gods Glory and their own Happiness after this Life is done is absolutely necessary And where this is wholly wanting where Temporal concerns are the only things that engage the Thoughts where the good Actions that they do are steered only by Earthly Inducements how little Discommendable yea or how much Commendable soever these Actions may seem to be they are deeply polluted in the Judgment that God will make of them and are peculiar to none but the worse Sort of Men. Thirdly If the many particular Obligations which are laid upon them be not look'd into If they are no more taken notice of than if they belong'd not at all unto them If the Knowledge which they have and the greater Capacities with which they are endow'd have no better Effect than the Ignorance and weak Abilities of the meaner sort If signal Mercies received make no Impressions of Gratitude upon them If peculiar Motions and strong Inclinations from God's Holy Spirit to such and such Duties be not complied with Though all their Behaviour in the sight of Men be fair and innocent yet I cannot say that their Spot is the Spot of God's Children For although we are apt to think that Sin consists only in doing those Vnrighteous Deeds which would be discernably bad in every one yet I suppose that those Actions which would save some Men of a Low Rank and Mean Capacities would not be acceptable unto God in some other Men were they not improved in good sort according to those Measures of Knowledge and Abilities which God hath given them And in the way of Life the same fairness of Converse shall not be alike innocent to many But these shall be defective and unrewardable in the sight of Him who is the Judge of the Earth and will judge Righteous Judgment while the others shall be commendable and accepted I may give you this familiar Instance If some Real Objects of Charity shall offer themselves unto Two Men the One of a Mean Estate and the Other of a very Great One and these Two in the constant Tenor of their Lives should do thus viz. The Meaner according to his Abilities supply the Indigences of the Miserable the Other give also not according to his Abundance but just as the Meaner Person hath done you would Theophilus pronounce the former to be charitable and good but not so the later Just so greater Capacities and Endowments larger Assistances especial Favours and peculiar Engagements to higher Degrees of Duty will be look'd upon by the All-wise God to be as it were a larger Spiritual Estate which such or such a Man possesseth If then with all this he shall do no more than just so much as ordinary Men whose Abilities are much less Engagements much fewer and Mercies less signal as you rightly condemned the Uncharitable Rich Man in those Instances which were open to your view so we shall not think amiss if we conceive that the Just God will not be pleased with This Man who in his Eye that seeth the Heart standeth not in unlike Circumstances with the Other For to whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required and we have no reason to doubt but He who hath received much and returns but little will be hardly more if at all more excusable than He who hath received little and returns nothing Thus may it be in the ordinary seeming innocent Lives and Converse of Men amongst one another A Pollution there may be when yet we cannot discern it and when we are bound to judge according to the best appearance it being no more than Justice and ordinary Charity to interpret things well whenever we see nothing of ill And from what hath been said Theophilus the Case in those things which are acknowledg'd by all to be Sins will be Evident That Sin may be a Pardonable Sin in one Man when the very same to the Sight and Opinion of Men will not be so in another If the Man hath had close and Earnest Warnings of his Conscience before if there hath been as it were a Voice behind him saying This is the way walk in it if the Motions of God's Spirit have more vigorously acted his Soul if his Mercies have pointed directly to what he ought to do And notwithstanding all these things which are discernable only to God and himself he shall commit the Sin The Sin though the same in the common repute of Men with what another committeth shall yet be a much deeper Stain to This Man than to That it would have been Theoph. But Eubulus there are very heinous Sins of some more than ordinary Good Men registred in Sacred Scripture As the Adultery and Murther committed by David The Denial of Christ by Peter as also the grievous Cursing and Swearing which he together with that his Crime was guilty of I pray you what are we to think of these Sins and what would you reply to those unhappy Inferences which too many Men are apt to make therefrom As for Example they will say First That none of the Sins which they indulge themselves in are so great as David's and Peter's were and so they have reason to be confident that their own Sins are not the Sins of wicked Men. Secondly That the same Sins in full as aggravating Circumstances in God's Children as in others will yet not be look'd upon as so great Pollution in them as in those others and this merely upon the account that they are his Children For Numb 23.21 God hath not beheld Iniquity in Jacob neither hath he seen Perverseness in Israel And so if they can persuade themselves that they are the Children of God which many times they easily can do how great soever their Sins already be or at any time hereafter shall be yet their Spot they 'll think will not be more than the Spot of good Men. Eubul It is observed of some that they are more skilful in the Failings of their Governours than in their Virtues or in their own Obedience And after the same manner may we say of these They are better versed in the Faults of good Men in Holy Writ than in their Virtues and Graces or in that Obedience which themselves owe unto God. In relation therefore to those Sins of good
with those of others to be less in them merely because they bear the Name of his Children will strongly imagine themselves to be Gods Children that so their Sins though great they be and are like never by true Repentance to be less may not be the Spots of wicked Men. These much wrong the Righteousness and Purity of God. These make Faith in Christ which worketh by Love to be the spurious Issue of their Fancy and by thus untowardly thinking their Sins to be the Sins of God's Children they the more surely make them the Sins of the worst sort of wicked Men. Theoph. Your Discourse Eubulus hath been very satisfactory unto me I yet could wish that some others had with me been partakers of it because I think they thence might have learn'd to make a better Judgment of their Spiritual State than now they seem to do Eubul Would Men from such things as these deal impartially with themselves some dangerous Mistakes which they are willing enough to foster might be corrected And what Theophilus if they should seriously ask themselves these or such like Questions viz. Are we contented and well enough pleas'd with our Original Sin and the Imperfection of our Nature Are we at no time affected with sorrow at it as being our Sin and do we never with a relenting Eye account it our Unhappiness as being our Punishment Can we sit idle under it and not endeavour to correct it by purging our Understandings of their Ignorance our Wills of their Pravity and our Affections of their Corruption Doth the sense of it never encline us to Humility And are we never thereby excited to pity others who are thus polluted and unhappy as well as we Or yet worse than so Do we encrease the Defilements of our Nature and studiously promote and stir up our vile Affections which otherwise would have been more quiet And then for Outward Actions Are our Lives almost wholly liv'd out in Sin Can we proceed from one Wickedness to another and do Evil with both Hands earnestly Or else if outward Shame hinder us from Evil Practices openly and in the Sight of this Sun do we Clandestinely Act them Or is our behaviour Plausible and Civil merely that we may the more surely and with less Suspition carry on Evil Actions and Designs Or if there be none of these outwardly notorious bad Actions nor secretly Wicked Designs yet are the chief Ends nothing look'd unto in what we do Is the Glory of God justled out by the Under-Aims of Earthly Profits or Pleasures And doth the Salvation of our Souls through Unbelief or Carelesness weigh little or nothing with us in respect of Advantage or Reputation among Men Have the particular Obligations by Almighty God laid upon us not been minded or not taken notice of by us to any good effect Have our greater Knowledge and Abilities been improved to no higher Services than the Ignorance and Weakness of the meaner Sort have been Have the stronger Motions from Gods Holy Spirit fallen Fruitless upon us And those Suggestions which at some times we in a more than ordinary manner have had and in which the Hand of God hath peculiarly been have they been refused and not complied with In the Sins which we have committed hath there been no Unfained Sorrow No Indignation at ourselves for making such ill returns to so Gracious a God and Father Have our Devotions been none or very Faint and Cold ones after our falling into Sin Have our former Faults begot in us no Resolutions of not Sinning knowingly and Presumptuously for the time to come Do we when tempted to commit a Sin not only yield to it but continue in it Are we never after it more earnest persuers of that which is Good And do the Frailty and Weakness of our Natures and the Sins which while we are in the Body we shall never be free from at no time prompt us to long for that Happy Day when we in Heaven shall do Gods Will without Carefulness Drowsiness and Imperfection If Theophilus they should thus question themselves and should find it no otherwise with them than what might be reducible to some or more of the particulars now mention'd they might make a Judgment whether their Sins are such as belong to the Worse or less Evil Sort of Wicked Men but would have no reason to think them only the Failures of Good Men. Theoph. Indeed Eubulus should Men thus be Judges of their own Misdeeds they would not be more than what they well might Some of their Sins possibly which cannot so well bear the being look'd into least their Pollution and Deformity should be discovered might be apt to say ye take too much upon you and who made you Rulers and Judges over us But certainly Men have a Power over their own Doings and may search their own Hearts and Examine the Rise and Progress and Design of their own Actings and need not fear that any should say unto them Why do ye thus Eubul And this they may the rather do Theophilus because they are the better able in many respects to make a Judgment of their own Sins than other Men are For they can see those things in their own Breasts which are hid from Mens Eyes abroad And it may be they can also conceive those deep Deceits there which they cannot by their Words so well express and give account of to others Well surely it would be that in those things which they are unknown in unto Others they should not be unknown to Themselves Theoph. It is I confess not the least part of Learning for Men to know Themselves The being skill'd in the works of Nature and in the Arts and Sciences The seeing into future Times and understanding all Mysteries and all Knowledge would be of small avail with them without the Knowledge of their own Sins For where these are not known there is very small hope that a Cure and Amendment will be wrought And what would it profit a Man to be otherwise in all respects accomplished and yet to go out of the World with his Sins unknown and so not repented of Eubul I am persuaded Theophilus that the great reason of so many Mens continuing in their Sins is because they are not willing to search into them Let them be throughly look'd into and the Cover taken off from their Deformity and they will find few that will not loath them When David had considered his ways i. e. had found the Spots and Defilements which his Sins carried in them he turned his Feet to Gods Testimonies He made hast and delayed not to keep his Commandments And would Men generally do as He did I have no cause to doubt but through Gods Blessing there would be the same good Issue to Them as to Him there was Nay I am sure if Pollution and Deformity will Create a Loathing they would perfectly Loath the Disobedience they have so long Indulged Theoph. Happy it would be if Men from the Motives of Fear or Shame would cease to be Disobedient but surely the Defilement and Deformity which Sin casteth upon them should prevail with them most And where they from this Consideration chiefly shall abstain from Iniquity they will be if I may so speak the more generously Innocent Eubul They by so doing will turn those Spots that mark'd them as wicked Men into the Spots of God's Children And at the last when their Bodies shall be raised Spiritual and Incorruptible they will leave even these Spots also behind them Ascending up into the Heavenly Jerusalem where nothing shall in any wise enter that defileth and where they will be for ever arrayed in fine Linnen clean and white the Righteousness of the Saints To which Heavenly Purity Theophilus and Inheritance Vndefiled GOD of his infinite Mercy bring You and Me and Them through the Blood of Cleansing even that of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST FINIS An Advertisement of Books sold by Joseph VVats at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-yard SPeed's Maps Folio Cowley's Poems compleat Folio The Confession Prayers and Meditations of Lieutenant John Sterne and George Borosky Published by Dr. Burnet and Dr. Horneck Folio The Tryals of Thomas Walcot William Hone William Lord Russel John Rouse and William Blagg for High â—eason Folio That the Bishops may and ought to Vote in Cases of Blood Folio Pierce of Gods Decrees especially of Reprobation Quarto Perinchief against Toleration Quarto Parson's Sermon at the Funeral of the Earl of Rochester Quarto Dr. Jane's Sermon before the Commons Quarto Cave's Sermon the 30th of January Quarto Beverley's Disquisition upon Tythes wherein the whole Case is impartially stated and resolved Quarto Stubb's Justification of the Dutch War both Parts Quarto Horneck's Best Exercise Octavo Lassell's Voyage through Italy Octavo Smyth's Unequality of Natural Time with its Reason and Causes With a Table of the true Equation of Natural Days Octavo Reformed Devotions in Meditations Hymns and Petitions for every Day in the Week and every Holiday in the Year in two Parts the second Edition At which place all Persons may have most sorts of Acts of Parliament Proclamations Declarations Orders of King and Council Speeches in Parliament c. Pamphlets of all sorts viz. Pamphlets relating to the State Sermons Controversies Tracts of Divinity and other Miscellaneous Tracts Also Tryals Narratives and Gazettes FINIS