return to his place when by an experiment he was convinced of his Innocency chap. 24.22 and a second chap. 26.25 And since he foresaw that the LORD would cut of those Children of Men who stirr'd up Saul against him 1 Sam. 26.19 And here doubles the expression of his assurance thereof ver 23. 'T is madness to think that the aid he expected from Men was to usurp upon God and take the work out of his hands Therefore when the Amalekite told him he had kill'd Saul it cost him his Life 2 Sam. 1.14 15 16. The Psalmist then was a Man that made Conscience of his Allegiance to his Prince though wicked unjust and a Persecutor No Man can maintain together Disloyalty and Innocence The Office of Kings remains unvitiated under the viciousness of their Persons Nero was the Minister of God Rom. 13. in respect of Authority though the Devils Servant in his private Capacity Subjection and Loyalty is due to the Throne and the Man in it not to the Beast in the bottomless Pit of Immorality and Barbarousness Our Duty requires an owning him Politically rather than Ethically i. e. we must of necessity be subject to his Power acting as the Vicegerent of God and here obey him in every thing But we must not be actively subject to his Lusts acting as the Bondslave of Satan nor therein obey or imitate him Yet do not his Crimes to us devest him of his Right any more than a Father I find no exceptions or difference in the Precept Et ubi lex non distinguit non est distinguendum Where the Law limits not we must not Nothing that we suffer from Superiors can null the bond of the First Command The Gospel as well as the Law obliges to be subject for Conscience sake Rom. 13.5 Ye must needs be subject not only for Wrath i. e. for fear of Punishment but for Conscience sake i. e. out of obedience to God's Command and from sense of Duty In sum since the Powers that be are God's Ordinations we must obey all their lawful Commands submit to their just Censures and Punishments pay them all their dues both of Reverence and Maintenance But since there is an Authority paramount to theirs which has the first and supreme right over us and which we must obey rather than Men if we be commanded to do any thing forbidden or forbid to do any thing commanded by God we must not obey but be willing to suffer without resistance For whoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgment to Condemnation ver 2. Now this resistance consists not in a modest refusal to do or not do what these Powers may enjoyn contrary to the Injunctions of God but in a disorderly or forcible opposition to their Persons or Lawful Commands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being to set up an order contrary to their order which is here reported damnable i. e. when their order is not against the order of God their Laws not opposite to his I know not but that this is a sound Rule That the Higher Powers are to be disobey'd in nothing except it be as plainly forbidden in Scripture or Nature as disobedience to those Powers is I do not say expressly forbid for sometimes a Consequence may be as plain as a Proposition But if a Man be not as fully satisfied from clear Evidence that he cannot obey the Magistrate without disobeying God as he may be satisfy'd that he must obey the Magistrate in all things where God is not disobey'd he cannot disobey with a good and safe Conscience For 't is a Sin to disobey where God interposes not as well as a Sin to obey where he forbids Nothing can take off the obligation to obey but only Divine Authority which laid it on If you are not sure that you have God's Warrant to disoblige you from Obedience you cannot be sure that you do not sin For what can repeal God's Law to obey Cautissimi cujusque praeceptum est Quod dubitas ne feceris but only God And if you be not sure that you do not sin you certainly do sin i. e. act doubtingly not in Faith which is contrary to a good Conscience Rom. 14. ult Since then the Command to obey is indubitable what must I do when the matter commanded is not indubitably Lawful or Unlawful If the thing in reality be lawful I sin in disobeying the Power if unlawful I sin in disobeying God Suppose I have weighty reasons to induce me to believe the unlawfulness and but common to establish the lawfulness only they are enforc'd with the weight of Authority I am not satisfy'd beyond all scruple that I shall not sin against God in obeying Man yet the Arguments from God's Law in Scripture Nature and the Reason of the thing would ballance my Judgment did not that inartificial Argument interpose the Judgment of many Learned and Reverend Men the Judgment of the Publick Conscience as of late it loves to be call'd How shall I steer in this Case Ans 1. The highest deference is to be made to the Publick Judgment of Authority and the Private Judgment of the Learned and I am obliged to suspect my own Judgment and Reason when it runs counter to theirs and proceed with the greatest Caution and Impartiality in forming my Sentiments and Arguments and beware of Pride and Obstinacy give a full testimony of my Humility and willingness to be informed and use all possible means for that purpose 2. 'T is a very unsafe resolution of this Case which I find in the Reverend and Judicious Dr. Saunderson Better obey doubtingly than disobey doubtingly as allowing a less Sin to avoid a greater For the Apostle Rom. 14. ult determines that to act doubtingly is a Sin immediately against Conscience mediately against God For since Conscience suspects the Act to be a Sin against God yet admits it against its own sense 't is all one to it as if it were really a Sin against God though perhaps it be not The Act is against the supposed Authority of God which at present the Conscience takes to be real therefore this distemper of Conscience is as real Rebellion against God as if it acted against the clearest Light imaginable For apparent and real to Conscience are all one though not in themselves The Law of God in General makes Sin and Duty but not immediately to me in particular whilst I am inculpably ignorant of it Promulgation being essential to the obligatoriness of a Law Except it be so publish'd that none without their fault can be ignorant of it they are without fault in the violation of it The next and immediate ground of the binding of a Law is the apprehension and conviction of Conscience that it is imposed by just Authority with an intention to bind as a Law or that it is a Law obligatory in its own Nature Not that Laws
Man shall see the Lord. Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God So Isa 33.15 17. Sin therefore is the greatest Evil because it deprives mediately of the greatest Good natural or supernatural God and as it deprives immediately of the greatest good Moral Holiness As 't is contrary to the purity of the Creature it is but a finite evil but infinite as contrary to the Purity of the Creator As a violation of the Law and Principles of Nature and Reason in us 't is only of a limitted Malignity but of a boundless and unlimited Pestilency as a violation of the Law and Principles of Holiness in God 'T is a transgression of the Law of God therefore a contempt and scorn put upon his infinite Authority and Justice and Holiness and Power and Goodness and Glory and Happiness One would imagin it was but a light matter to eat the Fruit of a Tree in Paradise but 't was no light matter to do it against a great God against the express prohibition and in a slighting neglect of or vilifying disregard or despite to the severe Sanctions of an infinitely Wise Holy and Just Creator Therefore Infinitennss it self being concerned in Sin renders it exceeding sinful whence nothing in it more afflicts a good Soul than its contrariety and offensiveness to that glorious Majesty And indeed Sin as Sin is against none but God The Facts that are sinful as being against God may be hurtful or injurious as against Men but the formal nature of Sin lies not in that neither is the violation of Humane Laws therefore a Sin because against the Sanctions of Man but only because and as far as Violations of the Law of God immediately in the matter or remotely in the Transgression of the Fifth Command requiring subjection to Authority Therefore says David Psal 51.4 Against thee thee only have I sinned What Because being King he was by no Man Challengable to none accountable for any wrong but God alone Admit this true in Thesi yet in Hypothesi 't is absurd and ridiculous as part of an Address to God and an exercise of Repentance If it be not understood comparatively or with respect to the formality of Sin spoken absolutely 't is absolutely false In Sin there is a Fault and a Guilt so in David's Murther and Adultery Consider the former taking away Life is sometimes Justice When is it a Fault only when against Law What Law God's or Man's Not as against Man's further than as first against God's For Man's Law cannot make that Murther which is Justice by the Law of God nor the contrary That is Man cannot reverse what God hath established 'T is therefore the Divine Law in Nature or Scripture and that alone which determines concerning the Faultiness or Faultlessness of matters Originally and Architectonically Man 's Law only Secondarily and Subordinately The formal reason then of the faultiness is the contrariety to the Law of God And nothing is Sin meerly in respect of the matter but the Formality So the taking away Vriah's Life was not a fault merely as taking away Life for had he been a Criminal that would have been Justice But a Sin it was only under the notion as 't was taken away under such Circumstances as the Law of God dissallow'd The matter of the Sin therefore was against Vriah but the Form and Essence of the Sin did consist in nothing but only in its being against God a Transgression of the Law of God 1 Joh. 3.4 So then 't is not the Offence against Man simply and abstractly considered but the Offence against God that properly and formally constitutes Sin Every wrong that is in Sin to our selves to Men to our fellow Creatures that groan under their thraldom to our Lusts and fare worse for their sake should affect us but most of all the wrong we do to God as being the greatest injury against the greatest Majesty For even upon Earth Crimes advance in their heinousness according to the degree and dignity of Persons To call a mean Man Knave is a light matter scarce actionable to call a Nobleman Scandalum Magnatum deeply finable to call the King so Treason punishable with Death Oh then what is Blasphemy or any Sin against the King of Kings the infinitely glorious King of Heaven and Earth Common sense will assure us that the more mischief and hurt a Sin does or may do the greater it is and merits greater Punishments Now the more publick and useful any Persons are so much the more mischievous are any actings against them because Government is essential to the good of the whole Community and therefore those who make attempts against Men in Publick Place and Authority strike at and attempt the destruction of all subject to their Jurisdiction To kill a Judge upon the Bench is High Treason both as a vertual acting against the King and also as a murthering the Justice of the Nation a violence against the Right and Property and Life of all that are or may be in a capacity to receive Justice from him So to kill the King is vertually a killing the whole Kingdom with its Honour Authority Justice Right Property Government all that the King is entrusted with the Privileges Laws Liberties and Immunities of all Men. Sin therefore is an Evil transcendently great above all Expression above all Imagination as a horrid mischievous attempt against the Life the All of God himself 1. Vertually and Practically as far as in the Sinner lies it annihilates 1. The Being and Presence of God For to do that abominable Evil in his very Eye-sight which the presence even of a little Child would restrain from this makes nothing of him lays him lower than the sillyest most despicable of his Creatures makes him less and more contemptible than a very Baby and ranks him with Irrational and Non-intelligent Beings which is to un-God him 2. It Annihilates the Authority and Legislative Power of God For to transgress notwithstanding the impress hereof upon the Law is in effect to averr that there is no such thing that 't is but a Fable a Fancy nay 't is to despise and spurn it out of the World which is to kick out the Being of God For that which has no Authority cannot be God 2. 'T is a direct affront to the Holiness of God as perfectly and irreconcileably repugnant to it and Contraries as far as they can destroy each other By thy Impurities thou thrustest God out of thy Soul he departs when this Evil Spirit enters with allowance he bears an eternal Antipathy against it cannot live together it There can be no Communion betwixt God and Bolial If Idols be set up God is tumbled down If Sin must live within thee thou dost thy utmost to make God die stabbing him to the Heart in that which is the Heart of all his Perfections his Holiness He cannot live if that die 3. 'T is a Challenge to his Justice and
not 1. Against the Law of Subjection and Obedience ingaging me to the Magistrate 2. The Law of Charity that requires me not to scandalize my Brother If to gratifie his scrupulosity I forbear I do certainly know that he sins in disobeying But 't is only an accidental scandal may or may not happen that he should be emboldned by my Example to act against his Conscience To throw this off the Stage enter Christian Liberty which to restrain is Sin though by a Person in Authority having Laws under him Ans True but then be sure that it be indeed Christian Liberty least asserting it forfeit and lose your civil and corporal Liberty Now because a right understanding and use of Christian Liberty hath a special influence into Comfort and Peace of Conscience Let 's a little consider it Let it be heedfully observed that true Christian Liberty doth not consist meerly in the indifferent use or omission of things not commanded nor forbidden but in the release of Conscience from an obligation to do or omit some things under pain of Damnation Thus are we set at Liberty from the rigour of the Law or Covenant of Works which required perfect personal and perpetual Obedience upon peril of Death The Covenant of Grace doth not disoblige from such obedience but from the peril of Death though we come short provided we act sincerely This is the main of our Christian Liberty Not a freedom to do or not do but a freedom from Penalty upon an easter Condition And this is all our Hope Comfort and Salvation Under the Jewish Law were included many Ceremonials things in their own nature neither Good nor Evil yet that Law made the omission of them Sin exposing to Damnation Christ by his Gospel hath set us at Liberty How What to do or omit them at Pleasure No such matters For then 't were lawful to Sacrifice to keep the Passover to Circumcise c. as well as forbear No the Liberty granted us must be doubly distinguish'd 1. Into Natural and Adventitious The Indifferency of the use or omission of Lawful things is a part of Natural not Adventitious Liberty which understand thus Some things which were in their own Nature lawful to be used or not used God determined on one side by positive Law under the Mosaical Dispensation But over and above there were things made the matter of positive Laws which would never have entred into the Imaginations of Men had not the first notices thereof come from God Who could ever have thought of such a thing as Circumcision c. had not the first Injunction thereof proceeded from Heaven Our Natural Liberty did consist in a freedom from that and like Yoaks But not in an indifferency to use or not use them So then by the Law of our Native Liberty we may use or not use some things without Sin there 's an indifferency on both sides as to take up a Straw or let it alone c. Yet also the indifferency does naturally lie only on one side in other things as to continue the Body in its Natural State without Circumcision But God for wise and holy purposes having abridged the Jews of this Natural Liberty for a season when the reason of those Laws ceased was pleas'd to abolish them whereby by we became reinstated in our natural Right and Freedom which otherwise those Laws when devulged to us would have taken from us Now the reason of imposing those Laws was to succour the infirmity of the Jews in two things 1. In Faith of which nature are all the things impos'd which have a Typical significancy as Sacrifices c. 2. In Manners of which sort are all that have a moral significancy as Meats Washings c. But now Jesus the substance of those Typical Shadows being come in the Flesh the Laws concerning them were ipso facto vacated and by the more plentiful effusion of his Spirit of Truth and Grace thorowly furnishing Men for exact Moral Goodness he took away the necessity both of remembring us thereof and eeking it out by Washings Circumcision c. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as a compleat Law from the Spirit of Truth doing the one more sufficiently than a few dumb signs and the New Nature communicated by the Spirit of Grace together with Christ's Merit all-sufficiently doing the other This is the Liberty I call Adventitious not that 't is new but newly given not that we never had it but had it restor'd after an interruption During the restraint 't was sin to use it To Christ we owe that now we may again use it without sin as at first before God abridged it and this is that we call Christian Liberty in things indifferent as contradistinct to Natural For Christ as Redeemer did not parchase our Natural Liberty but gave it as Creator 'T is only the Adventitious that we enjoy by vertue of his Merit 't is only this that we are entrusted with the Preservation and Vindication of by the New Testament 2. Liberty is either Positive or Negative The former consists in an indifferency to act this or that or the other way at pleasure The latter in being loos'd from the obligation to act That which Christ the Redeemer bestows is chiefly of this latter sort We are disobliged loosed from the Ceremonial Bands wherewith the Jews were tyed so as we need not to act as they under that Oeconomy 'T is no sin to us to omit incurrs no Penalty And this freedom from the guilt and punishment due for Omission is indeed a privilege which constitutes the very essence of the Covenant of Grace in one part of it The tenor thereof in its Negative part being this viz. Thy Imperfections Failures Omissions shall not be imputed as Sins effecting thy Damnation This for want of a better Word I call Negative Liberty Although thou do not Circumcise do not Sacrifice do not Eat a Paschal Lamb do not Wash c. thou dost not sin thou shalt not be cut off from thy People from my Heaven This and none other in these indifferent Matters is Christian Liberty the Purchase and Gift of Jesus Christ our Lord. So that except Magistrates do again introduce the Ceremonial Law in whole or part they do not at all touch upon Christian Liberty but Natural only which they are allow'd to restrain in civil things upon just occasions as is evident from not only Scripture and Reason but the practice of all Nations and Ages and Families For would it not be sweet to hear a Child or Servant reply to their Superiours commanding them to light a Candle c. 'T is not lawful for you to restrain my Liberty Had you not commanded I might have obey'd but your imposing has made it unlawfal Oh dainty delicate Reasoning Yet such as some fob off their Consciences withal 'T is the same thing when they command in the Circumstantials of Divine Worship c. I charge you to be present at
Eight of the Clock Morning and Evening to joyn in Family Prayer c. No had you not impos'd a time 't would have been lawful now 't is not Away with this Foolery In Civils then and Circumstantials of Spirituals the Magistrate hath a Power not meerly directive but legislative to whose Laws all are obliged to be subject in Conscience of the Divine Law the Fifth Command Now suppose the Magistrate by a settled Law have enjoyned some things in their own nature indifferent which 1. Induce some to act against their doubting Consciences for fear of Penalty whereas 2. Others are well satisfied in the lawfulness of their Obedience and accordingly do actually obey but some may be induc'd by their example to obey with a hesitant Conscience What is advisable 1. Though the greatest tenderness ought to be exercised towards Mens Consciences and singular Prudence be requisite in Governors to direct them in the choice of Laws that they may obtain with the greatest inoffensiveness yet will not Mens being scandaliz'd be a sufficient evidence of the sinfulness of a Law or ground to reverse it unless the scandal be very general among the best and wisest or something in the matter or sanction of the Law be at least a moral cause thereof For what can so politickly or wisely be devis'd which Men of soft Heads and hot Hearts may not make occasion of Sin that there would never be an end of making and repealing Laws if Men can but pretend scandal and who beside God knows what is pretence meerly what not 2. If fear of the Penalty occasion the Scandal from a Law about Indifferents those are not faultless who have not proportion'd the Penalty to the Crime an indifferent tolerable pain to an indifferent fault 3. Yet to be scandaliz'd or act against my Conscience for fear of suffering is a Sin the cause or inducement whereof will not excuse though it may extenuate it Will it avail a Man to say I violated my Conscience through Fear any more than I vitiated my Neighbours Wife through Lust when the Fear and Lust themselves are Sins as well as those they introduce Therefore the Rule is Suffer rather than Sin 4. Either 't is evident de facto that some are scandaliz'd through a Law or Example or 't is morally certain 't will follow or probable or only possible This last and probability except the presumption be strong are not to be regarded 1. If the Law cannot be revers'd without prejudice to publick order nor a dispensation obtain'd Men must not defame Laws but submit For the Law does not necessitate Sin there 's an outgate by suffering Yet if the Law be needless 't is the first duty in the use of lawful means to endeavour its Abrogation or get a Dispensation which if not feisible I say with Calvin Instit lib. ult câ—ult §. 231. med No other Mandate is given us but of obeying and suffering 2. To obey the Magistrate is a duty upon an affirmative Precept which not binding ad semper if my obeying induce my Brother to Sin out of tenderness I will suspend for a season though I suffer in the interim endeavouring 1. To give him satisfaction in the lawfulness of my Practice and the necessity of my Duty which if it convince not 2. To demonstrate that my Practice enforces not his Imitation since he may forbear and undergo the Penalty as I have been willing to do for his sake 3. To let him understand that there may be danger of scandalizing my Superiors i. e. irritating them to wrath and to exercise greater severities both against me as a Sinner against my own Conscience which is satisfy'd of my duty to obey even whilst I suspend and also against him and others as obstinate and unsatisfiable Wranglers and disobedient to just Authority without just Reason the matter of the Law being indifferent ex hypothesi This Consideration has weight we both hear and feel it and may at least balance the alledgement that my compliance will edifie the Magistrate in the sin of Persecution Lastly If notwithstanding he continue obstinate since to me 't is clear that only Fancy not Reason bottoms his disobedience I will protest against his Pertinacy earnestly dehort him from acting against his pretended Conscience which indeed is only blind Opinion return to my Duty and leave him to the Law For although my Charity may induce me for a season to be willing to suffer for his sake yet my Conscience will not permit me to do it always Not that I pretend Conscience to prevent suffering but because active Obedience where I can is the primary intention of God in the Law that subjects me to the Magistrate and therefore the first and main office of Conscience Passive Obedience is not the intention of the Law giver at all in the Law as a Law as being not enjoyn'd therein 't is only the enforcement of it as a remedy against its violation the hedge about it 'T will be no plea before God to justifie my breach of his Laws that I was willing to be damn'd but an aggravation of my sin that I chose so great an Evil as the Punishment rather than submission to so great a Good as the Duty I am bound to suspend my Obedience if I can to prevent my Brothers Sin but not sinally to deny my Obedience and therein sin my self to prevent his suffering that is damn my Soul to save his Skin Wilt thou then O my Soul herein follow Christ and perfectly subjugate thy self to that noble Law of Vniversal Love to thy Brother whom thou hast seen that the immortal God whom thou hast not seen may not charge thee with Hypocrifie in thy pretensions of Love to himself Live thou must thou shalt in true Love to thy Neighbour or renounce all Love to thy self Profess and practise as thou lovest thy Purity thy Peace thy Salvation a sincere and cordial not only Subjection and Honour but Affection to thy Prince Benevolence Charity Beneficence to all Men out of Conscience to God as thou wilt answer it before his Judgment-seat Whatever thou wouldst have others to do to thee do thou to them what thou wouldst not have them to do to thee do not to them Make their case thine and act toward them as thy self Do good to all but ospecially the Houshold of Faith Seek their Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Welfare as thine own and do not think to patronize thy regardlessness of them by a careless sluggish unconcernedness in thine own nearest concerns but elevate thine affectionate care for thy self to the utmost degree of Perfection on purpose that according to the second great Command thou mayst have a more excellent measure and rule whereby to square thy affectionate regard of others But 't is not enough O my Soul to partake of a Moral thou must aspire after a Divine Nature as well as escape or fly from the Corruption in the World in Lust or Concupiscence 2
Tables and bleed a little over poor Sufferers not as accusing Laws of Government but personal darkness and short sightedness Infirmity and Iniquity especially as the meritorious cause whose Intellects and Consciences may seem to be formed under an inauspicious Star not Mercurial enough to be born before the Wind but of a genius too set and Saturnine which exposes to the censure of being morose obstinate Melancholists c. But let 's see whether any place be left for Pity and Commiseration It is acknowledged just and reasonable that all publick Constitutions should be garded with strong impregnable Sanctions that the honour of the Publick Magistrate which must necessarily and in Conscience be upheld and is as highly concerned in his Laws as any thing may not be at the mercy of every wanton Head or waspish Heart 'T is the general and acknowledged sence of all Nations and has been of all Ages and I think of all Persons that Religion must and ought to be established by Law So is the Protestant Profession with us and our Neighbours And there is not a People upon Earth nor ever was but would have Religious Concerns kept sacred and inviolable Travel through the Protestant World alone and you shall experimentally find that the Church of no Nation no not of New England it self will endure that its Constitution should be disgrac'd its Fellowship disown'd its Worship disavow'd its Ministry disannul'd its Discipline contemn'd its Government condemn'd but will entertain all affronts of this Nature with a severe Indignation No wonder therefore that the like obtains amongst our selves and even those that are most sharp upon the Church of England in that very thing give a Testimony how patient a reception any thing must have that shall depreciate their own particular Models and therefore may in Justice grant liberty to every Mother to be fondest of her own Children For my part I profess ingenuously I like something in all Faces but all in none yet will not spit in any If Men will so far forget their Reason and Religion not to say common Sense as to speak evil of Rulers though unjust Jude 8. Acts 23.5 Despise Dominion Blaspheme Glories or Dignities I will not justifie them but the Law that condemns them Yet there is a Chancery to moderate the rigours which otherwise may be just and reasonable in some cases and this will with a sweet and decorous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and temper distinguish of Persons and Causes No Man is all Devil no Party all God The Heaven of Heavens only is all Sun The void spaces in the Firmament are larger than those fill'd with Stars Even those that out of a larger Sphere or Church form to themselves a little Epicycle have dark as well as bright matter in it The Sun it self hath spots We therefore must make a difference betwixt the Religious and their mimical Apes the Persons that are in good earnest in their way and such as do but act a part and personate those they are not Men that have throughly imbibed the tincture and others that are but lightly smutted with it 1. Then it shall not be dissembled but bewailed that amongst the Dissenters there are some Venal Souls that upon base Principles and for sinister Ends fall in here as being disgusted by or having a peck against some conformable Man or hoping for a plentiful Trade or bountiful Contributions or to piece again a crack'd Reputation c. Others owe their intromission to the Principles of their Education or customary Converse with others particular Employment amongst such the persuasions of Company c. Some astonish'd by the seeming imminency of Death or awak'd by some dreadful Calamity bring hither an akeing Conscience to be stroak'd with a gentle Hand into a secure but fallacious Peace and conjure down those Terrors which a a form of Godliness is able to deal with Some lastly in the simplicity of their Hearts having tender and scrupulous Consciences finding more of strictness and savour than where 't was their lot to converse before are pleas'd with the agreeableness thereof to their Spirit and Temper though they understand little of the way and might as well have been led by the Heart to the Church as to a Conventicle had it been their hap to have met with the like relish in their Entertainments and Company These are the most innocent of this rank For some of the rest are ordinarily the Hectors of the several Parties from whom all the Libels and Raileries except such as common Enemies forge in their Names have their Origin Better Men have better Work they are not taught the manners of the Court of Heaven who dare bring an Accusation or Judgment of Blasphemy against the Devil himself Jude 9. much less they who do it against Christian Churches and States But 2. There are also a number of serious sober Persons who have no greater design than to be truly good and promote the interest of real Christianity in the main substantials of Faith and Good Life who by their Modesty Gravity Harmlessness Honesty Simplicity Self-denial Loyalty Humility c. do sufficiently distinguish themselves from the other to the Eye of any prudent impartial Observer yet cannot in the use of such means as yet are administred receive satisfaction in the matters of difference therefore are exposed to the severities of Law These I am concern'd that a Court of equity should make relief for 1. They entertain a high Veneration for the Holy Scriptures as a lively Portraicture and Representation of that Eternal Truth and Goodness which is the Nature of God and the Schools make the Hypostasis of the Second and Third Persons in the ever blessed Trinity This with them is the Book of Books which they do not read as other Writings with a liberty to assent and consent as they please but with a full resignation of mind and will to its infallible Dictates intirely to subjugate all to its Doctrines Counsels Mandates as the most perfect indefective guide of Thoughts Words and Actions in the matters of Salvation and to receive from it a sentence of Life and Death This Word of God is their daily Companion Meditation Desire Joy Delight their all From these Divine Oracles they derive all their Sentiments by them regulate all their Worship in them seek their Comfort to them as an Instrument ascribe their Spiritual Life with them arm themselves against all their Spiritual Enemies and adverse Occurrents and for them are ready to sacrifice their Liberties Wealth Ease Honour yea their very Lives 2. From this reverence to the Bible and diligent frequent converses with it arises that awful feeling terrifying sence they have of the exceeding sinfulness of Sin as Paul Rom. 7.13 For being brought to the Scriptures with a mind to yield up all the Powers of their Souls to the Mind and Will of God therein revealed the Holy Ghost effectually sets home the Truths and Laws and Threatnings and Promises
alteration in himself or varying of his place make Heaven to be any where every where therefore the Joys and Comforts of Heaven For I reckon that Heaven does not import any difference in God but in us no change in his Being but our Vision no new Object except Christ's Flesh but new Eyes Every Spirit and therefore the Father of Spirits hath a Power to conceal its Presence as well as its Sentiments from all other Spirits except God Yet there 's a difference betwixt the Latency of other Spirits and the Deity A finite Spirit is hid through the suspence of its Agency Ad extra its acting upon things without it self so the Deity cannot be hid For if it wholly cease to act upon any Being that Being will wholly cease to be because all live move and have their Being in and from Him Acts 17.28 which Spirits that see not with Eyes but Intellects cannot but perceive only 't is unobserv'd by Man whose Mind looks through the Apertures of Sense which together with it self being darkned through Sin has but very obscure and weak Reflections upon that Being without which he cannot be 't is hid to him by a Veil of Flesh that envelops his Intellectual Eyes or else he shuts and will not open them to behold this invisible Nature which is in reality more conspicuous and evident that is knowable than any thing in the World whatever But the Deities concealment of it self is with respect to some more special Voluntary Operations which give Testimony to his presence and demonstrate the Finger of God which when suspended he is and therefore the Comfort of his presence is hid from our Eyes Such are either Miraculous or Gracious For although every thing in Nature both in respect of his Being and Agency be a sufficient Indication of the Existence Presence and Efficiency of God it being impossible that any Natural Powers should exert themselves in a suspence of the Influence of his the Concurrence whereof gives them to be what they are and do what they do Yet the Deity sometimes as being it self the Law of Laws does in its Actings vary from go beside nay contrary to the common and ordinary Laws of particular Natures and so invert the course and order of things as to give peculiar evidence of his Presence and Power by Effects wonderfull surprizing and astonishing As the Flood of Noah the first that falls within the Cognizance of History after the Creation I need not particularize more the Scripture is full nor balk that for all the ingenious attempts of a late Author to deduce it from Natural Causes it being demonstrable that some necessary parts of his Hypothesis stand in need of the violence of Miracle or the whole process will stick and produce nothing Yet the Manifestations of the Divine presence which constitute Heaven are not in the instances of Power but Goodness even as the Discoveries of it in Vindictive Justice form the Miseries of Hell That Goodness and Justice essentially considered which make Heaven and Hell are Omnipresent as being the Divine Nature But the Objects of them cannot aspire to an Ubiquity being of a limited Nature Should they circulate through all the Regions of Immensity the condition and sense they partake would present them still with the same unaltered unalterable Nature of God Heaven and Hell would be in every place where Souls so sensed reside the Discoveries of God importing no change in him but only in those to whom the Discovery is made Heaven and Hell not being more the alteration of our State than the awakening of our sense to discern and apprehend and feel that which before we did not though before it was the very same immutably and will continue so everlastingly This is the Natural State of Heaven but the Christian State is somewhat more For the choicest sweetest Discoveries of God are therein made in and through the Mediator God-Man and in special to Mankind through the Manhood of Christ which being of a limited presence settles the Divine Manifestations in a certain limited place sufficient to comprehend all Elect Angels and Men. This Divine Presence we enjoy by Faith here by Sight hereafter We have as much of God and Heaven now as we have of Faith Divine Manifestations are proportioned to our Believings All the Effects of Divine Goodness in and upon us depend upon this Christian Grace and the degree of them upon the degree of it Gain but this and thou hast God and all Nothing can pierce the Heavens but this Eye 'T is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substance of things hoped for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evidence Eviction of things not seen Heb. 11.1 By it Moses saw him who is invisible vers 27. We never can be without a Heaven if we have but Faith it realizes to us that presence of God which through Christ is the sole and full ground of all Celestial Comforts Satisfactions and Joys Psal 16 11. In thy presence is fulness of Joy and at thy Right Hand are pleasures for evermore In Heaven thy presence Chamber where thou sit'st upon the Throne of Glory cloathed with Honour and Majesty as with a Garment and discoverest and displayest the Splendour of thy incomprehensible Excellency and Perfection And at thy Right Hand where thou hast said my Lord should sit till his Enemies be made his Footstool Psal 110.1 In and through this Jesus at thy Right hand are pleasures everlasting But these are chiefly the Comforts of a Future State Is there not something at present to stay and yet inflame the Appetite Yes vers 8. I would always possess that Saturity of Joys which is before thy face Therefore I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my Heart is gladed and my Glory Exults rejoyces my Flesh also inhabits in hope because thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor give thy merciful or excellent one to see the pit of Corruption but thou wilt make me to know the path of Lives He is at my right hand and therefore Gladness and Joy in my Heart and Soul But Oh what is there at His right Hand My Faith setting him now as present before me brings singular Satisfaction and Delight Oh then what will sense and sight be when I shall possess the reality of that which I now believe The result is That the presence of God apprehended by Faith or Vision is a thing which comprehends the substance and fulness of all Pleasure Joy and Consolation Indeed nothing Comforts but through some kind of presence It either is or is conceived to be and made indistant by our Cogitations Humane Infirmity requires something in hand or in hopes that are as secure and therefore as good as in hand Absence of a solacing good although only imaginary is tormenting God cannot but be near every one of us in Essence and we find him so to be by the effects of