can neither cease nor be diminished or relaxed in the least to all Eternity And then our Saviour adds Vers. 19. of this Fifth of S. Matthew Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven That is saith Grotius Minimi erit pretii eum minimi habitum iri he shall be contemned and treated as a most despicable wretch at the Day of Iudgment Then it follows But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called Great in the Kingdom of Heaven He shall be highly Honoured and signally Rewarded When the young Man came to our Saviour to ask him What good thing he should do that he might have Eternal life we know what his Answer was If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments S. Matth. 19. 17. And whereas He meant all yet knowing how apt Hypocrites are to flatter themselves with an opinion of the goodness of their state upon the account of their External Conformity to the First Table Precepts though they live in the gross Transgression of those of the Second Table He only expressed those which enjoyn Duties relating to our Neighbour For the young Man asking which Commandments Iesus said Thou shalt do no Murder Thou shalt not commit Adultery Thou shalt not Steal Thou shalt not bear false Witness Honour thy Father and thy Mother And thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thyself Ver. 18 19. Secondly The Apostle would have Contradicted himself most Egregiously as well as his Master should he in the above-cited Places or any where else teach this Notion of Christian Liberty For 't was He that said Do we make void the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Rom. 3. 31. He here includes even the Ceremonial Law as appears by ver 28. which gave occasion to these words Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law That is that a Gentile is justified without Circumcision or Sacrifices or any other of the Iewish Rites and Services which they still laid so great weight upon as appears by the two following Verses Is he the God of the Iews only Is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also Seeing it is one God which shall justifie the Circumcision by Faith and Vncircumcision through Faith Now saith the Apostle God forbid we should affirm that the Gospel Dispensation should make void the Law should make useless so much as the Ceremonial Law therefore much less the Moral yea we assert it establisheth the Law In some sence it even establisheth or perfects that Law as it brings in the substance of that whereof that Law had the shadow and requireth purity of Heart which was the spiritual meaning of Circumcision Again 't was the same S. Paul that said Not the Hearers of the Law are just before God but the Doers of the Law shall be justified Rom. 2. 13. And it is He who makes it to be the design of Christ's Expiating our Sins upon the Cross That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And it is this same Apostle that saith Though I speak with the Tongues of Men and of Angels and have not Charity a Moral Virtue I am become as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal And though I have the gift of Prophecy and understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge And though I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no Charity I am nothing c. 1 Cor. 13. 1 2. And in the last Verse doth not only Equalize Charity with Faith and Hope which many now adays are so far from doing that they are angry with those who do so but also Advanceth it above those Graces And now abideth Faith Hope Charity these three but the greatest of these is Charity Thirdly Whosoever teacheth this Doctrine of Christ's having set us free from the Moral Law contradicteth the whole strain of the New Testament Our Saviours Sermon on the Mount throughout all his Injunctions and even all his Discourses and all the Precepts and Exhortations contained in the Epistles of the Apostles They are all so many instances of the Obligations that the First and Second Tables lay upon us as understood in the most Spiritual Sublime and Comprehensive Sence And none are more so than those of S. Paul so intolerably is he abused in being made the Great and I think Onely Patron of that most licentious and wicked Doctrine And even that Precept of Believing in the Name of the Son of God is a First-Table Precept not Positive but Moral in its own Nature necessarily obliging and a Dictate of Natural Light to all those who are acquainted with the Evidence of his being the Messiah and Son of God Upon our understanding how He is demonstrated so to be we should have known that Faith in Him is an indispensable Duty though we could not have produced one Text to prove it Moreover Believing in Christ together with the Institutions of Baptism and the Lord's Supper are designed as Means to the great End of making us intirely Obedient to the Moral Law or the Everlasting Rules of Righteousness Fourthly Whosoever teacheth this Doctrine teacheth a most manifest contradiction to the Essential Principles and Make of Mankind It is impossible that Reasonable Creatures should be disobliged from Loving God above all from being Just and Charitable Sober and Temperate Humble and Submissive to the Divine Will and the like It is impossible that any Power whatsoever should discharge them from such duties as these Their Obligation to them doth Naturally arise from their being such Creatures There is not a greater contradiction than this imaginable that Creatures made capable of understanding what God is and their Relation and Obligations to him may not be Eternally bound to behave themselves towards him as the Moral Law requires they should Infinite Power it self cannot set such Creatures free from their Obligation to love God with the highest degree of love their Souls will admit of Now as the Apostle tells us that Love is the fulfilling of the Law so 't is easie to shew that all Moral Duties whatsoever whether relating to God our Neighbour or our Selves are the necessary results and consequents of the Love of God so that we cannot once suppose that these should cease at any time to be the Duties of Men and Women but we must also suppose them then deprived of their Essential Form and to be changed into another sort of Beings Fifthly This Doctrine also is as apparent a contradiction to the Happiness and Welfare of Mankind We cannot be in a Happy or tolerably Good state but by conforming our selves to the Precepts of this Law We have already shewed that those must necessarily be deplorably Miserable who live in subjection to any corrupt Appetite any Fleshly or Spiritual Lust. To
that I would my self publish it to all the world and instead of thinking it a disgrace and disparagement I would esteem it as an ornament for my innocence would be the more cleared and my good name vindicated by the means of it And so far would I be from sneaking and skulking in corners like one ashamed to shew his head that I would like a Prince with Heroick courage and confidence go up to the face of mine Enemy and expose and lay open my whole life before him Or rather we will read these Verses as the sence of them is expressed in a late excellent Paraphrase upon this Book Oh that the truth of all this that I have been accused of might be examined by some equal judge Behold I continue still to desire of God this favour And let him that can accuse me bring in his Libel in writing against me Surely I would not endeavour to obscure it but openly expose it to be read by all nay wear it as a singular ornament which would turn to mine honour when the world saw it disproved I my self would assist him to draw up his charge by declaring to him freely every action of my life I would approach him as undauntedly as a Prince who is assured of the goodness of his cause These words with many other of his sayings shew what a blessed Liberty the Soul of this Holy man was possessed with even whilest he was deprived of all his outward comforts and in the saddest and most dismal circumstances Thirdly Nothing will free a man from Trouble and Dejection of mind like the careful observance of the Laws of Righteousness This as it is a certain consequent of Fear and Shame it must needs free a man from as it freeth from those its Causes But it incomparably beyond any thing in the world cureth this Malady of a wounded spirit how or by whatsoever it be occasioned I have shewed that it is the fate of Sinners to feel great perturbation and disturbance of mind from their corrupt Affections by the law in their members warring against the law of their minds and also by reflecting upon their folly and madness and by the fearful expectations that their manifold bold transgressions of the Divine Laws do raise in them The wicked saith the Prophet are like the troubled Sea which cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Cain had no sooner given place to Envy and Revenge but his Countenance fell and the Disquiet of his mind was bewrayed by his looks But there is no such Lightsomness and Sprightfulness of Soul no such Pleasure and Self-satisfaction as that which results from true Religion Righteousness and Goodness It 's ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths peace Prov. 3. 17. Light is sown for the Righteous and joy for the Vpright in heart Psal. 97. 11. Great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them Psal. 119. 165. The work of Rigteousness shall be peace and the effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Esay 32. 17. The Good man is free from self-accusations and from that gnawing Worm that is frequently felt in Guilty breasts He is not appalled in thinking of what is past nor cast down with the fore-thought of that which is to come His Soul is like a calm and clear River like the waters of Siloam which run softly without noise or murmur Whatsoever is Natural is for that reason highly pleasing but nothing so natural to the Heaven-born Soul of man nothing is so agreeable to our original Make as to live in conformity to the Laws of Righteousness Whilest this is our serious care we act according to our Highest principle that Principle which God and Nature designed for our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Leader and Governour I mean the Reason of our Minds And therefore so long as we follow its Dictates and behave our selves like those on whose souls the Divine image is imprinted which consisteth in Righteousness and true Holiness so long I say we live in our own Element and therefore must necessarily have Self-enjoyment And we shall enjoy our selves more or less according as we are more or less diligent in works of Righteousness and Goodness The experience of every Good man will force him to subscribe to the truth of this no such man can withhold his assent from it or call it into question any more than he can his own Feeling Such a one feels such serenity of thoughts and such great delight and satisfaction of mind in the exercise of love to God and love to men in works of Piety Justice and Charity in the exercise of Humility Meekness Patience and Submission to the Divine will and all other Christian Graces and Virtues that while he is so employed all is as well within him as he can desire he accounts it a Heaven upon Earth to be so employed I fear that many a one who would be thought a Christian cannot receive this Doctrine that it seems to him a very strange Soloecism but I could tell him of many a Heathen of whom he may learn it as well as of Christians particularly Tully who hath this brave saying in his Tusculan Questions O Philosophy the Guide of our lives O thou seeker out of Virtues and expeller of Vices One day well spent and in obedience to thy precepts ought to be preferred before a sinning immortality And all those say for substance the self-same thing who tell us that Virtue is a Reward to it self The Good man feels also no small pleasure in reflecting upon the fruits of Righteousness he hath brought forth And much more in the Contemplation of that Glorious Reward which God for Christ's sake hath promised to those who patiently persevere in well-doing The fore-expectation whereof doth greatly support him under all the crosses and afflictions wherewith he is exercised in this life And makes him not only Patient under those Tribulations he meets with for Righteousness sake but even to Glory in them as the Apostles did and Primitive Christians And moreover he receiveth great Refreshment and Comfort more immediately from the Holy Ghost especially when he is called forth to any exceedingly great suffering or extraordinary service He then marvellously strengthens the Good man with strength in his Soul to bear the one and perform the other as becomes a servant of Iesus Christ. Which he doth chiefly by giving sensible clear and lively representations to the Good mans mind of the Glory of Heaven and by stedfastly fixing it upon the Crown of Righteousness and Life which his Blessed Lord hath promised to all those who are faithful to the Death Thus was the first Christian Martyr S. Stephen strengthened who being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the Glory of God saw the Heavens opened as ready to receive him and the Son of man standing on the
minds being so employed about things which were in themselves neither Good nor Evil but only by reason of Divine injunctions and prohibitions Not that this great evil was necessarily occasioned thereby God forbid we should think so but 't was through their own default otherwise there could have been no truly good people among them as there were innumerable just as we see at this day there are too many of a certain Profession who by means of their continual dabling in matter are of so gross and course intellectuals that they seem almost uncapable of any Idea and conception of things immaterial and incorporeal Which is a great Unhappiness but as great a Fault So that this we have now said suggests to us another reason for the putting a period to the Ceremonial Law in order to the introduction of that excellent and Divine Liberty which we assert to be eminently Christian Liberty Because that the love of Righteousness and Goodness under that notion is necessary thereunto as shall be farther shewn hereafter And it is an evidence of a Soul imprisoned in Sense and sunk in Selfishness to love Virtue and Goodness merely for its dowry and the external Advantages that accrue by it and not for its own sake As also to avoid sin only for the sake of the uneasie and sad circumstances that attend it having no sense of its Moral Turpitude Lastly Whereas I have shewed that by the observation of the Laws of Righteousness and Goodness a man is delivered from all immoderate Self-love to his own Bodily and Particular concerns and acquireth that Generosity and Nobleness of spirit whereby he is carried forth and enlarged to the love of God in the first place and a hearty concern for the General welfare of his Fellow-creatures the Iews by the occasion of the forementioned Law became less free as Freedom is opposed to Confinement For they being paled in and separated from the rest of the world by a Religion peculiar to themselves and it being forbidden by their Law to contract Marriages or have any intimacy and that they should so much as eat with the Gentiles though 't was but necessary they should be so restrained for the more effectual preventing their falling into Idolatry and being infected with their other wicked customs and corrupt manners to which they were naturally very strangely inclined yet by this means they generally became wofully Narrow-spirited and contracted in their Love and took occasion from hence to banish all from their Kindness and Charity that were not of their own Nation and their own Religion And therefore for this reason also it was highly fit that our Saviour should take off all future Obligation to the Observance of this Law his design being to Ampliate and Enlarge mens minds by the most Universal and Unlimited Charity in imitation of himself who was a Propitiation not only for the sins of the Iewish Nation but also of the whole World And for this reason particularly S. Paul tells the Ephesians This Law was Abolished Chap. 2. 14 15 16. For he is our peace who hath made both one Jews and Gentiles and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances or having Abolished by his Sufferings the Ceremonial Law which was such a Make-bate between the Iews and Gentiles for to make himself of twain one new man so making peace And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body on the Cross having slain the enmity thereby And that in the general the great work of setting men perfectly at Liberty from the power of their Lusts and the making them free to all holy Obedience was designed by the nullifying this Law is asserted by the Apostle Rom. 7. 5 6. For when we were in the flesh or under those Carnal Ordinances the motions of sin which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter That is when we were under the Law the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sinful Affections which were heightned thereby through our own blindness in not looking beyond the letter of the Law did so work in us as to render us so much the more obnoxious to death But now we are delivered by our Saviour Christ from that Law it being dead or abrogated that in stead of a mere External Obedience and a company of Bodily Washings we should for the future be inwardly pure and spiritually obedient To conclude this Argument Wheresoever we find Liberty or Freedom mentioned throughout the New Testament as that which belongeth to us under the notion of Christians as that which we are beholden to the Gospel dispensation for it is still I dare affirm to be understood either of Liberty from Sin the Power and the Punishment thereof or of Liberty from the Ceremonial and purely Mosaical Law This I assert upon a particular consideration of all those Texts wherein any thing is said relating to Liberty And therefore this latter Deliverance being principally intended in order to the former the former viz. that from Sin must necessarily be the Christian Liberty Fourthly None but the Israelites were obliged to the Observance of this Law Indeed in order to a Gentiles partaking of the Iewish Priviledges in the Land of Canaan it was necessary he should be Circumcised and become as their phrase was a Proselyte of Iustice and so make himself a debtor to the whole Law But it was not necessary to his Acceptance with God and Eternal Happiness to yield obedience to this Law It was sufficient for him to worship the true God and renounce Idolatry and to follow the Dictates of the Law of Nature Even the Iews themselves as ill affected as they were towards the Gentiles did acknowledge no more to be necessary than the Observation of the Seven Precepts of Noah to their having their part in Seculo futuro and therefore they permitted the Proselytes of the Gate to worship in the Outward Court of the Temple Which was therefore called Atrium Gentium immundorum The Court of the Gentiles and the Vnclean And thus as it appears from the three foregoing Arguments that Liberty from Sin and to Righteousness is the Eminent Christian Liberty which is procured for the World taking in the Iews so from this fourth 't is as evident that it is the only Christian Liberty which is procured and purchased for us Gentiles There is no other Liberty mentioned either by our Saviour or his Apostles besides this from the Power and Dominion of Sin wherein we always include deliverance from the sad consequents thereof which we Gentiles are obliged to Christianity for or which we are invested with under the notion of Christians CHAP. VI. What course our Lord hath taken to
with his duty than to do his duty Nay the sincere Christian looks upon that as his greatest and most important work and business which is least in sight which is to be done within himself as well knowing that if the Tree be good its Fruit will be so also That as our Saviour saith a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit nor a good tree evil fruit and that all must needs be well without him if all be well within him And that no outward Temptations can be forceably enough to draw him to sin so long as there is entertained within him no treacherous Lust that is ready to take part with them That he to whom this Character doth not belong is no genuine Christian is apparent in that such a person is no Freeman And as a great number of Texts do plainly speak the former Proposition to be true so is it to be concluded from what hath been discoursed of the nature of Christian Liberty from our having demonstrated that it consisteth in deliverance from all Inslaving Lusts and in having all obstacles taken out of the way to our complete complying with the Laws of Righteousness and Goodness CHAP. XX. The Last Inference Viz. That the most Proper and Genuine Christian Obedience is that which hath most of Liberty in it namely that which proceeds from the Principle of Love to God and Goodness FIfthly and Lastly I infer from our discourse of Christian Liberty what is the most Proper and Genuine Christian Obedience Surely that which hath most of Liberty in it that Obedience which is most free and least forced That which springs from an Inward Living Principle and is not merely occasioned by the consideration of External Motives and Arguments And then doth a man act from an Inward Principle of Life when he acts from the love of God and Goodness There is scarcely any distinction betwixt these two for to love God that is as God is to be inamoured primarily with his most Beautiful and Amiable Perfections of Righteousness Purity Beneficence and Mercy all which may properly be expressed by that one Excellent word GOODNESS I say to love God as God is to be in love with these Perfections primarily and to love His Person upon the account of them if it be lawful to distinguish them and abstract His Person from His Perfections But those do most truly conceive of that Incomprehensible Being who make no such Abstraction but describe Him by calling Him Infinite Righteousness and Purity Bounty and Mercy Wisdom and Power c. rather than a Being in whom are all these Perfections For they are not so properly said to be in God as to be God Himself Thus limited that Maxim of the Schools is indisputably true viz. Quicquid est in Deo est ipse Deus Whatsoever is in God is God himself So that I say to love God and to love Goodness as such do amount to the same thing To love God not because Good in himself but because Good and Kind to me is more self-love than a love of God A Wicked man may thus love God for as the Wise man observes that every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts so is he especially to him that bestoweth gifts upon himself the very Brutes are so and he is more a Devil than a Man that is not so Publicans and Sinners our Saviour saith do love those who love them and the more a man loves himself the more will he be inclined to love his Benefactors and best Friends as such Now as I said that is the most Free and consequently the most Christian Obedience which ariseth from an Inward lively sense of the Beauty and Amiableness of Goodness of the Christian Virtues and Graces which are all so many Rays of and Emanations from the Divine Goodness and therefore those who are indued with them are said to be partakers of a Divine nature And when we act from this Principle we act from a New nature and I need not say that no actions are so free as natural actions Thus to do good is to do like God himself the Freest of all Agents for he doth good not from External Motives but from the Infinite Complacency he takes in Goodness it self I am the Lord who exercise Loving kindness Iudgment and Righteousness in the Earth for in these things do I dâ—light saith the Lord Ier. 9. 24. Which is as much as to say therefore I am exercised in these things because I delight in them or my delight in these things is the Principle whereby I am acted in the Exercise of them Thou art Good saith the Psalmist and dost good Psal. 119. 68. Or because thou art Good thou dost good and God's being Good is his Delighting in Goodness Righteousness and Goodness are too Excellent things to be made mere means to a farther End Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity and passeth by the Transgression of the Remnant of his Heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever and why he doth not the next words tell us because he Delighteth in Mercy Mic. 7. 18. And our imitating of God and being like to him is the great design and business of our Saviour's Religion But I would not be understood as if I affirmed that that Obedience which springs from Hope or Fear or is excited by the consideration of Rewards and Punishments is an Obedience not becoming and unworthy of Christians If so I should condemn our Saviour and his Apostles for proposing such Motives But I say First That the most genuinely Christian Obedience is that which proceeds from Love from the Love of God and Goodness Not that Christianity doth exclude all other Motives but this is the Chief and Principal because it makes our Obedience most Free and makes us most like to God in doing Good Secondly I say also that to do good from a Principle of love to God and Goodness and to do it from the hope of Heaven and the fear of Hell are one and the same thing if we have a true notion of Heaven and Hell That is if we conceive of the Heavenly State as that which consists in a perfect likeness to God as perfect as our Natures are capable of and a full and complete enjoyment of him and of the Hellish State as that which is directly opposite to the Heavenly according to this Notion of it Now I need not spend one minute in shewing that to do good from the hope of such a Happiness and from the fear of such a Misery is to be acted by the foresaid principle of Love in so doing Thirdly I add that to be acted by mere External Motives Motives wholly Extrinsical to God and Goodness by the â—â—ar of Hell onely considered as a place of Torment and the hope of Heaven onely considered as a place of great Pleasure and Joy without considering the nature of that torment and the nature of that Joy this is a low and mean