is a Law-giver as a King on his Throne who has no superiour and therefore what he there decrees has the force and sanction of a Law the Lord is our Judge Isa 33.22 says the Prophet the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King he will save us As our Saviour was Man he too tho' superiour to Moses and peculiarly faithful in all the house of God had no authority to make alterations in that original Moral Law and as he was one with his Father and so conscious of every determination of his it was impossible he should vary from himself i. e. from his blessed Father or should openly in the world act as if it were possible any thing imperfect should come out of the hand of God Hence we rationally believe that if salvation be a thing really attainable it must be attained by the same means by all persons whether Jews or Gentiles Of the Patriarchs several have that testimony given of them in Scripture that they pleas'd God now there being no variableness nor shadow of turning with God but he the same yesterday to day and for ever whatsoever pleas'd God in those the same and nothing else can please him now And whereas our blessed Saviour in the days of his flesh made it his business to please his Almighty Father and did so by performing every punctilio of the Mosaic Law so we who are to follow his example must perform the same but whereas the very circumstantial appendages of a Law tho' nothing essential to it but the meer evidences of the Sovereignty of the Lawgiver are not yet to be cancell'd but by a power equal to that which gave them their first obliging authority therefore it was necessary that Jesus Christ in and by whom the ceremonial sanctions of Moses's Law were vacated should be God and so have the same original Divine Authority in himself and his fulfilling and re-confirming all the substantial parts of that Law made it yet the more publickly authentick and taught his followers to have their due respect to him which was due to both an Almighty Lawgiver and an infallible Interpreter And whereas that insupportable burden of Ceremonies is taken off from the necks of Christians it being laid upon the Jews partly for the hardness of their hearts and partly for to shadow out to them their expectations of a Messiah who being himself come in the flesh has now no need of types and shadows to prefigure him so the old Natural Law is urged upon them with the greatest strength and reason in the world and the force and intent of it is more clearly shew'd them from whence the Apostle S. John who tells those he writes to that he gave them no new commandment but the old which they had heard from the beginning yet in the very next verse subjoins 1 John 2.7 8. Again a new commandment I write unto you the substance of which is that you love one another this was an old commandment in that Nature injoyn'd it and it was co-incident with that Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self it was a new Commandment in that it was re-inforced and inculcated so very often by our Saviour in that He gave so many powerful reasons why his followers should practise it and yet the result of all amounts only to this that the design of Religion being to restore Nature to its first happiness and that being rationally concluded to be the best and purest Religion which has the greatest effects in that design if those who were his Disciples would but take care to evidence their Discipleship by that mutual love and endearing charity they would at the same time convince the world that the Lord whom they follow'd was truly authoriz'd by Heaven that the Doctrine which He preach'd was really agreeable to the Will of God and that Love being the first intention of pure and uncorrupted Nature That which raised and encouraged men most powerfully to it must needs be the most suitable to that original purity of Nature And hence it is that we observe many are prejudiced against Christianity by those cursed feuds and animosities to be found among Christians they having an eye generally to the restauration of Nature but quarrels and contentions being wholly barbarous brutish and unnatural hence it appears farther too that whereas the Apostle seems to distinguish between the Gospel and the Mosaic dispensation as if the first were the Law of Faith the last the Law of Works and that such a Law as by which Salvation could never be obtain'd The works the Apostle reflects on are not the duties of the moral Law but the Ceremonial punctilio's of the Levitical Law which as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews agreeably to what I asserted before assures us were not able to make any man perfect but for the Moral Law he 's so far from invalidating it that where ever he dehorts from any vices such as he calls the works of the flesh Gal. 5.19 24. which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations strife wrath seditions heresie envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like of which he tells us that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God Again wheresoever he exhorts to any virtue such as Love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against which there is no Law Wheresoever he does thus He enforces the Moral Law with expressions as strong and reasons as weighty as the Holy Ghost could inspire him with and where the same Apostle assures us that in Jesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision Gal. 5.6 he shews what works are excluded from any efficacy in our Salvation for Circumcision is put for the whole Ceremonial Law and where he adds that Faith working by Love is available he shews the inefficacy of all pretences to Faith without good works agreeing with S. James that Faith without works is dead James 2.26 and with his own severe reflection elsewhere upon those who profess they knew God while in their works they deny him Tit. 1.16 being abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate Since then it was the great end and design of the Gospel to confirm the Moral and eternal Law of God and so by just degrees to reduce fallen Man again to the rules of perfect reason to make him sensible of the noble nature and spiritual inclinations of the Heaven-born Soul that so he might the more fully apprehend how much below himself he falls in yielding himself a slave to Sin and how much he retrenches his own true liberty by that unbridled exorbitancy he aims at the Gospel being intended to set Man's natural misery in a true light and withal to shew the sole remedy for that misery in the undertakings of a Saviour It remains an inquiry still whether Man could in the state he is in at present arrive
by the commands of God i.e. by Worshipping him according to his prescriptions and we cannot come to know the commands of God but by Prophecy or Revelation Or we may rest in the Apostles definition that true Religion is the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness in hopes of eternal life Tit. 1.1 2. But if we respect Religion in general as taken up by all Nations we may describe it as The method of worshipping God by all men suitably to those notions they had of him and of their own duties As for the Jewish Nation they were once the sole professors of true Religion and for the hardness of their hearts were loaded with abundance of Ceremonial institutions but yet in the law of Moses and in the Prophets we find sincere and hearty obedience to the moral Law very much urged and insisted upon as the best evidence of true and unfeigned piety and where God expostulates sharply with his people for their rebellion and disobedience He tells them plainly Ps 50.8 9 13 16 17 23. I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices or thy burnt offerings to have been continually before me I will take no bullock out of thy house nor he-goat out of thy fold Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats No these things God could pardon But unto the wicked God says what hast thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my covenant into thy mouth the reason of the expostulation follows thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee by which words the great folly of those is exprest who pretend themselves the servants of God and instruments of his glory and yet live disagreeably to their profession wherefore it 's added Who so offereth praise glorifieth me and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God Thus again God by the Prophet Samuel argues with Saul 1 Sam. 15.22 Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams So the Prophet Isaiah Isa 1.11 13 16 17 18. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he-goats Bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination to me it follows wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widows Well what should be the effect of all this reformation as much as a wretched sinner could hope for from the most benign Being Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord tho' your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow tho' they be red like crimson they shall be as wool So the Prophet Micah Micah 6.6 7 8. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or ten thousands of rivers of oyl shall I give my first-born for my transgression or the fruit of my Body for the sin of my soul No God requires not these things at our hands but He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Nay Solomon himself who was so personally profuse in his offerings that a man would have suspected he had fixt the whole substance of Religion in such exterior services when he comes to draw up what was incumbent upon Man in a few words passes sacrificing by as inconsiderable in respect of this sincere obedience Eccl. 12.13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man Thus far the writings of the Old Testament receiv'd by the ancient Jews shew us the ends of Religion viz. That where it really had a place it necessarily produc'd purity and sincerity of mind without which no sacrifice tho' never so costly could be accepted with God David teaches us the lesson plainly Ps 51.6 7 10 19. Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom purge me with hysop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me and much more to the same purpose then he concludes all Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offering and whole burnt-offering then shall they offer bullocks upon thine Altar But since the Jews are for the most part hardned against their own greatest interest and so may be thought to have now changed their minds being known for such bigotted ceremonialists I shall add the confessions of one or two modern Jews So Rabbi Isaac Sangar in the book Cosri before cited Cosri pars 3. p. 157. for thus he tells the King he converses with A holy and pious man is not the rigid man for every ceremonial punctilio but he who where he dwells with a prudent and impartial hand gives every one their right who loves justice oppresses none defrauds none nor bribes any to be his slaves or tools upon occasion Again Because the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth therefore the holy man neither does nor speaks nor thinks any thing but he believes the all-seeing eye of God to be upon him ready not only to reward for what 's well but for what 's ill done too and to visit for every perverse and wicked word or action p. 168. c. To him I shall add Rabbi Moises ben Maimon who in his More Nevochim More Nevoehim pars 3. c. 28. p. 419. or explainer of difficulties teaches us that every precept of God whether it be affirmative or negative aims at these things first that it may take away all violence from among men and beget good manners necessary for the conservation of political Societies and secondly that it may instil true principles of faith such as are in their own nature necessary to be known for the expelling of wickedness and encouraging honesty and virtue Now if these sober and necessary virtues which are of no value if not sincere be the ultimate intention of all God's Laws it follows that those virtues are more accounted of with God which are inward and affect the Soul than all outward performances how pompous soever as much as the end of a thing is more excellent than the means conducing to it The Son of Sirach agrees admirably with this truth He that sacrificeth of a thing wrongfully gotten Eccl. 34.18 19.
l. 10. p. 360. when making gaudy offerings to them No let but the hand free from guilt be lifted up to the Altars of the Gods not the most rich or costly hecatombs shall sooner reconcile the angry Deities than those I shall add no more to shew that sense the Pagans had of the ends of religion but onely make a short reflection upon God's justice in dealing with Mankind as set down by St. Paul He tells us God will render to every man according to his deeds Rom. 2.6 c. to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but to them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish to every soul of man that doth evil to the Jew first and also to the Gentile Now that the Jews and Gentiles who stood upon no equal ground yet should suffer equally in case of disobedience seems to some very harsh but if again it be considered that that God who gave the Jewish Nation such great advantages required of them proportionably great returns whilst the Gentiles who had been partakers of less light were onely required to walk in that light they had to come up as near to a perfection in faith and virtue as that would admit of This consider'd the Gentiles were every whit as guilty in neglecting their duties which were lighter and fewer as the Jews in neglecting theirs which were more numerous and difficult since the disobedience to the Divine commands is as notorious in one case as in the other and this reflection reaches farther and teaches those who are more weak and ignorant not to presume too much upon God's mercy because they know so little since it 's as reasonable they should perform that little they know as that we who know more should do our duties and their negligence and proportionable unfruitfulness in good and ours proceed from one and the same damnably offensive principle for as the Apostle urges it v. 12. as many as have sinn'd without Law shall perish without Law and as many as have sinn'd in the Law shall be judg'd by the Law This every Man must acknowledge to be the greatest equity in the World the faith and works of the Jews and so of Christians shall be canvas'd and examin'd by those rules of faith and practice extraordinarily imparted to them the Gentiles had no such Law but the light of Nature was their guide therefore their works shall be tried by that and by no other light now a defect in obedience to the innate light of nature is as much a contempt of God and so as criminal as a defect in obedience to the written Law of God and consequently as justly punish'd now how far this natural light extends as these passages I have quoted from Heathen Writers considerably evidence so the Apostle tells us That the Gentiles which have not the Law i. e. the same Law that was given to the Jews v. 14. do by nature the things contain'd in the Law they not having the Law are a Law unto themselves This proves that truth that God's written Law is not a disannulling but a confirming and enlarging upon the Law of Nature in the manner of a Commentary upon an intricate Text to illustrate and explain it well then The Gentiles shew this natural Law written in their hearts by the witness of their consciences and their thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another v. 15. for having as I shew'd before clear apprehensions of the Being of a God and having made very considerable discoveries of his nature so far as legible in the works of the Creation they cannot upon a serious debate with themselves and weighing their own actions by their own notions and rules but have an infallible certainty of the rectitude or pravity of their actions and this is as much as a Jew or Christian can do by his publick Laws and an exact scanning of them Now if my Conscience can certainly inform me of things essentially and eternally so whether they be good or bad the same Conscience will give me as infallible a certainty that God is and must be just when he rewards me according to my actions whether they be good or evil he calls me to account for what I do know not for what I do not know and punishes me for transgressions within the reach of my understanding to have avoided and not for those that were unintelligible without a positive revelation and this even corrupted Reason will own is agreeable to the strictest rules of equity and justice We are to enquire since we have seen what Jews and Gentiles before our Saviour's birth into the World understood concerning the nature and ends of Religion which every one for himself supposed to be true since none can be thought mad enough to trouble himself about that religion he certainly knew to be false We are to enquire how far both Jews and Gentiles had deprav'd and perverted those ends and what care they took to manage themselves according to that knowledge they really had when our Saviour appear'd in the flesh And here again we may begin with the Jews among whom if we find an extraordinary degeneracy we can the less wonder at it among the Gentiles If then we examine the state of things among them we have it thus It was once among them Do this and live i. e. Live here on Earth in a strict obedience to those things commanded you in the Law and you shall be rewarded with an happy future life Now when the terrors and glories of Mount Sinai were fresh in memory and Parents according as they were order'd took care to inculcate God's power justice and goodness particularly exerted toward the People of Israel into their Children and gave agreeable examples in themselves obedience was the common study and peace here and a glorious expectation hereafter the common consequence But when a new generation arose who had not seen God's wonderful dealings with his people and the too prevailing examples of neighbouring Idolaters taught the Israelites a wicked ingratitude the Law of God was slighted and as it is among us at this day the Man who could defie Heaven with the greatest audacity was the most set by And though frequent judgments over-took their Impieties there was no thorough purgation made among them but they went on to add sin to sin so that among the Scribes and Pharisees the great Zealots of the Law at the time of Christ's coming in the flesh things were at that pass that the blessed Jesus had reason when he told his Auditors that Except their righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees Matth. 5.20 they should in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven If therefore the very best among the Jews as they were generally esteem'd were utterly uncapable of eternal happiness what may
him for we shall see him as he is And when reason once comes to use sense so far as to see God as he is infinitely happy infinitely good infinitely glorious it has gone far enough And thus far have I given an account of Humane reason or the light of Nature for I think I may well enough use them as Synonymous and how far it may be useful in matters of a Divine nature I shall draw onely a Corollary or two from thence and then proceed We conclude from what has been discours'd concerning Humane reason That our obligation to Almighty God is infinite in that He who might have taken from us wholly that natural light because we had so extremely slighted it was yet pleas'd to continue it so far as that rightly apply'd it might still be useful to us even in matters of salvation It 's true we cannot examine things with that clearness and satisfaction which Adam's first enquiries were accompany'd with our understandings are somewhat parallel to that Earth which fell under a Curse for the sin of Man It was naturally fertile before in good things but then it was to bring forth onely bryars and thorns yet Man might eat bread from it still onely it must be in the sweat of his brows He must take pains for that now which he might have had without any trouble before So our Natural reason was clear and free at first common occurrences needed no deep meditations nor extraordinary passages any tedious study to apprehend them in every circumstance The case is now otherwise our reason busies it self naturally about trifles and onely puzles and perplexes it self in matters of no weight or moment yet still it may move to good purpose but it requires abundance of care and pains to cultivate it so as it may produce any thing that 's good and even with a great deal of pains too sometimes it makes conclusions onely vain troublesome and miserably false this unhappiness is the consequence of our own follies at first and it's God's unmerited goodness that we can yet by making use of due means distinguish in some measure between truth and falshood at least in the more obvious parts of religion and his goodness yet appears farther in that where our decrepit reason fails he 's pleas'd to interpose with the influences of his blessed Spirit and to preserve the Modest and Humble from falling into damnable Error that our Reason may have a subject profitable to employ it self upon God has given us his Word blessed are they who meditate on that word day and night he calls upon us to apply our selves to the Law and to the testimony to search the Scriptures to search them with the same care and diligence as those who work in Mines seek for the golden Ore Whereas he lays in his Word several Commands upon us He would have us examine them so as we may be convinced that they are not grievous but Holy just and good These Commandments therefore must be examin'd by the rule of right Reason which whosoever follows will be infinitely satisfied in them In his dealings with mankind he calls upon them to examine their own ways by the same rule he enters into arguments highly rational with mankind himself he bids them to judge in their own causes between himself and them and see if discussing things rationally they must not necessarily fall upon that confession That God's ways are equal but the ways of men unequal When he recommends his mercies when he would terrifie with his judgments He appeals to Humane Reason still or that share of light which we are now partakers of Now he that will employ that light he has upon such noble subjects if he be not prejudiced with wicked principles before or puff'd up with self-conceit must necessarily be a very religious man for the clearer any mans rational faculty is the more pious he must be only men of very low abilities can be either Atheists or Hereticks It 's confest indeed some Hereticks as the Socinians in particular with whom we are at present concern'd pretend highly to Reason but they only sham us with fond pretences and their reason is all empty and sophistical and Atheists are the Men of sence if we may believe fools and madmen but there is a vast difference between a flashy Wit and a ridiculing Humour and sound judgment and solid and weighty argument But God who knew before what artifices Hell and wicked men would make use of to pervert truth calls upon us to exercise our reason farther in discovering and baffling those cheats the enemies of our Souls would fain put upon us wherein as Hereticks and Schismaticks generally make their appeals to God's Word and we have warning in that very Word That in those doctrines where there 's any shew of difficulty those who are unlearned and unstable wrest the Scriptures to their own destructions We are warn'd to try the Spirits whether they be of God and Scripture being the rule of tryal we are oblig'd to study the true sence and meaning of that To which end our rational faculty carries us along in studying the original Languages in which Scripture was written and finding out the true meaning and import of words and phrases in other authors and the modes and customs of countries to which any Texts refer Reason goes with us in comparing text with text and matters of faith or practice laid down in one place with those laid down in another in observing the force of those arguments drawn from such and such Texts their real dependance upon or direct consequence from the places alledg'd and the general consistency of opinions offer'd with the end and design of those positive truths laid down in Scripture Reason has here a large field to exercise it self in And whereas we are urg'd by some to abjure that utterly with respect to those points of faith or practice that are under debate pretending they 'd insist only on the letter of Scripture Maximus tells us well in the formerly cited discourse of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they drive you from examining Scripture too strictly insinuating that it 's dangerous to pry too narrowly into secrets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maximi disceptatio inter opera Athan. T. 2. p. 296. but disswading it indeed that they might avoid the reproof of their Errors from thence where he takes farther notice how such persons if they meet but with a word that at first hearing sounds favourably to their fancies they run away with it without ever considering the design of the inspired Writer or examining the agreement of their own shallow glosses with the general tenour of Holy Writ an humour that prevails with too many still who prefer the sound of words before the truth and pertinency of texts of Scripture and therefore imagine themselves to argue very piously and agreeably to God's word when all their talk is nothing to the purpose But mysteries the great
drooping soul above all the gay prospects of a flattering world above all the dangers generally attending despised piety to make Men sit loose to all those exterior blessings they meet with in this world and to account all things but as loss and dung in comparison of that Salvation wrought for them by Jesus to make them scorn the rack and wheel and smile at flames and lingring tortures and all this only upon the credit of a future happy state for the purchace of Crowns and kingdoms invisible to all eyes but those of faith and this too when all such sufferings and inconveniences might be avoided by a few short words and some little inconsiderable actions these atchievements are far beyond the most ambitious thoughts of meer mortal Creatures beyond their most aspiring hopes tho' influenced by those united powers which acted so vigorously in all the several Prophets of foregoing Ages It 's extremely derogatory to God's justice and wisdom to imagine that Man who was not able to support himself in his innocent state when once attack'd by a slight temptation tho' there were then no defects of any kind in his intellectuals should be able now when every faculty in him is weakned and perverted by the spreading infection of sin to work his own redemption or should God have ordered a greater price to have been paid for satisfaction for sin when a lower would have effected it or have sent a partaker of the eternal Godhead to take upon him and suffer in humane nature for the worlds crimes when an inferiour person might have compassed the great design as well Nor had the benefit conferr'd upon us been so valuable had God only wrought that for us which had he not done we could as easily have wrought for our selves But the case was otherwise fallen Man was now in a state of damnation perfect innocence and compleat satisfaction for inveterate guilt must retrieve him from Hell but fallen Man was incapable of any such innocence or satisfaction Angels who had sin'd were incapable of pity who had not sin'd were incapable of merit their Creation from nothing and their support in original sinlesness were benefits so great that all their chearful attendances on coelestial services were too little to requite he must therefore be somewhat greater and more perfect than either Men or Angels who undertook the mighty work who was in a capacity of meriting and not under a necessity of mercy which only the eternal Son of God could be he alone who was of himself impeccable could fully satisfie the utmost pretensions of infinite justice who was a voluntary in his exinanition or humiliation and sufferings and who needed no sacrifices for his own sins could perfectly atone the wrath of God and therefore he took Man's cause into his own hand and came in our nature bringing Salvation along with him then Natures Laws justly yielded to him who was the God of Nature the Heavens then declared the glory of God and the firmament shewed his handy work the faith of pious Men was vigorously re-inforc'd by the full and miraculous accomplishment of antient Prophecies and Promises and Angels themselves own'd it an honour to be the first Evangelists To prove that Jesus Christ was and could be no other than the Son of God we come to consider the intent and design of that Doctrine introduced by him and by his Apostles and Ministers preached to the world in his name where we are to observe That as the writings of the Old and New Testament are to be the great standard of whatsoever is at this day published to the world as the will of God so before the writing of the Gospel the Law of Moses and of the Prophets was the true and certain Test by which all Doctrines were to be tryed and as the Apostle writes to the Galatians Gal. 1.8 Tho' we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received let him be accursed So had Jesus whom we conclude the Messias gone about to propagate any other kind of Doctrines than what the Prophets had before or than what was in every point agreeable to their precepts and rules instead of being the worlds Saviour he had proved himself an accursed impostor and therefore when the Jews thought to take the advantage of him on this very score he prevents them with that open declaration Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil Matth. 5.17 18 19. for verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled 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 i. e. That he shall be of no esteem or value at all in the true Church of God But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven Luk. 10.25 26 27 28. Agreeably to this when the Lawyer stood up and tempted him and said Master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life Christ goes not about to give him any new rules of life but referr'd him to the old what is written in the Law says he how readest thou And when the Lawyer had answered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self which was the real summary of the Mosaic Moral Law as our Saviour himself elsewhere informs us Christ replyes upon him Thou hast answered well This do and thou shalt live Now if life i. e. life eternal were to be obtained by the practising according to Legal instructions there was no need of prescribing any new way of obtaining that everlasting happiness and therefore when Christ gives us that parable of the rich Man and Lazarus and introduces the tormented rich Man supplicating that Lazarus might be sent to forewarn his five brethren lest they also should come into the same terrible place Luke 16.17 ad fin Abraham tells him they have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them and to shew the fulness of their writings for reforming of sinners Abraham upon his farther importunity subjoyns If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they believe tho' one rose from the dead By which passage our Saviour plainly informs us that even himself and his own Gospel after his resurrection would never take any place where Moses and the Prophets were despised before the Law being the Gospels foundation and preparing the devout soul for it's entertainment for Christ still took notice of what we ought to consider That truth is always agreeable to it self and consequently the God of truth must be so too and therefore if the writers of the Old Testament were inspired
them For tho' they were of a more obscure and impenetrable kind yet Paganism in general had very considerable notices of the immense goodness of the Divine nature and those amongst them who oppos'd Atheism and asserted Providence took no small care to set off divine love or the necessary care God had of his Creatures good with the greatest Lustre and the Ancient Christian Doctors nay the Apostles themselves witness Saint Paul at Athens and St. Peter with Cornelius and the Ancienter Prophets and Holy Writers found God's Goodness exerted to his Creatures an excellent Argument to draw Pagans as well as others to Repentance and Obedience Among other apprehensions Pagans had of God that of his Purity and Holiness was very considerable they who ascribed Perfection to him and knew what Perfection meant look'd upon him as necessarily infinitely Pure for where they tell us of God's being impassible they prove he cannot be guilty of any thing ill that being contrary to the original nature of a Spiritual Being which therefore must be suppos'd to suffer when it is suppos'd to sin But as they had these notions of God's immense purity so they had as quick a sense of the depravation of Man's Nature and were ready to lament it with almost as great an Emphasis as St. Paul himself could lament his own corruption hence that ingenious Platonist Maximus Tyrius acknowledges Dissert 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For the Soul of Man is too weak to extricate it self by force of Reason from all those perplexities it meets with especially being while in this life involv'd in many dark and gloomy Clouds and always miserably wearied and distracted with the noise and tumult of occurring mischiefs for what Man is there so good who can live without offence or without fault but Men might live easily enough without fault did not the general depravation of their natures prevent it for of what is Good nothing but Good can come But though this Purity in God and Corruption in Man must necessarily put God at a great distance from Man yet as God was Lord and Master at first both by right of Creation and Preservation he is so still as he that was owner of a Kingdom does not lose his right in it because it is visited with the Plague and the Infection it may be fatal and almost Universal so Man owes Obedience and Subjection to God still as he that was my Slave when perfect and in health is not therefore set free of course because he 's sickly or has lost an Arm or a Leg Or he that was so when in his wits does not cease to be so now because he 's distracted and does not understand his Duty The Relation between God and Man stands good and is believ'd to do so by Heathens as well as Christians as a Son owes a Duty to his Father when his Father 's angry as well as when he 's pleas'd and when himself has really offended him as well as when he has not and this relation is necessarily on man's part to be maintained to the utmost since by its failure he loses all hopes of Happiness and on God's part in vindication of his own Goodness He therefore that rightly understands Humane Pravity of Nature and yet believes he owes a duty to the supreme Being must conclude it necessary that he should have some Positive Rule or method whereby to manage himself nor is it enough in this case to fly to the Law of Nature as if that were sufficient That had been so indeed had Man continued in that rectitude of faculties which he had in the first beginnings of the world but Heathens have been very sensible there 's no such thing to depend on now For tho' the Laws of Nature are as Just as Reasonable as Necessary and as Obligatory now as ever yet if men have not Reason enough to understand it what does the excellency and compleatness of Natures Laws signifie to them as tho' I am blind the Sun shines at noon-day as bright and clear as ever it did but I see never the more for all that It was the Apostle's complaint that the good that he would that he did not Rom. 7.19 and the evil that he would not that he did the reason of which was that general Corruption of Mankind which He as one of them was partaker of fo◠He saw another Law in his members waring against the Law of his mind and bringing him into captivity to the Law of Sin which was in his members the same is the complaint of Medaea in the Poet when meditating upon a dreadful revenge she design'd on her husband Jason video meliora probóque Deteriora sequor Now let the Laws of Nature be never so admirable which way can a Man thus distracted within compose himself so as to take a fair view of that Law or be enough himself to practise upon it The Law of Nature is really obscure and mystical to be traced through a thousand dark and perplexing Labyrinths which require more than a Man as now fix'd to travel through therefore it cannot be enough to satisfie Man's want and to give him full and clear direction to do the Will of God which obedience to his Will is yet His Duty He again who has a just Idaea of immense Goodness in God will never be capable of reconciling His refusal to give Man a Law to walk by to such goodness For while no Man that acknowledges a God doubts but that he 'l punish sinners none can doubt but to clear his own Justice from all cavils he 'l punish them only as Sinners against some Law for sin is defin'd to Christians a Transgression of the Law but that Law must be some such Law as the Transgressor was really capable of knowing As our Justiciaries punish the most ignorant Clowns when they break our Laws tho' perhaps the suffering persons never knew of those Laws and yet very justly because there were such Laws really extant and in such a Language as they understood and it was their Duty and Interest to be acquainted with and to enquire after those Laws the breach of which might any way be penal to them It 's as little doubted that God will reward those who keep such Laws and will encourage them by the easiness of the Laws propounded to a ready and exact obedience These things were so strongly fix'd in the minds of antient Pagans that it set their Philosophers at work to read Lectures and to prescribe Laws concerning Virtue and Vice to all people declaring previously That there was an absolute necessity of such Laws for Men who indeed were ingaged in the dark and some of them could almost have pretended to Divine influences upon them tho' their Priests and Fortune-tellers did it with more applause But all this was to bring mens minds to a greater veneration of their Principles and Empedocles in particular thought it no ill Policy to Teach his
The Ceremonial Law might justly be abrogated because though it were given by God himself yet God always put a vast difference between an exactness in that and an exact obedience to the Moral and perpetually obliging Law now the Difference between them must lye as in their different Relation the last to the Soul the former to the Body so in that that One was of its own Nature mutable the other was not so It was indispensibly necessary that all those who hoped to live in God's Holy Hill should walk uprightly Psal 15. per totum and work righteousness and speak the Truth in their hearts that they should no way injure their neighbours that they should be faithful merciful kind c. but it was not indispensibly necessary that they should be circumcised for Adam Seth Noah Enoch were not circumcised yet Enoch in particular is observed to have walked with God and to have been translated by God and Noah was the onely Man found righteous by God in the whole Antediluvian World It was not necessary that they should All eat of the Paschal Lamb for Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph and the rest of the Jewish Patriarchs were wholly strangers to that Solemnity but it was absolutely necessary all Men should live in exact Obedience to the Law of Vncorrupted Nature and should be ready to submit themselves to whatsoever should be reveal'd by Almighty God as his will and it was absolutely necessary that all Men under a clear sense of their own Inability to do their own Duties should have respect to some Powerful Mediator between themselves and God and some effectual Satisfaction to be made the Laws of God on account of that deficiency of theirs that consquently there should be some Sacrifice offer'd to Almighty God of a Real and Intrinsic Worth which might have power to atone in earnest for Sin and this necessity the generality of Mankind might learn as well from those many bloody Sacrifices they were wont to offer as propitiatory to Heaven as the Jews could from their Paschal Lamb. It was a Duty not to be intermitted that Men should be very careful of and very charitable to the Poor that they should make a Provision for them proportionable to their Necessities the Rich so proving themselves careful Stewards of that Good which God had bestow'd upon them and ready to distribute it among their Fellow-Creatures yet all were not tyed just to Jewish Rules Lev. 19.9.23.22 to leave the corners of their fields unmown to leave a considerable gleaning on their vines and olives and fig-trees to leave the forgotten handfuls in the field c. So it was an universal Task to follow Judgment Mercy and Faith which by our Saviour are call'd the weightier things not of the Ceremonial Law but of the Moral Law though all were not bound to pay their particular Tyths of Mint Anise and Cummin or of every little Plant which grew upon their ground though paying the Tenths of Mens general Increase for the Sustenance of their Priests has been sufficiently prov'd by Learned Men to have been an acknowledged Duty in most if not in all Nations long before the Mosaic Institution but it 's needless to run out into any more Instances of this kind But meer Reason it self will teach us how light and inconsiderable Ceremonies are when they stand in competition with the Essentials of Religion how convenient or useful soever they may otherwise be for besides that as Religious Services Publick and Solemn cannot be performed without some Ceremonies let Men aim at what Simplicity they please so there may be Variety of them invented and used yet very proper to express one and the same thing as the Turks express their respects to Divine Services among them by pulling off their Shoes where we mean the same Reverence by uncovering our Heads but there can be but one Course and Method of true Practical Piety concerning all Men and at all times the doing all the good and avoiding all the evil possible being that general Course or Method So it 's farther to be consider'd that if Ceremony stood on any equal ground with inward Holiness the best bred and the richest Men must needs if they pleas'd be the greatest Saints for good â—reeding and Gentile Education will enable a Man to make his Addresses to Heaven in the most taking and humble ways a Man so accomplisht knows best how to express an outward Reverence and Humility how to speak in the most proper Words and to accompany those Words with the most decent Gestures and the most melting Accents He knows how in common Transactions with Men to set off a little Good with a great deal of Gaiety and Lustre and to manage those Interests with a few soft and obliging but meer empty Words which others less debonair know not how to advance with a plain unadorned Charity and Liberality at this rate if Goodness must not be accounted for by inward Sincerity the gayest Show must unquestionably make the best Man Again if outward Ceremony and Circumstance were available the Man of mighty Wealth would be able to purchase the Friendship of Heaven since he could load the Altars with such multitudes of Sacrifices as Men of meaner Fortunes must never pretend to the Gentiles often had their Hecatombs their Sacrifices of an hundred Oxen offer'd to their Gods at once and it was observ'd by the more sagacious Pagans That the worst of Tyrants and of Men were always the most profuse in their Offerings to their Gods Hence Ammianus Marcellinus though no Enemy to his Religion observes of Julian the Apostate that before his fatal Expedition against the Persians Hostiarum sanguine plurimo Aras crebritate nimia perfundebat tauros aliquando immolando centenos innumeros varii pecoris greges avésque candidas terrâ quaesitas mari He washed the Altars with the blood of too many Sacrifices offering sometimes an hundred Bulls at once and innumerable Flocks of several sorts of Cattel and white Birds brought from every quarter both by Sea and Land insomuch that the same Authour one of his own Souldiers adds that his Army was meerly debauch'd by their constant participation of such numerous Victims and withal Quod augebantur Caeremoniarum ritus immodicè Ammian Marc. Hist l. 22. c. 12. p. 327. 8. Edit Valesian cum impensarum amplitudine adhuc inusitatâ ac gravi That the Ceremonial Rites of their Religion were encreas'd without Measure with such an extraordinary Expence as was very burdensome and to that time unusual And it 's observed elsewhere by that same Author That had he returned safe from that Persian Expedition and continued his Sacrifices at the same rate he would scarce have left oxen enough to have supplied the necessities of the Roman Empire But we can scarce allow that wretched Apostate to be the better Man for that immoderate Profusion Offering Sacrifices to God was the plea which Saul make for himself to Samuel
our Saviour himself gave it a yet much stronger Confirmation in that he came and demanded Baptism of John and with this particular reason For thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness Matth. 3 15. Now though I doubt not but our Saviour had a further respect in his submitting to John's Baptism yet I question not but he really meant that that Baptism ought to be regarded as a part of the righteousness of the Law though it were no where prescribed by the Law therefore we may be sure He would not have fail'd in his Obedience to any thing which really was a part of that Law but again neither would he have been exemplary in his Obedience either to the one or to the other had not the Latter had a just and reasonable Foundation in the Former and the Former an authentic and truly obligatory Foundation in the Will of God He shew'd himself too resolute an Enemy to the generality of groundless Traditions any way to teach others to set a greater value on them than they deserv'd Had he altogether slighted it as a thing of no value or of no authority it had been impossible for all the Miracles in the World to have conquer'd those very reasonable Prejudices the Jews must have taken up against him and his Doctrine for having an infallible Assurance that the Law given from Mount Sinai was really Divine and having suffer'd so deeply for their contempt of it as Divine they could only have look'd upon one who came to impeach it though attended with never so many Miracles as an Impostor permitted by Almighty God to tempt them and to make tryal of their steady Obedience to his Law and they had been waâ—n'd of this long before by Moses Deut. 13.1 2 3. If there arise among you a Prophet or a Dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other Gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet or that Dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul Now our Saviour being himself God and acting in such a manner as could not but proclaim his own Divinity and being taken notice of by the Jews as so doing they had a great deal of reason to stand upon their guard and had he shewn an open or a secret Contempt of what they knew was Divine that Diâ—honour by such an action accrueing to the God of their Fathers would have made them oppose him justly and to have concluded it impossible that such an Innovator could have been from God much less that he could have been the Son of God But our Saviour's business was by glorifying his Father to draw Mankind to a sense of their own Good and therefore he came not to abolish the Law or to destroy the Law but to fulfil it that is to shew that relation the very slightest Ceremonies in it had to himself and that great design upon which he came into the World to accomplish every thing it related to and to do and to suffer such things as might make all considering Persons plainly apprehend that whatsoever was Typical and Ceremonial in the Law was really consummated in himself at whom onely all such Types and Ceremonies pointed and therefore that it would be unreasonable to expect any other Person on whom their Import was to be terminated While therefore our Lord took this mighty care the more he exalted the Obligation of the Mosaic Law the more exemplary he was in Obedience to it the more reason the Jews had to believe that he could have no ill design upon them and the more justly could he reproach them with that That he honoured his Father Joh. 8.49 but they dishonoured him there was not an Iota or tittle of the Law could or should pass away till all were fulfilled and as to his part in the work he could justly challenge any of them to convince him of Sin and they though malicious and captious enough had nothing to answer to the challenge Indeed they had some Dreams of their own empty and troublesome Traditions which they taught and for their sakes slighted the Moral and perpetually obliging Duties laid upon them these our Saviour cast a just contempt upon and frequently and sharply reprov'd them for and he did so the rather to shew the world what a difference they ought to put between the Institutions of God and the weak and unreasonable Inventions of Men. Now the Yoke of these Jewish Traditions extreamly galling the Necks of the vulgar Jews upon whom their Law-Expounders lov'd to lay heavy Burdens such as themselves would not put so much as one of their fingers to support we find upon several occasions they were ready to receive the Messias with open arms to endeavour to take him by force and to make him a King and to welcome him to Jerusalem with their loud Hosannaes nor could the Chief-Priests and domineering Pharisees without a great deal of malicious Industry manage thâ—se who long'd for Liberty to their own turn Those who were overaw'd and therefore durst not murmure aloud knew well enough they were under the hands of worse than their old Aegyptian Task-Masters and therefore it could be no wonder they should be ready to close with every one whom they thought capable of asserting them into Liberty and yet though their Imperious Task-Masters determined concerning them that that People who knew not the Law were accurs'd that People were not so ignorant but that had they observ'd our Saviour either breaking the Law himself or persuading others that it was lawful for them to do so they would have taken Publick notice of it and at least when they saw Jesus a Prisoner to his implacable Enemies and the great loss they were at for Witnesses against him they would soon have come in and laid him open to his Judges as a Criminal deserving the severest Usage Our Saviour had taken upon him the Office of an Expositor of the Law the People easily found the difference between Him and their common Instructers Matth. 7.29 for he taught them as one having authority and not as the Scribes he cast away the putid Pharisaic Glosses and he laid open their true Import and Meaning We cannot reasonably question but that among Christ's numerous crowd of Auditors there were at that time as we find frequently afterwards some Scribes and Pharisees or if there were none what he deliver'd was not in a Corner and therefore doubtless they had a full account of what he preach'd but we no where find any offer at a refutation of what he deliver'd in his Sermon on the Mount That Exposition of the Law which he there gave was a perfect Test whereby himself was afterwards to be
Harmless Vndefiled separate from Sinners one that needed not first to pray for Pardon for his own Sins and afterwards for the Sins of others and therefore he might be and is properly called the one Mediator between God and Man exclusively of all others 1 Tim. 2.5 as we are told in the same Text there is One God exclusively of all other Deities which could not be if Moses had been a Mediator of the same kind and in the same manner as Christ was and it 's further added of our Mediator That he gave himself a ransom for all which Moses never did and tho' in the heat of his charitable Zeal he was willing to have been blotted out of the Book which God had written that God by that means might have been reconciled to his People that Offer neither was nor could be accepted because it could be no Satisfaction to Divine Justice to punish one Sinner and on account of that punishment to pardon another for why should I pretend to satisfie that Justice on behalf of another which should it proceed severely would pass upon me without any such pretence but he who conscious of his own Innocence is secure from any legal Danger may with reason interpose vigorously for another In our present Case our Lord endeavours to put an end to that difference there is between God and Man arising from Sin God is the Supreme Law-giver and has in his own hand the uncontroulable Power of punishing Trespassers upon his Laws Man is the continual Transgressor having by that means wholly forfeited all pretences to Grace and Favour therefore his Case being it self desperate the Mediation begins on God's part our Lord not being stil'd the Mediator between man and God but between God and man the whole Mediation arising not from man's hopes but from God's mercy and goodness which found out the means of reconciling us to himself by his Son Perhaps a Socinian would find it difficult to give a satisfactory reason why seeing the first Covenant or that between God and Israel could be made by the Mediation of Moses and confirm'd with shedding the Blood onely of ordinary Victims the Evangelical Covenant managed by the Blessed Jesus a Person very much superiour to Moses could not be confirm'd with Blood of like Sacrifices as the former We 'll own freely the Covenant of the Gospel is a better Covenant the Promises in it more plain and numerous the Hope 's rais'd in Men by it stronger and more vigorous but all these things are accounted for in the Dignity of the Undertaker and why Christians should not confide in God upon the same terms on which the Jews did is not easie to determine I am sure they are generally represented as the most tractable Persons Besides this there appears a vast Difference between the Mediatorship of our Lord and Moses on these accounts our Saviour by virtue of his Mediatorial Power was able to remit sins was able to give eternal Life to Believers but Moses could do no such thing he was only a Suppliant to God for Pardon for Israel and Socinians will scarce allow he gave them so much as a Promise of Eternal Life throughout the whole Systeme of his Laws so that though we allow there ought to be some resemblance between the Type and the Anti-type yet we must allow a mighty distance between a Common Man and one on whom the Title of the Son of God his onely begotten Son was fixt and the resemblance must be between Circumstances capable of being represented and not between those which are incapable of it The Death and Passion of our Saviour as an external Accident attending his Humanity might be represented by the Death of those Creatures offer'd in Sacrifice frequently to God the Intercession of our Saviour with his Father for a sinful World by the Intercession of Moses for a sinful Nation but that Satisfaction by Christ given for Sinners to his Father's Justice was so great a thing as nothing could make any proportionable adumbration of it the Confession of the Peoples Sins over the Victim's head and laying their Iniquiries on the Head of the Scape-Goat as a devoted Creature might keep up somewhat of an Idaea of what the Messias was afterwards to do and suffer and the manner how but the Symbol was so dark that even the prophecy of Caiaphas pointing at the Anti-type made very little Impression upon the Jews and made them expect very little from Christ though they saw frequent evidences of his Divine Mission and his Death as a Person devov'd and made Sin as the Apostle expresses it for the safety of the Nation But there 's another Fetch as subtle as the rest that supposing a Mediator ought to partake of the Nature of both the Parties between whom he is to make peace yet this touches not our Saviour for his Mediatorship was only to be employ'd in reconciling men to God for so say they we find God reconciling the world to himself in Christ but there 's no mention of reconciling himself to the World supposing this assertion true is it therefore impossible that God should be angry with a sinful World If so how comes it to pass he sends so many Judgments particular and general upon Men Cities and Countries does he lay his Rod on Mens backs at randome without any displeasure against their Crimes or without any respect to their Demerits did he drown the old World without being angry with them burn Sodom and Gomorrha with their neighbouring Cities and yet not displeased with them these things are incredible That he was often angry with the People of Israel we find frequently attested in Scripture that as an evidence of his Anger he punish'd them severely too we meet with upon record there If he could be angry with the Sins of a particular People he may certainly be angry with the Sins of the whole World for Sin loses not its odious Nature by being more diffusive If God be angry with their Sins he must be angry with the Sinners too especially if they be active and obstinate in their Sins for tho' Man as created at first in the likeness or in the image of God be good yet Man wherein that sacred Image is defaced by Sin is odious and detestable a proper object of God's Displeasure and of himself incapable of avoiding it but if God may be displeased with Sin and Sinners and if his Nature being pure and his Laws holy just and good he must be so then he must be reconciled to Man or Man must be eternally miserable and though we find God frequently in Scripture calling upon Men to turn to Him as if all the Work lay on their hands yet he promises withal that He will turn to them Mal. 3.7 and those kind repeated Calls are only evidences that He who has a great deal of reason to be averse to it will yet be as ready to be reconciled to them as they can be to