we see hath prevailed with them to break all those Engagements Besides in these unequal Yoakings there cannot be that sweet that mutual Encouragement to Prayer and Praises and other Acts of Devotion and Piety which ought to be betwixt such Relations and though I doubt not but it 's possible to Admonish one another to serve God faithfully in their own Way without Passion or passing Censures one upon another yet the Thoughts that one of them worships God in a forbidden Way will still be an Impediment to this faithful and Conscientious Exhorting one another duly And therefore though I cannot say it 's absolutely unlawful to marry a Person of a different Persuasion in Matters of Religion yet the Inconveniences are so great that he who duly Weighs and Ponders them before he enters upon that State will think himself obliged to arm himself against all such dangerous Mixtures and Conjunctions III. There is nothing causes these Desires of Divorcements more than unhappy and unfortunate Matches And as such Matches are too often the Effects either of Rashness and Precipitation or want of enquiring into the Temper and Disposition of the Persons that are to make this near Relation or of Covetousness and Greediness after Fortune and Riches and Mony or of nelecting the advice of Parents and faithful Friends or of a preceding vain and vitious Life which is punish'd very often with such uncomfortable Conjunctions so where the married State is embitter'd with many sad Ingredients to prevent all such Wishes and Desires of Divorcement these following Considerations and Remedies may be very useful 1. Let it be considered that though your Married State be full of grievous Troubles yet it doth not it need not hinder you from attaining Everlasting Salvation It 's true People may make any State and Condition an Impediment to Eternal Life but there is no Necessity for it Nay in the Case before us the Troubles in a Married State naturally direct you to seek a better Country and if you are in a Capacity of enjoying God for ever notwithstanding the Evils which befall you you have Reason still to Praise and Adore the Divine Goodness and since your Married State affords so little Comfort To labour hard to be made Partakers of Everlasting Consolations 2. Let another Consideration be added to this that as miserable as your Married Condition is this happens not comes not to pass without a very special Providence God either orders it or wisely permits it corrects you for great Purposes and chastises you to let you see your Affections have been misplaced and must be set upon Objects and Beings more Sublime more Adequate more Commensurate to your Immortal Souls God and Heaven and the Things unseen 3. Under such a Providence the Soul must learn to be humble to look upon her Sins as Meritorious and the Cause of this uncomfortable State and accuse her Carnal Worldly and Sensual Desires and Designs as the Procurers of this Misery and improve the Dispensation into Repentance and Self-Examination and Submission to the Will of God and the Practices of Spiritual Devotions and Aspirations and Breathings after Enjoyments of a nobler Nature 4. In this Case the Divine Power and Goodness must be adored to supply you with Grace and Assistance suitable that you may chearfully bear the Injuries Indignities and Crosses that befall you in that State and do not doubt but your Prayer if strong and importunate will draw Honey from the Rock and Oyl from the Flint and Blessings of great Value from him who hath declared himself a God that heareth Prayer 5. Another Consideration will be very profitable that God by such Crosses in a Married State teaches you Patience at home that you may be the better able to practise it abroad Thus the Philosopher said of his Angry and Unquiet Yoak-fellow That he found his Silence under the Effects of her Rage and unquiet Spirit when he was at home proved very salutary and beneficial to him when he was in Company abroad for by that means he was the better able to bridle his Passions when he was provoked or affronted in Publick And St. Chrysostome hath this Observation upon it It grieves me that Heathens are wiser than we who are to imitate Angels nay God himself in Meekness and Patience Indeed we cannot imitate a more Excellent Pattern He that is best able to Revenge himself upon the Insolent Wretches that affront him suffers most Be patient therefore unto the coming of the Lord Behold the Husbandman waits for the pretious Fruit of the Earth and hath long Patience for it until he receive the early and latter Rain Be ye also Patient Stablish your Hearts for the Coming of the Lord draws nigh Jam. v. 7 8. SERMON XXVIII St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 33. Again ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thine Oaths THE sence of these words we have Levit. xix 12 but the Words themselves seem to be a Paraphrase of the ancient Expositions of the Law among the Jews upon that Law in Leviticus where it is Ye shall not swear by my Name falsely neither shalt thou profane the Name of thy God which Words those ancient Interpreters expressed it's like as it is in the Text Thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thine Oaths And that 's the thing aimed at in these words Again ye have heard That it hath been said by them of old time And most certainly he that forswears himself swears falsly by the Name of God and he that doth not perform unto the Lord his Oaths or performs not what he hath Sworn and Promised to God and Man profanes his Name with a witness Or possibly all that is said in the Old Testament against Swearing was contracted by the Learned Men of old Time into this Axiom or Sentence Thou shalt not forswear thy self but c. Or These words are a Comment made by the Ancestors of the Jews upon the Third Commandment Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain Or They relate to Numb xxx 2 However it be or whoever were the Authors of this Saying it must be confess'd that they spake conformably to the Will of God and therefore these words are in effect a Divine Precept and Obligatory for ever as much as a Command in the Decalogue and though it was said so by them of old Time yet it is no more than what the ancient of Days hath said over and over by Moses and the Prophets And to discourse of this Subject profitably I shall enquire I. What an Oath or taking an Oath or what Swearing is II. Whether an Oath or Swearing even in a modest serious judicial way be lawful III. Why Forswearing our selves or Perjury or not performing unto the Lord our Oaths is forbid and wherein the virulency or heinousness of the Sin consists IV. What the Ceremonies
the progress of Goodness and of the Kingdom of God prompted his Instruments and Agents to blacken the Noble attempt with hard and dreadful Names the most likely way to fright people from submitting to it It was so in the beginning of our Reformation when our Governours and Spiritual Pastors began to look more narrowly into the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome and resolv'd to rectifie what was amiss and contrary to the Word of God All the dreadful Imputations the Church of Rome could invent were made use of to hinder the glorious Work The Reformers were traduced as dealing with the Devil their Doctrine was called New and Strange and Antichristian never heard of in the World before nay styled Blasphemy and Arianism and Manicheism and Mohometanism and what not It is so still even in private Reformations Let a person break loose from the Devil and his evil Companions and by a secret impulse of God's Spirit betake himself to a life Spiritual and conformable to the Rules of the Gospel presently Mens Tongues are let loose against him especially if accidentally he be guilty of some little Imprudencies These are straitway aggravated and his whole design charged with Baseness and Hypocrisy and he is either become a Fanatick or mad or proud or ill-natured or bad Company or something that may render him odious But this must be no discouragement to a person that knows that this hath been an old stratagem of the Devil as old as the Fall of Adam when he put false Interpretations upon God's Prohibitions and accused even God himself of Envy and Ill-nature What! Could God say indeed ye shall not eat of this Tree He knows that that very moment ye eat of it ye will be wise and knowing and omniscient like himself and therefore forbids you this delicate Food He that will be saved must break through all these Cobwebs and esteem the reproach of Christ greater Riches than all the Treasures of the World II. Though the end of the Law and the Gospel are one and the same yet still there are remarkable differences which discover the excellency of the one above the other 1. The Author of the Law is God speaking by Moses the Author of the Gospel is the same God but speaking by his Son 2. The Law of Moses revealed much the Gospel much more especially with respect to the Incarnation and Life and Death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus 3. The Law was the shadow of good things to come the Gospel the truth and substance of them 4. The Law caused Fear the Gospel produces Love and hence arise two different Spirits the Spirit of Fear and that of Adoption 5. The Law promis'd Temporal Blessings the Gospel Eternal and though something of Eternal Life was revealed to those under the Law yet it was truly manifest to those under the Gospel 6. The Law was a Heavy burthen the Gospel an easy Yoke 7. The Law was our Schoolmaster to lead us to Christ The Gospel is the Mark the Law did aim and point at 8. The Law reacht the Jews only the Gospel all Mankind 9. The Law as to the ritual part was Temporary the Gospel Eternal 10. The Law had great Imperfections the Gospel was a most perfect Discipline 11. The Law discover'd the Will of God and help'd to make People sensible of their Sins and Transgressions of Gods Commands the Gospel Administers Grace to perform and do them 12. The Law converted but few the Gospel made innumerable Proselytes Yet after all as I said the Law and the Gospel are the same in Substance both contain the Will of God they have the same Author press the same Duties both Centre in Christ both are intended to make Men Holy and Spiritual and ready unto good Works only the Gospel sets things in a greater Light and ministers stronger Motives and nobler Encouragements so that the Law is not contrary to the Gospel nor doth the Gospel abolish but Establish it The Law especially the Moral contains the same Duties in substance the Gospel doth and therefore is still as obligatory as the Gospel Want of Faith made People careless of the Observance of it and want of Faith hath the same unhappy Effects under the Gospel And therefore the Apostles Exhortation was very seasonable and ought to be taken notice of by every one of us Heb. iv 1 2. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his Rest any of you should seem to come short of it for unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit them not being mixt with Faith in them that heard it III. Christ came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets so must we fulfil the Law of the Gospel for what he did here was for our Example as St. Chrysostom notes As he fulfilled the Law and the Prophets so our business is to fulfil that Gospel which the Law and the Prophets pointed at In a word this is the Law we are to live by He that looks upon the Lives of Men that profess the Gospel would be apt to think that this Law was given only for Formalities sake so little of the Power of it is to be seen in their Conversation If the Behaviour of Men who call themselves Christians were the measure of our Judgment we might conclude the Gospel stands for a Cypher which signifies very little or if it signifies any thing declares rather Gods wishes that things were at a better pass and that we were such Persons as that Law describes than Arguments of Gods peremptory Will that we must and shall be obedient or else be miserable and buried in the Ruins of Eternity Thus things stand and one would think you believe that your Resoluteness not to mind the Injunctions of the Gospel is your Security against the Terrors of its Threatnings But could this lessen the Authority of the Law or make an Alteration in the Obligation or could it prevail with the Law-giver to give over pressing Obedience as a thing that is not to be effected and in vain to urge something might be said for their refusal But these are Dreams and feverish Fancies and you 'll find the woful and wilful mistake when it is too late This Law you are bound to lay before you as much as the Law of the Land nay more than that as it is of greater Concernment In this you are to study Day and Night and by this Law your Thoughts Desires Speeches Actions and your outward and inward Man are to be governed let Men say of you what they will let them commend or discommend you slander or praise you still you are to remember you have to deal with a Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy The Gospel gives ease it's true and frees you from Burthens but it is from the load of the Ceremonial Law not from the Obligations of the Natural Moral and Eternal Law of
among us St. Austin in his Confessions tells us that he and his Mother standing together and looking out of a Window into a Garden fell a discoursing of the nature of the everlasting Felicity in Heaven and drawing Comparisons from the Herbs and Flowers they saw before them and then running higher to the Contemplation of the Sun and Moon and Stars and reflecting on the far greater Glory in the higher Mansions they were so ravish'd with one anothers Discourses that they forgot they were on Earth Indeed till Men come to delight in such Discourses they have not yet receiv'd that Spirit whereby we relish the things which are freely given us of God These are some of those many Directions which might here be given And to put all this in practice there are two things to be observed 1. We must oblige our selves to do it by all the Arguments which have power to bind us And among these a vigorous Resolution and punishing our selves if we break it may justly be said to be one of the most effectual Methods to compass it 2. As we know how Good Men have been concern'd about this watchfulness over their Tongues so with them we must pray and pray earnestly for the Divine Assistance for the Tongue is not easily tamed or reduced to good Order God must be interessed and his Victorious Grace implored in the endeavour and if you want a form of Prayer to that purpose David hath given us one Psal. cxli. 3 Set a watch O Lord before my Mouth and keep the door of my Lips I conclude with St. James's remarkable Sentence Jam. i. 26 If any Man among you seems to be Religious and bridles not his Tongue deceiving his own Heart that Man's Religion is vain SERMON XXXI St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 38 39. Ye have heard that it hath been said An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth But I say unto you That ye resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right Cheek turn to him the other also I Expect that upon the reading of these words of our Saviour many of you will be ready to reply as the Men of Capernaum when they heard Christ discoursing of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood This is a hard Saying who can hear it But not to mention that Hardships are no Discouragements to industrious Men from prosecuting their Designs and that unwilling Minds will be ever complaining of Difficulties the true reason of such Complaints is not any internal difficulty of the thing it self but want of a renew'd and sanctify'd Heart That may appear difficult to one which is not so to another and sick Men may not be able to bear what vigorous and healthy Persons can But of this I shall have occasion to Discourse of more largely in the sequel As to the Text Christ seems to contradict and oppose his Saying to the Command of God but he doth not He only shews what is better and establishes that which is better into a Law but doth not find fault with a Law of God's making To make this appear I shall consider I. What was said of old and upon what Account And II. What Christ says to us that pretend to be his Followers I. What was said of old and upon what Account Ye have heard that it hath been said An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth I do not doubt but Christ quotes and repeats these words not precisely as they are in the Law of Moses but as the ancient Masters of Tradition and from them the Scribes and Pharisees had expressed and contracted and applied them to the lawfulness of private Revenge And therefore Ye have heard saith our Saviour that it hath been said i. e. by them of old Time by the Learned Doctors of the former Ages Indeed the Words are in the Law of Moses only in that Fountain they are larger and fuller than in the Stream as deliver'd to the Jews by their Ancestors However though Christ quotes these words as the Saying of the ancient Masters of Tradition yet it 's certain that those ancient Doctors had regard to the Law of Moses for so we read Exod. xxi 23 And if any mischief follow then thou shalt give Life for Life Eye for Eye Tooth for Tooth Hand for Hand Foot for Foot Burning for Burning Wound for Wound Stripe for Stripe Concerning which Law I note 1. That this was the most ancient way of punishing Offenders especially private Men when they had offered any Injury to the Body of their Neighbour He that had unjustly hurt another in a certain Limb or Part suppose the Eye or Foot or Hand or Tooth he was to suffer in that Part in which he had been prejudicial to the other and this was usual not only among the Jews but among the ancient Greeks and Romans too and it 's probable they learned the use of this Retaliation from the Methods of God's Providence which they observed working after that manner which makes Adonibezeck take notice Judg. i. 7 Threescore and ten Kings with their Thumbs and right Toes cut off have gathered their Meat under my Table as I have done so God hath required me 2. In process of Time by Example and Consent it was agreed that the Person hurt should have Cost given him for the Damages he sustained and the Retaliation or Punishment in the same kind was changed into pecuniary Mulcts or so much Money or so much in Goods as was judged by wise Men to tantamount to the Hurt done was given to the Party Injured if he complain'd and thus compensation was made And yet 3. This Law of God in Moses did not forbid the Jews Patience under Injuries Notwithstanding this Law they might very lawfully suffer themselves to be Hurt without Contradiction or Revenge which is the reason why Moses is commended for his Meekness and Patience when Aaron and Miriam murmured against him And David's Patience under Shimie's Revilings 2 Sam. xvi 10 was not the least Jewel in his Crown I mean was one of the most eminent Vertues of his Life However 4. This Law did not give the Jews liberty to exercise any private Revenge i. e. By virtue of this Law a Jew could not of his own accord wound him in the Eye or Foot or Tooth c. who had wounded him in any of those Parts But he had liberty to go and accuse the Offender to the Magistrate who was oblig'd to do him Justice and to retaliate the Injury upon the Offender and therefore it is said Exod. xxi 22 That the Judges were to determine it Add to all this 5. That even to bring the Offender before the Magistrate in order to have him punish'd was rather permitted than commanded much like the Divorces we have spoken of to prevent a greater Evil such as Murther and excessive private Revenges Just as our Law permits Men to take Interest Six per Cent. but for all that a Man may chuse
Gain if they lead us to secure the everlasting Inheritance The Precepts of our great Master are so order'd and so laid that the Love of this World may be rooted out of our Hearts and if this Love be truly mortify'd we are greater Gainers than if we gained the whole World and lost our own Souls It is true we would fain keep this present World and all the enjoyments of it and enjoy the bliss of the next too but he that goes by that principle reckons without his Host and will find himself miserably mistaken when he comes to set his Accounts even with the Sovereign Judge of the World To meet with ungrateful and unreasonable Men is no more than what our Master and his Disciples have met withal and to think we must fare better in this World than they is to mistake the end of our Vocation Let us do good and rejoyce in the doing of it and be confident we shall be no losers in the end He is faithful who hath promised and he will perform it too It is but a little while that we are to continue here and the great Question in the last Day will be not how Rich or how great we have been here but whether we have made Conscience of the Rules our Master hath left us Blessed are those Servants whom their Master when he comes shall find so doing Prosperity is so far from being a sign of God's Children or of our Reconciliation to God that a Christian who enjoys much of it hath very great reason to question his Spiritual Condition and Interest in Christ Jesus Not but that it 's possible to be prosperous and a true Servant of God but where there is one that is so there are multitudes that drown themselves in Destruction and Perdition I shall conclude with St. Paul's Saying 1 Tim. vi 17 18. Charge them that are Rich in this World that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain Riches but in the Living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy That they do good that they be rich in good Works ready to Distribute willing to Communicate SERMON XXXIV St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 43. Ye have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy FOR the right understanding of this Passage these following things will deserve Consideration I. By whom it was said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy II. How agreeable this principle is to corrupt Nature III. How contrary to the Principles of Reason and the design of Christianity IV. What is the true import of love to our Neighbour V. Whether in some sense it may not be a Duty to love our Neighbour and hate our Enemy I. By whom it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy And most certainly 1. It hath not been said so by Almighty God in the Old Law we have indeed a Command Levit. xix 18 Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self but we read no where Thou shalt hate thine Enemy so far from it that there are express Precepts against it as Exod. xxiii 4 5. When thou seest thine Enemies Oxe or Ass going astray thou shalt freely bring him back to him again and if thou shalt see the Ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burthen and wouldst forbear to help him thou shalt surely help with him Besides the Law God gave the Jews was never intended as a contradiction to the Law of Nature it was to be a help to the better Observance of it but never design'd to reverse it or any part of it and we are certain the Law of Nature enjoyns no such thing but Mercy rather than Hatred to an Enemy and this is evident from hence not only because the Law of Nature bids us imitate God who is kind to the Unthankful and to the Evil but because we find that the very Heathens from the dictates of this Law of Nature have shewn Mercy even to their greatest Foes not only by giving them decent Burial after Death as Hannibal and others but also by exercising acts of Charity toward them while they were alive and therefore God it could not be that said so Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy And therefore 2. If God did not say so then the Men that said and taught so must be the same Men who had corrupted several other Laws of God mention'd in this Chapter and detorted them from their original Intent and Design to accommodate them to the sinful Humours of Men and to the interest of the Flesh even the Scribes and Pharisees and their Ancestors the ancient Masters of the Oral Law who by their Traditions rendred the Law of God of none effect I have observ'd often in the preceding Discourses what false Glosses and Interpretations these Men did put upon the Sixth and Seventh Commandment and the Law of Divorces and Retaliation In like manner this Precept of loving their Neighbour could not escape their Sacrilegious Hands for as their business was to make the Moral Law of God as easie to the Flesh as they could and as they had made several Experiments of that Nature in others so they dealt with this excellent Precept Indeed many of them in Christ's Days made no great Account of this Duty for when they spoke of the summ of the Law of God they repeated part of the sixth Chapter of Deut. Hear O Israel the Lord thy God is one God and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Might This they said taking no notice of the Precept of loving their Neighbour was the summ of the Law of God and this they inscrib'd and writ upon their Philacteries or Parchments they tyed to their Wrists and Foreheads Which shews that the Lawyer who came to Christ to enquire of him What he must do to inherit eternal Life Luke x. 27 was more rational than the rest for when Christ asked him how readest thou he answered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength and thy Neighbour as thy self Upon which our Saviour tells him That he had answer'd right or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Mark hath it Mark xii 34 So that set aside some few judicious thinking Persons the Scribes and Pharisees in general pretending warrant from Tradition had very slight and slender Notions of loving their Neighbour and though they granted it was a Command of God and confessed their Obligation to obey it yet they had made so many restrictions of it that in effect they had render'd it very insignificant For 1. By the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Neighbour they understood a Friend or a Person that was kind to them or had obliged them the largest signification they would allow of was that of a Jew or a Person of the same Tribe and Kindred and
must this be to be so concerned for your good Works A Father your Father so great a Father A Father that dwells on high to humble himself and stoop to look upon your good Works and withall declare his willingness to accept of them surely this is self-denial infinite For him that is higher than the Heaven Higher than the Highest Higher than the greatest Potentates to vouchsafe a favourable Aspect to your good Works surely this must this should one would think prevail with many of you who retain some Sense of your Duty Nay and he is therefore said to be in Heaven to let you see where you shall be and whither you shall go when you leave this World having let the Light of your good Works shine before Men even into that Heaven where himself is adored by Angels and all the Morning Stars sing together where his own infinite Felicity fills all that are about his Throne with Joys and Ravishments unspeakable And therefore suffer this word of Exhortation and let your Light so shine before Men that others may see your good Works and Glorifie your Father which is in Heaven SERMON XVIII St. Matth. Ch. v. Ver. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil CHRIST having in the foregoing Discourse open'd and laid down the true Nature of the Christian Religion what it imports and what Qualifications it challenges and what Temper it requires and told us that a Christian is a Person Humble and concern'd for his own and other Men's Sins Meek and earnestly desirous of high degrees of Holiness Merciful and kind and Pure in Heart and of a peaceable and peace-making Disposition and Patient under Injuries and in his Affliction comforting himself with the Rewards of Heaven and the Blessings of Eternity and ready to do good and profitable and useful both to the Souls and Bodies of other Men I say having laid down these Characters as Essential to a Christian to a Disciple of the Holy Jesus He now goes on not only to let his Disciples see how much of the Old Religion he intended to adopt into his own which he was going to publish but to enforce the Duties he had mention'd from the Law and from the Prophets shewing that in prescribing the aforesaid Rules and Directions he was so far from contradicting the Law and the Prophets that he spoke their Sense and Meaning and that this was not to call them away from an Esteem and Veneration of the Law and the Prophets but to increase it and that what the Law and the Prophets had but obscurely hinted he was come to explain more largely and to deliver more clearly and to press with greater Motives and Arguments Think not that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil In the Explication of which Words these four Things do naturally offer themselves to our Consideration I. What the Law and the Prophets are II. What it was that rais'd a Suspicion or made People think and fear That Christ came to destroy the Law and the Prophets III. How it appears That he came not with that intent IV. How he fulfill'd the Law and the Prophets I. What the Law and the Prophets are 1. By the Law and the Prophets are meant the Doctrine contained in the Books of the Old Testament call'd by various Names in Holy Writ sometimes the Law in general Joh. x. 34 sometimes Moses and the Prophets Luke xvi 31 sometimes the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms Luke xxiv 44 sometimes the Scripture Joh. v. 39 sometimes the Book of the Lord Isai. xxxiv 16. sometimes the Law and the Prophets as here because this Book consists not only of the Law given by God to Moses on Mount Sina for the Instruction and Edification of the Jewish People but the Writings of other Men also Men inspired by the Holy Ghost who writ either in a Historical or Dogmatical or Prophetical way strictly so called by way of foretelling things to come even as the Spirit of God which governed their Thoughts and Pens thought fit to dictate to them for the use of the Church or Gods People The Law of Moses is as it were the Text the other Books are in the nature of Comments They are called the Law and the Prophets not as if the Law were not written by a Person inspired but the Law is named distinctly either because the Law had some peculiar marks of Divinity in it as appears from the circumstances of its Publication or because it was written by a Prophet of a higher Order and such was Moses Exod. xxxiv whose Prophetick Office God doth distinguish from that of other Persons moved by the Holy Ghost or because the principal part of the Books of Moses the Ten Commandements are said to be written by the Finger of God which gives the Law a special Priviledge so that both the Law and the Prophets came from God only the Law had something more Majestick than ordinary in it and therefore deserves to be named by it self This Law of Moses consists of Commands of a very different Nature Some are the result of natural Justice and Equity of the Eternal Law imprinted on the Souls of Men of the Law of Nature or of right Reason and Deductions from the common Notions of God and of his Perfections and the Relation we stand in toward him and toward one another the summary whereof is the Decalogue or the Ten Commandements Another sort of Commands in that Law relates to the outward manner of Gods Worship and to external Ceremonies to Gifts and Sacrifices and Meats and Drinks and divers washings and carnal Ordinances imposed on the Jewish People until the time of the Reformation Heb. ix 9 10. And these Commands are purely positive depending altogether upon the Will and Pleasure of the Law-giver and therefore alterable and mutable as Occasion and Time and Necessity and the Reason of things c. require and this is commonly stiled the Ceremonial Law A third sort hath Relation to Policy and Government made up partly of Rules issuing from natural Justice and Equity partly of Constitutions such as the Nature and Temper of the People and the Situation of the Country and the Neighbourhood of the Nations who dwelt round about them and the danger of being infected by them and the Circumstances they were in did suggest commonly call'd the Civil or Judicial Law 2. These three sorts of Commands given by God to Moses made up the Digests the Pandects or the Body of the Jewish Law and that 's it that 's commonly understood by that known and frequent Expression in Scripture especially the New Testament the Law it 's written in the Law or the Law saith c. even the complex of all these Laws given at the Command of God by Moses to the Jewish People and as such they did particularly oblige the
People of the Jews As any of them related to natural Justice and Equity the Obligation reached all Mankind but not under the Notion of the Jewish Law Considered therefore as collected into one System one mingled with another they concern'd the then People of God separated from the World and to whom he vouch-safed his Oracles viz. the Posterity of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Jews and Proselytes 3. This Law did chiefly exact an external Obedience and he that lived so that no Man could reprove or tax him with Prevarication or an open Transgression was counted Righteous The Intention and secret Purposes and inward Love or spiritual frame though it was required too yet it was not so severely exacted nor the omission so rigorously punish'd as under the Gospel At least this was the vulgar Error of the Jews which overspread the whole Nation for many Generations that the inward frame whatever accomplishment it might be was not absolutely necessary to Salvation or to make the Service pleasing to God And so much even St. Paul confesses of himself consider'd before he was a Christian Phil. iii. 6 he looked upon himself as an eminent Saint because he was touching the Law blameless none could say black was his Eye and upon this account it was call'd a Law of Works Rom. iii. 27 because the Jews laid the stress of Religion upon the outward Performance or because God to encourage their Piety was not wanting to reward even those who externally observ'd this Law with temporal Remunerations or because the outward Work secured them against temporal Penalty Thus much of the Law 4. The Prophets who were extraordinary Messengers and Ministers sent from God to explain the Law the Moral especially and to rectifie the Errors of the Priests and People with respect to their outward Performances to denounce Gods temporal Judgments to the Guilty and to represent to them the glorious days of the Gospel or Messiah having delivered and preached to the People what God bid them say writ down their Discourses and Visions at least the sum of them in Books and Volumes which by Gods special Providence have been preserved unto this day and are to be seen in the Bible And these are the Prophets here spoken of the Cause by an usual Metonimy being put for the Effect the Prophets and Writers for the Books and Writings of the Prophets But not to insist any longer upon this Point let us II. Consider What it was that rais'd a Suspicion or gave People occasion to think that Christ was come to destroy the Law and the Prophets for so much is implied in this saying Think not 1. Christ reproving the great Masters of Learning and the chief Pillars of the Law as they were counted even the Scribes and Pharisees this raised a jealousie in them You have an account of these Reprehensions not only in the Chapter before us but more particularly Mat. xxiii These Men being guilty of gross Hypocrisie and deluding the People with a shew of Sanctity and thereby hindering them from solid Goodness Christ who came to reform the World thought himself obliged to chastise these proud and obstinate Men who being unable to bear the lancing of their Wounds finding their Sores touch'd to the quick set the People on and perswaded them that Christ came to destroy the Law and the Prophets and considering the Power and Authority they had with the People it was no hard matter to make them believe it and the Argument look'd plausible and weak Understandings were apt enough to infer that he must needs intend a destruction of the Law and Prophets when he shew'd so little respect to those who sat in the Chair of Moses and claim'd an uninterrupted Succession from the antient Interpreters of the Law and Prophets 2. Christ speaking against the received Traditions of the Jews was another cause The Pharisees had mingled very strange Traditions with the Law of Moses these Traditions which were nothing but humane Inventions they pretended were delivered to Moses by word of Mouth on Mount Sina and so propagated by the Elders to their Posterity And these they made of equal necessity with the written Law What these Traditions were you may see Matt. xv 6 and Mark vii 3 nor was it hard to prevail with a superstitious People to believe what they said and giving Faith to these Traditions and possess'd with an Opinion that they were Divine it was natural enough to suspect that Christ who in his Discourses did frequently inveigh against these Traditions as Additions invented by the Scribes and Pharisees and their Predecessors and as things unworthy of God and dishonourable and sinful that Christ instead of preserving came to destroy the Law and the Prophets 3. The same may be said of the false Glosses and Interpretations the Scribes and Pharisees put upon the Law of Moses which Christ did accuse of Falshood and Folly and Impiety This also gave great Offence A Specimen of these false Glosses we have in this Sermon of Christ and Matt. xxiii 16 18. Whosoever shall swear by the Temple it is nothing but whosoever shall swear by the Gold of the Temple he c. To us that live and walk in the Light these Glosses seem ridiculous yet did the People swallow them as Oracles and received them with Faith Divine as well as the Law So great a Power hath Ignorance mingled with blind Zeal just as the Papists believe in gross without chewing or considering what the Church believes so they and the one doth not believe his Church more infallible than they did the Scribes and Pharisees Hence it came to pass that Christ finding fault with these Glosses they suspected Christ had dangerous designs no less than destroying the Law and the Prophets 4. The same suspicion was also caused by Christs endeavouring to reclaim the People from resting upon outward Ceremonies and Observances and to lead them to a more Rational Internal and Spiritual Worship The People through Instigation of the Pharisees were so wedded to the Opinion that the outward Task or outward Formalities of Religion without the Internal Spiritual Frame were either meritorious of Gods Favour or in themselves pleasing to God that because Christ attempted to unsettle them in that Devotion so pleasing to the Flesh and which they thought was the very intent of the Law of Moses they thought Christ came to destroy the Law of Moses and the Prophets But III. How doth it appear that Christ did not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets 1. He himself observ'd the Law and acted according to the Precepts and Instructions and Injunctions of it not only the Moral but even the Ceremonial and Judicial Law for his Business and Employment was to fulfil all Righteousness Matt. iii. 15 and upon that account he is said to be made under the Law Gal. iv 4 nor could he have been a true High Priest without doing so Heb. vii 26 As to the Moral Law he himself
which the Gospel is the most perfect System Therefore so speak and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty and whatever your Business Calling Employment and Condition be remember there is a time coming when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with all his mighty Angels to take Vengeance on those who have not obeyed the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ To whom be Glory and Dominion for Ever and Ever SERMON XIX St. Matt. Ch. v. Ver. 18. 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 THose who endeavour to prove from this place that the present Hebrew Character is the same with that which was in use in Christ's time and consequently that no change of Letters hath been introduced by Ezra but that the Character the Jews use at this day is the same with that which Moses made use of when he writ the Law and all because Christ here represents the Letter Jot as the least in all the Alphabet and as a thing that had always been so I say those who endeavour to prove so much from this place do indeed oblige the curious World but that 's not my Business now A Preacher's design is different from the Criticks and our Work is not so much to make Men Learned as to make them Good And though we are to inform their Understandings too yet what Light we give to that Intellectual Frame it is with an intent to rectifie the Actions to mend the outward and the inward Man to destroy the body of Sin and to overthrow the Power and Dominion of natural Corruption But this on the by that which will be more Edifying to you will be to put you in mind that Christ in the preceding Verse had removed and baffled a grand Objection which was in those days made against his charitable Attempts to reform the World The Jews were mighty Admirers of the Law of Moses and the Prophets yet so brutish were they grown that never any thing was more abused than they had the Law and the Prophets which Abuses when Christ as became him went about to rectify and reform they suspected no less than that he was going to reverse the Law and the Prophets so dangerous so sottish a thing is Prejudice This Objection I say Christ had answered in the preceding Verse and I have already treated largely of that Controversy What our great Master hath begun he prosecutes in the Verse before us asserting the Divinity and Perpetuity of the Law and Prophets 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 Though in saying so he doth not mention the Prophets yet in naming the Law he names and aims at them too there being nothing more common in the New Testament than by the Law to understand the whole System of the Jewish Religion or all the Books of the Old Testament the Writings both of Moses and the Prophets which succeeded him partly because the Law is the principal part of that Sacred Volume partly because all that the Prophets have said even all the remarkable things they speak of are vertually contained in the Law of Moses I might divide the Words into a Preface or Preamble Verily I say unto you and the Maxim or Truth Christ delivers Till Heaven and Earth pass one jot c. But this I conceive needless you 'll understand the words as well and better too I am sure to your greater Edification if I resolve them into certain Propositions which are plainly hinted in the Text. I. The whole Oeconomy of the Gospel lies hid in the Law and in the Prophets II. There is nothing in the Old Testament relating to the Affairs of the Gospel or the Time of the Messiah but hath been and shall certainly be fulfilled to the least tittle of it III. The Scriptures or the Word of God will last to the Worlds end IV. Heaven and Earth shall certainly pass away V. Gods Veracity is unchangable and sooner shall Heaven and Earth perish than what God hath said in his Word shall fail I begin with the first 1. The whole Oeconomy of the Gospel lies hid in the Law and the Prophets for Christ was here delivering the Law of the Gospel To assure the Jews that he came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets he tells that his Doctrine and Discipline was nothing but a fulfilling of the Law and the Prophets and if so then certainly the whole must be contained in the Law and in the Prophets This the Apostle is so sure of that he doth not only tell us that Christ is the end of the Law Rom. x. 4 but peremptorily affirms that the Gospel was preached to the Israelites in the Wilderness the time when God gave the Law Heb. iv 2. And to this purpose he tells us 1 Cor. x. 1 2 3 4. Moreover Brethren I would not that ye should be ignorant how that all our Fathers were under the Cloud and all passed through the Sea and were all baptized into Moses i. e. into the Faith of Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and did all eat the same spiritual Meat and did all drink the same spiritual Drink for they drank of that spiritual Rock which followed them and that Rock was Christ And particularly of Moses who was the glorious Instrument by whom God gave the Law we read that he esteemed the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than all the Treasures of Egypt Heb. xi 26 which he could not have done if he had been a Stranger to the Knowledge of the Mystery of Christ no doubt he had it for so we read Joh. v. 46 If ye had believed Moses you would also have believed me for he wrote of me but if you believe not his Writings how shall you believe my Words So that it may be truly said as it is Heb. xiii 8 Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever only in the Old Testament he was veiled in the New that Veil is taken away there a Cloud covered him here he appears in his Meridian Brightness there the Mount on which he was seen was encompassed with Mists and Darkness Here he is seen on Mount Tabor transfigured and his Garments shining The difference betwixt the Saints of the Old Testament and those of the New is not that the latter believed in Christ the former did not but as we believe in Christ who is to come so they did in Christ who was to come and they had reason for the Vertue of his Sufferings and Merits was retroactive and like a mighty Stream spread it self backward and forward and like the Mystical Creatures Rev. iv 6 were full of Eyes before and behind And could we unfold all the Riddles of the Ceremonial Law we should see the Gospel Mysteries lie very orderly
have often heard of Three Famous Sects among the Jews when Christ appeared in the World the Pharisees the Essenes and the Sadducees The Pharisees were an Order of Men who distinguished themselves from the Vulgar by certain Austerities and Mortifications and a seemingly preciser way of Living yet they convers'd and lived in Citiess and Towns and were so far from avoiding that they seemed to affect Places where there was a great Concourse of People When they began or who was the first Founder of them is uncertain but it 's probable the Institution of the Nazarites of old Numb vi 2 and the Order of the Rechabites afterward Jerem. xxxv 2 or the strictness of the Hasideans might give occasion to this peculiar way of living though the Votaries in progress of time deviated and degenerated from those sober Patterns and as it was with Monkery in the Christian Church improved or rather abused the preceding pious and well-meant Self-denials into Superstition The Essenes were a kind of Hermits who chose to dwell in the Country as far from Crouds as they could and though they had Procurators in Cities and populous Places to receive and entertain those of their Sect whose Occasions led them to pass that way yet their chief abode was in a Wilderness not far from Jericho from whence as they grew in number they dispers'd themselves and planted Colonies in other Places These were a modester and soberer sort of People and studied self-denial too but to better and greater Purposes than the Pharisees and therefore possibly it is that Christ passes no censure upon them because their Service for the most part was reasonable and in their Morals they came very near the Christian Institution and it 's likely that most of them turned Christians afterward being so well qualified and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prepared for that excellent Discipline and this might give occasion to Eusebius and others to think that the Essenes Philo speaks of were Christian Asceticks The Sadducees were Sensualists and Epicureans and denied the Being of another World pretended indeed to keep close to the Letter of the Law of Moses rejected Traditions and derided the Pharisees who were great Admirers of it but were Men loose and profane debaucht and cruel a Temper agreeable enough to their Principle which was That Men die like Beasts and that there is no Resurrection of the Dead though it must be confess'd that these Impious Tenets took not much with the common People the Persons who espoused these Doctrines being chiefly Men of great Estates and Dignities who are apt without very great Circumspection from an over-admiration of Things Present and Visible to be drawn into contempt of Things Invisible and Enternal To return to the Pharisees the Men the Text speaks of This Order was subdivided into Seven Sects who all obliged themselves to several sorts of Austerities too tedious to be told here and so taking it seems were these External Rigors that there were Women Pharisees as well as Men Pharisees The Name Pharisee is as much as a Separatist for so the Pharisees were separating themselves from the rest of Mankind by an affected Piety which passed for great strictness in that Age and gave occasion to the Apostle to say That before his Conversion he lived after the strictest way of the Jewish Religion a Pharisee Act. xxvi 5 2. The Scribes These were in the Nature of Secretaries or Clerks or Publick Notaries to the Sanhedrin or Great Council of the Jews which Council in those Days consisting of Sadducees and Pharisees these Two Factions had their distinct Secretaries or Notaries as appears from Act. xxiii 9 The Scribes or Advocates who were of the Pharisees side having entirely addicted themselves to their Cause and Service were of the same Opinion with the Pharisees in all things stifly maintaining their Doctrines Principles and Traditions and being commonly Men of Learning were in equal esteem with the Pharisees the rather because what the Pharisees boldly and proudly asserted the Scribes endeavoured to prove from Records and Monuments of Antiquity and such Writings as they judged proper for their purpose I know some think they were the Elders of the Sanhedrin and the Chief Expositors of the Law but if we compare the Account the Scripture gives of them with what the Talmudists say of them they seem to have been such Men as I have described them nor did their Office and Learning debar them from being Interpreters of the Law but qualifie them rather for that Employment In a word What the Canonists are and have been of late Years to the Pope the same were the Scribes to the Pharisees defending their pretended Rights and Priviledges and Authority and Traditions with all the Zeal and Passion as is common to Men who designedly espouse an Interest or Faction and indeed one Egg is not liker another than Pharisaism and Popery are as were an easie Matter to prove in several Instances but that I have more material Things to tell you Let us go on therefore and II. Consider What their Righteousness was and wherein it consisted And to understand the Mystery of it I shall in the first place represent to you the Particulars of their Righteousness as they are Recorded by the Evangelists and then shew wherein it was defective that we may be the better able to distinguish and see how our Righteousness is to exceed theirs 1. The Particulars of their Righteousness and they were these following They gave Alms Matth. vi 2 They pray'd Matth. vi 5 and pray'd very long Matth. xxiii 14 They fasted and when they fasted disfigured their Faces and looked ruefully Matth. vi 16 They fasted two days in a Week Luc. xviii 12. They praised God and gave him thanks for his Mercies Luc. xviii 12. They were no scandalous Offenders Extortioners Vnjust Adulterers Luc. xviii 11. They were very ready to resolve Cases of Conscience Matth. xxiii 16 They taught the Doctrine and maintained the Law of Moses Matth. xxiii 2 3. They Garnish'd Adorned and Beautified the Sepulchres of the Prophets of old Matth. xxiii 29 They had a great Veneration for the Traditions of their Church Marc. vii 2 3 4. They were very punctual in paying Tithes or the tenth part of the Fruits of the Earth that fell to their share Matth. xxiii 23 They carried their Phylacteries about with them where-ever they went which were certain pieces of Parchment wherein were written some Sentences or Sections of the Law particularly of Exod. xii and xiii and Deut. vi and xi and these they tied to their Wrists and Foreheads and made them very broad Matth. xxiii 5 They were often Purifying and Washing themselves not only their Hands and Wrists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophylact speaks up to the Elbow but their whole Bodies too especially when they came from the Market-place being fearful lest some filthiness contracted by converse should stick to them Mark vii 3 They took great pains
to make Proselytes and Converts to their Religion for they compassed Sea and Land to do it Matth. xxiii 15 They were so strict or so nice rather that they were afraid of touching a Person who was counted an open and scandalous Sinner would not only not Eat with him but not so much as Touch him which was the reason why the Pharisee in whose House Christ dined found fault with our Saviour for suffering himself to be touch'd by a Woman who had been a notorious Sinner Luc. vii 39 And this is the account the Scripture gives of them St. Epiphanius adds that many of them would Vow very strict Chastity and Abstinence from the Partners of their Beds some for Four years some for Eight and some for Ten. They were very watchful against all Nocturnal Accidents and partly to prevent them and partly to awake the sooner to Prayer they would Sleep upon Boards not above nine Inches broad that falling or rolling off from those Boards on the Ground they might go to their Devotion some would stuff their Pillows with Stones and Pebles and some would venture even upon Thorns for that purpose Besides their Tythes they separated their First-Fruits and the Thirtieth and Fiftieth part of their Incomes to Pious Uses and as to all Vows and Sacrifices no Persons were more punctual to pay or discharge them than they This was the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees All this looks well and hath a very good Gloss. And one would wonder at first sight how Christ could find fault with these Performances One would think that in stead of blaming he should have commended them for so doing How many Thousands are there in the World that do not do half so much in Matters of Religion and some would look upon themselves as extraordinary Saints if they came up to what the Scribes and Pharisees did so far are they from dreaming of going beyond them But have not You seen some counterfeit Pearls so Artificiously contrived that the ignorant Spectator hath taken them for truly Oriental Have not you seen some curious Limner draw Infects and Butterflies with that Life that one would take them for living Animals The same may be said of the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees As specious as glorious as it look'd it was perfectly or the Nature of the Glow-Worm and shined bright in that dark Night of Ignorance but view'd by Day-light was nothing but a squallid Worm a mere Skeleton of Devotion which leads me II. To shew You the Defects of their Righteousness and they will appear from the following Particulars 1. They laid the Stress of their Devotion upon the Opus Operatum the bare Outward Task and Peformance without any regard to the Inward Frame very indifferent whether their Minds at the same time were season'd with a due sense of God's Greatness and their own Imperfections Just as the People of the Church of Rome at this Day will say so many Credo's so many Pater Noster's so many Ave Maria's and fancy they have done admirably well when they have absolved their Task though their Minds or Thoughts all the while like the Evil Spirit in Job have been wandring to and fro in the Earth And I wish too many who profess themselves Members of the best Church in the World I mean the Church of England did not split their Vessel against this Rock I am sure the Scribes and Pharisees did They made no account of the inward Frame but rested in the Shell and thought God would be pleased with the slaying of a Bullock or Lamb or He-Goat and they measured the Goodness of their Prayers by their Length and Number more than by the great Sense they had of the Shekinah or Divine Presence whereas an humble and devout Mind in the Religious Service was the thing God required at their Hands Mat. xv 8 2. They were very Zealous for the Ceremonial part of Religion but very reguardless of the Moral and more Substantial part of it hot as Fire for the one cold as Ice with respect to the other The neglect of a Ceremony anger'd them more than the omission of a sober and pious Conversation much as the Greeks at this Day look upon breaking a Fast of the Church as a more heinous Crime than Killing or Murthering a Man and to this purpose Christ tells the Pharisees Mat. xxiii 22 23. Wo to you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites who strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel Ye pay Tithe of Mint and Cummin and Anise and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith 3. They were abominably selfish in all their Religious Undertakings for all their Works they do to be seen of Men saith our Saviour Matth. xxiii 5 This was the Worm that corrupted their Alms their Prayers their Fasts their Self-Denials their Mortifications and all they did even a design to advance and promote their Profit Interest and Credit and to gain the Applauses and Admirations of Men and though they made long Prayers yet it seems it was to devour Widows Houses Matth. xxiii 14 Their very Doctrins were suited to their Profit and Interest As Transubstantiation Purgatory Private Masses Indulgences Auricular Confession c. in the Church of Rome are invented to aggrandize the Honour and Profit of the Priest so the Tenents they held were accommodated to their Gain and Lucre for they taught the People that there was greater Holiness in the Gold of the Temple than in the Temple and greater Sanctity in the Gift upon the Altar than in the Altar it self thereby to oblige the People to bring Gold and Gifts into the Temple whereby the Priests who were of the Order of the Pharisees suckt no small advantage Matth. xxiii 16 17. 4. They took care to purifie the outward Man but took none to cleanse the Heart and the Soul Such Acts of Piety and Devotion as were stately and favour'd of Pomp and served to attack the Eyes of Spectators they were for and of this Nature were all their External Severities and Rigors and Revenges they used upon themselves But as to Mortifying their inward Pride and Rancour and Hatred and Malice and Covetousness and love of the World they were so great Strangers to it that they did not think it part of their Religion which makes Christ tell them Thou blind Pharisee cleanse first that which is within the Cup and Platter that the outside of them may be clean also Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees for ye are like unto whited Sepulchres which appear fair unto Men but within are full of Rotten Bones even so ye appear outwardly Righteous unto Men but within are full of Covetousness Matth. xxiii 26 27. 5. Though they own'd professed and taught the Law of Moses yet in effect they preferr'd their wild and phantastick Traditions before it Not to mention their common Proverb That the Words of the Scribes i. e. of their Traditionary Divines were more Lovely
than the Words of the Law where it was so that the Law and the Tradition clasht they Interpreted the Law by the Tradition not the Tradition by the Law and hearken'd more to the Dictate and Suggestion of a groundless and whimsical Tradition than to an express Text of the Written Word of God as is evident from what Christ tells them Matth. xv 3 Why do ye Transgress the Commandment of God by your Tradition for God Commanded saying Honour thy Father and thy Mother and he that Curses Father and Mother let him die the Death but ye say Whosoever shall say to his Father or to his Mother though ready to Starve and Perish for want of Necessaries it is Corban it is a Gift I have Dedicated it to the Temple by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me and Honour not his Father or his Mother he shall be Free Thus have ye made the Commandment of God of no effect by your Tradition Indeed where Men invent new Doctrins and Articles of Faith there the good Old Word of God will do them no Service but they are forced to make and run to Traditions and broken Cisterns which can hold no Water 6. To Sum up all They were very severe and strict in keeping some Commandments of God but very supine and negligent as to others They hated Extortion but were Malicious to a Prodigy they would not be Drunk but were abominably Proud they were for giving Alms to People of their own Sect but look'd upon it as Sinful to releive a poor Samaritan They were for strictness of Life before People and Spectators but loose and wicked in Secret they abhorred Adultery but were Slaves to Ambition and Vain-Glory they bound heavy burthens on other Mens Souldiers but would not touch them with one of their Fingers and while they pressed a severe observance of the Sabbath Day forgot they were to rest from Sin and Envy as well as from servile Labour Matth. xii 12 13 14. Indeed this was one of their pernicious Traditionary Principles That if a Man or Woman were but industrious in the Practice of any one Command of God though they neglected the other Precepts that service was sufficient to entitle them to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Portion of the Blessed in another World To be short they served God at the best by halves were quick-sighted as Eagles in spying out other Mens faults but blind as Moles in discovering their own and while they divided their Affections betwixt God and the World allow'd the World the far greater share These were the Distempers and Diseases of the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and how we are to exceed them is the third particular I am to speak to III. Except your Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and how or in what Things we are to exceed them is soon guess'd at for 't is evident from the preceding Discourse that it must be in Sincerity in Simplicity in Humility in Charity and in Vniversality of Obedience 1. In Sincerity in being that within which we seem to be without Christ is not against external Devotion hath no dislike of an outward Profession never declared against decent external Ceremonies but he requires we should be Devout and Serious within as well as without and take care that what we do without do arise from a sense of God within and that a rellish of Spiritual Things in the Soul within do put us upon Devotion without that the Heart and the Lips and the Hands be all of a piece and moreover that we use the same diligence to Mortifie our inward Lusts which we use to restrain our selves from evil Actions in Company or in the presence of Men. In a Word that we do not only pretend to Religion but Practise it not only talk and dispute and entertain our selves with Speculations and Discourses of it but Live up to the Holy Rules of it not only make Profession of it but shew out of a good Conversation our good Works with Meekness of Wisdom as it is said Jam. iii. 13 2. In Simplicity and having pure and holy Ends in our Religious Actions and particularly in our Religious Severities and Self-Denials Ends suitable to the Holiness of God and the Edification of our Neighbours in a Word Ends Rational and such as may be justified before God and Man This is part of the single Eye we read of Matth. vi 22 Indeed the Ends and Designs of Actions make a strange alteration in their Worth and Value render them either Good or Bad either Commendable or Abominable either Sacrifices of Righteousness or Sacrifices of Fools Christ is so far from discouraging his Followers from Religious Self-Denials and Severities that his Doctrin and Discipline presses nothing more insomuch that the greater Your Self-Denials are the better Christians You are But the right end is the thing our Master presses and insists upon Fast and Pray and continue in Prayer a long time spend whole hours in it if Your Strength and Sense and Affections will serve give Alms and give very liberally deny Your selves in a Thousand Vanities the World doats upon Mortifie Your Bodies in a decent manner but take heed of secret hopes of Meriting by all this and of secret Designs either to promote Your Worldly Profit and Interest or to gain the Commendations and Admiration of Your Neighbours or to make God amends for some Sins You are loath to part withal Have no Worldly Ends in all this but let a Sense of Your Duty and Your Gratitude to God and an earnest desire to Crucifie the Flesh to die to the World to imitate the Saints of Old to encourage Your Selves in a Spiritual Life and to prepare for Heaven and Happiness Let these be the Principles and Motives that put You upon all this and You will undoubtedly exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees 3. In Humility not only in having a just Sense of our Errors and many Infirmities which render us unworthy to appear before God without the Assistance and Intercession of a Mediator not only in abhorring our selves for those many defects which cleave to our best Services not only in accusing our selves before the All-seeing Eye as Wretched Naked Poor Blind and Miserable from a Sense of his Infinite Majesty and Purity but also in having low and humble Thoughts of our Religious Performances acknowledging that by the Grace of God we are what we are and that by the Influence of that Grace those Performances are wrought and confessing from the Heart when we have done all that we are Commanded to do that we are unprofitable Servants and have done no more than what was our Duty to do Luke xvii 10 This humble Temper the Scribes and Pharisees were very great strangers to who look'd upon their Religious Services as Things which God was obliged in Honour and Equity to look upon and Reward Pride Self-Conceitedness and Self-Admiration mingling with
almost all they did and they did not would not know what a contrite and humble Heart meant and what it was to lie low before God with a deep Sense of their Unworthiness and of the great Imperfection of their Services and though they Fasted often yet that was not so much to arrive to an humble Sense of their Corruptions and Infirmities as to increase their Merits and to do Things which might Challenge Gods kinder Inclinations and this was the Rock against which these Men stumbled And as they were unacquainted with true Humility toward God so they understood not what it was to condescend to Men of low Estate In Humility therefore we are to exceed them in Humility toward God and Man for as there is nothing that separates more betwixt the Creator and the Creature than Pride and Self-Conceitedness for which Reason God is said to behold the Proud afar off so nothing unites Heaven and Earth God and the Soul more than Humility for thus saith the High and Lofty One who inhabiteth Eternity I dwell in the High and Holy Place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit Es. lvii 15 4. In Charity or a compassionate Temper toward all sorts of distressed Persons I say all sorts for that of the Pharisees was narrow and sneaking and confined to People of their own Sect. I need not tell you that Charity consists not only in giving Alms that 's but one part of it nay it may happen so that it may not be so much as a part of it according to the case St. Paul puts 1 Cor. xiii 3 where he makes it possible for a Man to bestow all his Goods to Feed the Poor and yet to have no Charity Had Almsgiving been all the Charity that was necessary to Salvation the Scribes and Pharisees had been considerable Men for they were free and liberal enough of their Purses toward Men of their own Party but Charity is a larger and nobler Virtue if it be of the true Eagle kind an unfeigned Love of God is the cause of it and the effect is ever answerable to the Beauty which produces it St. Paul hath given so genuine a Character of it 1 Cor. xiii that it 's impossible to mistake the Nature of it except Men be wilfully Blind It extends its Arms not only to all sorts of Objects whether Friends or Foes whether Relations or Strangers but as far as it's Ability reaches and opportunity offers it self to all sorts of Distresses It doth not only Feed and give Drink and Cloth and Visit but Admonish too and Reprove and Teach and Entreat and Counsel and Advise and help and assist and sometimes Correct and Punish It embraces Enemies and like the wounded Earth receives even those that cut and digg'd it into its Bosom and like the kind Balsom Tree heals those that made Incisions upon it It Judges favourably of Pious Heathens much more of Pious Christians tho differing from it in Opinion it Damns none whom God hath not Damned in a Word it works no Evil to its Neighbour but is ready unto every good Word and Work And in this Charity we are to exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees 5. In Vniversality of Obedience or in making Conscience of the several Commands of the Gospel of one as well as of another Joh. xv 14 Then we exceed them without any danger of being over-much Righteous when at the same time that we are fervent for Circumstances in God's Worship we are not forgetful of the substantial part of Religion when we do not let our Publick Devotion justle out our private nor the private the publick when we do not make the Practice of one Precept an argument to justify our neglect of another nor excuse our not doing Good by our not committing of Evil but are impartial in our Obedience and cheerfully submit not only to the gentler but harder Injunctions of the Gospel not only to such as are agreeable but to those also which are contrary to our natural Temper and Inclination The Pious Christian will not easily get the better of the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees except his Obedience becomes larger and spreads more than theirs Had these Men carried on their Obedience to that Extent I speak of as St. Paul a Pharisee and the Son of a Pharisee afterwards did there would not have been greater Men in the World than they and the Proverb which was unjustly made concerning them would not have been altogether False viz. If there were but two Men to be Saved the one would be a Scribe the other a Pharisee And these are the particulars in which our Righteousness is to exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees If it doth not we shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The Danger and the Last Part which will deserve our Examination IV. The Danger Except Your Righteousness shall exceed the Rigteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees Ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven This Word one would think should rouze every Soul here present and put us all upon a serious Inquiry Whether our Righteousness doth actually exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees If it doth not we hear our Doom And can any Man think Christ was very serious in saying so without being concerned how to prevent and escape that fatal Exit All Ye that have any Care of your Salvation and believe another World and know what the Terrors of the Lord mean and what it is not to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Awake awake why should you not when Your Great Redeemer calls and take this Threatning into serious Consideration Either it will be fulfilled or not If it will not be fulfilled where is Christ's Veracity If it be where is Your Security I say unto You Thus the Commination begins which shews the Thing is firm and like the Laws of Medes and Persians unalterable Our Master even He whom we believe to be God as well as Man hath spoke the Word He that is Truth it self hath said it and thus it must be nor will all the Intreaties of Men and Angels oblige him to depart from his peremptory Declaration You that hear and now read all this cannot pretend Ignorance that you did not know the dreadful Consequence of this Neglect We suggest we intimate so much to you we pull you by the Sleeve we proclaim these Words in your Ears as poor as mean as inconsiderable Creatures as we are I would to God they might sink into your Hearts We beg of You to lay aside your Divertisements and your Businesses for a while and allow this Threatning some Attention of Mind If you go no farther in your Righteousness than these unhappy Men did not all your Cries at last Lord Lord open to us Not all your Tears and Calls Lord have Mercy upon us Not all your Arguings and Pleadings with God Not all your dying Groans not
Cleanse your Righteousness and to take care that none of the Leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees stick to it Here on Earth Men Fight for a great Estate and venture Fortune Friends Interest Honesty Life and all Strange The Kingdom of Heaven should lie under that Misfortune that Men must be entreated to enter into it and yet will not be prevailed with after all to enter Yes you 'll say we all are very ready to enter into it were it not for the hard Conditions that are required and do you really think the Conditions so hard Would you think them so if you lay Howling in Eternal Flames Certainly nothing would seem hard then and why should it seem so now when it is evident and apparent you are in danger of those Flames Behold God is ready and willing to succour to assist to support and to strengthen you that your Righteousness may Triumph over the Righteousness of these Hypocrites The same Spirit the same Grace the same Influences the same Assistances he hath afforded to St. Paul to St. Peter to Lydia to Martha to Mary to Magdalene to the Jaylour to the Penitent Publican to Zachaeus to others the same he offers to you all But then if these kind Offers be slighted and rejected and a Farm a Yoak of Oxen or some thing worse be preferr'd before it it is not God so much that deprives you of the Kingdom of Heaven as you your selves Were you actually possess'd of this Kingdom of Heaven you would wonder at the Folly and Madness of Men who can complain that the Conditions are hard when such a Glory such a Bliss such a Kingdom is to be had a Kingdom for which the Apostles and the Primitive Believers whose Faith and Constancy we Admire forsook Father and Mother and Lands and Houses and all that was dear to them in this World I could give you such a Description of that Kingdom as should make all the Glories of this World look pale and dim and dark in Comparison of it But I forbear Were such Considerations as these made use of in the cool of the Day I mean when your Thoughts are cool and composed and the Grace of God upon your Endeavours earnestly implored they would inspire you with Courage Invincible to go not only beyond Heathens and Philosophers but beyond Scribes and Pharisees in Righteousness and in the serious Exercises of Virtue and Self-Denial It 's possible you may not remember all the Motives I have given you but one thing you will be able to Remember which contains all that I have said and that 's the Text and therefore I repeat it once more Except your Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven SERMON XXII St. Matth. Ch. v. Ver. 21 22. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his Brother Raca shall be in danger of the Council but whosoever shall say thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell fire FAlse Teachers without doubt are very dangerous Men. The Murtherer kills the Body these the Soul and by the false Doctrines they Sow in Mens Heads and Minds they not only obstruct their Salvation but lead them into Perdition Indeed if the Errors be light and trivial the hurt that 's done is not great and while the erroneous Doctrine reaches no farther than Speculation it can deserve no very severe Censure but when it spoils and sullies the Worship of God or proves an impediment to the faithful discharge of our Duty to God and Man Poison is not so prejudicial to the outward as such Opinions are to the inward Man and the better part And such were the erroneous Doctrines of the Scribes and Pharisees Blending the Traditions of their Fathers with the Law of God and entertaining both with an equal Faith and Veneration they made an odd kind of Divinity and quite perverted the design of Religion which was to make Men universally good This was particularly visible in the notion they had of the sixth Commandment which they interpreted to the carnal advantage and worldly Interest of their People teaching them that if they did but use that Care and Circumspection as not to kill a Man they did not only answer the design of the Lawgiver but would prevent the Penalty annex'd and their being taken notice of by the Magistrate and punished accordingly but as for Wrath and Malice and reproachful Language whereby Murder and such bloody Practices are too often occasion'd and promoted these they told them were things not forbid in the primary Intention of the Law of God and consequently they need fear no Punishment To which preposterous Exposition our Saviour opposes his Divine Authority proves the gloss of their Elders upon the sixth Commandment to be false and shews That what they thought did not deserve so much as a temporal Judgment God would punish with eternal Vengeance if not forsaken or repented of betimes Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be c. This is a Text upon which Criticks and Learned Men have bestow'd many excellent Observations because the words relate to some antient Customs of the Jews in their Judicial Proceedings against Malefactors and others But as I do not think it proper to entertain you with Curiosities so if there be need of making use of any of those Observations I shall do it no farther than they serve to elucidate some of the obscurer Passages of the Text and make way for the practical Points I shall insist upon for your Edification As to the Sense of the Words it 's briefly this 1. Whether we render the Expression in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It hath been said by them of old time or to them of old time as some Translations read it the difference is not very material for as by those of old time are meant either the antient Masters of Tradition who lived some hundred years before that time or the Ancestors of the Jews to whom those Masters of Tradition pretended to deliver an oral Exposition of the Law of Moses so if we read by them of old time the meaning is You have heard that it hath been deliver'd and said by the antient Masters of Tradition And if we render it to them of old time the sense is You have heard it delivered to your Ancestors and Fore-fathers by those antient Masters of Tradition I restrain you see this Passage to Tradition for though the Sense of it is to be found in the Law of Moses yet the Maxim as it is related by our Saviour here is not expressed there neither with that
Principles and went astray from the center of his Happiness No doubt Antiquity is venerable but it must be in a good Cause and where Truth and that join together the Argument is perswasive and may be call'd invincible But a thing is not therefore true because it is antient nor doth it command Assent because of its uncommon Pedigree Sin and Error lose little of their Deformity by appealing to antient Times and an Error is so much the worse by how much it defends it self by the Practice of former Ages Idolatry and all the Vices in the World may shelter themselves under this Roof and there is no Villany so great but Men may find a President two or three thousand Years ago The Priests of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus called the Wicker-image of that Goddess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fallen down from Jupiter meerly because it was antient and the Temple having been seven times ruin'd and built up again and this Image still preserved was to them an Argument that this Worship must be lawful Indeed at this rate a Man might even defend Sodomy with the Romish Archbishop Joannes Casa because it was practised in the Cities which God destroyed with Fire and Brimstone and the Jews would have had a good Plea for their Adoration of the Queen of Heaven because their Fathers had been used to it This very Argument makes the Allegations of the Roman Church from Antiquity ridiculous and they might as well espouse the Heresies of Ebian and Cerinthus because they lived in and about the Age of the holy Apostles When God hath given a Standard of Truth that must be the Rule whereby Truth and Error must be concluded and when that saith a thing is true it is not its being revived or taught but Yesterday that can make it false and whatever is contrary to that Form of sound Words must be Erroneous and False though it were as old as the Rebellion of Corah Dathan and Abiram The Worship of Images is not therefore lawful because Irene a superstitious Woman 900 Years ago got a company of illiterate and passionate Men together who decreed it in a Council nor is Sedition and Disobedience to Magistrates therefore justifiable because Gregory II. Pope of Rome in the eighth Century shook off the Authority of Leo Isaurus his Emperor And therefore let none of you plead for any Sin because it is the fashion nor allow themselves in Actions offensive to God's Holiness because it hath been the Custom of the Country to do so for many Ages This will be but a poor defence in the last Day to alledge that you follow'd the sinful Practices of your Ancestors or to say it was unmannerly to depart from that which was done before you for many Generations To be sure Men were good before they were bad and there was a Golden Age before that of Iron took place in the World and therefore if Antiquity be a motive nothing can challenge your Embraces more than Righteousness and dominion over your Appetite and Passions for that was in the World before Mankind knew what it was to depart from the living God Murder is as antient as the time of Cain yet no civiliz'd Nation under the cope of Heaven will allow of it because of its Antiquity So far from it that in all Countries it is order'd to be punish'd with the Death of the insolent Creature Which calls me to the II. Observation That Murder is a Crime which a Magistrate must by no means suffer to go unpunished for it hath been said Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the Judgment The Substance of this hath been said by Almighty God as well as by them of old time and so far as God hath said it it is a Law unalterable Murder is a truly crying Sin for the Voice of thy Brother's Blood crys unto me from the ground saith God Gen. IV. 10 This is a Crime which Nature it self trembles at and yet we see there are Wretches and Monsters who can steel and harden their Consciences against the Horror of it But God thunders against it from Heaven and because the Crime is so great he hath made a Law and given it to all Mankind That whoso sheds Mans Blood by Man i. e. by the Magistrates shall his Blood be shed Gen. ix 6 Nay if a wild Beast tears a Man who is going about his lawful Occasions in pieces though an irrational Creature God will strike that Beast dead because it kill'd Sanctius his Animal a nobler and more sacred Fabrick So tender is God of the Life of Man nor would he suffer his Tabernacle or Sanctuary to be a refuge for such a barbarous Wretch The Horns of the Altar could not save the Offender and from the very Temple he was to be dragg'd to the Gallows or place of Execution The whole Country comes to be defiled by the horrid Crime where it goes unpunish'd and that Magistrate makes his Soul black with Guilt that connives at the inhumane Action or out of respect to Greatness or Rank or Quality pardons the intollerable Extravagance Where this remains unpunish'd when known a Nation falls under the Curse of God and whatever Judgments befal them an Ounce of the unpunish'd Murder as the Jews say of the Sin of the Golden Calf may be said to be an Ingredient of their Calamity We have a Distinction in our Law betwixt Mans-Slaughter and Murder A Distinction which I wish did not too often cover that Bloody Crime which ought to be avenged by publick Justice The Word of God knows no such Distinction and tho' it provides for Chance-medly and gives pardon to the Man that unawares and without any intent to kill proves the occasion of another's Death yet this is nothing to that Act which Wrath and Anger whether sudden or premeditate doth produce to the Horror of the Creation Neither doth the Law of the Gospel nor the Law of Moses in this case before us reverse the Law of Nature and God is so resolute that the Magistrate shall punish such Offenders with Death that where they do not himself sometimes takes the Sword in hand and executes the presumptuous Destroyer of his Image Nay many times makes the Wretch that did the Fact and escapes the Magistrates Sword his own Executioner Alphonsus Diazius a Spaniard and a Roman Catholick having kill'd his own Natural Brother for turning Protestant for which he receiv'd the Praises and Applauses of considerable Men in the Church of Rome haunted and hunted at last by the Furies of his own Conscience desperately hang'd himself at Trent de callo Mulae suae saith the Historian upon the Neck of his own Mule It 's true there are those who guilty of such Crimes do yet escape the revenging Arm of God and Man here but the more terrible will be their Cup of trembling hereafter and God lets some like stall'd Oxen grow fat on this side the Grave that
be cast into Hell And if thy right Hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy Members should perish and not that thy whole Body should be cast into Hell THese Words relate either to all the Precepts that go before or to the Command or Prohibition immediately preceding either to all the Rules and Lessons and Vertues which we have already treated of such as Humility Meekness Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness purity of Heart Peaceableness and Peace-making exceeding the Scribes and Pharisees in Righteousness leading an Exemplary Life c. or to the Law and Command which prohibits harbouring Adulterous and impure Desires Intentions and Lusts even that whosoever tooketh on a Woman to Lust after her hath already committed Adultery with her in his Heart The Words of the Text are Metaphorical or Hyperbolical to be sure cannot be understood in a literal Sense for though it hath happen'd so and Providence sometimes hath so ordered it for reasons great and weighty that some good Men have had their right Eyes pulck'd out by others and their right Hands cut off by Enemies by Tyrants and Persecutors yet to think that Christ would command his Followers to pluck out their own right Eye and cut off their own right Hand be Butchers and Executioners upon themselves practise that Inhumanity upon their own Bodies and go beyond the Priests of Baal who only cut and hackt their Flesh till the Blood gush'd out this seems not at all agreeable with the design of him who came to save that which was lost and hath charged us not to hate our own Flesh but to cherish it as a Servant that the Soul may be the better for those kind Usages shewn to her Minister And therefore the meaning of our Saviour must needs be this If thy right Eye offend thee or if thy right Hand offend thee i. e. If these parts of thy Body administer occasion to Sin if looking upon an Object or touching it causes or is apt to cause evil Thoughts and impure Desires Lusts and Designs within thee pluck out and cut off the Occasions of that Evil. Forbear looking that way as much as if thine Eyes were pluckt out and avoid touching that Object as much as if thy Hands were cut off it is better for thee that thou enter into Life with one Eye or maimed or that one of thy Members should perish i. e. It s better for thee that thou shouldest miss that Satisfaction which thine Eye gave thee and thy Hand prompted thee to than with that Satisfaction to be cast into Hell So that these Words are a Metaphor taken from Surgeons who in a Gangrene cut off a Limb a Hand or Foot or an Arm to preserve the other Parts and cause one to perish that the other may continue whole and untainted This is at least part of our Saviours meaning here But as I told you the Words relate not only to unlawful Lust shewing how that is to be cured but to all the preceding Precepts and Vertues and therefore something more must be intended by them and that you may see the full extent of them I shall comprehend it as near as I can in these three Propositions I. Vertue and Watchfulness against Sin is of that mighty Consequence that if it were not otherwise Attainable it were worth loseing an Eye or a Limb to get it rather than be cast into Hell for want of it II. To attain to a truly Spiritual Life or to root up Habits of Sin if gentler Means will not do a Christian must apply himself to a more painful Discipline III. To avoid or to be rid of unlawful Lust whether Adulterous or other impure Desires a Christian must give not the least Encouragement to the Sin by Actions that feed it nor cherish any thing that provokes to it I. Vertue and Watchfulness against Sin is of that mighty Consequence that if it were not otherwise Attainable it were worth loseing an Eye or a Limb to get it rather than be cast into Hell for want of it This is as little as we can draw from our Saviour's words and there is none so weak but will be able to inferr from them that so much at least is supposed in these Expressions If thy right Eye or thy right Hand offend thee c. Whatever Opinion the World may have of Vertue and Watchfulness against all sorts of Sin God hath other thoughts of it and judges the Attainment so necessary that he holds it Advisable rather to endure any thing and to run any Hazard of the Body than go without it And indeed all wise and good Men who have any lively Apprehensions of the reason of the Thing are and have been of the same Opinion not only Christians but even the Heathen Philosophers had an Insight into this Truth There is a remarkable saying of Seneca to this Purpose Projice quae Cor tuum laniant quae si aliter extrahi nequirent Cor ipsum cum illis evellendum erat i. e. Throw away those base Lusts which war against thy Soul which if there were no other way to cure it were worth pulling out the very Heart with them Nay some of these Philosophers have actually deprived themselves of the use of some considerable Members of their Bodies for the study of Philosophy and its hard if the study of Piety should not deserve as much if it were so that it were to be procured no other way Vertue and Watchfulness against Sins are of infinitely greater Value than all outward Advantages whatsoever and since we ordinarily part with things of a lesser for those of greater worth seems it to you so hard a Bargain to part with an Eye or Limb for a greater Blessing The loss of an Eye or Limb is nothing to the loss of a Soul He that loses either of these if he be Vertuous and Holy and Watchful against Sin may yet enter into Life but he that is destitute of this Watchfulness can never enter in with all his Parts about him The loss of an Eye or Limb cannot hurt the Soul for all that loss the Soul may be Happy and Blessed and Glorious and a Favourite of Heaven and he that loses an Eye or a Limb upon the account of Righteousness shall have that Eye or that Limb restored to him in a more splendid manner in the Resurrection of the Just so that he shall be no loser by it whereas he that is a stranger to this Watchfulness here can never have it restored to him in the last Day for as the Tree falls so it shall lie and he that continues filthy here shall continue so till Dooms-day Add to all this that Hell is so tremendous a Torment that if a Man had any lively Notions of it he would suffer any thing rather the Rack the Gibbet the Wheel and the Bull of Phalaris than venture falling into that Misery I grant very few Men
and partly to intimate that his Doctrine and the Blessings which came along with it required greater Strictness and Severity of Life He proves that the Lawfulness of Divorcements which they extended to Causes and Cases of their own making was to be restrained only to Fornication and Adultery and whoever took greater Liberty in Divorcing himself would involve himself in very great Evils and Mischiefs It hath been said Whosoever shall put away his Wife let him give her a Writing of Divorcement But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his Wife saving in the case of Fornication causes her to commit Adultery and whosoever Marries her which is Divorced commits Adultery This is no Contradiction to the Law of Moses but raising an imperfect into a more perfect Law which became him who was the end of the Law for the Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did To treat of these Words to your Edification I shall I. Enquire into the Nature of that Law of Moses concerning Divorcements II. Why Christ forbids and abolishes Divorcements in the Jewish Sense III. Why Fornication or Adultery is a just Cause of Divorcement and whether that be the sole and only cause that justifies such a Separation IV. Whether the Woman hath an equal Right and in case of the Husband's Adultery may Divorce her self from her Husband as well as the Husband from the Wife in case the fault lies in her V. Whether this Divorcement may be made by their own Authority without the Advice and order of the Magistrate VI. Whether after such a Divorce the innocent Party or both Parties may Marry again VII How he that puts away his Wife causes her to commit Adultery VIII How he that Marries her that 's put away commits Adultery And when all these Particulars are explained I shall close up the Discourse with suitable Directions how such Divorces and all Desires after them may be prevented 1. Let 's enquire into the Nature of the Law of Moses concerning these Divorcements It hath been said saith our Saviour Whosoever shall put away his Wife let him give her a Writing of Divorcement I doubt not but the Scribes and Pharisees said so to justify their unlawful Divorcements and what they said it 's like was with respect to this Law of Moses our Saviour in all probability spake it with respect to both This Law concerning Divorcements you have Deut. xxiv 1 2. where we read When a Man hath taken a Wife and Married her and it come to pass that she find no Favour in his Eyes because he hath found some Vncleanness in her then let him write her a Bill of Divorcement and give it in her Hand and send her out of his House and when she is departed out of his House she may go and be another Mans Wife Concerning which Law I observe these following Particulars 1. That Moses did not for the ease of his People invent this Law of his own Head which seems to have been the Opinion of Origen and St. Ambrose for though the Pharisees treating of this very point asked our Great Master Why did Moses Command us to give a Writing of Divorcement Matth. xix 7 Yet since all the Scripture of the Old Testament is of Divine Inspiration 2 Tim. iii. 16 of which Old Testament this Law is part it is evident that Moses being the great Minister of God by whom he deliver'd his Oracles and faithful in all his House did and could and would deliver nothing as a standing Law for the Jewish Church but what God gave him order for or as he was moved by the Holy Ghost as St. Peter saith of all the Writers of the Old Testament 2 Pet. i. 21 And therefore whenever Moses is Quoted in the New Testament the meaning is God speaking by Moses and consequently this Law is derived from God 2. We need not wonder that God should give such a Law concerning Divorces or make them in some cases Lawful for as he is the Author of Matrimony so he might have enlarged the Bounds of it if he had pleased And therefore that he relaxed the Law and Constitution of it in the Cases of Polygamy and Divorce to the Jewish People can be no Disparagement to his Holiness For since it was in his Power to institute the State of Matrimony no doubt he had also Power in certain Cases and for certain Reasons to dispense with the Strictness of it this being none of the fixed and eternal Laws which are in their own nature Immutable and Unchangable but depended upon the Lawgiver's Will and Pleasure not to mention that this was to teach all wise Governours to suit their Laws as far as they can do it with safety to the Temper of their People 3. The course of Divorce allow'd of in the Law is said to be this if the Wife find no favour in her Husbands Eyes because he hath found some Vncleanness in her where by Unlceanness cannot be meant Fornication and Adultery for the Adulteress was to be stoned to Death Deut. xxii 22 compared with Joh. viii Nay if the Husband did upon good Grounds but suspect his Wife guilty of Adultery he had his remedy by obliging her to drink the Waters of Jealousy Numb v. 27 And therefore by this Uncleanness some understand either the Leprosy or the Vice of Drunkenness or Witchcraft or a very quarrelsome Temper or some other incorrigible Vice but the Words in the Original are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as some great immodesty in Words or Actions a Sin less than Adultery and Fornication yet which not stopt might lead to the greater Sins And in this case God gave them leave to dismiss their Wives But such was the vitious humor of that Nation that in progress of time sheltring themselves under this Command they turned off their Wives for trivial Offences and upon very slight Occasions I would name some of them but that they are too Ridiculous to be mention'd And therefore the Pharisees coming to our Saviour about this Question ask him Is it lawful for a Man to put away his Wife for every Cause This was the common Practice though the better and the wiser Men doubted of it 4. Whatever liberty this Law gave the Divorcement was permitted rather than commanded and the Words infer an Impunity rather than a Duty A Jew was not bound to put away his Wife by vertue of this Law but was Connived at if he did it and secured against Punishment from the Magistrate This Law did not hinder the Man from dwelling with his Wife notwithstanding the Faults I have mentioned but if he would not live with her he was to give her a Writing of Divorcement 5. This Writing of Divorcement was a formal Dismission of the Wife under the Husband's Hand and Seal or a full Discharge from the Husband's Power and Authority and Jurisdiction and Obligation to provide for her or to take care of her
suppose go into another Country and take no farther care of her but leave her to shift for her self in that case saith St. Paul a Brother or a Sister is not under Bondage i. e. as very many Interpreters explain it she is not under an Obligation to continue unmarried or she may Marry again Upon this saying of St. Paul it was that the Helvetian Divines grounded their Verdict in the case of the Marquis Galeacie Caraccioli whom they advised to Marry again when his Wife had deserted him or which is all one would not return to him after frequent Intreaties to that purpose And its possible this Conclusion of the Apostle might give occasion to Constantine to enact a Law That if a Woman after her Husband was gone from her did not hear of him in four years she might Marry again To which purpose we have a Law of our own 1 Jac. I. That if a Man or Woman being gone beyond the Seas and one do not hear from the other in seven Years it shall be lawful for the Party that hears nothing of the other to proceed to another Marriage The Reason why I urge this Case of Desertion is this If it be lawful for a Woman deserted by her Husband or for a Man deserted by his Wife upon the account of Religion though there be no Adultery in the Case to Marry again much more must it be lawful for Persons who part upon the account of Adultery and are lawfully divorced at least for the innocent Party to Marry again because Desertion is a less Crime than Adultery Though Hermes an antient Writer saith that Desertion is equal to Adultery yet whatever likeness there may be there appears greater guilt in Adultery than in the other the rather because the Bond of Matrimony is more directly broke in this than in the other It 's true the Constitution of our Church is that if Persons be divorced after Adultery the respective Parties are obliged to enter into Bond before they are actually divorced that neither of them shall Marry again while the other lives but the reason of that is because our Church fears the dangerous Consequences of such Divorces in respect of the Collusion that may be betwixt the two Parties who may be alike weary one of the other and so a Gap might be open'd to great Licentiousness So that I suppose our Church would not be against the innocent Party's Marrying again if such Evils might be easily prevented 3. The greatest difficulty is about the Party guilty of Adultery and who gives occasion to the Divorce whether they may Marry again And here if the same Law were in use among us which Moses gave the Jews that the Adulterer or the Adulteress should be put to Death or stoned And were that Law duely executed by the Magistrates there would be no occasion for such Questions as these However the Bond of Marriage be dissolved by the Adultery as we proved before we cannot say that it is absolutely unlawful even for the guilty after a lawful Divorce to Marry again the Notion of Divorce among the Jews which we do not find our Saviour Reverse importing so much There may be some Reasons which may make it lawful But then 1 st As the Divorce is not to be made without the Knowledge or Approbation or Consent of our Superiors and Governors whether Spiritual or Temporal so if a Divorce be obtained and made the guilty ought not to marry again till he shews sufficient Reasons to the same Governors which may make it necessary for Men are apt to be very partial in their own Cause 2 ly Before Leave or Permission be given him he ought to be exhorted and admonished by those to whom that part belongs to a deep Humiliation for his scandalous Sin and that Humiliation and change of Life and Exemplary Conversation ought first to appear and by long Practice become habitual before Permission be given that the Church of God which hath been scandalized may receive some Satisfaction 3 ly The guilty Party if he will act Conscientiously before he ever thinks of Marrying again ought 1. Earnestly to endeavour to prevent a Divorce by reconciling himself to the Innocent by asking Pardon of the Party wrong'd and by sincere and unfeigned Promises of a future steddy and invincible Chastity 2. If the Innocent Party for weighty Reasons sues out a Divorce and obtains it the guilty ought by Mortification and Prayer and an humble penitent Life labour after the Gift of Continence and spare no Cost no Hardship to attain to it and thus punish himself for his great and crying Sins that he may be deliver'd from the Wrath to come But 3. If after all convenient Ways and Methods and Tryals used he cannot arrive to it this seems to be the only Case that may make his Marrying again lawful according to the general Rule of the Apostle It 's better to Marry than to burn 1 Cor. vii 9 VII How he that puts away his Wife causes her to commit Adultery 1. We must note that Christ here speaks of a Man's putting away his Wife though she hath not been guilty of Adultery for slight and frivolous Causes as the Jews used to do In this Case if the Woman thus put away should be prevailed with to Marry another Man the Husband that put her away without sufficient Cause unjustly is the Cause of her committing Adultery for as she could not by right and ought not to have been put away for such Causes so these Causes for which she is put away do not dissolve the Contract or Bond of Matrimony and consequently by right she is still the Mans Wife who put her away and therefore if through strong and surprizing Temptations she should consent to Marry another Man he that dismissed her is in a great Measure the Cause of that Evil. 2. If a Person thus unjustly put away should not Marry afterward but be tempted to prostitute her self all the Evil she doth and the Adultery she upon this Dismission proves guilty of will a great part of it be charged upon the head of the Person that in a humor put her away it being here as with a Person who should set or place another upon the Brow of a Hill in a dark Night though he do not push or thrust him down yet if he tumbles and breaks his Neck the Party that placed him there may justly be said to be the cause of his Fall and Ruin because he exposed him to apparent Danger as much as David was guilty of murthering Vriah by ordering the General of his Army to set him in the Front of the Battle where without a Miracle he could not escape being killed Even so here the Command being given to Christ's Followers or to Christians if a Christian puts away his Wife for a meaner and lower Cause than Adultery he exposes her to great Temptations and if through the Devils Temptation she falls into Fornication and Adultery himself
be a Fool. 7. An Oath must be taken with great Deliberation being a thing of the greatest Consequence where the safety and welfare and interest of our Immortal Souls are in a special manner concern'd We use this Deliberation in lesser things and therefore must not be omitted in a thing of that Weight and Moment which shews That Children and Madmen and Persons very like them Men in Drink or in a Passion are no fit Persons to take an Oath because they are not capable of mature Deliberation while under these Circumstances and therefore we are injoyn'd and directed to Swear with Judgment Jer. iv 2 8. An Oath taken to Hereticks and Infidels to Enemies to Turks Jews and Heathens even to the worst of Men must inviolably be kept as we see in the Example of the Oath the Israelites took to the Gibeonites Josh. ix 18 I will not charge every Member of the Church of Rome with the contrary Doctrine and Practice especially as it relates to Hereticks and Infidels but certain it is that it was both the Doctrine and Practice of the Council of Constance and the Advice of Martin V. to Alexander Duke of Lithuania whom he exhorted to break his Faith and Oath given to the Bohemian Protestants and of Urban VI. to Wenceslaus to do the like to Persons who differ'd from the Church of Rome If such a Principle were part of Christ's Religion it would not only contradict the Law of natural Justice which Christ came to establish but were enough to render Christianity odious to the sober sort of Mankind who in this Case might justly say as he in the Case of Transubstantiation Let my Soul be with the Philosophers These are some of the principal Rules to be observ'd in taking of an Oath if there be any more they shall be discoursed of in the Prosecution of the Subject Let us go on and enquire III. Why Perjury or Forswearing our selves or not performing unto the Lord our Oath is so strictly forbid and wherein the virulency or heinousness of the Sin consists 1. It is Dishonesty in the highest degree a most base Treachery and Perfidiousness not only to Man but to God He that either Swears falsly or doth not perform unto the Lord his Oath deceives not only Man but doth as much as in him lies to Cheat God if it were possible at least he discovers his good Will to do it tho' he is not able He that Cozens another with counterfeit Wares or gives him a Stone for Bread a Serpent for a Fish is not so great a Cheat as the Perjur'd Creature because the Person he Affronts and seeks to impose upon in this Case is infinitely greater He attempts at the same time to rob Heaven and Earth God and Man of their due which is the performance of his Oath a performance due to the Creator and the Creature by all the Laws of Property and a most solemn Contract He gives both God and his Neighbour Shells for Kernels Husks for Dates and Words for Deeds and Lyes for Truths and deceives his Neighbour particularly in that which all Mankind looks upon as Rational to put the greatest Trust and Confidence in and there cannot be greater Dishonesty 2. It 's playing with God and deriding his Justice and Omniscience for it is as much as granting and denying these Attributes The Swearer in taking an Oath grants that God is the searcher of Hearts and a discerner of his Thoughts and Words and Actions and that he takes notice of them and remembers them and yet by his non-performance acts as if all this were but Fable and Romance Who can read the Passage of the Soldiers without trembling who Crown'd our Saviour with Thorns put a Reed in his Hand bow'd the Knee before him and cryed Hail King of the Jews Such a mocking of God is Perjury the Oath shews that the Perjur'd Man acknowledges all his great Attributes and yet his Behaviour discovers that he was in Jest when he made that Confession and Dionysius when he robb'd Jupiter of his Golden Beard did not mock that fictitious Deity more than such a Man doth the living God He deals with him as if he were some Idiot or Heathen Idol which hath Eyes and sees not Ears and hears not and how great must be this Impiety 3. It 's profanation of the most sacred and the most serious Thing in the World An Oath is one of the highest Acts of Religion It is a most solemn Invocation of his Name a most solemn declaration of his Excellencies and Perfections above all Created Beings and a most solemn Appeal to him from all Creatures whatsoever This Opinion the very Heathens had of it so that Perjury is profaning the most solemn Worship of God and Belshazzar was not guilty of so great Prophaneness in Drinking out of the Hallow'd Vessels of the Temple as the Man who doth not perform unto the Lord his Oath for he profanes not Vessels dedicated to his Service but his glorious Name and prostitutes it to the contempt of Men and Devils 4. It is a Sin next to Atheism for there is very little difference betwixt believing there is no God and believing there is one whose Omnisciencee and revenging Eye deserves no regard at all It is a Sin Man cannot well attain to till he hath stupified his Conscience and saith at least in his Heart or Wishes There is no God And what shall I say more It is a Sin which kills at one stroke It doth not waste the Soul by degrees as other Sins but makes the Sinner a Child of Death presently so that if Death should arrest him immediately upon his Perjury the Man is miserable as Dives unhappy as Judas undone as Corah Dathan and Abiram and must drink the Potion of the Sinners Cup. It is a crying Sin brings a Curse upon the Perjur'd Man and his Family It calls aloud for Vengeance awakens the Divine Justice and will not let it be quiet till it brandishes its Sword against the daring Sinner It makes a Man infamous and odious among Men when it comes to be known It defiles the Land where it goes unpunish'd and helps to hasten the intended Judgment upon a City or Nation It leads to other dreadful and clamorous Sins for God withdraws his Spirit from the Man who Affronts him thus and he tumbles down lower and lower and becomes every Day more and more a Child of Hell and of the Devil It causes mighty Terrors of Conscience even on this side Eternity and God is so concern'd to Revenge the Profanation that very often he stays not till the Sinner drops into the burning Lake but even here the Profane Creature must feel his Vengeance Zedekiah for his Perjury to King Nebuchadnezzar is taken Captive by his Army and hath his Eyes pull'd out Saul for his Perjury to the Gibeonites is the ruine of seven of his nearest Relations Uladislaus for the same Crime loses the Battel at a time when Victory
Powers Ordain'd of God and Whoever resists that Power resists the Ordinance of God Rom. xiii 1 2 3. 5. There is no place in all the New Testament which forbids a Christian to be a Magistrate nay we have several Examples of Men who were Magistrates actually and converted to Christianity and yet neither quitted nor were they requir'd to quit that Office after their Conversion such were Nicodemus Joseph of Arimathea Both the Centurions Matth. viii and Act. x. and Sergius Paulus the Proconsul Acts xiii even the Soldiers in St. John the Baptist's Time Men who are the great Instruments of that Justice which the Magistrate sometimes executes were not oblig'd to lay down their Military Girdle or to forsake their Station and Employment 6. We are expresly commanded to pray for Kings and those who are in Authority 1 Tim. ii 1 2 3. and the Reason is given because God would have all Men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth which shews that we are therefore to pray for Magistrates especially if Infidels or Idolaters that they may be Converted and that under them we may lead quiet and peaceable Lives in all Godliness and Honesty which End could not be obtain'd if immediately upon their turning Christians they were oblig'd to lay down or divest themselves from their Office 7. The Office of the Magistrate doth not at all clash or interfere with the Genius or Temper of the Gospel For what is the Office of a Magistrate but to make wholesome Laws for Governing the People under their Power with suitable Sanctions and to defend their Subjects from Wrong Violence and Mischief Neither of which acts are contrary to our Religion not making Laws for governing the People under their Charge for the Gospel as well as the Law of Nature permits every Master of a Family to make good Orders for those over whom God hath set him and it would be strange if Masters of a greater Family might not have this privilege God even in the New-Testament hath declar'd himself to be a God of Order and protests against Confusion and since without Magistrates and Laws and Sanctions it would be impossible to prevent Confusion He that allows of the End must needs be supposed to allow of the Means conducive to that End In a word without these Helps Cities and Common-wealths would be Dens of Thieves and Pest-Houses rather than civiliz'd Societies nor is defending their Subjects from Wrongs and Injuries contrary to the nature of the Gospel which prescribes Justice and Charity and who sees not that the defence of the Subject from Wrongs and Injuries is founded upon these two Cardinal Vertues Even inflicting Penalties upon the stubborn and obstinate rests upon these Principles so that the Office of the Magistrate must necessarily be lawful and commendable I grant were the whole World Christian and did all Christians live up strictly to the Rules of the Gospel there would be no Quarrels no Dissentions no Wrongs no Injuries and consequently there would be no need of Magistrates but such a blessed State we do not look for till we come to Heaven and till then there must be Magistrates Nor doth St. Paul 1 Cor. vi 1 2 3 4 5. find fault with the Office of the Magistrate but with those who upon every light occasion quarrel'd one with another and accused one another to the Magistrate and particularly to the Heathen Governors Nay the Apostle is so far from condemning the Office that he seems to advise them to erect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Tribunals of Judgment among themselves to decide Controversies and Quarrels betwixt Man and Man thereby to avoid running to the Heathen Magistrates whereby Christianity was like to become contemptible So that all these Particulars being laid together since God cannot be supposed to contradict himself this Precept of our Saviour must concern only Private Christians and must be intended to direct them how they are to behave themselves one toward another in their Conversation but is not level'd against the Power of Magistrates in a Christian Common-wealth not but that even a Magistrate may Sin against this Precept of our Master if private Revenge guides him in the execution of Judgment and Justice but where he doth the Duty of a Magistrate out of Love to the Publick Good there this Command cannot be suppos'd to interfere with his Power and Authority II. Since the Precept of the Text is the standing Rule whereby Christ's Disciples are to govern themselves it is very necessary I should press it upon you who came hither on purpose not only to hear but I hope to do what the Lord your God requires of you viz. Not to return Evil for Evil. Not to run in lesser Injuries such as a Blow or smiting on the Cheek to the Magistrate in order to have the Offender punish'd And Rather than return Evil for Evil to suffer a greater Evil or a greater Injury But I foresee an Objection which is like to dash all that I can say or alledge in order to persuade you to a conscientious Observance of these Rules of Holy Living Why should you urge this will some say for the thing is impracticable Not practicable Sirs It 's strange our great Master in whom are all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge should prescribe a thing that is not Practicable What did not he know our Frames Was he ignorant of what our Shoulders would bear Did not he consider the state and condition of our Souls I grant it is not practicable by Men who will not step out of the common Road of their carnal Interest and Lusts and sinful Inclinations I grant it is not practicable by Persons who will not make use of the Means and Motives and Enforcives and Helps which God affords to raise corrupted Nature into a nobler Temper I grant it is not practicable by Persons who will do nothing toward their own Happiness that will be Naked and Poor and Blind wretched and miserable in despight of all the Collyriums and Eye-salves and Medicines and Remedies which are offer'd and tender'd to them for their Cure But when there are a Thousand Moral Arguments before you and the Spirit of God and the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ are ready to give Life to those Arguments in your Souls when Heaven is willing to assist and Omnipotence offers to help you to raise you from the Ground and to inspire you with Courage and Valour suitable there to talk of the unpracticableness of these Rules is to blaspheme the Goodness of God and with that unprofitable Servant to accuse your Master That he gathers where he hath not strow'd and reaps where he hath not sown What should make it unpracticable What because Flesh and Blood saith it is so Is not Flesh and Blood that which you are oblig'd to fight against What are all the Arguments that are brought against the practicableness of it but what are borrow'd from the Opinion of the World
prosper and do well in the End and arrive safe in the Harbour of Eternal Rest and can we do amiss if we transcribe their Patience in our Lives and Conversations 6. By importunate Addresses to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God will be importun'd and that importunity shews we are in good earnest Let 's but beg and implore the Grace of God as a hungry and thirsty Man doth beg for Meat and Drink and try whether God will not open the Windows of Heaven and fill our Souls with Food convenient with Grace I mean sufficient for our purpose God cannot deny himself and having promised his Spirit upon our strong and vehement Cries he will Hear and Answer and grant us our Heart's desire and the requests of our Lips and the breath of Life will enter into us even the Spirit of Courage and Wisdom which will throw down all Imaginations that exalt themselves against the obedience of Christ Jesus and we shall be able to do what he did and bear what he bore according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself to whom be Glory for ever SERMON XXXII St. Matth. Ch. V. Ver. 40 41. And if any Man will sue thee at the Law and take away thy Coat let him have thy Cloak also And whosoever shall compel thee to go a Mile go with him twain IN these words our Saviour prosecutes the Task he had begun in the foregoing Verse and continues pressing the great Doctrine of Christianity of not returning Evil for Evil. And as in the words preceding he had told us how we may arrive to a habit of Patience under Injuries even by suffering a greater Injury so he now illustrates what he had said by two Instances more And if any Man will sue thee at the Law c. The Precepts here given are so directly contrary to the Humour of the Age we live in that if a Man was to measure Religion by the modern Practice he could inferr or conclude no less than that either no such Precepts were ever given or that Men have ceas'd to be Christians This makes me often admire the good Providence of God that hath preserv'd us these Oracles in Writing for had they been left to Tradition and to Conveyance by word of Mouth most certainly Man after the first Fervour and Piety had been over would have wilfully forgotten these Lessons so contrary to the Dictates of Flesh and Blood and we shou'd not have known whether any such Commands had ever been given by our Saviour But whatever contrariety there may be between these Rules and our carnal Inclinations and Appetites it 's rational to conceive that Christ would never have commanded all this if he had not intended it should be put in execution And therefore it is impossible that a Person should have any solid assurance that he is a true Christian who doth not heartily endeavour to bring his Mind and Will to submit in these Particulars to the Will of Christ. It 's true a Christian may not every Day have occasion to exercise this piece of Self-denial because the same Temptations recurr not every Day but when he hath he must let his Neighbour see that the Grace of God like Oyl swims on the top and is not to be Master'd by the false Suggestions of the Flesh and of the Devil There are three sorts of Injuries Christ mentions here in all which the same Rule is to be observ'd 1. The first that which is offer'd to the Body of a Christian in the preceeding Verse which I have already explain'd He that shall smite thee on the right Cheek turn to him the other also 2. That which is offer'd to his Property and Estate 3. That which is offer'd to his Liberty The Injuries levell'd against our Estates and Liberty are comprehended in the words I have read unto you And if any Man will sue thee at the Law or if any Man will by force take away thy Coat the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies both let him have thy Cloak also And whosoever shall compel thee to go a Mile go with him twain Two things must here be premised for the better understanding of the words 1. That like those of the preceeding Verse they are levell'd against private Revenge and must be construed to the same sence If any Man will sue thee at the Law and take away thy Coat rather than quarrel with him or cherish any desire of Revenge rather than sue him again the first opportunity for something of the same nature let him have thy Cloak also And whosoever shall compel thee to go a Mile rather than fall out with him or put thy self into a fit or Rage and Revenge rather than oppose Force to Force and take the same advantage against him when stronger than he go with him twain So that these two Commands as well as the former are Directions and Insinuations how we are to overcome our revengeful Desires and those violent Passions we are apt to run into when any Injury or Wrong is offer'd to us i. e. by suffering more 2. These Precepts are to be confin'd as much as can be to the Instances here given and to things that are parallel with them not stretch'd to things of a higher Nature i. e. what is said here of not going to Law must be understood of not going to Law about a Coat or Cloak or things like them but must not be presently accommodated to higher Concerns And what is said of forcing a Man to go a Mile and going with him twain rather than oppose Force to Force must be kept within those Limits not extended to ten twenty or thirty Miles These two Observations being premised I shall speak distinctly of the two Commands of the first more largely of the other in fewer words being only an appendix to the former And as to the First If any Man will sue thee at the Law and take away thy Coat let him have thy Cloak also And here I shall I. Enquire into the Reasons of the Precept II. Whether it be permitted in any case to go to Law or to defend ones self by Law III. If it be lawful in some Cases what Rules are to be observ'd in the management of it I. The Reasonableness of this Precept And if any Man will sue thee at the Law and take away thy Coat let c. 1. This is an excellent way to preserve Peace and Charity the Fewel being taken away the Fire must go out the occasion of the Contention being removed not only by giving freely the Coat but by adding the Cloak too the quarrel must cease And as one said An Ounce of Peace and Charity is worth a Pound of Victory For Peace is so lovely and amiable a thing that we are oblig'd to promote it by all means 2 Thess. iii. 16 i. e. by all lawful means and surely deceding from our Right is a lawful means It 's true