are on both sides the Law against unconcernedness in each others condition against not bearing each others infirmities against provoking one another against estrangedness against strife or contention against hatred and enmity against publishing each others infirmities against not praying for each other against adultery against jealousie On the Husbands towards the Wife the Law against not maintaining her against not protecting her against imperiousness against uncompliance or uncondescension On the Wives towards her Husband the Law against dishonour against irreverence against unobservance against disobedience against casting off his yoke or unsubjection The Law against hatred in the particular relation of Parents and Children with all its Instances which are on both sides the Law against want of natural affection against not praying for each other and imprecation On the Parents side the Law against not providing for those of their own house against irreligious and evil education against harsh Government or provoking their Children to anger On the Childrens the Law against dishonour against irreverence against being ashamed of their Parents against mocking them against cursing or reproach and speaking evil of them against disobedience against contumaciousness against robbing them The Law against hatred in the particular relation of Brethren and Sisters with its effects which are the Law against want of natural affection against not providing for our Brethren against not praying for them against imprecation or praying against them The Law against hatred in the particular relation of Master and Servant with all its expressions which are on the Masters side the Law against not providing maintenance for his Servant against not catechizing or instructing him against unequal Government against unjustness wantonness and rigour in commanding against imperiousness against immoderate threatning against railing at him against defrauding or keeping back the wages of the Hireling against not praying for him against imprecation And on the Servants the Law against dishonour of his Master against irreverence against non-observance against publishing or aggravating his Masters faults against not vindicating his injured reputation against unfaithfulness against wasting his Goods against purloining against disobedience against answering again against slothfulness against eye-service against contumacy and resistance against not praying for him against imprecation or praying against him To all which we must adde the two positive and arbitrary prohibitions of the Gospel the Law against neglecting Baptism and the Lords Supper And when we wilfully transgress any one or more of the Commands foregoing a perseverance in it without amending it which is impenitence And these are those particular prohibitions whereto our obedience is indispensably required by the Gospel and whereby at the last Day we must all be judged And for the performance of all these Commands and keeping back from all these prohibitions when it is become any mans habitual course and practice it is oft-times expressed by the general word holiness as the contrary is by unholiness CHAP. V. Of the Sanction of the foregoing Laws The CONTENTS Of the Sanction of all the forementioned particular Laws That they are bound upon us by our hopes of Heaven and our fears of Hell Of the Sanction of all the particular affirmative or commanding Laws NOW it is upon our obedience of all those Laws which are mentioned in the foregoing Chapters that all our well-grounded hope of pardon and a happy Sentence at the last Day depends They are that Rule which God has fixt for the Proceedings at that Judgment whereby all of us will be doomed to live or dye eternally There is not any one of them left naked and unguarded for men to transgress at pleasure and yet to go unpunished but the performance of every one is made necessary unto life and the unrepented transgression of it threatned with eternal damnation And that it is so is plain from this because almost the whole Body of them viz. all those which are implyed in piety towards God and in Justice Charity and peaceableness towards men are nothing else but instances and effects of Love which is plainly necessary and that in the greatest latitude For the words of the Command are as comprehensive as can be That thou mayest inherit eternal life thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind which plainly take in our whole affection towards God and every part and expression of it and thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self which again implies all instances of love towards other men seeing towards our own selves not any one is wanting This do and thou shalt live Luke 10.25 27 28. So that in shewing of them all that they are natural effects of an universal love I have shewn withal that they are necessary means of life and conditions of salvation This is a plain mark whereby it is obvious and easie for us all to understand what Laws are necessary terms of life For every mans heart can inform him what are the natural effects of love they being such things as the meanest reason may discern nay such as every mans affection will suggest to him And because they are so the Apostles themselves when they set down Catalogues of indispensable Laws never descend to reckon up all particulars but having plainly declared the absolute necessity of an ample and universal love in the general they content themselves with naming some few instances of it and leave the rest which are like unto them to be suggested to us by our own minds And the same course they take in recounting those sins which are opposite to them and which without repentance will certainly destroy us Thus for instance in S t Paul's Catalogue of damning sins Gal. 5. he doth not trouble himself to name all particulars but having mentioned several of them he concludes with this general intimation of the rest and such like vers 21. This way then of shewing the necessity of all the forementioned Laws by shewing expresly that Love in the general is plainly necessary and leaving it to mens own minds to collect of them all severally that they are natural effects of it is sufficient in it self and such as the Apostles of our Lord are wont to take up with But because our belief of the necessity of our obedience in all the preceding particulars is of so great moment and it is so infinitely our concern to be fixt and settled in it I will here set down such express declarations of it in every one of them as are to be met with in the Scriptures And to begin with the several Classes of them in the same order wherein they are laid down for sobriety and all the particular Laws comprehended under it we have their sanction set down and the necessity of our obedience to them to our life and pardon expressed in the following Scriptures For the Law of humility and lowliness of mind take these Put on as necessary qualifications
of both is Whoredome or bare Fornication and this when the Parties are too nearly allied is called Incest 2. By forcing of one and then 't is Rape or ravishing Which Vice S t Paul expresses by that word which we translate Extortioners 1 Cor. 5.11 and Chap. 6.10 Fourthly To contempt of the world and contentment with our present condition is opposed covetousness which is an immoderate love of the world or an unsatisfiedness with what we have and an insatiable desire of more and grudging or repining Fifthly To taking up the Cross is opposed our being scandalized or turn'd out of the way of Duty and Obedience by reason of it or a politick and selfish deserting of our Duty to avoid it Sixthly To diligence and watchfulness in doing of our Duty is opposed a heedlesness of it and remiss application to it which is carelesness and idleness Seventhly To patience in suffering for it is opposed an immoderate dread of pain and dishonest avoidance of it which is softness and fearfulness Eighthly To mortification and self-denial is opposed self-love and self-pleasing which as it is an industrious care to please and gratifie our bodily senses is called sensuality and as it is a ready and constant serving and obeying the lusts and desires of the Flesh especially when they carry us against the Commands of God is called carnality These are those Vices and breaches of Duty towards our selves which Gods Laws have prohibited under the pains of Death and Hell as the other were such Vertues as under the same penalty he exacts of us So that in the general Law of Sobriety we see are contain'd all these following whether commanding or forbidding Laws The commanding Law of humility of heavenly-mindedness of temperance of sobriety of charity of continence of contempt of the World and contentment of courage and taking up the Cross of diligence and watchfulness of patience of mortification and self-denial And opposite to these the forbidding Law against pride against arrogance or ostentation against vain-glory against ambition against haughtiness against insolence against imperiousness against dogmaticalness against envious back-biting against emulation against worldliness against intemperance against gluttony against voluptuousness against drunkenness against revelling against incontinence against lasciviousness or wantonness against filthiness against obscene Jestings against impurity or uncleanness against Sodomy against effeminateness against adultery against fornication against whoredom against incest against rape against covetousness against grudging and repining against refusing or being scandaled at the Cross against idleness and carelesness against fearfulness and softness against self-love against carnality against sensuality CHAP. II. Of LOVE the Epitome of Duty towards God and Men and of the particular Laws comprehended under Piety towards God The CONTENTS Of the Duties of Piety and Righteousness both comprehended in one general Duty LOVE It the Epitome of our Duty The great happiness of a good nature The kind temper of the Christian Religion Of the effects of LOVE The great Duty to God is Honour The outward expression whereof is worship The great offence is dishonour Of the several Duties and transgressions contained under both FOR the two remaining Members in S t Paul's Division viz. Godliness or Piety and Righteousness which require something from us to God or to our Neighbour they may yet be reduced into a narrower compass and are both comprized in that one word LOVE For all that ever God requires of us either to himself or towards other men is only heartily and effectually to LOVE them And this abridgment of our whole Duty in respect of these two remaining parts of it towards God and man into that one compendious Law of LOVE is no more than what our Saviour Christ and his Apostle Paul have already made to our hands For hear how they speak of it Jesus saith unto the Lawyer Thou shalt LOVE the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind This is the first and great Commandment and the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self On these two which in the thing commanded LOVE are but one hang all the Law of the ten Commandments viz. which meddle not with our Duty towards our selves but only towards God and our Neighbour and the Prophets Matth. 22.37 38 39 40. And S t Paul speaks home to the same purpose By love says he serve one another for all the LAW is fulfilled in one word even this Thou shalt LOVE thy Neighbour as thy self Gal. 5.13 14. And speaking again of the Laws concerning our Neighbour he tells us that LOVE worketh no ill to his Neighbour and therefore Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 Thus rare and heavenly a Religion is that of our Saviour Christ a Religion that is not content to have only great and eminent measures of goodness in it but is perfectly made up of LOVE and good Nature All that it requires from us is only to be kind-hearted and full of good Offices both towards God and men Every man of a loving good nature is enclined by his temper to do all that is demanded by Gods Law so that he has nothing remaining to turn his temper into obedience but to direct his intention and to exert all the effects of love for the sake of Gods Command which he is otherwise strongly excited to by the natural propensions of his own mind His passion and his God require the same service and that which is only a natural fruit of the first may become if he so design it a piece of Religion and Obedience to the latter For the particular effects of Love are the particulars of our Duty Love is the great and general Law as ill-will and enmity are the prime transgression and the instances of Love are the instances of our obedience as all the particular effects of ill-will are those very instances wherein we disobey So that by running over all the special effects of love or ill-will we may quickly find what are the Particulars of Duty and Transgression Now the prime and most immediate Effects of Love are 1. To do no evil to the persons beloved nor to take away from them any thing which is theirs and which they have a right to And this founds all the Duties of Justice But 2. To do all good offices and show kindness to them which founds all the Duties of Charity And these two take in our whole Duty both in Piety towards God and also in Righteousness towards men 1. The proper and genuine effect of love to God is to do no evil but in great readiness to do all the good and service which we can for him in which two are implied all the branches of piety which is the great and general Duty towards him To be kind and serviceable to God is nothing more than to honour him For his Nature is so perfect and self-sufficient that it cannot receive and ours so impotent
and proposed it to us because the necessity of our faith to our obedience shews plainly that it cannot be denied us and because the best men that ever were have not been able to obey without it and yet their obedience has been most graciously accepted First Some respect to our own good and intention to advantage our selves by our obedience is of that nature that it cannot be forbidden us It cannot fall under a Law or be a matter of a Commandment because it can never be performed As for any one particular advantage and self-interest indeed we may deny our selves in it and therefore any Law may very well require it For we have many particular self-interests to serve and they clash and interfere among themselves and so long as we are in pursuit of any one by virtue of it we are able to restrain and deny our selves in any other And thus all men daily deny their Ease for their Interests and their Gain for their Liberty and their Liberty for their Lives And all good men daily over-rule that Love which they have for their Bodies by that higher and stronger love which they have for their Souls and deny themselves in any Temporal Interests to secure their Eternal And because all men have this power of denying their own Self-love in small instances to serve it in greater and of parting with any goods and advantages of this world to purchase to themselves incomparably better in the next God has enacted the denial of our selves in all such particular Interests as hinder our Obedience into a Religious Duty and made it universally obliging to all the world But as for the casting off this love of our selves and respect to our own advantage not only as to some particular interests whilst our eye is upon others but as to all self-interests whatsoever this in the matter of Duty and Obedience no man can perform and therefore no Law can command it For in that Constitution of Nature which God has given us self-love is the first and over-ruling Principle It has a share almost in all our actions and influences all our faculties so that in all that variety of operations which flow from us there are very few wherein we have no eye at our own advantage In some actions 't is true we are influenced chiefly and almost wholly by our love of others which is a noble and a generous Principle For there are several good Offices which we daily do to others in doing whereof we no way prejudice our selves and these our love of others makes us perform and our own self-love doth not withstand it which is seen in all the Offices of humanity and common courtesie And other things again there are wherein we advantage them though it be considerably to our own trouble and our own hindrance and here although our own self-love oppose it self yet our love of them prevails and over-rules it as is daily shown in the Offices of Christian Charity and particular friendship In these Cases our love of others and of our selves are separate our kindness for them shews it self in such things wherein our own self-love is either not concerned at all or wherein it is opposed and over-powered so that here we are not influenced and governed by it And if this were the Case in all our obedient actions there might be more pretence for performing them purely out of love to God without mixing therewith any love of our own selves But in them quite contrary our love of God and of our selves are neither repugnant nor so much as separate but most closely conjoined For God hath made the same things the matter both of our Duty and of our interest so that in serving him we do in the highest measure serve our own selves too And in this Case where our own self-love is so much concerned and has not the love of God to oppose and over-rule it but to jump in and conspire with it it is not possible but that we shall be influenced and acted by it For it naturally issues out upon our own good and here it has an object in the highest advancement and there is nothing to hinder or restrain it So that whatsoever we may do through a bare abstracted love of others without any regard to our own selves in those Cases where our own self-love and it are separate or repugnant yet in the matter of obedience where they are so close conjoined and Gods service is so infinitely our own interest 't is plain that we cannot be wholly free from it For since in obeying we do that which we know is most highly advantageous to us we are not able perfectly to abstract our thoughts but we shall intend whether we will or no to be advantaged by it And since no man can wholly abstain from intending his own advantage in Gods service no Law can require it It is no fit matter of a prohibition nor capable of being retrenched by a Commandment being it is at no mans choice whether or no he shall observe it So that God must work a Change in his own Creation and form us into something different from what we are before he can in reason demand it of us 2. Some respect to our own advantage in performing what God commands is lawful and allowable in us because Gods Laws themselves do authorize and propose it to us God has not required us to serve him for nothing but has offered us an abundant recompence for all our labour and added such allurements to his Laws as infinitely surpass all the difficulties of our Duty He has proposed every thing to us that may any way work upon our self-love and care for our own advantage whether it be the promises of good to intice or the threats of evil to affright us into obedience For thus saith our Law Verily verily I double the Asseveration that you may give the greater credit to it I say unto you He that keepeth my Sayings or Commands shall never see death John 8.51 To my Sheep that follow me and hear or obey my voice I will give eternal life John 10.27 28. Blessed are they that do his Commandments for they shall have right to the Tree of Life and enter in through the Gate into the City Rev. 22.14 But on the other side The wrath of God cometh upon the Children of disobedience Col. 3.6 For at the Day of Judgment when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with the Guards and Attendance of his mighty Angels then will he in flaming fire take vengeance on them that obey not the Gospel who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord 2 Thess. 1.7 8 9. Thus have we in Christs Laws to omit other things a promise made to us of Heaven and endless joys to induce us to obedience and a threatning of Hell and eternal miserie denounced to us to make us afraid to disobey And these make our obedience to
with all thy heart or will and with all thy soul or affections and with all thy strength or executive and bodily powers and with all thy mind or understanding Luke 10.25 26 27 28. Obedience with all these powers and with our whole Nature is the means of life and the indispensable condition of our eternal happiness First We must keep all Gods Commandments with our minds or understandings It is a dangerous conceit for any man to phansie that he may be as sinful as he will in his thoughts so long as he only loves and chuses projects and contrives for the forbidden instance in his mind but doth not proceed so far as to obey it in his outward practice For at the last Day we must be called to account and justified or condemned by the counsels and imaginations of our minds as well as by the works of our lives For not only the works and practice but also the thoughts of the wicked or of wickedness are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 15.26 The thought of foolishness is sin Prov. 24.9 And since God forbids and hates them as ever we hope for his favour we must repent of them and forsake them Let the wicked man forsake his thoughts saith the Prophet and turn them from his sin unto the Lord and then he will have mercy upon him and abundantly pardon him Isai. 55.7 For the warfare that God has set us after which we are to attain the reward of eternal happiness is a casting down imaginations as the Apostle tells us and bringing into captivity every rebellious thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. In particular this obedience of our minds to the Law of God must be as a doing what he enjoins so likewise a keeping off from every thing which he forbids First In our imaginations We must not phansie it in our minds with love and delight nor indulge to any thoughts of it with such pleasure as may be a bait to our choice and weaken our aversation and hatred of it and thereby ensnare us into the practice of it Our warfare as we have heard from the Apostle must not be against actions only but against imaginations also and insnaring phancies of evil casting down rebellious imaginations and making every thought obedient to the Laws of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. And in the old world when the imaginations of mens thoughts were always evil it repented the Lord that he had made man insomuch as he resolved to destroy him Gen. 6.5 6 7. Secondly In our counsels and contrivances We must not study what means are fittest what times are best and what manner is most advantageous for the acting of our sins They must no more have our care and contrivance than our service and obedience For if we cast about in our thoughts and consult about the most commodious way of committing any sin although all our designs be defeated before we come to any effect yet shall we be damned for our contrivance as well as we should for the compleat action And this our Lord himself has plainly determined in one instance and the Case is the same in all the rest For of the contrivances and machinations of murther he assures us That they as well as murther it self are of the number of those things which pollute a man and so utterly unfit him for Heaven where nothing can ever enter that is polluted or unclean Out of the heart saith he proceed evil thoughts or murtherous machinations and besides them compleat murthers adulteries c. and these defile the man Matth. 15 19. And as for that particular sort of contriving for sin which is the height and perfection of villany viz. the inventing of new and before unknown ways of transgressing it of all others is sure to meet with the severest punishment and to thrust men down into the deepest Abyss of Hell Of this sort are all invention of new Oaths new Nick-names or evil speakings new frauds and methods of couzenage new incentives of lust new modes of drinking and arts of intemperance But of these and of all others that are like unto them God will one day exact a most rigorous and terrible account For he that deviseth to do evil saith Solomon although he himself doth not act but only devise it he shall be called and dealt with as a mischievous and wicked person Prov. 24.8 And S t Pauls words are full to this purpose For he tells us expresly that in the judgment of God inventers of evil things shall be declared worthy of death Rom. 1.30 32. As for our minds or understandings then they are one faculty which is plainly implied in the Integrity of our service and without the obedience whereof at the last day God will not accept us And another faculty implied in it likewise is Secondly Our Soul or Affections It is a vain thing for any man to love and set his heart upon any particular sin and yet for all that to expect that God should love and reward him If I regard iniquity in my heart saith the Psalmist the Lord will not hear me Psal. 66.18 No man as our Saviour sayes can serve two masters for if he love the one for his sake when their interests enterfere he will hate the other so that we cannot serve God if with our affections we continue to serve sin Mat. 6.24 To pretend obedience to God and yet to love what he sorbids to make a show of his service and yet in our very hearts to hanker after his vilest enemies whom above all things his soul abhors this surely is not honestly to serve but grosly to collogue and slatly to dissemble with him For in very deed if any man love sin he sides with Gods enemy but for the service and fear of the Lord it is to hate evil Prov. 8.13 If ever we expect that God should accept our works we must offer up our affections with them For if our hearts go along with our lusts whilst our practice is against them we serve God only against our wills we submit to him as a slave doth to a tyrannous Lord not through any kindness for him but through a hatefull fear of him We utterly dislike what he bids us but yet we do it only because we dare not do otherwise But now this is such a way of performing obedience as God will never endure to accept of For he scorns to be served by a slavish fear and an unwilling mind he will never look upon a heartless sacrifice but it is the affection that we do it with which makes him set a price upon any thing that we do and our love that he regards more than our performance For this is that very thing which was thought fit to be mentioned in the command it self Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind Mat. 22.37 'T is true indeed we do not find our affection so quick and
God had spoken to them than by his Testimony and upon his Authority therefore are they said in believing and embracing that Divine Law which was delivered to them by Moses to believe not the Lord alone but also his Servant Moses Exod. 14.31 Joh. 5.46 to be Baptized into Moses 1 Cor. 10.2 to be Moses's Disciples Joh. 9.28 to trust or place their hope in Moses Joh. 5.45 to obey or hearken unto Moses Luk. 16.31 But the most clear and full Revelation that God ever made of his will to men was by the message and mediation of his own Son Jesus Christ. For God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the Jews by Moses and to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son Heb. 1.1 And the belief of his Gospel or taking for certain Truths upon his Authority all those things which he has declared to us in Gods Name is call'd the Christian as the other was the Mosaick Faith For he being the great Author and deriver of this last and greatest Revelation of God down to us and our belief of it being upon his immediate Authority he being as S t Paul says the Authour and finisher of our Faith Heb. 12.2 Our belief of it is called not only Faith towards God Heb. 6.1 but also Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20.21 And because the knowledge of our whole Religion got into our minds this way upon our submission to Christs Authority and our Faith or belief of his Testimony therefore is our Religion it self most commonly in the Scriptures called our Faith The Preaching of it is called Preaching the Faith Gal. 1.23 the hearing of it hearing of Faith Gal. 3.2 the profession of it a profession of Faith Heb. 10.23 the contending for it a striving for the Faith Phil. 1.27 the erring in it an erring from the Faith 1 Tim. 6.10 the falling from it a making shipwrack of the Faith 1 Tim. 1.19 obedience to it the obedience of Faith Rom. 1.5 and the Righteousness required in it and effected by it the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4.11.13 So that in like manner as the Mosaick Faith was a belief of the Divinity of the Mosaick Law and Religion upon the Authority of Moses the Christian Faith is a belief of the Divine institution of our Christian Religion upon the Authority of Christ. It is a taking upon his word all those things for truths of God which he has declared to us in Gods Name A belief begot in us by vertue of his Testimony that all his Doctrines are Gods Truths that all his Laws are Gods Precepts that all his promises are Gods Promises and that all his threats are Gods threatnings in sum that that whole Religion and Gospel which Christ has delivered to us in Gods Name is the very Religion and Word of God The belief of all this upon the Authority of Christ makes our Faith Christian and the good effects of it upon our hearts and lives make it justifying and saving For when by vertue of this Faith we truly Repent and sincerely obey which is the great condition as we have seen whereupon at the last day we must all be pardoned and justified Eternally it is a justifying as when by vertue of it we are saved and delivered from the dominion and service of our Sins which as the Angel hath assured us are those principal evils that Christ came to save us from it is a saving Faith This is the nature of our Christian knowledge and our Christian Faith And as for it now it is the very fundamental cause and natural spring of all our Christian service and obedience For it is because we believe Jesus to be the Lord because we know those Laws which he has given us and give credit to him when he tells us of the insupportable punishments which he will one day inflict for sin and of the glorious rewards which he will confer upon obedience It is by means of our knowledge and belief of all these in our minds I say that we serve and obey him in our outward actions It is our knowledge and belief that lets us see the reasonableness of his Precepts the power of his Assistances the glory of his Rewards and the terror of his Punishments and in all respects convinces us of the beauty and profit of Obedience And this sight and conviction in our minds cannot well miss of gaining our hearts and resolutions For the belief of his endless judgments will raise our fears the belief of his infinite rewards will quicken our hopes the belief of his inexpressible kindness will kindle our love and by all these our souls will be led Captive into eager desires and firm resolutions and be fully purposed to keep Gods Laws that so they may avoid that terrible Death which he threatens and attain those matchless joys which he promises to our Obedience And when once by means of this faith and knowledge Gods Laws have gain'd both our wills and passions which are the inward springs and causes of them they cannot fail of being obeyed in our works and actions which are produced by them But we shall quickly go on to perform what we resolve and to do what we desire and so in very deed fulfill and obey them Upon which account of our Christian Faith having so mighty an influence upon our Christian and obedient practice our obedience it self as being the effect of it and produced by it is call'd the obedience of Faith Rom. 16.26 The Righteousness which it exacts of us and cooperates to work in us the Righteousness of Faith Gal 5.5 Our Christian warfar or striving against Sin is called the good sight of Faith 1 Tim 6.12 And because in this contest our great succors which protect us and keep us from fainting and at last make us victorious are some points or promises of our Religious belief therefore it is stiled a shield and a breast-plate of Faith 1 Thess. 5.8 and S t John affirms plainly that this is the victory over the world even our Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 And for this reason it is because our Faith and knowledge are so powerful a cause and principle of our Obedience that God speaks so great things of them and has made such valuable promises to them He never intends to reward the Faith and knowledge of our minds further than they effect the obedience of our actions It is only when they are carryed on to this effect when they become an obedient knowledge and a working Faith that they confer a right to the promised reward and are available to our Salvation For when in the places mentioned or in any other God promises that he who knows Christ or believes in Christ shall live he speaks metonymically and means Faith and knowledge with this effect of a working service and obedience As for knowledge 't is plain that God accepts it no otherwise
them not praying at all or using passionate and modish curses or imprecations which is imprecating or praying against them 2. In Children towards their Parents it will cause besides the want of natural affection 1. A low esteem and undervaluing opinion of them in their minds which is dishonour And this if it be joined with a contemptuous disregard and fearless behaviour towards them is irreverence Which is expressed 1. In disowning or disregarding them by reason of their meanness which is being ashamed of them 2. In entertaining their weaknesses and infirmities not with pity and sorrow but with sport and delight turning them into a matter of mirth and laughter This is a mixture of hatred and scorn and is called mocking them 3. In divulging in words and instead of concealing and excusing publishing their faults and defects with reproaching of them and inveighing against them upon the account of them which is malediction or cursing of them 2. Whilst they are under them a spiting and going cross 1. To their Commands by not performing what they require but doing against it which is disobedience 2. To their impositions by not submitting to that restraint and burthen which they lay upon them which is contumaciousness or casting off subjection 3. To their interest by embezilling or secret wasting of their substance which is robbing them 3. When either they are under them or gone from them not recompencing their care and kindness by their relief and service when their Parents need requires it which is not requiting them 4. And instead of praying for them not praying at all or hasty wishing ill to them which is imprecation So that the effects of hatred in this relation or forbidding Laws are to the Parents the Law against want of natural affection against not providing for those of their own house against irreligious and evil education against provoking their Children to anger against not praying for them and imprecation of them To the Children besides that against want of natural affection the Law against dishonour against irreverence against being ashamed of their Parents against mocking them against cursing or reproach and speaking evil of them against disobedience against contumaciousness against robbing them against not praying for them or imprecation of them 3. The third sort of domestick relation that includes some instances of Love that are not due towards all men indifferently but peculiarly towards some is the relation of Brethren and Sisters And these being so nearly allied and partaking of the same blood Love betwixt them will exert it self 1. In a most passionate concern and tender affection for each other which because we seem to be carried on to it by the very force and instinct of our nature without any help of reason or need of being argued up to it is called natural affection 2. And as an effect of this a helping each other by a reciprocal service and when occasion requires by communicating mutually of their substance which S t Paul calls a providing for those of our own Family 1 Tim. 5.8 And in those things which they cannot afford themselves seeking them mutually for each other by prayer And opposite to these are the effects of hatred betwixt them which will effect 1. An unconcernedness for each other or a want of natural affection 2. A not helping of each others needs or not providing for them and not praying to God in each others behalf but making ill wishes mutually which is imprecation So that the effects of Love or commanding Laws in this relation are the Law of natural affection of providing for our Brethren of praying for them and opposite to them the effects of hatred or forbidding Laws are the Law against want of natural affection against not providing for our Brethren against not praying for them and imprecation or praying against them 4. The fourth and last relation is that of Masters and Servants And in this the effects of Love are either 1. From the Masters to the Servants Where Love will produce 1. A care of their Servants as of Members of their own Families both 1. Of their Bodies in provision and maintenance 2. Of their Souls in religious instruction and admonition 2. A Government of them that is not harsh and severe but kind and gentle such as we expect and desire that God who is our Master should use over us which therefore is called by the Apostle our dealing justly and equally with them i. e. so as we would have our Master to deal with us Col. 4.1 In particular observing 1. In our Commands to them Mercy as well as Justice in requiring nothing that God forbids which is unlawful nothing for imperiousness and commands sake only that we may create them work though we our selves receive no benefit which is unprofitable and even where we are advantaged by it nothing lastly which is either above or at least very hard and oppressive to their power and strength which is unproportionable And this is kindness and equity in commanding 2. In our threatnings and punishments tenderness and pity in not threatning and punishing out of will and power or either more or oftener than need requires which the Apostle calls forbearing or moderating threatning Ephes 6.9 3. In our rewards paying them punctually and justly what they have wrought for which is punctual payment of the wages of the Hireling 4. And besides all the kindness which we can do for them our selves whether by rewarding or promoting them procuring moreover all the good which we can for them at Gods hands by praying for them 2. From the Servants to the Masters And the nature of service being a setting over all our powers and abilities for the time to their benefit whom we are to serve the effects of Love in this relation will be 1. An opinion and esteem in the mind of their Masters preheminence and lordship over them which is honour And this being joined with an awfulness and fear of offending him who has both Authority to command and Power to punish is reverence 2. In things which they know he desires and delights in a forward care and ready industry to please him by doing them before they are bidden which is observance And this among other things effects 1. As for his or his Families defects at home concealing or excusing them 2. As for his reputation abroad when 't is injured vindicating and defending it 3. A care of their Masters Goods and carrying suitably to his pleasure always exercising 1. In those things which their Master intrusts them with a true discharge of that trust and the things committed to it which is fidelity 2. In those things which their Master commands a ready performance and execution of them which is obedience The vigorous application of themselves to the dispatch whereof is diligence Which they are to shew not only from the terrour of their Master so long as his eye is over them which the Apostle calls eye-service but from the ready
them mens own reason and passion will represent and suggest them for a rule of obedience and when they wilfully transgress them their own Conscience must needs check and reprove them which will be sufficient to them for a rule of trial For all the Laws of this second which is the Gospel-Covenant are so agreeably suited to our natural reason and conscience that every mans own mind may be a sufficient Monitor What our own understanding tells us is fit and becoming us that we should do that has God bound upon us by his Laws and made it our Duty to do His Precepts are the very same with the best results and purest dictates of our own reason so that every pious and honest Conscience cannot but of it self approve all that God has enjoined it Which God himself has clearly intimated when he says of all the Laws of the second which is the Gospel-Covenant that he will put the Laws contained in it into their minds and write them in their hearts so that in regard they have them so legible within themselves they shall not need to be still enquiring of others and to teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying Know the Lord and that in this or that particular you must serve him for all shall know him and his Laws without any other Monitor than their own Conscience from the least to the greatest Heb. 8.10 11. Besides as for all the Laws of piety towards God and of righteousness towards men which make up by far the greatest part of our Duty they are only so many several effects and various expressions of our Love to them So that he who acts nothing against love breaks none of all these Laws but keeps them every one Whereof Christ himself who has given these Laws and who is to judge of our obedience to them and his Apostle Paul have given us sufficient assurance when they both affirm of Love that as to these two general parts of Duty it is the fulfilling of the Law And therefore any man that knows what Love is may quickly understand what is Law and when he is about to venture upon any action it is but asking his own soul whether it be against Love and he has his Answer whether or no it be against Duty And since whensoever we have occasion for it we shall be admonished of our Duty both these ways both from our reason and our passion though this Catalogue prove defective in some instances and omit it that defect can be of no danger seeing it will be otherwise supplied We may by its help know those Duties which it mentions and by the help of the other two those Particulars wherein it fails us So that we shall still be sufficiently directed in our Duty and shewed what we should do and when we sin against it wilfully our own Conscience is privy to it which will enable us to examine also whether indeed we have done it or no. This then may suffice for a particular enumeration of all the commanding Laws of God whereto our obedience is required as an indispensable condition of our life and happiness And as for all the forbidding Laws which contain those things which under the highest pains of death and misery we are indispensably required to abstain from they are these that follow The Law against unsoberness towards our selves with all its particulars which are the Law against pride against arrogance or ostentation against vain-glory against ambition against haughtiness against insolence against imperiousness against dogmaticalness against envious backbiting against emulation against worldliness against intemperance against gluttony against voluptuousness against drunkenness against revelling against incontinence against lasciviousness or wantonness against filthiness against obscene Jestings against impurity or uncleanness against sodomy against effeminateness against adultery against fornication against whoredom against incest against rape against covetousness against grudging and repining against refusing or being scandaled at the Cross against idleness and carelesness against fearfulness and softness against self-love against carnality against sensuality The Law against impiety towards God with all its Retinue which are the Law against dishonour against atheism against denying Providence against blasphemy against superstition against idolatry against witchcraft and sorcery against foolishness against headiness against unbelief against hating God against want of zeal against distrust of him against not praying to him against unthankfulness against fearlesness against contumacy or repining against disobedience against common swearing against perjury against prophaneness The Law against injustice towards men in all its instances which are the Law against murder against false witness against slander or calumny against lying against unfaithfulness or perfidy against adultery against covetousness against stealing or robbing against oppression against extortion and depressing in bargaining against circumvention and deceit against craftiness The Law against uncharitableness with all its Train which are the Law against maliciousness or hatefulness against wickedness against despising and hating them that are good against giving scandal to weak Brethren against envy or an evil eye against rejoicing in evil against uncharitableness in alms against not vindicating an innocent mans reputation against evil speaking against censoriousness against back-biting against whispering against railing or reviling against upbraiding against reproaching against mocking against difficulty of access against contumely or affront against uncourteousness against stiffness or uncondescension against unhospitableness against surliness against malignity against turbulence and unquietness against unthankfulness against anger and passionateness against debate and variance against bitterness against clamour and brawling against hatred and malice against implacableness against revenge against cursing and reproaching enemies and imprecation of them against hastiness to punish against rigour The Law against enmity and discord with all its Dependants which are the Law against unpeaceableness against emulation or provoking one another against pragmaticalness or being busie Bodies against tale-bearing a-against whispering against not satisfying for injuries against strife or contention against division and faction in the State against heresie and against schism in the Church against tumult The Law against hatred in the particular relation of Subjects towards their Princes with the several effects of it which are the Law against dishonour against irreverence against speaking evil of Dignities against refusing Tribute and Taxes against traiterousness against neglecting to pray for Kings against disobedience against resisting lawful Powers and Authority against rebellion The Law against hatred to our Ecclesiastical Governours Bishops and Ministers with all the particulars implied in it which are the Law against dishonour of our Bishops and Ministers especially against setting them at nought for their works sake against irreverence to them against speaking evil of them against mocking them against not providing for them against sacriledge or stealing from them against not praying for them against disobedience The Law against hatred in the relation of Husband and Wife with all its Particulars which
although he do not define the particular proportion of the compensation doth yet establish this satisfaction and reconciliation of our selves to our injured Brother in the general as an indispensable Duty without which nothing not our very Prayers or Oblations shall be accepted If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee having been injured by thee leave there thy gift and go thy way first be reconciled to thy Brother by giving him satisfaction for thy offence and then come and offer thy gift Matth. 5.23 24. Which Command is moreover one of those whose sanctions is the loss of Heaven ver 19. Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Matth. 5.9 And thus we see of all the Laws which make any thing due to God our selves or all mankind in general whether they are instances of sobriety piety justice charity or peace that our obedience unto them all is made necessary unto life and that they are bound upon us by all our hopes of happiness and Heaven And the sanction is the same for all those Laws which make some things due in particular relations likewise For as for the Laws that bind us in the particular relation of Subjects to our Kings their sanction appears plainly from these places Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Wherefore you must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake Render therefore to all their Dues as these following are to Kings Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custom to whom Custom Fear or Reverence to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour Rom. 13.1 2 5 7. And all these are only part of that Catalogue of Laws which he begins to reckon up and declares to them by his Apostolical Authority chap. â—2 ver 3. These things speak and exhort rebuke with all Authority and let no man despise thee who shall surely be punished as a Contemner of Christ if he do Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates Tit. 2. ver ult chap. 3. ver 1. I exhort therefore first of all that prayers of all sorts supplications intercessions petitions and giving of thanks be made for all Kings and such as are in Authority for this is in it self and will render us good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3 and a proof moreover of that good conscience which Timothy is charged to keep chap. 1. ver 19. And for Fidelity and Allegiance this may suffice to shew its necessity that among the men of corrupt minds who are reprobate concerning the Faith and who should render the last times perillous S t Paul reckons Traitorâ— 2 Tim. 3.1 4 8. So that as for all the forementioned Duties of this relation we see their indispensable necessity and that as ever we hope to be saved by them we must perform and obey them And so it is in the particular Laws of the next relation that of people towards their spiritual Governours viz. their Bishops and Ministers as is plain from these Texts following We beseech you Brethren to know them who labour among you and are set over you in the Lord and to esteem or honour them very highly or more than abundantly in love for their works sake 1 Thess. 5.12 13. And this is one of those Precepts which are pressed upon them as they would be Children of light and not of darkness ver 5 and as they are to avoid wrath and to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ ver 9. Let him who is taught or catechized in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth or catechizeth in all good things Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth in this and other things that shall he also reap Gal. 6.6 7. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls Pray for us Heb. 13.17 18. Which are part of those Precepts that are enjoined as the way whereby to serve God acceptably who is a consuming fire to destroy and devour all that dare offend him chap. 12.2 last verses And for the necessity of the several Laws in the particular relation of Husband and Wife that will appear by what follows For as for that love which is strictly required betwixt them it ought says S t Paul agreeably to the words of God at the institution of Marriage They two shall be one Flesh to be such as people have for their own Bodies Ephes. 5.28 31. Which cannot imply less than an affectionate concern and communicating in each others joy or sorrow for if one member of a mans Body suffer all the rest as the Apostle observes suffer with it and if one be honoured all the rest rejoyce with it the Members all having the same care one for another 1 Cor. 12.25 26. And also a bearing with each others infirmities as every man will do with those of his own Body and praying for each other And for particular Duties we are told in the same fifth Chapter to the Ephesians that the Husband must condescend and comply with his Wife and part not only with his own self-will but even with his own life to serve her Husbands love your Wives saith he even as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it So ought men to love their Wives as their own Bodies And how that is we all experience for no man ever yet hated his own Flesh but protecteth it and provideth well and duly for it or nourisheth and cherisheth it ver 25 28 29. In which love of his Wife as of his own Flesh is implied moreover that his Government of her be flexible and obliging nothing being more contrary to our self-love than to be commanded in peremptoriness and rigour And then as for the particular Duties of the Wife she is bid to be observant or to take care how to please her Husband 1 Cor. 7.34 To submit her will to his and to be ready to perform what he enjoins as she is to do what God commands her Wives submit your selves unto your own Husbands as unto the Lord for the Husband is the Head of the Wife as Christ is of the Church therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ so let the Wives be unto their own Husbands in every thing Ephes. 5.22 23 24. And this submission she must shew in respectful carriage and such behaviour as argues in her a fear to give offence Let the Wife see that she reverence her Husband ver 33. And all these Commands enjoining Duties both on one side and on the other
in worldly things which affects us is present with us and therefore our passions for or against them are raised in us by our sense and feeling But as for spiritual things and those bodily joys and sorrows that are annexed to them for the sake whereof we are sensibly affected with them they are not present with us but future and at a distance and therefore our passion for them cannot be raised by our sense whose object are only present things but meerly by our fancy and imagination But now as for the sensible warmth and violence of a passion it is nothing near so quick when it is excited by fancy as when it is produced by sense For no man is so feelingly affected with hearing a sad story as he would be by seeing of it A man will be moved abundantly less by imagining a battle a murder or any other dreadfull thing than by beholding it And the reason is because the impressions upon our sense are quick and violent and their warmth is communicated to our affections which are raised by them whereas our imaginations are calm and faint in comparison and the passions which flow from them partake of their temper and are more cold and less perceptible So that our passions for worldly things being passions upon sense and our passions for things spiritual with their bodily pain or pleasure annexed being only upon fancy and imagination we must needs be more warmly and sensibly although not more powerfully affected with the things of this world than of the other But that which is to distinguish our passion for God and Virtue above all things else from our passion for worldly things is not the warmth and sensibleness but the power and continuance of it For it must be a prevalent affection which doth more service although it make less noise It must be such a setled and overpowering Love answerable to the prevailing strength and surpassing greatness of its motive as gets the upper hand in competition and makes us when we must despise one to disregard all things else and to adhere to Gods service what other things soever be lost by it What it wants in warmth it has in permanency and power it sticks faster to us and can do more with us than our love of any thing besides For in our affections we must needs prefer God and his service before every other thing when they stand in competition or we have none of that Love with the whole soul which the Commandment requires of us as will be shewn more fully afterwards And because our thoughts and affections have in them a great latitude and in a matter of so high concern every good soul will be inquisitive after some determinate accounts of that compass and degree of them which is necessary to our acceptance before I conclude this Point I will set down what measures of obedience in these two faculties what thoughts and imaginations of our minds and what degrees of love and delight in our affections shall be judged sufficient at the last Day to save or to destroy us As for our thoughts there is one more elaborate and perfect sort of them viz. our counsels and contrivances And when they are employed about the compassing of forbidden things they are our sin and without repentance will certainly prove our condemnation For he that deviseth to do evil saith Solomon he shall be called and dealt with as a mischievous person Prov. 24.8 The machinations of murther are joined in guilt and punishment with murtherous actions themselves Matth. 15.19 And as for that particular sort of Contrivers the inventers of evil things they are pronounced by S t Paul to be worthy of death Rom. 1.30 32. And as for other of our thoughts which are not come up to the height of a contrivance or consultation but are only simple apprehensions some of them also are properly and directly good or evil and an Article of our life or death God has imposed several Laws which he has backed both with threats and promises upon our very thoughts themselves Of which sort there are some to be met with under all the three general Parts of Duty viz. to God our Neighbour and our selves For our thoughts of God are bound up by the Law of honour which forbids us to lessen or prophane him by dishonourable Notions and Opinions our thoughts of our Neighbour by the Laws of Charity and Candour which suffer us not either to reproach or injure him by under-valuing Ideas or groundless suspicions and our thoughts of our own selves by the Law of humility which prohibits us to be exalâ—ed in our own conceits through false and over-high apprehensions of our own excellence Pious and charitable opinions both of God and men and humble and lowly conceits of our own selves are Duties incumbent upon our very minds themselves And all the opposite vices of impious and reproachful Ideas of God of censorious suspicious and lessening thoughts of other men and of proud and arrogant conceits of our own worth are transgressions within the sphere and compass even of our understandings For the exercise of the first is not only a Cause and Principle but a part and instance also of obedience and an Article of life as the exercise of the other is an instance of disobedience and an Article also of damnation As for these Instances then of bare thought and naked apprehension they are essential parts and necessary instances of an acceptable obedience and the wilful transgression of any one of them without repentance is dangerous and damning So that as for all our perfected and studied thoughts of evil viz. our counsels and contrivances and as for all such simple thoughts and â—ore apprehensions as have particular Laws imposed upon them they are not only principles but parts and instances of disobedience and if we are guilty of them unless we retract them by repentance we shall be condemned for them But then there are several other bare imaginations and simple apprehensions which are not under any of these particular Laws that are imposed upon our thoughts themselves but are employed upon things commanded or forbidden by any of the other Laws forementioned And as for all these apprehensions in themselves they are neither sin nor Duty nor a matter either of reward or punishment but so far only as they are causes and principles either of a sinful or obedient choice and practice of those good or evil things which they are employed upon In themselves I say these mere apprehensions are neither sin nor Duty We may perceive sin in our minds and have it in a thought or notion without ever being guilty of it or liable to answer for it For the Sun shines upon a Dunghil without being defiled by it and God sees all the wickedness in Hell but is not tainted with it And so long as we sojourn in a World of iniquity every good man must needs know and behold all the vices
of the Earth but bare understanding of them doth not make him partake with them or subject to be punished for them But to make these meer apprehensions and imaginations either of good or evil an instance of obedience or disobedience they must be causes and principles of an obedient or disobedient choice or practice For our inward thoughts and imaginations are Springs and Principles both of our inward choice and also of our outward operations And the service which God requires of them is the service of the principle He demands the obedience of our minds as a means and in order to a further obedience of our hearts and actions He expects that we should think so long and so often upon the absoluteness of his authority the kindness of his Nature the reasonableness of his Commands the glory of his rewards and the terrour of his punishments till in our hearts we chuse those things which he has commanded and perform them in our works and practice For our thoughts of him and of his Laws are not in themselves Obedience but only a Spring and Principle of it and a good step and degree towards it Our knowledge shall be judged an acceptable service as it carries us on to performance but no otherwise For hereby alone says S t John we know that we know him with such knowledge as shall be accepted by him if we keep his Commandments 1 John 2.3 And on the other side our bare imaginations and apprehensions of some forbidden sin are then only disobedient when they carry us on to chuse or practise those things that are sinful We must go on from thought to choice or practice before the vices thought of become our own and our apprehensions of sin become themselves sinful For the thoughts of sin have the sinfulness of means and causes they are sinful so far as they help on either our consent or performance So our Saviour has determined in one instance viz. that of lustful looks and apprehensions Matth. 5. He that looks upon a woman so long as to lust after her or to consent in his heart to the enjoyment of her he hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart ver 28. As for our thoughts and imaginations then we see what obedience in them is required to our acceptance and when they are disobedient and will destroy us For our counsels and contrivances of evil are always sinful and so are all such simple thoughts and apprehensions as have particular Laws imposed upon them And as for our imaginations and apprehensions of things commanded or forbidden by any other Laws they are imperfect things and not fully grown up to the perfect Stature either of obedience or of disobedience So that they are neither punished nor rewarded in themselves but so far only as they are causes and principles of an obedient or disobedient choice or actions And then as for our affections their measures are the very same with those already mentioned of our bare imaginations and simple apprehensions For their service and obedience is that of the principle and their Sentence shall be according to those effects either in our wills or practice which flow from it If we love and desire obedience so far as to chuse and act it this degree of affection will gain us God's love and favour and secure his rewards but less than it no other shall He that keeps my Commandments saith Christ he it is that loveth me and they only who so love me in obeying me shall be beloved again of my Father and I will love them John 14.15 21. But if our love and desire of evil things carry us on to chuse or act any instance of disobedience for the sake of that which is loved and desired then are our affections sinful and such as will destroy us The desire of evil is not so truly the state of mortal sin as of dangerous temptation it is not deadly in it self but kills by carrying us on to a sinful and deadly choice and actions For when once it has got to that degree it is obnoxious to a dreadful Sentence Whereof the Psalmist gives us one instance in the love of violence Him that loveth violence the soul of the Lord hateth Psal. 11.5 And S t John says the same of the love of lying and the Case is alike in every other sin Without in outer darkness are murtherers and whatsoever loveth or maketh a lye Rev. 22.15 And thus we see what measure of obedience is required in these two faculties and what kinds and degrees of thoughts and affections are to be used or restrained to make theirs an acceptable Service For we must abstain from all evil counsels and contrivances from all simple apprehensions which are particularly forbidden and put in use all such as are particularly enjoined and as for all other our bare thoughts and imaginations and all our affections and desires we must fix them upon our Duty so long till they make us perform it and never suffer them to issue out upon evil so far till they carry us on either to chuse or practise it But besides these two faculties viz. our minds and affections there is yet another whose service is necessary to render ours an acceptable obedience and that is Thirdly Our hearts or wills also It is an absurd Dream for any man to think of serving God without his will because without that none of his actions can be called his own For that only is imputed to us which is chosen by us and which it was in the power of our own wills either to promote or hinder no man deserving praise or being liable to answer for what he could not help But of all persons God most of all regards our hearts in all our performances He perfectly discerns them and he estimates our services according to them So that it is not possible for any of us to obey him unwillingly in regard the choice of our will and heart it self is that which renders any action a saving and acceptable obedience For out of the heart as Solomon saith proceed the issues of life Prov. 4.23 The choice then as well as the practice of our Duty is plainly necessary to render it available to our salvation But on the other side if we chuse sin although we miss of opportunity to act it the bare choice without the practice is sufficient to our condemnation For even by that when we proceed no further our heart has gone astray from God and we are polluted by the sin which we resolve upon in our own choice since out of the heart as our Saviour tells us proceeds the pollution of the man Matth. 15.19 20. We may commit all sort of transgressions and incurr the punishment of them merely by consenting to them inwardly in our hearts without ever compleating them in our outward operation For our Lord himself has thus determined it in one instance and the Case is the same in all
could in strict justice be worthy of death was yet subject to such a conflict of flesh and spirit as this now mentioned His very Death and Passion which was the very consummation and highest part of his obedience was not without great struggling of his flesh and a long and earnest conflict of his bodily desires against it For he was in a strange fear and discomposure about it he began says S t Mark to be sore amazed Mark 14.34 And when he had recovered himself a little from the maze of that sudden fright he prays against it O my Father if it he possible let this cup pass from me Mat. 26.39 And when his request was not granted at first he makes a fresh address wherein he is more importunate being in his Agony says S t Luke he prayed more earnestly Luk. 22.44 his supplications he offered up with strong crying and tears Hebr. 5.7 All this strife and opposition did the desire of life and the bodily appetite after ease and safety together with the sense of God's wrath and high displeasure raise in him against this obedience of his sufferings But because all this was only lust and desire which although it lasted some time and discomposed him much was not yet able to gain any thing of his will and consent to it therefore notwithstanding it was he perfectly innocent All that can be said is That he was tempted by the desires of his Flesh against this great and last instance of obedience but he did not yield or consent to the temptation Thus then as for the lusts and desires of our Flesh whether they be suddenly rejected and make no resistance or are longer liv'd and contend much if they have got no consent of our wills to the fulfilling of them nor any choice of the evil which is craved by them they are only a temptation to a damning sin but in themselves thus far they are not damning As for these motions and lustings after evil things then that are unconsented to and unfulfilled which are the complaint and fear of good men they shall not harm them or be charged upon them to their condemnation But when God comes to judgment he will pardon and pass them by and not eternally punish and avenge for them And having shewn thus for what lusts and desires of evil we shall at the last day be pardoned I come now 2. To shew for which of them we shall be condemned And as for this we have in great part our answer to it already For our lusts are then damnable and dangerously evil when they are effectual instruments and temptations to damning evils and carry us on either to chuse or practise them For they are the great Favourites and Seducers of our wills and thereby the Authors of our actions they first bring us to chuse and consent to the deadly sin whereby they are gratified and then to act it and when they are gone on to either of these they are an Article of our condemnation They are uncondemning till they come so far but if once they have got us to consent to the alluring sin from that consent begins their sting and both it and all that follows it make us liable to eternal destruction To make this Discourse more clear I will here set down those several steps whereby we ascend to the completion and are carried on to the working and commission of any sin 1. At the representation of the object which is to tempt us to it whether it be an unchast embrace an unlawful gain or the like either by what we feel of it now if it be before our senses or by what we fansie if it is in our imagination our flesh is pleased and delighted with it And from this pleasure it naturally goes on to love and from loving to desire it And desire or lust is the last step among the passions for delight begets love and love ends in desire but when once we are come to desire a thing our passions have done their part and all that in them lyes towards the action 2. When in the appetite or animal soul the sin has gone thus far the next step is that to gratifie this desire or lust of our Flesh our wills should consent to it For our wills are the Disposers of all that follows so that unless they consent to get that which the Flesh so much desires there can nothing more be done towards it But if they do consent to the desire and intend to fulfil it then 3. Our understanding and contrivance is employed in deliberating and consulting what time what place what means are fittest to accomplish it with the least difficulty and the most delight and to the greatest advantage And when our minds have seen which to prefer and fix upon then 4. Our wills resolve upon them and make choice of them And when this is done the last Decree is past and all the time of doubting and deliberation is over so that nothing more remains but 5. To apply our bodily powers to perform our resolutions in the execution and commission of that which was resolved upon This is the natural order of our faculties and the process that is observed by our principles of action in their completion and final commission of any sin The first beginning is in the lower soul for that is the inlet of all sin and the seat of temptation and there it is that sin hath all its strength and insnaring power upon which account it is called by S t Paul a Law in the Members Rom. 7.23 And when these lusts of our Flesh have won the consent of our wills they are secure of all our after-contrivances for it and of our actual performance and execution of it For both our thoughts and our bodily powers are at the Command of our own wills so that if at the instigation of our lusts our wills have once consented to the sin they will quickly set our heads awork to contrive for it and our hands and other bodily powers to execute and fulfil it And in this method our Principles of action move when we act with full deliberation and when they are all employed Sometimes indeed there is no contrivance at all because none is needful as it happens when the opportunity of the sin is present with us and just before us at such time as we consent to it so that nothing more is wanting but only to act and fulfil it But when the opportunity is absent and we are put to forecast and contrive for it then is the process of our faculties in that very order which I have here described For an instance and illustration of this we will take the sin of drunkenness and the process will appear to be in that order which I have mentioned For in a man whose inclination that way disposes him to be tempted by it the fancy of it in himself or the having it suggested by another gives him a thought
and pains in fixing of our thoughts and raising of our desires through some bodily indisposition or unforeseen accidents which we cannot help our minds run sometimes still astray and our desires are cold and languid this unwill'd dulness and distraction shall not influence our main state it is a thing which we cannot help and no man living is perfectly free from it and therefore God will not be severe upon it but in great mercy he will pity and connive at it For as for the attention of our minds and the fixedness of our thoughts either in prayer or in any other business it is a thing which is not always in our own power but may be hindred and interrupted by many accidents whether we will or no. For any thing that makes our bodily spirits tumultuary and restless renders our attention small and interrupted Any high motion of our blood any former impression upon our spirits either by our precedent studies or our crowd of business will make great variety of thoughts and roving fancies obtrude themselves upon us and this is our natural frame and constitution which we must submit to and cannot remedy We can no more prevent it than we can prevent our dreams but our fancies will be struck and diverting thoughts will be thrown into us whether we will or no. For from the natural union of our souls and bodies our minds in their most spiritual operations of thinking and understanding go along with our bodily spirits and apprehend after their impressions and we can as well refuse to see when our eyes are open or to taste what is put into our mouths as we can refuse to have a thought of those things which are impressed upon our bodily fancy or imagination The connexion betwixt these is necessary and natural and there is no breaking or avoiding it So that let us be either at our prayers or at any other exercise if any temper of our bodies any accidental motion of our blood any former impressions of foregoing studies or other business stir in our fancies our thoughts must needs be diverted and our attention disturbed by them Nay in our prayers we are more apt to find it thus than in any other thing For there men oft-times use violence and screw up the fixedness of their minds and the fervency of their hearts to the highest pitch and then their bodily spirits being overstrained are liable not only to be discomposed by outward accidents but also to give back and fall of themselves and when in this manner they withdraw there is room made till they can be again recollected for other thoughts to arise instead of them All this I say happens from the very nature and frame of our bodies and from that dependance which our minds and thoughts themselves have upon them so that we cannot prevent or overcome it wholly We may and ought indeed to strive against these distractions as much as we can and to compose our thoughts as much as our natural temper or our present circumstances will suffer us when they wander in our prayers as soon as we discern it we may recollect them and when other thoughts intrude as soon as they are observed we may reject them but then this is all that we can do or that God requires we should do for we cannot pray perfectly and continuedly without them And then as for the zeal and fervency of our affections whether in our prayers or in any thing else they are fickle and very changeable and do not depend so much upon the choice of our wills as upon the temper of our bodies Some upon every occasion are more warm and eager in their passions either of love or hatred hopes or fears joy or sorrow than other men either are or can be For there is a difference in tempers as well as in palates and mens passions do no more issue out upon the same things in the same eagerness than their stomachs do after the same food with the same degrees of appetite So that as for a great fervency and a vehement affection every man cannot work himself up to it because all tempers do not admit of it For zeal and affectionateness in Devotion as in other things is more a mans temper than his choice and therefore it is not to be expected that all people should be able to raise themselves up to a transporting pitch in it but only that they should who are born to it Nay even they whose natural temper fits them for a great fervency and a high affection are not able to work themselves up to it at all times For no mans temper is constant and unchangeable seeing our very bodies are subject to a thousand alterations either from things within or from others that are without us If a mans blood is put into an irregular ferment either by a cold air or an inward distemper or any discomposing accident it spoils not only the fixedness of his thoughts but the zeal of his affections likewise Let there be any damp or disorder any dulness or indisposition either upon a mans blood or spirits and the discomposure of his body is presently felt in his soul for his thoughts flag and his passions run low and all his powers are under a cloud and suffer an abatement And this every man finds in himself when he labours under a sickly and crazy temper an aking head or any other bodily indisposition For our passions are bodily powers and are performed altogether by bodily instruments they live and dye with them and are subject to all their coolings and abatements their changes and alterations And therefore as long as our bodily tempers and dispositions alter and by reason of a number of accidents whether from without or from within themselves are still changeable and unconstant the zeal and fervency of our affections must needs be so too Thus is some distraction of mind and chilness of affection either in our prayers or in pursuit of any other thing most necessarily incident to all men We cannot wholly prevent them or live altogether free from them but sometimes they will break in and seize upon us do what we can And since we cannot help them God will not be always angry or eternally torment us for them No he knows that we are flesh and blood and his love and favour to us doth not alter as our unsetled thoughts or bodily tempers do He measures us not by the fixedness of our thoughts or by the fervency of our affections which are not always in our own power but by our wills and actions which are So that if we are careful to will and chuse what is pleasing to him and from our hearts entirely to obey him we need not doubt but that whatever involuntary distractions there may be sometimes in our thoughts or abatements in our bodily tempers whilst we are at our prayers we shall still be accepted by him We shall be accepted I say and the blessings
and poor that we cannot give any thing else but honour to him As on the other side to do evil to him is only to dishonour him For he is out of our power as for any other injury and there is no way possible left for us to reach him but only by our contumelious usage and disrespect of him To do no evil I say but to be kind and serviceable to God is nothing more but to honour him It implies our having in our minds honourable opinions of him and expressing in our carriage and behaviour a respect and acknowledgment of those glorious Attributes and Perfections which are in him The former viz. the high opinion of his Excellencies those particularly which are instances of Power and Goodness in our minds is called Honour The latter viz. the expressions of this honourable opinion and acknowledgment in our thoughts words or actions is called worship And this worship is an acknowledgment either 1. Of his Truth and Knowledge in believing his Word and taking things upon his Authority seeing he neither can be deceived himself nor will deceive us which is Faith 2. Of his Power and Goodness 1. In our good-will or kind affection for him as a most beneficial and lovely Being which is called LOVE And this as it effects a warm concernedness for his honour chiefly when any thing opposes it is zeal 2. In relying on him for the supply of our wants as one that is most able and ready to relieve them which is trust and dependance A particular effecâ— whereof is a hopeful making known our desires to him in begging such good things at his hands as we stand in need of which is Prayer 3. Of his bounty and beneficence in a grateful sense and affectionate owning that all the good things which we receive proceed from him which is thankfulness 4. Of his Power and Justice in an awful backwardness to offend him in regard he will not excuse and can most severely punish all Offenders which is fear 5. Of his Wisdom and Rule or Authority 1. In acquiescing in his Disposals as being most wise and most authentick which is submission or resignedness 2. In performing his Commands as requiring things most fit for us and most due from us which is obedience These are those particular effects which flow from our love of God and which make up that part of Duty which he requires from us towards himself And opposite to this love of God and these effects and expressions of it which are made our Duty and particularly commanded under this Head are our hatred and ill-will at him with all the particular ways of expressing it which are the contrary instances of sin and those very Vices that are forbidden Now God as I said being out of our reach as to any possible way of being injured by us or suffering evil from us otherwise than by our vilifying him and lessening of his honour the prime effect of our hatred of him can be no other than our dishonouring him And this may be instanced 1. In denying either his Being or Existence that he is God which is Atheism or his Cognizance and Government of the World which is Epicurism or denying Providence 2. In thinking or speaking reproachfully of him which is blasphemy And this when it is such a disfiguration of his Being or Nature as makes him an arbitrary foolish and odious God is superstition 3. In having other Gods besides him or worshipping him alone by false and lying Similitudes and limiting Resemblances as are all material Images not in true and spiritual manner as he is a God which is Idolatry And for the former sort of Idolatry viz. worshipping other Gods besides him if it be a worshipping of wicked Spirits and that by contracting with them it is witchcraft or sorcery 4. In acting cross to all his honourable Attributes and Perfections and behaving our selves in such disrespectful sort as instead of honouring and acknowledging doth disown and reproach them And these Actings are either 1. Inwardly in our minds when by some work of theirs we deny or reproach either 1. His Truth and Knowledge by giving no heed nor taking any notice of what he says but continuing ignorant of his word and pleasure which the Apostle calls foolishness An effect whereof is acting against it rashly and inconsiderately which is headiness Or when we do know it by giving no credit or assent to it but doubting or distrusting it which is unbelief 2. His Power and Goodness 1. By our ill-will and wishes to him when we grieve at any thing that makes for him and take delight in such things as we our selves or others can devise either against himself or against Vertue and Goodness which as bearing his own Image he ownes above all things and is most tender of and this is called hating of God Which as 't is shown in an unconcernedness at such things as dishonour and affront him or his Religion is coldness or want of zeal 2. By our distrust of him and his Providence when we dare not rely upon him for a supply of those things which we stand in need of as if he were either careless and mattered not what becomes of us or envious and grudged to have any of those good things which we want to befal us which is distrust One effect whereof is our omitting to seek unto him as expecting nothing from him which is not praying to him 3. His bounty and beneficence by an utter disregard of what he doth for us when we either wholly overlook or after some small time forget it and are not touched with any grateful sense or affectionate resentments upon it which is unthankfulness 4. His Power and Justice by a bold venturing upon any thing that offends him as if we neither valued his favour nor displeasure which is fearlessness 2. Outwardly In our lives and practice when by something in them we reproach and vilifie either 1. His Wisdom and Authority 1. In disputing and striving against his Disposals when we quarrel at them as unwisely ordered and would correct and better them our selves which is contumacy or repining 2. In breaking his Commands when we reject his pleasure and prefer our own which is disobedience 2. His Name when we use it irreverently by invoking or calling upon him to judge us according to our faithfulness in what we speak either customarily and lightly upon trivial or no occasions which is common swearing Or falsly when we either at present mean or afterwards perform no such thing as we promised or affirmed before him which is perjury 3. His Word or Ministers or other things consecrated to him when we treat and use them as vile and common things in a careless unmannerly way or as it often happens in mirth and mockery which is prophaneness And these are such expressions and effects of our hatred of God as make up the Body of impiety or transgressions immediately against God himself all which
he has most strictly forbidden So that for our whole Duty towards God which is implied in the general Law of piety or godliness it contains in it all these effects of LOVE which are commanded Duties as ungodliness or impiety contains all these expressions of hatred which are so many particular forbidden sins The Laws commanding are the Law of honour of worship of faith of love of zeal of trust and dependance of prayer of thankfulness of fear of submission and resignedness of obedience And the Laws forbidding are the Law against dishonour against atheism against denying Providence against blasphemy against superstition against idolatry against witchcraft and sorcery against foolishness against headiness against unbelief against hating God against want of zeal against distrust of him against not praying to him against unthankfulness against fearlesness against contumacy or repining against disobedience against common swearing against perjury against prophaneness And then as for the 2. Sort of Love our love to men it implies in it all the Duties contained in the third Branch of S t Paul's Division viz. righteousness as shall be shewn in the next Chapter CHAP. III. Of the particular Duties contained under Justice and Charity The CONTENTS Of the particular Duties contained under Justice and Charity Both are only expressions of Love which is the fulfilling of the Law Of the particular sins against both Of scandal Of the combination of Justice and Charity in a state that results from both viz. Peace Of the several Duties comprehended under it Of the particular sins reducible to unpeaceableness Of the latitude of the word Neighbour to whom all these dutiful expressions are due It s narrowness in the Jewish sense It s universality in the Christian. FOR the third general Duty righteousness or our Duty towards our Neighbour our love of men will lead us into the several Laws which it containeth For the first effect of love our doing no hurt or injury to any man founds all the Laws of Justice and the latter our doing good and showing all kindness founds all the particular Laws of Charity in which two are comprehended all those several Duties which God has enjoyned towards other men The first I say founds all the particular Laws of Justice For in that we do no evil or injury to our Neighbour nor hurt him by prejudicing his just Rights or taking away from him any thing that is his is implied that we do not wrong or endammage him 1. In his Life by taking it away either 1. In private force and violent assassination which is murder 2. Under colour of Justice by a false charge of capital crimes which is false witness 2. In his reputation by sullying or impairing it through a lying and false imputation of disparaging things to him which is slander or calumny 3. In his belief and expectation by reproaching and abusing it either 1. By deceiving him against his Right to his hurt in a false speech of what is past or present which is lying 2. By frustrating his expectations which were raised by our promise of something that is to come which is unfaithfulness or perfidy 4. In his Bed by invading that which the Contract of Marriage has made inviolable which is adultery 5. In his Goods or Estate and all wrong herein proceeds from our unsatisfiedness with our own and our greedy longing and ungovernable desire of that which is his which is covetousness The effects and instances whereof are 1. In taking away from him that which is his either 1. Directly By secret or open force and without his knowledg and consent which is stealing or robbery 2. Indirectly or by forcing his allowance and extorting a necessitated consent from him Which is done by taking advantage 1. Of his impotence and inability to resist and contend with us which is oppression 2. Of his necessity when he cannot be without something which we have and so is forced to take it upon our own terms which is extortion and depressing in bargaining 3. Of his ignorance when we outwit him and trepan and over-reach him in Bargaining and Commerce which is circumvention fraud or deceit The wiliness and subtle Art wherein is called craftiness 2. In denying all kindnesses and good things to him in unmercifulness uncharitableness c. Of which I shall discourse under the next Head All these Particulars of Justice now mentioned are natural effects of love to our Neighbour in as much as it makes us keep off from offering any injury or doing any evil to him Upon which account S t Paul says of it that as for these particular Laws of Justice it fulfils them all Which he shows by an induction of such Particulars as I have named He that loveth another saith he hath fulfilled the Law viz. that part of it which requires Duties of Justice towards others For this Thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet which are the five last Commandments of the Decalogue and if there be any other Commandment it is briefly comprehended in this Saying Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Now Love worketh no ill neither these nor any other to his Neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.8 â— 10. And as this first effect of Love to our Neighbour viz. it s keeping us back from offering any injury or doing any evil to him contain in it all the Laws of Justice so doth its other effect our doing all good offices and shewing kindness to them comprehend in it all the particular Laws of Charity wherewith we stand obliged towards other men Love is not only innocent and harmless and careful to create no trouble nor occasion any prejudice but moreover it is all kindness benevolence and good nature and diligent in creating all the pleasure and delight it can to it s beloved Now this goodness kind-heartedness or desire to please and delight others will be an universal cause of beneficence or doing good to them and make us cast to please them in so many ways and advantage them in so many relations as we can at any time be placed in In particular it will effect these Vertues in the Cases following 1. As to what we see them to be in themselves and in this respect it produces in us 1. If they are worthy and vertuous a great opinion and venerable esteem for them which is honour 2. If they have honest hearts but yet are weak in judgment and knowledg a compassionate sense of their weakness and an endeavour to relieve them which is pity and succour And if this weakness be instanced in judging those things to be a matter of sin and so unlawful for them to do which no Law of God has forbidden and which therefore we who better understand it see plainly that we lawfully may do and our practice of it before them who distrusting their own skill are swayed more by