especially where perfection of degrees must also arise from perfection of parts even from that more inward and lively sence of happiness and fruition which the contemplations of its own inherent worth must constantly afford For as it is unconceivable how there could be a progression in dignity without coming to an acme and perfection so also is it not imaginable that this perfection can be in any less degree therein stated then to be causally and originally so because if this happiness or the sence thereof should depend on the enjoyment of foraign objects and helps as in man then for want of an original of life and perfection all derivatives must cease also From all which as we may conclude the being of a deity from the necessary progression of life well being so also must we conclude that nothing under God Almighty can be perfectly happy For as in him alone an absolute perfection of essence can always be found so it must be to him alwayes so clearly perceptible and known as to fill himself with such full acquiescence and delight that with due regard to his omnipotency no foraigne want or fear can be supposed any wayes available to impoverish or delete that impression which the vision and contemplation of the beatifical glory of himself must from eternity make within himself When we contemplate our selves or our own happiness or perfection there being many things observable more perfect and happy then we and through diversion of other objects engaging us to farther hope or fear and through weakness of comprehension and understanding being alwayes ready to be so diverted and foyled in our contemplations it is not to be expected that this unsteady and weak consideration of an object so unworthy as our selves made within our selves should leave any such noble and firm character there as to fill and settle us with any degree of acquiescence and delight or to bring it to an existent perfection Whereas in God that could never be but perfect and also knowingly and delightedly so that resemblance of himself which must from eternity have conception being in himself must be supposed even naturally generating the like existence and continuance of such another self under the relation of a Son For all cause of extinction or abatement being taken away that which was from eternity thus naturally begotten must be to eternity thus necessary continued And easily it may be conceived that were any one stated in such an unchangeable degree of essential perfection in himself as to have all perfection there centred and confined and then to be endued with such high and steady degree of understanding and comprehension as to be hereof alwayes sensible and herewith alwayes delighted and then lastly supposing this person to be alwayes accompanied with omnipotency too then as nothing could hinder him from his continual enjoyment of himself so also cannot any cause of change be conceived whereby that which was thus lively impressed should not have like continuance and self existence also A strong confirmation and help to our conceipts in these things may be taken from our selves who constantly and naturally as shewing whence we derived it are moved in the love and delight we take to any object according to that impress or conception which is inwardly entertained of them and experience telling us that the fruition doth never answer the expectation because it comes alwaies short of the perfection of the Idea it doth prove that that degree of delight ariseth from degree of excellence of the object in it self and from degree of inward perception thereof In us as all knowledge is admitted by degrees at the dores of the sences according to iuch feeble representations as the weakness of the sences themselves and the unworthiness of created objects will afford It is no wonder if by reason of so large disparity such unsteady and unaffecting impressions do remain in comparison of what we may conceive to be where all these defects are taken off especially since by this foraign way of knowledge to wit by sence we are not able to know or apprehâ—nd truly our selves as the divine essence is by means of continual presence and intuition and so beget and be possessed with a continual self-love which is the strongest impression and delight that may be As thus to the manner so to the measure of the generation it will follow that as this infinite comprehension of God stood entirely implyed in the contemplation of that full beauty glory and perfection of his whole essence so must the person hereby generated be equally God also for where the worker and the substance wrought upon are the same what is thereby wrought must be the same too Now as it a natural and necessary property of every inteligent and voluntary agent to be to it self regardful in the first place and to other things as they stand thereto like and relating which we call love so in this case that perfect similitude and essential same-ness which must cause the Father and Son with high and continual entercourse off affection to be perpetually beholding each other must as proceeding from and bestowed upon persons of such omnipotency and dignity produce also a third like personal existence even that of the holy Ghost Because as before said where the subject wrought upon and the worker are both God that which proceedeth there from must be God also very God of very God As thus for the coequality of Son and holy Ghost so for their coeternity since that perfection of the divine essâ—nce must from the very first be and be by it self conceived and also loved it must follow that these two presons must be also as much without begining as the other For although with us that have our beings and conceptions imperfect and depending upon foraign helps and by reason that our knowledge was by degrees attained from observation of figurate and material bodies as they stand limitted in time and place of operations it is not to be imagined that any perfect conception should be made in us of a substance so spiritual and sublime much less any such rational deffinition or discourse made for the satisfaction of others of a substance transcending the similitude and comparison of any other therefore the best expressions of himself is from himself saying I am that I am yet were all these impediments taken off we may conceive being and well being to be eternally the same and that omniscience should necessarily arise from and accompany omnipresence and that again being inseparably accompanied with omnipotence it must follow that to be and to know and to will and to act are all the same in him that could never be devided into parts in himself nor circumscribed nor limitted by any other in time place or measure of energy whereby as to these personal relations he should not be from and continue to eternity the same that now he is that is not onely be really the same three but by this
is every mans faith shall be tryed by the fire of afflictions and temptations and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt that is as every sacrifice under the law was to be so seasoned so he that came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets had now made the precept of love seasoned by the obedience to those that were to command in his stead to be the sure way of making each Christian duty lawful and after the same manner that each Christian himself was to be made acceptable by his baptism of afflictions And although it were reserved for the clearer light of the Gospel to discover that all wickedness proceeded from malice and other the works of the flesh and on the other side that love was the only thing to estate men râ—ghteous yet we finde the same in many places hinted at in the old Testament And Solomon in particular is very express to this purpose when he saith hatred stirreth up strife but love covereth all sins Which is answerable to our Saviour reason of the corruption of the last times viz. because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold This accomplishment of our innocence through this saving grace of love or charity is that more excellent way by Saint Paul shewed to the Corinthians who had before shewed how all the several gifts of the holy Ghost were given for mutual edification and bestowed severally on several members but for compleating and adorning that one body the Church In which respect since the more ordinary and common members which were useful to the body as the feet or the like could not expect to have those more eminent endowments for then should they not be eminent if ordinary therefore is a whole Chapter spent in shewing this more excellent and ready way of Charity whereby those more feeble and less honourable members that could not attain to be Apostles Prophets Teachers or the like might yet by means of this common band of union and perfection finde an equal capacity with those that were highest gifted to attain to the edification and support of the general body This way being to them also the most excellent and sure because that without it all their other endowments will prove but as sounding brass and tinkling Symbals Of which bond or union and also of the union of the other Christian graces we shall farther discourse in the ensuing Chapter CHAP. VIII Of the Coincidence of Christian graces HOw the affection of unity is accompanying the whole race of things hath been abundantly declared as a metaphisical or supernatural speculation by such as have not had any other light to direct them in the inquiry then that which meer nature would afford being drawn from contemplation of her procession in things here below But unto us Christians who have from above been confirmed in the knowledg of deity and also of its unity as the ground of our divinity must grow more firm and steady in knowledge of God himself so will the contemplation of that unity as considered in him that is the cause of all things lead us by a plain way of demonstration to disscover why in each thing by him made the same affection should be also necessarily implanted not only in order of resemblance herein to its Author but to the formal stating of it such or such Concerning some of the nearer resemblances of deity in the things of life which we call individuals we have formerly spoken as also of mans above them all But this affection of unity is so much more closely accompanying them that it not onely formally constitutes them but thereby also differenceth them from inanimates who can receive no formal unity but what must arise from the definition of their whole Mass whereas in the definition of any species of individuals that natural unity which appears therein can have no other true existence or perfection then what was first really inherent in and constituted by the individuals themselves as being the observable properties in them severally abiding As therefore all things together with their creation and existence from God proceeding received from him this affection of unity also as necessarily constituting them distinct from the whole race of things so to the end that the Makers praise might yet receive addition and increase though the increase of the several objects of his bounty and goodness and that this division of the whole Mass might not by civil war and disunion amongst themselves prove the overthrow of one another but that one thing might be a continual support unto the good and preservation of another and thereby all conspire to the same end Gods glory we may observe all those friendly instincts and properties bestowed by God on natural Agents as heretofore noted By means of which propensity and benigne aspect of one thing towards another ariseth that other affection which we call goodness So that when the separate existencies of things which states truth are by this affection of goodness made agree in things to their own mutual preservation and to Gods glory also then doth the prevalence of union appear herein again as joyning good to truth and creation to providence and making the Creatures end or preservation conspire to that of Gods his owne glory and Gods glory to meet in direct points with their good But now although these benevolent inclinations of things might suffice to mutual preservation in Inanimates and such sensitives as had none or small cause of division through largeness of private appetite and will so to the end that voluntary Agents which were most to seek it might not be subject to recompence their owne higher sence of felicity from God received with the ingrateful diminution of his glory in the disturbance of the course of his providence it was onward necessary that for maintenance of the same unity which was made as aforesaid by inward instincts in other things there should not onely be an inward natural appetite to union implanted which we call love but also such outward directions given to them that through the due observance hereof their union and meeting amongst themselves might tend to the like end with the other things before spoken of namely the preservation and maintenance of Gods glory and their own good All which considerations will now make manifest the great reason not onely of that simplicity and fewness of the Gospel precepts as in order to our more easie performance and for their approaching so much neerer to the perfection and unity of him that gave them but also of that plain coincidence they have amongst themselves whereby they come like the whole race of things themselves the object of their directions to unite and conspire in the common end of all things Gods glory and the subservient end thereof each particular things natural preservation For as there is an union in the end so must there be also in the means and directions leading thereunto All which
course is to confess we know him not having indeed no warrantable rule for our direction herein but what God himself hath of himself in the holy Scripture set downe The which had it not stiled the second person the the Image of the invisible God the brighâ—ness of his fathers glory and the express Image of his persons And so leading us to conceive of the procession of the holy Ghost I see not how the true personal existence of those three that bear record in heaven could have been apprehended As for that hypostatical union of the two natures in that one person of our Saviour a mystery also necessary in some sort to be comprehended and believed it is learnedly done by others especially by the pen of Judicious Hooker and is not to our present occasion so proper But so much I thought necessary to premise in this place for the better conception of the personal subsistance of deity by way of supply to what was briefly spoken of the unity thereof and its operations in the entrance of the first book and what shall be spoken thereof in the last chapter of this book this being as necessary to be known to state us Christians as that was to remove us from Atheism and also for the better understanding the original and nature of love it self whereof we are now to treat For hence we may perceive how God himself is said to be love as being the foundation thereof and that also if we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is made perfect in us The which is not onely true in the natural state wherein all creatures had existence and perfection from the love of God manifested in Christ by whom he made the world and had that thereby also recourse back towards God again by occasion of those natural propensions to mutual love and beneficence seated in men and other things by means of that blessed spirit which moved upon the waters but also true in the state of grace and regeneration wherein God the Father was pleased to love men again as in his beloved Son when they had now lost that Image and likeness wherein they stood lovely as his creatures before even by the love of God shed abroad â—n our hearts by the holy Ghost which is given us By whose blessed influence we are not onely holpen and directed in our love and obedience upward whereby to meet the God of love more directly even to the degree of a miracle-working faith where it is strong enough but also stand inwardly affâ—cted towards the assisting him in his course of providence by love to those his Images now presâ—nt amongst us men being not otherwise capeable of approving themselves to be Godly or God-like then by the expression of this their love according to such rules of obedience as Christ himself hath appointed and in Scripture plainly set down For as we are inwardly made preceptive and participant of this love by the grace of faith even by having our understandings cleared concerning the reallity of God and his goodness and of the communication thereof unto us of which we have spoken in this last discourse so again do we stand outwardly confirmed and conformable herein by the grace of obedience even by signal testification of our true love to him by our ready and conformable expression of it according to his direction of which we shall now speak in that which follows As the general praise of love is most plainly and largly discoursed of by Saint John so is he most of all copious to shew how love and charity being the general precept for Christians are the fulfilling of the law and how they secure us in a state of innocence And therefore commending love to us he saith I write no new Commandment unto you but that which ye have heard from the beginning meaning from Christ himself who had shewed that this precept of charity or love was as hath been hitherto shewed the sum and scope of all the Law and the Prophets that is of those particular precepts set down in the Law Again saith he a new Commandment I write unto you which things is true in him and in you because the darkness is past and the true light shineth That is true in him that hath thus rid us of strict legal observance and from the darkness and multitude of litteral precepts and hath enlightened us with so much supernatural wisdome as to see this one performance of love to be the summ of their meaning they without it not being able to state us innocent For he that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother is in darkness even until now but he that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him Which last words point plainly to the stating of our condition of innocence by love he concluding all Christian foundation and commandment in these words That we should believe the name of Christ Jesus and love one another And therefore is this Gospel single light hinted unto us as a single eye which enlighteneth the whole body This state of innocence through love may be also compared unto the strait Gate both for its singleness of precept in regard of those many precepts formerly given us and for its difficult too as for loving of Enemies and the like This is that wedding garment which whilst we have on we need not doubt our selves true members of and truly fitted for Christs Church and kingdome but if wanting it we are then to be rejected and cast out For without this roab of charity we shall be ready to devide this his kingdome against it self by breach of peace and order this being the leaven that must season all we do This is that rock on which we founding our Christian duties through faith in Christ they shall stand unmoveable against the stormes and tempests of the world whereas else prophesie miracles mighty works though done in Christs name and with never so religious pretences shall not make him owne us without its being their ground work And to this purpose he saith If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his love and then he ads this is my Commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you And least any one should think that this Commandment was but a single precept and not general and including all the rest of his Commandments he farther adds these things I Commanded you that ye love one another Where the command of love is put in the plural number as the sum of all the Commands we are to keep as truly his So that then no love to Christ without keeping his Commandments no keeping his Commandments without loving one another For as Christ in his actions stood excepted from sin notwithstanding his likeness to us in the
left hand of Christ in his Church should be left to the dispose of Providence as heretofore declared But now it is not every Patience or dull insensibility under every affliction that is to have this honor and reward but that Patience most properly that is accompanied with the duty of Obedience For I may give all I have to the poor nay my body to be burnt and yet be but charitable to my self in design to mine own honor But when I am so taken up with the good of others in order to my love of him whose image they bear that in sure token thereof I can forgive all injuries and them also that did them here is Charity upon Charity which in care of publike Peace and Good suffereth long is kinde envieth not is not puffed up but beareth all things Which expressions as they properly betoken the Vertues of such as are to be subject to Authority so may they serve to expound to us those sayings of our Saviour whosoever shall smite thee c. namely that the right use of Patience is thereby meant even Patience under Authority and not any stupid neglect of our own safeties For so in Saint Matthew it is whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek c. Whereby we are to understand that those evils are not to be resisted that come from men on our right hands that is are above us And so again Whosoever will sue thee at Law c. to him we must with Patience give our Cloak also if Law will take it away and being thereby compelled we are to do for any man more then he shall ask And these Gospel Precepts carry but the same meaning toward Patience and Humility under Authority as Solomons prudential Precept formerly did if the spirit of the Ruler rise up against thee leave not thy place for yielding pacifyeth great offences and all because of that relation of obedience we stand bound unto in regard of his Authority that thus commanded us And therefore when we finde these Graces of Humility and Meekness set down and commended unto us they are to be taken as necessarily implying the duty of obedience inasmuch as they are the onely proper Vertues of such as are stated in the relation of subjection For this Vertue of Patience is as necessary to the constitution of things voluntary in the relation of Patients towards the receit of the Vertue of that Agency which from the Governor is to be acted on the governed as is the endowment of other natural Vertues and Properties on inanimates to make them susceptible of that efficacy which on the part of their Agents is required also Whereupon Patience comes to be a Vertue of such great influence and concern in the establishment of Charity making the Precept of love useful to humane preservation and Gods honor that sometimes it supplies the place of Charity and is joyned to Faith in Christ as the other fundamental requisite to salvation nay sometimes goeth alone as the most sure ground-work thereof and true token also of Christian Faith it self For so runs our Saviors admonition in patience possess ye your souls And to that purpose saith Saint James the tryal of your Faith worketh Patience and then to shew the perfection that follows Patience he adds but let Patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing And St. Paul having set forth our access to God through Faith after adds and not onely so but we glory in tribulation also knowing that tribulation worketh Patience and Patience Experience and Experience Hope and Hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given us that is Tribulation and Patience do uphold and supply that fundamental and saving Grace of love which is wrought within us by the Holy Ghost And as in the Epistle to the Hebrews we are exhorted to be followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises so doth St. Peter well â—et out what is or should be the sign and effect of this brotherly love viz. Not rendring evil for evil and railing for railing That is not resisting the evils suffered from Authority by Deed or by Word after the example of Christ formerly set down but contrariwise blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing meaning the blessed reward of our Patience in suffering of that share of afflictions unto which we are in this life called For he that will love life and see good days that is he that desires to enjoy a future life or good days here let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile let him eschew evil and do good Which is the same with the former admonition of not rendring evil for evil nor railing for railing onely there our resistance by act was put first but here the resistance by words is put first under the Precept of refraining our tongues from evil And then follows the admomonition for actions let him eschew evil and do good let him not onely forbear resistance but be obedient also and thereupon shall he be in a state both to seek peace and ensue it As generally thus amongst mankinde Patience is added to Faith to make us inheritors of the Promises and a necessity of compliance with Christ in sufferings that we may be also glorified together so unto the particular of women is Patience added also she shall be saved by childe-bearing if she continue in the Faith By which words as we are not to understand that none but Child-bearing women shall be saved or that the others should not be sharers also of these common sufferings incident to the rest of mankinde so may we perceive this particular instance of Childe-bearing put both to set out Patience in the highest degree of suffering known amongst us and also being put under the notion of Childe-bearers may be taken as comprehending such as are married who being subject to husbands may farther serve to shew that this Patience is occasioned from that degree of subjection and bondage which God by reason of their appointed subordination had put them under when he said In sorrow shalt thou conceive and thy desire shall be subject to thy husbands So that then each one that travelleth in pain under this yoak of bondage to the Laws of Superiors by reason of and for punishment of our corruption is to submit to the pleasure of him that subjected the same in hope and to reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us when we shall be restored to the glorious liberty of the sons of God Nor need we wonder why immortality and eternal life should be promised to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor
certain nobleman went into a far Country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return and he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds and said occupy till I come By which is set forth that trust of power which in his absence should be committed to the several Heads of Churches But his Citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying we will not have this man raign over us Where we may see Antichrianism stated and defined that is when such as are members of Christs Church or his Citizens do so far express their hatred unto him as to deny his deputed Christs to Raign or have power over them And therefore after he hath taken the accompt of his Deputies trusted talents he then comes to censure these Rebels against his Vice-gerents just as if they had been so to himself saying But these mine enemies which would not that I should raign over them bring them hither and slay them before me And that this sentence was directly intended to such as refuse this his power in his Deputies and not of his Deputies disobedience to him appears in that S. Matthew setting down the like Parable of trusted talents but without mention of the particular fact of the Citizenâ— hath no such expression in his relation thereof although he record afterwards Christs owning his Ministers as himself as elsewhere shewed So that now who is a lyar but he that denyeth that Jesus is the Christ he is Antichrist that denieth the father and the Son It is not said he that denieth the Holy Ghost or he that denyeth Jesus that is the belief of his Saviourship for this being wrought inwardly by the work of the Holy Ghost it maketh its denial or refusal more properly the sin against the Holy Ghost casting Christ forth from within us as an unholy thing but offending against Christs regency or power over us outwardly offends also against Charity and so by destroying Monarchy or Union hinders our wel fares here as infidelity doth our welfares hereafter And that this mysterie of Antichristianism is the denial of the Father and the Son and that in regard of power to be exercised by persons here below and from them sent and empowered may be notably gathered from these very words of Mission and Delegation which Christ always used at the empowering of any from him using stil these speeches or the like He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me In which there being always mention of delegation of power from the Father and the Son and never from the Holy Ghost it comes to pass that Antichristianism is plainly opposition in the execution of such power as is from God the Father and Christ delegated In which delegation because Christ is to them the immediate Donor it therefore takes the name of Antichristianism For these being anointed and established by God in Christ although they are not to personate Christ in having dominion over ther faith as being the object thereof yet are they to personate Christ in claiming their obedience in all things and so forgive also as in the person of Christ lest Satan should have advantage over them as seeming to be done out of original power in themselves and not as acted in Christs Name and Authority So that now the means of accomplishment of our welfare here being by Christ reckoned as his service under the notions of Love and Charity and our obedience to him therein making us participants with him of what he meritoriously did in obedience to God in performance of the Moral Law for us it follows that as we deny the Holy Ghost in denial of Jesuship so also God the Father in denial of his Christ-ship For all things being ours through Christ and as through him that was both God and man all mankind came to be capable of the benefits and favor of the Godhead so single men being members of particular Churches through obedience to particular Christs under him come to be participant of Christ also and of those benefits promised to the whole Church his body under the condition of obedience Again as by faith we lay immediate hold on him the second Adam for forgiveness of original sin so by obedience to him and his Church we attain the benefit of his obedience and remission of actual sins In the first way by our particular offerings to him of inward faith and love we are all of us through Christ made Kings and Priests to God on our own behalfs in the second way we as members of particular Churches must have for what we do warrant and direction on from other Kings and Priests having therein Authority from him Nor are Kings Supreme Deputies as Christi only that is because their oyl and unction is ever in Scripture distinguished from what is ordinary but they are also his most immediate and eminent Deputies for execution and accomplishment of his Jesu-ship I mean so much of it as concerns the Churches temporal safety which was part of that work which as King Christ was to do as appears by that his speech The son of man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them But because it could not be personally compleated by that the son of man himself it must be presumed entrusted to those who to that purpose are so often in Scripture eminently adorned with this title of Saviour Nay it is taken as an office so proper to Kings that God for his peoples greater assurance puts himself under that notion The Lord is our king he will save us so likewise is Christ called A Prince and Saviour as he is also called the Saviour of the body that is of his whole Church by his deputed Saviours in the several parts thereof But most remarkably clear to this purpose and also to shew the following advancement of the Church by these Saviours under the Saviour and that this Church in that glorious condition is that which is to be called Gods Kingdom is that last verse of Obadiah And Saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau and the kingdom shall be the Lords For the Prophet having before set forth the Churches enemies and oppressors under the notion of Edom doth at length foretel all their deliverance and glory to arise by the means of these Saviours and that in regard of this more eminent and glorious condition of the Church at that time then before it shall be more remaâ—kably owned by God as his Kingdom And the kingdom shall be the Lords And so being his and Christs by means of these Deputies it will follow that they that oppose them oppose Christ and so are Antichrists But to know these things the better and the persons defined we will more particularly take notice of two places set down amongst many in the New Testament to this purpose The one is of the lesser and many
another did arise the restrictive name of a Church could not be applyed to one Nation or part of mankind more then another For although the closer observation of the first light and way given to Adam and other of the Fathers might make some of them more truly called the sons of God then others as the truer and more sincere worship of those of Judah above those of Israel might do the like yet as long as these Israelites did still make their acknowledgements to be guided by the same law and rule of Circumcision with the other it was not their Calves nor other failings could hinder them from being of the Catholique Church no more then could the corruptions of the sons of Adam the son of God hinder men from being equally his seed and members of the visible Church even after that their multiplication commerce one with another had caused pride and covetousness the two daughters of humane frailty to make the whole earth to be filled with violence and so to be equally punished by the Flood or then Noahs particular justice and closer walking with God above any other could at the same time shut out all but himself from being of the same visible Church also Mens general acknowledgement of the same way of divine guidance as proceeding from God the Creator even before the time that unto Moses he was distinguished under the expressions of the God of Abraham making all of them equally of the Catholique Church although by their deeds there after they might differently be of the Communion of Saints But although God might in mercy accept of that ready literal obedience in the Iew and also of that substantial obedience in the Gentile and albeit the law of Moses or reason were not exactly kept by either might impute Christs satisfaction unto them and so receive them into the merit of a Saviour as well as Job and other of the Patriachs yet unto us that now live after the time that this Saviour hath been by miracles proved to have been and appeared in the flesh as there can nothing save us but actual belief and profession especially where it may be had so where this profession of Christ is nothing can hinder the party from being a member of his body the visible Church nor the Church hereupon to admit him into her fellowship by the dore of Baptisme Which Sacrament being by the Church given to us as a seal of the performance of Gods gracious promises on our behalf is called a Covenant also and particularly the Covenant of Grace and that because salvation comes to us by free gift and not by performance of any positive outward law of God as to the Iewes it did Nor yet stand we now obliged with the Gentile to the observation of the whole law of nature for although the precepts of Love the Lord withall thine heart c. and love thy Neighbour as thy self be positively set down in holy Writ because the general insufficiency of that portion of reason which is committed unto men could not ordinarily otherwise discover so much yet they are as natural as creation and providence it self even as upholding the same For as heretofore declared in the particular of man each one in reason being obliged to do all things to the preservation and advantage of another because even thereby Gods praise and glory is preserved and encreased by the preserving and benefiting one another it followed that in whatsoever the least thing we neglected or thwarted our duty of acting herein we were so far culpable against the law of reason which was and alwayes is divine both as being part of Gods inexhaustable fountain and ayming also at the same end the continuance and furtherance of his creation and providence But because in Adam we had taken the morality of actions upon our owne score the portion of humane wisdome which would have sufficed to guide us as natural Agents in implicite obedience was not now sufficient to steer us unblamable in all things whatsoever no though we should be most intent upon it but that God and our Neighbour might have been better served therefore God to the Jew abreviates this Universal strict rule to some set precepts which being observed he makes his Covenant to accept of for performance of the whole Moral law or law of natural reason And therefore we may observe that there was something in it of providence and charity of all kinds As forbidding to eat blood the life of Creatures mercy to the poor and stranger letting the land take rest forbidding to take the young bird with the old or to seeth the kid in the mothers milk c. But exact obedience being found yet too difficult for men to attain salvation by and the very knowledge of these precepts being in the absence of the Lawmaker difficult also it pleased God to us Christians to make his Kingdom to be chiefly inward and accept of the will for the deed and the litteral exact performance being done by a Saviour in our stead we are accepted not for doing all we should but for having done what we can So that by belief and adhesion in and to him and doing what he commands we come by and through him to be accepted as having done all that he did And thereupon we that in respect of breach of Gods precepts were enemies and rebells to him and so could not be received into that Kingdome of his which was designed for innocent mankind came through faith to be made so much on with Christ who hath taken our nature upon him as to be accepted by God as actual performers of the whole law Which faith being the work of the holy Ghost doth by its reception in each person constitute him a member of that Society which we call the Catholick Church which consisting of parts or members triumphant militant and future are all yet by means of this owne Spirit received into the union of Christs mystical body or communion The communion of Saints From all which it will not be hard to conceive how God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and how Christ fulfilling for us both that natural large law of providence and beneficence which as Gods knowing good and evil we had undertaken as also that strict litteral abreviation thereof we come to be restored again to a state of innocence For under the condition of absolute necessity to salvation we have even as few precepts laid upon us under this second Adam as there were from God in Paradise laid on the first but that being ingrafted into Christ by faith and in all our outward deportments to our Neighbours walking according to Christian light and obedience we should be as unblameable and innocent now as then For as Adam while guided by the light of nature onely had his duty and innocence measured by obedience to that one outward law
so continually nor Vniversally resident as to be able to determine all differences nay they may be conceived included in the injunction too because they exercised their present power in a patriarchal right and way as shall be hereafter noted So that in regard of this injunction to obedience under the notion of Father c. the Christian Church had resemblance with the Jewish also for their laws and commandments being given by God before they were at that heigt as to be fitted to enjoy that statute officer who should as a constant publick Father command amongst them they had likewise their precept for obedience and respect couched under the notion of Father too in the fifth Commandment within the generality thereof including as well such temporary publick officers as should immediately command as that future setled officer of King prophetically designed to be over them in both Churches Now as these Fathers and Masters had and have entire jurisdiction in their families and Kingdomes because these could have but one head in chief so must it be granted that since there can be but one Church that is to say Catholick because Christ can have but one body and that body again but one head that therefore proportionably as any other authority and head shall come between Christ and this body so much will the separation and disunion of him with his body be encreased For to represent Christ in the whole Catholick Church is not so much to represent him as head as to be head in his room And in abatement of this ambitious humour is our Saviours reply to be construed which he made to the Children of Zebedee who would have transcended their Apostolical rank of parity and have been alone sitting above their fellow heads of Churches at the right and left hand of Christ. For if their suit had been but for equality they needed not to ask it nor do I see why any of the rest should have been so angry at it But to answer these it was that our Saviour sayes that those that had highest abilities in close and holy following of him might expect a reward or Crown in heaven for it but they were not after the manner of the Gentiles to exercise domini-over one another here The like are we to conceive of that example of washing his Disciples feet and many other places where he purposely gives directions and precepts against this ayme of Vniversal Government of most of which we shall have occasion to speak in discourses following As for the other Government by an independent consistory of the Clergy it must to all unbiassed judgements appear unreasonable for since as Subjects they are included in the general jurisdiction and authority of each kingdome so for order and peace sake they should by the same authority be subject to their diocessans as they again are to be to the Prince the head of that particular Church Where by the word Church is meant that assembly of Christian Believers which is divided from others by an entire jurisdiction of their owne and do thereupon come to be called this or that Church Noâ— Clergy men onely as if these were the sole members of Christs body and so as being more immediately imployed by authority about Church matters they as more strictly called Church men and spiritual guides might be judged as some do do have the sole and absolute power of the Church and to be the onely watch-men and guide of souls No their mission and power as immediately received from Christ is onely inward unto us that is over Gods kingdome therâ— they are perswade men to turn to the Lord with purpose of heart that is so settle in our hearts the foundations of faith and love which being wroucht in us by the holy Spirit they become thereupon so far as they are Gods Ministers to be Ministers of the Spirit not of the Letter being for directing men in their outward duties to have their power from that Church and Christian authority unto which themselves are subject But because that error grew from an in considerate necessity of our imitation of the primitive Church according to its first manner of Government it will be necessary to speak something thereof As God hath power and will have glory alone so it is necessary in the constitution of those things in which he will have his glory more eminently to abide that he have his power making and stateing them to be more remarkably and particularly manifest Thus in the Creation that was the foundation of all things else he acts alone and so much alone that his very word was the deed In that particular designation of a Church for his glory to be more eminent amongst men that the honour of doing might be more his owne he did first make use of the weakest means in humane reason for the foundation and establishment thereof In the first Church amongst the Jews and whilst they were in their weak and wandering condition as their need was greater so his personal protection and guidance of them was more express and apparent And therefore whilst they were in this Theocraty their government was not to be managed by any setled Vniversal authority besides himself or any one who took not in all weighty things immediate direction from him least the eminence of his owne glory should be hereby abated but they were to continue in their wonted obedience to the natural fathers of their families and tribes until such time as being throughly setled in peace and security from their enemies he might make his recess and according to his former promises permit and appoint them a King of their owne Nation Who as standing in his stead and authority now and being entrusted with the future preservation and guidance of that which God had so carefully brought to perfection there was the same reason why he should have remarkable eminence and authority then as why he should not at all have it before The same course we may see taken in the founding of the Christian Church also for they during the time of their owne persecution were as their weakness required in a Theocraty too that is to say guided by the express direction of our Saviour himself given to his Apostles during the time he was on earth and particularly as being conversant with them for the space of fourty dayes and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdome of God And in those things wherein his direction was wanting they were to wait for the promise of the Father even the promise of the holy Ghost who should lead them into all truth Thereby came those spiritual Guides and Priests of the primitive Church to be sometime called Ministers and Pastors but commonly Presbyter from which the Dutch word Priester and our English word Priest are derived being a notion in the sence of antiquity importing Seniority jurisdiction and power whereby they coming to be enabled notwithstanding the
women but because these little ones or these least in the Kingdome of heaven have as elsewhere shewed received from Christ the honour and trust of binding and loosing which Iohn had not therefore were they greater then he And so again when Christ brings in himself speaking at the last judgement he useth the like expressions Inasmuch as ye have done it or not done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it or not done it unto me By one of the least we are to understand such a single person to be meant as more eminently representing Christ may through obedience to him in Christs stead make charity extensive and useful to all occasions and not think that Christ made that charity best which was done but to any one ordinary man or that the particular works there mentioned were all that needed But rather that here as elsewhere these additions of least and little are added in the singular number to Children and Bretâ—ren that together with the distinction of them from other children and brethren he might both set forth that extraordinary humility that should be in all governours and might also relate litterally to that mean estate of his Disciples the Churches present governours who being probably to be most persecuted of any other therefore are those instances of charity brought in which become men in that condition That these Epithetes of little and least when added to children do both signifie persons substituted in Christs authority and was also given to teach humility and love especially one toward another will lastly appear by those passages discribed by the other Evangelist Saint Iohn because spoken while Christ is deligating his Apostles as is related in the 13 chapter and afterward For in these chapters his speech of little children cannot be taken otherwise then as a proper address to them By which and by that fact of washing their feet we may finde how desirous he is that that great power he had given them should not exalt them above one another but make them ready by that his example to do all loving offices one towards another since none of them could be so great over one another as he that had so done was over them all But although here as elsewhere he is most copious in putting them in mind of that duty of meekness and humility which becometh their large power yet that a great power was delegated unto them appeares in the beginning of the Chapter Now when Iesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father that is knowing he himself could be no longer the living light or guide of the world he therefore thought now time to delegate his own which were in the world and whom for that service he had chosen out of the world And therefore Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God that is knowing he had finished the work he had to do and being to return to him that gave him this mission and authority he then thinks it time to take care of his Churches charge in his absence and to go on with his mission of others in his name as he had been before sent in his fathers name This in the other Evangelists runs As my Father sent me so send I you and whosoever heareth you heareth me and the like but this beloved Disciple after his usual manner coucheth all under the notion of love And therefore their power or mission is amongst other things parabolically set downe As my Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue in my love that is as I have power had from God the Father as his beloved son so shall you from me as my beloved Disciples And this his deputation or mission thus given them he more clearly expresseth in his prayer As thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world All which and other considerations before spoken of in confirming the Churches power under her owne Ministers should methinks be sufficient to stop the haste of such as do so headily obtrude their owne private interpretation of Scripture against that which is publike and made by lawful authority For unless they can make some extraordinary mission appear whereby God hath something to say by them not said before why should men be so beguiled as to think them not subject to like passions and infirmities with those that have the interpretation of Gods word already And truly their crying out for obedience to Gods word onely and yet proposing it as such when guided according to their sence onely imports none other then an ayme thereby to engross all honour and authority to themselves only And therefore that command appears at this time extreamly necessary to put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers to obey Magistrates to be ready to every good work to speak evil of no man to be no brawlers but gentle shewing meekness to all men And a greater truth cannot be spoken nor a moâ—e seasonable admonition given then to mark them that cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which they have learned and to avoid them for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their owne belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple For so long as the foundation is not destroyed so long as Christ is not deceived but our faith is entire in him the prosecution of particular sects under that of Paul Apollo or Cephas and our hatred varience emulations wrath strife seditions envyings murthers c. are works of the flesh not of the spirit and are because we are carnal and walk as men But yet because we are to know that it is not faith alone that is our duty and can secure our salvation but faith and love or faith that worketh holy love we will now speak more fully of that grace of love or charity which must be joyned to keep us innocent and also of that other grace of obedience which is requisite to make charity effectual CHAP. VII Of love and obedience and of our state of innocence thereby TO be sensible of good or happiness is to be living and to be the more hereof sensible is to be more living For as there is a positive dignity by sensation it self that is of sensitive above Inanimates so is there a comparative exellence therein again arising from degree thereof Whereby each thing stands in degree of happiness and excellence differenced by that degree of vigour and intensness in apprehension and also by degree of steadiness and continuance in possession Now as experience in the natural course of things doth inform that in all progression there must be a perfection and summety so in this case
proceed to Scripture proofs in these things and in farther confirmation of the precedent chapter beginning with some out of the New Testament Saint Paul having declared somewhat to the Ephesians of his knowledge in the mystery of Christ doth it that thereby all men may see what was the fellowship of the mistery that is both the fellowship of Christian precepts amongst themselves and our fellowship or communion with Christ through obedience Which mistery from the beginning of the world hath bin hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ that is heretofore hid under the legal observations but is now as the unsearchable riches of Christ preached amongst the Gentiles To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places that is unto the higher powers seated and deputed by Christ might be known by the Church that is by the vertue of illumination and authority given to them through Christs headship of the Church the manifold wisdome of God And therefore Saint Pauls prayer was that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith so that they being rooted and grounded in love they may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height that is this mistery of the love of Christ which passeth all knowledge Namely that they may know how it should be effected and kept up by those that walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called who must do it with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace that is in obedience to our owne Christian head which is the only bond of peace For by means of the building and foundation laid by these Christian heads Apostles and Prophets as then they were called given for the perfecting of the Saints and for the work of the ministry we come to be united as Citizens of the houshold of God or Catholick Church of which Christ himself is the chief corner stone The body of Christ being in this sort to be framed and built together in this life till we come to be past fear of being tossed to and fro of every winde of doctrine even by being come to the unity of faith through the knowledge of the Son of God or to have attained that measure and stature of fulness which is to be from Christ himself expected Of which Christian submission and obedience having set downe positive precepts in the names of Husbands Parents and Masters he finally exhorts them to be still furnished with the whole armour of God that is faith love and obedience that they may be able to stand against the wils of the Devil That is these his most crafty wiles and insinuations whereby we come to be tempted by him as an Angel of light under religious pretences to acts of obedience even by the Prince of the power of the aire the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience For saith he we wrestle not against flesh and blood meaning against fleshly rules or Masters for against the works of the flesh we must wrestle but against principalities and powers agaist the rules of the darkness of the world that is against spiritual wickedness in in high or heavenly places Or against the wills of the Devil working in such as under the colour of legal or moral precepts called usually darkness by their owne high power in the Church would countenance disobedience and so overthrow the mystery of Christ by the mysterie of iniquity For these are to know as Saint Paul saith to Tymothy that the end of the commandment is Charity or peaceable submission and obedience for charity sake out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned From which saith he some having swearved are turned aside unto vain jangling that is unprofitable questionings of legalty desiring to be Teachers of the law when they should hearers understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully that is an obeyer of legal authority whereby to retain innocence and not as judge to become guilty Knowing this that the law is not made for the rsghteous or just man that is to condemn a just or obedient man but for the lawless and disobedient for ungodly and sinners c. Where all wickedness being reckoned after as subsequent and attendant on disobedience and by opposing the disobedient and lawless against the righteous man we must understand obedience and righteousness to be contivertible For as the fruit of the Spirit is love so the fruit thereof again is joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no law that is law of condemnation And this mistical way of accomplishing our innocence is farther repeated to the Collossians that their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mistery of God and of the father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge In which words we may plainly see that our greatest comfort ariseth from love in our hearts and from hence have we the full assuranc of understanding of right obedience to Gods law to the acknowledgement of the mistery of God even the mistical way of justification whereby being inwardly made ready and pliable to perform all acts of benificence we by our conformity and obedience to this one precept should contrary to the doctrine of the darkness of this world be estated truely innocent In which words the general name of God is first attributed to the holy Ghost for that he is the more proper efficient in the understanding of this mistery as also of the acknowledgement of the Father and of Christ. so that in participation of the Godhead by this mistery we are made comprehensive of all the reall treasures of wisdome and knowledge in being thereby guided through Gods light and not our own Which as the Apostle spake least any should beguile them with entising words that is Religious pretence which is most enticing of any so he joyes in beholding the fruit of this inward love their order and stedfastness of their faith in Christ that is their peace and agreement in the faith And thereupon proceeds to admonish them least any man spoil them through Philolosophy and vain deceit meaning through the Greekish popular Philosophy of their Country teaching righteousness to be attained by their many precepts of morall justice or vain legall deceit of the Iews amongst them after the Tradition of men after the Rudiments of the world or worldly wisdome and not after Christ in the simplicity of this Gospell precept of obedience For we cannot offend God whilst we are obedient to him
he sits not down disconsolate under the burthen for he knows who hath called him to the combate and he will be thereupon always ready to entertain it He was not he knows born for himself onely nor can the sense of injuries to himself draw him from being publikely beneficial even although he get nothing but reproach for his labour as knowing that through this difficulty also his reward will be higher He he is still looking into all these things with the eys of love and publike Charity whereby he stands always magnanimous and resolved to undergo any thing for the good of those that bear the image of their Master and that according to such rules as those that have publike charge under him shall direct For each true Christians love and patience must through his obedience to the head of his own Church make useful that general end of humane peace and preservation for which Christian Patience was by Christ himself enjoyned to the whole Church and therefore he sits not down sullenly and discontentedly like a stubborn childe under his task and duty that will act no more because he cannot do as he likes Because he findes himself crossed in what is enjoyned him to do or in the measure thereof he will therefore by way of murmur and regret run into the extream thereof Because he hath been in the world crossed therefore like those children that are fallen out with their play-fellows he will hide himself and play no more And as thus his Patience could not have continued and been rightly steered without Charity so neither Charity without it It is not as we said every natural propension and voluntary beneficence that can of it self be called the labor of love for that may be the pleasure of love and Pride may be its Parent But when nature shal be holpen by the grace of obedience when that Patience that was enjoyned for publike benefit shal also wait on publike direction then comes he to give a lively testimony of the Grace of Regeneration For he knows he may decline harm but cannot duty Nature obligeth us to one Religion to the other Where he is strucken on the right cheek where the spirit of the Ruler doth rise upon him he must not leave his place the performance of Loyalty and Service to his rightful Superior although that he know that through false information he is for the present bent against him as know that he is thereunto called by him that hath his heart in his hand and can turn it which way he pleaseth Therefore now when I shall have so far subdued rebellious Nature as to submit unto and undergo my task with patience not as out of necessity but out of duty When our of no other reason but because God hath commanded it I shall obey what is enjoyned me and what I might with my first Parents finde Arguments against in a presumptuous knowledge of good and evil then it is that the strong man begins to be bound by a stronger then he When in the exercise and expression of my Love and Charity I suffer not my self to be swayed by interest or natural propension in the choice of the object or apportioning of my love but can be content as being in Christ now born again and through Grace become a new creature to love all men as bearing Gods image and more especially Christians and such as are made conformable to the image of his son and that without the exclusion of any under the apprehension of enemies or differing from me in judgement or opinion then it is that I may esteem my self renewed in the spirit of my minde and may gather a well grounded assurance of particular mercy and adoption for that as Christianity is by this sign of the Cross differenced from other Religions so may I by this my discreet and obedient taking of it up assure my self that more then Nature or Chance hath confirmed me herein For if in love to Christ and the Peace and welfare of his Church a Christian can be for a while content to be in subjection to these his Fathers in the flesh he thereby gives the best proof that he will much more be willing to be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live Even to that God who as an earnest of the acceptance of his endeavors had assisted him with his Grace of illumination and perseverance herein and thereby assured him of a blessed release and restoration into the glorious liberty of the sons of God when he shall have fought his fight and finished that his course of cleansing which was by divine Providence appointed him in the Purgatory of this life Not that we would be hereby thought bounding that inexhaustible riches of Gods mercy as though it stood confined to these or the like means in the appointment of particular mens salvations but as setting down the best proofs of a true and well grounded Faith where these things are practicable For although Faith cannot be good without Works nor Works without Christian Obedience yet God forbid we should exclude infants from salvation for want of them I say therefore that there is no true confidence and glory save in the Cross of Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world even until I come to be a new Creature by bearing in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus And as many as walk according to this rule that is endeavouring to reform the rebellion and stubbornness of the world by their own exemplary Patience Peace be on them and Mercy and upon the Israel of God By the passed discourses we may gather how corrupted and depraved nature comes to be perfected and restored by Grace we may see how that former way we had with other natural Agents of glorifying God in our contents and pleasures being forfeited we come now through endurance of afflictions to arive at such a state of delight abstracted from sensuality as to be enabled in the condition of new Creatures to honor him in a supernatural way in such measures as naturally we could not do For we taking on us our own guidance and so not being content with the enjoyments of what delights natural sense did outwardly afford common to us with other sensitives and also not trusting to general Providence like other things but rather to our own contrivances and stocks of Propriety could not be rightly said in the exultations of pleasures thence proceeding to be thanking and praising God like them who in their simplicity of not undertaking to know the particular Author of their benefits or have stores of their own did as his Creatures and workmanship expresly though not intentionally praise him in every thing they did but then most when as sensitives in their singings playings and other ways of rejoycings they did most eminently confess and acknowledge his bounty and goodness by this their more lively resentment of benefit In regard whereof
namely of our proneness to derogate from God through conceit of our Pâ—oprieties we may finde reason why in the Old-Testament where promises run in a temporal strain there should be such frequent admonitions of rejoycing before him with the first fruits and best of them For as else we in our pleasures had but thanked our selves so this being done we are then to provide what our souls lusteth after and the more we rejoyce before God the better But this course and way of honoring God seemed not yet refined and abstracted enough for cleering us of the old leaven and therefore in the Gospel our Saviour will have us wholly renouncing this trust to Propriety and with the Sparrows and Lillies of the field trust for our food and cloathing to general Providence again How this may be done by using them as if we used them not hath been partly heretofore shewed by declaring that we should not reckon our selves such absolute proprietors as to serve Mammon more or equal with God but should esteem our interests in them but so conditionate and usu-fructuary as not to take off our obligation of thanks to God in every particular we receive For when I can so forget and relinquish my trust and relyance on mine own Propriety as to count every new enjoyment to be as a new favor from God received I shall then be freed from Idolatry to Mammon and while remaining willing to relinquish my Propriety to Gods Ministers dispose in order to Gods service or publike good I may then reckon all lawful enjoyments and pleasure thereby attained to be sent me of God And so by making worldly things instrumental for the encrease of my joy in him I shall then make good that saying of Solomon There is nothing better for a man then that he should eat and drink and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor this I saw was from the hand of God And so again Go thy way eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy works We may then rejoyce and again rejoyce in the Lord when our moderation should be thus manifest and having banished from us the afflicting cares of things of this world place no other regard to them then as to things that were first obtained from God by supplication and received from him with thanksgiving Wherefore now for our spiritual way of pleasing God by our pleasures how great cause have we to acknowledge and admire that goodness and wisdom of his that whilest he is extolling his mercy in not taking the forfeiture of our inability of praising him expresly and sufficiently enough in every particular pleasure we enjoyed he had contrived this way of satisfying his justice without our destruction or subversion of the course of Nature formerly established For since in these pleasures that arise in us after our state of Regeneration it cannot be said that they come from depraved Nature or a cause barely Natural because effected in us by that which is rather contrary thereunto namely from what is in it self painful and troublesom it must therefore follow that in the pleasures and contents we now express after this renewing of our mindes we must in them praise God in a most spiritual and divine manner as being now again freed from the corruption of the old Adam In this new birth the Holy-Ghost is our Parent by whom presenting unto us the promises of the Gospel we come by the immortal seed of the word to be begotten unto a lively hope Which hope causing us more and more to adhere and be incorporate into Christ comes then to be called Faith By which we may say we come to receive our quickening and vivifycation After which we may call afflictions persecutions c. the throws and pangs of child-birth and those hands from whom we have them we may call our Midwives When we are brought into this new Kingdom of the Church then is the Grace of love to be that food and nourishment we are afterwards to receive and grow by at least it must serve us as that spiritual stomach whereby all things must be digested to our use and benefit Which time of new-birth being the time for casting forth this strong man armed by a stronger then he makes it to each one a time of more remarkable trouble not so much for the quantity of affliction as the strugling conflict made within us by that spirit now raging most when he is to be thrown out But this is not all for there is in all of us states and degrees of weaning necessarily following afterwards by the sufferings whereof we come by little and little farther to shake off those remaining corruptions of our former Nature until being at last so throughly rooted and grounded in love as to be spiritually united to God by our blessed Mediator we come then to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. In which second Adam our enjoyment of Eden or pleasure is now as innocent as it was at first to Adam in the Garden before his fall the reluctance and curse of the Creature that is the punishment of our sin which would not let us enjoy pleasure the natural way proving now the instrument for possession of pleasure in this way For they having their sting and venom taken out come to be but bruising of our heels by the goodness of that God that causeth the intended malice and mischief of them to light on the heads of that Serpent and his Agents For when the old Adam with the affections and lusts hath been so throughly crucified in us that we can neither look on our sufferings as ills nor their Authors as enemies we may be able then to say that the life we now live in the flesh we will live by the Faith of the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us But now although it be our parts always to be ayming at this mastery and perfection in which regard our life is compared to a race or warfare yet until we have in death concluded our sufferings and conquered our last enemy we shall never be able with the Captain of our salvation to say it is finished but must whilst we live be subject to divers fresh assaults and encounters one while provoking us to presumption through abundance of revelation one while to despair through thorns in the flesh in such measure that we shall need to be still taking to our assistance not only the inward weapons of humility and love but the outward exercises of all such religious duties and performances as may again strengthen these Graces or any way direct and incourage us in a steady course of recovery by the degrees of hope and faith and so re-estate us into the former degree of adherence until this faith the substance of things not seen shall grow into the fruition of God by love the
saying of Core In which place by Cain and Baalim we may understand revenge and coveâ—ousness the two ordinary spurs to Rebellion personated as in Core we may see pride and rebellion it self brought by Gods justice to deserved punishment and so also counterfeit and dissembling prophesie to come to the like end in Baalim These are spots in your feasts of Charity when they feed with you that is they are such as would overthrow Charity by overthrowing Government and serving their own ends and feeding themselves without fear thereof Clouds they are without water carried about of winds that is all their pretensions of publike good consists in popular oratory whose fruit withereth twice dead plucked up by the roots being spiritually or civilly rotten or dead members they are sit only as thorns for the fire and destruction By raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame we may understand popular insurrections which are but to their own shame and by wandring stars we may conceive their giddâ— leaders for whose unrepented sin is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever when according to Enochs prophesie the lord shall come with ten thousand and of his Saints to execute judgement upon all to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed that is of all things done in disobedience to Gods commands and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners or sinners not fearing God have spoken against him that is against dominion set up by him For these mockers or Antichrists are murmurers complainers walking after their own lusts and their mouth speaketh great swelling words having mens persons in admiration because of andvantage All which sets forth rebellion in its cause and growth to the life but the last especially namely hope of private advantage this is that which still makes us cry up the heads of Rebellion and their Cause The like description of these Antichrists hath St. Peter but he is something more express in setting forth the way of their prevalence amongst us namely through promises of Liberty and such things as are taking with flesh and blood And this again they do as under colour of moral equity or legal right for saith he when they speak great swelling words of vanity as of the peoples paramount power and Authority they allure through the lusts of the flesh through much wantonness that is through temptations thereby to enjoy our lusts and wanton appetites those that were clean escaped from them who live in error while they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption That is although under countenance of their right to be interpreting the Law themselves they do promise liberty unto them yet it falls out otherwise for of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought in bondage For if after they have escaped the pollutions of this world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that is Pride and Lust which causeth pollution through the Gospel of love they are again entangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them then the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness then after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them namely that one Commandment which Christ gave for all the rest when he said these things I command you that ye love one another Saint Paul also warns Timothy how that in the latter times some should depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing spirits and Doctrines of Devils that is there shall come Entâ—usiasts whom the devil shall beguile under the shape of an Angel of light and that these shall thereupon speak lies in hypocrisie or deceive others under shew of Religion Being men so wilfully set to entangle and ensnare the Conscienres of others and lead them to the ways of destruction as if their own Consciences were seared with hot irons even by prohibiting as unlawful what was in it self indifferent or lawfully enâ—oyned But more particularly he afterwards sets down the nature and practises of these men that by their unsociable dispositions shall make perilous times in the last days when he calls them lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God Of all which this latter age hath had but too true and sad experience to be the fruits of those that are still putting on a form of godliness and denying the power thereof in their lives and actions even whilst they are truely found lovers of themselves and their own pleasures more then God by their covetousness and pride being lead to blaspheme and dishonor his name amongst men by their daily disobedience to their Christian Parents and superiors and thereupon also to be unthankful and unholy in their lives And while they stand partially affected to one another under the notion of more spiritual brotherhood they come to forget all natural ties and relations to the breach of all Truce and Commerce and also by being make-bates incontinent and fierce in their despightful usage and censure of such as be good and peaceable they shew themselves to be Traitors heady high-minded c. But when they are set down for such as creep into houses plainly shewing their love to Conventicles and private Meetings and there leading captive silly women laden with sins that is such weak dispositions as are by them frighted with their Sermons of damnation and also such as are led away with divers lusts or listening after novelty of Doctrine such as are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth they are yet more lively set forth For how should truth or obedience be known when these men are ready with their seditious incantations to oppose and resist the ground and piller thereof the Church and that publike Ministers of Christ that should uphold it after the same manner that Iannes and Iambres formerly withstood Mosses Being reprobate concerning the Faith or having but a false and reprobate Faith for want of that true tryal of Faith the work of Patience and work of love and so being not able to endure persecutions they shew themselves to be none of those that will live godly in Christ Jesus but evil men and seducers waxing worse and worse deceiving and being deceived But our comfort is in the confinement of their prevalence they shall proceed no farther that is no farther then with such silly Auditors for their folly shall be manifest to all men as theirs also was they shall be discovered in their plots against Christs Ministers as those that formerly opposed Gods Ministery in Moses And now farther to prove
our partial that is to say our short and weak Methods and Collections we are subject to proceed too hastily to the liking or condemning of a Government or Governor upon the like sudden apprehension as the Barbarians did of S. Paul who must one while be no better then a Murtherer presently again concluded for no less then a god from single indications and accidents and such as had no coherence with that which they would apply them unto Upon which ground it may be observed that Princes and great men are by vulgar judgements never permitted to go under a middle censure they are still extreamly good or extreamly bad For being by some sudden accident brought to alter that conceit they had before entertained as suddenly and ungroundedly of his vertues or vices it is no wonder if they hereupon become as hasty and extream in their censures of him this way as they did the other way For it being to be supposed natural unto man to affect farther discovery and knowledge it comes therefore to pass that the delight in contemplation and prosecution of what is now in view keeps him for the time inconsiderate of what more may be had and so it must consequently leave the weak and empty comprehension as full and peremptory as to its self and its own satisfaction as he that hath more and better ground to go upon The which we find verified upon mens first undertaking to read and expound the Scripture the many examples there found of Gods miraculous attestation and reward of some such as have been eminent for goodness and piety presently raises in us a conceit of our own deserts herein also and men are usually thereupon ready to fancy and expect even to a degree of temptation that God should in some like manner appear in the honoring and acknowledging of them And upon a contrary rule again finding many examples therein of Gods displeasure and punishment of men for oppression injustice and other notorious wickedness they are as ready out of the conceit of their own wrong suffering and subjection at the hand of their own Enemies or Superiors to make a paralel of the one with the other and think that neither Patience nor Obedience is on their part due to these so apparent enemies to God and goodness as their prejudice and ignorance doth now judge to these so apparent enemies to God and goodness as their prejudice and ignorance doth now judge them to be The which is most especially instigated from the example and insinuations of persons of greater repute for learning or judgement then themselves who having many times ambitious or factious aims are ready as we said to cast before them such forms of examination as shall be sure to leave a dislike in them towards the actions and commands of their Superiors and consequently intice them to siding with them which must prevail because they are so far defective of observation and experience of their own and consequently entice them to siding with them which must prevail because they are so far defective of observation and experience of their own as to find and frame just Methods to themselves and so to examine how far these and other particulars are or are not agreeable and comprisable within the true rules and limits of Religion and Polity And of these kinds of deceits taken up upon too easie examination and credulity I can speak more confidently having had so great experience of them in my self and that in both kinds For I believe that no man was more averse to Episcopacy and Church Orders and Ceremonies and such like then my self in my youth and while I continued to converse with such only as had these things in detestation and all because the method of examination which was then put into me for to try cases of this kind by as to their approach to evil was to search whether Papist used them or no. So that I not having then knowledge or experience enough to examine how those things stood grounded in themselves or to understand that Papists even as they were Christians could not choose but be in the right in somethings was thereupon in danger to abandon some Christian truths and duties because I found them within my rule of dislike as being acted and believed by Papists Being once prepossessed with these and such like short Rules and Methods of distinction and adjudication I was quickly tainted also with the Pharisaical humour of judging for my self and those of my belief against such as differed thinking that all that were not as invective against the thing called Popery which truly for a good while I understood not and as conversant in Sermons and some select phrases and demeanors were notwithstanding their unblamable lives otherwise and that according to Christian faith to be esteemed but bare moral men Their outstripping me in the real duties of general love and beneficence to men and in the rendring God more honorable by their publike and more solemn adoration and acknowledgement of him before men were not as I thought arguments comparable to prove them of the number of the godly and Saints as were those Rules of distinction which I had framed to my self And so again in matter of Government and Political speculation none more pleased and taken then my self with all those fine Maxims and Rules of Examination which in the beginning of our unhappy troubles were set on foot for tryal and control of the actions of Princes My thought I was now much elevated in my rank and ability being enabled to give a just censure of all that was done by one so much above me and whom I had ignorantly hitherto thought should have guided me When he acted in Civil matters the Law of the Land was to be his bound and director and when in affairs of Religion the Scripture If I had staid there it had been well No as I was told that it was not fit that Kings should be unlimitted and arbitrary in their rule So also that his single judgement or conscience were not to be trusted herein neither therefore I did next fancy that the Judges were to determine the meaning of the Law and the Divines of Scriptures In which I was not yet so far out of the way but what a few caveats might set right But I proceeded farther still in pressing onwards that I at last thought none to be trusted in these high powers but the people themselves The Judges and Divines alas they might be corrupted but a community could not wrong it self And therefore over all as the Paramont Power I conceived there was to be a Parliament to give final determination and see execution done This at first I thought to import the King in Parliament afterwards I was lead to believe it was the King and Parliament afterwards it came to be the two houses of Parliament which were apprehended to be the Supreme Authority And as the pleasing speculations of paction and derived
as affections upon repetition and authority only they must take their hazards to be more or less true and reasonable as these figures were more or less fit for them which the party makes use of in his fancy to conceive them by for the diffeence of abilities in apprehension of abstracted things wil be in choice of fittest Figures For example as we have helped our selves in the conceipt of superiour bodies and their postures and Motions by representing them in globes and spheres by remembrance of whose shape and linemeants we can remember and conceive the others for so if we would examine the question of diurnal motion between Copernicus and others we are then fancying ing the Earth and Heavens turning round as we have seen these Globes do And so to make us mindful and observant of matters of high and special import as Coronations Ordinations witnessing of Deeds between party and party or the like there are certain remarkable tokens exhibited unto the eyes by whose order and sensible method of performance the thing by them expressed comes to have proportionable esteem in our fancy above other things that have not such ceremony used about them Nay of such force are these sensible expressions that Religion it self would soon vanish without their use in many things For although all our outward worship and expression of devotion and obedience as Sacraments Prayer Alms c. may be called Ceremonial as they are but expressions of that inward root of charity and love of God we have in our hearts yet must they be all acknowledged as necessary to the quickning supportation thereof And so again to the supportation and enlivening of these must such Ceremonies as are unto them proper be allowed also our minds and devotion being not otherwise able to conceive and attend what they are or do import And as for those that do so bitterly inveigh against Ceremonies as humane inventions for such they must be as heretofore noted if any be they are not themselves able to keep up their own devotions without them and although they make not so much use of expressions to the eye they requite it in sedulity and constancy of what is performed by the ear and the numbring Sermons and other select phrases of theirs as Papists do their prayers upon beads serves with them to the like end namely to keep their devotion in exercise Besides all men to secure themselves against this strong and importunate affection of fear must always be ready according to the pressure thereof in their consciences to encrease the other affection of hope by all such actions as they conceive to be their duties which prevailing upon and passing into affections by itteration and custom and so much the sooner and more firmly doing it as they are more sensible and methodical in themselves we need not wonder why those that most decline and cry out against Ceremonies and Set-forms of Worship as superstitious are themselves most superstitious that is most fearful and scrupulous of having in general or in any particular served God so or otherwise then they ought for as there is no comparison in assurance of a work done betwixt those evidences that flow from sight and those that come from hearing so the performance of holy duties consisting in actions there must remain greater security and satisfaction of conscience to him that hath performed in most sensible solemn and orderly manner those duties he conceived were enjoyned him then to him that imployeth not himself in practise of his devotions in such serious and deliberate form To search a little more nearly into the cause why affections should be so strongly raised in us from reiteration of Tenents and inculcation of Doctrines received from others only of which we never had experience in our selves nor are impressible from proper Figures we are to consider that although those collections can be only properly called Science which do arise from real figurate and perceptible objects and were thereupon gathered into notions and thence into affections even because in this case onely the affections in their disputes amongst themselves and also for the satisfaction of others by tradition and giving a reason or demonstration of things may have recourse to the brain to receive a judicious and deliberate determination according to such evidences as the senses have there laid up yet as to the introducing of an affection the often repetition of any thing to us under the Classis of hope or fear prevails towards the belief of what is thereupon offered and presented in as high manner as if it had been impressed by a figurate object of its own nay more in all likelihood because the ground and reason which it takes for its support to wit these passions of hope and fear are there strongly placed and proved already Whereupon being set so much onward on his way as towards affirmation and proof there is nothing can hinder its progress towards assurance but plain sensible contradictions or strong preoccupations As we formerly instanced how a repetition of strokes made by an Egg or other like thing on the forehead would by degrees make as great a tumor as one greater blow given by a stronger or harder thing so may we conceive onward that by successive continuance of these strokes the same may be still more raised untill it exceed by far that other swelling taken from the one only stroke especially when it is to work upon a tumor and impression already made like as Tenets and Doctrines usually doe insinuating themselves as under the consent and command of prenotion and demonstration already conceived and assented unto by the help of Similitudes Types and Figures That blow which Logick gives with its conclusion from premises newly represented however it may for the sudden strongly affect by its more pointing and entire stroke yet can it not raise an impression or swelling answerable to those repeated blows made upon the affections and passions themselves whereby as building upon a groundwork already made and laid it may well be supposed to proceed more thrivingly and assuredly for setting up a compleat Fabrick then can be expected from a Figure and Idea impressed by it self which must on the other side be supposed to be continually declining in its presence and force in the fancy for want of progression or repair For a Syllogism can give but one blow and so depending on figurate induction cannot produce higher assent then they can yield which in wise men may be by observation contradicted and by fools for want thereof unapprehended Whereas relying and grounding upon the strength of affections already made a discreet pressure can never fail of receipt and encrease Logick must clear his way to the will by the understanding and must appeal to the Indicative mood before it can make use of the Imparative when as those things that enter as Rhetorical impressions by their insinuation and mixture with those affections and passions that do already rule
is of far more advantage to knowledge then honor and that not only as more strongly terrifying and engaging but also as more universally doing it For there are more things which in conscience I stand bound to perform then those which honor takes notice of whereas there is nothing truly honorable but what conscience doth encourage and accompany even as its best guide and surveyor And this especially in matters of society and our moral deportments therein because men out of interest or prejudicate custom or education may make things honorable which are not and may also make that honorable at one time which was not so at another the which may prove thereby also dangerous to mislead us in matters of duty and obedience Whereas by a due regard had unto conscience we shall be always kept both upright and steady Yet then again by that which some call Conscience men may be both kept and led into error for if Religion be made to consist on a few slothful observances or if by dividing mens duties you separate some of them from the religious tye of conscience and so make their concern less Or if lastly through flattery men be made proud of what they have already by too soon assuming to themselves the title of Saints or believing they cannot sin or fall away or the like then I say knowledge must want of its extent by how much each one is more easily satisfied then otherwise he would be And from hence we seldom find great heirs notwithstanding the advantage education might afford them become so eminent for wisdom or ability as those whose harder breeding and greater wants engage them to invent and study means of supply and encrease for the first thinking only of enjoying what they have already grow proud without search of more honor So for Religion too strict relyance on set tasks may well induce slothfulness nor it is not zeal alone that can attain wisdom because it may be too implicit and negligent that is it may be placed in the observance of a few private directions and precepts and not in the general observation of all devout and charitable actions according to the Laws and Rules of his Country And therefore when many men appearing of great tenderness and scrupelousity are yet known to be fools it ariseth for that they as all fools else are slothfully implicite and want such general scrupelousness or enquiry of their own as they seem to have For when they with most ardency enveigh against the opinion and practices of some other person or order it is but out of implicite belief of others and not out of precedent enquiry and satisfaction of their own no not in these very things they practise or condemn And their devotion being still fixed but upon a few observations and the rest carelesly rejected as abominable they must so far want wisdom as they want general zeal and enquiry and can at most be but religious craft And therefore as in covetousness and appetites of less general engagement their discovery can amount to no more then a stare of craftiness even so when these greater engagers are not closely followed they produce neither wisdom nor craft in any perfection We see then that to resist affections and passions altogether is to dilete our natural and individual beings For if the diffused observations of things should not at last collect themselves into affections it would not be possible to have any promptness towards pursuit desire for want of present appearance of former particulars therein concerned or to have any steady rule for discourse within for want of union and agreement amongst the notified observations towards determination but they being now transmitted into affections carry so general and ready a sway in judging and willing of all things else that it is not to be supposed that the doing or not doing having or not having of any thing can be equally sought or avoided and not differently according to the degrees of instigation from them proceeding And from this ground do passions proceed which as they rise from affections as being heightned from extraordinary concern in objects so is one passion generative of an other And therefore the wisest men although it be part of their wisdom to conceal them have the most and most eager passions which may be easily proved bp their breaking out upon pressure or sudden occasioâ—s wherein discretion cannot or is not warned of concealing them Affections work more inward passions more outward because I must like or dislike first before I can act accordingly and therefore mens affections are seldom truly to be discovered but by their passions even as those again are best by their actions Actions without passion differ from passionate ones but in measure for all proceed from affections the first only proceed from affections counterpoised by comparison of one to another which we call discourse and reason these from one violent affection alone When the affections move toward the enjoying any thing called desire the prosecution outward is accompanied with the passions of joy love jealousie envy ambition covetousness c. and when they are averse to any thing called hatred they are in their outward means of avoiding it accompanied with grief anger scorn malice revenge c. Amongst all which Government finds so few steady supporters as she is forced to make use of those including and commanding passions of hope and fear under whose force she is able by means of rewards and punishments to keep the other within rule We cannot forbid our selves affections by reason for they and reason are all one for as they did first proceed from the same root of in induction and experiment so when they come to provoke to action they point at the same end my particular good But this consideration of my particular good may from new observation forbid the prosecution of an affection in some present thing And affections if they be violent do turn into passions and so sometimes awake a contrary affection to stand up against execution if his enjoyment be more then proportionable to the others and this may be then called an inward reason for so doing as a new argument or induction may be called an outward For the many passed inconveniencies sustained through violent prosecutions create in us a ready fear to make stoppage till farther enquiry but if against this pressing affection no other affection appear then what have heretofore been remitted as unvaluable to stop the other then this affection passeth uncontrolled afterwards as to that affection these two affections uniting and becoming one as experimented inductions do And so affections become satiate upon use when particular objects have not proficiency so as to persist in pleasing by variety even as observation grows satiate and weak upon itteration of the same inductions and experiments also So then will differs from other affections as a double to a single and is the issue of two reasons or affections aiming at
very instruments and agents which are now commanded and set on work even so the benefit thence arising being intentionally theirs voluntary creatures may in the performance of his Edicts be well said to be sometimes guided by hope also and that not only because hope cannot be then so much esteemed the Commanders end as the commandeds but also in reference to that greater power and readiness of reward and retribution which is in God above others Next unto whom Princes as most representing him on earth in Office and Power and as having honor their end whereby in their commands to be kept from justling with their subjects in the end of their obedience may be also said to have obedience given them with more willingness for those very hopes sakes or rather because of hope to be given with less reluctance for there may be degrees of aversion in dislike of one Government more then another but none of willingness towards the choice of any Government as Government which as we said must make his steady reliance on fear And it is observable that in these very Laws and Edicts that do make their enforcement through hope and promise of reward which are but very few in comparison of what build upon terror and punishment they may be reckoned as grounded on fear also as being but negative to that and seldom other then promises of exemption or limition in the execution of Government and Power so as not to proceed to substraction of some benefit as well as to the imposition of some evil as by those examples of promises of obedience made in the Old Testament under the Theoraty and that made by Saul of making his fathers house free in Israel that should slay Goliah and by observation of the usual constitution of other Nation may appear For as hope as we formerly said cannot be without fear of loss and missing so in things already possessed fear to to lose is antecedent to hope to enjoy and is thereupon its ground also And as for that mixture and influence which love carrieth towards obedience it is to be considered that when like other irrational agents we do by natural propension and instinct only pursue in any thing those general rules of providence whereby particular and mutual preservation is aymed at in those cases men being looked upon like other Sensitives as involuntary or in small degree so the name of obedience is not to them assignable in a proper and strict construction because for want of a known explicite precept and sufficiency of understanding to apprehend sense of duty and direction in relation to a superior power and for want of understanding to discover that oeconomy and relation creatures bear towards God as well as one towards another they may thereupon be said to want as well the tye of fear as of love also When again or so far at least as we do attain to angelical perfection of comprehension and understanding so as throughly to know as well all the several relations which creatures do mutually bear one towards another as also that relation and respect they all of them joyntly bear towards God their fountain and original in that respect again as no external precept and direction seems needful to provoke to do or avoid that which its own understanding hath cleared unto it already so may that performance of duty which was practised and given in that condition be called love indeed which cannot be in the other So that to man alone as seated in a middle rank between creatures irrational and throughly intelligent this notion of obedience is most due even because he in those multitude of appetites raised from observation and converse with other things and want of true knowledge of his reciprocal relation to other things together with his and their joynt subordination and dependance on God is in both respects to have his love and obedience led on and directed by express Law and sense of duty In which his middle station as having here that more perfect comprehension which Angels now have and himself shall hereafter have but in part communicated unto him he may also in some degree be said to be guided by love in those commands which he performes and that not only as led by natural and charitable propension but knowingly and gratefully led by sense of obligation to God even as also sensible creatures below us and whom we have occasion to imploy may in our discipline over them be stiled obedient when brought to the performance of our wills by awe and terror There being nothing but sense of duty and gratitude that can reconcile love and fear because else obedience and fear do as in their own nature draw on hatred And in heaven alone they shall be throughly coincident when our inlightned understandings shall be able truly to apprehend Gods favour and our own steady condition of perseverance and continuance therein and then only can it be truly said of us in our obedience that perfect love casteth out fear But here it is to be considered as was formerly noted that all things at first and while they are strange do move to fear and also to hatred and dislike and that they do by so much the sooner and more strongly do so as each sensitive doth conceive that first seen or known thing to have more or less power to hurt him and also apprehends it self more or less within the danger thereof As therefore experience of indemnity and sense and experience of acceptance and reward for yielding of obedience to this object of fear and power doth by degrees abate of that and make it looked upon as an object of love and goodness so doth it therewith testifie that love was but the consequent of former obedience even as obedience was of former fear and so farther also that the love of the commanded is subsequent and dependant on the love of the commanding and that not for obedience and imposition of the command it self but for his kind resentment and acceptance of the obeyers duty So that then to make a difference between that grateful return of kindness which passeth between equals and friend and friend upon the score and sense of good nature only and that return of respect and service which any as in the state of subjection doth yield at the appointment of a superior and as fearing punishment for defailance We may farther say that obedience is begun in fear continued by sense of duty and perfected in love and also that the terror for performance and observation of Laws ought to be and is still proportionable to the greatness of the Law-maker And therefore in the constitution and promulgation of the Moral Law or ten Commandments we find those terrible apparitions made that Gods fear might be so before their faces that they sin not As for promises not a word then as being but tokens of his love to such as had been regardful of this his fear And so it
must still follow that those that are by office of command most powerful and terrible are also soonest and in the highest degree rendred most lovely in their service as having by reason of this power their own ends soonest sasisfied Thus God that hath no direct service to be done him here as to himself is the best Master and neither he nor others having need of our service hereafter love and thanksgiving shall make up our obedience In all which respects Princes are most resembling him of any any terrene Power and so can most truly of any said to be served by love which indeed they ought always to seek but never to trust to And therefore since our observations as before noted come at last to be collected into affections and that when these affections come to interfere one upon another they are guided by the general affection called will So it is also necessary for ceasing of strife in the publike body that the affections of particular orders and persons should be guideded by the publike will of the King against whom there is no rising up For he can only be supposed competent judg which and what affections ought to take place and how far the granting to the desires of some may stand with the desire and good of others And none but he can be the common and entire sensory or centre of attraction and preservation but subjects affections being guided by several interests even as they are severally collected in several persons must make in their dealings with others several centres which must thereupon be centres of opposition that is of division and civil war And as the will so the exercise of passions the necessary attendants of will must be in him onely for if anger and hatred be at private dispose in punishments they will proceed too destructively and as having no regard beyond self-consideration turn to malice and revenge And so again whilst these affections are in prosecution how may covetousness ambition jealousie envy c. make us through partial respect only to be common disturbers whereas he that hath whole and equal concern can no more proceed distructively to his subjects in that relation of subjects then to himself For when publike good is crossed by any his anger and hatred of the Author will be terminated in justice as to any punishment because no man can be too severe to himself where he hath whole interest And since as we noted observation and knowledge must arise from concern so publique good and peace being of nearest concern to him his understanding must be supposed ordinarily more able to judge and determine what it is then such as have private concern only to looke after who therefore in publike things can only have craft When as he having his honor and benefit intermixed and emergent from all things rightly and duly done towards publike benefit must be supposed always intent thereon even for his own interest and advantage sake Whereby it is to be supposed that he shall be not only rendred the most able in understanding and judging how publike expedients may be best attained and managed but also by reason of often observation of the consequents and events of things and which of them in possession hath proved most beneficial and pleasurable and which not he may be justly also esteemed as the centre of political consensation as being enabled in regard of his great share and general experience and presence in all publike dealings to give the truest report of publique liking and inclination For it is to be supposed that political bodies have their proper genius and constitution as well as natural ones have and that then he as the life and spirit thereof can best judge and soonest discover how the humor of the people stand generally tainted and affected So that when the inclinations and desires of subjects in their dealing one with another shall obtain his consent it will then prove a coition towards the encrease of publike good But so far as they shall undertake to act on one another without his liking or assent so far will they rendred not only barren of any good issue but ready also to be productive of those monsters of civil war and rebellion And as thus to the resentment of the general affections of the people so to the differencing and discovering of the perfections and beauties of separate persons in regard of excellency and fitness towards publique imployment he is to be looked upon as the most proper and able judge of what is in that kind lovely also For as external feature and decorum hath its excellency measured by conformity to the most usual figures and shapes of the kind the which they must be acknowed the most able to judge of that have made the most exact and general observations even so the perfection and fitness of publike ministers being to be estimated by that conformity which is between their breeding and ability and those imployments they are to manage it must thence follow that the Prince being most conversant and interessed and having again most general acquaintance and knowledge of both publike persons and imployments as being in himself both the perfection and epitome of such Officers as well as the centre of such offices he must be consequently thought the best judge of what persons are in this kind beautiful and fit to be entrusted or rewarded with offices and badges of honor the which we may call political or publike love By conformity unto the Prince his commands and directions as to a standing examplar and copy it will also come to pass that there shall be such things stated as vertue and vice in morality and righteousness and unrighteousness in Religion For when there is a certain and determinate rule set down in both according to Divine and Natural Precept it will follow that that which comes nearest to it will be most vertuous or righteous and that which most differs will be most vitious and sinful And then by reason of this uniformity not only peace and agreement will be secured but our fancies being for a while accustomed thereunto content and delight will follow also Even as on the contrary we see discontent distraction and civil war most frequently to follow those places where least constraints to uniformity is kept up For there is a beauty and handsomness arising in actions and deportments in keeping a method and order in them according to their rule and copy as there is a fairness and comliness in writing according to copy also We shall therefore for conclusion of this quere whether Government and Peace may be preserved without force or no say that since obedience as obedience will always displease and since power and authority will be always affected and sought after it will be evident that superiors shall be more or less such as they are more or less endued with power and irresistability and that as power is necessary for the Governor so is fear