Pollution in them which the same Sins in others do For no Relation that a Man can stand in unto God can make Injustice to become Righteousness Falseness to become Truth Intemperance Moderation and Uncleanness Purity And the Reason is Because the Relation which they have unto God as Children lieth chiefly in an Internal Likeness unto him and a partaking of the Divine Nature in its Imitable Perfections Now These consist in a Spiritual Remoteness from Sin and an hatred of it as being themselves contrary unto it And therefore they can in no respect be thought to Extenuate much less to cast a Beauty upon That unto which they are so extreamly opposite Gods not beholding Iniquity in Jacob and his not seeing perverseness in Israel can never be rightly interpreted of their Sins being overlook'd or not taken notice of by him upon the mere account that they were his Children For how grievously hath God complain'd of them I have seen saith he to Moses this People and behold it is a Stiff-Necked People now therefore let me alone that my Wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them and I will make of Thee a great Nation And how often hath he threatned and severely punish'd their Iniquities Surely Balaam himself understood not Those his own words as These Men are too forward to do For had he so done why should he have Counsell'd Balack That the Israelites by the Midianitish Woman should be allured to Trespass against the Lord that thereby they might be excluded from his Favour Iniquity therefore in Jacob and Perverseness in Israel are not to be understood of their own Sins against either God or Men but of the Iniquity and Perverseness of Others against Them. Which thing the next Verse but one doth very well shew Where the very same Preposition in which the Margin retains with Relation to the very same Words Jacob and Israel is rendred against Surely there is no Inchantments in against Jacob nor Divination in against Israel Numb 23.23 And Gods not Seeing and not Beholding denote his not approving or not enduring it to be So that the Sense of the Words is not that he will not see Iniquity and Perverseness in Them if they shall be Guilty but that he will not suffer Iniquity and Perverseness against Them if they shall be Innocent Nay so far will the Relation of being Children unto God be from less'ning the Pollution of any Heinous Sin that it will be a very great Aggravation and Heightning of it and will render it the more displeasing unto Him. That Those who have given up their Names unto Christ who have seen the Beauty of Holiness who have tasted of the good Word of God and have been washed and cleansed should commit Sin lose their first Love fall away and wallow in the Mire again how Odious in the Sight of God will it be These though they should be the Signet on his Right Hand He without their unfeigned Sorrow and Repentance would pluck them thence as he spake of Coniah Jerem 22.24 God is no Respecter of Persons But as in every Nation He that feareth Him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him so He that worketh Wickedness is rejected by him As he is Judge of all the Earth he will do right and by no means will clear the Guilty He may sooner put off the Title of Father to such or such an One than he can lay aside the Name of Holy and Just His being a Father to any Man is with Relation to his Obedience which is mutable and may be withheld And if Obedience shall be wholly withheld the Man ceaseth to be his Child and God is no longer unto him a Father in a Sense that betokeneth Love and Delight in him But He who is most contrary unto God putteth on that Relation Ye are of your Father the Devil saith our Saviour But then Holiness and Justice are Essential unto God and cannot by any Condition or Carriage of Men be parted with And so by These be Wickedness and Pollution in what Persons soever they will He rightly will discern and punish them God indeed is said to Love with an Everlasting Lvve Jer. 31.3 Which yet is not so to be understood as if he were a fond Father that could not spy the Faults of his Children or would think them lighter or less than they are but He is said to Love Everlastingly in that he will never fail Those that Obedientially seek unto and depend upon him and will always afford sufficient means for their abiding in his Love as well as at the last infinitely Reward them for Loving and Obeying him And He is pleased also to say he Loveth with an Everlasting Love in opposition to those Earthly Parents who somtimes have no natural Affection and so do not Love and somtimes may want means and abilities to express their Love. Thus when my Father and Mother forsake me i. e. either for want of Will do not love me or for want of Power cannot shew it as they would the Lord taketh me up But yet if his Child shall grow disobedient requiting his Love with Presumption and carrying it quite otherwise than a dutiful Child ought to do Gods Eyes are open to the Faults of such his Son and he will use his Rod of Correction towards him Yea if his Son shall grow stubborn and disobedient Shall not hearken unto his Voice but be a Drunkard or a Glutton as it is in Deut. 21.20 or any other way profane and dissolute He will cast him off and disinherit him and it will not be the failing of his Love but the Expression of his Justice and Holiness so to do Agreeable hereunto is that of Ezekiel Chap. 18.24 When the Righteous turneth away from his Righteousness and committeth Iniquity and doth according to all the Abominations which the wicked Man doth shall he live All his Righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembred in the Trespasses that he hath trespassed and in the Sin that he hath sinned shall he die And in this his dealing God appealeth to the House of Israel if his way be not equal And thus Theophilus I have considered the Sins of good Men in Holy Scripture together with the ill Inferences which some Men are apt to make from them They look not upon them as the Sins of good Men who take not the Repentance together with the Sins And they are much mistaken who think that those Sins are there mention'd only to shew how far God's Children may fall and do not consider them rather as Punishments to their Names who thus offended God and as greater Cautions to us that we from their Falls may stand the surer Yea They deal treacherously with themselves who from the Sins of God's Children in Holy Scripture will flatter and encourage themselves in their own And they most grosly and dangerously err who thinking that God will esteem the Sins of his Children which are the same
Theoph. You rightly say what the word Law imports as spoken by our Psalmist God's Will being written at that time no further than as it made up the Jewish Oeconomy As it hath been manifested since it hath relation to Men in a far wider sense wheresoever planted upon the Face of the Earth Yea even those Laws of Moses which are retained in the Evangelical Dispensation cease to bind as they were given by Moses and are Obligatory now from another Lawgiver Jesus Christ But yet still they are to be acknowledged God's Laws and we may even now use these words O how I love thy Law Therefore Eubulus I desire you will shew me these things 1. What the Inducements were to this so great Love in David and other holy Men of old to the Divine Laws 2. What the Inducements are which we Christians have to love them Eubul I see Theophilus the greater share of Discourse must lie upon me but you will have it so and to my power I will obey you As to the Inducements which David and other holy Men of old had to love the Divine Laws they seem to me to arise partly from its pleasing God to give those Laws and partly from the Excellency of the Laws themselves In relation to the former I must confess that the Nature of Men seemeth necessarily to require that Laws should be given unto them For it would have been highly irrational on Mens part not to acknowledge Him as their Lord who gave them a Being and it would be a very great Dishonour unto God should we think that They whom he had made a little lower than the Angels should be left unregarded and lawless But yet when Men had fallen from their Obedience and had in great measure sullied that Law which was imprest on their Natures it was certainly a very great Favour that God in stead of throwing upon them deserved Punishments should chuse a Numerous People to be his Peculiar and should himself repair that Law thus obliterated within by writing it in Tables that it might be discern'd by the Eye Consider Theophilus the Greatness of Him who gives this Law how he needs not the Services of any Creature and also the Ingratitude of Man how he disobeyed the most righteous Law in Paradise where all the Love and Observance which possibly he could shew would not have been too much Consider this I say and the Law if it carry but any favour along with it may certainly for the sake of Him who gave it be justly esteemed and loved Neither is the Time wherein it pleased God to give these Laws unworthy of our Notice So much was the Welfare of Mankind esteemed to depend upon the Writing of Laws that many Nations in after Ages contended for the Dignity of being the first Authors thereof And Greece especially among the Priviledges which she boasts to have held forth to the rest of the World reckons this as one of the the chief But the Honour of having the first Written Laws belongs to the Hebrews alone in comparison of whom as Josephus against Apion proveth the Grecian Legislators were but of yesterday and this Honour is much heightned by God's owning the immediate Relation of a King unto them while he wrote these Laws Now the Benefit of Laws and the Glory of having These given so early and by such an Hand being well understood and rightly valued by our Psalmist who himself was a Ruler and a King might well engage his Love to them Theoph. I acknowledge the Inducement from God's thus giving the Law to be a very fair one Pray Eubulus go on to the other you mentioned viz. The Excellency of the Laws themselves Eubulus Take it in that pious King 's own words Psal 19. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul The Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the Simple The Statuts of the Lord are righteous rejoycing the Heart The Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the Eyes The Fear of the Lord is clean enduring for ever The Judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether More to be desired are they than Gold yea than much fine Gold sweeter also than Honey and the Honey-Comb Moreover by them is thy Servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward Theoph. This is a very high Character indeed of those Laws if there be as I doubt not but there is Truth in the whole Eubul There is Truth in every tittle And this will appear if we shall look upon the Laws which require Duties to Him who is the Lawgiver or to Those from one to another or to Themselves whom these Laws are given unto Pray tell me Theophilus what would you in Right Reason and according to a perfect Harmony of Things have the Duties towards a Prince and Lawgiver to be Theoph. I would desire they should be Fear Love and Gratitude and these shewn upon Grounds every way good There being nothing more comely than that Subjects should be with-held from offending by Fear moved to all Obedience by Love and excited to Acknowledgments of Benefits and Protection by Gratitude More than These I mention not because to These all others I suppose may be reduced and are in effect no other than Expressions of them Eubul All these you shall find to be according to your Wish Your first Duty of Fear is in Deut. 6.13 as also in sundry places more Thou shalt Fear the Lord thy God and serve Him and swear by his Name Their Fear is to be such as not to scare them from him but they are to approach unto him and to do him Service And for the deciding of Controversies and establishing of Truth they are to use his Name solemnly in an Oath And a right good Ground there is for such a Fear from the Power and Justice of God such as can and will inflict Punishments on them when they wilfully transgress and this to the utmost of their Deserts The Destruction of the Old World for its Impiety The Overwhelming of the Egyptians in the Red Sea The Earths opening her Mouth and swallowing up Corah Dathan and Abiram and numerous other Instances of the like Nature were hereof Testimonies sufficient So that this Law of Fearing God as a Prince and Lawgiver manifests itself to be built on a sure and lasting Foundation Your second Duty of Love is commanded Deut. 6.5 Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength It is not to be a faint and an unconstant Love but one that is strong and will not fail For the Loving of God with all the Heart and Soul and Strength doth not only import the greatest vigour of Love but the greatest duration of it also It must not be towards him Now and anon quite off him but the greatest Length it must have as well as the greatest Heighth And the strong Inducements to this Duty were well known
preserve our Lives by no means to lose them However let not this Command of our Lord which requires us to part with Estates and Lives rather than deny him be faulted as too rigid and hard while the Rewards are so much beyond the Pains and while so many of Those who have thus suffered have had such Assistances and Joys afforded them even in the midst of their Sufferings that a Man would almost wish for their Sorrows could he but have their Joys together with them From all which it may appear Theophilus that the Air as was objected is not too pure to be breath'd in and that they are not unreasonable Heights of Duty which are required of us Neither may it disturb us that this our Work is not without difficulty to be begun and in like manner for some time to be carried on by us For it is in a sort a Priviledge which Angels have not to testifie unto Pains yea even unto Death itself the Sincerity of Obedience Which Testification of Sincerity although it ariseth from an Imperfection of Human Nature will yet be very acceptable unto God possibly no less than that of the Holy Ones Above which is wholly free from all such Conflicts And while the chief Intent of our Lawgiver is to make us Pious towards God Composed in our own Breasts Loving unto others and Loved again by them Perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect who makes his Sun to rise on the Evil and on the Good and meting only the same measure to others which hath first been meted by the Love and Compassion of our Lord unto us we must one would think use very much Violence to the better Inclinations of our Souls if we do not entirely love these Laws As for mine own part Theophilus will you give me leave to speak my Heart freely to you my Love is so great to them that methinks I would obey them all not so much because I am commanded to do it as because they are every way in themselves so worthy to be loved I could wish that they were even one with my Soul and that all my Thoughts and Actions might proceed not more from Life than from Them. And so far would I be from questioning the goodness of them that I would as soon doubt whether it were good to Live and be Happy So dear are they unto me yea so much better than Life itself Theoph. I am much prevail'd upon by the Reasons you have given and your last Affectionate Words add so much a further weight to those Reasons that they appear to me not to be more the Issues of your Brain than of your Heart And therefore you may on good Grounds presume that they will be convincing to others when they have first been so to yourself But though I acknowledge the Laws of our Lord to require most reasonable things of us and do find that they truly have an high place in my Esteem and Love yet I 'll confess to you Eubulus much dejected I am somtimes when I reflect upon my many Failures Resolve indeed I do for the greatest Care and Circumspection but yet my Sins do daily increase upon me and what will it boot me to love these Laws when every day I transgress them To own them so admirably fitted for the perfecting of our Nature and the refining of our Practise when I see mine own Nature so imperfect under them and my Practcie so impure in Comparison of them Eubul What you now say Theophilus makes way for and will best be answer'd by the Consideration of the Fourth thing viz. That from these Laws we have a fair way for the Pardon of all Sins Most perfect these Laws are as you have heard but by reason of that weakness which is within us and those many strong Temptations which are without they are not like to be perfectly obeyed All that we can do is as it were a great way off to behold and admire that perfection which we cannot of ourselves attain unto and to grieve that we daily and hourly some way or other have Sinn'd against it But yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing Our Blessed Lord knowing our frame and make and seeing that our strength and abilities are but small hath added two other Laws of Faith and Repentance in which we may find some cheering in respect of those many Breaches of the Divine Laws which lie as a weight upon our Souls That of Faith requires thus much of us That we believe in Christ as a Saviour who by his precious Blood for us Shed hath appeased Gods Wrath and obtain'd Remission for all the Sins of Men and for ours in that number And from the mighty importance of this Law and the infinite benefits it affordeth unto us the whole Gospel and all the Laws thereof are in a comprehensive Word called the Law of Faith. And in this respect it is much different from the Old Law. Perfect Obedience was required by That and because perfection of Obedience is necessarily grounded upon a perfection of Nature the Law seemeth therefore to have been the Rule not of our Works only but of our Nature also which at the Creation was committed pure into our Hands But this Law of Faith by reason of Human Natures having been perfect in Christ and having Done also without the least failure whatsoever was Incumbent on the Representative of Mankind to do and as united with the Divine Nature having suffered likewise what Punishment was Due to the Sins of Men this Law I say of Faith doth Command that we should not rely upon any Righteousness of our own not yet Despair for any Sin whether belonging to our Nature or more particularly to our own Persons but should have our Eyes upon Him who alone by his Merits hath purchased Salvation for us The Law of Repentance is this viz. That we truly be sorry for what Sins soever we commit and do heartily endeavour an amendment of Life And this shall be available through the Death of Christ for our Pardon Repentance shall not Theophilus be unto Sins after the same manner as Sacrifices in Moses Law were Not the small Sins only shall be done away but the great ones also shall no less For he who hath called us unto Repentance hath been a propitiation for all the Sins of Mankind alike for those of a deeper Dye as well as those of a lighter Stain And his Blood is against the greatest Offences and the smallest Infirmities equally Efficacious Of Old if a Man had unwillingly Kill'd his Brother and was truly sorry for it the avenger of Blood was notwithstanding allowed to Slay him if he could overtake him before he reach'd to the City of Refuge The Sin here if it were not rather an unhappiness was so far imputed as That he must dye for it if another could run faster than he which might happen to be a thing beyond his power to prevent And though this might
doth vindicate his own Soveraignty and Power which they as much as in them lieth have brought under and trampled upon And this he so doth as that they themselves may look upon it to be God's just Hand and that others also may acknowledge it his doing But then Communities of Men which by their publick Sins make the Almighty to serve are always when those Sins are ripe punished in this World for they cannot with any reason be thought punishable in the next because all Bonds of Civil Society are utterly broken and evacuated by the Death of the Whole Yea and those Private Men who have contributed their share to the Sins of a Nation as such are also oftentimes in some respect punished in this World even after Death by Publick Calamities reaching their Children or other Relations in whom themselves are in a manner still here continued Which to one who rightly considers it sheweth forth God's Righteous Judgments upon them But because it is not always safe to pronounce That the untimely Deaths or unexpected Miseries of some particular Persons are an immediate Stroke of God upon them for their Disobedience for our Christian Charity will not permit this when we know no signal Crimes by them And the great Afflictions of some who are not greater Sinners than other Men and of some whom we have reason to esteem as good Men may caution us in this point not to be over-forward to Judge And because also we see a great many wicked Men to live and become old to be in no Troubles as other Men to die in peace and leave the rest of their Substance for their Babes Therefore we may affirm it as a Truth Viz. That God seeth it fit generally not to cut off those Men nor yet to force them into Obedience who by their Disobedience do thus make him to serve He seeth it fit generally not to cut them off that they may have space for Repentance Thus did he to the Church of Thyatira I gave her saith he space to Repent of her Fornication And for this end may he spare these dealing with them as the Lord did with the Barren Fig-Tree hoping that though they be not fruitful this year they will grow better the next And this the rather because from the thoughts of this Goodness of God unto them they may the more effectually be prevail'd upon to repent Despisest thou saith the Apostle the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God in this his Forbearance and Long-suffering leadeth thee to Repentance A Sorrow for former Sins and an Acknowledgment of God's Soveraignty for the future in Mens giving themselves up to his Service may arise from other Considerations but from none more directly or more forcibly than from that of his sparing them and suffering them to live that they may Repent and Turn unto him Neither may it be a small Motive for his not generally Cutting them off that in case they do not Repent there may from their Freedom from Punishment in this Life be afforded unto us a strong Proof that there will be Another Life after This in which those Sins which are here spared and Unrepented of shall most surely be punished God is a Righteous God and he hath told us plainly by his Prophet Nahum Chap. 1.3 That he will not acquit the Wicked And it is not Unobservable that These Words are put thus to wit The Lord is slow to Anger and great in Power and will not acquit the Wicked As much as to say Though he forbear long yet it is not as if he could not punish yea if they shall go on in their Disobedience and not Repent them of their Misdeeds they most certainly shall have the Reward of their Doings Now in that These Wicked Men who to the utmost of their Power make God to Serve do often live and dye without Punishments they must necessarily be punished after Death or else God will contrary to his Word acquit the Wicked But the Judge of the Earth will do Right though all Men shall be Lyars yet God cannot but be True And therefore he will not Cut them off that he may make them a strong Argument that there will be a Day of Punishments when this World is at an End with them And Lastly Theophilus we may not amiss think he will suffer them to Live that if They Repent not here they themselves may hereafter in the Other World confess that they are justly punished Though Gods sparing their Lives in so much Mercy when they had deserved to be struck Dead or sent Living into Hell were little minded by them on Earth it yet shall at the Great Tribunal have this effect upon them viz. To make them acknowledge that their Damnation is Just because They had so much favour shew'd them and they shut their Eyes upon it And surely as Gods Gracious Designs of Mens Turning unto him and being happy do take off whatever can be Objected against his not presently destroying the Disobedient So the Reputation of his Justice which will by this means be Exalted even among Those that in Hell shall suffer it may abundantly Vindicate Gods Government of the World from being slack and remiss though he do not immediately Condemn unto Death those who make him to Serve by their Sins Theoph. You have throughly satisfied me why God doth not presently Cut those off who are Rebellious But since all Power is his and with a Word He can do it why doth he not Force them into Obedience that his Sovereignty may be acknowledg'd by all and not opposed so much as in appearance by any Eubul One Reason may be Because he would have their Obedience to be their Virtue and such as shall become Rational Creatures to give He as Elihu saith Teacheth Them more than the Beasts of the Earth and maketh Them Wiser than the Fowles of Heaven that they may know what Good and what Evil is and may be sensible of the Favours that are shew'd unto them He hath given them a Will to choose or refuse what things are before them And hath planted Affections in their Souls by which Love and Gratitude may be Exercised Now when they shall endeavour to Understand what is truly Good and also what Gods Loving-kindness to them is when they shall choose that which is best and shall willingly serve Him whom they know to be the Lord of the World and their Lord Loving him for his Goodness and striving to express Thankfulness to him so far as they are able when I say they shall do this they will be Virtuous and shew themselves such as their Nature and Make require they should be But how unagreeable would it be for these Men to be forced contrary to their Mind and Will Wherein would they be Commendable should they do that which they could not help And how unsutable to Love and Gratitude is Violence and Constraint It is Love that is
neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear DISCOURSE the First THEOPHILVS I Have often thought Eubulus that one of the greatest Pleasures of a Mans Life is to be found there where Two Faithful Friends enjoy one another in Ingenuous and Profitable Discourses Communicating what they find to have been most taking with themselves and by united Thoughts and Searches discussing some Truths which otherwise would not so well have been known EVBVLVS I Suppose there are none whose Souls are any whit refined but will readily assent to what you say Theophilus And I am persuaded that though his Expression be very high he yet spake with a true Sense of Discursive Friendship who said Cum una mehercule Ambulatiuncula atque uno Sermone nostro omnes fructus Provinciae non confero Cic. I prefer one Walk and one Discourse of ours before all the Honour and Income of my Province Theoph. What relish Honours and Incomes have with others I know not and am little solicitous to know But sure I am I seem to myself not to want them while I have what I speak of which I see is no less esteem'd by You also Eubul The Converse of a Faithful Friend is never otherwise than pleasant to me But then I judge it most to be valued when by his Words I am made not only the more knowing but the better Having a sacred kind of Warmth raised within me by which I am more enabled to DO those Duties which are incumbent on me and to SVFFER those Evils which are so frequent in the World and which I must not expect to be altogether freed from Theoph. I thank you for what you now say because if I shall ask some such Discourses from you which I from the first have designed to do you cannot deny me And I should account it a great Pleasure hereafter when I possibly shall walk these Fields alone to remember that under this Tree I learned such Knowledge under that was instructed in such a Virtue Here I discerned how little these outward Things are to be trusted in There how reasonable it is to submit to the Divine Will and in every place that I both had and rightly made use of an Understanding and True Friend Eubul You may be confident I will not deny you any thing which shall tend to the promoting of such an Innocent and Virtuous Pleasure And I the rather shall yield to you in what you desire because I am sure it will be mine own more than your Advantage Having sufficiently experienced that many things well spoken by others have been Hints to you of deeper Enquiries and more grateful Discourses Theoph. If you have any such Opinion of my Freeness which I am endebted to my Friend if he will kindly accept of I will promise that you shall not complain as if it were less to you than to others And for a Proof hereof I will take the boldness to propose the Matter to be discoursed of Which unless you shall think otherwise shall be concerning The True Nature of the Divine Laws which as I conceive doth consist not meerly in the Excellence which they have in Themselves but in another Excellence also viz. That Loveliness if I may be allow'd to use the word which they carry in them in respect of us Eubul Your Conception of their Nature is no more than just and a better Subject you cannot find out Unto which I shall the more willingly speak what I can because if we may make a Judgment of those Laws from the usual Practice of Men either there is not the Loveliness you speak of in them or if there be as certainly in the highest manner there is it is very much slighted Theoph. 'T is too true that so it is And therefore I hope it will by Him who sees in secret be accounted as some Reverence and Respect shew'd unto them if when they are so little observed abroad we shall endeavour to search into their Perfections in private Especially since for this End we shall do it that our Love to them may be the greater And truly Eubulus the Royal Psalmist's Expression of so great Love to the Divine Law gave the Occasion of my now mentioning this Subject For reading those words O how I love thy Law It is my Meditation all the day methought I felt my Soul more than a little touched with them They seeming to proceed from a more than ordinary Affection in that good King. Eubul I do not wonder it was so with You who I know keep your Heart soft and tender and thereby fitted for right Impressions from the Holy Scriptures But your saying that those words seemed to proceed from a more than ordinary Affection doth not reach the thing home They not seemed only but really did come from an Heart full of Love to God's Laws And indeed Theophilus I think it no hard matter to discern a true Passion from one that is so only in shew This later will betray itself in somthing or other which by a Judicious Eye will easily be perceived While the other carrieth its Evidences along with it and without scruple is presently owned as genuine and sincere And surely no true Affection can be more convincingly express'd than this King 's was to the Divine Precepts His saying O how I love thy Law is to me no less than if he had said He could not declare how much he loved it His Love to it was greater than what his Words could arise unto It being only comprehensible to his Understanding and the inward Sentiments of his Soul yea almost too big for his Heart to contain Thus much yet he could say if that might any way shew forth the greatness of his Love God's Law was his Meditation all the day His Thoughts were continually taken up in it Theoph. If I had question'd the greatness of the Psalmist's Love unto it I assure you Eubulus I should not have been so much affected with his Words For according to that Rule Si vis me flere dolendum est Primum ipsi tibi A Passion would not over quickly be stirred up in me by him who I should think was himself insensible But that we may not mistake one another in our following Discourse it will be requisite to know what is here meant by the word Law it being capable of more than one Signification Pray therefore Eubulus let me have your sense of it Eubul By the Law of God I presume every one understands the Will of God which he in his Word hath declared But then because part only of that which we now acknowledge to be the Word of God was then written by the Law here is meant the Law given by Moses and that part of it especially which is Moral Although the Judicial for the Justice and Prudence of it and the Ceremonial for its Mysteriousness are not wholly to be excluded from the Law we speak of nor yet whatever else is contained in Holy Writ
from the Creation of the World which in the greatest Goodness was effected from the Continuance of God's Favour when Man had fallen and from the manifold Loving Kindnesses which he had shewed to his People in general and to Good Men in particular And therefore this good King could burst forth in earnest Exhortations to others O Love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserveth the Faithful For your third Duty viz. Gratitude which you would have to be shewed to a Lawgiver are all those Injunctions and Incitements of Praising God which are scattered almost every where in the Holy Scriptures And no other Design had those Sacrifices which were unbloody than that Men should with Thankfulness acknowledge God as Supream 'T is said Levit. 7.12 If he offer it for a Thanksgiving as much as to say Thankfulness is to be offered unto God. And what more prevailing Motive could there be for the Obeying this Precept than that whatever was possessed was of God's Bounty It was He that gave unto the Israelites all that they look'd upon as their Wealth and Property And therefore they were to honour the Lord with their Substance and with the First-Fruits of their Increase That is They were in Gratitude to render back somthing of what he had bestowed upon them Not that he needs any thing of that which Men can return unto him but that their Thankfulness may be expressed in what manner they are able to do it And this their Gratitude might be the greater in that God secured his Gifts unto them by his Laws allotting to every Tribe its proper Portion and distributing that Portion amongst the Heads of particular Families That Discords at first might not hinder their Possessions and that Avarice and Ambition might not afterwards break into them For what was thus divided by Lot the Disposal of which was wholly from God was not to be alienated to other Tribes nor to other Families of the same Tribe The Property of the Land remained firm only the Use and Incomes of it might be sold for a season which yet might at any time be redeemed and if it were not redeemed it necessarily reverted to the ancient Owners at the Year of Jubile And hereupon Industry was encouraged and Peace established and they sate under their in a most proper sense Own Vines and Fig-trees none making them afraid Nay God had not only bestowed upon the Seed of Jacob all that they enjoyed but even They themselves were also wholly from Him. In Kindnesses from Men the Man is supposed to have a Being before And that we are Men and have an understanding Soul is not properly the Gift of any Man to us But God hath as I may so speak given us Ourselves as well as other things and so our Gratitude to Him is to be so much higher than to others by how much Life and Being are better than Possessions Yea by how much what we enjoy are more his Gifts unto us than they can be the Gifts of any others For the Propriety of them is for ever his and his Providence will never part with the Guidance and Direction of them And therefore though others should give them us it is his Bounty through their Hands How then might Those in the Judaick State love the Laws which have immediate Relation to God as a Lawgiver How full of Reason are they Is there not the greatest Beauty in them Which could it be discern'd by our outward Eyes who is it could see and not love them And surely what appears truly beautiful to the Eye of the Soul i. e. to clear and deliberate Thoughts will call no less for love but much more Intellectual Beauty being much to be preferr'd before that which is Sensible And if I may once more Paraphrase this Expression of the Psalmist O how I love thy Law Methinks it implyeth thus much Nothing in the World is there that shall hinder me from loving it I prefer it before all other things however esteemed they be by Men. Were it left to my choice whether I would have any of these Laws repealed or whether I would fear love and be grateful unto God or not though no Punishments should be inflicted if I did not do it there should not be one Law the less for my Duty towards my God and Lawgiver Nor should any thing how pleasant or advantageous soever it be buy off my Observance of his Laws So dear is their Practice and so delightful their Speculation to me Theoph. I see and acknowledge the Excellence of these Laws and do really think them worthy the high Character which this Royal Person gave and the great Love which he expressed to them But Eubulus of those Laws which in their Observance had relation to God immediately Some were such as might seem to have no real Goodness in them but Cruelty rather E. G. The shedding so much Blood of Men in Circumcision of Beasts in Sacrifice Others though not Cruel might yet seem to proceed and are by many thought so to do from the Will of God as Supream without any discernible Reason for their being enjoyn'd and consequently without any Love to his Creatures For what Love can be seen there where no Reason can be assigned why such and such things are commanded or forbidden And who is it then that can love such Laws Of this sort were those that forbad the wearing of Linnen and Woollen in the same Garment The Ploughing with an Ox and an Ass together And the use of such and such Creatures for Food and others not unlike unto these And then further The Laws that require Fear are such as are enforced upon the account that God is Terrible And where so great Terribleness is at the bottom of these Laws how could they be so much loved For as the Apostle saith Perfect Love casteth out Fear And where Laws do require so much Fear the Love to them must needs be the less Pray Eubulus tell me Are these to be excepted from our Psalmist's Love Or if not how can it be truly said he loved them Eubul For the satisfying of you in these things and first for your first Objection to wit That of those Laws which in their Observance had relation unto God immediately some might seem to have no real Goodness in them but Cruelty rather as the shedding so much Blood of Men in Circumcision and of Beasts in Sacrifice it will not I suppose be unmeet that these things be considered 1. That the Law which hath so much love here expressed to it is as I before hinted to be understood of the Moral Law chiefly For this hath a real and intrinsick Goodness in it It is just and good that God as he is our God and Lawgiver should be feared loved and have Gratitude shew'd to him 2. As to those other Laws of Circumcision and Sacrifices though in themselves considered they are not Morally good yet considered with relation to all the good
Life was to go for the Life of the Offender there being no Remission without Blood which is the Life and also that thereby the Death of Christ was Typified a Nobler Expiation than the Death of Bulls and Goats neither of which could fairly be said were there no real Death to the Beast But laying aside such an uncouth and extravagant Imagination we may with Sobriety and on good Grounds affirm That God who made the Creatures might without infringing his Goodness command what he pleased concerning them for they were his Property And if he indulged unto Men such variety of them to be slain for their Food he might surely be allowed some sorts of them to be slain for his own Worship Especially since this way through his infinite Goodness they were more useful to Mans Welfare than either while they were killed for Food or kept alive for Service In other cases God had taken care by his Laws for Mercy to be shew'd to them And while they were slaughter'd for such excellent Ends and made instrumental in the doing such signal Services both to the Glory of God and the Good of Men the pain they suffer'd laid a great Honour upon them though they were below the Capacity of understanding it Yea further so far merciful were these Laws to these Creatures that only the Blood of such was called for as would otherwise possibly some time or other have been killed for Mens use And herein they were favourable to Men likewise in that they required not such Sacrifices as for rareness should be far and wide sought after nor such as by their fierceness might endanger those that caught them But home-bred and quiet Oxen and Sheep innocent and not rare Turtle-Doves and Pidgeons were those which God was pleased to order for Himself Theoph. You have taken away my Scruples as to those Laws which might seem to carry something of Cruelty in them I desire you would do the like for me in relation to those Laws which though not Cruel did seem to proceed from the Will of God as he is Supream without any discernable Reason for their being enjoyn'd and consequently without any Love to his Creatures For Love is to be found only in those Laws where good Reason can be given why such and such things are commanded or forbidden And only those Laws are worthy to be loved by Men. Eubul But that He Theophilus who is infinitely Wise did give Laws without Reason and exerted his Will as he was Supream with no respect to his Wisdom there is none sure can with any shew of Reason or Wisdom imagine And though We who are at such a distance from the Jewish Times cannot presently find why God enjoyn'd such and such things it will yet be rash to say that those who lived near the Days when these Laws were given were ignorant of the Reasons for which they were given If some of these Laws were made directly contrary to the vain Customs of the Neighbouring Nations especially of the Zabii and did secure the Israelites from the Superstitions and Idolatries which those were guilty of it was a good Reason why they were enjoyn'd And this seems to have been done Lev. 18.2 3. After the Doings of the Land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do and after the Doings of the Land of Canaan whither I bring you shall ye not do Ye shall do MY Judgments and keep MINE Ordinances to wit as being flatly opposite to the Rites and Customs of Egypt and Canaan And though some of those things were neither good nor ill in themselves yet either as they were used amiss by those Nations or might open a Door to worse things in the Israelites God who had espoused this People to Himself as to an Husband might take away all Occasions that might tempt them to Unfaithfulness towards him And therefore gave these Laws unto them Neither is it altogether improbable that in many of these Laws there was a Mysterious Sense which among some other Reasons might have a place for one For why might not Simplicity in Manners and a Freedom from Mixtures in Religion be signified by not ploughing with an Ox and an Ass together and not wearing Woollen and Linnen in the same Vesture And in some of those Creatures prohibited for Food why might there not be a Caution against those Human Vices which seemed to be Character'd in them As Pusillanimity in the Hare Filthiness in the Swine Ignorance in the Owl Rapine in the Hawk and such like It doth not follow because we cannot instance in the like manner in all the rest of those Creatures which are forbidden that there is therefore no Ground for such Reason in those we have mention'd And though the People of the Jews were very dull and carnal yet that they was so dull and carnal as not to discern such a meaning in the Prohibitions and that therefore there were no such meaning in the Prohibitions is somthing strange to assert Besides God possibly might in some of these Laws not give a Reason that they might the more surely be observed For somtimes when the Reason of Laws is known some Men are apt to think that if they can obtain the End without keeping the Law it is no matter if they break it And this one well represents in the Law of Deut. 17.17 He shall not multiply Wives that his Heart turn not away But Solomon said I will multiply Wives and mine Heart shall not be turned away But it is written afterwards That his Wives turn'd away his Heart God will not therefore in some of his Laws give an open Reason for their being enjoyn'd because Men may thereby resign up their Understandings to Him and not frustrate his Commands by ways of their own And yet this may with Truth be said That Those Laws for which there is no particular Reason given and which in themselves considered do include no real Goodness God did in great measure order for the better promoting of Obedience in general to those Laws which are in their own Nature truly good and apparently include Reasons for their being observed And this He did by suting those subordinate Laws in many Things to the Temper of that People and the Times and Climate in which they lived Who had they not been continually enured to Obedience in these smaller things would have been disobedient in those which were greater Yea and some of these Laws of which no certain account can be given might be fitted for their Temper another way also It hath been noted that as the Jews and some other Eastern Nations were more than ordinary inclined to the Leprosie so the eating of Swines Flesh did much increase it And if in this Instance God was their Physician as well as Lawgiver by making their Religion instrumental to their Health it will not be unreasonable to think that in some other things of the like Rank he might be so too In the Commands concerning the
Disease but now mentioned it may seem he was For it is hard to give any other Reason why a Person whose Flesh is cover'd all over with the Leprosie should be pronounced clean and another who had any raw or live-flesh not overspread with it should be unclean Levit. 13.12 unless it were that the power of infection had ceased in the former and did continue in the later I doubt not Theophilus but our Psalmist and holy Men under Moses saw more things belonging to these Laws than any now adays are able to instance in But these may take off the force of what you urged against them as to their want of Reasons and in that respect as to their want of Excellencies Theoph. I willingly yield what indeed I cannot deny to these Laws And desire you will deal by my last Objection as you have done by the foregoing ones Eubul If I forget not it was this That the Precepts which require Fear are such as are enforced upon the account tbat God is Terrible and where so great Terribleness is at the bottom of these Laws the Love to them must needs be the Iess For perfect Love casteth out Fear I must confess that God in the Old Testament did often manifest himself in such a manner as might throw a Terrour into Men And even at the giving of the Law in Mount Sinai there were Thundrings and Lightnings and the Noise of the Trumpet and the Mountain smoaking All which might strike a Terrour and did strike so great an one into the People that they desired Moses to speak unto them and they would hear but should God speak unto them they should die But though this were so yet we may truly say That God chose this way by reason of the inflexible Nature of the People whom more mild and gentle Methods would not so well have prevail'd upon How often in Scripture are they called A stiff-necked People And therefore they were to be trained under the Law as under a School-master not being as yet fit for the highest things but as it were in the lowest Form. Their Duty of Fearing God they are to be excited unto by Means that represented God Terrible or they would not have feared him at all Hereupon those that knew the great Love of God to his People who rather than He would lose Them or They should cast Him off would use the more severe Methods for the keeping them in their Duty and the fitting them for his Favour might well love the Law that enjoyn'd the Fearing of God and the way also that enforced it But yet the Methods which struck such Terrour God was pleased to use only upon some special Occasions and he often if not always intermixed with them Means which were more gentle that this Fear might not be the Fear of a Slave or Captive to his Tyrant but of a Subject to his Prince who looks after those under him with Care and Love though he sometimes injects a Dread into them by his Majesty And this is very remarkable even in the giving of the Law when as we said God manifested his Terrours The Preface to the Decalogue remembers the Israelites of his great Kindnesses to them I am the Lord that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage And in the Second Commandment his visiting the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation of those that hate him is abundantly out-weigh'd by his shewing Mercy unto thousands in them that love him and keep his Commandments Some indeed there have been who have not approved of any Prologue to be put before Laws or any persuasives to be mingled with them it being the part of a Lawgiver by Authority to Command and not by arguments to persuade But though God hath more Power than all other Lawgivers and hath a Will infinitely more perfect than theirs and consequently might give his Laws in the most peremptory manner yet he was pleased to make way for them into the Hearts of his People by Love as well as Fear that as the careless might be affrighted so the more ingenuous might be allured and none kept back from Obedience either by presumption or discouragement I might instance in many places of Scripture pertinent hereunto but I will do it only in two where God is said to be Terrible The former is in Deut. 10.17 18. The Lord your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords a Mighty and Terrible God But then the very next words are He doth execute the Judgment of the Fatherless and the Widow and loveth the Stranger in giving him Food and Raiment The other place is in Nehemiah Chap. 1.5 O Lord of Heaven the great and TERRIBLE God that keepeth COVENANT and MERCY to them that Love him and observe his Commandments How is his Terribleness here mitigated yea set off and made Lovely by his Goodness and Mercy And what better Comment can we give of these Scriptures and many others not unlike them than that of David Psal 130.4 There is Mercy with Thee that thou mayest be Feared Though there hath been a Strong Wind that rent the Mountains and brake in pieces the Rocks though an Earthquake there were and after that a Fire yet God was not so much in any of these or at least delighted not so much to be in these as in the still small Voice And this I think may be sufficient for your Objection and also for the Laws which require Duties to God as a Prince and Lawgiver Better Laws and better grounds for their observance could not be wish'd and so they might well be Loved Theoph. Pray Eubulus proceed to those Laws which require Duties from Men one to another Which I well remember you would have to be considered in the next place to those Laws which respected the Duties to God immediately Eubul For the wellfare of Society a Rational Man would desire that there should be Honour and Respect shew'd unto Superiours by those that are below them and that there should not be oppression and ill nature towards Inferiours from those that are above them but that Righteousness and Kindness should be exercised unto all Now these excellent things are all strictly enjoyn'd by Gods Law. The Duty of Honour and Respect to Superiours the Fifth Command sufficiently requires Honour thy Father and thy Mother i. e. all those who being in Place or Authority above thee are in a larger Sense Fathers and Mothers And since Authority and Dignity were first seated in and did arise from that which was Paternal I suppose that therefore Father and Mother are put for all Superiours And under the Word Honour are comprised all those Duties which in any Circumstances are in right Reason to be shewn from meaner Persons to those that are above them which Circumstances may upon occasion be better conceived than here at the present discoursed of For Superiours not oppressing those who are Infeferiour
by using their Power to the depriving them of what is theirs the Tenth Commandment is by a just consequence a strong Law. They are therein forbid to Covet any thing much less then are they to take by force that which is their Neighbours and the meaner sort surely may bear the Name of Neighbour to those who are higher But there is an express Precept Levit. 25.17 You shall not oppress one another no not a Stranger Chap. 22.17 No nor a Servant that is escaped from an hard Master Deut. 23.16 Nor shut thine Hand from him nor thine Eye against him Chap. 15.7.9 Yea Excellent Laws were made for good Deeds to be done unto them The Corners of the Field were not to be fully Reaped nor the Gleanings of the Vintage to be gathered but left for them Levit. 18. Whatsoever grew every Seventh year was not to be inned and a Release was also then to be made of all Debts i. e. of all Debts owing by the Poor to the Rich. And lest a Man should from the thoughts of this years Release be the more strait-handed to his poor Brother there is is a special caution given in this point Deut. 15. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked Heart saying the Seventh year the year of Release is at hand and thine Eye be evil against thy poor Brother thou shalt surely give him And at the year of Jubile which was every Fiftieth year there was an Universal Freedom and Joy every Man might return to his Possession and every Servant to his own Family Yea this year as it expressed the greatest Mercy and Gladness when it came so it stretched forth Righteousness and Mercy to all other the years For thus it is Lev. 25. According to the number of years after the Jubile thou shalt buy of thy Neighbour and according to the number of the Fruits he shall sell unto thee according to the multitude of years thou shalt encrease the price thereof and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price thereof ye shall not therefore oppress one another but thou shalt fear the Lord thy God. And then in general all Persons were upon occasion to shew Love and Kindnesses and to have them shew'd back again to themselves And by such Acts as these as also by the abstaining from Adulteries Thefts False-Testimonies and such like ill Actions Society was to be kept up and Righteousness and Peace maintain'd It is Theophilus delightful to consider how by Laws even towards Beasts Birds and Trees God minded his People of a kind and good deportment one towards another The Ewe and her Lamb were not to killed both in one day Levit 22.28 Neither was the Old Bird to be taken with her Eggs or Young but in any wise to be let go that it might be well with them Deut. 22.6 Such seeming Cruelty must not be committed as to seethe a Kid in its Mothers Milk Exod. 23.19 And the Fruit-Trees though in a Siege against an Enemy must not be cut down but spared and this out of a kind of Gratitude because they bring forth for the Life of Man Deut. 20.19 So every way do these Laws tend to the planting of good Nature and sociable Virtues And surely such Laws as these might well have the Expression of Love towards them Consider Theophilus a Commonwealth well govern'd as That of the Jews was and all Happiness accruing unto it as to That there did and tell me if those Laws be not worthy to be loved One Law indeed there was which the Jews afterwards complain'd of as bringing them into great Straits and Troubles viz. That which commanded their Ground not to be Tilled and their Increase not to be gathered by the Owners every seventh year For since Pecuniary Tributs were exacted of them and their Field-encreases were the Foundation of their Coin they found themselves when their Crops were not brought home to be in great measure disabled for the answering such Taxations And therefore when Alexander the Great at Jerusalem had learnt out of Daniel's Prophesie that the Persian Empire should be overthrown by a Man that was a Greek and thereupon as persuaded that Himself was the Person had bid the Jews ask of him some great Boon they signified to him that a greater Privilege could not be granted them than the being freed from the seventh years Tribute which Request they obtain'd of him But though this Law proved heavy to them yet it was not from any defect in the Institution but from their Sins By these they forfeited God's Favour and gave him cause to turn that Law into their Punishment which he first made for the exercise of Mercy among themselves and for the manifesting of his own Power and Goodness towards them For thus we find it Lev. 25.20 21 22. If ye shall say What shall we eat the seventh year behold we shall not sow nor gather in our encrease then I will command my Blessing upon you in the sixth year and it shall bring forth fruit for three years And ye shall sow the eighth year and eat yet of old fruit the ninth year until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store If their Land fail'd of its Fertility A fruitful Land was turn'd into Barrenness for the Wickedness of them that dwelt therein According as it was expresly foretold Lev. 26.20 If you will not hearken unto me your Land shall not yield her Increase nor the Trees their Fruit. Hitherto of the Laws which respected the Jews from one another As to the Laws which related to Themselves in their own Persons I will say only this and it is enough to shew an amiable Excellence in them viz. That they are such as make a Man calm in his Breast and strong in his Body Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self supposeth that a Man is to love Himself and the Supposition is built upon and is as valid as a Law A more benign Law than which what Man is it can desire He is hereby not to torture himself by Anxious Cares and Envious Thoughts He is engaged likewise not to impair his Health by any manner of Excess for in doing either the one or the other he would not be his own Friend nor love himself And this hath an excellent tendency to Friendship abroad also He who loves himself so well as not to envy others will by others not be envied but loved And He who for his own Welfare will be temperate and sober is rightly fitted for the being faithful and for the having Trust reposed in him And thus Theophilus we have briefly run through these Laws And if you consider them as to the Moral part they naturally tend to the establishing of a People in Peace and Prosperity And may therefore deservedly be loved And if you consider them altogether they had some things from without that might preserve Mens Love towards them from growing Faint viz. Gods especial promise of Earthly
Son to dye in our Room that the works of the Devil should be destroy'd in us and that we as was but meet for us to do should endeavour after Holiness of Life The Son of God therefore that He might be our Propitiation and that We might not be altogether unfit to whom so great Favours should be shewn cometh into the World to establish and promote Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness among Men. It pitied him to see those whom he had Created in such an Eminent Rank of Beings to wander in Darkness unable by all their Reasonings to find out those things that nearliest concern'd them and recommending upon uncertain grounds those that in some faint measures they did discern He hereupon reduceth them into right Paths giving them a true sight of their wretched Estate prescribing an Exact Rule to live by and settling it on a strong and sure Foundation Not only as agreeable to Mans Reason which though somtimes right is often dim and erroneous but as suteable to the Goodness of God which is absolutely perfect as being the Dictate of his Wisdom which cannot be deceived The resolution of his Will which is most Holy the Injunction of his Authority which is most unquestionable and the only way to a true and lasting Happiness Whence it is easie to discern that in infinite Love he gives his Laws unto us And the same Love from which these Laws proceeded did in an eminent manner confirm them and testifie their being Divine When he gave them he ascended into a Mount and therein there was indeed some agreeableness betwixt the giving of the Law by Moses and by Him. But this Mount did not burn with Fire nor had it Blackness and Darkness and Tempest as the other had to keep the People at a distance from him Neither were his Miracles of the severer kind as those of Old for the most part were He by an Almighty Power restored several to Life but none ever suffered Death by him He gave Health to more than a few for from him the Blind received their sight the Lame walked the Lepers were cleansed but he never hurt the Bodies of any that it might well be said He went about doing good But such a sweet-natured Establishment of his Laws we the less may wonder at as being no more than what might well be expected when such infinite and unspeakable Love had brought him into the World to give Laws A very great Inducement sure for us to love those Laws which were bottom'd on such a tender Affection to Mankind Theoph. It is pity that any should be willing to overthrow this so great Love in him who is our Lawgiver by saying that it cannot consist with the Divine Justice to punish an Innocent Person in the place of the Guilty That by an Act of Dominion God laid Affliction upon our Lord but no Punishment That therefore Christ was not a Propitiation for our Sins and consequently that there is no such Love as we talk of at the bottom of these Laws Eubul It is sad Theophilus that any should oppose a Truth so evident and advantageous For is it possible that any thing should be more plainly spoken in Holy Writ than that Christ suffered for our Sins the Just for the Vnjust That he came to give his Life a Ransom for many That he is the Propitiation for our Sins and that in due time he Died for the Vngodly And can any thing be more manifest than that our Lords dying in our stead was from his own Will and was the act of one who had a Power to do what he did and of one who could not sink under the Punishment and also an act which is conducive to the best Ends in the World the illustrating of the infinite Justice of God in punishing Sin of his infinite Mercy in saving Sinners and of his unspeakable Wisdom in doing it in such a way which the Contrivances of Men and Angels could never have reached unto And since God's Dominion is so much pleaded in this matter for the avoiding the Name of Punishment and making it to be only Affliction we may pertinently ask Why by his Dominion he might not Punish an Innocent Person offering himself in the place of the Offenders as well as throw Afflictions upon him as great and acute as Punishment itself could be And what difference is there to the Persons Sense who thus suffereth betwixt Afflictions and Punishments Surely These Men are very ill Asserters of the Divine Justice who while they deny that God may punish the Innocent instead of the Guilty though from such admirable Motives but now mentioned dare at the same time make him to have laid the Torments of the Cross upon his beloved Son without respect to any offence or fault in the least Which how unworthy a thought of God is it And how little are they Friends to the Sacred Laws who thus deprive them of their great Ornament the wonderful Love in which they were founded Theoph. But leaving these Men how Rational soever they would be thought cum ratione sua insanire if you have any thing more to say of this our Law-giver pray Eubulus do it Eubul This I think I may say truly That the Old Mosaick Law and the Blessings accruing to the Jews thereby were very much upon the Account of and in order unto our Lawgivers Coming into the World. And whosoever throughly instructed in Christianity will look into the Jewish State and the Laws and Customs of it will without much difficulty find that they were for the most part Types and Representations of him who was to come And they did betoken either the Excellency of his Person or the Purity and Holiness of his Laws or the Way how he would be a Ransom for us or the blessed Liberty we should have under his Government somthing or other relating unto him was signified by them as might easily be shewed from their Priesthood Sacrifices Washings Jubiles from the Land to which they were brought from the Person that brought them from the Cities of Refuge and such like VVhich things do shew forth the Greatness of our Lawgiver though while on Earth He for most Gracious Ends was in appearance mean. For what Man ever before Him was so Honour'd as to have the State and Government of a great Nation for so long a time to be formed as a Prophecy of Him And though Greatness as such is rather fitted to strike a Reverence than to allure Affections yet it may allure them when Majesty and Love are equally mingled and when our Lawgiver is Primarily not more so by his Greatness than by his Tenderness towards Men. The Apostle therefore to magnifie the Gospel and the Laws thereof speaks of them as given and declared by the Son of God God saith he who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto our Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his SON whom
therefore in the beginning of his Sermon upon the Mount He endeavours rightly to instruct the Heart and Soul by acquainting those who are his Followers That They are blessed who are poor in Spirit who are meek who hunger and thirst after righteousness who are pure in Heart c. Which Expressions denote that the Mind should be rightly framed and that They who give up their Names unto him must have their Souls brought into order and adorned He tells them that They are the Salt of the Earth and will be good for nothing unless they endeavour to season others by their exemplary Conversation Matth. 5.13 They are the Light of the World and so they must shine before others that their good Works may be seen and God glorified V. 16. He extends the Commandment of doing no Murther even to the not being angry with another without a cause V. 22. The Precept of not committing Adultery he makes reach even to the forbidding of Lustful Looks and Desires V. 28. He forbids all Divorces unless in the case of Fornication V. 32. He restored Marriage to its Primitive Perfection by prohibiting Polygamy Matth. 19.5 They Two shall be one Flesh Emphatically They Two as exclusive of more which we learn from V. 9. of the same Chapter Whosoever shall put away his Wife except it be for Fornication and shall marry another committeth Adultery For how weak would it have been to pronounce it Adultery for a Man to marry after a Divorce if the adding one Wife to another before a Divorce should be no Adultery And if it shall be said that our Lord orders it as a punishment to him who puts away his Wife not to marry another but permits those to marry more than one who put away none it may be replyed That surely the Punishment might little be feared because it might be so easily avoided For who need care whether he married or not after the putting away a Wife if he might marry as many as he would before And we cannot think that He who is the Wisdom of God should ground any Law upon so sandy a Foundation He disallows of Swearing how true soever in ordinary Conversation Vers 34. He prohibits all Revenge in that we are not to resist an Adversary so as to pay an Injury for an Injury V. 39. He commands Love to be shewed even to Enemies Blessings to be given to those that curse us V. 44. And truly this Command and the foregoing one may seem to be added by our Saviour as not having the Law of Nature for its Foundation according to which the Decalogue was framed but being built upon that Love which our Saviour afterwards did shew when he died for his Enemies For the Law of Nature may seem to allow of this Vt no cui quis noceat nisi lacessitus injuriâ Cic. But when injured he may requite it When we do Alms we must not have respect unto our own Glory but only to the Glory of God and the Good of the Miserable Chap. 6. V. 1. When we Pray and Fast both must be done with a devout secresie that God in both may be chiefly looked unto and the Eye of Men not cared for V. 16. We are commanded while on Earth to have our Hearts in Heaven To lay up Treasures there by laying them out here in Charitable and Virtuous Deeds V. 19. We are forbid to be anxiously concern'd for any things of this World though never so necessary but are with a devout submission to depend upon God and to lay all our cares upon him V. 25. We are commanded not to judge others nor to be Censorious towards them but are to think no evil of them to put the best Interpretation upon their Actions and to look with a strict Eye upon ourselves only Chap. 7.1 2. Yea in all our behaviour towards others to observe that excellent Rule of doing to Them whatsoever we would that They should do unto us What Precepts can there be more full and clear than these are Can the Decalogue be better interpreted than by them Is there not in them a more perfect and spiritual Sense than can be presently discern'd in the Old Law If as David saith Thy Law is pure therefore thy Servant loveth it what Heights of Love must the purity of these Laws raise up in us More largely and clearer by far are our Duties towards God and our Neighbours here delivered far more Reason then have we to love them If we consider the Laws which immediately respect a mans self we shall find that they are much more fully given unto us than under the Old Law they were It hath been observ'd by some that in Moses's Law strictly consider'd there are no Precepts to be found that immediately respect a Mans self And it may seem to be so far true viz. That there are hardly any there but what are included in and deducible from those that primarily look another way And therefore if we will rightly consider things the Laws that respect ourselves are more properly belonging to the New Testament at least are there more directly and openly enjoyn'd Such are the Precepts If our Right Hand offend us to cut it off If our Right Eye to pluck it out Such also are other Precepts tending towards Mortification The preserving not only our Bodies free from Intemperance but the keeping them under that we may be pure and clean both in Body and Soul. The bearing of Afflictions and Injuries with a patient and quiet Spirit and others not unlike unto these Whoever shall look into the Laws given us as we are Christians must needs confess whether they respect God our Neighbour or ourselves that they are at least much more fully and clearly given than before they were If yet some of the greatest purity and Excellence be not added and so we have a great Enducement on this Consideration also to Love them Theoph. By this their Clearness Fulness and Perfection they are fitted for the greatest extension of our Faculties and the most Heroick Endeavours both of our Souls and Bodies Yea could we rise to the highest pitch of Virtue that Mortality is capable of we should find room in them for even yet Nobler Attainments and those such as would require our still pressing forwards till the last Moment of our Lives Whence how answerable are they to that Sacred Infinity which is in God! To whom we can at no time say All these things have we done what lack we yet What Humility may they not nourish in us whose Perfection we still fall short of What Care and Watchfulness that our Obedience may be approved What Prayers to God that his Goodness may help us in our Perseverance and his Mercy pardon us in our Failures But yet Eubulus I wish that what you have said were owned by all as a Truth Some there are whose Auditor I much against my will have been who have said these following things which are direct objections against
5.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall be liable to the Judgment viz. The Court of the Twenty Three Elders where the Punishment was Capital though in a more mild manner than in the Council viz. of the Sanhedrim or in the Vally of Hinnom denoted there by the Expression of Hell-fire And therefore the least Punishment hereafter being such as answers to Death here importeth no less than Death Eternal though a lesser degree thereof than what shall be inflicted upon greater Sins Theoph. But can this Motive be said any way to prevail for our Love to these Laws It may excite indeed a Dread but not likely our Love. Eubul Yet Theophilus let things be seriously considered and even from This Motive how dreadful soever it may at first view appear there will be reason to love these Laws For the Constituting such Punishments is no more than what is meet to be done Where the Laws are in themselves so every way good and where there are Eternal Rewards promised to the Observance of them you will say when they are disobey'd that it is but fit there should be Penalties inflicted and these Penalties such as shall be answerable to the Offences committed Now the greatness of the Offences is to be gathered from the exceeding Riches of Gods Bounty viz. Everlasting Rewards held out unto Men on Terms so excellent and to Rational Natures so truly agreeable If These shall be despised and cast behind their backs the Sin is of a very great height and what Punishment will so rightly sute it as the contrary to that Eternal Happiness which they have rejected viz. Eternal Misery The measure of Gods Justice is to these Men not greater than the abundant Goodness was which they so ungratefully refused They shall not be thrown deeper in Hell than by the Will of God they might have been raised in Heaven Nor shall they continue longer in Punishments than they should have done in Joys Now these things in Speculation must be acknowledged to carry in them a dueness of proportion and to be therefore bountiful as indeed every thing in God and in his Actings is even his Justice no less than his Mercy Only we are weak and sinful and so cannot over quickly discern it But to impartial Consideration it will at length shew itself so to be But that which comes more near us and may more move our Love is this viz. That the Intent of threatning these Punishments is primarily not that they should be born but that they should be escaped Self-preservation is a thing so natural unto Men that the fears of losing their Welfare and Being shall have a more quick touch upon them than any thing else God therefore hath added this Motive of Fear that it may be a spur to quicken us when by the Corruption of Nature other Arguments are rendred less prevalent These Punishments shall indeed be undergone by refractory Sinners For they have as much as in them lies gone about to dissolve utterly the Community which is made up between God the Legislator and Men his People by infringing the Authority of the Divine Laws and the Dignity of Him who is to see that they be observed But it is only by such as These that these Punishments shall be undergone To others they are chiefly a Motive to Obedience and are further only as a reserve when all other means have proved ineffectual The case in respect of Punishments is much different betwixt our Lawgiver and Lawgivers on Earth Some of These are more forward to punish than to reward because Punishments do oftentimes increase their Treasuries and Rewards diminish them But our Lord is no way profited by the punishment of any neither in the rewarding them is his Abundance extenuated Much delight he takes in the Life of Men but he hath given us the greatest Assurances that he hath no pleasure in the death of Sinners His threatning therefore to punish them is that they may not be punished And truly though we may dread the Effects of God's Justice yet when he thereby shall awaken our Hearts that we may be the more secured unto Happiness as it may very much excite our Obedience so may it also our Love to God's Law even upon the account of threatning Eternal Punishments Theoph. I see out of the Eater there may be Meat and out of the Strong Sweetness What to common view is at the greatest distance from Love is hearer than what I could think an Engagement thereof to the Divine Law. Eubul Another Motive for the securing of Obedience to the Laws of Christ is their having stronger Assistances afforded for the Performance of them than under the Old Law there were The Holy Spirit will always joyn with our sincere Endeavours and will help our Infirmities And hereupon the Gospel and all the Laws of Jesus Christ are in Holy Writ called Spirit by reason of the Grace of God's Spirit preventing and enabling us in the doing of them and are therein put in opposition to the Mosaick Law which is term'd the Letter Thus is it 2 Cor. 3.6 God hath fitted us to be Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit i. e. not of the Old Law but of the Evangelical for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life i. e. The Spirit with its Assistances in this Law enables us to perform it and in so doing to obtain Life Hence it is that the Apostle as some very Learned Persons interpret him reckons more to the Constitution of a Christian than of other Men joyning Spirit to Soul and Body and giving that the precedence of the other two I pray God your whole Spirit Soul and Body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus 2 Thess 5.23 Not that This is a Substance distinct from the Soul and Body but a Principle we may call it which is wrought within us by the Blessed Spirit and is well expressed by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of St. Paul the New Creation and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of St. Peter the Divine Nature whereby we are enabled to act those things which meerly by our Natural Powers we cannot reach unto And what is it that we cannot do if our Lord through the Blessed Spirit will lend us an Hand in the doing it I can do saith St. Paul all things through Christ that strengtheneth me and so may every good Christian say as well as he Which is a very great Encouragement to love these Laws in that they bring their Helps as well as their Rewards along with them Theoph. What you say Eubulus might be a great Encouragement to love these Laws were these Assistances such as you speak them to be But alas our Work seems to be little the less for them We must labour fight and strive and when we have done all which we are able we can see much of the Weakness of Men but little of the Strength of God and nothing
Neighbours one to another Nothing can possibly prevail more upon Rational Men for Obedience to Princes than that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacred Ministers of God. That Damnation shall be received if resistance be made And that the Conscience within is to be preferr'd before the Fear of Wrath without And surely Princes may well embrace the Name and maintain the Practice of Christianity which thus secures them of the Hands and Hearts of their Subjects What stronger Motives can there be for Peoples Respect and Love to their Ministers than that they are Stewards of the Mysteries of God upon their account That in Christs stead they beseech them to be reconciled unto God And that they are set apart for this very thing to wit the promoting the welfare of their Souls and how prevalent such Motives have been we may learn from the Galatians carriage towards St. Paul who would if possible have plucked out their own Eyes and given them unto him Neither are the Duties of Pastors urged with less Weight The Church's being purchased by the Blood of God is the argument for their Feeding it and they are charged before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall Judge the Quick and the Dead to do it The consideration of which what Heart would it not affect For Mutual Love and Delight between Those whom Wedlock hath joyn'd it is an highly sacred Motive That Marriage is so far honour'd as to become Mysterious in the Signification of Christ the Bridegroom and the Church his Spouse and of that Vnion which is between them never to be dissolved And how admirably may the Hardness of Mens Hearts be overcome by such a Consideration as this And how is the Credit of those who are the Weaker Sex provided for by not being permitted now to be cast off upon every trivial Distaste For that Mysterious Signification which we said Marriage is enobled with doth plainly hint that the Bond thereof is to continue firm and unbroken and that the Faithful Affections both of the One and the Other in the Wedded Pair will certainly with other Virtues after this Life be rewarded living in a manner for ever in that Divine Love they did here represent Fathers must be tender to their Children and not provoke them to Wrath from that winning Motive that they have a Father in Heaven who they desire may not be pitiless and wrathful to them And Childrens Obedience is quickned by its being in the Lord Which Expression doth not only hint the Extent of their Obedience and how far it should reach but doth shew also that God is concern'd in it and doth observe whether it be truly perform'd or no. And the taking notice of the Fifth Commandment as being the first that hath a Promise annex'd unto it and the improving that Promise of Earthly and Temporal Blessings into Spiritual and Eternal is a very high Encouragement of the Duty The Faithfulness of Servants hath Motives admirably strong to wit That they do Service to Christ while they do it conscionably to their Masters That He sees their Diligence or Loitering when their Masters cannot And that He will reward whatsoever good thing any Man doth no less though he be bound than if he were free And Masters have a Motive equally as strong for their Gentleness and Goodness towards their Servants from their having a Master in Heaven with whom is no respect of Persons Which imports that the Authority which a Master hath on Earth shall not in Heaven or at God's Bar stand him in any stead if he bear it hardly and frowardly towards his Servant Lastly For the Duty of Neighbours one to another What more taking Motive can there be for their Love and Peaceableness than that they are as lively Stones built up a Spiritual House Absurd it would be if in our Buildings the Materials should be at variance and will it not be much more so in Gods Building where Jesus Christ is the chief Corner-Stone They are excited to love one another as being Brethren in a far more Noble Relation than that of Nature Thy Brother saith St. Paul in more than one place for whom Christ died And what an effectual and kindly Operation may this have in all those Matters of Discord which may arise among Neighbours and Friends Shall such or such an Offence make me an Enemy to him for whom Christ hath died Shall any Worldly Concern overturn that Love and break that Vnion which Christ hath Cemented and Established with his own most precious Blood A mighty Inducement for the love of Neighbours this Though not proper to this Relation alone but running through all the foregoing ones The higher place in every one of them being not too high and the lower one not too low to admit the Name of Brother And so all the Duties thereof may be promoted and the more benignly carried on by this Motive I thought it not amiss Theophilus in short thus to hint the Excellent Motives which the Gospel affords as proper to every particular Law by itself consider'd And they are as I said either purely Evangelical as flowing some way or other from the Mystery of our Redemption which could not have been known had it not been divinely revealed or else such as are to a much greater Persuasiveness urged than ever they were before Theoph. They prevail so much with me that methinks were I in the meanest of these Relations or could I by turns be each part in them all I could love every Law belonging to them for the apposite and excellent Motives which to every Law are annex'd But Eubulus you have not yet given me any taste of those Motives which respect the Laws to a Mans Self in particular Eubul But since you seem to desire it I will. And while I recount them in my thoughts somtimes though I approve of any thing that leads to Virtue be it even in the meanest of Philosophers yet I have a low esteem of the very highest of their Encouragements if compared with these of our Lord. For the keeping of our Bodies free from Intemperance and Vncleanness can there be any thing more prevailing than that they are Members of that Body to which Christ is the Head That they are Temples of the Holy Ghost That they are bought with a price even with the Blood of Christ And that they will not be lost when they are laid in the Earth but will be raised up again from the Dead And he who is wiling to weigh these things rightly How can he take the Members of Christ and make them the Instruments of Vncleanness the Receptacles of Luxury and Excess How can he pollute that Temple which the Holy Ghost doth Consecrate and delight to reside in How can he answer it if be defiles that Body which is not his own yea which our Saviour hath Cleansed with his Blood as well as Bought And with what Face can he abuse That
all Indignities without Endeavours of vindicating himself though he had the power of doing it small Encouragement there would have been for our complying with his Example had he not said Resist not Evil but whosoever shall smite thee on the Right Cheek turn to him the other also Love your Enemies Bless them them that curse you Do good to them that hate you And pray for them that despitefully use you that ye may be the Children of your Father who is in Heaven Certainly had there been only the Example of our Lord without any thing else we should not Theophilus have known how to interpret some Actions But if in the Example which he hath set his Will and Design should have been told the Matter of his Actions would have put on the Nature of a Law and so would have bound us to imitation not as Example so much as Law. Whence I suppose Theophilus it is plain that the Example of none no with Reverence I speak it not of our Blessed Lord himself do as of themselves lay any Obligations upon us and consequently our Imitation of Holy Men is to go no further than their Example hath the Divine Laws for its Rule and Warrant 2. The Perfection of the Laws of Christ which reacheth to all Moral Actions and even to the Thoughts of our Hearts sheweth us the same thing also Nothing is there that is just and good but the Precepts of the Gospel do enjoyn it Nothing that is unrighteous but is forbidden there And in this sense in is that the Law of God is said to be exceeding broad Psal 119. Now to say that there may be Examples of Goodness beyond what is included in the Laws of Christ is to make those Laws imperfect which pierce in every thing even to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit and the Joynts and Marrow and which proceed from Him who is infinitely Wise and so cannot be thought to be any way deficient But to say that such or such an Example is good because it includeth in it that goodness which the Laws of our Lord do enjoyn is to grant that the Law is Superiour to the Example and though there should have been no such Example would have required the matter of it to have been done Theoph. But pray Eubulus what shall we think of the Example of the Church in some things which we account necessary to be done from her Practice when yet there is no Command in Holy Scripture for the doing them I will instance only in two things though I might in more to wit The Baptizing of Infants and the setting apart the First Day of the Week as Holy. It may seem that either we are mistaken when we press the necessity of these things or else that there are some things necessary which the Precepts of our Lord do not reach unto Eubul But yet Theophilus even in these things we are not swayed merely by the Example of the Church without great Reason moving Her to the constant Observance of them And though there be no direct Command for these things yet if they may with good probability be inferred from Holy Writ if there be a Congruity in them to some Laws given unto the Jews so far as Reason and Enquity enforced those Laws and if there be likewise some things in the New Testament that more than a little intimate the doing of them we may observe them upon the same Grounds that the Church observed them and not only from her Example Though truly her Example downwards even from her First Age may add Authority to the Considerations now mention'd in that she is a Society which above all others in the World hath the Aids and Direction of the Holy Spirit who is the Guide unto all Truth If we look upon your first Instance of Baptizing Infants there is a Command that all Nations should be Baptized God enlarging his Covenant to all Mankind which was confined to the Jews before Though truly even the Covenant which was made with Abraham of which Circumcision was the Seal was of an Evangelical Nature and belonged to him chiefly as he was the Father of the Faithful and to his Spiritual no less than to his Fleshly Race And if Children before and in the time of the Old Law were capable of the Covenant why not in the time of the Gospel where is much greater Love manifested unto Men than ever there was in the Jewish State And while Divine Love is more abundant to all Sorts and Conditions of Men shall poor and helpless Children suffer a Diminution in it Especially when our Blessed Lord was pleased to take them in his Arms to rebuke those that kept them from him and to pronounce that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven There is so much cause to think that the Priviledges of Children are not only continued but increased under the Gospel that to make us to be of another Mind it may seem necessary that there should have been a Command on purpose not to Baptize them And what Prejudice think we would it not have wrought in the Jews towards Christianity if their Children who were taken into Covenant under Moses should have been excluded the Covenant under Christ Or should it be said that God hath Mercy in store for them as Infants why if the inward Grace be vouchsafed unto them should the outward Seal of such Grace be denied them who if they be fit for the Kingdom of Heaven are sure not unfit for the Font As for your other Instance of setting apart the First Day of the Week as Holy Natural Religion will tell us that some time is to be allowed to the Service of God And Revealed Religion hath acquainted us that God by a Command to the Jews the Reason of which is fetch'd from the very beginning of the World had determined the seventh part of Time to be continued as his own Peculiar The Equity of which Portion of Time in that it respected the Resting of Cattel as well as of Men the Church still owneth as not knowing a better than what God himself had appointed But the Day of Christs Resurrection by reason of the Exceeding Greatness of Gods Power and Love shewed in it surpassing that Day which immediately succeeded the Creation and having been signalized by the Apostles and other Believers meeting together upon it not once by Chance or another time as it happened but frequently by Choice Our Lord also honouring their coming together by his own Presence and by the wonderful Presence of the Holy Ghost sent upon them on that Day and its being probable likewise that the Observation thereof was by the Order of the Apostles or otherwise there would not have been such early Discipline as the Laying by in Store Collections for the Saints on that Day nor would the Day itself in so short a time have been established throughout the whole Church still every Hour encreasing and further it being no less
Law properly so called but in the Psalms And I doubt not but as the Psalms are called in a larger Sense Gods Law so our Psalmists in these words O how I love thy Law meaneth all that God by Divine Inspiration hath caused to be written as well as the Law taken in the strictest signification Theoph. Give me leave to tell you that I look not upon you to have done your task throughly unless you deal with the other Parts of Holy Scripture as you have done with that which is properly Preceptive Eubul There is the less need of this because if That be excellent and amiable in relation to us the rest of the Bible as being in order unto and promotive of the Precepts there for so in reality it is must be Excellent and Amiable likewise whether it be Historical or Prophetick Adhortative or Devotional and to one or other of these all except what we have already discours'd of or at least the most of what the Sacred Writings include is reducible Theoph. If you would be a little particular herein you would seem to me not to exceed the Bounds of your Discourse Good Eubulus begin with the Historical part of the Bible which for the great things it containeth and the Faithful account which it giveth doth when ever I read it afford me very great satisfaction Eubul That the accounts of things are Faithful and Written with a design of Truth the Holy Writers not sparing themselves but putting down their own faults as several of them in several places do is a very great Evidence Such an Integrity cannot but be Loved where from Historians having less respect to their own Reputation than to the verity of things a Man may be as well satisfied in his knowledge of the most Ancient Times as he is in those which he Lives in and sees with his Eyes Yea such History may much the more engage his Love when it gives him not merely the knowledge of the first Times but such a knowledge as to a good Man puts a Relish into All Times and will make the years pass more gratefully to the End of the World. Look we Theophilus upon the account of the Creation of the World which we may be certain was Written by Gods Immediate Appointment and Inspiration for the exciting a due Fear and Love of Him i. e. an Obedience to his Laws and what Delight may we not conceive therefrom While the Wise Men of the World have in vain sought how this goodly Fabrick of the Heaven and Earth came to be such as it is some of them affirming it to be from all Eternity the same which we now see it others determining it to be from a lucky hit of Matter casually coming together into this Beauteous Form We amidst their Errors can pity them and the more enjoy the Truth from the Ignorance and Darkness which these Searchers have been in But as the knowledge of a Truth which they could not reach unto may upon that score be prized by us so we may intermingle the greatest Love with our Esteem of it because it gives us such a firm support throughout our Lives God who Created the World did it not more to manifest his Power than to express his Goodness unto Men whom he made to enjoy it and to be served by all things in it And how Cold and Vnaffecting are the Other Opinions in respect of this Truth Were the World such as it now is from all Eternity altogether without a Deity or with no Relation unto one which is the opinion of some Atheistical Men it could not give us the pleasure of thinking that it was the effect of Divine Power and Love to us Nay were it Eternal by a necessary Efflux from the Goodness of a Deity which could not refrain from the thus exerting itself as the Platonists hold where would be the Favour For that which cannot possibly be otherwise layeth no Obligation upon us And should the World have risen merely by Chance as the Epicureans would have it there would this way also have been the Total absence of Kindness For what hath Chance to do with Kindness whose perfection it is to have the Understanding and Will along with it But now in the History of the Worlds Beginning we can behold the Love and Beneficence of the Great Creator and with Pleasure can Contemplate Him who makes his Goodness to be seen in every thing though Himself be Invisible So great a Priviledge is it to have the World founded in the Divine Power Wisdom and Love that one who knows those things and is a Virtuous Person would not for a World that the World should be without them The Light would be a less pleasant thing to behold should it not have been from Him who is the Fountain of Light. And what pleasure would the Heavenly Bodies whether those which we term fixed or those which as Cicero speaks are Vocabulo nonâ—e errantia Planets not in reality but word only afford by their Motion and Influence were it not from the Creators Order that they thus Move from his Care of us that they thus shed their Influence Could we not say also concerning these Earthly Things That Manifold are thy Works O Lord in Wisdom hast thou made them all the Earth is full of thy Riches And even concerning ourselves likewise that Man was first formed by God who breathed into him the Breath of Life that ever since we have been fearfully and wonderfully made and that in his Book are all our Members Written both We and They should lose all our Excellence For an Excellence wholly destitute of Wisdom wholly destitute of Love would be an empty thing yea a meer Contradiction Theoph. It must needs be yielded that such History is Worthy to be Loved on the Considerations you now mention'd and one Consideration more may be added viz. That though there be in some antient Authors some things not altogether unlike to this History they in probability having either seen Moses's Writings and so out of design mingled Fictions with them for the making an Opinion of their own or else heard an imperfect Relation of them and so given us only some faint resemblances of Truth though the best they could yet none of them all do give that satisfaction to a Religious Reader which Moses doth He having been throughly instructed by the Creator himself for what he hath Written and having given Confirmation also of its Truth by the Wonders which he wrought Eubul It is not difficult to conceive why though even by Natural Reason it may be inferred that the World owed its Form and Fashion to a Divine Power there yet is such a defective account of the Origen of the Universe from the Philosophers of Old. For they however otherwise of good Knowledge and great Industry relying altogether on the Experience of the Works of Nature in which they saw that somthing was requisite for the production of another thing could not
shew the Unspeakable Love of God unto us and to instruct us in such a pureness of Devotion towards him as becomes Creatures of Rational Souls to exercise towards their Creator and infinitely Loving Father To instruct us also in such an Amiableness of Deportment towards Men as shall shew that they are heartily loved by us These things cannot be the Design of an Envious and Evil Nature No nor yet of wordly Praise or Profit Not of Profit for they taught the way of being Rich towards God Of laying up of Treasures in Heaven which was the refusing the Mammon of Unrighteousness by giving Alms to the Poor and forsaking Houses and Lands for the Sake of Christ Neither were these Politick Precepts to Teach Men to despise these things that the Teachers themselves might be the more enriched by them for They by their own Example no less than by Precepts had shewed that those wordly things were meanly to be accounted of They forsook all and followed Christ And surely they did altogether as little design Praise to themselves for all which they said or did they spake and acted for the Glory of God. The Pharisees they Condemned for looking after the Praise of Men Matth. 6. And others they infixed a Note of Discredit upon for Loving the Praise of Men more than the Praise of God. They wrote down Precepts for the avoiding of applause in our good actions yea so far were they from the seeking after Praise themselves that they Registred their own and Companions Failings At the Betraying of Jesus all his Disciples cowardly forsook him and fled Matth. 26. And this is writ by one who himself forsook him and fled as well as the rest And St. Peter's denying of his Master is at large described by St. Mark who was his Intimate and Friend And the whole is approved of by St. Peter who had the viewing of St. Mark 's Writings and as is thought by some did dictate the Matter of them From these considerations there is no reason to think that the Penmen of the New Testament wrote Falshoods or things that they did not throughly know to be true Add to these the unlikelyhood that poor Fishermen for such the Disciples as to the greater part were and the rest not much better could raise such a Story of their own Heads so agreeable to the Predictions of the Old Testament and yet false or that they would have done it so contrary to the expectation of the Jews and to their own expectation also a little before Who thought of nothing more than of a Messias who as a King should deliver them from their Earthly Enemies Especially when Indignities Reproaches loss of all Comforts yea of Life itself fell upon them for what they Attested and might have been avoided by their Silence or denying it Such Evils might indeed terrifie Truth and render it forsaken but that they should encourage a feigned thing and bear up Mens Spirits for the spreading of a Lye who is it can imagine Certainly no Man can with any shew of Reason do it Who shall yet further consider that none could possibly be greater encouragers of Speaking Truth than the Apostles were in all their Writings nor greater Enemies to false Speaking than They. For they forbid it under pain of Eternal Damnation Nothing must enter into the New Jerusalem which maketh a Lye And all who do so must have their part in the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the Second Death These are some of those many proofs which confirm the Truth of Scripture Story and whoever is willing notwithstanding such Rational Evidence to disbelieve it is I doubt of such ill Principles and Morals that it is his interest such History should not be true For then there would be no Hell after this Life which should there be one he is conscious to himself would be very hot to Him. Theoph. He would deserve it should be so And none will be forward to pity his Misery who shall thus shut his Ears upon the message of his Happiness But Eubulus the Prophetick part of Scripture is next to have your Eye Eubul The Prophetick is in its way Historical also different only in this Historical tells you what hath been Prophetick tells you what will be and if it be fulfilled long since and written it passeth into a more surprizing sort of History We are much delighted in the account of former Times and not less desirous to know what will be in future And when that which hath been predicted cometh exactly so to pass we are the more taken with it because the Times to come more properly belong unto God and we look upon it as his immediate Hand if any thing be thus made know And hence it is that whatsoever hath the name of a Prophecie needeth nothing else to gain attention and to set itself off amongst the vulgar who in this respect could the less be found fault with were they not too forward to look upon every idle Prognostication as a Prophecie till at last they see the things to be false and themselves to be ridiculous from their Credulity But if ordinary short liv'd Predictions shall be thus attended unto with what delight may those be entertain'd which were of greater note and which God hath ordained as a part of Holy Writ to be Monuments of his Prescience to all Generations I will instance only in those Prophecies which respected our Blessed Saviour so long before his coming which may wonderfully delight us in the exceeding exactness of their being fulfilled what Heart will not be affected that reads the Prophecie of Esay c. 9. so very express concerning our Lord He speaks of Him in it as if he were already come To us a Child is Born to us a Son is given Highly pertinent to him in whom the promises are Yea and Amen and through whom God calleth those things that are not as though they were In which also there is a strange Propriety of Expression as to his Nature To us a Child is Born as Man he could be so to us a Son is given as he was God he could only be Given and not Born. The Time of our Lords Coming so rightly answering to the weeks of Daniel according to which also the Jews expected the Coming of the Messias about the Time our Redeemer came may well be our delight and the more because the wicked Jews seeing Daniel to stand the Christians in so much stead by his Prophecies have since that time made a new division of their Law into Prophetas and Hagiographos and have excluded Him from the number of Prophets and given him none of the highest places among the others whom they made to be of a lower Rank than the Prophets were These Prophecies Behold a Virgin shall bring forth a Son Esai 7.14 And the Lord hath created a new thing in the Earth a Woman shall compass a Man Jer. 31.22 How pleasant are they to the
and in Them the Image and Work of God to the vilest of Drudgeries When the Vnderstanding which is capable of the Knowledge of God and should be exercis'd to the right conceiving of all Virtues and the best Methods of bringing them forth into Action shall be fill'd with Impure Conceptions and wrought up to the Knowledge of all Wickedness and of the readiest ways of reducing it upon all occasions into practice When the Will which ought to be bent to the pleasing of God in an Universal Compliance with his Laws shall be forward in the desiring and prosecuting of Evil and shall rest satisfied in the accomplishment of it When the Memory which is so well fitted for God's Service shall be far from retaining the great Mercies he hath shewed to Men in general and to ourselves in particular in various Circumstances of our Lives When the excellent Things of God's Law are allow'd no room in it but on the contrary when itself is chiefly imploy'd in the remembring of those things which are light and vain in the preserving present to our Minds the readiest ways of bringing about ill Actions and in the keeping fresh those Injuries which by others have been done us whether through Imprudence Passion or Design that we may never upon Opportunities forget to revenge them When the Affections which should be engaged in an Holy Joy at the great things which God hath done for us in an Vnfeigned Love to Him for his being so loving and gracious unto us in a Delight in those Commandments which are so agreeable to the Nature and Souls of Men in an Ardent Longing for that Blessed State where we shall be wholly freed from Sin When these Affections I say shall be turned into Coldness towards God and the Things of Heaven into an hot and eager persuit after those things which minister only to Worldly Advantage or Sensual Pleasures into Ill Wishes towards others Envy at their Welfare Delight in their Troubles or Miscarriages And likewise when our Bodies which are Temples of the Holy Ghost shall be alienated to prophane Uses when our Members which are the Members of Christ shall be made to become the Members of Vnrighteousness our Eyes in beholding Vanity our Tongues in uttering Deceit or those things which Minister not Grace to the Hearers our Hands in doing that which is Evil our Feet in being swift in running to Mischief all of which were made for better Ends. When Men which were Created in the Similitude of God and should in their Actions also be like him shall through Disobedience have their Bodies and Souls brought under to such vile Offices is not the Great God made to serve in the Principal of his Handy-Works on Earth Certainly he is We know among Men there may be a suffering of Indignities in Effigie in somthing that shall represent the Man though his Person be absent or untouched and the Discredit shall redound to him in great measure as if he himself had in Person suffered And will it be otherwise with the Almighty God We are his Image and Likeness in respect of our Souls and both in our Souls and Bodies we bear the Image of his Son our Lord who was pleased to take upon him our whole Nature If therefore Disobedience shall throw such Dishonour on his Image and Workmanship in us although it reach not his Person to hurt that it yet makes him through his Works and his Image too as we are his Works and Image to serve Neither doth it Theophilus any more spare the Almighty in the other visible things of the World. The Sun and Moon and Stars in their Light and Influences The Earth and Sea and all the Creatures thereof in their several Capacities He made instrumental to the Life and Virtuous Actions of Men and through them to his own Praise and Glory And therefore since They as of themselves being Mute cannot Celebrate the Praises of their Creator Man's Mouth is to be theirs and to offer up Praise unto God in their stead Thus did the Royal Psalmist for them Praise the Lord ye Sun and Moon Praise him all the Stars of Light. Praise the Lord ye Heavens and ye Waters that be above the Heavens Praise the Lord from the Earth ye Deeps Fire and Hail Snow and Vapours Wind and Storm fulfilling his Word Mountains and all Hills Fruitful Trees and all Cedars Beasts and all Cattel Creeping things and Flying Fowl Psal 148. So likewise since these Visible Things of themselves are unable to do any Virtuous Deeds in relation unto Men our Hands are in some sort to become theirs through which they are to promote Actions of Justice of Kindness and of Mercy These are the Ends for which they were made and in them all they are to do Service unto God. But Theophilus our Disobedience to the Divine Law turns all these things another way and makes the Holy God in his Creation to be Instrumental unto Services which are quite contrary unto Himself When the Sun shall rise and make the Day only that those Sins may be acted which require Day-light in the Commission When it shall set and Night come on merely for the accomplishing of those Vices which need secresie chiefly and darkness When Malice and Ill Nature shall strengthen themselves by calling to their Aid whatever we possess rather than fall unactive to the ground When what should in Sobriety be imploy'd for the good of ourselves and in Charity and Friendship for the Benefit of others shall be abused to Intemperance Covetousness or Ambition is not God through the Works which he hath Created made to Serve Yea to Serve the worst of Beings his greatest Adversary in the worst of Services Theoph. Were it not that the Creation is by some Religious Men improved to right Ends we might not wonder if it should give Signs that it rather would be reduced to its first nothing than be thus abused to the Dishonour of its Maker and of itself Eubul This Slavery Theophilus the Creature is in a manner sensible of for the Apostle saith Rom. 8.22 The whole Creation Groaneth and travelleth in pain together until now and all upon the aceount that it is made Subject unto Vanity and brought under the Bondage of Corruption It is not willingly that it thus serveth the Prince of Darkness It groaneth and travelleth in pain Which expressions denote the State it is now in to be a State of great Misery and speak forth the greatest longing and the most earnest Expectation to be delivered from it into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God Where as those Sons of God shall be freed from Sin and shall do Service pure and uncorrupted unto God so the rest of the Visible Creation which hath too much and too long been forc'd to minister unto Vain Ends and Ungodly Practices shall be asserted also into that Freedom where it never shall be imployed more but in the true Service of God whose Service is perfect
Men and also the ill Inferences which these Men are apt to make from them we say Theophilus 1. That those Sins though great they were were yet rather single Acts than Habits of Sin. They were not approved of nor contrived for every day of their Lives nor did they last for Years Now single Acts are rightly esteemed not to carry so much Pollution as Habits do Because an Habit is acquired by Actions often repeated and so includeth the Defilements of many single Acts put together If it shall be said that the single Acts of some heinous Sins may possibly carry a stain with them as great as some Habits of lesser Sins and that the Sins of David and Peter were gravioris Notae of a deeper Dye it cannot yet but be granted that a single Act of a grievous Sin is less polluting than the Habit of the same Sin. But then Secondly Those Sins though very great they were had Repentance following them 〈◊〉 was truly great Look we upon David and we shall find him grieving in earnest and heartily affected with his Misdeeds Psal 38.2 Thine Arrows stick fast in me and thine Hand presseth me sore There is no soundness in my Flesh by reason of thine Anger neither is there any rest in my Bones because of my Sin. For mine Iniquities are gone over mine Head as an heavy Burden they are too heavy for me I am feeble and sore broken I have roared by reason of the Disquietness of mine Heart And in Psal 51. which Psalm he made as the Title hath it when Nathan the Prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba he mourns thus Wash me throughly from mine Iniquity and cleanse me from my Sin For I acknowledge mine Iniquity and my Sin is ever before me Deliver me from Blood-guiltiness O Lord Thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and contrite Heart O God thou wilt not despise I have the more largely spoken David's words that you may thereby see how great his Grief was how earnest his Prayers for pardon and how deep an Anxiety had seized him lest God's Favour should for ever have been with-held from him Nor was St. Peter's Sin without a remarkable Repentance It is said Matth. 26.75 Peter remembred the words of Jesus who said unto him Before the Cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice And he went out and WEPT BITTERLY It was not a light grief and a Tear or two that were quickly dryed up but a Bitter Weeping which words certainly do denote a very great and deep Sorrow Now those that think so well of their own Sins from the thoughts of David's and Peter's Sins being so much greater than theirs are they as ready to consider these good Mens Repentance Do they grieve for their own as these did for theirs Is the Burden of them heavy Are they earnest in the begging pardon for them If not the greatness of some good Mens Sins in Holy Scripture will be a mean Argument for the concluding their own not to be the Deformities of wicked Men. I may truly say that the great Sins of David and Peter if considered with their Repentance are much less than those Sins which in themselves are not so great without Repentance And so there is small reason for any Person from the Failures of these Holy Men to infer his own Spots to be none other than those of Gods Children Thirdly There are more Ends than one for which God hath caused those Sins of his Children to be registred in Sacred Story I cannot say but one End might be that those who in the like manner have grievously fallen may through the Exercise of a like Repentance have hope that they also shall not be refused Thus Rom. 15.4 What things were written afore-time were written for our Learning that we through Comfort of the Scripture might have hope But then a no less End is this viz. That those who now live and those who shall live in the Generations to come may from the Falls of others take the more heed that they fall not also And if they shall fall they may well think that their case is not so good because they have had such warning before and yet have not been prevail'd upon by it for the being more careful And then yet further Another End altogether as great as the other Two why the Sins of good Men have been recorded in Scripture is this to wit The shewing how God hates Sin even in those whom he loves and how he will punish it not only in their Persons while they live but in their Names and Memories when they are dead even to the End of the World. Some other things besides those that have been well pleasing unto God as Mary's Ointment was unto Christ shall wheresoever the Gospel is Preach'd throughout the World be spoken of also for a Memorial To make it known that Sins of a deep Die are in his Children altogether as Odious to his Purity and Holiness as their Pious Actions are acceptable to his Love and Goodness And now who is it that can have favourable Thoughts of Sin when God hath put so many Examples in Holy Writ as Warnings against Sin on purpose that we should have the more care to avoid it Who is it that may flatter himself in his Iniquities who shall rightly consider how God punisheth the Memory of his own Children and setteth a Mark of Disgrace upon them which shall last till Heaven and Earth do pass away He surely very slightly or very partially looks into the Bible who from the Sins of Good Men there can encourage himself in his own Sin and think that its Pollution is small to Him when it hath laid such a Blot upon their Names as must not as cannot be rased out by any Rather let him Hear and Fear and do himself neither in the same nor any other kind so wickedly As knowing that though none need now to Fear that their Misdeeds shall be Registred in Books which shall be of equal Authority with and shall last as long as the Bible for God therein hath wholly declared his will and so Divine Writings are not further to be expected yet the All-powerful and infinitely just Lord hath other ways of punishing them and of manifesting the Pollution of their Sin both to themselves and others to be very great how small soever they at present think it But Fourthly Theophilus we may truly affirm that God will not esteem the Sins of his Children which are in themselves as great as and the same with the Sins of Others to be therefore the less because they are committed by those who are his Children That is if any who are his shall be unjust in their Actions False in these Words Intemperate Unchast or any other ways vitious their Injustice Falseness Intemperance Unchastity and whatever other Crimes they shall commit shall be esteemed as carrying the same
with those of others to be less in them merely because they bear the Name of his Children will strongly imagine themselves to be Gods Children that so their Sins though great they be and are like never by true Repentance to be less may not be the Spots of wicked Men. These much wrong the Righteousness and Purity of God. These make Faith in Christ which worketh by Love to be the spurious Issue of their Fancy and by thus untowardly thinking their Sins to be the Sins of God's Children they the more surely make them the Sins of the worst sort of wicked Men. Theoph. Your Discourse Eubulus hath been very satisfactory unto me I yet could wish that some others had with me been partakers of it because I think they thence might have learn'd to make a better Judgment of their Spiritual State than now they seem to do Eubul Would Men from such things as these deal impartially with themselves some dangerous Mistakes which they are willing enough to foster might be corrected And what Theophilus if they should seriously ask themselves these or such like Questions viz. Are we contented and well enough pleas'd with our Original Sin and the Imperfection of our Nature Are we at no time affected with sorrow at it as being our Sin and do we never with a relenting Eye account it our Unhappiness as being our Punishment Can we sit idle under it and not endeavour to correct it by purging our Understandings of their Ignorance our Wills of their Pravity and our Affections of their Corruption Doth the sense of it never encline us to Humility And are we never thereby excited to pity others who are thus polluted and unhappy as well as we Or yet worse than so Do we encrease the Defilements of our Nature and studiously promote and stir up our vile Affections which otherwise would have been more quiet And then for Outward Actions Are our Lives almost wholly liv'd out in Sin Can we proceed from one Wickedness to another and do Evil with both Hands earnestly Or else if outward Shame hinder us from Evil Practices openly and in the Sight of this Sun do we Clandestinely Act them Or is our behaviour Plausible and Civil merely that we may the more surely and with less Suspition carry on Evil Actions and Designs Or if there be none of these outwardly notorious bad Actions nor secretly Wicked Designs yet are the chief Ends nothing look'd unto in what we do Is the Glory of God justled out by the Under-Aims of Earthly Profits or Pleasures And doth the Salvation of our Souls through Unbelief or Carelesness weigh little or nothing with us in respect of Advantage or Reputation among Men Have the particular Obligations by Almighty God laid upon us not been minded or not taken notice of by us to any good effect Have our greater Knowledge and Abilities been improved to no higher Services than the Ignorance and Weakness of the meaner Sort have been Have the stronger Motions from Gods Holy Spirit fallen Fruitless upon us And those Suggestions which at some times we in a more than ordinary manner have had and in which the Hand of God hath peculiarly been have they been refused and not complied with In the Sins which we have committed hath there been no Unfained Sorrow No Indignation at ourselves for making such ill returns to so Gracious a God and Father Have our Devotions been none or very Faint and Cold ones after our falling into Sin Have our former Faults begot in us no Resolutions of not Sinning knowingly and Presumptuously for the time to come Do we when tempted to commit a Sin not only yield to it but continue in it Are we never after it more earnest persuers of that which is Good And do the Frailty and Weakness of our Natures and the Sins which while we are in the Body we shall never be free from at no time prompt us to long for that Happy Day when we in Heaven shall do Gods Will without Carefulness Drowsiness and Imperfection If Theophilus they should thus question themselves and should find it no otherwise with them than what might be reducible to some or more of the particulars now mention'd they might make a Judgment whether their Sins are such as belong to the Worse or less Evil Sort of Wicked Men but would have no reason to think them only the Failures of Good Men. Theoph. Indeed Eubulus should Men thus be Judges of their own Misdeeds they would not be more than what they well might Some of their Sins possibly which cannot so well bear the being look'd into least their Pollution and Deformity should be discovered might be apt to say ye take too much upon you and who made you Rulers and Judges over us But certainly Men have a Power over their own Doings and may search their own Hearts and Examine the Rise and Progress and Design of their own Actings and need not fear that any should say unto them Why do ye thus Eubul And this they may the rather do Theophilus because they are the better able in many respects to make a Judgment of their own Sins than other Men are For they can see those things in their own Breasts which are hid from Mens Eyes abroad And it may be they can also conceive those deep Deceits there which they cannot by their Words so well express and give account of to others Well surely it would be that in those things which they are unknown in unto Others they should not be unknown to Themselves Theoph. It is I confess not the least part of Learning for Men to know Themselves The being skill'd in the works of Nature and in the Arts and Sciences The seeing into future Times and understanding all Mysteries and all Knowledge would be of small avail with them without the Knowledge of their own Sins For where these are not known there is very small hope that a Cure and Amendment will be wrought And what would it profit a Man to be otherwise in all respects accomplished and yet to go out of the World with his Sins unknown and so not repented of Eubul I am persuaded Theophilus that the great reason of so many Mens continuing in their Sins is because they are not willing to search into them Let them be throughly look'd into and the Cover taken off from their Deformity and they will find few that will not loath them When David had considered his ways i. e. had found the Spots and Defilements which his Sins carried in them he turned his Feet to Gods Testimonies He made hast and delayed not to keep his Commandments And would Men generally do as He did I have no cause to doubt but through Gods Blessing there would be the same good Issue to Them as to Him there was Nay I am sure if Pollution and Deformity will Create a Loathing they would perfectly Loath the Disobedience they have so long Indulged Theoph. Happy it would be if Men from the Motives of Fear or Shame would cease to be Disobedient but surely the Defilement and Deformity which Sin casteth upon them should prevail with them most And where they from this Consideration chiefly shall abstain from Iniquity they will be if I may so speak the more generously Innocent Eubul They by so doing will turn those Spots that mark'd them as wicked Men into the Spots of God's Children And at the last when their Bodies shall be raised Spiritual and Incorruptible they will leave even these Spots also behind them Ascending up into the Heavenly Jerusalem where nothing shall in any wise enter that defileth and where they will be for ever arrayed in fine Linnen clean and white the Righteousness of the Saints To which Heavenly Purity Theophilus and Inheritance Vndefiled GOD of his infinite Mercy bring You and Me and Them through the Blood of Cleansing even that of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST FINIS An Advertisement of Books sold by Joseph VVats at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-yard SPeed's Maps Folio Cowley's Poems compleat Folio The Confession Prayers and Meditations of Lieutenant John Sterne and George Borosky Published by Dr. Burnet and Dr. Horneck Folio The Tryals of Thomas Walcot William Hone William Lord Russel John Rouse and William Blagg for High â—eason Folio That the Bishops may and ought to Vote in Cases of Blood Folio Pierce of Gods Decrees especially of Reprobation Quarto Perinchief against Toleration Quarto Parson's Sermon at the Funeral of the Earl of Rochester Quarto Dr. Jane's Sermon before the Commons Quarto Cave's Sermon the 30th of January Quarto Beverley's Disquisition upon Tythes wherein the whole Case is impartially stated and resolved Quarto Stubb's Justification of the Dutch War both Parts Quarto Horneck's Best Exercise Octavo Lassell's Voyage through Italy Octavo Smyth's Unequality of Natural Time with its Reason and Causes With a Table of the true Equation of Natural Days Octavo Reformed Devotions in Meditations Hymns and Petitions for every Day in the Week and every Holiday in the Year in two Parts the second Edition At which place all Persons may have most sorts of Acts of Parliament Proclamations Declarations Orders of King and Council Speeches in Parliament c. Pamphlets of all sorts viz. Pamphlets relating to the State Sermons Controversies Tracts of Divinity and other Miscellaneous Tracts Also Tryals Narratives and Gazettes FINIS
chiefly acceptable from Men unto God For He hath Loved them and his Love should be answer'd with Love again But true Love proceeds by the Persuasive Way and never shews itself aright but when it is Willing and Free and is wrought upon by kind Inducements and endearing Motives which are things that are at the greatest distance from Force Now this persuasive Method God generally takes with Men as being most sutable to their Natures and the proper way to prevail with them for that Obedience which as it ariseth from their Willingness and Love will be pleasing in his Sight He multiplieth his Favours upon them sendeth his Holy Spirit to quicken and excite him by Sacred Allurements and taking Suggestions but never with a mighty force to compel them or at most very rarely and that upon very signal Occasions Yea somtimes he useth the Severer Way partly out of Judgment but yet out of Love too Commissioning-Afflictions to fall upon them if by this means he may prevail with them yet always so as that he leaves room for their Will without which their Obedience would be of no worth with Him and not their Virtue in the least nor any way fit for Rewards This may be one Reason Another why God will not Force them into Obedience we may conceive to be this viz. That if they shall not by these gentle Methods be wrought upon but shall still persist in their Sins He may show his Power and Wisdom in improving into his Service and to his Glory those their Sins by which They in appearance made him to serve Thus did he in the King of Assyria Isai 10. Highly proud this King was and very great and his Greatness which consisted in large Possessions and Multitudes of Men the Works and Gifts of God both must be employ'd to no other Ends but the bringing under others though by the most unjustifiable Methods of Unrighteousness and Cruelty Well God sees the Designs of this Haughty Man and he will not presently check him The Jews were a Nation that had behaved themselves so ill that God styles them the People of his Wrath. Against these now will God improve the Pride and Cruelty of this Assyrian making Him his Rod to scourge Them O Assyrian the Rod of mine Anger I will send him against an Hypocritical Nation and against the People of my Wrath will I give him a Charge to take the Spoil and to take the Prey and to tread them down like the Mire in the Streets Vers 6. But that you may see this King had no good Design but the quite contrary it is said in the next Verse Howbeit he meaneth not so neither doth his Heart think so but it is in his Heart to cut off Nations not a few And therefore when God hath performed his whole Work upon Mount Sion and Samaria in punishing them thus by the Pride of the King of Assyria then will he also punish the stout Heart of that King and the Glory of his Looks Vers 12. Thus those Actions that are least intended by Men to God's Service will He by his Wisdom engage for his own Service yet so as that they shall remain Sins still in the Actors and shall at the last have the Recompence that is due unto them After the same manner also is it in other Sins In the Covetous God's Gifts must serve their greedy Desires and must be heap'd up for this End chiefly that the Owners may have as little a Dependence upon Providence as may be And could they think their Treasures should ever administer to Free-handedness and Liberality it would be their Trouble Yet these Men's sordid Desires and Actions God in his secret Wisdom somtimes will order to serve after some years in the good Offices of Charity and Pity in that He who by Vsury and unjust Gain encreaseth his Substance shall when he little intendeth so gather it for him that will pity the Poor Innumerable Instances might be given of God's improving the contrary Designs of Men into his Glory I will only say this That the Wisdom of the Almighty is on Earth in nothing more seen than in this I now mention His Service is hardly more frequently carried on by the pious and righteous Actions of good Men than it is by the indirect and crooked Practices of the Disobedient God as it were secretly arresting their ungodly Contrivances and bringing them about without any virtue of theirs or thanks to them somtimes that the Crafty may be taken in their own Craftiness somtimes that the Welfare of Good Men may be the more promoted and in all that it may be known That however Evil Men may endeavour to make Him in his Holy Name and Works serve their wicked Ends He yet Himself is the Great God that Ruleth over all And though many Devices may be in Mens Hearts yet the Counsel of the Lord That shall stand And whosoever considereth This together with the other Reasons before instanced in why God doth neither Cut these Wicked Men generally off nor force them into Obedience will have no cause to say that God acted below the Wisdom of Prudent Governors on Earth That Criminals are encouraged to continue in their Sins and Others to come in and be partakers with them by their Example Theoph. I confess what you have said I cannot but assent unto And do heartily acknowledge that God is Merciful and Wise in his Dealings with the Children of Men. Eubul But though God doth somtimes abstain from punishing their Disobedience and somtimes doth improve it for the effecting of what He himself would have done yet it is not thereupon the less Loathsome in its own Nature and Deform'd It tendeth as far as possible for ever to Dissolve the Community betwixt God as a Lawgiver and Men his Subjects And perchance we hence may not unmeetly discern how agreeably Rebellious Men are requited in being Eternally punished in Hell. Their will would have had their wickedness uncontroul'd and the pleasures thereof extended to an infinite Duration and God must thus for ever have Ministred unto them to the Eternal Overthrow of all that is Sacred They suffer therefore no longer than they would have Sinned And it is not Incongruous that they should for ever bear his Wrath who might they have had their Desire would for ever have made Him to Serve under Them for the maintaining of their Iniquities But Theophilus it is time to conclude Theoph. The coming on of Night tells us it is Yet I cannot Eubulus but make one Wish first viz. That Men would be willing not to be imposed upon by the false appearances of Disobedience for very deceitful Colours it often weareth but would consider the true Nature thereof in its Genuine Vncomeliness and Deformity Eubul It would be well if they would so do For I dare appeal even to wicked Men themselves whether it would not seem grosly ill in their Eyes if those Servants who by duty and many particular