for some water and bid every one of them wash and the Boyes rubbing their faces pretty hard as they used to do but the girls only gently sleeking them over or scrarce touching them with their fingers he easily knew the difference Even so howsoever men may dissemble their natures and put themselves into such a dress of Religion as if they were no less masculine and strong Christians then others yet you will find them to be so tender to themselves in the washing and purifying of themselves from some filthiness or other that they will soon discover their effeminate constitution 6. For Religion consists not only in acts of worship whereby men may smooth their faces and give them a superficial gloss but in the through scowring of their souls from all evil habits which stick so fast unto them It makes us not only to bow our bodies and study the neater and more complementall performances but to undertake the rougher and severer duties to bow our souls before God and to purge our hearts from all that is offensive to his eyes and hinders him from embracing of us Where the Gospell comes in truth saith Erasmus very well it makes people more obedient to their Magistrates In praefat ad suum Ecclesiast more observant of the Laws Lovers of Peace and haters of War Husbands and wives agree better children are more obedient to parents and servants to Masters no workman but performs his task with greater fidelity nor tradesman but doth as he would be done by and to speak in a word all men will become more kind and slow to revenge less greedy of the world and more sober in the enjoyment of it 7. And give me leave from that excellent man to present you with a sum of Christian Doctrine which he would have a learner of Religion to keep alwayes in his eye He must think that Christ was an heavenly teacher De ratione verae Theol. that came to purchase a people that should depend on heaven and not trust in this world as those that were in another manner rich wise noble potent and happy then the world is A people that should by contempt of the world attain a felicity that others seek after by enjoying of it A people of a single eye ignorant of all envy malice and spite That should be void of all lust and meditating an Angelical life in this flesh Not makeing divorces as being a people that could either mend any thing or else bear it That should not swear as not distrusting nor deceiving any That should not seek after money as having their treasures in heaven That should not be tickled with vain glory as referring all to the glory of Christ their Saviour That should not be ambitious as knowing the greater they were the more they should do for Christ and the lower they should submit to all for his sake That should not be angry when provoked or give ill language much less take revenge as being men that must return good for evil That must be of such an innocent life that heathens themselves should approve of them That must be of a childlike purity as being born again That should live like the birds and Lillies from day to day That should perfectly agree among themselves as members one of another That should do all Christian offices one for another helping others in need bearing of their burdens or making them lighter by their officious love That should be so taught by the Spirit so live after the example of Christ that they should be the salt of the earth the light of the world a city set upon an hill To whom this life seems vile and immortality most desirable That should fear neither tyranny nor Death nor the Devil himself trusting in Christ only That should alwayes be ready to die and give an account This is the scope of Christs doctrine and such men we are to labour more and more that we may grow Haec sunt authoris nostri dogmata nova quae nulla Philosophorum familia tradidit These are the new principles of the Author of our Faith which no sect of the Philosophers hath delivered This is the new wine to be committed only to new bottles 8. All this Christ expressed in his life and doth but desire us to follow his Example He was so innocent that the false witnesses who were suborned for the purpose could not tell how handsomely to accuse him He was so meek that he was led like a sheep to the slaughter So free he was from covetousness that he had nothing nor affected any thing that we can hear of He was so humble that he washed his disciples feet So free from ambition that he would not be made a King when the people would have crowned him He stuck not to die the death of the Cross When they buffeted him he returned not their stroaks when he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to the righteous judgement of God And hereunto are we called 1 Pet. 2.21 22 23. because Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth All this that I have said from him may be thus reduced into some order by considering that our Religion teaches us to cross all our own desires and to be wholly at the will of our Lord and master To believe what he reveals and to obey what he commands to fear only what he threatens and to hope for nothing but what he promises And our Desires being either sinfull or only natural it teaches us to deny our selves in both To fast as well as to be sober to be content with poverty as well as not to be covetous to bear disgrace as well as not to hunt after vain glory to indure pain patiently as well as to despise unlawfull pleasures to suffer oppressiion as well as to forbear to oppress and domineer over others to put up wrongs as well as not to do wrong to our neighbour to lie quietly on a sick bed as well as not to abuse health to submit to persecution as well as to be innocent 9. The Devil hath no way to hinder those that read the Scripture seriously from minding these things but by making them look upon it as a Book that teaches them to be knowing rather then good to dispute rather then to live And thus the Pharisees cozened themselves who studied this Holy Writ to make them subtile and wise very curious and nice about several cases that might be argued in the ceremonial Law but they did not look upon it as a Book that should make them like to him that made it There they learnt to oppose the Sadduces who denied another life more then they did to attain that life by opposing and subduing all their lusts And so at this day men read the Scriptures to defend their opinions to uphold
considering that on their fasting-dayes they used to examine offences and the Court sate to punish those that were guilty To which sense Valent. Schindler in vocab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a learned man expounds that place in Joel 1.14 Sanctifie a Fast call a solemn Assembly gather the Elders c. i. e. call a Court who may make inquisition into crimes that have been committed and see that they be animadverted upon and reformed And so when Jezabel wrote letters to the City wherein Naboth dwelt that they should proclaim a Fast 1 King 21.9 it was as much as to say Call a Court that may examine and take cognizance of the high sin that Naboth is guilty of But one true reason I suppose that there was not a general reformation in all things made by these Judicatures was because they heard only matters of fact against such Laws of Moses to which there was a punishment annexed Now there was a great penalty inflicted upon all those that did eat upon the great Fast a bit of bread though but as big as a date and on other Fasts the quantity of an Olive but for covetousness unmercifulness and such like things you read of no punishment at all If a man did not fast he was to be cut off by excommunication Lev. 23.29 and besides by the decrees of the Elders he was to be beaten And for the breach of any of the nine first Commandments you shall find some either death or some great punishment threatned But for the breach of the Tenth Commandment which is Thou shalt not covet there is no corporal penalty which they incurred for we find none threatned And therefore they were more carefull to keep the Sabbath not to worship idols c. though in these sometimes they were negligent then to do justly and love mercy Because they might suffer for the one by the hand of the Magistrate but not for the other Their carnal desires not standing in any awe of any bodily infliction they took occasion as the Apostle saith Rom. 7.8 to be more licentious and to work all manner of concupiscence 4. And the sins indeed against this Commandment and those that concern our neighbours were those which the Prophets called chiefly for reformation in if they expected any good to their Land This I will first of all shew you out of the same Prophet Zachary upon whose words I built the former discourse After he had told them from the Lord that they had not fasted to him in all the seventy years of their affliction he proceeds to acquaint them what the true Fast was which God alwayes called for and expected And that he doth chap. 7. 9 10. and again chap. 8. 16 17. which places I desire the Reader to take pains to consider And then I doubt not but he will see good cause for this observation that the sins they were chiefly guilty of more then others were Neglects of the duties of the second Table as we speak not performing of those offices which one man owes to another but violent breaking of all those bonds whereby men are tyed by God together They may be reduced to these three heads 1. Unjust dealing and defrauding one another by lying false-swearing devising to over-reach and ruine their Brethren chap. 7. 9 10. chap. 8 16 17. Speak every man the truth to his neighbour execute the judgement of truth imagine not evil love not a false Oath 2. Want of mercy and compassion cruelty hard and rigid dealing with their neighbours which is as bad as down-right in justice chap. 7. 9. Shew mercy and compassion every man to his Brother 3. Oppression of the poor and those that could not right themselves against the mighty Chap. 7. 10. Oppress not the widdow nor the fatherless the stranger nor the poor 5. Concerning all which sins you must note these things That all of the Nation were generally guilty of the breach of the tenth Commandment there being nothing to restrain them from it but only the fear and love of God and the belief of another life of which that stiff-necked generation had very little sense And this covetousness or greediness of the things of this world which God having liberally promised them they were the more desirous of was the root of all that evil which broke out against the other commands of the second Table And their Rulers especially were guilty of this and the rest of the sins that proceeded from it both because they had fairer occasions to satisfie those desires and because though many of their sins against the Law were punishable yet the punishment could be executed upon them who were in the supremacy by none but God And these sins were the greater in them because they ought to have rectified others and given them a better precedent to follow and the greater in the people likewise both because they might easily have learnt better and because they were the sins for which their fore-fathers had been punished very severely by God 6. It is an observation of Philo De animal sacr idon in the book fore-mentioned that among all those living creatures that were offered in sacrifice whether aerial or terrestrial there were none chosen by God but those that were of a gentle and good nature The Dove of all those that love society and company is most mild and the Turtle of all those that are naturally solitary is most easie to be made tame and brought to hand And among the flocks of four-footed creatures those three sorts that were selected for holy use the oxen the sheep the goats are of all other the most gentle and inoffensive one man or a boy being sufficient to drive whole herds of them to pasture and again to bring them back without any rebellion to their stalls and folds And this saith he also is a most manifest token of their gentleness that none of them eat flesh but all of them grass and herbs neither are they armed with such hooked claws and tallons nor with such rows of teeth as other creatures And besides they are the most profitable and useful as well as most innocent and harmless of all others For the sheep afford clothes for our bodies the oxen plow the earth and after it hath yielded its fruit they tread out the corn and the hair and skins of goats make clothes for travellers and souldiers and such like persons whose necessities force them to abide much in the open air From all which methinks we may gather that they were taught by those things wherein they did most confide not only to keep good order by Justice and Uprightness not using any rapacity or crooked dealing but also to be tender-hearted loving gentle living in all peaceableness together and being beneficial and useful unto others God many times said it that it was not the flesh or blood of beasts wherein he delighted and therefore hence they might easily have received documents that he desired mercy more
multiply silver or gold Deut. 17.17 i. e. private riches they should not strive to gather into their Coffers for this he knew would make them oppress his people and likewise that they should not lift up their heart above their Brethren v. 20. i. e. be proud and despisers of their subjects for this would make them unmercifull and void of pitty toward them And 5 a Prince is called in the holy language by a name viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which teaches him to be like that Ptolomy who for his good deeds was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Benefactor one that doth good to all but harms none of his Subjects And 6 they cause the People to err if they be bad as it is Isa 9.16 so that every one becomes an hypocrite and an evil doer and every mouth speaketh folly according as you read in the following verse Let us all then from the greatest to the least examine our selves and be well informed whether we be guilty or clear in this matter and let us make the same conscience of doing justly that we do of hearing Sermons and of loving mercy that we do of fasting and praying and then God will dwell in the midst of us And let no mans heart be so wicked as to think that he shall lose by doing thus for God saith In the house of the righteous is much treasure Prov. 15.6 and righteousness exalteth a Nation Prov. 14.34 And The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish but he casteth away the substance of the wicked Blessings are upon the head of the just but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked As the whirlwind passeth so is the wicked no more but the righteous is an everlasting foundation Prov. 10.3 6 25. CAP. XVI 1. A Caution the reason why these sins were more destructive then others 2. Further cleared 3. The reason why men are more apt to be inclined to zeal for religious duties then for justice and mercy 4. A further reason of the same thing 5. This zeal may make men take injustice it self to be a just thing 6. It concerns us therefore to look well to our selves in these matters 7. And Judah should be a warning to England 1. BUT that this discourse may not be liable to any mistakes I shall a little farther open the sense of what hath been said whereby likewise it will become more usefull to the Reader if he please to attend it I do not affirm either of these two things first that these are the only sins that undo a Nation or secondly that these were more heinous in themselves then the Idolatry whereof the Jewish Nation were also guilty No let me not be so understood as if I thought that denying of God blaspheming of his name worshipping of Idols and such like sins as are more immediately against the Deity were not wasting sins more horrid then the other But the truths that I assert are these First that the sins of injustice fraud and cruelty are and have been enough to destroy a Nation without the other and Secondly that they commonly prove the most dangerous and ruinating to a people of any else because they are overlooked when they reform though being duties toward our Brother whom we continually see one would think they should be in our eyes above all other When men reform impieties against God they think themselves to have done him such high service and are so much in those upper speculations that they take no notice of these things under their feet and make no reckoning how they deal with men so they be but zealous and fierce for that which is due to God Or they be content to be religious given to devotion so they may but retain their unlawfull gains pleasures and ambitious ends yea their very religion and forwardness for reformation in such matters may give them a better advantage more colourably to practise these iniquities and their unmortified affections will easily put them in mind to make use of such opporunities 2. Hence I say it is that these sins do more commonly ruine those Nations that know God then corruption in his worship doth not because that is not destructive but because men will a great deal sooner reform in that then in these other for a fair correspondence with God in all the outward duties of his worship is a great deal more easie then this denyal of mens selves in their covetous malitious ambitious and other fleshly desires And beside it is more apt to get a man a great name among others if it be in any good measure of fervency and heat and likewise to beget in himself a comfortable opinion that he is mightily beloved of God seeing he doth those things that are most highly reputed of So much hypocrisie therefore and deceit being in mens hearts and they being so willing thus to put a cheat upon themselves I hope it will not by any be deemed unseasonable that I have treated of this matter rather then of the other And if any will be so censorious as to say that I have not pressed the matters of religious worship so much as I ought they had best take heed that they do not bring our Saviour himself under their lash For when the Ruler asked him Luk. 19.18 what he should do to inherit eternal life He doth not say one word concerning the duties of the first Table but only of the Second in which it should seem they were more negligent then in the rest And when the man answered that he had done all those things that he spoke of Our Saviour doth not Catechise him how he had kept the Sabbath and abhorred Idols and such matters but he desires him only to be careful of this one thing further which was that he would wholly take his heart off from covetousness and the love of the world 3. If any ask how it comes to pass that men should be so very zealous and forward in pious duties when they are so cold in the other I have already given him an answer to this purpose First the religious services in their greatest outward purity do not find the nature of man so averse unto and abhorrent from them but that they may be very forward to do them And Secondly They make also a great sound and dinn in the world and have such a glorious appearance that by the doing of them he may be reputed and also take himself for a Saint And Thirdly Then he may be so pleased with this fine perswasion and so inwardly tickled with the sweetness of such thoughts that he is engaged to mind with all his power the promoting of such matters as have gained him the credit of an holy person without denying his worldly lusts which may rather have a freer liberty under such a brave and splendid Master as stands not upon Punctilio's of honesty and equity between one man and another But Fourthly if we turn our
are so fond of it that it is on their tongues end before the name of God himself This name makes up one quarter of their prayers and fills up all the gaps and breaches that are in their discourses And if there be any expressions of love and court-ship wherewith to caress him he shall not want them They commend him for the primest beauty extol his pedegree admire the riches of grace and if one could tell how to believe them they would willingly dye for the love of their beloved Jesus No Sermon pleases them that extolls not him all discourses are unprofitable in which his name is not often repeated and the very sound of it doth them more good then many wise sentences 4. But you must not think for all this that they are such vowed servants of his as they seem For they love him only as a Beggar doth his good Master or as a souldier doth Alexander Caesar or some such famous Captains of whose great worth and valour he hath heard As the Spartans honoured Lycurgus and the Romans Romulus and all Countreys and Cities love those that have been their founders or procurers of great immunities and benefits unto them so do these persons love the Lord Jesus They look upon him as a noble Heroe a brave man that hath done great wonders and deserved highly of man kind and Especially they are affected toward him as one that is gone to make room for them in a goodly Paradise will there entertain them with all dainty delights Which is no more but what may proceed from education and breeding from Pulpit-discourses and good books from a fancy of those joyes that he hath promised which are enough to make a sensual man love him as well as a Turk doth Mahomet Especially considering that some dispositions are amorous and others are apt to admire gallant acts and great exploits and others are wonderfully taken with the kindnesses that are done them and the honours that are put upon them If they should have lived in our Saviours days and he should have told them Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father they would have said as the Pharisees in another case Are we blind also do not we know who shall go to heaven If he had said You are of your Father the Devil for his works you do they would have answered as the Jews did sometimes Thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil If he had told them that he had no blessings but for the humble the meek the mercifull the peace-makers and those that took up their cross patiently of which number they were not they would have joyned with the high Priests to bring him to his execution 5. What though they condemn the Pharisees for killing of our Saviour It is no more then those men said of their forefathers that murdered the Prophets And they are as full of hatred malice and black zeal against Christs most faithfull Servants as the Scribes and Pharisees were against Christ himself They verily think that they have a love to Christ above all the world but did not the Jews dream of as great an affection to Moses Either they do not love the world therefore and their own lusts and desires better then Christs words or they are no better then those Jews were who loved no more but the name of their Master Moses They have a great zeal for the Worship of the Lord Jesus but who knows not that the persons whom they judge as hypocrites were very fierce for the Ceremonial Law and loved to be at the Temple We must see therefore a great care diligence and curiosity used in all obedience or else we cannot afford them any better language notwithstanding all their flattering addresses to our Saviour And you must consider what a vast difference there is between the opinion men are apt to have of those who are dead and of those that are like them but alive All men love naturally 〈◊〉 speak well of the dead especially if they did no harm but good And those that they never saw but hear of their excellent deeds they have in greater admiration then those that are before their eyes And those very persons that they could not affect if they were with them they commend at a distance as they hear them commended by others For they commonly hear of nothing but what pleases them when they are afar off but they would see many actions and hear many sayings if they conversed with them that they could not brook And just so it is in this case our Saviour is dead and he likewise died as they hear for them and therefore they cannot but have many good words for him He is one that they never saw and so they admire him for the good they are told of him while they despise his live images and those that are like him They read of his actions and his words at a distance but they are not spoken from his mouth to their particular persons and therefore they are not so offended at him as they would have been if they had received his reproofs in such sort as they did who then lived CAP. XX. 1. Of false pretences to Inspiration 2. Whence these swellings in the head do arise and how you may know them 3. Concerning the Kingdom of Christ so much talkt of 4. How loth they are to submit to Christs government who think they wait for his Kingdom 5. Opposition to Antichrist a false token of mens being on Christs side 6. For they may have the very spirit of Antichrist in them 1. BUT there are a company of more glorions professors then these who pretend such love to Jesus Christ and take themselves to be so beloved of him that they are lifted up into an imagination of receiving Revelations from him Their Religion is to look after news from heaven to raise themselves into raptures and dreams of Prophetical inspiration They talk of extraordinary light Glorious discoveries manifestations illumination of the Holy Ghost are the words that adorn their discourses And so St. Peter tells the Jewish Christians for to them he wrote being the Apostle of the circumcision that there should false Teachers arise among them 2 Pet. 2.1 as false Prophets had done antiently among their forefathers By these I nothing doubt he means some that boasted of Inspirations and further Revelations from God which the Jews might be most forward of all others to pretend unto because they took themselves to be beloved of God beyond all the people of the earth And St. Jude calls them expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 8. which we render filthy dreamers but it signifies such as were carried with dreams There were you know several wayes of Gods revealing himself of old to his Prophets whereof Dreams and Visions were most usual Now these persons had a strong fancy that they received some impressions from
God and were divinely moved in their dreams when they were but the vapours and reeks of their own flesh which their aspiring minds agitated them withall And Epiphanius applies the place to the Gnosticks whose fables and dotages the Apostle he saith reproves which were more like the talk of a man in a dream then well awake 2. Cap. 17. n. 7. And it is likely that both the Jewish and Christian dreamers have faln into this spiritual phrensie by that same heat which I before spoke of whereby they perswaded themselves too early that they were Saints When this meets with a melancholy temper and a selfish disposition it is no hard matter to beget in them an opinion of near converse with God or Angels For when that fierce humour works and boils up all experience tells us that it puts men into high and big conceits if they be of a proud nature And then their religious inclinations and affections determine the workings of this melancholy fancy to matters concerning God and his Son and Holy Spirit These motions they may take to be from a divine power because they are so great and because they are so much different from what they feel when in their ordinary temper And this self-love may make them conceit likewise that none are like to receive from God such inspirations sooner then themselves who have such a love to him and presuppose that they are so much in his affections Now I hope there are not many at this time of this conplexion in Religion but when there are you have two remarkable characters given of them by Saint Jude in that verse They are given to the grossest sensualities and are likewise turbulent and seditious persons By which they make it plainly appear that Christ is not in them who was holy meek and peaceable and makes all those to be so on whom his Spirit breaths 3. But there are others of a lower form who confidently talk of the mind of God likewise made known to them and are altogether busied in their fancies about the glorious times that are ensuing The Jews do not more expect their Messiah and think to be made great men by him then these wait to see Christ come to reign or at least themselves advanced to sit upon thrones to govern the Nations They take themselves to be the candles that are to enlighten all the darker places of Holy Writ They are as familiarly acquainted with Daniel as others are with the Proverbs of Solomon They understand St. Johns Revelation as well as they do his three Epistles And I shall not much disbelieve them in this particular for their Religion hath nothing to do with that love and sweetness that charity and humility which he commends While they fancy themselves Kings with Christ they neglect his government in their souls which should keep under all their head-strong passions quell their rebellious affections tame their wild natures and restrain their brutish desires which would indeed make that new world of things which all good Christians pray for They conceit a gorgeous pompous scene of things a secular and worldly greatness an overflowing tide of prosperous events while they neglect that poverty of spirit that lowliness of mind that meekness patience long-suffering and such like Royal graces as make Christians conquerours over the world and victors of all their enemies And therefore they are to be accounted among those whose religion is only words and great brags arising from an high conceit of favour with God who loves those that will be guided by his will and ruled by his Laws better then those that would fain fulfill prophecies and pour out some of his vials upon the earth 4. This religion is indeed Filia vocis as the Jews called their last kind of Revelation the daughter of a voice yet not of Gods but of their own They thunder and rattle in the world as if they would bring the heavens about our ears and pour down the clouds upon us but it is a tempest of their own raising and a storm which their blustering passions and boisterous affections make in themselves No whisper nor thunder neither from heaven nakes men irreligious proud contemptuous disobedient bitter cruel and full of black zeal These are the breathings of the evil spirit the belches of the bottomless pit These inspirations smell of Sulphur they stink of fire and brimstome The true Religion leads a man to a solicitous enquiry after that which God hath revealed for the reforming of himself and erecting the Government of Christ in his soul And the ruling over himself keeping dominion over his lusts is more desirable to him then reigning in pomp and state a thousand years upon the earth The power of Religion makes a man to know the certainty of those words of truth which lead him to the life of God but never makes men talk like infallible Prophets what scene of things must next take its turn and what piece of the Revelation must next come upon the stage All these pretences to expounding Revelations and Prophesies and Secrets of Providence may be but a fancy and the licourish desire that is in men to be medling with them may be but such a thing as Eves appetite to the Tree viz the fruit of Pride and curiosity But the Doctrine of Christ is plain full and certain and the desire in a mans soul after the knowledge of it and being acquainted with it must be the fruit of the good spirit of God which leads a man to the life and power of godliness giving him a great command over himself and all worldly affections making him to be good not in word and notion but in deed and truth 5. But it is time to leave this sort of men who are meer talkers of God and who only give him their good word as we ordinarily speak commend him and speak well of him but care not to be so well acquainted with him as to be made like him who complement with him and speak him fair to his face who pretend to friendship with him and to be of his secrets and will be as near him as he pleaseth so be it that he will do them no good nor make any alteration in their souls Let me only annex to this another False Religion very near of kin to it which consists in a great out-cry against Antichrist and all his adherents This word Antichrist is of that nature that it may be prest to serve any design and it is become such a Mormo to vulgar people that their hairs stand up an end and they run away from the face of it as if they were out of their little wits The more too blame they who upon every occasion fright them with it as unadvised people do their children with bugbears which makes them of such a timerous nature that they fear all things which they never saw before though never so good and necessary for them But in the ordinary sense
yielding to temptations to covetousness deceit and unlawfull gain or on the contrary very fearfull to fail in a ceremony but worshipping the flesh and living loosely An Hypocrite is much imployed in little things and busied about the shadow and bark of religion be it what it will If religion be pompously gloriously cloathed then he will strive to be most ceremonious costly and chargeable in his devotion so that we may say of him as the Philopher said of a finical but empty Lawyer homo in causis agendis bene vestitus a neat man in his Religion one that pleads with God in gorgeous apparrel But on the contrary if men take to a side that loves to be sordid and slovenly and as careless as they can in all outward decencies none shall more fiercely decry all ceremonies nor more prophane all that was before accounted holy And so in all other matters the most inconsiderable among them exercise their zeal and the weightiest exercise only their fancies and tongues 5. A Sixth thing to be noted in them is that they would be just in one thing that they might be unjust in another v. 23. They would pay their tithes to the Priests that this might cover all their acts of rapine and covetousness among the people And they did not only pay them but were very scrupulous to pay them exactly as if they would not wrong one of a Cummin seed or a Speer of mint or as we say of the hair of one head when as they neglected judgement if any causes came before them they shewed no mercy to the poor and kept no faith in their Covenants and promises It concerns a man to be very punctual with some persons and in his ordinary intercourse to keep to rules of justice else he would be hissed out of the world and he would have no opportunity to deceive a simple or unwary soul Much less would he be able when he stretches his conscience to do a base action to take himself still for a godly man if he did not at other times deal fairly And therefore he is fain also to imitate the Pharisee in a Seventh quality and that is to do some great act of Charity to excuse himself from a constant exercise of it It is like that these hypocrites which our Saviour speaks of paid the tythe which was due every third year for the use of them that were in need Deut. 14.28 as well as the yearly dues to the Ministers of God in the Temple And this great and expensive charity they thought perhaps so highly of that they never reproved themselves for their miserable and wretched covetousness at all other times As many men now whose fingers are very stiff may chance to draw their purse-strings at some solemn time or when they are much moved with a good Sermon of Alms-doing who at other seasons have hearts as hard as flints to the crying necessities of their Brethren Much of the Religion of men and their charity also knows its times and daies if they be observed God lends them they think the rest of their lives to dispose of as they please themselves 6. And lastly they would not stick to do more then they were commanded that they might neglect Gods express Commands For many think that the tythe of every herb which they paid Luke 11.42 was not due by the Law but they could be content to over-do in this case that they might do nothing in others to give these free-will offerings that they might have their own wills in greater matters so false is the heart of men that they think an excess in what pleases them will satisfie for all their defects in that which is most pleasing unto God As to keep whole daies of prayer is far more grateful to some then to keep a continual watch over themselves in all their dealings and converses with others and in all their own inward thoughts and desires They will leave no stone unturned to find out an Art or device to save themselves from the trouble of Mortification and self-denial They will wriggle every way rather then be strait and upright as God made them Any labour or pains they will take to shift off the great Commandments of loving God with all their hearts and souls and strength and loving their neighbours as themselves 7. The more need there is that men should be earnestly urged to search into their hearts and examine them well about these things lest there lie hid any of this leaven under many seeming actions of Godliness Take heed lest you wink at some evil affection which you bear a particular respect unto and let it scape untouched when you profess to cleanse your selves Beware lest you cast only a favourable look upon some duties of Religion and look asquint upon the rest or take no notice of them Labour to remove all obstructions that Zeal may have a free passage through the whole frame of your souls and that you may be equally spirited to every duty of Religion And I shall commend these two things as of singular use and advantage to keep our hearts from self deceit First Let men suspect themselves when they are moved with an extraordinary heat and feel a great zeal agitating of them in some one thing which they undertake upon the account of Religion Let them presently begin to ask themselves how they stand affected to all the rest and to feell how their pulse beats in all things especially in the most spiritual actions Or else it is a thousand to one that this zeal will betray them into hypocrisie and they will place all their religion in it And therefore search well if there be not some externall inducement which thou dost not observe some corrupt end at the bottom some willingness to spare a foul and nasty desire which makes thee so zealous in that particular thing which may be as a covering for thy coldness in other matters Be not cheated by thy self into a belief that thou art religious when thou bearest not a love to all Gods Commandments but labour impartially and conscienciously to carry thy self to every duty alike and then thou maist be well perswaded of thy sincerity in Religion 8. And Secondly Let every man observe what it is that he is most in danger to neglect when his Spirit is forwardly carried towards one thing There is alwaies some one duty more then others that a partial zeal is apt to devour Be sure therefore to take heed and beware of covetousness while you cry out against profaneness Be as carefull to maintain love in your heart to your Brethren as you are to observe them reprove them or to make them of your mind Be as humble lowly and poor in spirit as you are ready to distribute to relieve the poor or despise the world Labour to be in as great charity with your enemies to love them pray for them and bless them as you are willing and perhaps forward
to hazzard your selves in a good cause Be as consciencious in following the Ministers Doctrine as in paying of him his tithes and speaking well of him As zealous in doing as you are in hearing as carefull to use Gods grace as to beg it to live to God as to pray to him And Saint James gives us the reason Jam. 1.22 That we shall otherwise deceive our own souls We shall have only so much religion as will serve to cozen our selves as many a man doth who hears Gods word and prayes and is much affected but makes no conscience of laying it to his heart by serious consideration and working of it into the frame of his spririt that he may live according to it CAP. XXIV 1. The distinctions which the Pharisees had to elude Gods commands 2. One more notable then the rest that if they kept one precept well they need not keep all others 3. The fleshly Christian hath his jugling tricks He distinguishes between the letter and the Spirit of a duty 4. Or saith he follows Providence 5. Or that he hath an Impulse 6. Or he pleads Necessity 7. Or that he doth it for Gods glory 8. Or hath liberty from Free-grace 9. Or from the Examples of good men 10. We must not believe every pretender 11. Observe how they change and turn about 12. Especially how loth they are to suffer and how impatient under it 1. BUT you may well wonder how men so knowing as they were should overlook the most necessary things which are so legible in the Book of God and perswade themselves that they were pious notwithstanding such palpable neglects Sure these men had a most notable wit which could invent such cunning distinctions as should allow them to break all Gods Commandments while they seemed to keep them And so they had as our Saviour tells Mat 23 16 17 c. where you may see that they did absolve men even from their oaths that were made by holy things viz the Temple and the Altar if they were not made by that which they most loved the Gold and the Gift It is so senseless a distinction whereby they freed men who had solemny sworn as our Saviour plainly proves to them that we cannot but think it was invented by gross covetousness and yet with a shew of devotion to God in preferring the Gold that was brought to his treasury and the gifts to his Altar above all other things in sacredness And so they defeated another command concerning the giving of honour to our Parents by making a vow that all they got should be as a Sacred thing to their parents i. e. it should be as unlawfull for them to have any of their goods as to enjoy that which was devoted to God For so they that are best skilled in the Jewish learning do expound that place V. J. r Coch. in duns Tit. Talmud cap. 7. Sanhedr Mat. 15.5 though some of the Fathers as I have already said think that it speaks of consecrating their goods to the treasury of God This was a rare way to be rich by vowing not so much as to give their parents a mite of their goods and a great piece of religion no question they thought it to keep such a vow when they had made it This was a subtile Art to be covetous and under a religious tye both together 2. But these are no more then trifles in compare with that transcendent trick which absolves a man at once from as many duties as he pleases That rare device was this That if a man observed but one command well it was not absolutely necessary that he should keep the rest Vid Tit. Maccoth cap. 3. So R. Chanania saith that God would have Israel increase in merits and therefore it was that he multiplied so many precepts It was not absolutely necessary that they should observe them all but they should merit exceedingly if they did For so Maimon observes in his Comment upon that place cited in the margin If any of Israel keep one of the six hundred and thirteen precepts as he ought out of love and without a mixture of worldly designs he shall have a portion in the world to come Many evasions will mens own lusts and desires suggest to them for the casting off the weight of any duty that lyes upon them but this is such a notorious gloss that by it they might slip their necks from the yoke of every command but that which they could be content to practice 3. And you must not think the fleshly Christian is at a loss for the like distinctions interpretations and glosses for to serve the dear interest of his sins Loth he is to break a Law unless he seem to himself to keep it and therefore here his wit steps in and offers its help to salve his conscience and his profit or pleasure both together I shall take the liberty to instance in a few which are easie to observe because I doubt men will make a shift to understand nothing that concerns them by all that I say unless I descend to particulars First therefore if a man have use for a sin as suppose the breaking of an oath he can distinguish between the Letter and the Spirit of it He can easily perswade himself that he keeps the prime meaning which is according as he pleases to have it though he go contrary to the sound of the words and the sense in which men commonly understand it And thus those persons in New England who made so great a disturbance See Mr. Welds relation An. 1636. evacuated and blotted out the whole body of Christian precepts and did not leave so much as the Pharisees who thought obedience to one precept at least to be necessary saying That the letter of all the Scriptures were for a Covenant of works but the Spirit of them held forth a Covenant of free grace This was a rare answer when they were urged with several places of Holy Writ that proved the necessity of Sanctification and inward righteousness which they turned out of doors under the pretence of letting in Christ If it were said that we must become new creatures the Answer was ready that by the new creature is meant Christ and therefore we must only get into Christ If it were said we must be holy as God is holy this was the return that Christ is our sanctification and that there is no inherent righteousness in us but only in him And whereas the Scripture saith Blessed are the poor in Spirit c. they said a man might have all grace and yet want Christ This was the secret sense the Spirit of the Scriptures That we need do nothing and Christ hath done all This was holding forth naked Christ as they called it so naked indeed that it is a shame to speak of it 4. If men cannot attain to this height of secret intelligence which the old Gnosticks likewise boasted of but they must acknowledge that
bidden him smite him to the ground And observe them also when they are uppermost again whether they be not as zealous to lay the cross on other mens shoulders as they were to cast it from off their own As far as I can observe it is the temper of this false zeal wheresoever it is to endure no oppression quietly to endeavour alway to be above to trample upon others to be proud and disobedient to contemn all authoriy which is not on their side and to speak evil of dignities if they do not speak well of them CAP. XXV 1. The design of God is to make men thoroughly good 2. Though men now think otherwise yet the Ancient Christians prove the Divinity of their Religion from the excellent lives of them that professed it 3. They proved Christs Divinity likewise from the goodness of his followers 4. They upbraid false Christians that they could not confute heathens by their lives 5. The definition of a Christian according to Phavorinus who speaks the Ancients sense 6. Religion reforms men in every thing 7. A Summary of our Religion out of Erasmus 8. Christ represented it unto us in his life and taught us to deny not only sinfull but meer naturall desires 9. This is so clear in the Scriptures that every one may see it that had not rather talk and dispute then live well 10. With what minds we must study the Scripture 1. BUT let it be remembred by all those that intend to go to heaven that Gods design is to banish all wickedness out of the world and by inhabiting of our nature to expell all sin and baseness out of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homil. 7. in Iad Corinth and to bring in his own image It is an excellent saying of Chrysostome That God hath so disposed matters in the Gospel as if he intended that there should not be a relique of wickedness left among us The whole dispensation looks as if he designed to root it out from the face of the earth And this only can bring the world into obedience to Christ this only can set up his Kingdom and make all his enemies fall at his feet Let us advance this in our hearts and lives and it will set Christ upon his throne and make him victorious among men And therefore that excellent man gives this as a reason why Idolatry did still remain in some places because Christians were no better and did not destroy all the works of the Devil And what is it I beseech you that still upholds all humane inventions in such honour but because there is so little true Goodness appears in the lives of most that oppose them Men look upon the Gospel as if it served for nothing but to form their opinions but had no design of making them like to God They are enemies to their own salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mutining and seditiously rising against their own eternal welfare They oppose him that comes to bring them the glad tidings of Salvation or whosoever shall press them in Christs name to be very good They dispute many times against too high a degree of holiness They spend more time in excusing their faults then striving to amend them They are wilfully bent not to be over-happy while they are here in the world and will not believe that God intends to advance them so high in a heavenly life And so it is no wonder that things are so bad among others when even they that profess the name of Christ many of them are no more in love with the Doctrine that is according to Godliness 2. And indeed why should they be in love with a thing that incroaches so much upon their liberty if they can go to heaven by some neat device that leaves them room to do as they list why should men be at the trouble to die to the world if it be the design of Christ to make them great men in it As Cato counted it one of his oversights of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Simplicius relates it that he took a journey by water when he might have gone by land so men may well count it foolishness to go through the tears of repentance to wash off all their dirt and filth when they hope they may go to heaven through the earth though they be all besmeared with the mire of the world But it is not great boasts of the purity of Religion of the holiness of Ordinances and such like things that will alwaies carry the name from purity of heart and holiness of life There was a time when it was the greatest glory of Christians that they were holy themselves as well as that they had an holy Religion and so I hope it will one day be again Then the Gospel flourishes when men can argue for the Divinity of it from the great reformation that it works in those that profess it whom it makes truly Divine And so in the dayes of Origen they were able to do Lib. 1. contr cels for he challenges Celsus the heathen to tell him how it should happen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a special hand of God that such a multitude of sick persons should be recovered of most desperate diseases whereof they had long laboured by preaching of the Gospel only When we see so many rid of their intemperance injustice neglect of God and such like things we must needs see that that word is from God which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 able to free them from such evils too stubborn for all the Philosophy in the world to deal withall 3. Lib. 3. In the next Book but one the same Origen adventures to bring the excellent lives of Christians for an argument of the Divinity of Christ whom they worshipped And he saith that the very worst of them even they who were most slothfull in their religion did make greater progress in vertue then the very best of the heathen Which was a plain argument he thought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there was no ordinary divinity in that person who did such great things in his followers And when in the next book Celsus by way of scorn calls the Christians and Jews bats and frogs and worms and such like insects who flock together and contend with each other which are the greatest sinners he tels him what noble lives the Christians did lead And asks him whether he was not ashamed to call him a crawling worm who ascends up to heaven to live with God and sends up pure prayers unto him that doth all things as if God saw him and speaks all thing as if he heard him and cannot be perswaded from Godliness by any dangers any labour any fair words and language Will not all this saith he be sufficient to save a man from being compared to a worm whatsoever he might be called before so great a godliness What must they who repell the sharpest stings to wanton pleasures that are pure and chast