the collection of Humane Reason which at the best and containing it self within its own more proper Bounds the representations of Nature is slippery enough and uncertain if it be promoted with urgency of Affection over-proportionated to the weight of Reason and Argument by how much it transgresseth this way by so much largely doth it partake of superstitious Phrenzy and Fanaticalness And that this heat is but mistaken zeal not divine Love of the Truth this one thing may be a shrowd sign That they hate a man commonly more for not being of their Sect than they love him for being a Christian. 2. The Second Branch of Love is Benevolence Which as it is nothing so precious as the former viz. Complacency so we may and should be the more prodigal thereof We may wish well to all men but can delight in none but such as be good The Purity therefore and perfection of Benevolence is that it shoots out before and lasts longer if need be than Complacency may do For God also loved us when there was nothing lovely in us And we are to be like-minded with God who is kindly affected to those who deserve it not And though there be a good rude Honesty in such a disposition that makes a man not able to be at all kindly affected to them that are debauched yet certainly we are obliged to a more high and Divine temper if that which is most perfect and most Divine doth oblige us as certainly it doth Object But then Anger and Hatred and such churlish Passions are useless nay sinful Sol. That follows not For we may wish well to the man though we be angry or hate or grieve at his Vices Nay it s impossible to bear a sincere Good-will to any man that goes out of the way but that he should be angry or grieved at such a mans wicked courses and reprove him Benevolence is so far from excluding Anger and Rebuke that the want of this upon due occasions is an argument of the impureness or counterfeitness of the Affection at least in those men who hold it lawful or are upon any occasions brought into this Passion When a man sees God dishonoured and his Brother endangered by his vain ways Quis est tam ferreus ut teneat se He that can be still and smooth in such matters has some unwarrantable Complacence in his Friend they are not united in the bond of Vertue The Impurity of this part of Love is the well-wishing to others for our own sakes This is called Amor Concupiscentiae in contradiction to Amor Amicitiae as being indeed nothing akin but rather opposite thereunto He that loves a man thus is no more a Friend to him than a Country Farmer is a Friend to his Team of Horses his Cart or Plough I wish that most Polititians were not of this stamp to look upon all the World as the Rustick does upon his Horse Plough Sheep Dog c. as profitable and instrumental The World is so Epidemically corrupt herein that the whole Conversation or dealing of men even of them that would seem something more than ordinarily serious is not much better and more generous than the trade and commerce of Fairs and Markets They make choice of their Friends after the same rate they would seek out a purchase Profit and Pleasure share all the Societies of men betwixt them two He that is not instrumental to either of these ends is overlookt as a thing of no worth so that there is no room but for the skilful flatterer or the able purse And indeed none can love at a better rate that is not born of God who is Love it self and made the World and the whole Creature out of no such self-respects at all but for their Happiness or if for any thing in reference to himself for the delight that should arise to him from their being Happy Nor do I know that they are obliged to any thing but what is conducible to this end whatever unlearned Melancholly or rude Mistake may surmize to the contrary 3. The Third and last considerable in Love is Beneficence And 1. This should spread out as large as our Benevolence Humanity is to be extended so far as Mankind reacheth at least 2. Those who partake most of Vertue and the Divine Image should share the greatest part of our Favour 3. It must be devoid of all self-respects What a shameful thing is it That where that noble and generous title of a Friend is pretended there should be no other Love found at the bottom if the business be unravelled than such as he bears to the meanest utensil he has in his house WE pass on now to the Intension of our Love viz. Doct. III. That we are to love one another fervently And if we did make good the foregoing Precept of loving sincerely we might easily arrive to the doing of it fervently Quis enim celaverit ignem Indeed the most accurately well painted Flame that is gives no heat But true Fire without a miracle will betray it self in burning or warming at least Quest. But you will say We are uncertain of the due measure and degree of this fervency of our Affection Answ. The least degree that we can allow our Brotherly Affection is that it must be fervent Coldness here is Death and Luke-warmness an Abomination a thing to be spued out as being nauseating and distastful to all good men But when we are got to that due warmth and heat that we are really constituted in the Divine Life and Heavenly Love we are in a very good and safe and commendable condition though we have not reached all the degrees thereof for a little fire is as truly fire as a great deal And these degrees of Divine Love are it may be best proposed unto us in several Examples of Saints and Prophets which have gone before us carrying the Glorious Lamps of Divine Love in their hands to light us the way that we might follow them by a godly imitation Such were Abraham Ioseph Moses S. Paul c. This kindly Flame did so inact Abraham that in the very heat of the day at the door of his Tent he waited with as much earnestness for an opportunity to exercise that excellent Vertue of Hospitality as our greedy Inn-keepers at their Sign-posts expect a Traveller Nor does this generous Fire only melt him into all sweet behaviour and kindness unto Strangers but elsewhere we shall find it bravely to raise him to feats of Arms and hardy Enterprizes in behalf of his Captived Friends Gen. 14. And certainly no truer root of Valour and Bravery can be found than Hearty and Compassionate Love to those that be in affliction and oppressed Nor any cause that God is more engaged to prosper Nor does this Principle of holy fervency only express it self in bounty and indignation and just revenge but in Grief also whether mixt with joy or downright sadness Thus Ioseph fell upon his brother Benjamins
unspatter'd and unspall'd upon by foul Tongues 'T is a thing as impossible as unprejudicial to the Soul her self That which is without a man defiles not the man but that which is within him What is meant by World S. Iohn doth fully unfold unto us All that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world Of these then we must keep our selves unspotted if we will be holy as our Heavenly Father is holy This is the World that we must keep our selves unstain'd of But for the Natural World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things are sacred and good 'T is Sensuality that soyles the Soul and fills the Mind full of impure thoughts unworthy desires that transform the Humane Nature which is capable of the Image of God into a loathsome Beast 'T is Covetousness that contracts the large Spirit of man and makes it shrivel up and wrinkle for want of that which can alone fill it those unspeakable treasures of Heaven that no tongue can number nor figures express How deformed is that mind whose are nothing but Bills and Bonds mouldy Money moth-eaten Housholdstuff and such like trash rusty Locks and Keys Iron Chests and strong hollow Vaults behung with Cobwebs This is the Covetous mans Soul if we could see within him nothing near so beautiful as the foulest pond or dunghil-puddle where if you cast your eye you may happily meet with the reflection of the Stars or the bright Circle of the Sun or the white moving Clouds or the pleasant blew-coloured Sky But such things as an Ingenuous man would scarce have the patience to look on be not only the continually desired Objects of the Worldlings sight but the perpetual Life and Energy of his mis-shapen Spirit And here though the Proud man may please himself in conceiting that this inward man is garnished with better bravery and is a more comely Creature his phansie glittering with the representation of Crowns and Scepters Silver Maces Purple and Scarlet Robes rich Stuffs and Holy Mitres Yet if we look upon the Beast that bears this glaring luggage his own dear Soul what is the very life and heart of it but Pride and Envy the two Essentials that constitute the ugliest of all Creatures the deformed Fiends of Hell And beside this innate ill-favouredness his whole Person is ordinarily besmear'd with the Bloud of the Innocent and his Garments drop and reek with the warm Tears of the Afflicted and Oppressed and are foul and greasie with the Sweat of the Poor This is the attire both of the Ambitious and Covetous man And certainly there is very little Religion in him that doth not heartily abhor so abominable a monster I◠but is there indeed much Religion in him that doth I confess that a man may be temperate for the Devil as we ordinarily conceive is not lyable to the sins of the Flesh and yet fall short of true Religion His constitution or some other strong but natural or secular design making him so Covetousness is also often but a complexion and Liberality may be no better in some men Some men are also born with a more low and quiet disposition which is not the Vertue of Humility but the lowness and stillness of their Natural Spirit But to be unspotted of the World is also to be free from the attraction of our own private Nature which is a piece of this dark deceivable World and to have our whole man acted and regulated by the Spirit of God Dull Phlegm is no Christian Patience nor all Fire true Zeal especially if it be fed by the fat of the Earth But that is true Zeal that flowes out in affliction and glories in the cross and tribulation He is not chast that never partak'd of the bed of defilement nor temperate that eats nor drinks to excess But he that enjoys the pleasure of the Creature only in reference to the Creator tasting the sweetness of his God even in his Meat and Drink lifting up his Soul to the Meat that perisheth not but endures to Eternal Life He is untouch'd of Covetousness that desires nothing for himself but is a faithful Steward of the manifold Blessings of God He is unstain'd of the Pride of life who is so dead to himself and the sense or cognoscence of his own power and will that he arrogates no good thing to himself but doth from the very ground of his Soul speak that of the Prophet Thou O Lord hast wrought all our works in us This is as I said before the right Idea or Paradigme of true Religion By how much more near we come to this by so much more near we are to Religion and the farther removed hence the farther off from true Religion If any man doubt of it I appeal to this judgment that cannot err even to God the Father and that 's included in my last particular viz. IV. That to visit the Fatherless and the Widows in their affliction and to keep our selves unspotted of the World this is pure and undefiled Religion even in the sight of God the Father I will dispatch this point in a word or two The Summ as you may remember of this description of Religion was comprised in these two words Charity and Purity Both these are so near the Nature of God that he is engaged as I may so say to give Sentence for them God is love and he that abideth in love abideth in God saith S. Iohn Can any thing then be more acceptable to God then Love To do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased saith the Author to the Hebrews And our blessed Saviour Matth. 5. Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your father which is in heaven For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect So then there is no doubt of Gods sentencing that Religion for the best whose Nature consists in that which himself loves and likes and is the image of himself viz. Love or Charity And we have his Command for the other part thereof back'd with his own Example viz. Purity Be ye holy saith he for I am holy But what is now this Holiness or Purity of God Is it not this That whereas he is present in all things he is not immerse nor polluted of any thing So must our Souls be We are of necessity here in this Orb of Death and Corruption actors in the administration of the affairs of this lower World Let not our hearts sink into that that our eye must needs attend if we be not idle and useless Every man has a part or province committed to him by
God Let us administer our part as God doth the whole not by immersion or spilling our Souls or Affections upon the visible Creature but collectedly into God as God is collected into himself Let not our Souls cleave unto the dust nor be spilt upon the ground as the Prophet David sometimes complains but be as the Rayes of the Sun which though they reach to the Earth sink not in the Earth but being fast fixt in their fountain or not the Sun it self do alwayes move whither he carries them Let us also acknowledge our own Original which is from above and move with God and the Lamb wheresoever they go Let us be so pure as not to drown our selves in the muddy stream of this transient World Let us be so Charitable as to wade in it that others be not drown'd Let our Love to men be such that we make not our selves unprofitable members of the World Let our Love to God be such that we keep our selves pure and unspotted from the love of the World Let our whole Conversation be such that all men may see that have eyes to discern both whence and whose we are that we serve not the Will of man nor are Vassals to our own vain Desires but are the free Servants of Christ and true Worshippers of the Living God O Lord our God thou which alone art able to speak to the Hearts and Consciences of men descend we beseech thee powerfully into us by thy Holy Spirit Guide and teach us in thy ways Open our eyes that we may see the wonders of thy Law Set up thy Truth in us and the Life of thy Son above all contentious opinions and conceits of men Take away all Pride and Prejudice and Wrathfulness and Hypocrisie and grant that the whole Christian World may agree in Meekness and that sweet Candour and Simplicity that is in Christ Iesus Shew unto us and convince us of that acceptable Service thou requirest at our hands Let bitterness and heart-burning reviling and all deceit and falseness cease from amongst us and let the Scepter of thy Son bear rule over us in Peace and Truth and Righteousness Enrich us with those precious Graces of Love and Purity And let the effectual power of thy Spirit be so felt amongst us that the least of thy Church may be as David and the House of David as the Angel of the Lord before thee Hear us O Merciful Father c. DISCOURSE XI HEB. xiii 16. To do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased THE Philosophers define good to be that which all things desire Now all Desire is founded in Life And Life is twofold There is the Life of Nature and the Life of God which in men is called the Life of Grace Now both these Lives desire good But here is the difference The Life of Nature is only carried to good as it is good to it self or if it wish good to others it s for its own sake The Life of God or Life of Grace desires good too but not only for it self but simply it desires good wheresoever it can be effected in due order and right means So that the Heart of the Divine Life is enlarged toward every capable thing and would impart its good so much as any is capable and so oft any is disposed For there is neither envy want nor niggardness in the Divine Nature So then he that is thus affected whose bowels are enlarged to his fellow-creatures to every one as they are capable He that is merciful to the beast loving to men feeds the hungry clothes the naked visits the sick directs the traveller is courteous to the stranger informs the ignorant heartens the poor-spirited sheweth the proud his folly comforts him that is in sorrow ballasts him that floats in vain joy soders up enmities and stints strife flies envy and exerciseth an universal amity to all This man is like his Heavenly Father who makes his Sun to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust This man will neither persecute his enemy out of hatred nor acquit his friend in his fault out of fond love But deals his doals of all kinds to every one as he is fitted for receiving slips no opportunity of doing any manner of good loseth no occasion of hindering of evil His Soul is nothing but the inward Life of Charity his Life nothing but the passing from munificency to munificency from one good deed to another Out of love to God he embraceth his Neighbour after his duty to his Neighbour faithfully perform'd he is nearer united unto God He becomes a King for his bountiful liberality and royal free mind He becomes a Priest by offering these Sacrifices so acceptable to God Nay he himself is but one intire Sacrifice whom that great High-Priest Christ Jesus offers to his Father The fire of Love and Charity is the fire that consumes and wasts continually all corruption in his Soul and loosen'd every day more and more from the body of sin and iniquity ascends in holy fume up nearer unto Heaven a sweet savour unto God and all the assistants of the Divine Majesty But for a more orderly handling of this present Text of Scripture Be pleased to observe with me these three Truths contained in the same 1. That we are not to forget to do good and communicate 2. That doing or communicating good is a Sacrifice 3. That it is a Sacrifice in which God is well pleased I. That we are to do good I think no man is so devoid of reason or goodness as to deny it no not so much as in his silent thoughts Though this Truth that he is so certainly perswaded of lies not alwayes so freshly in his mind but he may easily overslip the practice of it Yea because a mans understanding cogitations and affections are so mightily taken up for his own projects and the advancement of his own private peculiar good it were somewhat strange if he did not omit too too oft this Duty of communicating good to others his fierce and eager pursuit after his private welfare so strongly and steddily directing his eyes upon his own We being therefore so subject out of the extream love of our selves to forget the good of our Neighbour it is no wonder that the Apostles Exhortation is not delivered in a bare simple manner Do good and communicate But runs thus To do good and communicate forget not As if he should say I have delivered in this my Epistle many high and Divine Mysteries concerning the Divine Nature of Christ the Office of the Angels of the Levitical Priesthood and Ceremonies of the Old Law the Sacrifice of Christ and the excellency of Faith and many other Heavenly Theories which for their profoundness may easily invite the curious to muse upon them and for their mysteriousness made me write somewhat more largely upon them But that which I speak to you
Eternal Spiritual Riches he will endue us with hereafter 3. The Third Motive is taken from the persons to whom we are to communicate The rich and the poor meet together and the Lord enlightens both their eyes Prov. 29. No difference between the greatest Prince and the poorest Beggar but the goods of Fortune or rather of Providence For they come not to us by chance but by the good will of God who hath made out of his Wisdom some Poor and some Rich that we may have occasion to exercise the acts of Mercy and tender Compassion to our Brethren who live by the same Air vvalk in the light of the same Sun vvere created by the same God are to be saved by the same Christ. There is one Body and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your calling One Lord one Faith one Baptism One God and Father of all which is above all and through all and in you all Eph. 4. What One Body and one Member despise and disregard another One Spirit and not sympathize one vvith another One Hope and not help one another One Lord and not one fellovv-servant acknovvledge another One Father and Brethren not relieve one another One God above all over-seeing us all in all our actions vvho though he be so high yet beholdeth things here belovv upon earth and vve poor earthly vvorms overlook one another One God in us all and no goodness in us all God vvho is Love it self pierce through us all and yet not those lovely shafts of holy Charity vvound any of our hearts God forbid If vve abide not in Love God abideth not in us If our hearts be contracted and darkened by frozen rigidness the light of God shineth not through us If our poor contemptible Neighbour be so far under us that vve disdain to stretch forth our armes to help him vve forget God above us If vve love not as Brethren God is not our Father If vve be asham'd of our Fellovv-servants the Lord is not our Master If vve be cold in mutual affection our Faith is dead and Hypocrisie is our Religion If vve have no sympathy or fellovv-feeling the Spirit vve boast of is but vanity or empty air If vve favour not one another as Members of the same Body vve are not Members of the same Body but disunited Dust vvhich the Wind blovves to and fro upon the face of the Earth and the Angel of God scatters it Community is but a name vvhere there is no communication of good Vnity but a deceivable phansie vvhere there is no real Mercy He that will endanger the Soul of his Brother by with-holding the sustenance of his Body which out of Brotherly affection he is to administer to him surely that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Brotherly Love which the Apostle calls for dwelleth not in him The very shame of Poverty will force a man to do or suffer any thing How much more will pinching hunger scorching thirst benumming cold Necessity hath no Law or at least necessitous persons are easily drawn to think so Give me not poverty saith the Wise Man Prov. 30. 8 9. lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain A good man is merciful to his beast and shall not we be so good as to have compassion upon men The miserable and penurious condition of the Poor man would afford me great store or plenty of Arguments to plead his cause but I will only name them Hunger thirst nakedness rags filth deformity pensiveness sickness torture contempt sighs tears groans fear despair disconsolateness assaults of the Devil hard-heartedness of the World dejectedness of his spirit weak and vain looks loss of limbs blindness and deafness I cannot name them all Poverty is attended with such a numerous regiment of defects and infirmities that they may win the most strong and stony heart to compassionate their miseries But because we are fallen into these ill latter times in which the Apostle hath foretold that the love of many or rather of most if not almost of all shall wax cold Mercy and Pity are not passions easily to be stirred up out of the representation of our Neighbours misery and ill plight These are poor contemptible vertues befitting the weak womanish sect A strong vigorous faith I would to God it were so or if you will a deep conceited phansie that we are Gods Children though we be not merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful is altogether in request and fashion amongst us Christians So this conceit makes us abound with Love toward God as vve think But when all comes to all it will prove but false and adulterate Love It will not abide that touchstone If you love me keep my commandements Or that of S. Iohns Epistle Chap. 3. Whosoever hath this worlds good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him 4. But if we do love God so much and our Neighbour so little yet we may not evade or escape this duty of doing good for all that For say that all our time is to be spent in the duties of the First Table all our Piety to be shewed in performances toward God If I shew that these acts of Mercy and Bounty be acts of the First Table too I hope we will not shew our selves so ungrateful and impious as to decline this manner of Worship which he requires at our hands Now that acts of Mercy are duties of the First Table I need go no farther for proof than my Text which tells us that doing good and communicating is a sacrifice And Sacrificing you know is a duty of the First Table even the immediate service of God How fitly the Apostle hath framed his Argument for convincing of mens corrupt Consciences and discovering that mysterious hidden wickedness that lurks in our hypocritical hearts a strong perswasion that we are Gods though there be little of the inward power of Godliness in us This holy kind of irreligiousness that is so immerse and lost as it were in a false counterfeit love of God that it quite forgets all respect and duty to our Neighbour That foolish impudent Spirit that would so confidently father it self upon God and perswade him that he is his Child when it s nothing but the deceitful breath of the Devil A handsome slight to travel to Heaven at least charges The service of God that is a strong perswasion that we are one of them that God hath sign'd to be his though there be no other sure argument or sign saving that we do strongly perswade our selves so The hearing of the Word the saying of Prayers and such outward performances or outward deceivable phansies is a Religion so cheap and easie that it asks a man neither cost nor labour But to be crucified with Christ to suffer with him to undergo the deadly dolorous pangs of mortification to sweat drops of Blood and endure
neck and wept and Benjamin wept upon his neck Moreover he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them Gen. 45. 14. 15. And thus in Acts 20. 37 38. They all wept sore and fell on Pauls neck and kissed him Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake that they should see his face no more But no Story in all the New Testament at least is of that sadness and solemnity as the preparation to the raising up of dead Lazarus Women Men nay God himself as in the flesh all melted together into one Sorrow Iesus wept Nor is this so much a torture as a pleasure to the Mind sweetly melting in kindly motion and gentle ruth for any mishap that befalls her tender care and charge the several parts of the Creation of God This is so far from being a blemish to the condition of Holy and Divine men that it is even a member and branch of that condition that makes them Holy and Divine which is their abiding in Love i. e. in God whence we become Dei-formes Now the due and safe measure of those degrees of fervency in our Mutual Love is The love of our own selves Thou shall love thy Neighbour as thy self and none is coldly affected to himself And that which is to limit our Love to our selves is to bound our Affection to our Neighbour and that is Discretion and Iustice. For if we may not do any thing unjustly in our own behalf nor Reason nor Scripture can warrant us to adventure on any unjust enterprise in the behalf of our Neighbour Now let us see what this plain and familiar measure will amount to which indeed is little less than what was intimated before For though we love our Neighbour no better than we love our selves and that within the bounds of Justice and sound Reason yet we loving our selves so much and so affectionately as we do it must follow that all that Joy Grief Pleasure Displeasure Hope Fear Care Labour Valour and whatever else we can bestow upon our selves in our own behalfes that when occasion requires we confer it all upon our Neighbour This will enable us to profess with S. Paul 2 Cor. 11. 29. Who is weak and I am not weak What is offended and I burn not And to make good his Precept Rom. 12. 15. Rejoyce with them that rejoyce and weep with them that weep To bear others burdens to wax pale with other mens fears to grow lean with their cares It will harness us with Courage as it did Abraham for Lot It will make a man though not desire yet not care to dye for his Brother For its plain his Affection being equal to both he must be indifferent whether shall taste of that bitter Cup. Object If we love every one equally with our selves then must we love all men equally Which is thus demonstrated for the Love whereby one loves every man being each of them equal to that one Love whereby one loves himself they must be all equal to one another from the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Euclid Sol. I Answer That our Love of Complacency is not equally to be distributed to all What then shall our Love of Benevolence Shall I bear as much good-will and therefore do as much good and owe as much service to Thersites as Achilles Shimei as David Nabal as Abigail Verily no. But as God loves himself best not because it is himself but because there is nothing better than himself so we certainly are to love all things according to the several degrees of participation of the Excellencies of the Divine Nature As they that contribute to one common stock though by unequal contributions suppose some one contributing a third part another a seventh part a third a tenth though they partake of the gains but according to this proportion the distribution is said to be just and equal there being indeed a similitude or equality of proportion tho' the shares of gains that every Adventurer has are not equal for it were unequal that they should be so So though the shares and portions of our Love to others be not equal nor ought so to be yet the proportions of our Love may and ought to be equal and that is if our Love flow out according to the several degrees of Divine Excellency in every Person And thus its true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. of Geometrical Equality Object But you will still urge my Love to my self being one single term of Quantity to which my Love to every one is to be equal proves plainly that all these Loves are Arithmetically equal one with another as 2 and 2 are equal to one another Sol. To dispatch all in a Word When we are pointed to the love of our selves as a right measure of our love to our Neighbour it must be understood thus That we are to love our Neighbour of this or that Rank and Qualification in such sort as we would love our selves if we were in that Rank and Qualification and do the same to our Neighbour of this condition that we should expect from others if we were of that condition as suppose a Prince a Noble a Wise man an Honest sincere man a man of unparallell'd Accomplishments In these cases what Love and Respect we would look for if we were such though we be not such yet are we bound to give it to those that are such And thus it will come about that we are obliged to love some better than our selves viz. such as have more Divine Accomplishments in them Thus in 2 Sam. 18. 3. The People said to David Thou art worth ten thousand of us And this obligement to love some better than our selves arises from that general Rule of all That we are bound to love every one according to the proportion of Divine worth in them Whence it must also follow That we are to love othersome less than our selves if we do palpably and infallibly discover in our selves more Divine Accomplishments and more excellent Endowments than in others AND thus we come to the last Doctrine viz. Doct. IV. That we are to love one another universally and continually Vniversally So also 2. Pet. 1. 7. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is universal Love And so 1. Thess. 3. 12. The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards another and towards all men And Chap. 5. 15. See that none render evil for evil unto any man but ever follow that which is good both among your selves and to all men We might add Testimonies out of Heathen Philosophers whose Examples may shame us who without any niceness place them many Stories below our selves Socrates had so little gall against the Judges his mortal Enemies who were no better to him than to tell him He should dye for it if they caught him Philosophizing and had so great Affection to the good of all that he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Meditations of M. Antoninus are full
to this purpose Vid. lib. 5. and lib. 6. And this Philosopher attempts by many wayes and Arguments to keep us in this so pleasant temper of Spirit to all men good and bad friends and foes viz. 1. A settled perswasion that all those things which the Stoicks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are so indeed not truly good or bad in themselves there being nothing truly good but what is in our own power such are the voluntary motions of our Mind or Soul Thus he And indeed a very little observation will make this good to us That an eager and sharp desire of outward things Riches Honour and Corporeal Pleasure whose maintenance is from the outward Creature that this is the main if not only Cause of all Dissention amongst the Sons of men So that I think Envy it self is not moved at the Vertuous Accomplishments of any but merely at the effects thereof viz. the Admiration and Glory they get amongst the People Therefore the best way to be friends with all the World is not to desire the things of this World but to reckon them as nothing to the purpose and so shall we assuredly provoke very few against us and be provoked by none 2. Consider Socrates's Maxime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Christ said Father forgive them they know not what they do This is true in injuries done to our selves but the Stoick would drive it to an universality 3. That thou thy self transgressest in many things c. 4. Mans Life is but for a moment of time 5. Consider how many things may and do often follow upon such fits of Anger and Grief far more grievous in themselves than those things we are grieved for and angry 6. The Meekness is a thing unconquerable if it be true and natural 7. It is a mad mans part to look there should be no wicked men in the World because it is impossible c. Thus he But observe that in all these attempts for a continued Meekness and Benignity towards all men whatsoever the ease and quiet of the Philosophers Mind is rather aimed at than any thing else And that it is not so much an Vniversal Love to all men as an universal fencing of himself against the provocations of all whatsoever may at any time chance to assault and shake that firmness and stillness of Temper he proposes to himself being loth to be so obnoxious to any man that it should be in his power to plough up in uneven furrows the settled Planities of his smoothed mind Object But here it will be Objected That unless we endeavour after and at some time reach that Stoical state of the Mind it will be impossible to hold out perpetually in that mild and even tenour of Love to all men For some men are so habitually evil that nothing is tolerable much less lovely in them So that when we light on such some other Affection will be drawn out And for those of the better sort They are sometimes so unlike themselves that it cannot be that the same Affection should be continued to them How then is it That we are to love continually Sol. To this I answer three wayes First We are to love all men i. e. all manner of men of what Religion Sect or Nation soever so be that God has manifested his Graces in them any way And then that this Love should continue as long as the deserts of them that are loved And this takes away all partiality in Love Or Secondly We are to love all men and alwayes amore Benevolentiae though not Complacentiae And thus all particularity or peculiarity will be taken away or swallowed up All men whatsoever being objects capable of this Love We may wish those to be good that are notoriously evil and endeavour too to make them so which are real fruits of Love Or we may pitty them that they are not so already it being so great a Misery for them to be otherwise which is a Symptome of Love if not a genuine Notion thereof nay the very Act of Love only under another modification Which minds me of a Third way of Answer which I cannot so well make out without giving first some settled Notion or Definition of the Nature of Love The general Description whereof let be this Love is an Affection or Passion of the Mind conversant about Divine Beauty and Perfection introducible into the Souls or Persons of the Sons of men And I say Conversant about Divine Perfection and Beauty communicable to the Sons of men to distinguish it from what Love soever else For that Love that ariseth from Interest is but such as a man would bear to his Saddle-horse that carries him safely and easily And that Pitty we bear to calamitous men in Sickness Death or great distress without reference to what we have mention'd in our definition is but the same we may be haply moved with toward a dying beast or a bemoaning and whining dog That Love therefore that like the Vestal Fire is never to go out but alwayes to burn and shine in our hearts is the motion of our Mind one way or other taken up about the Divine Beauty communicable to man And thus I have at large as if I should define Colour in general described the Nature of Love But as Colour is not at all but in its several kinds and distinctions viz. either White or Red or Yellow or Green c. or some other particular kind So this Love is not any Passion at all indeed nothing at all but in its several kinds such as are Hope Fear Ioy Anger Sorrow c. For the very root or matter of all these is Love yea of Hatred it self if we look to the bottom of this Mystery As the Wax takes all shapes and yet is Wax still at the bottom The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still is Wax So the Soul transported in so many several Passions of Ioy Fear Hope Sorrow Anger and the like has for its general ground-work of all this Love which if it were taken away those various superstructures would suddenly fall For he that loves nothing how can he fear any thing or hope or joy or hate any thing For how can he hate when there is nothing to injure or cross him in what he loves he loving nothing Or yet to make a more fit representation Love is that to the Soul that the Light is to the Sun For Light being simple in it self and uniform is yet the Basis or ground of much variety in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Nature Light being in it self one according as it lights on various surfaces of things returns modifyed into this or that colour If it fall upon Grass it becomes green if upon the Piony-flower red on the Marigold yellow from the Swans back it is reflected white and so according to the variety of the surfaces of Bodies which occur there is a change of light into some particular
modification which to us are so many distinct Colours But take away the Light and all these Colours cease to be As if there were a way to intercept the Suns light from coming to the Cloud where the Rainbow is figured all the Colours of the Rainbow would soon vanish and disappear So if Love be not no other Passion can be but that first supposed the other occasionally will arise from it As from the hitting of the Sun-beams against several Objects several Colours arise which are nothing else but the Beams or Light it self variously modify'd according to the variety of surfaces against which it doth impinge and is reverberated from So in like manner the Passion of Love in a mans Soul being one is variously transformed into several shapes and modes according as the occurrences and occasions it meets with And this we may sensibly perceive in the love of our selves which Domestick fire is kept alive in us with more superstition and care than that more Sacred flame of Divine Love but in a multifarious transfiguration as we may easily observe For Example When a man has committed any thing against his own Profit or Interest through some carelesness or mistake and so grows vext at it what is this but Self-love appearing in the disguise of Anger Sadness and discontent at the death or displeasure of some potent friend what is this but self-Self-love mufled up in the sad attirements of Sorrow Those pleasing motions and prefigurations of the mind upon the promise of future Honours and Preferments what is that but Self-love putting on the smiling countenance of hope And so of the rest But now to transfer all this to the present purpose That Love which I have defined to you is one simple and uniform thing like the visible Light And this is a perpetual well-liking of or benign affection to the Divine Beauty communicable to man which is as one still Sun-shine day or if you will as the Sun shining in silence and solitude there being no Earth or any opake part of the World to reflect and variegate his Rays Such is the mind of him that is possest with this Divine Love as it is freely and uncurb'dly working in it self But lighting upon several objects is after several manners modified and transfigured into several shapes This Love at the Conversion of a Sinner shines forth in that chearful aspect of Heavenly Ioy and Exultation of Spirit at the unworthy usage of good and holy men it burns with Anger and Indignation looking as red and purpled as the Horizontal Sun at the doubtful carriages of men is broken into distractful thoughts careful Fear and Anxiety at the sight of Solomons Fool devoid of understanding is struck with Forlornness and Sadness of Spirit such a one being as a lonesome desolate Cottage where no man inhabits For as he that is in the Wilderness though he have the company of Beasts yet being destitute of the society of men finds himself really in sadness and solitude so certainly he that is regenerate into the Image of the true man the Heavenly Adam i. e. Christ even in a crowd of acquaintance devoid of that Image perceives himself but in solitude And whensoever he converses or meets with any in whom that Heavenly inhabitant is wanting it is to him as forlorn a spectacle as a lonesome and empty Lodge in the midst of a Desart whither when the weary Traveller diverts he finds no man to refresh him with a morsel of Bread or a dish of Water For certainly they that once have a right sense and esteem of the lovely Image of Christ out of a kind of a Divine dotage as I may so speak can not endure to find it missing any where would have it hung up in every room would have it inhabit every house that they may meet with it at every turn And therefore where they miss of it it is as sad a chance as Divorce or Exile from our dear Friend as discomfortable as close Imprisonment and seclusion from all Conversation with men Thus we see Divine Love ceases not by other Passions but remains still the same though in several postures And that it is the several operations of one simple Nature about one and the same Object that is the Image of God or Divine Accomplishments communicable to man Which when they begin to spring and flourish in men this Love is figur'd into Ioy when they decay or are lost into Sorrow when despightfully used into Anger and the like So that if we know what we chiefly love and for whose cause man is to be loved we shall find it not impossible to have our Souls work according to this Principle of Love upon what Object soever So that we may without contradiction fulfil these Duties in the Text of Vniversal and Perpetual Love And now that the Thing is understood feasible it will not be hard to fetch out Arguments for the enforcement of the same The present Text will afford them And the First is From the State of Purification which every Christian is bound to be in and is in if he be truly a Christian. For the Soul of man being a kind of Flame or Fiery Essence Igneus est olli vigor Coelestis origo whereas that foulness and rubbish which it lies in to wit sensual and corruptible Pleasure the instrument whereof is this faeculent and misgoverned Body makes the Soul wrathful lustful self-will'd impetuously given to petty interests and particular poor contentations and delights Surely the purging of it from this foul dross and dregs must needs wing it free it universalize it and make it as generally benign to all men as the Sun is universally courteous to all the World in lending Light and Heat to all For by how much the Soul doth purge her self by so much nearer she approaches to that Primogeneal or Original Fire which is God himself that lets his sun rise on the evil and good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust Matth. 5. 45. This is the Chaldaean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of which proceeds all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as those Oracles speak And the Soul of man the Image of God is in the same said also to be Fire which Psellus more expresly defines in his Notes upon those Oracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Soul is an immaterial and incorporeal Fire which withdrawing it self from the thickness and foulness of this low Corruption incorporates with that Original Fire even God himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the same Author upon those Oracles hath it Wherefore mingling Essences as it were with the Divinity it must be of the same sense and mind with God and therefore never ceases from loving all men as God himself refuses none The Publishers POST-SCRIPT THree things I shall here advertise the Reader of 1. The First is That the Appendix to Discourse XIII th should not have been Printed apart but that most of it was wanting till that other part was Printed off 2. The Second is That what is still wanting to complete that Discourse as also the Continuation of Discourse XV th never came into my hands 3. The Third is That if those Papers or any other of the Authors be sent to me all due care shall be taken for the making of them Publick FINIS A Catalogue Books Published by His Grace JOHN Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury THirty Sermons and Discourses upon several Occasions in three Volumes in Octavo The Rule of Faith or an Answer to the Treatise of Mr. I. Sergeant Octavo Since which is Published Nine several Sermons on several Occasions in Quarto Books writ by the Learned Dr. Isaac Barrow late Master of Trinity College in Cambridge And Published by His Grace JOHN Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in Four Volumes in Folio The First Volume containing Thirty Two Sermons Preached upon several Occasions An Exposition of the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments also the Doctrine of the Sacraments A Learned Treatise of the Popes Supremacy With some Account of the Authors Life The Second Volume containing Sermons and Expositions upon the Apostles Creed The Third Volume containing Forty Five Sermons upon several Occasions Compleating his English Works The Fourth Volume being his Opuscula Viz. Determinationes Conc. ad Clerum Orationes Poemata c. Any of the said Volumes may be had alone All Sold by Brabazon Ayliner at the Three Pigeons in Cornhil
DISCOURSES ON Several Texts OF SCRIPTURE BY The late Pious and Learned HENRY MORE D. D. LONDON Printed by I. R. and are to be Sold by Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1692. THE PREFACE I Shall not bespeak the acceptance of these Papers by any large Encomium either of them or of the Author This would detain the Reader too long from the Benefit of them and indeed to little or no purpose For the Discourses will sufficiently speak for themselves without the artifice of any Commendatory Preface And as for the Author His Name is so well known and deservedly admired in the World upon the account of the many Elaborate Treatises which he Published in his Life-time that these his Posthumous Pieces may find a welcome Entertainment without any other Invitation The business therefore of this Preface is only to acquaint the Reader with some things which concern this Edition and this I shall do very briefly in the following Particulars 1. The First and chief thing which the Reader is to be acquainted with is the Authenticness of these Writings they being all of them Printed by the Authors own Copies except Discourse XII th and XIII th which were with some of the other transcribed from the Originals in the Authors Life-time by one whose Faithfulness and Exactness is evident in the rest and is not in the least to be doubted of in these 2. The next thing which I should tell the Reader is by whom these Papers were committed to my care and management in order to make them Publick But I am forbidden to name him and therefore I shall be silent as to this particular 3. But here it may not be unfit to tell the Reader in general That I have bestowed upon them all the care and pains which the shortness of time determined for the preparing of them for the Press would admit of And this is sufficient to satisfie any ingenuous Person Whereas to speak of all the toil and difficulties which I met with therein would be too tedious an exercise of the Readers Patience and piece of Vanity as burdensome to my self as to others 4. And Lastly As for any Defects therein or for the Errors which have escaped the Press they are such as neither the Authors Name will suffer by reason of them nor the Papers be less acceptable to a Candid and well-disposed Reader Thus much I thought fit to advertise the Reader of here concerning this Edition As for the Discourses themselves I shall leave it wholly to Him to observe the Stile and Matter of them Only this I would suggest That they are such as were prepared for no mean Auditory some of them being University-Sermons and the rest College-Exercises I will conclude this Preface with a short Prayer Which I wish the Reader may as seriously and devoutly put up as the Pious Author did before one of the following Discourses O Lord our God the Fountain of Light and the Well-spring of all holy Wisdom and Knowledge without whose aid our search after thee and thy ways is but tedious error and dangerous wandering from thee Assist us mercifully in our endeavours after thee Open our eyes that we may see the wonders of thy Law Sanctifie our hearts unto obedience that we may unfeignedly love thee and worthily magnifie the holy Name through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen London Nov. 1. 1692. John Worthington THE TEXTS OF THE Following Discourses DISCOURSE I. 1 PET. II. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. p. 1. DISCOURSE II. PSAL. LXXXIV 7. They go from strength to strength every one of them appeareth before God in Sion p. 31 DISCOURSE III. MAT. VI. 22 23. The light of the Body is the Eye if therefore thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of light But if thine Eye be evil thy whole Body shall be full of darkness If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness p. 60. DISCOURSE IV. PROV I. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom p. 85. DISCOURSE V. JOHN IV. 31 32 33 34. In the mean time his disciples prayed him saying Master eat But he said unto them I have meat to eat that you know not of Therefore said the disciples one to another Hath any man brought him ought to eat Iesus saith unto them My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work p. 119. DISCOURSE VI. JAM I. 22. Be ye Doers of the Word and not Hearers only deceiving your own selves p. 151. DISCOURSE VII PROV XV. 15. All the dayes of the afflicted are evil but a good conscience is a continual feast p. 191. DISCOURSE VIII PSAL. XVII 15. As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness p. 221. DISCOURSE IX ROM VIII 17. And if children then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified with him p. 251. DISCOURSE X. JAM I. 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world p. 282. DISCOURSE XI HEB. XIII 16. To do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased p. 314. DISCOURSE XII GAL. VI. 14 15 16. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Iesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world For in Christ Iesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God p. 369. DISCOURSE XIII 1 PET. I. 22 23. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever p. 394. DISCOURSE XIV PSAL. CVI. 28. They joined themselves also unto Baal-Peor and ate the sacrifices of the dead p. 419. DISCOURSE XV. COL III. 1. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God p. 435. Appendix to Discourse XIII p. 458. IMPRIMATUR Lambhith Nov. 2. 1692. Ra. Barker R mo in Christo Patri ac D no D no Johanni Archiepiscopo Cant. a Sacris Dom. DISCOURSES ON Several Texts OF SCRIPTURE DISCOURSE I. 1 PET. II. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. THE Text is an Exhortation to abstinence from the Lusts of the Flesh Which Duty the Apostle endeavours to fix upon the Spirits of
health of his Bodies sake when every such perception so heartily and feelingly taken in is either poyson or a stab to the life of the Soul But that will be more seasonably considered anon In the mean time I hope I have made it clear enough what is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fleshly Lusts as also what it is to abstain from them WE come now to consider the Second part of our Discourse the means or artifice the Apostle uses to fasten this Duty I have described upon the Hearts and Consciences of his Auditors His humble Address I beseech you and that kind and friendly compellation Dearly beloved And indeed the one implies the other Non bene conveniunt nec in unâ sede mor antur Majest as Amor While he calls them Dearly beloved it is more comely and suitable to beseech them than command them But the Prudence and Discretion of the Apostle is very conspicuous in both thus to insinuate himself into the Affections of his Auditors by such sweet and wining Rhetorick he being to convey something to them which is over bitter and distastful to Flesh and Blood and therefore he does well to besmear the brim of this cup of Wormwood with the sweetness of Honey that his Patients may the better take this wholesome Potion as Lucretius uses this Similitude though in a subiect of less moment Sea veluti pueris absynthia tetra medentes Cum dare conantur priùs oras pocula circùm Contingunt meltis dulci flavuque liquore Hard commands given with an harsh imperiousness befits not the Spirit of the Gospel And it is not so much external force at the assurance of the kindness integrity and fidelity of the Instructer that can engage the Affections and Conscience of the Auditor to the observance of such Spiritual Precepts as these Indeed the falsly-pretended Successor of Peter may by law and force keep Men from eating Flesh in Lent and engage them to observe such Commandments of Men whereby they more easily make the Commandments of God of no effect But to win upon Mens Consciences indeed to set upon the true and real mortification of our Fleshly Lusts in such a sense as I have described this is more likely to proceed from the perswasion they have of him that gives this wholesome Counsel that it is out of sincere kindness and faithfulness to them for the safety of their Souls than if they discern it proceeds out of an affectation of dominion over their Consciences and of exposing them to unnecessary faults and mulcts While the Apostle therefore layes aside all imperiousness of Command he seems to insinuate his sensibleness of the hardness of the task and to suggest that it is not out of an affectation of dominion over their Christian Liberty that he offers this Advice but out of the mere indispensableness of the Duty in order to their Salvation For as he calls them Dearly beloved so he treats them as in that endearing respect and seems to profess that it is merely out of his Brotherly Love and Tenderness towards them and faithful care of their highest and most important concerns that constrains him to offer this severer Counsel unto them Those whom we dearly love we cannot endure to hurt or grieve any way And therefore professing this tender affection to them in the midst of severer Counsel it is a plain manifestation that nothing but the indispensableness thereof could extort from him the Advice as when a tender Mother perswades her Child to endure the Searing Iron or Incision-Knife and to be content to quit some festred or gangren'd part of the securing of the whole Body This is the genuine sense of this wise and discreet insinuation of the Apostle into the affections of his Auditors that his Exhortation to Abstinence from Fleshly Lusts may take the more certain effect with them WE proceed now to the last part of our Discourse which is to consider the Apostles Argumentation whereby he would engage them to this Duty Which Argumentation as I said was fetched from a two-fold Topick First From the dignity of an Humane Soul especially Christian. Secondly From that enmity or hostility of the Fleshly Lusts against her 1. The dignity and excellency of Humane Souls is intimated in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The former whereof signifies such Qui sedem habent extra Patriam the latter qui extra Patriam peregrinantur as Grotius notes upon the Text. So that according to the sense of either of these expressions it is manifest that we carry something about us that is of a far higher dignity than to be accounted a Citizen or Indigena of this Terrestrial Globe If this round Hillock of Earth can lay claim to any thing of us born therein or therefrom it is only this Earthly Body At verò animis aeterna Coeli sedes quaerenda eaque propriae illorum Patria as Cicero speaks And something like this is intimated by the Author to the Hebrews who according as Philo Judaeus also somewhere insinuates touching the Souls of the Patriarchs here upon Earth does declare them Pilgrims and Strangers in this present World upon their own confession which he will also have further to imply that in thus saying they are Pilgrims and Strangers that they seek a Country which belongs more peculiarly to them that they desired a better Country that is an Heavenly and adds Wherefore God is not ashawed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City namely in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We come into his World to sojourn uot to dwell here for the soul of every wise man has Heaven for its Country but this Earth for its land of Pilgrimage as Philo speaks Like that of Cato in Tully Commorandi enim Natura diversorium nobis non habitandi locum dedit And Plato in his Axiochus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Philo de Somniis does expresly make the History of the Pilgrimages of Abraham and the Patriarchs a Type or Shadow of the Peregrination of Humane Souls here upon Earth but that they have their proper Country in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which methinks with more elegancy the Holy Apostle calls his Tabernacle which alludes to the pilgrimage of the Israelites through the Wilderness into the Promised Land that illustrious Type of Heaven in which journey they liv'd in Tabernacles or Booths Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle Which Tabernacle being dissolved we have a building of God saith S. Paul an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens That was only commorandi diversorium This an everlasting habitation to dwell in Wherefore the littleness of the concerns of this Life being proportioned to our short stay here and the Soul of Man being capable of so high and lasting
Paul in this present Epistle if so we may happily wind our selves out of this dangerous maze or labyrinth Whereas then he seems to nullifie or vilifie at least the Law in the advancing of that Righteousness that is by Faith Let us see what this Righteousness that is of Faith and what that of the Law is Chap. 2. 19. For I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God Ver. 20. I am crucified with Christ Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me I through the law am dead to the law What a riddle is this that the Law should deprive it self of its Disciples And yet it doth so For it is a Schoolmaster to Christ or rather an Usher Which when it hath well tutour'd us and castigated us removes us up higher to be made in Christ perfect who is the perfection of the Law But the Law it self makes nothing perfect And this is the reason that Righteousness is not of the Law And to this purpose speaks the Apostle in this very Epistle Chap. 3. Ver. 21. Is the law then against the promises of God God forbid For if there had been a law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Law that could enliven and enquicken us But that is beyond the power of the Law That 's the Title and Prerogative of Christ who is the way the truth and the life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the resurrection and the life He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live Iohn 11. 25. This therefore is the Righteousness of Faith or Belief far above the Righteousness of the Law or killing Letter Now when this Faith is come we are no longer under that Poedagog of Punie-boys the Low-master But are all the Children of God by Faith in Jesus Christ. And none are the Children of God but those that are led by the Spirit of God as the Apostle witnesseth in his Epistle to the Romans And those that have the Spirit of God what fruits they bring forth is amply set out by the Apostle in this to the Galatians Chap. 5. ver 22 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Against such there is no Law For indeed there is no need of it they being a Law unto themselves So we see how those that are in Christ are not under the Law because their Obedience or that living Law in their Hearts are above it They do really and truly fulfil it through the Spirit that is by Faith For that Spirit is the begetter of Love and Love is the fulfilling of the Law For all the law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self But if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another This I say then Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would But if ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law Ver. 14 15 16 17 18. Observe that If you be led by the Spirit For against such there is no Law as was said before Which implies if thou art not led by the Spirit thou art liable to the Curse of the Law to Death Hell and Damnation For so also speaks the Apostle when he hath reckoned up the works of the flesh ver 21. But here methinks I see some filching away an excuse for their own hypocrisie out of some of the foregoing words at the 6th Verse of that 5th Chapter The flesh and the spirit are contrary so that you cannot do that you would I but withal this is true too That if we will that which we do amiss we are then under the Curse of the Law For we are not then led by the Spirit of God but are servants of Sin and Satan We are not then in Christ no more than our bodies at Athens or Carthage but our phansies roving thither For they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Ver. 24. So we see plainly Beloved that the Righteousness that is of Faith is not a mere Chimaera or phansie but a more excellent Righteousness than that of the Law For the Law is no quickening Spirit but a dead Letter But Christ is the resurrection and the life And he is God our Righteousness mighty to save and can with ease destroy the powers of Death Darkness and the Devil out of the Soul of man But we must have the patience to endure the work wrought in us by him I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And if we will still cloak and cover our foul corrupt Hearts with forged conceits of Hypocrisies own making and excuse our selves from being good to one another or to our selves because God in Christ is so good to us Hear what the Apostle speaks in the last Chapter of this Epistle for it is now time to draw nearer to my Text Ver. 7 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption But he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting The aim therefore of the Apostle is not to extenuate or discountenance real Vertue and Righteousness but to point us to it and tell us where it may be had Not in Days and Years not in New Moons or Festivals not in Circumcision nor in the dead Letter of the Law But in Christ and the Spirit of God in the renewed Image of God in the New Birth in the New life in the second Adam from Heaven in the New Creature in that stumbling block to all Flesh and Blood in the Cross of Christ. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross c. THE Text contains briefly the Summ of the whole Discourse we may cast it into these Three parts 1. The Apostles Resolution He will not glory in any thing save in the cross of Christ whereby the man of Sin in his very Soul is crucified and made dead that the Life of Christ may abide in him 2. The Reason of his Resolution Because when a man hath given his name to Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision nor any of the Ceremonial Laws is any thing but a new creature 3. His Benediction or well-wishing to all that walk after the rule i. e. according to the new man that is fram'd in Righteousness and true Holiness the true Israel of God Peace be on them But I will rather fall upon the words themselves And in my passage point out such Observations as shall arise most
God The righteous Nation in whom there is no guile As our Saviour saith of Nathanael Behold a true Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile And thus the Psalmist Surely God is good unto Israel even to such as are of an upright heart God continue his Goodness to them and encrease it sevenfold And encrease them in number above the Sands of the Sea and the Stars of Heaven that none may be able to count the dust of Jacob or to number the fourth part of Israel That the Heathen may be swallowed up of them and that the very memorial of wickedness may perish from off the Earth To the King of Saints the Holy one of Israel who inhabits Immortality and the Light inaccessible to the only Wise and All-powerful God be ascribed as is most due all Honour c. DISCOURSE XIII 1 PET. i. 22 23. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever THE Text is an Exhortation to Christian Love The Duty is enforced from a double Argument 1. From the end of our Sanctification in those words Seeing ye have purified your Souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto or for unfeigned brotherly love And this ushers in the Precept or Duty Love one another with a pure heart fervently 2. The other Argument follows of no less force than the former which is drawn from the condition of our new Birth Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever THE several Truths or Doctrines contained in the First Argument are these viz. Doctrine I. That the Christian mans Soul is Purified Purified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word synonymous to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both imply a purging or cleansing from filth They are both used together Iames 4. 8. in one signification But yet there is a more special sense belonging to them both they both signifie a Sacred and Ceremonial kind of cleansing and purification and after appropriation to God as Titus 2. 14. where the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with allusion to the Consecration of the Levites Numb 8. and their washing of their Cloths and sprinkling the Water of Purification is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that the purifying of the Soul in the Text implies cleansing and appropriation But the Objects are not here express'd yet very safely supposed we cannot miss of them if we would For from what should the Soul be purified but from its filth What is the filth of the Soul but Sin To whom should the Soul thus purg'd be appropriated or consecrated To it self It is not purg'd if not purg'd from it self To the Creature It is the height of Impiety palpable Idolatry To Sin It is not Sense To what then but to God its Creator and Redeemer who gave himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might purifie unto himself a peculiar people Tit. 2. 14. Thus is purified the Christians Soul which is true not only in that narrower sense of taking the Soul but also as it includes the Body or the Beast as the Platonists call it even the very Passions and more fiery motions which those Philosophers resemble to Horses drawing the Chariot of the Soul these also shall be Sanctified So that upon the reins of the Horses if I may speak with Zechary there is inscrib'd Holiness to the Lord. But certainly more properly and chiefly this Purification belongs to the Soul her self and from thence will sink through all the powers and faculties of the Body taking hold of them wielding them and ruling them at its own pleasure or at least not suffering it self to be over-ruled by them Now this purifying of a Christian implies that he was unholy and foul before And not only the whole man but also whole mankind is in this sinful state till wash'd and purified Rom. 3. 12. 1 Ioh. 1. 8 9 10. where we have both these points confirm'd 1. That we all have sinned and stand obnoxious before God 2. That by the worth and merit of Christ and the effectual working of the Divine Spirit we have forgiveness and that God doth cleanse us from all unrighteousness And this is the true Christian Mystery If we be Christians we must be as certainly purified as its certain we were once impure Doct. II. That the Christians Soul is purified in obeying the Truth Here meets us the unwelcome visage of Obedience but with its face turn'd upon a safe object the Truth Where we may note that it is not any Obedience that purifies but the Obedience to the Truth A man may toil like a Mill-horse in a circuir of Ceremonies and outward performances and yet but take his walk with the wicked unless the Truth be obey'd Again it is such a Truth as Obedience belongs to not an high aery speculative Truth not a Truth only to be believed but to be put in practice for we cannot be said properly to obey speculative Truth because the Soul there has no power to resist or disobey For the Devil himself would glady embrace and assent to all pure and inoffensive speculation that doth not touch his own interest and present condition and so would all his and Natures children the most wicked men that are And that the Devil is cast into a fit of trembling at this grand speculative Maxime There is a God is because his quick memory doth presently recollect that he is Just and that himself stands obnoxious to his Justice here is his interest toucht The Truth therefore here meant is not so much those general speculations of the Infinite Power and Wisdom of God the Incomprehensible Trinity c. which both good and bad men do easily spend their time in and promiscuously believe and yet sit securely upon their lees their hearts being untoucht unbroken unstir'd But the Truths which we are said most properly to obey are the Practical Truths such as Matth. 5. Chap. 16. 24. Chap. 11. ult Chap. 7. 13. c. The Purification of a Christian is in obedience to such Truths and Christ admits none for his that be disobedient workers of iniquity Matth. 7. 23. Doct. III. That the purified and obedient Soul is thus purged and obedient through the Spirit This is he of whom Malachi 3. 2 3. But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness We having then so powerful a Purifier what hinders but the Christian
Soul may be purified No doubt of this Refiners Art or Skill Is his Will doubted of It is one with the Will of God and Gods Will is that we be purified 1 Thess. 4. 3. And Christ is no teacher of loosness but of the height of Righteousness 'T is not the privilege of the Gospel that we may sin securely because Christus solvit but that we may live more exactly because Christ requires it and doth inwardly enable us to perform it See also Rom. 8. 1 2 3 4. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Here we will acknowledge that God is able his Spirit is willing but we are uncapable of so great a good by reason of the infirmity of the Flesh But answer me O vain man what is this infirmity of the Flesh is it not the strength of Sin And is there any strength that can withstand the powerful operation of the Spirit of God The weakness or strength if you will of the Body bears it towards the Earth but the fire and activity of the Natural Spirits bears it above and enables it to walk upright on the Earth contrary to be bend of its own Essence and Nature Shall not the Spirit of God then be as able to actuate and lead the Soul contrary to its accidental and ascititious Principles as the Natural Spirits to actuate the Body contrary to its innate and essential Principles Certainly if it be not effectual in us we our selves are in fault who abuse our shuffling Phansie and Reason to fend off the stroke and power of Truth that at once would cleave our hearts that 's a tender place the seat of Life it self and any Religion but that which kills us and mortifies us The Devil knew well enough what he said and his Children make it good Skin for skin and all that a man has will he give for his life This is the shuffling hypocrisie of the Natural Spirit of man and the root of infidelity But let us make better use of this precious Scripture Seeing ye obeyed the Truth through the Spirit 1 st For the encrease of Faith and Confidence and Courage in the wayes of Obedience sith we have so strong assistance as the Spirit of our God with true Christian Fortitude to conflict with all our Spiritual Enemies wearing that Motto in our Minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 dly For hearty Thankfulness to God when ever we find our selves successful in our Spiritual Warfare as to the only giver of Victory 3 dly and lastly For Humility AEquanimity and Christian Patience and expectancy towards our Neighbours that are not yet reclaim'd from their evil ways being compassionate over them not to insult in other mens weaknesses and miscarriages sith we our selves stand not by our own power but by the gracious assistance of our Saviour Jesus Christ And certainly Purification arrived at its full end will easily afford us this for the end of Purification is Brotherly Love which is the Fourth Doctrine Doct. IV. That this Purification of the Soul and Obedience to the Truth through the Spirit is for this end viz. the eliciting of Brotherly Love and Sincerity in the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are distinguished as 2 Pet. 1. 7. But that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here may be as large as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know nothing considerable to the contrary The word is capable of that Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being used in as great a latitude as Proximus and Alter including all that descended from our Father Adam So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the love of our Neighbour and this Love is the end and height of our Purification and Obedience the aim and scope of it as much as concerns the Second Table Rom. 13. 9 10. and 1 Tim. 1. 5. Who is able to express so Divine an excellency For certainly the unfeigned Love of men is the very Divine Love it self whereby God loves himself and all things and we also love God and all things in reference to him This is that Love of whom the whole Universe was begotten and that rock'd the cradle of the Infant World the very Spirit of God whose Splendour none can behold and live for he must first be dead to himself and extinguish the love of himself before he can be touch'd and quickened by this Spirit of Life and Love THUS much for the Doctrines included in the First main Argument In the Second are these viz. Doctrine I. That there is a Regeneration of the Soul By understanding what Generation is we may better know what is Regeneration 1. The notion in general of Generation according to Aristotle implies no more than a right and fit union of a form substantial with some capable subject whether that form be elicited of the subject or matter or be brought in from elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks of the Rational Soul 2. There may be more Forms substantial than one in one subject so they be but subordinate one to the other and that a new Species doth not arise so much from the destruction of the pre-existent Form as by addition of a new one which might actuate the whole that doth pre-exist As the numerus ternarius is not made by taking from the numerus binarius but by adding an Unite thereto Thus Aristotle seems to speak Metaph. 7. Cap. 3. 3. Observe That one Soul actuating a Body if any part of that Body be cut off and lose the benefit of information suppose an Hand or Foot that is then said to be but equivocally what it was before which implies it is then of another Nature or Species as much of it as there is though it be not an entire substance if compared with the whole and consequently that the Soul actuating it did then specificate it another way We have now a tolerable insight into Generation and Regeneration is but this twice told That which is this specifical substance now by adding a new substantial Form thereto becomes something else This is Regeneration And to apply it to our selves We are already once born according to Nature our Bodies and Souls being fitly united together by him that is the Father of all Life and the Lord of Nature But though we be thus specificated yet we are not thence perfected but this Binary of Body and Soul the Pythagoreans would
This last is chiefly the Word The other but dead signs or shadows of it differing as much from this as a picture of a man from a living man nay much more as much at least as the shadow of the Garland hanging on a Sign-post and projected on the ground differs from the best Wine in the Inne The Word spoken perisheth with the speaking Vox audita perit The written Word is indeed longer-liv'd but Paper and Ink is not incorruptible and immortal For the heavens shall melt away with a noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3. 10. The Word of God then is safe no where but in his own bosom cypher'd within himself in his own mind This is his eternal Wisdom and incorruptible Word the only incorruptible Seed Preaching and hearing and reading and discoursing they may be a kind of plowing or harrowing or some such piece of Husbandry But it is an hand out of the Clouds that sets this Seed of everlasting Life in our hearts Those are but some hungry talk of the best dishes or spreading the table This is the real food Those but a note under the Physitians hand This is the very Physick that restores to health Doct. IV. That this Word of God which is the Seed of the Soul is a living and everlasting Word This Word is no other than the inward Word of God which is his first-born Son the everlasting Wisdom of the Father which sat in Counsel with him when he made the World Prov. 8. Iohn 1. This Second Hypostasis is so acknowledged by the Heathen to be everlasting they make it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Life That it is a living Word we have an ample testimony Heb. 4. 12 13. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do Can these Attributes be given to any dead letter or any transient hand Can Words or Writings be so penetrating as to divied asunder the Soul and Spirit c. 'T is true Authors both Divine and Profane give very quick operations to the Words of the Tongue Prov. 25. 15. By long forbearing is a prince perswaded and a soft tongue breaketh the bone Psal. 57. 4. My soul is among lions and I lie even among them that are set on fire even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword Psal. 64. 3. Who whet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows even bitter words And in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to speak words that cut to the heart But for this consider that it is not the words that do then so wound the mind as the mind launceth it self and plagues it self by those unruly phantasms she then occasionally creates in her self upon such speeches One man being jear'd at a Comedy bears himself so carelesly and jollily that he walks cross the stage that all the people may take notice that he was the man that was so abused Another so used goes home and hangs himself which is a sure experiment to prove that it is not words but the Souls own thoughts that so wound and scorch her self Words of themselves are but empty shells and husks and can give no greater blow than the shadow of Hercule's Club lifted up in the Sun nor can no more administer comfort than an Ivy-bush can quench our thirst Wherefore it is plain that 't is the Soul her self that creates these joys or disturbances in things Natural or Moral But in real Conversion to God in unfeigned Repentance in the New Birth as the Letter or outward Word is excluded as has been cleared so the Soul her self is excluded as being unable to regenerate her self therefore what is left but God himself by his living Word That 's the immediate cause of Conversion and Regeneration the other but occasions If not there is no supernatural act at all in Conversion and Regeneration Again this Word of God is said to be a discerner of the thoughts c. all which are manifest Properties of Life Compareing therefore this place of the Hebrews with the Text it is plain that there is a living and everlasting Word and that that Word is meant in both these places And if so then it s the same with S. Iohns words In him was life and the life was the light of men THUS much for the Doctrines or Truths which are as so many enforcements to the great Duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The substance of the Duty is mutual Love which is charged with a double modification viz. of quality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of quantity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implies extension and is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or intension and is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or extension is either in reference to the object or else duration and implies an universal Love and continued But no English word will fully answer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore our Interpreters have been forc'd to make use but of one of these senses fervently And they have with more judgment pitcht upon the sense of intension than extension because that intension in some measure implies extension but not è contra for that which is ex gr very hot has also a further extended sphear of calefaction and doth last longer hot than that which is at first but more remisly heated as is manifested in heated Irons To make any subtle disquisition of the nature of Love is not much to the purpose Every one knows what it is to love himself how he is affected towards himself Let him but transfer that affection which he is so sensible of in himself to his Neighbour and the Duty is done more substantially and completely than all Scholastical definitions and curious circumscriptions can be able to set it out Be so affected to other men as you would they should be to you or as you are affected to your self This is the Law and the Prophets THE Incitements to this Duty are many But I will confine my self to the Text and cull out some three As 1. From the Seed of the New Birth For what is this Seed but the Son of God by union with whom we also become the Sons of God petty Deities But sith that the Deity it self is nothing else but a sufficient and overflowing Goodness creating all things and sustaining them from no other principle than the Spirit of Goodness though we cannot act as this absolute Deity yet we may will according
to that uncreated Will which is nothing else but pure overspreading Love Again this Seed as hath been shewed which is the Word is a living Seed But where Life is and Understanding or Sense there must needs be Love for it is the flower and sweet of all desire What then can be the desire of the living Word but Love and how can he want desire sith he is Life and what can he so much desire as the good and welfare of Mankind What therefore should that part of Mankind that partake of this Divine Nature desire more than the good of one another and of those also that as yet have not partaked of that Divine Nature For God also loves those or else how could ever any partake of it 2. From the Regeneration of the Soul It is the Holy Ghosts own arguing 1 Ioh. 4. 7. Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and loveth God Ver. 16. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him By Righteousness and Unrighteousness by Love and Hatred are the Children of God and the Children of the Devil manifested 1 Iohn 3. 10. In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother Ver. 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren he that loveth not his brother abideth in death If Water or Earth be turn'd into Fire we expect it should burn and be hot How shall then a Son of Satan or the Earthly man be turn'd by Regeneration into the Son of God and not love 3. From the end of our Sanctification Love is the very End of it Shall Envy shall Hatred shall Lust Ambition Luxury c. shall all these enormous Desires and Affections be cast out of the Soul by Sanctity and Purity that she may be but a transparent piece of Ice or a spotless fleece of Show Shall she become so pure so pellucid so christalline so devoid of all stains that nothing but still shadows and night may possess that inward diaphanous Purity Thus would she be no better than the nocturnal Air no happier than a statue of Alabaster it would be but a more cleanly sepulchre of a dead starved Soul Nay certainly at this cleansing and preparing is for something well worth that labour The Stoicks themselves that were such severe Sentencers of Passion would retain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stoicism it self brings in upon that deadness and privation of other Passions that divine motion of the Soul which is Love or Goodwill to all Mankind And shall Christianity be but a cold grave to the mortified Soul of man No surely there is a Resurrection to Life Love and the Divinity as well as a Death of the enormous Affections of this Mortal Body Bitter Zeal harsh Censure busie Revenge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are so far from being able to supply the place of Charity that it 's a manifest sign that we are as yet carnal and unsanctified DISCOURSE XIV PSAL. cvi 28. They joined themselves also unto Baal-Peor and are the sacrifices of the dead THIS Psalm is a compendious commemoration of those many slips and falls the Children of Israel had in their Journey to the Land of Canaan As foul and as dangerous as any is this in my Text this business of the Baal-Peor In the handling whereof I will observe this method First I will explain what may seem difficult to understand or ambiguous Secondly I will further confirm out of Scripture the narration in this Particle of Scripture Thirdly and Lastly I will make some Observations or Deductions from the truth of this Text such as will come from it with as much ease as profit I. For the First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. They joyned themselves For although the word be in Niphal and may seem to signifie either Passively or Neutrally yet as Elias the Grammarian hath observed the Conjugation Niphal sometimes signifies as Hithpael which denotes a reflex act Tota actio ejus est retransitiva quum recipiatur ab ipso agente So he expounds that in 2 Kings 20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amasa non est custoditus that is saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non custodivit se. So Lev. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et venditus tibi Vt dicunt sapientes bonae memoriae saith Elias upon this place loquitur hic versus de vendente seipsum necessitate cogente Other Examples this Grammarian brings for the further confirmation of the matter but I will omit them these being sufficient for proof According therefore to this Analogy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be interpreted as our Translators have expounded it They joined themselves also to Baal-Peor To Baal-Peor But what 's that Such an Abomination that I am loth to name it I am almost forced back at the evil sight of it and ill sent And well may be if we believe the Hebrew Writers Peor saith Vatablus testantibus Hebraeis spurcissimum Idolum Madianitarum fuit a denudando nempe nomen habens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim aperire denudare significat I will not venture any further in this description The impure Dog hath more modesty than the Worshippers of that Deity For that which they hide by scraping over earth from the sight of men they lay open to the view of their God Yet as filthy Abomination as it is the Iews as Moses the Egytian for example and R. Salomon stick not to assert it as true Origen durst conclude that at least it is idolum turpitudinis though not define what kind of turpitude in his twentieth Homily upon Numbers Cum multae sint turpitudinum species una quaedam ex pluribus turpitudinis species Beelphegor appellatur S. Ierom ventures to parallel it with the Latines Priapus and makes it to be chiefly workshipped of Women Others I could bring in to confirm this of the turpitudo of this Idol But I lift not to dwell so long upon an history so foul It is enough and too much that it be true that all assent to that it was an Idol that Israel joined himself to Those things concerning it that be questionable and uncertain I will let go and will build nothing but upon a sure foundation Let the condition therefore of their transgression be set as low as Venerable Bede hath pitch'd it in his Exposition upon this Text Initiati junt saith he or consecraverunt se vel initiati sunt sacricaverunt Beel qui colebatur in Phegor Belus enim fuit Pater Nini in cujus honorem Filius Idolum fecit quod vocabatur Beel colebatur in regione Phegor cui isti in deserto sacricaverunt And hence we may have some little light to find
Christian such a State I say as the Resurrection from Death Then it is worth our pains to try our selves whether we be in that state or no. We have seen many Easter-Mornings God be praised but if the Sun of Righteousness hath not yet risen upon us with healing in his Wings all those solemnizations of the Resurrection of Christs Body from the grave is but Death and Darkness unto us is no Health no Light nor Life It was the manner of Primitive Christians to salute one another with this Salutation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord is risen If we could this Easter-Sunday and every Lords-day make such Salutations as this in the very Spiritual Truth The Lord is risen That is is risen from Death in our Souls and we by him become enlivened to all Righteousness O what Mutual Rejoycing and true Spiritual Triumph would there be in the Church of God! Verily Beloved if you partake not of the Mysteries of Christianity in the Spirit and Truth of them as well as in the History and Ceremony your Profession is but vain you are still in your Sins and dismal Sentence of Damnation remaineth still upon you DISCOURSE XVI Appendix to DISCOURSE XIII 1 PET. 1. 22 23. Seeing ye have purified your Souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever I Have already insisted upon the Doctrines or Truths which are as so many enforcements to the great Duty in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which may be observed out of this Precept is a fourfold Doctrine 1. That we are to love one another 2. That we are to love one another out of a pure Heart 3. That we are to love one another fervently 4. That we are to love one another universally and continually The First of these I have done with I come now to Doct. II. That we are to love one another out of a pure Heart This Purity may be set out in these three Constitutives or at least Consecutives of Love viz. Complacentia Benevolentia Beneficentia 1. The Purity of Complacency consists in this that we love and like that of a man that is the adequate object of honest Love and that is Divine Beauty which is not in the Body but in the Soul adorn'd with all Moral and Divine Vertues He that loves not according to this in a man he loves after the same manner he may love an horse a dog or any beast that is fitted for the satisfying of his natural or extravagant humours For if there be no ground of right Friendship but Vertue then is there no Love in vain and leud men but after the manner of Brutes that is eating together as Sheep and Kine in one pasture or sporting together like young Greyhounds at their going out into the fields or better natur'd Spaniels or such like fond Animals I but the gaudes of Phansie and queint toyes of Wit or at least the subtilty thereof Art and accomplishment of the Intellectual parts these all of them put together at least may make up an object of Complacency and friendly delight Verily as much as a well proportioned Body clear Complexion a vigorous Eye gentle Deportment c. which are so far from that living object of Pure Love that by the same Law we may join Friendship with a well wrought Statue or some more curious Picture Complacency in any person saving for Vertues sake is as far removed from pure and Divine Love as the affections of Xerxes Glauca the Youth of Athens and that others of Sparta who loved trees statues rams geese c. were distant from Natural Vid. AElian lib. 1. cap. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as ridiculous and absurd will their Love prove in respect of that more pure and holy affection that can take Complacency in the person of men that have but the outward accomplishment of parts and abilities or outward artifice or natural well-favouredness their Souls being dead to Vertue and Righteousness For beside that these are as helpless to the best things as a dumb statue or a dead picture they are also very dangerous for either hindering the first shooting out of divine worth in the Soul of man or for corrupting and destroying what already is grown up of Vertue and Goodness For so it is with man that so soon as he is capable of Vertue he must either have it or the contrary Mans Nature is no barren Soil it brings forth or good grain or stinking weeds And where once corruption has taken hold it is even worse than a Gangrene it catches hold on the companion and is the very pest of the Souls of men But if the Love and Complacency of those be not pure that can love notwithstanding the foulness of their friends what pollution is there in theirs that can love for foulness it self viz. whose society pleaseth one another for some bad quality as for being a vain Gamester Swearer for their Lasciviousness or that delicious condiment of Friendship good Fellowship which some loving Souls are so taken with When as it s nothing but the similitude of their evil manners or equality of their enlarged bellies do thus joyn their affections Fellow-wine-bottles of the same size or Ale-tap-urinals c. And as this Impurity in Love is Bestial so there is also that is Devilish as when men like one another the better for being alike imbittered against this or the other party Such complyance as this is but like the twining together of Snakes and venomous Serpents in one bed A Paradox That that which is the most ugly of all the affections viz. embittering Malice and Hatred should make men so amiable one to another Thus Hags and Imps love one another And there is a knot of Friendship that is as Fond at least as this is Devilish viz. endearment from Identity of opinion Fellow-Thomist Fellow-Scotist c. And when it riseth no higher than Scholastick siding or Philosophical altercations it is not much worse than fondness or childishness But when this unskillful affection interweaves it self with matters of Religion and toucheth upon the Attributes actions or designs of the highest God where men are very loth to be deceiv'd though no where more subject to err Fondness is then too mild a term for that which is boil'd up to Fury and Fanaticalness For here men of the same Sect are not content with the pleasure and good-will they exhibit one to another but they grow to that heat as to scorch all gainsayers as well as warm themselves at these misguided flames God forbid that I should go about to slack any mans affection in the pursuit and profession of Divine Truth such as is plainly contained in the Scripture or evidenced by palpable experience in his heart But that which is but