preserve our Lives by no means to lose them However let not this Command of our Lord which requires us to part with Estates and Lives rather than deny him be faulted as too rigid and hard while the Rewards are so much beyond the Pains and while so many of Those who have thus suffered have had such Assistances and Joys afforded them even in the midst of their Sufferings that a Man would almost wish for their Sorrows could he but have their Joys together with them From all which it may appear Theophilus that the Air as was objected is not too pure to be breath'd in and that they are not unreasonable Heights of Duty which are required of us Neither may it disturb us that this our Work is not without difficulty to be begun and in like manner for some time to be carried on by us For it is in a sort a Priviledge which Angels have not to testifie unto Pains yea even unto Death itself the Sincerity of Obedience Which Testification of Sincerity although it ariseth from an Imperfection of Human Nature will yet be very acceptable unto God possibly no less than that of the Holy Ones Above which is wholly free from all such Conflicts And while the chief Intent of our Lawgiver is to make us Pious towards God Composed in our own Breasts Loving unto others and Loved again by them Perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect who makes his Sun to rise on the Evil and on the Good and meting only the same measure to others which hath first been meted by the Love and Compassion of our Lord unto us we must one would think use very much Violence to the better Inclinations of our Souls if we do not entirely love these Laws As for mine own part Theophilus will you give me leave to speak my Heart freely to you my Love is so great to them that methinks I would obey them all not so much because I am commanded to do it as because they are every way in themselves so worthy to be loved I could wish that they were even one with my Soul and that all my Thoughts and Actions might proceed not more from Life than from Them. And so far would I be from questioning the goodness of them that I would as soon doubt whether it were good to Live and be Happy So dear are they unto me yea so much better than Life itself Theoph. I am much prevail'd upon by the Reasons you have given and your last Affectionate Words add so much a further weight to those Reasons that they appear to me not to be more the Issues of your Brain than of your Heart And therefore you may on good Grounds presume that they will be convincing to others when they have first been so to yourself But though I acknowledge the Laws of our Lord to require most reasonable things of us and do find that they truly have an high place in my Esteem and Love yet I 'll confess to you Eubulus much dejected I am somtimes when I reflect upon my many Failures Resolve indeed I do for the greatest Care and Circumspection but yet my Sins do daily increase upon me and what will it boot me to love these Laws when every day I transgress them To own them so admirably fitted for the perfecting of our Nature and the refining of our Practise when I see mine own Nature so imperfect under them and my Practcie so impure in Comparison of them Eubul What you now say Theophilus makes way for and will best be answer'd by the Consideration of the Fourth thing viz. That from these Laws we have a fair way for the Pardon of all Sins Most perfect these Laws are as you have heard but by reason of that weakness which is within us and those many strong Temptations which are without they are not like to be perfectly obeyed All that we can do is as it were a great way off to behold and admire that perfection which we cannot of ourselves attain unto and to grieve that we daily and hourly some way or other have Sinn'd against it But yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing Our Blessed Lord knowing our frame and make and seeing that our strength and abilities are but small hath added two other Laws of Faith and Repentance in which we may find some cheering in respect of those many Breaches of the Divine Laws which lie as a weight upon our Souls That of Faith requires thus much of us That we believe in Christ as a Saviour who by his precious Blood for us Shed hath appeased Gods Wrath and obtain'd Remission for all the Sins of Men and for ours in that number And from the mighty importance of this Law and the infinite benefits it affordeth unto us the whole Gospel and all the Laws thereof are in a comprehensive Word called the Law of Faith. And in this respect it is much different from the Old Law. Perfect Obedience was required by That and because perfection of Obedience is necessarily grounded upon a perfection of Nature the Law seemeth therefore to have been the Rule not of our Works only but of our Nature also which at the Creation was committed pure into our Hands But this Law of Faith by reason of Human Natures having been perfect in Christ and having Done also without the least failure whatsoever was Incumbent on the Representative of Mankind to do and as united with the Divine Nature having suffered likewise what Punishment was Due to the Sins of Men this Law I say of Faith doth Command that we should not rely upon any Righteousness of our own not yet Despair for any Sin whether belonging to our Nature or more particularly to our own Persons but should have our Eyes upon Him who alone by his Merits hath purchased Salvation for us The Law of Repentance is this viz. That we truly be sorry for what Sins soever we commit and do heartily endeavour an amendment of Life And this shall be available through the Death of Christ for our Pardon Repentance shall not Theophilus be unto Sins after the same manner as Sacrifices in Moses Law were Not the small Sins only shall be done away but the great ones also shall no less For he who hath called us unto Repentance hath been a propitiation for all the Sins of Mankind alike for those of a deeper Dye as well as those of a lighter Stain And his Blood is against the greatest Offences and the smallest Infirmities equally Efficacious Of Old if a Man had unwillingly Kill'd his Brother and was truly sorry for it the avenger of Blood was notwithstanding allowed to Slay him if he could overtake him before he reach'd to the City of Refuge The Sin here if it were not rather an unhappiness was so far imputed as That he must dye for it if another could run faster than he which might happen to be a thing beyond his power to prevent And though this might
Theoph. You rightly say what the word Law imports as spoken by our Psalmist God's Will being written at that time no further than as it made up the Jewish Oeconomy As it hath been manifested since it hath relation to Men in a far wider sense wheresoever planted upon the Face of the Earth Yea even those Laws of Moses which are retained in the Evangelical Dispensation cease to bind as they were given by Moses and are Obligatory now from another Lawgiver Jesus Christ But yet still they are to be acknowledged God's Laws and we may even now use these words O how I love thy Law Therefore Eubulus I desire you will shew me these things 1. What the Inducements were to this so great Love in David and other holy Men of old to the Divine Laws 2. What the Inducements are which we Christians have to love them Eubul I see Theophilus the greater share of Discourse must lie upon me but you will have it so and to my power I will obey you As to the Inducements which David and other holy Men of old had to love the Divine Laws they seem to me to arise partly from its pleasing God to give those Laws and partly from the Excellency of the Laws themselves In relation to the former I must confess that the Nature of Men seemeth necessarily to require that Laws should be given unto them For it would have been highly irrational on Mens part not to acknowledge Him as their Lord who gave them a Being and it would be a very great Dishonour unto God should we think that They whom he had made a little lower than the Angels should be left unregarded and lawless But yet when Men had fallen from their Obedience and had in great measure sullied that Law which was imprest on their Natures it was certainly a very great Favour that God in stead of throwing upon them deserved Punishments should chuse a Numerous People to be his Peculiar and should himself repair that Law thus obliterated within by writing it in Tables that it might be discern'd by the Eye Consider Theophilus the Greatness of Him who gives this Law how he needs not the Services of any Creature and also the Ingratitude of Man how he disobeyed the most righteous Law in Paradise where all the Love and Observance which possibly he could shew would not have been too much Consider this I say and the Law if it carry but any favour along with it may certainly for the sake of Him who gave it be justly esteemed and loved Neither is the Time wherein it pleased God to give these Laws unworthy of our Notice So much was the Welfare of Mankind esteemed to depend upon the Writing of Laws that many Nations in after Ages contended for the Dignity of being the first Authors thereof And Greece especially among the Priviledges which she boasts to have held forth to the rest of the World reckons this as one of the the chief But the Honour of having the first Written Laws belongs to the Hebrews alone in comparison of whom as Josephus against Apion proveth the Grecian Legislators were but of yesterday and this Honour is much heightned by God's owning the immediate Relation of a King unto them while he wrote these Laws Now the Benefit of Laws and the Glory of having These given so early and by such an Hand being well understood and rightly valued by our Psalmist who himself was a Ruler and a King might well engage his Love to them Theoph. I acknowledge the Inducement from God's thus giving the Law to be a very fair one Pray Eubulus go on to the other you mentioned viz. The Excellency of the Laws themselves Eubulus Take it in that pious King 's own words Psal 19. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul The Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the Simple The Statuts of the Lord are righteous rejoycing the Heart The Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the Eyes The Fear of the Lord is clean enduring for ever The Judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether More to be desired are they than Gold yea than much fine Gold sweeter also than Honey and the Honey-Comb Moreover by them is thy Servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward Theoph. This is a very high Character indeed of those Laws if there be as I doubt not but there is Truth in the whole Eubul There is Truth in every tittle And this will appear if we shall look upon the Laws which require Duties to Him who is the Lawgiver or to Those from one to another or to Themselves whom these Laws are given unto Pray tell me Theophilus what would you in Right Reason and according to a perfect Harmony of Things have the Duties towards a Prince and Lawgiver to be Theoph. I would desire they should be Fear Love and Gratitude and these shewn upon Grounds every way good There being nothing more comely than that Subjects should be with-held from offending by Fear moved to all Obedience by Love and excited to Acknowledgments of Benefits and Protection by Gratitude More than These I mention not because to These all others I suppose may be reduced and are in effect no other than Expressions of them Eubul All these you shall find to be according to your Wish Your first Duty of Fear is in Deut. 6.13 as also in sundry places more Thou shalt Fear the Lord thy God and serve Him and swear by his Name Their Fear is to be such as not to scare them from him but they are to approach unto him and to do him Service And for the deciding of Controversies and establishing of Truth they are to use his Name solemnly in an Oath And a right good Ground there is for such a Fear from the Power and Justice of God such as can and will inflict Punishments on them when they wilfully transgress and this to the utmost of their Deserts The Destruction of the Old World for its Impiety The Overwhelming of the Egyptians in the Red Sea The Earths opening her Mouth and swallowing up Corah Dathan and Abiram and numerous other Instances of the like Nature were hereof Testimonies sufficient So that this Law of Fearing God as a Prince and Lawgiver manifests itself to be built on a sure and lasting Foundation Your second Duty of Love is commanded Deut. 6.5 Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength It is not to be a faint and an unconstant Love but one that is strong and will not fail For the Loving of God with all the Heart and Soul and Strength doth not only import the greatest vigour of Love but the greatest duration of it also It must not be towards him Now and anon quite off him but the greatest Length it must have as well as the greatest Heighth And the strong Inducements to this Duty were well known
and in Them the Image and Work of God to the vilest of Drudgeries When the Vnderstanding which is capable of the Knowledge of God and should be exercis'd to the right conceiving of all Virtues and the best Methods of bringing them forth into Action shall be fill'd with Impure Conceptions and wrought up to the Knowledge of all Wickedness and of the readiest ways of reducing it upon all occasions into practice When the Will which ought to be bent to the pleasing of God in an Universal Compliance with his Laws shall be forward in the desiring and prosecuting of Evil and shall rest satisfied in the accomplishment of it When the Memory which is so well fitted for God's Service shall be far from retaining the great Mercies he hath shewed to Men in general and to ourselves in particular in various Circumstances of our Lives When the excellent Things of God's Law are allow'd no room in it but on the contrary when itself is chiefly imploy'd in the remembring of those things which are light and vain in the preserving present to our Minds the readiest ways of bringing about ill Actions and in the keeping fresh those Injuries which by others have been done us whether through Imprudence Passion or Design that we may never upon Opportunities forget to revenge them When the Affections which should be engaged in an Holy Joy at the great things which God hath done for us in an Vnfeigned Love to Him for his being so loving and gracious unto us in a Delight in those Commandments which are so agreeable to the Nature and Souls of Men in an Ardent Longing for that Blessed State where we shall be wholly freed from Sin When these Affections I say shall be turned into Coldness towards God and the Things of Heaven into an hot and eager persuit after those things which minister only to Worldly Advantage or Sensual Pleasures into Ill Wishes towards others Envy at their Welfare Delight in their Troubles or Miscarriages And likewise when our Bodies which are Temples of the Holy Ghost shall be alienated to prophane Uses when our Members which are the Members of Christ shall be made to become the Members of Vnrighteousness our Eyes in beholding Vanity our Tongues in uttering Deceit or those things which Minister not Grace to the Hearers our Hands in doing that which is Evil our Feet in being swift in running to Mischief all of which were made for better Ends. When Men which were Created in the Similitude of God and should in their Actions also be like him shall through Disobedience have their Bodies and Souls brought under to such vile Offices is not the Great God made to serve in the Principal of his Handy-Works on Earth Certainly he is We know among Men there may be a suffering of Indignities in Effigie in somthing that shall represent the Man though his Person be absent or untouched and the Discredit shall redound to him in great measure as if he himself had in Person suffered And will it be otherwise with the Almighty God We are his Image and Likeness in respect of our Souls and both in our Souls and Bodies we bear the Image of his Son our Lord who was pleased to take upon him our whole Nature If therefore Disobedience shall throw such Dishonour on his Image and Workmanship in us although it reach not his Person to hurt that it yet makes him through his Works and his Image too as we are his Works and Image to serve Neither doth it Theophilus any more spare the Almighty in the other visible things of the World. The Sun and Moon and Stars in their Light and Influences The Earth and Sea and all the Creatures thereof in their several Capacities He made instrumental to the Life and Virtuous Actions of Men and through them to his own Praise and Glory And therefore since They as of themselves being Mute cannot Celebrate the Praises of their Creator Man's Mouth is to be theirs and to offer up Praise unto God in their stead Thus did the Royal Psalmist for them Praise the Lord ye Sun and Moon Praise him all the Stars of Light. Praise the Lord ye Heavens and ye Waters that be above the Heavens Praise the Lord from the Earth ye Deeps Fire and Hail Snow and Vapours Wind and Storm fulfilling his Word Mountains and all Hills Fruitful Trees and all Cedars Beasts and all Cattel Creeping things and Flying Fowl Psal 148. So likewise since these Visible Things of themselves are unable to do any Virtuous Deeds in relation unto Men our Hands are in some sort to become theirs through which they are to promote Actions of Justice of Kindness and of Mercy These are the Ends for which they were made and in them all they are to do Service unto God. But Theophilus our Disobedience to the Divine Law turns all these things another way and makes the Holy God in his Creation to be Instrumental unto Services which are quite contrary unto Himself When the Sun shall rise and make the Day only that those Sins may be acted which require Day-light in the Commission When it shall set and Night come on merely for the accomplishing of those Vices which need secresie chiefly and darkness When Malice and Ill Nature shall strengthen themselves by calling to their Aid whatever we possess rather than fall unactive to the ground When what should in Sobriety be imploy'd for the good of ourselves and in Charity and Friendship for the Benefit of others shall be abused to Intemperance Covetousness or Ambition is not God through the Works which he hath Created made to Serve Yea to Serve the worst of Beings his greatest Adversary in the worst of Services Theoph. Were it not that the Creation is by some Religious Men improved to right Ends we might not wonder if it should give Signs that it rather would be reduced to its first nothing than be thus abused to the Dishonour of its Maker and of itself Eubul This Slavery Theophilus the Creature is in a manner sensible of for the Apostle saith Rom. 8.22 The whole Creation Groaneth and travelleth in pain together until now and all upon the aceount that it is made Subject unto Vanity and brought under the Bondage of Corruption It is not willingly that it thus serveth the Prince of Darkness It groaneth and travelleth in pain Which expressions denote the State it is now in to be a State of great Misery and speak forth the greatest longing and the most earnest Expectation to be delivered from it into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God Where as those Sons of God shall be freed from Sin and shall do Service pure and uncorrupted unto God so the rest of the Visible Creation which hath too much and too long been forc'd to minister unto Vain Ends and Ungodly Practices shall be asserted also into that Freedom where it never shall be imployed more but in the true Service of God whose Service is perfect
neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear DISCOURSE the First THEOPHILVS I Have often thought Eubulus that one of the greatest Pleasures of a Mans Life is to be found there where Two Faithful Friends enjoy one another in Ingenuous and Profitable Discourses Communicating what they find to have been most taking with themselves and by united Thoughts and Searches discussing some Truths which otherwise would not so well have been known EVBVLVS I Suppose there are none whose Souls are any whit refined but will readily assent to what you say Theophilus And I am persuaded that though his Expression be very high he yet spake with a true Sense of Discursive Friendship who said Cum una mehercule Ambulatiuncula atque uno Sermone nostro omnes fructus Provinciae non confero Cic. I prefer one Walk and one Discourse of ours before all the Honour and Income of my Province Theoph. What relish Honours and Incomes have with others I know not and am little solicitous to know But sure I am I seem to myself not to want them while I have what I speak of which I see is no less esteem'd by You also Eubul The Converse of a Faithful Friend is never otherwise than pleasant to me But then I judge it most to be valued when by his Words I am made not only the more knowing but the better Having a sacred kind of Warmth raised within me by which I am more enabled to DO those Duties which are incumbent on me and to SVFFER those Evils which are so frequent in the World and which I must not expect to be altogether freed from Theoph. I thank you for what you now say because if I shall ask some such Discourses from you which I from the first have designed to do you cannot deny me And I should account it a great Pleasure hereafter when I possibly shall walk these Fields alone to remember that under this Tree I learned such Knowledge under that was instructed in such a Virtue Here I discerned how little these outward Things are to be trusted in There how reasonable it is to submit to the Divine Will and in every place that I both had and rightly made use of an Understanding and True Friend Eubul You may be confident I will not deny you any thing which shall tend to the promoting of such an Innocent and Virtuous Pleasure And I the rather shall yield to you in what you desire because I am sure it will be mine own more than your Advantage Having sufficiently experienced that many things well spoken by others have been Hints to you of deeper Enquiries and more grateful Discourses Theoph. If you have any such Opinion of my Freeness which I am endebted to my Friend if he will kindly accept of I will promise that you shall not complain as if it were less to you than to others And for a Proof hereof I will take the boldness to propose the Matter to be discoursed of Which unless you shall think otherwise shall be concerning The True Nature of the Divine Laws which as I conceive doth consist not meerly in the Excellence which they have in Themselves but in another Excellence also viz. That Loveliness if I may be allow'd to use the word which they carry in them in respect of us Eubul Your Conception of their Nature is no more than just and a better Subject you cannot find out Unto which I shall the more willingly speak what I can because if we may make a Judgment of those Laws from the usual Practice of Men either there is not the Loveliness you speak of in them or if there be as certainly in the highest manner there is it is very much slighted Theoph. 'T is too true that so it is And therefore I hope it will by Him who sees in secret be accounted as some Reverence and Respect shew'd unto them if when they are so little observed abroad we shall endeavour to search into their Perfections in private Especially since for this End we shall do it that our Love to them may be the greater And truly Eubulus the Royal Psalmist's Expression of so great Love to the Divine Law gave the Occasion of my now mentioning this Subject For reading those words O how I love thy Law It is my Meditation all the day methought I felt my Soul more than a little touched with them They seeming to proceed from a more than ordinary Affection in that good King. Eubul I do not wonder it was so with You who I know keep your Heart soft and tender and thereby fitted for right Impressions from the Holy Scriptures But your saying that those words seemed to proceed from a more than ordinary Affection doth not reach the thing home They not seemed only but really did come from an Heart full of Love to God's Laws And indeed Theophilus I think it no hard matter to discern a true Passion from one that is so only in shew This later will betray itself in somthing or other which by a Judicious Eye will easily be perceived While the other carrieth its Evidences along with it and without scruple is presently owned as genuine and sincere And surely no true Affection can be more convincingly express'd than this King 's was to the Divine Precepts His saying O how I love thy Law is to me no less than if he had said He could not declare how much he loved it His Love to it was greater than what his Words could arise unto It being only comprehensible to his Understanding and the inward Sentiments of his Soul yea almost too big for his Heart to contain Thus much yet he could say if that might any way shew forth the greatness of his Love God's Law was his Meditation all the day His Thoughts were continually taken up in it Theoph. If I had question'd the greatness of the Psalmist's Love unto it I assure you Eubulus I should not have been so much affected with his Words For according to that Rule Si vis me flere dolendum est Primum ipsi tibi A Passion would not over quickly be stirred up in me by him who I should think was himself insensible But that we may not mistake one another in our following Discourse it will be requisite to know what is here meant by the word Law it being capable of more than one Signification Pray therefore Eubulus let me have your sense of it Eubul By the Law of God I presume every one understands the Will of God which he in his Word hath declared But then because part only of that which we now acknowledge to be the Word of God was then written by the Law here is meant the Law given by Moses and that part of it especially which is Moral Although the Judicial for the Justice and Prudence of it and the Ceremonial for its Mysteriousness are not wholly to be excluded from the Law we speak of nor yet whatever else is contained in Holy Writ
Disease but now mentioned it may seem he was For it is hard to give any other Reason why a Person whose Flesh is cover'd all over with the Leprosie should be pronounced clean and another who had any raw or live-flesh not overspread with it should be unclean Levit. 13.12 unless it were that the power of infection had ceased in the former and did continue in the later I doubt not Theophilus but our Psalmist and holy Men under Moses saw more things belonging to these Laws than any now adays are able to instance in But these may take off the force of what you urged against them as to their want of Reasons and in that respect as to their want of Excellencies Theoph. I willingly yield what indeed I cannot deny to these Laws And desire you will deal by my last Objection as you have done by the foregoing ones Eubul If I forget not it was this That the Precepts which require Fear are such as are enforced upon the account tbat God is Terrible and where so great Terribleness is at the bottom of these Laws the Love to them must needs be the Iess For perfect Love casteth out Fear I must confess that God in the Old Testament did often manifest himself in such a manner as might throw a Terrour into Men And even at the giving of the Law in Mount Sinai there were Thundrings and Lightnings and the Noise of the Trumpet and the Mountain smoaking All which might strike a Terrour and did strike so great an one into the People that they desired Moses to speak unto them and they would hear but should God speak unto them they should die But though this were so yet we may truly say That God chose this way by reason of the inflexible Nature of the People whom more mild and gentle Methods would not so well have prevail'd upon How often in Scripture are they called A stiff-necked People And therefore they were to be trained under the Law as under a School-master not being as yet fit for the highest things but as it were in the lowest Form. Their Duty of Fearing God they are to be excited unto by Means that represented God Terrible or they would not have feared him at all Hereupon those that knew the great Love of God to his People who rather than He would lose Them or They should cast Him off would use the more severe Methods for the keeping them in their Duty and the fitting them for his Favour might well love the Law that enjoyn'd the Fearing of God and the way also that enforced it But yet the Methods which struck such Terrour God was pleased to use only upon some special Occasions and he often if not always intermixed with them Means which were more gentle that this Fear might not be the Fear of a Slave or Captive to his Tyrant but of a Subject to his Prince who looks after those under him with Care and Love though he sometimes injects a Dread into them by his Majesty And this is very remarkable even in the giving of the Law when as we said God manifested his Terrours The Preface to the Decalogue remembers the Israelites of his great Kindnesses to them I am the Lord that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage And in the Second Commandment his visiting the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation of those that hate him is abundantly out-weigh'd by his shewing Mercy unto thousands in them that love him and keep his Commandments Some indeed there have been who have not approved of any Prologue to be put before Laws or any persuasives to be mingled with them it being the part of a Lawgiver by Authority to Command and not by arguments to persuade But though God hath more Power than all other Lawgivers and hath a Will infinitely more perfect than theirs and consequently might give his Laws in the most peremptory manner yet he was pleased to make way for them into the Hearts of his People by Love as well as Fear that as the careless might be affrighted so the more ingenuous might be allured and none kept back from Obedience either by presumption or discouragement I might instance in many places of Scripture pertinent hereunto but I will do it only in two where God is said to be Terrible The former is in Deut. 10.17 18. The Lord your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords a Mighty and Terrible God But then the very next words are He doth execute the Judgment of the Fatherless and the Widow and loveth the Stranger in giving him Food and Raiment The other place is in Nehemiah Chap. 1.5 O Lord of Heaven the great and TERRIBLE God that keepeth COVENANT and MERCY to them that Love him and observe his Commandments How is his Terribleness here mitigated yea set off and made Lovely by his Goodness and Mercy And what better Comment can we give of these Scriptures and many others not unlike them than that of David Psal 130.4 There is Mercy with Thee that thou mayest be Feared Though there hath been a Strong Wind that rent the Mountains and brake in pieces the Rocks though an Earthquake there were and after that a Fire yet God was not so much in any of these or at least delighted not so much to be in these as in the still small Voice And this I think may be sufficient for your Objection and also for the Laws which require Duties to God as a Prince and Lawgiver Better Laws and better grounds for their observance could not be wish'd and so they might well be Loved Theoph. Pray Eubulus proceed to those Laws which require Duties from Men one to another Which I well remember you would have to be considered in the next place to those Laws which respected the Duties to God immediately Eubul For the wellfare of Society a Rational Man would desire that there should be Honour and Respect shew'd unto Superiours by those that are below them and that there should not be oppression and ill nature towards Inferiours from those that are above them but that Righteousness and Kindness should be exercised unto all Now these excellent things are all strictly enjoyn'd by Gods Law. The Duty of Honour and Respect to Superiours the Fifth Command sufficiently requires Honour thy Father and thy Mother i. e. all those who being in Place or Authority above thee are in a larger Sense Fathers and Mothers And since Authority and Dignity were first seated in and did arise from that which was Paternal I suppose that therefore Father and Mother are put for all Superiours And under the Word Honour are comprised all those Duties which in any Circumstances are in right Reason to be shewn from meaner Persons to those that are above them which Circumstances may upon occasion be better conceived than here at the present discoursed of For Superiours not oppressing those who are Infeferiour
Son to dye in our Room that the works of the Devil should be destroy'd in us and that we as was but meet for us to do should endeavour after Holiness of Life The Son of God therefore that He might be our Propitiation and that We might not be altogether unfit to whom so great Favours should be shewn cometh into the World to establish and promote Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness among Men. It pitied him to see those whom he had Created in such an Eminent Rank of Beings to wander in Darkness unable by all their Reasonings to find out those things that nearliest concern'd them and recommending upon uncertain grounds those that in some faint measures they did discern He hereupon reduceth them into right Paths giving them a true sight of their wretched Estate prescribing an Exact Rule to live by and settling it on a strong and sure Foundation Not only as agreeable to Mans Reason which though somtimes right is often dim and erroneous but as suteable to the Goodness of God which is absolutely perfect as being the Dictate of his Wisdom which cannot be deceived The resolution of his Will which is most Holy the Injunction of his Authority which is most unquestionable and the only way to a true and lasting Happiness Whence it is easie to discern that in infinite Love he gives his Laws unto us And the same Love from which these Laws proceeded did in an eminent manner confirm them and testifie their being Divine When he gave them he ascended into a Mount and therein there was indeed some agreeableness betwixt the giving of the Law by Moses and by Him. But this Mount did not burn with Fire nor had it Blackness and Darkness and Tempest as the other had to keep the People at a distance from him Neither were his Miracles of the severer kind as those of Old for the most part were He by an Almighty Power restored several to Life but none ever suffered Death by him He gave Health to more than a few for from him the Blind received their sight the Lame walked the Lepers were cleansed but he never hurt the Bodies of any that it might well be said He went about doing good But such a sweet-natured Establishment of his Laws we the less may wonder at as being no more than what might well be expected when such infinite and unspeakable Love had brought him into the World to give Laws A very great Inducement sure for us to love those Laws which were bottom'd on such a tender Affection to Mankind Theoph. It is pity that any should be willing to overthrow this so great Love in him who is our Lawgiver by saying that it cannot consist with the Divine Justice to punish an Innocent Person in the place of the Guilty That by an Act of Dominion God laid Affliction upon our Lord but no Punishment That therefore Christ was not a Propitiation for our Sins and consequently that there is no such Love as we talk of at the bottom of these Laws Eubul It is sad Theophilus that any should oppose a Truth so evident and advantageous For is it possible that any thing should be more plainly spoken in Holy Writ than that Christ suffered for our Sins the Just for the Vnjust That he came to give his Life a Ransom for many That he is the Propitiation for our Sins and that in due time he Died for the Vngodly And can any thing be more manifest than that our Lords dying in our stead was from his own Will and was the act of one who had a Power to do what he did and of one who could not sink under the Punishment and also an act which is conducive to the best Ends in the World the illustrating of the infinite Justice of God in punishing Sin of his infinite Mercy in saving Sinners and of his unspeakable Wisdom in doing it in such a way which the Contrivances of Men and Angels could never have reached unto And since God's Dominion is so much pleaded in this matter for the avoiding the Name of Punishment and making it to be only Affliction we may pertinently ask Why by his Dominion he might not Punish an Innocent Person offering himself in the place of the Offenders as well as throw Afflictions upon him as great and acute as Punishment itself could be And what difference is there to the Persons Sense who thus suffereth betwixt Afflictions and Punishments Surely These Men are very ill Asserters of the Divine Justice who while they deny that God may punish the Innocent instead of the Guilty though from such admirable Motives but now mentioned dare at the same time make him to have laid the Torments of the Cross upon his beloved Son without respect to any offence or fault in the least Which how unworthy a thought of God is it And how little are they Friends to the Sacred Laws who thus deprive them of their great Ornament the wonderful Love in which they were founded Theoph. But leaving these Men how Rational soever they would be thought cum ratione sua insanire if you have any thing more to say of this our Law-giver pray Eubulus do it Eubul This I think I may say truly That the Old Mosaick Law and the Blessings accruing to the Jews thereby were very much upon the Account of and in order unto our Lawgivers Coming into the World. And whosoever throughly instructed in Christianity will look into the Jewish State and the Laws and Customs of it will without much difficulty find that they were for the most part Types and Representations of him who was to come And they did betoken either the Excellency of his Person or the Purity and Holiness of his Laws or the Way how he would be a Ransom for us or the blessed Liberty we should have under his Government somthing or other relating unto him was signified by them as might easily be shewed from their Priesthood Sacrifices Washings Jubiles from the Land to which they were brought from the Person that brought them from the Cities of Refuge and such like VVhich things do shew forth the Greatness of our Lawgiver though while on Earth He for most Gracious Ends was in appearance mean. For what Man ever before Him was so Honour'd as to have the State and Government of a great Nation for so long a time to be formed as a Prophecy of Him And though Greatness as such is rather fitted to strike a Reverence than to allure Affections yet it may allure them when Majesty and Love are equally mingled and when our Lawgiver is Primarily not more so by his Greatness than by his Tenderness towards Men. The Apostle therefore to magnifie the Gospel and the Laws thereof speaks of them as given and declared by the Son of God God saith he who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto our Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his SON whom
and in Mercy accepted by God. But the Scripture accounts of it as a thing not ordinary and as it were out of the usual course Let us except that one instance of the Thief on the Cross which is to be looked upon as a special and un-common Example and therefore it stands by itself in the whole Book of God And we shall find the Gospel to promise in the usual Current of it Eternal Rewards to that Obedience only which hath Perseverance joyned with it and which lasts unto not begins at the end of Life He that endureth to the end shall be saved and be thou faithful unto Death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Such considerations as these Theophilus for the true Conception of Faith and Repentance are requisite abroad where so many either do not understand them rightly or else are willing by false arguings to make them serve for quite other than Christian Ends. And to Vs they may be of use at least so far as to stir up our Grief that the favour of our Lord in the Pardoning of Sins should by any be abused to their greater Condemnation Theoph. They not only encline me to grieve for these miserable Men who are so much their own Enemies but do also give me a pleasure in conceiving these instances of Holy Writ mentioned by you more fully and to better advantage than before I did That knowledge being most of all others delightful to me and satisfactory which ariseth from the Laws of our Lord or which is instrumental to the better understanding and practising of them Eubul I am sure These Laws of Faith and Repentance are well worthy our Love as for the Excellence of their Effects so for the Sacredness of their Matter What an inward pleasure is it to conceive the Son of God leaving the Glory of Heaven to live upon Earth and become one among the Sons of Men How may it engage all the Powers of the Soul into a Divine Love while we contemplate him in in the Garden sweating as it were great drops of Blood and shedding afterwards the remainder thereof upon the Cross amidst bitter pains for our Sake This is indeed in itself matter of the sadest kind But in respect of Vs what Wonder and Joy may it not excite But then if we by Faith look upon our Lord as he is Ascended into Heaven to prepare Mansions for us and as he shall come again in the Clouds with great Glory that where He is there We may be also with what an Holy Splendour will our understandings be entertain'd Men are usually taken with great things State and Grandeur though such in appearance only draw the Eyes of the most if really such they be and do carry in them true Worth as here they eminently do they engage the Hearts also of the Wise and the Good. Truly our Faith from the Sweet and Admirable matter it is fraught with may well work by Love Love not only to God and Men but even to the Law likewise by which it is enjoyn'd Such Majesty as is included in our Faith is not I confess to be found in Repentance which consists chiefly in those Actions that are Humble and Lowly But how comely is it that an offending Soul should be humbled before an offended God who at such Submission and Sorrow condescends and accepts it with the greatest Love A Face which hath so Holy a Sadness in it and is wet with such Religious Tears cannot but appear amiable Yea even to the Person who thus repenteth there ariseth a secret Satisfaction in the midst of Sorrow and it is none of the least Chearings to him that he can grieve in earnest for his Sins against so gracious a Father And thus much Theophilus may suffice for the Consideration of the Laws themselves And if like Those who walking over pleasant Fields and flowery Meads as not content alone with Delights in the Way will look back and bring into one prospect what successively and by parts did so much please them we shall turn our Eyes back upon these Laws and behold them in the Bulk which singly were so excellent they will afford us a new Delight in the Review There is none of them that is unsuty and disagreeing to another They are not like that Face whose Features by themselves were beauteous but united were uncomely but they are such as increase each others Lustre and shew a Symmetry altogether Divine Theoph. It is so Eubulus When I consider the Laws which require Duties to God I am the more in love with those which enjoyn my Behaviour towards Men. And when I weigh those that relate to others and myself those towards God appear more advantageously to me and I presently am excited to put them into practice by reverencing loving and praising Him who hath given such Laws unto us Every particular Precept towards God towards Men towards myself enkindles my Affection towards the rest and they Altogether do highly set off and commend to my Love every Particular And this our Love to the Divine Law is not like our Love in many other cases which when we recollect ourselves and betake us to serious Thoughts goes less For the gaining Acceptance and esteem no need is there of those Artifices that the Religious Institutions among the Heathens had which from Hieroglyphicks Fables pompous and divers Superstitions were served up rather to the Imaginative Faculty than to the Understanding and made to please not the Wise so much as the Multitude The Christian Laws fear not the most piercing and critical Eyes looking into them They discovering the greatest Excellency to him who hath the quickest Sight and profoundest Judgment joyn'd with an Upright Mind And therefore our Love to them gets new Strength from Consideration as having Right Reason for a Foundation from which like an House built upon a Rock it may stand strongly and not be cast down nor abated for any Wind or Waters that may come against it Eubul And truly Theophilus I find it a very great Inducement for the raising our Love to these Laws that They of themselves are grievous unto none but as the Manna was are in a sort fitted to every Palate unless to those that are grievously vitiated Who is it that ever had just cause to repent he had yielded Obedience to them To whom in the exercise do they not bring Content and Satisfaction If at any time they seem to create Trouble to a Man it is rather because others trangress them than because he himself observeth them A thing which cannot be said of other Laws Some of those which are profitable for the Community are not so for some particular Men who for the publick Good must be content to bear some private Inconveniences and some advantageous to a few Persons may not be so to a Nation in general Neither is there any thing in its own Nature truly Good which is omitted in their Injunctions nor any thing in
5.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall be liable to the Judgment viz. The Court of the Twenty Three Elders where the Punishment was Capital though in a more mild manner than in the Council viz. of the Sanhedrim or in the Vally of Hinnom denoted there by the Expression of Hell-fire And therefore the least Punishment hereafter being such as answers to Death here importeth no less than Death Eternal though a lesser degree thereof than what shall be inflicted upon greater Sins Theoph. But can this Motive be said any way to prevail for our Love to these Laws It may excite indeed a Dread but not likely our Love. Eubul Yet Theophilus let things be seriously considered and even from This Motive how dreadful soever it may at first view appear there will be reason to love these Laws For the Constituting such Punishments is no more than what is meet to be done Where the Laws are in themselves so every way good and where there are Eternal Rewards promised to the Observance of them you will say when they are disobey'd that it is but fit there should be Penalties inflicted and these Penalties such as shall be answerable to the Offences committed Now the greatness of the Offences is to be gathered from the exceeding Riches of Gods Bounty viz. Everlasting Rewards held out unto Men on Terms so excellent and to Rational Natures so truly agreeable If These shall be despised and cast behind their backs the Sin is of a very great height and what Punishment will so rightly sute it as the contrary to that Eternal Happiness which they have rejected viz. Eternal Misery The measure of Gods Justice is to these Men not greater than the abundant Goodness was which they so ungratefully refused They shall not be thrown deeper in Hell than by the Will of God they might have been raised in Heaven Nor shall they continue longer in Punishments than they should have done in Joys Now these things in Speculation must be acknowledged to carry in them a dueness of proportion and to be therefore bountiful as indeed every thing in God and in his Actings is even his Justice no less than his Mercy Only we are weak and sinful and so cannot over quickly discern it But to impartial Consideration it will at length shew itself so to be But that which comes more near us and may more move our Love is this viz. That the Intent of threatning these Punishments is primarily not that they should be born but that they should be escaped Self-preservation is a thing so natural unto Men that the fears of losing their Welfare and Being shall have a more quick touch upon them than any thing else God therefore hath added this Motive of Fear that it may be a spur to quicken us when by the Corruption of Nature other Arguments are rendred less prevalent These Punishments shall indeed be undergone by refractory Sinners For they have as much as in them lies gone about to dissolve utterly the Community which is made up between God the Legislator and Men his People by infringing the Authority of the Divine Laws and the Dignity of Him who is to see that they be observed But it is only by such as These that these Punishments shall be undergone To others they are chiefly a Motive to Obedience and are further only as a reserve when all other means have proved ineffectual The case in respect of Punishments is much different betwixt our Lawgiver and Lawgivers on Earth Some of These are more forward to punish than to reward because Punishments do oftentimes increase their Treasuries and Rewards diminish them But our Lord is no way profited by the punishment of any neither in the rewarding them is his Abundance extenuated Much delight he takes in the Life of Men but he hath given us the greatest Assurances that he hath no pleasure in the death of Sinners His threatning therefore to punish them is that they may not be punished And truly though we may dread the Effects of God's Justice yet when he thereby shall awaken our Hearts that we may be the more secured unto Happiness as it may very much excite our Obedience so may it also our Love to God's Law even upon the account of threatning Eternal Punishments Theoph. I see out of the Eater there may be Meat and out of the Strong Sweetness What to common view is at the greatest distance from Love is hearer than what I could think an Engagement thereof to the Divine Law. Eubul Another Motive for the securing of Obedience to the Laws of Christ is their having stronger Assistances afforded for the Performance of them than under the Old Law there were The Holy Spirit will always joyn with our sincere Endeavours and will help our Infirmities And hereupon the Gospel and all the Laws of Jesus Christ are in Holy Writ called Spirit by reason of the Grace of God's Spirit preventing and enabling us in the doing of them and are therein put in opposition to the Mosaick Law which is term'd the Letter Thus is it 2 Cor. 3.6 God hath fitted us to be Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit i. e. not of the Old Law but of the Evangelical for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life i. e. The Spirit with its Assistances in this Law enables us to perform it and in so doing to obtain Life Hence it is that the Apostle as some very Learned Persons interpret him reckons more to the Constitution of a Christian than of other Men joyning Spirit to Soul and Body and giving that the precedence of the other two I pray God your whole Spirit Soul and Body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus 2 Thess 5.23 Not that This is a Substance distinct from the Soul and Body but a Principle we may call it which is wrought within us by the Blessed Spirit and is well expressed by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of St. Paul the New Creation and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of St. Peter the Divine Nature whereby we are enabled to act those things which meerly by our Natural Powers we cannot reach unto And what is it that we cannot do if our Lord through the Blessed Spirit will lend us an Hand in the doing it I can do saith St. Paul all things through Christ that strengtheneth me and so may every good Christian say as well as he Which is a very great Encouragement to love these Laws in that they bring their Helps as well as their Rewards along with them Theoph. What you say Eubulus might be a great Encouragement to love these Laws were these Assistances such as you speak them to be But alas our Work seems to be little the less for them We must labour fight and strive and when we have done all which we are able we can see much of the Weakness of Men but little of the Strength of God and nothing
Neighbours one to another Nothing can possibly prevail more upon Rational Men for Obedience to Princes than that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacred Ministers of God. That Damnation shall be received if resistance be made And that the Conscience within is to be preferr'd before the Fear of Wrath without And surely Princes may well embrace the Name and maintain the Practice of Christianity which thus secures them of the Hands and Hearts of their Subjects What stronger Motives can there be for Peoples Respect and Love to their Ministers than that they are Stewards of the Mysteries of God upon their account That in Christs stead they beseech them to be reconciled unto God And that they are set apart for this very thing to wit the promoting the welfare of their Souls and how prevalent such Motives have been we may learn from the Galatians carriage towards St. Paul who would if possible have plucked out their own Eyes and given them unto him Neither are the Duties of Pastors urged with less Weight The Church's being purchased by the Blood of God is the argument for their Feeding it and they are charged before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall Judge the Quick and the Dead to do it The consideration of which what Heart would it not affect For Mutual Love and Delight between Those whom Wedlock hath joyn'd it is an highly sacred Motive That Marriage is so far honour'd as to become Mysterious in the Signification of Christ the Bridegroom and the Church his Spouse and of that Vnion which is between them never to be dissolved And how admirably may the Hardness of Mens Hearts be overcome by such a Consideration as this And how is the Credit of those who are the Weaker Sex provided for by not being permitted now to be cast off upon every trivial Distaste For that Mysterious Signification which we said Marriage is enobled with doth plainly hint that the Bond thereof is to continue firm and unbroken and that the Faithful Affections both of the One and the Other in the Wedded Pair will certainly with other Virtues after this Life be rewarded living in a manner for ever in that Divine Love they did here represent Fathers must be tender to their Children and not provoke them to Wrath from that winning Motive that they have a Father in Heaven who they desire may not be pitiless and wrathful to them And Childrens Obedience is quickned by its being in the Lord Which Expression doth not only hint the Extent of their Obedience and how far it should reach but doth shew also that God is concern'd in it and doth observe whether it be truly perform'd or no. And the taking notice of the Fifth Commandment as being the first that hath a Promise annex'd unto it and the improving that Promise of Earthly and Temporal Blessings into Spiritual and Eternal is a very high Encouragement of the Duty The Faithfulness of Servants hath Motives admirably strong to wit That they do Service to Christ while they do it conscionably to their Masters That He sees their Diligence or Loitering when their Masters cannot And that He will reward whatsoever good thing any Man doth no less though he be bound than if he were free And Masters have a Motive equally as strong for their Gentleness and Goodness towards their Servants from their having a Master in Heaven with whom is no respect of Persons Which imports that the Authority which a Master hath on Earth shall not in Heaven or at God's Bar stand him in any stead if he bear it hardly and frowardly towards his Servant Lastly For the Duty of Neighbours one to another What more taking Motive can there be for their Love and Peaceableness than that they are as lively Stones built up a Spiritual House Absurd it would be if in our Buildings the Materials should be at variance and will it not be much more so in Gods Building where Jesus Christ is the chief Corner-Stone They are excited to love one another as being Brethren in a far more Noble Relation than that of Nature Thy Brother saith St. Paul in more than one place for whom Christ died And what an effectual and kindly Operation may this have in all those Matters of Discord which may arise among Neighbours and Friends Shall such or such an Offence make me an Enemy to him for whom Christ hath died Shall any Worldly Concern overturn that Love and break that Vnion which Christ hath Cemented and Established with his own most precious Blood A mighty Inducement for the love of Neighbours this Though not proper to this Relation alone but running through all the foregoing ones The higher place in every one of them being not too high and the lower one not too low to admit the Name of Brother And so all the Duties thereof may be promoted and the more benignly carried on by this Motive I thought it not amiss Theophilus in short thus to hint the Excellent Motives which the Gospel affords as proper to every particular Law by itself consider'd And they are as I said either purely Evangelical as flowing some way or other from the Mystery of our Redemption which could not have been known had it not been divinely revealed or else such as are to a much greater Persuasiveness urged than ever they were before Theoph. They prevail so much with me that methinks were I in the meanest of these Relations or could I by turns be each part in them all I could love every Law belonging to them for the apposite and excellent Motives which to every Law are annex'd But Eubulus you have not yet given me any taste of those Motives which respect the Laws to a Mans Self in particular Eubul But since you seem to desire it I will. And while I recount them in my thoughts somtimes though I approve of any thing that leads to Virtue be it even in the meanest of Philosophers yet I have a low esteem of the very highest of their Encouragements if compared with these of our Lord. For the keeping of our Bodies free from Intemperance and Vncleanness can there be any thing more prevailing than that they are Members of that Body to which Christ is the Head That they are Temples of the Holy Ghost That they are bought with a price even with the Blood of Christ And that they will not be lost when they are laid in the Earth but will be raised up again from the Dead And he who is wiling to weigh these things rightly How can he take the Members of Christ and make them the Instruments of Vncleanness the Receptacles of Luxury and Excess How can he pollute that Temple which the Holy Ghost doth Consecrate and delight to reside in How can he answer it if be defiles that Body which is not his own yea which our Saviour hath Cleansed with his Blood as well as Bought And with what Face can he abuse That
think and somtimes they may think right that in relation to the Commands of Masters and Governors they could do better than what they are enjoyn'd to do And yet notwithstanding they will yield Obedience as judging it but reasonable That not always what is best but what best pleaseth those who are in Power is to be done But better they cannot do than that which the Laws of our Lord require His Will never stands in Opposition to what is in itself really best because he is pleased with nothing but that which is holy just and good Which sure may create a very great Satisfaction in us whilst we submit to his Laws and may render those his Laws of very high account with us But yet for all this his Laws and Himself too are much disesteem'd and the mean regard which they generally find hath made me with sorrow to think upon those Words of Arrian's Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Men saith he have built Altars and Temples to Triptolemus who shew'd them the way of Agriculture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But to Him who finds out and gives Light to the Truth of Things directing Men not merely to preserve Life but to Live well and as Men ought to do Who of you all Dedicates a Temple to his Honour or so much as thanks God upon his Account All this cannot I confess be said with relation to our Lawgiver Temples are built unto him and Praises are offered unto God who sent him into the World. But are they not with a great many as an outward shew rather than the Expressions of inward Devotion and unfeigned Thankfulness While they obey not the Laws of Him whom they thus celebrate and to use our Lord 's own words do draw near unto him with their Lips when their Heart is far from him Most Men are willing to have our Lord their Priest to Attone for their Sins and for Novelty and Entertainment they can be content to have him their Prophet too But as a King and Lawgiver they care not for him and are backward to submit to his Scepter and Laws Yet surely his Scepter is a Righteous Scepter and his Commands not grievous but such as are fitted to Human Nature and its Interests in this World that the Man may seem unwilling to be Happy either here or hereafter who refuseth Obedience unto them It was a true word of the People concerning our Lord That never Man spake as he spake His Words were with Authority bringing a Convincingness along with them And shall Men now be deaf to them Frequently did our Saviour use that Exhortation shall I call it or Command or both He that hath Ears to hear let him hear As much as to say Of so great importance are the things I declare unto you that if ever a more than ordinary Attention was requisite now it is Well it were if it could not be said of Multitudes That there is a Price put into their Hands and they have no Heart to it Theoph. Let me add Eubulus that the great expectation which was of this our Lawgiver and his Laws may prevail much for Mens Obedience to them Towards Him the Faces of the Jews even from Moses's time and upwards were bent The coming of Shiloh was earnestly waited for And He after so many Propbecies made of him had the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Him that Cometh or the Coming King as is very frequently to be seen in the Evangelists And when the Ages past were so intent upon his Coming when there were so many Types and Predictions of him which under his Government betokened the greatest Happiness unto Men shall Men now He is come esteem meanly of Him and his Laws And this when to those who will impartially weigh and consider things He is not a jot less worthy than all the Expectations of a great People for many more than a thousand Years and those many Figures and Prophecies of him imported him to be Yea when He is excellent beyond the Conceptions of Men Angels themselves desiring with Reverence to look into these things When also All Men are no less concern'd in Him now than the Jews formerly were How ill will it look after all this if Men shall slight his Person and refuse Obedience to his Laws which if a Man observe he shall not only live in them but live happily to all Eternity Eubul Your Persuasive for Reverence and Honour to the Person of our Lawgiver and for Submission and Obedience to his Laws is very strong Yet methinks I would not more urge for an Observance of than for an hearty Love unto those his Laws Though truly where there is a faithful Observance there will be a true Love of them also Their Righteousness and Goodness will presently manifest themselves to those who are Conscionably Obedient And as our Lord saith Wisdom is justified of her Children so these Laws which may in reality be termed Wisdom as proceeding from Him who is Wisdom itself will justifie their own Excellencies to the Thoughts of those who observe them and by Them will be vindicated against all Gainsayers and Disobedient Ones I will end all with this Prayer That God by shedding abroad his Love into our Hearts would encrease our Love daily more and more to his Laws That we may cheerfully obey Him in this World and be everlasting rewarded by Him in the next DISCOURSE the Sixth The Contents NOt a few think themselves secure in their actings if they can shew that some good Men in Holy Writ or some well accounted of since have done the like Examples of Good Men to be imitated no further than they have the Laws of Christ for their Rule and Warrant They can of themselves lay no Obligation upon us The Holy Men we read of in Scripture were not sent into the World to be a Rule to all Others in the Things they acted The Vncertainty of Examples very great Their Insufficiency None of the Actions of our Blessed Lord from his Example merely and without a Law did lay any Obligation upon us to Imitate them The Laws of Christ reach to all Moral Actions No Examples of Goodness beyond what is included in those Laws Inferences concerning the Examples in Holy Writ In those things where the Law of God is Silent Prudence is to be our Guide Examples though of themselves they lay no Obligation upon us are yet of use Those which bear the Image of the Laws of Christ are given us for Incentives and Encouragements of our Obedience When Divine Laws are question'd as to their Sense Examples upon occasion may be Interpretations of them By Examples we may be instructed to do our Duties in a decent and becoming way Decency added unto Sincerity may make its reward the greater Examples are Registred in Holy Scripture for the Honour of those whose they were Our Condition the more sure than it would have been if we
Understanding when we read them fulfilled in our Lords being conceived of the Holy and born of a Virgin Mother And truly the Prediction Micah 5.2 Of his being born at Bethleem may move us with a more than ordinary delight when we consider how strangely God's Providence was engaged for the fulfilling it All that Taxing which was laid upon the Jewish Nation by Augustus and which required every one to repair to his own City to be Taxed may appear in a special manner to be order'd by God for the bringing Mary unto Bethleem to be delivered of her Son. It was a great way that Joseph and Mary were to go From N zareth in Galile to the City of David in Judea And it might seem ill to have hapned unto Mary at a time when her Condition rather required Rest than was fit for so great a Journey and this too as is not improbable in the depth of Winter But God somtimes is accomplishing his own Will and great things for us when Affairs appear to be cross and unhappy Yea and can order the Councils of Princes at a great distance from them to carry on these Designs which He in his Providence hath laid but which never entred their Hearts to imagine And so it is here We see no means how Mary should have been at Bethleem delivered of her Son there had not the Taxation at that very Time been enjoyn'd Which may shew that She and Joseph had no Thoughts of fulfilling a Prophecy by their journey thither But hence it was that the Son of David was born in the City of David and Divine Wisdom had ordered that of this Man it should be said He was Born there If we look to those Prophecies which were of our Lord's Suffering and Death they are such as may give us a great deal of satisfaction in a Crucified Saviour That of Esai is very express in Chap. 53. He is despised and rejected of Men a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief He hath born our Griefs and carried our Sorrows He was wounded for our Transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities How exactly is his Picture as it were drawn by this Prophet and how pleased may we be with the Likeness though it represents him in Grief and Sorrows So likewise in Daniel Chap. 9.26 After sixty two Weeks shall the Messias be cut off but not for himself Which things are also a good and just Interpretation of our Lord's Behaviour under his Sufferings For should he not have suffered in our stead but died only as our Example and as a Testimony of the Truth of his Doctrine as Socinus and his Followers would have it some things I speak it reverently would not have born a good Colour nor at all have been reconcileable to that Perfection which we must own to be in our Lord. I will instance in one and that is his Sweat in the Garden Consider this without the thoughts of his dying for our Sins and say whether it betrays not too great a fear of Death whether there may not seem to have been greater Instances of undaunted Courage from some Heathen Heroes and from some who have born the Name of Christians than from Christ himself That He should be so much concern'd at a single Death when he knew he died for an Example to others of not fearing Death upon a good occasion what from these Mens Opinions can we think of it But then when we consider that He was wounded for our Transgressions that he struggled with the Wrath of God which was due to all Men and was never to have end that he trod the Wine-press alone and none was with him The uncommonness of his Sweat which was as great drops of Blood may shew forth the greatness of the Burthen that was laid upon him and may make us to wonder at the Power that could at all bear up under such Pressures but by no means to accuse him of Timorousness because his Garments are thus died with Blood. So great and reverend is that Action or Passion rather of our Lord with respect to his Suffering in our stead which otherwise will require a good Invention to make it appear not mean. Add to this that Expression of his My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Had he died only for an Example unto us and a Confirmation of the Truth of what he declared why should he thus have cried out Should we ourselves be called to die for our Holy Religion I cannot say that we might lawfully thus cry unto God We ought rather to submit unto his Will with hopes that he had not forsaken us Somthing else then must be the cause of these his words viz. The pouring out of the full Vials of Gods Wrath upon Him as upon one that bare the Iniquities of us all And this will render his words highly apposite unto and expressive of his Passion which otherwise might seem beyond it So that though we are to conceive of our Lord's Death as an Example unto us for he is said to suffer for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps yet as in his Life there are some things above an Example so in his Death likewise there are which are placed beyond our Imitation We may imitate his Meekness and Patience and Love to Mankind but the height of his Sufferings for the Sins of the World we cannot And some Expressions betokening the Greatness of his Passion whether from his Words or Bloody Sweat must stand alone as highly agreeable to the State of his Agony but not so fit for any besides Himself Thus amiable are these Prophecies to the Considerate Reader not only in so exactly foretelling his Sufferings and Death and thereby vindicating the Honour of our Religion against the Jews who upbraid us with those his Sufferings and Death but also in shewing forth a true Beauty in the now-mention'd Deportment of our Saviour which an horrid Opinion of some who call themselves Christians doth tend to make very unbecoming Nor may the Prophecies of the manner of his Death be less satisfactory unto us to wit They pierced my Hands and my Feet Psal 22.17 And Zach. 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced For how rightly are these fulfilled in his suffering the Roman Crucifixion the Jews having no sort of Punishment in which the Undergoers were thus pierced And this Death being inflicted by the Roman Power directs us to the Satisfaction of another Prophecy viz. The Scepter shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh come But the Power of Life and Death which is the most proper Signification of Scepter being wholly taken from the Jews and exercised in Judea by the Romans may shew that the Messias was come before according to that Prophecy And very remarkable it is that though Jerusalem before our Lord's Birth was Conquered by Pompey the Great yet throughout the Life of Hircanus the High Priest the Reign of Herod the Great and Archelaus
his Son the Jews did Rule by their own Laws and so the Scepter was not departed from Judah at the coming of our Lord into the World. I will mention only one Prophecy more which from the unexpected Methods and the quick and various Workings of Providence may be very delightful and that is the Prophecy of Esai concerning his Burial Chap. 53. He made his Grave with the Rich in his Death But how shall this be For the Custom of the Romans required that He and the other Two should continue on the Cross exposed there to the Fowls of the Air to be eaten or to be consumed leisurely by the Air and Weather That this Prophecy should be fulfilled God so orders it that the Jews who were the Authors of his Death should though they wish'd no good to him be the Promoters of his Burial Thus that the Bodies might not remain on the Cross upon the Sabbath day which was then a great day the Jews besought Pilate that they might be taken away and had their desire granted But though this were granted them yet still the Prophecy was in a fair way not to be fulfilled For among the Jews there was a place on purpose to bury Malefactors in And so our Lord must have been buried with the Thieves and then how could he be said to make his Grave with the Rich in his Death That therefore this might be effected Joseph of Arimathea a Rich Man and honourable Counseller comes and begs Christ's Body of Pilate Pilate possibly having a regard to him as he was a Wealthy Man and in good esteem and not well knowing how to deny the Body of Jesus to Burial whom he had declared to be free from fault though he had afterwards condemned him order'd the Body to be given to Joseph Who after it was wound up in fine Linnen and Spices laid it in a New Sepulchre which he in his Garden had hewen out of a Rock for his own Tomb. And so contrary to the use of the Romans he was Buried and contrary to the use of the Jews he was Buried not with Malefactors but in a Creditable Sepulchre with the Rich. In such an Eminent and surprising Manner will God bring about his own Counsels and hath accomplished this Prophecy There are also many other Prophecies directly shewing forth the Resurrection Ascension and other things relating to our Lord in which a Religious and Contemplative Soul may find a Rich and Glorious Repast But these I at present will omit and will only take notice of what I hinted before viz. That some other parts of Holy Writ in themselves very delightful do yet afford us a further Delight and are in a sort Prophetical by including the Image of greater things to come Such were the Israelites coming out of Egypt which signified our Lords Coming out from thence The Rock in the Wilderness pouring out Water which Rock was Christ Jonas's being three Days and three Nights in the Whales Belly and afterwards thrown up which imported our Lords being so long in the Grave and then Rising Isaac's Living after Abraham had in intention Sacrificed him which betokened our Lords Resurrection Agar and Sarah which were an Allegory of the Two Covenants Canaan Jerusalem and Mount Sion which were Types of a Country City and Church above And many more such as These which what a true and sutable pleasure do they give to one whose Heart is fixed on Sacred things Theoph. While we look from hence backwards it may indeed hugely delight us to see the Shadows of our future Happiness While from thence we look forwards it may take us wholly up in Love and Joy to behold those Shadows reduced into Realities which for the Excellence in themselves and the infinite advantage they give unto us have been altogether worthy of such Presignifications And truly Eubulus of quite another Strain were those speeches which the Heathen Oracles gave when they were consulted about things to come The Ambiguous Signification of their Words denoted Sophistry and Cunning rather than Prescience And hence it is no wonder that they were not forward of themselves to Prophesie since when sought unto for knowledge of future Events they were thus put to their Shifts For the Devil can but guess what will be by comparing present affairs with what are past And though his guesses may more encline to certainty than the guesses of Men for we may suppose him to have a far greater insight into former years and the successes of things in them than any Man can have yet for his Reputation Sake with his Votaries he durst not speak things positively but always in a dubious Sense that if they fell out otherwise than was at first thought another Latent meaning might rather make Men blame their own Dimsightedness towards the Oracle than the Oracle's towards the futurities enquired after There are I must confess very perspicuous and important Prophecies in the Books of the Sybils And I will not say but God in his Goodness might inspire those Women for the giving out some Oracles which as rightly suting with the Revelations of the Gospel might afterwards the more sway with the Nations But many of these Prophecies were by the Pious Fraud of some Persons not Written till after things were come to pass With a design no doubt to bring a greater honour to what in appearance was so plainly foretold Thus the Oracles which were ascribed to the Cumean Sibyl were in great measure written by the Jews before our Saviour came into the World. Those which are Extant under the Name of the Erythrean Sibyl are for the most part spurious as being Written by some that lived more than an Hundred Years after our Lord. But instead of greater there is less credit as in such dealing it usually falls out both to the Jewish and Christian affairs mention'd by them Varro so far as there are Acrosticks in them denies their Truth Cicero for the same reason contends that they were rather from Human Study than Divine Inspiration And Celsus will have many things to be foisted in by the Christians So that the Reputation of the whole is hereby much diminished And indeed it is with a rational Man a very great argument against them that many Oracles there are so particular and direct that the Holy Scriptures themselves are in some things less particular and direct And who can think that God would more plainly reveal himself to uncouth Women among the Nations than to Holy Men among his own People to whom as a Pledge of his Favour above all others the Sacred Oracles as the Apostle speaketh were committed Eubul You do the Prophecies of the Holy Scripture no more than right while you prefer them above all others There is no Deceit in them The Time in which they were written is well known And was long before the things Prophesied came to pass The Jews who were the greatest Enemies to our Lord cannot deny the Truth of them
And some of these Enemies from the expressness of those Prophecies which respect our Saviours sufferings have been forced to say that there is to be a Suffering Messias as well as a Glorious one though they will not allow the True Messias who is both the One and the Other to be either Theoph. I could desire to be continually fixed on the thoughts of the Prophetick part of Scripture so divinely pleasant is it from the lively Representation of great and sacred things in after-times revealed I doubt not but there will be a true Beauty in that other part of holy Scripture which you termed the ADHORTATIVE Eubul If great Love intermingled with great Art in the enforcing of it can give a Beauty and what can give a greater Beauty than these it is truly amiable And indeed God who knoweth our Frame and Make and can tell what Words will most Sway the Affections of Men hath seemed to let go none that may prevail with them to be such as they ought to be Somtimes enforcing his Exhortations from the Greatness of his Favours the Excellences of his Laws the Natural Desires and Aversations of Men their Forgetfulness and such like I almost wonder how any of the Jews of Old could be Disobedient when they read such Words as these Ask now of the Days that are past since the Day that God Created Man upon the Earth and ask from the One side of Heaven unto the Other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is or hath been heard like it Did ever People hear the Voice of God speaking out of the mid'st of the Fire as Thou hast heard and Live Or hath God assayed to go and take him a Nation from the midst of another Nation by Signs and Wonders and a Mighty Hand Thou shalt therefore keep his Statutes He led thee through the great and terrible Wilderness where there was no Water and he brought thee forth Water out of the Rock of Flint He fed thee there with Manna which thy Fathers knew not Thy Raiment waxed not Old upon thee neither did thy Foot swell these Forty years Therefore shalt thou keep the Commandments of the Lord thy God. And where an Exhortation is set home by the recounting of such mighty Favours it cannot sure but prevail There is nothing usually will take more with a Man than the Reputation of being Wise and Vnderstanding The Excellency of Man consisting in nothing more than in a Power of Discerning and Acting what is good On this ground therefore it is that God builds his Exhortation Keep saith he and do these Statutes and Judgments for this is your Wisdom and Vnderstanding in the sight of the Nations Deut. â— 6 And since a Man will bear any thing better than the Name of Fool and accounteth it a great Discredit to act weakly and below a Man Therefore God so often in Scripture termeth Disobedience Folly and speaketh thus to Transgressors O ye Fools when will you learn Wisdom How long ye simple Ones will ye love Simplicity and Fools hate Knowledge Turn you at my Reproof I look upon Peace and Plenty to be as it were a visible Exhortation and a Persuasive that is palpable and may be felt But because these do somtimes steal away the Heart and are apt to render the Man forgetful of his Gracious Benefactor God in infinite Goodness is pleased to strengthen this Exhortation by Cautioning us when we have eaten and are full not to forget Him to take heed to ourselves and to keep our Souls diligently lest we forget the things which our Eyes have seen and lest we depart from the Lord our God all the days of our Life But should any be so heedless or perverse as not to be prevail'd upon by such Exhortations as these how can they hold out against God's pathetical Pleading with them Thus Ezek. 18 Ye say The Way of the Lord is not equal O House of Israel is not my Way equal are not your Ways unequal If ye offer the Lame and the Sick is it not evil Offer it now unto thy Governour will He be pleased with thee or accept thy Person saith the Lord of Hosts A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master If I then be a Father where is mine Honour If a Master where is my Fear Malac. 1. I will plead with you saith the Lord and with your Childrens Children will I plead For pass over the Isles of Chittim and see and send unto Kedar and consider diligently and see if there be any such thing Hath a Nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods But my People have changed their Glory for that which profiteth not Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord of Hosts For my People have committed two Evils They have forsaken me the Fountain of Living Waters and hewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no Water Jer. 2. Theoph. These are highly moving And in my Opinion no less is that of quickning Mens Obedience even by the better Carriage of Beasts and Fowls I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me The Ox knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib But Israel doth not know my People doth not consider Isai 1. I hearkned and heard but thy spake not aright no Man repented him of his Wickedness saying What have I done Yea the Stork in the Heavens knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming but my People know not the Judgment of the Lord Jer. 8. He will be yet much lower than the Beasts and Fowls who seeing himself out-gone by them will not be ashamed and quicken his pace Eubul There are innumerable other Schemes of Speech which God Almighty useth as if he would not omit so much as one Figure or Topick of sacred Oratory by which the wicked Hearts of Men might be bent to their good And truly all the gracious Methods which under the Legal Dispensation he hath chosen for Persuasives are in force now under the Gospel for the engaging us to Obedience it being through the Blood of Christ that so much Care and Love was then shewed Only what were made Excitements to the Jews are now with the change of some Circumstances enlarged and do belong to the whole World. As for those Exhortations which are more strictly comprized in the Gospel what may we say of them or rather what may we not The New Covenant is so wholly in itself a Persuasive set off with the highest Expressions of Divine Wisdom and Love that where IT alone will not prevail all other Arguments may seem fruitless But that there may nothing be wanting which may work upon the Soul of Man what affectionate Beseechings are there added What earnest Invitations given How are pure Minds stirred up by way of Remembrance What fervent Prayers are made for
Favours are obliged to Honour Reverence and Love their Good Master should instead of doing That cause Him to gird himself and to Serve Them till they have Eaten and Drunk and afterwards bid Him to Eat and Drink Whether yet it would not seem much worse to them if these Servants should constrain their Lord to those shameful Actions which the vilest of Slaves would be thought too good for I doubt not but such Servants they would abhor and think no punishments great enough for Them. The Case stands worse in their own making God Serve by their Disobedience For no Earthly Master can deserve so much Honour and Love of a Servant as God doth of Them. Neither can any Servitude even in the most noisome Circumstances be so loathsome to a Master here as the Service of their Sins is unto God. And is it a becoming thing that He who is God over all should be thus Vilified by his own Creatures That He before whom the Angels Cover their Faces and whose Courts We even in our best Services are to approach with Fear and Reverence should be so far profaned as without any regard to his Greatness and Holiness to be brought lower than the meanest of all his Works into a Bondage of itself useful to no good End Sure the Horrid Villany of the thing may make them abominate it Especially since They who of all this lower World are the meetest to Serve God are the alone Creatures that Disobey him All things here even to the meanest Worm that creeps do his Will in their several places and shall Men be the failing yea the Rebellious part of the Creation And instead of serving God with the rest of his Works shall they force those his Works from his Service and themselves make Him by their Sins to Serve Theoph. In good Truth while they thus do they bring the greatest Slavery upon Themselves in that they Serve many Masters and those such as are contrary the one to the Other This Vice bids go That at the same time wills them to stay Covetousness prompts them to hold fast Ambition urges them not to Spare Pride makes them to despise Others and yet to their great uneasiness to fawn that they may rise higher A most uncertain Slavery it is and no less difficult What underhand Contrivances What Glozings with those they cannot abide What Infidelity to them whom thy pretend Friendship unto What Fears of being found out What Evil Industry to keep all private No Servitude can surely be worse Eubul But Theophilus wee 'l now leave these Men Putting up Prayers to God for them that they may remember such things as these bring them seriously to their Minds weigh them in their most deliberate Thoughts and by so doing instead of being Transgressors shew Themselves to be Men. DISCOURSE the Ninth The Contents THe Plea of those is vain who say they never sinned maliciously against the Almighty nor wish'd his Greatness and Power to be less The Difference betwixt Rebellion against God and that against a Temporal Prince Disobedience a defilement in whomsoever it is Not the same Pollution in all Sins What the Sins of Good Men are and how known to be theirs The Sins of wicked Men of a deep Dye wherein they differ from those of pious Men. The Difference between wicked Men How of the worst sort some are more open some more secret in their Sins How the Sins of the less evil sort are to be measur'd The same fairness of Converse not equally innocent unto many A Sin may be a pardonable one to some when the very same to the Eye and Opinion of Men will not be so to others What we are to think of the Heinous Sins of Good Men Registred in Holy Scripture No reason from them for wicked Men to think better of their own Sins God will not esteem the Sins of his Children which are in themselves as great as and the same with the Sins of other Men to be therefore the less because they are committed by those who are his Children How to make a Judgment of our own Sins THEOPHILVS THE great Deformity and Disorder which Disobedience carrieth along with it are not things made probable by Discourse only and then growing less or none when second Thoughts and retired Contemplations are engaged in them The serious Reflection upon what you here last said gave Strength and Confirmation thereunto And from thence my Resolutions against Disobedience as a thing in its own Nature foul and deformed grew the more strong also But Eubulus I have heard some of none of the best Morals endeavouring to extenuate the illness of Disobedience by saying That they never maliciously sinned against the Almighty Never wished his Greatness and Power to be less and by indulging themselves in some things prohibited by the Sacred Laws they gratified indeed their own Inclinations but did no great Injury unto Men much less design'd Ill unto God. Will the Plea of these Men stand them in any stead for the making their Disobedience to be no such thing as yesterday you discours'd of EVBVLVS NO indeed Theophilus will it not For what Quietness soever there may seem to be in their Sins they will be found of dangerous Consequence if nearlier look'd into It is not in Mens Rebellions against God as in those against an Earthly Governour There Tumults are raised Arms are taken up and the Diminution or it may be the Destruction of the Prince wish'd and threatned because he is not out of a possibility of being weakned and destroy'd and such Methods are oftentimes likely enough to effect it But God because he both is and is acknowledg'd to be Immortal and out of the reach of all Force hath no Swords drawn against Him no Designs laid for his Overthrow nay is not by many so much as wished not to be because they know such Wishes are to no purpose Their way therefore of Rebelling is to break his Laws To think him such an one as themselves are One who either cannot or who will not take any notice of them Or it may be to Own Him as to his Attributes to be such as he is yet hoping thereby that their good Opinions of Him will make amends for bad Practices But how little do such Thoughts mitigate their Sins If they shall imagine God to be such who cannot see them is the Robbing him of his Omniscience so small an Offence Because it maketh no Noise and with Calmness layeth Dishonour upon Him whose Eternal Glory it is to know all things is it therefore an excusable good-natur'd fault We may as well call Joab's Carriage to Amasa excusable and good-natur'd when he said Art thou in Health my Brother and then smote him under the fifth Rib. For God's Omniscience cannot more surely be overthrown towards a Man than by such Imaginations which though in appearance mild are deadly in the issue If they shall think that God will not take notice of them is it
Men and also the ill Inferences which these Men are apt to make from them we say Theophilus 1. That those Sins though great they were were yet rather single Acts than Habits of Sin. They were not approved of nor contrived for every day of their Lives nor did they last for Years Now single Acts are rightly esteemed not to carry so much Pollution as Habits do Because an Habit is acquired by Actions often repeated and so includeth the Defilements of many single Acts put together If it shall be said that the single Acts of some heinous Sins may possibly carry a stain with them as great as some Habits of lesser Sins and that the Sins of David and Peter were gravioris Notae of a deeper Dye it cannot yet but be granted that a single Act of a grievous Sin is less polluting than the Habit of the same Sin. But then Secondly Those Sins though very great they were had Repentance following them 〈◊〉 was truly great Look we upon David and we shall find him grieving in earnest and heartily affected with his Misdeeds Psal 38.2 Thine Arrows stick fast in me and thine Hand presseth me sore There is no soundness in my Flesh by reason of thine Anger neither is there any rest in my Bones because of my Sin. For mine Iniquities are gone over mine Head as an heavy Burden they are too heavy for me I am feeble and sore broken I have roared by reason of the Disquietness of mine Heart And in Psal 51. which Psalm he made as the Title hath it when Nathan the Prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba he mourns thus Wash me throughly from mine Iniquity and cleanse me from my Sin For I acknowledge mine Iniquity and my Sin is ever before me Deliver me from Blood-guiltiness O Lord Thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and contrite Heart O God thou wilt not despise I have the more largely spoken David's words that you may thereby see how great his Grief was how earnest his Prayers for pardon and how deep an Anxiety had seized him lest God's Favour should for ever have been with-held from him Nor was St. Peter's Sin without a remarkable Repentance It is said Matth. 26.75 Peter remembred the words of Jesus who said unto him Before the Cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice And he went out and WEPT BITTERLY It was not a light grief and a Tear or two that were quickly dryed up but a Bitter Weeping which words certainly do denote a very great and deep Sorrow Now those that think so well of their own Sins from the thoughts of David's and Peter's Sins being so much greater than theirs are they as ready to consider these good Mens Repentance Do they grieve for their own as these did for theirs Is the Burden of them heavy Are they earnest in the begging pardon for them If not the greatness of some good Mens Sins in Holy Scripture will be a mean Argument for the concluding their own not to be the Deformities of wicked Men. I may truly say that the great Sins of David and Peter if considered with their Repentance are much less than those Sins which in themselves are not so great without Repentance And so there is small reason for any Person from the Failures of these Holy Men to infer his own Spots to be none other than those of Gods Children Thirdly There are more Ends than one for which God hath caused those Sins of his Children to be registred in Sacred Story I cannot say but one End might be that those who in the like manner have grievously fallen may through the Exercise of a like Repentance have hope that they also shall not be refused Thus Rom. 15.4 What things were written afore-time were written for our Learning that we through Comfort of the Scripture might have hope But then a no less End is this viz. That those who now live and those who shall live in the Generations to come may from the Falls of others take the more heed that they fall not also And if they shall fall they may well think that their case is not so good because they have had such warning before and yet have not been prevail'd upon by it for the being more careful And then yet further Another End altogether as great as the other Two why the Sins of good Men have been recorded in Scripture is this to wit The shewing how God hates Sin even in those whom he loves and how he will punish it not only in their Persons while they live but in their Names and Memories when they are dead even to the End of the World. Some other things besides those that have been well pleasing unto God as Mary's Ointment was unto Christ shall wheresoever the Gospel is Preach'd throughout the World be spoken of also for a Memorial To make it known that Sins of a deep Die are in his Children altogether as Odious to his Purity and Holiness as their Pious Actions are acceptable to his Love and Goodness And now who is it that can have favourable Thoughts of Sin when God hath put so many Examples in Holy Writ as Warnings against Sin on purpose that we should have the more care to avoid it Who is it that may flatter himself in his Iniquities who shall rightly consider how God punisheth the Memory of his own Children and setteth a Mark of Disgrace upon them which shall last till Heaven and Earth do pass away He surely very slightly or very partially looks into the Bible who from the Sins of Good Men there can encourage himself in his own Sin and think that its Pollution is small to Him when it hath laid such a Blot upon their Names as must not as cannot be rased out by any Rather let him Hear and Fear and do himself neither in the same nor any other kind so wickedly As knowing that though none need now to Fear that their Misdeeds shall be Registred in Books which shall be of equal Authority with and shall last as long as the Bible for God therein hath wholly declared his will and so Divine Writings are not further to be expected yet the All-powerful and infinitely just Lord hath other ways of punishing them and of manifesting the Pollution of their Sin both to themselves and others to be very great how small soever they at present think it But Fourthly Theophilus we may truly affirm that God will not esteem the Sins of his Children which are in themselves as great as and the same with the Sins of Others to be therefore the less because they are committed by those who are his Children That is if any who are his shall be unjust in their Actions False in these Words Intemperate Unchast or any other ways vitious their Injustice Falseness Intemperance Unchastity and whatever other Crimes they shall commit shall be esteemed as carrying the same
with those of others to be less in them merely because they bear the Name of his Children will strongly imagine themselves to be Gods Children that so their Sins though great they be and are like never by true Repentance to be less may not be the Spots of wicked Men. These much wrong the Righteousness and Purity of God. These make Faith in Christ which worketh by Love to be the spurious Issue of their Fancy and by thus untowardly thinking their Sins to be the Sins of God's Children they the more surely make them the Sins of the worst sort of wicked Men. Theoph. Your Discourse Eubulus hath been very satisfactory unto me I yet could wish that some others had with me been partakers of it because I think they thence might have learn'd to make a better Judgment of their Spiritual State than now they seem to do Eubul Would Men from such things as these deal impartially with themselves some dangerous Mistakes which they are willing enough to foster might be corrected And what Theophilus if they should seriously ask themselves these or such like Questions viz. Are we contented and well enough pleas'd with our Original Sin and the Imperfection of our Nature Are we at no time affected with sorrow at it as being our Sin and do we never with a relenting Eye account it our Unhappiness as being our Punishment Can we sit idle under it and not endeavour to correct it by purging our Understandings of their Ignorance our Wills of their Pravity and our Affections of their Corruption Doth the sense of it never encline us to Humility And are we never thereby excited to pity others who are thus polluted and unhappy as well as we Or yet worse than so Do we encrease the Defilements of our Nature and studiously promote and stir up our vile Affections which otherwise would have been more quiet And then for Outward Actions Are our Lives almost wholly liv'd out in Sin Can we proceed from one Wickedness to another and do Evil with both Hands earnestly Or else if outward Shame hinder us from Evil Practices openly and in the Sight of this Sun do we Clandestinely Act them Or is our behaviour Plausible and Civil merely that we may the more surely and with less Suspition carry on Evil Actions and Designs Or if there be none of these outwardly notorious bad Actions nor secretly Wicked Designs yet are the chief Ends nothing look'd unto in what we do Is the Glory of God justled out by the Under-Aims of Earthly Profits or Pleasures And doth the Salvation of our Souls through Unbelief or Carelesness weigh little or nothing with us in respect of Advantage or Reputation among Men Have the particular Obligations by Almighty God laid upon us not been minded or not taken notice of by us to any good effect Have our greater Knowledge and Abilities been improved to no higher Services than the Ignorance and Weakness of the meaner Sort have been Have the stronger Motions from Gods Holy Spirit fallen Fruitless upon us And those Suggestions which at some times we in a more than ordinary manner have had and in which the Hand of God hath peculiarly been have they been refused and not complied with In the Sins which we have committed hath there been no Unfained Sorrow No Indignation at ourselves for making such ill returns to so Gracious a God and Father Have our Devotions been none or very Faint and Cold ones after our falling into Sin Have our former Faults begot in us no Resolutions of not Sinning knowingly and Presumptuously for the time to come Do we when tempted to commit a Sin not only yield to it but continue in it Are we never after it more earnest persuers of that which is Good And do the Frailty and Weakness of our Natures and the Sins which while we are in the Body we shall never be free from at no time prompt us to long for that Happy Day when we in Heaven shall do Gods Will without Carefulness Drowsiness and Imperfection If Theophilus they should thus question themselves and should find it no otherwise with them than what might be reducible to some or more of the particulars now mention'd they might make a Judgment whether their Sins are such as belong to the Worse or less Evil Sort of Wicked Men but would have no reason to think them only the Failures of Good Men. Theoph. Indeed Eubulus should Men thus be Judges of their own Misdeeds they would not be more than what they well might Some of their Sins possibly which cannot so well bear the being look'd into least their Pollution and Deformity should be discovered might be apt to say ye take too much upon you and who made you Rulers and Judges over us But certainly Men have a Power over their own Doings and may search their own Hearts and Examine the Rise and Progress and Design of their own Actings and need not fear that any should say unto them Why do ye thus Eubul And this they may the rather do Theophilus because they are the better able in many respects to make a Judgment of their own Sins than other Men are For they can see those things in their own Breasts which are hid from Mens Eyes abroad And it may be they can also conceive those deep Deceits there which they cannot by their Words so well express and give account of to others Well surely it would be that in those things which they are unknown in unto Others they should not be unknown to Themselves Theoph. It is I confess not the least part of Learning for Men to know Themselves The being skill'd in the works of Nature and in the Arts and Sciences The seeing into future Times and understanding all Mysteries and all Knowledge would be of small avail with them without the Knowledge of their own Sins For where these are not known there is very small hope that a Cure and Amendment will be wrought And what would it profit a Man to be otherwise in all respects accomplished and yet to go out of the World with his Sins unknown and so not repented of Eubul I am persuaded Theophilus that the great reason of so many Mens continuing in their Sins is because they are not willing to search into them Let them be throughly look'd into and the Cover taken off from their Deformity and they will find few that will not loath them When David had considered his ways i. e. had found the Spots and Defilements which his Sins carried in them he turned his Feet to Gods Testimonies He made hast and delayed not to keep his Commandments And would Men generally do as He did I have no cause to doubt but through Gods Blessing there would be the same good Issue to Them as to Him there was Nay I am sure if Pollution and Deformity will Create a Loathing they would perfectly Loath the Disobedience they have so long Indulged Theoph. Happy it would be if Men from the Motives of Fear or Shame would cease to be Disobedient but surely the Defilement and Deformity which Sin casteth upon them should prevail with them most And where they from this Consideration chiefly shall abstain from Iniquity they will be if I may so speak the more generously Innocent Eubul They by so doing will turn those Spots that mark'd them as wicked Men into the Spots of God's Children And at the last when their Bodies shall be raised Spiritual and Incorruptible they will leave even these Spots also behind them Ascending up into the Heavenly Jerusalem where nothing shall in any wise enter that defileth and where they will be for ever arrayed in fine Linnen clean and white the Righteousness of the Saints To which Heavenly Purity Theophilus and Inheritance Vndefiled GOD of his infinite Mercy bring You and Me and Them through the Blood of Cleansing even that of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST FINIS An Advertisement of Books sold by Joseph VVats at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-yard SPeed's Maps Folio Cowley's Poems compleat Folio The Confession Prayers and Meditations of Lieutenant John Sterne and George Borosky Published by Dr. Burnet and Dr. Horneck Folio The Tryals of Thomas Walcot William Hone William Lord Russel John Rouse and William Blagg for High â—eason Folio That the Bishops may and ought to Vote in Cases of Blood Folio Pierce of Gods Decrees especially of Reprobation Quarto Perinchief against Toleration Quarto Parson's Sermon at the Funeral of the Earl of Rochester Quarto Dr. Jane's Sermon before the Commons Quarto Cave's Sermon the 30th of January Quarto Beverley's Disquisition upon Tythes wherein the whole Case is impartially stated and resolved Quarto Stubb's Justification of the Dutch War both Parts Quarto Horneck's Best Exercise Octavo Lassell's Voyage through Italy Octavo Smyth's Unequality of Natural Time with its Reason and Causes With a Table of the true Equation of Natural Days Octavo Reformed Devotions in Meditations Hymns and Petitions for every Day in the Week and every Holiday in the Year in two Parts the second Edition At which place all Persons may have most sorts of Acts of Parliament Proclamations Declarations Orders of King and Council Speeches in Parliament c. Pamphlets of all sorts viz. Pamphlets relating to the State Sermons Controversies Tracts of Divinity and other Miscellaneous Tracts Also Tryals Narratives and Gazettes FINIS
Favours of God to their Souls Thinking it possibly no more than their duty so to do But surely the former is not necessary Let your Speech be seasoned with Salt implies as one well Comments it that as our Meat should have a Relish from Salt so our Speech should have the Savour of Religion But that it should be wholly of Religion is not any more necessary than that our Meat should be wholly Salt. And for the later I may say That Spiritual Evidences and the Secret Favours which God may have vouch-safed to us should have a kind of Modesty attending them which should forbid the seeking after Auditors and Spectators He that said Cerne Dionysia fastum deposui See Dionysia I have no Pride left was perchance the more Proud from his Boasted Humility Such joyful Sentiments of Gods Mercy and Love should in some respect imitate godly Sorrow and holy Fasting causing the Man to enter into his Closet that he may not appear unto Men to rejoyce Satisfied with his Eye alone who puts such Gladness into the Heart Or else imparting it to one or some Christian Friends only where he shall not be thought to appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great one dearer unto God than other Men. And thus Theophilus you see what little reason there is for the finding fault with our Saviours Laws as if by forbidding idle Words they overturned all the pleasure of Society They rather provide that Conversation shall have the more pleasure by all foolish impertinent deceitful and opprobrious Talks being discarded from it and by such excellent and useful variety of Discourses being afforded as shall be befitting Men to use In a word they allow us to be Innocently Chearful but not Extravagantly Merry and command our Conversation to be Religious yet free from Affectedness and Indiscretion Theoph. I see we have reason to use some of our words in Thankfulness to our Lawgiver who hath indulged us such a Freedom as by them to exercise all the chearful Virtues that nourish and commend a sociable Conversation Whoever it is that loves the innocent Enjoyments of Acquaintance and Friends the kind Expressions which they use to each other the grateful Entertainment of profitable and ingenious Discourses and who is it that loves them not must also love the Laws of our Lord which banish all those words that shall any way corrupt or sower so great a Pleasure And whosoever shall find fault with these Laws as if they enjoyned a moroseness of Temper either do not understand them or else are for such a licentious and ill-natur'd way of Converse as even an Honest Heathen would condemn Eubul The next unreasonable Thing is the Loving of Enemies even while they persist to be injurious which they say deprives us of that sense of Honour and Courage which as we are Men should belong unto us and makes way also for new and greater Injuries to be done us But that the Loving of Enemies even when they persist to be injurious is not so unreasonable a thing may hence appear Because some of the better sort of Heathens who had Nature chiefly their Guide have gone a good step towards it and do commend the with-holding of Revenge as very honourable in those that do it and do urge many good Arguments for it Nempe hoc indocti They are the ignorant sort that would vent their spleen upon their Enemies But Chrysippus non dicit idem Learn'd Chrysippus is of another mind and mild Thales and wise Socrates Qui partem acceptae saeva inter vincla cieutae Accusatori nollet dare Who though by false Accusations thrown into Prison and condemned to end his Life by drinking Poison would yet could he have done it not have given his Accuser a part with him Juv. Sat. 13. So that if it be Unreasonable it is not altogether the fault of Christianity and they in some measure must condemn Those who have been accounted Wise Men in the World and the great Promoters of Virtue before they can find fault with the Laws of our Lord. And indeed when the visible things of the World do all joyn together as they manifestly do in a kind of mutual Concord for the promoting the welfare of Men The Sun and Stars not shining to themselves The Earth not bringing forth Herbs and Fruit upon her own Account nor the Beasts and Fowls feeding merely for their own Lives but all of these either immediately or mediately for Mans use and Service And also when Men are born into the World more impotent as truly they are than any other Creatures naked altogether and helpless for a longer time than what brings many other things to their full Growth and Perfection and this that they may owe their being nurs'd up to the Tenderness and Care of others it may seem to do more than hint That as Friendship and Good-will is highly to be maintain'd amongst us so when by any Persons they are broken the Breach is not to be continued but by friendly yieldings and the being affected with pity towards the Distemper of Mens Minds as we usually are towards the Diseases of their Bodies is presently to be closed up For shall the good of Men which is so carried on by all things else be neglected by ourselves Or shall the Passion of a Man which may quickly wear off prevail more for our Disrespect than the Dignity of Human Nature shall for our kindness to him But suppose that a Retaliation of Injuries be not naturally against Justice yet certainly these Men who urge the unreasonableness of Loving Enemies cannot but grant that in case the History of our Redemption be true it is but just and equitable that our Enemies while they are Enemies should be Loved For while we were Enemies to Christ he dyed for us while we had provoked God to throw his Wrath upon us a Wrath which would have been greater than we could have born our Blessed Lord in pity to us came from Heaven to Save us And when We merely by being Loved as Enemies are preserved from destruction shall We think it such an unreasonable thing to bear a Loving respect towards Those who are our Enemies Especially when the greatest Trespasses which they can commit against us are nothing in Comparison of those which we have committed against God and which are forgiven us by Him. Besides as Christ hath born our Image by taking upon him our Nature so there is none of our Enemies but retain in their Nature as they are Men the Honour that our Lord hath done us and in some sort do wear his Image And can we if we rightly weigh things shew any thing but Love there where is a Resemblance of the Son of Man who hath shewed the greatest Love to us And though Injuries be done us by Those who bear the likeness of Him that never did wrong to any Man yet so far should those Injuries be from hindring of our Love that they should rather put us
in Mind of those great Sins against God which we daily must be forgiven And so should quicken us to do that to our Brethren which God in far greater measures through the Death of Christ doth unto us Whence supposing that there is Truth in Christs being our Saviour the loving of Enemies even while they persist to be injurious is not an unreasonable but an equitable thing And that Christs coming into the World to save us is a certain Truth we have the highest reason to believe But yet whereas they further say That the thus loving of Enemies doth take away that Honour and Courage which should belong to us as Men we reply That it contributes much to our Honour and Courage For he that forgives an Injury is always in the Act of forgiving Superiour unto him who is forgiven And in not permitting the Miscarriages of others to disorder his Passions he doth maintain a Greatness of Spirit which some others who are presently for Revenge and drawing of Swords are far short of Minuti semper infirmi est animi exiguique voluptas Vltio is a true saying of the Satyrist It is the part of a mean Soul to be looking after Revenge and taking pleasure in it And that Honour which is so much talk'd of and most an end so much stood upon what is it usually but a Reputation among the vainer and most injudicious sort of Men And what pitifully mean Matters shall engage some in long and costly Law-Suits and others in the venturing their Lives upon the Account of this empty Reputation and Honour Let a Man shew himself to be such who can value an Ingenuous and Christian Carriage towards him and who can resent the contrary but yet will not permit any unworthiness of others to get the upper-hand of his Reason and Charity Let him manifest to all about him that he is a Lover of Men that he desires their good much more than he stomachs the wrongs they have done him That he is more inclinable if they will give him leave to shew Kindness to them than to act any thing of Revenge That he leaves all Revenge unto God whom it belongs unto and yet earnestly prays that God will not execute it Let him do all these things and he will gain more Honour with those that are the most understanding sober and good from whom alone Honour deserves to be termed so than the Man ever shall who rageth at every petty Injury and breathes nothing but Threatning and Revenge Yea and lastly instead of those new and greater Injuries which from such a behaviour towards Enemies are said to have a fairer way made to fall upon him there will be in all likelihood the quite contrary effect For who is he that will be forward to injure the Man who he sees is willing to be a Friend to all And if he hath injured him already when he considers he hath injured so much Goodness how will he cast as it were the first Stone at himself be troubled at his fault and endeavour to repair it by a Submissive and Relenting Carriage But if the Offendor be Stubborn and not so easily brought down yet the Offended Man's Christian and Charitable Deportment without interruption continued will surely at last melt him To this end is that Precept and the Reason of it Rom. 12.20 If thine Enemy Hunger Feed him if he Thirst give him Drink for in so doing thou shalt heap Coals of Fire upon his Head. It is a way of Speech alluding unto those who are Melters of Metals when a Metal is very hard they not only put Fire under it but heap Coals upon it and by this means though hard to be Melted it be yet at last it yields to the Fire So when to an Enemy though of an obstinate and most hardned Temper a Christian Love shall still be shewn and kindnesses upon good occasions be heaped upon his Head He must be harder than Iron or Brass who will not be sensible of them and suffer his Evil to be overcome with Good. Theoph. He would deserve that Those who are Enemies to him should for ever go on so to be and that others not his Enemies should very little esteem him who after such Considerations as these shall say That it is unreasonable to Love Enemies even while they are such Eubul But let us go to the Fourth thing which they object against these Laws viz. That they require the Macerating of the Body with Fasting and Abstinence which what is it but the making a Man Cruel to his own Flesh I freely acknowledge Theophilus That Fasting is a Christian Duty and that when our Lord saith when thou Fastest enter into thy Closet though it be not in the plain form of a Command Thou shalt Fast yet it is not hereby the less a Command And the reason is because our Saviour from the frequent Practice of Fasting and the great Credit which this Duty among the Jews was in did suppose it to be a Duty And by his Precepts for the right performance of it he may well be presum'd to enjoyn the thing And therefore in his Sermon he ranks it with Prayer and Alms Which Duties and I may say which Sermon too as to every part of it concern the Practice of Christians so long as the World stands But wherein Theophilus is it that the harshness of this Law of Fasting lies If our Bodies are apt as too apt they are from constant Feeding not to serve but to rebel against the better part of us our Souls is it so unreasonable a thing to withdraw for a time their wonted Nourishment that from them our Prayers and Praises may not be Drowsie And our better thoughts not Clogg'd Or if out of a Sense of our own Unworthiness we shall somtimes lay aside all our enjoyments refusing to Eat the Fat and Drink the Sweet that in the sight of God we may acknowledge ourselves less than the least of his Mercies which sure by reason of our continual Failings we too truly are what sober Man can condemn us for so doing Or lastly if we shall make a suitable Expression of Repentance for some Sins which have chiefly proceeded from the Body by exercising upon it an holy Revenge and denying it for a season the things which are pleasant They must be very unreasonable Men who will say That we do more than what is meet to be done The Religions even of the Heathens have not been without their Abstinences as their Votivae noctes do testifie and their Wise Men have addicted themselves thereunto Hence Lucilius is by Seneca exhorted to fare somtimes so hard Liberaliora ut sint alimenta Carceris That the Diet of a Prison should exceed his Nay Epicurus himself whom these Objectors against Christianity are so willing to have their Master had his certain days quibus malignè famem extingueret nec toto asse pasceretur Which things surely may teach These Men not to condemn our