which are delivered in that Chapter are required as part of our walking as Children of the light and proving what is acceptable unto the Lord ver 8 10. Marriage is honourable and the Bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge Heb. 13.4 Wives are to be taught to be obedient to their own Husbands that the Word of God or Doctrine of the Gospel be not blasphemed Tit. 2.5 Let Wives be in subjection to their own Husbands For with this in old time the holy women adorned themselves even as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling and observing him as her Lord whose Daughters ye are as long as you do well and imitate her but no longer 1 Pet. 3.5 6. So that all the Laws in this relation are enjoined under the same necessity and confirmed with the same sanction as the former And as for the Particulars of the next relation they are imposed with the same strictness For natural affection the want of it S t Paul affirms plainly makes men worthy of death Rom. 1.31 The Children ought not to lay up Treasure or provide for the Parents but the Parents for the Children 2 Cor. 12.14 And if any man provide not for his own house he hath denied the Faith of Christ which indispensably enjoins it nay despising such a notorious and necessary Precept of mere Nature he is worse than any honest Infidel 1 Tim. 5.8 Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath against you by a harsh and austere Government of them but rule them in kindness and love and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And ye Children on the other side obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour your Father and Mother that it may be well with you Ephes. 6.1 2 3 4. Which Precepts are of the number of those which he imposes on them as parts of their walking as Children of the light and proving what is acceptable unto the Lord Chap. 5.8 10. If any man have Children or Nephews let them first learn to shew piety at home and requite their Parents for this is good and acceptable to God But if any man provide not for his own especially those of his own house or Family as Parents are in the first place he hath denied the Faith and in his unnatural actions is worse than an honest Infidel 1 Tim. 5.4 8. And thus are all the Laws of this relation likewise established in the greatest strictness and our obedience to them made plainly necessary to our bliss and happiness And as for the particular Laws of natural affection and communicating upon occasion to each other of their Substance in the relation of Brethren and Sisters they are proved to be necessary in the proof of the former For the same places which require them in that relation require them in this also And then as for the Particulars of the last relation viz. that of Masters and Servants they are of equal necessity with all the foregoing If any man provide not for his own house whereof Servants are one part he hath denied the Faith and is worse than an Infidel 1 Tim. 5.8 Masters give unto your Servants that which is just and equal knowing that ye also have a Master in Heaven who will punish your unequal dealing towards them Col. 4.1 If I despise the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant when they argue in their own defence and contend with me what then shall I do when God rises up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him Job 31.13 14. Thou shalt not oppress an hired Servant that is poor and needy whether he be of thy Brethren a Jew or a Stranger of the Gentiles At his Day thou shalt give him his hire neither shall the Sun go down upon it for he is poor and setteth his heart upon it Deut. 24.14 15. Weep and howl O ye rich men says S t James for the miseries that shall come upon you for behold the hire of the Labourers who have reaped down your Fields and which is of you keept back by fraud crieth against you and the Cries are entred into the ears of the Lord who hearkens to them and in great Justice will one Day avenge them James 5.1 4. Ye Masters do the same things viz. good whether as to their Bodies in providing for them or to their Souls in religious instruction with a good will in expectation of a reward from the Lord to your Servants forbearing threatning knowing that your Master also is in Heaven who has threatned you if ye neglect this necessary Duty neither is there any respect of persons with him Ephes 6.8 9. Let as many Servants as are under the Yoke count their own Masters worthy of all honour that the name of God be not blasphemed as certainly it would upon their contrary practice And if any man teach otherwise he is proud knowing nothing 1 Tim. 6.1 3 4. Servants obey in all things your Masters according to the Flesh not with eye-eye-service but in singleness or sincerity of heart without fraud or double dealing as persons fearing God And whatsoever you do do it heartily as to the Lord not to men knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for such your obedient practice for in thus serving them you serve the Lord Christ Col. 3.22 23 24. Servants obey your Masters with fear and trembling not with eye-eye-service as Men-pleasers but from the heart with good-will doing service as to the Lord who commands this of you and not only to men knowing that whatsoever good or ill in this particular any man doth the same shall he receive of the Lord Ephes 6.5 6 7 8. Exhort Servants to be obedient to their own Mâ—sters and to please them well by all manner of observance in all things either as to their reputation in vindicating it when 't is injured or concealing such defects as would stain and fully it or their other interests showing all good fidelity For the Grace of God which brings salvation hath appeared to all men teaching them as ever they hope to be saved by it That denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts whereof the contrary practices to these are the effect and offspring they should live soberly c. Tit. 2.9 10 11 12 13. And moreover these Precepts are part of that sound Doctrine which Titus is required to speak ver 1. in opposition to their Doctrine who in the Verse before are said to be abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate Servants be subject to your own Masters with all fear or reverence not only to the good and gentle but also to the hard or hasty and froward For this is thank-worthy if for Conscience towards God you patiently endure grief suffering wrongfully This is acceptable to God and likewise
willingness of their own minds which will make them do it whether he be with them or absent from them which in the same place is called obeying with good will and from the heart Ephes. 6.6 7. 3. In those things which he imposes and inflicts whether they be just or even injust if light and tolerable a quiet and uncontending submission which is patience and subjection 4. And in those things wherein they cannot advantage him themselves commending him to Almighty God by prayer for him So that the effects of Love or commanding Laws in this relation are on the Masters side the Law of maintenance of religious instruction of a just and equal Government of them of kindness and equity in commanding of forbearance and moderation in threatning of punctual payment of the wages of the Hireling of praying for them On the Servants the Law of honour of reverence of observance of concealing and excusing their Masters defects of vindicating their injured reputation of fidelity of obedience of diligence of willing and hearty service of patient submission and subjection of praying for them And opposite to these are all the effects of hatred which will be instanced in these Particulars 1. From the Masters towards their Servants it will produce 1. A carelesness of what becomes of their Servants whether as to 1. Their Bodies in not duly maintaining or providing for them 2. Their Souls in not catechising or instructing of them 2. A Government of them which is cruel and rigorous and this being a dealing otherwise with them than we are willing to be dealt with our selves is unequal Government Which is expressed 1. In the injustice and severity of our Commands when we enjoin what God forbids which is unlawful or what tends not to benefit our selves but only to vex and trouble them which is unprofitable or what is either above their strength or exceeding hard for it which is unproportionable And this is unjustness and wantonness and rigour in commanding which if it be acted in a contemptuous haughtiness and peremptory way is imperiousness 2. In the injustice and hardship of our threatnings and punishments when we use them without occasion or more than needs when there is occasion for them which is immoderate threatning or punishing And this as it vents it self in bitter words and vehemence of vilifying expressions a fault that is incident to proud hasty Folk and lordly Masters is railing at them 3. In the dishonesty and dilatoriness of our Rewards when we either pay not at all that which was covenanted for their service or cut it short or delay it long when their necessity calls for it instantly which is defrauding or keeping back the wages of the Hireling 3. And besides all the kindness which we deny them our selves neglecting to seek for any thing for them at Gods hands by not praying for them or cursing and imprecating them which is praying against them 2. From the Servants towards their Masters where the effects of hatred are 1. A disesteem and contemptuous opinion of their Masters as persons of no worth or preheminence above themselves which is dishonour And this when it is evidenced in a careless and disrespectful behaviour towards them which argues them to stand in no fear or awe of them is irreverence 2. An industrious neglect of such things as they know are pleasing and acceptable to him and venturing upon others that will disgust and offend him which is non-observance two particular expressions whereof are 1. As to his or his families defects at home a publishing and aggravation of them 2. As to his reputation abroad a suffering it to lye under imputations that are undeserved which is not vindicating him 3. An endamagement of their Masters Goods Concerns and Authority by shewing 1. In what their Master intrusts them falseness or non-performance which is unfaithfulness And if it be instanced in making away such Goods or Mony as were committed to them 1. To their own luxury and pleasure by such ways as our Saviour sets down of eating drinking and keeping ill company Matth. 24.49 it is wastfulness of their Masters Goods 2. To their own private profit and secret enrichment it is purloining 2. In what their Masters command a careless omission of it or acting against it which is disobedience Whether this be expressed 1. In questioning and disputing the fitness and convenience of what they enjoin instead of doing and performing it which S t Paul calls answering again or speaking against and contradicting it Tit. 2.9 2. In a slow and lazy application of themselves to it when they do set about it which is slothfulness 3. In a laborious dispatch of what they are commanded only whilst their Masters eye is over them but slackning all again when he is gone from them doing all things out of dread but nothing out of choice and good will which is eye-eye-service 3. In what their Master imposes or inflicts a not enduring or resting under it which is contumacy or resistance 4. And in such things as God is to bestow on them a not seeking to him by prayer on their behalf but praying against them So that the effects of ill will and hatred or Laws forbidding in this relation are on the Masters side the Law against not providing maintenance for his Servant against not catechizing or instructing him against unequal Government against unjustness wantonness and rigour in commanding against imperiousness against immoderate threatning against railing against defrauding or keeping back the wages of the Hireling against not praying for him and imprecation or praying against him and on the Servants side the Law against dishonour of his Master against irreverence against non-observance against publishing or aggravating his Masters faults against not vindicating his injured reputation against unfaithfulness against wasting his Goods against purloining against disobedience against answering again against slothfulness against eye-eye-service against contumacy or resistance against not praying for them and imprecation or praying against them And thus we have seen what are the particular effects of love and hatred both towards all men in general and also towards all in those several relations wherein we stand concerned with one another in the World And in them are contained all the particular Commands and Prohibitions which make up this third Branch of Duty viz. righteousness or our Duty towards our Neighbour All that God requires of us towards other men is only to have a hearty kindness for them and in this manner to express it And all that he forbids is only our hatred of them with all the forementioned effects of it So that in the above-named instances and effects of Love in Justice Charity Peace with those others in the relations now recited is comprized the whole of this last Member of S t Paul's Division righteousness Thus at last we have seen what are all the particular instances of those three general Laws sobriety piety and righteousness wherein if we add two or
you either your persons by dishonour irreverence evil speaking mocking setting you at nought for your works sake or your Message and Commands by disobedience in Gods account despiseth me also whose Messengers and Ambassadors you are and in like manner he that despiseth me depiseth him withal who sent me Luke 10.16 Do you not know that they which minister in the Jewish Worship and Temple about holy things live of the maintenance of the Temple and that they which wait in sacrificing at the Altar are Partakers of some portion of the Sacrifices with the Altar Even so hath God ordained amongst us like as he did among them that they who preach the Gospel should for that have a due maintenance and livelihood and live of the Gospel And say I this as a man only from common reason equity and custom or saith not God by a peremptory way of Command in the Law the same also For there it is written Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Oxe which treadeth out the Corn. Which is said not for the Oxen alone but for our sakes no doubt that we might not grudge the Labourer his hire 1 Cor. 9.8 9 10 11 13 14. And as he who should despise this Law under Moses could not escape death so much less can we since Christ has made it one of his Laws if we despise it now Heb. 2.2 3. Thou that sayest a man should not steal dost thou steal Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit sacriledge By such scandalous sins as these the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you as it is written c. Rom. 2.21 22 24. And as for the prohibitions in the relation of Husband and Wife their sanction is the same also No man ever yet hated his own Flesh so as to be estranged to it or unconcerned for it or not to bear with its infirmities but by rubbing upon every sore place to vex and provoke it or not to hide and conceal its weaknesses but to publish and discover them And as unnatural is this usage between Man and Wife for they two are one flesh Ephes. 5.29 31. Which prohibition of hatred between Man and Wife as between a Man and his own Flesh is set down as a necessary part of ceasing to be darkness and becoming light in the Lord ver 8. No Adulterer shall inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5.19 21. Husbands love your Wives and be not bitter or passionate uncomplying and imperious against them And this you must do as you would be accounted the holy and elect of God Col. 3.12 19. He that provides not convenient maintenance especially for his own house whereof the Wife is the chief Member hath denied the faith of Christ and is worse than an Infidel 1 Tim. 5.8 Teach Wives to be obedient to their own Husbands lest if they disobey them the Word of God or the Christian Religion be blasphemed for such disobedience of Women that profess it Tit. 2.5 And as for the prohibitions in the relation of Parents and Children what their sanction is these places will inform us In the last days perillous times will come for men will be without natural affection disobedient to Parents from such turn away for they are people of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the faith 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 5 8. They who provide not for their own house and especially for so near a part of it as their own Children are have denied the Faith and are become worse than Infidels 1 Tim. 5.8 Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath and hatefulness of you by a rigorous and harsh Government of them but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Ephes. 6.4 Which are part of those Precepts our obedience whereof is necessarily required to our being accepted as Children of the light chap. 5. ver 8. He that curseth by reproaching and publishing the shame of his Father and Mother shall surely be put to death Exod. 21.17 The eye that mocketh at his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother although the offence be not come so far as words but is only a scornful and contemptuous look a jeering and abusive Countenance the Ravens of the vally shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it Prov. 30.17 He that robbeth Father and Mother and saith it is no transgression but an innocent action in regard he takes nothing but what either is or one day will be his own the same is the Companion of a Destroyer i. e. he deserves to dye as well as a Murtherer Prov. 28.24 If a man have a stubborn or contumacious and rebellious Son who will not obey the voice of his Father or Mother when they have chastened him let them bring him to the Elders or Rulers of his City and to the Gates wherein were the Courts of Judicature of his place and let him be stoned to death Deut. 21.18 19 20 21. And as for the prohibitions in the relation of Brethren and Sisters we have their penalty established in these words Without natural affection who in the judgment of God are worthy of death Rom. 1.31 32. He that provides not for his own is worse than an Infidel 1 Tim. 5.8 And as for the prohibitions in the last relation viz. that of Masters and Servants their sanction is expressed in the places following Masters give unto your Servants that which is just and equal knowing that you your selves also have a Master in Heaven who will recompence your injustice rigour and unequal Government of them upon your own heads as Christ has plainly shewed us in the Parable of the Servants Matth. 18. from ver 23. to the end of the Chapter Col. 4.1 Masters love your Servants forbearing threatning and what is near akin to it opprobrious language or railing knowing that your Master also is in Heaven who in judging and punishing such offences as these is no respecter of persons Ephes. 6.9 If any man provide not for his own house or Family whereof his Servants are one part he is worse than an Infidel 1 Tim. 5.8 Weep and howl O ye rich men for the miseries that shall come upon you For the hire of the Labourers which is of you kept back by fraud cryeth against you for vengeance and the Cries are entred into the ears of the Lord who will most severely punish this injustice Jam. 5.1 4. Exhort Servants to be obedient to their own Masters and not to be unobservant of them but to give all diligence to please them well in all things Not answering again not purloining not being false or unfaithful in any matter but showing all good fidelity These things speak and exhort with all authority let no man dare under the pain of Gods high displeasure to despise thee Tit. 2.9 10 15. Which things amongst others he is bid to teach
8 9 10 11 13 14. Maintenance of Ministers Obedience Prayer for men o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Ep. ad Smyrn Ed. Voss. p. 6. Laws in the relation of Husband and Wife Communicating in each others bliss or misery Bearing each others infirmities Praying for each other On the Husbands side Condescension and Compliance Providing for her Protecting her Flexible winning Government p Col. 3.19 On the Wives side Observance Subjection q Tit. 2.5.15 Reverence Fidelity on both sides Obedience on the Wives Laws in the relation of Parents and Children r 2 Tim 3.3 s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the Parents side Maintenance or Provision Loving Government Religious â—ducation t Col. â— 20 21. u Mat. 15.4 Obedience on the Childrens side Honour Requiting their Parents Laws in the relation of Brethren and Sisters Laws in the relation of Masters and Servants On the Masters side Maintenance Just and equal Government Pâ—nctual payment of the wages of the Hireling x Lev. 19.13 y Jer. 22.13 Religious instruction Forbearing threatning On the Servants side Honour Obedience z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hearty service Reverence Observance Vindicating their injâ—red reputation Concealing their defects Fidelity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptism Lords Supper Repentance Vnsoberness a Mat. 5.28 30. Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Drunkenness Revelling Emulation b Luke 21.34 c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Rom. 1. Ep. ad Cor. c. 30. Effeminateness Sodomy Ravishers Vain-glory. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e 1 Cor. 5.11 6.10 Fearfulness f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whoredome Filthiness Obscene Jesting g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h Col. 3.8 i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covetiusness Carnality k Rom. 8.6 18. 1 Tim. 5.6 Covetousness Pride Arrogance Incontinence Haughtiness Insolence Sensuality l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n Jude 19. Backbiters o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gluttony Voluptuousness Worldliness p James 4.4 q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ambition s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Refusing of tâ—â— Cross. Impiety t Exod. 20.4 5. Idolatry Witchcraft u Mark 16.16 Vnbelief Sorcery x Psal. 64.5 â— Denying Providence y Mark 7.22 Tit. 3.3 Hating God Foolishness z Matt. 15.19 20. Blasphemy Vnthankfulness Headiness Dishonour Want of zeal Perjury a Deut. 5.11 b James 5.12 Common swearing Disobedience Prophaneness c 1 Cor. 10.10 11. Contumacy Injustice Adultery Murther Covetousness Deceit Perâ—idy Circumvention Oppression d 1 Pet. 2.1 2 3. Stealing or tâ—ievery Slander False witness e Lev. 25.14 Luke 18.11 Extortion f 1 Pet. 2.12 Lying Vncharitableness g 1 Tim. 6.4 5. Maliciousness h Matth. 6.14 i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wickedness Envy Malignity Whispering Back-biting Implacableness Vnmercifulness Contâ—inely Revenge â—â—â—roaching enâ—mies i Matth. 5.22 k 1 Pet. 2.1 2 3. Bitterness Anger Wrath. Clamour Evil-speaking Malice l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sâ—rlineâ—s m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnthankfulness Despising and hating good men Hasâ—iness to punish n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vncourteousness o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Difficulty of access Vncondescension Contumely p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mocking Vpbraiding Reproaching q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rigour r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejoycing in evil Variance or Debate s 2 Cor. 12.20 Railing or reviling Censoriousness r Steph. MS reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Make not your self a Judge to censure and give Sentence against any one and you shall not have Sentence given against you Vncharitableness in Alms. Vnhospitableness u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scandalizing weak Brethren Discord x 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emulation or provoking one another Strife or contention Seditions Heresies Schism Vnpeaceableness y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat Ep. ad Phil. Ed. Voss. p. 40. z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnpeaceablenesâ— a 2 Thess. 3.11 12. 1 Pet. 4.15 Bâ—sie Bodies Tale-bearing Tumults Laws in the relation of Subjects to our Sovereigns Dishonour Irreverence Speaking evil of Dignities Resisting lawful Powers Rebellion Refusing Tribute and Taxes Disobedience Traitors Laws in the relation of people to their Pastors Dishonour Irreverence Evil-speaking Mocking Setting them at nought for their works sake Disobedience Not providing for them or not maintaining them b Gal. 6.6 Matth. 10.10 1 Tim. 5.17 18. Sacriledge Laws in the relation of Husband and Wife Vnconcernedness Estrangedness Not bearing each others infirmities Provoking one another Publishing their mutual defects Adultery On the Husbands side Imperiousness Vncompliance Not maintaining his Wife Disobedience of the Wives Laws in the relation of Parents and Children b Ro. 1.31 32. Want of natural affection Disobedience in Children Parents not providing for their Children Provoking them to anger Irreligious education c Prov. 20.20 Gen. 9.22 25. Reproaching Parents Contempt and mocking them Robbing them Contumacy Laws in the relation of Brethren and Sisters Want of natural affection Laws in the relation of Masters and Servants On the Masters side Vnjustness and rigour in commanding Vnequal Government of them Immoderate threatning Railing at them Not maintaining them Defrauding the hireling of his wages On the Servants side Disobedience Vnobâ—ervance Answering again Purloining Vnfaithfâ—lness Dishonour Irreverence Publishing or aggravating their Masters faults d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eye-Eye-service Contumacy e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f Luke 12.48 g Placet Stoicis suo quamque rem nomine appellare Sic enâ—m disserunt nihil esse obscoenum nihil turpe dictu c. Cic. Ep. ad Famil l. 9. Ep. 22. quae est ad L. Papyrium Petum h To prevent Adulteries this sage Cato adviseth to Quidam notus homo cum exiret Fornice Macte virtute esto inquit Seâ—tentia Dia Catonis c. Horat lib. 1. Ser. Sat. 2. Nemo hic prohibâ—t nec vetat quin quod palam est venale si argentum est emas Nemo ire quenquam publica prohibet via dum ne per fundum septum facias semitam dumtete abstineas nupta vidua Virgine Juventute Pueris liberis ama quod lubet Plautus de usu Meretricum in Curculione Act 1. Scen. 1. And Cicero in his defence of Marcus Coelius Vincat aliquando in adolescentibus cupiditas rationem dummodo parcat juventus pudicitiae suae ne spoliet alienam c. Si quis Merâ—triciis amoribus interdictum juventuti putet est ille quidem valde severus abhorret non modo ab hujus seculi licentia verum etiam à majorum consuetudine ac concessis Quando enim hoc non factum est Quando reprehensum Quando non permissum Cic. Orat. pro M. Coelio Upon the account of this Gentile opinion of the lawfulness of Fornication and because they reputed it as an indifferent thing although really and in it self it were most necessary it is sorted amongst other indifferent things in the Canons made for the Gentile World at the Council of Jerusalem Acts 15.20 28 29. i Minerva in Homer when
them not praying at all or using passionate and modish curses or imprecations which is imprecating or praying against them 2. In Children towards their Parents it will cause besides the want of natural affection 1. A low esteem and undervaluing opinion of them in their minds which is dishonour And this if it be joined with a contemptuous disregard and fearless behaviour towards them is irreverence Which is expressed 1. In disowning or disregarding them by reason of their meanness which is being ashamed of them 2. In entertaining their weaknesses and infirmities not with pity and sorrow but with sport and delight turning them into a matter of mirth and laughter This is a mixture of hatred and scorn and is called mocking them 3. In divulging in words and instead of concealing and excusing publishing their faults and defects with reproaching of them and inveighing against them upon the account of them which is malediction or cursing of them 2. Whilst they are under them a spiting and going cross 1. To their Commands by not performing what they require but doing against it which is disobedience 2. To their impositions by not submitting to that restraint and burthen which they lay upon them which is contumaciousness or casting off subjection 3. To their interest by embezilling or secret wasting of their substance which is robbing them 3. When either they are under them or gone from them not recompencing their care and kindness by their relief and service when their Parents need requires it which is not requiting them 4. And instead of praying for them not praying at all or hasty wishing ill to them which is imprecation So that the effects of hatred in this relation or forbidding Laws are to the Parents the Law against want of natural affection against not providing for those of their own house against irreligious and evil education against provoking their Children to anger against not praying for them and imprecation of them To the Children besides that against want of natural affection the Law against dishonour against irreverence against being ashamed of their Parents against mocking them against cursing or reproach and speaking evil of them against disobedience against contumaciousness against robbing them against not praying for them or imprecation of them 3. The third sort of domestick relation that includes some instances of Love that are not due towards all men indifferently but peculiarly towards some is the relation of Brethren and Sisters And these being so nearly allied and partaking of the same blood Love betwixt them will exert it self 1. In a most passionate concern and tender affection for each other which because we seem to be carried on to it by the very force and instinct of our nature without any help of reason or need of being argued up to it is called natural affection 2. And as an effect of this a helping each other by a reciprocal service and when occasion requires by communicating mutually of their substance which S t Paul calls a providing for those of our own Family 1 Tim. 5.8 And in those things which they cannot afford themselves seeking them mutually for each other by prayer And opposite to these are the effects of hatred betwixt them which will effect 1. An unconcernedness for each other or a want of natural affection 2. A not helping of each others needs or not providing for them and not praying to God in each others behalf but making ill wishes mutually which is imprecation So that the effects of Love or commanding Laws in this relation are the Law of natural affection of providing for our Brethren of praying for them and opposite to them the effects of hatred or forbidding Laws are the Law against want of natural affection against not providing for our Brethren against not praying for them and imprecation or praying against them 4. The fourth and last relation is that of Masters and Servants And in this the effects of Love are either 1. From the Masters to the Servants Where Love will produce 1. A care of their Servants as of Members of their own Families both 1. Of their Bodies in provision and maintenance 2. Of their Souls in religious instruction and admonition 2. A Government of them that is not harsh and severe but kind and gentle such as we expect and desire that God who is our Master should use over us which therefore is called by the Apostle our dealing justly and equally with them i. e. so as we would have our Master to deal with us Col. 4.1 In particular observing 1. In our Commands to them Mercy as well as Justice in requiring nothing that God forbids which is unlawful nothing for imperiousness and commands sake only that we may create them work though we our selves receive no benefit which is unprofitable and even where we are advantaged by it nothing lastly which is either above or at least very hard and oppressive to their power and strength which is unproportionable And this is kindness and equity in commanding 2. In our threatnings and punishments tenderness and pity in not threatning and punishing out of will and power or either more or oftener than need requires which the Apostle calls forbearing or moderating threatning Ephes 6.9 3. In our rewards paying them punctually and justly what they have wrought for which is punctual payment of the wages of the Hireling 4. And besides all the kindness which we can do for them our selves whether by rewarding or promoting them procuring moreover all the good which we can for them at Gods hands by praying for them 2. From the Servants to the Masters And the nature of service being a setting over all our powers and abilities for the time to their benefit whom we are to serve the effects of Love in this relation will be 1. An opinion and esteem in the mind of their Masters preheminence and lordship over them which is honour And this being joined with an awfulness and fear of offending him who has both Authority to command and Power to punish is reverence 2. In things which they know he desires and delights in a forward care and ready industry to please him by doing them before they are bidden which is observance And this among other things effects 1. As for his or his Families defects at home concealing or excusing them 2. As for his reputation abroad when 't is injured vindicating and defending it 3. A care of their Masters Goods and carrying suitably to his pleasure always exercising 1. In those things which their Master intrusts them with a true discharge of that trust and the things committed to it which is fidelity 2. In those things which their Master commands a ready performance and execution of them which is obedience The vigorous application of themselves to the dispatch whereof is diligence Which they are to shew not only from the terrour of their Master so long as his eye is over them which the Apostle calls eye-eye-service but from the ready
three more is comprized the Body of our whole Duty If we adde two or three more I say for besides the several Laws already mentioned there are three particular Duties yet remaining of a more positive and arbitrary nature which Christ has bound all Christians to observe and they are the Law of Baptism of the Lords Supper and of Repentance Baptism is our incorporation into the Church of Christ or our entrance into the Gospel Covenant or into all the duties and priviledges of Christians by means of the outward Ceremony of washing or sprinkling in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost The Eucharist or Lords Supper is our Federal Vow or repetition of that engagement which we made at Baptism of performing faith repentance and obedience unto God in expectation of remission of sins eternal happiness and those other promises which by Christ's death are procured for us upon these terms which engagement we solemnly make to God at our eating Bread and drinking Wine in remembrance and commemoration of Christs dying for us Repentance is a forsaking of sin or an amendment of any evil way upon a sorrowful sense and just apprehension of its making us offend God and subjecting us to the danger of death and damnation And if to all the forementioned instances of those three grand Vertues which by the Apostle Tit. 2.12 13 are made the summ of our Christian Duty we join these three positive and additional Laws we have all that whereby God will judge us at the last Day even all those particular Laws whereto our obedience is required as necessary to salvation And thus we have seen what those particulars Laws are which the Gospel indispensably requires us to obey They are no other than those very instances which I have been all this while recounting and describing But because the Catalogue of them hitherto has been broken and interrupted and therefore cannot be run over so easily as might be desired in a matter of that importance I will here repeat them all again for the greater ease of all such pious souls as desire to try themselves by them and place them all in one view and all together The commanding Laws then whereby at the last Day we must all be judged are these that follow The Law of sobriety towards our selves with all its Train which are the Law of humility of heavenly-mindedness of temperance of sobriety of chastity of continence of contempt of the world and contentment of courage and taking up the Cross of diligence and watchfulness of patience of mortification and self-denial The Law of piety towards God with all its Branches which are the Law of honour of worship of faith and knowledge of love of zeal of trust and dependance of prayer of thankfulness of fear of submission and resignedness of obedience The Law of Justice towards men in all its parts which will be seen by the contrary prohibitions of injustice The Law of Charity in all its instances which are the Law of goodness or kindness of honour for our Brethrens Vertues of pity and succour of restraining our Christian Liberty for our weak Brothers edification of friendly reproof of brotherly kindness of congratulation of compassion of almes and distribution of covering and concealing their defects of vindicating their reputation of affability or graciousness of courtesy and officiousness of condescension of hospitality of gentleness of candor of unity of thankfulness of meekness or lenity of placableness of forgiving injuries of doing good to enemies and when nothing more is in our power praying for them and blessing or speaking what is good of them when we take occasion to mention them of long-suffering of mercifulness The Law of Peace and Concord with all its Train as are the Law of peaceableness of condescension and compliance of doing our own business of satisfying for injuries of peace-making The Law of love to Kings and Princes in all its Particulars which are the Law of honour of reverence of paying Tribute and Customes of fidelity of praying for them of obedience of subjection The Law of love to our Bishops and Ministers with all its expressions which are the Law of honour or having them highly in esteem for their works sake of reverence of maintenance of praying for them of obedience The Law of Love in the particular relation of Husband and Wife with all its Branches which are on both sides the Law of mutual concern and communicating in each others bliss or misery of bearing each others infirmities of prayer of fidelity On the Husbands towards his Wife the Law of providing for her of protecting her of flexible and winning Government of compliance and condescension On the Wives towards her Husband the Law of honour of reverence of observance and obedience of subjection The Law of Love in the particular relation of Parents and Children with its several effects which are from the Parents towards their Children the Law of natural affection of maintenance and provision of honest education of loving Government of bringing them up in the institution and fear of God of prayer for them From the Children towards their Parents besides the Duty of natural affection common to both the Law of honour of reverence of obedience of subjection of requiting upon occasion their care and kindness of prayer for them The Law of Love in the particular relation of Brethren and Sisters with all its instances which are the Law of natural affection of providing for our Brethren of praying for them The Law of Love in the particular relation of Master and Servant with its several expressions which are on the Masters side the Law of maintenance of religious instruction of a just and equal Government of them of kindness and equity in commanding of forbearance and moderation in threatning of punctual payment of the wages of the Hireling of praying for them On the Servants the Law of honour of reverence of observance of concealing and excusing their Masters defects of vindicating their injured reputation of fidelity of obedience of diligence of willing and hearty service of patient submission and subjection of praying for them To all which we may add the two arbitrary institutions and positive Laws of the Gospel Baptism and the Eucharist or Lords Supper and when we transgress in any of the instances forementioned that great and only remedy of Christs Religion the Law of repentance This so far as I can call to mind at present is a just enumeration of those particular Injunctions and Commands of God whereto our obedience is indispensably required and whereby at the last Day we must all be judged either to live or dye eternally But supposing that some particular instances of Love and Duty are omitted in this Catalogue yet need this be prejudicial to no mans happiness since that defect will be otherwise supplied For as for such omitted instances where there is an occasion for them and an opportunity offered to exercise
are on both sides the Law against unconcernedness in each others condition against not bearing each others infirmities against provoking one another against estrangedness against strife or contention against hatred and enmity against publishing each others infirmities against not praying for each other against adultery against jealousie On the Husbands towards the Wife the Law against not maintaining her against not protecting her against imperiousness against uncompliance or uncondescension On the Wives towards her Husband the Law against dishonour against irreverence against unobservance against disobedience against casting off his yoke or unsubjection The Law against hatred in the particular relation of Parents and Children with all its Instances which are on both sides the Law against want of natural affection against not praying for each other and imprecation On the Parents side the Law against not providing for those of their own house against irreligious and evil education against harsh Government or provoking their Children to anger On the Childrens the Law against dishonour against irreverence against being ashamed of their Parents against mocking them against cursing or reproach and speaking evil of them against disobedience against contumaciousness against robbing them The Law against hatred in the particular relation of Brethren and Sisters with its effects which are the Law against want of natural affection against not providing for our Brethren against not praying for them against imprecation or praying against them The Law against hatred in the particular relation of Master and Servant with all its expressions which are on the Masters side the Law against not providing maintenance for his Servant against not catechizing or instructing him against unequal Government against unjustness wantonness and rigour in commanding against imperiousness against immoderate threatning against railing at him against defrauding or keeping back the wages of the Hireling against not praying for him against imprecation And on the Servants the Law against dishonour of his Master against irreverence against non-observance against publishing or aggravating his Masters faults against not vindicating his injured reputation against unfaithfulness against wasting his Goods against purloining against disobedience against answering again against slothfulness against eye-eye-service against contumacy and resistance against not praying for him against imprecation or praying against him To all which we must adde the two positive and arbitrary prohibitions of the Gospel the Law against neglecting Baptism and the Lords Supper And when we wilfully transgress any one or more of the Commands foregoing a perseverance in it without amending it which is impenitence And these are those particular prohibitions whereto our obedience is indispensably required by the Gospel and whereby at the last Day we must all be judged And for the performance of all these Commands and keeping back from all these prohibitions when it is become any mans habitual course and practice it is oft-times expressed by the general word holiness as the contrary is by unholiness CHAP. V. Of the Sanction of the foregoing Laws The CONTENTS Of the Sanction of all the forementioned particular Laws That they are bound upon us by our hopes of Heaven and our fears of Hell Of the Sanction of all the particular affirmative or commanding Laws NOW it is upon our obedience of all those Laws which are mentioned in the foregoing Chapters that all our well-grounded hope of pardon and a happy Sentence at the last Day depends They are that Rule which God has fixt for the Proceedings at that Judgment whereby all of us will be doomed to live or dye eternally There is not any one of them left naked and unguarded for men to transgress at pleasure and yet to go unpunished but the performance of every one is made necessary unto life and the unrepented transgression of it threatned with eternal damnation And that it is so is plain from this because almost the whole Body of them viz. all those which are implyed in piety towards God and in Justice Charity and peaceableness towards men are nothing else but instances and effects of Love which is plainly necessary and that in the greatest latitude For the words of the Command are as comprehensive as can be That thou mayest inherit eternal life thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind which plainly take in our whole affection towards God and every part and expression of it and thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self which again implies all instances of love towards other men seeing towards our own selves not any one is wanting This do and thou shalt live Luke 10.25 27 28. So that in shewing of them all that they are natural effects of an universal love I have shewn withal that they are necessary means of life and conditions of salvation This is a plain mark whereby it is obvious and easie for us all to understand what Laws are necessary terms of life For every mans heart can inform him what are the natural effects of love they being such things as the meanest reason may discern nay such as every mans affection will suggest to him And because they are so the Apostles themselves when they set down Catalogues of indispensable Laws never descend to reckon up all particulars but having plainly declared the absolute necessity of an ample and universal love in the general they content themselves with naming some few instances of it and leave the rest which are like unto them to be suggested to us by our own minds And the same course they take in recounting those sins which are opposite to them and which without repentance will certainly destroy us Thus for instance in S t Paul's Catalogue of damning sins Gal. 5. he doth not trouble himself to name all particulars but having mentioned several of them he concludes with this general intimation of the rest and such like vers 21. This way then of shewing the necessity of all the forementioned Laws by shewing expresly that Love in the general is plainly necessary and leaving it to mens own minds to collect of them all severally that they are natural effects of it is sufficient in it self and such as the Apostles of our Lord are wont to take up with But because our belief of the necessity of our obedience in all the preceding particulars is of so great moment and it is so infinitely our concern to be fixt and settled in it I will here set down such express declarations of it in every one of them as are to be met with in the Scriptures And to begin with the several Classes of them in the same order wherein they are laid down for sobriety and all the particular Laws comprehended under it we have their sanction set down and the necessity of our obedience to them to our life and pardon expressed in the following Scriptures For the Law of humility and lowliness of mind take these Put on as necessary qualifications
in opposition to some who vented contrary Doctrines who upon the account of those Rules which they gave their Followers opposite to these are called abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate Chap. 1.16 Let as many Servants as are under the Yoke count their own Masters worthy of all honour and not despise and dishonour them by their irreverent behaviour publishing their faults and wounding their reputation that the Name of God and the Christian Doctrine be not blasphemed or evil spoken of through the contrary usage If any man teach otherwise he is proud knowing nothing 1 Tim. 6.1 2 3 4. Servants obey your Masters not with eye-eye-service but heartily and in singleness or simplicity of heart without acting double viz. something whilst their eye is over you but nothing when it is off you which you are bound to do not only out of a dread of your Masters anger but as fearing God who will be sure to punish you although your Master should not take notice of you Col. 3.22 Servants he not stubborn and contumacious but subject to your Masters with all fear and reverence and that not only to the good and gentle or equitable and moderate but also to the hasty and morose or froward For if when you do well and suffer for it you yet take it patiently this is truly thank-worthy and acceptable to God And indeed hereunto are you called in Christianity to suffer many times unjustly but still with patience as Christ did that hereafter you may reign with him also 1 Pet. 2.18 19 20 21. Thus is our observation of these particular prohibitions plainly necessary unto life and indispensably required to mercy and salvation And as for that small remainder of them which are not expresly insisted on in this proof their necessity is sufficiently evidenced by the indispensableness of the opposite Commands which in the proof of the affirmative Laws is shown expresly As to all the particular Laws then recited in the foregoing Catalogues whether they be affirmative or negative Commands or Prohibitions 't is plain that they are all bound upon us by the severest sanction no less than our fears of Hell and hopes of Heaven They are the adaequate and compleat matter of that obedience which is to secure for us a happy Sentence At the last Day we must all stand or fall by them where they promise God will bestow rewards but if they threaten he will eternally condemn us And thus at length it plainly appears what those particular Laws are which under the sanctions of Life or Death the Gospel indispensably binds us to obey And upon the whole we see That when we become Christians we are not turned loose and set at liberty to do what we list but are put under a most strict Rule and bound up by a most exalted purity and a most compleat and perfect love The height of our Duty is answerable to the greatness of our Priviledges and advantages For as never any people had so much Grace given to them as we Christians have by the Gospel so never was there of any so much Duty required The poor Heathens who knew nothing more either of Gods Laws or of his rewards and encouragements than they could argue themselves into a belief of by the strength of their own wit and reason knew nothing of nor shall at the last Day be condemned for the transgression of several of those Commands which we shall dye for So far were they from thinking that in the judgment of God lasciviousness uncleanness filthy talk and obscene jests deserved death that as wise men as any among them did not believe it of Fornication and Whoredome it self They were in no fear of being called to account then and being found liable to eternal punishment for being angry at an enemy for cursing or reproaching for praying to the Gods against him nay nor for other higher acts of malice and revenge They never dreamed of being condemned for censoriousness uncourteousness surliness malignity mockery upbraiding reproach and least of all for scandalizing an ignorant and weak Neighbour or not relieving an enemy for not taking up the Cross or not mortifying their own Bodies Vain-glory and emulation they looked upon as deserving commendation rather than reproof and boasting and ostentation when it had no mixture of ill design but was only for boastings sake even they who would find fault with it rebuked only as a vanity but not as a mortal crime The most that any of them could say of these or of several others which it would be too tedious to mention was that it would be a point of praise for men to observe them but not of duty they might be advised to it by a sage Philosopher but not imposed and commanded by a Judge and Lawgiver Thus dark and defective was that sense of Duty which governed the heathen World The priviledg of a clear and full revelation of it which God in great degrees afforded the Jews under the Law of Moses and us Christians in the compleatest measures under the Gospel of Christ was a Grace and Favour which he did not vouchsafe them He shewed as the Psalmist says his Word unto Jacob and his Statutes unto Israel but he hath not dealt so with any of the heathen Nations for as for his Judgments or those Laws which we are to be judged by they have not known several of them Psal. 147.19 20. And since not only the poor and ignorant but even the more wise and learned sort of Heathens were thus void of knowledge in the simplicity of their hearts and did not discern several of those to be Laws of God which every one of us may discern most clearly if we will although we must stand or fall by them yet they shall not but when they are brought to Judgment they shall go unpunished for their transgressions of them because they did not know them They shall not be condemned for acting against they knew not what nor suffer for the breach of such Laws as were not sufficiently published and proclaimed to them They that sinned without our Law shall also perish not by it but without our Law according to the Sentence of such other Laws as are not ours but their own and it is only as many as have sinned in or under our Law that shall be judged and condemned by the Law Rom. 2.12 Whatsoever they may suffer then for their transgressions of their own plain natural Laws which all of them might have known that had a mind to it they shall not be punished for their ignorant breach of such as are peculiarly ours but that part of their offences shall be overlooked and graciously connived at For those times of ignorance saith the Apostle God winked or connived at Acts 17.30 And as for the Jews although they had a stricter Rule and a more perfect Precept answerable to their clearer light and
with all thy heart or will and with all thy soul or affections and with all thy strength or executive and bodily powers and with all thy mind or understanding Luke 10.25 26 27 28. Obedience with all these powers and with our whole Nature is the means of life and the indispensable condition of our eternal happiness First We must keep all Gods Commandments with our minds or understandings It is a dangerous conceit for any man to phansie that he may be as sinful as he will in his thoughts so long as he only loves and chuses projects and contrives for the forbidden instance in his mind but doth not proceed so far as to obey it in his outward practice For at the last Day we must be called to account and justified or condemned by the counsels and imaginations of our minds as well as by the works of our lives For not only the works and practice but also the thoughts of the wicked or of wickedness are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 15.26 The thought of foolishness is sin Prov. 24.9 And since God forbids and hates them as ever we hope for his favour we must repent of them and forsake them Let the wicked man forsake his thoughts saith the Prophet and turn them from his sin unto the Lord and then he will have mercy upon him and abundantly pardon him Isai. 55.7 For the warfare that God has set us after which we are to attain the reward of eternal happiness is a casting down imaginations as the Apostle tells us and bringing into captivity every rebellious thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. In particular this obedience of our minds to the Law of God must be as a doing what he enjoins so likewise a keeping off from every thing which he forbids First In our imaginations We must not phansie it in our minds with love and delight nor indulge to any thoughts of it with such pleasure as may be a bait to our choice and weaken our aversation and hatred of it and thereby ensnare us into the practice of it Our warfare as we have heard from the Apostle must not be against actions only but against imaginations also and insnaring phancies of evil casting down rebellious imaginations and making every thought obedient to the Laws of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. And in the old world when the imaginations of mens thoughts were always evil it repented the Lord that he had made man insomuch as he resolved to destroy him Gen. 6.5 6 7. Secondly In our counsels and contrivances We must not study what means are fittest what times are best and what manner is most advantageous for the acting of our sins They must no more have our care and contrivance than our service and obedience For if we cast about in our thoughts and consult about the most commodious way of committing any sin although all our designs be defeated before we come to any effect yet shall we be damned for our contrivance as well as we should for the compleat action And this our Lord himself has plainly determined in one instance and the Case is the same in all the rest For of the contrivances and machinations of murther he assures us That they as well as murther it self are of the number of those things which pollute a man and so utterly unfit him for Heaven where nothing can ever enter that is polluted or unclean Out of the heart saith he proceed evil thoughts or murtherous machinations and besides them compleat murthers adulteries c. and these defile the man Matth. 15 19. And as for that particular sort of contriving for sin which is the height and perfection of villany viz. the inventing of new and before unknown ways of transgressing it of all others is sure to meet with the severest punishment and to thrust men down into the deepest Abyss of Hell Of this sort are all invention of new Oaths new Nick-names or evil speakings new frauds and methods of couzenage new incentives of lust new modes of drinking and arts of intemperance But of these and of all others that are like unto them God will one day exact a most rigorous and terrible account For he that deviseth to do evil saith Solomon although he himself doth not act but only devise it he shall be called and dealt with as a mischievous and wicked person Prov. 24.8 And S t Pauls words are full to this purpose For he tells us expresly that in the judgment of God inventers of evil things shall be declared worthy of death Rom. 1.30 32. As for our minds or understandings then they are one faculty which is plainly implied in the Integrity of our service and without the obedience whereof at the last day God will not accept us And another faculty implied in it likewise is Secondly Our Soul or Affections It is a vain thing for any man to love and set his heart upon any particular sin and yet for all that to expect that God should love and reward him If I regard iniquity in my heart saith the Psalmist the Lord will not hear me Psal. 66.18 No man as our Saviour sayes can serve two masters for if he love the one for his sake when their interests enterfere he will hate the other so that we cannot serve God if with our affections we continue to serve sin Mat. 6.24 To pretend obedience to God and yet to love what he sorbids to make a show of his service and yet in our very hearts to hanker after his vilest enemies whom above all things his soul abhors this surely is not honestly to serve but grosly to collogue and slatly to dissemble with him For in very deed if any man love sin he sides with Gods enemy but for the service and fear of the Lord it is to hate evil Prov. 8.13 If ever we expect that God should accept our works we must offer up our affections with them For if our hearts go along with our lusts whilst our practice is against them we serve God only against our wills we submit to him as a slave doth to a tyrannous Lord not through any kindness for him but through a hatefull fear of him We utterly dislike what he bids us but yet we do it only because we dare not do otherwise But now this is such a way of performing obedience as God will never endure to accept of For he scorns to be served by a slavish fear and an unwilling mind he will never look upon a heartless sacrifice but it is the affection that we do it with which makes him set a price upon any thing that we do and our love that he regards more than our performance For this is that very thing which was thought fit to be mentioned in the command it self Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind Mat. 22.37 'T is true indeed we do not find our affection so quick and
upon them They have trampled already upon all spiritual aids and benummed and silenced their own Consciences and quite hardened themselves in their wickedness so that now they have nothing to hinder them but advance to work all manner of sin with greediness and wantonness and thereby fall under the severest curse that can be met with in Hell and damnation And as for this progress of all Renegado Saints and revolting Sinners both in sin and also in suffering the Scripture is express and plain When the unclean Spirit which is once gone out of a man returns into him again says our Saviour he taketh unto himself seven other Spirits which are more wicked than he himself is and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is made worse in all respects by this means than the first Matth. 12.43 44 45. The man becomes a greater Sinner and a greater Sufferer than otherwise he ever would have been For if after men have once escaped the pollution of the world through the knowledg of Christ's Gospel they are again entangled therein and overcome by it then is the latter end worse with them than the beginning For it had really been by much the better for them not to have known the way of righteousness at all than after they have known and walked in it to put such a slur upon it and to revolt and turn from the holy Commandment which was delivered unto them and for some time embraced by them 2 Pet. 2.20 21. As for an obedience then which goes but half way and breaks off before it has got to the end so far is it from availing us unto pardon and life that in very deed it renders our present case more desperate and our future punishment more insupportable But that obedience which God will accept and in which alone we may safely place our confidence must be as of our whole man so of our whole time likewise We must persevere in it through all Seasons and take care both to live and dye in it For our reward will be dispensed out to us according to the nature of our service at the time of payment and he only as our Saviour says that endureth to the end shall be saved Matth. 10.22 CHAP. VI. Of the third sort of integrity viz. that of the Object or of obedience to all the particular Laws and parts of Duty The CONTENTS Of the partiality of mens obedience from their love of some particular sins Three pretences whereby they justifie the allowed practice of some sins whilst they are obedient in some other instances The first pretence is the preservation of their Religion and themselves in times of persecution A particular account of mens disobedience under this pretence The vanity of it shown from the following considerations Religion needs not to be rescued from persecution The freedom of outward means of Religion is restrained by it but the substance of Religion it self is not It is extended in some parts and ennobled in all by sufferings Where it needs to be defended disobedience is no fit means to preserve it because God cannot be honoured nor Religion served by it Religion and the love of God is only the colour but the true and real cause of such disobedience is a want of Religion and too great a love of mens own selves Men are liable to be deceived by this pretence from a wrong Notion of Religion for religious opinions and professions A true Notion of Religion for religious practice upon a religious belief as it implies both faith and obedience The danger of disobedience upon this pretence The practice of all religious men in this case Of Religion in the narrow acceptation for religious professions and opinions The commendable way of mens preserving it First By acting within their own sphere Secondly By the use only of lawful means Thirdly By a zeal in the first place for the practice of religious Laws and next to that for the free profession of religious opinions BUT to render our service perfectly intire and compleatly upright it is not enough that there be an integrity of the Subject by our obeying with all our powers or an integrity of time by our obeying in all Seasons of which two I have discoursed hitherto but it is further necessary that there be an integrity of the Object also or that what we do thus obey with our whole man and our whole time be nothing less than all the particular Laws of Duty and instances of Obedience nothing under the whole will of God We must not pick and chuse in the doing of our Duty for if we do not obey all we obey not right in any Because all the Laws of God are bound upon us by the same power and enjoyned by the same Authority so that if we fulfil any one upon this account of his having required it the same reason holds for our fulfilling all the rest This indeed is very hardly believed because it is so hard to practise For almost every man has some sin or other which he can as well dye as part with It has got his heart and is become the Master of his affections and since he loves it so dearly he hopes that God will bear with it too He will part with any thing else for Gods sake he will not stick at any other service nor repine at any other imposition all that he craves is only to be tolerated in his Darling Lust and to be allowed to serve him without cutting off what is as useful as his right hand or pulling out what is as dear to him as his own right eye to please him And when men are thus desirous of reconciling the service of God with the service of their lusts when they are resolved to hope and yet resolved to sin they have no other way but to perswade themselves that the keeping of some Precepts shall attone for the transgression of others and to bear up themselves with the delusive hopes and false confidences of a partial and a half obedience They presently forge new terms of life and pardon which God never made and which he will never stand to for finding that they do not perform all his Laws and yet resolving that what they do perform shall be sufficient for them they straightway fansie that if they do keep some for the rest they shall have a Dispensation It shall be enough for them to part with such lusts for Gods sake as they can best spare but some they will keep and them he must allow and so instead of a perfect and intire they put him off with a partial and a maimed service Now this partiality of obedience is in so many kinds as men have sins that are endeared to them which they will not leave for God's sake but join with him For every beloved sin can make an interest and Party and if it reign in us so far as to make us fulfil it and
are likewise unchosen and so unavoidable are not eternally punishable by the Gospel but consistent with a state of Grace and Salvation will further appear if we consider First The Nature of God Secondly The nature and plain declarations of the Gospel 1. I say their consistency with a state of Grace or Gods favour will plainly appear if we consider the Nature of God God is the most Gracious Loving and good natured Being in the whole world For all the love and kindness that appears among us men proceeds from him and makes us to resemble him and to be like unto him Nay he is not only Loving but even Love it self For God sayes S t John is Love and he who dwells in love dwells in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4.16 And if we will take that character which he gives of himself it is wholly made up of the various instances of Mercy and Goodness The Lord sayes he to Moses the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Exod. 34.6 7. All his delight is in exercising Love and showing kindness For he swears to us as he lives that he has no delight at all in the death of a sinner but had rather that every wicked man should turn from his wickedness and live Ezech. 33.11 He is by no means forward to espie faults or malicious to misconstrue actions or prone to admit of provocation or implacably angry when he is once provoked or cruelly vindictive when once he is angred The Lord saith the Psalmist is mercifull and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy He will not alwayes chide when he has just reason for it nor keepeth he his anger for ever Psal. 103.8 9. He is not at all of the humour of severe masters who are prone to take offence but like a most tender father he is all benignity and goodness For if any thing be pitiable he pities it if any thing is done amiss he is slow to wrath and easie to forgive it Like as a father pitieth his own children even so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Psal. 103.13 Nay take this Love and Pity of a Parent where it is at the highest pitch of all viz. in mothers towards their most helpless and so most pitiable infants and yet this tenderness of God doth infinitely exceed it Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yea they may forget sayes God by his Prophet Isaiah but I will not forget thee Isa. 49.15 Thus Loving Pitiful and Benign a Nature do the Scriptures represent God to be And what they declare of him all the world have experienced and found by him For every impenitent sinner is a lasting monument of his long-suffering and forbearance and every prosperous event and deliverance in the world is an effect of his boundless love and kindness He is infinitely good beyond all desert nay in spite of all provocation For he is loving even unto the unthankfull and the evil making his sun to shine and his rain to fall and all the other mâ—râ—ies of life to descend upon the unjust as well as upon the just upon them who contemn as well as on them who obey him as our Saviour observed Mat. 5.45 Luk. 6.35 And this he is to such an astonishing degree as to bestow upon them not only the blessings of his substance of his protection and of his kind providence but also what is a wonder to conceive for their sakes to part with his own well-beloved and so much the more beloved because his only begotten Son For God as saith the Apostle hath recommended his love to us in that whil'st we were sinners and enemies Christ his Son came from him and died for us Rom. 5.8 Thus wondrously pitiful obliging and good natured then is God according to that account which both the Scripture and the Experience of the whole world give of him And now let any man think with himself how so surpassing kind and infinitely gracious a nature as this is like to be affected with the ignorant or inconsiderate slips and errours of his Servants Will he be utterly offended with them so as quite to cast them off and for ever to condemn them No certainly but in great mercy he will pity and bear with them For these slips where we do not consider or where we err and do not understand our duty are such instances of disobedience as imply nothing of contempt or of a rebellious heart nor have any thing of our will in them They are clearly involuntary so that whatsoever the action may appear to be the will it self is innocent For the disobedience cannot be chosen since it is not understood which indeed in the notion and interpretation of Gods Law makes it not to be that sin and disobedience which is threatned but something else for that sin as S t John tells us is a rejecting or a renouncing of the Law whereas in these slips where we do not see it 't is plain that we cannot renounce it And since they have nothing in them of a disobedient will or of a rebellous heart can any man think that so gracious and pitifull a nature should be so highly provoked with them as for ever to condemn his own honest servants and otherwise obedient children upon the account of them Whosoever thou art who art inclined to think thus let me advise thee to consider a little what Love is and whether it can possibly be guilty of such hard usage If thou hast any competent degrees of that Love and Pity in thine own heart which are so infinite in God bethink thy self whether thou could'st do it for that is the way and thence take thy measures in judging whether or no God can Doth any gracious master use that severity towards the oversights and indiscretions of his honest servant or to rise yet higher can any tender Parent show that rigour upon every errour and inconsideration of his heartily obedient child Is not every good man prone to pass by such offences as are committed unwillingly against him and the more he has of goodness is he not still more forward to pardon and bear with them There is no Nature upon Earth that is kind and pitifull but will make allowances for those things which proceed from want of understanding and will pass over those miscarriages which imply nothing of ill will or ill intention Every good man will overlook and connive at them when they are committed by a perfect stranger but then most of all when they are incurr'd by his own intimate and dear acquaintance or relations by his own servant or his own child This I say every good and loving man doth and the more he has of love and goodness the proner still he is to do it For it is a natural and inseparable effect of charity so
most eminently skill'd in all the Laws of God S t Paul is not certain but that some such ignorance adhered to himself I know or am conscious of nothing by my self saith he but yet I am not hereby justified because some such sins may have escaped my knowledge 1 Cor. 4.4 Why sayes S t Chrysostome should the Apostle say that he is not thereby justified although he is conscious of nothing by himself wherefore he should be condemned because it might so happen that he had committed several acts of sin which at the time of action for all his knowledge of the Laws themselves he did not know were sinfull And this is no more than holy David the man after Gods own heart thought he had reason to suspect himself for before him who says he can understand his errours cleanse thou me from my secret faults Psal. 19.12 The best men in all times whether Jews or Christians have been subject to miscarriages through this sort of ignorance and God who is never wanting to the necessities of his servants has alwayes provided a sufficient atonement and propitiation for them For under the Law if any honest Israelite happen'd to do any thing which was forbidden to be done by the Commandment of the Lord and wist not that it was forbidden Moses appointed the Priests to make an expiation for him and several atonements for that purpose are set down Levit. 4. And under the Gospel our Saviour Christ by whom Grace and Favour is said to be given much more largely than it was by the Law of Moses has provided us of a much more powerfull and valuable propitiation He himself by virtue of his own sacrifice atones for all such unknown offences as well as the Jewish Priests did by their Sacrifices which were prescribed in the Law of Moses For in comparison of the two Priesthoods as to that part of their Office which lay in making these atonements S t Paul assures us that like as the Jewish Priests had so Christ can have compassion upon the ignorant Heb. 5.2 As for those transgressions then which are therefore involuntary and unchosen because we do not know that the Law which they are against doth comprehend them they shall not finally damn any man So long as we have an honest heart that is ready to perform what it knows and unfeignedly desirous and industrious to know more that it may perform it likewise if in some things still we happen ignorantly to offend such ignorant offences shall not prove our ruine For our ignorance will excuse our sin and make it consistent with Gods Favour and with all the hopes and happiness of heaven Nay even where our heart is not so honest as it should be and we are ignorant of the present actions being comprized under that sin which the Law forbids through our own fault yet even there our ignorance although it cannot wholly excuse doth still extenuate our sin and proportionably abate our punishment Perhaps it is our rashness or inconsiderateness or violent pursuit of some opinions and prejudice against others which makes us judge wrong of some particular actions and not to see that they are included in the prohibition of some known Law when really they are Nay so far may our mistake go as not only to judge them to be no sinfull breaches of these Laws but moreover to be virtuous performances of others For our Saviour tells his Disciples that the time was coming when even they who killed them should think that thereby they did God good service Joh. 16.2 And S t Paul sayes plainly that he verily thought with himself that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth Acts 26.9 All which murders and persecutions they were ignorantly guilty of not as if they did not know the Laws against murder and persecution but because they thought their present actions to be unconcern'd in them and not forbid by them nay on the contrary to be warranted and injoyn'd by other Laws requiring zeal for God and judgment against false Prophets Now this Ignorance was such as they might very well have prevented had they been calm and considerate humble and teachable and would have hearkned honestly and with an even mind to that evidence which Christ gave of his being the Messiah which was sufficient to convince any honest mind And this patience humility and teachableness were in their own Power to have exercised if they would so that they were ignorant in good measure through their own choice and by a wilful neglect of those means which would have brought them to a true belief and a right understanding And since their Ignorance was thus a matter of their own choice it is their sin and they must answer for it But although being as I say their own fault it could not wholly excuse yet was it fit to lessen and mitigate their crime and to abate their punishment Their account should be less by reason of their Ignorance and the sinfull actions being committed with an honest heart through a misguided understanding were much more prepared for pardon than otherwise they would have been And this Christ himself has plainly taught us when he uses it as an argument with his Father for the forgiveness of that sinfull murder of the Jews whereof they were guilty in his Crucifixion Father sayes he forgive them for they know not what they do their killing of me they take to be no sinful murther of an innocent and anointed person but a virtuous execution of a lying Prophet Luk. 23.34 And this likewise S t Paul experienced I obtained Mercy sayes he for persecuting the Church of God because I did it ignorantly not thinking it to be a sinfull persecution but a pious service 1 Tim. 1.13 Yea if the culpaâ—le ignorance be either of the Law it self or of our present actions being contained under it â—â—though God should not call us to repentance for what we ignorantly committed and so to pardon yet even unpardoned we shall undergo a much lighter punishment by reason of our ignorance than we should have suffered had we sinned in knowledge For in this Point the words of our Lord and Judge are express He who knew not his Masters will and did things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes Luke 12.48 This allowance the Gospel makes for our sinful actions so long as we are ignorant that the Laws which they are against do include and comprehend them Whilst our Consciences are in darkness about them and we do not see that we transgress in them though that ignorance were in good measure culpably wilful we should obtain a milder punishment but if it were involuntary and innocent we shall be fully acquitted and excused This allowance I say there is whilst our sin is ignorant and our Consciences do not see that the known Law is transgressed by our sinful action But if our Consciences should come to know so
our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another to the open owning and frequenting of them and this we ought to do so much the more forasmuch as ye see the day of Gods righteous Judgment approaching For if we sin wilfully in this backsliding from the publick Assemblies and from the profession of the Christian Faith after that we have once received the knowledge or professed belief and acknowledgment of the truth of it there remains no more benefit to us from Christs sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of that judgment I say which shall devour the adversaries And this all you Hebrews have reason to expect from Christ from what you very well know of the manner of proceeding in such cases under Moses For he that despised or rejected the whole yea or even any one particular instance of Moses's Law whereto death was threatned dyed without mercy if the thing was proved against him under the testimony of two or three witnesses And then of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall this wilful sinner be thought worthy who hath by such wilful rejecting of all Christs Laws and Religion trodden under foot the Son of God as if he were not raised up again from the dead but were yet in his grave and hath accounted that blood of his which confirmed the New Covenant and wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing making it to have been justly shed as the blood of a Malefactor and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace and all its evidence by rejecting it as insufficient I have set down the place at large that the very Text it self may afford us an accumulated proof of the ensuing Explication But now as for this sin which being wilfully committed after the belief and acknowledgment of Christs Gospel is here said to have no help from Christs Sacrifice nor any benefit of his Propitiation it is not the sinful transgression of every Law of Christ no nor of any one but a total Apostasie and abrenunciation of them all The sin I say which being wilfully committed after the belief of Christs Gospel is here said to exclude us from all benefit of Christs Sacrifice is not the transgression of any of Christs Laws whatsoever nay nor of any one For the Corinthians were guilty of the wilful transgression of several Laws and that too after they had embraced the Faith of Christ. They were guilty of an indulged Lasciviousness Vncleanness and Fornication 2 Cor. 12.21 Nay one of them was guilty of it in such an instance as was not so much as named and much less practised among the Gentiles themselves viz. in a most incestuous marrying of his Step-mother or his Fathers wife 1 Cor. 5.1 And St. Peter a great Apostle after three years converse with his Lord and Master denies him three times and that not suddenly e're he could bethink himself but after a due space of time between one denial and another Luk. 22.57 58 59. All which he did in the most aggravated manner by accumulating perjuries and prophaneness upon the sin of disowning his Master for when his bare word would not be believed he began to curse and to swear that he knew him not Mar. 14.71 All these were sins wilful in their commission and some of them most highly criminal in their nature but yet none of them was excluded from the benefit of Christs Sacrifice for they all enjoyed it So that it is not any one transgression of a particular Law after men have embraced the Faith of Christ which is the un-atoned sin here mentioned But it is an utter rejecting of all the Laws of Christ and a total Apostasie from his whole Religion It is the renouncing of Christs Authority the disowning of his Gospel and falling quite off from him to Judaism or Paganism or something directly Antichristian which is the sin here intended And whosoever doth this wilfully after he has once acknowledged it and been convinced by it as most men if not every man must do who is guilty of it at all for him there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour him and all other Antichristian adversaries That the word which is here translated sin signifies sometimes not all sin in general but particularly this superlative height and aggregation of all sin an utter revolt from Gods service and Apostasie from his whole Religion appears plainly from 2 Pet. 2 where the Apostate Angels are called the Angels that sinned v. 4. And that this particular way of sinning by an universal Apostasie and falling quite off from the profession of the Christian Faith is that very sin which is here intended will appear from all those things which are spoken of it in this place 'T is plain from the Apostles exhortation against it Let us hold fast says he the profession of our faith and not revolt from it v. 23. From his further disswasion from it in the verse next but one not forsaking the Christian Assemblies which is a great step towards the disowning of Christ himself as the manner of some is v. 25. From his Character of it in the verses that follow it being a sin that includes in it all these instances of aggravation By it we become utterly Antichristian and Adversaries to Christ and his Religion the fiery indignation that is kindled by this sin shall devour all them who by reason of it are become Adversaries ver 27. By it we deny Christ to be risen and look upon the Son of God as yet in the Grave and under our feet we count his blood which was spilt for the confirmation of the New Covenant to have been the impure and unholy blood of a Malefactor justly executed we despise all the clear proof and convictive evidence of the Spirit of Grace which we once thought a sufficient Argument for his Religion and whereby we were moved to the acknowledgment of that truth of his which now we contumeliously reject Whosoever hath committed this sin saith the Apostle I will show him what he hath done he hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an holy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace ver 29. As for the sin then which is here spoken of it is plainly this viz. a sin that is contrary to the holding fast of our Christian profession that implies a forsaking of the Christian Assemblies that makes us open enemies and adversaries to Christ and his cause seeing thereby we deny Christ to be risen and affirm him to have been an Impostor and his blood to have been like that of the Thieves which were crucified with him unholy and impure as the blood of a Malefactor and set at nought all the miraculous proofs and despise all the convictive evidence of the Holy Ghost that Spirit of Grace which