this your Thought But lest it should leave behind it some Scruples in you I think these things may with Innocence be replyed unto it Viz. That though there are many that refuse the great Love of our Lord in his Laws and the Happiness promised in the Gospel yet some there are who do entertain and embrace them and who always shall do so When Elijah thought that He even He alone was left a true Worshipper of the God of Israel there were Seven Thousand in Israel who had not bow'd their Knee to Baal 1 Kings 19.18 Our Lawgiver hath and for ever will have a flock of Obedient ones though a little flock it be And better it is sure that some through the Gospel should be Saved than that all without it should Perish What Numbers there are that shall be Saved there is none can tell for the Faithful here in the Visible Church are in a sort Invisible unto us But They will through the Divine Goodness be greater than some severe ones have been willing to think them With more Charity unto Men and more Reverence unto God's Mercy which is over all his Works we may trust that God will not permit the Work of his own Hands and the purchase of his Son's Blood to be so much destroy'd since he hath assured us he hath no delight in the Death of a Sinner But leaving the Number of Those who shall be Saved unto God and praying that he would every day increase his Kingdom we may affirm be the Number what it will That it is better for their Sakes who obey these Holy Laws that the Gospel hath been Reveal'd than it would have been for theirs who Disobey them that it should never have been made known And there is some Reason to think that the Happiness of Holy Men in Heaven how few soever they shall be who shall reach thereunto will in the whole be greater unto Them than all the Torments of Hell shall be to the Damned how numerous soever they are Because the Merits of our Lord which were truly infinite have obtain'd that Happiness which will be answerable unto them when the Sins of Men which though great must needs be acknowledged less than our Saviours Merits have deserved those Torments which shall not be greater than their Sins were But Theophilus what I would further reply to your Thought is this to wit that so dear unto God are his own Wisdom and Justice and Goodness and so much excelling all other things in the World that the exercise of them through the Laws of the Gospel be the Reception of those Laws among Men what it will is better than the not revealing the Gospel would have been God is the Supream Legislator and in the Gospel Dispensation he hath acted as it became Him who is every way perfect If Men do not generally admit of his Mercy in so much Righteousness and Wisdom shewn it is yet good that it hath been shewn Because he hath therein truly done the part of a Just and Gracious Lawgiver And it is not fit that Mens not doing what was their Duty should have hindred what was in all respects so beseeming Him. And if for their Disobedience to the Gospel-Laws they shall suffer Everlasting Punishments it is yet better that those Laws have been given because of the Glory of God's Justice which is of infinitely more Value than the freedom of such Rebellious Sinners from pains would have been Which pains albeit intense and endless they be These Men do fully deserve since they have refused Happiness no less if not more intense and altogether endless It would indeed have been better for these Mens Persons as they by Disobedience to the Laws of Christ have carried it that the Gospel should not have been made known Not unlike as it was with Judas of whom our Lord thus pronounced Good were it for that Man that he had never been Born Which is all one as if he had said Better it would have been for him that he had never been Born than by his Traiterous Infidelity it will be from my coming into the World. But though it would have been better for their Persons as the having no being is to be preferred before the being in Extremity of Torments yet considering the Whole of things together better it is that even to their Misery since their Misery is thus chosen by them the Gospel of Christ should have been Revealed than that it should not have been The Honour of God's Justice is hereby Magnified Saints and Angels who rightly see things will discern the Beauty of it and praise God for it and God himself will have Infinite Satisfaction from having done according to the Perfection of his Nature I thought it not amiss to say these things Theophilus They will not be your Injury though possibly not needful to be spoken unto you And if you 'll interpret them to that honest freedom I take with you you will do well Theoph. Such a Freedom I ought much to prize which affords me Satisfaction in a matter which I durst not suffer to rise unto a Doubt If it were ill suggested to my secret Thoughts I foster'd it not And I have the less reason to find fault with it from the occasion it hath given of my being satisfied by you against any such thought for the future It hath furnished me I am sure with that which directly meets with the impious Folly of some Men and those too too many who are willing to flatter themselves with God's being so much a God of Mercy as that he will not destroy them though they walk contrary to his Laws Esteeming Men to be more pleasing to him as they are his Creatures than displeasing as they are disobedient And because God's Mercy exceeds theirs and they could not find in their Hearts to condemn others to Eternal Punishments They therefore are forward to think that however he hath threatned he will not condemn them But the Glory of God's Justice being as you have said of infinitely more value with him than the freedom of such disobedient ones from Pains can be reasonably thought to be doth utterly dash such untoward Imaginations Eubul What hath been said doth indeed appositely strike at these Men. For though God's Mercy be infinite yet it is exercised with Holiness and Wisdom which are likewise infinite And He who is every way perfect will never lean to any one of his Glorious Attributes alone so as in the least to forsake the other His Mercy is infinitely shewn in accepting upon such gracious Terms Mens poor Obedience to his Laws But if they shall refuse to obey him preferring the Pleasures of Sin before his Righteous Commands Their being his Creatures and the Work of his Hands will so little prevail with him that though they were yet further commended by being the immediate Off-spring of Abraham he would sooner out of the Stones of the Street form Men whom he might save than shew
for the Welfare of Society are those which are enjoyn'd by God. Such likewise are those that respect ourselves Why the Law is called The Ministration of Death by St. Paul. What he meaneth when he saith He was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and he died And how the Mosaick Law is termed A Yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear P. 1. The Contents of the Second Discourse THE Inducements that Christians have to Love the Divine Law. Love was the moving cause of our Lord 's becoming our Law-giver The Greatness of our Lawgivers Person All the troublesome Ceremonies of the Old Law are done away by the Laws of our Lord and this not by his Will alone but by the admirable manifestation of his Goodness and Wisdom How the Jews urging the Everlastingness of their Law is from hence answered and how their way of Speaking is corrected when they say our Lawgiver hath vilified and destroy'd their Laws Only such Laws are enjoyn'd by our Lord as have in them an Intrinsick Goodness or else are for Ends absolutely Good and such as are discernable by every one Though the Jews had some Inferiour Laws suted to their Temper and Climate which did the better fit them for the observance of those Laws which were Moral yet we have not the less reason to Love the Laws of our Lord because they are all Good without any mixture of such Inferiour Laws which may be agreeable to different Climates where Christians Live and which may promote the Precepts of our Lord are not by those Precepts excluded Christian Laws are such also as will in our Obedience much comply with our particular Way and Temper The Moral Laws which were given to the Jews are by our Lord more fully and clearly given The Laws that respect ourselves are properly belonging io the New Testament At least are there only directly and openly injoyn'd The Objection answer'd that so far is the Christian Law from being more clearly given that it requires us to admit of some things relating to Faith which no one living can conceive how they should be The Reasonableness of making our Vnderstandings to yield to our Faith. P. 35. The Contents of the Third Discourse THE Severities of the Christian Laws are not unreasonable neither do they reduce us to such straights as cannot be gone through without a great deal of uneasiness if at all The Design of our Lord is not to beat down our Natural Inclinations and Appetites but to rectifie them Our Dispositions if well managed not averse from a right Improvement The Laws of Christ do not dash the pleasure of Conversation by threatning idle Words with the Day of Judgment The Loving of Enemies while they persist to be injurious is in itself not unmeet but highly equitable in case the History of our Redemption be true Fasting and Abstinence not unreasonable nor the parting with Estates and Lives for the asserting of the Gospel From the Laws of Christ we have a fair way for the Pardon of all Sins What the Law of Faith requires of us How much it is different from the Old Law. What the Law of Repentance is Too many make Faith and Repentance to stand in opposition to the other Laws of our Lord. How the Laws being done away which was Engraven on Stones is to be understood Repentance for Sin cannot without the greatest Absurdity be wrested to the further and more safe committing of Sin. The Examples of the Thief on the Cross and of the Labourers in the Vineyard at the Eleventh Hour consider'd none of the Divine Laws unsuitable to one another These Laws of themselves are grievous unto none As they have relation only to Civil Society and the welfare of Men in this World they do far surpass those of the most noted Lawgivers they by no means do favour the Opinion that Right of Possession is Founded in Grace And that it is Lawful to resist Sovereign Princes in the Maintenance of True Religion They make the Man truly beautiful within P. 66. The Contents of the Fourth Discourse GEneral Motives relating to these Laws altogether To the Conscionable Observance of them Eternal Rewards are promised yet Earthly ones are not excluded For the securing of our Obedience Eternal Punishments are threatned after Death to the neglect of these Laws The Constituting such Punishments is no more than what is meet to be done Stronger Assistances are afforded for the Performance of these Laws than under Moses there were Most Loving Invitations and Affectionate Expressions are joyned with them We have no reason to complain that there are not now under the Gospel-Law those Visible Expressions of Gods Power and Presence as under the Old Law there were Particular Motives relating to these Laws singly and apart Such as are wholly peculiar to the Gospel or else are there more clearly and convincingly urged than ever they were before It is impossible there should be any True Happiness without these Laws From the inward Excellence of them and those admirable Motives annexed to them there is a substantial Proof of their Divinity and Truth No Man hath ever deserved to be so much honoured among Men as our Lord hath done Those who faithfully give up their Names unto him have the Precedence of all others How it comes to pass that since the Law is so good Assistances so great and Motives so taking there should be so many Disobedient Ones P. 114. The Contents of the Fifth Discourse THough the Generality of Men be Wicked and by occasion of these Laws being given shall suffer the greater Torments hereafter yet it would not thereupon have been better that these Laws should not have been given The impious folly of those Men who are willing to flatter themselves with God's being so much a God of Mercy as that he will not destroy them though they walk contrary to his Laws An Explication of I am the Light of the World. Why Miracles were confined to the first Ages of the Church That Prophecy made good viz. The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb c. The great Goodness of God in making these Laws to reach so wide as the whole World. His great Wisdom and Mercy in putting these his Laws into Writing and enjoyning the frequent Reading and Preaching of them The Reasonableness that these Laws should endure without Abrogation or Change so long as the World shall stand The great expectation which was of this our Lawgiver for so many Ages and in every respect his answering of it may prevail much for Mens Obedience to his Laws The Righteousness and Goodness of these Laws will manifest themselves to those who are sincerely Obedient P. 150. The Contents of the Sixth Discourse 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
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
more noble things than John was used to shall in this respect be greater than He and more honoured than Any that lived before him Theoph. How pleasant a Prospect are these things to a Christian And who could blame him if fixing his Thoughts upon them He should account all other things in the Apostle's words as dung and dross in comparison of them But pray Eubulus Since the Law is so good Assistances so great and Motives so taking how comes it to pass that there should be so many disobedient ones as we almost every where see there are Eubul Too many God knows there are and one reason that there are so many is the superficial Knowledge of these things and oftentimes a gross Ignorance Were the elder sort called to Catechism and some of those who fail not seeing the Church once a week I doubt we should find them though Men in Stature to be yet but Children in Understanding perfect it may be and it may be not in the words of the Creed and the Commandments but Strangers to the sense Theoph. But not a few who are well instructed in the Divine Laws are yet of Lives bad enough Eubul It is a truth what you say though a sad one to be told Yet while there is so much Natural Pravity in the Heart of Men and so many Temptations abroad it is not difficult to guess the reason For Christian Religion though it often-times overcomes our Natural Corruptions yet doth not wholly root them out and evil Inclinations will sway a great many from their Duty The Rewards which our Lawgiver promiseth are chiefly future and spiritual and Men such is their Earthliness are generally for those things that are present and can be seen And when those shall strongly solicit and make shews of great Profits or Pleasures or Honours it is no wonder that Multitudes are led away by them Add to this That the Proofs of Christianity are not such as will compel Mens assent unto them whether they will or no but are to be inculcated often upon their Hearts that they may there be firmly rooted Now this requires Pains and Industry and if many Men are for Sloth and Ease and do account the weighing and considering of things to be harder and more tedious than bodily Labour we may quickly discern wherefore it is that the Laws of our Lord are so little observed And truly the Actings of the Holy Ghost with Men which are not ordinarily according to the fulness of his Power but so as may be resisted are in the present case worthy our Consideration He by his Motions within us doth persuade and silently he proposeth our Welfare suggesting the true means of obtaining it and furnishing us with Strength and Aids from above if we will admit of and close with them but he doth not usually with an irresistible Power constrain us And hence are those Expressions in Holy Writ of quenching and resisting the Spirit which if he acted according to the greatness and extent of his Might could not be quenched nor resisted Now when Men are left to chuse what Paths they will take when they must come in as it were to the help of the Lord against their own Corruptions and those Pleasures of Sense which as the forbidden Apple did look fair and to be desired it may not seem strange that these are chosen and the Divine Precepts neglected Neither is Christian Religion to be faulted as if it did not provide means sufficient for the retaining Men in Obedience It provides so far as is consistent with their Virtue which brooks not Force and would be lost had it not the Will along with it And from what hath been said Theophilus you may guess how it comes to pass that though the Laws are so good Assistances so great and Motives so taking there yet are so many that continue in Disobedience But we must not make our Walk to be the Injury of our Health It is a moist Air and yonder Clouds look black upon us An happy Night therefore to my Theophilus DISCOURSE the Fifth The Contents THough the Generality of Men be Wicked and by occasion of these Laws being given shall suffer the greater Torments hereafter yet it would not thereupon have been better that these Laws should not have been given The impious folly of those Men who are willing to flatter themselves with God's being so much a God of Mercy as that he will not destroy them though they walk contrary to his Laws An Explication of I am the Light of the World. Why Miracles were confined to the first Ages of the Church That Prophecy made good viz. The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb c. The great Goodness of God in making these Laws to reach so wide as the whole World. His great Wisdom and Mercy in putting these his Laws into Writing and enjoyning the frequent Reading and Preaching of them The Reasonableness that these Laws should endure without Abrogation or Change so long as the World shall stand The great expectation which was of this our Lawgiver for so many Ages and in every respect his answering of it may prevail much for Mens Obedience to his Laws The Righteousness and Goodness of these Laws will manifest themselves to those who are sincerely Obedient THEOPHILVS THE last part Eubulus of your Yesterdays Discourse occasion'd a more than ordinary thoughtfulness in me The Lives of Christians I reflected upon and they almost every where appeared unto me little less than a contradiction to the Laws of Christ Where is not Piety towards God neglected Vnrighteousness and Deceit towards Men not carried on Enmity and Hatred not nourish'd Intemperance and Vnchastity not abounding And how rare are upright and faithful Persons to be found In the midst of these my Thoughts I was struck with those Words of the Apostle 2 Pet. 2.21 It had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment deliver'd unto them And the not walking according to the Laws of the Gospel however the Name of Christ be openly profess'd I look upon to be a Turning from the Holy Commandment And though I still acknowledg'd and for ever shall acknowledge the Divine Laws to be Holy and Good and the Blessing promised to them to be the highest expression of God's Love to Mankind yet at last I fell to think whether the Wickedness of the Generality of Men had not brought it to that pass that considering the greater Torments they shall hereafter suffer by occasion of these Laws being given and the Gospel's being Reveal'd it would not have been better that these Laws should not have been given and the Gospel not have heen Reveal'd unto Men. I will not justifie my Thought as if it were Innocent it seemed to me and still seems Irregular But for the time it was so lodg'd within me that I could not easily remove it EVBVLVS NEither will I commend
and Fomenting of Differences in Acts of Unrighteousness and Dishonesty and at the best in giving up themselves to Earthly Profits or looser Recreations we may doubt the rest of their Days would be very few and their whole Lives little less than a continued Blot These are They generally that are careful to avoid the being thought to be any whit Religious and do Vilifie with Derision the Constant and Sober Exercise of Devotion being Strangers to the Name of God unless in an Oath or Curse or other Vain ways of Speaking Not unlike to those in the Prophet their words have been Stout against God in that they have said it is in vain to serve God and what profit is it to keep his Ordinances Mal. 3.14 Such Spots as These are to every ones Eye of a deeper Stain than Those of Good Men are But then the Pollution of some of These who are of the worse sort of Wicked Men are more Secret than those I have mention'd are Secret indeed in respect of Men but altogether open to the Eyes of God. Such is theirs who will use a plausible Deportment that they may the more securely carry on and act the worst Designs Somtimes that their fair Demeanor to some may be as Bribes to make them overlook their Enormities to Others Somtimes that they may be the least suspected by those whom they intend most Mischief unto Of These the Psalmist may seem to Speak in saying the Words of their Mouths are smoother than Butter having War in their Hearts Their Words are softer than Oyl yet be they drawn Swords They Bless with their Mouth but Curse inwardly Such as These our Saviour means when he bids his Disciples to beware of Those who come in Sheeps Cloathing but inwardly are Ravening Wolves If they shall use Pretences of Religion while they do such things they are the more deformed by appearing like Christians As we justly account an Ape the more ugly for being like a Man the handsomest of Creatures and not being One. And if they shall for Religions Sake do these things Contrive the Ruin of a Nation Delight in Blood Trample upon Laws Government and Governors Stifle the Dictates of Nature and in a Word turn out all Religion that they may introduce That which they miscal Christianity for This sure is quite of another Spirit and instructs us in the Exercise of Righteousness and Goodness Kindness and Mercy I say if for Religions Sake They shall do these Things so Black is their Spot that we have very good reason to say it is not the Spot of Gods Children A Spot it is of the worst sort of Deformity Since it doth in a manner cast a Blot upon the pure and peaceable Religion of Christ and renders it in the Eye of those who are without the Pale of the Church and who value the Goodness of Religion rather from the Practice of its Professors than from the Precepts which it gives I say it renders it in the Eye of Those to be Vile and Odious For how secretly soever such actings are carried on and maintain'd they for the most part are found out at last and Gods Providence doth in an especial manner engage itself for the Detecting them But yet though they be justly punished in being laid Open and Condemn'd before Men yet the Enemies of Christianity look not so much on the Justice of their Punishment who were the Actors as on the Religion which they profess'd and so that Holy Name is Blasphemed by which they were called I must confess that Wickedness when it walketh bare Faced and hath an Whores Forehead is loathsome as for its inseparable Stains so for its Accessional Impudence But there is the like Difference between the Sins I am now speaking of and those which to Men are more Visible as there is between a Rock in the Sea which appears above Water and That which lieth under it They are both dangerous and if Tempests arise the Sailers may suffer Shipwrack on the One as well as on the Other But in a Calm Sea that which is seen may be avoided when upon the Other while no Danger is feared the Vessel may Split Theoph. Such Deformity do These Sins include that they need not an over-Discerning Eye to tell us what Persons they are to whom they belong But Eubulus you were saying that of Wicked Men some were less Wicked Pray who are they And what their Sins Eubul They may be such as in their Converse with Men are somtimes not much to be found fault with But their Sins may be understood from the Consideration of these following Things 1. The Internal Obedience and Cleanness of Heart which the Precepts of Jesus Christ require 2. The Excellent Ends for which all the Actions of Men are commanded to be done 3. Those many particular Obligations which may lye upon them for the being Righteous and Holy Persons First then though the outward Deportment be not Incommendable yet if Internal Obedience and Cleanness of Heart be wanting the Sins are those of a wicked Man. It was the Character of the Covenant which God made with Men under the Gospel to wit I will put my Law in their inward Parts and Write it in their Hearts Jer. 31.33 And therefore what ever good Action they do outwardly if they approve not of it in their Hearts if they look upon their Civility and Honesty their Charity and Mercy and other such like Virtues to be a Debt due to Custom and do within their own Hearts esteem it their Slavery and could wish themselves rid of it as of an Unhappiness secretly grudging at those things which yet they would have others Praise them for their Sins are much different from those of good Men. For they who are in reality good Men are to have their outward Actions to be the Expressions of inward Integrity and in no respect to be contrary unto it And unless the Soul shall cast a Beauty upon their External Practice however it may seem fair among Men who cannot search and know the Heart yet in the Sight of God there will be such Pollution as none that belong unto Him are stained with And so it will be if in the Second Place their Actions be not design'd to the Excellent Ends the Gospel speaks of Nothing should be done by a Man but what is intended to Gods Glory Whether ye Eat or Drink or whatever you do saith the Apostle do all to the Glory of God. And every thing also which Men professing Christianity are to do is to be done with an Eye to the Recompence of Reward which is the Salvation of their Souls And indeed whatever is to be done for the Glory of God must be done for their Eternal Happiness also since the Glory of God is in nothing more seen than in the Everlasting welfare of Men. Now if God and his Glory be not in all their Thoughts if some Under-Ends be the Chief Design of their Actions and they
things which God was pleased to bestow to the upright Observance of them and with relation also to the more severe Commands which he justly might have laid upon Men they have been comparatively good i. e. they shewed forth the Favour and Kindness of God unto Men. And might they not then be loved for the far greater Severities that might have been enjoyn'd and for the many and great Temporal Blessings which Obedience to them had brought as its Reward Surely they might 3. The Significations and Effects which these Laws had were excellent Circumcision was Instituted by God as a particular Mark by which the Jews were sealed to be his People Thus Gen. 17.11 it is called The Token of the Covenant betwixt God and Them to the intent that He should be their God and They his People And this possibly as a Learned Person observes might be the reason why God would have this peculiar Mark or Sign to be impress'd upon them to their pain and to be admitted and undergone with a kind of shamefacedness viz. That Nature might not seem to dictate it nor meerly the Commands of Men to enjoyn it but that it might be owned to proceed from God who by such an unthought-of Mark among Men would seal that People unto himself And though Circumcision by some of the Seed of Abraham Ishmael and Esau and the Sons of Ketura was introduced into some other Nations afterward yet this hindred not the true Stock of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and their Posterity to be Marked for God's Peculiar Insomuch that by way of reproach they called the Nations round about them the Vncircumcised and were back again themselves through Hatred and Derision termed Verpi Curti and Recutiti the Circumcised Neither was Circumcision destitute of somthing that might signifie Him to be holy and good from whom it came It denoted a Purity and Cleanness to those who bore it Therefore it is said Deut. 30.6 The Lord thy God will Circumcise thine Heart and the Heart of thy Seed to Love the Lord thy God. Of which import of the word that Instance Lev. 19.23 is an unquestionable proof When ye come into the Land ye shall count the Fruit thereof as Vncircumcised Three years shall it be as Vncircumcised unto you it shall not be eaten of but in the fourth year all the Fruit thereof shall be Holy to praise the Lord withal And might it not also Theophilus highly commend Circumcision that it was so appositely ordered by God for the continual bringing to their Memory the Promise which he made unto Abraham Now that Promise was concerning his Seed Which Seed in the chief Acceptation is to be understood of Christ who is therefore in Holy Scripture called the Promised Seed Of this Promise Circumcision was a Seal and might be justly thought to be made on That part of the Body that as oft as they did Circumcise their Children they might be put in Mind of Him who as to the Flesh was to come from the Loyns of Abraham Wherefore though Circumcision in itself considered might seem to carry very little of Mercy and Goodness in it but the contrary rather yet as it thus entitled them the Peculiar People of God directed them to an internal Purity and betokened That Seed in which They and all the Nations on Earth should be blessed it might justly have a great Expression of their Love. Look we in the next place upon Sacrifices I will not here enquire into their first Rise whether Men began them of their own accord and God afterward improved them unto Mysterious Ends Or whether they primarily sprung from a Divine Command with immediate respect to those Ends. It is enough to our present purpose to say That some of them under Moses did import a great Friendship and Familiarity from God unto Man and the keeping House as it were with them on Earth Thus the Altar was his Table and what was offered thereon was as his Meat And other things in the Tabernacle first and afterwards in the Temple betokened a Dwelling-House As Spoons Bowls Covers a Candlestick and its Lamps and such-like Some other of these Sacrifices were in many cases An Expiation for Sins against God And by the Blood of the Beast thus slain the Life of the Offender was spared For the Law according to the strictest Sanction maketh Death the Punishment of even the least Disobedience as that of Deut. 27.26 doth shew And this Blood of Bulls and Goats was by the Will and Mercy of the Lawgiver so far a Real Expiation for these Sins as that it did in the Apostle's words Sanctifie to the purifying of the Flesh But then yet further These Sacrifices were Typical also and did prefigure the pretious Blood of Jesus Christ which was to be a more Noble Expiation for the Sins of the World even those Sins for which there were allowed no Sacrifices under the Law and this not only to the purifying of the Flesh but to the purging of the Conscience from Dead Works to serve the Living God. And although we may think that this was not understood generally by the Jews who expected a Messias that should be a Glorious Prince upon Earth yet that it was in great measure understood by some more eminently Religious among them and particularly by our Psalmist who hath many Prophesies tending this way and applied by the Holy Ghost in the New Testament to this very thing we have no reason to doubt And so though the shedding of Blood in Sacrifice might seem to have nothing of good in it and indeed God himself is said not to delight in the Blood of Bullocks and Lambs which he could not be said to do had it any Essential Moral Goodness in it yet as these Sacrifices betokened God's Dwelling among them and by their being slain the Lives of Men were spared and also his Blood presignified which should be shed for the Sins of the World it might well have this Expression O how I love thy Law Neither let the shedding of Blood be Objected by any as a want of Mercy in these Laws to those Brutal Creatures whose Blood they required to be shed and disagreeing to that Title which in Holy Writ is given unto God to wit The Preserver of Beast as well as of Man. There are Theophilus who by all means will have these Creatures to be meer Machins altogether destitute of Sense And were it thus there would in reality be no occasion to move any question concerning these Laws in this respect But till Men are convinced that Brutes are thus insensible and that notwithstanding all the signs of pain when they are wounded there yet really is no pain to them which will never be generally believed and none can be blamed if it be not this conceit will in the present case stand in no stead at all Nay the falseness of it may from what we but now said be fully evidenced viz. That the Blood of the Beast as being his
Life was to go for the Life of the Offender there being no Remission without Blood which is the Life and also that thereby the Death of Christ was Typified a Nobler Expiation than the Death of Bulls and Goats neither of which could fairly be said were there no real Death to the Beast But laying aside such an uncouth and extravagant Imagination we may with Sobriety and on good Grounds affirm That God who made the Creatures might without infringing his Goodness command what he pleased concerning them for they were his Property And if he indulged unto Men such variety of them to be slain for their Food he might surely be allowed some sorts of them to be slain for his own Worship Especially since this way through his infinite Goodness they were more useful to Mans Welfare than either while they were killed for Food or kept alive for Service In other cases God had taken care by his Laws for Mercy to be shew'd to them And while they were slaughter'd for such excellent Ends and made instrumental in the doing such signal Services both to the Glory of God and the Good of Men the pain they suffer'd laid a great Honour upon them though they were below the Capacity of understanding it Yea further so far merciful were these Laws to these Creatures that only the Blood of such was called for as would otherwise possibly some time or other have been killed for Mens use And herein they were favourable to Men likewise in that they required not such Sacrifices as for rareness should be far and wide sought after nor such as by their fierceness might endanger those that caught them But home-bred and quiet Oxen and Sheep innocent and not rare Turtle-Doves and Pidgeons were those which God was pleased to order for Himself Theoph. You have taken away my Scruples as to those Laws which might seem to carry something of Cruelty in them I desire you would do the like for me in relation to those Laws which though not Cruel did seem to proceed from the Will of God as he is Supream without any discernable Reason for their being enjoyn'd and consequently without any Love to his Creatures For Love is to be found only in those Laws where good Reason can be given why such and such things are commanded or forbidden And only those Laws are worthy to be loved by Men. Eubul But that He Theophilus who is infinitely Wise did give Laws without Reason and exerted his Will as he was Supream with no respect to his Wisdom there is none sure can with any shew of Reason or Wisdom imagine And though We who are at such a distance from the Jewish Times cannot presently find why God enjoyn'd such and such things it will yet be rash to say that those who lived near the Days when these Laws were given were ignorant of the Reasons for which they were given If some of these Laws were made directly contrary to the vain Customs of the Neighbouring Nations especially of the Zabii and did secure the Israelites from the Superstitions and Idolatries which those were guilty of it was a good Reason why they were enjoyn'd And this seems to have been done Lev. 18.2 3. After the Doings of the Land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do and after the Doings of the Land of Canaan whither I bring you shall ye not do Ye shall do MY Judgments and keep MINE Ordinances to wit as being flatly opposite to the Rites and Customs of Egypt and Canaan And though some of those things were neither good nor ill in themselves yet either as they were used amiss by those Nations or might open a Door to worse things in the Israelites God who had espoused this People to Himself as to an Husband might take away all Occasions that might tempt them to Unfaithfulness towards him And therefore gave these Laws unto them Neither is it altogether improbable that in many of these Laws there was a Mysterious Sense which among some other Reasons might have a place for one For why might not Simplicity in Manners and a Freedom from Mixtures in Religion be signified by not ploughing with an Ox and an Ass together and not wearing Woollen and Linnen in the same Vesture And in some of those Creatures prohibited for Food why might there not be a Caution against those Human Vices which seemed to be Character'd in them As Pusillanimity in the Hare Filthiness in the Swine Ignorance in the Owl Rapine in the Hawk and such like It doth not follow because we cannot instance in the like manner in all the rest of those Creatures which are forbidden that there is therefore no Ground for such Reason in those we have mention'd And though the People of the Jews were very dull and carnal yet that they was so dull and carnal as not to discern such a meaning in the Prohibitions and that therefore there were no such meaning in the Prohibitions is somthing strange to assert Besides God possibly might in some of these Laws not give a Reason that they might the more surely be observed For somtimes when the Reason of Laws is known some Men are apt to think that if they can obtain the End without keeping the Law it is no matter if they break it And this one well represents in the Law of Deut. 17.17 He shall not multiply Wives that his Heart turn not away But Solomon said I will multiply Wives and mine Heart shall not be turned away But it is written afterwards That his Wives turn'd away his Heart God will not therefore in some of his Laws give an open Reason for their being enjoyn'd because Men may thereby resign up their Understandings to Him and not frustrate his Commands by ways of their own And yet this may with Truth be said That Those Laws for which there is no particular Reason given and which in themselves considered do include no real Goodness God did in great measure order for the better promoting of Obedience in general to those Laws which are in their own Nature truly good and apparently include Reasons for their being observed And this He did by suting those subordinate Laws in many Things to the Temper of that People and the Times and Climate in which they lived Who had they not been continually enured to Obedience in these smaller things would have been disobedient in those which were greater Yea and some of these Laws of which no certain account can be given might be fitted for their Temper another way also It hath been noted that as the Jews and some other Eastern Nations were more than ordinary inclined to the Leprosie so the eating of Swines Flesh did much increase it And if in this Instance God was their Physician as well as Lawgiver by making their Religion instrumental to their Health it will not be unreasonable to think that in some other things of the like Rank he might be so too In the Commands concerning the
for so themselves style the Advent of the Messias from Isai 62.2 3. And an Ordinance for ever it was as for ever had relation to the First Age of the World But was not to endure beyond what the Nature thereof would well permit Not for ever and ever as taking in the Age of the VVorld under the Messias And truly we may in a manner say that the Law is not Vilified and Destroy'd by our Lord any more than a House is when from being rough and imperfect it is finished with the greatest Wisdom and Adorned with the most Rich Materials Christianity being the Judaick Religion Heightned and Spiritualiz'd Our Lawgiver himself saith He came not to Destroy the Law and the Prophets And his mentioning the Prophets together with the Law seemeth unto me to be a good explication of what I am now Speaking We do not nor can we think that when Divine Prophecies are come to pass they are vilified and destroy'd Rather say we that they are compleated and that the Compleating them is the Honour and Crown of them If then our Lord hath not destroy'd but by his Coming made good those Prophecies which were of him Why should it be said that he hath Destroyed the Ceremonial Law rather than Fulfilled it Especially when That Law was in great measure as a Type and Prophesie of Him. It is not indeed any more to be so observed as to be reduced in Practice because He whom it did Prefigure hath been Present and Lived among Us just as the expectation of a Prophecie ceaseth when what was Predicted is come to pass But then it hath its use still as also the fulfilled Prophesie have and we are to look both upon the one and the other with a great deal of Reverence and Respect As the Coming of our Blessed Lawgiver and the Purity and Spiritualness of his Government have Crowned and Compleated Them so They do now stand as faithful and evident Witnesses of the Truth of his Coming and of the perfection of his Laws Eubul You have well improved what I said and were a Jew not obstinate in his hatred to our Lord he could not but be sway'd by such considerations Theoph. But let not me hinder you from Speaking to the Second thing to wit That such and only such Laws are injoyn'd by our Lawgiver as have in them an intrinsick Goodness or else are for Ends absolutely Good and such as are discernable by every one Eubul You hindred me not To this therefore we say That the Laws which relate unto God are all of a Refined Nature requiring that his Worship be performed in Spirit and in Truth and are such as shew forth his Spiritualness his Purity his Omniscience and other his Glorious Attributes While we are Commanded to approach unto him with our Hearts and to have them clean and uncorrupt before him the Law hath an inward goodness in it in that it requires us to be Holy as he whom we serve is Holy. And it nourisheth in us right apprehensions of God that his Nature is not Gross and Bodily but that he is present with us and is a discerner of our thoughts A thing which could not be said of some of those actions which in Moses's Law had Relation to Gods immediate Service For wherein could the Spirituality of Gods Nature be inferred from the Blood of Beasts and their Flesh being offered up unto him How could we from these Rites in themselves consider'd be instructed in the Holiness Goodness and Mercy of God These Acts of Worship might seem to be of a Carnal and Gross Nature and though there be places enough in the Old Testament that speak forth God to be a Spiritual and Immaterial Being to be Holy and Good yet from these parts of his Service look'd upon in themselves alone Men could not learn so much Theoph. But Eubulus there are Two Precepts of Christianity respecting Gods immediate Service which may seem not to have any thing of internal Goodness in them and those are the Dipping or Sprinkling of Children with Water in Baptism and the Eating of Bread and Drinking of Wine in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper For what Affinity doth there appear between true Goodness and the Eating a Bit of Bread and Sipping a little Wine Between true Goodness and the Sprinkling a little Water Eubul I deny not Theophilus what you say but then you must Remember the whole that was said viz. That only such Laws are enjoyn'd which have an intrinsick Goodness in them or else are for Ends absolutely Good and such as are discernable by every one By Baptism we are initiated into the Church of Christ becoming Members to him our Head and have the guilt of Sin wash'd away Baptism being instituted for the Remission of Sins Acts 2.38 And we are also thereby made partakers of the benefits of Christs Death into which we are Baptized Rom. 3.6 In which Rite our Lawgiver as in every thing he exceeded what was done before hath amplified his Seal by making it applicable to both Sexes when in Circumcision it was impressed only upon one Thus also the Eating of Bread and Drinking of Wine in the Holy Sacrament are done in Remembrance of the Death and Passion of our Lord. And this Remembrance of him is upon the Account that he hath laid down his Life for Mankind and for ourselves in that Number And so as oft as we do this Worthily and as we ought to do we are afresh entituled to that Salvation which by his Death he hath purchased for us and have God the Father Reconciled unto us Now these are excellent Ends and that to these Ends both Baptism and the Lords Supper were instituted we are expressly told in Holy Writ without any Clouds and Darkness without so much as a word that may have a double or doubtful signification that whoever runs may read Which cannot be said of Sacrifices and some other Significant Rites among the Jews For although they were Types of our Lord as hath been said yet they were not known so to be by the generality of the People And truly it doth not a little Commend the Precepts of Baptism and the Lords Supper that in these great Acts of our Faith our Lawgiver is so far pleased to condescend to our Senses as to make the things that may be Seen and Tasted to be the Conveighers of such inestimable Favours Water and Bread and Wine are indeed things of ordinary use But in so being they import these Divine Priviledges to belong not to the Rich only and the Great but to the Meaner Sort also And very rightly suted they are to the ends for which they were instituted The Washing away of Sins is well signified by the Cleansing of our Bodies with Water And Christs Wounded Body and Spilled Blood are better represented by the lowly Elements of Bread broken and Wine poured out than by more costly and rich Materials they would have been For we are to Remember
him not as in a pompous and splendid but in an humble and afflicted Condition Though mean as a Bit of Bread and Sip of Wine may seem yet very apposite it is that our Spiritual Food by which we are nourished up unto Eternal Life should be conveighed to us in That which gives Nourishment unto and supports our Temporal Life in this World. So that all those Precepts which in their observance have an immediate Relation unto Gods Service are such as are Intrinsically Good or else such as may be ranked with those that are for the admirable Ends which 't is plainly shew'd they are ordain'd unto And further yet Theophilus Those Precepts which throughout our whole Conversation look towards God are such as are worthy to be practised by understanding Creatures towards the most perfect of Beings And it would not be just to conceive a God in the World who hath deserved infinitely well of Man and not conceive such obedience to be due unto him Such is the Believing and Trusting in him the submitting our Wills unto his and the Doing all things to his Glory and such like For by these He is own'd to be a God of Truth and Wisdom a God of Power and Goodness and to be All in all the Great and Holy One. And surely Those Laws cannot but be in themselves truly Good which so fashion the Hearts of Men that they appositely shall answer to those perfections which are in God and thereby as far as Man's Nature is capable become partakers of them And how genuine a pleasure is it for a Soul thus to believe in Him who cannot be Deceived himself and who will not Deceive us Who hath Revealed Truths which have been hid from Ages Truths that include the greatest Wonder and also the greatest Love And were it not a Command that so we should do what would we be more Solicitous for or what more seek after than the Priviledge of Reposing Trust in one who never faileth those that with a Christian confidence rely upon him When we are as of ourselves unable to see those things which shall be for our good and very forward to look to those things that will be for our hurt it sure is a Righteous Command that requires our Wills to be Subordinate unto His whose perfection it is to will only those things which are best And since the designs of Men so often create them trouble and nothing that here they enjoy can give them true satisfaction what can be a more noble End to all the Actions of Men than that which is the End the Almighty proposeth unto himself and which gives him Eternal delight in the obtaining it viz. His Glory If as all our powers and faculties proceed from him we shall in all things improve them unto him there will be no cause for us to complain that they are lost to Ourselves by being found in Him. But we shall be filled with that Glory which we do so Administer unto And lest the Goodness which these Laws have in them should be injured by an undue Practice they are to be obey'd in Righteousness and no otherwise Gods Glory is to be our continual Aim but we must not go about to promote it by a Lye or any thing that is Evil. The keeping of our Souls is to be committed unto God but it must be in Well-doing And the like is there for all others Laws which both sheweth and establisheth their Goodness Neither are those Laws which more nearly respect Men of a different Make from the other we by these are enjoyn'd the Exercise of Righteousness Mercy and Kindness And what would a Man wish should by others be Practised to himself and his Friend dear as himself sooner than these These do not from any thing we possess wring out the Tears of the Orphans and Widow No Stone is there to cry out of the Wall nor Beam to answer it out of the Timber We by them are taught to rejoyce at the Welfare of others as if it were the Fruit of our Prayers To esteem the Blessings which we ourselves do enjoy to be the greater because thereby we are enabled to do the more good By them also a True Relish is preserved in our Meats and Drinks and they are made to hold out Health and Long Life unto us by freeing us from those Surfeits and Excesses which would turn the most pleasant and wholsom things nto Bitterness and Poison In a Word these Laws how many or of what sort soever they be are such as perfect our Natures and capacitate us for a better World when this is done For a Man without the Practice of these would be altogether as far from reaching to the Glory of a Saint as a Beast is from being improved into the Excellencies of a Man. And Theophilus thay which is not to be forgotten have nothing of dark Ceremony annexed to be observed with the same Care as we do the substance of the Duties themselves Wherefore upon these accounts also we have very great Inducements to Love the Divine Laws Theoph I can easily grant that from the Intrinsick Goodness of these Laws there is a very strong inducement to Love them But is it Eubulus so great an one that these Laws which have an Intrinsick Goodness should Alone be enjoyn'd I therefore ask this because I remember you said that the sitting some inferiour Laws to the Temper of the Jewish Nation did the better fit that People for the observance of those Laws which were in their own Nature Moral Eubul It is a very great Inducement to our Love that those Laws alone should be enjoyned which have an Intrinsick Goodness in them For now as our whole Duty is reasonable so we have it in a little room and may the better understand and do it which would not so well be done by reason of the vast Number of Laws if all People wheresoever scatter'd should have had some suted to their Dispositions which are so Various The giving of the Christian Laws and of the Mosaick was very different Those by Moses were only or chiefly to the Jews God having then his Tabernacle in Salem and his dwelling place in Sion and among Them alone of all the Inhabitants of the Earth He chose to place his Name And over and above as he was their God so as was before said at the giving of these Laws he was their Temporal Prince And therefore the Nation being one People he might the better sute some Laws to their Temper Which in much Wisdom he did in the Judicial Law apparently and not less in the Ceremonial making That which did so much Typifie the future Kingdom of the Messias to hit also the Constitution of their Climate which enclined them much to a Variety of Rites and a Ceremonious way of Worship Yet not so did God sute his Laws to their Tempers as in every thing to Close with them But he in a manner did cultivate that People keeping
therefore in the beginning of his Sermon upon the Mount He endeavours rightly to instruct the Heart and Soul by acquainting those who are his Followers That They are blessed who are poor in Spirit who are meek who hunger and thirst after righteousness who are pure in Heart c. Which Expressions denote that the Mind should be rightly framed and that They who give up their Names unto him must have their Souls brought into order and adorned He tells them that They are the Salt of the Earth and will be good for nothing unless they endeavour to season others by their exemplary Conversation Matth. 5.13 They are the Light of the World and so they must shine before others that their good Works may be seen and God glorified V. 16. He extends the Commandment of doing no Murther even to the not being angry with another without a cause V. 22. The Precept of not committing Adultery he makes reach even to the forbidding of Lustful Looks and Desires V. 28. He forbids all Divorces unless in the case of Fornication V. 32. He restored Marriage to its Primitive Perfection by prohibiting Polygamy Matth. 19.5 They Two shall be one Flesh Emphatically They Two as exclusive of more which we learn from V. 9. of the same Chapter Whosoever shall put away his Wife except it be for Fornication and shall marry another committeth Adultery For how weak would it have been to pronounce it Adultery for a Man to marry after a Divorce if the adding one Wife to another before a Divorce should be no Adultery And if it shall be said that our Lord orders it as a punishment to him who puts away his Wife not to marry another but permits those to marry more than one who put away none it may be replyed That surely the Punishment might little be feared because it might be so easily avoided For who need care whether he married or not after the putting away a Wife if he might marry as many as he would before And we cannot think that He who is the Wisdom of God should ground any Law upon so sandy a Foundation He disallows of Swearing how true soever in ordinary Conversation Vers 34. He prohibits all Revenge in that we are not to resist an Adversary so as to pay an Injury for an Injury V. 39. He commands Love to be shewed even to Enemies Blessings to be given to those that curse us V. 44. And truly this Command and the foregoing one may seem to be added by our Saviour as not having the Law of Nature for its Foundation according to which the Decalogue was framed but being built upon that Love which our Saviour afterwards did shew when he died for his Enemies For the Law of Nature may seem to allow of this Vt no cui quis noceat nisi lacessitus injuriâ Cic. But when injured he may requite it When we do Alms we must not have respect unto our own Glory but only to the Glory of God and the Good of the Miserable Chap. 6. V. 1. When we Pray and Fast both must be done with a devout secresie that God in both may be chiefly looked unto and the Eye of Men not cared for V. 16. We are commanded while on Earth to have our Hearts in Heaven To lay up Treasures there by laying them out here in Charitable and Virtuous Deeds V. 19. We are forbid to be anxiously concern'd for any things of this World though never so necessary but are with a devout submission to depend upon God and to lay all our cares upon him V. 25. We are commanded not to judge others nor to be Censorious towards them but are to think no evil of them to put the best Interpretation upon their Actions and to look with a strict Eye upon ourselves only Chap. 7.1 2. Yea in all our behaviour towards others to observe that excellent Rule of doing to Them whatsoever we would that They should do unto us What Precepts can there be more full and clear than these are Can the Decalogue be better interpreted than by them Is there not in them a more perfect and spiritual Sense than can be presently discern'd in the Old Law If as David saith Thy Law is pure therefore thy Servant loveth it what Heights of Love must the purity of these Laws raise up in us More largely and clearer by far are our Duties towards God and our Neighbours here delivered far more Reason then have we to love them If we consider the Laws which immediately respect a mans self we shall find that they are much more fully given unto us than under the Old Law they were It hath been observ'd by some that in Moses's Law strictly consider'd there are no Precepts to be found that immediately respect a Mans self And it may seem to be so far true viz. That there are hardly any there but what are included in and deducible from those that primarily look another way And therefore if we will rightly consider things the Laws that respect ourselves are more properly belonging to the New Testament at least are there more directly and openly enjoyn'd Such are the Precepts If our Right Hand offend us to cut it off If our Right Eye to pluck it out Such also are other Precepts tending towards Mortification The preserving not only our Bodies free from Intemperance but the keeping them under that we may be pure and clean both in Body and Soul. The bearing of Afflictions and Injuries with a patient and quiet Spirit and others not unlike unto these Whoever shall look into the Laws given us as we are Christians must needs confess whether they respect God our Neighbour or ourselves that they are at least much more fully and clearly given than before they were If yet some of the greatest purity and Excellence be not added and so we have a great Enducement on this Consideration also to Love them Theoph. By this their Clearness Fulness and Perfection they are fitted for the greatest extension of our Faculties and the most Heroick Endeavours both of our Souls and Bodies Yea could we rise to the highest pitch of Virtue that Mortality is capable of we should find room in them for even yet Nobler Attainments and those such as would require our still pressing forwards till the last Moment of our Lives Whence how answerable are they to that Sacred Infinity which is in God! To whom we can at no time say All these things have we done what lack we yet What Humility may they not nourish in us whose Perfection we still fall short of What Care and Watchfulness that our Obedience may be approved What Prayers to God that his Goodness may help us in our Perseverance and his Mercy pardon us in our Failures But yet Eubulus I wish that what you have said were owned by all as a Truth Some there are whose Auditor I much against my will have been who have said these following things which are direct objections against
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
Mercy unto those who are so unworthy of it Neither do they rightly infer That God's Mercy which is infinitely more than theirs will be shewn unto them because they themselves would be so merciful to the looser sort of Men as to save them while such from the Punishments which are threatned A great Indignity they offer unto the most Holy God in thus making Him to be such as Themselves are His Mercy is indeed infinitely more than theirs but yet of a Nature altogether different Theirs proceeds from weakness and an evil favouring of Sin And because their love to Righteousness and Holiness is little or none they would therefore effect more for wicked Men than God who hath all Power will do or if we consider his Justice and Wisdom more than with Reverence be it spoken he can do God is not less merciful than they but more just not less pitiful but more holy not beneath them in Compassion but infinitely above them in Wisdom And therefore let them not deceive themselves with vain Words and Thoughts God will in Righteousness inflict those Punishments upon them which they through a Vicious Mercy would have remitted unto others Theoph. I would to God such things as these were truly weighed by Men and urged home upon their own Consciences that they might at last discern the Fallacies they have been willing to put upon themselves even to their everlasting Destruction Eubul We now have Theophilus spoken to all those things which from the first we design'd and have found the Divine Laws to be every way excellent whether we consider The Lawgiver Love having been the primary moving Cause of his giving Laws unto us and this his Love being highly commended from the Greatness of his Person Or the Laws themselves all the troublesom Ceremonies of the Old Law being done away and that in so excellent a manner only such Laws being enjoyn'd as have in them an intrinsick goodness or else are for ends absolutely good and such as are discernable by every one Those Moral Laws which were given to the Jews being by our Lord more fully and clearly given And there being from these Laws a fair way for the pardon of all Sins Or lastly The Motives which are annexed to these Laws for the securing of Obedience whether they be more General relating to the Sacred Laws altogether as their having Eternal Rewards promised to the Observance of them and Eternal Punishments threatned to Disobedience Their having stronger Assistances afforded for the Performance of them than under the Old Law there were And last of all their having such loving Invitations and affectionate Expressions of Kindness joyned with them or whether more Particular belonging to them singly and apart as they respect God or Men in the several Relations they may stand in one to another or as they respect ourselves But though to our Power we have done this yet much short have we come of the Dignity of our subject And while the Apostle asks the Question Who is sufficient for these things We must acknowledge that we are altogether insufficient But since a good part of our Walk is yet to come it will not be amiss from the whole of what hath been said to make some Inferences not unagreeable to our Subject And this Task I am willing should be yours Theophilus who I knew are good at deducing one Truth from another and who will do kindly by me if you will let me be your Auditor now as you have mostly hitherto been mine Theoph. He is most fit to make the Inferences who made the Discourse But if it will not be unacceptable I will endeavour alternately to follow you if you will lead the way Eubul If it must be so only and you will not wholly excuse me I will begin And First Theophilus From the Divine Laws thus consider'd we have if I mistake not a true and just Explication of that place of Scripture Joh. 8.12 I am the Light of the World he that believeth in me shall not walk in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life They are the Words of our Blessed Lord and are to be understood of Him as a Lawgiver so cleerly hath he in his own Person made good those Types that were of him and dispell'd those shadows of things to come so excellently explain'd the Moral Law and given a new lustre to it so throughly Reveal'd Heavenly Rewards and brought Life and Immortality to Light. Hence in the Prophet Malachi He is call'd the Sun of Righteousness and in St. Luke he is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred in our Translation Day-Spring But whether so or the East or Sun-rising it certainly is a Title of our Lord as having done that in Relation to Spirituals and Good Practice which the Sun doth in its Rising and with its Presence viz. put to slight the Darkness wherewith we were encompassed And thus the People that Lived in Evil Practices and in Ignorance of the Divine Laws are said to sit in Darkness and in the shadow of Death Mat. 4.16 and from our Lords coming are said to see great Light and to have Light sprung up unto them Which must necessarily be understood of his instructing them giving them Laws and revealing unto them Eternal Rewards for the quickning their Obedience thereunto And this possibly may give us some insight into that place of Scripture also Which hath been so difficult unto and in a sort the Torture of Interpreters 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ being put to Death in the Flesh but quickned by the Spirit by which also he went and Preached to the Souls in PRISON i. e. to those whose Souls within them were through Ignorance and Evil Practice as in the Darkness of a Prison The Light of Nature being almost quite extinct To These He through the Spirit Preached by the Mouth of Noah By his Laws it is therefore and by other things upon their account Revealed that Christ is the Light of the World. And after the same manner is God the Father said to be Light as having by these Laws through Jesus Christ shewn what He Himself is what he chiefly and most earnestly doth Will Desire and Love insomuch that we cannot likely be mistaken in his Nature unless we will be so either through Perverseness or Negligence Should any of those Heathens who in Relation to Human Welfare had undervaluing Opinions of the Deity have read these Laws with the Inestimable Encouragements annexed unto them they when they had seen the greatest Prosperity to have its allays of Trouble and all Men sooner or later to Die could not any longer have thought that God out of Envy and ill Nature would not permit an unmixt Happiness in this World or that he would keep Immortality to himself as by no means enduring that any should be partakers of it with him It is but the due considering these Sacred Precepts as they proceed from our Lords being given into the World and God cannot but be
confessed by us to be as under the Gospel he styles himself Love and with the clearest Light all the perfections of Goodness and Mercy will be discerned in him Theoph. Hence also we may as I think not untruly gather the reason why Miracles by which these Laws were established were confined to the first Ages of the Church So great is the Perfection and Excellency of Christ's Laws that now they are known they do not need such props to sustain them They have inward Beauty enough to recommend them and they carry as I may so speak Marks in their own Foreheads to Testifie their Truth and Perfection Miracles at the first were indeed necessary in respect of Those who spread the Gospel upon the account that they were to Combate with all Religions in the World and so were to be aided with a Demonstration of the Spirit i. e. with a Power of working Miracles by which they might be encouraged to carry on a work of so great difficulty And then in respect of Others also to whom this Gospel was Preached Miracles were necessary To shew that this Gospel was Divine and not to be meanly thought of because it was New and different from the Religions they had been used unto But now there having been Time and Leisure for it to be known from its Goodness and the Efficacy of the Holy Spirit which always though invisibly attends it it will stand in the World And content with the Fame of Old Miracles it without the help of News ones will constitute such a Church as that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Neither will it in humble and well temper'd Hearts and Affections have a less easie entrance or a less sincere entertainment now from its Pureness and Excellence than at first it had when mighty Signs and Wonders made way for it Eubul And may we not also hence infer that Prophecy to be made good which said The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lyon and the Fatling together In so much Righteousness Goodness and Wisdom are these Laws of Jesus Christ made that the Tempers and Dispositions of Men which are different as the Wolf and the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid the Calf and young Lyon shall if they will sincerely submit themselves to the Scepter of Christ be united and reconciled He that is Proud and Lofty shall be taught to be Meek and Lowly He that breathes nothing but Hatred and Enmity shall be instructed to love all Men yea even his Enemies and this upon a most rational and excellent account He that is hard-hearted and covetous and would not abstain from enriching himself though it were by the Tears of the Orphans and Widows shall be learnt to pray for the Welfare of others to rejoyce in the Blessings which God bestows upon them and freely to part with his own for the relief of his poor Brethren All sweetness of Nature all love and sincere Affection will these Laws of our Lord instil into and nourish in the Breasts of Men unless they refractorily shall stand out against their own Happiness And if they do the fault shall be in themselves for there is no defect in these Sacred Laws why they should not obtain their blessed End. They only require of Men to act as Men of Understanding Souls should do and without any Force offered do leave them the use of their Reason and a freedom of choice And if they shall refuse Obedience to the Laws of Christ the blame is their own But those his Laws must be acknowledged to be throughly fitted for the making every Mountain and Hill low the Crooked strait and the rough places plain i. e. to render the haughty the perverse the ill-natured compliant unto Peace and the poorest Persons not too low to have a tender respect and love shewed unto them Theoph. And hence also Eubulus we see the great Goodness of God in making these his Laws to reach so wide there not being any part of the World to which they do not belong It is not now one Nation alone that hath the Priviledge of these Laws beyond others Neither is any Ammonite or Moabite forbid to enter the Congregation of the Lord till the tenth Generation The extent of these Laws is correspondent to the goodness of them and they may be truly called the Kingdom of Heaven not only because from their Righteousness and Purity they are a Lively Image of that Kingdom which we believe to be in Heaven but also because as far as Heaven reacheth they also reach And thus the Kingdom of Heaven is explain'd by some Matth. 3. and some other places of Holy Writ The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand i. e. Those Laws and that Government are approaching which shall spread themselves as far and wide as Heaven Answerable to that of Daniel Chap. 7.27 The Kingdom and Dominion and the Greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given unto the Saints And herein consisteth the great note of Distinction betwixt the Mosaick and Evangelical Dispensation Under the former the Land of Canaan must be repair'd unto by those few of other Lands who were willing to know and do Gods Will Under the later the Divine Law doth itself as it were Travel throughout the World and cometh even home unto those many that are most remote investing them with Priviledges greater than Theirs who once were preferred above all the Nations of the Earth The Infinite Goodness of God this is thus to give the Heathen to be his Sons Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth to be his Dominion A Favour Eubulus highly to be prized by us who are not to forget what large Bounds the Devil had gotten in our Gentile World. How Wickedness not fit to be divulged was in many Temples the very Essentials of the Sacred Rites And how from the Examples of their Gods the Votaries could infer a Liberty for the vilest Practice Ego homuncio hoc non facerem Ter Eunuch So that it is no wonder that Impudence was by some of them reckoned one of their Deities and had Divine Worship paid to it And though indeed Christ's Flock in Scripture be called a little Flock yet that possibly might have an immediate Relation unto the Number of the Disciples who then were and were but few and not to those who in great Multitudes were to be added to the Church afterwards We read of Thousands in a short time won over to the Church and submitting to these Laws And Rev. 7.4 we are told that there was a great Multitude in Heaven which no Man could number of all Nations and Kindreds and People and Tongues standing before the Throne and the Lamb. But if Christ's Flock be little as too sure it is in Comparison of the rest of Mankind who by reason of Infidelity Profaneness Hppocrisie and other corrupt Practices have little Relation unto
Christ it is not because these Laws do not extend unto Them but because They refuse them The Goodness of God is not the less for not being entertain'd by the Generality of Men. Were it with an Impartial Eye look'd upon it might excite the Praises of all Men. That now every Nation is in the sight of God of equal account with the Land of Judea Every City that will truly own and obey his Laws is esteem'd no less than Jerusalem and every Temple where true Devotion is offered up where the Laws of Christ are un-corruptly declared and his Sacraments duly Administred as highly valued by him as the Gates of Sion and the Temple there And as he respects not One Nation before another so neither is He a respecter of Persons The Poor Man shall not be despised because he is Poor but shall have his Obedience kindly accepted and fully Rewarded Neither shall the Rich be Envy'd or Rejected because he is Rich but shall find our Lord Faithful and Just in the Valuing and Recompensing the Observance of his Laws So that we may say with David possibly in a larger Sense than he meant of Lands Nations and People which in Holy Writ are often limited to the Tribes and Families of the Jews the Regions and Cities of Palestine O be joyful in the Lord all ye Lands serve the Lord with Gladness and come before his presence with a Song Let the People Praise thee O God yea let all the People Praise thee For having given such Excellent Laws to all People thou wilt judge the folk righteously and with thy especial favour govern all the Nations upon Earth Hear ye all ye People give Ear all ye Inhabitants of the World both Low and High Rich and Poor one with another the Goodness of God is the same to you all in these his Holy Laws Praise him therefore and Magnifie him for ever Eubul And have we not also from hence Theophilus an instance of Gods Wisdom and Mercy in putting these his Laws into Writing and enjoyning the frequent Reading and Preaching of them What are for all the World and do belong to all Nations how distant soever could not so conveniently have been dispersed for the good of all had they been confined to some Mens Breasts only Whereas now in their being written they can the more easily and punctually be known And from their being translated into all Languages and speaking in those Languages the same thing God is pleased happily to reverse the Confusion of Tongues at Babel Had they been left merely to an Oral Tradition we by reason of the Passions Prejudices Interests and to say the best the weakness of the Memories of Men should have had little security for their being preserved uncorrupt if yet they would have been preserved at all The Instance is sad but not impertinent to be mention'd how by this Traditional way the Knowledge of God and his Laws were in not many Hundred Years after the Flood in effect wholly lost not retrieveable but by new Revelations and the Constituting as it were a new Ecclesiastick State in Abraham and his Posterity to which for a not unlike Reason he afterwards saw it requisite to write his Laws in the Mount. Besides how would they have escaped amidst the Enthusiasms of many who pretend unto fairer Revelations than any of these Written Laws Which shews the great Wisdom of God in committing these his Laws unto Writing and may also shew Us that no Laws which are not Written are to be accounted His how Divine soever they may be pretended For why these should be put in Writing for the securing them from the corrupt Passions and personal Weaknesses of Men and others of no less Authority and Concern as is pretended than These should be left merely to the Breasts and Tongues of some Men who are of like Passions and Deficiencies with others I must confess Theophilus I understand not Nor is Gods Mercy less shewn than his Wisdom in that now we are not to go we know not whither to seek the Will of God that we may obey it but have his Laws near us and at hand in every place As God said to the Israelites Deut. 30.13 so may it now be said to all Men These Laws are not hidden from thee neither are they far off They are not in Heaven that thou shouldst say Who shall go up for us into Heaven and bring them unto us that we may hear them and do them Neither are they beyond the Sea that thou shouldst say Who shall go over the Sea for us and bring them unto us that we may hear them and do them But they are nigh unto thee in thy Mouth and in thy Heart that thou mayst do them Nigh they are and not a Family but may have them always lie open to their view not a particular Person but may have them as a Treasure in his Chamber or Closet Neither doth God only take care that these his Laws should be made known by being Written but he hath also commanded that they being Written should be Preached For those Precepts Preach the Word be Instant in season and out of season Reprove Rebuke Exhort with all long-Suffering and Doctrine are not Temporary ones given to Timothy and in Him to cease but such as are to be practised by Ministers to the end of the World. They must not be negligent to put Men always in Remembrance of these Laws though they be already known but still Line must be upon Line and Precept upon Precept here a little and there a little A very great Mercy of God it is Theophilus that he will have his Laws though they be written to be yet thus frequently Preach'd that none may perish for want of Knowledge And a Mercy it is no less that though his Laws be Preached he yet hath caused them to be written putting them into the Hands of every Christian That in case False Teachers should arise as 't is foretold there will we may have wherewithal to discover and disprove them And truly the having the Holy Scriptures in their Hand and Eye is a Priviledge that one would wonder any should endeavour to take away from the People since it always by the Bounty of God belong'd unto them Under the Old Testament the Divine Laws were to be bound upon the Hands of the People and to be as it were Frontlets between their Eyes to be written also on the Posts of their Houses and on their Gates so far were they from being withheld Under the New Testament we find that the Writings of the Evangelists were not composed for the use of the Apostles only but for every Christian also in particular As may in good sort be seen by our Saviour's Sermon in the Mount which was not spoken to the Disciples as Ministers but as private Christians For at his Preaching it there were no Apostles they not being made nor sent till afterwards We find also that all the
to our Duties Though as I before said they are not presently and without further Consideration to be drawn into Practice Of this sort are those Actions which are of a Mixed Nature and are Commended Only this we must be sure to do to have an Eye to that alone in the Examples which is Praiseworthy avoiding the Other part of them The Goodness and Mercy of the Hebrew Midwives may excite us in different occasions to the like Virtues but so only as to joyn Truth with them And from the Prudence of the Unjust Steward we are encouraged to be Prudent yet not so as to follow him in his Vnrighteousness This is one end of Scripture Examples which are Expressive of the Laws of Christ to be Incentives and Encouragements to our Obedience Theoph. Were it not to hinder you I would give you my thanks for the good insight into Examples you have already afforded me But I will not be your let Eubul I had much rather your share in the Discourse had been larger that I might have had better occasion to give the like thanks to you Though I complain not of the Burden if so you can find any thing of Satisfaction therefrom A Second Use of Examples in Holy Writ is this That if some of the Divine Laws be question'd as to their Sense These upon occasion may be Interpretations of them We may instance Theophilus in the Law against Swearing I say unto you Swear not at all Matth. 5. Some you know do from hence Condemn all Swearing whatsoever And therefore they will refuse the taking of an Oath though Solemnly by the Magistrate in things of great Consequence required to do it But that Swearing is not simply unlawful but only as it is lightly used and in ordinary Conversation we have the Example of St. Paul to testifie who to confirm the Truth of God in his Epistles doth seriously bind it with his Oath God is my Witness saith he whom I serve with my Spirit in the Gospel of his Son that without ceasing I make mention of you all in my Prayers Rom. 1.9 God is my Witness which is an appealing to Him or an invocating of Him as a Witness of the Truth of what he saith So Gal. 1.20 Now the things that I write unto you behold before God I lie not And we have the same Reason to be assured That these Oaths were as rightly made as the Things which he spake were truly spoken For the same Holy Spirit dictated both the one and the other Neither can I say that we have not the Example of our blessed Saviour himself in this present Case Mark 8.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verily I say unto you if there shall a sign be given to this Generation Which though rendered by our Translators There shall no sign be given c. yet it is observed by learned Men to be the same kind of expression with that of Hebr. 3.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As I sware unto them in my Wrath IF they shall enter into my Rest And with that of Ezek. 14.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As I live IF their Sons or Daughters shall be delivered Which is an abbreviated or imperfect Form of an Oath very usual among the Hebrews and in these Instances may imply thus much If their Sons and Daughters be deliver'd Let me not be termed the Living God. If they shall enter into my Rest If a Sign shall be given to this Generation Let me be accounted false never in what I say to be believed more What seeming Difficulty then there is in our Saviour's Command against Swearing here in great probability his own but in certainty the Example of the Apostle taketh it all away And as this Law is cleared by an Example so many other Divine Laws in like manner A third Use of Examples is That we may be thereby instructed to do our Duties in a decent and becoming manner For it is not an unfrequent thing that even good Actions may lose somthing of their Beauty by a less comely and not well managed performance It is sufficient that the Divine Laws provide that those things which are righteous and good should be done by us and that the contrary should be avoided but they cannot be expected to go so low as to enjoin all the Particulars of Decency Now herein the Examples of Holy Men may be of use and by their ways and circumstances of doing Duties may be a good light unto us of more advantageously accomplishing what we are commanded St. Paul did his Duty in his constant asserting of the Faith of Christ But it was the Decency of his Duty when styl'd a Madman by Festus he gave the Governor the Title of most noble Festus as if he had been obliged rather than injured by him and with a calmness affirmed That he spake forth the words of truth and soberness Acts 26.25 With a less obliging Carriage he might have been faithful to the Religion which he profess'd but as he then acted he added Comeliness to his Fidelity Instances many more might be given but Mens particular Cases may better find them out and more appositely apply them I must confess That the welfare of a Man's Soul doth not depend upon the outward Decency of his Actings but upon the inward Sincerity of them which of itself carrieth a true Beauty with it in the Eye of God who seeth not as Man seeth But yet it must not be denied that even Virtues and Christian Graces may be more acceptable unto Men when they are decently exercised And if by bringing such a Comeliness to them we can insinuate them into the Hearts of others and make them spread the wider I am sure we shall receive a much greater Reward with God than upon the account of Naked Sincerity we should do They that turn many unto Righteousness shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever saith the Prophet Daniel and a Comeliness in acting Virtues is highly instrumental to the thus turning them Now this Decency of doing Duties is oftentimes learnt sooner from the Examples of others than from the lonely Dictates of a Man 's own Prudence And possibly with respect unto this as well as unto Virtue itself was that excellent Rule of the Heathen of proposing to ourselves the Examples of Persons eminent for Wisdom and Goodness Think saith he how Plato would have done in such a Case how Epaminondas would have carried it And to this End also Examples may be recorded in Holy Scripture That we might thus be Followers of them and might mark those who have so walked for a more comely deportment in our Duties But Theophilus Lest the benefit of Examples in Holy Writ should wholly accrue unto Vs and They who set us these excellent Patterns should now have no Concern in them Therefore Fourthly They were Registred there in Honour unto Those who were thus Exemplary unto Others It is said of Mary Magdalen for her pious Action of pouring the
such a moderate and harmless Transgression to make the Holy and Good God to favour Intemperance to look slightly on Unchasteness to be at good terms with Idleness and Sloth I remember that Plutarch in relation to Mens Evil Thoughts of the Deity saith He had rather it should be said There is no such Person as Plutarch in the World than that it should be said He is after such and such a manner Vitious And surely these who imagine God so vile as to approve of those things which in Men are shameful are no less wicked than they who deny there is any God at all For his Being cannot be conceived to be Dear to him without his Holiness If lastly they shall own him as to his Attributes to be such as he is hoping that their good Opinions shall make amends for bad Practices what a strange Contradiction is this They acknowledge him to be Just that he may not punish Unrighteousness Holy that he may favour Impureness True that he may over-look Falseness Good that Evil may not be discouraged Can there be greater Indignities offered unto the Holy One and the Just than these are Can any one be so wicked as to think that because he is not edged with a sensible spight in these things against God he therefore is a very pardonable Sinner Or can he be so foolish as to imagine that these his Sins are wholly free from Maliciousness Were it so that Malice could effect any thing against the Almighty it would quickly shew itself openly but since it cannot it lieth hid yet hath the same pernicious Tendences as if it appear'd more in view and in other Garbs doth act the very same things Theoph. But is there Eubulus the same Pollution and Defilement in all Sins I therefore enquire this because there is no one living that can say he hath not Sinned And some I am sure would by no means bring such Defilement upon themselves nor such Disorder into the World through their Sins as you have mentioned to be the effects of Disobedience Eubul I cannot say that there is the same Pollution and Deformity in all Sins There is somwhere in Scripture I think in Deut. 32.5 such an Expression as This Their Spot is not the Spot of his Children Which sheweth that there is a greater Pollution in some Men than in Others but yet that Sin wheresoever it is is a Defilement a Spot both to the One and the Other Sort. Theoph. Since there is none that is wholly free from Disobedience and Disobedience hath a different Deformity in different Sorts of Men Good and Bad pray Eubulus tell me what is the Spot of each and wherein it is that they differ Eubul I will endeavour to do it and the rather because it is of Material Consideration as to what we have been discoursing As for Those that are Good Men They are Partakers of Original Sin as much as any other Since they were no less than others in Adam's Loyns when he transgressed Gods Command And if a Clean thing cannot be brought out of an Vnclean one there is a Pollution belonging unto Them. Their Nature as they are Men is Corrupted Darkness and Error is in their Understandings Their Wills and Affections are Irregular and Prone to Evil and their Bodies joyn their Allurements to the Evil Inclinations of their Souls And as thus they are not Clean from Original Sin so they have many actual Sins springing therefrom David asketh a Question at large Who is it can tell how oft he offendeth Even He that most taketh heed to his ways can He tell how oft he sinneth Besides the Faults which he may have observed in himself there are many secret ones which he may pray to be delivered from St. Paul saith Though he knoweth nothing by himself yet is he not thereby justified and so may every good Christian say also Though he be not conscious to himself that at such a time he sinned in such a Concern he fail'd of his Duty yet he cannot certainly plead innocence before God. For his Offences reach further than his Knowledge His Understanding by reason of the first Parents Sin being so imperfect that many times he cannot discern the Failures he hath been guilty of But then the Disobedience of Good Men whether Natural or Actual is through the Grace of God the occasion of many Virtues in them whereby they become acceptable in God's sight The Imperfection of their Nature rendereth them humble They observing the many Defects that are in their Souls and the depraved Constitutions of their Bodies do see a great deal of reason for Humility of Spirit As their imperfect State in this World is a Punishment just upon them they will bear it with Patience and not be tumultuous and unquiet as if God had dealt hardly with them They will not behave themselves proudly towards others as knowing that Pity and Kindness rather become those who are in the same Condemnation Thus will they do and thus be while they consider their imperfect State in this World to be their Punishment As it is their Sin also and a Defilement upon their Natures they will be affected with Sorrow yet will not be desponding and idle nor so contented with their Sin as not to endeavour to correct it by a Religious Carefulness and Industry knowing that it is the part of Negligence to let Original Sin he unmeddled with and to rest satisfied both in that and in their other Sins as if these did necessarily flow from the Imperfection of their Nature and could not any way be helped They will make it their business to clear their Understandings to rectifie their Wills to reduce into order their untoward Appetites and to bring under their Bodies that though they cannot wholly wipe off their Original Pollution yet the ill effects of it may be as few and as small as they can possibly make them As for their Actual Sins these stir up in them an Hearty Sorrow an holy Indignation and Revenge Troubled really they are that they have offended so Good a God and so Gracious a Father Throughly angry with themselves that they have made such ill Returns to One who hath infinitely obliged them and Revenging it upon themselves by unfeigned Acts of Mortification These their Sins will also occasion their more frequent and fervent Devotion They will freely and without so much as hiding one confess their Iniquities before God Heartily acknowledging themselves less than the least of his Mercies Earnestly begging that He through Jesus Christ will forgive them They will not let him alone will give him no Rest till they have obtain'd his Favour And so by how much they heretofore have in the Commission of Sins been at a distance from God they now by seriously calling them into Remembrance and truly repenting of them will the more and the oftner draw near unto God in Prayers and other Acts of Religious Worship Their former Sins beget in them the Resolution
can look no higher than to the obtaining somthing in this World if Praise or Profit or Pleasure be the Vltimate of their Endeavours and Aims if the Life and Immortality which by our Lord are brought to Light be little accounted of and not permitted to have any share in what they do their Sins have a Pollution beyond what Good Mens have I do not say that even Religious Men must necessarily with an Actual Intention in every the least Action have respect to Gods Glory and their own Eternal Welfare The Imperfection of their Nature the many Circumstances they may be in and the quickness which is requisite to many of their Actions will not permit this But an Habitual Intention for Gods Glory and their own Happiness after this Life is done is absolutely necessary And where this is wholly wanting where Temporal concerns are the only things that engage the Thoughts where the good Actions that they do are steered only by Earthly Inducements how little Discommendable yea or how much Commendable soever these Actions may seem to be they are deeply polluted in the Judgment that God will make of them and are peculiar to none but the worse Sort of Men. Thirdly If the many particular Obligations which are laid upon them be not look'd into If they are no more taken notice of than if they belong'd not at all unto them If the Knowledge which they have and the greater Capacities with which they are endow'd have no better Effect than the Ignorance and weak Abilities of the meaner sort If signal Mercies received make no Impressions of Gratitude upon them If peculiar Motions and strong Inclinations from God's Holy Spirit to such and such Duties be not complied with Though all their Behaviour in the sight of Men be fair and innocent yet I cannot say that their Spot is the Spot of God's Children For although we are apt to think that Sin consists only in doing those Vnrighteous Deeds which would be discernably bad in every one yet I suppose that those Actions which would save some Men of a Low Rank and Mean Capacities would not be acceptable unto God in some other Men were they not improved in good sort according to those Measures of Knowledge and Abilities which God hath given them And in the way of Life the same fairness of Converse shall not be alike innocent to many But these shall be defective and unrewardable in the sight of Him who is the Judge of the Earth and will judge Righteous Judgment while the others shall be commendable and accepted I may give you this familiar Instance If some Real Objects of Charity shall offer themselves unto Two Men the One of a Mean Estate and the Other of a very Great One and these Two in the constant Tenor of their Lives should do thus viz. The Meaner according to his Abilities supply the Indigences of the Miserable the Other give also not according to his Abundance but just as the Meaner Person hath done you would Theophilus pronounce the former to be charitable and good but not so the later Just so greater Capacities and Endowments larger Assistances especial Favours and peculiar Engagements to higher Degrees of Duty will be look'd upon by the All-wise God to be as it were a larger Spiritual Estate which such or such a Man possesseth If then with all this he shall do no more than just so much as ordinary Men whose Abilities are much less Engagements much fewer and Mercies less signal as you rightly condemned the Uncharitable Rich Man in those Instances which were open to your view so we shall not think amiss if we conceive that the Just God will not be pleased with This Man who in his Eye that seeth the Heart standeth not in unlike Circumstances with the Other For to whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required and we have no reason to doubt but He who hath received much and returns but little will be hardly more if at all more excusable than He who hath received little and returns nothing Thus may it be in the ordinary seeming innocent Lives and Converse of Men amongst one another A Pollution there may be when yet we cannot discern it and when we are bound to judge according to the best appearance it being no more than Justice and ordinary Charity to interpret things well whenever we see nothing of ill And from what hath been said Theophilus the Case in those things which are acknowledg'd by all to be Sins will be Evident That Sin may be a Pardonable Sin in one Man when the very same to the Sight and Opinion of Men will not be so in another If the Man hath had close and Earnest Warnings of his Conscience before if there hath been as it were a Voice behind him saying This is the way walk in it if the Motions of God's Spirit have more vigorously acted his Soul if his Mercies have pointed directly to what he ought to do And notwithstanding all these things which are discernable only to God and himself he shall commit the Sin The Sin though the same in the common repute of Men with what another committeth shall yet be a much deeper Stain to This Man than to That it would have been Theoph. But Eubulus there are very heinous Sins of some more than ordinary Good Men registred in Sacred Scripture As the Adultery and Murther committed by David The Denial of Christ by Peter as also the grievous Cursing and Swearing which he together with that his Crime was guilty of I pray you what are we to think of these Sins and what would you reply to those unhappy Inferences which too many Men are apt to make therefrom As for Example they will say First That none of the Sins which they indulge themselves in are so great as David's and Peter's were and so they have reason to be confident that their own Sins are not the Sins of wicked Men. Secondly That the same Sins in full as aggravating Circumstances in God's Children as in others will yet not be look'd upon as so great Pollution in them as in those others and this merely upon the account that they are his Children For Numb 23.21 God hath not beheld Iniquity in Jacob neither hath he seen Perverseness in Israel And so if they can persuade themselves that they are the Children of God which many times they easily can do how great soever their Sins already be or at any time hereafter shall be yet their Spot they 'll think will not be more than the Spot of good Men. Eubul It is observed of some that they are more skilful in the Failings of their Governours than in their Virtues or in their own Obedience And after the same manner may we say of these They are better versed in the Faults of good Men in Holy Writ than in their Virtues and Graces or in that Obedience which themselves owe unto God. In relation therefore to those Sins of good