they have the Laws of Christ for their Rule and Warrant They can of themselves lay no Obligation upon us The Holy Men we read of in Scripture were not sent into the World to be a Rule to all Others in the Things they acted The Vncertainty of Examples very great Their Insufficiency None of the Actions of our Blessed Lord from his Example merely and without a Law did lay any Obligation upon us to Imitate them The Laws of Christ reach to all Moral Actions No Examples of Goodness beyond what is included in those Laws Inferences concerning the Examples in Holy Writ In those things where the Law of God is Silent Prudence is to be our Guide Examples though of themselves they lay no Obligation upon us are yet of use Those which bear the Image of the Laws of Christ are given us for Incentives and Encouragements of our Obedience When Divine Laws are question'd as to their Sense Examples upon occasion may be Interpretations of them By Examples we may be instructed to do our Duties in a decent and becoming way Decency added unto Sincerity may make its reward the greater Examples are Registred in Holy Scripture for the Honour of those whose they were Our Condition the more sure than it would have been if we had had none in whose Steps we might tread By comparing Examples with our Rule we shall quickly find whether they will hold Good for our Practice or no. P. 175. The Contents of the Seventh Discourse COncerning the Divine Law as taken in a larger Sense Of the Historical part of Scripture particularly of the Creation All other Opinions concerning the Being of the World are cold and unaffecting Of the Fall of Man. It gives Light to many things which otherwise we should never have known the reason of The sad effects of our Fall are in great measure corrected by God's Mercy and made Comfortable to us Many things in the dark and mingled with falsities in profane Authors we may from hence more clearly discern Sacred History shews forth God's immediate Hand and plainly tells us that he punished and rewarded for such and such reasons Of the History of our Redemption How wonderful it is and what a Sacredness runs through all the Circumstances of our Lord's Conception Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascension The great evidence of these things Of the Prophetical part of Scripture Especially of those Prophecies relating to our Blessed Saviour As Divine Truth is eminently seen in all of them so the quick and various workings of Providence for the fulfilling of some of them are very delightful The Predictions of the Heathen Oracles much different from these The Sibylline Prophecies of suspected Credit Of the Adhortative part of Holy Writ God hath used the most Taking words for the prevailing with Men for Obedience In the Gospel there is nothing wanting that may work upon the Soul of Man. Of the Devotional part of Sacred Scripture It consisteth of such Services as were fit for Men to pay unto their God and needed not Secresie to shelter them from an Honest Ear or Chast Eye Devotion raised to a much greater perfection by having our Lord and the Holy Spirit so nearly concerned in it Those persons quite mistake what they read in Sacred Scripture who find a pleasure therein without any respect to the Divine Law properly as such What we are to think of those who are conscientiously Obedient to the Divine Law but yet find not that Delight therein which Earthly things do frequently give them and who hereupon are very apt to interpret their Love to God's Precepts to be unsincere and such as will be rejected The great reasonableness and Benefit of Holy Meditation P. 210. The Contents of the Eighth Discourse DIsobedience is a Pollution It brings Disorder into a Man. It tends to make the Almighty to minister to his Creatures in the vilest Offices How God cannot be made to serve How he may He is pleas'd in Holy Writ to speak after the manner of Men that so He may condescend to our Vnderstandings and excite our Affections How He is made to serve in His Holy Name How in His Works The Creation sensible of this Slavery and God very much displeas'd with it Disobedience of an Extensive Nature It affects a kind of Eternity It 's highly Disingenuous God necessitates none to Disobedience Why He will not force Men into Obedience Why he generally cuts them not off P. 257. The Contents of the Ninth Discourse THe Plea of those is vain who say they never sinned maliciously against the Almighty nor wish'd his Greatness and Power to be less The Difference betwixt Rebellion against God and that against a Temporal Prince Disobedience a defilement in whomsoever it is Not the same Pollution in all Sins What the Sins of Good Men are and how known to be theirs The Sins of wicked Men of a deep Dye wherein they differ from those of pious Men. The Difference between wicked Men How of the worst sort some are more open some more secret in their Sins How the Sins of the less evil sort are to be measur'd The same fairness of Converse not equally innocent unto many A Sin may be a pardonable one to some when the very same to the Eye and Opinion of Men will not be so to others What we are to think of the Heinous Sins of Good Men Registred in Holy Scripture No reason from them for wicked Men to think better of their own Sins God will not esteem the Sins of his Children which are in themselves as great as and the same with the Sins of other Men to be therefore the less because they are committed by those who are his Children How to make a Judgment of our own Sins P. 288. ERRAT Pag. 282. lin 21. read them for him THE TRUE NATURE OF THE Divine-Law AND OF DISOBEDIENCE thereunto c. The Contents THE Occasion of the Discourse What is to be understood by the Divine Law. The Difference between the Law of Old and That which was given afterwards The Laws which enjoyn'd Duties towards God were such as we would in Right Reason wish should be towards a Prince and Lawgiver Concerning some Laws which might seem to have no real Goodness in them but Cruelty rather And others which seemed to proceed from the Will of God meerly as Supream without any Reason and consequently without any Love to his Creatures Of the Precepts which require Fear and are enforced upon the account that God is Terrible How these can consist with Love which casteth out Fear The Laws which a Rational Man would desire 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
himself afterwards with respect to his Adultery and Murther to say Thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it Psal 51. There not being any Sacrifices provided for such Sins And hereupon the Law is called The Ministration of Death when yet to those that were Obedient the Priviledges it gave were many and so for those as for the Excellency which in itself it had might be loved That other Scripture to wit I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died We if we take it as spoken in the Person of the Apostle and not rather by a Figure for others are not so to understand it as if he were the worse for the Law and might date his Death from it But thus While he look'd upon himself and his own Actions without a due Examination of them according to the exactness of the Law he might think himself to be in very good plight and free from danger But when he compared his Actions and Performances with the exceeding Accurateness of the Law the Actions which before look'd well appear'd sinful and he saw his Danger and Demerits to be very great Whereas the Law in itself was holy and the Commandment holy and just and good and so for its own worth might be loved Your last Scripture is this viz. That the Mosaick Law is termed A Yoke which neither We nor our Fathers were able to bear To this it may be replyed That we are not to take these words in a strict sense as if the Apostles and Jews could not bear that Yoke but thus They could not bear it without difficulty For we know that they had born it for many Generations from the time of Moses to that day Besides Neither was it a Yoke absolutely consider'd For God in the giving of these Laws did as a great Man interprets it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13.18 bear with some of their Manners which the use of those Times had taught them and made his Sanctions suitable in many things to their being under-age as it were and too weak as yet for more perfect Institutions But it is therefore term'd A Yoke with reference to that Freedom and those very great Priviledges which are brought unto us by Christ In Comparison of These it is little better than a Bondage When yet before it was a great Honour to the Jews and such as They only had a share in The Heathens as they were Heathens having nothing to do in it You have Theophilus what at present I think may be replyed to the Scriptures you brought Yourself could possibly to your own Satisfaction better have answered them But if you are any way pleased with what I have said and can reap though but the least of that Spiritual Advantage you in the beginning of our Discourse spake of I shall be the less solicitous for the excusing of my Failures DISCOURSE the Second The Contents THE Inducements that Christians have to Love the Divine Law. Love was the moving cause of our Lords 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 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 to 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. THEOPHILVS I Am very glad Eubulus I have once more your good Company and from the privacy of the place the calmness of the Weather and the leisure you at present have you will I hope go on where Yesterday you left off For I have a great desire to hear the Inducements which Christians have to Love the Divine Law. EVBVLVS YOur desire shall be complied with not because I think I can so much inform you but because those things which we already know are made more Active upon us when we hear they are the Sentiments of others as well as our own Theoph. You will make whatever Truths after this manner shall be quickned in me to belong to yourself as being Watered at least if not Planted by you Besides since the things that lie only in our thoughts do not usually so much affect us as they do when we bring them out into Words it is to be imagined that yourself will not be wholly destitute of benefit while you are kind unto me Eubul Well then with Prayers that it may be for the Ghostly Health of us both we will proceed The Inducements that Christians have for the Loving the Divine Law which are far greater than what the Jews had may I presume be collected from the consideration of these things viz. The Lawgiver The Laws themselves and those Motives which are annexed unto them for the securing of our Obedience As to what concerns the Lawgiver it may very much contribute to the Love of the Christian Law That Love was the moving Cause of his becoming our Lawgiver The Punishment which Mankind for the breach of the Command in Paradise was from Gods Justice to suffer the Son of God was willing in our Nature to undergo himself And though God the Father if he had so pleased might have refus'd that any should bear the Punishment besides those who had deserv'd it for the Law when it is Trangress'd doth require that the Offenders should suffer in their own Persons The Soul that Sinneth it shall dye yet he was pleased to accept of his Son in our stead Accounting the Reverence of his Laws which by the Sins of Mankind had been Violated to be sufficiently maintain'd by his Death But on this condition only would God accept of his
Actions of no Authority in respect of the Injunctions which from God they declared The Vncertainty Theophilus of Examples next will shew us that they of themselves do not oblige us How many of those Examples shall bind us to Imitation is no where in Scripture told us Some of them carry an open unlawfulness along with them Others may well be question'd whether they be rightly honest or not And others that were lawful and good in the Circumstances they when acted were in will be found not so easie to be fitted for our own and all other Mens Circumstances For they admit of an unaccountable variety and that variety may so much alter the quality of Actions as to make some that are lawful to become sinful and others that we are free to do or not to do to become necessary to be done So that either we must be told in how many Circumstances such Examples will hold good and be imitable and in how many they will become unlawful and inexpedient or else every one must be left to chuse what Examples he will and to apply them how he thinks good The former is a Task that no Man will undertake The later would bring in the greatest Confusion of Practice while some would take the bad Examples others misapply the good and so all Edification and Unity would be overthrown And as the Examples are uncertain so are they insufficient And indeed so far as there is an Uncertainty there is in some sense an Insufficiency For should they be never so full in themselves yet if Mens Understandings should generally be so dim-sighted as that they could not through diversity of Circumstances discern how to take right Measures of their Actions from them they would be insufficient as to us But we shall find a great Deficiency of Examples in Holy Writ in that there are Thousands of Actions which are to be governed by Religion as indeed all our Actions are of which we can find no suitable Example in Scripture I need not Theophilus give you nor myself the trouble of gathering together many Instances of Actions to shew what I now say Let Men in the Diversity of Callings that are in the World and in the many Relations that they stand in unto others consider their own Actions and amidst all the Examples of Scripture they will see themselves left alone not having a sure Light from any of them Whence from the Uncertainty and Insufficiency of the Examples as well as from the want of Authority in the Persons no Examples are Obligatory unto us nor to be imitated any further than they have the Laws of Christ for their Rule and Warrant Theoph. But Eubulus our Blessed Lord wanted no Authority in his Person and his Example was perfect and what Others Example could not do His may may it not Eubul We will therefore consider the Actions of our Lord than whom there never was neither could be a better Pattern in the World and yet we shall find that none of them from his Example merely and without a Law did lay an absolute Obligation upon us to imitate them 1. Some of them were Miraculous Actions and as such we are not bound to imitate them For no Man is obliged to do those things which are beyond the Powers which God ever gave him or hath promised to bestow upon him Such Actions as these are the accomplishments of the Son of God above all others neither hath he nor ever will he impart the Abilities of doing the like unless upon extraordinary occasions and for the obtaining the chiefest Ends the Glory of God and the Salvation of the Souls of Men when they cannot reasonably be compass'd without such Miraculous Actings as at the first spreading the Gospel they could not But ordinarily none will be thought deficient in their Actions because they turn not Water into Wine Cure not Diseases with a Word give not Eyes to the Blind Legs to the Lame and Life to the Dead 2. Some of our Lords Actions were such as proceeded from that Authority and Prerogative which as he was a Prince did belong unto him Of this sort was his sending for the Ass and Colt without so much as having the owners leave or acquainting him with what he did Matth. 21.2 As also was his driving the Buyers and Sellers with a Scourge out of the Temple and overthrowing the Tables of the Money-changers Mat. 21.12 Neither are These to be imitated by us as we are private Men. Whosoever shall take away that which is anothers without his leave and licence and shall use it as their own will be guilty of Injustice And so whosoever as a private Person shall take upon him Magisterially to new Model the Church or the Discipline thereof he usurps that Authority which is due unto our Lord and is imparted to some only who are rightly called thereunto And he deserves the Scourge which our Lord made rather than any Praise for his Actions in this kind 3. Some Actions of our Lord are such as belong to his Mediatory Office by which he interceeds with God for Men not in a Submiss and Precarious manner but by way of Covenant and Merit These we must not imitate He that shall mediate with God upon the account of his own Merit as if he had done whatever was required of him to do and also had supererogated and so might claim as of Right a Reward to himself and somwhat over and above which he might impart to others who have been deficient in their Duty and could therefore expect nothing such an one imitateth Christ no otherwise than to become a Traytor to him and goeth about to share in that Glory which our Lord will not part with to another Nothing but Submission is to be shewn and Imperfection acknowledg'd by us For we have done in every thing less than was our Duty to do and so must account ourselves less than the least of Gods Mercies 4. Some Actions of our Lord are Moral such as respect Righteousness of Life and These we are to imitate But yet These we are not oblig'd unto merely by his Example Now These are such as may be reduced either to the Law of Nature or else to the Gospel as particularly belonging thereunto Those Actions which he did relating to the Law of Nature we also are to do Such are the Worshipping of God the being just unto Men Temperate in our own Persons and such like But the Law within us which as the Apostle saith is written in our Hearts laid an Obligation upon us before to do these things and so the Duty of performing them depends not upon his Example As for those Actions that purely relate unto the Gospel How had we been bound by them unless he had said This I say unto you This do ye Or how could we have known that his Actions should have been imitated unless he had given Laws for the doing the like When we had seen him reproached and bearing
other Who is it can look upon and not be highly pleased in them But all These are nothing else but the Excellencies of the Laws of our Lord And shall we not Reverence shall we not Love them If I say we would in the Laudable actions of Men though much distant from the Perfection of the Laws of Christ often cast our Thoughts upon those Laws acknowledging the Beauty to belong unto them which in all these things is really derived from them it would be no more than a due Expression of Esteem and Love towards them and at the best much â—â—ow their Excellency Meet therefore surely it is when we have a Mind to do any thing and have an Example of the same ready in Sacred Scripture that we think not ourselves presently authoriz'd thereby to do it Some actions even of good Men who are now happy in Heaven having not been always nor altogether Good. Let us make the Precepts of the Gospel to be our Touchstone and by comparing the Example with the Rule we shall quickly find whether it will hold good for our Practice or no. Choose we either those Examples of Holy Writ which in the whole or those which in some part of them are the Image of a Divine Law and thereupon have a perpetual Rectitude Yet in these later be sure to avoid that part of the Example which is transgressive of the Command As for those which had a Warrant only for the Time in which they were done they lay no more obligation upon us now than Circumcision and Sacrifices do but are wholly to be shunn'd And those which the Law of God is silent in and which are therefore merely indifferent we may justly esteem ourselves no more bound by them than we are to wear a Seamless Coat or to lye along every time we eat unless Human Laws shall upon Prudential accounts enjoyn the doing them And then for other Examples Theophilus not recorded in Scripture They also are to be Examined by the Rule If in any thing they deviate from the Laws of Christ we are not to follow them though they be grown the Practice of Many and of some who may seem to be more Understanding and Religious than most of their Neighbors Always bearing in mind that the Best have their Errors and Frailties and that the most dangerous Errors in Religion are for the most part if not always usher'd in with Semblances of Holiness more than ordinary which to wise Men do often betray themselves by being over-acted But the Divine Laws are in every respect sincere and perfect and will lead us into no paths but such as will undoubtedly bring us unto Happiness They have no Interest to set up besides the Glory of God and the everlasting Welfare of Souls And will bear the being search'd into themselves as well as they require that other things be proved by them We may through them find out the failures of many specious Actions and Pretences but may despair in any example to see those Excellences which are not in far greater measures in Them. And Thus Theophilus as well as I could I have answered your Request In the doing of which I cannot reasonably be thought to have detracted any thing from Sacred Examples by having made them wholly dependent on Sacred Laws Were there generally a greater Caution used in Those and a greater Love shewed to These Men would walk more Surely Themselves and would set far better Copies unto Others Theoph. I dare say none of those Holy Men who have left us their good Examples would think those good Examples injured by what you have said Since their greatest Care in them was to obey God's Law And their greatest Pleasure from them was to have done it This your kindness Eubulus together with your other shall I hope find that Entertainment with me which you would wish And among the Virtues which they tend to promote I will see that Friendship and Gratitude shall not be wanting DISCOURSE the Seventh The Contents COncerning the Divine Law as taken in a larger Sense Of the Historical part of Scripture particularly of the Creation All other Opinions concerning the Being of the World are cold and unaffecting Of the Fall of Man. It gives Light to many things which otherwise we should never have known the reason of The sad effects of our Fall are in great measure corrected by God's Mercy and made Comfortable to us Many things in the dark and mingled with falsities in profane Authors we may from hence more clearly discern Sacred History shews forth God's immediate Hand and plainly tells us that he punished and rewarded for such and such reasons Of the History of our Redemption How wonderful it is and what a Sacredness runs through all the Circumstances of our Lord's Conception Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascension The great evidence of these things Of the Prophetical part of Scripture Especially of those Prophecies relating to our Blessed Saviour As Divine Truth is eminently seen in all of them so the quick and various workings of Providence for the fulfilling of some of them are very delightful The Predictions of the Heathen Oracles much different from these The Sibyllin Prophecies of suspected Credit Of the Adhortative part of Holy Writ God hath used the most taking words for the prevailing with Men for Obedience In the Gospel there is nothing wanting that may work upon the Soul of Man. Of the Devotional part of Sacred Scripture It consisteth of such Services were fit for Men to pay unto their God and needed not Secresie to shelter them from an Honest Ear or Chast Eye Devotion raised to a much greater perfection by having our Lord and the Holy Spirit so nearly concerned in it Those persons quite mistake what they read in Sacred Scripture who find a pleasure therein without any respect to the Divine Law properly as such What we are to think of those who are conscientiously Obedient to the Divine Law but yet find not that Delight therein which Earthly things do frequently give them and who hereupon are very apt to interpret their Love to God's Precepts to be unsincere and such as will be rejected The great reasonableness and Benefit of Holy Meditation THEOPHILVS I Remember Eubulus that as by the Word Law you understood the Preceptive Part of the Bible which you have hitherto discoursed of so you did not exclude from it what ever else is contained in Holy Writ EVBVLVS YEs Theophilus we may in a larger Sense understand this also And indeed since all Scriptures have some way or other a respect to the Precepts thereof therefore the Word Law doth oftentimes import the whole Scripture as is manifest in these places John 10. It is written in your LAW I have said ye are Gods. And Cap. 12. We have heard out of the LAW that Christ abideth for ever and Cap. 15. It is written in their LAW they hated me without a cause All which places are not in the
of never Sinning knowingly and presumptuously for the time to come Those Words in Job they will heartily say and think them but meet to be said unto God I have born Chastisement I will not Offend any more That which I see not teach thou me If I have done Iniquity I will do no more The Remembrance of their past Offences will quicken them to new purposes and firm Resolves of Upright Walking for the residue of their Life They will say I thought on my Ways I considered my former Sins and I am resolved to turn my Feet to thy Testimonies And as it is my full resolution never more to commit Sins Willingly so do thou by thy Restraining Grace preserve thy Servant from Presumptuous Sins If they through Frailty and Oversight or through any Eminent Temptation fall into some Sins they will not continue in them but get out of them as soon as may be They may as Travellers for themselves are such they are Travelling towards Heaven they may I say as Travellers somtimes by Chance and against their Wills slip into the Dirt but they will quickly step out of it accounting it their Unhappiness that ever they were sullied with it Nay if they fall into Sin they not only will not continue in it but from their Failings will become the more earnest Persuers of that which is good As we often see our Beasts if I may be allow'd to use the Comparison after a stumble to go the faster so will they after a slip make the more haste in Heavens way They will love God the more because by these new Offences they have the more to be forgiven them From their own Sins against God they will the more readily forgive the Sins which others have committed against them They will redeem the Time and do much in the few Years that remain for those good Actions which they have left undone and for those Offences which they have committed And if ever Sins can be improved aright it is when they are made Incitements to more Duty And lastly The Sins which they through frailty daily run into and cannot by all care and diligence be wholly free from do excite and prompt them to long for that happy State after this Life in which they shall be fully cleansed from all Sin and never shall give God the least Offence more When will the Time come that they shall be no more troubled with daily Failures in their Duties How long will it be that their Souls shall be perfectly bent to all Goodness and their Bodies have the Imperfection of Temper and Constitution taken away O that they should be constrained to dwell in Mesech and to have their Habitation among the Tents of Kedar O that they had Wings like a Dove then would they fly away and be at rest They 'll say Come Lord Jesus come quickly that so They with all those departed this Life in the true Faith and Fear of God may have their perfect Consummation and Bliss both in Body and Soul. Such earnest Desires do their frail and imperfect Conditions and their every days Failings stir up in them Thus Theophilus the Sins of good Men have a Defilement in them but such as is easily discern'd from that of others Theoph. Much different I must confess it is from the Deformity of Disobedience as you yesterday Character'd it The Sins of good Men owing more as may seem to the Frailty of Human Nature in common than to the Wills of themselves in particular But I will now desire you to speak to the Sins of the other sort of Men viz. Those who are Wicked Eubul The Sins of these Theophilus are of a far deeper Die and carry a much greater Deformity than the Sins of good Men do The Scripture speaks of them as Scarlet and Crimson ones not for the Beauty of the Colour we may be sure but for the Depth of the Stain For who can make Scarlet as Snow or Crimson white as Wool See we first the Sin of their Nature And this indeed is not in itself greater than that of the better sort of Men. For all Men in Adam sinned equally neither is one more guilty of that Sin than another But then herein consisteth the greater Deformity of wicked Men in respect of Original Sin. They are contented and well enough pleas'd with it What evil Inclinations they have are not grievous to them They esteem their imperfect State as no unhappiness at all Are not in the least affected with it see no Punishment at all in it Yea they increase the Defilements of their Nature thus The Ignorance which from the Womb they have of Divine things they improve into a Willingness that there should be no God and into a Readiness to Dispute him out of their own Hearts and out of thâ— World too And would fain imagine him to have no Being at all that they may not have such an one to Raign over them They encourage their depraved Wills by Obeying them as far as they can and they would do it further if Fear and Shame and Loss from Human Laws and Customs did not prohibit them And that they are thus prohibited it is their inward trouble Their Corrupt Desires they are so far from repressing and keeping under that they foster and cherish them It was an ill Character of one of the Roman Emperours Jacentes excitavit Libidines He stirr'd up and used Arts to awaken his Lusts which otherwise would have been quiet and asleep So is it with these They give no rest to their vile Affections and spur their depraved Nature to a greater height of Depravation If we consider their Outward Actions we shall find they are not equally notorious in all But yet in all they are much different from those of good Men. Wicked Men Theophilus are of two sorts Those that are more wicked and those that are less For we read in Holy Writ of a greater Damnation and in Hell we believe there are Degrees of Torments more intense for some and less intense for others And yet those who are in the lesser Degrees of Torment have been wicked Men. As for the former and worse sort the Scripture speaks of them thus They proceed from Evil to Evil. They weary themselves to commit Iniquity They bend their Tongue like their Bow to speak Lyes They lie in wait for Blood. They hunt every Man his Neighbour with a Net. They do Evil with both Hands earnestly Corrupt are they and have done abominable Iniquity They are altogether become filthy Now the Deformity of These is somtimes more open somtimes more secret Some were their Lives throughly look'd into I Fear without uncharitableness used towards them they would be found to have wholly laid out themselves in the Service of Sin. Could the Time be Computed rightly which they have spent in Defraudations and Oppressions in Surfeitings and Drunkenness in Defaming and Evil Censuring in Telling Lyes of and unto their Neighbor in Begetting
think and somtimes they may think right that in relation to the Commands of Masters and Governors they could do better than what they are enjoyn'd to do And yet notwithstanding they will yield Obedience as judging it but reasonable That not always what is best but what best pleaseth those who are in Power is to be done But better they cannot do than that which the Laws of our Lord require His Will never stands in Opposition to what is in itself really best because he is pleased with nothing but that which is holy just and good Which sure may create a very great Satisfaction in us whilst we submit to his Laws and may render those his Laws of very high account with us But yet for all this his Laws and Himself too are much disesteem'd and the mean regard which they generally find hath made me with sorrow to think upon those Words of Arrian's Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Men saith he have built Altars and Temples to Triptolemus who shew'd them the way of Agriculture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But to Him who finds out and gives Light to the Truth of Things directing Men not merely to preserve Life but to Live well and as Men ought to do Who of you all Dedicates a Temple to his Honour or so much as thanks God upon his Account All this cannot I confess be said with relation to our Lawgiver Temples are built unto him and Praises are offered unto God who sent him into the World. But are they not with a great many as an outward shew rather than the Expressions of inward Devotion and unfeigned Thankfulness While they obey not the Laws of Him whom they thus celebrate and to use our Lord 's own words do draw near unto him with their Lips when their Heart is far from him Most Men are willing to have our Lord their Priest to Attone for their Sins and for Novelty and Entertainment they can be content to have him their Prophet too But as a King and Lawgiver they care not for him and are backward to submit to his Scepter and Laws Yet surely his Scepter is a Righteous Scepter and his Commands not grievous but such as are fitted to Human Nature and its Interests in this World that the Man may seem unwilling to be Happy either here or hereafter who refuseth Obedience unto them It was a true word of the People concerning our Lord That never Man spake as he spake His Words were with Authority bringing a Convincingness along with them And shall Men now be deaf to them Frequently did our Saviour use that Exhortation shall I call it or Command or both He that hath Ears to hear let him hear As much as to say Of so great importance are the things I declare unto you that if ever a more than ordinary Attention was requisite now it is Well it were if it could not be said of Multitudes That there is a Price put into their Hands and they have no Heart to it Theoph. Let me add Eubulus that the great expectation which was of this our Lawgiver and his Laws may prevail much for Mens Obedience to them Towards Him the Faces of the Jews even from Moses's time and upwards were bent The coming of Shiloh was earnestly waited for And He after so many Propbecies made of him had the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Him that Cometh or the Coming King as is very frequently to be seen in the Evangelists And when the Ages past were so intent upon his Coming when there were so many Types and Predictions of him which under his Government betokened the greatest Happiness unto Men shall Men now He is come esteem meanly of Him and his Laws And this when to those who will impartially weigh and consider things He is not a jot less worthy than all the Expectations of a great People for many more than a thousand Years and those many Figures and Prophecies of him imported him to be Yea when He is excellent beyond the Conceptions of Men Angels themselves desiring with Reverence to look into these things When also All Men are no less concern'd in Him now than the Jews formerly were How ill will it look after all this if Men shall slight his Person and refuse Obedience to his Laws which if a Man observe he shall not only live in them but live happily to all Eternity Eubul Your Persuasive for Reverence and Honour to the Person of our Lawgiver and for Submission and Obedience to his Laws is very strong Yet methinks I would not more urge for an Observance of than for an hearty Love unto those his Laws Though truly where there is a faithful Observance there will be a true Love of them also Their Righteousness and Goodness will presently manifest themselves to those who are Conscionably Obedient And as our Lord saith Wisdom is justified of her Children so these Laws which may in reality be termed Wisdom as proceeding from Him who is Wisdom itself will justifie their own Excellencies to the Thoughts of those who observe them and by Them will be vindicated against all Gainsayers and Disobedient Ones I will end all with this Prayer That God by shedding abroad his Love into our Hearts would encrease our Love daily more and more to his Laws That we may cheerfully obey Him in this World and be everlasting rewarded by Him in the next DISCOURSE the Sixth The Contents NOt a few think themselves secure in their actings if they can shew that some good Men in Holy Writ or some well accounted of since have done the like Examples of Good Men to be imitated no further than they have the Laws of Christ for their Rule and Warrant They can of themselves lay no Obligation upon us The Holy Men we read of in Scripture were not sent into the World to be a Rule to all Others in the Things they acted The Vncertainty of Examples very great Their Insufficiency None of the Actions of our Blessed Lord from his Example merely and without a Law did lay any Obligation upon us to Imitate them The Laws of Christ reach to all Moral Actions No Examples of Goodness beyond what is included in those Laws Inferences concerning the Examples in Holy Writ In those things where the Law of God is Silent Prudence is to be our Guide Examples though of themselves they lay no Obligation upon us are yet of use Those which bear the Image of the Laws of Christ are given us for Incentives and Encouragements of our Obedience When Divine Laws are question'd as to their Sense Examples upon occasion may be Interpretations of them By Examples we may be instructed to do our Duties in a decent and becoming way Decency added unto Sincerity may make its reward the greater Examples are Registred in Holy Scripture for the Honour of those whose they were Our Condition the more sure than it would have been if we
his Son the Jews did Rule by their own Laws and so the Scepter was not departed from Judah at the coming of our Lord into the World. I will mention only one Prophecy more which from the unexpected Methods and the quick and various Workings of Providence may be very delightful and that is the Prophecy of Esai concerning his Burial Chap. 53. He made his Grave with the Rich in his Death But how shall this be For the Custom of the Romans required that He and the other Two should continue on the Cross exposed there to the Fowls of the Air to be eaten or to be consumed leisurely by the Air and Weather That this Prophecy should be fulfilled God so orders it that the Jews who were the Authors of his Death should though they wish'd no good to him be the Promoters of his Burial Thus that the Bodies might not remain on the Cross upon the Sabbath day which was then a great day the Jews besought Pilate that they might be taken away and had their desire granted But though this were granted them yet still the Prophecy was in a fair way not to be fulfilled For among the Jews there was a place on purpose to bury Malefactors in And so our Lord must have been buried with the Thieves and then how could he be said to make his Grave with the Rich in his Death That therefore this might be effected Joseph of Arimathea a Rich Man and honourable Counseller comes and begs Christ's Body of Pilate Pilate possibly having a regard to him as he was a Wealthy Man and in good esteem and not well knowing how to deny the Body of Jesus to Burial whom he had declared to be free from fault though he had afterwards condemned him order'd the Body to be given to Joseph Who after it was wound up in fine Linnen and Spices laid it in a New Sepulchre which he in his Garden had hewen out of a Rock for his own Tomb. And so contrary to the use of the Romans he was Buried and contrary to the use of the Jews he was Buried not with Malefactors but in a Creditable Sepulchre with the Rich. In such an Eminent and surprising Manner will God bring about his own Counsels and hath accomplished this Prophecy There are also many other Prophecies directly shewing forth the Resurrection Ascension and other things relating to our Lord in which a Religious and Contemplative Soul may find a Rich and Glorious Repast But these I at present will omit and will only take notice of what I hinted before viz. That some other parts of Holy Writ in themselves very delightful do yet afford us a further Delight and are in a sort Prophetical by including the Image of greater things to come Such were the Israelites coming out of Egypt which signified our Lords Coming out from thence The Rock in the Wilderness pouring out Water which Rock was Christ Jonas's being three Days and three Nights in the Whales Belly and afterwards thrown up which imported our Lords being so long in the Grave and then Rising Isaac's Living after Abraham had in intention Sacrificed him which betokened our Lords Resurrection Agar and Sarah which were an Allegory of the Two Covenants Canaan Jerusalem and Mount Sion which were Types of a Country City and Church above And many more such as These which what a true and sutable pleasure do they give to one whose Heart is fixed on Sacred things Theoph. While we look from hence backwards it may indeed hugely delight us to see the Shadows of our future Happiness While from thence we look forwards it may take us wholly up in Love and Joy to behold those Shadows reduced into Realities which for the Excellence in themselves and the infinite advantage they give unto us have been altogether worthy of such Presignifications And truly Eubulus of quite another Strain were those speeches which the Heathen Oracles gave when they were consulted about things to come The Ambiguous Signification of their Words denoted Sophistry and Cunning rather than Prescience And hence it is no wonder that they were not forward of themselves to Prophesie since when sought unto for knowledge of future Events they were thus put to their Shifts For the Devil can but guess what will be by comparing present affairs with what are past And though his guesses may more encline to certainty than the guesses of Men for we may suppose him to have a far greater insight into former years and the successes of things in them than any Man can have yet for his Reputation Sake with his Votaries he durst not speak things positively but always in a dubious Sense that if they fell out otherwise than was at first thought another Latent meaning might rather make Men blame their own Dimsightedness towards the Oracle than the Oracle's towards the futurities enquired after There are I must confess very perspicuous and important Prophecies in the Books of the Sybils And I will not say but God in his Goodness might inspire those Women for the giving out some Oracles which as rightly suting with the Revelations of the Gospel might afterwards the more sway with the Nations But many of these Prophecies were by the Pious Fraud of some Persons not Written till after things were come to pass With a design no doubt to bring a greater honour to what in appearance was so plainly foretold Thus the Oracles which were ascribed to the Cumean Sibyl were in great measure written by the Jews before our Saviour came into the World. Those which are Extant under the Name of the Erythrean Sibyl are for the most part spurious as being Written by some that lived more than an Hundred Years after our Lord. But instead of greater there is less credit as in such dealing it usually falls out both to the Jewish and Christian affairs mention'd by them Varro so far as there are Acrosticks in them denies their Truth Cicero for the same reason contends that they were rather from Human Study than Divine Inspiration And Celsus will have many things to be foisted in by the Christians So that the Reputation of the whole is hereby much diminished And indeed it is with a rational Man a very great argument against them that many Oracles there are so particular and direct that the Holy Scriptures themselves are in some things less particular and direct And who can think that God would more plainly reveal himself to uncouth Women among the Nations than to Holy Men among his own People to whom as a Pledge of his Favour above all others the Sacred Oracles as the Apostle speaketh were committed Eubul You do the Prophecies of the Holy Scripture no more than right while you prefer them above all others There is no Deceit in them The Time in which they were written is well known And was long before the things Prophesied came to pass The Jews who were the greatest Enemies to our Lord cannot deny the Truth of them
And some of these Enemies from the expressness of those Prophecies which respect our Saviours sufferings have been forced to say that there is to be a Suffering Messias as well as a Glorious one though they will not allow the True Messias who is both the One and the Other to be either Theoph. I could desire to be continually fixed on the thoughts of the Prophetick part of Scripture so divinely pleasant is it from the lively Representation of great and sacred things in after-times revealed I doubt not but there will be a true Beauty in that other part of holy Scripture which you termed the ADHORTATIVE Eubul If great Love intermingled with great Art in the enforcing of it can give a Beauty and what can give a greater Beauty than these it is truly amiable And indeed God who knoweth our Frame and Make and can tell what Words will most Sway the Affections of Men hath seemed to let go none that may prevail with them to be such as they ought to be Somtimes enforcing his Exhortations from the Greatness of his Favours the Excellences of his Laws the Natural Desires and Aversations of Men their Forgetfulness and such like I almost wonder how any of the Jews of Old could be Disobedient when they read such Words as these Ask now of the Days that are past since the Day that God Created Man upon the Earth and ask from the One side of Heaven unto the Other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is or hath been heard like it Did ever People hear the Voice of God speaking out of the mid'st of the Fire as Thou hast heard and Live Or hath God assayed to go and take him a Nation from the midst of another Nation by Signs and Wonders and a Mighty Hand Thou shalt therefore keep his Statutes He led thee through the great and terrible Wilderness where there was no Water and he brought thee forth Water out of the Rock of Flint He fed thee there with Manna which thy Fathers knew not Thy Raiment waxed not Old upon thee neither did thy Foot swell these Forty years Therefore shalt thou keep the Commandments of the Lord thy God. And where an Exhortation is set home by the recounting of such mighty Favours it cannot sure but prevail There is nothing usually will take more with a Man than the Reputation of being Wise and Vnderstanding The Excellency of Man consisting in nothing more than in a Power of Discerning and Acting what is good On this ground therefore it is that God builds his Exhortation Keep saith he and do these Statutes and Judgments for this is your Wisdom and Vnderstanding in the sight of the Nations Deut. â— 6 And since a Man will bear any thing better than the Name of Fool and accounteth it a great Discredit to act weakly and below a Man Therefore God so often in Scripture termeth Disobedience Folly and speaketh thus to Transgressors O ye Fools when will you learn Wisdom How long ye simple Ones will ye love Simplicity and Fools hate Knowledge Turn you at my Reproof I look upon Peace and Plenty to be as it were a visible Exhortation and a Persuasive that is palpable and may be felt But because these do somtimes steal away the Heart and are apt to render the Man forgetful of his Gracious Benefactor God in infinite Goodness is pleased to strengthen this Exhortation by Cautioning us when we have eaten and are full not to forget Him to take heed to ourselves and to keep our Souls diligently lest we forget the things which our Eyes have seen and lest we depart from the Lord our God all the days of our Life But should any be so heedless or perverse as not to be prevail'd upon by such Exhortations as these how can they hold out against God's pathetical Pleading with them Thus Ezek. 18 Ye say The Way of the Lord is not equal O House of Israel is not my Way equal are not your Ways unequal If ye offer the Lame and the Sick is it not evil Offer it now unto thy Governour will He be pleased with thee or accept thy Person saith the Lord of Hosts A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master If I then be a Father where is mine Honour If a Master where is my Fear Malac. 1. I will plead with you saith the Lord and with your Childrens Children will I plead For pass over the Isles of Chittim and see and send unto Kedar and consider diligently and see if there be any such thing Hath a Nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods But my People have changed their Glory for that which profiteth not Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord of Hosts For my People have committed two Evils They have forsaken me the Fountain of Living Waters and hewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no Water Jer. 2. Theoph. These are highly moving And in my Opinion no less is that of quickning Mens Obedience even by the better Carriage of Beasts and Fowls I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me The Ox knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib But Israel doth not know my People doth not consider Isai 1. I hearkned and heard but thy spake not aright no Man repented him of his Wickedness saying What have I done Yea the Stork in the Heavens knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming but my People know not the Judgment of the Lord Jer. 8. He will be yet much lower than the Beasts and Fowls who seeing himself out-gone by them will not be ashamed and quicken his pace Eubul There are innumerable other Schemes of Speech which God Almighty useth as if he would not omit so much as one Figure or Topick of sacred Oratory by which the wicked Hearts of Men might be bent to their good And truly all the gracious Methods which under the Legal Dispensation he hath chosen for Persuasives are in force now under the Gospel for the engaging us to Obedience it being through the Blood of Christ that so much Care and Love was then shewed Only what were made Excitements to the Jews are now with the change of some Circumstances enlarged and do belong to the whole World. As for those Exhortations which are more strictly comprized in the Gospel what may we say of them or rather what may we not The New Covenant is so wholly in itself a Persuasive set off with the highest Expressions of Divine Wisdom and Love that where IT alone will not prevail all other Arguments may seem fruitless But that there may nothing be wanting which may work upon the Soul of Man what affectionate Beseechings are there added What earnest Invitations given How are pure Minds stirred up by way of Remembrance What fervent Prayers are made for
Men and also the ill Inferences which these Men are apt to make from them we say Theophilus 1. That those Sins though great they were were yet rather single Acts than Habits of Sin. They were not approved of nor contrived for every day of their Lives nor did they last for Years Now single Acts are rightly esteemed not to carry so much Pollution as Habits do Because an Habit is acquired by Actions often repeated and so includeth the Defilements of many single Acts put together If it shall be said that the single Acts of some heinous Sins may possibly carry a stain with them as great as some Habits of lesser Sins and that the Sins of David and Peter were gravioris Notae of a deeper Dye it cannot yet but be granted that a single Act of a grievous Sin is less polluting than the Habit of the same Sin. But then Secondly Those Sins though very great they were had Repentance following them 〈◊〉 was truly great Look we upon David and we shall find him grieving in earnest and heartily affected with his Misdeeds Psal 38.2 Thine Arrows stick fast in me and thine Hand presseth me sore There is no soundness in my Flesh by reason of thine Anger neither is there any rest in my Bones because of my Sin. For mine Iniquities are gone over mine Head as an heavy Burden they are too heavy for me I am feeble and sore broken I have roared by reason of the Disquietness of mine Heart And in Psal 51. which Psalm he made as the Title hath it when Nathan the Prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba he mourns thus Wash me throughly from mine Iniquity and cleanse me from my Sin For I acknowledge mine Iniquity and my Sin is ever before me Deliver me from Blood-guiltiness O Lord Thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and contrite Heart O God thou wilt not despise I have the more largely spoken David's words that you may thereby see how great his Grief was how earnest his Prayers for pardon and how deep an Anxiety had seized him lest God's Favour should for ever have been with-held from him Nor was St. Peter's Sin without a remarkable Repentance It is said Matth. 26.75 Peter remembred the words of Jesus who said unto him Before the Cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice And he went out and WEPT BITTERLY It was not a light grief and a Tear or two that were quickly dryed up but a Bitter Weeping which words certainly do denote a very great and deep Sorrow Now those that think so well of their own Sins from the thoughts of David's and Peter's Sins being so much greater than theirs are they as ready to consider these good Mens Repentance Do they grieve for their own as these did for theirs Is the Burden of them heavy Are they earnest in the begging pardon for them If not the greatness of some good Mens Sins in Holy Scripture will be a mean Argument for the concluding their own not to be the Deformities of wicked Men. I may truly say that the great Sins of David and Peter if considered with their Repentance are much less than those Sins which in themselves are not so great without Repentance And so there is small reason for any Person from the Failures of these Holy Men to infer his own Spots to be none other than those of Gods Children Thirdly There are more Ends than one for which God hath caused those Sins of his Children to be registred in Sacred Story I cannot say but one End might be that those who in the like manner have grievously fallen may through the Exercise of a like Repentance have hope that they also shall not be refused Thus Rom. 15.4 What things were written afore-time were written for our Learning that we through Comfort of the Scripture might have hope But then a no less End is this viz. That those who now live and those who shall live in the Generations to come may from the Falls of others take the more heed that they fall not also And if they shall fall they may well think that their case is not so good because they have had such warning before and yet have not been prevail'd upon by it for the being more careful And then yet further Another End altogether as great as the other Two why the Sins of good Men have been recorded in Scripture is this to wit The shewing how God hates Sin even in those whom he loves and how he will punish it not only in their Persons while they live but in their Names and Memories when they are dead even to the End of the World. Some other things besides those that have been well pleasing unto God as Mary's Ointment was unto Christ shall wheresoever the Gospel is Preach'd throughout the World be spoken of also for a Memorial To make it known that Sins of a deep Die are in his Children altogether as Odious to his Purity and Holiness as their Pious Actions are acceptable to his Love and Goodness And now who is it that can have favourable Thoughts of Sin when God hath put so many Examples in Holy Writ as Warnings against Sin on purpose that we should have the more care to avoid it Who is it that may flatter himself in his Iniquities who shall rightly consider how God punisheth the Memory of his own Children and setteth a Mark of Disgrace upon them which shall last till Heaven and Earth do pass away He surely very slightly or very partially looks into the Bible who from the Sins of Good Men there can encourage himself in his own Sin and think that its Pollution is small to Him when it hath laid such a Blot upon their Names as must not as cannot be rased out by any Rather let him Hear and Fear and do himself neither in the same nor any other kind so wickedly As knowing that though none need now to Fear that their Misdeeds shall be Registred in Books which shall be of equal Authority with and shall last as long as the Bible for God therein hath wholly declared his will and so Divine Writings are not further to be expected yet the All-powerful and infinitely just Lord hath other ways of punishing them and of manifesting the Pollution of their Sin both to themselves and others to be very great how small soever they at present think it But Fourthly Theophilus we may truly affirm that God will not esteem the Sins of his Children which are in themselves as great as and the same with the Sins of Others to be therefore the less because they are committed by those who are his Children That is if any who are his shall be unjust in their Actions False in these Words Intemperate Unchast or any other ways vitious their Injustice Falseness Intemperance Unchastity and whatever other Crimes they shall commit shall be esteemed as carrying the same
Pollution in them which the same Sins in others do For no Relation that a Man can stand in unto God can make Injustice to become Righteousness Falseness to become Truth Intemperance Moderation and Uncleanness Purity And the Reason is Because the Relation which they have unto God as Children lieth chiefly in an Internal Likeness unto him and a partaking of the Divine Nature in its Imitable Perfections Now These consist in a Spiritual Remoteness from Sin and an hatred of it as being themselves contrary unto it And therefore they can in no respect be thought to Extenuate much less to cast a Beauty upon That unto which they are so extreamly opposite Gods not beholding Iniquity in Jacob and his not seeing perverseness in Israel can never be rightly interpreted of their Sins being overlook'd or not taken notice of by him upon the mere account that they were his Children For how grievously hath God complain'd of them I have seen saith he to Moses this People and behold it is a Stiff-Necked People now therefore let me alone that my Wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them and I will make of Thee a great Nation And how often hath he threatned and severely punish'd their Iniquities Surely Balaam himself understood not Those his own words as These Men are too forward to do For had he so done why should he have Counsell'd Balack That the Israelites by the Midianitish Woman should be allured to Trespass against the Lord that thereby they might be excluded from his Favour Iniquity therefore in Jacob and Perverseness in Israel are not to be understood of their own Sins against either God or Men but of the Iniquity and Perverseness of Others against Them. Which thing the next Verse but one doth very well shew Where the very same Preposition in which the Margin retains with Relation to the very same Words Jacob and Israel is rendred against Surely there is no Inchantments in against Jacob nor Divination in against Israel Numb 23.23 And Gods not Seeing and not Beholding denote his not approving or not enduring it to be So that the Sense of the Words is not that he will not see Iniquity and Perverseness in Them if they shall be Guilty but that he will not suffer Iniquity and Perverseness against Them if they shall be Innocent Nay so far will the Relation of being Children unto God be from less'ning the Pollution of any Heinous Sin that it will be a very great Aggravation and Heightning of it and will render it the more displeasing unto Him. That Those who have given up their Names unto Christ who have seen the Beauty of Holiness who have tasted of the good Word of God and have been washed and cleansed should commit Sin lose their first Love fall away and wallow in the Mire again how Odious in the Sight of God will it be These though they should be the Signet on his Right Hand He without their unfeigned Sorrow and Repentance would pluck them thence as he spake of Coniah Jerem 22.24 God is no Respecter of Persons But as in every Nation He that feareth Him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him so He that worketh Wickedness is rejected by him As he is Judge of all the Earth he will do right and by no means will clear the Guilty He may sooner put off the Title of Father to such or such an One than he can lay aside the Name of Holy and Just His being a Father to any Man is with Relation to his Obedience which is mutable and may be withheld And if Obedience shall be wholly withheld the Man ceaseth to be his Child and God is no longer unto him a Father in a Sense that betokeneth Love and Delight in him But He who is most contrary unto God putteth on that Relation Ye are of your Father the Devil saith our Saviour But then Holiness and Justice are Essential unto God and cannot by any Condition or Carriage of Men be parted with And so by These be Wickedness and Pollution in what Persons soever they will He rightly will discern and punish them God indeed is said to Love with an Everlasting Lvve Jer. 31.3 Which yet is not so to be understood as if he were a fond Father that could not spy the Faults of his Children or would think them lighter or less than they are but He is said to Love Everlastingly in that he will never fail Those that Obedientially seek unto and depend upon him and will always afford sufficient means for their abiding in his Love as well as at the last infinitely Reward them for Loving and Obeying him And He is pleased also to say he Loveth with an Everlasting Love in opposition to those Earthly Parents who somtimes have no natural Affection and so do not Love and somtimes may want means and abilities to express their Love. Thus when my Father and Mother forsake me i. e. either for want of Will do not love me or for want of Power cannot shew it as they would the Lord taketh me up But yet if his Child shall grow disobedient requiting his Love with Presumption and carrying it quite otherwise than a dutiful Child ought to do Gods Eyes are open to the Faults of such his Son and he will use his Rod of Correction towards him Yea if his Son shall grow stubborn and disobedient Shall not hearken unto his Voice but be a Drunkard or a Glutton as it is in Deut. 21.20 or any other way profane and dissolute He will cast him off and disinherit him and it will not be the failing of his Love but the Expression of his Justice and Holiness so to do Agreeable hereunto is that of Ezekiel Chap. 18.24 When the Righteous turneth away from his Righteousness and committeth Iniquity and doth according to all the Abominations which the wicked Man doth shall he live All his Righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembred in the Trespasses that he hath trespassed and in the Sin that he hath sinned shall he die And in this his dealing God appealeth to the House of Israel if his way be not equal And thus Theophilus I have considered the Sins of good Men in Holy Scripture together with the ill Inferences which some Men are apt to make from them They look not upon them as the Sins of good Men who take not the Repentance together with the Sins And they are much mistaken who think that those Sins are there mention'd only to shew how far God's Children may fall and do not consider them rather as Punishments to their Names who thus offended God and as greater Cautions to us that we from their Falls may stand the surer Yea They deal treacherously with themselves who from the Sins of God's Children in Holy Scripture will flatter and encourage themselves in their own And they most grosly and dangerously err who thinking that God will esteem the Sins of his Children which are the same
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
your Discourse Viz. That so far is the Christian Law from being more clearly given that it requires us to admit of some things relating to Faith that no one Living can conceive how they should be And so our understandings which are the sole Judges of other things are so far from being relied on here that they must be wholly laid aside 2. Granting that the Precepts of Christianity are very full and enjoyn'd to a greater Spirituality than in Older Time yet the Severities of them are unreasonable to us as we are Men reducing us to such streights as cannot be gone through without a great deal of uneasiness if at all And though there be none who will not commend a pure Air yet if it be so pure as not to be breathed in without much difficulty there is no reason it should be over Delighted in and Loved Eubul I know there are some who in good earnest dare thus urge against the Laws of our Lord but they are Men of corrupt minds and by their ill Lives are sway'd to talk after this manner lest they should appear to have Opinions any whit better than their Practice A shame it is that any in a Christian Common-wealth where Christianity affords so many outward benefits to them should without severe punishment be permitted to speak against the Laws of Christ But when such a vile Liberty is so much usurped it will be but meet with Truth to defend these Laws And I will with your leave endeavour to do it the more largely that I myself may have the more in readiness what to reply upon occasion to this sort of Men. Theoph. Be that your design then so that I share with you in the benefit Eubul In answer therefore to their first Objection viz. That so far is the Christian Law from being more clearly given that it requires us to admit of some things relating unto Faith that no one Living can conceive how they should be And so our understandings which are the sole Judges of other things are so far from being relied on here that they must be wholly laid aside we say That however the matter of our Faith is beyond our reach yet the Precept of believing is plain and and what our Faith is to be we are very clearly instructed in Holy Writ And what absurdity will it be if at the thoughts of some Mysteries the Son of God being Conceived by the Holy Ghost and Born of a Virgin and such like we cease with that Blessed Virgin to enquire How these things can be and make our Understandings yield to our Faith as She did when she quietly rested with no more than those Words Behold the Handmaid of the Lord be it unto me according to thy Word And wherein will it misbecome us if in the thoughts of the Hypostatick Union of the Infinite and Eternal God with our Frail and Mortal Nature we cry with St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the Depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How are his ways past our finding out This is not to throw away our Understandings but only to reduce them to the Obedience of Faith which will be their perfection The Gospel Theophilus doth teach us the Obedience of the whole Man All the Members of the Body are to become the Members of Christ by being conformed to his Laws and also all the faculties of the Soul are to own his Sovereignty The Will is to be pliant and ready to what he enjoyns and the Affections are to be regulated into the being Holy and Obedient And do we think that the Vnderstanding is to be lawless and yield no Obedience But what Obedience can it shew other than a Submission to the Boundless and Inconceivable Wisdom and Knowledge of God confessing that itself is weak and dimsighted in Comparison thereof Certainly it is but meet to think that God is a Being which is far above our Conceptions and that he can do what our understandings cannot measure and so it is not un-becoming us to acknowledge some things in Christ as the Objects of our Faith which yet our Understandings cannot fathom For our Blessed Lord is in the greatest height the Wisdom of his Father So as that the Holy Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do only desire with a Reverential stooping to look into these things as being fit for Admiration and beyond their Knowledge and therefore they may well surpass the most acute and largest Conceptions of Men. There is indeed a very great Room for Reason in our Holy Religion which claims admittance into the Hearts of Men by Arguments as great and strong as any considering Man would desire There being no rational grounds to think that the Evangelists and Apostles did publish Falshoods in their Writings but the greatest reason for our belief that what they have Written is True and Divine But then when by Reason we have admitted of the Truth and Divinity of the Scriptures we are not to imagin that we can comprehend every particular thing therein contain'd with the same Understanding by which we conceive the Truth of the Scriptures in general And yet the same Reason by which we admit of the Truth of the Holy Scriptures in general doth prove very fully the Truth of all Particulars therein contain'd though we cannot understand them Yea yet further Every even the most difficult Mystery there gives us so much the use of our Reason and Understanding as to think that it is but Reasonable the Chief of the Ways and Methods of God for such the Nature of our Lord his Conception Life Death and Resurrection are should be above our weak Capacities Which may shew methinks very well the Arrogance of some Men who to make the Law of Faith the more easie would bring all the Mysteries of the Gospel down to the Level of Human Conceptions And the Profaneness of others who would make the Height of these Mysteries to be the Disparagement and Blemish of the Holy Laws Or in a Word who will not Believe the one that they may not Practise the other I would not compare these great Mysteries with small things But yet to these Men I may say that every thing in Nature which they look upon and know that it is if I should ask them how it comes to be so they mul◠〈◊〉 that they are Ignorant of it How comes a little un-colour'd Moisture in the same Turf to be formed into Herbs of different Qualities and Shapes That it is so they see plainly but the How of it if I may so speak they understand not And it would be a Madness to deny that there are such Herbs because they cannot conceive how they came to be so And is it not a strange piece of Obstinacy That when these Men are baffled in Ten thousand things which they see before their Eyes to have a real Being they will deny these spiritual Mysteries meerly because they cannot comprehend how they should
that appears either answerable to the Title of Spirit which is given to these Laws by reason as you say of God's Holy Spirit preventing and enabling us in our Obedience or expressive of the Constitution of a Christian in which Spirit is added to Soul and Body Eubul I hope Theophilus you do not think that the Assistances of the Holy Spirit are such things as put by our Endeavours and nourish our Sloth They are Assistances and so they do suppose that we ourselves should do somthing For were all to be performed by the Holy Spirit without the intervention of our Actions we must call them by some other Name for they could not properly be termed Assistances And therefore it is that what our Lord doth accomplish for us by his Grace through the Holy Ghost he enjoyneth us by his Command to do as of our own Power He worketh in us to will and to do but yet we are to work out our own Salvation He strengtheneth us but we are to strive The Victory is from Him but the Fighting must be ours And so it is very true what you said viz. That our Work seems not to be the less to us for the Assistances which he gives we must be altogether as industrious and earnest as if the whole were to be done by ourselves and nothing at all by Him. But because when we have done all which we are able to do we can see much of Human Weakness in our Actions and but little of Divine Strength shall we therefore conclude that the Assistances of the Spirit have been none or at most very mean and nothing worthy of the Character which is given them What Theophilus if the Holy Spirit in his aiding us will so comply with the Natural Powers of our Souls that we cannot discetn his Actings from our own What if he in a silent and gentle manner shall suggest things to our Understandings shall secretly sway our Wills and move our Affections really but yet imperceivably unto us Let us not because he draws us with the Cords of a Man say that we are not drawn at all If when we have done our best we seem to ourselves to be weak and to have done far less than we should have done it possibly is none of the least Aids of the Spirit that we can discern our own weakness and desire to please God even beyond our Abilities His Grace can be and it this way is very properly made perfect in our Weakness I dare be bold to say that he is not prompted from above who shall deny that there are Divine Assistances because there is not a Demonstration to the Soul that there are such Nay it may seem expedient that ordinarily they should be secret and imperceptible For should they commonly be otherwise Men would be too apt to rely upon them and thereby do less themselves because they see what their Aids are Or it may be they would grow conceited and abuse the helps of Gods Holy Spirit to the overthrow of the Excellent Grace of Humility Out of Mercy therefore the Blessed Spirit may Insensibly give his Aids unto Men that so by a constancy in their endeavours they at last may attain unto a greater perfection of all Graces and may the surer enjoy his Love by their Humility Theoph. But Eubulus if the Holy Spirit should in his Assistances move upon the Soul in this insensible way how could it be known that there were any Assistances at all And if it could not be known where would the Excellency of these Laws be from such a Motive as we are uncertain of Eubul There would be certainty enough of it from the Scriptures Revealing that such Assistances there are although we should not know the manner of them nor the times in which they are afforded But yet Theophilus these Spiritual Aids are not always indiscernible neither They oftentimes are seen by their effects though in their actings they were unperceiv'd And when a Mans Life is changed and he that heretofore was Dissolute and Wicked is now become Sober and Religious Or when in a constant course of Piety and Devotion he from his Childhood hath escaped the enticements of Satan and pollutions of the World we and he himself also though those Assistances have not been discerned may no less know that the Holy Spirit hath been present with him than we know that there is a Wind when we hear the Sound thereof though we see not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth And yet further Theophilus after faithful Obedience to the more Silent and Gentle Motions of the Holy Spirit it is not altogether unusual to have inward and sacred Joys darted into the Soul which as they are Rewards for Fidelity in the years past so are they likewise more sensible Helps for higher degrees of Piety in the years to come and prelibations of that unspeakable Joy which Holy Men shall be filled with hereafter in Heaven If there be not such discernible Assistances more frequent in the World it is either because Men do not duly close with the Holy Spirit in his Ordinary and Secret Aids or because they indulge a Sad and Melancholy Temper which shuts them out of the Soul or because God sees them not requisite for a great many Persons But yet the Laws of our Lord may notwithstanding be truly said to have more strong Assistances afforded than under the Old Law there were and deservedly to be entitled so much to the Spirit from the Secret Helps which the Holy Spirit offers unto all that are willing to obey Theoph. I was willing to urge you somthing the more upon this Head because the Holy Spirit is signally the Honour of the Evangelical Laws and because many are forward to talk slightly of his Assistances upon the account that they are not Visible to the Eye nor gross enough to be touch'd Eubul I heartily pity the State of these Men since none are more surely in the way to Misery than those that laugh at the Aids to Happiness especially when held out by a Divine Hand But let us go to the Third and last Motive for the securing of Obedience to these Laws which is their having such Loving Invitations and Affectionate Expressions of Kindness joyn'd with them Come unto me saith our Lord all ye that Labour and are heavy Laden and I will give you rest Where by those that Labour and are heavy Laden I suppose that They are not only to be understood who perceive the burden of their Sins and see the necessity of Grace from their Misdoings Our Lord here calls Men not only to Comfort but also to Teach and Instruct them that they may come to an Acknowledgment of their Sins which in their own Nature are a Weight and Burden although they be not yet perceived so to be After the manner of those who Rev. 3.17 were Wretched and Miserable and Poor and Blind and Naked when they felt no such thing So that all Men
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