2. The vanity of the itch of humane scribling and wearisomness of reading such writing such as are the Popes Canons and Decretals and other Popish Trumpery as likewise idle vitious and corrupting Plays and Romances which makes men neglect at least if not nauseate divine truths Of Carolostadius it is reported by Luther that he was eight years Dr. in Divinity before he had read One Word in the Scripture Mens Col. So that the most of Students among the Papists were well by one compared to a man knawing of a Flint when he had good bread by him which he neglected to make use of Solomon having thus laid down the excellency of God's and vanity of man's writings He now comes in the close of this book the words of my Text to lay down The Sum End Conclusion the Recapitulation the Epitome Compendium and Abridgment of what ever was written by God in this or other books of Scripture or was read or heard by man The scope at which all tended too Fear God and keep his Commandements All the lines that may be drawn from the whole circumference of divine truths written and revealed in this and all other books of Scripture which holy men of God which were moved by the Holy Ghost did or had or should write did all meet in this Center Fear God and keep his Commandements You may not expect then Right Worshipfull and Beloved a full and compleat handling of them on which a Minister might with great ease and more profit preach his whole life time than that German Professor of Divinity did who was Twenty-five Years Reading in his Publique Lectures on the First of Isaiah and had not finisht it There being nothing in the whole compass of Divinity but what may be reduced to the Fear of God and keeping His Commandements The one as the Root the other as the Fruit The one as the Fountain the other as the Streams of our practical complyance with Gods will it being as our Translators supply it the whole duty of man Which Translation the best of all Translations was by the incomparable Piety of King James and the indefatigable pains and accurate care of the most Learned Bishops Doctors and Divines of that age most happily performed and may not without great presumption be slightly spoken off Or as the Spanish toda eccellentia Or as Piscator Hoc est omnium Hominum this belongs to all men Many directions in Scripture are bounded and limited by several circumstances to particular persons but this concerns all and therefore to be regarded by all as that which is the alone Cynosure to guide us through the waves of a tempestuous Sea of troubles dangers labyrinths in this world unto the Port and Haven of heavenly happiness Text Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandement for this is the whole duty of man As the skilfull and provident husbandman first rids his ground of Thorns and then sowes his Seed So doth Solomon in this book of which the words read are the Compendium labour to remove from the hearts of men the love and study and endeavour after vanity by which the minds of all by nature are preoccupied and forestalled especially by this mistaken apprehension that they may at the same time embrace the Study of Earthly Vanity and Heavenly Piety There are none that do not by natural instinct desire the avoiding of eternal pains and the enjoyment of everlasting happiness It being the property of natural affection to desire its own preservation And by the same natural instinct are men carried after the pursuit of worldly things vanities indeed though the only substantial realities in their conceit Prov. 10.15 The Rich mans wealth is his strong Tower in his own conceit Some hasten after Pleasures others after Riches a third after Honour and so far the Doctrine Profession and external Practise of Piety shall be complyed with as they cross not those Appetites and much may be and is often done according to Gospel prescriptions as was by Herod who reverenced John Baptist heard him gladly and did many things Yea many times some will suffer much so they may enjoy their carnal desires But alas These foolishly perswade themselves to joyn those things together that are inconsistent Sooner will Heaven mingle with Earth the Fire with Water coalesce and remain at peace together than the study and love of Piety with the study and love of Earthly Vanity True it is that men may and do by their eager prosecution of earthly vanity deprive themselves of the happiness both of this and the future life But to enjoy both together let them use what diligence and skill they can they shall never attain it For no man can serve two so contrary Masters No man can serve God and Mammon Phil. 3.19 1 Joh. 2.14 No man can serve God and his Belly No man can love God and the World For God is a jealous God and will admit no rival He is as the true Mother who will have all or nothing Solomon then having in all the fore-going part of this book endeavoured to perswade men from the love and study of earthly vanities In these two last verses he shews us the sum and end of the whole of all our learning and hearing the right method and course of happiness both here and hereafter In which words we have to consider 1. The direction laid down Fear God and keep his Commandements 2. This direction prest by three arguments 1. It 's the conclusion of the whole matter 2. It 's the whole of man 3. God will bring all to judgment I shall speak to all these particulars first by way of Doctrine and then by way of Application 1. The direction laid down Fear God and keep his Commandements This compendious sum of Gods Counsel discovers Gods admirable Wisdom in revealing his mind so fully and yet so succinctly in reference to our duty and way to happiness It was the wonderfull wisdom of God to comprehend in the Decalogue all that is to be done by us in relation to God and our selves and our Neighbours More wonderfull in his contracting these ten words into two Love to God and Love to our Neighbour neither is it less wonderfull when the Gospel is sum'd up in this short expression Repent For the Kingdom of God is at hand Now the use that we are to make of this short sum is this That as Travailers have an eye to their Geographical Charts which they carry about with them unto which they often look to direct them in their way so ought Christians often to mind this Sum and Compendium of their duty unto which they must have respect to guide them in their way to the Heavenly Kingdom and which as another Jethro might direct them through the Wilderness of this World to their Heavenly Canaan Such an other Compendium of our duty we have in the description of Job He feared
Saviour himself prescribed concern all Christians in all Countries And therefore the circumstances of the Christian Divine Worship could not be prescribed in general but were of necessity to be left to the appointment of the Apostles and their Successors in all ages And this is agreeable to the Scriptures and the Doctrine of the Church of England Established by Law Concerning which were men rightly Principled there would not be so much Clamour against the innocent Ceremonies Established by authority and to be observed for Conscience sake in Obedience to the Magistrate who as he is Gods hand to weild his Sword so is he his mouth in such cases of indifferent circumstances to declare his mind But what St. Austin writes concerning Faustus is true of the generality of Dissenters from the Church of England Vel non intelligendo reprehendit vel reprehendendo non intelligit Sententiam Ecclesiae non intelligit sed amat suam non quia vera est sed quia sua est That is either not understanding he reprehends or reprehending doth not understand He doth not understand what the Sentiments of the Church are but loves his own not because they are true but because his own So hard is the lot of the Church of England that by the Romish Synagogue it is condemned for having so few and by Dissenters cryed out on for having so many VVhereas in the eyes of sober men it is valued according to its excellent temper not exceeding to a burdensome oppression nor defective in due comeliness by a slovenly rudeness And no wonder since a decent and necessary subordination of inferiours to superiours as in a well Disciplined Army keeps all in a due correspondency of subjection and Government and renders Our Church Glorious as an Army with Banners Not as the Congregations of Dissenters who are like Pliny his Acephali all body and no head Or As the Popish Parasites have rendered their Synagogue like the Toadstool all head and no body VVhilst they ridiculously affirm Papa virtualiter est Tota Ecclesia VVell then It is not some but all Gods Commandements thus made known Those which are necessary and moral by the Law Engraven in the heart and written in the Scriptures Those which are circumstantial and in themselves indifferent till determined by the mouth of God's Deputies All these the fear of God will direct and encline to and enable for Psal 119.6 Then shall I be upright when I have respect to all thy Commandements Natura facit unum ad unum But Grace makes us as a Delphick Sword prepared for every good work 2 Tim. 2 21. Nature will permit the complyance with Gods will and the doing and it may be suffering many things till it crosseth our own wills and so long we may seem to yield a ready obedience as Herod did who did many things and heard John gladly while VVind and Tyde go all one way we sayl readily in our begun voyage which standing contrary we think best to take harbour or return whence we came So when Gods Love and the VVorlds Lust appear in contrary quarters we shall soon see whom we shall follow VVhat we take up as a cloak in a storm for a shelter or a disguise as a Covert to hide in time of Danger will be laid aside when the storm is past and the danger over But that respect to Gods command which flowes from a true fear of him will continue and not be as an upper and loose Garment which we put on when we go abroad in the sight and company of others but hang upon a pin when we come into our own houses But as our shifts to lye down in yea as our skin never to put off Thus must we keep Gods Commands all of them and always and as and because they are Gods Commands out of a pure Conscience and not out of self respect Jehu slew Ahab and Baals Priests not out of respect to Gods command but out of design in so doing to establish his own Throne For he still kept up the Golden Calves and their Idolatrous worship to Gods dishonour and a clear evidence of his own hypocrisie Men are very apt to have more tender resentments of things as they check and clash with their proper interest than that they are â—ontrary to Gods command As that Father gravely told that Arrian Emperour who reproved him for shewing to his Son no more Reverence That he had more respect to his Sons honour then to the honour of the Son of God whom he suffered to be dishonoured by Hereticks Thus Demetrius left all the other Idols which to him were Gods Act. 19.24 25. to shift for themselves but Diana which brought great gain merited the engagement of all their powers in defence of her Not for her self but the gain they had by her So the Pope in his Taxa Camerae Apostolicae rates the absolution for falsifying his Apostolical Letters at Nineteen groats when incest with ones own Mother is taxed but at five groats only But the true Christian acted by Gods fear keeps Gods Commandements all of them and as his commands without any sinister aims or self respect They follow not Christ for the loaves but for himself They comply with all Gods Commands not because thereby they themselves shall be benefited but God honoured And this is that which is acceptable to God and profitable to man Which Solomon presseth in this Text by three powerfull arguments and motions 1. It is the conclusion of the whole matter Summa rei omnis auditae 2. It is the whole of man Totus homo Totum hominis His duty and dignity 3. God will call all to an account For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil 1. It 's the Conclusion of the whole matter We should fear God and keep his Commandements for it is the conclusion of the whole matter So our Translation La summe le fin de tout le propos La but a que tend ce que te enseigne en ce lesure So the French Translation In the Original the word rendered Conclusion End Scope Sum and But the word thus variously rendered and all agreing to the mind of the Holy Ghost I say the Hebrew word hath the first Letter in it bigger than the rest to stir up our greater attention to what follows And indeed it is worthy our chiefest regard as containing in it the sum of all Divinity as to our practise Whatsoever was written from the beginning of this book of Scripture yea of all the Holy Scriptures tends to this purpose All other books were written to mind the books of Conscience And so are as goads to stir up and nails to fasten us in the practise of this direction The sum of all Teachers the end of all Learning Solomon having through this whole book discoursed the vanity and vexation of the creatures enjoyments and from his own
experience exemplified the truth of it in these words he acquaints us when it is best to sâ—t up our rest viz. In the learning and practise of this One â—esson which is the whole of all that God requireth from us in reference to our advancing of his Glory and our Happiness And it is but just and reason that he that is our Master should have our fear he that made us and maintains us should have our service 2 Sam. 27. he that is our Loving Father should be honoured and obeyed by us whom if we love as Davids Souldiers did him what will we not adventure for his sake though it be as theirs was with the highest hazard and likelyhood of the greatest dangers as Fond Lovers do to gratifie a beloved darling Especially considering that all his commands are just equal delightfull or at least made so to us by his love shed abroad in our hearts so that we may joy and glory in enduring Tribulation in and for the observing of his Precepts 1 Cor. 15.58 2 Cor. 4.17 Isa 1.3 considering the abundant reward Our Labour shall not be in vain nor our suffering lost but shall work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory We expect Obedience from those creatures we breed and maintain and they usually do yield it The Oxe knows his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib And if at any time they fail how are we displeased If Balaams Ass turn aside though his old acquaintance how angry was he if he lyes down how doth he strike him and wish for a Sword If hawks and hounds fail in the persuit of their games how do the Owners and Users rage and chafe Hath not God then more right to expect our fear of him and obedience to him especially considering he hath done infinitely more for us than we do or can for any creatures yea than he himself for all sublunary creatures making man the chief of his ways and the choice of his works his Master-piece The Model of Heaven and Earth of visible and invisible of mortal and immortal creatures having compacted in him all the excellencies that are divided amongst all other creatures Whose Creation was not as of other creatures with his word fiat Man but upon a consultation let us make man Other creatures Souls and Bodies made together as having a mutual dependance Man his Body first and then his Soul which was breathed from above and not educed out of any Elementary substance Tantae molis erat Humanam condere gentem Sanctius His animal mentisque Capacius altae VVhose face shews Gods wonderfull skill in its varieties and discoveries of inward passions His Soul One in Essence Three in Faculties Understanding VVit Memory represents the unfathomable depth of the Divine Trinity whose Created perfection had Blessedness Dominion and Prayer Gods Attributes VVhose restored condition mounts him above the Angels who admire the humane nature more than their own and in the person of Christ adore it So that man who by sin was fallen so low that he could not well fall lower is now by Grace restored to that height that he cannot rise higher So that if this be true that things are so much worth as they are bought by an accurate judgment and discretion Then must man both Body and Soul be of an excellent worth that was bought not with corruptible things such as Silver and Gold but by the precious blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.19 And this excellency that God first gave and restored to man calls for from us our fear of him and obedience to him who doth continue and enlarge this excellency here in this life and prepares for the everlasting duration of it to all Eternity For as it is the whole of Gods word the Scriptures from the first to the last So is it which is the second argument The whole of man 2. This is the whole of man Totus homo Vulgar Totum hominis Tremellius Hoc est omnium hominum Piscator All men are obliged to this Every one bound to it Toda felicidad Spanish All a mans happiness and the way to obtain it The whole duty of man Thus our English in which he ought to exercise himself and without which every man even the highest is nothing but vanity Ps 39.5 Verily every man in his best natural and worldly estate is altogether vanity This is that which he ought to regard through his whole life in deeds and words All these interpretations may be Orthodoxly given to these words And the result of all is this That the fearing God and keeping his Commandements is the whole 1. Priviledge 2. Duty 3. Happiness of man So that what the Orator speaks concerning Pronuntiation that it was the first the second and third part of a right Orator So may we say it is the first second and third even the whole perfection of a good man of a good Christian Its his 1. Priviledge Who of all sublunary creatures is in a Capacity of a Filial fearing and rational and voluntary compliance with his will and command It 's true indeed the Devils do know and are capable of doing Gods Commandements but not of a filial fear or willing obedience In many things God makes use of them in doing his command but except it be to do mischief it 's against their wills The irrational Creatures indeed they do his Commandements The Fire destroyed Sodom the Water the Old VVorld The Ravens fed Elijah and the Lyon kild the young Prophet But they know not what they did and so are not capable of a filial fear so cannot be said to keep his command no more than a Knife or Sword or Ax that men make use of in their business It 's only the priviledge of man amongst all sublunary creatures that can fear him out of love and obey him out of choise 2. The whole Duty of Man Whatever God requires of man both in reference to his inward reverence of the Soul and the external Obedience of the whole Man is comprehended under these two Directions As all natural beings by Logicians are reduceable to one or other of the ten predicaments all modes of being to the five predicables As all we believe to the twelve articles of the Creed As all we pray for to one or other of the Petitions of the Lords Prayer So is it in this case The whole duty that God expects from man is reduceable to one of these The fear of God and keeping his Commandements All the lines of divine truth even from the whole circumference of it meet in this Center So that whatever is largely written in the Scriptures for our learning and practise is contracted in this compendium and whatsoever is contrary unto these to either of them hath nothing of God's truth or Man's duty in it And by this we may determine as of all matters of practise that are to be done by us So likewise of all Dogmata