renders the whole broken Thus divers books of Scripture are knit together by copulatives in their beginnings as the books of Moses Exodus with Genesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and these c. So Leviticus with Exodus Numbers to Leviticus The book of Joshua to Deuteronomy Judges to Joshua Ruth to Judges Samuel to Ruth and divers other making the whole Scripture as it were but one large copulate And so many of the Ten Commandements are knit together as Thou shalt not kill neither shalt thou commit adultery neither shalt thou steal neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour neither shalt thou covet thy neighbours wife c. Deut. 5.17 21. And thus the multitudes of Gods law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hos 8.12 are united as with manifold links whereof if one be broken the whole will and law of God is infringed and violated And the authority of the Law-giver is slighted which is the Apostles reason for he who said Thou shalt not commit adultery said also Thou shalt not kill James 2.11 O how careful of these things were the Ancient Doctors of the Jewes Church They accurately summ'd up the numbers of Gods Lawes and divided them into affirmative and negative The affirmative precepts they found to be two hundred forty eight correspondent unto the same number of bones in a mans body Which as they are the strength of the mans body so are the spiritual Commandements and Lawes of God the strength of the inward man As David acknowledgeth Psal 138.3 Thou hast fortified me with strength in my soul And therefore when the Lord was now about to change Abrams name to Abraham he commanded him Walk before me and be perfect Gen. 17.1 5. And then called him Abraham which name contains the same number in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 200. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 40. total 248. Whence the Lord testifies of Abraham that he had kept his Charge his Commandements his statutes and his Lawes Gen. 26.5 The negative precepts are 365 answerable to the number of Nerves and Ligatures in mans body as the Anatomists have observed By these are united the forees and powers and strengths of the inward and spiritual man which must be knit together that the Spirit may come and dwell in it So we read Ezech. 37.1 10. that the sinews joyned bone to his bone and then the spirit entred into the whole body And our obedience hereunto must be perpetual as figured by the dayes of the year of the same number 365. Of all these ten only were written in the Tables which God gave to Moses Exod. 34.28 as being the radical and principal Commandements unto which all the other may be reduced And these are fitted to the number of our fingers the instruments of our work And hence all Nations reckon by the number of Ten as the most determinate and full number and then begin again The reason why the Lawes of God were thus multiplyed appears from the necessity of man to whom these Lawes were given and the great goodness and mercy of God the Lawgiver Mans necessity was great he had a grievous fall even from Heaven to the Earth even from an heavenly minde and affections unto both earthly from wisdom to foolishness ignorance and errour from rectitude and uprightness to obliquity and crookedness from one to many from the Creator to the creatures When therefore the man hath lost his happiness in the one and only God he seeks and hunts for it among the many creatures According to what the Wiseman saith generally of all men Eccles 7.19 God made man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is appellative not proper God made thee and me and every person upright as appears by the opposition following but they have found out many inventions He is said to have forsaken the fountain of living waters Jer. 2.13 There must therefore have been some time when he enjoyed it and had union with it He is said to be alienated from the life of God Ephes 4.18 Sometime therefore he lived that life He is said to have fallen and therefore sometime he had stood Now being fallen from unity and uniformity to multiplicity division partiality distraction discord disagreement of minde fansie thoughts understanding heart will affections all these divisions and partialities both one from other and in our selves hence appears the great necessity of a manifold law which might pursue the man in his manifold aberrations and strayings from his God which might follow him in every thought will desire affection and ferret him out of every hole So that these many lawes are a certain badge and evidence of that manifold misery whereinto we are fallen For as Plato reasons Where there are many Physitians it followes that the people must have many diseases And where there are many Lawyers there must be many strifes and divisions so we may reason That where there are many Lawes there are many breaches of Lawes and where there are many remedies many healing doctrines as the Law is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 curing or healing doctrine 1 Tim. 1.9 there must also be many spiritual maladies 2. Other reason there is from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 3.10 that manifold wisdom grace and goodness of God who proportions unto the mans manifold sins and miseries a manifold law So that there 's not any good work the man can do but among the manifold affirmative precepts there 's a law and a rule for it Nor is there any sin that the man commits but among the manifold negative Commandements there is a prohibition of it These Commandements of God are sometime delivered in full decalogue sometime contracted into a lesse number as Deut. 10.12 Sometime to a less then that Zach. 8.16 and yet to a less number Mich. 6.8 The same upon the matter with what we read Matth. 23.23 Yea our Lord reduces them to two Matth. 22.36 40. Can they yet be brought to a less number Rom. 13.9 10. Love is the fulfilling of the Law All the Commandements affirmative and negative are contracted into one O consider this who ever love God and his righteousness who have been long busied about the multitudes of Gods Lawes Let us have respect unto all the Commandements Psal 119.6 And surely as Gods righteousness thrives in us he will abbreviate and make short his Commandements Rom. 9.28 The end of the Commandement is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfained 1 Tim. 1.5 that most excellent way 1 Cor. 12.31 which is violently broken from the 13th Chapter Wherein S. Paul tells us what that most excellent way is even Charity greater then Faith and Hope ver 13. That bond of perfection Col. 3.14 that new and old Commandment Love that we walk after his Commandements 2 John 6. the new and old way wherein if we walk we shall finde rest unto
delivering He who is offering praise shall honour me and I will cause him to see into the salvation of God who is disposing or ordering his way Psalm 50.21 22 23. But away with false and hypocritical pretences of love It s a pure and holy love which the Lord intreats of Israel 3. And it is the Lords third Request unto Israel that we love the Lord our God and a most just and reasonable Request it is Of which I have elsewhere spoken more fully as also of 4. The fourth Request That we serve him with all our heart and with all our soul Now as the first and second Request make up the first service of God viz. the service of fear Exod. 20.20 out of which we walk in all the wayes of the Lord so the third and fourth Request of the Lord contain his last and greatest service his service of love From the consideration of both the services take notice that the service of love doth not make void the first viz. that of fear For there is a Copulative that unites them to fear the Lord and to love him But the time will come when the service of love shall cast out the fear 1 John 4.18 viz. that fear which hath torment or punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But as for the filial and reverential fear that endures for ever Psal 19.9 And although love be perfect and though that which is perfect be come though the spirits of men be made perfect and perfectly partakers of the divine nature yet none of these no not all these together can make the creature its Creator Although the will of God be done perfectly in earth even as it is done in heaven yet this standing compleat in all the will of God this running the way of Gods Commandements this perfect following of God cannot equalize the creature to its Creator as some have vainly imagined The two later wheels of the Chariot though they run as fast as the two former yet can they never overtake the former SER. XIV they must still follow they must ever come behinde TThe Lords fifth and last Request unto Israel is to keep the Commandements of the Lord and his Statutes The fifth and last Request though it differ formally from the rest yet it summarily containes all the former Thou shalt keep the Commandements of the Lord thy God to walk in his wayes and to fear him Deut. 8.6 And it is indeed as reasonable and just a Request as the other are For obedience unto all the Commandements of God proceeds from the two fore-mentioned principles fear and love Whence it is that the keeping of Gods Commandements issueth sometime from fear as Eccles 12.13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandements Or according to the Vulg. Latin Finem loquendi pariter omnes audiamus Let us all a like hear the end of speaking Or rather according to Pagnin the end of every word hath been heard Wherein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the End is a Capital letter importing the End at which the whole word aimeth under the first dispensation the service of the fear of the Lord viz. that out of that fear of the Lord we should keep his Commandements Sometime the keeping of Gods Commandements is said to proceed from Love So Deut. 5.10 the Lord saith I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doing mercy to thousands to the lovers of me Deut. 5. v. 10. and keeping my Commandements As Israel is loving God and keeping his Commandements so the Lord is concurring with his continued and collateral act of doing mercy unto those who are loving him and keeping his Commandements And as Solomon said of the first dispensation that the End of every word hath been heard 1 Tim. 1. v. 5. Fear God c. So S. Paul saith of the third Dispensation 1 Tim. 1.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the end of the Commandement is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned I put the note of diveristy But answering to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hierom Arias Montanus Pagnin and others have done whereby a diversity is put between the effect and end of fables endless Genealogies and the Commandement of God they minister questions but the end of the Commandement is love Which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though a very small word yet it is of very great power which suspends the understanding as the little Echeveis or Remora stayes the course of a Ship though under sail saith Aelian Yea and oftentimes it is no less then Totius negotii cardo the Hinge of the whole business as the learned Logician knowes And therefore it should not be rendred copulatively as yet our Translators have done in the New Testament I believe more then one hundred times These two services of fear and love the Lord so countenanceth that he is styled after their names So what Laban calls the God of Isaac Jacob calls the fear of Isaac Gen. 31.29.42.53 But whereas he is here so named with relation and application unto Isaac SER. XV. we finde him called absolutely The Fear Psal 76.11 Psal 76. v. 11. Vow and pay to the Lord your God all round about him let them bring a gift 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to The Fear which in the former part of the verse is called The Lord. Thus he so honoureth the service of love that he is styled absolutely by the name Love 1 John 4.8 And again v. 16. God is Love And therefore S. Augustin affirms that every good work proceeds from these principles Ad omne rectè factum Amor Timor ducit Love and Fear leadeth to what ever is rightly done 6. Hitherto we have heard the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords five Requests unto Israel in so many divine Axioms Come we now to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords requesting these of Israel The word here used is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to intreat ask petition for desire Yea it imports the lowest degree of petitioning as to beg Prov. 20.4 It s commonly used when men petition for any thing of God as 1 Sam. 1.17.20.27 12 13. and often elsewhere Whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a petition put up unto God Job 6.8 Psal 20.5 This word our Translators turn here by Require What doth the Lord Require of thee Which is not properly rendred as may appear partly by what hath been alrready said partly by the distinct significations of words which seem equipollent but indeed in their use much differ one from other The Latin Criticks distinguish peto posco and postulo thus 1. Petimus prece we entreat and desire by prayer And it is commonly the act of an inferiour who intreats and petitions for some thing by prayer of his Superiour and the foot of a Petition is therefore called the prayer of it 2. Poscimus pro imperio we command
saith unto him walk before me and be perfect Gen. 17.1 Implying that he had given him strength to obey all the affirmative precepts as indeed he did For the Lord himself testifies so much Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge my Commandements my Statutes and my Lawes Gen. 26.5 Yea are there not 365. negative Precepts answering to the same number of sinews and ligaments in a mans body as the skilful Anatomists affirm and by like spiritual ligatures the strengthes and powers of the inward man are united and bound together Ephes 4.26 Col. 2.19 that when the powers of the inward man are united and bone joyned unto its bone the spirit may enter into the body so joyned together Ezech. 37.10 and the whole man may be compleated and perfected as our Lord saith John 7.23 He made the man every whit sound on the Sabbath day when men rest from their own workes and work the works of God even in that acceptable year of the Lord figured by the like number of dayes 365. The Lord having given so many affirmative and negative Commandements he contracts them unto ten which are the Decalogue or ten better known then practised Commandements of God SER. XV. and the radical precepts unto which the whole number of affirmative and negative commandements being 613 are reduced and wherein virtually they are contained Yea and as there are six hundred and thirteen affirmative and negative Precepts so there are the same number of Letters in the Ten Commandements And so every letter in the Decalogue imports one precept So that after a sort all the affirmative and negative precepts are comprehended in the Decalogue This is the supputation of the Cabalists reported by Georgius Venetus which I leave to the examination and judgement of others Only thus much we may note that as the multitude of sins occasioned the multitude of precepts so God in mercy contracts the number of his lawes according as his people cease from their sinnes Now whereas this book of Deuteronomy was called by the learned Jewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Book of Reproofs or Rebukes Prov. 15. v. 32. the people being probably amended by their rebukes according to Prov. 15.32 He who is obedient to reproof is possessing an heart that is getting understanding And the argument of this Book answering in many parts of it to the Gospel unto which when Israel now became obedient the Lord was pleased to contract his Ten Commandements to half their number even to five requests And upon supposal of Israels increase and improvement of their obedience the Lord diminisheth the number of his Commandements Whence it is that we read that the Commandements reduced unto four Zach. 8.16.17 These are the things or words which ye shall do 1. Speak yee every man truth to his neighbour Zach. 8. v. 16 17. 2. Judg truth and the judgment of peace in your gates 3. And let none of you think evill against his neighbour in his heart 4. And love ye not an oath of falshood For all these are things which I hate Which yet another Prophet abbridgeth unto three Mich. 6.8 He hath shewed unto thee O man what is good Mich. 6. v. 8. and what is the Lord seeking of thee or from thee but 1. To do judgement 2. To love mercy and 3. Humble thy self to walk with thy God Our Lord Jesus yet shortens the number of the Commandements and brings them to two 1. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy minde or rather reasoning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the minde Mens hath the name from resting but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports discoursing and reasoning this is the first and great Commandement But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators turn and the second is like unto it 2. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self There is reason why our Lord should use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. in regard of him who moved the question a Pharisee v. 34 35. That sect as it is notoriously known like the Pharisees of our dayes pretended much to the first Table and the love of God but little regarded the second Table and the love of their neighbour Wherefore out Lord having satisfied the Pharisees question touching the first and great Commandement The love of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unexpectedly he infers the second The love of our neighbour which our Lord knew to be more needful for the Pharisees as it is for those of the same faction in our dayes This was the reason why our Lord directed the Pharisaical yong man to the duties of the second Table only Matth. 19.18 19. Mark 10.19 The Commandements can be but once more contracted viz. unto one and that 's done by S. Paul Rom. 13.9 10. He that loves another hath fulfilled the Law c. And this is the end of the Commandement even love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 and that which advanceth the chief good even thy good O Israel That 's the last Axiom in these words 9. The Lord entreats and Moses commands these duties for good for thy good O Israel When we read that our God entreats us to fear him walking in all his wayes love him serve him and keep his Commandements and his statutes and further that Moses Commands all these we might think that God and Moses had some notable ends upon us That God would not request nor Moses require these duties of us but for their own great advantage Whereas indeed the end whereat all these aime which the Lords entreates and Moses's commands tend unto is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Good at which all things indeed aim or ought to aim Finis bonum convertuntur good is as large as the end and the end is as large as goodness So great an end or reward there is in keeping the Commandements Psal 19.11 And in this end where at all the whole creation aimes or ought to aim the good of Israel is involved And therefore there is added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to thee or for thy good thine advantage as that word signifies which is a more full expression then that our Translators give for thy good Whence it appears that the obedience to the Commandements of God is comprehended in true self-love For as the beginning of the Christian Religion is self-denial denial of the false self-love Luke 9.23 So the end of it consists in the true self-love when we fear the Lord our God and walk in all his wayes and love him and serve him with all our heart and with all our soul and keep his Commandements and his Statutes for good for our selves What an easie precept is it Love thy self And that 's the end of this Text. Does the Lord entreat us petition us yea beg all this of us and that for good for our own good O Israel Does Moses
so much the more it may love him For God in himself is an infinite good without any defect and the soul was made according to his image and for this end to know and love him and till it so do it rambles and wanders about the creatures and is never satisfied Fecisti nos Domine propter te irrequietum est cor nostrum donec pervenerit ad te Lord thou hast made us for thy self And our heart is unquiet until it come unto Thee 1. All that Commandement to love the Lord our God with all our heart with all our soul and all our minde is a most excellent Commandement This appears from a double Emphasis upon it in the text if thou shalt keep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even all that Commandement And therefore whereas the Jews had four Sections of the Law in more religious observation 1. Exod. 13.3 touching their coming forth of the land of Egypt 2. Verse 11. 16. concerning the destruction of the first-born 3. Deut. 6.4 9. touching the property and service of God 4. Deut. 11.13 concerning the former and the later rain That which the first recited of all these four parts of the Law was this Commandement touching the love of the Lord our God This they first recited every morning and every evening and thence it is most worthy of our morning and evening meditation And therefore the Apostle having treated of spiritual gifts 1 Cor. 12.1 30. Be zealous of the best gifts saith he yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shew you a way secundùm excellentiam 1 Cor. 12. v. 31. a way according to excellency a most excellent way But what that is Stephen Langton who divided the holy Scripture into Chapters rendred obscure by dividing the Apostles testimony of that exultent way from that excellent way it self in the following Chapt. This is that which holy David intended Psal 119. v. 96. Psal 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfection thine exceeding broad Commiandement The Text is corrupted by the Translation There is no But no diversity at all but the later part explains the former This is the end of the Commandement The end or perfection of the Commandement is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 This is that perfect bond Col. 3. 2. The Lord so speaks to all Israel as to one man If thou keep all this Commandement to do it to love the Lord thy God the Lord requires obedience unto this Commandement of all and of every man 3. To keep all this one Commandement is virtually and radically to keep all the Commandements So much the Lord implyes in the body of the Decalogue Exod. 20.6 they that love me and keep my Commandements Yea S. John tels us that this is the love of God that we keep his Commandements 1 John 5.3 4. Note hence the integrity of Gods will and Commandement requiring a like intire obedience of us But whereas Bonus actus ex integra causa malus ex quolibet defectu every good act requires integrity of causes and circumstances all good but an act is rendred evil by any one defect of these hence it is that man having lost his integrity and fallen into manifold sins and strayings from his God there was a necessity of a manifold Law to follow the man and search him out in his manifold aberrations and wandrings According to which we may understand the Prophet Hos 8.12 I have written to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hos 8. v. 12. which our Translators turn the great things Arias Montanus Praecipua the chief things Pagnin Honorabilia the honourable things which may as well be rendred the multitude of my Law Whence we may justly reprove a wicked generation of men who being exhorted to keep the Commandement to this end to do it they limit the will of the Holy One of Israel And whereas the Lord commands us to keep all that Commandement to love him with all our heart minde soul and strength they love him with their minde only They flatter themselves into a false conceit that they are in S. Pauls condition where he saith I my self with my minde serve the Law of God but with my flesh the Law of Sin Yea whether with their minde they serve the Law of God as S. Paul did it may be very much doubted For the Apostle saith of himself or of one in that state The good that I will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do not but the evil which I will not that I do And I finde therefore a law that evil lies neer me being willing to do good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diverse other places in that Rom. 7. The words ye perceive are turnd as if the Apostle spake here of a velleity or half-will the good that I would the evil that I would not There 's no such matter the Apostle speaks of a compleat and full will and that which hath no hindrance from it self the good that I will the evil which I will not This man he has a will compleat and ready to do what good he wills and to depart from the evil which he wills not Yea I delight saith he in the Law of God according to the inward man and whereas he hath such a good will to the good and so delights in it and so hates the evil to do that evil its captivity its misery its death it s a body of death unto him And therefore he complaines Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death And he hath answer according to the antient reading of S. Ambrose Origen S. Hierom S. Augustin and others and the present Vulg. Latin Gratia Dei per Dominum Iesum Christum the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And by that grace he is made free from the Law of sin and death by the Law of the spirit of life Is it thus with this perverse and sinful generation who pretend a minde and good will to serve the Law of God Does not their life declare them Does not their practice plainly speak what their minde and will is Does not the shew of their countenance testifie against them or rather as it is in the Hebrew does not the acknowledgement of their faces answer against them Do they not declare their sin like Sodom they hide it not Wo unto their soul for they have requited evil unto themselves Be we exhorted O Israel to keep and do all this Commandement to love the Lord our God with all our heart soul minde and strength Let us not hearken to that objection of unbelieving and lazy men which hath more of will then reason in it that this Commandement is impossible This opinion hath gotten ground in the mindes of men partly from the authority of one of the Antients partly from an inbred lightlesness in the most of us of whom it may be truly said that Quae nolumus
ingredient of all the Christian mans actions that pretious tincture that turns all it touches into gold as they say Midas did And what ever wants this divine tincture of holy love t is like the Terra damnata t is nothing worth Hence the Apostles general advise is Let all your things be done in charity 1 Cor. 16.14 A rule so necessary that the very best and greatest duties otherwise performed whether towards God or towards our neighbour are of no value in the sight of God 1 Cor. 13. I shall adde no more motives Let us rather come to discover our love to the Lord our God whether we keep this Commandement or not 1. The love of God proceeds from a pure heart a good conscience and faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 How then canst thou love thy God when thou sayest thy heart cannot be pure And how can thy faith be unfeigned when thou believest not that thou art able to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart 2. Love will suffer nothing to intervene or separate us from the party we love that may hinder our union Love knits unites and makes one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is continued is one Our love unto God unites us and makes us one with him according to our Saviours prayer John 17.21 and that of the Apostle he who is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 Such love of our God will not endure any mixture of what is contrary to our God And therefore S. Paul having exhorted to sincerity of love which is required even in the lowest degree of it as hath been shewen Let love be without dissimulation Rom. 12.9 he presently adds Abhor that which is evil Sincerity of love unto our God will not endure any corrival any thing or person to share with our God in our love of him How then canst thou say thou lovest the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and keepest all that Commandement when yet thou knowest that thou lovest thy pleasures more then thou lovest thy God when thou knowest thou lovest the world and the things of this world Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses Know ye not that the friendship of the world is the enmity of God Jam. 4.4 So the Greek text hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is made an enemy of God Wouldst thou believe thy wife should she say she loved thee whilest she prostitutes her self unto another man And wilt thou pretend to be the loving Spouse of thy Maker yet love his enemy 3. The love of God puts us upon such works as he loves Whence the Apostle This saith he is the love of God that we keep his Commandements It puts us upon the love of our neighbour Love works no evil to his neighbour Rom. 13.10 Ad populum Phaleras Away with all trappings and false pretences of love without the reality of it Good discourse and holy conference proceeding from a life worthy of God and a heart and soul which loves God is an edge which pierceth to the assimilating of others unto it self Such a soul edifies and conveighs grace to the hearers For charity edifies not knowledge not holy talk without it The Pharisees of old knew very much of God and his Word and wayes and spake very much of God And they of all others most reasoned with our Lord concerning God and his truth But our Lord tells them I know that ye have not the love of God in you John 5.42 And we may say the like of the Pharisees of our time They are great talkers of God and of Religion and indeed would seem to be the onely people of God and to know all things knowable They are indeed the true Amorites great Talkers and most bitter men in their invectives against all who are not of their opinion as no wise man is And therefore we may know that they have not the love of God in them They have a knowing knowledge or such as reflects upon it self as the Apostle saith we know that we all have knowledge This knowledge puffs men up and makes them proud but charity edifies 1 Cor. 8.1.2 That knowing knowledge is the dust the food of the Serpentine generation according to their doom Gen. 3.14 which the Prophet Esay 65.25 tells us must be fulfilled in these last dayes a food wherewithal they so glut themselves that there is no place left for the love of God in them Therefore Jehu cuts off and destroyes the knowing knowledge so the Chald. Paraphrast renders 2 Kings 9.8 Every one that pisseth against the wall all the knowing knowledge which excludes the love of God For so the true Jehu Hebr. 1. v. 12. who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui est a type of Christ Hebr. 1.12 Thou art He for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Notat aliquid divinitatis saith Galatinus it imports somewhat of the Divinity And therefore Scaliger having reckoned up many names of God concludes them all with Ipse He. This spiritual Jehu destroyes all the false the knowing disobedient knowledge which is the true spiritual inward Antichrist and consumes him with the spirit of his mouth and destroyes him with the brightness of his coming or presence 2 Thes 2.8 Psal 90. v. 12. And therefore Moses the man of God prayes Psal 90.12 that the Lord would teach him to number his dayes that he might bring unto him a wise heart so the words signifie not a wise not a subtil crafty head not a strong head-piece as they call it Let us name some means and helps to advance this great duty 1. The fear of God is the beginning of his love Ecclus 1.14 And that fear drives out the evil And when the love of God is brought into the soul it makes a compleat separation from the sin O ye that love the Lord see that ye hate the thing that is evil Psal 97.10 2. Whatsoever thou seest amiable and lovely in the creature love it wholly for God and in order unto God the Creator of it How shall that be done When thou seest ravishing Beauty in the Creature reason thus O how much more beautiful is my God who created this Beauty When thou seest great strength think how much more strong is He who is the Power Mark 14.62 Thou lovest wealth consider how much better is it to be rich towards God! Or thou art desirous of Honour Reason thus How much more excellent is the honour that comes of God only Thou lovest Pleasures but think how much more satisfying and durable are the pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore 3. Pray we unto the Lord that he will be pleased to circumcise our hearts that we may love him with all our heart and with all our soul that we may live Deut. 30.6 For the advancement of this divine and eternal life and kingdom of God there are who point us unto faith only But beside it
to the Jewes which of you convinceth me of sin Iohn 8.46.7.8 That very question was conceived to be a very great sin and occasioned another Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devill Mat. 27.23 Nay their malice ended not in reproachfull words For when Pilate asked them what evill hath be done T was evill enough to have done no evill The text saith they cryed out so much the more let him be crucified It was sin enough in Paul so to have walked and pleased God that he could truely say I have lived in all good conscience before God untill this day Then Ananias commanded those who stood by to smite him on the mouth Acts 23.2 And it was well he scaped so Nor is this observable onely in the visible Church but in every Nation who so ever fears God and works righteousness and so walkes and pleaseth God initially Acts 10. as Cornelius did even for that very reason he is not accepted of men That Hermodorus was bannished from Ephesus Aristides Themistocles Alcibiades and others from Athens by Ostracisme no other reason can be given but onely that they were excellent men and abounded more than others in doing good They walk'd up to that light they had Nor is there any other cause alleaged by Lampridius why Heliogabalus was displeased with Alexander his adopted son but onely because he was unlike unto his father a continent chast and temperate man Nor why the same Emperour put Ulpian the great Lawyer out of his place but onely because he was an upright and honest man in it Indeed other reasons are alledged commonly as against Socrates and others but the onely true one was that which the Ephesians as Strabo reports used when they bannished Hermodorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We will not that any of our Citizens be too good and profitable unto others And that country man had not yet learn'd the art of Seeming when coming to Athens he met Aristides called the Just going out of the City and gave him an account why he came to Athens to bannish him why saith Aristides What evill have I done that you intend this evill against me The Country man answered him bluntly Mihi non placet istud nomen Justi I like not saith he this name Just But why stand we on particulars Wisd 2.12 Salomon long since discovered the general designe of ungodly men against those who endeavour to walk and please God and exceed others in so doing it fits them of this generation extream well Let us lie in wait for the righteous because he is not for our turn and he is clean contrary to our doings He upbraideth us with our offending the Law and objecteth to our infamy the transgressions of our education He professeth to have the knowledge of God and he â—â—lleth himself the childe of the Lord He was made to reprove our thoughts He is grievous unto us even to behold for his life is not like other mens His wayes are of another fashion we are esteemed of him as counterfeits He abstaineth from our wayes as from filthinesse He pronounceth the end of the righteous to be blessed and maketh his boast that God is his Father After this long enumeration of his crimes alleaged against him they proced to sentence Let us see if his words be true and let us prove what will happen in the end of him For if the just man be the Son of God he will help him and deliver him from the hand of his enemies Let us examine him with despitefulnesse and torture that we may know his meekness and prove his patience Let us condemn him to a shameful death But this is the great consolation to Enoch and his Enochites which over-poiseth all the contempt and hatred of the evil world To them Enoch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enoch is no body despicable and hateful But God receives him Enoch pleased the Lord saith the Wise-man and was translated and was an example of repentance to all generations Ecclus 44.16 17. Noah who walked with God also was found perfect and righteous in the time of wrath He was taken in exchange for the World therefore was he left as a remnant unto the Earth when the flood came Yea though Enoch and his Enochites be given for lost men Esa 62.12 Psal 83.3 yet the time will come when that of the Prophet shall be fulfilled They shall be sought out Though pursued and persecuted yet the Lord hides them and then they are safe Nor man nor other Creature can hide it self from God nor can man or any other Creature finde those out whom God hides Yea though the Devil himself by subtilty and violence attempt their destruction yet the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against Gods hidden Ones What though the evil one walk about seeking whom he may devour What though he cast his fiery darts at us Gen. 15.1 and 17.1 What saith God to Abrabam the Enochite and every one of his children Walk before me and be perfect I am thy shield that will quench the fiery darts of the evil one Yea the Lord is a buckler unto them that walk uprightly Prov. 2.7 Such protection holy David promised himself and all the true Enochites who walk and please God Psal 27.5 and 31.20 Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy Tabernacle Temples are alwayes held inviolable So that they whom the Lord hides in his Tabernacle and Temple and the secret of it that is 1 Cor. 3. in himself must needs be safe For as his Enochites are his Tabernacle and Temple Rev. 21.22 Exod. 33.21 so is he theirs He hides them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Rock that is in Christ where Moses was hid when he saw God And now they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beyond al the power that the enemy has to hurt them Thou shalt keep them secretly from the prides of men in the time of wrath thou shalt hide them from the men of the army When is there greater trouble or danger than in the time of war and wrath when the Lord opens Din Then thou shalt hide them from the sword-men Ab ore gladii from the power of the sword and à gladio oris from the strife of tongues All this imports preservation from evill And the good is as great whereunto he preserves them For How great is the Goodness that thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them who hope in thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex diametro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maugre all the opposition of the sonnes of men Lastly what is that greatest good which the eye of the naturall man hath not seen nor his ear heard nor has it entred into his heart to conceive That good the great God hath promised to Abraham and his sonnes the true Enochites who walke before him and are perfect Gen. 17.1 To
worst The best Cauda jubetur adoleri Deo saith S. Gregory ut omne bonum quod incipimus etiam perseverantiae fine impleamus that what ever good we begin we may also fulfil with the end of perseverance The rump or tail of the Ram hath a special name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to curse which is due to the Prophet who perseveres in speaking lies Esay 9.15 The inward part that is the heart as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as also the minde and so what Hebr. 8.10 is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the minde that Jer. 31.33 is the inward part which may be good or evil for the good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil Luke 6.45 And the like may be said of all the rest Who puts all these in the Priests hand who else but the great God as was shewen before He puts in the mans power to do good or to do evil Take notice from hence what the Wiseman saith Ecclus 15.14 God himself made man from the beginning and left him in the hand of his counsel the good and evil is put into thy power if thou wilt to keep the Commandements of God and to perform acceptable faithfulness He hath set fire and water before thee Stretch forth thine hand to whether thou wilt Before man is life and death and whether him liketh shall be given him This however Apocryphal hath prime Canonical Scripture to confirm it with a witness I call Heaven and Earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore choose life that thou and thy seed may live that thou mayest love the Lord thy God and mayest obey his voice c. Deut. 30.15.19 20. And I beseech you take notice how the Angel in Esdras interprets that place having spoken of this argument with the Angel 2 Esdr 7.1 58. then ver 59. the Angel saith This is the life whereof Moses spake unto the people while he lived saying choose thee life that thou mayest live God puts the good in special into our hand Thus to fill the hand is to give possession of the heavenly goods whereof God hath made Christ the high Priest Hebr. 9.11 and put all things into his hand and he makes his believers such when he gives them an earnest of the holy Land As when possession is given a clod of the land is given into his hand who takes possession of it Acts 20.32 Ephes 1.14 Note from hence who is the great high Priest of our profession who else but the Son of God John 3.35 The Father loved the Son and hath given all things into his hand his right hand is full of righteousness Psal 48.10 Here is the accomplishment of all the typical Priests in Christ For what was meant by the first-born Priests but Christ the first-born of every creature What was Aarons Priesthood or Melchisec's and the execution of their respective offices in expiation and intercession and manifold particulars but representations of Christ and his Priesthood and the execution thereof he was the true Aaron the Mountain of knowledge the Teaching Priest who teacheth like him The true Melchisedec Heb. 7.1.2 3. The true Eleazar Gods helper the true Abiathar that excellent Father Esay 9.6 Pater futuri seculi the Father of the after-world as Hierom turns it the everlasting Father Sadoc the righteous one Jehoshuah the Lord the Saviour the son of Jehosadac the righteous Lord Zach. 6.11 Such an high Priest becomes us to have Observe whence the true believers obtain their office of a royal Priesthood unto God Revel 1.6 Here is no man named neither Moses nor Aaron who fils the hand of the Priests it is the Lord alone who makes Priests Hence also we learn what manner of men the Evangelical Priests ought to be Clean-handed men Man us habere consummatns as one of the Ancients speaks to have perfect hands Hear what Philo Judaeus speaks to this purpose God requires of a Priest first of all a good minde holy and exercised in piety then a life adorned with good works that when he layes his hands on any he may say with a free conscience Those hands are neither corrupted with bribes nor polluted with innocent blood they have done hurt injury wounds violence to no man they have not been instruments unto any dishonest thing but have been imployed in things honest and profitable such as are approved by just honest and wise men So he 2. Axiom Wherefore was the Priests hand filled To minister in the Priests office That 's the end of his consecration And it is in the Hebrew in one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators express by so many the LXX render it by one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Castellio succinctly turns all the words thus Quorum manûs ipse Sacredotio sacravit whose hands he hallowed for the Priesthood 1. Hence we may learn who they are who truly judge themselvs to be of the royal Priesthood Who but they who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made perfect or consecrated so the Apostle renders that phrase whofe hand is filled and so the LXX express it who stand complete in all the will of God And having done their own work are ready to offer something up for others as prayers intercessions giving of thanks c. Such were they who stood idle in the market place They had done their own work For shall wee think they were a company of Circumforanei a sort of lazy fellons such as are often in our markets Our Lard entertaines no such into his service 2. Hence it appears that no man taketh this honour to himself Hebr. 5. That is that no man ought to take in hand the Priests office unless it be first put into his hand by the Lord. This justly reproves those who do involare violently take unto themselves the Priesthood who assume and arrogate that office to themselves by their own private that is no â—â—â—â—ority under pretence of gifted men who boast of a false gift whereas indeed God hath not filled their hand with any such gift but they have gotten it by a kinde of Legier de main they have taken it to themselves by Brachygraphy or Short-hand and so by a competent measure of boldness intrude into the Priests office and into the things which they have not seen vainly puft up by their fleshly minde Col. 2. Nor yet do I here confine the gifts of God unto mans approbation or ordination Surely the Lord may fill whose hand he will speak by whom he will as he is said to speak not only by the mouth as Acts 1.16 3.18 but also by the hand of his Prophets as by the hand of Moses Numb 4.37 by the hand of Abijah 2 Chron. 10.15 and many the
Or which borders upon that corrupt principles of false Christianity That the duties of the Moral Law belong not unto them who are in Christ as they fansie themselves to be That God will see no sin in them That all things indeed are theirs and that they who are thought to be the true owners of them are but intruders and usurpers That sin is unavoidable and that it is impossible to cease from sin though by the power of God yea by the greatest power that can be given to man in this life That solemn agreements and covenants between man and man are but covenants of works That we must not hope to be justified by our own works though they proceed from the spirit of God but by faith in Christ That he has been just for us and done all things that we are commanded to do 1600 years ago and has suffered the punishment due to us for our not doing them That the very best works we do are sins That cheating cousening deceiving circumventing fraudulent dealing overreaching of all the sins that men commit the very worst of them are but infirmities in the Saints what ever they are in other men From these corrupt principles and such as these men work and for one end men work to be rich in this world and by the abuse of these riches to take their ease in their old age eat drink and be merry as our Lord discovers the rich mans reasoning Luke 12.19 So violent men argue Prov. 1.11 12 13. Wisd 2. In like manner the deceived heart is inticed by hope of stoln waters Prov. 9.17 and bread of deceit Prov. 20.17 So that the true reason of all deceit and violence and wrongful dealing among men who pretend religion is corruption of doctrine and may be referred to it directly and demonstratively as to the proper source and Fountain of it Esay 30.10 They say to the Seers see not and to the Prophets prophesie not right things speak unto us smooth things prophesie deceits Jer. 5. the last ver The Prophets prophesie lies c. and the people love to have it so But who sets the false Prophets a work who but the Abaddon and Apollyon the destroyer the author of violence and wrong who but the same subtil Serpent who deceives all the world Revel 12.9 who is called in the Syriac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Deceiver What therefore our Philosophers commonly ascribe to habits contracted by frequent actions either good or evil are indeed to be referred to the good or evil spirit As the Apostle saith of the good spirit all these things saith he worketh that one and the self-same spirit 1 Cor. 12.11 So on the contrary all these evil things worketh the evil spirit which fils men with all unrighteousness deceit and violence Rom. 1.29 And because the universal and first cause cannot be idle we shall finde him giving those up to a reprobate minde Rom. 1.28 who refuse to retain God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their experimental knowledge ver 28. O that men and women the Lord here speaks of both could or rather would yield to be disswaded from their gainful sins This Scripture reacheth all as well on the military profession as the civil state as well the Souldier as the Citizen The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all the sins of man especially those sins of injury and wrong done one to another for gain and advantage sake whether by violence or deceit John Baptist saith to the Souldier do violence to no man accuse no man falsly and be content with your wages S. Paul saith to the Citizen especially let no man go beyond and defraud his brother 1 Thess 4.6 Vend not false wares Put not Quid pro quo Set not forth the refuse for good Amos 8.6 Set not your clothes nor your consciences too much upon the tainters Do not falsifie the ballance by deceit Use no false weights false measures false balances false coynes false lights Get not your treasures by a lying tongue Prov. 21.6 Officers use no false accusation forged cavillation Luke 19.8 Exact not undue fees Do not falsifie your trust Work-masters Grinde not the faces of your poor workmen whose labour is your gain Delay not detain not defalcat not his due Pay him clear off Keep him not obnoxious to thy work and service by withholding part of what thou owest him Covet not thirst not after a long mornings-draught out of his dear earnings out of the swet of his wife children servants who want that for their necessary support which thou causest thy workman wastefully to spend at the Tavern Alehouse or Gaminghouse These are crying sins which enter into the ears of the Lord of hosts James 5.4 who is the avenger of all such 1 Thess 4.6 These are some of all the sins of man Some of our Cities sins O that we considered aright how contrary these things are not only to our Christian presession as hath been shewen but also to the very light of nature Would it not shame us to hear this out of the mouth of an Heathen man as he is accounted Detrahere aliquid alteri 〈◊〉 hominis incommodo suum augere 〈◊〉 inagâ—◠〈…〉 mors quam paupertas quà m deloâ— quà m caetera quae possunt aâ—t 〈◊〉 accidere aut rebus externis To take some what from another and one man to increase his own profit by the disprofit of another it s more against nature then death then poverty then grief then what ever else can befal the body or outward estate So Tully and much more to the same offect 2. 〈◊〉 possible that a man or woman may commit some one or other of all the sins of man to trespass a trespass against the Lord. This expression to trespass a trespass ought not to seem strange unto us that the Nown of the same Verb is repeated with it as gaudere gaudium pâ—gnare pugnam vevere votum militare militiam which the N. Test hath made familiar as to war a good warsure 1 Tim. 1.18 to fight a good fight 2 Tim. 4.7 What some say that the sin committed against man is here said to be committed against the Lord in regard of his denial or oath Levit. 6.2 3. It hath some truth in it But in other sinnes against men where no denyal or oath is interposed the sin yet is said to be committed against the Lord as Gen. 38.7 8. and 39.9 Sins committed against men are committed also against God 1 Cor. 8.12 The 2 Tables of the Commandments are said to contain laws teaching our duties toward God and toward our neighbour Which is not so to be understood as if the soure first Commandments adequately contained our duty towards God and the six last our duties toward men For without doubt the six last contain our duty towards God also and forbid the breach of it Our heavenly Father is to be honoured according to the fifth Commandment And spiritual murder as by