the expiation of sin contracted by the Red earthly man a Red Heiffer be made choise of to represent the white and ruddy heavenly man This Heiffer also must be perfect and without blemish which never hath born yoke For such is the Christ of God even the perfect one without spot or stain of sin which never bare the yoke of servitude unto sin Yet though innocent harmless undefiled and separate from sinners he must notwithstanding be slain because without shedding of blood there is no remission Hebr. 9.22 And slain this Heiffer must be without the Camp And that Jesus might sanctifie his people by his blood he suffered without the Camp Hebr. 13. For he came not to call the just who are within the Camp which is the Camp of the Saints Revel 20.9 but sinners which are without yea to seek and to save what was lost This Heiffer must be burnt by the fire taken off the Altar kindled from heaven For the heavenly man came to send fire on the earth even the heaven-born fire of love which might extinguish the iniquity which burns like a fire Esay 9.18 and so Extingueret ignibus ignes quench the infernal with the heavenly fire saith the Poet. With the ashes of this burnt Heiffer all who were defiled were sprinkled For nothing so sanctifies and purifies our Ruddy polluted humanity as the daily mortification and burning up the Holocaust the iniquity as the dross by the holy fire of divine love sent from heaven into our earthly manhood by the Christ of God the man from heaven heavenly And therefore was the female chosen being the weaker lest we should imagine that expiation could be made by any beast or earthly man The influence whereby the purging of sin is made is from the Divine Power to intimate this unto us not the stronger but the weaker sex the Red Cow must be slain And what spiritually is the Ezob or Rosmary what else but the holy faith whereby the heart is purified Acts 5.9 Of this Ezob three stalks or sprigs made the Aspergillum or Sin-water stock wherewith the sprinkling was made And the faith wherewith we are sprinkled is threefold or there are three branches of it Faith in the Father Son and holy Spirit And thus the Prophet foretold Esay 52.15 that the Christ of God now abased and brought low even to the dust and ashes of his humiliation ver 14. should sprinkle many nations Acts 17. v. 31. Mat. 28. v. 19. And indeed and truth God giveth or offereth faith unto all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 17.31 having raised up Christ from the dead And having received also power in heaven and earth he sprinkleth all nations and authorizeth his Apostles and true Ministers to sprinkle them by baptizing them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the name nature and Being of the Father the Son and the holy Spirit and sprinkles answerably unto them a sprinkling with water Ezech. 36.25 with Blood Numb 19.4 with Oyl Levit. 14.16 a known figure of the Spirit which are the three witnesses upon earth 1 John 5.8 And these testifie of three spiritual estates gradually differing one from other whereinto we are baptized and sprinkled from the pollutions of the World the Flesh and the Devil and so we become partakers of the divine nature having eskaped the corruption that is in the world through lust 2 Pet. 1.4 And thus the Israel of God abased and brought low even to dust and ashes come forth of the Furnace of humiliation being refined and purified from their dross and are arayed in white robes Who are these and whence came they saith one of the Elders to S. John And he answered These are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their Robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb Rev. 17.14 the Lambs blood is a white an innocent blood and become like unto him who is white and ruddy Cant. 5. For if the blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of an Heiffer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purity of the flesh so the Greek text hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 9. v. 13. which signifies purity not purifying as our Translators render it how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot or fault unto God purge our conscience from dead works to serve the living God The sprinkling of this blood cures the bitings of the old Serpent cleanseth the leprosie of sin expels that Morbus Daemoniacus that disease inflicted by the foul spirit dissolves all the works of the Devil Let us therefore draw near with a true heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in plenitudine in fulness of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having our body washed with pure water by that clean man Hebr. 10. v. 22. Numb 19.18 who hath promised to sprinkle clean water the water of his spirit upon us Ezech. 36.25 And let us hold fast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the confession of our hope without wavering the Translators turn it faith which should be turn'd hope according to all Greek Copies I have yet seen Beside the Apostle in ver 22 23 24. hath the three Theological Graces in their order For he is faithful that hath promised and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works Hebr. 10.22 23 24. The Lord so sprinkle us and purge us with the true Ezob the Herbarists call Hyssop Gratia Dei from the leprosie of our sins and strengthen us to do his holy will through Jesus Christ our Lord Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the King of Edom Numb 20. v. 14. Thus saith thy brother Israel Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not signifie Travail but the Adjunct of it or the travailler labour Exod. 18.8 which they turn there travail all the travail that found them in the way Not so properly Since travailling is the act of him who journeyeth but labour and trouble is his adjunct which findes him in the way wherein he travails as the LXX render the word there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 labour So likewise the word may be understood here as also weariness the effect of travailing and labouring So the Translators themselves render the word Gen. 19.11 Esay 7.13 Mal. 1.12 Who bears the image of the earthly man and is not sensible of an heavie burden such is the burden of cares and thoughts what shall we eat and what shall we drink That earthly man is Edom as the name signifies This earthly man this Edom the Animalis homo the natural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly the souly man â—ears in his journey towards the heavenly Canaan where he shall 〈◊〉 the image of the heavenly 1 Cor. 15.49 And therefore not without cause here Israel saith to Edom Thou knowest all the weariness that hath found us Howbeit the
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
our Lord there delivers and fear lest the like or a worse judgement remains for themselves My Brethren The hand of the same Lord of Hosts is stretched out still And if we shall in life or doctrine especially this doctrine of unbelief and impossibility cause the people of God to sin let us fear the like yea heavier judgement upon our selves because we have not taken warning by the heavie hand of God upon them Quorum facta imitamur cur non illorum exitûs exhorrescamus If we be like them in the sin why should we not fear that we shall be involved with them in the same judgement 1. We who call our selves and would be reputed Ministers of the Gospel are supposed to know more then other men do and to be more strong in the Lord and in the power of his might then others are and so to be more able to resist the Tempter and his motions unto sin 2. We are thought to have received more grace from God and therefore if we sin against our God we are more ingrateful then others are 3. Impiety in us is in a special manner repugnant unto our profession who more then other men pretend to piety and holiness 4. The example of our sin extends more to scandal then other mens because being reputed learned we may be supposed to sin by the Book O let us bring our sin-offering even repentance a broken spirit and a contrite heart Psal 51.17 Let us confess forsake and mortifie our sin that by the blood and spirit of Christ we may be sprinkled from an evil conscience Hebr. 10.22 and the blood and spirit of Jesus Christ shall cleanse us from all our sins 1 John 1.7 Then will our sober chaste temperate honest just godly conversation win the people to sobriety chastity temperance justice honesty and piety and every grace which they shall see in us they will copie out into themselves Then shall we be pretious men indeed not in the vain opinion of ignorant men then shall wee bee powerful Preachers when we preach powerfully Christ to be the power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 by whom the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. So that we warn every man and teach every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Jesus Christ Col. 1.28 Then shall we boldly propound our selves examples unto the flock And when the chief Shepherd shall appear we shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away 1 Peter 4.2 3. If a soul sin and hear the voice of swearing and is a witness Levit. 5. Ver. 1. whether he hath seen or known of it if he do not utter it then he shall bear his iniquity The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here turn'd swearing is not to be understood in the latitude of it but more proper to the business here treated of by Moses it signifies an Adjuration which is that kinde of Oath or Execration whereby a man hearing is obliged to say or do something as in controversies among men an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife Hebr. 6.16 Thus also in mens private affairs and extrajudiciall matters As Abraham adjured his servant or caused him to swear imposing an oath upon him Gen. 24.3 And examples of both kindes we have many in Scriptures Exod. 13.19 Numb 5.19 1 Sam. 14.27 28. 1 Kings 2.43 Ezra 10.5 Cant. 5.8 9. and elsewhere This Adjuration is understood in this Scripture here before us For the Jews in their Courts admitted an Adjuration to be laid upon all persons present for the eliciting and drawing forth the truth in question Insomuch as although a man were not personally cited and adjured to confess his knowledge yet if he heard the adjuration or execration and concealed the truth he rendred himself guilty according to this Law Much more if any man were personally adjured to speak his knowledge and yet held his peace In which case he was obliged to answer the adjuration although possibly what he uttered might prove disadvantageous unto himself So vain is that assertion which yet is vulgar and common that no man is bound to accuse himself This very Law bindes a man to speak his knowledge although summoned thereunto generally only and in common with all who hear the adjuration however his own personal interest may be concerned thereby Otherwise this Law makes him guilty How much yet more if the Judge himself adjure him to declare the truth In which case it is very observable that when the High Priest had questioned our Lord Luke 22.67 68. and the false witnesses had bin produced against him Matth. 26.61 62. which yet could prove nothing and Jesus himself held his peace so that they were all at a loss the high Priest made use of the last expedient which in this case could be used and adjured him by the living God that he should tell them whether he were the Christ the Son of God This Adjuration drew from our Lord that Confession that he was the Son of God Matth. 26.59 64. For so what there we read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast said S. Mark reports to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am So sacred a thing is an Oath that he who submitted himself to be a Servant of Rulers as he is called Esay 49.7 when he had stood dumb and opened not his mouth the Adjuration caused him to make that glorious confession of the truth This sense Arias Montanus Vatablus Munster and Castellio give of these words Tremellius and some of the Jews understand this Law to be against him who hath heard one blaspheme God and conceals his knowledge And he refers this Law to the precept of brotherly correction and reproof Levit. 19.17 And it is possible that our Translators may have been of the same judgement But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not any where used to signified blasphemy in that sense so far as I yet can finde Nor was swearing wholly forbidden the Jewes either judicially or extra-judicially but onely vain and false swearing Levit. 19.12 Jer. 7.9 And of this swearing Hos 4.2 is to be understood and Zach. 5.3 Every one that sweareth shall be cut off What kinde of swearing is that It followes in the next verse every one that sweareth falsly by my Name So Mal. 3.5 For the merciful God graciously connived for a time at the Jewes swearing so they sware not falsly nor vainly by his Name And therefore our Lord in his exposition of that Commandement saith not Thou shalt not swear but thou shalt not forswear thy self And the reason may be The people of God lived among the Nations who walked every one in the name of his god Mich. 4.5 Wherefore the Lord condescended for a time to be accounted as it were a Topical God as if he had been the God of Israel only as may appear by Jephta's reasoning Judges