twenty other dues all but one at the peoples charge and of the dues that were so charged one was the flesh of the expiatory Sacrifices and these Sacrifices were required for above fifty kinds of sins But that which I now insist upon is not the greatness of the expence which the Law charged upon the Jews but that all their Offices of Love and Charity were so circumstantiated by the Law that they who had the best inclinations to these duties in the general must of necessity be much encumbered by the circumstances which the Law required in the exact performance of them 5. Add hereunto the numerous Rites prescribed to the Jews in the very culture of their bodies and that in the very minutest things They could not so much as cut their hair or shave their beards but under the restraint and scruple of Law Levit. 19.27 They were not begotten they were not born without a ritual stain upon their parents every woman that had brought forth a child was to take a journey to Jerusalem to sacrifice for her purification and the child it self was to be redeemed with a certain price if it were a son and her first-born And now that I have mentioned Purification what shall I say of the numerous cases wherein the Jews were made unclean by the sentence and judgment of the Law What shall I say of the several Washings the several Sacrifices sometimes required to purge and make them clean again What shall I say of their confinement and separation from the Congregation during the time they were unclean The Jews observe that there were eleven general Fountains so they stile them of pollution and these generals were almost infinite in their particular parts and branches If a man had touched an unclean creature or any of the clean which died of themselves if he had touched a dead mans body or any thing else which that had touched if he had an issue of blood in himself or had touched another that had such an issue or any thing else which he had touched In these and innumerable other cases he was by the Law pronounced unclean and being unclean upon pain of death to purge himself sometimes by Sacrifice sometimes by the water of separation always by bathing himself in water Time would fail me if I should insist upon all the minute and scrupulous Rites which the Law of Moses enjoyned the Jews and indeed I have said enough already in order to my present purpose For as it appears from what I have said they could not legally worship God without abundance of nice observances wholly indifferent in themselves but hard and troublesom in performance They could not discharge their moral offices towards men without most scrupulous observations in point of circumstance of time and place and other minute considerations They could not manage the least affairs they could not do the commonest things without the scruple of Law and Conscience For they could not build or inhabit their houses they could not so much as cloath themselves they could not plow nor sow nor plant they could not reap or gather in their fruits they could not eat or prepare their meat they could scarce discharge any one action religious moral civil or natural but under the check of a positive Law And that which is further to be observed is that the most exact performance of the letter of all these positive Laws might leave them vicious and immoral full of hypocrisie pride and malice slaves to the world and their own lusts and that where it left them in this condition it did neither improve them in themselves nor recommend them to Gods acceptance much less procure eternal life Which plainly appears from the Scribes and Pharisees who although the most exact observers of all these ritual institutions were most impure and foul within and least acceptable unto God Yet after all it was not needless and therefore no unreasonable thing that a people amongst whom God himself in the first Ages of their Polity held the place of a Civil Magistrate a people prone unto Idolatry and living among idolatrous Nations should be thus bound up by positive Laws in every instance of life and action that so whatsoever they saw or did the commonest actions in the world might put them in mind of the true God and of his absolute Soveraignty over them Especially seeing that their bondage under this toilsom Dispensation might better dispose them to embrace the easier state of Christianity when God should please to call them to it S. Peter tells them that Moses his Law meaning its positive institutions was such a yoke as neither they nor their fathers were able to bear Act. 15.10 Christ tells us that his yoke is easie and his burden light Mat. 11.30 They were in bondage under the elements of the world Gal. 4.3 And as S. Paul himself stiles them under weak and beggarly elements v. 9. We are under a royal law Jam. 2.8 We are under the law of liberty Jam. 1.25 a Law recommended by better promises a Law attended with greater helps larger effusions of Gods Spirit a Law that requires little else but what is immutably good in itself a Law that where it proceeds further rests in few and easie instances in Baptism and the Lords Supper these are the Sacraments of the Gospel these are but two and both of them easie in practice easie in sense and signification and also greatly useful to us both to oblige us to our duties and to increase our strength and comforts Such is the liberty wherein the Gospel hath placed the professors of Christianity a liberty from those numerous rights those scrupulous precepts and injunctions which fettered and perplexed the Jews in every instance of life and action 2. Yet secondly there is a further liberty wherein the Gospel hath placed us Christians arising from the relaxation of the rigour of the penal Sanction which was added to the Law of Moses The Law indeed did not threaten death to every sin but in some cases allowed a sacrifice for expiation but wheresoever it threatned death in express words it did not allow repentance it self as a condition of remission Add hereunto that the same Law did threaten death to abundance of several kinds of sins which the time will not suffer me to enumerate whensoever committed against knowledge So that whosoever had so sinned in any of those numerous kinds had no dispensation from the Law no not upon repentance it self but was by the sentence of the Law to die by God or the Magistrates hand 'T is true indeed the Law-maker did sometimes that is in some extraordinary cases dispense with the rigour of his own Law An example whereof we have in David who although he was the supreme Magistrate and therefore not to account to men for his transgression of the Law was lyable to the hand of God a punishment threatned in the Law for his sins in the matter of Vriah yet was
not cut off by Gods hand but pardoned upon his deep repentance But this pardon was not the Act of the Law it self but the dispensation of the Law-giver And so indeed were these promises wherein the Prophets proclaimed pardon where the Law expresly death as when they promised remission and pardon to Idolaters themselves if they would repent For such was the rigour of the Law that whensoever it threatned death it did not dispense with the guilty person no not upon repentance it self not upon amendment and reformation This is the meaning of the Apostle when he saith that the Law worketh wrath Rom. 4.15 when he stiled it the ministration of condemnation 2. Cor. 3.9 This is the reason why having opposed it to the Gospel as the letter unto the Spirit he further adds that the letter killeth but that the spirit giveth life vers 6. of the same Chapter this is the reason why Christ is said to have come in the flesh to deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2.15 For as the Law threatned death to very numerous kinds of sin so it admitted no expiation no sacrifice no repentance unto life where it expresly threatned death and here was the rigour of the Law Now the Gospel on the other hand although it threaten Eternal Death to obstinate and impenitent sinners yet it allows and accepts repentance as a condition of remission in all degrees and kinds of sin wherein the Law did not allow it as to the punishment it threatned And this is the thing which S. Paul suggests Act. 13.38 Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man that is through Christ is preached unto you forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all those things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses There were numerous sins from which the Law did not absolve the offending person The Law did never absolve or justifie where a man had wittingly committed a sin to which that Law threatned excision but left him without any promise of pardon to the Soveraignty of the Law-maker Whereas the Gospel in express words admits repentance and reformation as a condition of forgiveness in all those kinds and degrees of sin no sin so hainous in its nature none so aggravated by repetition none so heightned by long continuance whereunto the Gospel doth not expresly promise pardon upon the sinners return to God Here is that grace that pardons the sensual and impure upon their amendment and reformation here is that grace that pardons the violent and injurious upon repentance and restitution Here is that mercy that forgives the impious and profane if peradventure they shall reform and return to God by true repentance A grace so great and undeserved that it is seldom mentioned in Scripture without expressions of admiration A grace so signal and so eminent that when the Apostle had described it in the fifth Chapter to the Romans he found it needful to spend the sixth in caution against the abuse of it Not that the liberty of the Gospel either in this or the former instance is really such in its own nature as that it gives any reasonable grounds for men to indulge themselves in sin but that they being bribed by their own lusts take encouragement to do this where none is given that is to use the Apostles words use the liberty given in the Gospel for an occasion to the flesh 2. And so I pass to the second part the caution which the Apostle gives against the abuse of that liberty which is allowed us in the Gospel Now as this consists in two instances liberty from the numerous Rites and from the rigour of the penal Sanction of Moses his Law so was there something of abuse of both these parts of Christian liberty in the primitive Ages of Christianity 1. For first as to the former instances some there were who being acquainted with their liberty from the Rites and Injunctions of the Law earlier than many others were used the liberty of their consciences to ensnare the consciences of other men scorned and censured them as weak and ignorant and by their censures and examples engaged them in the neglect of some Laws relating to certain days and meats before they understood their liberty or had due time to understand it And this abuse of Christain liberty is censured in S. Pauls writings both to the Romans and Corinthians 2. Others observing that S. Paul denied the necessity nay in some cases forbad the use of the works of the Law that is of the Rites before mentioned in order unto Justification took liberty as S. James suggests Jam. 3 to absolve themselves from the works and graces of the Gospel from justice mercy and humility from love and patience and veracity from the engagements and obligations not only of the Laws of Christ but even of natural Religion it self An errour which to this very day so infects the Divinity of many persons that it is no wonder to see their Followers ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth 2. But to pass on to the second instance The relaxation of that rigour which was in the penal Sanction of the Law seems to have been no less abused than liberty from its numerous Rites For it should seem that some persons observing that the Gospel promised pardon where the Law of Moses had denied it and judging that the grace of God was highly magnified by that pardon took leave to indulge themselves in sin under pretence of magnifying Gods grace Which is the errour St. Paul censures Rom. 6.12 What shall me say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid God offers no pardon but to the penitent the design of his grace in offering pardon to the penitent is to invite men to repentance and therefore to use that grace as an encouragement to impenitence is to use it just against it self contrary to its own design as well as against a mans own advantage How much of this unthankful folly may yet remain in the Christian world I am not able to determine but sure I am that there is something like unto it in very general use amongst us which is the delay of reformation grounded upon the promise of pardon to every man that forsakes his sins although he have long continued in them a great abuse of the grace of God God promises pardon to prevent despair these abuse that promise to presumption God admits repentance after sin to encourage us to forsake our sins these abuse his grace in that instance to encourge them to continue in them which is to contemn the goodness of God and despise the mercy they should adore And so S. Paul himself suggests Rom. 4.4 Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance Add
and exposes him to the scorn of others And so do they so far at least as they are able expose the Majesty of God himself that abuse the words of the Holy Scriptures to entertain themselves or others 3. There is yet another sin behind which I could willingly have omitted if I could have tolerably satisfied my self that it doth not carry a more than ordinary mark upon it of an irreverence towards God though not so great as the two former and that 's habitual and constant swearing and that without all provocation in common and ordinary conversation just contrary to that Law of Christ Matt. 5.34 I say unto you swear not at all that is in ordinary communication for so it follows v. 37. But let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil Cometh of evil so doth every Overt act of sin every such act flows from some sinful lust within for when lust hath conceiv'd it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death But it should seem this sin of swearing in cool blood and that in ordinary conversation proceeds from some extraordinary evil And what that is will very easily be understood if we consider that this sin hath no foundation in those appetites that God hath planted in mans nature either to preserve himself or to propagate and to continue his kind as all indulgence to the body all kinds of sensuality have for this sin of common swearing hath no foundation in hunger or thirst or bodily pleasure or in the desire of wealth or ease nay I may add of power and greatness It is a sin without a temptation from without nor doth it arise from any of those very inward appetites that God hath planted in our natures from whence it appears that it hath its rise from an unnatural kind of vanity join'd with a very high irreverence towards God who hath given an express Law against it and that it is in its own nature a bold ostentation of that irreverence for it is a calling God to witness in every trivial and slight affair where a man would not dare to call a Prince or a serious person to give his testimony I do confess that some persons may have been habituated to this vice before they well understood themselves or the nature of the vice it self But why do they use no care to leave it why do they not study to reform it when they do or may understand better What will he do in compliance either with Gods command or with his own eternal happiness who will not labour to quit a vice which is so expresly forbid by Christ and to which he hath no greater temptation than he hath to prophane and idle swearing How can he hope to overcome the lusts and vices of Sensuality which are nothing else but the abuse of natural desires and inclinations and are by them suggested to him and often excited by strong temptations from without how can he hope to deny himself in point of wealth and power and honour or to embrace death or bonds rather than forfeit his integrity which is most necessary to be done who will not forsake a groundless sin a sin without any natural appetite to suggest and without a temptation to excite it A small degree of fear and reverence to God Almighty would easily overcome this sin which is an evident demonstration that it flows from great irreverence to him 4. But to proceed to the last general namely the several considerations which may produce a singular reverence towards God both in it self and its effects and restrain us from all contradictions to it 1. Let us first consider the Spirit and quickness of the style wherein God demands our fear and honour wherein he requires our reverence to him If I be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Master where is my fear which Language carries this sense in it Do not you your selves require a singular love and fear from your relations namely from your children and servants under the name of the same relations whereupon I require the like from you and what is more generally receive what you require For a son saith he honoureth his Father and a servant his Master And had he not reason then to add If then I be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Master where is my fear 2. Now therefore secondly let us consider how great a guilt we must contract if we should deny that to God to the Father of the whole Creation and the Sovereign master of all the World which every Father every Master demands from his Children and his Servants under the name of the same Relations though the obligations thence arising be infinitely greater as they stand between God and men than between men among themselves And yet notwithstanding all this what Father is there amongst men who will endure neglect and insolence and disobedience in his Son who will not reject and disinherit and utterly cast him of for it if he do not repent and humble himself and return to the practice of his duty Where is the Master that patiently bears not only the neglect of service but wilful injury in his Servant Where is the Master that bears this without the greatest indignation against his servant for so doing and that doth not judge his guilt so great as to deserve the severest punishment And therefore judge what guilt it is which every man draws upon himself by a wilful irreverence and disobedience to the great Father and Lord of all 3. And although it be very true indeed that they who bear the greatest load of guilt upon them may not at present find themselves grieved and oppressed by the sense of it yet ought it seriously to be considered that God can in a single moment such is his Sovereignty over the very spirit of man awake that guilt into fear and dread in the greatest Spirits in the World awake it by an invisible dart a secret arrow of his indignation shot immediately into the heart And some such things he did in David as plainly appears from his own words Psal 38.1 2. and following verses O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure for thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presses me sore There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin I am troubled and bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long Thus was a Prince and a man of War who never feared the face of an Enemy who had encountred and slain a Giant in a single combate who had killed two of the fiercest kinds of savage beasts a Lyon and a Bear with a naked arm 1 Sam. 17.36 Thus was he dash'd and broken all to pieces by the sense of his guilt and Gods displeasure a wakened by the hand of God 4.
read in vers 13. For Brethren ye have been called unto liberty only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh In which words we may observe these two things 1. An assertion of the liberty wherein the Gospel of Christ hath placed us Ye have been called unto liberty 2. A caution against the abuse of this liberty Only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh 1. The former of these the liberty wherein the Gospel hath placed us might be represented in more particulars than the time will allow me to consider and therefore I shall confine my self to those two special instance of it which are much considered in the Epistle 1. Liberty from the numerous precepts wherewith the Law perplexed the Jews in things indifferent in themselves 2. And then relaxation of the rigour of the penal Sanction of the Law 1. The former instance of Christian Liberty is far greater than is usually taken notice of as will appear if we consider that there was scarce any one instance of Life and Action Religious Moral Civil or Natural wherein the Law given by Moses did not scrupulously charge and oblige the Conscience The Jewish Writers reckon six hundred and thirteen Precepts in Moses his Law most of which were meer restrictions of that liberty which natural Religion nay which Christianity it self allows It would tire your patience to hear a Catalogue of all these positive institutions and therefore I shall only remark a few particulars in several kinds 1. And first of all their solemn and publick worship of God chiefly consisted in gifts and sacrifices which they might not offer in any place which they should judge the most convenient but at the place which God should chuse which afterwards proved to be Jerusalem Every adult or grown man was here to appear thrice in the year and none to appear empty handed none to make his address to God without a sacrifice for acceptance a burnt-offering and a peace-offering besides a sacrifice for expiation in the cases wherein the Law required it which cases were exceeding numerous These sacrifices were to be free from blemish and these blemishes were very many and so were the several rules prescribed in offering killing and consuming every sacrifice made to God all which things rendred Gods service under the Law a far more nice and scrupulous thing than Christianity now makes it 2. Next to the several rites of worship enjoyned the Jews by Moses his Law I might instance in the scrupulous precepts which much perplexed their moral actions for there were few moral duties which were not nicely circumscribed and punctually determined in point of circumstance The several dues of the Priests and Levites their very Charities to the poor were so determined in point of time so circumstantiated in point of place so scrupulously limited and prescribed as made it hard to avoid offence in the greatest heed and observation as will appear from several instances which I shall hereafter mention to you 3. Nor were they thus perplexed and disciplined with abundance of nice and scrupulous Laws in the worship of God and morality only but in all their other affairs also 1. They could not so much as build a house but after a certain form and maner with Battlements added to the roof Deut. 22.8 They might not dwell in the house they had built at least as they interpret Moses without certain Schedules of the Law affixed to the gates and parts of their doors Deut. 6.9 Their houses were subject to disease that is to say to the Plague of Leprosie as well as themselves to be pulled down where they were not cured and in case of cure to be purged and cleansed by divers rites and expiations Levit. 14. 2. They were not without restraint of Law in the cloaths wherewith they covered themselves They might not put on any garment of linnen and woollen wove together they were to edge their cloaths with fringes they were as themselves expound the Law to wear certain Schedules of the Law upon their foreheads and their arms which are stiled Phylacteries in the Gospel Matt. 23. 3. Their meat and the preparation of it were bounded with far more numerous Laws than any thing which I have yet mentioned It would be infinite to give an account of the several kinds of living creatures the flesh whereof were by the Law judged unclean and the blood and tallow of the clean yea the flesh it self in several cases might not be eaten upon pain of death 4. Nor was the preparation of their food any freer from the scruple of Law than their food it self They might not join divers kind of Creatures as an Ox and an Ass in the same yoke They might not set their Orchards or Vineyards with divers kind of plants together nor eat of the fruit of the three first years nor of the fourth but at Jerusalem They were forbidden to sow their fields with several kinds or sorts of seed nor might they either plow or sow either in the seventh or fiftieth year They could not reap where they had sowed nor gather the fruits where they had planted without the observation of such rules as were troublesom at least in point of circumstance A corner of the field Olive-yard and Vineyard was not to be reaped or gathered at all but left behind them for the poor they might not glean where they did reap or gather the fruits either in their fields or their plantations They might not stoop to take up any little quantity of what might chanceably fall in gathering If they had forgotten a sheaf of Corn they might not return again to fetch it Such were the scruples which encumbered them in their very Charities to the poor After they had gathered in their fruits they might not apply them to their use before they had separated divers portions for other uses First a portion to be carried up to the Temple and there presented before the Altar Then another portion for the Priests to be given to them in the Country neither of which was to be less than a sixtieth part of all their fruits by the Decree of their wise men Then a first Tythe to be given to the Levite then another Tythe two years together to be carried to Jerusalem in kind or value and there spent and the third year given to the poor of the Land After all this whensoever they kneaded a mass of dough a part must be separated for the Priest Whensoever they killed of the herd or flock the Priest was to have his share in that It would be endless to reckon up all particulars in this kind The general account is thus stated by the Jews the Poor had nine several gifts allotted them by a standing Law three in the Field four in the Vineyard two in Plantations of other kinds besides the second Tythe every third year the Levites had the Tythe of all the fruits that were considerable the Priests had four and