charge it as a guilt upon His divine Statutes and are there not many municipal Laws in each Country which have no hedge about them to keep them untrampled upon by wanton and too curious wits But that excellent Maxime Omnium quae fererunt Majores nostri non est reddenda ratio ne que certa sunt incerta redderentur a reason must not be rendred for all that our Ancestors have enacted lest what is now certain become then uncertain Albeit a Law enacted only by humane Authority seem unreasonable or inconvenient yet it retains it's vigor till it be abrogat by the same or a higher Authority then that whereby it was first statuted and the Law sayes that nihil est tam naturale quam unumquodque eodem modo dissolvi quo colligatum est And seing the moral and judicial Laws are twisted so together and are oft incorporated in one statute as Levit. 20. 10. Deut. 22. 22. where adultery is forbidden and the adulterer is to die the death how can we think the one half of this Law obligatory for ever and yet neglect it 's other half wherein the punishment is specified and which appears to have been the scope of the divine Law-giver For the world needed not so much to have been acquainted that adultery was a sin as that that sin deserved death and if we allow our capricious humor the liberty to reject what we think inconvenient we may at last arrive at that pitch of licentiousness as to abrogat by our practice whatever choaks our present humor There are many things much mistaken in that Law which makes the dissonancy betwixt it and our Law appear so much the greater As for instance it is concluded that by that Law no theft was punishable by death whereof this is given as a reason because there is no proportion betwixt goods and life and that all that a man hath he will give for his life whereas this argument would prove that no guilt but murder should be punished with death and so this dart rather flees over then hits the mark at which it is level'd And if this argument concluded why should adultery have been punished with death by that Law seing there seems no proportion betwixt that guilt and death For if vita fama be in Law equiparat by that same Law pecunia est alter sanguis But if there be no proportion betwixt goods and life and if the punishment of theft when it is aggrag'd to it 's greatest height cannot in their opinion reach so far as to be capital Why was it that by that Law nocturnal theevs might have been killed by those who found them Exod. 22. 2. For it appears against reason that more should be permitted to a private and passionat party then to a dis-interested Judge And it is clear by 2 Sam. 12. 5 that theft was in some cases capital For there David vows that he who took his neighbours one sheep and spared his own many should surely die which being spoke by a just King to an excellent Prophet and not reproved must not be thought a flash of passion but a well-founded sentence Were not likewayes two theevs crucified by the Jews at the same time with our ever glorious Saviour which must not be thought a romish execution seing the Law of the Romans allowed no such punishment for theft I judge therefore the reason why murder and adultery were punished with death rather then all thefts to have been because theft may be repaired by restitution but murder and adultery cannot And albeit the judicial Law commands restitution only in the theft of an ox or sheep things of small moment and which may be stollen to satisfie rather hunger then lust yet I see no limits set to Judges commanding them not to inflict a capital punishment in extraordinary cases For certainly he who steals may for ought he himself knows be about the committing of murder seing to steal what should aliment any poor one is in effect the same thing as to murder him It is much controverted if this Law prohibits self-murder and I think it doth For we are commanded to love our neighbour as our self and so since we are commanded not to kill our neighbour that same Law must likewayes forbid our killing of our selves But the reason probably why no express Text did forbid that sin was because the Spirit of God knew that the natural aversion we have against death would in this do more then supply a Law and that these who would be so desperat as to neglect the one would never be so pious as to obey the other Or else God hath been unwilling by making such a Law to intimate to the world that such a sin might be committed Yet it seems strange that many are in Scripture related as Saul and others to have killed themselves against whom no check stands registrated in holy Records But I stop here intending to bestow a whole Tractat upon the judicial Law a task hitherto too much neglected The second mirrour wherein God Almighty is to be seen is that of His creatures and in that a Virtuoso may contemplat His infinite power as in the other he may see His admirable justice It is very observable that when God or His Prophets would prove His greatness the Sun Orion and the Leviathan are made use of as arguments And when the Spirit of God descrives the inimitable knowledge of Solombâ— bestowed upon him by God as an extraordinar mark of His favour he sayes not that he understood the quirks of Philosophy or notions of Divinity but it is said that he knew all from the Cedar of Lebanon to the Hysope that grows upon the wall And in earnest it is strange that when man comes into the gallery of this World he should take such pleasure in gazing upon these ill-drawn fictions which have only past the pencil of humane wit and should not fix his admiration upon these glorious creatures which are the works of that great Master in framing whereof God is content to be said to have spent six dayes to the end that man might admire the effects of so much pains whereas His omnipotency might with one fiat have summoned them all to appear apparrell'd in these gorgeous dresses which now adorns them And it is as strange that man having that huge volumn of the Creation to revolve wherein is such an infinit number of curious tale-duces to feast his eyes with curiosity and to futnish his soul with solid knowledge he should notwithstanding spend so much oyl and sweat in spinning out ens rationis materia prima potentia obedientialis and such like untelligible trash which like cob-webs are but envenomed dust curiously wrought And because the Gross of mankind was so gross as not to understand God's greatness by the abstract idea's which instinct presented to him Therefore to teach that sensual croud by the trunchmanrie of sense He hath bestowed upon them this mirrour
if God had intended that one and the same day of the week should have been appropriated to have been a Sabbath He had designed each day by a special terme and had commanded that a day of such a designation should have been sequestrated for a Sabbath and that by designing only the seventh day He did leave a liberty to employ any day of the seven for that use Yet it is remarkable that Mosos nor the jewish Church durst not attempt the change of their new-years day but that the Almighty was pleased to bestow a peculiar sanction upon that alteration For Exod. 12. 2. He commands that the moneth wherein the Israelites came from Egypt should be by them reputed the first moneth of their year Wherefore seing each Nation chalks out a divers Sabbath it would appear that there is something of humour in it as well as of Religion The Venerious Mahumetan chooseth Friday or dies Veneris The dull Iew dull Saturn's day The warlick Parthians Tuesday or Mars-day The cheery Europeans Sunday And albeit the Christians are influenc'd only by inspiration yet I am confident that the heathens did follow that for Religion which suited best with their natural temper But this is a meditation which should travel no where beyond a mans private breast lest it meet with enmity and beget scandal It would puzle a heathen much to hear that he who breaks one of these Laws is guilty of the breach of all But it troubles not me seing all these Laws are made to shew our obedience and the breach of any one of them shewes our contempt of Him who is the author of all And it may be this was typified in Moses's breaking both Tables with one passionat fling after he came down from the Mount For if this breaking of them had not been pre-design'd for some hid end doubtless he had been reproved for his negligence However we may from this learn the desperate nature of passion which made Moses who was the meekest man upon earth break all the Laws of God in one act It might be also argued that seing all the Laws of the second Table were enacted for and respect ultimatly the advantage of man that where man is not wronged there the Law cannot be broke And thus if a married man should have liberty from his wife to take another woman this could be no more reputed adultery then it could be reputed theft to take what belongs to our neighbour himself consenting and that for this cause Iacob's begetting children with his wifes maids is not in Scripture reproved as adultery because they were given to him by her self for that effect but seing the practice of all the world condemns this conclusion far be it from me to press it further Albeit the judicial Law which may be justly called the judicious Law is commonly reputed to be but the municipal Law of the Jews yet seing it was thundered from mount Sinai with so much pomp and is ingrost in the Books of holy Truth and seems nearlier related to reason then any other Law I admire why it should not be religiously observed by all Nations especially seing as it is the exactest picture of Justice that ever was drawn so it hath this of a picture in it that it seems to look directly upon all who behold it albeit they be placed amongst themselves in directly opposite situations and stances Thus this Law suits even with contrary tempers and the unequal complexions of all Nations I know that the ceremonial Law is likewayes insert amongst the other holy Canons and yet binds not us who live under the jurisdiction of the Gospel But the reason of this seems to be because these did immediatly concern the jewish Church and were conversant about these holy things And so seing the old Testament is a description of their Hierarchy and of God's way of working in these times I wonder not to see these ceremonies amidst other sacred truths and yet not observed seing they are expresly abrogat But if the judicial Law which respected not the Hierarchy of that Church was obligatour only whilst the jewish State was in being I admire why the Spirit of God took so much pains first to penn it and then to deliver it so Canon-like to posterity And since it is a principle in Law and reason that Laws must still stand in vigor till they be expresly abrogat and must not be derogated from by consequences or presumptions I admire why this Law which God hath enervat by no express Text should be now look'd upon as Statutes nowise a-la-mode It is true that our Saviour when the woman convicted of adultery was brought to Him did not according to that Law pronounce the sentence of death against her whence some think that Church-men following their Masters example should not give their suffrage in criminal cases and have only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bloodless Jurisdiction for they are appointed to be Nurses not Chyrurgions But it is as true that our Saviour professed in all the tract of His life that He came not to be a Judge in things temporal and His design in that place was only to convince them of their own sinnes and not to absolve her not to abrogat the Law and therefore He desired him who was freest from sin to cast the first stone at her And whereas it is conjectured that these words which our Saviour stoop'd down to write in the clay immediatly thereafter was an abrogation of that Law this is a Geomancy more wilde then any lesson which is alledged to have been read in the mysterious face of Heaven and should never be taught but in a Rabbies cabalastick Gown And whereas it is alledged that there are many precepts in that corpus Iuris which respects only the humor of the Jews I admire why that can be urged for certainly theft murder and these other crimes punished there are the same crimes which reigns amongst us and so why not punishable after that same manner Neither are the humors of these Jews more different from ours then was the genius of the Romans and yet few or no Nations refuse to cast their modern Laws in that antique mould And it is very probable that as God did in the moral Law teach man how to be just in his own actions so He would likewayes instruct him by a judicial Law how to administrate Justice to others What can perpetuate a Law more then that the Authority whereby it is enacted should be obligatory in all ages and the reason whereon it is founded should be eternal and in what Laws do these two qualities appear more or so much as in the judicial Laws of the Jews where the eternal Law-giver was Legislator and the occasion productive of them seemed rational and necessar to His infallible omniscience and if in any of these statutes our purblind judgments cannot see a present conveniency we should rather impute that to our own simplicity then
was furnished with all humane knowledge For his perfection consisted in his adoring of and depending upon God wherein we see these are exactest whose judgements are least pestered with terrestrial knowledge and least diverted with unnecessar speculations And thus it appears that these Sciences after which his posterity pants were not intended as noble appanages of the rational soul but are rather toyish babies busk't up by fal'n man whereby he diverts himself from reflecting too narrowly upon his native frailty And thus Scripture tells us that God made man perfect but that He sought out to Himself many inventions where perfection and invention seem to be stated as enemies and it is palpable that these Sciences which are by us lawrel'd and rewarded are such as were inconsistent with that state of innocency such as Law Theology and Physick And as for the rest it is absur'd to think that Adams happiness did consist in the knowledge of these things which we our selves account either impertinent or superfluous But that which convinces me most of this is that we forfeited nothing by Adam's fall which Christ's death restores not to us wherefore seing Christ by his own or his Apostles promises hath not assured us of any sub-lunary or school knowledge nor hath our experience taught us that Sciences are entailed upon the Saints I almost believe that Adam neither possest these before nor yet lost them by his fall Neither think I St. Paul the more imperfect that he desired to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified So that the difference betwixt Adam and his successors stood more in the straightness of his affections then in the depth of his knowledge For albeit it be believed that the names whereby he baptised the creature were full histories of their natures written in short hand yet this is but a conjecture authorized by no holy Text. It is a more civil error in the jewish Talmudists to think that all the creatures were brought to Adam to let him see that there were none amongst them fit to be his companion nor none so beautifull as Eve then it is in their Cabalists to observe that the hebrew word signifying man doth by a transposition of letters signifie likewayes benediction and the word signifying woman makes up malediction If we should take a character of Adam's knowledge from the Scriptures we shall find more imprudence charged upon him then upon any of his successors For albeit the silly woman was not deceived without the help of subtilty yet Adam sinned upon a bare suggestion and thereafter was so simple as to hide himself when God called him to an account as if a thicket of trees could have sconced him from his all-seeing Maker and when he was accused was so simple as to think his wives commands sufficient to exoner him and so absurd as to make God Himself sharer with him in his guilt the woman whom thou gavest me c. There is more charm in acquireing new knowledge then in reflecting upon what we have already gain'd as if the species of known objects did corrupt by being treasur'd up in our brains And this induces me to believe that our scantness of native knowledge is rather a happiness then a punishment the Citizens of London or Paris are not so tickled by the sight of these stately Cities as strangers who were not born within their walls and I may say to such as by spelling the Starres desire to read the fortunes of others as our Saviour said to Peter when he was desirous to know the horoscope of the beloved Apostle What is that to thee What can it advantage us to know the correspondence kept amongst the Planets and to understand the whole anatomy of natures skeleton in gazing upon whose parts we are oft times as ridiculous as children who love to leaf over taliduce Pictures for in both variety is all the usury that can be expected as the return of our time and pains and if we pry inly into this small maâ—s of our present knowledge we shall find that our knowledge is one of the fertilest fountains of our misery For do not such as know that they are sick groan more heavily then a countrey Clown who apprehends nothing till extremity creat in him some sense And doubtless the reason why children and idiots endure more and drunken men escape mo dangers then others is because albeit they cannot provide such apt remedies yet they are less acquainted with what they feel then we are Are not these who understand that they are affronted more vex'd then such as are ignorant of these misfortunes and these who foresee the changes and revolutions which are to befall either their friends or their countries are thereby more sadly diseased then he who sees no further then his nose Our Saviour wept when He did foresee that one stone of Ierusalem should not be left upon another and when Hazael askt Elisha why he wept he told him it was because he did foresee what mischief Hazael was to do in Israel Let us not then complain of the loss of Adam's knowledge but of his innocency we know enough to save us and what is more then that is superfluous Adam cannot be thought to have been the first sinner for Eve sinned before him So that albeit it seem a paradox yet it is most probable that albeit Adam had for ever abstained from eating the forbidden fruit his posterity had been still as miserable as now they are seing the guilt of either of the Parents had been sufficient to tash the innocency of the children For as the Scripture tells us who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean And David in that Text which of all others speaks most expressly of original sin layes the guilt upon her and confesseth only that his mother had conceived him in sin As Adam was not the first sinner So the eating of the aple may be justly thought not to be the first sin Eve having before his eating the aple repeated most falsely the Command For whereas God did assure them that in that day they did eat the fruit they should surely die Eve relates it thus Ye shall not eat the fruit least ye die representing only that as contingent which was most certain and whereas God had only said ye shall not eat of the fruit of the tree Eve sayes God said ye shall not touch it which it may be furnish'd the serpent this argument to cheat her ye see God hath deceived you for the fruit may be touched without danger why may it not then be eaten without hazard and it is probable that he hath failed in the one as well as in the other But to abstract from this it cannot be said that the eating of the forbidden fruit was the first sin for before Adam did eat thereof he behoved both to believe the Serpent and mis-believe his Maker and thus mis-belief was the first sin For after he had credited the Serpents report he was