pleasurable Entertainment is there for Holy Thoughts And whether we find him Curing Diseases Casting out Devils Feeding Multitudes with a Miracle Laying Command on the Wind and Sea and Raising the Dead Or whether we read him publickly Teaching or privately Instructing Praying in Secret unto God or appearing Gloriously in his Transfiguration How diversly may we be affected yet every way with Delight Yea if we look towards his Leaving of the World when in the Garden he Sweat as it were great drops of Blood under those Sins which in a Garden first took Birth If we consider his bitter Cross and Passion the Reproaches amidst his Torments and the Death that followed them though we Sympathize with him we yet cannot but love the Story For herein the wonderful work of our Redemption is compleated Here we see a Sacrifice of more worth than a World propitiatory for the Sins of all Mankind Because as Manhood was intimately conjoyned with the Godhead and made one Person He was Infinite who suffer'd and so paid our Price in a short Time which we ourSelves could not have done but by an Eternity of Torments If we read on and accompany our Lord to his Grave we shall find him after a shameful Death to be Honourably Buried wrapped in fine Linnen with Spices and laid in a Sepulchre in which never any before was laid And it may affect us with a secret Pleasure to see Him who was Conceiv'd within a Virgin 's Womb where no one Conceiv'd in Sin had before lain to be Buried as it were in a Virgin Sepulchre where no sinful Man's Body had ever been laid But what Joy may his Resurrection stir up in us after such endeavours to secure his Body if possible from Rising and when Risen to stifle the Truth of its being so It cannot but delight us to read of Angels descending from Heaven to rowl away the Stone before the Sepulchre and to attend upon our Lord in his leaving his Grave And it may almost be a pleasant doubt whether cheereth us the more their so kindly speaking to our Lords Friends that These went away though with some fear yet with great Joy or their terrifying the insolent Keepers that through Fear Those shook and became as Dead Men. If we are taken with Splendor we have it in the Angels appearance in Raiment white as Snow And also in the Resurrection of many Saints who after their Saviour had left his Grave came out of theirs and went into the Holy City and appeared unto many If Love and Kindness please us we have our Lord 's frequent shewing himself to his Disciples after his Rising And though a Crown was ready for him in the Heavens He yet cannot quickly leave Those who once had left all and followed him but continues among them Forty days speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. These great and delightful things are succeeded by His Ascension into Heaven which is truly Great and highly pleasant to a Religious Soul Whether we consider the Cloud of Angels which received him The Powers of Darkness which he led Captive or the inestimable Gifts which he gave through the Holy Ghost Gifts which were worthy of him and such as no one else could bestow And what especially concerneth us Our Nature which was Created lower than the Angels is in Him Exalted far above them And to our Joy also we read That He is gone to prepare Mansions for us That where He is there we may be also This sure if any thing in the World can entitle History to the greatest Love may well entitle this to Ours Abundance more there is in the New Testament which I shall not now insist on though it be exceeding Delightful I thought good to recount that which more immediately related to our Redeemer because it is of such unspeakable Value unto us Theoph. In the particulars which you have given of it I have more than once thought of the words of Seneca Cum Sextium lego libet omnes casus provâ—care When I read Sextius 's Book I could even Challenge Fortune to do her Worst I have an Antidote there greater than all her Mischiefs What was height o Expression concerning Sextius's Philosophy is no more than Truth if applied to this History When Old Simeon had taken our Saviour into his Arms it was in good earnest that he said Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace according to thy Word for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation The World hath nothing worthy my Eye or Thought after such an inestimable Favour And truly when a Man with a right frame of Soul reads these things what can his Heart desire more How much may he be above all ordinary Joys How much above all ordinary Griefs And yet Eubulus how much soever these great things tend to the composing of all irregular Passions in me I cannot forbear the being very much disturbed when I consider there are some who look upon all these things as imposture and have endeavour'd to beat them d wn as such Surely were there no other Proofs the Sacredness and Love which all along breath in them might shew them to be of higher Original than what Deceit could reach unto And could an understanding Man be tempted to doubt of their Truth yet me thinks they should so far prevail upon him as the less to care whether any thing else were true or not Eubul But God be thanked Theophilus we have the greatest proofs of these Things for the Confirmation of our Faith and for its and our Defence against all the Oppositions of Unbelievers and the Carnal Reasonings of the World. Why should the Evangelists and Apostles go about to deceive the World in things of so great Importance Their whole design in making known the Gospel was so far as can be discerned none other than that Mankind should through it be happy And what injury had the whole World done them that they should in a matter which so highly concerned it impose thus upon it as they needs must have done had they not been absolutely sure of what they declared Untruths for the most part look at the interest of the spreaders of them and are always of a less extent confin'd to certain Persons or Places or Times and are not such as shall respect all Persons Places and Times so long as the World shall endure as these things manifestly do unless there shall be a most Envious and Evil Nature or an inordinate design of Praise or Profit in the Inventors But neither of these can be thought to have been in Those who first published these things Not an Envious and Evil Nature for who out of Envy would publish such things as all Wise and Serious Men would wish should be true if really they were not so Who out of Evil Nature would write and declare Laws to the World that should beget and propagate the greatest Sweetness of Temper An happy effect of Envy it would be to
they have the Laws of Christ for their Rule and Warrant They can of themselves lay no Obligation upon us The Holy Men we read of in Scripture were not sent into the World to be a Rule to all Others in the Things they acted The Vncertainty of Examples very great Their Insufficiency None of the Actions of our Blessed Lord from his Example merely and without a Law did lay any Obligation upon us to Imitate them The Laws of Christ reach to all Moral Actions No Examples of Goodness beyond what is included in those Laws Inferences concerning the Examples in Holy Writ In those things where the Law of God is Silent Prudence is to be our Guide Examples though of themselves they lay no Obligation upon us are yet of use Those which bear the Image of the Laws of Christ are given us for Incentives and Encouragements of our Obedience When Divine Laws are question'd as to their Sense Examples upon occasion may be Interpretations of them By Examples we may be instructed to do our Duties in a decent and becoming way Decency added unto Sincerity may make its reward the greater Examples are Registred in Holy Scripture for the Honour of those whose they were Our Condition the more sure than it would have been if we had had none in whose Steps we might tread By comparing Examples with our Rule we shall quickly find whether they will hold Good for our Practice or no. P. 175. The Contents of the Seventh Discourse COncerning the Divine Law as taken in a larger Sense Of the Historical part of Scripture particularly of the Creation All other Opinions concerning the Being of the World are cold and unaffecting Of the Fall of Man. It gives Light to many things which otherwise we should never have known the reason of The sad effects of our Fall are in great measure corrected by God's Mercy and made Comfortable to us Many things in the dark and mingled with falsities in profane Authors we may from hence more clearly discern Sacred History shews forth God's immediate Hand and plainly tells us that he punished and rewarded for such and such reasons Of the History of our Redemption How wonderful it is and what a Sacredness runs through all the Circumstances of our Lord's Conception Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascension The great evidence of these things Of the Prophetical part of Scripture Especially of those Prophecies relating to our Blessed Saviour As Divine Truth is eminently seen in all of them so the quick and various workings of Providence for the fulfilling of some of them are very delightful The Predictions of the Heathen Oracles much different from these The Sibylline Prophecies of suspected Credit Of the Adhortative part of Holy Writ God hath used the most Taking words for the prevailing with Men for Obedience In the Gospel there is nothing wanting that may work upon the Soul of Man. Of the Devotional part of Sacred Scripture It consisteth of such Services as were fit for Men to pay unto their God and needed not Secresie to shelter them from an Honest Ear or Chast Eye Devotion raised to a much greater perfection by having our Lord and the Holy Spirit so nearly concerned in it Those persons quite mistake what they read in Sacred Scripture who find a pleasure therein without any respect to the Divine Law properly as such What we are to think of those who are conscientiously Obedient to the Divine Law but yet find not that Delight therein which Earthly things do frequently give them and who hereupon are very apt to interpret their Love to God's Precepts to be unsincere and such as will be rejected The great reasonableness and Benefit of Holy Meditation P. 210. The Contents of the Eighth Discourse DIsobedience is a Pollution It brings Disorder into a Man. It tends to make the Almighty to minister to his Creatures in the vilest Offices How God cannot be made to serve How he may He is pleas'd in Holy Writ to speak after the manner of Men that so He may condescend to our Vnderstandings and excite our Affections How He is made to serve in His Holy Name How in His Works The Creation sensible of this Slavery and God very much displeas'd with it Disobedience of an Extensive Nature It affects a kind of Eternity It 's highly Disingenuous God necessitates none to Disobedience Why He will not force Men into Obedience Why he generally cuts them not off P. 257. The Contents of the Ninth Discourse THe Plea of those is vain who say they never sinned maliciously against the Almighty nor wish'd his Greatness and Power to be less The Difference betwixt Rebellion against God and that against a Temporal Prince Disobedience a defilement in whomsoever it is Not the same Pollution in all Sins What the Sins of Good Men are and how known to be theirs The Sins of wicked Men of a deep Dye wherein they differ from those of pious Men. The Difference between wicked Men How of the worst sort some are more open some more secret in their Sins How the Sins of the less evil sort are to be measur'd The same fairness of Converse not equally innocent unto many A Sin may be a pardonable one to some when the very same to the Eye and Opinion of Men will not be so to others What we are to think of the Heinous Sins of Good Men Registred in Holy Scripture No reason from them for wicked Men to think better of their own Sins God will not esteem the Sins of his Children which are in themselves as great as and the same with the Sins of other Men to be therefore the less because they are committed by those who are his Children How to make a Judgment of our own Sins P. 288. ERRAT Pag. 282. lin 21. read them for him THE TRUE NATURE OF THE Divine-Law AND OF DISOBEDIENCE thereunto c. The Contents THE Occasion of the Discourse What is to be understood by the Divine Law. The Difference between the Law of Old and That which was given afterwards The Laws which enjoyn'd Duties towards God were such as we would in Right Reason wish should be towards a Prince and Lawgiver Concerning some Laws which might seem to have no real Goodness in them but Cruelty rather And others which seemed to proceed from the Will of God meerly as Supream without any Reason and consequently without any Love to his Creatures Of the Precepts which require Fear and are enforced upon the account that God is Terrible How these can consist with Love which casteth out Fear The Laws which a Rational Man would desire for the Welfare of Society are those which are enjoyn'd by God. Such likewise are those that respect ourselves Why the Law is called The Ministration of Death by St. Paul. What he meaneth when he saith He was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and he died And how the Mosaick Law is termed A Yoke which
in Mind of those great Sins against God which we daily must be forgiven And so should quicken us to do that to our Brethren which God in far greater measures through the Death of Christ doth unto us Whence supposing that there is Truth in Christs being our Saviour the loving of Enemies even while they persist to be injurious is not an unreasonable but an equitable thing And that Christs coming into the World to save us is a certain Truth we have the highest reason to believe But yet whereas they further say That the thus loving of Enemies doth take away that Honour and Courage which should belong to us as Men we reply That it contributes much to our Honour and Courage For he that forgives an Injury is always in the Act of forgiving Superiour unto him who is forgiven And in not permitting the Miscarriages of others to disorder his Passions he doth maintain a Greatness of Spirit which some others who are presently for Revenge and drawing of Swords are far short of Minuti semper infirmi est animi exiguique voluptas Vltio is a true saying of the Satyrist It is the part of a mean Soul to be looking after Revenge and taking pleasure in it And that Honour which is so much talk'd of and most an end so much stood upon what is it usually but a Reputation among the vainer and most injudicious sort of Men And what pitifully mean Matters shall engage some in long and costly Law-Suits and others in the venturing their Lives upon the Account of this empty Reputation and Honour Let a Man shew himself to be such who can value an Ingenuous and Christian Carriage towards him and who can resent the contrary but yet will not permit any unworthiness of others to get the upper-hand of his Reason and Charity Let him manifest to all about him that he is a Lover of Men that he desires their good much more than he stomachs the wrongs they have done him That he is more inclinable if they will give him leave to shew Kindness to them than to act any thing of Revenge That he leaves all Revenge unto God whom it belongs unto and yet earnestly prays that God will not execute it Let him do all these things and he will gain more Honour with those that are the most understanding sober and good from whom alone Honour deserves to be termed so than the Man ever shall who rageth at every petty Injury and breathes nothing but Threatning and Revenge Yea and lastly instead of those new and greater Injuries which from such a behaviour towards Enemies are said to have a fairer way made to fall upon him there will be in all likelihood the quite contrary effect For who is he that will be forward to injure the Man who he sees is willing to be a Friend to all And if he hath injured him already when he considers he hath injured so much Goodness how will he cast as it were the first Stone at himself be troubled at his fault and endeavour to repair it by a Submissive and Relenting Carriage But if the Offendor be Stubborn and not so easily brought down yet the Offended Man's Christian and Charitable Deportment without interruption continued will surely at last melt him To this end is that Precept and the Reason of it Rom. 12.20 If thine Enemy Hunger Feed him if he Thirst give him Drink for in so doing thou shalt heap Coals of Fire upon his Head. It is a way of Speech alluding unto those who are Melters of Metals when a Metal is very hard they not only put Fire under it but heap Coals upon it and by this means though hard to be Melted it be yet at last it yields to the Fire So when to an Enemy though of an obstinate and most hardned Temper a Christian Love shall still be shewn and kindnesses upon good occasions be heaped upon his Head He must be harder than Iron or Brass who will not be sensible of them and suffer his Evil to be overcome with Good. Theoph. He would deserve that Those who are Enemies to him should for ever go on so to be and that others not his Enemies should very little esteem him who after such Considerations as these shall say That it is unreasonable to Love Enemies even while they are such Eubul But let us go to the Fourth thing which they object against these Laws viz. That they require the Macerating of the Body with Fasting and Abstinence which what is it but the making a Man Cruel to his own Flesh I freely acknowledge Theophilus That Fasting is a Christian Duty and that when our Lord saith when thou Fastest enter into thy Closet though it be not in the plain form of a Command Thou shalt Fast yet it is not hereby the less a Command And the reason is because our Saviour from the frequent Practice of Fasting and the great Credit which this Duty among the Jews was in did suppose it to be a Duty And by his Precepts for the right performance of it he may well be presum'd to enjoyn the thing And therefore in his Sermon he ranks it with Prayer and Alms Which Duties and I may say which Sermon too as to every part of it concern the Practice of Christians so long as the World stands But wherein Theophilus is it that the harshness of this Law of Fasting lies If our Bodies are apt as too apt they are from constant Feeding not to serve but to rebel against the better part of us our Souls is it so unreasonable a thing to withdraw for a time their wonted Nourishment that from them our Prayers and Praises may not be Drowsie And our better thoughts not Clogg'd Or if out of a Sense of our own Unworthiness we shall somtimes lay aside all our enjoyments refusing to Eat the Fat and Drink the Sweet that in the sight of God we may acknowledge ourselves less than the least of his Mercies which sure by reason of our continual Failings we too truly are what sober Man can condemn us for so doing Or lastly if we shall make a suitable Expression of Repentance for some Sins which have chiefly proceeded from the Body by exercising upon it an holy Revenge and denying it for a season the things which are pleasant They must be very unreasonable Men who will say That we do more than what is meet to be done The Religions even of the Heathens have not been without their Abstinences as their Votivae noctes do testifie and their Wise Men have addicted themselves thereunto Hence Lucilius is by Seneca exhorted to fare somtimes so hard Liberaliora ut sint alimenta Carceris That the Diet of a Prison should exceed his Nay Epicurus himself whom these Objectors against Christianity are so willing to have their Master had his certain days quibus malignè famem extingueret nec toto asse pasceretur Which things surely may teach These Men not to condemn our
them a Pardon of their Sins so as they may still persist to be Sinful All Sins shall be pardoned for which under the Law strictly considered there was no Hope but not absolutely pardon'd without any further Consideration or Condition The great benefit of Faith is this to wit That instead of perfect Obedience our sincere Endeavours shall be accepted And where These are what Defects soever there be in us they shall all be made up by the Merits of Christ who is our Righteousness But no benefit is there to be expected if we endeavour not at all or be unsincere in our Endeavours The Apostle's words That the Law which was engraven in Stones is done away are to be understood of the Law as it was part of the Covenant with the Jews not as it was a Rule for all Men. In that it was the Law of Nature and written in the Hearts of Men before it was written in Tables it still obligeth and for ever will oblige to Obedience Nor can any one unless he hath bidden a Farewel to all Reason imagine that our Lord would bring the Moral Law into the Gospel delivering it in greater plainness and raising it to an higher Perfection that after all Mens Obedience thereunto should not be necessary or that Faith in Him who came to destroy the Works of the Devil should give a Liberty to the practising those Works To be short Faith though but a single word it be is yet an highly comprehensive one and includeth mighty things in it Such as in good sort do correspond to the infinite and wonderful Love which hath been shewn to Mankind It implyeth a Knowledge of the great Mystery of our Redemption A Closing with the Will of God which is holy and good A sober and right use of Reason A Couragious asserting of our Holy Religion against all Oppositions An unfeigned Love both to God and to Men with a deep sense of our Unworthiness and Affectionate Acknowledgment of our owing all to the Divine Bounty Who are they then can think that if they do but believe it 's no matter how they live And from which of all these Actions which make up the very Being of Faith is there so much as the least Countenance to a loose Conversation Nay there cannot be stronger Obligations to a Sober Righteous and Godly Life than These are and in the exercise of them this Sober Righteous and Godly Life doth consist And how Theophilus can any wrest Repentance for Sin to the further and more safe committing of Sin Shall the Example of the Thief on the Cross which was written for Mens Comfort administer to their Presumption They consider not the Eminency of that poor Malefactor's Faith from which his Repentance did spring It is not altogether improbable that this was the first Opportunity he had of believing in Christ However the time of his believing and hoping for Mercy was very remarkable That when our Lord was in Torments as well as he and was destitute of all Earthly Supports He Then should be sought unto When he was forsaken of his Disciples derided by the Souldiers and reviled by the other Thief as one justly suffering That Then he should be acknowledged as a Lord That Then he should be own'd and his Mercy thus begg'd Lord have Mercy upon me when thou comest in thy Kingdom was a more than ordinary Act of Faith and a Repentance very much heightned from the time in which it was begun and finished But can These who have been Baptized into Christ's Death and have given up their Names unto him as soon almost as they were born and this with Solemn Vows of Fighting Manfully under his Banner against the World the Flesh and the Devil Can These say That some of the Last Days of their Life are the First Opportunities they have had of that Faith which must give Life to their Repentance Should they say it the many outward Calls they have had by God's blessed Word read and heard the many inward Calls of his Holy Spirit moving them to their Duty the many Checks of Conscience they have felt in their sinful and unchristian Practices would be ready to contradict them to their Face And then for the Time though they should be as near their End as the Thief was the case with These and with Him is very different No Hour is there now but in it it may be said That Christ is risen from the Dead Ascended into Heaven hath given Gifts unto Men and hath had all Power given unto him and of these things we have had as great Proofs as can reasonably be desired Which makes the Encouragements of turning unto Christ now to be far greater than in that sad and dismal State of his Passion on the Cross they were Unless These Men could be put in the same Circumstances with the Thief or in some not altogether unlike unto his which cannot likely be while they shall thus from the means of Salvation contrive for their Sins there will be small hopes for them in their late Repentance As for Those who wrought in the Vineyard no sooner than the Eleventh Hour and yet were rewarded alike with the Earliest it is to be understood of those who were called no sooner as is evident from Matth. 20.6.7 About the Eleventh Hour he went out and found others standing idle And saith unto them why stand you idle They say unto him because no Man bath Hired us where by Hiring we are to understand Calling which Calling may have respect either unto single Persons or else Nations Those Persons who have not heard of the Gospel or have not had opportunities of understanding the Mysteries and Precepts of it if as soon as they are acquainted with them and are invited to give their Names unto Christ they shall sincerely do it though it be in respect of their Lives as the Eleventh Hour to the Day they shall not be refused And the like may be said of Nations even at the later end of the World They shall be as dear in the sight of God as those which have had earlier calls But the Receiving a Penny at the Ninth and Eleventh Hour is not to be understood of Them who having been Baptized in their Infancy and outwardly professing Christianity all along have deferred the practice of it till their last years For they were as I may so speak Hired at the first Hour and have idled it ever since And their Idleness is to be esteem'd much different from that of the other The other wrought not because as yet they had no Imployment nor place in the Vineyard But These had Imployment and Place in it and were Unfaithful and Truanty And so may expect Punishment for their early and continued neglect while the other shall have a full Reward for their late Labour late indeed yet as early as their Call. I will not say but the late Obedience of those who have been early called may sometimes be sincere
continually in yours without any ceasing or decay for the great Veneration and Love which you express to these Laws Theoph. Truly Eubulus it is impossible there should be any true Happiness without them Should not the Understanding be recovered from that Blindness and Errour which are in it should not the Will be reduced from its Pravity and Perverseness Should not the Affections be delivered from their Tumultuousness and Evil Excesses even Heaven would not be a place of Joy and Bliss For how unagreeable would Glorious Mansions be and an incorruptible Body were the Soul imperfect and vicious in all its Faculties unacquainted with Holiness secretly grudging at God's Will and openly disobeying it What would the Salvation be should Saint with Saint carry it ill-naturedly and enjoy their Immortality only for the Perpetuating of their Dissentions And if to them whose Natures are not fashioned by these Laws Heaven would not afford an Happiness we may be sure Earth will not Which makes me Eubulus to pity those Men as Enemies to their own Welfare who esteem Liberty and Greatness to be then alone truly perfect when they are attended with a Licentiousness doing whatever liketh them without any respect had to the Laws of God or Man. Whereas God himself who is infinite in Majesty and most absolute in Power acteth according to the Eternal Laws of Righteousness and Goodness And it is the perfection of his Greatness and Liberty so to do Eubul What you have said I cannot gainsay but do much approve And though I confess I could never think as some have done that the Scriptures bare saying that they are the Word of God is a sufficient Testimony that they are so yet from the inward Excellence of these Laws and those admirable Motives which are added to them for the securing of our Obedience there is methinks a substantial Proof of their Divinity and Truth Can it be thought that the Devil could ever prompt any Man to make Laws so righteous and good as these are Or that he would promote their Observance with such mighty Rewards such severe Threatnings and such sacred Considerations If so then surely our Saviour's Argument of Satans being divided against himself and his Kingdoms not being able thereby to stand might be altogether as valid in the present case as then it was when the Jews said that Devils were cast out by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils Neither have we more reason to imagine That any Man out of his own falseness and deceit did make these Laws since they are so directly destructive of all falseness and deceit and may justly be supposed to be everlastingly so in that they are recommended to the World with Considerations so powerful and savoury From their own Purity therefore and Goodness they may well be own'd to be the same Divine Precepts which in reality they are Theoph. And let me add That no Man ever deserv'd to be so much honour'd among Men as He hath done who hath given these Laws and beyond all example hath encouraged their practice I cannot but think somtimes how highly the grave Lucretius hath extoll'd and is himself highly extoll'd by some for so doing his Epicurus who endeavour'd to Arm Men against all Fears by the beating down of all Religion and the excluding the Gods from the knowledge of every thing on Earth as being neither pleas'd with good Actions nor offended with evil ones And He so far well doth shew that all other Inventions however very much conducive to the Welfare of Men are yet nothing to be compared to That which will quiet tumultuous Passions and render the Mind well informed and steady Compare saith he with This the great things which others have found out Ceres and Bacchus are much honour'd She as having first taught the way of sowing Corn He as having first instructed Men in planting of Vines But yet without these things Mens Lives may be sustain'd and as report goes some Nations even now do live without them At bene non poterat sine puro pectore vivi but without a Breast well purged a Man can have no happy Life And then he goes on with the Praises of his Philosopher as being worthy a Place among the Gods. But if He had so much Honour who profanely taught Men not to fear what shall our Lord have who with sacred Religion directs Men in the pleasant and right Paths to Happiness Who gives them Laws which will render them easie to themselves and acceptable unto others Who in any Troubles that may befal them affords them the only Methods of Comfort by telling them that God is a Father unto Men in every thing taking care of them and ordering even Afflictions for the good of those who are pious Who makes known everlasting Joys after Death which are prepared for those that live holy Lives and renders the way thereunto not difficult by the help which he continually vouchsafes from above And all this in such a wonderful manner by having loved us even unto Death with a Love much stronger than Death itself Eubul Our Lord doth indeed in these things deserve Honour above all Men and we may often on his account sing that Anthem which at his Birth the Angels sung Glory be to God on high on Earth Peace Good-will towards Men. And I will further say That They who faithfully give up their Names unto him have the Precedency not only of all Those who among the Heathens pretended to the study of Wisdom but also of God's own People the Jews yea in a sort even of David himself who was so dear to him and whom in our Discourse we have had occasion so often to mention For though I cannot but yield that this King had a fair insight into the Kingdom of the Messias and the things belonging unto it there being in his Psalms so many undoubted Descriptions thereof yet it will not be an Untruth to affirm That the meanest Christian among us hath unless it be his own fault more clear Revelations of Christ of Life and Immortality and of the Assistances of the Holy Spirit than David had or any of the Prophets The words of our Lord tending to what I now say are very remarkable Verily I say unto you Among them that are born of Women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist Notwithstanding he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he Matth. 11.11 i. e. However a very great Prophet John was one that above all the rest had the Honour to see our Lord in the Flesh a thing which many Prophets and Kings had desired to see and had not seen it yet the least Disciple or Christian when Christ shall be set at the Right-Hand of God and shall raise up an Heavenly Kingdom upon Earth shall he greater than John. i. e. From the being Baptized with the Holy Ghost and having a larger knowledge of the Divine Will manifested being made acquainted with higher and
other Who is it can look upon and not be highly pleased in them But all These are nothing else but the Excellencies of the Laws of our Lord And shall we not Reverence shall we not Love them If I say we would in the Laudable actions of Men though much distant from the Perfection of the Laws of Christ often cast our Thoughts upon those Laws acknowledging the Beauty to belong unto them which in all these things is really derived from them it would be no more than a due Expression of Esteem and Love towards them and at the best much â—â—ow their Excellency Meet therefore surely it is when we have a Mind to do any thing and have an Example of the same ready in Sacred Scripture that we think not ourselves presently authoriz'd thereby to do it Some actions even of good Men who are now happy in Heaven having not been always nor altogether Good. Let us make the Precepts of the Gospel to be our Touchstone and by comparing the Example with the Rule we shall quickly find whether it will hold good for our Practice or no. Choose we either those Examples of Holy Writ which in the whole or those which in some part of them are the Image of a Divine Law and thereupon have a perpetual Rectitude Yet in these later be sure to avoid that part of the Example which is transgressive of the Command As for those which had a Warrant only for the Time in which they were done they lay no more obligation upon us now than Circumcision and Sacrifices do but are wholly to be shunn'd And those which the Law of God is silent in and which are therefore merely indifferent we may justly esteem ourselves no more bound by them than we are to wear a Seamless Coat or to lye along every time we eat unless Human Laws shall upon Prudential accounts enjoyn the doing them And then for other Examples Theophilus not recorded in Scripture They also are to be Examined by the Rule If in any thing they deviate from the Laws of Christ we are not to follow them though they be grown the Practice of Many and of some who may seem to be more Understanding and Religious than most of their Neighbors Always bearing in mind that the Best have their Errors and Frailties and that the most dangerous Errors in Religion are for the most part if not always usher'd in with Semblances of Holiness more than ordinary which to wise Men do often betray themselves by being over-acted But the Divine Laws are in every respect sincere and perfect and will lead us into no paths but such as will undoubtedly bring us unto Happiness They have no Interest to set up besides the Glory of God and the everlasting Welfare of Souls And will bear the being search'd into themselves as well as they require that other things be proved by them We may through them find out the failures of many specious Actions and Pretences but may despair in any example to see those Excellences which are not in far greater measures in Them. And Thus Theophilus as well as I could I have answered your Request In the doing of which I cannot reasonably be thought to have detracted any thing from Sacred Examples by having made them wholly dependent on Sacred Laws Were there generally a greater Caution used in Those and a greater Love shewed to These Men would walk more Surely Themselves and would set far better Copies unto Others Theoph. I dare say none of those Holy Men who have left us their good Examples would think those good Examples injured by what you have said Since their greatest Care in them was to obey God's Law And their greatest Pleasure from them was to have done it This your kindness Eubulus together with your other shall I hope find that Entertainment with me which you would wish And among the Virtues which they tend to promote I will see that Friendship and Gratitude shall not be wanting DISCOURSE the Seventh The Contents COncerning the Divine Law as taken in a larger Sense Of the Historical part of Scripture particularly of the Creation All other Opinions concerning the Being of the World are cold and unaffecting Of the Fall of Man. It gives Light to many things which otherwise we should never have known the reason of The sad effects of our Fall are in great measure corrected by God's Mercy and made Comfortable to us Many things in the dark and mingled with falsities in profane Authors we may from hence more clearly discern Sacred History shews forth God's immediate Hand and plainly tells us that he punished and rewarded for such and such reasons Of the History of our Redemption How wonderful it is and what a Sacredness runs through all the Circumstances of our Lord's Conception Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascension The great evidence of these things Of the Prophetical part of Scripture Especially of those Prophecies relating to our Blessed Saviour As Divine Truth is eminently seen in all of them so the quick and various workings of Providence for the fulfilling of some of them are very delightful The Predictions of the Heathen Oracles much different from these The Sibyllin Prophecies of suspected Credit Of the Adhortative part of Holy Writ God hath used the most taking words for the prevailing with Men for Obedience In the Gospel there is nothing wanting that may work upon the Soul of Man. Of the Devotional part of Sacred Scripture It consisteth of such Services were fit for Men to pay unto their God and needed not Secresie to shelter them from an Honest Ear or Chast Eye Devotion raised to a much greater perfection by having our Lord and the Holy Spirit so nearly concerned in it Those persons quite mistake what they read in Sacred Scripture who find a pleasure therein without any respect to the Divine Law properly as such What we are to think of those who are conscientiously Obedient to the Divine Law but yet find not that Delight therein which Earthly things do frequently give them and who hereupon are very apt to interpret their Love to God's Precepts to be unsincere and such as will be rejected The great reasonableness and Benefit of Holy Meditation THEOPHILVS I Remember Eubulus that as by the Word Law you understood the Preceptive Part of the Bible which you have hitherto discoursed of so you did not exclude from it what ever else is contained in Holy Writ EVBVLVS YEs Theophilus we may in a larger Sense understand this also And indeed since all Scriptures have some way or other a respect to the Precepts thereof therefore the Word Law doth oftentimes import the whole Scripture as is manifest in these places John 10. It is written in your LAW I have said ye are Gods. And Cap. 12. We have heard out of the LAW that Christ abideth for ever and Cap. 15. It is written in their LAW they hated me without a cause All which places are not in the
Understanding when we read them fulfilled in our Lords being conceived of the Holy and born of a Virgin Mother And truly the Prediction Micah 5.2 Of his being born at Bethleem may move us with a more than ordinary delight when we consider how strangely God's Providence was engaged for the fulfilling it All that Taxing which was laid upon the Jewish Nation by Augustus and which required every one to repair to his own City to be Taxed may appear in a special manner to be order'd by God for the bringing Mary unto Bethleem to be delivered of her Son. It was a great way that Joseph and Mary were to go From N zareth in Galile to the City of David in Judea And it might seem ill to have hapned unto Mary at a time when her Condition rather required Rest than was fit for so great a Journey and this too as is not improbable in the depth of Winter But God somtimes is accomplishing his own Will and great things for us when Affairs appear to be cross and unhappy Yea and can order the Councils of Princes at a great distance from them to carry on these Designs which He in his Providence hath laid but which never entred their Hearts to imagine And so it is here We see no means how Mary should have been at Bethleem delivered of her Son there had not the Taxation at that very Time been enjoyn'd Which may shew that She and Joseph had no Thoughts of fulfilling a Prophecy by their journey thither But hence it was that the Son of David was born in the City of David and Divine Wisdom had ordered that of this Man it should be said He was Born there If we look to those Prophecies which were of our Lord's Suffering and Death they are such as may give us a great deal of satisfaction in a Crucified Saviour That of Esai is very express in Chap. 53. He is despised and rejected of Men a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief He hath born our Griefs and carried our Sorrows He was wounded for our Transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities How exactly is his Picture as it were drawn by this Prophet and how pleased may we be with the Likeness though it represents him in Grief and Sorrows So likewise in Daniel Chap. 9.26 After sixty two Weeks shall the Messias be cut off but not for himself Which things are also a good and just Interpretation of our Lord's Behaviour under his Sufferings For should he not have suffered in our stead but died only as our Example and as a Testimony of the Truth of his Doctrine as Socinus and his Followers would have it some things I speak it reverently would not have born a good Colour nor at all have been reconcileable to that Perfection which we must own to be in our Lord. I will instance in one and that is his Sweat in the Garden Consider this without the thoughts of his dying for our Sins and say whether it betrays not too great a fear of Death whether there may not seem to have been greater Instances of undaunted Courage from some Heathen Heroes and from some who have born the Name of Christians than from Christ himself That He should be so much concern'd at a single Death when he knew he died for an Example to others of not fearing Death upon a good occasion what from these Mens Opinions can we think of it But then when we consider that He was wounded for our Transgressions that he struggled with the Wrath of God which was due to all Men and was never to have end that he trod the Wine-press alone and none was with him The uncommonness of his Sweat which was as great drops of Blood may shew forth the greatness of the Burthen that was laid upon him and may make us to wonder at the Power that could at all bear up under such Pressures but by no means to accuse him of Timorousness because his Garments are thus died with Blood. So great and reverend is that Action or Passion rather of our Lord with respect to his Suffering in our stead which otherwise will require a good Invention to make it appear not mean. Add to this that Expression of his My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Had he died only for an Example unto us and a Confirmation of the Truth of what he declared why should he thus have cried out Should we ourselves be called to die for our Holy Religion I cannot say that we might lawfully thus cry unto God We ought rather to submit unto his Will with hopes that he had not forsaken us Somthing else then must be the cause of these his words viz. The pouring out of the full Vials of Gods Wrath upon Him as upon one that bare the Iniquities of us all And this will render his words highly apposite unto and expressive of his Passion which otherwise might seem beyond it So that though we are to conceive of our Lord's Death as an Example unto us for he is said to suffer for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps yet as in his Life there are some things above an Example so in his Death likewise there are which are placed beyond our Imitation We may imitate his Meekness and Patience and Love to Mankind but the height of his Sufferings for the Sins of the World we cannot And some Expressions betokening the Greatness of his Passion whether from his Words or Bloody Sweat must stand alone as highly agreeable to the State of his Agony but not so fit for any besides Himself Thus amiable are these Prophecies to the Considerate Reader not only in so exactly foretelling his Sufferings and Death and thereby vindicating the Honour of our Religion against the Jews who upbraid us with those his Sufferings and Death but also in shewing forth a true Beauty in the now-mention'd Deportment of our Saviour which an horrid Opinion of some who call themselves Christians doth tend to make very unbecoming Nor may the Prophecies of the manner of his Death be less satisfactory unto us to wit They pierced my Hands and my Feet Psal 22.17 And Zach. 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced For how rightly are these fulfilled in his suffering the Roman Crucifixion the Jews having no sort of Punishment in which the Undergoers were thus pierced And this Death being inflicted by the Roman Power directs us to the Satisfaction of another Prophecy viz. The Scepter shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh come But the Power of Life and Death which is the most proper Signification of Scepter being wholly taken from the Jews and exercised in Judea by the Romans may shew that the Messias was come before according to that Prophecy And very remarkable it is that though Jerusalem before our Lord's Birth was Conquered by Pompey the Great yet throughout the Life of Hircanus the High Priest the Reign of Herod the Great and Archelaus
doth vindicate his own Soveraignty and Power which they as much as in them lieth have brought under and trampled upon And this he so doth as that they themselves may look upon it to be God's just Hand and that others also may acknowledge it his doing But then Communities of Men which by their publick Sins make the Almighty to serve are always when those Sins are ripe punished in this World for they cannot with any reason be thought punishable in the next because all Bonds of Civil Society are utterly broken and evacuated by the Death of the Whole Yea and those Private Men who have contributed their share to the Sins of a Nation as such are also oftentimes in some respect punished in this World even after Death by Publick Calamities reaching their Children or other Relations in whom themselves are in a manner still here continued Which to one who rightly considers it sheweth forth God's Righteous Judgments upon them But because it is not always safe to pronounce That the untimely Deaths or unexpected Miseries of some particular Persons are an immediate Stroke of God upon them for their Disobedience for our Christian Charity will not permit this when we know no signal Crimes by them And the great Afflictions of some who are not greater Sinners than other Men and of some whom we have reason to esteem as good Men may caution us in this point not to be over-forward to Judge And because also we see a great many wicked Men to live and become old to be in no Troubles as other Men to die in peace and leave the rest of their Substance for their Babes Therefore we may affirm it as a Truth Viz. That God seeth it fit generally not to cut off those Men nor yet to force them into Obedience who by their Disobedience do thus make him to serve He seeth it fit generally not to cut them off that they may have space for Repentance Thus did he to the Church of Thyatira I gave her saith he space to Repent of her Fornication And for this end may he spare these dealing with them as the Lord did with the Barren Fig-Tree hoping that though they be not fruitful this year they will grow better the next And this the rather because from the thoughts of this Goodness of God unto them they may the more effectually be prevail'd upon to repent Despisest thou saith the Apostle the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God in this his Forbearance and Long-suffering leadeth thee to Repentance A Sorrow for former Sins and an Acknowledgment of God's Soveraignty for the future in Mens giving themselves up to his Service may arise from other Considerations but from none more directly or more forcibly than from that of his sparing them and suffering them to live that they may Repent and Turn unto him Neither may it be a small Motive for his not generally Cutting them off that in case they do not Repent there may from their Freedom from Punishment in this Life be afforded unto us a strong Proof that there will be Another Life after This in which those Sins which are here spared and Unrepented of shall most surely be punished God is a Righteous God and he hath told us plainly by his Prophet Nahum Chap. 1.3 That he will not acquit the Wicked And it is not Unobservable that These Words are put thus to wit The Lord is slow to Anger and great in Power and will not acquit the Wicked As much as to say Though he forbear long yet it is not as if he could not punish yea if they shall go on in their Disobedience and not Repent them of their Misdeeds they most certainly shall have the Reward of their Doings Now in that These Wicked Men who to the utmost of their Power make God to Serve do often live and dye without Punishments they must necessarily be punished after Death or else God will contrary to his Word acquit the Wicked But the Judge of the Earth will do Right though all Men shall be Lyars yet God cannot but be True And therefore he will not Cut them off that he may make them a strong Argument that there will be a Day of Punishments when this World is at an End with them And Lastly Theophilus we may not amiss think he will suffer them to Live that if They Repent not here they themselves may hereafter in the Other World confess that they are justly punished Though Gods sparing their Lives in so much Mercy when they had deserved to be struck Dead or sent Living into Hell were little minded by them on Earth it yet shall at the Great Tribunal have this effect upon them viz. To make them acknowledge that their Damnation is Just because They had so much favour shew'd them and they shut their Eyes upon it And surely as Gods Gracious Designs of Mens Turning unto him and being happy do take off whatever can be Objected against his not presently destroying the Disobedient So the Reputation of his Justice which will by this means be Exalted even among Those that in Hell shall suffer it may abundantly Vindicate Gods Government of the World from being slack and remiss though he do not immediately Condemn unto Death those who make him to Serve by their Sins Theoph. You have throughly satisfied me why God doth not presently Cut those off who are Rebellious But since all Power is his and with a Word He can do it why doth he not Force them into Obedience that his Sovereignty may be acknowledg'd by all and not opposed so much as in appearance by any Eubul One Reason may be Because he would have their Obedience to be their Virtue and such as shall become Rational Creatures to give He as Elihu saith Teacheth Them more than the Beasts of the Earth and maketh Them Wiser than the Fowles of Heaven that they may know what Good and what Evil is and may be sensible of the Favours that are shew'd unto them He hath given them a Will to choose or refuse what things are before them And hath planted Affections in their Souls by which Love and Gratitude may be Exercised Now when they shall endeavour to Understand what is truly Good and also what Gods Loving-kindness to them is when they shall choose that which is best and shall willingly serve Him whom they know to be the Lord of the World and their Lord Loving him for his Goodness and striving to express Thankfulness to him so far as they are able when I say they shall do this they will be Virtuous and shew themselves such as their Nature and Make require they should be But how unagreeable would it be for these Men to be forced contrary to their Mind and Will Wherein would they be Commendable should they do that which they could not help And how unsutable to Love and Gratitude is Violence and Constraint It is Love that is