Holiness he never approved of them And his Will in the Laws of his Son is and always will be highly dear unto him And therefore in all cases how little hopes of success soever there be and at all times how hazardous soever they may appear is to be stuck unto by us 4. Those Actions which under the Old Testament were altogether innocent are not all of them without scruple to be imitated by us who are Christians Such I suppose was Moses's slaying the Egyptian who strove with the Hebrew Man Exod. 2.12 Ehud's running his Dagger into Eglon Judges 3.22 Elijah's calling down Fire from Heaven for the consuming of the Captains and their Fifties 2 Kings 1.10 David's causing the Ammonites to be put under Saws and Harrows of Iron and to pass through the Brick-Kiln 2 Sam. 12.31 And his cursing his Enemies as in his Psalms we frequently hear him do In some of these Instances if not in all we are to look to an extraordinary Spirit yet not disagreeing to the Mosaick State impelling the Actors and therefore it is very unsafe to bring them to the common Rules of Life now under the Gospel It might justly be objected against a private Man that should go about to do as Moses did Who made thee a Ruler or a Judge over us And Ehud's Deed how little Warrant is it for Attempts of the like Nature We know whom our Lord checked for desiring they might do as Elias had done with these words Ye know not what Spirit ye are of The Son of Man came not to destroy but to save Luk. 9.54 And David's Carriage towards the Conquer'd Ammonites who will say it may to the worst of Enemies be imitated And his so frequent Execrations of his Enemies may they not be said to proceed from a Prophetick Spirit and to be Predictions wrapt up in the Form of a Curse But who now may pretend to such a Spirit And not having the same Spirit how may they presume to do the same thing Look we to the Rule under the Gospel and there we shall find the Precepts that are given us to be of a mild and soft temper and the Spirit that actuates those Precepts in our Souls to be gentle and sweet-natured Not unlike unto the Dove whose Resemblance he took when he descended in a Bodily Shape We are to Love our Enemies to Bless them that Curse us to do good to them that hate us And Servants and Inferiours are to be subject to their Masters and Superiours not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward It is not unworthy Observation that in the whole Gospel there are no Precepts that relate to the carrying on a War because if our Saviour's Laws be obey'd sincerely on all Hands there will be no occasion for Fighting Now where the State and Laws are New as under our Lord in great measure they are some things that were innocent and commendable under a former State may not be so unto us For these Laws are to last so long as the World standeth whereas the Laws that authorized some of those Examples even now spoken of were only Impulses of the Spirit for that time alone in which they were done Yea the Laws which were most properly belonging to the Mosaick Institution and endured the longest were in great measure but in order unto our Saviour's more perfect Institution which was to come and which is styled The Everlasting Gospel because its Laws shall never cease to bind us as was before observed 5. No Actions of Holy Men that express not the Substance of a Divine Law are necessarily to be imitated by us For if our Imitation of Examples in Sacred Writings be to have the Laws of Christ for its Rule and Guidance then those Examples which do not any way express those Laws although they be not contrary to them lay no Obligation upon us for our imitating them Hence that Posture which our Saviour and his Disciples were in at the first Institution of his Supper since it was not belonging to the Substance of the Command of their Consecrating Bread and Wine and Giving them and of others Receiving them at their Hand doth not oblige us There is none can understand any Posture from the Command Do this in Remembrance of me and there is no Command on purpose for any Posture to be observed Why then should there be so much Discord in the Church of Christ about it It were well we could not say Men more earnestly contend about an indifferent Circumstance of the Duty than they make Conscience of the Duty itself And from what hath been said Theophilus we may see how great and dangerous their Errour is who raise Examples so high as to make them together with the Laws of our Lord the Rule of our Actions when those Laws alone and of themselves are so Nothing say they is to be done but what is warranted by some Command or Example in Holy Writ Which what is it but a derogating from the Divine Law to add over-much unto Examples and to give some Men who have their Eyes too much set upon Examples an occasion therefrom to take oftentimes a greater Latitude than the Sacred Precepts will allow When the Law of God is silent as to any particular Action and doth not forbid it it is to be supposed we are left at liberty to do or not to do it Neither need we seek to an Example for our Warrant but our Prudence with respect only to that general Law Whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God is to be our Guide For those Examples which are not directly expressive of the Laws of God arose at first from the Prudence of the Agents and why may not We upon the same Grounds do the same Things Or why should an Example be of more Authority with us than that Prudence from which it sprung and which lieth in common to all Men for the ordering a great part of their Lives Certainly the wholly excluding the Dictates of Prudence where no Law of God layeth any prohibition upon us and the joyning of Examples together with the Divine Precepts without any mark of Difference as if they were of equal sway with them may be of pernicious Consequence to the Practice of Men and hath already been too too much instrumental unto the quarrelling with the wholsom Discipline and Constitutions of our Church and the disturbing of that Peace which ought to be more among Christians than others but which hath been less in the midst of them than it hath been even with Those who in the Psalmist's words are Strangers unto Peace Theoph. But if Examples lay no Obligation upon us any further than as they have the Laws of Christ for their Rule and Warrant pray Eubulus of what use are they And to what end have we any thing more in Holy Writ than the Laws thereof These of themselves engaging us to all the Duties that any Examples can point us
unto Eubul We may say with the Apostle in general That all the Examples in sacred Scripture yea even those that are bad as well as those that are more commendable for they were all ordered by the self-same Spirit to be set down there have their good uses and are profitable either for Doctrine or for Reproof or for Correction or for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be throughly furnished to every good work But more particularly we say 1. That those Examples which plainly bear the Image of the Laws of Christ are given us for Incentives and Encouragements of our Obedience to those Laws Though our Rule be perfect yet it will more prevail upon us when it brings an Example with it to shew that it hath been obeyed by others and may be by us We are apt to think that our Task is difficult and beyond our Strength In Mercy therefore and Love God hath been pleased to Register the Actions and Lives of some Men to shew us that what he requireth of us is not impossible to be done Why should we think it an hard thing to have Faith in God when Abraham hath believed in Him and taught that it is a Duty which may be performed by us Why should we esteem it unreasonable to be patient in Adversity when we Read of the Patience of Job in greater Evils than as yet we have suffered or are like to suffer We may Cheerfully set about the Duty of Mortification and Self-Denial from the knowledge of St. Paul's keeping under his Body and bringing it into Subjection But the Chief Example of all is our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ And God hath required his Obedience both Active and Passive not only that he thereby might Merit for us but also that he might Manifest the Reasonableness of his Laws and might Excite our Obedience by his own Example Who can justly refuse to be Meek and Lowly when He who Commands us to be so was so Himself though he were a King Who is it will deny to Love his Enemies when our Lord who enjoyns us thus to do did the same thing yea Loved Us ourselves when we were Enemies unto Him That we should not be Weary nor Faint in our Minds under the Troubles that may befal us for Religions Sake we are bid to consider Him who endured such contradiction of Sinners against himself and to look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the Shame And what greater Allurements can there be for our Obedience to his Laws than that He who made these Excellent Laws did himself Live according unto them and was in all respects such as he would have VS to be If his Commands move us not how can we withstand his Example Theoph. His Example is Strong But may not the Perfection thereof he being God as well as Man make us despair of ever reaching it rather than encourage us to endeavour towards it Eubul In case any should so think God hath afforded us Patterns amongst Those who have nothing but what is Human in their Natures and we are to be followers of Them as They have been of Christ Though truly Those Actions of our Lord which belong'd unto him chiefly as he was a Man such as were the Expressions of his Meekness Patience Self-Denial Affiance in God and such like we may imitate immediately from Himself and have no need that any should interpose betwixt Us and Him as an Example of the same things For who can Practise those Vertues and Graces in a manner more befitting our Imitation than He hath done He was made in the likeness of Men and was in all points Tempted even as we are so that we may exactly see our own Duty in his Behaviour Only He was without Sin and though we cannot while we are in this World attain unto the Perfection of being wholly free from Sin as He was yet it is but meet the Copy which is set us should be Exact and Accurate That thereby we might not rest in Low Degrees but might still be excited to rise higher Nay even those Actions of our Lord which proceeded more from his Divine than Human Nature are for the most part not so much out of our reach but they may yield us somthing for our Imitation And they were not Written barely as Narratives without any respect to our Practice They carried in them a Conformity to the Laws which he gave and we are excited to give Obedience to those his Laws in that while he acted most like God he had a respect unto Them and did then express the matter of Them as well as when he acted most like Man. In his Miraculous Actions there were the Piety the Kindness and the Compassion which he requires of us as Men mixed with his Power as he was God. And so far they are Incentives to our Duties We cannot indeed feed a Multitude by a Miracle but we can give Food to the Hungry according to our Abilities We cannot Heal the Sick by a Word but we can Administer to their Necessities We cannot make the Lame to Walk and the Blind to See but we can be Legs to the One and Eyes to the Other in our way by giving Support and Direction to them Unto this Goodness and Pity these Miraculous Actions of our Lord do prompt us and hence the Church of Christ though it could not reach the Miracle of our Lords Fast for Fourty Days yet thought itself bound to the Piety of it and as far as it well could to the Abstinence of it also So likewise his Actions which proceeded from his Prerogative as he was a Prince which I said we must not imitate have somthing that may admit of an Analogy betwixt our Actions and Them And may stir us up unto that Practice which we as Christians are bound unto Thus his Driving the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple and overturning the Tables of the Money-Changers encourageth us to be Zealously affected in a good Matter and to oppose every thing that is Evil so far as lieth in our Sphere Thus also his Mediatory Actions may be Excitements to us earnestly to interceed with God for the Eternal Welfare of Others in an Humble and Submissive way not forgetting our own Meanness while we do it and remembring also that what we do in this kind is no more than what is our Duty to do You see Theophilus that our Lords Example even in the Actions that are above the Ordinary Level as well as in those which chiefly represented his Human Nature is a Motive to Us for Obedience to his Laws I may further also say viz. That not only the Examples of some Holy Mens Actions in Sacred Writings which as to the whole were good but Those also which as to some things are short of the measure and below the Standard of Goodness are written for the stirring us up
to our Duties Though as I before said they are not presently and without further Consideration to be drawn into Practice Of this sort are those Actions which are of a Mixed Nature and are Commended Only this we must be sure to do to have an Eye to that alone in the Examples which is Praiseworthy avoiding the Other part of them The Goodness and Mercy of the Hebrew Midwives may excite us in different occasions to the like Virtues but so only as to joyn Truth with them And from the Prudence of the Unjust Steward we are encouraged to be Prudent yet not so as to follow him in his Vnrighteousness This is one end of Scripture Examples which are Expressive of the Laws of Christ to be Incentives and Encouragements to our Obedience Theoph. Were it not to hinder you I would give you my thanks for the good insight into Examples you have already afforded me But I will not be your let Eubul I had much rather your share in the Discourse had been larger that I might have had better occasion to give the like thanks to you Though I complain not of the Burden if so you can find any thing of Satisfaction therefrom A Second Use of Examples in Holy Writ is this That if some of the Divine Laws be question'd as to their Sense These upon occasion may be Interpretations of them We may instance Theophilus in the Law against Swearing I say unto you Swear not at all Matth. 5. Some you know do from hence Condemn all Swearing whatsoever And therefore they will refuse the taking of an Oath though Solemnly by the Magistrate in things of great Consequence required to do it But that Swearing is not simply unlawful but only as it is lightly used and in ordinary Conversation we have the Example of St. Paul to testifie who to confirm the Truth of God in his Epistles doth seriously bind it with his Oath God is my Witness saith he whom I serve with my Spirit in the Gospel of his Son that without ceasing I make mention of you all in my Prayers Rom. 1.9 God is my Witness which is an appealing to Him or an invocating of Him as a Witness of the Truth of what he saith So Gal. 1.20 Now the things that I write unto you behold before God I lie not And we have the same Reason to be assured That these Oaths were as rightly made as the Things which he spake were truly spoken For the same Holy Spirit dictated both the one and the other Neither can I say that we have not the Example of our blessed Saviour himself in this present Case Mark 8.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verily I say unto you if there shall a sign be given to this Generation Which though rendered by our Translators There shall no sign be given c. yet it is observed by learned Men to be the same kind of expression with that of Hebr. 3.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As I sware unto them in my Wrath IF they shall enter into my Rest And with that of Ezek. 14.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As I live IF their Sons or Daughters shall be delivered Which is an abbreviated or imperfect Form of an Oath very usual among the Hebrews and in these Instances may imply thus much If their Sons and Daughters be deliver'd Let me not be termed the Living God. If they shall enter into my Rest If a Sign shall be given to this Generation Let me be accounted false never in what I say to be believed more What seeming Difficulty then there is in our Saviour's Command against Swearing here in great probability his own but in certainty the Example of the Apostle taketh it all away And as this Law is cleared by an Example so many other Divine Laws in like manner A third Use of Examples is That we may be thereby instructed to do our Duties in a decent and becoming manner For it is not an unfrequent thing that even good Actions may lose somthing of their Beauty by a less comely and not well managed performance It is sufficient that the Divine Laws provide that those things which are righteous and good should be done by us and that the contrary should be avoided but they cannot be expected to go so low as to enjoin all the Particulars of Decency Now herein the Examples of Holy Men may be of use and by their ways and circumstances of doing Duties may be a good light unto us of more advantageously accomplishing what we are commanded St. Paul did his Duty in his constant asserting of the Faith of Christ But it was the Decency of his Duty when styl'd a Madman by Festus he gave the Governor the Title of most noble Festus as if he had been obliged rather than injured by him and with a calmness affirmed That he spake forth the words of truth and soberness Acts 26.25 With a less obliging Carriage he might have been faithful to the Religion which he profess'd but as he then acted he added Comeliness to his Fidelity Instances many more might be given but Mens particular Cases may better find them out and more appositely apply them I must confess That the welfare of a Man's Soul doth not depend upon the outward Decency of his Actings but upon the inward Sincerity of them which of itself carrieth a true Beauty with it in the Eye of God who seeth not as Man seeth But yet it must not be denied that even Virtues and Christian Graces may be more acceptable unto Men when they are decently exercised And if by bringing such a Comeliness to them we can insinuate them into the Hearts of others and make them spread the wider I am sure we shall receive a much greater Reward with God than upon the account of Naked Sincerity we should do They that turn many unto Righteousness shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever saith the Prophet Daniel and a Comeliness in acting Virtues is highly instrumental to the thus turning them Now this Decency of doing Duties is oftentimes learnt sooner from the Examples of others than from the lonely Dictates of a Man 's own Prudence And possibly with respect unto this as well as unto Virtue itself was that excellent Rule of the Heathen of proposing to ourselves the Examples of Persons eminent for Wisdom and Goodness Think saith he how Plato would have done in such a Case how Epaminondas would have carried it And to this End also Examples may be recorded in Holy Scripture That we might thus be Followers of them and might mark those who have so walked for a more comely deportment in our Duties But Theophilus Lest the benefit of Examples in Holy Writ should wholly accrue unto Vs and They who set us these excellent Patterns should now have no Concern in them Therefore Fourthly They were Registred there in Honour unto Those who were thus Exemplary unto Others It is said of Mary Magdalen for her pious Action of pouring the
of never Sinning knowingly and presumptuously for the time to come Those Words in Job they will heartily say and think them but meet to be said unto God I have born Chastisement I will not Offend any more That which I see not teach thou me If I have done Iniquity I will do no more The Remembrance of their past Offences will quicken them to new purposes and firm Resolves of Upright Walking for the residue of their Life They will say I thought on my Ways I considered my former Sins and I am resolved to turn my Feet to thy Testimonies And as it is my full resolution never more to commit Sins Willingly so do thou by thy Restraining Grace preserve thy Servant from Presumptuous Sins If they through Frailty and Oversight or through any Eminent Temptation fall into some Sins they will not continue in them but get out of them as soon as may be They may as Travellers for themselves are such they are Travelling towards Heaven they may I say as Travellers somtimes by Chance and against their Wills slip into the Dirt but they will quickly step out of it accounting it their Unhappiness that ever they were sullied with it Nay if they fall into Sin they not only will not continue in it but from their Failings will become the more earnest Persuers of that which is good As we often see our Beasts if I may be allow'd to use the Comparison after a stumble to go the faster so will they after a slip make the more haste in Heavens way They will love God the more because by these new Offences they have the more to be forgiven them From their own Sins against God they will the more readily forgive the Sins which others have committed against them They will redeem the Time and do much in the few Years that remain for those good Actions which they have left undone and for those Offences which they have committed And if ever Sins can be improved aright it is when they are made Incitements to more Duty And lastly The Sins which they through frailty daily run into and cannot by all care and diligence be wholly free from do excite and prompt them to long for that happy State after this Life in which they shall be fully cleansed from all Sin and never shall give God the least Offence more When will the Time come that they shall be no more troubled with daily Failures in their Duties How long will it be that their Souls shall be perfectly bent to all Goodness and their Bodies have the Imperfection of Temper and Constitution taken away O that they should be constrained to dwell in Mesech and to have their Habitation among the Tents of Kedar O that they had Wings like a Dove then would they fly away and be at rest They 'll say Come Lord Jesus come quickly that so They with all those departed this Life in the true Faith and Fear of God may have their perfect Consummation and Bliss both in Body and Soul. Such earnest Desires do their frail and imperfect Conditions and their every days Failings stir up in them Thus Theophilus the Sins of good Men have a Defilement in them but such as is easily discern'd from that of others Theoph. Much different I must confess it is from the Deformity of Disobedience as you yesterday Character'd it The Sins of good Men owing more as may seem to the Frailty of Human Nature in common than to the Wills of themselves in particular But I will now desire you to speak to the Sins of the other sort of Men viz. Those who are Wicked Eubul The Sins of these Theophilus are of a far deeper Die and carry a much greater Deformity than the Sins of good Men do The Scripture speaks of them as Scarlet and Crimson ones not for the Beauty of the Colour we may be sure but for the Depth of the Stain For who can make Scarlet as Snow or Crimson white as Wool See we first the Sin of their Nature And this indeed is not in itself greater than that of the better sort of Men. For all Men in Adam sinned equally neither is one more guilty of that Sin than another But then herein consisteth the greater Deformity of wicked Men in respect of Original Sin. They are contented and well enough pleas'd with it What evil Inclinations they have are not grievous to them They esteem their imperfect State as no unhappiness at all Are not in the least affected with it see no Punishment at all in it Yea they increase the Defilements of their Nature thus The Ignorance which from the Womb they have of Divine things they improve into a Willingness that there should be no God and into a Readiness to Dispute him out of their own Hearts and out of thâ— World too And would fain imagine him to have no Being at all that they may not have such an one to Raign over them They encourage their depraved Wills by Obeying them as far as they can and they would do it further if Fear and Shame and Loss from Human Laws and Customs did not prohibit them And that they are thus prohibited it is their inward trouble Their Corrupt Desires they are so far from repressing and keeping under that they foster and cherish them It was an ill Character of one of the Roman Emperours Jacentes excitavit Libidines He stirr'd up and used Arts to awaken his Lusts which otherwise would have been quiet and asleep So is it with these They give no rest to their vile Affections and spur their depraved Nature to a greater height of Depravation If we consider their Outward Actions we shall find they are not equally notorious in all But yet in all they are much different from those of good Men. Wicked Men Theophilus are of two sorts Those that are more wicked and those that are less For we read in Holy Writ of a greater Damnation and in Hell we believe there are Degrees of Torments more intense for some and less intense for others And yet those who are in the lesser Degrees of Torment have been wicked Men. As for the former and worse sort the Scripture speaks of them thus They proceed from Evil to Evil. They weary themselves to commit Iniquity They bend their Tongue like their Bow to speak Lyes They lie in wait for Blood. They hunt every Man his Neighbour with a Net. They do Evil with both Hands earnestly Corrupt are they and have done abominable Iniquity They are altogether become filthy Now the Deformity of These is somtimes more open somtimes more secret Some were their Lives throughly look'd into I Fear without uncharitableness used towards them they would be found to have wholly laid out themselves in the Service of Sin. Could the Time be Computed rightly which they have spent in Defraudations and Oppressions in Surfeitings and Drunkenness in Defaming and Evil Censuring in Telling Lyes of and unto their Neighbor in Begetting