can neither cease nor be diminished or relaxed in the least to all Eternity And then our Saviour adds Vers. 19. of this Fifth of S. Matthew Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven That is saith Grotius Minimi erit pretii eum minimi habitum iri he shall be contemned and treated as a most despicable wretch at the Day of Iudgment Then it follows But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called Great in the Kingdom of Heaven He shall be highly Honoured and signally Rewarded When the young Man came to our Saviour to ask him What good thing he should do that he might have Eternal life we know what his Answer was If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments S. Matth. 19. 17. And whereas He meant all yet knowing how apt Hypocrites are to flatter themselves with an opinion of the goodness of their state upon the account of their External Conformity to the First Table Precepts though they live in the gross Transgression of those of the Second Table He only expressed those which enjoyn Duties relating to our Neighbour For the young Man asking which Commandments Iesus said Thou shalt do no Murder Thou shalt not commit Adultery Thou shalt not Steal Thou shalt not bear false Witness Honour thy Father and thy Mother And thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thyself Ver. 18 19. Secondly The Apostle would have Contradicted himself most Egregiously as well as his Master should he in the above-cited Places or any where else teach this Notion of Christian Liberty For 't was He that said Do we make void the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Rom. 3. 31. He here includes even the Ceremonial Law as appears by ver 28. which gave occasion to these words Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law That is that a Gentile is justified without Circumcision or Sacrifices or any other of the Iewish Rites and Services which they still laid so great weight upon as appears by the two following Verses Is he the God of the Iews only Is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also Seeing it is one God which shall justifie the Circumcision by Faith and Vncircumcision through Faith Now saith the Apostle God forbid we should affirm that the Gospel Dispensation should make void the Law should make useless so much as the Ceremonial Law therefore much less the Moral yea we assert it establisheth the Law In some sence it even establisheth or perfects that Law as it brings in the substance of that whereof that Law had the shadow and requireth purity of Heart which was the spiritual meaning of Circumcision Again 't was the same S. Paul that said Not the Hearers of the Law are just before God but the Doers of the Law shall be justified Rom. 2. 13. And it is He who makes it to be the design of Christ's Expiating our Sins upon the Cross That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And it is this same Apostle that saith Though I speak with the Tongues of Men and of Angels and have not Charity a Moral Virtue I am become as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal And though I have the gift of Prophecy and understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge And though I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no Charity I am nothing c. 1 Cor. 13. 1 2. And in the last Verse doth not only Equalize Charity with Faith and Hope which many now adays are so far from doing that they are angry with those who do so but also Advanceth it above those Graces And now abideth Faith Hope Charity these three but the greatest of these is Charity Thirdly Whosoever teacheth this Doctrine of Christ's having set us free from the Moral Law contradicteth the whole strain of the New Testament Our Saviours Sermon on the Mount throughout all his Injunctions and even all his Discourses and all the Precepts and Exhortations contained in the Epistles of the Apostles They are all so many instances of the Obligations that the First and Second Tables lay upon us as understood in the most Spiritual Sublime and Comprehensive Sence And none are more so than those of S. Paul so intolerably is he abused in being made the Great and I think Onely Patron of that most licentious and wicked Doctrine And even that Precept of Believing in the Name of the Son of God is a First-Table Precept not Positive but Moral in its own Nature necessarily obliging and a Dictate of Natural Light to all those who are acquainted with the Evidence of his being the Messiah and Son of God Upon our understanding how He is demonstrated so to be we should have known that Faith in Him is an indispensable Duty though we could not have produced one Text to prove it Moreover Believing in Christ together with the Institutions of Baptism and the Lord's Supper are designed as Means to the great End of making us intirely Obedient to the Moral Law or the Everlasting Rules of Righteousness Fourthly Whosoever teacheth this Doctrine teacheth a most manifest contradiction to the Essential Principles and Make of Mankind It is impossible that Reasonable Creatures should be disobliged from Loving God above all from being Just and Charitable Sober and Temperate Humble and Submissive to the Divine Will and the like It is impossible that any Power whatsoever should discharge them from such duties as these Their Obligation to them doth Naturally arise from their being such Creatures There is not a greater contradiction than this imaginable that Creatures made capable of understanding what God is and their Relation and Obligations to him may not be Eternally bound to behave themselves towards him as the Moral Law requires they should Infinite Power it self cannot set such Creatures free from their Obligation to love God with the highest degree of love their Souls will admit of Now as the Apostle tells us that Love is the fulfilling of the Law so 't is easie to shew that all Moral Duties whatsoever whether relating to God our Neighbour or our Selves are the necessary results and consequents of the Love of God so that we cannot once suppose that these should cease at any time to be the Duties of Men and Women but we must also suppose them then deprived of their Essential Form and to be changed into another sort of Beings Fifthly This Doctrine also is as apparent a contradiction to the Happiness and Welfare of Mankind We cannot be in a Happy or tolerably Good state but by conforming our selves to the Precepts of this Law We have already shewed that those must necessarily be deplorably Miserable who live in subjection to any corrupt Appetite any Fleshly or Spiritual Lust. To
which purpose I will add this passage of Clemens Alexandrinus To submit and give place to evil Affections is extreme Slavery as to overcome them is the only Liberty Nor can the best place in the World not Heaven it self or the most Glorious outward circumstances make that person Happy or not Miserable within whom all is amiss and out of order and who is indued with no good Habit or Temper of Mind A diseased Body will be uneasie do what you can to it and so will diseased Souls These things considered 't is the most Amazing thing that any who call themselves Christians can entertain such a Notion as this of Christian Liberty the directly contrary being the whole Design and Business of Christianity And yet for all that we find it as Ancient as the Apostles days there were those so early that did not only Teach it but Practised upon it that used their Liberty for a cloak of Maliciousness and turned the Grace of God into lasciviousness But 't is no over-bold saying that if this could be really proved to be a Liberty of Christ's bringing into the World there is no Good man but would abhor the Christian Religion But the Antinomians not to make worse of them than they are tell us that they do not deny the Obligation of Christians to the performance of the Duties required by the Moral Law but 't is only Love Gratitude and ingenuity that can oblige them Which is as much as to say that they are not obliged to them in strict Justice or as they are the Matter of a Law But alas they very little mend the matter by this Salvo nay their Doctrine is of the same dangerous consequence with it that it is without it For First It destroys all the Gospel Precepts makes them insignificant and idle things They being all Moral either in themselves or in their Design Secondly It takes off all Obligation to Love Ingenuity and Gratitude You say you are not bound to be Righteous Charitable Temperate c. by any other Law than that of Love and Gratitude But by what Law are you obliged to the Love of God and Christ to be Grateful to them and to have an Ingenuous Thankful Sense of the Great things they have done for you You must say by no Law at all seeing you make these the only Law of Christians And if you are obliged to these things by no Law how are they Duties And perswade a man once that they are not Duties and 't will be very strange if he make any Conscience of Love and Gratitude And then there is nothing left to hold him in from committing all manner of wickedness with greediness whensoever the Tempter or his Lusts solicite him and opportunities are offered to him But besides they have another Doctrine and 't is that upon which this strange wild Notion is founded which takes away all necessity of being Grateful and Ingenuous viz. That the Righteousness of Christ is Formally and not only in its Fruits and Effects a Believers so that He hath done all that the Law requires in the Believers stead or as Personating him This is their Sence of those words lately cited I came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it so that Christ having fulfilled the Law as the Believers Representative he hath fulfilled it himself in Christ. And Christs Active and Passive Obedience is his both as to Matter and Principle and therefore Christs Love and Gratitude are his Love and Gratitude and all those Graces which so shined forth in Christ are the Believers in their very Formality and Essential nature Now what should ail those that can down with this strange stuff to boggle at believing that they have no need at all of any other Love Ingenuity or Gratitude than what is thus imputed to them And therefore you see that their talking of the Law of Love and Gratitude is but a pitiful shift and will do nothing towards the deliverance of their Doctrine of Freedom from the Moral Law from the necessary tendency it is charged with to the letting the Reins loose and opening the Flood-gates to all Ungodliness I exceedingly wonder how it is possible for People that have not first lost their Wits to embrace an Opinion so apparently Destructive of Christianity and of all Religion and all this while profess themselves Christians and the onely Christians too But I have bestowed too much time in the Confutation of this Hateful Notion of Christian Liberty it being as ridiculously silly as it is wicked And it being as evident to him that knows any thing of the Gospel that it is Antichristian Licentiousness as that there is any such thing as Christian Liberty Poor Souls They little understand what Liberty meaneth who are able to talk or think at this rate In short He that believes that true Christians are delivered by the Sufferings of Christ from the Curse due to the Transgressors of this Law believes most truly but whosoever believes they are delivered from the Power it had to oblige to the Duties thereof or that any man can be so delivered thinks most wickedly and thinks most madly CHAP. XIII A Second False Notion of Christian Liberty viz. That which makes it to consist in Freedom from the Obligation of those Laws of Men which enjoyn or forbid indifferent things This Notion differently managed by the Defenders of it First Some extend it so far as to make it to reach to all Humane Laws the matter of which are things indifferent Secondly Others limit it to those which relate to Religion and the Worship of God The 23. Vers. of the 7. Chap. of the 1 Epist. to the Corinthians cleared from giving any Countenance to either of these Opinions The Former of them Confuted by three Arguments And the Latter by four Vnder the Second of which several Texts of Scripture which are much insisted upon in the defence thereof are taken into Consideration An unjust Reflection upon the Church of England briefly replied to And this Principle that the imposing of things indifferent in Divine Worship is no Violation of Christian Liberty proved to be no ways Serviceable to Popery by considering what the Popish Impositions are in Three Particulars SEcondly We are next to speak to that Notion of Christian Liberty which makes it to consist in Freedom from those Laws of Men that command or forbid Indifferent things i. e. Things neither good nor evil in their own nature nor required or prohibited by any Law of God This Notion is differently managed by the Defenders of it First Some extend it to all Humane laws the Matter of which are things Indifferent Secondly Others limit it to those which relate to Religion onely and the Worship of God But what proof is there of Christ's having purchased such a Liberty as this Or that Christians are made Free from such Laws in either of these Sences There is one Text insisted on by both of these Parties for each
we find concerning Obedience to Kings and the Higher Powers S. Peter saith 1 Epist. 2. 13. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him c. Again Every Soul is commanded to be Subject to the Higher Powers because there is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13. 1 2 c. And Ver. 5. 't is said We must needs be Subject and that not onely for Wrath but also for Conscience sake But there is not the least syllable either in these or any other places of such a limitation as might Reconcile these Injunctions with this Notion of Christian Liberty And we may be confident that if by virtue of that Liberty Christians were disobliged from Obedience to their Governours whensoever they required things indifferent though very unreasonably enjoyned yet in their own nature not Evil and no where forbidden by God to be done the Apostle would have put in this Exception in the last mentioned place The Emperor being a great Tyrant and rather a Monster than a Man that then Reigned Thirdly If Governours can oblige us to nothing but what Antecedently to their Laws we ought to do there is no formal Obedience at all due to them I am then no more bound in Conscience to obey them than those who have no power over me that are invested by God with no Authority For if such say to me Do not Kill Do not Steal Do not commit Adultery c. I shall greatly sin in not hearkening to them And whereas it will be replied that though such Injunctions of Persons not placed in Power ought to be observed yet not as theirs but as Divine Injunctions I must needs profess that I do not believe it neither to be at all my Duty to obey such Laws of our Governours under the nâ—tion of theirs My obligation to obey all the Laws of God being as strong and indispensable every whit by virtue of His immediate Authority as if they were backt and inforced by never so many and never so severe Laws of his Vicegerents Nor can any of their Laws make what God Almighty hath obliged me either to or from one iot a greater Duty or Sin than it was before For the Divine Authority hath made whatsoever it hath commanded or prohibited as great a Duty or Sin as it is capable of being made that is considered in it self It is so evident that we are not obliged to obey a Law of the Land as such which onely requires or forbids what is required or forbidden by an express Law of God that the less respect any one hath to Humane Laws in such things in doing Iustly in being Temperate and Chaste in attending upon the solemn Worship of God and the like supposing he makes Conscience of them upon the account of the Divine Laws the better Man is he and the more sincere Christian. And therefore such Laws of Men as are Enacted against what God's Law hath forbidden or do enjoyn what was before commanded by God are not made for a Righteous man as the Apostle speaks even of the Law of Moses but for such Wretches as live under no Sense of the Divine Sovereignty and would not have any regard to God's Laws were they not inforced with Men's having severe penalties annexed to them So that if I am disobliged by my Christian Liberty from Doing or Forbearing any thing in Obedience to Humane Laws but what I ought to Do or Forbear though there were no Laws of Men about it that which I now said is very easie to be believed viz. That no Formal Obedience is due to Magistrates and they have no Power to make any New Laws of their own but onely to take the best care that the Old ones viz. the Laws of God be observed And if it be so what becomes of all those Texts wherein Obedience to Governours is with such strictness required of Christians This Opinion that Rulers have no Power over us in regard of our Christian Liberty in matters of an Indifferent Nature doth make the Fifth Commandment and all those Injunctions perfectly insignificant And the Apostle might well have spared his charge to Titus To put those under his care in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates c. Tit. 3. 1. This Monstrously wild Notion of Christian Liberty I should not have taken thus much notice of as little as I have said but that of late days Multitudes by their behaviour would make us suspect they are infected with it who yet will not professedly own it It is come to that sad pass that preaching Obedience to Authority is become as unacceptable Doctrine as can be to even many great Pretenders to Christianity although it be done never so prudently and agreeably to the express Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles And the Notion of Obedience for Conscience-sake seems almost lost among not a few Which is one of the great Sins for which we have too good reason to fear there 's a Heavy Scourge near us Secondly As for that Doctrine which limits our disobligation by the means of Christian Liberty from the Laws of Men that impose indifferent things to those that onely relate to Religion and the Worship of God That this is Wild too though more Sober than the other will appear by these Considerations First This Notion of Christian Liberty tends to introduce sad Disorder and Confusion into the Churches of Christ and will certainly do it if practised upon I need not go about to prove that the Order of Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Societies consisteth principally in the due Regulation of things in their own Nature Indifferent S. Paul hath enjoyned that in the Church All things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14. 40. But how shall they be so done if it be a Violation of our Christian Liberty to have any thing imposed upon us by our Governours for Decencies and Orders sake Particular Rules being not given us in Scripture about this matter which to be sure would have been were they not left to the Determination of the Governours of each Church upon supposition that 't is possible to give such as would well suit all Churches Calvin upon those words of S. Paul 1 Cor. 11. 2. Now I praise you Brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the Ordinances as I delivered them to you doth thus express his Sense about this matter Saith he We know that every Church is left free to appoint a Form of Polity for it self because our Lord hath prescribed nothing certain And he speaks this you see not as his own sense onely but as the sense and that undoubted too of his other Brethren of the Reformation Whose judgment were it needful we might largely produce to the same purpose But there is no need of it those very
of God the Powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore Resisteth the Power Resisteth the Ordinance of God c. So that all we assert is this that we are bound to obey our lawful Governours for God's sake who hath invested them with the Authority they have over us and commanded us to obey those Laws of theirs which are not contradictory to any of His. Nor do we say that Humane Authority can make more Duties or Sins than God hath made or to speak properly and strictly can make any thing to be a Duty or Sin for it can only Command or Forbid and what it Commands if lawful the Divine Authority makes it a Duty and what it Forbids if not a Duty the Divine Authority makes it a Sin Or to speak in the words of the Learned Bishop Taylor Humane Authority doth not make the action of disobedience to be a Sin It makes that the not compliance of the Subject is Disobedience but it is the Authority of God which makes Disobedience to be a Sin And what immediately follows deserves also to be transcribed in this place viz. And though no Humane Power can give or take Grace away yet we may remember that we our selves throw away God's Grace or abuse it or neglect it when we will not make use of it to the purposes of Humility Charity and Obedience all which are concerned in our Subordination to the Laws There is also this difference between the Obligations of Divine and Humane Laws viz. The Divine Laws bind our Thoughts and the Sense of our Minds they bind us not onely to obey them but to think them also Wise and Good Laws But so do not Humane Laws they oblige onely to Obedience but not to the thinking them such as ought or are fit to be imposed A man may think a Humane Law imprudent or unreasonable and be guilty of no Transgression if notwithstanding he complies with it I mean provided he keeps his thoughts to himself or does not make them publick The forementioned Worthy Prelate layeth down no sewer than Ten or Eleven differences of Divine and Humane Laws in their obligation in his Ductor Dubitantium Whether they will all hold or no or may not be reduced to a smaller number I will not take upon me to say but thither I refer the Reader And thus much may serve to be spoken to the First thing premised viz. That Conscience is not so Sacred a thing as to be uncapable of being bound by Humane Laws Secondly I premise also that no man can be deprived properly of the true Liberty of his Conscience by any Power on Earth I mean without his own consent no Mortal nor any Creature is able to invade it This will appear by considering what that is which is called Conscience Conscience is The Mind of a man considered as possessed with certain practical principles and comparing his own actions with those principles doth according as he finds them agreeing or disagreeing with them judge of himself either absolve or condemn himself So that there are three Offices of Conscience The first is That of assenting to and embracing certain practical principles as Laws for the governing a man's self The second is That of comparing ones self or actions with those Rules or Principles The third That of passing judgment of ones self accordingly Now that is properly Liberty of Conscience and that onely which relates to the execution of these three Offices But the Acts of Conscience in executing these Offices being all Internal and within a mans Soul how can its Liberty in exerting those Acts be infringed by any Humane Power What Earthly Power can make me Assent to or believe what it pleaseth Can so give Laws to my Conscience as to necessitate me to receive them for such and to think them good Laws and safe to steer my Actions by Again how can any such Power deprive me of my Liberty to compare my Actions with such Rules as I think I am obliged to be governed by And having reflected upon my self and actions and made this comparison how can any such Power abridge me of Liberty to Absolve my self if I find my actions agreeing with those Rules or to Condemn my self if I find the contrary Can make me Condemn when I ought to Acquit my self or Acquit when I see reason to Condemn my self So that the Liberty which is with so much heat contended for by some and inveighed against by others under the name of Liberty of Conscience is truly and properly Liberty of Practice not of Conscience And the great thing in contest is Whether a Liberty of doing what a man's Conscience tells him he ought to do and of forbearing what it tells him he ought to forbear be an inviolable Right and not to be invaded by Humane Authority This being the true state of the Question I shall endeavour an Answer thereunto in these following Propositions Prop. 1. That there are two Extremes about this matter to be carefully avoided First That of Asserting an unlimited Liberty of practising according to a mans Conscience Secondly That of over-great severity in Restraining this Liberty First As to the Extreme of Asserting an unlimited Liberty of practising according to a man's Conscience This will appear to be an Extreme indeed and a very wild and mad one if we consider that there is scarcely any thing so extravagant or wicked but the Consciences of some or other may urge them to it Nay it is certain that men have pretended Conscience for some of the most impious and most villanous actions in the World So the Papists have done among our selves we all know And another sort of People too whose principles though very bad were better than theirs And it is not possible for us to know that their pretences of Conscience were mâ—re pretences Nor is it hard for us to perswade our selves that through the just judgment of God for past provocations the Spirit of delusion may be permitted to have such power over some mens Consciences as that they shall call evil good and good evil put darkness for light and light for darkness and bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter for we find a Woe pronounced against such as do so Esay 5. 20. which there would not have been if there were no such men nor could be And it is said of some 2 Thess. 2. 10 11 12. that Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved God shall send them or permit to be sent them strong delusions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strength of delusion that they should believe a lie That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness Our Saviour foretold his Disciples Iohn 16. 2. that The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service That is the time is coming when men shall kill you out of Conscience As no doubt the Papists have done
said to be weak through the flesh or in regard of the impetuosity and violence of mens fleshly Appetites Rom. 8. 3. Nor is there any express mention in the Ceremonial Law of any necessity of purity of heart This was only represented by the divers legal washings and other Rites the mortification of corrupt Affections was signified by the cutting off the foreskin of the flesh and the great substantial duties were veiled under dark shadows So that a man might be very punctually observant of this Law according to the mere literal sence thereof and yet his Soul remain perfectly under the power of sinful Affections And the Learned Mr. Chillingworth in his Sermon on Gal. 5. 5. saith thus even of the Moral Duties of the two Tables as they are part of the Mosaical Jewish Law viz. That they required only an external obedience and conformity to the Affirmative Precepts thereof and an abstaining from an Outward practice of the Negative They did not reach unto the Conscience no more than the National Laws of other Kingdoms do So that for example when the law of Moses forbids Adultery upon pain of death he that should in his heart lust after a Woman could not be accounted a Transgressor of Moses his law neither was he liable to the punishment therein specified Whereas the Gospel requires not only an Outward and as I may say corporal obedience to God's Commandments but also an inward sanctification of the Soul and Conscience upon the same penalty of everlasting damnation with the former And what is now said proceeds he of the Moral Precepts as they are part of Moses his law by the same proportion likewise is to be understood of the Iudicial And as for the Promises of this Law they were only of Temporal good things and therefore the Gospel is called by the Author to the Hebrews The bringing in of a better hope Chap. 7. 19. And is said to be established upon better promises Chap. 8. 6. 'T is confessed that promises of Heavenly things were contained in those of Earthly as some of the latter were Types of the former particularly the land of Canaan of the Eternal Rest in Heaven and the promises of good things in the general had those of the other life implied in them but there is not the least express mention in this Law of any Life after this I do not say in any part of the Old Testament but in this Law Now then seeing it abounded with Temporal Promises and none but such being in express terms contained therein 't is no wonder if it became an occasion to the sensual Iews of their being the more eager and vehement in prosecuting the profits honours and pleasures of this life as it was of their being the more Mercenary in their obedience The like may be said of the Threatnings of this Law they are all so expressed as if they were only of Present Temporal Evils and the Iews for the most part looking no farther than the outward letter of these Threatnings it was not to be expected that they should be excited by them to obey from any higher motive than the mere fear of such evils as those that did not look beyond the letter of the Promises were obedient only from the hope of some sensual present good And by this means especially did this Law Gender to bondage as we read it did Gal. 4. 24. The terrible manner in which the Law was given and the Threatnings of Present death or other temporal Calamities upon the Transgression thereof did occasion that slavish sear which the Apostle calls the Spirit of bondage in those words Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear Rom. 8. 5. God dealt with the Iews as it was most fit to deal with such a carnal such a stiff-necked stubborn and disingenuous people who would not be wrought upon and overcome by love to himself or a sense of the loveliness of Virtue and true Goodness nor regard any Laws but such as were enforced with severe present Penalties or promises of sensual good things Which obedience of theirs was most truly and properly the obedience of Slaves a Servile and Mercenary Obedience So that this Law having been abused by the Iews to the so much the more captivating them to their fleshly lusts for this reason chiefly was it laid aside namely because the Liberty which consisteth in a thorough compliance with the Rules of Righteousness the Obligation of this Law would have greatly obstructed the promoting of And the things expresly required in this Law being such as had no internal goodness in them being weak and beggarly Elements as the Apostle calls them Gal. 4. 9. the imposition of many such must needs be apt to call away mens Minds and Affections from those that are essentially and immutably good whilest the spiritual meaning of those injunctions is either not understood or not attended to And that it had this effect upon the generality of the Iews by this means is a case too plain to need to be proved And though the great substantial duties which are in their own nature Good and Necessary and of Eternal obligation were inculcated upon them by all their Prophets as well as taught by Natural Light such as Doing Iustice loving Mercy walking humbly with God and the like yet they generally were so sottish as to think that He valued Sacrifices and the other Ceremonial and External Performances of the Law so much above such Duties nay though he had expresly also declared the quite contrary as that their exact and diligent observation of those would make expiation for their remisness in these and fully satisfie for gross immoralities They trusted in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these implying that their continual attendance on the services there performed according to the prescription of the Law would effectually secure them from Divine vengeance although they refused to amend their ways and were never so immoral in their Practices And their constant Trading in Sacrifices in Rituals and Ceremonial things occasioned their having but very little sense of things Morally good so that that distinction was almost lost among them of things Positively and Morally so or things good only because commanded and things commanded because good Their being so intent upon a many little things caused them to sleight and overlook the great ones as our Saviour told the Pharisees Luke 11. 42. Ye tithe Mint and Rue and all manner of Herbs and pass over judgment and the love of God And Mat. 23. 23. Ye pay tith of Mint and Anise and Cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law judgment mercy and faith And their omitting these things was too plain an Argument alone though there is other proof of it of their having scarcely any notion of things Absolutely Immutably and Essentially Good and Evil which was occasioned as I said by their