being generally of a Churlish Disposition it comes to pass that the Duties both to God and Men which are to be inferr'd from the General Precept of Love are obscure or at least pretended to be so and that they may have no Colour from the Abridging their Whole Duty into one Word Love to say There is no Obligation upon us to do the things required shew us where they are commanded produce the Letter of the Law and the like all the Silva Legum as Justinian calls them the Forest of God's and Mens Laws consisting of such Heaps of Precepts were added whereas otherwise all the Duties would have been seen to hang on this brief Syllable Love This Phrase do hang upon it is a Figurative Expression borrowed from the hanging things upon a Hook or Pin in a Wall which bears the Stress of their Weight We find the same Figure used Isaiah 22.23 God determining to make Eliakim Treasurer over his House to shew the Support he should be by the Influence of his Wisdom and Justice to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem he says I will fasten him as a Nail in a sure place and they shall hang upon him all the Glory of his Father's House all the Vessels from the Vessels of Cups to the Vessels of Flaggons and then it follows In that day says the Lord of hosts shall the Nail that is fastned in a sure place be removed and cut down and the Burden that was upon it shall be cut off But I shall shew more particularly three Ways how all the Commandments hang or depend on the Commandment of Love 1. As the Parts do upon the Whole the Whole contains the Parts and is but the Parts collected into One. And some will have this the only Dependance that is here meant of the other Commandments on that of Love according to S t Paul's interpretation Rom. 13.9 He that loveth another hath fulfilled the whole Law For this Thou shalt not Kill Thou shalt not commit Adultery Thou shalt not Steal c. are briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy Self And the like may be said of the Duties of the First Table Thou shalt have no other God but the God of Israel Thou shalt worship him no other way than he has prescribed Thou shalt not take his Name in vain Thou shalt not break his Sabbath they are briefly contained in this Thou shalt love the Lord thy God And if Love were deeply rooted in the Hearts of men upon their going about any Act dishonourable to God or unjust to their Neighbour it would pull them back from it for this would be the immediate Question they would ask themselves By what Rule do I do this Will it hold according to the Precept of Love to God and to my Neighbour This particular Fact which I put forth by way of retail does it not vary from the General Rule in which it ought to be comprehended as in its Body 2. The Law and the Prophets may be said to hang or depend upon the Law of Love because it is the Scope or Drift to which all the Commandments in particular tend according to that Saying of S t Paul 1 Tim. 1.5 The End of the Commandment is Charity or Love out of a pure Heart and good Conscience and Faith unfeigned i. e. upon the Ground of the Belief of Remission of our Sins through Christ to love God and our Brethren for so great a Benefit and to express our Love in the Works of a good Conscience 'T is not preaching the Law though never so zealously as those did S t Paul here speaks of or the performing the Outward Acts of the Law as many of the Jews were very scrupulous in the Observation of that makes a Righteous Man according to the Law but he that does according to the Design and Intention of the Law which is Love Ratio Legis est interpres Legis the Purpose of the Law is the best Interpreter of the Law and they that mind not this as S t Paul says Take their Aim amiss and swerve from the End and Intention of the Law discern not the Grace of Love that runs through it as the Warp and the Woof do through a Web of Cloth and wholly sustains the Contexture of it Without Love all that is Excellent all that is Divine in the Law would fall to the Ground as all the Riches and Gallantry of the Veil of the Temple all the Purple and Scarlet would have lain grovelling on the Earth without the Tacks or Hooks on which they hung 3. The Law i. e. all the Vertue Goodness and Righteousness it commands all the Worth and Value of its Duties depend upon Love as the Value of Coin depends upon the Price the Stamp sets upon it or as a thing that is Accessory depends on its Principle take away the Principle and the Accessory is nothing so take away Love and all the Commandments are insignificant and nothing And this Saint Paul shews 1 Cor. 13. That even the most Specious and seemingly Heroick Performances of Christianity it self as a man's giving his Goods to feed the Poor and his Body to be burned c. if they be not accompanied with Charity or Love are all nothing the Dignity of these Works depending so absolutely upon this Grace that in God's Esteem to suffer Injury only out of Love to our Fellow-Christian is more than to suffer Martyrdom not to envy not to be puft up not to despise our Brother is more in his Eyes than to speak with Tongues than to prophesie than to understand all Mysteries And indeed there is more true Religion in this one Benign Good Natur'd Vertue than in the Ostentation and outward Grandeur of all the other But the Excellence of Love and that 't is worthy of the Honour ascribed to it to sustain all the Law and the Prophets is the next thing I am to shew The Excellence of Love c. This I shall make appear by four Reasons 1. For the Natural Universal pleasing Effect Love has upon All and even upon God himself as well as men and other Creatures insomuch as God for his part requires almost nothing else from us Now O Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God and to love him with all thy heart and with all thy soul Deut. 10.12 To be belov'd is so grateful a thing that men receive delight even in the Affection of Brute Creatures and we see that such as are not qualify'd to deserve any true Love are taken with the Similitude only of it the gross Flatteries of them that counterfeit it Sinners as our Lord tells us love those that love them and S t Paul 1 Thess. 2.15 brands the Jews for their want of Love as with a Crime of so high Nature as deserved to be reckoned with their murdering the Prophets and of Christ himself says he Who have kill'd the Lord
and righteousness before him all the days of their life That men therefore may not mistake the principal Design for which Christ came into the World our Apostle plainly declares it at the 8 th Verse For this purpose says he the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil Christ came not only to pardon Sin but to destroy it not only to absolve a wicked World but to make a righteous to take away the condemnation but the commission of Sin And therefore the second way I named of Christ's taking away our Sins From within us ought to be taken into our highest consideration For can it be imagined that he should descend from the Bosome of his Father and visit the Earth for no other end but to make a Gaol-Delivery as I may say to reprieve so many Rake-Hells only and condemn'd Persons and to turn them loose again into the World to commit more villanies The whole Tenor of the Gospel speaks otherwise that Christ was born in the Flesh that we might be regenerate and new-born of the Spirit that he was crucified that we might crucifie our vile Lusts and Affections dyed for the Guilt of Sin that we might dye to the Practice of it suffer'd to excuse us from suffering but not to excuse us in any wickedness he cast out the Hand-writing or Accusation of Satan against us to no other end but that we should cast out Satan himself and his Kingdom out of our hearts and erect in the place God's Kingdom or the Kingdom of righteousness So that the manifestation of Christ in the Flesh to take away our sins imports no less than his rectifying that ugly confusion and disorder which Sin had wrought in the Universe and the deposing Satan from his Usurpation over the World than the restoring God to his Dominion and his Creatures to his Obedience the repairing his Honour and giving satisfaction not to one Attribute only his Justice but to all his other Attributes his Wisdom Truth Goodness Holiness c. And this was a Design worthy of the Incarnation of the Deity of the travel sufferings and all the other Glorious Works of the Messiah of his unhinging and unframing the Course of Nature by his Miracles for it was to no less end than to re-establish it again in the beautiful Frame and Order which God at first created it in before the Devil had disfigured and deformed it And for this Cause the Evangelists in relating the Passages of Christ's life often take us off from looking too intently on the Events which they record and call upon us to consider the Purposes of them rather than the Events themselves bidding us regard the Prophecies that went before of them frequently repeating that it might be fulfilled that it might be fulfilled that was spoken by such or such a Prophet And if we will make the best advantage of Christ's Incarnation we must not look so much on the Fact as on the design of the Fact what it intimates and preaches to us viz. the extinction and extirpation of Sin not only of the Guilt but of the reigning Power of it According to what S t Peter says As he has suffered for us in the Flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that has suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin This arming-our selves with the same mind and ceasing from Sin in the Flesh was that which God chiefly aimed at in his Manifestation of his Son in the Flesh To the end as the Apostle goes on that we should no longer live the rest of our time in the Flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God And to shew us yet further that the bringing of men to live righteously was the great aim of God in all Ages of the World says St. Peter For this cause was the Gospel preached also to those that are dead i. e. to those of the old World that they might live according to God in the Spirit Let every Christian therefore that professes the Faith of Christ's coming in the Flesh to take away Sin and yet lives in it hearken and attend to this Admonition Remember thy End In the Place where the Son of Syrach utters these Words he means the End or Consummation of our Days as we are natural men which is good Wisdom But remember thy end i. e. the Design and Purpose of thy Christian Profession and the Mysteries of it for this is yet a higher degree of Wisdom And before I yet leave this Point I shall give caution against two sorts of Men who greatly pervert this Advice And first Against the Papists who play and trifle with the weightiest Passages of our Salvation as Poets and Romance-Writers do with serious Histories turn them into Gauds and Entertainments of the Fancy make Models and Representations in their Churches of Christ's lying in the Manger at this holy Season and of his rising from the Grave at the Feast of Easter with all the circumstances belonging to them as if such Puppet-Shews were adequate and sutable Returns of Devotion for these Divine Dispensations Again they gather and hoard up the Nails and Fragments of our Lord's Cross as if they treasured to their Souls the Benefits of his Passion hug his Crucifix and weep over the Pictures of his Wounds as if this express'd a Seraphical Affection though they hug also at the same time the grossest Sins The second Caution is against those among our selves who yet worse abuse the Purpose of the Manifestation of Christ in the Flesh making it to be more for the encouragement than the taking away of Sin fansying that he died to excuse them from holy living was made subject to the Law that they might be freed from the Obedience of it perform'd all righteousness that they should need to perform none and these men pray as they believe O Lord say they do thou all in us and for us and take thou the glory Thus exempting themselves from all Obligations to the Commandments and making the Faith a jest and scorn to Libertines and Unbelievers while they talk only more of a holy Life than they but practise it as little make the Cross of Christ not a Sanctuary to Penitent Sinners but a refuge for Hypocrites and Cheats in Religion and yet none are so righteous so much in God's favour in their own opinion as these But they will find at last to their great confusion That Christ was manifested in the Flesh not only to take away our Sins From us but also to take them away Out of us or from within us And he does this by three Means or Expedients By his Spirit by his Word and by his Example First By his Spirit After the Manifestation of Christ in the Flesh his Suffering and being laid in the Grave he was quickned or raised to life again by the Spirit of God and exalted to have the Power and Prerogative of sending down the Spirit
Men do but the Spirit of God as they fansie doing all things in them to say they could sin were to say that God himself could Sin however therefore all Breaches and Transgressions of the Law are Criminal in other Men in them they are only Nominal and Seeming Sins Sins improperly and falsly so called from the similitude they bear to them And on this account they reprove none among themselves for committing the most heinous and flagitious Crimes but for shewing Sorrow for them after it being not Sin in their Opinion but a Remorse for Sin that is the Sign of an Unregenerate State the discerning a Difference between Good and Evil which they call the Relish of Eves Apple still remaining and endeavour by all means to eradicate perswading themselves that when they have destroyed all Sense of Sin they are arrived to the highest Point of Saintship and Perfection to the very State of Innocence in which Adam was created the State in which he knew no Evil. Miserably dreaming because Adam knew no Difference between Good and Evil Experimentally before his Fall that he knew not any Intellectually And thus we see not to believe Rightly of the Person of Christ is in truth not to believe in Christ to deny either his Humanity or Divinity is in Effect not to be a Christian. It is not only necessary therefore to receive all that is delivered By him but also all that is delivered Of him to acknowledge him to be our God as well as our Saviour and to adore him as well as to be Instructed by him To say in these days with the People in my Text He or This Man hath done all things well were no less than Sacriledge when our Style ought to be The Eternal Son of God blessed for evermore hath done all things well And so I pass to the Second Particular The Kind or Nature of the Peoples Verdict it was an Approbation He hath done Well The Peoples Approbation here was rightly grounded they concluded with good Reason That he that had made the Deaf and Dumb to hear and speak was a Prophet and no Deceiver that he whose Works were so Mighty must himself be Holy and his Words True Miracles are infallible Signs of a Divine Person Irrefragable Testimonies of a Man of God as the Widow of Zarephath rightly concluded when Elijah restored her dead Son to Life Now says she I know thou art a Man of God and that the Word of the Lord in thy Mouth is Truth and likewise Nicodemus when he said to our Lord Rabbi we know thou art a Teacher come from God for no Man can do the Miracles thou dost except God be with him Our Lord himself made use of this Argument drawn from his Mighty Works as his last Appeal for the Truth of his Divine Mission says he If I do not the Works of my Father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the Works Thus even licensing the Infidelity of men in case he had not performed Works above the Power and Ability of men At the first production of the Creatures there were certain Properties or Qualities implanted in them as Descending to heavy Bodies Ascending to light moving Circularly to heavenly c. Now when it comes to pass that Heavy things move Upwards and Light Downwards when Water a fluid Body is made a Pavement or a Wall the Fiery Furnace a Refrigeratory as Nebuchadnezzar's was to the three Children circa frigidos capillorum globulos innoxium luxit incendium says S t Jerome the harmless Flame did only shine upon not singe their curled Locks When I say the Courses of Nature are thus changed and its Laws inverted when the Creature is fashioned again anew as the Author of the Book of Wisdom speaks and is made to observe Particular Commands it is a Kind of Second Creation For none can change the Laws of Nature but the God of Nature Well therefore did S t Augustine say Habent Miracula linguam suam opera sunt argumenta Miracles have a Tongue and speak and they are not only Works but Arguments To give a man Speech that was born without it is even of it self a Kind of Speech the Speech no less than of the Almighty for God appears not Personally to converse with Men but such as these are his Utterances of himself to the World neither did the Voices that broke from the Clouds at the Baptism and Transfiguration of our Lord saying This is my Beloved Son more clearly and intelligibly declare to the Hearers who Christ was than the Voice of God in every Miracle he wrought pronounc'd the same thing but on all his Mighty Works was engraved in bright and shining Characters This is my Beloved Son and again This is my Beloved Son hear him The first Way I say was not more convincing to mens Senses than the second was argumentative to their Reason and there is but One and the same Proof of the Deity and of the Truth of Christ's Pretences and they are either both True or both False he that gives Hearing to the Deaf-born is a Righteous Person or he that made the Ear is nothing he that gives Speech to the Dumb-born has done well or he that made the Tongue is a mere Chimaera But yet this is to be received with some Caution for there are two Uses which God makes of Miracles The one to plant Faith And the other to try the Constancy of Believers And as God sent Christ and the Prophets before him with the Power of working Miracles for the first End so he permits Anti-Christ and other Impostors to work False Signs and Wonders for the second End and those so seemingly true as to deceive if it were possible the very Elect. You will say then Which of these two shall have the Preheminence in our Belief how shall we know to which to adhere both performing the same Works but drawing several Ways Must these Miracle-Workers as one asks the Question take place as Women in a Bake-house the first Comer the first served There is a Rule set down Deut. 13.1 how we are to carry our selves in this Case and to judge of Miracles If there arise among you a Prophet says Moses or a Dreamer of Dreams and gives you a Sign or a Wonder and the Sign or the Wonder comes to pass whereof he spake unto you saying Let us go after other Gods which you have not known and let us serve them you shall not hearken unto the Word of that Prophet for the Lord your God proveth you Now the Wonders and Signs performed by Anti-Christ and other Impostors are all to this Purpose To draw men from the Worship of the True God or at least from some Fundamental Points in Religion For as S t Paul says of Anti-Christ He opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself to be God When