Man shall see the Lord. Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God So Isa 33.15 17. Sin therefore is the greatest Evil because it deprives mediately of the greatest Good natural or supernatural God and as it deprives immediately of the greatest good Moral Holiness As 't is contrary to the purity of the Creature it is but a finite evil but infinite as contrary to the Purity of the Creator As a violation of the Law and Principles of Nature and Reason in us 't is only of a limitted Malignity but of a boundless and unlimited Pestilency as a violation of the Law and Principles of Holiness in God 'T is a transgression of the Law of God therefore a contempt and scorn put upon his infinite Authority and Justice and Holiness and Power and Goodness and Glory and Happiness One would imagin it was but a light matter to eat the Fruit of a Tree in Paradise but 't was no light matter to do it against a great God against the express prohibition and in a slighting neglect of or vilifying disregard or despite to the severe Sanctions of an infinitely Wise Holy and Just Creator Therefore Infinitennss it self being concerned in Sin renders it exceeding sinful whence nothing in it more afflicts a good Soul than its contrariety and offensiveness to that glorious Majesty And indeed Sin as Sin is against none but God The Facts that are sinful as being against God may be hurtful or injurious as against Men but the formal nature of Sin lies not in that neither is the violation of Humane Laws therefore a Sin because against the Sanctions of Man but only because and as far as Violations of the Law of God immediately in the matter or remotely in the Transgression of the Fifth Command requiring subjection to Authority Therefore says David Psal 51.4 Against thee thee only have I sinned What Because being King he was by no Man Challengable to none accountable for any wrong but God alone Admit this true in Thesi yet in Hypothesi 't is absurd and ridiculous as part of an Address to God and an exercise of Repentance If it be not understood comparatively or with respect to the formality of Sin spoken absolutely 't is absolutely false In Sin there is a Fault and a Guilt so in David's Murther and Adultery Consider the former taking away Life is sometimes Justice When is it a Fault only when against Law What Law God's or Man's Not as against Man's further than as first against God's For Man's Law cannot make that Murther which is Justice by the Law of God nor the contrary That is Man cannot reverse what God hath established 'T is therefore the Divine Law in Nature or Scripture and that alone which determines concerning the Faultiness or Faultlessness of matters Originally and Architectonically Man 's Law only Secondarily and Subordinately The formal reason then of the faultiness is the contrariety to the Law of God And nothing is Sin meerly in respect of the matter but the Formality So the taking away Vriah's Life was not a fault merely as taking away Life for had he been a Criminal that would have been Justice But a Sin it was only under the notion as 't was taken away under such Circumstances as the Law of God dissallow'd The matter of the Sin therefore was against Vriah but the Form and Essence of the Sin did consist in nothing but only in its being against God a Transgression of the Law of God 1 Joh. 3.4 So then 't is not the Offence against Man simply and abstractly considered but the Offence against God that properly and formally constitutes Sin Every wrong that is in Sin to our selves to Men to our fellow Creatures that groan under their thraldom to our Lusts and fare worse for their sake should affect us but most of all the wrong we do to God as being the greatest injury against the greatest Majesty For even upon Earth Crimes advance in their heinousness according to the degree and dignity of Persons To call a mean Man Knave is a light matter scarce actionable to call a Nobleman Scandalum Magnatum deeply finable to call the King so Treason punishable with Death Oh then what is Blasphemy or any Sin against the King of Kings the infinitely glorious King of Heaven and Earth Common sense will assure us that the more mischief and hurt a Sin does or may do the greater it is and merits greater Punishments Now the more publick and useful any Persons are so much the more mischievous are any actings against them because Government is essential to the good of the whole Community and therefore those who make attempts against Men in Publick Place and Authority strike at and attempt the destruction of all subject to their Jurisdiction To kill a Judge upon the Bench is High Treason both as a vertual acting against the King and also as a murthering the Justice of the Nation a violence against the Right and Property and Life of all that are or may be in a capacity to receive Justice from him So to kill the King is vertually a killing the whole Kingdom with its Honour Authority Justice Right Property Government all that the King is entrusted with the Privileges Laws Liberties and Immunities of all Men. Sin therefore is an Evil transcendently great above all Expression above all Imagination as a horrid mischievous attempt against the Life the All of God himself 1. Vertually and Practically as far as in the Sinner lies it annihilates 1. The Being and Presence of God For to do that abominable Evil in his very Eye-sight which the presence even of a little Child would restrain from this makes nothing of him lays him lower than the sillyest most despicable of his Creatures makes him less and more contemptible than a very Baby and ranks him with Irrational and Non-intelligent Beings which is to un-God him 2. It Annihilates the Authority and Legislative Power of God For to transgress notwithstanding the impress hereof upon the Law is in effect to averr that there is no such thing that 't is but a Fable a Fancy nay 't is to despise and spurn it out of the World which is to kick out the Being of God For that which has no Authority cannot be God 2. 'T is a direct affront to the Holiness of God as perfectly and irreconcileably repugnant to it and Contraries as far as they can destroy each other By thy Impurities thou thrustest God out of thy Soul he departs when this Evil Spirit enters with allowance he bears an eternal Antipathy against it cannot live together it There can be no Communion betwixt God and Bolial If Idols be set up God is tumbled down If Sin must live within thee thou dost thy utmost to make God die stabbing him to the Heart in that which is the Heart of all his Perfections his Holiness He cannot live if that die 3. 'T is a Challenge to his Justice and
return to his place when by an experiment he was convinced of his Innocency chap. 24.22 and a second chap. 26.25 And since he foresaw that the LORD would cut of those Children of Men who stirr'd up Saul against him 1 Sam. 26.19 And here doubles the expression of his assurance thereof ver 23. 'T is madness to think that the aid he expected from Men was to usurp upon God and take the work out of his hands Therefore when the Amalekite told him he had kill'd Saul it cost him his Life 2 Sam. 1.14 15 16. The Psalmist then was a Man that made Conscience of his Allegiance to his Prince though wicked unjust and a Persecutor No Man can maintain together Disloyalty and Innocence The Office of Kings remains unvitiated under the viciousness of their Persons Nero was the Minister of God Rom. 13. in respect of Authority though the Devils Servant in his private Capacity Subjection and Loyalty is due to the Throne and the Man in it not to the Beast in the bottomless Pit of Immorality and Barbarousness Our Duty requires an owning him Politically rather than Ethically i. e. we must of necessity be subject to his Power acting as the Vicegerent of God and here obey him in every thing But we must not be actively subject to his Lusts acting as the Bondslave of Satan nor therein obey or imitate him Yet do not his Crimes to us devest him of his Right any more than a Father I find no exceptions or difference in the Precept Et ubi lex non distinguit non est distinguendum Where the Law limits not we must not Nothing that we suffer from Superiors can null the bond of the First Command The Gospel as well as the Law obliges to be subject for Conscience sake Rom. 13.5 Ye must needs be subject not only for Wrath i. e. for fear of Punishment but for Conscience sake i. e. out of obedience to God's Command and from sense of Duty In sum since the Powers that be are God's Ordinations we must obey all their lawful Commands submit to their just Censures and Punishments pay them all their dues both of Reverence and Maintenance But since there is an Authority paramount to theirs which has the first and supreme right over us and which we must obey rather than Men if we be commanded to do any thing forbidden or forbid to do any thing commanded by God we must not obey but be willing to suffer without resistance For whoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgment to Condemnation ver 2. Now this resistance consists not in a modest refusal to do or not do what these Powers may enjoyn contrary to the Injunctions of God but in a disorderly or forcible opposition to their Persons or Lawful Commands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being to set up an order contrary to their order which is here reported damnable i. e. when their order is not against the order of God their Laws not opposite to his I know not but that this is a sound Rule That the Higher Powers are to be disobey'd in nothing except it be as plainly forbidden in Scripture or Nature as disobedience to those Powers is I do not say expressly forbid for sometimes a Consequence may be as plain as a Proposition But if a Man be not as fully satisfied from clear Evidence that he cannot obey the Magistrate without disobeying God as he may be satisfy'd that he must obey the Magistrate in all things where God is not disobey'd he cannot disobey with a good and safe Conscience For 't is a Sin to disobey where God interposes not as well as a Sin to obey where he forbids Nothing can take off the obligation to obey but only Divine Authority which laid it on If you are not sure that you have God's Warrant to disoblige you from Obedience you cannot be sure that you do not sin For what can repeal God's Law to obey Cautissimi cujusque praeceptum est Quod dubitas ne feceris but only God And if you be not sure that you do not sin you certainly do sin i. e. act doubtingly not in Faith which is contrary to a good Conscience Rom. 14. ult Since then the Command to obey is indubitable what must I do when the matter commanded is not indubitably Lawful or Unlawful If the thing in reality be lawful I sin in disobeying the Power if unlawful I sin in disobeying God Suppose I have weighty reasons to induce me to believe the unlawfulness and but common to establish the lawfulness only they are enforc'd with the weight of Authority I am not satisfy'd beyond all scruple that I shall not sin against God in obeying Man yet the Arguments from God's Law in Scripture Nature and the Reason of the thing would ballance my Judgment did not that inartificial Argument interpose the Judgment of many Learned and Reverend Men the Judgment of the Publick Conscience as of late it loves to be call'd How shall I steer in this Case Ans 1. The highest deference is to be made to the Publick Judgment of Authority and the Private Judgment of the Learned and I am obliged to suspect my own Judgment and Reason when it runs counter to theirs and proceed with the greatest Caution and Impartiality in forming my Sentiments and Arguments and beware of Pride and Obstinacy give a full testimony of my Humility and willingness to be informed and use all possible means for that purpose 2. 'T is a very unsafe resolution of this Case which I find in the Reverend and Judicious Dr. Saunderson Better obey doubtingly than disobey doubtingly as allowing a less Sin to avoid a greater For the Apostle Rom. 14. ult determines that to act doubtingly is a Sin immediately against Conscience mediately against God For since Conscience suspects the Act to be a Sin against God yet admits it against its own sense 't is all one to it as if it were really a Sin against God though perhaps it be not The Act is against the supposed Authority of God which at present the Conscience takes to be real therefore this distemper of Conscience is as real Rebellion against God as if it acted against the clearest Light imaginable For apparent and real to Conscience are all one though not in themselves The Law of God in General makes Sin and Duty but not immediately to me in particular whilst I am inculpably ignorant of it Promulgation being essential to the obligatoriness of a Law Except it be so publish'd that none without their fault can be ignorant of it they are without fault in the violation of it The next and immediate ground of the binding of a Law is the apprehension and conviction of Conscience that it is imposed by just Authority with an intention to bind as a Law or that it is a Law obligatory in its own Nature Not that Laws
in the full latitude of its sence and readily acknowledge that Rom. 14. follows after it but must not deny that the one as well as the other is part of Canonical Scripture of the Christian Law of perpetual Obligation nor affirm that one is inconsistent with and abrogates the other The chief Exercise of Conscience towards Men is towards the chief of Men. God's Vicegerents on Earth may claim the first respect from his Vicegerent in our Souls but must not engross all entirely We in Conscience are obliged to a further Duty to Inferiours and Equals nay even Enemies in all things to seek their good that 's Righteousness in nothing to do them hurt that 's Innocency In every thing to please them for their good to Edification Rom. 15.1 2 3. that's Perfection 'T is true I am a Devil if I humour Men in their Lusts indulge them in their Impieties and Sensualities A Dog if I fawn upon and flatter them in their Extravagances for my own ends A senceless unprofitable Block if I be altogether unconcern'd My first care must be not to lead them into Sin or Temptation my next to induce them to love and practise Goodness alway having an Eye at their Temporal Good as well as Spiritual though this mainly else shall I violate a Divine Law Gal. 6.10 and therefore violate my Innocency and Conscience and therefore my Comfort I am obliged to give no offence to Jew Gentile nor the Church of God 1 Cor. 10.32 Not to put a stumbling-block or occasion of falling in my Brother's way Rom. 14.13 and a most dreadfully severe Sanction urges and enforces this Law against Offences Matth. 18.7 By Scandal or Offence to Men I do not mean what meerly tends to displease but to defile Words or Deeds or Omissions inducing others to Sin either by acting against the Law of God and Conscience or forbearing to do their Duty The World is at such a pass that a Man can do nothing but 't will displease and even Professors of the highest form in their own Imaginations who therefore should be more candid and aequanimous bitterly storm and censure others who will not both against their Reason and Conscience please them in their unreasonable humours This is not to be valued at all Mine own Light and Reason must be the Principle to guide my Conscience according to the Rules of God's Word in the choice of such Methods of pleasing Men for their good to Edification Rom. 15.1 which by God's Grace I will endeavour that I may not be one of the branded Men-pleasers Gal. 1.10 and plague my own Soul for ever by pleasing another for his hurt and to his Damnation If any Man think to impose his Judgment Fancy or Humour upon me as the guide of my Conscience herein he really scandalizes me If he do not convince me out of the Will of God which is the sole Rule of Conscience he lays a stumbling-block before me to induce me to sin meerly that I may gratifie his Imperiousness Pride and Capriciousness I will keep my way and follow my Light and my Rule if any be displeased with it let them bark on and bite too it hurts me not I 'll give away my Goods and my Labours and my Liberty yea and even my Life as far as I can with a good Conscience to please so as spiritually to profit but give away my Light my Rule my Conscience I will not I dare not I cannot 'T is a double scandal giv'n first to me when Men would thus Biass me to a blind Servitude unto their Wills another to them when in a fond assentatiousness I become a Pander to their lascivient Humours and imperious Imaginations My Soul is of a more noble Extraction and Temper than to debase it self to the turn-skin trade of a Parasite like a Serpent with the same Tongue to lick and kill or Great Alexander's Miss who was fed with nothing but Poysons that her kisses might be deleterious and Murder him No lighter would my Crime be should I violate my Conscience in being a pleaser of Man rather than God Neither therefore in this nor any other way will I scandalize my Brother knowingly nor must he exercise that Tyranny over my Conscience as to give other Law to it besides what God hath prescribed in Nature or Scripture My Practice shall be at his Devotion as far as it doth not intrench upon my duly regulated Judgment and wary will I be that no unweighed Sentiments arrest my Mind and misguide my Conscience I 'll have an Eye and an Ear and a Heart open to receive all Truth freely without Prejudice or Partiality and this from any hands whatever examining and proving all things as fully as the infirmity of my intellect will permit But a slavery to the Opinions of Men against the balance of mine own clear and distinct Reasonings I abhor 1. I will not do any thing which is every way indifferent if it be likely in it self or be found by experience of a tempting Nature and Tendency If any Man either through the quality of my Act or the power of my Example in matters of that nature be drawn into Sin or if it be very probable that he will upon such inducements either transgress the Law of God or imitate me with a doubting Conscience here will I freely forbear the use of my Liberty to prevent his Sin that I may not make it my own by Participation but then I must not omit any known Duty nor commit any known Sin my self though possibly it might prevent his Sin For I must not venture my own Soul by dishonouring God to preserve ano Do Evil that Good may come Rom. 3.8 2. But if in indifferent things my Liberty be determined as by the command of a Lawful Superiour I am in a greater strait For not to obey the Magistrate in Lawful things is a Sin and by my Practice to induce my weak Brother to Sin in imitating me is also a Sin What Rule has my Conscience in this Perplexity It must be considered 1. That my weak Brother's forbearance to obey in a lawful thing is a Sin against God though not his Conscience and therefore my forbearance will edifie him in Sin against the Law of God that commands Obedience although it prevent the Sin against his Conscience and the error of this cannot null the Sin against that So that forbear or not forbear I scandalize him in the one really in the other putatively when he acts against his Conscience he thinks he sins against God in the matter done but does not in disobeying Authority he sins against God yet thinks it not In this he sins immediately against God because he disobeys God's civil Vicegerent in Publick in the other he sins mediately against God because he disobeys his Spiritual Vicegerent in Private Now I conceive that my way here is to do my Duty in obeying the Magistrate wherein I sin not whereas I doubly sin if I do
Spiritual we should in like manner be dog'd and pursu'd with their implacable Malice in our separate and immortal State and be desperate of succour and deliverance from that Eternal Erynnis those innumerable Legions of ever torturing Furies that would be let loose upon us to lash and sting us with the utmost of their virulent Indignation For how should the Deity relieve us if he know nothing of us 'T is therefore the highest Interest of real goodness that there is a God of Vnlimitable Intelligence and Love to supervise and care for us that no Evils can be imagin'd against us in the most dark and secret recesses of Hell much less on Earth but are to him as visible as though Writ or Graven in the Roof of Heaven by the Finger of God in Letters formed all of Suns or Stars and he is replenish'd with that Wisdom and Graciousness which both knows how is perfectly willing and effectually engag'd to counteract them But as this and the other Three so all the Sins of the Wicked are a bitter Grief to a good Soul Whence David Psal 119.136 Rivers of Tears run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law Be their Sins only Omissions which in the Estimate of the World are of a lighter Nature though not in the account of God and an Illuminated Conscience yet will they be grievous to those that love the Lord and his Laws And 't is a good token of Integrity when the Sins of others are a burden Self may engage a Man against his own Sins but if the wickedness of those we have no concern with deeply affect our Hearts 't is an Evidence we are acted by the Interest of God Let this then Oh my Soul over-rule all thy Passions Live under some sense with God What dishonors him let it humble thee Be not so much troubled at the Mischiefs wherewith Men in the Triumphant Madness of their Prosperity indeavour to plague thee as at the Sin whereby they duel Heaven Where thy Father suffers most in his Glory do thou suffer with him Thy Irascibles never act more commendably than when they run upon the Errand of thy Maker Thou art angry and sinnest not when angry at Sin 'T is hard not to Sin in Sorrow if it be not Sorrow for Sin And if thou groan under the Wickedness of others sure thou wiltst not canst not darst not be so much a Hypocrite as to go light under the greater Load of thine own Thou art conscious to thy self of many Circumstances aggravating thine own which thou hast no reason to apply to the Crimes of any beside Where thou knowest of most Evil and that is in thy self there must thou spend Oceans since the little in comparison which thou knowest of other Mens faults requires thy Rivers Let thy Sorrows bear Proportion to thy Condition and Conscience Weep or at least mourn for and bemoan others but most thy self There must thou pay thy Drops here a Deluge To this place therefore appertains all Spiritual Trouble for Sin and the want and weakness and defectiveness of Grace with the effects thereof That Anguish of Mind which springs from the sense of Sin 's odiousness of God The Agonies and Anxieties of the New Birth and under Relapses whatever goes under the name of a Wounded Spirit or Troubled Conscience But 2. Not only the evil of Sin but other Evils in themselves or to him in effect did sadden the Holy Psalmist's Soul Two especially 1. The Prosperity of the Wicked their Joy but his smart Vers 3. How long shall the Wicked Oh LORD how long shall the wicked triumph A common Offence and Trouble to both the Religious and Rational World The Gracious Servants of God often bemoan it What a Multitude of Precepts and Comforts doth the 37. Psal present as an Antidote against fretting about it Habakkuk bewails it Hab. 1.2 3 4. Jer. Ch. 12.1 2 reasons and pleads with God concerning it In Job How many Discourses are there to this purpose And every where in the Psalms to instance in one more only Psal 73. Vers 3. I was envious at the foolish when I saw the Prosperity of the Wicked After a Description whereof he adds Vers 21. Thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my Reins This also was a stumbling Block to the Philosophical World whereof the more Considerate and Vertuous made a good use others a bad reasoning from the unequal Distribution of Temporal Things against the Being of God and Providence into such Absurdities may those run who having but dark Apprehensions of Immortality and the Eternal Recompences of a Future State take their measures from sense and consider not the Unproportionableness of this present moment of Temporal Life to a vast Immense Eternity 2. The Unprosperous Afflicted Persecuted State of the People of God did excite in him sorrowful Reflections I doubt not but that with a broken Heart he Writ down that Complaint Vers 5. They break in pieces thy People O LORD and afflict thine Heritage They slay the Widow and the Stranger and murder the Fatherless Sure with a Soul melted into Sympathizing Commiserations doth he remember this So Asaph Psal 73.10 Therefore his People return hither and Waters of a full Cup are wrung out to them 21. Thus my Heart was grieved c. which refers to all before Discours'd concerning prosperous Wickedness and suffering Godliness And How can the Body in many parts of it suffer and the rest have no Fellow-feeling Thou art not vitally united as a Member to the Body of Christ Oh my Soul but may'st justly dread that he will cut thee off as a dead Libm and bury thee in Hell if thou be insensible of its Pains and Agonies Shew that the common Soul and Spirit Animates thee by a common sense with the rest of the Members that Communicate in it with thee If thou be not with them in Passion yet be in Compassion Why Persecutest thou me Says Christ to Saul Acts 9.4 The pain is in the Members the sense in the Head Christ disclaims thee thou art none of that me whereof he is so tender if thou suffer'st not by Commiseration when his Servants suffer Affliction Put on thy Bowels if thou desirest the Yernings of his when thy Condition shall be like theirs With the Prophet Jerem. 9.1 Say Oh that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might weep Day and Night for the slain of the Daughter of my People My Bowels my Bowels I am pained at my very Heart the Walls of my Heart make a noise in me I cannot hold my Peace because thou hast heard Oh my Soul the sound of the Trumpet the alarm of War To this Head may be reduced all those Troubles which are Fruits of Publick Calamities to Church or State Persecutions Martyrdoms Massacres c. Wars and Violence Oppressions Injuries c. whatever may be the Effects of the Rage and Fury of Men and Malice of impure
not 1. Against the Law of Subjection and Obedience ingaging me to the Magistrate 2. The Law of Charity that requires me not to scandalize my Brother If to gratifie his scrupulosity I forbear I do certainly know that he sins in disobeying But 't is only an accidental scandal may or may not happen that he should be emboldned by my Example to act against his Conscience To throw this off the Stage enter Christian Liberty which to restrain is Sin though by a Person in Authority having Laws under him Ans True but then be sure that it be indeed Christian Liberty least asserting it forfeit and lose your civil and corporal Liberty Now because a right understanding and use of Christian Liberty hath a special influence into Comfort and Peace of Conscience Let 's a little consider it Let it be heedfully observed that true Christian Liberty doth not consist meerly in the indifferent use or omission of things not commanded nor forbidden but in the release of Conscience from an obligation to do or omit some things under pain of Damnation Thus are we set at Liberty from the rigour of the Law or Covenant of Works which required perfect personal and perpetual Obedience upon peril of Death The Covenant of Grace doth not disoblige from such obedience but from the peril of Death though we come short provided we act sincerely This is the main of our Christian Liberty Not a freedom to do or not do but a freedom from Penalty upon an easter Condition And this is all our Hope Comfort and Salvation Under the Jewish Law were included many Ceremonials things in their own nature neither Good nor Evil yet that Law made the omission of them Sin exposing to Damnation Christ by his Gospel hath set us at Liberty How What to do or omit them at Pleasure No such matters For then 't were lawful to Sacrifice to keep the Passover to Circumcise c. as well as forbear No the Liberty granted us must be doubly distinguish'd 1. Into Natural and Adventitious The Indifferency of the use or omission of Lawful things is a part of Natural not Adventitious Liberty which understand thus Some things which were in their own Nature lawful to be used or not used God determined on one side by positive Law under the Mosaical Dispensation But over and above there were things made the matter of positive Laws which would never have entred into the Imaginations of Men had not the first notices thereof come from God Who could ever have thought of such a thing as Circumcision c. had not the first Injunction thereof proceeded from Heaven Our Natural Liberty did consist in a freedom from that and like Yoaks But not in an indifferency to use or not use them So then by the Law of our Native Liberty we may use or not use some things without Sin there 's an indifferency on both sides as to take up a Straw or let it alone c. Yet also the indifferency does naturally lie only on one side in other things as to continue the Body in its Natural State without Circumcision But God for wise and holy purposes having abridged the Jews of this Natural Liberty for a season when the reason of those Laws ceased was pleas'd to abolish them whereby by we became reinstated in our natural Right and Freedom which otherwise those Laws when devulged to us would have taken from us Now the reason of imposing those Laws was to succour the infirmity of the Jews in two things 1. In Faith of which nature are all the things impos'd which have a Typical significancy as Sacrifices c. 2. In Manners of which sort are all that have a moral significancy as Meats Washings c. But now Jesus the substance of those Typical Shadows being come in the Flesh the Laws concerning them were ipso facto vacated and by the more plentiful effusion of his Spirit of Truth and Grace thorowly furnishing Men for exact Moral Goodness he took away the necessity both of remembring us thereof and eeking it out by Washings Circumcision c. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as a compleat Law from the Spirit of Truth doing the one more sufficiently than a few dumb signs and the New Nature communicated by the Spirit of Grace together with Christ's Merit all-sufficiently doing the other This is the Liberty I call Adventitious not that 't is new but newly given not that we never had it but had it restor'd after an interruption During the restraint 't was sin to use it To Christ we owe that now we may again use it without sin as at first before God abridged it and this is that we call Christian Liberty in things indifferent as contradistinct to Natural For Christ as Redeemer did not parchase our Natural Liberty but gave it as Creator 'T is only the Adventitious that we enjoy by vertue of his Merit 't is only this that we are entrusted with the Preservation and Vindication of by the New Testament 2. Liberty is either Positive or Negative The former consists in an indifferency to act this or that or the other way at pleasure The latter in being loos'd from the obligation to act That which Christ the Redeemer bestows is chiefly of this latter sort We are disobliged loosed from the Ceremonial Bands wherewith the Jews were tyed so as we need not to act as they under that Oeconomy 'T is no sin to us to omit incurrs no Penalty And this freedom from the guilt and punishment due for Omission is indeed a privilege which constitutes the very essence of the Covenant of Grace in one part of it The tenor thereof in its Negative part being this viz. Thy Imperfections Failures Omissions shall not be imputed as Sins effecting thy Damnation This for want of a better Word I call Negative Liberty Although thou do not Circumcise do not Sacrifice do not Eat a Paschal Lamb do not Wash c. thou dost not sin thou shalt not be cut off from thy People from my Heaven This and none other in these indifferent Matters is Christian Liberty the Purchase and Gift of Jesus Christ our Lord. So that except Magistrates do again introduce the Ceremonial Law in whole or part they do not at all touch upon Christian Liberty but Natural only which they are allow'd to restrain in civil things upon just occasions as is evident from not only Scripture and Reason but the practice of all Nations and Ages and Families For would it not be sweet to hear a Child or Servant reply to their Superiours commanding them to light a Candle c. 'T is not lawful for you to restrain my Liberty Had you not commanded I might have obey'd but your imposing has made it unlawfal Oh dainty delicate Reasoning Yet such as some fob off their Consciences withal 'T is the same thing when they command in the Circumstantials of Divine Worship c. I charge you to be present at
Railings Revilings Censures Uncharitableness Cursings Excommunicatings Fines Imprisonments Murderings Massacrings for things extrinsecal and foreign to their holy Profession recommended in the Mosaical Prophetical Evangelical and Apostolical Writings As if God had not delivered Precepts enough to guide Men to Heaven ever Party must have new of its own to torture Mens Consciences doubting that there are not Sins enough to damn Men unless we by our whimsies make large additions to the sum discovering thereby how much we are affraid that those who otherwise would securely tread in the Paths of Life and gain the Crown of Glory should not stumble and fall upon our new created Blocks and thereby precipitate themselves into Hell For what else is the meaning of our unwritten Traditions unwritten Canons unwritten Offices unwritten Orders and an hundred more by the by 's Tricks and Snares and Trains and Traps made to help the Devil more certainly to catch enough Is not the Holy Word of God the Scripture in its Rules and Laws too oft too much too foully-transgress'd but the Mouth of Hell must be gagg'd and rack'd wider with new devices that it may be capacious enough to receive the numberless numbers that we resolve to send thither by man-made Sins as if it were in despite of God And least our self-devised Engins should fail of effecting this and a poor quivering trembling Conscience that looks asquint at them should chance to preserve its Innocence and Allegiance to God and its present Light and Sentiments by sliping out of or breaking through the Snare and refusing to wound it self to eternal Death with the Ponyard we put into its hands we must jog and thrust home and drive on its slow and cautious pendulous Arm by the violence of such severe indispensible Sanctions so strictly look'd after so rigorously executed and all under a bold pretence of Divine Warrant that if Men have any thing of Nature Sense and Commiseration to their own Flesh their dearest Yoke-fellows their pretty tender innocent Babes they must be cruelly enforc'd to determine to be damn'd for them or kill their Hearts by dying before their Eyes under as many Agonies as ingenious Malice can invent and this perhaps a thousand times over beside the bequeathing them to the same or more miserable Fortune and all this is doing God good Service As if the Lord that bought Mens Souls to ease them Matth. 11.29 30. had done it only to sell them again to the most bloody butchering Fiends to torment them And God who with so much severity prohibits Cruelty Murder Bloodshed by his Laws had laid in an exception and given Commission for this to as many as can so divest all sense and bowels of Humanity and Christianity as to judge none to be Men and Christians but themselves and invest so much of Wolf Tyger Dragon as to do the utmost to make all others Proselytes of the Gates of Heil like themselves when in the mean time Men with the greatest impunity may violate the noblest Ordinations of Heaven or upon Prosecuon buy off or commute the Penance for a little Trash and Dirt. Oh dear Lord Jesus how long how long shall such a Spirit Triumph and ride in Scarlet How long shall they tear in pieces thy People and Heritage under the Beasts Skins wherewith they have cloathed them Oh blessed Spouse of Christ How long must thou be affronted with the violence of such beastly Ruffians that under a disguise pretend to be thy-very self that they may the more securely ravish and destroy thee The Wolf in the Lambs skin unsuspectedly to devour it A Beast with Horns like a Lamb but a Voice like a Dragon Rev. 13.11 Well Christ's Servants are not Wolves Thorns and Thistles Matth. 7.15 16. Profitable to none hurtful to all publick Curses But Sheep Vines Fig-trees their Temper their Behaviour their Fruit altogether good meek gentle sweet refreshing reviving pleasing generally useful publick Blessings like their Master every way desirable grateful all being better for them none worse in Goods good Name Body or Soul their Designs their Principles their Temper and Spirit their Behaviour and Purpose and Practice being the general benefit of Mankind and the Church of God especially that wherein their Lines are fallen They think it they represent it they indeavour further to make and preserve it a goodly Heritage If it hold the Head if it uphold the main if its established Doctrine be truly Christian if its design be true goodness if its Worship in the substance be Divine They bless God for it they cover its Blemishes they bear with its Infirmities they further its Ends they endeavour to inlarge it to adorn it with real Beauties to vindicate it from Reproaches to promote its Unity Prosperity Peace Purity Felicity lament its Miseries Breaches Corruptions Defects Deformities but expose it but defame it they dare not they will not This is a truly Catholick Spirit proceeding in all its actings upon truly Catholick Principles This and this only when the risk of Partiality Censoriousness Self-idolizing Faction Fury Barbarousness Madness Devilism is run will stand upon a secure basis and yeild a Man the blessed Fruits of Comfort Joy Peace and Contentation But I must come out of the Clouds and be plain Therefore shall first direct what ought to be owned by a Publick Spirit next what Principles will enable a Man to own what he ought 1. Common Humanity engages to be well wishers to that general Nature which is diffused through all the Species and love that in any Man which I honour in my self All the Butcheries and Barbarities on Earth issue from Mens degeneracy from Humanity into a ferine or diabolical Nature But since I am a Man nothing humane shall be foreign to my Cognisance to my Compassion to my Ear to my Conscience When the Vices of Persons give a check to my Bowels the vertue of the Nature shall retrieve their yearning motions and when I can see nothing in Men to engage I will endeavour to imitate the best of Paterns in taking Arguments from my self I will not so much regard their Conditions as their Capacities and that in all their Possibilities If this Nature be personally joined to God why should not I be joined to it in Affection Shall I tread that Man in the dirt who may shine as a Star in the Firmament of Glory Shall a Companion of Angels and God himself be worse dealt with than a Devil May Heaven receive him and shall not my Heart Is God so unkind to me as to give me an Example of brutishness to my own Nature I must not be worse to him than I would have him to me were our circumstances changed the measures I meet to him shall I receive of God 2. Christianity next both renders a man more meet and lays upon me a further bond to desire endeavour and effect his good The honour of the Name the power of the Thing The famed Mr. Fox could never deny
uphold thee with the right hand of my Righteousness 13. I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand saying unto thee Fear not I will help thee c. Deut. 33.26 There is none like unto the God of Jesurun who rideth upon the Heaven in thy help and in his Excellency on the Sky The Eternal God is thy Refuge and underneath are the Everlasting Arms. He is a mighty Man indeed who thus under chastening is supported by the Almighty Power of God 4. 'T is Jehovah the Performer of Promises that chastizes and therefore his chastening it self is not the Execution of the Old-Covenant Threatning to a Child of God but a fulfilling of a New-Covenant Promise Psal 89. If the Children of him whom God makes his First-born Ver. 27. and his Throne as the days of Heaven Ver. 29. do forsake my Law c. Ver. 30. Then will I visit their Transgression with the Rod and their Iniquity with Stripes I call this a Promise not a Threat nor a bare Asseveration because inserted as Matter of Privilege amidst a Cluster of Promises true in a sence of David but redounding to Christ and his Children and Seed Heb. 2.13 Is 53.10 But as to Israel in Aegypt so to all his spiritual Israel when in their most grievous Agonies and Oppressions he reveals himself by his Name Jehovah in a peculiar manner For to no Condition are more Promises made to none more fulfill'd 'T is a blessed thing indeed under all the most doleful Circumstances of Providence to inherit in Jehovah all the Promises In this art thou richer under the very depth of Poverty and Distress than in the Gain of infinite Worlds 5. God's Corrections are Instructions the Word signifies both and however to the Children of God they are inseparable If God thus teach with a strong Hand he will also teach out of his Law Job 34.31 32. Elihu there accounts it a very proper Petition Surely it is meet to be said to God I have born Chastisement I will not offend any more what I see not teach thou me If I have done Iniquity I will do no more Therefore David Psal 119.71 professes It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes Our blessed Redeemer was in this an excellent Pattern Heb. 5.8 Though he were a Son yet learned he Obedience by the things which he suffered And God Almighty declares his consident expectation of this from his People Zeph. 3.7 I said surely thou wilt fear me thou wilt receive Instruction which supposes some to give it so their dwelling should not be cut off howsoever I punished them Indeed if then our Ears be not opened to Discipline and our Instruction sealed when God sets on his teachings with Blows we are very bad Scholars But Mic. 6.9 The Lords Voice the voice of his Rod cryeth unto the City and Wisdom shall see thy Name hear ye the Rod the Lord's voice in it and him that hath appointed it 6. God chastens in order to Rest Rest from Adversity and the Days of Adversity Rest not merited but given and given by Jehovah that can command it who is a self-mover and free in his Communications and when in thee there 's nothing to be a motive to his Bounty can and does take Arguments from himself Thy Miseries shall have an end and a happy end They shall issue in that which is an earnest and pledge of the highest Happiness Rest Everlasting Rest Thy Week-day Labours and Sorrows and Sufferings shall terminate in a blessed Sabbatism even in this Life if God see it good however in the Life to come God will give it and then who can withhold it 7. All the while thou art in Misery thou livest under distinguishing Mercy Thou art not ranked with the Wicked nor reserv'd for their Woes In chastening thee God differences thee from them who though they live in a Paradise of Prosperity yet even there as Adam are digging their own Graves and burying all their good Fortunes Whilst the Lord chastens thee out of thy Sins they are sinning themselves into Plagues beyond the dimension of Chastenings Thou art only carryed through a blessed Purgatory they into and left in the Pit of Perdition which their own Sins and God's Justice are preparing for them and thy Sufferings shall last no longer than till their Iniquities be full and the Pit made ready to receive them in which work both their own Wickedness and Divine Vengeance make hast Their Foot shall slide in due time for the day of their Calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make hast For the Lord shall judge his People and repent himself for his Servants when he seeth that their Power is gone and there is none shut up or left Deut. 32.35 36. Rejoyce Ob ye Nations therefore with his People Ver. 43. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Hosts Ob my People that dwellest in Zion be not afraid of the Assyrian He shall smite thee with a Rod and shall lift up his Staff against thee after the manner of Aegypt For yet a very little while and the Indignation shall cease and mine Anger in their Destruction Isa 10.24 25. 8. Thy Affliction is not unto Rejection and Desertion as in the Wicked The Lord will not cast off and forsake though he chasten ver 14. no but own and return unto his Servants Although he may sometimes seem to depart yet 't is with yerning Bowels and a returning Heart and the reason of this is that 9. He owns his Propriety even when he corrects They are his People his Inheritance an Inheritance that cannot that shall not be alienated The Devil and Wicked Men may by God's Permission usurp and make a forcible Intrusion and Entry but the legal Right abides with God and he will infallibly recover it in his own way and time Joh. 10.27 28 29. My Sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hand My Father which gave them me is greater than all and no Man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand 10. The Lord will be thy Patron and Advocate to plead thy Righteous cause that although Judgment be departed from Righteousness i. e. Unrighteous Judgment be past against thee yet God will turn the Scales and cause Judgment at length to weigh thee in a right Balance and sentence shall be given on thy side 11. Thy Affliction shall issue in Honour and Advancement When God exalts Righteousness thou shalt be with it follow after it have like fare with it whether it be done in this World or the future If in this Life you continue under these Depressions yet the honour of a glorious Kingdom is reserved for you at that day when Judgment shall infallibly return to Righteousness Lastly Hence it highly concerns you to consider and search into