as Psal 19.7 when it is said that the Law of God converts the soule which is the most proper effect of the Gospell it is evident that in that place under the name of the Law the Psalmist must understand the Gospell too As likewise when he tells us that his delight is in the Law of God which sustained his spirit that he perished not in his afflictions Psal 119.92 he must of necessity understand Gods promises aswell as the precepts of the Law seeing they be the promises rather then the precepts that support the soule in times of triall when we know whom we beleeve who is both able and willing and ready to make good what he hath promised as his children find by experience that there failed not ought of any good which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel but all came to passe Iosh 21.45 But as for the Promises especially those that concerne the Kingdome of Christ which were revealed to the Patriarchs delivered by the Prophets and lastly enlarged and more fuly and clearly opened by the Evangelists and Apostles we shall consider them apart hereafter But only the Commandements For the present we have now in hand only that which is properely and most commonly understood by the name of the Law which containe those commandements and rules of practise which God hath given to his Church for her direction and left upon record in the Scriptures Now these we know are distinguished by the names of Laws morall Judiciall Ceremoniall Morall ceremoniall and judiciall which by Moses in sundry places are promiscuously called Laws Statutes Judgements and Ordinances Of these severall sorts of Laws that which we call Morall comes to be handled in the first place Of these this which is called the morall Law because it was given by God for regulating of mens manners and conversation is of all the rest of the Laws most ancient Which is the most ancient of all Laws most generall and most perpetuall First most ancient Psal 119.160 as being given to our first Parents in Paradise As given to Adam in Paradise that is to man assoone as he had any being I grant indeed that we have no record of any other Laws given to Adam but those which we find mentioned Gen. 2. which are only some branches of the Second Commandement in the tree of life of the Fourth in the Institution of the Sabbath of the Seventh in the Law of Marriage and of the Eight in appointing them to keep Paradise which are all of them positive Laws and therefore need to be expresly set down or else they could not have been known whereas the rest of the Laws being all Lawes of nature and therefore discernible by naturall right reason for which cause they are said to be written in mans heart might be known although they were not recorded and therefore are omitted by Moses in that briefe history But that the rest of the morall Precepts were given unto Adam although perhaps not by word of mouth Either by word or written in his heart but written in his heart at the same time must needs be granted unlesse we conceive that God made Adam more imperfect then any other of his creatures for that he gave all the rest of the creatures rules of their motions and operations either imprinted in their natures if they want sense or by the direction of sense in those that have it is as cleare as the light Now that God should either give no law or which is almost one an imperfect law to man who most needed was most capable and best able to make use of a law must needs much disparage either his kindnesse to mankind or his wisdome in rendring the most eminent and serviceable of all the creatures upon earth unusefull and unprofitable at the least for most part if he had no perfect law to guide him It must therefore be necessarily granted that the whole morall Law was given to Adam that is to mankind in Paradise And consequently most universall as given to the whole nature of man in him and by necessary consequent must be acknowledged to be of all laws the most ancient and upon the same ground must necessarily be generall or universall seeing it was given in our first parents to the whole nature of man which when that law was given was wholly in them It is true that the change of mans condition by Adams fall hath seemed to cause some small alteration in the law as it is not a duty that now binds us to labour in Paradise or to abstain from the one or to eate of the other of the trees that stood in the midst of it Notwithstanding even by that law all men in generall are bound to labour in such employments as God cals them unto and to abstain from all things that God forbids and to make use of all such ordinances as the Lord appoints for the confirmation and strengthening of their faith So that those laws given to Adam bind all men still in the grounds and scope of them although they oblige not his posterity in those things which had relation to that state wherein he then stood and from which afterwards he so sodainly fell And upon the same ground it must as necessarily follow Upon the same ground those morall lawes must needs be perpetuall that those laws which were given to Adam are perpetuall to continue as long as men have a being on earth For seeing they were given to him as the root of mankind they necessarily bind his posterity in succeeding generations to the end of the world We never find any new law given to the Church in any age It is true that the law given to Adam hath been since renewed perhaps to Noah after the floud Which have been renued as may be probably guessed by that which we read concerning murther Gen. 9.6 And it may be to Abraham after God called him out from Vr of the Chaldeans seing we find him commended for keeping Gods commandements his statutes and his laws Gen. 26.5 But most fully and cleerly it was renewed and restored by Moses upon mount Sinai But not altered And that the law then published for the substance of it was no new law appears by comparing the law given to Adam which is in effect the same with the second fourth seventh and eighth commandements of the decalogue with which in a generall consideration they are all one if they be compared together That this which we call the Morall law was founded for ever as the Psalmist witnesseth Psal 119.152 and was to remain and to be observed as a rule of life unto Gods Church our Saviour himselfe witnesseth in expresse words Mat. 5.18 where he professeth that untill heaven and earth passe that is till the worlds end one jot or one tittle shall not passe from the law Wherefore whatsoever was praescribed in that law we may observe and guide our selves
innocency in which he then stood then the nature of man in generall and are therefore excepted in the Major proposition wherein is asserted no more but that these laws are perpetuall which were given to Adam as a man not as to perfect man This proposition thus understood is founded upon this ground of truth God made his Covenant with Adam in respect to his nature not to his person that God established his Covenant with Adam principally in respect of his nature and not so much in respect of his person so that by consequent it must follow that all who are partakers of that nature are bound by that Covenant Of this faith we have an evident demonstration in the punishment which light upon the whole nature of man for Adams transgression which of necessity supposeth the sinne of mans whole nature in Adams person in whom it was then included seeing otherwise we know the sonne shall not beare the iniquity of the father Ezek. 18.20 So that the argument holds strongly and convincingly in this manner As appeares because the nature of man becomes guilty of the breach of that Covenant If Adams breach of Covenant made between God and him brought guilt upon all his posterity that is upon the whole nature of man then it must needs follow that the Covenant obliged the whole nature of man it is utterly impossible that one should become a guilty person by breach of a Covenant to which he was never bound But the punishment inflicted upon the whole nature of man makes it evident that the whole nature of man was made guilty by Adams transgression wherefore the whole nature of man was bound in the Covenant which God made with Adam and consequently is obliged by the Law which was given in that Covenant Unto this argument Secondly Christ urgeth the Law of mariage given in Paradise as then in force may be added another proofe taken from our Saviour Christs reasoning with the Scribes and Pharisees Mat. 19.48 about their question concerning divorce which they pretended to be permitted by Moses his Law Deut. 24.1 2. For in disputing with them our Saviour grounds his argument against the divorce pretended to be permitted by the Law of Moses because it crossed that Law given unto Adam So that all the strength of our Saviours argument against their divorce must rest upon this Maxime Implying that the Law given in the beginning is unalterable That which the Law given to Adam in the beginning did not allow that ought not to be allowed which is all one as if he had said that the Law given to Adam from the beginning is unalterable and therefore remaines still in full force so that all men to the worlds end are bound to yeeld obedience thereunto Some perhaps may object Objection 6 that this answer of our Saviour Christ unto the Pharisees is applied by him to that particular case alone which was then proposed but extends not farther and therefore determines no more but that the law of marriage which was given to Adam in the beginning stands still in force but resolves nothing concerning the Obligation of the rest of the Laws which were given to Adam at the same time whether they be of force still or no. Answer To which exception two things may be answered First we say that seeing our Saviour resolves that the divorce supposed to be permitted by the law of Moses is therefore not to be allowed because it was contrary to the law of marriage given by God to Adam in the beginning then by all the rules of Logick and reason it must necessarily follow that whatsoever is contrary to any Law established in the beginning must needs be unlawfull because the reason of disallowing that kind of divorce is not drawn frō any thing that is peculiar to the Law of marriage but from that which is cōmon to all the rest of the Laws which were given at the same time as well as to that particular namely that the Law given by God from the beginning did not permit it Secondly if our Saviours answer to the Pharisees wherein he condemnes the divorce pretended to be permitted by the law of Moses be restrained to Marriage only and extend not to the rest of the Lawes given at the same time it leaves unto the Pharisees a faire ground of exception against such a resolution of the question proposed For they might easily have replied that this law was not in force any more then the rest of the Laws given at the same time to our first Parents now it is absurd to imagine that our Saviour who knew their cavilling humours by experience would leave them that starting hole Wherefore when he condemnes the divorce pretended to be permitted by Moses for that only reason because it was contrary to the Law given to Adam in the beginning he must necessarily inferre that the Laws which were then given are still in force both unto us and unto the end of the world The major proposition of that syllogisme that concludes the morality and perpetuity of the Sabbath namely that all laws given to Adam which had respect to his nature and not to his present condition are morall and perpetuall being thus fully cleared and confirmed there remains only the minor or second proposition to be made good which consists of two branches Now the law of the Sabbath was given from the beginning The first that this law of the Sabbath was given to Adam in Paradise The second that it was given to him in respect of his nature and not of his person that is to him as a man not as an innocent or perfect man Of these two branches the opposers of the morality of the Sabbath meddle not with the latter but oppose only the former affirming that the institution of the Sabbath by God was not from the beginning The reasons of which opposition we shall examine after we have given our reasons for the proving of the contrary namely that the Sabbath was instituted by God from the beginning The dispute concerning the day in which Adam fell whether it was on the sixth day on which he was created or on the next day which seems more probable if all things be duly weighed as also of the time when the Sabbath day was first instituted whether it was before Adams fall while he was yet in Paradise or after his fall when he was driven out of Paradise is not of any great moment to the point which we have in hand although seeing in the series of the history written by Moses we find the giving of this and diverse other laws recorded before Adams fall we have reason to think all things to have been done in the same order in which they are related unlesse we had better arguments then meer surmises to induce us to judge otherwise it is enough to our present purpose to have that acknowledged which no man denies that the law was given
methodically in the interpretation of the Commandement we must first enquire what the scope is at which it aimes The appointing of a day of rest cannot be the scope of the fourth Commandement For all Laws being rules directed to some end proposed cannot so well be interpreted any way as by the end unto which they are directed Now the appointing of a day of rest cannot possibly be the last scope of this Commandement seeing we know rest from labour is enjoyned to give us freedome for holy duties and the exercising of our selves therein But of rest for holy duties which consequently must be the principall thing intended in the fourth Commandement But then it will be questioned to what kind of holy duties this day is consecrated For there are many that imagine that God hath set it apart only for duties of publike worship Publick and private But this opinion seemes not to agree with the letter of the Law which in expresse tearms gives the whole day unto the Lord for his own immediate service in religious worship Now we know publike worship takes not up the whole day It must needs be granted therefore the Lord appointed that day of holy rest for the performance of something more unto God then publike worship and so much is expresly affirmed Isa 58.13 where we are forbidden to find our own pleasure or speak our own words upon that day which as all men must acknowledge must needs extend to the ordering of our carriage in private as well as in publike so that the setting apart of a whole day of rest unto God for his publike and private worship seemes to be the full scope of this fourth Commandement Next to the scope of this Law 3 Parts of the fourth Commandement the 1. Summe 2. Explication 3. Reason we are to consider advisedly the frame and composure of it and therein we are first to take notice of the principall parts of the Law which we shall find to be three First we have laid down unto us the summe of the Law Exod. 20.8 Secondly we have the explication of that sum ver 9. Thirdly we have the reason of all v. 11. Each of these two first parts containe three heads of duties pointed out in the summe and opened and unfolded in the explication and confirmed in the reason of the Law The first duty is Preparation intimated in the word Remember The second the Sequestration from ordinary employments implied in the word Sabbath The third is Sanctification of that rest expressed in the phrase to keepe it holy All these are explained in their order Our Preparation must be by the dispatch of all our Secular affaires in six daies Our rest must be a cessation by all persons from our usuall labours and imployments in secular affaires The Sanctification of our rest must be by employing our selves in holy duties The confirmation of all follows in the reason of the Law of Preparation and rest from Gods own Act of Creating the world in sixe daies and ceasing from his work on the seventh and the Sanctifying of that rest from Gods Commandement and ordaining the seventh day to be a day of rest unto us for ever Now wherein the strength of that Confirmation lies will be the maine point in question of which hereafter To come now to the Explication of the words and phrases in this Commandement The first word in the summe of this Law Remember is diversly interpreted some conceive that it implies the importance of the duty commanded as that word is used many times to intimate some matter of speciall observation as Deut. 9.7 Others there are that think it points at the Antiquity of that Law given many ages before and therefore to be called afresh to minde as the Psalmist saith he will remember the works of the Lord his wonders of old Psal 177.11 and 143.5 and withall some conceive that he taxeth the peoples forgetfulnesse of that Law and neglect of the observation of it in the time of their bondage in Aegypt Some or all of these senses may be implied in this word Remember but beyond all these we may probably conceive that it may import Remember implies Think upon and by dispatching of thy busines provide for the Sabbath Think upon and accordingly before-hand provide for the observation of this holy rest by dispatching of all the works of thy calling that nothing may be undone which providence and diligence might prevent that might hinder thy rest on the seventh day As for those which conceive that in this Law labour upon the sixe daies is commanded as well as rest upon the seventh they are much mistaken The precept for labour is delivered in the eight Commandement as the Apostle interprets that Law Eph. 4.28 In this place is commanded the dispatch of our secular affaires before the Sabbath whether it be done in six daies or fewer it is not materiall as to this Law The next tearme to be explained Sabbath is a day of rest which only and not seventh is expressed in sum and conclusion of the Commandement is the name of the Sabbath or day of rest and easing from labour as that word properly signifies which is repeated againe in the conclusion of the Commandement And it is not to be passed by without observation that whereas the old Sabbath from the beginning till Christ came was the seventh day or last of the weeke and both in the explanation and reason of the Commandement is appointed to be one of the seven yet God mentions not the name of seven either in the Summe or in the Conclusion of the Commandement We have therefore reason to conceive that seeing God in this Law was to prescribe something of the Law of Nature The day of rest being of the law of nature the set day of positive institution which is the appointing of a day of holy Rest to be consecrated unto God for his worship which the very light of nature teacheth and in the explanation and reason of the Law to adde something which is of positive Institution namely the proportion of the time and the set day wherein this rest was to be observed he first settles that which is of the Law of nature and afterwards establisheth that which is Positive God purposely makes choise of such fit expressions especially in his Law in which he is most exact as may best acquaint us with his minde Wherefore seeing this is a fit Method to be observed by him and seeing the composure of this Law agrees with it we have reason to conclude that the Lord himselfe intended it in this place The last phrase in the sum of this Commandement remains which is To keep it holy To keep holy is to employ the day in holy duties of Gods immediate worship Now to keep a day holy is to employ it in holy actions directed to the immediate service and worship of God in the use of such
to be taken away For as for those allegations that the rest of the Sabbath was a type of Christs rest in the grave and a part of the Iewish bondage how little force they have we have shewed before Now then if it evidently appear to all that will consider things with any indifferency by all that we have said that neither the resting from our labour one day in seven nor the continuing of that rest for the whole day nor yet the strictnesse of any rest enjoyned by the fourth Commandement are either as ceremonious or upon any other ground to be altered neither that the particular day of rest which now by Christs resurrection is altered from the last to the first day of the week is there commanded otherwise then in a generall rule equally communicable both to the Iewish and Christian Sabbath there appears no necessity of granting any thing to be mutable in this fourth Commandement more then in any of the laws of the Decalogue It hath been intimated before that mens mistake of the right interpretation of the fourth Commandement hath been a great occasion of questioning the perpetuity and immutability of the morall law and of how dangerous consequent it is to admit that there is any thing mutable therein experience teacheth us when we find how ready men are to embrace and hold that dangerous errour of casting aside the whole law and that so far as to deny it to be a rule of direction unto us Christians in the course of our practice whereby they open a wide gap to all licentiousnesse and by that means overthrow the very life and power of godlinesse to the high dishonour of God and to the extream perill of their own souls so that we see how neerly it concerns all such as have any true zeal for the furthering of Gods honour and their own salvation and their brethrens to endeavour by all the means that they can the establishing and maintaining of this truth that the morall law given by God to Adam in the beginning and renewed afterwards by Moses upon mount Sinai is an everlasting rule left by God unto his Church for the right ordering and guiding them in all their ways The premises then being duly weighed and layed together we have a sufficient ground to argue in this manner All the laws written in the Decalogue are morall and immutable in all things But the fourth Commandement concerning the observation of the Sabbath day is one of the laws of the Decalogue Therefore this law of the Sabbath is perpetuall and unchangeable in all things which are concerned therein And so much concerning the morality and perpetuity of the fourth Commandement in the Decalogue by way of digression SECT IV. A continuation of the consideration of the rest of the Laws recorded in the Scripture with such instructions as may be drawn from them HAving now established the perpetuity of that Law which we call Morall in all the Commandements thereof it is time to returne to that from which we digressed namely the delivering of rules for our direction in drawing out observations from the Laws recorded in Scripture for our instruction and there being three kinds of these Laws Morall Judiciall Ceremoniall as we have shewed before of these the Morall law comes first to be considered Now that Law being given to Adam the roote of mankind and that not so much to his person as to the nature of man which was wholly in him when he received this Law from God and consequently binding all those who are partakers of that nature it must needs be acknowledged that whatsoever commands we find therein we must guide our selves by as the rule of our practice Which that we may the better doe it will be needfull to lay before us some rules All duties to God and man are commanded in the Morall Law that may direct us in the right interpretation of these Commandements Before we give these rules it will be necessary to lay before us this evident ground of truth that these ten words as they are called comprise all the heads of duties to be performed both to God and man This is clearly manifested by our Saviours answer to the Lawyer that tempted him Luke 10.26 enquiring what he might doe to inherit eternall life to whom Christ replies that whatsoever duty was needfull to the attaining thereof was to be found in the commandements where he wils him to seek it Now these precepts being delivered in such briefe expressions as they are it must needs follow that every one of the tearms in them must needs be of exceeding large comprehension First therefore Rules for interpreting the Law whereas we find these Laws of the Decalogue penned some in the form of a command and most of them in the forme of a prohibition Rule 1 we must conceive that under every command there is implied a prohibition of whatsoever is contrary to what is commanded All the Commandements forbidding any sinne command the contrary duty and commanding the duty forbid the opposite sin and in every prohibition a command of all duties opposite to that which is forbidden For example in the second Commandement which under the name of Images forbids the inventing or using of any form of worship of mans devising there is withall commanded the worship of God according to his own will in the use of the ordinances prescribed and warranted by his Word as prayer and hearing of the Word receiving the Sacraments c. And in the third Commandement under the prohibition of taking Gods name in vaine is commanded the taking up of it with all holy reverence and feare Secondly Rule 2 under the name of any duty commanded there is required not only the performance of the outward act of that duty The Law besides the outward act requires the obedience of the heart but withall the inward obedience of the heart to the Law which requires it Rom. 6.17 and the letting out of all the affections of the soule in the performance of it as Psal 119.167 the Prophet professeth that his soul had kept Gods Testimonies and that he did love them exceedingly whence it is that both our Saviour Christ and his Apostles after him both comprise all duties commanded in the Law under the name of Love being an affection of the heart and tell us that the holy affection of love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 implying that whatsoever the act be which we perform yet if it proceed not from that holy disposition of the heart And the use of all helps to any duty commanded it is not answerable to the Law Againe together with the duty commanded in any Law there is required the use of all helps and meanes which may further us thereunto on the other side where any sinne is forbidden there the inward roote of that evill And forbids the originall corruption of the heart with all motions flowing from thence even as far
but his own Spirit 1 Cor. 2.11 It is true concerning a mans mind seeing it is moved according to reason in order to the end which he proposeth to himself therefore one that knows another mans end may with some probability guesse at his thoughts and purposes tending to that end which Solomon implies in affirming that though counsell be hidden deep in the heart of man yet a man of understanding may draw it out Prov. 20.5 And so a man knowing that Gods main end in all his ways is his own honour may conclude that Gods law must be such as may direct men in those ways in which they may most glorifie God But what those particular directions must be it is impossible for men to guesse till God himself reveal them It is true that the very light of nature which God hath planted in every man will discover unto him some of the chief heads of the duties that he requires of him as to love the Lord with all our hearts and to fear and serve him Deut. 10.12 And to serve one another through love Gal. 5.13 But in what particular services we are to expresse our piety to God or love to men what man can prescribe or imagine For that the ways by which both these main duties may be performed are various and divers it is evident now to which of these different ways God would direct one it was impossible to guesse till God himself had made it manifest in his own word To give instance of this truth in some particulars Especially laws positive must needs bee given by God alone it was impossible for any man to conceive what ceremonies or outward acts God would accept and be best pleased withall in the duties of his worship No man could divine that the tree of life should be a Sacrament to Adam in Paradise or Circumcision to the Jews or Baptisme and the Lords Supper to Christians For ought any man could conceive to the contrary the Priesthood might have been setled upon the Tribe of Simeon as well as Levi. The rest of the Sabbath might have been fixed on the second or sixth day as well as on the seventh and on the first if God had so appointed it And for the duties of the second Table it was not of absolute necessity that God should establish such a kinde of subordination and subjection of one man to another as he hath done or give every man a propriety in his goods to possesse them as severall to himself or limit one man to one wife and ordain marriage for the onely way of propagation of mankinde seeing that although all these are fit and convenient yet God if hee had pleased might have given other rules for the governing and establishing peace amongst men and it was as lawfull for him to give the creatures what laws he pleased as to give them what natures he pleased So that seeing the law for the right ordering of the creatures depends meerly upon Gods will which cannot be known unlesse himself reveal it it must needs be granted which was first proposed that none could give the law to Gods Church but God himself Next if it had been possible 2ly Nor is it convenient that any other then God should give this law 1 For preserving Gods authority it was no way fit either for the advancing of Gods honour or for the furthering of mans good that any other should give that law then God himself Not fit for Gods honour in two respects First Gods authority could be no way so well preserved as by giving his own law to his people seeing all men acknowledge that giving of laws is an honour annexed to the highest power although the execution of them be committed to Magistrates of a lower degree It may be probably guessed that even heathen Law-givers by pretending either consulting with their gods in giving their laws or allowance of them by them acknowledged law-making to be a divine prerogative which yet is more fully manifested by this that we acknowledge no law to bee just that is not either founded on or consonant to Gods law either written in mans heart or delivered in his word So that it was fit that God should give the law to his own people to preserve his own authority amongst them Again it is requisite for Gods honour in another respect 2 And that we might have a perfect mirrour of him Which none could give but himself that none but God himself should give his own law to his people because none is able to give so perfect a mirrour of God as himself As for men we know none of them hath seen God at any time John 1.17 and it is so little a portion that they know of him Job 26.14 that it is impossible they should set him out as he deserves Now it is for Gods honour that hee should be expressed as fully as may be which neither is nor can be performed so exactly by any man as it may be by his law which represents unto us the image of his minde and will and gives us a more distinct knowledge of him then his works can doe Nay his word serves as a Commentary to his works as laying before us the rule according to which God orders all his ways so that by the help thereof we understand the righteousnesse and holinesse of all his acts as David did Psa 73.17 which he could not finde out before It is true indeed that the very works themselves praise God and shew him in his tender mercies Psal 145.5.8 in his mighty power Job 36.22 37.23 Godhead Rō 1.20 yea commonly in his righteousness in rewarding and punishing Psa 58.11 But they neither expresse him so distinctly nor consequently affect the heart so deeply as they doe when they are illustrated by the word as Job confesseth chap. 42.6 that he never saw God so clearly nor abhorred himself so much as when God described unto him his works in that conference Job 38. c. Wherefore seeing the image of God is most exactly expressed unto us in the word it is most fit that the word that represents him to us should be given by God himself who knowing himself best can give us the most perfect draught of his own face Besides these respects unto Gods honour in regard of mans good it was not convenient that the Scriptures which contain Gods law to his Church should be given by any other then God himself For first 3ly For mās good 1. To subdue his heart to obedience mans heart would hardly be brought to stoop to any power but Gods alone whose voice onely prevails upon the conscience and subdues the very thoughts and imaginations of the spirit which the voice of no man can doe Besides 2. To make his services accepted nothing can make our services performed to God or man to be duties of obedience but the undertaking of them upon Gods command which we do when we know the
both his Deity and his Humanity although united into one person and by full and cleare evidences they prove both the one and the other That Jesus Christ was truly God the Son nay Which is proved by Testimonies of God from heaven of angels of men even enemies nay of devils themselves the Everlasting and only begotten Son of the Father the Evangelists prove by Testimonies of all sorts First of God himselfe proclaiming it from heaven with his own voice Mat. 3.17 and 17 chap. 5. Of the Angel Luk. 1.32 35. and not only of his owne Disciples Mat. 16.16 Iohn 6.69 but besides by the acknowledgement of those that crucified him Mat. 27.54 nay But especially by his owne works wrought by a divine Power of the very devills themselves Mark 1.24 But above all the rest his manifold and wonderfull Works which he wrought publiquely in the view of the world which were acknowledged to be done by a divine Power as the commanding of the winds and seas healing of all diseases by his word casting out Devils giving sight to those which were borne blind Iohn 9.32 33. restoring the dead to life Luk. 7.14 15. Iohn 11 43. And beyond all these the raising of his own Body Especially the raising of his own body out of the grave by his own Power out of the grave which declared him mightily to be the Son of God Rom. 1.4 are produced as a cloud of witnesses for the manifesting of the deity of our Saviour Christ recorded by holy men who were eye and ear-witnesses of all that they relate unto us 1 Joh. 1.1 In the next place the Evangelists prove our Saviour to be truly man divers wayes Withall Christ is proved to be truly man by his conception and birth growth actions and passions after the maner of men by his Conception and Birth by his growth both in the stature of his body and in the abilities of his minde Luk. 2.52 By his actions of eating drinking sleeping c. By his passions of griefe Luke 19.41 joy Luke 10.21 anger Mark 3.5 feare Marke 14.33 Heb. 5.7 By his infirmities of hunger Mat. 4.2 thirst Iohn 19.28 and wearinesse Iohn 4.6 All of them shewing not onely the truth of his humane nature but besides his abasement to the taking up of the very infirmities thereof The Evangelists having shewed him to be truly Man 2 Yea to be the man promised by fulfilling all the Prophecies in him in the next place shew him to be the same man the same Christ that was promised to the Fathers and foretold of by the Prophets by making it appeare how all the Prophecies were fulfilled in him That concerning his Stocke Borne of the stocke of David and Parentage he was of the house and familie of David Mat. 1. Luk. 3. which was further manifested by his parents coming to Bethlehem the City of David to be taxed because he was of the Linage of David In Bethlehem Augustus the Emperour having appointed every man to be taxed in his own Citie Luke 2.3 4. Secondly that he was born in Bethlehem the place where Christ was to be borne as the Priests and Scribes testifie to Herod and prove it out of Mic. 5.2 Thirdly Of a Virgin that he was conceived and borne of a Virgin Mat. 1.22 23. Fourthly that in the accidents that befell him in this life and death he was every way answerable to the Prophecies Called out of Aegypt that he was called out of Egypt Mat. 2.13 15. Rode into Ierusalem upon an Asse Mat. 21.4 5. Riding on an Affe Crucified betweene two theeves c. Was crucified betweene two theeves Mark 15.27 received venegar to drinke John 19.28 29. had lots cast upon his garments by the souldiers Mat. 27.35 had his side hands and feet pierced Iohn 19.36 37. and the like in all which circumstances seeing our Saviour so fully answered all that had been foretold of him by the Prophets it is evidently and fully proved that he was the same Messiah that was promised and spoken of by the Prophets Having thus demonstrated by unquestionable testimonies 3. Performing the office of a Mediator that Christ the Messiah promised was truly God and Man the Evangelists in the next place make it evident by particular instances that in the dayes of his flesh he performed all that belonged to the Office of a Mediatour As first 1. As a Prophet that he performed the Office of a Prophet as was promised Deut. 18.18 who should teach his people all things Iohn 4.25 and to this end they gave unto us a briefe summe of diverse of his Sermons in which he dispenseth the truth of God faithfully and gives the true and full interpretation of the Law clearing it from the corrupt glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees Mat. 5.21.27 33 38. whose hypocrisie and pride he layes open before the people and sharply reproves upon all occasions warning men to take heed of them as dangerous seducers especially Mat. 23. Above all the rest the greatest care of the Evangelists 2. As a Priest offering up himselfe a Sacrifice for sin is to set out and describe unto us the office of our Saviours Priesthood which they doe at full as being of greatest importance to us for the establishing of our faith in the assurance of our Redemption In setting forth of Christs execution of the office of his Priesthood and therein of the offering up of himselfe a sacrifice for the sinnes of men they especially labour to manifest three things First And a sacrifice 1. Holy without blemish that this Sacrifice of his was without blemish holy and pure without which it could not have been acceptable to God that they sufficiently evidence by the Innocency of his Person manifested by the holinesse of his Life and Conversation 2. Voluntary Secondly they make it appeare that this Sacrifice was every way free and voluntary which also himselfe professeth Iohn 15.18 3. Reall and sufficient Thirdly by divers circumstances they make it evident that his suffierings were both reall and not fained or only in shew and in all respects sufficient for the satisfying of Gods Justice to the full and consequently for the pacifying of his wrath and for the purchasing of our Peace and Reconciliation All which we must firmely beleeve if we mean wholly to rely upon that Sacrifice the meanes of establishing a full and perfect Peace between God and man To begin with the first of these our Saviours Innocency in the whole course of his life is manifested divers wayes First That Christ was holy manifested 1. By his holy life the Historie set him out to be a carefull observer not only of the whole morall Law but even of all the Legall ceremonies even to the fulfilling of all Righteousnesse as himself speakes Mat. 3.15 Secondly it describes him to be one that stood fast against all Satans temptations which he resisted and overcame that
by it to direct our practise and tender it unto God as a duty required and commanded in his owne law For which end both our Saviour Christ himself and the Apostles also after him even then when both the Judiciall and Ceremoniall laws were abolished yet upon all occasions presse the observation of the Morall Law And is therefore urged in the very letter of it by the Apostles and that too in all the duties thereof and that by vertue and from the letter of the commandement it self Rom. 13.8 9. Ephes 6.2 James 2.10 11. As for those who because the Apostle encourageth us to obedience Object 1 because we are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6.14 We are not under the Law but under Grace plead that we are therefore now no more under the command and rule of the law they mistaking the end and scope at which the Apostle aims put a sense upon his words Answer It is only an encouragement to mortifie our lusts which the Law forbade but brought us no power to subdue as Grace doth which he never intended For he makes use of this Position in that place only as a strong motive to encourage us to resist sin and not to suffer it to reigne in our mortall bodies to obey it in the lusts thereof Rom. 6.12 because we have now under the Gospel power to master and means to obtain victory over it which we may be assured of upon this ground that we are not under the Law which indeed forbids sin but in the mean time furnishing us with no power to resist it by the corrupt inclination of our rebellious spirits rather awakens and quickens our corrupt lusts by restraining them then subdues them but under Grace and consequently under the government of the Spirit which supplies us with ability to resist sinfull motions and to conform to the law that our thoughts may be brought under the obedience of Christ which the law of it self could not give us So that by that Spirit we have the fear of God planted in our hearts that we shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 Yea but will some object the Apostle tels us Object 2 We are no longer under a School-master Gal. 3.14 15. that the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ but after faith is come we are no longer under a school-master To which we answer that the Apostle intending in that place to prove against those who pressed the observation of the law to establish their own righteousnesse for the obtaining of eternall life Rom. 10.3 and laying before himself this scope to make it evident that there can be no justification by the works of the law but only by the righteousnesse of faith because for want of ability to fulfill the law perfectly in every point vvhich is impossible to us through the vveaknesse of the flesh Rom. Answer 8.3 we are so far from being justified by it that it leaves us under a curse he takes in hand and hath just occasion to make it appear that one speciall use of the law is to drive us unto Christ The morall law drives to Christ for justistification in which respect he is said to be the end of the law to those that believe Rom. 10.3 Which is true indeed even of the Morall Law especially if we take in with it the promises and threats annexed thereunto vvhereof neither the one can be obtained nor the other escaped but by Christ alone But the Apostle speaks there of the ceremoniall law especially But in this place the Apostle especially points at the ceremoniall lavv vvhich under types and shadows represented Christ unto that Church of the Jewes vvhich now by the coming of the body of vvhom they were shadows are vvholly taken away Now whereas the same Apostle tels us 1 Tim. 1.9 Object 3 that the Law is not made for a righteous man The law is not made for a righteous man he meanes not that the Law was not made for such a man for his direction to be the rule of his life but seeing a just man voluntarily submits to the Law both desires endavours to walk according to it Answer that man needs not the Law as a bridle True as a bâ—idle because he hath a stronger means to hold him in a sanctified spirit within him to hold him in by way of restraint because he is kept within his bounds by his own spirit which inclines in it selfe unto Gods Testimonies Psal 119.112 chooseth the way of his Truth v. 99. vowes to keepe Gods judgements ver 106. makes them his desight ver 143. and finds delight in them ver 103. and therefore having within himselfe a principle that enforceth more strongly to the duties of obedience then the terrors of any law can doe the law in that respect is not given to a righteous man who is a law unto himselfe and yet so that he guides himselfe by the rule of that Law alone Psal 119.24 105. But as he adds in the words that follow it is made for the lawlesse and disobedient and the like who need this Law both as a bridle to keepe them within their bounds by the terrors thereof and besides as a Judge to condemne them for their disobedience when they become transgressors and walke contrary thereunto It is true indeed Christ indeed freed us from the ceremonial Law that from the Ceremoniall law we are wholly freed by the comming of Christ into the world who is the body of those shadowes and it is as true that the Judiciall law is likewise made void to us And Judiciall as being given to the Iewes as such a State not as a Church and therefore cannot be continued not only because the State of the Iews to which it was given is and was shortly after Christs Ascension dissolved but besides because the Church being spred over so many different Nations and States it was impossible for them all to be grounded by the same rules of civill Policy Not from the Morall But for the Morall Law seeing it sets down rules of governing a man as a man it is communicable to all men of what Nation soever and is therefore universally and perpetually to be observed Notwithstanding even concerning that Law we gaine ease and reliefe by Christ three waies by which that yoke if we think fit so to tearme it is made easie unto us although to speake truly the Commandements in themselves are not grievous as the Apostle testifies 1 Iohn 5.2 First therefore we are by Christ freed from the rigour and curse of the Law Christ also hath freed us from the curse of that Law which required of us full and exact obedience thereunto in all things and that under the penalty of an everlasting curse to rest for ever upon our bodies and soules if we failed in the least duty required therein as it is denounced Deut. 27.26 Now Christ being
over in few words Again for three reasons we cannot conceive that in this Exod. 16. there is any institution of the Sabbath at all For first 2. There happened at that time no memorable event to ground an institution here is no ground of instituting a festivall day seeing that must needs be some memorable event which dignifies that day that is to be consecrated above other days which is a rule which God and the Church and even heathen men by the light of nature guided themselves by Secondly here is no convocation of the people 3. The people are not convened as they ought to have been to receive this law who ought to have been assembled to hear that law that they must all obey as they were not only Exod. 20. when God himself delivered them the morall law upon mount Sinai but also when Moses his servant delivers unto them from God the Ceremoniall and Judiciall Laws Exod. 34.32 35.1 whereas here we find only a meeting of the Elders But only the Elders and that occasionally only and that too occasionally not by the call of Moses but their voluntary recourse to him to enquire the reason why the people had gathered a double portion of Manna on the sixth day and what should be done with it Thirdly 4. Here is no direction for the observation of this new feast here is no direction for the observation of this new feast and without it the law is not only imperfect but in effect no law at all Whereas there is a full direction for the use of their double portion of Manna which makes it evident that the ordering of their Manna must needs be the only charge which the Lord sent by Moses to the people Others therefore there are who go not so far as to plead for the institution of the Sabbath in this Exod. 16. Objection 21 Though the words amounted to an institution yet they are a preparation to a following institution but will have these words of Moses to be only in the nature of a preparation to an institution which was to follow To this also we answer First that this opinion is pressed with the same difficulties that the former is if things be duly weighed Answer 1. The same reasons are against that too 2. There is no like instance in giving any other law 3. What needs it 4. Why is this ground omitted in the fourth Commandement Secondly let them but give us one instance of any such kind of preparation used before the giving of any other law Thirdly let them shew us what need there is of any such preparation at all when the people were almost immediately after to be prepared in so solemn a manner for the receiving of that and the rest of the laws Lastly if the giving of a double portion of Manna on the sixth day or the ceasing of Manna on the seventh were such great means to win credit to this new Sabbath how is it that neither the one nor other is so much as once mentioned in that whole fourth Commandement wherein notwithstanding is so fully and largely laid down the ground of the institution of that law especially this mercy being so new and fresh in memory whereas God in the fourth Commandement goes back to the beginning of the world to seek out another and firmer foundation of instituting the Sabbath without mentioning of this at all Thus when all circumstances are duly weighed it will easily appear to any not forestalled by prejudice that in this Exod. 16. Moses speaks of the Sabbath to the Elders of Israël Whence it appears that Moses mentions the Sabbath to the Elders Exod. 16.23 as a thing known as of a thing well known unto them before-hand and by consequent which the Jewes were wel-acquainted with before the Law was given to Moses on mount Sinai whereupon it must needs follow that they received it from the Patriarchs delivered from hand to hand as other truths and laws of God were and consequently by that the Patriarchs in their generations observed the Sabbath although their observation thereof be not left upon record by Moses whose task was not to write a diary of the Fathers lives but to leave to posterity the remembrance of the most memorable examples both of their actions and of the events that befell them both for Gods honour and our instruction SECT III. The morality and perpetuity of the Sabbath proved out of the fourth Commandement IF this principle which will at last appear to be an undoubted truth were generally received and acknowledged that the whole Decalogue is morall and consequently immutable this question concerning the morality of the Sabbath were at an end Now the generall opinion wherewith most men are possessed but without any firm ground either out of reason or Scripture that it must needs be granted that there is something ceremoniall in the fourth Commandement either the set day or the strict rest of the Sabbath or both hath been a great occasion of begetting and cherishing this errour that there is something mutable in the Decalogue and consequently that it is neither morall nor perpetuall If therefore upon a due and thorough examination of all the severall clauses and expressions which we meet with in the fourth Commandement we can make it appear that there is nothing in that fourth Commandement that is any way ceremoniall and therefore mutable we shall remove a great scruple which hath long troubled the minds of many men divers of them much esteemed both for their learning and piety Before we begin to take this task in hand it will be needfull to premise this one thing by way of caution That in this case we are not bound to prove that the phrases and expressions which we meet withall in this Commandement The words of of the fourth Commandement in a fair construction enjoyn nothing ceremoniall neither in the day nor rest can have no other sense then that in which we take them It will be sufficient for us to make it appear that according to the usuall course of grammaticall construction and without any incoherence or incongruity with other parts of the law they may be taken in such a sense as we give them For if we can but make this appear that our construction of the words is as fair and proper as any other that is given by others the consequent of establishing the immutability of the Decalogue is of that weight that I conceive any man of two probable interpretations will be willing to embrace that which most makes for the establishing of the morall law Which is as much as needs to be proved It must therefore be our care to make it appear that the sense which we give of the words of this law may stand according to a fair and usuall manner of grammaticall construction and those that will oppose us must prove on the other side that it cannot stand That we may proceed
it had been so expressed And questionlesse the second Commandement had been plainer if it had been expressed in some such manner as this Thou shalt not worship me with any worship of thine owne devising but in such manner and in the use of such ordinances as I shall prescribe 2. And the Commandement for baptizing of Infants And it had been plainer if our Saviour in giving commission to his Apostles to baptize had exprefly named the Infants of beleeving Parents as he did in commanding them to be Circumcised Many passages in Scripture might have been expressed in plainer tearms then those in which they are delivered It is enough to satisfie any sober mind that God who was at liberty to expresse himselfe as he pleased thought it fit to speak to us in this manner We may adde farther if we observe it well God manifests great wisdome in penning the second The discovery of such changes to follow had brought the services into contempt and fourth Commandements in this obscure manner for if God had in the second Commandement expressed himselfe at full that the Iews should for the present worship him according to the ordinances which Moses gave them but after the comming of the Messiah they should in stead of them use such Rites as he should ordaine And if in the fourth Commandement he had thus expressed himselfe Your Sabbath for the present shall be the last day of the week but after the Resurrection of Christ you shall change it to the first day of the week the discovery of the changes to come in the Rites and form of Gods worship had in all probability bred in Gods people a contempt of those duties which they were to perform at present as being temporary and imperfect and such as were to give place to better ordinances that were to succeed them which they could not endure to heare of Acts. 6.14 It pleased God therefore to pen the Law in such a form that his people might understand out of it as much as concerned them to practise at present and yet we Christians might find in it farther directions when there should be occasion to make use of them Gods wisdome in concealing these changes illustrated by the policy of Princes Thus Princes sometimes to keep their Counsells secret send out their commands with sufficient instructions what to doe at present and with farther Commissions sealed up and not to be opened till they come to the place where those farther directions which are contained therein are to be put in execution Having now examined the reason of this Commandement For in the Law shews the equity of the proportioning of the time set a part for this rest and shewed how it must be deduced and applied let us next consider the words wherein it is expressed This particle For referres both to our labour of sixe daies and rest upon the seventh manifests the equity of the Law in requiring such a rest of us as if we deale providently in managing our affaires needs not to hinder them seeing God allows as much time to us for the dispatch of our business as he took up in the Creation of the world requiring no more of us but the setting apart one day in seven to be kept holy in remembrance of the Creation of the world and that too for our own comfort improvement in grace and for the farther quickning and strengthening of our souls In sixe daies God made all things and therefore by sixe daies labour can and will assist thee to dispatch all thy work as well as for his own honour and glory In sixe daies God made heaven earth c. and therefore both is able and as a faithfull Creator will be ready to assist and prosper thee so in all thy labours that all thy businesse shall be dispatched in sixe daies namely whatsoever thy calling and needfull occasions shall require to be done as God in sixe daies created whatsoever was needfull as is implied in these words All that in them is It hath been before observed that Gods creation of the world is often mentioned as a meanes to move men to depend upon him and it may be probably conceived is remembred here to stay our murmuring at the sparing of one day weekly from our implomyments And rested the Seventh day which must not therefore be the last day of the week And rested c. And 1. thereby established his work 1. And rejoyced in it but is mentioned here only as one of seven not as the last of seven This was not a totall cessation whereof God being a continuall Act is uncapable but only a resting from works of Creation and implies two acts of God The first the establishing and setling all his works to continue in himselfe according to his own Ordinances Psal 119.89 90 91. The other his rejoycing and delighting himselfe in the work of his hands This Rest of God was not as ours for a day only for he never wrought in the work of Creation any more and may perhaps point at our eternall Rest wherein we shall cease from all our labours for ever Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day Therefore the Lord blessed c. as declaring by his rest that the Creation was perfected and sanctified it because he had by his resting on that day manifested the perfecting of the Creating of the world all things being made that were needfull so that there was no cause to goe on with that work of Creation any longer wherefore in memory of this great work of the Creation of the world God sanctified this day as being dignified above other daies by perfecting of so glorious a work Gods blessing of the day is the ordaining of it to be a day of blessing a day of thriving in Grace and abounding in spirituall comforts a day of rejoycing in God and his goodnes and encouraging our selves by the remembrance thereof to serve the Lord with chearfulnesse and gladnesse of heart Sanctifying is a setting apart of the day unto God to be imployed in holy exercises as preaching hearing reading praying c. Thus farre then we find in examining the phrases and expressions of the fourth Commandement nothing that may enforce us to acknowledge any thing to be Ceremonious in this Law nor consequently mutable seeing the set day of rest being not commanded there in particular but onely assigned by a generall rule which is appliable to the Sabbath of the Christans as well as to that of the Jewes in changing of the first day of rest there is nothing altered in the Law It remaines only that we examine whether we finde any Ceremony in the rest which if we doe not we must acknowledge that the Church of God is for ever bound to the observation of this Objection 1 as much as to any other of the Morall Laws The rest of the Sabbath was a type of Christs rest in the grave and therefore abolished
as the originall corruption and Propension of the heart thereunto with all the evill thoughts and motions of the minde that flow from thence are forbidden Thus our Saviour interprets murther to reach not only to the outward violence done to the person of our neighbour but to the hating of them inwardly in the heart yea even to rash and unadvised anger towards him And he extends adultery as far as the lusting after a woman in ones heart Mat. 5.22 28. In the Third place take speciall notice of the names which God gives unto every sinne forbidden in the Law 3. We must judge of sins as God in his Law judgeth of them anger is murther lust adultery c. by which we may easily judge both how God himselfe values it and how he would have us to value it As in the sixth Commandement where he forbids anger and malice he calls them murther In the seventh where he forbids lust and wantonnesse he calls them adultery In the eight where he forbids idlenesse fraud mercilesnesse to the poore he names them all theft Now God we know is the only impartiall Judge of all things and we are sure he speakes of things as he iudgeth of them and consequently seeing he calls the thoughts and motions to sinne by the names of the acts of it we learne so to judge of our sins not as the world judgeth of them but as they are weighed out unto us by the balance of the Sanctuary not small and scarce worthy the observation but foule and abominable Thus whereas men think vaine thoughts scarce worthy the least censure David hates them Psal 119.113 and whereas we take no notice of idle words our Saviour tells us we shall answer to God for them Mat. 12.36 This valuing and esteeming of sinne according to the foulnesse of it as it is just in it selfe so is it of singular use unto us as well to make sinne so hatefull unto us Which will move us 1. To tremble at motions to sinne that we may flie from it as from a Serpent trembling at every motion or allurement thereunto as also to bring us to an abhorring and loathing of our selves Ezek. 36.31 2. Loath our selves 3. To esteem and embrace Christ and lastly to raise up our hearts to an high esteem of Jesus Christ hungring and thirsting after him and admiring and adoring the riches of Gods mercy in giving him out of his free love to be a meanes of purchasing our peace and taking away from us the guilt of so many foule and abominable transgressions A Fourth direction for the making a right use of the Morall Law Rule 4 is to consider the force and weight of every Commandement thereof 1. In respect of the authority all Commandements are equall wherein we are to take speciall notice of three things First that in respect of the authority that commands all the Laws are equall as S. James tels us 2. In respect of the object the Commandements of the first Table are groatest James 2.11 upon which ground he infers in the same place that whosoever offends by transgressing of any one of these Laws is guilty of the breach of all the rest because he offends against that authority by which all those Laws are established In the second place in respect of the objects of the duties commanded in that Law the Commandements of the first Table are of grcatest importance according to our Saviours owne determination Mat. 22.38 because the services therein required are more immediately directed unto God and consequently his honour is more immediately concerned in them then in the duties of the second Table in the observing whereof although we honour and serve God yet our services therein are immediately directed to men Consequently infidelity love feare and dependence on the creature we are to abhorre as the sins of the highest nature by which above all others God is most dishonored although the world judge of them farre otherwise Lastly 3. The negative binds more strongly then the affirmative the negative Commandements bind us more strongly then the affirmative in this respect because the negative oblige us alwaies and to all times as a man is not to commit Idolatry to blaspheme Gods name c. at any time whereas the affirmative Commandements although they bind us alwaies yet they bind us not to all times as though one is still bound to pray heare c. yet he is not found to perform them at all times Fifthly Rule 5 although we find not the promises of rewards and mercy The promises and curses belong to every Law although they be not expressed and threatnings of wrath and vengeance expressed in every Commandement and annexed thereunto yet that which we find expresly set down in some of the Laws we must understand and conceive to belong to the rest of the Laws in which there is no such thing expressed even a curse denounced against every one that confirmes not all the words of the Law that is every Commandement and every duty required in any one of them to doe them And a blessing promised to the keeping and yeelding obedience to the whole Law Both which we must not limit as some doe to outward and temporary blessings And are not only temporary but spirituall and eternal and curses but must extend beyond them to those which are spirituall and eternall even the powring out of the full measure of the wrath of God upon the body and soule of every person who is a transgressour of the Law and that to all eternity and the rewarding of every man that yeelds sincere and constant obedience in every thing which the Law requires with all manner of blessings upon soule and body for evermore Sixthly Rule 6 all those premises of blessings and threats of curses Yet they must not be the ground of obedience be annexed to the whole Law yet our ground of yeelding obedience to that Law must not be so much either the hope of the one or feare of the other although by reason of the infirmity of the flesh both for the awing and quickening of our hearts we may make profitable use of both But subjection to the authority that commands with the Prophet David Psal 119.120 166. as the submitting of our selves to the righteous and holy will of God whose we are wholly and therefore owe unto him all that we can doe with our best abilities whence the Psalmist presents his earnest request unto God to teach him to doe his will Psal 143.10 that is both what God wills and because he wills it And the way to interest our selves in Gods Promises is as the Apostle tells us Heb. 10.36 The doing of his will Indeed as the Lord is our God by the strongest and justest of all titles both because we are his creatures and beyond that his redeemed ones so the manifesting of his will unto us either in his Law what he would have
us to doe or in his dispensations towards us what he would have us to be ought to be the ground of our submission both to doe what he commands and to be what he ordaines concerning us in the course of his Providence Upon this ground it is that as well those glorious works For want whereof all works though never so specious are abominable done according to the rules of morall honesty by the heathen who neither knew God nor his Law As also the like actions done upon the same grounds by many amongst us that carry the name of Christians cannot possibly be accepted by God because though those things done be the same that he commands in his Law yet the will and command of God is not the ground upon which they are done but rather a respect to civill honesty and often a desire to honour our selves by conforming thereunto so that to speak truth we doe therein not so much the will of God as our own will Seventhly the method and order in which God delivers his Law unto us must not be neglected For instance in the preface of the Law Rule 7 Take notice of the method of the Law God before he gives any one Commandement laies before us the interest that he hath in us that he hath purchased us to himselfe and therefore we are his and consequently to be ordered and disposed by him according to his own will This method teaches us a leston without which no service of ours is accepted that all our services must be tendred unto God as duties as we are taught to doe by our Saviour himselfe Luk. 17.10 which as it reserves unto God the honour of his free grace when he rewards our services for which he owes us nothing seeing they are all but debts and duties so withall it takes away all our boasting even in our best services Againe when God begins his Law with that Commandement to have the Lord for our God it teacheth us to lay that for the foundation of all duties of obedience that we have avouched the Lord to be our God This method Joshua observes in renewing the Covenant betwixt God and his people immediately before his death Iosh 24.15 putting them first to choose what God they will serve which when they had done then he presseth them with the duties of his service verse 22.23 And indeed this is the most effectuall of all motives both to draw us on to all duties of obedience and to hold us fast to continue therein that they are services to that God whom we have chosen and set up to our selves for our God Neither can there be an higher aggravation of any sinne against God and his Law then this that we have thereby in a sort cast off Gods yoke and denied the Lord to be our God This foundation being once laid that we have advanced and set up the Lord to be our God the Lords next care was in the second Commandement to prescribe the meanes by which we may hold communion and fellowship with him which he appoints to be only in such ordinances as himselfe hath established and no other way expecting blessings from him and rendring our services to him in them alone In the third Commandement God requires us to make publike profession of this Covenant that we have made with God but still in sincerity and uprightnesse of heart alwaies mentioning his name whether by way of attestation in an oath or upon any other occasion with such reverence and feare as becomes the Majesty of so great and holy a God The fourth Commandement appoints the time not only of meeting together in publike for Gods worship but besides that of sequestring our selves from al worldly employments that we may enjoy an holy communion with God in those things that are spirituall and heavenly The same method that the Lord useth in setting down the Commandements of the first Table he observeth in ranking the Laws of the second First he establisheth authority which is the bond and foundation of civill society in the fifth Commandement Secondly he provides for the safety of mens persons forbidding murther or any wrong or hurt tending thereunto in the sixth Thirdly in the seventh Commandement under the name of adultery besides the prohibiting of all uncleannesse in the propagation of posterity the Lord forbids the inordinate use of any creature as meats and drinks c. Fourthly the eight Commandement provides for the support of community by honest labour and discreet and charitable distribution after the necessities of our selves and ours are supplied of the profits of our labours for the reliefe of our neighbours wants Fifthly in the ninth Cōmandement God establisheth truth among men without which commerce in civill society cannot stand Lastly in the tenth he settles propriety in such things as God by his dispensation hath shared and allotted out unto every man apart so that no man may so much as in his thoughts reach out after any thing that an other man possesseth by a just title but may content himselfe with his own portion Eightly whereas the Laws of men bind us only by the power of the authority that commands or though to that indeed for conscience sake of that Law of God Rule 8 by which authority is established the Laws of God bind the conscience immediately by themselves The Laws of God and they only bind the conscience and not only by the power of the commander So that those Laws which are given by God being once made known unto us we are bound to acknowledge them to be just holy as the Psalmist doth Ps 119.39.128 140. as manifesting the will of God which is the rule of righteousness and holines upon that ground to embrace them and submit unto thē to esteem our selves unrighteous and wicked if we swerve from them But as for the laws of men though we are bound to submit unto them because they have upon them the stampe of that authority which God hath established and set over us yet neither are we bound to judge the Laws themselves to be righteous and holy nor consequently to esteeme our selves unholy and wicked if we yeeld not obedience unto them unlesse withall we despise that authority that commāds them or be an occasion of disturbing the publike peace for the conservation whereof the authority and power of the Magistrate was ordained Lastly the obedience which the Lord requires of us unto this Law of his which we call Morall Rule 9 Our subjection to the law must be 1. Voluntary 2. Upon knowledge must necessarily have these foure conditions In the first place our subjection therunto must be every way free and voluntary such as the Prophet David professes his was Psal 119.30 173. In the second place that it may be so this free choice of ours must bee firmely grounded upon the cleare and distinct knowledge of the justice and equity Psal 119.128 of the purity and holinesse Psal
119.140 of the absolute perfection Psal 19.78 119 96. yea farther of the goodnesse of those Laws and judgements Rom. 7.12 16. Psal 119.39 Thirdly this obedience must be constant 3. Constant and perpetuall both in the duration of it for ever Psal 119.112 and in the continuation of it without interruption Psal 119.117 and that not onely in our steps which yet we must desire to have well ordered Psal 119.133 but in the whole course of our waies 4 Exercised 1. With all our strength 2. Mixed with faith and spring from love Psal 119.5 59. Fourthly our obedience to this Law if it shall be accepted requires two qualifications first that in the practice thereof we put forth the uttermost of our strength and abilities of our soules with holy David Psal 119.34 106.131 which God requires Deut. 10.12 11.13 Secondly that we mixe it with faith without which it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 and love which is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 Now let all that we have spoken be laid together first that the Law is of so large extent that it regulates not only mens outward actions but besides the very inward thoughts of the heart and that so far that it prescribes a rule to the very first motions that arise therein though they be not seconded either with deliberation or consent nay beyond all that it exacts rectitude uprightnes in the very frame and disposition of the heart commanding not only consent unto the law but withall practice answerable to the rules thereof Secondly that it strictly requires the putting forth of all the strength and the utmost ability of all the faculties of soule and that in every part of obedience yea and so far that it requires that both in the substance of the duty and in the manner of performance and in the end at which we aime we come fully home to that measure of perfection that the law requires And lastly that it laies an everlasting curse upon every one that comes short of the full performance of every thing contained in the law Let I say all these be laid together and seriously pondered in the heart and it will easily be discovered that considering the weaknesse of our present condition by which the fulfilling of the law is made utterly impossible to us one of the principall uses of the law must needs be that which the Apostle saies before us Gal. 3.24 to be a Schoolmaster to lead us and drive us to Christ to seek from him that righteousnesse which may justifie us before God which we have not in or of our selves and that satisfaction by which he fully discharged our debt which he took upon himselfe when he made his soule a sacrifice for our sinnes and thereby wholly freed us from that curse of the law which our disobedience thereunto had brought upon us So then wee see that the morall law hath a double use unto us A double use of the morall law 1. To be our guide and rule to walk by The first to serve for a rule to guide us in the whole course of our practice in which respect holy David used it as a lanthorn to his feet and a light unto his steps Psal 119.105 unto which we are to come as neare as possibly we are able considering our waies that we may turne our feet to Gods testimonies Psal 119.59 and using our uttermost endeavours to make our practice fully conformable thereunto laying those judgements alwaies before us Psal 119.30 calling our selves daily to account and laying all our actions to that perfect rule which will easily discover unto us our errours and failings in all the course of our conversation which when we have bewailed in the bitternesse of our spirits and taken shame to our selves for our grosse and manifold neglects our hearts are kept in a low frame and we are fitted to walk humbly before our God with reverence and holy feare and in all meeknesse towards our brethren and are withall moved to engage our selves by new purposes and promises to walke more faithfully and watchfully with God for time to come 2. To shew us the great need of Christ and to drive us to him The second use of the Morall law unto us is to shew us the great need of Christ by whose righteousnesse only and not by our own we are justified before God and by his satisfactions and sufferings are delivered from the wrath to come By the consideration whereof we are brought to prize and value Christ above all things in the world to use all endeavours to get a sure interest in him although it should be with the losse of all things besides and to cleave fast unto him who is our life living in him by faith as the Apostle speaks Gal. 2.20 giving up our selves to live wholly to him who hath died for us and redeemed us unto himselfe that we might serve him in holinesse all our daies Thus farre then of the Morall law and the use thereof Of Laws ceremoniall the next kind of laws which we are to consider are those which we call Ceremoniall because they prescribed the rules of those ceremonies which God appointed to be used in his worship by the Jews untill the coming of Christ of whom many of them were shadows Now wholly taken away in use of them Now although all those rites and ordinances are by Christs cōming wholly taken away so that we are no longer obliged to observe any of them in the worship of God nor indeed can use many of them without the denying of Christs comming in the flesh notwithstanding seeing it hath pleased the Lord to leave both them and the Judiciall laws upon record amongst those holy writings which he hath thought fit to preserve and to commit unto the Church to be kept for posterity to the end of the world we cannot conceive that he hath taken so much care to preserve them in vaine nor indeed for any other end then that which is the scope of the rest of the Scriptures Yet may they be of use to us in reading them that they might be for our learning and instruction What instructions therefore we may gather to our selves by reading these laws we are now to consider And that the rather because many men upon this opinion and supposition that these laws are now utterly abolished to us Christians either totally neglect the reading of those books 1. In that they were shadows of Christ it proves that from the beginning there was no salvation but in his name as containing those things that concerne them not or at least read them in such a perfunctory manner without searching into them that they receive no profit nor instruction by them at all That we may therefore shew what instructions the reading of the ceremoniall law may yeeld us we must first take notice that these ceremonies may be ranked under two heads For they are either figures that
cannot but extend unto us that are Christians And seeing that charge was part of the office of the Leviticall Priesthood unto which our Ministery under the Gospel succeeds how can we deny that the care of keeping our Sacraments and other ordinances from pollution by the promiscuous admission of unworthy persons to partake of them with us ought to be a speciall part of the care of the Ministers under the Gospel as it was of the Priests under the law Having then hitherto discovered what instructions we may draw out unto our selves from the consideration of the ceremoniall Law in generall we shall forbear to descend to the scanning of the particular ceremonies prescribed therein as being a work not altogether so necessary nor altogether sutable to that brevity that we aime at in this short Treatise Thus much only is fit to be intimated by the way that where the signification of those ceremonious shadows is plain and evident it will be both a delightfull and profitable exercise to take speciall notice both of the things signified by them and of the shadows themselves that represent them In the last place we are to take into consideration those laws which we call Judiciall Of the Judicial laws given by Moses given by God unto the Iews for the ordering of their civill State which are but deductions out of the morall law applied and fitted to the present State of the Iews and by consequence binding no other State to the observation of them but that alone yea now Which by the dissolution of the Jewish State are made void that State to which they were given is utterly dissolved quite made void and taken away Notwithstanding seeing these laws as well as the ceremoniall are left upon record unto the Church of God Yet being left upon record unto us we may draw from them some directions for our selves we are to judge of those as well as we have done of them that they are preserved unto us for some speciall use as the Apostle tells us that whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning Rom. 15.4 the rather because we know that God hath suffered some writings of holy men as Iddoes History 2 Chron. 13.22 and Henochs Prophesie Jude 14. to perish as not esteeming them so necessary for the use of the Church as those books which are preserved and left unto us to this day Let us therefore enquire what instructions we may gather unto our selves out of the reading and considering of those laws which we call Iudiciall or rules for the ordering of the civill state of the Iews 1. We must acknowledge that God hath a speciall hand in civill government Not to insist upon particulars out of the consideration of them in generall there will arise these foure observations First in that God took so much care for his own people as not only to give them rules for his own worship but besides to leave with them directions and laws for the ordering of their civill affairs we may take notice that even the disposing of civill government belongs unto the Lord himself by whom Kings reigne and Princes decree justice Prov. 8.15 16. and the Apostle tels us that the powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13.1 Neither are the rulers onely from him but the government also as they judge by him so he judgeth among them Psal 82. and howsoever men seek the Rulers favour yet every mans Iudgement comes from the Lord Prov. 29.26 It is true that in this the Jews had a peculiar priviledge above any nation on the earth that they had the whole frame of their Civill government laid out unto them by God himselfe they had not only his Laws but his Statutes and his Judgements too Psal 147.20 under which name Moses comprehends both the Judiciall and Ceremomiall Law Deut. 5.31 Notwithstanding we have sufficient warrant that the Lord hath the same care of his Church in any State that he had of the Jews then so that the Laws in any Nation as farre as they are just and equall are to be esteemed the Laws of God and the judgements executed by them come from the Lord. Whence we are taught as to pray unto God for those that are in authority that we may lead a peaceable life under them 1 Tim. 2.2 So when Rulers so governe that the righteous may flourish in abundance of Peace as it shall be in Christs Kingdome Psal 72.7 that they that doe well may have praise and wrath may be executed upon those that doe evill Rom. 13.3 4. the honour and praise for such agreement must be returned to God alone A Second Rule that we may frame unto our selves out of the consideration of the judiciall Law 2. All law-makers must ground their laws upon Morall Precepts as God doth his ariseth from the precedent that God himselfe hath given us in the framing of that Law the precepts whereof are but so many deductions out of the Morall law applied unto that state of the Jews Whence all law-makers may take a patterne in making their laws to square them out by no other rule then that which God himselfe observed in the making of his Laws for his own people So that although States in making their Laws may make use of Christian Prudence in applying them to times places persons and emergent occasions yet we must be sure that all such laws must have the Morall law for their foundation which being right and equall in all things Psal 119.128 is withall the fountaine of all justice and equity A Third use which we may make of the consideration of the Judiciall Law 3. Though those laws bind us not in particular yet they doe in the generall grounds of equity on which they are founded is to set it before us as a Rule to guide us by although not in the particulars thereof in which it is applied to the Jewish state yet in the generall grounds of equity whence those particulars are deduced and whereat they aime For example the Lord commands his people to make battlements about their houses Deut. 22.8 the reason whereof he expresseth in the same place was the preventing of danger to mens lives if any should fall from thence in walking upon the roofe thereof unlesse there were some such meanes to prevent it Now although we have no cause in building our houses to build such battlements about them seeing our houses being not slat-roofed as theirs were have no such walkes on the tops of them from which men falling might endanger their lives yet we are by the scope and end at which the law aimes taught in generall to use the best meanes to prevent all danger to our neighbours person which our care and providence might foresee Lastly seeing we must needs acknowledg that there cannot be found so exact a Pattern to follow in establishing Government as is that which the Lord himselfe framed for his own people we
can doe no lesse then endeavour to bring our Civill Government as neere as may be unto that in all Cases wherin our State 4. We must endeavour to bring our civill government as neere as we can to that pattern and theirs agree As for instance whereas the Lord thinks it sufficient to punish simple theft with restitution of double or foure fold Exod. 22.1 we may doe well to consider whether our laws be not too strict in punishing bare theft at least in women with death without remedy On the other side seeing God appoints death to be the punishment of adultery Levit 20.10 Deut. 22.22 we have just cause to think our laws defective that passe it over with a lighter censure For who can better judge of the quality of offences and punishments fit for the restraint of them then God himselfe Neither can we excuse our selves by this that those laws being Judiciall are now taken away and made voide unto us seeing where our case is the same as adultery and theft are the same in what state so ever there our rules of judgement in all equity ought to be the same In generall it will be very needfull to observe carefully the equity and righteousnesse of all these laws as well Judiciall as Morall 5. In those as well as in the Morall laws we must take notice of Gods equity and justice as the Psalmist acknowledgeth that all the Testimonies which God hath commanded are righteous and very faithfull Psal 119.138 Right concerning all things ver 128. that we may thence conclude that he is a righteous God whose judgements are upright Psal 119.137 a God without iniquity just and upright Deut. 32.4 and may with the more care and diligence endeavour to bring both our hearts and practise to a full conformity to those just and equall Commandements both in our generall and particular callings seeing the Lord in all his ordinances aimes only at that end as is evident by all those Laws wherein there is nothing prescribed but equity and justice Of those subjects or matters which the Scripture handles we have hitherto considered what observations we may gather unto our selves out of the works and laws of God which are recorded therein The rest of the matters which these holy writings hold out unto us are either principles of faith or Prophesies of the events which were to befall the Church or histories either of the state of the Church in generall or particularly of mens lives and actions either good or evill All which we are to take notice of and of the instructions which may be gathered out of them for use Now for the first of these which are the principles of faith The principles or faith are plaine they describe unto us both God himselfe and his Sonne Jesus Christ and the things which are freely given unto us by God in him as the Apostle tearmes them 1 Cor. 2.12 and are for the most part of them expressed in so cleare and plaine tearmes and therefore so easily understood according to the literall sense of them that being in themselves rules of faith as the Commandements are rules of practise any man that reads and observes them carefully may easily without further direction discover what they teach us Only because they are in themselves of a spirituall nature things that neither eye hath seene nor eare heard neither have entred into the heart of man 1 Cor. 2.9 he meanes a naturall man who can neither comprehend nor much lesse approve them 1 Cor. 2.14 they need a light above nature to enable us to comprehend them as we ought But being spirituall in reading them we must 1. Deny our own wisdome Wherefore we are seriously to be exhorted to come to the reading of them with humble minds wholly laying aside and denying our own wisdome and with earnest prayers begging at Gods hand the light of his Spirit for the revealing unto us those wonderfull Mysteries as David prayes that God would open his eyes 2. Beg the help of the Spirit to reveale them to us spiritually that he might behold wondrous things out of his Law Psal 119.18 and that not only to discover them unto us in a rationall way but to manifest them unto us spiritually that we may tast and see the things that God hath given us as the Psalmist speakes Psal 34.8 which is the only means to affect the heart as the sight of Christs day filled Abrahams heart with joy John 8.36 In the next place for the Prophesies In the Prophesies observe in which the Law with the Sanctions thereof is applied to the state of the Church as it was in the times of those Prophets the first thing to be observed in them is the answerableness of Gods dispensations in the Government of his people 1. That Gods dispensations to his Church are answerable to his Law to the Law that he gave them whereof the Prophet Daniel takes speciall notice Dan. 9.13 This observation both justifies God when he is found not to goe beyond the conditions of the Covenant which he hath made with his people and consequently to be just even in his chastisements and judgements which he brings upon his own Neh. 9.33 And besides is a great means to awe the hearts of his servants the more with the terror of Gods judgements when they observe that Gods threatnings are not vaine words but are made good in reall performances as the treading down and putting away of the wicked like drosse caused David to be afraid of Gods judgements Psal 119.118 119 120. Secondly in reading those Prophesies take speciall notice of Gods care of his people 2. Gods unwillingnesse to grieve his people forewarning them of the evils to come and tendernesse of their good and unwillingnesse to grieve them Lam. 3.33 Hos 11.8 9. manifested by sending his Prophets both to reduce them to obedience by counsell and faire means from their wicked waies wherein they walked contrary to God as Moses tearmes it Levit. 26.23 40. and withall to warne them of the danger that hung over their heads if they persisted in their rebellious courses And indeed upon this ground God justifies both his compassion towards his people and the righteousnesse of his judgements in taking vengeance even upon his own people for their rebellions from which neither experience nor advice and counsell could reclaim them nor any other means but the powring out of the fury of his wrath upon them 2 Chron. 36.15 16 17. And aiming at their good in the judgements that he brings upon them which yet withall he doth both in respect to their good and purging out of their drosse in the furnace of afflictions Isa 1.15 as also to his own honour much impeached by his peoples evill courses 2 Sam. 12.14 for which if he should forbeare to take vengeance on them he might be judged partiall or an approver of evill like unto wicked men as God himselfe speaks Psal