And the suffering of Christ without the Gate was not without some Allusion to the placing of this Altar without the Tabernacle Vide Heb. 13.12 And as the situation of the Altar so the Sacrifice upon this Altar not without a Mystery for besides those many Sacrifices which were diversified according to the several natures of the Occasion here was one Sacrifice appropriate to this Altar the continual Burnt-Offering a Lamb of the first year in the Morning a Lamb of the first year at Even Exod. 29.38 Numb 28.3 And the Spirit of Truth takes up this description of Christ more frequently than any John 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world 1 Pet. 1.19 Redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish or spot Revel 5.6 The Lamb that was slain c. Revel 13.8 The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world And between this Altar and the Sanctuary stood the Laver of Brass not only typifying the Sacramental Initiation by Baptism but that Purity and Cleansing that is required of all those that partake of this Altar before they enter into the Sanctuary John 3.5 Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God As the Blood of Christ cleanseth from the Guilt of our Sin so it cleanseth us from the Power of our Sin before we are to expect an admission into the Sanctuary It was as well Water to cleanse as Bloud to expiate 6. The typifying of Christ in the Priesthood of Aaron and his Successors High Priests Divers of the Ceremonies especially in the Consecration of them were meerly relative to their natural pollutions and the cleansing of them Heb. 7 27. Offering Sacrifices first for their own Sins such was the Sin-offering Levit. 9.7 Levit. 8. â—4 Others in reference to their service and designation thereunto and exercise thereof as their washing with Water Levit. 8.6 Their anointing with the holy Oyl Ibid. Verse 12. The Ram of Consecration Ibid. Verse 22. Their residence at the door of the Tabernacle seven days Ibid. Verse 33. And some parts of his Garments But there were some things that in a special manner were typical of Christ 1. The Breast-plate of Aaron bearing the Names of the Children of Israel called the Breast-plate of Judgement Exod. 28.29 And Aaron shall bear the Names of the Children of Israel in the Breast-plate of Judgment when he goeth into the holy place for a memorial before the Lord continually importing not only the nearness of the Church and redeemed of Christ unto him but also his continual presenting of their Names their Persons in his Righteousness before his Father 2. The Plate of Gold upon the Mitre engraven with Holiness to the Lord Exod. 28.38 And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of their holy things that they may be accepted before the Lord. As our Persons are accepted by God in the Righteousness of Christ presented for them to his Father so our Services are accepted in the strength of the same Mediation Christ presenting our Prayers and Services to his Father discharged of those Sins and Defects with which they are mingled as they come from us 3. His Solemn Atonement when he entred into the Holy of Holies Levit. 16. Wherein we shall observe 1. A most special Reconsecration almost of all the things incident to that Service before it was performed the Priest was to make an Atonement for himself by the Blood of the Bullock Verse 11. and for the Altar Verse 18. which signifie that Purification of the Humane Nature of Christ from all Sin Original and Actual from all Sin even in his Conception that so he might be a fit High Priest Heb. 7.26 For such a high priest became us who is Holy Harmless Vndefiled Separate from Sinners and made higher than the Heavens The difference was this Aaron notwithstanding his first Consecration to his Office needed a new Atonement when he entred into the Holy of Holies and exercised that high Type of Christ's Ascension and Intercession But Christ being once Consecrate needed no new Consecration Heb. 7.28 For the Law maketh men High Priests which have infirmities but the Word of the Oath which was since the Law maketh the Son who is Consecrated for evermore 2. This was to be done but once in the year Some services had frequent iterations but those special Services that were but once in the Year were Types of those things that were to be done but once though remembred yearly such was the killing of the Passover Christ by one Offering hath perfected them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 3. This great Atonement not made but by Blood Heb. 9.7 The high Priest entred not without Blood Livit. 26. And this Atonement was to be made upon the Horns of the Altar Levit. 16.18 viz. The Golden Altar of Incense Exod. 30.10 Hence Christ called the Blood of sprinkling Hebr. 12.24 The Offering that was to be used in this solemn Atonement for so much as concerned the Sins of the People were two Goats which were to be presented before the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle Levit. 16.7 And Lots to be cast one for the Lord the other for the Scape-Goat the former was to be the Sin-offering for the People and his Blood to be brought within the Veil Verse 23. And the other was to bear the Iniquity of the Children of Israel but to be sent into the Wilderness Ibid. Vers 21. Although in the Sacrifice of Christ his Body only died and his Soul escaped yet both were but one Sacrifice he did bear our sins in both his Soul was heavy unto death as well as his Body crucified and as God had prepared him a Body in order to this Sacrifice Heb. 10.5 So he made his Soul an Offering for Sin Isa 53.10 4. As after all this the Priest entred into the most Holy and presented this Blood of Reconciliation before the Mercy Seat and no Man was to be in the Tabernacle when he goeth in Levit. 16.17 So Christ having trodden alone the Wine press of his Father's Wrath Isaiah 63.3 Is entred into the Holy Place not made with Hands now to appear in the presence of God for us Hebr. 9.24 And as the People did representatively by their Mediatour Aaron pass into the Holiest so our High Priest hath consecrated for us Access into the Holiest by a new and living way through the Veil of his Flesh Hebr. 10.20 Who as he is our Advocate with the Father John 2.1 To bear our Names before him as the High Priest did the Names of Israel to present his own Blood before the Father of Mercy as the High Priest did the Blood of the Sin-Offering before the Mercy Seat to bear the Iniquity of our holy things as the High Priest did upon his Forehead so likewise to present our Prayers to the Father Ephes 2.18 Through him we have access
Vultures have not seen the great God alone gave Man his End and appointed the way to that End we had once the knowledge of both but have lost it and we must owe the discovery of it to the Author of it And to Man he said Behold the Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil is Vnderstanding Job 18.28 6. It doth discover the whole Duty of Man to his Maker to himself and to others far beyond all other Books or Documents in the World. Man by his Sin hath lost the greatest part of his Light and Perfection his own discoveries of his Duty are lame and imperfect and till the God that first planted these Principles of Knowledge and Conformity to his Will give us a new Copy of them we shall never clearly attain unto them in our knowledge or practice There are these Eminencies touching Moral Precepts which this Book of God hath above all other Books in the World. 1. No other Book in the World doth discover the true ground of the Obligation unto Moral Precepts The Moral Philosopher perswades me to Temperance to Justice but what Obligation lies upon me for it If he tells me That it is his own Authority my Answer is He hath none over me more than I have over him If he tells me the Law under which I live binds me to it I shall enquire what binds me to observe those Laws but Power which if I can avoid by the like power or secrecy I am not bound or my own Consent which I am as well Master of as I was before I consented If he tells me the Law of Nature binds me I am still unsatisfied who gave that Law or when or to whom and there the Philosopher is to seek as well of my Conviction as of my Obedience But this Book shews what that Law is from whence the Obligation of Obedience to it ariseth even from that most Just and Uncontroulable Authority that God hath over his Creature 2. No other Book or Learning in the World perswades the observance of those Laws it injoyns with the like convincing and satisfying grounds of Reason that this doth The highest ground that ever Moral Philosopher could fetch to perswade to submit to Moral Precepts were but one of these viz. The Reputation and general esteem of Men which dies with me and while it lives is nothing else but a Fancie and contains no Reality or the Cohortion of the Laws which if I can avoid with secrecy or force I escape the strength of the Perswasion or that Congruity that sound Moral Precepts hold with Prudence and the permanent enjoyment of good here for it is a most certain Truth as appears before That the due observation of the Rules of right Reason hath a most clear connexion with Happiness in this Life and that the violation of these Precepts of Nature do necessarily introduce a loss of temporal Felicity These are the highest Motives of Obedience to these humane Documents But let us look upon the Motives that the very same Precepts are enforced with in this Book of God we shall find them of a higher Constitution we are there shewn they are commanded by that God to whom we owe our Being and therefore may justly challenge our Obedience as his Tribute by that God from whom we daily receive our Preservation and Mercies and therefore may justly expert the return of our Love and Thankfulness in the Observance of his Will by that God that hath annexed a Sanction to the breach of his Law which he both can and will inflict this may startle our Fear by that God that hath propounded and promised a Reward to our Obedience both in this Life and a future which he will certainly confer this doth quicken our Hope These and the like grounds and motives of Obedience fall upon the most active Affections with the most powerful and rational Perswasion and are able to conquer more difficulties in the Obedience of these very Precepts that are materially the same than all those faint and thin Perswasions that the wisest of Men could ever teach The great God that knows the frame of the Soul of Man hath not only given rational Laws to lead him to his great End and rational Means to draw out his Obedience by appointing Rewards or Punishments of his Obedience or Disobedience but also by the same Wisdom of his planted in him Affections which might be proper to receive the impressions of those Rewards and Punishments and by this Word of his conveys those Notions into his Heart which stick upon those active Affections of Love Hope and Fear in the most exact full and adequate manner This is therefore none else but the Finger of God. And this is not only evinced by the Threatnings and Promises in this Book but by the Historical part of it applying the Truths of both wherein we may see unriddled most of the varieties of Events that fall upon a People or Person especially knowing God which without this Light seem to be confused and meerly contingent Israel sins Israel is punished she repents and is delivered We are shewn by the very Historical passages of the Old Testament that when we are punished we eat but the fruit of our own ways 3. As the Eminence of the Scripture above other Learning and consequently its Original is discovered in the two former so in this that it doth distinctly and clearly evidence and set forth those Moral Precepts which are confusedly and imperfectly only delivered by the best of humane Writers especially in the Worship of God All agree God is to be worshipped but when they come to shew how then they are to seek for indeed as it is folly for any one to think that there can be any Worship of God acceptable but what is agreeable to his Will so it is vain to think that this Will of his could be discovered by any but himself And from the want of this grew Idolatries and other Vanities in Worship 4 The original of the Scriptures is discovered in this that it doth contain in it Precepts of a higher Constitution and therefore of a higher Pedegree than the best of all humane Learning ever did arrive unto such as are the Cleansing of the Heart and Thoughts from all Sin That the Formality of Sin consists in the Will even before it expresseth it self in Act That the outward Conformity of the Act to Vertue without the internal Conformity of the Will and Mind is but Hypocrisie and the seeming vertuous Action is at least dead and not of value if not sin That a Vertuous Action done out of any other End than in Obedience and Love to God that enjoyns it is not an Action rightly Principled nor acceptable to God The right directing of our Passions and Affections that nothing is worthy of our intense Love but God that nothing deserves our Hate but Sin and therefore teacheth us in the former to despise the World in the
Magazine of Grace to heal and purge that corruption John 1.16 Of his fulness we receive grace for grace In sum Man had lost his Creator with an infinite distance and so lost his Happiness Christ as the Fulness of God dwelt in him bodily so together with him restores Man to his Lord and so to his Blessedness Ephes 3.19 And to know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge that ye may he filled with all the fulness of God. The Means then of this Fruition is Vnion The reason by which every thing enjoys what it hath is Union and the more strict the Union is between the thing that enjoys and the thing enjoyed The strictest Union is between any thing and its Essence therefore when Goodness is part of the Essence the Enjoyment is the most perfect And it is by vertue of this Union with Christ that all this Fulness of Christ is conveyed to the Believer Now as the Fulness of Christ ariseth from his Union with God the Fountain of Goodness so our Fruition of that Fulness ariseth from our Union with Christ John 17.23 I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one And this was the great Purpose of God in sending Christ Ephes 1.10 That he might gather together in one all things in Christ And this Union with Christ is frequently expressed in the Scripture in the strictest terms of Union conversation of Friendship John 14.23 We will come unto him and make our abode with him Christ formed in them Galat. 4.19 Incorporation with him eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood John 6.53 Inhabiting in them Ephes 3.17 Christ living in them Galat. 2.20 Part of his very substance Ephes 5.30 For we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Partakers of the very Fulness of God that is in him Ephes 3.19 That ye may be filled with the fulness of God. Changed into the very Image of Christ 2 Cor. 3.18 Partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 Now we are to consider How this Vnion is wrought viz. By a double act 1. Of God's part 2. Of our part God in the Creation united Man unto himself and Man by his sin broke that Union and departed from him and is he could not so he would never have returned to God again unless God had brought him to himself John 6.65 No man can come unto me except it were given him of my Father Now the degrees of those acts whereby God unites us to him are 1. His Eternal Love Man by his sin got away from God as far as he could and as he lost his Ability so he lost his Mind to return Gen. 3.10 I heard thy voice and I was afraid and I hid my self Love is the first motion to Union and this Love of God is the first foundation of our Union to him John 3.16 For God so loved the world c. 1 John 4.10 Herein is Love not that we loved him but that he loved us first and gave his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself before the World either wisht or thought of that Reconciliation so that it was a free Love and not drawn out upon any desert in his Creature 2. The second step of the motion towards Union was the sending his Son to assume our Nature and come unto us The distance between God and his best Creature is essentially infinite because finite with infinite bears no proportion but the distance between God and his sinful Creature must needs be greater because the Creature by his sin is gone away from God farther than he was in his pure Being To fill up this infinite distance God and Man is united into one Christ by the assumption of our Nature and by this means God is come nearer unto us as we may say and we in a condition to draw nearer unto him even in his Son. And thus God hath gathered together all things in one in Christ Ephes 1.10 3. The third step is by the course of his Providence conveying the knowledge and use of this Mediator unto us This is a farther degree of Union the former was specifical in our Natures but this objective and intellectual viz. by means proportionable to our Natures and Conditions providentially disposed he sends unto us the relation of our own Condition by Nature our Duty our Saviour his Will and all those Truths contained in the Book of God and this Truth he sets on with Rational Convictions Prophecies Miracles Perswasions Intreaties all which nave a rational operation upon our Understanding and Wills. This is that which is the Outward Calling And among those many Effectual Truths that are conveyed unto us by this Calling which were either lost or defaced in Man these are principally discovered and of principal use 1. That God is the chiefest Good and therefore the chiefest Object of our Love and Desire and therefore doth justly require the extremity of our pursuit The enjoyment of this Object is that wherein Mans Felicity consisted in his State of Innocence and must in his State of Restitution and this truth once entertained doth render all things else insipid in Comparison of it Deut. 6.4 Hear O Israel The Lord our God is one Lord therefore thou shalt love c. 2. That he is a Communicative Good for without this the Labour of the Soul would be fruitless For it were impossible for a finite Power to reach or overtake an infinite Object unless the Object did exhibit himself unto that Power And herein is the excellence of this call of God it discovers the Free Love of God unto the Soul So as the Absolute Goodness of God engageth us even in Judgment to seek to be united unto him so this Free Love of God engageth us even in good Nature as I may say to seek him And the very Entertainment of this truth soundly in the heart is the Foundation of our Faith and Obedience Rom. 5.8 But God commendeth his Love towards us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ dyed for us As if he should have said There could not be imagined a more Conquering love than this that he whom we had injured by our Sins should yet seek the Good of his Creature 1 John 4.9 Herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us first This was Love with a Witness That when the Creature that owed to his Lord the strength of his Love had broken his Duty and become a hater of his Lord yet that that God should love such a Creature And as this Love was thus Free so it condescended to all the means of Communicating himself that are imaginable contriving means to reconcile us God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself 2 Cor. 5.19 God was reconciling when Man thought of nothing but offending Importunities of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.20 We pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God. It
and Glory that thy Being can return unto him But had he given thee a simple Being thy Debt had not been so great so have the most unaccomplisht Creatures But thy Being was dressed with an Intellectual Nature and that Nature furnished with Fruition of Happiness filling the uttermost extent of its Capacity and that Happiness guarded with such a Law as was suitable to that Nature full of Beauty and Order in the obedience whereof thou didst at once perform thy Duty and improve thy Felicity But thou rejectedst all this and becamest a Rebel to thy God and a ruine to thy self and thou hast improved thy ruine and rebellion by a voluntary rejection of thy Duty and thy Happiness until this hour And what canst thou expect but a just return of an infinite Vengeance from an omnipotent injured Creator for so ungrateful a breach of an infinite Obligation But consider what thy Lord hath done for thee for all this and stay thy self and wonder Thy Lord proclaims Return thou backsliding Soul and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you Jer. 12. Hadst thou offended thine Equal for thy offended Equal to have solicited thy Reconciliation had deserved Acceptation and Love But for the infinite God to whom thou owest an infinite Duty and hast violated it who is able to annihilate thee and can receive no advantage by thy return to solicit it with an offer of a Reprieve nay of a Pardon But here 's not all our Deliverance from the Wrath of God is wonder enough Let me now be as one of my Father's hired Servants No there is more yet 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of love he is content to accept of us as Sons But what must the Price be of so great a Change or who shall give it Thy Lord whom thou hast thus injured hath paid the Price of thy Redemption and such a Price as Heaven and Earth may wonder at the mention of it The Son of God lays down his Life for his Rebels Pardon and Assumption into a Partnership with him in his own Kingdom But thou art not for all this at the End of thy Debt this Price is rendred to thee upon easie terms Believe and live and this Life accompanied with infinite Advantages even Communion with this Creator But yet like the murmuring Israelite thou wilt die with the Manna between thy Teeth unless God who hath given thee such a Price of thy Redemption enable thee to receive him He sends his Spirit into thy Heart with Light and Life to strive with thy unbelieving Heart and to subdue it and to cleanse thy filthy and polluted Heart to bring Redemption into thy Heart and to solicite perswade importune thy Heart to receive him for thy own Good. What remains then but that thou shouldest ever admire that Love that hath done all this for thee that thou shouldest in all humility and humble reverence return love to thy Lord and magnifie his condescension that he is pleased to accept the Love of his poor Creature that thou study not to grieve the Spirit of that God that hath taken this pains and care with thee for thy good not to crucifie again that Christ that hath died for thee that thou labour to find out what is the Will of thy Lord and to obey it and to walk in love as Christ also loved us and hath given himself for us Ephes 5.2 Now according to the measure of the true Knowledge of God and of his Love in Christ is the measure of our Love to him and as that Knowledge is the immediate cause of its production so it must of necessity be the measure of its Degree And although both the knowledge of his Absolute Goodness which excites the love of Desire and the knowledge of his Benefactoriness to us which increaseth the love of Gratitude or Benevolence are mingled in every Soul that truly loves God yet according to the different degrees of the discoveries of either to the Soul so are the different manners of their working upon the Soul. The knowledge of the Perfection and Absolute Goodness of God is more suitable to an Angelical Nature and therefore produceth an high Angelical and Intellectual Love for this Love begins with the Judgment But because our Nature as it now stands as it arrives seldom to such a Knowledge so seldom to such a Love and that Love which comes into the Heart meerly upon such Contemplations is weak mingled with Servile Fear unactive because the Knowledge like the Sun in a Cloud shines dim and the Heat proves waterish and weak But the knowledge of the Goodness of God to us as it draws the Goodness of God nearer to us in Sense so it strikes more our Affections which God hath placed in us for this End. And this was the motive of Love and consequently of Obedience both under the Law and under the Gospel though the Expressions of that Love under the Law had more in them of Sense and under the Gospel more of Spirit Deut. 30.20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God and obey his voice and cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days c. Luk. 7.47 Her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much Christ argues from the measure of her Love to the measure of God's Goodness to her and her Sense of it And here we have the true Principle of all true Obedience to God The bare External act of any thing commanded by God unless it move from a Heart or Principle conformable to the Will of God is no Obedience for all External actions taking them divided from the Will they are all of one kind and nature The very same act proceeding from a Soul differently principled may be an act of Obedience viz. when proceeding from an obedient loving Heart an act of compulsion when proceeding from a bare servile Heart a bruitish act when it proceeds from a Soul not moved with any Consideration and an act of malignity against God when done out of a malicious cunning design Some even preached the Gospel for Envy Phil. 1.16 So then as the Knowledge of the Goodness and Love of God to us is the immediate cause of the return of our Love to God so this love of the Soul unto God is the true and immediate Principle of all true Obedience unto God Now these are the genuine and natural Effects of Love to God 1. It makes a Man to make God and his Honour and Glory the highest and supream End of all his actions And this must needs be so in Reason For as the great End of all the works of God are his own Honour so where there is true Love to God it cannot chuse but make the Soul value that most which God most values As he must needs be convinced in his Judgment that that which God makes his End must needs be the chief End of the Creatures actions so where this Affection is it
so much of the Creatures inferiour to my self as observe the Law of their Creation enjoy a measure of Perfection answerable to their Being and if interrupted in that law of their Nature they lose their Beauty if not their Being The degree of my Being was higher than theirs and so was consequently the End of my Being my Happiness of a higher Constitution than theirs And as my Debt was greater to my Creator for allowing me so high an End so was my ability proportionable to the pursuit and attaining of that End which was thus given to me But what have I been doing all this while I have measured my Heart by that great Law Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and I have found my Heart full of the love of the World of Pleasures of Vanities but scarce a thought bestowed on him that gave me Power to think and which is worse my Heart hath held confederacy with all that he hath forbidden insomuch that I may justly conclude that surely nothing but a Heart hating God could so constantly and universally oppose his Will I have measured my Life by the Law of God and I can scarcely find one regular action in it my Heart hath not been so out of frame but it hath still found a full subservience of my whole Man unto it and that with greediness and yet I find all this unsatisfactory and I have cause to fear that is not all Sense doth tell me that in the pursuit of the ways of my Heart I spend my self for that which is not Bread and my labour for that which profiteth not I find no fulness in them but much vexation And Reason as well as Conscience tells me it will be bitterness in the end and the end is death I cannot but know that the great Lord of all Being hath measured out to all his Creatures their Beings and their Happiness suitable to their Beings and their Ways and Rules and Laws to attain their Happiness and if all this while I have been out of that Way I am travelling to another End If in the way of God I should have found Life and everlasting Life for my End out of that Way my End must be Death If I were now to begin my Life I should order it better Though I cannot expiate what is past yet my Soul looks upon it with Sorrow with Indignation with Amazement This is the first degree 2. That they are Vnbecoming Vngrateful and Vndutiful Returns It is implanted even in the sensitive Nature to return good for good We have received all the Good from the hands of that God against whom the practice of our Hearts and Lives hath been a continual Rebellion and upon this Consideration natural Ingenuity works a Shame in the Soul and a secret Condemnation and some kind of loathing so Ungrateful and Undutiful a Constitution 3. But hitherto the Soul looks only backward and these Considerations though they are enough to breed Shame and Despair in the Soul yet they are not strong enough to work Repentance because in those Considerations the Soul looks upon it self in an unexpiable and irrecoverable Condition The amendment will prove fruitless where the former guilt is irreversible and yet enough to sink the Soul Therefore the third Conviction is of the love of God that hath provided a means of pardon and acceptation when a Man throughly convinced of the unprofitableness and desperateness of his actions and condition his extream Ingratitude unto God shall for all this hear a voice after all those things Return back thou back-sliding Israel and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful and will not keep mine anger for ever only acknowledge thine iniquity Jer. 3.12 13. This conquers the Soul not only into a dislike of sin past as dangerous and unprofitable but unto a hatred of it and of our selves for it as the enemy to such an invincible Love. The Consideration of our ways past and comparing them with the Law will enforce the Conscience to condemn them but it must be the sense of the Love and Goodness of God in Christ that can only incline us to change them as by the former he concludes his ways dangerous and unprofitable so without the latter he will conclude his Repentance unuseful And hereupon the Soul is cast into such Expressions as these O Lord I have been considering the present temper of my Heart and reviewed the course of my Life and have compared them with the Duty I owe unto thee and the Law which thou gavest me to be the Rule of that Duty and I find my heart and ways infinitely disproportionable to that Rule and thereby I conclude my self a most ungrateful and a miserable Creature But though I have sinned away that stock of Grace and Blessedness with which I was once intrusted by thee I find I have not out-sinned that Fountain of Goodness and Mercy that is in thee even whiles the sight and sense of my own Condition bids me despair either of repenting or acceptation of it yet I hear the voice of that Majesty which I have injured bids me Return and live Ezek. 18.32 Were there no acceptance of my turning from those ways of death and destruction yet it were my duty and though thy Justice might justly reject it yet it might justly require it But yet when thy merciful and free Promise shall crown my Repentance with Acceptation and Life This Love constrains beyond the sense of my own misery And when I hear the voice of my Lord calling to me to return and I will heal your backslidings that Love warms my Heart into that answer Behold I will come unto thee for thou art the Lord my God Jer 3.22 But who can come unto thee unless thou draw him send therefore thy Power along with thy Command for it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth Turn me and I shall be turned I will engage the uttermost of my strength to forsake my ways but I will still wait upon the same Mercy that did invite me to enable me to forsake them By that which preceeds we see a double Repentance 1. That which is Preparatory unto the receiving of Christ which is nothing else but a sense of the unhappiness and evil of our ways as destructive unto our Happiness and dissonant from that Rule of Righteousness which we cannot but naturally subscribe to be Just and Good and this doth naturally breed a Sorrow for what hath been so done and a Purpose and Inclination of Heart to forsake those ways And this was the work of the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord his Doctrine was a Doctrine of Repentance and his Baptism a Baptism of Repentance a Seal of the Entertainment of that Doctrine to as many as received it Matth. 3.2 Luk. 3.16 Acts 19.4 2. That which is Subsequent to that entertainment of Christ in the Heart by Faith which is the sense of
precious Ointment Eccles 7.1 with a merry Heart which doth good like a Medicine Prov. 17.22 with Honour and Promotion Wealth Wisdom Success in thy Labours and these ought to be entertained with rejoycing and comfort the wise Man tells us it is the Portion that God giveth thee in them Eccles 3.13 22. Eccles 5.18 Eccles 9.9 and it is thy duty enjoyned thee by God Deut. 28.27 Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things therefore c. But take heed to thy Heart it will soon abuse and exceed his Commission 1. Look to the Manner of thy Joy or Mirth that it be not light or vain thy Mirth may prove mad Eccles 2.2 the Laughter of a Fool Eccles 7.6 a Mirth that will end in Heaviness Prov. 14.13 2. Look to the Measure of it First weigh the Good that thou enjoyest and then weigh out a Proportion of Joy answerable to the value of that Good lay not out the whole stock of thy Joy for that which deserves but a small part of it We are commonly mistaken in the value we put upon the things we expect or enjoy and that makes us mis-spend our selves upon them Be sure nothing below the fruition of thy Creator can deserve the whole stock of thy Delight and if thou dispensest it otherwise thou robbest thy God and deceivest thy self There are three Considerations and Cautions that are often to be used to moderate our Delight in Externals 1. To consider the true value of them they are but limited Good and not large enough for thy Soul limited in measure limited in duration the Good that is in them is that Congruity that God hath put in them and that only a limited good and can deserve but a limited Delight 2. To mingle those sad Considerations of Mortality and an Account with the Fruition of any Externals This doth allay the exorbitancy of the Heart and keeps the Soul from surfeiting upon any outward Good this is the going to the house of Mourning commended by the wise Man Eccles 7.2 that sad remembrance which he gives to the young man in the midst of his jollity Eccl. 11.9 But know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment there is a severe Eye that beholdeth all thy deportment in the fruition of those things I lend thee that will have a sad account for thy carriage in the use of them 3. To contemplate often the Goodness of God his Mercy his Bounty to find the Presence and Love of God in thy Love the sound hope of eternal Life This will take up the whole compass of thy delight and rejoycing wherein thou canst not exceed so that thou wilt not have Joy enough or at least not too much for any thing below him Luke 10.20 In this rejoyce not but rather rejoyce because your names are written in heaven When this Sun shines in the Heart those little Stars of outward Comfort which at no time have but a derivative Light will not appear And this thy Faith is the Victory that overcometh the World the delights of the World as well as the terrours of the World It will keep Comforts and thy Delight in them in their due place and subordination and count them but dung and loss that thou mayest win Christ Phil. 3.8 If the Lord shall lift up the light of his countenance upon thee it will put more gladness in thy Heart than when their or thine own Corn and Wine increased Psal 4.7 When thy Peace is made with God thy Conscience sprinkled by the Blood of Christ the Spirit the Comforter witnessing with thy own Spirit Rom. 8.16 thy Heart sincere towards God 2 Cor. 1.12 this will cause an abiding Joy 2 Thes 5.16 John 16.12 a full Joy 1 John 1.4 a victorious Joy that like Moses's Serpent devours the false Joys and conquers the temporal Sorrows of this Life Acts 5.41 James 1.2 1 Pet. 4.13 a Joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.8 3. And as to the manner and measure of thy Delight so look to the Ground the formal Reason of thy Delight see that thy delight or rejoycing fix not in those external Comforts singly for then thy Delight will be sensual immoderate and vain the very same that an irrational Creature takes in them viz. a complacency in the fruition of that which is convenient and suitable to his Sense But look upon thy Blessings and delight in them as thou seest the Bounty the Goodness the Hand the Promise the Truth of God in them This will not only moderate but spiritualize thy delight in them thy delight in them will not only be Comfortable to thy self but Acceptable to God thy delight in thy Blessings is then mingled with Thankfulness with Humility with Sobriety with Faith with Watchfulness it is thy Duty and it is thy Safety The rich Man in the Gospel Luk. 12.19 Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years eat drink and be merry and this was his sin The Israelite offering his first Fruits to God Deut. 26.11 is commanded to rejoyce in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee this was his Duty the rejoycing the same here was the odds the former terminated and laid out his Joy in the thing as the suitable Good to his Nature and Condition the latter looked upon it and rejoyced in it as a Gift of God learn therefore to find God in the Creature and that will heal the Creature and make it useful and safe thou mayest then delight in them safely because thou wilt then do it warrantably CHAP. XXII Of Watchfulness over our Grief 1. In reference to God for Sin 2. In reference to Externals TAKE heed to thy Grief Love as is before noted is the great Cardinal Affection or Motion of the Soul and the other Affections are but Love diversified according to the site or position of the Object Love in the expectation of its Object is Hope in the doubt or danger of it Fear in the enjoyment of it Joy in the absence of it Grief or Sorrow The Object therefore of thy Love is the subject of thy Grief and the measure of thy Love to it is the measure of thy Grief for it First therefore see that thy intensest Grief be relative to him that ought to be the Object of thy intensest Love. Now our Love to God is under a double Consideration 1. Absolutely as he is the chiefest perfect absolute Good. And under this Consideration our Love ends in him we love him for his own sake And this is an Angelical Love and a pure sublime Love and the Fruit of this Love is an endeavour of Conformity to his Nature and to his Will. 2. Relatively as he is the Chiefest Good to us And this creates in us a double Love to him 1. A Love of Gratitude a return of Love to him because we receive Love from him 1 John
ariseth Murmuring and Discontent because that which befalls him crosseth him in his self opinion of his own Merit or Desert And from hence proceeds the rejection of God and of his directions from an opinion of a self-sufficiency and fulness To cure this Distemper and the products of it labour for Poverty and Humility of Spirit upon these Considerations 1. That whatsoever thou hast of worth or good in thee it is not thy own it is a derived good the good that is most thy own even thy essential good is not thy own thou owest thy Being to somewhat without thee But grant it were thine own yet the Comfort and Life and Beauty of thy Being were nothing without a farther good that is not thy own thy Power thy Wealth thy Strength thy Knowledge these are not in thy Essence they are derived Goods and such as are not from thy self the most exact faculty of thy Soul is but empty till it be filled by an Object without thee In thy highest Fruition thou hast a just occasion to magnifie God from whom thou hast it not to magnifie thy self that dost only receive it Learn therefore the Original of that good whatever it be that thou enjoyest it will make thee thankful and keep thee humble 2. That in thy self thou hast nothing but emptiness and vanity Thou hadst a good it is true which was sent thee by the Lord of thy Being and that we have shewn was no occasion to exalt thy self because it was not thine own but even that thou hast lost now and thy Nature hath nothing left thee whereof to be Proud. 3. That it is impossible for thee to come to enjoy that which must make thee happy till thou art deeply sensible of thy own emptiness and nothingness and thy Spirit thereby brought down and laid in the dust As long as thy Soul is full of thy Honour or of thy Wealth or of the World or of thy own Righteousness or Worth there is no room for thy Saviour or his fulness thou wilt not receive him because thou findest not any want and thou canst not receive him because thou hast no room And as it indisposeth thee to receive good from God so it indisposeth as I may say God to give it for thy Pride assumeth that both from God which is his and applies it to thy self even that acknowledgment and Honour which is a Tribute wholly and only due to God and hence it is that he resists the Proud because they rob him of the Duty that by all the Laws and Reasons immaginable thou owest to him 4. That the Grace of God the Knowledge and Sense of his Love the Spirit of Christ is an humbling Spirit the more thou hast of it the more it will humble thee and it is a sign that either thou hast it not or that it is yet over-mastered by thy corruption if thy Heart be still haughty it shews thee thy self in thy true Dress and makes thee abhor thy self it shews thee the Purity and Majesty of the great God with whom thou hast to deal and teacheth thee Fear and Honour towards him it teacheth thee to live by thy Saviour's Life to be righteous by his Purity to be saved by his Sufferings to walk by his Rule and to aim at his Glory it shews thee that thou hast all from him and frames thy Heart to return all to him It restores thee to that Position and Constitution in which thou wast made and takes off that distemper of Spirit which at once hath put thee below what thou wast and yet exalteth thy foolish Spirit above it There was a third Object of our Watch proposed viz. Temptations which are either 1. For Tryal 2. To Sin of which see the Meditations upon the Lord's Prayer Afflictions c. CHAP. XXIV Of the new Life or Sanctification and the necessity of it HITHERTO we have considered the Duty and Means of Mortification the putting off of the Old Man those Distempers and Disorders of our Souls by which they become unconformable to the Image and Mind of God the Principle whereof is the Spirit and Grace of God given us in Christ and the Means of this work those which we have before mentioned Now we come to consider of that New Life which follows hereupon most necessarily 1. Because it proceeds most necessarily from the same Principle As in a natural Man fallen into some Distemper it is the same strength of Nature that conquers the Disease and it being conquered maintains the Body in its natural Operations which is Health so the same vital power of the Spirit of God is that which overmatched those Distempers in our Soul which are contrary to our spiritual Life and Motion and conserves that Constitution of Health in the Soul by which it moves regularly and according to the Will of God which is our New Life 2. Because the Motion of those Distempers which fit in our Soul doth necessarily conform our Souls to that condition in which we were created God at first created us in a Conformity unto himself our sin brought an impotency upon our Nature by which we contracted all those Corruptions and Distempers that have disordered our Souls and diverted us from God when God is pleased by the power of his own Spirit purchased for us by the Blood of Christ to put into us a Principle of life and strength to work out those Corruptions and Disorders of our Souls there must necessarily follow a life conformable to the Will of God and as there is no Medium between Life and Death so when this Death of our Souls is removed by that Principle of Life there necessarily follows a New Life and new Operations answerable to it 3. The End of the Motion of those disorders of the Soul is in order to our New Life 1 Pet. 2.24 That we being dead to sin should live to Righteousness Ephes 2.10 Created in Christ Jesus unto good works It was the end of the Death of Christ Tit. 2.14 the Tree that bore wild Figs and that which bore none were equally cursed John 15.2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away So then the work of Mortification and Sanctification differ only in their Relations not in themselves they are both effects of that same Life which by the Spirit of Christ and our Union to him is wrought in us they both drive to the same End even to our Conformity to our Head Christ Jesus which is our Conformity to the Will of God wherein consists the Perfection of every Creature For this is the Will of God even your Sanctification 1 Thes 4.3 The Honour and Glory of God is and ought to be the supream End of all actions and things in the World. And this is that which every Creature in his right station and condition doth drive at according to the measure and degree of its natural perfection for as the great End of God in all his actions is his own
measure as is either beyond the convenience of our Nature or beyond the conveniency of our Condition the former is Intemperance and destroys the Body the latter is Prodigality or Profuseness and wastes the Estate the dispensation of God's Providence in Externals ought to be the measure at least beyond which we must not go in the use of Meats and Drink Again under this Rule is prohibited the making Provision for the Flesh exciting the Appetite beyond its natural disposition by Meats Drinks and Provocations 3. Vnseasonably This though it exclude not the considerations of the places where and Persons with whom we converse yet it principally looks upon the time of our action as that stands qualified or circumstantiated God hath allowed me a comfortable and liberal use of his Creatures as well for Delight as Necessity but use not that liberty upon these Seasons 1. When God's Providence hath set a mark of Sadness upon the Season Isa 22.12 In that day did the Lord of hosts call to weeping and to mourning and behold joy and gladness c. 2. When either God by his Word or Civil or Ecclesiastical Constitutions or Customs or thy own particular Dedication hath set apart a time for religious Abstinence or Duty 3. When the ordinary occasions of thy Profession Calling or temporal Employment permit it not without inconvenience to thy self or others In order to our sensual Appetite are those Affections which are carried towards those things that are subservient thereunto and these Affections we find in the Bruit Creatures The Ants a people not strong yet gather they their meat in summer Prov. 30.25 And from the same proceeds their desire of mastery one over another As the former is for Provision for their Appetites so the latter is for their Protection of that Provision or themselves in their acquiring a use of it Answerable to which in Man are those two Desires of Wealth which we call Covetousness and of Power which we call Ambition Neither of these but is conversant about those things which are meerly useful either for the Supplies of the sensual Appetite or protection of those Supplies in us or our Posterity Touching those Desires we say as of the former that they are not in themselves unlawful for as the Divine Dispensations hath appointed our natural Life to be supported and defended by these external Provisions so he hath dispersed those supplies in the World and given us Appetites to them and appointed means to acquire them They are his Blessings and we are commanded to be industrious in serving of the Divine Providence in the acquiring of these things Deut. 8.18 It is he that giveth thee power to get wealth Deut. 28.8 c. He shall command the blessing upon thee in thy store-houses he shall make thee plenteous in goods the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail Prov. 6.6 the wise Man sendeth the Sluggard to the Ant and it pleased God oftentimes to give unto those who were his sincere Servants a great measure both of Wealth and Honour and a lawful and sober Industry to acquire them is not only permitted but commanded and injoyned He that provideth not for his own house is worse than an infidel The Errors concerning these Affections are as in the former 1. Inconsiderateness in the prosecution and use of them These things are not desirable for themselves but in order to something else and they are in themselves more remote from our Nature than the immediate Objects of our Senses and yet we are not to desire them for their own sakes but in order to that End for which that Desire is put into us viz. the preservation of our Beings and Species but Wealth and Honour and the desire of it is therefore put into us in order to those immediate Objects of our Sense We are to desire Meats and drinks in order to the preservation of our Lives And we are to desire Wealth and Riches in order to the supply of Meat and Drink And as we are not in common Reason to make Eating the End of our Eating so much less are we to make Wealth and Riches the End of our being Rich. It is more distant and remote from the necessity of my Nature to be rich than to be fed yet both are but instrumental though in a different order and therefore must be so desired and prosecuted And as this consideration is to be in the gaining of Wealth so it must be in the use of it Solomon tells us of this Vanity Eccles 6.2 A Man to whom God hath given Riches Wealth and Honour so that he wanteth nothing of all that his Soul desireth yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof As Eccles 4.8 there was no end of his Labour neither was his Eye satisfied with Riches in his pursuit of them so he makes not that rational use of them for which they were given he desired to be rich because he would be rich and being arrived to his End he cannot find in his Heart to employ them to those Ends for which alone they are only valuable And as this inconsiderateness of the End of them is to be avoided so the want of consideration of the Author of them which should carry up our Hearts with Thankfulness to the God who giveth us power to get Wealth who putteth down one and setteth up another and not to sacrifice to our own Nets or magnifie our own Deservings or Wisdom but to walk humbly and thankfully and soberly as in the presence of that God that hath made us Stewards and but Stewards of those Externals and to employ them in such a way as may be most agreeable to our Masters Will most conducible to our Masters Honour and most becoming our Masters Presence 2. Immoderation 1. In our Care for them 2. In our Love to them 3. In our Confidence in them 1. In our Care This proceeds from our Infidelity and Distrust of God's All-sufficience When we consider not that the Dispensation of things convenient for our Life is in his hands and that the accommodation of them to our use is from the Word or Commission that he gives them Man lives not by bread only but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God Matth. 4.4 It is from his hand that thou must expect thy Bread and thy Clothing Gen. 28.20 If God give me bread to eat and raiment to put on and it is from his Blessing and the Commission which he gives to that Bread and that Raiment that he gives thee to be useful for thee and accommodate to this Preservation And this Solicitousness Care and Distrust our Saviour forbiddeth and convinceth Matth. 6.25 Take no thought for your life 52. for your heavenly Father knoweth you have need of these things Thy Care is but a tormenting Care it is but an unuseful and unprofitable Care Thou canst not by thy Care add to thy own Stature It is an impertinent Care and a Care
few days God forbid that I should look upon it as the merit of my Charity for it was his own or that I should be therefore charitable because I expected a temporal Reward for I have therein but done my duty and am therein an unprofitable Servant But I bless God that hath made good this Truth of his even to my sensible and frequent Experience CHAP. XXIX Of Sanctification in reference to our Neighbour viz. Righteousness the Habit and Rule of it 2. THE second general wherein our Sanctification consists is Righteousness viz. that just temperature of Mind and consequently of our Conversation that respecteth other Men Herein we will consider 1. The Habit it self or habitual Righteousness 2. The Rule of it 3. The Parts of it 1. The Habit it self it is a frame and temper of Mind arising from the Love of God to give every Man his due according to the Will of God. The great Duty that the Creature owes to his Creator is Love Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy Heart and this as hath been shewn is the first and great Commandment and the first and most natural Duty and Bond that can be the Consequence of this Love is the doing all the good we can unto him and for him from whom we receive our Being now all the good we can do him is but to please him to be conformable to his Will for it is impossible that any thing can contribute any thing to him that is infinitely full all the good we can do him therefore and all the expressions of our Love consists in this viz. A free subjection and obedience to his Will. And because we find this Righteousness and Justice and Love to our Neighbour is commanded by him and is evidenced to his Will both by that natural inclination that he hath put in us by the dispensation of his Providence whereby he makes every Man useful and beneficial to another in this way of mutual Justice and by his written Word whereby he expresly requires it this Cardinal and fundamental motion of the Soul viz. the Love of God doth presently conclude that since that great God to whom I owe my self and all my Love and all my Obedience requires this duty at my hands though I could see no reason for it I would presently submit unto much more when there is so much reason for it as indeed God doth not require my Obedience in any thing but if it be well considered is most admirably consonant to sound Reason and to my own advantage Deut. 4.6 Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations so that the foundation of habitual Righteousness is Love to God the Consequence of that Love to God is a rational universal and voluntary Obedience to his Will and Command the Command of God next to Love to himself is to love our Neighbours the expression of that Love is in acts of Righteousness and Justice to them hence it is called the second great Commandment the great Injunction that Christ gave to his followers the fulfilling of the whole Law. 2 The Rule of Righteousness In our original Condition God gave unto Man a Rule of Righteousness by the immediate impression and revelation of his own Mind unto him and inclination to submit â—to it And this although it was much defaced yet was not wholly taken away by his Fall. So much was by the Divine Providence conveyed from Man to Man as left the Offender without excuse But as the River ran farther from the Fountain so it became more foul and polluted the sins of Men contesting with and corrupting by degrees that traditional Righteousness which was derived from Man to Man But the merciful God was pleased as the sins and corruptions of Mankind did make breaches into this Rule of Righteousness and corrupted the manners of Men so he was pleased in the ways of his Providence to repair it in some measure in all Ages raising up Prophets and Preachers of Righteousness as Noah was to the old World exciting and by his powerful and wise Spirit enabling Men to make Laws and Constitutions in States and Kingdoms which though they were not of his own immediate dictating yet he attributes too little to the Wisdom and Providence of God that doth attribute the inventing and composing of those useful and righteous Laws even among the Heathen to the meer Wisdom and discovery of Men when he himself leads us up unto himself even in the low Projections of the Plowman Isa 38.26 For his God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him It is true that there is a kind of natural Consonancy of the Rules of Justice and Righteousness to the well being of Men and Societies of Men as is most evident both where that Justice is and where it is not and by the observation of the now aged World and of the success and motions of Mankind much may be collected both of the Necessity of Righteousness and of the Parts and Particulars wherein it consists But God yet more careful of his Creature hath not left us to our own Collections wherein the varieties of Manners the growth of Sin and Corruptions and our own Blindness may deceive us or perplex us but hath given us a written Rule of Righteousness the Word of the Old and New Testaments He hath shewed thee O man what is good Micah 6.8 Deuteronom 30.14 The word is very nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it Now the Word of God is considerable as a Rule of Righteousness 1. Absolutely and in it self and therein it is considerable how the Law Moral Ceremonial and Judicial alone or joyned with the Expositions and Counsels of the Gospel are a Rule of Righteousness 2. Relatively and thus the Word of God sends us to two other but subordinate Rules 1. Subjection to Humane Laws Be obedient to every Ordinance of Man for Conscience sake 1. Pet. 2.13 2. Conscience in that great Rule Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you that do you unto them 1. The first Consideration the Scripture as it is the Rule of all Divine Truth so it is a perfect Rule of Righteousness both towards God and Man 2 Tim 3.16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished to every good work There wants nothing in the Rule to acquire Perfection though by reason of the defect in the subject it cannot be attained 1. The Law of God is a Rule of Righteousness viz. the Moral Law. It is true in these two â—derations the Law is not binding to the 〈…〉 since the coming of Christ to the 〈…〉 1. It is not binding to the Gentiles as a Covenant for so it was in a particular manner given to the Jews and not to the Gentiles The External
our Flesh was to exhibit himself a Pattern of Holiness towards God and Righteousness towards Man. And thus the History of our Saviour's Life is a Rule of Righteousness in his Meekness Matth. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek in his Humility Philip. 2.5 Let the same mind be in you as was in Christ Jesus c. in his Patience under Affliction or Persecution 1 Pet. 2.11 12 13. Because Christ hath also suffered for us leaving us an example who when he was reviled reviled not c. in Offices of Love and Charity towards our Brethren John 13.14 15. For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done in love and tenderness towards others Ephes 5.12 Be ye followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us c. in Obedience to Parents to Magistrates in Liberality in Compassion in sweetness of Conversation in a word we may in his Life find not only that external Conformity to the Divine Law that God requires of us but also a radical habitual frame of Mind and Life in all Vertue so that we may plainly see in the comparing of his Life with these Apostolical Precepts and Directions contained in the Epistles that the former was as it were the Text and the latter but Collections or Animadversions upon it turning the practice of his Life into Precepts and concluding what we ought to be by observing what he was and did God intending to re-instamp his Image upon Man did send his Son the Image of the invisible God as a Seal into the World to imprint upon his Followers the Image of God which consisted in Righteousness and true Holiness As in our Conformity to the Life of Christ consists our Righteousness here so shall our Glory be hereafter for we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him 2. As thus the History of Christ contains a Rule and Pattern of Righteousness so do the Precepts and Counsels of the Gospel contain a Rule of Righteousness and that more excellent than the Law and that especially in these particulars 1. In that it teacheth and infuseth the true Principle of all Righteousness by shewing us the Love of God to us and therewith commandeth and thereby begetteth Love to God again and in that Love and from it doth teach and enable us to all the Duties of Righteousness towards Men it discovereth a greater and higher act of God's Love to us than the Law did because it discovers his Gifts of Christ unto us and with and in him all things and it doth more distinctly inform us in that Principle of Righteousness in and from the Love of God. 2. It discovers more effectual Motives and Incitements unto this and all other duties in respect of our selves The Law having a shadow of good things to come did inforce its Obedience by Promises of Temporal Advantages and Threatnings of Temporal Punishments but the Promises of the Gospel and its Threatnings are of a higher and more operative nature viz. Eternal Life and Eternal Wrath. 3. It doth improve the Commands and Prohibitions of the Law to its proper yet spiritual and sublime Sense for the Commands or Prohibitions of the Law seemed to respect more principally the outward Act and though in truth it looked farther for the Law in spiritual yet the extent of it was not so clearly evidenced till our Saviours Divine Comment upon it Matth. 5. 4. It doth superadd many Precepts not only of Righteousness towards God but even of Righteousness towards Man that were not contained or at least not so explicitly and positively as in the Gospel such are Works of Mercy and Compassion Patience in Persecution Liberality towards others loving our Enemies abstinence from Revenge Gentleness Moderation and right placing of our Affections contempt of the World Humility and the like These though we find them commended in the passages of the Prophets and Psalms yet they are not so distinctly delivered nor so binding and peremptorily injoyned till we come to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles who have put an equal necessity upon his Disciples to observe these as those other Injunctions of the mere Law. The Pharisees whose exact and rigid obedience to the Commands of the Law was their study and practice yet our Saviour tells his Disciples That except their Righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees they can in no wise be his Disciples nor enter into Heaven Matth. 5.20 Now this exceeding of their Righteousness consisted in this that is before observed 1. In an Obedience to the Commands of the Law in the spiritual intention and application of it 2. In the practice of those Vertues which came not under the Letter of the Law unto which he had before annexed his Beatitudes Poverty of Spirit Mourning Meekness Hungring after Righteousness Purity Peace-making Patience in Persecution And in these four Particulars especially the Rule of Righteousness contained in the Gospel I cannot say exceeded the Law but exceeded the manner or clearness of the manifestation of the Law it having been the method of Almighty God ever since the Fall of Man to make several steps of discoveries of his mind unto Man and the latter to contain a more eminent degree of Light than the former in Abraham and the Patriarchs was one step in the Law a second in the coming of Christ in the Flesh a third and in the sending of the Holy Ghost a fourth and yet all contained one and the same truth but different degrees of manifestation And as in these Particulars the Rule of Righteousness contained in the New Testament was more clear and excellent than that of the Law so in the same and other respects it infinitely outgoes all the Rules and Dictates of Righteousness contained in the Philosophers whose Rules were Traditions which God by his Providence conveyed from Age to Age for the ordering and governing of Mankind and those improved by the Wisdom and severe and polished Judgments of Men to whom God had given a great measure of Reason and Truth to whom he gave so much Light as might leave the World unexcusable in their disobedience yet reserved so much from them as might glorifie his Son to be one that was a Teacher sent from God and none taught like him CHAP. XXX Of the general Precepts of Righteousness given by Christ and 1. Loving our Neighbour as our self NOW as in our Duty towards God Christ doth not only deliver unto us many special and particular Duties but also delivers some short general Precepts which are easie to be remembred and do include our whole Duty to God As that of Matth. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. so in the matters of Righteousness and Justice towards Men he doth not only deliver some special and explicite Duties but hath given us some general Precepts from whence a good Conscience may easily deduce Conclusions applicable to