and particular concerns And the Opposites to these do give the Soul great Enlargement and Liberty viz. That Confidence that is opposite both to Fear and to Shame Delight and joy which are opposite to Trouble and Dejection of Mind and Generosity and Nobleness of Spirit whereby a man is carried forth to the loving of God the Chief Good in the first place and a hearty concern for the general welfare of his Fellow-Creatures which is opposite to immoderate self-Self-love First The Observance of the Rules of Righteousness casteth out Fear This is a most servile Passion the Apostle speaketh of some who through fear of â—â—ath were all their life-time subject to bondage By Fear I mean that which is expressed by the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cowardly and dispiriting Fear None can imagine I mean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Awful and Reverential Fear such as is called Heb. 12. 28. a Godly fear Nor yet do I mean such a Fear as awakens and excites the Soul to the use of means for the shunning and keeping off evils Such a Fear as this doth not at all inslave or put a man out of his own power but is highly serviceable to the maintenance and preservation of Liberty And therefore it is commended to us by the Apostle Heb. 4. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it But as was said the Fear which is enslaving is a Cowardly Dispiriting Fear and this the Righteous and Good man is freed from He hath not received the spirit of bondage again to fear in this sence but the spirit of Adoption whereby he crieth Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. He is not afraid of God as a poor Slave is of his fierce Master or as a wicked Servant of his justly provoked and incensed Lord but not being under the guilt of wilful sins his Conscience being privy to no other guilt than that which upon good grounds he believes is expiated by the Bloud of Iesus he can go to God as a child to his loving and tender Father And as he hath no tumultuary confounding or disheartening fear of God so neither hath he of the Devil or Men or any worldly evil as knowing that all these are subject to the restraint of that good Providence which ever chargeth it self with the care of good Souls and all their concerns God hath not given him the Spirit of fear or timidity and fearfulness but of power of love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1. 7. This man is an affectionate Lover of God and therefore cannot question God's love to him and is assured that all things shall work together for his good for his good both in this life and in the life to come Herein is our love made perfect saith S. Iohn in his 1 Epistle 4. 17. because as he is so are we in this world because we follow the example of our Blessed Saviour in the conscientious observance of the Rules of Righteousness there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love That is he that is affected with such a fear as hath now been described He who is not under the power of Cowardizing dismaying Fear his Spirit is at great Liberty but a care to keep an inoffensive Conscience both towards God and men to adhere to the Rules of Righteousness and Goodness and never to swerve from them will banish this Fear The wicked saith the Wise man fleeth when no man pursueth but the righteous is bold as a Lion Prov. 28. 1. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely or confidently and securely Prov. 9. 10. To which great truth the Poet gives his Testimony in those known Verses Integer vitae scelerisque purus Non eget Mauri jaculis nec arcu c. He that 's in life upright and pure in heart Is too secure to need the Bow or Dart. hic murus aheneus esto Nil conscire sibi nullâ pallescere culpâ The strongest Bulwark's not so sure a Fence As is an inoffensive Conscience Secondly True Goodness begets that confidence which is opposed as to Fear so to Shame too There is a highly commendable shame which is proper to a Good man namely that which is expressed by the Latine Verecundia Which is a quick sense of whatsoever is indecorous and misbecoming No man can have too much of this for the more any one hath of it the better man must he necessarily be But there is another sort of Shame expressed by Pudor which is a troublesome passion arising from a sense of disgrace upon consciousness of Guilt Of this Shame the most learned Doctor Henry More observeth in his incomparable Ethicks that it neither falleth upon the worst nor the best of men For he who is conscious to himself that he constantly exerciseth his liberty in doing the best things knows that he ought not to be contemned and thereupon being above all contempt contempt it self is contemned by him which is a great instance in good men of Generosity but in bad men is the very height of improbity This Shame is a good effect of a bad cause for though it be an evil yet 't is a necessary evil and tends to the deterring men from unworthy actions for the time to come and doth actually produce this good effect where the great uneasiness and perturbation of mind which was caused thereby upon past commissions of sin is seriously and consideratively reflected upon For where this Shame is there is great Bondage where there is consciousness of guilt the mind of a man is miserably pent up confined and straitned so that he dares many times neither to look abroad into the world nor to look up to Heaven nor reflect upon himself And therefore Liberty and Confidence are expressed by the same word viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek language But while a man is careful in the observance of the Laws of Righteousness to be Righteous before God and to walk as it is said of Zacharias and Elizabeth in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless he is not affected with this kind of Shame and consequently enjoys a mighty Freedom by this means Upright Iob had the happy experience of this effect of uprightness as we find Chap. 31. 35 36 37. Oh that one would hear me saith he behold my desire is that the Almighty would answer me and that mine Adversary had written a book Surely I would take it upon my shoulder and bind it as a Crown unto me I would declare to him the number of my steps as a Prince would I go near unto him Which is as much as if he had said Oh that mine Adversary instead of secretly whispering evil things of me had drawn up a charge in writing against me I would be so far from endeavouring to have it concealed
said to be weak through the flesh or in regard of the impetuosity and violence of mens fleshly Appetites Rom. 8. 3. Nor is there any express mention in the Ceremonial Law of any necessity of purity of heart This was only represented by the divers legal washings and other Rites the mortification of corrupt Affections was signified by the cutting off the foreskin of the flesh and the great substantial duties were veiled under dark shadows So that a man might be very punctually observant of this Law according to the mere literal sence thereof and yet his Soul remain perfectly under the power of sinful Affections And the Learned Mr. Chillingworth in his Sermon on Gal. 5. 5. saith thus even of the Moral Duties of the two Tables as they are part of the Mosaical Jewish Law viz. That they required only an external obedience and conformity to the Affirmative Precepts thereof and an abstaining from an Outward practice of the Negative They did not reach unto the Conscience no more than the National Laws of other Kingdoms do So that for example when the law of Moses forbids Adultery upon pain of death he that should in his heart lust after a Woman could not be accounted a Transgressor of Moses his law neither was he liable to the punishment therein specified Whereas the Gospel requires not only an Outward and as I may say corporal obedience to God's Commandments but also an inward sanctification of the Soul and Conscience upon the same penalty of everlasting damnation with the former And what is now said proceeds he of the Moral Precepts as they are part of Moses his law by the same proportion likewise is to be understood of the Iudicial And as for the Promises of this Law they were only of Temporal good things and therefore the Gospel is called by the Author to the Hebrews The bringing in of a better hope Chap. 7. 19. And is said to be established upon better promises Chap. 8. 6. 'T is confessed that promises of Heavenly things were contained in those of Earthly as some of the latter were Types of the former particularly the land of Canaan of the Eternal Rest in Heaven and the promises of good things in the general had those of the other life implied in them but there is not the least express mention in this Law of any Life after this I do not say in any part of the Old Testament but in this Law Now then seeing it abounded with Temporal Promises and none but such being in express terms contained therein 't is no wonder if it became an occasion to the sensual Iews of their being the more eager and vehement in prosecuting the profits honours and pleasures of this life as it was of their being the more Mercenary in their obedience The like may be said of the Threatnings of this Law they are all so expressed as if they were only of Present Temporal Evils and the Iews for the most part looking no farther than the outward letter of these Threatnings it was not to be expected that they should be excited by them to obey from any higher motive than the mere fear of such evils as those that did not look beyond the letter of the Promises were obedient only from the hope of some sensual present good And by this means especially did this Law Gender to bondage as we read it did Gal. 4. 24. The terrible manner in which the Law was given and the Threatnings of Present death or other temporal Calamities upon the Transgression thereof did occasion that slavish sear which the Apostle calls the Spirit of bondage in those words Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear Rom. 8. 5. God dealt with the Iews as it was most fit to deal with such a carnal such a stiff-necked stubborn and disingenuous people who would not be wrought upon and overcome by love to himself or a sense of the loveliness of Virtue and true Goodness nor regard any Laws but such as were enforced with severe present Penalties or promises of sensual good things Which obedience of theirs was most truly and properly the obedience of Slaves a Servile and Mercenary Obedience So that this Law having been abused by the Iews to the so much the more captivating them to their fleshly lusts for this reason chiefly was it laid aside namely because the Liberty which consisteth in a thorough compliance with the Rules of Righteousness the Obligation of this Law would have greatly obstructed the promoting of And the things expresly required in this Law being such as had no internal goodness in them being weak and beggarly Elements as the Apostle calls them Gal. 4. 9. the imposition of many such must needs be apt to call away mens Minds and Affections from those that are essentially and immutably good whilest the spiritual meaning of those injunctions is either not understood or not attended to And that it had this effect upon the generality of the Iews by this means is a case too plain to need to be proved And though the great substantial duties which are in their own nature Good and Necessary and of Eternal obligation were inculcated upon them by all their Prophets as well as taught by Natural Light such as Doing Iustice loving Mercy walking humbly with God and the like yet they generally were so sottish as to think that He valued Sacrifices and the other Ceremonial and External Performances of the Law so much above such Duties nay though he had expresly also declared the quite contrary as that their exact and diligent observation of those would make expiation for their remisness in these and fully satisfie for gross immoralities They trusted in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these implying that their continual attendance on the services there performed according to the prescription of the Law would effectually secure them from Divine vengeance although they refused to amend their ways and were never so immoral in their Practices And their constant Trading in Sacrifices in Rituals and Ceremonial things occasioned their having but very little sense of things Morally good so that that distinction was almost lost among them of things Positively and Morally so or things good only because commanded and things commanded because good Their being so intent upon a many little things caused them to sleight and overlook the great ones as our Saviour told the Pharisees Luke 11. 42. Ye tithe Mint and Rue and all manner of Herbs and pass over judgment and the love of God And Mat. 23. 23. Ye pay tith of Mint and Anise and Cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law judgment mercy and faith And their omitting these things was too plain an Argument alone though there is other proof of it of their having scarcely any notion of things Absolutely Immutably and Essentially Good and Evil which was occasioned as I said by their
with his duty than to do his duty Nay the sincere Christian looks upon that as his greatest and most important work and business which is least in sight which is to be done within himself as well knowing that if the Tree be good its Fruit will be so also That as our Saviour saith a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit nor a good tree evil fruit and that all must needs be well without him if all be well within him And that no outward Temptations can be forceably enough to draw him to sin so long as there is entertained within him no treacherous Lust that is ready to take part with them That he to whom this Character doth not belong is no genuine Christian is apparent in that such a person is no Freeman And as a great number of Texts do plainly speak the former Proposition to be true so is it to be concluded from what hath been discoursed of the nature of Christian Liberty from our having demonstrated that it consisteth in deliverance from all Inslaving Lusts and in having all obstacles taken out of the way to our complete complying with the Laws of Righteousness and Goodness CHAP. XX. The Last Inference Viz. That the most Proper and Genuine Christian Obedience is that which hath most of Liberty in it namely that which proceeds from the Principle of Love to God and Goodness FIfthly and Lastly I infer from our discourse of Christian Liberty what is the most Proper and Genuine Christian Obedience Surely that which hath most of Liberty in it that Obedience which is most free and least forced That which springs from an Inward Living Principle and is not merely occasioned by the consideration of External Motives and Arguments And then doth a man act from an Inward Principle of Life when he acts from the love of God and Goodness There is scarcely any distinction betwixt these two for to love God that is as God is to be inamoured primarily with his most Beautiful and Amiable Perfections of Righteousness Purity Beneficence and Mercy all which may properly be expressed by that one Excellent word GOODNESS I say to love God as God is to be in love with these Perfections primarily and to love His Person upon the account of them if it be lawful to distinguish them and abstract His Person from His Perfections But those do most truly conceive of that Incomprehensible Being who make no such Abstraction but describe Him by calling Him Infinite Righteousness and Purity Bounty and Mercy Wisdom and Power c. rather than a Being in whom are all these Perfections For they are not so properly said to be in God as to be God Himself Thus limited that Maxim of the Schools is indisputably true viz. Quicquid est in Deo est ipse Deus Whatsoever is in God is God himself So that I say to love God and to love Goodness as such do amount to the same thing To love God not because Good in himself but because Good and Kind to me is more self-love than a love of God A Wicked man may thus love God for as the Wise man observes that every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts so is he especially to him that bestoweth gifts upon himself the very Brutes are so and he is more a Devil than a Man that is not so Publicans and Sinners our Saviour saith do love those who love them and the more a man loves himself the more will he be inclined to love his Benefactors and best Friends as such Now as I said that is the most Free and consequently the most Christian Obedience which ariseth from an Inward lively sense of the Beauty and Amiableness of Goodness of the Christian Virtues and Graces which are all so many Rays of and Emanations from the Divine Goodness and therefore those who are indued with them are said to be partakers of a Divine nature And when we act from this Principle we act from a New nature and I need not say that no actions are so free as natural actions Thus to do good is to do like God himself the Freest of all Agents for he doth good not from External Motives but from the Infinite Complacency he takes in Goodness it self I am the Lord who exercise Loving kindness Iudgment and Righteousness in the Earth for in these things do I dâ—light saith the Lord Ier. 9. 24. Which is as much as to say therefore I am exercised in these things because I delight in them or my delight in these things is the Principle whereby I am acted in the Exercise of them Thou art Good saith the Psalmist and dost good Psal. 119. 68. Or because thou art Good thou dost good and God's being Good is his Delighting in Goodness Righteousness and Goodness are too Excellent things to be made mere means to a farther End Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity and passeth by the Transgression of the Remnant of his Heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever and why he doth not the next words tell us because he Delighteth in Mercy Mic. 7. 18. And our imitating of God and being like to him is the great design and business of our Saviour's Religion But I would not be understood as if I affirmed that that Obedience which springs from Hope or Fear or is excited by the consideration of Rewards and Punishments is an Obedience not becoming and unworthy of Christians If so I should condemn our Saviour and his Apostles for proposing such Motives But I say First That the most genuinely Christian Obedience is that which proceeds from Love from the Love of God and Goodness Not that Christianity doth exclude all other Motives but this is the Chief and Principal because it makes our Obedience most Free and makes us most like to God in doing Good Secondly I say also that to do good from a Principle of love to God and Goodness and to do it from the hope of Heaven and the fear of Hell are one and the same thing if we have a true notion of Heaven and Hell That is if we conceive of the Heavenly State as that which consists in a perfect likeness to God as perfect as our Natures are capable of and a full and complete enjoyment of him and of the Hellish State as that which is directly opposite to the Heavenly according to this Notion of it Now I need not spend one minute in shewing that to do good from the hope of such a Happiness and from the fear of such a Misery is to be acted by the foresaid principle of Love in so doing Thirdly I add that to be acted by mere External Motives Motives wholly Extrinsical to God and Goodness by the â—â—ar of Hell onely considered as a place of Torment and the hope of Heaven onely considered as a place of great Pleasure and Joy without considering the nature of that torment and the nature of that Joy this is a low and mean