love For how hardly are we brought to pant after that presence of his though we find little on earth to make us desirous of continuance in it and it may be a long and irksome sickness As if this life with all the misfortunes that attend it were preferrable to his presence where there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore Of the first and most immediate expression of our love I have discoursed hitherto and shewn withall how far we are from having that testimony of our own proceed we now to another which though not so immediate yet is as certain a consequent thereof and that is a desire so far as in us lieth to procure the content of him we love For so far is this from being separable from love that it is oftentimes defined by it Aristotle in that most excellent piece of his Rhetoricks * li. 2. c. 4. defining Love to be a passion whereby we wish to any one those things which we think good for him Now though it be true that in strict speaking this expression can have no place here because God is infinitely happy yet inasmuch as God declareth himself to be well pleased with the glorifying of his name which he hath put in our power either to do or not therefore to express our love to him it is requisite we desire that so it may be by all those to whom his glorious name shall be made known And accordingly our Saviour makes it the first request we are to ask when we address our selves to the Divine Majesty placing Hallowed be thy name with other such like petitions before the begging of our dayly bread or what is more the forgiveness of our sins 2. Again though God be infinitely happy in himself and accordingly leaves no place for our wishing well to him or putting those desires in execution yet is there place for such desires and more toward those who are his Friends and whose Good God some way tenders as his own he who hath told us that our goodness extendeth not to God yet forgetting not to add that it reacheth to the Saints that are in the Earth and to the excellent in whom is God's delight as well as ours To whom therefore if we wish all prosperity imaginable and so far as in us lieth endeavour to procure we do in a manner lay the same Obligations upon the Almighty every Friend as Aristotle * Rhet. l. 2. c. 4. observes reckoning what is done to his Friend as a kindness extended to himself Lastly As Love prompts Men to wish well to those they love or where they themselves stand in no need of them to their Friends and Relations so it prompts them to endeavour to walk well-pleasing to them especially where they have over and above an Authority to command it no Slave being more obsequious than a Lover is where his Love is hearty and intense And accordingly As our Saviour hath not stuck to affirm That he who hath and keepeth his Commandments he it is that loveth him Joh. 14.21 so that Disciple of his 1 Ep. 5.3 That this is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments and perform whatsoever he requireth As if this were not onely a certain but the onely Consequent of our Love or rather as if it had been all one with it And indeed as no Lover finds any difficulty in obeying those Commands which are laid upon him by the Party he affects so the neglect of that Obedience towards God must argue a greater coldness in us than it could do in any other pretended Lover because whilst they have nothing but the Tie of Love to engage their Obedience we have moreover the Obligation of Service and have God's Authority as well as Love to constrain us to it 4. Having thus mark'd out the Love we ought to have for the Almighty together with the most immediate Expresses of it I have said enough to caution Men against the opposite Extremes whether in the excess or defect But because the Rule of Right signifies nothing where it is not apply'd and we do not find those who are most concern'd in any great forwardness to do it I think it not amiss as I did before in the Passion of Fear to point out the Rocks on either Hand To begin with that which is the Extreme in defect or the want of Love to him who hath so much in him to deserve it the unreasonableness whereof will appear if we resume those things which we have said to the Object of Love For is not Good that is to say that which is so in it self the Object of our Love nay are we not in a manner constrain'd to affect it And can we then be cold in our Love to him in whom all Goodness is contain'd to him who is infinitely good in himself and the Fountain of whatsoever is so Neither will it suffice to say That no other can be expected when there is so great an opposition between us and God For beside that such is the lustre of God's Goodness that whosoever shall duly consider it cannot but be some way affected with it we cannot but know that it is our own Viciousness which makes the opposition and which consequently occasions the alienations of our Hearts from him Which therefore as it is but reason we should deposite so there is no doubt but if we do we shall find our selves as much enamour'd of him as we are of those Pleasures which are at present most connatural to us But then if we consider not onely the Excellencies of the Divine Nature in it self but also its communicativeness of those Excellencies to us how much he hath oblig'd us with Temporal Favours how much more he hath done for us to promote our Spiritual and Eternal Welfare so certainly we cannot chuse but censure our own want of Love to him by whom we have been so much oblig'd he that doth so much to gain our Love as it were laying down a Price for it and making it Injustice as well as Ingratitude not to return it Such is the unreasonableness even of our want of love to so good and gracious an Object how much more unreasonable must it then be when this want of Love or Coldness passeth into an Antipathy and we do not onely not affect but hate and abhor so lovely an Object Which notwithstanding we find even such in that black Catalogue of Sinners which St. Paul gives Rom. 1.30 And indeed it is not much to be wonder'd that there should when there are so many in the World who have so much reason to apprehend his displeasure But as there is much more reason for them to turn their hatred upon their own Vices which is that that exposeth them to God's displeasure so if they would entertain a less love for them they would find nothing in God which should give any just occasion to their hatred For though he be an
be for Patience where they who suffer Violence will have Satisfaction made them for every the least that is offered or how can he be said to endure an Injury or Affront who will not be content unless he have amends made him for every one But because it may sometime happen that the Violence which is offer'd may be such as may to deter others from the like require the delating it to the Magistrate and imploring the drawing of the Sword of Justice against the Offender therefore it must be added farther That where the Case is such it is not onely lawful but necessary for the injur'd Party to do it provided that Zeal of Justice and the Publick Weal be the thing that prompts him to it and not either in whole or in part the gratifying of his own Revenge that being in the highest sense rendring evil for evil because not onely returning Mischief for Mischief but with the same malicious purpose and intent Which as Seneca * Immane verbum est ultio ab injuria distans tantum ordine Qui ulciscitur non nisi excusatius peccat well observes differs onely from an Injury in the order of its commission and is onely a more excusable Sin because provoked by and following after the other To go on now to shew what other Sins are included in that of Murther beside those before rehears'd Where 1. First I shall present you with that of Hatred because it is the Parent of all that follow Now there are two things which will be necessary to be inquir'd into for the better explication of this Passion 1. What Hatred is to be look'd upon as sinful and 2. How that which is such is redneible to this Commandment That it is not unlawful simply to hate is evident from hence that it is a Natural Passion of the Soul it is no less evident because evil is the proper Object of it that when it is employ'd about that it is not onely not unlawful but just and commendable To make it therefore at any time a Sin it must be employ'd about a wrong Object which how it may be as to the present Affair I come now to shew And here in the first place I think no Man will make any difficulty to grant that it must necessarily be sinful to hate a Good Man as such because as Evil and not Good is the proper Object of Hatred so much less that which is Good as such Now that such a Hatred as this hath found place in the World is evident from that of Wisdom chap. 2. 12. and so on where he doth not onely represent it as the general Character of Evil Men to hate and persecute those which are better than themselves but fortifies that his Opinion with such a Reason as puts it past all contradiction For it being usual with Men to hate those which are not onely of a contrary temper but do by that temper of theirs make the others to be the worse thought of it is easie to suppose that Evil Men will hate Good because as the Wise Man there speaks they are not onely contrary to Evil Men's doings but tacitely upbraid †Sulpitius Severus Sacrae Hist li. 2. p. 368. Hic primus nempe Nero Christianum nomen tollere aggressus est Quippe semper inimica virtutibus vitia sunt optimi quique ab improbis quasi exprobrantes aspiciuntur them with their Impieties and Transgressions that Virtue by which they shine at the same time it shews forth its own Worth discovering the Deformity of the other From that first sort of Hatred pass we to another which hath the Good Man also for its Object I do not say simply for his Goodness and that Reproach which it naturally casts upon the contrary Temper but because as the same Wise Man speaks he expresly objecteth to their infamy the transgressions of their Education and chargeth them with those Impieties they are guilty of Now that even this Hatred is not without a Crime is evident from hence that as he who tells them of their Faults doth it out of kindness so that very Act of theirs is the greatest Kindness in the World because by such an Act they may not onely come to know their own Errours but be thereby provoked to discard them And indeed so far is it from an Unkindness however commonly so interpreted to reprove Men for their Errours and Extravagances that God himself reckons the neglect of it as a sign of Hatred as you may see Levit. 19.17 Forasmuch therefore as to rebuke is not onely not evil but the greatest kindness a Man can do to a wicked Person it must needs be look'd upon as a Sin to make it the ground of our Hatred which was the second thing to be demonstrated Next to the Hatred of Good Men consider we that of the Evil and Injurious which may seem to have nothing Criminal in it And indeed neither would it if it had onely their Injuriousness for its Object or the Persons of wicked Men meerly for it because every thing that is evil either in it self or to us is a just ground of hatred and aversation But as it would be consider'd that he who hates a Person for his Injuriousness can be privileg'd no farther by that hate than to discountenance him in it so also that there may be more in him to excite our Love than there is to stir our Hatred in which case there is no doubt but that our Hatred is to be bounded by it and go no farther than is consistent with the other Now that this is the Case of all evil and injurious Men will appear if we consider that they are God's Creatures and adorn'd with his Image that they are the Subjects of his Providence yea for whom he sent his Son to die For having all these Relations to God who is the Supremest Good both in himself and to us they must needs be look'd upon as a juster Object of our Love than all their Evil and Injuriousness can be a ground of Hate Though therefore Evil Men as such may and ought to be hated though so far as we can separate their Injuriousness from their more lovely Qualities they may lawfully enough become the ground of our aversation yet inasmuch as they have more to commend them to our Love than Hatred as we cannot hate them altogether so neither any farther than is consistent with those things which are the just Object of our Love The result of which Consideration will be that though we may hate them as Sinners yet we may not hate them as Men but on the contrary love and pray for their conversion and prosperity in all their lawful Vndertakings What Hatred is to be look'd upon as sinful we have seen already inquire we in the next place how that which is so is reducible to this Commandment A Task which will not be difficult to perform if we consider this Sin of Hatred
moment to be opposed to this arguing and that is what followes in the 10. verse Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law for if love be the fulfilling of the Law in that it works no ill then may the whole tenour of the Law seem to be comprehended in the not doing of any harm to our neighbour But to this I answer first that when the Apostle saith Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law his meaning may be not that love is the fulfilling of the Law meerly because it doth no harm but because of its opposition to all those evils and harms such as Adultery Theft and the like whereby our neighbour is incommodated Love is a stranger to Murther Adultery and Theft and to whatsoever else whereby our neighbour is incommodated and being a stranger to all such practises it doth not only extend it self to this or that Commandment but to all the Commandments of the second Table I say secondly with Esthius that though the Apostle say less yet it was his intention to have more understood even not only that love worketh no ill but that it worketh all good to its neighbour Which beside the usual forms of Speech in Scripture and other books where under negative expressions such as I am not ashamed great boasting is often signified is evident from the verse before For being it is there said not only that the Precepts Thou shalt not kill and the like but if there be any other Commandment it is briefly comprehended in that saying namely Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self and consequently that the command of honouring our Parents is because that is a Precept of the same Decalogue the Law cannot be fulfilled by abstaining meerly from evil because that of Honouring our Parents is more than so When therefore it is here said that love worketh no ill to his Neighbour and therefore is the fulfilling of the Law we are not only to understand that it worketh no ill but that it procureth all the good that can be In the mean time if any deem the positive love of our Neighbour to be the fulfilling of the Law in the same sense in which I have shewn the word fulfil is to be understood in the 5. Chapter of S. Matthew that is to say as an addition made by Christ to it to make up its former wants it will come all to one as to our present purpose For being the subjects of that Christ who hath fulfilled it we are necessarily to look upon the Law in that latitude wherein it is proposed by him and consequently to believe the Commandments of the Decalogue not only to require us to abstain from doing evil but to pursue the contrary good The argument is much more strong from the affirmative to the negative that is to say from the command of any positive duty to the forbidding of the contrary vice For though for instance I may abstain from dishonouring my Parents and yet never give them honour yet I cannot honour and dishonour them at once and therefore that Commandment which enjoins me honour must consequently be thought to forbid all dishonour and contempt Thus far therefore we have already attained toward the importance of the Ten Commandments that though some of them and those the most seem satisfied with abstaining from evil and others with the sole pursuing of good yet both the one and the other are to be understood as obliging to both to eschew that which is evil and to follow after that which is good and vertuous 2. The second thing observable concerning the Ten Commandments is that though the grosser sort of sins only be there expresly forbidden such as Adultery Murther and the like yet under them are contained also all the lesser ones of the same species Thus for example Though the Decalogue take notice only of Murther and Adultery in the sins of Malice and Unchastity yet considering those Precepts as proposed by Christ in which capacity there is no doubt all Christians are to look upon them so we are to understand all sins of the same kind to be included how much soever inferiour to the other For I say unto you saith our Saviour that whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Mat. 5.28 And again not only that he who kills his Brother but that whosoever is angry without a cause especially if he proceed to reproachful language shall be in danger of the same judgment to which the murtherer is obnoxious v. 22. of the same Chapter And indeed though there appear not any clear indications in the Commandments themselves of their descending to those lesser sins yet forasmuch as we find the Tenth Commandment descending so low as to forbid the very roveting that which is another man's and again the other parts of the Law and the Prophets forbidding the lower degrees of unchastity and malice as hath been before shewn there is reason enough to believe those lower degrees were intended to be forbidden by it as well as the higher ones For the other parts of the Law and the Prophets being but as Comments upon the Decalogue as appears by Gods laying that as the foundation of all the rest and its own containing in it the general heads of our obedience whatsoever is forbidden by the other parts of the Law and the Prophets must be supposed to be included in those grosser fins of the same kind which the Decalogue takes notice of 3. The third thing observable concerning the Ten Commandments is that though all of them except the last take no notice of any other than the outward actions yet the actions of the inward man or the heart are no less comprised in the several Precepts and Prohibitions of it For beside that as was before said the Law of God is by the Psalmist said to be a law converting the soul Psal 17.9 and by S. Paul term'd spiritual Rom. 7.14 That first and great Commandment in which all our duty to God is comprehended is expressed by our loving God with all our heart and soul as well as with all our might and strength Mat. 22.38 And though the second be not expressed in like manner to wit that of loving our Neighbours as our selves yet as the affection of the heart is manifestly included in the word love which is the proper act of it so the Law is express that we should not hate our brother in our heart nor bear a grudge against the children of our people But because this argument hath been sufficiently exemplified in the several Precepts of the Decalogue I will proceed to my 4. Rule which is That not only the sins here mentioned are forbidden but all those things that lead to them as on the other side not only that the duties there expressed are under command but all those means that naturally tend
If we take the word fear in the former sense that is to say for the fear of God as of a tyrant or a hard master so there is no doubt that love casts it out especially an Evangelical one it being impossible that any man should love God or willingly keep his Commandments who hath such an opinion of him But there is no such thing to be affirmed of him who looks upon God as a Lord and a father but withall a good and gracious one For beside that such a fear is enjoyned us by him who doth also lay upon us the command of love and therefore not to be thought unless we will make the spirit of God contradict it self to be cast out by that love which he requires there is nothing of torment which is the reason here assigned if in our fear we look upon God but as a good and gracious one For though that may make us careful and wary yet not distressed and desperate the consideration of his goodness buoying us up when we are surrounded with his judgments and making us at the same time we have an apprehension of them to look up to his mercies and to love and trust in him for them The same answer with a very little variation may be applied to that difference which is objected between the dispensation of the Gospel and the Law For though the Gospel reckons us not in the place of servants and vassals and consequently exacts not their fear of us yet it reckons us in the place of sons who are not only to have a love but a fear also for him that is their parent Which answer is the more reasonable because the Scripture it self represents those that were under the first covenant as the children of the Bondwoman and such as were therefore slaves themselves but those under the second as the children of the free To whom therefore though it do no way appertain to entertain a spirit of bondage and those fears wherewith it is accompanied yet to preserve such a reverential regard for the Almighty as is due unto every father and much more to their heavenly one 4. The fourth particular follows even the usefulness of that fear of which we are now entreating which I shall endeavour to evince 1. First as to the bringing us to God and Christ and 2. As to our continuance in that state 1. Now that the fear of God and of his judgments are of very great use to bring us unto God and unto Christ may appear from that great contrariety that is between the state of Nature and the purity and holiness of God For that being supposed as it must it is not easy to conceive men should be drawn with the cords of love and affect him who is so contrary to their inclinations And though it be true that the promises of God may be of more force to draw us to his love those having not all of them so manifest a contrariety to our corrupt nature as the Purity and Holiness of God hath yet as many of them are of a spiritual nature and so not very likely to be acceptable so which is more they are not to be bestowed or at least not with any certainty or perfection till we come to the other world And who then naturally speaking would quit present and sensual enjoyments for them and leave a love which he is sure of for so uncertain and remote a mistress To induce men therefore to quit their so much beloved transgressions it is necessary to stir up their fears and make them see that what they pursue will rob them of what they love and make them miserable as well in their bodies as their souls And indeed as it rarely happens that men are reclaimed from their evil courses but by some such disgustful means so which is of much more force we find the Apostles taking this course in converting the unbelieving world representing to them first the guilt of their own sins and the wrath they had incurred and then the tenders of Gods goodness By that means not only abating of their heat toward their former extravagancies but even constraining them to take a view of the beauties of Religion which otherwise they would never have considered 2. But beside that the fear of God is of singular use in bringing men to Christ and to God it is also such after our conversion to him yea throughout the whole course of our lives And here not to insist upon the Apostles perswading even such by the terrours of the Lord their exhorting them to work out their salvation with fear and trembling and to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear I shall content my self to propose to your consideration the remains of that evil nature which is in the very best of us and how much more then in the generality of believers For these will shew it to be as necessary to keep us in the way as it was to bring us into it It is true indeed if grace did at once purifie the heart from all extravagancies if it took away both our sins and our affections to them lastly if it put us into the condition we were in when we were created and made us intirely and perfectly new creatures so it is not impossible but we might follow the conduct of our leader when only drawn by the cords of love And yet I cannot but observe by the way that God thought not that enough to preserve Adam in his innocency but added moreover the terrour of dying the death if he persisted not in it But when it is certain that though sin be wounded yet it is not perfectly mortified when there are remains of corruption in the very best of us who can think even the regenerate man to be so good natured as not to stand in need of terrours to nip those buds and hinder them from bringing forth fruit unto unrighteousness For beside that under such circumstances all the methods of God are little enough to restrain us experience sheweth that of fear to be often needful carelesness and wantonness being apt to make us forget the obligations of goodness and not only to forget but to despise them But when beside the obligations of Gods goodness men have always before their eyes the strictness of his justice when they consider as well what vengeance will pursue them if they go astray as how great encouragements they have to walk in that way which God hath mark'd out to them then I say even flesh and bloud will startle at the evil that presents it self and avoid it lest it become miserable by it Having thus shown both what the passion of fear is and how God is the object of it together with the consistency of that fear with the dispensation of the Gospel and the usefulness thereof both in our conversion to and walking with God I may seem to have said enough not only to excite that passion in you but to
discover to you the malignity of the contrary vices But because men are not overforward to apply the rule of truth to their own obliquities and by that means oftentimes miss of the knowledge of them and because too I have already given you a character of Superstition which is one of the extremes of a religious fear I will for a conclusion of my discourse set before you the malignity of carnal security which is the extreme in defect For so far are some men from trembling at the Almighty that they go on in their sins without the least regret and neither concern themselves for the judgments they behold on others nor for those which are denounced against themselves As if according to the Prophet Isay * 28.15 they had made a covenant with death and were at an agreement with hell so that though the overflowing scourge should pass thorough the Land it should not come nigh them nor disturb their peace and prosperity And here not to tell you because that is sufficiently evident that this is in effect to deny Gods Power and Justice and Truth because having himself threatned to arm his Power and Justice against them I shall propose to your consideration the great danger it betrays you to as to your spiritual or temporal estate For to begin with the former of these he that is thus fearless of Gods displeasure is not only at present in a reprobate estate but likely to be so for ever For what should move him to return who is not moved with the threats of the Almighty nor regards in the least the power of his displeasure Should the expresses of Gods love constrain him Those indeed are very forcible motives But how should they prevail with such a one when even those who have a veneration for the Almighty find it so hard to yield to them without having an eye to the terrours of the Almighty Add hereunto what the Scripture so often affirmeth that The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom For what other interpretation can we make of that than that heavenly wisdom must enter by that passion and men be brought to a sense of Gods Justice and Severity before they be affected with his love But it may be such mens estate in spirituals will not much move them and therefore I shall proceed to the consideration of their temporal one Concerning which I shall not doubt to affirm that he who is thus regardless of Gods displeasure is the most likely to fall under the stroak of it For not to tell such persons what the Psalmist hath told us that according to our fear so is Gods displeasure that is to say more or less according to our awe of him I shall desire them to consider the affront they offer to the Divine Majesty by this their disregard of him For what is it but even to dare him to exert that Power and Justice by which he would commend himself to the world He doth indeed speak gloriously of his own power and Majesty he looks big and threatens severely all those that shall but dare to oppose but as such big looks and bugbear words do not much startle the carnally secure so he will put it to the tryal whether the effects will answer them and God be as tremendous in his punishments as he seems to be in the denunciations of them Than which as there cannot be a greater affront to the Almighty who is by this means neglected and contemned so I shall leave you to judge what effect it is likely to have upon him who besides his own natural aversation of all impiety is moreover extremely jealous of his Honour PART V. Of the Passion of Love its nature and objects what the immediate expresses thereof are and what its opposite extremes all which are applied to the Love of God Among other things is censured the being over familiar with God the pretences for it detected and removed A necessary admonition concerning the proportioning of our affections to the infiniteness of those perfections upon which they are set and how that is to be done IF the passion of fear can find something in God to excite it even under the dispensation of the Gospel to be sure that of Love cannot want matter to provoke it and entertain it with complacency and delight there being in God either formally or eminently whatsoever is the object of our love For the evidencing whereof I will enquire 1. First of all into the nature of it 2. Shew what are the objects of that passion from thence proceed 3. To consider the immediate expresses of it and 4. And lastly mark out the extreams on either hand Applying all as I go to the Love of God which is that we are especially to consider 1. Now though as was observed concerning fear the nature of Love be more evident to our inward sense than can be made out by discourse yet I think it not amiss for the better explication of the present argument to give you some definition of it Which is that love is a passion whereby the Soul is disposed to joyn it self to those objects which appear to it to be grateful and pleasant Which definition I do the rather give you to take away that usual distinction of love into that of Benevolence and Concupiscency Benevolence in proper speech being rather an effect of our love to that which is the object of it than any real part of it 2. The nature of love being thus explained in the general proceed we in the next place to the objects of it which in general are such as are either good in themselves or such as are good to us Of the former sort is that love which we have for all vertuous and excellent persons how little soever we our selves may be profited by them Such as are perhaps those that live in remote parts and with whom we our selves have no commerce For though we are not likely to be benefited by them in our own persons yet because of the excellencies we hear of in them we conceive a love for them and never think of them without complacency and delight The same love we have for all beautiful objects of natures make and for all such like products of art these to whomsoever they appertain yet drawing our Soul after them and obliging it to receive them into her embraces Now concerning this love there can be no doubt but that God is the just object of it yea that he may challenge it in the highest degree imaginable as will appear if we consider either the excellencies of the divine nature or the measure wherein he is possessed of them Look upon the former and you will find them to be such as are the excellencies of the most sublime essence such as are freedom from the feculencies of matter and much more from the infirmities thereof a discerning understanding and a rightly ordered will a being which does nothing that is not becoming
its own greatness which descends not to any lower abject thoughts which hates nothing without either cause or measure which loves things lovely and according to the proportion of it in fine which makes things lovely that they may become the object of it and be worthy to be received into its embraces And though it be true that there are some excellencies in the creature such as beauty and the like which are not to be found in God yet as the reason thereof is because they are much below him and argue something of imperfection where they are so he is the Fountain even of those inferiour excellencies and must therefore be much more excellent in himself From the excellencies of the divine nature pass we to the measure wherein they are possessed which will shew it yet more to be the object of our Love For beside that they are all in him without any thing of imperfection which hardly falls upon any created beings they are also infinite as that nature is to which they have the honour to belong If God be wise he is so without measure and knoweth whatsoever is to be known if good he is so without bounds and proportionably to his own infinite essence In fine whatsoever he is he is so after the rate of a God and knows no other bounds than what he prescribes unto himself If therefore that which is excellent be a just ground of love God is much more so as not only comprehending all excellencies whatsoever but also in the utmost perfection and degree How great reason we have to love God when considered only as he is in himself I have discoursed hitherto proceed we in the next place to consider him as good to us Under which notion if we look upon him so we shall not only find that which may attract our loves but even constrain us to affect him For not to tell you that by him the Authours of mankind were first created that we our selves were conceived in the womb maintained there and brought forth into the world through his benign influence that we depended upon him when we hung upon our Mothers Breasts that we did so no less when we might seem much more able to have made provision for our selves that we are indebted to him for all the good things we enjoy that we are so for the ability of enjoying them that we are not less nourished by the word of his providence than by the bread we eat that we owe the very nourishment of that to his blessing on us and it that by him we are delivered from those evils we escape that by him we are born up or carried thorough those evils that do at any time befall us To say nothing at all I say of these how considerable soever and how just incentives to our love I shall desire you only to consider his benevolence to our better part and the wayes he hath taken to express it For not contented to say * Isa 33.11 he delights not in the death of a sinner but that he should repent and live which may seem to be rather a negative than a positive kindness or if the latter an imperfect velleity only he hath been from all eternity contriving the Redemption of sinful man he hath from the beginning of time been declaring his gracious purposes concerning it he sent his Son in the fulness of time to accomplish that most excellent work for us he hath laid upon him the iniquities and punishments of us all he hath sent his ever blessed Spirit to fit us for pardon by it he hath sent his Servants the Prophets to publish the tidings of it and the means whereby it is to be obtained he hath called us out of darkness into the glorious light of it he hath moreover given us eyes to behold the brightness of it he hath given us grace to abandon our natural corruptions he hath furnished us with grace to serve him acceptably and with godly fear and love he hath reclaimed us by his Spirit when we have been wandring out of the way he hath upholden us by the same Spirit when we have been ready to faint or fall down in it in fine he continueth to do so till we turn our backs upon him and loveth us till we do in a manner refuse to be beloved All which whosoever shall duly consider will not only conclude him worthy of our Love but of the utmost degree and the most immediate expressions of it the third thing proposed to be discoursed of 3. And here in the first place I shall not doubt to reckon the desire of enjoying his presence whom we love this being the most natural and immediate expression of our Love that I say not of the very essence of it For as Love is nothing else than a passion of the Soul by which it is disposed to unite it self to what it loves so there is no one thing that is more impatient of the absence or more passionately desirous of its proper object 's presence It sets the understanding upon contriving how it may attain it it puts the Will upon a resolution of putting those contrivances in execution it vigorously endeavoureth the removing of all obstacles to the enjoyment of it it greedily layeth hold of all opportunities for the compassing of it in fine it neither giveth it self nor us any rest till it attain what it so panteth after and becometh rather more eager than any way discouraged by the opposition it receives But such ought to be nay such are the effects of our love to God where that love is implanted in the Soul witness the Prophet David's impatience when driven from the house of God his longing desire to appear before him in it And certainly if we had the same love for God that the Prophet had or it may be think our selves possessed of there is no doubt we should be as willing to be found where he promiseth to present himself and both desire to hear him speaking to us as he doth by his servants the Prophets and present our own supplications before him these being the most natural expresses of our love and such which I had almost said we can no more be without than we can hate him whom we cordially affect The same is to be said 2. Of our enjoying of God in Heaven where he doth not only most gloriously but most intimately present himself For as it is impossible for a Soul duly affected with the love of God not to desire the most immediate enjoyment of his presence so we find S. Paul not to have been without this desire though he knew he could not attain it without putting off his earthly Tabernacle he affirming of himself that he was desirous to be dissolved that so he might be admitted into the presence of God and of his Son Which by the way may shew how cold our love generally is even when it carrieth us only to the enjoyment of what we
as on the other side that Piety which he promiseth to reward by the love of God and the keeping of his commandments which is no less comprehensive than the former Yet as it is but reasonable to understand both the Promise and the Threat with a more particular relation to the observing or not observing of that Commandment to which they are affix'd so there was reason enough to express that Observance or Nonobservance by the loving or hating of the Almighty For God assuming to himself the Person of an Husband to his People as the stiling of himself a jealous God shews it was but agreeable to that Married Estate to which he alludeth that he should express the Fidelity of his Spouse to him by that Love which is the ground of it as on the other side her going a whoring after Images by the hatred of himself because it is from the loathing those Companions which they have assum'd that adulterous Women seek out to themselves new and forbidden Loves Forasmuch therefore as both the Threat and the Promise though in appearance of a greater extent do yet if not onely yet in a more peculiar manner belong to the Violators or Observers of this Commandment I shall not onely deem this to be the most proper place of handling them but consider them more particularly with reference to this Commandment to which they are affixed by the Almighty Having given an account in my last of the Jealousie of the Almighty so far as that is useful to shew the nature of the Crime here forbidden we are now to consider it with reference to that Penalty which it prompted the Lawgiver to denounce For my more orderly explication whereof I will inquire 1. What is here meant by visiting the Sins or Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children And 2. What appearance there is of God's executing this Threat upon the Children of evil Parents and particularly upon those of Idolatrous ones 1. Now lest any should imagine that when God threatens to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children his intention is to make one Man suffer the Punishment of anothers Sin I think it not amiss to admonish in the first place That that is so far from being any part of his intention that it is perfectly inconsistent with his own Declaration elsewhere and indeed with the Justice of his Nature as having not onely declar'd his dislike of that peevish Proverb That the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge but moreover affirm'd in express terms Ezek. 18.20 That the soul that sinneth it shall die that the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son in fine that the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked upon him Than which what could be said with greater evidence and conviction to remove all suspicion of God's making one Man to bear the Punishment of anothers Sins Though setting aside that Declaration the sole Justice of God would oblige us to an abhorrence of all such Surmises For what I beseech you makes any Punishment just that is inflicted either by God or Man Is it any other than a Right in the Judge to punish and an Obligation in the Criminal to suffer And if so is it not alike evident that it can be no way consistent with God's Justice to make one Man bear the Punishment of anothers Sin For as no one can have a Right to punish where a Fault did not precede and therefore neither to extend it where that Fault doth not because as to any other it is as if there had been no Fault at all so neither can any Man be under an obligation to Punishment who was not some way or other Partaker of the Sin that caus'd it because that Obligation ariseth from demerit which we have already suppos'd to be the peculiar of another And indeed however some Actions of God seem to proclaim the contrary and particularly his imputing to us the Sins of our first Parents and laying on Christ the Iniquities of us all yet neither do the one nor the other contradict it in the least if they be seriously and warily considered Not the former because the same Scriptures which affirm that God imputeth to us the Iniquities of our First Parents do also assure us as I shall shew more largely hereafter * Explication of the Doctrine of the Sacraments and particularly of that of Baptism that we all offended in him and consequently that God doth not so much impute to us their Sin as our own As neither the latter because Christ voluntarily undertook the suffering of that Punishment which our Sins had deserved from the Almighty After which to lay upon Christ the Iniquities of us all was not so much to make him suffer for others Sins as for those which he made his own by taking the burthen of them upon himself Whence it is that St. Paul tells us 2 Cor. 5.21 That God made him sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him It being thus evident That God neither doth nor can make one Man bear the Punishment of anothers Sin and consequently that that cannot be thought to be the importance of the Threat here us'd it remains that we pitch upon such a sense of God's visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children as doth not imply any thing of that nature In order whereunto it will not a little conduce to affirm what I shall by and by shew hath sufficient warrant in the Commination That when God either threatens or actually visits the Sins of the Fathers upon the Children it is not so much his intention to make them bear the Iniquity of their Fathers as to punish their Fathers in them as he sometimes doth in their Houses or Estates or whatsoever else they place their Happiness in By which means God doth not so much make the Children suffer the Punishment of their Fathers Sins as make the Fathers suffer for their own through the sides of those Children whom he afflicts Now that this is the intention of the Almighty in such kind of Comminations and particularly in that which is the Subject of my Discourse is evident from the end of all such Comminations and a particular Passage in this For the design of them being manifestly to deter Men from those Crimes to which these Comminations are affix'd to make those Comminations of any force they must consequently be thought to bring some Evil to that Criminal against whom they shall be found to be denounc'd No Man and much less a sinful one being like to be reclaim'd by those Evils in which he himself shall not have the greatest share From whence as it will follow That the principal Design of the Almighty was to let those Idolatrous Persons know that he meant to punish them in their
that is to say of thinking honourably of and expressing it in our words and gestures as moreover no question hath or can be made of that part of Honour which hath the name of Piety because Children must generally be supposed both to be of years and of a distinct Family before they can be in a capacity to relieve their Parents so as little question would be made of Obedience if men did but consider that the principal ground of it doth always abide for it being alike true at all times that the one is thy Father that begot thee and the other thy Mother that conceiv'd thee it must be alike true because that is the ground of thy Obedience that thou art always to give obedience to their commands If therefore Children be at any time free from the tie of Honour it must be as to the manner or measure which accordingly I come now to consider Thus for instance Though Reverence be always due from us to our Parents and accordingly hath by good Children been always paid to them yet there is no necessity it should be express'd after the same manner by one of full age as by one who is still under Pupillage because the same gestures become not one of full age that are suitable enough to the tenderness of the other Whence it is that though Children in their minority are always bare before their Parents yet those of Riper age have by a general custom which must be judge of matters of this nature been indulg'd a greater liberty as to that particular even by the consent of Parents themselves In like manner that I may instance in the measure Though Children dwelling in their Parents houses and under their power be to yield Obedience to all their commands and particularly those that concern the Family whereof they are Members whence it is that we find the Father in the Parable Mat. 21.28 commanding his Sons to go and work in his Vineyard yet there is not the same tie upon those that are sent out of it that have a Wife and Family of their own to provide for that are delivered over to the tuition of other persons or in fine have any publick charge upon them Not upon those that are sent out of the Family because as sent out with their leave so of necessity to intend their own proper Affairs Not upon those Children that have a Wife and Family of their own to provide for because beside the foremention'd reason by the command of God himself to forsake Father and Mother and cleave unto their Wives Gen. 2.24 The same is to be said much more of Daughters when Married because not only equally oblig'd to cleave to their Husbands but also subjected to their commands Whence it is that when Pharaoh's Daughter was brought to be a Wife to Solomon we find her exhorted to forget her own people and her Fathers house and to look upon and worship Solomon as her Lord Psal 45.10 11. But neither thirdly is there the same tie upon Children that are subjected to the Tuition of others as to those that are under their Fathers roof and power as will appear if we consider them as made Servants to another or pass'd over into another Family by Adoption for being by the Parents consent subjected to other Masters or Fathers they are now no more theirs who gave them Being but those Masters or adopted Fathers to whom they are so transferr'd This only would be added That as the Children spoken of in the former Instances are only free from their Fathers commands by means of those new Relations they have contracted so they are consequently no farther free from yielding Obedience to their Fathers commands than the necessity of serving those Relations doth exact And therefore if a Son or Daughter that is sent abroad to intend their own Affairs or one that is entred into Marriage or made a Servant or a Son and Daughter by Adoption if I say any of these have opportunity and power to serve their natural Parents there is no doubt they ought to do so no less than those who continue under their Roof For the exception of their obedience being only in regard to those new Relations they have contracted according to that known Rule of the Lawyers Exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis it must strengthen the tie of Obedience where those Relations do no way hinder The only Children to be accounted for are such as have a publick charge upon them whether in the Church or in the State For though Children are not to enter into these without the consent of their Parents if under their Fathers Tuition or at least not without the call of their and their Fathers Superiours yet being entred they are in reason to prefer the discharge of their Place before any Commands of their Father the Private Good being in reason to yield to the Publick the Commands of Parents to those of Kings and Princes Onely as if the Child can without the neglect or debasement of his Charge fulfil his Fathers Commands there is no doubt he is oblig'd so to do so there is so much of Authority in the Name of a Father that no Dignity whatsoever will make a good Son forget it where it is not contrary to a more important Concern 5. The Duty of Honour being thus explain'd and shewn in what manner and measure it is incumbent upon Children it may not be amiss to subjoyn somewhat concerning Fear and Love which I have said to be also a part of their Duty Onely because they are rather Accessaries than Principal parts of Childrens Duties I will be so much the shorter in describing the Obligation they have upon them That we are to fear our Father and Mother the Scripture hath told us Lev. 19.3 and not without cause if we consider either that it is a part of Honour or that there is in Parents a just Object of it For as Fear is a confession of the Power of those whom we have such an apprehension of so there is Power enough in Parents to excite that Passion in us and make us as well to dread as esteem them Of this nature is first the Power of Chastisement whether as to the Body or Possessions of the Son For as I shall afterwards shew that Parents have Authority to inflict either so Experience makes it evident that they want not Power especially as to the latter Chastisement it being ordinarily in the power of Parents to withhold their Possessions from such as are disobedient to them But of all the things we are to fear in a Parent there is certainly nothing more requiring it than the Power they have with God to procure a greater Punishment of our Disobedience than they themselves are able to inflict For though as the Scripture speaks the Curse causeless shall not come yet both Reason and Experience warrant us to believe that the Curses of Parents shall not be without effect where they
and we call'd upon to take up his Cross and follow him PART IV. That there are other Sins included in this of Murther together with an Account of what are so included Whether they be such as are more near of kin to it or are farther removed from it Of the former sort are the commanding or instigating Men to Murther or assisting the Murtherer in it the using such Means as are likely enough to produce it or entertaining any murtherous Intention or Desire Of the latter the procuring of Abortions even where the Child is not Quick wounding or maiming and in fine all Violences whatsoever unless in the case of a Man 's own necessary Defence All Violences that are vindictive perfectly unlawful whether accomplished by our own Hands or sought at those of the Magistrate The Passion of Hatred considered as to its lawfulness or unlawfulness and shewn to become unlawful onely when it is plac'd upon a wrong Object such as is that Hatred which hath Good Men for its Object or Evil Men any otherwise than as they are such The same Hatred considered with reference to this Commandment where is shewn both its opposition to that Love which the Commandment enjoyns and its cognation to that Murther which it forbids The like unlawfulness and murtherous cognation evinc'd in the envying the Prosperity of another in wishing ill to him or rejoycing at it in fine in causeless and immoderate Anger and contumelious or reproachful Speeches II. THAT the killing of another is the thing expresly forbidden in this Commandment you need not be told because the place this Commandment hath in the Decalogue sufficiently informs you as neither after my last Discourse that the killing of our selves hath a place in it indirectly and by consequence It remains that we inquire whether any other Sins are included in them and what those Sins are For the former of these much need not be said after what hath been alledg'd in the general to shew the Comprehensiveness of the Ten Commandments Onely that it may more clearly appear that this particular Prohibition includes others also I will alledge a Saying of our Saviour and another of his Beloved Disciple St. John From the former whereof we learn that however the Letter of the Prohibition or at least * Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment the Notion of it in the Jews Courts of Judicature extended onely to the killing of a Man yet in the Spirit and Evangelical Sense it reach'd to the forbidding of Anger and Reproach Mat. 5.21 22. From the latter that Hatred is not onely included in it but a part of it and that he who harbours it in his Heart is as truly a Murtherer as he who unjustly takes away a Mans Life 1 Joh. 3.15 Taking it therefore for granted that the Prohibition now before us includes that of other Sins we will inquire what those Sins are and first of all because that is principally intended in the Prohibition what Sins are included in the Murther of another 1. And here in the first place I shall not doubt to reckon as forbidden the commanding or instigating other Men to do it Because as he who sets another upon the doing of any thing is to be look'd upon as the principal Cause of it so it is but reasonable to suppose that he who forbids the doing of any thing toward the taking away a Mans Life which hath onely the nature of an Instrumental Cause doth much more forbid the Efficacy of the Principal Whence it is that we do not onely find David praying to be delivered from blood-guiltiness though he onely put another upon the setting Vriah so that he might die by a third Person or Persons but the Prophet Nathan in the Name of God charging him with the Murther and affirming him to have slain Vriah with the sword of the children of Ammon 2 Sam. 12.9 2. As little doubt is to be made secondly that it is alike unlawful by this Commandment to assist the Murtherer either by our Counsel or Actions he who doth so contributing in part to that which it forbids and consequently so far chargeable with the violation of it 3. I observe thirdly That though Killing be the onely thing expresly forbidden yet inasmuch as he who forbids any Effect is in reason to be suppos'd to forbid the Means whereby it is apt to be procur'd he that makes use of destructive Means whether they take effect or no is chargeable with the violation of this Commandment By which way of reasoning he shall be concluded to be a Murtherer in the sight of God who should after the corrupt Custom of the Heathen expose a helpless Infant in a Desart place where it may be in danger of perishing either by Wild Beasts or Famine 4. In fine Forasmuch as the Consent of the Will is the principal thing in all Actions and so estimated by God himself both in the Old and New Testament he is in reason to be look'd upon as a Violator of this Commandment who shall entertain any murtherous Intention or Desire after the same manner that he who onely looketh upon a woman to lust after her is affirmed by our Saviour to commit Adultery with her in his heart Of such Sins as are more neer of kin to that which is expresly forbidden I have spoken hitherto and shewn them to be included in it Proceed we to inquire the same of those which though of the same cognation yet are farther remov'd from it Where 1. First of all I shall reckon the procuring of Abortions I do not mean where the Child is perfectly form'd and quick for then if Death follow to the Child it is Murther properly so call'd but before the Child is animated Concerning which before I deliver my own Opinion give me leave to give you that of the Ancients as it is set down by Tertullian After the forbidding of Murther saith he * Nobis vero homicidio semel interdicto etiam conceptum utero dum adhuc sanguis in hominem deliberatu dissolvere non licet Homicidii festinatio est prohibere nasci nec refert natam quis eripiat animam an nasientem disturbet Homo est qui est futurus Etiam fructus omnis jam in semine est Apolog. c. 9. it is not lawful to us Christians to dissolve that Off-spring which is conceiv'd in the Womb even while Nature is onely in consultation to make a Man of it It is a committing of Murther before-hand to hinder any thing from being born neither matters it whether a Man take away a Soul that is already born or disturb it in its Birth He is a Man which is in a disposition to be so and the Fruit is already in the Seed which produceth it Now though to speak mine own Opinion freely I cannot but look upon this of Tertullian as somewhat
either with relation to that Love which the Commandment enjoyns or to that Sin of Murther which it forbids For if as we learn from the Apostle this and other the Commandments that follow enjoyn the loving of our Neighbour they must consequently be suppos'd to forbid the hatred of him as being contrary to and inconsistent with it And though it be true that Hatred is not Murther or other the like Injuriousness if we mean thereby those of the Hand yet it is either the murther and injuriousness of the Heart which I have shewn to be equally forbidden or at least the Producer of it he who hates any Person in the least naturally wishing some ill or other to him but he who perfectly hates him Death According to that Saying of Ennius remembred by Tully †Tull. de Offic li 2. Pra. clarè Ennius Quem metuunt oderunt quem quisque odit periisse expetit Quem quisque odit periisse expetit He who hates any Person desires his destruction To all which if we add That St. John in the place before-quoted affirms the hater of his Brother to be a Murtherer and that * Deut. 19.4 c. God absolv'd that Manslayer from the guilt of it who hated him not in time past so no doubt can remain but that the same Commandment which forbids the murthering of a Man forbids also the hating of him That being in reason to be thought to be forbidden to which the Scripture doth not onely give the Title of Murther but absolves even that Manslayer in whom it should be found not to be 2. That great Crime of Hatred being thus dispatch'd proceed we to that of Envy which is in short nothing else than a Grief of Mind for that Good which happens to another I do not mean as that Good may become the Instrument of much Mischief by the Possessors abuse for in that case a good Man may be griev'd but because he whom we envy is like to be advantag'd by it Now that this no less than the former hath the nature of a Sin and particularly against the present Prohibition will require no great pains to prove For beside that such a Grief Spider-like sucks its Poyson from the choicest Flower because contrary to Nature making that which is the proper Object of Joy the matter of its own Sadness and Discontent beside that it is a manifest reluctancy to the Dispensations of the Divine Providence from whence as all other Good proceeds so that particular one which we so much envy beside lastly that it is a natural effect of Hatred and consequently to be suppos'd to be forbidden with that Hatred from which it ariseth it is oftentimes the cause of Murther and other injurious Actions but to be sure doth always dispose Men to it The first Murther that was ever committed proceeding from hence that the Sacrifice of the murther'd Person was more accepted by God than that of the Murtherer was 3. The same is to be said of wishing any Evil and particularly Death to any Person or of rejoycing in it when it doth befal him of being angry with our Brother without a cause or above measure of proceeding to contumelious or reproachful Speeches to or of him these as they are but the fruits of Hatred so disposing Men to Murther and consequently to be suppos'd to be forbidden with it He that forbids any Action or at least with any severity being in reason to be thought to forbid that which disposeth Men to it because where that is not carefully avoided it will be hard to avoid the other Onely because Anger and that reproachful Speaking which proceeds from it is by our Saviour himself particularly referr'd to this Commandment I think it but a just respect to him and to his Authority to allot them a more distinct Consideration But of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my next PART V. Anger reduced by our Saviour to the Commandment we are now upon and therefore the Consideration thereof resum'd anew Where is shewn first what Anger is and that it is not absolutely sinful as is made appear from its being a natural Passion from St. Paul's admonishing to be angry and sin not from our Saviour's giving entertainment to it and the unavoidableness thereof The Objections that are made against this Determination propos'd and answered An Inquiry what Anger is to be look'd upon as sinful where is shewn first That no other Anger is than what is avoidable by Deliberation where the motus primo-primi of that Passion are absolv'd An Address to a more particular discovery of sinful Anger which becomes such 1. When it is rash and precipitate the inordinacy whereof is at large declar'd 2. When it is causeless or at least without a sufficient one such as are those which arise from things done casually or inadvertently from Provocations that bring with them no considerable Detriment or greater ones provided they be not many from a Friend 3. When our Anger exceeds the measure due to it Of which sort are those which exceed the Merit of the Cause which transport Men beyond the Bounds of Sobriety ond Prudence or continue longer than they ought as they do when they continue after Satisfaction offer'd after the Punishment of the offending Person or when they continue in their Heats to the usual times of Prayer and Meditation The Remedies of this disorderly Passion pointed at YE have heard saith our Saviour that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment But I say unto you That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say unto his brother Racha shall be in danger of the Council but whosoever shall say Thou fool shall be in danger of hell-fire Mat. 5.21 22. It seems that however in the forinsick sense this Commandment extended no farther than Killing yet Anger and Reproachful speaking had a place in it as it was intended for a Rule of Piety and Manners or at least was so reckon'd by our Saviour And not without cause if we consider the Nature either of the one or the other and the occasion which they minister to that Murther which is here forbidden Anger naturally inclining the Person in whom it is to malicious and sometimes murtherous Purposes as Reproachful speaking those who are the Objects of it both to take them up and prosecute them against the Reviler Fro whence as it will follow that both the one and the other have too much affinity with Murther to suffer us to doubt of their being forbidden by this Commandment so that being suppos'd I will go on to inquire into the Nature of them and shew wherein the Criminalness thereof consisteth I begin with Anger because our Saviour doth so and because it is the Fountain from which those bitter Streams of reproachful Words issue Where 1. First of all I
as to have nothing of Criminalness in it yea moreover to be good and commendable as for example when we are angry to see God dishonoured or any of his Commandments trangressed he who desires the punishment of these and in his Station endeavours it also where there is no hopes of amendment doing no more than what the Love of God will naturally prompt him to For how can we love God with that ardency which becomes us and not desire the punishment of those by whom he is slighted and contemn'd And though especially since Christianity came in place we cannot so safely desire the punishment of those who have been injurious to our selves yet as nothing forbids us to desire that also where Zeal of Justice prompts us to it so neither in respect of our selves where we seek no more by their Punishment than the redressing of our own Wrongs it being not simply evil to desire the Punishment of Offenders but to desire it with a mischievous intent that is to say for the afflicting of our Brother or to desire the inflicting of it otherwise than God and Reason do allow Which is for the most part when we desire the inflicting of it with our own Hands because as the Scripture hath told us God hath challeng'd the Execution of it to himself and to those who have his Authority in the World If as I for my own part neither can nor will deny few angry Persons keep within these bounds for which cause of all the Passions of the Soul I think it ought the least to be indulg'd yet I no way doubt a good and virtuous Man may so restrain his Anger as not to desire the Punishment of the injurious Party any farther than the Glory of God doth require or the Reparation of his own Losses Witness such Persons easie admittance of a Satisfaction and sometimes of a meer Verbal Acknowledgment whereas on the other side evil Men will not be appeas'd unless they see the injurious Person suffer as much or more than they themselves have yea though there doth not thereby accrue to them any Reparation of their own Losses Now forasmuch as Anger generally speaking hath not onely the Verdict of Reason and Scripture to evince it to be lawful but is fairly defensible from those Exceptions which are made against it I think it but just to suppose that all Anger is not sinful and upon that account go on to inquire 3. What Anger is to be accounted such the third thing propos'd to be inquir'd into For the resolution whereof we must distinguish between such Motions of it as the Philosophers call motus primo-primi or the first stirrings of Anger and the more deliberate efforts of it If the Question be concerning the first stirrings of Anger which the same Philophers compare to the twinkling of the Eyes upon any sudden Violence that approacheth them so no doubt can remain but that they are generally lawful because no less necessary than that twinkling of the Eyes before spoken of and antecedent to any free Consent of the Will It being difficult * Hieron ep ad Demetriadem Difficile quin potius impossibile perturbationum initiis carere quempiam quas significantiùs Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocant Vid. Grot. in Mat. 5.22 or rather impossible to be without those beginnings of perturbation which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when any thing is offer'd to excite them Onely as Custom which is a second Nature and Grace which is above it may contribute not a little to the repressing of them so if we do not make use of the one and implore the other in order to the restraining of them they will be so far look'd upon as voluntary and therefore also as sinful if they pass the bounds of Reason But then if the Question be concerning those efforts of Anger which precede not the free Consent of the Will but on the contrary are subject to its controul these as they are not purely natural so they may be either lawful or unlawful according as they shall be found to be circumstantiated Forasmuch therefore as these are capable of being vicious we will now inquire when they do become so Which is 1. When they are rash and precipitate For beside that that Anger which is so is a direct contradiction to the Scripture which commands in one place †Jam 1.19 to be slow to wrath and in another ‖ Eccl. 7.9 not to be hasty in our spirit it lays us open as Aristotle * Nicomach l. 4. c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 observes to the commission mission of all those irregularities whereof the Anger of Man is capable For Anger naturally hurrying Men to the prosecution of all those things which are grateful to its own Vindictive Humour what should hinder it where it stays not to deliberate from venting its own Inordinacies as well against whom and for what and after what measure it doth not become it to be severe as where there is a just ground for it in all Neither is the Voice of Experience any whit different in this Affair from the Voice of Reason and Discourse For who ever yet saw a hasty Person observe a Mean in any thing so long as his Passion continu'd If we inquire concerning those who are to be the Objects of our Anger these make all Persons such yea even bruit Beasts nay inanimate Creatures if concerning the Grounds of it they are angry for any thing for nothing for but coming in their way or speaking to them though upon never so just and necessary an occasion lastly if of the Measure they are angry beyond Reason and against it they commit all the Indecencies which it is possible for any rational Man to be guilty of they fall into absurd reproachful and sometimes blasphemous Speeches If there be any thing good in a hasty Spirit it is as the same Aristotle * Arist ubi supra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 observes that as as their Fury is very extravagant whilst it lasts so it is not of any long continuance Which yet as he * Arist ubi supra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there goes on is not so great a commendation of it as is commonly both thought and represented it being not much to be wondred that their Passion should not be of long continuance who retain not their Wrath at all but do immediately wreck its Fury upon their Opposites 2. Next to the precipitateness of Anger subjoyn we the causelesness thereof as in which our Blessed Saviour particularly placeth its Inordinacy by which I do not mean its being without any cause at all for who is there that is so provok'd but the being angry vainly and foolishly as Hesychius ‖ Hesych Lex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. interprets the Word and without any rational ground for such a Resentment as if a Man should be angry because another treads upon his Shadow or it may be
it do appear that more mild ones will not succeed so it ought not to be employ'd to the vindicating of any thing which is above the Proportion of him that useth it For if all Men have an equal Right to every Thing every Thing is to continue in its Community or if that cannot be done without prejudice to every one they are of necessity to agree upon a Distribution but however not to challenge above their Proportion in it But because this Hypothesis is so wild and extravagant that a Man must throw off his Reason as well as his Religion before he can assent to it I will proceed forthwith to the consideration of the other which founds Dominion in Grace and Piety Now though this Hypothesis looks more demurely than the other because clad in the Habit of that which of all others doth most deserve our Respect yet as it hath little countenance from that Religion which it dissembles so it is equally pernicious to it with the former and particularly to the Christian one For the evidencing whereof I will alledge first the dishonour it doth to its Author upon whose Honour the Reputation of Religion doth depend For whereas there is nothing which God more challengeth to himself or is indeed more worthy of him than the being kind to the unthankful and to the evil causing his Sun to shine upon the evil and the good and sending his Rain upon the just and the unjust that Hypothesis which founds Dominion in Grace confines this Love of his to the Good and Just and consequently spoils him of that Noble Prerogative of his Nature in being kind to the unthankful and rebellious But neither is it less dishonourable to that Religion which we profess if we consider either the Spirituality of its Motives or the Peaceableness of its Principles For whereas our Religion professeth to allure Men not by the Bait of Earthly Pleasures but by the more noble Pleasures of the Mind and that Spiritual Happiness which consists in the Sight and Enjoyment of God thereby removing all suspicion from it self of seeking to promote it self by mean Arts or standing in need of them that Hypothesis which founds Dominion in Grace subjects the Purity of Religion to the mean Enjoyments of the World and makes it look more like a Design upon Mens Estates than upon their Souls Again Whereas our Religion professeth nothing more than the procuring of Peace as well of the Professors thereof with one another as with those that are Strangers or Enemies to it that Hypothesis which founds Dominion in Grace is so far from contributing to it that it hardly leaves place for Peace even within our own Bosoms For true Peace being so secret a thing that we cannot certainly understand it in another and not without difficulty in our selves if as a Learned Prelate * Bramhall's Vindication of himself and Episcopal Clergy from Mr. B's Charge of Popery c. 1. doth well argue Grace should give every one that pretends to it an Interest in that which is another Mans lawful Possession no Mans Title could be certain to another scarcely to himself From whence must necessarily follow an incredible Confusion and an inevitable Perturbation in all Estates To all which if we add that God hath expresly subjected the believing Subject to an unbelieving Prince and the believing Servant to the unbelieving Master that he hath moreover enjoyn'd the former to pay Tribute to his unbelieving Prince as an Acknowledgment of that Authority which God hath given him over him so we shall not onely be fully convinc'd that Dominion is not founded in Grace but that somewhat else was intended in that and such like Texts which assure us that the meek shall inherit the earth which are the most plausible Grounds of that Hypothesis And indeed as such like Promises are necessarily to be understood with subordination to God's Glory and the eternal Welfare of our Souls both which are oftentimes more promoted by Poverty and Afflictions than by the affluence of Temporal Benefits partly because otherwise they would be rather a Curse than a Blessing and partly because in the strict understanding of them they are but rarely fulfill'd to the Meek which would undoubtedly not have hapned if God that cannot lie had meant them in the literal notion of the Words so whatever be the sense of them they rather shew what the meek Person may promise himself from God's Providence than any Right in him to challenge it from the World and much less possess himself of by force Such Actions as those being very inconsistent with that Meekness to which the Inheritance of the Earth is promised 6. But not to insist any longer on the subversion of an Hypothesis which will find little credit among any other than the Indigent and Discontented as neither among them any longer than till those Indigences and Discontents be remov'd I will chuse rather following the Method before laid down to inquire whether the Properties of Men are subject to Limitations and what those Limitations are It is a common Opinion at least amongst the Vulgar sort that when they have acquir'd a Property in any thing it becomes so intirely theirs that they cannot at all be abridg'd in it without injury Now though I am willing to believe that those who are so perswaded understand this Absoluteness of theirs with reference onely to Men yet I think it not amiss and so much the rather because all just Limitations of Mens Properties are originally from God to shew first that they are limited by God and how they are limited by him That they are limited by God needs no other Proof than that Original Grant of Dominion which God made to Adam and Noah and those Laws which he hath since given concerning the use or disposition of them For inasmuch as that Original Grant was not to the Persons of Adam and Noah onely but to all that descended from their Loyns as appears from the preceding Discourse it will follow as was there also shewn that all the Sons of Men have a natural Right to a Portion of it and consequently that particular Properties are limited by the Necessities of those of the same Stock whether it be by obliging the Owners to impart of them to those their needy Brethren or as I shall afterwards shew by warranting the Necessitous in the faileur of all other Means to extort so much from the other as may serve to the Support of them But neither is it less clear from the Laws which God hath since given that Mens Properties are limited by the Almighty For a Law where it is impos'd retrenching Mens Liberty as to that particular which it enjoyns if God hath prescrib'd Laws concerning the use or disposition of them our Property will be so far limited as the Laws which are imposed do direct All therefore that will be requisite to do will be to instance in those Laws which will at the same time acquaint us
and encourage their Endeavours yet I cannot forbear to say that it can no way be deemed lawful to espouse such Causes as are apparently evil and which tend more to usurp upon other Mens lawful Right than to vindicate the Clients own For beside that by so doing Men shall ill requite the Divine Majesty for that Ability and Eloquence which he hath furnish'd them withal they shall onely lend their assistance to the promoting of Contentiousness and Injustice and to the subverting of peaceable and just Possessions which how it agrees with that Justice and Equity for which Courts of Judicature were appointed but which to be sure the Law of Nature and Christianity have laid upon all Mankind I dare venture to the judgment of the most prejudic'd Advocate to give a satisfactory Account of I say not the same where the Cause that is presented to them hath a fair and probable appearance however it may prove when it comes more closely to be examin'd For as the Men of that Profession have seldom the leisure to look narrowly into the Merits of a Cause before-hand and cannot therefore be thought to be oblig'd to refuse any Cause that hath a fair and specious appearance so if they should be over-scrupulous in admitting such they might not onely prejudice themselves in the exercise of their Profession which is a weighty Consideration but prejudice the Rights of that Person which addresseth himself to them by refusing him the assistance of their Endeavours To say nothing at all that to be too peremptory in judging of a Cause before-hand would be to exceed the bounds of their Profession and assume the Person rather of a Judge than of an Advocate But as it is one thing to lend a Man's Assistance to a probable Cause which as Tully * De Officiis lib. 2. Judicis est semper in causis verum sequi patroni nonnunquam verisimile etiamsi minus sit verum defendere quâ—d scribere praesertim cum de Philosophiâ scriberem non auderem nisi idem placeret gravissimo Stoicorum Panaetio well observes out of Panaetius may be the part of an Advocate to defend and another to lend his Assistance to one that is apparently evil and unjust so having caution'd Men against the latter I shall onely add that they would not chuse their Causes meerly or mostly by the Purses of those that present them nor detrect those of the Poor and Indigent Charity as it hath a tie upon the Learned in the Laws as well as upon other Men so having as to them no more proper Field †Tull. de Offic. lib. 2. Diserti igitur hominis facile laborantis quodque in patriis est moribus multorum causas non gravare gratuito defendentis beneficio patrocinia latè patent or larger to exercise it self in than a ready and gratuitous defending of the Poor from the Oppressions of the Wealthy by that Reason and Eloquence which makes their Profession to be had in Honour From the Choice they are to make of Causes pass we to the Management of those they chuse where again many useful Rules present themselves Such as are those that enjoyn Fidelity and Diligence in the Administration of what they undertake Watchfulness against all Disadvantages which may any way prejudice it and Dispatch But because these how little regarded soever are so apparently both the Duties of Justice and of the Advocates Profession that he must be wilfully blind that doth not own their Obligation I shall chuse rather having thus barely mention'd them to caution the Men of that Profession against a Practice which how common soever yet is of too pernicious consequence to be passed by I mean the passing from the Merits of the Cause to the defaming of the adverse Parties Person and making him as odious or ridiculous as it is in the power of Art to make him For though a wise and considerate Judge will not lightly be moved with Discourses of that nature or rather will use his Authority to repress them yet as even they may be sometime tempted by them to press more hardly in their Sentence upon those whom they have been instructed either to despise or abominate so such Discourses may be of more force to pervert the Judgment of a Jury who are not generally so much Masters of Reason as Judges are and much less of their Passions and Affections And though I will not say there is as much reason to forbear all Rhetorical Insinuations and particularly such as spend themselves in the commendation of that Person whose Cause they have undertaken to defend yet as the grave Judges of Areopagus have been remembred with applause for forbidding at their Tribunal any other than simple Narrations and such as serv'd rather to discover the Nature of the thing in question than to adorn or disgrace it so if other than such simple Narrations were not lightly countenanced the Truth of a Cause would more easily appear and they to whom the Determination thereof is committed would have no temptation to resist the force of it from the suggestions either of Love or Hatred Being now by the Order of my Discourse to entreat of the Duty of Witnesses the onely Persons directly concern'd in this Commandment I suppose it will be neither unacceptable nor unprofitable to premise something concerning the use of them in Judgment their requisite Number and necessary Qualifications the knowledge of these helping not a little to discover their Obligations or to bind them so much the faster on them Of the Vse or rather necessity of Witnesses much need not be said as being apparent and obvious For it being not to be supposed on the one hand that Men will ordinarily confess that Fault which they have not been careful to keep themselves from the commission of and it being evident on the other that a Judge hath not Eyes enough to discover all nor is well qualified to pass Sentence upon them though he had it being easie for a Judge if he were allow'd to witness as well as sentence to make whom he pleas'd Criminal there will arise a necessity of determining the thing in controversie by the Testimony of some indifferent Persons who shall either be call'd to that Office or voluntarily present themselves And accordingly as all Nations led thereto by the Light of Reason and Nature have both used and generally approved this way of procedure in Judgment so I know none to rival it but the Ordeal Purgations of our Saxon Ancestors which yet were not used but in the defect of other Proofs and the extorting a Confession from the accused party The former whereof was no better than a presumptuous temptation of the Divine Providence the latter injurious to Humane Nature and beside that no way proper to produce the desired effect Few persons how innocent soever being of ability to resist the force of Torture and those that are of ability to resist being as likely
to deny the Crimes wherewith they are justly charged as those that are not are ready enough to own falsly imputed ones From the use or rather necessity of Witnesses pass we to the number which by the Law given to the Israelites ought to be no less than Two especially where the life of a Man is concerned And not without Reason if we consider the weight of the thing in question and the danger of passing a wrong Judgment where one Man's testimony may be admitted Which as all wise people will be careful to prevent lest whilst they seek to punish a supposed Malefactor they make themselves really such so especially if they consider that it is better to let a bad Man escape than run the hazard of punishing a good it being certainly and always an injury to punish a good Man but not such to let a bad go free In the mean time though I say that two Witnesses ordinarily ought to pass to the condemning of any person to death yet as I will not affirm the same to hold in matters of Estate especially where the thing in Controversie is of no very great concern so neither universally in criminal matters and particularly in the case of Treason For as the presumptions many times may be such that they may well make the testimony of a single Witness credible especially if that Witness be an unstained one as moreover it may so happen that a single Witness may be of so fair a reputation that he may be looked upon of equal weight with two or more ordinary ones So the life of a Prince and the welfare of a State are things of so infinite concern that the machinations of Evil Persons against them are not lightly to pass unrevenged where there is an apt proof of the contrivance of them In cases extraordinary therefore or where the matter is of no great concern there may be place for a single Testimony otherwise there is no doubt the exacting of two is both more reasonable and safe As because God himself did sometime require it so because there is not that danger of the corrupting of two which there may be of one or if there were that corruption might more easily be discovered by examining them apart as we see in that famous instance of Susannah The only thing farther to be premised is the qualification of the Witnesses concerning which I intended to be much more large than I have upon second thoughts resolved to be But considering with my self that I had all along avoided the instructing of Publick Persons whose it is to judge of the qualification of those Witnesses they will admit and considering moreover that things of this nature are better judged of by Men versed in Judicial Proceedings and the necessities of the World than by one who converseth only with Books and his own Thoughts I deem'd it but reasonable to leave this head with advertising only that they ought to be persons of competent understanding of honest Fame and without all suspicion of love or hatred or corruption It being thus evident what use or rather necessity there is of Witnesses in Judgment what number of them is requisite and in general also how they ought to be qualified it remains that we enquire to what Duties they are obliged which are these four especially 1. That they deliver nothing that is False 2. and 3. That they neither conceal nor transpose any thing that is true And 4. And lastly That what is true or at least deem'd by them to be so be delivered with no other degree of assurance than they themselves are perswaded of in their own bosoms The first of these is the very thing which this Commandment doth inculcate and will hereafter be more largely exemplified when I come to shew the sins that are forbidden by it The second and third as I shall afterwards shew are included in the former and the fourth a necessary consequent of it For inasmuch as moral falshood consists not in the disagreeableness of the thing we utter with that which it concerns but with our own estimate of it he must be looked upon as giving a false Testimony who shall utter any thing with a greater degree of assurance than he himself is perswaded of it And more than this I shall not need to say at present concerning the Duty of Witnesses because I must resume it in my following Discourse and may therefore with Reason go on to the Duty of Judges the last thing proposed to be discoursed of Now there are two sorts of Judges at least in the most of our Courts of Judicature and which therefore are to be considered apart whereof the former are if I may so speak the Judges of Right the other the Judges of Fact Judges of Right I call those who are commonly and indeed only known among us by the Name of Judges and to whom it belongs to enquire into the Fact that is brought before them to declare the sense of the Law and to pass Sentence upon Verdict given Judges of Fact for so indeed they are those which are best known by the Name of Jury-men and to whom it belongs upon the hearing of the whole matter to umpire differences between Man and Man and either to absolve or condemn the person accused An Institution as Dr. Bates * Elench motuum nuper in Anglia part 2. p. 359. Sed sciant tam exteri quam posteri consuetudinâ—m hanc duodecimvir alis inquâ—sitioniâ— ex aquo bono petuam singulart Regum tum Saxonico um tum Normannorum indulgentiae dehitam ab omni retro memoriâ ad nos traductam hâc aet ate cum aliquantisper intermitteretur publicis desideriis maxi mè comprobatam Aequissimi Plebis aestimatores Plebeii Nobilitatis Nobiles siquidem ejusdem loci atque ordinis hominibus inest charitas abest invidia Praeterea si quos Praetor ediderit tibi infensos licet etiam atque etiam rejicias Nec imprudentes appellare fas facti rationem à testibus rem omnem cordm allegantibus probantibus juris naturam à Judice Legum studiis innutrito edoctos Caeteras partes simplex incorrupta mens rectiùs examinat quà m calliditas alienae libidinis administra observes for which we are beholden to our Saxon and Norman Kings and which is indeed none of the least commendations of the Government none being more proper Judges of Men than those who are of the same rank and condition and who may therefore be supposed to be equally estranged from hatred and envy And though it be true that these also may not be without their affections but however may seem less qualified for Judgment by their own unskilfulness yet as the former inconvenience is in a great measure superseded by that liberty which our Law allows to the person accused to reject to a certain number such of them as he may suspect to be ill affected towards him so the latter is perfectly removed by
always within the bounds of temperance and sometimes also which yet were no hard task to abstain wholly from the enjoyment of their plenty they would not then find it so uneasie to content themselves with a more moderate Fortune or repine and murmur at it when it befalls them he who can be without these external things even when he hath them being much more likely to bear the want of them when they are not to be had and bring his mind to acquiesce in it But when Men will not only not abstain at any time from lawful Delights but allow themselves in such as are exorbitant when instead of denying and mortifying their appetites they will afford them the utmost satisfaction they are capable of though with the hazard of their health and which is of much more consideration of their eternal welfare then no wonder if a meaner Fortune appear strange and irksom and the inconveniences wherewith it is attended insupportable the difference between their former enjoyments and their present straits appearing so vastly great that it may well stagger a resolved Understanding and make Men sink under their Calamity though they were otherwise well enough disposed to bear it and made use of all their Reason to reconcile themselves to the undergoing of it Whence it is that where such a change hath sometime hapned they who have been the unhappy subjects thereof have needed no other Malady to oblige them to quit the World and exchange this miserable life I will not say for a better but what may reasonably enough be feared for one that exceeds it as much in sadness as it doth in the duration of it But let us suppose as God knows that opportunity of learning Contentment doth often pass by us unobserved let us suppose I say that we have not been careful to use our affluence with sobriety and much less to abridge our selves in the lawful use of it yet even so there will not want means to bring us to a contented mind if we will but be so wise as to make use of them Such as is in the next place the consideration of our own vileness and what our former plenty may well suggest to us our past riots and intemperances For how can he think much to stoop to a mean Fortune who hath made so ill use of a more splendid one yea who it may be hath been the Author of his own pressures and brought himself to penury by a prodigal wasting of his former Fortunes It being but reasonable that every Man should acquiesce in that which hath been rather his choice than his misfortune And though it be true that all who have thus fallen are not conscious to themselves of the like Prodigality nor it may be of any Crimes which may be looked upon as equal to them yet is there none who will not find enough in himself to make him acknowledge his Calamity to have been deserved and accordingly to prompt him rather to thank God for what he hath than to repine that it is no greater than it is especially if he do also consider that there are many in the world who are more necessitous than himself and it may be too who have in all things more approved themselves to the Divine Majesty than he himself if he judge impartially will think himself to have done And though it were but an odd consideration which Diogenes * Aelian Var. hist l. 13. c. 26. solaced himself with in the extremity of his poverty that the Mice which plaid about him pleased themselves with those crums that did either fall from or were wiped off by him yet it may suggest to us another which is more likely to be attended to and where it is so to induce Men to Contentment For certainly notwithstanding the murmurings of discontented Men there are some in the world who do not yet repine whose Fortunes are as disproportionable to those of the discontented person as those of the Mice were to the condition of the Cynick What should I tell you what Experience no less than the Scripture assures us That our life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that we possess That Contentment is as rarely yea more rarely to be found in a splendid Fortune than in a moderate or humble one That those gayeties which we so much desire and without which it is so hard for us to be contented are attended with a proportionable number of inconveniences That more cares and fears and dangers wait upon the Scepter than upon the Spade That those pleasures which are the Concomitants of greater Fortunes appear more amiable at a distance than when they come to be enjoyed which no Man who hath ever tasted any earthly pleasure but will find himself obliged to confess That they are of no certain continuance even when we think our selves most sure of them That we our selves may be taken from them as well as they from us In fine That we may be taken from them even whilst we continue in and with them It being no rare thing for Men to lose the sense of them by stupidity or an exquisite pain and want them even when they are possessed of them All which things whosoever shall duly ponder in his mind and allow them that weight which they deserve will I doubt not be easily induced to content himself with an humble Fortune and not only suffer but embrace it But of all the means whereby Contentment may be procured and which therefore it will concern us to make use of because there can be no happiness without it there are certainly none more efficacious than such as are purely Religious and for which we are beholden rather to the Book of God than that of Nature In the number of which I reckon first Those many assurances the Scripture hath given us of Gods supporting us under our humble Fortunes or delivering us out of them or making them advantageous to us Such as are those that inform us that God will never leave us nor forsake us for so what was spoken to Joshua in particular is by the Author to the Hebrews extended unto all that his eyes are upon them that fear him Psal 33.18.19 34.10 Rom. 8.28 Heb. 13.5 to deliver their souls from death and to feed them in the time of dearth that though the Lyons do lack and suffer hunger yet they which seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good and in fine that all things shall work together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose For who can well be discontented with his outward condition which he is assured shall be made supportable or mended and which is more rendered advantageous to him The like is to be said yea with much more reason of the Promises of a better life of being satisfied however we may now hunger when we awake with Gods likeness of being advanced to an abiding City
them to put away their wives for a lesser cause Mat. 19.8 In fine the Jews were then but in the state of children as S. Paul tells us Gal. 4.2 they had the weakness and peevishness of children and being such God as was but requisite dealt with them as with children keeping them as that Apostle goes on under the elements of the world and permitting them to think and speak and act as such But now that the world is grown man now that our Blessed Saviour hath brought abundance of Grace and Truth into it giving men more wise and understanding heads more pliant hearts or at least more grace to make them so as it was but reasonable he should raise the standards of obedience and fulfil both the Law and the Prophets so it will be but necessary for us to make our piety answer them and fulfil that Law and the Prophets over again in our conversation DISC. V. Of the measures by which we are to proceed in the interpretation of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments That the Ten Commandments comprehend more in them than is expressed and how we may come to investigate the full importance of them Several rules laid down to direct us in that affair What tyes we have upon us to yield obedience to them above what the Jews to whom they were first given had A comparison between the Israelites deliverance out of Egypt by which their obedience is enforced and our far better deliverance from the bondage of the Ceremonial Law and Sin and Death HAving by way of preparation to our main design entreated of the nature and obligations of the Laws of God and particularly of that Law which we are now about to explain shewing the authority by which it stands the means whereby it comes to oblige us and the pitch to which our Saviour hath raised it it remains only that we enquire what measures we are to proceed by in giving the full importance of the several precepts of it For as when Solomon's Temple was to be built all things were so fitted and prepared before-hand that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the building of it so in every methodical discourse care ought to be taken that the materials be first squared and fitted before we proceed to the rearing of it lest the deferring it till then do not only prove a retarding of it but the noises of axes and hammers disturb and confound us in it Now there are two things within the explication of which the resolution of this question will be comprehended 1. Whether the Ten Commandments comprehend no more in them than is expressed And 2. If they do what those things are which they comprehend I. It is commonly supposed both by Jewish and Christian writers that the Decalogue or Ten Commandments is a summary or abstract of the whole Duty of Man I will not at the first either take so much for granted or attempt the probation of it whatsoever is to be said concerning this particular being best to be learned by a leisurely and gradual procedure It shall suffice now in the entrance of my discourse to affirm that more is comprehended in the Decalogue or Ten Commandments than is expressed in the letter of it For first all that must be supposed to be comprehended in it which is either implyed in it or necessarily deducible from it Thus though the letter of the first Commandment doth directly import no more than the rejecting of false Gods yet inasmuch as God prefaces this prohibition with I am the Lord thy God and the prohibition it self manifestly implies the having of him for our God it is evident that when God saves Thou shalt have no other Gods before me his meaning is as well that we should have him for our God as that we should not have any other God besides Again when the having of any one for our God implies the fearing and loving and honouring him that is so according to his several attributes at the same time he commands us to have him and no other for our God he must be supposed to command also that we should fear and love and honour him and him alone though neither of these be expressed in it But then if the Law be considered not only as proposed by Moses but as illustrated and enlarged by our Saviour in the Sermon on the Mount in which capacity there is no doubt we ought to look upon it because as such a part of the Christian Law so there is no doubt but many things are comprehended in it which are not expressed in the letter of it But because when I shew what things are comprehended in the Ten Commandments beside what is expressed in the letter I shall at the same time shew that something else is therefore superseding any farther proof of that as altogether unnecessary I will proceed to the resolution of the other II. It is commonly supposed and not without reason though that reason be not often made appear that when our Saviour reduceth the Law to those two great Commandments Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self he means that principally of the Law of Moses contained in the Ten Commandments Which if true it will follow 1. That the negative in every Commandment doth include the affirmative and that when God saith Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal and the like his meaning is not only that we should do no injury to our neighbours person or estate but that we should love and do him good in both Now that our Saviour intended those great Commandments Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and Thy neighbour as thy self as an abstract of the Ten Commandments and consequently that what is contained in them is also comprised in the Ten Commandments will appear from Rom. 13.8 9. where S. Paul doth not only affirm love to be the fulfilling of the Law according as his Master had done but particularly of the Ten Commandments For this saith he Thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet and if there be any other Commandment it is * Verba sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Now forasmuch as Love is the fulfilling of this Law forasmuch as the several Precepts of it are comprehended in it as in a recapitulation * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat propriè variarum sum marum in unam collectionem per translationem antè dictorum repetitionem per capita Hammond in Eph. 1.10 or summary that Law of which it is a summary must comprehend love in it and consequently not only forbid the doing of any injury to our neighbour but the doing him all good offices and services There is but one thing of
only no crime at all to fear him but on the contrary an acknowledgment of his Divinity Our fear because arising from the consideration of them being a confession not only of his great power and justice but also that what he hath so threatned he will certainly perform and consequently of the truth and unchangeableness of his decrees Then and then only doth our fear become criminal when it looks upon God as no other than a Tyrant or as one that will call us to an account for every trifle For that instead of acknowledging him for our God attributeth to him peevishness or cruelty and makes us not so much adorers as dishonourers of him And accordingly as where-ever Religion hath had any place this fear hath been branded under the name of Superstition so it has betrayed its own rottenness by the pittiful shifts it hath put the timourous man upon the devotion of such persons usually spending it self in Rites and Ceremonies and presenting the Deity not with a rational and sober worship but a crazy and trifling one I will conclude this particular with that excellent distinction which Maximus Tyrius * Dissert 4. makes between a truly Religious man and a Superstitious one The pious man saith he is Gods friend the superstitious is a flatterer of God and indeed happy and blest is the condition of the pious man Gods friend but right miserable and sad is the state of the superstitious The pious man emboldned by a good conscience and encouraged by the sense of his integrity comes to God without fear and dread but the superstitious being sunk and depressed through the sense of his own wickedness cometh not without much fear being void of all hope and confidence and dreading the Gods as so many Tyrants From which as it is evident what the true nature of Superstition is even the fearing of God as a tyrant or peevish Lord so also that it may have place as well in the rejection of religious rites as in an overcurious intention of them For as the observation of these becomes Superstitious by our looking upon God as a rigid exacter of them so the rejection of them may become equally such when we think him as much concerned to forbid them as we are to avoid the use of them But other fear than this as it is so far from being criminal that it is on the contrary an acknowledgement of Gods power and justice and truth so though it make us draw back from him as a judge yet it puts us upon seeking to him as a father and endeavouring by all means to obtain his favour Which said I will now descend to shew 3. The consistency of this fear with the dispensation of the Gospel the third thing proposed to be discoursed of For though it may seem but congruous to the law which was a state of darkness and horrours to be attended with that fear which is the usual product or concomitant of them yet it may seem no less congruous on the other hand that when the bright sunshine of the Gospel appeared that gloominess should disappear and together with it its congenial fears For the solution of which difficulty the first thing that I shall offer is those clear and express words of our Saviour Luke 12.5 Where having before dehorted his Disciples from being afraid of them that kill the body but after that have no more that they can do lest any should think that passion to be useless he adds But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Which testimony is so much the more considerable not only because he doth twice repeat it but which shews yet farther the importance of his exhortation whom he doth so exhort call also by the name of friends For I say unto you my friends be not afraid of them that kill the body but fear him which hath power to cast into hell Which appellation shews evidently that this precept of fear is not only for servants or aliens but for those who are most intimately united unto himself But so that I may not dwell too long upon a thing so evident do the Apostles of that Lord advise as well as the Lord himself S. Paul Phil. 2.12 exhorting men to work out their Salvation with fear and trembling and the Authour to the Hebrews c. 12.28 to have grace whereby to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear because God is a consuming fire In which latter place we have it over and above represented as an effect of grace and a requisite to make our service acceptable Now though from what hath been said it be sufficiently evident what we are to think in this particular and consequently rather to believe that something else must be meant by those sayings which seem to contradict it than that this fear is inconsistent with the temper of the Gospel yet for the better explication of this fear as well as for the solution of those difficulties I will now propose them or at least that which is most considerable If you please to peruse the first Epistle of S. John the fourth chapter and the eighteenth verse you will there find that Apostle affirming that there is no fear in love but that perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment as moreover that he that feareth is not made perfect in love For the answering of which difficulty not to say as some have done that by fear in that place we are to understand the fear of men and of the evils which they may bring upon us because the perfect love to which fear is here opposed is referred to our having boldness to stand in the day of judgment to which therefore in all reason the opposite fear ought to relate I answer first that it is true perfect love casteth out fear but I say withall that in this world there is no such thing as perfect love and therefore fear not to be ejected till there is A thing which this very Apostle may seem to referr to when in the words before these he affirms that herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment making that perfect love to appertain not to the present times but to the day of judgment wherein indeed those that love God shall neither fear nor have any cause for it But let us suppose as there is some presumption for it that the perfect love here spoken of is not that love which is the peculiar portion of the next world but which is attainable in this yet even so it may well be said that there is no necessity of casting out that fear for which we are now pleading For as was before observed there is a fear of God as of a tyrant or at least a very hard master and another of a father and a king but withall a good and gracious one