THE GOOD of EARLY OBEDIENCE OR The advantage of bearing the Yoke of Christ betimes DISCOVERED In part in two Anniversary SERMONS one whereof was Preached on May-day 1681. And the other on the same day in the Year 1682. And afterwards inlarged and now published for common benefit By MATTHEW MEAD Mat. 11.29 Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls Ver. 30. For my Yoke is easie and my burden is light LONDON Printed for Nath. Ponder at the Peacock in the Poultrey near the Church 1683. To the Right Honourable the Lady Diana Alington the Blessings of the upper and nether Springs be multiplyed Madam WHere great Debts are contracted by insolvent persons it is usual to compound for a little rather then lose the whole The many great and undeserved favours you have conferred upon me have so far outdone not only my power to merit but my capacity to requite that unless your Honour will admit me to some small composition and so to pay as I am able by a grateful acknowledgment I must always be in arrearage to your Nobleness being no other way solvent then by hearty resentment I know Madam it is no pleasure to you to hear of your name from the house-top who have so carefully kept secret the works of your Right hand from the knowledge of your Left Let them therefore stand recorded in the Prayers of your Favourites and more durably in the notices of God until that day comes that shall both reveal them and reward them For the time of divulging such matters to the world as Mr. Ambrose said in an Epistle to your Honourable Grandfather will be best at the end of it and best done by him who shall render to every one according to his works Mat. 16.27 In the mean time being importuned to make this discourse publick to whom should I Dedicate it but to your Honour That you may not altogether miscarry in the purchase who have bid so high for the unprofitable respects of one made very inconsiderable by the present complexion of times and providences but much more by his own personal unworthyness The thing Madam which this treatise hath in design is to vindicate and promote if God will speed it to that purpose Obedience to the great Redeemer of the world in all especially in young ones in a true and timely subjection to his Yoke It being the great and open sin of the present day to profess him in word but in works to deny him by such as the Holy Ghost brands with the infamous Character of abominable disobedient Tit. 1.16 and to every good work void of judgment Never was that of the Prophet more verified then by the children of this Generation Isa 53.3 He is despised and rejected of men Not only by Jews Heathens and Mahometans but which is more sad even by Christians if they deserve that name almost of all sorts It is not only the sin of the poor that they are foolish Jer. 5.4 and have not known the way of the Lord but of the great men also who though they have known the judgment of their God yet they have altogether broken the Yoke and burst the bonds The wise slight Religion as a foolish thing The Nobles of the Earth think themselves degraded by stouping to this yoke The Rich men that should count all things dung for Christ â—â—il 3.8 do prefer the dung and dross of the earth before this Pearl of price The Voluptuary will not be perswaded to leave his swinish delights for all the pleasures of Godliness Oh how few are the sincere followers of the Blessed Jesus This is and ought to be for a lamentation Our lot is cast in a very brutish age wherein reason is buryed in sense judgment extinguished in appetite and wickedness reigns with reputation He who dares not be profane is a coward and that is but a dull soul that cannt burlesque the sacred Scripture and make a jest in Bible Or if he skills not to direct the poysonous arrow of a spiteful tongue at the Religion and Worship of Jesus Christ he is no ingenuous Archer So that our times are much of the complexion of those which Seneca unmasking the face of their corrupt State doth thus decypher The news of Rome take thus the Walls are ruined the Temples not visited the Priests are fled the Treasuries robbed old men are dead young men are mad Vices are Lords over all The Dictator faults the Consul the Consul chides the Censor the Censor blames the Proetor and because no man will acknowledge himself in fault we have no hope of better times Madam what an honour is it to you when the days are thus evil to be devoted in heart and soul to Jesus Christ It is recorded to the everlasting renown of Josiah that good Prince 2 Chron. 34 3. that while he was young he began to seek after the God of his Father So did your Honour Goodness is no diminution to greatness On the other hand it is charged as a reproach upon the Nobles of Judah Nehem. 3. â— That they put not their necks to the work of the Lord. Greatness gives no immunity from service Nay the higher God hath exalted you the more you become a Debtor to his goodness The God in whose hand thy breath is Dan. 5.23 and whose are all thy ways hast thou not glorified was a sad charge brought against one greater then your Honour It is the standing law of Heaven Luk. 12.48 To whomsoever much is given of them much shall be required Where your Honour allows the greatest wages there you expect the greatest fidelity and service and so doth the great God Wherefore Madam let holiness to the Lord be written upon all your Honour and all your enjoyments whatever is intrusted with you ought to be devoted to him or it can never be rightly injoyed nor duly improved God hath honoured you to be the fruitful mother of hopeful children but remember Madam that as they derive honour from your loyns in regard of your Station in this world so they derive guilt and pollution upon another account And what is worldly honour stained with a damning guilt which makes them children of wrath even as others Eph. 2.3 There is a nobility that is Divine and of a Heavenly Original which hath Religion for the Root and God for the top of the Kin. In comparison of which all other Nobility is but an empty shadow and all worldly grandure but as those apples that grow upon the banks of the dead Sea which under a tempting outside contain nought but dust This honour derives not from the first birth but the second and is peculiar to them only who are born not of blood Joh. 1.13 nor of the will of the Flesh nor of the will of man but of God Would your Honour have those pleasant
and blessed Spirits in a state of Glory but yet it is a state of subjection and obedience they are all under a Law they have many immunities we have not They are freed from all infirmities of the flesh from the necessities of meat and drink freed from dying but they are not freed from homage and duty to God They are under a Law there Psal 103.20 Bless the Lord ye his Angels that excel in strength that do his commandments hearkening to the voice of his word Their state of Happiness doth not exempt them from obedience therefore they owne themselves our fellow-servants Rev. 22.9 Revel 19.10 I am thy fellow-servant And that petition in the Lords Prayer Mat. 6.10 Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven shews that they are under a Law of obedience though in a glorified state Look into the starry Heaven and all the Host there are under a Law Sun Moon and Stars observe their courses and vary not from their appointed motions He hath made a decree which shall not pass Psal 148.6 Look into the lower Heaven and you shall find a governing Law there Psal 148.8 Fire and hail snow and vapor stormy wind fulfilling his word Who can govern the wind that blows where it lists Joh. 3.8 or give a Law to an unruly tempest that bears down all before it and yet these fulfil his word He makes the storm a calm Psal 107.29 Look lower to that raging and unruly Element the Sea no Potentate on Earth can bridle one wave Xerxes presumed he could tame the Hellespont but it knew not his power nor felt his wrath neither could his three hundred stripes allay the fury of its waves nor his fetters thrown in bind it from raging It is storied of Canutus our Danish King that when his Courtiers would have flattered him into a belief of a kind of Omnipotency in him he caused his Chair to be set by the Sea-shore at time of flood and sitting down commands the Sea thus I charge thee come not upon my Land nor wet my Robes But the Sea coming on without regard to his Command made him glad to retreat whereupon he crys out How vain and weak is the power of Princes None but God can set bars and doors to it as it is Job 38.10 And what are these bars and doors not the sands nor banks nor rocks so much as the Law of Heaven for so it follows in the next words Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud waves be staid v. 11. This is the bound it can't pass over other banks and bounds it can and hath passed as in Noahs Deluge History reports of many sad inundations of the Sea no bound can hold it but this Law of Heaven Thou hast set a bound that the waters may not pass over that they turn not again to cover the earth Psal 104.9 So that all Creatures are under a Law according to which all their motions are guided and governed Now these Laws differ according to the differing nature of the Creatures that are under them all are not capable of Moral government but Man is being a creature fitted with intellective and elective powers Therefore the Law by which he is governed is the Moral Law with the superaddition of Gods revealed will to all that are under the Gospel And the will of God is revealed two ways in his Word and in his Works The one is voluntas de nobis Gods will concerning us The other is voluntas in nobis his will in us to be done by us in the one consists our active obedience in the other our passive active obedience respects his Precepts passive respects his Providences and obedience is as truly manifested in the one as in the other in patience as in Holiness for as in Holiness we owne God as the supreme Law-giver so in patience we owne him as the supreme Lord who hath absolute Dominion over all Creatures and all Events And this is the Yoke of Jesus Christ And it hath six essential Properties belonging to it which do so describe the Nature of it as that it may be distinguished from all other Yokes First It is a pure Yoke and needs it must for it is a Yoke put on us by that Law which is a Transcript of the Holiness of God The Apostle James calls it pure Religion Jam. 1.27 And it is so whether you look to its Precepts or its Promises First To its Precepts The commandment of the Lord is pure Psal 19.8 Holy just and good Rom. 7.12 No Doctrine so holy no Precepts so pure Secondly To its Promises They are pure Promises First In regard of the matter of them they do not flatter us with sensual delights and brutish pleasures 1 Pet. 1.4 but secure to us an undefiled inheritance not a Turkish Paradise full of swinish sensualities but a sinless felicity made up of visions of God and likeness to him Secondly In regard of the end and design of them which is to purifie the heart and promote the sanctification of the whole man He hath given us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature 1 Pet. 1.4 No Religion in the World can rightfully lay a claim to this Character of a pure Religion but the Christian Reformed Religion Compare it with the Religion of the Jews the most like to be a perfect Religion of any because it was a Religion of Gods setting up but yet that had its imperfections their Sacrifices wherein it chiefly consisted Heb. 10.1 could not make the comers thereto perfect and therefore it is done away Compare it with the Religion of the Heathens And how corrupt hath that been in all ages and in all parts What a numberless number of Gods have been found among them a Varro reckons up more than 30000. Some worshipping dead men for Gods b As Belus or Bel or Baal whose image was set up after his death by his Son Ninus who was the first Idolater Diodor. Plutarch says the Egyptian God Osyris was a man such was Saturn made a God by his Grandson Faunus such was Mercury Vulcan Apollo Mars c. Cicero in his Book De Natura Deorum shews that all their Gods were but men Some worshipping dumb Creatures c As the Egyptians c. Some worshipping Sun Moon and Stars d As the Arabians c. Some worshipping Herbs and Plants And some worshipping Devils it is a filthy Religion making Gods of them who made themselves Devils e As the Americans and the old Romans and Grecians under the name of Pluto Proserpina Cerberus c. Compare it with the Mahumetan Religion and what is that but a mixture of Jewish Heathenish and Popish vanities little of truth to be found in it A Religion not known in the World till 600 years after Christ a Mahomet was born under Mauritius the Emperor An. Christi 591.
these blessings in his hand but bestow them upon those that keep his precepts with their whole heart And therefore the same thing is said of obedience v. 1 2. Let thine heart keep my commandments for length of days and long life and peace which comprehends all the rest shall they add unto thee Pray mind they are in the hand of Christ for the Father hath put all things into his hand and yet they are handed-out by the Commandments How is that why thus Obedience to the commands qualifies us to receive the blessings of the Promise and then Christ hands out to us the promised blessings Unless these things were in the hand of Christ obedience would never add them to us and unless we are found in the way of obedience Christ will never bestow them upon us for we have no claim It is Godliness that hath the promise of this life and so it serves our temporal interest Though the temporal rewards of godliness must be expected with much submission yet so far as they are good for us they are as much secured to us as Heaven and Glory He will give grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly Psal 84.11 Secondly Godliness serves our spiritual interest and that is the thing we are chiefly to mind the Soul is far more than the body and therefore a spiritual good is to be preferred before a corporal Religion serves our spiritual interest two ways First It secures to us the chief good that good that is comprehensively all good and without which nothing can be good and that is God God with all his Attributes God with all his Treasures God with all his Promises if we perform our part of the Covenant God will not fail of his part Ye shall keep my judgments and do them And what then ye shall be my people and I will be your God Ezek. 36.27 28. Secondly It secures the life of the Soul And that is more worth than all the world This Christ intimates in that question Mat. 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Two things are here intimated 1. If a man should gain the whole world with the loss of his Soul it would be but a losing bargain 2. When the Soul is once lost nothing in the world can regain or redeem it And therefore what so profitable as Religion that secures the life of the Soul All the gold in the world can't secure the Soul but grace can Riches profit not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivers from death Prov. 11.4 In the way of righteousness is life and in the path-way thereof there is no death Prov. 12.28 Thirdly Godliness serves our eternal interest It tends to an everlasting blessedness And herein the greatest gain of godliness consists in that it hath the promise of the life that is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 The Soul is immortal and therefore cannot be satisfied with any perishing good man that lives for ever must have a happiness that will endure for ever and there is but one way to secure it and that is by an obedient subjection to the Yoke of Christ This is the appointed means to that blessed end Being made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life Rom. 6.22 God hath not absolutely promised Salvation and eternal life to any but he hath annexed it to certain dispositions and qualifications without which we shall never share in the blessing promised Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the Law of the Lord Psal 119.1 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Mat. 5.8 So that holiness and obedience is a necessary disposition for eternal blessedness For God will render to every man according to his works To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life Rom. 2.6 7. And therefore it plainly appears how profitable a life of godliness is in that it hath so direct a tendency to our temporal to our spiritual and to our eternal benefit Why then should any one refuse to take up the Yoke of Christ in his youth Sixthly Is that profitable which will abide by us for ever which is a durable good Such grace and holiness is As of evils they are the most detrimental that are most durable and therefore sin is the worst of all evils because it is durable though the act of sin ceases yet it binds an eternal guilt upon the Soul of the wicked which shall never wear off And besides his corrupt nature and vicious disposition his hatred and enmity to God remain in him for ever And therefore of all evils sin is the most detrimental So in genere boni that is the most beneficial good that will abide by us for ever and such is grace and holiness It shall abide in the Soul for ever and hence it is called the true riches Luke 16.11 and durable riches Prov. 8.18 It may be thy riches lie in houses lands money ships or the like Alas these are not durable yet a little while and thy title to all these things will be extinguished but thy grace thy love to God thy holiness thy conformity to his will thy obedience shall never be extinguished From all that hath been said the benefit of Religion plainly appears and that conclusion of the Apostle stands firm 1 Tim. 4.8 Godliness is profitable to all things And this is a second branch of the reason why every one should take up the Yoke of Christ betimes because it is a good so much conducing to our benefit As it sanctifies every condition As it is advantageous to a man in all his circumstances As it brings its own reward with it As it fills the Soul with such a joy as nothing else can As it serves our temporal spiritual and eternal interest As it abides by us for ever Therefore it is not in vain to serve God it is every way for your benefit to be early Converts and if so who would not be religious betimes and take up the Yoke of Christ in his youth seeing God is such a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 Thirdly Subjection to the Yoke of Christ is an honourable good The Heathens made Honour the effect of goodness and the Egyptian Hieroglyphick painted it between humility and labour and the Romans so placed their Temples that he that would go to the Temple of Honour must pass through the Temple of Virtue Nothing is truly honour to a man but Religion and Vertue Prov. 22.4 By humility and the fear of the Lord and that takes in the whole of Religion and obedience are riches and honour and life And therefore in Scripture good men are called Vessels of honour 2 Tim. 2.21 And sanctification
therefore she is not proud but only loves to be neat and gent. To be a drunkard is a beastly thing therefore it must not be looked on as drunkenness but good fellowship and a free use of the creature Sin dares not be known by irs own name nor appear in its own complexion this argues it to be a base and dishonourable thing And needs it must for what honour can there be in sin that dishonours God Can that bring honour to a creature that brings the greatest dishonour to his Maker He that expects honour from sin may as well expect to make himself sweet by lying in a Jakes Can that bring honour to a man that blinds his mind besots his reason degrades him below himself and renders him a beast Eccles 3.18 That they might see that they themselves are beasts Can that be honour to a man that defiles his Conscience separates him from God and at last damns his Soul Ah what a base shameful dishonourable thing is sin Now all this sets off the honour of Religion for that is contrary to sin Young men would you get a good name in the world at your first setting out Would you have credit and repute abroad Would you be honoured of men of good men nay of God himself Why the only way is to be sober temperate to your selves just righteous merciful good among men devout humble holy and obedient to God There needs no other excellency in the world to give honour and reputation to a man than Religion in the power and practice of it What Diogenes said of Vertue is most true of Religion it makes poor men wealthy old men happy and young men honourable And this is a third branch of the reason why every man should take up the Yoke of Christ in his youth it is good as being honourable It shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace it Prov. 4.8 Fourthly Subjection to the Yoke of Christ is a pleasant good Every man is drawn by pleasure and delight especially young ones And therefore as Satan makes pleasure the bait of sin so the Holy Ghost makes it the motive to godliness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Her ways are ways of pleasantness Prov. 3.17 The great objection against Religion is the severity of its precepts and thereby the unpleasantness of its paths the life of Christianity is looked on as a sour and uncomfortable life whereas there is nothing in it but what is pleasant and sweet easie and light And under these properties Christ commends it to us Mat. 11.29 Take my yoke upon you I but it is a heavy Yoke and his Commands an intolerable burden Now Christ seems to obviate such an objection as this in the next verse for my yoke is easie and my burden is light v. 30. And the Apostle tells us His commandments are not grievous 1 John 5.3 Not grievous in themselves nor grievous to them that love him if they are grievous to any it is to them to whom sin was never grievous whose hearts are so possessed by lust that the Precept hath no place it is a hard heart that makes duty hard and the love of sin that makes obedience a burden That I may make this a forcible Argument to draw young ones to take up Christs Yoke I shall make this out That subjection to God is matter of pleasure The whole of that task and duty which the Gospel requires of us is easie and delightful This I shall endeavour to make out three ways 1. Positively 2. Comparatively 3. By a Collation of Instances 1. Positively And there are three things to be considered which will make out the Yoke of Christ to be truly pleasant and delightful First The matter of his service What doth the Lord require of us but to fear the Lord and trust in him as David sums it up Psal 115.11 In Solomons phrase it is Fear the Lord and depart from evil Prov. 3.7 Our Lord Christ sums up all in one word Love Matt. 22.36 37 38 39. Luk. 1.75 Love to God and our Neighbour this is the fulfilling of the whole Law Zachary comprises all in two heads Holiness and Righteousness Micah ranks all under three heads To do justly Mic. 6.8 to love mercy to walk humbly with God The Apostles three Adverbs state the matter more distinctly living soberly righteously and godly Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God viz. the Gospel that brings salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Sobriety doth right to a mans self Righteousness doth right to his Neighbour Godliness doth right to his Maker So that these three make up Christs Yoke They comprise the whole of a Christians duty and what unpleasantness is there in any of these duties Consider them distinctly What truer pleasure than in Sobriety which way soever it acts If it acts to moderate the judgment in Opinions concerning Religion to keep it from being carried away with abounding and prevailing Errors this must needs be sweet and pleasant if the mischievous nature and consequences of Error be but a little considered As it defiles the Judgment obstructs Communion with God gratifies Satan fills with pride self-conceit contempt of others strife and variance racks and tortures the Brain to maintain and defend it For if one Errour be espoused many will follow and he that maintains one is bound to maintain all that depend upon it If it acts to bound the appetite in meats and drinks it affords a great pleasure therein For no man injoys the creature with that delight and sweetness as he that injoys it without excess But who can express the mischiefs and maladies of gluttony and drunkenness the pains and diseases they breed in the body and the pangs and wounds they cause in the Soul If it acts to moderate the affections in the seeking and injoying the things of this life this must needs be a great pleasure and ease as it frees the Soul from many anxious thoughts many vexing cares many snares and temptations 1 Tim. 6.9 10. many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition and pierce them through with many sorrows So that sobriety is a great pleasure as it is the cure of spiritual giddiness the bar of intemperance the bridle of appetite the check of inordinate affections and the fence and guard of wisdom * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Next consider the duty of Righteousness as it respects our Neighbour and how pleasant and delightful is the practice of it to be just in our dealings faithful in our trust merciful to the poor true in our testimony loving to all always exemplifying in our practice that golden Rule of Christ Mat. 7.12 Doing to others as we would that they should do to us Oh how sweet and pleasant must this be But is there that
pleasure in Unrighteousness no but the contrary Who can reckon up the clamours it causes without and within Who can number the troubles of strife and variance How great is the pain of malice and envy What torments and horrours do blood and murder fill the Soul with Add to this that while unrighteousness is the bane of conversation which turns the world into a den of savage beasts where one devours another righteousness is the bond of humane Society which consults glory to God honour to Religion quietness to Conscience and happiness to Mankind And the same may be said of Godliness there can be nothing so truly pleasant and sweet Look upon the knowledge of God in Christ and how pleasant is that The Scripture calls it life eternal Joh. 17.3 One part of the pleasure of Heaven consists in knowing God and therefore this light must needs be sweet here And if it be sweet to know him how sweet is it to be united to him And that whether ye consider the misery of a state of distance and enmity Heb. 12.29 in which God is a consuming fire and we as briars and thorns and this is the state of every man by nature Eph. 2.12 without God in the world Or whether you consider the objects to which all are united that are not in union to God Their union is with their corruptions they are in Covenant with sin their Souls are glewed to their lusts some to pride some to covetousness some to uncleanness and how transcendently sweeter must the pleasure of union to God be than this Or whether ye consider the nature of this union as it is spiritual and indissoluble It is a spiritual union and therefore the pleasure of it is spiritual it is not to be seen nor felt nor tasted by common senses and therefore the natural man is so far from receiving it 1 Cor. 2.14 Prov. 24.7 1 Cor. 1.18 that he scoffs at and derides it Such wisdom is too high for a fool and therefore it is to him foolishness but the more spiritual and sublime the greater must the pleasure of it be to the Heaven-born Soul It is an inseparable union which can never be dissolved nothing can break it Death it self which can untye all other unions that of friend and friend that of man and wife that of body and soul which of all is the nearest yet it cannot râ—â—ch to dissolve this though the Soul and the body part yet God and the Believer part not neither as to body nor Soul for while the Soul is hereby taken up into a full communion the body is not left alone in the grave Rom. 8.38 39. Death cannot separate from the love of God in Christ. Therefore ye read of the dead in Christ 1 Thess 4.16 Mark it dead and yet in Christ though Dead This is meant of the body for the spirit dies not The body is in union to God when rotting in the dust therefore it is said to sleep in Jesus 1 Thess 4.14 O how sweet must union to God be upon this account that it is indissoluble though it had a beginning it shall never have an end Or whether ye look to the many and great blessings which flow from this union to God Such as pardon of sin the grace of Adoption the indwelling of the Spirit a participation of all Grace a title to all the Promises and blessings of the Gospel Oh how pleasant and sweet must these things needs make out union to God to be And where there is this union to God how delightful and sweet must all worship and service and all obedience to his commands be For by virtue of this union to God the Believer derives such power and strength from him as makes every duty not only possible but pleasant And where a man is much in obedience he is much in communion and much communion with God brings in much comfort and much comfort makes the life sweet and pleasant Therefore no life to the life of godliness Is there pleasure in living in Heaven Why a life of godliness is a conversation in Heaven our conversation is in heaven Phil. 3.20 Hath God pleasure in his own life why godliness is the life of God Eph. 4.18 As Holiness is the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 so the acting of Holiness is the Divine life Now as the life of God being the highest life must necessarily be filled up with the highest pleasures and delights so a Believer partaking of the life of God which is of all the highest must proportionably partake of the pleasures of God which are of all the greatest And thus you have the first consideration which makes the Yoke of Christ pleasant and that is the matter of his service Secondly Consider the state in which this service is commanded and this Yoke injoyned to be put on and that is a state of regeneracy and renovation Without this obedience is not only difficult but impossible The proud neck of nature cannot bow to the Yoke of Christ Luke 19.14 Mat. 12.33 We will not that this man rule over us The tree must be good before the fruit can be good Good works don't make a man good they prove his state to be good but they do not make it good that is God's work Hence that in Ezek 36.26 27. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them So that it is first a new heart and a new spirit and then a new life first a good tree and then good fruit first spiritual habits and then spiritual acts In Creation every creature is fitted and furnished with such faculties and powers as are suitable to those actions which are proper to its nature So it is in the new Creation We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 First a new creation and then a new conversation and this makes Duty a delight Things are easie or unpleasant according to the inclination and poise of our spirits All pleasure and delight in doing arises from a suitableness between the heart and the work if there be Precepts upon us and a defect of Principles within us much may be done but there can be little pleasure in doing A sick man may eat and drink as a healthful man doth but he hath no pleasure in it all things are savourless and against stomach he hath no delight in it But it is for other ends that nature may be supported and life preserved he can't live without taking something But a man of a sound body and healthful temper acts not only his judgment in eating but his pleasure and delight his appetite is stirred up by the sweetness that
he tastes in it So it is with a regenerate man sweetness becomes a motive to obedience and duty is drawn forth by delight I delight to do thy will O my God And mark whence this delight springs Thy Law is within my heart Psal 40.8 The Law was not only his Command but his nature God writes his Law in the Word and so it becomes our rule but when he writes it in our hearts then it becomes our nature And this is it that makes obedience sweet and pleasant because it is now natural There is an inward Principle suited to the outward Precept Thirdly Consider the pleasures with which this service is attended It is not more natural for sin to bring forth sorrow and trouble than for Religion to afford pleasure and sweetness It denies no lawful pleasure which others injoy It affords pleasures which others cannot injoy First It denies no lawful pleasures which others injoy doth the sinner take pleasure in the creature So doth the good man more truly for Religion moderates the affections and teaches the right use of the creature and thereby heightens the pleasure of the injoyment it curbs and restrains our excesses and moderated affections make our fruition the more sweet because hereby sin is excluded which imbitters the injoyment There is no pleasure which a wicked man sins in injoying but a good man may injoy without sin and where there is least sin there is most sweetness Nay farther Religion spiritualizeth the injoyment and thereby a good man hath more sweetness in the creature than any other can have as the Bee hath more delight in the flower than other creatures can because they have only the sweetness of the scent but the Bee hath the sweetness of the honey with the scent Natural man hath only a natural sweetness but the spiritual man hath a spiritual sweetness with the natural and so injoys a higher pleasure in the creature than any natural man can Secondly Religion hath its peculiar pleasures which none but good men can partake of It gives pleasure and delight in God when the creature affords none The sensual man is beholden to the Fig-tree and the Vine and the Olive to the Field the Fold and the Stall if these fail his comfort fails But the good man hath a never-sailing Spring of delight when all these streams are cut off Although the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the olive shall sail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls Here are all his streams cut off now where is his never-failing Spring why it is in God Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Habak 3.17 18. No delight so sweet as delight in God The dim light of Moon and Stars are a comfortable ministry in a dark night and we are glad to walk by the light of them but when once the light of the Sun breaks out who regards the Moon or Stars then Creature-comforts are pleasant things to a sensual Spirit that knows no better injoyment but when once God discovers himself to the Soul and sheds abroad his love in the heart Rom. 5.5 what poor things are these then The pleasure of walking with God and the pleasure of a witnessing Conscience without naming any more outvie all the pleasures in the World for sweetness and delight And these are peculiar to Religion and a life of godliness Prov. 14.10 no stranger intermeddles with this joy 1. In Religion and the practice of Godliness a good man walks with God There is a twofold walking with God and both exceeding sweet In Holiness and Obedience In Comfort and Experience First There is a walking with God in Comfort and Experience and this consists in sensible communion and fellowship with God This is that our Lord Christ injoyed much of John 16.32 I am not alone because the Father is with me He had much of it in that Voice from Heaven Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased He had much of it in the Transfiguration Mat. 17.2 He was transfigured before them this imports a wonderful letting forth of the glory of God upon him and so speaks an high degree of communion Exod. 34.29 Moses had a great measure of this transfiguring communion in the Mount when his face shone and Paul when he says he cannot tell whether he was in the body or out of the body 2 Cor. 12.3 4. but speaks as though he had been really in Heaven These are extraordinary manifestations of God which are fitted only to special seasons and though they are exceeding sweet and fill the Soul with great transports of joy yet they are not designed for continuance nor alotted to many But there is a more ordinary communion with God which every good man may lay claim to The Apostle John speaks of it as the undoubted priviledge of every Believer 1 Joh. 1.3 Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ And Christ promises it to all that obey his Commands John 14.21 He that hath my commandments and keepeth them loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him And v. 23. We will come unto him and make our abode with him These expressions import a special presence of God and peculiar emanations of his love filling the Soul with such a sweetness and delight as none else can experience Hence that of Judas not Iscariot to Christ in v. 22. Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us and not to the world This is a comfort the world knows nothing of Indeed a Believer himself hath no security of injoying it always As one Believer injoys it more than another and the same Believer injoys it more at one time than another so sometimes he injoys it not God never promised to any man such a vouchsafement of his comsorting presence as should know no interruption for if so then God would leave himself without a liberty to shew his dislike of sin That promise Heb. 13.5 I will never leave thee nor forsake thee secures to a Believer the duration of his union but not of his communion it intitles him to the certainty of his presence and care of his Providence but not to the light of his countenance It makes over to him the constant supports of his Power and Grace but not always the actual possession of joy and comfort Secondly There is a walking with God in Holiness and Obedience Thus it is said Enoch walked with God three hundred years Gen. 5.22 that is by an holy conformity to his will * To live to the will of God loving what God loves hating what God hates doing what God commands this is the highest kind of walking and communion with God
Job 7.20 21. I am a burden to my self why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity And there must needs be a sweetness in that which easeth the Soul of such a burden as sin is Thirdly It is that which renders all sin remissible Repentance and forgiveness always go together true repentance shall ever find forgiveness and this makes repentance very sweet and pleasant in that it renders all sin remissible Where-ever the Lord gives a heart to repent there he hath a heart to pardon So that a Soul that doth unfeignedly repent of all sin may be assured of the forgiveness of all sin Some call repentance a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bitter-sweet It is a stormy voyage but hath a rich return At the entrance it is like our Saviours draught of vinegar and gall but the conclusion is like the end of Jonathans rod dipt in a honey-comb 2. Another duty is Mortification of Sin and this seems a very difficult duty And indeed to flesh and blood it is so What to cut off the right hand and pluck out the right eye This is a hard saying But yet to a regenerate Soul it hath real pleasure and sweetness in it And needs it must if you consider First The enmity that is between the new heart and fleshly lusts There is not a greater enmity and contrariety between any things in the world than between these two Light and darkness Heaven and Hell are not more contrary And from this contrariety of the Spirit to the flesh there is a constant lusting against it Gal. 5.17 The spirit that is the new nature lusts against the flesh And what is this lusting but a desire and endeavour to subdue and destroy lust and corruption within Enmity delights in opposition What greater pleasure than to conquer and get the better of an enemy The reason why the mortification of sin is grievous is because of the friendship that is between the heart and lust Did we look on it as an enemy as it is the greatest in the world the subduing of it would be a pleasure Secondly If you consider the mischievous design that is carried on by sin And what is that but to destroy the Soul Nothing less can satisfie lust than the life of the Soul What is said of the Harlot Prov. 6.26 that she hunts for the precious life is true of every lust which is therefore said to war against the soul 1 Pet. 2.11 against the grace of the Soul against the comfort of the Soul and against the life of the Soul Therefore he that loves his Soul cannot but take pleasure in mortifying of lust which hunts for the life of it Thirdly It is pleasant as it establishes a firm peace in the Conscience That is the truest pleasure which ministers most peace and quiet to Conscience He that gratifies lust offends against the quiet of Conscience but he that mortifies sin consults its peace and comfort Fourthly It is pleasant as a means to the end Our eternal life depends upon the mortifying our lusts Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live No mortification no Salvation If there be no cutting off right hand lusts there can be no standing at the right hand of Christ Now we say Finis dat amabilitatem mediis The goodness of the end puts a loveliness into the means How delightful then must the mortifying of sin be whenas the life of the Soul is secured by it 3. Another difficulty is bearing the Cross Many can follow Christ till they come within sight of the Cross but can go no farther Like the stony ground Professor who endures for a while but when persecution arises because of the word by and by he is offended Mat. 13.21 But where the kingdom of God is come with power into the heart the Soul takes pleasure in the very Cross of Christ I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake 2 Cor. 12.10 And it is said of the Apostles Acts 5.41 They rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name And thus I have made it out to you that obedience to Christ is matter of real pleasure and that three ways 1 positively 2 comparatively 3 by a collation of instances I have instanced in the most difficult duties of Religion and have made it out that there is a real pleasure in them and if in them then in all So that Religions worst is better than sins best the worst of Christs Yoke is easier than the easiest of sins bonds As the Apostle says 1 Cor. 1.25 The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men so the most unpleasant of Christs ways are more sweet and delightful than the most pleasant of sins ways can be and therefore it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth CHAP. VIII Some Objections against early Obedience answered NOW in the next place I shall endeavour to remove the stumbling blocks which Satan and a corrupt mind are wont to lay in the way of young ones to hinder their complying with this duty of taking up the Yoke of Christ betimes by answering such objections as are usually made against it Object 1. The first stumbling block I shall name and endeavour to remove is about the unchangeable Decrees of God Hath not God say some immutably fixed the eternal condition of every man Hath he not chosen such as shall be saved and passed by the rest And who can resist his Will or alter his Counsels which have been from everlasting If God hath elected me to eternal life his purposes shall stand they can never be disannulled My sin can never frustrate Gods Election and therefore my Salvation is sure And on the other hand if God hath shut me out of Heaven by the fatal Decree of his Preterition all my duties and indeavours can never reach to reverse the Decree And therefore these arguments for taking up the Yoke of Christ betimes are of little force and to little purpose Now in answer to this Objection I would say these five things Answ 1. We are not to look to the Decree of God for a rule of life but to the Word of God It is not what his secret purpose is so much as what his revealed Will is Secret things belong to the Lord but revealed things to us and to our children for ever that we may do all the words of this Law Deut. 29.29 The Decree can neither be a rule of life nor a ground of hope but the Precept and the Promise So far as the Precept is our guide the Promise will be our incouragement He that sins against the Gospel and rejects the Yoke of Christ no Decree can save him and he that gives up himself to conform in heart and life to the will
and dulnesses Are they any of the precepts of Religion that cause this that cannot be for there is no duty God commands but what hath a certain and direct tendency to the comfort and happiness of the creature And therefore the promises are not only said to rejoyce the heart but the precepts too Psal 19.8 The statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart Is it any Grace of the Spirit we are called to the exercise of that is of a dejecting tendency no that cannot be neither for Peace and Joy are the proper fruit of Grace Rom. 15.13 filled with peace and joy in believing The highest exercises of Grace bring forth the sweetest Peace and the richest Comfort which is evident in this that in Heaven where the Saints are in the highest exercise of Grace there they injoy the most perfect comforts and delights Therefore if Religion prohibits no lawful delights if its precepts impose no besotting services if it improves those graces the perfection whereof is attended with perfect joy and delight then Religion is no melancholy besotting thing there is nothing in it but what is desirable and lovely and therefore whereas the Objection says farewel all good days when once young ones come to be Religious I say nay the word of God says they must never look to see good days till then 1 Pet. 3.10 11. He that will love life and see good days Psal 34.12 let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile let him eschew evil and do good Let no man therefore be discouraged from taking up the Yoke of Christ upon this pretence Object 4. Another prejudice that lieth in the way of young ones to hinder their taking up the Yoke of Christ betimes is the difficulty of it The duties Religion binds upon us are an intolerable burden its laws are very rigid and its precepts uneasie it commands duty utterly contradictory to our affections and interests to deny our selves to love our enemies to bless them that curse us to mortifie our members to cut off our right hand and pluck out our right eye John 6.60 c. These are hard sayings who can hear them difficult duties and who can perform them who can enter in at this strait gate and walk in this narrow way without fainting Now I would obviate this Objection thus Answ 1. Either this is the way to Heaven and there is no other or it is not If it be not then the Bible is a lye and the whole of Religion is a grand cheat and God in all his precepts and promises is the greatest Impostor and Deceiver that ever the world knew But who hath a forehead to assert this which is the highest Blasphemy that can be imagined And if this be the way to Heaven and there is no other as most certain it is Jesus Christ himself the true and faithful witness every where attests it Matt. 7.14 Strait is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life And vers 21. Not every one not any one that says to me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my father which is in heaven Matt. 5.29 30. If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out if thy right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is better for thee that one of thy members should perish than that thy whole body should be cast into hell Matt. 16.24 Matt. 16.24.25 If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it Matt. 18.3 Verily I say unto you except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven Most evident it is by these and a hundred Scriptures more that there is no other way to Heaven but this and if so then no difficulties should deter us from it how many and great soever they be We should account no pains no labour too much in so important a concern as this Luk. 10.42 which is the one thing needful Nay difficulties in the service of God should rather excite than discourage will ye serve God with that which cost you nothing consider that though the gate be strait Matt. 7.14 and the way narrow yet it leads to life 2. Hath not the service of sin its difficulties too yea greater than any that are imposed by the Yoke of Christ the commands of sin are unreasonable brutish full of contradiction and therein full of difficulty and slavery as I have said and therefore the carnal sinner is in this self condemned in that he objects the difficulties of Religion thereby to keep off the Yoke of Christ and yet at the same time yields a willing obedience to his lusts notwithstanding all the difficulties that attend them which are as great or greater than those of Religion can be Suppose that Religion doth call a man to part with all as sometimes it doth doth not lust do the same Pools Apology for Religion p. 63. and where one man hath sacrificed his all to Religion many have sacrificed their all to their lusts How many have drunkenness and gluttony undone how many have been brought to beggery by pride and excess how many have been brought to a morsel of bread by the whorish woman Prov. 6.26 Besides whatever a man loses for God and Religion God hath engaged to make it up again Matt. 19.29 But if a man wasts all upon the service of his lusts who makes up that again there is none to make up his loss but the wast will make guilt great and his account grievous It may be you account it hard that Religion and the service of God require so much of your time and doth not the world and lust require as much of their followers and that for meer dreams and shadows and why should it be more burdensome to live to God than to the Flesh or to spend time in seeking and serving God for eternal blessedness than in seeking and serving the world for empty vanities which either we cannot get or if we do we cannot keep Doth Religion at any time expose a man to sufferings to corporal pains and death So doth lust much more O how great are the pains of Hatred the torments of Envy that one lust of Vncleanness what pains and miseries hath it exposed men unto and where one dies a Martyr for Christ thousands dye Martyrs to their lusts having their days shortened by excess in sin besides the endless torments that follow after So that they who complain of the difficulties of Religion find greater in the way of their lusts and therefore are self-condemned in that they serve them without complaining 3. The difficulties of Religion do not arise from the nature of the Precept but from
they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory 1 Corinth 2.8 So did men but know what Religion is they would revere it and not scoff at it But the God of this world hath blinded their minds 2 Cor. 4.4 And who values the judgment of a blind man why then should any one be discouraged from owning Religion by the scoffs of such as know nothing of it or Secondly They are sensualists men soaked in sensual pleasures and swayed by brutish appetite swilling Sots Debauchees beastly Buffoons men of profligate Lives and Consciences 2 Pet. 3.3 who never had the least savour of the things of Religion and are these competent Judges of the sweetness of the heavenly life what do they know of the things they scoff at and reproach ask them what Religion is and they are not well enough catechised to make an answer They understand the newest fashions the wittiest Plays the most taking Healths the gentilest Oaths things suitable to their huffing humour but as for the ways of God they are far above out of their sight Psal 10.5 And therefore as brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed they speak evil of the things they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption 2. Pet. 2.12 4. Consider why they scoff at Religion and at them who profess and practise it First Why do they scoff at Religion but because it would restrain their lusts and obstruct their sinful course which they are bent upon And therefore they discountenance Religion that they may the better countenance their lusts There shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts 2 Pet. 3.3 mark it is for the sake of their lusts that Religion is scorned and hated It is from an evil life that any man reproaches Godliness they hate the light and come not to it lest their deeds should be reproved John 3.20 Secondly Why do they scoff at them that profess and own Religion but because they will not be Beasts nor offer violence to their Reason nor stifle the convictions of their own Consciences nor resist the spirit nor put off the Image of God and become as Devils They mock at them for taking God for their chief good for seeking his love and favour for minding and endeavouring to save an immortal Soul for labouring to avoid the wrath of God and the miseries of Hell and to secure an everlasting happiness For this is the great work and business of Religion the Object of it is God in Christ the Rule of it is the holy Scriptures the End of it is the Glory of God in our own Salvation and the whole work and business of it is to dye to sin to live to righteousness to walk after the spirit and not to fulfill the lusts of the flesh To deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2.12 This is the sure way to that blessed end ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life Rom. 6.22 This is the summ of the Christian Religian and what is here to be ridiculed and made mockery they that will scoff at men for being Religious may as well scoff at the Seaman for using a Pilot to keep the Ship from Rocks and Sands or at the blind man for walking with a guide that he may not fall into the Pit or at the sick man for seeking a Cure when his life is in danger They scoff at you for keeping the promise they have broken and for endeavouring to make good the baptismal Covenant which they have violated They have promised to renounce the world to forsake the Devil and all his works to abandon the lusts of the flesh but have not done it but are Covenant-breakers and because you labour to be true to your Covenant with God therefore they mock and scoff so that the true reason of all is because you are not as vile as they as false to God and to your ingagement they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking evil of you 1 Pet. 4.4 and is not this most irrational and worse than brutish and why should you cease to act like rational creatures because others act below the Brutes 5. It is not you but God whom they hate and scorn it is his name and honour they wound through your sides and therefore the Apostle calls the reproach of Christians Christs reproach Heb. 13.13 For whoever scoffs at any man for that of God that is in him scoffs not at man so much as at God Were you a swinish Drunkard an unclean Brute a proud Huff an hectoring Atheist a Dam-mee like themselves they would hug and imbrace you so that the hatred and enmity is evidently against the Image and Life of God in you and therefore against God himself If ye were of the world the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hates you John 15.19 Now if the holy God who is able to frown the proudest sinner into Hell in a moment is patient and long suffering towards these and bears all their scoffs and hard speeches and indignities why should you think much to bear them especially when it is for his name sake All these things will they do unto you for my name sake John 15.21 6. Set the respect of God against the scorns of the World What though the World hates so long as God loves let them reproach thee yet the holy God honours thee If any man serve me 1 Sam 2.30 him will my father honour John 12.26 He is not ashamed to be called your God Heb. 11.16 and if so why should you be ashamed to be called his People He accounts of you as the excellent of the Earth Psal 16.3 and therefore you should set that against the mocks and scoffs of wicked men Aliud judicium hominis aliud judicium Dei whose judgment is most to be esteemed the righteous Gods Rom. 2.2 which is always according to truth or unrighteous mans which is blinded with prejudice and hatred of God and all his ways and People and therefore the Apostle Paul flights the censures of men and values himself wholly upon the approbation of God With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of mans judgment but be that judgeth me is the Lord 1 Cor. 4.3 4. 7. These scoffs and reproaches which you undergo upon the account of Christ and Religion here shall add to your Crown and greaten your Glory in the last Day Every degree of suffering for Christ now shall then have its reward He that hath promised to requite your well doing to a cup of cold water Matt. 10.42 hath also promised to recompence your sufferings to the least scoff or jeer Blessed are ye when men shall revile you rejoyce and be exceeding
A Religion devised by Mahomet b With the assistance of Sergius a Nestorian Monk and some other Jews and Hereticks that Impostor and made up for the most part of foolish Precepts and as ridiculous rewards c To the observers of his Laws he promises a Paradise furnished with pleasant rivers fruitful trees silken carpets beautiful women choice musick good chear rich wines c. designed chiefly to gratifie the flesh Compare it with the Popish Religion and how much more pure is it than that both in Doctrine Worship and Discipline Their Doctrine is impure It is in many things contrary to the Scriptures as about Venial sins Merits of Works Supererogation forbidding to Marry their seven Sacraments Purgatory c. And in some things it is contrary to reason and sense as in that ridiculous Doctrine of Transubstantiation Their Worship is impure witness their Prayers to Saints and Angels their Image-worship their making their publick Prayers in a Language the people understand not their Masses their denying the Cup in the Lords Supper to the people Their Discipline is impure for whereas the Church is to be governed by Christ his Laws only they have contrived a Discipline of their own and make their Canons and Constitutions to take place of the appointments of Jesus Christ thus the man of sin sits as God in the temple of God 1 Thess 4.4 O what a corrupt filthy Religion is that of Rome an intolerable Yoke and therefore our Forefathers did righteously cast it off and never let us their children any more put it on Secondly This Yoke of Christ is a spiritual Yoke it reacheth the soul as well as the senses There is an intra as well as an extra an internal power binding the heart as well as an external that aweth the outward man The Laws of men have no spiritual power they govern the outward man but can't reach to the heart and conscience A man may love sin meditate mischief think treason and yet liable to no humane Law without overt-acts But Christ's Law reaches the inwards it is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart It binds the soul to its behaviour Heb. 4.12 as well as the senses so that a man may be a transgressor of the Law though he refrains all open wickedness For the Law is spiritual Rom. 7.14 and therefore requires not only outward obedience in word and deed but inward in mind and heart Thirdly It is a strict and absolute Yoke it lays the soul under an absolute subjection allows of nothing to be done but what is according to the will of God what God doth either command or warrant nor doth it abate ought of what God would have performed Though the Grace of the Gospel passes by many sins Rom. 5.16 the free gift is of many offences to justification yet the Precepts of the Gospel allow of no sin Though the young Man kept many commands yet because he failed in one thing one thing thou lackest all was nothing â—â—â—k 10.21 The Covenant of Works did not require a more strict obedience when it was for life than the Law of Christ doth It leaves the Creature no liberty for the least sin It is a yoke of absolute subjection without conditions or reserves and when we give up our selves to the government of the Divine will it is to a subjection that is absolute we are to have no other God Exod. 20.3 he is to be Lord alone If you have a servant and bid him do this or that it may be he will tell you it is not my work it was none of my bargain I am content to serve in the Chamber but not in the Kitchin or to be your Steward but not to serve in the Stable But the yoke of Christ admits of none of these conditions for the Law is indivisible You may number the commands but you may not divide them for they are but the various significations of the same Divine will The Precepts of the Gospel are not to be taken disjunctim but completive not singly but all together and so they make one intire Law of Righteousness And therefore he that wilfully slights any one command of Christ breaks the yoke he violates totam legem Jam. 2.1 though not totum legis the whole Law though not every command As he that breaks one link breaks the whole chain Or as he that breaks a mans arm wrongs the whole man though he doth not break every limb Fourthly It is an extensive Yoke It comprehends the whole of mans obedience It prescribes every duty we have no need to run to humane inventions to direct our obedience both the credenda and the agenda whatever is to be believed and done in order to life eternal is prescribed in the Word Thy commandment is exceeding broad Psal 119.96 Will you see in a few things where the latitude of it lies First It reaches from Heaven to Earth It directs our carriage and behaviour to God and man and teaches us to keep a conscience void of offence towards both The grace of God that brings salvation teaches us to live righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2.11 12. Holiness to God is not enough without Righteousness to man nor righteousness to man without holiness to God that obedience doth not answer the end of the command that is not extended to both some will make conscience of the first Table and not of the second and some are second Table Christians but not first Some are strict in their devotions but very unrighteous in their dealings They will not bow to an Idol nor allow of the inventions of men in the worship of God but yet make no conscience of breaking the commands of God that are given to govern their dealings with men they will not neglect an Ordinance nor swear an Oath but yet will lie and deceive be uncharitable and cruel forgetting that command of God to deal justly and love mercy Mic. 6.8 As if that Law of loving thy neighbour as thy self were abrogated to let in a liberty for self to compass its own ends upon all without regard to any On the other hand some are very just and equal in their dealings with men but very neglectful and regardless of God they will not bow down to a Harlot but yet will bow down to an Idol They will not defile their bodies with fornication and uncleanness and yet in love to an unclean worship drink daily of the wine of Babylons fornication Rev. 17.2 they will not wrong their neighbour of a farthing and yet stick not to rob God of all that trust love Isai 30.10 fear and worship that is due to him they will not lye nor deceive among men and yet love a lying and deceitful Religion This is the fashion of the world to be in with one duty and out with another Some labour to keep conscience void of offence to man but