by himself the true Riches By the Salvation which he is the Author of is meant that from the worst of evils principally and everlasting Salvation So proportionably whenas the Son is said to make us free the meaning is free with the best of Freedoms viz. that from sin as also we have seen is manifest from the Context Whenas Christ is said to be Anointed according to the Prophecy of Esay concerning him to preach deliverance to the captives and to set at liberty them that are bruised with being long fettered and shackled we are likewise to understand the same most desirable of all Liberties and Deliverances Whereas S. Iames calls the Gospel the law of Liberty Chap. 1. 25. and the perfect law of Liberty Chap. 2. 12. we are primarily to understand it as will be further shewn of this same Liberty which infinitely surpasseth all other In which sence the Apostle S. Paul understood it to be The perfect law of Liberty when he called it The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus adding that it had made him free from the law of Sin and death Rom. 8. 2. Secondly We find this Liberty was that the instating us wherein our Saviour when he was in the World and his Apostles after him were altogether bent and intent upon The business of making men holy and obedient to the Laws of Righteousness they had not only mostly in their Eye but all they did was subordinated thereunto All those powerful means that were used to perswade the world that Iesus is the Christ were in order to this end For the Son of God was manifested to take away our sins and to destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3. 5 8. Therefore is Faith so highly commended and so much ascribed thereto and men so excited to believe in Christ or to believe his Gospel because the Doctrine Precepts Promises and Threatnings therein contained have a great aptness and tendency are of mighty force and efficacy to the thorough Reformation of our Lives and the cleansing our Natures from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit Because that Faith which is terminated upon those Objects is such a Shield as whereby we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one Because it is most effectual to the purifying of the heart and the overcoming of the world In short Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Titus 2. 14. He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves to the drudging service of their Lusts but unto him that died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 15. Or that they should be his Servants that is his Free-men according to that of S. Paul 1 Cor. 7. 22. He that is called being a Servant is the Lords Free-man He gave himself for the Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Ephes. 5. 26 27. He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should live unto Righteousness 1 Pet. 2. 24. Or as S. Paul saith Rom. 6. 7. That being dead we might be freed from sin That is that being dead to it we might be freed from the Bondage we were in under it Or as we have it ver 18. That being made free from sin we might become the servants of righteousness Our Saviour required nothing of us forbad nothing to us but what was apparently designed in order to our deliverance from sin the making us pure in heart and holy in all manner of conversation He gave us not a Promise but what was to encourage us hereunto nor yet a Threatning but what was intended to scare us from the serving of one Lust or other And the Apostle tells us that the whole of the Gospel or The grace of God that brings salvation is designed to teach us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 11 12. 'T is sufficiently evident from this little that hath been said that the setting us free from Sin and the making us Free to Righteousness was the business which took up our Blessed Saviour's time and thoughts when he was upon the Earth and wherein his holy Apostles were employed after his departure And therefore this must necessarily be our grand Christian Liberty Abundantly more might have been said upon this Argument but we have heretofore copiously handled it in another Treatise Thirdly Our Saviours abrogating the Ceremonial Law his freeing from that yoke was mainly designed in order to the thorough effecting this Freedom and Liberty This was a yoke which the Apostle Peter saith neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear Acts 15. 10. It was a yoke of bondage as S. Paul calls it Gal. 5. 1. Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not intangled again with the yoke of bondage This Liberty as appears by his discourse both before and after was that which Christ had given them from the burdensome services of the Mosaical Dispensation And diverse other places there are which speak of this Liberty as an effect and fruit of the death of Christ. Now it is worthy our Observation that the great reason wherefore our Saviour did put an end to the Obligation of this Law and why the Apostles especially S. Paul insisted so much upon it and so earnestly cautioned the Jewish Believers against intangling themselves again with this yoke was because it became very highly injurious to the Grand Evangelical Design of setting men perfectly free from their Lusts Because it gendered to that spiritual bondage in deliverance from which consisteth our best Liberty For this Law understood Carnally and according to the letter only which it ought not to have been was very apt to beget a sordid and low spirit a temper of mind very much estranged from true Piety and Goodness And it is too unquestionable that the Iews generally had no higher a sense of it The Law the Author to the Hebrews saith made nothing perfect Chap. 7. 19. It gave no man Freedom from the power of Sin no power to subdue corrupt Affections was obtainable thereby it did not make men truly and internally Righteous but only Ritually and Externally As the most eminently Good men under the Law did fall far short of the Apostles of our Saviour and those whose lives have been most answerable to the Christian precepts so those degrees of Virtue and Goodness they did attain to were not owing the Law but to the Covenant made with Abraham which was the same for substance with the Gospel Covenant The Law is
minds being so employed about things which were in themselves neither Good nor Evil but only by reason of Divine injunctions and prohibitions Not that this great evil was necessarily occasioned thereby God forbid we should think so but 't was through their own default otherwise there could have been no truly good people among them as there were innumerable just as we see at this day there are too many of a certain Profession who by means of their continual dabling in matter are of so gross and course intellectuals that they seem almost uncapable of any Idea and conception of things immaterial and incorporeal Which is a great Unhappiness but as great a Fault So that this we have now said suggests to us another reason for the putting a period to the Ceremonial Law in order to the introduction of that excellent and Divine Liberty which we assert to be eminently Christian Liberty Because that the love of Righteousness and Goodness under that notion is necessary thereunto as shall be farther shewn hereafter And it is an evidence of a Soul imprisoned in Sense and sunk in Selfishness to love Virtue and Goodness merely for its dowry and the external Advantages that accrue by it and not for its own sake As also to avoid sin only for the sake of the uneasie and sad circumstances that attend it having no sense of its Moral Turpitude Lastly Whereas I have shewed that by the observation of the Laws of Righteousness and Goodness a man is delivered from all immoderate Self-love to his own Bodily and Particular concerns and acquireth that Generosity and Nobleness of spirit whereby he is carried forth and enlarged to the love of God in the first place and a hearty concern for the General welfare of his Fellow-creatures the Iews by the occasion of the forementioned Law became less free as Freedom is opposed to Confinement For they being paled in and separated from the rest of the world by a Religion peculiar to themselves and it being forbidden by their Law to contract Marriages or have any intimacy and that they should so much as eat with the Gentiles though 't was but necessary they should be so restrained for the more effectual preventing their falling into Idolatry and being infected with their other wicked customs and corrupt manners to which they were naturally very strangely inclined yet by this means they generally became wofully Narrow-spirited and contracted in their Love and took occasion from hence to banish all from their Kindness and Charity that were not of their own Nation and their own Religion And therefore for this reason also it was highly fit that our Saviour should take off all future Obligation to the Observance of this Law his design being to Ampliate and Enlarge mens minds by the most Universal and Unlimited Charity in imitation of himself who was a Propitiation not only for the sins of the Iewish Nation but also of the whole World And for this reason particularly S. Paul tells the Ephesians This Law was Abolished Chap. 2. 14 15 16. For he is our peace who hath made both one Jews and Gentiles and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances or having Abolished by his Sufferings the Ceremonial Law which was such a Make-bate between the Iews and Gentiles for to make himself of twain one new man so making peace And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body on the Cross having slain the enmity thereby And that in the general the great work of setting men perfectly at Liberty from the power of their Lusts and the making them free to all holy Obedience was designed by the nullifying this Law is asserted by the Apostle Rom. 7. 5 6. For when we were in the flesh or under those Carnal Ordinances the motions of sin which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter That is when we were under the Law the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sinful Affections which were heightned thereby through our own blindness in not looking beyond the letter of the Law did so work in us as to render us so much the more obnoxious to death But now we are delivered by our Saviour Christ from that Law it being dead or abrogated that in stead of a mere External Obedience and a company of Bodily Washings we should for the future be inwardly pure and spiritually obedient To conclude this Argument Wheresoever we find Liberty or Freedom mentioned throughout the New Testament as that which belongeth to us under the notion of Christians as that which we are beholden to the Gospel dispensation for it is still I dare affirm to be understood either of Liberty from Sin the Power and the Punishment thereof or of Liberty from the Ceremonial and purely Mosaical Law This I assert upon a particular consideration of all those Texts wherein any thing is said relating to Liberty And therefore this latter Deliverance being principally intended in order to the former the former viz. that from Sin must necessarily be the Christian Liberty Fourthly None but the Israelites were obliged to the Observance of this Law Indeed in order to a Gentiles partaking of the Iewish Priviledges in the Land of Canaan it was necessary he should be Circumcised and become as their phrase was a Proselyte of Iustice and so make himself a debtor to the whole Law But it was not necessary to his Acceptance with God and Eternal Happiness to yield obedience to this Law It was sufficient for him to worship the true God and renounce Idolatry and to follow the Dictates of the Law of Nature Even the Iews themselves as ill affected as they were towards the Gentiles did acknowledge no more to be necessary than the Observation of the Seven Precepts of Noah to their having their part in Seculo futuro and therefore they permitted the Proselytes of the Gate to worship in the Outward Court of the Temple Which was therefore called Atrium Gentium immundorum The Court of the Gentiles and the Vnclean And thus as it appears from the three foregoing Arguments that Liberty from Sin and to Righteousness is the Eminent Christian Liberty which is procured for the World taking in the Iews so from this fourth 't is as evident that it is the only Christian Liberty which is procured and purchased for us Gentiles There is no other Liberty mentioned either by our Saviour or his Apostles besides this from the Power and Dominion of Sin wherein we always include deliverance from the sad consequents thereof which we Gentiles are obliged to Christianity for or which we are invested with under the notion of Christians CHAP. VI. What course our Lord hath taken to
can neither cease nor be diminished or relaxed in the least to all Eternity And then our Saviour adds Vers. 19. of this Fifth of S. Matthew Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven That is saith Grotius Minimi erit pretii eum minimi habitum iri he shall be contemned and treated as a most despicable wretch at the Day of Iudgment Then it follows But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called Great in the Kingdom of Heaven He shall be highly Honoured and signally Rewarded When the young Man came to our Saviour to ask him What good thing he should do that he might have Eternal life we know what his Answer was If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments S. Matth. 19. 17. And whereas He meant all yet knowing how apt Hypocrites are to flatter themselves with an opinion of the goodness of their state upon the account of their External Conformity to the First Table Precepts though they live in the gross Transgression of those of the Second Table He only expressed those which enjoyn Duties relating to our Neighbour For the young Man asking which Commandments Iesus said Thou shalt do no Murder Thou shalt not commit Adultery Thou shalt not Steal Thou shalt not bear false Witness Honour thy Father and thy Mother And thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thyself Ver. 18 19. Secondly The Apostle would have Contradicted himself most Egregiously as well as his Master should he in the above-cited Places or any where else teach this Notion of Christian Liberty For 't was He that said Do we make void the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Rom. 3. 31. He here includes even the Ceremonial Law as appears by ver 28. which gave occasion to these words Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law That is that a Gentile is justified without Circumcision or Sacrifices or any other of the Iewish Rites and Services which they still laid so great weight upon as appears by the two following Verses Is he the God of the Iews only Is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also Seeing it is one God which shall justifie the Circumcision by Faith and Vncircumcision through Faith Now saith the Apostle God forbid we should affirm that the Gospel Dispensation should make void the Law should make useless so much as the Ceremonial Law therefore much less the Moral yea we assert it establisheth the Law In some sence it even establisheth or perfects that Law as it brings in the substance of that whereof that Law had the shadow and requireth purity of Heart which was the spiritual meaning of Circumcision Again 't was the same S. Paul that said Not the Hearers of the Law are just before God but the Doers of the Law shall be justified Rom. 2. 13. And it is He who makes it to be the design of Christ's Expiating our Sins upon the Cross That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And it is this same Apostle that saith Though I speak with the Tongues of Men and of Angels and have not Charity a Moral Virtue I am become as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal And though I have the gift of Prophecy and understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge And though I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no Charity I am nothing c. 1 Cor. 13. 1 2. And in the last Verse doth not only Equalize Charity with Faith and Hope which many now adays are so far from doing that they are angry with those who do so but also Advanceth it above those Graces And now abideth Faith Hope Charity these three but the greatest of these is Charity Thirdly Whosoever teacheth this Doctrine of Christ's having set us free from the Moral Law contradicteth the whole strain of the New Testament Our Saviours Sermon on the Mount throughout all his Injunctions and even all his Discourses and all the Precepts and Exhortations contained in the Epistles of the Apostles They are all so many instances of the Obligations that the First and Second Tables lay upon us as understood in the most Spiritual Sublime and Comprehensive Sence And none are more so than those of S. Paul so intolerably is he abused in being made the Great and I think Onely Patron of that most licentious and wicked Doctrine And even that Precept of Believing in the Name of the Son of God is a First-Table Precept not Positive but Moral in its own Nature necessarily obliging and a Dictate of Natural Light to all those who are acquainted with the Evidence of his being the Messiah and Son of God Upon our understanding how He is demonstrated so to be we should have known that Faith in Him is an indispensable Duty though we could not have produced one Text to prove it Moreover Believing in Christ together with the Institutions of Baptism and the Lord's Supper are designed as Means to the great End of making us intirely Obedient to the Moral Law or the Everlasting Rules of Righteousness Fourthly Whosoever teacheth this Doctrine teacheth a most manifest contradiction to the Essential Principles and Make of Mankind It is impossible that Reasonable Creatures should be disobliged from Loving God above all from being Just and Charitable Sober and Temperate Humble and Submissive to the Divine Will and the like It is impossible that any Power whatsoever should discharge them from such duties as these Their Obligation to them doth Naturally arise from their being such Creatures There is not a greater contradiction than this imaginable that Creatures made capable of understanding what God is and their Relation and Obligations to him may not be Eternally bound to behave themselves towards him as the Moral Law requires they should Infinite Power it self cannot set such Creatures free from their Obligation to love God with the highest degree of love their Souls will admit of Now as the Apostle tells us that Love is the fulfilling of the Law so 't is easie to shew that all Moral Duties whatsoever whether relating to God our Neighbour or our Selves are the necessary results and consequents of the Love of God so that we cannot once suppose that these should cease at any time to be the Duties of Men and Women but we must also suppose them then deprived of their Essential Form and to be changed into another sort of Beings Fifthly This Doctrine also is as apparent a contradiction to the Happiness and Welfare of Mankind We cannot be in a Happy or tolerably Good state but by conforming our selves to the Precepts of this Law We have already shewed that those must necessarily be deplorably Miserable who live in subjection to any corrupt Appetite any Fleshly or Spiritual Lust. To
next follow those words If the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed So that the Freedom which our Lord speaks of ver 32. being deliverance from the power of Sin as appears by his explaining himself ver 34. It is manifest that he meaneth the same thing in these words and consequently does in them give testimony to what we are now designing to prove that to be rescued from under the dominion of our Lusts is Freedom and Liberty indeed the true and most excellent Liberty And of this the holy David was very sensible when he uttered those words Psal. 119. 45. I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts Whereby he signified that the ways of Gods Commandments though they seem to the fleshly and sensual strait and narrow and though such look upon those that walk in them as too much confined and abridged of Liberty yet the spirit of a Regenerate and Good man finds no where such Freedom and Enlargement as in those ways And therefore when he lapsed into those two hainous and provoking sins he felt himself exceedingly straitned and his Spirit was miserably pent up and contracted As appears by that prayer in his Penitential Psalm Psal. 51. 12. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation and uphold or establish me with thy free Spirit Or rather with a free Spirit In 2 Pet. 2. 19. the Apostle speaking of a sort of wicked people who were industrious to make others as vile as themselves saith that While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage They inticed others to all manner of carnality and filthiness and tempted those that were clean escaped from the pollutions of the world to relapse into them and this they did by the plausible pretence of giving them Liberty but alas saith the Apostle they themselves are the most wretched and miserable of Slaves having yielded themselves up to their vile affections and being under the power and command of Tyrannical Lusts. And Heathens have divers of them discoursed this excellently and were great Masters of this Notion That he who is gotten from under the dominion of his Sensitive part and lives agreeably to the Dictates of Right Reason and the Will of God is the only Free Man Arrian in his third Book upon Epictetus spends some time in shewing that the true Liberty consisteth in the obedience of our Appetites to the Divine Will And in his first Book that there is no true bondage but that which ariseth from the Prevalence of Evil Affections and that a Good man can never be in real Slavery though he be in his Enemies hands that then his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Carkass only is taken Captive but he himself is as Free still as ever And he gives Diogenes for an instance who having been set free from his corrupt Appetites by his Master Antisthenes would deny that it was possible for any one to make a Slave of him and being taken by Pirates behaved himself in their hands like one that was more their Lord than their Vassal And this is one of the Stoical Paradoxes which Tully discourseth very bravely upon That all wise men whereby they meant good men are free men but all fools whereby they meant bad men are slaves And under this head Tully shewing who deserves the Title of Emperor hath this saying Let him bridle his lusts despise pleasures suppress anger subdue a covetous humour and other vicious affections Then may be begin to take upon him the government of others when he shall have ceased to be under the government of those most cruel Lords shame and Turpitude but whilest he yields obedience to these as he ought not to be accounted an Emperor so neither so much as a Free-man Again he saith a little after If Slavery be the Obedience of a broken abject and base mind and of a man that hath no power over himself as it is then who can deny that allwanton all covetous and lastly all bad people whatsoever are very Slaves CHAP. II. That the most excellent Freedom and Liberty consists in the Observance of the Laws of Righteousness and Goodness more distinctly and particularly demonstrated by three Arguments Of which the First is that this is Freedom from the worst and vilest of Slaveries Where it is shewed in three particulars that the Transgressors of those Laws are the most Slavish Creatures IT may moreover be more distinctly and particularly proved that the most excellent Freedom and Liberty consisteth in the Observance of the Laws of Righteousness and Goodness by these following Arguments First This is Freedom from the worst and vilest of Slaveries Secondly This is the Liberty of the Soul Thirdly This is the Divine Liberty the Liberty of God himself First This is Freedom from the worst and vilest of Slaveries And that there is no such Slavish Creature as he who lives in the transgression of these Laws as the wicked man doth plainly appear in that First His whole man both Soul and Body is inslaved Those who are Slaves in the vulgar sence that are taken captive by the Turk or such like merciless and inhumane Masters are necessarily inslaved only as to their Viler part their Bodies It lieth not in the power of any man on Earth to inslave a Soul The Mind and Will of him who as to his Outward man is the most absolute Vassal to the Lusts of others may retain their Liberty still in spight of them No Tyrant can make me either think or chuse or love or desire what he pleaseth Where all the members of the Body are under constraint the Soul may continue free in all its powers no external Force is able to inthral that But he who lives in disobedience to the Laws of Righteousness is perfectly inslaved his whole man hath lost its Liberty As his Body is at the command and dispose of his Lusts as each of its members are Ministers of Unrighteousness and made to fulfil the will of the flesh so his Soul is subjected to their power and dominion and his Slavery begins there His Mind Will and Affections are first subdued and brought into bondage by fleshly and impure Lusts and then his Body is ingaged in the filthy drudgery of making provision for them of gratifying them and giving satisfaction to them That is the meaning of those words of S. Iames Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin Chap. 1. 15. Secondly The wicked man is thus subject to the Vilest and Basest of Masters Such a one to repeat those words of Tully doth parere dedecori turpitudini is at the command of vile shame and filthiness it self What is Sordid Covetousness Swinish Lust Beastly Intemperance Devilish Rage and Malice what I say are all these less than so To which I may add those other hateful Qualities of Fraud Dissimulation Envy Pride
Selfishness and the like But some or other nay most of these are all wicked men servants to and over-powered by If Tully could say of the Lustful man An ille mihi liber videtur cui mulier imperat Shall I think him a freeman who is at the command of a woman And if Arrian could say What miserable wretch dost thou fancy thy self free who art 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Slave of a Wench and a vile sorry Wench too well may I say what a wretched Slave art thou then who art under the dominion of so many base vile opprobrious shameful and hateful things To be subject to any one of these is vile Servitude what is it then to be at the command of so many such Masters to serve divers Lusts as the Apostles expression is Titus 3. 3. and all most vile base and brutish Thirdly The wicked man is also inslaved by the most Tyrannical and Cruel Masters Indeed 't is rare that the Base prove other than Cruel whensoever they happen to get into power Having understood who are this mans Masters we must needs be satisfied that they are not more vile than they are Tyrannical And their Tyranny is shewed in requiring the most Vnreasonable services and the most Vneasie Their Commands must necessarily be most unreasonable in that they themselves are so The forementioned vile Affections and the like are therefore Vile because perfect contradictions to the Reason of mens Minds and degradations of the Humane and Intellectual Nature Because they Brutifie mens Souls yea and make them more Vile than the Beasts which perish In short he who obeys these Masters preferreth the Creature before the Creator God blessed for ever He forsakes the fountain of living waters and heweth out to himself broken Cisterns which can hold no water His Body is far more dear to him than his Soul and he esteems slight and momentany satisfactions and pleasures above the most Substantial and Eternal He fears the displeasure of a poor Creature and some very tolerable and small evil more than the wrath of the Omnipotent God and than Hell it self He is ever doing that which the sence of his own Mind upbraids him with and what he knows before hand he shall wish undone as soon as done In a word he is always contradicting the Great Design of his Creation and coming into Being Such things as these as I need not stand to shew do the Lusts of wicked men put them upon doing such services as these are they perpetually imploying them in And what we said of the Vnreasonableness of their commands speaks them also Vneasie Grievous and Troublesome It is impossible for a Creature to act contrary to its Nature and Essential principles but it must needs feel much Pain in so doing the more Unnatural any thing is the more Disquieting and Tormenting must it necessarily be The very presence of evil Affections in the Soul must needs make it as uneasie as evil Humours do the Body what then will the gratifying the Nourishing and Cherishing them do I appeal to the Covetous and Ambitious to the immoderate Lovers of Riches and Honours to such Lovers of Wine and such Lovers of Women to the Revengeful and Malicious and the like whether they do not feel excessive disturbance and perturbation of Mind from the several passions that denominate them such and whether the Pain they cause to their Souls be not incomparably greater and more lasting than the pleasure which their Flesh or Sensitive part receiveth from them Add hereunto the grievous Disquiet and Torment that is occasioned by Reflecting upon the past pleasing and gratifying a Lust. Tully hath an excellent observation to this purpose When a Lust hath ceased to exercise its dominion for a while or to employ its vassal in new drudgery he is not for that time at ease but another Lord immediately tyrannizeth over him viz. the Dread that ariseth from consciousness of Guilt oh what a miserable slavery and bondage is this And by the way methinks it should much affect us to find a Heathen expressing such a sense of the intolerable Slavery men are brought into by satisfying their Lusts. I might add further that mens Lusts have no moderation with them neither though as that Philosopher supposeth they may after their commands are obeyed for a while cease to command again yet it is but for a very little while before the sinner hath recovered his spent spirits they lay new burdens on his weary shoulders What the Apostle saith of those who have eyes full of Adultery that they cannot cease from sin is as true of those who are under the dominion of any lust whatsoever And what Horace observes of the Tyranny of sensual Love may as well be applied to every other corrupt Affection namely Vrget enim mentem dominus non lenis acres Subjectat lasso stimulos This cruel Lord th' unhappy Creature rides And when be-jaded claps sharp spurs to 's sides I might moreover shew were it needful that the service which mens Lusts exact from them is such as ordinarily is of fatal consequence to their Estates and Bodies as well as Souls but there is nothing to which universal observation in all Ages and Sinners Experience gives clearer evidence I might also in the last place shew that mens Lusts do deliver up their Servants to the power of the Devil such being said to be in his snare and to be taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. 26. And no man I hope shall need to be informed what a Tyrant and Tormenter the Devil is But enough hath been said of the service of Sin to make us cry out with the Philosopher in the forementioned words Quà m illa misera quà m dura Servitus What miserable and cruel Slavery is that Service Enough I say hath been said to assure us that no Slavery is comparable to this and consequently that the careful observance of the Laws of Righteousness is the true and most Glorious Liberty in that Freedom from such Bondage is implied therein as is not to be found in any other sort of Liberty CHAP. III. That the Liberty which resulteth from the Observance of the Laws of Righteousness is the Liberty of the Soul and how it is so is shewed in four Particulars SEcondly The Liberty which resulteth from the Observance of the Laws of Righteousness and Goodness is the truest and most excellent of Liberties in that it is the Liberty and Freedom of the Soul As this is apparent by what hath been already discoursed so we may further take notice that by the Observance of these Laws the Soul comes to be enlarged to have Self-enjoyment and to be as it would be in that it is by this means delivered from those Passions which straiten confine and pend it up and put it into a Slavish state Those Passions are chiefly Fear Shame Trouble and Dejection of Mind and an immoderate love to our own Bodily
and particular concerns And the Opposites to these do give the Soul great Enlargement and Liberty viz. That Confidence that is opposite both to Fear and to Shame Delight and joy which are opposite to Trouble and Dejection of Mind and Generosity and Nobleness of Spirit whereby a man is carried forth to the loving of God the Chief Good in the first place and a hearty concern for the general welfare of his Fellow-Creatures which is opposite to immoderate Self-love First The Observance of the Rules of Righteousness casteth out Fear This is a most servile Passion the Apostle speaketh of some who through fear of â—â—ath were all their life-time subject to bondage By Fear I mean that which is expressed by the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cowardly and dispiriting Fear None can imagine I mean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Awful and Reverential Fear such as is called Heb. 12. 28. a Godly fear Nor yet do I mean such a Fear as awakens and excites the Soul to the use of means for the shunning and keeping off evils Such a Fear as this doth not at all inslave or put a man out of his own power but is highly serviceable to the maintenance and preservation of Liberty And therefore it is commended to us by the Apostle Heb. 4. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it But as was said the Fear which is enslaving is a Cowardly Dispiriting Fear and this the Righteous and Good man is freed from He hath not received the spirit of bondage again to fear in this sence but the spirit of Adoption whereby he crieth Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. He is not afraid of God as a poor Slave is of his fierce Master or as a wicked Servant of his justly provoked and incensed Lord but not being under the guilt of wilful sins his Conscience being privy to no other guilt than that which upon good grounds he believes is expiated by the Bloud of Iesus he can go to God as a child to his loving and tender Father And as he hath no tumultuary confounding or disheartening fear of God so neither hath he of the Devil or Men or any worldly evil as knowing that all these are subject to the restraint of that good Providence which ever chargeth it self with the care of good Souls and all their concerns God hath not given him the Spirit of fear or timidity and fearfulness but of power of love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1. 7. This man is an affectionate Lover of God and therefore cannot question God's love to him and is assured that all things shall work together for his good for his good both in this life and in the life to come Herein is our love made perfect saith S. Iohn in his 1 Epistle 4. 17. because as he is so are we in this world because we follow the example of our Blessed Saviour in the conscientious observance of the Rules of Righteousness there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love That is he that is affected with such a fear as hath now been described He who is not under the power of Cowardizing dismaying Fear his Spirit is at great Liberty but a care to keep an inoffensive Conscience both towards God and men to adhere to the Rules of Righteousness and Goodness and never to swerve from them will banish this Fear The wicked saith the Wise man fleeth when no man pursueth but the righteous is bold as a Lion Prov. 28. 1. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely or confidently and securely Prov. 9. 10. To which great truth the Poet gives his Testimony in those known Verses Integer vitae scelerisque purus Non eget Mauri jaculis nec arcu c. He that 's in life upright and pure in heart Is too secure to need the Bow or Dart. hic murus aheneus esto Nil conscire sibi nullâ pallescere culpâ The strongest Bulwark's not so sure a Fence As is an inoffensive Conscience Secondly True Goodness begets that confidence which is opposed as to Fear so to Shame too There is a highly commendable shame which is proper to a Good man namely that which is expressed by the Latine Verecundia Which is a quick sense of whatsoever is indecorous and misbecoming No man can have too much of this for the more any one hath of it the better man must he necessarily be But there is another sort of Shame expressed by Pudor which is a troublesome passion arising from a sense of disgrace upon consciousness of Guilt Of this Shame the most learned Doctor Henry More observeth in his incomparable Ethicks that it neither falleth upon the worst nor the best of men For he who is conscious to himself that he constantly exerciseth his liberty in doing the best things knows that he ought not to be contemned and thereupon being above all contempt contempt it self is contemned by him which is a great instance in good men of Generosity but in bad men is the very height of improbity This Shame is a good effect of a bad cause for though it be an evil yet 't is a necessary evil and tends to the deterring men from unworthy actions for the time to come and doth actually produce this good effect where the great uneasiness and perturbation of mind which was caused thereby upon past commissions of sin is seriously and consideratively reflected upon For where this Shame is there is great Bondage where there is consciousness of guilt the mind of a man is miserably pent up confined and straitned so that he dares many times neither to look abroad into the world nor to look up to Heaven nor reflect upon himself And therefore Liberty and Confidence are expressed by the same word viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek language But while a man is careful in the observance of the Laws of Righteousness to be Righteous before God and to walk as it is said of Zacharias and Elizabeth in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless he is not affected with this kind of Shame and consequently enjoys a mighty Freedom by this means Upright Iob had the happy experience of this effect of uprightness as we find Chap. 31. 35 36 37. Oh that one would hear me saith he behold my desire is that the Almighty would answer me and that mine Adversary had written a book Surely I would take it upon my shoulder and bind it as a Crown unto me I would declare to him the number of my steps as a Prince would I go near unto him Which is as much as if he had said Oh that mine Adversary instead of secretly whispering evil things of me had drawn up a charge in writing against me I would be so far from endeavouring to have it concealed
in Controversie by when the truth of this Text is questionable upon the same grounds that the truth of the Scriptures in general is Again When they say that the Testimony of the Church is the Ground of this our Faith they tell us that by the Church they mean the Church of Rome and that She onely is the True Church We reply that there are a many Societies of Christians in the World that hold no Communion with the Church of Rome and Each of these calls it self a True Church and therefore how shall we know that they are none of them so but that the Church of Rome alone is They tell us that this Church alone hath the Notes and Characters of the True Church We ask again how it doth appear that those Notes and Characters they give are true and genuine and if they are that their Church onely hath them Here they are forced to fly again to the Scriptures and produce us some which they would have us believe are very pertinent to the purpose though none but those who see by their Light are able to discern any such matter But whether they be to the purpose or no is no part now of our Enquiry but this is that which we shew from hence how still they are intangled in their own Net and Run round in a Circle Yet once again these People would perswade us that there is no knowing the Scriptures to be of Divine Authority but by the Testimony of their Church whenas 't is impossible to know that there is any such thing in being as a Church but by the Scriptures And thus you see what prime Christians these Romanists are what Worthy Catholicks If there were no better Champions than these for the Authority of the Scriptures or the Truth of Christianity Atheists and Infidels long since would have filled all Places As it is well known how they abound in the Popish Countries and most of all in Italy and of all Italy most in Rome And but for Old Mother Ignorance whom they have a marvellous Fondness for as well they may their Holy Mother the Church would by this time have had but a very small number of Children or Friends But I would this had been the worst on 't as alas it is not For Multitudes among them being well aware that they are merely imposed on and being Acquainted with no better than an Implicit Faith and thinking that no more is to be said for Christianity than they learn from them shake off both their Popish and Christian Faith together But we must not let that forementioned Text wholly pass on which is laid such mighty Stress for the proving of the Infallibility of the Roman Church which gives her such a plausible Pretence for the Enslaving of Mens Minds and Understandings The whole Verse runs thus with the Verse foregoing Thâ—â—e things write I unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the living God the Pillar and Ground of Truth According to Episcopius his reading of these latter words it is not the Church that is here called the Pillar and Ground of Truth but God manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit c. in the next Verse For he makes that 15. Verse to conclude with living God Verses and Pointings being arbitrary and The Pillar and Ground of Truth to begin the next Verse thus The Pillar and Ground of Truth and without controversie the great Mystery of Godliness is God manifested in the flesh c. But there is no need of using any artifice to make these words unserviceable to the design of proving the Infallibility of the Church of Rome for all that can be gathered from them is no more than this That the Church is the support of that Truth which is necessary to Salvation viz. the Doctrine of the Gospel That which preserveth it in the world is the Churches constant profession of it and standing up for it That is this is the External and Visible means whereby this Truth is kept from perishing and being lost Or according to Grotius The Church doth uphold and lift up the Truth it causeth it not to slip out of mens minds and also to be beheld far and near For the Testimony of many good men who all say that they received these Doctrines and Precepts from the Apostles must needs have great force and efficacy upon those who are not obstinate and contumacious So that First This Great man seems to understand by the Church in this place onely that which was most Ancient But Secondly There is no reason at all to understand by the Church here onely the Church Representative but the whole Body of Christians must necessarily be meant It being called the House of God but the Apostles Bishops and Pastors are called the Builders of the House and Governours never the House it self And besides the Church which is here called the Pillar and Ground of Truth is that over part of which Timothy presided That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God c. that is as a Bishop and Pastor in it Thirdly If it should be understood of the Church Representative 't is however intolerable impudence to make it onely the Roman But Fourthly This Text makes nothing to the purpose of Infallibility in the Church of Rome's sence understand by the Church of the living God which Church you please especially if you do not limit it to the First Age As is plain from what hath been said and it needs no more words to make it plainer Now how can we have greater assurance that the Church of Rome is an Arrant Impostor than this one thing gives us viz. That She will not allow us the Liberty of judging for our selves The Great Apostle S. Paul allowed this Liberty to the Corinthians in those words I speak as unto wise men judge â—e what I say 1 Cor. 10. 15. And dare they say that he overshot himself in that saying or passed a mere Complement upon the Corinthians 'T will not be at all strange if they do considering how many worse things several of them have said of this Apostle But I say this Church will not permit us to see with our own Eyes but we must take the whole of our Religion upon trust that is upon her bare word pin our whole Faith upon her Sleeve and receive the most Fundamental Articles upon her Warrant and Authority Nay though she would seem to give us leave to use our Reason in the choice of our Church yet neither doth she this really but what she gives with one hand takes away again with the other in that she will not suffer us to judge of the sence of Scripture and consequently not of those Texts whereby she pretends to prove her self the onely true Church For if we be
Reservation which takes away all Security and Confidence in one anothers words and tends to the destruction of Humane Society This Doctrine is not proper to the Iesuits but as Father Parsons saith in his Treatise tending to Mitigation hath been received in the Roman Church for Four hundred years And if you take in the professed Principles of that their most Renowned Order which improve that Doctrine so far as in some cases but especially in those wherein their Religion is concerned to make it Lawful or at least Venial to back Equivocations with Sacred Oaths and horrible Imprecations and that before a Court of Judicature at least if it consists of Hereticks of the practising upon which we have had among our selves of late most Amazing Instances If I say you take in these principles which are now collected out of their Books into Pamphlets and exposed to the View of every Body as also those very many other which are to be seen in the Iesuits Morals you will say that should we rake Hell for Doctrines to make men Devils there can none be found more Effectual for the purpose than those wherewith we are furnished by the Church of Rome And so much shall suffice to be spoken to the First Particular viz. That Popery tendeth as much as is possible to the debauching our Souls by bringing them into subjection to Vile Affections in discoursing on which we have studied to be as brief as can be Secondly Popery no less tendeth to Disquiet mens Minds with certain troublesom and tormenting Passions We have shewed in the First Section that all Corrupt Affections and therefore the forementioned to which all may be reduced are of a very tormenting nature In saying therefore now that Popery tends to disquiet men with certain troublesom Passions I design a distinct head of Discourse viz. That the better and wiser any man of that Religion is the more will his Mind be disturbed by a many Points thereof particularly with Fear Shame Anxiety and Solicitude And First For the Passion of Fear what can so excite this or make a man so much a Slave to it as the Popish Doctrine of Purgatory Whosoever doth really believe that there is a life after this must needs be more or less solicitous about his state in that life and according to the degrees of that his Faith will his solicitude be greater or less Now the belief of that Doctrine must necessarily be accompanied with great fear of Death which as the Apostle saith makes those who are under the power of it all their life-time subject to Bondage For as the pains of Purgatory are taught to be so dreadful and terrible as to equallize those of Hell except onely in the duration of them and how long each particular person may lie there before he be released whether scores or hundreds of years as also what degrees of Torment shall be allotted to him is the greatest uncertainty so no man can have any rational assurance let him lead never so strictly holy a life of escaping this place of Torment No nor the least hope neither from such a life if it be short of absolute Perfection as whose is not And as for the Efficacy of Penances and Indulgences it is impossible for any one who ever thinks seriously about the concerns of his Soul and understands any thing of Religion at least not to be full of diffidence what it may amount to Those are such monstrous Cheats the former for the most part of them and the latter all of them that such as are not much short of Brutes for Folly or of Devils for Wickedness can never be so blinded as to promise to themselves the least benefit or advantage from them and much less that which is promised by the Pope and the Priests Again what a Slavish Fear and Dread of God as a Revengeful Being must needs possess the Minds of those who have imbibed the Church of Rome's Doctrine concerning Whippings and Scourgings and other severe Penances viz. That they are necessary not onely for Mortification but likewise for Satisfaction in the Popish sence of that word But what a Spirit of Bondage are they under then from Dread of God's Vengeance in believing as they are bound that God will not Remit the punishment of Sin where the Guilt of it is washed away with the Bloud of Christ upon the performance of the conditions of the New Covenant which is as Nonsensical as False that he will not Remit it I say to such so far as to excuse them from intolerable Temporary Torments in the other World except he hath other satisfaction given him in this life by themselves nor from Torments of a Vastly long duration except it be given him by others after their decease Their Church is so well aware with what horrible Dread and Fear this Doctrine must necessarily affect poor credulous Fools that she hath invented it for that very reason because by this means she brings them into the most Slavish subjection makes her self Mistress of their Purses and is enabled to have her fill of Tyranny over their Consciences their Souls and Bodies What tongue can express the Devilishness of such Practices Next for the Passion of Shame The necessity of all People's of both Sexes Confessing to the Priest which is enjoyned by the Council of Trent to be done once a year at least and that of all their Actual sins and not onely so but also of all their purposes and desires to commit them nay and inclinations too what violence is hereby done to the Modesty of all such as have not arrived to the height of impudence This is to use the words of the Learned Doctor More as if all the modest Maids and grave Matrons in the Parish should strip themselves stark naked and in that manner humble themselves before their Priest once a year Which would look like a piece of unsupportable Tyranny And yet as he proceeds this extorted Confession upon pain of Damnation not to conceal any thing is not the stripping of a man to his naked body but the stripping him of his body that they may see his naked Heart and so by the force of this Superstition break into those secrets which it is onely the due priviledge of God Almighty to be acquainted with c. And Lastly What Anxiety and Solicitude must those Papists minds needs be tormented with who are at all concerned about their Eternal State by reason of these following Doctrines viz. That of the Dependence of the Efficacy of Sacraments upon the Priests intention That of Confession now mentioned decreed in the Trent Canons viz. That the Penitent must not onely confess every Mortal sin which after the strictest search he can call to mind but even his particular sinful thoughts his secret desires and every circumstance which changeth the nature of the sin And that of their distinction of sins into Mortal and Venial to pass by many others As for the
all tending to entertain the several Humours of all men and to work what kind of Effects soever they shall desire c. So that where is mad Licentiousness more countenanced in the whole World than it is by this Church And where are poor Mortals made such miserable Slaves as She makes them And consequently how can there be a greater Enemy than the Romish Church is to that which we have proved to be the true and most Excellent Liberty And now is it possible that after the reading of the foregoing Account of the unsupportably Tyranny the intolerably Corrupt Principles and most Abominable Practices of the Church of Rome we should not be very greatly affected with the Priviledges we enjoy in the Church of England And with the infinite Goodness of God to us in giving us our Birth and Education in a Church which affords us all the Advantages of which that Church like a cruel Step-Mother robs her Children We live in a Church which lays before us the Scripture Arguments for our Confirmatiâ—n in the Christian Faith which obligeth us to receive the Faith of Christ upon the self-same Grounds and Motives that are proposed by our Saviour and his Apostles and upon no other We live in a Church which not onely gives us free leave but likewise enjoyns us to read the Holy Scriptures and deprives us of no part of them We live in a Church which requires us to receive nothing as an Article of Faith upon her bare Authority that assumes nothing of Inâ—allibility to her self but freely gives us the Liberty of trying all things That imposeth nothing upon our Belief or Practice as necessary to Salvation but what is in the plainest and most express terms to be found in the Bible That makes the Scriptures a complete Rule of Faith and adds not one syllable of her own to supply their defect That takes no Liberty in her Constitutions but such as she believes to be agreeable to the General Apostolical Rules of doing all things decently and in order and to Edification and imposeth these not as of Divine Institution or as necessary in their own nature but onely as Expedient for the more solemn grave and decorous Management of the Publick Worship of God This being left by Christ and his Apostles to the Prudence of the Governours of each particular Church We live in a Church which Abominates the Worship of God by Images allows no Prayers to Saints or Angels but onely to the true God by the alone Mediation of our Lord Iesus Christ. We live in a Church which renounceth all Merit of good Works and teacheth us to expect Salvation onely for the sake of Iesus Christ and through his Righteousness but gives not the least countenance to Licentious practices or Remissness in good Works and teacheth the absolute necessity of purging our selves by the Assistance of the Divine Grace from all Filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit in order to our being made capable of God's Complacential love here and Glory hereafter Lastly whereas I might be exceedingly large upon this subject we live in a Church wherein we want no necessary help for the building us up in our most holy Faith or our having the Design of our Saviour's Religion happily effected in us namely the Reformation of our Lives and our being Renewed after the Image of God which consisteth in Righteousness and true Holiness O that at length we could become more eflectually sensible of the blessed priviledges the Divine Goodness vouchsafeth to us of the Church of England lest we be made to Prize them by the Loss of them Lest our general monstrous Ingratitude and lamentable Unprofitableness under them and the Wantonness Peevishness and Causless Separation of Multitudes from the Communion of this Church provoke the Divine Majesty to put our Necks once more under the Iron Yoke of those Tyrants which made such Vassals of our Fore-fathers If that dismal day should again come as God grant it may not with what Sorrow and Grief of Soul shall we reflect upon our neglecting and despising such happy Opportunities as we now enjoy What would we not then gladly part with to regain them when we are deprived of them And O that our several divided Parties were capable of being perswaded to consider Sedately and Seriously before it be too late what their Gain will be by the Fall of our Chuch when themselves and their Religion lie buried together in her Ruines CHAP. XIX The Fourth Inference That he onely is a true Christian that looks upon himself as obliged to be no less Watchful over his Heart and the frame and temper of his Mind than over his Life and Conversation I Shall now return to more immediately practical discourse for what remains of this Treatise which is far more pleasing to my self than that I have been employed in for several of the past Chapters as necessary and seasonable as that is also Fourthly From our Notion of Christian Liberty this is another manifest Inference viz. That a true Christian is one that looks upon himself as obliged to be no less watchful over his Heart than over his Life and Conversation to take as great care to cleanse the inside of the Cup and Platter to use our Saviour's expression as the outside to be as vigilant over his Affections as over his outward Behaviour to be as Solicitous about purging himself from all immoderate Love of the things of this World as about procuring them by warrantable and lawful means The true Christian makes as much Conscience of Lusting after a Woman and cherishing impure thoughts as he doth of Lascivious and Wanton Practices Of harbouring Revenge in his Breast and bearing ill will to any as of repaying Injury with injury He needs not to be made sensible that 't is no less his duty to forgive and love his Enemies than to forbear reviling them or doing evil to them that 't is as indispensably necessary to be low in his own Eyes and to think meanly of himself as to beware of a haughty and supercilious carriage towards others that he cannot more safely Covet than he can Steal his Neighbours goods that he is as much bound to bring his Will into subjection to the Will of God under the severest Providences as to forbear Murmuring Repining and Charging of God foolishly He who is a Christian in deed as well as in name placeth Religion in Governing his own Spirit no less than in any External performances or forbearances of what nature soever in putting away from himself all Wrath Bitterness and Sourness no less than in abstaining from uncivil deportment towards his Brethren This man doth not think it more necessary to do good works than to do them from a good principle And he is as much concerned about Loving of God as about Doing what he hath commanded him and Forbearing what he hath forbidden him He no less endeavours to Hate sin than not to Commit it and to be in love
than Foolish that they would not be prevailed with to accept of Deliverance from the Burdensom Services of Moses his Law that they should be so fond of that Servile Dispensation they were under as to refuse to be Released from it Whenas the Abolishing thereof was evidenced in as full and convincing a manner as its Divine Authority before was Nay when that of the Gospel set up in the room of it was demonstrated in a far more glorious manner to be of God by Christ himself before his death by his Resurrection from the dead and Ascension into Heaven and by the Spirit in the Apostles and others afterward And shall we refuse to be set at Liberty by our Saviour from the Bondage of Sin which is infinitely more heavy and unsufferable and the consequences of which are so sad and intolerable While we so do let us never blame the Iews and much less accuse them of being so perverse hard-hearted and stiff-neckt a People for then wherein we judge them we condemn our selves for we that judge them do not onely the same but a far more unaccountable thing And think we this that so judge them that have done such a thing and do the same and so much worse that we shall escape the judgment of God Nay are we able not to think that it shall be much more intolerable for us at the day of Judgment than for them if we persist in so doing We are apt to believe that no People ever deserved so ill of our Saviour as those Pharisees who ascribed his casting out Devils to the Assistance of Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils But how much better do we think those deserve of him who will not obey him after they have had far greater Evidence of his being the Son of God than they at that time were in a possibility of having And if our Saviour did accuse those of despising both Himself and his Father that sent him who would not be perswaded by his Mighty WORKS to believe in him while he was on Earth what a high Affront then do those put upon both who will not give up themselves to be ruled by him and quit the service of Satan for his service which is the same thing with not believing in him now he is in Heaven and in all his Glory This he must needs take far more unkindly and hainously at our hands And be we assured for nothing is more Evident that as he is a most unreasonable Creature who after such marvellous Evidence of Iesus his being the Son of God and now sate down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on High will not give credit to these Doctrines so he is much more Unreasonable who doth give credit to them and yet behave himself as if he believed no such matter O that therefore we would those of us who have hitherto neglected to do it before it be too late and without farther delay Consider these things and shew our selves Men and then we shall with great Courage and Resolution make use of those Weapons which the Captain of our Salvation hath put into our hands for the Vanquishing the Enemies of our Souls which Weapons are not Carnal but Mighty through God And if we persevere in so doing then shall those who have held such a severe hand over us fly before us then shall those Lords who so subjected us and kept us under be brought under by us be our Subjects Then shall our Prison-doors fly open we shall be no longer under Restraint and Confinement We shall be our own Men and walk at Liberty We shall run and not be weary walk and not faint until we appear before God in Sion Until we are delivered from all Molestation from as well as Dominion of Sin and Satan Being made by Iesus Christ who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Bloud Kings and Priests unto God and his Father To whom be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Amen THE END Books sold by Richard Royston at the Sign of the Angel in Amen-Corner THE Principles and Practices of Certain Divines of the Church of England truly Represented and Defended c. In a Free Discourse between two intimate Friends viz. Theophilus and Philalethes The Design of Christianity or A plain Demonstration and Improvement of this Proposition That the Enduing men with Inward Real Righteousness was the Ultimate End of our Saviour's Coming c. The Second Edition Both of them by the Author of this Treatise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Refranet prius libidines spernat voluptates iracundiam teneat coâ—recat avaritiam cateras animi labes repellat imperator tum incipiat aliis imperare cùm ipse improbissiâ—is dominis dedecori ac turpitudini parere desicrit dum quidem his obâ—diâ—t Imperator non modò sed liber habendus omninò non erit Si servitus sit sicut est obedientia fracti animi abjecti arbitriâ— carentis suo quis neget omnes leves omnes cupidos omnes denique improbos esse servos In his Stâ—ical Paradoxes Cùm Cupiditatum dominatus excessit alius est Dominus exortus ex Conscientiâ Peccatorum Timor quà m illa miscra quam dura scrvitus in Stoic Paradox Pudor nec in pessimos nec in optimos cadit Nam qui sibi conscius est se libero suo arbitrio constanter uti ad ca quae optima sunt novit se non debere contemni ac proinde omni contemptu superior ipsummeâ— contemnit contemptum quae magna pars est Generositatis in improbis vero summum improbitatis fastigium Enclur Eth. lib. 1. cap. 2. Dr. Patrick's O Vitae Philosophiae Dux O Virtutum indagatrix expultrixque Vitiorum Vnus dies benè ex praeceptis tuis actus peccanti immortalitati est anteponendus Mr. Iohn Smith Deut. 32. 4 Heb. 6. 18. Ezek. 18. 29. Rom. 2. 2. Iob 34. 23 Habak 1. 13. Psal. 145. 17. Iâ—m 11â— Psal. 145. 9. Ver. 8. Ezek. 33. 11. Luke 4. 18. Eph. 6. 16. Acts 15. 9. 1 Ioh. 5. 4. The Design of Christianity Ier. 7. 4. Iohn 17. 24. Chap. 14. 19. ver 3. Heb. 6. 20. Iohn 17. 24. Solus Deus est in quem Peecâ—tum non cadit Câ—etâ—ra cùm sint liberi Arbitrii possunt in utramque partem suam flectere Voluntatem Operum juga rejecta â—unt non disciplinarum Libertas in Christo non fecit Innocentie Injuriam Mannt â—extota Pictatis Sanctitatis Humanitatis Veritatis Castitatis Iustitiae Miâ—â—ricordiae Benevolentiae Pudicitiae Lib. de Pudiâ—itia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strom. Lib. 2. p. 424. Eph. 6. 5. Instit. Theol Lib. 3. cap. 8. p. 97. Non solùm autem per praevaricationem frustrati sunt Legem Dei miscentes Vinum Aquâ sed suam Legem è contrario statuerunt quae usque adhuc Pharisaica vocatur Advers Haeres Lib. 4. Cap. 25. p. 342. Chap. 17. Vid. Iust. Mart. Dial cum Trypho p. 247. Tertul ad Scap. p. 69 Rig. Orig. cont Câ—ls lib. 1. p. 34. 1 Cor. 2. 4. Contra Cels. lib. 1. p. 4. Edit Spenceri Icr. 17. 10. Rom. 13. 5. Ductor Dubitantium Book 3 chap. 1. p 21. Edit 1. Book 3. chap. 1. p. 23. Aquatenùs ad omne valet consequentia Religio cogt non potest verbis potiùs quà m verberibus res agenda est ut sit voluntas lib. 5. cap. 20. See the Learned Dean of Canterburies judicious Discourse on Josh. 24. 15. Instit. Thâ—ol Cap. 8. p. 241. See Doctor More 's Modest Enquiry into the Mystery of Iniquity Bookâ— 2. Chap. 15 16. In Dâ—â—ret Greg. Lib. 1. tit 33. cap. 6. Bellarm. dâ— Amis Grat. cap. 13. Et dâ— Sacram. Euchar. l. 4. c. 19 Exam. Câ—n. Triâ— Ses. 8. cap. 1 Vid. Chem. Exam. Con. Trid. Ses. 8. cap. â— Chap. â— Sess. 14. 〈◊〉 â— Mystery of Iniquity p. 78. Polemical Discourses in fol. p. 316. Europe Speculum p. 126. Edit 1673 Europae Speculum p. 13. Europe Speculum p. 136 137 Quamvâ— sine Sacramento Poenitentiae Attritio per se ad Iustificationem perducere Peccatorem â—equeat tamen cum ad Dei gratian in Sacramento Paenitenâ—â— impetrandum disponit Sess. 14. Cap. 4. Chap. 17. Europâ—e Speculum p. 3. Pag. 〈◊〉 Phil. Iud. p. 682. Ibid. Rev. 1. 6.