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
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
that I would my self publish it to all the world and instead of thinking it a disgrace and disparagement I would esteem it as an ornament for my innocence would be the more cleared and my good name vindicated by the means of it And so far would I be from sneaking and skulking in corners like one ashamed to shew his head that I would like a Prince with Heroick courage and confidence go up to the face of mine Enemy and expose and lay open my whole life before him Or rather we will read these Verses as the sence of them is expressed in a late excellent Paraphrase upon this Book Oh that the truth of all this that I have been accused of might be examined by some equal judge Behold I continue still to desire of God this favour And let him that can accuse me bring in his Libel in writing against me Surely I would not endeavour to obscure it but openly expose it to be read by all nay wear it as a singular ornament which would turn to mine honour when the world saw it disproved I my self would assist him to draw up his charge by declaring to him freely every action of my life I would approach him as undauntedly as a Prince who is assured of the goodness of his cause These words with many other of his sayings shew what a blessed Liberty the Soul of this Holy man was possessed with even whilest he was deprived of all his outward comforts and in the saddest and most dismal circumstances Thirdly Nothing will free a man from Trouble and Dejection of mind like the careful observance of the Laws of Righteousness This as it is a certain consequent of Fear and Shame it must needs free a man from as it freeth from those its Causes But it incomparably beyond any thing in the world cureth this Malady of a wounded spirit how or by whatsoever it be occasioned I have shewed that it is the fate of Sinners to feel great perturbation and disturbance of mind from their corrupt Affections by the law in their members warring against the law of their minds and also by reflecting upon their folly and madness and by the fearful expectations that their manifold bold transgressions of the Divine Laws do raise in them The wicked saith the Prophet are like the troubled Sea which cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Cain had no sooner given place to Envy and Revenge but his Countenance fell and the Disquiet of his mind was bewrayed by his looks But there is no such Lightsomness and Sprightfulness of Soul no such Pleasure and Self-satisfaction as that which results from true Religion Righteousness and Goodness It 's ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths peace Prov. 3. 17. Light is sown for the Righteous and joy for the Vpright in heart Psal. 97. 11. Great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them Psal. 119. 165. The work of Rigteousness shall be peace and the effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Esay 32. 17. The Good man is free from self-accusations and from that gnawing Worm that is frequently felt in Guilty breasts He is not appalled in thinking of what is past nor cast down with the fore-thought of that which is to come His Soul is like a calm and clear River like the waters of Siloam which run softly without noise or murmur Whatsoever is Natural is for that reason highly pleasing but nothing so natural to the Heaven-born Soul of man nothing is so agreeable to our original Make as to live in conformity to the Laws of Righteousness Whilest this is our serious care we act according to our Highest principle that Principle which God and Nature designed for our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Leader and Governour I mean the Reason of our Minds And therefore so long as we follow its Dictates and behave our selves like those on whose souls the Divine image is imprinted which consisteth in Righteousness and true Holiness so long I say we live in our own Element and therefore must necessarily have Self-enjoyment And we shall enjoy our selves more or less according as we are more or less diligent in works of Righteousness and Goodness The experience of every Good man will force him to subscribe to the truth of this no such man can withhold his assent from it or call it into question any more than he can his own Feeling Such a one feels such serenity of thoughts and such great delight and satisfaction of mind in the exercise of love to God and love to men in works of Piety Justice and Charity in the exercise of Humility Meekness Patience and Submission to the Divine will and all other Christian Graces and Virtues that while he is so employed all is as well within him as he can desire he accounts it a Heaven upon Earth to be so employed I fear that many a one who would be thought a Christian cannot receive this Doctrine that it seems to him a very strange Soloecism but I could tell him of many a Heathen of whom he may learn it as well as of Christians particularly Tully who hath this brave saying in his Tusculan Questions O Philosophy the Guide of our lives O thou seeker out of Virtues and expeller of Vices One day well spent and in obedience to thy precepts ought to be preferred before a sinning immortality And all those say for substance the self-same thing who tell us that Virtue is a Reward to it self The Good man feels also no small pleasure in reflecting upon the fruits of Righteousness he hath brought forth And much more in the Contemplation of that Glorious Reward which God for Christ's sake hath promised to those who patiently persevere in well-doing The fore-expectation whereof doth greatly support him under all the crosses and afflictions wherewith he is exercised in this life And makes him not only Patient under those Tribulations he meets with for Righteousness sake but even to Glory in them as the Apostles did and Primitive Christians And moreover he receiveth great Refreshment and Comfort more immediately from the Holy Ghost especially when he is called forth to any exceedingly great suffering or extraordinary service He then marvellously strengthens the Good man with strength in his Soul to bear the one and perform the other as becomes a servant of Iesus Christ. Which he doth chiefly by giving sensible clear and lively representations to the Good mans mind of the Glory of Heaven and by stedfastly fixing it upon the Crown of Righteousness and Life which his Blessed Lord hath promised to all those who are faithful to the Death Thus was the first Christian Martyr S. Stephen strengthened who being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the Glory of God saw the Heavens opened as ready to receive him and the Son of man standing on the
said to be weak through the flesh or in regard of the impetuosity and violence of mens fleshly Appetites Rom. 8. 3. Nor is there any express mention in the Ceremonial Law of any necessity of purity of heart This was only represented by the divers legal washings and other Rites the mortification of corrupt Affections was signified by the cutting off the foreskin of the flesh and the great substantial duties were veiled under dark shadows So that a man might be very punctually observant of this Law according to the mere literal sence thereof and yet his Soul remain perfectly under the power of sinful Affections And the Learned Mr. Chillingworth in his Sermon on Gal. 5. 5. saith thus even of the Moral Duties of the two Tables as they are part of the Mosaical Jewish Law viz. That they required only an external obedience and conformity to the Affirmative Precepts thereof and an abstaining from an Outward practice of the Negative They did not reach unto the Conscience no more than the National Laws of other Kingdoms do So that for example when the law of Moses forbids Adultery upon pain of death he that should in his heart lust after a Woman could not be accounted a Transgressor of Moses his law neither was he liable to the punishment therein specified Whereas the Gospel requires not only an Outward and as I may say corporal obedience to God's Commandments but also an inward sanctification of the Soul and Conscience upon the same penalty of everlasting damnation with the former And what is now said proceeds he of the Moral Precepts as they are part of Moses his law by the same proportion likewise is to be understood of the Iudicial And as for the Promises of this Law they were only of Temporal good things and therefore the Gospel is called by the Author to the Hebrews The bringing in of a better hope Chap. 7. 19. And is said to be established upon better promises Chap. 8. 6. 'T is confessed that promises of Heavenly things were contained in those of Earthly as some of the latter were Types of the former particularly the land of Canaan of the Eternal Rest in Heaven and the promises of good things in the general had those of the other life implied in them but there is not the least express mention in this Law of any Life after this I do not say in any part of the Old Testament but in this Law Now then seeing it abounded with Temporal Promises and none but such being in express terms contained therein 't is no wonder if it became an occasion to the sensual Iews of their being the more eager and vehement in prosecuting the profits honours and pleasures of this life as it was of their being the more Mercenary in their obedience The like may be said of the Threatnings of this Law they are all so expressed as if they were only of Present Temporal Evils and the Iews for the most part looking no farther than the outward letter of these Threatnings it was not to be expected that they should be excited by them to obey from any higher motive than the mere fear of such evils as those that did not look beyond the letter of the Promises were obedient only from the hope of some sensual present good And by this means especially did this Law Gender to bondage as we read it did Gal. 4. 24. The terrible manner in which the Law was given and the Threatnings of Present death or other temporal Calamities upon the Transgression thereof did occasion that slavish sear which the Apostle calls the Spirit of bondage in those words Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear Rom. 8. 5. God dealt with the Iews as it was most fit to deal with such a carnal such a stiff-necked stubborn and disingenuous people who would not be wrought upon and overcome by love to himself or a sense of the loveliness of Virtue and true Goodness nor regard any Laws but such as were enforced with severe present Penalties or promises of sensual good things Which obedience of theirs was most truly and properly the obedience of Slaves a Servile and Mercenary Obedience So that this Law having been abused by the Iews to the so much the more captivating them to their fleshly lusts for this reason chiefly was it laid aside namely because the Liberty which consisteth in a thorough compliance with the Rules of Righteousness the Obligation of this Law would have greatly obstructed the promoting of And the things expresly required in this Law being such as had no internal goodness in them being weak and beggarly Elements as the Apostle calls them Gal. 4. 9. the imposition of many such must needs be apt to call away mens Minds and Affections from those that are essentially and immutably good whilest the spiritual meaning of those injunctions is either not understood or not attended to And that it had this effect upon the generality of the Iews by this means is a case too plain to need to be proved And though the great substantial duties which are in their own nature Good and Necessary and of Eternal obligation were inculcated upon them by all their Prophets as well as taught by Natural Light such as Doing Iustice loving Mercy walking humbly with God and the like yet they generally were so sottish as to think that He valued Sacrifices and the other Ceremonial and External Performances of the Law so much above such Duties nay though he had expresly also declared the quite contrary as that their exact and diligent observation of those would make expiation for their remisness in these and fully satisfie for gross immoralities They trusted in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these implying that their continual attendance on the services there performed according to the prescription of the Law would effectually secure them from Divine vengeance although they refused to amend their ways and were never so immoral in their Practices And their constant Trading in Sacrifices in Rituals and Ceremonial things occasioned their having but very little sense of things Morally good so that that distinction was almost lost among them of things Positively and Morally so or things good only because commanded and things commanded because good Their being so intent upon a many little things caused them to sleight and overlook the great ones as our Saviour told the Pharisees Luke 11. 42. Ye tithe Mint and Rue and all manner of Herbs and pass over judgment and the love of God And Mat. 23. 23. Ye pay tith of Mint and Anise and Cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law judgment mercy and faith And their omitting these things was too plain an Argument alone though there is other proof of it of their having scarcely any notion of things Absolutely Immutably and Essentially Good and Evil which was occasioned as I said by their
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
Evil from an Overpowering Sense of the Becomingness and Excellency of the one and the Vileness and Odiousness of the other is the very Perfection of Liberty And this is so far from being impossible to be obtained by Creatures or by our Selves that by the help of God's Grace it is in a large measure even in this life Attainable I mean such a Sense of Good and Evil as shall certainly determine us to Good and against Evil in most of the instances of each There are some immoralities and wicked Actions that they who have attained to but very mean and ordinary degrees of Goodness cannot perswade themselves so much as to endeavour to reconcile their Minds to Nay there are some that no man can easily be supposed able to consent to but an extraordinarily Depraved and Wicked Wretch let the Motives that are used to perswade him be what they will Such as Blaspheming of God Contriving the Murther of our Parents or of a most obliging Friend Torturing of innocent Babes and the like Horrid Villanies Surely then a man is capable of such a Vivid sense of the Hatefulness of Sin in general as will whilest it lasts render it impossible for him to Will deliberately to commit any known Sin whatsoever 'T is confessed that we cannot hope to get past all danger of sudden Surprizals so long as we inhabit these Bodies and remain in our present Unhappy Circumstances but I say so powerful a Sense of the Infinite Unrighteousness Disingenuity Unreasonableness Folly and Madness of opposing the Holy Will of our Great Creator and Blessed Redeemer may by the Divine Assistance be acquired even on this side Heaven as shall Determine us effectually against all Deliberate and Wilful Violations of the Divine Laws For this we have the Authority of a Great Apostle S. Iohn saith in his 1 Epist. 3. 9. Whosoever is Born of God doth not commit Sin for his Seed remaineth in him neither can he Sin because he is Born of God He here affirms not only that those who have attained to extraordinary Measures of Goodness cannot Sin that is cannot will to sin deliberately but likewise that no Regenerate or truly Good man can He cannot thus Sin because he is born of God because he is a Child of God by the inward Renewing of his Holy Spirit And because his Seed remaineth in him that is the Divine Seed Which Divine Seed I take to be the same thing with the several times mentioned Quick Powerful and Pungent Sense of the Horrid Nature and most dreadful Effects and Consequents of Wilful Sinning It is more than Morally impossible that whilest this Sense abideth in its Strength and Vigour the Good man should lapse into such Sins Have we not such a Sense of the Vileness of some Actions as to say frequently I could not for all the world find in mine heart that is in my Will to do so or so And if we had the same Sense of all Sins which it is unreasonable not to have considering them as Sins or Transgressions of the Everlasting Rules of Righteousness for considering them under that notion all sins are alike I say had we the same Sense of all Sins we should as truly say concerning each I cannot find in mine heart I cannot will to consent unto it CHAP. XII Which Treats of one Branch of the First Inference from the Argument of the Second Section That in Freedom from the Dominion of Corrupt Affections doth that Liberty Principally or rather Wholly Consist which Christ hath purchased for us Namely that several Notions of Christian Liberty which have too much prevailed are false and of dangerous Consequence The First of which is That which makes it to consist wholly or in part in Freedom from the Obligation of the Moral Law Certain Texts urged by the Antinomians in favour of it vindicated from the sence they put upon them And the extreme wildness and wickedness of it exposed in Five Particulars WE proceed now to the Inferences from the latter Argument viz. That in Freedom from the Dominion of Corrupt Affections and all the sad Consequents thereof our Christian Liberty doth Eminently consist and wholly too the Liberty which Christ hath purchased for us Gentiles And First We infer from hence that several Notions of Christian Liberty that have too much prevailed are False and of dangerous Consequence We will speak to First That which makes it to consist in Freedom from the Obligation of the Moral Law Secondly That which makes it to consist in Freedom from those Laws of Men which Enjoyn or Forbid indifferent things Thirdly That which makes Liberty of Conscience a Branch of Christian Liberty First For that Notion of Christian Liberty which makes it to consist either wholly or in part in Freedom from the Obligation of the Moral Law This is extremely Wild and Wicked as will appear from what hath been discoursed It is the Doctrine of the Antinomians and they produce in favour of it all those Texts wherein we are said to be delivered from the Law As particularly Rom. 7. 6. Now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held c. Gal. 2. 19. I through the Law am dead to the Law c. Rom. 6. 14. Ye are not under the Law but under Grace Gal. 4. 4 5. When the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to Redeem them that were under the Law c. To this it is Answered That there are indeed many Texts which Assert our being freed from the Law but the Question is What Law they mean Or rather 't is out of Question that they mean not the Moral Law For there is no need of doing more than reading throughout the forementioned Verses to satisfie us that the Apostle understood in each of them nothing less than that Law Nay we need do no more to be assured that he Abominated this Notion of Christian Liberty For whereas he saith Rom. 7. 6. Now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held it follows that we should serve in Newness of Spirit and not in the Oldness of the Letter That is That we should no longer be merely Externally Obedient but also Inwardly and Spiritually Whereas he saith Gal. 2. 19. I through the Law am dead to the Law he immediately adds this as the reason why he was so that I might live unto God Or be in all things conformed to the Rules of Righteousness and Goodness which He hath prescribed all which are comprehended in the Moral Law Again whereas he tells the Romans Chap. 6. 14. Ye are not under the Law but under Grace This comes in as a proof of what he said immediately before in the same Verse viz. Sin shall not have dominion over you Lastly In saying Gal. 4. 5. That Christ was made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law he gives this in
the next words as the reason or design hereof that we might receive the Adoption of Sons But doth not the Relation of a Son necessarily infer Obligation to Obedience It doth so no less than that of a Servant For where God saith If I am a Master where is my Fear he saith also If I am a Father where is mine Honour The Law therefore which is to be understood in these and the like places is the purely Iewish Law the mere External and Drudging Observances of the Mosaical Dispensation which the Iewish Believers thought themselves to be still under the Obligation of and Condemned the Gentile Converts for not submitting their Necks to the same Yoke And the Apostle takes a great deal of pains in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians to confute that mistake and to convince the Iews that that Law was made by Christ null and void that He had Cancelled it and taken away its Obliging power And in each of those places the Apostle as plainly affirms this to be the Law they were delivered from as that it is not the Moral Law We will therefore a third time go them over again Rom. 7. 6. Now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in Newness of Spirit and not in the Oldness of the Letter That is We are delivered from that Law that considered literally required nothing but a company of Bodily Washings Outward Services and Carnal Performances which the Iews generally rested in and thought no more was to be done to render them Acceptable in the sight of God And the reason why we are delivered from this Law is that so we may be the more intent upon the Great Substantial Duties and the Purification of our Hearts Souls and Spirits Gal. 2. 19. I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live unto God Or I by virtue of the Law of Christ am dead to the Law of Moses that I may have all impediments taken out of my way to the being intirely devoted as to the Inward as well as Outward man to the Service of God And it hath been shewed how injurious this Law did Accidentally become to the great Design of the Gospel viz. The making us Spiritually Obedient the enduing us with Inward Real Substantial Righteousness or the Divine Likeness Rom. 6. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace That is There is no necessity of your continuing under the power and dominion of Sin because you are not under the weak Dispensation of Moses which made nothing perfect and gave no strength to mortifie Lust but under the Gospel Dispensation which is accompanied with Promises of Plentiful Supplies of Grace and Strength Gal. 4. 5. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to Redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons Or That we might no longer drudge like Servants of the inferior Sort in such Employments as are mean and low having no Internal Goodness in them and that from the hope only of some sleight Reward from the hope of some mere Earthly good things such as are Gratifications only of the Animal and Sensual life and from the Fear of mere Temporal Evils and the present Lash that Law containing no other express Promises or Threatnings but Temporal as was shewed but may be dealt with as Sons be Honourably employed viz. in such services as are of the most Excellent nature and do recommend themselves by their own Goodness and Agreeableness to our Rational and Intellectual Faculty And be acted also by a more Noble Principle viz. Love and encouraged by an Infinitely more Noble Reward which consisteth in a perfect Likeness to God and an Everlasting Enjoyment of him And thus we see these very Texts that are made use of by the Antinomians to prove this mad Notion of Christian Liberty from the Obligation of the Moral Law are so far from signifying any thing to this purpose that they give manifest and clear proof of the Contrary As they are far from asserting that any such Liberty as this belongs to Christians so they assure us that no such Liberty belongeth to them Tertullian hath a good saying to our present purpose The Yokes of Works meaning the Drudgeries of the Ceremonial Law are cast off not those of Rules to walk by Liberty in Christ is not injurious to innocence The intire Law of Piety Holiness Humanity Vâ—rity Chastity Righteousness Mercy Bâ—nâ—volence Purity is still of force And indeed should we find this Doctrine in those Texts that our Saviour hath procured for us Freedom from this Law then First The Blessed Apostle would have most expresly contradicted his Great Master and so have proved himself no Apostle For our Saviour plainly saith Matth. 5. 17. Think not let not such a wild fancy enter into your Heads that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fill it up or Preach it fully I am so far from such a Design as that of destroying or Abolishing the Moral Law that on the contrary I am come to Preach it more fully and perfectly than ever it was before my Coming And this he presently sets upon doing Vers. 21 22 27 28 c. Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time thou shalt not Kill and whosoever shall Kill shall be in danger of the judgment but I say unto you that whosoâ—vâ—r is Angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment c. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not commit Adultery but I say unto you that whosoevâ—r shall look upon a Woman to lust after hâ—r hath committed Adultery already with her in his heart And so He goes on to Perfect and Fill up Law in the following Verses Again our Saviour saith vers 18. Verily I say unto you that till Heaven and Earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till all be done or till all things come to an End according to Doctor Hammond He hath not here respect to the Universal Conflagration saith Grotius upon the place but it is a Proverbial speech as if it were said in Latine Vsque dum Coelum ruat Till the Heavens fall Which is thus expressed Luke 16. 17. And it is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass than one tittle of the Law to fail In which manner of speaking as saith the same Learned Expositor He hath respect to the Order of Nature and not to the Power of God But according to Nature it seems impossible that Heaven and Earth should pass away or perish So that the meaning of these Texts is plainly this viz. The Obligation of the Law
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
Attention in saying their Prayers and numbering them over is as much as is necessary And if we can believe that we need not mind our Prayers we have no reason to blame those of them who do not desire to understand them Nor yet their Church for enjoyning the saying them in a Language which the Generality of Her Children are ignorant of as if She designed in so doing to put an Affront upon S. Paul who hath taught us in the most express terms the quite contrary Doctrine in the 14 Chapter of the First to the Corinthians To conclude this Chapter Our Notion of Christian Liberty is so very far from befriending Popery that 't is not possible it should have a greater Enemy in that it so highly conduceth to the advancing of the true Spirit and Power of Religion and to the perfect ridding our Minds of those two as Great Friends to Popery as Pests to Religion and even Humane Society viz. Superstition and fanaticism I mean by these two a Base Unworthy Apprehension of the Deity and a Blind Irrational Heady Zeal If it be said after all that supposing the two Notions of Christian Liberty which we have now declared our Sense 〈◊〉 be never so false yet we are notwithstanding too confined in Our Notion in â—hat Christian Liberty doth not onely â—onsist in Freedom from the Dominion of 〈◊〉 and the other sad Consequents of it â—ut also in our Freedom as to all things â—fan Indifferent nature to or from which â—e are not determined as by any Divine 〈◊〉 neither by any Humane Law If this â—say be objected our Answer in one â—ord is this This is not Christian but â—his is Natural Liberty That of S. Paul â—ving been in All Ages and in refeâ—ence to all sorts of People as Great a Truth as it hath been since our Saviours â—ime and in reference to Christians viz. Where no Law is there is no Transgression CHAP. XIV An Answer to this Question Whether the Prescribing of Forms of Prayer for the Publick Worship of God be not an Encroachment upon Christian Liberty Wherein it is shewed that this is not a Stifling of the Spirit or Restraining the exercise of his Gift And what in Prayer is not as also what is the Gift of the Spirit Whereby is occasioned an Answer to another Question viz. Whether an Ability for Preaching be properly a Gift of the Spirit WHat hath been last discoursed gives me occasion to Enquire Whether the Imposing of a Liturgy or Forms of Prayer for the Publick Worship of God be not an Encroachment upon Christian Liberty I answer it is if that Principle taken up by very many among us be a true one viz. That this is a Stifling of the Spirit and a Restraining of the Exercise of one of his Gifts If this be so I say it can be no better than a very great invasion of Christian Liberty and a far greater than the mere obliging men to things Indifferent For as S. Paul saith 1 Cor. 12. 7. The Maniâ—estation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal and therefore for Christians to be limited in doing good by a Gift of the Spirit must needs be a robbing them of that Liberty which Christ in sending Him design'd to give them By the way it shall be no part of my Reply to say that onely the Ministers are here concerned not at all the People For although a Conceived Prayer of the Minister be of the nature of a prescribed Form to those that joyn with him as to the confining their Spirits yet the People must needs be sufferers by means of their Ministers being stinted in the exercise of a Gift of the Spirit since it was designed for their profit and therefore upon this account and moreover in regard of the Countenance they will thereby give to Authority in such a kind of Sacrilegious Usurpation of power over Ministers it cannot be justifiable in them to Attend willingly upon such Forms But in order to the undeceiving of those who are so tenacious of this conceit that a prescribed Liturgy is a hinderance to the Free Exercise of a Gift of the Spirit I must freely profess that I know of no Gifts of the Spirit which we have warrant from Scripture to believe are continued to the Church at this day besides those which S. Paul calls the Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. Where he saith The fruit of the Spirit is Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance These and the like Christian Graces are Gifts which the Spirit still bestows and therefore called Graces They are supernatural Gifts as no man by his mere Natural power can obtain them but only by the Spirit 's blessing of our Endeavours and to the sincere use of the Gospel-means the Spirit is always ready to give his blessing And the reason why in these latter Ages these blessed Gifts are bestowed upon no more Professors of Christianity than they are is because the generality of such are miserably wanting to themselves and to the Holy Spirit in refusing to do their part and to cooperate with Him Because they will not attend to the evidence the Spirit hath given to the Truth of the Gospel and therefore have too weak and ineffectual a belief thereof Because they will not consider the Doctrine of the Gospel they will not weigh well and lay to heart its Precepts with the infinitely powerful motives wherewith they are inforced Because they will not listen to the Spirits good motions and suggestions whereby he works in men to Will and begets in them good Resolutions but do truly â—â—ench the Spirit though that phrase is â—sed in reference to his miraculous Gifts and resist the Holy Ghost and because they will not make a believing Application to Him for his powerful Assistance I say it is upon these and such like accounts that the forementioned Gifts of the Spirit are so rare and that the generality of those who are honoured with the Title of Christians are so destitute of them as we see they are Nay multitudes are so befooled by the enemy of their Souls as to expect that the Spirit should do all in them without their doing any thing that He should make them Temperate Righteous Charitable Meek Humble and Submissive to God's Will Heavenly-minded and the like without their due attendance upon those Ordinances of the Word Sacrament and Prayer and serious Consideration and Watchfulness over themselves wherein alone we have ground to expect the powerful working of the Divine Grace in our Souls But I say though these Gifts are observable in so very few comparatively the account whereof I have briefly touched upon and shewed that 't is mens own fault that they are not very common yet we have no warrant from Scripture that I know of to call those which are much more common though they are by many so reputed Gifts of the Spirit notwithstanding the Prophecies and Promises of so
plentiful a pouring of Him out in the times of the Gospel There were indeed common as well as more special Gifts of the Spirit in the First Ages For the miraculous ones of speaking all manner of Tongues Prophesying Healing all sorts of Diseases Casting out Devils c. which were the great Witnesses to the truth of Christianity were very common They were not only conferred upon the Apostles but the private Believers These signs said our Saviour shall follow them that believe in my name c. Mark 16. 17. And not onely on those Believers who were sincere Christians but those also whose Lives were not at all answerable to their Christian profession as appears by those words of our Saviour Mat. 7. 22. And several of these miraculous Gifts we have full assurance from Antiquity did continue in the Church though in nothing so plentiful a measure particularly those of Healing Prophesying and Casting out Devils till about the beginning of the Fourth Century when Providence blessed her with a Christian Emperor and she came to be protected by his Sword and Laws and consequently stood not in such need of those Gifts for the keeping her in Heart and the upholding her Credit and Reputation in the World But as these have ceased for many Ages so the abovesaid Fruits of the Spirit are the onely Endowments now remaining which may in a more peculiar manner be ascribed to Him that is they are the onely Supernatural Endowments As to that therefore which is commonly called the Gift of Prayer we have these things to say First That we have not the least reason to believe that the expressions of the very best mens Prayers are now dictated by the Holy Ghost or that they pray by the Inspiration of the Spirit as to Words or Matter I know not that any sober men do pretend to such a Gift as this in Prayer and too many of those that do pretend to it do manifestly declare by the management of their Gift that either they juggle and are gross Cheats or are sadly deluded What slovenly what ridiculous what bold and impudent expressions are ordinarily heard from them And what a deal of nauseating stuff that hath brought a vile scandal upon Religion and furnished Atheistical and Prophane people with matter of derision Even such stuff as that it is no better than a Blaspheming the Holy Ghost to father it upon Him But I delight not to insist upon this Argument It is objected that S. Paul saith Rom. 8. 26. We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered I answer that this Text makes not at all for the purpose of those who in this sence pretend to an ability of praying by the Spirit For as for the Apostle's saying that We know not what to pray for as we ought it is to be limited to Temporal things and wholly to them For we do know that all those things which are necessary to our Eternal Felicity viz. all spiritual Blessings are to be prayed for And we do or may know what all those are without inspiration But we do not know whether worldly Prosperity or Affliction may be best for us or what measure of temporal good things or what particulars of such good things and therefore in reference to these things we are not to pray Absolutely but Conditionally and with a Willingness to be denied if God sees it not good to grant them to us And the following words shew that it is not therefore to be concluded that the Spirit will put it into Good peoples hearts what temporal things they should pray for for they tell us that He will back their Petitions in Heaven by interceding for them with unutterable Groanings not that He will put words into their mouths or suggest matter of Prayer to them I dare not say the Spirit never does thus I should be then too bold but we have no ground to expect or hope He should at least in ordinary cases In short whosoever pretends that his Prayers are dictated by the Holy Ghost must have the very same opinion of them that he hath of the Divinely inspired Writings Secondly I say consequently That an ability of uttering our Minds to Almighty God in great variety of words and phrases is as much a Natural Gift or a Gift acquired in an ordinary way that is by study and frequent practising and exercising as any Art or Ability whatsoever Very bad men have been often known to have a notable Faculty this way and so miserably weak and silly are abundance of people as to admire those for excellent Christians in whom they perceive it though they know them guilty of very great immoralities and they have nothing to commend them but this Faculty But there is no man if he will set himself to it and he be made for it that is prepared with a sufficient measure of Boldness and Confidence with a glib Tongue and a warm Head but may be excellent at it Therefore I say how shamefully ignorant and childish are the Vulgar sort I fear the much greater part that this dexterity at pouring forth words to the King of Heaven without fear or wit with a mighty voice great earnestness and abundance of action shall gain to a man a greater repute with them for a precious Christian than all the above-mentioned real fruits of the Spirit put together Although any Hypocrite that is qualified as we now said may with the greatest ease attain to it Such a brave man as this shall lead multitudes by the Nose work his base designs upon them and infuse what Principles he listeth into them Such Babies are the common People too generally in the affairs of Religion and their Spiritual concerns But Si populus vult decipi decipiatur If Folk will be thus cheated and made a prey of who can help it It may grieve us at the Hearts to think what work the Popish Priests and Jesuits may hereafter make as we know that in Disguises they have already made sad work among these silly Sheep No men in the World having a rarer knack at Extemporary performances and at Feigning and Raising of Passions than many of them have But Thirdly The true Spirit of Prayer consisteth in a deep sense of the Incomprehensible Majesty of the great God of the infinite distance that is between Him and us of our unspeakable Obligations to Him and necessary dependance upon Him In an affecting sense of our own Wretchedness and Sinfulness which makes us altogether unworthy to appear in His presence or to receive the least Favour at His hands In a sense of His infinite Goodness Wisdom and Power and an undoubted Belief that whatsoever is really needful for us He knoweth so to be and is both Able and Willing to confer it upon us when we ask it as we ought in the Name of Iesus Add hereunto entire Resignation of our Wills
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
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.