can doe no lesse then endeavour to bring our Civill Government as neere as may be unto that in all Cases wherin our State 4. We must endeavour to bring our civill government as neere as we can to that pattern and theirs agree As for instance whereas the Lord thinks it sufficient to punish simple theft with restitution of double or foure fold Exod. 22.1 we may doe well to consider whether our laws be not too strict in punishing bare theft at least in women with death without remedy On the other side seeing God appoints death to be the punishment of adultery Levit 20.10 Deut. 22.22 we have just cause to think our laws defective that passe it over with a lighter censure For who can better judge of the quality of offences and punishments fit for the restraint of them then God himselfe Neither can we excuse our selves by this that those laws being Judiciall are now taken away and made voide unto us seeing where our case is the same as adultery and theft are the same in what state so ever there our rules of judgement in all equity ought to be the same In generall it will be very needfull to observe carefully the equity and righteousnesse of all these laws as well Judiciall as Morall 5. In those as well as in the Morall laws we must take notice of Gods equity and justice as the Psalmist acknowledgeth that all the Testimonies which God hath commanded are righteous and very faithfull Psal 119.138 Right concerning all things ver 128. that we may thence conclude that he is a righteous God whose judgements are upright Psal 119.137 a God without iniquity just and upright Deut. 32.4 and may with the more care and diligence endeavour to bring both our hearts and practise to a full conformity to those just and equall Commandements both in our generall and particular callings seeing the Lord in all his ordinances aimes only at that end as is evident by all those Laws wherein there is nothing prescribed but equity and justice Of those subjects or matters which the Scripture handles we have hitherto considered what observations we may gather unto our selves out of the works and laws of God which are recorded therein The rest of the matters which these holy writings hold out unto us are either principles of faith or Prophesies of the events which were to befall the Church or histories either of the state of the Church in generall or particularly of mens lives and actions either good or evill All which we are to take notice of and of the instructions which may be gathered out of them for use Now for the first of these which are the principles of faith The principles or faith are plaine they describe unto us both God himselfe and his Sonne Jesus Christ and the things which are freely given unto us by God in him as the Apostle tearmes them 1 Cor. 2.12 and are for the most part of them expressed in so cleare and plaine tearmes and therefore so easily understood according to the literall sense of them that being in themselves rules of faith as the Commandements are rules of practise any man that reads and observes them carefully may easily without further direction discover what they teach us Only because they are in themselves of a spirituall nature things that neither eye hath seene nor eare heard neither have entred into the heart of man 1 Cor. 2.9 he meanes a naturall man who can neither comprehend nor much lesse approve them 1 Cor. 2.14 they need a light above nature to enable us to comprehend them as we ought But being spirituall in reading them we must 1. Deny our own wisdome Wherefore we are seriously to be exhorted to come to the reading of them with humble minds wholly laying aside and denying our own wisdome and with earnest prayers begging at Gods hand the light of his Spirit for the revealing unto us those wonderfull Mysteries as David prayes that God would open his eyes 2. Beg the help of the Spirit to reveale them to us spiritually that he might behold wondrous things out of his Law Psal 119.18 and that not only to discover them unto us in a rationall way but to manifest them unto us spiritually that we may tast and see the things that God hath given us as the Psalmist speakes Psal 34.8 which is the only means to affect the heart as the sight of Christs day filled Abrahams heart with joy John 8.36 In the next place for the Prophesies In the Prophesies observe in which the Law with the Sanctions thereof is applied to the state of the Church as it was in the times of those Prophets the first thing to be observed in them is the answerableness of Gods dispensations in the Government of his people 1. That Gods dispensations to his Church are answerable to his Law to the Law that he gave them whereof the Prophet Daniel takes speciall notice Dan. 9.13 This observation both justifies God when he is found not to goe beyond the conditions of the Covenant which he hath made with his people and consequently to be just even in his chastisements and judgements which he brings upon his own Neh. 9.33 And besides is a great means to awe the hearts of his servants the more with the terror of Gods judgements when they observe that Gods threatnings are not vaine words but are made good in reall performances as the treading down and putting away of the wicked like drosse caused David to be afraid of Gods judgements Psal 119.118 119 120. Secondly in reading those Prophesies take speciall notice of Gods care of his people 2. Gods unwillingnesse to grieve his people forewarning them of the evils to come and tendernesse of their good and unwillingnesse to grieve them Lam. 3.33 Hos 11.8 9. manifested by sending his Prophets both to reduce them to obedience by counsell and faire means from their wicked waies wherein they walked contrary to God as Moses tearmes it Levit. 26.23 40. and withall to warne them of the danger that hung over their heads if they persisted in their rebellious courses And indeed upon this ground God justifies both his compassion towards his people and the righteousnesse of his judgements in taking vengeance even upon his own people for their rebellions from which neither experience nor advice and counsell could reclaim them nor any other means but the powring out of the fury of his wrath upon them 2 Chron. 36.15 16 17. And aiming at their good in the judgements that he brings upon them which yet withall he doth both in respect to their good and purging out of their drosse in the furnace of afflictions Isa 1.15 as also to his own honour much impeached by his peoples evill courses 2 Sam. 12.14 for which if he should forbeare to take vengeance on them he might be judged partiall or an approver of evill like unto wicked men as God himselfe speaks Psal
cannot but extend unto us that are Christians And seeing that charge was part of the office of the Leviticall Priesthood unto which our Ministery under the Gospel succeeds how can we deny that the care of keeping our Sacraments and other ordinances from pollution by the promiscuous admission of unworthy persons to partake of them with us ought to be a speciall part of the care of the Ministers under the Gospel as it was of the Priests under the law Having then hitherto discovered what instructions we may draw out unto our selves from the consideration of the ceremoniall Law in generall we shall forbear to descend to the scanning of the particular ceremonies prescribed therein as being a work not altogether so necessary nor altogether sutable to that brevity that we aime at in this short Treatise Thus much only is fit to be intimated by the way that where the signification of those ceremonious shadows is plain and evident it will be both a delightfull and profitable exercise to take speciall notice both of the things signified by them and of the shadows themselves that represent them In the last place we are to take into consideration those laws which we call Judiciall Of the Judicial laws given by Moses given by God unto the Iews for the ordering of their civill State which are but deductions out of the morall law applied and fitted to the present State of the Iews and by consequence binding no other State to the observation of them but that alone yea now Which by the dissolution of the Jewish State are made void that State to which they were given is utterly dissolved quite made void and taken away Notwithstanding seeing these laws as well as the ceremoniall are left upon record unto the Church of God Yet being left upon record unto us we may draw from them some directions for our selves we are to judge of those as well as we have done of them that they are preserved unto us for some speciall use as the Apostle tells us that whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning Rom. 15.4 the rather because we know that God hath suffered some writings of holy men as Iddoes History 2 Chron. 13.22 and Henochs Prophesie Jude 14. to perish as not esteeming them so necessary for the use of the Church as those books which are preserved and left unto us to this day Let us therefore enquire what instructions we may gather unto our selves out of the reading and considering of those laws which we call Iudiciall or rules for the ordering of the civill state of the Iews 1. We must acknowledge that God hath a speciall hand in civill government Not to insist upon particulars out of the consideration of them in generall there will arise these foure observations First in that God took so much care for his own people as not only to give them rules for his own worship but besides to leave with them directions and laws for the ordering of their civill affairs we may take notice that even the disposing of civill government belongs unto the Lord himself by whom Kings reigne and Princes decree justice Prov. 8.15 16. and the Apostle tels us that the powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13.1 Neither are the rulers onely from him but the government also as they judge by him so he judgeth among them Psal 82. and howsoever men seek the Rulers favour yet every mans Iudgement comes from the Lord Prov. 29.26 It is true that in this the Jews had a peculiar priviledge above any nation on the earth that they had the whole frame of their Civill government laid out unto them by God himselfe they had not only his Laws but his Statutes and his Judgements too Psal 147.20 under which name Moses comprehends both the Judiciall and Ceremomiall Law Deut. 5.31 Notwithstanding we have sufficient warrant that the Lord hath the same care of his Church in any State that he had of the Jews then so that the Laws in any Nation as farre as they are just and equall are to be esteemed the Laws of God and the judgements executed by them come from the Lord. Whence we are taught as to pray unto God for those that are in authority that we may lead a peaceable life under them 1 Tim. 2.2 So when Rulers so governe that the righteous may flourish in abundance of Peace as it shall be in Christs Kingdome Psal 72.7 that they that doe well may have praise and wrath may be executed upon those that doe evill Rom. 13.3 4. the honour and praise for such agreement must be returned to God alone A Second Rule that we may frame unto our selves out of the consideration of the judiciall Law 2. All law-makers must ground their laws upon Morall Precepts as God doth his ariseth from the precedent that God himselfe hath given us in the framing of that Law the precepts whereof are but so many deductions out of the Morall law applied unto that state of the Jews Whence all law-makers may take a patterne in making their laws to square them out by no other rule then that which God himselfe observed in the making of his Laws for his own people So that although States in making their Laws may make use of Christian Prudence in applying them to times places persons and emergent occasions yet we must be sure that all such laws must have the Morall law for their foundation which being right and equall in all things Psal 119.128 is withall the fountaine of all justice and equity A Third use which we may make of the consideration of the Judiciall Law 3. Though those laws bind us not in particular yet they doe in the generall grounds of equity on which they are founded is to set it before us as a Rule to guide us by although not in the particulars thereof in which it is applied to the Jewish state yet in the generall grounds of equity whence those particulars are deduced and whereat they aime For example the Lord commands his people to make battlements about their houses Deut. 22.8 the reason whereof he expresseth in the same place was the preventing of danger to mens lives if any should fall from thence in walking upon the roofe thereof unlesse there were some such meanes to prevent it Now although we have no cause in building our houses to build such battlements about them seeing our houses being not slat-roofed as theirs were have no such walkes on the tops of them from which men falling might endanger their lives yet we are by the scope and end at which the law aimes taught in generall to use the best meanes to prevent all danger to our neighbours person which our care and providence might foresee Lastly seeing we must needs acknowledg that there cannot be found so exact a Pattern to follow in establishing Government as is that which the Lord himselfe framed for his own people we
necessarily attends upon it shall we think that the God of nature the fountain of all wisdome the first and best former of societies would leave the body of a society composed by himself as it were the work of his own hand in more hazard then men do the states which they settle and stablish by their counsell Again 2ly Because the Church of all societies most needs a law as being 1 Both the largest most dispersed of all societies we know that the larger the body of a State is and the more dispersed the more need it hath to be firmly knit together by those strong bands of society Now we see the smallest societies that are amongst men and the most neerly compacted together the inhabitants of one small City the fellows of one Colledge governed by laws and orders whereas the Church is the largest of all societies in the world in extent and most dispersed as being possible to be scattered over the whole face of the earth and consequently above all other states on earth needs to be established by the best laws as being hardest to be governed and most subject to disorder and confusion without them In the next place we see the laws of men reach no farther then the ordering of mens outward conversation 2 To be ordered in the very motions of the heart and meddle not with the inward thoughts and motions of the minde But in the government of the Church the chiefest work must be the ruling of the heart and conscience as the Apostle tels us that Gods word and laws reach to the imaginations of the heart and bring under the very thoughts to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 and enter into the very dividing of the soul and spirit and to the discerning of the thoughts of the heart Which are 1 More various then outward actions 2 More speedily moved hardly governed Heb. 4.12 Now how much greater variety and diversity there is in mens thoughts then in their actions how much more easily and speedily they are moved and consequently with how much greater difficulty they are governed and kept in order is evident to all men Consequently we must conceive that the just wise and provident God that directed all men to give laws to order mens actions would himself much more give laws for the ordering and well governing of the thoughts and conscience Lastly 3ly And the Church being Gods more speciall care as being 1 His own inheritāce if God in the course of his Providence have taken order that other states to which he hath onely a generall relation as Lord of all the earth should be governed and ordered by fit laws for the preservation of society and peace we cannot deny but his care must be much greater for the governing and well ordering of his own people in whom he delights his chosen generation his peculiar inheritance which he hath set apart to bring forth fruits to himself Deut. 32.9 Rom. 7.4 in whose good or ill carriage seeing his Name is called upon them his honour is more interessed 2 In which his own honour is most interessed then any parents can be in the behaviour of his own children And consequently we must conclude that if all the States in the world were left without government yet God would give laws nay the most exact and perfect laws for the well ordering of his own Church seeing it redounds so much to his own honour as Moses tels us Deut. 4.7 8. Thus then the first Position proposed is evident enough This law can be found no where but in the Scriptures that the Church of God must have a law The next is more clear then it that this law can bee found in no other books then the Scriptures And to prove it we need no more but to put men to produce us any other volume besides this sacred book wherein that law is written let them name us to whose custody it was committed and where it may be found There is no reason the law given to the Church should bee committed to any other then the Churches keeping 1 Because the Church the keeper of its own records acknowledgeth no other 2 Other bastard-writings compared with it appear to be counterfeit now the Church acknowledgeth no other Book for the word or law of God but this alone neither did ever any dare to pretend that any other book besides this was Gods word or law if any should the very comparing of such bastard-writings with the true word would easily discover them to be no better then counterfeit But to clear this point more fully we shall desire to manifest this one truth more which any sober minded man will easily assent unto namely that it is neither possible nor in any sort convenient that the law for the governing of the Church should be given by any other then by God himself Besides 1 t It was not possible that any other then God himselfe should give this law 1 Because it rules the spirit of man to which no creature can give a law As being unable to take accompt of the breach thereof 2 Because Gods will must be the Churches law First then it is not possible and that upon a double ground The first is that God being a Spirit and therefore to be worshipped and served in spirit and truth John 4.24 the laws that prescribe the duties of that worship and service must of necessity reach to the spirit and inward man Now the giving of such laws is beyond mans power and therefore no law-giver from the beginning of the world ever took upon him that task And indeed it were absurd for a man to give such lawes of the observation or breach whereof he could take no account now we know seeing no man can know the thoughts of another mans heart it is impossible for him to judge whether they be answerable or contrary to the law by which they were appointed to be ordered The second reason why it is impossible for any other then God himself to give a law unto the Church is because it is agreeable to all rules of equity that Gods own will should be the law and rule to all creatures seeing they are all the work of his hand much more to the Church which besides her Creation Being his own both by Creatiō and Redemption he hath purchased to himself by the blood of his Son Act. 20.28 And consequently being his own by the strongest title must be disposed according to his will even by our Saviours rule which allows one to doe with his own what he will Mat. 20.15 If then Gods will must be the creatures law who can give it but himself for who hath known the minde of the Lord Rom. 11.34 Surely if none known the things of man but the spirit which is in man Now none can know Gods minde but himself the minde of God can much lesse be known by any
in all things else respect to his own glory For the advancing of his own glory 1. Our faith bearing witnesse to his Al-sufficiency Truth 2. Our obedience to his Authority Righteousnesse Yet are not all things in Scripture alike necessary which is testified at least by our faith and obedience For our relying on him by faith bears witnesse to his sufficiency faithfulnesse truth as our obedience in submitting chearfully to his will in all that he commands acknowledgeth his Authority Wisdome and Holinesse So then this will of God in requiring of us these conditions is every way just as well as free Now when wee say the grounds and rules of faith and obedience contained in Scripture are necessary to salvation we mean not that all are of like necessity Ignorance or unbeleef in God or Christ excludes absolutely from salvation John 3.18 so doth not ignorance or unbeleef in some temporall promise although it cannot be excused from sinne In brief then when we say all things necessary to salvation are contained in Scripture we mean both that the things written therein are necessary to that end although not alike necessary and that there is nothing necessary to that end that is not to be found there We are next to shew what we understand by this tearm containing Scriptures containe things 1. In expresse tearms 2. By necessary consequence Now things may be contained in Scripture either expresly and in plain tearms or by consequence drawn from some grounds that are delivered in Scripture and one of these two ways all grounds of faith or rules of practise are to be found in these holy writings It is no where affirmed in Scripture in expresse tearms that the holy Ghost is God but we read 1 John 5.7 that the Father the Word and the holy Ghost are one and from thence infer by necessary consequence that the holy Ghost is God because he is one with the Father who is God We are no where in precise words commanded to baptize infants but from the precept given to the Fathers to circumcise them we take our selves to be warranted to baptize them because Baptisme and Circumcision are in substance one Sacrament Wee are no where expresly commanded to discover the fault of what we sell or to give a just value for that which we buy But we have generall rules commanding us to speak the truth from the heart Ps 15.2 To doe as we desire to be done unto Mat. 7.12 and forbidden to defraud our brother in any matter or goe beyond him in bargaining which imports as much Thus where all things needfull to be beleeved or done are not clearly expressed in Scripture yet they are implied and drawn out from thence by necessary consequence This truth that the Scriptures contain whatsoever is necessary to salvation is sufficiently ratified by evident testimony of the Word it self which sends us to the Law and to the Testimony Isa 8.20 tels us that in them we have eternall life John 5.39 that they alone are able to make the man of God perfect to every good work 2 Tim. 2.17 and wise to salvation ver 15. that the Law of God is perfect Psal 19.7 and though there be an end of all other perfections yet the commandement is exceeding broad Psal 119.96 that is comprehends all needfull things so that nothing is wanting in it Whence proceeds that curse upon every one that addes as well as upon them that take away from that Book Rev. 22.18 Yea besides this truth is consonant to all grounds of reason whatsoever our adversaries alledge to the contrary For first we have reason to presume It was fit that God should deliver his will in writing 1. As the most easie way to make it publike that God would take the easiest way for the instruction of his Church now it is evident that it is more easie to leave things upon record in writing then to charge them upon mens memories especially when they are many and consequently must burthen the memory whereas lying before mens eyes in writing they may easily be overlooked at all times without trouble If it be replied that traditions are few and may therefore be easily remembred VVe answer first they may bee infinite for ought we know seeing no man ever took upon him to tell us how many they are And secondly be they more or fewer yet they are more easily preserved by writing then by tradition as all men know Again it was fit that in teaching his Church 2. As the safest way to prevent corruption God should take the safest way and freest from errour as well for his own honour as for his peoples good both which must needs be extreamly hazarded and hindered by corrupting the truth with errours which lead men into perdition and can hardly be prevented by delivering the word by tradition partly because many mens memories are weak and a great part are negligent especially in things of this nature and lastly because many are maliciously bent against the law which the wisdome of the flesh cannot admit Rom. 8.7 whereas the word written being an unerring record easily helps the weak and convinceth the refractary by setting the undoubted truth before mens eyes Farther 3. As the best way to win credit to his Word seeing the word is the ground of faith it is fit that it should be so delivered as might win most credit and estimation amongst men Now we know that written records are most authenticall and of most accompt with men and therefore are fittest to work men to assent unto the truth of God It is true I grant that mens faith depends neither upon wirting nor tradition but upon the testimony of the Spirit that dwels within the godlies hearts manifesting that the truth proposed is the word of God Notwithstanding the outward credit which the Scriptures carry amongst men by which such as are won afterwards to beleeve beginne at first to think reverently of them and others that beleeved not are restrained from scorning or opposing them seems to be much furthered by the Authority that the writing brings unto those records which are received and submitted unto by the Church and commanded and countenanced by the testimony thereof Lastly 4. And as most honourable whereas there is so much honour done to all humane laws by which States are governed that they are composed into one body and preserved in books written or printed for that purpose it seems absurd that God should deliver his law thus by patches part by writing and part by tradition resembling the feet of Nebuchadnezzars image Dan. 2.33 part of iron and part of clay and unworthy both of the Majesty of him that gives the law and of the law it self that is given And if we may take precedent from former times we may say with our Saviour from the beginning it was not so For when God left the law to be delivered by tradition he delivered it
by it to direct our practise and tender it unto God as a duty required and commanded in his owne law For which end both our Saviour Christ himself and the Apostles also after him even then when both the Judiciall and Ceremoniall laws were abolished yet upon all occasions presse the observation of the Morall Law And is therefore urged in the very letter of it by the Apostles and that too in all the duties thereof and that by vertue and from the letter of the commandement it self Rom. 13.8 9. Ephes 6.2 James 2.10 11. As for those who because the Apostle encourageth us to obedience Object 1 because we are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6.14 We are not under the Law but under Grace plead that we are therefore now no more under the command and rule of the law they mistaking the end and scope at which the Apostle aims put a sense upon his words Answer It is only an encouragement to mortifie our lusts which the Law forbade but brought us no power to subdue as Grace doth which he never intended For he makes use of this Position in that place only as a strong motive to encourage us to resist sin and not to suffer it to reigne in our mortall bodies to obey it in the lusts thereof Rom. 6.12 because we have now under the Gospel power to master and means to obtain victory over it which we may be assured of upon this ground that we are not under the Law which indeed forbids sin but in the mean time furnishing us with no power to resist it by the corrupt inclination of our rebellious spirits rather awakens and quickens our corrupt lusts by restraining them then subdues them but under Grace and consequently under the government of the Spirit which supplies us with ability to resist sinfull motions and to conform to the law that our thoughts may be brought under the obedience of Christ which the law of it self could not give us So that by that Spirit we have the fear of God planted in our hearts that we shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 Yea but will some object the Apostle tels us Object 2 We are no longer under a School-master Gal. 3.14 15. that the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ but after faith is come we are no longer under a school-master To which we answer that the Apostle intending in that place to prove against those who pressed the observation of the law to establish their own righteousnesse for the obtaining of eternall life Rom. 10.3 and laying before himself this scope to make it evident that there can be no justification by the works of the law but only by the righteousnesse of faith because for want of ability to fulfill the law perfectly in every point vvhich is impossible to us through the vveaknesse of the flesh Rom. Answer 8.3 we are so far from being justified by it that it leaves us under a curse he takes in hand and hath just occasion to make it appear that one speciall use of the law is to drive us unto Christ The morall law drives to Christ for justistification in which respect he is said to be the end of the law to those that believe Rom. 10.3 Which is true indeed even of the Morall Law especially if we take in with it the promises and threats annexed thereunto vvhereof neither the one can be obtained nor the other escaped but by Christ alone But the Apostle speaks there of the ceremoniall law especially But in this place the Apostle especially points at the ceremoniall lavv vvhich under types and shadows represented Christ unto that Church of the Jewes vvhich now by the coming of the body of vvhom they were shadows are vvholly taken away Now whereas the same Apostle tels us 1 Tim. 1.9 Object 3 that the Law is not made for a righteous man The law is not made for a righteous man he meanes not that the Law was not made for such a man for his direction to be the rule of his life but seeing a just man voluntarily submits to the Law both desires endavours to walk according to it Answer that man needs not the Law as a bridle True as a bâ—idle because he hath a stronger means to hold him in a sanctified spirit within him to hold him in by way of restraint because he is kept within his bounds by his own spirit which inclines in it selfe unto Gods Testimonies Psal 119.112 chooseth the way of his Truth v. 99. vowes to keepe Gods judgements ver 106. makes them his desight ver 143. and finds delight in them ver 103. and therefore having within himselfe a principle that enforceth more strongly to the duties of obedience then the terrors of any law can doe the law in that respect is not given to a righteous man who is a law unto himselfe and yet so that he guides himselfe by the rule of that Law alone Psal 119.24 105. But as he adds in the words that follow it is made for the lawlesse and disobedient and the like who need this Law both as a bridle to keepe them within their bounds by the terrors thereof and besides as a Judge to condemne them for their disobedience when they become transgressors and walke contrary thereunto It is true indeed Christ indeed freed us from the ceremonial Law that from the Ceremoniall law we are wholly freed by the comming of Christ into the world who is the body of those shadowes and it is as true that the Judiciall law is likewise made void to us And Judiciall as being given to the Iewes as such a State not as a Church and therefore cannot be continued not only because the State of the Iews to which it was given is and was shortly after Christs Ascension dissolved but besides because the Church being spred over so many different Nations and States it was impossible for them all to be grounded by the same rules of civill Policy Not from the Morall But for the Morall Law seeing it sets down rules of governing a man as a man it is communicable to all men of what Nation soever and is therefore universally and perpetually to be observed Notwithstanding even concerning that Law we gaine ease and reliefe by Christ three waies by which that yoke if we think fit so to tearme it is made easie unto us although to speake truly the Commandements in themselves are not grievous as the Apostle testifies 1 Iohn 5.2 First therefore we are by Christ freed from the rigour and curse of the Law Christ also hath freed us from the curse of that Law which required of us full and exact obedience thereunto in all things and that under the penalty of an everlasting curse to rest for ever upon our bodies and soules if we failed in the least duty required therein as it is denounced Deut. 27.26 Now Christ being