or services The other is the consideration of the Divine Goodness But the consideration of his Justice being as ponderous to the contrary this is as inept to beget an assurance of our acceptance with God as the former Conscience through being guilty being also suspicious will hinder us in our expecting any thing from the Divine Goodness by continually objecting his justice to us But supposing we were sufficiently furnished with Notices of the Divine placability and that he will accept a Homage from us yet it still remains to be proved that precluding a supernatural Revelation we have any rational ground of belief that he will approve our manner of approach to him by Sacrifices I know no perfection in the Divine Being to which they are Naturally suited It is true I find a Late Author insinuating that the Religion of Sacrifices flows from the Nature and the Attributes of God requiring no other discovery than the Light and no other determination than the choice of natural Reason def and continuat p. 427 428. But I would fain know what property in the Divine Nature the Religion of Sacrifices flows from God is not capable of being fed or refreshed by the scent and smoke of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 2. Sect. 24. Indeed Porphyry tells us that a great many thought so but I am sure it was a most foolish thought And besides what-ever flows from the Divine Nature and the Attributes of God the obligation to it is indissoluble nor can we be superceded the performance of it And by consequence the Worshipping of God by Sacrifices should both have obliged mankind in the state of innocencie and doth still indispensably oblige us Nor can the Christian Institution vacate any Duty that flows from the Nature of God Indeed the mysterious and gracious Counsels of Gods will in reference to our recovery from Wrath by the Sacrifice of his Son which he designed the bringing into light and the giving the world instruction about by this Medium render our being found in this Method of address to God while the end proposed in it continued very rational and justifiable but abstracting from that the mind of man can not entertain a more silly and ludicrous thought than that we should thereby honour God in a due and suitable way That we should adore and magnifie the Goodness and bounty of God in all the benefits we partake of and that we should use them soberly and discreetly improving them into motives of cheerfulness humility and advantages of service both in communicating to the wants of others and being the more alacrous in obedience our selves hath the authorisation of Reason for it and becomes that habitude we stand in to God as Rational Creatures But to reckon that the presenting God with slaughtered Animals is the most natural Symptome of Homage that Rational Creatures can express their thankfulness to him by Naturalis Ratio si recta esset sciret Deâ—â— tâ—libus non indigere neque ea à nobis requirere Râ—vet in cap. 4. Gen. Exercit. 22. Def. contin p. 431 I account it a sentiment only fit for them who never duly meditated what God is And in my conceit the missing of such an invention would have been so far from being flat stupidity that it would have argued a mind pregnant with generous thoughts of God The Second thing produced in proof that Sacrifices took their beginning from Humane Agreement is because there appears not any shadow of command for them when they were first practised and to say that the expression of worship by Sacrifices was commanded though â— is no where Recorded is to take the liberty of saying any thing without proof or evidence Eccl. Polit. p. 101. v. def contin p. 428. To this I reply that 't is not needful that every command relating to institutions be expresly and in terminis recorded 't is enough that it be colligible from the Scripture I know no Logick that will allow the sequel That because the command of a thing is not registred in so many words that therefore the thing it self is not of Divine Original The Reverend Person who reviewed and animadverted on the Ecclesiastical Polity told him that there was an Institution for the offering and burning Incense only with sacred fire taken from the Altar and that the Priests were consumed with fire from before the Lord for the neglect of it Yet there is no express command in the whole Scripture where that Institution is in terminis Recorded p. 272. This our late Author takes no Notice of in his Def. Contin but passeth it in deep silence as he doth all the most material things in the said Reply I shall only subjoyn one instance more to the same purpose The Observation of the Christian or First day-Sabbath will be allowed I suppose to have a Warrant in the Revelation of the Word yet there is not in the whole Gospel a Command in express Terms for the keeping of it There is indeed a precept in the Decalogue for the observance of one day in Seven as a Holy Sabbath to the Lord and there is an express determination founded on Gods Resting from his Works for the keeping the last day of the Hebdomadal Revolution during the Old Testament Oeconomy as a day of Sacred Rest. There are also various Arguments taken from the Creation of all things in and by Christ his Finishing and Resting from all the Works of the New Creation in and by his Resurrection his declaring that a Day of Rest accommodated to his own ceasing from his Works remains now for Believers Together with the Apostolical observation of the First Day of the week as a Sabbath to the Lord God's blessing his People in their attendance on him from time to time on that Day John Baptising it with the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord's Day c. All which do evince the change of the Day from the Seventh unto the First to be of Heavenly Original and founded in Divine Authority Yet there is not a Command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the whole Sacred Code and Register for it In a matter of so great antiquity as Sacrifices when the Lord instructed his Church by Dreams Visions mental Impressions audible voice c. To affirm that there was no Divine Command for the Religion of Sacrifices because the Command is not expresly delivered is a very unwary and bold assertion It is enough for us if we can demonstrate that they acted not herein without a Divine Warrant though we cannot assign the manner in which it was prescribed and this we hope to make good to the satisfaction of all sober inquirers but to satisfie Scepticks and prejudic'd persons who have no mind to be convinced is more than any man can undertake The third Opinion then concerning the Original of Sacrifices is theirs who deduce them from the Institution of God himself And as this is the common sentiment
call men to account for what was never in their power to do He cannot expostulate with men for their sins if he created them destitute of the means and power of obedience In such a case we might be pitied but could not be blamed In a word this were to charge our sins upon God in a degree beyond what the asserters of fate and destiny ever did I may usurp therefore what the Philosopher say's in the like case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to ascribe our wickedness to necessity is to justifie our selves and to condemn God Salâ—â—st de diis mundo cap. 9. An ability then of answering the Law of Creation man must at first have been endow'd with What this was and the nature of it is next to be declared God then having created man He not only made him a Rational Creature furnished with a soul of an immaterial and immortal nature which was his essential perfection and did perfect him in genere Physico as he was such a particular being in the universe which may be stiled the Natural Image of God in man Being in its spiritual immortal nature a representation of the Divine nature and is accordingly alluded to under that notion by the Holy Ghost Gen. 9.6 But besides He impressed a Rectitude on the soul of man perfecting him in Genere Morali as he stood in Relation to God as his Rector and Governour and was under such and such Laws Lo this only have I found that God made man upright Eccles. 7.29 i. e. endowed with divine Wisdome to understand his duty and with perfect ability to perform the same And this is principally intended Gen. 1.26 Where God saye's Let us make man in our Image after our own likeness For the likeness of man to God consists chiefly in purity Be ye Holy as I am holy 1 Pet. 1.15 And be ye perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Mat. 5.48 A moral resemblance can in both these places only be understood And that this is the primary proper intendment of that phrase our being created in the Image of God The Apostle Paul in more than one place doth confirm Put ye on the new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Eph. 4.24 with Col. 3.10 And this we may call the Moral Image of God in man not only because it consists in Moral perfections answerable to what we conceive in God under that notion but especially because it adapts and qualifies us for the observance of the Law of Morality appointed us as the Rule of our living to Him Now this Moral Image though it was no part of our essence nor belonged inseparably to our faculties nor did our being Rational creatures consist in it yet it was not only concreated with Humane nature consentaneous to it and perfective of it but was in the state of Creation naturally due considering the end man was made for and the duties which were required of Him Had God sent man out of his hand without this Divine impressed Image Si hoc adjutorium vel Angelo vel homini cum primùm facti sunt Dâ—fuisset quoniam non talis natura facta erat â—t sine Divino adjutorio posseâ— manere si vellet non uti que suâ culpâ cecidissent Adjutorium quippe defuissâ—t sine quâ— manere non possent Aug. de corr et Grat. cap. 11. he had not had that goodness which 't is necessary every work of God should have which the Holy Ghost tells us that every work of God had And God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very Good Gen. 1.31 That is every Creature was not only furnished with such perfections as might Render it a Being of such a species and kind in the creation but besides was endowed with whatever might qualify and adapt it to the ends that it was made for In this superadded rectitude image I mean superadded with respect to our essence but Natural as well as connate with to the respect State and Law we were made in and under conâ—isted our ability of living to God in an observance of the Law of Creation commonly stiled the Law of Nature Nor could man even in the State of innocency have so lived to God in the single strength of his Rational faculties as to be accepted with him Natural Grace I stile it so not with respect to the kind but the dueness was as necessary in order to our observing the Law of Creation then as Supernatural is to the obeying the Law of faith now This I would have due heed given to forasmuch as there will be considerable occasion to improve it afterwards § 6. Though man was created under the Sanction and in the knowledg of a Law and every way qualified and adapted for the keeping of it had he not been wanting to himself Yet if we consider him precisely as under the Law of Creation without any farther stipulation from God he was the meer object of Gods Dominion made at his will and for his pleasure and annihilable by the same will to which he owed his subsistence I readily grant that Gods Dominion which is nothing else but a right of disposing his Creatures according to his own pleasure in way's becoming Holiness Justice Goodness did no way Warrant him to damn them without the intervention of sin For this were to inflict a torment on them outweighing the Good of existence which he had given them If God should create a Creature only to make it miserable in stead of bestowing a benefit on it He would do it the greatest injury he possibly could Though bare existence be a term of perfection yet when it is over-ballanced with an extream and infinite misery it becomes an unhappiness and can be no longer eligible While we are then asserting the Soveraignty of God we would not affront his Justice and Goodness Now to reduce an innocent Creature into a worse estate than that out of which it was taken we cannot but esteem it inconsistent both with the Justice and Goodness which essentially belong to the supreme Being Nor can we once admit into our thoughts that he whose ways are weight and measure can inflict on any an extream and endless torment without the consideration of an antecedent crime There is nothing more repugnant to the notions of justice and equity than to damn a harmless Creature meerly out of will and pleasure The Savage allowances in the Heathen Worship have been alway's reckoned a just impeachment of the Deity of those they adored and shall we admit a worse Barbarity to be an appendage of the Dominion of the Holy Jehovah God forbid Nor do I in the second place deny but that tranquillity and serenity of mind would have necessarily accompanied Rectitude and Obedience Light is not more inseparable from a Sun-beam than pleasure and peace of Soul is from a state of purity and uprightness The obedient Soul â—asts
Moral Rectitude and Obedience Though the Gospel strengthen the Duties of Morality by new Motives and improve them upon New Principles yet it no where gives us any New Precepts of Moral Goodness It is true Christ once and again particularly in the fifth of Matthew vindicates the Moral Law from the corrupt glosses and flesh-pleasing expositions of the Scribes and Pharisees who had restrained and perverted it from and besides the meaning of the Law and the intent of the Law-giver But he no where superinduceth any New Moral Duty that was not designed in the Sanction of it at first He hath retrived the old Rules of Nature from the evil customs of the World and rebuk'd the false expositions put upon the Decalogue by those who both then and for a considerable time before sat in Moses's Chair But he hath no where made new additions to them by putting his last hand as some men take upon them to say to an imperfect draught And indeed to affirm that the Decalogue was an imperfect and defective edition of the Natural Law is to assert that which no way accords with the design of God's Wisdom and Goodness in giving it For God's intendment in giving the Law of the Ten Commandments being to relieve us against the Darkness of Moral Good and Evil which had seized us by the Fall we must suppose it a sufficient draught of the Original Law of Morality otherwise we must conclude it not proportionable and adequate to the end it was given for which to assert is no less than an impeachment of the divine Sapience Faithfulness and Goodness Nor doth the bringing up such a report upon the Moral Law accord with that account which the Scripture every where gives of it The Law of the Lord is perfect Psal. 19.7 Not onely essentially perfect in respect of its purity and holiness but integrally in respect of its plenitude and fulness As it is in nothing superfluous which it ought not to have neither is it deficient in any thing that it ought to have Thy Commandment is exceeding broad Psal. 119.96 This it could not be if it were not a perfect measure of all Moral Duties Shall I add that the institution of New Moral precepts seems not at all consonant to the design that Christ came upon The Holy Ghost entirely allots the giving of the Law to Moses telling us that the work errand and business of Christ was of another Nature The Law came by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.17 Christ's work was to bring into further light the Law of Faith and to redeem us from the Curse of the Moral Law not to augment the number of Natural Duties This may suffice to perstringe among others a late Author whose words are that the Decalogue was never intended for a perfect System of the Moral Law That â—e cannot imagine that by thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image is meant Thou shalt not institute Symbolical ceremonies or that by thou shalt not Murther alms and fraternal Correption are enjoyned c. Def. Continuat p. 312. It is likely that he and those of his persuasion would take it ill if I should tell them with whose Heifer they here Plow Therefore I shall irritate no man onely recommend those who desire farther confirmation in this matter to such who have debated the Socinian Controversies Now with respect to Christs having made the Moral Law of the Family of the Christian Religion in the place already assigned it a threefold subordination of that to this is easie to be manifested 1. That it is upon the alone score of the Law of Grace that God will accept any service at the hands of Sinners For though the Law as to the Obligation of it remain still in force and for the substance of it will do so to all Eternity yet that God will accept the service of Sinners is to be wholly attributed to God's transaction with them in the Covenant of Grace by Jesus Christ. 2. It is in the alone vertue of the Law of Faith and God's Mercy and Faithfulness therein displayed and declared that an ability is ministred to us of performing any part of Moral Obedience so as to be accepted with the Lord and afforded ground of expecting a reward thereupon This Grace comes not by Moses The Law as such administers no strength for the performance of what it requires this comes alone by Jesus Christ out of whose fulness we receive Grace for Grace Joh. 1.16 17. 3. Though the Original Law continue both to claym perfect Obedience and to threaten Death in case of the least faileur yet because of the introduction of the Law of grace over it the penalty shall not be executed provided we be sincere Christians flie to the hope set before us Heb. 6.18 Rom. 8.1 Not-withstanding both our manifest faileurs in that Obedience which the Law exacts and its severe denunciation of wrath upon the least sin yet our condition is not left hopeless providing we fulfil the terms of the Law of Grace Secondly The Original Law is brought into subserviency to the Law of Grace in this That though in it self and abstractedly considered it be only shapen to drive us from God and to fill us with thoughts of fear and flight and accordingly that was the effect of it upon Adam as soon as he had sinned yet through the introduction of the Remedying-Law it is become a blessed means in the hand of the Spirit to conduct us to Christ and God through him Hence it is stiled our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ Gal. 3.24 And Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The end of the Law for Righteousness c. Rom. 10.4 The scope and drift of the Law He to whom the Law guides and conducts Thus the word is used likewise elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the end i. e. finis intentionis the scope of the Commandment is Charity 2 Tim. 1.5 And not as Moses who put a vail over his face that the Children could not stedfastly look 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the end of that which is abolished To that which God aym'd at in and by the Mosaick Ceremonies 2 Cor. 3.13 That Righteousness which the Law becoming weak through the flesh cannot confer upon us Rom. 8.3 It conducts and leads us to Christ for the obtaining of This is a blessed subserviency that all that is frightful and perplexing in the Original Law whether the amazing strictness of its precepts or the severe dreadfulness of its denunciations is made contributory and influential to bring us to Christ and to God by him Thirdly Herein also is the Original Law subjected and made subservient to the Law of Grace That Faith in the Messiah is constituted an ingredient in every Moral act in order to its acceptance with God 't is this which mainly gives every action its Moral specification Though the foundation
our impotency relieved our faculties healed and elevated to concur as vital principles of Faith and New Obedience There is a secret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or powerful working on the Soul by which the darkness that did benight us is dispelled our minds irradiated with beams of light our wills softned and rendâ—ed plyant and our affections purified and changed The faculties being one individual entity both with one another and with the Soul only receiving various denominations according to its exertions to different objects what-ever impresseth or affecteth the Soul so as to dispose it to one operation disposeth it proportionably to all This is called the saving us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 The Creating us again to good works Eph. 2.10 The shining into our hearts to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 The giving us an understanding to know Him that is True 1 Joh. 5.20 The enlightning the eyes of our Understanding Eph. 1.18 The working in us to will and to do Phil. 2.12 The writing the Law in our hearts Jer. 3â— 33 Hence we are said to be born of the Spirit Joh. 3.5 To be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught of God Joh. 6.45 To receive an Unction from the Holy One 1 Joh. 2.20 This is the New man which after God is Created in Righteousness and true Holiness Eph. 4.23 24. This is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being made partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 This is a vital Law Rom. 8.2 The Spirit of God dwelling in us Rom. 8.9 By this we become of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord Isa. 11.33 This restoreth the Soul to an athletique healthiness like leaven ferments it into its own Nature and by a vital antipathy crosseth all the heavings and stirrings of Lust in it And where this inward working is withheld outward teaching signifies little Sonus verborum nostrorum aures percutit Magister â—â—tus est Nolite putare quenquam hominem discere ab homine Admonere possumus per strepitum vocis nostra si non intus sit qui doceat inauis fit strepitus noster The sound of our words strike the ear but the teacher is within No man learns of another the things of God We may admonish but all is in vain unless he be within that instructs August Per vocem non instruitur quando mens per spiritum non Ungitur Where there is not the inward anointing there is no saving instruction received by the outward Ministry of the Word Gregorius vocaâ— allocutionem intimâ— inspirationis quae humanam mentem contingendo sublevat Greg. Homil. 30. in Evang. There is an actual influence of the Spirit both irradiating the word and elevating the faculty otherwise nothing is truly attained § 16. A New Principle being thus formed in the soul there is thereby begotten a promptitude and readiness of acting according to the Law of Creation So that where-ever there is Grace there is Vertue also Grace is our Medicine by which our Aversation and Weakness in reference to the Original Law is removed and healed and proportionably to that measure of it we are made partakers of we are brought under an inclination and into an aptitude of obeying the Primitive Law There is hereby an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a restoring us in Christ as our head to our primitive dependance on God Eph. 1.10 Through him we are not only recovered to a state of favour but reduced to a subject posture The Soul is now brought into a due subordination to God as its Maker Preserver and Rector In stead of adhering to the Creatures and pursuing the gratification of the animal life God becomes our great end and the pleasing him in all things our main study and endeavour According as the will of God becomes known it is spontaneously embraced and complacentially rested in The Grace of God not only teacheth but inableth us to deny Ungodliness and Worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and Godlily in this present world Tit. 2.11 12. Exemplariness in all vertuous conversation is a certain concomitant effect of renewing Grace However immoral men may be antecedently to their being born of God yet afterwards vertue is a chief part of their endeavour and study 1 Cor. 6.11 If any then pretending to Grace do either in their doctrines encourage immorality as the Nicolaitans and Marcionites of old and some Germane Antinomians of late or in their practice be void of sobriety and honesty Let the persons so teaching and walking bear the imputation of it but let not Religion in General be reflected on So far are all the Advocates of Grace as distinct from Moral Vertue that I know of from setting them at odds that they Unanimously affirm that where there is not Vertue there can be no Grace and that none can be truly Devout that is not highly Moral It is true our renovation being carried on but by degrees and there being remains of indwelling and unmortified lust in the best there is not one but at some time or other is transported less or more to undue objects But so far as any one is imbued with the spirit of life and born of God he sinneth not because his seed remaineth in him 1 Joh. 3.9 It is a most slanderous imputation therefore which a late Author fast'neth upon the Nonconformists that they have brought into fashion a Godliness without Religion Zeal without Humanity and Grace without good Nature or good Manners Eccles. Polit. p. 74. see also Def. Continuat p. 308. 338. c. § 17. An Obedience to the Law of Creation answerable to the Original and proper form and tenour of it we have already demonstrated to be in the lapsed state impossible For as it is a contradiction to make that not to have been which hath been so is it to suppose a conformity in him who hath sinned to that Law which in its primitive Sanction requireth every man to be sinless Yet this Law being still continued not only as the Rule that God will judge every man by who through non-compliance with the terms of the Gospel is not relieved by the Law of Faith But also as the Rule of that obedience which with some attemperations introduced by the Indulgence and Mitigation of the New Covenant God continues to exact of every one that shall enter into life It will not be amiss to enquire briefly into the Nature and degree of that obedience and to state the ability we enjoy through Christ of performing it First then Sincere Obedience to the whole Law of Creation is not only still required but it is required under the penalty of Damnation Though the Gospel relieve us from the sentence of the Law on faileur of perfect obedience yet it ministers no such relief where there is a want of sincere Obedience An endeavour to walk in all the Moral