LXXX sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London whereof nine of them not till now published / by the late eminent and learned divine Anthony Farindon ... ; in two volumes, with a large table to both.

The One and Fortieth SERMON. (Book 41)

PART I.

JAMES I. 25.

But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continu∣eth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

THere is nothing more talked of then the Gospel, no∣thing more wilfully mistook, nothing more fre∣quently abused. The sound of it is gone through the earth, is heard from the East to the West, but men have set and tuned it to their own lusts and hu∣mours: No Psalm will please us but a Psalm of Mer∣cy: For Judgment is a harsh note. Mercy and Judgment, though David put them together in his Song, with us are such discords that they yield no harmony. Mercy and Judgment, Law and Liberty, though they may meet and delight us, though they must meet to save us, yet we set them at distance, cleave to the one, and hate the other; please and delight our selves under the sha∣dow of Mercy, till Judgment falleth upon as a tempest to overwhelm us; loose our Liberty in our embraces; forfeit Mercy by laying hold of it; and the Gospel of Christ is made the Gospel of man, nay, saith S. Augu∣stine, Evangelium Diaboli, the Gospel of the Devil himself. This our blessed Apostle had discovered in the dispersed Tribes, to whom he wrote; That they were very ready to publish and magnifie the Gospel, that they loved to speak of it, that they loved to hear of it; that they were per∣fect in their Creed, that Faith was set up aloft and crowned, even when it was dead; that they did believe, and were partial; that they did be∣lieve, and despise the poor; that they did believe, and blaspheme that worthy Name by which they were called: And therefore to draw them back from this so dangerous a deviation,* 1.1 he exhorteth them, first, to hear the word of truth (that he disliketh not) but then, secondly, to receive it in∣to their hearts purged from all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness.* 1.2 And in the third place, to drive it home, he urgeth them to the Practice and full Obedience of what they hear and believe. His first reason is, Because to hear and not to do is to put a cheat upon our selves, to defraud our selves of the true end of Hearing; which when we do; we must necessarily fall up∣on a worse end. If we hear, and not do, we shall do that which will de∣stroy

us. His second reason is taken ab utili, from the huge advantage we shall reap by it. For Blessedness is entailed not upon the Hearers, but the Doers of the Word; as you find it in my Text, But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, &c.

In which words you have, I. the Character of a true Gospeller, of a Christian indeed, He looketh into the Gospel, and he continueth in it by fre∣quent meditation and by constant obedience; by not forgetting, and by doing the work which the Gospel enjoyneth. This is his Character. II. his Crown; He shall be blessed in his deed. So that here the Apostle taketh the Christian by the hand, and pointeth out to him his end, namely Bles∣sedness: And, that he may press forward to it, he chalketh out his way be∣fore him, the Gospel, or the doctrine of the Gospel of Christ. Here if he walk and make progress, here if he remain and persevere, the end is Blessedness; and it is laid up for him, and even expecteth and waiteth to meet him. Thus we see it, and thus we set forward towards it. Doing is the Duty, and Blessedness is the Reward. These are the Parts. In the first, the Character of a true Christian, you have the Character of the Gospel it self, and that, one would think, a strange one. For who would look for Law in the Gospel? or who would look for liberty in a Law? The Gospel is good news, but a Law is terrible; we cannot endure to hear that which is commanded: And one would think that the Law were vanished with the smoke at mount Sinai. And Liberty is a Jubilee, bringeth rest and intermission; but a Law tieth and fettereth us to hard tasks, to be up and doing, to labour and pain. And yet there is Law in the Gospel, and there is Liberty in the Gospel: and these two will friendly joyn and com∣ply together; and the truest way to liberty is by this Law. The Gospel then, or the Doctrine of the Gospel, is 1. a Law, and so requireth our o∣bedience; 2. a perfect Law, and exacteth a perfect and complete obedience; 3. a Law of liberty, that our obedience may be free and voluntary. And these, if we continue to the end, will draw on the reward, which is the end of all, the end of this Law, the end of our obedience; We shall be blessed in our work.

We begin with the Character of the Gospel, or the doctrine of the Go∣spel. And, first, we see, the Apostle calleth it a Law. And though it may seem an improper speech to say the Gospel is Law, yet it will bear a good and profitable sense. For there is a new Law as well as an old. Et lex an∣tiqua suppletur per novam, saith Tertullian; The old Law receiveth addi∣tion and perfection by the new. Take it in what sense you please, in the best and most pleasing signification, it implieth a Law. If you take it for a Testament, as it is called, that is the Will of the Testator;* 1.3 and his will is a Law. It is called so, mandatum, a command, an injunction; contestatio mentis, saith Gellius, a declaration of our mind.* 1.4 I have given them thy word, saith Christ. I have delivered all thy mind and will: which we are bound to observe as a Law. Take it for a Covenant: It is called so, the new covenant. And what is a Covenant but a Law? It was a Law upon Christ, to do what belonged to his office; and it is a Law upon us, to do our duties; unless we can think that Christ onely was under the Law, that we might be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, lawless, and do what we please. Take it, as the name importeth, for Good news; Even that pleasing sound, the Angels Anthem, the Musick of Heaven may conveigh a Law. For what was the good news? That we should be delivered from our enemies. That is but an imperfect narration, but a part of the news. The Law is tied as fast to it as we are to the Law, That we should serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our life. Take it in the Angels words; To you is born a Sa∣viour. And though TO YOU may take all mankind within its compass,

and be as large as the whole world, yet it is a Law that appropriateth and applieth these words, and draweth them down to particulars. For though they take in all, yet they do not take in a Libertine or lawless person. To you a Saviour, is no good news to the impenitent sinner, to him that will not be obedient to this Law, to the Gospel of Christ. Facit infidelitas mul∣torum ut non omnibus nascatur qui omnibus natus est, saith Ambrose. To you a Saviour is born, is universally true: but Infidelity and Disobedience in∣terpret it against themselves. He is not your Saviour, unless you receive him with his own conditions: and his conditions make a Law▪ and are ob∣ligatory. For, in the last place, look upon his promises, of Expiation and Pardon and Remission, of Life and Eternity, look upon them in all their brightness and radiancie; and even from thence you may hear a Law, as the Israelites did from the thick cloud and thunders. For Love may have a Law bound up in it as vvell as Terrour. Love hath its commands. In∣deed it is it self a Law, especially the Love of the God of Love, who is equal to himself in all his wayes, vvhose promises are made (as all things else vvhich are made by him) in order, number, and weight, vvhose Love and Promises are guided and directed by his Justice and Wisdom. He doth not promise to purge those vvho vvill vvallow in the mire, or to pardon those vvho vvill ever rebel, or to give them life vvho love death, or e∣ternal, pure, spiritual joy to those vvho seek eternity onely in their lusts. No: his promises are alwayes attended with conditions fitted to that Wis∣dom that made them, and to our condition that receive them. He doth not ex conditionibus facere promissiones, as some have been bold to say, condition vvith us to do his vvill, and then turn the condition into a pro∣mise; but rather ex promissionibus facere conditiones, make conditions out of promises. For every promise in the Gospel is loaded vvith its conditi∣on. Thou shalt be saved; but it is, if thou believe: There is lex Fidei, the Law of Faith. I will give thee a crown of life; but it is, if thou be faith∣ful unto death: There is lex Factorum, the Law of Works. For they are not all Credenda in the Gospel, all articles of Faith: there be Agenda, some things to be done. Nor is the Decalogue shut out of the Gospel. Nay, the very articles of our Creed include a Law, and in a manner bind us to some duty: and though they run not in that imperial strain, Do this, and live, yet they look towards it as towards their end. Otherwise to believe them in our own vain and carnal sense vvere enough, and the same faith vvould save us vvith vvhich the Devils are tormented. No: thy Faith, to vvhich thou art also bound as by a Law, is dead, that is, is not faith, if it do not vvork by a Law. Thou believest there is a God: Thou art then bound to vvorship him. Thou believest that Christ is thy Lord: Thou art then obliged to do what he commandeth: His Word must be thy Law, and thou must fulfill it. His Death is a Law, and bind∣eth thee to mortification. His Cross should be thy obedience; his Re∣surrection, thy righteousness; and his Coming to judge the quick and the dead, thy care and solicitude. In a word; in a Testament, in a Cove∣nant, in the Angel's message, in the Promises of the Gospel, in every Ar∣ticle of thy Creed thou mayest find a Law: Christ's Legacy, his Will, is a Law; the Covenant bindeth thee; the Good news obligeth thee; the Promises engage thee; and every Article of thy Creed hath a kind of commanding and legislative power over thee. Either they bind to some duty, or concern thee not at all. For they are not proposed for specula∣tion, but for practice; and that consequence vvhich thou mayest easily draw from every one, must be to thee as a Law. What though honey and milk be under his tongue, and he sendeth embassadours to thee, and they in∣treat and beseech thee in his stead and in his name? Yet is all this in refe∣rence

to his command, and it proceedeth from the same Love which made his Law: And even these beseechings are binding, and aggravate our guilt, if we melt not, and bow to his Law. Principum preces mandata sunt; the very intreaties of Kings and Princes are as binding as Laws, preces armatae, intreaties that carry force and power with them, that are sent to us as it were in arms to invade and conquer us. And if we nei∣ther yield to the voice of Christ in his royal Law, nor fall down and wor∣ship at his condescensions and loving parlies and earnest beseechings, we increase our guilt, and make sin sinful in the highest degree.

Nor need we thus boggle at the word, or be afraid to see a Law in the Gospel, if either we consider the Gospel it self, or Christ our King and Lord, or our selves, who are his redeemed captives, and owe him all ser∣vice and allegeance. For, first, the Gospel is not a dispensation to sin; nor was a Saviour born to us, that he should do and suffer all, and we do what we list. No: the Gospel is the greatest and sharpest curb that was ever yet put into the mouth of Sin. The grace of God, saith S. Paul, hath appear∣ed unto all men, teaching us, that is, commanding us,* 1.5 to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Libertas in Christo non fecit innocentiae injuriam, saith the Fa∣ther; Our liberty in Christ was not brought in to beat down innocency before it, but to uphold it rather and defend it against all those assaults which flesh and bloud, our lusts and concupiscence, are ready to make a∣gainst it. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. He taketh away those sins that are past by remission and pardon; but he set∣teth up a Law as a rampire and bulwork against Sin, that it break not in and reign again in our mortal bodies. There Christ is said to take away, not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the sins, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the sin, of the world, that is, the whole nature of Sin, that it may have no subsistence or being in the world. If the Gospel had nothing of Law in it, there could be no sin under the Go∣spel: For Sin is a transgression of a Law. But flatter our selves as we please, those are the greatest sins which we commit against the Gospel. And it shall be easier in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah then for those Christians who turn the grace of God into wantonness, who sport and revel it under the very wings of Mercy, who think Mercy cannot make a Law, but is busie onely to bestow Donatives and Indulgences, who are then most licencious when they are most restrained. For what greater curb can there be, then when Justice, and Wisdom, and Love, and Mercy, all con∣cur and joyn together to make a Law?

Secondly, Christ is not onely our Redeemer, but our King and Law-giver. As he is the wonderful Counsellour,* 1.6 so he came out of the loyns of Judah, and is a Law-giver too. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. The government shall be upon his shoulder. He crept not to this ho∣nour,* 1.7 but this honour returned to him as to the true and lawful Lord With glory and honour did God crown him, and set him over the works of his hands.* 1.8 As he crowned the first Adam with Understanding and freedom of Will; so he crowned the second Adam with the full Knowledge of all things, with a perfect Will, and with a wonderful Power, And as he gave to Adam Dominion over the beasts of the field, so he gave to Christ Power over things in heaven and things on earth. And he glorified not himself:* 1.9 but he who said, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee: he it was that laid the government upon his shoulder: Not, upon his shoulders: For he was well a∣ble to bear it on one of them. For in him the Godhead dwelleth bodily. And with this power he was able to put down all other rule, autority and pow∣er,* 1.10 to spoil principalities and powers, and to shew them openly in triumph; to spoil them by his death, and to spoil them by his Laws, due obedience to

which shaketh the power of Hell it self. For this, as it pulleth out the sting of Death, so also beateth down Satan under our feet. This, if it were universal, would be the best exorcism that is, and even chase the Devil out of the world, which he maketh his Kingdom. For to run the way of Christ's commandments, is to overthrow him and bind him in chains, is another hell in hell unto him.

Thirdly, if we look upon our selves, we shall find there is a necessi∣ty of Laws to guide and regulate us, and to bring us to the End. All other creatures are sent into the world with a sense and understanding of the end for which they come, and so, without particular direction, and yet unerringly, proceeded to the attaining of it. The Stork in the air knoweth her appointed times,* 1.11 and the Turtle, and the Crane, and the Swallow observe the time of their coming. Pliny speaking of the Bees telleth us, Quod maximè mirum est, mores habent; A wonder∣ful thing it is to see that natural honesty and justice which is in them. Onely Man, the soveraign Lord of all the creatures, whom it most principally concerned to be thus endowed, was sent into the world utterly devoid of any such knowledge, & nisi alienâ misericordiâ su∣stinere se nequit, as Ambrose speaketh, and without forein and bor∣rowed help never so much as getteth a sight of his own proper end. Amongst natural men none there are in whom appetite is so extinct, but that they see something which they propose unto themselves as a scope of their hopes and reward of their labours, and in the obtaining of which they suppose all their happiness to reside. Yet even in this which men principally incline to, direction is so faulty, particulars so infinite, that most sit down in the midst of their way, and come far short of that mark which their hopes set up. And if our Wisdom be so feeble and deficient in those things which are sensible and open to our view, what laws, what light, what direction have we need of to carry us on in the way to that happiness which no mortal eye can approch? Hannibal, in Livy, being to pass the Alps, a thing that time held impossible, yet comforteth himself with this, Nullas terras coelum contingere, nec inexsuperabiles humano generi esse, That how high soever they were, they were not so high as heaven, nor unpassa∣ble, if men were industrious. The pertinacy of Man's industry may find waies through desarts, through rocks, through the roughest seas. But our attempt is far greater. The way we must make is from earth to heaven; a thing which no strength or wit of man could ever yet compass. There∣fore Christ our King, who knoweth Man to be a wandring and erring crea∣ture, would not leave it to his shallow discretion, who no sooner thinketh but erreth, nor setteth down his foot but treadeth amiss; but he cometh himself into the world, promulgeth his Laws, which may be to him as Ti∣resias his staff in the Poet, able to guide his feet were he never so blind: and in his Gospel he giveth him sound directions no way subject unto er∣rour, guideth him as it were with a bridle, putteth his Law into his heart, chalketh out his way before him, and, like a skilful Pilot, sheweth him what course to take, what Syrtes, what rocks to avoid, lest he make an ir∣recoverable shipwreck of body and soul. His Laws are the Compass, by which if he steer his course he shall pass the gulf, and be brought to that haven where he would be.* 1.12 Therefore hath Christ called us out of dark∣ness into his wonderful light. And we are the called of Jesus Christ, gather∣ed together into a Church, an House, a Family, a City, a Republick. Our Conversation, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, municipatus, as Tertullian rendreth it, our Burgership, is in heaven. And the Philosopher will tell us, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, He that will erect a Society, a Commonwealth, must also frame Laws, and fit and shape them to that form of Commonwealth which he intendeth. For

Lavvs are numismata Reipublicae, the coins as it were by vvhich vve come to knovv the true face and representation of a Commonvvealth, the dif∣ferent complexions of States and Societies. And Christ our King hath dravvn out Laws like unto his Kingdom, vvhich are most fit and appliable to that end for vvhich he hath gathered us into one body. His sceptre is a sceptre of righteousness; and his Laws are just. He came down from hea∣ven; and his Laws carry us back thither. He received them from his Fa∣ther,* 1.13 as himself speaketh, and these make us like unto his Father. These govern our Understanding, nè assentiat, that it yield not assent to that er∣rour which our lusts have painted over in the shape of Truth; and these regulate our Will, nè consentiat, that it do not bow and chuse it; and these order our Affections, that they may be servants, and not commanders, of our Reason. These make a heaven in our Understanding; these place the image of God in our Will, and make it like unto his; these settle peace and harmony in the Affections, that they become weapons of righteous∣ness, and fight the battels of our King and Law-giver: My Anger may be a sword; my Love, a banner; my Hope, a staff; and my Fear, a buckler. In a word, Christ's Laws will fit us for his Kingdom here, and prepare us for his Kingdom hereafter. Therefore, in the next place, they are ne∣cessary for us, as the onely means to draw us nigh unto himself, and to that end for which he came into the world. Every end hath its proper means, fitted and proportioned to it. Knowledge hath study; Riches have la∣bour and industry; Honour hath policy. Even he that setteth up an end which he is ashamed of and hideth from the Sun and the people, draweth a method and plot in himself to bring him to it. The Thief hath his night and darkness; and the Wanton, his twilight. And his hope entitleth and joyneth him to the end, though he never reach it. In the King∣dom of Satan there are rules and laws observed. A thought ushereth in a Sin, and one Sin draweth on another, and at last Destruction. And this is the way of that wisdome which is but foolishness. And shall men work iniquity as by a law? and can we hope to be raised to an eternity of glo∣ry, and be left to our selves? or to attain it by those means which hold no proportion at all with it? Will the Gospel, the bare Tidings of peace, do it; Will a phansie, a thought, a wish, an open profession, have strength enough to lift us up to it? Happiness in phansie is a picture, and no more: In a wish, it is less; for I wish that which I would not have: And barely to profess the means; and acknowledge the way unto it, is to give my self the lie, nay to call my self a fool: for what greater folly can there be then to say, This is the way, and not to walk in it? If we were thus left unto our selves, all our happiness were but a dream, and every thought a sin against the holy Ghost. We should wish our King neither just, nor wise, nor holy: we should call him our King, and leave him no sceptre in his hand, no power to make a Law; look for∣ward toward the mark, and run backward from it; give Christ a Hail, and crucifie him; call an innocent Christ our King, and be men of Belial; an humble Christ, and swell above our measure; a merciful Christ, and be cruel; a just Christ, and be oppressours; hope to attain the end with∣out the means, and against the means, and so go to heaven with hell about us. And indeed Wickedness could never so fill the hearts of men, if they did not entertain this conceit, that the Gospel and the Law are at as great a distance as Liberty and Captivity. And by this the Gospel declineth, and groweth weak and unprofitable, not able to make a new creature, which is made up in righteousness and holiness and obedience to those Laws which, had not the Prince of this vvorld blinded us, we might easily see and take notice of, even in the Gospel it self. For Christ did nei∣ther

dissolve the Law of Nature, nor abrogate the Moral Law of Moses, but improved and perfected them both. He left the Moral Law as a Rule, but not as a Covenant, pressed it further then formerly it had been understood, and shewed us yet a more excellent way. And as God gave to Adam a Law 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as matter for the freedom of his will, to see which way it would bend, and to try his obedience: So did Christ in this new Creation, even when he came to heal the broken-hearted, and set at li∣berty those that were in prison, publish his precepts, which are not Counsels but Laws, as matter of that obedience which will keep our heart from polluting again, and strengthen our feet that we may standfast in that li∣berty wherewith he hath made us free. For without obedience to these Laws the plague is still at our heart, and our fetters cleave close to us. He is come, and hath finished all; and for all this we are yet in our sins. I will not say with Tertullian, Quisquis rationem jubet, legislator est; Whosoever commandeth that which Reason suggesteth is a Law-giver: For every man that can speak Reason hath not authority to make Laws. But Christ was not onely the Wisdom of his Father, but had Legislative power committed to him, being the supreme Head over all men, that by his Laws as well as his Bloud he might bind them to that obedience which may make them fit citizens of his new Jerusalem. And as he is CHRIST, anointed by his Father, anointed to his office, to teach and command, so he distilleth his ointment on every member of his: And the same anoint∣ing teacheth us of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and maketh us Christians, that we may be obedient to the Christian Law. Christ saith, This new Commandment I give you; and his Apostle calleth it a Law: and we need not be afraid of the name. We will but draw it down to our selves by way of use and application, and so conclude.

And first, we should not be afraid of the word Law, if we were not afraid of our Duty; nor look up upon God's decree, which is hid∣den from us, but fulfill the royal Law, which is put into our mouth and into our hearts. For his Decree and his Command are not at such opposition but the command may be a decree also. And he decreed to save us by Faith and Obedience to his Evangelical Laws; and he decreed to crown us, but by those means which are fit to set the crown upon our heads. Therefore we cannot but condemn that conceit which hath stained the papers of many who call themselves Gospellers, and polluted the lives of more, That Christ came into the world to do his Father's will, that is, to redeem us; but not to do his Father's will, that is, to teach and command us; Which is in effect to redeem us, and yet leave us in chains: That Christ is a Saviour, and not a Law-giver: That the Gospel consisteth rather in certain Articles to be believed, then in certain Precepts to be observed: That, to speak properly, there is no precept at all delivered in the Go∣spel: That it belongeth to the Law to command: That the breath of the Gospel is mild and gentle, and smelleth of nothing but frankincense and myrrhe, those precious promises, which we gaze upon till our eyes dazle that we can see nothing we have to do, no thought to stifle, no word to si∣lence, no lust to beat down, no temptation to struggle with; but we let loose our phansie, and our thoughts flie after and embrace every vanity; we set no watch to the door of our lips; we prove not our works; but do whatsoever the flesh suggesteth; because we have nothing to do, we tempt even Temptation it self, and will be captives because we have a Saviour: for we are taught, and are willing to believe it, That the will of God is laid down in the form and manner of a Law, but not so to be un∣derstood by the Elect (which every man can make himself when he please) but as a Promise, which God will work in those his chosen ones, but will

not work in others, who from all eternity are cast away: That Faith it self, which is the chief and primary precept of the Gospel, is rather promised then left as a command. Qui amant, sibi somnia fingunt; With such ease do men swallow the most gross and dangerous falshoods, and then sit down and delight themselves in those phansies, which could find no room but in the sick and distempered brain of a man sold under sin and bound up in carnality. For if we would but look upon Christ, or upon our selves, and consider what is most proper to unite us to him; if we would but hear him when he speaketh, You cannot love me, unless you keep my commandments; we should not thus smooth and plain our way to run upon the pricks; we should easily with one cast of our eye see what distance there is between a Promise and a Law, and distinguish them by the very sound, which flesh and bloud and our weariness in the paths of righteousness do so easily joyn together and make one. Caelum mari u∣nitur ubi visio absumitur, quae quamdiu viget, tam diu dividit, saith Ter∣tullian; At some distance the heavens seem to close with the sea, not so much by reason of the beams which are cast upon it, but because the sight and visive power is weary and faint, which whilest it remaineth quick and active is able to divide objects one from the other. In like manner we may conceive that a Promise and a Precept, which are in their own nature diverse and s••veral things, (for a Promise waiteth upon a Precept, to urge and promote it; and obedience to the Precept sealeth the Promise, and maketh it good unto us) yet may sometimes be taken for the very same. For the Promises are glorious, and cast a lustre upon the Precepts, that they are less observable; and so our duty is lost in the reward, that looketh towards us. Besides this, it could not be that men should so mi∣stake, but that their eyes are dull and heavy by gazing too long upon the absolute decree of Predestination in which, though they be never so far asunder, the Precept and the Promise may well meet, they think, and be concentred. Certainly a dangerous errour! of which many a soul may be guilty, and know it not; call the doctrine of the Gospel a Law, and yet bury it in the Decree, as in a land of oblivion. And what is this but to make Christ's Sermon on the mount, not a catalogue of holy duties, but rather a collection of promises? They will say perhaps, that the Gospel is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, good news. And so it is the best that ever was brought from Heaven to Earth; and yet nothing the worse because it containeth both Promises and Laws. For they are as it were of the same bloud and kin∣red, and in a manner connatural one with the other. No promise with∣out condition, no precept without a promise annexed. What need then these chymical, or rather phantastical, extractions to sever them one from the other? For is it good news that we shall be saved? and is it not good news that we must work out our Salvation? Is the Promise good news? and is not the Law good news? Is Heaven a fair sight? and is a Law so terrible; Is it good news to the captive that his fetters shall be strook off? and is it not good news that he must shake them from him? Is he welcome that sheweth us the way to happiness? and shall we turn away the face when he biddeth us walk in it? Let us not deceive our selves. He that truly desireth heaven, desireth holiness. He that looketh for the Promise, loveth the Law. He that will meet Christ at his second, must fall down before him at his first coming. He that longeth for the Euge, the reward, will take delight also in his Law. He that taketh Christ for a Saviour, will bow before him also as a Lord. We cannot possibly dimidiare Chri∣stum, divide Christ, and take him by halves: Nor can we divide a Chri∣stian, to hang, as Solomon is painted, between Heaven and Hell; lifting himself up at the Promises, and treading the Precepts under foot; mag∣nifying

Grace, and denying the power of it; trusting in God, and yet sacrificing to his own nets; adoring his providence, yet consulting with the witch, the Devil, at Endor; seeking his inventions, driving on his pur∣poses, and carrying on his ends with those winds which can blow out of no treasury but that of Hell. For if these might consist and stand toge∣ther, the camel with his bunch, the miser with his load, the high-swoln Politician, (that is, the Gallant knave) the deceitful with all his nets, the revenger with the sword in his hand, all these giant-like sinners, might enter in at the needle's eye, at the narrow gate. For the grace of God hath appeared unto all men, and the promises are made unto all men: and if there be no condition, no Law in the Gospel, then homini homo quid prae∣stat? then all are Sheep, and there be no Goats; then the Disciples might have spared their question, Are there few that shall be saved? for Judas might have entered in as well as John, and Simon Magus as Simon Peter. But, Strive to enter in at the streight gate, is indeed an exhortation; and Christ's exhortations are laws: for he exhorteth us to nothing but that which we are bound to by covenant, and which the very nature and te∣nor of the Gospel requireth. In a word, To deny our selves, To take up our cross, To love our enemies, are Precepts, and no where else to be found but in the Gospel; and are all beams and emanations from God's eternal Law, by which his Love, his Wisdom, his Justice are manifested to all the world. For none but these could so fitly draw us near unto him, or raise our nature to a capacity of eternal glory.

Therefore, to draw it yet homer, Whilest we thus gaze upon the Mercy-seat, and never look upon the Tables of the covenant; whilest we take the sceptre out of Christ's hand, and leave him nothing but a reed, whilest we leave him to tread the wine-press alone, leave him to the pain and drudgery of his office, and take from him his Legislative power, we take his place, and are a Law unto our selves: Our thoughts are our own, our tongues are our own, our hands are our own: for who is Lord over us? we are domini rerum temporúmque, commanders of the times and of our acti∣ons. Quae sylva legum? What a wood of Laws, what a world of Law-givers have we? and Christ is left alone, hanging on the cross! Every sect, every faction, is straight a framing of Laws and making of Articles and publishing of Constitutions to uphold it self. And as they fall or rise, as the times favour or frown on them, so they either give or are subject unto Laws, which are as the trophees and triumphs of a prevailing party. Now the Papist giveth laws to the Protestant, and draggeth him to the stake: Anon the wheel is turned, and the face of the Commonwealth changed, and the Protestant proscribeth him. The Papist hateth the Lutheran, and the Lutheran the Calvinist; and they of the Reformed party hate one another, as by a Law: And no peace can be expected till they yield to one anothers Laws, though the law of charity, which is Christ's Law, be lost and trode under foot in the quarrel. Lord, how ready are we to make Laws, who will acknowledge none but those we make, no not his who was called, Wonderful, Counsellour, the mighty God, of the increase of whose government there shall be no end! Which so amuseth the Many, who are but novices in the School of Christ, that they talk much of Religion, and are ever to chuse, because they have not yet learned to bow to Christ, and serve him, but in a faction. It was the reply of a Prince in Germany to the Lutherans, when they would have persuaded and drawn him in to be one of their party, If I joyn my self to you. I am con∣demned by others; and if I comply with others, I fall under your sentence.

Quid fugiam, video; quid sequar, haud video:

What to shun, I see; but what to follow, in this diversity of Laws and shapes of

Religion, I cannot apprehend. From hence have been raised those many needless controversies and unprofitable questions which have not taught but distracted the world, and have made more noise then reformation; to make men good, they have made men worse; and to stretch the curtains of a Church, or rather a Faction, (for every Faction is a Church) they have enlarged the Kingdom of Satan. From hence are wars, from hence are tumults, from hence that fire in the world, which would soon be quite put out if the Law of the Gospel might take place: for, if we could once bow to that, there could be none at all. What speake we of the Laws of men? There is a Law in the members,* 1.14 and that swayeth and governeth the world, when the Evangelical Law is laid a side. It is a dream of Mercy and Liberty that giveth it strength and power, that giveth it a full swindge to tread down Powers and Principalities, Laws and Precepts, and all that is named of God. Ambition maketh Laws, Jura, perjura; Swear, and forswear; Arise, kill, and eat. Covetousness maketh Laws; condemneth us to the mines, to dig and sweat, Quocunque modo rem. Gather, and lay up. Come not within the reach of Omri's statutes, of humane Laws, and you need not fear any Law of Christ. Private Interest maketh Laws, and indeed is the Emperour of the world, and maketh men slaves, to crouch and bow under every burthen, to submit to every Law of man, though it enjoyn to day what it did forbid yesterday; to raise up our heads, and then duck at every shadow that cometh over us: but we can see no such formidable power in the Royal Law of Christ, because it breatheth not up∣on it to promote and uphold it, but looketh as an enemy that would cast it down; biddeth us deny our selves; which we do every day for our lusts, for our honour, for our profit; but cannot do it for Christ, or for that crown which is laid up for those that do it. Thus every thing hath power over us which may destroy us; but Christ is not hearkned to, nor those his Laws which may make us wise unto salvation. For we are too ready to believe, what some have been bold to teach, that there are no such Laws at all in the Gospel.

Therefore, in the last place, let us cast this root of bitterness out of our hearts; let us look upon it as a most dangerous and baneful errour, an errour which hath brought that abomination of desolation into the world and into the lives and manners of Christians which have made them stink amongst the inhabitants of the earth, amongst Jews and Pagans and Infi∣dels, which tremble to behold those works of darkness which they see eve∣ry day not onely done but defended by those who call themselves the chil∣dren of light. Because in that name we bite and devour one another, for this they despise the Gospel of Christ, because we boast of it all the day long, and make use of it as a Licence or Letters patent to be worse then they, riot it in the light, beat our fellow-servants, defraud and oppress them, which they do not in darkness and in the shadow of death. The first Christians call∣ed the Gospel legem Christianam, the Christian Law, and so lived as under a Law, so lived that nothing but the name was accused: But the latter times have brought forth subtle Divines, that have disputed away the Law; and now there is scarce any thing left commendable but the name. A Gospeller, and worse then a Turk or Pagan; a Gospeller, and a Re∣venger; a Gospeller, and a Libertine; a Gospeller, and a Schismatick; a Gospeller, and a Deceiver; a Gospeller, and a Traitor; a Gospeller that will be under no Law; a Gospeller that is all for Love and Mercy, and nothing for Fear; I may say, the Devil is a better Gospeller: for he belie∣veth and trembleth. And indeed this is one of the Devils subtilest engines, veritatem veritate concutere, to shake and beat down one Truth with ano∣ther; to bury our Duty in the Good news, to hide the Lord in the Saviour,

and the Law in the covering of Mercy; to make the Gospel supplant it self, that it may be of no effect; to have no sound heard but that of Imputative righteousness. From hence that irregularity and disobedience amongst Christians, that liberty and peace in sin. For when Mercy wait∣eth so close upon us, and Judgment is far out of our sight, we walk on plea∣santly in forbidden paths, and sin with the less regret, sin and fear not, par∣don lying so near at hand. To conclude then; Let us not deceive our selves, and think that there is nothing but Mercy and Pardon in the Go∣spel, and so rely upon it till we commit those sins which shall be pardoned neither in this world nor in the world to come. Nemo promittat sibi quod non promittit Evangelium, saith Augustine, Let no man make the promise larger then the Gospel hath made it, nor so presume on the Grace of God as to turn it into wantonness, so extol it as to depress it, so trust to Mercy as to forfeit it: but look into the Gospel, and behold it in its own shape and face, as pardoning sin, and forbidding sin; as a royal Release, and a royal Law: And look upon Christ, the authour and finisher of our faith, as a Jesus to save us,* 1.15 and a Lord to command us; as preaching peace, and preaching a Law,* 1.16 condemning sin in his flesh, dying that sin might dye, and teaching us to destroy it in our selves. In a word; let us so look in∣to the Gospel that it may be unto us the savour of life unto life, and not the savour of death unto death; so look upon Christ here that he may be our Lord to govern us, and our Jesus to save us; that we may be subject to his Laws, and so be made capable of his mercy; that we may acknowledge him to be our Lord, and he acknowledge us before his Father, that Death may lose its sting, and Sin its strength, and we may be saved in the last day through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Vers. 19.
• * 1.2

  Vers. 21.
• * 1.3

  Hebr. 7.22.
• * 1.4

  John 17.14.
• * 1.5

  Tit. 2.11.
• * 1.6

  Isa. 9▪ 6. Psal. 2.6.
• * 1.7

  Isa. 9.6.
• * 1.8

  Heb. 2.7.
• * 1.9

  Heb. 5.5.
• * 1.10

  1 Cor. ••5.24.
• * 1.11

  Jer. 8.7.
• * 1.12

  1 Pet. 2.9. Rom. 2. 6.
• * 1.13

  John 10.18.
• * 1.14

  Rom. 7.23.
• * 1.15

  Psal. 2.
• * 1.16

  Rom. 8.3.