Richard Allestree · 7 of 14

Section III. The Subject Matter Treated of in the Holy Scripture, Is Excellent, as Is Also Its End and Design. · Part 2

28. THESE and the like are the Doctrines the Holy Scripture offers to us: and we may certainly say, they are faithful sayings, and worthy of all acceptation, 1 Tim. 4. 9. The notions it gives us of God are so sublime and great, that they cannot but affect us with reverence, and admiration; and yet withal, so amiable and endearing that they cannot but raise love and gratitude, affiance and delight.

29. AND, which is yet more, the milder Attributes are apt to inspirit us with a generous ambition of assimilation; excite us to transcribe all his imitable excellencies in which the very Heathens could discern consisted the accomplishment of human felicity.

30. AND then the knowledge it gives us of our selves do’s us the kindest office imaginable; keeps us from those swelling thoughts we are too apt to entertain, and shews us the necessity of bottoming our hopes upon a firmer foundation: and then again keeps us from being lazy or secure, by shewing us the necessity of our own endeavours. In a word, it teaches us to be humble and industrious, and whoever is so ballasted can hardly be shipwrack’d.

31. THESE are the excellencies of the Doctrinal part of the Scriptures, which also renders them most aptly preparative for the preceptive. And indeed, so they were design’d: the Credenda and the Agenda being such inseparable relations, that whoever parts them, forfeits the advantage of both. The most solemn profession of Christ, the most importunate invocations, Lord, Lord, will signifie nothing to them which do not the things which he says, Mat. 7. And how excellent, how rational those precepts are which the Scripture proposes to us from him is our next point of consideration.

32. THE first Law which God gave to mankind was that of nature. And tho’ the impressions of it upon the mind be by Adams fall exceedingly dimm’d and defac’d; yet that derogates nothing from the dignity and worth of that Law, which God has been so far from cancelling, that he seems to have made it the rule and square of his subsequent Laws so that nothing is injoin’d in those, but what is consonant and agreeable to that. The Moral Law given in the Decalogue to the Jews, the Evangelical Law given in the Gospel to Christians, have this natural Law for their basis and foundation. They licence nothing which that prohibits, and very rarely prohibit any thing which it licences.

33. ’TIS true, Christ in his Sermon on the Mount, raises Christians to a greater strictness than the Jews thought themselves oblig’d to; but that was not by contradicting either the natural, or moral Law, but by rescuing the latter from those corruptions which the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees had mix’d with it; and reducing it to its primitive integrity, and extent. In a word, as the Decalogue was given to repair the Defacings, and renew the impressions of the natural Law: so the precepts of the Gospel were design’d to revive and illustrate both. And accordingly we find Christ, in the matter of Divorce, calls them back to this natural Law; In the beginning it was not so Mat. 19. 8; I say not but that even these natural notions are in some instances refin’d and elevated by Christ; the second Adam being to repair the fall of the first with advantage but yet he still builds upon that ground-work, introduces nothing that is inconsistent with it.

34. AND this accordance between there several Laws is a circumstance that highly recommends Scripture precepts to us. We cannot imagine but that God who made man for no other end but to be an instrument of his glory, and a recipient of all communicable parts of his happiness, would assign him such rules and measures as were most conducive to those ends. And therefore since the Scripture injunctions are of the same mould, we must conclude them to be such as tend to the perfection of our being; the making us what God originally intended us; and he that would not be that, will certainly chuse much worse for himself.

31. I know there have been prejudices taken up against the precepts of Christ, as if they impos’d unreasonable, unsupportable strictnesses upon men: and some have assum’d liberty to argue mutinously against them; nay, against God too for putting such natural appetites into men, and then forbidding them to satisfie them.

36. BUT the ground of this cavil is the not rightly distinguishing of natural appetites, which are to be differenc’d according to the two states of rectitude and depravation: those of the first rank are the appetites God put into man; and those were all regular and innocent, such as tended to the preservation of his being: nature in its first integrity measuring its desires by its needs. Now Christs prohibitions are not directed against these, he forbids no one kind of these desires. And tho’ the precept of self-denial may sometimes restrain us in some particular acts; yet that is but proportionable to that restraint Adam was under in relation to the forbidden Tree, a particular instance of his obedience, and fence of his safety. So that if men would consider nature under this its first and best notion, they cannot accuse Christ of being severe to it.

37. BUT ’tis manifest they take it in another acceptation, and mean that corruption of nature which inordinately inclines to sensitive things; and on this account they call their riots, their luxuries, appetites put into them by God: whereas ’tis manifest these were superinduced from another coast: The wise man gives us its true pedigree in what he says of death, which is its twin-sister: By the envy of the devil came death into the world, Wisd. 2. 24. And can they expect that Christ who came to destroy the works of the devil, 1 Joh. 3. 8. should frame Laws in their favour, make Acts of toleration and indulgence for them? This were to annul the whole design of his coming into the world, which was to restore us from our laps’d estate, and elevate us to those higher degrees of purity which he came not only to prescribe, but to exemplifie to us.

38. BUT in this affair men often take nature in a yet wider and worse notion; and under natural desires comprehend whatever upon any sort of motive they have a mind to do. The awe of a Superior, the importunity of a companion, custom, and example, make men do many ill things, to which their nature would never prompt them; nay, many times such as their nature relucts to, and abhors. ’Tis certainly thus in all debauchery and excess. ’Tis evident, it gratifies no mans nature to be drunk, or to lie under undigested loads of meats: these are out-rages and violences upon nature, take it only in the most sensitive notion, such as the struggles to avert: and yet men make her bear, not only the oppression, but the blame too.

39. BUT besides to be consider’d, that the nature of a man includes reason as well as sense; and to this all sorts of luxury are yet more repugnant, as that which clouds the mind, and degrades the man (who in his constitution is a rational being) and sets him in the rank of mere Animals: and certainly these can be no appetites of nature, which thus subvert it.

40. THE like may be said concerning revenge, particularly that absurdest sort of it, Duels; which certainly are as great contradictions to nature as can be imagin’d, the unravelling and cancelling its very first principle of self-preservation (which in other instances men bring in bar against duty.) And yet men will say the generosity of their natures compels them to it so making their nature a kind of felo de se to prompt the destroying it self: when alas ’tis only the false notion they have got of honour that so gages them. And if men would but soberly consider, they must be convinc’d that there is nothing more agreeable to reason than that precept of Christ of not retaliating injuries; which is in effect but to bid us to chuse a single inconvenience before a long train of mischiefs. And certainly if nature even in its deprav’d estate were left to determine, it would resolve it a better bargain to go off with a reproachful word, than to lose a limb, perhaps a life in the revenge of it. There being no maxim more indisputable than that of evils the least is to be chosen. And the innate principle of self-love do’s more strongly biass nature to preserve, than any external thing can to destroy it self.

41. I know, ’twill be said to this, that revenge is a natural appetite: but I say still, self-preservation is more so; and would prevail against as much of revenge as is natural, were it not heightned and fortified by fancy, and that Chimera of point of honour, which, as it is now stated, is certainly one of the most empty nothings that ever was brought in balance with solid interests. And indeed ’tis to belie nature, and suppose it to have forfeited all degrees of reason, as well as vertue, to fasten so absurd a choice upon her. But admit revenge to be never so much the dictate of corrupt nature; ’tis certain ’tis not of primitive regular nature. Revenge is but a relative to injury: and he that will say God put the appetite of revenge into man, must say he put the appetite of injury into him also: which is such an account of the sixth days creation, as is hardly consistent with Gods own testimony of its being very good, Gen. 1.

42. BESIDES, ’tis certain all the desires God infus’d into human nature were such as tended to its preservation; but this of revenge is of all other the most destructive, as is too sadly attested by the daily tragical effects of it. In short, the wise-man gives us a good luminary of the whole matter God made man upright, but he sought out many inventions, Eccl. 7. 29.

43. NOW if man has by his own voluntary act deprav’d himself, it would be neither just nor kind in God to warp his Laws to mans now distorted frame; but it is both, to keep up the perfect rectitude of those, and call upon man to reduce himself to a conformity with them: and when to this is added such a supply of grace as may silence the plea of disability, there can nothing be imagn’d more worthy of God, or more indulgent to man.

44. AND all this Christ do’s in the Gospel, in those precepts which the blind world makes the subject of their cavil or scorn. It were an easie task to evince this in every particular precept of the Gospel; but I shall content my self with the instances already given, and not swell this Tract by insisting upon what has already been the subject of so many pious and excellent discourses, as must already have convinc’d all but the obstinate.

45. WE proceed therefore to a view of the promissory parts of Scripture; in which we are first in general to observe the great goodness of God, in making any promises at all to us; and next to examine of what nature and excellence these promises are. And first if we consider how many titles God has to our obedience, we must acknowledge he may challenge it as his undoubted right. We are the work of his hands; and if the Potter has power over the clay (the materials whereof are not of his making) much more has God over his creatures, whose matter as well as form is wholly owing to him. We are the price of his blood; and if men account purchase an indefeisible title, God must have absolute dominion over what he has bought, and at so dear a price too as his own blood. Lastly we depend upon him for the support of that being he has given us: we live merely upon his bounty, spend upon his stock. And what Patron will not expert observance from one who thus subsists by him?

46. YET as if God had none of these claims, these preingagements upon us, he descends to treat with us as free-men by way of Article and compact; buy’s his own of us, and engages to reward that obedience, which he might upon the utmost penalties exact: which is such an astonishing indulgence as our highest gratitude cannot reach: and of this the Sacred Scriptures are the evidences and records; and therefore upon that account deserve at once our reverence, and our joy.

47. BUT this will yet farther appear, if we look in the second place into the promises themselves; which are so extensive as to take in both our present and future state: according to that of the Apostle Godliness hath the promise of this Life, and of that which is to come, 1 Tim. 4. 8. For the present, they are proportion’d to the several parts of our composition; the body, and the mind, the outward and the inward man; so stretching themselves to all we can really be concern’d for in this world.

48. AND first for the body, the Old Testament abounds in promises of this sort. The first part of the 28. of Deut. contains a full catalogue of all temporal blessings; and those irreversibly entail’d upon the Israelites obedience, ver. 1. The Psalmist tells us, they that fear the Lord shall lack nothing, Ps. 34. 9. that they shall not be confounded in the perillous time, and in the days of dearth they shall have enough, Ps. 37. 19. And Solomon, that the Lord will not suffer the righteous to famish, Pro. 10. 3. And tho’ under the Gospel, the promises of temporal affluence seem not so large; (its design being to spiritualize us, and raise our minds to higher enjoyments;) yet it gives us ample security of so much as is really good for us. It supersedes our care for our selves by alluring us all these things shall be added to us, Mat. 6. 33. that is, all those things which our heavenly Father know we have need of, ver. 32. which is all the limitation the context gives. And certainly we have little temptation to fear want, who have him for our provider; whose are all the beasts of the Forrest, and the cattel upon a thousand hills, Ps. 50. 10.

49. AND when we are thus secur’d of all things necessary, it may perhaps be an equal mercy to secure us from great abundance; which at the best, is but a lading ones self with thick clay, in the Prophets phrase, Hab. 2. 6. but is often a snare as well as a burden.

50. BESIDES, the Gospel by its precepts of temperance and self-denial, do’s so contract our appetites, that a competence is a more adequate promise to them, than that of superfluity would have been; and ’tis also the measure wherein all the true satisfaction of the senses consists; which are gratified with moderate pleasures, but suffocated and overwhelm’d with, excessive. The temperate man tastes and relishes his portion, whilst the voluptuous may rather be said to wallow in his plenty than enjoy it.

51. AND as the necessaries of life, so life it self; and the continuance of that, is a Scripture promise. The fifth Commandment affixes it to one particular duty but it is in a multitude of places in the Old Testament annex’d to general obedience. Thus it is, Deut. 11. 9. and again, vers. 21. And Solomon proposes this practical wisdom as the multiplier of days By me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased, Pro. 9. 11. and chap. 3. Length of days is in her right hand, vers. 16. And tho’ we find not this promise repeated in the New Testament, yet neither is it retracted: ’tis true; the Gospel bids us be ready to lay down our lives for Christs sake, but tells us withal, that he that will lose his life, shall save it: which tho’ it be universally true only in the spiritual sense, yet it often proves so in a literal. It did so eminently in the destruction of Jerusalem, where the most resolute Christians escap’d, while the base compliers perish’d together with those they sought to endear. This is certain, that if the New Testament do’s not expressly promise long life, yet it do’s by its rules of temperance and sobriety, contentedness and chearfulness, very much promote it: and so do’s virtually and efficaciously ratifie those the Old Testament made.

52. THE next outward blessing is reputation: and this also is a Scripture promise. The wise shall inherit glory, Prov. 3. 35. And the vertuous woman Solomon describes is not only blessed by her children and husband, but she is prais’d in the gate, Prov. 31. ult. Nay, this blessing is extended even beyond life: The memory of the just shall be blessed, Prov. 10. 7. Nor do’s the Gospel evacuate this promise; but rather prompts us to the ways of having it made good to us, by advising us to abstain from all appearance of evil, 1 Thes. 5. 22. to provide for honest things, not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of men, 2 Cor. 8. 21.

53. ’TIS true indeed, Christ fore-warns his Disciples that they shall be revil’d, and have all manner of evil spoken against them falsly, for his names sake: but then the cause transform’d the sufferings, and made it so honourable, that they were to count it matter of joy, Matt. 5. 11, 12. Neither was this any paradox even in relation to their reputation; which tho’ sullied by a few ill men of that age, yet has been most illustrious among all Ages since. Their sufferings and indignities gave them a new title of honour, and added the Martyr to the Apostle. And the event has been proportionable in all successions since: Those Holy men that fill’d up the Pagan prisons, fill’d up the Churches Diptycks also, and have been had as the Psalmist speaks, in everlasting remembrance, Ps. 1. 2. 6.

54. AND as Scripture-promises thus take in all the concerns of the outward man, so do they also of the inward. The fundamental promise of this kind is that of sending Christ into the world, and in him establishing the new Covenant, which we find, Jer. 31. 31. and is referr’d to by the Author to the Hebrews, I will put my Laws in their hearts, and write them in their minds; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more, Heb. 10. 16.

55. AND this is so comprehensive a promise as includes all the concerns of the inward man. The evils incident to the mind of man may be reduc’d to two; impurity, and inquietude: and here is a cure to both. The divine Law written in the heart drives thence all those swarms of noysom lusts, which like the Egyptian Frogs over-run and putrifie the soul. Where that is feared and enshrin’d, those can no more stand before it, than Dagon before the Ark. This repairs the divine Image in us (in which consists the perfection of our nature) renews us in the spirits of our minds, Ephes. 4. 23. and purges our consciences from dead works, Heb. 9. 14. which all the Catharticks and Lustrations among the Heathen, all the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Law, were not able to do.

56. SECONDLY, this promise secures the mind from that restlessness and unquietness, which attends both the dominion and guilt of sin. To be subject to a mans lusts and corrupt appetites is of all others the vilest vassalage: they are the cruellest task-masters, and allow their slaves no rest, no intermission of their drudgery. And then again, the guilt that tortures and racks the mind with dreadful expectations keeps it in perpetual agitation and tumult which is excellently describ’d by the Prophet Isaiah, The wicked is like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest; whose waters cast out mire and dirt: there is no peace saith my God to the wicked, Is. 48. 22. How prosperous soever vice may seem to be in the world, yet there are such secret pangs and horrors that dog it, that as Solomon says, even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, Prov. 14. 13.

57. BUT this Evangelical promise of being merciful to our iniquities, and remembering our sins no more, calms this tempest, introduces peace and serenity into the mind, and reconciles us at once to God and our selves. And sure we may well say with the Apostle, these are great and precious promises 2 Pet. 1. 4.

58. THERE are besides many other which spring from these principles, as suckers from the root: such are the promises of fresh supplies of grace upon a good imployment of the former. To him that hath shall be given, Mat. 25. 29. Nay even of the source and fountain of all grace. He shall give the Holy spirit to them that ask him, Mat. 7. 11. Such is that of supporting us in all difficulties and assaults: the not suffering us to be tempted above that we are able, 1 Cor. 10. 13. which like Gods bow set in the clouds, Gen. 9, is our security, that we shall not be over-whelm’d by any deluge of temptation: and (to instance no more) such is that comprehensive promise of hearing our prayers, Ask and it shall be given you, Mat. 7. 7. This puts all good things within reach, gives us the key of Gods Storehouse, from whence we may furnish our selves with all that is really good for us. And if a few full Barns could tempt the rich man in the Gospel to pronounce a Requiem to his soul; what notes of acquiescence may they sing, who have the command of an inexhaustible store; that are supplied by him whose is the earth, and the fulness thereof?

59. AND certainly, all the promises together must be (to use the Apostles phrase) strong consolation; such as may quiet and calm all the fears and griefs, all the tumults and perturbations of the mind, in relation to its present mate. But then there are others relating to the future of a much higher elevation: those glories and felicities of another world, which are so far beyond our narrow conceptions, that the comprehension and injoyment must begin together. The Scripture shadows it out to us by all the notions we have of happiness: by glory, Rom. 8. 18. by a kingdom, Mat. 25. 14. by joy, Mat. 25. 21. and which comprehends all, by being with the Lord, 1 Thes. 4. 17. seeing him face to face, 1 Cor. 13. 12. being like to him, 1 Jo. 3. 2. In a word ’tis bliss in the utmost extent: immense for quantity, and eternal for duration.

60. AND Purely this promise is so excellent in its kind, so liberal in its degree, so transcendently great in all respects, that did it stand single, strip’d of all those that relate to this life, it alone would justifie the name of Gospel, and be the best tidings that ever came to mankind. For alas, if we compare the hopes that other Religions propose to their Votaries with these, how base, how ignoble are they! The Heathens Elysium, the Mahumetan Paradise, were but higher gratifications of the sensual part and consequently were depressions and debasements of the rational. So that in effect they provided a heaven for the beast, and a hell for the man. We may therefore confidently resume our conclusion, and pronounce the Scripture promises to be so divine and excellent, that they could as little have been made, as they can be perform’d by any but an Holy and Almighty Author.

61. NOR is their being conditional any impeachment to their worth, but an enhancement. Should God have made them (as some fancy he has his decrees) absolute and irrespective; he had set his promises at war with his precepts, and there should have superseded what those injoyn. We are all very niggardly towards God, and should have been apt to have ask’d Judas’s question to what purpose is this waste Mat. 26. 8. What needs the labour of the course if the prize be certain? And it must have been infinitely below the wisdom and majesty of the supreme Legislator, to make Laws, and then evacuate them by dispencing rewards without any respect to their observance. ’Tis the Sanction which inspirits the Law, without which the divine, as well as the human, would to most men be a dead letter.

62. BUT against this God has abundantly provided, not only by the conditionality of the promises, but by the terrour of his threats too; which is the last part of Scripture which falls under consideration. And these are of the most direful kinds; and cannot better be illustrated than by the opposition they stand in to the promises: for as those included all things that might make men happy either as to this life or the next; so these do all that may make them miserable. If we make our reflection on all the particulars of the promises we shall find the threats answering them as their reverse or dark shadow.

63. AND first as concerning the outward state, if we look but into the 28. of Deut. we shall find, that after all the gracious promises which begun the chapter, it finally ends in thunder, in the most dreadful denunciations imaginable; and those adapted by a most peculiar opposition to the former promises: as the Reader may see at large in that Chapter. And the whole tenour of the Scripture go’s in the like stile. Thus, Psal. 140. 11. A wicked person shall not prosper in the earth, evil shall hunt the wicked man to overthrow him. The Lord will not suffer the righteous to famish, but he casteth out the substance of the wicked; Pro. 10. 3. And again, the righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul, but the belly of the wicked shall want, Prov. 13. 25. Multitudes of like general threatnings of temporal improsperity there are every where scatter’d throughout the Scripture; and many more applied to particular vices, as sloth, unmercifulness, luxury, and the the like; which would be here too long to enumerate.

64. AND although these threatnings may seem sometimes to be litterally confuted by the wealth and opulency of wicked men, yet they never miss of being really and vertually verified. For either their prosperities are very short and only preparative to a more eminent ruin, which was the Psalmists resolution of this doubt, Psalm 73. or else if God leave them the matter of temporal happiness, yet he subtracts the vertue and spirit of them, renders them empty and unsatisfying. This is well express’d by the Psalmist in the case of the Israelites: He gave them their desire, and sent leaness withal into their soul, Ps. 106. 15. and by Zophar, Job 20. 22. where speaking of the wicked, he saith; In the fulness of his sufficiency shall he be in straits. And to this Solomon seems to refer, when he saith, the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it, Prov. 10. 22.

65. NEITHER is it only the comfort of life, but life it self that is threatned to be taken from wicked men: untimely death is throughout the Old Testament frequently mention’d as the guerdon of impiety: ’tis often assign’d judicially in particular cases: He shall be cut off from his people, being the usual sentence upon most offenders under the Levitical Law. But tis also menaced more generally as an immediate judgment from God The blood-thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, Psal. 55. 23. Farther yet, their names shall putrifie as soon as their Carkasses: the name of the wicked shall rot; Prov. 10. 7. Nay both their infamy and their ruin are intail’d upon their posterity. The seed of the evil doers shall never be renown’d. Prepare slaughter for his children, for the iniquity of their fathers; Isa. 14. 20, 21.

66. IF now we look on Scripture threatnings in relation to the mind of man, we shall find them yet more severe: wilful impenitent sinners being cut off from the benefits of the new Covenant; nor barely so, but look’d upon as despisers of it, and that blood of Christ in which it was seal’d; Heb. 10. 29. nay as those murtherous Wretches that shed it: They Crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh; Heb. 6. 6. And this is the fatallest sentence that can fall on any man in this life; to be thus disfranchised of all the privileges of the Gospel, and rank’d as well in punishment as guilt, with the most criminous of mankind.

67. FROM hence ’tis consequent, that the mind remains not only in its native impurity, but in a greater and more incurable one; whilst that blood which alone could cleanse it, serves but to embrue and pollute it; and as it were flush, and excite it to all immanities and vilenesses: and he that is thus filthy, ’tis the doom pronounc’d against him, that he shall be filthy still, Rev. 22. 11.

68. AND then in the second place, what calm can there be to such a mind? what remains to such a person, but that fearful expectation of wrath and fiery indignation, which the Apostle mentions, Hebrews 10. 27? Indeed, were there none but temporal mischiefs to fear, yet it were very unpleasant to think ones self, like Cain, out-law’d from the presence and protection of God; to be afraid that every man that meets us shall slay us, Gen. 4. 14. Nay, those confus’d indistinct fears of indefinite evils which attend guilt are very unquiet, uneasie inmates in the mind. This is excellently describ’d by Moses; The Lord shall give thee a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind, and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night; in the morning thou shalt say, would God it were evening, and in the evening, would God it were morning, Deut. 28. 65, 66. 67.