SECT. XII. Of the rest of the points proposed. THE seventh consideration is of the end and use of the law, which is to bring us to Christ; for finding no righteousness in our own works, we must seek it in some other. But this is the last, and remote, and utmost end; the next and proper end of the law is to prescribe righteousness, and to exact absolute and perfect obedience to God. f Cursed is he which continueth not in all the things of this law. The second end of the law is to render us inexcusable before God, who knowing so perfect a law, do not keep it; the law requiring a perfect and entire, not a broken or half obedience; but both inward and outward righteousness, and performance of duty to God and men. The third and chief end of the law is, as hath been said, to send us to Christ and his grace, being in ourselves condemned and lost. For the law was delivered with thunder, and with a most violent and fearful tempest, threatening eternal death. The fourth end of the law was to design and preserve the place of the church and true people of God, and to hold them in one discipline and awe, till the coming of Christ; after whom the church was to be dispersed over the whole world. These be the ends of the moral law. The end and use of the ceremonial law is to confirm the truth of Christ and the New Testament. The use of the judicial, to teach us natural equity and right, whereto we must conform ourselves. The sense and understanding of the law is double, literal and spiritual; by the literal, we are taught the worship and service of God; by the spiritual, the figures and mystical fore-speakings of Christ. Lastly, for the durance or continuance of the 8 law, the f Gal. iii. 10. Gen. xlix. 10. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come. same had being until the passion of Christ; before which time, and while Christ taught in the world, both the old and the new were in force. But after that the true sacrifice was offered upon the altar of the cross, then the Jewish sacrifices and ceremonies, which were types and figures of Christ, (Christ being the body of those shadows,) ceased to bind the consciences any longer; the mystery of our redemption being now by Christ, and in him finished. In token whereof the veil of the temple rent asunder; noting, that the ceremonial veils and shadows were now to be removed, not that the moral law of the commandments was hereby abolished, or weakened at all; otherwise than that it had not power to condemn according to the Jewish doctrine, as aforesaid. For the observing of the law was by Christ himself severely commanded; our love towards God being thereby to be witnessed. And herein David so much rejoiced, as he preferred the observation of the law before all that the world could yield: In via testimoniorum tuorum delectatus sum, sicut in omnibus divitiis; "I have "been delighted in thy law as in all manner of riches :” and again, The law of thy mouth is good for me above thousands of gold and silver. This is the love of God, saith St. John, 1 Ep. v. 3. that we keep his commandment. And that there is no excuse for the neglect of the things commanded in the law, God himself in Deuteronomy witnesseth ; h This commandment, saith he, which I command thee this day, is not hid from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it us, and cause us to hear it, that we may do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it us? &c. But the word is very near unto thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, for to do it. Behold, saith Moses, I have set before thee this day life and death, good and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his ordinances, and his laws, that thou mayest live, &c. Neither is it said h Deut. xxx. 11-14. Rom. x. 6, 7, 8. in vain, in St. Matthew xix. 17. Si vis ad vitam ingredi, serva mandata; "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the com "mandments:" and in St. John xii. 50. Scio quia mandatum ejus vita æterna est; "I know that his commandment is "life everlasting." And if this be the charity of God, or of men towards God, as St. John hath taught, to wit, that we keep his commandments; certainly he is but a liar, that professeth to love God, and neglecteth to observe the word of his will with all his power. And though I confess it is not in man's ability, without the special grace of God, to fulfil the law, (Christ only as man excepted,) yet if we rightly consider the merciful care which God had of his people in those his commandments, we shall find in ourselves how we borrow liberty, and rather let slip our affections, and voluntarily loosen them from the chains of obedience, to which the word of God and divine reason hath fastened them, than that we are excusable by those difficulties and impossibilities, which our mind (greedy of liberty) proposeth to itself. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous, 1 John v. 3. and if we examine every precept apart, and then weigh them each after other, in the balance of our consciences, it is not hard for any man to judge, by what easy persuasions we steal away from our own power, as unwilling to use it against our pleasing desires. SECT. XIII. Of the several commandments of the Decalogue; and that the difficulty is not in respect of the commandments, but by our default. FOR by the first we are commanded to acknowledge, serve, and love one God. Now, whereby are we enticed to the breach of this precept? seeing every reasonable man may conceive and know, that infinite power cannot be divided into many infinites; and that it is of necessity that by this Almighty unity all things have been caused, and are continued. And if brute beasts had this knowledge of their Creator, and how in his providence he hath also provided for every of them, which giveth to beasts their food, &c. there is no doubt but that they would also serve and love him only. The second precept is the forbidding of idolatry, and worship of images; the making whereof, out of doubt, was not the invention of an ill intent in the beginning, seeing this is generally true: Omnia mala exempla bonis initiis orta sunt; “All ill examples did spring and arise from "good beginnings." For their first erection was to keep the memory of men famous for their virtue; until, saith Lactantius, the Devil crept into them, and (having blotted out the first intent) working in weak and ignorant souls, changed the nature of the one, and the reason of the other, to serve himself thereby. For what reasonable man, if he be not forsaken of God, will call on those blind, deaf, dumb, and dead stocks, more worthless than the most worthless of those that, having life and reason, implore their help, which have neither; yea, of more vile prize and baser, than the basest of beasts, who have sense and estimation? for what do we thereby, saith the Wisdom of Solomon, 1 but call to the weak for help, pray to the dead for life, require aid of him that hath no experience, assistance in our journeys of him that cannot go, and success in our affairs of him that hath no power? And whether the idolater, or the block to which he prayeth, be more senseless, David maketh a doubt: m For, saith he, they that make them are like unto them; and so are all the rest that trust in them. 1 The breach of the third commandment is neither persuaded by worldly pleasure nor worldly profit, the two greatest enchanters of mortal men. No, we are no way allured to this horrible disdain of God, unless the hate of good men, and God's curse, be accounted an advantage. For as our corruptest nature gives us nothing towards it, so can it satisfy no one appetite, except everlasting sorrow and hell dwell in our desire. And therefore this strange i Psalm cxlvii. 9. Glos. in verb. Calum. 1 Wisd. xiii. 19. custom hath the Devil brought up among men, without all subtilty of argument, or cunning persuasion, taking thereby the greatest and most scornful advantage over us. For slaughter satisfieth hatred, theft gives satisfaction to need, adultery to lust, oppression to covetousness; but this contemptuous offence of blasphemy, and the irreverent abuse of God's name, as it giveth no help to any of our worldly affections, so the most savage nations of the world do not use it. The fourth commandment, to keep the sabbath day holy, hath neither pain, burden, nor inconvenience. For it giveth rest to the labourer, and consolation to their masters. And that this law was imposed on man for his benefit, Moses teacheth in the reason of the law; as in Exod. xxiii. 12. and in the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy maid, and the stranger, may be refreshed. The first of the second table, to honour our parents, with whom we are one and the same, is a gratitude which nature itself hath taught us towards them, who after God gave us life and being, have begotten us and borne us, cherished us in our weak and helpless infancy, and bestowed on us the harvest and profit of their labours and cares. Therefore in the temporal and judicial ordinances, cursing of parents, or the offering them violence, was made death. The next is, that thou shalt not murder; that is, thou shalt not do the acts following the affections of hatred. For the law of God, and after it our own laws, and in effect the law of all nations, have made difference between slaughter casual and furious: Affectio enim tua, saith Bracton, imponit nomen operi tuo; "It is the affection and will that "makes the work such as it is." And certainly whosoever cannot forbear to commit murder, hath neither the grace God, nor any use of his own will. of The third of the second table commands us from adultery. Now, if the preservation of " virginity have been possible for thousands of men and women, who in all ages have n Nuptiæ replent terram, virginitas paradisum. RALEGH, HIST. WORLD. VOL. II. K |