Corn. r. OfObedience, andthe contraries thereto. Chap.i be thought to have rifen to great preferment by obeying lg fee what Rocks he was willing tocall himfelf upon, g he thaEn to voice, but you or hearken to the oblecutor. Our Saviour though he were theSon of God, his yet was lu e'. ;r; fubjefl to his Parents, and not only fo, but became obedient to God even to death. p}1E¿ s 8. St. Bernard asks the queftion, Who were they, that the SonofGòdfhouldbefubjeC to them ? Faber &,fcemina, a Carpenter and a woman ; and he thoughGod, or rather asCh rift, God and man, was fubjeft. Though he were the Son of God, yet he learn- ed obedience by his fufferings, Heb. s. 8. and indeed by the obedience of the Crofs, he recovered the world. And if any ¡hall except and fay, they cannot imitate theSon of God or the Saints lethimconfider in the nextplace. 2. The exampleof all the creatures, in whom there would be no diforder, were it not for man. The winds and Sea obeyed Chrih :. theSun Handing bill at the Pray er of Math. 8. ï7. 7ofhua t the fire notconfuming the threeChildren : and the Lyons notdevouring Da- J<,fh. ' o. T. ntel ; all go againfl their natures, to yield obedience toGod. So that theyare not em- Dan, 6, ly audiences, attentive, but obediences verbo divino, obedient to Gods word : which is true addperfect obedience, to obey even contrary to our own nature. 3. Another mo:ive'is, if we confider how obedient our nature is to the contraries of what God commands, and follow that : natural reafon faith, where there is one duty there we two extreams at the leaft. And therefore the obedience we thew to fin is multiplicior than that we exhibit to God. It is truly faid of the Heathen, that amegligentia plm laborat quam diitrentia, idlenefs is more toilfome than imployment. Arid fo we may fay of the adulterer, he laboureth more than the chat, and the cove- icons more than the contented man. 4. LaPly, the reward may be a ineans to fir us up to obedience. Weknownothing is moreprevalent than it. It's true there is fuchequity in Gods commands, that we fhuuld obey them without reward ;' yet there is fuch reward annexed to our obedi- bence, that if there were lefs èggrty and more difficulty in them, yet they ought to ca,q; kept in regard of the reward. One faith, nutrient præmiorum exempla virtutes, examples of rewards ccerifh virtue. If a thing commanded were not equal, yet we Hick not at that, fo a reward bepropofed. And we fee that Abrahams obedience had a great reward; I am, faith God, thy exceeding great rewa.d : i,.,'ereesmagna nimis r Gen. r as tome Fathers fay ; fo great is the rewardof obedience, that oneof the Fathers g;r faith, that theSaints feeing how great i, is repent, that they had performed no greater obedience on earth, and with thenrfelveson earth again, that they might perform moteexafi obedience. TheCigna of well hearing and obeying are thefe. I. In and:- The joy we have in profiting, and the grief of not benefiting at at our hearing; as silo ourcare to refort where we Mould hear, and to apply what we hear to cur felvcs in this particular, are Ggnsof our good or ill dipofition to this. duty. 2. In obedire. If we not only obey that part of Gods law, to the obfervancd wherect i. we are tyed by the Princes law, but thole allo which the Princes law takes no hold of, though we obferve them not : where there is only vis direlliva, not corrrtliva, a directive, but no coercive power : or when Gods laws and mans con- cur not, it we obey as well as when they concur, then is our obedience free and vo- luntary out of confcience, not byconftrai nt. This is a good figs of obedience. 2. And fecondly, when Gods.cominands and the defresof ovvii our nature Pond in competition, as when God commands Abraham to offer.hisSon, and nature for- badehim. As alto in theworld, when it and the fathion take one fide, and Gods com- mandments another. if in thefe cafes God have the vi dory, and the world and the flefhgodown, it is another good figs, that weare in a true wayof obedience. The tryal is belt found upon theparting, as when two walk together, . you cannot know whole the Spaniel is till they part, but when they parr, weknow who was his Ma.. Her, and whom he followed before they parted. The fixth rule for procuring obedience inothers is, done per; edificationem, as theRom, r r Apoftle fpeaks, by edifying one another, and by avoiding that which theycall from. 13. dalum, letno man put a Humbling block, or an oceafon to fall in his Brothersway. ,4 9 Y C H A P.
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