Senn. 16. artd in what not ? 399 to the defending the City in the Maccha`ees cafe) according to that, I will have mercy and not facrifice, Hof.6.6.Not only rather than facrifice, but in fuck cafes not facrifice. God difpenfing with the leffer fo that it; omillion becomes no fin : as is clear in our Saviours practice in his healing the man with the withered hand, &c. as well as in his defence of his Difciples,Lssh 6. For that may be our duty and neceffary at one time which at another (when .a weightier comes that fhou!d take place) ceafcth to be fo, by virtue of the reafon and conflieu icon of the Laws themfelves that the Superiour Law take place. Therefore under the notion of moderation to omit Moral. and efp:ci. ally the great and neceffary duties required, and practice only the lets, is Pharilaical hypocrifìe, not Chriflianity. If to do the great duti s of Religion, God requires of us, be accounted immoderatenefs, let us fay' with David, If this be to be vile,we will be more vile f ill. Gods Laws ad- mit of no clmeixHx, or difpenfatìon from us,but what he bath admitted himfelf, we mull neither add or detra6t, Desat. 4 2. The u canfl neither mitigate their executìon,nor any other,befides himfelf,on thee for thy tranfgreffìng them.If the wifeRomans were fo careful to preferve their Digeft.de legib. Laws from others than the fupream difpenfing with them left they /&fenaepr.conf. fhould prove a Lesbian rule, much more the Great and Wife God bath reafon to keep up the authority of his Laws and expec`I our punCtual obfervance of them. Moderation in Religion, and religious Duties, is the deviilifh Precept of Machiavrl, not the Dottrine of the Gofpel, or SC Pau/.To engage or wade no further in Religion,than temporal in- terefts will permit us to come fafely again to fhore, was the refolution and fpecch of a great Courtier of France,than of heaven and of fuch as refolve more to fave their skins than their fouls. How doth Chrifc every where arm thofe that will be his Difciples againfl their defifling from their neceffary duty, for the offence of the world ? Is fo far from concealing this that it is the firfi thing he tells them of, invites them upon no other terms_ than the Crofs; tells them they mutt truft him in this world for compenfating them in the future,; c. Mat. i 6. from 24,. to ult. And how eminent was he in the prcticeof this? How did the zeal of Gods Houfe eat him up,and he perfifl in doing the work he was fent about, notwithflanding all the offence the Jews took ? And yet in. his own private concerns, how meek, gentle, patient, which none can be ignorant of that read the Gofpel, and which he commands us to learnof him, Mat. i i.28. Great then is the millakeof thofe that think. Zeal and Moderation ( which were thus eminently concentred in Chrift) fhould be inconfiftent. No lovelier match than of this bleffed couple:
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