Discourse of the Gospel of Peace, Tract 2 · Chapter 1
CHAP. I.
SECT. I.
THese Words will not give us any Exercise in looking into the Context, for the better understanding their genuine Sense: For, according to the Nature of Proverbs, they are a short sentence, including much solid and pithy matter in a few words.
We have in the Text a double Preference; first, of the slow to Anger before the Mighty: 2dly, of him that ruleth his Spirit, above him that taketh a City.
But the Comparison lies not in things of the same kind, and the Determination to which the majus aut minus, the greater or lesser degree of that ought to be given: but of things of a divers kind, which of them has in it the greater Goodness. In short, not who is the greater, but who of these is the better Man.
The particular Qualifications instanced in, are two on each part: and they both are expressive of Power and Dominion; but they greatly differ in their Objects and the Orbs wherein they act. The Mighty, the Mighty, whose Power hath for its Object things without himself; the Mighty to such a Degree that a City (wherein the Power and Policy of many single Persons are met and united, a City walled and munited, and thereby better able to resist Assaults, than a Multitude of Men in the open Field) is made a Captive by it, cannot withstand its Force: This looks great.
The Qualifications on the other part are Might and Power too; but as its Object is more secret and invisible, the Spirit of a Man, his own Spirit, and its Exercise principally upon the Theatre within, a Man's own Bosom; it looks not so big as the other, it may be is not observed, it may be so far as observed by the foolish sensual World, is not approved, but scorned as an abject, pusillanimous thing. But whatever the common Cry of brutal Men may be; the Divine Wisdom that judges not according to these Appearances that take with Ʋs, but judges righteous Judgment: He gives the Garland to the latter; He is the better Man of the two. And this is to be understood indifferently of high or low, rich or poor: He that is slow to Anger, he that ruleth his Spirit is a better Man, than he (let him in other respects be what he will) that hath this for his principal Commendation, that he is a great Conqueror, a Mighty Man in outward carnal Force and Power, and that successful also.
I shall yet further consider the Man in his Qualifications that the Text gives the Preference to; that by mistaking, I may not set the Crown on the wrong Head, or leave the thing in question as dubious as I found it.
His first Qualification is a slowness to Anger. He that is slow to Anger. It is not said, He that is never angry, or that hath wholly suppressed that Passion or Affection: for, that were (whatever the Stoicks boast) a maim to pure Nature. We may be angry and not sin, or that Text, Be angry and sin Ep. 4. 26.not, is unintelligible; yea, we may sin in not being angry: For, so did David in his remission of it to his Son Adonijah; And good old Eli, for not mingling more Fire in his Rebukes to his prophane Sons, who by their Wickedness caused the Offerings of the Lord to be abhorred. Yea, God is said to be angry, and Jesus Christ was really so, neither of which could sin, or would lay on themselves an Imputation of it in a real and proper sense.
Again; I must consider this slowness to anger, as not deriving from a dull, sheepish, flegmatick, natural Temper, or rather Distemper: for, a Man so qualified, hath no more of Grace or Vertue in that regard, than may be found in some mere Animals: And the Spirit of Grace or Human Reason hath no Concern in it at all, no more than is in the stayedness of a Log. It is not by Election, but by necessity of Nature or Habit. Though there may be a natural Goodness in a Sheep or Dove, we cannot allow that the Patience of the one, or the Meekness of the other is either a Grace or a Vertue.
The due Consideration of the Text will set it beyond all Controversy, that the Goodness of the Person, to whom the Preference is given, derives from a Rule or Government of the Spirit; and therefore is not a meer Disposition how good soever, which we very properly have learned to call a good Humour. And this particular Instance of a Slowness to Anger doth fall under that Goodness of our ruling or governing our Spirits, for which the Commendation of the Text is wholly designed.
We must now consider the later good Qualification in the Text; And he that ruleth his Spirit: Here is Agency and Object, that which ruleth, and that which is ruled; both included in the same Subject, the same individual Man, a certain Oeconomy, or Ministration of Government in the Microcosm the little World of Man.
Our first Inquiry will be (as it ought to be) what Part of Man it is that carries the Title of the Person He, and bears the Regency? and what that Spirit is, that is, or ought to be in subjection to it?
Where the Mind or inward Man is distributed into the superior and inferior Parts; we usually understand by the Soul the inferior, and by the Spirit the superiour Parts of it: But here is an Inversion of that Order, or we must allow this Title of the Spirit of Man, to those Parts of the Mind or inward Man that are in the Order of Nature the subjected and inferior. This the holy Scripture sticks not at in more places than one. In the Words I am expounding, it must be understood of the inferiour Faculties of the Soul; and I shall give two other Scripture-Instances of the same sense, and that will be enough; for we are not now enquiring of the Propriety or Boundaries of Words and Terms, but what is the true meaning and sense of the Text: The Words are▪ Do you think the Scripture saith in vain, Jam. 4. 5.the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to Envy? The Spirit is said here to lust, which must needs be an Act, Disposition, or Motion of the Will or Affections. I shall add that of our Saviour, whereby he rebuked his Disciples; Ye know not what manner of Luk. 9. 55.Spirit ye are of; i. e. what manner of Jealousie of, and Zeal for my Honour that is which ye pretend to; 'tis not so pure and regular as ye imagine.
This Province being thus far discharged, what remains necessary to add, is easy, and obvious; scil. That the superiour Faculties of the Soul are the ruling or governing Parts, the Inferiour subjected to them. By the Inferiour we understand the Affections; these ought to attend to the Dictates of the Superiour, by which is to be understood the Judgment, or Understanding, which determines of true or false, good or evil; and the Conscience which accordingly makes the Application to the Will and Affections, to will or nill, to love or hate, &c.
But here will arise another Question not inferiour in its weight to any of the former, viz. That seeing these superiour Faculties in Man, to which God hath given the Superintendency over the Inferiour, are so weak, blind, wild, brib'd and biassed a thousand ways, and too often prostituted to the Service of the most vile Lusts and Passions. This Ruler stands in as great need of being ruled and corrected, as those Faculties, the Will and Affections, which of them selves are perfectly blind: Who is the Ruler, and what the Rule of its Government, a Submission and Obedience to which will justly reach the Goodness commended in the Text?
SECT. II.
I do not forget, nor am insensible of the maze of Difficulties and Contradictions, the Agitation of this Question hath been incumbred with. I shall therefore content my self here with four Propositions, which will go a great way toward the determining this Question.
First, That God himself as he is the Original and Author, and (by consequence) the most rightful and absolute Owner, so he is the Supreme and Soveraign Governour and Law-giver to all his Creatures.
This is asserted by the Apostle, and most apparentlyRom. 11. 36. foreign. consonant to the Light of Nature; For of him, and through him, and to him are are all things, to whom be Glory for ever, Amen. All Power (orRom. 1. 1. Authority) is of God; whether Natural, or Political, or Ecclesiastical, it derives from Him: And whatever other Sanctions of Laws and Commands there may be to oblige a practical and external Conformity; there is no Sanction that touches the Conscience, but the respect of their Derivation from the Divine Authority: Therefore the same Apostle exhorts Christians to a more noble, rational and assured Rom. 13. 4, 5.Obedience to their Governours, than could arise from meer politick or selfish regards: For, he is the Minister of God to thee for good:—Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for Wrath, but for Conscience sake.
Secondly, The Government we are now concerned to understand being natural, hath of all other the most immediate Derivation from God, and the least disputable. Parental or Paternal Government is natural, and therefore till the Sight of those great Spring-heads, such as Patriarchs, or more General Fathers was lost by the distance of the Streams, or Confusion of Posterities by other accidental or violent occasions; the Parental Government was general, most extensive and indisputable.
But of all natural Government, as that of and within each rational Individual is most intire, so it is most intimate and near; and of all other the first derived from God; it being concreated with the first Man, and continued distinct from all others in every Individual. And although the fitness and disposedness of the Judgment or Understanding and Conscience in each rational Creature as created, may sufficiently determine them for that Office of Rule in a Mans self, as designed and appointed thereunto by the all-wise Creatour; we are not left without a supernatural Revelation of this Divine Disposition.
'Tis said of Saul, that he forced himself. This is1 Sam. 13. 12. easily understood by the Context, to be meant of his violating his own Conscience, sinning against the light, dictates, and sanctions of it, breaking thorow all to gratify his own impatient Passions. This the Samuel calls in the next Verse, the not keeping the Commandment of God: It was a violating his Authority. The Apostle Paul reduces all Duties wherein any Man is religiously concerned, or with respect to Divine Authority to this secret Court of Conscience, as to God's acceptance and his own Satisfaction: And herein do I exercise my self to have a ConscienceActs 24. 16. void of Offence towards God and towards Men. This may suffice to prove that God hath placed these superiour Faculties, not only with a disposedness to direct the Will and rule the Affections, and all the inferiour Man, but hath invested them with his Authority.
Thirdly, The Rule by which the superiour Faculties, the Judgment, or Understanding, and Conscience are to be directed, is Right Reason, and the Word of God supernaturally revealed.
I say Right Reason: For as there is Science falsly so called, and vain Philosophy, because, either1 Tim. 6. 20. consisting of Chimerical and arbitrary Dogma's, or of no use to the benefit or bettering of Mankind; so many things pass for Reason, and obtain that Reputation both in private and publick, that are meer Fallacies.
And indeed if we consider the Shipwrack of Reason, or of the Light of pure Nature, that is the doleful and apparent Consequence of the Fall: we ought to be concerned to examine every thing with the greater Diligence, that imposes it self under the pretence of that venerable Authority: Lest we receive base Mettal to our loss, under the counterfeit Stamp and Image of Cesar.
It hath been the wise and gracious Work of God in favour of Mankind, so maim'd and impotent in this Guide of his Life, to superinduce a new Edition of Light and Truth for our direction in Morals, derived immediately from the Divine Will and Understanding, and contained in his written Word. To this it becomes us to take heed, as to a Light that shineth in a dark place, and to revere it to that degree, as readily and thankfully to receive it to conduct, and correct our Understandings and Consciences, and over-rule their Dictates, wherein they dissent from it.
But that Part of the written Word which is properly Evangelical, and which the Light of Nature (how pure and clear soever) could have no prospect of, without the Assistance of supernatural Divine Revelation, hath, or ought to have, so absolute and independent Dominion over our Understandings and Consciences, that all the Exercise of our Reason thereabout is only to take in the due sense and meaning of those Expressions, by which the Divine Understanding and Wills is communicated to us.
In short, our Understandings, as they (according to the Light of Nature) apprehend, and we accordingly acknowledge the Divine Understanding to be infallible, and the Divine Will inculpable; that which derives most purely from God (which generally is his written Word, or the Sense contained therein) is to be so far the Light and Rule of our Understanding, that nothing is to be admitted as true, or good in Contradiction to what it affirms or denies to be such.
Fourthly, That he who with an upright honest Mind, applies himself effectually to▪ the Conduct and Government of his Affections by his Understanding and Conscience; guided by this right Reason, assisted by the Light of God's Word: He I say is the Man that so rules his Spirit, as (according to my Text) he is a better Man than he that taketh a City.
I am not ignorant, that an honest well-meaning Person, who proposes to himself a Government of his Spirit by these Rules and Helps, may in many things miscarry and tread awry. Mis-understandings of the Rule, Mis-applications of it arising from the Ignorance of our selves, and sometimes in the best of Men, the Violence and Ʋnruliness of some Passions or Affections, abetted by various occasions, will render our Conformity to the Rule, many Degrees below Perfection: yet a Mind applying it self to practical Understanding, will not only be positively good, but compared with that which is disbanded, and let loose to blind and impetuous Passions, will be eximiously and excellingly good. It will ordinarily keep within some Compass that hath a Decorum and Beauty in it. If thine Eye be single, Mat. 6. 22.thy whole Body shall be full of Light. Honesty and Simplicity in the Aim will scatter many of those Clouds, and much of that benighting Darkness, which corrupt and base Ends embroil the Understanding withal. And indeed, though natural and acquired Parts in Conjunction with an upright Heart, will ordinarily much outdo Honesty, not so attended: yet, with the Helps afforded by Divine Favour, to those who live in our Age and Place, that Scripture will be experimentally confirmed; And an High-way shall be there, and a Way, and it Isa. 35. 8.shall be called the Way of Holiness: The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those: The way-faring Men (though Fools) shall not err therein Therein is a Supplement not of the Text. The Sense in short is, that those under the Light of the, Gospel, whose Business it is to be holy and happy shall not miss the main Scope, though they are not so sharp-sighted as many others.