dissenting Brethren yet I am sure Mr. Richard Baxter was one and I am sure also one of the Points debated was Concerning a Command of Lawful Superiours what was sufficient towards its being a lawful Command this following Proposition was brought by the conforming Party That Command which commands an act in it self lawful and no other act or Circumstance unlawful is not sinful Mr. Baxter denied it for two Reasons which he gave in with his own hand in writing thus One was Because that may be a sin per accidens which is not so in it self and may be unlawfully commanded though that accident be not in the command Another was That it may be commanded under an unjust penalty Again this proposition being brought by the Conformists That Command which commandeth an act in it self lawful and no other act whereby any unjust penalty is injoyned nor any circumstance whence per accidens any sin is consequent which the Commander ought to provide against is not sinful Mr. Baxter denied it for this reason then given in with his own hand in writing thus Because the first act commanded may be per accidens unlawful and be commanded by an unjust penalty though no other act or circumstance commanded be such Again this Proposition being brought by the Conformists That Command which commandeth an act in it self lawful and no other Act whereby any unjust penalty is injoyned nor any circumstance whence directly or per accidens any sin is consequent which the Commander ought to provide against hath in it all things requisite to the lawfulness of a Command and paticularly cannot be guilty of commanding an act per accidens unlawful nor of commanding an act under an unjust penalty Mr. Baxter denyed it upon the same Reasons Peter Gunning Iohn Pearson These were then two of the Disputants still live and will attest this one being now Lord Bishop of Ely and the other of Chester And the last of them told me very lately that one of the Dissenters which I could but forbear to name appear'd to Dr. Sanderson to be so bold so troublesom and so illogical in the dispute as forced patient Dr. Sanderson who was then Bishop of Lincoln and a Moderator with other Bishops to say with an unusual earnestness That he had never met with a man of more pertinacious confidence and less abilities in all his conversation But though this debate at the Savoy was ended without any great satisfaction to either party yet both parties knew the desires and understood the abilities of the other much better than before it and the late distressed Clergy that were now restor'd to their former rights and power were so Charitable as at their next meeting in Convocation to contrive to give the Dissenting Party satisfaction by alteration explanation and addition to some part both of the Rubrick and Common-Prayer as also by adding some new necessary Collects with a particular Collect of Thanksgiving How many of these new Collects were worded by Dr. Sanderson I cannot say but am sure the whole Convocation valued him so much that he never undertook to speak to any Point in question but he was heard with great willingness and attention and when any Point in question was determin'd the Convocation did usually desire him to word their intentions and as usually approve and thank him At this Convocation the Common-Prayer was made more compleat by adding three new necessary Offices which were A form of Humiliation for the murther of King Charles the Martyr a thanksgiving for the Restoration of his Son our King and for the baptizing of persons of riper age I cannot say Dr. Sanderson did form or word them all but doubtless more than any single man of the Convocation and he did also by desire of the Convocation alter and add to the forms of Prayers to be used at Sea now taken into the Service-Book And it may be noted That William the now most Reverend Archbishop of Canterbury was in these imployments diligently useful especially in helping to rectifie the Kalendar and Rubrick And lastly it may be noted that for the satisfying all the dissenting Brethren and others the Convocations Reasons for the alterations and additions to the Liturgy were by them desir'd to be drawn up by Dr. Sanderson which being done by him and approv'd by them was appointed to be Printed before the Liturgy and may be now known by this Title The Preface and begins thus It hath been the wisdom of the Church I shall now follow Dr. Sanderson to his Bishoprick and declare a part of his behaviour in that busie and weighty imployment And first That it was with such condescension and obligingness to the meanest of his Clergy as to know and be known to most of them And indeed he practis'd the like to all men of what degree soever especially to his old Neighbours or Parishioners of Boothby Pannel for there was all joy at his Table when they came to visit him then they pray'd for him and he for them with an unfeigned affection I think it will not be deny'd but that the care and toyl required of a Bishop may justly challenge the riches and revenue with which their Predecessors had lawfully endow'd them and yet he sought not that so much as doing good with it both to the present Age and Posterity and he made this appear by what follows The Bishops chief House at Buckden in the County of Huntington the usual Residence of his Predecessors for it stands about the midst of his Diocess having been at his Consecration a great part of it demolish'd and what was left standing under a visible decay was by him undertaken to be erected and repair'd and it was perform'd with great speed care and charge And to this may be added That the King having by an Injunction commended to the care of the Bishops Deans and Prebends of all Cathedral Churches the repair of them their Houses and an augmentation of the revenue of small Vicarages He when he was repairing Bugden did also augment the last as fast as Fines were paid for renewing Leases so fast that a Friend taking notice of his bounty was so bold as to advise him to remember he was under his first fruits and that he was old and had a wife and children that were yet but meanly provided for especially if his dignity were considered To whom he made a mild and thankful answer saying It would not become a Christian Bishop to suffer those houses built by his Predecessors to be ruin'd for want of repair and less justifiable to suffer any of those poor Vicars that were call'd to so high a calling as to sacrifice at God's Altar to eat the bread of sorrow constantly when he had a power by a small augmentation to turn it into the bread of chearfulness and wish'd that as this was so it were also in his Power to make all mankind happy for he desired nothing more And for his Wife and Children he hop'd
cut off our right hand and to pluck out the right eye and to cast them both from us when they offend us much more then ought we to deny our selves the use of such outward lawful things as by experience we have found or have otherwise cause to suspect to be hurtful either to our bodies or souls So a man may and should refrain from meats which may endanger his bodily health but how much more then from every thing that may endanger the health of his soul If thou findest thy self enflamed with lust by dancing if enraged with choler by game if tempted to Covetousness Pride Uncleanness Superstition Cruelty and sin by reason of any of the Creatures it is better for thee to make a Covenant with thine eyes and ears and hands and senses so far as thy Condition and Calling will warrant thee not to have any thing to do with such things than by gratifying them therein cast both thy self and them into hell Better by our voluntary abstinence to depart with some of our liberty unto the Creatures than by our voluntary transgression forfeit all and become the Devil's Captives But Charity though it begin at home yet it will abroad and not resting at our selves reacheth to our Brethren also of whom we are to have a due regard in our use of the Creatures An Argument wherein St. Paul often enlargeth himself as in Rom. 14. and 1 Cor. 8. the whole Chapters throughout and in a great part of 1 Cor. 10. The resolution every where is That all things be done to edification that things lawful become inexpedient when they offend rather than edifie that though all things indeed are pure yet it is evil for that man which useth them with offence that albeit flesh and wine and other things be lawful yet it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine nor to do any thing whereby a man's brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weak Hitherto appertaineth that great and difficult common place of Scandal so much debated and disputed of by Divines The Questions and Cases are manisold not now to be rehearsed much less resolved in particular But the Position is plain in the general that in case of Scandal for our weak brother's sake we may and sometimes ought to abridge our selves of some part of our lawful Liberty Besides these two Sobriety and Charity there is yet one restraint more which ariseth from the Duty we owe to our Superiours and from the bond of civil Obedience which if it had been by all men as freely admitted as there is just cause it should how happy had it been for the peace of this Church Concerning it let this be our sixth Position The determination of Superiours may and ought to restrain us in the outward exercise of our Christian Liberty We must submit our selves to every ordinance of man saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 2. 13. and it is necessary we should do so for so is the Will of God Vers. 15. Neither is it against christian Liberty if we do so for we are still as free as before rather if we do not so we abuse our liberty for a cloak of maliciousness as it followeth there vers 16. And St. Paul telleth us we must needs be subject not only for fear because the Magistrate carrieth not the Sword in vain but also for conscience sake because the powers thus are are ordained of God This duty so fully pressed and so uniformly by these two grand Apostles is most apparent in private Societies In a family the Master or Pater-familias who is a kind of petty Monarch there hath authority to prescribe to his Children and Servants in the use of those indifferent things whereto yet they as Christians have as much Liberty as he The Servant though he be the Lord's free-man yet is limited in his diet lodging livery and many other things by his Master and he is to submit himself to his Masters appointment in these things though perhaps in his private affection he had rather his Master had appointed otherwise and perhaps withal in his private judgment doth verily think it fitter his Master should appoint otherwise If any man under colour of christian Liberty shall teach otherwise and exempt Servants from the obedience of their Masters in such things St. Paul in a holy indignation inveigheth against such a man not without some bitterness in the last Chapter in this Epistle as one that is proud and knoweth nothing as he should do but doateth about questions and strife of Words c. Vers. 3 5. Now look what power the Master hath over his Servants for the ordering of his family no doubt the same at the least if not much more hath the supreme Magistrate over his Subjects for the peaceable ordering of the Common-wealth the Magistrate being Pater patriae as the Master is Pater-familias Whosoever then shall interpret the determinations of Magistrates in the use of the Creatures to be contrary to the liberty of a Christian or under that colour shall exempt inferiours from their obedience to such determinations he must blame St. Paul nay he must blame the Holy Ghost and not us if he hear from us that he is proud and knoweth nothing and doateth about unprofitable Questions Surely but that experience sheweth us it hath been so and the Scriptures have fore told us that it should be so that there should be differences and sidings and partakings in the Church a man would wonder how it should ever sink into the hearts and heads of sober understanding men to deny either the power in Superiours to ordain or the necessity in Inferiours to obey Laws and Constitutions so restraining us in the use of the Creatures Neither let any man cherish his ignorance herein by conceiting as if there were some difference to be made between Civil and Ecclesiastical Things and Laws and Persons in this behalf The truth is our liberty is equall in both the power of Superiours for restraint equal in both and the necessity of obedience in Inferiours equal in both No man hath yet been able to shew nor I think ever shall be a real and substantial difference indeed between them to make an inequality But that still as civil Magistrates have sometimes for just politick respects prohibited some Trades and Manufactures and Commodities and enjoined other-some and done well in both so Church-Governours may upon good considerations say it be but for Order and Uniformities-sake prescribe the Times Places Vestments Gestures and other ceremonial Circumstances to be used in Ecclesiastical Offices and Assemblies As the Apostles in the first Council holden at Ierusalem in Acts 15. laid upon the Churches of the Gentiles for a time a restraint from the eating of Blood and things sacrificed to Idols and strangled Thus we see our christian Liberty unto the Creatures may without prejudice admit of some restraints in the
was it a sin properly of Infirmity and so capable of that extenuating circumstance of being done in the heat of Anger as his uncleanness with Bathsheba was in the heat of Lust although that extenuation will not be allowed to pass for an excuse there unless in tanto only and as it standeth in comparison with this fouler crime But having time and leisure enough to bethink himself what he was about he doth it in cool blood and with much advised deliberation plotting and contriving this way and that way to perfect his design He was resolved whatsoever should become of it to have it done in regard of which setled resolution of his Will this sin of David was therefore a high presumptuous sin 19. By the light of these Examples we may reasonably discover what a Presumptuous sin is and how it is distinguished from those of Ignorance and Infirmity Take the sum of all thus When a man sufficiently convinced in his understanding that the thing he would do is unlawful and displeasing unto God or at least hath sufficient means so to convince him if he be not willingly wanting to himself in the use thereof so as he cannot justly plead Non putâram And then besides hath time and leisure to advise with himself to examine the case and every circumstance of it and to apply the light that is in his understanding thereunto And yet when all is done resolveth contrary to the dictates of his own reason and the checks of his own Conscience to go on to put his wicked intentions into act and to fulfil his own will the apparent inconformity thereof unto the will of God notwithstanding this is a wilful and a fearful Presumption Her speech in the Poet expresseth it in part Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor I see I should do that and I know I should do better to do that but I have a mind rather to this and therefore I will do this When we advance our own Wills not only against the express will of our great God but even against the clear light of our own Consciences and are not able nor indeed careful to give any other reason why we will do this or that but only because we will pro ratione voluntas so making our own will a piece of no good Logick both the Medium and the Conclusion we do then rush headlong into those sins from which David here prayeth so earnestly to be with-held Keep back thy Servant O Lord from Presumptuous Sins 20. Now see we what Presumptuous sins are we are to consider next how great and mischievous they are Certainly if there were not something in them more than in ordinary sins David would not pray against them in such a special manner as here we see he doth and that in four particulars 21. First because those other sins are quotidianae subreptionis such as the servant of God though he walk neverso warily may yetbe and often is overtaken with through incogitancy and the frequency of such temptations as lie so thick in our way every where that the most watchful eye cannot alwaies be aware of them all his Prayer therefore concerning them is that as he is ever and anon gathering soyl by them so God would be ever and anon cleansing him from them O cleanse thou me from my secret faults But as for these greater and presumptuous sins he desireth the powerful aidance of Gods holy Spirit to withhold him wholly from them and to keep him back from ever approaching too near unto them Keep back thy Servant from presumptuous sins As a Traveller in a deep rode will be choice of his way throughout to keep himself as clean as he can from bespotting even with mire and dirt but if he spie a rotten bog or a deep precipice just before him he will make a sudden stop hold back and cast about for a safer way he will be sure for fear of lying fast or venturing a joynt to keep out of that howsoever So David here Cleanse me from those but keep me back from these 22. Secondly in his Petition he maketh mention of his service and dependance He often professeth himself the servant of God Truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the Son of thy handmaid And he often remembreth it to good purpose and presseth it for his advantage upon sundry occasions in this book of Psalms as he doth here very seasonably and pertinently keep back thy Servant Implying that these Presumptuous sins are more unbecoming the servant of God and more unpardonable in him than those other faults are As a discreet Master will pass by many oversights in his servant if sometimes for want of wit and some negligences too if haply for want of care he do now and then otherwise than he would have him But it would exceedingly provoke the spirit of the most suffering Master to see his servant though but once to do that which he knew would offend him in a kind of bravery and out of a sawcy and self-willed Presumption as who say I know it will anger my Master but all is one for that I will do it tho no Patience would endure this So the servant of God by one presumptuous sin doth more grieve and exasperate the holy Spirit of his gracious Master and more highly provoke his just indignation than by many Ignorances or Negligences 23. Thirdly he speaketh here of Dominion Let them not have Dominion over me Any small sin may get the upper hand of the sinner and bring him under in time and after that is once habituated by long custome so as he cannot easily shake off the yoke neither redeem himself from under the tyranny thereof We see the experiment of it but too often and too evidently in our common Swearers and Drunkards Yet do such kind of sins for the most part grow on by little and little steal into the throne insensibly and do not exercise Dominion over the enslaved soul till they have got strength by many and multiplied Acts. But a Presumptuous sin worketh a great alteration in the state of the soul at once and by one single act advanceth marvellously weakning the spirit and giving a mighty advantage to the flesh even to the hazard of a compleat Conquest 24. Lastly he speaketh of the great offence Total and final Apostasie which some understand to be the very sin against the Holy Ghost which cutteth off from the offender all possibility of pardon and reconcilement because it is supposed to be attended with final impenitency and without penance there is no hope of reconcilement or place for pardon David petitioneth to be kept back from these Presumptuous sins and free from their Dominion that so he might be upright and innocent from the great transgression As if these Presumptuous sins did make some nearer approaches to that great transgression and as if no man could well secure himself against the danger of
Rebel or Enemy for the passing over the said House or Fort into his hands Who would not condemn such a person for such an act of ingratitude injustice and presumption in the highest degree Yet is our injustice ingratitude and presumption by so much more infinitely heinous than his in selling our selves from God our Lord and Master into the hands of Satan a Rebel and an Enemy to God and all goodness By how much the disparity is infinitely more betwixt the eternal God and the greatest of the Sons of Men than betwixt the highest Monarch in the world and the lowest of his Subjects 7. So much for the Act the other particulars belong to it as circumstances thereof To a Sale they say three things are required Res Pretium and Consensus a Commodity to be sold a Price to be paid and Consent of Parties Here they are all And whereas I told you in the beginning that in this Sale was represented to us Mans inexcusable baseness and folly You shall now plainly see each Particle thereof made good in the three several circumstances In the Commodity our Baseness that we should sell away our very selves in the Price our folly that we should do it for a thing of nought in the consent our inexcusableness in both that an act so base and foolish should yet be our own voluntary act and deed And first for the Commodity you have sold your selves 8. Lands Houses Cattel and other like possessions made for mans use are the proper subject-matter of trade and commerce and so are fit to pass from man to man by Sales and other Contracts But that Man a Creature of such excellency stamped with the Image of God endowed with a reasonable Soul made capable of Grace and Glory should prostare in foro become merchantable ware and be chaffered in the Markets and Fairs I suppose had been a thing never heard of in the World to this hour had not the overflowings of Pride and Cruelty and Covetousness washed out of the hearts of Men the very impressions both of Religion and Humanity It is well and we are to bless God and under God to thank our Christian Religion and pious Governours for it that in these times and parts of the world we scarce know what it meaneth But that it was generally practised all the world over in some former ages and is at this day in use among Turks and Pagans to sell men ancient Histories and modern Relations will not suffer us to be ignorant We have mention of such Sales even in Scripture where we read of some that sold their own brother as Iacobs Sons did Ioseph and of one that sold his own Master as the Traitor Iudas did Christ. Basely and wretchedly both Envy made them base and Covetousness him Only in some cases of Necessity as for the preservation of Life or of liberty o◠Conscience when other means fail God permitted to his own people to sell themselves or Children into perpetual Bondage and Moses from him gave Laws and Ordinances touching that Matter Lev. 25. 9. But between the Sale in the Text and all those other there are two main differences Both which doth exceedingly aggravate our baseness The first that no man could honestly sell another nor would any man willingly sell himself unless enforced thereunto by some urgent necessity But what necessity I pray you that we should sell our selves out of Gods and out of our own hands into the hands of Sin and Satan Were we not well enough before Full enough and safe enough Was our Masters service so hard that it might not be abiden Might we not have lived Lived Yea and that happily and freely and plentifully and that for ever in his service What was it then Even as it is with many fickle servants abroad in the World that being in a good service cannot tell when they are well but must be ever and anon flitting though many times they change for the worse so it was only our Pride and Folly and a fond conceit we had of bettering our condition thereby that made us not only without any apparent necessity but even against all good reason and duty thus basely to desert our first service and to sell our selves for bond-slaves to Sin and Satan 10. The other difference maketh the matter yet a great deal worse on our side For in selling of slaves for so much as bodily service was the thing chiefly looked after therefore as the body in respect of strength health age and other abilities was deemed more or less fit for service the price was commonly proportioned thereafter Hence by a customary speech among the Graecians slaves were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is bodies and they that traded in that kind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you would say merchants of bodies And so the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred Rev. 18. Mancipia or slaves Epiphanius giveth us the reason of that use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he c. because all the command that a man can exercise over his slaves is terminated to the body and cannot reach the soul. And the soul is the better part of man and that by so many degrees better that in comparison thereof the body hath been scarce accounted a considerable part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could the Greek Philosopher say and the Latine Orator Mens cujusque is est quisque The soul is in effect the whole man The body but the shell of him the body but the Casket the soul the Jewel It is observable that whereas we read Mat. 16. What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole World and lose his own soul instead thereof we have it Luk. 9. thus if he gain the whole world and lose himself So that every mans soul is himself and the body but an appurtenance of him Yet such is our baseness that we have thus trucked away our selves with the appurtenances that is both our souls and our bodies We detest Witches and Conjurers and that worthily as wicked and base People because we suppose them to have made either an express or at least-wise an implicite contract with the Devil Yet have our rebellions against God put us in the same predicament with them Verily Rebellion is as witchcraft 1 Sam. 15. Ours is so since by it we have made a Contract with the Devil and sold our selves to him souls and all 11. Yet are base-minded people most an end covetous enough they will hardly part with any thing but they will know for what Ecquid erit pretii What will you give me is a ready Question in every mans mouth that offers to sell. Iosephs Brethren though they were desirous to be rid of him yet would have somewhat for him and Iudas would not be a Traytor for nought They got twenty pieces of silver for their Brother and he thirty for his Master And those oppressors
for every of us to have a right judgment concerning indifferent things and their lawfulness I shall endeavour to shew you both how unrighteous a thing it is in it self and of how noysom and perilous Consequence many ways to condemn any thing as simply unlawful without very clear evidence to lead us thereunto 11. First it is a very unrighteous thing For as in Civil Judicatories the Iudge that should make no more ado but presently adjudge to death all such persons as should be brought before him upon light surmises and slender presumptions without any due enquiry into the cause or expecting clearer evidence must needs pass many an unjust Sentence and be in great jeopardy at some time or other of shedding innocent blood so he that is very forward when the lawfulness of any thing is called in question upon some colourable exceptions there-against straightways to cry it down and to pronounce it unlawful can hardly avoid the falling oftentimes into Error and sometimes into Uncharitableness Pilate though he did Iesus much wrong afterward yet he did him some right onward when the Jews cryed out â—â—ucifige Away with him crucifie him in replying for him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why what evil hath he done Doth our Law judge a man before it hear him and know what he doth Was Nicodemus his Plea Ioh. 7. I wonder then by what Law those men proceed who judge so deeply and yet examine so overly speaking evil of those things they know not as St. Iude and answering a matter before they hear it as Solomon speaketh Which in his judgment is both folly and shame to them as who say there is neither Wit nor Honesty in it The Prophet Isaiah to shew the righteousness and equity of Christ in the exercise of his Kingly Office describeth it thus Isa. 11. He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes neither reprove after the hearing of his ears but with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity Implying that where there is had a just regard of righteousness and equity there will be had also a due care not to proceed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to our first apprehension of things as they are suddenly represented to our eyes or ears without further examination A fault which our Saviour reproveth in the Jews as an unrighteous thing when they censured him as a Sabbath-breaker without cause Iudge not according to the outward appearance but judge righteous Judgment Ioh. 7. 12. All this will easily be granted may some say where the case is plain But suppose when the Lawfulness of something is called in question that there be probable Arguments on both sides so as it is not easie to resolve whether way rather to encline Is it not at leastwise in that case better to suspect it may be unlawful than to presume it to be lawful For in doubtful cases via tutior it is best ever to take the safer way Now because there is in most men a wondrous aptness to stretch their liberty to the utmost extent many times even to a licentiousness and so there may be more danger in the enlargement than there can be in the restraint of our liberty it seemeth therefore to be the safer error in doubtful cases to judge the things unlawful say that should prove an error rather than to allow them lawful and yet that prove an error 13. True it is that in hypothesi and in point of practice and in things not enjoyned by Superiour Authority either Divine or Humane it is the saferway if we have any doubts that trouble us to forbear the doing of them for fear they should prove unlawful rather than to adventure to do them before we be well satisfied that they are lawful As for example if any man should doubt of the lawfulness of playing at Cards or of Dancing either single or mixt although I know no just cause why any man should doubt of either severed from the abuses and accidental consequents yet if any man shall think he hath just cause so todo that man ought by all means to forbear such playing or dancing till he can be satisfied in his own mind that he may lawfully use the same The Apostle hath clearly resolved the case Rom. 14. that be the thing what it can be in it self yet his very doubting maketh it unlawful to him so long as he remaineth doubtful because it cannot be of faith and whatsoever is not of faith is sin Thus far therefore the former allegation may hold good so long as we consider things but in hypothesi that is to say only so far forth as concerneth our own particular in point of practice that in these doubtful cases it is safer to be too scrupulous than too adventurous 14. But then if we will speak of things in thesi that is to say taken in their general nature and considered in themselves and as they stand devested of all circumstances and in point of judgment so as to give a positive and determinate Sentence either with them or against them there I take it the former allegation of Via tutior is so far from being of force that it holdeth rather the clean contrary way For in bivio dextra in doubtful cases it is safer erring the more charitable way As a Iudge upon the Bench had better acquit ten Malefactors if there be no full proof brought against them than condemn but one innocent person upon mere presumptions And this seemeth to be very reasonable For as in the Courts of Civil Iustice men are not ordinarily put to prove themselves honest men but the proof lyeth on the accusers part and it is sufficient for the acquitting of any man in foro externo that there is nothing of moment proved against him for in the construction of the Law every man is presumed to be an honest man till he be proved otherwise But to the condemning of a man there is more requisite than so bare suspicions are not enough no nor strong presumptions neither but there must be a clear and full evidence especially if the trial concern life So in these moral trials also in foro interno when enquiry is made into the lawfulness or unlawfulness of Humane Acts in their several kinds it is sufficient to warrant any Act in the kind to be lawful that there can be nothing produced from Scripture or sound Reason to prove it unlawful For so much the words of my Text do manifestly import All things are lawful for me But to condemn any act as simply and utterly unlawful in the kind remote consequences and weak deductions from Scripture-Text should not serve the turn neither yet reasons of inconveniency or inexpediency though carrying with them great shews of probablity But it is requisite that the unlawfulness thereof should be sufficiently demonstrated either from express and undeniable testimony of Scripture or from the clear
End and then he is to judge of the Expediency of the Means by their serviceableness thereunto 15. It is no doubt lawful for a Christian being that God hath tied him to live out his time in the World therefore to propose to himself in sundry particular actions of this Life worldly Ends Gain Preferment Reputation Delight so as he desire nothing but what is meet for him and that his desires thereof be also moderate And he may consequently apply himself to such Means as are expedient and conducing to those Ends. But those Ends and Means are but the Bye of a Christian not the Main He liveth in the World and so must and therefore also may use it But wo unto him if he have not far higher and nobler Ends than these to which all his Actions must refer and whereto all those worldly both Means and Ends must be subordinate And those are to seek the Glory of God and the Salvation of his own Soul by discharging a good Conscience and advancing the common Good In the use therefore and choice of such things as are in themselves lawful as all indifferent things are we are to judge those Means that may any way further us towards the attainment of any of those Ends to be so far forth expedient and those that any way hinder the same to be so far forth inexpedient and by how much more or less they so either further or hinder to be by so much more or less either expedient or inexpedient 16. Besides the End the reason of Expediency dependeth also very much upon such other particular Circumstances as do attend humane Actions as Times Places Persons Measure Manner and the rest By reason of the infinite variety and uncertainty whereof it is utterly impossible to give such general Rules of Expediency as shall serve to all particular Cases so that there is no remedy but the weighing of particular Circumstances in particular actions must be left to the Discretion and Charity of particular men Wherein every man that desireth to walk conscionably must endeavour at all times and in all his actions to lay things together as well as he can and taking one thing with another according to that measure of Wisdom and Charity wherewith God hath endowed him to resolve ever to do that which seemeth to him most convenient to be done as things then stand Only let him be sure still his Eye and Aim be upon the right End in the main and that then all things be ordered with reference thereunto 17. This discovery of the Nature of Expediency what it is and what dependence it hath upon and relation unto the End and Circumstances of mens actions discovereth unto us withal sundry material differences between Lawfulness and Expediency and thence also the very true reason why in the exercise of our Christian Liberty it should be needful for us to have regard as well to the Expediency as to the Lawfulness of those things we are to do Some of those Differences are First that as the Natures of things are unchangeable but their Ends and Circumstances various and variable so their Lawfulness which is rooted in their Nature is also constant and permanent and ever the same but their Expediency which hangeth upon so many turning hinges is ever and anon changing What is expedient to day may be inexpedient to morrow but once lawful and ever lawful Secondly That a thing may be at the same time expedient in one respect and inexpedient in another but no respects can make the same thing to be at once hoth lawful and unlawful Because respects cannot alter the Natures of things from which their Lawfulness or Unlawfulness ariseth Thirdly That the Lawfulness and Unlawfulness of things consisteth in puncto indivisibili as they use to speak even as the Nature and Essence of every thing doth and so are not capable either of them of the degrees of more or less all lawful things being equally lawful and all unlawful things equally unlawful But there is a latitude of expediency and inexpediency they do both suspicere magis minus so as one thing may be more or less expedient than another and more or less inexpedient than another And that therefore fourthly It is a harder thing to judge rightly of the Expediency of things to be done than of their lawfulness For to judge whether a thing be lawful or no there need no more to be done but to consider the nature of it in general and therein what conformity it hath with the principles of Reason and the written Word of God And universalia certiora a man of competent judgment and not forestalled with prejudice will not easily mistake in such generalities because they are neither many nor subject to much uncertainty But descendendo contingit errare the more we descend to Particulars in the more danger are we of being mistaken therein because we have both far more things to consider of and those also far more uncertain than before And it may fall out and not seldom doth that when we have laid things together in the Balance weighing one Circumstance with another as carefully as we could and thereupon have resolved to do this or that as in our judgment the most expedient for that time some Circumstance or other may come into our minds afterwards which we did not forethink or some casual intervening Accident may happen which we could not foresee that may turn the scales quite the other way and render the thing which seemed expedient but now now altogether inexpedient 18. From these and other like Differences we may gather the true reason why the Apostle so much and so often presseth the Point of Expediency as meet to be taken into our Consideration and Practice as well as that of Lawfulness Even because things lawful in themselves and in the kind may for want of a right End or through a neglect of due Circumstances become sinful in the doer Not as if an Act of ours could change the nature of the things from what they are for it is beyond the power of any Creature in the world to do that God only is Dominus Naturae to him it belongeth only as chief Lord to change either the Physical or Moral Nature of things at his pleasure Things in their own nature indifferent God by commanding can make necessary and by forbidding unlawful as he made Circumcision necessary and eating of Pork unlawful to the Iews under the old Law But no Scruple of Conscience no Command of the higher Powers no Opinions or Consent of Men no Scandal or Abuse whatsoever can make any indifferent thing to become either necessary or unlawful universally and perpetually and in the nature of it but it still remaineth indifferent as it was before any act of ours notwithstanding Yet may such an indifferent thing remaining still in the nature of it indifferent as before by some act of ours or otherwise become in
the use of it and by accident either necessary or unlawful pro hîc nunc to some men and at some times and with some circumstances As the Command of lawful Authority may make an indifferent thing to us necessary for the time and the just fear of Scandal may make an indifferent thing to us unlawful for the time Therefore it behooveth us in all our deliberations de rebus agendis to consider well not only of the nature of the thing we would do whether it be lawful or no in the kind but of the end also and all present circumstances especially the most material lest through some default there it become so inexpedient that it cannot be then done by us without sin For as we may sin by doing that which is unlawful so may we also by doing even that which is lawful in an undue manner 19. And it will much concern us to use all possible circumspection herein the rather for two great Reasons for that by this means I mean the supposed lawfulness of things we are both very easily drawn on unto Sin and when we are in very hardly fetched off again First we are easily drawn on The very name and opinion of Lawfulness many times carrieth us along whilst we suspect no evil and putteth our foot into the snare ere we be aware of it The Conscience of many a good man that would keep a strait watch over himself against grosser offences will sometimes set it self very loose when he findeth himself able to plead that he doth nothing but what is lawful In things simply evil Sin cannot lurk so close but that a godly wise man that hath his eyes in his head may spy it and avoid it as a wild beast or Thief may easily be descried in the open Champain But if it can once shroud it self under the covert of Lawfulness it is the more dangerous like a wild beast or Thief in the woods or behind the thickets where he may lurk unseen and assault us on a sudden if we do not look the better about us And the greater our danger is the greater should be our circumspection also 20. And as we are easily inveigled and drawn in to sins of this kind so when we are in we get off again very hardly If we chance through humane frailty or the strength of temptations to fall into some gross offence by doing something that is manifestly unlawful although such gross sins are of themselves apt to waste the conscience to beat back the offers of Grace and to harden the heart wonderfully against repentance yet have we in sundry other respects more and better helps and advantages towards Repentance for such sins than when we transgress by abusing our liberty in lawful things 1. It is no hard matter to convince our understandings of those grosser transgressions their obliquity is so palpable 2. They often lie cold and heavy at the heart where the burden of them is so pressing and afflictive that it will force us to seek abroad for ease 3. We shall scarce read a Chapter or hear a Sermon but we shall meet with something or other that seemeth to rub upon that gaul 4. The World will cry shame on us 5. And our Enemies triumph that they have gotten something to lay in our Dish 6. Our Friends will have a just occasion to give us a sharp Rebuke 7. And the guiltiness of the Fact will so stop our mouths that we shall have nothing to answer for our selves All which may be so many good preparations unto repentance 21. But when we are able to plead a lawfulness in the substance of the thing done 1. Seldom do we take notice of our failings in some Circumstances 2. Nor do our Hearts smite us with much Remorse thereat 3. The edge of God's holy Word slideth over us without cutting or piercing at all or not deep 4. We lie not so open to the upbraidings either of Friends or Foes but that if any thing be objected by either we can yet say something in our defence All which are so many impediments unto Repentance Not but that whoever truly feareth God and repenteth unfeignedly repenteth even of the smallest sins as well as of the greatest but that he doth it not so feelingly nor so particularly for these smaller as for those greater ones because he is not so apprehensive of these as he is of those For the most part his Repentance for such like sins is but in a general form wrapt up in the lump of his unknown sins like that in Psal. 19. Who can tell how oft he offendeth O cleanse thou me from my secret faults Only our hope and comfort is that our merciful Lord God will graciously accept this general Repentance for current without requiring of us a more particular sense of those sins whereof he hath not given us a more particular sight 22. By what hath been said you may perceive how unsafe a thing it is to rest upon the bare lawfulness of a thing alone without regard to expediency For this is indeed the ready way to turn our liberty into a licentiousness sith even lawful things become unlawful when they grow inexpedient Lawful in themselves but unlawful to us lawful in their nature but unlawful in their use But then the Question will be how we shall know from time to time and at all times what is expedient to be done and what not Which leadeth us to the third and last Observation from the Text viz That the expediency of lawful things is to be measured by their usefulness unto edification For if we shall ask Why are not all lawful things always expedient The Apostle's Answer is Because they do not always edifie When they do edifie they are not only lawful but expedient too and we may do them But when they edifie not but destroy though they be lawful still yet they are not expedient and we may not do them All things are lawful but all things edifie not 23. To this edification it appeareth St. Paul had a great respect in all his actions and affairs We do all things Brethren for your edifying 2 Cor. 12. And he desireth that all other men would do so too Let every man please his Neighbour for his good unto edification Rom 15. 2. and that in all the actions of their lives Let all things be done to edifying 1. Cor. 14. It is the very end for which God ordained the Ministry of the Gospel the edifying of the body of Christ Eph. 4. and for which he endowed his servants with power and with gifts to enable them for the work the power which God hath given us for edification 2 Cor. 13. Whatsoever our Callings are whatsoever our power or gifts if we direct them not to Edification when we use them we abuse them 24. But then what is Edification For that we are yet to learn The Word is Metaphorical taken from material Buildings