doors of our Lips and to take care that our Speech be always with Grace season'd with Salt that we may know how to Answer every Man An Exercise enjoyn'd Col. 4. 6. Ephes. 4. 25 29. Ephes. 5. 3 4. Matth. 12. 34 35 36. It was a good Observation of one who Travell'd with some Men that talk'd loosly and inconsiderately and whom St. Anthony the Hermite took for excellent Company Yes saith he they are good Men but the House they live in wants a Door with a Lock and Key for whoever pleases may go in and take away what they possess His meaning was That they took no care of their Words that the Door of their Lips was always open and that they talk'd any thing that came into their Minds The Tongue saith St. James is a little Member but contains a world of Iniquity James 4. 5 6. So that the greatness of the danger enforces the necessity of this Exercise This Exercise consists partly in watching against the sins the Tongue is subject to partly in using the Tongue to such discourses as are most proper for a man that pretends to be a follower of Jesus The sins of the Tongue are without number yet the most remarkable are these following 1. Blasphemy 2. Murmuring 3. Defending our sins 4. Perjury 5. Lying 6. Detraction 7. Accusing others falsly 8. Much speaking 9. Idle words 10. Profane jesting or abusing of Scripture 11. Indiscreet expressions 12. Railing 13. Quarreling 14. Laughing and deriding those that are serious 15. Evil Counsel 16. Sowing of Discord and Dissention among Neighbours 17. Cursing and customary Swearing 18. Flattery 19. Double tongued dealings 20. False Reports 21. Boasting and speaking in ones own Praise 22. Revelation of a Secret In vain doth he pretend to exercise himself unto Godliness that watches not against these sins or seeing himself in danger of running into them steps not back or climbs up with his thoughts to Heaven as he that sees a Wild Beast coming towards him climbs up into a Tree to secure himself There is hardly any Precept either more spoken of or recommended more either by the holy Ghost in Scripture or by holy wise and sober men in their Books then this watching over our tongues and words and speeches for indeed By thy Words thou shalt be Justified and by thy Words thou shalt be Condemned saith Christ Matth. 12. 37. Before the power of Godliness was turned into a Form the Christians that lived then studied this point with that care and assiduity and became such Proficients in it that men might Converse with them and keep them company a week together and not hear one idle word drop from them but what was to the use of edifying and Ministred Grace unto the hearers and till men come to believe that their tongues are not their own but Gods who made them and designed them for the Noblest uses and must therefore be employed as he shall think fit to direct they are yet far from the Kingdom of God and Aliens from that Common-Wealth of Saints who are to be Heirs of Salvation and he knows not what Self-denial means that doth not deny himself in speaking things which the Holy-Ghost hath forbid and thought improper undecent or extravagant and he that cannot speak but must offend in one or other of the aforemention'd particulars had better hold his tongue and spend his time in silence It was therefore excellent advice which St. Ambrose gave to his people Let 's learn to hold our tongues that we may be able to speak why shouldst thou run thy self into danger of Condemnation when by silence thou mayest be infinitely safer I have seen thousands run into sin by speaking but few by holding their peace most men love to talk because they know not how to be quiet He is the wise man that knows when to speak and when to be silent if of every idle word Men shall give an account in the day of Judgment how much more of filthy Communications Thy mind is thy Lands and Houses thy heart is thy Gold thy speech thy Silver Therefore make a Hedge about thy Lands and cast up Trenches against thy Thoughts Arm thy House with diligent care that thy unreasonable passions like Thieves do not break in and Spoil it that no disorderly motion make an irruption and lay it waste that those that go by may not pluck off thy Grapes Watch over thy inward man do not neglect him as contemptible tye up thy Speech cut off its luxuriant Branches let it not play the wanton lest it drag thee into sin restrain it keep it within its Banks Water soon gathers Mud Bind up thy Senses let them not be loose or Gadding make a Dore to thy Lips to shut it when there is occasion and to open it when there is necessity Bring thy tongue under the Yoak and let it be subject to thy Reason Keep the Bridle in thine own hands weigh thy words in a Ballance that thy sense may be ponderous thy speech solid and thy words move within their bounds But watching against the sins of the Tongue is but one half of this Exercise speaking of God and heavenly and spiritual things is another as we may see Col. 3. 16. an Exercise commanded already in the days of Moses Deut. 6. 5 6 7. and duly observed by men who took care of their Salvation long before the Gospel was proclaimed in the World which makes the Prophet take notice Then they who feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearken'd and heard it and a Book of Remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his Name and they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own Son that serves him Mal. 3. 16 17. Indeed Spiritual and Heavenly things are the best things and therefore deserve our speaking of them If meaner things or Trifles are thought worth discoursing of why should not the greatest most excellent and noblest be worth talking of especially when we converse with persons that profess the same Faith with us There is hardly any man that makes a shew of Religion or frequents the publick Ordinances of God but will grant and confess That the concerns of God and of our Souls do infinitely exceed all Earthly Objects in Worth Value and Dignity but then not to speak of them is an omission which contradicts that belief and makes that faith all shadow and imagery He that believes that these are the bestthings and yet cares not for discoursing of them to his Neighbour gives himself the lie and silently confesses that whatever his pretence may be they are the meanest lowest and most inconsiderable things for he doth not think them worth opening his lips about them And as these are the best so they are the most necessary things Luc. 10. 42. Can there be
Son go work to day in my Vineyard Matth. Ch 21 v 28. THE HAPPY ASCETICK OR THE Best Exercise To which is added A LETTER TO A Person of Quality Concerning the Holy Lives of the Primitive Christians By ANTHONY HORNECK Preacher at the Savoy Printed by T. N for Henry Mortlock at the Phaenix in St. Paul's Church-yard and Mark Pardoe at the Black Raven over against Bedford-House in the Strand 1681. To the Right Reverend FATHER in GOD THOMAS Lord Bishop of LINCOLN MY LORD THe Reason why I dedicate this Treatise to your Lordship is not any opinion I have of the Merit of the Book but my remembrance of your former Favours I am sensible how much I am obliged to you and though I have often professed so much in private yet I look'd upon the Duty as imperfect without I made some publick Acknowledgement and though the Book may not be worthy of your Patronage because it comes not attended with new Notions yet I thought it safer to run the hazard of being judged unlearned than that of being counted ungrateful My Lord you were the Person who first took notice of me in the University and by your Sun-shine warm'd and cherish'd my Endeavours and gave Encouragement to those Studies I am now engaged in and as under your Shadow I then advanced and prosper'd So now that the Fruit though of a courser sort is come to some maturity it was but reason you should have a taste of it I know not how pleasant it may be to your curious and delicate Pallate but your Piety is such that you can disrelish nothing that tends to the Exercise of Real Godliness A Subject indeed on which Millions of Books are already written yet such is the Richness of it that every day it affords new matter for Contemplation and though what we write is nothing but a different Dress of the same Good Angel yet even those different Garbs and Habits may help towards the Enlargement of its Splendor and Glory To Plant Goodness in Men is without doubt the indeleble Character of our Office and to make Souls fall in love with Heaven the import of that Duty whereby we hold our Charter and we have the greater reason to attempt it in an Age wherein Religion like the Poets Eccho is become an empty sound and try how far we may bring that Faith into fashion again which formerly when times were better discovered it self in suitable Works and Actions St. Paul's fight with Beasts one would think is still entailed upon our Function and the difference between his and ours seems only this that his was at Ephesus and ours in the places where we do Officiate for the Brutal Lusts of Men are now as strong as ever and it 's hard to say whether our Task be not the more difficult of the two since besides his Preaching he had the Mantle of Elijah the Power of doing Miracles and we only the ordinary Assistances of Gods Spirit It 's true the World is Christian now whereas it was Heathen in his time but I cannot tell whether Christianism mingled with Paganism in Carriage and Conversation be not a fiercer Devil to drive out than meer Heathenism and Black Infidelity without any White to checker it However we have reason to relie upon his Help who hath promised to be with us to the Worlds end and we find by happy Experience that our Labours are not altogether unsuccessful where we aim at Gods Glory more than our own Interest We are happy in this Church that we have so many Prelates who are bent upon reviving the strictness of the Primitive Church excellent Patterns for us the inferiour Clergy to imitate and being thus encouraged by our Generals we must be inexcusable if having such Monitors we prove careless of our Duty To reduce Christianity in Men to its Primitive Rule is the drift of this discourse and as your Lordships Zeal for such harmless Enterprizes cannot be unknown to any that have had the Honour to converse with you so whatever defects may occur in the Book itself the Scope and Intent being great I flatter my self that though I fall short of the Mark I aim at yet for the Designs sake your Lordship will generously pardon all the Faults and Mistakes of MY LORD Your Lordships Much Obliged and very Humble Servant Anthony Horneck The Preface THe use of new Books especially upon Subjects of this Nature I apprehend to be no other than this that the newness of them is a temptation to Men to read them who many times will lay aside an Old one though much better to peruse a New and by the Novelty of the Dress be brought into a good opinion of a Doctrine which before while lying in Moth-eaten Leaves was insipid and nauseous to their Spiritual Appetite so that we are forced to make advantage of their Temper and continue Writing in hopes that by a new Book we may catch them into seriousness All I have to say concerning this Treatise is That it is intended to call Mâ—n away from the Shadow to the Substance of Religion from a Form to the Power of Godliness and from a notional to a practical Belief of the Gospel and though Exercise in an Age so much given to Idleness may possibly sound ill and some Men that never understood that Religion required much Labour will be apt to cry What will this Babler say yet we are not to be laught out of our Christianity by the talk of Men that have no mind to be saved nor is Religion therefore the less painful because so many thousands turn it into Formality The Judge of Quick and Dead will have another Rule to go by and it is not the Fancies of Men shall guide him in passing Sentence in the great Day of Retribution The World will find that Heaven takes other Measures than they flatter themselves withal and it will not serve turn in that day to say that they thought things would not have been so bad when in this Life they might have believed the Gospel and lived for ever I know not how the Gospel can be plainer than it is and when it bids none expect Salvation but those that do the Will of their Father which is in Heaven It must not be Reason but Stupidity and Sottishness that can pretend to ignorance and as much as this shakes the Foundation of some Mens Faith it is notwithstanding an everlasting Truth and when Heaven and Earth shall wax old as a Garment this will be found unalterable The Cost God hath been at to make us his lays invincible obligations upon us to work the Work of him that sent us hither and when he hath Bought and Purchased us at so dear a Rate as his own Blood either that Report is fabulous or the Mercy challenges the strictest Obedience As we are not to appoint our selves our station and condition in the World so neither are we to do our own Will We are Servants
do afterward happen they are apt to distract the Mind and while the Votary is tossed between his obligation to God and the preservation of his Health he makes his Breast like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest And though some Casuists think that upon such Accidents a man is free from Sin if he do not keep his Vow yet to a person that is very Conscientious it is not so satisfactory as when himself hath made these Exceptions Had Jephtah Judg 11. 30. 31. observed this Rule he had not brought that grief and anguish upon himself which afterwards was ready to overwhelm him Vowing in general that whatsoever should first meet him upon his return from the Slaughter of the Children of Ammon he would certainly Sacrifice and Offer for a Burnt Offering without any limitation provided it be fit to be Offer'd or provided it be no rational Creature or provided it be of the clean Cattle that is in my possession or provided it be not another Mans Vowing I say at large without any such exception when his Daughter met him he knew not how to evade the obligation of the Vow and therefore was forced at least thought himself obliged to Sacrifice his only Child for he did unto her saith the Text according to his Vow which he had Vow'd v. 39. IV. When such Vows are made it 's fit we should write them down in a Book or in Paper that we may remember what we have Vow'd and what the particular things are we have promis'd to the Almighty The Roman Soldiers when they went to War having made certain Vows to God used to write them on Tables and fasten them to the Gates of the City that they might be sure upon their return to pay their Vows Our Memories are frail and treacherous and things are not so soon forgot when committed to Paper or a Book The Oath God made against Amaleck he caused to be written in a Book Exod. 17. 14. and Samuel wrote the manner of the Kingdom in a Book 1 Sam. 10. 21. and indeed remarkable Passages or Occurrences deserve no less Sickness Business or Divertisements may put things out of our Minds whereas if they be noted or written down we can refresh our Memories when we please and remember the very circumstances we were under when we did or saw or met with them Vows are actions of great concernment writing of them down gives us fresh suggestions of the occasion of such engagements and serves to kindle a new zeal in us to perform them When they are once past there depends so much upon the observance of them and the performance or non-performance of them have so great an influence upon the happiness or unhappiness even of our lives here on Earth that they may justly be look'd upon as things of the greatest moment and therefore we cannot be too careful about them and why may not writing down of our Vows be a Monument of our Sincerity Seriousness and Gratitude as much as the Primitive Christians hanging up Boards and Cloaths in the Church which had on them the Picture of the Joint or Part of the Body where they had been diseased or distempered after they were deliver'd as a Testimony of their Thankfulness V. The end of these Vows must be Gods Honour and Glory If the end be that we may with greater liberty live in a certain Sin we delight in the Vow is so far from tending to Gods Honour that God is despised and thought to be altogether such a one as we our selves Such Vows as have no good ends I am afraid are too common in the Church of Rome where Men by Vowing to go in Pilgrimage to such a Saints Shrine or to Jerusalem or to such a Chappel of our Blessed Lady think they purchase a prerogative or priviledge to continue in those darling Sins their Profit or Pleasure doth consist in or to neglect some greater and weightier matter of the Law and though this is call'd by their Votaries seeking Gods Glory yet whatever doth tend to the advancement or cherishing of any sin cannot possibly tend to Gods Glory let mens pretences be what they will for if the bare saying that I aim at Gods Glory would serve turn who almost would be damned Since men may plead that they sin abundantly on purpose that Gods Grace may abound in these Vows destruction of the body of sin must be chiefly aimed at for God is honour'd by nothing so much as by the ruine of the Devils Kingdom VI. Commutations and Dispensations of Vows must be slighted as things alien from true Religion These Practises are common in the Roman Church By Commutations of Vows they mean changing the matter of one Vow into another i. e. He that hath Vow'd to give so much to the Poor changes the Vow into a Vow of Fasting and so breaks the former Vow and substitutes an easier or more convenient in the room of it But these commutations are no better than Falsifications for in a Vow I bind my Soul to God that I will do that particular thing I have mentioned and not another and if God doth not release me of the performance who was the party I promised to what can humane Authority signifie in the case It 's true where the thing I have Vow'd is either impossible or sinful there I may lawfully make another Vow of something that 's good or possible but that doth not excuse the sin of the first nor is this properly a Commutation but a Testimony of my Repentance for the rashness of the former The same may be said of Dispensations how should man be able to dispence with the non-performance of my Vow who hath nothing to do with it and most certainly cannot give away Gods Right who by my Vow is made absolute Owner of that Service I resolve upon and hath so great a Propriety in it by my voluntary resignation of it to him that it is no less than Sacrilege in man to attempt it The Parasites of the Court of Rome allow the Pope besides his pretended power to absolve Men of their Oaths power to dispence with five sorts of Vows with Vows to enter into Orders with Vows of entring into a Monastry and perpetual Chastity with Vows to go in Pilgrimage to Jerusalem with Vows to visit the Thresholds of the Apostles S t Peter and S t Paul and with Vows to salute S t James of Compostella Though we Protestants justly question whether some of these Vows be lawful and whether the matter of them be not contrary to the Will of God yet suppose they are lawful as the Church of Rome holds who gave the Pope Authority to deliver men from the Obligations they have engaged themselves in to God Almighty These Vows all this while are not made to the Pope but to God and how comes the Bishop of Rome to know Gods Mind in this particular or to give away Gods right By what Title or