seriousness in Religion made odious or banished from the earth and that themselves may be taken for the Center and Pillars and Law-givers of the Church and the Consciences of all men may be taught to cast off all scruples or fears of offending God in comparison of â—â—â—â—â—â—ing them and may absolutely submit to them and never stick at any feared disobedience to 〈…〉 t They are the scorners and persecutors of strict obedience to the Laws of God and take those that â—ear his judgements to be men affrighted out of their wits and that to obey him exactly which alas who can do when he hath done his best is but to be hypocritical or too precise but to question their domination or break their Laws imposed on the world even on Kings and States without any Authority this must be taken for Heresie Schism or a Rebellion like that of Corah and his company This Luciferian Spirit of the proud Autonomians hath filled the Christian world with bloodshed and been the greatest means of the miseries of the earth and especially of hindering and persecuting the Gospel and setting up a Pharisaical Religion in the world It hath fought against the Gospel and filled with blood the Countreys of France Savoy Rhaetia Bohemia Belgia Helvetia Polonia Hungary Germany and many more that it may appear how much of the Satanical nature they have and how punctually they fulfill his will § 3. And natural corruption containeth in it the seeds of all these damnable Heresies nothing more natural to lapsed man than to shake off the Government of God and to become a Law-giver to himself and as many others as he can and to turn the grace of God into wantonness Therefore the prophane that never heard it from any Hereticks but themselves do make themselves such a Creed as this that God is merciful and therefore we need not fear his threatnings for he will be better than his word It belongeth to him to save us and not to us and therefore we may cast our souls upon his care though we care not for them our selves If he hath predestinated us to salvation we shall be saved and if he have not we shall not what ever we do or how well soever we live Christ dyed for sinners and therefore though we are sinners he will save us God is stronger than the Devil and therefore the Devil shall not have the most That which pleaseth the flesh and doth God no harm can never be so great a matter or so much offend him as to procure our damnation What need of so much ado to be saved or so much haste to turn to God when any one that at last doth but repent and cry God mercy and believe that Christ dyed for him shall be saved Christ is the Saviour of the world and his grace is very great and free and therefore God forbid that none should be saved but those few that are of strict and holy lives and make so much ado for Heaven No man can know who shall be saved and who shall not and therefore it is the wisest way to do no body any harm and to live merrily and trust God with our souls and put our salvation upon the venture no body is saved for his own works or deservings and therefore our lives may serve the turn as well as if they were more strict and holy This is the Creed of the ungodly by which you may see how natural it is to them to abuse the Gospel and plead Gods grace to quiet and strengthen them in their sin and to embolden themselves on Christ to disobey him § 4. But this is but to set Christ against himself even his Merits and Mercy against his Government and Spirit and to set his Death against the Ends of his death and to set our Saviour against our salvation and to run from God and rebell against him because Christ dyed to recover us to God and to give us Repentance unto life and to sin because he dyed to save his people from their sins and to purifie a peculiar people to himself zealous of good works Matth. 1. 21. Tit. 2. 14. He that committeth sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3. 8. John 8. 44. Direct 18. WAtch diligently hath against the more discernable decayes of grace and against Direct 18. the degenerating of it into some carnal affections or something counterfeit and of another kind And so also of Religious duties § 1. We are no sooner warmed with the coelestial flames but natural corruption is enclining us to grow cold Like hot water which loseth its heat by degrees unless the fire be continually kept under it Who feeleth not that as soon as in a Sermon or Prayer or holy Meditation his heart hath got a little heat as soon as it is gone it is prone to its former earthly temper and by a little remisness in our duty or thoughts or business about the world we presently grow cold and dull again Be watchful therefore lest it decline too far Be frequent in the means that must preserve you from declining when faintness telleth you that your stomachs are emptied of the former meat supply it with another lest strength abate You are rowing against the stream of fleshly interest and inclinations and therefore intermit not too long lest you go faster down by your ease then you get up by labour § 2. The Degenerating of Grace is a way of backsliding very common and too little observed How Grace may degenerate It is when good affections do not directly cool but turn into some carnal affections somewhat like them but of another kind As if the body of a man instead of dying should receive the life or soul of a Beast instead of the reasonable humane soul. For instance 1. Have you Believed in God and in Iesus Christ and Loved him accordingly You shall seem to do so still as much as formerly when your corrupted minds have received some false representation of him and so it is indeed another thing that you thus corruptly Believe and Love 2. Have you been fervent in Prayer you shall be fervent still iâ— Satan can but corrupt your prayers by corrupting your judgement or affections and get you to think that to be the cause of God which is against him and that to be against him which he commandeth and those to be the troublers of the Church which are its best and faithfullest members Turn but your prayers against the cause and people of God by your mistake and you may pray as fervently against them as you will The same I may say of preaching and conference and zeal Corrupt them once and turn them against God and Satan will joyn with you for zealous and frequent preaching or conference or disputes 3. Have you a confidence in Christ and his promise for
of flesh and blood which maketh you pretend Moderation and Peace and that it is a sign that you are hypocrites that are so lukewarm and carnally comply with error and that the cause of God is to be followed with the greatest zeal and self denyal And all this is true if you be but sure that it is indeed the cause of God and that the greater works of God be not neglected on such pretences and that your Zeal be much greater for Faith and Charity and Unity than for your opinions But upon great experience I must tell you that of the zealous contenders in the world that cry up The Cause of Consuming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 use at 〈◊〉 â—o 〈◊〉 up the owners of it Whatever tâ—â—y say oâ— do against others in theâ—â— inâ—â—mperaâ—e violâ—nce they teach otherâ— at last to say and do against them when they have opportunity How the Orâ—â—odox taught the Aâ—â—iaâ—s to use severity against them may be sâ—en in Victor utic p. 447 448 449. in the Edict of Hunneâ—yâ—hus â—â—gem quam dudum Christiani Imperatores nostri contra eos alios haereticos pro honorisicentia Ecclesiae Catholiâ—ae dedâ—runâ— adversus nos illi proponere non eâ—ubuerunt v. g. Rex Hun. c. Triumphalis Majestatis Regiae probatur esâ—e virtutis mâ—â—a in autores conâ—lia retorquere Quisquis enim pravitatis aliquid invenerit sibi imputet quod incurrit Nullâ—s 〈◊〉 homâ—usion Saceâ—doâ—es assumanâ— nec aliquid mysteriâ—â—um quae magis polluunt sibi vendicenâ— Nullam habeant oâ—dinandi licentiam Quod ipsaâ—um legum continentia demonstratur quas induxiâ—â—e Imperaâ—oâ—ibuâ— c. viz. Ut nulla exceptâ—s superstiti 〈…〉 s suae â—nâ—stibus Ecclesia pateret nuâ—lâ—s liceret aliis aut convictus agere aut exercere convâ—ntâ—s nec Ecclesias auâ— in uâ—â—iâ—â—â—â— aut in quibuâ—dam 〈◊〉 locis God and Truth there is not one of very many that understandeth what he talks of but some of them cry up the Cause of God when it is a brat of a proud and ignorant brain and such as a judicious person would be ashamed of And some of them are rashly zealous before they have parts or time to come to any judicious tryal and some of them are mis-guided by some person or party that captivateth their minds and some of them are hurried away by passion and discontent and many of the ambitious and worldly are blinded by their carnal interests and many of them in meer pride think highly of an Opinion in which they are somewhat singular and which they can with some glorying call their Own as either invented by them or that in which they think they know more than ordinary men do And abundance after longer experience confess that to have been their own erroneous cause which they before entitled the Cause of God Now when this is the case and one cryeth Here is Christ and another There is Christ one saith This is the cause of God and another saith That is it no man that hath any care of his Conscience or of the honour of God and his profession will leap before he looketh where he shall alight or run after every one that will whistle him with the name or pretence of truth or a good cause It is a sad thing to go on many years together in censuring opposing and abusing thâ—se that are against you and in seducing others and mis-imploying your zeal and parts and time and poysoning all your prayers and discourses and in the end to see what mischief you have done for want of knowledge and with Paul to confess that you were mad in opposing the truth and servants of God though you did it in a zeal of God through ignorance Were it not much better to stay till you have tryed the ground and prevent so many years grievous sin than to scape by a sad repentance and leave behind you stinking and venemous fruits of your mistake And worse if you never repent your selves Your own and your Brethrens souls are not so lightly to be ventured upon dangerous untryed wayes It will not make the Truth and Church amends to say at last I had thought I had done well Let those go to the Wars of disputing and 〈◊〉 and câ—nsuâ—ing and siding with a Sect that are riper and better understand the cause Wars are not for Children Do you suspend your judgement till you can solidly and certainly inform it and serve God in Charity quietness and peace And it s two to one but you will live to see the day that the contenders that would have led you into their Wars will come off with so much loss themselves as will teach them to approve your peaceable course or teach you to bless God that kept you in your place and duty § 3. In all this I deny not but every truth of God is to be valued at a very high rate and that he that shall carry himself in a neutrality when Faith or Godliness is the matter in controversie or shall do it meerly for his worldly ends to save his stake by temporizing is a false-hearted hypocrite and at the heart of no Religion But withal I tell you that all is not matter of Faith or Godliness that the Autonomian-Papist the Antinomian-Libertine or other passionate parties shall call so And that as we must avoid contempt of the smallest Truth so we must much more avoid the most heinous sins which we may commit for the defending of an error And that some Truths must be silenced for a time though not denyed when the contending for them is unseasonable and tendeth to the injury of the Church If you were Masters in the Church you must not teach your Scholars to their hurt though it be truth you teach them And if you were Physicions you must not cramm them or Medicate them to their hurt Your power and duty is not to Destruction but to Edification The good of the Patient is the end of your Physick All Truth is not to be spoken nor all Good to be done by all men nor at all times He that will do contrary and take this for a carnal principle doth but call folly and sin by the name of zeal and duty and set the house on fire to rost his Egg and with the Pharisees prefer the outward rest of their Sabbath before his Brothers life or health Take heed what you do when Gods honour and mens souls and the Churches peace are concerned in it § 4. And let me tell you my own observation As far as my judgement hath been able to reach the men that have stood for Pacification and Moderation have been the most judicious and those that have best understood themselves in most controversies that ever I heard under debate among good Christians And those that suriously censured them as lukewarm or corrupted have been men that had least judgement and most passion pride and foul mistakes in the points in question § 5. Nay I will tell you
our faith Help thou our unbelief But he that approveth of his Doubting and would have it so and thinks the revelation is uncertain and such as will warrant no firmer a belief I should scarcely say this man is a Christian. Christianity must be received as of Divine infallible revelation But controversies about less necessary things cannot be determined peremptorily by the ignorant or young beginners without hypocrisie or a humane faith going under the name of a Divine I am far from abating your Divine belief of all that you can understand in Scripture and implicitely of all the rest in general And I am far from diminishing the credit of any truth of God But the Reasons of this Direction are these § 2. 1. When it is certain that you have but a dark uncertain apprehension of any point to think it is clear and certain is but to deceive your selves by pride And to cry out against all uncertainty as sceptiâ—isme which yet you cannot lay aside is but to revile your own infirmity and the common infirmity of mankind and foolishly to suppose that every man can be as wise and certain when he list as he should be Now Reason and experience will tell you that a young unfurnished understanding is not like to see the evidence of difficult points as by nearer approach and better advantage it may do § 3. 2. If your conclusions be peremptory upon meer self-conceitedness you may be in an error for ought you know and so you are but confident in an error And then how far may you go in seducing others and censuring dissenters and come back when you have done and confess that you were all this while mistaken your selves § 4. 3. For a man to be confident that he knoweth what he knoweth not is but the way to keep him ignorant and shut the door against all means of further information When the Opinion is fixt by prejudice and conceit there is no ready entrance for the light § 5. 4 And to be ungroundedly confident so young is not only to take up with your Teachers word instead of a faith and knowledge of your own but also to forestall all diligence to know more and so you may lay by all your studies save only to know what those men hold whose judgements are your Religion Too Popish and easie a way to be safe § 6. 5. If you must never change your first opinions or apprehensions how will you grow in understanding Will you be no wiser at age than you were in childhood and after long study and experience than before Nature and Grace do tend to increase § 7. Indeed if you should be never so peremptory in your opinions you cannot resolve to hold them to the end For Light is powerful and may change you whether you will or no you cannot tell what that Light will do which you never saw But prejudice will make you resist the light and make it harder for you to understand § 8. I speak this upon much experience and observation Our first unripe apprehensions of things will certainly be greatly changed if we are studious and of improved understandings Study the Conâ—roveâ—â—â—â—s about Grace and Free-will or about other such points of difficulty when you are young and â—â—s two to one that ripeness will afterward make them quite another thing to you For my own â—â—â—â—t my judgement is altered from many of my youthful confident apprehensions And where it heldeth the same conclusion it rejecteth abundance of the arguments as vain which once it rested in And where I keep to the same Conclusions and Arguments my apprehension of them is not the saâ—â— â—ut I see more satisfying light in many things which I took but upon trust before And if I had resolved to hold to all my first Opinions I must have forborn most of my studies and lost much truth which I have discovered and not made that my own which I did hold and I must have resolved to live and dye a child § 9. The su 〈…〉 is Hold fast the substance of Religion and every clear and certain Truth which you see in its own evidence and also reverence your Teachers especially the Universal Church or the generality of wise and godly men and be not hasty to take up any private opinion And especially to contradict the Opinion of your Governours and Teachers in small and controverted things But yet in such matters receive their Opinions but with a humane faith till indeed you have more and therefore with a supposition that time and study is very like to alter your apprehensions and with a reserve impartially to study and entertain the truth and not to sit still just where you were bâ—rn Direct 12. IF Controversies â—ccasion any Divisions where you live be sure to look first to the interest of Common Truth and Good and to the exercise of Charity And become not passionate contenders for any party in the division or censurers of the peaceable or of your Teachers that will not â—ver 〈…〉 their own understandings to obtain with you the esteem of being Orthodox or zealous men But suspect your own unripe understandings and silence your Opinions till you are clear and certain and jâ—yn rather with the moderate and the peace-makers than with the Contenders and Dividers § 1. You may easily be sure that Division tendeth to the ruine of the Church and the hinderance of the Gospel and the injury of the common interest of Religion You know it is greatly condemned in the Scriptures You may know that it is usually the exercise and the increase of Pride uncharitableness and passion and that the Devil is best pleased with it as being the greatest gainer by it But on the other side you are not easily certain which party is in the right And if you were you are not sure that the matter will be worth the cost of the contention Or if it be it is to be considered whether the Truth is not like to get more advantage by managing it in a more peaceable way that hath no contention nor stirreth not up other men so much against it as the way of controversie doth And whatever it prove you may and should know that young Christians that want both parts and helps and time and experience to be throughly seen in controversies are very unfit to make themselves parties And that they are yet more unfit to be the hottest leaders of those parties and to spur on their Teachers that know more than they If the work be fit for another to do that knoweth on what ground he goeth and can foresee the end yet certainly it is not fit for you And therefore forbear it till you are more fit § 2. I know those that would draw you into such a contentious zeal will tell you that their cause is the cause of God and that you desert him and betray it if you be not zealous in it and that it is but the counsel
feed the poor and give thy body to be burnt and have not Love it will profit thee nothing If thou speak with the tongue of Men and Angels and hast not Love thou art but as sounding brass or a tinkling Cymbal If thou canst prophecie and preach to admiration and understand all mysteries and knowledge and hadst faith to do miracles and have not Love thou art Nothing 1 Cor. 13. 1 2 3. Thou hast but a shadow and wantest that which is the substance and life of all Come then and make an agreement with God and resolve now to Offer him thy Heart He asketh thee for nothing which thou hast not It is not for riches and lands that he seeketh to thee for then the poor might say as Peter silver and gold have I none Give him but such as thou hast and it sufficeth He knoweth that it is a polluted sinful heart but give it him and he will make it clean He knoweth that it is an unkind heart that hath stood out too long but give it him yet and he will pardon and accept it He knoweth that it is an unworthy heart but give it him and he will be its worth Only see that you give it him entirely and unreservedly for he will not bargain with the Devil or the world for the dividing of thy heart between them A half heart and a hollow heart that is but lent him till fleshly interest or necessity shall call for it again he will not accept Only resign it to him and do but Consent that thy Heart be his and entirely and absolutely his and he will take it and use it as his own It is his own by title Let it be also so by thy Consent If God have it not who shall have it Shall the world or pride or fleshly lust Did they make it or did they purchase it Will they be better to thee in the time of thy extremity Do they bid more for thy heart than God will give thee He will give thee his Son and his Spirit and Image and the forgiveness of all thy sins If the greatest gain or honour or pleasure will win it and purchase it he will have it If Heaven will buy it he will not break with thee for the price Hath the world and sin a greater price than this to give thee And what dost thou think that he will do with thy Heart and how will he use it that thou art loth to give it him Will he blind it and deceive it and corrupt it and abuse it and at last torment it as Satan will do No he will more illuminate it and cleanse it and quicken it Psalm 51. 10. Ephes. 2. 1. Ier. 24. 7. He will make it new and heal and save it Ezek. 36. 26. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Tit. 3. 3. 5. and 2. 14. He will advance and honour it with the highest relations imployments and delights For Christ hath said John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be If any man serve me him will my Father honour He will Love it and govern it and comfort it and the Heart that is delivered to him shall be kept â—ear unto his own John 26. 27. For the Father himself loveth you saith Christ because you have loved me Whereas if thou deliver not thy heart to him it will feed on the poyson of Iuscious vanity which will gripe and tear it when it is down it will be like a house that nothing dwelleth in but Dogs and Flies and Worms and Snakes it will be like one that is lost in the Wilderness or in the night that tireth himself in seeking the way home and the longer the worse Despair and Restlesness will be its companions for ever Let me now once more in the name of God bespeak thy Heart I will not use his commands or threatnings to thee now though these as seconds must be used because that Love must have attractive arguments and is not raised by meer authority or fear If there be not Love and Goodness enough in God to deserve the highest affections of every reasonable creature then let him go and give thy Heart to one that 's better Hear how God pleadeth his own cause with an unkind unthankful people Mic. 6. 2 3. Hear O ye mountains the Lords controversie O my people what have I done unto thee and wherein have I wearied thee testifie against me What is there in him to turn away thy heart Let malice it self say the worst without notorious impudence against him What hath he ever done that deserveth thy disaffection and neglect What wouldst thou have to win a heart that is not in him For which of his mercies or excellencies is it that thou thus contemnest and abusest him What dost thou want that he cannot yea or will not give thee Doth not thy tongue speak honourably of his Goodness while thy heart contradicteth it and denieth all What hast thou found that will prove better to thee Is it sin or God that must be thy glory rest and joy if thou wilt not be a firebrand of restlesness and misery for ever What saist thou yet sinner Shall God or the world and fleshly pleasures have thy Heart Art thou not yet convinced which best deserveth it and which will be best to it Canst thou be a loser by him Will he make it worse and sin make it better Or wilt thou ever have cause to repent of giving it up to God as thou hast of giving it to the world and sin I tell thee if God have not thy Heart it were well for thee if thou hadst no Heart I had a thousand times rather have the Heart of a dog or the basest creature than that mans heart that followeth his fleshly lusts and is not unfeignedly delivered up to God through Christ. If I have not prevailed with your hearts for God by all that I have said your Consciences shall yet bear me witness that I shewed you Gods title and love and goodness and said that which ought to have prevailed and you shall find ere long who it is that will have the worst of it But if you resolve and Give them presently to God he will entertain them and sanctifie and save them And this happy day and work will be the Angels joy Luke 15. 7 10. and it will be my joy and especially your own everlasting joy DIRECT XII Trust God with that soul and body which thou hast delivered up and dedicated to Gr. Dir. 12. him and quiet thy mind in his Love and faithfulness whatever shall appear to To Trust in God thee or befall thee in the world § 1. I Shall here briefly shew you 1. What is the Nature of this Trust in God 2. What are the Of the nature of Affiance and faith I have written moâ—e â—ulâ—y in my Dispuration with Dr. Baâ—low of Sâ—viâ—g Faith contraries to it 3. What are the
of God in Prayer doth much dispel the frauds of carnal reasonings Yet persons who by Melancholy are cast into diseased fears and scrupulosities are uncapable of this way of tryal § 10. Direct 8. Consult with wise impartial persons and open your case to them without deceit Direct 8. before affection have gone so far as to blind you or leave you uncapable of help In this case if in any case the judgement of a stander by that 's faithful and impartial is usually to be preferred before your own For we are too near our selves and judgement will be bribed and byassed even in the best and wisest persons § 11. Direct 9. Yet cast not away all because you discover much excess or carnality in your affections Direct 9. For frequently there is a mixture both in the cause of Love and in the Love it self of good and evil And when you have but taken out all that was selfish and carnal and erroneous in the cause the carnal violent Love will cease but not all Love For still there will and must remain the moderate rational and holy Love which is proportioned to the creatures worth and merit and is terminated ultimately on God The separation being made this part must be preserved § 12. Direct 10. Meer Natural appetite in it self is neither morally good or evil But as it is well Direct 10. placed and ordered it is good and as unruled or ill-ruled it is evil Helps to mortifie sinful Love § 13. Direct 1. The greatest of all means to cast out all sinful Love is to keep the soul in the Love Direct 1. of God Jud. 21. wholly taken up in admiring him serving him praising him and rejoycing in him Nâ—â—â—â—â—â— Love maketh manâ—â—â—â— â—riendly Love perfectâ—th it much more Divine Love but waâ—â—on Love corrupteth and embaseth it Lord Bacoâ— â—â—â—â— 10. of which see Chap. 3. Dir. 11. we see that they that are taken up in the Love and Service of one person are not apt to be taken much with any other But it is not only by diversion nor only by prepossessing and employing all our Love that the Love of God doth cure sinful Love but besides these there is also a Majesty in his objective presence which aweth the soul and commandeth all things else to keep their distance And there is an unspeakable splendour and excellency in him which obscureth and annihilateth all things else though they are more neer and clearly seen and known And there is a celestial kind of sweetness in his Love which puts the soul that hath tasted it out of relish with transitory inferiour goâ—d As he that hath conversed with wise and learned men will no more admire the wit of fools And as he that hath been employed in the Government of a Kingdom or the sublimest studies will be no more in love with Childrens games and paddling in the dirt § 14. Direct 2. The next help is to see that the Creature deceived you not and therefore that you be Direct 2. not rash and hasty but stay while you come neerer it and see it uncloathed of borrowed or affected 〈…〉 â—iâ— Ita amandum quaâ—â— odâ—o fi mu habâ—uâ—â— plutimos enim esse malos Quam tamen â—â—â—â—â—ntiam Cicero in Lâ—â—io sapiente dâ—cit pâ—ane indignum Amâ—cos seqâ—eâ—e quos â—on â—udeaâ—â—lâ—gâ—sâ—◠〈…〉 ornaments and see it not only in the dress in which it appeareth abroad which often covereth great deformities but in its homely habit and night attire Bring it to the light and if it may be also see it when it hath endured the fire which hath taken off the paint and removed the dress Most of your inordinate Love to creatures is by mistake and rashness The Devil tricks them up and paints them that you may fall in love with them or else he sheweth you only the outside of some common good and hideth the emptiness or rottenness within Come nearer therefore and stay longer and prevent your shame and disappointments Is it not a shame to see you dote on that place or office or thing this year which you are weary of before the next Or to see two persons impatiently fond of each other till they are marryed and then to live in strife as aweary of each other How few persons or things have been too violently loved that were but sufficiently first tryed § 15. Direct 3. The next great help is to destroy self-love as carnâ—l and inordinate For this is the Parent life and root of all other sinful love whatever Why doth the Worldling over-love his wealth and the proud man his greatness and repute and the sensualist his pleasures but because they Direct 3. first over-love that flesh and self which all these are but the provision for Why doth a dividing Sectary over-value and over-love all the party or sect that are of his own opinion but because he first over-valueth and over-loveth himself why do you love those above their worth who think Sâ—â— before Chap. 4 Pa â— 7 highly of you and are on your side and use to praise you behind your back or that do you a good turn but because you first over-love your selves Why doth Lustful Love enflame you or the Love of meat and drink and sport and bravery carry you into such a gulf of sin but that first you over-love your fleshly pleasure what ensnareth you in fondness to any person but that you think they love you or are suitable to your carnal ends See therefore that you mortifie the flesh § 16. Direct 4. Still remember how jealous God is of your Love and how much he is wronged when Direct 4. any creature encroacheth upon his right 1. You are his own by Creation and did he give you Love to lay out on others and deny it to himself 2. He daily and hourly maintaineth you he giveth you every breath and bit and mercy that you live upon and will you love the creature with his part of your love 3. How dearly hath he bought your Love in your Redemption 4. He hath adopted you and brought you into the nearest relation to him that you may love him 5. He hath pardoned all your sins and saved you from Hell if you are his own that you may Love him 6. He hath promised you eternal glory with himself that you may Love him 7 His excellency best deserveth your love 8. His creatures have nothing but from him and were purposely sent to bespeak your love for him rather than for themselves And yet after all this shall they encroach upon his part If you say It is not Gods part that you give them but their own I tell you All that Love which you give the creature above its due you take from God But if it be such a Love to the creature as exceedeth not its worth and is intended ultimately for God and maketh you not Love him the less but the more it is not it that I am speaking
for your Lord and King and Father and yielded up your selves as his own as his Subject and as his Child to be disposed of Ruled and provided for by him And this Covenant is essential not only to your Christianity but to your taking him for your God And do you repent of it or will you break it and forfeit all the benefits of the Covenant If you will needs have the disposal of your selves you discharge God of his Covenant and Fatherly care for you and then what will become of you if he so forsake you § 10. Direct 8. Bethink you how unmeet you are to be the choosers of your own condition You Direct 8. foresee not what that person or thing or place will prove to you which you so eagerly desire For ought you know it may be your undoing or the greatest misery that ever befell you Many a one hath cryed with Rachel Give me Children or else I dye that hath dyed by the wickedness and unkindness Gen. 30. 1. of their Children Many a one hath been violent in their desires of a Husband or a Wife that afterwards have broken their hearts or proved a greater affliction to them than any enemy they had in the world many a one hath been eager for riches and prosperity and preferment that hath been ensnared by them to the damnation of his soul. Many a one hath been earnest for some office dignity or place of trust which hath made it a great increaser of his sin and misery And it is flesh and self that is the eager desirer of things that are against the will of God and nothing is so blind and partial as self and flesh You think not your Child a competent judge of what is best for him and make not his desires but your own understanding the guide and rule of your dealings with him or disposals of him And are you fitter choosers for your selves in comparison of God than your Child is in comparison of you Either you take God for your Father or you do not If you do not call him not Father and hope not for Mercy and Salvation from him If you do is he not wise and good enough to dispose of you and to determine what is best for you and to choose for you § 11. Direct 9. Remember that it is one of the greatest plagues on this side Hell to be given up to Direct 9. our own Desires and that by your eagerness and discontents you provoke God thus to give you up Psal. 81. 12 so I gave them up to their own hearts lust and they walked in their own Counsels O that my people had hearkened to me c. Rom. 1. 24 26. wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts c. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections vers 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient 2 Thes. 2. 10 11 12. God may give you that which you so eagerly desire as he gave Israel a King even in his anger Hos. 13. 10 11. or as he gave the Israelites their own desire even flesh which he rainâ—d upon them as dust and feathered fowles as the Sand of the Sea they were not â—â—â—â—ranged from their lust But while their meat was yet in their mouths the wâ—ath of Gâ—d came upon them and slew the fattest of them Psal 78. 27 29 30 31. They lusted exceedingly in the Wilderness and tempted God in the desert and he gave them their request but sent leanness into their souls Pâ—al 1â—6 14 15. God may say Follow your own lust and if you are so eager take that which you desire take that person that thing that dignity which you are so earnest for but take my curse and vengeance with it Never let it do you good but be a snare and torment to you Let a fire câ—me out of the bramble and devour you Judg. 9. 15. § 12. Direct 10. Take heed lest concupiscence and partiality entise you to justifie your sinful desires Direct 10. and â—â—â—â— them to bâ— lâ—wful For if you do so you will not repent of them you will not confess them to God â—or beg pardon of them nor beg help against them nor use the means to extinguish them but will cherish them and be angry with all that are against them and love those tempâ—ers best that encourage them And how dangerous a case is this And yet nothing is more ordinary among sinners than to be blinded by their own affections and think that they have sufficient reason to desire that which they do desire And affection maketh them very witty and resolute to deceive themselves It setteth them on studying all that can be said to defend their enemy and put a deceitful gloss upon their cause Try your Desires well as I before directed you Q. 1. Is the thing that you desire a thing that God hath bid you desire or promised in his word to give you as grace Christ and Heaven If it be so then Desire it and spare not But if not so Q. 2. Why then are you so eager for it when you should at most have but a submissive conditional desire after it Q. 3. Nay is it not something which you are forbidden to desire If so dare you excuse it § 13. Direct 11. Remember that Concupiscence or sinful desire is the beginning of all sin of commission Direct 11. and leadeth directly to the act Theft Adultery Murder Fraud Contention and all such mischiefs begin in inordinate desires For every one is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and entiâ—ed Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Jam. 1. 14 15. By lust is meant any fleshly desire or will Therefore when the Apostle forbiddeth gluttâ—ny and drunkenness chambering and wantonness strife and envying he Rom. 13. 13 14 strikes at the root of all in this one word Make no privision for the flesh to satisfie its lusts or wills § 14. Direct 12. Pull off the deceiving vizor and see that which you so eagerly desire as it is Direct 12. What will it be to you at the last It is now in its Spring or Summer but see in it its fall and winter It is now in its youth but see it withered to skin and bone in its decrepit age It is now in its clean and curious ornaments but see it in its uncleanness and in its homely dress Cure your deceit and your Desire is cured § 15. Direct 13. Promise not your selves long life but live as dying men with your grave and Direct 13. winding sheet alwayes in your eye and it will cure your thiâ—st after the creature when you are sensible hâ—w short a time you must enjoy it and especially how near you are unto
and temperature of your children which is a great advantage for the choosing and applying of the best remedy 8. You have opportunity of watching over them and discerning all their faults in time But if a Minister speak to them he can know no more what fault to reprehend than others tell him or the party will confess You may also discern what success your former exhortations had and whether they amend or still go on in sin and whether you should proceed to more severe remedies 9. You have opportunity of speaking to them in the most familiar manner which is better understood than the set speech of a Minister in the Pulpit which few of them mark or understand You can quicken their attention by questions which put them upon answering you and so awaken them to a serious regard of what you say 10. You are so frequently with them that you can repeat your instructions and drive them home that what is not done at one time may be done at another Whereas other men can seldom speak to them and what is so seldome spoken is easily neglected or forgotten 11. You have power to place them under the best means and to remove many impediments out of their way which usually frustrate other mens endeavours 12. Your example is near them and continually in their sight which is a continual and powerful Sermon By all these advantages God hath enabled you above all others to be instruments of your Childrens good and the first and greatest promoters of their salvation § 6. Motive 6. Consider how great a Comfort it would be to you to have your children such as you Motive 6. may confidently hope are the children of God being brought to know him and love and serve him through your own endeavours in a pious education of them 1. You may love your children upon an higher account than as they are yours even as they are Gods adorned with his Image and quickned with a divine celestial life And this is is to love them with a higher kind of Love than meer Natural affection is It would rejoyce you to see your children advanced to be Lords or Princes But O how much greater cause of joy is it to see them made the members of Christ and quickned by his Spirit and sealed up for life eternal 2. When once your children are made the children of God by the Regeneration of the Spirit you may be much more free from care and trouble for them than before Now you may boldly trust them on the care of their heavenly Father who is able to do more for them than you are able to desire He loveth them better than you can love them He is bound by promise to protect them and provide for them and to see that all things work together for their good He that clotheth the Lillies of the fields and suffereth not the young Lions or Ravens to be unprovided for will provide convenient food for his own children though he will have you also do your duty for them as they are your children While they are the children of Satan and the servants of sin you have cause to fear not only lest they be exposed to miseries in this world but much more lest they be snatched away in their sin to Hell Your children while they are ungodly are worse than among Wolves and Tygâ—rs But when once they are renewed by the Spirit of Christ they are the charge of all the blessed Trinity and under God the charge of Angels Living or dying they are safe For the Eternal God is their portion and defence 3. It may be a continual comfort to you to think what a deal of drudgery and calamity your child is freed from To think how many Oaths he would have sworn and how many lyes and curses he would have uttered and how bâ—aftly and fleshly a life he would have lived how much wrong he would have done to God and men and how much he would have pleased the Devil and what torments in Hâ—ll he must have endured as the reward of aâ—â—â—â— and then to think how mercifully God hath prevented all this and what service he may do God in the world and finally live with Christ in glory What a joy is this to a considering believing Parent that taketh the mercies of his children as his own 4. Religion will teach your children to be more dutiful to your selves than Nature can teach them It will teach them to Love you even when you have no more to give them as well as if you had the wealth of all the world It will teach them to honour you though you are poor and contemptible in the eyes of others It will teach them to obey you and if you â—all into want to relieve you according to their power It will â—it them to comfort you i st the time of your sickness and distress when ungodly children will be as thorns in your feet or eyes and cut your hearts and prove a greater grief than any enemies to you A gracious child will bear with your weaknesses when a Châ—m will not cover his Fathers nakedness A gracious Child can pray for you and pray with you and be a blessing to your house when an ungodly Child is fitter to curse and prove a curse to those he liveâ— with 5. And is it not an exceeding joy to think of the everlasting happiness of your Child and that you may live togâ—ther in Heaven for ever When the foresâ—en misâ—ry of a gracâ—lâ—ss Child may grieve you when ever you look him in the face 6. Lastly It will be a great addition to your joy to think that God blessed your diligent instructions and made you the instrument of all that good that is done upon your children and of all that good that is done by them and of all the happiness they have for ever To think that this was conveyed to them by your means will give you a larger share in the delights of it § 7. Motive 7. Remember that your Childrens Original sin and misery is by you and therefore in Motive 7. juâ—â—ice you that have undone them are bound to do your best to save them If you had but conveyed a leprosiâ— or some hereditary Disease to their bodies would you not have done your best to cure them O that you could do them but as much good as you do them hurt It is more than Adamâ— sin that runneth down into the natures of your Children yea and that bringeth judgements on them And even Adams sin cometh not to them but by you § 8. Motive 8. Lastly Consider what exceeding great need they have of the utmost help you can afford Motive 8. them It is not a corporal disease an easie enemy a tolerable that we call unto you for their helpâ—â— But it is against Sin and Satan and Hell fire It is against a body of sin not one but many â—oâ— small but pernicious having seized upon the heart
of soul and Body have special need of help and counsel As 1. The Doubting troubled Christian. 2. The Declining or Backsliding Christian 3. The See Tom. 1. Ch. 7. Tit. 10. Of despair Poor 4. The Aged 5. The Sick 6. And those that are about the sick and dying Though these might seem to belong rather to the first Tome yet because I would have those Directions lye here together which the several sorts of persons in Families most need I have chosen to reserve them rather to this place The special duties of the Strong the Rich and the Youthful and Healthful I omi◠because I find the Book grow big and you may gather them from what is said before on several such subjects And the Directions which I shall first give to doubting Christians shall be but a few brief memorials because I have done that work already in my Directions or Method for Peace of Conscience and spiritual comfort And much is here said before in the Directions against Melancholy ☞ and Despair § 2. Direct 1. Find out the special cause of your doubts and troubles and bend most of your endeavours Direct 1. to remove that cause The same Cure will not serve for every doubting soul no nor for every one that hath the very same doubts For the Causes may be various though the doubts should be the same and the doubts will be continued while the cause remaineth § 3. 1. In some persons the chief cause is a timerous weak and passionate temper of body and mind which in some especially of the weaker Sex is so Natural a disease that there is no hope of a total cure Though yet we must direct and support such as well as we are able These persons have so weak a Head and such powerful passions that Passion is their life and according to Passion they judge of themselves and of all their duties They are ordinarily very high or very low full of joy or sinking in despair But usually Fear is their predominant Passion And what an enemy to quietness and peace strong fears are is easily observed in all that have them Assuring evidence will not quiet such fearful minds nor any Reason satisfie them The Directions for these persons must be the same which I have before given against Melancholy and Despair Especially that the Preaching and Books and means which they make use of be rather such as tend to inform the judgement and settle the will and guide the Life than such as by the greatest servency tend to awaken them to such passions or affections which they are unable to manage § 4. 2. With others the Cause of their Troubles is Melancholy which I have long observed to be the commonest cause with those godly people that remain in long and grievous doubts Where this is the cause till it be removed other remedies do but little But o◠this I have spoken at large before § 5. 3. In others the Cause is a habit of discontent and pievishness and impatiency because of some wants or crosses in the world Because they have not what they would have their Minds grow ulcerated like a Body that is sick or sore that carryeth about with them the pain and smart And they are still complaining of the pain which they feel but not of that which maketh the sore and causeth the pain The cure of these is either in Pleasing them that they may have their will in all things as you rock children and give them that which they cry for to quiet them 〈…〉 or rather to help to cure their impatiency and settle their minds against their childish sinful discontents of which before § 6. 4. In others the Cause is errour or great ignorance about the tenour of the Covenant of Grace and the Redemption wrought by Jesus Christ and the work of Sanctification and evidences thereof They know not on what terms Christ dealeth with sinners in the pardoning of sin nor what are the infallible signes of Sanctification It is sound Teaching and diligent learning that must be the cure of these § 7. 5. In others the cause is a careless life or frequent sinning and keeping the wounds of Conscience still bleeding They are still fretting the sore and will not suffer it to skin either they live in railing and contention or malice or some secret lust or fraud or some way stretch and wrong their Consciences And God will not give his peace and comfort to them till they reform It is a mercy that they are disquieted and not given over to a seared Conscience which is past feeling § 8. 6. In others the Cause of their doubts is Placing their Religion too much in humiliation and in a continual poreing on their hearts and overlooking or neglecting the high and chiefest parts of Religion even the daily studies of the Love of God and the riches of Grace in Iesus Christ and hereby stirring up the soul to Love and Delight in God When they make this more of their Religion and business it will bring their souls into a sweeter relish § 9. 7. In others the Cause is such weakness of parts and confusion of thoughts and darkness of mind that they are not able to examine themselves nor to know what is in them When they ask themselves any question about their Repentance or Love to God or any grace they are fain to answer like strangers and say they cannot tell whether they do it or not These persons must make more use than others of the judgement of some able faithful guide § 10. 8. But of all others the commonest cause of uncertainty is the weakness or littleness of Grace When it is so little as to be next to none at all no wonder if it be hardly and seldome discerned Therefore § 11. Direct 2. Be not neglecters of self-examination but labour for skill to manage aright so Direct 2. great a work But yet let your care and diligence be much greater to get grace and use it and increase it than to try whether you have it already or not For in examination when you have once taken a right course to be resolved and yet are in doubt as much as before your over-much poreing upon these trying questions will do you but little good and make you but little the better but the time and labour may be almost lost whereas all the labour which you bestow in Getting and Using and Increasing grace is bestowed profitably to good purpose and tendeth first to your safety and salvation and next that to your easier certainty and comfort There is no such way in the world to be certain that you have grace as to get so much as is easily discerned and will shew it self and to exercise it much that it may come forth into observation When you have a strong Belief you will easily be sure that you believe When you have a fervent Love to Christ and Holiness and to the word and wayes and servants
to a more edifying Church that useth all the publick Ordinances of God unless the publick good forbid or some great impediment or contrary duty be our excuse § 36. 11. If a true Church will not cast out any impenitent notorious scandalous sinner though 2 John 10. 11. 2 Tim. 3. 5. Rom. 16. 17. 1 Cor. 5. 11. I am not to separate from the Church yet I am bound to avoid private familiarity with such a person that he may be ashamed and that I partake not of his sin § 37. 12. As the Church hath diversity of members some more holy and some less and some of whole sincerity we have small hope some that are more honourable and some less some that walk Mat. 13. 41 30. Jer. 15. 19. 1 Cor. 12. 23 24. blamelesly and some that work iniquity So Ministers and private members are bound to difference between them accordingly and to honour and love some far above others whom yet we may not excommunicate And this is no sinful separation § 38. 13. If the Church that I live and communicate with do hold any tolerable error I may differ therein from the Church without a culpable separation Union with the Church may be continued with all the diversities before mentioned D. 3. § 10. § 39. 14. In case of persecution in one Church or City when the servants of Christ do flye to another having no special reason to forbid it this is no sinful separation Matth. 10. 23. § 40. 15. If the publick service of the Church require a Minister or a private Christian to remove to another Church if it be done deliberately and upon good advice it is no sinful separation § 41. 16. If a Lawful Prince or Magistrate command us to remove our habitation or command a Minister from one Church to another when it is not notoriously to the detriment of the common interest of Religion it is no sinful separation to obey the Magistrate § 42. 17. If a poor Christian that hath a due and tender care of his salvation do find that under one Minister his soul declineth and groweth dead and under another that is more sound and clear and lively he is much edified to a holy and heavenly frame and life and if hereupon preferring his salvation before all things he remove to that Church and Minister where he is most edified without unchurching the other by his censures this is no sinful separation but a preferring the One thing needful before all § 43. 18. If one part of the Church have leisure opportunity cause and earnest desires to meet ofter for the edifying of their souls and redeeming their time than the poorer labouring or careless and less zealous part will meet in any fit place under the oversight and conduct of their Pastors and not in opposition to the more publick full assemblies as they did Acts 12. 12. to pray for Peter at the house of Mary where many were gathered together praying and Acts 10. 1 c. this is no sinful separation § 44. 19. If a mans own outward affairs require him to remove his habitation from one City or Countrey to another and there be no greater matter to prohibite it he may lawfully remove his local communion from the Church that he before lived with to that which resideth in the place he goeth to For with distant Churches and Christians I can have none but Mental Communion or by distant means as writing messengers c. It is only with present Christians that I can have local personal communion § 45. 20. It is possible in some cases that a man may live long without local personal communion with any Christians or Church at all and yet not be guilty of sinful separation As the Kings Embassadour or Agent in a Land of Infidels or some Traveller Merchants Factors or such as go to convert the Infidels or those that are banished or imprisoned In all these twenty cases some kind of separation may be lawful § 46. 21. One more I may add which is when the Temples are so small and the Congregations so great that there is no room to hear and joyn in the publick Worship or when the Church is so excessively great as to be uncapable of the proper ends of the society in this case to divide or withdraw is no sinful separation When one Hive will not hold the Bees the swarm must seek themselves another without the injury of the rest By all this you may perceive that sinful separation is first in a censorious uncharitable mind condemning Churches Ministers and Worship causelesly as unfit for them to have communion with And Secondly it is in the personal separation which is made in pursuance of this censure But not in any local removal that is made on other lawful grounds § 47. Direct 4. Understand and consider well the Reasons why Christ so frequently and earnestly Direct 4. presseth Concord on his Church and why he so vehemently forbiddeth Divisions Observe how much the Scripture speaketh to this purpose and upon what weighty Reasons Here are four things distinctly to be represented to your serious consideration 1. How many plain and urgent are the Texts that speak for Unity and condemn Division 2. The great Benefits of Concord 3. And the mischiefs of Discord and Divisions in the Church 4. And the Aggravations of the sin § 48. I. A true Christian that hateth fornication drunkenness lying perjury because they are forbidden in the Word of God will hate Divisions also when he well observeth how frequently and vehemently they are forbidden and Concord highly commended and commanded John 17. 21 22 23. That they all may be One as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also See Rom. 14. throughout Rom. 15. 12. 5 6 7. may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be One even as we are One I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in One and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as Ephes. 4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. thou hast loved me Here you see that the Unity of the Saints must be a special means to convince the Infidel world of the truth of Christianity and to prove Gods special Love to his Church and 1 Pet. 3. 6. 1 Cor. 12. throughout Phil. 3. 15 16. Acts 2. 1 46. 4. 32. also to accomplish their own perfection 1 Cor. 1. 10. Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions or Schisms among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgement For it hath been declared to me of you my brethren that there are contentions among you Rom. 12. 4 5. Psalm 133. 1 Cor. 8. 1
hold their own mercies upon the condition of their own continued fidelity And let their Apostasie be on other reasons never so impossible or not future yet the promise of continuance and consummation of the personal felicity of the greatest Saint on earth is still conditional upon the condition of â—his persevering sidelity 6. Even before Children are capable of Instruction there are certain duties imposed by God on the Parents for their sanctification viz. 1. That the Parents pray earnestly and believingly for them Second Commandment Prov. 20. 7. 2. That they themselves so live towards God as may invite him still to bless their Children for their sakes as he did Abrahams and usually did to the faithful's seed 7. It is certain that the Church ever required Parents not only to enter their Children into the Covenant and so to leave them but to do their after duty for their good and to pray for them and educate them according to their Covenant 8. It is plain that if there were none to promise so to educate them the Church would not baptize them And God himself who allowed the Israelites and still alloweth us to bring our Children into his Covenant doth it on this supposition that we promise also to go on to do our duty for them and that we actually do it 9. All this set together maketh it plain 1. That God never promiseth the adult in Baptism though true believers that he will work in them all graces further by his sanctifying spirit let them never so much neglect or resist him or that he will absolutely see that they never shall resist him nor that the spirit shall still help them though they neglect all his means or that he will keep them from neglecting the means Election may secure this to the Elect as such but the Baptismal Covenant as such secureth it not to the baptized nor to believers as such 2. And consequently that Infants are in Covenant with the Holy Ghost still conditionally as their Parents are And that the meaning of it The Holy Ghost is promised in Baptism to give the Child grace in his Parents and his own faithful use of the appointed means is that the Holy Ghost as your sanctifier will afford you all necessary help in the use of those means which he hath appointed you to receive his help in Obj. Infants have no means to use Answ. While Infants stand on their Parents account or Wills the Parents have means to use for the continuance of their grace as well as for the beginning of it 10. Therefore I cannot see but that if a believer should apostatize whether any do so is not the question and his Infant not be made anothers Child he forfeiteth the benefits of the Covenant to his Infant But if the propriety in the Infant be transferred to another it may alter the case 11. And how dangerously Parents may make partial forfeitures of the spirits assistance to their Children and operations on them by their own sinful lives and neglect of prayer and of prudent and holy education even in particular acts I fear many believing Parents never well considered 12. Yet is not this forfeiture such as obligeth God to deny his spirit For he may do with his own as a free benefactor as he list And may have mercy freely beyond his promise though not against his word on whom he will have mercy But I say that he that considereth the woful unfaithfulness and neglect of most Parents even the Religious in the Great work of holy educating their Children may take the blame of their ungodliness on themselves and not lay it on Christ or the spirit who was in Covenant with them as their sanctifier seeing he promised but conditionally M. â—â—istoâ— pag. â—3 As Abraham as a single person in Covenant was to accept of and perform the conditions of the Covenant so as a Parent he had something of duty incumbent on him with reference to his immediate seed And as his faithful performance of that duty incumbent on him in his single capacity so his performing that duty incumbent on him as a Parent in reference to his seed was absolutely necessary in order to his enjoying the good promised with reference to himself and his seed Proved Gen. 17 1. 18. 19. He proveth that the promise is conditional and that as to the continuance of the Covenant state the conditions are 1. The Parents upright life 2. His duty to his Children well done 3. The Childrens own duty as they are capable to give them the sanctifying Heavenly influences of his Life Light and Love in their just use of his appointed means according to their abilities 13. Also as soon as Children come to a little use of Reason they stand conjunctly on their Parents Wills and on their own As their Parents are bound to teach and rule them so they are bound to learn of them and be ruled by them for their good And though every sin of a Parent or a Child be not a total forfeiture of grace yet both their notable actual sins may justly be punished with a denyal of some further help of the spirit which they grieve and quench 11. And now I may seasonably answer the former question whether Infants Baptismal saving grace may be lost of which I must for the most that is to be said referr the Reader to Davenant in Mr. Bedfords Book on this subject and to Dr. Sam. Ward joyned with it Though Mr. Gatakers answers are very Learned and considerable And to my small Book called My Iudgement of Perseverance Augustine who first rose up for the doctrine of perseverance against its Adversaries carried it no higher than to all the Elect as such and not at all to all the Sanctified but oft affirmeth that some that were justified sanctified and Love God and are in a state of salvation are not elect and fall away But since the Reformation great reasons have been brought to carry it further to all the truly sanctified of which cause Zanchius was one of the first Learned and zealous Patrons that with great diligence in long disputations maintained it All that I have now to say is that I had rather with Davenant believe that the fore-described Infant state of salvation which came by the Parents may be lost by the Parents and the Children though such a sanctified renewed nature in holy Habits of Love as the adult have be never lost than believe that no Infants are in the Covenant of Grace and to be baptized Obj. But the Child once in possession shall not be punished for the Parents sin Answ. 1. This point is not commonly well understood I have by me a large Disputation proving from the current of Scripture a secondary original sin besides that from Adam and a secondary punishment ordinarily inflicted on Children for their Parents sins besides the common punishment of the World for the first sin 2. But the thing in question is
direct you in it and confer about it And it is best for you if he be one that excelleth you herein that he may add something to you But then you will not be such to him and so the friendship will be unequal 20. Lastly There must be some suitableness in Age and Sex The young want experience to make them meet for the bosome friendship of the aged though yet they may take delight in instructing them and doing them good And the young are hardly reconcilable to all the gravity of the aged And it must not be a person of a different sex unless in case of Marriage Not but that they may be helpful to each other as Christians and in a state of distant friendship But this bosome intimacy they are utterly unfit for because of unsuitableness temptation and scandal Directions for the right Use of special Bosome Friendship Direct 1. ENgage not your self to any one as a bosome friend without great evidence and Direct 1. proof of his fitness in all the foregoing qualifications By which you may see that this is not an ordinary way of duty or benefit but a very unusual case For it is a hard thing to meet with one among many thousands that hath all these qualifications And when that is done if you have not all the same qualifications to him you will be unmeet for his friendship what ever he be for yours And where in an age will there be two that are suited in all those respects Therefore our ordinary way of duty is to love all according to their various worth and to make the best use we can of every ones grace and gifts and of those most that are nearest us but without the partiality of such extraordinary affection to any one above all the rest For young persons usually make their choice rashly of one that afterwards proveth utterly unmeet for the Office of such a friend or at least no better than many other persons Nay ten to one but after experience will acquaint them with many that are much wiser and better and fitter for their love And hasty affections are guilty of blind partiality and run men into sin and sorrow and often end in unpleasant ruptures Therefore be not too forward in this friendship Direct 2. When you do choose a friend though he must be one that you have no cause to be Direct 2. suspicious of yet reckon that it is possible that he may be estranged from you yea and turn your enemy Causeless jealousies are contrary to friendship on your part and if there be Cause it is inconsistent with friendship on his part But yet no friendship should make you blind and not to know that man is a corrupt and mutable creature especially in such an age as this wherein we have seen how personal Changes State-changes and changes in Religion have alienated many seeming friends Therefore Love them and Use them and Trust them but as men that may possibly fail all your expectations and open all your secrets and betray you yea and turn your enemies Suspect it not but judge it possible Direct 3. Be open with your approved friend and commit all your secrets to him still excepting Direct 3. those the knowledge of which may be hurtful to himself or the revealing of them hereafter may be intollerably injurious to your self to the honour of Religion to the publick good or to any other If you be needlesly close you are neither friendly nor can you improve your friend enough to your own advantage But yet if you open all without exception you may many wayes be injurious to your friend and to your self and the day may come which you did not look for in which his weakness passion interest or alienation may trouble you by making all publick to the world Direct 4. Use as little affectation or ceremony with your friend as may be but let all your converse Direct 4. with him be with openness of heart that he may see that you both trust him and deal with him in plain sincerity If dissimulation and forced affectation be but once discovered it tendeth to breed a constant diffidence and suspicion And if it be an infirmity of your own which you think needeth such a cover the Cloak will be of worse effect than the knowledge of your infirmity Direct 5. Be ever faithful to your friend for the cure of all his faults and never turn friendship Direct 5. into flattery yet still let all be done in Love though in a friendly freedome and closeness of admonition It is not the least benefit of intimate friendship that what an enemy speaketh behind our backs a friend will open plainly to our faces To watch over one another daily and be as a glass to shew our faces or faults to one another is the very great benefit of true friendship Eccles. 4. 9 10 11. Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labour For if they fall the one will lift up his fellow But wo to him that is alone when he falleth for he hath not another to help him up It is a flatterer and not a friend that will please you by concealing or extenuating your sin Direct 6. Abhor Selfishness as most contrary to real friendship Let your friend be as your self Direct 6. and his interest as your own If we must love our neighbour as our selves much more our dearest bosome friends Direct 7. Understand what is most excellent and useful in your friend and that improve Much Direct 7. good is lost by a dead hearted companion that will neither broach the Vessel and draw out that which is ready for their use nor yet feed any good discourse by due questions or answers but stifle all by barren silence And a dull silent hearer will weary and silence the speaker at the last Direct 8. Resolve to bear with each others infirmities Be not too high in your expectations from Direct 8. each other Look not for exactness and innocency but for humane infirmities that when they fall out you may not find your selves disappointed Patience is necessary in all humane converse Direct 9. Yet do not suffer friendship to blind you to own or extenuate the faults of your dearest Direct 9. friend For that will be sinful partiality and will be greatly injurious to God and treachery against the soul and safety of your friend Direct 10. And watch lest the love estimation or reverence of your friend should draw you to Direct 10. entertain his errors or to imitate him in any sinful way It is no part of true friendship to prefer men before the truth of Christ nor to take any heretical dividing or sensual infection from our friend and so to dye and perish with him Nor is it friendly to desire it Direct 11. Never speak against your friend to a third person Nor open his dishonourable weakness Direct 11. to another