quid vel insalubre manum admoveat Cohibeat Equiso inter equitandum adigat equum per locum praeruptum vel salebrosum cui subsit periculum Etiamne Medico Etiamne Equisoni suo subjectus Rex Sed de Majori potestate loquitur sed â—â ad rem noxiam procul arcendam qua in re Charitatis semper Potestas est maxima Here you see what Church Government is and how Kings are under it and how not in Bishop Andrews sense for my part I would rather obey the Laws of the King than the Canons of the Bishops if they should disagree 3. But in cases common to both in which the Pastors Office is more nearly and fully concerned than the Magistrates the case is more difficult As at what hour the Church shall assemble What part of Scripture shall be read What Text the Minister shall preach on How long Prayer or Sermon or other Church-exercises shall be What Prayers the Minister shall use In what method he shall preach and what doctrine he shall deliver and the people hear with many such like These do most nearly belong to the Pastoral Office to judge of as well as to execute But yet in some cases the Mâ—gistrate may interpose his authority And herein 1. If the one party do determine clearly to the necessary preservation of Religion and the other to the ruine of it the disparity of consequents makeeth a great disparity in the case For here God himself hath predetermined who commandeth that all be done to â—dification As for instance If a Christian Magistrate ordain that no assembly shall consist of above forty or an hundred persons when there are so many Preachers and places of meeting that it is no detriment to mens souls and especially when the danger of infection or other evil warranteth it then I would obey that command of the Magistrate though the Pastors of the Church were against it and commanded fuller meetings But if a Iulian should command the same thing on purpose to wear out the Christian Religion and when it tendeth to the ruine of mens souls as 〈…〉 399 saâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 of Bâ—shops in thâ—se dayes â—eloâ—ged to the people and not the Prâ—â—ce and though Valens by pâ—ain force placed Luâ—ius there yet might the people lawfully reject him as no Bishop and cleave to Peter their right Pastor when Preachers are so few that either more must meet together or most must be untaught and excluded from Gods Worship here I would rather obey the Pastors that command the contrary because they do but deliver the command of God who determineth consequentially of the necessary means when he determineth of the â—nd But if the consequents of the Magistrates and the Pastors commands should be equally indifferent and neither of them discernably Good or Bad the difficulty then would be at the highest and such as I shall not here presume to determine No doubt but the King is the Supream Governour over all the Schools and Physicions and Hospitals in the Land that is he is the Supream in the Civil Coercive Government He is Supream Magistrate over Divines Physicions and Schoolmasters but not the Supream Divine Physicion or Schoolmaster When there is any work for the Office of the Magistrate that is for the sword among any of them it belongeth only to Him and not at all to them But when there is any work for the Divine the Physicion the Schoolmaster or if you will for the Shoomaker the Taylor the Watch-maker this belongeth not to the King to do or give particular commands for but yet it is all to Too many particular Laws about little maâ—ters breed contention Alex. Severus would have dâ—stinguished all orders of men by their apparel Sâ—d hoc Ulpiano Paulo dispâ—icuit dicentibus plurimum rixarum fore â—i faciles essent homines ad injurias and the Emperour yielded to them Lamâ—rid iâ— Alex. Sever. Lipsius Ubi leges multae ibi lites multae vita moresque pravi Non mulâ—ae leges bonos mâ—res faciunt sed pauâ—ae fideliter servatae be done under his Government and on special causes he may make Laws to force them all to do their several works aright and to restrain them from abuses As to clear the case in hand the King is informed that Physicions take too great Fees of their Patients that some through ignorance and some through covetousness give ill compounded Medicines and pernicious Drugs No doubt but the King by the advice of understanding men may forbid the use of such Drugs as are found pernicious to his Subjects and may regulate not only the Fees but the Compositions and Attendances of Physicions But if he should command that a man in a Feavor or Dropsie or Consumption shall have no Medicine but this or that and so oft and in such or such a dose and with such or such a dyet and the Physicions whom my reason bindeth me to trust and perhaps my own experience also do tell me that all these things are bad for me and different tempers and accidents require different remedies and that I am like to dye or hazard my health if I obey not them contrary to the Kings commands here I should rather obey my Physicions partly because else I should sin against God who commandeth me the preservation of my life and partly because this matter more belongeth to the Physicion than to the Magistrate Mr. Rich. Hooker Eccl. Polit. lib. 8. p. 223 224. giveth you the Reason more fully § 54. Direct 25. Give not the Magistrates Power to any other whether to the People on pretence of Direct 25. their Majestas Realis as they call it or to the Pope or Prelates or Pastors of the Church upon pretence of authority from Christ or of the distinction of Ecclesiastical Government and Civil The peoples pretensions to Natural Authority or Real Majesty or Collation of Power I have consuted before and more elsewhere The Popes Prelates and Pastors power of the Sword in Causes Ecclesiastical is disproved so fully by Bishop Bilson ubi supra and many more that it is needless to say much more of it All Protestants so far as I know are agreed that no Bishop or Pastor hath any power of the Sword that is of Coercion or force upon men bodies liberties or estates except as Magistrates derived from their Soveraign Their spiritual power is only upon Consenters in the use of Gods Word upon the N. B. Quae habet Andrews Tort. Tort. p. 310. Quando apud vos dictio juris exterior Clavis proprie non sit eamque voâ— multis saepe mandatis qui Laicorum in soâ—te sunt exortes sane sacri ordinis universi Conscience either generally in preaching or with personal application in Discipline No Courts or Commands can compell any to appear or submit nor lay the mulct of a penny upon any but by their own consent or the Magistrates authority But this the Papists will few
Real opposed to a nullity so it is now to be further considered 2. The doubt lyeth either of the sufficiency of his Call or of somewhat that is supposed to destroy it by contradiction or redundancy 1. Whether he want any thing of absolute necessity to the office who is called in the Church of Rome or 2. Whether there be any thing in his office or entrance which nullifieth or invalidateth that which else would be sufficient For the first doubt it is not agreed on among Papists or Protestants what is of necessity to the Being of the office Some think real Godliness in the person is necessary but most think not some think that Visible that is seeming professed Godliness not disproved by mortal sin is necessary and some think not some think the peoples Election is necessary and that ordination is but ad bene esse and some think ordination necessary ad esse and Election ad bene esse or not at all And some think Both necessary ad esse and some Neither Some think the Election of the people is necessary and some think only their Consent is necessary though after Election by others Some think it must be the Consent of all the flock or neer all And some only of the Major part And some of the Better part though the Minor Some think the Ordination of a Diocesane Bishop necessary ad esse and some not Some think the Truth of the Ordainers Calling or power to be necessary to the validity of his Ordination and some not some think the number of two or three or more Ordainers to be necessary and some not some think it necessary to the validity of the Ministry that it come down from the Apostles by an uninterrupted succession of truly Ordained Bishops and some think not some few think that the Magistrates command or licence is necessary and only it and most deny both Iohnson alias Terret the Papist in his Disputation against me maintaineth that Consecration is not necessary ad esse nor any one way of Election by these or those but only the Churches reception upon such an Election as may give them notice and which may be different according to different times places and other circumstances In the midst of these confusions What is to be held I have opened the Case as fully and plainly as I can in my 2 Disput. of Ch. Gov. about Ordination to which I must refer the Reader Only here briefly touching upon the sum 1. There are some personal qualifications necessary to the being of the office of which anon and Eph. 4. 6 9 8 9 10 11. Mat. 28. 11 2â— Tit. 1. 5. Act. 20. 28. Act. 14. 23. 1 Pet. 5. 2. some only to the well-being 2. The efficient conveying cause of Power or office is Gods will signified in his own established Law in which he determineth that such persons so called shall receive from him such Power and be obliged to such office-administrations 3. Any Providence of God which infallibly or satisfactorily notifieth to the Church who these persons are that receive such Power from God doth oblige them to submit to them as so impowred 4. Gods ordinary established way of Regular designation of the person is by the Churches consent and the Senior Pastors ordination 5. By these Actions they are not the proper Donors or efficients of the Power or office given but the Consent of the people and the Ordination do determine of the Recipient and so are Regularly causa fine qua non of his Reception And the Ordination is moreover a solemn Investiture in the office as when a servant is sent by delivering a Key to deliver possession of an House by his Masters consent to him that had before the owners Grant And so it ceremoniously entereth him into visible possession Like the solemnizing of Marriage or the listing of a Souldier c. 6. The peoples Consent before or after is not only by Institution but naturally necessary that a man become a Pastor to those persons for no man can Learn obey c. without consent But it is not of necessity to the Being of the Ministry in General or in the first instant A man without it may be authorized as a Minister to go Preach the Gospel for Conversion and Baptize and gather Churches though not to be their stated Pastor 7. When death distance corruption heresie or malignity of Pastors within reach maketh it impossible to have Ordination Gods choice of the person may be notified without it as by 1. Emiâ—ent Qualifications 2. The peoples real necessities 3. And the removal of Impedimensâ— and a concurrence of inviting opportunities and advantages 4. And sometimes the peoples desire 5. And sometimes the Magistrates commission or consent which though not absolutely necessary in themselves yet may serve to design the person and invest him when the ordinary way faileth which is all that is left to Man to do to the conveyance of the power The case being thus stated as to what is necessary to give the power or office we may next enquire whether any Papists Priest have such Power by such means And 1. We have sufficient reason to judge that many of them have all the personal qualifications which are essentially necessary 2. Many among them have the consent of a sober Christian people of which more anon And Mr. Iacob who was against Bishops and their Ordination proveth at large that by Election or Consent of the people alone a man may be a true Pastor either without such Ordination or notwithstanding both the vanity and error of it 3. Many of them have Ordination by able and sober Bishops if that also be necessary 4. In that Ordination they are invested in all that is essential to the Pastoral Office So that I see not that their Calling is a Nullity through defect of any thing of absolute necessity to its being and validity though it be many wayes irregular and sinful II. We are next therefore to enquire whether any Contradicting additions make null that which else would be no nullity And this is the great difficulty For as we accuse not their Religion for having too little but too much so this is our chief doubt about their Ministry And. 1. It is doubted as to the office it self whether a Mass-Priest be a true Minister as having another work to do even to make his Maker and to give Christs real flesh with his hands to the people and to preach the unsound Doctrines of their Church And these seem to be essential parts of his function The case is very bad and sad But that which I said about the Heresies or Errors which may consist with Christianity when they overthrow it but by an undiscerned consequence must be here also considered The prime part of their office is that as to the essentials which Christ ordained This they receive and to this they sew a filthy rag of mans devising But if they knew this to be
Ministers of Christ or Lay men If Lay men their actions are unlawful If Ministers they are Commissioned officers of Christ themselves and it is the work of their own office which they do and it is they that shall have the reward or punishment But if preaching to all these Churches or giving to all these persons in a thousand Parishes the Sacraments c. were the Bishops or Archbishops work that is which they are obliged to do then they would sin in not doing it But if they are the Governours only of those that are obliged 〈◊〉 do it and are not obliged to do it themselves then Governing the doers of it is only their work And therefore it is but equivocally said that the work is theirs which others and not they are obliged to do and that they do their work per alios when they do but Govern those others in doing their own work Of this read the Lord Bacons Considerations and Grotius de Imper. summ Potest Cirâ—a Sacra who soundly resolve the case against doing the Pastoral work per alium Quest. 59. May a Lay man preach or expound the Scriptures Or what of this is proper to the Pastors office Answ. 1. NO doubt but there is some Preaching or Teaching and Expounding which a Lay man may use So did Origen so did Constantine so may a King or Iudge on the Bench so may a Parent to his Children and a Master to his family and a Schoolmaster or Tutor to his Scholars 2. It is not any one Method or Sermon-fashion which is proper to a Minister and forbidden to a Lay man That Method which is most meet to the Matter and hearers may be used by one as well as by the other 3. It is not the meer publickness of the Teaching which must tell us what is unlawful for a Lay man For Writing and Printing are the most publick wayes of Teaching And these no man taketh to be forbidden the Laity Scaliger Causabon Grotius Erasmus Constantine King Iames the Lord Bacon and abundance more Lay men have done the Church great service by their Writings And Judges on the Bench speak oft Theologically to many But that which is proper to the Ministers or Pastors of the Church is 1. To make a stated office of it and to be separated set a part devoted or consecrated and appropriated to this sacred work and not to do it occasionally only or sometimes or on the by but as their Calling and the Employment of their lives 2. To do it as Called and Commissioned Ministers of Christ who have a special nunciative and Teaching Authority committed to them And therefore are in a special manner to be heard according to their special Authority 3. To be the stated Teachers of particular Churches as their Pastors and Guides Though they may sometime permit a Lay man when there is cause to Teach them pro tempore These three are proper to the Ministerial and Pastors office But for the regulating of Lay mens Teaching 1. They must statedly keep in their families or within their proper bounds 2. They must not presume to go beyond their abilities especially in matters dark and difficult 3. They must not thrust themselves without a just call and need into publick or numerous meetings as Teachers nor do that which savoureth of Pride or Ostentation or which tendeth to cherish those vices in others 4. They must not live or Preach as from under the Government of the Church Pastors But being members of their flocks must do all as under their lawful oversight and guidance much less must they proudly and schismatically set up themselves against their lawful Pastors and bring them into Act. 20. 30. Heb. 13 7 17 24. 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. 1 Tim. 5. 17. contempt to get themselves reputation and to draw away Disciples after them 5. Times and places must be greatly distinguished In Infidel or grosly ignorant Countreys where through the want of Preachers there is a true necessity men may go much further than in Countreys where Teachers and knowledge do abound Quest. 60. What is the true sense of the distinction of Pastoral power in foro interiore exteriore rightly used Answ. 1. NOt as if the Pastors had any power of the sword or outward force or of mens Bodies or Estates immediately For all the Pastoral power is Immediately on the soul and but secondarily on the body so far as the perswaded soul will move it Reason and Love and the Authority of a messenger of Christ are all the power by which Bishops or Pastors as such can work in foro interiore vel exteriore They Rule the body but by Ruling the soul. 2. But the true use of the distinction is only to serve instead of the usual distinction of Publick and personal obligation It is one thing to satisfie a mans private Conscience about his own personal case or matters And another thing to oblige the whole Church or a particular person of his duty as a member of the society to the rest When the Pastor Absolveth a penitent person in foro interiore that is in his own Conscience he delivereth him a discharge in the name of Christ on Condition he be truly penitent Else not But in foro exteriore he actually and absolutely restoreth him to his visible state of Church Communion The rest of the members perhaps may justly think this man unlike to prove a true penitent And then in foro interiore they are not bound to believe him certainly penitent or pardoned by God But in foro exteriore that he is restored to Church Communion and that for order sake they are bound to hold Communion with him they are bound internally to believe So that it comes neer the sense of the distinction of the secret Iudgement of God and Conscience and Church judgement Quest. 61. In what sense is it true that some say that the Magistrate only hath the External Government of the Church and the Pastors the Internal Answ. 1. NOt as External and Internal are opposed in the nature of the Action For the Voice of the Pastor in Preaching is External as well as the Kings 2. Not as they are opposed in the manner of Reception For the Ears of the Auditors are external Recipients from the Preacher as well as from the King 3. Not as distinguishing the parts that are to obey the duties commanded and the sins forbidden as if the King ruled the Body only and the Pastor the soul. For the soul is bound to obey the King or else the Body could not be bound to obey him unless by cords And the Body must obey the Preacher as well as the soul. Murder drunkenness swearing lying and such other external Vices are under the Pastors power to forbid in Christs name as well as the Kings 4. Not as if all the external parts or actions of Religion were exempted from the Pastors power For preaching praying reading Sacraments Church-assemblies are external parts
own part in such cases I would do thus 1. I would look at my ultimate end Gods Glory and at the next end the Good of souls and welfare Eph. 4. 12 14. 2 Cor. 10. 8. 13. 10. Rom. 14. 19. Rom. 15. 2. 1 Cor. 10. 23. 1 Cor. 14. 5 12 26. 2 Cor. 12. 19. of the Church and so at the Peoples Interest as it is the End of the Order of Magistracy and Ministry And I would take my self to be so obliged to that end as that no point of meer Order could disoblige me the End being better than the Means as such Therefore I would do all things to edification supposing that all Power of man is as Paul's was for Edification and not for destruction 2. But in judging of what is Best for the Church I must take in every accident and circumstance and look to many more than to a few and to distant parts as well as to those near me and to the time and ages to come as well as to the present and not go upon mistaken suppositions of the Churches good He that doth not see all things that are to be weighed in such a case may err by leaving out some one 3. I would obey the Magistrate formally for conscience sake in all things which belong to his Office And particularly in this case if it were but a Removal from place to place in respect to the Temple or Tythes or for the Civil peace or for the preservation of Church order in cases where it is not grosly injurious to the Church and Gospel 4. In cases which by Gods appointment belong to the Conduct of Bishops or Pastors or the Concord of Consociate Churches I would formaliter follow them And in particular if they satisfie me that the removal of me is an apparent injury to the Church As in the Arrians times when the Emperours removed the Orthodox from all the Great Churches to put in Arrians I would not obedientially and voluntarily remove 5. If Magistrates and Bishops should concur in commanding my remove in a case notoriously injurious and pernicious to the Church as in the aforesaid case to bring in an Arrian I would not obey formally for conscience sake supposing that God never gave them such a power against mens souls and the Gospel of Christ And there is no power but of God 6. But I would prefer both the Command of the Magistrate and the Direction of the Pastors before the meer will and humour of the people when their safety and welfare were not concerned in the case 7. And when the Magistrate is peremptory usually I must obey him Materially when I do it not formally in conscience to his meer Command Because though in some cases he may do that which belongeth not to his Office but to the Pastors yet his violence may make it become the Churches interest that I yield and give place to his wrath For as I must not Resist him by force so if I depart not at his Command it may bring a greater suffering on the Churches And so for preventing a greater evil he is to be submitted to in many cases where he goeth against God and without authority though not to be formally obeyed 8. Particular Churches have no such interest in their Ministers or Pastors as to keep them against their wills and the Magistrates and against the interest of the Universal Church as shall be next asserted I have spoken to this instance as it taketh in all other cases of difference between the Power of the Magistrate the Pastors and the peoples interest when they disagree and not as to this case alone Quest. 104. Is a Pastor obliged to his Flock for Life Or is it lawful so to oblige himself And may be remove without their Consent And so also of a Church-member the same questions are put THese four Questions I put together for brevity and shall answer them distinctly I. 1. A Minister is obliged to Christ and the Universal Church for Life durante vita with this exception if God disable him not 2. But as a Pastor he is not obliged to this or that flock for life There is no such command or example in Gods Word II. To the second 1. It is lawful to oblige our selves to a people for life in some cases conditionally that is If God do not apparently call us away 2. But it is never lawful to do it Absolutely 1. Because we shall engage our selves against God against his power over us and interest in us and his wisdom that must guide us God may call us whither he please And though now he speak not by supernatural revelation yet he may do it by providential alterations 2. And we shall else oblige our selves against the Universal Church to which we are more strictly bound than to any particular Church and whose good may oblige us to remove 3. Yea we may bind our selves to the hurt of that Church it self seeing it may become its interest to part with us 4. And we should so oblige our selves against our duty to authority which may remove us III. To the third question I answer 1. A Pastor may not causelesly remove nor for his own worldly commodity when it is to the hurt of the Church and hinderance of the Gospel 2. When he hath just cause he must acquaint the people with it and seek their satisfaction and consent 3. But if he cannot procure it he may remove without it As 1. When he is sure that the interest of the Gospel and Universal Church require it 2. Or that just authority doth oblige him to it The reasons are plain from what is said And also 1. He is no more bound to the people than they are to him But they are not so bound to him but they may remove on just occasion 2. If he may not remove it is either because God forbids it or because his own Contract with them hath obliged him against it But 1. God no where forbids it 2. Such a contract is supposed not made nor lawful to be made IV. As to the peoples case it needs no other answer 1. No member may remove without cause 2. Nor abruptly and uncharitably to the Churches dissatisfaction when he may avoid it But 3. He may remove upon many just causes private or publick whether the Church and Pastors consent or not so the manner be as becometh a Christian. Quest. 105. When many men pretend at once to be the true Pastors of a particular Church against each others title through differences between the Magistrates the Ordainers and the Flocks what should the people do and whom should they adhere to Answ. THis case is mostly answered before in Quest. 82. c. I need only to add these What Pastor to adhere to Rules of Caution 1. Do not upon any pretence accept of an Heretick or one that is utterly unfit for the Office 2. Do not easily take a Dividing Course or person but keep
any thing and fearless in the greatest perils For what should he fear who hath escaped Hell and Gods displeasure and hath conquered the King of terrours But fear is the duty and most rational temper of a guilty soul and the more fearless such are the more foolish and more miserable § 2. Direct 2. Be sure you have a warrantable Cause and Call In a bad cause it is a dreadful Direct 2. thing to conquer or to be conquered If you conquer you are a murderer of all that you kill If you are conquered and dye in the prosecution of your sin I need not tell you what you may expect I know we are here upon a difficulty which must be tenderly handled If we make the soveraign power to be the absolute and only Iudge whether the Souldiers cause and call be good then it would follow that it is the duty of all the Christian subjects of the Turk to fight against Christianity as such and to destroy all Christians when the Turk commandeth it And that all the subjects of other Lands are bound to invade this or other such Christian Kingdoms and destroy their Kings when ever their Popish or malicious Princes or States shall command them which being intollerable consequences prove the Antecedent to be intollerable And yet on the other side if subjects must be the Judges of their cause and call the Prince shall not be served nor the common good secured till the interest of the Subjects will allow them to discern the goodness of the cause Between these two intollerable consequents it is hard to meet with a just discovery of the mean Most run into one of the extreams which they take to be the less and think that there is no other avoiding of the other The grand errours in this and an hundred like cases come from not distinguishing aright the case de esse from the case de apparere or cognoscere and not first determining the former as it ought before the latter be determined Either the cause which Subjects are commanded to fight in is really lawful to them or it is not Say not here importunely who shall judge For we are now but upon the question de esse If it be not lawful in it self but be meer robbery or murder then come to the case of Evidence Either this evil is to the subject discernable by just means or not If it be I am not able for my part to justifie him from the sin if he do it no more than to have justified the three witnesses Dan. 3. if they had bowed down to the golden Calf or Daniel 6. if he had forborn prayer or the Apostles if they had forborn preaching or the Souldiers for apprehending and crucifying Christ when their Superiours commanded them For God is first to be obeyed and feared But if the evil of the Cause be such as the Subject cannot by just and ordinary means discern then must he come next to examine his Call And a Volunteer unnecessarily he may not be in a doubtful cause It is so heinous a sin to murder men that no man should unnecessarily venture upon that which may prove to be murder for ought he knoweth But if you ask what Call may make such a doubtful action necessary I answer It must be such as warranteth it either from the End of the action or from the Authority of the Commander or both And from the end of the action the case may be made clear that if a King should do wrong to a forreign enemy and should have the worse cause yet if the revenge which that enemy seeketh would be the destruction of the King and Countrey or Religion it is lawful and a duty to fight in the desence of them And if the King should be the assailant or beginner that which is an Offensive War in him for which he himself must answer may be but a Defensive War in the commanded Subjects and they be innocent Even on the High-way if I see a stranger provoke another by giving him the first blow yet I may be bound to save his life from the fury of the avenging party But whether or how farr the bare Command of a soveraigne may warrant the subjects to venture in a doubtfull cause supposing the thing lawful in it self though they are doubtful requireth so much to be said to it which Civil Governours may possibly think me too bold to meddle with that I think it safest to pass it by only saying that there are some cases in which the Ruler is the only Competent Judge and the doubts of the subject are so unreasonable that they will not excuse the sin of his disobedience and also that the degree of the doubt is oft very considerable in the case But suppose the cause of the War be really lawful in it self and yet the subject is in doubt of it yea or thinketh otherwise then is he in the case as other erroneous consciences are that is entangled in a necessity of sinning till he be undeceived in case his Rulers command his service But which would be the greater sin to do it or not the Ends and circumstances may do much to determine But doubtless in true Necessity to save the King and State subjects may be compelled to fight in a just cause notwithstanding that they mistake it for unjust And if the subject have a private discerning judgement so far as he is a voluntary agent yet the Soveraign hath a publick determining judgement when a neglecter is to be forced to his duty Even as a man that thinketh it unlawful to maintain his Wife and Children may be compelled lawfully to do it So that it is apparent that sometime the Soveraigns cause may be good and yet an erroneous conscience may make the Souldiers cause bad if they are Volunteers who run unnecessarily upon that which they take for robbery and murder and yet that the Higher Powers may force even such mistakers to defend their Countrey and their Governours in a case of true necessity And it is manifest that sometimes the Cause of the Ruler may be bad and yet the cause of the Souldier good And that sometimes the cause may be bad and sinful to them both and sometime good and lawful unto both § 3. Direct 3. When you are doubtful whether your Cause and Call be good it is ordinarily Direct 3. safest to sit still and not to venture in so dangerous a case without great deliberation and sufficient evidence to satisfie your consciences Neander might well say of Solons Law which punished them Neander in Chron. p. 104. that took not one part or other in a Civil War or Sedition Admirabilis autem illa atque plane incredibilis quae honoribus abdicat eum qui orta seditione nullam factionem secutus sit No doubt he is a culpable Neuter that will not defend his Governours and his Countrey when he hath a call But it is so dreadful a thing to
6. Cases about losing and finding Q. 1. Must we seek out the loser to restore what we find Q. 2. May I take a reward as my due for restoring what I found Q. 3. May I wish to find any thing in my way or be glad that I find it Q. 4. May I not keep it if no owner be found Q. 5. If others be present when I find it may I not conceal or keep it to my self Q 6. Who must stand to the loss of goods trusted to another p. 130 Tit. 7. Directions to Merchants Factors Travellers Chaplains that live among Heathens Infidels or Papists p. 131 Q. 1. Is it lawful to put ones self or servants specially young unsetled Apprentices into the temptations of an Infidel or Popish Countrey meerly to get Riches as Merchants do p. 131 Q. 2. May a Merchant or Embassadour leave his Wife to live abroad p. 132 Q. 3. Is it lawful for young Gentlemen to travail into other Kingdoms as part of their education The danger of Common Traveling p. 133 Directions for all these Travellers in their abode abroad p. 135 CHAP. XX. Motives and Directions against Oppression The sorts of it The greatness of the sin of Oppression The Cure p. 137 Tit. 2. Cases about Oppression especially of Tenants p. 140 Q. 1. Is it lawful to buy land of a liberal Landlord when the buyer must needs set it dearer than the Sâ—lâ—er did Q. 2. May one take as much for his Land as it is worth Q. 3. May he raise his Rents Q. 4. How much below the full worth must a Landlord set his Land Q. 5. May not a Landlord that is in debt or hath a payment to pay raise his Rents to pay it Q. 6. If I cannot relieve the honest poor without raising the Rent of Tenants that are worthy of less charity may I do it Q. 7. May I penally raise a Tenants Rent or turn him out because he is a bad man Q. 8. May one take house or Land while another is in possession of it Q. 9. May a rich man put out his Tenants to lay the Lands to his own dâ—mesnes Q. 10. May one Tenant have divers Tenements Q. 11. May one have divers Trades Q. 12. Or keep shops in several Market Towns CHAP. XXI Cases and Directions about Prodigality and sinful waste What it is p. 143. Wayes of sinful waste Q. 1. Are all men bound to fare alike Or what is excess Q. 2. What cost on visits and entertainments is lawful Whether the greatest good is still to be preferred Q. 3. What is excess in buildings Q. 4. May we not in building dyet c. be at some charge for our Delight as well as for Necessity Q. 5. When are Recreations too costly Q. 6. When is Apparel too costly Q. 7. When is Retinue Furniture and other pomp too costly Q. 8. When is House-keeping too costly Q. 9. When are Childrens Portions too great Q. 10. How far is frugality in small matters a duty Q. 11. Must all labour in a Calling Q. 12. May one desire to increase and grow rich Q. 13. Can one be prodigal in giving to the Church Q. 14. May one give too much to the poor Q. 15. May the Rich lay out on conveniences pomp or pleasure when multitudes are in deep necessities Directions against Prodigality p. 143 c. CHAP. XXII Cases and Directions against injurious Law suits witnessing and judgement p. 148 Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Law suits and proceedings Q. 1. When is it Lawful to go to Law Q. 2. May I Sue a poor man for a Debt or Trespass Q. 3. May I Sue a Surety whose interest was not concerned in the debt Q. 4. May I Sue for the Use of Money Q. 5. May Law Suits be used to vex and humble an insolent bad man Q. 6. May a rich man use his friends and purse to bear down a poor man that hath a bad cause Q. 7. May one use such forms in Law Suits Declarations Answers c. as are false according to the proper sense of the words Q. 8. May a guilty person plead Not guilty Q. 9. Is a man bound to accuse himself and offer himself to justice Q. 10. May a witness voluntarily speak that truth which he knoweth will be ill used Q. 11. May a witness conceal part of the truth Q. 12. Must a Iudge or Iury proceed secundum allegata probata when they know the witness to be false or the Cause bad but cannot evince it T it 2. Directions against these sins p. 150. The evil of unjust Suits The evil of false witness The evil of unjust judgements The Cure p. 150 CHAP. XXIII Cases of Conscience and Directions against backbiting Slandering and Evil speaking p. 152 Tit. 1. Q. 1. May we not speak evil of that which is evil Q. 2. May not the contrary be sinful silence and befriending mens sins Q. 3. What if Religious credible persons report it Q. 4. If I may not speak it may I not believe them Q. 5. May we not speak ill of open persecutors or enemies of Godliness Q. 6. What if it be one whose reputation countenanceth his ill Cause and his defamation would disable him Q. 7. If I may not make a true Narrative of matters of fact how may we write true Histories for posterity Q. 8. What if it be one that hath been ofâ— admonished Q. 9. Or one that I cannot speak to face to face Q. 10. In what Cases may we open anothers faults Q. 11. What if I hear men praise the wicked or their sins T it 2. Directions against back-biting slandering and evil speaking p. 154 Tit. 3. The great evil of these sins p. 155 CHAP. XXIV Cases of and Directions against Censoriousness and sinful judging p. 157 Tit. 1. Cases Q. 1. Am I not bound to judge truly of every one as he is Q. 2. How far may we judge ill of one by outward appearance as face gesture c. Q. 3. How far may we censure on the report of others Q. 4. Doth not the fifth Command bind us to judge better of Parents and Princes than their lives declare them to be Q. 5. Whom must we judge sincere and holy Christians Q. 6. Is it not a sin to err and take a man for better than he is Q. 7. Whom must I take for a visible Church member Q. 8. Whom must I judge a true Worshipper of God Q. 9. Which must I take for a true Church Q. 10. Whom must we judge true Prophets and true Pastors of the Church p. 157 Tit. 2. Directions for the Cure of sinful Censoriousness p. 159 Tit. 3. The evil of the sin of Censoriousness p. 160 Tit. 4. Directions for those that are rashly censured by others p. 162 CHAP. XXV Cases and Directions about Trusts and Secrets p. 163 Tit. 3. The Cases Q. 1. How must we not put our Trust in man Q. 2. Whom to choose for a Trust Q. 3. When may I commit a
you if they do not stop you you choose a life of constant close and great temptations Whereas your grace and comfort and salvation might be much promoted by the society of such as are wise and gracious and suitable to your state To have a constant companion to open your heart to and joyn with in prayer and edifying conference and faithfully help you against your sins and yet to be patient with you in your frailties is a mercy which worldlings neither deserve nor value Direct 16. MAke careful choice of the Books which you read Let the Holy Scriptures ever have Direct 10. the preheminence and next them the solid lively heavenly Treatises which best expound and apply the Scriptures and next those the credible Histories especially of the Church and Tractates upon inferiour Sciences and Arts But take heed of the poyson of the Writings of false Teachers which would corrupt your understandings and of vain Romances Play-books and false Stories which may bewitch your fantasies and corrupt your hearts § 1. As there is a more excellent appearance of the Spirit of God in the Holy Scriptures than in any other Book whatever so it hath more power and fitness to convey the Spirit and make us spiritual by imprinting it self upon our hearts As there is more of God in it so it will acquaint us more with God and bring us nearer him and make the Reader more reverent serious and Divine Let Scripture be first and most in your hearts and hands and other Books be used as subservient to it The endeavours of the Devil and Papists to keep it from you doth shew that it is most necessary and desirable to you And when they tell you that all Hereticks plead the Scriptures they do but tell you that it is the common Rule or Law of Christians which therefore all are fain to pretend As all Lawyers and wranglers plead the Laws of the Land be their cause never so bad and yet the Laws must not be therefore concealed or cast aside And they do but tell you that in their concealment or dishonouring the Scriptures they are worse than any of those Hereticks When they tell you that the Scriptures are misunderstood and abused and perverted to maintain mens errors they might also desire that the Sun might be obscured because the purblind do mistake and Murderers and Robbers do wickedly by its light And that the earth might be subverted because it bears all evil doers and High-wayes stopt up because men travell in them to do evil And food prohibited because it nourisheth mens diseases And when they have told you truly of a Law or Rule whether made by Pope or Council which bad men cannot misunderstand or break or abuse and misapply than hearken to them and prefer that Law as that which preventeth the need of any judgement § 2. The Writings of Divines are nothing else but a preaching the Gospel to the eye as the voice preacheth it to the ear Vocal preaching hath the preheminence in moving the affections and being diversified according to the state of the Congregations which attend it This way the Milk cometh warmest from the breast But Books have the advantage in many other respects you may read an able Preacher when you have but a mean one to hear Every Congregation cannot hear the most judicious or powerful Preachers but every single person may read the Books of the most powerful and judicious Preachers may be silenced or banished when Books may be at hand Books may be kept at a smaller charge than Preachers We may choose Books which treat of that very subject which we desire to hear of but we cannot choose what subject the Preacher shall treat of Books we may have at hand every day and hour when we can have Sermons but seldom and at set times If Sermons be forgotten they are gone But a Book we may read over and over till we remember it and if we forget it may again peruse it at our pleasure or at our leisure So that good Books are a very great mercy to the world The Holy Ghost chose the way of writing to preserve his Doctrine and Laws to the Church as knowing how easie and sure a way it is of keeping it safe to all generations in comparison of meer Verbal Tradition which might have made as many Controversies about the very terms as there be memories or persons to be the preservers and reporters Books are if well chosen domestick present constant judicious pertinent yea and powerful Sermons and alwayes of very great use to your salvation but especially when Vocal preaching faileth and Preachers are ignorant ungodly or dull or when then they are persecuted and forbid to preach § 3. You have need of a judicious Teacher at hand to direct you what Books to use or to refuse For among Good Books there are some very good that are sound and lively and some are good but mean and weak and somewhat dull and some are very good in part but have mixtures of error or else of incautelous injudicious expressions fitter to puzzle than edifie the weak I am loth to name any of these later sorts of which abundance have come forth of late But to the young beginner in Religion I may be bold to recommend next to a sound Catechism Mr. Rutherfords Letters Mr. Robert Boltons Works Mr. Perkins Mr. Whateleyes Mr. Ball of Faith Dr. Prestons Dr. Sibbes Mr. Hildershams Mr. Pinkes Sermons Mr. Io. Rogers Mr. Rich. Rogers Mr. Ri. Allen's Mr. Gurnall Mr. Swinnocke Mr. Ios. Simonds And to stablish you against Popery Dr. Challoners Credo Eccles. Cathol Dr. Field of the Church Dr. Whites Way to the Church with the Defence Bishop Ushers Answer to the Jesuite and Chillingworth with Drelincourts Summary And for right Principles about Redemption c. Mr. Trumans Great Propitiation and of Natural and Moral Impotency and Mr. William Fenner of Wilful Impenitency Mr. Hotchkis of Forgiveness of Sin To pass by many other excellent ones that I may not name too many § 4. To a very judicious able Reader who is fit to censure all he reads there is no great danger in the reading the Books of any Seducers It doth but shew him how little and thin a cloak is used to cover a bad causâ— But alas young Souldiers not used to such Wars are startled at a very Sophism or at a terrible threatning of damnation to diffenters which every censorious Sect can use or at every confident triumphant boast or at every thing that hath a fair pretence of truth or godliness Injudicious persons can answer almost no deceiver which they hear and when they cannot answer them they think they must yield as if the fault were not in them but in the cause and as if Christ had no wiser followers or better defenders of his truth than they Mâ—ddle not therefore with poyson till you better know how to use it and may do it with less danger as long
last place in teaching learning and most serious consideration § 3. Two sorts do most dangerously sin against or abuse the Holy Ghost The first is the Prophane who through custom and education can say I believe in the Holy Ghost and say that He sanctifieth them and all the Elect people of God but hate or resist all sanctifying works and motions Deus est principium eâ—â—ectivum in Creatione refectivum in redemptione perfectivum in sanctificatione Ioh. Con. bis comp Theol. l. 4. c. 1. of the Holy Ghost and hate all those that are sanctified by him and make them the objects of their scorn and deride the very name of sanctification or at least the thing The second sort is the Enthusiasts or true Fanaticks who advance extoll and plead for the Spirit Rejectis propheticis Apostolicis scriptis Manichaei novum Evangelium scripserunt ut antecellere communi hominum multitudini semi-d 〈…〉 rentur simularunt Enthusiaâ—mos seu afflatus subâ—â—o in â—urâ—a se in terram objâ—â—â—â—entes c vâ—lut 〈◊〉 dâ—â— tacentes deinde tanquam redeuntes ex specu Trophonio plorantes multa vaticinati sunt Prorsus ut Anabaptistae recens fâ—ceruâ— in seditione Monasteriensi Etsi autem in quibusdam manifesta simulatio fuit tamen aliquibus reipsa à Diabolis surâ—tes immisses esse certum est Carioâ— Chron. l. 3. p. 54. against the Spirit covering their greatest sins against the Holy Ghost by crying up and pretending to the Holy Ghost They plead the Spirit in themselves against the Spirit in their Brethren yea and in almost all the Church They plead the authority of the Spirit in them against the authority of the Spirit in the holy Scriptures and against particular truths of Scripture and against several great and needful Duties which the Spirit hath required in the Word and against the Spirit in their most judicious godly faithful Teachers But can it be the Spirit that speaks against the Spirit Is the Spirit of God against it self Are we not all baptized by One Spirit and not divers or contrary into one body 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. But it is no marvel for Satan to be transformed into an Angel of light or his Ministers into the Ministers of Christ and of Righteousness whose end shall be according to their works 2 Cor. 11. 13 14 15. The Spirit himself therefore hath commanded us that we believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world 1 John 4. 1. Yea the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4. 1. Therefore take heed that you neither Mistake nor abuse the Holy Spirit § 4. 1. The Doctrine concerning the Holy Ghost to be believed is briefly this 1. That the Holy Ghost as given since the Ascension of Christ is his Agent on earth or his Advocate with men called by him the Paraclete Instead of his bodily presence which for a little space he vouchsafed to a few being John 16. 7. â— ascended he sendeth the Holy Spirit as better for them to be his Agent continually to the end and John 15 2â— John 16. 13. Gal. 3. 1 2 3 4 Heb. 2. 3 4. unto all and in all that do believe 2. This Holy Spirit so sent infallibly inspired the holy Apostles and Evangelists first to preach and then to write the Doctrine of Christ contained as indited by him in the Holy Scriptures perfectly imprinting therein the Holy Image of God 3. The same Spirit in them sealed this holy Doctrine and the Testimony of these holy men by many Miracles and wonderful Gifts by which they did actually convince the unbelieving world and plant the Churches 4. The same Spirit having first by the Apostles given a Law or Canon to the Universal Church constituting its Offices and the duty of the Officers and the manner of their entrance Eph. 3 2 3 4 8 13. dâ—tâ— Qualifie and â—ispose men for the stated ordinary Ministerial work which is to Explain and Apâ—â—â—â— â—he â—oresaid Scriptures and directeth those that are to Ordain and Choose them they being not wanting on their part and so he appointeth Pastors to the Church 5. The same Spirit assisteth the Ministers thus sent in their faithful use of the means to Teach and Apply the holy Scriptures according to the necessities of the peoplâ— the weight of the matter and the Majesty of the Word of God 6. The same Spirit doth by this Word heard or read renew and sanctifie the souls of the Elect illuminating their minds opening and quickning their hearts prevailing with changing and Actâ— 26. 18. resolving their wills thus writing Gods Word and imprinting his Image by his Word upon their hearts making it powerful to conquer and cast out their strongest sweetest dearest sins and bringing John 14 16 26 them to the saving knowledge love and obedience of God in Jesus Christ. 7. The same holy Spirit assisteth the sanctified in the exercise of this grace to the increase of it by blessing and concurring with the means appointed by him to that end And helpeth them to use those means perform their duties conquer temptations oppositions and difficulties and so confirmeth and preserveth them to the end 8. The same Spirit helpeth believers in the exercise of grace to feel it and discern the sincerity of it in themselves in that measure as they are meet for and in these seasons when it is fittest for them 9. The same Spirit helpeth them hereupon to conclude that they are justified and reconciled to God and have right to all the benefits of his Covenant 10. Also he assisteth them actually to rejoyce in the discerning of this Conclusion For though Reason of it self may do something in these acts yet so averse is man to all that is holy and so many are the difficulties and hinderances in the way that to the effectual performance the help of the Spirit of God is necessary § 5. By this enumeration of the Spirits operations you may see the errors of many detected and many common Questions answered 1. You may see their blindness that pretend the Spirit within them against Scripture Ministry or the use of Gods appointed means when the same Spirit first indited the Scripture and maketh it the Instrument to illuminate and sanctifie our souls Gods Image is 1. Primarily in Jesus Christ his Son 2. Derivatively by his Spirit imprinted perfectly in the holy Scriptures 3. And by the Scripture or the holy Doctrine of it instrumentally impressed on the soul. So that the Image of God in Christ is the Cause of his Image in his holy Word or Doctrine and his Image in his Word is the Cause of his Image on the heart So a King may have his Image 1. Naturally on his Son who is like his Father 2. Expressively in his Laws which express
To be as like God in all his communicable excellencies as is agreeable to our created state and capacity 2. And to have as near and full communion with him as we can attain to and enjoy § 7. 7. The Will of God and his Goodness and Holiness is more nearly propounded to us to be the Rule of our Conformity than his Power and his Knowledge Therefore his Law is most immediately the expression of his Will and our Duty and Goodness lyeth in our Conformity to his Law being Holy as he is Holy Because I may not stand on the particulars I shall give you a brief imperfect Scheme of that of God which you must thus know GOD is to be known by us I. As â—â—â—â—â—â—â—â— I. In his BEING Qâ—od â—â—â—â— 1. One and indivisible In Three Persons 2. Immense and incomprehensible 3. Eternal 1. The FATHER 2. The SON 3. The HOLY GHOST 1. Necessary 2. Independent 3. Immutable II. In his NATURE Quod â—â—t A SPIRIT 1. Simple uncompounded 2. Impassionate incoruptible immortal 3. Invisible intactible c. and LIFE it self 1. POWER 2. UNDERSTANDING 3. WILL. III. In his PERFECTIONS Qâ—aliâ—â—â—â—â— 1. OMNIPOTENT 2. OMNISCIENT 3. MOST GOOD 1. MOST GREAT 2. MOST WISE 3. MOST HOLY and HAPPY 1. BEING HIMSELF 2. KNOWING HIMSELF 3. LOVING ENJOYING HIMSELF II. As Râ—laâ—â—d to his Creatures I. The EFFICIENT Cause of all things Rom. 9. 36. OF HIM 1. CREATOR Conserver 1. Our OWNER or LORD most Absolute Free and Irresistible d 1. Our Life and Strength and Safety e 1. Perfecting our Natures in Heavenly Life II. The DIRIGENT Cause THROUGH HIM 2. REDEEMER Saviour 2. Our RULER or KING 1. By Legislation 2. Judgement 3. Execution Absolute Perfect True Holy Just Merciful Patient Terrible 2. Our Light and Wisdom 2. Whom we shall behold in Glorious Light III. The FINAL Cause TO HIM are all things To him be Glory for ever Amen 3. REGENERATOR Sanctifier 3. Our BENEFACTOR or FATHER 1. Most Loving 2. Most Bountiful 3. Most Amiable Patient Merciful Constant. Causally and Objectively d 3. Our Love and Ioy And so our End and Rest and Happiness hereafter e 3. Whom we shall Please and Love and be Pleased in him and Loved by him Rejoyce in him Praise him and so Enjoy him Perfectly and Perpetually See these Practically opened and improved in the First Part of my Divine Life The more full Explication of the Attributes fit for the more capacious is reserved for another Tractate § 8. For the right improvement of the Knowledge of all these Attributes of God I must refer you Do Dâ—s ita uâ— sunt loquere Bias iâ—l â—â—â—â— â—â—g Paâ—â—i Sâ—alâ—gâ—i â—â—â—â—â— sâ—s de 〈◊〉 Mâ—â—do Ep. Cath. l 14. God never wrought Miracâ—e to convince Atheism because his ordinary works convince it â— Baâ—oâ— Essay 16. p. 87. Deus est mens soluta libera legâ—egata ab omni concretione mortall omnia seâ—â—â—â—enâ— movens c. Cicero 1. Tâ—â—cul to the fore-mentioned Treatise The acts which you are to exercise upon God are these 1. The clearest Knowledge you can attain to 2. The firmest Belief 3. The highest Estimation 4. The greatest Admiration 5. The â—eartiest and sweetest Complacency or Love 6. The strongest Desire 7. A filial Awfulness Reverence and Fear 8. The boldest quietting Trust and confidence in him 9. The most fixed Waiting Dependance Hope and Expectation 10. The most absolute self-resignation to him 11. The fullest and quiettest submission to his disposals 12. The humblest and most absolute subjection to his Governing Authority and Will and the exactest obedience to his Laws 13. The boldest courage and fortitude in his cause and owning him before the world in the greatest sufferings 14. The greatest Thank fulness for his Mercies 15. The most faithful improvement of his Talents and use of his Means and performance of our trust 16. A reverent and holy use of his Name and Word with a Reverence of his Secrets forbearing to intrude or meddle with them 17. A wise and cautelous observance of his Providences publick and private neither neglecting them nor mis-interpreting them neither running before them nor striving discontentedly against them 18. A disâ—â—rning loving and honouring his Image in his children notwithstanding their infirmities and faults without any friendship to their faults or over magnifying or imitating them in any evil 19. A reverent serious spiritual adoration and worshipping him in publick and private with soul and body in the use of all his holy Ordinances but especially in the joyful celebration of his Praise for all his Perfections and his Mercies 20. The highest Delight and fullest Content and Comfort in God that we can attain Especially a Delight in Knowing him and Obeying and Pleasing him Worshipping and Praising him Loving him and being beloved of him through Jesus Christ and in the hopes of the Perfecting of all these in our Everlasting fruition of him in Heavenly Glory All these are the Acts of Piety towards God which I lay together for your easier observation and memory But some of them must be more fully opened and insisted on DIRECT V. Remember that God is your Lord or Owner and see that you make an absolute Gr. Dir. 5. Of Self-resignation to God as our Owner Resignation of your selves and all that you have to him as his Own and Use your selves and all accordingly Trust him with his Own and rest in his disposals § 1. OF this I have already spoken in my Sermon of Christs Dominion and in my Directions for a sound Conversion and therefore must but touch it here It is easie notionally to know and say that God is our Owner and we are not our Own But if the Habitual Practical knowledge of it were as easie or as common the happy effects of it would be the sanctification and reformation of the world I shall first tell you what this Duty is and how it is to be performed and then what fruits and benefits it will produce and what should move us to it § 2. I. The duty lyeth in these acts 1. That you consider the Ground of Gods Propriety in you Persuasum hoc sit à principiâ— hominibus dominos esse omnium rerum ac moderatores Deos eaque quae gâ—raâ—â—ur coâ—um geâ—i dâ—â—â—â—one aâ—que numâ—nâ— Et qâ—â—â—â—â— quisque â—â—â—â— quâ—â— agat quâ—d in se admiâ—â—aâ— qua mâ—nte qua pâ—etaâ—e â—olat râ—ligiâ—nem intue â— pâ—orumque impâ—orum habere ratâ—onem 〈◊〉 â— dâ—â—â—â—â— 1. In making you of Nothing and preserving you 2. In Redeeming you by purchase 3. In Regenerating you and renewing you for himself The first is the Ground of his Common Natural Propriety in you and all things The second is the Ground of his Common Gracious Propriety in you and all men as Purchased by Christ Rom. 14. 9 Iohn 13. 3. The third is the Ground of his special Gracious Propriety in you and all his sanctified peculiar people Understand and acknowledge what a Plenary
Answ. tween the Being of a duty and the Knowledge of a duty and remember that the first Question is whether this be my duty and the next How I may discern it to be my duty And that God giveth it the Being by his Law and Conscience is but to know and use it And that God changeth not his Law and our duty as oft as our opinions change about it The obligation of the Law is still the same though our Consciences err in apprehending it otherwise Therefore if God command you a duty and your opinion be that he doth not command it or that he forbids it and so that it is no duty or that it is a sin it doth not follow that indeed God commands it not because you think so Else it were no error in you nor could it be possible to err if the thing become true because you think it to be true God commandeth you to Love him and to worship him and to nourish your children and to obey the higher powers c. And do you think you shall be discharged from all these duties and allowed to be prophane or sensual or to resist authority or to famish your children if you can but be blind enough to think that God would have it so 2. Your error is a sin it self And do you think that one sin must warrant another or that sin can discharge you from your duty and disannull the Law 3. You are a subject to God and not a King to your self and therefore you must obey his Laws and not make new ones § 33. Quest. 2. But is it not every mans duty to obey his Conscience Quest. Answ. Answ. No It is no mans duty to obey his Conscience in an error when it contradicteth the command of God Conscience is but a Discerner of Gods command and not at all to be obeyed strictly as a Commander but it is to be obeyed in a larger sense that is to be followed where ever it truly discerneth the command of God It is our duty to lay by our error and seek the cure of it till we attain it and not to obey it § 34. Quest. 3. But is it not a sin for a man to go against his Conscience Quest. Answ. Answ. Yes Not because Conscience hath any authority to make Laws for you but because interpretatively you go against God For you are bound to obey God in all things and when you think that God commandeth you a thing and yet you will not do it you disobey formally though not materially The Matter of Obedience is the thing commanded The form of obedience is our doing the thing because it is commanded when the Authority of the Commander causeth us to do it Now you reject the Authority of God when you reject that which you think he commandeth though he did not Quest. § 35. Quest. 4. Seeing the form of obedience is the being of it and denominateth which the Matter doth not without the form and there can be no sin which is not against the authority of God which is the formal cause of obedience is it not then my duty to follow my Conscience Answ. Answ. 1. There must be an integrity of causes or concurrence of all necessaries to make up Obedience though the want of any one will make a sin If you will be called Obedient you must have the matter and form because the true form is found in no other matter You must do the thing commanded because of his Authority that commandeth it If it may be called really and formally Obedience when you err yet it is not that obedience which is acceptable For it is not any kind of obedience but obedience in the thing commanded that God requireth 2. But indeed as long as you err sinfully you are also wanting in the form as well as the matter of your obedience though you intend Obedience in the particular act It is not only a willful opposing and positive rejecting the Authority of the Commander which is formal disobedience but it is any Privation of due subjection to it when his Authority is not so regarded as it ought to be and doth not so powerfully and effectually move us to our duty as it ought Now this formal disobedience is found in your erroneous Conscience For if Gods Authority had moved you as it should have done to diligent enquiry and use of all appointed means and to the avoiding of all the causes of error you had never erred about your duty For if the error had been perfectly involuntary and blameless the thing could not have been your particular duty which you could not possibly come to know Quest. § 36. Quest. 5. But if it be a sin to go against my Conscience must I not avoid that sin by obeying it Would you have me sin Answ. Answ. You must avoid the sin by changing your judgement and not by obeying it For that is but to avoid one sin by committing another An erring judgement is neither obeyed nor disobeyed without sin It can make you sin though it cannot make you duty It doth ensnare though not oblige If you follow it you break the Law of God in doing that which he forbids you If you forsake it and go against it you reject the authority of God in doing that which you think he forbids you So that there is no attaining to innocence any other way but by coming first to Know your duty and then to do it If you command your servant to weed your corn and he mistake you and verily think that you bid him pull up the corn and not the weeds what now should he do Shall he follow his judgement or go against it Neither but change it and then follow it and to that end enquire further of your mind till he be better informed and no way else will serve the turn § 37. Quest. 6. Seeing no man that erreth doth know or think that he erreth for that 's a contradiction Quest. how can I lay by that opinion or strive against it which I take to be the truth Answ. It is your sin that you take a falshood to be a truth God hath appointed means for the Answ. cure of blindness and error as well as other sins or else the world were in a miserable case Come into the light with due self-suspicion and impartiallity and diligently use all Gods means and avoid the causes of deceit and error and the Light of Truth will at once shew you the Truth and shew you that before you erred In the mean time sin will be sin though you take it to be duty or no sin § 38. Quest. 7. But seeing he that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with Quest. 〈…〉 â—e that knoweth it not with few is it not my duty chiefly to avoid the many 〈…〉 against my Conscience or Knâ—wledge Answ. 1. Your duty is to avoid both and if
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
But the misery is that few of the ignorant and weak have knowledge and humility enough â—o pâ—rceive their ignorance and weakness but they think they speak as wisely as the best and are offended if their words be not reverenced accordingly As a Minister should study and labour for a skill and ability to preach because it is his work so every Christian should study for skill to discourse with wisdom and meet expressions about holy things because this is his work And as unfit expressions and behaviour in a Minister do cause contempt instead of edifying so do they in discourse § 31. Direct 10. When ever Gods holy Name or Word is blasphemed or used in levity or jeast Direct 10. or a holy life is made a scorn or God is notoriously abused or dishonoured be ready to reprove it with gravity where you can and where you cannot at least let your detestation of it be conveniently manifested Of Prayer I have spoken aâ—terwaâ—d Among those to whom you may freely speak lay open the greatness of their sin Or if you are unable for long or accurate discourse at least tell them who hath said Thou shalt Tom. 2. c. not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain And where your speech is unmeet as to some Superiours or is like to do more harm than good let your departing the room or your looks or rather your tears shew your dislike Directions for the glorifying God in our Lives § 32. Direct 1. Our Lives then glorifie God when they are such as his Excellencies most appear in Direct 1. And that is when they are most Divine or Holy when they are so managed that the world may see that Turâ—issimum est Philosopho secus docere quam viviâ— Paul Scaligâ—r p. 728. it is God that we have chiefly respect unto and that HOLINESS TO THE LORD is written upon all our faculties and affairs So much of GOD as appeareth in our lives so much they are truly venerable and advanced above the rank of fleshly worldly lives God only is the real glory of every person and every thing and every word or action of our lives And the natural conscience of the world which in despight of their Atheism is forced to confess and reverence a Deity will be forced even when they are hated and persecuted to reverence the appearance of God in his holy ones Let it appear therefore 1. That Gods Authority commandeth you above all the powers of the earth and against all the power of fleshly lusts 2. That it is the Glory and Nam illa quae de regno calorum commâ—mâ—rantur à nâ—bâ—â— dâ—que praesentâ—um reâ—um contâ—mpâ—u vel non caâ—â—unt vel non â—aâ—â—le sibi peâ—suadeâ—t cum sâ—rmo factis evertitur Interest of God that you live for and look after principally in the world and not your own carnal interest and glory And that it is his work that you are doing and not your own and his cause and not your own that you are engaged in 3. That it is his Word and Law that is your Rule 4. And the example of his Son that is your pattern 5. And that your hearts and lives are moved and acted in the world by motives fetcht from the Rewards which he hath promised and the punishments which he hath threatned in the world to come 6. And that it is a supernatural powerful principle sent from God into your hearts even the Holy Ghost by which you are inclined and actuated in the tenor of your lives 7. And that your daily converse is with God and that men and other creatures are comparatively nothing to you but are made to stand by while God is preferred and honoured and served by you and that all your business is with him or for him in the world Acâ—staâ—l 4. c. 18. p. 418. § 33. Direct 2. The more of Heaven appeareth in your Lives the more your Lives do glorifie God Worldly and carnal men are conscious that their glory is a vanishing glory and their pleasure but a transitory dream and that all their honour and wealth will shortly leave them in the dust And Direct 2. therefore they are forced in despight of their sensuality to bear some reverence to the life to come And though they have not hearts themselves to deny the pleasures and profits of the world and to spend their dayes in preparing for eternity and in laying up a treasure in Heaven yet they are convinced that those that do so are the best and wisest men and they could wish that they might dye the death of the righteous and that their last end might be like his As Heaven exceedeth Earth even in the reverent acknowledgement of the World though not in their practical esteem and choice so Heavenly Christians have a reverent acknowledgement from them when malice doth not hide their Heavenliness by slanders though they will not be such themselves Let it appear in your lives that really you seek a higher happiness than this world affordeth and that you verily look to live with Christ and that as Honour and Wealth and Pleasure command the lives of the ungodly so the hope of Heaven commandeth yours Let it appear that this is your design and business in the world and that your Hearts and conversation are above and that whatever you do or suffer is for this and not for any lower end and this is a life that God is glorified by § 34. Direct 3. It glorifieth God by shewing the excellency of faith when we contemn the riches Direct 3. and honours of the world and live above the worldlings life accounting that a despicable thing which he accounts his happiness and loseth his soul for As men despise the toyes of children so a believer must take the transitory vanities of this world for matters so inconsiderable as not to be worthy his regard save only as they are the matter of his duty to God or as they relate to him or the life to come Saith Paul 2 Cor. 4. 18. We look not at the things which are seen they are not worth our observing or looking at but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal The world is under a believers feet while his eye is fixed on the coelestial world He travelleth through it to his home and he will be thankful if his way be fair and if he have his daily bread but it is not his home nor doth he make any great matter whether his usage in it be kind or unkind or whether his Inn be well adorned or not He is almost indifferent whether for so short a time he be rich or poor in a high or in a low condition further than as it tendeth to his Masters service Let men see that you
godly Son of a wicked Father is more honourable than they Your ancestors are but of the common stock of sinful Adam and your great friends may possibly become your enemies and it is little that the greatest of them can do for you if God be not your friend 7. Is it your learning or wisdom or ability for speech or action that you are proud of Remember that the Devils and many that are now in Hell have far exceeded you in these And that the wiser you are indeed the humbler you will be and by pride you confute your ostentation of your wisdom Achitophels wisdom which saveth not the owner from perdition is little cause of glorying Ier. 8. 8 9. There were men that boasted of their wisdom even in the Law of God who yet were ashamed and dismayed for they rejected the Word of the Lord and then what wisdom could there be in them Therefore thus saith the Lord Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom nor let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches but let him that gloryeth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness judgement and righteousness in the earth for in these do I delight saith the Lord Jer. 9. 23 24. Those were not unlearned of whom Paul speaketh 1 Cor. 1. 20. Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this world Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world 8. Is it success in Wars or great undertakings that you are proud of But by whose strength did you perform it And how unhappy a success is that which hindreth your success in the work of your salvation And how many have been brought down again to shame that have been lifted up in pride of their successes 9. Is it the applause of men that proclaim your excellency that you are proud of Alas how poor a portion is the breath of man And how mutable are your applauders that perhaps the next day will turn their tunes and as much reproach you Will you be proud of Praise when it is the Devils whistle purposely to entice you into this pernicious snare that he may destroy you It is a danger to be feared for it destroyeth many but not a benefit much to be rejoyced in much less to be proud of for few are the better for it Titles and applause increase not real worth and vertue but puff up many with a mortal tympanie 10. Is it your grace and goodness or eminency in Religion that you are proud of This is most absurd when predominant Pride is a certain sign that you have no saving grace at all and so are proud of what you have not And if you have it so far as you are proud of it you abuse it contradict it and destroy it For Pride is to Grace what the Plague or Consumption is to Health It is Novices that have least grace and knowledge that are aptest to be puft up with Pride and thereby to fall into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6. that is into the like punishment for the like sin When the Pot boyleth over that which was in it is lost in the fire Rise not too high in the esteem of your grace lest you rise to the loss of it Be not high-minded but fear Rom. 11. 20. When you think you stand take heed lest you fall 1 Cor. 10. 12. § 98. Direct 17. Look to the nature and tendency of every Grace and Ordinance and Duty and use them diligently for they all tend to the destruction of Pride Knowledge discerneth the folly and pernicious tendency of Pride and abundant matter for Humiliation Faith is the casting off our pride and going with empty hungry souls to Christ for mercy and supply It sheweth us the most powerful sight in the world for the humbling of a soul even a Crucified Christ and a most Holy God and a glorified society of humble souls and a dreadful judgement and damnation for the proud I might shew you the same of every grace and duty but for being tedious § 99. Direct 18. Look to the humbling Iudgements of God on your selves and others and turn them Direct 18. all against your Pride You will sure think it an unsuitable and unseasonable thing for the calamitous to be proud Are you not oft complaining of one thing or other upon your consciences your bodies your estates your names your relations or friends and yet will you be proud while you complain If the Judgements that have already befallen you humble you not it God love you and will save you you may expect you should feel more and the load should be increased till it make you sâ—oop O miserable obstinate sinners that can groan with sickness and yet be proud and murmur under want and yet be proud and daily crossed by one or other and yet be proud yea and tormented with fears of Gods displeasure and yet be proud Have not all the Wars and blood and ruines that have befallâ—n us in these Kingdoms been yet enough to take down pride Many 〈…〉 bling sights we have seen and many humbling stripes we have felt and yet are we not humbled We have seen houses râ—bbâ—d and Towns fired and the Countrey pillaged and the blood of many thousands shed and their carkasses scattered about the fields and yet are we not humbled If we were proud of our Riches they have been taken from us If proud of our buildings they have been tuâ—â—ed into ruinous heaps If we have been proud of our Government and the Fame and Glory of our Countrâ—y we have seen how our sins have pulled down our Government dishonoured our Rulers and blâ—mished our Glory and turned it into shame and yet are we not humbled If you lived in a house infected with the Plague and had buried Father and Mother and Brothers and Sisters and but a very few were left alive expecting when their turn came next if these few were not humbled would you not think them blind and sottish persons Do you yet look high and conâ—end for preheminâ—nce and look for honour and envy others and desire to domineer and have your will and way and set out your selves in the neatest dress Must you have sharper stripes before you will be humbled Must greater injuries and violences and losses and fears and reproaches be the means Why will you choose so painful a remedy by frustrating the easier If it must be so the 〈…〉 ment shall shortly come yet nearer to thee It shall either strip thee of the rest or cover theâ— with shame or lay thee in pain upon thy Couch where thy head shall ake and thy heart be sick and thy bâ—dâ— weaâ—y and thou shalt pant and gasp for breath Wilt thou then be proud and câ—â—â—â—â—l for honour When thou expectest hourly when thy proud and guilty soul shall be turned out of tâ—y body
callings to take them up Some of them make it their chief excuse that they do it to pass away the time Blind wretches that are so near eternity and can find no better uses for their Time To these I spoke before Chap. 5. Part. 1. § 20. 5. Another cause is the wicked neglect of their dutys to their own families making no conscience of loving their own relations and teaching them the fear of God nor following their business and so they take no pleasure to be at home The company of wife and children and servants is no delight to them but they must go to an ALE-house or Tavern for more suitable company Thus one sin bringeth on another § 21. 6. Another cause is the ill management of matters at home with their own Consciences when they have brought themselves into so terrible and sad a case that they dare not be much alone nor soberly think of their own condition nor seriously look towards another world but fly from themselves and seek a place to hide them from their consciences forgetting that sin will find them out They run to an ALE-house as Saul to his musick to drink away melancholy and drown the noise of a guilty self-accusing mind and to drive away all thoughts of God and Heaven and sin and Hell and death and judgement till it be too late As if they were resolved to be damned and therefore resolved not to think of their misery nor the remedy But though they dare venture upon Hell it self the sots dare not venture upon the serious thoughts of it Eeither there is a Hell or there is none If there be none why shouldst thou be afraid to think of it If there be a Hell as thou wilt find it if thou hold on but a little longer will not the feeling be more intollerable than the thoughts of it And is not the forethinking on it a necessary and cheap prevention of the feeling O how much wiser a course were it to retire your selves in secret and there to look before you to eternity and hear what conscience hath first to say to you concerning your life past your sin and misery and then what God hath to say to you of the remedy You 'll one day find that this was a more necessary work than any that you had at the ALE-house and that you had greater business with God and Conscience than with your idle companions § 22. 7. Another cause is the custom of pledging those that drink to you and of drinking healths by which the Laws of the Devil and the ALE-house do impose upon them the measures of excess and make it their duty to disregard their duty to God So lamentable a thing it is to be the tractable slaves of men and intractable rebels against God! Plutarck mentions One that being invited to a feast made a stop when he heard that they compelled men to drink after meat and askt whether they compelled them to eat too Apprehending that he went in danger of his belly And it seems to be but custom that maketh it appear less ridiculous or odious to constrain men to drinking than to eating § 23. 8. Another great cause of excess is the Devils way of drawing them on by degrees He doth not tempt them directly to be drunk but to drink one cup more and then another and another so that the worst that he seemeth to desire of them is but to drink a little more And thus as Solomon saith of the fornicator they yield to the flatterer and go on as the Ox to the slaughter and as the Fool to the correction of the stocks till a dart strike through his liver as a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life Prov. 7. 21 22 23. § 24. III. The Greatness of this sin appeareth in what is said before of Gluttony More specially 1. Think how base a master thou dost serve being thus a slave to thy throat What a beastly thing it is and worse than beastly for few beasts but a swine will be forced to drink more than doth them good How low and poor is that mans reason that is not able to command his throat § 25. Think how thou consumest the creatures of God that are given for service and not for gulosity and luxury The earth shall be a witness against thee that it bore that fruit for better uses which tion misspendestâ—on thy sin Thy Servants and Cattle that labour for it shall be witnesses against thee Thou 〈◊〉 the creatures of God as a sacrifice to the Devil for Drunkenness and Tipling is his serâ—â—â—â— It were less folly to do as Diogenes did who when they gave him a large cup of wine threw it under the table that it might do him no harm Thou makest thy self like Caterpillers and Foxes and wolves and other destroying creatures that live to do mischief and consume that which should 〈◊〉 man and therefore are pursued as unfit to live Thou art to the common-wealth as Mice in the Gâ—â—nary or Weeds in the Corn. It is a great part of the work of faithful Magistrates to weed out such as thou § 26. 3. Thou robbest the poor consuming that on thy throat which should maintain them If thou have any thing to spare it will comfort thee more at last to have given it to the needy than that a greedy thoat devoured it The covetous is much better in this than the Drunkard and Luxurious Prov. 1â— 2â— Prov 14 21. 2â— 1â— 3â— 14 â—2 9. â—8 â—7 For he is a gatherer and the other is a scatterer The Common-wealth maintaineth a double or trâ—ble charge in such as thou art As the same pasture will keep many Sheep which will keep but one Horse so the same country may keep many temperate persons which will keep but a few Gluttons and Drunkards The worldling makes provision cheaper by getting and sparing but the Drunkard and Glutton make it dearer by wasting The covetous man that scrapeth together for himself doth oft-times gather for one that will pity the poor when he is dead Prov. 28. 8. But the Drunkard and Riotous devour it while they are alive One is like a Hog that is good for something at lâ—â—â—â— though his feeding yield no profit while he liveth The other is like devouring vermine that leave nothing to pay for what they did consume The one is like the Pike among the fishes who payeth when he is dead for that which he devoured alive But the other is like the sink or chanel that repayeth you with nothing but stink and dirt for all that you cast into it § 27. 4. Thou drawest poverty and ruine upon thy self Besides the value which thou wastest God usually joyneth with the prodigal by his judgements and scattereth as fast as he Prov. 21. 17. He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man he that loveth wine and oyl shall not be rich There is that 〈…〉 a
covering him § 4. 3. And that God hath not put this Law into mans nature without very great cause albeit the Implicite belief and submission due to him should satisfie us though we knew not the causes particularly yet much of them is notorious to common observation As that if God had not restrained lust by Laws it would have made the female sex most contemptible and miserable and used worse by men than dogs are For first rapes and violence would deflowre them because they are too weak to make resistance And if that had been restrained yet the lust of men would have been unsatisfied and most would have grown weary of the same woman whom they had abused and taken another at least when she grew old they would choose a younger and so the aged women would be the most calamitous creatures upon earth Besides that lust is addicted to variety and groweth weary of the same the fallings out between men and women and the sicknesses that make their persons less pleasing and age and other accidents would expose them almost all to utter misery And men would be Law-makers and therefore would make no Laws for their relief but what consisted with their lusts and ends So that half the world would have been ruined had it not been for the Laws of matrimony and such other as restrain the lusts of men § 5. 4. Also there would be a confused mixture in procreation and no men would well know what children are their own which is worse than not to know their Lands or Houses § 6. 5. Hereby all natural affection would be diminished or extinguished As the love of Husband and Wife so the Love between Fathers and Children would be diminished § 7. 6. And consequently the due education of children would be hindered or utterly overthrown The mothers that should first take care of them would be disabled and turned away that fresh harlots might be received who would hate the offspring of the former So that by this means the world and all societies and civility would be ruined and men would be made worse than bruits whom nature hath either better taught or else made for them some other supply Learning Religion and civility would be all in a manner extinct as we see they are among those few savage Cannibals that are under no restraint For how much all these depend upon education experience telleth us In a word this confusion in procreation would introduce such confusion in mens hearts and families and all societies by corrupting and destroying necessary affection and education that it would be the greatest plague imaginable to mankind and make the world so base and beastly that to destroy mankind from off the earth would seem much more desirable Judge then whether God should have left mens Lusts unrestrained § 8. Object But you 'll say there might have been some moderate restraint to a certain number as Object it is with the Mahometans without so much strictness as Christ doth use Answ. That this strictness is necessary and is an excellency in Gods law appeareth thus 1. By Answ. the greatness of the mischief which else would follow To be remiss in preventing such a confusion in the world would be an enmity to the world 2. In that mans nature is so violently inclined to break over that if the hedge were not close there were no sufficient restraining them they would quickly run out at a little gap 3. The wiser and the better any nation or persons are even among the Heathens the more fully do they consent to the strictness of Gods Laws 4. The cleanest sort of bruits themselves are taught by nature to be as strict in their copulations Though it be otherwise with the meer terrestrial beasts and birds yet the aërial go by couples Those that are called the fowles of the Heavens that fly in the air are commonly taught this chastity by nature as if God would not have lust come near to Heaven 5. The families of the Mahometans that have more wives than one do shew the mischief of it in the effects in the hatred and disagreement of their wives and the great slavery that women are kept in making them like slaves that they may keep them quiet And when women are thus enslaved who have so great a part in the education of children by which all virtue and civility are maintained in the world it must needs tend to the debasing and brutifying of mankind § 9. 7. Children being the pretiousest of all our treasure it is necessary that the strictest Laws be made for the securing of their good education and their welfare If it shall be treason to debase or counterfeit the Kings coyn and if men must be hanged for robbing you of your goods or money and the Laws are not thought too strict that are made to secure your estates how much more is it necessary that the Laws be strict against the vitiating of mankind and against the debasement of your image on your children and against that which tendeth to the extirpation of all virtue and the ruine of all societies and souls § 10. 8. God will have a holy seed in the world that shall bear his image of holiness and therefore he will have all means fitted thereunto Bruitish promiscuous generation tendeth to the production of a bruitish seed And though the word preached is the means of sanctifying those that remain unsanctified from their youth yet a holy marriage and holy dedication of children to God and holy education of them are the former means which God would not have neglected or corrupted and to which he promiseth his blessing As you may see 1 Cor. 7. 14. Mal. 2. 15. Did not he make one Yet had he the residue of the spirit And wherefore one That he might seek a godly seed Therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth For the Lord bateth putting away § 11. 9. Yea lust corrupteth the mind of the person himself if it be not very much restrained and moderated It turneth it from the only excellent pleasure by the force of that bruitish kind of pleasure It carrieth away the thoughts and distempereth the passions and corrupteth the phantasie and Solomons wives turned away his heart aâ—ter other Gods 1 Kings 11. 4. The wisdom of Solomon preserved him not from the power of lust and the deceit of women 1 Pet. 2. 10. Fleshly â—â—â—â—ts that fight against the â—oâ—l thereby doth easily corrupt the intellect and heart Pleasure is so much of the End of man which his Nature leadeth him to desire that the chief thing in the world to make a man Good and Happy is to engage his heart to those Pleasures which are Good and make men Happy And the chief thing to make him Bad and Miserable is to engage him in the pleasures which make men Bad and end in Misery And the principal thing by which you may know
your selves or others what you are is to know what your pleasures are or at least what you choose and desire for your pleasure If the Body rule the Soul you are bruitish and shall be destroyed If the Soul rule the Body you live according to true humane nature and the ends of your creation If the Pleasures of the Body are the predominant pleasures which you are most addicted to then the Body ruleth the Soul and you shall perish as Traytors to God that debase his Image and turn man into Beast Rom. 8. 13. If the Pleasure of the Soul be your most predominant pleasure which you are most addicted to though you attain as yet but little of it then the Soul doth Rule the Body and you live like men And this cannot well be till Faith shew the Soul those higher Pleasures in God and everlasting Glory which may carry it above all fleshly pleasures By all this set together you may easily perceive that the way of the Devil to corrupt and damn men is to keep them from faith that they may have no Heavenly Spiritual pleasure and to strengthen sensuality and give them their fill of fleshly pleasures to imprison their minds that they may ascend no higher And that the way to sanctifie and save men is to help them by faith to Heavenly pleasure and to abate and keep under that fleshly pleasure that would draw down their minds And by this you may see how to understand the doctrine of mortification and taming the body and abstaining from the pleasures of the flesh And you may now understand what personal mischief Lust doth to the soul. § 12. 10. Your own experience and consciences will tell you that if it be not exceedingly moderated it unfitteth you for every holy duty You are unfit to meditate on God or to pray to him or to receive his word or sacrament And therefore nature teacheth those that meddle with holy things to be more continent than others which Scripture also secondeth 1 Sam. 21. 4 5. Such sensual Rev. 14. 4. things and sacred things do not well agree too near § 13. 11. And as by all this you see sufficient cause why God should make stricter Laws for the bridling of Lust than fleshly lustful persons like so when his Laws are broken by the unclean it is a sin that Conscience till it be quite debauched doth deeply accuse the guilty for and beareth a very clear testimony against O the unquietness the horror the despair that I have known many persons Saith Chrysostom The Adulterer even before damnation is most miserable still in fear trembling at a shadow fearing them that know and them that know not always in pain even in the dark in even for the sin of self-pollution that never proceeded to fornication And how many adulterers and fornicators have we known that have lived and died in despair and some of them hang'd themselves Conscience will condemn this sin with a heavy condemnation till custom or infidelity have utterly seared it § 14. 12. And it is also very observable that when men have once mastered conscience in this point and reconciled it to this sin of fornication it 's an hundred to one that they are utterly hardned 1 Tim. 6 9. Hâ—râ—sâ—d lusts whâ— hâ—d own men in destruction and perâ—â—tion in all abhomination and scarce make conscience of any other villany whatsoever If once fornication go for nothing or a small matter with them usually all other sin is with them of the same account If they have but an equal temptation to it lying and swearing and perjury and theft yea and murder and treason would seem small too I never knew any one of these but he was reconcileable and prepared for any villany that the Devil set him upon And if I know such a man I would no more trust him than I would trust a man that wants nothing but Interest and Opportunity to commit any heynous sin that you can name Though I confess I have known divers of the former sort that have committed this sin under horror and despair that have retained some good in other points and have When an Adulterer asked Thales whether he should make al Vow against his sin he answered him Adultery is as bad as pâ—rjury If thou dare be an adulterer thou darest forswear thy self Laert. Herod durst behead Iohâ— that durst be incestuous been recovered yea of this later sort that have reconciled their Consciences to fornication I never knew one that was recovered or that retained any thing of Conscience or honesty but so much of the shew of it as their Pride and worldly interest commanded them and they were malignant enemies of goodness in others and lived according to the unclean spirit which possessed them They are terrible words Prov. 2. 18 19. For her house inclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead None that go unto her return again neither take they hold on the paths of life Age keepeth them from actual filthiness and lust and so may Hell for there is no fornication but they retain their debauched seared Consciences § 15. 13. And it is the greater sin because it is not committed alone but the Devil taketh them by couples Lust enflameth lust And the fewel set together makes the greatest flame Thou art guilty of the sin of thy wretched companion as well as of thine own § 16. 14. Lastly the miserable effects of it and the punishments that in this life have attended it do Jud. 19. 20 The tribe of Benjamin was almost cut off upon the occasion of an Adultery or rape See Num. 25 8. Gen. 12. 17. 2 Sam 12. 10. Luk 3. 19. 1 Cor. 5. 1. Joh. 8. 2. Aid Aeliaâ— sol 47. tell us how God accounteth of the sin It hath ruined persons families and Kingdoms And God hath born his testimony against it by many signal judgements which all Histories almost acquaint you with As there is scarce any sin that the New-testament more frequently and bitterly condemneth as you may see in Pauls Epistles 2 Pet. 2. Iud c. so there are not many that Gods providence more frequently pursueth with shame and misery on earth And in the latter end of the world God hath added one concomitant plague not known before called commonly the Lues Venerea the Venereous Pox so that many of the most bruitish sort go about stigmatized with a mark of Gods vengeance the prognostick or warning of a heavier vengeance And there is none of them all that by great Repentance be not made new creatures but leave an infamous name and memory when they are dead if their sin was publickly known Let them be never so great and never so gallant victorious successful liberal and flattered or applauded while they lived God ordereth it so that Truth shall ordinarily prevail with the Historians that write of them when they are dead and with all sober men their names rot and stink as
Laws for the preservation of so excellent a thing as Truth he should not secure the happiness of the world As to the securing of mens lives it is not enough to make a Law that you shall not kill men without just cause though that be all that the Law intendeth to attain for then every man being left to judge would think there were just cause whenever his passion or interest told him so But the Law is You shall not kill at all without the judgement of the Magistrate So if the Law against Lying did intend no more than the securing men from the injuries of errour and deceit yet would it not have been a sufficient means to have said only You shall not injure men by Lying for then men would have judged of the injury by their own interests and passions But much more is it needful to have a stricter Law when Truth it self is the thing that God intendeth to secure as well as the interest of men In the eyes of Christians and Heathens and all mankind that have not unmand themselves there appeareth a singular beauty and excellency in Truth Aristotle could say that the Nature of man is made for Truth Cicero could say that Qâ—â—d verum simplex sincerumque est id naturae bominis accommodatissimum est Verity and Virtue were ever taken as the inseparable perfections of man Pythagoras could say that to Love Truth and do Good were the two things that made man likest to God and therefore were his two most excellent gifts Plato could say that Truth was the best rhetorick and the sweetest oration Epictetus could say that Truth is a thing immortal eternal of all things most precious better than friendship as being less obnoxious to blind affections Iamblichus could say that as Light naturally and constantly accompanyeth the Sun so Truth accompanyeth God and all that follow him Epaminondas is praised for that he would not Lye no not in jeast Pomponius Atâ—icus was so great a hater of a lye that all his friends were desirous to Trust him with their â—â—â—â—y lye iâ— evil and to be avoided saâ—â—h Aristot. Eâ—hâ—c l 4 See Psal. 5. â— Prov. 6 17 19. 12. 22. 19. 5 9. 21 18 Rev. 21. 27. 22 15. Joh. 8. 44. Col. 3. 9. business and use him as their Counsellor He knoweth not what use mans understanding or his tongue were made for that knoweth not the excellency of Truth Let a Pilate only ask as a stranger what is Truth Joh. 18. 38. as Pharaoh asked who is the Lord For this end Christ himself came into the world to bear witness to the Truth and every one that is of the Truth will hear him Joh. 18. 37. He is the Truth Joh. 14. 6. and full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. Grace and Truth came by him Joh. 1. 17. His spirit is given to guide his servants into the Truth Joh. 16. 13. and to sanctifie them by the truth Joh. 17. 19. that knowing the truth it might make them free Joh. 8. 32. The fruit of the spirit is in all truth Ephes. 5. 9. His Ministers can do nothing against the truth but for the truth 2 Cor. 13. 8. Truth is the girdle that must gird our loins Ephes 6. 14. The Church is the pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. The faithful are they that believe and know the Truth 1 Tim. 4. 3. Speaking the truth in Love is the way of the Churches growth and edification Ephes. 4. 15. Repentance is given men to the acknowledging of the Truth that they may escape out of the power of the Devil 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. The dullards are they that are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth 2 Tim. 3. 7. They are men of perverse minds that resist the Truth 2 Tim. 3. 8. They that receive not the Truth in the Love of it cannot be saved 2 Thes. 2. 10. All they are damned that believe not the Truth 2 Thes. 2. 12 13. You see what Truth is in the judgement of God and all the sober world Therefore a Lye that is contrary to Truth as darkness to Light must be equally odious as truth is amiable No wonder therefore if it be absolutely forbidden of God § 21. 3. You may the easilyer perceive this by considering that other faults of the tongue as idle talk swâ—aring and such like are forbidden not only because they are a hurt to others but for the intrinsical evil in the thing it self Great reason therefore that it should be so in this § 22. 4. Lying is a vice which maketh us most unlike to God For he is called the God of truth Psal. 31. 5. Deut. 32. 4. All his ways are mercy and truth Psal. 25. 10. His judgement is according to truth Rom. 2. 2. It is impossible for God to lye Heb. 6. 18. Tit. 1. 2. His word is the word Numb 23. 19. 1 Sam. 15. 29. 1 Joh. 5. 10. of truth Psal. 119. 43. Col. 1. 5. 2 Tim. 2. 15. Jam. 1. 15. 2 Cor. 6. 7. And who shall dwell in his Tabernacle but thâ—se that speak the truth in their hearts Psal. 15. 2. The disconformity of the soul to God then being its greatest dâ—formity in things wherein it is made to be conform to him it may hence appear that Lying is an odious sin And this may the easilyer appear if you consider what a case the world were in if God could lye and were not of undoubted truth we should then be sure of nothing and therefore could have no sure information by his word no sure direction and guidance by his precepts and no sure consâ—lation in any of his promises Therefore that which maketh us so unlike to the true and holy God must needs be odious § 23. 5. Lying is the Image or work of the Devil and Lyars are his Children in a special sort For Christ telleth us that he abode not in the truth for there is no truth in him when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it Joh. 8. 44. The Proud the Malicious and 1 King 22. 22 23. I will be a lying spirit in the moâ—â—hâ— of all his Prophets 2 Chron 18. 21 22. the Lyars are in a special sort the Children of the Devil for these three are in Scripture in a special manner made the Devils sins Therefore sure there is an intrinsical evil and odiousness in a lye It was Satan that filled the hearts of Ananias and Saphira to Lye to the Holy Ghost Act. 5. 3. To change the Truth of God into a lye and to make God a lyar are therefore the most odious sins Rom. 1. 25. 1 Joh. 5. 10. because it is a feigning him to be like the Devil And should we make our selves like him then by the same vice If you love not the Devils sin and image love not a lye § 24. 6. Lying destroyeth humane converse and bringeth
14. between light and darkness a believer and an Infidel Answ. It maketh it unlawful for a Believer to marry an Infidel except in case of true necessity Because they can have no Communion in Religion But it nullifieth not a marriage already made nor maketh it lawful to depart or divorce Because they may have meer conjugal Communion still As the Apostle purposely determineth the case in 1 Cor. 7. Quest. 15. Doth not the Desertion of one party disoblige the other Quest. 15. Answ. 1. It must be considered what is true Desertion 2. Whether it be a Desertion of thâ— Relation it self for continuance or only a temporary desertion of co-habitation or congress 3. What the temper and state of the deserted party is 1. It is sometimes easie and sometimes hard to discern which is the deserting party If the Wife go away from the Husband unwarrantably though she require him to follow her and say that she doth not desert him yet it may be taken for a desertion because it is the man who is to rule and choose the habitation But if the man go away and the woman refuse to follow him it is not he that is therefore the deserter Quest. But what if the man have not sufficient cause to go away and the woman hath great and urgent reasons not to go As suppose that the man will go away in hatred of an able Preacher and good company and the woman if she follow him must leave all those helps and go among ignorant prophane heretical persons or Infidels which is the deserter then Answ. If she be one that is either like to do good to the Infidels Hereticks or bad persons whom they must converse with she may suppose that God calleth her to receive good by doing good or if she be a confirmed well-setled Christian and not very like either by infection or by want of helps to be unsetled and miscarry it seemeth to me the safest way to follow her Husband She must lose indeed Gods publick Ordinances by following him But it is not imputable to her as being out of her choice and she must lose the benefits and neglect the duties of the Conjugal Ordinance if she do not follow him But if she be a person under such weaknesses as make her remove apparently dangerous as to her perseverance and salvation and her Husband will by no means be prevailed with to change his mind the case then is very difficult what is her duty and who is the deserter Nay if he did but lead her into a Countrey where her life were like to be taken away as under the Spanish Inquisition unless her suffering were like to be as serviceable to Christ as her life Indeed these cases are so difficult that I will not decide them The inconveniencies or mischiefs rather are great which way soever she take But I most incline to judge as followeth viz. It is considerable first what Marriage obligeth her to simply of its own nature and what it may do next by any superadded Contract or by the Law or Custome of the Land or any other accident As to the first it seemeth to me that every ones obligation is so much first to God and then to their own souls and lives that marriage as such which is for Mutual help as a Means to higher Ends doth not oblige her to forsake all the Communion of Saints and the place or Countrey where God is lawfully worshipped and to lose all the helps of publick Worship and to expose her soul both to spiritual famine and infection to the apparent hazard of her salvation and perhaps bring her children into the same misery nor hath God given her Husband any power to do her so much wrong nor is the Marriage-Covenant to be interpreted to intend it But what any humane Law or Contract or other accident which is of greater publick consequence may do more than Marriage of it self is a distinct Case which must have a particular discussion Quest. But what if the Husband would only have her follow him to the forsaking of her estate and undoing her self and children in the world as in the case of Galeacius Caracciolus Marquess of Vicum yea and if it were without just cause Answ. If it be for greater spiritual gain as in his case she is bound to follow him But if it be apparently foolish to the undoing of her and her children without any cause I see not that Marriage simply obligeth a Woman so to follow a fool in beggary or out of a Calling or to her ruine But if it be at all a controvertible Case whether the Cause be just or not then the Husband being Governour must be Judge The Laws of the Land are supposed to be just which allow a Woman by Trustees to secure some part of her former Estate from her Husbands disposal Much more may she before hand secure her self and children from being ruined by his wilful folly But she can by no Contract except her self from his true Government Yet still she must consider whether she can live continently in his absence otherwise the greatest sufferings must be endured to avoid incontinency 2. Moreover in all these cases a temporary removal may be further followed than a perpetual transmigration because it hath fewer evil consequents And if either party renounce the Relation it self it is a fuller desertion and clearer discharge of the other party than a meer removal is Quest. 16. What if a Man or Wife know that the other in hatred doth really intend by poyson or Quest. 16. other murder to take away their life May they not depart Answ. They may not do it upon a groundless or rash surmise nor upon a danger which by other lawful means may be avoided As by Vigilancy or the Magistrate or especially by love and duty But in plain danger which is not otherwise like to be avoided I doubt not but it may be done and ought For it is a duty to preserve our own lives as well as our neighbours And when Marriage is contracted for mutual help it is naturally implyed that they shall have no power to deprive one another of life However some barbarous Nations have given men power of the lives of their Wives And killing is the grossest kind of Desertion and a greater injury and violation of the Marriage-Covenant than Adultery and may be prevented by avoiding the murderers presence if that way be necessary None of the Ends of Marriage can be attained where the hatred is so great Quest. 17. If there be but a fixed hatred of each other is it inconsistent with the Ends of Marriage Quest. 17. And is parting lawful in such a case Answ. The injuring party is bound to Love and not to separate and can have no liberty by his or her sin And to say I cannot love or my Wife or Husband is not amiable is no sufficient excuse Because every person hath somewhat that is amiable if it
that he is better acquainted with your spiritual state and life than others are and therefore in less danger of wronging you by mistake and misapplications For it s supposed that you have acquainted him with your personal condition in your health having taken him as your ordinary Counsellor for your souls and that he hath acquainted himself with your condition and confirmed you and watcht over you by name as Ignatius to Polycarpe Bishop of Smyrna saith Saepe Congregationes fiant ex nomine omnes quaere servos ancillas ne despicias as Bishop Ushers old Latine Transl. hath Vid. Iastiâ— Marâ— Apol. 2. Vid. Tertul. Apol. c. 39. it Let Congregations be often held Enquire after all by name Despise not Servants and Maids The Bishop took notice of every Servant and Maid by name and he had opportunity to see whether they were in the Congregation 9. You must use him as your Leader or Champion against all Hereticks Infidels and subtle adversaries of the truth with whom you are unable to contend your selves that your Bishop may clear up and defend the cause of Christ and righteousness and by irresistible evidence stop the mouths of all I hope all this will tell you what a Bishop indeed is gain-sayers It is for your own benefit and not for theirs that you are required in all these works of their office to use them and readily obey them And what hurt can it do you to obey them in any of these § 9. Direct 3. Understand how it is that Christ doth authorize and send forth his Ministers lest Direct 3. Wolves and deceivers should either obtrude themselves upon you as your lawful Pastors or should alienate you from thâ—se that God hath set over you by puzling you in subtle questioring or disputing against their call Not only Pauls warnings Act. 20. 30. and 2 Tim. 3. 6. but lamentable experience telleth us what an eager desire there is in Proud and Self-conceited men to obtrude themselves as Teachers and Pastors on the Churches to creep into houses and lead people captive and draw away Disciples after them and say and perhaps think that others are deceivers and none are the true Teachers indeed but they And the first part of the art and work of wolves is to separate you from your Pastors and catch up the straglers that are thus separated The malice and slanders and lies and railing of hirelings and deceivers and all the powers of Hell are principally poured out on the faithful Pastors and leaders of the flocks The principal work of the Jesuits against you is to make you believe that Gâ—ot de Imp. p. 273. Pastorum est ordinare Pastores Neque id officâ—um eis competit quâ hujus aut illius ecclesiae Pastores sunt sed quâ uâ— nistriâ— ecclesiae Catholicae your Pastors are no true Pastors but uncalled private persons and meer usurpers and the reason must be because they have not an Ordination of Bishops successively from the Apostles without interruption I confess if our interruptions had been half as lamentable as theirs by their Schisms and variety of Popes at once and Popes accused or condemned by General Councils for Hereticks and their variety of wayes of electing Popes and their incapacities by Simony Usurpation c. I should think at least that our Ancestors had cause to have questioned the calling of some that were then over them But I will help you in a few words to discern the jugling of these deceivers by shewing you the truth concerning the way of Christs giving his commission to the Ministers that are truly called and the needlesness of the proof of an uninterrupted succession of regular ordination to your reception of your Pastors and their Ministrations § 10. The ministerial commission is contained in and conveyed by the Law of Christ which is the See in Grotius de Imper. sum potest p. 269. The necessary distinction of 1. Ipsa facultas praedicandi sacramenta claves administrandi quod Mandatum vocat 2. Applicatio hujus facultatis ad certam personam viz. Ordinatio 3. Applicatio hujus personae ad certum coeâ—um locum viz. Electio 4. Iliud quo certa persona in certo loco ministerium suum exercet publico praesidio ac publicâ authoritate viz. Coâ—fiâ—matio p. 273. Constat munetis institutionem à Deo esse Ordinationem à Pastoribus Confirmationem publicam à summa potestate So that the doubt is only about election Which yet must be differenced from consenâ— Charter of the Church and every true Bishop or Pastor hath his Power from Christ and not at all from the efficient conveyance of any mortal man Even as Kings have their power not from man but from God himself but with this difference that in the Church Christ hath immediatly determined of the species of Church offices but in the Civil Government only of the Genus absolutely and immediatly You cannot have a plainer illustration than by considering how Mayors and Bailiffs and Constables are annually made in Corporations The King by his Charter saith that every year at a certain time the freemen or Burgesses shall meet and choose one to be their Mayor and the Steward or Town Clerk shall give him his oath and thus or he shall be invested in his place and this shall be his power and work and no other So the King by his Law appointeth that Constables and Church-wardens shall be chosen in every Parish Now let our two questions be here decided 1. Who it is that giveth these Officers their Power 2. Whether an uninterrupted succession of such officers through all generations since the enacting of that Law be necessary to the validity of the present officers authority To the first It is certain that it is the King by his Law or Charter that giveth the officers their power and that the Corporations and Parishes do not give it them by electing or investing them yea though the King hath made such election and Investiture to be in a sort his instrument in the conveying it it is but as the opening of the door to let them in sine quo non but it doth not make the Instruments to be at all the Givers of the Power nor were they the receiving or containing mediate causes of it The King never gave them the Power which the officers receive either to Use or to Give but only makes the Electors his Instruments to determine of the person that shall receive the Power immediately from the Law or Charter and the Investers he ma keth his Instruments of solemnizing the Tradition and admission which if the Law or Charter make absolutely Necessary ad esse officii it will be so but if it make it necessary only ad melius esse or but for order and regular admittance when no necessity hindereth it the necessity will be no more And to the second question It is plain that the Law which is the Fundamentum
place 2. And great haste allowed me not Time to transpose them If you say that in such a work I should take time I answer You are no competent judges unless you knew me and the rest of my work and the likelyhood that my time will be but short They that had rather take my Writings with such defects which are the effects of haste than have none of them may use them and the rest are free to despise them and neglect them Two or three Questions about the Scripture I would have put nearer the beginning if I could have time But seeing I cannot it 's easie for you to transpose them in the reading III. The resolution of these Cases so much avoideth all the extreams that I look they should be displeasing to all that vast number of Christians who involve themselves in the opinions and interests of their several sects as such and that hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons But there will be still a certain number of truly Catholick impartial Readers whose favourable acceptance I confidently prognosticate and who being out of the dust and noise and passions of contending sides and parties and their interests will see a self-evidencing Light in those solutions which are put off here briefly without the pomp of formal argumentation or perswading Oratory The eternal Light reveal himself to us by Christ who is the Light of the World and by the Illumination of the spirit and word of Light that we may walk in the Light as the Children of Light till we come to the World of Glorious Everlasting Light And what other defect soever our knowledge have if any man hath knowledge enough to kindle in him the Love of God the same is known of Him and therefore is Beloved by Him and shall be Blessed with and in Him for ever 1 Cor. 8. 1 2 3. CASES OF CONSCIENCE ABOUT Matters Ecclesiastical Quest. 1. How to know which is the true Church among all pretenders that a Christians Conscience may be quiet in his Relation and Communion I HAVE written so much of this already in four Books viz. one called The Safe Religion another called A Key for Catholicks another called The Visibility of the Church another called A true Catholick and the Catholick Church described that I shall say now but a little and yet enough to an impartial considerate Reader The terms must first be opened 1. By a Church is meant a Society of Christians as such And it is sometimes taken Narrowly for the Body or Members as distinct from the Head as the word Kingdom is taken for the Subjects only as distinct from the King And sometimes more fully and properly for the whole Political Society as constituted of its Head and Body or the Pars Imperans pars Subdita 2. The word Church thus taken signifieth sometime the Universal Church called Catholick which consisteth of Christ and his Body Politick or Mystical And sometime some Part only of the Universal Church And so it is taken either for a subordinate Political Part or for a Community or a Part considered as Consociate but not Political or as many particular Political Churches Agreeing and holding Concord and Communion without any Comon Head save the Universal Head 3. Such Political Churches are either of Divine Constitution and Policy or only of Humane 2. By Christians I mean such as Profess the Essentials of the Christian Religion For we speak of the Church as Visible 3. By True may be meant either Reality of Essence opposite to that which is not really a 1 Cor. 11. 3. 1 Cor. 12 12. Eph. 1. 22 23. 1 Cor. 6 15. 1 Cor. 12. 27. Eph. 4. 4 5. Matth. 28. 19 20. Church in this univocal acception or else Sound and Orthodox in the Integrals as opposite to erroneous and defiled with much enormity And now I thus decide that question Prop. 1. The True Catholick Church consisteth of Christ the Heâ—d and all Christians as his Body or the Members As the Kingdom consisteth of the King and his Subjects Prop. 2. As all the sincere Heart-Covenanters make up the Church as regenerate and mystical or invisible so that all that are Christened that is Baptized and profess Consent to all the Essentials of the Baptismal Covenant not having Apostatized nor being by lawful Power Excommunicated are Christians and make up the Church as Visible Prop. 3. Therefore there is but One Universal Church because it containeth all Christians and so Ephes. 4 4 5. 1 Cor. 1â— 12. Mark 16 16. Rom 14. 1 6 7. 15. 1 3 4 leaveth out none to be the matter of another Prop. 4. It is not Ignorance or Error about the meer Integrals of Christianity which maketh them no Christians who hold the Essentials that is the Baptismal Covenant Prop. 5. That the Baptismal Covenant might be rightly understood and professed the Churches have still used the Creed as the explication of the Covenant in point of faith and taken it for 1 Cor. 15 1 2 c. the Symbol of the Christian Belief And no further profession of faith was or is to be required as Matth. 28. 19 20. necessary to the Being of Christianity Prop. 6. If proud Usurpers or Censurers take on them to excommunicate or unchristian or unchurch others without authority and cause this maketh them not to be no Christians or no Churches Rom. 14. 3 4. John that are so used Prop. 7. Therefore to know which is the true Catholick or Universal Church is but to know who Rom. 6 1 2 c. are Baptized-Professing-Christians Prop. 8. The Reformed Churches the Lutherans the Abassines the Copties the Syrians the Armenians Ephes. 4. 4. 5. the Jacobites the Georgians the Maronites the Greeks the Moscovites and the Romanists do all receive Baptism in all its visible Essentials and profess all the Essentials of the Christian Religion though not with the same Integrity Prop. 9. He that denyeth any one essential part in it self is so a Heretick as to be no Christian nor true member of the Church if it be justly proved or notorious that is none ought to take him Tit. 3. â—â— 3 John for a Visible Christian who know the proof of his denying that essential part of Christianity or to whom it is notorious Prop. 10. He that holdeth the Essentials primarily and with them holdeth some error which by James 3 â— Phi. 3. 15 16. Heb. 5. 1 2. unseen consequence subverteth some Essential point but holdeth the Essentials so much faster that he would forsake his error if he saw the inconsistence is a Christian notwithstanding And if the name Heretick be applicable to him it is but in such a sense as is consistent with Christianity Prop. 11. He that is judged a Heretick and no Christian justly by others must be lawfully T it 3. 10. Matth. 18. 15. cited and heard plead his Cause and be judged upon sufficient proof and not
non esse penes Regeâ— sed aut penes Ordines aut certe penes id corpus quod Rex juncti constituunt ut Bodinus Suarezius Victoria aliique abunde demonstratunt Certum summum Imperium totum aliquid imperare non posse ideo tantum quod alter veteâ— aut intercedat plane sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this or that or the other thing or not Nor whether it shall be exercised thus or thus by standing Courts or temporary Judges c. 3. Nor hath he named the person or family that shall rule § 6. Prop. 5. Though these in the constitution are determined of by explicite or implicite contract or consent between the Ruler and the Community yet by none of these three can the people be truly and properly said to Give the Ruler his Power of Government Not by the first or last for both those do but determine who shall be the Recipient of that power whether one or more and who individually Not the second for that is but a limiting or bounding or regulating the Governing power that it be not exercised to their hurt The bounding and regulating of their power is not the Giving them power The People having the strength cannot be ruled against their concordant wills And therefore if they contract with their Governours that they will be Ruled thus and thus or not at all this is not to Give them power Yet Propriety they have and there they may be Givers So that this Bounding or Regulating and Choosing the form and Persons and giving of their propriety is all that they have to do And the choosing of the Family or person is not at all a Giving the Power They are but sine quibus non to that They do but open the door to let in the Governour They do but name the family or man to whom God and not they shall Give the power As when God hath already determined what authority the Husband shall have over the Wife the Wife by choosing him to be her Husband giveth him not his power but only chooseth the man to whom God giveth it by his standing Law Though about the disposing of her estate she may limit him by pre-contracts But if she contract against his Goâ—ernment it is acontradiction and null Nor if he abuse his power doth it at all fall into her hands If the King by Charter give power to a Corporation to choose their Mayor or other Officer they do but nominate the persons that shall receive it but it is the Kings Charter and not they that give him the power If a Souldier voluntarily list himself under the Kings General or other Commanders he doth but choose the man that shall command him but it is the Kings Commission that giveth him the power to command those that voluntarily so list themselves And if the authority be abused or forfeited it is not into the Souldiers hands but into the Kings § 7. Prop. 6. The Constituting-Consent or Contract of Ancestors obligeth all their posterity if Prop. 6. they will have any of the protection or other benefit of Government to stand to the constitution Else Governments should be so unsetled and mutable as to be uncapable of their proper End § 8. Prop. 7. God hath neither in nature or Scripture estated this Power of Government in whole or Prop. 7. in part upon the people of a meer Community much less on Subjects whether Noble or Ignoble So foolish and bad â—s the 〈◊〉 tâ—o 〈…〉 man shâ—uâ—d not endanger himself for his Countrey because wisdom is not to be cast away for the commodity of fools Laert. in Aristip. But a wise man must be wise for others and not only for himself Learned or unlearned the part of the Community or the whole body Real or Representative The people as such have not this Power either to Use or to Give But the absolute Soveraign of all the world doth communicate the Soveraign power in every Kingdom or other sort of Common-wealth from himself Immediately I say Immediately not without the Mediation of an Instrument signifying his will for the Law of Nature and Scripture are his Instrument and the Charter of Authority nor yet so Immediately as without any kind of medium for the Consent and Nomination of the Community before expressed may be Conditio sine qua non so far as aforesaid But it is so Immediately from God as that there is no immediate Recipient to receive the power first from God and convey it to the Soveraign § 9. Prop. 8. The Natural power of individual persons over themselves is tota specie different from Prop. 8. this Political or Civil Power And it is not the Individuals resignation of this Natural power of selfdisposal It was one of the Roman Laws of the twelve Tables Vendendi filium patri potestas esâ—o But this Law rather giveth the Father that power than declareth it to be naturally in him Nature alloweth him no other selling of him than what is for his Child 's own good unto one or more which is the efficient Cause of Soveraignty or Civil Power § 10. Prop. 9. If you take the word Law properly for the expression of a Rulers Will obliging Prop. 9. the Governed or making their duty and not improperly for meer Contracts between the Soveraign and the people then it is clear in the definition it self that neither Subjects nor the Community as such have any Legislative power Neither Nature nor Scripture hath given the people a Power of making Laws either by themselves or with the Soveraign Either the sole power or a part of it But the very Nature of Government requireth that the whole Legislative power that is the power of making Governing Laws belong to the summa Majestas or Soveraign alone Unless when the summa potestas is in many hands you compare the partakers among themselves and call one Party the Soveraign as having more of the Soveraignty than the rest For those that are no Governours at all cannot perform the chief act of Government which is the making of Governing-Laws But the people are no Governours at all either as a Community or as Subjects So that you may easily perceive that all the Arguments for a natural Democracy are built upon false suppositions and where ever the People have any part in the Soveraignty it is by the after-Constitution and not by Nature And that Kings receive not their Power from the peoples gift who never had it themselves to use or give but from God alone § 11. Prop. 10. Though God have not made an Universal determination for any one sort of Government against the rest whether Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy because that is best for one people which may be worse for others yet ordinarily Monarchy is accounted better than Aristocracy and Aristocracy better than Democracy So much briefly of the Original of Power § 12. Object 1. But saith worthy Mr. Richard Hooker
will be governed on no other terms But if the contract limit them not but they be chosen simply to be the summae Potestates without naming any particular powers either by concession or restraint than as to Ruling they are Absolute as to men and limited only by God from whose highest Power they can never be exempt who in Nature and Scripture restraineth them from all that is impious and unjust against his Laws and honour or against the publick happiness and safety And here also remember that if any shall imagine that God restraineth a Magistrate when it is not so and that the commands of their Governours are contrary to the Word of God when it is no such matter their error will not justifie their disobedience Though I have answered these Passages of this Reverend Author it is not to draw any to undervalue his learned Writings but to set right the Reader in the Principles of his Obedience on which the Practice doth so much depend And I confess that other Authors of Politicks say as much as Mr. Hooker saith both Papists and Protestants but not all nor I think the soundest I will instance now in Alstedius only an excellent person but in this mistaken who saith Encyclop l. 23. Polit. c. 3. p. 178. Populus Universus dignior potior est tum magistratu tum Ephoris Hinc recte docent Doct. Politici populum obtinere regnum jura Majestatis proprietate dominio Principem Ephoros Usu administratione whereas the people have not the Regnum vel jura Majestatis any way at all Si administratores efficium suum facere nolint si impia iniqua mandent si contra dilectionem Dei proximi agant populus propriae salutis curam arripiet imperium male utentibus abrogabit in locum eorum alios substituet Porro Ephori validiora ipso Rege imperia obtinent Principem enim constitâ—â—nt deponunt id quod amplissimum est praeeminentiae argumentum Atque haec prerogativa mutuis pactis stabilitur Interinâ— princeps summam potestatem obtinere dicitur quatenus Ephori administrationem imperii cumulum potestatis ipsi committunt Denique optimatum universorum potestas non est infinita absoluta sed certis veluti rhetris clathris definita utpote non ad propriam libidinem sed ad utilitatem salutem populi alligata Hinc illorum munia sunt Regem designare constituere inaugurare constitutum consiliis auxiliis juvare sine consensu approbatione Principis quamdiu ille suum officium facit nihil in Reipublicae negotiis suscipere Nonnâ—â—quam conventum inscio Principe agere necessitate reipublicae exigente Populum contra omnis generis turbatores violatores defendere I suppose Mr. Hookers Principles and Alstedius's were much the same I will not venture to recite the Conclusion cap. 12. pag. 199. R. 5. de resistendo Tyranno Many other Authors go the same way and say that the people have the Majestas Realis both Papists and Protestants and Heathens But I suppose that what I have said against Hooker will serve to shew the weakness of their grounds Though it is none of my purpose to contradict either Hooker or any other so far as they open the odiousness of the sin of Tyranny which at this day keepeth out the Gospel from the far greatest part of the world and is the greatest enemy to the Kingdom of Christ nor yet as they plead for the just Liberties of the People But I am not for their Authority § 24. Direct 2. Begin with an Absolute Universal resolved Obedience to God your Creator and Redeemer Direct 2. who is your Soveraign King and will be your final righteous Iudge As he that is no loyal Subject to the King can never well obey his Officers so he that subjecteth not his soul to the Original Power of his Creator can never well obey the Derivative Power of earthly Governours Object But you may say experience teacheth us that many ungodly people are obedient to their superiours as well as others I answer Materially they are but not Formally and from a right principle and to right ends As a Rebel against the King may obey a Justice of Peace for his own Ends as long as he will let him alone or take his part But not formally as he is the Kings Officer So ungodly men may flatter Princes and Magistrates for their own ends or on some low and by account but not sincerely as the Officers of God He is not like to be truly obedient to man that is so foollish dishonest and impious as to rebel against his Maker nor to obey that authority which he first denyeth in its Original and first efficient cause What ever Satan and his servants may say and however some hypocrites may contradict in their practices the Religion which they profess yet nothing is more certain than that the most serious godly Christians are the best subjects upon earth As their principles themselves will easily demonstrate § 25. Direct 3. Having begun with God obey your Governours as the Officers of God with an obedience Direct 3. ultimately Divine All things must be done in Holiness by the Holy That is God must be Greg. Nazianz. cited by Bilson of Subject p. 361. Thou reignest together with Christ Thou rulest with him Thy Sword is from him Thou art the Image of God discerned obeyed and intended in all And therefore in Magistrates in a special manner In two respects Magistrates are obeyed or rather flattered by the ungodly First as they are men that are able to do them corporal good or hurt As a Horse or Dog or other Bruit will follow you for his belly and loveth to be where he fareth best Secondly As the Head of his Party and encourager of him in his evil way when he meets with Rulers that will be so bad Wicked men Love wicked Magistrates for being the servants of Satan But faithful men must Honour and Obey a Magistrate as an Officer of God Even a Magistrate as a Magistrate and not only as Holy is an Officer of the Lord of all Therefore the fifth Commandment is as the hinge of the two Tables Many of the Antients thought that it was the last Commandment of the first Table and the Moderns think it is the first Comandment of the last Table For it commandeth our duty to the noblest sort of men but not meerly as men but as the Officers of God They debase Magistrates that look at them meerly as those that master other men as the strongest Beast doth by the weaker Nothing will make you sincere and constant in your honouring and obeying them but taking them as the Officers of God and remembring by whose commission they rule and whose work they do that They are Ministers of God to us for good Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5. If you do not this 1. You wrong God whose servants they are For he
that despiseth despiseth not man but God 2. You wrong the Magistrate as much as you should do an Ambassador if you took him to be the messenger of some Iack Straw or some fellow that signifieth no more than his personal worth importeth 3. And you wrong your selves For while you neglect the Interest and authority of God in your Rulers you forfeit the acceptance protection and reward of God Subjects as well as servants must learn that great lesson Col. 3. 23. 24 25. And whatsoever ye do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ But he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong that he hath done and there is no respect of persons So Eph. 6. 5 6 7 8. Magistrates are as truly Gods Officers as Preachers And therefore as he that heareth Preachers heareth him so he that obeyeth Rulers obeyeth him The exceptions are but the like in both cases It is not every thing that we must receive from Preachers nor every thing that we must do at the command of Rulers But both in their proper place and work must be regarded as the officers of God and not as men that have no higher Authority than their own to bear them out § 26. Direct 4. Let no vices of the person cause you to forget the dignity of his office The authority Direct 4. of a sinful Ruler is of God and must accordingly be obeyed Of this read Bishop Bilson at large in his excellent Treatise of Christian Subjection against the Papists that excommunicate and depose Princes whom they account Hereticks or favourers of them Those sins which will damn a mans soul and deprive him of Heaven will not deprive him of his Kingdom nor disoblige the subjects Victor utic saith of Victorianus Proconsul of Carthage that even to an Arrian persecuting usurping Tyrant Pro rebus sibi commissis semper fidelissimus habebatur and the like of Sebastian and others p. 460. from their obedience An Infidel or an ungodly Christian that is an Hypocrite is capable of being a Prince as well as of being a Parent Husband Master And the Apostle hath taught all as well as servants their duty to such 1 Pet. 2. 18 19 20 21. Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear and not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward For this is thank-worthy if a man for conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully For what glory is it if when you are buffeted for your faults you take it patiently but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God For even hereunto were ye called Though it be a rare mercy to have Godly Rulers and a great judgement to have ungodly ones it is such as must be born § 27. Direct 5. Do not either divulge or aggravate the vices of your Governours to their dishonour Direct 5. For their Honour is necessary to the publick good If they have not care of their own honour yet their subjects must have a care of it If once they be dishonoured they will the more easily be contemned hated and disobeyed Therefore the dishonouring of the Rulers tendeth to the dissolution of the Government and ruine of the Common-wealth Only in two cases did the ancient Christians aggravate the wickedness of their Governours 1. In case they were such cruel monsters as Nero who lived to the misery of mankind 2. In case they were not only open enemies of the Church of Christ but their Honour stood in competition with the Honour of Christianity piety and honesty as in Iulians case I confess against Nero and Iulian both living and dead and many like them the tongues and pens of wise and sober persons have been very free But the fifth Commandment is not to be forgotten Honour thy Father and Mother And 1 Pet. 2. 17. Fear God Honour the Mark 7. 10. 10. 19. King Though you must not call evil good yet you may conceal and hide evil Cham was cursed for opening his fathers nakedness Though you must flatter none in their fins nor hinder their Repentance but further it by all righteous means yet must you speak Honourably of your Rulers and endeavour to breed an Honourable esteem of them in the peoples minds and not as some that think they do well if they can secretly make their Rulers seem odious by opening and aggravating their faults § 28. Direct 6. Subdue your passions that no injuries which you may suffer by them may Direct 6. disturb your reason and make you dishonour them by way of revenge If you may not revenge your selves on private men much less on Magistrates And the Tongue may be an unjust revenger as well as the hand Passion will provoke you to be telling all men Thus and thus I was used and to perswade you that it is no sin to tell the truth of what you suffered But remember that the publick good and the honour of Gods officers are of greater value than the righting of a particular person that is injured Many a discontented person hath set Kingdoms on fire by divulging the faults of Governours for the righting of themselves Obj. But shall cruel and unrighteous or persecuting men do mischief and not hear of it nor be humbled for it Answ. 1. Preachers of the Gospel and others that have opportunity may privately tell them of it to bring them to repentance if they will endure it without dishonouring them by making it publick 2. Historians will tell posterity of it to their perpetual infamy if repentance Lamprid. saith of Alex. Severus that Amavit literatos homines vehementer eos etiam reformidans nequid de se asperum scriberent uâ—lversal Histor p. 132. Tiberius bellua luto sanguine macerata sui tegendi peritissimus artifex totus tamen posteritatis oculis patuit Deo hypocrisim detractione larvae plectente and well-doing recover not their honour Flatterers abuse the living but Truth will dishonour their wickedness when they are dead For it is Gods own decree that the memory of the just is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot Prov. 10. 7. 3. And God himself will fully be avenged upon the impenitent for ever having told you that it were better for him that offendeth one of his little ones that a milstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the Sea And is not all this enough without the revenge of your passionate tongues * Matth. 18. 6. Mark 9. 42. Luk. 17. 2. Jud. 7. 8 9. To speak evil of dignities and despise dominion and bring railing accusations are the sins of the old licentious Hereticks Christ left us his example not to revile the meanest when we are reviled 1 Pet. 2. 23. If you believe that God will justifie the innocent and avenge
many a Common-wealth When every one is shifting for himself and saving his own and murmurring at the charge by which their safety must be defended as if Kings could fight for them without men and money this selfishness is the most pernitious enemy to Government and to the common good Tribute and Honour must be paid to whom it doth belong Rom. 13. 6 7. For they are Gods Ministers attending continually on this very thing And none of your Goods or Cabins will be saved if by your Covetousness the Ship should perish § 60. Direct 31. Resist not where you cannot actually obey And let no appearance of probable Direct 31. good that might come to your selves or the Church by any unlawful means as Treason Sedition or Rebellion Bâ—â—â—â—oâ—â—â— Sâ—bâ—â—â—â— p. 236. Princes have no right to call oâ— confirm Prâ—achers but to recâ—ive such as be seâ—t of Gâ—d and give them liberty for their preaching and security for their persons And if Princes refuse so to do Gods labourers must go forward with that which is commanded them from â—â—â—â—ven not by disturbing Princes from their Thrones nor invading their Realms as your Holy Father doth and 〈…〉 may do but by miâ—â—lly submiâ—ting themselves to the powers on earth and meekly suffering for the defence of the Truth what they shall inflict So â—e ever tempt you to it For evil must not be done that good may come by it And all evil means are but palliate and deceitful Cures that seem to help a little while but will leave the malady more perillous at last than it was before As it is possible that lying or perjury might be used to the seeming service of a Governour at the time which yet would prepare for his after danger by teaching men perâ—idiousness even so Rebellions and Treasons may seem at present to be very conducible to the ends of a people or party that think themselves opprest But in the end it will leave them much worse than it found them § 61. Object But if we must let Rulers destroy us at their pleasure the Gospel will be rooted out of the Object earth When they know that we hold it unlawful to resist them they will be emboldned to destroy us and sport themselves in our blood As the Papists did by the poor Albigenses c. Answ. All this did signifie something if there were no God that can easilier restrain and destroy Answ. them at his pleasure than they can destroy or injure you But if there be a God and all the world is in his hand and with a word he can speak them all into dust and if this God be engaged to protect you and hath told you that the very hairs of your head are numbered and more regardeth his Honour and Gospel and Church than you do and accounteth his servants as the apple of his eye and hath promised to hear them and avenge them speedily and forbid them to avenge themselves then it is but atheistical distrust of God to save your selves by sinful means as if God either could not or would not do it Thus he that saveth his life shall lose it Do you believe that you are in the hands of Christ and that men cannot touch you but by his permission and that he will turn all your sufferings to your exceeding benefit and yet will you venture on sin and Hell to scape such sufferings from men Wolves and Bears and Lyons that fight most for themselves are hated and destroyed by all so that there are but few of them in the Land but though a hundred sheep will run before a little Dog the master of them taketh care for their preservation And little Children that cannot go out of the way from a Horse or Cart every one is afraid of hurting If Christians behaved themselves with that eminent Love and Lowliness and Meekness and Patience and Harmlesness as their Lord hath taught them and required perhaps the very cruelty and malice of their enemies would abate and relent and when a mans wayes please God he would make his enemies to be at peace with him But if not their fury would but hasten us to our Joy and Glory Yet note that I speak all this only against Rebellion and unlawful Arms and Acts. Prov. 16. 7. § 62. Direct 32. Obey inferiour Magistrates according to the authority derived to them from the Supream Direct 32. but never against the Supream from whom it is derived The same reasons which oblige you to obey the personal commands of the King do bind you also to obey the lowest Constable or other Officer for they are necessary instruments of the Soveraign Power and if you obey not them the obedience of the Soveraign signifieth almost nothing But no man is bound to obey them beyond the measure of their authority much less against those that give them their authority § 63. Direct 33. No humane Power is at all to be obeyed against God For they have no power but Direct 33. what they receive from God And all that is from Him is for Him He giveth no power against Himself Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4. Rom. 11. 36. He is the first efficient the chief dirigent and ultimate final cause of all It is no act of Authority but Resistance of his Authority which contradicteth his Law and is against him All humane Laws are subservient to his Laws and not co-ordinate much less superiour Therefore they are ipso facto null or have no obligation which are against him Yet is not the Office it self Null when it is in some things thus abused nor the Magistrates power null as to other things No man must commit the least sin against God to please the greatest Prince on earth or to avoid the greatest corporal Si aliquid juâ—â—eâ—iâ— Procoâ—ful aliud jubeat Imperator nunquid dubitatur illo contempto illi esse serviendum Ergo si aliud Imperator aliud jubeat Deus quid judicatur Major potestas Deâ—s da veniam O Imperator Aug 〈…〉 de Verb. Domin Matth. Serm. 6. suffering Luke 12. 4. Fear not them that can kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but fear him who is able to destroy hoth body and soul in Hell yea I say unto you fear him Acts 5. 29. Whether we ought to obey God rather than men judge ye Heb. 11. 27. Not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him that is invisible Ver. 35. Others were tortured not accepting deliverance c. Dan. 3. 18. Be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy Gods nor worship the Golden Image c. § 64. Object If we are not obliged to obey we are not obliged to suffer For the Law obligeth Object primarily to obedience and only secondarily ad poenam for want of obedience Therefore where there iâ— no primary obligation to obedience there is no secundary obligation to punishment Answ.
they call Ecclesiastical and keep the people in dependance on their dictates and teach them to disobey upon pretence that God is against the matter of their obedience And also by contending for their Opinions or for superiority and domination over one another they fill Kingdoms with quarrels and break them into sects and factions and are the chief disturbers of the publick peace Ans. We cannot deny but that carnal ignorant worldly proud unholy Pastors have been and are Answ. the great calamity of the Churches But that is no more disgrace to their Office or to Divinity than it is to Philosophy or reason that Philosophers have been ignorant erroneous divided and contentious nor then it is to Government that Kings and other Rulers have been imperfect bad contentious and filled the World with wars and bloodshed Nay I rather think that this is a proof of the excellency of Divinity As the reason of the foresaid imperfections and faultiness of Philosophers and Rulers is because that Philosophy and Government are things so excellent that the corrupt imperfect nature of man will not reach so high as to qualifie any man to manage them otherwise than with great defectiveness so also Divinity and the Pastoral office are things so excellent and sublime that the nature of lapsed man will not reach to a capacity of being perfect in them So that the faultiness of the nature of man compared with the excellency of the things to be known and practised by Divines is the cause of all these faults which they complain of And natures vitiâ—siâ—y if any thing must be blamed Certainly the Pastoral office hath men as free from ignorance worldliness pride and unquietness as any Calling in the World To charge the faults of nature upon that profession which only discovereth but never caused them yea which would heal them iâ— they are to be healed on earth judge whether this dealing be not foolish and injurious and what will be the consequents if such unreasonable persons may be heard And therefore though Leviathan and his Spawn among all that is good bring down Divines and the zealots for Democracy have gloried of their new forms of Common-wealths as inconsistent with a Clergie their glory is their shame to all but Infidels Let them help us to take down and cure the ignorance pride carnality worldliness and contentiousness of the Clergie and we will be thankful to them but to quarrel with the best of men for the common pravity of nature and to reproach the most excellent science and function because depraved nature cannot attain or manage them in perfection this is but to play the professed enemies of mankind § 78. Obj. 6. These Atheists or Infidels also do spit their venome against Christianity and Godliness it Object 6. self and would make Princes believe that the principles of it are contrary to their interest and to Government and peace And they fetch their cavils 1. From the Scriptures contemptuous expressions of worldly wealth and greatness 2. From its prohibition of revenge and maintaining our own right 3. From the setting it above all humane Laws and by its authority and obscurity filling the minds of men with scrupulosity 4. From the divisions which Religion occasioneth in the world and 5. From the testimonies of the several sects against each other I shall answer them particularly though but briefly § 79 Obj. 1. Say the Infidel Politicians How can subjects have honourable thoughts of their superiours Object 1. when they believe that to be the Word of God which speaketh so contemptuously of them As Just such accusaâ—ions as Papists bring against the Reformers did the Heathens bring against the Christians as you may see in Eâ—napius in Aedesio At egregii illi viri bellicosi confusis perturbatisque rebus omnibus debellasse Deos incruentis quidem sed ab avaritiae crimine non puris manibus gloriabantur sacrilegium impietatis crimen laudi sibi assumentes Iidem postea in Sacra loca invexerunt Monachos sic dictos homines quidem speciè sed vitam turpem porcorum more exigentes qui in propatulo infinita infanda scelera committebant quibus tamen pietatis pars videbatur sacri loci reverentiam proculcari O partiality Luk. 6. 24. Woe to you that are rich for ye have received your consolation Jam. 5. 1 2 3. Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you ver 5 6. Ye have lived in pleasure on earth and been wanton Ye have condemned and killed the just Luk. 12. 21. Luk. 16. The Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus is spoken to make men think of the Rich as miserable damned creatures Ezek. 21. 25. Thou prophane wicked Prince of Israel Prov. 25. 5. Take away the wicked from before the King Prov. 29. 12. If a Ruler hearken to lies all his servants are wicked The contempt of Greatness is made a part of the Christian Religion Ans. 1. As if there were no difference between the contempt of Riches and worldly prosperity Answ and the contempt of Government He is blind that cannot see that Riches and Authority are not the same Yea that the over-valuing of Riches is the cause of seditions and the disturbance of Governments when the contempt of them removeth the chief impediments of obedience and peace 2. And may not Governours be sufficiently honoured unless they be exempted from the Government of God and unless their sin must go for virtue and unless their duty and their account and the danger of their souls be treacherously concealed from them God will not flatter dust and ashes Great and small are alike to him He is no respecter of persons When you can save the greatest from death and judgement then they may be excepted from all those duties which are needful to their preparation 3. And is it not strange that God should teach men to contemn the power which he himself ordaineth and which is his own Hath he set officers over us for the work of Government and doth he teach us to despise them There is no shew of any such thing in Scripture There are no principles in the world that highlyer advance and honour Magistracy than the Christian principles unless you will make Gods of them as the Roman Senate did of the Antonines and other Emperours § 80. Obj. 2. How can there be any Government when men must believe that they must not resist evil Object 2. Rom. 12. 17 19 20. Luk. 6. 28 29 30. Matth. 5. 39 40 41. Luk. 22. 25 26. but give place to wrath and turn the other cheek to him that smiteth them and give their Coat to him that taketh away their Cloke and lend asking for nothing again Is not this to let thieves and violent rapacious men rule all and have their will and go unpunished What use is there then for Courts or Iudges And when Christ commandeth his disciples that
and have Consciences still objecting something or other against their obedience and are so obstinate in their way as thinking it is for their salvation that all Ages and Nations have been fain to govern them by force as beasts which they have called persecution Answ. 1. There is no doctrine in the world so much for Love and Peace and Concord as the doctrine Answ. of Christ is What doth it so much urge and frequently inculcate What doth it contain but Love and peace from end to end Love is the sum and end of the Gospel and the fulfilling of the Law To Love God above all and our neighbours as our selves and to do as we would be done by is the Epitome of the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles 2. And therefore Christianity is only the occasion and not the Cause of the divisions of the earth It is mens blindness and passions and carnal interests rebelling against the Laws of God which is the make-bate of the world and filleth it with strife The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits It blesseth the peace-makers and the meek But it is the rebellious wisdom from beneath that is earthly sensual and devillish which causeth envy and strife and thereby confusion and every evil work Iam. 3. 15 16 17. Matth. 5. 6 7 8. So that the true genuine Christian is the best subject and peaceablest man on earth But seriousness is not enough to make a Christian A man may be passionately serious in an errour Understanding must lead and seriousness follow To be zealous in errour is not to be zealous in Christianity For the errour is contrary to Christian verity 3. As I said before it is a testimony of the excellency of Religion that it thus occasioneth contention Dogs and Swine do not contend for Crowns and Kingdoms nor for sumptuous houses or apparel nor do Infants trouble the world or themselves with Metaphysical or Logical or Mathematical disputes Ideots do not molest the World with Controversies nor fall thereby into Sects and parties Nor yet do wise and learned persons contend about chaff or dust or trifles But as excellent things are matter of search so are they matter of Controversie to the most excellent wits The hypocritical Christians that you speak of who make God and their salvation give place to the unjust commands of men are indeed no Christians as not taking Christ for their Soveraign Lord And it is not in any true honour of Magistracy that they are so ductile and will do any thing but it is for themselves and their carnal interest and when that interest requireth it they will betray their Governours as Infidels will do If you can reduce all the world to be Infants or Ideots or Bruits yea or Infidels they will then trouble the State with no contentions for Religion or matters of salvation But if the Governed must be bruitified what will the Governours be 4. All true Christians are agreed in the substance of their Religion There is no division among them about the necessary points of faith or duty Their agreement is far greater than their disagreement which is but about some smaller matters where differences are tolerable Therefore they may all be Governed without any such violence as you mention If the common Articles of faith and precepts of Christian duty be maintained then that is upheld which all agree in and Rulers will not find it needful to oppress every party or opinion save one among them that hold the common truths Wise and sober Christians lay not mens salvation upon every such Controversie nor do they hold or manage them unpeaceably to the wrong of Church or State nor with the violation of Charity peace or justice 5. Is there any of the Sciences which afford not matter of Controversie If the Laws of the Land did yield no matter of Controversie Lawyers and Judges would have less of that work than now they have And was there not greater diversity of Opinions and Worship among the Heathens than ever was among Christians What a multitude of sects of Philosophers and Religions had they And what a multitude of Gods had they to Worship And the number of them still increased as oft as the Senate pleased to make a God of the better sort of their Emperours when they were dead Indeed one Emperour of the Religion of some of these Objectors Heliogabalus bestir'd himself with all his power to have reduced all Religion to Unity that is he would have all the Worship brought to his God to whom he had been Priest Saith Lampridius in his life Dicebat Iudaeâ—rum Samaritanorum religiones Christianam devotionem illue transferendam c. And therefore he robbed and maimed and destroyed the other Gods id agens ne quis Romae Deus nisi Heliogabalus coleretur But Jactavit caput inter praecisos phanaticos genitalia sibi devinxit c. Lamprid. as the effect of his monstrous abominable filthiness of life was to be thrust into a privy killed and drag'd about the streets and drowned in Tybur so the effect of his desired Unity was to bring that one God or Temple into contempt whereto he would confine all Worship The differences among Christians are nothing in comparison of the differences among Heathens The truth is Religion is such an illustrious noble thing that diffentions about it like spots in the Moon are much more noted by the world than about any lower common matters Men may raise Controversies in Philosophy Physick Astronomy Chronologie and yet it maketh no such noise nor causeth much offence or hatred in the World But the Devil and corrupted nature have such an enmity against Religion that they are glad to pick any quarrel against it and blame it for the imperfections of all that learn it and should practise it As if Grammar should be accused for every errour or fault that the Boyes are guilty of in learning it Or the Law were to be accused for all the differences of Lawyers or contentions of the people or Physick were to be accused for all the differences or errours of Physicions or meat and drink were culpable because of mens excesses and diseases There is no doctrine nor practice in the World by which true Unity and Concord can be maintained but by seriousness in the true Religion And when all contention cometh for want of Religion it 's impudence to blame Religion for it which is the only cure If Rulers will protect all that agree in that which is justly to be called the Christian Religion both for doctrine and practice and about their small and tolerable differences will use no other violence but only to compell them to live in peace and to suppress the seditious and those that abuse and injure Government or one another they will find that Christianity tendeth not to divisions nor to the hindrance or disturbance of Government or
g. The Law against relieving a beggar bindeth not when he is like to dye if he be not relieved or in such a case as after the burning of London when there was no Parish to bring him to A Law that is but for the ordering of mens charity to soul or body by preaching or alms will not disoblige me from the Duties of Charity themselves in cases where Scripture or Nature proveeth them to be imposed by God A Law for fasting will not bind me when it would be destructive to my body even on Gods Sabbaths duties of mercy were to be preferred to Rest and Sacrifices 14. If Gods own Laws must be thus expounded that When two duties come together and both cannot be done the lesser ceaseth at that time to be a duty and the greater is to be preferred mans Laws must also be necessarily so expounded And the rather because mans Laws may be contradictory when Gods never are so rightly understood 15. Where the subject is to obey so far he must discern which of the Laws inconsistent is to be preferred But in the Magistratical execution the Magistrate or Judge must determine E. g. One Law commandeth that all the needy poor be kept on the Parish where they were born or last lived Another Law saith that Non-conformable Ministers of the Gospel who take not the Oxford Oath shall not come within five miles of City or Corporation though they were born there or any place where they have been Preachers In case of necessity what shall they do Answ. Whither they shall go for relief they must discern as well as they can But whither they shall be carried or sent the Magistrate or Constable must discern and judge Also Whether he shall go with a Constable that by one Law bringeth him to a place which by the other Law he is forbid on pain of six months imprisonment in the Common Gaol to come to Answ. If he be not voluntary in it it is not his fault And if one bring him thither by force and and another imprison him for being there he must patiently suffer it 16. But out of such excepted Cases the Laws of our Rulers as the commands of Parents do bind us as is afore explained And it is a sin against God to violate them 17. Yea When the reason of the Law reacheth not our particular case and person yet when we have reason to judge that it is the Rulers will that all be bound for the sake of some and the common order and good will be hindered by our exemption we must obey to our corporal detriment to avoid the publick detriment and to promote the publick good CHAP. IV. Directions to Lawyers about their Duty to God GEntlemen you need not meet these Directions with the usual censures or suspicions that Divines are busying themselves with the matters of your Calling which belong not to them and which they do not understand You shall see that I will as much forbear such matters as you can well desire If your Calling be not to be sanctified by serving God in it and regulating it by his Law it is then neither honourable nor desirable But if it be permit me very Legum mihi placet autoritas sed earum usus hominum nequitia depravatur Itaque piguit perdiscere quo inhoneste uti nollem honeste vix possem etsi vellem Petrarch i◠vita sua briefly so far to Direct you § 1. Direct 1. Take the whole frame of Polity together and study each part in its proper place and Direct 1. know it in its due relation to the rest that is Understand first the Doctrine of Polity and Laws in genere and next the Universal Polity and Laws of God in specie and then study Humane Polity and Laws as they stand in their due subordination to the Polity and Laws of God as the by-Laws of Corporations do to the General Laws of the Land § 2. He that understandeth not what Polity and Law is in genere is unlike to understand what Divine or Humane Polity or Law is in specie He that knoweth not what Government is and what a community and what a politick society is will hardly know what a Common-wealth or Church is And he that knoweth not what a Common-wealth is in genere what is its End and what its constitutive parts and what the efficient causes and what a Law and Judgement and Execution is will study but unhappily the Constitution or Laws of the Kingdom which he liveth in § 3. 2. And he that understandeth not the Divine Dominium Imperium as founded in Creation and refounded in Redemption and mans subjection to his Absolute Lord and the Universal Laws which he hath given in Nature and Scripture to the world can never have any true understanding of the Polity or Laws of any Kingdom in particular No more than he can well understand the true state of a Corporation or the power of a Mayor or Justice or Constable who knoweth nothing of the state of the Kingdom or of the King or of his Laws What ridiculous discourses would such a man make of his Local Polity or Laws He knoweth nothing worth the knowing who knoweth not that all Kings and States have no power but what is derived from God and subservient to him and are all his Officers much more below him than their Justices and Officers are to them and that their Laws are of no force against the Laws of God whether of Natural or Supernatural Revelation And therefore it is most easie to see that he that will be a good Lawyer must first be a Divine And that the Atheists that deride or slight Divinity do but play the fools in all their independent broken studies A man may be a good Divine that is no Lawyer but he can be no good Lawyer that understandeth not Theology Therefore let the Government and Laws of God have the first and chiefest place in your studies and in all your observation and regard 1. Because it is the Ground of Humane Government and the Fountain of mans Power and Laws 2. Because the Divine Polity is also the End of Humane Policy Mans Laws being ultimately to promote our Obedience to the Laws of God and the honour of his Government 3. Because Gods Laws are the measure and bounds of Humane Laws against which no man can have power Male se rectum putat qui regulam summae rectitudinis ignorat Ambros. de Offic. 4. Because Gods Rewards and Punishments are incomparably more regardable than mans Eternal joy or misery being so much more considerable than temporal peace or suffering Therefore though it be a dishonour to Lawyers to be ignorant of Languages History and other needful parts of Learning yet it is much more their dishonour to be ignorant of the Universal Government and Laws of God § 4. Direct 2. Be sure that you make not the getting of money to be your principal end in the
do it And so sweet is Revenge to their furious nature as the damning of men is to the Devil that Revenged they will be though they lose their souls by it And the impotency and baseness of their spirits is such that they say Flesh and blood is unable to bear it § 11. 10. Another cause of murder is a wicked impatience with neer relations and a hatred of those that should be most dearly loved Thus many men and women have murdered their Wives and Husbands when either Adulterous Lust hath given up their hearts to another or a cross impatient discontented mind hath made them seem intollerable burdens to each other And then the Devil that destroyed their love and brought them thus far will be their teacher in the rest and shew them how to ease themselves till he hath led them to the Gallows and to Hell How necessary is it to keep in the way of duty and abhor and suppress the beginnings of sin § 12. 11. And sometimes Covetousness hath caused Murder when one man desireth another mans estate Thus Ahab came by Naboth's Vineyards to his cost And many a one desireth the death of another whose estate must fall to him at the others death Thus many a Child in heart is guilty of the murder of his Parents though he actually commit it not Yea a secret gladness when they are dead doth shew the guilt of some such desire◠while they were living And the very abatement of such moderate mourning as natural affection should procure because the estate is thereby come to them as the heirs doth shew that such are far from innocent Many a Iudas for Covetousness hath betrayed another Many a false witness for Covetousness hath sold anothers life Many a Thief for Covetousness hath taken away anothers life to get his money And many a Covetous Landlord hath longed for his Tenants death and been glad to hear of it And many a Covetous Souldier hath made a trade of killing men for Money So true is it that the Love of money is the root of all evil and therefore is one cause of this § 13. 12. And Ambition is too common a Cause of Murder among the great ones of the World How many have dispatched others out of the World because they stood in the way of their advancement For a long time together it was the ordinary way of Rising and dying to the Roman and Greek Emperours for one to procure the murder of the Emperour that he might usurp his Seat and then to be so murdered by another himself And every Souldier that looked for preferment by the change was ready to be an instrument in the fact And thus hath even the Roman seat of his Mock Holiness for a long time and oft received its Successours by the poison or other murdering of the possessours of the desired place And alas how many thousand hath that See devoured to defend its Universal Empire under the name of the spiritual Headship of the Church How many unlawful Wars have they raised or cherished even against Christian Emperours and Kings How many thousands have been Massacred How many Assassinate as Hen. 3. and Hen. 4. of France Besides those that fires and Inquisitions have consumed And all these have been the flames of Pride Yea when their fellow-Sectaries in Munster and in England the Anabaptists and Seekers have catcht some of their proud disease it hath workt in the same way of blood and cruelty § 14. 2. But besides these twelves great sins which are the nearest cause of Murder there are many more which are yet greater and deeper in nature which are the Roots of all especially these 1. The first cause is the want of true Belief of the Word of God and the judgement and punishment to come and the want of the Knowledge of God himself Atheism and Infidelity 2. Hence cometh the want of the true Fear of God and subjection to his holy Laws 3. The predominance of selfishness in all the unsanctified is the radical inclination to murder and all the injustice that is committed 4. And the want of Charity or Loving our Neighbour as our selves doth bring men neer to the execution and leaveth little inward restraint § 15. By all this you may see how this sin must be prevented and let not any man think it a needless work Thousands have been guilty of murder that once thought themselves as far from it as you 1. The soul must be possessed with the Knowledge of God and the true Belief of his Word and judgement 2. Hereby it must be possessed of the Fear of God and subjection to him 3. And the Love of God must mortifie the power of selfishness 4. And also much possess us with a true Love to our neighbours yea and enemies for his sake 5. And the twelve fore-mentioned causes of murder will thus be destroyed at the Root § 16. II. And some further help it will be to understand the Greatness of this sin Consider therefore 1. It is an unlawful destroying not only a Creature of God but one of his noblest Creatures upon earth Even one that beareth at least the natural Image of God Gen. 9. 5 6. And surely your blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will I require it and at the hand of man at the hand of every mans brother will I require the life of man whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man Yea God will not only have the beast slain that killeth a man but also forbiddeth there the eating of blood v. 4. that man might not be accustomed to cruelty 2. It is the opening a door to confusion and all calamity in the World For if one man may kill another without the sentence of the Magistrate another may kill him and the world will be like Mastiffs or mad Dogs turned all loose on one another kill that kill can 3. If it be a wicked man that is killed it is the sending of a soul to Hell and cutting off his time of Repentance and his hopes If it be a Godly man it is a depriving of the World of the blessing of a profitable member and all that are about him of the benefits of his goodness and God of the service which he was here to have performed These are enough to infer the dreadful consequents to the Murderer which are such as these III. 1. It is a sin which bringeth so great a guilt that if it be repented of and pardoned yet Conscience very hardly doth ever attain to peace and quietness in this World And if it be unpardoned it is enough to make a man his own Executioner and tormenter 2. It is a sin that seldome scapeth vengeance in this life If the Law of the Land take not away their lives as God appointeth Gen. 9. 6. God useth to follow them with his extraordinary Plagues and causeth their sin
Quest. 7. Answ. No not by private assault or violence But if the crime be so great that the Law of the Land doth punish it with death if that Law be just you may in some cases seek to bring the offendor to publick justice But that is rare and otherwise you may not do it For 1. It belongeth only to the Magistrate and not to you to be the avenger 2. And killing a man can be no meet defence against calumny or slander For if you will kill a man for prevention you kill the innocent If you kill him afterward it is no Defence but an unprofitable revenge which vindicateth not your honour but dishonoureth you more Your patience is your honour and your bloody revenge doth shew you to be so like the Devil the destroyer that it is your greatest shame 3. It is odious Pride which maketh men over-value their reputation among men and think that a mans life is a just compensation to them for their dishonour Such bloody Sacrifices are fit to appâ—ase only the blood-thirsty Spirit But what is it that Pride will not do and justifie CHAP. XI Special Directions to escape the guilt of persecuting Determining also the case about Liberty in matters of Religion THough this be a subject which the guilty cannot endure to hear of yet the misery of persecutors the blood and grones and ruines of the Church and the lamentable divisions of profâ—ssed Christians do all command me not to pass it by in silence but to tell them the truth whether they will hear or whether they will forbear though they were such as Ezek. 3. 7 8 9 11. § 1. Direct 1. If you would escape this dreadful guilt Understand well what Persecution is Else Direct 1. you may either run into it ignorantly or oppose a duty as if it were persecution § 2. The Verb Persequor is often taken in a good sence for no more than continuato motu vel ad extremum sequor and sometime for the blameless prosecution of a delinquent But we take it here as the English word Persecute is most commonly taken for inimico affectu insequor for a malicious or injurious hurting or prosecuting another and that for the sake of Religion or Righteousness For it is not common injuries which we here intend to speak of Three things then go to make up Persecution 1. That it be the Hurting of another in his Body liberty relations estate or reputation 2. That it be done injuriously to one who deserveth it not in the particular which is the cause 3. That it be for the cause of Religion or of Righteousness that is for the Truth of God which we hold or utter or for the worship of God which we perform or for obedience to the will of God revealed in his Laws This is the cause on the sufferers part what ever is intended by the Persecuter § 3. There are divers sorts of Persecution As to the Principles of the Persecutors 1. There is a Persecution which is openly professed to be for the cause of Religion As Heathens and Mahometans persecute Christians as Christians And there is an Hypocritical Persecution when the pretended cause is some odious crime but the real cause is mens Religion or obedience to God This is the common Persecution which nominal Christians exercise on serious Christians or on one another They will not say that they Persecute them because they are Godly or serious Christians but that is the true cause For if they will but set them above God and obey them against God they will abate their Persecution Many of the Heathens thus persecuted the Christians too under the name of Ungodly and evil doers But the true cause was because they obeyed not their commands in the Worshipping of their Idol Gods So do the Papists persecute and murder men not as Professours of the truth which is the true cause but under the name of Hereticks and Schâ—smaticks or Rebels against the Pope or what ever their malice pleaseth to accuse them of And prophane nominal Christians seldome persecute the serious and sincere directly by that name but under some Nickname which they set upon them or under the name of Hypocrites or self-conceited or factious persons or such like And if they live in a place and Age where there are many Civil Wars or differences they are sure to fetch some odious name or accusation thence Which side soever it be that they are on or if they meddle not on any side they are sure by every party whom they please not to hear Religion loaded with such reproaches as the times will allow them to vent against it Even the Papists who take this course with Protestants it seems by Acosta are so used themselves not by the Heathens but by one another yea by the multitude yea by their Priests For so saith he speaking of the Parish Priests Priests among the Indians having reproved their Diceing Carding Hunting Idleness Lib. 4 c. 15. pag. 404 405. Itaque is cui Pastoralis Indorum cura committitur non solum contra diaboli machinas naturae incentiva pugnare debet sed jam etiam confirmatae hominum consuetudini tempore turba praepotenti sese objicere ad excipienda invidorum ac malevolorum tela forte pectus opponere qui siquid à profano suo instituto abhorrentem viderint proditorem hypocritam hostem clamaâ—t that is He therefore to whom the Pastoral care of the Indians is committed must not only fight against the Engines of the Devil and the incentives of nature but also now must object or set himself against the confirmed custome of men which is grown very powerful both by time and by the multitude and must valiantly oppose his breast to receive the darts of the envious and malevolent who if they see any thing contrary to their profane fashion or breeding cry out A Traitor An Hypocrite an Enemy It seems then that this is a common course § 4. 2. Persecution is either done in Ignorance or Knowledge The commonest persecution is that which is done in Ignorance and errour when men think a Good cause to be bad or a bad cause to be good and so persecute Truth while they take it to be falshood or good while they take it to be evil or obtrude by violence their Errours for Truths and their evils as good and necessary things Thus Peter testifieth of the Jews who killed the Prince of life Act. 3. 13 14 17. I know that through Ignorance you did it as did also your Rulers And Paul 1 Cor. 2. 8. which none of the Princes of this world knâ—w for had they known it they would not have Crucified the Lord of glory And Christ himself saith Joh. 16. 3. These things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father or me And Paul saith of himself Act. 26. 9. I thought verily with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the name
Son and Holy Ghost when they have in Baptism vowed themselves unto his service Of all men on earth these men will have least to say for their sin or against their condemnation § 22. 12. Lastly Remember that Christ taketh all that is done by persecutors against his servants for his cause to be done as to himself and will accordingly in judgement charge it on them So speaketh he to Saul Acts 9. 5 6. Saul Saul why persecutest thou me I am Iesus whom thou persecutest And Matth. 25. 41. to 46. Even to them that did not â—eed and clothe and visit and relieve them he saith Verily I say unto you in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to me What then will he say to them that impoverished and imprisoned them Remember that it is Christ reputatively whom thou dost hate deride and persecute § 23. Direct 3. If you world escape the guilt of persecution the cause and interest of Christ in the Direct 3. world must be truly understood He that knoweth not that Holiness is Christs end and Scripture is his Word and Law and that the Preachers of the Gospel are his messengers and that preaching is his appointed means and that sanctified believers are his members and the whole number of them are his mystical body and all that profess to be such are his visible body or Kingdom in the world and that sin is the thing which he came to destroy and the Devil the world and the flesh are the enemies which he causeth us to conquer I say He that knoweth not this doth not know what Christianity or Godliness is and therefore may easily persecute it in his ignorance If you know not or believe not that serious Godliness in heart and life and serious preaching and discipline to promote it are Christs great cause and interest in the world you may fight against him in the dark whilst ignorantly you call your selves his followers If the Devil can but make you think that Ignorance is as good as Knowledge and Pharisaical formality and hypocritical shews are as good as spiritual worship and rational service of God and that seeming and lip-service is as good as seriousness in Religion and that the strict and serious obeying of God and living as we profess according to the principles of our Religion is but hypocrisie pride or faction that is that all are hypocrites who will not be hypocrites but seriously Religious I say if Satan can bring you once to such erroneous malignant thoughts as these no wonder if he make you persecutors O value the great blessing of a sound understanding For if Error blind you either impious error or factious error there is no wickedness so great but you may promote it and nothing so good and holy but you may persecute it and think all the while that you are doing well John 16. 2. They shall put you out of the Synagogues yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service What Prophet so great or Saint so holy that did not suffer by such hands Yea Christ himself was persecuted as a sinner that never sinned § 24. Direct 4. And if you would escape the guilt of persecution the cause and interest of Christ Direct 4. must be highest in your esteem and preferred before all worldly carnal interests of your own Otherwise the Devil will be still perswading you that your own interest requireth you to suppress the interest of Christ For the truth is the Gospel of Christ is quite against the interest of carnality and concupiscence It doth condemn ambition covetousness and lust It forbiddeth those sins on pain of damnation which the proud and covetous and sensual love and will not part with And therefore it is no more wonder to have a proud man or a covetous man or a lustful voluptuous man to be a persecutor than for a Dog to fly in his face who takes his bone from him If you love your pride and lust and pleasures better than the Gospel and a holy life no marvel if you be persecutors For these will not well agree together And though sometimes the providence of God may so contrive things that an ambitious hypocrite may think that his worldly interest requireth him to seem religious and promote the preaching and practice of godliness this is but seldome and usually not long For he cannot choose but quickly find that Christ is no Patron of his sin and that Holiness is contrary to his worldly lusts Therefore if you cannot value the Cause of Godliness above your lusts and carnal interests I cannot tell you how to avoid the guilt of persecution nor the wrath and vengeance of Almighty God § 25. Direct 5. Yea though you do prefer Christs interest in the main You must carefully take Direct 5. beed of stepping into any forbidden way and espousing any interest of your own or others which is contrary to the Laws or interest of Christ. Otherwise in the defence or prosecution of your cause you will be carryed into a seeming Necessity of persecuting before you are aware This hath been the ruine of multitudes of great ones in the world When Ahab had set himself in a way of sin the Prophet 1 Kings 22. 8 27. 1 King 13. 2 4. must reprove him and then he hateth and persecuteth the Prophet because he prophesied not good of him but evil When Ieroboam thought that his interest required him to set up Calves at Dan and Bethel and to make Priests for them of the baâ—est of the people the Prophet must speak against his sin and then he stretcheth out his hand against him and saith Lay hold on him If Asa sin and 2 Chron. 16. 10. the Prophet tell him of it his rage may proceed to imprison his reprover If Amaziah sin with the Idolaters the Prophet must reprove him and he will silence him or smite him And silenced he is 2 Chron. 15. 16. and what must follow 2 Chron. 15 16. The King said to him Art thou made of the Kings counsel forbear why shouldst thou be smitten This seemeth to be gentle dealing Then the Prophet forbore and said I know that God hath determined to destroy thee because thou hast done this and hast not hearkned to my counsel It Pilate do but hear If thou let this man go thou art not Caesars friend he thinketh John 19. 12. it his interest to crucifie Christ As Herod thought it his interest to kill him and therefore to kill so many other Infâ—nts when he heard of the birth of a King of the Jews Because of an Herodias Matth. 2. 16 17 18. Matth. 14. 6 7 8 9. Mar. 6. 19. 21 22. Acts 12. 2 3 4. and the honour of his word Herod will not stick to behead Iohn Baptist And another Herod will kill Iames with the Sword and imprison Peter because he seeth that it pleaseth
Direct 25. which feareth in the smallest matter to offend him is a substantial part of Holiness and of great necessity to salvation It is part of the excellency of the soul and therefore to be greatly encouraged by Governours To drive this out of the World is to drive out Godliness and make men rebells against their maker And nothing is more certain than that the violent imposing of unnecessary disputable things in the worship of God doth unavoidably tend either to debauch the Conscience and drive men from their obedience to God or to destroy them or undoe them in the World For it is not possible that all Conscionable persons should discern the lawfulness of all such disputable things § 47. Direct 26. Remember that such violence in doubtful matters is the way to set up the most Direct 26. debauched Atheists and consequently to undoe Church and Common-wealth For whatever oaths or subscriptions you require he that believeth not that there is a God or a Devil a Heaven or a Hell will yield to all and make no more of perjury or a lye than to eat a bit of bread If you cast out all Ministers that will not swear or subscribe this or that form about things doubtful you will cast out never an Atheist or debauched Infidel by it All that have no Conscience will be kept in and all that are true to God and their Conscience if they think it is sin which you require of them will be cast out And whither this tendeth you may easily foresee § 48. Direct 27. Remember that if by force you do prevail with a man to go against his Conscience Direct 27. you do but make him dissemble and lye And if Hypocrites be not hateful to you why do you cry out so much against hypocrites where you cannot prove your accusation But if they be so hateful why do you so eagerly make men hypocrites What ever their tongues may say you can scarce believe your selves that prisons or fire will change mens judgements in matters of faith and duty to God § 49. Direct 28. Consider not only whether the thing which you impose be sin in it self but also what Direct 28. it is to him that thinketh it a sin His own doubting Conscience may make that a sin to him which is no sin to another And he that doubteth whether such or such a meat be lawful is condemned if he eat because he eateth not of faith for whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom. 14. 23. And is it like to be damnation to him that doth it against his Conscience and will you drive on any man towards damnation Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ dyed Rom. 14. 15. 1 Cor. 8. 11. § 50. If it be objected that Then there will be no Government if every man must be left to his own Conscience I answer that the Holy Ghost did not fear such objecters when he laid down this doctrine here exprest 1. It is easie to distinguish between things necessary and things unnecessary 2. And between great penalties and small And 1. It followeth not that a Man must be left to his own Conscience in every thing because he must be so in some things In things necessary as it is a sin to do them doubtingly so it may be a greater sin to leave them undone As for a man to maintain his family or defend his King or hear the Word of God c. He that can say My Conscience is against it must not be excused from a necessary duty And he that can say My Conscience bids me do it must not be excused in a sin But yet the Apostle knew what he said when he that was a greater Church-Governour than you determined the case of mutual forbearance as in Rom. 14. and 15. and 1 Cor. 8. 2 And he is not wholly left to himself who is punished with a small penalty for a small offence For if a man must be still punished more as long as he obeyeth God and his Conscience before men an honest man must not be suffered to live For he will certainly do it to the death § 51. Direct 29. Remember the wonderful variety of mens apprehensions which must be supposed Direct 29. in all Laws Mens faces are scarce more various and unlike than their understandiâ—gs are For besides that nature hath diversified intellects as well as faces the diversity and unlikeness is much increased by variety of educations company representations accidents cogitations and many other causes It is wiser to make Laws that all men shall take the same Physick or eat only the same meat or that all shoos shall be of a size and all cloaths of the same bigness upon supposition that all mens health or appetite or feet or bodies are alike than to make Laws that all men shall agree or say that they agree in every opinion circumstance or ceremony in matters of Religion § 52. Direct 30. Remember especially that most Christians are ignorant and of weak understandings Direct 30. and not able to make use of all the distinctions and subtilâ—ies which are needful to bring them over to your mind in doubtful and unnecessary things Therefore the Laws which will be the means of Peace must suppose this weakness and ignorance of most subjects And how convenient it is to say to a poor ignorant Christian Know this or profess this or that which the ablest Godly Pastors themselves are not agreed in or else thou shalt be imprisoned or banished I leave to equal men to judge § 53. Direct 31. Humane infirmities must be supposed in the best and strongest Christians All have Direct 31. their errours and their faults Divines themselves as well as others Therefore either some errours and faults must be accounted tolerable or else no two persons must tolerate one another in the world but kill on till the strongest only shall survive Gal. 6. 1 2. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thoâ— also be tempted Bear ye one anothers burdens and so fulfill the Law of Christ. And if the strong must be born with themselves then They that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please themselves but every one to please his neighbour for good to edification For even Christ pleased not himself c. Rom. 15. 1 2 3. And him that is weak in the faith we must receive but not to doubtful disputations Rom. 14. 1. § 54. Direct 32. The Pastors must not be impatient under the abuses which they receive from weak Direct 32. or distempered brethren We must excell others in patience and meekness and forbearance as much as we do in knowledge and in other graces If the Nurse or Mother will take every word or action of the child as if it were the injury of an enemy there will be no
preservation of the family in peace If children cry or fight or chide or make any fowle or troublesome work the mother will not therefore turn them out of doors or use them like strangers but remember that it is her place and duty to bear with that weakness which she cannot cure The proud impatience of the Pastors hath frequently brought them into the guilt of persecution to the alienating of the peoples hearts and the distraction and division of the Churches when poor distempered persons are offended with them and it may be revile them and call them seducers or antichristian or superstitious or what their pride and passion shall suggest or if some weak ones raise up some erroneous opinions alas many Pastors have no more wit or grace or pity than presently to be rough with them and revile them again and seek to right themselves by wayes of force and club down every errour and contention when they should overcome them by evidence of truth and by meekness patience and love Though there be place also for severity with turbulent implacable impenitent hereticks § 55. Direct 33. Time of learning and overcoming their mistakes must be allowed to those that are Direct 33. mis-informed We must not turn those of the lower forms out of Christs School because they learn not as much as those of the higher forms in a few weeks or years The Holy Ghost teacheth those who for the time might have been Teachers of others and yet had need to be taught the first Principles Heb. 5. 11 12. He doth not turn them out of the Church for their non-proficiency And where there is ignorance there will be errour § 56. Direct 34. Some inconveniences must be expected and tolerated and no perfect Order or Concord Direct 34. expected here on earth It is not good reasoning to say If we suffer these men they will cause this or that disorder or inconvenience But you must also consider whither you must drive it if you suffer them not and what will be the consequents He that will follow his Conscience to a prison will likely follow it to death And if nothing but death or prison or banishment can restrain them from what they take to be their duty it must be considered how many must be so used and whether if they were truly faulty they deserve so much and if they do yet whether the evils of the Toleration or of the Punishment are like to be the greater Peace and Concord will never be perfect till Knowledge and Holiness be perfect § 57. Direct 35. You may go further in restraining than in constraining in forbidding men to Direct 35. preach against approved doctrines or practices of the Church than in forcing them to preach for them or to subscribe or speak their approbation or assent If they be not points or practices of great necessity a man may be sit for the Ministry and Church-communion who meddleth not with them but Preacheth the wholsome truths of the Gospel and lets them alone And because no duty is at all times a duty a sober mans judgement will allow him to be silent at many an errour when he dare not subscribe to or approve the least But if here any proud and cruel Pastors shall come in with their lessâ—â— selfish incommodities and say If they do not approve of what we say and do they will secretly foment a faction against us I should answer them that as good men will foment no faction so if such Proud impatient turbulent men will endure none that subscribe not to all their opinions or differ from them in a circumstance or a Ceremony they shall raise a greater faction if they 'l call it so against themselves and make the people look on them as tyrants and not as Pastors and they shall see in the end when they have bought their wit by dear experience that they have but torn the Church in pieces by preventing divisions by carnal means and that they have lost themselves by being over zealous for themselves and that DOCTRINE and LOVE are the instruments of a wise Shepheard that loveth the flock and understands his work § 58. Direct 36. Distinguish between the making of new Laws or articles of belief and the punishing Direct 36. of men for the Laws already made And think not that we must have new Laws or Canons every time the old ones are broken or that any Law can be made which can keep it self from being broken Perversness in this errour hath brought the Church to the misery which it endureth God hath made an Universal Law sufficient for the Universal Church in matters of faith and holy practice leaving it to men to determine of necessary circumstances which were unfit for an universal Law And if the sufficiency of Gods Law were acknowledged in mens practices the Churches would have had more peace But when particular Countreys have their particular Volumes of Articles Consessions Liturgies and I know not what else to be subscribed to and none must Preach that will not say or write or swear that he believeth all this to be true and good and nothing in it to be against the Word of God this Engine wracks the limbs of the Churches all to pieces And then what 's the pretense for this epidemical calamity Why no better than this Every Heretick will subscribe to the Scriptures and take it in his own sense And what followeth Must we needs therefore have new Laws which Hereticks will not subscribe to or which they cannot break It is the Commendation of Gods Law as fit to be the means of Unity that all are so easily agreed to it in terms and therefore would agree in the sense if they understood it But they will not do so by the Laws of men All or many Hereticks in the primitive times would profess assent to the Churches Creed no doubt in a corrupt and private sense But the Churches did not therefore make new Creeds till above 300 years after Christ they began to put in some particular words to obviate Hereticks which Hilary complained of as the Cause of all their divisions And what if Hereticks will subscribe to all you bid them and take it in their own corrupted sense Must you therefore be still making new Laws and Articles till you meet with some which they cannot mis-understand or dare not thus abuse What if men will mis-interpret and break the Laws of the Land Must they be made new till none can mis-expound or violate them Sure there is a wiser way than this Gods word containeth in sufficient expressions all that is necessary to be subscribed to Require none therefore to subscribe to any more in matters of faith or holy practice But if you think any Articles need a special interpretation let the Church give her sense of those Articles and if any man Preach against that sense and corrupt the Word of God which he hath subscribed let his fault be
Direct 3. Consider that to think ill of God is to think him to be a Devil and to think ill of Direct 3. godliness is to take it to be wickedness And can man be guilty of a more devilish crime Nâ—y is it not worse than the Devil that tempteth you to it can commit To be God is to be Good even the Infinite Eternal perfect Good in whom is no evil nor none can be To be a Devil is to be Evil even the chief that Do-evil and would draw others so to do It is not an ugly shape in which a Painter doth represent the Devil which sheweth us his ugliness indeed An enemy of Godliness is liker to him than that picture It is his sinfulness against God which is his true deformity Therefore to suspect God to be Evil is to suspect him to be the Devil so horrid a blasphemy doth this sin partake of And if Godliness be bad then He that is the Author and End of it cannot be Good Direct 4. § 7. Direct 4. Consider what horrible blindness it is to impute mens faults to God who is the greatest adversary to sin in all the world and who will most severely punish it and to Godliness which is perfectly its contrary There is no Angel in Heaven so little to be suspected to be the friend of sin as God Creatures are mutable in themselves Angels have the innocent imperfection of creatures Saints on earth have a culpable imperfection through the remainder of sin If you had only suspected these you might have had some pretence for it But to quarrel with God or Godliness is madder than to think that Light is the cause of darkness § 8. Direct 5. And think what extremity of injury and injustice this is to God to blame him or his Direct 5. Laws for those sins of men which are committed against him and his Laws Who is it that sin is committed against but God Is it not he that made the Laws which it is the transgression of Are not those Laws think you strict enough against it Is it not their strictness which such as you dislike Were they Laws that would give you leave to be worldly sensual and proud you would never quarrel with them And yet you charge mens sins on these Laws because they are so strict against them Do you impute sin to God because he will judge men for it to Hell fire and cast them for ever out of his glorious presence into misery O cursed impudence How righteous is God in condemning such malicious souls Tell us if you can Would you have had God to have forbidden sin more strictly Or condemned it more severely Or punished it more terribly If you would you pray for greater vengeance than Hell upon your selves Wo to you when he executeth but so much as he hath already threatned Shall the crime of Rebels be imputed to the King against whom they rebel If a Thief shall rob you or a servant deceive you or a Son despise you is he just that will so much increase your injury as to lay the blame of all upon your selves You 'l say It is not God that we are offended with But if it be at a Holy life it is at God For what is Godliness but the loving and serving and obeying God If you say that it is not Godliness neither Why then do you distaste or speak against a godly life on this occasion If you say It is these Hypocrites only that we dislike What do you dislike them for Is it for their Virtue or their Vices If it be for their sins Why then do you not speak and do more against sin in your selves and others We will concurr with you to the utmost in opposing sin where ever it be found If it be their Hypocrisie that you blame perswade your selves and other men to be sincerely godly How would you have Hypocrisie avoided By an open profession to serve the Devil Or by sincerity in serving God If the latter Why then do you think evil of the most serious obedience to God Alas all Christian Countreys are too full of Hypocrites Every one that is Baptized and professeth Christianity is a Saint or an Hypocriâ—e All drunken covetous ambitious sensual unclean Christians are Hypocrites and not Christians indeed And these Hypocrites can quietly live a worldly fleshly life and never lament their own hypocrisie nor their perfidious violating their Baptismal Vow But if one that seemeth diligent for his soul prove an Hypocrite or fall into any scandalous sin here they presently make an ouâ—cry not to call the man from his sin but to make a godly diligent life seem odious to all by telling men These are your godly men It is Godliness that they quarrel with while they pretend only to find fault with sin Why else do not you find fault with the same sin equally in all Or at least perswade men by such examples to be less sinful and more watchful and not to be less religious and more loose Tell me truly of any one that is more against sin than God or any thing more contrary to it than Godliness and true Religion or any men that do more against it than the most Religious and then I will joyn with you in preferring those Till then remember how you condemn your selves when you condemn them that are better than your selves § 9. Direct 6. Think what a foolish audacious thing it is to set your selves against your God and Iudge Direct 6. Will you accuse him of evil because men do evil Are you fit to judge him Are guilty Worms either Wise or Iust enough for such an attempt or strong enough to bear it out What do you but set your faces against Heaven and profess Rebellion against God when you blame his Laws and Government and think the obeying and serving him to be evil § 10. Direct 7. Consider what cruelty it is to your selves to turn the saults of others to your Direct 7. ruine which should be your warning to avoid the like If another man sin will you not only do so too but be the more averse to Repentance and Reformation Will you cut your throat because another cut his finger or did so before you Why should you do your selves such mischief § 11. Direct 8. Remember that this was the design of the Devil in tempting religious people to sin Direct 8. not only to destroy them but to undo you and others by their falls If he can make you think the worse of Religion he hath his design and will He hath killed many at a blow Yeâ— perhaps the sinner may Repent and be forgiven when you that are driven from Repentance and Godliness by the scandal may be damned And will you so far gratifie the Devil in the wilful destruction of your selves Sin is contagious And this is your catching of the infection if it prevail to drive you further from God And thus this
and that all strict Religion is but hypocrisie or at least to refuse their help and counsels Even Plutark noted that It so comes to pass that we entertain not virtue nor are â—apt into a desire of imitating it unless we highly honour and love the person in whom it is discerned And if they see or think the Preacher to be himself of a loose and careless and licentious life they will think that the like is very excusable in themselves and that his doctrine is but a form of speech which his office bindeth him to say but is no more to be regarded by them than by himself Two wayes is mens damnation thus promoted 1. By the ill lives of hypocritical ungodly preachers who actually bring their own persons into disgrace and thereby also the persons of others and consequently their sacred work and function 2. By wicked Preachers and people who through a malignant hatred of those that are abler and better than themselves and an envy of their reputation do labour to make the most zealous and faithful Preachers of the Gospel to be thought to be the most hypocritical or erroneous or factious and schismatical § 5. 5. The neglect of Ministerial duties is a common cause of sin and of mens damnation When they that take the charge of souls are either unable or unwilling to do their office when they teach them too seldome or too unskilfully in an unsuitable manner not choosing that doctrine which they most need or not opening it plainly and methodically in a fitness to their capacities or not applying it with necessary seriousness and urgency to the hearers state When men preach to the ungodly who are neer to damnation in a formal pase like a School-boy saying his lesson or in a drowsie reading tone as if they came to preach them all asleep or were afraid of wakening them When they speak of sin and misery and Christ of Heaven and Hell as if by the manner they came to contradict the matter and to perswade men that there are no such things The same mischief followeth the neglect of private personal inspection When Ministers think that they have done all when they have said a Sermon and never make conscience of labouring personally to convince the ungodly and reclaim offenders and draw sinners to God and confirm the weak And the omission much more the perversion and abuse of sacred Discipline hath the like effects When the Keys of the Church are used to shut out the good or not used when they ought to rebuke or to shut out the impenitent wicked ones nor to difference between the precious and the vile it hardeneth multitudes in their ungodliness and perswadeth them that they are really of the same family of Christ as the Godly are and have their sins forgiven because they are partakers of the same Holy Sacraments Not knowing the difference between the Church mystical and visible nor between the judgement of ministers and of Christ himself § 6. 6. Parents neglect of instructing Children and other parts of holy education is one of the greatest causes of the perdition of mankind in all the World But of this elsewhere § 7. 7. Magistrates persecution or opposition to Religion or discountenancing those that preach it or most seriously practise it tendeth to deceive some who over-reverence the judgement of superiours and to affright others from the obedience of God § 8. 8. Yea the negligence of Magistrates Masters and other Superiours omitting the due rebuke of sinners and due correction of the offenders and the due encouragement of the good is a great cause of the wickedness and damnation of the World § 9. 9. But above all when they make Laws for sin or for the contempt or dishonour or suppression of Religion or the serious practice of it this buildeth up Satans Kingdom most effectually and turneth Gods Ordinance against himself Thousands under Infidel and ungodly Princes are conducted by Obedience to damnation and their Rulers damn them as honourably as the Physicion kill'd his Patients who boasted that he did it secundum artem according to the rules of art § 10. 10. The vulgar example of the multitude of the ungodly is a great cause of mens impiety and damnation They must be well resolved for God and holiness who will not yield to the major Vote nor be carryed down the common stream nor run with the rabble to excess of ryot When Christianity is a Sect which is every where spoken against it proveth so narrow a way that Act. 2. 8. few have a mind to walk in it Men think that they are at least excusable for not being wiser and better than the multitude Singularity in honour or riches or strength or health is accounted no crime but singularity in godliness is at least thought unnecessary What! will you be wiser than all the Town or than such and such superiours is thought a good reprehension of Godliness where it is rare Even by them who hereby conclude their superiours or all the Town to be wiser than God § 11. 11. Also the vulgars scorning and deriding Godliness is a common cause of Murdering souls Because the Devil knoweth that there cannot one Word of solid Reason be brought against the Reason of God and so against a Holy life he therefore teacheth men to use such weapons as they have A Dog hath teeth and an Adder hath a sting though they have not the Weapons of a man A fool can laugh and jeer and rail and there is no great wit or learning necessary to smile or grin or call a man a Puritan or precisian or Heretick or Schismatick or any name which the malice of the age shall newly coin Mr. Robert Bolton largely sheweth how much the malignity of his age did vent it self against Godliness by the reproachful use of the word Puritan When Reason can be bribed to take the Devils part either natural or literate reason he will hire it at any rate But when it cannot he will make use of such as he can get Barking or hissing may serve turn where talking and disputing cannot be procured Drum and Trumpets in an Army serve the turn instead of Oratory to animate cowards and drown the noise of dying mens complaints and groans Thousands have been mocked out of their Religion and salvation at once and jeered into Hell who now know whether a scorn or the fire of Hell be the greater suffering As Tyrants think that the Greatest and Ablest and wisest men must either be drawn over to their party or destroyed so the Tyrant of Hell who ruleth in the Children of disobedience doth think that if Reason Learning and wit cannot be hired to dispute for him against God they are to be suppressed silenced and disgraced which the noise of rude clamours and foolish jeers is fit enough to perform § 12. 12. Also idle sensless prating against Religion as a needless thing doth serve turn to deceive the simple Ignorant people
knowledge The wise and the foolish must not be spoken to alike 2. According to the variety of their moral qualities One may be very pious and another weak in grace and another only teachable and tractable and another wicked and impenitent and another obstinate and scornful These must not be talkt to with the same manner of discourse 3. According to the variety of particular sins which they are inclined to which in some is pride in some sensuality lust or idleness in some covetousness and in some an erroneous zeal against the Church and cause of Christ Every wise Physicion will vary his remedies not only according to the kind of the disease but according to its various accidents and the complexion also of the patient § 8. Direct 8. Be sure to do most where you have most authority and obligation He that will Direct 8. neglect and slight his Family Relations Children and Servants who are under him and alwayes with him and yet be zealous for the Conversion of strangers doth discover much hypocrisie and sheweth that it is something else than the love of souls or sense of duty which carryeth him on § 9. Direct 9. Never speak of holy things but with the greatest reverence and seriousness you can Direct 9. The manner as well as the matter is needful to the effect To talk of sin and conversion of God and eternity in a common running careless manner as you speak of the men and the matters of the world is much worse than silence and tendeth but to debauch the hearers and bring them to a contempt of God and holiness I remember my self that when I was young I had sometime the company of one antient godly Minister who was of weaker parts than many others but yet did profit me more than most because he would never in prayer or conference speak of God or the life to come but with such marvellous seriousness and reverence as if he had seen the Majesty and Glory which he talkt of § 10. Direct 10. Take heed of inconsiderate imprudent passages which may marr all the rest and Direct 10. give malignant auditors advantage of contempt and scorn Many honest Christians through their ignorance thus greatly wrong the cause they manage I would I might not say Many Ministers Too few words is not so bad as one such imprudent foolish word too much § 11. Direct 11. Condescend to the weak and bear with their infirmity If they give you foolish Direct 11. answers be not angry and impatient with them yea or if they perversly cavil and contradict For the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing opposers if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. He is a foolish Physicion that cannot bear the words of a phrenetick or delirant Patient § 12. Direct 12. When you are among those that can teach you be not so forward to teach as to Direct 12. learn Be not eager to vent what you have to say but desirous to hear what your betters have to say Questions in such a case should be most of your part It requireth great skill and diligence to draw that out of others which may profit you And be not impatient if they cross your opinions or open your ignorance Yea those that you can teach in other things yet in some things may be able to add much to your knowledge Tit. 3. Special Directions for Reproof and Exhortation for the Good of Others THis duty is so great that Satan hindereth it with all his power and so hard that most men quite omit it unless an angry reproach may go for Christian Exhortation And some spoil it in the management And some proud censorious persons mistake the exercise of their pride and passion for the exercise of a charitable Christian duty and seem to be more sensible of their neighbours sin and misery than of their own Therefore that you miscarry not in so needful a work I shall add these following Directions § 1. Direct 1. Be sure first that your reproof have a right end and then let the manner be suited to Direct 1. that end If it be to convince and convert a soul it must be done in a manner likely to prevail If it be only to bear down the arguments of a deceiver to preserve the standers by to vindicate the honour of God and godliness and to dishonour sin and to disgrace an obstinate factor for the Devil then another course is fit Therefore resolve first by the quality of the cause and person what must be your end § 2. Direct 2. Be sure that you reprove not that as a sin which is no sin either by mistaking the Direct 2. Law or the fact To make duties and sins of our own opinions and inventions and then to lay out our zeal on these and censure or reprove all that think as hardly of such things as we this is to make our selves the objects of the hearers pity and not to exercise just pity towards others Such reproofs deserve reproof For they discover great ignorance and pride and self-conceitedness and very much harden sinners in their way and make them think that all reproof is but the vanity of fantastical hypocrites In some cases with a child or servant or private friend or for prevention we may speak of faults upon hearsay or suspicion But it must be as of things uncertain and as a warning rather than a reproof In ordinary Reproof you must understand the case before you speak It is a shame to say after I thought it had been otherwise Such an erroneous reproof is worse than none § 3. Direct 3. Choose not the smallest sins to reprove nor the smallest duties to exhort them to For Direct 3. that will make them think that all your zeal is taken up with little matters and that there is no great necessity of regarding you and conscience will be but little moved by your speech when greater things will greatly and more easily affect men § 4. Direct 4. Stop not with unregenerate men in the mention of particular sins or duties but Direct 4. make use of particulars to convince them of a state of sin and misery It is easie to convince a man that he is a sinner and when that is done he is never the more humbled or converted For he will tell you that All are sinners and therefore he hopeth to speed as well as you But you must make him discern his sinful state and shew him the difference between a penitent sinner and an impenitent a converted sinner and an unconverted a justified pardoned sinner and an unjustified unpardoned one or else you 'l do him but little good § 5. Direct 5. Suit the manner of your reproof to the quality of the person It is seldome that a Direct 5. Parent Master or
loss is to be estimated as a mulct or penalty and to be disposed of as such mulcts as are laid on Swearers and Drunkards are Only the person by his voluntary bargain hath made the other party instead of the Magistrate and authorized him in ordinary cases to dispose of the gain for the poor or publick good § 11. Quest. 6. Am I obliged by the words or writings which usually express a Covenant without any Quest. 6. Covenanting or self-obliging intention in me when I speak or write them Answ. Either you utter or write those words with a purpose to make another believe that you intend a Covenant or at least by culpable negligence in such a manner as he is bound so to understand you or justified for so understanding you or else you so use the words as in the manner sufficiently to signifie that you intend no Covenant or self-obligation In the former case you bind your self as above said Because another man is not to be a loser nor you a gainer or a saver by your own fraud or gross negligence But in the later case you are not bound Because an intent of self-obliging is the internal efficient of the obligation and a signification of such an intent is the external efficient without which it cannot be If you read over the words of a bond or repeat them only in a Narrative or ludicrously â—â— if a Scrâ—vener write a form of obligation of himself to a boy for a Copy or to a Scholar for a president these do not induce any obligation in Conscience nor make you a debtor to another Thus also the case of the Intent of the Baptizer or Baptized or parents is to be determined § 12. Quest. 7. May a true man promise money to a robber for the saving of his life or of a greater Quest. 7. sum or more precious commodity Answ. Yes in case of necessity when his life or estate cannot better be preserved And so taxes may be paid to an Enemy in arms or to a plundering Souldier supposing that it do no other hurt which is greater than the good Any man may part with a lesser good to preserve a greater And it is no more voluntary or imputable to our wills than the casting of our goods into the Sea to save the vessel and our lives § 13. Quest. 8. May I give money to a Iudge or Iustice or Court-officer to hire him to do me justice Quest. 8. or to keep him from dâ—ing me wrong or to avoid persecution Answ. You may not in case your cause be bad give any thing to procure injustice against another no nor speak a word for it nor desire it This I take as presupposed You may not give money to procure justice when the Law of the Land forbiddeth it and when it will do more hurt accidentally to others than good to you when it will harden men in the sin of bribery and cause them to expect the like from others But except it be when some such Accidental greater hurt doth make it evil it is as lawful as to hire a thief not to kill me when you cannot have your right by other means you may part with a smaller matter for a greater § 14. Quest. 9. But if I make such a contract may the other lawfully take it of me Quest. 9. Answ. No for it is now supposed that it is unlawful on his part § 15. Quest. 10. But if under necessity or force I promise money to a Robber or a Iudge or Officer Quest. 10. am I bound to perform it when necessity is over Answ. You have lost your own propriety by your Covenant and therefore must not retain it But he can acquire no right by his sin and therefore some say that in point of Justice you are not bound to give it him but to give it to the Magistrate for the poor But yet Prudence may tell you of other reasons à fine to give it the man himself though Iustice bind you not to it As in case that else he may be revenged and do you some greater hurt or some greater hurt is any other way like to be the consequent which it is lawful by money to prevent But many think that you are bound to deliver the money to the Thief or officer himself because it is a lawful thing to do it though he have no just title to it and because it was your meaning or the signification of your words in your Covenant with him And if it were not lawful to do it it could not be lawful to promise to do it otherwise your promise is a lye To this those of the other opinion say that as a man who is discharged of his promise by him that it was made to is not to be accounted false if he perform it not so is it as to the Thief or Officer in question because he having no right is to you as the other that hath quit his right And this answer indeed will prove that it is not strict injustice not to pay the money promised but it will not prove that it is not a lye to make such a promise with an intent of not-performing it or that it is not a lye to make it with an intent of performing it and not to do it when you may Though here a Jesuite will tell you that you may say the words of a promise with an equivocation or mental reservation to a Thief or persecuting Magistrate Of which see more in the Chapters of Lying Vowes and Perjury 〈…〉 am therefore of Opinion that your promise must be sincerely made and according to the true intent of it you must offer the money to the Thief or Officer except in case the Magistrate forbid you or some greater reason lye against it which you foresaw not when you made the promise But the offender is undoubtedly obliged not to take the money § 16. The same determination holdeth as to all contracts and promises made to such persons who by injurious force constrained us to make them There is on us an obligation to Veracity though none to them in point of Justice because they have no proper right nor may they lawfully take our payment or service promised them And in case that the publick good unexpectedly cross our performance we must not perform it Such like is the case of Conquerours and those that upon conquest become their vassals or subjects upon unrighteous terms But still remember that if it be not only a Covenant with man but a Vow to God which maketh him a party the case is altered and we remain obliged § 17. Quest. 11. But may I promise the Thief or Bribe-taker to conceal his fault and am I obliged to Quest. 11. the performance of such a promise Answ. This is a promise of omitting that which else would be a duty It is ordinarily a duty to reveal a Thief and bribe-taker that he may be punished But affirmatives bind
Christians Armenians Greeks Papists who will hear them and among Heathens in Indostan and elsewhere and Mahometans especially the Persians who allow a liberty of discourse But above all the Chaplains of the several Embassies and Factories O what an opportunity have they to sow the seeds of Christianity among the Heathen Nations and to make known Christ to the Infidel people where they come And how heavy a guilt will lye on them that shall neglect it And how will the great industry of the Jesuites rise up in judgement against them and condemn them Direct 10. The more you are deprived of the benefit of Gods publick Worship the more industrious Direct 10. must you be in Reading Scripture and good Books and in secret Prayer and Meditation and in the improvement of any one godly friend that doth accompany you to make up your loss and to be instead of publick means It will be a great comfort among Infidels or Papists or ignorant Greeks or prophane people to read sound and holy and spiritual Books and to conferr with some one godly friend and to meditate on the sweet and glorious subjects which from Earth and Heaven are set before us and to solace our selves in the praises of God and to powre out our suites before him Direct 11. And that your work may be well done be sure that you have right ends and that it be Direct 11. not to please a ranging fancy nor a proud vain mind nor a Covetous desire of being Rich or high Peregrinatio omnis obscura sordida est iis quorum industria in patria potest esse illustris Cicer. that you go abroad but that you do it purposely and principally to serve God abroad and to be able to serve him the better when you come home with your wit and experience and estates If sincerely you go for this end and not for the Love of money you may expect the greater comfort Direct 12. Stay abroad no longer than your lawful ends and work require And when you come home let it be seen that you have seen sin that you might hate it and that by the observation of the errors and evils of the world you love sound doctrine spiritual worship and holy sober and righteous Direct 12. living better than you did before and that you are the better resolved and furnished for a godly exemplary fruitful life One thing more I will warn some Parents of who send their Sons to travel to keep them from Note untimely marrying lest they have part of their estates too soon That there are other means better than this which prudence may find out If they would keep them low from fulness and idleness and bad company which a wise self-denying diligent man may do but another cannot and engage them in as much study and business conjunct as they can well perform and when they must needs marry let it be done with prudent careful choice and learn themselves to live somewhat lower that they may spare that which their Son must have this course would be better than that hazardous one in question CHAP. XX. Motives and Directions against Oppression § 1. OPpression is the injuring of inferiours who are unable to resist or to right themselves when men use Power to bear down right Yet all is not Oppression which is so called by the poor or by inferiours that suffer For they are apt to be partial in their own cause as well as others There may be injustice in the expectations of the poor as well as in the actions of the rich Some think they are oppressed if they be justly punished for their crimes And some say they are oppressed if they have not their wills and unjust desires and may not be suffered to injure their superiours And many of the poor do call all that In omni certamine qui opulentior est etiamsi accipit injuriam tamen quia plus potest facere videtur Salust in Iugurth Oppression which they suffer from any that are above them as if it were enough to prove it an injury because a Rich man doth it But yet Oppression is a very common and a heynous sin § 2. There are as many wayes of oppressing others as there are advantages to men of power against them But the principal are these following § 3. 1. The most common and heinous sort is the malignant injuries and cruelties of the ungodly against men that will not be as indifferent in the matters of God and salvation as themselves and that will not be of their opinions in Religion and be as bold with sin and as careless of their souls as they These are hated reproached slandered abused and some way or other pesecuted commonly where ever they live throughout the world But of this sort of Oppression I have spoken before § 4. 2. A second sort is the Oppression of the Subjects by their Rulers either by unrighteous Laws or cruel executions or unjust impositions or exactions laying on the people greater Taxes tributes or servitude than the common good requireth and than they are able well to bear Thus did Pharaoh oppress the Israelites till their groans brought down Gods vengeance on him But I purposely forbear to meddle with the sins of Magistrates § 5. 3. Souldiers also are too commonly guilty of the most inhumane barbarous oppressions plundering the poor Countrey-men and domineering over them and robbing them of the fruit of their hard labours and of the bread which they should maintain their families with and taking all that they can lay hold on as their own But unless it be a few that are a wonder in the world this sort of men are so barbarous and inhumane that they will neither read nor regard any counsel that I shall give them No man describeth them better than Erasmus § 6. 4. The Oppression of Servants by their Masters I have said enough to before And among us where servants are free to change for better Masters it is not the most common sort of Oppression But rather servants are usually negligent and unfaithful because they know that they are free Except in the case of Apprentices § 7. 5. It is too common a sort of Oppression for the Rich in all places to domineer too insolently over the poor and force them to follow their wills and to serve their interest be it right or wrong So that it is rare to meet with a poor man that dare displease the rich though it be in a cause where God and Conscience do require it If a rich man wrong them they dare not seek their remedy at Law because he will tire them out by the advantage of his friends and wealth and either carry it against them be his cause never so unjust or lengthen the suit till he hath undone them and forced them to submit to his oppressing will § 8. 6. Especially unmerciful Landlords are the common and sore oppressors of the Countrey-men If a
and Dice and Stage-playes and so much on Hounds and needless pleasures c. Or rather So much to promote the preaching of the Gospel so much to set poor children to Prentice or to School so much to relieve distressed families c. Let Matth. 25. be well read and your account well thought on § 27. Direct 5. Keep an account of your expences and peruse them before a Fast or a Sacrament Direct 5. and ask conscience how it judgeth of them Yea ask some holy prudent friend Whether such proportions are allowable before God and will be comfortable to you in the day of your extremity If you are but willing to be cured such means as these will not be in vain CHAP. XXII Cases and Directions against injurious Law-Suits Witnessing and Iudgement Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Law-Suits and Proceedings Quest. 1. IN what cases is it lawful to go to Law with others Quest. 1. Answ. 1. In case of necessary defence when the Plaintiff doth compell you to it 2. When you are entrusted for Orphans or others whom you cannot otherwise right 3. When your Children or the Church or poor whom you should do good to are like to suffer iâ— you recover not your talent that God hath trusted you with for such uses from the hands of unjust men And they refuse all just arbitrations and other equal means which might avoid such suits 4. When your own necessity constraineth you to seek your own which you cannot get by easier means 5. When your forbearance will do more hurt by encouraging Knaves in their injustice than it will do good 6. When ever your cause is just and neither Mercy peace nor the avoiding of scandal do forbid it That is when it is like to do more good than harm it is then a lawful course But it is unlawful to go to Law 1. When you neglect just arbitrations patience and other needful means to avoid it 2. When your Cause is unjust 3. When you oppress the poor by it 4. When it is done in Coveâ—ousness revenge or pride 5. When the scandal or hurt to your Brother is like to be a greater harm than the righting of your self is like to do good Then must you not go willingly to Law Quest. 2. May I sue a poor man for a debt or trespass Quest. 2. Answ. 1. If he be so poor as that he cannot pay it nor procure you satisfaction the Suit is vain and tendeth but to cruelty 2. If he have no means to pay but that which will deprive him of food and rayment and the necessaries of his life or comfort you may not sue him unless it be for the supply of as great necessities of your own or in a trust for Orphans where you have no power to remit the debt yea and for them no cruelty must be used 3. If your forbearance be like to make him ableâ— by his diligence or other means you should forbear if possible 4. But if he be competently able and refuse to pay through knavery and injustice and you have better wayes to use that money if scandal forbid not you may seek by Law to recover your own from him Quest. 3. May I sue a Surety whose interest was not concerned in the case Quest. 3. Answ. If his poverty make it not an act of cruelty nor scandal prohibite it you may Because he was willing and declared his consent that you should have the debt of him if the principal pay not To become Surety is to consent to this And it is no injury to receive a mans money by his own consent and Covenant He knew that you had not lent it but on those terms and you had reason to suppose that he who would undertake to pay another mans debt had sufficient reason for it either in relation or counter-security But as you must use mercy to the principal debtor in his poverty so must you also to the surety Quest. 4. May I sue for the use of money as well as for the principal Quest. 4. Answ. This dependeth on the Case of Usury before resolved In those cases in which it may not be taken it may not be sued for Nor yet when the scandal of it will do more harm than the money will do good But in other cases it may be sued for on the terms as the Rent of Lands may Quest. 5. May Law-Suites be used to disable or humble an insolent wicked man Quest. 5. Answ. You may not take up an ill cause against him for any such good end But if you have a good cause against him which otherwise you would not have prosecuted you may make use of it to disable him from doing mischief when really it is a probable means thereto and when neither scandal nor other accidents do prohibite it Quest. 6. May a rich man make use of his friends and purse in a just cause to bear down or tire Quest. 6. out a poorer man that hath a bad cause Answ. Not by bribery or any evil means For his proceeding must be just as well as his cause But if it be an obstinate knave that setteth himself to do hurt to others it is lawful to make use of the favour of a righteous Judge or Magistrate against him And it is lawful to humble him by the length and expensiveness of the Suit when that is the fittest means and no unjust action is done in it Still supposing that scandal prohibit it not But let no proud or cruel person think that therefore they may by purse and friends and tedious Law-Suits oppress the innocent and attain their own unrighteous wills Quest. 7. May one use such forms in Law-Suits as in the literal sense are gross untruths in Declaratitions Quest. 7. Answers or the like Answ. The use of words is to express the mind And common use is the interpreter of them If they are such words as the notorious common use hath put another sense on than the literal one they must be taken in the sense which publick use hath put upon them And if that publick sense be true or Quest. 8. false accordingly they may or may not be used Quest. 8. May a guilty person plead not guilty or deny the fact Answ. Common use is the interpreter of words If the common use of those words doth make their publick sense a lye it may not be done But if the forinsick common use of the denyal is taken to signifie no more but this Let him that accuseth me prove it I am not bound to accuse my self or In foro I am not guilty till it be proved then it is lawful to plead Not-guilty and deny the fact except in cases wherein you are bound to an open confession or in which the scandal will do more hurt than the denyal will do good Quest. 9. Is a man ever bound to accuse himself and seek Iustice against himself Quest. 9. Answ. 1. In many cases a
man is bound to punish himself As when the Law against Swearing Cursing or the like doth give the poor a certain mulct which is the penalty He ought to give that money himself And in cases where it is a necessary cure to himself And in any case where the publick good requireth it As if a Magistrate offend whom none else will punish or who is the Judge in his own cause he should so far punish himself as is necessary to the suppression of sin and to the preserving of the honour of the Laws As I have heard of a Justice that swore twenty Oaths and paid his twenty shillings for it 2. A man may be bound in such a Divine Vengeance or Judgement as seeketh after his particular sin to offer himself to be a sacrifice to Justice to stop the Judgement As Ionah and Achan did 3. A man may be bound to confess his guilt and offer himself to Justice to save the innocent who is falsly accused and condemned for his crime 4. But in ordinary cases a man is not bound to be his own publick accuser or executioner Quest. 10. May a Witness voluntarily speak that truth which he knoweth will further an unrighteous Quest. 10. cause and be made use of to oppress the innocent Answ. He may never do it as a confederate in that intention Nor may he do it when he knoweth that it will tend to such an event though threatned or commanded except when some weightier accident doth preponderate for the doing it As the avoiding of a greater hurt to others than it will bring on the oppressed c. Quest. 11. May a witness conceal some part of the truth Quest. 11. Answ. Not when he sweaâ—â—â—â—h to deliver the whole truth Nor when a good cause is like to suffer or a bad cause to be furâ—â—â—â—ered by the concealment Nor when he is under any other obligation to reveal the whole Quest. 12. Must a Iudge and Iury proceed secundum allegata probata according to evidence and Quest. 12. proof when they know the witness to be false and the truth to be contrary to the testimony but are not able to evince it Answ. Distinguish between the Negative and the Positive part of the Verdict or Sentence In the Negative they must go according to the evidence and testimonies unless the Law of the Land leave the case to their private knowledge As for example They must not sentence a Thief or Murderer to be punished upon their secret unproved knowledge They must not adjudge either Moneys or Lands to the true Owner from another without sufficient evidence and proof They must forbear doing Iustice because they are not called to it nor enabled But Positively they may do no Injustice upon any evidence or witness against their own knowledge of the truth As they may not upon known false witness give away any mans Lands or Money or condemn the innocent But must in such a case renounce the Office The Judge must come off the Bench and the Jury protest that they will not meddle or give any Verdict what ever come of it Because God and the Law of Nature prohibit their injustice Object It is the Law that doth it and not we Answ. It is the Law and you And the Law cannot justifie your agency in any unrighteous sentenâ—e The case is plain and past dispute Tit. 2. Directions against Contentious Suits False Witnessing and Oppressive Iudgements § 1. Direct 1. THe first Cure for all these sins is to know the intrinsick evil of them Good Direct 1. thoughts of sin are its life and strength When it is well known it will be hated and when it is hated it is so far cured § 2. I. The Evil of Contentious and unjust Law-Suits 1. Such contentious Suits do shew the power of selfishness in the sinner How much self-interest is inordinately esteemed 2. They shew the excessive love of the world How much men over-value the things which they contend for 3. They shew mens want of Love to their neighbours How little they regard another mans interest in comparison of their own 4. They shew how little such mens care for the publick good which is maintained by the concord and love of neighbours 5. Such contentions are powerful Engines of the Devil to destroy all Christian Love on both sides and to stir up mutual enmity and wrath and so to involve men in a course of sin by further uncharitableness and injuries both in heart and word and deed 6. Poor men are hereby robbed of their necessary maintenance and their innocent families subjected to distress 7. Unconscionable Lawyers and Court-Officers who live upon the peoples sins are hereby maintained encouraged and kept up 8. Laws and Courts of Justice are perverted to do men wrong which were made to right them 9. And the offender declareth how little sense he hath of the authority or Love of God and how little sense of the grace of our Redeemer And how far he is from being himself forgiven through the blood of Christ who can no better forgive another § 3. II. The Evil of False Witness 1. By False Witness the innocent are injured Robbery and Murder are committed under pretence of truth and justice 2. The Name of God is horribly abused by the crying sin of Perjury of which before 3 The Presence and Justice of God are contemned When sinners dare in his sight and hearing appeal to his Tribunal in the attesting of a lye 4. Vengeance is begged or consented to by the sinner who bringeth Gods curse upon himself and as it were desireth God to plague or damn him if he lye 5. Satan the Prince of malice and injustice and the Father of lyes and murders and oppression is hereby gratified and eminently served 6. God himself is openly injured who is the Father and Patron of the innocent and the cause of every righteous prson is more the cause of God than of man 7. All Government is frustrated and Laws abused and all mens security for their reputations or estates or lives is overthrown by false witnesses And consequently humane converse is made undesirable and unsafe What good can Law or right or innocency or the honesty of the Judge do any man where false-witnesses combine against him What security hath the most innocent or worthy person for his fame or liberty or estate or life if false witnesses conspire to defame him or destroy him And then how shall men endure to converse with one another Either the innocent must seek out a Wilderness and flye from the face of men as we do from Lyons and Tygers or else Peace will be worse than War For in War a ma 〈…〉 ay fight for his life but against false witnesses he hath no defence But God is the avenger of the innocent and above most other sins doth seldome suffer this to go unpunished even in this present world but often beginneth their Hell on Earth to such perjured