certain truth But taking it for a thing probable which may be true for ought you know and which you must hope is true and this in different degrees according to the different degrees of the Persons credibility If you hear men confidently report any News in these times when half that we hear oft proveth false you may believe the reporter as a fallible Person that is believe that he doth not wilfully Lie and so not uncivilly contradict him and yet suspend your belief of the thing it self and whether he took it up rashly on uncertain rumors But if you hear a man speak evil of another behind his Back when the thing is not notorious and certain otherways the Law of Justice and Charity obligeth you not to believe him but to suspend your belief till you hear both sides or have surer proof yea and to suspend not with an indifferency but with a hope that it is not true which he speaketh Obj. XIII But then I shall be as uncharitable in judging the Reporter who perhaps is a godly man to be a Liar and Slanderer as I should be in believing that the other is guilty Ans 1. I say not that you are to conclude that certainly he lieth and that it 's false but to suspend your belief and to hope that it 's false 2. He that maketh himself the accuser of another man behind his Back in a way of talk doth expose himself to that disadvantage and maketh it our duty to begin our charitable Opinion on the side of him that is accused and rather to hope that he is innocent caeteris paribus than the accuser For God forbiddeth backbiting and slandering and biddeth us speak evil of no man. And he that in our hearing backbiteth and speaketh evil how godly otherwise soever without a clear necessary cause doth forfeit our Charity and Belief more than a man can do whom we do not see or hear For if I was bound to judge him innocent before this backbiting I am bound so to judge him still Therefore I do but continue that good Opinion of my Neighbour which I was bound to And that I must suspect the backbiter of a Lie is the consequent of his own act and long of himself For I cannot believe contraries And it is not his backbiting which will disoblige me from my former duty of judging the other innocent So that it is the reporter that casteth away the reputation of his own veracity Obj. XIV When you have written all this against pretended knowledge who is more guilty than your self Who so oppresseth his Reader with distinctions Are all your large Writings evident certainties Even those Controversies in which you have so many Adversaries Ans I put in this objection because I have a Book called Methodus Theologiae which I know will occasion such thoughts in many Readers But 1. It is one thing to assert uncertainties and another thing to anatomize and distinctly and methodically explain a certain truth In all my large writings if you find that I call any thing certain which is uncertain that is which I give not ascertaining evidence of acquaint me with the particulars and I shall retract them 2. I never perswaded any man to write or say no more than all men certainly know already no not all Learned Divines For then how should we receive edification Subjective certainty is as various as mens Intellects where no two are of a size And objective certainty must be tryed by the evidence and not by other mens consenting to it Nor must a Major Vote of Dissenters go for a proof of objective uncertainty For Heathens are more than the rest of the World and Mahometans more than Christians and Papists more than Protestants and the ungodly more than the godly and yet this is no proof of our own or the things uncertainty 3. Part of my writings are against uncertainties and to deliver the Church from false Opinions that go for certainties and these are they that have most contradicters And may I not write against false and uncertain Opinions which Religion is corrupted with and defend the ancient simplicity without being guilty of the introduction of uncertainties my self 4. I deny not but I have many things that are uncertain But then I acknowledge them uncertain and treat of them but as they are 5. Lastly If really my writings are guilty of that which I here reprehend false pretended knowledge the sin is never the better for that nor my accusation of it ever the less true nor your duty to avoid it ever the less Think what you will of me so you will but think rightly of sin and duty If I go contrary to my Doctrine and you can prove it take warning by me and do not you the like Chap. XXI Directions for the cure of Pretended Knowledge or Self-conceit THE Cure of this Plague of Prefidence of Pretended Knowledge is it which all the rest is written for and must now be the last in Execution as it was the first in my intention And could men be perswaded to this following course it might be done But natures vitious inclination to the vice and the Commonness and Strength of Temptations to it do make me expect to prevail but with a few Direct I. Labour to understand the true Nature and Principles of Certainty before opened False measures will make you judge Certainties to be Falshoods or Uncertain and Falshoods to be certain truths And when you know the conditions of certainty try all things by them accurately And if any would by art perswade you of the uncertainty of Natures just perceptions by Sense or Intellect remember that be they what they will you have no better or surer They are such as our Creator hath given you to trust to for your use even for the ends of life Direct II. Discern the helps of Knowledge from Knowledge or Certainty itself Believing your Teachers as men and believing Historians according to their Credibility and Reverencing the Judgment of Seniors and of the Church are all preparative helps to Certainty And humane Faith is such as to Divine Faith. But do not therefore think that it is the same Nor give men that prerogative of Infallibility which belongeth to God or to inspired Prophets who prove their word by Gods attestation The belief of Logicians is needful to your understanding Logick and Logick is a great help to your certain discerning of Physical and Metaphysical and Moral Verities And yet many Rules of your Logick may be uncertain and you must not take the helps of your Knowledge for Evidence it self Some think that nothing is known till we have Second notions for it or can define it When things sensible are better known by sensing them and usually second notions deceive men and make them doubt of what they better apprehended without them Be very suspicious of all words or terms 1. As ambiguous as almost all are And therefore he that cannot distinguish them
advantaged by the help of other mens experiments 2. And others rush on Practice in their youth partly because they have not yet knowledge enough to discern uncertainties and difficulties in the Art or to see what is further necessary to be known And partly because they think that seeing Skill must be got by experience use must help them to that experience and all men must have a beginning 3. And when they do their best they say God requireth no more 4. And they hope if they kill one they cure many But O that they had the Sobriety to consider 1. That the Physician is but One man And will his maintenance or livelyhood excuse him for killing many 2. That even one mans Life is more precious than one mans maintenance or fuller supply Is it not honester to beg your bread 3. That killing men by virtue of your trade without danger to you doth but hinder your Repentance but not so much extenuate your sin as many think Which is aggravated in that you kill your friends that trust you and not Enemies that oppose you or avoid you 4. Your experience must not be got by killing men but by accompanying experienced Physicians till you are fit to practice And if you cannot stay so long for want of maintenance beg rather than kill men or betake you to some other trade But if you be too Proud or Confident to take such Counsel I still advise all that love their lives that they choose not a Physician under fourty years old at least and if it may be not under sixty unless it be for some little disease or remedy which hath no danger and where they can do no harm if they do no good Old men may be ignorant but Young men must needs be so for want of experience though some few rare persons are sooner ripe than others And whereas they say that they Cure more than they Kill I wish that I had reason to believe them I suppose that if more of their patients did not live than die they would soon lose their practice But it 's like the far greatest part of those that live would have lived without them and perhaps have been sooner and easier cured if nature had not by them been disturbed And what calling is there in which hasty judging and conceits of more knowledge than men have doth not make great confusion and disappointment If a Fool that rageth and is confident be a Pilot woe to the poor Seamen and Passengers in the Ship. If such a one be Commander in an Army his own and other mens Blood or Captivity must cure his confidence and stay his rage For such will learn at no cheaper a rate How oft hear we such Workmen Carpenters Masons c. raging confident that their way is right and their work well done till the ruin of it confute and shame them If this disease take hold of Governours who will not stay to hear all parties and know the Truth but take up reports on trust from those that please or flatter them or judge presently before impartial tryal and hearing all woe to the land that is so governed The wisest and the best man must have due information and time patience and consideration to receive it or else he may do as David between Mephibosheth and Ziba and cannot be just What an odious thing is a partial blind rash hasty and impatient judge that cannot hear think and know before he judgeth Such the old Christians had to do with among their Persecutors who knew not what they held or what they were and yet could judge them and cruelly execute them And such were Tacitus and other old Historians that from common prejudice spake words of contempt or reproach of them The Christians were glad when they had a Trajan an Antonine an Alexander Severus c. to speak to that had Reason and Sobriety to hear their cause Among the Papists the old Reformers and Martyrs took him for a very commendable judge or Magistrate that would but allow them a Patient hearing and give them leave to speak for themselves Truth and Godliness have so much evidence and such a testimony for themselves in the Conscience of Mankind as that the Devil could never get them so odiously thought of and so hardly used in the World but only by keeping them unknown which is much by expelling and silencing their defenders who speed well sometime if an Obadiah hide them by fifties in a Cave and by tempting their Judges to hear but some superficial narrative of their cause and to have but a glimpse of the outside as in transitu and to see only the back-parts of it yea but the clothing which is commonly such as are made by its Enemies Good men and causes are too oft brought to them and set out by them as Christ with his Scarlet Robe his Reed and Crown of Thorns and then they say Behold the man and when they have cryed out Blasphemy and an Enemy to Caesar they write over his cross in scorn The King of the Jews Cain had not Patience to hear his own Brother and weigh the Case no not after that God had admonished him But he must first hate and murder and afterward consider why when it is too late Judas must know his Masters Innocency and what he had done in despair to hang himself And so wise Achitophel cometh to his end If David would have pondred his usage of Uriah as much in time as he did when Nathan had awakened his reason O what had he prevented If Paul had weighed before the case of Christians as he did when Christ did stop his rage he had not incurred the guilt of Persecution and the Martyrs Blood But he tells us that he was exceedingly mad against them And it is madness indeed to venture on Cruelty and Persecution and not stay first to understand the cause and consider why and what is like to be the end How ordinarily in the world are the excellentest men on Earth for Wisdom and Holiness such as Ignatius Cyprian and the rest of the Antient Martyrs and such as Athanasius Chrysostom c. reviled and used as if they were the basest Rogues on Earth laid in Jails banished silenced murdered and all this by men that know not what they are and have no true understanding of their cause Men of whom the world was not worthy wandred up and down in Dens and Caves and suffered joyfully the spoiling of their goods yea and death it self Heb. 11. from men that Judged before they knew Many a Great Man and Judge that hath condemned Christ's Ministers as Hereticks false Teachers unworthy to preach the Gospel have been such as understand not their Baptism Creed or Catechism and have need of many years teaching to make them know truly but those Principles that every Child should know There needs no great learning wisdom sobriety or honesty to teach them to cry out You are a Rogue a Seducer a
even good men may think and speak evil of us as Bernard and others of the Waldenses and many Fathers of many Godly Men that were called Hereticks and many called Hereticks of such Fathers But to us it is a small thing to be judged of man that is not our final judge and knoweth not our cause and is ready to be judged with us We have one that judgeth us and them even the omniscient God who knoweth every Circumstance of our cause 3. Our very Friends know us not No not they that dwell with us In some things they judge us better than we are and in some things worse For they know not our hearts And interests and cross dispositions may deceive them and even our bosom Friends may slander us and think they speak the truth And when they entirely Love us their Love may hurt us while they know not what is for our good But God knoweth us perfectly and knoweth how to Counsel us Conduct us and Dispose of us He seeth the inwards and the outwards the onwards and the upwards of our case which our dearest Friends are utter strangers to 4. We know not our selves throughly nor our own concerns We oft take our selves to be better or worse than indeed we are We are oft mistaken in our own hearts and our own actions and in our interest We oft take that to be good for us that is bad and that to be bad which is good and necessary We long for that which would undo us and fear and fly from that which would save us We oft rejoyce when we are going to the slaughter or are at least in greatest danger and we lament and cry when God is saving us because we know not what he is doing Paul saith I know nothing by my self yet I judge not my own self that is though I have a good Conscience yet that is not my final judge It must go with me as God judgeth of me and not as others or my self Is it not then an unspeakable comfort in all these cases that we are known of God Desiring to know inordinately for our selves was our first sin And this sin is our danger and our constant trouble But to be to God as a Child to his Father who taketh care to Love him and obey him and in all things trusteth his Fathers Love as knowing that he careth for him this is our duty our interest and our only peace Remember then with comfort O my Soul 1. Thy Father knoweth what it is fittest for thee to do His precepts are wise and just and good Thou knowest not but by his word Love therefore and submit to all his Laws The strictest of them are for thy good Thy Guide and not thou must lead the way Go not before him nor without him nor stay behind him In this night and wilderness if thou have not his Light and Presence how forlorn Erroneous and Comfortless wilt thou be He knoweth thy heart and knoweth thy Enemies Temptations and Dangers and therefore best knoweth how to guide thee and what to put into his Laws and into thy duty 2. He knoweth what place what state of Life of Health of Wealth of Friends is best for thee None of these are known to thee He knoweth whether ease or pain be best The flesh is no fit judge nor an ignorant mind That is best which will prove best at last Which he that foreknoweth all events knoweth That therefore is best which infinite Wisdom and Love doth choose Ease and Pain will have their end It is the end that must teach us how to estimate them And who but God can foretell thee the end He knoweth whether Liberty or Imprisonment be best Liberty is a Prison if sin prevail and God be not there A Prison is a Pallace if God by his Love will dwell there with us There is no thraldom but sin and Gods displeasure and no true liberty but his Love. 3. He knoweth whether Honour or Dishonour be best for thee If the esteem of men may facilitate their reception of the saving truth of God which is preached to them God will procure it if he have work to do by it If not how little is it to be regarded What doth it add to me to be highly esteemed or applauded by men who are hasting to the dust where their thoughts of me and all the world are at an end When I see the Skulls of the dead who perhaps once knew me how little doth it now concern me what thoughts of me were once within that Skull And as for the immortal Soul if it be in the world of light it judgeth as God judgeth by his Light If in hell I have no more cause to be troubled at their malice than at the devils And I have little cause to rejoyce that those damned Souls did once applaud me Oh miserable men that have no better than the Hypocrites reward to be seen and honoured of men Gods approbation is the felicitating honour He will own all in me that is his own and all that he owneth is everlastingly honoured The Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous Psal 1.6 For it is his way The way which he prescribed them and in which he did Conduct them Good and evil are now so mixed in me that it is hard for me fully to discern them But the all-seeing God doth discern them and will separate them 4. Thy Heavenly Father knoweth whether it be best for thee to abound or want And with what measure of worldly things it is fittest for thee to be entrusted Abundance hath abundant snares and cares and troubling employments which divert our thoughts from things of real and perpetual worth Provision is desirable according to its usefulness to our work and end It is far better to need little and have little than to have much and need it all For it cannot be got or kept or used without some troublesome and hurtful effects of its vanity and vexation Let the foolish desire to be tired and burdened with Provision and lose the prize by turning their helps into a snare and miss of the end by over-loving the way My Father knoweth what I want and he is always able to supply me with a word It doth not impoverish him to maintain all the World. His store is not diminished by Communication The Lord is my Shepherd what then can I need Psal 23.1 How oft have I found that he careth for me and that it is better to be at his finding and provision than to have been my own Carver and to have cared for my self Blessed be my bounteous Father who hath brought me so near to the end of my Race with very little care for provision in my way and with lesser want Necessaries I never wanted and superfluities are not wanted Blessed be that wise and gracious Lord that hath not given me up to greedy desires nor ensnared and burdened me with needless plenty How safe how easie
ordinary for self-conceited Persons to ruine their own Estates and Healths and Lives When they are rashly making ill Bargains or undertaking things which they understand not they rush on till they find their error too late and their Poverty Prisons or ruined Families must declare their sin For they have not humility enough to seek Counsel in time nor to take it when it is offered them What great numbers have I heard begging relief from others under the confession of this sin And far more even the most of Men and Women overthrow their Health and lose their Lives by it Experience doth not suffice to teach them what is hurtful to their Bodies and as they know not so you cannot convince them that they know not Most Persons by the excess in quantity of food do suffocate Nature and lay the Foundation of future Maladies And most of the Diseases that kill men untimely are but the effects of former Gluttony or Excess But as long as they feel not any present hurt no man can perswade them but their fulness is for their Health as well as for their Pleasure They will laugh perhaps at those that tell them what they do and what Diseases they are preparing for Let Physicians if they be so honest tell them It is the perfection of the nutritive Juices the Blood and nervous Oyl which are the causes of Health in man Perfect Concoction causeth that perfection Nature cannot perfectly concoct too much or that which is of too hard digestion While you feel no harm your Blood groweth dis-spirited and being but half concocted and half Blood doth perform its Office accordingly by the halves till crudities are heaped up and obstructions fixed and a Dunghil of Excrements or the dis-spirited humours are ready to take in any Disease which a small occasion offereth either Agues Feavers Coughs Consumptions Pleurisies Dropsies Colicks and Windiness Head-achs Convulsions c. or till the Inflammations or other Tumors of the inward Parts or the torment of the Stone in Reins or Bladder do sharply tell men what they have been doing A clean Body and perfect Concoction which are procured by Temperance and bodily Labours which suscitate the Spirits and purifie the Blood are the proper means which God in the course of nature hath appointed for a long and healthful Life This is all true and the reason is evident and yet this talk will be but despised and derided by the most and they will say I have so long eaten what I loved and lived by no such rules as these and I have found no harm by it Yea if Excess have brought Diseases on them if Abstinence do but make them more to feel them they will rather impute their illness to the Remedy than to the proper cause And so they do about the quality as well as the quantity Self-conceitedness maketh men uncureable Many a one have I known that daily lived in that fulness which I saw would shortly quench the Vital Spirits and fain I would have saved their Lives but I was not able to make them willing Had I seen another assault them I could have done somewhat for them but when I foresaw their death I could not save them from themselves They still said they found their measures of eating and drinking between Meals refresh them and they were the worse if they forbore it and they would not believe me against both Appetite Reason and Experience And thus have I seen abundance of my acquaintance wilfully hasten to the Grave And all long of an unhumbled self-conceited understanding which would not be brought to suspect it self and know its error 2. And O how often have I seen the dearest Friends thus kill their Friends even Mothers kill their dearest Children and too oft their Husbands Kindred Servants and Neighbours by their self-conceit and confidence in their ignorance and error Alas what abundance empty their own Houses gratifie covetous Landlords that set their Lands by Lives and bring their dearest Relations to untimely ends and a wise man knoweth not how to hinder them How oft and oft have I heard ignorant Women confidently perswade even their own Children to eat as long as they have an Appetite and so they have vitiated their Blood and Humours in their Childhood that their Lives have been either soon ended or ever after miserable by Diseases How oft have I heard them perswade sick or weak diseased Persons to eat eat eat and take what they have a mind to when unless they would Poyson them or cut their Throats they could scarce more certainly dispatch them How oft have these good Women been perswading my self that eating and drinking more would make me better and that it is Abstinence that causeth all my illness when Excess in my Childhood caused it as if every wise Woman that doth but know me knew better what is good for me than my self after threescore years experience or than all the Physicians in the City And had I obeyed them how many years ago had I been dead How ordinary is it for such self-conceited Women to obtrude their skill and Medicines on their sick Neighbours with the greatest confidence when they know not what they do yea upon their Husbands and their Children One can scarce come about sick Persons but one Woman or other is perswading them to take that or do that which is like to kill them Many and many when they have brought their Children to the Grave have nothing to say but I thought this or that had been best for them But you 'l say They do it in love they meant no harm I answer so false Teachers deceive Souls in Love. But are you content your selves to be kill'd by Love If I must be kill'd I had rather an Enemy did it than a Friend I would not have such have the guilt or grief Love will not save mens lives if you give them that which tends to kill them But you 'l say We can be no wiser than we are If we do the best we can what can we do more I answer I would have you not think your selves wiser than you are I would write over this word five hundred times if that would cure you About matters of Diet and Medicines and Health this is it that I would have you do to save you from killing your selves and your Relations 1. Pretend not to know upon the report of such as your selves or in matters that are difficult and beyond your skill or where you have not had long consideration and experience Meddle with no Medicining but what in common easy cases the common judgment of Physicians and common Experience have taught you 2. If you have not Money to pay Physicians and Apothecaries tell them so and desire them to give you their counsel freely and take not on you to know more than they that have studied and practised it all their riper part of their lives 3. Suspect your understandings and consider how much there may be
unknown to you in the secresie and variety of Diseases difference of temperatures and the like which may make that hurtful which you conceit is good Therefore do nothing rashly and in self-conceited confidence but upon the best advice ask the Physician whether your Medicines and Rules are safe 4. And be sure that you do rather too little than too much What abundance are there especially in the small Pox and Feavers that would have scaped if Women yea and Physicians would have let them alone that die because that Nature had not leave to cure them being disturbed by mistaken Usages or Medicines Diseases are so various and secret and Remedies so uncertain that the wisest man alive that hath studied and practised it almost all his riper days were it an hundred years must confess that Physick is a hard a dark uncertain work and ordinary cases much more extraordinary have somewhat in them which doth surpass his skill And how then come so many Medicining Women to know more than they But you 'l say We see that many miscarry by Physicians and they speed worst that use them most I answer But would they not yet speed worse if they used you as much If they are too ignorant how come you to be wiser If you are teach them your Skill But I must add that even Physicians guilt of the sin which I am reproving doth cost many a hundred persons their lives as well as yours Even too many Physicians who have need of many daies enquiry and observations truly to discover a disease do kill men by rash and hasty judging I talk not of the Cheating sort that take on them to know all by the Urine alone but of honester and wiser men It is most certain that old Celsus saith that a Physitian is not able faithfully to do his Office for very many Patients A few will take up all his time But they that gape most after money must venture upon a short sight and a few words and presently resolve before they know and write down their directions while they are ignorant of one half which if they knew would change their Counsels And such is mans body and its diseases that the oversight or ignorance of one thing among twenty is like enough to be the patients death And how wise expedient and vigilant must he be that will commit no such killing oversight And as too many medicine a man whom they know not and an unknown disease for want of just deliberation so too many venture upon uncertain and untryed medicines or rashly give that to one in another case which hath profited others In a word even rash Physicians have cause to fear lest by prefidence and hasty judging more should die by their mistakes than do by murderers that I say not by Souldiers in the world And lest their dearest friends should speed worse by them than by their greatest Enemies For as Seamen and Souldiers do boldly follow the trade when they find that in several Voyages and Battels they have escaped but yet most or very many of them are drowned or killed at the last So he that is tampering over-much with medicines may scape well and boast of the Success a while But at last one blood-letting one Vomit one Purge or other medicine may miscarry by a small mistake or accident and he is gone And there are some persons so Civil that if a rash or unexperienced Physician be their Kinsman Friend or Neighbour they will not go to an abler man lest they be accounted unfriendly and disoblige him And if such scape long with their lives they may thank Gods mercy and not their own wisdom Souldiers kill enemies and unskilful rash Physicians kill their friends But you 'l say They do their best and they can do no more I answer as before 1. Let them not think that they know what they do not know but sufficiently suspect their own understandings 2. Let them not go beyond their knowledge How little of our kind of Physick did the old Physicians Hypocrates Galius Celsus c. give Do not too much 3. Venture not rashly without full search deliberation Counsel and Experience O how many die by hasty judging and rash mistakes Physicians must pardon my free speaking or endure it for I conceive it necessary It hath not been the least part of the Calamity of my Life to see my Friends and other worthy persons killed by the Ignorance or Hastiness of Physicians I greatly reverence and honour those few that are men 1. Of clear searching judicious heads 2. Of great reading especially of other mens Experiences 3. Of great and long Experience of their own 4. Of present Sagacity and ready memory to use their own experiments 5. Of Conscience and cautelousness to suspect and know before they hastily Judge and Practice I would I could say that such are not too few But I must say to the people as you love your lives take heed of all the rest A high-way Robber you may avoid or resist with greater probability of safety than such men How few are they that are kill'd by Thieves or in Duels in comparison of those that are kill'd by Physicians especially confident young men that account themselves wits and think they have hit on such Philosophical principles as will better secure both their Practice and Reputation than old Physicians Doctrine and Experiences could do Confident young men of unhumbled understandings presently trust their undigested thoughts and rashly use their poor short experiments and trust to their new conceptions of the Reasons of all Operations and then they take all others for meer Empyricks in comparison of them And when all is done their pretended Reason for want of full Experience and Judgment to improve it doth but enable them to talk and boast and not to heal and when they have kill'd men they can justify it and prove that they did it Rationally or rather that it was something else and not their error that was the cause They are wits and men of rare inventions and therefore are not such fools as to confess the Fact. How oft have I seen men of great worth such as few in an age arise too who having a high esteem of an injudicious unexperienced Physician have sealed their erroneous kindness with their blood How oft have I seen worthy persons destroyed by a pernicious medicine clear contrary to what the nature of the disease required who without a Physician might have done well Such sorrows just now upon me make me the more plain and copious in the Case And yet alas I see no hope of amendment probable For 1. Many hundred Ministers being forbidden to Preach the Gospel and cast out of all their livelyhood for not Promising Asserting Swearing and doing all that is required of them many of these think that necessity alloweth them to turn Physicians which they venture on upon seven years study when Seven and Seven and Seven is not enough though
And the popular croud are usually or oft as self-conceited in their way And if they never so unreasonably oppose their Teachers how hard is it to make them know or once suspect that they are mistaken O what mutinies in Christs Armies what Schisms what Confusions what Scandals what persecutions in the Church what false accusations what groundless censures do proud self-conceited understandings cause But scarce any where is it more lamentably seen than among injudicious unexperienced Ministers What work is made in the Christian world by Sect against Sect and Party against Party in cases of controversy by most mens bold and confident judging of what they never truly studied tried or understood Papists against Protestants Protestants against Papists Lutherans or Arminians and Calvinists c. usually charge one another by bare hear-say or by a few sentences or scraps Collected out of their writings by their adversaries contrary to the very Scope of the whole discourse or context And men cannot have leisure to peruse the books and to know before they judge And then they think that seeing their Reverend Doctors have so reported their adversaries before them it is arrogance or injury to think that they knew not what they said or else belied them And on such supposition the false judging doth go on Of all the Pulpits that oft trouble the people with Invectives against this side or that especially in the Controversies of Predestination Grace and Free-will how few do we hear that know what they talk against Yea those young or unstudied men who might easily be conscious how little they know are ready to oppose and contemn the most ancient studied Divines When if ever they would be wise men they should continue Scholars to such even while they are teachers of the people I will not presume to open the Calamities of the World for want of Rulers true knowing their Subjects case but judging hastily by the reports of Adversaries But that Rebellions ordinarily hence arise I may boldly say When Subjects that know not the reasons of their Rulers actions are so over wise as to make themselves Judges of that which concerneth them not And how few be they that think not themselves wiser than all their Guides and Governours And Lastly by this sin it is that the wisdom of the wisest is as lost to the world For let a man know never so much more than others after the longest hardest studies the self-conceitedness of the ignorant riseth up against it or maketh them uncapable of receiving it so that he can do little good to others I conclude again that this is the Plague and misery of mankind and the cause of all Sin and Shame and Ruines that Ignorant unhumbled understandings will be still judging rashly before they have throughly tried the case and will not suspend till they are capable of Judging nor be convinced that they know not what they know not but be confident in their first or ungrounded apprehensions Chap. 11. The Signs and Common discoveries of a proud self-conceited understanding and of pretended knowledge BY such effects as these the most of men do shew their guilt of overvaluing their own appprehensions 1. When they will be confident of things that are quite above their understandings or else which they never throughly studied some are confident of that which no man knoweth And most are confident of that which I think they are unlike to be certain of themselves without miraculous inspiration which they give us no reason to believe that they have Things that cannot ordinarily be known 1. Without the preparation of many other Sciences 2. Or without reading many books 3. Or without reading or hearing what is said against it 4. Or at least without long and serious studies we have abundance that will talk most peremptorily of them upon the trust of their teachers or party without any of this necessary means of Knowledge 2. The hastiness of mens conclusions discovereth this Presumption and Self-conceit When at the first hearing or reading or after a few thoughts they are as confident as if they had grown old in studies the best understandings must have a long time to discern the Evidence of things difficult and a longer time to try that Evidence by comparing it with what is brought against it and yet a longer time to digest truths into that Order and Clearness of Apprehension which is necessary to distinct and solid Knowledge when without all this ado most at the first lay hold of that which cometh in their way And there they stick at least till a more esteemed teacher or party tell them somewhat that is contrary to it It is but few of our first apprehensions that are sound and need not reformation but none that are well digested and need not much consideration to perfect them 3. Is it not a plain discovery of a presumptuous understanding when men will confidently conclude of things which their own tongues are forced to confess that they do not understand I mean not only so as to give an accurate definition of them but really not to know what it is that they talk of Many a zealous Anabaptist I have known that knoweth not what Baptism is And many a one that hath disputed confidently for or against Free-will that knew not at all what Free-will is And many a one that hath disputed about the Lords Supper and Separated from almost all Churches for want of sufficient strictness in it and especially for giving it to the ignorant who upon examination have not known the true Nature of a Sacrament nor of the Sacred Covenant which it sealeth Many a one forsaketh most Churches as no Churches that they may be of a right constituted Church who know not what a Church is What abundance will talk against an Arminian a Calvinist a Prelatist a Presbyterian an Independent that really know not what any of them are Like a Gentleman the other day that after long talk of the Presbyterians being urged to tell what a Presbyterian was could tell no more but that he was one that is not so merry and sociable as other men but stricter against sports or taking a Cup. And if I should tell you how few that can judge the controversies about Predestination do know what they talk of it were easy to evince it 4. May I not discern their Prefidence when men that hold contraries five men of five inconsistent opinions are yet every one confident that his own is right When at best it is but one that can be right When six men confidently expound a text in the Revelation six ways When five men are so confident of five several ways of Church Government that they embody themselves into several Policies or parties to enjoy them Is not here Self-conceitedness in all at least save one 5. When men themselves by turning from opinion to opinion shall confess their former opinion was false and yet made a Religion of it while they held
retractations of some youthful Errours and he that changeth not and retracteth nothing it seems is in his childish Ignorance and Errour still but when natural frailty exposeth us all to much of this disgrace we should not expose our selves to so much more A hasty judger or prefident man must be a very Weathercock or be defiled with a Leprosie of Errour Whereas if men would but be humble and modest and self-suspicious and suspend their presumption and not take on them to know before they know indeed how safely might they walk and how seldom would they need to change their minds or either stick in the sink of Errour or make many shameful Retractations 9. Prefidence and false judging engageth a man in a very life of sin For when falshood goeth for truth with him it will infect his affections and pollute his conversation and all that he doth in the obedience and prosecution of that Errour will be sin Yea the greatest sin that he can but think no sin may be committed as was the Persecution of Christ and Christians by the Jews and Paul and others like them and the Papists bloodiness for their Religion throughout Christendom 10. It disturbeth the Peace of all Societies This is the vice that disquieteth Families Every one is wisest in his own Eyes The Servant thinketh his own way better than his Masters What are all the contentions between Husband and Wife or any in the Family but that in all their differences every one thinketh himself to be in the right His own Opinion is right his own Words and Ways are right and when every one is wise and just and every one is in the right the effects are such as if no one were wise or in the right And in Civil Societies Seditions Rebellions Oppressions Tyranny and all Confusions come from this that men pretend to be sure of what they are not Rulers take up with false reports from idle malicious whisperers and accusers against their inferiours and have not the Justice and Patience to suspend their Judgments till they have searcht out the matter and fully heard men speak for themselves Subjects make themselves Judges of the secrets of â—overnment and of the Councils and Actions of their Rulers of which they have no certain notice but venture to conclude upon deceitful suspicions And the Contentions and Factions amongst Nobles and other Subjects come from misunderstandings through hasty and ungrounded judgings But the wofullest effects are in the Churches where alas whilst every Pastor will be wiser than another and the People wiser than all their Pastors and every Sect and Party much wiser than all that differ from them their divisions their separations their alienations and bitter censurings of each other their obtruding their own Opinions and Rules and â—eremonies upon each other their bitter envyings strife and persecutions of each other do make sober standers-by to ask as Paul Is there not a wise man among you O happy the World happy Kingdoms but most happy the Churches of Christ if we could possibly bring men but to know their Ignorance If the Pastors themselves were not prefident and presumptuous over-valuers of their own apprehensions And if the People knew how little they know But now alas men rage against each other in their dreams and few of them have the grace to awake before death and find to repentance that they were themselves in errour Hear me with that remnant of meekness and humility which thou hast left thou confident bitter censorious man Why must that man needs be taken for a Heretick a Schismatick a refractory stubborn self-willed person an Antichristian carnal formal man who is not of thy Opinion in point of a Controversie of a Form of an Order of a Circumstance or Subscription or such like It 's possible it may be so And its possible thou maist be more so thy self But hast thou so patiently heard all that he hath to say and so clearly discerned the truth on thy own side and that this truth is made so evident to him as that nothing but wilful obstinacy can resist it as will warrant all thy censure and contempt Or is it not an over-valuing of thy own understanding which makes thee so easily condemn all as unsufferable that differ from it Hath not pride made thy silly wit to be as an Idol to which all must bow down on pain of the heat of thy displeasure Do not some of those men whom thou so Magisterially condemnest study as hard and as impartially as thy self Do they not pray as hard for Gods assistance Have they not the same Books and as good Teachers Do they not live as well and shew as much tenderness of Conscience and fear of erring and sinning as thy self why then art thou so hasty in condemning them that are as fair for the reputation of wisdom as thou art But suppose them mistaken hast thou tryed that they are unwilling to be instructed It may be you have wrangled with them by disputes which have but engaged each other to defend his own Opinion But call them to thee in Love and tell them you are ignorant and I am wise I will teach you what you know not and open to them all the Evidence which causeth your own confident apprehensions Wish them to study it and hear patiently what they have to say and I am perswaded that many or most sober men that differ from you will not refuse thus to become as your Scholars so far as to consider all that you have to offer to convince them and thankfully receive as much of the truth as they can discern But alas no men rage so much against others as erroneous and blind as the blind and erroneous and no men so furiously brand others with the marks of Obstinacy Factiousness and Schism as the Obstinate Factious and Schismatical The prouder the Obtruder of his own conceits is the more he condemneth all Dissenters as proud for presuming to differ from such as he and all for want of a humble mind 11. Moreover it is this pretended knowledge which is the cause of all our false Reformations Men are so over-wise that they presently see a Beam in their Brothers Eye which is but a Mote and they magnifie all the imperfections of others Pastors and Churches into Mountains of iniquity Every mis-expression or disorder or inconvenient phrase in a Prayer or a Sermon or a Book is an odious damning intolerable evil O! say such what Idolaters are they that use a Form of Prayer which God did not command What large Consciences have they that can join with a Parish Church that can communicate Kneeling and among bad men or those whose Conversion is not tryed What abundance of intolerable evils do such men find in the Words and Forms and Orders and Circumstances of other mens Worship which God mercifully accepteth through Christ taking all these but for such pardonable imperfections as he mercifully beareth with in all And then
that he will love me who hath loved me while I was his Enemy and called me home when I went astray and mercifully received me when I returned Who hath given me a life full of precious mercies and so many experiences of his love as I have had Who hath so often signified his love to my Conscience So often heard my prayers in distress and hath made all my life notwithstanding my sins a continual wonder of his mercies O unthankful Soul if all this will not persuade thee of the love of him that gave it I that can do little good to any one yet have abundance of friends and hearers who very easily believe that I would do them good were it in my power and never fear that I should do them harm And shall it be harder to me to think well of Infinite Love and Goodness than for my neighbours to trust me and think well of such a wretch as I What abundance of love-tokens have I yet to shew which were sent me from Heaven to perswade me of my Fathers love and care 7. Shall I not easily believe and trust his love who hath promised me eternal glory with his Son with all his holy ones in Heaven Who hath given me there a great Intercessor to prepare Heaven for me and me for it and there appeareth for me before God Who hath already brought many millions of blessed Souls to that glory who were once as bad and low as I am And who hath given me already the Seal the Pledge the Earnest and the First-fruits of that Felicity Therefore O my Soul if men will not know thee if thou were hated of all men for the cause of Christ and Righteousness If thine uprightness be imputed to thee as an odious crime If thou be judged by the blind malignant World according to its gall and interest If friends misunderstand thee If Faction and every evil cause which thou disownest do revile thee and rise up against thee It is enough it is absolutely enough that thou art known of God God is All and All is nothing that is against him or without him If God be for thee who shall be against thee How long hath he kept thee safe in the midst of dangers and given thee peace in the midst of furious Rage and Wars He hath known how to bring thee out of trouble and to give thee tolerable ease while thou hast carried about thee night and day the usual causes of continual torment His loving kindness is better than life Psal 63.3 but thou hast had a long unexpected life through his loving kindness In his favour is life Psal 30. And life thou hast had by and with his favour Notwithstanding thy sin while thou canst truly say thou lovest him he hath promised that all shall work together for thy good Rom. 8.28 And he hath long made good that promise Only ask thy self again and again as Christ did Peter whether indeed thou love him And then take his love as thy full and sure and everlasting portion which will never fail thee though flesh and Heart do fail For thou shalt dwell in God and God in thee for evermore 1 Joh. 4.12 15 16. Amen FINIS A Catalogue of Books Printed for and Sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel A Christian Directory or Body of practical Divinity 1. Christian Ethicks 2. Oeconomicks 3. Ecclesiasticks 4. Politicks Resolving multitudes of Cases on each Subject By Rich. Baxter Folio Mr. Baxters Catholick Theology Folio Mr. Baxters Methodus Theologiae Christianae Folio A Third Volume of Sermons Preached by the late Reverend and Learned Tho. Manton D.D. In two parts Folio A Hundred Select Sermons on several Texts of Fifty on the Old Testament and Fifty on the New. Folio Choice and Practical Expositions on four Select Psalms Folio Both by the Reverend and Learned Tho. Horion D.D. late Minister of St. Hellens London The true Prophecies and Prognostications of Michael Nostrodamus Physician to Henry the Second Francis the Second and Charles the Ninth Kings of France and one of the Best Astronomers that ever were Folio Sixty one Sermons Preached mostly on publick occasions whereof five formerly Printed by Adam Littleton D.D. Rector of Chelsea in Middlesex Folio The Novels and Tales of the Renowned John Boccasio the first Refiner of Italian Prose containing a hundred curious Novels Folio A Key to open Scripture Metaphors in two Volumes By Benjamin Keach and Tho. Delawn Folio The Saints Everlasting Rest or a Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints in their Enjoyment of God in Glory 4 to The English Nonconformity as under King Charles II. and King James II. Truly Stated and Argued By Richard Baxter 4to A discourse concerning Liturgies By the Late Learned and Judicious Divine Mr. David Clarkson 8vo A discourse of the saving Grace of God. By the late Reverend and Learned David Clarkson Minister of the Gospel 8vo The Vision of the Wheels seen by the Prophet Ezekiel Opened and Applyed Partly at the Merchants Lecture in Broad-street and partly at Stepney on January 31. 1689. being the Day of Solemn Thanksgiving to God for the great Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Slavery By his then Highness the most Illustrious Prince of Orange Whom God raised up to be the glorious Instrument thereof By Matthew Mead Pastor of a Church of Christ at Stepney 4to A Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live. 12mo The right Method for settled Peace of Conscience and Spiritual Comfort 8vo The Life of Faith in every State. 4to Alderman Ashursts Funeral Sermon 4to A Key for Catholicks to open the juglings of the Jesuits The first part of answering all their common Sophisms The second against the Soveraignty and necessity of General Councils 4to The certainty of Christianity without Popery 8vo Full and easy satisfaction which is the true Religion Transubstantiation shamed 8vo Naked Popery Answering Mr. Hutchinson 4to Which is the true Church A full Answer to his Reply proving that the General Councils and the Popes Primacy were but in one Empire 4to The History of Bishops and their Councils abridged and of the Popes 4to The Cure of Church Divisions 8to A full Treatise of Episcopacy shewing what Episcopacy we own and what is in the English Diocesan frame for which we dare not swear never to endeavour any alteration of it in our places 4to A search for the English Schismatick comparing the Canoneers and Nonconformists 4to An Answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlock confuting an Universal-humane Church Soveraignty Aristocratical and Monarchical as Church Tyranny and Popery and defending Dr. Iz. Barrows excellent Treatise 4to FINIS Had I been supposed to have written this Book to hide my sloth and ignorance men would not have neglected my Methodus Theologie and Catholick Theology thro' meer sloth and saying That it 's too high and hard for them A Country-man having sent his Son