of flesh and blood which maketh you pretend Moderation and Peace and that it is a sign that you are hypocrites that are so lukewarm and carnally comply with error and that the cause of God is to be followed with the greatest zeal and self denyal And all this is true if you be but sure that it is indeed the cause of God and that the greater works of God be not neglected on such pretences and that your Zeal be much greater for Faith and Charity and Unity than for your opinions But upon great experience I must tell you that of the zealous contenders in the world that cry up The Cause of Consuming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 use at 〈◊〉 â—o 〈◊〉 up the owners of it Whatever tâ—â—y say oâ— do against others in theâ—â— inâ—â—mperaâ—e violâ—nce they teach otherâ— at last to say and do against them when they have opportunity How the Orâ—â—odox taught the Aâ—â—iaâ—s to use severity against them may be sâ—en in Victor utic p. 447 448 449. in the Edict of Hunneâ—yâ—hus â—â—gem quam dudum Christiani Imperatores nostri contra eos alios haereticos pro honorisicentia Ecclesiae Catholiâ—ae dedâ—runâ— adversus nos illi proponere non eâ—ubuerunt v. g. Rex Hun. c. Triumphalis Majestatis Regiae probatur esâ—e virtutis mâ—â—a in autores conâ—lia retorquere Quisquis enim pravitatis aliquid invenerit sibi imputet quod incurrit Nullâ—s 〈◊〉 homâ—usion Saceâ—doâ—es assumanâ— nec aliquid mysteriâ—â—um quae magis polluunt sibi vendicenâ— Nullam habeant oâ—dinandi licentiam Quod ipsaâ—um legum continentia demonstratur quas induxiâ—â—e Imperaâ—oâ—ibuâ— c. viz. Ut nulla exceptâ—s superstiti 〈…〉 s suae â—nâ—stibus Ecclesia pateret nuâ—lâ—s liceret aliis aut convictus agere aut exercere convâ—ntâ—s nec Ecclesias auâ— in uâ—â—iâ—â—â—â— aut in quibuâ—dam 〈◊〉 locis God and Truth there is not one of very many that understandeth what he talks of but some of them cry up the Cause of God when it is a brat of a proud and ignorant brain and such as a judicious person would be ashamed of And some of them are rashly zealous before they have parts or time to come to any judicious tryal and some of them are mis-guided by some person or party that captivateth their minds and some of them are hurried away by passion and discontent and many of the ambitious and worldly are blinded by their carnal interests and many of them in meer pride think highly of an Opinion in which they are somewhat singular and which they can with some glorying call their Own as either invented by them or that in which they think they know more than ordinary men do And abundance after longer experience confess that to have been their own erroneous cause which they before entitled the Cause of God Now when this is the case and one cryeth Here is Christ and another There is Christ one saith This is the cause of God and another saith That is it no man that hath any care of his Conscience or of the honour of God and his profession will leap before he looketh where he shall alight or run after every one that will whistle him with the name or pretence of truth or a good cause It is a sad thing to go on many years together in censuring opposing and abusing thâ—se that are against you and in seducing others and mis-imploying your zeal and parts and time and poysoning all your prayers and discourses and in the end to see what mischief you have done for want of knowledge and with Paul to confess that you were mad in opposing the truth and servants of God though you did it in a zeal of God through ignorance Were it not much better to stay till you have tryed the ground and prevent so many years grievous sin than to scape by a sad repentance and leave behind you stinking and venemous fruits of your mistake And worse if you never repent your selves Your own and your Brethrens souls are not so lightly to be ventured upon dangerous untryed wayes It will not make the Truth and Church amends to say at last I had thought I had done well Let those go to the Wars of disputing and 〈◊〉 and câ—nsuâ—ing and siding with a Sect that are riper and better understand the cause Wars are not for Children Do you suspend your judgement till you can solidly and certainly inform it and serve God in Charity quietness and peace And it s two to one but you will live to see the day that the contenders that would have led you into their Wars will come off with so much loss themselves as will teach them to approve your peaceable course or teach you to bless God that kept you in your place and duty § 3. In all this I deny not but every truth of God is to be valued at a very high rate and that he that shall carry himself in a neutrality when Faith or Godliness is the matter in controversie or shall do it meerly for his worldly ends to save his stake by temporizing is a false-hearted hypocrite and at the heart of no Religion But withal I tell you that all is not matter of Faith or Godliness that the Autonomian-Papist the Antinomian-Libertine or other passionate parties shall call so And that as we must avoid contempt of the smallest Truth so we must much more avoid the most heinous sins which we may commit for the defending of an error And that some Truths must be silenced for a time though not denyed when the contending for them is unseasonable and tendeth to the injury of the Church If you were Masters in the Church you must not teach your Scholars to their hurt though it be truth you teach them And if you were Physicions you must not cramm them or Medicate them to their hurt Your power and duty is not to Destruction but to Edification The good of the Patient is the end of your Physick All Truth is not to be spoken nor all Good to be done by all men nor at all times He that will do contrary and take this for a carnal principle doth but call folly and sin by the name of zeal and duty and set the house on fire to rost his Egg and with the Pharisees prefer the outward rest of their Sabbath before his Brothers life or health Take heed what you do when Gods honour and mens souls and the Churches peace are concerned in it § 4. And let me tell you my own observation As far as my judgement hath been able to reach the men that have stood for Pacification and Moderation have been the most judicious and those that have best understood themselves in most controversies that ever I heard under debate among good Christians And those that suriously censured them as lukewarm or corrupted have been men that had least judgement and most passion pride and foul mistakes in the points in question § 5. Nay I will tell you
seriousness in Religion made odious or banished from the earth and that themselves may be taken for the Center and Pillars and Law-givers of the Church and the Consciences of all men may be taught to cast off all scruples or fears of offending God in comparison of â—â—â—â—â—â—ing them and may absolutely submit to them and never stick at any feared disobedience to 〈…〉 t They are the scorners and persecutors of strict obedience to the Laws of God and take those that â—ear his judgements to be men affrighted out of their wits and that to obey him exactly which alas who can do when he hath done his best is but to be hypocritical or too precise but to question their domination or break their Laws imposed on the world even on Kings and States without any Authority this must be taken for Heresie Schism or a Rebellion like that of Corah and his company This Luciferian Spirit of the proud Autonomians hath filled the Christian world with bloodshed and been the greatest means of the miseries of the earth and especially of hindering and persecuting the Gospel and setting up a Pharisaical Religion in the world It hath fought against the Gospel and filled with blood the Countreys of France Savoy Rhaetia Bohemia Belgia Helvetia Polonia Hungary Germany and many more that it may appear how much of the Satanical nature they have and how punctually they fulfill his will § 3. And natural corruption containeth in it the seeds of all these damnable Heresies nothing more natural to lapsed man than to shake off the Government of God and to become a Law-giver to himself and as many others as he can and to turn the grace of God into wantonness Therefore the prophane that never heard it from any Hereticks but themselves do make themselves such a Creed as this that God is merciful and therefore we need not fear his threatnings for he will be better than his word It belongeth to him to save us and not to us and therefore we may cast our souls upon his care though we care not for them our selves If he hath predestinated us to salvation we shall be saved and if he have not we shall not what ever we do or how well soever we live Christ dyed for sinners and therefore though we are sinners he will save us God is stronger than the Devil and therefore the Devil shall not have the most That which pleaseth the flesh and doth God no harm can never be so great a matter or so much offend him as to procure our damnation What need of so much ado to be saved or so much haste to turn to God when any one that at last doth but repent and cry God mercy and believe that Christ dyed for him shall be saved Christ is the Saviour of the world and his grace is very great and free and therefore God forbid that none should be saved but those few that are of strict and holy lives and make so much ado for Heaven No man can know who shall be saved and who shall not and therefore it is the wisest way to do no body any harm and to live merrily and trust God with our souls and put our salvation upon the venture no body is saved for his own works or deservings and therefore our lives may serve the turn as well as if they were more strict and holy This is the Creed of the ungodly by which you may see how natural it is to them to abuse the Gospel and plead Gods grace to quiet and strengthen them in their sin and to embolden themselves on Christ to disobey him § 4. But this is but to set Christ against himself even his Merits and Mercy against his Government and Spirit and to set his Death against the Ends of his death and to set our Saviour against our salvation and to run from God and rebell against him because Christ dyed to recover us to God and to give us Repentance unto life and to sin because he dyed to save his people from their sins and to purifie a peculiar people to himself zealous of good works Matth. 1. 21. Tit. 2. 14. He that committeth sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3. 8. John 8. 44. Direct 18. WAtch diligently hath against the more discernable decayes of grace and against Direct 18. the degenerating of it into some carnal affections or something counterfeit and of another kind And so also of Religious duties § 1. We are no sooner warmed with the coelestial flames but natural corruption is enclining us to grow cold Like hot water which loseth its heat by degrees unless the fire be continually kept under it Who feeleth not that as soon as in a Sermon or Prayer or holy Meditation his heart hath got a little heat as soon as it is gone it is prone to its former earthly temper and by a little remisness in our duty or thoughts or business about the world we presently grow cold and dull again Be watchful therefore lest it decline too far Be frequent in the means that must preserve you from declining when faintness telleth you that your stomachs are emptied of the former meat supply it with another lest strength abate You are rowing against the stream of fleshly interest and inclinations and therefore intermit not too long lest you go faster down by your ease then you get up by labour § 2. The Degenerating of Grace is a way of backsliding very common and too little observed How Grace may degenerate It is when good affections do not directly cool but turn into some carnal affections somewhat like them but of another kind As if the body of a man instead of dying should receive the life or soul of a Beast instead of the reasonable humane soul. For instance 1. Have you Believed in God and in Iesus Christ and Loved him accordingly You shall seem to do so still as much as formerly when your corrupted minds have received some false representation of him and so it is indeed another thing that you thus corruptly Believe and Love 2. Have you been fervent in Prayer you shall be fervent still iâ— Satan can but corrupt your prayers by corrupting your judgement or affections and get you to think that to be the cause of God which is against him and that to be against him which he commandeth and those to be the troublers of the Church which are its best and faithfullest members Turn but your prayers against the cause and people of God by your mistake and you may pray as fervently against them as you will The same I may say of preaching and conference and zeal Corrupt them once and turn them against God and Satan will joyn with you for zealous and frequent preaching or conference or disputes 3. Have you a confidence in Christ and his promise for
our faith Help thou our unbelief But he that approveth of his Doubting and would have it so and thinks the revelation is uncertain and such as will warrant no firmer a belief I should scarcely say this man is a Christian. Christianity must be received as of Divine infallible revelation But controversies about less necessary things cannot be determined peremptorily by the ignorant or young beginners without hypocrisie or a humane faith going under the name of a Divine I am far from abating your Divine belief of all that you can understand in Scripture and implicitely of all the rest in general And I am far from diminishing the credit of any truth of God But the Reasons of this Direction are these § 2. 1. When it is certain that you have but a dark uncertain apprehension of any point to think it is clear and certain is but to deceive your selves by pride And to cry out against all uncertainty as sceptiâ—isme which yet you cannot lay aside is but to revile your own infirmity and the common infirmity of mankind and foolishly to suppose that every man can be as wise and certain when he list as he should be Now Reason and experience will tell you that a young unfurnished understanding is not like to see the evidence of difficult points as by nearer approach and better advantage it may do § 3. 2. If your conclusions be peremptory upon meer self-conceitedness you may be in an error for ought you know and so you are but confident in an error And then how far may you go in seducing others and censuring dissenters and come back when you have done and confess that you were all this while mistaken your selves § 4. 3. For a man to be confident that he knoweth what he knoweth not is but the way to keep him ignorant and shut the door against all means of further information When the Opinion is fixt by prejudice and conceit there is no ready entrance for the light § 5. 4 And to be ungroundedly confident so young is not only to take up with your Teachers word instead of a faith and knowledge of your own but also to forestall all diligence to know more and so you may lay by all your studies save only to know what those men hold whose judgements are your Religion Too Popish and easie a way to be safe § 6. 5. If you must never change your first opinions or apprehensions how will you grow in understanding Will you be no wiser at age than you were in childhood and after long study and experience than before Nature and Grace do tend to increase § 7. Indeed if you should be never so peremptory in your opinions you cannot resolve to hold them to the end For Light is powerful and may change you whether you will or no you cannot tell what that Light will do which you never saw But prejudice will make you resist the light and make it harder for you to understand § 8. I speak this upon much experience and observation Our first unripe apprehensions of things will certainly be greatly changed if we are studious and of improved understandings Study the Conâ—roveâ—â—â—â—s about Grace and Free-will or about other such points of difficulty when you are young and â—â—s two to one that ripeness will afterward make them quite another thing to you For my own â—â—â—â—t my judgement is altered from many of my youthful confident apprehensions And where it heldeth the same conclusion it rejecteth abundance of the arguments as vain which once it rested in And where I keep to the same Conclusions and Arguments my apprehension of them is not the saâ—â— â—ut I see more satisfying light in many things which I took but upon trust before And if I had resolved to hold to all my first Opinions I must have forborn most of my studies and lost much truth which I have discovered and not made that my own which I did hold and I must have resolved to live and dye a child § 9. The su 〈…〉 is Hold fast the substance of Religion and every clear and certain Truth which you see in its own evidence and also reverence your Teachers especially the Universal Church or the generality of wise and godly men and be not hasty to take up any private opinion And especially to contradict the Opinion of your Governours and Teachers in small and controverted things But yet in such matters receive their Opinions but with a humane faith till indeed you have more and therefore with a supposition that time and study is very like to alter your apprehensions and with a reserve impartially to study and entertain the truth and not to sit still just where you were bâ—rn Direct 12. IF Controversies â—ccasion any Divisions where you live be sure to look first to the interest of Common Truth and Good and to the exercise of Charity And become not passionate contenders for any party in the division or censurers of the peaceable or of your Teachers that will not â—ver 〈…〉 their own understandings to obtain with you the esteem of being Orthodox or zealous men But suspect your own unripe understandings and silence your Opinions till you are clear and certain and jâ—yn rather with the moderate and the peace-makers than with the Contenders and Dividers § 1. You may easily be sure that Division tendeth to the ruine of the Church and the hinderance of the Gospel and the injury of the common interest of Religion You know it is greatly condemned in the Scriptures You may know that it is usually the exercise and the increase of Pride uncharitableness and passion and that the Devil is best pleased with it as being the greatest gainer by it But on the other side you are not easily certain which party is in the right And if you were you are not sure that the matter will be worth the cost of the contention Or if it be it is to be considered whether the Truth is not like to get more advantage by managing it in a more peaceable way that hath no contention nor stirreth not up other men so much against it as the way of controversie doth And whatever it prove you may and should know that young Christians that want both parts and helps and time and experience to be throughly seen in controversies are very unfit to make themselves parties And that they are yet more unfit to be the hottest leaders of those parties and to spur on their Teachers that know more than they If the work be fit for another to do that knoweth on what ground he goeth and can foresee the end yet certainly it is not fit for you And therefore forbear it till you are more fit § 2. I know those that would draw you into such a contentious zeal will tell you that their cause is the cause of God and that you desert him and betray it if you be not zealous in it and that it is but the counsel
called A Saint or a â—â—â—â—it certainly are possessed by nobler inhabitants He that seeth every corner of earth and sea and air inhabited and thinks what earth is in comparison of all the great and glorious Orbes above it will hardly once dream that they are all void of inhabitants or that there is not room enough for souls § 27. Direct 24. The ministry of Angels of which particular providences give us a great probability Direct 24. doth give some help to that doctrine which telleth us that we must live with Angels and that we shall ascend to more familiarity with them who condeâ—cend to so great service now for us § 28. Direct 25. The universal wonderful implacable enmity of corrupted man to the holy doctrine Direct 25. and waies and servants of Christ and the open war which in every Kingdom and the secret war which in every heart is kept up between Christ and Satan through the world with the tendency of every temptation their violence constancie in all ages to all persons all making against Christ and Heaven and Holiness do notoriously declare that the Christian doctrine and life do tend to our salvation which the Devil so maliciously and uncessantly opposeth And thus his Temptations give great advantage to the tempted soul against the Tempter For it is not for nothing that the enemy of our souls makes so much opposition And that there is such a Devil that thus opposeth Christ and tempteth us not only sensible Apparitions and Witch-crafts prove but the too sensible temptations which by their Matter and Manner plainly tell us whence they come Especially when all the world is formed as into two hostile Armies the one fighting under Christ and the other under the Devil and so have continued since â—â—in and Abel to this day § 29. Direct 26. The prophecies of Christ himself of the destruction of Jerusalem and the gathering of his Church and the cruel usage of it through the world do give great assistance to our faith when we see them all so punctually fulfilled § 30. Direct 27. Mark whether it be not a respect to things temporal that assaulteth thy Belief and Direct 27. câ—me not with a byassed sensual mind to search into so great a mysterie Worldliness and pride and sensuality are deadly enemies to faith and where they prevail they will shew their enmity and blind the mind If the soul be sunk into mud and filth it cannot see the things of God § 31. Direct 28. Come with humility and a sense of your ignorance and not with arrogance and Direct 28. self-conceit as if all must needs be wrong that your empty foolish minds cannot presently perceive to be right The famousest Apostates that ever I knew were all men of notorious Pride and self-conceitedness § 32. Direct 29. Provoke not God by willful sinning against the Light which thou hast allready received Direct 29. to forsake thee and give thee over to infidelity 2 Thes. 2. 10 11 12. Because men receive not the Lâ—ve of the truth that they might be saved for this cause God sends them strong delusions to believe a lie that they all might â—e damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness Obey Christs doctrine so far as you know it and you shall fullier know it to be of God Iohn 7. 17. 10. 4. § 33. Direct 30. Tempt not your selves to Infidelity by pretended Humility in abâ—sing your Natural Direct 30. facultiâ—s when you should be humbled for your moral pravity Vilifying the soul and its Reason and Natural Freewill doth tend to Infidelity by making us think that we are but as other inferiour animals uncapable of a life above with God When as self-abâ—sing because of the corruption of Reason and Free-will doth tend to shew us the need of a Physiciâ—n and so assist our faith in Christ. § 34. Direct 31. Iudge not of so great a thing by sudden apprehensions or the surprize of a temptatiâ—n Direct 31. when you have not leisure to look up all the evidences of faith and lay them together and take a full deliberate view of all the cause It is a mystery so great as requireth a clear and vacant mind delivered from prejudice abstracted from diverting and deceiving things which upon the best assistance and with the greatest diligence must lay all together to discern the truth And if upon the best assistance and consideration you have been convinced of the truth and then will let every sudden thought or temptation or difficulty seem enough to question all again this is unfaithfulness to the truth and the way to resist the clearest evidences and never to have done It is like as if you should answer your adversary in the Court when your witnesses are all dismist or out of the way and all your evidences are absent and perhaps your Counsellor and Advocate too It is like the casting up of a long and intricate account which a man hath finished by study and time and when he hath done all one questioneth this particular and another that when his accounts are absent It is not fit for him to answer all particulars nor question his own accounts till he have as full opportunity and help to cast up all again § 35. Direct 32. If the work seem too hard for you go and consult with the wisest most experienced Christians Direct 32. who can easily answer the difficulties which most pâ—rplex and tempt you Modesty will tell you that the advantage of study and experience may make every one wisest in his own profession and set others above you while you have lâ—ss of these § 36. Direct 33. Remember that Christianity being the surest way to secure your eternal hopes and Direct 33. the matters of this life which cause men to forsake it being such transitory â—â—ifles you can be no losers by it and therefore if you doubted yet you might be sure that its the safest way § 37. Direct 34. Iudge not of so great a cause in a time of Melanâ—holy when fears and confusions Direct 34. make you unfit But in such a case as that as also when ever Satan would disturb your setled faith or tempt you at his pleasure to be still new questioning resolved cases and discerned truths abhor his suggestions and give them no entertainment in your thoughts but cast them back into the Tempters face There is not one Melancholy person of a multitude but is violently assaulted with temptations to blasphemy and unbelief when they have but half the use of Reason and no composedness of mind to debate such controversies with the Devil It is not fit for them in this incapacity to hearken to any of those suggestions which draw them to dispute the foundations of their faith but to cast them away with resolute abhorrence Nor should any Christian that is soundly setled on the true foundation gratifie the Devil so much as to dispute with
senâ—lis Quid â—nâ—m absurdâ—us quam quo mi 〈…〉 viae 〈…〉 stat eo plus vâ—atici 〈…〉 ere â—i 〈…〉 â—at Maâ— thou hast provided So is every one that layeth up Riches for himself and is not Rich towards God If If thou be rich to day and be in another world tomorrow had not poverty been as good Distracted soul Dost thou make so great a matter of it whether thou have much or little for so short a time and takest no more care either where thou shalt be or what thou shalt have to all eternity Dost thou say thou wilt cast this care on God I tell thee he will make thee care thy self and care again before he will save thee And why canst thou not cast the care of smaller matters on him when he commandeth thee Is it any great matter whether thou be Rich or poor that art going so fast unto another world where these are things of no signification Tell me if thou were sure that thou must die tomorrow yea or the next month or year wouldst thou not be more indifferent whether thou be Rich or Poor And look more after greater things Then thou wouldst be of the Apostles mind 2 Cor. 4. 18. We look not at the things which are seen 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 Our eye of faith should be so fixed on invisible eternal things that we should scarce have leisure or mind to look at or once regard the things that are visible and temporal A man that is going to execution scarce looks at all the bussle or business that is done in Streets and Shops as he passeth by because these little concern him in his departing case And how little do the wealth and honours of the world concern a soul that is going into another world and knows not but it may be this night Then keep thy wealth or take it with thee if thou canst § 25. Direct 4. Labour to feel thy greatest wants which worldly wealth will not supply Thou Direct 4. hast sinned against God and money will not buy thy pardon Thou hast incurred his displeasure and money will not reconcile him to thee Thou art condemned to everlasting misery by the Law Prov. 11. 4. Riches 〈…〉 fiâ— not in the â—ay of wâ—ath and money will not pay thy ransom Thou art dead in sin and polluted and captivated by the flesh and money will sooner encrease thy bondage than deliver thee Thy Conscience is ready to tear thy heart for thy willful folly and contempt of grace and money will not bribe it to be quiet Iudas brought back his money and hanged himself when Conscience was but once awaked Money will not enlighten a blinded mind nor soften a hard heart nor humble a proud heart nor justifie a guilty soul. It will not keep off a Feavor or Consumption nor ease the Gowt or Stone or Tooth-ache It will not keep off ghastly death but dye thou must if thou have all the world Look up to God and remember that thou art wholly in his hands and think whether he will love or favour thee for thy wealth Look unto the day of Judgement and think whether money will there bring thee off or the Rich speed better than the poor § 26. Direct 5. Be often with those that are sick and dying and mark what all their Riches will Direct 5. do for them and what esteem they have then of the world and mark how it useth all at last Then you shall see that it forsaketh all men in the hour of their greatest necessity and distress when they Jer. 17. 11. would cry to friends and wealth and honour if they had any hopes If ever you will help me let it be now If ever you will do any thing for me O save me from death and the wrath of God Jam. 5. 1 2 3. But alas such cryes would be all in vain Then O then one drop of mercy one spark of grace the smallest well gâ—ounded hope of Heaven would be worth more than the Empire of Caesar or Alexander Is not this true sinner Dost thou not know it to be true And yet wilt thou cheat and betray thy soul Is not that best now which will be best then And is not that of little value now which will be then so little set by Dost thou not think that men are wiser then than now Wilt thou do so much and pay so dear for that which will do thee no more good and which thou wilt set no more by when thou hast it Doth not all the world cry out at last of the deceitfulness of riches and the vanity of pleasure and prosperity on Earth and the perniciousness of all worldly cares And doth not thy conscience tell thee that when thou comest to dye thou art like to have the same thoughts Chilon in Laâ—rt p. 43. Damnum potius quam â—uâ—pe lucrum eligendum nam id semel tantum dolori esse hâ—c semper thy self And yet wilt thou not be warned in time Then all the content and pleasure of thy plenty and prosperity will be past And when its past it s nothing And wilt thou venture on everlasting wo and cast away everlasting joy for that which is to day a dream and shadow and to morrow or very shortly will be nothing The poorest then will be equal with thee And will honest poverty or over-loved wealth be sweeter at the last How glad then wouldst thou be to have been without thy wealth so thou mightst have been without the sin and guilt How glad then wouldst thou be to dye the death of the poorest Saint Do you think that Poverty or Riches are liker to make a man loth to dye or are usually more troublesome to the Conscience of a dying man O look to the end and live as you dye and set most by that and seek that now which you know you shall set most by at last when full experience hath made you wiser § 27. Direct 6. Remember that Riches do make it much harder for a man to be saved and the love Direct 6. of this world is the commonest cause of mens damnation This is certainly true for all that Poverty also hath its temptations and for all that the poor are far more â—umerous than the rich For even Socrates dixit Opes nobiâ—itates non solum nihil in se habere honestatis verum omne malum ex eis oboâ—iâ—i Laâ—rt in Socrat the poor may be undone by the love of that wealth and plenty which they never get and those may perish for over-loving the world that yet never prospered in the world And if thou believe Christ the point is out of Controversie For he saith Luke 18. 24 25 26 27. How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God For it is easier for a Camel to go
is meant by Flesh here And 2. What flesh-pleasing it is that is unlawful and what sensuality is 3. Wherein the Malignity of this sin consisteth 4. I shall answer some Objections 5. I shall shew you the Signs of it 6. The Counterfeits of the contrary 7. And the false Signs which make some accused wrongfully by themselves or others § 2. I. Because you may find in Writings between the Protestants and Papists that its become a Controversie whether by flesh in Scripture where this sin is mentioned be meant the Body it What is meant by â—lesh self or the soul so far as it is unregenerate I shall briefly first resolve this question When we speak of the unregenerate part we mean not that the soul hath two parts whereof one is regenerate and the other unregenerate But as the purblind eye hath both Light and Darkness in the same subject so is it with the soul which is regenerate but in part that is in an imperfect degree And by the unregenerate part is meant the whole soul so far as it is unregenerate The word flesh in its primary signification is taken for that part of the Body as such without respect to sin and next for the whole body as distinct from the soul. But in respect to sin and duty it is taken 1. Sometime for the sensitive appetite not as sinful in it self but as desiring that which God hath obliged Reason to deny it 2. More frequently for this sensitive appetite as inordinate and so sinful in its own desires 3. Most frequently for both the inordinate sensitive appetite it self and the Rational powers so far as they are corrupted by it and sinfully disposed to obey it or to follow inordinately sensual things But then the Name is primarily taken for the sensual appetite it self as diseased and but by participation for the Rational powers For the understanding of which you must consider 1. That the appetite it self might innocently even in innocency desire a forbidden object when it was not the Appetite that was forbidden but the Desire of the Will or the actual taking it That a man in a Feavor doth Thirst for more than he may lawfully drink is not of it self a sin But to Desire it by Practical Volition or to Drink it is a sin For it is these that God forbids and not the Thirst which is not in our power to extinguish That Adam had an Appetite to the forbidden fruit was not his sin but that his will obeyed his appetite and his mouth did eat For the Appetite and sensitive nature is of God and is in nature antecedent to the Law God made us Men before he gave us Laws And the Law commandeth us not to alter our selves from what he made us or any thing else which is naturally out of our power But it is the sin of the will and executive powers to do that evil which consisteth in obeying an innocent Appetite The Appetite is necessary and not free and therefore God doth not direct his commands or prohibitions to it directly but to the Reason and free-will 2. But since mans fall the Appetite it self is corrupted and become inordinate that is more impetuous violent and unruly than it was in the state of Innocency by the unhappy distempers that have befallen the Body it self For we find now by experience that a man that useth himself to sweet and wholsom temperance hath no such impetuous strivings of his Appetite against his reason if he be healthful as those have that are either diseased or used to obey their appetites And if Use and Health make so great alteration we have cause to think that the Depravation of Nature by the Fall did more 3. This inordinate appetite is sin by Participation so far as the Appetite may be said to be Free by participation though not in it self Because it is the Appetite of a Rational free-agent For though sin be first in the will in its true form yet it is not the will only that is the subject of it though primarily it be but the whole man so far as his acts are Voluntary For the will hath the Command of the other faculties and they are Voluntary acts which the will either commands or doth not forbid when it can and ought To lye is a voluntary sin of the man and the tongue partaketh of the guilt The will might have kept out that sin which caused a disorder in the appetite If a Drunkard or a Glutton provoke a venerous inordinate appetite in himself that lust is his sin because it is voluntarily provoked 4. Yet such additions of inordinacy as men stir up in any Appetite by their own actual sins and customs are more aggravated and dangerous to the soul than that measure of distemper which is meerly the fruit of original sin 5. This inordinateness of the sensitive Appetite with the meer Privation of Rectitude in the Mind and Will is enough to cause mans Actual sin For if the Horses be headstrong the meer weakness sleepiness negligence or absence of the Coachman is enough to concur to the overthrow of the Coach So if the Reason and Will had no Positive inclinations to evil or sensual objects yet if they have not so much Light and Love to higher things as will restrain the sensual appetite it hath positive inclination enough in it self to forbidden things to ruine the soul by actual sin 6. Yet though it be a great controversie among Divines I conceive that in the Rational Powers themselves there are Positive habitual inordinate inclinations to sensual forbidden things For as actually its certain the Reason of the Proud and Covetous do contrive and oft approve the sin and the Will embrace it so these are done so constantly in a continued stream of action by the whole man that it â—eems apparent that the same faculties which run out out in such strong and constant action are themselves the subjects of much of the inclining Positive habits And if it be so in additional acquired sin its like it was so in Original sin 7. Though sin be formally subjected first in the Will yet Materially it is first in the sensitive appetite at least this sin of Flesh-pleasing or sensuality is The flesh or sensitive part is the first Desirer though it be sin no further than it is voluntary 8. All this set together telleth you further that the word flesh signifieth the sensual inclinations of the whole man but first and principally the corrupted sensual appetite and the Mind and Wills whether Privative or Positive concurrence but secondarily and as falling in with sense The Appetite 1. Preventeth Reason 2. And resisteth reason 3. And at last corrupteth and enticeth Reason and Will to be its servants and purveyors § 3. And that the name flesh doth primarily signifie the sensitive appetite it self is evident in the very notation of the name Why else should the Habits or Vices of the Rational powers be called Flesh
revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Would you have the fuller exposition of this It is in 1 Pet. 3. 10 11 12 13 14 15. For he that will love life and see good dayes let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile Let him eschew evil and do good let him seek peace and ensue it For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his eares are open to their prayers but the face of the Lord When Socâ—aâ—es wife lamenâ—ing him said Injuste mâ—riâ—râ—s he answered An tu juste malles 〈◊〉 in So 〈…〉 is against them that do evil And who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good But and if ye suffer for righteousness sake happy are ye and be not afraid of their terrour neither be troubled but sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts and be ready alwayes to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear Having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as evil-doers they may be ashamed that falsly accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better if the will of God be so that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil doing See also 1 Pet. 4. 13 14 15. § 5. Direct 5. Either you fear sufferings from men as guilty or as innocent for evil doing or for well doing or for nothing If as guilty and for evil doing turn your fears the right way and fear God and his wrath for sin and his threatnings of more than men can inflict and acknowledge the goodness of Iustice both from God and man But if it be as innocent or for well doing remember that Christ commandeth you exceedingly to rejoyce and remember that martyrs have the most glorious Crown And will you be excessively afraid of your highest honour and gain and joy Believe well what Christ hath said and you cannot be much afraid of suffering for him Matth. 5. 10 11 12. The seven Bâ—eâ—hren that suffâ—red in Aâ—â—â—â—â— under Hâ—â—â—â—eâ—iâ—us Incedâ—â—ans cum â—iducia ad supplicium quasi ad epulas decanâ—â—nâ—es Gloria Deo in excelsis c. Voâ—â—va nobis haec est dies omni solennitate fâ—stivior Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile ecce nunc dies est salutis quando pro side nunc domini dei nostri perferimus praeparatum supplicium ne amittamus acquifitae fidei vndumentum sed populi publica voce clamabant Ne timeatis populi Dei neque formidetis minas atque terrores presentium tribulationum sed moriâ—mur pro Christo ut ipse mortuus est redimens nos pretioso sanguine salutari Victor Uticâ—â—s p 368. In Paulo qumque gloriationes observavi Gloriatur in imbecillitate in cruce Christi in bona conscientia in afflictionibus in spe vitae aeternae Bucholtzâ—â— Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you And will you fear the way of blessedness and exceeding joy Matth. 10. 17 18 19. Beware of men for they will deliver you up to the Councils and they will scourge you in their Synagogues and ye shall be brought before Governours and Kings for my sake for a testimony against them But take no thought c. You are allowed to beware of them but not to be over fearful or thoughtful of the matter Vers. 22 23. And ye shall be hated of all men for my names sake but he that endureth to the end shall be saved But when they persecute you in this City fly to another Fly but fear them not with any immoderate fear vers 39. He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it Luk. 18. 29 30. Verily I say unto you there is no man that hath left house or Parents or Brethren or Wife or Children for the Kingdom of Gods sake who shall not receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come life everlasting Can you believe all this and yet be so afraid of your own felicity O what a deal of secret unbelief is detected by our immoderate fears 1 Pet. 4. 12 13 14 16 19. Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery tryal which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you But rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of Glory and of God resteth on you On their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified But let none of you suffer as an evil doer yet if any man suffer as a Christian let him glorifie God on that behalf wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator There is scarce any point that God hath been pleased to be more full in in the holy Scriptures than the encouraging of his suffering servants against the fears of men acquainting them that their sufferings are the matter of their profit and exceeding joy and therefore not of too great fear § 6. Direct 6. Experience telleth us that men have never so much joy on earth as in suffering for the Direct 6. cause of Christ nor so much honour as by being dishonoured by men for him How joyfully did the ancient Christians go to Martyrdom many of them lamented that they could not attain it And what Idololatria taÌ„ altas in mundo egit radices ut non possit extirpari Ideo optimum est Câ—nsiteâ—i Patâ— Bâ—choltâ—â—r Victor Utiâ—ensis saith That Gensericus commanded that when Mâ—sculin â—s came to dye if he were fearful they should execute him that he might dye with shame but if he were constant they should forbear lest he should have the honour of a glorious Martyrdom And so his boldness saved his life Etsi martyrem invidus host is nolâ—â—t same coâ—â—â—â—â—orem tamen non potuit violaâ—e comfort have Christs Confessours found above what they could ever attain before And how honourable now are the names and memorials of those Martyrs who dyed then under the slanders scorn and cruelty of men Even the Papists that bloodily make more do yet honour the names of the antient Martyrs with keeping Holy dayes for them and magnifying their shrines and relicts For God will have it so for the honour of his holy sufferers that even that same generation that persecute the living Saints shall honour the dead and they
is simple or mixt simple when we only intend Gods worship immediately in the action And this is found chiefly in Praises and Thanksgiving which therefore are the most pure and simple sort of expressive worship Mixt worship is that in which we joyn some other intention for our own benefit in the action As in Prayer where we worship God by seeking to him for mercy And in reverent hearing or reading his Word where we worship him by a holy attendance upon his instructions and Commands And in his Sacraments where we worship him by Receiving and acknowledging his benefits to our souls And in Oblations where we have respect also to the use of the thing offered And in holy Vows and Oaths in which we acknowledge him our Lord and Judge All these are acts of Divine Worship though mixt with other uses § 3. It is not only worshipping God when our acknowledgements by word or deed are directed immediately to himself but also when we direct our speech to others if his Praises be the subject of them and they are intended directly to his Honour Such are many of Davids Psalms of Praise But where Gods Honour is not the thing directly intended it is no direct worshipping of God though all the same words be spoken as by others § 4. Direct 2. Understand the true Ends and Reasons of our worshipping God lest you be deceived Direct 1. by the impious who take it to be all in vain When they have imagined some false Reasons to themselves they judge it vain to worship God because those Reasons of it are vain And he that understandeth not the true Reasons why he should worship God will not truly worship him but be prophane in neglecting it or hypocritical in dissembling and heartless in performing it The Reasons then are such as thâ—se § 5. 1. The first ariseth from the Use of all the world and the nature of the Rational Creature in special The whole world is made and upheld to be expressive and participative of the Image and Benefits of God God is most perfect and blessed in himself and needeth not the world to add to his felicity But he made it to please his blessed Will as a communicative Good by communication and appearance that he might have creatures to know him and to be happy in his Light and those creatures might have a fit representation or revelation of him that they might know him And Man is Read Mr. Herberts Poem called Providence specially endowed with Reason and Utterance that he might know his Creator appearing in his works and might communicate this knowledge and express that Glory of his Maker with his Tongue which the inferiour creatures express to him in their being So that if God were not to be worshipped the end of mans faculties and of all the Creation must be much frustrated Mans Reason is given him that he may know his Maker His will and affections and executive powers are given him that he may freely love him and obey him and his tongue is given him principally to acknowledge him and praise him Whom should Gods work be serviceable to but to him that made it § 6. 2. As it is the Natural Use so it is the highest honour of the creature to worship and honour his Creator Is there a nobler or more excellent object for our thoughts affections or expressions And nature which desireth its own perfection forbiddeth us to choose a sordid vile dishonourable work and to neglect the highest and most honourable § 7. 3. The right worshipping of God doth powerfully tend to make us in our measure like him and so to sanctifie and raise the soul and to heal it of its sinful distempers and imperfections What can make us Good so effectually as our Knowledge and Love and Communion with him that is the chiefest Good Nay what is Goodness it self in the creature if this be not As nearness to the Sun giveth Light and Heat so nearness to God is the way to make us Wise and Good For the contemplation of his perfections is the means to make us like him The worshippers of God do not exercise their bare understandings upon him in barren speculations but they exercise all their affections towards him and all the faculties of their souls in the most practical and serious manner and therefore are likest to have the liveliest impressions of God upon their hearts And hence it is that the true worshippers of God are really the wisest and the best of men when many that at a distance are employed in meer speculations about his works and him remain almost as vain and wicked as before and professing themselves wise are practically fools Rom. 1. 21 22. § 8. 4. The right worshipping of God by bringing the Heart into a cleansed holy and obedient frame doth prepare it to command the body and make us upright and regular in all the actions of our lives For the fruit will be like the Tree and as men are so will they do He that honoureth not his God is not like well to honour his Parents or his King He that is not moved to it by his regard to God is never like to be universally and constantly just and faithful unto men Experience telleth us that it is the truest worshippers of God that are truest and most conscionable in their dealings with their neighbours This windeth up the spring and ordereth and strengtheneth all the causes of a good conversation § 9. 5. The right worshipping of God is the the highest and most rational Delight of man Though to a sick corrupted soul it be unpleasant as food to a sick stomach yet to a wise and holy soul there is nothing so solidly and durably contentful As it is Gods damning sentence on the wicked to say Depart from me Matth. 25. 41. 7. 23. so holy souls would lose their joyes and take themselves to be undone if God should bid them Depart from me worship me and love me and praise me no more They would be weary of the world were it not for God in the world and weary of their lives if God were not their Life § 10. 6. The right worshipping of God prepareth us for Heaven where we are to behold him and Love and worship him for ever God bringeth not unprepared souls to Heaven This life is the time that 's purposely given us for our preparation as the Apprenticeship is the time to learn your trades Heaven is a place of action and fruition of perfect Knowledge Love and Praise And the souls that will enjoy and Praise God there must be Disposed to it here and therefore they must be much employed in his Worship § 11. 7. And as it is in all these respects necessary as a means so God hath made it necessary by Psal. 45. 11. Psal. 66. 4. Psal. 80. 9. Psal. 95. 6. Psal. 99. 5 9. his command He hath made it oâ—r duty to worship him constantly and he
to a more edifying Church that useth all the publick Ordinances of God unless the publick good forbid or some great impediment or contrary duty be our excuse § 36. 11. If a true Church will not cast out any impenitent notorious scandalous sinner though 2 John 10. 11. 2 Tim. 3. 5. Rom. 16. 17. 1 Cor. 5. 11. I am not to separate from the Church yet I am bound to avoid private familiarity with such a person that he may be ashamed and that I partake not of his sin § 37. 12. As the Church hath diversity of members some more holy and some less and some of whole sincerity we have small hope some that are more honourable and some less some that walk Mat. 13. 41 30. Jer. 15. 19. 1 Cor. 12. 23 24. blamelesly and some that work iniquity So Ministers and private members are bound to difference between them accordingly and to honour and love some far above others whom yet we may not excommunicate And this is no sinful separation § 38. 13. If the Church that I live and communicate with do hold any tolerable error I may differ therein from the Church without a culpable separation Union with the Church may be continued with all the diversities before mentioned D. 3. § 10. § 39. 14. In case of persecution in one Church or City when the servants of Christ do flye to another having no special reason to forbid it this is no sinful separation Matth. 10. 23. § 40. 15. If the publick service of the Church require a Minister or a private Christian to remove to another Church if it be done deliberately and upon good advice it is no sinful separation § 41. 16. If a Lawful Prince or Magistrate command us to remove our habitation or command a Minister from one Church to another when it is not notoriously to the detriment of the common interest of Religion it is no sinful separation to obey the Magistrate § 42. 17. If a poor Christian that hath a due and tender care of his salvation do find that under one Minister his soul declineth and groweth dead and under another that is more sound and clear and lively he is much edified to a holy and heavenly frame and life and if hereupon preferring his salvation before all things he remove to that Church and Minister where he is most edified without unchurching the other by his censures this is no sinful separation but a preferring the One thing needful before all § 43. 18. If one part of the Church have leisure opportunity cause and earnest desires to meet ofter for the edifying of their souls and redeeming their time than the poorer labouring or careless and less zealous part will meet in any fit place under the oversight and conduct of their Pastors and not in opposition to the more publick full assemblies as they did Acts 12. 12. to pray for Peter at the house of Mary where many were gathered together praying and Acts 10. 1 c. this is no sinful separation § 44. 19. If a mans own outward affairs require him to remove his habitation from one City or Countrey to another and there be no greater matter to prohibite it he may lawfully remove his local communion from the Church that he before lived with to that which resideth in the place he goeth to For with distant Churches and Christians I can have none but Mental Communion or by distant means as writing messengers c. It is only with present Christians that I can have local personal communion § 45. 20. It is possible in some cases that a man may live long without local personal communion with any Christians or Church at all and yet not be guilty of sinful separation As the Kings Embassadour or Agent in a Land of Infidels or some Traveller Merchants Factors or such as go to convert the Infidels or those that are banished or imprisoned In all these twenty cases some kind of separation may be lawful § 46. 21. One more I may add which is when the Temples are so small and the Congregations so great that there is no room to hear and joyn in the publick Worship or when the Church is so excessively great as to be uncapable of the proper ends of the society in this case to divide or withdraw is no sinful separation When one Hive will not hold the Bees the swarm must seek themselves another without the injury of the rest By all this you may perceive that sinful separation is first in a censorious uncharitable mind condemning Churches Ministers and Worship causelesly as unfit for them to have communion with And Secondly it is in the personal separation which is made in pursuance of this censure But not in any local removal that is made on other lawful grounds § 47. Direct 4. Understand and consider well the Reasons why Christ so frequently and earnestly Direct 4. presseth Concord on his Church and why he so vehemently forbiddeth Divisions Observe how much the Scripture speaketh to this purpose and upon what weighty Reasons Here are four things distinctly to be represented to your serious consideration 1. How many plain and urgent are the Texts that speak for Unity and condemn Division 2. The great Benefits of Concord 3. And the mischiefs of Discord and Divisions in the Church 4. And the Aggravations of the sin § 48. I. A true Christian that hateth fornication drunkenness lying perjury because they are forbidden in the Word of God will hate Divisions also when he well observeth how frequently and vehemently they are forbidden and Concord highly commended and commanded John 17. 21 22 23. That they all may be One as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also See Rom. 14. throughout Rom. 15. 12. 5 6 7. may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be One even as we are One I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in One and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as Ephes. 4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. thou hast loved me Here you see that the Unity of the Saints must be a special means to convince the Infidel world of the truth of Christianity and to prove Gods special Love to his Church and 1 Pet. 3. 6. 1 Cor. 12. throughout Phil. 3. 15 16. Acts 2. 1 46. 4. 32. also to accomplish their own perfection 1 Cor. 1. 10. Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions or Schisms among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgement For it hath been declared to me of you my brethren that there are contentions among you Rom. 12. 4 5. Psalm 133. 1 Cor. 8. 1
example of Angels is also to be observed and with pleasure to be imitated And ask the enemies of Holiness who urge you with the examples of the Great and Learned whether they are wiser than all the Angels of God § 22. Direct 9. When you are tempted to desire any inordinate communion with Angels as visibly appearing Direct 9. or affecting your senses or to give them any part of the Office or honour of Iesus Christ then think how suitable that Office is to your safety and benefit which God hath assigned them and how much Timet Angelâ—s adoraâ—i ab humana natura quam videt in Deo sublimaâ—am Grâ—â—â—â— they themselves abhorr aspiring or usurpation of the Office or honour of their Lord And consider how much more suitable to your benefit this spiritual ministration of the Angels is than if they appeared to us in bodily shapes In this spiritual communion they act according to their spiritual nature without deceit And they serve us without any terrible appearances and without any danger of drawing us to sensitive gross apprehensions of them or entising us to an unmeet adhesion to them or honouring of them whereas if they appeared to us in visible shapes we might easily be affrighted confounded and left in doubt whether they were good Angels indeed or not It is our communion with God himself that is our Happiness And communion with Angels or Saints is desirable but in order unto this That kind of communion with Angels therefore is the best which most advanceth us to communion with God And that reception of his mercy by instruments is best which least endangereth our inordinate adhesion to the Instruments and our neglect of God We know not so well as God what way is best and safest for us As it is dangerous desiring to mend his Word by any fancies of our own which we suppose more fit so it is dangerous to desire to amend his Government and Providence and Order and to think that another way than that which in nature he hath stated and appointed is more to our benefit It is dangerous wishing God to go out of his way and to deal with us and conduct us in by-wayes of our own in which we are our selves unskilled and of which we little know the issue § 23. Direct 10. When you are apt to be terrified with the fear of Devils think then of the guard Direct 10. of Angels and how much greater strength is for you than against you Though God be our only fundamental security and our chiefest confidence must be in him yet experience telleth us how apt we are to look to instruments and to be affected as second causes do appear to make for us or against us Therefore when appearing dangers terrifie us appearing or secondary helps should be observed to comfort and encourage us § 24. Direct 11. Labour to answer the great and holy Love of Angels with such great and holy Love Direct 11. to them as may help you against your unwillingness to dye and make you long for the company of them Simus devoti simus grati tantis custodibus redamemus â—os quantum possumus quantum debâ—mus effectuose c. Bernâ—â—d Vae nobis si quando provocati Sancti Angeli peccatis negligentiis indignos nos judicaverint praesentia visitatione sua c. Cavenda est nobis eorum offensa in his maxime eâ—ercendum quibus eos novimus obâ—ectari Haec autem placent eis quae in nobis invenire delectat ut est â—obrietas castitas c. Inquovis angulo reverentiam exhibe Angelo ne audeas illo praesente quod me vidente non auderes Bernard whom you so much Love And when death seemeth terrible to you because the world to come seems strange remember that you are going to the society of those Angels that rejoyced in your conversion and ministred for you here on earth and are ready to convoy your souls to Christ. Though the thoughts of God and our blessed Mediator should be the only final object to attract our Love and make us long to be in Heaven yet under Christ the Love and company of Saints and Angels must be thought on to further our desire and delight For even in Heaven God will not so be All to us as to use no creature for our comfort Otherwise the glorified humanity of Christ would be no means of our comfort there And the heavenly Ierusalem would not then have been set out to us by its created excellencies as it is Rev. 21. 22. Nor would it be any comfort to us in the Kingdom of God that we shall be with Abraham Isaac and Iacob Luke 13. 28. Matth. 8. 11. § 25. Direct 12. Pray for the protection and help of Angels as part of the benefits procured for the Direct 12. Saints by Christ and be thankful for it as a Priviledge of believers excelling all the dignities of the ungodly And walk with a reverence of their presence especially in the worshipping of God It is not fit such a mercy should be undervalued or unthankfully received Nor that so ordinary a means of our preservation should be over-looked and not be sought of God by prayer But the way to keep the Love of Angels is to keep up the Love of God And the way to please them is to please him For His will is theirs § 26. Direct 13. In all the Worship you perform to God remember that you joyn with the Angels of Direct 13. Heaven and bear your part to make up the Consort Do it therefore with that holiness and reverence and affection as remembring not only to whom you speak but also what companions you have And let there not be too great a discord either in your hearts or praises O think with what lively joyful minds they praise their glorious Creator and how unwearied they are in their most blessed work And labour to be like them in Love and Praise that you may come to be equal with them in their Glory Luke 20. 36. CASES OF CONSCIENCE ABOUT Matters Ecclesiastical VVich are not before handled By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons at the Sign of the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1673. READER I Have something to say to thee of the number of these Cases somewhat of the Order and somewhat of the manner of handling and resolving them I. That they are so Many is because there are really so many difficulties which all men are not able to resolve That they are no more is partly because I could not remember then any more that were necessarily to be handled and I was not willing to increase so great a Book with things unnecessary II. As to the Order I have some Reasons for the order of most of them which would be too tedious to open to you But some of them are placed out of order because 1. I could not remember them in due
hold their own mercies upon the condition of their own continued fidelity And let their Apostasie be on other reasons never so impossible or not future yet the promise of continuance and consummation of the personal felicity of the greatest Saint on earth is still conditional upon the condition of â—his persevering sidelity 6. Even before Children are capable of Instruction there are certain duties imposed by God on the Parents for their sanctification viz. 1. That the Parents pray earnestly and believingly for them Second Commandment Prov. 20. 7. 2. That they themselves so live towards God as may invite him still to bless their Children for their sakes as he did Abrahams and usually did to the faithful's seed 7. It is certain that the Church ever required Parents not only to enter their Children into the Covenant and so to leave them but to do their after duty for their good and to pray for them and educate them according to their Covenant 8. It is plain that if there were none to promise so to educate them the Church would not baptize them And God himself who allowed the Israelites and still alloweth us to bring our Children into his Covenant doth it on this supposition that we promise also to go on to do our duty for them and that we actually do it 9. All this set together maketh it plain 1. That God never promiseth the adult in Baptism though true believers that he will work in them all graces further by his sanctifying spirit let them never so much neglect or resist him or that he will absolutely see that they never shall resist him nor that the spirit shall still help them though they neglect all his means or that he will keep them from neglecting the means Election may secure this to the Elect as such but the Baptismal Covenant as such secureth it not to the baptized nor to believers as such 2. And consequently that Infants are in Covenant with the Holy Ghost still conditionally as their Parents are And that the meaning of it The Holy Ghost is promised in Baptism to give the Child grace in his Parents and his own faithful use of the appointed means is that the Holy Ghost as your sanctifier will afford you all necessary help in the use of those means which he hath appointed you to receive his help in Obj. Infants have no means to use Answ. While Infants stand on their Parents account or Wills the Parents have means to use for the continuance of their grace as well as for the beginning of it 10. Therefore I cannot see but that if a believer should apostatize whether any do so is not the question and his Infant not be made anothers Child he forfeiteth the benefits of the Covenant to his Infant But if the propriety in the Infant be transferred to another it may alter the case 11. And how dangerously Parents may make partial forfeitures of the spirits assistance to their Children and operations on them by their own sinful lives and neglect of prayer and of prudent and holy education even in particular acts I fear many believing Parents never well considered 12. Yet is not this forfeiture such as obligeth God to deny his spirit For he may do with his own as a free benefactor as he list And may have mercy freely beyond his promise though not against his word on whom he will have mercy But I say that he that considereth the woful unfaithfulness and neglect of most Parents even the Religious in the Great work of holy educating their Children may take the blame of their ungodliness on themselves and not lay it on Christ or the spirit who was in Covenant with them as their sanctifier seeing he promised but conditionally M. â—â—istoâ— pag. â—3 As Abraham as a single person in Covenant was to accept of and perform the conditions of the Covenant so as a Parent he had something of duty incumbent on him with reference to his immediate seed And as his faithful performance of that duty incumbent on him in his single capacity so his performing that duty incumbent on him as a Parent in reference to his seed was absolutely necessary in order to his enjoying the good promised with reference to himself and his seed Proved Gen. 17 1. 18. 19. He proveth that the promise is conditional and that as to the continuance of the Covenant state the conditions are 1. The Parents upright life 2. His duty to his Children well done 3. The Childrens own duty as they are capable to give them the sanctifying Heavenly influences of his Life Light and Love in their just use of his appointed means according to their abilities 13. Also as soon as Children come to a little use of Reason they stand conjunctly on their Parents Wills and on their own As their Parents are bound to teach and rule them so they are bound to learn of them and be ruled by them for their good And though every sin of a Parent or a Child be not a total forfeiture of grace yet both their notable actual sins may justly be punished with a denyal of some further help of the spirit which they grieve and quench 11. And now I may seasonably answer the former question whether Infants Baptismal saving grace may be lost of which I must for the most that is to be said referr the Reader to Davenant in Mr. Bedfords Book on this subject and to Dr. Sam. Ward joyned with it Though Mr. Gatakers answers are very Learned and considerable And to my small Book called My Iudgement of Perseverance Augustine who first rose up for the doctrine of perseverance against its Adversaries carried it no higher than to all the Elect as such and not at all to all the Sanctified but oft affirmeth that some that were justified sanctified and Love God and are in a state of salvation are not elect and fall away But since the Reformation great reasons have been brought to carry it further to all the truly sanctified of which cause Zanchius was one of the first Learned and zealous Patrons that with great diligence in long disputations maintained it All that I have now to say is that I had rather with Davenant believe that the fore-described Infant state of salvation which came by the Parents may be lost by the Parents and the Children though such a sanctified renewed nature in holy Habits of Love as the adult have be never lost than believe that no Infants are in the Covenant of Grace and to be baptized Obj. But the Child once in possession shall not be punished for the Parents sin Answ. 1. This point is not commonly well understood I have by me a large Disputation proving from the current of Scripture a secondary original sin besides that from Adam and a secondary punishment ordinarily inflicted on Children for their Parents sins besides the common punishment of the World for the first sin 2. But the thing in question is
Acosta de Convers. Bâ—eganius de Theol. Gentil Vossius de Idolol Vâ—ssius de Theol. natur Collius de Animabus paganorum Eugubinus Fotherby Mersennus in Genesin XVI Cates of Conscience more Filliucius Tolet de sacerdot Reginald Cajetane Navarrus See Montaltus against the Jesuits Casuists and the Iesuits Morals Downames and Whateleys Tables on the Commandments Sanderson de Iuramento Fragoso aforenamed XVII Of Councils more and Canonists and Liturgies Ius Orientale Graecorum per Leunclavium Bochelli Decreta Gallic Sirmondi Concil Gall. Longus Actus Conventus Thorunensis Formula Concordiae Germ The Westminster Assemblies Acts. English Canons Fasti Siculi Morini exercit Eccles. Zepper Polit. Eccles. Hammond Le strange of Liturgies Antiqâ—itates Liturgicae Cassanders Works Claud. Sainctes Gavantus de Ritibus Vicecomes XVIII More of the Fathers I need not name If you can get and read them you may find their names e. g. in Bellarmin de Script Eccles. Get the Bibliothec. Patrum of de la Bigne and Macarius Hom. Ephrem Syâ—us plain honest things Theodoret Cyril Hieros Cyril Alexand. Isidore Pelusiota Theophilact Occumenius Sâ—dulius Primasius Remigius Beda c. But many of them are very weak and dry The chief use of the Fathers is to know Historically what Doctrine was then taught XIX Schoolmen more Bonaventure Alensis Cajetane Bannez Biel Cameracensis Franc. Mayro Capreolus Ri. Armachanus Bradwardine Faber Faventinus Hervaeus Ioh. Fr. Pici Mirandul Fr. Victoria Suarâ—z Vasquez Albertinus in Thom. Aquila Scottellus Ripalda nameth more if you would have more XX. Antipapists Pappus of their Contradictions Gentiletus Mortons Apology and Grand Imposture He that would have more Books may see Voctiâ—s Bibliother and many other Catalogues Buckeridge Râ—ffeusis for Kings Crakenthorpe Paraeus cont Bellarm. Iunius on Bellar. Birkbeck's Protestants Evidence Hunnii Eccles. Rom. non est Christ. Hottoman Brutum fulmen c. Eusebius Captivus Ioh. Crocius de schismate Iewel all Whitaker Andrews Tortura Torti Wotton Dr. Ier. Tailors Disswasive But they are almost numberless Note 1. THat these may seem too many though they are few to a full and rich Library 2. That it is not my advice that you read over all these or half For that would but make them a snare for sinning and waste of time But a Minister of the Gospel should have more Books by him than he can read over for particular uses and to see the Authors judgement occasionally and to try other mens Citations 3. That a Minister must neither study the matter without the help of other mens studies by Reading much nor yet Read much without studying the Thing it self 4. That though a man must not speak or write before he knoweth what and how yet thus Exercising the Knowledge that we have doth greatly increase it And no Minister must be studying when he should be Preaching Praying Catechizing or visiting or instructing his flock 5. It is but few men that are born with an acumen fit for Writings and Controversies Those few must read the more to be fit for it The rest may take up with such Preparations as they have use for and exercise them viz. in the Pastoral oversight of the flocks and propagating plain and necessary truths And therefore though I am one that have been thought to burden mens understandings with Methods distinctions directions and controversies it is but few that I perswade to use them and am as much as any for most mens adhering to plain fundamentals and truths of daily use and Love and honour those that go no further and are faithful in this work so be it they have not the Pride to think that they know more than they do and to wrangle against that which they understand not and set not the Church on fire as ancient Ignorance did by accusing those of Heresie that knew more than themselves when they got but the Throne or the Major Vote 6. That though I chiefly commend Systemes of Theologie I know not one whose method satisfieth me as well agreeing with Scripture and the matter else I had not troubled my self so much to seek a right method and propose what I found And I think no common Method more genuine than theirs that expound the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue and the Sacraments as the sum of all 7. I mention none of my own Writings for it will seem vanity But as many as they are I wrote none which I thought needless at the time of writing them 8. Though none should have so great fitness for the holy education of Children and Government of Families as Ministers yet so great is the work of Overseeing the flock requiring more time and parts than all that we have and so great are the matters of our studies and labours requiring our total and most serious thoughts that I earnestly advise all that can possibly to live single and without a Family lest they marr their work by a divided mind For nunquam bene fit quod fit prae-occupato animo saith Hierome truly The whole man and whole time is all too little in so great a work The End of the third TOME A Christian Directory Or A SUMM of PRACTICAL DIVINITY By Way of DIRECTION The Fourth Part. Christian Politicks CONTAINING All the Duties of the Six last Commandments in our Political Relations and towards our Neighbours With the principal CASES of CONSCIENCE about them By RICHARD BAXTER Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Let every soul be subject to the Higher Powers For Rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil For he is the Minister of God to thee for good Matth. 17. 27. Lest we should offend them give unto them for me and thee Matth. 19. 19. Thou shalt Love thy Neighbour as thy self Matth. 7. 12. Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them For this is the Law and the Prophets LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons at the Sign of the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1673. READER THink not by the title of this Part that I am doing the same work which I lately revoked in my Political Aphorisms Though I concluded that Book to be quasi non scriptum I told you I recanted not the Doctrine of it which is for the Empire of God and the Interest of Government Order and honesty in the World This is no place to give you the Reasons of my revocation besides that it offended my Superiours and exercised the tongues of some in places where other matters would be more profitable Pass by all that concerneth our particular State and Times and you may know by that what principles of Policy I judge Divine And experience teacheth me that it is best for men of my Profession to meddle with no more but leave it to the Contzeus the Arnisaeus's and other Jesuits to promote their cause by Voluminous politicks The Popes false-named Church is a Kingdom and his Ministers may write of Politicks
for them whose cause you undertake and where God who is the Lover of Justice doth require it § 7. Direct 5. Be acquainted with the temptations which most endanger you in your place and Direct 5. go continually armed against them with the true remedies and with Christian faith and watchfulness and resolution You will keep your innocency and consequently your God if you see to it that you love nothing better than that which you should keep No man will chaffer away his commodity for any thing which he judgeth to be worse and less useful to him Know well how little friends or wealth will do for you in comparison of God and you will not hear them when they speak against God Luke 14. 26. 17. 33. When one of his friends was importunate with P. Rutilius to do him an unjust courtesie and angrily said What use have I Chilon in Laert p. 43. mihi saith Sibi non esse conscium in tota vita ingratitudinis una tamen re se modice moveri quod cum semel inter amicos illi judicandum esset neque contra jus agere aliquid vellet persuaserit amico judicium à se provocaret ut sic nimirum utrumque legem amicum servaret This was his injustice of which we repented of thy friendship if thou wilt not grant my request he answered him And what use have I of thy friendship if for thy sake I must be urged to do unjustly It is a grave saying of Plutarch Pulchrum quidem est justitia regnum adipisci pulchrum etiam regno justitiam anteponere Nam virtus alterum ita illustrem reddidit ut regno dignus judicaretur alterum ita magnum ut id contemnerit Plut. in Lycurg Numa But specially remember who hath said What shall it profit a man to win all the world and lose his soul And that Temptations surprize you not be deliberate and take time and be not too hasty in owning or opposing a cause or person till you are well informed As Seneca saith of Anger so say I here Dandum semper est tempus Veritatem enim dies aperit Potest poena dilata exigi cum non potest exacta revocari It s more than a shame to say I was mistaken when you have done another man wrong by your temerity CHAP. V. The Duty of Physicions NEither is it my purpose to give any occasion to the learned men of this honourable profession to say that I intermeddle in the mysteries or matters of their art I shall only tell them and that very briefly what God and Conscience will expect from them § 1. Direct 1. Be sure that the saving of mens lives and health be first and chiefly in your Intention Direct 1. before any gain or honour of your own I know you may lawfully have respect both to your maintenance and honour But in a second place only as a far lesser good than the lives of men If money be your Ultimate end you debase your profession which as exercised by you can be no more to your honour or comfort than your own intention carryeth it It is more the End than the Means that ennobleth or debaseth men If gain be the thing which you chiefly seek the matter is not very great to you whether you seek it by medicining men or beasts or by lower means than either of them To others indeed it may be a very great benefit whose lives you have been a means to save but to your selves it will be no greater than your intention maketh it If the honouring and pleasing God and the publick good and the saving of mens lives be really first and highest in your desires then it is God that you serve in your profession Otherwise you do but serve your selves And take heed lest you here deceive your selves by thinking that the Good of others is your end and dearer to you than your gain because your Reason telleth you it is better and ought to be preferred For God and the publick good are not every mans end that can speak highly of them and say they should be so If most of the world do practically prefer their carnal prosperity even before their souls while they speak of the World as disgracefully as others and call it Vanity how much more easily may you deceive your selves in preferring your gain before mens lives while your tongue can speak contemptuously of gain § 2. Direct 2. Be ready to help the poor as well as the rich Differencing them no further than the Direct 2. publick good requireth you to do Let not the health or lives of men be neglected because they have no money to give you Many poor people perish for want of means because they are discouraged from going to Physicions through the emptiness of their purses In such a case you must not only help them gratis but also appoint the cheapest Medicines for them § 3. Direct 3. Adventure not unnecessarily on things beyond your skill but in difficult cases perswade Direct 3. your patients to use the help of abler Physicions if there be any to be had though it be against your own commodity So far should you be from envying the greater esteem and practice of abler men and from all unworthy aspersions or detraction that you should do your best to perswade all your patients to seek their counsels when ever the danger of their lives or health requireth it For their Lives are of greater value than your gain So abstruse and conjectural is the business of your profession that it requireth very high accomplishments to be a Physicion indeed If there concur not 1. A natural strength of Reason and sagacity 2. And a great deal of study reading and acquaintance with the way of excellent men 3. And considerable experience of your own to ripen all this you have cause to be very fearful and cautelous in your practice lest you sacrifice mens lives to your ignorance and temerity And one man that hath all these accomplishments in a high degree may do As over-valuing mens own understandings in Religion is the ruine of souls and Churches so overvalluing mens â—aw unexperienced apprehensions in Physick costeth multitudes their lives I know not whether a â—ew able judicious experienced Physâ—cions cure more oâ— the rest kill more more good than a hundred smatterers And when you are conscious of a defect in any of these should not reason and conscience command you to perswade the sick to seek out to those that are abler than your selves Should mens lives be hazzarded that you may get by it a little fordid gain It is so great a doubt whether the ignorant unexperienced sort of Physicions do cure or hurt more that it hath brought the vulgar in many Countreys into a contempt of Physicions § 4. Direct 4. Depend on God for your direction and success Earnestly crave his help and blessing in Direct 4. all your undertakings Without this all
to find them out so that the blood-thirsty man doth seldome live out half his dayes The Treatises purposely written on this subject and the experience of all Ages do give us very wonderful Narratives of Gods judgements in the detecting of murderers and bringing them to punishment They go about awhile like Cain with a terrified Conscience afraid of every one they see till seasonable vengeance give them their reward or rather send them to the place where they must receive it 3. For it is eternal torment under the wrath of God which is the final punishment which they must expect If very great Repentance and the blood of Christ do not prevent it There are few I think that by shame and terrour of Conscience are not brought to such a Repentance for it as Cain and Iudas had or as a man hath that hath brought calamity on himself and therefore wish they had never done it because of their own unhappiness thereby except those persecutors or murderers that are hardened by Errour pride or power But this will not prevent the vengeance of God in their damnation It must be a deep Repentance proceeding from the Love of God and man and the hatred of sin and sense of Gods displeasure for it which is only found in sanctified souls And alas how few Murderers ever have the grace to manifest any such renovation and repentance Tit. 2. Advice against Self-murder THough Self-murder be a sin which Nature hath as strongly inclined man against as any sin in the World that I remember and therefore I shall say but little of it yet experience telleth us that it is a sin that some persons are in danger of and therefore I shall not pass it by The prevention of it lyeth in the avoiding of these following Causes of it § 1. Direct 1. The commonest cause is prevailing Melancholy which is neer to madness therefore Direct 1. to prevent this sad disease or to cure it if contracted and to watch them in the mean time is the chief prevention of this sin Though there be much more hope of the salvation of such as want the use of their Understandings because so far it may be called involuntary yet it is a very dreadful case especially so far as reason remaineth in any power But it is not more natural for a man in a Feaver to thirst and rave than for Melancholy at the height to incline men to make away themselves For the disease will let them feel nothing but misery and despair and say nothing but I am forsaken miserable and undone and not only maketh them aweary of their lives even while they are afraid to dye but the Devil hath some great advantage by it to urge them to do it so that if they pass over a Bridge he urgeth them to leap into the Water If they see a Knife they are presently urged to kill themselves with it and feel as if it were something within them importunately provoking them and saying Do it Do it now and giving them no rest In so much that many of them contrive it and cast about secretly how they may accomplish it Though the cure of these poor people belong as much to others care as to their own yet so far as they yet can use their reason they must be warned 1. To abhor all these suggestions and give them not room a moment in their minds And 2 To avoid all occasions of the sin and not to be neer a Knife a River or any instrument which the Devil would have them use in the execution And 3. To open their case to others and tell them all that they may help to their preservation 4. And especially to be willing to use the means both Physick and satisfying Counsel which tends to cure their disease And if there be any rooted cause in the mind that was antecedent to the Melancholy it must carefully be lookt to in the cure § 2. Direct 2. Take heed of worldly trouble and discontent for this also is a common Cause Direct 2. Either it suddenly casteth men into Melancholy or without it of it self overturneth their reason so far as to make them violently dispatch themselves Especially if it fall out in a mind where there is a mixture of these two Causes 1. Unmortified love to any Creature 2. And an impotent and passionate mind there discontent doth cause such unquietness that they will furiously go to Hell for ease Mortifie therefore first your worldly lusts and set not too much by any earthly thing If you did not foolishly overvalue your selves or your credit or your wealth or friends there would be nothing to feed your discontent Make no greater a matter of the world than it deserveth and you will make no such great matter of your sufferings And 2. Mortifie your turbulent passions and give not way to Bedlam fury to overcome your reason Go to Christ to beg and learn to be meek and lowly in spirit and then your troubled minds will have rest Matth 11. 28 29. Passionate Women and such other feeble spirited persons that are easily troubled and hardly quietted and pleased have great cause to bend their greatest endeavours to the curing of this impotent temper of mind and procuring from God such strengthening grace as may restore their Reason to its power § 3. Direct 3. And sometimes sudden passion it self without any longer discontent hath caused Direct 3. men to make away themselves Mortifie therefore and watch over such distracting Passions § 4. Direct 4. Take heed of running into the guilt of any heynous sin For though you may Direct 4. feel no hurt from it at the present when Conscience is awakened it is so disquieting a thing that it maketh many a one hang himself Some grievous sins are so tormenting to the Conscience that they give many no rest till they have brought them to to Iudas's or Achitophel's End Especially take heed of sinning against Conscience and of yielding to that for fear of men which God and Conscience charge you to forbear For the case of many a hundred as well as Spira may tell you into what Calamity this may cast you If man be the master of your Religion you have no Religion For what is Religion but the subjection of the soul to God especially in the matters of his Worship And if God be subjected to man he is taken for No-God When you Worship a God that is inferiour to a man then you may subject your Religion to the will of that man Keep God and Conscience at peace with you if you love your selves though thereby you lose your peace with the World § 5. Direct 5. Keep up a Believing foresight of the state which Death will send you to and then if Direct 5. you have the use of Reason Hell at least will hold your hands and make you afraid of venturing upon death What Repentance are you like to have when you dye in the very
Sedition among the people and accounting them as the filth and off-scouring of the world That zeal which murdered and destroyed many hundred thousand of the Waldenses and Albigenses and thirty thousand or forty thousand in one French Massacre and two hundred thousand in one Irish Massacre and which kindled the Marian Bonefires in England and made the Powder Mine and burnt the City of London and keepeth up the Inquisition I say that zeal will certainly think it a service to the Church that is their Sect to write the most odious lyes and slanders of Luther Zuinglius Calvin Beza and any such excellent servants of the Lord. So full of horrid impudent lyes are the writings of not one but many Sects against those that were their chief opposers that I still admonish all posterity to see good evidence for it before they believe the hard sayings of any factious Historian or Divine against those that are against his party It is only men of eminent conscience and candour and veracity and impartiality who are to be believed in their bad report of others except where notoriety or very good evidence doth command belief above their own authority and veracity A siding factious zeal which is hotter for any Sect or party than for the common Christianity and Catholick Church is alwayes a railing a lying and a slandering zeal and is notably described Iames 3. as earthly sensual and devilish causing envy strife and confusion and every evil work Direct 4. Observe well the Commonness of this sin of backbiting that it may make you the more afraid Direct 4. of falling into that which so few do scape I will not say among high and low rich and poor Court and Countrey how common is this sin but among men professing the greatest zeal and strictness in Religion how few make conscience of it Mark in all companies that you come into how common it is to take liberty to say what they think of all men yea to report what they hear though they dare not say that they believe it And how commonly the relating of other mens faults and telling what this man or that man is or did or said is part of the chatt to waste the hour in And if it be but true they think they sin not Nay nor if they did but hear that it is true For my part I must profess that my conscience having brought me to a custome of rebuking such backbiters I am ordinarily censured for it either as one that loveth contradiction or one that defendeth sin and wickedness by taking part with wicked men And all because I would stop the course of this common vice of evil-speaking and backbiting where men have no call And I must thankfully profess that among all other sins in the world the sins of SELFISHNESSE PRIDE and BACKBITING I have been most brought to hate and fear by the observation of the commonness of them even in persons seeming godly Nothing hath fixed an apprehension of their odiousness so deeply in me nor engaged my heart against them above all other sins so much as this lamentable experience of their prevalence in the world among the more Religious and not only in the prophane Direct 5. Take not the honesty of the person as sufficient cause to hear or believe a bad report of Direct 5. others It is lamentable to hear how far men otherwise honest do too often here offend Suspect evil speakers and be not over-credulous of them Charity thinketh not evil not easily and hastily believeth it Lyars are more used to evil speaking than men of truth and credit are It is no wrong to the best that you believe him not when he backbiteth without good evidence Direct 6. Rebuke backbiters and encourage them not by hearkning to their tales Prov. 25. 23. Direct 6. The north wind driveth away rain So doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue It may be they think themselves religious persons and will take it for an injury to be driven away with an angry countenance But God himself who loveth his servants better than we is more offended at their sin and that which offendeth him must offend us We must not hurt their souls and displease God by drawing upon us the guilt of their sins for fear of displeasing them Tell them how God doth hate backbiting and advise them if they know any hurt by others to go to them privately and tell them of it in a way that tendeth to their repentance Direct 7. Use to make mention of the good which is in others except it be unseasonable and will Direct 7. seem to be a promoting of their sin Gods giâ—ts in every man deserve commendations And we have allowance to mention mens vertues oftner than to mention their vices Indeed when a bad man is praised in order to the disparagement of the good or to honour some wicked cause or action against truth and godliness we must not concur in such malitious praists But otherwise we must commend that which is truly commendable in all And this custome will have a double benefit against backbiting It will use your own tongues to a contrary course and it will rebuke the evil tongues of others and be an example to them of more charitable language Direct 8. Understand your selves and speak often to others of the sinfulness of evil speaking and Direct 8. backbiting Shew them the Scriptures which condemn it and the intrinsecal malignity which is in it as here followeth Direct 9. Make conscience of just reproof and exhorting finners to their faces Go tell them of Direct 9. it privately and lovingly and it will have better effects and bring you more comfort and cure the sin of backbiting Tit. 3. The Evil of Backbiting and Evil Speaking § 1. 1. IT is forbidden of God among the heinous damning sins and made the character of a notorious wicked person and the avoiding of it is made the mark of such as are accepted of God and shall be saved Rom. 1. 29 30. it is made the mark of a reprobate mind and joyned with murder and hating God viz. full of envy debate deceit malignity whisperers backbiters Psal. 15. 2 3. Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle Who shall dwell in thy holy hill He that backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evil to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour And when Paul describeth those whom he must sharply rebuke and censure he just describeth the factious sort of Christians of our times 2 Cor. 12. 20. For I fear lest when I come I shall not find you such as I would and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not Lest there be debates envyings wraths strifes backbitings whisperings swellings tumults Ephes. 4. 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind one to another and tender hearted § 2. 2. It is