an answer send them packing Be averse to follow the mightiest rebels for all their smooth perswasions and sweet allurements but more averse to perswade and allure others to rebellion If they shall be sure to smart as without repentance surely they shall who rebell by other mens occasions how much more shall they suffer who are the occasions or give the occasions unto others 25. BE not refractory to any lawfull authority Be a diligent observer of good orders and good lawes submit thy self unto superiour powers procure according to thy calling whatsoever it be the benefit of thy soveraign to whom thou art a subject and the profit of the Church whereof thou art a member 26. WHen thou goest about to effect a good work not only cast how good it is but consider what warrant thou hast to do it If it be a generall good duety it belongeth unto thee in particular but if a speciall practice thou must have a speciall precept It is not for private men to reform publick abuses or to dispose of publick affaires It is not for one calling to intrude upon another no more than for one bodily member to usurpe the work of another what another may not omit without iniquity thou mayest commit iniquity if thou offer to do it and that may be for thee a most hainous sin which may be for another a most holy service 27. BE not backward when thou shouldst be zealous nor forward when thou shouldst be quiet Make not too much hast with Balaam (u) Numb 22.21 nor too little with Lots wife (w) Gen. 19.26 28. MIghtest thou be freed from sequestration and sundry other oppressions Mightest thou be preferred to offices and sundry other favours wouldst thou but confer thy self to some mens humours help to set up the new superstition and oppose government and all good order Alas what trifling and temporary baites are these refuse them yea despise them who to obtain those profits which nature regardeth would forsake those duties which the God of Nature requireth who that hath hope of heaven would not willingly suffer any thing that God imposeth rather than wilfully do any thing that God detesteth 29. LEt neither love nor fear steal courage from thy heart or thy heart from the Lord Let no stormes of troubles or calmes of pleasure turn thee back from Christ or bring thee to deny him lest thou be denyed of him in his Kingdom though the Loadstone draw Iron yet let it not moove gold though Jeat gather up the light straw yet let it not take up the pure Steel Be not mooved or carried a way as some are with the various blasphemous errours and gaudy pious pretences of these times Let no worldly promises or profits draw thee or peremptory persecutions drive thee to forsake thy Lord and Saviour or to ingage thy self in any apparent sin what though plunderers have thy goods or a prison or worse punishment thy person yet let God still have thy service lest the Devill in conclusion have thy Soul 30. INcurr not Gods enmity to increase thy neighbours amity fall not out with God to keep in with men to make thy self acceptable to the one make not thy self abominable to the other yield not so to peace as to yield unto sin withall who would not rather undergo mans unjust detestation than Gods just damnation Be content to lose the love bear the displeasure of the whole world for the love thou bearest to God and his truth Thou refusest to be in the body if thou wilt not suffer the hatred of the world with thy head [x] Recusas esse in corpore si non vis odium mundi sustinere cum capite Augustin 87. tract in Johan 31. LOve thy life and preserve it by all good means but love thy faith as thy life and more than thy life preserve that whatsoever become of thy life Be not so desirous of retaining they naturall life as rather to deny the Truth of God and forsake the Gospell of Christ than to make profession thereof and yield sincere obedience to it with hazard and perill He which choseth to forgo life rather than the services of God and a good conscience shal keep it to eternall life be saved glorified for ever without which hope if any man with al his skil could get al the world into his hands and order all things every where according to his own pleasure what were it available 32. REjoice under the cross and be glad when thou sufferest for the truth let the cause for which thou suffrest more comfort thee than the trouble that thou indurest dismay thee shew thy cheerfull obedience in suffering as well as in doing the will of God Christ our blessed Saviour the most perfect pattern of obedience performed his part both wayes both by doing and suffering And what is the substance of the Gospell but to declare to all people what he did and what he suffered 33. NEither rashly thrust thy self into any needless affliction nor cowardly desert thy station true faith is neither bare-headed nor bird-witted neither fool-hardy nor faint-hearted but when necessity requiteth and duty designeth it refuseth not any dangers be they never so great with a trust and hope to glorify God both in life and death 34. THou art not bound wilfully to cast thy self into the mouths of devouring and ravening persecutors but never deny the Truth of God nor thy self to be a professour of it if thou be called in question for it Not only believe confidently but confess cheerfully whensoever occasion is offered justly for otherwise thou goest not beyond the Devills whose faith is equivocall and their confession forced who believe God is but believe not in him and confess Christ not of love but of constraint 35. ARt thou controlled reviled and sequestred from thy share in the world Know that it is not without a providence acknowledge the Judgments of God often secret but ever just sequester thy self yet further from all those vaine worldly delights wherein some place their chiefest happiness and live as it were carryed up in regard of those wayes of licentiousness wherein others walk Bind thy self to the good behaviour and apply thy self more closely and more constantly to God As the Prophet David when he was vexed by unexpected enemies when he had complained that his friend and companion (y) Psal 55.16 rose up against him he gave himself unto prayer and again when for his love he found adversaries where did he fly but unto God for comfort (z) Psal 142. 36. BEstow not thy blood on schism or heresy it is a foolish death where the cause is fowl canst thou be content to suffer be sure it be in a good cause either for God who knoweth all or for that which thou knowest in thine own conscience to be well pleasing to God Suffer not either out of fashion or out or faction either as ambitious of honour or to satisfy thy malignant humour for such suffering can
off and detested because false Prophets have abused them and do still abuse them to deceive the people of God and lead them into errour to colour and countenance all their crafts and conveiances of corrupt doctrine Then men must abhor their meat and drink because some be drunken and some surfet Then must our witts memories health strength be taken away because every part and the whole man hath been miserably abused by us all through our many and manifold transgressions 17. BE not so unadvised as to malice or utterly mislike any lawfull vocation because the professors or practisers of it demeane themselves unworthily or impiously This or that officer may be hurtfull and yet his office still may be usefull was not Bennaiah the son of Jehoiada put over the Host in Joabs room and in the room of Abiathar Zadock the Priest [m] 1 King 2.35 Did not Eliakim a faithfull and diligent man succeed Shebna the hypocrite in the stewardship of Ezechiahs house [n] Isaiah 22.20 what a monster amongst men was Judas a traitour to his Master a murderer to himself censured by Christ to be no less debauched than a Devill [o] John 6.70 And yet it is not said of him let the Bishoprick be taken away Let there be no more Bishopricks for Judas his sake but let the Bishoprick remain and let another take [p] Acts 1.20 it that deserveth it better who will not onely bear the name but discharge the trust and more rightly perform the imployment 18. DOth the world commonly like earnestnes in any thing rather than religion Is that ancient and heavenly fire which once appeared most worthily in many both in their entrance and progress of their good course of piety and a good conscience now turned to ashes and extinct or doth it burne so closely and feebly that it can hardly be discerned yet keep thy spirit thy forwardnes and heat of heart and be not at any time without zeal in the service of God It well becommeth every Saint to be earnest to stick close to those holy dueties which God hath layd upon him and not to be flitting off and on and unsetled as many are who yet would be taken to be of the forwardest sort It is good to be zealously affected alwayes in a good thing [q] Galar 4.18 in the practice whereof good zeal with small learning is better than great learning with small zeal But as knowledge is not sufficient without zeal so neither zeal without knowlege But let not the most spirituall project be without spirituall prudence but in thy greatest heate let meek discretion in a proportionable rate order thy zeal Least unawares thou purchase Gods displeasure by the miscarriage of thy wel-meaning devotion such as God never appointed never approved and such as he hath often both misliked and severely punished zeal without knowlege is not zeal but stomack not a blessed holiness but a brain-sick giddiness A brutish and savage passion and perturbation such as is in that head-strong part of furious persons whose zeal is to depart from the Church yea even that Church that first brought them to that knowledge and faith that they have if in truth and soundnes they have any at all 19. BE sometimes severe to beat down the sin but commonly kind to winne the sinner Be at all times serving to befriend but at no time soothing to betray 20. MArre not a good cause with ill handling meddle not with evill no not the least that good though the greatest private or publick may come thereof Thou canst not please God more with a good intent than thou mayest displease him by using bad means to effect it 21. OBserve still the dayes worthily set apart to give thanks to God for his Apostles for those benefits which he hath bestowed upon us by their ministery for their eminent graces on earth and now such unspeakable glory in heaven whom though with the Papists we neither do nor dare adore yet well may we admire and imitate and well may we pray God to give us grace to follow them both in their believing living and dying who having now by their faith attained that which they desired are an excellent direction for us how to seek what they have attained 22. NEither habour an ill thought against thy Soveraigne Neither admit any the least depravation of him no not in the whispering of thy conscience No though he give cause to be evill thought of No though thou be wronged or worse thought of than thou deservest It skilleth not much what his person is when most sure it is his power is of God when of what nation or nature soever the Magistrate is Jew or Gentil Christistian or Heathen good or bad he hath his authority from God the Magistrate of all Magistrates not from the Law of Nations as some are not ashamed to aver [r] Bellar. de Pontif. Rom. lib. 1. cap. 7. paragr praeterea but as from God and his Law By diligent care in good services please thy governour as well as thou mayest and that in most awfull and loyall manner and with all due circūspection beware how thou kindle his anger Be far from those tumultuous and rebellious practices that may give him cause of provocation against thee and keep thy self from those fierce and fiery fellowes those desperate or hypocriticall companions which may stir thee up to stand upon points with him and imbolden thee against him From Church-robbers and traitors it is not pride but a point of wisedom and godly policy to affect alwayes a stern kind of strangegeness aloofe It is Salomons injunction in the giving whereof he was directed by Gods Spirit and be it ever in thy remembrance My son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change [s] Prov. 24.21 that are desirous of alteration and changes in the state according to their private and peevish humours 23. HOw ardently are wilful hearts enamoured with worldly greatness How greedily do naturall men affect dominion How mightily do some men long to Lord it over their neighbours in honour and dignity power and authority some are resolved to rise and be in some office or other or it shall cost them a fall yea a fall into hell some had rather be traitours than not Magistrats But let us not be desirous of vain glory saith S. Paul [t] Gal. 5.26 But seek not thou the acclamation of man more than the approbation of God Be thou no Magistrate no officer yea no man rather than a traitour 24. IF cunning rebellion under a shew of religion and vizard of vertue without fear of Gods vengeance or shame of mens reproof cast his fiery darts at thee let faithfull loyalty and loyall faithfulness be ready to quench them if seditious persons and such as love innovations seek with guilefull speeches to steal thy soul from God and thy heart from thy soveraigne let wisedom shape them
things for the salvation of thy soul Almighty God hath from everlasting ordained both the ends and the means not the ends without the means nor the means without the ends but both of them All lawfull means may well stand with Gods providence and faith therein yea by not divorcing the means from the end we both declare our sincere obedience in using such weak means as are subordinate thereunto and decline security and presumption two main enemies of our most holy faith 45. BY daily prayer and practice stir up the gifts of the Holy Ghost in thee lest in the end thou lose thy store with stock and all constantly keep on rowing against the stream of thy naturall corruption against which if thou do not strive continually but stand at a stay it will carry thee away and all thy merchandize as a boat standing loose upon the river is carryed backward if it be not wafted forward is by the sway of the water driven downward unless it be stil labouring to go upwards 46. OBserve diligently what adversaries be abroad and warily watch that there be no traitours at home All that hurt thee are not without thee there are enemies too within thee and such as may do thee more harm than all the rest look upon thy outward senses and reflect upon thy inward affections lest by the former evills enter and lest by the later evills conquer 47. TAke heed to thy mouth that thou speak not unadvisedly and to thy hands that they act not unpreparedly but especially and above all things look to the inward affections of thy heart for as the fountain is such is the river that runneth from it If the fountain be sweet the river that floweth from it will not be sowre as the Wood is so the Fire will be unsavoury wood will make unwholsome fire but pure Frankincense or dry Juniper will yield a pleasant perfume so if the soul be sanctified the lips will be seasoned but if the thoughts and affections be ungodly they will bring forth lewd words and wicked actions for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh said the God of Truth who knew the heart [h] Matth. 12.34 what the heart readeth the mouth repeateth 48. COnsider thy proper and personall sins whereunto by the corruption of thy nature thou art most inclined from which thou can'st hardliest abstain as beeing more strong and more working in thee than some others are and against them make thy spiritual compacts and barricadoes most durable and most guard thy walls with Redoubts and outworks where the hedge is lowest every beast will seek to enter and where we are weakest Sathan that beast will be strongest his temptations will be thickest where our defence is slenderest 49. STand to thy watch looke to thy wayes keep a continuall guard over thy self in all occurrences and not only beware of personall sins towards which thy nature most bends but of those also which are incident to thy present estate whatsoever it is In wealth beware of high-mindedness in health of wantoness in mirth of forgetfulnes in want to distrustfulness in loss of pensiveness and in death of fearfulness 50. ABstain as farr as thou canst not only from every sin but also from every baite that may be a means to bring thee unto it Look not thou upon the wine saith the Holy Ghost by the mouth of Salomon when it is red when it giveth his colour in the cup when it mooveth it self aright [i] Prov. 23.31 and accordingly look not upon the meat that may betray thy appetite and then thy affections young Daniel refused the meat that was allotted unto him by Nebuchadnezzar which of it self was lawfull to be received with thanksgiving because the King should not intice him thereby to forsake his own God or to leane to the others Religion [k] Dan. 1.8 51. CHeck not Gods Word with the licentious Antinomian give not Gods Spirit the lie who in every place warneth us that the Morall Law is not abolished by the Law of faith but established [l] Marth 5.17 18 19 20. In the uprightness integrity of thy heart endeavour to walk still in the old way of Gods Commandements if ever thou mean to come to Heaven by the new and living way Christ Jesus For every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure [m] 1 Joh. 3.3 Examin and proove thou still and fashion thy works by the Law as by a right levell which God hath left to be a rule of righteousnes to remain in full strength power and vertue for ever Although thou canst not fulfill it yet put it not out of thy sight or care stray from it as little as thou canst though thou canst not obey it so fully as thou wouldst 52. HOwsoever thou fall through infirmity or human frailty into sin as who is free from falling It is not possible for any meer man to be without all offence [n] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostom Howsoever being surprized by Sathan inveigled by slights inticed by sinners thou be taken and upon a sudden overtaken in a fault for it were a proud perswasion above mans state and against-Gods Truth to think thy self safe from sin yet be not so insolent and impudent stand not in justification of it for that sheweth less grace and more corruption while men though otherwise badly disposed blush and are touched with some bashfulness though they cannot contain themselves yet there is hope of them some signe of salvation is the acknowledgment of sin [o] Signum salut is agnitio peccati Bern. but when they justify their bad doings and boldly defend what they have done they are almost desperate and give small hope of amendment without speciall grace To sin is human weakness but to plead for it wilfull wickednes Defence of a fault doubles it and is a forerunner of obduration Thy sin perhaps was small as thou didst commit it but surely 't will be great if thou strive to maintain it for that cuts off all repentance Nay it makes thy sin grow up into a wicked height of scandall and so it may be not only a snare to thy selfe but an unhappy seducement to other warranting many more to be sinfull 53. THere are many things evill in themselves of which thou mayest speak without any evill as of stealing killing which are wicked to be practized not wicked to be published but there are other things lawfull to be done which are non dicendas unlawfull and unhonest to be plainly spoken of and therefore forbear unless it be upon good cause and with great modestie so much as to mention them Let no corrupt communication proceed out of thy mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers grieve not the Holy Spirit of God [p] Ephes 4.29 30. Neither give him occasion touching his comfortable and defensive presence to depart
serve him to believe his truth and walk in his Commandments Him will God love most who shall winne most to the love of God (f) Is in amore Dei major erit qui plurimos ad ejus amorem trahit Greg. in hom wherefore hath God given thee light but that thou shouldst give light to others How canst thou be sure of thy own calling if thou hast no delight to call others Thou art not turned to God thy self if thou bear not that heart that thou wouldst even think thy self happy mightest thou be a means to turn another unto God The Prophet Isaiah that Evangelical Prophet and Prophetical Evangelist prophecying of the Kingdom of Christ bringeth in the people so full of zeal that they stir up one another saying Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in in his paths (g) Isaiah 2.3 And Zachariah saith They that dwell in one City shall go to another saying Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts (h) Zachar. 8.21 74. BE not wise to thy self Be not a niggard of thy knowledge but communicate thy knowledge to others Cover not thy candle with a vessel neither put it under a bed but set it on a candlestick that they which enter in may see the light (i) Luke 8.16 So shalt thou perform the intent of thy stewardship so shalt thou be of the number of those who profiting teach and by teaching profit knowledge may fitly be resembled to the Widows oyl which the more it was powred out the more it increased knowledge may be well likened to the five loaves which the more they were distributed the more they multiplyed As contrariwise if knowledge be not imparted it will be impaired If we keep it private we shall be deprived of it 75. ARt thou learned and able to teach others yet disdain not that any should teach thee what mortal meer man ever attained to that depth of judgment as not to be yet ignorant in many profitable concernments Even in the same profession that may be hidden from one which is known to another to attend is no hinderance but that a man may speak to speak is no hinderance but that a man may hear therefore Job matcheth them together saying Let a man of understanding tell me there is he prepared to learn let a wise man harken to me (k) Job 34.34 there is he provided to speak speaking and hearing amongst all that are wise-hearted cannot be prejudicial one to another 76. ATtend as often and as carefully as thou mayest to all wholesome and convenient directions Be more desirous to harken to others than to hear thy self but especially when thou meetest with such as excell in knowledge as are filled with the knowledge of Gods will in all wisedom and spiritual understanding by whom in many things thou mayest exactly cure thy ignorance by learning in silence who are as profitable Well-springs plentifull and perpetual such as fail not nor can be drawn dry at any time whose hearts feed their mouths and thereout excellent observations in one usefull respect or other readily flow as a free stream from a full fountain 77. COntemn not neither lightly pass over such things as thou seest but seriously search and seek not only what temporal but especially what spiritual use thou canst draw from them that may enrich thy soul and help to build thee up in Christ Jesus learn wich the Bee to gather celestial honey as well from the weed as from the flower learn by the Dust thy baseness by the Grass thy frailty by the Ant diligence by the Sheep patience by the Oxe thankfulness by the Clouds bountifulnes learn by the Darknes the time of thy ignorance by the Light the time of the Gospel by every thing something that may wean thee from earth and win thee to Heaven 78. COmmune often with thy own heart and let thy spirit make diligent search wherein thou hast offended in thought word deed by sins of omission or commission against God thy neighbour and thy self stand not in thine own light be not partial but examin thy self earnestly thoroughly uprightly Neither only examin but upon examination condemn thy self fall at Gods feet and humbly cry for mercy Thus if thou judge thy self before thy self in this thy day thou shalt not be condemned in the last day before the Judgment Seat of Christ in the presence and audience of all the world 79. DIscover to thy Surgeon thy sores to thy Physician thy disease to Almighty God thy sins It is a good disgrace that procureth grace He preventeth his cure that doth not publish his cause (l) Ipse sibi denegat curam qui suam medico non publicat causam Aug. epist 188. The Lord indeed knoweth all things but yet requireth thy confession is acquainted with all thy wishes and all the volutations of thy mind but nevertheless expecteth thy words (m) Novit Deus omnia vocem tatamen tuam expectat Ambros de poenit l. 1. cap. 23. 80. THink not thy self immediately made clean from all thy iniquity transgression and sin if thou shed a few tears and bewail them but be sorrowful for them and sorrowful that thou canst be no more sorrowful considering that if a river were turned into tears flowing from thine eyes thou couldst never sufficiently be grieved for thy offences if God should in his Justice only require it and yet dispair not but take a true and comfortable and fast hold upon God by a lively faith who is gracious and abundant in mercy whose mercy hath neither bottom nor measure who will not the death of a sinner but rather that he should repent and live disliking himself for his manifold misdemeanors and cleaving to God for his manifold mercyes 81. BE not so cast down in the sight of thy own unworthyness as to think because thou deservest not Gods mercy therefore thou shalt never be partaker of it For how plentiful are his gracious promises every where of favour and compassion the which though there be no cause in thee why he should confirm yet is there cause enough in himself why he should perform who whatsoever he will he can and whatsoever he hath promised he will who alwayes useth to be as good as his word who is infinite in his mercy and infallible in his truth 82. IF thou wouldst repent truly and thoroughly pray earnestly to the Lord that it would please him of his infinite compassion to look upon thee with the eyes of his grace The most merciful God is the only giver of repentance unto life n (m) Act. 11.18 It is not in mans power to repent when he will but when God will It is not thy own or any others indeavour that can do any thing in this way till God put to his help untill Christ did