future What Understanding Will or Power arâ— formally in God How he knoweth future contingents with a hundred such like Then remember that you make use of this rule and say with Mâ—ses Dâ—uâ— 29. 29. The secret things belong to the Lord our God but those things that are revealed unto us and to our children for ever that we may do all the words of his Law There are many rare profound discoveries much gloryâ—d of by the Masters of several Sects of which you may know the sentence of the Holy Ghost by that instance Col. 2. 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a vâ—luntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into thâ—se things which he hath not seen vainly puft up by his fleshly mind Reverently withdraw from things that are unrevealed and dispute them not § 17. Direct 6. Be a careful and accurate though not a vain Distinguisher and suffer not ambiguity Direct 6. and confusion to decâ—ive you Suspect every word in your Question and anatomize it and agree ☜ upon the sense of all your common terms before you dispute with any adversary It is not only in Sâ—e my Preface bâ—fore the second Part of the Saiâ—â—s Rest. Edit 3. c. A man of judgement shall hear ignoâ—â—nâ— mâ—n dâ—ffer and know that â—hâ— mean one thing and yet â—â—â—â—y themselves will never agree L. Bacoâ— Ess. 3. many words but in one word or syllable that so much ambiguity and confusion may be contained as may make a long dispute to be but a vain and ridiculous wrangling Is it not a ridiculous business to hear men dispute many hours about the Cur credis and Into what faith is to be resolved and in the end come to understand that by Cur one of them speaks of the Principium or Causa Veritatis and the other of the Principium patâ—factionis or the Evidentia Veritatis or some other cause And when one speaks of the Resolution of his faith as into the formal Object and another into the subservient testimony or means or into the proofs of Divine attestation or many other causes Or to hear men dispute Whether Christ dyed for all when by for one man meaneth for the benefit of all and another means in the place or stead of all or for the sins of all as the procuring cause c. Yet here is but a syllable to contain this confusion What a tedious thing it is to read long disputes between many Papists and Protestants about Justification while by Iustification one meaneth one thing and another meaneth quite another thing He that cannot force every word to make a plain confession of its proper signification that the Thing intended may be truly discerned in the Word he will but deceive himself and others with a wordy insignificant dispute § 18. Direct 7. Therefore be specially suspicious of Metaphors as being all but ambiguities till an Direct 7. explication hath fixed or determined the sense It is a noisome thing to hear some dispute upon an unexplained ☜ Metaphorical word when neither of them have enucleated the sense and when there are proper words enow § 19. Direct 8. Take special notice of what kind of beings your enquiry or disputation is and let Direct 8. all your terms be adapted and interpreted according to the kinds of beings you dispute of As if you ☜ be enquiring into the nature of any Grace as Faith Repentance Obedience c. remember that it is in genere moris a moral act And therefore the terms are not to be understood as if you disputed about meer Physical acts which are considered but in genere entis For that Object which must essentiate one Moral act containeth many Physical particles which will make up many Physical acts As I â—ave shewed in my Dispute of Saving Faith wiâ—h Dr. Barlow and of Iustification If you take such a man for your King your Commander your Master your Physicion c. if you should at the Barr when you are questioned for unfaithfulness dispute upon the word take whether it be an act of the phantasie or sense or intellect or will c. would you not be justly laught at So when you askt What act Faith or Repentance is which contain many particular Physical acts When you dispute of Divinity Policy Law Warr c. you must not use the same terms in the same sense as when you dispute of Physicks or Metaphysicks § 20. Direct 9. Be sure in all your disputes that you still keep distinguished before your eyes the Direct 9. Order of Being and the Order of Knowing that the questions de esse lying undetermined in your way ☜ do not frustrate all your dispute about the question de cognoscere As in the question Whether a man should do such or such a thing when he thinketh that it is Gods Command How far Conscience must be obeyed It must first be determined de esse whether indeed the thing be commanded or lawful or not Before the case can be determined about the obligation that followeth my apprehension For what ever my Conscience or Opinion say of it the Thing either is Lawful or it is not If it be Lawful or a duty the case is soon decided But if it be not Lawful the error of my Conscience altereth not Gods Law nor will it make it lawful unto me I am bound first to know and then to do what God revealeth and commandeth and this I shall be bound to what ever I imagine to the contrary and to lay by the error which is against it § 21. Direct 10. Be sure when you first enter upon an enquiry or dispute that you well discover how Direct 10. much of the controversie is verbal de nomine and â—ow much is material de re And that you suffer not ☜ your adversary to go on upon a false supposition that the Controversie is de re when it is but de Non ex verbis reâ— sed ex rebus verba esse inquirenda ait Mysoâ— in Laert. p. 70. Basil Edit nomine The difference between names and things is so wide that you would think no reasonable man should confound them And yet so heedless in this point are ordinary disputers that it is a usual thing to make a great deal of stir about a controversie before they discern whether it be de nomine or de râ— Many a hot and long dispute I have heard which was managed as about the very heart of some material cause as about mans Power to do good or about the sufficiency of Grace or about Iustification c. when the whole contest between the Disputers was only or principally It is a noble work that Mr. Le Blanck of Sedan is about to this purpose stating more exâ—ctly than hath yet been done all the Controversies between us and the Papists which how excellently he is like to perform I easily conjecture by the Disputes of his
us Q. 9. May be pray for Grace who desireth it not Q. 10. May he pray that doubteth of his interest in God and dare not call him Father as his Child Q. 11. May a wicked man pray or is he ever accepted Q. 12. May a wicked man use the Lords Prayer Q. 13. Is it Idolatry or sin alwayes to pray to Saints or Angels Q. 14. Must the same man pray secretly that hath before prayed in his family Q. 15. Is it best to keep set hours for prayer Q 16. May we joyn in family prayers with ungodly persons Q. 17 What if the Master or speaker be ungodly or a Heretick Q. 18. May we pray absolutely for outward mercies or only conditionally Q. 19. May we pray for all that we may lawfully desire Q. 20. How may we pray for the salvation of all the world Q. 21. Or for the Conversion of all Nations Q. 22. Or that a whole Kingdom may be converted and saved Q. 23. Or for the destruction of the enemies of Christ or the Kingdom Q. 24. What is to be judged of a particular faith Q. 25. Is every lawful prayer accepted Q. 26. With what faith must I pray for the souls or bodies of others Q. 27. With what faith may we pray for the Continuance of the Church or Gospel Q. 28. How to know when our prayers are heard Q. 29. How to have fulness and constant supply of matter in our prayers Q 30. How to keep up fervency in prayer Q 31. May we look to speed ever the better for any thing in our selves or our prayers Or may we put any trust in them Q. 32. How must that person and prayer be qualified which God will accept to p. 598 Tit. 3. Special Directions for family prayer ibid. Tit. 4. Special Directions for secret prayer p. 599 CHAP XXIV Directions fâ—r families about the Sacrament of the Lords Supper p. 600 What are the Ends of the Sacrament What are the Parts of it Q. 1. Should not the Sacrament have â—â—â—â— preparation than the other parts of worship Q 2. How oft should it be administred Q. 3. Must all members of the visible Church communicate Q. 4. May any man receive it that knoweth himself unsanctified Q. 5. May an ungodly man receive it that knoweth not himself to be ungodly Q. 6. Must a Christian receive who doubteth of his sincerity Q. 7. What if Superiours compell a doubting Christian to receive it by excommunication or imprisonment What should be choose Q. 8. Is not the case of an hypocrite that knoweth not himself to be an hypocrite and of the sincere who knoweth not himself to be sincere all one as to communicating Q. 9. Wherein lyeth the sin of an ungâ—dly person if he receive Q. 10. Doth all unworthy receiving make one lyable to damnation or what Q 11. What is the particular preparation needful to a fit Communicant p. 653. Marks of sincerity ibid. Preparing duties Q 1. May we receive from an ungodly Minister Q 2. May we communicate with unworthy persons in an undisciplined Church Q. 3. What if I cannot communicate unless I conform to an imposed gesture as sitting standing or kneeling Q. 4. What if I cannot receive it but as administered by the Common Prayer Q. 5. If my conscience be not satisfied may I come doubting Obj. Is it not a duty to follow conscience as Gods Officer What to do in the time of administration 1. What Graces must be exercised 2. On what objects 3. The Season and Order of Sacramental duties ad p. 610 CHAP. XXV Directions for fearful troubled Christians who are perplexed with doubts of their sincerity and justification Causes and Cure p. 612 CHAP. XXVI Directions for declining back-sliding Christians about perseverance p. 616 The way of falling into Sects and Heresies and Errors And of declining in Heart and Life Signs of declining Signs of a graceless state Dangerous signs of impenitency False signs of declining Motives against declining Directions against it p. 616 Tit. 2. Directions for perseverance or to prevent back-sliding p. 618 Antidotes against those doctrines of presumption which would binder our perseverance p. 623 CHAP. XXVII Directions for the poor The Temptations of the poor The special Duties of the poor p. 627 CHAP. XXVIII Directions for the Rich. p. 632 CHAP. XXIX Directions for the weak and aged p. 634 CHAP. XXX Directions for the sick p. 637 Tit. 1. Directions for a safe death to secure salvation I. For the unconverted in their sickness A sad case 1. For Examination 2. For Repentance 3. For faith in Christ 4. For a new heart love to God and resolution for obedience Q. Will â—ate Repentance serve the turn in such a case II. Directions to the Gâ—dly for a safe departure Their Temptations to be resisted p. 637 Tit. 2. How to profit by our sickness p 642 Tit. 3. Directions for a comfortable or peaceable Death p. 644. Directions for resisting the Temptations of Satan in time of sickness p. 648 Tit. 4. Directions for doing good to others in our sickness p. 651 CHAP. XXXI Directions to the friends of the sick that are about them p. 653 Q. Can Physick lengthen mens lives Q. Is it meet to make known to the sick their danger of death Q Must we tell bad men of their sin and misery when it may exasperate the disease by troubling them Q. What can be done in so short a time Q. What to do in doubtful cases Q. What order should be observed in counselling the ignorant and ungodly when time is so short Helps against excessive sorrow for the death of friends Yea of the worst A Form of Exhortation to be read in Sickness to the Ungodly or those that we justly fear are such p. 657 A Form of Exhortation to the Godly in Sickness For their comfort Their dying groans and joyes p. 662 TOME III. Christian Ecclesiasticks PART I. CHAP. I. OF the Worship of God in General The Nature and Reasons of it and Directions for it How to know right Ends in worship c. p. 673 CHAP. II. Directions about the Manner of worship to avoid all corruptions and false unacceptable worshipping of God p. 680. The disadvantages of ungodly men in judging of holy worship Q. How far the Scriptures are the Rule or Law of Worship and Discipline and how far not Instances of things undetermined in Scripture What Commands of Scripture are not universal or perpetual May danger excuse from duty and when Rules for the right manner CHAP. III. Directions about the Christian Covenant with God and Baptism p. 688. The Covenant what The Parties Matter Terms Forms necessary Modes Fruits c. External Baptism what Compleat Baptism what Of Renewing the Covenant CHAP. IV. Directions about the Profession of our Religion to others The greatness of the duty of open Profession VVhen and how it must be made p. 692 CHAP. V. Directions about Vows and particular Covenants with God p. 694 VVhat a Vow is The sorts of
of soul and Body have special need of help and counsel As 1. The Doubting troubled Christian. 2. The Declining or Backsliding Christian 3. The See Tom. 1. Ch. 7. Tit. 10. Of despair Poor 4. The Aged 5. The Sick 6. And those that are about the sick and dying Though these might seem to belong rather to the first Tome yet because I would have those Directions lye here together which the several sorts of persons in Families most need I have chosen to reserve them rather to this place The special duties of the Strong the Rich and the Youthful and Healthful I omi◠because I find the Book grow big and you may gather them from what is said before on several such subjects And the Directions which I shall first give to doubting Christians shall be but a few brief memorials because I have done that work already in my Directions or Method for Peace of Conscience and spiritual comfort And much is here said before in the Directions against Melancholy ☞ and Despair § 2. Direct 1. Find out the special cause of your doubts and troubles and bend most of your endeavours Direct 1. to remove that cause The same Cure will not serve for every doubting soul no nor for every one that hath the very same doubts For the Causes may be various though the doubts should be the same and the doubts will be continued while the cause remaineth § 3. 1. In some persons the chief cause is a timerous weak and passionate temper of body and mind which in some especially of the weaker Sex is so Natural a disease that there is no hope of a total cure Though yet we must direct and support such as well as we are able These persons have so weak a Head and such powerful passions that Passion is their life and according to Passion they judge of themselves and of all their duties They are ordinarily very high or very low full of joy or sinking in despair But usually Fear is their predominant Passion And what an enemy to quietness and peace strong fears are is easily observed in all that have them Assuring evidence will not quiet such fearful minds nor any Reason satisfie them The Directions for these persons must be the same which I have before given against Melancholy and Despair Especially that the Preaching and Books and means which they make use of be rather such as tend to inform the judgement and settle the will and guide the Life than such as by the greatest servency tend to awaken them to such passions or affections which they are unable to manage § 4. 2. With others the Cause of their Troubles is Melancholy which I have long observed to be the commonest cause with those godly people that remain in long and grievous doubts Where this is the cause till it be removed other remedies do but little But o◠this I have spoken at large before § 5. 3. In others the Cause is a habit of discontent and pievishness and impatiency because of some wants or crosses in the world Because they have not what they would have their Minds grow ulcerated like a Body that is sick or sore that carryeth about with them the pain and smart And they are still complaining of the pain which they feel but not of that which maketh the sore and causeth the pain The cure of these is either in Pleasing them that they may have their will in all things as you rock children and give them that which they cry for to quiet them 〈…〉 or rather to help to cure their impatiency and settle their minds against their childish sinful discontents of which before § 6. 4. In others the Cause is errour or great ignorance about the tenour of the Covenant of Grace and the Redemption wrought by Jesus Christ and the work of Sanctification and evidences thereof They know not on what terms Christ dealeth with sinners in the pardoning of sin nor what are the infallible signes of Sanctification It is sound Teaching and diligent learning that must be the cure of these § 7. 5. In others the cause is a careless life or frequent sinning and keeping the wounds of Conscience still bleeding They are still fretting the sore and will not suffer it to skin either they live in railing and contention or malice or some secret lust or fraud or some way stretch and wrong their Consciences And God will not give his peace and comfort to them till they reform It is a mercy that they are disquieted and not given over to a seared Conscience which is past feeling § 8. 6. In others the Cause of their doubts is Placing their Religion too much in humiliation and in a continual poreing on their hearts and overlooking or neglecting the high and chiefest parts of Religion even the daily studies of the Love of God and the riches of Grace in Iesus Christ and hereby stirring up the soul to Love and Delight in God When they make this more of their Religion and business it will bring their souls into a sweeter relish § 9. 7. In others the Cause is such weakness of parts and confusion of thoughts and darkness of mind that they are not able to examine themselves nor to know what is in them When they ask themselves any question about their Repentance or Love to God or any grace they are fain to answer like strangers and say they cannot tell whether they do it or not These persons must make more use than others of the judgement of some able faithful guide § 10. 8. But of all others the commonest cause of uncertainty is the weakness or littleness of Grace When it is so little as to be next to none at all no wonder if it be hardly and seldome discerned Therefore § 11. Direct 2. Be not neglecters of self-examination but labour for skill to manage aright so Direct 2. great a work But yet let your care and diligence be much greater to get grace and use it and increase it than to try whether you have it already or not For in examination when you have once taken a right course to be resolved and yet are in doubt as much as before your over-much poreing upon these trying questions will do you but little good and make you but little the better but the time and labour may be almost lost whereas all the labour which you bestow in Getting and Using and Increasing grace is bestowed profitably to good purpose and tendeth first to your safety and salvation and next that to your easier certainty and comfort There is no such way in the world to be certain that you have grace as to get so much as is easily discerned and will shew it self and to exercise it much that it may come forth into observation When you have a strong Belief you will easily be sure that you believe When you have a fervent Love to Christ and Holiness and to the word and wayes and servants
as enough for you yea as All or else you take him not as your God Direction 18. IF you would prove true Converts come over to God as your Father and felicity with Direct 18. desire and delight and close with Christ as your only Saviour with thankfulness and joy and set upon the way of Godliness with pleasure and alacrity as your exceeding priviledge and the only way of profit honour and content and do it not as against your wills as those that had rather do otherwise if they durst and account the service of God an unsuitable and unpleasant thing § 1. You are never truly changed till your Hearts be changed And the Heart is not changed till Passibilis timor est irrationabilis ad irrationabiliâ— constitutâ—â— sed â—um praecipit qui cum disciplina recta ratione consistit cujus proprium est reverentia Qui enim propter Christum doctrinam â—jâ—s Deum timet cum reverentia ei subjectus est cum â—â—e qui per vâ—rbâ—â—a aliaque tormenta timer Deum passibilem timâ—rem habere videtur Dâ—dâ—rus Alâ—x 〈◊〉 Pâ—t 1. the Will or Love be changed Fear is not the man but usually is mixt with unwillingness and dislike and so is contrary to that which is indeed the Man Though fear may do much for you it will not do enough It is oft more sensible than Love even in the best as being more passionate and violent but yet there is no more Acceptableness in all than there is Will or Love God sent not Souldiers or Inquisitors or Persecutors to convert the world by working upon their Fear and driving them upon that which they take to be a mischief to them But he sent poor Preachers that had no matter of worldly fears or hopes to move their auditors with but had authority from Christ to offer them eternal life and who were to convert the world by proposing to them the best and most desirable condition and shewing them where is the true felicity and proving the certainty and excellency of it to them and working upon their Love Desire and Hope God will not be your God against your wills while you esteem him as the Devil that is only terrible and hurtful to you and take his service for a slavery and had rather be from him and serve the world and the flesh if it were not for fear of being damned He will be feared as Great and Holy and Iust but he will also be Loved as Good and Holy and Merciful and every way suited to be the felicity and Rest of souls If you take not God to be better than the Creature and better to you and Heaven to be better for you than earth and Holiness than Sin you are not converted But if you do then shew it by your willingness alacrity and delight Serve him with gladness and chearfulness of heart as one that hath found the way of life and never had cause of gladness until now If you see your servant do all his work with groans and tears and lamentations you will not think he is well pleased with his Master and his work Come to God willingly with your hearts or you come not to him indeed at all You must either make him and his service your delight or at least your Desire as apprehending him most fit to be your delight so far as you enjoy him Direction 19. REmember still that Conversion is the turning from your carnal selves to God and Direct 1â— therefore that it engageth you in a perpetual opposition to your own corrupt Conceits and Wills to mortifie and annihilate them and captivate them wholly to the holy Word and Will of God § 1. Think not that your Conversion dispatcheth all that is to be done in order to your salvation No it is but the beginning of your work that is of your delight and happiness You are but engaged by it to that which must be performed throughout all your lives It entereth you into the right way not to sit down there but to go on till you come to the desired end It entereth you into Christs Army that afterwards you may there win the Crown of life And the great Enemy that you engage against is your selves There will still be a Law in your members rebelling against the Law that the Holy Ghost hath put into your minds Your Own Conceits and your Own Wills are the great Rebels against Christ and enemies of your sanctification Therefore it must be your resolved daily work to mortifie them and bring them clean over to the Mind and Will of God which is their Rule and End If you feel any conceits arising in you that are contrary to the Scripture and quarrell with the Word of God suppress them as rebellious and give them not liberty to cavil with your Maker and malepertly dispute with your Governour and Judge but silence it and force it reverently to submit If you feel any Will in you contrary to your Creator's Will and that there is something which you would have or do which God is against and hath forbid you remember now how great a part of your work it is to fly for help to the Spirit of Grace and to destroy all such rebellious desires Think it not enough that you can bear the denyal of those desires but presently destroy the desires themselves For if you let alone the desires they may at last lay hold upon their prey before you are aware Or if you should be guilty of nothing but the Desires themselves it is no small iniquity being the corruption of the Heart and the Rebellion and Adultery of the principal faculty which should be kept loyal and chaste to God The crossness of thy Will to the Will of God is the summ of all the impiety and evil of the soul And the subjection and conformity of thy Will to his is the Heart of the New Creature and of thy Rectitude and Sanctification Favour not therefore any self-conceitedness or self-willedness nor any rebelliousness against the Mind and Will of God any more than you would bear with the dis-jointing of your bones which will be little for your ease or use till they are reduced to their proper place Direction 20. LAstly Be sure that you renounce all conceit of self-sufficiency or merit in any thing Direct 20. you do and wholly rely on the Lord Iesus Christ as your Head and Life and Saviour and Intercessor with the Father § 1. Remember that without him you can do nothing John 15. 5. Nor can any thing you do be acceptable to God any other way than in him the beloved Son in whom he is well pleased As your persons had never been accepted but in him no more can any of your services All your repentings if you had wept out your eyes for sin would not have satisfied the Justice of God nor procured you pardon and justification without the satisfaction and merit of Christ. If he
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
snares are grievous to you blame not God but your selves that made them § 11. 5. Another of Satans wayes to make Religion burdensome and grievous to you is by overwhelming â— By overwhelming fears and sorrows you with fear and sorrow Partly by perswading you that Religion consisteth in excess of sorrow and so causing you to spend your time in striving to trouble and grieve your selves unprofitably as if it were the course most acceptable to God And partly by taking the advantage of a â—imorous passionate nature and so making every thought of God or serious exercise of Religion to be a torment to you by raising some overwhelming fears For fear hath torment 1 John 4. 18. In some faeminine weak and melancholy persons this Temptation hath so much advantage in the body that the holiest soul can do but little in resisting it so that though there be in such a sincere Love to God his wayes and servants yet fear so playeth the Tyrant in them that they perceive almost nothing else And it is no wonder if Religion be grievous and unpleasant to such as thâ—se § 12. But alas it is you your selves that are the causes of this and bring the matter of your grievance with you God hath commanded you a sweeter work It is a life of Love and joy and cheerful progress to eternal joy that he requireth of you and no more fear or grief than is necessary to separate you from sin and teach you to value and use the remedy The Gospel presenteth to you such abundant matter of joy and peace as would make these the very complexion and temperature of your souls if you received them as they are propounded Religious fears when they are inordinate and hurtful are sinful and indeed against Religion and must be resisted as other hurtful passions Be better acquainted with Christ and his promises and you will find enough in him to pacifiâ— the soul and give you confidence and holy boldness in your access to God Heb. 4. 16. Ephes. 3. 12. Heb. 10. 19. The Spirit which he giveth is not the Spirit of bondage but the Spirit of Adoption of Love and Confidence Rom. 8. 15. Heb. 2. 15. § 13. 6. Another thing that maketh Religion seem grievous is retaining unmortified sensual desires 6. By unmâ—â—tified lusts If you keep up your lusts they will strive against the Gospel and all the works of the Spirit which strive against them Gal. 5. 17. And every duty will be so far unpleasant to you as you are carnal because it is against your carnal inclination and desire Away therefore with your beloved sickness and then both your food and your Physician will be less grievous to you Mortifie the flesh and Rom. 8 7 8. you will less disrelish the things of the Spirit For the carnal mind is enmity against God For it is not subject to his Law nor can be § 14. 7. Another cause of confounding and wearying you is the mixture of your actual sins 7. By actus sin dealing unfaithfully with God and wounding your Consciences by renewed guilt especially of sins against knowledge and consideration If you thus keep the bone out of joint and the wound unhealed no marvel if you are loth to work or travail But it is your sin and folly that should be grievous to you and not that which is contrary to it and would remove the cause of all your troubles Resolvedly forsake your wilful sinning and come home by Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Iesus Christ Acts 20. 21. and then you will find that when the thorn is out your pain will cease and that the cause of your trouble was not in God or Religion but in your sin § 15. 8. Lastly To make Religion unpleasant to you the Tempter would keep the substance of 8 By ignorance of the renor of the Gospel the Gospel unknown or unobserved to you He would hide the wonderful Love of God revealed in our Redeemer and all the riches of saving grace and the great deliverance and priviledges of believers and the certain hopes of life eternal And the Kingdom of God which consisteth in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost shall be represented to you as consisting in errors only or in triâ—â—es in shadows and shews and bodily exercise which profitteth little 1 Tim. 4. 8. If ever you would know the pleasures of faith and holiness you must labour above all to know God as revealed in his infinite Love in the Mediator and read the Gospel as Gods Act of Oblivion and the Testament and Covenant of Christ in which he giveth you life eternal and in every duty draw near to God as a reconciled Father the object of your everlasting Love and Joy Know and use Religion as it is without mistaking or corrupting it and it will not appear to you as a grievous tedious or confounding thing Direct 14. BE very diligent in mortifying the desires and pleasures of the flesh and keep a continual Direct 14. watch upon your senses appetite and lusts and cast not your selves upon temptations occasions or opportunities of sinning remembring that your salvation lyeth on your success § 1. The lusts of the flâ—sh and the pleasures of the world are the common enemy of God and souls and the damnation of those souls that perish And there is no sort more lyable to temptations of this kind than those that are in the flower of their youth and strength When all the senses are in their vigour and lust and appetite are in their strength and fury how great is the danger and how great must your diligence be if you will escape The appetite and lust of the weak and sick are weak and sick as well as they and therefore they are no great temptation or danger to them The desire and pleasure of the senses do abate as natural strength and vigour doth abate To such there is much less need of watchfulness and where nature hath mortified the flesh there is somewhat the less for grace to do There needs not much grace to keep the aged and weak from fornication uncleanness excessive sports and carnal mirth and gluttony and drunkenness also are sins which youth is much more lyable to Especially some bodies that are not only young and strong but have in their temperature and complexion a special inclination to some of these as lust or sport or foolish mirth there needeth a great deal of diligence resolution and watchfulness for their preservation Lust is not like a corrupt opinion that surprizeth us through a defect of Reason and vanisheth as soon as truth appeareth But it is a brutish inclination which though Reason must subdue and govern yet the perfectest Reason will not extirpate but there it will still dwell And as it is constantly with you it will be stirring when objects are presented by the sense or fantasie to allure And it is like a torrent or a
your salvation Take heed lest it turn into carnal security and a perswasion of your good estate upon ill grounds or you know not why 4. Have you the Hope of glory Take heed lest it turn into a careless venterousness of your soul or the meer laying aside of fear and cautelous suspicion of your selves 5. Have you a Love to them that fear the Lord Watch your hearts lest it degenerate into a carnal or a partial Love Many unheedful young persons of different Sexes at first love each other with an honest chaste and pious Love but imprudently using too much familiarity before they were well aware it hath turned into a fleshly Love which hath proved their snare and drawn them further into sin or trouble Many have honoured them that fear the Lord who insensibly have declined to honour only those of them that were eminent in wealth and worldly honour or that were esteemed for their parts or place by others and little honoured the humble poor obscure Christians who were at least as good as they Forgetting that the things that are highly esteemed among men are abomination in the sight of God Luke 16. 15. and that God valueth not men by their places and dignities in the world but by their graces and holiness of life Abundance that at first did seem to Love all Christians as such as far as any thing of Christ appeared in them have first fallen into some Sect and over admiring their party and have set light by others as good as them and censured them as unfound and then withdrawn their special Love and confined it to their party or to some few and yet thought that they loved the godly as much as ever when it was degenerate into a factious Love 6. Are you zealous for God and truth and holiness and against the errors and sins of others Take heed lest you lose it not while you think it doth increase in you Nothing is more apt to degenerate than zeal In how many thousand hath it turned from an innocent charitable peaceable tractable healing profitable heavenly zeal into a partial zeal for some Party or Opinions of their own and into a fierce censorious uncharitable scandalous turbulent disobedient unruly hurting and destroying zeal ready to wish for fire from Heaven and kindling contention confusion and every evil work Read well Iames 3. 7. So if you are meek or patient take heed lest it degenerate into stupidity or contempt of those you suffer by To be patient is not to be meerly insensible of the affliction but by the power of faith to bear the sense of it as over-ruled by things of greater moment § 3. How apt men are to corrupt and debase all duties of Religion is too visible in the face of the far greatest part of the Christian world Throughout both the Eastern and the Western Churches the Papists the Greeks the Armenians the Abassines and too many others though the Essentials of Religion through Gods mercy are retained yet how much is the face of Religion altered from what it was in the dayes of the Apostles The ancient simplicity of Doctrine is turned into abundance of new or private opinions introduced as necessary Articles of Religion and alas how many of them â—alse So that Christians being too proud to accept of the ancient test of Christianity cannot now agree among themselves what a Christian is and who is to be esteemed a Christian and so they deny one another to be Christians and destroy their Charity to each other and divide the Church and make themselves a scom by their divisions to the Infidel world And thus the Primitive Unity Charity and Peace is partly destroyed and partly degenerate into the Unity Charity and Peace of several Sects among themselves The primitive simplicity in Government and Discipline is with most turned into a â—orâ—â—ble Secular Government exercised to advance one man above others and to satisfie his will and lusts and make him the Rule of other mens lives and to suppress the power and spirituality of Religion in the world The primitive simplicity of Worship is turned into such a Masque of Ceremony and such a task of formalities and bodily exercise that if one of the Apostolical Christians should come among them he would scarce think that this is the same employment which formerâ—y the Church was exercised in or scarce know Religion in this antick dress So that the amiable glorious face of Christianity is so spotted and defiled that it is hidden from the Unbelieving world and they laugh at it as irrational or think it to be but like their own And the principal hinderance of the conversion of Heathens Mahometans and other Unbelievers is the corruption and deformity of the Churches that are near them or should be the instruments of their conversion And the probablest way to the conversion of those Nations is the true Reformation of the Churches both in East and West which if they were restored to the ancient spirituality rationality and simplicity of Doctrine Discipline and Worship and lived in charity humility and holiness as those whose hearts and conversations are in Heaven with all worldly glory and honour as under their feet they would then be so illustrious and amiable in the eyes even of Heathens and other Infidels that many would flock in to the Church of Christ and desire to be such as they And their light would so shine before these men that they would see their good works and glorifie their heavenly Father and embrace their faith § 4. The commonest way of the degenerating of all Religious duties is into this dead formality or lifeless Image of Religion If the Devil can but get you to cast off the spirituality and life of duty he will give you leave to seem very devout and make much ado with outward actions words and beads and you shall have so much zeal for a dead Religion or the Corpse of Worship as will make you think that it is indeed alive By all means take heed of this turning the Worship of God into lip-service The commonest cause of it is a carnality of mind Fleshly men will think best of the most fleshly Religion or else a slothfulness in duty which will make you sit down with the easiest part It is the work of a Saint and a diligent Saint to keep the soul it self both regularly and vigorously employed with God But â—o say over certain words by rote and to lift up the hands and eyes is â—asie And hypocrites that are conscious that they are void of the life and spirituality of Worship do think to make all up with this formality and quiet their consciences and delude their souls with a hansome Image Of this I have spoken more largely in a Book called The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite § 5. Yet run not here into the contrary extream as to think that the Body must not worship God as well as the soul or that the
this and so doth custom in sensual courses even turn men into bruits § 46. 2. He doth what he can to hinder Parents and Masters from doing their part in the instructing and admonishing of Children and servants and dealing wisely and zealously with them for their salvation Either he will keep Parents and Masters ignorant and unable or he will make them wicked and unwilling and perhaps engage them to oppose their children in all that 's good or he will make them like Eli remiss and negligent indifferent formal cold and dull and so keep them from saving their childrens or servants souls § 47. 3. He doth all that possibly he can to keep the sinner in security presumption and senselesness even asleep in sin and to that end to keep him quiet and in the dark without any light or noise which may awake him that he may live asleep as without a God a Christ a Heaven a Soul or any such thing to mind His great care is to keep him from Considering and therefore he keeps him still in company or sport or business and will not let him be oft alone nor retire into a sober conference with his conscience or serious Thoughts of the Life to come § 48. 4. He doth his best to keep soul-searching lively Ministers out of the Country or out of that Place and to silence them if there be any such and to keep the sinner under some ignorant or dead-hearted Minister that hath not himself that faith or repentance or life or love or holiness or zeal which he should be a means to work in others And he will do his utmost to draw him to be a leader of men to sin § 49. 5. He doth his worst to make Ministers weak to disgrace the cause of Christ and hinder his work by their bungling and unskilful management that there may be none to stand up against sin but some unlearned or half-witted men that can scarce speak sense or will provoke contempt or laughter in the hearers § 50. 6. He doth his worst to make Ministers scandalous that when they tell men of their sin and duty they may think such mean not as they speak and believe not themselves or make no great matter of it but speak for custom credit or for their hire And that the people by the wicked lives of the Preachers may be emboldned to disobey their doctrine and to imitate them and live without Repentance § 51. 7. He will labour to load the ablest Ministers with reproaches and slanders which thousands shall hear who never hear the truth in their defence And so making them odious the people will receive no more good by their preaching than from a Turk or Iew till the very truth it self for it self prevail And to this end especially he doth all that he can to foment continual divisions in the Church that while every party is engaged against the other the Interest of their several causes may make them think it necessary to make the chief that are against them seem odious or contemptible to the people that so they may be able to do their cause and them no harm And so they disable them from serving Christ and saving souls that they may disable them to hurt themselves or their faction or their impotent cause § 52. 8. He doth what he can to keep the most holy Ministers under persecution that they may be as the wounded Deer whom all the rest of the herd will shun or like a worried dog whom the rest will fall upon or that the people may be afraid to hear them lest they suffer with them or may come to them only as Nicodemus did to Christ by night § 53. 9. Or if any Ministers or Godly persons warn the sinner the Devil will do what he can that they may be so small a number in comparison of those of the contrary mind that he may tell the sinner Dâ—st thou think these few self-conceited fellows are wiser than such and such and all the country Shall none be saved but such a few precise ones Do any of the Rulers or of the Pharises believe in him But this people that knoweth not the Law are cursed John 7. 48 49. That is as Dr. Hammâ—nd noteth This illiterate multitude are apt to be seduced but the Teachers are wiser § 54. 10. The Devil doth his worst to cause some falling out or difference of interest or opinion between the Preacher or Monitor and the sinner that so he may take him for his Enemy And how unapt men are to receive any advise from an Enemy or Adversary experience will easily convince you § 55. 11. He endeavoureth that powerful preaching may be so rare and the contradiction of wicked cavâ—llers so frequent that the Sermon may be forgotten or the impressions of it blotted out before they can hear another to confirm them and strike the nail home to the head and that the â—â—re may go out before the next opportunity come § 56. 12. He laboureth to keep good books out of the sinners hands or keep him from reading them leâ—t he speed as the Eunuch Acts 8. that was reading the Scripture as he rode in his Chariot on the way And instead of such books he putteth Romances and Play-books and trifling or scorning contradicting writings into his hands § 57. 13. He doth what he can to keep the sinner from intimate acquaintance with any that are truly Godly that he may know them no otherwise than by the image which ignorant or malicious slanderers or scorners do give of such And that he may know Religion it self but by hearsay and never see it exemplified in any holy diligent believers A holy Christian is a living image of God a powerful convincer and teacher of the ungodly And the nearer men come to them the greater excellency they will see and the greater efficacy they will feel Whereas in the Devils army the most must not be seen in the open light and the Hypocrite himself must be seen like a picture but by a side-light and not by a direct § 58. 14. Those means which are used the Devil labours to frustrate 1. By sluggish heedlesness and disregard 2. By prejudice and false opinions which prepossess the mind 3. By diversions of many sorts 4. By pre-ingagements to a contrary interest and way so that Christ comes to late for them 5. By worldly prosperity and delights 6. By ill company 7. And by molesting and frighting the sinner when he doth but take up any purpose to be converted Giving him all content and quietness in sin and raising storms and terrors in his soul when he is about to turn The Methods of Christ against the Tempter § 59. Before I proceed to Satans perticular Temptations I will shew you the contrary Methods of Christ in the conduct of his Army and opposing Satan I. Christs Ends are ultimately the Glory and Pleasing of his Father and himself and the saving of his Church and the
destroying the Kingdom of the Devil and next the purifying his peculiar people and calling home all that are ordained to eternal life § 60. But more particularly he looketh principally at the heart to plant there 1. Holy Knowledge 2. Faith 3. Godlyness or holy devotedness to God and Love to him above all 4. Thankfulness 5. Obedience 6. Humility 7. Heavenly-mindedness 8. Love to others 9. Self-denial and Mortification and contentment 10. Patience And in all these 1. sincerity 2. tenderness of heart 3. â—eal and holy strength and resolution And withal to make us actually serviceable and diligent in our masters work for our own and others salvation § 61. II. Christs order in working is direct and not backward as the Devils is He first revealeth saving truth to the understanding and affecteth the will â—â— shewing the Goodness of the things revealed And these employ the Thoughts and Passions and Senses and the whole body reducing the inferiour faculties to obedience and casting out by degrees those images which had deceived and prepossessed them § 62. The matter which Christ presenteth to the Soul is 1. Certain Truth from the Father of Lights set up against the Prince and Kingdom of darkness ignorance error and deceit 2. Spiritual and everlasting Good even God himself to be seen and Loved and Enjoyed for ever against the Tempters temporal corporal and seeming good Christs Kingdom and work are advanced by Light He is for the promoting of all useful knowledge and therefore for clear and convincing Preaching for reading the Scriptures in a known tongue and meditating in them day and night and for exhorting one another daily which Satan is against § 63. III. The Means by which he worketh against Satan are such as these 1. Sometime he maketh use of the very temper of the body as a preparative and being Lord of all he giveth such a temperature as will be most serviceable to the soul As a sober deliberate meek quiet and patient disposition But sometime he honoureth his Grace by the conquest of such sins as even bodily disposition doth entertain and cherish § 64. 2. Sometimes by his providence he withdraweth the matter of temptations that they shall not be too strong for feeble souls But sometimes his Grace doth make advantage of them all and leave them for the magnifying of its frequent victories § 65. 3. Sometimes he giveth his cause the major vote among the people so that it shall be a matter of dishonourable singularity not to be a professed Christian and somtime but exceeding rarely it is so with the life of Godliness and practice of Christianity also But ordinarily in the most places of the world Custom and the Multitude are against him and his grace is honoured by prevailing against these bands of Satan § 66. 4. He maketh his Ministers his principal Instruments qualifying disposing and calling them to his work and helping them in it and prospering it in their hands § 67. 5. He maketh it the duty of every Christian to do his part to carry on the work and furnisheth them with Love and Compassion and Knowledge and Zeal in their several measures § 68. 6. He giveth a very strict charge to Parents to devote their Children with themselves to God encouraging them with the promise of his accepting and blessing them and commandeth them to teach them the word of God with greatest diligence and to bring them up in the nurture and fear of God § 69. 7. He giveth Princes and Magistrates their power to promote his Kingdom and protect his servants and encourage the good and suppress iniquity and further the obedience of his Laws Though in most of the world they turn his enemies and he carrieth on his work without them and against their cruel persecuting opposition § 70. 8. His Light detecteth the nakedness of the Devils cause and among the Sons of Light it is odious and a common shame And as wisdom is justified of her children so the judgement of holy men condemning sin doth much to keep it under in the world § 71. 9. His providence usually casteth the sinner that he will do good to into the bosome and communion of his holy Church and the familiar company and acquaintance of the Godly who may help him by instruction affection and example § 72. 10. His providence fitteth all conditions to their good but especially helpeth them by seasonable quickning afflictions These are the means which ordinarily he useth But the powerful inward operations of his Spirit give efficacy to them all Tit. 2. Temptations to particular sins with Directions for preservation and Remedy IN Chapter 1. Part 2. I have opened the Temptations which hinder sinners from Conversion to God I shall now proceed to those which draw men to particular sins Here Satans Art is exercised 1. In fitting his baits to his particular use 2. In applying them thereto § 1. Tempt 1. The Devil fitteth his Temptations to the sinners age The same bait is not suitable Tempt 1. to all Children he tempteth to excess of playfullness lying disobedience unwillingness to learn the things that belong to their salvation and a senselesness of the great concernments of their souls He tempteth youth to wantonness rudeness gulosity unruliness and foolish inconsiderateness In the beginning of manhood he tempteth to lust voluptuousness and luxury or if these take not to designs of worldliness and ambition The aged he tempteth to covetousness and unmoveableness in their error and unteachableness and obstinacy in their ignorance and sin Thus every age hath its peculiar snare § 2. Direct 1. The Remedy against this is 1. To be distinctly acquainted with the Temptations of Direct 1. your own age and watch against them with a special heedfullness and fear 2. To know the special duties and advantages of your own age and turn your thoughts wholly unto those Scripture hath various precepts for the various ages study your own part The young have more time to learn their duty and less care and business to divert them Let them therefore be taken up in obedient learning The middle age hath most vigor of body and mind and therefore should do their masters work with the greatest vigor activity and zeal The Aged should have most judgement and experience and acquaintedness with Death and Heaven and therefore should teach the younger both by word and holy life § 3. Tempt 2. The Tempter also fitteth his Temptations to mens several bodily tempers as I Tempt â— shewed § 22. The hot and strong he tempteth to lust The sad and fearful to discouragement and continual self-vexations and to the Fear of Men and Devils Those that have strong appetites to Gluttony and Drunkenness Children and Women and weak-headed people to Pride of Apparel and trifling Complement And masculine wicked-unbelievers to Pride of Honour Parts and Grandeur and to an ambitious seeking of Rule and Greatness The meek and gentle he tempteth to a yieldingness unto the perswasions
and will of erroneous and tempting persons And those that are more stiff to a stubborn resistance of all that should do them good He found it most suitable to tempt a Saul to malice David by a surprize to lust Absolom to ambition Peter to fearfulness and after to compliance and dissimulation to avoid the offence and displeasure of the weak Luther to rashness Melancthon to fearfulness Carolostadius to nnsetledness Illiricus to inordinate zeal Osiander to self-esteem if Historians have given them their due One Shâ—â—e fitteth not every foot § 4. Direct 2. Let your strictest watch be upon the sins of your temperature Far greater diligence Direct 2. and resolution is here necessary than against other sins And withdraw the fewel and strive against the bodily distempers themselves Fasting and labour will do much against lust which Idleness and fulness continually â—eed And so the rest have their several cures Know also what good your temper doth give you special advantage for and let it be turned unto that and still employed in it § 5. Tempt 3. The Temptor suiteth his Temptations to your Estates of Poverty or Riches The Tempt 3. pâ—â—r he tempteth to murmur and be impatient under their wants and distress themselves more with griefs and cares and to think that their sufferings may save them without holiness and that necessary labour for their bodies may excuse them from much minding the concernments of their souls And either to censure and hate the Rich through envy or to flatter them for gain The Rich he tempteth to an idle time-wasting voluptuous fleshly bruitish life To excess in sleep and meat and drink and sport and apparel and costly wayes of pride and idle discâ—urse and visits and complements to love the wealth and honours of the world and live in continual pleasing of the flesh to fare deliciously every day and to waste their time in unprofitableness without a conâ—tant Calling and to be unmerciful to the poor and to tyrannize over their inferiours Prov. 30. 8 9. Luke 16. § 6. Direct 3. Here also observe regardfully where your danger lyeth and there keep a continual Direct 3. watch Lâ—t the poor remember that if they be not Rich in grace it is long of themselves and if they be they have the chiefest Riches and have learnt in all estates to be content And have great cause to be thankful to God that thus helpeth them against the love and pleasures of the world Let the Rich remember that they have not less to do than the poor because they have more committed 1 Iaâ— 6 9 to their trust nor may they ever the more satisfie the inordinate desires of the flesh But they have more to dâ— and more dangers to fear and watch against as they have more of their Masters Talents to employ and give account for at the last § 7. Tempt 4. The Devil suiteth his Temptations to mens daily work and business If it be low Tempt 4. to be ashamed of it through Pride If it be high to be Proud of it If it be hard to be weary and unfaithful in it or to make it take up all their minds and time If it be about worldly things he tempteth them to be tainted by it with a worldly mind If they labour for themselves he tempteth them to ever-do If for others he tempteth them to deceitful unfaithful negligence and sloth If they are Ministers he tempteth them to be idle and unfaithful and senseless of the weight of truth the worth of souls the brevity of time that so their sin may be the ruine or the loss of many If Rulers the Devil useth his utmost skill to cause them to espouse an interest contrary to the interest of truth and holiness and to cast some quarrel against Christ into their minds and to perswade them that his interest is against theirs and that his servants are their enemies § 8. Direct 4. See that your work be lawful and that God have called you to it and then take Direct 4. it as the service which he himself assigneth to you and do it as in his sight and as passing to his judgement in obedience to his will And mind not so much whether it be hard or easie low or high as whether you are faithful in it And if it be sanctified to you by your intending all to the pleasing of God remember that he loveth and rewardeth that servant that stoopeth to the lâ—west woâ—k at his command as much as him that is employed in the highest Do all for God and walk in Holiness with him and keep out selfishness the poyson of your Callings and observe the proper danger of your places and keep a constant watch against them § 9. Tempt 5. The Devil suiteth his Temptations to our several Relations Parents he tempteth to be Tempt 5. cold and regardless of the great work of a wise and holy education of their Children Children he tempteth to be disobedient unthankful void of natural affection unreverent dishonourers of their Parents Husbands he tempteth to be unloving unkind impatient with the weaknesses of their Wives and Wives to be pievish self-willed proud clamorous passionate and disobedient Masters he tempteth to use their servants only as their Beasts for their own commodity without any care of their salvation and Gods service And servants he tempteth to be carnal untrusty false slothful eye-servants that take more care to hide a fault than not to commit it Ministers and Magistrates he tempteth to seek themselves and neglect their charge and set up their own Ends instead of the common good or to mistake the common good or the means that tendeth to it Subjects and People be tempteth to dishonour and murmur against their Governours and to censure them unjustly and to disobey them and rebell or else to honour and fear and serve them more than God and against God § 10. Direct 5. Here learn well the duties and dangers of your own Relations and remember that it Direct 5. is much of your work to be faithful and excellent in your Relations And mind not so much what other men owe to you as what you owe to God and them Let Masters and Ministers and Magistrates first study and carefully practise their own duties and yet they must next see that their Inferiours do their duties because that is their office But they must be more desirous that God be first served and more careful to procure obedience to him than that they be honoured or obeyed themselves Children Servants and Subjects must be taken up in the well doing of their proper work remembring that their good or hurt lyeth far more upon that than upon their superiours dealings with them or usage of them As it is your own Body and not your superiours which your soul doth animate nourish and use and which you have the continual sense and charge of so it is your own duty and not your superiours which
Actions divers from that which commandeth my affections As those that put children relations families neighbours under our especiall charge and care though often others must be more loved 20. That Good which is the object of Love is not a meer Universal or General notion but is allwaies some particular or singular being in esse reali vel in esse cognito As there is no such thing in rerum natura as Good in a meer General which is neither the Good of natural existence or of moral perfection or of Pleasure Profit Honour c. Yea which is not in this or in that singular subject or so conceived so there is no such thing as Love which hath not some such singular object As Rada and other Scotists have made plain 21. All Good is either GOD or a CREATURE or a Creatures Act or Work 22. GOD is GOOD Infinitely Eternally Primitively Independently Immutably Communicatively of whom and by whom and to whom are all things The Beginning or first efficient the Dirigent and ultimately ultimate cause of all created Good As Making and Directing All things For Himself 23. Therefore it is the duty of the Intellectual Creature to Love God Totally without any exceptions or restrictions with all the Power Mind and Will not only in degree above our selves and all the world But also as GOD with a Love in kind transcending the Love of every Creature 24. All the Goodness of the Creature doth formally consist in its threefold Relation to GOD viz. 1. In the Impresses of God as its first Efficient or Creator as it is his Image or the effect and demonstration of his perfections viz. his Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness 2 In its Conformity to his Directions or Governing Laws and so in its Order and Obedience 3. And in its Aptitude and Tendency to God as its final cause even to the demonstration of his Glory and the Complacency of his Will 25. All Created Good is therefore Derivative Dependant Contingent Finite Secondary From God By God and To God receiving its Form and Measure from its respect to Him 26. Yet as it may be subordinately From man as the Principle of his own Actions and By man as a subordinate Ruler of himself or others and To man as a subordinate End so there is accordingly a subordinate sort of Goodness which is so denominated from these respects unto the Creature that is himself Good subordinately 27. But all this subordinate Goodness Bonum à nobis Bonum per nos Bonum nobis is but Analogically so and dependantly on the former sort of Goodness and is something in due subordination to it and against it nothing that is not properly Good 28. The best and excellentest Creatures in the foresaid Goodness-related to God are most to be loved and all according to the Degree of their Goodness more than as Good in relation to our selves 29. But seeing their Goodness is formally their Relation unto God it followeth that they are Loved 〈◊〉 only for his sake and consequently Gods Image or Glory in them is first Loved and so the true Love of any Creature is but a secondary sort of the Love of God 30. The best being next to God is the universe or whole Creation and therefore next him most to be loved by us 31. The next in Amiableness is the whole coelestial society Christ Angels and Saints 32. The next when we come to distinguish them is Christs own Created Glorified Nature in the Person of the Mediator Because Gods Glory or Image is most upon him 33. The next in Amiableness is the whole Angelical society or the orders of Intellectual Spirits above man 34. The next is the spirits of the Just made perfect or the Triumphant Church of Saints in Heaven 35. The next is all this lower world 36. The next is the Church in the world or militant on earth 37. The next are the particular Kingdoms and Societies of the world and so the Churches according to their various degrees 38. The next under societies and multitudes are those individual persons who are Best in the three fore-mentioned respects Whether our selves or others And thus by the objects should our Love that is Rational be diversified in Degree and that be Loved best that is best 39. The Amiable Image of God in man is as hath oft been said 1. Our Natural Image of God or the Image of his three Essential properties as such that is Our Vital Active Power our Intellect and our will 2. Our Moral Image or the Image of his said properties in their perfections viz. Our Holiness that is Our Holy Life or spiritual vivacity and Active Power Our Holy Light or Wisdom our Holy Wills or Love 3. Our Relative Image of God or the Image of his Supereminencie Dominion or Majesty which is 1. Common to Man in respect to the Inferiour Creatures that we are their Owners Governâ—rs and End and Benefactors 2. Eminently in Rulers of Men Parents and Princes who are Analogically sub-owners sub-rulers and sub-benefactors to their inferiors in various degrees By which it is discernable what it is that we are to Love in man and with what variety of kinds and degrees of Love as the Kinds and degrees of amiableness in the objects differ 40. Even the Sun and Moon and frame of Nature the Inanimates and Bruits must be Loved in that Degree Compared to Man and to one another as their Goodness before described that is the Impressions of the Divine perfections do more or less Gloriously appear in them and as they are adapted to him the ultimate end 41. As God is in this life seen but darkly and as in a Glass so also proportionably to be Loved For our Love cannot exceed our Knowledge 42. Yet it followeth not that we must Love him only as he appareth in his works which demonstrate him as effects do their cause For both by the said works improved by Reason and by his word we know that he is before his works and above them and so distinct from them as to transcend and comprehend and cause them all by a continual causality And therefore he must accordingly be Loved 43. It greatly hindereth our Love to God when we overlook all the intermediate excellencies between Him and us which are much better and therefore more amiable than our selves such as are before recited 44. The Love of the universe as bearing the liveliest Image or impress of their Cause is an eminent secondary Love of God and a great help to our Primary or Immediate Love of him Could we comprehend the Glorious excellency of the universal Creation in its matter form parts order and uses we should see so Glorious an Image of God as would unspeakably promote the work of Love 45. Whether the GLORY of God in HEAVEN which will for ever beatifie the beholders and possessors be the Divine Essence which is every where or a Created Glory purposely there placed for the felicity of holy spirits and
Unbelief is one of the Causes of them and the sinfullest Cause § 2. And that the Article of Remission of sin is to be Believed with application to our selves is certain The Article of Remission of sin to be believed applyingly But not with the application of Assurance Perswasion or Belief that we are already pardoned but with an applying Acceptance of an offered pardon and Consent to the Covenant which maketh it ours We believe that Christ hath purchased Remission of sin and made a Conditional Grant of it in his Gospel to all viz. if they will Repent and Believe in him or take him for their Saviour or become Penitent Christians And we consent to do so and to accept it on these terms And we believe that all are actually pardoned that thus consent § 3. By all this you may perceive that those troubled Christians which doubt not of the truth of the Word of God but only of their own sincerity and consequently of their Justification and Salvation do ignorantly complain that they have not faith or that they cannot believe For it is no act of unbelief at all for me to doubt whether my own heart be sincere This is my ignorance of my self but it is not any degree of unbelief For Gods Word doth no where say that I am sincere and therefore I may doubt of this without doubting of Gods Word at all And let all troubled Christians know that they have no more unbelief in them than they have doubting or unbelief of the truth of the Word of God Even that despair it self which hath none of this in it hath no unbelief in it iâ— there be any such I thought it needful thus far to tell you what unbelief is before I come to give you Directions against it And though the meer doubting of our own sincerity be no unbelief at all yet real unbelief of the very truth of the Holy Scriptures is so common and dangerous a sin and some degree of it is latent in the best that I think we can no way so much further the work of Grace as by destroying this The weakness of our faith in the truth of Scriptures and the remnant of our unbelief of it is the principal cause of all the languishings of our Love and Obedience and every Grace and to strengthen faith is to strengthen all What I have â—ullier written in my Saints Rest Part 2. and my Treatise against Infidelity I here suppose § 4. Direct 1. Consider well how much of Religion Nature it self teacheth and Reason without Direct 1. supernatural Revelation must needs confess as that there is another life which man was made for and that he is obliged to the fullest Love and Obedience to God and the rest before laid down 〈…〉 in the world are perpetual visible Evidences in my eyes of the truth of the Holy Scriptures 1 That there should be so Universal and implacable a hatred against the godly in the common sort â—f unrenewed men in all Agâ—â— and Nations of the Earâ—h when thâ—se men deserve so well of them and do them no wrong â—s a visible proof of Adams fall and he 〈◊〉 of a Saviour and a Sanctifier 2 That all those who are seriously Christians should be so far renewed and recovered from the common corruption as their heavenly â—inds and lives and their wonderful difference from other men sheweth this is a visible proof that Christianity is of God 3. That God doth â—o â—lainly shew a particular special Providence in the converting and confirming souls by differencing Grace and work on the soul as the sanctified feel doth shew that indeed the work is his 4. That God doth so plainly grant many of his Servants prayers by special Providences doth prove his owning them and his 〈◊〉 5. That God suffereth his Servants in all times and places ordinarily to suffer so much for his Love and Service from the world and flâ—sh dâ—â—h shew that there is a Judgement and Rewards and Punishments hereafter Or else our highest duty would be our greatest losâ— and thâ—n how should his Government of men be just 6. That the Renewed Nature which maketh men better and therefore is of God doth wholly look at the life to come and lead us to â—t and live upon it this sheweth that such a life there is or else this would be delusory and vain and Goodness it self would be a deceit 7. When it is undenyable that de facto esse the world is not Governed without the Hopes and Fears of another life almost all Nations among the Heathens believing iâ— and shewing by their very worshipping their dead Heroes as Gods that they believed that their soulâ— did live and even the wicked generally being restrained by those hopes and fears in themselves And also that de posse it is not pâ—â—â—â—ible the world should be governed agreeably to mans rational nature without the hopes and fears of another life But men would be wâ—â—se than Beasts and all Villanies would be the allowed practice of the world As every man may feel in himself what he were like to be and do if he had no such restraint And there being no Doctrine or Life comparable to Christianity in their tendency to the life to come All these are visible staâ—ding evidences assisted so much by common sense and reason and still apparent to all that they leave Infidelity without excuse and are ever at hand to help our faith and resist temptations to unbelief 8. And if the world had not had a Beginning according to the Scriptures 1. We should have found Monuments of Antiquity above sâ—x thousand years old 2. Arts and Sciences would have come to more perfection and Printing Guns c. not have been of so late invention 3. And so much of America and other parts of the world would not have been yet uninhabited unplanted or undiscovered Of Aâ—heâ—sm I have spoken before in the Introduction and Nature so clearly revealeth a God that I take it as almost needless to say much of it to sober men in the Introduction And then observe how congruously the doctrine of Christ comes in to help where Nature is at a loss and how exactly it suits with Natural Truths and how clearly it explaineth them and fully containeth so much of them as are necessary to salvation and how suitable and proper a means it is to attain their Ends and how great a testimony the Doctrines of Nature and Grace do give unto each other § 5. Direct 2. Consider that mans End being in the life to come and God being the righteous and Direct 2. merciful Governour of man in order to that End it must needs be that God will give him sufficient means to know his will in order to that end And that the clearest fullest means must needs demonstrate most of the Government and Mercy of God § 6. Direct 3. Consider what full and sad experience the world hath of its pravity and great
wood and yet is afraid of the shaking of a leaf You dwell among a world of ulcerated selfish contradictory mutable unpleasable minds and yet you cannot endure their displeasure Are you Magistrates The people will murmure at you and those that are most incompetent and uncapable will be the forwardest to censure you and think that they could govern much better than you Those Socrates dicenâ—â— cuidam Nonne tibi â—â—â—â—e maledicit Non inquit mâ—hi enim â—â—â—â—a non aâ—â—uâ—t that bear the necessary burdens of the common safety and defence will say that you oppress them and the malefactors that â—re punished will say you deal unmercifully by them and those that have a cause never so unjust will say you wrong them if it go not on their side Are you Pastors and Teachers You will seem too rough to one and to smooth to another yea too rough to the same man when by reproof or censure you correct his faults who censureth you as too smooth and a friend to sinners when you are to deal in the cause of others No sermon that you preach is like to be pleasing to all your hearers nor any of your ministerial works Are you Lawyers Dicebat â—xpâ—dire ut sâ—se ex induâ—â—ria com â—â—s exponerâ—â— Nâ—m si ea dixerin quae in nâ—bâ— corrigenda sint emâ—ndâ—bunt sin aâ—iaâ— nihil ad nâ—s The Clyents that lost their cause behind your backs will call you unconscionable and say you betrayed them And those that prevailed will call you covetous and tell how much money you took of them and how little you did for it So that it s no wonder that among the vulgar your profession is the matter of their reproach Are you Physicions You will be accused as guilty of the death of many that die and as covetous takers of their money whether the Patient die or live For this is the common talk of the vulgar except of some few with whom your care hath much succeeded Are you Trades-men Most men that buy of you are so selfish that except you will begger your selves they will say you deceive them and deal unconscionably and sell too dear Little do they mind the necessary maintenance of your families nor care whether you live or gain by your trading But if you will wrong your selves to sell them a good penny-worth they will say you are very honest men Dicenti Alâ—â—bâ—adâ— non esse toleâ—abâ—lâ—m Zantippen adeo morosam Atqui ait ego ita hisâ—e jampâ—idem assuetus sum ac si sâ—num trochearum audiam miâ—i post Zantippes uâ—um relâ—quorum mortalium facilis â—â—leratio est Laâ—â—t iâ— Socr. And yet when you are broken they will accuse you of imprudence and defrauding your creditors You must buy dear and sell cheap and live by the loss or else displease § 59. Direct 11. Remember still that the Pleasing of God is your business in the world and that in Direct 11. Pleasing him your souls may have safety rest and full content though all the world should be displeased Hoc habeo fâ—â—e refugii praesidii in meâ—â—aeruâ—ni sermones cum Deo cum amicis verâ—â— cum multâ—s magistrâ—s Buâ—holtzâ—â— with you God is enough for you And his approbation and favour is your portion and reward How sweet and safe is the life of the sincere and upright ones that study more to be good than to seem good And think if God accept them that they have enough O what a mercy is an upright heart Which renounceth the world and all therein that stands in competition with his God And taketh God for his God indeed even for his Lord his Judge his Portion and his all Who in temptation remembreth the eye of God and in all his duty is provoked and ruled by the will and pleasure of his Judge And regardeth the eye and thoughts of man but as he would do the presence of a bird or beast unless as piety justice or charity require him to have respect to man in due subordination to God Who when men applaud him as a person of excellent holiness and goodness is fearful and sollicitous lest the all-knowing God should think otherwise of him than his applauders And under all Nemo alâ—oâ—um sâ—nâ—u miser est sâ—d â—â—â—â— â—deâ— non possunt â—â—â—â— usquam fâ—â—â—â— judicio esâ—e misâ—ri qui sunt vere â—uâ— conscient â— bâ—ati Salvi 〈…〉 Gubâ—râ— l 1. the censures roproaches and slanders of man yea though through temptation good men should thus use him can live in peace upon the approbation of his God alone and can rejoyce in his justification by his righteous judge and gracious redeemer though the inconsiderable censures of men condemn him Verily I cannot apprehend how any other man but this can live a life of true and solid peace and joy If Gods approbation and favour quiet you not nothing can rationally quiet you If the pleasing of him do not satisfie you though men though good men though all men should be displeased with you I know not how or when you will be satisfied Yea if you be above the censures and displeasure of the profane and not also of the godly when God will permit them as Iobs wife and friends to be your trial it will not suffice to an even contented quiet life And here consider § 60. 1. If you seek first to please God and are satisfied therein you have but one to please instead of Philosophi libertas 〈…〉 a est omnâ—bus P. Sâ—asig mulâ—o maâ—is fidelis Pastor is multitudes And a multitude of masters are hardlier pleased than one 2. And it is One that putteth you upon nothing that is unreasonable for quantity or quality 3. And one that is perfectly wise and good not liable to misunderstand your case and actions 4. And one that is must Holy and is not pleased in iniquity or dishonesty 5. And he is one that is impartial and mâ—st just and is no respecter of persons Acts 10. 34. 6. And he is one that is a competent Iudge that hath fitness and authority and is acquainted with your hearts and every circumstance and reason of your actions â— And he is one that perfectly agreeth with himself and putteth you not upon contradictions or unpossibilities 8. And he is one that is constant and unchangeable and is not pleased with one thing to day and another contrary to morrow nor with one person this year whom he will be weary of the next 9. And he is one that is merciful and requireth you not to hurt your selves to please him Nay he is pleased with nothing of thine but that which tendeth to thy happiness and displeased with nothing but that which hurts thy self or others as a father that is displeased with his children when they defile or hurt themselves 10. He is gentle though just in his censures of thee judging truly but not with unjust rigor nor making your actions worse
do your self right For he whom you commend is either superior or inferior to you If he be inferior if he be to be commended then you much more If he be superior if he be not to be commended then you much less Lord Bacon Essay 54. pag. 299. may have the preheminence as a dwarf that makes another seem a proper man They are less troubled that God and the Gospel is dishonoured by the infirmities insufficiencie and faults of others than that their glory is obscured by worthier men though God be honoured and his work promoted Whereas the humbled person wisheth from the bottom of his heart that all the Lords people were Prophets that all men could preach and pray and discourse and live much better than he doth himself though he would also be as good as they He is glad when he heareth any speak more judiciously powerfully and convincingly than he rejoycing that Gods work is done whoever do it For he loveth Wisdom and Holiness Truth and duty not only because it is his own but for it self and for God and for the souls of others A Proud man envieth both the parts and work and honour of others And is like the Devil repining at the gifts of God and the better and wiser any one is the more he envieth him He is an enemy to the fruits of Gods beneficence as if he would have God less Good and bountiful to the world or to any but himself and such as will serve his party and interest and honour with their gifts His eye is evil because God is Good If others be better spoken of than himself as more learned able wise or holy it kindleth in his breast a secret hatred of them unless they are such whose honour is his honour or contributeth thereto Whereas the holy humble soul is sorry that he wants what others have but glad that others have what he wants He loveth Gods gifts where-ever he seeth them yea though it were in one that hateth him He would not have the world to be shut up in a perpetual night because he may not be the Sun but would have them receive that by another which he cannot give them and is glad that they have a Sun though it be not he Though some preached Christ of envy and strife of contention and not sincerely to add afflictions to his bonds yet Paul rejoyced and would rejoyce that Christ was preached Phil. 1. 15 16 17 18. § 46. Sign 4. When the Proud man is praying or preaching his eye is principally upon the hearers Sign 4. and from them it is that his work is animated and from them that he fetcheth principally the fire or motives of his zeal He is thinking principally of their case and all the while fishing for their love and approbation and applause And where he cannot have it the fire of his zeal goeth out Whereas though the humble subordinately look at men and would do all to edification yet it is not to be Loved by them so much as to exercise Love upon them nor to seek for honour and esteem from them so much as to convert and save them And it is God that he chiefly eyeth and regardeth and from him that he fetches his most powerful motives and it is his approbation that he expecteth His eye and heart is so upon the auditors as to be more upon God He would feed the sheep but would please the Lord and Owner of them § 47. Sign 5. A Proud man after his duty is more inquisitive how he was liked by men and what Sign 5. they think or say of him than whether God and Conscience give him their approbation He hath his scouts to tell him whether he be honoured or dishonoured This is the return of prayer that he looks after This is the fruit of preaching which he seeks to reap But these are inconsiderable things to a serious humble soul He hath God to please his work to do and sets not much by humane judgement § 48. Sign 6. A Proud man is more troubled when he perceiveth that he is undervalued and misseth Sign 6. of the honour which he sought than that his preaching succeeds not for the good of souls or his Clâ—mens Alex. stâ—om l. 1. c. 4. Aâ—t â—ideli Christiano docentâ— veâ— unicum sufficere auditorem prayers prevail not for their spiritual good Every man is most troubled for missing that which is his end To do good and get good is the end of the sincere and this he looks after and rejoyceth if he obtain it and is troubled if he miss it To seem good and wise and able is the Proud mans end And if the people honour him it puffs him up with gladness as if he were a happy man And if they slight him or despise him he is cast down or cast into some turbulent passion and falls a hating or wrangling with them that deny him the honour he expects as if they did him a hainous wrong As if a Physicion should want both skill and care to cure his patients but hateth and revileth them because they prefer another that is abler and will not die to secure his honour or magnifie his skill for killing their friends The Proud mans honour is his Life and Idol § 49. Sign 7. The Heart of the Proud is not enclined to humbling duties to penitent confessions Sign 7. and lamentations for sin and earnest prayer for grace and pardon but unto some formal observances and lip-labour or the Pharisees self-applause I thank thee that I am not as other men nor as this Publican Not but that the humblest have great cause to bless God for their spiritual mercies and his differencing grace But the Proud thank God for that which they have not for sanctification when they are unsanctified and for justification when they are unjustified and for the assured hope of Glory when they are sure to be damned if they be not changed by renewing grace and for being made the heirs of Heaven while they continue the heirs of Hell And therefore the proud are least afraid of coming without right or preparation to the sacrament of the Body and blood of Christ They rush in with confident presumption When the humble soul is trembling without as being oft more fearful to enter than it ought § 50. Sign 8. Proud persons are of all others the most impatient of Church discipline and uncapable Sign 8. of living under the Government of Christ. If they sin they can scarce endure the gentlest admonition But if they are reproved sharply or cuttingly that they may be found in the faith you shall perceive that they smart by their impatience But if you proceed to more publick reproof and admonition and call them to an open confessing of their sin to those whom they have wronged or before the Congregation and to ask forgiveness and seriously crave the prayers of the Church you shall then see the power of Pride
mourning where you may see the end of all the living and be made better by laying it to heart and let not your hearts be in the house of miâ—th Eccles. 7. 2 3 4. Delight not to converse with men that be in â—â—nâ—ur and understand not but are like the beasts that perish for though they think of perpetuating their houses and call their lands after their own names yet they abide not in their honour and this their way is their folly though yet their posterity approve their sayings Psal. 49. 20. 12. 13 14. Converse with penitent humbled souls that have seen the odiousness of sin and the wickedness and deceitfulness of the heart and can tell you by their own feeling what cause of humiliation is still before you With these are you most safe § 106. I have been the larger against PRIDE as seeing its prevalency in the world and its mischievous effects on souls and families Church and State and because it is not discerned and resisted by many as it ought I would fain have God dwell in your hearts and peace in your societies and fain have you stand fast in the hour of temptation from prosperity or adversity and fain have affliction easie to you But none of this will be without humility I am loth that under the mighty 1 Pet. 5. 6. Lam. 3. 29. 2. 19. Amos 3. 8. 1 Pet. 5. 5. Iames 4. 6. Dan. 5. 22. 2 Châ—â—n 34. â—â— hand of God we should be unhumbled even when judgements bid us lay our mouths in the dust The storms have been long up the Cedars have fallen It is the Shrubs and bending Willows that now are likest to scape I am loth to see the prognosticks of wrath upon your souls or upon the Land I am loth that any of you should through Pride be unhumbled for sin or ashamed to own despised godliness or that any should through Pride be unhumbled for sin or ashamed to own despised godliness or that any that have seemed Religious should prove seditious unpeaceable or Apostates And therefore I beseech you in a special manner take heed of pride be little in your own esteem Praise not one another unseasonably be not offended at plain reproofs Look to your duties and then leave your reputations to the will of God Rebuke pride in your children Use them to mean attire and employments Cherish not that in them which is most natural now and most pernicious God dwelleth with the Humble and will take the Humble to dwell with him Isa. 57. 15. Job 22. 29. Put on humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another Col. 3. 12 13. Be clothed with humility Serve the Lord with all humility of mind and â—e will exalt you in due time Acts 20. 19. 1 Pet. 5. 6 7. PART VI. See an excellenâ—â—ract a◠〈◊〉 〈…〉 3. 〈…〉 Pat. though 〈…〉 Directions against Covetousness or Love of Riches and against worldly Cares I Shall say but little on this subject now because I have written a Treatise of it already called The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ in which I have given many Directions in the Preface and Treatise against this sin § 1. Direct 1. Understand well the Nature and Malignity of this sin both what it is and why it is so great and perillous I shall here shew you 1. What Love of Riches is lawful 2. What it is Direct 1. that is unlawful and in what this sin of Covetousness or Worldliness doth consist 3. Wherein the Malignity or Greatness of it lyeth 4. The Signs of it 5. What Counterfeits of the contrary vertuâ— do hide this sin from the eyes of worldlings 6. What false appearances of it do cause many to be suspected of Covetousness unjustly § 2. I. All love of the creature the world or riches is not sin For 1. The works of God are I 〈…〉 all Good as such and all Goodness is amiable As they are related to God and his Power and Wisdom and Goodness is imprinted on them so we must love them even for his sake 2. All the impressions of the Aâ—tributes of God appearing on his works do make them as a Glass in which at this distance we must see the Creator and their sweetness is a drop from him by which his Goodness and Love â—s tasted And so they were all made to lead us up to God and help our minds to conâ—â—â—â— with him and kindle the Love of God in our breasts as a Love-token from our dearest friend And thus as the means of ouâ— communion with God the Love of them is a duty and not a sin 3. They are naturally the means of sustaining our bodies and preserving life and health and alâ—â—â—â—ty And as such our sensitive part hath a Love to them as every Beast hath to their food And this Love in it self is not of moral kind and is neither a vertue nor a vice till it either be used in obedience 〈…〉 Reason and so it is good or in disobedience to it and so it is evil 4. The creatures are necessary means to support our bodies while we are doing God the service which we owe him in the world And so they must be Loved as a means to his service Though we cannot say properly that Riches are ordinarily thus necessary 5. The Creatures are necessary to sustain our bodies in our journey to Heaven while we are preparing for eternity And thus they must be loved as remote helps to our salvation And in these two last respects we call it in our prayers our daily bread 6. Riches may enable us to relieve our needy brethren and to promote good works for Church or State And thus also they may be loved so far as we must be thankful for them so far we may Love them For we must be Thankful for nothing but what is Good § 3. II. But Worldliness or sinful Love of Riches is 1. When Riches are loved and desired and Covâ—â—ousness what Phâ—l 3. 7 8 9. â—am 1. 10. Phil. 4. 11. 1 â—â—m â— 8. Prâ—v 23 4. â—abour not to be Riâ—h sought more for the Flesh than for God or our Salvation even as the matter or means of our worldly prosperity that the flesh may want nothing to please it and satisfie its desires Or that Pride may have enough wherewith to support it self by gratifying and obliging others and living at those rates and in that splendour as may shew our Greatness or further our Domination over others 2. And when we therefore desire them in that proportion which we think most agreeable to these carnal ends and are not contented with our daily bread and that proportion which may sustain us as passengers to Heaven and tend most to the securing of our souls and to the service of God So that it is the end by which a sinful Love of Riches is principally to be discerned when they are lâ—ved for pride or flesh-pleasing as they are the matter
his head His clothing you may read of at his crucifying when they parted it As for money he was fain to send Petâ—r to a â—â—â—â—h for some to pay their tribute If Christ did scrape and care for Riches then so do thou Iâ— he thought it the happiest life do thou think so too But if he contemned it do thou contemn it If his whole life was directed to give thee the most perfect example of the contempt of all the prosperity of this world then learn of his example if thou take him for thy Saviour and if thou love thy self Though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that you through his poverty might be rich 2 Cor. 8 9. § 31. Direct 10. Think on the example of the primitive Christians even the best of Christs servants Direct 10. and see how it condemneth worldliness They that by miracle in the name of Christ could give limbs to the lame yet tell him Silver and Gold have we none Acts 3. 6. Those that had possessions sold them and laid the money at the Apostles feet and they had all things common to shew that faith overcometh the world by contemning it and subjecting it to charity and devoting it entirely to God Read whether the Apostles did live in sumptuous houses with great attendance and worldly Cheâ—â—â—â—stome saith his enemies â—harged him with many crimes but never with Covâ—tousness or Wantonâ—ess And so it was with Christ and his enemies plenty and prosperity And so of the rest § 32. Direct 11. Remember to what ends all worldly things were made and given you and what a Direct 11. happy advantage you may make of them by renouncing them as they would be provision for your lusts and by devoting your selves and them to God The use of their sweetness is to draw your souls to taste Et siâ—uâ— in patria Deâ—s est speculum in quo reiucent creaturae sic è converso in via creaturae sunt speculum quo creator videtur Paul Scaâ—iger in Ep. Câ—th l. 14. Thes. 123. p. 689. by faith the heavenly sweetness They are the Looking-glass of souls in flesh that are not yet admitted to see things spiritual face to face They are the provender of our bodies our travelling furniture and helps our Inns and solacing company in the way they are some of Gods Love-tokens some of the lesser pieces of his Coin and bear his Image and superscription They are drops from the Rivers of the eternal pleasures to tell the mind by the way of the senses how good the Donor is and how amiable and what higher Delights there are for souls and to point us to the better things which these foretell They are messengers from Heaven to testifie our Fathers care and love and to bespeak our thankfulness love and duty and to bear witness against sin and bind us faster to obedience They are the first Volume of the Word of God The first Book that man was set to read to acquaint him fully with his Maker As the Word which we read and hear is the Chariot of the Spirit by which it maketh its accesses to the soul so the delights of sight and taste and smell and touch and hearing were appointed as an ordinary way for the speedy access of heavenly love and sweetness to the Heart that upon the first perception of the goodness and sweetness of the creature there might presently be transmitted by a due progression or deep impression of the goodness of God upon the soul That the creature being the Letters of Gods Book which are seen by our eye the sense even the Love of our great Creator might presently be perceived by the mind and no letter might once be lookt upon but for the sense no creature ever seen or tasted or heard or felt in any delectable quality without a sense of the Love of God That as the touch of the hand upon the strings of the Lute do cause the melody so Gods touch by his mercies upon our hearts might presently tune them into Love and Gratitude and Praise They are the Tools by which we must do much of our Masters work They are means by which we may refresh our brethren and express our love to one another and our love to our Lord and Master in his servants They are our Masters stock which we must trade with by the improvement of which no less than the Reward of endless Happiness may be attained These are the Uses to which God gives us outward mercies Love them thus and Delight in them and Use them thus and spare not yea seek Even Dyonisius the Tyrant was bountiful to Philosophers To Plato he gave above fourscore Talents Laert. in Platoâ—e and much to Aristippus and many more and he offered much to many Philosophers that refused it And so did Croesus them thus and be thankful for them But when the creatures are given for so excellent a use will you debase them all by making them only the fuell of your lusts and the provisions for your flesh And will you love them and dote upon them in these base respects while you utterly neglect their noblest use You are just like children that cry for Books and can never have enouw but its only to play with them because they are fine but when they are set to learn and read them they cry as much because they love it not Or like one that should spend his life and labour in getting the finest clothes to dress his Dogs and Horses with but himself goeth naked and will not wear them § 33. Direct 12. Remember that God hath promised to provide for you and that you shall want Direct 12. nothing that is good for you if you will live above these worldly things and seek first his Kingdom and the righteousness thereof And cannot you trust his promise If you truly believe that he is God Matth. 10. 30. Luke 12. 7. and that he is true and that his particular providence extendeth to the very numbring of your hairs you will sure trust him rather than trust to your own forecast and industry Do you think his provision is not better for you than your own All your own care cannot keep you alive an hour nor cannot prosper any of your labours if you provoke him to blast them And if you are not content with his provisions nor submit your selves to the disposals of his love and wisdom you disoblige God and provoke him to leave you to the fruits of your own care and diligence And then you will find that it had been your wiser way to have trusted God § 34. Direct 13. Think often on the dreadful importance and effects of the Love of Riches or a Direct 13. worldly mind 1. It is a most certain sign of a state of death and misery where it hath the upper The mischiefs of a worldly mind Look upon the face of the calamitous world and enquire
of as it is a Means or an Expression of the good or evil of the mind 14. Sometime the present time must be most regarded herein and sometimes the future For when some great sin or judgement or other reason calls us to a Fast when it becomes needful to the ends of that present day we must do it though the Body were so weak that it would be somewhat the worse afterward so be it that the Good which we may expect by it that day be greater than the good which it is like to deprive us of afterward otherwise the after loss if greater is more to be avoided 15. Many things do Remotely fit us for our main end which neerly and directly seem to have no tendency to it As those that are only to furnish us with natural strength and vigor and alacrity or to prevent impediments As a Travellers hood and cloak and other carriage seem rather to be hinderances to his speed but yet are necessary for preventing the cold and wet which else might hinder him more yea a possible uncertain danger or impediment if great may be prevented with a certain small impediment So it is meet that our Bodies be kept in that health and alacrity which is ordinarily necessary to our duty and in eating and drinking and lawfull recreations it is not only the next or present duty which we prepare for but for the duty which may be very distant 16. Ordinarily it is safest to be more fearful of excess of fleshly-pleasure than of defect For ordinarily we are all very prone to an excess and also the excess is usually more dangerous When excess is the Damnation of all or most that ever perish and Defect is but the Trouble and hinderance but never or rarely the Damnation of any it 's easie then to see on which side we should be most fearful cautelous and vigilant 17. Yet excessive scrupulousness may be a greater sin and a greater hinderance in the work of God than some small excesses of flesh-pleasing which are committed through ignorance or inadvertency When an honest heart which preferreth God before the Flesh and is willing to please him though it displease the flesh shall yet mistake in some small particulars or commit some daily errors of infirmity or heedlessness it is a far less hinderance to the main work of Religion than if that man should daily perplex his mind with scruples about every bit he eats whether it be not too pleasing or too much and about every word he speaks and every step he goes as many poor tempted melancholy persons do thereby disabling themselves not only to Love and Praise and Thankfulness but even all considerable service In sum All pleasing of the senses or flesh which is lawful must have these qualifications 1. Gods Glory must be the ultimate end 2. The matter must be lawful and not forbidden 3. Therefore it must not be to the hinderance of duty 4. Nor to the drawing of us to sin 5. Nor to the hurt of our health 6. Nor too highly valued or too dearly bought 7. The measure must be moderate where any of these are wanting it is sin And where flesh-pleasing is Habitually in the bent of Heart and Life preferred before the Pleasing of God it proves the soul in captivity to the flesh and in a damnable condition § 6. III. I am next to shew you the evil or malignity of predominant Flesh-pleasing For if the The Greatness of the sin greatness of the sin were known it would contribute much to the cure And 1. Understand that it is the sin of sins the end of all sin and therefore the very sum and Life of all All the evil wicked men commit is ultimately to please the flesh The love of flesh-pleasing is the cause of all Pride and Covetousness and Whoredom and wantonness and gluttony and drunkenness and all the rest are but either the immediate works of sensuality and Flesh-pleasing or the distant service of it by laying in provision for it And all the malicious enmity and opposition to God and Godliness is from hence because they cross the interest and desires of the flesh The final cause is it for which men invent and use all the Means that tend to it Therefore all other sin being nothing but the means for the pleasing of our fleshly appetites and fancies its evident that flesh-pleasing is the common cause of them all and is to all other sin as the spring is to the watch or the poise to the clock the weight which giveth them all their motion Cure this sin and you have taken off the poise and curâ—d all the positite sins of the soul Though the privative sins would be still uncured if there were no more done Bâ—cause that which makes the clock stand still is not enough to make it go right But indeed nothing but the Love of Pleasing God can truly cure the Love of flesh-pleasing and such a cure is the cure of every sin both positive and privative active and defective § 7. 2. Flesh-pleasing is the Grand Idolatry of the world and the Flesh the greatest Idol that ever wâ—s set up against God Therefore Paul saith of sensual worldlings that their Belly is their God and thence it is that they mind earthly things and glory in their shame and are enemies to the cross of Christ that is to sufferings for Christ and the doctrine and duties which would cause their sufferings That is a mans God which he taketh for his chief Good and Loveth best and trusteth in most and is most desirous to please And this is the flesh to every sensualist He loveth pleasure more than God 2 Tim. 3. 2 4. He savoureth or mindeth the things of the flesh and liveth to it and walketh after it Rom. 8. 1 5 6. 7. 8. 13. He maketh provision for it to satisfie its appetite or lusts Rom. 13. 14. H soweth to the flesh Gal. 6. 8. and fullfilleth his lust when it lusteth against the spirit Gal. 5. 16 17. And thus while concupiscence or sensuality hath dominion sin is said to have dominion over them and they are servants to it Rom. 6. 14 20. For to whom men yield themselves servants to obey his servants they are whom they serve or obey Rom. 6. 16. It is not bowing the knee and praying to another that is the chief Idolatry As Loving and Pleasing and Obeying and Trusting and Seeking and Delighting in him are the chiefest parts of the service of God which he preferreth before a thousand sacrifices or complements So Loving the flesh and Pleasing it and Obeying it and Trusting in it and Seeking and Delighting in its pleasures are the chief service of the Flesh and more than if you offered sacrifice to it and therefore is the Grand Idolatry And so the flesh is the great enemy of God which hath the chiefest Love and Service which is due to him and robs him of the Hearts of all mankind that are
this to encrease and multiply your pleasure Is not health and friends and food and convenient habitation much sweeter as the â—ruit of the Love of God and the fore-tastes of everlasting mercies and as our helps to Heaven and as the means to spiritual comfort than of themselves alone All your mercies are from God He would take nâ—ne from you but sanctifie theâ— and give you more § 26. Direct 5. See that Reason keep up its authority as the Governour of sense and appetite And Direct 5. so take an accounâ— whatâ—ver the Appetite would have of the Ends and Reasons of the thing and to what it doth câ—â—duce Take nothing and do nothing meerly because the sense or appetite would have it but because you have Reason so â—â— do and to gratifie the appetite Else you will deal as Brutes if Reason be laid by in humane acts § 27. Direct 6. Go to the Gâ—ave and see there the end of fleshly pleasure and what is all that it Direct 6. will do for you at the last One would think iâ— should cure the mad desire of plenty and pleasure to see where all our wealth and mirth and sport and pleasure must be buryed at last § 28. Direct 7. Lastly be still sensible that flesh is the grand Enemy of your souls and flesh-pleasing Direct 7. the greatest hinderance of your salvation The Devils enmity and the worlds are both but subordinate to this of the Flesh For its Pleasure is the End and the world and Satans temptations are both but the means to attain it Besides the malignity opened before consider 1. How contrary a voluptuous life is to the blessed example of our Lord and of his servant Paul The enmity of the Flesh. and all the Apostles Paul tamed his body and brought it into subjection left having preached to others himself should be a castaway 1 Cor. 9. 27. And all that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof Gal. 5. 24. This was signified in the antient manner of baptizing and so is still by Baptism it self when they went over head in the water and then rose out of it to signifie that they were dead and buried with Christ Rom. 6. 3 4. and rose with him to newness of life This is called our being Baptized into his death And seems the plain sense of 1 Cor. 15. 29. of being Baptized for the dead that is for dead or to shew that we are dead to the world and must dye in the world but shall rise again to the Kingdom of Christ both of Grace and Glory 2. Sensuality sheweth that there is no true belief of the life to come and proveth so far as it prevaileth the absence of all grace 3. It is a home-bred continual traytor to the soul A continual tempter and nurse of all sin The great withdrawer of the heart from God and the common cause of Apostacy it self It still fighteth against the Spirit Gal. 5. 17. And is seeking advantage from all our Liberties Gal. 5. 13. 2 Pet. 2. 10. 4. It turneth all our outward mercies into sin and strengthneth itself against God by his own benefits 5. It is the great cause of our afflictions For God will not spare that Idol which is set up against him Flesh rebelleth and flesh shall suffer 6. And when it hath brought affliction it is most impatient under it and maketh it seem intollerable A flesh-pleaser thinks he is undone when affliction depriveth him of his pleasure 7. Lastly It exceedingly unfitteth men for Death For then Flesh must be cast into the dust and all its pleasure be at an end O doleful day to those that had their good things here and their portion in this life When all is gone that ever they valued and sought and all the true felicity lost which they brutishly contemned If you would joyfully then bear the dissolution and ruine of your flesh O master it and mortifie it now Seek not the ease and pleasure of a little walking breathing clay when you should be seeking and fore-tasting the everlasting pleasure Here lyeth your danger and your work Strive more against your own flesh than against all your Enemies in Earth and Hell If you be saved from this you are saved from them all Christ suffered in the flesh to tell you that it is not pampering but suffering that your flesh must expect if you will reign with him CHAP. V. Further Subordinate Directions for the next great duties of Religion necessary See the Directions how to spend every day Tom. 2. Chap. 17. to the right performance of the former Directions for REDEEMING or well improving TIME § 1. TIME being Mans opportunity for all those works for which he liveth and which his Creator doth expect from him and on which his endless life dependeth the REDEEMING or well improving of it must needs be of most high importance to him And therefore it is well made by holy Paul the great mark to distinguish the Wise from fools Ephes. 5. 15 16. See then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise Redeeming the time So Col. 4. 5. I shall therefore give you special Directions for it when I have first opened the nature of the duty to you and told you what is meant by Time and what by Redeeming it § 2. Time in its most common acception is taken generally for all that space of this present life What 's meant by Time which is our opportunity for all the works of life and the measure of them Time is often taken more strictly for some special Opportunity which is fitted to a special work which we call the season or the fittest time In both these senses Time must be Redeemed § 3. As every work hath its season which must be taken Eccles. 3. 1. So have the greatest works What are the special seasons of duty assigned us for God and our souls some special seasons besides our common time 1. Some Times God hath fitted by Nature for his service So the Time of Youth and health and strength is specially fit for holy work 2. Some Time is made specially fit by Gods Institution As the Lords Day above all other dayes 3. Some Time is made fit by Governours appointment as the hour of publick Meeting for Gods Worship and Lecture-dayes and the hour for family-worship which every Master of a family may appoint to his own houshold 4. Some Time is made fit by the temper of mens Bodies The Morning hours are best to most and to some rather the Evening and to all the Time when the Body is freest from pain and disabling weaknesses 5. Some Time is made fit by the course of our necessary natural or civil business as the day is fitter than the sleeping time of the night and as that hour is the fittest wherein our other imployments will least disturb us 6. Some Time is made fit by a special showr of Mercy publick
think how madly they consumed their lives and wasted the only Time that was given them to prepare for their salvation Do those in Hell now think them wise that are idling or playing away their time on earth O no! their feeling and experience sufficiently confuteth all that Time-wasters now plead for their â—ottish prodigality I do not believe that thou canst at once believe the Word oâ— God concerning the state of damned souls and yet believe that thy idle and vain expence of Time would not vex thy conscience and make thee even rage against thy self if ever sin should bring thee thither O then thou wouldst see that thou hadst greater matters to have spent thy time in and that it deserved a higher estimation and improvement O man beseâ—ch the Lord to prevent such a conviction and to give thee a heart to prize thy time before it is gone and to know the worth of it bâ—â—ore thou know the want of it Tit. 2. Directions Contemplative for Redeeming Opportunity Seâ— the many aggravaâ—ions oâ—â—inâ—ul Dâ—lay in my Dirâ—ctions for â—ound Convâ—â—sion § 28. OPportunity or Season is the flower of Time All Time is precious but the season is most precious The present Time is the season to works of present necâ—ssity And for others they have all their particular seasâ—ns which must not be let slip Direct 1. Remember that it is the great difference between the happy Saint and the unhappy world Direct 1. that one is wise in time and the other is wise too late The godly know while knowledge will do good The wicked know when knowledge will but torment them All those that you see now so exceedingly contrary in their judgement to the godly will be of the very same opinion shortly when it will do them no good Bear with their difference and contradiction for it will be but a very little while There is not one man that now is the furious enemy of holiness but will confess ere long that Holiness was best Do they now despise it as tedious fantastical hypocrisie They will shortly know that it was but the cure of a distracted mind and the necessary duty to God which Religion and right reason do command Do they now say of sin What harm is in it They will shortly know that it is the poyson of the soul and worse than any misery or death They will think mâ—re highly of the worth of Christ of the necessity of all possible diligence for our souls of the preciousness of Time of the wisdom of the Godly of the excellencies of Heaven and of the Word of God and all holy Means than any of those do that are now reproached by them for being of this mind But what the better will they be for this No more than Adam for knowing good and evil No more than it will profit a man when he is dead to know of what disease he dyed No more than it will profit a man to know what is poyson when he hath taken it and is past remedy The Thief will be wise at the Gallows and the Spendthrift-prodigal when all is gone But they that will be safe and happy must be wise in Time The godly know the worth of Heaven before it is lost and the misery of damnation before they feel it and the necessity of a Saviour while he is willing to be a Saviour to them and the evil of sin before it hath undone them and the preciousness oâ— Time before it is gone and the worth of mercy while mercy may be had and the need of praying while praying may prevail They sleep not till the door is shut and then knock and cry Lord open to us as the foolish ones Matth. 25. They are not like the miserable world that will not believe till they come where Devils believe and tremble nor Repent till torment force them to repent As ever you would escape the dear-bought experience of fools be wise in time and leave not Conscience to answer all your cryes and moans and fruitless wishes with this doleful peal Too late Too late Do but know now by an effectual faith what wicked men will know by feeling and experience when it is too late and you shall not perish Do but live now as those enemies of Holiness will wish they had lived when it is too late and you will be happy Now God may be found Seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will â—ave mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isa. 55. 6 7. Read but the doleful lamentation of Christ over Ierusalem Luke 19. 41 42. and then bethink you what it is to neglect the season of mercy and salvation He beheld the City and wept over it saying If thou hadst known even thou at lest in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace But now they are hidden from thine eyes § 29. Direct 2. Remember that the neglecting of the season is the frustrating and destroying of the Direct 2. work When the season is past the work cannot be done If you sow not in the time of sowing it will be in vain at another time If you reap not and gather not in harvest it will be too late in Winter to hope for fruit If you stay till the Tide is gone or take not the Wind that fits your turn it may be in vain to attempt your Voyage All works cannot be done at all times Christ himself saith I must walk while it is day the night cometh when none can work John 9. 4. Say not then The next day may serve the turn The next day is for another work and you must do both § 30. Direct 3. Consider that if the work should not be impossible yet it will be difficult out of Direct 3. season when in its season it might be done with ease How easily may you swim with the Tide and sail with the Wind and form the Iron if you hammer it while it is hot How easily may many a disease be cured if it be taken in Time which afterwards is uncurable How easily may you bend a tender Twig and pluck up a Plant which will neither be pluckt up nor bended when it is grown up to be a Tree When you complain of difficulties in Religion bethink you whether your loss of the fittest season and acquainting your selves no sooner with God be not the cause § 31. Direct 4. Consider that your work out of season is not so good or acceptable if you could Direct 4. do it Every thing is beautiful in its season Eccles. 3. 11. To speak a word in season to the weary Numb 9. 2 3 7 13. Exod. 13. 10. is the skill of the faithful messengers of peace Isa. 50. 4. When out of season good may be turned into
you breed your own sorrow § 19. Object 5. But there is none that will not be angry sometime no not the best of you all Object 5. Answ. The sin is never the better because many commit it And yet if you live not where grace is Answ. a stranger you may see that there are many that will not be angry easily frequently furiously nor miss-behave themselves in their anger by railing or cursing or swearing or ill language or doing wrong to any § 20. Object 6. Doth not the Apostle say Be angry and sin not let not the Sun go down upon your Object 6. wrath Ephes. 4. 26. My wrath is down before the Sun therefore I sin not Answ. The Apostle never said that anger is never sinful but when it lasteth after Sun-setting Answ. But entertain no sinful anger at all but if you do yet quickly quench it and continue not in it Be not angry without or beyond cause and when you are yet sin not by uncharitableness or any evil words or deeds in your anger nor continue under the justest displeasure but hasten to be reconciled and to forgive These Reasons improved may rule your Anger Directions Practicall against sinful Anger § 1. Direct 1. The principal help against sinful anger is in the right habituating of the soul that Direct 1. you live as under the Government of God with the sense of his authority still upon your hearts and in the sense of that mercy that hath forgiven you and forbeareth you and under the power of his healing and assisting grace and in the life of Charity to God and man Such a Heart is continually fortified and carrieth its preservatives within it self as a wrathful man carrieth his incentives still within him There is the main cause of Wrath or Meeâ—ness § 2. Direct 2. Be sure that you keep a humbled soul that overvalueth not it self for Humility Direct 2. is patient and aggravateth not injuries But a proud man takes all things as â—einous or intolerable that are said or done against him He that thinks meanly of himself thinks meanly of all that is said or done against himself But he that magnifieth himself doth magnifie his provocations Pride is a most impatient sin There is no pleasing a proud person without a great deal of wit and care and diligence You must come about them as you do about Straw or Gunpowder with a Candle Prov. 13. 10. Only by pride cometh contention Prov. 28. 25. He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strise Prov. 21. 24. Proud and haughty scorner is his name who dealeth in proud wrath Psal. 31. 18. Let the lying lips be put to silence which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous Humility and meekness and patience live and dye together § 3. Direct 3. Take heed of a worldly covetous mind for that setteth so much by earthly things Direct 3. that every loss or crâ—ss or injury will be able to disquiet him and enflame his passion Neither neighbour nor child nor servant can please a covetous man Every little trespass or crossing his commodity toucheth him to the quick and maketh him impatient § 4. Direct 4. Stop your Passion in the beginning before it go too far It s easiest moderated at Direct 4. first Watch against the first stirrings of your wrath and presently command it down Reason and Will can do much if you will but use them according to their power A spark is sooner quenched than a flame and this Serpent is easiliest crushed in the spawn § 5. Direct 5. Command your tongue and hand and countenance if you cannot presently quiet or Direct 5. command your passion And so you will avoid the greatest of the sin and the passion it self will quickly be stifled for want of vent You cannot say that it is not in your power to hold your tongue or hands if you will Do not only avoid that swearing and cursing which are the marks of the prophane but avoid many words till you are â—itter to use them and avoid expostulations and contending and bitter opprobious cutting speeches which tend to stir up the wrath of others And use a mild and gentle speech which favoureth of Love and tendeth to asswage the heat that 's kindled Prov. 15. 1. A soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up anger And that which mollifieth and appeaseth another will much conduce to the appeasing of your selves § 6. Direct 6. At least command your self into quietness till Reason be heard speak and while you Direct 6. deliberate Be not so hasty as not to think what you say or do A little delay will abate the fury and give Reason time to do its office Prov. 25. 15. By long forbearing is a Prince perswaded and a soft answer breaketh the bone Patience will lenifie anothers wrath and if you use it but so long as a little to stay your selves till reason be awake it will lenifie your own And he is a fury and not a man that cannot stop while he considereth § 7. Direct 7. If you cannot easilier quiet or restrain your selves go away from the place and company Direct 7. And then you will not be heated by contending words nor exasperate others by your contending When you are alone the fire will asswage Prov. 14. 7. Go away from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge You will not stand still and stir in a Wasps Nest when you have enraged them § 8. Direct 8. Yea ordinarily avoid much talk or disputes or business with angry men as far as Direct 8. you can without avoiding your duty and avoid all other occasions and temptations to the sin A man that is in danger of a Feavor must avoid that which kindleth it Come not among the infected if Unicuique pertinacius contendenti justam habere causam permitte tacendoque contumaci cede sic uterque quieâ—i imperturbaâ—i paermanebitis Thauâ—er flor pag. 84. you fear the Plague Stand not in the Sun if you are too hot already Keep as far as you can from that which most provoketh you § 9. Direct 9. Meditate not on injuries or provoking things when you are alone suffer not your Direct 9. thoughts to feed upon them Else you will be Devils to your selves and tempt your selves when you have none else to tempt you and will make your solitude as provoking as if you were in company And you will be angring your selves by your own imaginations § 10. Direct 10. Keep upon your minds the lively thoughts of the exemplary meekness and patience of Direct 10. Iesus Christ who calleth you to learn of him to be meek and lowly Matth. 11. 28 29. Who being reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not leaving us an example that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2. 21 23. Who hath pronounced a special blessing on
the Meek that they shall inherit the earth Matth. 5. 50. § 11. Direct 11. Live as in Gods presence and when your passions grow bold repress them with the Direct 11. reverend Name of God and bid them remember that God and his holy Angels see you § 12. Direct 12. Look on others in their passion and see how unlovely they make themselves With Direct 12. â—rowning countenances and flaming eyes and threatning devouring looks and hurtful inclinations And think with your selves whether these are your most desirable patterns § 13. Direct 13. Without any delay confess the sin to those that stand by if easier means will not Direct 13. repress it And presently take the shame to your selves and shame the sin and honour God This means is in your power if you will and it will be an excellent effectual means Say to those that you are angry with I find a sinful anger kindling in me and I begin to forget Gods presence and my duty and am tempted to speak provoking words to you which I know God hath forbidden me to do Such a present opening of your temptation will break the force of it And such a speedy confession will stop the fire that it go no further For it will be an engagement upon you in point of honour even the reputation both of your wit and honesty which will both suffer by it if you go on in the sin just when you have thus opened it by confession I know there is prudence to be used in this that you do it not so as may make you ridiculous or harden others in their sinful provocations But with prudence and due caution it is an excellent remedy which you can use if you are not unwilling § 14. Direct 14. If you have let your passion break out to the offence or wrong of any by word or Direct 14. deed freely and speedily confess it to them and ask them forgiveness and warn them to take heed of the like sin by your example This will do much to clear your consciences to preserve your Brother to cure the hurt and to engage you against the sin hereafter If you are so proud that you will not do this say no more You cannot help it but that you will not A good heart will not think this too dear a remedy against any sin § 15. Direct 15. Go presently in the manner that the place alloweth you to prayer to God for Direct 15. pardon and grace against the sin Sin will not endure prayer and Gods presence Tell him how apt your pievish hearts are to be kindled into sinful wrath and intreat him to help you by his sufficient grace and engage Christ in the cause who is your head and advocate and then your souls will grow obedient and calm Even as Paul when he had the prick in the flesh prayed thrice as Christ did in his agony so you must pray and pray again and again till you find Gods grace sufficient 2 Cor. 12. 7 8 9. for you § 16. Direct 16. Covenant with some faithful friend that is with you to watch over you and rebuke Direct 16. your passions as soon as they begin to appear and promise them to take it thankfully and in good part And perform that promise that you discourage them not Either you are so far aweary of your sin and willing to be rid of it as to be willing to do what you can against it or you are not If you are you can do this much if you please If you are not pretend not to repent and to be willing to be delivered from your sin upon any lawful terms when it is not so Remember still the mischievous effects of it do make it to be no contemptible sin Eccles. 7. 9. Be not hasty in thy Spirit to be angry for anger resteth in the bosome of fools Prov. 16. 32. He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his Spirit than he that taketh a City Prov. 15. 18. A wrathful man stirreth up strife but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife The discretion of a man deferreth his anger and it is his glory to pass over a transgression Prov. 19. 11. Tit. 8. Directions against sinful Fear § 1. THe chief of my advice concerning this sin I have given you before Chap. 3. Direct 12. Yet somewhat I shall here add Fear is a necessary Passion in man which is planted in Nature for the restraining of us from sin and driving us on to duty and preventing misery It is either God or Devils or men or inferiour creatures or our selves that we fear God must be feared as he is God as he is Great and Holy and Iust and True as our Lord and King and Judge and Father And the fear of him is the beginning of wisdom Devils must be feared only as subordinate to God as the executioners of his wrath And so must men and beasts and fire and water and other creatures be feared and no otherwise We must so discern and fear a danger as to avoid it Our selves we are less apt to fear because we know that we Love our selves But there is no creature that we have so much cause to fear as our folly weakness and willfulness in sin § 2. Fear is sinful 1. When it proceedeth from unbelief or a distrust of God 2. When it ascribeth more to the creature than is its due As when we fear Devils or men as Great or bad or as our enemies without due respect to their dependance upon the will of God When we fear a chained creature as if he were unchained 3. When we fear God upon mistake or error or fear that in him which is not in him or is not to be feared As when we fear least he will break his promise lest he will condemn the keepers of his Covenant lest he will not forgive the penitent that hate their sin lest he will despise the contrite lest he will not hear the prayers of the humble faithful soul lest he will fail them and forsake them lest he will not cause all things to work together for their good lest he will forsake his Church lest Christ will not come again lest our bodies shall not be raised lest there be no life of glory for the just or no immortality of souls all such fears as these are sinful 4. When our fear is so immoderate in degree as to distract us or hinder us from faith and prayer and make us melancholy or when it hindereth Love and praise and thanks and necessary joy and tendeth not to drive us to God and to the use of means to avoid the danger but to drive us from God and kill our hope and make us sit down in despair Directions against sinful fear of God § 3. Direct 1. Know God in his Goodness Mercifulness and Truth and it will banish sinful fears Direct 1. of him For they proceed
that hath given us the higher faculty requireth that we use it as well as the lower And remember that they are not meer co-ordinate faculties but the sensitive faculty is subordinate to the Intellectual And accordingly that which the sensible creature objectively revealeth through the sense unto the Intellect is something to which things sensible are subordinate Therefore if you stop in sensible things and see not the Principle which animateth them the Power which ordereth and ruleth them and the End which they are made for and must be used for you play the Beasts you see nothing but a dead carkass without the soul and nothing but a useless senseless thing You know nothing indeed to any purpose no not the creature it self while you know not the use and meaning of the creature but separate it from its Life and Guide and End § 15. Direct 12. First therefore see that you ever look upon all things sensible as the products of the Direct 12. will of the invisible God depending on him more than the Sunshine doth upon the Sun and never see or taâ—â—e a creature separatedly from God Will you know what a plant is and not know that it is the earth that beareth and nourisheth it Will you know what a Fish is and yet be ignorant that he liveth in the water Will you know what a branch or fruit is and yet not know that it groweth on the Tree The nature of things cannot be known without the knowledge of their causes and respective parts It is as no knowledge to know incoherent scraps and parcels To know a hand as no part of the body or an eye or nose without knowing a head or a body without knowing its life or soul is not to know it for you make it another thing It is the difference between a wise man and a fool that Sapiens respicit ad plura insipiâ—ns ad pauciora A wise man looketh comprehensively to things as they are conjunct and takes all together and leaveth out nothing that is useful to his end but a fool seeth one thing and overseeth another which is necessary to the true knowledge or use of that which he seeth see God as the Cause and Life of every thing you see As a carkass is but a ghastly sight without the soul and quickly corrupteth and stinketh when it is separated so the Creature without God is an unlovely sight and quickly corrupteth and becomes a snare or annoyance to you God is the beauty of all that 's beautiful and the strength of all that 's strong and the glory of the Sun and all that is glorious and the wisdom of all that 's wise and the goodness of all that 's good as being the only original total cause of all You play the Brutes when you see the creature and overlook its Maker from whom it is whatsoever it is Will you see the Diall and overlook the Sun Remember it is the use of every Creature to shew you God and therefore it is the use of every sense to promote the knowledge of him § 16. Direct 13. See God as the Conductor orderer and disposer of all the creatures according to their natures as moved necessarily or freely and behold not any of the motions or events of the world without observing the interest and over-ruling hand of God Sense reacheth but to the effects and events but Reason and faith can see the first cause and disposer of all Again I tell you that if you look but on the particles of things by sense and see not God that setteth all together and doth his work by those that never dream of it you see but the several wheels and parcels of a Clock or Watch and know not him that made and keepeth it that setteth on the Poise and winds it up to fit his ends Ioseph could say God sent me hither when his Brethren sold him into Aegypt And David felt his Fathers Rod in Shimei's curse § 17. Direct 14. See God the End of every creature how all things are ordered for his service and Direct 14. be sure you stop not in any creature without referring it to a higher end Else as I have oft told you you will be but like a Child or illiterate person who openeth a Book and admireth the workmanship of the Printer and the order and well forming of the Letters but never mindeth or understandeth the subject sense or end Or like one that looketh on a comely picture and never mindeth either him that made it or him that is represented by it Or like one that gazeth on the Sign at an Inn-door and praiseth the workmanship but knoweth not that it is set there to direct him to entertainment and necessaries within And this folly and sin is the greater because it is the very end of God in all his works of Creation and Providence to reveal himself by them to the intellectual world And must God shew his Power and Wisdom and Goodness so wonderfully in the frame of the creation and in his daily general and particular providence and shall man that daily seeth all this overlook the intended use and end and so make all this glorious work as nothing or as lost to him Sense knoweth no End but its own Delight and the natural felicity of the sensitive creature such as things sensible afford But Reason must take up the work where sense doth end its stage and carry all home to him that is the End of all For OF Him and THROUGH Him and TO Him are all things to whom be Glory for ever Amen Rom. 11. 36. § 18. Direct 15. Besides the General Use and Ultimate End of every creature labour for a clear acquaintance Direct 15. with the particular Use and nearer End of every thing which you have to do with by which it is serviceable to your Ultimate End And suppose still you saw that special use as subserving your highest End as the Title written upon each creature As suppose upon your Bible it were written The Word of the Living God to acquaint me with himself and his will that I may please and glorifie and enjoy him for ever And upon your godly friend suppose you saw this Title written A Servant of God that beareth his Image and appointed to accompany and assist me in his service unto life everlasting Upon your meat suppose you saw this Title written The provisions of my Father sent me as from my Saviours hands not to gratifie my sensuality and serve my inordinate desires but to refresh and strengthen my body for his service in my passage to everlasting life So upon your Clothes your Servants your Goods your Cattel your Houses and every thing you have inscribe thus the proper use and end § 19. Direct 16. Know both the final and the mediate danger of every thing that you have to do Direct 16. with and suppose you still see them written upon every thing you see The final
terrible hand appeared writing upon the Wall to King Belshazzar in his carousing to signifie the loss of his Kingdoms and that very night he was also sâ—ain Thou seest God spareth not Kings themselves that one would think might be allowed more pleasure and will he spare thee Prov. 31. 4 5. It is not for Kings to drink wine nor for Princes strong drink and is it then for thee mark the dreadful fruits of it even to the greatest Hos. 7. 3 4 5. They make the King glad with their wickedness and the Princes with their lyes They are all Adulterers as an Oven heated In the day of our King the Princes have made him sick with bottles of wine he stretched out his hand with sâ—â—râ—â—rs Thou seest that be they great or small both soul and body is cast by tipling and drunkenness into greater danger than thou art in at Sea in a raging tempest Thou puttest thy self in the way of the vengeance of God and art not like to scape it long § 47. Quest. 6. Didst thou ever measure thy sin by that strange kind of punishment commanded by Quest. 6. God against iâ—â—â—â—rrigible gluttons and drunkards Deut. 21. 18 19 20 21. If a man have a stuâ—â—â—â—rn and rebellious Son which will not obey the voice of his Father or the voice of his mother and that when they have chastened him will not hearken to them Then shall his Father and his mother â—â—y â—â—ld on him and bring him out unto the Elders of his City and to the gate of his place And they shall sâ—y unto the Elders of his City This our Sâ—n is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey our voice he is a Glutton and a Drunkard And all the men of his City shall stone him with stones that he dye so shalt thâ—u put away evil from among you and all Israel shall hear and fear Surely Gluttony and Drunkenness are heynous crimes when a man 's own Father and Mother were bound to bring him to the Magistrate to be put to death if he will not be reformed by their own correction And you see here that youth is no excuse for it though now its thought excusable in them § 48. Quest. 7. Dost thou think thy drink is too good to leave at Gods command Or dost thou think Quest. 7. that God dâ—th grudge thee the sweetness of it or rather that he forbids it thee for thy good that thou maist sâ—ape the hurt And tell me Dost thou love God better than thy drink and pleasure or dost thou not If not thy own Conscience must needs tell thee if thou have a Conscience not quite feared that there is no hope of thy salvation in that state But if thou say thou dost will God or any wise man believe thee that thou lovest him better and wilt not be so far ruled by him nor leave so small a matter for his sake 1 Joh. 5. 3. For this is the Love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous So 2 Ioh. 6. § 49. Quest. 8. Dost thou remember that thy Carkâ—ss must lye rotting in the grave and how loathsome Quest. 8. a thing it must shortly be And canst thou make so great a matter of the present satisfying of so vile a body and dung the earth at so dear a rate § 50. Quest. 9. Wouldst thou have all thy friends and children do as thou dost If so what would Quest. 9. become of thy estate It would be a mad world if all were drunkards wouldst thou have thy Wife a Drunkard If she were thou wouldst scarce be confident of her Chastity Wouldst thou have thy Servants Drunkards If they were they might set thy house on fire and they would do thee little work or do it so as it were better be undone Thy house would be a Bedlam if all were Drunkards and much worse than Bedlam for there are some wise men to govern and correct the mad ones But if thou like it not in wife and Children and Servants why dost thou continue it thy self Art thou not neerest to thy self Dost thou love any others better than thy self Hâ—dst thou rather thy own soul were damned than theirs Or canst thou more easily endure it I have wondered sometimes to observe some Drunkards very severe against the same sin in their Children and very desirous to have them sober But the reason is because the sobriety of their Children is no trouble to them nor puts them not to deny the pleasure of their appetites as their own sobriety must do § 51. Quest. 10. Wouldst thou have thy Physicion drunk when he should cure thee of thy sickness Quest. 10. or thy Lawyer drunk when he should plead thy cause or the Iudge when he should judge it Iâ— not why wilt thou be drunken when thou shouldst serve thy God and mind the business of thy soul If thou wouldst not have thy servant be potting in an Alehouse when he should be about thy work wilt thou sit potting and prating there when thou hast a thousand fold greater work to do for thy everlasting happiness § 52. Quest. 11. If one do but lame or spoile thy Beast and make him unfit for thy service wouldst Quest. 11. thou be pleased with it And wilt thou unfit thy self for the service of God as if thy work were of less concernment than thy Beasts § 53. Quest. 12. Would it please you if your servants poured all that drink in the Chanel If Quest. 12. not I have before proved to thee that it should displease thee more to pour it into thy belly for thou wilt find at last that it will hurt thee more § 54. Quest. 13. What relish hath thy pleasant liquor the next day will it then be any sweeter than Quest. 13. wholsome abstinence All the delight is suddenly gone there is nothing left but the slime in thy guts and the Ulcer in thy Conscience which cannot be cured by all thy Treasure nor palliated long by all thy pleasure And canst thou value much so short delights As all thy sweet and merry cups are now no sweeter than if they had been Wormwood so all the rest will quickly come to the same end and relish As Plato said of his slender supper compared to a Rich mans feast Yours seemeth better to night but mine will be better to morrow so thy Conscience telleth thee that Temperance and holy obedience will be better to morrow and better to Eternity though gluttony and drunkenness seem better Now. § 55 Quest. 14. Dost thou consider how dear thou payest for hell and buyest damnation aâ— a Quest. 14. harder rate than salvation might be attained at What shame doth i 〈…〉 thee what sickness is it like to cost thee what painful vomitings or worse dost thou undergoe How much dost thou suffer in thy estate And is Hell worth all this adoe § 56. Quest. 15. Dost thou not think in thy heart that
for their mortified garb Thus many Sects amongst the Popish Fryars go by Agreement or Vow in Clothes so differing from all other persons in seeming humility and gravity which must be the badge of their Order in the eye of the world that the boast and affectation is visible and professed And thus the Quakers that by the notoriety of their difference from other sober persons and by their impudent bawling in the Streets and Churches and railing against the holiest and humblest Ministers and people that are not of their Sect and this in the face of Markets and Congregations do make a plain profession or detection of their Pride But where it is not openly revealed we cannot judge it § 13. Quest. 3. Is it not lawful for a person that is deformed to hide their deformity by their clothing Quest. 3. And for any person to make themselves by clothing or spots or painting to seem to others as comely and beautiful as they can Answ. The person and the matter and the End and Reasons the May not a â—â— formity be hâ—â— by appareâ— oâ— paâ—â—â—â—ing principle and the probable consequents must all be considered for the right answering of this Question It is lawful to some persons by some means for some good Ends and Reasons when a greater Evil is not like to follow it to hide their deformities and to adorn themselves so as to seem more comely than they are But for others persons by evil means for evil ends and reasons or when it tendeth to evil consequents it is unlawful 1. A person that is naturally very deformed may do more to hide it by their ornaments than one that hath no such deformity may do to seem more comely Because one aspireth no higher than to seem somewhat like other persons but the other aspireth to seem excellent above others And a person that is under Government may do more in obedience to their Governours than another may do that is at their own choice 2. If the matter of their ornament be but modest decent clothing and not immodest insolent luxurious vain or against Nature or the Law of God or man it is in that respect allowable But so is no cover of deformity by unlawful means 3. It may be lawful if also it be to a lawful end as to obey a Governour or only to cover a deformity so as not unnecessarily to reveal it But it is alway sinful when the end is sinful As 1. If it be to seem extraordinary beautiful or comely when you are not so or if it be to be Laertius saith that when Craesus sate in all his ornaments and glory on his Throne he asked Soloâ— An pulchrius unquâ—m specticulum vidâ— it Ilâ—umque ditisse Gallos gallmaceâ—s fasianos pavoâ—â—s Naturali enim eos nitore speciosiâ—ate exâ—mia vestiri observed and admired by beholders 2. If it be to tempt the beholders minds to lustful or undue affections 3. If it be to deceive the mind of some one that you desire in marriage For in that case to seem by such dissembling to be what you are not is the most injurious kind of cheat much worse than to sell a Horse that is blind or lame for a sound one 4. If it be to follow the fashions of proud Gallants that you may not be scorned by them as not neat enough all these are unlawful ends and reasons 4. So also the Principle or Mind that it cometh from may make it sinful As 1. If it come from a lustful wanton mind 2. Or if it come from an overgreat regard of the opinion of spectators which is the proper complexion of Pride A person that doth it not in pride is not very solicitous about it nor makes no great matter of it whether men take him to be comely or uncomely and therefore he is at no great cost or care to seem comely to them If such persons be deformed they know it is Gods work and not their sin and it is sin that is the true cause of shame And all Gods works are good and for our good if we are his children They know that God doth it to keep them humble and prevent that pride and lust and wantonness which is the undoing of many and therefore they will rather be careful to improve it and get the benefit than to hide it and seem comelier than they are 5. Also the consequents concur much to make the action good or bad Though that be not your end yet if you may foresee that greater hurt than good will follow or is like to follow it will be your sin As 1. If it tend to the ensnaring of the minds of the beholders in procacious lustful wanton passions though you say you intend it not it is your sin that you do that which probably will procure it yea that you did not your best to avoid it And though it be their sin and vanity that is the cause it is never the less your sin to be the unnecessary occasion For you must consider that you live among diseased souls And you must not lay a stumbling-block in their way nor blow up the fire of their lust nor make your ornaments their snares but you must walk among sinful persons as you would do with a Candle amongst Straw or Gunpowder or else you may see the flame which you would not foresee when it is too late to quench it But a proud and procacious lustful mind is so very willing to be loved and thought highly of and admired and desired that no fear of God or of the sin and misery of themselves or others will satisfie them or take them off 2. Also it is sinful to adorn your selves in such fashions as probably will encourage pride and vanity in others or seem to approve of it When any fashion is the common badge of the proud and vain sort of persons of that time and place it is sinful unnecessarily to conform your selves to them because you will harden them in their sin and you joyn your selves to them as one of them by a kind of profession As when spotted faces a name that former Ages understood not or naked breasts or such other fashions are used ordinarily by the vain and brain-sick and heart-sick proud and wanton party it is a sin unnecessarily to use them For 1. You will hinder their Repentance 2. And you will hinder the great Benefit which the world may get by their vain attire For though it be no thanks to them that intend it not yet it is a very great commodity that cometh to mankind by these peoples sin that fools should go about in fools-coats and that empty brains and proud and wanton hearts should be so openly detected in the Streets and Churches that sober people may avoid them and that wise and chaste and civil people may not be deceived by such in marriage to their undoing As the different clothing of the different Sexes is necessary to
the Enemies of Religion that forbad Christs Ministers to preach his Gospel and forbad Gods servants to meet in Church-assemblies for his Worship the support of Religion and the comfort and edification of believers would then lye almost all upon the right performance of family-duties There Masters might teach the same truth to their housholds which Ministers are forbid to preach in the Assemblies There you might pray together as fervently and spiritually as you can There you may keep up as holy converse and communion and as strict a discipline as you please There you may celebrate the praises of your blessed Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and observe the Lords Day in as exact and spiritual a manner as you are able You may there provoke one another to Love and to good works and rebuke every sin and mind each other to prepare for death and live together as passengers to eternal life Thus holy families may keep up Religion and keep up the life and comfort of believers and supply the want of publick preaching in those Countreys where persecutors prohibit and restrain it or where unable or unfaithful Pastors do neglect it § 8. Motive 8. The duties of your families are such as you may perform with greatest peace and least exception Motive 8. or opposition from others When you go further and would be instructing others they will think you go beyond your Call and many will be suspicious that you take too much upon you And if you do but gently admonish a rowt of such as the Sodomites perhaps they will say This one fellow came in to sojourn and he will needs be a Iudge Gen. 19. 9. But your own house is your Castle Your family is your charge You may teach them as oft and as diligently as you will If the ungodly rabble scorn you for it yet no sober person will condemn you nor trouble you for it if you teach them no evil All men must confess that Nature and Scripture oblige you â—o it as your unquestionable work And therefore you may do it among sober people with approbation and quietness § 9. Motive 9. Well governed Families are honourable and exemplary unto others Even the worldly and Motive 9. ungodly use to bear a certain reverence to them For Holiness and Order have some witness that commendeth them in the consciences of many that never practised them A worldly ungodly disordered family is a Den of Snakes a place of hissing railing folly and confusion It is like a Wilderness overgrown with Bryars and Weeds But a holy family is a Garden of God It is beautified with his Graces and ordered by his Government and fruitful by the showres of his heavenly blessing And as the very sluggard that will not be at the cost and pains to make a Garden of his thorny Wilderness may yet confess that a Garden is more beautiful and fruitful and delightful and if wishing would do it his Wilderness should be such Even so the ungodly that will not be at the cost and pains to order their souls and families in holiness may yet see a beauty in those that are so ordered and wish for the happiness of such if they could have it without the labour and cost of self-denyal And no doubt the beauty of such holy and well governed families hath convinced many and drawn them to a great approbation of Religion and occasioned them at last to imitate them § 10. Motive 10. Lastly Consider That holy well governed families are blest with the special presence Motive 10. and favour of God They are his Churches where he is worshipped His houses where he dwelleth He is engaged both by Love and Promise to bless protect and prosper them Psal. 1. 3. 128. It is safe to sail in that Ship which is bound for Heaven and where Christ is the Pilot. But when you reject his Government you refuse his company and contemn his favour and forfeit his blessing by despising his presence his interest and his commands § 11. So that it is an evident truth that most of the mischiefs that now infest or seize upon mankind throughout the earth consist in or are caused by the disorders and ill-governedness of families These are the Schools and Shops of Satan from whence proceed the beastly ignorance lust and sensuality the devilish pride malignity and cruelty against the holy wayes of God which have so unman'd the progeny of Adam These are the Nests in which the Serpent doth hatch the Eggs of Covetousness Envy Strife Revenge of Tyranny Disobedience Wars and Bloodshed and all the Leprosie of sin that hath so odiously contaminated humane nature and all the miseries by which they make the world calamitous Do you wonder that there can be persons and Nations so blind and barbarous as we read of the Turks Tartarians Indians and most of the inhabitants of the earth A wicked education is the cause of all which finding nature depraved doth sublimate and increase the venome which should by education have been cured And from the wickedness of families doth National wickedness arise Do you wonder that so much ignorance and voluntary deceit and obstinacy in errors contrary to all mens common senses can be found among professed Christians as Great and small High and low through all the Papal Kingdom do discover Though the Pride and Covetousness and Wickedness of a worldly carnal Clergie is a very great cause yet the sinful negligence of Parents and Masters in their families is as great if not much greater than that Do you wonder that even in the Reformed Churches there can be so many unreformed sinners of beastly lives that hate the serious practice of the Religion which themselves profess It is ill education in ungodly families that is the cause of all this O therefore how great and necessary a work is it to cast Salt into these corrupted fountains Cleanse and cure these vitiated Families and you may cure almost all the calamities of the earth To tell what the Emperours and Princes of the earth might do if they were wise and good to the remedy of this common misery is the idle talk of those negligent persons who condemn themselves in condemning others Even those Rulers and Princes that are the Pillars and Patrons of Heathenisme Mahometanisme Popery and Ungodliness in the world did themselves receive that venome from their Parents in their birth and education which inclineth them to all this mischief Family-reformation is the easiest and the most likely way to a common Reformation At least to send many souls to Heaven and train up multitudes for God if it reach not to National reformation CHAP. VI. More special Motives for a holy and careful Education of Children BEcause the chief part of Family-Care and Government consisteth in the right Education of Children I shall adjoyn here some more special Motives to quicken considerate Parents to this duty And though most that I have to say for it be already said
to your selves And that both in time of Health and Sickness § 31. 1. In Health you must be careful to provide for each other not so much pleasing as wholsome food and to keep each other from that which is hurtful to your health disswading each other from Gluttony and Idleness the two great Murderers of mankind If the bodies of the poor in hunger and cold and nakedness must be relieved much more of those that are become as your own flesh § 32. 2. Also in Sickness you are to be tenderly regardful of each other and not to be sparing of any cost or pains by which the health of each other may be restored or your souls confirmed and Gen. 27. 14. your comforts cherished You must not lothe the Bodies of each other in the most lothsom sickness Eph 5 29 31. Job 19. 17. Job 2. 9. nor shun them through loathing no more than you would do your own Prov. 17. 17. A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity Much more those that are so nearly bound for sickness and health till death shall separate them It is an odious sin to be aweary of a sick or suffering friend and desirous that God would take them meerly that you may be eased of the trouble And usually such persons do meet with such measure as they measured to others and those that they look for help and comfort from will perhaps be as weary of them and as glad to be rid of them § 33. Direct 8. Another duty of Husbands and Wives is to be helpful to each other in their worldly Direct 8. business and estates Not for worldly ends nor with a worldly mind but in obedience to God See Prov. 31. Gen. 31. 40. Tit. 2. 5. 1 Tâ—m 5. 14. 5. 8. who will have them Labour as well as pray for their daily bread and hath determined that in the sweat of their brows they shall eat their bread and that six dayes they shall labour and do all that they have to do and that he that will not work must not eat The care of their affairs doth lye upon them both and neither of them must cast it off and live in idleness unless one of them be an Ideot or so witless as to be unfit for care or so sick or lame as to be unfit for labour § 34. Direct 9. Also you must be careful of the lawful honour and good names of one another Direct 9. You must not divulge but conceal the dishonourable failings of each other as Abigail except 1 Sam. 25. 25. Matth. 18 16. Matth. 1. 19. 2 Sam. 11. 7. Prov. 31. 28. Eccles 7 3. Prov. 22. 1. 2 Sam. 6. 20. Gen 9 22 25. in any case compassion or justice require you to open them to any one for a cure or to clear the truth The reputation of each other must be as dear to you as your own It is a sinful and unfaithful practice of many both Husbands and Wives who among their companions are opening the faults and infirmities of each other which they are bound in tenderness to cover As if they perceived not that by dishonouring one another they dishonour themselves Love will cover a multitude of faults 1 Pet. 4. 8. Nay many disaffected pievish persons will aggravate all the faults of one another behind their backs to strangers and sometimes slander them and speak more than is truth Many a man hath been put to clear his good name from the slanders of a jealous or a passionate Wife And an open enemy is not capable of doing one so much wrong as she that is in his bosome because she will be easily be believed as being supposed to know him better than any other § 35. Direct 10. It is also a great part of the duty of Husbands and Wives to be helpful to one Direct 10. another in the education of their Children and in the government of the inferiors of the family Some 〈…〉 m 3. 4 12. Gen. 18. 19. â—â— 35. 2 c. 〈…〉 24 14. 〈…〉 101. men cast all the care of the Children while they are young upon their Wives And many women by their passion and indiscretion do make themselves unfit to help their Husbands in the Government either of their Children or Servants But this is one of the greatest parts of their employment As to the Mans part to govern his house well it is a duty unquestionable And it is not to be denyed of the Wife 1 Tim. 5. 14. I will that the younger Women marry bear Children guide the house Bathshâ—ba taught Solomon Prov. 31. 1. Abigail took better care of Nabal's house than he did himself They that have a joint interest and are one flesh must have a joint part in government although their power be not equal and one may better oversee some business and the other other business yet in their places they must divide the care and help each other And not as it is with many wicked persons who are the most unruly part of the family themselves and the chiefest cause that it is ungoverned and ungodly or one party hindreth the other from keeping order or doing any good § 36. Direct 11. Another part of their Duty is to help each other in works of charity and hospitality Direct 11. While they have opportunity to do good to all but especially to them of the houshold of faith Heb. 13. 2. Gen. 18. 6 c. Rom. 12. 13. 2 Cor. 9. 6. â—uke 1â— 9. 1 Tim 3. 2. 5. 10. Prov. 11. 20 28 Neh. 8. 10. Prov. 19. 17 Job 29. 13. 31. 20. Acts 20. 35. and to sow to the Spirit that of the Spirit they may reap everlasting life yea to sow plentifully that they may reap plentifully Gal. 6. that if they are able their houses may afford relief and entertainment for the needy especially for Christs servants for their Masters sake who hath promised that He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward and whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward Matth. 10. 41 42. The woman of Sâ—â—â—â—em lost nothing by the entertainment of Elisha when she said to her Husband Behold now I perceive that this is an holy man of God which passeth by us continually Let us make him a little Chamber I pray thee on the wall and let us set for him there a Bed and a Table and a Stool and a Candlestick and it shall be when he cometh to us that he shall turn in thither 2 Kings 4. 10. But now how common is it for the people to think all too little for themselves and if one of them be addicted to
be used but as means and not all at once but sometimes one and sometimes another when the End is still the same and paâ—t Deliberation or choice so all those Graces which are but means must be used thus variously and with deliberation and choice when the Love of God and of eternal life must be the constant tenour and constitution of the mind as being the final grace which consisteth with the exercise of every other mediate grace Never take â—o with lip-labour or bodily exercise alone nor bâ—rren thoughts unless your Hearâ—â— be also employed in a course of duty and holy breathings after God or motion towards him or in the sincere internal part of the duty which you perform to men JUSTICE and LOVE are Graces which you must still exercise towards all that you have to deal with in the world LOVE is called the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13. 10. because the LOVE of God and man is the soul of every outward duty and a cause that will bring forth these as its effects § 13. Direct 13. Keep up a high esteem of Time and be every day more careful that you lose Direct 13. none of your Time than you are that you lose none of your Gold or Silver And if vain recreations dressings feastings idle talk unprefâ—iable company or sleep be any of them Temptations to râ—â— yoâ— of any of your Time accordingly heighten your watchfulness and for in resolutions against them Be not more careful to escape Thieves and Robbers than to escape â—hat person or action or course of life that would rob you of any of your Time And for the Redeeming of Time especially see not only that you be never idle but also that you be doing the Greatest Good that you can do and prefer not a lâ—ss before a Greater § 14. Direct 14. Eat and drink with temperance and thankfulness for health and not for unprofitable Direct 14. pleasure For quantity most carefully avoid excess For many exâ—eed for one that taketh too little Never please your appetite in meat or drink when it tendeth to the detriment of your health Prov. 31. 4 6. It is not for Kings to drink Wine nor for Princes strong drink Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish and wine to those that be of heavy hearts Eccles. 10. 16. 17. Woe to thee O Land when thy King is a Child and thy Princes eat in the worning Blessed aâ—t thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobleâ— and thy Princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness Then must poorer men also take heed of in temperance and excess Let your dyet incline rather to the courser than the finer sort and to the cheaper than the costly sort and to sparing abstinence than to fulness I would advise Rich men especially to write in great letters on the walls of their Dining rooms or Parlours these two sentences Ezek. 16. 49. BEHOLD THIS WAS THE INIQUITY OF SODOM PRIDE FULNESS OF BREAD and ABUNDANCE OF IDLENESS WAS IN HER neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy Luk. 16. 19 25. There was a certain Rich man which was CLOATHED IN PURPLE and SILK and FARED SUMPTUOUSLY every day Son remember that thou in thy life time * receivedst thy good things Paul wept when See Dr. Hammaâ—d's Annotat he mentioned them whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things being enemies to the Cross Phil. 3. 18 19. O live not after the flesh lest ye die Rom. 8. 13. Gal. 6. 8. and 5. 21 23 24. § 15. Direct 15. If any temptation prevail against you and you fall into any sins besides common infirmities Direct 15. presently lament it and confess not only to God but to men when confession conduceth more to good than harm and rise by a true and through repentance immediatly without delay Spare not the flesh and dawb not over the breach and do not by excuses palliate the sore but speedily rise whatever it cost For it will certainly cost you more to go on or to remain impenitent And for your ordinary infirmities make not too light of them but confess them and daily strive against them and examine what strength you get against them and do not aggravate them by impenitence and contempt § 16. Direct 16. Every day look to the special duties of your several Relations whether you are Direct 16. Husbands Wives Parents Children Masters Servants Pastors People Magistrates Subjects remember that every Relation hath its special duty and its advantage for the doing of some good And that God requireth your faithfulness in these as well as in any other duty And that in these a mans sincerity or hypocrisie is usually more tryed than in any other parts of our lives § 17. Direct 17. In the evening return to the worshipping of God in the family and in secret as was Direct 17. directed for the morning And do all with seriousness as in the sight of God and in the sense of your necessities and make it your delight to receive instructions from the holy Scripture and praise God and call upon his name through Christ. § 18. Direct 18. If you have any extraordinary impediments one day to hinder you in your duty Direct 18. to God and man make it up by diligence the next And if you have any extraordinary helps make use of them and let them not overslip you As if it be a Lecture-day or a Funeral Sermon or you have opportunity of converse with men of extraordinary worth or if it be a day of humiliation or thanksgiving it may be expected that you gather a double measure of strength by such extraordinary helps § 19. Direct 19. Before you betake your selves to sleep it is ordinarily a safe and needful course Direct 19. to take a review of the Actions and Mercies of the past day that you may be specially thankful for all special mercies and humbled for your sins and may renew your repentance and resolutions for obedience and may examine your selves whether your souls grow better or worse and whether sin go down and grace increase and whether you are any better prepared for sufferings and death But yet waste not too much time in the ordinary accounts of your life as those that neglect their duty while they are examining themselves how they perform it and perplexing themselves with the long perusal of their ordinary infirmities But by a general yet sincere repentance bewail your unavoidable daily failings and have recourse to Christ for a daily pardon and renewed grace And in case of extraordinary sins or mercies be sure to be extraordinarily humbled or thankful Some think it best to keep a daily Catalogue or Diurnal of their sins and mercies If you do so be not too particular in the enumeration of those that are the matter of every dayes return For it
and endeavours do contain the seed of life eternal and are such a preparation for it as cannot be in vain Would God concurr thus with any word which is not true and holy and good to make it effectual for the renovation of so many millions of souls Have you not found that his work of Grace is earryed on by heavenly Wisdom Love and Power and is a witness of his special providence and containeth his own Image upon the soul And shall we then question the Author of the seal when we see that the Image and superscription which it imprinteth is Divine And have you not had such experiences your 5. self of the fulfilling of this word in the answer of prayers manifest both on mens souls and bodies which are enough to confute the Tempter that would shake your faith when he seeth you in your weakness unfit to call up all those Evidences which at another time you have discerned For my own part I must bear this witness to the truth that I have known and felt and seen and heard such wonders wrought upon servent prayer as have many a time convinced me of the truth of the promises and the special providence of God to his poor petitioners I have oft known the Acute and Chronical Diseases of afflicted ones relieved by prayer without any natural means Some of the most violent cured in an hour and some by more slow degrees Besides the effects upon mens souls and estates and publick affairs which plainly demonstrated the means and cause And shall a promise thus sealed to us be ever questioned again Nay have you not the Witness in your self 6. 1 John 5. 10 11 12. Even the Spirit of Christ which is the pledge and earnest of your inheritance and the seal and mark of God upon you In a word it is an unquestionable truth that the rational 7. world neither is nor ever was nor can be governed agreeably to its nature without an End to move and rule them which is beyond this life and without the Hopes and fears of a Reward and Punishment hereafter Were this but taken out of the world man would no longer live like man but as the most odious noxious creature upon earth And it is as sure that it agreeth not with the Omnipotence Wisdom and Goodness of God to Govern so noble a Creature by a lye and to make a Nature that must be so governed And it is as certain that all other Revelation is defective and that Life and Immortality the end and the way were never so brought to light as they are in the Gospel by 2 Tim. 1. 10. Christ and by his Spirit Say then to the malitious Tempter The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke theâ— Zech. 3. 2. O full of all subtilty and mischief thou enemy of God and righteousness Wilt thou not cease to be a lying Spirit and to pervert the truth and right wayes of the Lord Act 13. 10. Lift up your soul to God and say I believe Lord help mine unbelief Though Satan stand to resist me at my right hand am I not a brand pluckt out of the fire Am I not thine and have I not resigned this soul to thee and didst thou not accept it in thy holy Covenant O then defend it as thine own Plead thou my Cause and confirm thy work and justifie both thy truth and me against the malitious enemy of both O let the intercession of my Saviour prevail that my faith fail not And take away the filthy garments from me Zech. 3. 3 4. and cause mine iniquities to pass away And though my soul be troubled what shall I say Father save me from this hour But then what passage shall I have into thy presence I was born a mortal wight John 12. 23 27 28. John 17. 1. and go but the way as all Generations have gone before me and follow my Lord and all his Saints Father receive and glorifie thy servant that thy servant may glorifie thy name for ever Receive O Father the soul which thou hast made Receive O Saviour the soul which thou hast so dearly bought and loved to the death Acts 7. 59. and washed in thy blood Receive the soul which thou hast regenerated by thy Spirit and in some measure quickned Psal. 39. 5 7 8 11. Psal. 32. 1 2 3. Rom. 4. 7 8. 24. Psal. 25. 7. Psal. 19. 12 13. 1 Pet. 2. 22. Matth. 3. 15. Heb. 9. 26. Isa. 53. 10. 3 4 6 7 8 9. Matth. 3 17. 17. 5. 12. 18. Rom. 5. 1 2 3 5 10. Ephes. 2. 14. Heb. 10. 10 12 14 18. Heb 7. 26 2â— Ephes. 1. 6 7 11 13. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Phil. 3. 9 10 11. Eph. 5. 26 27. Psal. 139. 16 17 18. Psal. 16. 6 7. Psal. 6â— 9. Psal. 46. 4. Psal. 42. 3 4. Psal. 89. 15. Psal. 36. 8. John 4. 10 13 14. Psal. 42. 4. Psal. 107. 6. 13. Psal. 107. 17 14. by the immortal seed Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand breadth my age before thee is as nothing and every man at his best estate is vanity When thy rebukes correct us for iniquity thou makest our beauty to câ—nsume as a nâ—oth And now O Lord what wait I for Is not my hope alone in thee Deliver me from my transgressions and impute not to me the sins which I have done Remember not against me the sins of my youth and forgive the iniquities of my riper years Charge not upon me my grieving of thy Spirit and neglects and resistances of thy grace Forgive my sins of ignorance and of knowledge my sins of slâ—thfulness rashness and presumption especially those which I have wilfully committed against thy warnings and the warnings of my Conscience Who can understand his errors Cleanse thou me from secret sins O pardon my unprofitableness and abuse of thy mercies and my sluggish loss of pretious time that I have served thee no better and loved thee no more and improved no better the day of grace Though folâ—y and sin have darknâ—d my light and blemished my most holy services and my transgressions have been multiplyed in thy sight yet is the Sacrifice sufficient which thou hast accepted from our great High Priest who made his soul an offering for sin In him thou art well pleased He is our peace In him I trust He was holy harmless undefiled and separate from sinners He did no iniquity He fulfilled all Righteousness and by once offering of himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified He is able to save to the utmost them that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Accept me O Father in him thy well beloved Let my sinful soul be healed by his stripes who bare our sins in his body on the Cross. Let me be found in him not having any Legal righteousness of my own but that which
that he is better acquainted with your spiritual state and life than others are and therefore in less danger of wronging you by mistake and misapplications For it s supposed that you have acquainted him with your personal condition in your health having taken him as your ordinary Counsellor for your souls and that he hath acquainted himself with your condition and confirmed you and watcht over you by name as Ignatius to Polycarpe Bishop of Smyrna saith Saepe Congregationes fiant ex nomine omnes quaere servos ancillas ne despicias as Bishop Ushers old Latine Transl. hath Vid. Iastiâ— Marâ— Apol. 2. Vid. Tertul. Apol. c. 39. it Let Congregations be often held Enquire after all by name Despise not Servants and Maids The Bishop took notice of every Servant and Maid by name and he had opportunity to see whether they were in the Congregation 9. You must use him as your Leader or Champion against all Hereticks Infidels and subtle adversaries of the truth with whom you are unable to contend your selves that your Bishop may clear up and defend the cause of Christ and righteousness and by irresistible evidence stop the mouths of all I hope all this will tell you what a Bishop indeed is gain-sayers It is for your own benefit and not for theirs that you are required in all these works of their office to use them and readily obey them And what hurt can it do you to obey them in any of these § 9. Direct 3. Understand how it is that Christ doth authorize and send forth his Ministers lest Direct 3. Wolves and deceivers should either obtrude themselves upon you as your lawful Pastors or should alienate you from thâ—se that God hath set over you by puzling you in subtle questioring or disputing against their call Not only Pauls warnings Act. 20. 30. and 2 Tim. 3. 6. but lamentable experience telleth us what an eager desire there is in Proud and Self-conceited men to obtrude themselves as Teachers and Pastors on the Churches to creep into houses and lead people captive and draw away Disciples after them and say and perhaps think that others are deceivers and none are the true Teachers indeed but they And the first part of the art and work of wolves is to separate you from your Pastors and catch up the straglers that are thus separated The malice and slanders and lies and railing of hirelings and deceivers and all the powers of Hell are principally poured out on the faithful Pastors and leaders of the flocks The principal work of the Jesuits against you is to make you believe that Gâ—ot de Imp. p. 273. Pastorum est ordinare Pastores Neque id officâ—um eis competit quâ hujus aut illius ecclesiae Pastores sunt sed quâ uâ— nistriâ— ecclesiae Catholicae your Pastors are no true Pastors but uncalled private persons and meer usurpers and the reason must be because they have not an Ordination of Bishops successively from the Apostles without interruption I confess if our interruptions had been half as lamentable as theirs by their Schisms and variety of Popes at once and Popes accused or condemned by General Councils for Hereticks and their variety of wayes of electing Popes and their incapacities by Simony Usurpation c. I should think at least that our Ancestors had cause to have questioned the calling of some that were then over them But I will help you in a few words to discern the jugling of these deceivers by shewing you the truth concerning the way of Christs giving his commission to the Ministers that are truly called and the needlesness of the proof of an uninterrupted succession of regular ordination to your reception of your Pastors and their Ministrations § 10. The ministerial commission is contained in and conveyed by the Law of Christ which is the See in Grotius de Imper. sum potest p. 269. The necessary distinction of 1. Ipsa facultas praedicandi sacramenta claves administrandi quod Mandatum vocat 2. Applicatio hujus facultatis ad certam personam viz. Ordinatio 3. Applicatio hujus personae ad certum coeâ—um locum viz. Electio 4. Iliud quo certa persona in certo loco ministerium suum exercet publico praesidio ac publicâ authoritate viz. Coâ—fiâ—matio p. 273. Constat munetis institutionem à Deo esse Ordinationem à Pastoribus Confirmationem publicam à summa potestate So that the doubt is only about election Which yet must be differenced from consenâ— Charter of the Church and every true Bishop or Pastor hath his Power from Christ and not at all from the efficient conveyance of any mortal man Even as Kings have their power not from man but from God himself but with this difference that in the Church Christ hath immediatly determined of the species of Church offices but in the Civil Government only of the Genus absolutely and immediatly You cannot have a plainer illustration than by considering how Mayors and Bailiffs and Constables are annually made in Corporations The King by his Charter saith that every year at a certain time the freemen or Burgesses shall meet and choose one to be their Mayor and the Steward or Town Clerk shall give him his oath and thus or he shall be invested in his place and this shall be his power and work and no other So the King by his Law appointeth that Constables and Church-wardens shall be chosen in every Parish Now let our two questions be here decided 1. Who it is that giveth these Officers their Power 2. Whether an uninterrupted succession of such officers through all generations since the enacting of that Law be necessary to the validity of the present officers authority To the first It is certain that it is the King by his Law or Charter that giveth the officers their power and that the Corporations and Parishes do not give it them by electing or investing them yea though the King hath made such election and Investiture to be in a sort his instrument in the conveying it it is but as the opening of the door to let them in sine quo non but it doth not make the Instruments to be at all the Givers of the Power nor were they the receiving or containing mediate causes of it The King never gave them the Power which the officers receive either to Use or to Give but only makes the Electors his Instruments to determine of the person that shall receive the Power immediately from the Law or Charter and the Investers he ma keth his Instruments of solemnizing the Tradition and admission which if the Law or Charter make absolutely Necessary ad esse officii it will be so but if it make it necessary only ad melius esse or but for order and regular admittance when no necessity hindereth it the necessity will be no more And to the second question It is plain that the Law which is the Fundamentum
carnal mind is enmity against God and is not subject to his Law nor can be Rom. 8. 7. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God v. 8. And you may easily conceive what work will be made in the Ship when an enemy of the Owner hath subtilly possessed himself of the Pilots place He will charge all that are faithful as mutineers because they resist him when he would carry all away And if an enemy of Christ shall get to be Governour of one of his Regiments or Garrisons all that are not Traytors shall be called Traytors and cashiered that they hinder not the treason which he intendeth And as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now But what saith the Scripture cast out the bond-woman and her son c. Gal. 4. 29 30. It is not the sacred office of the Ministry nor the profession of the same religion that will cure the enmity of a carnal heart against both Holiness and the Holy seed The whole business of the world from age to age is but the management of that war proclaimed at sins first entrance into the World between the seed of the woman and the Serpent And none of the serpents seed are more cruel or more successful Gen. 3. 15. than those of them that creep into the Armies of Christ and especially that get the conduct of his Regiments Neither Brotherhood nor Unity of profest Religion would hold the hands of Poetae nunquam perturbarunt Respublicas Oratores non raro Buchoâ—tz malignant Cain from murdering his Brother Abel The same Religion and father and family reconciled not scoffing Ishmael to Isaac or prophane Esau to his brother Iacob The family of Christ and an Apostles office did not keep Iudas from being a Traytor to his Lord. If carnal men invade the Ministry they take the way of ease and honour and worldly wealth and strive for Dominion and who shall be the greatest and care not how great their Power and Iurisdiction is nor how little their profitable work is and their endeavour is to fit all matters of Worship and discipline to their ambitious covetous ends and the spiritual Worshipper shall be the object of their hate And is Acosta l. 6. c. 23. p. 579. Nothing so much hurteth this Church as a rabble of hirelings and self-seekers For what can natural men that scarce have the Spirit do in the cause of God A few in number that are excellent in vertue will more promote the work of God But they that come hither being humble and lovers of souls taking Christ for their pattern and bearing in their bodies his Cross and death shall most certainly find heavenly treasures and inestimable delights But when will this be When men cease to be men and to savour the things of men and to seek and gape after the things of men With men this is utterly impossible but with God all things are possible Because this is hard in the eyes of this people shall it therefore be hard in my eyes saith the Lord Zech. 10. pag. 580. I may say to some Ministers that cry out of the schismatical disobedience of the people as Acosta doth to to those that cryed out of the Indians dulness and wickedness It is long of the Teachers Deal with them in all possible love and tenderness away with Covetousness Lordliness and Cruelty give them the example of an upright life open to them the way of truth and teach them according to their capacity and diligently hold on in this way who ever thou art that art a Minister of the Gospel and saith he as ever I hope to enjoy thee O Lord Jesu Christ I am perswaded the harvest will be plentiful and joyful l. 4. p. 433. passim But saith he we quickly cease our labours and must presently have hasty and plenteous fruit But the Kingdom of God is not such Verily it is not such but as Christ hath told us like seed cast into the earth which groweth up by degrees we know not how p. 433 434. Hieroms case is many anothers Concivit odia perditorum Oderunt eum haeretici quia eos impugnare non desinit Oderunt Clerici quia vitam eorum insectatur crimina Sed plane eum boni omnes admirantur diligunt Posthumianus in Sulp. Severi Dialog 1. And Dial. 2. Martinus in Medio caetu conversatione populorum inter Clericos dissidentes inter Episcopos saevientes cum fere quotidianis scandalis huic atque inde premeretur inexpugnabili tamen adversus omnia virtute fundatus stetit Nec tamen huic crimini miscebo populares soli illum Clerici soli nesciunt Sacerdotes nec immerito Nosce illum invidi noluerunt quia si virtutes illius nossent suorum vitia cognovissent it any wonder if the Churches of Christ be torn by Schism and betrayed to prophaneness where there are such unhappy guides § 85. Direct 8. In a special manner take heed of pride Suspect it and subdue it in your selves Direct 8. and do what you can to bring it into disgrace with others Only by Pride cometh contention Prov. How the Jesuites have hereby distracted the Church read Mariana Archiâ—pisc Pragensis Censur de Bull. Iesâ—it Daâ— Hospital ad Reges c. Auâ— Ardingbelli Paradoxa Iesuitica Galindus Giraldus c. Arcana Iesuit 13. 10. I never yet saw one schism made in which Pride conjunct with Ignorance was not the cause nor never did I know one person forward in a schism to my remembrance but Pride was discernably his disease I do not here intend as the Papists to charge all with Schism or Pride that renounce not their understandings and choose not to give up themselves to a beastial subjection to Usurpers or their Pastors he that thinks it enough that his Teacher hath Reason and be a man instead of himself and so thinketh it enough that his Teacher be a Christian and Religious must be also content that his Teacher alone be saved But then he must not be the Teacher of such a damning way But by Pride I mean a plain over-valuing of his own understanding and Conceits and Reasoningâ— quite above all the Evidences of their worth and an undervaluing and contempt of the judgements and reasonings of far wiser men that had evidence enough to have evinced his folly and â—rror to a sober and impartial man Undoubtedly it is the Pride of Priests and people that hath so lâ—mensably in all ages â—orn the Church He that readeth the Histories of Schisms and Church-confusions and marketh the effects which this age hath shewed will no more doubt whether Pride were the cause than whether it was the wind that blew down Trees and houses when he seeth them one way overturned by multitudes where the tempest came with greatest force Therefore a Bishop must be no Nâ—vice lâ—st being lifted up with pride 〈◊〉
quid vel insalubre manum admoveat Cohibeat Equiso inter equitandum adigat equum per locum praeruptum vel salebrosum cui subsit periculum Etiamne Medico Etiamne Equisoni suo subjectus Rex Sed de Majori potestate loquitur sed â—â ad rem noxiam procul arcendam qua in re Charitatis semper Potestas est maxima Here you see what Church Government is and how Kings are under it and how not in Bishop Andrews sense for my part I would rather obey the Laws of the King than the Canons of the Bishops if they should disagree 3. But in cases common to both in which the Pastors Office is more nearly and fully concerned than the Magistrates the case is more difficult As at what hour the Church shall assemble What part of Scripture shall be read What Text the Minister shall preach on How long Prayer or Sermon or other Church-exercises shall be What Prayers the Minister shall use In what method he shall preach and what doctrine he shall deliver and the people hear with many such like These do most nearly belong to the Pastoral Office to judge of as well as to execute But yet in some cases the Mâ—gistrate may interpose his authority And herein 1. If the one party do determine clearly to the necessary preservation of Religion and the other to the ruine of it the disparity of consequents makeeth a great disparity in the case For here God himself hath predetermined who commandeth that all be done to â—dification As for instance If a Christian Magistrate ordain that no assembly shall consist of above forty or an hundred persons when there are so many Preachers and places of meeting that it is no detriment to mens souls and especially when the danger of infection or other evil warranteth it then I would obey that command of the Magistrate though the Pastors of the Church were against it and commanded fuller meetings But if a Iulian should command the same thing on purpose to wear out the Christian Religion and when it tendeth to the ruine of mens souls as 〈…〉 399 saâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 of Bâ—shops in thâ—se dayes â—eloâ—ged to the people and not the Prâ—â—ce and though Valens by pâ—ain force placed Luâ—ius there yet might the people lawfully reject him as no Bishop and cleave to Peter their right Pastor when Preachers are so few that either more must meet together or most must be untaught and excluded from Gods Worship here I would rather obey the Pastors that command the contrary because they do but deliver the command of God who determineth consequentially of the necessary means when he determineth of the â—nd But if the consequents of the Magistrates and the Pastors commands should be equally indifferent and neither of them discernably Good or Bad the difficulty then would be at the highest and such as I shall not here presume to determine No doubt but the King is the Supream Governour over all the Schools and Physicions and Hospitals in the Land that is he is the Supream in the Civil Coercive Government He is Supream Magistrate over Divines Physicions and Schoolmasters but not the Supream Divine Physicion or Schoolmaster When there is any work for the Office of the Magistrate that is for the sword among any of them it belongeth only to Him and not at all to them But when there is any work for the Divine the Physicion the Schoolmaster or if you will for the Shoomaker the Taylor the Watch-maker this belongeth not to the King to do or give particular commands for but yet it is all to Too many particular Laws about little maâ—ters breed contention Alex. Severus would have dâ—stinguished all orders of men by their apparel Sâ—d hoc Ulpiano Paulo dispâ—icuit dicentibus plurimum rixarum fore â—i faciles essent homines ad injurias and the Emperour yielded to them Lamâ—rid iâ— Alex. Sever. Lipsius Ubi leges multae ibi lites multae vita moresque pravi Non mulâ—ae leges bonos mâ—res faciunt sed pauâ—ae fideliter servatae be done under his Government and on special causes he may make Laws to force them all to do their several works aright and to restrain them from abuses As to clear the case in hand the King is informed that Physicions take too great Fees of their Patients that some through ignorance and some through covetousness give ill compounded Medicines and pernicious Drugs No doubt but the King by the advice of understanding men may forbid the use of such Drugs as are found pernicious to his Subjects and may regulate not only the Fees but the Compositions and Attendances of Physicions But if he should command that a man in a Feavor or Dropsie or Consumption shall have no Medicine but this or that and so oft and in such or such a dose and with such or such a dyet and the Physicions whom my reason bindeth me to trust and perhaps my own experience also do tell me that all these things are bad for me and different tempers and accidents require different remedies and that I am like to dye or hazard my health if I obey not them contrary to the Kings commands here I should rather obey my Physicions partly because else I should sin against God who commandeth me the preservation of my life and partly because this matter more belongeth to the Physicion than to the Magistrate Mr. Rich. Hooker Eccl. Polit. lib. 8. p. 223 224. giveth you the Reason more fully § 54. Direct 25. Give not the Magistrates Power to any other whether to the People on pretence of Direct 25. their Majestas Realis as they call it or to the Pope or Prelates or Pastors of the Church upon pretence of authority from Christ or of the distinction of Ecclesiastical Government and Civil The peoples pretensions to Natural Authority or Real Majesty or Collation of Power I have consuted before and more elsewhere The Popes Prelates and Pastors power of the Sword in Causes Ecclesiastical is disproved so fully by Bishop Bilson ubi supra and many more that it is needless to say much more of it All Protestants so far as I know are agreed that no Bishop or Pastor hath any power of the Sword that is of Coercion or force upon men bodies liberties or estates except as Magistrates derived from their Soveraign Their spiritual power is only upon Consenters in the use of Gods Word upon the N. B. Quae habet Andrews Tort. Tort. p. 310. Quando apud vos dictio juris exterior Clavis proprie non sit eamque voâ— multis saepe mandatis qui Laicorum in soâ—te sunt exortes sane sacri ordinis universi Conscience either generally in preaching or with personal application in Discipline No Courts or Commands can compell any to appear or submit nor lay the mulct of a penny upon any but by their own consent or the Magistrates authority But this the Papists will few
till their heads are setled and they come to themselves and that is not usually till the hand of God have laid them lower than it found them and then perhaps they will again hear reason unless pride hath left their souls as desperate as at last it doth their bodies or estates The experience of this Age may stand on record as a teacher to future generations what power there is in great successes to conquer both Reason Religion Righteousness Professions Vows and all obligations to God and man by puffing up the heart with pride and thereby making the understanding drunken CHAP. VIII Advice against Murder § 1. THough Murder be a sin which humane nature and interest do so powerfully rise up against that one would think besides the Laws of Nature and the fear of temporal punishment there should need no other argument against it And though it be a sin which is not frequently committed except by Souldiers yet because mans corrupted heart is lyable to it and because one sin of such a heynous nature may be more mischievous than many small infirmities I shall not wholly pass by this sin which falls in order here before me I shall give men no other advice against it than only to open to them 1. The Causes and 2. The Greatness and 3. The Consequents of the sin § 2. I. The Causes of Murder are either the Neerest or the more radical and remote The opening of the Neerest sort of Causes will be but to tell you how many wayes of murdering the World is used to And when you know the Cause the contrary to it is the prevention Avoid those Causes and you avoid the sin § 3. 1. The greatest Cause of the cruellest murders is unlawful wars All that a man killeth in an unlawful war he murdereth And all that the Army killeth he that setteth them a work by Command or Counsel is guilty of himself And therefore how dreadful a thing is an unrighteous war and how much have men need to look about them and try every other lawful way and suffer long before they venture upon war It is the skill and glory of a Souldier when he can kill more than other men He studyeth it he maketh it the matter of his greatest care and valous and endeavour He goeth through very great difficulties to accomplish it This is not like a sudden or involuntary act Thieves and Robbers kill single persons but Souldiers murder thousands at a time And because there is none at present to judge them for it they wash their hands as if they were innocent and sleep as quietly as if the avenger of blood would never come O what Devils are those Counsellers and incâ—ndâ—ries to Princes and States who stir them up to unlawful wars § 4. 2. Another Cause and way of Murder is by the Pride and tyranny of men in power When they do it easily because they can do it When their Will and Interest is their Rule and their Passion seemeth a sufficient warrant for their injustice It is not only Nero's Tiberius's Domitian's c. that are guilty of this crying crime but O what man that careth for his soul had not rather be tormented a thousand years than have the blood-guiltiness of a famous applauded Alexander or Caesar or Tamerlane to answer for So dangerous a thing it is to have Power to do mischief that Uriah may fall by a Davids guilt and Crispus may be killed by his father Constâ—mine O what abundance of horrid murders do the histories of almost all Empires and Kingdoms of the World afford us The maps of the affairs of Greeks and Romans of Tartariuns Turks Russians Germans of Heathens and Infidels of Papists and too many Protestants are drawn out with too many purple lines and their Histories written in letters of blood What write the Christians of the Infidels the Orthodox of the Arrians Romans or Goths or Vandals or the most impartial Historians of the mock Catholicks of Rome but Blood Blood Blood How proudly and loftily doth a Tyrant look when he telleth the oppressed innocent that displeaseth him Sirra I 'le make you know my power Take him Imprison him Rack him Hang him Or as Pilate to Christ Joh. 9. 10. Knowest thou not that I have power to Crucifie thee and have power to release â—hee I 'le make you know that your life is in my hand Heat the Furnace seven times horter Dan. 3. Alas poor worm Hast thou power to kill So hath a Toad or Adder or mad Dâ—gg or pestilence when God permitteth it Hast thou power to kill But hast thou also power to keep thy self alive and to keep thy Corpse from rottenness and dust and to keep thy soul from paying for it in Hell or to keep thy Conscience for worrying thee for it to all Eternity With how trembling a heart and ghastly look wilt thou at last hear of this which now thou gloriest in The bones and dust of the oppressed Innocents will be as great and honourable as thine And their souls perhaps in rest and joy when thine is tormented by infernal furies When thou art in Nebuchadâ—ezzara glory what a mercy were it to thee if thou mightest be turned out among the beasts to prevent thy being turned out among the Devils If killing and destroying be the glory of thy greatness the Devils are more honourable than thou And as thou agreest with them in thy work and glory so shalt thou in the reward § 4. 3. Another most heynous Cause of Murders is a malignant enmity against the Godly and a persecuting destructive Zeal What a multitude of innocents hath this consumed and what innumerable companies of holy souls are still crying for vengeance on these persecutors The Enmity began immediately upon the fall between the Womans and the Serpents seed It shewed it self presently in the two first men that were born into the World A malignant envy against the accepted Sacrifice of Abel was able to make his Brother to be his Murderer And it is usual with the Devil to cast some bone of carnal interest also between them to heighten the malignant enmity Wicked men are all Covetous voluptuous and proud And the doctrine and practice of the Godly doth contradict them and condemn them And they usually espouse some wicked interest or engage themselves in some service of the Devil which the servants of Christ are bound in their several places and callings to resist And then not only this resistance though it be but by the humblest words or actions yea the very conceit that they are not for their interest and way doth instigate the befooled world to persecution And thus an Ishmael and an Isaac an Esau and a Iacob a Saul and a David cannot live together in peace Gal. 4. 29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now Sauls interest maketh him think it just to persecute David and religiously he
of Iesus of Nazareth which thing I also did c. And 1 Tim. 1. 13. that it was ignorantly in unbelief that he was a blaspheamer a persecutor and injurious And on the other side some Persâ—cute Truth and Goodness while they know it to be so Not because it is Truth or Goodness but because it is against their carnal worldly interest and inclination As the Conscience of a worldling a drunkard a whoremonger beareth witness against his sin while he goeth on in it so oft-times doth the Conscience of the Persâ—cutor and he hath secret convictions that those whom he persecuteth are better and happier than himself § 5. 3. As to the cause sometime persecution is for Christianity and Godliness in the gross or for some great essential point And sometimes it is only for some particular Truth or duty and that perhaps of a lower nature so small or so dark that it is become a great Controversie whether it be Truth or errour duty or sin In some respects it is more comfortable to the persecuted and more heynous in the persecutor that the suffering be for the Greatest things For this leaveth no doubt in the mind whether our cause be good or not and this sheweth that the persecutors mind is most aliene from God and truth But in some other respect it is an aggravation of the sin of the persecutor and of the comfort of the persecuted when it is for smaller truths and duties For it is a sign of great uncharitableness and cruelty when men can find in their hearts to persecute others for little things And it is a sign of a heart that is true to God and very sincere when we will rather suffer any thing from Man than renounce the smallest truth of God or commit the smallest sin against him or omit the smallest duty when it is a duty 4. Sometime persecution is directly for Religion that is for matters of professed Faith or Worship And sometimes it is for a civil or a common cause Yet still it is for our Obedience to God or else it is not the persecution which we speak of though the Matter of it be some common or civil thing As if I were persecuted meerly for giving to the poor or helping the sick or for being Loyal to my Prince and to the Laws or for doing my duty to my Parents or because I will not bear false-witness or tell a lye or subscribe a falshood or any such like This is truly persecution whatever the matter of it be as long as it is truly for Obeying God that we undergo the suffering § 6. I omit many other less considerable distributions And also those afflictions which are but improperly called persecutions as when a man is punished for a fault in a far greater measure than it deserveth this is Injustice but not persecution unless it be his Religion and Obedience to God which is the secret cause of it § 7. Direct 2. Understand well the greatness of the sin of Persecution that you may be kept in a Direct 2. due fear of being tempted to it Here therefore I shall shew you how Great a sin it is § 8. 1. Persecution is a fighting against God So it is called Act. 5. 39. And to fight against God is odious Malignity and desperate folly 1. It is Venemous malignity for a Creature to fight against his Creator and a sinner against his Redeemer who would save him and for so blind a worm to rise up against the wisdom of the All-knowing God! and for so vile a sinner to oppose the fountain of Love and Goodness 2. And what Folly can be greater than for a Mole to reproach the Sun for darkness or a lump of Earth to take up Arms against the Almighty terrible God Art thou able to make good thy cause against him or to stand before him when he is offended and chargeth thee with sin Hear a Pharisee Act. 6. 38 39. And now I say unto you refrain from these men and let them alone for if this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought But if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest happily ye be found even to fight against God Or hear Christ himself Act. 9. 4 5. I am Iesus whom thou persecutest It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks with bare feet or hands to beat the thorns How unmeet a match is man for God! He needeth not so much as a word to take away thy soul and crush thee to the lowest Hell His will alone can lay thee under thy deserved pains Canst thou Conquer the Almighty God Wilt thou assault the Power which was never overcome or storm Jehovahs Throne or Kingdom First try to take down the Sun and Moon and Stars from the Firmament and to stop the course of the Rivers or of the Sea and to rebuke the Winds and turn night into day and Winter into Summer and decrepit Age into vigorous Youth Attempt not greater matters till thou hast performed these It is a greater matter than any of these to conquer God whose cause thou fightest against Hear him again Isa. 45. 9. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker Let the potsherd strive with the Potsherds of the Earth Shall the Clay say to him that fashioneth it What makest thou Or thy work He hath no hands And Isa. 45. 9. who would set the bryars and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together Wo to the man that is not content to fight with men but chooseth the most dreadful God to be his enemy It had been better for thee that all the World had been against thee § 9. 2. Persecution opposeth the gracious design of our Redeemer and hindereth his Gospel and work of mercy to the world and endeavoureth the ruine of his Kingdom upon earth Christ came to save men and persecutors raise up their power against him as if they envyed salvation to the World And if God have made the work of mans Redemption the most wonderful of all his works which ever he revealed to the sons of men you may easily conceive what thanks he will give them that resist him in so high and glorious a design If you could pull the Stars out of the Firmament or hinder the motions of the Heavens or deny the rain to the thirsty Earth you might look for as good a reward for this as for opposing the merciful Redeemer of the World in the blessed work of mans salvation § 10. 3. Persecution is a resisting or fighting against the Holy Ghost Act. 7. 51. saith Stephen to the Jews Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye If you silence the Ministers who are the means by which the spirit worketh in the illuminating and sanctifying of souls Act. 26. 17 18. or if you afflict men for those Holy duties which the
created for § 2. Mot. 2. There is no subject so sublime and honourable for the Tongue of man to be imployed about as the matters of God and life eternal Children will talk of childish toyes and Countreymen talk of their Corn and Cattel and Princes and Statesmen look down on these with contemptuous smiles as much below them But Crowns and Kingdoms are incomparably more below the business of a holy soul The higher subjects Philosophers treat of the more honourable if well done are their discourses But none is so high as God and glory § 3. Mot. 3. It is the most profitable subject to the hearers A discourse of Riches at the most can but direct them how to grow rich A discourse of Honours usually puffeth up the minds of the ambitious And if it could advance the auditors to Honour the fruit would be a vanity little to be desired But a discourse of God and Heaven and Holiness doth tend to change the hearers minds into the nature of the things discourst of It hath been the means of converting and sanctifying many a thousand souls As learned discourses tend to make men learned in the things discourst off so holy discourses tend to make men holy For as natural Generation begetteth not Gold or Kingdoms but a Man so speech is not made to communicate to others directly the wealth or health or honours or any extrinsecal things which the speaker hath but to communicate those Mental Excellencies which he is possest of Prov. 16. 21 22. The sweetness of the lips increaseth learning Understanding is a well-spring of life to him that hath it Prov. 10. 13 21. In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found The lips of the righteous feed many Prov. 15. 7. The lips of the wise disperse knowledge but the heart of the foolish doth not so Prov. 20. 15. There is Gold and a multitude of Rubies but the lips of knowledge are a precious Iewel Prov. 10. 20. The tongue of the just is as choice Silver the heart of the wicked is little worth § 4. Mot. 4. Holy discourse is also most profitable to the speaker himself Grace increaseth by the exercise Even in instructing others and opening truth we are oft times more powerfully led up to further truth our selves than by solitary studies For Speech doth awaken the intellectual faculty and keepeth on the thoughts in order and one truth oft inferreth others to a thus excited and prepared mind And the tongue hath a power of moving own our hearts When we blow the fire to warm another both the exercise and the fire warm our selves It kindleth the flames of holy love in us to declare the praise of God to others It increaseth a hatred of sin in us to open its odiousness to others We starve our selves when we starve the souls which we should cherish § 5. Mot. 5. Holy and Heavenly discourse is the most delectable I mean in its own aptitude and to a mind that is not diseased by corruption That which is most Great and Good and Necessary is most delectable What should best please us but that which is best for us And best for others And best in it self The excellency of the subject maketh it delightful And so doth the exercise of our Graces upon it And serious conference doth help down the truth into our hearts where it is most sweet Besides that Nature and Charity make it pleasant to do good to others It can be nothing better than a subversion of the appetite by carnality and wickedness that maketh any one think idle jeasts or tales or plays to be more pleasant than spiritual Heavenly conference and the talking of Riches or Sports or Lusts to be sweeter than to talk of God and Christ and grace and glory A holy mind hath a continual feast in it self in meditating on these things and the communicating of such thoughts to others is a more Common and so a more pleasant feast § 6. Mot. 6. Our faithfulness to God obligeth us to speak his praise and to promote his truth â—â—d plead his cause against iniquity Hath he given us tongues to magnifie his name and set before us the admirable frame of all the World to declare his Glory in And shall we be backward to so sweet and great a work How precious and useful is all his holy word What light and life and comfort may it cause And shall we bury it in silence What company can we come into almost where either the bare-faced committing of sin or the defending it or the opposition of truth or Godliness or the frigidity of mens hearts towards God and supine neglect of holy things do not call to us if we are the servants of God to take his part and if we are the Children of light to bear our testimony against the darkness of the World and if we love God and truth and the souls of men to shâ—w it by our prudent seasonable speech Is he true to God and to his cause that will not open his mouth to speak for him § 7. Mot. 7. And how precious a thing is an immortal soul and therefore not to be neglected Did Christ think souls to be worth his Mediation by such strange condescension even to a shameful death Did he think them worth his coming into flesh to be their teacher And will you not think them worth the speaking to § 8. Mot. 8. See also the greatness of your sin in the negligence of unfaithful Ministers It is easie to see the odiousness of their sin who preach not the Gospel or do no more than by an hours dry and dead discourse shift off the serious work which they should do and think they may be excused from all personal oversight and helping of the peoples souls all the Week after And why should you not perceive that a dumb private Christian is also to be condemned as well as a dumb Minister Is not profitable conference your duty as well as profitable preaching is his How many persons condemn themselves while they speak against unfaithful Pastors being themselves as unfaithful to Families and Neighbours as the other are to the flock § 9. Mot. 9. And consider how the cheapness of the means doth aggravate the sin of your neglect and shew much unmercifulness to souls Words cost you little Indeed alone without the company of good works they are too cheap for God to accept of But if an Hypocrite may bring so cheap a sacrifice who is rejected what doth he deserve that thinketh it too dear What will that man do for God or for his Neighbours soul who will not open his mouth to speak for them He seemeth to have less love than that man in Hell Luk. 16. who would so fain have had a messenger sent from another World to have warned his brethren and saved them from that place of torment § 10. Mot. 10. Your fruitful conference is a needful help to the ministerial work When
5. The subtilty of Satan and his instruments in tempting 6. The weakness and unconstancy of man that hath need of constant solicitation 7. The want of holy faithful Pastors which maketh private mens diligence the more necessary And in such necessity to shut up our mouths is to shut up the bowels of our compassion when we see our brothers need And how then doth the Love of God dwell in us 1 Ioh. 3. 17. To withhold our exhortation is as the withholding of Corn from the poor in a time of famine which procureth a Curse Prov. 11. 26. And though in this case men are insensible of their want and take it not ill to be past by yet Christ that dyed for them will take it ill § 20. Mot. 20. Lastly consider how short a time you are like to speak and how long you must be silent Death will quickly stop your breath and lay you in the dark and tell you that all your opportunities are at an end Speak now for you have not long to speak Your Neighbours lives are hasting to an end and so are yours They are dying and must hear no more till they hear their doom and you are dying and must speak no more And they will be lost for ever if they have not help Pity them then and call on them to foresee the final day Warm them now for it must be now or never There is no instructing or admonishing in the grave Those sculls which you see cast up had once tongues which should have praised their Creator and Redeemer and have helpt to save each others souls but now they are tongueless It is a great grief to us that are now here silenced that we used not our Ministry more laboriously and zealously while we had time And will it not be so with you when death shall silence you that you spake not for God while you had a tongue to speak Let all these Considerations stir up all that God hath taught a holy language to use it for their Masters service while they may and to repent of sinful silence Tit. 2. Directions for Christian Conference and Edifying speech § 1. Direct 1. THE most necessary direction for a fruitful tongue is to get a well-furnished Direct 1. mind and a holy heart and to walk with God in holiness your selves For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak That which you are fullest of is readiest to come forth 1. Spare for no study or labour to get understanding in the things of God It is a weariness to hear men talk foolishly of any thing but no where so much as about Divine and Heavenly things A wise Christian instructed to the Kingdom of God hath a treasury in his mind out of which he can bring forth things new and old Mat. 13. 52. Prov. 14. 7. Go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge 2. Get all that holiness in your selves to which you would perswade another There is a strange communicating power in the course of nature for every thing to produce its like Learning and good utterance is very helpful But it is holiness that is aptest to beget holiness in others Words which proceed from the Love of God and a truly Heavenly mind do most powerfully tend to breed in others that Love of God and Heavenly-mindedness 3. Live in the practice of that which you would draw your Neighbour to practice A man that cometh warm from holy meditation or fervent prayer doth bring upon his heart a fulness of matter and an earnest desire and a fitness to communicate that good to others which he himself hath felt § 2. Direct 2. Especially see that you soundly Believe your selves what you are to speak to others Direct 2. He that hath secret infidelity at his heart and is himself unsatisfied whether there be a Heaven and Hell and whether sin be so bad and holiness so necessary as the Scripture speaks will speak but heartlesly of them to another But if we believe these things as if we saw them with our eyes how heartily shall we discourse of them § 3. Direct 3. Keep a compassionate sense of the misery of ignorant ungodly impenitent souls Direct 3. Think what a miserable bondage of darkness and sensuality they are in and that it is light that must recover them Think oft how quickly they must dye and what an appearance they must make before the Lord and how miserable they must be for ever if now they be not convinced and sanctified And sure this will stir up your bowels to pity them and make you speak § 4. Direct 4. Subdue foolish shame or bashfulness and get a holy fortitude of mind Remember Direct 4. what a sin it is to be ashamed of such a master and such a cause and work which all would be glad to own at last And that when the wicked are not ashamed of the service of the Devil and the basest works And remember that threatning Mark 8. 38. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the holy Angels § 5. Direct 5. Be alwayes furnished with those particular truths which may be most useful in this Direct 5. service Study to do your work in your degree as Ministers study to do theirs Who are not contented with the habitual furniture of their minds but they also make particular prepartions for their particular work If you are to go into the field to your labour you will take those tools with you by which it must be done so do when you go abroad among any that you may do good to and be not unfurnished for edifying discourse § 6. Direct 6. Speak most of the greatest things the folly of sin the vanity of the World the Direct 6. certainty and neerness of death and judgement the overwhelming weight of Eternity the necessity of Holiness the work of Redemption c. and choose not the smaller matters of Religion to spend your time upon unless upon some special reason Among good men that will not lose their time on vanity the Devil too oft prevaileth to make them lose it by such religious conference as is little to edification that greater matters may be thereby thrust out such as Paul calleth vain janglings and doting about questions which engender strife and not Godly edifying As about their several opinions or parties or comparing one Preacher or person with another or such things as tend but little to make the hearers more wise or holy or Heavenly § 7. Direct 7. Suit all your discourse to the quality of your Auditors That which is best in it self Direct 7. may not be best for every hearer You must vary both your subject and manner of discourse 1. According to the variety of mens
judging And if you knew how bad you are you would not be so forward to condemn your neighbours So that here is together the effect of much self-estrangedness hypocrisie and pride Did you ever well consider of the mind of Christ when he bid them that accused the adulterous woman John 8. 7. He that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her Certainly adultery was a heinous crime and to be punished with death and Christ was no Patron of uncleanness But he knew that it was an hypocritical sort of persons whom he spake to who were busie in judging others rather than themselves Have you studied his words against rash censurers Matth. 7. 3 4. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye Or how wilt thou say to thy brother Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye and behold a beam is in thine own eye Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote which is in thy brothers eye I know well that impenitent sinners do use to pervert all these words of Christ against any that would bring them to repentance for their sin and account all men rash censurers who would make them acquainted with their unsanctified hearts and lives But it is not their abuse of Scripture which will justifie our overpassing it with neglect Christ spake it not for nothing and it must be studied by his Disciples § 5. 5. Censoriousness is injustice in that the censurers would not be so censured themselves You will say Yes if we were as bad and did deserve it But though you have not that same fault have you no other And are you willing to have it aggravated and be thus rashly judged You do not as you would be done by yea commonly censurers are guilty of false judging and whilest they take things hastily upon trust and stay not to hear men speak for themselves or to enquire throughly into the cause they commonly condemn the innocent and call good evil and put light for Isa. 5. 20. darkness and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him when God hath cursed such with a woe § 6. 6. And false censuring is the proper work of the Devil the accuser of the brethren Rev. 12. 10. Who accuseth them before God day and night And Christians should not bear his Image nor do his work § 7. 7. Censoriousness is contrary to the Nature and Office of Jesus Christ He came to pardon sin and cover the infirmities of his servants and to cast them behind his back and into the depth of the Sea and to bury them in his grave And it is the censurers work to rake them up and to make them seem more and greater than they are and to bring them into the open light § 8. 8. Censoriousness causeth uncharitableness and sinful separations in the censurers when they have conceited their brethren to be worse than they are they must then reproach them or have no communion with them and avoid them as too bad for the company of such as they Or when they have usurped the Pastors work in judging they begin the execution by sinful separation § 9. 9. Censoriousness is an infectious sin which easily taketh with the younger and prouder sort of Christians and so setteth them on vilifying others And at this little gap there entereth all uncharitableness backbitings revilings Church-divisions and Sects yea and too often rebellious and bloody Wars at last § 10. 10. Censoriousness is a sore temptation to them that are censured either to contemn such as censure them and go on the other hand too far from them or else to comply with the errors and sinful humours of the censurers and to strain their consciences to keep pace with the censorious And here I must leave it on record to posterity for their warning that the great and lamentable actions changes and calamities of this age have arisen next to gross impiety from this sin of ☜ censoriousness producing these two contrary effects and thereby dividing men into two contrary parties The younger sort of Religious people and the more ignorant and many women having more zeal than judgement placed too much of their Religion in a sharp opposition to all Ceremonies Formalities and Opinions which they thought unlawful and were much inclined to Schism and unjust separations upon that account and therefore censured such things as Antichristian and those that used them as superstitious or temporizers And no mans learning piety wisdome or laboriousness in the Ministry could save him from these sharp reproachful censures Hereupon one party had not Humility and Patience enough to endure to be so judged of nor love and tenderness enough for such pievish Christians to bear with them in pity as Parents do with froward Infants but because these professed holiness and zeal even holiness and zeal were brought under suspicion for their sakes and they were taken to be persons intolerable as unfit to lye in any building and unmeet to submit to Christian Government and therefore meet to be used accordingly Another sort were so wearied with the prophaneness and ungodliness of the vulgar rabble and saw so few that were judiciously religious that they thought it their duty to love and cherish the zeal and piety of their censorious weak ones and to bear patiently with their frowardness till ripeness and experience cured them And so far they were right And because they thought that they could do them no good if they once lost their interest in them and were also themselves too impatient of their censure some of them seemed to please them to be more of their opinion than they were and more of them forbore to reprove their petulancy but silently suffered them to go on especially when they fell into the Sects of Antinomians Anabaptists and Separatists they durst not reprove them as they deserved lest they should drive them all out of the Hive to some of these late swarms And thus censoriousness in the ignorant and self-conceited drove away one part to take them as their enemies and silenced or drew on another party to follow them that led the Vann in some irregular violent actions and the wise and sober moderators were disregarded and in the noise of these tumults and contentions could not be heard till the smart of either party in their suffering forced them to honour such whom in their exaltation again they despised or abused This is the true summ of all the Tragoedies in Britain of this Age. Tit. 4. Directions for those that are rashly censured Direct 1. REmember when you are injured by Censures that God is now trying your Humility Direct 1. Charity and Patience And therefore be most studious to exercise and preserve these three 1. Take heed lest Pride make you disdainful to the censurers A humble
your selves into snares by meer inconsiderateness and prepare not for perplexities and repentance Direct 2. Be very careful what persons you commit either trusts or secrets to And be sure they be trusty Direct 2. by their wisdom ability and fidelity Direct 3. Be not too forward in revealing your own secrets to anothers trust For 1. You cannot be Direct 3. certain of any ones secresie where you are most confident 2. You oblige your self too much to please Quod â—aâ—itum esse velis nemini diâ—eris Si â—bi non imperastâ— quomodo ab alto silentium speras Martiâ— Dumiens de morib that person who by revealing your secrets may do you hurt And are in fear lest carelesness or unfaithfulness or any accident should disclose it 3. You burden your friend with the charge and care of secresie Direct 4. Be faithful to your friend that doth entrust you remembring that perfidiousness or Direct 4. falseness to a friend is a crime against humanity and all society as well as against Christianity and stigmatizeth the guilty in the eyes of all men with the brand of an odious unsociable person Direct 5. Be not intimate with too many nor confident in too many For he that hath too many Direct 5. intimates will be opening the secrets of one to another Direct 6. Abhor Covetousness and ambition Or else a bribe or the promise of preferment will Direct 6. tempt you to perfidiousness There is no trusting a selfish worldly man Direct 7. Remember that God is the avenger of perfidiousness who will do it severely And that even Direct 7. they that are pleased and served by it do yet secretly disdain and detest the person that doth it because they would not be so used themselves Direct 8. Yet take not friendship or fidelity to be an obligation to perfidiousness to God or the King or Direct 8. Common-wealth or to another or to any sin whatsoever CHAP. XXVI Directions against Selfishness as it is contrary to the Love of our Neighbours § 1. THE two Tables of the Law are summed up by our Saviour in two comprehensive precepts Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and might and Thou shalt Love thy neighbour aâ— thy self In the Decalogue the first of these is the true meaning of the first Commandment put first because it is the principle of all obedience And the second is the true meaning of the tenth Commandment which is therefore put last because it is the comprehensive sum of all other duties to our Neighbour or injuries against him which any other particular instances may contain and also the principle of the duty to or sin against our Neighbour The meaning of the tenth Commandment is variously conjectured at by Expositors Some say that it speaketh against inward concupiscence and the sinful thoughts of the heart But so do all the â—est in the true meaning of them and must not be supposed to forbid â—he outward action only nor to be any way defective Some say that it forbiddeth â—oveâ—ing and commandeth contentment with our state so doth the eighth Commandment yet there is some part of the truth in both these And the plain truth is as far as I can understand it that the sin forbidden is SELFISHNESS as opposite to the Love of others and the duty commanded is to LOVE our Neighbours and that it is as is said the sum of the second Table Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self As the Captain leadeth the Van and the Lieutenant bringeth up the rear so Thou shalt Love God above all is the first Commandment and Thou shalt Love thy Neighbour as thy self is the last for the aforesaid reason I shall therefore in these following Directions speak to the two parts of the tenth Commandment Direct 1. The first help against SELFISHNESS is to understand well the nature and malignity Direct 1. of the sin For want of this it commonly prevaileth with little suspicion lamentation and opposition Let me briefly therefore anatomize it § 3. 1. It is the Radical positive sin of the soul comprehending seminally or causally all the rest The corruption of mans nature or his radical sin hath two parts The Positive part and the Privâ—tive part The Positive part is SELFISHNESS or the inordinate Love of Carnal Self The Privative part is UNGODLINESSE or want of the LOVE of GOD. Mans fall was his turning from GOD to HIMSELF And his regeneration consisteth in the turning of him from HIMSELF to GOD or the generating of the LOVE of GOD as comprehending faith and obedience and the mortifying of SELF-LOVE SELFISHNESSE therefore is all positive sin in One as want of the LOVE of GOD is all privative sin in One. And SELFDENYAL and the LOVE of GOD are all duties virtually For the true LOVE of MAN is comprehended in the LOVE of GOD. Understand this and you will understand what original and actual sin is and what Grace and duty is § 3. 2. Therefore SELFISHNESSE is the cause of all sin in the world both Positive and Privative and is virtually the breach of every one of Gods Commandments For even the want of the LOVE of GOD is caused by the inordinate LOVE of SELF As the consuming of other parts is caused by the Dropsie which â—umiâ—ieth the belly It is only selfishness which breaketh the fifth Commandment by causing Rulers to oppress and persâ—â—ute their Subjects and causeth subjects to be seditious and rebellious and causâ—â—â—â— all the bitterness and quarrellings and uncomfortableness which ariseth among all relations It is only selfishness which causeth the cursed Wars of the earth and desolation of Countreys by plundering and burning the murders which cry for revenge to Heaven whether Civil Military or Religious Which causeth all the railings fightings envyings malice the Schisms and proud overvaluings of mens own understandings and opinions and the contending of Pastors who shall be the greatest and who shall have his Will in proud usurpations and tyrannical impositions and domination It is selfishness which hath set up and maintaineth the Papacy and causeth all the divisions between the Western and the Eastern Churches and all the cruelties lyes and treachery exercised upon that account It is selfishness which troubleth families and Corporations Churches and Kingdoms which violateth Vows and bonds of friendship and causeth all the tumults and strises and troubles in the world It is selfishness which causeth all Covetousness all Pride and Ambition all Luxury and Voluptuousness all surfetting and drunkenness chambering and wantonness time-wasting and heart-corrupting sports and all the royots and revellings of the sensual all the contendings for honours and preferments and all the deceit in buying and selling the stealing and robbing the bribery and Simony the Law-suits which are unjust the perjuries false witnessing unrighteous judging the oppressions the revenge and in one word all the uncharitable and unjust actions in the world This is the true
by his best hours and of a good man by his worst is the way to be deceived in them both Direct 14. Look not unequally at the good or evil that is in you but consider them both impartially Direct 14. as they are If you observe all the good only that is in you and overlook the bad or search after nothing but your faults and overlook your graces neither of these wayes will bring you to true acquaintance with your selves Direct 15. Look not so much either at what you should be or at what others are as to forget Direct 15. what you are your selves Some look so much at the glory of that full perfection which they want as that their present grace seemeth nothing to them like a candle to one that hath been gazing on the Sun And some look so much at the debauchery of the worst that they think their lesser wickedness to be holiness Direct 16. Suffer not your minds to wander in confusion when you set your selves to so great a Direct 16. work But keep it close to the matter in hand and drive it on till it have come to some satisfaction and conclusion Direct 17. If you are not able by meditation to do it of your selves get the help of some able Direct 17. friend or Pastor and do it in a way of conference with him For conference will hold your own thoughts to their task and your Pastor may guide them and tell you in what order to proceed and confute your mistakes besides confirming you by his judgement of your case Direct 18. If you cannot have such help at hand write down the signs by which you judge either Direct 18. well or ill of your self and send them to some judicious Divine for his judgement and counsel thereupon Direct 19. Expect not that your assurance should be perfect in this life For till all grace be perfect Direct 19. that cannot be perfect Unjust expectations disappointed are the cause of much disquietment Direct 20. Distinguish between the knowledge of your justification and the comfort of it Many Direct 20. a one may see and be convinced that he is sincere and yet have little comfort in it through â— sad or distempered state of mind or body and unpreparedness for joy or through some expectations of enthusiastick comforts Direct 21. Exercise grace when ever you would see it Idle habits are not perceived Believe and Direct 21. repent till you feel that you do believe and repent and Love God till you feel that you love him Direct 22. Labour to increase your grace if you would be sure of it For a little grace is hardly Direct 22. perceived when strong and great degrees do easily manifest themselves Direct 23. Record what sure discoveries you have made of your estate upon the best enquiry Direct 23. that it may stand you in stead at a time of further need For though it will not warrant you to search no more it will be very useful to you in your after doubtings Direct 24. What you cannot do at one time follow on again and again till you have finished A Direct 24. business of that consequence is not to be laid down through weariness or discouragement Happy is he that in all his life hath got assurance of life everlasting Direct 25. Let all your discoveries lead you up to further duty If you find any cause of doubt Direct 25. let it quicken you to diligence in removing it If you find sincerity turn it into joyful thanks to your Regenerater and stop not in the bare discovery of your present state as if you had no more to do Direct 26. Conclude not worse of the effects of a discovery of your bad condition than there is Direct 26. cause Remember that if you should find that you are unjustified it followeth not that you must continue so you search not after your disease or misery as uncurable but as one that hath a sufficient remedy at hand even brought to your doors and cometh a begging for your acceptance and is freely offered and urged on you And therefore if you find that you are unregenerate thank God that hath shewed you your case for if you had not seen it you had perished in it And presently give up your selves to God in Jesus Christ and then you may boldly judge better of your selves It is not for despair but for recovery that you are called to try and judge Nay if you do but find it too hard a question for you whether you have all this while been sincere or not turn from it and resolvedly give up your selves to God by Christ and place your hopes in the life to come and turn from this deceitful world and flesh and then the case will be plain for the time to come If you doubt of your former repentance Repent now and put it out of doubt from this time forward Direct 27. When you cannot at the present reach assurance undervalue not a true probability or Direct 27. hope of your sincerity And still adhere to universal grace which is the foundation of your special grace and comfort I mean 1. The infinite Goodness of God and his mercifulness to man 2. The sufficiency of Jesus Christ our Mediator 3. The universal gift of Pardon and Salvation which is conditionally made to all men in the Gospel Remember that the Gospel is glad tidings even to them that are yet unrecovered Rejoice in this universal mercy which is offered you and that you are not as the Devils shut up in despair And much more rejoice if you have any probability that you are truly penitent and justified by faith Let this support you till you can see more Direct 28. Spend much more time in doing your duty than in trying your estate Be not Direct 28. so much in asking How shall I know that I shall be saved as in asking What shall I do to be saved Study the duty of this day of your visitation and set your selves to it with all your might Seek first the things that are above and mortifie your fleshly lusts Give up your selves to a Holy Heavenly life and do all the good that you are able in the World Seek after God as revealed in and by our Redeemer And in thus doing 1. Grace will become more notable and discernable 2. Conscience will be less accusing and condemning and will easilier believe the reconciledness of God 3. You may be sure that such labour shall never be lost and in well doing you may trust your souls with God 4. Thus those that are not able in an argumentative way to try their state to any full satisfaction may get that comfort by feeling and experience which others get by ratiocination For the very exercise of Love to God and man and of a Heavenly mind and holy life hath a sensible pleasure in it self and delighteth the person who is so employed As if a man were to take the comfort of his Learning or Wisdom one way is by the discerning his learning and wisdom and thence inferring his own felicity But another way is by exercising that learning and wisdom which he hath in reading and meditating on some excellent Books and making discoveries of some mysterious excellencies in Arts and Sciences which delight him more by the very acting than a bare conclusion of his own Learning in the general would do What delight had the inventers of the Sea-Chart and magnetick traction and of Printing and of Guns in their inventions What pleasure had Galileus in his Telescopes in finding out the inequalities and shady parts of the Moon the Medicean Planets the adjuncts of Saturn the changes of Venus the Stars of the Via lactea c. Even so a serious holy person hath more sensible pleasures in the right exercise of faith and Love and holiness in Prayer and Meditation and converse with God and with the Heavenly hosts than the bare discerning of sincerity can afford Therefore though it be a great important duty to examine our selves and judge our selves before God judge us and keep close acquaintance with our own hearts and affairs yet is it the addition of the daily practice of a Heavenly life which must be our chiefest business and delight And he that is faithful in them both shall know by experience the excellencies of Christianity and Holiness and in his way on Earth have both a prospect of Heaven and a foretaste of the Everlasting Rest and Pleasures FINIS
held to such a course of life as may be most effectual to destroy and change those habits And some that are upright at the heart and in the main and most momentous things are guilty but of some actual faults and of these some more seldom and some more frequent And if you do not prudently diversifie your rebukes according to their faults you will but harden them and miss of your ends For there is a family-justice that must not be overthrown unless you will overthrow your families as there is a more publick justice necessary to the publick good § 12. Direct 4. Be a good Husband to your Wife and a good Father to your Children and a good Direct 4. Master to your Servants and let Love have Dominion in all your Government that your inferiours may easily find that it is their interest to obey you For interest and self-love are the natural rulers of the world And it is the most effectual way to procure obedience or any good to make men perceive that it is for their own good and to engage self-love for you that they may see that the benefit is like to be their own If you do them no good but are sour and uncourteous and close-handed to them few will be ruled by you § 13. Direct 5. If you would be skilful in Governing others learn first exactly to command your Direct 5. selves Can you ever expect to have others more at your will and government than your selves Is he fit to rule his family in the fear of God and a holy life who is unholy and feareth not God himself Or is he fit to keep them from passion or drunkenness or gluttony or lust or any way of sensuality that cannot keep himself from it Will not inferiours despise such reproofs which are by your selves contradicted in your lives You know this is true of Wicked Preachers and is it not as true of other Governours § 14. III. Gen. Direct You must be Holy Persons if you would be Holy Governours of your families Mens actions follow the bent of their Dispositions They will do as they are An enemy of God will not govern a family for God Nor an enemy of Holiness nor a stranger to it set up a holy order in his house and in a holy manner manage his affairs I know it is cheaper and easier to the flesh to call others to mortification and holiness of life than to bring our selves to it But yet when it is not a bare command or wish that is necessary but a course of holy and industrious Government unholy persons though some of them may go far have not the ends and principles which such a work requireth § 15. Direct 1. To this end be sure that your own souls be entirely subjected unto God and that you Direct 1. more accurately obey his Laws than you expect any inferiour should obey your commands If you daâ—e disobey God why should they fear disobeying you Can you more sâ—verely revenge disobedience or more bountifully reward obedience than God can do Are you Greater and Better than God himself is § 16. Direct 2. Be sure that you lay up your treasure in Heaven and make the enjoyment of God in Direct 2. Glory to be the ultimate commanding end both of the affairs and government of your family and all things else with which you are entrusted Devote your selves and all to God and do all for him Do all as passengers to another world whose business on earth is but to provide for Heaven and promote their everlasting interest If thus you are separated unto God you are sanctified And then you will separate all that you have to his use and service and this with his acceptance will sanctifie all § 17. Direct 3. Maintain Gods authority in your family more carefully than your own Your own Direct 3. is but for his More sharply rebuke or correct them that wrong and dishonour God than those that wrong and dishonour your selves Remember Elies sad example Make not a small matter of any of the sins especially the Great sins of your children or servants It is an odious thing to slight Gods cause and put up all with It is not well done when you are fiercely passionate for the loss of some small commodity of your own Gods honour must be greatest in your family and his service must have the preheminence of yours and sin against him must be the most intolerable offence § 18. Direct 4. Let spiritual Love to your family be predominant and let your care be greatest for Direct 4. the saving of their souls and your compassion greatest in their spiritual miseries Be first careful to provide them a portion in Heaven and to save them from whatsoever would deprive them of it And never prefer the transitory pelf of earth before their everlasting riches Never be so cumbered about many things as to forget that one thing is necessary but choose for your selves and them the Luk. 10. 4â— better part § 19. Direct 5. Let your family neither be kept in idleness and flesh-pleasing nor yet overwhelmed Direct 5. with such a multitude of business as shall take up and distract their minds diverting and unfitting them for holy things Where God layeth on you a necessity of excessive labours it must patiently and chearfully be undergone but when you draw them unnecessarily on your selves for the Love of Riches you do but become the Tempters and Tormentors of your selves and others forgetting 1 Tim. 6. 1â— the terrible examples of them that have this way fallen off from Christ and pierced themselves through with many sorrows § 20. Direct 6. As much as is possible settle a constant order of all your businesses that every ordinary Direct 6. work may know its time and confusion may not shut out Godliness It is a great assistance in every Calling to do all in a set and constant order It maketh it easie It removeth impediments and promoteth success Distraction in your business causeth a distraction of your minds in holy duty Some Callings I know can hardly be cast into any order and method but others may if prudence and diligence be used Gods service will thus be better done and your work will be better done to the ease of your servants and quiet of your own minds Foresight and skillfullness would save you abundance of labour and vexation CHAP. V. Special Motives to perswade men to the Holy Governing of their Families IF it were but well understood what Benefits come by the holy Governing of Familes and what mischiefs come by its neglect there would few persons that walk the streets among us appear so odious as those careless ungodly Governours that know not or mind not a duty of such exceeding weight While we lie all as overwhelmed with the calamitous fruits of this neglect I think meet to try if with some the cause may be removed by awakening ignorant sluggish
souls to do their undertaken work § 1. Motive 1. Consider that the Holy Government of Families is a considerable part of Gods own Government Motive 1. of the world and the contrary is a great part of the Devils Government It hath pleased God to settle as a natural so a Political order in the world and to honour his creatures to be the instruments of his own operations And though he could have produced all effects without any interior causes and could have Governed the world by himself alone without any instruments he being not as Kings constrained to make use of Deputies and Officers because of their own natural confinement and insufficiency yet is he pleased to make inferiour causes partakers in such excellent effects and taketh delight in the frame and order of causes by which his will among his creatures is accomplished So that as the several Justices in the Countries do govern as Officers of the King so every Magistrate and Master of a family doth govern as an Officer of God And if his government by his Officers be put down or neglected it is a contempt of God himself or a rebellion against him What is all the practical Atheism and Rebellion and ungodliness of the world but a rejecting of the Government of God It is not against the Being of God in it self considered that his enemies rise up with malignant rebellious opposition But it is against God as the Holy and Righteous Governour of the world and especially of themselves And as in an Army if the Corporals Sergeants and Lieutenants do all neglect their offices the Government of the General or Colonels is defeated and of little force so if the Rulers of Families and other Officers of God will corrupt or neglect their part of Government they do their worst to corrupt or cast out Gods Government from the earth And if God shall not Govern in your families who shall The Devil is always the Governour where Gods Government is refused The world and the flesh are the instruments of his Government Worldliness and Fleshly living are his service Undoubtedly he is the Ruler of the family where these prevail and where Faith and Godliness do not take place And what can you expect from such a Master § 2. Motive 2. Consider also that an ungoverned ungodly family is a powerful means to the damnation Motive 2. of all the members of it It is the common Boat or Ship that hurrieth souls to Hell that is bound for the devouring gulf He that is in the Devils Coach or Boat is like to go with the rest as the Driver or the Boatman pleaseth But a well-governed family is an excellent help to the saving of all the souls that are in it As in an ungodly family there are continual temptations to ungodliness to swearing and lying and railing and wantonness and contempt of God so in a Godly family there are continual provocations to a holy life to faith and love and obedience and heavenly mindedness Temptations to sin are fewer there than in the Devils Shops and Workhouses of sin The Authority of the Governours the conversation of the rest the examples of all are great inducements to a holy life As in a well ordered Army of valiant men every coward is so linked in by order that he cannot choose but fight and stand to it with the rest and in a confused rowt the valiantest man is born down by the disorder and must perish with the rest even so in a well ordered holy family a wicked man can scarce tell how to live wickedly but seemeth to be almost a Saint while he is continually among Saints and heareth no words that are profane or filthy and is kept in to the constant exercises of Religion by the authority and company of those he liveth with O how easie and clean is the way to Heaven in such a gratious well ordered family in comparison of what it is to them that dwell in the distracted families of prophane and sensual worldlings As there is greater probability of the salvation of souls in England where the Gospel is preached and professed than in Heathen or Mahometane countrys so is there a greater probability of their salvation that live in the houses and company of the Godly than of the Ungodly In one the advantages of instruction command example and credit are all on Gods side and in the other they are on the Devils side § 3. Motive 3. A holy well-governed Family tendeth not only to the safety of the members but also Motive 3. to the ease and pleasure of their lives To live where Gods Law is the principal Rule and where you may be daily taught the mysteries of his Kingdom and have the Scriptures opened to you and be led as by the hand in the paths of life where the praises of God are daily celebrated and his name is called upon and where all do speak the heavenly language and where God and Christ and Heaven are both their daily work and recreation where it is the greatest honour to be most holy and heavenly and the greatest contention is who shall be most humble and godly and obedient to God and their superiors and where there is no reviling scornes at Godliness nor no prophane and scurrilous talk what a sweet and happy life is this Is it not likest to Heaven of any thing upon earth But to live where worldliness and prophaneness and wantonness and sensuality bear all the sway and where God is unknown and holiness and all religious exercises are matter of contempt and scorn and where he that will not swear and live prophanely doth make himself the hatred and derision of the rest and where men are known but by their shape and speaking-faculty to be men nay where men take not themselves for men but for bruits and live as if they had no rational souls nor any expectations of another life nor any higher employments or delights than the transitory concernments of the flesh what a sordid lothsom filthy miserable life is this made up by a mixture of BEASTLY and DEVILISH To live where there is no communion with God where the marks of Death and Damnation are written as it were upon the doors in the face of their impious worldly lives and where no man understandeth the holy language and where there is not the least foretast of the Heavenly everlasting joys what 's this but to live as the Serpents seed to feed on dust and to be excommunicated from the face and favour of God and to be chained up in the prison of concupiscence and malignity among his enemies till the judgement come that is making haste and will render to all men according to their works § 4. Motive 4. A holy and well-governed family doth tend to make a Holy Posterity and so to propagate Motive 4. the fear of God from Generation to Generation It is more comfortable to have no children than to beget