mention the Importance of their case and secondly the Danger that they are in of miscarrying and what they should do to escape it § 3. I. And indeed their condition as they prove good or bad is of unspeakable importance 1. To the Church and the Souls of men 2. To the Peace of the Kingdom 3. To themselves And 4. To their Parents above the common case of others § 4. 1. Of how great importance the Quality of the Clergy is to the Church and mens Salvation many thousands have found to their Joy and Happiness and I fear many more thousands to their sorrow and destruction And then of what importance the Quality of Scholars and Young Candidates is to the soundness of the Clergy I need not many words to make men of reason and experience know § 5. 2. God who hath instituted the sacred office and by his Spirit qualifieth men for the work doth usually work according to the fitness of their work and qualifications As he doth the works of Nature according to the fitness of Natural second causes giving more light by the Sun than by a Star or Candle c. so he doth the works of Morality according to the fitness of Moral Causes Holiness is the true Morality and usually wrought by holy means And though it be so supernatural in several respects as it is wrought by the supernatural revelation or doctrine or a supernatural Teacher Christ by the operation of the holy Ghost a supernatural Agent commonly called infusion and raising the soul to God a supernatural object and to a better state than that of corrupted nature yet we are natural recipients and agents and it is our natural faculties which Grace reneweth and being renewed exercise the acts of holiness and God worketh on us according to our nature and by causes suited to our capacities and to the work As he useth not to give men the knowledge of Languages Philosophy or any Art by the Teaching of the ignorant and unskilful so much as by Learned skilful Teachers we must say the same of our Teachers of sacred Truth and though Grace be the gift of the holy Ghost experience constraineth all sorts of Christians almost to acknowledge what I here assert Why else do they so earnestly contend that they may live under the Teachers which they count the best Will Hereticks teach men the Truth as well as the Orthodox why then is there such a stir made against Hereticks in the World and why are the Clergy so eager to silence such as Preach down that which they approve Will Papists choose Protestant Teachers or Protestants choose Papists And as men are unfit to teach others that which they know not themselves so unbelieving men and unholy men are far less fit to perswade the hearers to Faith and Holiness than believing holy Teachers are Though some of them may be furnished with the same notions and words which serious Godly Teachers use yet usually even in that they are greatly wanting because they have not so throughly studied saving Truth nor percieved its evidence nor set their hearts upon it nor deeply recieved and retained it For serious affection quickneth the mind to serious consideration and causeth men speedily and deeply to recieve that truth which others recieve but slowly superficially or not at all How eagerly and prosperously do men study that which they strongly love And how hardly do they learn that which they have no delight in much more which they hate and their very natures are against But if an Hypocrite should have good notions and words yet he will usually be greatly wanting in that serious delivery which is ordinarily needfull to make the Hearers serious Christians It seldom reacheth the heart of the Hearer which cometh not from the heart of the Speaker As light causeth light so heat causeth heat And the dead are unfit to generate Life The arrow will not go far or deep if both the Bow and Arm be not strong that shoot it constant experience telleth us undeniably of the different successe of the reading or saying of a Pulpit-lesson or a dull or a mere affected Speech of the judicious serious Explication application of well chosen matter which the experienced Speaker well understandeth and which he uttereth from the feeling of his Soul And the Love of a Benefice no nor of applause neither will not make a man preach in that manner as the love of God and the lively belief of heaven and hell and as the desire of saving Souls will do The means will be chosen and used and the work done agreeably to the principle and the end But if a Stage-Hypocrite should learn the knack or art of preaching with affected fervency and seeming zeal yet Art and Paint will not reach the power and beauty of Nature Usually affectation bewrayeth it self and when it is discerned the Hypocrisie is loathed And it faileth ordinarily in point of Constancie Will the Hypocrite pray alwaies Iob 27.10 Art will not hold out like Nature when the motives of Gain which is their Godliness ceaseth the pleasure of applause the means will cease Yea usually it turneth to a malignant reviling of the serious piety which they counterfeited before or of the persons whose applause they did affect For where the Hypocrisie of the Preacher is discovered by his contrary self-condemning words or life and the people accordingly judg of him as he is his proud heart cannot bear it but he turneth a malicious reproacher of those whose applause he sought thinking by disgraceing them to defend his own esteem by making their censure of him incredible or contemptible And if the Hypocrite should hold on his Stage affectation with plausible art yet it will not reach to an answerable discharge of the rest of his ministerial work It is from men that he expecteth his reward and in the sight of men on the publick Stage that he appeareth in his borrowed Glory But in his Family or his Conversation or his ministerial Duty to men in private he answereth not his publick shew He will not set himself to instruct and win the ignorant and impenitent and zealously to save men from their sins and to raise mens earthly minds to Heaven by praying with them and by heavenly discourse and by a heavenly Conversation nor will he be at much cost or labour to do good § 6. But alas the far greatest part of bad unexperienced Clergie men do prove so hurtful to the Church that they have not so much as the Hypocrites seeming Zeal and Holyness to cloak their sin or profit their people with The sad case of the Christian World proclaimeth this not only in the Southern and Eastern Churches Abassia Egypt Syria Armenia the Greeks and Moscovites c. nor only the Papists Priests in the West but too great a number in the Reformed Churches And it is more lamentable than wonderful For there goeth so much to the general planting of a worthy faithful Ministry
is to search study and pray for so firm a belief of this unseen Glory as may so resolve engage and comfort us in some good measure as if we had seen it with these eyes O! what men would one hours being in heaven make us or one clear sight of it Faith hath a greater work to do than a dreaming or dead opinion can perform If it be not well grounded first and well exercised upon Gods Love Promise and Glory from day to day you will find cause sadly to lament the weakness of it For this use you have great need of the help of such Books as open clearly the evident proofs of the Christian verity which I have breifly done in the beginning of the 2d part of my Life of Faith and more largely in 2 other Books viz. The unreasonableness of Infidelity and the reasons of the Christian Religion A firm bâ—lief of the World to come is it that must â—ake us serious Christians and over come the snares of worldly vanity And your Faith being well setled set your selves dayly to use it and live by it dwell in the joyful hopes of the heavenly Glory what is a man that liveth not in the use of Reason And you must know that you have as daily use for your Faith as for your Reason Without reason you can neither safely eat or drink nor converse with men as a man but as a Bedlam not do any business that concerneth you and therefore you must Live by your Reason And without Faith you cannot please God nor obtain Salvation no nor use your Reason for any thing higher than to serve your appetites and purvey for the flesh and therefore you must Live by Faith or live like Beasts and worse than Beasts and cannot otherwise live to God nor live in the hopes of blessedness hereafter O! Consider that the difference between living chiefly upon and for an Earthly fleshly felicity or a heavenly is the great difference between the holy and the unholy and the fore-goer of the difference between those in Heaven and those in Hell IX Still remember that the great Means of all the good that here or hereafter you can expect is the great Mediator the great Teacher Ruler and Intercessor for his people And therefore out of him you can do nothing All duty that you offer to God must be by his Mediation and so must all mercy which you receive from God To come to God by him who is the Way the Truth and the Life must be your daily work of Faith His blood must wash you from all sin past and from the guilt of daily failings and infirmities None but he can effectually teach you to know God and your selves your duty and your everlasting hopes None but he can render your persons praises and actions acceptable to God because you are sinners and unmeet for Gods acceptance without a Mediator All power in heaven and Earth is given him and your Lives and Souls are at his will and it is he that must judge you and with whom you hope to live in Glory Therefore you must so live by the Faith of the Son of God who hath loved you and and given himself for you that you may say it is he that liveth in you Gal. 2.2021 This is the Fountain from whence you must daily fetch your strength and comfort X. And still remember that it is by the operation of the holy Spirit that the Father and the Son do sanctifie Souls and Regenerate and breed them up for Glory It is by the Holy Ghost that God dwelleth in us by Love and Christ by Faith Therefore see that you rest not in corrupted nature and trust not to your selves or to the Flesh. Your souls are dead to God and Holiness and your duties dead till the Spirit of Christ do quicken them You are blind to God and mad in sin till the spirit illuminate you and give you understanding You are like Enemies out of Love with God Heaven and Holiness till this Spirit reconcile you and sanctifie your wills You will have no manlike spiritual holy pleasure till the Holy Spirit renew your hearts and make them fit to delight in God O that men knew the great necessity of the illuminating quickning sanctifying comforting influence of the Spirit of God how far would they be from deriding it as some prophane ones do By this Holy Spirit the sacred Records were written and by miracles of Christ and his Apostles and Evangelists and Prophets sealed and delivered to the Churches And by this Spirit the orders and Government of the Church were setled And by him we are inlightned to understand the Scripture and inclined to Love them and delightfully believe them and obey them Study therefore obediently these Writings of the Holy Ghost and confidently trust them O! be not found among the resisters or neglecters of the Spirits help and motions when proud self-confidence or fleshly lusts do rise against them Christs bodily presence is taken from the Earth he promised instead of it which was but in one place at once to send his Spirit which is to the soul more than the Sun light to the Eye and can shine in all the world at once This is his Agent on Earth by whom in Teachers and Learners he carrieth on his saving work This is his Advocate who pleadeth his cause effectually against unbeleif and fleshly lusts and worldly wisdom This is the well of living water springing up in us to Everlasting life the name the mark of God on Souls the Divine Regenerator the author of Gods Holy Image and the Divine Nature even Divine life and light and love the Conqueror of the World and Flesh the strengthner of the weak the confirmer of the wavering the comforter of the sad and the pledge earnest and first fruits of everlasting life O therefore pray earnestly for the Spirit of Grace and carefully obey him and joyfully praise God in the sence of his holy encouragement and help CHAP. IX Additional Counsel to Youngmen who are bred up to Learning and Publick work especially to the Sacred Ministry in the Vniversities and Schools § 1 IT was the case of the London Apprentices who are nearest me and I have oft to do with which first provoked me to this work and therefore which was chief in my intention But had I as near opportunity to be a Counsellor to others There are three sorts whom I should have preferred for the sake of the Church and Kingdom to which they are of greater signification I. Those in the Schools and Universities who are bred up for the Sacred Ministry II. Those there and in the Inns of Court that are bred up to the knowledge of the Law III. The Sons of Noblemen Knights and others that are bred up for some places of Government in the Kingdom according to their several ranks And of these it is the first that I shall most freely speak to § 2. And first I shall
Patients who have not Money to pay large chargeable Bills of the Apothecary nor give large Fees to a Physician multitudes neglect Physick and venture without it because Physicians require so much and are so much for their Apothecaries gain that they have it not to pay VII Take heed of self conceitedness and rash confidence and too hasty judging Most of your work is hard many things which you think not on may occasion your mistake Causes and Diseases have marvellous diversities Most that are quick judges and suddenly confident that all their first apprehensions are true do prove but proud self-ignorant fools and kill more by ignorances and temerity than high-way robbers or designing Murderers do And though the Grave hide you mistakes they are known to God VIII Give not too much Physick nor too often or without need nor venture on things dangerous Mans life is precious and nature is the chief Physician which Art must but help The Body is tender and easily distempered rather do too little than too much Oft tampering useth to kill at last As he that dayly washeth a glass at last breaketh it and as Seamen are bold because they have oft escaped but many if not most are drown'd at last and as Soldiers that have oft escaped are bold to venture but kill'd at last It s usually so with them that oft take Physick except from a very cautelous skillful man Therefore were I a Woman I would not marry a Physitian lest his nearness and kindness should cause him to be tampering with me so oft till a mistake did kill me All your Neighbours may mistake your Disease without your hurt but your Physitians mistake may be your present Death IX Direct men first as faithful Friends to the things which may prevent the need of Physick viz. 1. A temperate and wholesome Diet avoiding fullness and hurtful things 2. Sufficient labour to suscitate natural heat keep pure the humors and expell excrements avoiding Idleness 3. Keeping warm and avoiding occasions of Cold especially cold Drink cold Places and cold Cloathing either when they are hot or in Winter when nature needeth help 4. Contentedness and quietness of mind and chearful converse 5. Direct them to such familiar remedies at home in their Drinks and Diet as is suitable to their distempers for preservation and are safe and harmless and put them not to a needless dependance on your frequent help make not use of weak Womens fears to make them miserable by needless Medicining and so to make them as Tenants to you to pay you a constant Rent to quiet them X. Give them good Counsel for their Souls that need it flatter them not with false hopes of life when it tendeth to hinder their preparations for Death They and you are hasting to so great a change as requireth great and careful forethoughts It s sad to go out of the World and not at all to know whither and what will be their next habitation much more to be in a certain state of misery Those will hear a Physitian that will not send for a Divine and it is not a work unbeseeming your Profession but such as Christian Faith and Charity bespeaks CHAP. XI Counsel to Young Students of the Law in London GOD hath made much use of honest Lawyers as the instruments of our safety and of the just and orderly Government of the Land 1. They are not bred up in meer idleness and Luxury as too many are of higher Birth but in such diligent Study as improveth their understandings and keepeth them from that debauchery which Idleness and fulness cherish 2. And their Studies and Callings make it their interest as to know so also to maintain the Laws and that is to maintain propriety just Liberty and Order and so to preserve justice and the common peace except in Countries that have pernicious Laws Injustice in Judges and Lawyers is like Heresie ungodliness and persecution in Pastors of the Church clean contrary to their very Calling and Profession but more easily and commonly seen and hated because it is against the well known interest of mankind Shame therefore and common hatred of the unjust is here a great restraint of evil But bad men for all this will do badly and turn even the Rules of Justice to Oppression to serve the Wills and Lusts of those that can promote them that by them they may serve their own Therefore that Young men that Study the Law may prove wise and honest is of great importance to the common good as well as to their own I. And here first I warn all such to take heed of the sins of sensuality Alas London doth so abound with Temptations that without Grace and wise Resolution you are unsafe There are so many sensual proud and ungodly young men ready to entice you so many Play Houses Taverns and Filthy Houses to entertain you that if you go without Grace and Wit the Flesh and the Devil will soon precipitate you into the slavery of brutish Flesh. And then you forfeit Gods favour and protection and he may leave you to more sin and misery or to grow up to be the Servants of Oppression the Enemies of Piety and the Plagues of the Commonwealth II. Study hard for Idleness never made good Lawyers nor very useful men III. Abhorre and avoid ill Company especially of two sorts 1. Those that would entice you to the places and practises aforesaid of voluptuousness 2. Those that being themselves deceived would deceive you against Religion and your Salvation It s too well known that such persons in London are not rare though the danger by them is not known enough Even those that are so unchristian and inhumane as to prate against the Christian Faith the Truth the Authority or sufficiency of the Sacred Scripture the Life to come the Souls immortality if not also against the Government and Providence of God will yet talk as confidently as if they were in their wits yea and were the greatest wits among us For my part I could never yet get one man of them soberly to joyn with me in a fair disquisition of the Truth and follow it on till we came to see the just conclusion Commonly they will fly from me and refuse disputes or turn all to some rambling rant or jest or when they are stated be gone and go no further and come no more Young unfurnished heads are unfit to dispute with the Devil or any such Messengers of his A Pest house is not more dangerous to you But if they have perplexed you desire some well studied Minister of Christ either to meet them or to resolve your doubts And if you will read what I have written on that subject you may find enough to resolve if it be justly received viz. 1. In my Reasons for the Christian Religion 2. In my Vnreasonableness of Infidelity 3. In my Life of Faith 4. In More Reasons for the Christian Religion And avoid also the snares of