will be but a temptation to waste your time and neglect greater duty and to make you grow customary and sensless of such sins and mercies when the same come to be recited over and over from day to day But let the common mercies be more generally recorded and the common sins generally confessed yet neither of them therefore slighted and let the extraordinary mercies and greater sins have a more particular observation And yet remember that sins and mercies which it is not fit that others be acquainted with are safelyer committed to memory than to writing And methinks a well humbled and a thankful heart should not easily let the memory of them slip § 20. Direct 20. When you compose your selves to sleep again commit your selves to God through Direct 20. Christ and crave his protection and close up the day with some holy exercise of Faith and Love And if you are persons that must needs lye waking in the night let your meditations be holy and exercised upon that subject that is profitablest to your souls But I cannot give this as an ordinary direction because that the body must have sleep or else it will be unfit for labour and all thoughts of holy things must be serious and all serious thoughts will hinder sleep and those that wake in the night do wake unwillingly and would not put themselves out of hopes of sleep which such serious meditations would do Nor can I advise you ordinarily to rise in the night to prayer as the Papists Votaries do For this is but to serve God with irrational and hurtful ceremony And it is a wonder how far such men will go in Ceremony that will not be drawn to a life of Love and spiritual Worship Unless men did irrationally place the service of God in praying this hour rather than another they might see how improvidently and sinfully they lose their time in twice dressing and undressing and in the intervals of their sleep when they might spare all that time by sitting up the longer or rising the earlier for the same employment Besides what tendency it hath to the destruction of health by cold and interruption of necessary rest when God approveth not of the disabling of the body or destroying our health or shortning life no more than of murder or cruelty to others but only calleth us to deny our unnecessary sensual delights and use the body so as it may be most serviceable to the soul and him I have briefly laid together these twenty Directions for the right spending of every day that those that need them and cannot remember the larger more particular Directions may at least get these few engraven on their minds and make them the daily practice of their lives which if you will sincerely do you cannot conceive how much it will conduce to the holiness fruitfulness and quietness of your lives and to your peaceful and comfortable death CHAP. XVIII Tit. 1. Directions for the holy spending of the Lords Day in Families § 1. Direct 1 BE well resolved against the Cavils of those carnal men that would make you believe Direct 1. that the holy spending of the Lords Day is a needless thing For the Name Since the writing of this I have published a Treatise of the Lords Day whether it shall be called The Christian Sabbath is not much worth contending about Undoubtedly the Name of The Lords Day is that which was given it by the Spirit of God Rev. 1. 10. and the antient Christians who sometime called it The Sabbath by allusion as they used the names Sacrifice and Altar The question is not so much of the Name as the Thing whether we ought to spend the day in holy exercises without unnecessary divertisements And to settle your consciences in this you have all these evidences at hand § 2. 1. By the confession of all you have the Law of Nature to tell you that God must be openly worshipped and that some set time should be appointed for his Worship And whether the fourth Commandment be formally in force or abrogated yet it is commonly agreed on that the parity of reason and general equity of it serveth to acquaint us that it is the will of God that one day in seven be the least that we destinate to this use this being then judged a meet proportion by God himself even from the Creation and on the account of commemorating the Creation and Christians being no less obliged to take as large a space of time who have both the Creation and Redemption to commemorate and a more excellent manner of Worship to perform § 3. 2. It is confessed by all Christians that Christ rose on the first day of the Week and appeared to his congregated Disciples on that day and powred out the Holy Ghost upon them on that day and that the Apostles appointed and the Christian Churches observed their assemblies and communion ordinarily on that day And that these Apostles were filled with the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost that they might infallibly acquaint the Church with the Doctrine and Will of Jesus Mar. 16. 2 9. Luke 24. 1. Christ and leave it on record for succeeding ages and so were entrusted by Office and enabled by gifts to settle the Orders of the Gospel-Church as Moses did the matters of the Tabernacle and Worship then and so that their Laws or Orders thus setled were the Laws or Orders of the Holy Ghost Iohn 20. 1 19 26. Acts 2. 1. Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. Rev. 1. 10. Matth. 28. 19 20 Iohn 16. 13 14 15. Rom. 16. 16. 2 Thess. 2. 15. § 4. 3. It is also confessed that the Universal Church from the dayes of the Apostles down till now hath constantly kept holy the Lords Day in the memorial of Christs Resurrection and that as by the will of Christ delivered to them by or from the Apostles In so much that I remember not either any Orthodox Christian or Heretick that ever opposed questioned or scrupled it till of late ages And as a historical discovery of the matter of fact this is a good evidence that indeed it was settled by the Apostles and consequently by Christ who gave them their Commission and inspired them by the Holy Ghost § 5. 4. It is confessed that it is still the practice of the Universal Church And those that take it to be but of Ecclesiastical appointment â—â—me of them mean it of such extraordinary Ecclesiasticks as inspired Apostles and all of them take the appointment as obligatory to all the members of the Church § 6. 5. The Laws of the Land where we live command it and the King by Proclamation urgeth the execution and the Canons and Homilies and Liturgy shew that the holy observation of the Lords Day is the judgement and will of the Governours of the Church Read the Homilies for the Time and place of Worship Yea they require the people to say when the fourth Commandment is
and hope for audience when they beg for mercy and offer up prayer or praises to him § 15. III. In the Communication though the Sacrament have respect to the Father as the Joh. 3. 5. 1 Cor. 12. 12 â—3 1 Cor. 15 45. Gal. 3. 14. 4. 6. Eph. 2. 22. principal Giver and to the Son as both the Gift and Giver yet hath it a special respect to the Holy Ghost as being that spirit given in the flesh and blood which quickeneth souls without which the flesh will profit nothing And whose Operations must convey and apply Christs saving benefits to us Ioh. 6. 63. 7. 39. § 16. These three being the parts of the Sacrament in whole as comprehending that sacred Action and participation which is essential to it The material Parts called the Relate and correlate are 1. Substantial and Qualitative 2. Active and passive 1. The first are the Bread and Wine as signs and the Body and Blood of Christ with his graces and benefits as the things signified and given The second are the Actions of Breaking Pouring out and Delivering on the Ministers part after the Consecration and the Taking Eating and Drinking by the Receivers as the sign And the thing signified is the Crucifying or Sacrificing of Christ and the Delivering himself with his benefits to the believer and the Receivers thankful Accepting and using the said gift To these add the Relative form and the ends and you have the definition of this Sacrament Of which see more in my Univers Concord p. 46 c. § 17. Direct 3. Look upon the Minister as the Agent or Officer of Christ who is commissioned by Direct 3. him to seal and deliver to you the Covenant and its benefits And take the Bread and Wine as if you heard Christ himself saying to you Take my Body and Blood and the pardon and Grace which is thereby purchased It is a great â—â—â—â—p in the application to have Mercy and pardon brought us by the hand of a commissioned Officer of Christ. § 18. Direct 4. In your preparation before hand take heed of these two extreams 1. That you Direct 4. come not prophanely and carelesly with common hearts as to a common work For God will be sanctified in them that draw near him Lev. 10. 3. And they that eat and drink unworthily not discerning the Lords Body from common bread but eating as if it were a common meal do eat death to Quinam auteâ—â— indigâ—i ineptive sint quibus Angelorum panis praebeatur sacerdoâ—um ipsoâ—um audâ—ta confessione â—aeâ—erisque perspectis judicium esto Acosta â— 6. c. 10. p. 549. themselves instead of life 2. Take heed lest your mistakes of the nature of this Sacrament should possess you with such fears of unworthy receiving and the following dangers as may quite discompose and unfit your souls for the joyful exercises of faith and Love and Praise and Thanksgiving to which you are invited Many that are scrupulous of Receiving it in any save a feasting gesture are too little careful and scrupulous of Receiving it in any save a feasting frame of mind The first extream is caused by Prophaneness and negligence or by gross ignorance of the nature of the Sacramental work The later extream is frequently caused as followeth 1. By setting this Sacrament at a greater distance from other parts of Gods worship than there is cause so that the excess of Reverence doth overwhelm the minds of some with terrours 2. By studying more the terrible words of eating and drinking damnation to themselves if they do it unworthily than all the expressions of Love and mercy which that blessed feast is furnished with So that when the Views of infinite Love should ravish them they are studying wrath and vengeance to terrifie them as if they came to Moses and not to Christ. 3. By not understanding what maketh a Receiver worthy or unworthy but taking their unwilling infirmities for condemning unworthiness 4. By Receiving it so seldom as to make it strange to them and increase their fear whereas if it were administred every Lords day as it was in the Primitive Churches it would better acquaint them with it and cure that fear that cometh from strangeness 5. By imagining that none that want Assurance of their own sincerity can receive in faith 6. By contracting an ill habit of mistaken Religiousness placeing it all in poâ—ing on themselves and mourning for their corruptions and not in studying the Love of God in Christ and living in the daily Praises of his name and joyful Thanksgiving for his exceeding mercies 7. And if besides all these the Body contract a weak or timerous melancholy distemper it will leave the mind capable of almost nothing but fear and trouble even in the sweetest works From many such causes it cometh to pass that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is become more terrible and uncomfortable to abundance of such distempered Christians than any other ordinance of God And that which should most comfort them doth trouble them most § 19. Quest. 1. But is not this Sacrament more holy and dreadful and should it not have more preparation Quest. 1. than other parts of worship Answ. For the degree indeed it should have very careful preparation And we cannot well compare it with other parts of worship as Praise Thanksgiving Covenanting with God Prayer c. because that all these other parts are here comprized and performed But doubtless God must also be sanctified in all his other worship and his name must not be taken in vain And when this Sacrament was received every Lords day and often in the week besides Christians were supposed to live continually in a state of general preparation and not to be so far from a due particular preparation as many poor Christians think they are § 20. Quest. 2. How often should the Sacrament be now administred that it neither grow into contempt Quest. 2. or strangeness Answ. Ordinarily in well disciplined Churches it should be still every Lords day For 1. We have no reason to prove that the Apostles example and appointment in this case was proper to those times any more than that Praise and Thanksgiving daily is proper to them And we may as well deny the obligation of other institutions or Apostolical orders as that 2. It is a part of the seâ—led order for the Lords days worship And omitting it maimeth and altereth the worship of the day and occasioneth the omission of the Thansgiving and Praise and lively commemorations of Christ which should be then most performed And so Christians by use grow habited to sadness and a mourning melancholy Religion and grow unacquainted with much of the worship and spirit of the Gospel 3. Hereby the Papists lamentable corruptions of this ordinance have grown up even by an excess of reverence and fear which seldom receiving doth increase till they are come to Worship Bread as their God 4. By seldom communicating men are
because it was but by Accident a duty and now interpreted a heinous sin But in case that the Life of any man lay on it or that the scandal on Religion for my denying Civil honour to the Prince would be greater and of more perillous consequence than the scandal of seeming Idolatry I would perform that Civil honour which I did before and which God enjoyneth me to perform to my Prince But I would avoid the scandal by open protesting seasonably against the Idolatry Quest. 116. Is it unlawful to use the Badge or Symbol of any Error or Sect in the Worship of God Answ. 1. IT is unlawful to use it formally as such 2. But not materially when 1. There are just and weighty reasons for it 2. And I Every Sect of erring Christians accordingly useth to err in worship and have some badge and symbol of their Sect and error may disown the error For 1. All Sects and Erroneous persons may turn holy words and duties into symbols of their errors 2. All Christians in the world being imperfect do sometime err in matter or manner in their worship And he that will materially avoid all the badges or symbols of their errors shall have no communion with any Church or Christian. 3. As we must do our best so to avoid all their errors that we choose them not and make them not formally our own practice as tautologies vain repetitions disorders unfit phrases c. We must our selves when we are the speakers do as much better as we can So we must not therefore separate from them that do use them nor deny them our Communion when they use them Else we must separate from all others and all others from us 4. But when we are present with them our minds must disown all the faults of the holiest prayer in the world which we joyn in We may be bound to stay with them and joyn in all that 's good and warrantable and yet as we go along to disown in our minds all that we know to be amiss Quest. 117. Are all Indifferent things made unlawful to us which shall be abused to Idolatrous Worship Answ. YOu must distinguish 1. Of the symbols of Idolatry before spoken of and other by-abuses 2. Oâ— an abuse done in former ages or remote Countreys and in our own age and Countrey 3. Of the Reasons inviting us to use them whether necessary or not 1. The Case of Symbols or Badges is not here spoken of but other abuses 2. An abuse committed in the age and place we live in or any other which will be the scandal embolden others to the like may not be complyed in without so great reason as will notably preponderate the evil consequents 3. But yet in many cases such abused Indifferent things may after be lawfully used by believers For instance 1. Names may be things indifferent abused to Idolatry and yet lawfully used by us As the name God Deus Lord Holy Just Good Temple Altar Sacrifice Priest Heaven Sun Moon Iupiter Saturn and a hundred such I mean these Letters and Syllables in these languages That these names are all in themselves indifferent appeareth in that they are neither Naturally necessary nor by Gods Institution but arbiâ—rary signs of humane invention and choice For we may easily and lawfully make new words to signifie all the same things that these do And that they are abused to Idolatry is notoriously known And that yet they are lawfully used the practice of all Christians English and Latin even the most scrupulous themselves doth judge 2. And the use of Temples these individuals which have been used to Idolatry is lawful 3. So also of Bells Pulpits Cups Tables and Fonts and other Utensils 4. The Bible it self as it is this individual Book rather than another is a thing indifferent Yet it may be read in after it hath been abused to Idolatry 5. If the King would give not only the Garments but the Money Lands Lordships Houses which have been Consecrated or otherwise abused to Idolatry to any poor people or most of the scrupulous they would think it lawful to receive and use them yea it s lawful to dedicate the same Lands and Money afterwards to holy uses and to maintain Religious Worship 6. Otherwise it were in the power of any Idolater when ever he pleased to deprive all the Christian world of their Christian liberty and to make nothing indifferent to us seeing they can abuse them all 7. Yea almost nothing is then already indifferent there being few things that some person in some time and place hath not abused to Idolatry 8. If the question be only of all Individual things abused to Idolatry the decision now given will hold good But if it be also of all species of such things it will be a dishonour to a mans reason to make a question of it Quest. 118. May we use the names of Week dayes which Idolatry honoured their Idols with as Sunday Munday Saturday and the rest And so the Moneths Answ. 1. IT were to be wished that the custome were changed 1. Because the names have been so grosly abused 2. And we have no need of them 3. And as the Papists say Our Monuments temple-Temple-names and other Relicts among you prove ours to be the old Religion and keep possession for us till it be restored So the Heathens say to all the Christians Your very names of your dayes and moneths prove our Religion to be elder than yours and keep possession for us till it be restored 2. It is meet that we wisely do our duty toward the reformation of this abuse 3. But yet long custome and sound doctrine hath so far taken away the scandal and ill effects that rather than be an offence to any by seeming singularity it is as lawful still to use these names as it was to Luke to use the names of Castor and Pollux Iupiter and Mercury historically 4. In such cases the true solution of the question must be by weighing accidents and foreseen consequents together wisely and impartially And he that can foresee which way is likely to do most good or hurt may satisfactorily know his duty Quest. 119. Is it lawful to pray secretly when we come first into the Church especially when the Church is otherwise employed Answ. 1. THis is a thing which God hath given us no particular Law about but the General Laws must regulate us Let all be done decently in order and to edification 2. Our great and principal business in coming to the Church assembly is to joyn with them in the publick Worship And this is it that accordingly as our great business we must intend and do 3. In a place where superstition makes ignorant people think it a matter of necessity so to begin with secret prayer when the Church is otherwise employed the use of it is the more scandalous as encouraging them in their error 4. It is the best way to come before the publick worship begin
company or outward advantages to his Religion nor avoideth sin for want of a temptation but is Religious though against the stream and innocent when cast unwillingly upon temptations and is Godly where Godliness is accounted singularity hypocrisie faction humour disobedience or heresie and will rather let go the reputation of his honesty than his honesty it self Direct 2. TAke heed of being Religious only in Opinion without Zeal and holy practice or only in Direct 2. Zealous affection without a sound well grounded judgement But see that Iudgement Zeal and practice â—e conjunct § 1. Of the first part of this advice against a bare Opinionative Religion I have spoken already in my Directions for a Sound Conversion To change your Opinions is an easier matter than to change the Heart and Life A holding of the truth will save no man without a Love and practice of the truth This is the meaning of Iames 2. where he speaketh so much of the unprofitableness of a dead uneffectual belief that worketh not by love and commandeth not the soul to practice and obedience To believe that there is a God while you neglect him and disobey him is unlike to please him To believe that there is a Heaven while you neglect it and prefer the world before it will never bring you thither To believe your duty and not to perform it and to believe that sin is evil and yet to live in it is to sin with aggravation and have no excuse and not the way to be accepted or justified with God To be of the same Belief with holy men without the same hearts and conversations will never bring you to the same felicity He that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not shall be so far from being accepted for it that he shall be beaten with many stripes To believe that Holiness and Obedience is the best way will never save the disobedient and unholy § 2. And yet if Iudgement be not your Guide the most zealous affections will but precipitate you Scientiâ— quae est 〈…〉 ota à just 〈…〉 caâ—â—iditaâ— poâ—â—us quam sapientia 〈◊〉 est ◠〈◊〉 Of the necessity of Pâ—udence in Religious men â—ead 〈…〉 The unprudenciâ—s of welâ—-meaning men have done as much hurt to the Church sometimeâ— as the persecution of enemies e. g. When Coâ—stantine the Son of Constans was Emperour some busie men would prove from the Orthodoâ— Doctrine of the Trinity That his two Brethren Tibtrius and Heraclius should reign with him saying Si iâ— Trinitate creâ—iâ—â—is â—res etiam 〈…〉 which cost the chief of them a hanging Abbas Urspergens Edit Melancth p. 162. and make you run though quite out of the way like the Horses when they have cast the Coachman or the Riders To ride Post when you are quite out of the way is but laboriously to lose your time and to prepare for further labour The Jews that persecuted Christ and his Apostles had the testimony of Paul himself that they had a zeal of God but not according to knowledge And Paul saith of the deceivers and troublers of the Galathians whom he wisheth even cut off that they did zealously affect them but not well Rom. 10. 2. Gal. 4. 17. And he saith of himself while he persecuted Christians to prison and to death I was zealous towards God as ye are all this day Acts 22. 3 4. Was not the Papists Saint Dominick that stirred up the persecution against the Christians in France and Savoy to the murdering of many thousands of them a very zealous man And are not the Butchers of the inquisition zealous men And were not the Authors of the third Canon of the General Council at the Laterane under Pope Innocent the third very zealous men that decreed that the Pope should depose Temporal Lords and give away their Dominions and absolve their Subjects if they would not exterminate the godly called Hereticks Were not the Papists Powder-Plotters zealous men Hath not zeal caused many of later times to rise up against their lawful Governours and many to persecute the Church of God and depriue the people of their faithful Pastors without compassion on the peoples souls Doth not Christ say of such Zealots The time cometh when whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service John 16. 2. or offereth a service acceptable to God Therefore Paul saith It is good to be zealously affected alwayes in a good matter Gal. 4. 18. Shewing you that zeal indeed is good if sound judgement be its guide Your first question must be Whether you are in the right way and your second Whether you go apace It is sad to observe what odious actions are committed in all Ages of the world by the instigation of mis-guided zeal And what a shame an imprudent Zealot is to his profession while making himself ridiculous in the eyes of the adversaries he brings his prosession it self into contempt and maketh the ungodly think that the Religious are but a company of transported brain-sick Zealots And thus they are hardened to their perdition How many things doth unadvised affection provoke well-meaning people to that afterwards will be their shame and sorrow § 3. Labour therefore for knowledge and soundness of understanding that you may know truth from falshood good from evil and may walk confidently while you walk safely and that you become not a shame to your profession by a furious prosecution of that which you must afterwards confess to be an error by drawing others to that which you would after wish that you had never known your selves And yet see that all your knowledge have its efficacy upon your heart and life And take every truth as an instrument of God to reveal himself to you or to draw your heart to him and conform you to his holy will Direct 3. LAbour to understand the true Method of Divinity and see Truths in their several degrees Leg. Acost l. 4. c. 21. 22 de fructu catechizandi Et Li. 5. and order that you take not the last for the first nor the lesser for the greater Therefore see that you be well grounded in the Catechism and refuse not to learn some Catechism that is sound and full and keep it in memory while you live § 1. Method or right order exceedingly helpeth understanding memory and practice Truths Opas est imprimis duplici Catechismo Uno compendaâ—io brevi quem memoâ—iter addiscant ubi summa sit eorum omnium quae ad fidem mores Christiano sunt necessaria altero ubeâ—iore ubi eadem amplius dilucidiusque dicantur copiosius confirmentur Ut ille prioâ— discipulis potius hic posterior ipsâ— praeceptoribus usu sit Acosta l. 5. c. 14. p 490. have a dependance on each other The lesser branches spring out of the greater and those out of the stock and root Some duties are but means to other duties or subservient to them and to be measured accordingly And if it be not
to hear an Atheist proving that there is no God You may believe the Scripture to be the Word of God and Christ to be the Saviour and the soul to be immortal long before you will be fit to manage or study Controversies hereupon For nothing is so false or bad which a wanton or wicked Wit may not put a plausible gloss upon And your raw unfurnished understandings will scarce be able to see through the pretence or escape the cheat When you cannot answer the Arguments of Seducers you will find them leave a doubting in your minds For you know not how plain the answer of them is to wiser men And though you must prove all things you must do it in due order and as you are able and stay till your furnished minds are capable of the tryal If you will need read before you know your Letters or pretend to judge of Greek and Hebrew Authors before you can read English you will but become ridiculous in your undertaking § 2. II. When you do come to smaller Controverted points let them have but their due proportion of your time and zeal And that will not be one hour in many dayes with the generality of private Christians By that time you have well learned the more necessary truths and practised daily the more necessary duties you will find that there will be but little time to spare for lesser Controversies Opinionists that spend most of their Time in studying and talking of such points do steal that time from greater matters and therefore from God and from themselves Better work is undone the while And they that here lay out their chiefest zeal divert their zeal from things more necessary and turn their natural heat into a Feavor § 3. III. The Essential necessary Truths of your Religion must imprint the Image of God upon your hearts and must dwell there continually and you must live upon them as your bread and drink and daily necessary food All other points must be studied in subserviency to those All lesser duties must be used as the exercise of the Love of God or man and of a humble heavenly mind The Articles of your Creed and points of Catechism are fountains ever running affording you matter for the continual exercise of Grace It is both plentiful and solid nourishment to the soul which these great substantial points afford To know God the Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier the Laws and Covenant of God and his Judgement and Rewards and Punishments with the parts and method of the Lords Prayer which must be the daily exercise of our desires and Love this is the Wisdom of a Christian and in these must he be continually exercised You 'l say perhaps that the Apostle saith Heb. 6. 1. Leaving the Principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on to perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works c. Answ. 1. By leaving he meaneth not passing over the practice of them as men that have done with them and are past them But his leaving at that time to discourse of them or his supposing them taught already Though he lay not the foundation again yet he doth not pluck it up 2. By Principles he meaneth the first points to be taught and learnt and practised And indeed Regeneration and Baptism is not to be done again But the Essentials of Religion which I am speaking of contain much more especially to live in the love of God which Paul calls the more excellent way 1 Cor. 12. 13. 3. Going on to perfection is not by ceasing to believe and Love God but by a more distinct knowledge of the mysteries of salvation to perfect our Faith and Love and Obedience The points that Opinionists call Higher and think to be the principal matter of their growth and advancement in understanding are usually but some smaller less necessary truths if not some uncertain doubtful questions Mark well 1 Tim. 1. 4. 6. 4. 2 Tim. 2. 23. Tit. 3. 9. compared with Iohn 17. 3. Rom. 13. 8 9 10. 1 Cor. 13. 1 Iohn 3. 1 Cor. 1. 23. 15. 1 2 3. 2. 2. Gal. 6. 14. Iames 2. 3. 1. Direct 5. BE very thankful for the great mercy of your Conversion but yet overvalue not your Direct 5. first degrees of knowledge or holiness but remember that you are yet but in your infancy and must expect your growth and ripeness as the consequent of Time and Diligence § 1. You have great reason to be more glad and thankful for the least measure of true Grace than if you had been made the Rulers of the Earth it being of a far more excellent nature and entitling you to more than all the Kingdoms of the world See my Sermon called Right Rejoycing on those words of Christ Rejoyce not that the Spirits are subject to you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in Heaven Luke 10. 20. Christ will warrant you to Rejoyce though enemies envy you and repine both at your victory and triumph If there be joy in Heaven in the presence of the Angels at your Conversion there is great reason you should be glad your selves If the Prodigals Father will needs have the best Robe and Ring brought forth and the fat Calf killed and the Musick to attend the Feast that they may eat and be merry Luke 15. 23. there is great reason that the Prodigal Son himself should not have the smallest share of joy though his Brother repine § 2. But yet take heed lest you think the measure of your first endowments to be greater than it Fear is a cautelous preserving grace I aâ—rt saith of Cleanthes Cum aliquando probro illi daretur quod esset timidus At ideo inquit parum pecco is Grace imitateth Nature in beginning usually with small Degrees and growing up to maturity by leisurely proceeding We are not new born in a state of manhood as Adam was created Though those Texts that liken the Kingdom of God to a grain of Mustard-seed and to a little leaven Matth. 13. 31 33. be principally meant of the small beginnings and great encrease of the Church or Kingdom of Christ in the world yet it is true also of his Grace or Kingdom in the soul. Our first Stature is but to be New born babes desiring the sincere milk of the word that we may grow by it 1 Pet. 2. 2. Note here that the new birth bringeth forth but babes but growth is by degrees by feeding on the Word The Word is received by the heart as seed into the ground Matth. 13. And seed useth not to bring forth the blade and fruit to ripeness in a day § 3. Yet I deny not but that some men as Paul may have more Grace at their first Conversion than many others have at their full growth For God is free in the giving of his Own and may give more or less as pleaseth himself But yet in Paul himself
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
took thee into his favour and adopted thee for his son and an heir of Heaven He will glorifie thee with Angels in the presence of his Glory How should such a friend as this be loved How far above all mortal friends Their love and friendship is but a token and message of his Love Because he Loveth thee he sendeth thee kindness and mercy by thy friend and when their kindness ceaseth or can do thee no good his kindness will continue and comfort thee for ever Love them therefore as the messengers of his Love but Love him in them and love them for him and love him much more § 40. Direct 17. Think oft how delightful a life it would be to thee if thou couldst but live in the Direct 17. Love of God And then the complacencie will provoke desire and desire will turn thy face towards God till thou feel that thou lovest him The Love of a friend hath its sweetness and delight and when we Love them we feel such pleasure in our Love that we Love to Love them How pleasant then would it be to Love thy God O blessed joyful life if I could but love him as much as I desire to love him How freely could I leave the ambitious and the covetous and the sensual and voluptuous to their doting delusory swinish love How easily could I spare all earthly pleasures How near should I come to the Angelical life Could I love God as I would love him it would fill me with continual pleasure and be the sweetest feast that a soul can have How easily would it quench all carnal love How far would it raise me above these transitory things How much should I contemn them and pitty the wretches that know no better and have their portion in this life How readily should I obey And how pleasant would obedience be How sweet would all my Meditations be when every thought is full of Love How sweet would all my prayers be when constraining Love did bring me unto God and indite and animate every word How sweet would Sacraments be when my ascending flaming love should meet that wonderful descending love which cometh from Heaven to call me thither and in living bread and spiritful wine is the nourishment and cordial of my soul How sweet would all my speeches be when Love commanded them and every word were full of Love How quiet would my Conscience be if it had never any of this accusation against me to cast in my face to my shame and confusion that I am wanting in Love to the blessed God O could I but Love God with such a powerful Love as his Love and Goodness should command I should no more question my sincerity nor doubt any more of his Love to me How freely then should I acknowledge his grace and how heartily should I give him thanks for my justification sanctification and adoption which now I mention with doubt and fear O how it would lift up my soul unto his praise and make it my delight to speak good of his name What a purifying fire would Love be in my breast to burn up my corruptions It will endure nothing to enter or abide within me that is contrary to the will and interest of my Lord but hate every motion that tendeth to dishonour and displease him It would fill my soul with so much of Heaven as would make me long to be in Heaven and make death welcome which is now so terrible Instead of these withdrawing shrinking fears I should desire to depart and to be with Christ as being best of all O how easily should I bear any burthen of reproach or loss or want when I thus Loved God and were assured of his Love How light would the Cross be And how honourable and joyful would it seem to be imprisoned reviled spit upon and buffeted for the sake of Christ How desirable would the flames of Martyrdom seem for the testifying of my love to him that loved me at dearer rates than I can love him Lord is there no more of this blessed life of Love to be attained here on earth When all the world reveals thy Goodness when thy Son hath come down to declare thy love in so full and wonderful a manner When thy word hath opened us a window into Heaven where afar off we may discern thy Glory yet shall our hearts be clods and ice O pitty this unkind unnatural soul This dead insensible disaffected soul Teach me by thy spirit the art of Love Love me not only so as to convince me that I have abundant cause to Love thee above all but Love me so as to constrain me to it by the magnetical attractive power of thy Goodness and the insuperable operations of thy omnipotent Love § 41. Direct 18. In thy Meditations upon all these incentives of Love preach them over earnestly to Direct 18. thy Heart and expostulate and plead with it by way of soliloquy till thou feel the fire begin to burn Do not only Think on the Arguments of Love but dispute it out with thy Conscience and by expostulating earnest reasonings with thy heart endeavour to affect it There is much more moving force in this earnest talking to our selves than in bare cogitation that breaks not out into mental words Imitate the most powerful Preacher that ever thou wast acquainted with And just as he pleadeth the case with his hearers and urgeth the truth and duty on them by reason and importunity so do thou in secret with thy self There is more in this than most Christians are aware of or use to practise It is a great part of a Christians skill and duty to be a good preacher to himself This is a lawful and a gainful way of preaching No body here can make question of thy call nor deny thee a License nor silence thee if thou silence not thy self Two or three sermons a week from others is a fair proportion but two or three sermons a day from thy self is ordinarily too little Therefore I have added soliloquies to many of these Directions for Love to shew you how by such pleadings with your selves to affect your hearts and kindle Love § 42. And O that this might be the happy fruit of these Directions with thee that art now reading or hearing them That thou wouldst but offer up thy flaming Heart to Jesus Christ our Great High-Priest to be presented an acceptable sacrifice to God! Or if it flame not in Love as thou desirest yet give it up to the Holy Spirit to increase the flames Thou little knowest how much God setteth by a Heart He calleth to thee himself My son give me thy heart Prov. 23. 26. Without it he cares not for any thing that thou canst give him He cares not for thy fairest words without it He cares not for thy lowdest prayers without it He cares not for thy costliest alms or sacrifices if he have not thy heart If thou give all thy goods to
acceptance of their work O that we would do that honour and right to true Religion as to shew the world the nature and use of it by living in the cheerful Praises of our God and did not â—each them to blaspheme it by our mis-doings I have said the more of the excellency and benefits of this work because it is one of your best helps to perform it to know the Reasons of it and how much of your Religion and Duty and comfort consisteth in it and the forgetting of this is the common cause that it is so boldly and ordinarily neglected or slubbered over as it is § 23. Direct 2. The keeping of the heart in the admiration and glorifying o◠〈◊〉 according to Direct 2. the forâ—-going Directions is the principal help to the right praising of him with 〈…〉 ps For out of the hearts abundance the mouth will speak And if the Heart do not bear itâ— part no praise is mâ—lâ—dious to God § 24. Direct 3. â—ead much those Scriptures which speak of the praises of God especially the Psalms Direct 3. and furnish your memories with store of those holy expressions of the excellencies of God which he himself hath taught you in his Word None knoweth the things of God but the Spirit of God who teacheth us in the Scriptures to speak divinely of things divine No other diâ—lâ—ct so well becometh the work of praise God that best knoweth himself doth best teach us how to know and praise him Every Christian should have a treasury of these sacred materials in his memory that he may be able at all times in Conference and in Worship to speak of God in the words of God § 25. Direct 4. Be much in singing Psalms of praise and that with the most heart-raising cheerfulness Direct 4. and melody especially in the holy assemblies The melody and the conjunction of many serious holy souls doth â—end much to elevate the heart And where it is done intelligibly reverently in conjunction with a rational spiritual serious Worship the use of Musical Instruments are not to be scrupled or refused any more than the Tunes and Melody of the Vâ—ic◠§ 26. Direct 5. Remember to allow the praises of God their due prâ—portion in all your prayers Direct 5. Use not to shut it out or forget it or cut it short with two or three words in the conclusion The Lords Prayer begins and ends with it and the three first Petitions are for the glorifying the Name of God and the coming of his Kingdom and the doing oâ— his Will by which he is glorified and all this before we ask any thing directly for our selves Use will much help you in the Praise of God § 27. Direct 6. Especially let the Lords Day be principally spent in Praises and Thanksgiving for the Direct 6. work of our Redemption and the benefits thereof This day is separated by God himself to this holy work And if you spend it ordinarily in other Religious duties that subserve not this you spend it not as God requireth you The thankful and praiseful Commemoration of the work of mans Redemption is the special work of the day And the celebrating of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ which is therefore called the Eucharist was part of these laudatory exercises and used every Lords Day by the Primitive Church It is not only a holy day separated to Gods Worship in general but to this Eucharistical Worship in special above the rest as a day of Praises and Thanksgiving unto God And thus all Christians ordinarily should use it § 28. Direct 7. Let your holy conferâ—â—ce with others be much about the glorious Excellencies Direct 7. Works and Mercies of the Lord in way â—f praise and admiration This is indeed to speak to Edification and as the Oracles of God Eph. 4. 29. that God in all things may be glorified 1 Pet. 4. 11. Psal. 29. 9. In his Temple doth every one speak of his glory Psal. 35. 28. My tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praises all the day long Psal. 145. 6 11 21. And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts They shall speak of the glory of thy Kingdom and talk of thy power to make known to the Sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious Majesty of his Kingdom My mouth shall speak of the praises of the Lord and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever Psal. 105. 2 3. Talk ye of all his wondrous works glory ye in his holy name § 29. Direct 8. Speak not of God in a light unreverent or common sort as if you talkt of common Direct 8. things but with all possible seriousness gravity and reverence as if you saw the Majesty of the Lord. A common and a holy manner of speech are contrary That only is holy which is separated to God from common use You speak prophanely in the manner how holy soever the matter be when you speak of God with that careless levity as you use to speak of common things Such speaking of God is dishonourable to him and hurts the hearers more than silence by breeding in them a contempt of God and teaching them to imitate you in sleight conceits and speech of the Almighty Whereas one that speaketh reverently of God as in his presence doth ofttimes more affect the hearers with a reverence of his Majesty with a few words than unreverent Preachers with the most accurate Sermons delivered in a common or affected strain When ever you speak of God let the hearers perceive that your hearts are possessed with his Fear and Love and that you put more difference between God and man than between a King and the smallest Worm so when you talk of death or judgement of Heaven or Hell of holiness or sin or any thing that nearly relates to God do it with that gravity and seriousness as the matter doth require § 30. Direct 9. Speak not so unskilfully and foolishly of God or holy things as may 〈…〉 pt the hearers Direct 9. to turn it into a matter of scorn or laughter Especially understand how your p 〈…〉 are suited to the company that you are in Among those that are more ignorant some weak discourses may be tolerable and profitable For they are most affected with that which is delivered in their own Dialect and Mode but among judicious or captious hearers unskilful persons must be very sparing of their words lest they do hurt while they desire to do good and make Religion sâ—em ridiculous We may rejoyce in the scorns which we undergo for Christ and which are bent against his holy Laws or the substance of our duty But if men are jeered for speaking ridiculously and foolishly of holy things they have little reason to take comfort in any thing of that but their honest meanings and intents Nay they must be humbled for being a dishonour to the name of godliness
have a higher birth than they and higher hopes and higher hearts by setting light by that which their hearts are set upon as their felicity When seeming Christians are as worldly and ambitious as others and make as great a matter of their gain and wealth and honour it sheweth that they do but cover the base and sordid Spirit of worldlings with the visor of the Christian name to deceive themselves and bring the faith of Christians into scorn and dishonour the holy name which they usâ—r◠§ 35. Dirâ—ct 4. It much hâ—noureth God when his servants can quietly and fearlesly trust in him Diâ—â—ct 4. iâ— the â—â—ce of all the dangers and threatnings which Devils or men can cast before them and can joyfully sufâ—er pain or dâ—ath in obedience to his commands and in confidence on his promise of everlasting happinesâ— This sheweth that we believe indeed that there is a God and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. and that he is true and just and that his promises are to be trusted on and that he is able to make them good in despight of all the malice of his enemies and that the threats or frowns of sinful Worms are câ—ntemptible to him that feareth God Psal. 58. 11. Sâ— that men shall say Verily there is a reward for the righteous Verily there is a God that judâ—eth in the earth and that at last will judge the world in righteousness Paul glâ—ried in the Thâ—ssal â—iaâ—s for their faith and paâ—ience in all their persecutions and tâ—ibulations which they endured as a mâ—nifest tâ—ken â—f the righteous judgement of God that they might be accounted worthy of the Kingdâ—m 〈…〉 God fâ—r which they suffered Seeing it is a righteous thing with Gâ—d to recompence tribulation to them that trouble us and rest with his Saints to those that are troubled 2 Thess. 1. 4 5 6 7. If ye be rep 〈…〉 d for the name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you â—â— their part he is evil spâ—ken of but on your part he is glorified 1 Pet. 4. 14. If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf Vers. 16. When confidence in God and assurance of the great reward in Heaven Matth. 5. 11 12. doth cause a believer undâ—untedly to say as the three Witnesses Dan. 3. We are not careful O King to answer thee in this mâ—tter The God whâ—m we serve is able to deliver us when by faith we can go through the tryal of carnal mâ—ckings and scourgings of bonds and imprisonment to be destitute and afflicted yea and toâ—tured not accepting deliverance upon sinful terms thus God is glorified by believers List up your voices O ye afflicted Saints and sing fâ—r the Mâ—jesty of the Lord Glorifie ye the Lord in the fires even the name of the Lord God of Israel in the Islâ—s of the Sea Iâ—a 24. 14 15. Sing to his Praise with Paul and Silas though your feet be in the stocks Iâ— God call for your lives remember that you are nâ—t your own you are bought with a price therefâ—re glorifie God in your bodies and Spiâ—its which are his 1 Cor. 6. 20. Rejoyce in it if you bear in your bodies the marks of the Lord Iesus Gal 6. 17. And if you alwayes bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Iesus that the life also of Iesus may be manifested in your bodies 2 Cor. 4. 10. And with all boldness see that Christ be magnified in your bodies whether it be by life or death Phil. 1. 20. Hâ— dishonoureth and reproacheth Christ and faith that thinks he is not to be trusted even unto the death § 36. Direct 5. It much honoureth God when the hopes of everlasting joyes do cause believers to Direct 5. liâ—e much more jâ—yfully than the most prosperous worldlings not with their kind of doting mirth in vain sports and pleasures and foolish talking and uncomely jests But in that constant cheerâ—ulness and gladness which beseemeth the heirs of glory Let it appear to the world that indeed you hope to live with Christ and to be equal with the Angels Doth a dejected countenance and a mournâ—ul troubled and complaining life express such hopes or rather tell men that your hopes are small and that God is a hard Master and his service grievous Do not thus dishonour him by your inordinate dejectedness Do not affright and discourage sinners from the pleasant service of the Lord. § 37. Direct 6. When Christians live in a readiness to dye and can rejoyce in the approach of death Direct 6. and lâ—ve and long for the ay of Iudgement when Christ shall justifie them from the slanders of the woâ—ld and shall judge them to eternaâ— joyes this is to the glory of God and our profession When death which is the King of fears to others appeareth as disarmed and conquered to believers when Iudgement which is the terror of others is their desire this sheweth a triumphant faith and that godliness is not in vain It must be something above nature that can make a man desire to depart and be with Christ as best of all and to be absent from the body and present with the Lord and to comfort one another with the mention of the glorious coming of their Lord and the day when he shall judge the world in righteousness Phil 1. 21. 2 Cor. 5. 8. 1 Thess. 4 18. 2. 1 10. § 38 Direct 7. The Humility and Meekness and Patience of Christians much honour God and their Direct 7. holy faith as Pride and Passion and Impatience dishonour him Let men see that the Spirit of God doth cast down the devillish sin of Pride and maketh you like your Master that humbled himself to assume our flesh and to the death of the Cross and to the contradiction and reproach of foolish sinners and made himself of no reputation but endured the shame of being derided spit upon and crucified Phil. 2. 7 8 9. Heb. 12. 2. and stooped to wash the feet of his Disciples It is not stoutness and lifting up the head and standing upon your terms and upon your honour in the world that is the honouring of God When you are as little children and as nothing in your own eyes and seek not the honour that is of men but say Not to us O Lord not to us but to thy Name be the glory Psal. 115. 1. and are content that your honour decrease and be trodden into the dirt that his may increase and his name be magnified this is the glorifying of God So when you shew the world that you are above the impotent passions of men not to be insensible but to be angry and sin not and to give place to wrath and not to resist and avenge your selves Rom. 12. 19. and to be meâ—k and lowly in heart Matth. 11. 29. It will appear that
Direct 14. Remember how base a sin it is and how dishonourable and debasing to the mind of Direct 14. man If earth be baser than Heaven and money than God than an earthly mind is baser than a heavenly mind As the Serpents feeding on the dust is a baser life than that of Angels that are employed in admiring and obeying and praising the Mâ—st Holy God § 36. Direct 15. Call your selves to a daily reckoning how you lay out all that God committeth to Direct 15. your trust and try whether it be so as you would hear of it at judgement If you did but use to sit Pecunia apud cum nunquam mansâ—â—â—â—e probatur nisi 〈◊〉 hora oâ—â—eraâ—ur quando sol â—â—â—â— expâ—â—ans cursum nâ—cturnis tenebris daret locum Victor ut de Eugen. Epise Caâ—th Plato compareth our life to a Game at Tables We may wish for a good throw but what ever it be we must play it as well as we can Plutarch dâ— tranquil anim in judgement daily upon your selves as those that believe the judgement of God it would make you more careful to use well what you have than to get more And it would quench your thirst after plenty and prosperity when you perceived you must give so strict an account of it The flesh it self will less desire it when it finds it may not have the use of it § 37. Direct 16. When you find your Covetousness most eager and dangerous resolve most to cross Direct 16. it and give more to pious or charitable uses thoâ—â—â—â—t another time For a man hath reason to fly furthest from that sin which he is most in danger of And the acts tend to the encrease of the habit Obeying your Covetousness doth increase it And so the contrary acts and the disobeying and displeasing it do destroy it This course will bring your Covetousness into a despair of attaining its desires and so will make it sit down and give over the pursuit It is an open protesting against every covetous desire and an effectual kind of repenting and a wise and honest disarming sin and turning its motions against it self to its own destruction Use it thus oft and Covetousness will think it wisdom to be quiet § 38. Direct 17. Above all take heed that you think not of reconciling God and Mammon and Direct 17. mixing Heaven and Earth to be your felicity and of dreaming that you may keep Heaven for a reserve at last when the world hath been loved as your best so long as you could keep it Nothing so much defendeth worldliness as a cheating hope that you have it but in a subdued pardoned degree and that you are not worldlings when you are And nothing so much supports this hope as because you confess that Heaven only must be your last refuge and full felicity and therefore you do something for it on the by But is not the world more loved more sought more delighted in and â—aster Luke 14. 26 27 30 33. held Hath it not more of your hearts your delight desire and industry If you cannot let go all for Heaven and forsake all this world for a treasure above you cannot be Christs true Disciples § 39. Direct 18. If ever you would overcome the love of the world your great care must be to mortifie Direct 18. the Flesh for the world is desired but as its provision A mortified man hath no need of that which is a sensualists felicity Quench your hydropical feavorish thirst and then you will not make Socrates saepe cum eorum quae publice vendebantur multitudinem intueretur secum ista volvebat Quam multis ipse non egeo Laert. in Socr. Pecuniam perdidisti Bene si te illa non peâ—didit quod jam multis possessoribus suis fecit Gaude tibi ablatum unde infici posses teque illaesum inter pericula transivisse Petrarch l. 2. Dial. 13. such a stir for drink Cure the disease which enrageth your appetite and that is the safest and cheapest way of satisfying it Then you will be thankful to God when you look on other mens wealth and gallantry that you need not these things And you will think what a trouble and burden and interruption of your better work and comfort it would be to you to have so much land and so many servants and goods and business and persons to mind as rich men have And how much better you can enjoy God and your self in a more retired quiet state of life But of this more in the next Part. § 40. Did men but know how much of an ungodly damnable state doth consist in the Love of the world and how much it is the enemy of souls and how much of our Religion consisteth in Exod. 18. 21 2 Pet. 2. 14. 1 Tim. 3. â— Col. 3. 5. the contempt and conquest of it and what is the meaning of their renouncing the World in their baptismal Covenant and how many millions the Love of the world will damn for ever they would not make such a stir for nothing and spend all their dayes in providing for their perishing flesh nor think them happiest that are richest nor boast themselves of their hearts desire and bless the Covetous whom the Lord abhorreth Psal. 10. 3. They would not think that so small a sin which Christians should not so much as name but in detestation Ephes. 5. 3. When God hath resolved that the covetous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 10. Ephes. 5. 5. And a Christian must not so much as eat with them 1 Cor. 5. 11. Did Christ say in vain Take heed and beware of Covetousness Luke 12. 15. Wo to him that coveteth an evil Covetousness to his house that he may set his nest on high that he may be delivered from the power of evil Hab. 2. 9. O what deserving servants hath the world that will serve it so diligently so constantly and at so dear a rate when they before hand know that besides a little transitory deluding pleasure it will pay them with nothing but everlasting shame O wonderful deceiving power of such an empty shadow or rather wonderful folly of mankind That when so many ages have been deceived before us and almost every one at death confesseth it did but deceive them so many still should be deceived and take no warning by such a world of examples I conclude with Heb. 13. 5. Let your conversation be without Covetousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee PART VII Directions against the Master sin SENSUALITY FLESH-PLEASING or Voluptuousness § 1. I Shall be the shorter on this also because I have spoken so much already in my Treatise of Self-denyal Before we come to more particular Directions it is needful that we discern the nature and evil of the sin which we speak against I shall therefore 1. Telly you what
to needless recreations and from the deadly plague of youthful lusts when your daily labour is a greater pleasure to you § 21. Direct 10. Get some judicious man to draw you up the titles of a threefold Common-place-Book Direct 10. One part for definitions distinctions axioms and necessary doctrines Another part for what is useful for ornament and oratory And another for References as a common Index to all the Books of that Science which you read For memory will not serve for all § 22. Ordinarily Students have not judgement enough to form their own Common-place-Books till they are old in Studies and have read most of the authors which they would remember And therefore the young must here have a judicious helper And when they have done injudiciousness will be apt to fill it with less necessary things and to make an unmeet choice of matter if they have not care and an instructer § 23. Direct 11. Highly esteem of a just Method in Divinity and in all your studies and labour to Direct 11. get an accurate Scheme or Skeleton where at once you may see every part in its proper place But remember Since the writing of this I have begun a Methodus Theologiae that if it be not sound it will be a snare and one error in your Scheme or Method will be apt to introduce abundance more § 24. It s a poor and pitiful kind of knowledge to know many loose parcels and broken members of truth without knowing the whole or the place and relation which they have to the rest To know letters and not syllables or syllables and not words or words and not sentences or sentences and not the scope of the discourse are all but an unprofitable knowledge He knoweth no Science rightly that hath not anatomized it and carryeth not a true Scheme or Method of it in his mind But among the many that are extant to commend any one to you which I most esteem or take to be without error is more than I dare do § 25. Direct 12. Still keep the primitive fundamental verities in your mind and see every other Direct 12. truth which you learn as springing out of them and receiving their life and nourishment from them And Read well Vincentius Lirinencâ—sis still keep in your minds a clear distinction between the Truths of several Degrees both of Necessity and Certainty alwayes reducing the less Necessary to the more Necessary and the less certain to the more certain and not contrarily § 26. If God had made all points of faith or Scripture revelation of equal necessity our Baptism would not only have mentioned our Belief in the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost nor should we ever have seen the antient Creed nor the ten Commandments And if all points were of equall Evidence and plainness and certainty to us we should not have some so much controverted above others Some things in Scripture are hard to be understood but not all things 2 Pet. 3. 16. To pretend that any Truth is more necessary than it is doth tend to uncharitableness and contention And to say that any is less necessary than it is doth tend to the neglect of it and to the danger of souls To pretend any point to be more plain and certain than it is doth but shew our pride and ignorance But to set up uncertain and unnecessary points and make a Religion of them and reduce things certain or necessary to them this is the method of turbulent Hereticks § 27. Direct 13. Take nothing as universally Necessary in Religion which was not so taken in the Direct 13. dayes of the Apostles and Primitive Church and take that for the safest way to Heaven which the Apostles went who certainly are there value the Apostolical purity simplicity charity and unity and follow not them that by being wise and pious overmuch corrupt our sacred pattern by their additions and fill the Church with uncharitableness and strife § 28. If it were not a thing too evident that Dominion and Riches go for Religion with them and gain for Godliness and honour and money instead of argument it would be a most stupendious wonder that so many learned men should be found among Christians in the world to hinder the peace and unity of the Church as do it vehemently and implacably in the Church of Rome when so easie a thing and so reasonable would unite almost all the Christian world as is the requiring no more as necessary to our Union than what was made necessary in the dayes of the Apostles and the obtruding nothing as necessary to salvation which the Apostles and primitive Church were saved without This easie reasonable thing which no man hath any thing of seeming sense and weight to speak against would end all the ruinating differences among Christians § 29. Direct 14. Be desirous to know all that God would have you know and be willing to be ignorant Direct 14. of all that God would have you ignorant of and pry not into unrevealed things and much less make them the matter of any uncharitable strife § 30. Abundance of contentious Volumes between the Dominicans and Jesuites and many others are stuft with bold enquiries wranglings or determinations of unsearchable mysteries utterly unknown to those that voluminously debate them and never revealed in the Word or Works of God Keep off with reverence from concealed mysteries Talk not as boldly of the Divine influx and the priority posteriority dependance or reason of Gods Decrees as if you were talking of your common affairs Come with great reverence when you are called of God to search into those high and holy truths which he hath revealed But pretend not to know that which is not to be known For you will but discover your ignorance and arrogance and know never the more when you have doted about Questions never so long § 31. Direct 15. Avoid both extreams of them that study no more but to know what others have Direct 15. written and held before them and of them that little regard the discoveries of others Learn all of your Teachers and Authors that they can teach you but make all your own and see things in their proper evidence and improve their discoveries by the utmost of your diligence abhorring a proud desire of singularity or to seem wiser than you are § 32. Most Students through slothfulness look no further for knowledge than into their Books and their learning lyeth but in knowing what others have written or said or held before them especially where the least differing from the judgement of the party which is uppermost or in reputation doth tend to hazzard a mans honour or preferments there men think it dangerous to seem to know more than is commonly known and therefore think it needless to study to know it Men are backward to take much pains to know that which tendeth to their ruine to be known but doth
something else as necessary which is separable from this no wonder if you are perplexed and inclined to despair § 9. Direct 3. Understand the extent of this pardoning Covenant as to the sins which it pardâ—neth that Direct 3. it containeth the forgiveness of all sin without exception to them that perform the condition of it that is to Consenters So that directly no sin is excepted but the non-performance of the condition but conseâ—uently all sin is excepted and none at all forgiven by it to them that do not perform the condition Every conditional grant doth expresly except the non-performance of the condition by the making of it to be the condition He that saith All sin is forgiven to them that believe and repent and no other doth plainly import that not-believing and not-repenting is not forgiven while it continueth nor any other sin to such But to penitent believers or consenters all sin is pardoned Which made the Ancients say that all sin is washt away in Baptism supposing the person Baptized to be a meet Subject and to have the Condition of the Covenant which is by Baptism sealed and delivered to him § 10. Direct 4. Misunderstand not the excepted sin against the Holy Ghost which is no other than Direct 4. Though the trouble of 〈…〉 for a larger Discourse of this sin yet having 〈…〉 oâ—â— I must not here be 〈…〉 reâ—â—â—â—ng what is thâ—â—e â—aid alreadâ— an aggravated Non-performance and refusal of the condition of the Covenant viz. when Infidels are so obstinate in their Inâ—idelity that they will rather impute the Miracles of the Holy Ghost to the Devil than they will be convinced by them that Christ is the true Messias or Saviour This is the true nature of the sin against the Holy Ghost of which I have written the third Part of my Treatise against Infidelity So that no one hath the sin against the Holy Ghost that confesseth that Jesus is the Christ and Saviour or that confesseth the miracles done by Christ and his Apostles were done by the Holy Ghost or that confesseth the Gospel is true or that doth not justifie his sin and infidelity He must be a professed Infidel againâ—â— confessed Miracles that commits this sin And yet many despair because they fear they have committed this sin that never understood what it is nor have any reason but bare fear and some blaspâ—emous temptations which they abhor to make them imagine that this sin is theirs But the truth is in their fearing condition if any other sin had been as terribly spoken of they would have thought it is theirs § 11. Direct 5. Understand the Time to which the condition of the Gospel doth extend namely to the Direct 5. end of our life on earth The day of this grace hath no shorter end For the Gospel saith not He that believeth this year or the next shall be saved But absolutely without limitation to any time short of death He that believeth shall be saved so that to doubt whether true Repentance and faith will be accepted at any time before death is but to be ignorant of the Gospel or to doubt whether it be true And therefore for a despairing soul to say If I did repent it is too late because the day of Grace is past is but to contradict the Gospel-covenant it self or to say he knows not what God never refused a soul that truly Repented and believed before death § 12. Obj. 1. But they 'll say do not some Divines say that some mens day of Grace is sooner past Obj. 1. and God hath forsaken them and it is too late because they came not in in time Answ. They that understand what they say must say but this that this word the day of Grace Answ. hath divers senses 1. Properly by the day of Grace is meant The Time in which according to the When the day of Grace is past tenour of the Gospel God will pardon and accept those that repent And in this sense the time of life is the time of Graces whenever a sinner repenteth and is converted he is pardoned 2. Sometimes by the day of Grace is meant the time in which the means of grace is continued to a Nation or a Person And thus it is true that the day of grace is quicklyer past with some Countreys than others that is God sometimes taketh away the Preachers of his Gospel from a people that reject them and so by Preaching offereth them his grace no more But in this sense a man may easily know whether his day of grace be past or no that is whether Bibles and Books and Christians and Preachers be all gone or not And yet if they were he that receiveth Christ before they are gone is safe No man in his wits can think this day of grace is past with him while Christ is offered him or while there is a Bible or Preacher or Christian about him 3. Sometime by the day of grace is meant The certain time which we are sure of as our own And so it is only the present minute that is the time of grace that is we cannot before hand be sure of another minute But yet the next minute when it is come is as much the time of grace as the former was 4. Sometime by the day of grace is meant the Time in which God actually worketh and giveth grace and that is no more than the day of our Conversion And in this sense to have the day of grace past is a happiness and comfort that is that the day is past in which we were converted 5. And sometime by the day of grace is meant that day in which God moveth the hearts of the impenitent more strongly towards conversion than formerly he did And this is it that Divines mean when they talk of the day of Grace being past with men before their death ☞ that is Though such have never a day of effectuial grace yet their motions were stronger towards it than hereafter they shall be and they were fairer for Conversion than after when they are gone further from it This is true and this is all And what 's this to a soul that is willing to come in and ignorantly questioneth whether he shall be accepted because the day of grace is past § 13. Obj. 2. But Christ saith Luk. 19. 42. If thou hadst known in this thy day Obj. 2. Answ. That was the day of the Offers of Grace by Preaching we grant that Nations have but their Answ. day of enjoying the Gospel which they may shorten by sinning it away § 14. Obj. 3. But it s said of Esau that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was Obj. 3. rejected for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears Heb. 12. 17. It seems then that Repentance in this life may be too late Answ. It 's true that Esau's time for the Blessing was past as
made them your equals Remember that they have immortal souls and are equally capable of salvation with your selves And therefore you have no power to do any thing which shall hinder their salvation No pretence of your business necessity commodity or power can warrant you to hold them so hard to work as not to allow them due time and seasons for that which God hath made their duty 2. Remember that God is their absolute Owner and that you have none but a derived and limited Propriety in them They can be no further yours than you have Gods consent who is the Lord of them and you And therefore Gods Interest in them and by them must be served first 3. Remember that they and you are equally under the Government and Laws of God And therefore all Gods Laws must be first obeyed by them and you have no power to command them to omit any duty which God commandeth them nor to commit any sin which God forbiddeth them Nor can you without Rebellion or Impiety expect that your work or commands should be preferred before Gods 4. Remember that God is their Reconciled tender Father and if they be as good doth Love them as well as you And therefore you must use the meanest of them no otherwise than beseemeth the Beloved of God to be used and no otherwise than may stand with the due signification of your Love to God by Loving those that are his 5. Remember that they are the Redeemed ones of Christ and that he hath not sold you his title to them As he bought their souls at a price unvaluable so he hath given the purchase of his blood to be absolutely at your disposal Therefore so use them as to preserve Christs right and interest in them Direct 2. Remember that you are Christs Trustees or the Guardians of their souls and that the Direct 2. greater your power is over them the greater your charge is of them and your duty for them As you owe more to a Child than to a Day Labourer or a hired Servant because being more your own he is more entrusted to your care so also by the same reason you owe more to a slave because he is more your own And power and obligation go together As Abraham was to Circumcise all his servants that were bought with money and the fourth Commandment requireth Masters to see that all within their gates observe the Sabbath day so must you exercise both your Power and Love to bring them to the Knowledge and faith of Christ and to the just obedience of Gods commands Those therefore that keep their Negro's and slaves from hearing Gods word and from becoming Christians because by the Law they shall then be either made free or they shall lose part of their service do openly profess Rebellion against God and contempt of Christ the Redeemer of souls and a contempt of the souls of men and indeed they declare that their worldly profit is their treasure and their God If this come to the hands of any of our Natives in Barbado's or other Islands or Plantations who are said to be commonly guilty of this most heinous sin yea and to live upon it I intreat them further to consider as followeth 1. How cursed a crime is it to equal Men and Beasts Is not this your practice Do you not buy them and use them meerly to the same end as you do your horses to labour for your commodity as if they were baser than you and made to serve you 2. Do you not see how you reproach and condemn your selves while you vilifie them as Savages and barbarous wretches Did they ever do any thing more savage than to use not only mens bodies as beasts but their souls as if they were made for nothing but to actuate their bodies in your worldly drudgery Did the veriest Cannibals ever do any thing more cruel or odious than to sell so many souls to the Devil for a little worldly gain Did ever the cursedst miscreants on earth do any thing more rebellious and contrary to the will of the most merciful God than to keep those souls from Christ and holiness and Heaven for a little money who were made and redeemed for the same ends and at the same pretious price as yours Did your poor slaves ever commit such villanies as these Is not he the basest wretch and the most barbarous savage who committeth the greatest and most inhumane wickedness And are theirs comparable to these of yours 3. Doth not the very example of such cruelty besides your keeping them from Christianity directly tend to reach them and all others to hate Christianity as if it taught men to be so much worse than Dâ—gs and Tygers 4. Do you not mark how God hath followed you with Plagues and may not Conscience tell you that it is for your inhumanity to the souls and bodies of so many Remember the late fire at the Bridge in Barbado's Remember the drowning of your Governour and Ships at Sea and the many judgements that have overtaken you and at the present the terrible mortality that is among you 5. Will not the example and warning of neigbour Countreys rise up in judgement against you and condemn you You cannot but hear how odious the Spanish name is made and thereby alas the Christian name also among the West Indians for their most inhumane Cruelties in Hispaniola Iamaica Cuba Peru Mexico and other places which is described by Iosep. a Costa a Jesuite of their own And though I know that their cruelty who murdered millions exceedeth yours who kill not mens bodies yet yours is of the same kind in the merchandize which you make with the Devil for their souls whilst you that should help them with all your power do hinder them from the means of their salvation And on the contrary what an honour is it to those of New England that they take not so much as the Natives Soyl from them but by purchase that they enslave none of them nor use them cruelly but shew them mercy and are at a great deal of care and cost and labour for their salvation O how much difference between holy Master Eliot's life and yours His who hath laboured so many years to save them and hath translated the whole Bible into their language with other Books and those good mens in London who are a Corporation for the furtherance of his work and theirs that have contributed so largely towards it And yours that sell mens souls for your commodity 6. And what comfort are you like to have at last in that money that is purchased at such a price Will not your money and you perish together will you not have worse than Gebezi's Leprofie with it yea worse than Achan's death by Stoning and as bad as Iudas his hanging himself unless repentance shall prevent it Do you not remember the terrible words in Jude 11. Woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain
read Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law And the command of Authority is not a contemptible obligation § 7. 6. It is granted by all that more than this is due to God and the life that is in every Christian telleth him that it is a very great mercy to us not only to servants but even to all men that one day in seven they may disburden themselves of all the cares and business of the world which may hinder their holy communion with God and one another and wholly apply themselves to learn the will of God And nature teacheth us to accept of mercy when it is offered to us and not dispute against our happiness § 8. 7. Common experience telleth us that where the Lords Day is more holily and carefully observed Knowledge and Religion prosper best and that more souls are converted on those dayes than on all the other dayes besides and that the people are accordingly more edified And that where ever the Lords Day is ordinarily neglected or mispent Religion and Civility decay and there is a visible lamentable difference between those places and families and the other § 9. 8. Reason and experience telleth us that if men werâ— leâ—t to themselves what Time they should appoint for Gods publick Worship in most plâ—â—es it would be so little and disordered and uncertain that Religion would be for the most part banished out of the now Christian world Therefore there being need of an Universal Law for it it is probable that such a Law there is And if so it can be by none but God the Creator Redeemer and Holy Ghost there being no other Universal Governour and Law-giver to impose it § 10. 9. All must confess that it is more desirable for Unity and Concord sake that all Christians hold their holy Assemblies on one and the same day and that all at once through all the world do worship God and seek his Grace than that they do it some on one day and some on another § 11. 10. And all that ever I have conversed with confess that if the holy spending of the Lords Day be not necessary it is lawful and therefore when there is so much to be said for the Necessity of it too to keep it holy is the safest way Seeing this cannot be a sin but the contrary may And Licâ—nce is encouragement enough to accept so great a mercy All this set together will satisfie a man that hath any spiritual sense of the concernments of his own and others souls § 12. Object But you will say That besides the name it is yet a controversie whether the whole day Object should be spâ—nt in holy exercises or only so much as is meet for publick communion it being not found in antiquiâ—y that the Churches used any further to observe it Answ. No sober man denyeth that works of necessity for the preservation of our own or other mens Answ. lives or health or goods may be done on the Lords Day so that when we say that the whole day is to be spent holily we exclude not eating and sleeping nor the necessary actions about Worship as the Priesâ—s in the Temple are said to break the Sabbath that is the external rest and to be blameless But otherwise that it is the whole day is evident in the Arguments produced The antient Histories and Canons of the Church speak not of one part of the day only but the whole All confess that when Labour or sinful sports are forbidden it is on the whole day and not only on a part And for what is alledged of the custome of the antient Church I answer 1. The antienâ—est Churches spent almost all the day in publick Worship and Communion They begun in the morning and continued without parting till the evening The first part of the day being spent in teaching the Catechumens they were then dismissed and the Church continued together in preaching and praying but especially in those laudatory Eucharistical Offices which accompany the celebration of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. They did not then as Gluttons do now account it fasting to forbear a dinner when they supped yea feasted at night It being not usual among the Romans to eat any dinners at all And they that spent all the day together in publick Worship and Communion you may be sure spent noâ— part of it in Dancing nor Stage-playes nor worldly businesses 2. And Church History giveth us but little account what particular persons did in private nor can it be expected 3. Who hath brought us any proof that ever the Church approved of spending any part of the day in sports or idleness or unnecessary worldly business Or that any Churches or persons regardable did actually so spend it 4. Unless their proof be from those many Canons of our own and other Churches that command the holy observation of it and forbid these playes and labours on it which I confess doth intimate that some there were that needed Laws to restrain them from the violation of it 5. Again I say that seeing few men will have the faces to say that playes and games or idleness are a duty on that day it will suffice a holy thankful Christian if he have but leave to spend all the day for the good of his soul and those about him and if he may be reading and meditating on the Word of God and praying and praising him and instructing his family while others waste that time in vanity especially to servants and poor men that have but little other leisure all the year to seek for knowledge or use any such helps for their salvation As to a poor man that is kept hungry all the Week a bare liberty of feasting with his Landlord on the Lords day would satisfie him without a Law to constrain him to it so is it here with a hungry soul. § 2. Direct 2. Remember that the work of the day â—â— in general to keep up knowledge and Religion Direct 2. in the world and to own and honour our Creater Redeemer and Regenerater openly before all and to have communion with God through Christ in the Spirit by Receiving and Exercising his Grace in order to our Communion with him in Glory Let these therefore well understood â—e your Ends and in these be you exercised all the day and stick not hypocritically in bodily rest and outward duties Remember that it is a day for heart-work as well as for the exercise of the tongue and ear and knees and that your principal business is with Heaven Follow your hearts therefore all the day and see that they be not idle while your bodies are exercised Nothing is done if the Heart do nothing § 3. Direct 3. Remember that the special work of the day is to celebrate the memorial of Christs Direct 3. Resurrection and of the whole work of mans Redemption by him Labour therefore with all diligence
in the sense of your natural sin and misery to stir up the lively sense of the wonderful Love of God and our Redeemer and to spend all the day in the special exercises of Faith and Love And seeing it is the Christian weekly festival or day of Thanksgiving for the greatest mercy in the world spend it as a day of Thanksgiving should be spent especially in Ioyful Praises of our Lord and let the huâ—bling and instructing exercisâ—s of the day he all subordinate to these laudatory exercises I know that much time must be spent in teaching and warning the ignorant and ungodly because their poverty and labours hinder them from other such opportunities and we must speak to them then or not at all But if it were not for their meer necessity and if we could as well speak to them other dayes of the Week the Churches should spend all the Lords Day in such praises and thanksgivings as are suitable to the ends of the institution But seeing that cannot be expected methinks it is desirable that the antient custome of the Churches were more imitated and the morning Sermon being fuited to the state of the more ignorant and unconverted that the rest of the day were spent in the exercises of Thanksgiving to the Joy and encouragement of believers and in doctrine suited to their state And yet I must add that a skilfull Preacher will do both together and so declare the Love and Grace of our Redeemer as by a meet application may both draw in the ungodly and comfort those that are already sanctified and raise their hearts in Praise to God § 4. Direct 4. Remember that the Lords day is appointed specially for publick worship and personal Direct 4. Communion of the Churches therein see therefore that you spend as much of the day as you can in this publick worship and Church-communion especially in the celebration of that Sacrament which is appointed for the memorial of the death of Christ untill his coming 1 Cor. 11. 25 26. This Sacrament in the Primitive Church was celebrated every Lords day yea and ofter even ordinarily on every other day of the week when the Churches assembled for Communion And it might be so now without any hinderance to Preaching or Prayer if all things were ordered as they should be For those Prayers and instructions and exhortations which are most suited to this Eucharistical action would be the most suitable Prayers and Sermons for the Church on the Lords dayes In the mean time sâ—e that so much of the day as is spent in Church-communion and publick worship be accordingly improved by you and be not at that time about your secret or family services but take only those hours for such private duties in which the Church is not assembled And remember how much the Love of Saints is to be exercised in this Communion and therefore labour to keep alive that Love without which no man can celebrate the Lords day according to the end of the institution § 5. Direct 5. Understand how great a mercy it is that you have leave thus to wait upon God for the receiving and exercise of grace and to cast off the distracting thoughts and businesses of the world and Direct 5. what an opportunity is put into your hand to get more in one day than this world can affâ—rd you all your lives And therefore come with gladness as to the receiving of so great a mercy and with desire after it and with hope to speed and not with unwillingness as to an unpleasant task as carnal hearts that Love not God or his Grace or Service and are aweary of all they do and glâ—d when it is done as the Ox that is unyoaked Isa. 58. 13 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a Delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own waies nor finding thine own pleasuâ—e nor speaking thine own words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord The affection that you have to the Lords day much sheweth the temper of the heart A holy person is glad when it cometh as loving it for the holy exercises of the day A wicked carnal heart is glad of it only for his carnal ease but weary of the spiritual duties § 6. Direct 6. Avoid both the extreams of Prophaneness and Superstition in the point of your external rest And to that end Observe 1. That the work is not for the day but the day for the holy Direct 6. work As Christ saith Mark 2. 27. The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath It is appointed for our good and not for our hurt 2. The outward rest is not appointed for it self but as a means to the freedom of the mind for inward and spiritual employments And therefore all those outward and common labours and discourses are unlawful which any way distract the mind and hinder either our outward or inward attendance upon God and our edification 3. And whatever it was to the Jews no common words or actions are unlawful which are no hinderance to this communion and worship and spiritual edification 4. Yea those things that are necessary to the support of nature and the saving of the Life or health or estate and goods of our selves or our neighbours are needful duties on that day Not all those works which are truly charitable for it may be a work of mercy to build Hospitals or make Garments for the poor or Till their ground but such works of mercy as cannot be put off to another day and such as hinder not the duties of the day 5. The same word or action on the Lords day which is unlawful to one man may be lawful to another as being no hinderance yea a duty to him As Christ saith The Priests in the Temple break or prophane the Sabbath that is the outward rest but not the command and are blameless Matth. 12. 15. And the Cook may lawfully be employed in dressing meat when it were a sin in another to do it voluntarily without need 6. The Lords day being to be kept as a day of Thanksgiving the dressing of such meat as is fit for a day of Thanksgiving is not to be scrupled The primitive Christians in the Apostles time had their Love-feasts constantly with the Lords Supper or after on the Evening of the day And they could not feast without dressing meat 7. Yet that which is lawful in it self must be so done as consisteth with care and compassion of the souls of servants that are employed about it that they may â—e deprived of no more of their spiritual benefit than needs 8. Also that which is lawful must sometimes be forborn when it may by scandal tempt others that are loose or weak to do that which is unlawful not that the meer displeasing of the erroneous should put us out of the right
way but the scandal which is spoken against in Scripture is the laying a Temptation before men that are weak to make them sin 9. Take heed of that hypocritical and câ—nsorious temper which turneth the holy observation of the day into a Ceremonious abstinence from lawful things and censureth those as ungodly that are not of the same mind and forbear not such things as well as they Mark the difference between Christ and the Pharisees in this point Much of their contention with him was about the outward observation of the Sabbath because his disciples rubbed out Corn to eat on the Sabbath day and because he healed on the Sabbath and bid the healed man Take up his bed and walk And they said There are six dayes in which men ought to work they might come and be healed on them Luk 6. 1 5 6. 13. 12 14 15 16. Ioh. 5. 17 18. Mark 1. 21 24. 2. 23 24 25 26 27 28. 3. 2 3 5. 6. 2 5. Luk. 14. 1 3 5 6. Ioh. 5. 9 10 16. 7. 22 23 24. 9. 14 16. And a man that is of their spirit will think that the Pharisees were in the right No doubt Christ might have chosen another day to heal on But he knew that the works which most declared the power of God and honoured him before all and confirmed the Gospel were fittest for the Sabbath day Take heed therefore of the Pharisees Ceremoniousness and Censoriousness If you see a man walking abroad on the Lords day censure him not till you know that he doth it from prophaneness or negligence You know not but it may be necessary to his health and he may improve it in holy meditation If you hear some speak a word more than you think needful of common things or do more about meat and cloathing than you think meet censure them not till you hear their reason A scrupulousness about such outward observances when the holy duties of the day are no whit hindred by that thing and a censoriousness towards those that are not as scrupulous is too Pharisaical and Ceremonious a Religion for spiritual charitable Christians And the extreams of some Godly people in this kind have occasioned the Quakers and Seekers to take and use all daies alike and the prophane to contemn the sanctifying of the Lords day Tit. 2. More particular Directions for the order of holy duties § 1. Direct 1. REmember the Lords day before it cometh and prepare for it and prevent those Direct 1. disturbances that would hinder you and deprive you of the benefit For Preparation 1. Six daies you must labour and do all that you have to do Dispatch all your business that you may not have it then to hinder and disturb you And see that your Servants do the same 2. Shake off the thoughts of worldly things and clear your minds of worldly delights and cares 3. Call to mind the doctrine taught you the last Lords day and if you have servants cause them to remember it that you may be prepared to receive the next 4 Go seasonably to bed that you and your servants may not be constrained to lye long the next morning or be sleepy on the Lords day 5. Let your meditations be preparatory for the day Repent of the sins of the week past as particularly and seriously as you can and seek for pardon and peace through Christ that you come not with guilt or trouble upon your Consciences before the Lord. § 2. Direct 2. Let your first thoughts be not only Holy but suitable to the occasions of the day Direct 2. With gladness remember what a day of mercies you awake to and how early your Redeemer rose from the dead that day and what excellent work you are to be employed in § 3. Direct 3. Rise full as early that day as you do on other daies Be not like the carnal generation Direct 3. that sanctifie the Lords day but as a Swine doth by sleeping and idleness and fulness Think not your worldly business more worthy of your early rising than your spiritual imployment is § 4. Direct 4. Let your dressing time be spent in some fruitful meditation or conference Direct 4. or hearing some one read a Chapter And let it not be long to detain you from your duty § 5. Direct 5. If you can have leisure go first to secret prayer And if you are servants Direct 5. or have any necessary business to do dispatch it quickly that you may be free for better work § 6. Direct 6. Let Family-worship come next and not be slubbered over sleightly but be serious Direct 6. and reverent and suit all to the nature or end of the day Especially awaken your selves and servants to consider what you have to do in publick and to go with prepared sanctified hearts § 7. Direct 7. Enter the holy Assembly with reverence and joy and compose your selves as those Direct 7. that come thither to treat with the living God about the matters of Eternal life And watch your hearts that they wander not nor sleep not nor sleight the sacred matters which you are about And guard your eyes that they carry not away your hearts And let not your hearts be a moment idle but seriously employed all the Time And when hypocrites and distempered Christians are quarrelling with the imperfections of the speaker or congregation or mode of Worship do you rather make it your diligent endeavour to watch your hearts and improve what you hear § 8. Direct 8. As soon as you come home while dinner is preparing it will be a seasonable Direct 8. time either for secret prayer or meditation to call over what you heard and urge it on your hearts and beg Gods help for the improvement of it and pardon for your publick failings § 9. Direct 9. Let your time at meat be spent in the chearful remembrance or mention of the Direct 9. Love of your Redeemer or somewhat suitable to the company and the day § 10. Direct 10. After dinner call your families together and sing a Psalm of Praise and Direct 10. by examination or repetition or both cause them to remember what was publickly taught them § 11. Direct 11. Then go again to the Congregation to the beginning and behave your Direct 11. selves as before § 12. Direct 12. When you come home call your families together and first crave Gods assistance Direct 12. and acceptance and then sing a Psalm of Praise and then repeat the Sermon which â—â—u heard or if there was none read one out of some lively profitable book and then Pray and Praise God and all with the holy seriousness and joy which is suitable to the work and day § 13. Direct 13. Then while Supper is preparing betake your selves to secret prayer and meditation Direct 13. â—either in your Chambers or walking as you find most profitable And let your Servants have no
seduced to think all proper Communion of Churches lyeth in that Sacrament and to be more prophanely bold in abusing many other parts of worship 5. There are better means by Teaching and Discipline to keep the Sacrament from contempt than the omitting or displacing of it 6. Every Lords Day is no ofter then Christians need it 7. The frequency will teach them to Live prepared and not only to make much ado once a Moneth or Quarter when the same work is neglected all the year beside Even as one that liveth in continual expectation of death will live in continual preparation when he that expecteth it but in some grievous sickness will then be frightned into some seeming preparations which are not the habit of his soul but laid by again when the disease is over 2. But yet I must add that in some undisciplin'd Churches and upon some occasions it may be longer omitted or seldomer used No duty is a duty at all times And therefore extraordinary cases may raise such impediments as may hinder us a long time from this and many other priviledges But the ordinary faultiness of our imperfect hearts that are apt to grow customary and dull is no good reason why it should be seldome Any more than why other special duties of Worship and Church-communion should be seldome Read well the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians and you will find that they were then as bad as the true Christians â—â—e now and that even in this Sacrament they were very culpable and yet Paul seeketh not to cure them by their seldomer communicating § 21. Quest. 3. Are all the members of the visible Church to be admitted to this Sacrament or Quest. 3. communicate Answ. All are not to seek it or to take it because many may know their own unfitness when the Church or Pastors know it not But all that come and seek it are to be admitted by the Pastors except such Children Ideots ignorant persons or Hereticks as know not what they are to receive and do and such as are notoriously wicked or scandalous and have not manifested their repentance But then it is presupposed that none should be numbered with the adult members of the Church but those that have personally owned their Baptismal Covenant by a Credible Profession of true Christianity § 22. Quest. 4. May a man that hath knowledge and civility and common gifts come and Quest. 4. take this Sacrament if he know that he is yet void of true Repentance and other saving Grace Answ. No For he then knoweth himself to be one that is uncapable of it in his present state § 23. Quest. 5. May an ungodly man receive this Sacrament who knoweth not himself to be Quest. 5. ungodly Answ. No For he ought to know it and his sinful ignorance of his own condition will not make his sin to be his duty nor excuse his other faults before God § 24. Quest. 6. Must a sincere Christian receive that is uncertain of his sincerity and in continual Quest. 6. doubting Answ. Two preparations are necessary to this Sacrament The general preparation which is a state of grace and this the doubting Christian hath And the particular preparation which consisteth in his present actual fitness And all the question is of this And to know this you must further distinguish between Immediate duty and more Remote and between the degrees of doubtfulness in Christians 1. The nearest immediate duty of the doubting Christian is to use the means to have his doubts resolved till he know his case and then his next duty is to receive the Sacrament And both these still remain his duty to be performed in this order And if he say I cannot be resolved when I have done my best yet certainly it is some sin of his own that keepeth him in the dark and hindereth his assurance and therefore Duty ceaseth not to be duty the Law of Christ still obligeth him both to get assurance and to receive and the want both of the knowledge of his state and of Receiving the Sacrament are his continual sin if he lye in it never so long through these scruples though it be an infirmity that God will not condemn him for For he is supposed to be in a state of grace But you will say What is still he cannot be resolved whether he have true faith and Repentance or not What should he do while he is in doubt I answer It is one thing to ask what is his duty in this case and another thing to ask Which is the smaller or less dangerous sin Still his duty is both to get the knowledge of his heart and to communicate But while he sinneth through infirmity in failing of the first were he better also omit the other or not To be well resolved of that you must discern 1. Whether his judgement of himself do rather incline to think and hope that he is sincere in his repentance and faith or that he is not 2. And whether the consequents are like to be good or bad to him If his hopes that he is sincere be as great or greater than his fears of the contrary then there is no such ill consequent to be feared as may hinder his communicating but it is his best way to do it and wait on God in the use of his Ordinance But if the perswasion of his gracelesness be greater than the hopes of his sincerity then he must observe how he is like to be affected if he do communicate If he find that it is like to clear up his mind and increase his hopes by the actuating of his grace he is yet best to go But if he find that his heart is like to be overwhelmed with horror and sunk into despair by running into the supposed guilt of unworthy Receiving then it will be worse to do it than to omit it Many such fearful Christians I have known that are fain many years to absent themselves from the Sacrament because if they should receive it while they are perswaded of their utter unworthiness they would be swallowed up of desperation and think that they had taken their own damnation As the twenty fifth Article of the Church of England saith the unworthy receivers do So that the chief sin of such a Doubting Receiver is not that he receiveth though he doubt for doubting will not excuse us for the sinful omission of a duty no more of this than of Prayer or Thanksgiving But only Prudence requireth such a one to forbear that which through his own distemper would be a means of his despair and ruine As that Physick or food how good soever is not to be taken which would kill the taker Gods Ordinances are not appointed for our destruction but for our edification and so must be used as tendeth thereunto Yet to those Christians who are in this case and dare not communicate I must put this Question How dare you so long refuse it He that
him Levit. 19. 17. but tell him his faults as Christ hath directed you Matth. 18. 15 16 17. and do your parts to promote Christs discipline and keep pure the Church See 1 Cor. 5. throughout § 37. Direct 6. When you come to the holy Communion let not the over-scrupulous regard of the person of Direct 6. the Minister or the company or the imperfections of the ministration disturb your meditations nor call away your minds from the high and serious employment of the day Hypocrites who place their Religion in bodily exercises have taught many weak Christians to take up unnecessary scruples and to turn their eye and observation too much to things without them Quest. But should we have no regard to the due celebration of these sacred mysteries and to the Minister and Communicants and manner of administration Answ. Yes You should have so much regard to them 1. As to see that nothing be amiss through your default which is in your power to amend 2. And that you joyn not in the committing of any known sin But 1. Take not every sin of another for your sin and think not that you are guilty of that in others which you cannot amend or that you must forsake the Church and Worship of God for these corruptions which you are not guilty of or deny your own mercies because others usurp them or abuse them 2. If you suspect any thing imposed upon you to be sinful to you try it before you come thither and leave not your minds open to disturbance when they should be wholly employed with Christ. § 38. Quest. 1. May we lawfully receive this Sacrament from an ungodly and unworthy Minister Quest. 1. Answ. Whoever you may lawfully commit the guidance of your souls to as your Pastor you may lawfully receive the Sacrament from yea and in some cases from some others For in case you come May we receive from an unworthy Minister into a Church that you are no member of you may lawfully joyn in communion with that Church for that present as a stranger though they have a Pastor so faulty as you might not lawfully commit the ordinary conduct of your soul to For it is their fault and not yours that they chose no better and in some cases such a fault as will not warrant you to avoid communion with them But you may not Receive if you know it from a Heretick that teacheth any error against the Essence of Christianity 2. Nor from a man so utterly ignorant of the Christian faith or duty or so utterly unable to Teach it to others as to be notoriously uncapable of the Ministry 3. Nor from a man professedly ungodly or that setteth himself to preach down Godliness it self These you must never own as Ministers of Christ that are utterly uncapable of it But see that you take none for such that are not such And there are three sorts more which you may not receive from when you have your choice nor take them for your Pastors but in case of Necessity imposed on you by others it is lawful and your duty And that is 1. Usurpers that make themselves your Pastors without a lawful Call and perhaps do forcibly thrust out the Lawful Pastors of the Church 2. Weak ignorant cold and lifeless Preachers that are tolerable in case of necessity but not to be compared with worthier men 3. Ministers of scandalous vicious lives It is a sin in you to preferr any one of these before a better and to choose them when you have your choice But it is a sin on the other side if you rather submit not to one of these than be quite without and have none at all You own not their faults in such a case by submitting to their Ministry § 29. Quest. 2. May we communicate with unworthy persons or in an undisciplined Church Quest. 2. Answ. You must here distinguish if you will not err and that 1. Between persons so unworthy as Gildas ae excid Britt speaketh thus to the better sort of Pastors then Quis perosuâ— est consilium maâ—â—guantâ—um cum impiis non sedit Quis eorum salutari in arca hoc est inunc Ecclesia ullum Deo adversantium ut Noe diluvii tempore non admisiâ— ut perspicue monstraretur non nisi innoxios vel poenitentes egregios in dominica domo esse debere to be no-Christians and those that are culpable scandalous Christians 2. Between a few members and the whole society or the denominating part 3. Between sin professed and owned and sin disowned by a seeming penitence 4. And between a Case of Liberty when I have my choice of a Better society and a Case of Necessity when I must communicate with the worser society or with none And so I answer 1. You ought not to communicate at all in this Sacrament with a society that professeth not Christianity if the whole body or denominating part be such that is 1. With such as never made profession of Christianity at all 2. Or have Apostatized from it 3. Or that openly own any Heresie inconsistent with the Essential Faith or Duty of a Christian. 4. Or that are notoriously ignorant what Christianity is 2. It is the duty of the Pastors and Governours of the Church to keep away notorious scandalous offendors till they shew Repentance and the peoples duty to assist them by private reproof and informing the Church when there is cause Therefore if it be through the neglect of your own duty that the Church is corrupted and undisciplined the sin is yours whether you receive with them or not 3. If you rather choose a corrupted undisciplined Church to communicate with when you have your choice of a better caeteris paribus it is your fault But on the contrary It is not your sin but your duty to communicate with that Church which hath a true Pastor and where the denominating part of the members are capable of Church-communion though there may some Infidels or Heathens or uncapable persons violently intrude or scandalous persons are admitted through the neglect of Discipline in case you have not your choice to hold personal communion with a better Church and in case also you be not guilty of the corruption but by seasonable and modest professing your dissent do clear your self of the guilt of such intrusion and corruption For here the Reasons and Ends of a lawful separation are removed Because it tendeth not to Gods honour or their reformation or your benefit For all these are more crossed by holding communion with no Church than with such a corrupted Church And this is to be preferred before none as much as a better before this § 40. Quest. 3. But what if I cannot communicate unless I conform to an imposed gesture as kneeling Quest. 3. or sitting Answ. 1. For sitting or standing no doubt it is lawful in it self For else authority were not to be obeyed if they should command it and else
subscribed if afterwards you will question that account again you must take as full a time to do it and that when you are as calm and vacant as before and not unsettle an exact account upon a sudden view or a thought of some one particular Thus must you trust to no examinations and decisions about the state of your souls but those that in long and calm deliberation have brought it to an issue § 16. Direct 7. And in doing this neglect not to make use of the assistance of an able Direct 7. faithful Guide so far as your own weakness makes it necessary Your doubting sheweth that you are not sufficient to dispatch it satisfactorily your selves The Question then is What help a wiser man can give you Why he can clearlier open to you the true nature of Grace and the marks that are infallible and the extent of the Grace and tenour of the Covenant and he can help you how to trace your hearts and observe the discoveries of good or evil in them he can shew you your mistakes and help you in the application and tell you much of his own and others experiences And he can pass a strong Conjecture upon your own Case in particular if he be one that knoweth the course of your lives and is intimately acquainted with you For Sin and Grace are both expressive operative things like Life that ordinarily will stir or Fire that will be seen Though their judgement cannot be infallible of you and though for a while Hypocrisie may hide you from the knowledge of another yet ficâ—a non diâ— c. ordinarily Nature will be seen and that which is within you will shew it self so that your familiar acquaintance that see your lives in private and in publick may pass a very strong conjecture at your state whether you sâ—t your selves indeed to please God in sincerity or no. Therefore if possible choose such a man to help you as is 1. Able 2. Faithful and 3. Well acquainted with you And undervalue not his judgement § 17. Direct 8. When you cannot attain to a Certainty of your case undervalue not and Direct 8. neglect not the Comforts which a bare probability may afford you I know that a Certainty in so weighty a case should be earnestly desired and endeavoured to the uttermost But yet it is no small comfort which a likelihood or hopefulness may yield you Husband and Wife are uncertain every day whether one of them may kill the other And yet they can live comfortably together because it is an unlikely thing and though it be possible it is not much to be feared All the comforts of Christians dependeth not on their Assurance It is but few Christians in the world that reach to clear Assurance For all the Papists Lutherans and Arminians are without any Certainty of their salvation because they think it cannot be had And all those Jansenists or Protestants that are of Augustines judgement are without Assurance of salvation though they may have assurance of their Justification and Sanctification Because their judgement is that the justified and sanctified though not the Elect may fall away And of those that hold the Doctrine of Perseverance how few do we find that can say they are certain of their sincerity and salvation Alas not one of very many And yet many thousands of these do live in some peace of Conscience and quietness and comfort in the hopefulness and probabilities to which they have attained § 18. Direct 9. Resolve to be much in the great delightful duties of Thanksgiving and the Direct 9. Praise of God and to spend a considerable part ordinarily of all your prayers herein especially to spend the Lords Day principally in these And thus you will have three great advantages 1. The very actings of Love and Thanks and Joy will help you to comfort in a nearer way than arguments and self-examination will do even in a way of feeling as the fire maketh you warm 2. The custome of exercising those sweetest graces will habituate your souls to it and in time wear out the sadder impression 3. God will most own you in those highest duties § 19. Direct 10. Mark well how far your doubtings do help or hinder you in your sanctification Direct 10. So far as they turn your heart from God and from the Love and sweetness of a holy life and unfit you for thankfulness and chearful obedience so far you may be sure that Satan is gratified by them and God displeased and therefore they should be resisted But so far as they keep you humble and obedient and make you more tenderly afraid of sin and quicken your desires of Christ and grace so far God useth them for your benefit And therefore be not too impatient under them but wait on God in the use of his means and he will give his comforts in the fittest season Many an one hath sweet assurance at his death or in his sufferings for Christ when he needed it most that was fain to live long before without it Especially take care 1. That you miss not of Assurance through your own neglect 2. And that your doubtings work no ill effects in turning away your hearts from God or discouraging you in his service and then you may take them as a tryal of your patience and they will certainly have a happy end CHAP. XXVI Directions for Declining or Backsliding Christians and about Perseverance THe case of Backsliders is so terrible and yet the mistakes of many Christians so common in thinking unjustly that they are backsliders that this subject must be handled with the greater care And when I have first given some Directions for the Cure I shall next give some to others for Prevention of so sad a state § 1. Direct 1. Understand well wherein Backsliding doth consist the sorts and the degrees of it that so you may the more certainly and exactly discern whether it be indeed your case or not To this end I shall here open to you I. The several sorts of Backsliders II. The several steps or degrees of backsliding III. The signs of it § 2. I. There are in general three sorts of Backsliders 1. Such as decline from the Truth by the error of their Understanding 2. Such as turn from the Goodness of God and Holiness by the corruption of their Will and Affections 3. Such as turn from the Obedience of God and an upright conversation by the sinfulness of their lives The first sort containeth in it 1. Such as decline to Infidelity from Faith and doubt of the Truth of the Word of God 2. Such as decline only to error about the meaning of the Scriptures though they doubt not of the Truth of them This corrupted Iudgement will presently corrupt both Heart and Life § 3. The second sort Backsliders in Heart containeth 1. Such as only lose their Affections to Good their complacency and desire and lose their averseness and zeal against
5. 9 10. Rev. 4. 11 8. Rev. 15. 3. Heb. 12. 9. Matth. 6. 13. thâ—u not said Behold I come quickly Even so Come Lord and let the great Marriage day of the Lamb make haste when thy Spouse shall be presented spotless unblamable and glorious and the glory of God in the New Jerusalem shall be Revealed to all his holy ones to delight and glorifie them for ever In the mean time Remember Lord thy promise Because I live therefore shall ye live also And let the dead that dye in thee be blessed And thou that art made a quickning Spirit and art the Lord and Prince of life and hast said that not a hair of our heads shall perish Gather our departing souls unto thy self into the Heavenly Jerusalem and Mount Zion the City of the living God and to the Myriads of holy Angels and to the general Assembly and Church of the first born and to the perfected Spirits of the just where thou wilt make us Kings and Priests to God whom we shall See and Love and Praise for ever For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things and for his pleasure they are and were created And O thou the blessed God of Love the Father of Spirits and King of Saints receive this unworthy Member of thy Son into the heavenly Chore which sing thy Praise who rest not saying night and day Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty who Is and Was and Is to Come For Thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen The End of the Second TOME A Christian Directory The Third Part. Christian Ecclesiasticks OR DIRECTIONS TO PASTORS PEOPLE About Sacred Doctrine Worship and Discipline and their mutual Duties With the Solution of a multitude of Church-Controversies and Cases of Conscience By RICHARD BAXTER 1 Cor. 12. 25 27 28. That there should be no Schism in the body but the Members should have the same care one for another Now ye are the Body of Christ and Members in particular And God hath set some in the Church first Apostles c. Eph. 4. 3 4 12 c. Endeavouring to keep the Unity of the SPIRIT in the bond of Peace There is one Body one Spirit one Hope one Lord one Faith one Baptism Not One Ministerial Head one God * And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Till we all come into the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ That we henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every wind of doctrine by the cogging or sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive But keeping the Truth in Love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ From whom the whole body compacted and cemented together by every joynt of supply according to its power in proportion of each part worketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in Love 1 Tim. 3. 15. That thou maist know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the living God as A pillar and basis of the truth 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake and be at peace among your selves LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons at the Sign of the Princes-Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1673. Reader THat this part and the next are Imperfect and so much only is written as I might and not as I would I need not excuse to thee if thou know me and where and when I live But some of that which is wanting if thou desire thou maist find 1. In my Universal Concord 2. In my Christian Concord 3. In our Agreement for Catechising and my Reformed Pastor 4. In the Reformed Lyturgie offered to the Commissioned Bishops at the Savoy Farewel A Christian Directory TOM III. Christian Ecclesiasticks CHAP. I. Of the Worship of God in general § 1. THAT God is to be Worshipped solemnly by man is confessed by Qui totos dies precabantur immolabant ut sui liberi sibi superstites essent Superstitiosi sunt appellati quod nomen paâ—uit postea latius Qui autem omnia quae ad cultum Deorum pertinerent diligenter pertractarent tanquam relegerent sunt dicti Religiosi ex relegendo ut elegantes ex eligendo à diligendo diligentes ex intelligendo intelligentes Superstitiosi Religiosi alterum vitii nomen alterum laudis Cicer. nat Deor. lib. 2. pag. 73 74. all that acknowledge that there is a God But about the Matter and Manner of his Worship there are no small dissensions and contentions in the world I am not now attempting a reconciliation of these contenders The sickness of mens minds and wills doth make that impossible to any but God which else were not only possible but easie the terms of reconciliation being in themselves so plain and obvious as they are But it is Directions to those that are willing to worship God aright which I am now to give § 2. Direct 1. Understand what it is to worship God aright lest you offer him Vanity and sin for Direct 1. Worship The worshipping of God is the direct acknowledging of his Being and Perfections to his honour Indirectly or consequentially he is acknowledged in every obediential act by those that truly obey and serve him And this is indirectly and participatively to worship him And therefore all things are Holy to the Holy because they are Holy in the use of all and Holiness to the Lord is as it were written upon all that they possess or do as they are Holy But this is not the worship which we are here to speak of but that which is Primarily and Directly done to glorifie him by the acknowledgement of his excellencies Thus God is worshipped either inwardly by the soul alone or also outwardly by the body expressing the worship of the soul. For that which is done by the Body alone without the concurrence of the Heart is not true worship but an Hypocritical Image or shew of it equivocally called Worship The inward worship of the Heart alone I have spoken If they that serve their God with meer word and ceremony and mimâ—ca actions were so served themselves they might be â—ilâ—â—ced with Aristâ—ppâ—â— his defence of his gallantry and sumptuâ—uâ— fare Si vituâ—â—randum ait hoc essâ—t in celebritatibus deorum profectò non fieret Laert. iâ— Aristip. So Plato allowed drunkenness only in the Feasts oâ— Baâ—châ—s of in the former Tome The outward or expressive worship
from Vineyards and Wine as the Rechabites were nor every man to go forth to Preach in the garb as Christ sent the twelve and seventy Disciples Nor every man to administer or receive the Lords Supper in an upper room of a house in the Evening with eleven or twelve only c. nor every one to carry Pauls Cloak and Parchments nor go up and down on the messages which some were sent on And here in precepts about Worship you must know what is the thing primarily intended in the command and what it is that is but a subservient means For many Laws are universal and immutable as to the matter primarily intended which are but local and temporary as to the matter subservient and secondarily intended As the command of saluting one another with a holy Kiss and using Love feasts in their sacred Communion primarily intended the exercising and expressing holy Love by such convenient signes as were then in use and suitable to those times But that it be done by those particular signes was subservient and a local alterable Law as appeareth 1. In that it is actually laid down by Gods allowance 2. In that in other places and times the same signes have not the same signification and aptitude to that use at all and therefore would be no such expression of Love or else have also some ill signification So it was the first way of Baptizing to dip them overhead which was fit in that hot Countrey which in colder Countreys it would not be as being destructive to health and more against modesty Therefore it is plain that is was but a local alterable Law The same is to be said of not-eating things strangled and blood which was occasioned by the offence of the Jews and other the like This is the case in almost all precepts about the external worshipping gestures The thing that God commandeth universally is a humble reverent adoration of him by the mind and body Now the adoration of the mind is still the same but the bodily expression altereth according to the custome of Countreys In most Countreys kneeling or prostration are the expressions of greatest veneration and submission In some few Countreys it is more signified by sitting with the face covered with their hands In some it is signified best by standing kneeling is ordinarily most fit because it is the most common sign of humble reverence but where it is not so it is not fit The same we must say of other gestures and of habits The Women among the Corinthians were not to go uncovered because of the Angels 1 Cor. 11. 10. and yet in some places where long hair or covering may have a contrary signification the case may be contrary The very fourth Commandment however it was a perpetual law as to the proportion of time yet was alterable as to the seventh day Those which I call Universal Laws some call Moral But that 's no term of distinction but signifieth the common nature of all Laws which are for the Governing of our Manners Some call them Natural Laws and the other Positive But the truth is There are some Laws of Nature which are Universal and some that are particular as they are the Result of Universal or Particular Nature And there are some Laws of Nature that are perpetual ☜ which are the result of an unaliered foundation and there are some that are Temporary when it is See the Advertisement before my Book against Infidelity some Temporary alterable thing in Nature from whence the duty doth result So there are some Positive Laws that are Universal or unalterable during this World and some that are Local particular or temporary only § 24. Direct 13. Remember that whatever duty you seem obliged to perform the obligation still Direct 13. supposeth that it is not naturally impossible to you and therefore you are bound to do it as well as you can See Mr. Trumans book of Natural and Moral Impotency And when other mens force or your natural disability hindereth you from doing it as you would you are not therefore disobliged from doing it at all but the total omission is wâ—rse than the defective performance of it as the defective performance is worse than doing it more perfectly And in such a case the Defects which are utterly involuntary are none of yours imputatively at all but his that hindereth you unless as some other sin might cause that As if I were in a Countrey where I could have liberty to Read and Pray but not to Preach or to Preach only once a moneth and no more It is my duty to do so much as I can do as being much better than nothing and not to forbear all because I cannot do all Obj. But you must forbear no part of your duty Answ. True but nothing is my duty which is Object 1. naturally impossible for me to do Either I can do it or I cannot If I can I must supposing it a duty in all other respects but if I cannot I am not bound to it Obj. But it is not suffering that must deter you for that is a carnal reason and your suffering Object 2. may do more good than your preaching Answ. Suffering is considerable either as a pain to the flesh or as an unresistible hindrance of the work of the Gospel As it is meerly a pain to the flesh I ought not to be deterred by it from the work of God But as it forcibly hindereth me from that work as by Imprisonment death cutting out the tongue c. I may lawfully foresee it and by lawful means avoid it when it is sincerely for the work of Christ and not for the saving of the flesh If Paul foresaw that the Preaching of one more Sermon at Damascus was like to hinder his preaching any more because the Jews watcht the gates day and night to kill him it was Pauls duty to be let down by the wall in a basket and to escape and preach elsewhere Act. 9. 25. And when the Christians could not safely meet publickly they met in secret as Ioh. 19. 38. Act. 12. 12 c. whether Pauls suffering at Damascus for Preaching one more Sermon or his preaching more elsewhere was to be chosen the interest of Christ and the Gospel must direct him to resolve That which is best for the Church is to be chosen § 25. Direct 14. Remember that no material duty is formally a duty at all times that which Direct 14. is a duty in its season is no duty out of season Affirmative precepts bind not to all times except only to habits or the secret intention of our ultimate end so far as is sufficient to animate and actuate the means while we are waking and have the use of reason Praying and Preaching that are very great duties may be so unseasonably performed as to be sins If forbearing a prayer or Sermon or Sacrament one day or month be rationally like to procure
upon Justification c. which I have seen de nomine and neither of them seemed to take notice of it Be sure as soon as you peruse the terms of your question to sift this throughly and dispute verbal controversies but as verbal and not as real and material We have real differences enow we need not make them seem more by such a blind or heedless manner of Disputing § 22. Direct 11. Suffer not a rambling mind in study nor a rambling talker in Disputes to interrupt Direct 11. your orderly procedure and divert you from your argument before you bring it to the natural issue Both deceiving Sophisters and giddy headed praters will be violent to start another game and spoil the chase of the point before you But hold them to it or take them to be unworthy to be disputed with and let them go except it be where the weakness of the Auditors requireth you to follow them in their Wild-goose Chase. You do but lose time in such rambling studies or disputes § 23. Direct 12. Be caâ—telous of admitting false suppositions or at least of admitting any inference Direct 12. that dependeth upon them In some cases a supposition of that which is false may be made while it no way tends to infer the truth of it But nothing must be built upon that falshood as intimating it to be a truth False suppositions cunningly and secretly workt into arguments are very ordinary instruments of deceit § 24. Direct 13. Plead not uncertainties against certainties But make certain points the measure Direct 13. to try the uncertain by Reduce not things proved and sure to those that are doubtful and justly controverted But reduce points disputable to those that are past doubt § 25. Direct 14. Plead not the darker Texts of Scripture against those that are more plain Direct 14. and clear nor a few texts against many that are as plain For that which is interpreted against the most plain and frequent expressions of the same Scripture is certainly mis-interpreted § 26. Direct 15. Take not obscure Prophecies for Precepts The obscurity is enough to make Direct 15. you cautelous how you venture your self in the Practice of that which you understand not But if there were no obscurity yet Prophecies are no warrant to you to fulfill them no though they be for the Churches good Predictions tell you but de eventu what will come to pass but warrant not you to bring it to pass Gods Prophesies are oft-times fulfilled by the wickedest men and the wickedest means As by the Jews in killing Christ and Pharaoh in refusing to let Israel go and Iehu in punishing the house of Ahab Yet many self-conceited persons think that they can fetch that out of the Revelations or the Prophecies of Daniel that will justifie very horrid crimes while they use wicked means to fulfil Gods Prophecies § 27. Direct 16. Be very cautelous in what cases you take mens practice or example to be instead of Direct 16. precept in the sacred Scriptures In one case a Practice or example is obligatory to us as a Precept and that is when God doth give men a commission to establish the form or orders of his Church and Worship as he did to Moses and to the Apostles and promiseth them his Spirit to lead them into all truth in the matters which he employeth them in here God is engaged to keep them from miscarrying for if they should his work would be ill done his Church would be ill constituted and framed and his servants unavoidably deceived The Apostles were authorized to constitute Church officers and orders for continuance and the Scripture which is written for a great part historically acquaints us what they did as well as what they said and wrote in the building of the Church in obedience to their commission at least in declaring to the World what Christ had first appointed And thus if their practice were not obligatory to us their words also might be avoided by the same pretenses And on this ground at least the Lords day is easily proved to be of Divine appointment and obligation Only we must see that we carefully distinguish between both the Words and Practices of the Apostles which were upon a particular and temporary occasion and obligation from those that were upon an universal or permanent ground § 28. Direct 17. Be very cautelous what Conclusions you raise from any meer works of Providence Direct 17. For the bold and blind exposition of these hath lead abundance into most heynous sins No providence is instead of a Law to us But sometimes and oft-times providence changeth the Matter of our duty and so occasioneth the change of our obligations As when the husband dyeth the Wise is disobliged c. But men of worldly dispositions do so over-value worldly things that from them they venture to take the measure of Gods Love and hatred and of the causes which he approveth or disapproveth in the World And the wisdom of God doth seem on purpose to cause such wonderful unexpected mutations in the affairs of men as shall shame the principles or spirits of these men and manifest their giddiness and mutability to their confusion One year they say This is sure the cause of God or else be would never own as he doth Another year they say If this had been Gods cause he would never have so disowned it Just as the Barbarians judged of Paul when the Viper seized on his hand And thus God is judged by them to own or disown by his prospering or afflicting more than by his Word § 29. Direct 18. In controversies which much depend on the sincerity or experience of Godly men take Direct 18. heed that you affect not singularity and depart not from the common sense of the Godly For the workings of Gods spirit are better judged of by the ordinary tenour of them than by some real or supposed case that is extraordinary § 30. Direct 19. In Controversies which most depend on the testimony of Antiquity depart not from Direct 19. the judgement of the ancients They that stood within View of the dayes of the Apostles could better tell what they did and what a condition they left the Churches in than we can do To appeal to the Ancients in every cause even in those where the later Christians do excell them is but to be fools in reverence of our fore-fathers wisdom But in points of History or any thing in which they had the advantage of their posterity their testimony is to be preferred § 31. Direct 20. In Controversies which depend on the Experience of particular Christians or of the Direct 20. Church regard most the judgement of the most experienced and prefer the judgement of the later ages of the Church before the judgement of less experienced ages except the Apostolical age that had the greater help of the spirit An ancient experienced Christian or Divine is
Si quisquam Dei cultâ—rum pepercit Apostatis sint vera quae dicis de nobis and so he heapeth up as many Texts for rough dealing with offending Kings I give this one instance to shew the fruits of violence as pretended for peace and unity Of the persecutions of the faithful in most ages even by professed Christians themselves and Gods disowning that Spirit of Cruelty by his special Providences all Church History maketh mention And how the names of such persecuting hypocrites have stunk in the nostrils of all sober men when their tragoedy was fully acted and understood Especially the poor Churches called Waldenses Piccards and Albigenses have felt the grievousest effects of this tyranny and yet have the Testimony of the best and wisest men to have been the purest and nearest to the Apostlick simplicity in all the world and the memory of their enemies and persecutors is an abhorrence to the Sons of Charity and Peace Read Lasitius and Commenius of their Discipline and Bishop Usher de Eccles. succes statu I will recite one notable passage mentioned by Thuanus and Commenius the one Hist. l. 36. the other de Bono Unit. Ord. Discipl p. 59. Maximilian that good and moderate Emperour being one day in the Coach with Ioh. Crato only his chief Physicion and a learned Protestant lamenting the divisions of Christians asked Crato which sort he thought came nearest to the Apostolick simplicity He answered He thought that honour belonged to the Brethren called Picards The Emperour said He thought so too which Crato acquainting them with encouraged them to dedicate to him a Book of part of their devotions For the year before God had thus marvellously saved him from having a hand in their blood Ioachimus a Nova Domo Chancellor of Bohemia went to Vienna and gave the Emperour no rest till he had procured him to subscribe a Mandate for the reviving of a former persecuting Mandate against them Having got his Commission and passing just out of the Gates of Vienna as he was upon the Bridge over the Danubius the Bridge brake under him and he and all his retinue fell into that great and terrible water and all were drowned except six horsemen and one young Nobleman who seeing his Lord in the Waves catcht hold of his Gold Chain and hold him till some Fishermen came in Boats but found him dead and his Box with the Commission sunk past recovery This Noble man who survived was sensible of Gods judgement and turned to the Brethren in Religion and the Mandate was no further prosecuted Such another story Bishop Usher was wont to tell how Ireland was saved from persecution in Queen Mary's dayes But it is the most heinous cruelty when as in Daniels case there are Laws of impiety or iniquity made of purpose to intrap the innocent by them that confess We shall find no fault against this Daniel except it be concerning the Law of his God And then men must be taken in these Spiders webs and accused as schismatical or what the contrivers please And especially when it is real Holiness which is hated and Order Unity Concord Peace or Obedience to our Pastors is made the pretence for the malitious oppression of it Gildas and Salvian have told Church Governours of this at large And many of the persecuted Protestants have more largely told the Roman Clergy of it It is a smart complaint of him that wrote the Epist. de malis Doctoribus ascribed to P. Sixtus 3. Hujus doctrinae causa pro sanctitate scilicet paucos amicos conquirunt plures inimicos Necesse est enim eos qui peccatorum vitia condemnant tantos habere contrarios quantos exercere vitia delectat In de est etiam quod iniquis impiis factionibus opprimuntur quod criminibus falsis appetuntur quod haeresis etiam perfunduntur infamia quod hic omnis inimicorum suorum sermo ab ipsorum sumit obtrectatione materiam Sed quid mirum ut flagitiosis haeresis videatur doctrina justitiae Quibus tamen haeresis Ipsorum secretum patet tantum inimicis cum si fides dictis inesset amici illud potius scire potuissent c. The cause is saith Prosper de vit contempl l. 1. cap. 20. ex eo Hilitgarius Camarac l. 5. c. 19. Sed nos praesentibus delectati dum in hac vita commoda nostra honores inquirimus non ut meliores sed ut ditiores non ut sanctiores sed ut honoratiores sunus caeteris festinamus Nec gregem domini qui nobis pascendus tuendusque commissus est sed nostras voluntates dominationem divitias caetera blandimenta carnaliter cogitamus Pastores dici volumus nec tamen esse contendimus Officii nâ—s vitamus laborem appetimus dignitatem Immundorum spirituum feras a grege dilacerandâ— non pellimus quod eis remanserat ipsi consumimus Quando peccantes divites vel potentes non solum nâ—â— arguimus sed etiam veneramur ne nobis aut munera solita offensi non dirigant aut obsequia desiderata subducant ac sic muneribus eorum obsequiis capti immo per haec illis addicti loqui eis de peccato suo aut de futuro judicio formidamus Ad hoc tantum Potentes effecti ut nobis in subjectos dominationem tyrannicam vindicemus non ut afflictos contra violentiam potentum qui in eos serarum more saeviunt defendamus Inde est quod tam a Potentibus hujus mundi quam a nobis quod pejus est nonnulli graviter fatigati deperâ—uâ—t quos se de manu nostra Dominus requisiturum terribiliter comminatur Sulp. Severus also toucheth the sore when he saith Hist. l. 2. Certatim gloriosa in certamina ruebatur multoque avidius tum martyria gloriosis mortibus quaerebantur quam nunc Episcopatus pravis ambitionibus appetuntur But when he saith ibid. after Constantines delivery of the Church Neque ulterius persecutionem fore â—redimus nisi eam quam sub fine jam saeculi Antichristus exercebit either he was very grosly mistaken or else those are the instruments of Antichrist that are not thought so It is a most notable instance to our purpose which Severus ends his History with of the mischievous zeal of Orthodox Ithacius and Idacius against Priscillian and his Gnosticks and worthy of the study of the Prelates of the Church Idacius sine modo ultra quam oportuit Istantium sociosque ejus lacessens facem nascenti incendio subdidit ut exasperaverit malos potius quam compresserit In summ they got the Magistrate to interpose and banish the Gnosticks who quickly learned by bribing Court Officers to turn the Emperour against the Orthodox for themselves Till the zeal of Idacius and Ithacius grew so hot as to accuse even the best men yea St. Martin himself of favouring the Gnosticks And at last got another Tyrannical Emperour to put Priscillian and many other Gnosticks to death Though they
event And so I conclude Luke 22. 19. 1 Cor. 11. 24. 1. That God did not command Ministers to give Infidels the Lords Supper to convert them to Christianity 2. He requireth us to give it to none but those that profess themselves converted from Infidelity Act. 2. 37 38. Matth. 28. 19 20. 1 Cor. 10. 16. 2 Cor. 6. 14. Acts 8. 13. 37 38. and a state of wickedness and to none that profess not true saving â—aith and repentance 3. God never commanded or allowed any Infidel to demand or receive it to his conversion 4. God commandeth the Pastors of the Church to deliver it to Hypocrites who at the heart are Infidels or Impenitent and ungodly if they profess faith and repentance and desire or require it 5. There is much in the nature of the Sacrament which tendeth to the conversion of an hypocrite 1 Cor. 11. 27 28 29 30. 6. And God often blesseth it to the conversion of hypocrites so that it may thence be said to be his secondary intention 7. But yet he that knoweth himself to be a meer hypocrite or void of saving faith and repentance should not come first and immediately to the Sacrament to be converted by it But should first so long hear read meditate and pray till he Repent and believe and his Heart consent to the Covenant of God And then he should come with penitent Contrition and solemnly renew his Covenant in this Sacrament and there receive a sealed pardon Quest. 97. Must no man come to the Sacrament that is uncertain or doubtful of the sincerity of his faith and repentance Answ. 1. HE that is sure of his unsoundness and hypocrisie should not come 2. He that upon tryal is not sure but yet as far as he can understand his own 1 Cor. 11. 28 29 31. heart and life doth judge himself an Impenitent hypocrite should use other means to know himself certainly and fullier to Repent before he cometh And though some melancholy and timerous persons be falsly perswaded that they are Impenitent yet it is better that such forbear the Sacrament while they use other means for their better acquaintance with themselves than that all the hypocrites and wicked impenitent people be told that it is their duty to come if they can but make themselves uncertain whether they be impenitent or not 3. But he that after the best endeavours he can use to know himself can say I am not certain that I truly Repent but as far as I can know my heart I do is not to be hindered from the Sacrament by that uncertainty 1. For few of the best attain to a full certainty of their own sincerity 2. And all that can be expected from us is that we proceed according to the best of our understandings and the best acquaintance with our selves that we can get 3. And otherwise it would keep us from all other duties proper to true Christians As from thanksgiving for our Justification Sanctification Adoption c. 4. He that only erreth about the Nature of true faith and repentance and not about the reality of it in himself should not be kept away by that error As if he can say As far as I know my heart I am willing to part with every known sin and to know every sin that I may part with it But I am afraid this is not true Repentance or he that saith I believe the Gospel to be true and I am willing to have Christ upon his Covenant terms and wholly to resign my self unto him but I am afraid yet that I am not a true believer This person is truly penitent and is a true believer and therefore ought to come 5. The case de esse whether a man be a true Christian or not is in order before the case de scirâ— whether he be certain of it or not He that is an Hypocrite is bound by God first to know 2 Cor. 13. 5 6. that he is so and then to Repent and then to Communicate He that is sincere is bound by God to know that he is sincere and to be thankful and to communicate And mans neglect of one duty will not make God change his Laws which still bind them to all this at once Quest. 98. Is it Lawful or a Duty to joyn Oblations to the Sacrament and how Answ. 1. THere is no question but a Christian must give up himself soul and body with all Rom. 12. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. that he hath to God for his service And this oblation is Christianity it self 2. It is undoubted that the Lords day is a â—it time for our depositing what we have to spare for charitable and pious uses and this is partly of Divine appointment 1 Cor. 16 1 2. 3. No doubt but what we give to the poor should be for Gods sake and from our Love to Matth. 10. usâ— 25 40 c. God And therefore must first be devoted or given up to God and but secondarily to the poor 4. It is certain that the Lords Supper is as fit a season as any part of that day for such Oblations and Collections The antient Christians did therefore call it the Communion because in it they shewed their Love and Communion and feasted in common to that end There are two several â—orts of Oblations which may lawfully be made and fitly at the Communion 1. The Creatures of Bread and Wine should be offered or presented before God as acknowledging him to be the Creator and Giver of all and to desire his acceptance and benediction of them for that holy use 2. Our Alms or charitable contribution may be then fitly offered to God that he may first accept it and so it may be communicated to the Church and poor When we receive from God the most obliging benefits when we reâ—urn our greatest thanks when we resign our selves and all to God it s then sure a seasonable time to express all by the oblation of our benevolence That hypocrites may not pretend that they are charitable in secret but the Church may have due notice of it and the Pastors 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. be duly entrusted with it Quest. 99. How many Sacraments are there appointed by Christ Answ. THe word Sacrament hath so many significations that it is not fit for the Question Of which see Martiâ—ius fully in Onom de Sacraâ— Bellarmine himself reckoneth five till it be explained Passing all others now we must take notice 1. That our use of it is not so large as the Latin Interpreter who putteth it for Mysterie but for A solemn Dedication of man to God by a Vow expressed by some sacred Ceremony signifying mutually our Covenant to God and Gods Reception of us and his Covenant with us And it is brought into the Church from the Roman Military Oath called a Sacrament in which as Tertul. de Cor. Mil. sheweth the Souldier sware fidelity and obedience to Caesar renouncing
3. Either Christianity is something and discernable or nothing and undiscernable If the latter then Christians are not to be distinguished from Heathens and Infidels If the former then Christianity hath its Constitutive parts by which it is what it is And then it hath essential parts distinguishable from the rest 4. The word Fundamentals being but a Metaphor hath given room to deceivers and Contenders to make a Controversie and raise a dust about it Therefore I purposely use the word Essentials which is not so lyable to mens Cavils 5. Those are the Essentials of Christianity which are necessary to the Baptism of the Adult Know but that and you answer all the pratings of the Papists that bawle out for a list of Fundamentals And sure it is not this day unknown in the Christian world either what a Christian is or who is to be baptized Do not the Priests know it who baptize all that are Christened in the world And why is Baptism called our Christening if it make us not Christians And why hath Christ promised that He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved Mark 16. 16. if that so much faith as is necessary to baptism will not also serve to a mans state of salvation 6. The Baptismal Covenant of Grace therefore is the Essential part of the Gospel and of the Christian Religion And all the rest are the Integrals and Accidents or Adjuncts 7. This Covenant containeth I. Objectively 1. Things True as such 2. Things Good as such 3. Things Practicable or to be done as such The Credenda Diligenda Eligenda Agenda as the objects of mans Intellect Will and Practical power The Credenda or things to be known and believed are 1. God as God and our God and Father 2. Christ as the Saviour and our Saviour 3. The Holy Ghost as such and as the Sanctifier and our Sanctifier as to the offer of these Relations in the Covenant The Diligenda are the same three persons in these three Relations as Good in themselves and unto us which includeth the grand benefits of Reconciliation and Adoption Justification and Sanctification and Salvation The Agenda in the time of baptism that make us Christians are 1. The actual Dedition resignation or dedication of our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in these Relations 2. A Promise or Vow to endeavour faithfully to live according to our undertaken relations though not in perfection that is as Creatures to their Creator and their Reconciled God and Father as Christians to their Redeemer their Teacher their Ruler and their Saviour And as willing Receivers of the Sanctifying and Comforting operations of the Holy Spirit II. The Objects tell you what the Acts must be on our part 1. With the Understanding to know and believe 2 With the Will to love choose desire and resolve and 3. Practically to deliver up our selves for the present and to promise for the time to come These are the Essentials of the Christian Religion 8. The Creed is a larger explication of the Credenda and the Lords Prayer of the Diligenda or things to be willed desired and hoped for and the Decalogue of the Natural part of the Agenda 9. Suffer not your own Ignorance or the Papists Cheats to confound the Question about Fundamentals as to the Matter and as to the expressing words It is one thing to ask What is the Matter ☞ Essential to Christianity And another What Words Symbols or Sentences are Essential to it To the first I have now answered you To the second I say 1. Taking the Christian Religion as it is an Extrinsick Doctrine in signis so the Essence of it is Words and Signs expressive or significant of the Material Essence That they be such in specie is all that is essential And if they say But which be those words I answer 2. That no particular Words in the world are essential to the Christian Religion For 1. No one Language is essential to it It is not necessary to salvation that you be baptized or learn the Creed or Scriptures in Hebrew or Greek or Latin or English so you learn it in any Language understood 2. It is not necessary to salvation that you use the same words in the same Language as long as it hath more words than one to express the same thing by 3. It is not necessary to salvation that we use the same or any one single form method or order of words as they are in the Creeds without alteration And therefore while the Antients did tenaciously cleave to the same Symbol or Creed yet they used various words to express it by As may be seen in Irenâ—â—s Tertullian Origen and Ruffin elsewhere cited by me so that its plain that by the same Symbol they See the Appendix to my Reformed Pastor meant the same Matter though exprest in some variety of words Though they avoided such variety as might introduce variety of sense and matter 10. Words being needful 1. To make a Learner understand 2. To tell another what he understandeth it followeth that the great variety of mens capacities maketh a great variation in the necessity of Words or Forms An Englishman must have them in English and a Frenchman in French An understanding man may receive all the Essentials in a few words But an Ignorant man must have many words to make him understand the matter To him that Understandeth them the words of the Baptismal ☞ Covenant express all the Essentials of Christianity But to him that understands them not the Creed is necessary for the explication And to him that understandeth not that a Catechism or larger Exposition is necessary This is the plain explication of this question which many Papists seem loth to understand Quest. 139. What is the Use and Authority of the Creed And is it of the Apostles framing or not And is it the Word of God or not Answ. 1. THe Use of the Creed is to be a plain explication of the Faith professed in the Baptismal Covenant 1. For the fuller instruction of the duller sort and those that had not preparatory knowledge and could not sufficiently understand the meaning of the three Articles of the Covenant what it is to believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost without more words 2. And for the satisfaction of the Church that indeed men understood what they did in baptism and professed to believe 2. The Creed is the Word of God as to all the Doctrine or Matter of it what ever it be as to the order and composition of words 3. That is oft by the Antients called the Apostles which containeth the matter derived by the Apostles though not in a form of words compiled by them 4. It is certain that all the words now in our Creed were not put in by the Apostles 1. Because Vid. 〈…〉 Vossiâ—m de Symbolis some of them were not in till long after their dayes 2. Because the
Direct 2. exercise of your function but the promoting of Iustice for the righting of the just and the publick It was an ill time when Petr. Bles. said Officium officialium est bodie jura confundere lites suscitare transactiones rescindere dilationes innectere supprimere â—eâ—iâ—atem fovere mendacium quaestum sequi aequitatem vendere inhiare actionibus versutiâ—â— concinnare gâ—od and therein the pleasing of the most righteous God For your work can be to you no better than your End A baâ—e end doth debase your work I deny not but your competent gain and maintenance may be your lower end but the promoting of justice must be your higher end and sought before it The question is not Whether you seek to live by your Calling for so may the best nor yet Whether you intend the promoting of Iustice for so may the worst in some degree But the question is Which of these you prefer and which you first and principally intend He that looketh chiefly at his worldly gain must take that gain instead of Gods reward and look for no more than he chiefly intended For that is formally no Good work which is not intended chiefly to please God And God doth not Reward the servants of the world Nor can any man rationally imagine that he should reward a man with happiness hereafter for seeking after Riches here And if you say that you look for no Reward but Riches you must look for a Punishment worse than Poverty For the neglecting of God and your Ultimate End is a sin that deserveth the privation of all which you neglect and leaveth not your actions in a state of innocent indifferency § 5. Direct 3. Be not Counsellâ—rs or Advocates against God that is against Iustice Truth or Innocency A bâ—d cause would have no Patrons if there were no bad or ignorant Lawyers It s a dear bought fee which is got by sinning especially by such a wilful aggravated sin as the deliberate Direct 3. pleading for iniquity or opposing of the Truth Iudas his gain and Aohitophels counsel will be too hot at last for conscience and sooner drive them to hang themselves in the review than afford them any true content As St. Iames saith to them that he calleth to weep and howl Bias fâ—râ—ur in câ—â—sis orandâ—s summus aâ—que vehemenâ—â—ssimu◠〈◊〉 bonam tamen in parâ—em â—â—câ—ndi vâ—â— exerâ—â—â— solâ—tum Laâ—tius â— 53. â—uâ—um est hâ—mines propter justitiam diligâ—râ— non autem justitiam propter homines postpâ—nere Gregor Reg. Justitia non novit patrem vel matrem Veritatem novit personam non novit Deum imitatur Cassian Plutarch saith that Callicratidas being offered a great summ of money of which he had great need to pay his Seamen if he would do an unjust act refused To whom saith Cleander his Counsellor Ego prosecto hoc accepissem si fuissem Callicratidas He answered Ego accepissem si fuissem Cleander for their approaching misery Your Riches are corrupted and your garments moth-eaten your Gold and Silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire ye have heaped treasure together for the last dayes What ever you say or do against truth and innocency and justice you do it against God himself And is it not a sad case that among profâ—ssed Christians there is no cause so bad but can find an Advocate for a fee I speak not against just counsel to a man that hath a bad cause to tell him it is bad and perswade him to disown it Nor I speak not against you for pleading against excessive penalties or damages For so far your cause is good though the main cause of your Client was bad But he that speaketh or counselleth another for the defence of sin or the wronging of the innocent or the defrauding another of his right and will open his mouth to the injury of the just for a little money or for a friend must try whether that money or friend will save him from the vengeance of the Universal Judge unless faith and true repentance which will cause Confession and Restitution do prevent it The Romans called them Thieves that by fraud or plea or judgement got unlawful gain and deprived others of their right Lampridius saith of Alexander Severus Tanti eum stomachi fuisse in eos judices qui furtorum fama laborassent etiamsi damnati non essent ut si eos casu aliquo videret commotione animi stomachi choleram evomeret toto vultu inardescente ita ut nihil posset loqui And afterwards Severissimus judex contra fures appellans eosdem quotidianorum scelerum reos solos hostes inimiâ—osque reipublicae Adding this instance Eum notarium qui falsum causae brevem in confilio imperatorio retulisset incisis digitorum nervis ita ut nunquam posset scribere deportavit And that he caused Turinus one of his Courtiers to be tyed in the Market-place to a stake and choaked to death with smoak for taking mens money on pretence of furthering their suits with the Emperour Praecone dicente Fumo punitur qui vendidit fumum He strictly prohibited buying of Offices saying Necesse est ut qui emit vendat Ego vero non patiar mercatores potestatum quos si patiar damnare non possum The frowns or favour of man or the love of money will prove at last a poor defence against his Justice whom by injustice you offend Facile est justitiam homini justissimo defendere Cicâ—ro The Poet could say Iustum tenacem propositi virum Non civium ardor prava jubentium Non vâ—ltus instantis tyranni Mente quatit solida Horat. But if men would first be just it would not be so hard to bring them to do justly Saith Plautus Iusta autem ab injustiâ— petere insipientia est Quippe illi iniqui jus ignorant neque tenent § 6. Direct 4. Make the cause of the innocent as it were your own and suffer it not to miscarry Direct 4. through your slothfulness and neglect He is a lover of money more than justice that will sweat in the cause of the Riâ—h that pay him well and will slubber over and starve the cause of the poor because he getteth little by them What ever your place obligeth you to do let it Vix potest negligere qui novit aequitatem nec facile erroris viâ—io sordescit quem doctrina purgaverit Cassiodor be done diligently and with your might both in your getting abilities and in using them Scaevola was wont to say ut lib. Pandect 42. tit refer Ius civile vigilantibus scriptum est non dormientibus Saith Austin Ignorantia judicis plerumque est calamitas innocentis And as you look every Labourer that you hire should be laborious in your work and your Physicion should be diligent in his employment for your health so is it as just that you be diligent
enough to implant it in all the hearers why do your Children go so long to School and after that to the Universities and why are you so long Preaching to all your Parishioners Sure you preach not novelties to them as long as you live And yet thirty or fourty years painful preaching even of the same fundamentals of Religion shall leave many ignorant of them in the best Parishes in the Land There must be a right and ripe disposition in the hearers or else the clearest reasoning may be uneffectual A disused or unfurnished mind that hath not received all the truths which are presupposed to those which you deliver or hath not digested them into a clear understanding may long hear the truest reasons and never apprehend their weight There is need of more adoe than a bare unfolding of the truth to make a man receive it in its proper evidence Perhaps he hath been long pre-possessed with contrary opinions which are not easily rooted out Or if he be but confident of the truth of some one opinion which is inconsistent with yours no wonder if he cannot receive that which is contrary to what he so verily believeth to be the truth There is a marvellous variety of mens apprehensions of the same opinions or reasons as they are variously represented to men and variously pondered and as the natural capacity of men is various and as the whole course of their lives their education company and conversation have variously formed their minds It is like the setting together all the parts of Watch when it is in pieces If any one part of many be misplaced it may necessitate the misplacing of those that follow without any wilful obstinacy in him that doth it If in the whole frame of sacred Truth there be but some one misunderstood it may bring in other mistakes and keep out many truths even from an honest willing mind And who is there that can say he is free from errour Have not you perceived in your selves that the truths which you heard an hundred times over to little purpose when you were Children were received more convincingly and satisfyingly when you were men And that you have found a delightful clearness in some points on a sudden which before you either resisted or held with little observation or regard And yet it is common with the scandalizers of souls to cry out against all that conform not to their opinions and will as soon as they have heard their reasons that they are stubborn and refractory and wilful and factious and so turn from arguments to Clubs as if they had never known themselves or others nor how weak and dark the understandings of almost all men are But they shall have judgement without mercy who shew no mercy And when their own errours shall all be opened to them by the Lord they will be loth they should all be imputed to their wilful obstinacy And perhaps these very censorious men may prove themselves to have beenonthe wrong side For Pride and uncharitableness are usually erroneous § 34. Direct 12. Engage not your selves in an evil cause For if you do it will engage you to Direct 12. draw in others You will expect your friends should take your part and think as you think and say as you say though it be never so much against truth or righteousness § 35. Direct 13. Speak not rashly against any cause or persons before you are acquainted with Direct 13. them or have well considered what you say Especially take heed how you believe what a man of any Sect in Religion doth speak or write against his Adversaries of a contrary sect If experience had not proved it in our dayes beyond contradiction it would seem incredible how little men are to be believed Psal. 119. 69. in this case and how the falsest reports will run among the people of a Sect against those whom the interest of their opinion and party engageth them to mis-represent Think not that you are excusable for receiving or venting an ill report because you can say he was an honest man that spoke it For many that are otherwise honest do make it a part of their honesty to be dishonest in this They think they are not zealous enough for those opinions which they call their Religion unless Vix equidem credar sed cum sint praemia falsi Nulla â—atam dâ—bet testis habere fidem Oâ—iâ— l. Rom. 3. 7 8. Jam. 3. 14. â—â—â—â—â— â— 8. they are easie in believing and speaking evil of those that are the Adversaries of it When it may be upon a just tryal all proveth false And then all the words which you ignorantly utter against the truth or those that follow it are scandals or stumbling blocks to the hearers to turn them from it and make them hate it I am not speaking against a just credulity There must be humane belief or else there can be no humane converse But ever suspect partiality in a party For the interest of their Religion is a more powerful charm to the Consciences of evil speakers than personal interest or bribes would be How many Legends tell us this how easily some men counted Godly have been prevailed with to Lie for God § 36. Direct 14. Take heed of mocking at a Religious life yea or of breaking any jeasts or scorns Diâ—â—â—â— 14. at the weaknesses of any in Religious exercises which may possibly reflect upon the exercises themselves Many a thousand souls have been kept from a holy life by the scorns of the vulgar that speak of it as a matter of derision or sport Reading the Scriptures and holy conference and prayer and instructing our families and the holy observation of the Lords day and Church-discipline are commonly the derision of ungodly persons who can scorn that which they can neither confute nor learn And weak people are greatly moved by such senseless means A mock or jear doth more with them than an argument They cannot endure to be made a laughing-stock Thus was the name of a Crucified God the derision of the Heathens and the scandal of the World both Jews and Gentiles And there is scarce a greater scandal or stumbling block at this day which keepeth multitudes from Heaven than when the Devil can make it either a matter of danger or of shame to be a Christian or to live a holy mortified life Persecution and Derision are the great successful scandals of the World And therefore seeing men are so apt to be turned off from Christ and Godliness never speak unreverently or disrespectfully of them It is a prophane and scandalous course of some that if a Preacher have but an unhansome tone or gesture they make a jeast of it and say He whined or he spoke through the nose or some such scorn they cast upon him which the hearers quickly apply to all others and turn to a scorn of Preaching or Prayer or Religion it self Or if men differ from each other
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
this pernicious vice is as destructive to good works as almost any in the World That God who hath said that he is worse than an Infidel who provideth not for his own Family will judge many thousands to be worse than Christians and than any that will be saved must be who make their families the devourers of all which should be expended upon other works of Charity Direct 6. Take it as the chiefest extrinsecal part of your Religion to do good and make it the trade or Direct 6. business of your lives and not as a matter to be done on the by Jam. 1. 27. Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world If we are created for good works Ephes. 2. 10. and redeemed and purified to be zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. and must be judged according to such works Matth. 25. then certainly it should be our chiefest daily care and diligence to do them with all our hearts and abilities And as we keep a daily account of our own and our servants business in our particular Callings so should we much more of our employment of our Masters Talents in his Service And if a Heathen Prince could say with lamentation Alas I have lost a day if a day had past in which he had done no one good how much more should a Christian who is better instructed to know the comforts and rewards of doing good Direct 7. Give not only out of your superfluities when the flesh is glutted with as much as it desireth Direct 7. but labour hard in your Callings and be thrifty and saving from all unnecessary expences and deny the desires of ease and fulness and pride and curiosity that you may have the more to do good with Thriftiness for works of Charity is a great and necessary duty though Covetous thriftiness for the love of riches be a great sin He that wasteth one half his masters goods through sloathfulness or excesses and then is charitable with the other half will make but a bad account of his Stewardship Much more he that glutteth his own and his Families and retainers fleshly desires first and then giveth to the poor only the leavings of luxury and so much as their fleshly lusts can spare It is a dearer a laborious and a thrifty charity that God doth expect of faithful Stewards Direct 8. Delay not any good work which you have present ability and opportunity to perform Delay Direct 8. signifieth unwillingness or negligence Love and Zeal are active and expeditious And delay doth frequently frustrate good intentions The persons may dye that you intend to do good to or you may dye or your ability or opportunities may cease That may be done to day which cannot be done to morrow The Devil is not ignorant of your good intentions and he will do all that possibly he can to make them of no effect And the more time you give him the more you enable him to hinder you You little foresee what abundance of impediments he may cast before you and so make that impossible which once you might have done with ease Prov. 3. 28. Say not to thy Neighbour Go and come again and to morrow I will give when thou hast it by thee Prov. 27. 1. Boast not thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Direct 9. Distrust not Gods providence for thy own provision An unbelieving man will needs be a Direct 9. God to himself and trust himself only for his provisions because indeed he cannot trust God But you will find that your labour and care is vain or worse than vain without Gods blessing Say not distrustfully what shall I have my self when I am old Though I am not perswading you to make no provision or to give away all yet I must tell you that it is exceeding folly to put off any present duty upon distrust of God or expectation of living to be old He that over-night said I have enough laid up for many years did quickly hear Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee and whose then shall the things be which thou hast provided Luk. 12. 20. Rather obey that Eccl. 9. 10. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might For there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest Do you think there is not an hundred thousand whose estates are now consumed in the flames of London who could wish that all that had been given to pious or charitable uses Do but believe from the bottom of your hearts that he that hath pity on the pâ—or lendeth to the doâ—d and that which he layeth out he will pay him again Prov. 19. 17. And that Matth. 10. 40 41 â—2 He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me 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 to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only i. e. when he hath no better in the name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward I say Believe this and you will make haste to give while you may lest your opportunity should overslip you Direct 10. What you cannot do your selves provoke others to do who are more able Provoke one Direct 10. another to love and to good works Modesty doth not so much forbid you to beg for others as for your selves Some want but information to draw them to good works And some that are unwilling may be urged to it to avoid the shame of uncharitableness And though such giving do little good to themselves it may do good to others Thus you may have the reward when the cost is anothers as long as the Charity is yours Direct 11. Hearken to no doctrine which is an enemy to Charity or good works nor yet which Direct 11. teacheth you to trust in them for more than their proper part He that ascribeth to any of his own works that which is proper to Christ doth turn them into heynous sin And he that ascribeth not to them all that which Christ ascribeth to them is a sinner also And whatever ignorant men may prate the time is coming when neither Christ without our Charity nor our Charity without Christ but in subordination to him will either comfort or save our souls CHAP. XXXI Cases and Directions about confessing sins and injuries to others Tit. 1. Cases about confessing sins and injuries to others Quest. 1. IN what cases is it a duty to confess wrongs to those that we have wronged Quest. 1. Answ. 1. When in real injuries you are unable to