Vows The use the obligation VVhether any things be indifferent and such may be Vowed As Marrying c. May we Vow things Indifferent in themselves though not in their circumstances In what Cases we may not Vow VVhat if Rulers command it VVhat if I doubt whether the Matter imposed be lawful Of Vowing with a doubting Conscience Tit. 2. Directions against Perjury and Perfidiousness and for keeping Vows and Oaths The heinousness of Perjury Thirty six Rules about the obligation of a Vow to shew when and how far it is obligatory useful in an age stigmatized with open Perjury Mostly out of Dr. Sanderson VVhat is the Nullity of an Oath Cases in which Vows must not be kept p. 700 How far Rulers may Nullifie a Vow Numb 30. opened Of the Accidental Evil of a Vow Of Scandal Q. Doth an error de persona caused by that person disoblige me ibid. CHAP. VI. Directions to the people concerning their Internal and private duty to their Pastors and their profiting by the Ministerial Office and Gifts p. 714 The Ministerial Office opened in fifteen particulars The Reasons of it The true old Episcopacy Special duties to your own Pastors above others Of the Calling Power and Succession of Pastors The best to be preferred The Order of Minirial Teaching and the Resolution of faith How far Humane faith conduceth to Divine Of Tradition VVhat use to make of your Pastors to p. 724 CHAP. VII Directions for the discovery of Truth among Contenders and how to escape Heresie and deceit Cautions for avoiding deceit in Disputations p. 725 CHAP. VIII Directions for the Union and Communion of Saints and for avoiding unpeaceableness and Schism p. 731 VVherein our Unity consisteth VVhat diversity will be in the Churches VVhat Schism is VVhat Heresie VVhat Apostasie VVho are Schismaticks The degrees and progress of it VVhat Separation is a duty Q. Is any one form of Church Government of Divine appointment May man make new Church Officers The Benefits of Christian Concord to themselves and to Insidels The mischiefs of Schism VVhether Papists or Protestants are Schismaticks The aggravations of Division Two hinderances of our true apprehension of the evil of Schism Direrections against it Of imposing defective Liturgies The Testimonies of antiquity against the bloody and Cruel way of Curing Schism Their Character of Ithacian Prelates CHAP. IX Twenty Directions how to worship God in the Church Assemblies p. 755 CHAP. X. Directions about our Communion with holy souls departed now with Christ. p. 758 CHAP. XI Directions about our Communion with the holy Angels p. 763 The Contents of the Ecclesiastical Cases of Conscience added to the Third Part. Q. 1. HOw to know which is the true Church among all pretenders that a Christians Conscience may be quiet in his Relation and communion p. 771 Q. 2. Whether we must esteem the Church of Rome a true Church And in what sence some Protestant Divines affirm it and some deny it p. 774 Q. 3. Whether we must take the Romish Clergie for a true Ministry p. 775 Q. 4. Whether it be necessary to believe that the Pope is the Antichrist p. 777 Q. 5. Whether we must hold that a Papist may be saved p. 778 Q. 6. Whether those that are in the Church of Rome are bound to separate from it And whether it be lawful to go to their Mass or other worship p. 779 Q. 7. Whether the true calling of the Minister by Ordination or Election be necessary to the essence of the Church ibid Q. 8. Whether sincere faith and Godliness be necessary to the being of the Ministry And whether it be lawful to hear a wicked man or take the Sacrament from him or take him for a Minister p. 780 Q. 9. Whether the people are bound to receive or consent to an ungodly intolerable heretical Pastor yea or one far less fit and worthy than a competitor if the Magistrate command it or the Bishop impose him p. 781 Q. 10. What if the Magistrate command the people to receive one Pastor and the Bishop or Ordainers another which of them must be obeyed p. 787 Q. 11. Whether an uninterrupted succession either of right Ordination or of conveyance by jurisdiction be necessary to the being of the Ministry or of a true Church p. 787 Q. 12. Whether there be or ever was such a thing in the world as one Catholick Church constituted by any head besides or under Christ p. 789 Q 13. Whether there be such a thing as a visible Catholick Church and what it is ibid. Q. 14. What is it that maketh a visible member of the universal Church and who are to be accounted such p. 790 Q. 15. Whether besides the profession of Christianity either testimony or evidence of conversion or practical Godliness be necessary to prove a man a member of the Universal visible Church ibid. Q. 16. What is necessary to a mans reception into membership in a particular Church over and above this foresaid title Whether any other tryals or Covenant or What p. 791 Q. 17. Wherein doth the Ministerial office Essentially consist p. 792 Q. 18. Whether the peoples choice or consent is necessary to the office âf a Minister in his first work as he is to convert Insidels and Baptize them And whether this be a work of office and what call is necessary to it p. 793 Q. 19. Wherein consisteth the power and nature of Ordination and To whom doth it belong and Is it an act of jurisdiction and Is imposition of hands necessary in it p 794 Q. 20. Is ordination necessary to make a man a Pastor of a particular Church as such and Is he to be made a General Minister and a particular Church-Elder or Pastor at once and at one Ordination p. 795 Q. 21. May a man be oft or twice ordained p. 796 Q. 22. How many ordainers are necessary to the validity of Ordination by Christs Institution Whether one or more p. 798 Q. 23. What if one Bishop Ordain a Minister and three or many or all the rest protest against it and declare him no Minister or degrade him is he to be received as a true Minister or not ibid. Q. 24. Hath a Bishop power by divine right to ordain degrade or govern excommunicate or absolve in another Diocess or Church either by his consent or against it And doth a Minister that officiateth in anothers Church act as a Pastor and their Pastor or as a private man And doth his Ministerial office cease when a man removeth from his flock p. 799 Q. 25. Whether Canons Be Laws and Pastors have a Legislative power p. 800 Q. 26. Whether Church-canons or Pastors directive determinations of matters pertinent to their Office do bind the Conscience and what accidents will disoblige the people you may gather before in the same case about Magistrates Laws in the Political Directions As also by an impartial transferring the case to the precepts of Parents and School-masters to Children without respect to
Whoever took a talkative babler for a wise man He that is Logophilus is seldome Philologus much less Philosophus As Demosthenes Eccles 5. 3 7. Eccles. â0 12 13. Eccles. 10. 14. Psal. 37. 30 Prov. 17. 27 28. 10. 20. 12. 18. 10 19. 18. 4 5 6. â1 23. said to a Prater If thou knewest more thou wouldst say less They seldom go for men of action and vertue that talk much They that say much usually do little Women and Children and old folks are commonly the greatest talkers I may add mad folks Livy noteth that Souldiers that prate and brag much seldom fight well And Erasmus noteth that Children that quickly learn to speak are long in learning to go It is not the barking Curr that biteth Let it be the honour of a Parrot to speak much but of a man to speak wisely The mobility of their tongues an honour common to an Aspen leaf is all their honour that can multis verbis pauca dicere say a little in a great many of words but multa paucis much in few words is the character of the wise unless when the quality of the auditors prohibiteth it And qui sunt in dicendo brevissimi if the auditors can bear it shall be accounted the best speakers I am not of his mind that said He oft repented speaking but never repented silence But except they be Ministers few men have so much cause to repent of silence as of speech Non quam multa sed quam bene must be the Christians care As one said of Philosophy I may much more say of Religion that though an Orators excellency appeareth only in speaking yet the Philosophers and the Christians appeareth as much in silence § 26. 6. Where there is much idle talk there will be much sinful talk Prov. 10. 19. In the multitude of words there wants not sin but he that refraineth his lips is wise There are lyes or backbitings or medling with other folks matters or scurrilous jeasts if not many such sins that go along with a course of idle talk It is the vehicle in which the Devil giveth his most poysonous draughts Saith Lipsius It is given to Praters Non multa tantum sed male to speak ill as well as to speak much § 27. 7. Vain words hinder your own edification Who knoweth if you would hold your tongues but some one would speak wiselyer that might do you good Prov. 23. 8 9. § 28. 8. And you weary the Hearers unless they are strangely patient when you intend to please them or else you might as well talk all that by your self It is scarce manners for them unless you be much their inferiors to tell you they are aweary to hear you and to intreat you to hold your tongues But you little know how oft they think so I judge of others by my self I flye from a talkative person as from a Bed that hath Fleas or Lice I would shut my doors against them as I stop my Windows against the Wind and Cold in Winter How glad am I when they have done and gladder when they are gone Make not your selves a burden to your company or friends by the troublesome noise of an unwearied tongue § 29. 9. Many words are the common causers of contention Some word or other will fall that offendeth those that hear it or else will be carried to those that are absent and made the occasion of heart-burnings rehearsals brawls or Law-suits There is no keeping quietness peace and love with talkative pratlers at least not long § 30. 10. Are you not sensible what Pride and impudency is in it when you think your selves worthiest to speak As if you should say you are all children to me hold your tongues and hear me speak If you had Christian Humility and Modesty you would in honour prefer others before your selves Rom. 12. 10. You would think your selves unworthiest to speak unless the contrary be very evident and desire rather to hear and learn As Heraclitus being asked Why he alone was silent in the company answered That you may talk So when you talk above your parts it is as if you told the company I talk that all you may be silent § 31. 11. It is a voluntary sin and not repented of For you may easily forbear it if you will and you wilfully continue in it and therefore impenitency is your danger § 32. 12. Lastly Consider how unprofitable a sin it is and how little you have to hire you to commit it What get you by it Will you daily sin against God for nothing § 33. Direct 4. If you would not be idle talkers see that your hearts be taken up with something that Direct 4. is good And that your tongues be acquainted with and accustomed to their proper work and duty An Isa. 32. 4 5 6. Matth. 12 34 36. 2 Cor. 4. 13. John 3. 11. 1 John 4. 5. Prov. 16. 23. Psal. 40 5. Cant. 7. 9. empty head and heart are the causes of empty frothy vain discourse Conscience may tell you when your tongues run upon vanity that at that time there is no sense of sin or duty or the presence of God upon your hearts no holy Love no Zeal for God but you are asleep to God and all that 's good and in this sleep you moither and talk idly of any thing that cometh into your mind Also you make not conscience of speaking of that which is good or else it would keep out vanity and evil Remember what abundance of greater matters you have to talk of You have the evil of sin the multitude and subtilty of temptations and the way of resisting them to talk of You have your faults to lament your evidences to enquire after your mercies thankfully to open the greatness and goodness and all the attributes of God to praise You have all the works of God to admire even all the creatures in the world to contemplate and all Gods admirable Providences and Government to observe You have the mysterie of Redemption the person and office and life and miracles and sufferings and glory and intercession and reign of Christ to talk of And all the secret sanctifying operations of the Holy Ghost and all the Ordinances of God and all the means of Grace and all our duties to God and man and all the holy Scripture besides death and judgement and Heaven and Hell and the concernments of the Church of God and the case of the persons you speak to who may need your instruction exhortation admonition reproof or comfort And is not here work enough to employ your tongues and keep them from idle talk Make conscience of those Prov. 23. 16. duties commanded Ephes. 4. 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying and may minister grace to the hearers and grieve not the holy Spirit Psal. 145. 6 11 12 13 21. of God
place 2. And great haste allowed me not Time to transpose them If you say that in such a work I should take time I answer You are no competent judges unless you knew me and the rest of my work and the likelyhood that my time will be but short They that had rather take my Writings with such defects which are the effects of haste than have none of them may use them and the rest are free to despise them and neglect them Two or three Questions about the Scripture I would have put nearer the beginning if I could have time But seeing I cannot it 's easie for you to transpose them in the reading III. The resolution of these Cases so much avoideth all the extreams that I look they should be displeasing to all that vast number of Christians who involve themselves in the opinions and interests of their several sects as such and that hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons But there will be still a certain number of truly Catholick impartial Readers whose favourable acceptance I confidently prognosticate and who being out of the dust and noise and passions of contending sides and parties and their interests will see a self-evidencing Light in those solutions which are put off here briefly without the pomp of formal argumentation or perswading Oratory The eternal Light reveal himself to us by Christ who is the Light of the World and by the Illumination of the spirit and word of Light that we may walk in the Light as the Children of Light till we come to the World of Glorious Everlasting Light And what other defect soever our knowledge have if any man hath knowledge enough to kindle in him the Love of God the same is known of Him and therefore is Beloved by Him and shall be Blessed with and in Him for ever 1 Cor. 8. 1 2 3. CASES OF CONSCIENCE ABOUT Matters Ecclesiastical Quest. 1. How to know which is the true Church among all pretenders that a Christians Conscience may be quiet in his Relation and Communion I HAVE written so much of this already in four Books viz. one called The Safe Religion another called A Key for Catholicks another called The Visibility of the Church another called A true Catholick and the Catholick Church described that I shall say now but a little and yet enough to an impartial considerate Reader The terms must first be opened 1. By a Church is meant a Society of Christians as such And it is sometimes taken Narrowly for the Body or Members as distinct from the Head as the word Kingdom is taken for the Subjects only as distinct from the King And sometimes more fully and properly for the whole Political Society as constituted of its Head and Body or the Pars Imperans pars Subdita 2. The word Church thus taken signifieth sometime the Universal Church called Catholick which consisteth of Christ and his Body Politick or Mystical And sometime some Part only of the Universal Church And so it is taken either for a subordinate Political Part or for a Community or a Part considered as Consociate but not Political or as many particular Political Churches Agreeing and holding Concord and Communion without any Comon Head save the Universal Head 3. Such Political Churches are either of Divine Constitution and Policy or only of Humane 2. By Christians I mean such as Profess the Essentials of the Christian Religion For we speak of the Church as Visible 3. By True may be meant either Reality of Essence opposite to that which is not really a 1 Cor. 11. 3. 1 Cor. 12 12. Eph. 1. 22 23. 1 Cor. 6 15. 1 Cor. 12. 27. Eph. 4. 4 5. Matth. 28. 19 20. Church in this univocal acception or else Sound and Orthodox in the Integrals as opposite to erroneous and defiled with much enormity And now I thus decide that question Prop. 1. The True Catholick Church consisteth of Christ the Heâd and all Christians as his Body or the Members As the Kingdom consisteth of the King and his Subjects Prop. 2. As all the sincere Heart-Covenanters make up the Church as regenerate and mystical or invisible so that all that are Christened that is Baptized and profess Consent to all the Essentials of the Baptismal Covenant not having Apostatized nor being by lawful Power Excommunicated are Christians and make up the Church as Visible Prop. 3. Therefore there is but One Universal Church because it containeth all Christians and so Ephes. 4 4 5. 1 Cor. 1â 12. Mark 16 16. Rom 14. 1 6 7. 15. 1 3 4 leaveth out none to be the matter of another Prop. 4. It is not Ignorance or Error about the meer Integrals of Christianity which maketh them no Christians who hold the Essentials that is the Baptismal Covenant Prop. 5. That the Baptismal Covenant might be rightly understood and professed the Churches have still used the Creed as the explication of the Covenant in point of faith and taken it for 1 Cor. 15 1 2 c. the Symbol of the Christian Belief And no further profession of faith was or is to be required as Matth. 28. 19 20. necessary to the Being of Christianity Prop. 6. If proud Usurpers or Censurers take on them to excommunicate or unchristian or unchurch others without authority and cause this maketh them not to be no Christians or no Churches Rom. 14. 3 4. John that are so used Prop. 7. Therefore to know which is the true Catholick or Universal Church is but to know who Rom. 6 1 2 c. are Baptized-Professing-Christians Prop. 8. The Reformed Churches the Lutherans the Abassines the Copties the Syrians the Armenians Ephes. 4. 4. 5. the Jacobites the Georgians the Maronites the Greeks the Moscovites and the Romanists do all receive Baptism in all its visible Essentials and profess all the Essentials of the Christian Religion though not with the same Integrity Prop. 9. He that denyeth any one essential part in it self is so a Heretick as to be no Christian nor true member of the Church if it be justly proved or notorious that is none ought to take him Tit. 3. ââ 3 John for a Visible Christian who know the proof of his denying that essential part of Christianity or to whom it is notorious Prop. 10. He that holdeth the Essentials primarily and with them holdeth some error which by James 3 â Phi. 3. 15 16. Heb. 5. 1 2. unseen consequence subverteth some Essential point but holdeth the Essentials so much faster that he would forsake his error if he saw the inconsistence is a Christian notwithstanding And if the name Heretick be applicable to him it is but in such a sense as is consistent with Christianity Prop. 11. He that is judged a Heretick and no Christian justly by others must be lawfully T it 3. 10. Matth. 18. 15. cited and heard plead his Cause and be judged upon sufficient proof and not
Ministers of Christ or Lay men If Lay men their actions are unlawful If Ministers they are Commissioned officers of Christ themselves and it is the work of their own office which they do and it is they that shall have the reward or punishment But if preaching to all these Churches or giving to all these persons in a thousand Parishes the Sacraments c. were the Bishops or Archbishops work that is which they are obliged to do then they would sin in not doing it But if they are the Governours only of those that are obliged ãâã do it and are not obliged to do it themselves then Governing the doers of it is only their work And therefore it is but equivocally said that the work is theirs which others and not they are obliged to do and that they do their work per alios when they do but Govern those others in doing their own work Of this read the Lord Bacons Considerations and Grotius de Imper. summ Potest Cirâa Sacra who soundly resolve the case against doing the Pastoral work per alium Quest. 59. May a Lay man preach or expound the Scriptures Or what of this is proper to the Pastors office Answ. 1. NO doubt but there is some Preaching or Teaching and Expounding which a Lay man may use So did Origen so did Constantine so may a King or Iudge on the Bench so may a Parent to his Children and a Master to his family and a Schoolmaster or Tutor to his Scholars 2. It is not any one Method or Sermon-fashion which is proper to a Minister and forbidden to a Lay man That Method which is most meet to the Matter and hearers may be used by one as well as by the other 3. It is not the meer publickness of the Teaching which must tell us what is unlawful for a Lay man For Writing and Printing are the most publick wayes of Teaching And these no man taketh to be forbidden the Laity Scaliger Causabon Grotius Erasmus Constantine King Iames the Lord Bacon and abundance more Lay men have done the Church great service by their Writings And Judges on the Bench speak oft Theologically to many But that which is proper to the Ministers or Pastors of the Church is 1. To make a stated office of it and to be separated set a part devoted or consecrated and appropriated to this sacred work and not to do it occasionally only or sometimes or on the by but as their Calling and the Employment of their lives 2. To do it as Called and Commissioned Ministers of Christ who have a special nunciative and Teaching Authority committed to them And therefore are in a special manner to be heard according to their special Authority 3. To be the stated Teachers of particular Churches as their Pastors and Guides Though they may sometime permit a Lay man when there is cause to Teach them pro tempore These three are proper to the Ministerial and Pastors office But for the regulating of Lay mens Teaching 1. They must statedly keep in their families or within their proper bounds 2. They must not presume to go beyond their abilities especially in matters dark and difficult 3. They must not thrust themselves without a just call and need into publick or numerous meetings as Teachers nor do that which savoureth of Pride or Ostentation or which tendeth to cherish those vices in others 4. They must not live or Preach as from under the Government of the Church Pastors But being members of their flocks must do all as under their lawful oversight and guidance much less must they proudly and schismatically set up themselves against their lawful Pastors and bring them into Act. 20. 30. Heb. 13 7 17 24. 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. 1 Tim. 5. 17. contempt to get themselves reputation and to draw away Disciples after them 5. Times and places must be greatly distinguished In Infidel or grosly ignorant Countreys where through the want of Preachers there is a true necessity men may go much further than in Countreys where Teachers and knowledge do abound Quest. 60. What is the true sense of the distinction of Pastoral power in foro interiore exteriore rightly used Answ. 1. NOt as if the Pastors had any power of the sword or outward force or of mens Bodies or Estates immediately For all the Pastoral power is Immediately on the soul and but secondarily on the body so far as the perswaded soul will move it Reason and Love and the Authority of a messenger of Christ are all the power by which Bishops or Pastors as such can work in foro interiore vel exteriore They Rule the body but by Ruling the soul. 2. But the true use of the distinction is only to serve instead of the usual distinction of Publick and personal obligation It is one thing to satisfie a mans private Conscience about his own personal case or matters And another thing to oblige the whole Church or a particular person of his duty as a member of the society to the rest When the Pastor Absolveth a penitent person in foro interiore that is in his own Conscience he delivereth him a discharge in the name of Christ on Condition he be truly penitent Else not But in foro exteriore he actually and absolutely restoreth him to his visible state of Church Communion The rest of the members perhaps may justly think this man unlike to prove a true penitent And then in foro interiore they are not bound to believe him certainly penitent or pardoned by God But in foro exteriore that he is restored to Church Communion and that for order sake they are bound to hold Communion with him they are bound internally to believe So that it comes neer the sense of the distinction of the secret Iudgement of God and Conscience and Church judgement Quest. 61. In what sense is it true that some say that the Magistrate only hath the External Government of the Church and the Pastors the Internal Answ. 1. NOt as External and Internal are opposed in the nature of the Action For the Voice of the Pastor in Preaching is External as well as the Kings 2. Not as they are opposed in the manner of Reception For the Ears of the Auditors are external Recipients from the Preacher as well as from the King 3. Not as distinguishing the parts that are to obey the duties commanded and the sins forbidden as if the King ruled the Body only and the Pastor the soul. For the soul is bound to obey the King or else the Body could not be bound to obey him unless by cords And the Body must obey the Preacher as well as the soul. Murder drunkenness swearing lying and such other external Vices are under the Pastors power to forbid in Christs name as well as the Kings 4. Not as if all the external parts or actions of Religion were exempted from the Pastors power For preaching praying reading Sacraments Church-assemblies are external parts
own part in such cases I would do thus 1. I would look at my ultimate end Gods Glory and at the next end the Good of souls and welfare Eph. 4. 12 14. 2 Cor. 10. 8. 13. 10. Rom. 14. 19. Rom. 15. 2. 1 Cor. 10. 23. 1 Cor. 14. 5 12 26. 2 Cor. 12. 19. of the Church and so at the Peoples Interest as it is the End of the Order of Magistracy and Ministry And I would take my self to be so obliged to that end as that no point of meer Order could disoblige me the End being better than the Means as such Therefore I would do all things to edification supposing that all Power of man is as Paul's was for Edification and not for destruction 2. But in judging of what is Best for the Church I must take in every accident and circumstance and look to many more than to a few and to distant parts as well as to those near me and to the time and ages to come as well as to the present and not go upon mistaken suppositions of the Churches good He that doth not see all things that are to be weighed in such a case may err by leaving out some one 3. I would obey the Magistrate formally for conscience sake in all things which belong to his Office And particularly in this case if it were but a Removal from place to place in respect to the Temple or Tythes or for the Civil peace or for the preservation of Church order in cases where it is not grosly injurious to the Church and Gospel 4. In cases which by Gods appointment belong to the Conduct of Bishops or Pastors or the Concord of Consociate Churches I would formaliter follow them And in particular if they satisfie me that the removal of me is an apparent injury to the Church As in the Arrians times when the Emperours removed the Orthodox from all the Great Churches to put in Arrians I would not obedientially and voluntarily remove 5. If Magistrates and Bishops should concur in commanding my remove in a case notoriously injurious and pernicious to the Church as in the aforesaid case to bring in an Arrian I would not obey formally for conscience sake supposing that God never gave them such a power against mens souls and the Gospel of Christ And there is no power but of God 6. But I would prefer both the Command of the Magistrate and the Direction of the Pastors before the meer will and humour of the people when their safety and welfare were not concerned in the case 7. And when the Magistrate is peremptory usually I must obey him Materially when I do it not formally in conscience to his meer Command Because though in some cases he may do that which belongeth not to his Office but to the Pastors yet his violence may make it become the Churches interest that I yield and give place to his wrath For as I must not Resist him by force so if I depart not at his Command it may bring a greater suffering on the Churches And so for preventing a greater evil he is to be submitted to in many cases where he goeth against God and without authority though not to be formally obeyed 8. Particular Churches have no such interest in their Ministers or Pastors as to keep them against their wills and the Magistrates and against the interest of the Universal Church as shall be next asserted I have spoken to this instance as it taketh in all other cases of difference between the Power of the Magistrate the Pastors and the peoples interest when they disagree and not as to this case alone Quest. 104. Is a Pastor obliged to his Flock for Life Or is it lawful so to oblige himself And may be remove without their Consent And so also of a Church-member the same questions are put THese four Questions I put together for brevity and shall answer them distinctly I. 1. A Minister is obliged to Christ and the Universal Church for Life durante vita with this exception if God disable him not 2. But as a Pastor he is not obliged to this or that flock for life There is no such command or example in Gods Word II. To the second 1. It is lawful to oblige our selves to a people for life in some cases conditionally that is If God do not apparently call us away 2. But it is never lawful to do it Absolutely 1. Because we shall engage our selves against God against his power over us and interest in us and his wisdom that must guide us God may call us whither he please And though now he speak not by supernatural revelation yet he may do it by providential alterations 2. And we shall else oblige our selves against the Universal Church to which we are more strictly bound than to any particular Church and whose good may oblige us to remove 3. Yea we may bind our selves to the hurt of that Church it self seeing it may become its interest to part with us 4. And we should so oblige our selves against our duty to authority which may remove us III. To the third question I answer 1. A Pastor may not causelesly remove nor for his own worldly commodity when it is to the hurt of the Church and hinderance of the Gospel 2. When he hath just cause he must acquaint the people with it and seek their satisfaction and consent 3. But if he cannot procure it he may remove without it As 1. When he is sure that the interest of the Gospel and Universal Church require it 2. Or that just authority doth oblige him to it The reasons are plain from what is said And also 1. He is no more bound to the people than they are to him But they are not so bound to him but they may remove on just occasion 2. If he may not remove it is either because God forbids it or because his own Contract with them hath obliged him against it But 1. God no where forbids it 2. Such a contract is supposed not made nor lawful to be made IV. As to the peoples case it needs no other answer 1. No member may remove without cause 2. Nor abruptly and uncharitably to the Churches dissatisfaction when he may avoid it But 3. He may remove upon many just causes private or publick whether the Church and Pastors consent or not so the manner be as becometh a Christian. Quest. 105. When many men pretend at once to be the true Pastors of a particular Church against each others title through differences between the Magistrates the Ordainers and the Flocks what should the people do and whom should they adhere to Answ. THis case is mostly answered before in Quest. 82. c. I need only to add these What Pastor to adhere to Rules of Caution 1. Do not upon any pretence accept of an Heretick or one that is utterly unfit for the Office 2. Do not easily take a Dividing Course or person but keep
A Christian Directory Or A SUMM of PRACTICAL THEOLOGIE AND CASES OF CONSCIENCE Directing Christians how to USE their Knowledge and Faith How to improve all Helps and Means and to Perform all Duties How to Overcome Temptations and to escape or mortifie every Sin In Four Parts I. CHRISTIAN ETHICKS or private Duties II. CHRISTIAN OECONOMICKS or Family Duties III. CHRISTIAN ECCLESIASTICKS or Church Duties IV. CHRISTIAN POLITICKS or Duties to our Rulers and Neighbours By RICHARD BAXTER Mal. 2. 7 8. The Priests lips should keep Knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts But ye are departed out of the way Ye have Caused many to stumble at the Law ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi Matth. 13. 52. Every SCRIBE which is instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is an Housholder which bringeth forth out of his Treasure things New and Old Heb. 5. 13 14. For every one that useth Milk is unskilful in the Word of Righteousness for he is a Babe But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age Those who by reason of USE have their senses exercised to discern both Good and Evil. 2 Tim. 2. 14 15 16. Of these things put them in remembrance charging them before God that they STRIVE not about WORDS to no profit but to the subverting of the Hearers Study to shew thy self approved UNTO GOD a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed RIGHTLY DIVIDING the word of Truth But shun profane and vain Bablings for they will increase unto more Ungodliness and their Word will eat as doth a Canker 2 Pet. 3. 16. In which Pauls Epistles are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons at the Sign of the Princes Arms in S t. Pauls Church-yard 1673. Advertisements READERS THE Book is so big that I must make no longer Preface than to give you this necessary short account 1. Of the Quality 2. And the Reasons of this Work I. The matter you will see in the Contents As Amâsius his Cases of Conscience are to his Medulla the second and Practical part of Theologie so is this to a Methodus Theologiae which I have not yet published And 1. As to the Method of this it is partly natural but principally Moral that is partly suitable to the real order of the Matter but chiefly of usefulness secundum ordinem Intentionis where our reasons of each location are fetcht from the End Therefore unless I might be tedious in opening my reasons à fine for the order of every particular I know not how to give you full satisfaction But in this Practical part I am the less solicitous about the Accurateness of method because it more belongeth to the former Part the Theory where I do it as well as I am able 2. This Book was written in 1664. and 1665. except the Ecclesiastick Cases of Conscience and a few sheets since added And since the Writing of it some invitations drew me to publish my Reasons of the Christian Religion my Life of Faith and Directions for weak Christians by which the work of the two first Chapters here is fullier done And therefore I was inclined here to leave them out But for the use of such Families as may have this without the other I forbore to dismember it 3. But there is a great disproportion between the several parts of the Book 1. The first Part is largest because I thought that the Heart must be kept with greatest diligence and that if the Tree be good the fruit will be good and I remember Pauls counsel 1 Tim. 4. 16. Take heed to thy self and unto thy Doctrine Continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee Nothing is well done by him that beginneth not at home As the man is so is his strength and work 2. The two first Chapters are too course and tedious for those of the higher form who may pass them over But the rest must be spoken to To whom that is unprofitable which is most suitable and pleasant to more exercised and accurate wits The Grand Directions are but the explication of the essentials of Christianity or of the Baptismal Covenant even of our Relation-duties to God the Father Son in several parts of his Relation and of the Holy Ghost The doctrine of Temptations is handled with brevity because they are so numerous lest a due amplification should have swelled the Book too much when a small part of their number maketh up so much of Mr. Iohn Downame's great and excellent Treatise called The Christian Welfare The great radical sins are handled more largely than seemeth proportionable to the rest because all die when they are dead And I am large about Redeeming Time because therein the sum of a holy obedient life is included 4. If any say Why call you that a sum of Practical Theologie which is but the Directing part and leaveth out the explication reasons various Uses marks motives c I answer 1. Had I intended Sermonwise to say all that might well be said on each subject it would have made many Volumes as big as this 2. Where I thought them needful the explication of each duty and sin is added with marks contraries counterfeits motives c. And Uses are easily added by an ordinary Reader without my naming them 5. I do especially desire you to observe that the resolving of practical Cases of Conscience and the reducing of Theoretical knowledge into serious Christian Practice and promoting a skilful facility in the faithful exercise of universal obedience and Holiness of heart and life is the great work of this Treatise And that where I thought it needful the Cases are reduced to express Questions and Answers But had I done so by all many such Volumes would have been too little And therefore I thought the Directing way most brief and fit for Christian practice For if you mark them you will find few Directions in the Book which may not pass for the answer of an implyed Question or Case of Conscience And when I have given you the Answer in a Direction an ingenious Reader can tell what Question it is that is answered And so many hundred Cases are here resolved especially in the two first Parts which are not interrogatively named 6. And I must do my self the right as to notifie to the Reader that this Treatise was written when I was for not-subscribing Declaring c. forbidden by the Law to Preach and when I had been long separated far from my Library and from all Books saving an inconsiderable parcel which wandred with me where I went By which means this Book hath two defects 1. It hath no Cases of Conscience but what my bare memory brought to hand And Cases are so
innumerable that it is far harder methinks to remember them than to answer them whereby it came to pass that some of the Ecclesiastical Cases are put out of their proper place because I could not seasonably remember them For I had no one Casuist but Amesius with me But after about twelve years separation having received my Library I find that the very sight of Sayrus Fragoso Roderiquez Tâlât c. might have helpt my memory to a greater number But perhaps these will be enough for those that I intend them for 2. And by the same cause the Margin is unfurnished of such citations as are accounted an Ornament and in some cases are very useful The scraps inserted out of my few trivial Books at hand being so mean as that I am well content except about Monarchy Par. 4. that the Reader pass them by as not worthy of his notice And it 's like that the absence of Books will appear to the Readers loss in the materials of the Treatise But I shall have this advantage by it that he will not accuse me as a plagiary And it may be some little advantage to him that he hath no transcript of any mans Books which he had before but the product of some experience with a naked unbyassed perception of the Matter or Things themselves 7. Note also that the third and fourth parts are very much defective of what they should contain about the Power and Government of Gods officers in Church and State of which no Readers will expect a reason but strangers whose expectations I may not satisfie But as I must profess that I hope nothing here hath proceeded from Disloyalty or disrespect to Authority Government Unity Concord Peace or Order or from any opposition to Faith Piety Love or Iustice so if unknown to me there be any thing found here that is contrary or injurious to any one of these I do hereby renounce it and desire it may be taken as non-scriptum II. The Ends and Uses for which I wrote this Book are these 1. That when I could not Preach the Gospel as I would I might do it as I could 2. That three sorts might have the benefit as followeth I That the Younger and more unfurnished and unexperienced sort of Ministers might have a promptuary at hand for Practical Resolutions and Directions on the subjects that they have need to deal in And though Sayrus and Fragoso have done well I would not have us under a necessity of going to the Romanists for our ordinary supplies Long have our Divines been wishing for some fuller Casuistical Tractate Perkins began well Bishop Sanderson hath done excellently de Iuramento Amesius hath exceeded all though briefly Mr. David Dickson hath put more of our English Cases about the state of Sanctification into Latine than ever was done before him Bishop Ier. Tailor hath in two Folio's but begun the copious performance of the work And still men are calling for more which I have attempted Hoping that others will come after and do better than we all If any call it my Pride to think that any Ministers or Students are so raw as to need any thing that I can add to them let him but pardon me for saying that such demure pleadings for a feigned Humility shall not draw me to a confederacy with Blindness Hypocrisie and Sloth and I will pardon him for his charge of Pride It is long ago since many forreign Divines subscribed a request that the English would give them in Latine a sum of our Practical Theologie which Mr. Dury sent over and twelve great Divines of ours wrote to Bishop Usher as Dr. Bernard tells you in his Life to draw them up a form or Method But it was never done among them all And it 's said that Bishop Downame at last undertaking it he dyed in the attempt Had this been done it s like my labour might have been spared But being undone I have thus made this Essay But I have been necessitated to leave out much about Conversion Mortification Self-denyal Self-acquaintance Faith Justification Judgement Glory c. because I had written of them all before II. And I thought it not unuseful to the more Judicious Masters of Families who may choose and read such parcels to their Families as at any time the case requireth And indeed I began it rudely with an Intention of that Plainness and Brevity which Families require But finding that it swelled to a bigger bulk than I intended I was fain to write my Life of Faith as a Breviate and Substitute for the Families and persons that cannot have and use so large a Volume presupposing my Directions for sound Conversion for weak Christians and for pâace of Conscience printed long ago III. And to private Christians I thought it not in vain to have at hand so Universal a Directory and Resolution of Doubts not expecting that they remember all but may on every occasion turn to such particulars as they most need But I must expect to be assaulted with these Objections And it is not only prophane deriders and malignant enemies that are used by Satan to âilifie and oppose our service of God Object I. You have written too many Books already Who do you think hath so little to do as to read them all Is it not Pride and self-conceitedness to think that your scriblings are worthy to be read and that the world hath need of so much of your instructions as if there were no wise men but you You have given offence already by your writings you should write less and Preach more Answ. 1. I have seldome if ever in all my Ministry omitted one Sermon for all my Writings I was not able to Live in London nor ride abroad But through Gods mercy I seldom omitted any opportunities at home 2. And if I Preach the same Doctrine that I write why should not men be as angry with me for preaching it as for writing it But if it be good and true why is it not as good Preach by the Press to many thousands and for many years after I am dead as to Preach to a Parlour full for a few hours Or why is not both as good as one 3. I will not take the Reverend Objector to be ignorant that Writing and publishing the Word of God by it is preaching it and the most publick preaching And hath the example of the Apostles and Evangelists as well as speaking And one is no more appropriate to them than the other though the Extraordinaries of both be proper to them And do you not perceive what self-condemning contradiction it is at the same time to cry out against those that disswade you from preaching or hinder you and tell you it is needless and you are proud to think that the world needeth your preaching and yet your selves to say the very same against your brethrens preaching by the Press I know an ignorant illiterate Sectary might say Writing is no preaching and you are
any such necessary p. 916 Q. 173. What particular Directions for Order of Studies and Books should be observed by young Students who intend the Sacred Ministry p. 917 Q. 174. What Books should a poor man choose that for want of money or Time can have or read but few There are three Catalogues set down but somewhat disorderly as they came into my memory 1. The smallest or Poorest Library 2. A poor Library that hath considerable Additions to the former 3. Some more Additions to them for them that can go higher With some additional Notes p. 921 TOME IV. Christian Politicks CHAP. I. GEneral Directions for an Upright Life p. 1 The most passed by on necessary reasons CHAP. II. A few brief Memoranda to Rulers for the interest of Christ the Church and mens salvation p. 5 CHAP. III. Directions to Subjects concerning their duty to Rulers p. 9. Of the Nature and Causes of Government Mr. Richard Hookers Ecclesiastical Policy as it is for Popularity examined and confuted Directions for obedience Duty to Rulers Q. Is the Magistrate Iudge in Controversies of faith or worship p. 20. Q. 2. May the Oath of Supremacy be lawfully taken in which the King is pronounced Supream Governour in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil p. 20. Q. 3. Doth not this give the Pastors power to the Magistrate Q. 4. Hath the King power of Church Discipline and Excommunication Q. 5. If Kings and Bishops differ which must be obeyed Q. Is he obliged to suffer who is not obliged to obey p. 25. Of admonition of Rulers Q. 1. Whether the sound Authors of Politicks be against Monarchy Q. 2. Whether Civilians be against it Q. 3. Are Historians against it Greek Roman or Christian Q. 4. Whether Athens Rome Aristotle Philosophers Academies be against it Q. 5. Are Divines and Church discipline against it Q. 6. Is Scripture and Christianity against it Objections answered Q. Are Papists Prelatists and Puritans against it Bilson and Andrews Vindication of the Puritans Christianity is the greatest help to Government Further Directions Tit. 2. Q. Whether mans Laws bind the Conscience Q. Is it a sin to break every Law of man More fully answered p. 36 37 CHAP. IV. Directions to Lawyers about their Duty to God p. 39 CHAP. V. The Duty of Physicions p. 43 CHAP. VI. Directions to Schâolmasters about their duties for Childrens souls p. 44 CHAP. VII Directions for Souldiers about their duty in point of Conscience Princes Nobles Iudges and Iustices are past by lest they take Counsel for injury p. 46 CHAP. VIII Advice against Murder p. 50. The Causes of it Wars Tyranny malignant persecuting fury Unrighteous judgement oppression and uncharitableness Robbery Wrath Guilt and Shame Malice and Revenge wicked Impatience Covetousness Ambition c. The Greatness of the sin The Consequents Tit. 2. Advice against Self-murder The Causes to be avoided Melancholy worldly trouble discontent passion c. p. 54. Besides Gluttony Tipling and Idleness the great Murderers CHHP. IX Directions for the forgiving of injuries and enemies Against wrath malice revenge and persecution Practical Directions Curing Considerations Twenty p. 56 CHAP. X. Cases resolved about forgiving wrongs and debts and about self defence and seeking âur Right by Law or otherwise p. 61 Q. What injuries are we bound to forgive Neg. and Affir resolved Q. 2. What is the meaning of Matth. 5. 38 c. Resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee c. p. 63 Q. 3. Am I bound to forgive another if he ask me not forgiveness Luke 17. 3 c. p. 64 Q. 4. Is it lawful to sue another at Law 1 Cor. 6. 7. Q. 5. Is it lawful to defend our lives or estates against a Robber Murderer or unjust Invader by force of Arms Q. 6. Is it lawful to take away anothers life in defending my purse or estate only p. 65 Q. 7. May we kill or wound another in defence or vindication of our honour or good name p. 66 CHAP. XI Special Directions to escape the guilt of persecution Determining much of the Case about Liberty in matters of Religion p 67. What is persecution The several kinds of it The greatness of the sin Understand the Case of Christs interest in the world Q. Whether particular Churches should require more of their members as Conditions of Communion than the Catholick Church and What Penalties to be chosen that hinder the Gospel least More Directions to the number of forty one CHAP. XII Directions against Scandal as Given p. 80. What Scandal is and what not The sorts of scandalizing The Scripture sense of it Twenty Directions CHAP. XIII Directions against Scandal taken or an aptness to receive hurt by the words or deeds of others Especially quarrelling with Godliness p. 88. or taking encouragement to sin Practical Directions against taking hurt by others p. 90. CHAP. XIV Directions against soul-murder and partaking of other mens sins p. 92 The several wayes of destroying souls How we are not guilty of other mens sin and ruine CHAP. XV. General Directions for furthering the salvation of others p. 95 CHAP. XVI Special Directions for holy Conference Exhortation and Reproof Tit. 1. Motives to holy Conference and Exhortation p 97 Tit. 2. Directions to Christian edifying discourse p. 100 Tit. 3. Special Directions for Exhortations and Reproofs p. 101 CHAP. XVII Directions for keeping Peace with all men How the Proud do hinder Peace Many more Causes and Cures opened p. 103 CHAP. XVIII Directions against all Theft fraud or injurious getting keeping or desiring that which is anothers p. 107 Tit. 2. Cases of Conscience about Theft and such injuries Q. 1. Is it sin to steal to save ones life Q. 2. May I take that which another is bound to give me and will not Q. 3. May I take my own from an unjust borrower or possessor if I cannot otherwise get it Q. 4. May I recover my own by force from him that taketh it by force from me Q. 5. May we take from the Rich to relieve the poor Q. 6. If he have so much as that he will not miss it may I take some Q. 7. May not one pluck ears of Corn or an Apple from a Tree c. Q. 8. May a Wife Child or Servant take more than a Cruel Husband Parent or Master doth allâw May Children forsake their Parents for such Cruelty Q. 9. May I take what a man forfeiteth penally Q. 10. What if I resolve when I take a thing in necessity to make satisfaction if ever I be able Q. 11. What if I know not whether the Owner would consent Q. 12. May I take in jeast from a friend with a purpose to restore it Q 13. May I not take from another to prevent his hurting himself Q. 14. May I take away Cards Dice Play-books Papist-books by which he would hurt his soul. Q 15. May not a Magistrate take the Subjects goods when it is necessary to their own preservation Q 16. May I take from
another for a holy use p. 109 c. CHAP. XIX General Directions and particular Cases of Conscience âboât Contracts in general and about Buying and selling borrowing and lending and Usury in particular p. 113 Tit. 1. General Directions against injurious bargaining and contracts ibid. Tit. 2. Cases about Iustice in Contracts p. 114. Q. 1. Must I in all Cases do as I would be done by Q. 2. Is a Son bound by the Contracts which Parents or Guardians made for him in his Infancy Q 3. Is one obliged by a Contract made in ignorance or mistake of the matter Q. 4. Doth the contract of a man drunk or in passion or melancholy bind him Q 5. May another hold such a one to his contract or if he give or play away his money Q. 6. Am I obliged by Covenanting words without a Covenanting intent Q. 7. May I promise a Robber money to save my life or to save a greater commodity Q. 8. May I give money to a Iudge or Magistrate to hire him to do me justice and not to wrong me or not to persecute me Q. 9. If I make such a contract may the Magigistrate take it of me Q 10. If I promise money to an Officer or Robber under a force am I bound to pay it when the necessity is over So of other constrained promises Q. 11. May I promise a Thief or Bribe-taker to conceal him and must I keep that promise Q. 12. Must I keep a promise which I was drawn into by deceit Q 13. Is it a Covenant when neither of the contracting parties understand each other Q. 14. Must I stand to a bargain made for me by a friend or servant to my injury Q. 15. If I say I will give one this or that am I bound to give it him Q 16. Doth a mental promise not uttered oblige Q. 17. May I promise to do a thing simply unlawful without a purpose to perform it to save my life Q. 18. May any thing otherwise unlawful become a duty upon a promise to do it Q. 19. May he that promised for a reward to promote anothers sin take the reward when he hath done it Q. 20. Am I bound by a contract without witness or legal form Q 21. May an Office in a Court of Iustice be bought for money Q. 22. May a place of Magistracy or Iudicature be bought Q. 23. May one sell a Church Benefice or Orders Q. 24 May one buy Orders or a Benefice Q. 25. May I give money to Servants or Officers to assist my Suit Q. 26. May I after give by way of gratitude to the Bishop Patron c. Q. 27. May a Bishop or Pastor take money for Sermons Sacraments or other Offices Q. 28. May I disoblige another of his promise made to me Q. 29. What if it be secânded by an Oath Q. 30. Doth a promise bind when the cause or reason proveth a mistake Q 31. What if a following accident make it more to my hurt than could be foreseen Q. 32. Or if it make it injurious to a third person Q. 33. Or if a fâllowing accident make the perfârmance a sin Q. 34. Am I bound to him that breaketh Covenant with me Q. 35. May I contract to do that which I foresee like to become impossible before the time of performance Tit. 3. Cases about Iustice in Buying and Selling p. 120 Q 1. Am I bound to endeavour the gain of him that I bargain with as well as my own Q. 2. May I take more for my labour or goods than the worth if I can get it Q. 3. May I ask more in the Market than the worth Q. 4. How shall the worth of a Commodity be judged of Q. 5. May I conceal the faults or make a thing seem better than it is by setting the best side outward adorning c. Q. 6. If I was deceived or gave more than the worth may I do so to repair my loss Q. 7. If I foresee a cheapness of my Commodity as by coming in of Ships c. must I tell the buyer of it that knoweth it not Q. 8. May I keep my Commodity if I foresee a dearth Q. 9. May one use many words in buying and selling Q. 10. May I buy as cheap as I can or below the worth Q. 11. May I sell dearer for anothers necessity Cases instanced in Q. 12. May I take advantage of the buyers ignorance Q. 13. May I strive to get a good bargain before another Q. 14. May I buy a thing or hire a servant which another is first about or call away his Chapman Q. 15. May I dispraise anothers Commodity to draw the buyer to my own Q. 16. What to do in cases of doubtful equity Q. 17. What if the buyer lose the thing bought before the payment as a Horse dye c. Q. 18. If the thing bought as Amber-Chryse Iewels c. prove of much more worth than either party expected must more be after payed Q. 19. What if the title prove bad which was before unknown Q. 20. If a change of powers overthrow a title speedily who must bear the lâss p. 120 Tit. 4. Cases about Lending and Bârrowing Q 1. May one borrow money who seeth no probability that he shall be able to repay it Q 2. May one drive a Trade with borrowed money when success and repayment is uncertain Q. 3. May be that cannot pay his debts retain any thing for his food and rayment Q. 4. May one that breaketh secure that to his Wife and Children which on Marriage he promised before he was in debt Q. 5. May one that breaketh retain somewhat to set up again by compounding with his Creditors Q. 6. May I in necessity break my day of payment Q. 7. May I borrow of one to keep day with another Q. 8. May one that hath no probability of paying the last man borrow of one to pay another Q. 9. Is it lawful to take pledges pawns or mortgages for security Q. 10. May a foâfeiture pledge or mortgage be kept on Covenant breaking Q. 11. May I take the promise or bond of a third person as security for my money Q. 12. Is it lawful to lend upon usury interest or increase Q. 13. Whom are we bound to lend to Q. 14. Is it lawful to take money on usury in such cases as the Lender sinneth in Q 15. Doth not contracting for a certain summ make usury the more unlawful p. 124 Tit. 5. Cases about Lusory Contracts Q. 1. Is it lawful to lay wagers about the truth of our discourses Q. 2. Is it lawful to lay wagers about Horse-races Dogs Hawks c. Q. 3. May one give money to see Games or Activities Bear-baitings Playes c. Q 4. Is it lawful to play for money at Cards Dice Lottery c. Q. 5. Or at Games of Activity as Bowling Shooting Running c. Q. 6. If the looser prove angry and unwilling to pay may I get it of him by Law p. 129 Tit.
6. Cases about losing and finding Q. 1. Must we seek out the loser to restore what we find Q. 2. May I take a reward as my due for restoring what I found Q. 3. May I wish to find any thing in my way or be glad that I find it Q. 4. May I not keep it if no owner be found Q. 5. If others be present when I find it may I not conceal or keep it to my self Q 6. Who must stand to the loss of goods trusted to another p. 130 Tit. 7. Directions to Merchants Factors Travellers Chaplains that live among Heathens Infidels or Papists p. 131 Q. 1. Is it lawful to put ones self or servants specially young unsetled Apprentices into the temptations of an Infidel or Popish Countrey meerly to get Riches as Merchants do p. 131 Q. 2. May a Merchant or Embassadour leave his Wife to live abroad p. 132 Q. 3. Is it lawful for young Gentlemen to travail into other Kingdoms as part of their education The danger of Common Traveling p. 133 Directions for all these Travellers in their abode abroad p. 135 CHAP. XX. Motives and Directions against Oppression The sorts of it The greatness of the sin of Oppression The Cure p. 137 Tit. 2. Cases about Oppression especially of Tenants p. 140 Q. 1. Is it lawful to buy land of a liberal Landlord when the buyer must needs set it dearer than the Sâlâer did Q. 2. May one take as much for his Land as it is worth Q. 3. May he raise his Rents Q. 4. How much below the full worth must a Landlord set his Land Q. 5. May not a Landlord that is in debt or hath a payment to pay raise his Rents to pay it Q. 6. If I cannot relieve the honest poor without raising the Rent of Tenants that are worthy of less charity may I do it Q. 7. May I penally raise a Tenants Rent or turn him out because he is a bad man Q. 8. May one take house or Land while another is in possession of it Q. 9. May a rich man put out his Tenants to lay the Lands to his own dâmesnes Q. 10. May one Tenant have divers Tenements Q. 11. May one have divers Trades Q. 12. Or keep shops in several Market Towns CHAP. XXI Cases and Directions about Prodigality and sinful waste What it is p. 143. Wayes of sinful waste Q. 1. Are all men bound to fare alike Or what is excess Q. 2. What cost on visits and entertainments is lawful Whether the greatest good is still to be preferred Q. 3. What is excess in buildings Q. 4. May we not in building dyet c. be at some charge for our Delight as well as for Necessity Q. 5. When are Recreations too costly Q. 6. When is Apparel too costly Q. 7. When is Retinue Furniture and other pomp too costly Q. 8. When is House-keeping too costly Q. 9. When are Childrens Portions too great Q. 10. How far is frugality in small matters a duty Q. 11. Must all labour in a Calling Q. 12. May one desire to increase and grow rich Q. 13. Can one be prodigal in giving to the Church Q. 14. May one give too much to the poor Q. 15. May the Rich lay out on conveniences pomp or pleasure when multitudes are in deep necessities Directions against Prodigality p. 143 c. CHAP. XXII Cases and Directions against injurious Law suits witnessing and judgement p. 148 Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Law suits and proceedings Q. 1. When is it Lawful to go to Law Q. 2. May I Sue a poor man for a Debt or Trespass Q. 3. May I Sue a Surety whose interest was not concerned in the debt Q. 4. May I Sue for the Use of Money Q. 5. May Law Suits be used to vex and humble an insolent bad man Q. 6. May a rich man use his friends and purse to bear down a poor man that hath a bad cause Q. 7. May one use such forms in Law Suits Declarations Answers c. as are false according to the proper sense of the words Q. 8. May a guilty person plead Not guilty Q. 9. Is a man bound to accuse himself and offer himself to justice Q. 10. May a witness voluntarily speak that truth which he knoweth will be ill used Q. 11. May a witness conceal part of the truth Q. 12. Must a Iudge or Iury proceed secundum allegata probata when they know the witness to be false or the Cause bad but cannot evince it T it 2. Directions against these sins p. 150. The evil of unjust Suits The evil of false witness The evil of unjust judgements The Cure p. 150 CHAP. XXIII Cases of Conscience and Directions against backbiting Slandering and Evil speaking p. 152 Tit. 1. Q. 1. May we not speak evil of that which is evil Q. 2. May not the contrary be sinful silence and befriending mens sins Q. 3. What if Religious credible persons report it Q. 4. If I may not speak it may I not believe them Q. 5. May we not speak ill of open persecutors or enemies of Godliness Q. 6. What if it be one whose reputation countenanceth his ill Cause and his defamation would disable him Q. 7. If I may not make a true Narrative of matters of fact how may we write true Histories for posterity Q. 8. What if it be one that hath been ofâ admonished Q. 9. Or one that I cannot speak to face to face Q. 10. In what Cases may we open anothers faults Q. 11. What if I hear men praise the wicked or their sins T it 2. Directions against back-biting slandering and evil speaking p. 154 Tit. 3. The great evil of these sins p. 155 CHAP. XXIV Cases of and Directions against Censoriousness and sinful judging p. 157 Tit. 1. Cases Q. 1. Am I not bound to judge truly of every one as he is Q. 2. How far may we judge ill of one by outward appearance as face gesture c. Q. 3. How far may we censure on the report of others Q. 4. Doth not the fifth Command bind us to judge better of Parents and Princes than their lives declare them to be Q. 5. Whom must we judge sincere and holy Christians Q. 6. Is it not a sin to err and take a man for better than he is Q. 7. Whom must I take for a visible Church member Q. 8. Whom must I judge a true Worshipper of God Q. 9. Which must I take for a true Church Q. 10. Whom must we judge true Prophets and true Pastors of the Church p. 157 Tit. 2. Directions for the Cure of sinful Censoriousness p. 159 Tit. 3. The evil of the sin of Censoriousness p. 160 Tit. 4. Directions for those that are rashly censured by others p. 162 CHAP. XXV Cases and Directions about Trusts and Secrets p. 163 Tit. 3. The Cases Q. 1. How must we not put our Trust in man Q. 2. Whom to choose for a Trust Q. 3. When may I commit a
clean and delectable and paved with mercies and fortified and secured by Divine protection and where Christ is your Conductor and so many have sped so well before you and the wisest and best in the world are your companions Live then as men that have changed their Master their end their hopes their way and work Religion layeth not men to sleep though it be the only way to Rest. It awakeneth the sleepy soul to higher thoughts and hopes and labours than ever it was well acquainted with before He that is in Christ is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. 17. You never sought that which would pay for all your cost and diligence till now You never were in a way that you might make haste in without repenting of your haste till now How glad should you be that Mercy hath brought you into the right way after the wanderings of such a sinful life And your gladness and thankfulness should now be shewed by your cheerful diligence and zeal As Christ did not raise up Lazarus from the dead to do nothing or live to little purpose though the Scripture giveth us not the history of his life So did he not raise you from the death of sin to live idely or to be unprofitable in the world He that giveth you his Spirit to be a principle of heavenly life within you expecteth that you stir up the gift that he hath given you and live according to that heavenly principle Direction 16. ENgage thy self in the chearful constant use of the means and helps appointed by God Direct 16. for thy confirmation and salvation § 1. He can never expect to attain the end that will not be perswaded to use the means Of your selves you can do nothing God giveth his help by the means which he hath appointed and fitted to your help Of the use of these I shall treat more fully afterwards I am now only to name them to thee that thou maist know what it is that thou hast to do 1. That you must hear or read the Word of God and other good Books which expound it and How Paenitents of old did rise even from a particular sin judge by these words of Pacianus Paââââââ ad Poeâât Bibl. Pat. To. 3. p. 74. You must not only do that which may be seen of the Priest and praised by the Bishop to weep before the Church to lament a lost or sinful life in a âordid garment to fast pray to role on the earth if any invite you to the Bath or such pleasures to refuse to go If any bid you to a Feast to say These things are for the happy I have sinned against God and am in danger to perish for ever What should I do at Banquets who have wronged the Lord Besides these you must take the poor by the hand you must beseech the Widdow lye at the feet of the Presbyters beg of the Church to forgive you and pray for you you must try all means rather than perish apply it I shewed you before The new born Christian doth encline to this as the new born child doth to the breast 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. Laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as new born babes that desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby Psal. 1. 2 3. The blessed mans delight is in the Law of the Lord and therein doth he meditate day and night § 2. 2. Another means is the publick worshipping of God in communion with his Church and people Besides the benefit of the word there preached the prayers of the Church are effectual for the members and it raiseth the soul to holy joyes to joyn with well ordered Assemblies of the Saints in the Praises of the Almighty The Assemblies of holy worshippers of God are the places of his delight and must be the places of our delight They are most like to the Celestial Society that sound forth the praises of the glorious Iebovah with purest minds and cheerful voice In his Temple doth every one speak of his glory Psal. 29. 9. In such a Chore what soul will not be rapt up with delight and desire to joyn in the consort and harmony In such a flame of united desires and praises what soul so cold and dull that will not be enflamed and with more than ordinary facility and alacrity fly up to God § 3. 3. Another means is private prayer unto God When God would tell Ananias that Paul was converted he saith of him Behold he prayeth Acts 9. 11. Prayer is the breath of the new creature The Spirit of Adoption given to every child of God is a Spirit of prayer and teacheth them to cry Abba Father and helpeth their infirmities when they know not what to pray as they ought and when words are wanting it as it were intercedeth for them with groans which they cannot express in words Gal. 4. 6. Rom. 8. 15 26 27. And God knoweth the meaning of the Spirit in those groans The first workings of grace are in Desires after grace provoking the soul to servent prayer by which more grace is speedily obtained Ask then and ye shall have seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened to you Luke 11. 9. § 4. 4. Another means to be used is Confession of sin not only to God for so every wicked man may do because he knoweth that God is already acquainted with it all and this is no addition to his shame He so little regardeth the eye of God that he is more ashamed when it is known to men But in three Cases Confession must be made also to Man 1. In case you have wronged man and are thus bound to make him satisfaction As if you have robbed him defrauded him slandered him or born false witness against him 2. In case you are Children or Servants that are under the government of Parents or Masters and are called by them to give an acount of your actions You are bound then to give a true account 3. In case you have need of the Counsel or Prayers of others for the setling of your consciences in peace In this case you must so far open your case to them as is necessary to their effectual help for your recovery For if they know not the disease they will be unfit to apply the remedy In these cases it is true that He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Prov. 28. 13. § 5. 5. Another Means to be used is the familiar company and holy converse with humble sincere experienced Christians The Spirit that is in them and breatheth and acteth by them will kindle the like holy flames in you Away with the company of idle prating sensual men that can talk of nothing but their worldly wealth or business or their reputations or their appetites and lusts
minded man being denominated from what is predominant in him And yet because he knoweth that he must dye and for ought he knows he may then find against his will that there is another life which he must enter upon leât the Gospel should prove true he must have some Religion And therefore he will take up as much as will stand with his temporal welfare hoping that he may have both thaâ and Heaven hereafter and he will be as Religious as the predominant interest of the flesh will give him leave He is resolved rather to venture his soul than to be here undone and that 's his first principle But he is resolved to be as godly as will stand with a worldly fleshly life that 's his second principle And he will hope for Heaven as the end of such a way as this that 's his third Therefore he will place most of his Religion in those things which are most consistent with worldliness and carnality and will not cost his flesh too dear as in being as this or that opinion Church or party whether Papist Prot ãâ¦ã t or some smaller party in adhering to that party and being zealous for them in acquiring and usiâg such parts and gifts as may make him highly esteemed by others and in doing such good works as cost him not too dear and in forbearing such sins as would procure his disgrace and shame and cost his flesh dearer to commit them than forbear them and such other as his flesh can spare This is his fourth principle And he is resolved when tryal calleth him to part with God and his conscience or with the world that he will rather let go God and Conscience and venture upon the pains hereafter which he thinks to be uncertain than to run upon a certain calamity or undoing here At least he hath no Resolution to the contrary which will carry him out in a day of tryal This is his fifth principle And his sixth principle is That yet he will not torment himself or blot his name with confessing himself a temporizing worldling resolved to turn any way to save himself And therefore he will be sure to believe nothing to be Truth and duty that is dangerous but will furnish himself with Arguments to prove that it is not the will of God and that sin is no sin Yea perhaps conscience and duty shall be pleaded for his sin It shall be out of tenderness and piety and charity to others that he will sin and will charge them to be the sinners that comply not and do not wickedly as well as he He will be one that shall first make a Controversie of every sin which his flesh calls necessary and of every Duty which his flesh counts intollerably dear And then when it is a Controversie and many reputed Wise and some reputed Good are on his side he thinks he is on equal terms with the most honest and sincere He hath got a burrow for his Conscience and his Credit He will not believe himself to be an Hypocrite and no one else must think him one lest they be uncharitable For then the censure must fall on the whole party and then it is sufficient to defend his reputation of piety to say Though we differ in opinion we must not differ in affection and must not condemn each other for such differences A very great Truth where rightly applyed But what is it O Hypocrite that makes thee differ in cases where thy flesh is interessed rather than in any other And why wast thou never of that mind till now that thy worldly interest requireth it And how cometh it to pass that thou artâ alwayes on the self-saving opinion And whence is it that thou consultest with those only that are of the opinion which thou desirest should be true and either not at all or partially and slightly with those that are against it Wast thou ever conscious to thy self that thou hast accounted what it might cost thee to be saved and reckoned on the worst and resolved in the strength of grace to go through all Didst thou ever meddle with much of the self-denying part of Religion or any duties that would cost thee dear May not thy Conscience tell thee that thou never didst believe that thou shouldst suffer much for thy Religion that is thou hadst a secret purpose to avoid it § 3. O Sirs take warning from the mouth of Christ who hath so oft and plainly warned you of this sin and danger and told you how necessary self-denyal and a suffering disposition is to all that are his Disciples and that the worldly fleshly principle predominant in the Hypocrite is manifest by his self-saving course He must take up his Cross and follow him in a Conformity to his sufferings that will indeed be his Disciple We must suffer with him if we will reign with him Rom. 8. 17 18. Mat. 13. 20 21 22. He that received the seed in stony places the same is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it yet hath he not root in himself but dureth for a while for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word by and by he is offended He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful If thou have not taken Heaven for thy part and art not resolved to let go all that would keep thee from it I must say to thy Conscience as Christ to one of thy Predecessors Luke 18. 22. Yet lâckest thou one thing and such a One as thou wilt find of flat necessity to thy salvation And it 's likely some trying time even in this life will detect thine Hypocrisie and make thee Go away sorrowful for thy riches sake as he ver 23. If godliness with contentment seem not sufficient gain to thee thou wilt make thy Gain go instead of Godliness that is thy Gain shall be next thy heart and have the precedency which Godliness should have and thy gain shall choose thee thy Religion and over-rule thy Conscience and sway thy life O Sirs take warning by the Apostates and temporizing hypocrites that have lookt behind them and with Demas for the world forsaken their duty and are set up by Justice as Pillars of Salt for your warning and remembrance And as ever you would make sure work in turning to God and escape the too late repentance of the hypocrite see that you go to the root and resign the world to the will of God and reckon what it may cost you to be followers of Christ and look not after any portion but the favour of God and life eternal and see that there be no secret reserve in your hearts for your worldly interest or prosperity and think not of halfing it between God and the world nor making your Religion complyant with the desires and interest of the flesh Take God
John 3. 18. 3. 5. Thou sleepest in Irons in the captivity of the Devil among the walking judgements of God in a life that is still expecting an end in a Boat that is swiftly carried to eternity just at the entrance of another world and that world will be Hell if Grace awake thee not Thou art going to see the face of God to see the world of Angels or Devils and to be a companion with one of them for ever And is this a place or case to sleep in Is thy Bed so soft thy dwelling so safe God standeth over thee man and dost thou sleep Christ is coming and death is coming and judgement coming and dost thou sleep Didst thou never read of the foolish Virgins that slept out their time and knockt and cryed in vain when it was too late Matth. 25. 5. Thou mightest wiselyer sleep on the Pinnacle of a Steeple in a Storm than have a soul asleep in so dangerous a case as thou art in The Devil is awake and is rocking thy Cradle How busie is he to keep off Ministers or Conscience or any that would awake thee None of thy enemies are asleep and yet wilt thou sleep in the thickest of thy foes Is the battle a sleeping time or thy race a sleeping time when Heaven or Hell must be the End While he can keep thee asleep the Devil can do almost what he liât with thee He knows that thou hast now no use of thy eyes or understanding or power to resist him The Learnedst Doctor in his sleep is as unlearned actually as an Ideot and will dispute no better than an unlearned man This makes many learned men to be ungodly they are asleep in sin The Devil could never have made such a drudge of thee to do his work against Christ and thy soul if thou hadst been awake Thou wouldst never have followed his whistle to the Ale-house the Play-house the Gaming-house and to other sins if thou hadst been in thy wits and well awake Read Prov. 7. 23. 24. I cannot believe that thou longest to be damned or so hatest thy self as to have done as thou hast done to have a lived Godless a Graceless a Prayerless and yet a merry careless life if thy eyes had been opened and thou hadst known and feelingly known that this was the way to Hell Nature it self will hardly go to Hell awake But it 's easie to abuse a man that is asleep Thou hast Reason but didst thou ever awake it to one hours serious Consideration of thy endless state and present case O dreadful judgement to be given over to the Spirit of slumber Rom. 11. 8. Is it not high time now to awake out of sleep Rom. 13. 11. When the light is arisen and shines about thee When others that care for their souls are busily at work When thou hast slept out so much precious time already Many a mercy and perhaps some Ministers have been as Candles burnt out to light thee while thou hast slept How oât hast thou been called already How long wilt thou sleep O sluggard Prov. 6. 9. 10. Yet thou hast thundering calls and allarums to awake thee God calls and Ministers call Mercies call and judgements call and yet wilt thou not awake The voice of the Lord is powerful full of Majesty breaketh the Cedars shaketh the Wilderness and yet cannot it awake thee Thou wilt not sleep about far smaller matters at meat or drink or in common talk or Market But O how much greater business hast thou to keep thee awake Thou hast yet an unholy soul to be renewed an ungodly life to be reformed an offended God to be reconciled to and many thousand sins to be forgiven Thou hast death and judgement to prepare for thou hast Heaven to win and Hell to scape Thou hast many a needful Truth to learn and many a holy duty to perform and yet dost thou think it time to sleep Paul that had less need than thou did watch and pray and labour day and night Acts 20. 31. 1 Thess. 3. 10. O that thou knewest how much better it is to be awake While thou sleepest thou losest the benefit of the Light and all the mercies that attend thee The Sun is but as a clod to a man asleep The world is as no world to him The beauty of Heaven and Earth are nothing to him Princes friends and all things are forgotten by him So doth thy sleep in sin make nothing of health and patience time and help Ministers Books and daily warnings O what a day hast thou for everlasting if thou hadst but a heart to use it What a price hast thou in thine hand Prov. 10. 5. Sleep not out thy day thy harvest time thy tide time They that sleep sleep in the night 1 Thess. 5. 7. Awake and Christ will give thee light Rom. 13. 12. Ephes. 5. 14. Awake to righteousness and sin not 1 Cor. 15. 34. O when thou seest the Light of Christ what a wonder will it possess thee with at the things which thou now forgettest What joy will it fill thee with and with what pity to the sleepy world But if thou wilt needs sleep on be it known to thee sinner it shall not be long If thou wilt wake no sooner death and vengeance will awake thee Thou wilt wake when thou seest the other world and seest the things which thou wouldst not believe and comest before thy dreadful Judge Thy damnation slumbereth not 2 Pet. 2. 3. There are no sleepy souls in Heaven or Hell all are awake there and the day that hath awakened so many shall waken thee Watch then if thou love thy soul lest thy Lord come suddenly and find thee sleeping Mark 13. 34 35 36 37. What I say to one I say to all Watch. § 4. Tempt 2. If Satan cannot keep the soul in a sleepy careless inconsiderate forgetfulness he would Tempt 2. make the unregenerate soul believe that there is no such thing as Regenerating Grace but that it is a fancied thing which no man hath experience of and he saith as Nicodemus How can these things be John 3. 4. He thinks that natural conscience is enough § 5. Direct 2. But this may be easily refuted by observing that Holiness is but the very Health and Direct 2. rectitude of the soul and is no otherwise supernatural than as Health to him that is born a Leper See 2 Cor. 5. 17. Gal. 6. 15. Gal. 4. 19. Joh. 3. 3. 5. 6. Matth. 18. 3. 1 Pet. 1. 23. It is the rectitude of Nature or its disposition to the use and end that it was made for Though Grace be called supernatural 1. Because it is not born with us and 2. Corrupted Nature is against it 3. And the End of it is the God of Nature who is above Nature 4. And the Revelation and other means are supernatural as Christs incarnation resurrection c. Yet both Nature and Scripture and experience tell you
they are sins § 73. Direct 6. And indeed do you not know that it is a sin to love the world better than God Direct 6. and fleshly pleasure better than Gods service and Riches better than grace and holiness and to do more for the body than for the soul and for earth than for Heaven Are you uncertain whether these are sins And do you not feel that they are your sins You cannot pretend ignorance for these But what causeth your Ignorance Is it because you would fain know and cannot Do you read and hear and study and enquire and pray for knowledge and yet cannot know Or is it not because you would not know or think it not worth the pains to get it or because you love your sin And will such wilful ignorance as this excuse you No it doth make your sin the greater It sheweth the greater dominion of sin when it can use thee as the Philistines did Sampson put out thy eyes and make a ârudge of thee and conquer thy Reason and make thee believe that evil is good and good is evil Now it hath mastered the principal fortress of thy soul when thy understanding is mastered by it He is reconciled indeed to his enemy who taketh him to be a friend Do you not know that God should have your heart and Heaven should have your chiefest care and diligence and that you should make the Word of God your Rule and your delight and meditation day and night If you know not these things it is because you would not know them And it is a miserable case to be given up to a blinded mind Take heed lest at last you commit the horridst sins and do not know them to be sins For such there are that mock at Godliness and persecute Christians and Ministers of Christ and know not that they do ill but think they do God service John 16. 2. If a man will make himself drunk and then kill and steal and abuse his neighbours and say I knew not that I did ill it shall not excuse him This is your case You are drunken with the love of fleshly pleasure and worldly things and these carry you so away that you have neither heart nor time to study the Scriptures and hear and think what God saith to you and then say that you did not know § 74. Tempt 7. But saith the Tempter it cannot be a mortal reigning sin because it is not committed Tempt 7. with the whole heart nor without some strugling and resistance Dost thou not feel the Spirit striving against the flesh And so it is with the Regenerate Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 7. 20 21 22 23. The good which thou dost not do thou wouldst do and the evil which thou dost thou wouldst not do so then it is no more thou that dost it but sin that dwelleth in thee In a sensual unregenerate person there is but one party there is nothing but flesh but thou feelest the combat between the Flesh and the Spirit within thee § 75. Direct 7. This is a snare so subtile and dangerous that you have need of eyes in your head Direct 7. to scape it Understand therefore 1. That as to the two Texts of Scripture much abused by the Tempter they speak not at all of mortal reigning sin but of the unwilling infirmities of such as had subdued all such sin and walked not after the flesh but after the Spirit and whose wills were habitually bent to good and fain would have been perfect and not have been guilty of an idle thought or word or of any imperfection in their holiest service but lived up to all that the Law requireth but this they could not do because the flesh did cast many stops before the will in the performance But this is nothing to the case of one that liveth in gross sin and an ungodly life and hath strivings and convictions and uneffectual wishes to be better and to turn but never doth it This is but sinning against Conscience and resisting the Spirit that would convert you and it maketh you worthy of many stripes as being rebellious against the importunities of Grace Sin may be resisted where it is never conquered It may Reign nevertheless for some contradiction Every one that resisteth the King doth not depose him from his Throne It 's a dangerous deceit to think that every good desire that contradicteth sin doth conquer it and is a sign of saving grace It must be a desire after a state of godliness and an effectual desire too There are degrees of Power some may have a less and limited power and yet be Rulers As the evil Spirits that possessed mens bodies were a Legion in one and What Resistance of sin may be in the ungodly but one in others yet both were possessed So is it here Grace is not without resistance in a holy Soul there is some remnants of corruption in the will it self resisting the good and yet it followeth not that Grace doth not Rule So is it in the sin of the unregenerate No man in this life is so good as he will be in Heaven or so bad as he will be in Hell Therefore none is void of all moral good And the least good will resist evil in its degree as Light doth darkness As in these cases § 76. 1. There is in the unregenerate a remnant of natural knowledge and conscience some discoveries of God and his will there are in his works God hath not left himself without witness See Acts 14. 17. 17. 27. Rom. 1. 19 20. 2. 7 8 9. This Light and Law of Nature governed the Heathens And this in its measure resisteth sin and assisteth conscience § 77. 2. When supernatural extrinsick Revelation in the Scripture is added to the Light and Law of Nature and the ungodly have all the same Law as the best it may do more § 78. 3. Moreover an ungodly man may live under a most powerful Preacher that will never let him alone in his sins and may stir up much fear in him and many good purposes and almost perswade him to be a true Christian and not only to have some uneffectual wishings and strivings against sin but to do many things after the Preacher as Herod did after Iohn and to escape the common pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2. 20. § 79. 4. Some sharp affliction added to the rest may make him seem to others a true penitent when he is stopt in his course of sin as Balaam was by the Angel with a drawn Sword and feeth that he cannot go on but in danger of his life and that God is still meeting him with some cross and hedging up his way with thorns for such mercy he sheweth to some of the ungodly this may not only breed resistance of sin but some reformation When the Babylonians were planted in Samaria they feared not God and he sent Lyons among them and then they feared him and
understood which is the chief the other cannot be referred to it When two things materially good come together and both cannot be done the greater must take place and the lesser is no duty at that time but a sin as preferred before the greater Therefore it is one of the commonest difficulties among Cases of Conscience to know which duty is the greater and to be preferred Upon this ground Christ healed on the Sabbath day and pleaded for his Disciples rubbing the ears of corn and for Davids eating the shew bread and telleth them that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath and that God will have mercy and not Sacrifice Divinity is a curious well composed frame As it is not enough that you have all the parts of your Watch or Clock but you must see that every part be in its proper place or else it will not go or answer its end so it is not enough that you know the several parts of Divinity or duty unless you know them in their true order and place You may be confounded before you are aware and led into many dangerous errors by mistaking the Order of several Truths And you may be misguided into heinous sins by mistaking the Degrees and Order of Duties As when duties of Piety and Charity seem to be competitors And when you think that the commands of men contradict the commands of God and when the substance and the circumstances or modes of duty are in question before you as inconsistent or when the means seemeth to cease to be a means by crossing of the end and in abundance of such cases you cannot easily conceive what a snare it may prove to you to be ignorant of the Methods and Ranks of duty § 2. Object If that he so what man can choose but be confounded in his Religion when there be so few that observe any Method at all and few that agree in Method and none that hath published a Scheme or Method so exact and clear as to be commonly approved by Divines themselves What then can ignorant Christians do Answ. Divinity is like a Tree that hath one Trunk and thence a few greater arms or boughs and Stoici dââunt virtutes sibi invicem ita esse connexas ut qui unam habuerit omnes habâat âââââius ân ãâã thence a thousand smaller branches Or like the veins or nervs or arteries in the body that have first one or few trunks divided into more and those into a few more and those into more till they multiply at last into more than can easily be seen or numbered Now it is easie for any man to begin at the chief trunk and to discern the first divisions and the next though not to comprehend the number and order of all the extream and smaller branches So is it in Divinity It is not very hard to begin at the Unity of the Eternal God-head and see there a Trinity of Persons and of Primary attributes and of Relations and to arise to the principal attributes and works of God as in these Relations and to the Relations of man to God and to the great Duties of these Relations to discern Gods Covenants and chiefest Laws and the duty of man in obedience thereto and the Judgement of God in the execution of his sanctions though yet many particular truths be not understood And he that beginneth and proceedeth as he ought doth know methodically so much as he knoweth And he is in the right way to the knowledge of more And the great Mercy of God hath laid so great a necessity on us to know these few points that are easily known and so much less need of knowing the many small particulars that a mean Christian may live uprightly and holily and comfortably that well understandeth his Catechism or the Creed Lords Prayer and ten Commandments and may find daily work and consolation in the use of these § 3. A sound and well composed Catechism studied well and kept in memory would be a good measure of knowledge to ordinary Christians and make them solid and orderly in their understanding and in their proceeding to the smaller points and would prevent a great deal of ârror and miscarriage that many by ill teaching are cast upon to their own and the Churches grief Yea it were to be wished that some Teachers of late had learnt so much and orderly themselves Direct 4. BEgin not too early with Controversies in Religion and when you come to them let them Direct 4. have but their due proportion of your time and zeal But live daily upon these certain great substantials which all Christians are agreed in § 1. I. Plunge not your selves too soon into Controversies For 1. It will be exceedingly to your loss by diverting your souls from greater and more necessary things You may get more encrease of holiness and spend your time more pleasingly to God by drinking in deeper the substantials of Religion and improving them on your hearts and lives 2. It will corrupt your minds and instead of humility charity holiness and heavenly mindedness it will feed your Pride and kindle faction and a dividing zeal and quench your charity and possess you with a wrangling contentious Spirit and you will make a Religion of these sins and lamentable distempers 3. And it is the way to deceive and corrupt your judgements and make you erroneous or heretical to your own perdition and the disturbance of the Church For it 's two to one but either you presently err or else get such an itch after Notions and Opinions that will lead you to error at the last Because you are not yet ripe and able to judge of those things till your minds are prepared by those truths that are first in order to be received When you undertake a work that you cannot do no wonder if it be ill done and must be all undone again or worse Perhaps you will say That you must not take your Religion upon trust but must prove all things and held fast that which is good Answ. Though your Religion must not be taken upon trust there are many controverted smaller Opinions that you must take upon trust till you are capable of discerning them in their proper evidence Till you can reach them your selves you must take them on trust or not at all Though you must believe all things of common necessity to salvation with a Divine faith yet many subservient truths must be received first by a humane faith or not received at all till you are more capable of them Nay there is a humane faith necessarily subservient to the Divine faith about the substance of Religion and the Officers of Christ are to be trusted in their Office as helpers of your faith Nay let me tell you that while you are young and ignorant you are not fit for Controversies about the fundamentals of Religion themselves You may believe that there is a God long before you are fit
that greater measure is but his smallest measure and he himself is capable of increase to the last And so great a measure at first is as rare as his greater measure at last in his full growth is rare and scarce to be expected now § 4. And if God should give a great measure of Holiness at first to any now as possibly he may yet their measure of gifts is never great at first unless they had acquired or received them before conversion If Grace find a man of great parts and understanding which by study and other helps he had attained before no wonder if that man when his parts are sanctified be able in knowledge the first day For he had it before though he had not a heart to use it But if Grace find a man ignorant unlearned and of mean abilities he must not expect to be suddenly lifted up to great understanding and high degrees of knowledge by Grace For this knowledge is not given now by sudden infusion as Gifts were extraordinarily in the Primitive Church You need no other proof of this but experience to stop the mouth of any gain-sayer Look about you and observe whether those that are men of knowledge did obtain it by infusion in a moment Or whether they did not obtain it by diligent study by slow degrees Though I know God blesseth some mens studies more than others Name one man that ever was brought to great understanding but by Means and Labour and slow dâgrees Or that knoweth any Truth in Nature or Divinity but what he read or heard or studied for ãâ¦ã e result of what he read or heard The person that is proudest of his knowledge must confess that ãâ¦ã me to it in this way himself § 5. But you 'l ask What then is the Illumination of the Spirit and enlightening the mind which the Scripture ascribeth to the Hâly Ghost Hath not our understanding need of the Spirit for light as well as the Heart âr Will fâr Liâe Answ. Yes no doubt and it is a great and wonderful mercy and I 'l tell you what it is 1. The Holy Spirit by immediate inspiration revealed to the Apostles the doctrine of Christ and caused them iââallibly to indite the Scriptures But this is not that way of ordinary illumination now 2. The Holy Spirit assisteth us in our hearing reading and studying the Scriptures that we may come by diligence to the true understanding of it but doth not give us that understanding without hearing reading or study Faith cometh by hearing Rom. 10. It blesseth the use of means to us but blesseth us not in the neglect of means 3. The Holy Spirit doth open the eyes and heart of a sinner who hath heard and notionally understood the substance of the Gospel that he may know that piercingly and effectually and practically which before he knew but notionally and uneffectually so that the knowledge of the same truth is now become powerfull and as it were of another kind And this is the Spirits sanctifying of the mind and principal work of saving illumination Not by causing us to know any thing of God or Christ or Heaven without means But by opening the heart that through the means it may take in that knowledge deeply which others have but notionally and in a dead opinion and by making our knowledge clear and quick and powerful to affect the heart and rule the life 4. The Holy Spirit sanctifieth all that notional knowledge which men had before their renovation All their learning and parts are now made subservient to Christ and to the right End and turned into their proper channell 5. And the Holy Ghost doth by sanctifying the heart possess it with such a Love to God and Heaven and Holiness and Truth as is a wonderful advantage to us in our studies for the attaining of further knowledge Experience telleth us how great a help it is to knowledge to have a constant love delight and desire to the thing which we would know All these wayes the Spirit is the ânlightner of believers The not observing this Direction will have direful effects which I will name that you may see the necessity of avoiding them § 6. 1. If you imagine that you are presently men of great understanding and abilities and holiness T ãâ¦ã r of ãâã ââ ââur young ãâã oâ ãâã while you are young beginners and but new born babes you are entring into the sâare and condemnation of the Devil even into the odious sin of Pride yea a Pride of those spiritual gifts which are most cântrâry to Pride yea and a Pride of that which you have not which is most foolish Pride Mark the words of Paul when he forbids to choose a young beginner in Religion to the Ministry 1 Tim. 3. 6. Not a Nâvice that is a young raw Christian lest being lifted up or besotted with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil Why are young beginners more in danger of this than Qui dâsâipulum âudem clatum habet ãâã ventum adverâââââmine navigat Seâpentem nutrit acoâitum ââcolit hostem doââ Pââ arch Dial. 41. li. 2. other Christians One would think their Infancy should be conscious of its own infirmity But Paul knew what he said It is 1. Partly because the suddenness of their change coming out of darkness into a light which they never saw before doth amaze them and transport them and make them think they are almost in Heaven and that there is not much more to be attained Like the Beggar that had an hundred pound given him having never seen the hundredth part before imagined that he had as much money as the King 2. And it is partly because they have not knowledge enough to know how many things there are that yet they are ignorant of They never heard of the Scripture-difficulties and the knots in School-divinity nor the hard cases of Conscience Whereas one seven years painful studies will tell them of many hundred difficulties which they never saw and forty or fifty years study more will clothe them with shame and humility in the sense of their lamentable darkness 3. And it is also because the Devil doth with greatest industry lay this Net to entrap young Converts it being the way in which he hath the greatest hope 2. Your hasty conceits of your own goodness or ability will make you presumptuous of your own strength and so to venture upon dangerous temptations which is the way to ruine You will think you are not so ignorant but you may venture into the company of Papists or any Hereticks or deceivers or read their Books or be present at their Worship And I confess you may scape but it may be otherwise and God may leave you to shew you all that was in your hearts as it is said of Hezekiah 2 Chron. 32. 31 25 26. 3. And your overvaluing your first grace will make you too secure when your souls have need of holy
of flesh and blood which maketh you pretend Moderation and Peace and that it is a sign that you are hypocrites that are so lukewarm and carnally comply with error and that the cause of God is to be followed with the greatest zeal and self denyal And all this is true if you be but sure that it is indeed the cause of God and that the greater works of God be not neglected on such pretences and that your Zeal be much greater for Faith and Charity and Unity than for your opinions But upon great experience I must tell you that of the zealous contenders in the world that cry up The Cause of Consuming ãâã ãâã use at ãâã âo ãâã up the owners of it Whatever tâây say oâ do against others in theââ inââmperaâe violânce they teach otherâ at last to say and do against them when they have opportunity How the Orââodox taught the Aââiaâs to use severity against them may be sâen in Victor utic p. 447 448 449. in the Edict of Hunneâyâhus ââgem quam dudum Christiani Imperatores nostri contra eos alios haereticos pro honorisicentia Ecclesiae Catholiâae dedârunâ adversus nos illi proponere non eâubuerunt v. g. Rex Hun. c. Triumphalis Majestatis Regiae probatur esâe virtutis mââa in autores conâlia retorquere Quisquis enim pravitatis aliquid invenerit sibi imputet quod incurrit Nullâs ãâã homâusion Saceâdoâes assumanâ nec aliquid mysteriââum quae magis polluunt sibi vendicenâ Nullam habeant oâdinandi licentiam Quod ipsaâum legum continentia demonstratur quas induxiââe Imperaâoâibuâ c. viz. Ut nulla exceptâs superstiti ãâ¦ã s suae ânâstibus Ecclesia pateret nuâlâs liceret aliis aut convictus agere aut exercere convântâs nec Ecclesias auâ in uââiââââ aut in quibuâdam ãâã locis God and Truth there is not one of very many that understandeth what he talks of but some of them cry up the Cause of God when it is a brat of a proud and ignorant brain and such as a judicious person would be ashamed of And some of them are rashly zealous before they have parts or time to come to any judicious tryal and some of them are mis-guided by some person or party that captivateth their minds and some of them are hurried away by passion and discontent and many of the ambitious and worldly are blinded by their carnal interests and many of them in meer pride think highly of an Opinion in which they are somewhat singular and which they can with some glorying call their Own as either invented by them or that in which they think they know more than ordinary men do And abundance after longer experience confess that to have been their own erroneous cause which they before entitled the Cause of God Now when this is the case and one cryeth Here is Christ and another There is Christ one saith This is the cause of God and another saith That is it no man that hath any care of his Conscience or of the honour of God and his profession will leap before he looketh where he shall alight or run after every one that will whistle him with the name or pretence of truth or a good cause It is a sad thing to go on many years together in censuring opposing and abusing thâse that are against you and in seducing others and mis-imploying your zeal and parts and time and poysoning all your prayers and discourses and in the end to see what mischief you have done for want of knowledge and with Paul to confess that you were mad in opposing the truth and servants of God though you did it in a zeal of God through ignorance Were it not much better to stay till you have tryed the ground and prevent so many years grievous sin than to scape by a sad repentance and leave behind you stinking and venemous fruits of your mistake And worse if you never repent your selves Your own and your Brethrens souls are not so lightly to be ventured upon dangerous untryed wayes It will not make the Truth and Church amends to say at last I had thought I had done well Let those go to the Wars of disputing and ãâã and cânsuâing and siding with a Sect that are riper and better understand the cause Wars are not for Children Do you suspend your judgement till you can solidly and certainly inform it and serve God in Charity quietness and peace And it s two to one but you will live to see the day that the contenders that would have led you into their Wars will come off with so much loss themselves as will teach them to approve your peaceable course or teach you to bless God that kept you in your place and duty § 3. In all this I deny not but every truth of God is to be valued at a very high rate and that he that shall carry himself in a neutrality when Faith or Godliness is the matter in controversie or shall do it meerly for his worldly ends to save his stake by temporizing is a false-hearted hypocrite and at the heart of no Religion But withal I tell you that all is not matter of Faith or Godliness that the Autonomian-Papist the Antinomian-Libertine or other passionate parties shall call so And that as we must avoid contempt of the smallest Truth so we must much more avoid the most heinous sins which we may commit for the defending of an error And that some Truths must be silenced for a time though not denyed when the contending for them is unseasonable and tendeth to the injury of the Church If you were Masters in the Church you must not teach your Scholars to their hurt though it be truth you teach them And if you were Physicions you must not cramm them or Medicate them to their hurt Your power and duty is not to Destruction but to Edification The good of the Patient is the end of your Physick All Truth is not to be spoken nor all Good to be done by all men nor at all times He that will do contrary and take this for a carnal principle doth but call folly and sin by the name of zeal and duty and set the house on fire to rost his Egg and with the Pharisees prefer the outward rest of their Sabbath before his Brothers life or health Take heed what you do when Gods honour and mens souls and the Churches peace are concerned in it § 4. And let me tell you my own observation As far as my judgement hath been able to reach the men that have stood for Pacification and Moderation have been the most judicious and those that have best understood themselves in most controversies that ever I heard under debate among good Christians And those that suriously censured them as lukewarm or corrupted have been men that had least judgement and most passion pride and foul mistakes in the points in question § 5. Nay I will tell you
head-strong Horse that must be kept in at first and is hardly restrained if it once break loose and get the head If you are bred up in temperance and modesty where there are no great temptations to gluttony drinking sports or wantonness you may think a while that your natures have little or none of this concupiscence and so may walk without a guard But when you come where baits of lust abound where Women and Playes and Feasts and Drunkards are the Devils snares and tinder and bellows to enflame your lusts you may then find to your sorrow that you had need of watchfulness and that all is not mortified that is asleep or quiet in you As a man that goeth with a Candle among Gunpowder or near Thatch should never be careless because he goeth in continual danger so you that are young and have naturally eager appetites and lusts should remember that you carry fire and Gunpowder still about you and are never out of danger while you have such an enemy to watch § 2. And if once you suffer the fire to kindle alas what work may it make ere you are aware James 1. 14 15. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Little knoweth the Fish when he is catching or nibling at the bait that he is swallowing the hook which will lay him presently on the bank When you are looking on the cup or gazing on alluring beauty or wantonly dallying and pleasing your senses with things unsafe you little know how far beyond your intentions you may be drawn and how deep the wound may prove how great the smart or how long and difficult the cure As you love your souls observe Pauls counsel 2 Tim. 2. 22. Flee youthful lusts Keep at a full distance Come not near the bait If you get a wound in your consciences by any wilful heinous sin O what a case will you be in How heartless unto secret duty afraid of God that should be your joy deprived of the comforts of his presence and all the pleasure of his wayes How miserably will you be tormented between the tyranny of your own concupiscence the sting of sin the gripes of conscience and the terrors of the Lord How much of the life of faith and love and heavenly zeal will be quenched in a moment I am to speak more afterwards of this and therefore shall only say at present to all young Converts that care for their salvation Mortifie the flesh and alwayes watch and avoid temptations Direct 15. BE exceeding wary not only what Teachers you commit the guidance of your souls unto Direct 15. Nam si falsi solo nomine tumidi non modo non consulendi sed vitandi sunt quibus nihil est importunius nihil insu siâs c. Pâtâa câ Dâal 117. li. 2. but also with what company you familiarly converse That they be neither such as would corrupt your minds with error or your hearts with viciousness profâneness lukewarmness or with a feavorish factious zeal But choose if possible judicious holy heavenly humble unblameable self-denying persons to be your ordinary companions and familiars but especially for your near Relations § 1. It is a matter of very great importance what Teachers you choose in order to your salvation In this the free grace of God much differenceth some from others For as poor Heathens and Infidels have none that know more than what the Book of Nature teacheth if so much so in the several Nations of Christians it is hard for the people to have any but such as the Sword of the Magistrate forceth on them or the stream of their Countreys Custom recommendeth to them And it is a wonder Scientiâ est posse dâcere Provââb Sub indocto tamen doctus evadâre potes âfflaâu aliquo divino ut Ciââro loquitur Augustinus de seipso testatur cui non omnia credere nefas est quod Aristotelicas Categorias quae inter difficillima numerantur artes liberales quas singulas a praeceptoribus didicisse magnum dicitur nullo tradeâte omnes intellexit ââââardus item vir doctrina sanctitate clarissimus omnes suas literas quarum inter cunctos sui temporis abundantissimus fuââ in sâlvis in agris didicit non hominum magisterio sed meditando orando nec ullos unquam alios praeceptores habuit quam quercus sagos Pâtrââch li. 2. Dialog 40. if pure Truth and Holiness be countenanced by either of these But when and where his mercy pleaseth God sendeth wise and holy Teachers with compassion and diligence to seek the saving of mens souls so that none but the malignant and obstinate are deprived of their help § 2. Ambitious proud covetous licentious ungodly men are not to be chosen for your Teachers if you have your choice In a Nation where true Religion is in credit and hath the Magistrates countenance or the Major Vote some graceless men may joyn with better in preaching and defending the purity of doctrine and holiness of life And they may be very serviceable to the Church herein especially in expounding and disputing for the truth But even there more experienced spiritual Teachers are much more desirable They will speak most feelingly who feel what they speak And they are fittest to bring others to faith and love who believe and love God and holiness themselves They that have life will speak more lively than the dead And in most places of the world the ungodliness of such Teachers makes them enemies to the Truth which is according to godliness Their natures are at enmity to the life and power of the doctrine which they should preach And they will do their worst to corrupt the Magistrates and make them of their mind And if they can but get the Sword to favour them they are usually the cruellest persecutors of the sincere As it is notorious among the Papists that the baits of Power and Honour and Wealth have so vitiated the body of their Clergy that they conspire to uphold a worldly Government and Religion and in express contradiction to Sense and Reason and to Antiquity and the judgement of the Church and to the holy Scriptures they captivate the ignorant and sensual to their tyranny and false worship and use the seduced Magistrates and multitude to the persecuting of those that will not follow them to sin and to perdition Take heed of proud and worldly Guides § 3. And yet it is not every one that pretendeth Piety and Zeal that is to be heard or taken for a Teacher But 1. Such as preach ordinarily the substantial Truths which all Christians are agreed in 2. Such as make it the drift of their preaching to raise your souls to the Love of God and to a holy heavenly life and are zealous against confessed sins 3. Such as contradict not the
19. And he that will not work must be forbidden to eat 2 Thes. 3. 6 10 12. And indeed it is necessary to our selves for the health of our bodies which will grow diseased with idleness and for the help of our souls which will fail if the body fail And man in flesh must have work for his body as well as for his soul And he that will do nothing but pray and meditate it 's like will by sickness or Melancholy be disabled e're long either to pray or meditate Unless he have a body extraordinary strong § 26. Direct 22. Be very watchful redeemers of your Time and make conscience of every hour and Direct 22. minute that you lâse it not but spend it in the best and most serviceable manner that you can Of this I intend to speak more particularly anon and therefore shall here add no more § 27. Direct 23. Watchfully and resolutely avoid the entanglements and diverting occasions by Direct 23. which the tempter will be still endeavouring to waste your time and hinder you from your work Know what is the principal service that you are called to and avoid avocations especially Magistrates and Ministers and those that have great and publick work must here take heed For if you be not very wise and watchful the Tempter will draw you before you are aware into such a multitude of diverting cares or businesses that shall seem to be your duties as shall make you almost unprofitable in the world You shall have this or that little thing that must be done and this or that friend that must be visited or spoke to and this or that civility that must be performed so that ârifâes shall detain you from all considerable works I confess friends must not be neglected nor âivilities be denied but our Greatest duties having the Greatest necessity all things must give place to them in their proper season And therefore that you may avoid the offence of friends avoid the place or occasions of such impediments And where that cannot be done whatever they judge of you neglect not your most necessary work Else it will be at the will of men and Satan whether you shall be serviceable to God or not § 28. Direct 24. Ask your selves seriously how you would wish at death and judgement that you Direct 24. had used all your wit and time and wealth and resolve accordingly to use them now This is an excellent Direction and Motive to you for doing good and preventing the condemnation which will pass upon unprofitable servants Ask your selves will it comfort me more at death or judgement to think or hear that I spent this hour in plays or idleness or in doing good to my self or others How shall I wish then I had laid out my estate and every part of it Reason it self condemneth him that will not now choose the course which then he shall wish that he had chosen when we foresee the consequence of that day § 29. Direct 25. Understand how much you are beholden to God and not be to you in that he Direct 25. will imploy you in doing any good and how it is the way of your own receiving and know the excellency of your work and ând that you may do it all with Love and Pleasure Unacquaintedness with our Master and with the nature and tendency of our work is it that maketh it seem tedious and unpleasant to us And we shall never do it well when we do it with an ill will as meerly forced God loveth a cheerful servant that Loveth his Master and his work It is the main policie of the Devil to make our duty seem grievous unprofitable undesirable and wearisom to us For a little thing will stop him that goâth unwillingly and in continual pain § 30. Direct 26. Expect your Reward from God alone and look for unthankfulness and abuse Direct 26. from men or wonder not if it befall you If you are not the servants of Men but of God expect your recompence from him you serve You serve not God indeed if his Reward alone will not content you unless you have also mans reward Verily you have your reward if with the Hypocrite you work for mans approbation Mat. 6. 2 5. Expect especially if you are Ministers or others that labour directly for the good of souls that many prove your enemies for your telling them the truth and that if you were as good as Paul and as unwearied in seeking mens salvation yet the more you love the less you will by many be loved and those that he could have wisht himself accursed from Christ to save did hate him and persâcute him as if he had been the most accursed wrâtch A peââilent fellow and a mover of sedition among the people and one that turneth the world upside down were the names they gave them and where ever he came bonds and imprisonment did attend him and slandering and reviling and whipping and stocks and vowing his death are the thanks and requital which he hath from those for whose salvation he spared no pains but did spend and was spent If you cannot do good upon such terms as these and for those that will thus requite you and be contented to expect a reward in Heaven you are not fit to follow Christ who was worse used than all this by those to whom he shewed more love than any of his servants have to shew Take up your cross and do good to the unthankful and bless them that curse you and love them that hate you and pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you if you will be the children of God Mat. 5. § 31. Direct 27. Make not your own judgements or Consciences your Law or the maker of your Direct 27. duty which is but the Discerner of the Law of God and of the duty which he maketh you and of your own obedience or disobedience to him There is a dangerous error grown too common in the world that a man is bound to do every thing which his Conscience telleth him is the will of God and that every man must obey his Conscience as if it were the Law-giver of the world whereas indeed it is not our selves but God that is our Law-giver And Conscience is not appointed or authorised to make us any duty which God hath not made us but only to discern the Law of God and call upon us to observe it And an erring Conscience is not to be obeyed but to be better informed and brought to a righter performance of its office § 32. In prosecution of this Direction I shall here answer several cases about doubting Quest. 1. What if I doubt whether a thing be a duty and good work or not Must I do it while I Quest. doubt Nay what if I am uncertain whether it be duty or sin Answ. 1. In all these cases about an erring or a doubting Conscience forget not to distinguish be
certain obedience for uncertain sin Or if a Priest among them say I am certain that it is a duty to preach Gods word but I am not certain that the Trent Articles which I must swear or subscribe are sinful or false therefore I must not leave a great and certain duty for an uncertain sin The answer to them both is easie 1. It is your sin that you are uncertain of the sinfullness of those things which God hath forbidden And God biddeth you first to search the Scriptures and cure that error He made his Law before your doubts arose and will not change it because you doubt 2. You contradict your selves by a mistake you have no more certainty that you should obey your Teachers in these particulars than you have that the things which they teach or command you are not against that Law of God You are certain that you must obey them in all things not forbidden by God and within the reach of their office to require And you are as certain that it is unlawful to obey them against the Law of God and that God must be obeyed before man But whether you must obey them in this particular case you cannot be certain while you are uncertain whether it be forbidden of God And the Priest must be as uncertain whether it be any duty of his at all to preach Gods word as he is uncertain of the lawfullness of the Trent-Oath or subscription unless he can do it without If a subject say I am certain that to Govern the Kingdom well is a great good work and duty but I am uncertain whether to depose the King if he Govern not well and set up my self be a sin therefore the Certain good must overrule the uncertain evil I give him the same answer It is your sin to be uncertain whether Rebellion be a sin and God bindeth you to lay by the sin of your judgement and not to make it a shooing-horn to more 2. You are sure that Governing well is a Good work but you should be as sure that it is no duty of yours nor no Good work for you to do as you are sure that you are but a private man and a subject and never called to do the Good of anothers office A private man may say I am sure preaching is a good work but I am not sure that a private unordained man may not statedly separate himself to do it But he can be no surer that it is a duty to him than he is that he is called to it § 43. Quest. 12. Well suppose my ignorance be my sin and suppose that I am equally uncertain of Quest. the duty and of the sin annexed yet if I have done all that I am able and remain still unresolved and after my most diligent enquiry am as much in doubt as ever what should I then do Answ. 1. If you had by any former sin so forfeited Gods assistance as that he will leave you Answ. to your blindness this altereth not his Law and your obligations which are still the same to Learn understand and practise 2. But if you are truly willing to understand and practise and use his means you have no cause to imagine that he will thus forsake you undoubtedly he appointeth you no means in vain If you attain not sufficient resolution to guide you in your duty it is either because your hearts are false in the enquiry and byassed or unwilling to know the truth or do it or because you use not the true appointed means for resolution but in partiality or laziness neglect it § 44. Quest. 13. Suppose still my ignorance be my sin which is the Greater sin to neglect the Quest. good work or to venture on the feared evil that is annexed I am not conscious of any unfaithfullness but humane frailty that keepeth me from certainty And no man is so perfect as to have no culpable ignorance and to be certain in every point of duty Therefore I must with greatest caution avoid the greatest sin when I am out of hope of avoiding all On one side it is a common Rule that I must do nothing against Conscience no not a doubting Conscience though I must not allwaies do what it biddeth me For he that doubteth is condemned if he eat for whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom. 14. 23. On the other side if all duty be omitted which conscience doubteth of I may be kept from allmost every duty Answ. The heart is so deceitful that you have great cause to watch lest humane frailty be pretended Answ. for that error which a corrupted byassed partial mind or willful lazyness is the cause of Diligent study and enquiry and prayer with a sincere desire to know the truth may succeed at least to so much satisfaction as may keep your minds in quietness and peace and give you comfort in your way and preserve you from all such sin as is inconsistent with this your safety and acceptance with God But yet it is true that humane frailty will occasion in the best uncertainties in some particular cases and though God make it not our duty of two sins to choose the less but to refuse both yet he maketh it our duty more diligently to avoid the greater than the less And oft times the case is so sudden that no enquiry can be made And therefore I confess a Christian should know which sins are greatest and to be most avoided At present I shall lay down these following Rules premising this that where accidents and circumstances which make sins Great or Small are to be compared they are oft times so numerous and various that no Rules can be laid down before hand that will serve all turns no more than in Law and Physick any Law-books or Physick-books will serve all cases without a present experienced judicious Counsellor Present PRUDENCE and SINCERITY must do most § 45. Rule 1. In things altogether indifferent nothing must be done that Conscience doubteth of Rule because there is a possibility or fear of sinning on the one side but none on the other And in that case it is a certain sin to venture on a feared sin But then it is supposed that the thing be indifferent as cloathed with all its circumstances and that there be no accident that taketh away its indifferencie § 46. Rule 2. âââaâe the thing be really unlawful and I think it to be lawful but with sâme ãâ¦ã ing âut aââ clear that the forbearing it is no sin there the sin is only in the doing it because all âs clââr and sâsâ on the other side § 47. Rule 3. There are many sins which are allwaies and to all persâns in all cases sins and not dâuâteâ ââââ any witââut gââââ unfaithfullness or negligence and âere there is no room for any dâubting whether we must do that ââââd which cannot be done without that sin it being certain that nâ sââââ Goâd can be
a duty As to commit Idolatry to blaspheam God to deny Christ to deny âââââcriptârââ to hatâ or râproach or oppose a holy life to be perjured to approve or justifie the ââââ oââthârâ c. It can be no duty which cannot be done without the willful yielding to ââ committing these or any known sin § 48. Rule 4. There are some Duties so great and clear and consâââât to all that none but a prâfââgââe or ãâ¦ã ne that is fearfully pâysâned with sin can make a doubt of it deliberately Tââââ therefore come not within the case before us § 49. Rule 5. Iâ Mââal evil be compared only with Natural Good or Moral Good with Natuââââ Evil there iâ no dâubt to be made of the case the least sin having more evil in it than the Prospeâââây or Lives of miââââns of men have Good considered in themselves as Natural good and the least âuââ tâ God having more good in it than the death of millions of men as such hath evil For the God of duty and the evil of sin are greatned by their respect to God and the other lessened as being ãâ¦ã only uâto men and with respect to them § 50. Rule 6. Where I am in an equal degree uncertain of the Duty to be omitted and of the sin ãâ¦ã committed it is a Greater sin to venture doubtfully upân the committing of a positive sin that is Great in case it prove a sin than upon the omitting a duty which in case it prove a âuty ãâ¦ã Aâd on the contrary it is worse to venture on the omitting of a Great duty than on the committing of a small positive sin As suppose my own or my neighbours house be on ââre and I am in doubt whether I may take another mans water to quench it against his will Oâ if my own or my childs or neighbours life be in danger by famine and I doubt whether I may take another mans apples or pears or ears of corn or his bread against his will to save my own lââe or anothers Really the thing is allready made Lawful or Unlawful which I now determine not by the Law of God But in my unavoidable uncertainty if I be equally doubtful on both sâdes it is a far greater sin if it prove a sin to omit the saving of the House or Life than to takâ anâther mans water or fruit or bread that hath plenty if this prove the sin So if King and Nobles were in a ship which would be taken and all destroyed by Pirates unless I told a lie and said They are other persons If I were equally in doubt which course to take to lie or not though sin have more evil than all our Lives have good yet a sinful omitting to save all their lives is a greater sin than a sinful telling of such a lie Suppose I am in doubt whether I may lawfully save an Ox or Asse or a Mans life by labour on the Sabbath day Or David had doubted whether he might eat the consecrated shew-bread in his necessity It 's clear that the sinful neglect of a mans life is worse than the sinful violation of a Sabbath or the sinful use of the consecrated bread If I equally doubt whether I may use a ceremony or disorderly defective form of prayer and whether I should preach the Gospel to save mens souls where there are not others enough to do it it 's clear that sinfully to use a ceremony or disorderly form of prayer is caeteris paribus a lesser sin than sinfully to neglect to preach the Gospel and to save mens souls On the other side suppose I dwelt in Italy and could not have leave to preach the Gospel there unless I would subscribe to the Trent confession or the canon third of Concil Lateran Sub Innocent 3. One of which requireth men to swear for Transubstantiation and to interpret the Scriptures only according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers who never unanimously consented in any exposition of the greatest part of the Scriptures at all The other dâârââth the Popes deposing Temporal Lords and disobliging their subjects from their allegiance On one side I doubt whether by subscribing I become not guilty of justifying Idolatry Perjury and Rebellion and making my self guilty of the perjury of many thousand others On the other side I doubt whether I may disobey my Superiors who command me this subscription and may forbear preaching the Gospel when yet I apprehend that there are others to preach it and that my worth is not so considerable as that there should be any great loss in putting me out and putting in another and God needeth not me to do him service but hath instruments at command and that I know not how soon he may restore my liberty or that I may serve him in another Country or else in sufferings at home in such a case the sinful justifying of Perjury or Rebellion in whole Countries is a far greater sin than the sinful omission of my preaching for he that justifieth Perjury destroyeth the bonds of all societies and turneth loose the subjects against their Soveraigns Or if I being a Minister were forbidden to preach the Gospel where there is necessity unless I will commit some sin if I doubt on one side whether I should disobey my Superiors and on the other whether I should forbear my calling and neglect the souls of âinners it is a lesser sin caeteris paribus to disobey a man sinfully than to disobey God and to be cruel to the souls of men to their perdition sinfully Or if I have made a vow and sworn that I will cast away a penny or a shilling and I am in doubt on one side whether I be not bound to keep it as a Vow and on the other whether it be not a sin to keep it because to cast away any of my talents is a sin in this case the sinful casting away of a penny or a shilling is not so great a sin as sinful Perjury If Daniel and the three witnesses had been in equal doubt whether they should obey the King or Pray to God as Daniel 6. and renounce the bowing to his Idol Daniel 3. The sinful forbearance of prayer as then commanded and the sinful bowing to the Idol had been a greater sin than a sinful disobeying the Kings command in such a case if they had mistaken § 51. Rule 7. If I cannot discern whether the Duty to be omitted or the sin to be committed be Rule materâally and in other respects the greater then that will be to me the greater of the sins which my doubting Conscience doth most strongly suspect to be sin in its most impartial deliberation For if other things be equal certainly the sinning against more or less conviction or doubting must make an inequality As if I could not discern whether my subscription to the Trent confession or my forbearing to preach or my preaching though prohibited were the greater sin
20. Insomuch as it sââmâth one of the greatest impediments to the Conversion of the Heathen and Mahomâtan world and the chiefest means of confirming them in their Iââââdelity and making them hate and scorn Christianity that the Romish and the Eastern and Southern Churches within their view do worship God so dishonourably as they do as if our God were like a little Child that must have pretty toyes bought him in the Fair and brought home to please him Whereas it the unreformed Churches in the East West and South were Reformed and had a Learned Pious Able Ministry and clearly preached and seriously applyed the Word of God and worshipped God with understanding gravity reverence and serious spirituality and lived a holy heavenly mortified self-denying conversation this would be the way to propagate Christianity and win the Infidel world to Christ. § 43. Direct 12. If you will glorifie God in your lives you must be above a selfish private narrow Direct 12. mind and must be chiefly intent upon the publick good and the spreading of the Gospel through the world A selfish private narrow soul brings little honour to the cause of God It s alwayes taken up about it self or imprisoned in a corner in the dark to the interest of some Sect or Party and seeth not how things go in the world Its desires and prayers and endeavours go no further than they can see or travel But a larger soul beholdeth all the earth and is desirous to know how it goeth with the Cause and Servants of the Lord and how the Gospel gets ground upon the unbelieving Nations and such are affected with the state of the Church a thousand miles off almost as if it were at hand as being members of the whole body of Christ and not only of a Sect. They pray for the Hallowing of Gods Name and the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his will throughout the Earth as it is in Heaven before they come to their own necessities at least in order of esteem and desire The prosperity of themselves or their Party or Countrey satisfieth them not while the Church abroad is in distress They live as those that know the Honour of God is more concerned in the welfare of the whole than in the success of any party against the rest They pray that the Gospel may have free course and be glorified abroad as it is with them and the Preachers of it be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men 2 Thess. 3. 1 2. The silencing the Ministers and suppressing the interest of Christ and souls is the most grievous tydings to them Therefore they pray for Kings and all in authority not for any carnal ends but that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty 1 Tim. 2. 1 2 3. Thus God must be glorified by our Lives DIRECT XVI Let your life on Earth be a conversation in Heaven by the constant work of Gr. Dir. 16. Faith and Love even such a faith as maketh things future as now present and the unseen world as if it were continually open to your sight and such a Love as makes you long to see the glorious face of God and the glory of your dear Redeemer and to be taken up with blessed Spirits in his perfect endless Love and Praise MY Treatise of The Life of Faith and the fourth Part of The Saints Rest being written wholly or mostly to this use I must refer the Reader to them and say no more of it in this Direction DIRECT XVII As the soul must be carried up to God and devoted to him according to all the Gr. Dir. 17. foregoing Directions so must it be delivered from carnal selfishness or flesh-pleasing I pass not this by as a small matter to be passed by also by the Reader For I take the Love of God kindled by Faith in Christ with the full Denyal of our carnal selves to be the sum of all Religion But because I would not injure so great a duty by saying but a little of it And therefore desire the Reader who studieth for Practice and needeth such helps to peruse the mentioned Books of Self-denyal and Crucifying the World which is the grand enemy to God and Godliness in the world and from the three great branches of this Idolatry viz. the Love of sensual pleasures the Love of worldly wealth and the proud desire and Love of worldly honour and esteem And the mortifying of these must be much of the labour of your lives OF this also I have written so much in a Treatise of Self-denyal and in another called The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ that I shall now pass by all save what will be more seasonable anon under the more Particular Directions in the fourth Tome when I come to speak of Selfishness as opposed to the Love of others I Have now given you the General Grand Directions containing the very Being and Life of Godliness and Christianity with those particular sub-directions which are needful to the performance of them And I must tell you that as your life and strength and comfort principally depend on these so doth your success in resisting all your particular sins And therefore if you first obey not these General Directions the more particular ones that follow will be almost useless to you even as branches cut off from the Stock of the Tree which are deprived thereby of their support and life But upon supposition that first you will maintain these Vital parts of your Religion I shall proceed to Direct you first in some particulars most nearly subordinate to the forementioned duties and then to the remoter branches APPENDIX The true Doctrine of LOVE to GOD to HOLINESS to OUR SELVES and to OTHERS opened in certain Propositions Especially for resolving the Questions what self-love is lawful What sinful Whether God must be loved above our own felicity And how Whether to Love our felicity more than God may stand with a state of saving grace Whether it be a middle state between sensuality and the Divine nature to Love God more for our selves than for Himself Whether to Love God for our selves be the state of a Believer as he is under the promise of the New Covenant And whether the spirit and sanctification promised to Believers be the Love of God for himself and so the Divine nature promised to him that chooseth Christ and God by him out of self-love for his own felicity How God supposeth and worketh on the principle of self-love in mans Conversion With many such like To avoid the tediousness of a distinct debating each Question THough these things principally belong to the Theorie and so to another Treatise in hand called Methodus Theologiae yet because they are also Practical and have a great influence upon the more Practical Directions and the right understanding of them may help the Reader himself to determine a multitude of Cases of Conscience the
and let them find that thou art not to be spoken with nor at leisure to do nothing but wilt rather seem uncivil and morose than be undone And wouldst thou do thus for a transitory prosperity or life and doth not life eternal require much more will thy weighty business in the world resolve thee to put by thy friends thy play-fellows and sports and to shake off thy idleness and should not the business of thy salvation do it I would desire no more to confute the distracted Time-wasters when they are disputing for their idle sports and vanities and asking what harm is in Cards and Dice and stage-plays or tedious feasts or complementing adorning idleness than if I could help them to one sight of Heaven and Hell and make them well know what greater business they have to do which is staying for them while they sleep or play If I were just now in disputing the case with an idle Lady or a sensual belly-slave or gamester and he were asking me scornfully what hurt is in all this if one did but knock at his door and tell him The King is at the door and calls for you it would make him cast away his game and his dispute Or if the house were on fire or a Child faln into fire or water or Thieves breaking in upon them it would make the Ladies cast by the other Lace or Ribband Or if there were but a good bargain or a Lordship to be got they could be up and going though sports and game and gawdery were cast off And yet the foresight of Heaven and Hell though one of them is even at the door will not do as much with them Because Heaven is as nothing to an unbeliever or an inconsiderate sensless wretch And as it is nothing to them when it should move them it shall be nothing to them when they would enjoy it Say not Recreation must be used in its season I know that necessary whetting is no letting But God and thy own Conscience shall tell thee shortly whether thy Recreation feastings long dressings and idleness were a necessary whetting or refreshment of thy Body to fit it for that work which thou wast born and livest for or whether they were the Pastimes of a voluptuous fleshly bruit that lived in these pleasures for the love of pleasure Verily if I lookt but on this one unreasonable sin of Time-wasting it would help me to understand the meaning of Luk. 15. 17. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that the Prodigal is said to Come to himself and that conversion is the bringing a man to his wits § 9. Direct 2. Be not a stranger to the condition of thy own soul but look home till thou art acquainted Direct 2. what state it is in and what it is in danger of and what it wanteth and how far thou art behind hand in thy provisions for immortality and then be an idle Time-waster if thou canst Could I but go down with thee into that dungeon Heart of thine and shew thee by the light of truth what is there could I but let in one convincing beam from Heaven which might fully shew thee what a condition thou art in and what thou hast to do with thy remaining Time I should have no need to dispute thee out of thy childish fooleries nor to bid thee be up and doing for thy soul no more than to bid thee stir if a Bear were at thy back or the house in a flame about thy ears Alas our ordinary Time-wasters are such as are yet unconverted carnal wretches and are all the while in the power of the Devil who is the chief master of the sport and the greatest gainer They are such as are utter strangers to the regenerating sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost and are yet unjustified and under the guilt of all their sins and certain to be with Devils in Hell for ever if they die thus before they are converted This is true sinner and thou wilt shortly find it so by grace or vengeance though thy blind and hardened heart now rise against the mention of it And is this a case for a man to sit at cards and dice in or to sport and swagger in The Lord have mercy on thee and open thy eyes before it is too late or else thy Conscience will tell thee for ever in another manner than I am telling thee now that thou hadst need to have better improved thy Time and hadst greater things to have spent it in What for a man in thy case in an unrenewed unsanctified unpardoned state to be thus casting away that little Time which all his hopes lie on and in which if ever he must be recovered and saved O Lord have mercy on such sensless souls and bring them to themselves be fore it be too late I tell thee man an enlightened person that understandeth what it is and hath escaped it would not for all the Kingdoms of the world be a week or a day in thy condition for fear lest death cut off his hopes and shut him up in Hell that very day He durst not sleep quietly in thy condition a night lest death should snatch him away to Hell and canst thou sport and play in it and live securely in a sensual course O what a thing it is to be hoodwinkt in misery and to be led asleep to Hell who could perswade men to live thus awake and go dancing to Hell with their eyes open O if we should but imagine a Peter or a Paul or any of the blessed to be again brought into such a case as one of these unsanctified sinners and yet to know what now they know what would they do would they feast and game and play and trifle away their time in it or would they not rather suddenly bewail their former mispent time and all their sins and cry day and night to God for mercy and fly to Christ and spend all their time in Holiness and obedience to God! Alas poor sinner do but look into thy heart and see there what thou hast yet to do of greater weight than trimming and playing I almost tremble to think and write what a case thou art in and what thou hast to do while thou livest as if thou hadst Time to spare If thou know not I will tell thee and the Lord make thee know it Thou hast a hardened heart to be yet softened and an unbelieving heart to be brought to a lively powerful Belief of the word of God and the unseen world Thou hast an unholy Heart and life to be made Holy if ever thou wilt see the face of God Heb. 12. 14. Matth. 18. 3. Ioh. 3. 3 5 6. Thou hast a Heart-full of sins to be mortified and subdued and an unreformed life to be reformed And what abundance of particulars do these Generals contain Thou hast a pardon to procure through Jesus Christ for all the sins that ever thou didst commit and all the duties which ever thou
good Nor is he most beloved of God who hath rolled over the greatest number of good thoughts in his mind or of good words in his mouth no nor he that hath stirred up the strongest passions hereabouts but he that Loveth God and Heaven best and hateth sin most and whose will is most confirmed for Holiness of life He that goeth about his labour in obedience to God may have as much comfort as another that is meditating or praying But neither labour nor prayer is matter of comfort to an ungodly carnal heart Yea if decay of memory or natural ability take you off both Action and Conââmplation you may have as much acceptance and solid comfort in a patient bearing of the Cross and an obedient â cheerful submission to the holy Will of God Tit. 5. Directions to the Melancholy about their Thoughts IT is so easie and ordinary a thing for some weak-headed persons to cast themselves into Melancholy Read more after Paât 3. against Despair by over-straining either their Thoughts or their Affections and the case of such is so exceeding lamentable that I think it requisite to give such some particular Directions by themselves And the rather because I see some Persons that are unacquainted with the nature of this and other diseases exceedingly abuse the name of God and bring the profession of Religion into scorn by imputing all the affects and speeches of such Melancholy persons to some great and notable operations of the spirit of God and thence draw observations of the methods and workings of God upon the soul and of the nature of the legal workings of the spirit of bondage As some other such have divulged the prophecies the possessions and dispossessing of Hysterical Women as I have read especially in the Writings of the Fryars I do not call those Melancholy who are rationally sorrowful for sin and sensible of their misery and sollicitous about their recovery and salvation though it be with as great seriousness as the faculties can bear As long as they have sound Reason and the imagination fantasie or thinking faculty is not crazed or diseased But by Melancholy I mean this diseased crazynes hurt or errour of the imagination and consequently of the understanding which ãâã dicunt ââp entem nunquam sanitate mentis excâdere Incidere tamen aliquando in imaginationes absurdas propter atraebiâis redundantiam sive ob delârationem non quidem deviatione rationis verum ex imbecilâitate naturae Laert. in Zââone is known by these following signes which yet are not all in every Melancholy person § 2. 1. They are commonly exceeding fearful causlesly or beyond what there is cause for every thing which they hear or see is ready to increase their fears especially if fear was the first cause as ordinarily it is 2. Their fantasie most erreth in aggravating their sin or dangers or unhappiness every ordinary infirmity they are ready to speak of with amazement as a heynous sin And every possible danger they take for probable and every probable one for certain and every little danger for a great one and every calamity for an utter undoing 3. They are still addicted to excess of sadness some weeping they know not why and some thinking it ought to be so and if they should smile or speak merrily their hearts smite them for it as if they had done amiss 4. They place most of their Religion in sorrowing and austerities to the flesh 5. They are continual self-accusers turning all into matter of accusation against themselves which they hear or read or see or think of quarrelling with themselves for every thing they do as a contentious person doth with others 6. They are still apprehending themselves forsaken of God and are prone to despair They are just like a man in a Wilderness forsaken of all his friends and comforts forlorn and desolate their continual thought is I am undone undone undone 7. They are still thinking that the day of Grace is past and that it is now too late to repent or to find mercy If you tell them of the tenour of the Gospel and offers of free pardon to every penitent believer they cry out still too late too late my day is past not considering that every soul that truly repenteth in this life is certainly forgiven 8. They are oft tempted to gather despairing thoughts from the doctrine of Predestination and to think that if God have reprobated them or have not elected them all that they can do or that all the world can do cannot saâe them and next they strongly conceit that they are not elected and so that they are past help or hope not knowing that God electeth not any man separatedly or simply to be saved but conjunctly to believe repent and to be saved and so to the end and means together and that all that will repent and choose Christ and a holy life are elected to salvation because they are elected to the means and condition of salvation which if they persevere they shall enjoy To Repent is the best way to prove that I am elected to Repent 9. They never read or hear of any miserable instance but they are thinking that this is their case If they hear of Cain of Pharaoh given up to hardness of heart or do but read that some are vessels of wrath fitted to destruction or that they have eyes and see not ears and hear not hearts and understand not they think This is all spoken of me or this is just my case If they hear of any terrible example of Gods judgements on any they think it will be so with them If any dye suddenly or a house be burnt or any be distracted or dye in despair they think it will be so with them The reading of Spira's case causeth or increaseth Melancholy in many the ignorant Author having described a plain Melancholy contracted by the trouble of sinning against Conscience as if it were a damnable despair of a sound understanding 10. And yet they think that never any one was as they are I have had abundance in a few weeks with me almost just in the same case and yet every one say that never any one was as they 11. They are utterly unable to Rejoyce in any thing They cannot apprehend believe or think of any thing that is comfortable to them They read all the threatnings of the word with quick sense and application but the Promises they read over and over without taking notice of them as if they had not read them or else say They do not belong to me The greater the mercy of God is and the riches of grace the more miserable am I that have no part in them They are like a man in continual pain or sickness that cannot rejoyce because the feeling of his pain forbiddeth him They look on husband wife friends children house goods and all without any comfort as one would do that is going to be executed for some
pardonable and may consist with true grace so a Venial sin may be in an unsanctified person materially where it is not pardoned that is e. g. his wandering thought or passion is a sin of that sort that in the Godly is consistent with true grace But as Venial signifieth a sin that is pardoned or pardonable without a regeneration or conversion into astate of life from astate of death so Venial sin is in no unregenerate unjustified person but is only the Infirmities of the Saints and thus I here speak of it In a word that sin which actually consisteth with habitual repentance and with the hatred of it so far that you had rather he free from it than commit or keep it and which consisteth with an unfeigned consent to the Covenant that God be your Father Saviour and Sanctifier and with the Love of God above all is but an infirmity or venial sin But to know from the nature of the sin which those are requireth a Volume by it self to direct you only § 19. Direct 8. Understand how necessary a faithful Minister of Christ is in such cases of danger and Direct 8. difficulty to be a guide to your Consciences and open your case truly to them and place so much confidence in their judgement of your state as their office and abilities and faithfulness do require and set not up your timerous darkened perplexed judgements above theirs in cases where they are fitter to judge Such a Guide is necessary both as appointed by Christ who is the Author of his office and in regard of the greatness and danger and difficulty of your case Do you not feel that you are insufficient for your selves and that you have need of help sure a soul that 's tempted to Despair may easily feel it You are very proud or blindly self conceited if you do not And you may easily know that Christ that appointed them their office requireth that they be both used and trusted in their office as far as Reason will allow And where there is no office yet Ability and faithfulness deserve and require credit of themselves Why else do you trust Physicions and Lawyers and all artificers in their several professions and arts as far as they are reputed able and faithful I know no man is to be believed as infallible as God is but man is to be believed as man And if you will use and trust your spiritual guide but so far as you use and trust your Physicion or Lawyer you will find the great benefit if you choose aright § 20. Direct 9. Remember when you have sinned how sure and sufficient and ready a remedy you have Direct 9. before you in Iesus Christ and the Covenant of grace and that it is Gods design in the way of Redemption not to save any man as innocent that none may glory but to save men that were first in sin and misery and fetch them as from the gates of hell that Love and mercy may be magnified on every one that is saved and grace may abound more by the occasion of sins abounding Rom. 5. 15 20. Not that any should continue in sin because Grace hath abounded God forbid Rom. 6. 1. But that we may magnifie that grace and mercy which hath abounded above our sins and turn the remembrance of our greatest sins to the admiration of that great and wonderful mercy To magnifie mercy when we see the greatness of our sin and to Love much because much is forgiven this is to please God and answer the very design and end of our Redemption But to magnific sin and extenuate mercy and to say My sin is greater than can Luk. 7. 47. be forgiven this is to please the Dâvil and to cross Gods design in the work of our Redemption Is your disease so great that no other can cure it It is the fitter for Christ to honour his office upon and God to honour his Love and mercy on Do but come to him that you may have life and you shall find that no greatness of sin past will cause him to refuse you nor no infirmities which you are Joh. 5. 40. Luk. 15. 20 22 23. willing to be rid of shall cause him to disown you or cast you out The Prodigal is not so much as upbraided with his sins but finds himself before he is aware in his Fathers arms cloathed with the best Robes the Ring and Shooes and joyfully entertained with a Feast Remember that there is enough in Christ and the promise to pardon and heal all sins which thou art willing to forsake § 21. Direct 10. Take heed of being so blind or proud in thy humility as to think that thou Direct 10. canst be more willing to be a servant of Christ than he is to be thy Saviour or more willing to have grace than God is to give it thee or more willing to come home to Christ than he is to receive and wellcome thee Either thou art willing or unwilling to have Christ and grace to be sanctified and freed from sin If thou be willing Christ and his grace shall certainly be thine Indeed if thou wouldst have pardon without Holiness this cannot be nor is there any promise of it But if thou wouldst have Christ to be thy Saviour and King and his spirit to be thy sanctifier and hadst rather be perfect in Love and Holiness than to have all the Riches of the World then art thou in sincerity that which thou wouldst be in perfection Understand that God accounteth thee to be what thou truly desirest to be The great work of Grace lyeth in the renewing of the will If the will be sound the Man is sound I mean not the conquered uneffectual Velleity of the wicked that wish they could be free from Pride sensuality gluttony drunkenness lust and covetousness without losing any of their beloved honour wealth or pleasure that is when they think on it as the way to Hell they like not their sin but wish they were rid of it but when they think of it as pleasing their fleshly minds they love it more and will not leave it because this is the prevailing thought and will So Iudas was unwilling to sell his Lord as it was the betraying of the innocent and the way to Hell but he was more willing as it was the way to get his hire So Herod was unwilling to kill Iohn Baptist as it was the murder of a Prophet but his willingness was the greater as it was the pleasing of his Damosel and the freeing himself from a troublesome reprover But if thy willingness to have Christ and perfect Holiness be more than thy unwillingness and more than thy willingness to keep thy sin and enjoy the honour wealth and pleasures of the world than thou hast an undoubted sign of uprightness and that Love to Grace and desire after it which nothing but Grace it self doth give And if thou art thus willing it is
callings to take them up Some of them make it their chief excuse that they do it to pass away the time Blind wretches that are so near eternity and can find no better uses for their Time To these I spoke before Chap. 5. Part. 1. § 20. 5. Another cause is the wicked neglect of their dutys to their own families making no conscience of loving their own relations and teaching them the fear of God nor following their business and so they take no pleasure to be at home The company of wife and children and servants is no delight to them but they must go to an ALE-house or Tavern for more suitable company Thus one sin bringeth on another § 21. 6. Another cause is the ill management of matters at home with their own Consciences when they have brought themselves into so terrible and sad a case that they dare not be much alone nor soberly think of their own condition nor seriously look towards another world but fly from themselves and seek a place to hide them from their consciences forgetting that sin will find them out They run to an ALE-house as Saul to his musick to drink away melancholy and drown the noise of a guilty self-accusing mind and to drive away all thoughts of God and Heaven and sin and Hell and death and judgement till it be too late As if they were resolved to be damned and therefore resolved not to think of their misery nor the remedy But though they dare venture upon Hell it self the sots dare not venture upon the serious thoughts of it Eeither there is a Hell or there is none If there be none why shouldst thou be afraid to think of it If there be a Hell as thou wilt find it if thou hold on but a little longer will not the feeling be more intollerable than the thoughts of it And is not the forethinking on it a necessary and cheap prevention of the feeling O how much wiser a course were it to retire your selves in secret and there to look before you to eternity and hear what conscience hath first to say to you concerning your life past your sin and misery and then what God hath to say to you of the remedy You 'll one day find that this was a more necessary work than any that you had at the ALE-house and that you had greater business with God and Conscience than with your idle companions § 22. 7. Another cause is the custom of pledging those that drink to you and of drinking healths by which the Laws of the Devil and the ALE-house do impose upon them the measures of excess and make it their duty to disregard their duty to God So lamentable a thing it is to be the tractable slaves of men and intractable rebels against God! Plutarck mentions One that being invited to a feast made a stop when he heard that they compelled men to drink after meat and askt whether they compelled them to eat too Apprehending that he went in danger of his belly And it seems to be but custom that maketh it appear less ridiculous or odious to constrain men to drinking than to eating § 23. 8. Another great cause of excess is the Devils way of drawing them on by degrees He doth not tempt them directly to be drunk but to drink one cup more and then another and another so that the worst that he seemeth to desire of them is but to drink a little more And thus as Solomon saith of the fornicator they yield to the flatterer and go on as the Ox to the slaughter and as the Fool to the correction of the stocks till a dart strike through his liver as a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life Prov. 7. 21 22 23. § 24. III. The Greatness of this sin appeareth in what is said before of Gluttony More specially 1. Think how base a master thou dost serve being thus a slave to thy throat What a beastly thing it is and worse than beastly for few beasts but a swine will be forced to drink more than doth them good How low and poor is that mans reason that is not able to command his throat § 25. Think how thou consumest the creatures of God that are given for service and not for gulosity and luxury The earth shall be a witness against thee that it bore that fruit for better uses which tion misspendestâon thy sin Thy Servants and Cattle that labour for it shall be witnesses against thee Thou ãâã the creatures of God as a sacrifice to the Devil for Drunkenness and Tipling is his serââââ It were less folly to do as Diogenes did who when they gave him a large cup of wine threw it under the table that it might do him no harm Thou makest thy self like Caterpillers and Foxes and wolves and other destroying creatures that live to do mischief and consume that which should ãâã man and therefore are pursued as unfit to live Thou art to the common-wealth as Mice in the Gâânary or Weeds in the Corn. It is a great part of the work of faithful Magistrates to weed out such as thou § 26. 3. Thou robbest the poor consuming that on thy throat which should maintain them If thou have any thing to spare it will comfort thee more at last to have given it to the needy than that a greedy thoat devoured it The covetous is much better in this than the Drunkard and Luxurious Prov. 1â 2â Prov 14 21. 2â 1â 3â 14 â2 9. â8 â7 For he is a gatherer and the other is a scatterer The Common-wealth maintaineth a double or trâble charge in such as thou art As the same pasture will keep many Sheep which will keep but one Horse so the same country may keep many temperate persons which will keep but a few Gluttons and Drunkards The worldling makes provision cheaper by getting and sparing but the Drunkard and Glutton make it dearer by wasting The covetous man that scrapeth together for himself doth oft-times gather for one that will pity the poor when he is dead Prov. 28. 8. But the Drunkard and Riotous devour it while they are alive One is like a Hog that is good for something at lââââ though his feeding yield no profit while he liveth The other is like devouring vermine that leave nothing to pay for what they did consume The one is like the Pike among the fishes who payeth when he is dead for that which he devoured alive But the other is like the sink or chanel that repayeth you with nothing but stink and dirt for all that you cast into it § 27. 4. Thou drawest poverty and ruine upon thy self Besides the value which thou wastest God usually joyneth with the prodigal by his judgements and scattereth as fast as he Prov. 21. 17. He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man he that loveth wine and oyl shall not be rich There is that ãâ¦ã a
If you be so proud or rash as to reply why should I leave my sport for another mans conceits or judgement I will tell thee that which shall shame thy reply and thee if thou canst blush 1. It is not some humorous odd fanatick that I alledge against thee nor a singular Divine But it is the judgement of the antient Church it self The Fathers and Councils condemn Christians and Ministers especially that use spectacula spectacles or behold Stage-plays and Dicing 2. Even the oldest Canons of our own Church of England forbid Dicing to the Clergy which is because they reputed it evil or of ill report 3. Many Laws of Religious Princes do condemn them 4. Abundance of the most learned holy Divines condemn them 5. The sober learnedest of the Papists condemn them 6. And how great a number of the most Religious Ministers and people are against them of the age and place in which you live you are not ignorant And is the judgement of the antient Church and of Councils and Fathers and of the most learned Protestants and Papists and the most Religious people besides many antient Laws and Canons of no force with you in such a case as this Will you hold to a thing confessedly unnecessary against the judgement of so many that account them sinful Are you and your play-fellows more wise and learned than all these Or is it not extremity of Pride for such unstudied empty men to prefer their sensual conceits before such a concurrent stream of wiser and more ponderous judgements Read but Dr. Io. Reignolds his Treat against Stage-Plays against Albericus Gentilis and you will see what a world of witnesses are against you And if the judgement of Voetius Amesius and other Learned men against all Lusory Lots be of no authority at least it should move you that even Mr. Gataker and other that write for the lawfullness of them in that respect as Lusory Lots do yet lay down the rest of the requisites to make them lawful which utterly condemn our common use of Cards and Dice much more our Gamesters So that all the sober Divines that ever I read or heard condemn all these And are you wiser than all of them § 26. 4. Besides this your Consciences know that you are so far from them using to fit you for your Callings that you either live idly out of a Calling or else you prefer them before your Callings You have no mind of your work because your mind is so much upon your play you have no mind of your home or family but are weary of your business because your sports withdraw your hearts And you are so far from using them to fit you to any holy duty that they utterly unfit you and corrupt your hearts with such a kind of sensual delight as makes them more backward to all that is good insomuch that many of you even grow so desperate as to hate and scorn it This is the benefit it bringeth you § 27. 5. And you cannot but know what a Time-wasting sin it is Suppose the game were never so lawful Is it lawful to lay out so many hours upon it as if you had neither souls nor bodies nor families nor estates nor God nor death nor Heaven to mind § 28. 6. And how much prophaneness or abuse of others is in many of your Stage-plays How much wantonness and amorous folly and representing sin in a manner to entise men to it rather than to make it odious making a sport and mock of sin with a great deal more such evil And your Cards and Dice are the exercise usually of covetousness the occasion of a great deal of idle talk and foolish babble about every cast and every Card and oft-times the occasion of cursing and swearing and railing and hatred of those that win your money and oft it hath occasioned fighting and murder It is one of the Roman Laws 12. tab Prodigo bonârum suorum administratâo interdicta esto it self And even your huntings are commonly recreations so costly as that the charge that keepeth a pack of Hounds would keep a poor mans family that is now in want Besides the Time that this also consumeth So that the case is clear that our Gamesters and licentious sportfull Gallants are a sort of people that have blinded their minds and seared their Consciences and despise the Laws and presence of God and forget death and judgement and live as if there were no life to come neglecting their miserable souls and having no delight in the word or holy worship of God nor the forethoughts of eternal joys and therefore seek for their pleasure in such foolish sports and spend those pretious hours in these vanities which God knows they had need to spend most diligently in repenting of their sins and cleansing their souls and preparing for another world § 29. If yet any impenitent Gamester or idle Time-waster shall Reply I will not believe that my Object Cards or Dice or Plays are unlawful I use them but to fit me for my duty What! would you have all men live like heremites or anchorites without all pleasure I answer you but by this reasonable request Will you set your selves as dying men in the presence of God and the âight of eternity and provide a true answer to these few Questions even such an answer as your Consciences dare stand to at the bar of God § 30. Quest. 1. Dost thou not think in thy Conscience that thy Maker and Redeemer and his work and Quest. 1. service and thy family and calling and the forethoughts of Heaven are not fitter matters to delight a sober mind than Cards or Stage-plays And what can it be but a vain and sinful mind that should make these toys so pleasant to thee and the thoughts of God and Heaven so unpleasant § 31. Quest. 2. Doth not thy Conscience tell thee that it is not to fit thee for thy Calling or Gods Quest. 2. service that thou usest these sports but only to delight a carnal fantasie Doth not Conscience tell thee that it is more the pleasure than the benefit of it to thy soul or body that draws thâe to it Dost thou work so hard or study so hard all the day besides as to need so much recreation to refresh thee § 32. Quest. 3. Doth not thy Conscience tell thee that if thy sensual fantasie were but cured it Quest. 3. would be a more profitable recreation to thy body or mind to use some sober exercise for thy body which is confined to its proper limits of time or to turn to variety of labour or studies than to sit about these idle games § 33. Quest. 4. Dost thou think that either Christ or his Apostles used Stage-plays Cards or Dice Quest. 4. or ever countenanced such a temper of mind as is addicted to them Or was not David as wise as you that took up his pleasure in the word of God and his
better understanding in a submissive and not a ruling masterly way A servant that hath a foolish master may help him without becoming Master And do not deceive your selves by giving the bare Titles of Government to your Husbands when yet you must needs in all things have your own Wills For this is but mockery and not obedience To be subject and obedient is to take the Understanding and will of another to Govern you before though not without your own and to make your Understandings and wills to follow the conduct of his that governeth you Self-willedness is contrary to subjection and obedience § 3. Direct 3. Learn of your Husbands as your appointed Teachers and be not self-conceited and wise Direct 3. in your own eyes but ask of them such instructions as your case requireth 1 Cor. 14. 34 35. Let your women keep silence in the Churches for it is not permitted to them to speak but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the Law and if they will learn any thing let them ask their husbands at home unless when the husband is so ignorant as to be utterly unable which is his sin and shame For it is vain to ask that of them which they know not § 4. Direct 4. Set your selves seriously to amend all those faults which they reprove in you Do not Direct 4. take it ill to be reproved swell not against it as if they did you harm or wrong It is a very ill sign to hate reproof Prov. 12. 1. and 10. 17. and 15 10 31 32. and 17. 10. And what doth their Government of you signifie if you will not amend the faults that are reproved in you but continue impenitent and grudge at the reproof It is a miserable folly to desire to be flattered and soothed by any but especially by one that is bound to be faithful to you and whose intimacy should make you as ready to hear of your faults from him as to be acquainted with them your selves and especially when it concerneth the safety or benefit of your souls § 5. Direct 5. Honour your Husbands according to their superiority Behave not your selves towards Direct 5. them with unreverence and contempt in titles speeches or any behaviour If the worth of their persons deserve not Honour yet their place deserveth it Speak not of their infirmities to others behind their backs as some twatling Gossips use to do that know not that their husbands dishonour is their own and that to open it causlesly to others is their double shame Those that silently hear you will tell others behind your back how foolishly and shamefully you spake to them against your Husbands If God have made your neerest friend an affliction to you why should you complain to one that is farther off unless it be to some special prudent friend in case of true necessity for advise § 6. Direct 6. Live in a cheerful contentedness with your condition and take heed of an impatient Direct 6. murmuring spirit It is a continual burden to a man to have an impatient discontented wife Many a poor man can easily bear his poverty himself that yet is not able to bear his Wives impatience under it To hear her night and day complaining and speaking distrustfully and see her live disquietedly is far heavier than his poverty it self If his Wife could bear it as patiently as he it would be but light to him Yea in case of suffering for righteousness sake the impatience of a wife is a greater tryal to a man than all the suffering it self and many a man that could easily have suffered the loss of his estate or banishment or imprisonment for Christ hath betrayed his Conscience and yielded to sin because his wife hath grieved him with impatiency and could not bear what he could bear Whereas a contented cheerful wife doth help to make a man cheerful and contented in every state § 7. Direct 7. In a special manner strive to subdue your passions and to speak and do all in meekness Direct 7. and sobriety The rather because that the weakness of your Sex doth usually subject you mââe to Passions than men And it is the common cause of the husbands disquietness and the calamity of your relation It is the vexation and sickness of your own minds you find not your selves at ease within as long as you are passionate And then it is the grief and disquietness of your Husbands And being provoked by you they provoke you more and so your disquietness increaseth and your lives are made a weary burden to you By all means therefore keep down passion and keep a composed patient mind § 8. Direct 8. Take heed of a proud and contentious disposition and maintain a humble peaceable Direct 8. temper Pride will make you turbulent and unquiet with your husbands and contentious with your neighbours It will make you foolish and ridiculous in striving for honour and precedency and envying those that exceed you or go before you In a word it is the Devils sin and would make you a shame and trouble to the world But Humility is the health the peace and the ornament of the soul 1 Pet. 3. 4. A meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price Write those words in your bed-chamber on the walls where they may be daily before your eyes Col. 3. 12. Put on as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another If this be the duty of all to one another much more of wives to husbands 1 Pet. 5. 5. Yea all of you be subject one to another and be cloathed with humility for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble Proud women oft ruine their Husbands estates and quietness and their own souls § 9. Direct 9. Affect not a childish gawdiness of apparel nor a vain or costly or troublesom curiosity Direct 9. in any thing about you Uncleanness and nastiness is a fault but very small in comparison of this pride and curisioty It dishonoureth your Sex and selves to be so childish as to overmind such toyish things If you will needs be proud be proud of somewhat that is of worth and proper to a man To be proud of reason or wisdom or learning or goodness is bad enough but this is to be proud of something But to be proud of fashions and fine cloaths of spots and nakedness of sumptuous entertainments and neat rooms is to be proud of your shame and not your virtue and of that which you are not so much as commendable for And the cost the time O pretious time which themselves and their servants must lay out upon their dressings entertainments and other curiosities will be the shame and sorrow of their souls whenever God shall open their eyes and make them know what Time was worth and what greater matters they
the injured man may put away an adulterous Wife in a regular way if he please but withal that he may continue the Relation if he please So that his continued Consent shall suffice to continue it a lawful Relation and exercise and his Will on the contrary shall suffice to dissolve the Relation and disoblige him Saving the publick order Quest. 8. But is not the injured party at all obliged to separate but left free Quest. 8. Answ. Considering the thing simply in it self he is wholly free to do as he please But for all that Accidents or Circumstances may make it one mans duty to divorce and anothers duty to continue the Relation according as it is like to do more good or hurt Sometimes it may be a duty to expose the sin to publick shame for the prevention of it in others and also to deliver ones self from a calamity And sometimes there may be so great repentance and hope of better effects by forgiving that it may be a duty to forgive And prudence must lay one thing with another to discern on which side the duty lyeth Quest. 9. Is it only the priviledge of the Man that he may put away an adulterous Wife or also of Quest. 9. the Woman to depart from an adulterous Husband The reason of the doubt is because Christ mentioneth the mans power only Matth. 5. 19. Answ. 1. The reason why Christ speaketh only of the mans case is because he was occasioned only to restrain the vicious custome of mens causeless putting away their Wives having no occasion to restrain Women from leaving their Husbands Men having the Rule did abuse it to the Womens injury which Christ forbiddeth And as it is an act of power it concerneth the man alone But as it is an act of Liberty it seemeth to me to be supposed that the Woman hath the same freedom Seeing the Covenant is violated to her wrong And the Apostle in 1 Cor. 7. doth make the Case of the Man and of the Woman to be equal in the point of Infidelity and desertion I confess that it is unsafe extending the sense of Scripture beyond the importance of the words upon pretence of a parity of reason as many of the Perjured do by Levit. 30. in case of Vows Lest mans deceitful wit should make a Law to it self as Divine upon pretence of interpreting Gods Laws But yet when the plain Text doth speak but of one case that is of Mens putting away their Wives he that will thence gather an exclusion of the Womans liberty doth seem by addition to be the corrupter of the Law And where the Context plainly sheweth a Parity of reason and that reason is made the ground of the determination in the Text there it is safe to expound the Law extensively accordingly Surely the Covenant of Marriage hath its Conditions on both parts and some of those Conditions are necessary to the very being of the Obligations though others are but needful to the well-being of the parties in that state And therefore though Putting away be only the part of the Husband as being the Ruler and usually the Owner of the habitation yet Departing may be the Liberty of the Wife And I know no reason to blame those Countreys whose Laws allow the Wife to Sue out a divorce as well as the Husband Quest. 10. May the Husband put away the Wife without the Magistrate or the Wife depart from Quest. 10. the Husband without a publick legal divorce or license Answ. Where the Laws of the Land do take care for the prevention of injuries and make any determination in the case not contrary to the Law of God there it is a Christians duty to obey those Laws Therefore if you live under a Law which forbiddeth any Putting away or Departing without publick sentence or allowance you may not do it privately upon your own will For the Civil Governours are to provide against the private injuries of any of the Subjects And if persons might put away or depart at pleasure it would introduce both injury and much wickedness into the world But where the Laws of men do leave persons to their liberty in this case they need then to look no further than to the Laws of God alone But usually the sentence of the Civil power is necessary only in case of appeal or complaint of the party injured and a separation may be made without such a publick divorce so that each party may make use of the Magistrate to right themselves if wronged As if the Adultery be not openly known and the injuring party desire rather to be put away privily than publickly as Ioseph purposed to do by Mary I see not but it is lawful so to do in case that the Law or the necessity of making the offender an Example require not the contrary nor scandal or other accidents forbid it not See Grotius's learned Notes on Matth. 5. 31 32. and on Matth. 19. and 1 Cor. 7. about these questions Quest. 11. Is not the case of Sodomy or Buggery a ground for warrantable divorce as well as Quest. 11. Adultery Answ. Yes and seemeth to be included in the very word it self in the Text Matth. 5. 31 32. which signifieth uncleanness or at least is fully implyed in the reason of it See Grotius ibid. also of this Quest. 12. What if both parties commit Adultery may either of them put away the other or Quest. 12. depart or rather must they forgive each other Answ. If they do it both at once they do both forfeit the liberty of seeking any compensation for the injury because the injury is equal however some would give the advantage to the man But if one commit Adultery first and the other after Then either the last offender knew of the first or not If not then it seemeth all one as if it had been done at once But if yea then they did it either on a supposition of the dissolution of the matrimonial obligation as being loosed from the first Adulterer or else upon a purpose of continuing in the first relation In the later case it is still all one as if it had been done by them at once and it is a forfeiture of any satisfaction But in the former case though the last adulterer did sin yet being before set at liberty it doth not renew the Matrimonial obligation But yet if the first offendor desire the continuance of it and the return of the first-injured party shame and conscience of their own sin will much rebuke them if they plead that injury for continuance of the separation Quest. 13. But what if one do purposely commit adultery to be separated from the other Quest. 13. Answ. It is in the others power and choice whether to be divorced and depart or not as they find the good or evil consequents preponderate Quest. 14. Doth not Infidelity dissolve the Relation or obligation seeing there is no communion Quest.
§ 10. Direct 10. Make Conscience of Teaching and provoking others Pity the souls of the ignorant Direct 10. about you God often blesseth the grace that is most improved in doing him service and our stock is like the Womans Oyle which increased as long as she poured out and was gone when she stopped 1 King 17. 12 14 16. Doing good is the best way for receiving good He that in pity to a poor man that is almost starved will but fall to rubbing him shall get himself heat and both be gainers Tit. 4. Directions to bring what we Hear into Practice WIthout this the rest is vain or Counterfeit and therefore somewhat must be said to this § 1. Direct 1. Be acquainted with the failings of your hearts and lives and come on purpose to get Direct 1. directions and help against thâse particular failings You will not know what Medicine you need much less how to use it if you know not what aileth you Know what duties you omit or carelesly perform and know what sins you are most guilty of and say when you go out of doors I go to Christ for Physick for my own disease I hope to hear something before I come back which may help me more against this sin and fit me better for my duty or provoke me more effectually Are those men like to practise Christs directions that either know not their disease or love it and would not have it cured § 2. Direct 2. The three forementioned are still presupposed viz. that the word have first done its Direct 2. part upon your understandings memory and Hearts For that word cannot be practised which is not understood nor at all remembred nor hath not procured Resolutions and Affections It is the due work upon the Heart that must prevail for the reformation of the Life § 3. Direct 3. When you understand what it is in point of Practice that the Preacher driveth at Direct 3. observe especially the Uses and the Moving reasons and plead them with your own hearts and let Conscience be Preaching over all that the Minister Preacheth to you You take them to be soul-murderers that silence able faithful Preachers and also those Preachers that silence themselves and feed not the flock committed to their care And do you think it a small matter to silence your own Conscience which must be the Preacher that must set home all before it can come to Resolution or Practice Keep Conscience all the while at work preaching over all that to your hearts which you hear with your ears and urge your selves to a speedy Resolution Remember that the whole body of Divinity is practical in its end and tendency and therefore be not a meer notional hearer but consider of every word you hear what Practice it is that it tendeth to and place that deepest in your memory If you forget all the words of the Reasons and Motives which you hear be sure to remember what Practice they were brought to urge you to As if you heard a Sermon against uncharitableness censoriousness or hurting others though you should forget all the Reasons and Motives in particular yet still remember that you were convinced in the hearing that censârious and hurtful uncharitableness is a great sin and that you heard Reason enough to make you resolve against it And let Conscience Preach out the Sermon to the end and not let it dye in bare conviction but Resolve and be past wavering before you stir And above all the Sermon remember the Directions and Helps for Practice with which the truest method usually shuts up the Sermon § 4. Direct 4. When you come home let Conscience in secret also repeat the Sermon to you Between Direct 4. God and your selves consider what there was delivered to you in the Lords message that your souls were most concerned in what sin reproved which you are guilty of what duty pressed which you omit And there meditate seriously on the weight and Reasons of the thing and resist not the light but yet bring all to a fixed Resolution if till then you were unresolved Not ensnaring your selves with dangerous Vows about things doubtful or peremptory Vows without dependance on Christ for strength But firmly Resolving and cautelously engaging your selves to duty not with carnal evasions and reserves but with humble dependance upon grace without which of your selves you are able to do nothing § 5. Direct 5. Hear the most Practical Preachers you can well get Not those that have the finest Direct 5. Notions or the cleanest stile or neatest words but those that are still urging you to Holiness of Heart and life and driving home every truth to Practice not that false doctrine will at all bear up a holy life but true doctrine must not be left in the pârch or at the doors but be brought home and used to its proper end and seated in the heart and placed as the poise upon the Clock where it may set all the wheels in motion § 6. Direct 6. Take heed especially of two sorts of false Teachers ANTINOMIAN LIBERTINES Direct 6. and AUTONOMIAN PHARISEES The first would build their sins on Christ not pleading for sin it self but taking down many of the chief helpes against it and disarming us of the weapons by which it should be destroyed and reproaching the true Preachers of obedience as Legalists that preach up works and call men to Doing when they Preach up Obedience to Christ their King upon the terms and by the Motives which are used by Christ himself and his Apostles Not understanding aright the true doctrine of Faith in Christ and Iustification and free grace which they think none else understand but they they pervert it and make it an enemy to the Kingly office of Christ and to sanctification and the necessary duties of obedience The other sort do make void the Commandments of God by their Traditions and instead of the holy Practice of the Laws of Christ they would drive the world with fire and sword to practise all their superstitious sopperies so that the few plain and necessary precepts of the Law of the Universal King is drowned in the greater body of their Canon Law and the Ceremonies of the Popes imposing are so many in comparison of the Institutions of Christ that the worship of God and work of Christianity is corrupted by it and made as another thing The wheat is lost in a heap of Chaff by them that will be Lawgivers to themselves and all the Church of Christ. § 7. Direct 7. Associate your selves with the most holy serious practical Christians Not with the Direct 7. ungodly nor with barren opinionists that talk of nothing but their Controversies and the way or interest of their sects which they call the Church nor with outside formal Ceremonious Pharisees that are pleading for the washing of Cups and tithing of Mint and the tradition of their Fathers while they hate and persecute
Mr. Perkins and Mr. Boltons Works and many the like § 5 Direct 5. Next these read over those Books which are more suited to the state of young Christians for their growth in grace and for their exercise of Faith and Love and Obedience and for the mortifying of selfishness pride sensuality worldliness and other the most dangerous sins My own on this subject are my Directions for weak Christians my Saints Rest a Treatise of Self-denyal another of the Mischiefs of Self-ignorance Life of Faith of Crucifying the World the Unreasonableness of Infidelity of Right Rejoycing c. To this use these are excellent Mr. Hildershams Works Dr. Prestons Mr. Perkins Mr. Boltons Mr. Fenners Mr. Gurnalls Mr. Anthony Burgesses Sermons Mr. Lockier on the Colossiâns with abundance more that God hath blest us with § 6. Direct 6. At the same time labour to methodize your knowledge and to that end read first and Direct 6. learn some short Catechism and then some larger as Mr. Balls or the Assemblies larger and next some Body of Divinity as Amesius his Marrow of Divinity and Cases of Conscience which are Englished And let the Catechisme be kept in memory while you live and the rest be throughly understood § 7. Direct 7. Next read to your selves or families the larger Expositions of the Creed Lords Direct 7. Prayer and Ten Commandments such as Perkins Bishop Andrews on the Commandments and Dod c. that your understanding may be more full particular and distinct and your families may not stop in Generals which are not understood § 8. Direct 8. Read much those Books which direct you in a course of daily communion with God and Direct 8. ordering all your conversations As Mr. Reyners Directions the Practice of Piety Mr. Palmers Mr. Scudders Mr. Boltons Directions and my Divine Life § 9. Direct 9. For Peace and Comfort and encrease of the Love of God read Mr. Symmonds Deserted Direct 9. Soul c. and his Life of Faith All Dr. Sibbs Works Mr. Harsnets Cordials Bishop Halls Works c. my Method for Peace and Saints Rest c. § 10. Direct 10. For the understanding of the Text of Scripture keep at hand either Deodates or Direct 10. the Assembly of Divines or the Dutch Annotations with Dr. Hammonds or Dicksons and Hutchinsons brief Observations § 11. Direct 11. For securing you against the Feavor of uncharitable Zeal and Schism and contentious Direct 11. wranglings and erâelties for Religion sake read diligently Bishop Halls Peacemaker and other of his Books Mr. Burroughs Irenicon Acontius Stratagems of Satan and my Catholick Unity Catholick Church Universal Concord c. § 12. Direct 12. For establishing you against Popery on the soundest grounds not running in the Direct 12. contrary extream read Dr. Challoners Credo Ecclesiam c. Chillingworth Dr. Field of the Church c. and my True Catholick and my Key for Catholicks and my Safe Religion and Winding-sheet for Popery and Disputation with Mr. Johnson § 13. Direct 13. For special preparation for affliction sufferings sickness death read Mr. Hughs Direct 13. Rod Mr. Lawrence Christs power over sicknesses Mr. S. Rutherfords Letters c. my Treatise of Self-denyal The Believers Last Work the Last Enemy Death and the fourth Part of my Saints Rest. I will add no more lest they seem too many CHAP. XXII Directions for the right Teaching of Children and Servants so as may be most likely to have success I Here suppose them utterly untaught that you have to do with and therefore shall direct you what to do from the very first beginning of your Teaching and their learning And I beseech you study this Chapter more than many of the rest for it is an unspeakable loss that befalls the Church and the souls of men for want of skill and will and diligence in Parents and Masters in this matter § 1 Direct 1. Cause your younger Children to learn the words though they be not yet capable of Direct 1. understanding the matter And do not think as some do that this is but to make them Hypocrites and to teach them to take Gods Name in vain For it is neither Vanity nor Hypocrisie to help them first to understand the words and signs in order to their early understanding of the matter and signification Otherwise no man might teach them any language nor teach them to read any words that be good because they must first understand the words before the meaning If a child learn to read in a Bible it is not taking Gods Name or Word in vain though he understand it not For it is in order to his learning to understand it And it is not vain which is to so good a Use If you leave them untaught till they come to be twenty years of age they must then learn the words before they can understand the matter Do not therefore leave them the children of darkness for fear of makeing them hypocrites It will be an excellent way to redeem their Time to teach them first that which they are capable of learning A child of five or six years old can learn the words of a Catechisme or Scripture before they are capable of understanding them And then when they come to years of understanding that part of their work is done and they have nothing to do but to study the meaning and use of those words which they have learnt already Whereas if you leave them utterly untaught till then they must then be wasting a long time to learn the same words which they might have learnt before And the loss of so much time is no small loss or sin § 2. Direct 2. The most natural way of teaching children the Meaning of Gods Word and the Direct 2. Matters of their salvation is by familiar talk with them suited to their capacities Begin this betimes with them while they are on their Mothers laps and use it frequently For they are quickly capable of some understanding about greater matters as well as about less And knowledge must come in by slow degrees Stay not till their minds are prepossest with vanity and toyes Prov. 22. 6. § 3. Direct 3. By all means let your children learn to read though you be never so poor whatever Direct 3. shift you make And if you have servants that cannot read let them learn yet at spare hours if they be of any capacity and willingness For it is a very great mercy to be able to read the holy Scripture and any good Books themselves and a very great misery to know nothing but what they hear from others They may read almost at any time when they cannot hear § 4. Direct 4. Let your children when they are little ones read much the History of the Scriptures Direct 4. For though this of it self is not sufficient to breed in them any saving knowledge yet it enticeth them to delight in reading the Bible and then they
the Church had sinned in for bearing kneeling in the act of Receiving so many hundred years after Christ as is plain they did by the Canons of General Councils Nic. 1â Trull that universally forbad to adore kneeling any Lords Day in the year and any Week-day between Easter and Whitsuntide and by the Fathers Tertullian Epiphanius c. that make this an Apostolical or Universal Tradition 2. And for kneeling I never yet heard any thing Mr. Paybodyes Book I think unanswerable to prove it unlawful If there be any thing it must be either some Word of God or the Nature of the Ordinance which is supposed to be contradicted But 1. There is no Word of God for any gesture nor against any gesture Christs example can never be proved to be intended to oblige us more in this than in many other circumstances that are confessed not obligatory as that he delivered it but to Ministers and but to a family to twelve and after Supper and on a Thursday night and in an upper room c. And his gesture was not such a sitting as ours 2. And for the Nature of the Ordinance it is mixt And if it be lawful to take a Pardon from the King upon our knees I know not what can make it unlawful to take a sealed Pardon from Christ by his Embassadour upon our knees § 41. Quest. 4. But what if I cannot receive it but according to the administration of the Common-prayer-Book Quest. 4. or some other imposed form of prayer Is it lawful so to take it Answ. If it be unlawful to receive it when it is administred with the Common-prayer-book it is either 1. Because it is a form of prayer 2. Or because that form hath some forbidden matter in it 3. Or because that form is imposed 4. Or because it is imposed to some evil end and consequent 1. That it is not unlawful because a form is proved before and indeed needs no proof with any that is judicious 2. Nor yet for any Evil in this particular form for in this part the Common-prayer is generally approved 3. Nor yet because it is Imposed For a Command maketh not that unlawful to us which is lawful before but it maketh many things lawful and duties that else would have been unlawful accidentally 4. And the intentions of the Commanders we have little to do with and for the consequents they must be weighed on both sides and the consequents of our refusal will not be found light § 42. In the General I must here tell all the people of God in the bitter sorrow of my soul that at last it is time for them to discern that Temptation that hath in all ages of the Church almost made this Sacrament of our Union to be the grand occasion or instrument of our Divisions And that true humility and acquaintance with our selves and sincere Love to Christ and one another would shew some men that it was but their pride and prejudice and ignorance that made them think so heinously of other mens manner of Worship and that on all sides among true Christians the manner of their Worship is not so odious as prejudice and faction and partiality representeth it and that God accepteth that which obey reject And they should see how the Devil hath undone the common people by this means by teaching them every one to expect salvation for being of that party which he taketh to be the right Church and for worshipping in that Manner which he and his party thinketh best And so wonderful a thing is prejudice that every part by this is brought to account that ridiculous and vile which the other party accounteth best § 43. Quest. 5. But what if my conscience be not satisfied but I am still in doubt must I not forbear Quest. 5. seeing he that doubteth is condemned if he eat because he eateth not in faith for whatsoever Rom. 14. 24. is not of faith is sin Answ. The Apostle there speaketh not of eating in the Sacrament but of eating meats which he doubteth of whether they are lawful but is sure that it is lawful to forbear them And in case of doubting about things indifferent the surer side is to forbear them because there may be sin in doing but there can be none on the other side in forbearing But in case of Duties your doubting will not disoblige you Else men might give over praying and hearing Gods Word and believing and obeying their Rulers and maintaining their families when they are but blind enough to doubt of it 2. Your erring conscience is not a Law-maker and cannot make it your duty to obey it For God is your King and the Office of Conscience is to discern his Laws and urge you to obedience and not to make you Laws of its own So that if it speak falsly it doth not oblige you but deceive you It doth only ligare or ensnare you but not obligare or make a sin a duty It casteth you into a necessity of sinning more or less till you relinquish the error But in the case of such duties as these it is a sin to do them with a doubting conscience but ordinarily it is a greater sin to forbear § 44. Object But some Divines write that Conscience being Gods Officer when it erreth God himself doth bind me by it to follow that error and the evil which it requireth becometh my duty Answ. A dangerous error tending to the subversion of souls and Kingdoms and highly dishonourable to God God hath made it your Duty to know his will and do it And if you ignorantly mistake him will you lay the blame on him and draw him into participation of your sin when he forbiddeth you both the error and the sin And doth he at once forbid and command the same thing At that very moment God is so far from obliging you to follow your error that he still obligeth you to lay it by and do the contrary If you say You cannot I answer Your impotency is a sinful impotency and you can use the means in which his graee can help you and he will not change his Law nor make you Kings and Rulers of your selves instead of him because you are ignorant or impotent § 45. Direct 7. In the time of the administration go along with the Minister throughout the work and keep your hearts close to Iesus Christ in the exercise of all those graces which are suited to the several parts of the administration Think not that all the work must be the Ministers It should be a busie day with you and your hearts should be taken up with as much diligence as your hands be in your common labour But not in a toilsome weary diligence but in such Delightful business as becometh the guests of the God of Heaven at so sweet a feast and in the receiving of such unvaluable gifts § 46. Here I should distinctly shew you I. What graces they be
of God you will easily be assured that you love them When you strongly hate sin and live in universal constant obedience you will easily discern your Repentance and obedience But weak grace will have but weak assurance and little consolation § 12. Direct 3. Set your selves with all your skill and diligence to destroy every sin of heart Direct 3. and life and make it your principal eare and business to do your duty and please and honour God in your place and to do all the good you can in the world and trust God with your souls as long as you wait upon him in his way If you live in wilful sin and negligence be not unwilling to be reproved and delivered If you cherish your sensual fleshly lusts and set your hearts too eagerly on the world or defend your unpeaceableness and passion or neglect your known duty to God or man and make no Conscience of a true reformation it is not any enquiries after signes of grace that will help you to assurance You may complain long enough before you have case while such a thorn is in your foot Conscience must be better used before it will speak a word of sound well grounded peace to you But when you set your selves with all your care and skill to do your Duties and please your Lord he will not let your labour be in vain He will take care of your peace and comfort while you take care of your duty And in this way you may boldly trust him Only think not hardly and falsly of the Goodness of that God whom you study to serve and please § 13. Direct 4. Be sure whatever condition you are in that you understand and hold fast and Direct 4. improve the General grounds of Comfort which are common to mankind so far as they are made known to them and they are three which are the Foundation of all our comfort 1. The Goodness and Mercifulness of God in his very Nature 2. The sufficiency of the satisfaction or sacrifice of Christ. 3. The universality and freeness and sureness of the Covenant or promise of pardon and salvation to all that by final impenitence and unbelief do not continue obstinately to reject it or to all that unfeignedly Repent and Believe 1. Think not meanly and poorly of the infinite Goodness of God Psal. 103 8 11 17. 89. 2. 86. 5 15. 25. 10. 119. 64. 138. 8. 1â6 5. Even to Moses he proclaimeth his name at the second delivery of the Law The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin Exod. 34. 6 7. His mercy is over all his works It is great and reacheth to the Heavens It is firm and endureth for ever And he hath pleasure in those that hope in his mercy Psal. 147. 11. 100. 5. 33. 18. 57. 10. 108. 4. 2. Extenuate not the Merits and Sacrifice of Christ but know that never man was damned for want of a Christ to dye and be a sacrifice for his sin but only for want of Repentance and faith in him Ioh. 3. 16. 3. Deny not the universality of the conditional promise of pardon and salvation to all that it is offered to and will accept it on the offerers terms And if you do but feel these three foundations firm and stedfast under you it will encourage every willing soul. The Love of God was the cause of our Redemption by Christ Redemption was the foundation of the Promise or new Covenant And he that buildeth on this threefold foundation is safe § 14. Direct 5. When you come to try your particular Title to the blessings of the Covenant be Direct 5. sure that you well understand the condition of the Covenant and look for the performance of that condition in your selves as the infallible Evidence of your title And know that the condition is nothing but an unfeigned Consent unto the Covenant Or such a Belief of the Gospel as makeeth you truly willing of all the mercies offered in the Gospel and of the Duties required in order to those mercies And That nothing depriveth any man that heareth the Gospel of Christ and pardon and salvation but obstinate unwillingness or refusal of the mercy and the necessary annexed duties Understand this well and then peruse the Covenant of Grace which is but to take God for your God and Happiness your Father your Saviour and your Sanctifier and then ask your hearts whether here be any thing that you are unwilling of and unwilling of in a prevailing degree when it is greater than your willingness And if truly you are willing to be in Covenant with your God and Saviour and Sanctifier upon these terms know that your Consent or Willingness or Acceptance of the mercy offered you is your true performance of the Condition of your title and consequently the infallible evidence of your title even as Marriage Consent is a title-condition to the person and priviledges And therefore if you find this your doubts are answered You have found as good an evidence as Scripture doth acquaint us with And if this will not quiet and satisfie you you understand not the business nor is it Reason or Evidence that can satisfie you till you are better prepared to understand them But if really you are unwilling and will not consent to the terms of the Covenant then instead of doubting be past doubt that you are yet unsanctified And your work is presently to consider better of the terms and benefits and of those unreasonable reasons that make you unwilling till you see that your happiness lyeth upon the business and that you have all the reason in the world to make you willing and no true Reason for the withholding of your Consent And when the light of these considerations hath prevailed for your Consent the match is made and your Evidence is sure § 15. Direct 6. Iudge not of your hearts and Evidences upon every sudden glance or feeling Direct 6. but upon a sober deliberate examination when your minds are in a clear composed frame And as then you find your selves record the judgement or discovery and believe not every sudden inconsiderate appearance or passionate fear against that Record Otherwise you will never be quiet or resolved but carryed up and down by present sense The case is weighty and not to be decided by a sudden aspect nor by a scattered or a discomposed mind If you call your unprovided or your distempered understandings suddenly to so great a work no wonder if you are deceived You must not judge of colours when your eye is blood-shotten or when you look through a coloured Glass or when the object is far off It is like casting up a long and difficult account which must be done deliberately as a work of time and when it is so done and the summs
sin 2. And such as lose the very Resolution of the Will also and grow unresolved what to do if not resolved to do evil and to omit that which is good § 4. The third sort Backsliders in Life comprehendeth 1. Those that fall from Duty towards God or Man 2. And those that fall into positive sins and turn to sensuality in voluptuousness worldliness or pride § 5. II. 1. Backsliders in judgement do sometimes fall by slow degrees and sometimes suddenly at once Those that fall by degrees do some of them begin in the failing of the understanding but most of them begin at the failing or falseness of the Heart and the corrupted Will corrupteth the understanding § 6. 1. Those that fall by degrees through the failing of the Understanding are those simple souls that never were well grounded in the truth And some of them reason themselves into error or unbelief and others of them which is most usual are led into it by the cunning and diligence of seducers And for the Degrees They grow first to doubt of some Arguments which formerly seemed valid to them and then they doubt of the truth it self Or else they hear some argument from a seducer which through their own weakness they are unable to answer And then they yield to it as thinking that it is right because they see not what is to be said against it and know not what others know to the contrary nor how easily another can confute it And when once they are The method of falling into Heresie or Sects brought into a suspicion of one point which they formerly held they quickly suspect all the rest and grow into a suspicion and disaffection to the persons whom they did before most highly value And then they grow into a high esteem of the persons and party that seduced them and think that they that are wiser in one thing are wiser in the rest and so are prepared to receive all the errors which follow that one which they first received And next they imbody with the Sect that seduced them and separate from the sober united part of the Church And so they grow to a zealous importunity for the increase of their party and to lose their charity to those that are against their way and to corrupt their Morals in thinking all dishonesty lawful which seemeth necessary to promote the interest of their Sect which they think is the interest of the Truth and of God And at last its like they will grow weary of that Sect and hearken to another and another till in the end they come to one of these periods either to settle in Popery as the easiest Religion and being taken with their pretence of Antiquity Stability Unity and Universality or else to turn to Atheism or Infidelity and take all Religion for a meer deceit or else if they retained an honest heart in their former wanderings God sheweth them their folly and bringeth them back to Unity and Charity and maketh them see the vanity of those Reasonings which before seduced them and which once they thought were some spiritual coelestial light This is the common course of error when the Understanding is the most notable cause But sometimes a deceiver prevaileth with them on a sudden by such false appearances of truth which they are unable to confute But still an ill-prepared unfurnished Mind is the chiefest Cause § 7. 2. But those whose Iudgements are conquered by the perverse inclination of their Wills are usually carnal worldly hypocrites who never conquered the fleshly mind and interest nor overcame the world nor ever were acquainted with the heavenly Nature and Life nor with the power of Divine Love and these having made a change of their profession through the meer conviction of their understandings and benefit of Education or Government or the advantages of Religion in the Countrey where they live without a renewed holy Heart the byas of their Hearts doth easily prevail against the Light of their Understandings And because they would fain have those Doctrines to be true which save them from sufferings or give them liberty for a fleshly ambitious worldly life therefore they do by degrees prevail with their understandings to receive them § 8. 2. Backsliders in Heart do fall by divers degrees and means for Satans Methods are not alwayes the same Some of them fall through the corruption of their Judgements for every error hath much influence on the heart Some are tempted suddenly into some gross or sensual sin and so the errors of their lives call away their hearts from God Not but that some sin of the Heart or Will doth still go first but yet the extraordinary declension and pravity of the heart may sometimes be caused by the errors of the Iudgement or the Life But sometimes the beginning and progress is almost observable in the Appetite and Will it self And here the Inclining to Evil that is to sensual or carnal good and the declining from true spiritual good do almost alwayes go together And it is most usually by this method and by these degrees 1. The Devil usually beginneth with the fantasie and appetite and representeth some worldly fleshly thing as very pleasant and desirable 2. Next that he causeth this Complacency to entice the Thoughts so that they are much and oft in thinking on this pleasure 3. Next that the Will is drawn into a liking of it and he wisheth he might enjoy it whether it be riches or pleasant dwellings or pleasant company or pleasant meats or drinks or fleshly accommodations or apparel or honour or command or ease or lust or sports and recreations or whatever else 4. Next that the understanding is drawn into the design and is casting and contriving how it may be obtained and all lawful means are first considered of that if possible the business might be accomplished without the hazard of the soul. 5. Next to that Endeavours are vsed to that end by such means as are supposed lawful and the conscience quieted with the conceit of the harmlesness and security 6. By this time the man is engaged in his carnal cause and course and so the difficulty of returning is increased And the inclination of the heart groweth stronger to the sensual pleasure than before 7. And then he is drawn to prosecute his design by any means how sinful soever if it be possible making himself believe by some reasonings or other that all is lawful still or if the case be too palpable to be so cloaked conscience at last is cast asleep and seared and stupified that it may be silent under all Till either Grace or Vengeance awake the sinner and make him amazed at his madness and stupidity This is the most usual Method of the Hearts relapse to positive evil § 10. 2. And by such degrees doth the heart decline from the Love of God and Goodness As 1. The thoughts are diverted to some carnal vanity that is overloved And the thoughts
thing in it steal again into your hearts and seem Direct 7. too sweet to you If your friends or dwellings or lands and wealth or honours begin to grow too pleasant and be over-loved your thoughts will presently be carryed after them and turned away from God and all holy affection will be damped and decay and grace will fall into a consumption It is the Love of money that is the root of all evil and the love of this world which is the mortal enemy of the Love of God Keep the world from your hearts if you would keep your graces § 19. Direct 8. Keep a strict Government and watch over your fleshly appetite and sense For the Direct 8. loosing of the reins to carnal lusts and yielding to the importunity of sensual desires is the most ordinary Rom. 8. 13. Rom. 13. 13 14. way of wasting grace and falling off from God § 20. Direct 9. Keep as far as you can from Temptations and all occasions and opportunities of sinning Direct 9. Trust not to your own strength And be not so fool-hardy as to thrust your selves into needless danger No man is long safe that standeth at the brink of ruine If the fire and straw be long near together some spark is like to catch at last § 21. Direct 10. Incorporate your selves into the Communion of Saints and go along with Direct 10. them that go towards Heaven and engage your selves in the constant use of all those means which God hath appointed you to use for your perseverance Especially take heed of an idle slothful unprofitable life And keep your graces in the most lively exercise For the slothful is Brother to the waster And idleness consumeth or corrupteth our spiritual health and strength as well as our bodily Set your selves diligently to work while it is day and do all the good in your places that you are able For it is acts that preserve and increase the habits And a Religion which consisteth only in doing no hurt is so lifeless and corrupt that it will quickly perish § 22. Direct 11. Keep alwayes in thine eye the doleful case of a Backslider which I opened Direct 11. before O what horror is waiting to seize on their consciences How many of them have we known that on their death-beds have lain roaring in the anguish of their souls crying out I am utterly forsaken of God because I have forsaken him There is no mercy for such an apostate wretch O that I had never been born or had been any thing rather than a man Cursed be the day that ever I hearkned to the counsel of the wicked and that ever I pleased this corruptible flesh to the utter undoing of my soul O that it were all to do again Take warning by a mad besotted sinner that have lost my soul for that which I knew would never make me satisfaction and have turned from God when I had found him to be good ând gracious O prepare not for such pangs as these or worse than these in endless desperation § 23. Direct 12. Make not a small matter of the beginnings of your backsliding There are very Direct 12. few that fall quite away at once the misery creepeth on by insensible degrees You think it a small matter to cut short one duty and omit another and be negligent at another and to entertain some pleasing thoughts of the world or first to look on the forbidden fruit and then to touch it and then to taste it but these are the way to that which is not small A thought or a look or a taste or a delight hath begun that with many which never stopt till it had shamed them here and damned them for ever CHAP. XXVII Directions for the Poor THere is no condition of life so low or poor but may be sanctified and fruitful and comfortable to us if our own misunderstanding or sin and negligence do not pollute it or imbitter it to us If we do the Duty of our condition faithfully we shall have no cause to murmurr at it Therefore I shall here direct the Poor in the special Duties of their condition and if they will but conscionably perform them it will prove a greater kindness to them than if I could deliver them from their poverty and give them as much riches as they desire Though I doubt this would be more pleasing to the most and they would give me more thanks for money than for teaching them how to want it § 1. Direct 1. Understand first the use and estimate of all earthly things that they were never made Direct 1. to be your portion and felicity but your provision and helps in the way to Heaven And therefore they Prov. 28. 6. Jam. 2. 5. are neither to be estimated nor desired simply for themselves for so there is nothing good but God but only as they are Means to the Greatest Good Therefore neither Poverty nor Riches are simply to be rejoyced in for themselves as any part of our happiness But that condition is to be desired and rejoyced in which affordeth us the greatest helps for Heaven and that condition only is to be lamented and dislikt which hindereth us most from Heaven and from our duty § 2. Direct 2. See therefore that you really take all these things as matters in themselves indifferent Direct 2. and of small concernment to you and as not worthy of much love or care or sorrow further than they conduce to greater things We are like runners in a race and Heaven or Hell will be our End and therefore woe to us if by looking aside or turning back or stopping or trifling about these matters or burdening our selves with worldly trash we should lose the race and lose our souls O Sirs what greater matters than poverty or riches have we to mind Can those souls that muââ shortly be in Heaven or Hell have time to bestow any serious thoughts upon these impertinencies Shall we so much as look at the temporal things which are seen instead of the things eternal that are unseen 2 Cor. 4. 18. Or shall we whine under those light afflictions which may be so improved as to work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory v. 17. Our present life is not in the abundance of the things which we possess Much less is our eternal life Luke 12. 15. § 3. Direct 3. Therefore take heed that you judge not of Gods Love or of your happiness or misery by Direct 3. your riches or poverty prosperity or adversity as knowing that they come alike to all and Love or hatred Eccles. 2. 14. 9. 2. 9. 3. is not to be discerned by them except only Gods Common Love as they are common mercies to the body If a Surgeon is not to be taken for a hater of you because he letteth you blood nor a Physicion because he purgeth his Patient nor a Father because he
5. 9 10. Rev. 4. 11 8. Rev. 15. 3. Heb. 12. 9. Matth. 6. 13. thâu 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 paâuit 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 mimâca actions were so served themselves they might be âilââced with Aristâppââ his defence of his gallantry and sumptuâuâ fare Si vituâârandum ait hoc essât in celebritatibus deorum profectò non fieret Laert. iâ Aristip. So Plato allowed drunkenness only in the Feasts oâ Baâchâs of in the former Tome The outward or expressive worship
Or will you presume to bind God himself by your Vows that he shall make no such alteration Or if you were never so confident of your own unchangeableness you know not what fond and violent affections another may be possessed with which may make an alteration in your duty At the present it may be your duty to live retiredly and avoid Magistracy and publick employments But you may not therefore Vow it for continuance For you know not but God may make such alterations as may make it so great and plain a duty as without flat impiety or cruelty you cannot refuse Perhaps at the present it may be your duty to give half your yearly revenews to charitable and pious uses But you must not therefore Vow it for continuance without some special cause to warrant it For perhaps the next year it may be your duty to give but a fourth or a tenth part or none at all according as the providence of God shall dispose of your estate and you Perhaps God may impose a clear necessity on you of using your estate some other way § 21. Direct 11. If you be under Government you may not lawfully Vow without your Governours Direct 11. consent to do any thing which you may not lawfully do without their consent in case you had not Vowed it For that were 1. Actually to disobey them at the present by making a Vow without the direction and consent of your Governours 2. And thereby to bind your selves to disobey them for the future by doing that without them which you should not do without them But if it be a thing that you may do or must do though your Governours forbid you then you may Vow it though they forbid you if you have a call from the necessity of the Vow § 22. Direct 12. If Oaths be commanded us by Usurpers that have no authority to impose them we Direct 12. must not take them in formal obedience to their commands For that were to own their Usurpation and encourage them in their sin If we owe them no obedience in any thing we must not obey them in so great a thing Or if they have some authority over us in other matters but none in this as a Constable hath no power to give an Oath we must not obey them in the point where they have no authority But yet it is possible that there may be other reasons that may make it our duty to do it though not as an act of formal obedience As I may take an Oath when a Thief or Murderer requireth it not to obey him but to save my life And if any man command me to do that which God commandeth me I must do ãâ¦ã because God commandeth it § 23. Direct 13. If a lawful Magistrate impose an Oath or Vow upon you before you take it you Direct 13. must consult with God and know that it is not against his will God must be first obeyed in all things but especially in matters of so great moment as Vows and Promises § 24. Quest. 1. What if I be in doubt whether the Oath or promise imposed be lawful Must I take it or not If I take an Oath which I judge unlawful or false I am a perjured or prophane despiser of God And if a man must refuse all Oaths or promises which the Magistrate commandeth if he do but doubt whether they be lawful then Government and Iustice will be injured while every man that hath ignorance enough to make him dubious shall refuse all Oaths and promises of Allegiance or for witness to the truth Answ. 1. I shall tell you what others say first in the case of doubting Dr. Sanderson saith Praelect 3. Sect. 10. pag. 74 75. Tertius Casus est cum quis juramento pollicetur se facturum aliquid in se fortassis licitum quod tamen ipse putat esse illicitum Ut siquis ante haec tempora admittendus ad beneficium ut vocant Ecclesiasticum promisisset in publicis sacris observare omnes ritus legibus Ecclesiasticis imperatos vestem scilicet lineam crucis signum ad sacrum fontem ingeniculationem in percipiendis Symbolis in sacra coena id genus alios quos ipse tamen ex aliquo levi praejudicio putaret esse superstitiosos Papisticos Quaeritur in hoc casu quae sit Obligatio Pro Resp. dico tria Dico 1. Non posse tale juramentum durante tali errore siâe gravi peccato suscipi Peccat enim graviter qui contra conscientiam peccat etsi erroneam Iudicium enim intellectus cum sit unicuique proxima agendi regula Voluntas si judicium illud non sequatur deficiens a regula sua necesse est ut in obliquum feratur Tritum est illud Qui facit contra conscientiam aedificat ad gehennam Sane qui jurat in id quod putat esse illicitum nihilominus juraturus esset si esset revera illicitum Atque ita res illa ut ut alii licita est tamen ipsi illicita sententiam ferente Apostolo Rom. 14. 14. c. Dico 2. Tale juramentum non obligare c. that is The third case is when a man promiseth by Oath that he will do a thing which in it self perhaps is lawful but he thinketh to be unlawful As if one before these times being to be admitted to an Ecclesiastical Benefice as they call it had promised that in publick worship he would observe all the rites commanded in the Ecclesiastick Laws to wit the Surplice the Sign of the Cross at the sacred Font kneeling in the receiving of the symbols in the holy Supper and others the like which yet out of some light prejudice he thought to be superstitious and Papistical The Question is What Obligation there is in this case For answer I say three things 1. I say that an Oath while such an error lasteth cannot be taken without grievous sin For he grievously sinneth who sinneth against his conscience although it be erroneous For when the judgement of the intellect is to every man the nearest rule of action it must be that the will is carryed into obliquity if it follow not that judgement as swerving from its rule It s a common saying He that doth against his conscience buildeth unto Hell Verily he that sweareth to that which he thinketh to be See before Chap. 3. Gr. Dir. 10. pag. 125 c. unlawful would nevertheless swear if it were indeed unlawful And so the thing though lawful to another is to him unlawful the Apostle passing the sentence Rom. 14. 14 c. 2. I say that such an Oath bindeth not c. Of the Obligation I shall speak anon but of the Oath or Promise I think the truth lyeth here as followeth § 25. 1. The Question de esse must first be resolved before the Question of Knowing or Opinion Either the thing is really lawful which is doubted of or denyed or it is not
future What Understanding Will or Power arâ formally in God How he knoweth future contingents with a hundred such like Then remember that you make use of this rule and say with Mâses Dâuâ 29. 29. The secret things belong to the Lord our God but those things that are revealed unto us and to our children for ever that we may do all the words of his Law There are many rare profound discoveries much gloryâd of by the Masters of several Sects of which you may know the sentence of the Holy Ghost by that instance Col. 2. 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a vâluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into thâse things which he hath not seen vainly puft up by his fleshly mind Reverently withdraw from things that are unrevealed and dispute them not § 17. Direct 6. Be a careful and accurate though not a vain Distinguisher and suffer not ambiguity Direct 6. and confusion to decâive you Suspect every word in your Question and anatomize it and agree â upon the sense of all your common terms before you dispute with any adversary It is not only in Sâe my Preface bâfore the second Part of the Saiââs Rest. Edit 3. c. A man of judgement shall hear ignoâânâ mân dâffer and know that âhâ mean one thing and yet âââây themselves will never agree L. Bacoâ Ess. 3. many words but in one word or syllable that so much ambiguity and confusion may be contained as may make a long dispute to be but a vain and ridiculous wrangling Is it not a ridiculous business to hear men dispute many hours about the Cur credis and Into what faith is to be resolved and in the end come to understand that by Cur one of them speaks of the Principium or Causa Veritatis and the other of the Principium patâfactionis or the Evidentia Veritatis or some other cause And when one speaks of the Resolution of his faith as into the formal Object and another into the subservient testimony or means or into the proofs of Divine attestation or many other causes Or to hear men dispute Whether Christ dyed for all when by for one man meaneth for the benefit of all and another means in the place or stead of all or for the sins of all as the procuring cause c. Yet here is but a syllable to contain this confusion What a tedious thing it is to read long disputes between many Papists and Protestants about Justification while by Iustification one meaneth one thing and another meaneth quite another thing He that cannot force every word to make a plain confession of its proper signification that the Thing intended may be truly discerned in the Word he will but deceive himself and others with a wordy insignificant dispute § 18. Direct 7. Therefore be specially suspicious of Metaphors as being all but ambiguities till an Direct 7. explication hath fixed or determined the sense It is a noisome thing to hear some dispute upon an unexplained â Metaphorical word when neither of them have enucleated the sense and when there are proper words enow § 19. Direct 8. Take special notice of what kind of beings your enquiry or disputation is and let Direct 8. all your terms be adapted and interpreted according to the kinds of beings you dispute of As if you â be enquiring into the nature of any Grace as Faith Repentance Obedience c. remember that it is in genere moris a moral act And therefore the terms are not to be understood as if you disputed about meer Physical acts which are considered but in genere entis For that Object which must essentiate one Moral act containeth many Physical particles which will make up many Physical acts As I âave shewed in my Dispute of Saving Faith wiâh Dr. Barlow and of Iustification If you take such a man for your King your Commander your Master your Physicion c. if you should at the Barr when you are questioned for unfaithfulness dispute upon the word take whether it be an act of the phantasie or sense or intellect or will c. would you not be justly laught at So when you askt What act Faith or Repentance is which contain many particular Physical acts When you dispute of Divinity Policy Law Warr c. you must not use the same terms in the same sense as when you dispute of Physicks or Metaphysicks § 20. Direct 9. Be sure in all your disputes that you still keep distinguished before your eyes the Direct 9. Order of Being and the Order of Knowing that the questions de esse lying undetermined in your way â do not frustrate all your dispute about the question de cognoscere As in the question Whether a man should do such or such a thing when he thinketh that it is Gods Command How far Conscience must be obeyed It must first be determined de esse whether indeed the thing be commanded or lawful or not Before the case can be determined about the obligation that followeth my apprehension For what ever my Conscience or Opinion say of it the Thing either is Lawful or it is not If it be Lawful or a duty the case is soon decided But if it be not Lawful the error of my Conscience altereth not Gods Law nor will it make it lawful unto me I am bound first to know and then to do what God revealeth and commandeth and this I shall be bound to what ever I imagine to the contrary and to lay by the error which is against it § 21. Direct 10. Be sure when you first enter upon an enquiry or dispute that you well discover how Direct 10. much of the controversie is verbal de nomine and âow much is material de re And that you suffer not â your adversary to go on upon a false supposition that the Controversie is de re when it is but de Non ex verbis reâ sed ex rebus verba esse inquirenda ait Mysoâ in Laert. p. 70. Basil Edit nomine The difference between names and things is so wide that you would think no reasonable man should confound them And yet so heedless in this point are ordinary disputers that it is a usual thing to make a great deal of stir about a controversie before they discern whether it be de nomine or de râ Many a hot and long dispute I have heard which was managed as about the very heart of some material cause as about mans Power to do good or about the sufficiency of Grace or about Iustification c. when the whole contest between the Disputers was only or principally It is a noble work that Mr. Le Blanck of Sedan is about to this purpose stating more exâctly than hath yet been done all the Controversies between us and the Papists which how excellently he is like to perform I easily conjecture by the Disputes of his
withdrew from the accusation as tending to their own confusion And Severus saith Certe Ithacium nihil pensi nihil sancti habuisse definio fuit enim audax loquax impudens sumptuosus ventri gulae plurimum impertiens Hic stultitiae eo usque processerat ut omnes etiam sanctos viros quibus aut studium inerat lectionis aut propositum erat certare jejuniis tanquam Priscilliani socios discipulos in erimen arcesseret Ausus etiam Miser est Martino Episcopo viro plane Apostolis conferendo palam objectare haeresis infamiam quia non desinebat inârepare Ithacium ut ab accusatione desisteret And when the Leaders were put to death the Heresie increased more and honoured Priscillian as a Martyr and reproached the Orthodox as wicked persecuters And the end was that the Church was filled by it with divisions and manifold mischiefs and all the most godly made the common scorn Inter haec plebs Dei optimus quisque probro atque ludibrio habebatur They are the last words of Severus's History And changing the names are calculated for another Meridian and for later years CHAP. IX How to behave our selves in the publick Assemblies and the worship there performed and after them See my Treaâ of the Lords day and my Cure of Church-Div I Have purposely given such particular Directions in Tom. 2. on this subject and written so many Books about it and said so much also in the Cases of Conscience that I shall here only cast in a few common Directions lest the Reader think I make a bawk Direct 1. Let your preparations in secret and in your family on the beginning of the Direct 1. Lords dayes be such as conduce to fit you for the publick Worship Run not to Church as ungodly Eccl. 5. 1 2 3 4. people do with a carnal heart that never sought God before you went nor considered what you go about As if all your Religion were to make up the number of the auditors and you 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. Prov. 1. 20. to the end thought God must not be worshipped and obeyed at home but only in the Church God may in mercy meet with an unprepared heart and open his eyes and heart and save him But he hath made no promise of it to any such He that goeth to Worship that God at Church whom he forgetteth and despiseth in his heart and house may expect to be despised by him O consider what it is for a sinner that must shortly die to go with the servants of God to worship him to pray for his salvation and to hear what God hath to say to him by his Minister for the life of his immortal soul Direct 2. Enter not into the holy Assembly either superstitiously or unreverently Not as if Direct 2. the bending of the knee and mumbling over a few words with a careless ignorant mind and spending an hour there as carelesly would save your souls Nor yet as if the Relation which the worship the worshippers and the dedicated Place have unto God deserved not a special honour and regard Though God be ever with us every where yet every Time and Place and person and business is not equally Related to God And Holiness is no unfit attribution for that Company or that Place which is Related to God though but by the lawful separation and dedication of man To be uncovered in those Countreys where uncovering signifieth Reverence is very well becoming a reverent soul except when the danger of cold forbids it It is an unhappy effect of our Contentions that many that seem most reverent and holy in their high regard of holy things do yet carry themselves with more unreverent deportment than those that themselves account prophane God is the God of Soul and Body and must be worshipped by both And while they are united the actions of one are helpful to the other as well as due and decent Direct 3. If you can come at the beginning that you may shew your attendance upon God and Direct 3. your esteem of all his worship Especially in our Assemblies where so great a part of the duty as Confession Praises Reading the Scriptures are all at the beginning And it is meet that you thereby shew that you prefer publick worship before private and that needless businesses keep you not away Direct 4. If you are free and can do it lawfully choose the most able holy Teacher that you can Direct 4. have and be not indifferent whom you hear For O how great is the difference and how bad are our hearts and how great our necessity of the clearest doctrine and the Livelyest helps Nor be you indifferent what manner of people you joyn with nor what manner of worship is there performed But in all choose the Best when you are free But where you are not free or can have no better refuse not to make use of weaker Teachers or to communicate with faulty Congregations in a defective faulty manner of worship so be it you are not compelled to sin And think not that all the faults of the Prayers or Communicants are imputed to all that joyn with them in that worship For then we should joyn with none in all the World Direct 5. When the Minister is weak be the more watchful against prejudice and sluggishness of Direct 5. heart lest you lose all Mark that Word of God which he readeth to you and reverence and Love and lay up that It was the Law Read and meditated on which David saith the Godly do delight Psal. 1. 2 3. Psal. 12. 6 7. 19. 7 8 9. in The sacred Scriptures are not so obscure and useless as the Papists do pretend but convert the soul and are able to make us wise unto salvation Christ went ordinarily to the Synagogues where even bad men did read Moses and the Prophets every Sabbath day There are thousands that cannot Read themselves who must come to the Assembly to hear that word read which they cannot read or hear at home Every sentence of Scripture hath a divine excellency and therefore had we nothing but the Reading of it and that by a bad man a holy soul may profit by it Direct 6. Mind not so much the case of others present as your selves And think not so much how Direct 6. bad such and such a one is and unworthy to be there as how bad you are your selves and unworthy of communion with the people of the Lord and what a mercy it is that you have admittance and are not cast out from those holy opportunities Direct 7. Take heed of a pievish quarrelsome humour that disposeth you to carp at all that 's said Direct 7. and done and to find fault with every mode and circumstance and to affect a causless singularity as thinking that your own wayes and words and orders are far more excellent than other mens Think ill of nothing out of
example of Angels is also to be observed and with pleasure to be imitated And ask the enemies of Holiness who urge you with the examples of the Great and Learned whether they are wiser than all the Angels of God § 22. Direct 9. When you are tempted to desire any inordinate communion with Angels as visibly appearing Direct 9. or affecting your senses or to give them any part of the Office or honour of Iesus Christ then think how suitable that Office is to your safety and benefit which God hath assigned them and how much Timet Angelâs adoraâi ab humana natura quam videt in Deo sublimaâam Grââââ they themselves abhorr aspiring or usurpation of the Office or honour of their Lord And consider how much more suitable to your benefit this spiritual ministration of the Angels is than if they appeared to us in bodily shapes In this spiritual communion they act according to their spiritual nature without deceit And they serve us without any terrible appearances and without any danger of drawing us to sensitive gross apprehensions of them or entising us to an unmeet adhesion to them or honouring of them whereas if they appeared to us in visible shapes we might easily be affrighted confounded and left in doubt whether they were good Angels indeed or not It is our communion with God himself that is our Happiness And communion with Angels or Saints is desirable but in order unto this That kind of communion with Angels therefore is the best which most advanceth us to communion with God And that reception of his mercy by instruments is best which least endangereth our inordinate adhesion to the Instruments and our neglect of God We know not so well as God what way is best and safest for us As it is dangerous desiring to mend his Word by any fancies of our own which we suppose more fit so it is dangerous to desire to amend his Government and Providence and Order and to think that another way than that which in nature he hath stated and appointed is more to our benefit It is dangerous wishing God to go out of his way and to deal with us and conduct us in by-wayes of our own in which we are our selves unskilled and of which we little know the issue § 23. Direct 10. When you are apt to be terrified with the fear of Devils think then of the guard Direct 10. of Angels and how much greater strength is for you than against you Though God be our only fundamental security and our chiefest confidence must be in him yet experience telleth us how apt we are to look to instruments and to be affected as second causes do appear to make for us or against us Therefore when appearing dangers terrifie us appearing or secondary helps should be observed to comfort and encourage us § 24. Direct 11. Labour to answer the great and holy Love of Angels with such great and holy Love Direct 11. to them as may help you against your unwillingness to dye and make you long for the company of them Simus devoti simus grati tantis custodibus redamemus âos quantum possumus quantum debâmus effectuose c. Bernââd Vae nobis si quando provocati Sancti Angeli peccatis negligentiis indignos nos judicaverint praesentia visitatione sua c. Cavenda est nobis eorum offensa in his maxime eâercendum quibus eos novimus obâectari Haec autem placent eis quae in nobis invenire delectat ut est âobrietas castitas c. Inquovis angulo reverentiam exhibe Angelo ne audeas illo praesente quod me vidente non auderes Bernard whom you so much Love And when death seemeth terrible to you because the world to come seems strange remember that you are going to the society of those Angels that rejoyced in your conversion and ministred for you here on earth and are ready to convoy your souls to Christ. Though the thoughts of God and our blessed Mediator should be the only final object to attract our Love and make us long to be in Heaven yet under Christ the Love and company of Saints and Angels must be thought on to further our desire and delight For even in Heaven God will not so be All to us as to use no creature for our comfort Otherwise the glorified humanity of Christ would be no means of our comfort there And the heavenly Ierusalem would not then have been set out to us by its created excellencies as it is Rev. 21. 22. Nor would it be any comfort to us in the Kingdom of God that we shall be with Abraham Isaac and Iacob Luke 13. 28. Matth. 8. 11. § 25. Direct 12. Pray for the protection and help of Angels as part of the benefits procured for the Direct 12. Saints by Christ and be thankful for it as a Priviledge of believers excelling all the dignities of the ungodly And walk with a reverence of their presence especially in the worshipping of God It is not fit such a mercy should be undervalued or unthankfully received Nor that so ordinary a means of our preservation should be over-looked and not be sought of God by prayer But the way to keep the Love of Angels is to keep up the Love of God And the way to please them is to please him For His will is theirs § 26. Direct 13. In all the Worship you perform to God remember that you joyn with the Angels of Direct 13. Heaven and bear your part to make up the Consort Do it therefore with that holiness and reverence and affection as remembring not only to whom you speak but also what companions you have And let there not be too great a discord either in your hearts or praises O think with what lively joyful minds they praise their glorious Creator and how unwearied they are in their most blessed work And labour to be like them in Love and Praise that you may come to be equal with them in their Glory Luke 20. 36. CASES OF CONSCIENCE ABOUT Matters Ecclesiastical VVich are not before handled By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons at the Sign of the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1673. READER I Have something to say to thee of the number of these Cases somewhat of the Order and somewhat of the manner of handling and resolving them I. That they are so Many is because there are really so many difficulties which all men are not able to resolve That they are no more is partly because I could not remember then any more that were necessarily to be handled and I was not willing to increase so great a Book with things unnecessary II. As to the Order I have some Reasons for the order of most of them which would be too tedious to open to you But some of them are placed out of order because 1. I could not remember them in due
is lawful to preserve the honest and sober Love to our friends by keeping their Pictures or to shew our Love by decent Monuments 17. Where we may use Creatures themselves to profit us by the sight we may ordinarily use the Images of those creatures As the sight of Trees Fruits Cities c. may delight us and mind us of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God or the sight of the Sun Moon Stars c. So may the pictures of the same things And as a dead body skelleton or skull may profitably mind us of our latter end so may the picture of any of these which we may more conveniently keep 18. It is not unlawful to pray before or towards an Image in a room where Images are placed only for Ornament and we have no respect to them as a medium or object of our Worship except by accident as aforesaid 19. It is not unlawful to make an Image out of the cases of accidental evil before named to be objectum vel medium excitans ad cultum Dei an object or medium of our Consideration exciting our minds to worship God As a Deaths-head or a Crucifix or an historical Image of Christ or some holy man yea the sight of any of Gods Creatures may be so holily used as to stir up in us a worshipping affection and so is medium cultus excitans vel efficienter But no Creature or Image I think may lawfully be made the medium cultum vel terminus in genere causae finalis a worshipped medium or the terminus or the thing which we worship mediately on pretence of representing God and that we worship him in it ultimately And this I take to be the thing forbidden directly in the second Commandment viz. To worship a Creature with mind or body in the Act of Divine Worship as representing God or as the Mediate term of our Worship by which we send it unto God as if it were the more acceptable to him So that it is lawful by the sight of a Crucifix to be provoked to worship God But its unlawful to offer him that worship by offering it to the Crucifix first as the sign way or means of our sending it to God 20. Yet a Creature may be honoured or worshipped with such worship as is due to him by the means of such a representing terminus or Image If the King command his Subjects to bow towards his Image or Throne when he is absent as an act of honour or humane worship to himself it is lawful so to do God having not forbid it But God hath forbid us to do so by himself because he hath no Image and is confined to no place and to avoid the danger and appearance of Idolatry 21. Yet is it lawful to lift up out hands and eyes towards Heaven as the place of Gods Glory And I condemn not the antient Churches that worshipped towards the East But it was not Heaven or the Sun or East that they worshipped or to which they sent their worship as any terminus medius or thing mediately worshipped But only to God himself whose Glory is in the Heavens Quest. 114. Whether Stage-playes where the Virtuous and Vitious are personated be lawful BEcause this is a kind of Imagery the Question may be here fitly handled But I have said so much before of Stage-playes and the sin that is used in them Lib. 1. Chap. 18. Part 2. that I have nothing more to say here but only to decide this particular Case of Conscience concerning them As I am not willing to thrust any man into extreams nor to trouble men with calling those sins which God hath not forbidden So I have reason to advise men to go in doubtful cases on the safer side much more to disswade them from undoubted sin and especially from great and multiplyed sins And therefore I must thus decide the question 1. It is not absolutely unlawful to personate another man nor doth the second Commandment forbid such living Images in this extent I pass by the instance of the Woman of Tekoah 2 Sam. 14. because the bare history proveth not the lawfulness But Pauls speaking as of himself and Apollos the things which concerned others was approvable And as Christ frequently taught by Parables so his Parables were a description of good and evil by the way of feigned History as if such and such things had been done by such persons as never were And this fiction is no falshood For the hearer knoweth that it is not meant as an Historical Narrative but a Parable And it is but an Image in words or a painted doctrine And if a person and action may be feigned by words I know not where it is forbidden to feign them by personal representation Therefore to personate another is not simply a sin 2. To personate good men in good actions is not simply unlawful Because 1. It is not unlawful as it is personating as is shewed 2. Nor as lying Because it is not an asserting but a representing nor so taken 3. To personate a bad man in a bad action is more dubious but seemeth not to be in all cases unlawful To pass by Davids feigning himself mad as of uncertain quality it is common with Preachers to speak oft the words of wicked men as in their names or persons to disgrace them And Prov. 5. 11 12 c. cometh near it And whether Iob be a History or a Dialogue personating such speakers is doubted by the most learned Expositors 4. I think it possible to devise and act a Comoedy or Tragoedy which should be lawful and very edifying It might be so ordered by wise men 5. I think I never knew or heard of a Lawful Stage-play Comoedy or Tragoedy in the age that I have lived in And that those now commonly used are not only sins but heinous aggravated sins for these reasons 1. They personate odious Vices commonly vitiously that is 1. Without need reciting sinful words and representing sinful actions which as they were evil in the first committing so are they in the needless repetition Ephes. 5. 3 12. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness or lust let it not be once named among you as becometh Saints neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jeasting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret 2. Because they are spoken and acted commonly without that shame and hatred and grief which should rightly affect the hearers with an abhorrence of them And therefore tend to reconcile men to sin and to tempt them to take it but for a matter of sport 2. There are usually so many words materially false though not proper lies used in such actings Psal. 26. 4. 119. 113. 1 Tim. 6. 20. Mat. 12. 36 37. 1 Pet. 1. 18. Eccles. 7. 3 4 5 6 7. Eph. 4. 29 30 5. 15 16. Luke 12. 17 18 19. Rom. 13. 13
Enquiries Buxtorf de Synag Iud. Cunaeus Sigonius Steph. Menochius de Repub. Hebr. Sixt. Amama Euseb. Nirembergius de Antiq. Scripturae the Polyglote Bibles various Versions Ravanellus XXIII For defence of the Christian âaith against Atheists and Infidels Hier. Savonarola Vander Meulin Stilling fleets Orig. Script Grotius de Verit. Rel. Christ. Morney Camero de Verbo Dei Micrelii Eâânophron Lod. Vives Marsil Ficinus cum notis Lud. Crocii Dr. Iacksons Truth of Sââipt Campanella's Atheismus Triumphatus Lâssius Waddesworth of the Immortality of the Soul âir Chârl Wolseley against Atheism Aut Deus aut Nihil besides abundance of the Fathers Iohn Goodwin of Scriptures XXIV Cases of Conscience besides Amesius Perkins Dixson Greg. Sayrus his Clavis Regia Azorius Dr. Ier. Tailors Ductor Dubitantium XXV Councils Lydius Caranza Crab Binnius Spelman Iustellus Synod Dordr XXVI Canonists and Helps to understand Councils The Decretals or Corpus Iuris Canon Zabarell Panormitane Navarrus Albaspinaeus Iustellus Blondel de Decret Balsamon Zânaras Pââtius Miraei Notitia Episcopatuum but not trusty Chenu de Episcopatibus Gallicis Filesaeus Histor. Concil Trident. XXVII Fathers Clem. Rom. Ushers and Iz. Vossii Ignatius Iustin Martyr Irenaeus Clem. Alexand Tertullian Cyprian Origen Athenagoras Tatianus Arnobius cum Minutio Foelice Lactantius Athanasius These are not very Voluminous Optatus Eusebii Preparatio Demonstratio Evangelica as much of Hierom Augustine and Chrysostom as you can Hilarius Pictaviensis Prosper Fulgentius Vincent Lirinensis and before them Basil Greg. Nazianzene and Greg. Nyssen Epiphanius Ambrose Paulinus Nolanus Cassâanus Salvianus Gennadius Massil Gildas Claudius Turonensis Rabanus Maârus Bernard XXVIII Helps to know and understand the Fathers Sculteti Medulla Patrum Cocus his Censura Patrum Rivets Critica Sacra Dr. Iames all Bishop Ushers Works but above all a Manuscript of his now in the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury Sixti Senensis Bibliotheca Possevinus many of Erasmus Prefaces and Notes Dallaeus de usu Patrum de Pseudepigraphis Apostol de Câltu Latinorum in Dionys. in Ignatium pleraque illius D. Blondelli opera Bellarminus de Scriptoribus Ecclesiast Causabones Exercit. Vedelius de Sapient Veterum Polidore Virgil de Invent. Rer. Albaspine Vossii Histor. Pelag. de Symbolis Pauli Erinacâi Trias Patrum Photii Biblioth Rouse his Mella Patrum De la Cerda and many others Notes XXIX Later Writers and Schoolmen Damasus Anselmus Cantuar. Guilielmus Parisiensis Guil. de Sancto Amore Gerhardus Zutphaniensis in Bibl. Patr. Thaulerus Thom. à Kempis Lombard Aquinas Durandus Scotus Ockam Greg. Ariminensis Rada Alvarez Ruiz Suarez Lud. a Dola Ripalda Buridanes Ethicks Meurisse Metaphys Ferrii Scholast Orthod defens Posewitz Theolog. Scholast Dr. Twisse Strangius Rob. Baronii Metaphys Schiebleri Metaphys Calovii Metaph. Divin Dr. Barlowes Metaphys Dr. Mores Metaphysicks XXX Controversies besides the forementioned against Heathens and Infidels 1. Protestants and Papists Bellarmine Stapleton Costerus Becanus Holden Brierleyes Protest Plea Richworths and Whites Dialogues Against them Aâesii Bellarm. Enervatus Dr. Challoners Credo Eccles. Cathol Chamier Sadeel Chillingworth Ushers Answer to the Jesuits Challenge and de Success Eccles. Illyrici Catalog Testium Veritatis du Plessâs Mornay de Eccles. and Mystery of Iniquity Dr. Field of the Church Whitaker Dr. Iohn Whites Way to the true Church and the Defence Blondel de Ecclesia Gallicé All Dallaeus Works Albertinus de Transubst cum Clodii defens Davenant de Iustitia Determinationes Rivets Cathol Orthod Pet. Molinaei de Novitate Papismi Englished Pet. Molinaeus Iuniors Answer to Philanax Anglicus Chemnitii Exam. Concil Trident. Reignolds Conference with Hart de lib. Apochry Pet. Cousins Bishop of Durham of the Canon of Scripture Drelincourts Manual Pooles Nullity and Dial. Bishop Downame de Antichristo Stillingfleet Tillâtson Voetius de Desper Causa Papatus Especially for the right of Kings against them Will. Barclay Grotius de Imperio Summar Potest Bishop Bilson of Obedience Bishop Carlton de Iurisdictione Bishop Robert Abbots Goldastus de Monarchia a multitude of old Writers collected Constitut. Imperial M. Ant. De Dominis Spalatensis de Republ. Eccl. All Ludovicus Molinaeus Works 2. About Predestination Grace and Free-will the Jesuits Lutherans and Arminians against the Dominicans Jansenists and Calvinists On one side Molina Fonsâca Pennottus propugnac Libert Petr. a Sancto Ioseph Arminius Episcopius Corvinus Grevinchovius Tilenus Tilenus Junior On the other side Alvarez Zumel Iansenius Twisse Synod Dord Molinaei Anatom Armini Amesius Zanchius c. But the Conciliators are âoundest 3. Of Socinianism and Arrianism For them Historians Philostorgius and Sandius Disputers Volkelius Socinus Lushington on the Hebr. Against them Ios. Placaeus Stegman Botsaccus Grotius de Satisfact Zarnovââius Ioh. Iunius de Satisfact Lawson on the Hebrews Beckmans Exercitations Trumans Great Propitiation Stillingfleet of Satisfaction Q. V. Crellius Refutatus Essenius Hoornbeck 4. Of Justification enow are named before § 18. specially Le Blank also Pemble Bishop Downame Warren 5. The Antinomian and Libertine Controversies Pro Dr. Crispe Maccovius in quibusdam Saltâaâsh Crandon Paul Hobson Den Town Eaton Contr. Gataker Ball of the Covenant Anth. Burges All the Writers of Justification before praised § 18. Welds Histor. of Austin 6. About Infant Baptism Cont. Tombes Blackwood Fisher. Pro. Church Marshall Whiston Blake 7. Of the Lords Day or Christian Sabboth Cont. Ironside Heylin Docklington Franc. White Brierwood Broad Pro. Dr. Young Eaton Cawdrey Palmer Dr. Twisse Hughes Sprint Dr. Owen Mr. George Abbot Shephard 8. Of Diocesane Prelacy Cont. Cartwright Calderwoods Altare Damascenum Rob. Parker de Polit Eccles. Beza Gerson Bucers Dissert de Gubern Eccles. Baines Diocesanes Tryal Blondel de Episâ Presbyt Salmasius Smectymnuus Pro. Petavius Saravia Geor. Downame Bilson Hooker Whitgift Dr. Hammond 9. Of the rest of the English Conformity Liturgy and Ceremonies Pro. Dr. Iohn Burges Whitgift Hooker Sprints Necessity âf Conformity in case of Deprivation Paybody of Kneeling Fulwood Stileman Durel The Friendly Debate The Ecclesiastical Policy Contr. Cartwright Parker of the Cross Bradshaws Twelve Arguments c. Amesius against Morton and his Fresh Suit against Burges Nicols the Savoy Prop. Against the new additions little is said yet through the restraint of the Law except by Mr. Dan. Cawdry and a Latin Apology and Mr. Crofton and Dr. Collins of the Covenant and some things thrust out secretly which contain but little of the true state of the case 10. Of Erastianism Pro. Erastus Coleman Hussey Lud. Molinaeus in appearance Selden de Synedriis Cont. Beza Galaspies Aarons Rod Nihil Respondes Hammond of the Keyes 11. Of Separation Pro. Iohnson Canne Ainsworth And for Semi-separation from Liturgy and Sacraments but not from Sermons Robinson Cont. Ioh. Paget Bradshaw Gifford Hildersham Ball Gataker Bernard Rob. Abbot not the Bishop Will. Allens Retract of Separation 12. Of Independancy Pro. Norton moderate Hooker Allen and Shephard Burton Apologet Narrative Reasons of the Dissenters in the Assembly Dr. Owens
Acosta de Convers. Bâeganius de Theol. Gentil Vossius de Idolol Vâssius de Theol. natur Collius de Animabus paganorum Eugubinus Fotherby Mersennus in Genesin XVI Cates of Conscience more Filliucius Tolet de sacerdot Reginald Cajetane Navarrus See Montaltus against the Jesuits Casuists and the Iesuits Morals Downames and Whateleys Tables on the Commandments Sanderson de Iuramento Fragoso aforenamed XVII Of Councils more and Canonists and Liturgies Ius Orientale Graecorum per Leunclavium Bochelli Decreta Gallic Sirmondi Concil Gall. Longus Actus Conventus Thorunensis Formula Concordiae Germ The Westminster Assemblies Acts. English Canons Fasti Siculi Morini exercit Eccles. Zepper Polit. Eccles. Hammond Le strange of Liturgies Antiqâitates Liturgicae Cassanders Works Claud. Sainctes Gavantus de Ritibus Vicecomes XVIII More of the Fathers I need not name If you can get and read them you may find their names e. g. in Bellarmin de Script Eccles. Get the Bibliothec. Patrum of de la Bigne and Macarius Hom. Ephrem Syâus plain honest things Theodoret Cyril Hieros Cyril Alexand. Isidore Pelusiota Theophilact Occumenius Sâdulius Primasius Remigius Beda c. But many of them are very weak and dry The chief use of the Fathers is to know Historically what Doctrine was then taught XIX Schoolmen more Bonaventure Alensis Cajetane Bannez Biel Cameracensis Franc. Mayro Capreolus Ri. Armachanus Bradwardine Faber Faventinus Hervaeus Ioh. Fr. Pici Mirandul Fr. Victoria Suarâz Vasquez Albertinus in Thom. Aquila Scottellus Ripalda nameth more if you would have more XX. Antipapists Pappus of their Contradictions Gentiletus Mortons Apology and Grand Imposture He that would have more Books may see Voctiâs Bibliother and many other Catalogues Buckeridge Râffeusis for Kings Crakenthorpe Paraeus cont Bellarm. Iunius on Bellar. Birkbeck's Protestants Evidence Hunnii Eccles. Rom. non est Christ. Hottoman Brutum fulmen c. Eusebius Captivus Ioh. Crocius de schismate Iewel all Whitaker Andrews Tortura Torti Wotton Dr. Ier. Tailors Disswasive But they are almost numberless Note 1. THat these may seem too many though they are few to a full and rich Library 2. That it is not my advice that you read over all these or half For that would but make them a snare for sinning and waste of time But a Minister of the Gospel should have more Books by him than he can read over for particular uses and to see the Authors judgement occasionally and to try other mens Citations 3. That a Minister must neither study the matter without the help of other mens studies by Reading much nor yet Read much without studying the Thing it self 4. That though a man must not speak or write before he knoweth what and how yet thus Exercising the Knowledge that we have doth greatly increase it And no Minister must be studying when he should be Preaching Praying Catechizing or visiting or instructing his flock 5. It is but few men that are born with an acumen fit for Writings and Controversies Those few must read the more to be fit for it The rest may take up with such Preparations as they have use for and exercise them viz. in the Pastoral oversight of the flocks and propagating plain and necessary truths And therefore though I am one that have been thought to burden mens understandings with Methods distinctions directions and controversies it is but few that I perswade to use them and am as much as any for most mens adhering to plain fundamentals and truths of daily use and Love and honour those that go no further and are faithful in this work so be it they have not the Pride to think that they know more than they do and to wrangle against that which they understand not and set not the Church on fire as ancient Ignorance did by accusing those of Heresie that knew more than themselves when they got but the Throne or the Major Vote 6. That though I chiefly commend Systemes of Theologie I know not one whose method satisfieth me as well agreeing with Scripture and the matter else I had not troubled my self so much to seek a right method and propose what I found And I think no common Method more genuine than theirs that expound the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue and the Sacraments as the sum of all 7. I mention none of my own Writings for it will seem vanity But as many as they are I wrote none which I thought needless at the time of writing them 8. Though none should have so great fitness for the holy education of Children and Government of Families as Ministers yet so great is the work of Overseeing the flock requiring more time and parts than all that we have and so great are the matters of our studies and labours requiring our total and most serious thoughts that I earnestly advise all that can possibly to live single and without a Family lest they marr their work by a divided mind For nunquam bene fit quod fit prae-occupato animo saith Hierome truly The whole man and whole time is all too little in so great a work The End of the third TOME A Christian Directory Or A SUMM of PRACTICAL DIVINITY By Way of DIRECTION The Fourth Part. Christian Politicks CONTAINING All the Duties of the Six last Commandments in our Political Relations and towards our Neighbours With the principal CASES of CONSCIENCE about them By RICHARD BAXTER Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Let every soul be subject to the Higher Powers For Rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil For he is the Minister of God to thee for good Matth. 17. 27. Lest we should offend them give unto them for me and thee Matth. 19. 19. Thou shalt Love thy Neighbour as thy self Matth. 7. 12. Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them For this is the Law and the Prophets LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons at the Sign of the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1673. READER THink not by the title of this Part that I am doing the same work which I lately revoked in my Political Aphorisms Though I concluded that Book to be quasi non scriptum I told you I recanted not the Doctrine of it which is for the Empire of God and the Interest of Government Order and honesty in the World This is no place to give you the Reasons of my revocation besides that it offended my Superiours and exercised the tongues of some in places where other matters would be more profitable Pass by all that concerneth our particular State and Times and you may know by that what principles of Policy I judge Divine And experience teacheth me that it is best for men of my Profession to meddle with no more but leave it to the Contzeus the Arnisaeus's and other Jesuits to promote their cause by Voluminous politicks The Popes false-named Church is a Kingdom and his Ministers may write of Politicks
more congruously and it seems with less offence than we Saith the Geographia Nubiensis aptly There is a certain King dwelling at Rome called the Pope c. when he goeth to describe him Nothing well suites with our function but the pure Doctrine of Salvation Let States-men and Lawyers mind the rest Two things I must apologize for in this Part 1. That it 's maimed by defect of those Directions to Princes Nobles Parliament-men and other Magistrates on whose duty the happiness of Kingdoms Churches and the World dependeth To which I answer that those must teach them whom they will hear while my Reason and experience forbid me as an unacceptable person to speak to them without a special invitation I can bear the Censures of Strangers who knew not them or me I am not so proud as to expect that men so much above me should stoop to read any Directions of mine much less to think me fit to teach them Every one may reprove a poor servant or a beggar It 's part of their priviledge But Great men must not be so much as admonished by any but themselves and such as they will hear At least nothing is a duty which a man hath reason to think is like to do much more harm than good And my own judgement is much against pragmatical presumptuous Preachers who are over-forward to meddle with their Governours or their affairs and think that God sendeth them to reprove persons and things that are strange to them and above them and vent their distastes upon uncertain reports or without a Call 2. And I expect to be both blamed and mis-understood for what I hear say in the Confutation of Mr. Richard Hooker his Political Principles and my Citation of B. Bilson and such others But they must observe 1. That it is not all in Mr. Hookers first and eighth Book which I gainsay but the principle of the Peoples being the fountain of Authority or that Kings receive their Office it self from them with the consequents hereof How far the people have in any Countrys the power of Electing the Persons Families or Forms of Government or how far nature giveth them propriety and the consequents of this I meddle not with at all 2. Nor do I choose Mr. Hooker out of any envy to his name and honour but I confess I do it to let men know truly whose Principles these are And if any causelesly question whether the eighth imperfect Book be in those passages his own let them remember that the sum of all that I confute is in his first Book which is old and highly honoured by you know whom And I will do him the honour and my self the dishonour to confess that I think the far greater number of Casuists and Authors of Politicks Papists and Protestants are on his side and fewest on mine But truth is truth On the subjects duty I am larger because if they will not hear at least I may boldly and freely instruct them If in the later part there be any useful Cases of Conscience left out it is because I could not remember them Farewell A Christian Directory TOM IV. Christian Politicks CHAP. I. General Rules for an Upright Conversation § 1. SOLOMON saith Prov. 10. 9. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely And Perfection and Uprightness are the characters of Iob Chap. 1. 1 8. 2. 3. And in the Scripture to be Upright or Righteous and to walk uprightly and to do righteously are the titles of those that are acceptable to God And by Uprightness is meant not only sincerity as opposed to Hypocrisie but also Rectitude of Heart and Life as opposed to crookedness or sin and this as it is found in various Degrees of which we use to call the lowest degree that is saving by the name of sincerity and the highest by the name of Perfection § 2. Concerning Uprightness of life I shall I. Briefly tell you some of those blessings that should make us all in love with it and II. Give you some necessary Rules of practice § 3. I. Uprightness of heart and life is a certain fruit of the Spirit of Grace and consequently a mark of our Union with Christ and a proof of our acceptableness with God Psal. 7. 10. My defence is of God who saveth the upright in heart Psal. 11. 7. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness and his countenance doth behold the upright It is a title that God himself assumeth Psal. 25. 8. Good and upright is the Lord. Psal. 92. 15. To shew that the Lord is upright He is my rock and no unrighteousness is in him And God-calleth himself the Maker the Director the Protector and the Lover of the upright Eccl. 7. 29. God made man upright Psal. 1. 6. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous Psal. 25. 12. What man is he that feareth the Lord him will he teach in the way that he shall choose Prov. 2. 7. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly 2. The Upright are the Pillars of humane society that keep up Truth and Iustice in the world without whom it would be but a company of lyers deceivers robbers and enemies that live in constant rapine or âostility There were no Trust to be put in one another further than self-interest did oblige men Psal. 15. 1 2. Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle Who shall dwell in thy holy hill He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart Therefore the wicked and the enemies of Peace and destroyers of Societies are still described as Enemies to the upright Psal. 11. 2 3. For lo the wicked bend their bow they make ready their arrow upon the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do Job 12. 4. The just and upright man is laughed to scorn Psal. 37. 14. The wicked have drawn out the sword to slay such as be of upright conversation And indeed it is for the uprights sake that societies are preserved by God as Sodom might have been for ten Lots At least they are under the protection of Omnipotency themselves Isa. 33. 15 16. He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly he that despiseth the gain of oppression that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes that stoppeth his ear from hearing of blood that shutteth his eyes from seeing evil He shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty they shall behold the Land that is very far off Prov. â8 10. The upright shall have good things in possession Prov. 14. 11. The house of the wicked shall be overthrown but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish 3. Uprightness affordeth Peace of Conscience and quietness and holy security to the soul. This was Pauls rejoycing the testimony
you do evil with double violence and with blasphemous fathering your sins on God and with impenitence and justification of your sin This made Paul mad in persecuting the Church Prov. 15. 21. Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom but a man of understanding walketh uprightly No man can do that well which he understandeth not well Therefore you must study and take unwearied pains for knowledge Wisdom never grew up with idleness though the conceit of wisdom doth no where more prosper This age hath told us to what desperate precipices men will be carryed by ignorant zeal 2. And the understanding must be large or it cannot be solid When many particulars are concerned in an action the over-looking of some one may spoil the work Narrow minded men are turned as the weather-cock with the wind of the times or of every temptation and they seldome avoid one sin but by falling into another It is Prudence that must manage an upright life And Prudence seeth all that must be seen and putteth every circumstance into the ballance For want of which much mischief may be done while you seem to be doing the greatest good The prudent man looketh well to his going Prov. 14. 15 See therefore that ye walk circumspectly at a hairs breadth not as fools but as wise 6. But because you will object that alas few even of the upright have wits so strong as to be fit Psal. 119. 98. Prov. 1 6 7. 8. 12. 15 18. 13. 1. 14 20. 15. 2. 7 12. 31. 22. 17. 25. 12. Eccles. 12. 11. Dan. 12. 3 10. Matth. 24. 45. Psal. 37. 30. Eccles. 2. 13. Isa. 33. 6. Matth. 12. 42. Luke 1. 17. 21. 15. Acts 6. 3. 2 Pet. 3. 15. Mal. 2. 6 7. 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. Heb. 13. 7 17. Tit. 1. 9 13. 2. 1 8. 2 Tim. 4. 3. for this I add that he that will walk uprightly must in the great essential parts of Religion have this foresaid knowledge of his own and in the rest at least he must have the conduct of the wise And therefore 1. He must be wise in the great matters of his salvation though he be weak in other things 2. And he must labour to be truly acquainted who are indeed wise men that are meet to be his guides And he must have recourse to such in Cases of Conscience as a sick man to his Physicion It is a great mercy to be so far wise as to know a wise man from a fool and a Counsellor from a deceiver 7. He that will walk uprightly must be the master of his passions not stupid but calm and sober Though some passion is needful to excite the understanding to its duty yet that which is Prov. 14. 29. Col. 3. 8. inordinate doth powerfully deceive the mind Men are very apt to be confident of what they passionately apprehend And passionate judgements are frequently mistaken and ever to be suspected It being exceeding difficult to entertain any passion which shall not in some measure pervert our reason which is one great reason why the most confident are ordinarily the most erroneous and blind Be sure therefore when ever you are injured or passion any way engaged to set a double guard upon your judgements 8. He that will walk uprightly must not only difference between simple Good and Evil but between a greater Good and a less For most sin in the world consisteth in preferring a Lesser Good before Matth. 9. 13. 12. 7. Psal. 40. 6. 51. 16. 1 Sam. 15. 22. a Greater He must still keep the ballance in his hand and compare good with good Otherwise he will make himself a Religion of sin and preferr Sacrifice before mercy and will hinder the Gospel and mens salvation for a ceremony and violate the bonds of love and faithfulness for every opinion which he calleth Truth and will tythe Mint and Cummin while he neglecteth the great things of the Law When a lesser good is preferred before a greater it is a sin and the common way of sinning It is not then a duty when it is inconsistent with a greater good 2 Cor. 10. 8. 13. 10. Rom. 15. 2. 14. 19. 1 Cor. 14. 26. 2 Cor. 12. 19. Rom. 3. 8. Eph. 4. 12 c. 1 Cor. 12. 9. He must ever have a conjunct respect to the Command and the End The good of some actions is but little discernable any where but in the Command and others are evidently good because of the good they tend to We must neither do evil and break a Law that good may come by it Nor yet pretend obedience to do mischief as if God had made his Laws for Destruction of the Church or mens souls and not for Edification 10. He must keep in Union with the Universal Church and preferr its interest before the interest of any party whatsoever and do nothing that tendeth to its hurt 11. He must love his neighbour as himself and do as he would be done by and love his enemies and Matth. 22 39. 5. 43 44. 7. 12. forgive wrongs and hear their defamations as his own 12. He must be Impartial and not lose his Iudgement and Charity in the opinion or interest of a Jam. 3. 15 16 17 18. Party or Sect Nor think all right that is Held or Done by those that he best liketh nor all wrong that is held or done by those that are his adversaries But judge of the Words and Deeds of those Gal. 2 13 14. Deut. 25. 16. 1 Cor. 6. 9. that are against him as if they had been said or done by those of his own side Else he will live in slândering backbiting and gross unrighteousness 13. He must be deliberate in judging of Things and Persons not rash or hasty in believing reports Matth. 7. 1 2. John 7. 24. Râ 14. 10 13. 1 Pet. 1. 17. or receiving opinions not judging of Truths by the first appearance but search into the naked evidence Nor judging of persons by prejudice fame and common talk 14. He must be willing to receive and obey the Truth at the dearest rate especially of laborious Luke 14. 26. 33. 1â 4. Prov. 23. 23. Matth. 1â 3. Prov. 26. 12. 16 28 11. 1 Cor. 3. 18 Prov. â 7. study and a self-denying life Not taking all to be Truth that costeth men dear nor yet thinking that Truth indeed can be over-prized 15. He must be Humble and self-suspicious and come to Christs School as a little child and not have a proud over-valuing of himself and his own understanding The proud and selfish are blind and cross and have usually some opinions or interests of their own that lye cross to duty and to other mens good 16. He must have an eye to posterity and not only to the present time or age and to other Nations Judg. 8. 27. 1 Cor. 7. 35. 1 King 14. 16. 15. 26.
Deut. 29. 22. Eââd 12. 26. Jos. 4. 6. 22. 22. 24 25. and not only to the Countrey where he liveth Many things seem necessary for some present strait or work that we would do which in the next age may be of mischievous effects Especially in Ecclesiastical and Political professions Covenants and impositions we must look further than our present needs And many things seem necessary for a local narrow interest which those at a distance will otherwise esteem 17. He that will walk uprightly must be able to bear the displeasure of all the world when the interest of truth requireth it yea to be rejected of learned and good men themselves and account 1 Cor. 4. 3 4. John 5. 44. Luke 14. 26. Gal. 2. 13. 14. Acts 11. 2 3. mans favour no better than it is Not to despise it as it is a means to any good but to be quite above it as to his own interest Not that uprightness doth use to make a man despised by the upright but that it may bring him under their censure in some particulars which are not commonly received or understood to be of God 18. He must make it a great part of the work of his life to kill all those carnal desires which the Col. 3. 4 5. Rom. 6 1 c. 13. 12 13. 8. 13. sensual make it their work and felicity to please That Appetite sense and lust and self-will may not be the constant pervertârs of his life As a fool in a Dropsie studyeth to please his Thirst and a wise man to cure it 19. He must live a life of constant and skilful watchfulness apprehending himself in continual Matth. 24. 42. â5 1â Mat. 13. 37. 1 Tâess 5. 6. 1 Pet. 4. 7. 1 Cor. 1â 13. Matth. 6. 13. 26. 41. danger and knowing his particular Corruptions Temptations and Remedies He must have a tender conscience and keep as far as possible from temptation and take heed of unnecessary approaches or delightful thoughts of sin O what strong Resolutions what sound knowledge have the near-baits of seâsuality meat drink lust and pleasures overcome Never think your selves safe among neartemptations and opportunities of sinning 20. Live as those that are going to the grave Dye daily and look on this world as if you did look on it out of the world to which you go Let Faith as constantly behold the world unseen as Eccles. 7. 2 3 4 5 6. 2 Cor. 4. 16. 5. 1 7 8. Luke 12. 17 18 19 20. 16. 20 c. Matth. 25. 3 4 5 6 7 8. Acts 7. 56 60. your eye seeth this Death and Eternity make men wise We easily Confess and Repent of many things when we come to dye which no Counsels or Sermons could make us penitently confess before Death will answer a thousand objections and temptations and prove many vanities to be sin which you thought the Preacher did not prove Dying men are not drawn to drunkenness filthiness or time-wasting sports nor flattered into folly by sensual baits Nor do they then fear the face or threats of persecuters As it is from another world that we must fetch the Motives so also the Defânsative of an Upright life And O happy are they that faithfully practise these Rules of Uprightness THough it be my judgement that much more of the Doctrine of Politicks or Civil Government Among the Jews it was all one to be a Lawyer and a Divine but not to be a Lawyer and a Pâiest belongeth to Theology than those men understand who make Kings and Laws to be meer humane Creatures yet to deliver my Reader from the fear lest I should meddle with matters that belong not to my Calling and my Book from that reproach I shall over-pass all these points which else I should have treated of as useful to Practice in Governing and Obeying 1. Of Man as sociable and of Communities and Societies and the Reason of them of their Original and the Obligation on the members 2. Of a City and of Civility 3. Of a Republick in general 1. Of its Institution 2. Of its Constitution and of its parts 3. Of its Species 4. Of the difference between it 1. And a Community in general 2. A Family 3. A Village 4. A City 5. A Church 6. An accidental Meeting 5. Of its Administration 6. Of the Relation between Gods Government and Mans and Gods Laws and Mans and of their difference and between Mans Judging and Gods Judging Nay I will not only gratifie you by passing over this and much more in the Theory but also as to the Practical part I shall pass over 1. The Directions for Supream Governours 2. And for inferiour Magistrates towards God and their Superiours and the people 3. And the Determination of the Question How far Magistrates have to do in matters of Religion Whether they be Christian or Heathen 4. How far they should grant or not grant Liberty of Conscience as it is called viz. of Judging Professing and Practising in matters of Religion with other such matters belonging to Government And all the Controversies about Titles and Supremacy Conservations Forfeitures Decayes Dangers Remedies and Restorations which belong either to Politicians Lawyers or Divines All these I pretermit save only that I shall venture to leave a few brief Memorandums with Civil Governours instead of Directions for securing the Interest of Christ and the Church and mens salvation Yet assuring the Reader that I omit none of this out of any contempt of the matter or of Magistracy or as if I thought them not worthy of all our Prayers and Assistance or thought their office of small concernment to the welfare of the world and of the Church but for those Reasons which all may know that know me and the Government under which we live and which I must not tell to others CHAP. II. Memorandum's to Civil Rulers for the interest of Christ the Church and mens Salvation § 1. Memor 1. REmember that your power is from God and therefore for God and not against Memor 1. God Rom. 13. 2 3 4. You are his Ministers and can have no power except it be Finis ad quem Rex principaliter intendere debet in sâipso in subditis est aeâerna beatitudo quae in visione Dei consistit Et quia ista visio est perfectissimum bonum maxime movere debet Regem quemcunque Dominum ut hunc finem subditi consequantur Lib. de Regim Principum Thomae adscript Grot. de Imper. sum Pot. p. 9. Even Aristotle could say Polit. 7. c. 1 2. Eudem fine that each mans active and contemplative life is the end of Government and not only the publick peace and that that is the best life which conduceth most to our consideration of God and that is the worst which calleth us off from considering and worshiping him Vide Grot. de Imper. sum Pot. p. 10. Quam multa injuste fieri possunt
with Government in Athens Quia plebs aliis institutis moribus assueverat Laert. in Platone and many other Philosophers that were fittest for Government refused it on the same account through the disobedience of the people your own If your Rulers sin you shall not answer for it but if you sin your selves you shall If you should live under the Turk that would oppress and persecute you your souls shall speed never the worse for this It is not you but He that should be damned for it If you say But it is we that should be oppressed by it I answer 1. How small are temporal things to a true believer in comparison of eternal things Have not you a greater hurt to fear than the killing of your bodies by men Luke 12. 4. 2. And even for this life do you not believe that your lives and liberties are in the power of God and that he can relieve you from the oppression of all the world by less than a word even by his will If you believe not this you are Atheists If you do you must needs perceive that it concerneth you more to care for your duty to your Governours than for theirs to you and not so much to regard what you receive as what you do nor how you are used by others as how you behave your selves to them Be much more afraid lest you should be guilty of murmuring dishonouring disobeying flattering not praying for your Governours than lest you suffer any thing unjustly from them 1 Pet. 4. 13 14 15 16 17. Let none of you suffer as a muderer or as a thief or as an evil doer or as a busiâ-body in other mens matters yet if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf If ye be reproached for the name of Christ ye are happy Live so that all your Adversaries may be forced to say as it was said of Daniel Dan. 6. 5. We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God Let none be able justly to punish you as drunkards or thieves or slanderers or fornicators or perjurâd or deceivers or rebellious or seditious and then never fear any suffering for the sake of Christ or Righteousness Yea though you suffer as Christ himself did under a false accusation of disloyalty fear not the suffering nor the infamy as long as you are free from the Guilt See that all be well at home and that you be not faulty against God or your Governours and then you may boldly commit your selves to God 1 Pet. 2. 23 24. § 46. Direct 22. The more Religious any are the more obedient should they be in all things lawful Direct 22. Exââl others in Loyalty as well as in Piety Religion is so far from being a just pretence of rebellion that it is the only effectual bond of sincere subjection and obedience § 47. Direct 23. Therefore believe not them that would exempt the Clergy from subjection to the Direct 23. Civil powers As none should know the Law of God so well as they so none should be more obedient to Kings and States when the Law of God so evidently commandeth it Of this read Bilson of Christian subjection who besides many others saith enough of this The Arguments of the Papists from the supposed incapacity of Princes would exempt Physicions and other Arts and Sciences from undâr their Government as well as the Clergy § 48. Direct 24. Abase not Magistrates so far as to think their office and power extendeth not to Direct 24. matters of Religion and the worship of God Were they only for the low and contemptible matters of this world their office would be contemptible and low To help you out in this I shall answer some of the commonest doubts § 49. Quest. 1. Is the Civil Magistrate Iudge in Controversies of faith or Worship Answ. It hath Quest. 1. many a time grieved me to hear so easie a Question frequently propounded and pitifully answered Who shall be Iudge in poânts of faith and Worship by such as the publick good required to have had more understanding in such things In a word Iudgement is Publick or Private The Private judgement which is nothing but a Rational discerning of truth and duty in order to our own Choice and practice belongeth to every Rational person The Publick Iudgement is ever in Order to execution Now the execution is of two sorts 1. By the Sword Of thâse things see my Prâpositions of the Difference of the Magistrates and Pastors power to Dr. L d. Moul. 2. By Gods word applyed to the case and person One is upon the Body or Estate The other is upon the Conscience of the person or of the Church to bring him to Repentance or to bind him to avoid Communion with the Church and the Church to avoid Communion with him And thus Publick Judgement is Civil or Ecclesiastical Coercive and violent in the execution or only upon Consenters and volunteers In the first the Magistrate is the only Iudge and the Pastors in the second About faith or worship if the Question be who shall be protected as Orthodox and who shall be punished by the Sword as Hereâical Idolatrous or irreligious here the Magistrate is the only Judge If the Question be who â shall be admitted to Church Communion as Orthodox or ejected and excommunicate as Heretical or prophane The Rex sacrorum among the Romans was debarred from exercising any Magistracy Plut. Rom. Quest. 63. here the Pastors are the proper Judges This is the truth and this is enough to end all the voluminous wranglings upon the Question Who shall be Iudge and to answer the cavils of the Papists against the Power of Princes in matters of Religion It is pity that such gross and silly sophisms in a case that a Child may answer should debase Christian Princes and take away their chief Power and give it to a proud and wrangling Clergy to persecute and divide the Church with § 50. Quest. 2. May our Oath of Supremacy be lawfully taken wherein the King is pronounced supream Quest. 2. Governour in all causes Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Answ. There is no reason of scruple to him that Of the Oath of Supremacy understandeth 1. That the title Causes Ecclesiastical is taken from the ancient usurpation of the Pope and his Prelates who brought much of the Magistrates work into their Courts under the name of Causes Ecclesiastical 2. That our Canons and many Declarations of our Princes have expounded it fully by disclaiming all proper Pastoral power 3. That by Governour is meant only one that Governeth coercively or by the sword so that it is no more than to swear that In all causes See Bilson of subject p. 238 256. Princâs only be Governours in things and causes Ecclesiastical that iâ With the Sword But if you
sin to disobey it while the thing is lawful Else servants and children must prove all to be needful as well as lawful which is commanded them before they must obey Or the command may at the same time be evil by accident and the obedience good by accident and per se very good accidents consequence or effects may belong to our Obedience when the accidents of the command it self are evil I could give you abundance of instances of these things § 68. Direct 36. Yet is not all to be obeyed that is evil but by accident nor all to be disobeyed Direct 36. that is so but the accidents must be compared and if the obedience will do more good than harm we must obey if it will evidently do more harm than good we must not do it Most of the sins in the world are evil by accident only and not in the simple act denuded of its accidents circumstances or It was one of the Roman Laws of the twelve Tables Justa imperia sunto iisque cives modesâe ac sine recusatione parento consequents You may not sell poyson to him that you know would poyson himself with it though to sâll poyson of it self be lawful Though it be lawful simply to lend a Sword yet not to a Traytor that you know would kill the King with it no nor to one that would kill his Father his neighbour or himself A command would not excuse such an act from sin He wââ slain by David that killed Saul at his own command and if he had but lent him his Sword to do it it had been his sin Yet some evil accidents may be weighed down by greater evils which would evidently follow upon the not doing of the thing commanded § 69. Direct 37. In the question whether Humane Laws bind Conscience the doubt is not of that nature Direct 37. as to have necessary influence upon your practice For all agree that they bind the subject to obedience and that Gods Law bindeth us to obey them And if Gods Law bind us to obey mans Law and so to disobey them be materially a sin against Gods Law this is as much as is needful to resolve you in respect of practice No doubt mans Law hath no primitive obliging power at all but a Derivative from God and under him And what is it to bind the Conscience an improper Speech but to bind the person to judge it his duty conscire and so to do it And no doubt but he is bound to judge it his duty that is immediately by Humane Law and remotely by Divine Law and so the contrary to be a sin prâximatâly against man and ultimately against God This is plain and the rest is but logomachy § 70. Direct 38. The question is much harder whether the violation of every Humane Penal Law be Direct 38. a sin against God though a man submit to the penalty And the desert of every sin is death Mr. Rich. Hoâkers last Book unhappily ended before he gave us the full reason of his judgement in Eccl. Pol. l. 8. p. 2â4 this case these being his last words Howbeit too rigorous it were that the breach of every Humane Law should be a deadly sin A mean there is between those extremities if so be we can find it out Amesius hath diligently discust it and many others The reason for the affirmative is because God bindeth us to obey all the lawful commands of our Governours And suffering the penalty is not obeying the penalty being not the primary intention of the Law-giver but the Duty and the penalây only to enforce the duty And though the suffering of it satisfie man it satisfieth not God whose Law we break by disobeying Those that are for the Negative say that God binding us but to obey the Magistrate and his Law binding but aut ad obedientiam an t ad poenam I fulfill his will if I either do or suffer If I obey not I please him by satisfying for my disobedience And it is none of his will that my choosing the penalty should be my sin or damnation To this it is replyed that the Law bindeth ad poenam but on supposition of disobedience And that disobedience is forbidden of God And the penalty satisfieth not God though it satisfie man The other rejoyn that it satisfieth God in that it satisfieth man because Gods Law is but to give force to mans according to the nature of it If this hold then no disobedience at all is a sin in him that suffereth the penalty In so hard a case because more distinction is necessary to the explication than most Readers are willing to be troubled with I shall now give you but this brief decision On second thoughts this case is fullier opened afterward There are some penalties which fulfil the Magistrates own will as much as obedience which indeed have more of the nature of a Commutation than of Penalty As he that watcheth not or mendeth not the High-wayes shall pay so much to hire another to do it He that shooteth not so oft in a year shall pay so much He that eateth flesh in Lent shall pay so much to the poor He that repaireth not his Hedges shall pay so much and so in most amercements and divers Penal Laws in which we have reason to judge that the penalty satisfieth the Law-giver fully and that he leaveth it to our choice In these cases I think we need not afflict our selves with the conscience or fear of sinning against God But there are other Penal Laws in which the penalty is not desired for it self and is supposed to be but an imperfect satisfaction to the Law-givers will and that he doth not freely leave us to our choice but had rather we obeyed than suffered only he imposeth no greater a penalty either because there is no greater in his power or some inconvenience prohibiteth In this case I should fear my disobedience were a sin though I suffered the penalty Still supposing it an act that he had Power to command me § 71. Direct 39. Take heed of the perâicious design of those Atheistical Politicians that would make Direct 39. the world believe that all that is excellent among men is at enmity with Monarchy yea and Government it self And take heed on the other side that the most excellent things be not turned against it by abuse Here I have two dangers to advertise you to beware The first is of some Machiavellian pernicious principles and the second of some erroneous unchristian practices § 72. I. For the first there are two sorts of Atheistical Politicians guilty of them The first sort are some Atheistical flatterers that to engage Monarchs against all that is good would make them believe that all that is good is against them and their interest By which means while their design is to steal the help of Princes to cast out all that is good from the world they are most
Sword in their own hands and not have put it into the Clergies hands to fulfill their wills by For 1. By this means the Clergy had escaped the odium of usurpation and domineering by which atheistical Politicians would make Religion odious to Magistrates for their sakes 2. And by this means greater unity had been preserved in the Church while one faction is not armed with the Sword to tread down the rest For if Divines contend only by dint of Argument when they have talkt themselves and others aweary they will have done But when they go to it with dint of Sword it so ill becometh them that it seldom doth good but the party often that trusteth least to their Reason must destroy the other and make their cause good by Iron arguments 3. And then the Romish Clergy had not been armed against Princes to the terrible concussions of the Christian world which Histories at large relate if Princes had not first lent them the Sword which they turned against them 4. And then Church Discipline would have been better understood and have been more effectual which is corrupted and turned to another thing and so cast out when the Sword is used instead of the Keys under pretence of making it effectual None but Consenters are capable of Church-communion No man can be a Christian nor Godly nor saved against his will And therefore Consenters and Volunteers only are capable of Church-discipline As a Sword will not make a Sermon effectual no more will it make Discipline effectual which is but the management of Gods Word to work upon the conscience So far as men are to be driven by the Sword to the use of means or restrained from offering injury to Religion the Magistrate himself is fittest to do it It is noted by Historians as the dishonour of Cyrill of Alexandria though a famous Bishop that he was the first Bishop that like a Magistrate used the Sword there and used violence against Hereticks and dissenters 5. Above all abuse not the name of Religion for the resistance of your lawful Governours Religion must be defended and propagated by no irreligious means It is easie before you are aware to catch the feavor of such a passionate zeal as Iames and Iohn had when they would have had fire from Heaven to consume the refusers and resisters of the Gospel And then you will think that any thing almost is lawful which doth but seem necessary to the prosperity of Religion But no means but those of Gods allowance do use to prosper or bring home that which men expect They may seem to do wonders for a while but they come to nothing in the latter end and spoil the work and leave all worse than it was before § 101. Direct 40. Take heed of mistaking the nature of that Liberty of the people which is truly Direct 40. valuable and desirable and of contending for an undesirable Liberty in its stead It is desirable to have 1 Pet. 2. 16. Gal. 5. 13. 2 Pet. 2. 19. Gal. 4. 26. 2 Cor. 3. 17. Liberty to do good and to possess our own and enjoy Gods mercies and live in peace But it is not desirable to have Liberty to sin and abuse one another and hinder the Gospel and contemn our Governours Some mistake Liberty for Government it self and think it is the peoples Liberty to be Governours And some mistake Liberty for an exemption from Government and think they are most free when they are most ungoverned and may do what their list But this is a misery and not a mercy and therefore was never purchased for us by Christ. Many desire servitude and calamity under the name of liberty Optima est Reipublicae forma saith Seneca ubi nulla Libertas deest nisi licentia pereundi As Mr. R. Hooker saith Lib. 8. p. 195. I am not of opinion that simply in Kings the Most but the Best limited power is best both for them and the people The Most limited is that which may deal in fewest things the best that which in dealing is tyed to the soundest perfectest and most indifferent Rule which Rule is the Law I mean not only the Law of Nature and of God but the National Law consonant thereunto Happier that people whose Law is their King in the greatest things than that whose King is himself their Law Yet no doubt but the Law-givers are as such above the Law as an Authoritative instrument of Government but under it as a man is under the obligation of his own Consent and Word It ruleth subjects in the former sense It bindeth the summam Potestatem in the later § 102. Direct 41. When you have done all that you can in just obedience look for your reward Direct 41. from God alone Let it satisfie you that he knoweth and approveth your sincerity You make it a holy work if you do it to please God and you will be fixed and constant if you take Heaven for your Reward which is enough and will not fail you But you make it but a selfish carnal work if you do it only to please your Governours or get preferment or escape some hurt which they may do you and are subject only in flattery or for fear of wrath and not for conscience sake And such obedience is uncertain and unconstant For when you fail of your hopes or think Rulers deal unjustly or unthankfully with you your subjection will be turned into passionate desires of revenge Remember still the example of your Saviour who suffered death as an enemy to Caesar when he had never failed of his duty so much as in one thought or word And are you better than your Lord and Master If God be All to you and you have laid up all your hopes in Heaven it is then but little of your concernment further than God is concerned in it whether Rulers do use you well or ill and whether they interpret your actions rightly or what they take you for or how they call you But it is your concernment that God account you Loyal and will judge you so and justifie you from mens accusations of disloyalty and reward you with more than man can give you Nothing is well done especially of so high a nature as this which is not done for God and Heaven and which the Crown of Glory is not the motive to I have purposely been the larger on this subject because the times in which we live require it both for the setling of some and for the confuting the false accusations of others who would perswade the world that our doctrine is not what it is when through the sinful practices of some the way of truth is evil spoken of 2 Pet. 2. 2. Tit. 2. A fuller resolution of the Cases 1. Whether the Laws of men do bind the Conscience 2. Especially smaller and Penal Laws THe word Conscience signifieth either 1. In general according to the notation of the word The knowledge of our own
matters Conscire The knowledge of our selves our duties our faults our fears our hopes our diseases c. 2. Or more limitedly and narrowly The knowledge of our selves and our own matters in relation to Gods Law and Iudgement Iudicium hominis de seipso prout subjicitur judicio Dei as Amesius defineth it 2. Conscience is taken 1. Sometime for the Act of self-knowing 2. Sometime for the Habit 3. Sometime for the Faculty that is for the Intellect it self as it is a faculty of self-knowing In all these senses it is taken properly 2. And sometimes it is used by custome improperly for the Person himself that doth Conscire or for his Will another faculty 3 The Conscience may be said to be bound 1. Subjectively as the subjectum quod or the faculty obliged 2. Or Objectively as Conscire the Act of Conscience is the thing ad quod to which we are obliged And upon these necessary distinctions I thus answer to the first question Prop. 1 The Act or the Habit of Conscience are not capable of being the subject obliged no more than any other act or duty The Act or duty is not bound but the man to the act or duty 2. The Faculty or Iudgement is not capable of being the Object or Materia ad quam the thing to which we are bound A man is not bound to be a man or to have an Intellect but is made such 3. The Faculty of Conscience that is the Intellect is not capable of being the immediate or nearest subjectum quod or subject obliged The reason is Because the Intellect of it self is not a free-working faculty but acteth necessarily per modum naturae further than it is under the Empire of the Will And therefore Intellectual and Moral habits are by all men distinguished 4. All Legal or Moral Obligation falleth directly upon the Will only and so upon the Person as a Voluntary agent So that it is proper to say The Will is bound and The Person is bound 5 Improperly and remotely it may be said The Intellect or faculty of Conscience is bound or the tongue or hand or foot is bound as the Man is bound to use them 6. Though it be not proper to say that the Conscience is bound it is proper to say that the Man is bound to the Act and Habit of Conscience or to the exercise of the faculty 7. The common meaning of the phrase that we are bound in conscience oâ that conscience is bound is that we are bound to a thing by God or by a Divine obligation and that it is a fin against God to violate it So that Divines use here to take the word Conscience in the narrower Theological sense as respect to Gods Law and Iudgement doth enter the definition of it 8. Taking Conscience in this narrower sense To ask Whether mans Law as Mans do bind us in Conscience Having spoken of this Controversie in my Life of Faith as an easie thing in which I thought we were really agreed while we seemed to differ which I called A pitiful Case some Bâethren who say nothing against the truth of what I said are offended at me as speaking too confidently and calling that so easie which Bishop Saâderâoa and so many others did make a greater matter of I retract the words if they âe unsuittable either to the matter or the Readers But as to the matter and the truth of the words I desire the Reader but to consider how easie a case Mr. P. maketh of it Eccl. Pol. and how heinous a matter he maketh of our supposed dissent And if after all this it shall appear that the Non-conformists do not at all differ from Hooker Bilson and the generality of the Conformists in this point let him that is willing to be represented as odious and intolerable to Rulârs and to mankind for that in which we do not differ proceed to backbite me for saying that it is a pitiful case and pretending that we are agreed is all one as to ask Whether Man be God 9. And taking Conscience in the large or General sense to ask whether Mans Laws bind us in Conscience subjectively is to ask whether they bind the Understanding to know our duty to man And the tenour of them will shew that While they bind us to an outward Act or from an outward Act it is the man that they bind to or from that act and that is as he is a Rational Voluntary Agent so that a humane obligation is laid upon the Man on the Will and on the Intellect by humane Laws 10. And humane Laws while they bind us to or from an outward Act do thereby bind us as Rational-free agents knowingly to choose or refuse those acts Nor can a Law which is a Moral Instrument any otherwise bind the hand foot or tongue but by first binding us to choose or refuse it knowingly that is conscientiously so that a humane bond is certainly laid on the mind soul or conscience taken in the larger sense 11. Taking Conscience in the stricter sense as including essentially a relation to Gods obligation the full sense of the question plainly is but this Whether it be a sin against God to break the Laws of man And thus plain men might easily understand it And to this it must be answered that it is in two respects a sin against God to break such Laws or Commands as Rulers are authorized by God to make 1. Because God commandeth us to obey our Rulers Therefore he that so obeyeth them not sinneth against a Law of God God obligeth us in General to obey them in all things which they are authorized by him to command But their Law determineth of the particular matter Therefore God obligeth us in Conscience of his Law to obey them in that particular 2. Because by making them his Officers by his Commission he hath given them a certain beam of Authority which is Divine as derived from God Therefore they can command us by a power derived from God Therefore to disobey is to sin against a power derived from God And thus the General case is very plain and easie How man sinneth against God in disobeying the Laws of man and consequently how in a tolerable sense of that phrase it may be said that mans Laws do or do not bind the conscience or rather bind us in point of Conscience or by a Divine obligation Man is not God and therefore as man of himself can lay no Divine obligation on us But Man being Gods Officer 1. His own Law layeth on us an obligation derivatively Divine For it is no Law which hath no obligation and it is no authoritative obligation which is not derived from God 2. And Gods own Law bindeth us to obey mans Laws Quest. 2. BUt is it a sin to break every Penal Law of man Answ. 1. You must remember that Mans Law is essentially the signification of mans Will And therefore obligeth no further than it
any thing and fearless in the greatest perils For what should he fear who hath escaped Hell and Gods displeasure and hath conquered the King of terrours But fear is the duty and most rational temper of a guilty soul and the more fearless such are the more foolish and more miserable § 2. Direct 2. Be sure you have a warrantable Cause and Call In a bad cause it is a dreadful Direct 2. thing to conquer or to be conquered If you conquer you are a murderer of all that you kill If you are conquered and dye in the prosecution of your sin I need not tell you what you may expect I know we are here upon a difficulty which must be tenderly handled If we make the soveraign power to be the absolute and only Iudge whether the Souldiers cause and call be good then it would follow that it is the duty of all the Christian subjects of the Turk to fight against Christianity as such and to destroy all Christians when the Turk commandeth it And that all the subjects of other Lands are bound to invade this or other such Christian Kingdoms and destroy their Kings when ever their Popish or malicious Princes or States shall command them which being intollerable consequences prove the Antecedent to be intollerable And yet on the other side if subjects must be the Judges of their cause and call the Prince shall not be served nor the common good secured till the interest of the Subjects will allow them to discern the goodness of the cause Between these two intollerable consequents it is hard to meet with a just discovery of the mean Most run into one of the extreams which they take to be the less and think that there is no other avoiding of the other The grand errours in this and an hundred like cases come from not distinguishing aright the case de esse from the case de apparere or cognoscere and not first determining the former as it ought before the latter be determined Either the cause which Subjects are commanded to fight in is really lawful to them or it is not Say not here importunely who shall judge For we are now but upon the question de esse If it be not lawful in it self but be meer robbery or murder then come to the case of Evidence Either this evil is to the subject discernable by just means or not If it be I am not able for my part to justifie him from the sin if he do it no more than to have justified the three witnesses Dan. 3. if they had bowed down to the golden Calf or Daniel 6. if he had forborn prayer or the Apostles if they had forborn preaching or the Souldiers for apprehending and crucifying Christ when their Superiours commanded them For God is first to be obeyed and feared But if the evil of the Cause be such as the Subject cannot by just and ordinary means discern then must he come next to examine his Call And a Volunteer unnecessarily he may not be in a doubtful cause It is so heinous a sin to murder men that no man should unnecessarily venture upon that which may prove to be murder for ought he knoweth But if you ask what Call may make such a doubtful action necessary I answer It must be such as warranteth it either from the End of the action or from the Authority of the Commander or both And from the end of the action the case may be made clear that if a King should do wrong to a forreign enemy and should have the worse cause yet if the revenge which that enemy seeketh would be the destruction of the King and Countrey or Religion it is lawful and a duty to fight in the desence of them And if the King should be the assailant or beginner that which is an Offensive War in him for which he himself must answer may be but a Defensive War in the commanded Subjects and they be innocent Even on the High-way if I see a stranger provoke another by giving him the first blow yet I may be bound to save his life from the fury of the avenging party But whether or how farr the bare Command of a soveraigne may warrant the subjects to venture in a doubtfull cause supposing the thing lawful in it self though they are doubtful requireth so much to be said to it which Civil Governours may possibly think me too bold to meddle with that I think it safest to pass it by only saying that there are some cases in which the Ruler is the only Competent Judge and the doubts of the subject are so unreasonable that they will not excuse the sin of his disobedience and also that the degree of the doubt is oft very considerable in the case But suppose the cause of the War be really lawful in it self and yet the subject is in doubt of it yea or thinketh otherwise then is he in the case as other erroneous consciences are that is entangled in a necessity of sinning till he be undeceived in case his Rulers command his service But which would be the greater sin to do it or not the Ends and circumstances may do much to determine But doubtless in true Necessity to save the King and State subjects may be compelled to fight in a just cause notwithstanding that they mistake it for unjust And if the subject have a private discerning judgement so far as he is a voluntary agent yet the Soveraign hath a publick determining judgement when a neglecter is to be forced to his duty Even as a man that thinketh it unlawful to maintain his Wife and Children may be compelled lawfully to do it So that it is apparent that sometime the Soveraigns cause may be good and yet an erroneous conscience may make the Souldiers cause bad if they are Volunteers who run unnecessarily upon that which they take for robbery and murder and yet that the Higher Powers may force even such mistakers to defend their Countrey and their Governours in a case of true necessity And it is manifest that sometimes the Cause of the Ruler may be bad and yet the cause of the Souldier good And that sometimes the cause may be bad and sinful to them both and sometime good and lawful unto both § 3. Direct 3. When you are doubtful whether your Cause and Call be good it is ordinarily Direct 3. safest to sit still and not to venture in so dangerous a case without great deliberation and sufficient evidence to satisfie your consciences Neander might well say of Solons Law which punished them Neander in Chron. p. 104. that took not one part or other in a Civil War or Sedition Admirabilis autem illa atque plane incredibilis quae honoribus abdicat eum qui orta seditione nullam factionem secutus sit No doubt he is a culpable Neuter that will not defend his Governours and his Countrey when he hath a call But it is so dreadful a thing to
see a poor sinner have a little prosperity and ease who must lye in everlasting flames But the truth is malitious men are ordinarily Atheists and never think of another world and therefore desire to be the avengers of themselves because they believe not that there is any God to do it or any future Judgement and execution to be expected § 19. Consid. 13. And remember how near both he and you are to death and judgement when God Consid 13. will judge righteously betwixt you both There are few so cruelly malitious but if they both lay dying they would abate their malice and be easily reconciled as remembring that their dust and bones will lye in quietness together and malice is a miserable case to appear in before the Lord Why then do you cherish your vice by putting away the day of death from your remembrance Do you not know that you are dying Is a few more dayes so great a matter with you that you will therefore do that because you have a few more dayes to live which else you durst not do or think of O hearken to the dreadful trumpet of God which is summoning you all to come away and methinks this should sound a retreat to the malitious from persecuting those with whom they are going to be judged God will shortly make the third if you will needs be quarrelling Unless it be mastââââ Dogs or fighting Cocks there are scarce any creatures but will give over fighting if man or beast do come upon them that would destroy or hurt them both § 20. Consid. 14. Wrathful and hurtful creatures are commonly hated and pursued by all and loveing Consid. 14. gentle harmless profitable creatures are commonly beloved And will you make your selves like wild Beasts or Vermine that all men naturally hate and seek to destroy If a Wolf or a Fox or an Adder do but appear every man is ready to seek the death of him as a hurtful creature and an enemy to mankind But harmless creatures no one medleth with unless for their own benefit and use So if you will be malicious hurtful Serpents that hiss and sting and trouble others you will be the common hatred of the world and it will be thought a meritorious work to mischief you Whereas if you will be loving kind and profitable it will be taken to be mens interest to love you and desire your good § 21. Consid. 15. Observe how you unfit your selves for all holy duties and communion with God Consid. 15. while you cherish wrath and malice in your hearts Do you find your selves fit for Meditation Conference or Prayer while you are in wrath I know you cannot It both undisposeth you to the duty and the guilt affrighteth you and telleth you that you are unfit to come near to God As a Feavor taketh away a mans appetite to his meat and his disposition to labour so doth wrath and malice destroy both your disposition to holy duties and your pleasure in them And conscience will tell you that it is so terrible to draw near God in such a case that you will be readier were it possible to hide your selves as Adam and Eve or fly as Cain as not enduring the presence of God And therefore the Common-Prayer Book above all other sins enableth the Pastor to keep away the malicious from the Sacrament of Communion and conscience maketh many that have little conscience in any thing else that they dare not come to that Saârament while wrath and malice are in their breasts And Christ himself saith Matth. 5. 23 24 25. If thou bring thy gift unto the Altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee Leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift Agree with thine adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the Iudge and the Iudge deliver thee to the Officer and thou be cast into prison c. § 22. Consid. 16. And your sin is aggravated in that you hinder the good of those that you are Consid. 16. offended with and also provoke them to add sin to sin and to be as furious and uncharitable as your selves If your neighbour be not faulty why are you so displeased with him If he be Why will you make him worse Will you bring him to amendment by hatred or cruelty Do you think one vice will cure another Or is any man like to hearken to the counsel of an enemy Or to love the words of one that hateth him Is malice and fierceness an attractive thing Or rather is it not the way to drive men further from their duty and into sin by driving them from you who pretend to reform them by such unlikely contrary means as these And as you do your worst to harden them in their faults and to make them hate what ever you would perswade them to so at present you seek to kindle in their breasts the same fire of malice or passion which is kindled in your selves As Love is the most effectual way to cause Love so passion is the most effectual cause of passion and malice is the most effectual cause of malice and hurting another is the powerfullest means to provoke him to hurt you again if he be able And weak things are oft times able to do hurt when injuries boyle up their passions to the height or make them desperate If your sinful provocations fill him also with rage and make him curse or swear or rail or plot revenge or do you a mischief you are guilty of this sin and have a hand in the damnation of his soul as much as in you lyeth § 23. Consid. 17. Consider how much fitter means there are at hand to right your self and attain Consid. 17. any ends that are good than by passion malice or revenge If your end be nothing but to do mischief and make another miserable you are to the world as mad Dogs and Wolves and Serpents to the Countrey and they that know you will be as glad when the world is rid of you as when an Adder or a Toad is killed But if your end be only to right your selves and to reclaim your enemy or reform your brother fury and revenge is not the way God hath appointed Governours to do justice in Common-wealths and Families and to those you may repair and not take upon you to revenge your selves And God himself is the most righteous Governour of all the world and to him you may confidently referr the case when Magistrates and Rulers fail you and his judgement will be soon enough and severe enough And if you would rather have your neighbour reclaimed than destroyed it is Love and gentleness that are the way with peaceable convictions and such reasonings as shew that you desire his Good Overcome him with kindness if you would melt him into
escape Direct 6. that need or poverty which is the temptation to this sin of theft Idleness is a crime which is not to be tollerated in Christian Societies 2. Thess. 2. 6 8 10 11 12. Now we command you brethren in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us For you know how ye ought to follow us for we behaved not our selves disorderly among you neither did we eat any mans bread for nought but workt with labour and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you Not because we have not power but to make our selves an ensample to you to follow us For when we were with you this we commanded you that if any would not work neither should he eat For we hear that there are some among you which walk disorderly working not at all but are busie bodies Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Iesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread Eph. 4. 28. Let him that stole steal no more but rather let him labour working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth He that stealeth to maintain his Idleness sinneth that he may sin and by one sin getteth provision for another You see here that you are bound not only to work to maintain your selves but to have to give to others in their need § 8. Direct 7. Keep a tender conscience which will do its office and not suffer you to sin without Direct 7. remorse A feared sensless Conscience will permit you to lye and steal and deceive and will make no great matter of it till God awaken it by his grace or vengeance Hence it is that servants can deceive their masters or take that which is not allowed them and buyers and sellers over-reach one another because they have not tender Consciences to reprove them § 9. Direct 8. Remember alwayes that God is present and none of your secrets can be hid from him Direct 8. What the better are you to deceive your neighbour or your master and to hide it from their knowledge as long as your Maker and Judge seeth all When it is him that you most wrong and with him that you have most to do and he that will be the most terrible avenger What blinded Atheists are you who dare do that in the presence of the most righteous God which you durst not do if men beheld you § 10. Direct 9. Forget not how dear all that must cost you which you gain unlawfully The reckoning Direct 9. time is yet to come Either you will truly Repent or not If you do it must cost you remorse and sorrow and shameful confession and restitution of all that you have got amiss And is it not better forbear to swallow that morsel which must come up again with heart-breaking grief and shame But if you Repent not unfeignedly it will be your damnation It will be opened in Judgement to your perpetual confusion and you must pay dear for all your gain in Hell Nâver look upon the gain therefore without the shame and damnation which must follow If Achan had foreseen the stones and Gehezi the Leprosie and Ahab the mortal arrow and Iezebel the licking of her blood by Dogs and Iudas the hanging or precipitation and Ananias and Saphira the sudden death or any of them the after misery it might have kept them from their pernicious gain Usually even in this life a curse attendeth that which is ill gotten and bringeth fire among all the rest § 11. Direct 10. If you are poor consider well of the mercy which that condition may bring you and Direct 10. let it be your study how to get it sanctisied to your good If men understood and believed that God doth dispose of all for the best and make them poor to do them good and considered what that good is which poverty may do them and made it their chief care to turn it thus to their gain they would not find it so intolerable a thing as to seek to cure it by fraud or thievery Think what a mercy it is that you are saved from those temptations to overlove the world which the Rich are undone by And that you are not under those temptations to intemperance and excess and pride as they are And that you have such powerful helps for the mortification of the flesh and victory over the deceiving World Improve your poverty and you will scape these sins § 12. Direct 11. If you are but willing to escape this sin you may easily do it by a free Confession Direct 11. to those whom you have wronged or are tempted to wrong He that is not willing to forbear his sin is guilty before God though he do forbear it But if you are truly willing it is easie to abstain Do not say that you are willing till necessity pincheth you or you see the bait For if you are so you may easily prevent it at that time when you are willing If ever you are willing indeed take that opportunity and if you have wronged any man go and confess it to him in the manner as I shall afterward direct And this will easily prevent it For shame will engage you and self preservation will engage him to take more heed of you Or if you have not yet wronged any but are strongly tempted to it if you have no other sufficient remedy go tell him or some other fit person that you are tempted to steal and to deceive in such or such a manner and desire them not to trust you If you think the shame of such a Confession too dear a price to save you from the sin pretend no more that you are truly willing to forbear it or that ever you did unfeignedly repent of it Tit. 2. Certain Cases of Conscience about Theft and Injury § 1. Quest. 1. IS it a sin for a man to steal in absolute necessity when it is meerly to save his Quest. 1. life Answ. The case is very hard I shall 1. Tell you so much as is past controversie and then speak to the controverted part 1. If all other unquestionable means be not first used it is undoubtedly a sin If either labouring or begging will save our lives it is unlawful to steal Yea or if any others may be used to intercede for us Otherwise it is not stealing to save a mans life but stealing to save his labour or to gratifie his pride and save his honour 2. It is undoubtedly a sin if the saving of our lives by it do bring a greater hurt to the Common-wealth or other men than our lives are worth 3. And it is a sin if it deprive the owner of his life he being a person more worthy and useful to the common good These cases are
be observed 1. That you keep not his sword for your benefit and advantage nor claim a propriety in it but give it his friends or deliver it to the Magistrate 2. That you do nothing without the Magistrate in which you may safely stay for his Authority and help But if two be fighting or thieves be robbing or murdering a man or anothers life be in present danger you must help them without staying for the Magistrates authority 3. That you make not this a pretence for the usurping of Authority or for resisting or deposing your lawful Prince or Magistrate or Parent or Master or of exercising your own will and passions against your Superiours pretending that you take away their swords to save themselves or others from their rage when it is indeed but to hinder justice § 21. Quest. 14. May I not then much more take away that by which he would destroy his own or other Quest. 14. mens souls As to take away Cards or Dice from Gamesters or heretical or sâdiâious books or Play-books and Romances or to pull down Idols which the Idolaters do adore or are instruments of Idolatry Answ. There is much difference in the cases though the soul be more precious than the body For 1. Here there is supposed to be so much leisure and space as that you may have time to tell the Magistrate of it whose duty primarily it is Whereas in the other case it is supposed that so much delay would be a mans death Therefore your duty is to acquaint the Magistrate with the sin and danger and not to anticipate him and play the Magistrate your self Or in the case of Cards and Dice and hurtful books you may acquaint the persons with the sin and perswade them to cast them away themselves 2. Your taking away these instruments is not like to save them For the love of the sin and the Will to do it remaineth still and the sinner will but be hardened by his indignation against your irregular course of charity 3. Men are bound to save mens bodies whether they will or not because it may be so done But no man can save anothers soul against his will And it is Gods will that their salvation or damnation shall be more the fruit of their own wills than of any others Therefore though it 's possible to devise an instance in which it is lawful to steal a poysonous book or idol from another when it is done so secretly as will encourage no disobedience or disorder nor is like to harden the sinner but indeed to do him good c. yet ordinarily all this is A Wife or near friend that is under no suspicion of alienating the thing to their own commodity nor of ill designes may go somewhat further in such cases than an inferiour or a stranger unlawful for private men that have no Government of others or extraordinary interest in them § 2. Quest. 15. May not a Magistrate take the subjects goods when it is necessary for their own preservation Quest. 15. Answ. I answered this question once heretofore in my Political Aphorisms And because I repent of medling with such subjects and of writing that Book I will leave such cases hereafter for fitter persons to resolve Quest. 16. But may I not take from another for a holy use As to give to the Church or maintain the Quest. 16. Bishops If David took the hallowed bread in his necessity may not hallowed persons take common bread much more Answ. If holy persons be in present danger of death their lives may be saved as other mens on the terms mentioned in the first case Otherwise God hath no need of theft or violence nor must you rob the Laity to cloath the Clergy But to do such evil on pretence of piety and good is an aggravation of the sin CHAP. XIX General Directions and particular Cases of Conscience about Contracts in general and about Buying and Selling Borrowing and Lending Usury c. in particular Tit. 1. General Directions against injurious Bargaining and Contracts BEsides the last Directions Chap. 18. take these as more nearly pertinent to this case § 1. Direct 1. See that your hearts have the two great principles of Iustice deeply and habitually Direct 1. innaturalized or radicated in them viz. The true Love of your neighbour and the Denyal of your self which in one precept are called The Loving of your neighbour as your self For then you will be freed from the Inclination to injuries and fraud and from the power of those temptations which carry men to these sins They will be contrary to your habitual will or inclination and you will be more studious to help your neighbour than to get from him § 2. Direct 2. Yet do not content your self with these habits but be sure to call them up to act Direct 2. when ever you have any bargaining with others and let a faithful Conscience be to you as a Cryer to proclaim Gods Laws and say to you Now remember Love and Self-denyal and Do as you would be done by If Alexander Severus so highly valued this saying Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris as to make it his Motto and write and engrave it on his doors and buildings having learned it of some Christians or Jews saith Lampridius What a crime and shame is it for Christs own profest Disciples neither to learn or love it Put home the question when you have any bargaining with others How would I be dealt with my self if my case were the same with his § 3. Direct 3. When the Tempter draweth you to think only of your own commodity and gain remember Direct 3. how much more you will lose by sin than your gain can any way amount to If Acan Gehezi Ahab Iudas c. had foreseen the end and the greatness of their loss it would have curbed their covetous desires Believe Gods Word from the bottom of your heart that you shall lose things eternal if you sinfully get things temporal and then you will not make haste to such a bargain to win the world and lose your souls § 4. Direct 4. Understand your neighbours case aright and meditate on his wants and interest You Direct 4. think what you want your self but you think not whether his wants with whom you deal may not be as great as yours Consider what his commodity costeth him or what the toil of the workmans labour is What house rent he hath to pay and what a family to maintain and whether all this can be well done upon the rates that you desire to trade with him And do not believe every common report of his riches or of the price of his commodity For same in such cases is frequently false § 5. Direct 5. Regard the publick good above your own commodity It is not lawful to take up Direct 5. or keep up any oppressing monopoly or Trade which tendeth to enrich you
by the loss of the Common-wealth or of many § 6. Direct 6. Therefore have a special regard to the Laws of the Countrey where you live both Direct 6. as to your Trade it self and as to the price of what you sell or buy For the Law is made for the publick benefit which is to be preferred before any private mans And when the Law doth directly or indirectly set rates upon labours or commodities ordinarily they must be observed or else you will commit two sins at once Injury and Disobedience § 7. Direct 7. Also have special respect to the common estimate and to the Market-price Though Direct 7. it be not alwayes to be our Rule yet ordinarily it must be a considerable part of it and of great regard § 8. Direct 8. Let not imprudent tinking make you seem more covetous than you are Some imprudent Direct 8. persons cannot tell how to make their markets without so many words even about a penny or a trifle that it maketh others think them covetous when it is rather want of wit The appearance of evil must be avoided I have known some that are ready to give a pound to a charitable use at a word who will yet use so many words for a penny in their bargaining as maketh them deeply censured and misunderstood If you see cause to break for a penny or a small matter do it more handsomely in fewer words and be gone And do not tempt the seller to multiply words because you do so § 9. Direct 9. Have no more to do in bargaining with others especially with censorious persons Direct 9. than you needs must For in much dealing usually there will be much misunderstanding offence censure and complaint § 10. Direct 10. In doubtful cases when you are uncertain what is lawful choose that side Direct 10. which is safest to the peace of your consciences hereafter though it be against your commodity and may prove the losing of your right Tit. 2. Cases of Conscience about Iustice in Contracts § 1. Quest. 1. MUst I alwayes do as I would be done by Or hath this Rule any Exceptions Quest. 1. Answ. The Rule intendeth no more but that your just self-denyal and love to others be duly exercised in your dealings with all And 1. It supposeth that your own will or desires be honest and just and that Gods Law be their Rule For a sinful will may not be made the rule of your own actions or of other mens He that would have another make him drunk may not therefore make another drunk And he that would abuse another mans Wife may not therefore desire that another man would lust after or abuse his Wife He that would not be instructed reproved or reformed may not therefore forbear the instructing or reproving others And he that would kill himself may not therefore kill another But he that would have no hurt done to himself injuriously should do none to others And he that would have others do him good should be as willing to do good to them 2. It supposeth that the matter be to be varyed according to your various conditions A Parent that justly desireth his child to obey him is not bound therefore to obey his child nor the Prince to obey his subjects nor the Master to do all the work for his servants which he would have his servants do for him But you must deal by another as you would regularly have them deal by you if you were in their case and they in yours And on these terms it is a Rule of Righteousness § 2. Quest. 2. Is a Son bound by the contract which his Parents or Guardians made for him in his Quest. 2. infancy Answ. To some things he is bound and to some things not The Infant is capable of being obliged by another upon four accounts 1. As he is the Parents own or a Masters to whom he is in absolute servitude 2. As he is to be Ruled by the Parents 3. As he is a Debtor to his Parents for benefits received 4. As he is an expectant or capable of future benefits to be enjoyed upon conditions to be performed by him 1. No Parents or Lord have an Absolute Propriety in any rational creature but they have a propriety secundum quid ad hoc And a Parents propriety doth in part expire or abate as the Son groweth up to the full use of reason and so hath a greater propriety in himself Therefore he may oblige his Son only on this account so far as his propriety extendeth and to such acts and to no other For in those his Will is reputatively his Sons will As if a Parent sell his Son to servitude he is bound to such service as beseemeth one man to put another to 2. As he is Rector to his Child he may by contract with a third person promise that his child shall do such acts as he hath power to command and cause him to do As to read to hear Gods Word âo labour as he is able But this no longer than while he is under his Parents Government And so long Obedience requireth him to perform their contracts in performing their commands 3. The child having received his Being and maintenance from his Parents remaineth obliged to them as his Benefactors in the debt of gratitude as long as he liveth And that so deeply that some have questioned whether ever he can requite them which quoad valorem beneficii he can do only by furthering their salvation as many a child hath been the cause of the Parents conversion And so far as the Son is thus a debtor to the Parents he is obliged to do that which the Parents by contract with a third person shall impose upon him As if the Parents could not be delivered out of captivity but by obliging the Son to pay a great summ of money or to live in servitude for their release Though they never gave him any money yet he is bound to pay the summ if he can get it or to perform the servitude Because he hath received more from them even his being 4. As the Parents are both Owners secundum quid and Rulers and Benefactors to their child in all three respects conjunct they may oblige him to a third person who is willing to be his Benefactor by a conditional obligation to perform such conditions that he may possess such or such benefits And thus a Guardian or any friend who is fit to interpose for him may oblige him As to take a lease in his name in which he shall be bound to pay such a rent or do such a service that he may receive such a commodity which is greater Thus Parents oblige their children under Civil Governments to the Laws of the Society or Kingdom that they may have the protection and benefits of subjects In these cases the child can complain of no injury for it is for his benefit that he is obliged And the
Offices and Lands who must bear the loss Answ. The case is near the same with that in Quest. 17. It is supposed that the seller should have lost it himself if he had kept it but a little longer And that neither of them foresaw the change And therefore that the seller hath all his money rather for his good hap than for his Lands or Office which the buyer hath not Therefore except it be to a rich man that feeleth not the loss or one that expresly undertook to stand to all hazards foreseeing a possibility of them Charity and humanity will teach the seller to divide the loss § 22. The same is the case of London now consumed by fire where thousands of suits are like to rise between the Landlords and the Tenants Where the providence of God permitting the burning zeal of some Papists hath deprived men of the houses which they had hired or taken leases of humanity and charity requireth the Rich to bear most of the loss and not to exact their Rents or Re-building from the poor what ever the Law saith which could not be supposed to foresee such accidents Love your neighbours as your selves Do as you would be done by and Oppress not your poor brethren and then by these three Rules you will your selves decide a multitude of such doubts and difficulties which the uncharitable only cannot understand Tit. 4. Cases of Conscience about Lending and Borrowing § 1. Quest. 1. MAy a poor man borrow money who knoweth that he is unable to repay it and hath Quest. 1. no rational proof that he is very likely to be able hereafter Answ. No unless it be when he telleth the lender truly of his case and he is willing to run the hazard Else it is meer thievery covered with the cheat of borrowing For the borrower desireth that of another which he would not lend him if he expected it not again And to take a mans money or goods against his will is robbery Object But I am in great necessity Answ. Begging in necessity is lawful but stealing or cheating is not though you call it borrowing Object But it is a shame to beg Answ. The sin of thievish borrowing is worse than shame Object But none will give me if I beg Answ. If they will give but to save your life at the present you must take it though they give you not what you would have The poorest beggars life is better than the thiefs Object But I hope God may enable me to pay hereafter Answ. If you have no rational way to manifest the soundness of that hope to another it is but to pretend faith and hope for thievery and deceit Object God hath promised that those that fear him shall want no good thing and therefore I hope I may be able to repay it Answ. If you want not Why do you borrow If you have enough to keep you alive by begging God maketh good all his promises to you Yea or if you dye by famine For he only promiseth you that which is best which for ought you know may be beggery or death God breaketh not promise with his servants who dye in common famine no more than with them that dye in Plagues or Wars Make not God the Patron of sin Yea and your faith a pretence for your distrust If you trust God use no sinful means If you trust him not this pleading of his promise is hypocrisie § 2. Quest. 2. May a Tradesman drive a Trade with borrowed money when his success and so his Quest. 2. repayment is utterly an uncertain thing Answ. There are some Trades where the gain is so exceeding probable next to certain as may warrant the borrowing of money to manage them when there is no rational probability of failing in the payment And there are some Tradesmen who have estates of their own sufficient to repay all the money which they borrow But otherwise when the money is rationally hazardous the borrower is bound in conscience to acquaint the lender fully with the hazard that he may not have it against his will Otherwise he liveth in constant deceit or thievery And if he do happen to repay it it excuseth not his sin § 3. Quest. 3. If a borrower be utterly unable to pay and so break while he hath something may be Quest. 3. not retain somewhat for his food or rayment Answ. No unless it be in order to set up again in hope to repay his debts For all that he hath being other mens he may not take so much as bread to his mouth out of that which is theirs without their consent § 4. Quest. 4 But if a man have bound himself to his Wives friends upon marriage to settle so much Quest. 4. upon her or her children and this obligation was antecedent to his debts may he not secure that to his Wife and Children without any injury to his Creditors Answ. The Law of the Land must much decide this controversie If the propriety be actually before transferred to Wife or Children it is theirs and cannot be taken from them But if it were done after by a deed of gift to defraud the Creditors than that deed of gift is invalid till debts be paid If it be but an Obligation and no collation of propriety the Law must determine who is to be first paid and whether the Wife be supposed to run the hazard of gaining or losing with the Husband And though the Laws of several Countreys herein differ and some give the Wife more propriety than others do yet must they in each place be conscientiously observed as being the Rule of such propriety But we must see that there be no fraudulent intent in the transaction § 5. Quest. 5. May not a broken Tradesman retain somewhat to set up again if his creditors be willing Quest. 5. to compound for a certain part of the debt Answ. If he truly acquaint them with his whole estate and they voluntarily allow him part to himself either in charity or in hope hereafter to be satisfied this is no unlawful course But if he hide part from them and make them believe that the rest is all this is but a thievish procurement of their composition or consent § 6. Quest. 6. May a borrower lawfully break his day of promised payment in case of necessity Quest. 6. Answ. True necessity hath no Law that is a man is not bound to do things naturally impossible But if he might have foreseen that necessity or the doubtfulness of his payment at the day it was his sin to promise it unless he put in some limitation If I be able and acquainted the lender with the uncertainty However it be when the time is come he ought to go to his Creditor and tell him of his necessity and desire further time and endeavour to pay it as soon as he is able and if he be not able to make him what satisfaction he can by his labour
am I bound to exercise this charity in not-taking use Answ. As I said before 1. When ever you have no more urgent and necessary and excellent work to lay out that money on which you are so to receive 2. Yea though another work may be in it self better as to relieve many poorer better men with that money yet when you cannot take it without the utter undoing of the debtor and bringing him into as bad a case as any single person whom you would relieve it is the safer side to leave the other unrelieved unless it be a person on whom the publick good much dependeth rather than to extort your own from such a one to give another Because that which you cannot get without a scandalous appearance of cruelty is quoad jus in re not yours to give till you can better get possession of it And therefore God will not expect that you should give it to another § 27. In all this I imply that as you must prefer the lives of others in giving Alms before your own conveniencies and comforts and must not say I cannot spare it when your necessity may spare it though not your pleasure So also in taking Use of those that you are bound to shew charity to the same rule and proportions must be observed in your charity § 28. Note also that in all this it appeareth that the case is but gradually different between taking the Use and taking the principal For when the reason for remitting is the same you are as well bound to remit the principal as the Use. § 29. But this difference there is that many a man of low estate may afford to lend freely to a poorer man for a little time who cannot afford to give it And prudence may direct us to choose one man to lend freely to for a time because of his sudden necessity when yet another is fitter to give it to § 30. Quest. 13. Is lending a duty If so must I lend to all that ask me or to whom Quest. 13. Answ. Lending is a duty when we have it and our brothers necessity requireth it and true prudence telleth us that we have no better way to lay it out which is inconsistent with that And therefore rich men ordinarily should both lend and give as prudence shall direct But there is an imprudent and so a sinful lending As 1. When you will lend that which is anothers and you have no power to lend 2. When you lend that which you must needs require again while you might easily foresee that the borrower is not like to pay Lend nothing but what you have either great probability will be repayed or else which you are willing to give in case the debtor cannot or will not pay or at least when suing for it will not have scandalous and worse effects than not lending For it is very ordinary when you come to demand it and sue for it to stir up the hatred of the debtor against you and to make him your enemy and to break his charity by your imprudent charity In such a case if you are obliged to relieve him give him so much as you can spare rather than lend him that which you cannot spare but must sue for In such cases if Charity go not without Prudence nor prudence without charity you may well enough see when to lend and how much § 31. Quest. 14. Is it lawful to take upon Usury in necessity when the Creditor doth unjustly or unmercifully Quest. 14. require it Answ. Not in case that the consequents by encouraging sin or otherwise be like to do more hurt than the money will do you good Else it is lawful when it is for your benefit As it is lawful to take part of your wages for your work or part of the worth of your commodity when you cannot have the whole And as it is lawful to purchase your rights of an enemy or your life of a Thief as is aforesaid A man may buy his own benefit of an unrighteous man § 32. Quest. 15. Doth not contracting for a certain summ of gain make Usury to be in that case unlawful Quest. 15. which might lawfully be taken of one that 's free Answ. Yes in case that contracting determine an uncertain case without sufficient cause As if you agree that whether the borrower gain or lose and be poor or rich I will have so much gain that is Whether it prove merciful or unmerciful I will have it But then in that case if it so prove unmerciful it may not be taken without contracting if freely offered No contract may tye the debtor to that which is against Justice or Charity And no contract may absolutely require that which may prove uncharitable unless there be a tacite condition or exception of such a case implyed Otherwise I see no Scripture or reason why a contract altereth the case and may not be used to secure that increase which is neither unrighteous nor unmerciful It may be the bond of equity but not of iniquity As in case of a certain gain by the borrower a certain use may be contracted for And in case of an uncertain gain to the borrower a conditional contract may be made Yea in case of Merchandize where mens poverty forbiddeth not such bargains I see not but it is lawful to sell a greater uncertain gain for a smaller certain gain and so to make the contracts absolute As Amesius âas Consc. on this question sheweth As all oppression and unmercifulness must be avoided and all men must do as they would judiciously be done by So it is a bad thing to corrupt Religion and fill the world with causeless scruples by making that a sin which is no sin Divines that live in great Cities and among Merchandize are usually fitter Judges in this case than those that live more obâcurely without experience in the Countrey Tit. 5. Cases of Conscience about Lusory Contracts § 1. Quest. 1. IS it lawful to lay Wagers upon the credit or confidence of one anothers opinions or Quest. 1. assertions in discourse As e. g. I will lay you so much that I am in the right Answ. Yes if these three things concurr 1. That the true end of the Wager is to be a penalty to him that shall be guilty of a rash and false assertion and not to gratifie the Covetousness of the other 2. That it be no greater a summ than can be demanded and paid without breach of Charity or too much hurt to the looser as above the proportion of his error 3. That it be no other but what both parties are truly willing to stand to the loss of if either of them lose And that before hand they truly seem so willing to each other § 2. Quest. 2. Is it lawful to lay Wagers upon Horse-races Dogs Hawks Bear-baitings or such Quest. 2. Games as depend on the activity of Beast or Man Answ. Yes upon the two last exprest
conditions and 3. That it be not an exercise which is it self unlawful by cruelty to Beasts or hazard to the lives of men as in Fencing Running Wrestling c. it may fall out if it be not cautelously done or by the expence of an undue proportion of time in them which is the common malignity of such recreations § 3. Quest. 3. May I lawfully give money to see such sports as Bear-baitings Stage-playes Masks Quest. 3. Shews Puppet-playes Activities of Man or Beast c. Answ. There are many Shews that are desirable and laudable as of strange Creatures Monsters rare Engines Activities c. the sight of which it is lawful to purchase at a proportionable price As a prospect thorough one of Galilaeus Tubes or such another is worth much money to a studious person But when the exercise is unlawful as all Stage-playes are that ever I saw or had just information of yea odiously evil however it is very possible that a Comoedy or Tragoedy might with abundance of cautions be lawfully acted it is then usually unlawful to be a spectator either for money or on free cost I say usually because its possible that some one that is necessitated to be there or that goeth to find out their evil to suppress them or that is once only induced to know the truth of them may do it innocently But so do not they who are present voluntarily and approvingly 3. And if the recreation be lawful in it self yet when vain persons go thither to feed a carnal fansie and vicious humour which delighteth more in vanity than they delight in piety and when it wasteth their time and corrupteth their minds and alienateth them from good or hindereth duty it is to them unlawful § 4. Quest. 4. Is it lawful to play at Cards or Dice for money or at any Lottery Quest. 4. Answ. The greatest doubt is Whether the Games be lawful many learned Divines being for the Of Recreations see before Negative and many for the Affirmative And those that are for the Affirmative lay down so many necessaries or conditions to prove them lawful as I scarce ever yet saw meet together But if they be proved at all lawful the case of Wagers is resolved as the next § 5. Quest. 5. May I play at Bowls Run Shoot c. or use such personal activities for money Quest. 5. Answ. Yes 1. If you make not the Game it self bad by any accident 2. If your Wager be laid for sport and not for Covetousness striving who shall get anothers money and give them nothing for it 3. And if no more be laid than is suitable to the sport and the loser doth well and willingly pay § 6. Quest. 6. If the loser who said he was willing prove angry and unwilling when it cometh to the Quest. 6. paying may I take it or get it by Law against his will Answ. No no not in ordinary cases because you may not turn a sport to covetousness or breach of Charity But in case that it be a sport that hath cost you any thing you may in Justice take your Charges when Prudence forbids it not Tit. 6. Cases of Conscience about Losing and Finding § 1. Quest. 1. IF I find money or any thing lâst am I bound to seek out the owner if he seek not Quest. 1. after me And how far am I bound to seek him Answ. You are bound to use such reasonable means as the nature of the case requireth that the true owner may have his own again He that dare keep another mans money because he findeth it its like would steal if he could do it as secretly Finding giveth you no propriety if the owner can be found Do as you would be done by and you may satisfie your conscience If nearer enquiry will not serve you are bound to get it cryed in the Market or proclaimed in the Church or mentioned in the Currantâ's that carry weekly news or any probable way which putteth you not upon unreasonable cost or labour § 2. Qââst 2. May I take any thing for the finding of it as my due Qââst 2. Answ. You may demand so much as shall pay for any labour or cost which you have been at about it or finding out the owner But no more as your due Though a moderate gratuity may be accepted if he freely give it § 3. Quest. 3. May I desire to find money or any thing else in my way or may I be glad when I Quest. 3. have found it Answ. You should first be unwilling that your neighbour should lose it and be sorry that he hath lost it But supposing that it be lost you may moderately desire that you may find it rather than another Not with a covetous desire of the gain but that you may faithfully gratifie the owner in restoring it Or if he cannot be found may dispose of it as you ought And you should be more sorry that it s lost than glad that you find it except for the owner § 4. Quest. 4. If no Owner can be found may I not take it and use it as mine own Quest. 4. Answ. The Laws of the Land do usually regulate claims of propriety in such matters where the Law giveth it to the Lord of the Mannor it is his and you must give it him Where it giveth it to no other it is his that findeth it and occupancy will give him propriety But so as it behoveth him to judge if he be poor that Gods providence ordered it for his own supply but if he be rich that God sent it him but as to his Steward to give it to the poor § 5. Quest. 5. If many be present when I find it may I not wholly retain it to my self or may I Quest. 5. not conceal it from them if I can Answ. If the Law over-rule the case it must be obeyed But if it do not you may if you can conceal it and thereby become the only finder and take it as your own if the Owner be not found But if you cannot conceal it at the time of finding they that see it with you are partly the finders as well as you though perhaps the largest share be due to the occupant § 6. Quest. 6. If I trust my neighbour or servant with money or goods or if another trust me who Quest. 6. must stand to the loss if they be lost Answ. Here also the Law of the Land as regulating proprieties must be very much regarded and especially the true meaning of the parties must be understood If it was antecedently the expressed or implyed meaning that one party in such or such a case should bear the loss it must in strict justice be according to the true meaning of the parties Therefore if a Carrier that undertaketh to secure it loseth it he loseth it to himself Or if one that it is lent to on that condition explicite or implicite lose it
names to Mammon and be not such paultry hypocrites as to profess that you believe the Scriptures and stand to your baptismal Vows and place your hopes in a Crucified Christ and your happiness in Gods favour and the life to come And if the preaching of the Gospel and all such religious helps be unnecessary to your unsetled children dissemble not by going to Church as if you took them to be necessary to your selves In a word I say as Elias to the Israelites Why halt ye between two opinions If God be God follow him If the world be God and Pride and Sensuality and the worlds applause be your felicity follow it and let it be your childrens portion Do you not see more wise and learned and holy and serviceable persons among us proportionably in Church and State that were never sent for an education among the Papists and prophane than of such as were But I will proceed to the Directions which are necessary to those that must or will needs go abroad either as Merchants Factors or as Travellers Direct 1. Be sure that you go not without a clear warrant from God which must be all things Direct 1. laid together a great probability in the judgement of impartial experienced wise men that you may get or do more good than you were like to have done at home For if you go sinfully without a Call or Warrant you put your self out of Gods protection as much as in you is that is you forfeit it And what ever plague befalls you it will arm your accusing Consciences to make it double Direct 2. Send with your children that travel some such pious prudent Tutor or Oversââr as is Direct 2. afore described And get them or your Apprentices into as good company as possibly you can Direct 3. Send them as the last part of all their education when they are setled in knowledge Direct 3. sound doctrine and godliness and have first got such acquaintance with the state of the world as Reading Maps and Conversation and Discourse can help them to And not while they are young and raw and uncapable of self-defence or of due improving what they see And those that are thus prepared will have no great lust or fancy to wander and lose their time without necessity For they will know that there is nothing better considerably to be seen abroad than is at home That in all Countreys Houses are Houses and Cities are Cities and Trees are Trees and Beasts are Beasts and Men are Men and Fools are Fools and Wise men are Wise and Learned men are Learned and Sin is Sin and Virtue is Virtue And these things are but the same abroad as at home And that a Grave is every where a Grave and you are travelling towards it which way ever you go And happy is he that spendeth his little time so as may do God best service and best prepare him for the state of immortality Direct 4. If experience of their youthful lust and pride and vitious folly or unsetled dangerous Direct 4. state doth tell you plainly that your Child or Apprentice is unfit for travel venture them not upon it either for the carnal ornaments of education or for your worldly gain For souls that cost the blood of Christ are more pretious than to be sold at so low a rate And especially by those Parents and Masters that are doubly obliged to love them and to guide them in the way to Heaven and must be answerable for them Direct 5. Choose those Countreys for your Children to travel in which are soundest in doctrine Direct 5. and of best example and where they may get more good than hurt and venture them not needlesly into the places and company of greatest danger especially among the Jesuits and Fryars or subtile Hereticks or enemies of Christ. Direct 6. Study before you go what particular Temptations you are like to meet with and study Direct 6. well for particular Preservatives against them all As you will not go into a place infected with the Plague without an Antidote It is no small task to get a mind prepared for travel Direct 7. Carry with you such Books as are fittest for your use both for Preservation and Edification Direct 7. As to preserve you from Popery Drelincourts and Mr. Pools small Manual For which use my Key for Catholicks and Safe Religion and Sheet against Popery may not be useless And Dr. Challoners Credo Ecclesiam Catholicam is short and very strong To preserve you against Infidelity Vander Meulin in Latin and Grotius and in English my Reasons of the Christian Religion may not be unfit For your practice the Bible and the Practice of Piety and Mr. Scudders Daily Walk and Mr. Reyners Directions and Dr. Ames Cases of Conscience Direct 8. Get acquaintance with the most able Reformed Divines in the places where you travel Direct 8. and make use of their frequent converse for your edification and defence For it is the wisest and best men in all Countreys where you come that must be profitable to you if any Direct 9. Set your selves in a course of regular study if you are Travellers as if you were at Direct 9. home and on a course of regular employment if you are Tradesmen and make not meer wandering and gazing upon novelties your Trade and Business But redeem your time as laboriously as you would do in the most setled life For time is precious where ever you be And it must be diligence every where that must cause your proficiency for Place and Company will not do it without your labour It is not an University that will make a sluggish person wise nor a forreign Land that will furnish a sensual sot with wisdom Coelum non animum mutant qui trans more currunt There is more ado necessary to make you wise or bring you to Heaven than to go long journeys or see many people Direct 10. Avoid temptations If you acquaint your selves with the humours and sinful opinions Direct 10. and fashions of the time and places where you are let it be but as the Lacodamonians called out their children to see a drunkard to hate the sin Therefore see them but taste them not as you would do by poyson or lothesome things Once or twice seeing a folly and sin is enough If you do it frequently custome will abate your detestation and do much to reconcile you to it Direct 9. Set your selves to do all the good you can to the miserable people in the places where Direct 9. you come Furnish your selves with the foresaid Books and Arguments not only to preserve your selves but also to convince poor Infidels and Papists And pity their souls as those that believe that there is indeed a life to come where Happiness and Misery will shew the difference between the godly and the wicked Especially Merchants and Factors who live constantly among the poor ignorant
more of the reproach that falleth upon themselves Their case is to be pitied but the case of their inferiours more For it is their own wilful choice which hath imprisoned their understandings with-such informers and it is their unexcusable negligence which keepeth them from seeking truer information A good Landlord will be familiar with the meanest of his Tenants and will encourage them freely to open their complaints and will labour to inform himself who is in poverty and distress and how it cometh to pass that when he hath heard all he may understand whether it be his own oppression or his Tenants fault that is the cause when proud self-seeking men disdain such inferiour converse and if they have servants that do but tell them their Tenants have a good bargain and are murmuring unthrifty idle persons they believe them without any more enquiry and in negligent ignorance oppress the poor § 18. Direct 5. Mortifie your own lusts and sinful curiosity which maketh you think that you need Direct 5. so much as tempteth you to get it by oppressing others Know well how little is truly necessary And how little nature well-taught is contented with And what a priviledge it is to need but little Pride and curiosity are an insatiable gulf Their daily trouble seemeth to them a necessary accommodation Such abundance must be laid out on superfluous recreations buildings ornaments furniture equipage attendants entertainments visitations braveries and a world of need-nots called by the names of handsomness cleanliness neatness conveniences delights usefulness honours civilities comeliness c. So much doth carnal concupiscence pride and curiosity thus devour that hundreds of the poor must be oppressed to maintain it And many a man that hath many score or hundred Tenants who with all their families daily toil to get him provision for his fleshly lusts doth find at the years end that all will hardly serve the turn but this greedy devourer could find room for more when one of his poor Tenants could live and maintain all his family comfortably if he had but as much as his Landlord bestoweth upon one suit of Clothes or one proud entertainment or one Horse or on a pack of Hounds I am not perswading the highest to level their garb and expences equal with the lowest But mortifie pride curiosity and gluttony and you will find less need to oppress the poor or to feed your concupiscence with the sweat and groans of the afflicted § 19. Direct 6. Be not the sole Iudge of your own actions in a controverted case but if any complain Direct 6. of you hear the judgement of others that are wise and impartial in the case For it is easie to mis-judge where self-interest is concerned § 20. Direct 7. Love your poor brethren as your selves and delight in their welfare as if it Direct 7. were your own And then you will never oppress them willingly and if you do it ignorantly you will quickly feel it and give over upon their just complaint As you will quickly feel when you hurt your selves and need no great exhortation to forbear Tit. 2. Cases of Conscience about Oppression especially of Tenants Quest. 1. IS it lawful for a mean man who must needs make the best of it to purchase tenanted Quest. 1. Land of a liberal Landlord who setteth his Tenants a much better pennyworth than the buyer can afford Answ. Distinguish 1. Between a seller who understandeth all this and one that doth not 2. Between a Tenant that hath by custome a half-title to his easier Rent and one that hath not 3. Between a Tenant that consenteth and one that consenteth not 4. Between buying it when a liberal man might else have bought it and buying it when a worse else would have bought it 5. Between a case of scandal and of no scandal And so I answer 1. If the Landlord that selleth it expect that the buyer do use the Tenants as well as he hath done and sell it accordingly it is unrighteous to do otherwise ordinarily 2. In many Countreys it is the custome not to turn out a Tenant nor to raise his rent so that many generations have held the same Land at the same rent which though it give no legal title is yet a half-title in common estimation In such a case it will be scandalous and infamous and injurious and therefore unlawful to purchase it with a purpose to raise the rent and do accordingly 3. In case that a better Landlord would buy it who would use the Tenant better than you can do it is not ordinarily lawful for you to buy it I either express or imply ordinarily in most of my solutions because that there are some exceptions lye against almost all such answers in extraordinary cases which the greatest Volume can scarce enumerate But if 1. It be the sellers own doing to withdraw his liberality so far from his Tenants as to sell his Land on hard rates on supposition that the buyer will improve it 2. And if it be a Tenant that cannot either by custome or any other plea put in a claim in point of equity to his easie-rented Land 3. And if as bad a Landlord would buy it if you do not 4. If it be not a real scandal I say if all these four concurr 5. Or alone if the Tenant consent freely to your purchase on those terms then it is no injury But the common course is for a covetous man that hath money never to consider what a loser the Tenant is by his purchase but to buy and improve the Land at his own pleasure which is no better than Oppression Quest. 2. May not a Landlord take as much for his Land as it is worth Quest. 2. Answ. 1. Sometimes it is Land that no man can claim an equitable title to hold upon any easier rent and sometimes it is otherwise as aforesaid by custome and long possession or other reasons 2. Sometimes the Tenant is one that you are obliged to shew Mercy to and sometimes he is one that no more than commutative Justice is due to And so I answer 1. If it be an old Tenant who by custome or any other ground can claim an equitable title to his old pennyworth you may not enhaunse the Rent to the full worth 2. If it be one that you are obliged to shew Mercy as well as Justice to you may not take the full worth 3. The common case in England is that the Landlords are of the Nobility or Gentry and the Tenants are poor men who have nothing but what they get by their hard labour out of the Land which they hold And in this case some abatement of the full worth is but such a necessary Mercy as may be called Justice Note still that by the full worth I mean so much as you could set it for to a stranger who expecteth nothing but strict Justice as men buy and sell things in a Market But 1. If you
several tempers and strength and appetites 2. And between the restraint of Want and the restraint of Gods Law And so it is thus resolved 1. Such difference in quantity or quality as mens health or strength and real benefit requireth may be made by them that have no want 2. When want depriveth the poor of that which would be really for their health and strength and benefit it is not their duty who have no such want to conform themselves to other mens afflictions Except when other reasons do require it 3. But all men are bound to avoid real excess in matter or manner and curiosity and to lay out nothing needlesly on their bellies yea nothing which they are called to lay out a better way Understand this answer and it will suffice you § 5. Inst. 2. Another way of Prodigality is by needless costly Visits and Entertainments Inst. 2. Quest. 2. What cost upon Visits and Entertainments is unlawful and prodigal Quest. 2. Answ. 1. Not only all that which hath an ill original as Pride or flattery of the rich and all that hath an ill End as being meerly to keep up a carnal unprofitable interest and correspondency but also all that which is excessive in degree I know you will say But that 's the difficulty to know when it is excessive It is not altogether impertinent to say when it is above the proportion of your own estate or the ordinary use of those of your own ranck or when it plainly tendeth to cherish gluttony or excess in others But these answers are no exact solution I add therefore that it is excess when any thing is that way expended which you are called to expend another way Object But this leaveth it still as difficult as before Answ. When in rational probability a greater good may be done by another way of expence consideratis considerandis and a greater good is by this way neglected then you had a call to spend it otherwise and this expence is sinful Object It is a doubt whether of two goods it be a mans duty alwayes to choose the greater Answ. Speaking of that Good which is within his choice it is no more doubt than whether Good be the object of the will If Good be eligible as good then the greatest good is most eligible Object But this is still a difficulty insuperable How can a man in every action and expence discern Whether a man is bound to prefer the greatest good which way it is that the greatest good is like to be attained This putteth a mans conscience upon endless perplexities and we shall never be sure that we do not sin For when I have given to a poor man or done some good for ought I know there was a poorer that should have had it or a greater good that should have been done Answ. 1. The contrary opinion legitimateth almost all villany and destroyeth most good works as to our selves or any others If a man may lawfully prefer a known lesser good before a greater and be justified because that the lesser is a real good than he may be feeding his Horse when he should be saving the life of his child or neighbour or quenching a fire in the City or defending the person of his King He may deny to serve his King and Countrey and say I was ploughing or sowing the while He may prefer sacrifice before mercy He may neglect his soul and serve his body He may plow on the Lords Day and neglect all Gods Worship A lesser duty is no duty but a sin when a greater is to be done Therefore it is certain that when two goods come together to our choice the greater is to be chosen or else we sin 2. As you expect that your Steward should proportion his expences according to the necessity of your business and not give more for a thing than it is worth nor lay out your money upon smaller commodities while he leaveth your greater business unprovided for And as you expect that your Servant who hath many things in the day to do should have so much skill as to know which to prefer and not to leave undone the chiefest whilest he spendeth his time upon the least So doth God require that his servants labour to be so skilful in his service as to be able to compare their businesses together and to know which at every season to prefer If Christianity required no wisdome and skill it were below mens common Trades and Callings 3. And yet when you have done your best here and truly endeavour to serve God faithfully with the best skill and diligence you have you need not make it a matter of scrupulosity perplexity and vexation For God accepteth you and pardoneth your infirmities and rewardeth your fidelity And what if it do follow that you know not but there may be some sinful omission of a better way Is that so strange or intollerable a conclusion As long as it is only a pardoned failing which should not hinder the comfort of your obedience Is it strange to you that we are all imperfect And imperfect in every good we do Even by a culpable sinful imperfection You never Loved God in your lives without a sinful imperfection in your Love And yet nothing in you is more acceptable to him than your love Shall we think a case of Conscience ill resolved unless we may conclude that we are sure we have no sinful imperfection in our duty If your Servant have not perfect skill in knowing what to prefer in buying and selling or in his work I think you will neither allow him therefore to neglect the greater and better knowingly or by careless negligence nor yet would you have him sit down and whine and say I know not which to choose But you would have him learn to be as skilful as he can and then willingly and chearfully do his business with the best skill and care and diligence he can And this you will best accept So that this holdeth as the truest and exactest solution of this and many another such case He that spendeth that upon an entertainment of some great ones which should relieve some poor distressed families that are ready to perish doth spend it sinfully If you cannot see this in Gods cause suppose it were the Kings and you will see it If you have but twenty pound to spend and your Tax or Subsidie cometh to so much If you entertain some Noble friend with that money will the King be satisfied with that as an excuse Or will you not be told that the King should have first been served Remember him then who will one day ask Have you fed or clothed or visited me Mat. 25. You are not absolute Owners of any thing but the stewards of God! and must expend it as he appointeth you And if you let the poor lye languishing in necessities whilest you are at great charges to entertain the rich without necessity or a greater good
and Dice and Stage-playes and so much on Hounds and needless pleasures c. Or rather So much to promote the preaching of the Gospel so much to set poor children to Prentice or to School so much to relieve distressed families c. Let Matth. 25. be well read and your account well thought on § 27. Direct 5. Keep an account of your expences and peruse them before a Fast or a Sacrament Direct 5. and ask conscience how it judgeth of them Yea ask some holy prudent friend Whether such proportions are allowable before God and will be comfortable to you in the day of your extremity If you are but willing to be cured such means as these will not be in vain CHAP. XXII Cases and Directions against injurious Law-Suits Witnessing and Iudgement Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Law-Suits and Proceedings Quest. 1. IN what cases is it lawful to go to Law with others Quest. 1. Answ. 1. In case of necessary defence when the Plaintiff doth compell you to it 2. When you are entrusted for Orphans or others whom you cannot otherwise right 3. When your Children or the Church or poor whom you should do good to are like to suffer iâ you recover not your talent that God hath trusted you with for such uses from the hands of unjust men And they refuse all just arbitrations and other equal means which might avoid such suits 4. When your own necessity constraineth you to seek your own which you cannot get by easier means 5. When your forbearance will do more hurt by encouraging Knaves in their injustice than it will do good 6. When ever your cause is just and neither Mercy peace nor the avoiding of scandal do forbid it That is when it is like to do more good than harm it is then a lawful course But it is unlawful to go to Law 1. When you neglect just arbitrations patience and other needful means to avoid it 2. When your Cause is unjust 3. When you oppress the poor by it 4. When it is done in Coveâousness revenge or pride 5. When the scandal or hurt to your Brother is like to be a greater harm than the righting of your self is like to do good Then must you not go willingly to Law Quest. 2. May I sue a poor man for a debt or trespass Quest. 2. Answ. 1. If he be so poor as that he cannot pay it nor procure you satisfaction the Suit is vain and tendeth but to cruelty 2. If he have no means to pay but that which will deprive him of food and rayment and the necessaries of his life or comfort you may not sue him unless it be for the supply of as great necessities of your own or in a trust for Orphans where you have no power to remit the debt yea and for them no cruelty must be used 3. If your forbearance be like to make him ableâ by his diligence or other means you should forbear if possible 4. But if he be competently able and refuse to pay through knavery and injustice and you have better wayes to use that money if scandal forbid not you may seek by Law to recover your own from him Quest. 3. May I sue a Surety whose interest was not concerned in the case Quest. 3. Answ. If his poverty make it not an act of cruelty nor scandal prohibite it you may Because he was willing and declared his consent that you should have the debt of him if the principal pay not To become Surety is to consent to this And it is no injury to receive a mans money by his own consent and Covenant He knew that you had not lent it but on those terms and you had reason to suppose that he who would undertake to pay another mans debt had sufficient reason for it either in relation or counter-security But as you must use mercy to the principal debtor in his poverty so must you also to the surety Quest. 4. May I sue for the use of money as well as for the principal Quest. 4. Answ. This dependeth on the Case of Usury before resolved In those cases in which it may not be taken it may not be sued for Nor yet when the scandal of it will do more harm than the money will do good But in other cases it may be sued for on the terms as the Rent of Lands may Quest. 5. May Law-Suites be used to disable or humble an insolent wicked man Quest. 5. Answ. You may not take up an ill cause against him for any such good end But if you have a good cause against him which otherwise you would not have prosecuted you may make use of it to disable him from doing mischief when really it is a probable means thereto and when neither scandal nor other accidents do prohibite it Quest. 6. May a rich man make use of his friends and purse in a just cause to bear down or tire Quest. 6. out a poorer man that hath a bad cause Answ. Not by bribery or any evil means For his proceeding must be just as well as his cause But if it be an obstinate knave that setteth himself to do hurt to others it is lawful to make use of the favour of a righteous Judge or Magistrate against him And it is lawful to humble him by the length and expensiveness of the Suit when that is the fittest means and no unjust action is done in it Still supposing that scandal prohibit it not But let no proud or cruel person think that therefore they may by purse and friends and tedious Law-Suits oppress the innocent and attain their own unrighteous wills Quest. 7. May one use such forms in Law-Suits as in the literal sense are gross untruths in Declaratitions Quest. 7. Answers or the like Answ. The use of words is to express the mind And common use is the interpreter of them If they are such words as the notorious common use hath put another sense on than the literal one they must be taken in the sense which publick use hath put upon them And if that publick sense be true or Quest. 8. false accordingly they may or may not be used Quest. 8. May a guilty person plead not guilty or deny the fact Answ. Common use is the interpreter of words If the common use of those words doth make their publick sense a lye it may not be done But if the forinsick common use of the denyal is taken to signifie no more but this Let him that accuseth me prove it I am not bound to accuse my self or In foro I am not guilty till it be proved then it is lawful to plead Not-guilty and deny the fact except in cases wherein you are bound to an open confession or in which the scandal will do more hurt than the denyal will do good Quest. 9. Is a man ever bound to accuse himself and seek Iustice against himself Quest. 9. Answ. 1. In many cases a
worst they can against another as an enemy but as loving friends do use an amicable arbitration resolving contentedly to stand to what the Iudge determineth without any alienation of mind or abatement of brotherly love § 12. Direct 9. Be not too confident of the righteousness of your own cause but ask counsel of some Direct 9. understanding godly and impartial men and hear all that can be said and patiently consider of the case and do as you would have others do by you § 13. Direct 10. Observe what terrors of Conscience use to haunt awakened sinners especially on a Direct 10. death-âead for such sins as false witnessing and false judging and oppressing and injuâing the innocent even above most other sins CHAP. XXIII Cases of Conscience and Directions against Backbiting Slandering and Evil Speaking Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Backbiting and Evil Speaking Quest. 1. MAy I not speak evil of that which is evil And call every one truly as Quest. 1. he is Answ. You must not speak a known falshood of any man under pretence of Charity or speaking well But you are not to speak all the evil of every man which is true As opening the faults of the King or your Parents though never so truly is a sin against the fifth Commandment Honour thy Father and Mother So if you do it without a call you sin against your neighbours honour and many other wayes offend Quest. 2. Is it not sinful silence and a consenting to or countenancing of the sins of others to say Quest. 2. nothing against them as tender of their honour Answ. It is sinful to be silent when you have a call to speak If you forbear to admonish the offender in love between him and you when you have opportunity and just cause it is sinful to be silent then But to silence backbiting is no sin If you must be guilty of every mans sin that you talk not against behind his back your whole discourse must be nothing but backbiting Quest. 3. May I not speak that which honest religious credible persons do report Quest. 3. Answ. Not without both sufficient evidence and a sufficient call You must not judge of the action by the person but of the person by the action Nor must you imitate any man in evil doing If a good man abuse you are you willing that all men follow him and abuse you more Quest. 4. May I believe the bad report of an honest credible person Quest. 4. Answ. You must first consider Whether you may hear it or meddle with it For if it be a case that you have nothing to do with you may not set your judgement to it either to believe it or disbelieve it And if it be a thing that you are called to judge of yet every honest mans word is not presently to be believed You must first know whether it be a thing that he saw or is certain of himself or a thing which he only taketh upon report And what his evidence or proof is and whether he be not engaged by interest passion or any difference of opinion Or be not engaged in some contrary faction where the interest of a party or cause is his temptation Or whether he be not used to rash reports and uncharitable speeches And what concurrence of testimonies there is and what is said on the other side Especially what the person accused saith in his own defence If it be so heinous a crime in publick Judgement to pass sentence before both parties are heard and to condemn a man before he speak for himself it cannot be justifiable in private judgement Would you be willing your selves that all should be believed of you which is spoken by any honest man And how uncertain are we of other mens honesty that we should on that account think ill of others Quest. 5. May I not speak evil of them that are enemies to God to Religion and godliness and are Quest. 5. open persecutors of it or are enemies to the King or Church Answ. You may on all meet occasions speak evil of the sin and of the persons when you have a just call but not at your own pleasure Quest. 6. What if it be one whose honour and credit countenanceth an ill cause and his dishonour would Quest. 6. disable him to do hurt Answ. You may not belye the Devil nor wrong the worst man that is though under pretence of doing good God needeth not malice nor calumnies nor injustice to his glory It is an ill cause that cannot be maintained without such means as these And when the matter is true you must have a call to speak it and you must speak it justly without unrighteous aggravations or hiding the better part which should make the case and person truly understood There is a time and due manner in which that mans crimes and just dishonour may be published whose false reputation injureth the truth But yet I must say that a great deal of villany and slander is committed upon this plausible pretence and that there is scarce a more common cloak for the most inhumane lyes and calumnies Quest. 7. May I not lawfully make a true Narration of such matters of fact as are criminal and Quest. 7. dishonourable to offenders Else no man may write a true History to posterity of mens crimes Answ. When you have a just cause and call to do it you may But not at your own pleasure Historians may take much more liberty to speak the truth of the dead than you may of the living Though no untruth must be spoken of either yet the honour of Princes and Magistrates while they are alive is needful to their Government and therefore must be maintained oft times by the concealment of their faults And so proportionably the honour of other men is needful to a life of love and peace and just society But when they are dead they are not subjects capable of a right to any such honour as must be maintained by such silencing of the truth to the injury of posterity And posterity hath usually a right to historical truth that good examples may draw them to imitation and bad examples may warn them to take heed of sin God will have the name of the wicked to rot and the faults of a Noah Lot David Solomon Peter c. shall be recorded Yet nothing unprofitable to posterity may be recorded of the dead though it be true nor the faults of men unnecessarily divulged much less may the dead be slandered or abused Quest. 8. What if it be one that hath been oft admonished in vain May not the faults of such a one be Quest. 8. mentioned behind his back Answ. I confess such a one the case being proved and he being notoriously impenitent hath made a much greater forfeiture of his honour than other men And no man can save that mans honour who will cast it away himself But yet it is
not every one that committeth a sin after admonition who is here to be understood but such as are impenitent in some mortal or ruling sin For some may sin oft in a small and controverted point for want of ability to discern the truth and some may live in daily infirmities as the best men do which they condemn themselves and desire to be delivered from And even the most impenitent mans sins must not be medled with by every one at his pleasure but only when you have just cause Quest. 9. What if it be one whom I cannot speak to face to face Quest. 9. Answ. You must let him alone till you have just cause to speak of him Quest. 10. When hath a man a just cause and call to open anothers faults Quest. 10. Answ. Negatively 1. Not to fill up the time with other idle chatt or table-talk 2. Not to second any man how good soever who backbiteth others no though he pretend to do it to make the sin more odious or to exercise godly sorrow for other mens sin 3. Not when ever interest passion faction or company seemeth to require it But Affirmatively 1. When we may speak it to his face in love and privacy in due manner and circumstances as is most hopeful to conduce to his amendment 2. When after due admonition we take two or three and after that tell the Church in a case that requireth it 3. When we have a sufficient cause to accuse him to the Magistrate 4. When the Magistrate or the Pastors of the Church reprove or punish him 5. When it is necessary to the preservation of another As if I see my friend in danger of marrying with a wicked person or takeing a false servant or trading and bargaining with one that is like to over-reach him or going among cheaters or going to hear or converse with a dangerous Heretick or Seducer I must open the faults of those that they are in danger of so far as their safety and my charity require 6. When it is any treason or conspiracy against the King or Common-wealth where my concealment may be an injury to the King or damage or danger to the Kingdom 7. When the person himself doth by his self-justification force me to it 8. When his reputation is so built upon the injury of others and slanders of the just that the justifying of him is the condemning of the innocent we may then indirectly condemn him by vindicating the just As if it be in a case of contention between two if we cannot justifie the right without dishonour to the injurious there is no remedy but he must bear his blame 9. When a mans notorious wickedness hath set him up as a spectacle of warning and lamentation so that his crimes cannot be hid and he hath forfeited his reputation we must give others warning by his fall As an excommunicate person or malefactor at the Gallows c. 10. When we have just occasion to make a bare narrative of some publick matters of fact as of the sentence of a Judge or punishment of offenders c. 11. When the crime is so heinous as that all good persons are obliged to joyn to make it odious as Phinehas was to execute judgement As in cases of open Rebellion Treason Blasphemy Atheism Idolatry Murders Perjury Cruelty Such as the French Massacre the Irish far greater Massacre the Murdering of Kings the Powder Plot the Burning of London c. Crimes notorious should not go about in the mouths or ears of men but with just detestation 12. When any persons false reputation is a seducement to mens souls and made by himself or others the instrument of Gods dishonour and the injury of the Church or State or others though we may do no unjust thing to blast his reputation we may tell the truth so far as justice or mercy or piety requireth it Quest. 11. What if I hear dawbers applauding wicked men and speaking well of them and extenuating Quest. 12. their crimes and praising them for evil doing Answ. You must on all just occasions speak evil of sin But when that is enough you need not meddle with the sinner no not though other men applaud him and you know it to be false For you are not bound to contradict every falshood which you hear But if in any of the twelve fore-mentioned cases you have a call to do it as for the preservation of the hearers from a snare thereby as if men commend a Traytor or a wicked man to draw another to like his way in such cases you may contradict the false report Quest. 12. Are we bound to reprove every backbiter in this age when honest people are grown to Quest. 12. make little conscience of it but think it their duty to divulge mens faults Answ. Most of all that you may stop the stream of this common sin Ordinarily when ever we can do it without doing greater hurt we should rebuke the tongue that reporteth evil of other men causelesly behind their backs For our silence is their encouragement in sin Tit. 2. Directions against Backbiting Slandering and Evil Speaking Direct 1. MAintain the life of brotherly Love Love your neighbour as your self Direct 1. Direct 2. Watch narrowly lest interest or passion should prevail upon you For Direct 2. where these prevail the tongue is set on fire of Hell and will set on fire the course of nature Iam. 2. Selfishness and passion will not only prompt you to speak evil but also to justifie it and think you do well yea and to be angry with those that will not hearken to you and believe you Direct 3. Especially involve not your selves in any faction Religious or Secular I do not mean Direct 3. that you should not love and imitate the best and hold most intimate communion with them But that you abhor unlawful divisions and sidings and when error or uncharitableness or carnal interest hath broken the Church into pieces where you live and one is of Paul and another of Apollo and another of Cephas one of this party and another of that take heed of espousing the interest of any party as it stands cross to the interest of the whole It would have been hardly credible if sad experience had not proved it how commonly and heinously almost every Sect of Christians do sin in this point against each other And how far the interest of their Sect which they account the interest of Christ will prevail with multitudes even of zealous people to belye calumniate backbite and reproach those that are against their opinion and their party Yea how easily will they proceed beyond reproaches to bloody persecutions He that thinketh that he doth God service by killing Christ or his Disciples will think that he doth him service by calling him a deceiver and one that hath a Devil a blasphemer and an enemy to Caesar and calling his Disciples pestilent fellows and movers of
a sin which gratifieth Satan and serveth his malice against our neighbour He is malitious against all and speaking evil and doing hurt are the works which are suitable to his malignity And should a Christian make his tongue the instrument of the accuser of the brethren to do his work against each other § 3. 3. It signifieth want of Christian Love For love speaketh not evil nor openeth mens faults without a cause but covereth infirmities Much lâss will it lye and slander others and carry about uncertain reports against them It is not to do as you would be done by And how essential Love is to true Christianity Christ himself hath often told us § 4. 4. It is a sin which directly serveth to destroy the hearers Love and consequently to destroy their souls If the backbiter understood himself he would confess that it is his very end to cause you to hate or abate your love to him whom he speaketh evil of He that speaketh good of a man representeth him amiable For amiableness and goodness are all one And he that speaketh evil of a man representeth him hateful or unlovely For hatefulness unloveliness and evil are all one And as it is not the natural way of winning love to intreat and beg it and say I pray you love this person or that thing but to open the goodness of the thing or person which will command love So is it not the natural way to stir up hatred by intreating men to hate this man or that but to tell how bad they are which will command hatred in them that do believe it Therefore to speak evil of another is more than to say to the hearers I pray you hate this man or abate your love to him And that the killing of Love is the killing or destroying of mens souls the Apostle Iohn doth frequently declare § 5. 5. And it tendeth also to destroy the Love and consequently the soul of him that you speak evil of For when it cometh to his hearing as one way or other it may do what evil you have reported of him behind his back it tendeth to make him hate you and so to make him worse § 6. 6. It is a great make-bate and peace-breaker where ever it is practised It tendeth to set people together by the ears When it is told that such a one spake evil of you in such a place there are then heart-burnings and rehearsals and sidings and such ensuing malice as the Devil intended by this design § 7. 7. They that use to speak evil of others behind their backs its ten to one will speak falshoods of them when they do not know it Fame is too ordinarily a lyar and they shall be lyars who will be its messengers How know you whether the thing that you report is true Is it only because a credible person spake it But how did that person know it to be true Might he not take it upon trust as well as you And might he not take a person to be credible that is not And how commonly doth faction or interest or passion or credulity make that person incredible in one thing who is credible in others where he hath no such temptation If you know it not to be true or have not sufficient evidence to prove it you are guilty of lying and slandering interpretatively though it should prove true because it might have been a lye for ought you knew § 8. 8. It is gross injustice to talk of a mans faults before you have heard him speak for himself I know it is usual with such to say O we have heard it from such as we are certain will not lye But he is a foolish and unrighteous Judge that will be peremptory upon hearing one party only speak and knoweth not how ordinary it is for a man when he speaketh for himself to blow away the most confident and plausible accusations and make the case appear to be quite another thing You know not what another hath to say till you have heard him § 9. 9. Backbiting teacheth others to backbite Your example inviteth them to do the like And sins which are common are easily swallowed and hardly repented of Men think that the commonness justifieth or extââââatâth the fault § 10. 10. It encourageth ungodly men to the odious sin of backbiting and sâandering the most religious righteous person It is ordinary with the Devils family to make Christs faithfullest servants their table-talk and the objects of their reproach and scorn and the song of drunkards What abundance of lyes go currant among such malignant persons against the most innocent which would all be shamed if they had first admitted them to speak for themselves And such slanders and lyes are the Devils common means to keep ungodly men from the love of godliness and so from repentance and salvation And backbiting Professors of Religion encourage men to this For with what measure they mete it shall be measured to them again And they that are themselves evil spoken of will think that they are warranted to requite the backbiters with the like § 11. 11. It is a sin which commonly excludeth true profitable reproof and exhortation They that speak most behind mens backs do usually say least to the sinners face in any way which tendeth to his salvation They will not go lovingly to him in private and set home his sin upon his conscience and exhort him to repentance but any thing shall serve as a sufficient excuse against this duty that they may make the sin of backbiting serve instead of it And all is out of carnal self-saving They fear men will be offended if they speak to their faces and therefore they will whisper against them behind their backs § 12. 12. It is at the least but idle talk and a mis-spending of your time What the better are the hearers for hearing of other mens mis-doings And you know that it no whit profiteth the person of whom you speak A skilful friendly admonition might do him good But to neglect this and talk of his faults unprofitably behind his back is but to aggravate the sin of your uncharitableness as being not contented to refuse your help to a man in sin but you must also injure him and do him hurt CHAP. XXIV Cases and Directions against Censoriousness and unwarrantable Iudging Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Iudging of others Quest. 1. AM I not bound to judge truly of every one as he is Answ. 1. There are many that you are not bound to meddle with and to Quest. 1. pass any judgement at all upon 2. There are many whose faults are secret and their virtues open And of such you cannot judge as they are because you have no proof or evidence to enable you You cannot see that which is latent in the heart or done in darkness 3. You neither ought on pretence of charity nor can believe an evident known untruth of any man Quest. Doth not charity
man can bear contempt Hard censures hurt men so far as they are proud 2. Take heed lest imbecillity add to your impatience and concur with pride Cannot you bear greater things than these Impatience will disclose that badness in your selves which will make you censured much more And it will shew you as weak in one respect as the censurers are in another 3. Take heed lest their fault do not draw you to overlook or undervalue that serious godliness which is in many of the censorious And that you do not presently judge them Hypocrites or Schismaticks and abate your charity to them or incline to handle them more roughly than the tenderness of Christ alloweth you Remember that in all ages it hath been thus The Church hath had pievish children within as well as persecuting enemies without Insomuch as Paul Rom. 14. giveth you the copy of these times and giveth them this counsel which from him I am giving you The weak in knowledge were censorious and judged the strong The strong in knowledge were weak in Charity and contemned the weak Just as now one party saith These are superstitious persons and antichristian The other saith What giddy Schismaticks are these But Paul chideth them both one sort for censuring and the other for despising them Direct 2. Take heed lest whilest you are impatient under their censures you fall into the same sin Direct 2. your selves Do they censure you for differing in some Forms or Ceremonies from them Take heed lest you over-censure them for their censoriousness If you censure them as hypocrites who censure you as superstitious you condemn your selves while you are condemning them For why will not censuring too far prove you hypocrites also if it prove them such Direct 3. Remember that Christ beareth with their weakness who is wronged by it more than you Direct 3. and is more against it He doth not quit his title to them for their frowardness nor cease his love not turn every Infant out of his family that will cry and wrangle nor every Patient out of his Hospital that doth complain and groan And we must imitate our Lord and love where he loveth and pity where he pitieth and be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful Direct 4. Remember how amiable a thing the least degree of Grace is even when it is clouded and Direct 4. blotted with infirmities It is the Divine Nature and the Image of God and the seed of Glory And therefore as an Infant hath the noble nature of a man and in all his weakness is much more honourable than the best of Bruits so that it is death to kill an Infant but not a Beast So is the most infirm and froward true Christian more honourable and amiable than the most splendid Infidel Bear with them in love and honour to the image and interest of Christ. Direct 5. Remember that you were once weak in Grace your selves And if happy education under Direct 5. peaceable Guides did not prevent it it s two to one but you were your selves censorious Bear therefore with others as you bear with crying children because you were once a child your self Not that the sin is ever the better but you should be the more compassionate Direct 6. Remember that your own strength and iudgement is so great a mercy that you should the Direct 6. easilier bear with a censorious tongue The Rich and Noble can bear with the envious remembring that it is happy to have that worth or felicity which men do envy You suffer fools gladly seeing you your selves are wise If you are in the right let losers talk Direct 7. Remember that we shall be shortly together in Heaven where they will recant their censures Direct 7. and you will easily forgive them and perfectly love them And will not the foresight of such a meeting cause you to bear with them and forgive and love them now Direct 8. Remember how inconsiderable a thing it is as to your own interest to be judged of man Direct 8. and that you stand or fall to the judgement of the Lord. 1 Cor. 4. 3 4. What are you the better or the worse for the thoughts or words of a man When your salvation or damnation lyeth upon Gods judgement It is too much hypocrisie to be too much desirous of mans esteem and approbation and too much troubled at his disesteem and censure and not to be satisfied with the approbation of God Read what is written against Man-pleasing Tom. 1. Direct 9. Make some advantage of other mens censures for your own proficiency If good men Direct 9. censure you be not too quick in concluding that you are innocent and justifying your selves But be suspicious of your selves lest they should prove the right and examine your selves with double diligence If you find that you are clear in the point that you are censured for suspect and examine lest some other sin hath provoked God to try you by these censures And if you find not any other notable fault let it make you the more watchful by way of prevention seeing the eyes of God and men are on you and it may be Gods warning to bid you take heed for the time to come If you are thus brought to repentance or to the more careful life by occasion of mens censures they will prove so great a benefit to you that you may bear them the more easily CHAP. XXV Cases and Directions about Trusts and Secrets Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Trusts and Secrets Quest. 1. HOw are we forbidden to put our Trust in man And how may it be done Quest. 1. Answ. 1. You must not trust man for more than his proportion and what belongs to man to do You must not expect that from him which God alone can do 2. You must not trust a bad unfaithful man to do that which is proper to a good and faithful man to do 3. You must not trust the best man being imperfect and fallible as fully as if you supposed him perfect and infallible But having to do with a corrupted world we must live in it with some measure of distrust to all men For all that Cicero thought this contrary to the Laws of friendship But especially ignorant dishonest and fraudulent men must be most distrusted As Bucholtzer said to his friend that was going to be a Courtier Commendo tibi fidem diabolorum Crede Contremisce He that converseth with diabolical men must believe them no further than is due to the children of the Father of Lyes But we must trust men as men according to the principles of Veracity that are left in corrupted nature And we must trust men so far as reason sheweth us cause from their skill fidelity honesty or interest So a Surgeon a Physicion a Pilot may be trusted with our lives And the skilfuller and faithfuller any man is the more he is to be trusted Quest. 2. Whom should
you should perform your trust or would discharge you of it If it be some great and unexpected dangers which you think upon good grounds the Parent would acquit you from if he were living you fulfill your trust if you avoid them and do that which would have been his will if he had known it Otherwise you must perform your promise though it be to your loss and suffering Quest. 16. But what if it was only a trust imposed by his desire and will without my acceptance or promise Quest. 16. to perform it Answ. You must do as you would be done by and as the common good and the Laws of love and friendship do require Therefore the quality of the person and your obligations to him and especially the comparing of the consequent good and evil together must decide the case Quest. 17. What if the surviving kindred of the Orphane be nearer to him than I am and they censure Quest. 17. me and calumniate me as injurious to the Orphane may I not ease my self of the trust and cast it upon them Answ. In this case also the measure of your suffering must first be compared with the measure of the Orphanes good And then your Conscience must tell you whether you verily think the Parent who entrusted you would discharge you if he were alive and knew the case If he would though you promised it is to be supposed that it was not the meaning of his desire or your promise to incur such sufferings And if you believe that he would not discharge you if he were alive then if you promised you must perform But if you promised not you must go no farther than the Law of love requireth Quest. 18. What is a Minister of Christ to do if a penitent person confess secretly some heynous or Quest. 18. capital crime to him as Adultery theft robbery murder Must it be concealed or not Answ. 1. If a purpose of sinning be antecedently confessed it is unlawful to farther the crime or give opportunity to it by a concealment But it must be so far opened as is necessary for the prevention of anothers wrong or the persons sin Especially if it be Treason against the King or Kingdom or any thing against the common good 2. When the punishment of the offender is apparently necessary to the good of others especially to right the King or Countrey and to preserve them from danger by the offender or any other it is a duty to open a past fault that is confessed and to bring the offender to punishment rather than injure the innocent by their impunity 3. When Restitution is necessary to a person injured you may not by concealment hinder such Restitution but must procure it to your power where it may be had 4. It is unlawful to promise universal secresie absolutely to any penitent But you must tell him before he confesseth If your crime be such as that opening it is necessary to the preservation or righting of King or Countrey or your Neighbour or to my own safety I shall not conceal it That so men may know how far to trust you 5. Yet in some rare cases as the preservation of our Parents King or Countrey it may be a duty to promise and perform concealment when there is no hurt like to follow but the loss or hazard of our own lives or liberties or estates And consequently if no hurt be like to follow but some private loss of another which I cannot prevent without a greater hurt 6. If a man ignorant of the Law and of his own danger have rashly made a promise of secresie and yet be in doubt he should open the case in hypothesi only to some honest able Lawyer enquiring if such a case should be what the Law requireth of the Pastor or what danger he is in if he conceal it that he may be able farther to judge of the case 7. He that made no promise of secresie virtual or actual may caeteris paribus bring the offender to shame or punishment rather than fall into the like himself for the concealment 8. He that rashly promised universal secresie must compare the penitents danger and his own and consider whose suffering is like to be more to the publick detriment all things considered and that must be first avoided 9. He that findeth it his duty to reveal the crime to save himself must yet let the penitent have notice of it that he may flye and escape unless as aforesaid when the Interest of the King or Countrey or others doth more require his punishment 10. But when there is no such necessity of the offenders punishment for the prevention of the hurt or wrong of others nor any great danger by concealment to the Minister himself I think that the Crime though it were capital should be concealed My reasons are 1. Because though every man be bound to do his best to prevent sin yet every man is not bound to bring offenders to punishment He that is no Magistrate nor hath a special call so to do may be in many cases not obliged to it 2. It is commonly concluded that in most cases a capital offender is not bound to bring himself to punishment And that which you could not know but by his free Confession and is confest to you only on your promise of concealment seemeth to me to put you under no other obligation to bring him to punishment than he is under himself 3. Christs words and practice in dismissing the Woman taken in Aduâtery sheweth that it is not alwayes a duty for one that is no Magistrate to prosecute a capital offender but that sometime his repentance and life may be preferred 4. And Magistrates pardons sheweth the same 5. Otherwise no sinner would have the benefit of a Counsellor to open his troubled Conscience to For if it be a duty to detect a great crime in order to a great punishment why not a less also in order to a less punishment And who would confess when it is to bring themselves to punishment 11. In those Countries where the Laws allow Pastors to conceal all crimes that penitents freely confess it is left to the Pastors judgement to conceal all that he discerneth may be concealed without the greater injury of others or of the King or Common-wealth 12. There is a knowledge of the faults of others by Common âame especially many years after the committing which doth not oblige the hearers to prosecute the offender And yet a crime publickly known is more necessarily to be punished lest impunity embolden others to the like than an unknown crime revealed in Confession Tit. 2. Directions about Trusts and Secrets Direct 1. BE not rash in receiving secrets or any other trusts But first consider what you are thereby Direct 1. obliged to and what difficulties may arise in the performance and foresee all the consequents as far as is possible before you undertake the trust that you cast not
nature of Carnal-selfishness and it is no better § 4. 3. SELFISHNESSE is the corruption of all the faculties of the soul. It is the sin of the mind by self-conceitedness and pride It is the sin of the will and affections by self-love and all the selfish passions which attend it Selfish desires angers sorrows discontents jealousies fears audacities c. It is the corruption of all the inferiour faculties and the whole conversation by self-seeking and all the forementioned evils § 5. 4. Selfishness is the commonest sin in the world Every man is now born with it and hath it more or less And therefore every man should fear it § 6. 5. Selfishness is the hardest sin in the world to overcome In all the unregenerate it is predominant For nothing but the sanctifying Spirit of God can overcome it And in many thousands that seem very zealous in Religion and very mortified in all other respects yet in some way or other selfishness doth so lamentably appear yea and is so strong in many that are sincere that it is the greatest dishonour to the Church of Christ and hath tempted many to infidelity or to doubt whether there be any such thing as true sanctification in the world The persons that seemed the most mortified Saints if you do but cross them in their self-interest or opinion or will or seem to slight them and have a low esteem of them what swellings what heart-burnings what bitter censurings what proud impatience if not Schisms and separations will it cause God hath better servants but too many which seem to themselves and others to be the best are no better How then should every Christian abhor and watch against this Universal Evil § 7. Direct 2. Consider oft how amiable a creature man would be and what a blessed condition the Direct 2. world and all societies would be in if selfishness were but overcome There would then âe no pride no covetousness no sensuality no tyranny or oppressing of the poor no malice cruelty or persecution no Church-divisions no scandals nothing to dishonour Religion or to hinder the saving progress of the Gospel no fraud or treacheries no over-reaching or abusing others no lying noâ deceit no neglect of our duty to others In a word no injustice or uncharitableness in the world § 8. Direct 3. Iudge of good and evil by sober Reason and not by bruitish sense And then oft Direct 3. consider whether really there be not a more excellent end than your self ish interest Even the publick good of many and the pleasing and glorifying of God And whether all mediate good or evil should not be judged of principally by those highest ends Sense leadeth men to selfishness and privateness of design But true Reason leadeth men to prefer the publick or any thing that is better than our self-interest § 9. Direct 4. Nothing but returning by converting Grace to the true Love of God and of Man for Direct 4. his sake will conquer selfishness Make out therefore by earnest prayer for the Spirit of Sanctification And be sure that you have a true apprehension of the state of Grace that is that it is indeed The Love of God and Man Love is the fulfilling of the Law Therefore Love is the Holiness of the soul Set your whole study upon the exercise and increase of Love and selfishness will dye as Love reviveth § 10. Direct 5. Study much the self-denying example and precepts of your Saviour His life and Direct 5. doctrine are the liveliest representation of self-denyal that ever was given to the World Learn Christ and you will learn self-denyal He had no sinful selfishness to mortifie yet natural-self was so wonderfully denyed by him for his Fathers Will and our Salvation that no other Book or Teacher in the world will teach us this lesson so perfectly as he Follow him from the Manger or rather from the Womb to the Cross and Grave Behold him in his poverty and contempt enduring the contradiction and ingratitude of sinners and making himself of no reputation Behold him apprehended accused condemned crowned with thorns clothed in purple with a reed in his hand scourged and led away to execution bearing his Cross and hanged up among Thieves forsaken by his own Disciples and all the world and in part by him who is more than all the world And consider why all this was done For whom he did it and what lesson he purposed hereby to teach us Consider why he made it one half the condition of our salvation and so great a part of the Christian Religion to Deny our selves and take up our Cross and follow him and will have no other to be his Disciples Luke 14. 26 31 33. Were a Crucified Christ more of our daily study and did we make it our Religion to learn and follow his holy example self-denyal would be better known and practised and Christianity would appear as it is and not as it is misunderstood adulterated and abused in the world But because I have long ago written a Treatise of Self-denyal I shall add no more CHAP. XXVII Cases and Directions for Loving our Neighbour as our selves Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Loving our Neighbour Quest. 1. IN what sense is it that I must love my neighbour as my self Whether in the kind of Quest. 1. love or in the degree or only in the reality Answ. The true meaning of the Text is You must love him according to his true worth without the diversion and hinderance of selfishness and partiality As you must love your self according to that degree of Goodness which is in you and no more so must you as impartially love your neighbour according to that degree of Goodness which is in him So that it truly extendeth to the reality the kind and the degree of love supposing it in both proportioned to the goodness of the object But before this can be understood the true nature of Love must be well understood Quest. 2. What is the true Nature of Love both as to my self and neighbour Quest. 2. Answ. Love is nothing but the prime motion of the Will to its proper object which is called Complacence The object of it is simple Goodness or Good as such It ariseth from suitableness between the Object and the Will as appetite doth from the suitableness of the appetent faculty and the food This GOOD as it is variously modified or any way differeth doth accordingly cause or require a difference in our Love Therefore that Love which in its prime act and nature is but one is diversly denominated as its objects are diversified To an object as simply Good in it self it followeth the Understandings Estimation and is called as I said meer Complacence or Adhesion To an Object as not yet attained but absent or distant and attainable it is called Desire or Desiring Love And as expected Hope or Hoping Love which is a conjunction of Desire
your selves their Riches their health their Honours their Lordships their Kingdoms yea more their knowledge and learning and grace and happiness are partly to you as your own As the comforts of Wife and Children and your dearest friends are And as our Love to Christ and the blessed Angels and Saints in Heaven doth make their joyes to be partly ours How excellent and easie and honest a way is this of making all the world your own and receiving that benefit and pleasure from all things both in Heaven and Earth which no distance no malice of enemies can deny you If those whom you truly Love have it you have it Why then do you complain that you have no more health or wealth or honour or that others are preferred before you Love your neighbours as your selves and then you will be comforted in his health his wealth and his preferment and say Those have it whom I love as my self and therefore it is to me as mine own When you see your neighbours Houses Pastures Corn and Cattle Love will make it as good and pleasant to you as if it were your own Why else do you rejoyce in the portions and estates of your children as if it were your own The covetous man saith O how glad should I be if this House this Land this Corn were mine But love will make you say It is all to me as mine own What a sure and cheap way is this of making all the world your own O what a mercy doth God bestow on his servants souls in the day that he sanctifieth them with unfeigned love How much doth he give us in that one grace And O what a world of blessing and comforts do the ungodly the malitious the selfish and the censorious cast away when they cast away or quench the love of their neighbours And what abundance of calamity do they bring upon themselves In this one summary instance we may see how much Religion and obedience to God doth tend to our own felicity and delight And how easie a work it would be if a wicked heart did not make it difficult And how great a plague sin is unto the sinner And how fore a punishment of it self And by this you may see what it is that all fallings-out divisions and contentions tend to And all temptations to the abatement of our love And who it is that is the greater loser by it when love to our neighbour is lost And that backbiters and censurers who speak ill of others come to us as the greatest enemies and thieves to rob us of our chiefest jewel and greatest comfort in this world And accordingly should they be entertained CHAP. XXVIII Special Cases and Directions for Love to Godly persons as such Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Love to the Godly WHom we must take for Godly I answered before Chap. 24. Tit. 1. Quest. 5. Quest. 1. How can we love the Godly when no man can certainly know who is sincerely Quest. 1. godly Answ. Our love is not the love of God which is guided by infallibility but the love of man which is guided by the dark and fallible discerning of a man The fruits of piety and charity we infallibly see in their lives But the saving truth of that grace which is or ought to be the root we must judge of according to the probability which those signs discover and love men accordingly Quest. 2. Must we love those as godly who can give no sensible account of their conversion for the Quest. 2. time or manner or evidence of it Answ. We must take none for godly who shew no credible evidence of true conversion that is of true faith and Repentance But there is many a one truly godly who through natural defect of understanding or utterance are not able in good sense to tell you what Conversion is not to describe the manner in which it was wrought upon them much less to define exactly the time or Sermon when it was first wrought which few of the best Christians are able to do especially of them who had pious education and were wrought on in their childhood But if the Covenant of Grace be wisely opened to them according to their capacity and they deliberately and soberly and voluntarily profess their present assent and consent thereto they do thereby give you the credible evidence of a true conversion till you have sufficient contrary evidence to disprove it For none but a converted man can truly repent and believe in God the Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier according to the Baptismal Covenant Quest. 3. But what if he be so ignorant that he cannot tell what faith or repentance or redemption or Quest. 3. sanctification or the Covenant of Grace is Answ. If you have sufficient evidence that indeed he doth not at all understand the essentials of the Sacramental Covenant you may conclude that he is not truly godly Because he cannot consent to what he knoweth not Ignorantis non est consensus And if you have no evidence of such knowledge you have no evidence of his godliness but must suspend your judgement But yet many a one understandeth the essentials of the Covenant who cannot tell another what they are Therefore his mind in case of great disability of utterance must be fished out by Questions to which his Yea or No will discover what he understandeth and consenteth to You would not refuse to do so by one of another language or a dumb man who understood you but could answer you but by broken words or signs And verily ill education may make a great many of the phrases of Scripture and religious language as strange to some men though spoken in their native tongue as if it were Greek or Latin to them who yet may possibly understand the matter A wise Teacher by well composed questions may without fraud or formality discern what a man understandeth though he say but Yea or No when an indiscreet unskilful man will make his own unskilfulness and uncharitableness the occasion of contemptuous trampling upon some that are as honest as himself If a mans desires and endeavours are to that which is good and he be willing to be taught and use the means it must be very gross ignorance indeed and well-proved that must disprove his profession of faith If he competently understand what it is to believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier he understandeth all that is absolutely necessary to salvation And his Yea or No may sometime signifie his understanding it Quest. 4. Must I take the visible members of the Church because such for truly godly Quest. 4. Answ. Yes except when you have particular sufficient proof of their hypocrisie Certainly no man doth sincerely enter into the Baptismal Covenant but he that is sincerely a penitent believer if at age For that Covenant giveth actual pardon and adoption to those that sincerely enter into it the very
or others from a possible hurt Direct 3. Be not desirous or inquisitive to know what men think or say of you unless in some special Direct 3. case where your duty or safety requireth it For if they say well of you it is a temptation to pride and if they say ill of you it may abate your love and tend to enmity Eccles. 7. 21. Also take no heed to all words that are spoken lest thou hear thy servant curse thee For oft-times also thy own heart knoweth that thou thy self likewise hast cursed or spoken evil of others It is strange to see how the folly of men is pleased with their own temptations Direct 4. Frown away those flatterers and whisperers who would aggravate other mens enmity to Direct 4. you or injuries against you and think to please you by telling you needlesly of other mens wrongs While they seem to shew themselves enemies to your enemies indeed they shew themselves enemies consequently to your selves For it is your destruction that they endeavour in the destruction of your Love Prov. 16. 28. If a whisperer separate chief friends much more may he abate your love to 2 Cor. 12. 20. enemies Let him therefore be entertained as he deserveth Direct 5. Study and search and hearken after all the good which is in your enemies For nothing will Direct 5. be the object of your Love but some discerned good Hearken not to them that would extenuate and hide the good that is in them Direct 6. Consider much how capable your enemy and Gods Enemy is of being better And for Direct 6. ought you know God may make him much better than your selves Remember Pauls case And when such a one is converted forethink how penitent and humble how thankful and holy how useful and serviceable he may be And love him as he is capable of becoming so lovely to God and man Direct 7. Hide not your love to your enemies and let not your minds be satisfied that you are Direct 7. Conscious that you love them But manifest it to them by all just and prudent means For else you are so uncharitable as to leave them in their enmity and not to do your part to cure it If you could help them against hunger and nakedness and will not how can you truly say you love them And if you could help them against malice and uncharitableness and will not how can you think but this is worse If they knew that you love them unfeignedly as you 'l say you do it 's two to one but they would abate their enmity Direct 8. Be not unnecessarily strange to your enemies but be as familiar with them as well you can Direct 8. For distance and strangeness cherish suspicious and false reports and enmity And converse in kind familiarity hath a wonderful power to reconcile Direct 9. Abhor above all enemies that pride of heart which scorneth to stoop to others for love and Direct 9. peace It is a Devilish language to say Shall I stoop or crowch to such a fellow I scorn to be so base Humility must teach you to give place to the pride and wrath of others and to confess it when you have wronged them and ask them forgiveness And if they have done the wrong to you yet must you not refuse to be the first movers and seekers for reconcilation Though I know that this rule hath some exceptions as when the enemies of Religion or us are so malicious and implacable that they will but make a scorn of our submission and in other cases when it is like to do more harm than good it is then lawful to retire our selves from malice Direct 10. However let the Enmity be in them alone Watch your own hearts with a double carefulness Direct 10. as knowing what your temptation is and see that you Love them whether they will love you or not Direct 11. Do all the good for them that lawfully you can For benefits melt and reconcile And Direct 11. hold on though ingratitude discourage you Direct 12. Do them good first in those things that they are most capable of valuing and relishing That Direct 12. is ordinarily in corporal commodities or if it be not in your power to do it your selves provoke others to do it if there be need And then they will be prepared for greater benefits Direct 13. But stop not in your enemies corporal good and in his reconciliation to your self For then Direct 13. it will appear to be all but a selfish design which you are about But labour to reconcile him to God and save his soul and then it will appear to be the Love of God and him that moved you Direct 14. But still remember that you are not bound to Love an enemy as a friend but as a man Direct 14. so qualified as he is nor to Love a wicked man who is an Enemy to Godliness as if he were a Godly man but only as one that is capable of being Godly This precept of Loving enemies was never intended for the levelling all men in our Love CHAP. XXX Cases and Directions about works of Charity Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Works of Charity Quest. 1. WHat are the grounds and reasons and motives to charitable works Quest. Answ. 1. That doing good doth make us likest to God He is the universal Father Motives and benefactor to the world All good is in him or from him and he that is best and doth most good is likest to him 2. It is an honourable employment therefore It is more honourable to be the Best man in the Land than to be the greatest Greatness is therefore honourable because it is an ability to do good And Wisdom is honourable because it is the skill of doing good so that Goodness is that end which maketh them honourable and without respect to which they were as nothing A power or skill to do mischief is no commendations 3. Doing good maketh us pleasing and amiable to God because it maketh us like him and because it is the fulfilling of his will God can love nothing but Himself and his own excellencies or image appearing in his works or his works so far as his attributes appear and are glorified in them 4. Good works are profitable to men Tit. 3. 8. Our brethren are the better for them The bodies of the poor are relieved and mens souls are saved by them 5. In doing good to others we do good to our selves because we are living members of Christs body and by Love and Communion feel their joys as well as pains As the hand doth maintain it self by maintaining and comforting the stomach so doth a Loving Christian by good works 6. There is in every good nature a singular delight in doing good It is the pleasantest life in all the World A Magistrate a Preacher a Schoolmaster a Tutor a Physicion a Judge a Lawyer hath so much
works of charity both because the Tythes are now more appropriate to the maintenance of the Clergy and because as is aforesaid the people give them not out of their own I confess if we consider how Decimation was used before the Law by Abraham and Iacob and established by the Law unto the Iews and how commonly it was used among the Gentiles and last of all by the Church of Christ it will make a considerate man imagine that as there is still a Divine Direction for one day in seven as a necessary proportion of Time to be ordinarily consecrated to God besides what we can spare from our other dayes so that there is something of a Divine Canon or direction for the Tenth of our revenews or increase to be ordinarily consecrated to God besides what may be spared from the rest And whether those Tythes that are none of your own and cost you nothing be now to be reckoned to ârivate men as any of their Tenths which they themselves should give I leave to your consideratiââ Amongst Augustines works we find an opinion that the Devils were the Tenth part of the Angels and that man is now to be the Tenth order among the Angels the Saints filling up the place that the Devils fell from and there being nine orders of Angels to be above us and that in this there is some ground of our paying Tenths and therefore he saith that Haec est Domini justissima consuetudo ut si tu illi decimam non dederis tu ad decimam revocaberis id est daemonibus qui sunt decima pars angelorum associaberis Though I know not whence he had this opinion it seemeth that the devoting of a tenth part ordinarily to God is a matter that we have more than a humane Direction for 15. In times of extraordinary necessities of the Church or State or Poor there must be extraordinary bounty in our Contributions As if an enemy be ready to invade the Land or if some extraordinary work of God as the Conversion of some Heathen Nations do require it or some extraordinary persecution and distress befall the Pastours or in a year of famine plague or war when the necessities of the poor are extraordinary The tenths in such cases will not suffice from those that have more to give Therefore in such a time the Primitive Christians sold their possessions and laid down the price at the feet of the Apostles In one word an honest charitable heart being presupposed as the root or fountain and prudence being the discerner of our duty the Apostles general Rule may much satisfie a Christian for the proportion 1 Cor. 16. 2. Let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him And 2 Cor. 8. 12. According to that a man hath though there be many intimations that ordinarily a Tenth part at least is requisite III. Having thus resolved the question of the quota pars or proportion to be given I shall say a little to the question Whether a man should give most in his life time or at his Death Answ. 1. It is certain that the best work is that which is like to do most good 2. But to make it best to us it is necessary that we do it with the most self-denying holy charitable mind 3. That caeteris paribus all things else being equal the present doing of a good work is better than to defer it 4. That to do good only when you dye because then you can keep your wealth no longer and because then it costeth you nothing to part with it and because then you hope that this shall serve instead of true Repentance and Godliness this is but to deceive your selves and will do nothing to save your souls though it do never so much good to others 5. That he that sinfully neglecteth in his life time to do good if he do it at his death from true repentance and Conversion it is then accepted of God though the sin of his delay must be lamented 6. That he that delayeth it till Death not out of any selfishness backwardness or unwillingness but that the work may be the better and do more good doth better than if he hastened a lesser good As if a man have a desire to set up a Free School for perpetuity and the money which he hath is not sufficient if he stay till his Death that so the improvement of the money may increase it and make it enough for his intended work this is to do a greater good with greater self-denial For 1. He receiveth none of the increase of the money for himself 2. And he receiveth in his life time none of the praise or thanks of the work So also if a man that hath no Children have so much Land only as will maintain him and desireth to give it all to charitable uses when he dyeth this delay is not at all to be blamed because he could not sooner give it and if it be not in vain-glory but in love to God and to good works that he leaveth it it is truly acceptable at last So that all good works that are done at death are not therefore to be undervalued nor are they rejected of God but sometimes it falleth out that they are so much the greater and better works though he that can do the same in his life time ought to do it IV. But though I have spent all these words in answering these Questions I am fully satisfied that it is very few that are kept from doing good by any such doubt or difficulty in the case which stalls their judgements but by the power of sin and want of grace which leaveth an unwillingness and backwardness on their hearts Could we tell how to remove the impediments in mens wills it would do more than the clearest resolving all the cases of Conscience which their judgements seem to be unsatisfied in I le tell you what are the impediments in your way that are harder to be removed than all these difficulties and yet must be overcome before you can bring men to be like true Christians rich in good works 1. Most men are so sensual and so selfish that their own flesh is an insatiable gulf that devoureth all and they have little or nothing to spare from it to good uses It is better cheap maintaining a family of temperate sober persons than one fleshly person that hath a whole litter of vices and lusts to be maintained So much a year seemeth necessary to maintain their pride in needless curiosity and bravery and so much a year to maintain their sensual sports and pleasures and so much to please their throats or appetites and to lay in provision for Feavers and Dropsies and Coughs and Consumptions and an hundred such diseases which are the natural progeny of gluttony drunkenness and excess and so much a year to maintain their Idleness and so of many other vices But if one of these persons have the Pride
make any restitution and therefore must desire forgiveness you cannot well do it without confession 2. When you have wronged a man by a lye or by false witness or that he cannot be righted till you confess the truth 3. When you have wronged a man in his honour or frame where the natural remedy is to speak the contrary and confess the wrong 4. When it is necessary to cure the revengeful inclination of him whom you have wronged or to keep up his charity and so to enable him to love you and forgive you 5. Therefore all known wrongs to another must be confessed except when impossibility or some ill effect which is greater than the good be like to follow Because all men are apt to abate their Love to those that injure them and therefore all have need of this remedy And we must do our part to be forgiven by all whom we have wronged Quest. 2. What causes will excuse us from confessing wrongs to others Quest. 2. Answ. 1. When full recompence may be made without it and no forgiveness of the wrong is necessary from the injured nor any of the foresaid causes require it 2. When the wrong is secret and not known to the injured party and the confessing of it would but trouble his mind and do him more harm than good 3. When the injured party is so implacable and inhumane that he would make use of the confession to the ruine of the penitent or to bring upon him greater penalty than he deserveth 4. When it would injure a third person who is interessed in the business or bring them under oppression and undeserved misery 5. When it tendeth to the dishonour of Religion and to make it scorned because of the fault of the penitent confesser 6. When it tendeth to set people together by the ears and breed dissention or otherwise injure the Common-wealth or Government 7. In general it is no duty to confess our sin to him that we have wronged when all things considered it is like in the judgement of the truly wise to do more hurt than good For it is appointed as a means to good and not to do evil Quest. 3. If I have had a secret thought or purpose to wrong another am I bound to confess it Quest. 3. when it was never executed Answ. 1. You are not bound to confess it to the party whom you intended to wrong as any act of Justice to make him reparation nor to procure his forgiveness to your self Because it was no wrong to him indeed nor do thoughts and things secret come under his judgement and therefore need not his pardon 2. But it is a sin against God and to him you must confess it 3. And by accident finis gratia you must confess it to men in case it be necessary to be a warning to others or to the increase of their hatred of sin or their watchfulness or to exercise your own humiliation or prevent a relapse or to quiet your conscience or in a word when it is like to do more good than hurt Quest. 4. To whom and in what cases must I confess to men my sins against God and when not Quest. 4. Answ. The cases about that confession which belongeth to Church-discipline belongeth to the second Tome and therefore shall here be passed by But briefly and in general I may answer the question thus 1. There are conveniences and inconveniences to be compared together and you must make your choice accordingly The reasons which may move you to confess your sins to another are these 1. When another hath sinned with you or perswaded or drawn you to it and must be brought to repentance with you 2. When your conscience hath in vain tryed all other fit means for peace or comfort and cannot obtain it and there is any probability of such advice from others as may procure it 3. When you have need of advice to resolve your conscience whether it be sin or not or of what degree or what you are obliged to in order to forgiveness 4. When you have need of counsel to prevent the sin for the time to come and mortifie the habit of it The inconveniencies which may attend it are such as these 1. You are not certain of anothers secresie His mind may change or his understanding fail or he may fall out with you or some great necessiây may befall him to drive him to open what you told him 2. Then whether your shame or loss will not make you repent it should be foreseen 3. And how far others may suffer in it 4. And how far it will reflect dishonour on Religion All things being considered on both sides the preponderating reasons must prevail Tit. 2. Directions about confessing sin to others Direct 1. DO nothing which you are not willing to confess or which may trouble you much if Direct 1. your confession should be opened Prevention is the easiest way And foresight of the consequents should make a wise man still take heed Direct 2. When you have sinned or wronged any weigh well the consequents on both sides before you Direct 2. make your confession that you may neither do that which you may wish undone again nor causelesly refuse your duty And that inconveniences foreseen may be the better undergone when they cannot be avoided Direct 3. When a well informed conscience telleth you that confession is your duty let not self-respects Direct 3. detain you from it but do it what ever it may cost you Be true to Conscience and do not wilfully put off your duty To live in the neglect of a known duty is to live in a known sin which will give you cause to question your sincerity and cause more terrible effects in your souls than the inconveniences of confession could ever have been Direct 4. Look to your Repentance that it be deep and absolute and free from hypocritical exceptions Direct 4. and reserves For half and hollow Repentance will not carry you through hard and costly duties But that which is sincere will break over all It will make you so angry with your selves and sins that you will be as inclined to take shame to your selves in an honest revenge as an angry man is to bring shame upon his adversary We are seldome over-tender of a mans reputation whom we fall out with And Repentance is a falling out with our selves We can bear sharp remedies when we feel the pain and perceive the mortal danger of the disease And Repentance is such a perception of our pain and danger We will not tenderly hide a mortal enemy but bring him to the most open shame And Repentance causeth us to hate sin as our mortal enemy It is want of Repentance that maketh men so unwilling to make a just confession Direct 5. Take heed of Pride which maketh men so tender of their reputation that they will Direct 5. venture their souls to save their honour Men call
it bashfulness and say they cannot confess for shame But it is Pride that maketh them so much ashamed to be known by men to be offenders while they less fear the eye and judgement of the Almighty Impudency is a mark of a profligate sinner but he that pretendeth shame against his duty is foolishly proud and should be more ashamed to neglect his duty and continue impenitent in his sin A humble person can perform a self-abasing humbling duty Direct 6. Know the true Uses of Confession of sin and use it accordingly Do it with a hatred Direct 6. of sin to express your selves implacable enemies to it Do it to repair the wrong which you have done to others and the dishonour you have done to the Christian Religion and to warn the hearers to take heed of sin and temptation by your fall It is worth all your shame if you save one sinner by it from his sin Do it to lay the greater obligation upon your selves for the future to avoid the sin and live more carefully For it is a double shame to sin after such humbling confessions CHAP. XXXII Cases and Directions about Satisfaction and Restitution Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Satisfaction and Restitution Quest. 1. WHen is it that proper restitution must be made and when satisfaction Quest. 1. and what is it Answ. Restitution properly is ejusdem of the same thing which was detained or taken away Satisfaction is solutio aequivalentis vel tantidem alias indebiti that which is for compensation or reparation of loss dammage or injury being something of equal value or use to the receiver Primarily res ipsa debetur Restitution is first due where it is possible but when that is unavoidably hindred or forbidden by some effectual restraint satisfaction is due Whilst Restitution of the same may be made we cannot put off the Creditor or Owner with that which is equivalent without his own consent but by his consent we may at any time And to the Question What is due satisfaction I answer that when Restitution may be made and he that should restore doth rather desire the owner to accept some other thing in compensation there that proportion is due satisfaction which both parties agree upon For if it be above the value it was yet voluntarily given and the payer might have chosen And if it be under the value it was yet voluntarily accepted and the receiver might have chosen But if Restitution cannot be made or not without some greater hurt to the payer than the value of the thing there due satisfaction is that which is of equal value and use to the receiver And if he will not be satisfied with it he is unjust and it is quoad valorem rei debitum solventis full satisfaction and he is not unless by some other accident bound to give any more Because it is not anothers unrighteous will that he is obliged to fulfill but a debt which is to be discharged But here you must distinguish betwixt satisfaction in Commutative Justice for a debt or injury and satisfaction in distributive Governing Justice for a fault or crime The measure of the former satisfaction is so much as may compensate the owners loss not only so much as the thing was worth to another but what it was worth to him But the measure of the later satisfaction is so much as may serve the ends of Government instead of actual obedience or so much as will suffice as to the Ends of Government to repair the hurts which the crime hath done or avoid what it would do And here you may see the answer to that Question Why a Thief was commanded to restore fourfold Q. Why did they restore fourfold by the Law of Moses For in that restitution there was a conjunction of both these sorts of satisfaction both in point of Commutative and Distributive Justice So much as repaired the owners loss was satisfaction to the owner for the injury The rest was all satisfaction to God and the Common-wealth for the publick injury that came by the crime or violation of the Law Other answers are given by some but this is the plain and certain truth Quest. 2. How far is Restitution or Satisfaction necessary Quest. 2. Answ. As far as acts of obedience to God and Iustice to man are necessary that is 1. As a man that repenteth truly of sin against God may be saved without external obedience if you suppose him cut off by death immediately upon his Repenting before he hath any opportunity to obey So that the Animus obediendi is absolutely necessary and the actus obediendi if there be opportunity So is it here The animus restituendi or true resolution or willingness to restore is ever necessary to the sincerity of Justice and Repentance in the person as well as necessary necessitate praecepti And the act of restitution primarily and of satisfaction secondarily is necessary if there be time and power I say necessary alwayes as a duty necessitate praecepti and necessary necessitate medii as a condition of pardon and salvation so far as they are necessary acts of true repentance and obedience as other duties are that is as a true penitent may in a temptation omit Prayer or Church-communion but yet hath alwayes such an habitual inclination to it as will bring him to it when he hath opportunity by deliberation to come to himself and as in the same manner a true penitent may omit a work of charity or mercy but not give over such works Even so is it in this case of restitution and satisfaction Quest. 3. Who are they that are bound to make restitution or satisfaction Quest. 3. Answ. 1. Every one that possesseth and retaineth that which is indeed another mans and hath acquired no just title to it himself must make restitution Yet so that if he came lawfully by it as by finding buying or the like he is answerable for it only upon the terms in those Titles before expressed But if he came unlawfully by it he must restore it with all dammages The cases of Borrowers and finders are before resolved He that keepeth a borrowed thing longer than his day must return it with the dammage He that loseth a thing which he borrowed must make satisfaction unless in cases where the contract or common usage or the quality of the thing excuseth him 2. He that either by force or fraud or negligence or any injustice doth wrong to another is bound to make him a just compensation according to the proportion of the guilt and the loss compared together For neither of them is to be considered alone If a servant neglect his Masters business and it fall out that no loss followeth it he is bound to confess his fault but not to pay for a loss which might have been but was not And if a servant by some such small and ordinary negligence which the best servants are guilty of should
that you sinned with must by all importunity be follicited to repentance and the sin must be confessed and pardon craved for tempting them to sin 2. Where it can be done without a greater evil than the benefit will amount to the Fornicators ought to joyn in marriage Exod. 22. 16. 3. Where that cannot be the man is to put the Woman into as good a case for outward livelyhood as she would have been in if she had not been corrupted by him by allowing her a proportionable dowry Exod. 22. 17. and the Parents injury to be recompensed Deut. 22. 28 29. 3. The Childs maintenance also is to be provided for by the fornicator That is 1. If the man by fraud or sollicitation induced the Woman to the sin he is obliged to all as aforesaid 2. If they sinned by mutual forwardness and consent then they must joyntly bear the burden yet so that the Man must bear the greater part because he is supposed to be the stronger and wiser to have resisted the temptation 3. If the Woman importuned the man she must bear the more but yet he is responsible to Parents and others for their damages and in part to the Woman her self because he was the stronger vessel and should have been more constant And volenti non fit injuria is a rule that hath some exceptions Quest. 12. In what case is a man excused from restitution and satisfaction Quest. 12. Answ. 1. He that is utterly disabled cannot restore or satisfie 2. He that is equally damnified by the person to whom he should restore is excused in point of real equity and Conscience so be it that the Reasons of external order and policy oblige him not For though it may be his sin of which he is to repent that he hath equally injured the other yet it requireth eonfession rather than restitution or satisfaction unless he may also expect satisfaction from the other Therefore if you owe a man an hundred pound and he owe you as much and will not pay you you are not bound to pay him unless for external order sake and the Law of the Land 3. If the debt or injury be forgiven the person is discharged 4. If Nature or common-custome do warrant a man to believe that no restitution or satisfaction is expected or that the injury is forgiven though it be not mentioned it will excuse him from restitution or satisfaction As if Children or friends have taken some trifle which they may presume the kindness of a Parent or friend will pass over though it be not justifiable Quest. 13. What if the Restitution will cost the restorer far more than the thing is worth Quest. 13. Answ. He is obliged to make Satisfaction instead of Restitution Quest. 14. What if the confessing of the fault may enrage him that I must restore to so that he will Quest. 14. turn it to my infamy or ruine Answ. You may then conceal the person and send him satisfaction by another hand or you may also conceal the wrong it self and cause satisfaction to be made him as by gift or other way of payment Tit. 2. Directions about Restitution and Satisfaction Direct 1. FOresee the trouble of restitution and prevent it Take heed of Covetousness which would Direct 1. draw you into such a snare What a perplexed case are some men in who have injured others so far as that all they have will scarce make them due satisfaction Especially publick oppressours who injure whole Nations Countreys or communities and unjust Judges who have done more wrong perhaps in one day or week than all their estates are worth and unjust Lawyers who plead against a righteous cause and false witnesses who contribute to the wrong and unjust Juries or any such like Also oppressing Landlords and Souldiers that take mens goods by violence and deceitful tradesmen who live by injuries In how sad a case are all these men Direct 2. Do nothing which is doubtful if you can avoid it lest it should put you upon the trouble of Direct 2. restitution As in case of any doubtful way of Usury or other gain consider that if it should hereafter appear to you to be unlawful and so you be obliged to restitution though you thought it lawful at the taking of it what a snare then would you be in when all that use must be repayed And so in other cases Direct 3. When really you are bound to restitution or satisfaction stick not at the Cost or Suffering be Direct 3. it never so great but be sure to deal faithfully with God and Conscience Else you will keep a thorn in your hearts which will smart and fâster till it be out And the ease of your Consciences will bear the charge of your costlyest restitution Direct 4. If you be not able in your life time to make restitution leave it in your willâ as a debt upon your Direct 4. Estates but never take it for your own Direct 5. If you are otherwise unable to satisfie offer your labour as a servant to him to whom you Direct 5. are indebted if at least by your service you can make him a compensation Direct 6. If you are that way unable also beg of your friends to help you that Charity may Direct 6. enable you to pay the debt Direct 7. But if you have no means at all of satisfying confess the injury and crave forgiveness Direct 7. and cast your self on the mercy of him whom you have injured CHAP. XXXIII Cases and Directions about our obtaining Pardon from God Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about obtaining pardon of sin from God Quest. 1. IS there pardon to be had for all sin without exception or not Quest. 1. Answ. 1. There is no pardon procured nor offered for the final non-performance of the conditions of pardon that is for final impenitency unbelief and ungodliness 2. There is no pardon for any sin without the conditions of pardon that is without true faith and repentance which is our conversion from sin to God 3. And if there be any sin which certainly excludeth true Repentance to the last it excludeth pardon also which is commonly taken to be the case of Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost of which I have written at large in my Treatise against Infidelity But 1. All sin except the final non-performance of the conditions of pardon is already conditionally pardoned in the Gospel that is If the sinner will repent and believe No sin is excepted from pardon to penitent believers 2. And all sin is actually pardoned to a true penitent believer Quest. 2. What if a man do frequently commit the same heynous sin may he be pardoned Quest. 2. Answ. Whilest he frequently committeth it being a mortal sin he doth not truly repent of it And while he is impenitent he is unpardoned But if he be truly penitent his heart being habitually and actually turned from the sin it will be forgiven
your sins and to that life of Holiness Righteousness Love and Sobriety which is contrary to them Otherwise your Repentance is fraudulent and insufficient These means and no less than all these must be used by him that will make sure of the pardon of his sins from God And he that thinketh all these too much must look for pardon some other way than from the mercy of God or the Grace of Christ For Gods pardon is not to be had upon any other terms than those of Gods appointment He that will make new Conditions of his own must pardon himself if he can on those conditions For God will not be tyed to the Laws of sinners CHAP. XXXIV Cases and Directions about Self-judging Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Self-judging BEcause I have said so much of this subject in the third Part of my Saints Rest and in a Treatise of Self-acquaintance and in my Directions for Peace of Conscience and before in this Book I shall be here the briefer in it Quest. 1. What are the uses and reasons of self-judging which should move us to it Quest. 1. Answ. In the three foresaid Treatises I have opened them at large In a word without it we shall be strangers to our selves we can have no well grounded comfort no true repentance and humiliation no just estimation of Christ and Grace no just observance of the motions of Gods Spirit no true application of the Promises or Threatnings of the Scripture yea we shall pervert them all to our own destruction no true understanding of the Providence of God in prosperity or adversity no just acquaintance with our duty A man that knoweth not himself can know neither God nor any thing aright nor do any thing aright he can neither live reasonably honestly safely nor comfortably nor suffer or dye with solid peace Quest. 2. What should ignorant persons do whose natural capacity will not reach to so high a work as Quest. 2. to try and judge themselves in matters so sublime Answ. 1. There is no one who hath reason and parts sufficient to Love God and hate sin and live a holy life and believe in Christ but he hath reason and parts sufficient to know by the use of just means whether he do these things indeed or not 2. He that cannot reach assurance must take up with the lower degrees of comfort of which I shall speak in the Directions Quest. 3. How far may a weak Christian take the judgement of others whether his Pastor or judicious Quest. 3. acquaintance about his justification and sincerity Answ. 1. No mans judgement must be taken as infallible about the sincerity of another nor must it be so far rested on as to neglect your fullest search your self And for the matter of fact what you have done or what is in you no man can be so well acquainted with it as your selves 2. But in judging whether those acts of Grace which you describe be such as God hath promised salvation to and in directing you in your self-judging and in conjecturing at your sincerity by your expressions and your lives a faithful friend or Pastor may do that which may much support you and relieve you against inordinate doubts and fears and shew you that your sincerity is very probable Especially if you are assured that you tell him nothing but the truth your selves and if he be one that is acquainted with you and your life and hath known you in temptations and one that is skilful in the matters of God and conscience and one that is truly judicious experienced and faithful and is not byassed by interest or affection and especially when he is not singular in his judgement but the generality of judicious persons who know you are of the same mind In this case you may take much comfort in his judgement of your justification though it cannot give you any proper certainty nor is to be absolutely rested in Tit. 2. Directions for Self-judging as to our Actions Direct 1. LEt watchfulness over your hearts and lives be your continual work Never grow Direct 1. careless or neglective of your selves Keep your hearts with all diligence As an unfaithful servant may deceive you if you look after him but now and then So may a deceitful heart Let it be continually under your eye Object Then I must neglect my Calling and do nothing else Answ. It need not be any hinderance to you at all As every man that followeth his Trade and labour doth still take heed that he do all things right and every Traveller taketh heed of falling and he that eateth taketh heed of poysoning or choking himself without any hinderance but to the furtherance of that which he is about So is it with a Christian about his heart Vigilant heedfulness must never be laid by what ever you are doing Direct 2. Live in the light as much as is possible I mean under a judicious faithful Pastor Direct 2. and amongst understanding exemplary Christians For they will be still acquainting you with what you should be and do and your errors will be easily detected and in the light you are not so like to be deceived Direct 3. Discourage not those that would admonish or reprove you nor neglect not their opinion Direct 3. of you No not the railings of an enemy For they may tell you that in anger much more in fidelity which it may concern you much to hear and think of and may give you some light in judging of your selves Direct 4. If you have so happy an opportunity engage some faithful bosome friend to watch over you Direct 4. and tell you plainly of all that they see amiss in you But deal not so hypocritically as to do this in the general and then be angry when he performeth his trust and discourage him by your proud impatience Direct 5. Put your selves in anothers case and be impartial When you cannot easily see the Direct 5. faults of others enquire then whether your own be not as visible if you were as ready to observe and aggravate them And surely none more concern you than your own nor should be so odious and grievous to you nor are so if you are truly penitent Direct 6. Understand your natural temper and inclination and suspect those sins which you are naturally Direct 6. most inclined to and there keep up the strictest watch Direct 7. Understand what temptations your Place and Calling and Relations and Company do most Direct 7. subject you to and there be most suspicious of your selves Direct 8. Mark your selves well in the hour of temptation For then it is that the vices will appear Direct 8. which before lay covered and unknown Direct 9. Suspect your selves most heedfully of the most common and most dangerous sins Especially Direct 9. Unbelief and want of Love to God and a secret preferring of earthly hopes before the hopes of the life to come and
knowing before hand that maketh it unlawful For 1. I know in general before hand that all imperfect men will do imperfectly And though I know not the particular that maketh it never the lawfuller if fore knowledge it sâlâ did make it unlawful 2. If you know that e. g. an Antinomian or some mistaken Preacher would constantly drop some words for his errour in Prayer or Preaching that will not make it unlawful in your own judgement for you to joyn if it be not a flat Heresie 3. It is an ther mans errour or fault that you forâknow and not your own and therefore fore-knowledge maketh it not your own 4. God himself doth as an Universal Cause of Nature concur with men in those acts which he foreknoweth they will sinfully do and yet God is not to be judged either an Author or approver of the sin because of such concurrence and fore-knowledge Therefore our fore-knowledge maketh us no approvers or guilty of the failings of any in their sacred Ministrations unless there be some other guilt If you say that it is no one of these that maketh it unlawful but all together you must give us a distinct argument to prove that the concurrence of these three will prove that unlawful which cannot be proved so by any of them alone for your affirmation must not serve the turn and when we know your argument I doubt not but it may be answered One thing I still confess may make any defective Worship to be unlawful to you and that is When you prefer it before better and may without a greater inconvenience enjoy an abler Ministry and purer Administration but will not § 95. Obj. But he that sitteth by in silence in the posture as the rest of the Congregation seemeth to Object consent to all that is said and done and we must avoid all appearance of evil Answ. The appearance of evil which is evil indeed mâst be alway avoided But that appearance of Answ. evil which is indeed good must not be avoided We must not forsake our duty lest we seem to sin that were but to prefer hypocrisie before sincerity and to avoid appearances more than realities The omission of a duty is a real sin and that must not be done to avoid a seeming sin And whom doth it appear so to If it appear evil to the blind or prejudiced it is their eyes that must be cured But if it appear so to the wise then it 's like it is evil indeed For a wise man should not judge that to be evil that is not But I confess that in a case that is altogether indifferent even the mistakes of the ignorant may oblige us to forbear But the Worship of God must not be so âorb ââââ It is an irrational fancy to think that you must be Uncivil by contradicting or covering your heads or doing something âffââââive to the Congregation when any thing is said or done which you disallow Your presânâ signifieth your Consent to all that you prâfess even to Worship God according to his Word and not to all the humane imperfections that are there expââssâd § 96. Direct 13. Distinguish carefully between your personal private duties and the duty of the Direct 13. Pastor ââ Church with which you must concurr And do not think that if the Church or Pastor do not their duty that you are bouâd to do it for them To cast out an obâââânate impenitent sinner by sentence from the Communion of the Church is the Pastors or Churches duty and not yours unless in concurrence or subâerviency to the Church Therefore if it be not done enquire whether you did your duty towards it If you did the sin is noâe of yours For it is not in your power to cast out all that are unworthy from the Church But private familiarity is in your power to refuse and with such ââââ not to ââââ § 97. Direct 14. Take the measure of your accidental duties more from the Good or hurt of the Direct 14. Church or fââm my than from the immediate good or hurt that cometh to your self You are not to take that for the station of your duty which you feel to be most to the commodity of your souls but that in which you may do God most service If the service of God for the good of many require you to stay with a weaker Minister and defective administrations you will find in the end that this was not only the place of your duty but also of your benefit For your life is in Gods hands and all your comforts and that is the best way to your peace and happiness in which you are most pleasing unto God and have his Promise of most acceptance and grace I know the least advantage to the soul must be preferred before all earthly riches but not before the publick good Yea that way will prove most advantageous to us in which we exercise most obedience § 98. Direct 15. Take heed of suffering prejudice and fansie to go for reason and raise in your Direct 15. minds unjustifiable distastes of any way or mode of Worship It is wonderful to see what fansie and prejudice can do Get once a hard opinion of a thing and your judgements will make light of all that is said for it and will see nothing that should reconcile you to it Partiality will carry you away from equity and truth Abundance of things appear now false and evil to men that once imagine them to be so which would seem harmless if not laudable if they were tryed by a mind that 's clear from prejudice § 99. Direct 16. Iudge not of doctrines and worship by Persons but rather of persons by their doctrine Direct 16. and worship together with their lives The world is all prone to be carryed by respect to persons I confess where any thing is to be taken upon trust we must rather trust the intelligent experienced honest and credible than the ignorant and incredible But where the Word of God must be our Rule it is perverse to judge of Things by the Persons that hold them or oppose them Sometimes a bad man may be in the right and a good man in the wrong Try the way of the worst men before you reject it in disputable things And try the opinions and way of the best and wisest before you venture to receive them § 100. Direct 17. Eâslave not your selves to any Party of men so as to be over-desirous to please Direct 17. them nor over fearful of their consare Have a respect to all the rest of the world as well as them Most men that once engage themselves in a party do think their honour and interest is involved with them and that they stand or fall with the favour of their party and therefore make them before they are aware the masters of their Consciences § 101. Direct 18. Regard more the judgement of aged ripe experienced men that have
seen the Direct 18. fruits of the various courses of professors of Religion than of the young unripe unexperienced hot-headed sort Zeal is of great use to execute the resolutions of a well-informed man And the Zeal of others is very useful to warm the hearts of such as do converse with them But when it comes to matter of Iudgement once to decide a case of difficulty aged experience hath far the advantage And in no cases more than in those where Peace and Concord are concerned where rash hot-headed youth is very prone to precipitant courses which must be afterward repented of § 102. Direct 19. When fervent self conceited people would carry down all by censoriousness and passion Direct 19. it is time for the Pastââs and the aged and riper sort of Christians openly to rebuke them and appear against them and stand their ground and not to comply with the mis-guided sort to escape their censures Nothing hath more caused schisms in the Church except the Pride and ambition of the Clergie than that the riper and more judicious sort of people together with the Ministers themselves have been so loth to lye under the bitter censures of the unexperienced younger hotter sort and to avoid such censures and keep in with them they have followed those whom they should have led and have been drawn quite beyond their own understandings God hath made WISDOM to be the Guiâe of the Church and ZEAL to follow and diligently execute the commands of Wisdom Let ignorant well-meaning people censure you as bitterly as they please yet keep your ground and be not so proud or weak as to prefer their good esteem before their benefit and before the pleasing of God Sin not against your knowledge to escape the censure of the ignorant If you do God will make those men your scourges whom you so much over-valued And they shall prove to their spiritual Fathers as cockered children like Absalom do to their natural fathers and perhaps be the breaking of your hearts But if the Pastors and the riper experienced Christians will stand their ground and slick together and rebuke the exorbitancies of the censorious younger-ones they will maintain the credit of the Gospel and keep the truth and the Churches Peace and the hott spurs will in time either repent and be sober or be shamed and disabled to do much hurt § 103. Direct 20. Take heed how you let loose your zeal against the Pastors of the Church lest you Direct 20. bring their persons and next their effice into contempt and so break the bânds of the Churches Unity and Peace There is no more hope of maintaining the Churches Unity and Concord without the Ministry than of keeping the strength or Unity of the members without the Nerves If these nerves be weak or labour of a Convulsion or other disease it is curing and strengthening them and not the cutting them asunder that mâst prove to the welfare and safety of the body Middle with the faults of the Ministry only so far as tendeth to a cure of them or of the Church but not to bring them into disgrace and weaken their interest in the people and disable them from doing good Abhor that proud rebellious spirit that is prone to set up it self against the officers of Christ and under pretence of greater Wisdom or Holiness to bring their Guides into contempt and is picking quarrels with them behind their back to make them a scorn or odious to the hearers Indeed a Minister of Satan that doth more harm in the Church than good must be so detected as may best disable him from doing harm But he that doth more good than hurt must so be disswaded from the hurt as not to be disabled from the Good My brethren be not many Masters or Teachers knowing that ye shall receive the greater Jam. 3. 1. condemnation § 104. Direct 21. Look more with an eye of Charity on what is Good in others and their worship of Direct 21. God than with an eye of malice to carp at what appeareth evil Some men have such distempered eyes that they can see almost nothing but faultiness in any thing of another party which they look at envy and faction maketh them carp at every word and every gesture And they make no Conscience of aggravating every failing and making Idolatry of every mistake in Worship and making Heresie or Blaspheamy of every mistake in judgement and making Apostacy of every fall nay perhaps the truth it self shall have no better a representation As Dr. H. More well noteth It would do much more good in the world if all parties were forwarder to find out and commend what is good in the doctrine and worship of all that differ from them This would win them to heaâken to reforming advice and would keep up the credit of the common truths and duties of Religion in the world when this envious snarling at all that others do doth tend to bring the world to Aâhâism and banish all reverence of Religion together with Christian Charity from the Earth § 105. Direct 22. Keep not strange to those from whom you differ but be acquainted with them Direct 22. and placidly hear what they have to say for themselves Oâ else converse with them in Christian Love in Read the next Chap. 24. Sect. 20. all thâse duties in which you are agreed and this if you never talk of your differences will do much to reconcile you in all the rest It is the common way of division uncharitableness yea and cruelty â at last to receive hard reports of those that differ from us behind their backs and to believe and aggravate Prince Frederick of Moâpelgard being instructed into a distaste of the Reformed Protestants when he had been at Cââââa and Hââvâtia was went to far Gââââ ââ Hâlvetia viâi multa de qâibus nihil paââ coâââââ quibus sââe aââââââât Tossaâus ad ââââlium ââââte Sâult to iâ Curric p 26. all and proceed to detraction and contention at a distance and in the dark and never be familiarly acquainted with them at all There is something in the apprehension of places and persons and things by the eye sight which no reports are able to match And so there is that satisfaction about men by familiar acquaintance which we cannot attain by hearsay from any how judicious soever All factions commonly converse together and seek no familiar converse with others but believe them to be any thing that 's naught and then report them to be so before they ever knew the persons of whom they speak I am perswaded this is one of the greatest feeders of enmity uncharitableness contention and slanders in the world I speak it upon great observation and experience I have seldom heard any man bitterly oppose the servants of Christ but either the grosly wicked or those that never had much acquaintance with them And I see commonly how bitter soever