to know the meer common sins which everie one may read in great letters running and through eas seek no further becaus indeed knowledg in not their aim but their policie to avoid the shame of gross ignorance 6. Self-love by which hee is loath to bee informed in truths his partialitie and subtiltie which suffer's him not to bear such truths as are like to oppose his personal pretious and beloved evils whereby hee is loath to hear of any sins save other mens not his own 7. Errors of our own conceit of sound righteousness to wit that wee have served God well both in shunning of sin or doing dutie when wee have been drawn to it onely by forrein compulsion or outward occasions The Law enlighten's us in the discerning actual sins both in themselvs and in their Penalties 1. In themselvs sundry waies 1. By her authoritie in commanding setting up herself in the conscience the most privie chamber of the Soul this no law of man can do 2. By her harmonie consent and coherence this no man can see except enlightned Jam. 2. 10. bee that break 's one is culpable of all As hee that break 's one Link of a golden chain breake 's the coherence As hee that break 's his neighbors fence trespasse's him as well as if hee ranged over all his ground because the bond is broken 3. By her royaltie That as a King is not prescribed against by the qualitie of any Subject offending why hee may not hold him guiltie So in this no person is accepted of God in this kinde This royal law is impartial it will shew a Queen her sports as well as a poor woman 4. By her integritie and soundness that is it open's sin to the soul in one kinde as well as the other Such is the corruption of Adam that it will suffer much of the bodie of sin to vanish in the survey But where God enlighten's hee discover's sin in all her sexes male and female strong and weak remembred and forgotten ignorance and knowledg in a word one and other for want of which many a Soul never com's to the bar of God's conviction This rule shew's the difference of these First sins of Omission are passings by and balking of som dutie behooving to bee don whether against or without knowledg Secondly sins of Commission are actual doings of som evill in thought word and deed against the revealed will of God whether wee bee convinced or not convinced convinced thereof to bee sin as to work upon the Sabbath to speak vainly to nourish base thoughes Thirdly sins of Knowledg are transgressions of the Law of God against a mans conscience and the check of it whether greater or smaller as when Shimei paised Jordan against his own covenant or when a man goeth against his own light Sins of Ignorance are when a man transgresseth but yet not knowing his sin to bee sin as Abimelech coveting of Sarah Paul's persecuteing the Church 4. Sins of weakness or Presumption differ onely from sins of knowledg in the intention of him that sinneth Not each sin of knowledg amounteth to a sin of presumption though all presumption must need 's bee a sin against knowledg Sin of presumption then is a sin of knowledg committed with an high hand Sin of weakness is a sinning against such knowledg as yet is prevented in her work through accident as either inabilitie of grace to stick to knowledg or through timerousness and fear although dalliance and wantonness bee absent and though conscience bee present to accuse 5ly Sins of presumption it self are not all one for som are onely presumptuous in act as David's adulterie and murther others are total when a man is totally and finally carried in a presumptuous stream of habited sinning This trencheth most horribly against the patience and long-suffering of Grace it self and commonly drawe's impenitencie of spirit upon it self which cannot repent when it would 6ly A just fruit of this dalliance with grace habitually is that total and final Desertion of God's spirit giveing over the presumptuous heart to such a sinning against grace as at last despiteth that grace which it hath so long slighted as the Gnat which burneth it self in the candle and this is called sinning against the holy Ghost differing from habited Presumption in this That in that a man sinneth against the grace of the Spirit but in this a man despiteth the Spirit of Grace it self 5. By her extent it is a great piece of the light of the law to extend it self in the soul to all parts and degrees of sin 1. in her Spiritualness teaching us not to rest onely in open gross moral offences but to go to spiritual wickedness 2. In her inquisition and search it dare and can go to any part of the whole man and fetch out any poyson out of any corner 3. in her aggravateing power whereby shee inlarge's sin by her circumstances causing it thereby to seem the more odious and setting the wors colors upon it as becaus such a person committed it a publick man against such light when hee needed not from meer malignitie of Spirit in the mid'st of blessings against mercie gospel vowes covenant c. 4 in her puritie the law doth not go tell the Soul of each sin but set's the mirror of God's pureness before her that shee may according thereto discern and judg of sin good and bad true and evil These are helps to serv the work of the law in convinceing not to forestall the work of the Spirit she more sound light the soul hath the better Howbeit God is free to work in what way and measure hâ—e pleas II. The law discover's sin by the Penalties The Lord take's away all distinction of venial and mortal sin from a man present's himself to him in his full justice of revenging all sin without exception tell 's the Soul deferring of punishment is no remoovall of it that all sins deserv all punishments that the least cost the Lord Jesus his blood and hee that beleev's it not shall pay for it in hell there is no lying hid from God's eye no shift or evasion besides faith and repentance The Lord discover's Original sin to the soul many waies 1. By the special terms of his Word the Lord is in no one thing so emphatical as in the names hee give 's to this poyson Hee call's it the old man the flesh lust concupiscence the law of the members the law of sin reigning in the members the bodie of death and the like 2. By comparison For when the Soul hath had the view of actual sins before as most irksom and now com's to see greater abominations then these as the Lord tell 's Ezek. Chap. 8. 15. Oh! how out of meature sinful seem's it to the soul how doth shee crie out miserable man for mark thus shee speak's although actual sins were enough to sink mee into miserie yet I see they were but evil in respect of their part
COLLECTIONS OR BRIEF NOTES Gathered out of Mr Daniel Rogers's PRACTICAL CATECHISM for private use And now hereby communicated to som private friends towards the building of them up in their holie Faith By R. P. COR VNVM VIA VNA Printed for the Author Anno Domini 1648. The Printer to the Reader THe Author of these Collections or notes out of Mr Daniel Rogers's PRACTICAL CATECHISM which may not unsitly be called an epitome thereof haveing experimentally found much benefit and comfort by them in his own private conversation had divers times transscribed several Copies to bestow upon special friends to the intent that they might with himself bee promoted in a religious cours But now growing old and wearie of transscribeing so many as he desired hee thought of a more exped te way and less troublesom though with som charge to communicate them to his frinds in this form Such is the diffusive nature of good that it contain's not it self in a private closet but spread's further and enlarge's its quarters where it may finde entertainment Give God the prais and enjoy to thy benefit and comfort the pious labors of this thy friend who undertook this pains for thy sake Collections gathered out of Mr. Daniel Roger's PRACTICAL CATECHISM for Private use and now dispersed by som few Copies for the use of private Friends to whom I desire to communicate the same comfort which I have experimentally found by them GOD give a blessing unto them to the Soul's health of those who shall bee partakers of them ARTIC I. In Adam mankinde was created in perfection of light and holiness HEe was not miserable at the first for God created man male and female in his own image 1. For the matter in respect of his Soul hee was made a spiritual immortal invisible intelligible Beeing as God a little spark of Divinitie 2. For the manner as God's Essence being One is subsisting in three persons so one soul in three powers natural sensible and reasonable 3. In respect of endowments pure lightsom orderly righteous holie and perfect though not in actual power and stabilitie yet in habitual integritie Hee was righteous but not righteousness for that 's the Gospel-work not immutable but left to his freedom of will 4. In his bodie although of earth yet by the breath of God putting life into the earthlie frame thereof hee was made a creature of great authoritie and majestie a Lord and Sovereign under the Creätor of all his creatures under himself A little lower then the Angels a pettie Vice-roy under the Lord himself This Image of God is more distinctly confidered in three things 1. Bodie 2. Soul 3. Person I. In the Bodie in which wee consider two things 1. The Production of it 2. The Frame of it being made For the first the Lord addresse's himself more solemnly to it then to other creatures Let us make Man not thus let man bee The Trinitie is called to this work noteing it should bee divine excellent and compleat For the second a special resemblance of the Creätor Consider it in three things 1. Creäted with peculiar aptness and fitness for the service and execution of an immaterial and divine Soul yea every way and in all points most instrumental 2. Out of so base and earthly substance the Lord rais'd up an immortal and durable nature never to die free from all alterations 3. A difference of habit of proportion and gesture from other creature in him such reverend marks as caus all creatures to stoop and do obeisance to him II. In the Soul considered two waies 1. In the Nature of it 2. In the Functions 1. In the Nature like God's immortal incorporeal intelligible free to will or nill 2. In the Functions both inward and outward Inward 1. The understanding haveing perfect knowledg of God 2. His Will perfectly righteous wholly subject to God's will and so the operations and actions sutable to both God then sate in the throne of the minde as supreme the Will was subject to the minde the Actions to both 3. The Conscience pure Outward ordered by knowledg There was positive power and free will to good and to evill negative as now in the unregenerate there is a freedom to evill and not good and in the regenerate partly to good partly to evill onely not unchangeably so III. In the whole person 1. In his reverend and awfull behavior 2. In his honorable entertainment vouchsafed by the Lord even as a Prince into his Palace All the world being sinished in her due parts and ornaments man is brought in as the Royall creature possessed of all the rich treasure of the Creation set therein as in a theätre of the Workmanship of God that all should bee subject to him Although the crooked nature of man think 's it but her miserie to think how happie shee hath been yet the Lord purposeth by this means to bring her back to her first excellencie if shee will bee ruled by him Vse I. This should teach us to adore that deep workmanship of God which once enstamped such a livelie image of himself in man as cannot bee quite defaced no not by sin it self I mean in som characters of it which by his mercifull providence hee hath left in common nature This stir 's us up to two meditations First if sin as defaceing a blemish as it is yet could not so quite root out that honor and majestie of God in man but still hee hath reserved for universal ends som reliques thereof for els whence is it that the Lord hath denied those usefull creatures the hors and the ox and others to feel their own strength and the curs of man so that they should quite renounce his service do they not still fear the shadow of God's image and are they not awfull nay do they not yeeld themselvs to his tameing and subduing power what an indelible character is there in his second image of righteousness enstamped by the Spirit of Christ who dare say that any thing can deface that lasting image Secondly what reverend respect should wee yeeld to the ruined image of God in the Creature who should dare to mock and disdain those whom God hath doubly impaired his image in even the lame the blinde the deaf the imporent and crooked Vse II. This should smite a terror and aw into us of Magistrates Ministers Parents and Superiors let us behold God perfecting his authoritie in them though they have raz'd it out by their sin This recognisance of the first image of God should occasion us 1. to shame our selvs by the reflex of our odious and degenerate qualities upon our own spirits 2. To provoke us if wee are not quite forlorn both to mourn that for so base objects and lusts sake wee have despised so great graces as have been offered us and also to excite our appetites to long after it and to groan under our inabilitie to beleev it saying O Lord I was born
contrarietie of Spirit unto it Jo. 14. 4. and 5. 14. Psal 5. 15. Rom. 7. 23. propension to any sin and unaptness to any good 2. So for the penalties a seed of utter impenitâ—nciâ— disobedience obstinacie apostasie excommunication from God From this fountain proceeded both actual sins and actual penaltiâ—s Sins of commission omission ignorance presumption inward habits as hypocrisie earthliness ignorance error prophaneness unthankfulness hardness of heart Outward acts impiousness unrighteousness intemperancie and the like So penalties actual as the impuritie and curs of conception and birth the loss of the right and dominion of the creatures the curs on God's blessings hellish terrors diseases povertie discredit imprisonment fear of death guiltiness of judgment and utter miserie of loss and sens in hell Such a penaltie upon Adam's nature as made it truly miserable in stead of beeing truly happie This miserie hath two branches 1. The miserie of sin 2. The miserie of punishment 1. Miserie of sin is either of the root Original or the branches Actual sin both makeing the Soul truly though not equally miserable The miserie of Original sin standeth in two things 1. Original guilt 2. Original stain or pollution both being the fountains of all actual guilt and pollution of conscience Original guilt is that privitie and reflection of conscience whereby hee told himself continnally that hee had fallen and therefore must die the death in each kinde of it bodie and Soul This perpetual Alarum of conscience in his nature was the first part of his finfull miserie And to say the truth what miserie is like to this to bee ever on the rack of a man 's own spirit suggesting and boading him sad things to com for his sin threatning him with perpetual ruine Original stain or pollution is set forth either in the whole or in the parts Touching the whole the holy Ghost expresseth it by the word Death for as death is the resolution of nature so is this death of the Soul a total abolishment and corruption of that blessed frame of creätion in Minde by light in Will by holiness Touching the parts in the minde there is a death of all pure light and knowledg in the will of subjection in the affections of direction to the right objects in the conscience of all welfare and pureness in the spirits senses and members there is a death of that abilitie and serviceableness to the Soul in good things and a proneness and tickling to bee imploied profanely and unholily To conclude there is a death of the Person in respect of that right and sovereigntie over the creatures with a slavish proneness rather to idolize them both in the worship of som and the love or use of others a declenfion from God and a revolt to the base creature as Eve did to the forbidden fruit The miserie of Actual sin is the depravedness of death of all the operations flowing from the soul within or the bodie without 11. The miserie of punishment stand's in the manifold penalties both of soul and bodie In the Soul first an aversness from God an uncapableness of admitting of any meanes to draw the Soul out of miserie to any better estate a spirit of resisting and opposition to any such a proneness to bee riveted more and more deeply into this wo with less or less feeling or believing it Touching the bodie what languors and diseases are incident to it what povertie baseness beggerie and want to the estate what reproach to the name and credit aspersions slanders dishonors what miserie in familie Church and Common-wealth Crosses streights pursuits losses forfeits death of friends imprisonment bad tideings famin war pestilence and a thousand waies for him to go wofullie out who came but one way into the World besides grief of minde melancholie passions and distempers of the spirit bad conscience ill marriage lewd children ill success ruine of estate and at last a miserable death and yet the upshot of all is worst after viz. a final separation from GOD and loss of his eternal presence with the sens of unutterable intolerable unavoidable wrath of God in Hell upon the whole man for ever without the least hope of help or redress in or from himself Vse I. To consute the Papists who denie this death of nature and say there bee left in the unregenerate such abilities and devotions as may congruously dispose God to pardon them and by som help of grace merit also full forgiveness It likewise reprov's natural Papilts who doat upon their civil moral or religious duties except yee also denie your selvs and behold the miseries of your natures yee will fare wors in time even by your righteousness then if ye had none For why do not ye graff upon a rotten stock and guild a rotten post So also such as commend men's natures saying oh such are so sweetly natur'd courteous loving milde and harmless that there is but little between them and heaven alas how many of those sweet creatures are as bitter enemies to God's grace as friends to civilitie and fair carriage And also such as defend their passions by their nature saying it 's my nature to bee so hot I have soon don fool think'st thou thy nature is more excusable then thy passion Men think the Minister should onely reproov gross sins but should not bee bitter against infirmities oh God would fain draw thee from the open to the secret sins of thy heart least thy freedom from the gorsser should destroy thee Vse II. This should caus thee to look upward and to gage the greatness of Christ's love which could sinde in his heart to satisfie for such a miserie to fetch happiness out of the depth of it The height depth of mercie cannot bee sounded till thou take measure of it by the depth of miserie Little sin to forgive will make Christ little loved Lett us not lessen and mince our sins in hope of more easie pardon but if wee should magnifie the grace of Christ lett us first magnifie and enlarge our sin to the uttermost if Christ see that wee rather hope in our small sin then his great grace wee are dead men The way to get pardon is to equal his price to all our miserie That love that would rather satisfie for all then any should condemn mee is of infinite dimensions Vse III. This should caus us to wonder at the goodness of Gods dispensation of this miserie that both in the sin and in the penaltie it should bee so mitigated by the providence of that God who for universal ends restraineth the force and violence of this miserie Let us acknowledg the singular patience of God to dispens so mercifully with man all save hell being meer indulgence of mercie Vse IV. It teacheth us to judg aright of sin to count our selvs miserable by it to judg of it not by the matter or act of it but by the villanie of it against the majestie of God his crown and