Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
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A67012
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The duty of compassion to the souls of others in endeavouring their reformation being the subject of a sermon preached December the 28th 1696 at St. Mary-le-Bow before the Societies for Reformation of Manners in the city of London / published at their request by Josiah Woodward.
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Woodward, Josiah, 1660-1712.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing W3515A; ESTC R26400
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16,419
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58
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bear an inward and hearty Affection to thy Brother that is to every humane Creature and thou shalt especially love his Soul and do whatever thy Place and Capacity enables thee towards his Eternal Salvation And indeed a real Christian cannot do otherwise the Spirit of Christ will constrain him to it For if we have not so much of the spiritual Zeal and Temper of Christ as to seek the Glory of God and the Salvation of Men We are none of his A worldly carnal and unchristian Spirit sways that degenerate Soul who seeks his own and not his Brother's Good Yea such a one gives a very shrewd Suspicion that he does not heartily seek his own Spiritual and Eternal Welfare For he that knows and feels the due import of those two words Eternal Salvation and conceives something of those innumerable exquisite and endless Woes which are summ'd up in that one word Damnation will be sensibly moved to pity such as he sees passing on directly towards the pit of Destruction He will beg his Brother by all the Entreaties he can use that he would not resist his own Mercies nor destroy a Soul for which Christ died Yea he will use a sort of Violence with him if there be any in the Perswasives Rebukes and Remonstrances of Love to restrain him from Self-destruction and to bar up his Way to everlasting Torment And this Christian Affection to our Brother must not end here namely in a pious Exhortation and Admonition only But it is further required in the Text II. That our Love to Men be exercised in a seasonable and if need be in a sharp and severe Reproof of an offending Brother This is comprehended in the word Rebuke Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour Thou shalt not be diverted from this good Office in any wise Thou shalt not fear his Anger nor the World's Censures nor any Temporal Damage which may come to thee by so doing Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour when he gives thee cause to do it Thy Neighbour that is He with whom thou conversest for he is for that time thy Neighbour But here we must observe the Limits of a few Cautions 1. Our Reproof of our Neighbour must be managed in a Method sutable to his Station and our Relation to him An Elder says the Apostle is not to be rebuked but entreated as a Father 1 Tim. 5. 1. Which implies that the natural Father is likewise to be treated with the same Respect not insulting over his Nakedness but pitying his Infirmities And Elihu wisely observed That it is not fit for every one to go bluntly to a King and tell him that he is wicked or to say to Princes that they are ungodly Job 34. 18. We see with what Respect and humble Address the Persons who accompanied Naaman corrected his Passion The Men were grieved at their Master 's rash Resentment of the Prophet's Message and were unwilling that he should turn away without a Cure of his Leprosy whereupon it is said that they came near and spake unto him and said My Father if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it How much rather then when he saith to thee Wash and be clean 2 King 5. 13. And we find that this kind and gentle Application to him won upon him effectually their forcible Argument convinces his Judgment and their humble Respect softens his Heart to embrace it and so it came to a desired Effect to the Cure of the Disorder of his Soul first and then to the Cure of the Distemper of his Body And indeed the prudent Management of this Affair is the taking the Instrument by the right Handle and so the most likely way to the desired Success which introduces a second Caution namely 2. That in the case of rebuking any Person we should take care to time it well The proper Season is very material in the Administration of this spiritual Physick The Physicians of our Bodies decline the giving of a Dose tho never so excellent in the Extremity of the Paroxism And truly a Person in a Passion or in Drink or the like must have time for the Height of his Fit to sink that he may come to the Use of his Reason before his Cure can be attempted with any Probability of Success Had Abigail reproved Nabal when he was very drunk and in a violent Passion as it seems he was when he sent that railing Message to King David it is very probable that her self might have had the second Part of the same Outrage as the only Effect of her Reproof and Reward of her Pains But she did more wisely She said nothing to him more or less till the Morning-light but then when the Wine was gone out of Nabal she lays open all the Parts of his desperate Folly and Rudeness before him and applies it so home to him that his Heart died within him 1 Sam. 25. 36 c. So that the prudent Timing of our Rebukes is very conducible to their taking place upon the Person to whom they are applied But then we must beware on the other hand that our convenient Season be not like that of Foelix a mere trick to shun the Duty never thinking of it more It is of the two better to mistake the Time of a Duty than wholly to omit the Performance of it Again 3. We must not understand the Words of the Text so as to countenance the Popish Cruelties for their own Superstitions It is true we must not suffer Sin upon our Brother or Neighbour and rather than let him alone to perish in his Vices we may and ought to deliver him up to the Civil Magistrate that the Delinquent may suffer the light Inflictions of legal Punishment here in hope that he may be awakened by these to shun that everlastiug Anguish which will inevitably come upon him if he goes on in his Iniquity But then it must be a Transgression of the moral Law or some Sin against the plain Revelation of God's Will in which case the Offender's Conscience if he has any will applaud both the Evidence against him and the Judg who decrees his Punishment for his own Heart will be both an impartial Evidence and Avenger against him whenever he comes to himself But as for the bloody Methods of the Romish Inquisition where innocent Persons are tortured rack'd and burnt because they will not pollute their Faith and Consciences by things of Man's Invention and by Doctrines not only beside but against the express Will of God The Voice of all good Christians yea of all Mankind sends forth a loud Cry to Heaven against them And every body sees that the beating out of Peoples Brains is no good Means to bring any Perswasion into their Heads and that those of the Trent-Council spake rather after the tyrannical Temper of Popery than according to the Rules of Argumentation who were for answering Luther's Books by Fire and Faggot
proper House of Correction and Instruction too And when they had once found the Benefit and Comfort of honest Labour and a good Conscience it might be hoped that most of them would never return back again to their former course of Life Whereas now if a Felon be sent to the Jail he there finds the most inveterate Villains in the whole County for his Companions and Tutors and he has leasure in abundance to con over their Lessons so that he becomes seven-fold more a Child of Hell than before if he escapes the Gallows Or if a Slut be sent to Bridewell and be there severely lasht and then set free again 't is true she comes out corrected but not at all amended for still the first Cause of her Misbehaviour continues and if want of Imployment brought her to her former ill Life it will be like to reduce her to it again And thus they harden in their Vices and the Keepers of those Prisons find them their constant Visitants And alas what pity is it And what a shame in truth to such a Wealthy City and Nation Yea what a Reproach to the Faith and Charity of Christians that due Provision is not made to imploy the Poor For want of which not only our Prisons and Houses of Correction but our very Alms-houses seldom answer the End of their Foundation And therefore it would be one of the hest Charities in the World if a competent Number of Gentlemen and Wealthy Citizens expert in Manufacture would endeavour to obtain an Act of Parliament in this behalf and in the mean time contribute to a common Stock and employ it to this End And it would become every Person of Ability to contribute towards it either by giving something to the Fund or taking the Goods thus wrought from off their Hands that out of Charity imploy the Poor It can scarcely be imagined that People could better serve their Generation than in this Method or more administer to the Glory of God and the common Benefit of Men. For who can sum up the Advantages that would accrue to any State by the ceasing of the Vices of such multitudes of People and the Income of their Labours And if this were generally encouraged the Wealth arising from it in time would probably be a visible Reward of the Charity of it in this World as it has been demonstrated by several Ingenious Pens The good God vouchsafe to prosper all necessary Means of a General Reformation of Manners amongst us that we may appear from the highest to the lowest worthy of the glorious Name of a Reformed People Which is the earnest desire of Gentlemen Your assured Friend and Servant J. W. Errat Pag. 23. lin 11. read Harvest The Duty of Compassion to the Souls of Others LEVIT XIX 17. Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thine Heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer sin upon him IN the Rage of a devouring Pestilence it is the Care of every wise Government to shut up the Persons infected and to make a Mark over their Door that all People may shun them to prevent the spreading of the Contagion yet with a just Compassion to the poor People who lie under the dreadful Distemper and a diligent use of Means for their Recovery And if our Faith had as quick and effectual Apprehensions as our Senses we should be as much concerned to prevent the pernicious growth of Sin which is certainly the greatest Plague to Cities and Kingdoms as well as to Families and particular Persons It has been the destruction of one World already and the gross and general overflowing of it is at this Day a pregnant Symptom of the approaching Ruin of the other A publick Sinner does not only sin against his own Soul but against the Community of which he is a Member yea against the World in which he lives The Mischiefs which attend his Sin are general and spread widely and universally For hereby the Governour of the World is dishonoured and provoked and the common Father of Mankind is disowned and defied So that there is no Person but is concerned to hinder and prevent the Sin of another and upon the view of any such Transgression he has just cause of Offence and Resentment given him and therefore he does at once hate both his Brother's Soul and his own if he quietly connives at it and tamely passes it by which is directly contrary to the Law of God in the Text Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thine Heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer Sin upon him In which words the Holy and Righteous God binds this Duty upon the Consciences not only of Ministers and Magistrates but of every Man That he maintain a vigilant and constant Concern for his Brother's Soul and Salvation Next to our own Welfare we are to have a kind and charitable Concern for our Brother's Our Brother that is every Person who having the same Nature and deriving it from the same God is a Brother as to all points of Duty required by the common Lord of all And therefore these words are an authentick Ground for this Point of Doctrine Observ That there is a great want of Charity to the Souls of others in those who make no Attempts to rescue them from the Power of any known Sin Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thine Heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke him As if it were said you may in your Lips and in your other Carriage pretend what Kindness you will to others but if you induce them to sin or indulge them in it all your glavering Professions of Friendship are mere sham and paint yea they are real and hatred an Artifice to subvert and destroy them for ever Like the Tyrant's Engine mentioned by Sir W. Rawleigh which was composed in the shape of a beautiful Woman and contrived with that exquisite Art that it would rise up and embrace any Person before whom it was placed and at the same time stab them with a Multitude of mortal Wounds when it grasp'd them in its Iron-arms And truly the Embraces of sinful Companions are alike fatal it is the twisting of the old Serpent about them full of Venom and deadly Poison It is Hatred in the Heart says the Text if you rebuke not your sinful Brother but negligently suffer sin to lie upon him and sink him into the pit of Perdition So that we have here three parts of spiritual Charity recommended to us And these are enforc'd and press'd upon us by three considerable Motives And my speaking to each of these will be the proper Method to open and apply the Duty of the Text. I begin to consider the threefold spiritual Charity injoined in the Text. The first of which is I. A vigorous desire of the Happiness of our Brother's Soul Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thine Heart The positive Injunction impli'd in this Expression is Thou shalt