and will of erroneous and tempting persons And those that are more stiff to a stubborn resistance of all that should do them good He found it most suitable to tempt a Saul to malice David by a surprize to lust Absolom to ambition Peter to fearfulness and after to compliance and dissimulation to avoid the offence and displeasure of the weak Luther to rashness Melancthon to fearfulness Carolostadius to nnsetledness Illiricus to inordinate zeal Osiander to self-esteem if Historians have given them their due One Shâ—â—e fitteth not every foot § 4. Direct 2. Let your strictest watch be upon the sins of your temperature Far greater diligence Direct 2. and resolution is here necessary than against other sins And withdraw the fewel and strive against the bodily distempers themselves Fasting and labour will do much against lust which Idleness and fulness continually â—eed And so the rest have their several cures Know also what good your temper doth give you special advantage for and let it be turned unto that and still employed in it § 5. Tempt 3. The Temptor suiteth his Temptations to your Estates of Poverty or Riches The Tempt 3. pâ—â—r he tempteth to murmur and be impatient under their wants and distress themselves more with griefs and cares and to think that their sufferings may save them without holiness and that necessary labour for their bodies may excuse them from much minding the concernments of their souls And either to censure and hate the Rich through envy or to flatter them for gain The Rich he tempteth to an idle time-wasting voluptuous fleshly bruitish life To excess in sleep and meat and drink and sport and apparel and costly wayes of pride and idle discâ—urse and visits and complements to love the wealth and honours of the world and live in continual pleasing of the flesh to fare deliciously every day and to waste their time in unprofitableness without a conâ—tant Calling and to be unmerciful to the poor and to tyrannize over their inferiours Prov. 30. 8 9. Luke 16. § 6. Direct 3. Here also observe regardfully where your danger lyeth and there keep a continual Direct 3. watch Lâ—t the poor remember that if they be not Rich in grace it is long of themselves and if they be they have the chiefest Riches and have learnt in all estates to be content And have great cause to be thankful to God that thus helpeth them against the love and pleasures of the world Let the Rich remember that they have not less to do than the poor because they have more committed 1 Iaâ— 6 9 to their trust nor may they ever the more satisfie the inordinate desires of the flesh But they have more to dâ— and more dangers to fear and watch against as they have more of their Masters Talents to employ and give account for at the last § 7. Tempt 4. The Devil suiteth his Temptations to mens daily work and business If it be low Tempt 4. to be ashamed of it through Pride If it be high to be Proud of it If it be hard to be weary and unfaithful in it or to make it take up all their minds and time If it be about worldly things he tempteth them to be tainted by it with a worldly mind If they labour for themselves he tempteth them to ever-do If for others he tempteth them to deceitful unfaithful negligence and sloth If they are Ministers he tempteth them to be idle and unfaithful and senseless of the weight of truth the worth of souls the brevity of time that so their sin may be the ruine or the loss of many If Rulers the Devil useth his utmost skill to cause them to espouse an interest contrary to the interest of truth and holiness and to cast some quarrel against Christ into their minds and to perswade them that his interest is against theirs and that his servants are their enemies § 8. Direct 4. See that your work be lawful and that God have called you to it and then take Direct 4. it as the service which he himself assigneth to you and do it as in his sight and as passing to his judgement in obedience to his will And mind not so much whether it be hard or easie low or high as whether you are faithful in it And if it be sanctified to you by your intending all to the pleasing of God remember that he loveth and rewardeth that servant that stoopeth to the lâ—west woâ—k at his command as much as him that is employed in the highest Do all for God and walk in Holiness with him and keep out selfishness the poyson of your Callings and observe the proper danger of your places and keep a constant watch against them § 9. Tempt 5. The Devil suiteth his Temptations to our several Relations Parents he tempteth to be Tempt 5. cold and regardless of the great work of a wise and holy education of their Children Children he tempteth to be disobedient unthankful void of natural affection unreverent dishonourers of their Parents Husbands he tempteth to be unloving unkind impatient with the weaknesses of their Wives and Wives to be pievish self-willed proud clamorous passionate and disobedient Masters he tempteth to use their servants only as their Beasts for their own commodity without any care of their salvation and Gods service And servants he tempteth to be carnal untrusty false slothful eye-servants that take more care to hide a fault than not to commit it Ministers and Magistrates he tempteth to seek themselves and neglect their charge and set up their own Ends instead of the common good or to mistake the common good or the means that tendeth to it Subjects and People be tempteth to dishonour and murmur against their Governours and to censure them unjustly and to disobey them and rebell or else to honour and fear and serve them more than God and against God § 10. Direct 5. Here learn well the duties and dangers of your own Relations and remember that it Direct 5. is much of your work to be faithful and excellent in your Relations And mind not so much what other men owe to you as what you owe to God and them Let Masters and Ministers and Magistrates first study and carefully practise their own duties and yet they must next see that their Inferiours do their duties because that is their office But they must be more desirous that God be first served and more careful to procure obedience to him than that they be honoured or obeyed themselves Children Servants and Subjects must be taken up in the well doing of their proper work remembring that their good or hurt lyeth far more upon that than upon their superiours dealings with them or usage of them As it is your own Body and not your superiours which your soul doth animate nourish and use and which you have the continual sense and charge of so it is your own duty and not your superiours which
of Christs Body and Blood aright But besides all these what a deal of duty have you to perform to Magistrates Pastors Parents Masters and other superiours to subjects people children servants and other inferiours to every neighbour for his soul his body his estate and name and to do to all as you would be done by And besides all this how much have you to do directly for your selves for your souls and bodies and families and estates Against your ignorance infidelity pride selfishness sensuality worldliness passion sloth intemperance cowardize lust uncharitableness c. Is not here matter for your thoughts § 15. Direct 15. Overlook not that life full of particular mercies which God hath bestowed on your Direct 15. selves and you will find pleasant and profitable matter for your thoughts To spare me the labour of 15. All our particular Mercies repeating them look back to Chap. 3. Dir. 14. Think of that mercy which brought you into the world and chose your Parents your place and your condition which brought you up and bore with you patiently in all your sins and closely warned you of every danger which seasonably afflicted you and seasonably delivered you and heard your Prayers in many a distress which hath yet kept the worst of you from death and Hell and hath Regenerated justified adopted and sanctified those that he hath fitted for eternal life How many sins he hath forgiven How many he hath in part subdued How many and suitable helps he hath vouchsafed you From how many Enemies he hath saved you how oft he hath delighted you by his word and grace what comforts you have had in his Servants and ordinances in your relations and callings His mercies are innumerable and yet do your meditations want matter to supply them If I should but recite the words of David in many thankful Psalms you would think Mercy found his Thoughts employment § 16. Direct 16. Foresee that exact and righteous judgement which shortly you have to undergo Direct 16. and it will do much to find you employment for your thoughts A man that must give an account to 16. The account at Judgement God of all that he hath done both good and evil and knoweth not how soon for ought he knows before to morrow me thinks should find him something better than vanity to think on Is it nothing to be ready for so great a day To have your justification ready your accounts made up Your Consciences cleansed and quietted on good grounds To know what answer to make for your selves against the accuser To be clear and sure that you are indeed Regenerate and have a part in Christ and are washed in his blood and reconciled to God and shall not prove hypocrites and self-deceivers in that trying day when it is a sentence that must finally decide the question whether we shall be saved or damned and must determine us to Heaven or Hell for ever and you have so short and uncertain a time for your preparation will not this administer matter to your Thoughts If you were going to a Judgement for your lives or all your estates you would think it sufficient to provide you matter for your thoughts by the way How much more this final dreadful judgement § 17. Direct 17. If all this will not serve the turn it 's strange if God call not home your thoughts Direct 17. by sharp afflictions and methinks the improvement of them and the removal of them should find some 17. Our Afflictions employment for your thoughts It 's time then to search and try your ways and turn again unto the Lord Lam. 3. 4. To find out the Achan that troubleth your peace and know the voice of the rod and what God is angry at and what it is that he calleth you to mind To know what root it is that beareth these bitter fruits and how they may be sanctified to make you conformable to Christ and partakers of his holiness Heb. 12. 10. Besides the exercise of holy patience and submission there is a great deal of work to be done in sufferings to exercise faith and honour God and the good cause of our suffering and to humble our selves for the evil cause and to get the benefit And if you will not meditate of the Duty you shall meditate of the pain whether you will or not and say as Lam. 3. 17 18 19 20. I forgate prosperity and I said My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord Remembring mine affliction and my misery the wormwood and the gall My soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me Put not God to remember you by his spur and help your meditations by so sharp a means Psal. 78. 33 34 35. Therefore did he consume their days in vanity and their years in trouble when he â—lew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God and they remembred that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer § 18. Direct 18. Be diligent in your callings and spend no time in idleness and perform your labours Direct 18. with holy minds to the glory of God and in obedience to his commands and then your thoughts will 18. The business of your Calling have the less leisure and liberty for vanity or idleness Employments of the body will employ the Thoughts They that have much to do have much to think on For they must do it prudently and skillfully and carfully that they may do it successfully and therefore must think how to do it And the urgency and necessity of business will almost necessitate the thoughts and so carry them on and find them work Though some employments more than others And let none think that these Thoughts are bad or vain because they are about worldly things For if our Labours themselves be not bad or vain then neither are those thoughts which are needful to the well-doing of our work Nor let any worldling please himself with this and say My thoughts are taken up about my calling For his calling it self is perverted by him and made a carnal work to carnal ends when it should be sanctified That the thoughts about your labours may be good 1. Your Labours themselves must be good performed in obedience to God and for the good of others and to his glory 2. Your Labours and thoughts must keep their bounds and the higher things must be still preferred and sought and thought on in the first place And your Labours must so far employ your thoughts as is needful to the well-doing of them but better things must be thought on in such labours as leave a vacancy to the Thoughts But diligence in your calling is a very great help to keep out sinful thoughts and to furnish us with thoughts which in their place are good § 19. Direct 19. You have all Gods spiritual helps and holy ordinances to feed your meditations Direct 19. and
distress that if he would but spare them and try them once again they would amend their lives and live more holily and spend their time more carefully and diligently for their souls and shew all about them the truth of their Repentance by the greatness of their change and an exemplary life O it is a most dangerous terrible thing to return to security sloth and sin and break such promises to God! such are often given over to woful hard-heartedness or despair for God will not be mocked with delusory words § 70. Thus I have opened this great duty of Redeeming Time the more largely because it is of unspeakable importance and my soul is frequently amazed with admiration that the sluggish world can so insensibly and impenitently go on in wasting precious time so near Eternity and in so needy and dangerous a case Though I bless my God that I have not wholly lost my Time but have long lived in a sense of the odiousness of that sin yet I wonder at my self that such over-powring motives compell me not to make continual haste and to be still at work with all my might in a case of everlasting consequence CHAP. VI. Directions for the Government of the Thoughts I Have shewed you in my Treatise of walking with God how much mans Thoughts are regarded by God and should be regarded by himself and what agents and instruments they are of very much Good or Evil This therefore I shall suppose and not repeat but only Direct you in the Governing of them The work having three parts they must have several Directions 1. For the avoiding of evil thoughts 2. For the exercise of good thoughts 3. For the improvement of good thoughts that they may be effectual Tit. 1. Directions against evil and idle Thoughts § 2. Direct 1. KNow which are evil Thoughts and retein such an odious Character of them continually Direct 1. on your minds as may provoke you still to meet them with abhorrence Evil thoughts are such as these 1. All thoughts against the Being or Attributes or Relations or honour or works of God Atheistical and Blasphemous Idolatrous and unbelieving thoughts All thoughts that tend to disobedience or opposition to the will or word of God And all that savour of unthankfullness or want of Love to God or of discontent and distrust or want of the fear of God or that tend to any of these Also sinful selfish covetous proud studies to make a meer trade of the Ministry for gain To be able to overtalk others Searching into unrevealed forbidden things Inordinate curiosity and hasty conceitedness of your own opinions about Gods Decrees or obscure Prophecies Prodigies Providence mentioned before about Pride of our understandings All thoughts against any particular word or truth or precept of God or against any particular duty against any part of the worship and ordinances of God that tend to unreverent neglects of the name or Holy Day of God All impious thoughts against publick duty or family duty or secret duty and all that would hinder or marr any one duty All thoughts of dishonour contempt neglect or disobedience to the authority or higher powers set over us by God either Magistrates Pastors Parents Masters or any other Superiors All thoughts of Pride self-exalting ambition self-seeking Covetousness Voluptuous sensual Thoughts proceeding from or tending to the corrupt inordinate pleasures of the flesh Thoughts which are unjust and tend to the hurt and wrong of others Envyous malicious reproachful injurious contemptuous wrathful revengeful thoughts Lustful wanton filthy thoughts Drunken gluttonous fleshly thoughts Inordinate careful fearful anxious vexatious discomposing thoughts Presumptuous and secure despairing and dejecting thoughts Slothful delaying negligent and discouraging thoughts Uncharitable cruel false censorious unmerciful thoughts And idle unprofitable thoughts Hate all these as the Devils spawn § 3. Direct 2. Be not insensible what a great deal of Duty or sin is in the Thoughts and of how Direct 2. dangerous a signification and consequence a course of evil thoughts is to your souls They shew what a Man is as much as his words or actions do For as be thinketh in his heart so is he Prov. 23. 7. A good man or evil is denominated by the good or evil treasure of the heart though known to men but by the fruits O the vile and numerous sins that are committed in mens thoughts and proceed from mens thoughts O the pretious Time that is lost in idle and other sinful thoughts O the good that is hindered hereby both in heart and life But of this having spoken in the Treatise aforementioned I proceed § 4. Direct 3. Above all be sure that you cleanse the Fountain and destroy those sinful inclinations Direct 3. of the heart from which your evil thoughts proceed In vain else will you strive to stop the streams Or if you should stop them that very Heart it self will be lothsom in the eyes of God Are your Thoughts all upon the world either coveting or caring or grieving for what you want or pleasing your selves with what you have or hope for Get down your deceived estimation of the world cast it under your feet and out of your heart and count all with Paul but as loss and dung for the excellent knowledge of God in Christ For till the world be dead in you your worldly thoughts will not be dead But all will stand still when once this poise is taken off Crucifie it and this breath and pulse will cease So if your thoughts do run upon matter of preferment or honour disgrace or contempt or if you are pleased with your own preheminence or applause Mortifie your Pride and beg of God a humble self-denying contrite heart For till Pride be dead you will never be quiet for it but it will stir up swarms of self-exalting and yet self-vexing thoughts which make you hateful in the eyes of God So if your thoughts be running out upon your back and belly what you shall eat or drink or how to please your appetite or sense Mortifie the flesh and subdue its desires and master your appetite and bring them into full obedience unto reason and get a habit of temperance or else your thoughats will be still upon your guts and throats For they will obey the ruling power And a violent passion and desire doth so powerfully move them that it is hard for the reason and will to rule them So if your thoughts are wanton and filthy you must cleanse that unclean and lustful heart and get Christ to cast out the unclean spirit and become chast within before you will keep out your unchast cogitations So if you have confusion and vanity in your thoughts you must get a well-furnished and well-composed mind and heart before you will well cure the maladie of your thoughts § 5. Direct 4. Keep at a sufficient distance from those tempting objects which are the fuel and incentives Direct 4. of your evil
act Keep your hearts with all diligence for from thence are the issues of life Prov. 4. 23. Make the tree good and the fruit will be good But the viperous generation that are evil cannot speak good for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Math. 12. 33 34. Till the spirit have regenerated the soul all outward Religion will be but a dead and pittiful thing Though there is something which God hath appointed an unregenerate man to do in order to his own conversion yet no such antecedent act will prove that the person is justified or reconciled to God till he be converted To make up a Religion of doing or saying something that is good while the heart is void of the spirit of Christ and sanctifying grace is the Hypocrites Religion Rom. 8. 9. § 8. Direct 3. Make conscience of the sins of the thoughts and the desire and other affections or passions Direct 3. of the mind as well as of the sins of tongue or hand A lustful thought a malicious thought a proud ambitious or covetous thought especially if it proceed to a wish or contrivance or consâ—nt is a sin the more dangerous by how much the more inward and neer the heart as Christ hath shewed you Mat. 5. 6. The Hypocrite who most respecteth the eye of man doth live as if his Thoughts were free § 9. Direct 4. Make conscience of secret sins which are committed out of the sight of men and may Direct 4. be concealed from them as well as of open and notorious sins If he can do it in the dark and secure his reputation the Hypocrite is bold But a sincere believer doth bear a reverence to his conscience and much more to the all-seeing God § 10. Direct 5. Be faithful in secret duties which have no witness but God and Conscience As meditation Direct 5. and self-examination and secret prayer And be not only Religious in the sight of men § 11. Direct 6. In all publick worship be more laborious with the heart than with the tongue or knee Direct 6. and see that your tongue over-run not your heart and leave it not behind Neglect not the due composure of your words and due behaviour of your bodys But take much more pains for the exercise of holy desires from a believing loving fervent soul. § 12. Direct 7. Place nâ—t more in the externals or modes or circumstances or ceremonies of worship Direct 7. than is due and lay not out more zeal for indifferent or little things than cometh to their share but 〈…〉 ed mâ—â—â—â—ad of hurt fuâ—â—â—â—nes ceremonies be obâ—iteraâ—â—d by ceremoniâ—s Let the Prâ—â—sts perswade the novâ—â—â—â— that holy water Images â—oâ—aâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 and â—oâ—ches and the rest which the Church alloweth and uâ—â—th are very â—it for them and let them exâ—â—l them with many praises in their popular Sermons that instead of the old superstition they may be used to new and religious signs This is to quenth the â—iâ—e with oyl let the great substantials of Religion have the precedencie and be far preferred before them Let the Love of God and man be the sum of your obedience And be sure you learn well what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice And remember that the great thing which God requireth of you is to do Iustice and love mercy and walk humbly with your God Destroy not him with your meat fâ—r whom Christ dyed Call not for fire from Heaven upon dissenters and think not every man intollerable in the Church that is not in every little matter of your mind Remember that the hypocrisie of the Pharisees is described by Christ as consisting in a zeal for their own traditions and the inventions of men and the smallest matters of the Ceremonial Law with a neglect of greatest moral duties and a furious cruelty against the spiritual worshipers of God Math. 15. 2. Why do thy disciples transgress the Tradition of the Elders for they wash not their hands when they eat bread v. 7. Ye Hypocrites well did Esaias prophesie of you saying This people draweth niâ—â—â—ntâ— me with their mouth and hâ—â—â—â—ureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me but in vain do they worship me teaching fâ—r doctrines the commandments of men Math. 23. 4 5 6 13 14 c. They bind heavy burdens which they touch not themselves All their works they do to be seen of men They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the burdens of their garments and love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief sâ—ats in the Synagogues and greetings in publick and to be called Rabbi But they shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men and were the greatest enemies of the entertainment of the Gospel by the people They tythed mint and annise and cummin and omitted the great matters of the Law Iudgement and Mercy and Faith They streined at a gnat and swallowed a Camel They had a great veneration for the dead Prophets and Saints and yet were persecuters and murderers of their successors that were living v. 23 c. By this description you may see which way Hypocrisie doth most ordinarily work even to a blind and bloody zeal for opinions and traditions and ceremonies and other little things to the treading down the interest of Christ and his Gospel and a neglect of the life and power of Godliness and a cruel persecuting those servants of Christ whom they are bound to love above their ceremonies I marvel that many Papists tremble not when they read the Character of the Pharisees But that hypocrisie is a hidden sin and is an enemy to the light which would discover it § 13. Direct 8. Make conscience of the duties of obedience to superiors and of justice and mercy Direct 8. towards men as well as of acts of piety to God Say not a long mass in order to devour a widows house or a Christians life or reputation Be equally exact in justice and mercy as you are in prayers And labour as much to exceed common men in the one as in the other Set your selves to do all the good you can to all and do hurt to none And do to all men as you would they should do to you § 14. Direct 9. Be much more busie about your selves than about others and more censorious of Direct 9. your selves than of other men and more strict in the Reforming of your selves than of any others For this is the character of the sincere When the Hypocrite is little at home and much abroad and is a sharp reprehender of others and perniciously tender and indulgent to himself Mark his discourse in all companies and you shall hear how liberal he is in his censures and bitter reproach of others How such men and such men that differ from him or have opposed him or that he hates are thus and thus faulty and bad and hateful Yea he is as great an accuser of his
for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed The night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armour of light let us walk honestly as in the day not in ryoting and drunkeness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying but put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof 3. Time must be Redeemed from things indifferent and lawful at another time when things necessary do require it He that should save mens lives or quench a fire in his house or provide for his family or do his Masters work will not be excused if he neglect it by saying that he was about an indifferent or a lawful business Natural rest and sleep must be parted with for Time when necessary things require it Paul Preached till midnight being to depart on the morrow Act. 20. 7. The Lamenting Church calling out for Prayer saith Arise cry out in the night in the beginning of the watches pour out thy heart like water before the fac◠of the Lord Lam. 2. 19. Cleanthes Lamp must be used by such whose Sun-light must be otherwise employed 4. Time must be Redeemed from worldly business and commodity when matters of greater weight and commodity do require it Trades and Plow and profit must stand by when God calls us by necessity or otherwise to greater things Martha should not so much as trouble her self in providing meat for Christ and his followers to eat when Christ is offering her food for her soul and she should with Mary have been hearing at his feet Luk. 10. 42. Worldlings are thus called by him Isa. 55. 1 2 3. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the water Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfyeth not hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatness 5. Time must be Redeemed from smaller Duties which in their season must be done as being no duties when they hinder Greater duty which should then take place It is a duty in its time and place to shew respect to neighbours and superiours and to those about us and to look to our family affairs but not when we should be at Prayer to God or when a Minister should be Preaching or at his necessary studies Private Prayer and Meditation and visiting the sick are duties But not when we should be at Church or about any greater duty which they hinder The Directions contemplative for Redeeming Time § 8. Direct 1. Still keep upon thy Heart by Faith and Consideration the lively sense of the Greatness Direct 1. and absolute necessity of that work which must command thy Time remembring who setteth thee on work and on what a work he sets thee and on what terms and what will be the end It is God that calleth thee to labour And wilt thou stand still or be doing other things when God expecteth duty from thee Moses must go to Pharaoh when God bids him go Ionas must go to Nineve when God bids him go yea Abraham must go to Sacrifice his Son when God bids him go And may you go about your fleshly pleasures when God commandeth you to his service He hath appointed you a work that is worth your Time and all your labour to know him and serve him and obey him and to seek everlasting life How diligently should so excellent a work be done and so blessed and glorious a master be served especially considering the unutterable importance of our diligence we are in the race appointed us by our Maker and are to Run for an immortal Crown It 's Heaven that must be now won or lost And have we Time to spare in such a race We are fighting against the enemies of our salvation The question is now to be resolved whether the Flesh the World and the Devil or We shall win the day and have the victory And Heaven or Hell must be the issue of our warfare And have we Time to spare in the midst of such a fight when our very loss of Time is no small part of the enemies conquest Our most wise Omnipotent Creator hath been pleased to make this present life to be the trying preparation for another resolving that it shall go with us all for ever according to our preparations here And can we play and loyter away our Time that have such a work as this to do O miserable sensless souls do you believe indeed the Life everlasting and that all your lives are given you now to resolve the question whether you must be in Heaven or Hell for ever Do you believe this Again I ask you Do you believe this I beseech you ask your Consciences over and over whether you do indeed believe it Can you believe it and yet have Time to spare what find Time to play away and game away and idle and prate away and yet believe that this very Time is given you to prepare for life eternal and that salvation or damnation lyeth on the race which now even now you have to run Is not such a man a Monster of stupidity If you were asleep or mad it were the more excusable to be so sensless But to do thus awake and in your wits O where are the brains of those men and of what metal are their hardened hearts made that can idle and play away that Time that little Time that only Time which is given them for the everlasting saving of their souls Verily firs if sin had not turned the ungodly part of the world into a Bedlam where it is no wonder to see a man out of his wits people would run out with wonder into the Streets to see such a monster as this as they do to see mad men in the Country where they are rare and they would call to one another Come and see a man that can trifle and sport away his Time as he is going to Eternity and is ready to enter into another world Come and see a man that hath but a few dayes to win or lose his soul for ever in and is playing it away at Cards and Dice or wasting it in doing nothing Come and see a man that hath hours to spare and cast away upon trifles with Heaven and Hell before his eyes For thy souls sake consider and tell thy self If thy estate in the world did lye upon the spending of this day or week or if thy life lay on it so that thou must live or dye or be poor or rich sick or well as thou spendest it wouldst thou then waste it in dressings or complement or play and wouldst thou find any to spare upon impertinent triflings Or rather wouldst thou not be up betime and about thy business and turn by thy games and thy diverting company and disappoint thy idle visiters
necessitated-slavery by Contract or Consent through poverty are these 1. Such a ones soul must be cared for and preserved though he should consent to the contrary He must have time to learn the word of God and time to pray and he must reâ—t on the Lords day and employ it in Gods service He must be instructed and exhorted and kept from sin 2. He may not be forced to commit any sin against God 3. He may not though he forcedly consent be denyed such comforts of this life as are needful to his cheerful serving of God in Love and Thankfulness according to the peace of the Gospel state and which are called by the name of our Daily bread No man may deny a Slave any of this that is not a criminal punished Slave 2. And the most criminal slave may not be forced to sin nor denyed necessary helps to his salvation But he may penally be beaten and denyed part of his daily bread so it be not done more rigorously than true Justice doth require Quest. But what if men buy Negro's or other slaves of such as we have just cause to believe did steal them by Piracy or buy them of those that have no power to sell them and not hire or buy them by their own consent or by the consent of those that had power to sell them nor take them Captives in a lawful War what must they do with them afterward Answ. 1. It is their heynous sin to buy them unless it be in charity to deliver them 2. Having done it undoubtedly they are presently bound to deliver them Because by right the man is his own and therefore no man else can have just title to him Quest. But may I not sell him again and make my money of him seeing I leave him but as I found him Answ. No because when you have taken possession of him and a pretended propriety then the injury that is done him is by you which before was only by another And though the wrong be no greater than the other did him yet being now done by you it is your sin Quest. But may I not return him to him that I bought him of Answ. No for that is but injuring him by delivering him to another to continue the injury To say as Pilate I am innocent of the blood of this just man will be no proof of your innocency yea Gods Law bindeth you to Love and works of Love and therefore you should do your best to free him He that is bound to help to save a man that is faln into the hand of thieves by the high way it he should buy that man as a slave of the thieves may not after give him up to the thieves again But to proceed in the Directions Direct 3. So serve your own necessities by your slaves as to prefer Gods interest and their spiritual Direct 3. and everlasting happiness Teach them the way to Heaven and do all for their souls which I have before directed you to do for all your other servants Though you may make some difference in their Labâ—ur and dyet and cloathing yet none as to the furthering of their salvation If they be Infidels use them so as tendeth to win them to Christ and the love of Religion by shewing them that Christians are less worldly less cruel and passionate and more wise and charitable and holy and meek than any other persons are Wo to them that by their cruelty and covetousness do scandalize even slaves and hinder their conversion and salvation Direct 4. By how much the hardness of their condition doth make their lives uncomfortable and Direct 4. God hath cast them lower than your selves by so much the more let your charity pity them and labour to abate their burden and sweeten their lives to them as much as your condition will allow And remember that even a slave may be one of those Neighbours that you are bound to love as your selves and to do to as you would be done by if your case were his Which if you do you will need no more direction for his relief Direct 5. Remember that you may require no more of an innocent slave than you would or might Direct 5. do of an ordinary servant if he were at your will and did not by contract except something as to Labour or usage which else you would think just and meet to have required of him Direct 6. If they are Infidels neither be too hasty in baptizing them when they desire it nor too Direct 6. slow Not so hasty as to put them on it before they understand what the Baptismal Covenant is or before you see any likelyhood that they should be serious in making such a Covenant Nor yet so slow as to let them alone to linger out their lives in the state of those without the Church But hasten them to Learn and stir up their desires and look after them as the ancient Churches did after their Catechumens And when you see them fit by knowledge belief desire and resolution to Vow themselves to God on the terms of the holy Covenant then put them on to be baptized But if you should feel an abatement of your desires of their Conversion because you shall lose their service much more if ever you had a wish that they might not be converted which is plain Devilism let it be the matter of your deep humiliation and repentance Direct 7. Make it your chief end in buying and using slaves to win them to Christ and save Direct 7. their souls Do not only endeavour it on the buy when you have first consulted your own commodity but make this more of your end than your commodity it self and let their salvation be far more valued by you than their service And carry your selves to them as those that are sensible that they are Redeemed with them by Christ from the slavery of Satan and may live with them in the liberty of the Saints in Glory CHAP. XV. The Duties of Children and Fellow-servants to one another IT is not easie to resolve whether good Governours or good fellow-servants in a family be the Direct 1. greater help and benefit to each of the inferiours For servants are so much together and so free and familiar with each other that they have the more opportunity to be useful to each other if they have but abilities and hearts It is needful therefore that you know your duty to one another both for doing and getting that good which otherwise will be lost § 1. Direct 1. Love one another unfeignedly as your selves Avoid all contention and falling out Direct 2. with one another or any thing that would weaken your love to one another especially differences about your personal interests in point of profit provision or reputation Take heed of the Spirit of envy which will make your hearts rise against those that are preferred before you or that are used better than you Remember the
in all lawful things I cannot disoblige my self by my own Vows § 44. Yet here are very great difficulties in this case which causeth difference among the learnedst Sanderson p. 72 73. Dico ordinarie quia fortassis possunt darâ— casus in quibus juramentum quod videtur alicui lâ—gi communiâ—â—â—â—is aut vocatiâ—nâ—s adversari eâ—si non debuâ—rit suscipâ— susceptum tamen potest obligare Ut e. g. in lege poenali disjunctiva See the instances which he addeth Ioseph took an Oath of the Israelites to carry his bones out of Aegypt Gen. 50. 25. What if Pharaoh forbid them Are they acquit The Spies swore to Rhahab Iosh. 2. 12 18. Had they been quit if the Rulers had acquit them pious Casuists 1. If a Governour have before hand made a Law for that which I vow against it is supposed by many that my Vow is not to be kept the thing being not against the Law of God Because the first obligation holdeth 2. Yet some think that Magistrates Poenal Laws binding but aut ad obedientiam aut ad poenam to obedience or punishment I am therefore obliged in indifferent things to bear his penalty and to keep my Vow 3. But if I first make an Absolute Vow in a thing indifferent as to drink no Wine or to wear no Silks c. and the Magistrate afterwards command it me some think I am bound to keep my Vow because though I must obey the Magistrate in all things lawful yet my Vow hath made this particular thing to be to me unlawful before the Magistrate made it a duty 4. Though others think that even in this case the general obligation to obey my superiours preventeth my obliging my self to any particular which they may forbid in case I had not vowed it or against any particular which they may command 5. Others distinguish of things lawful or indifferent and say that some of them are such as become accidentally so useful or needful to the common good the end of Government that it is fit the Magistrate make a Law for it and the breaking of that Law will be so hurtful that my Vow cannot bind me to it as being now no indifferent thing But other indifferent things they say belong not to the Magistrate to determine of as what I shall eat or drink whether I shall marry or not what Trade I shall be of how each Artificer Tradesman or Professor of Arts and Sciences shall do the business of his profession c. And here the Magistrate they think cannot bind them against their Vows because their power of themselves in such private cases is greater than his power over them in those cases All these I leave as so many Questions unfit for me to resolve in the midst of the contentions of the Learned The great Reasons that move on both sides you may easily discern 1. Those that think an Oath in lawful things obligeth not contrary to the Magistrates antecedent or subsequent command are moved by this reason that else subjects and children might by their Vows exempt themselves from obedience and null Gods command of obeying our superiours 2. Those that think a Vow is obligatory against a Magistrates command are moved by this reason because else say they a Magistrate may at his pleasure dispense with all Vows except in things commanded before by God For he may come after and cross our Vows by his commands which against the Popes pretensions Protestants have denyed to be in the power of any mortal man And God say they hath the first right which none can take away I must not be forward in determining where Rulers are concerned only to those that may and must determine it I add these further materials to be considered of § 45. 1. It is most necessary to the decision of this case to understand how far the Inferiour that voweth was sui juris and had the power of himself when he made the Vow as to the making of it and how far he is sui juris as to the act which he hath vowed and to that end to know in a case where there is some power over his act both in his superiour and in himself whether his own power or his superiours as to that act be the greater 2. It is therefore needful to distinguish much between those acts that are of Private use and signification only and those that antecedently to the Rulers command are of publick use and nature or such as the Ruler is as much concerned in as the inferiour 3. It is needful to understand the true intent and sense of the command of our superiour whether Read of this at large Amesii Cas. Câ—â—s l. 5. c. 25. Qu. 4. it be really his intent to bind inferiours to break their Vows or whether they intend only to bind those that are not so entangled and pre-engaged by a Vow with a tacite exception of those that are And what is most just must be presumed unless the contrary be plain 4. It must be discerned whether the commands of superiours intend any further penalty than that which is affixed in their Laws As in our Poenal Laws about using Bow and Arrows and about fishing hunting c. whether it be intended that the offender be guilty of damnation or only that the threatned temporal penalty do satisfie the Law And whether God bind us to any further penalty than the superiour intendeth 5. The End of the Laws of men must be distinguished from the words And a great difference must be put between those forbidden acts that do no further harm than barely to cross the Letter of the Law or Will of a Superiour and those that cross the just end of the Command or Law and that either more or less as it is more or less hurtful to others or against the common good For then the matter will become sinful in it self 6. Whether Perjury or the unwilling violation of humane Laws be the greater sin and which in a doubtful case should be most feared and avoided it is easie to discern § 46. Rule 27. A Vow may be consequently made Null or Void 1. By cessation of the matter or Rule 27. any thing essential to it of which before § 13. or by a Dispensation or dissolution of it by God to whom we are obliged No doubt it is in Gods power to disoblige a man from his Vow But how he ever doth such a thing is all the doubt extraordinary revelations being ceased there is this way yet ordinary viz. by bringing the matter which I vowed to do under some prohibition of a General Law by the Changes of his Providence § 47. Rule 28. As to the power of man to dispense with Oaths and Vows there is a great and most Rule 28. remarkable difference between those Oaths and Vows where Man is the only party that we are primarily bound to and God is only appealed to as witness or judge as to the keeping of
was an Ecclesiastical Usurper quoad personam that had no true Call to a Lawful Office shall after have a Call or if any thing fall out which shall make it our duty to Consent and Call him then the impediment from his Usurpation is removed 3. It is not lawful though the Civil Magistrate command us to swear obedience even in licitis honestis to such an Usurper whose Office it self is unlawful or forbidden by Christ as he is such an Officer No Protestant thinketh it lawful to swear obedience to the Pope as Pope nor do any that take Lay-Elders to be an unlawful Office think it lawful to swear obedience to them as such 4. If one that is in an unlawful Ecclesiastical Office be also at once in another that is lawful we may swear obedience to him in respect of the Lawful Office So it is Lawful to swear obedience to the Pope in Italy as a Temporal Prince in his own Dominions And to a Cardinal as Richelieu Mazarine Ximenes c. as the Kings Minister exercising a power derived from him So it is lawful for a Tenant where Law and Custome requireth it to swear fidelity to a Lay Elder as his Landlord or Temporal Lord and Master And so the old Non-conformists who thought the English Prelacy an unlawful Office yet maintained that it is Lawful to take the Oath of Canonical obedience because they thought it was imposed by the King and Laws and that we swear to them not as Officers claiming a Divine Right in the Spiritual Government but as Ordinaries or Officers made by the King to exercise so much of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction under him as he can delegate according to the Oath of Supremacy in which we all acknowledge the King to be Supream in all Ecclesiastical Causes that is Not the Supream Pastor Bishop or Spiritual Key-bearer or Ruler but the Supream Civil Ruler of the Church who hath the power of the Sword and of determining all things extrinsick to the Pastoral Office and so of the Coercive Government of all Pastors and Churches as well as of other Subjects And if Prelacy were proved never so unlawful no doubt but by the Kings Command we may swear or perform formal obedience to a Prelate as he is the Kings Officer Of the Non-conformists judgement in this read Bradshaw against Canne c. 5. But in such a case no Oath to Inferiours is lawful without the Consent of the Soveraign power or at least against his will 6. Though it be a duty for the flock to obey every Presbyter yet if they would make all the people swear obedience to them all wise and conscionable Christians should dissent from the introduction of such a custome and deny such Oaths as far as lawfully they may that is 1. If the King be against it we must refuse it 2. If he be neutral or meerly passive in it we must refuse unless some apparent necessity for the Churches good require it 1. Because it favoureth of Pride in such Presbyters 2. Because it is a new Custome in the Church and contrary to the antient practice 3. It is not only without any authority given them by Christ that they exact such Oaths but Mat. 22. 4 10. Luke 22. 27 c. Mark 9. 35. 1 Pet. 5. 2 3. 1 Cor. 9. 19. 1 Cor. 4. 1. 2 Cor. 4. 5. also contrary to the great humility lowliness and condescension in which he describeth his Ministers who must be Great by being the servants of all 4. And it tendeth to corrupt the Clergy for the future 5. And such new impositions give just reason to Princes and to the People to suspect that the Presbyters are aspiring after some inordinate exaltation or have some ill project for the advancement of themselves 7. But yet if it be not only their own ambition which imposeth it but either the King and Laws command it or necessity require it for the avoidance of a greater evil it may be Lawful and a duty to take an Oath of Obedience to a Lawful Presbyter or Bishop Because 1. It is a ☜ duty to Obey them 2. And it is not forbidden us by Christ to promise or swear to do our duty even when they may sin in demanding such an Oath 8. If an Office be Lawful in the essential parts and yet have unlawful integrals or adjuncts or be abused in exercise it will not by such additions or abuses be made unlawful to swear Obedience to the Officer as such 9. If one Presbyter or Bishop would make another Presbyter or Bishop to swear obedience to him without authority the Case is the same as of the Usurpers before mentioned Quest. 154. Must all our preaching be upon a Text of Scripture Answ. 1. IN many Cases it may be lawful to preach without a Text to make Sacred Orations Act◠2 3. like Greg. Nazianzenes and Homilies like Macarius's Ephrem Syrus's and many other antients and like our own Church-Homilies 2. But ordinarily it is the fittest way to preach upon a Text of Scripture 1. Because it is our Luke 4. 18. very Office to Teach the people the Scripture The Prophets brought a new word or message from God but the Priests did but keep interpret and teach the Law already received And we are not Mal. 2. 7. successors of the inspired Prophets but as the Priests were Teachers of Gods received Word And this practice will help the people to understand our Office 2. And it will preserve the due esteem and reverence of the Holy Scriptures which the contrary practice may diminish Quest. 155. Is not the Law of Moses abrogated and the whole Old Testament out of date and therefore not to be Read publickly and preached on Answ. 1. THe Covenant of Innocency is ceased cessante subditorum capacitate as a Covenant or promise And so are the Positive Laws proper to Adam in that state and to many particular persons since 2. The Covenant mixt of Grace and Works proper to the Jews with all the Jewish Law as such was never made to us or to the rest of the world and to the Jews it is ceased by the coming and perfecter Laws and Covenant of Christ. 3. The Prophecies and Types of Christ and the Promises made to Adam Abraham and others of his Coming in the flesh are all fulfilled and therefore not useful to all the ends of their first making And the many Prophecies of particular things and persons past and gone are accomplished 4. But the Law of Nature is still Christs Law And that Law is much expounded to us in the Old Testament And if God once for another use did say This is the Law of Nature the truth of these words as a Divine Doctrine and Exposition of the Law of Nature is still the same 5. The Covenant of Grace made with Adam and Noah for all mankind is still in force as to the great benefits and main condition that is as to pardon given by it
the Preacher hath publickly delivered the Word of God to the Assembly if you would so far second him as in your daily converse to set it home on the hearts of those that you have opportunity to discourse with how great an assistance would it be to his success Though he must teach them publickly and from house to house yet is it not possible for him to be so frequent and familiar in daily conference Act. 20. with all the ignorant of the place as those that are still with them may be You are many and he is but one and can be but in one place at once Your business bringeth you into their company when he cannot be there Oh Happy is that Minister who hath such a people who will daily preach over the matter of his publick Sermons in their private conference with one another Many hands make quick work This would most effectually prevail against the powers of darkness and cast out Satan from multitudes of miserable souls § 11. Mot. 11. Yea when Ministers are wanting through scarcity persecution or unâ—aithfulness and negligence the peoples holy profitable conference would do much towards the supplying of that want There have few places and ages of the World been so happy but that learned able faithful Pastors have been so few that we had need to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send forth more And it is nothing unusual to have those few silenced or hindered from the Preaching of the Gospel by the factions or the malignity of the World And it is yet more common to have ignorant or ungodly persons in that office who betray the peoples souls by their usurpation impiety or slothfulness But if in all such wants the people that fear God would do their part in private conference it would be an excellent supply Ministers may be silenced from publick preaching when you cannot be silenced from profitable discourse § 12. Mot. 12. It is a duty that hath many great advantages for success 1. You may choose your season If one time be not fit you may take another 2. You may choose the person whom you find to have the greatest necessity or capacity and where your labour is likelyest to take 3. You may choose your subject and speak of that which you find most suitable There is no restraint nor imposition upon you to hinder your liberty in this 4. You may choose your arguments by which you would enforce it 5. Interlocutory conference keepeth your auditors attentive and carryeth them on along with you as you go And it maketh the application much more easie by their neerness and the familiarity of the discourse when Sermons are usually heard but as an insignificant sound or words of course 6. You may at your pleasure go back and repeat those things which the hearer doth not understand or doth forget which a Preacher in the Pulpit cannot do without the censure of the more curious auditors 7. You may perceive by the answers of them whom you speak to what particulars you need most to insist on and what objections you should most carefully resolve and when you have satisfied them and may proceed all which it is hard for a Minister to do in publick Preaching And is it not a great sin to neglect such an advantageous duty § 13. Mot. 13. And it should somewhat encourage you to it that it is an unquestionable duty when many other are brought into Controversie Ministers Preach under the regulation of humane Laws and Canons and it is a great Controversie with many whether they should Preach when they are silenced or forbidden by their superiours But whether you may speak for God and for mens salvation in your familiar conference no man questioneth nor doth any Law forbid it § 14. Mot. 14. Hath not the fruitful conference of others in the dayes of your ignorance done good to you Have you not been instructed convinced perswaded and comforted by it What had become of you if all men had let you alone and past you by and left you to your selves And doth not Justice require that you do good to others as others have done to you in the use of such a tryed means § 15. Mot. 15. Consider how forward the Devils servants are to plead his cause How readily and fiercely will an ignorant drunken sot pour out his reproaches and scorns against Religion and speak evil of the things which he never understood How zealously will a Papist or Heretick or Schismatick promote the interest of his sect and labour to proselyte others to his party And shall we be less zealous and serviceable for Christ than the Devils servants are for him and do less to save souls than they will do to damn them § 16. Mot. 16. Nay in the time of your sin and ignorance if you have not spoken against Religion nor taught others to curse or swear or speak in ribbald filthy language yet at least you have spent many an hour in idle fruitless talk And doth not this now oblige you to shew your Repentance by more fruitful conference Will you since your Conversion speak as unprofitably as you did before § 17. Mot. 17. Holy conference will prevent the guilt of foolish idle talk Men will not be long silent but will talk of somewhat And if they have not profitable things to talk of they will prate of vanity All the foolish chat and frothy jeasts and scurrilous ribbaldry and envious backbiting which taketh up mens time and poisoneth the hearers is caused by their want of edifying discourse which should keep it out The rankest wits and tongues will have most weeds if they be not cultivated and taught to bear a better crop § 18. Mot. 18. Your tongues will be instrumental to publick good or publick hurt When filthy vain and impious language is grown common it will bring down common plagues and judgements And if you cross not the custome you seem to be consenters and harden men in their sin But holy conference may at least shew that some partake not of the evil and may free them from the Plague if they prevail not with others so far as to prevent it Mal. 3. 16 17 18. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his name And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own Son that serveth him § 19. Mot. 19. Consider what great necessity there is every where of fruitful edifying speech 1. In the multitude of the ignorant and the greatness of their ignorance 2. The numbers of the sensual and obstinate 3. The power of blindness and of every sin What root it hath taken in the most of men 4. The multitude of baits which are every where before them
bear too patiently with your selves If another speak evil of you he doth not make you evil It 's worse to make you bad than to call you so And this you do against your selves Doth your Neighbour wrong you in your honour or Estate But he endangereth not your soul He doth not forfeit your salvation He doth not deserve damnation for you nor make your soul displeasing to God But all this you do against your selves even more than all the Devils in Hell do and yet you are too little offended with your selves see here the power of blind self-love If you loved your Neighbours as your selves you would agree as peaceably with your Neighbours almost as with your selves Love them more and you will bear more with them and provoke them less § 5. Direct 4. Compose your minds to Christian gentleness and meekness and suffer not Passion to Direct 4. make you either turbulent and unquiet to others or impatient and troublesome to your selves A gentle and quiet mind hath a gentle quiet tongue It can bear as much wrong as another can do according to its measure It is not in the power of Satan He cannot at his pleasure send his Emissary and by injuries or foule words procure it to sin But a Passionate person is frequently provoking or provoked A little thing maketh him injurious to others and a little injury from others disquieteth himself He is daily troubling others or himself or both Coals of fire go from his lips It is his very desire to provoke and vex those that he is angry with His Neighbours Peace and his own are the fuel of his anger which he consumeth in a moment To converse with him and not provoke him is a task for such as are eminently meek and self-denying He is as the leaves of the Aspe tree that never rest unless the day be very calm The smallest breath of an angry tongue can shake him out of his tranquillity and turn him into an Ague of disquietness The Sails of the Windmill are scarce more at the winds command than his heart and tongue is at the command of Satan He can move him almost when he please Bid but a Neighbour speak some hard speeches of him or one of his Family neglect or cross him and he is presently like the raging Sea whose waves cast up the mire and dirt An impatient man hath no security of his own peace for an hour Any enemy or angry person can take it from him when they please And being troubled he is troublesome to all about him If you do not in your patience possess your souls they will be at the mercy of every one that hath a mind to vex you Remember then that no peace can be expected without Patience nor patience without a meek and gentle mind Remember that the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is of great price in the sight of God 1 Pet. 3. 4. And that the wisdom from above is first pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated Jam. 3. 17. And that the eternal wisdom from above hath bid you learn of him to be meek and lowly in spirit as ever you would find rest to your souls Matth. 11. 28 29. And he that loseth his own peace is likest to break the peace of others § 6. Direct 5. Be careful to maintain that order of Government and obedience which is appointed Direct 5. of God for the preservation of Peace in families Churches and Common-wealths If you will break this vessel peace will flow out and be all quickly spilt What peace in Schools but by the authority of the Schoolmaster Or in Armies but by the authority of the General If an unwise and ungodly Governour do himself violate the foundations and boundaries of peace and either weakly or wilfully make dividing Laws no wonder if such wounds do spend the vital blood and spirits of that society It being more in the power of the Governours than of the Subject to destroy Peace or to preserve it And if the Subjects make not conscience of their duty to their Superiours the banks of peace will soon be broken down and all will be overwhelmed in tumult and confusion Take heed therefore of any thing which tendeth to subvert or weaken Government Disobedience or Rebellion seldome wanteth a fair pretence but it more seldome answereth the agents expectation It usually pretendeth the weaknesses miscarriages or injurious dealings of superiours But it as usually mendeth an inconvenience with a mischief It setteth fire on the house to burn up the Rats and Mice that troubled it It must be indeed a grievous malady that shall need such a mischief for its remedy Certainly it is no means of Gods appointment Take heed therefore of any thing which would dissolve these bonds Entertain not dishonourable thoughts of your Governours and receive not nor utter not any dishonourable words against them If they be faulty open not their shame Their honour is their interest and the peoples too Without it they will be disabled for effectual Government When subjects or servants or children are sawcily censorious of superiours and make themselves Judges of all their actions even those which they do not understand and when they presume to defame them and with petulant tongues to cast contempt upon them the fire is begun and the sacred bonds of peace are loosed When superiours rule with Piety Justice and true love to their subjects and Inferiours keep their place and rank and all conspire the publick good then Peace will fourish and not till then § 7. Direct 6. Avoid all revengeful and provoking words When the poyson of Asps is under mens Direct 6. lips Rom. 3. 13. no wonder if the hearers minds that are not sufficiently antidoted against it fester Death and life are in the power of the tongue Prov. 18. 21. When the tongue is as a Sword yea a sharp sword Psal. 57. 4. and when it is purposely whetted Psal. 64. 3. But no marvel if it pierce and wound them that are unarmed But by long forbearing a Prince is perswaded and a soft tongue breaketh the bone Prov. 25. 15. A railer is numbered with those that a Christian must not eat with 1 Cor. 5. For Christianity is so much for Peace that it abhorreth all that is against it Our Lord when he was reviled reviled not again and in this was our example 1 Pet. 2. 21 23. A scorning railing reproachful tongue is set as Iames saith 3. 6. on fire of Hell and it setteth on fire the course of nature even persons families Churches and Common-wealths Many a a ruined society may say by experience Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth James 3. 5. § 8. Direct 7. Engage not your selves too forwardly or eagerly in disputes nor at any time without Direct 7. necessity And when necessity calleth you set an extraordinary watch upon your passions Though disputing is lawful and sometime necessary to defend
obliging you hereunto As 1 Ioh. 3. 11 23. 4. 7 12 20 21. Direct 4. To this end let Christ be your continual study He is the full revelation of the Love of Direct 4. God the lively pattern of love and the best teacher of it that ever was in the world His incarnation life and sufferings his Gospel and Covenant his intercession and preparations for our heavenly felicity all are the great demonstrations of condescending matchless love Mark both Gods Love to us in him and his Love to man and you will have the best directive and incentive of your Love Direct 5. Observe all the good which is in every man Consider of the good of Humanity in his Direct 5. nature and the goodness of all that truth which he confesseth and of all that moral good which appeareth in his heart and life And let not oversight or partiality cause you to overlook it or make light of it For it is Goodness which is the only attractive of Love And if you overlook mens goodness you cannot love them Direct 6. Abhor and beware of a censorious disposition which magnifieth mens faults and vilifieth Direct 6. their virtues and maketh men seem worse than indeed they are For as this cometh from the want of love so doth it destroy that little which is left Direct 7. Beware of superstition and an erring judgement which maketh men place Religion where Direct 7. God never placed it For when this hath taught you to make duties and sins of your own humour and invention it will quickly teach you to love or hate men accordingly as they fit or cross your opinion and humour Thus many a Papist loveth not those that are not subjects of the Roman Monarch and that follow not all his irrational fopperies Many an Anabaptist loveth not those that are against his opinion of rebaptizing One loveth not those who are for Liturgies Forms of Worship and Church-musick and many love not those who are against them And so of other things of which more anon Direct 8. Avoid the company of censorious backbiters and proud contemners of their brethren Hearken Direct 8. not to them that are causelesly vilifying others aggravating their faults and extenuating their virtues For such proud supercilious persons religious or prophane are but the messengers of Satan by whom he intreateth you to hate your Neighbour or abate your love to him And to hear them speak evil of others is but to go hear a Sermon against Charity which may take with such hearts as ours before we are aware Direct 9. Keep still the motives and incentives of Love upon your minds Which I shall here next set Direct 9. before you Tit. 3. The Reasons or Motives of Love to our Neighbour Mot. 1. COnsider well of the Image and interest of God in man The worst man is his Creature Motive 1. and hath his natural Image though not his Moral Image And you should love the work for the workmans sake There is something of God upon all humane nature above the bruits It is intelligent and capable of knowing him of loving him and of serving him And possibly may be brought to do all this better than you can do it Undervalue nor the noble nature of man nor overlook not that of God which is upon them nor the interest which he hath in them Mot. 2. Consider well of Gods own Love to man He hateth their sins more than any of us and Motive 2. yet he loveth his workmanship upon them and maketh his sun to shine and his rain to fall on the evil and on the good on the just and on the unjust Matth. 5. 45. And what should more stir us up to Love than to be like to God Mot. 3. And think oft of the Love of Christ unto mankind yea even unto his enemies can you have Motive 3. a better example a livelyer incentive or a surer guide Mot. 4. Consider of our Unity of Nature with all men suitableness breedeth and maintaineth Motive 4. love Even Birds and Beasts do love their kind And man should much more have a love to man as being of the same specifick form Mot. 5. Love is the principle of doing good to others It enclineth men to beneficence And all men Motive 5. call him good who is inclined to do good Mot. 6. Love is the bond of all Societies Of Families Cities Kingdoms and Churches Without Mot. 6. Love they will be but enemies conjunct who are so much the more hurtful and pâ—rnicious to each other by how much they are nearer to each other The soul of Societies is gone when Love is gone Mot. 7. Consider why it is that you love your selves rationally and why it is that you would be Mot. 7. beloved of others And you will see that the same reasons will be of equal force to call for Love to others from you Mot. 8. What abundance of duty is summarily performed in Love And what abundance of sin is Mot. 8. avoided and prevented by it If it be the fulfilling of the Law it avoideth all the violations of the Law proportionably So far as you have Love you will neither dishonour superiors nor oppress interiors nor injure equals You will neither covet that which is your neighbours nor envy nor malice them nor defame nor backbite nor censure them unjustly nor will you rob them or defraud them nor withold any duty or kindness to them Mot. 9. Consider how much Love pleaseth God and why it is made so great a part of all your Mot. 9. duty and why the Gospel doth so highly commend it and so strictly command it and so terribly condemn the want of it And also how suitable a duty it is for you who are obliged by so much love of God These things well studied will not be without effect Mot. 10. Consider also that it is your own interest as well as your great duty 1. It is the soundness Mot. 10. and honesty of your hearts 2. It is pleasing to that God on whom only you depend 3. It is a condition of your receiving the saving benefits of his love 4. It is an amiable virtue and maketh you lovely to all sober men All men love a loving nature and hate those that hate and hurt their neighbours Love commandeth love and hurtfulness is hatefulness 5. It is a sweet delightful duty All Love is â—ssentiated with some complacence and delight 6 It tendeth to the ease and quietness of your lives What contentions and troubles will love avoid What peace and pleasure doth it cause in families neighbourhoods and all societies And what brawling and vexations come where it is wanting It will make all your neighbours and relations to be a comfort and delight to you which would be a burden and trouble if Love were absent 7. It maketh all other mens felicity and comforts to be yours If you love them as