power to make restitution and saith as Zacheus Luk. 19.8 If I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation I restore him four-fold Though flesh and blood perswade him to the contrary and though it leave him in want he will pay his debts and make restitution of that which is ill gotten as being none of his own He will not sell for as much as he can get but for as much as it is truly worth He will not take advantage of the weakness or ignorance or necessity of his neighbour He knoweth that a false ballance is abomination to the Lord but a just weight is his delight Prov. 11.1 He is afraid of believing ill reports and rebuketh the backbiter Prov. 25.23 He is apt to take part with any man behind his back who is not notoriously inexcusable not to justifie any evil but to shew his charity and his hatred of evil speaking especially where it can do no good He will not believe evil of another till the evidence do compell him to believe it If he have wronged any by incautelous words he readily confesseth his fault to him and asketh him forgiveness and is ready to make any just satisfaction for any wrong that he hath done He borroweth not when he seeth not a great probability that he is like to pay it Nor will remain in debt by retaining that which is another mans against his will without an absolute necessity Rom. 13.8 Owe no man any thing but to love one another For to borrow when he cannot pay is but to steal Begging is better than borrowing for such Psal. 37.21 The wicked borroweth and payeth not 2. And the weak Christian maketh conscience of Justice as well as acts of piety as knowing that God hath no need of our Sacrifices but loveth to see us do that which is good for humane society and which we have need of from each other But yet he hath more selfishness and partiality than the confirmed Christian hath and therefore is often overcome by temptations to unrighteous things As to stretch his Conscience for his commodity in buying or selling and concealing the faults of what he selleth and sometimes over-reaching others Especially he is ordinarily too censorious of others and apt to be credulous of evil reports and to be overbold and forward in speaking ill of men behind their backs and without a call especially against persons that differ from him in matters of Religion where he is usually most unjust and apt to go beyond his bounds Jam. 3.15 16. Tit. 3.2 Eph. 4.31 1 Pet. 2.1 3. The seeming Christian may have a seeming Justice But really he hath none but what must give place to his fleshly interest and if his honour and commodity and safety require it he will not stick to be unjust And that Justice which wanteth but a strong temptation to overturn it is almost as bad as none If he will not seize on Naboths Vineyard nor make himself odious by oppression or deceit yet if he can raise or enrich himself by secret consenage and get so fair a pretence for his injustice as shall cloak the matter from the fight of men he seldom sticketh at it It is an easie matter to make an Achan think that he doth no harm or a Gebazi think that he wrongeth no man in taking that which was offered and due Covetousness will not confess its name but will find some Reasonings to make good all the injustice which it doth 1 Tim. 6.5 2 King 5.19 20. XLVI 1. A Christian indeed is faithfull and laborious in his particular calling and that not out of a covetous minde but in obedience to God and that he may maintain his Family and be able to do good to others For God hath said In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread Gen. 3.19 And six dayes shalt thou labour Exod. 20.10 And with quietness men must work and eat their own bread and if any will not work neither should he eat 2 Thess. 3.10 11 12. Abraham and Noah and Adam laboured in a constant course of imployment He knoweth that a sanctified calling and labour is a help and not a hinderance to devotion and that the body must have work as well as the soul and that Religion must not be pretended for slothfull idleness nor against obedience to our Masters will Prov. 31. 2. The weak Christian is here more easily deceived and made believe that Religion will excuse a man from bodily labour and under the colour of devotion to live idly 2 Thess. 3.8 1 Tim. 5.13 They learn to be idle wandering about from house to house and not only idle but tatlers also and busie-bodies speaking things which they ought not Slothfulness is a sin much condemned in the Scriptures Ezek. 16.49 Prov. 24.30 18.9 21.25 Mat. 25.26 Rom. 12.11 3. The seeming Christian in his labour is ruled chiefly by his flesh If he be rich and it incline him most to sloth he maketh small conscience of living in idleness under the pretence of his Gentility or wealth But if the flesh incline him more to Covetousness he will be laborious enough but it shall not be to please God by obedience but to increase his Estate and enrich himself and his Posterity whatever better reason he pretend XLVII 1. A Christian indeed is exactly conscionable in the dutyes of his relation to others in the family and place of his abode If he be a husband he is loving and patient and faithfull to his wife If he be a father he is carefull of the holy education of his children If he be a Master he is just and mercifull to his servants and carefull for the saving of their souls If he be a childe or servant he is obedient trusty diligent and carefull as well behind his Parents or his Masters back as before his face He dare not lie nor steal nor deceive nor neglect his duty nor speak dishonourably of his Superiors though he were sure he could conceal it all For he knoweth that the fifth Commandement is enforced with a special Promise Eph. 6.2.5.9 And that a bad Childe or a bad Servant a bad Husband or Wife a bad Parent or Master cannot be a good Christian Col. 3.18 19 c. 4.1 1 Pet. 2.18 2. But weak Christians though sincere are ordinarily weak in this part of their duty and apt to yield to temptations and carry themselves proudly stubbornly idly disobediently as eye-servants that are good in sight or to be unmercifull to inferiours and neglecters of their souls And to excuse all this from the faults of those that they have to do with and lay all upon others as if the fault of husband wife parent master or servant would justifie them in theirs and passion and partiality would serve for innocency 3. And the Hypocrite ordinarily sheweth his hypocrisies by being false in his relations to man while he pretendeth to be pious and obedient unto God He is a bad master
Christians though their Worship hath errors and faults repugnant to the right order and manner of Worship so be it you joyn not in that Worship which is substantially evil and such as God doth utterly disown Or that you commit no actual sin your selves or that you approve not of the errors and faults of the Worshippers and justifie not their smallest evil Or that you prefer not defective faulty Worship before that which is more pure and agreeable to the Will of God For while all the Worshippers are faulty and imperfect all their Worship will be so too And if your actual sin when you Pray or Preach defectively your selves doth not signify that you approve your faultiness much less will your presence prove that you allow of the faultiness of others The business that you come upon is to joyn with a Christian Congregation in the use of those Ordinances which God hath appointed supposing that the Ministers and Worshippers will all be sinfully defective in method order words or circumstances And to bear with that which God doth bear with and not to refuse that which is Gods for the adherent faults of men no more than you will refuse every dish of meat which is unhansomly Cooked as long as there is no poyson in it and you prefer it not before better 1 Cor. 1.10 and 3.1 2 3. with 11.17 18 21. Rom. 15.1 2. DIRECT XIV Keep up a constant Government over your Thoughts and Tongues especially against those particular sins which you are stronglyest tempted to and which you see other Christians most overtaken with KEep your Thoughts imployed upon somthing that is good and profitable either about some useful Truths or about some duty to God or man of your general or particular Calling yea about all these in their several seasons Learn how to watch your thoughts and stop them at their first excursions and how to quicken them and make them serviceable to every grace and every duty You can never improve your solitary hours if you have not the Government of your Thoughts And as the Thoughts must be governed because they are the first and intimate actings of good or evil so the Tongue must be Governed as the first expresser of the mind and the first instrument of good or hurt to others Especially take heed of these sins which the faultiness of most Professors of Religion doth warn you to avoid 1. An ordinary course of vain jesting and unprofitable talk 2. Provoking passionate inconsiderate words that tend to kindle wrath in others 3. Backbiting censuring and speaking evil of others without any just call when it is either upon uncertain reports or uncharitable suspition or tendeth more to hurt than good 4. A forward venting of our own conceits and a confident pleading for our uncertain unproved Opinions in Religion and a contentious wrangling for them as if the Kingdom of God lay in them And a forwardness in all company to be the Speakers rather than the Hearers and to talk in a Magisterial Teaching way as if we took our selves to be the wisest and others to have need to learn of us But especially take heed of speaking evil of those that have wronged you or of those that differ from you in some tollerable Opinions in Religion And hate that devilish uncharitable vice which maketh many ready to believe any thing or say any thing be it never so false of those that are against their Sect yea of whole parties of men that differ from them when there is not one of a thousand of all the party that ever they were acquainted with or ever could prove the thing by of which they are accused By the means of these bold uncharitable reports the Devil hath unspeakably gained against Christ and the Kingdom of malice hath won upon the Kingdom of Love and most Christians are easier known to be factious by hating or slandering one another than they can be known to be Christs Disciples by loving one another And while every Sect without remorse doth speak reproachfully and hatefully of the rest they learn hereby to hate one another and harden the Infidel and ungodly world in hating and speaking evil of them all So that a Turk or Heathen need no other witness of the odiousness of all Christians than the venemous words which they speak against each other And as foul words in quarrels prepare for blows so these malicious invectives upon differences in Religion prepare for the cruellest persecutions From my own observation which with a grieved soul I have made in this Generation I hereby give warning to this and all succeeding Ages that if they have any regard to Truth or Charity they take heed how they believe any factious partial Historian or Divine in any evil that he saith of the party which he is against For though there be good and credible persons of most parties yet you shall find that passion and partiality prevaileth against Conscience Truth and Charity in most that are sick of this Disease And that the envious zeal which is described Jam. 3. doth make them think they do God service first in believing false reports and then in verting them against those that their zeal or laction doth call the enemies of truth so that there is little credit to be given to their reproaches farther than some better evidence is brought to prove the thing Nay it would astonish a man to read the impudent lies which I have often read obtruded upon the World with such confidence that the Reader will be tempted to think Surely all this cannot be false Yea about publick words or actions where you would think that the multitude of Witnesses would deter them from speaking it if it were not true and yet all as false as tongue can speak Therefore believe not Pride or Faction or Malice in any evil that it saith unless you have better evidence of the truth Most Christian is that advice of Dr. H. More that all Parties of Christians would mark all the Good which is in other Parties and be more forward to speak of that than of the Evil And this would promote the work of Charity in the Church and the interest of Christianity in the World whereas the overlooking of all that 's good and aggravating all the evil and falsly seigning more than is true is the work of greatest service to the Devil and of greatest enmity to Christianity and Love that I know commonly practised in the World Keep your tongues from all such hellish work as this DIRECT XV. Let every state of life and Relation that you are in be sanctifyed unto God and conscionably used And to that end understand the advantages and duties of every condition and Relation and the sins and hinderances and dangers which you are most lyable to THe duties of our Relations are a great part of the work of a Christians life As Magistrates and Subjects Pastors and Flocks Parents and Children Husband and Wife Masters and
Servants as Superiors in Gifts or Places or Inferiors or equals as Neighbors and companions In our Teaching and learning ruling and obeying buying and selling Be conscionable in all these which are your own Relations if you will live as Christians and be acceptable unto God An ungodly or oppressing Magistrate a murmuring rebellious Subject an ungodly negligent or factious Pastor an unteachable refractory ungodly Flock a Husband Parent or Master without Religion Love or Justice a Wife or Child or Servant without Love and dutiful obedience and faithful diligence a proud contemptuous Superior a malicious censorious inferiour an unjust uncharitable Neighbor a deceitful buyer or seller borrower or lender and a self-seeking friend and seducing unprofitable companion are all as far from pleasing God by the rest of their works or profession of Religion as they are from being obedient to his will They provoke him to abhor their Prayers and Profession and to tell them that he will rather have Obedience than Sacrifice If you are false to men you are not true to God It is he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness that is accepted of him and the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God DIRECT XVI Live as those that have all their powers receivings and opportunities to do Good with in the World and must be answerable how they have improved all And as those that believe that the more Good they do the more they do receive and the greater is the honour the profit and the pleasure of their lives TO do no harm is an honour which is common to a stone or a clod of Clay with the most innocent man If this were all the excellency that you aim at it were better that you had never been born for then you would certainly have done no harm Remember that to do good is the highest imitation of God supposing that it proceed from Holy Love and be done to the Pleasing and Glorifying of God that the Principle and the End be sutable to the work Remember who hath told you that it is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20.35 And hath promised that He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward and he that receiveth a Righteous man in the name of a Righteous man shall receive a Righteous mans reward and whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a Cap of cold water only in the name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward supposing that he have no better to give Matth. 10.41 42. Give to every man that asketh of thee according to thy ability Give and it shall be given to you Luke 6.30 38. and 12.33 Take that day or hour as lost in which you do no good directly or preparatorily And take that part of your estate as lost with which directly or remotely you do no good Remember how the Judgment must pass on you at last according to the improvement of your several Talents Matth. 25. When your time is past and your estates are gone or your understandings or your strength decayed and your power and greatness is levelled with the poorest it will be an unspeakable comfort to you if you are able to say We laid them out sincerely to our Masters use and an unspeakable terror to you to say They were lost and cast away on the service of the Flesh. If therefore you are Rulers and are entrusted with Power study how to do all the good with your Power that possibly you can If you are Ministers of Christ lay out your time and strength and parts in doing good to the Souls of all about you study how you may be most serviceable to the Church and Cause of Christ. If you are rich men study how to do all the good with your Riches that possibly you can do not violating the order appointed you by God In your Neighbourhoods and in all your Families and Relations study to do the greatest good you can Take it thankfully as a great mercy to your selves when opportunity to do good is offered you And content not your selves to do a little while you are able to do more Gal. 6.7 8 9 10. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his Flesh shall of the Flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap everlasting Life And let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not As we have therefore opportunity let us do good to all men especially unto them who are of the houshold of Faith 2 Cor. 9.6 He which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully Every man according as he purposeth in his heart so let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a chearful giver Heb. 13.16 To do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased Ephes. 3.10 For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works which God hath ordained that we should walk in them Let doing good be the business and imployment of your lives Preferring still the publick good before the private good of any and the good of mens Souls before that of the body But yet neglecting none but doing the lesser in order to the greater Object But I am a poor obscure person that have neither abilities of mind or body or estate and what good can I do Answ. There is no rational person that is not entrusted with One Talent at the least Matth. 25. and that is not in a capacity of doing good in the World if they have but hearts and be but willing If you had neither money to give nor tongues to speak for God and to provoke others to do good yet a Holy humble heavenly patient blameless life is a powerful means of doing good by shewing the excellency of Grace and convincing the Ungodly and stopping the mouths of the enemies of Piety and honouring the waies of God in the World Such a holy harmless exemplary life is a continual and a powerful Sermon And for giving if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not 2 Cor. 8.12 If you are unseignedly willing to give if you had it God taketh it as done What you would have given is set down on your account as given indeed The Widdows two mites were praised by Christ as a bountiful gift and a Cup of cold water is not unrewarded to the willing Soul No one therefore is excusable that liveth unprofitably in the World But yet men of Power and Parts and Wealth have the greatest reckoning to make Their ten Talents must have a proportionable improvement It is a great deal of good that they must do For to whomsoever much is given