measures every man on earth is a false Worshipper that is he offereth God a worship some way faulty and imperfect and hath some sin in his worshipping of God And sin is a thing that God requireth not but forbiddeth even in the smallest measures Quest. 9. Which must I judge a true Church of Christ and which a false Church Quest. 9. Answ. The Universal Church is but one and is the whole society of Christians as united to Christ their only Head And this cannot be a false Church But if any other set up an Usurper as the Universal Head and so make another Policy and Church this is a false Church formally or in its policy But yet the members of this false Church or policy may some of them as Christians be also members of the true Church of Christ And thus the Roman Church as Papal is a false Catholick Church haveing the Policy of an Usurper but as Christians they may be members of the true Catholick Church of Christ. But for a particular Church which is but part of the Universal that is a true Church considered meerly as an ungoverned Community which is a true part of the Catholick prepared for a Pastor but yet being without one But that only is a true Political Church which consisteth of Professed Christians conjoyned under a true Pastor for Communion in the profession of true Christianity and for the true worshipping of God and orderly walking for their mutual assistance and salvation Quest. 10. Whom must we judge true Prophets and Pastors of the Church Quest. 10. Answ. He is a true Prophet who is sent by God and speaketh truth by immediate supernatural revelation or inspiration And he is a false Prophet who either falsly saith that he hath Divine revelations or inspiration or prophesieth falshood as from God And he is a true Pastor at the bar of God who is 1. Competently qualified with abilities for the Office 2. Competently disposed to it with willingness and desire of success And hath right ends in undertaking and discharging it 3. Who hath a just admission by true Ordination of Pastors and Consent of the flock And he is to be accounted a true Pastor in foro Ecclesiae in the Churches judgement whom the Church judgeth to have all these qualifications and thereupon admitteth him into possession of the place till his incapacity be notorious or publickly and sufficiently proved or he be removed or made uncapable Tit. 2. Directions for the Cure of sinful Censoriousness Direct 1. MEddle not at all in judging of others without a call Know first whether it be any Direct 1. of your work If not be afraid of those words of your Judge Matth. 7. 1 2 3 4 5. Iudge not that ye be not judged For with what judgement you judge you shall be judged c. And Rom. 14. 4. Who art thou that judgest another mans servant To his own Master he standeth or falleth And vers 10. 13. But why dost thou judge thy brother Or why dost thou set at nought thy brother We shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ Every one of us shall give account of himself to God Let us not therefore judge one another any more 1 Cor. 4. 3 4 5. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans judgement Therefore judge nothing before the time till the Lord come who both will bring to light the bidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts Col. 2. 16. Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moon or Sabbath Quest. But when have I a call to Iudge another Answ. You may take the answer to this from the answer to Quest. 10. Chap. 23. Tit. 1. 1. If your Office or place require it as a Magistrate Pastor Parent Master Tutor c. 2. If the safety of the Church or your neighbour do require it 3. If the good of the sinner require it that you may seek his repentance and reformation 4. If your own preservation or welfare or any other duty require it Direct 2. Keep up an humble sense of your own faults and that will make you compassionate to Direct 2. others He that is truly vile in his own eyes is least inclined to vilifie others And he that judgeth himself with the greatest penitent severity is the least inclined to be censorious to his brother Pride is the common cause of censoriousness He that saith with the Pharisee I fast twice a week and pay tythe of all that I have I am no adulterer c. will also say I am not as other men nor as this Publican when the true penitent findeth so much of his own to be condemned that he smiteth on his own breast and saith God be merciful to me a sinner The prouder self-conceited sort of Christians are ever the most censorious of their neighbours Direct 3. Be much therefore at home in searching and watching and amending your own hearts Direct 3. and then you will find so much to do about your selves that you will have no mind or leisure to be censuring others Whereas the superficial hypocrite whose Religion is in externals and is unacquainted with his heart and Heaven is so little employed in the true work of a Christian that he hath leisure for the work of a censorious Pharisee Direct 4. Labour for a deep experimental insight into the nature of Religion and of every duty Direct 4. For no men are so censorious as the ignorant who know not what they say whilest experienced persons know those difficulties and other reasons which calm their minds As in common business no man will sooner find fault with a Workman in his work than idle praters who least understand it So is it commonly in matters of Religion Women and young men that never saw into the great mysteries of Divinity but have been lately changed from a vicious life and have neither acquaintance with the hard points of Religion nor with their own ignorance of them are the common proud censurers of their brethren much wiser than themselves and of all men that are more moderate and peaceable than themselves and are more addicted to Unity and more averse to Sects and separations than they Study harder and wait till you grow up to the experience of the aged and you will be less censorious and more peaceable Direct 5. Think not your selves fit Iudges of that which you understand not And think not proudly Direct 5. that you are liker to understand the difficulties in Religion with your short and lazy studies than those that in reading meditation and prayer have spent their lives in searching after them Let not pride make you abuse the Holy Ghost by pretending that he hath given you more wisdome in a little time and with little means and diligence than your betters have by the
a duty As to commit Idolatry to blaspheam God to deny Christ to deny â—â—â—â—â—criptâ—râ—â— to hatâ— or râ—proach or oppose a holy life to be perjured to approve or justifie the â—â—â—â— oâ—â—thâ—râ— c. It can be no duty which cannot be done without the willful yielding to â—â— committing these or any known sin § 48. Rule 4. There are some Duties so great and clear and consâ—â—â—â—t to all that none but a prâ—fâ—â—gâ—â—e or 〈…〉 ne that is fearfully pâ—ysâ—ned with sin can make a doubt of it deliberately Tâ—â—â—â— therefore come not within the case before us § 49. Rule 5. Iâ— Mâ—â—al evil be compared only with Natural Good or Moral Good with Natuâ—â—â—â— Evil there iâ— no dâ—ubt to be made of the case the least sin having more evil in it than the Prospeâ—â—â—â—y or Lives of miâ—â—â—â—ns of men have Good considered in themselves as Natural good and the least â—uâ—â— tâ— God having more good in it than the death of millions of men as such hath evil For the God of duty and the evil of sin are greatned by their respect to God and the other lessened as being 〈…〉 only uâ—to men and with respect to them § 50. Rule 6. Where I am in an equal degree uncertain of the Duty to be omitted and of the sin 〈…〉 committed it is a Greater sin to venture doubtfully upâ—n the committing of a positive sin that is Great in case it prove a sin than upon the omitting a duty which in case it prove a â—uty 〈…〉 Aâ—d on the contrary it is worse to venture on the omitting of a Great duty than on the committing of a small positive sin As suppose my own or my neighbours house be on â—â—re and I am in doubt whether I may take another mans water to quench it against his will Oâ— if my own or my childs or neighbours life be in danger by famine and I doubt whether I may take another mans apples or pears or ears of corn or his bread against his will to save my own lâ—â—e or anothers Really the thing is allready made Lawful or Unlawful which I now determine not by the Law of God But in my unavoidable uncertainty if I be equally doubtful on both sâ—des it is a far greater sin if it prove a sin to omit the saving of the House or Life than to takâ— anâ—ther mans water or fruit or bread that hath plenty if this prove the sin So if King and Nobles were in a ship which would be taken and all destroyed by Pirates unless I told a lie and said They are other persons If I were equally in doubt which course to take to lie or not though sin have more evil than all our Lives have good yet a sinful omitting to save all their lives is a greater sin than a sinful telling of such a lie Suppose I am in doubt whether I may lawfully save an Ox or Asse or a Mans life by labour on the Sabbath day Or David had doubted whether he might eat the consecrated shew-bread in his necessity It 's clear that the sinful neglect of a mans life is worse than the sinful violation of a Sabbath or the sinful use of the consecrated bread If I equally doubt whether I may use a ceremony or disorderly defective form of prayer and whether I should preach the Gospel to save mens souls where there are not others enough to do it it 's clear that sinfully to use a ceremony or disorderly form of prayer is caeteris paribus a lesser sin than sinfully to neglect to preach the Gospel and to save mens souls On the other side suppose I dwelt in Italy and could not have leave to preach the Gospel there unless I would subscribe to the Trent confession or the canon third of Concil Lateran Sub Innocent 3. One of which requireth men to swear for Transubstantiation and to interpret the Scriptures only according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers who never unanimously consented in any exposition of the greatest part of the Scriptures at all The other dâ—â—râ—â—th the Popes deposing Temporal Lords and disobliging their subjects from their allegiance On one side I doubt whether by subscribing I become not guilty of justifying Idolatry Perjury and Rebellion and making my self guilty of the perjury of many thousand others On the other side I doubt whether I may disobey my Superiors who command me this subscription and may forbear preaching the Gospel when yet I apprehend that there are others to preach it and that my worth is not so considerable as that there should be any great loss in putting me out and putting in another and God needeth not me to do him service but hath instruments at command and that I know not how soon he may restore my liberty or that I may serve him in another Country or else in sufferings at home in such a case the sinful justifying of Perjury or Rebellion in whole Countries is a far greater sin than the sinful omission of my preaching for he that justifieth Perjury destroyeth the bonds of all societies and turneth loose the subjects against their Soveraigns Or if I being a Minister were forbidden to preach the Gospel where there is necessity unless I will commit some sin if I doubt on one side whether I should disobey my Superiors and on the other whether I should forbear my calling and neglect the souls of â—inners it is a lesser sin caeteris paribus to disobey a man sinfully than to disobey God and to be cruel to the souls of men to their perdition sinfully Or if I have made a vow and sworn that I will cast away a penny or a shilling and I am in doubt on one side whether I be not bound to keep it as a Vow and on the other whether it be not a sin to keep it because to cast away any of my talents is a sin in this case the sinful casting away of a penny or a shilling is not so great a sin as sinful Perjury If Daniel and the three witnesses had been in equal doubt whether they should obey the King or Pray to God as Daniel 6. and renounce the bowing to his Idol Daniel 3. The sinful forbearance of prayer as then commanded and the sinful bowing to the Idol had been a greater sin than a sinful disobeying the Kings command in such a case if they had mistaken § 51. Rule 7. If I cannot discern whether the Duty to be omitted or the sin to be committed be Rule materâ—ally and in other respects the greater then that will be to me the greater of the sins which my doubting Conscience doth most strongly suspect to be sin in its most impartial deliberation For if other things be equal certainly the sinning against more or less conviction or doubting must make an inequality As if I could not discern whether my subscription to the Trent confession or my forbearing to preach or my preaching though prohibited were the greater sin
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
mercies to ask them and those that have received them to be thankful for them Obj. So they may do singly Answ. It is not only as single persons but as a society that they receive the meroy Therefore not only as single persons but as a society should they pray and give thanks Therefore should they do it in that manner as may be most fit for a society to do it in and that is together conjunctly that it may be indeed a family Sacrifice and that each part may see that the rest joyn with them And especially that the Ruler may be satisfied in this to whom the oversight of the rest is committed to see that they all joyn in Prayer which in secret he cannot see it being not fit that secret prayer should have Spectatours or Witness that is should not be secret But this I intended to make another Arment by it self which because we are faln on it I will add next Arg. 3. If God hath given charge to the Ruler of the Family to see that the rest do worship him in that Family then ought the Ruler to cause them solemnly or openly to joyn in that Worship But God hath given charge to the Ruler of the Family to see that the rest do worship him in that Family Therefore c. The reason of the Consequence is because otherwise he can with no convenience see that they do it For 1. It is not fit that he should stand by while they pray secretly 2. Nor are they able vocally to do it in most Families but have need of a leader it being not a thing to be expected of every Woman and Child and Servant that hath wanted good education that they should beable to pray without a Guide so as is fit for others to hear 3. It would take up almost all the time of the Ruler of many Families to go to them one after another and stand by them while they pray till all have done What man in his wits can think this to be so fit a course as for the Family to joyn together the Ruler being the mouth The Antecedent I prove thus 1. The fourth Commandment requireth the Ruler of the Family not only to see that himself sanctifie the Sabbath day but also that his Son and Daughter and Man servant and Maid servant his Cattle that is so far as they are capable yea and the Stranger that is within his gates should do it 2. It was committed to Abrahams charge to see that all in his Family were Circumcised So was it afterward to every Ruler of a Family insomuch as the Angel threatned Moses when his Son was uncircumcised 3. The Ruler of the Family was to see that the Passeover was kept by every one in his Family Exod. 12. 2 3 c. and so the Feast of Weeks Deut. 16. 11 12. All that is said before tendeth to prove this and much more might be said if I thought it would be denyed Arg. 4. If God prefer and would have us prefer the prayers and praises of many conjunct before the prayers and praises of those persons dividedly then it is his will that the particular persons of Christian Families should prefer conjunct prayer and praises before disjunct But the Antecedent is true Therefore so is the consequent Or thus take it for the same Argument or another If it be the Duty of Neighbours when they have occasion and opportunity rather to joyn together in praises of common concernment than to do it dividedly then much more is this the Duty of Families But it is the Duty of Neighbours Therefore In the former Argument the reason of the consequence is because that way is to be taken that God is best pleased with The reason of the consequence in the latter is because familie members are more nearly related than neighbours and have much more advantage and opportunity for conjunction and more ordinary reasons to urge them to it from the conjunction of their interests and affairs There is nothing needs proof but the Antecedent which I shall put past all Doubt by these Arguments 1. Col. 3. 16. Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts unto the Lord. Here is one Duty of praise required to be done together and not apart only I shall yet make further use of this text anon 2. Acts 12. 12. Many were gathered together praying in Maryes house when Peter came to the door this was not an Assembly of the whole Church but a small part They judged it better to pray together than alone 3. Acts 20. 36. Paul prayed together with all the Elders of the Church of Ephesus when he had them with him and did not choose rather to let them pray each man alone 4. Iames 5. 15 16. Iames commands the sick to send for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him and the prayer of the faithful shall save the sick c. He doth not bid send to them to pray for you but he would have them joyn together in doing it 5. Church prayers are preferred before private on this ground and we commanded not to forsake the Assembling of our selves together Heb. 10. 25. â—6 Striving together in prayer is desired Rom. 15. 30. 7. Matth. 18. 20. For where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them 8. Therefore Christ came among the Disciples when they were gathered together after his resurrection And sent down the Holy Ghost when they were gathered together Acts 2. And they continued with one accord in prayer and supplication Acts 1. 14. 24. 2. 42. And When they had prayed the place was shaken where they had assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost c. Act. 4. 31. 9. Is not this implied in Christs directing his Disciples to pray in the plural number Our Father c. Give us this day c. 10. The very necessitie of the persons proves it in that few societies are such but that most are unable to express their own wants so largely as to affect their hearts so much as when others do it that are better stored with affection and expression And this is one of Gods ways for communion and communication of grace that those that have much may help to warm and kindle those that have less Experience telleth us the benefit of this As all the body is not an eye or hand so not a tongue and therefore the tongue of the Church and of the family must speak for the whole body not but that each one ought to pray in secret too But 1. There the heart without the tongue may better serve turn 2. They still ought to prefer conjunct prayer And 11. the communion of Saints is an Article of our Creed which binds us to acknowledge it fit to do as much as we can of Gods work in communion with the Saints not going
be any deformity of the body or any thing unseemly in behaviour or if God should visit them with any loathsom sores or sickness they must for all that love each other yea and take pleasure in their converse It is not a true friend that leaveth you in adversity nor is it true Conjugal affection which is blasted by a loathsom sickness The Love of Mothers to their Children will make them take pleasure in them notwithstanding their sickness or uncleanness And so should their Love do between a Husband and his Wife He that considereth that his own flesh is lyable to the same diseases and like ere long to be as loathsome will do as he would be done by and not turn away in time of her affliction from her that is become his flesh Much less excusable is the crime of them that when they have nothing extraordinary to distaste or disaffect them are weary of the company of one another and had rather be in their Neighbours houses than in their own and find more pleasure in the company of a stranger than of one another § 7. Direct 5. It it a great duty of Husbands and Wives to live in quietness and peace and avoid Direct 5. all occasions of wrath and discord Because this is a duty of so great importance I shall first open to you the great necessity of it and then give you more particular Directions to perform it § 8. I. It is a duty which your Union or neer relation doth specially require Will you fall out Against Disâ—â—â—â—tion with your selves cannot you agree with your own flesh 2. Your discord will be your pain and the vexation of your lives Like a Bile or Wound or Fracture in your own bodies which will pain you till it 's cured You will hardly keep Peace in your minds when Peace is broken so near you in your family As you would take heed of hurting your selves and as you would hasten the Cure when you are hurt so should you take heed of any breach of Peace and quickly seek to heal it when it 's broken 3. Dissension tends to cool your Love Oft falling out doth tend to leave a habit of distaste and aversness on the mind Wounding is separating And to be tyed together by any outward bonds when your Hearts are separated is but to be tormented and to have the insides of adversaries while you have conjugal outsides As the difference between my house and my prison is that I willingly and with delight dwell in the one but am unwillingly confined to the other such will be the difference between a quiet and an unquiet life in your married state It turneth your dwelling and delight into a Prison where you are chained to those calamities which in a free condition you might over-run 4. Dissention between the Husband and the Wife do disorder all their Family affairs They are like Oxen unequally yoaked that can rid no work for striving with one another Nothing is well done because of the variance of those that should do it or oversee it 5. It exceedingly unfitteth you for the Worship of God You are not fit to pray together nor to confer together of Heavenly things nor to be helpers to each others souls I need not tell you this you feel it by experience Wrath and bitterness will not allow you so much exercise of love and holy composedness of mind as every one of these duties do require 6. Dissention disableth you to govern your Families aright Your Children and Servants will take example by you or think they are at liberty to do what they list when they find you taken up with such work between your selves And they will think you unfit to reprove them for their faults when they see you guilty of such faults and folly of your own Nay you will become the shame and secret derision of your Family and bring your selves into contempt 7. Your Dissentions will expose you to the malice of Satan and give him advantage for manifold temptations A house divided cannot stand An Army divided is easily conquered and made a prey to the Enemy You cannot foresee what abundance of sin you put your selves in danger of By all this you may see what Dissentions between Husband and Wife do tend to and how they should be avoided II. For the avoiding of them observe these Sub-directions 1. Keep up your conjugal Love in a Directions against Distâ—ntion constant heat and vigour Love will suppress wrath You cannot have a bitter mind upon small provocations against those that you dearly love much less can you proceed to reviling words or to averseness and estrangedness or any abuse of one another Or if a breach and wound be unhappily made the balsamick quality of Love will heal it But when Love once cooleth small matters exasperate and breed distastes 2. Both Husband and Wife must mortifie their Pride and Passion which are the causes of Impatiency and must pray and labour for a Humble meek and quiet spirit For it is the diseased temper of the heart that causeth dissentions more than the occasions or matter of offence do A proud heart is troubled and provoked by every word or carriage that seemeth to tend to their undervaluing A piâ—vish froward mind is like a sore and ulcerated member that will be hurt if it be toucht He that must live near such a sore diseased impatient mind must live even as the nurse doth with the child that maketh it her business to rock it and lull and sing it quiet when it â—ryeth For to be angry with it will do no good And if you have married one of such a sick or childish temper you must resolve to bear and use them accordingly But no Christian should bear with such a vexatious malady in themselves nor be patient with such impatiency of mind Once get the victory over your selves and get the cure of your own impatience and you will easily keep peace with one another 3. Remember still that you are both diseased persons full of infirmities and therefore expect the fruit of those infirmities in each other and make not a strange matter of it as if you had never known of it before If you had married one that is lame would you be angry with her for halting Or if you had married one that had a putride Ulcer would you fall out with her because it stinketh Did you not know before hand that you married a person of such weaknesses as would yield you some matter of daily tryal and offence If you could not bear this you should not have married her If you resolved that you could bear it then you are obliged to bear it now Resolve therefore to bear with one another as remembring that you took one another as sinful frail imperfect persons and not as Angels or as blameless and perfect 4. Remember still that you are one flesh and therefore be no more offended with the words or failings
strait or penurious therefore she will dispose of it without his consent this is thievery disobedience and injustice Quest. But as the case standeth with us in England hath the Wife a joint propriety or not Quest. 1. Answ. Three wayes at least she may have a propriety 1. By a reserve of what was her own before which however some question it may in some cases be done in their agreement at marriage 2. By the Law of the Land 3. By the Husbands consent or donation What the Law of the Land saith in this case I leave to the Lawyers But it seemeth to me that his words at Marriage with all my worldly goods I thee endow do signifie his consent to make her a joynt-proprietor And his consent is sufficient to the collation of a title to that which was his own Unless any can prove that Law or custome doth otherwise expound the words as an empty formality and that at the contract this was or should be known to her to be the sense And the Laws allowing the wife the third part upon death or separation doth intimate a joynt-propriety before Quest. 2. If the Husband live upon unlawful gain as cheating stealing robbing by the high-way c. Quest. 2. is not the wife guilty as a joynt proprietor in retaining such ill-gotten goods if she know it And is she bound to accuse her Husband or to restore such goods Answ. Her duty is first to admonish her husband of his sin and danger and endeavour his repentance in the mean time disclaiming all consent and reception of the goods And if she cannot prevail for his Repentance Restitution and Reformation she hath a double duty to perform the one is to help them to their goods whom he hath injured and robbed by prudent and just means The other is to prevent his robbing of others for the time to come But how these must be done is the great difficulty 1. If she foresee or may do that either by her husbands displeasure or by the cruel revenge of the injured party the hurt of discovering the fraud or robbery will be greater than the good then I think that she is not bound to discover it But by some secret indirect way to help the owner to his own if it may be done without a greater hurt 2. To prevent his sin and other mens future suffering by him she seemeth to me to be bound to reveal her husbands sinful purposes to the Magistrate if she can no other way prevail with him to forbear My reasons are Because the keeping of Gods Law and the Law of the Land and the publick order and good and the preventing of our Neighbours hurt by Robbery or fraud and so the interest of honesty and right is of greater importance than any duty to her Husband or preservation of her own peace which seemeth to be against it But then I must suppose that she liveth under a Magistrate who will take but a just revenge For if she know the Laws and Magistrate to be so unjust as to punish a fault with death which deserveth it not she is not to tell such a Magistrate but to preserve her Neighbours safety by some other way of intimation If any one think that a Wife may in no case accuse a husband to the hazzard of his life or estate let them 1. Remember what God obliged Parents to do against the lives of incorrigible Children Deut. 21. 2. And that the honour of God and the lives of our Neighbours should be preferred before the life of one offender and their estates before his estate alone 3. And that the light of Reason telleth us that a Wife is to reveal a Treason against the King which is plotted by a Husband and therefore also the robbing of the Kings Treasury or deceiving him in any matter of great concernment And therefore in due proportion the Laws and common good and our Neighbours welfare are to be preserved by us though against the nearest relation Only all due tenderness of the life and reputation of the Husband is to be preserved in the manner of proceedings as far as will stand with the interest of justice and the common good Quest. 3. May the Wife go hear Sermons when the Husband forbiddeth her Quest. 3. Answ. There are some Sermons which must not be heard There are some Sermons which may be heard and must when no greater matter doth divert us And there are some Sermons which must be heard whoever shall forbid it Those which must not be heard are such as are Heretical ordinarily and such as are superfluous and at such times when greater duties call us another way Those which may be heard are either occasional Sermons or such Lectures as are neither of Necessity to our selves nor yet to the owning of God and his publick Worship One that liveth where there are daily or hourly Sermons may hear them as oft as suiteth with their condition and their other duties But in this case the Command of a Husband with the inconveniences that will follow disobeying him may make it a duty to forbear But that we do sometimes publickly owne Gods Worship and Church-Ordinances and receive Ministerial teaching for our Edification is of double necessity that we dâ—ny not God and that we betray not or desert not our own souls And this is especially necessary ordinarily on the Lords Dayes which are appointed for these necessary uses And here the Husband hath no power to forbid the Wife nor should she formally obey his prohibition But yet as affirmatives bind not ad semper and no duty is a duty at every season so it is possible that on the Lords Day it may extraordinarily become a duty to forbear Sermons or Sacraments or other publick Worship As when any greater duty calleth us away As to quench a fire and to save mens lives and to save our Countrey from an enemy in a time of War and to save our own lives if we knew the assembly would be assaulted or to preserve our liberty for greater service Christ â—et us to learn the meaning of this Lesson I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice In such a case also a mischief may be avoided even from a Husband by the omission of a duty at that time when it would be no duty for this is but a transposition of it But this is but an act of prudent self-preservation and not an act of formal obedience Quest. 4. If a Woman have a Husband so incorrigible in Vice as that by long tryal she findeth that Quest. 4. speaking against it maketh him worse and causeth him to abuse her is she bound to continue her disswasion or to fâ—rbear Answ. That is not here a duty which is not a means to do some good And that is no means which we know before hand is like iâ— not certain to do no good or to do more harm We must not by weariness laziness or â—ensoriousness take a case to
all your dayes § 2. Direct 2. Remember that you are entring into the way to everlasting life and not into a place Direct 2. of happiness or continuance Presently therefore set your hearts on Heaven and make it the design of all your lives to live in Heaven with Christ for ever O happy you if God betimes will throughly teach you to know what it is that must make you happy and if at your first setting out your End be right and your faces be Heavenward Remember that as soon as you begin to live you are hasting toward the end of your lives Even as a Candle as soon as it beginneth to burn and the Hour-glass as soon as it is turned is wasting and hasting to its end So as soon as you begin to live your lives are in a Consumption and posting towards your final hour As a runner as soon as he beginneth his race is hasting to the end of it so are your lives even in your youngest time It is another kind of life that you must live for ever than this trifling pitiful fleshly life Prepare therefore speedily for that which God sent you hither to prepare for O happy you if you begin betime and go on with cheerful resolution to the end It is blessed wisdom to be wise betime and to know the worth of Time in childhood before any of it be wasted and lost upon the fooleries of the world Then you may grow wise indeed and be treasuring up understanding and growing up in sweet acquaintance with the Lord when others are going backwards and daily making work for sad repentance or final desperation Eccles. 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth while the evil dayes come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say of all things here below I have no pleasure in them § 3. Direct 3. Remember that you have corrupted Natures to be cured and that Christ is the Physicion Direct 3. that must cure them and the Spirit of Christ must dwell within you and make you holy and give 2 Cor. 5. 17. Rom 8 9. â—3 John 3. 3 5 6. you a new heart and nature which shall Love God and Heaven above all the honour and pleasures of the world Rest not therefore till you find that you are born anew and that the Holy Ghost hath made you hâ—ly and quickned your hearts with the Love of God and of your dear Redeemer The old nature loveth the things of this world and the pleasures of the flesh but the New Nature loveth the Lord that made you and Redeemed and Renewed you and the endless joyes of the world to come and that holy life which is the way thereto § 4. Direct 4. Take heed of loving the pleasures of the flesh in overmuch eating or drinking or Direct 4. play Set not your hearts upon your bâ—lly or your sport Let your meat and sleep and play be moderate Meddle not with Cards or Dice or any bewitching or riotous sports Play not for money lest it stir up covetous desires and tempt you to be over eager in it and to lye and wrangle and fall out with others Use neither food or sports which are not for your health A greedy appetite enticeeth children to devour raw fruits and to rob their neighbours Orchards and at once to undo soul and body And an excessive love of play doth cause them to run among bad companions and lose their time and destroyeth the love of their Books and their duty and their Parents themselves and all 1 Cor. 10. 31. that 's good You must eat and sleep and play for health and not for useless hurtful pleasure § 5. Direct 5. Subdue your own wills and desires to the will of God and your superiours and be not Direct 5. eagerly set upon any thing which God or your Parents do deny you Be not like those self-willed fleshly children that are importunate for any thing which their fansie or appetite would have and cry or are discontent if they have it not Say not that I must have this or that But be contented with any thing which is the will of God and your Superiours It is the greatest misery and danger in the world Psal. 81. 10 11 12. to have all your own wills and to be given up to your hearts desire § 6. Direct 6. Take heed of a custome of foolish filthy railing lying or any other sinful Direct 6. words You think it is a small matter but God thinketh not so It is not a jeasting matter to sin against the God that made you It is fools that make a sport with sin Prov. 14. 9. 10. 23. 26. 19. One lye one curse one oath one ribbald or railing or deriding word is worse than all the pain that ever your flesh endured § 7. Take heed of such company and playfellows as would entice and tempt you to any of these sins Direct 7. and choose such company as will help you in the fear of God And if others mock at you care no more for it than for the shaking of a leaf or the barking of a Dog Take heed of lewd and wicked company as ever you care for the saving of your souls If you hear them rail or lye or swear or talk filthily be not ashamed to tell them that God forbiddeth you to keep company with such as they Psal. 119. 63. Prov. 13. 20. 18. 7. 1 Cor. 5. 12. Eph. 5. 11. 4. § 8. Direct 8. Take heed of Pride and Covetousness Desire not to be fine nor to get all to Direct 8. your selves but be humble and meek and love one another and be as glad that others are pleased as your selves § 9. Direct 9. Love the Word of God and all good Books which would make you wiser and Direct 9. better and read not Play-books nor Tale-books nor Love-books or any idle stories When idle Children are at play and fooleries let it be your pleasure to read and learn the mysteries of your salvation § 10. Direct 10. Remember that you keep holy the Lords Day Spend not any of it in play or idleness Direct 10. Reverence the Ministers of Christ and mark what they teach you and remember it is a message from God about the saving of your souls Ask your Parents when you come home to help your understandings and memories in any thing which you understood not or forgat Love all the holy exercises of the Lords Day and let them be pleasanter to you than your meat or play § 11. Direct 11. Be as careful to practise all as to hear and read it Remember all is but Direct 11. to make you holy to love God and obey him Take heed of sinning against your knowledge and against the warnings that are given you § 12. Direct 12. When you grow up by the direction of your Parents choose such a Trade or Calling Direct 12. as alloweth you
in the sense of your natural sin and misery to stir up the lively sense of the wonderful Love of God and our Redeemer and to spend all the day in the special exercises of Faith and Love And seeing it is the Christian weekly festival or day of Thanksgiving for the greatest mercy in the world spend it as a day of Thanksgiving should be spent especially in Ioyful Praises of our Lord and let the huâ—bling and instructing exercisâ—s of the day he all subordinate to these laudatory exercises I know that much time must be spent in teaching and warning the ignorant and ungodly because their poverty and labours hinder them from other such opportunities and we must speak to them then or not at all But if it were not for their meer necessity and if we could as well speak to them other dayes of the Week the Churches should spend all the Lords Day in such praises and thanksgivings as are suitable to the ends of the institution But seeing that cannot be expected methinks it is desirable that the antient custome of the Churches were more imitated and the morning Sermon being fuited to the state of the more ignorant and unconverted that the rest of the day were spent in the exercises of Thanksgiving to the Joy and encouragement of believers and in doctrine suited to their state And yet I must add that a skilfull Preacher will do both together and so declare the Love and Grace of our Redeemer as by a meet application may both draw in the ungodly and comfort those that are already sanctified and raise their hearts in Praise to God § 4. Direct 4. Remember that the Lords day is appointed specially for publick worship and personal Direct 4. Communion of the Churches therein see therefore that you spend as much of the day as you can in this publick worship and Church-communion especially in the celebration of that Sacrament which is appointed for the memorial of the death of Christ untill his coming 1 Cor. 11. 25 26. This Sacrament in the Primitive Church was celebrated every Lords day yea and ofter even ordinarily on every other day of the week when the Churches assembled for Communion And it might be so now without any hinderance to Preaching or Prayer if all things were ordered as they should be For those Prayers and instructions and exhortations which are most suited to this Eucharistical action would be the most suitable Prayers and Sermons for the Church on the Lords dayes In the mean time sâ—e that so much of the day as is spent in Church-communion and publick worship be accordingly improved by you and be not at that time about your secret or family services but take only those hours for such private duties in which the Church is not assembled And remember how much the Love of Saints is to be exercised in this Communion and therefore labour to keep alive that Love without which no man can celebrate the Lords day according to the end of the institution § 5. Direct 5. Understand how great a mercy it is that you have leave thus to wait upon God for the receiving and exercise of grace and to cast off the distracting thoughts and businesses of the world and Direct 5. what an opportunity is put into your hand to get more in one day than this world can affâ—rd you all your lives And therefore come with gladness as to the receiving of so great a mercy and with desire after it and with hope to speed and not with unwillingness as to an unpleasant task as carnal hearts that Love not God or his Grace or Service and are aweary of all they do and glâ—d when it is done as the Ox that is unyoaked Isa. 58. 13 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a Delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own waies nor finding thine own pleasuâ—e nor speaking thine own words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord The affection that you have to the Lords day much sheweth the temper of the heart A holy person is glad when it cometh as loving it for the holy exercises of the day A wicked carnal heart is glad of it only for his carnal ease but weary of the spiritual duties § 6. Direct 6. Avoid both the extreams of Prophaneness and Superstition in the point of your external rest And to that end Observe 1. That the work is not for the day but the day for the holy Direct 6. work As Christ saith Mark 2. 27. The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath It is appointed for our good and not for our hurt 2. The outward rest is not appointed for it self but as a means to the freedom of the mind for inward and spiritual employments And therefore all those outward and common labours and discourses are unlawful which any way distract the mind and hinder either our outward or inward attendance upon God and our edification 3. And whatever it was to the Jews no common words or actions are unlawful which are no hinderance to this communion and worship and spiritual edification 4. Yea those things that are necessary to the support of nature and the saving of the Life or health or estate and goods of our selves or our neighbours are needful duties on that day Not all those works which are truly charitable for it may be a work of mercy to build Hospitals or make Garments for the poor or Till their ground but such works of mercy as cannot be put off to another day and such as hinder not the duties of the day 5. The same word or action on the Lords day which is unlawful to one man may be lawful to another as being no hinderance yea a duty to him As Christ saith The Priests in the Temple break or prophane the Sabbath that is the outward rest but not the command and are blameless Matth. 12. 15. And the Cook may lawfully be employed in dressing meat when it were a sin in another to do it voluntarily without need 6. The Lords day being to be kept as a day of Thanksgiving the dressing of such meat as is fit for a day of Thanksgiving is not to be scrupled The primitive Christians in the Apostles time had their Love-feasts constantly with the Lords Supper or after on the Evening of the day And they could not feast without dressing meat 7. Yet that which is lawful in it self must be so done as consisteth with care and compassion of the souls of servants that are employed about it that they may â—e deprived of no more of their spiritual benefit than needs 8. Also that which is lawful must sometimes be forborn when it may by scandal tempt others that are loose or weak to do that which is unlawful not that the meer displeasing of the erroneous should put us out of the right
Obedience to God And doth not Obedience contain every particular Duty Answ. We Vow sincere Obedience but not perfect Obedience We do not Vow that we will never sin nor neglect a duty nor ought we to do so So that as sincere obedience respecteth every known duty as that which we shall practise in the bent of our lives but not in perfect constancy or degree so far our Vow in Baptism hath respect to all known duties but no further § 15. Direct 6. To make a Vow Lawful besides the Goodness of the thing which we Vow there Direct 6. must be a rational discernable probability that the Act of Vowing it will do more good than hurt and this to a wise foreseeing judgement For this Vowing is not an ordinary worship to be offered to God except the Baptismal Vow renewed in the Lords Supper and at other seasons But it is left as an extraordinary Means for certain ends which cannot by ordinary means be attained And therefore we must discern the season by discerning the necessity or usefulness of it Swearing is a part of the service of God but not of his daily worship nor frequently and rashly to be used by any that would not be held guilty of taking the Name of God in vain And so it is in the case of Vowing Therefore he that will make a Lawful Vow must see before hand what is the probable Benefit of it and what is the probable hurt or danger And without this foresight it must be rash and cannot be lawful And therefore no one can make a lawful Vow but wise foreseeing persons and those that advise Plutarch with such and are guided by them if they be not such themselves unless in a case where Quest. Roman 44. God hath prescribed by his own determining commands as in the Covenant of Christianity Why may not Priests swear Resp. Is it because an Oath put to free-born men is as it were the rack and torture offered them For certain it is that the soul as well as the body of the Priest ought to continue free and not be forced by any torture Or that we must not distrust them in small matters who are to be believed in great and divine things Or because the peril of perjury would reach in common to the whole Commonwealth if a wicked and ungodly and forsworn person should have the charge and superintendency of the Prayers Vows and Sacrifices made in behalf of the City pag. 866. Therefore to one man the same Vow may be a sin that to another may be a duty because one may have more reason for it or necessity of it and less danger by it than another One man may foresee that Vowing in case where there is no Necessity may ensnare him either in perplexing doubts or terrors which will make all his life after more irregular or uncomfortable Another man may discern that he is lyable to no such danger § 16. Direct 7. No man should pretend danger or scruple against his renewing the Vow of Christianity Direct 7. or any one essential part of it viz. To take God the Father Son and Holy Ghost for my God and Saviour and Sanctifier my Owner Governour and Father renouncing the Devil the world and the flesh Because there is an absolute necessity praecepti medii of performing this and he that doth it not shall certainly be damned And therefore no worse matter can stand up against it He that denyeth it giveth up himself despairingly to damnation Yet I have heard many say I dare not promise to turn to God and live a holy life lest I break this promise and be worse than before But dost thou not know that it must be both made and kept if thou wilt be saved Wilt thou choose to be damned for fear of worse There is but one Remedy for thy soul and all the hope of thy salvation lyeth upon that alone And wilt thou refuse that one for fear lest thou cast it up and dye When thou shalt certainly dye unless thou both take it and keep it and digest it § 17. Direct 8. About particular sins and duties deliberate resolutions are the ordinary means of Direct 8. governing our lives and Vows must not be used where these will do the work without them For extraordinary means must not be used when ordinary will serve turn Nor must you needlesly draw a double guilt upon your selves in case of sinning And in mutable or doubtful cases a Resolution may be changed when a Vow cannot Try therefore what deliberate Resolutions will do with the help of other ordinary means before you go any further § 18. Direct 9. When ordinary Resolutions and other helps will not serve the turn to engage the will Direct 9. to the forbearance of a known sin or the performance of a known duty but temptations are so strong as to bear down all then it is seasonable to bind our selves by a solemn Vow so it be cautelously and deliberately done and no greater danger like to follow In such a case of necessity 1. You must deliberate on the benefits and need 2. You must foresee all the assaults that you are like to have to tempt you to perjury that they come not unexpected 3. You must joyn the use of all other means for the keeping of your Vows § 19. Direct 10. Make not a Law and Religion to your selves by your voluntary Vows which God Direct 10. never made you by his Authority Nor bind your selves for futurity to all that is a duty at present where it is possible that the change of things may change your duty God is our King and Governour and not we our selves It is not we but He that must give Laws to us We have work enough to do of his appointing we need not make more to our selves as if he had not given us enough Vows are not to make us New Duties or Religions but to further us in the obedience of that which our Lord hath imposed on us It is a self-condemning sin of foolish Will-worshippers to be busie in laying more burdens on themselves when they know they cannot do so much as God requireth of them Yea some of them murmur at Gods Laws as too strict and at the observers of them as too precise though they come far short of what is their duty and yet will be cutting out more work for themselves § 20. And it is not enough that what you Vow be your Duty at the present but you must bind your selves to it by Vows no longer than it shall remain your duty It may be your Duty at the present to live a single life But if you will Vow therefore that you will never marry you may bind your selves to that which may prove your sin you know not what alterations may befall you in your body or estate that may invite you to it Are you sure that no change shall make it necessary to you
which are commonly supposed to be the Responses of the people or repeated by them And in Rev. 14. 2 3. the voice as of many waters and as of a great thunder and the voice of Harpers harping with their harps who sung a new song before the Throne and before the four beasts and the elders a song which noâ—e could learn but the hundred forty and four thousand which were redeemed from the Earth which were not defiled with women who were Virgins and followed the Lamb c. doth seem very plainly to be spoken of the praises of all the Saints Chap. 17. 15. by waters is meant people multitudes c. And Chap. 1â— 5 6 7 8. there is expresly recited a form of praise for all the people A voice came out of the Throne saying Praise our God all ye his servants and ye that fear him both small and great And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waâ—â—rs and as the voice of mighty thundrings saying Alleluja for the Lord God omnipotent reigâ—eth Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made her self ready and to her was granted c. And indeed he that hath stiled all his people Priests to God and a holy and royal Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Iesus Christ and to shew forth the praises 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the virtues of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light doth seem not to take them for so prophanâ— a generation as to be prohibited from speaking to God in publick any otherwise than by the mouth of a Priest And it seemeth to be more allowed and not less under the Gospel than under the Law because Numb 1. 5â— 3. 10 38. Exod. 20. Heb. 4. 16 17. Eph. 2. 13. Heb. 12. 18 21 22 23. then the people as under guilt were kept at a greater distance from God and must speak to him more by a Priest that was a type of Christ our intercessour But now we are brought nigh and reconciled to God and have the spirit of soâ—s and may go by Christ alone unto the Father And therefore though it be true that Ministers yet are sub-intercessours under Christ our high Priest yet they are rarely called Priestâ— but described more in the new Testament by other parts of their office Obj. But the peoples responses make a confused noise in the Assemblies not intelligible Answ. All things are ill done that are done by ill men that carnally and formally slubber it over But if the best and holiest people would unanimously set themselves to do it as they do in singing Psalms so that they did not only stand by to be the hearers of others it would be done more orderly and spiritually as well as singing is Quest. 84. Is it not a sin for our Clerks to make themselves the mouth of the people who are no ordained Ministers of Christ Answ. 1. IN those places where ordained Deacons do it this objection hath no place 2. The Clerks are not appointed to be the mouth of the people But only each Clerk is one of the people commanded to do that which all should do lest it should be wholly left undone If all the Congregation will speak all that the Clerk doth it will answer the primary desire of the Church-Governours who bid the People do it But if they that will not do it themselves shall pretend that the Clerk doth usurp the Ministry because he ceaseth not as well as they they might as well say so by a few that should sing Psalms in the Church when the rest are against it and forbear May not a man do his duty in singing or saying when you refuse yours without pretending to be your mouth or usurping the Ministry Quest. 85. Are repetitions of the same words in Church-prayers lawful Answ. 1. IT is not lawful to affect them as the Heathens who think they shall be heard for their Maâ— 6. 18. Battologie or saying over the same words as if God were moved by them as by a charm 2. Nor is it lawful to do that which hath a strong appearance of such a conceit and thereby to make Gods worship ridiculous and contemptible As the Papists in their Psalters and Prayer Books repeating over the name of Iesus and Mary so oft together as maketh it seem a ludicrous Canting But 1. It is lawful to speak the same words from fulness and fervency of zeal 2. And when we are afraid to give over lest we have not yet prevailed with God 3. And in Gods solemn Praises sung or said a word or sentence oft repeated sometime hath an elegancy and affecting decency And therefore it is so often used in the Psalms yea and in many Scripture Prayers 4. In such cases to Psal. 136. 107. 8 13 21 c. bring a serious urgency of spirit to the repeated words and not to quarrel with the repetitions is the duty of one that joyneth with true Christian Assemblies as a son of piety and peace Quest. 86. Is it lawful to bow at the naming of Iesus Answ. THE question either respecteth the Person of Jesus named by any of his names or else Mic. 6. 6. Jer. 23. 27. Isa. 52 5 6. Isa. 29. 24. Isa. 42. 8 9. Psal. 2. 10 11. Phil. 2. 9 10 11 12. Psal. 34. 3. 66. 2. 68. 4. 72 19. â—6 1 2. 96 2. 100. 4. 111. 9. 148. 13. 149. 3. Isa. 9. 6 7. 12. â— Psal. 138. 2 3. Rev. 15. 4. 1 Chron. 29. 20. 2 Chron. 29. 30. this name Iesus only And that either simply in it self considered or else comparatively as excluding or not including â—â—â—â—er names 1. That the person of Iesus is to be bowed to I never knew a Christian deny 2. That we may lawfully express our reverence by bowing when the names God Jehovah Jesus Christ c. are uttered I have met with few Christians who deny nor know I any reason to deny it 3. Had I been fit to have prescribed directions to other Ministers or Churches I would not have perswaded much less commanded them to bow at the Name of Iesus any more than at the name of God Iehovah Christ c. For many Reasons which the Reader may imagine though I will not now mention them 4. But if I live and joyn in a Church where it is commanded and peremptorily urged to bow at the name of Iesus and where my not doing it would be divisive scandalous or offensive I will bow at the name of God Iehovah Iesus Christ Lord c. one as well as the other seeing it is not bowing at Christs name that I scruple but the consequents of seeming to distinguish and prefer that name alone before all the rest Quest. 87. Is it lawful to stand up at the Gospel
order to our Absolution and Communion 4. Especially so far as is necessary to subdue our fleshly lusts and tame our bodies and bring them into a due subjection to our faith and to avoid our sin for the time to come And also by 2 Cor. 7. 9 10 11. 1 Cor. 9 27. Col. 1. 5 6. Rom. 13 13 14. the exercise of sober mortification prudently to keep under all our worldly phantasies and love of this present world without unfitting our selves for duty 5. And so far as is needful by such mortification to fit us for fervent prayer especially by fasting on dayes of humiliation and to help us in our meditations of death and judgement and to further our heavenly contemplations and conversation 6. The greatest difficulty is Whether any self-revenge be lawful or due which is answered by Psal. 69. 10. Lev. 16. 29 31. â—3 27 32. Numb 29. 7. 30. 13. Ezra 8. 21. what is said already None such as disableth us for Gods service is lawful But true Repentance is an anger or great displeasure with our selves for sin and a hatred of sin and loathing of our selves for it And to judge condemn and afflict our own souls by a voluntary self-punishing is but that exercise of justice on our selves which is fit for pardoned sinners that are not to be condemned by the Lord and indeed the just exercise of Repentance and displeasure against our selves On which accounts of sober self-revenge we may cherish such degrees of godly sorrow fasting course cloathing as Sackcloth and denying our selves the pleasures of this world as shall not be hurtful but helpful to our duty And if great and heinous sinners have of old on these terms exceeded other men in their austerities and self-afflictings we cannot condemn them of superstition unless we more particularly knew more cause for it But popishly to think that self-afflicting without respect to Isa. 58. 5. such causes or necessities is a meritorious perfection fit for others is superstition indeed And â—o think as many of the Melancholy do that self-murder is a lawful self-revenge is a heinous sin and leadeth to that which is more heinous and dangerous Quest. 101. Is it lawful to observe stated times of fasting imposed by others without extraordinary occasion And particularly Lent Answ. REmember that I here meddle not with the question how far it is lawful for Rulers to 2 Chron. 20 3. Ezâ—a 8. 21. Jonah 3. 5. Zech. 8. 19. Joel 2. 15. Read Dallaeus Treatise de Iejuniis impose such Fasts on others save only to say 1. That it is undoubtedly fit for Kings to do it by Precepts and Churches by Consent in extraordinary cases of defection sin or judgements 2. That it is undoubtedly sinful usurpation for either Pope or any pretended Ecclesiastical Universal Rulers to impose such on the Universal Church Because there are no Universal Rulers Or for a neighbour Bishop by usurpation to impose it on a neighbour Church 3. And that it is sinful in all or many Churches to make by their Agreements such things to be necessary to their Union or Communion with their neighbour Churches so that they will take all those for Schismaticks that differ from them in such indifferent things But as to the Using of such fasts omitting the imposing I say I. 1. Thâ—â— so great and extraordinary a duty as holy fasting must not be turned into a meer Isa. 58. 3 5 6 7 8. formality oâ— ceremony 2. No particular man must be so observant of a publick commanded anniversary fast as for it to neglect any duty commanded him by God which is inconsistent with it As to rejoyce or keep a day of Thanksgiving in Lent upon an extraordinary obliging cause To keep the Lords day in Lent as a day of Thanksgiving and Rejoycing To preserve our own health c. It is not lawful in obedience to man to fast so much or use such dyet as is like to destroy our lives or health These being not so far put into the power of man Nor can man dispence with us as to the duty of self-preservation If God himself require us not to offer him our lives and health needlesly as an acceptable Sacrifice nor ever maketh self-destruction our duty no nor any thing that is not for mans own good then we are not to believe without very clear proof that either Prince or Prelates have more power than ever God doth use himself 3. Such an Anniversary fast as is meet for the remembrance of some sin or judgement if commanded is to be kept both for the Reason of it and for the Authority of the Commander For 1. It is not unlawful as Anniversary For 1. It is not forbidden and 2. There may be just occasion Some arbitrarily keep an anniversary fast on the day of their Nativity as I have long done and some on the day that they fell into some great sin and some on the day of the death of a friend or of some personal domestick or National Calamity and none of this is forbidden 2. And that which is not unlawful in it self is not therefore unlawful to be done because it is commanded seeing obedience to superiours is our duty and not our sin unless in sinful things 4. Whether it be lawful or meet to commemorate Christs sufferings by anniversary fasts is next to be considered II. As for Lent in particular We must distinguish 1. Between the antient Lent and the later Lent 2. Between keeping it on a Civil account and on a Religious 3. Between true fasting and change of dyet 4. Between the Imitation of Christs fourty dayes fasting and the meer Commemoration of it Which premised I conclude 1. The keeping a true Fast or Abstinence from food for fourty dayes on what account soever being impossible or self-murder is not to be attempted 2. The Imitation of Christ in his fourty dayes fasting is not to be attempted or pretended to Because his miraculous works were not done for our imitation And it is presumption for us to pretend to such a power as is necessary to Miracles or yet to make any Essayes at such an imitation any more than at the raising of the dead 3. The pretending of a fast when men do but change their dyet Flesh for Fish Fruit Sweet-meats c. is but hypocritical and ridiculous Most poor labourers and temperate Ministers do live all the year on a more flesh-denying dyet and in greater abstinence than many Papists do in Lent or on their fasting dayes And what a ridiculous dispute is it to hear e. g. a Calvin that never eateth but one small meal a day for many years to plead against the keeping of the Popish fasts and their Clergy call him voracious and carnal and an Epicure and plead for fasting as holy mortification who eat as many meals and as much meat on a Lent day or fasting day as Calvin did in three feasting dayes and drink as much Wine in
be guilty of the blood and calamities of an unjust War that a wise man will rather be abused as a Neuter than run himself into the danger of such â— case § 4. Direct 4. When Necessity forceth you to go forth in a just War do it with such humiliation Direct 4. and unwillingness as beseemeth one that is a Patient a Spectator and an Actor in one of the sorest of Gods temporal judgements Go not to kill men as if you went to a Cock-fight or a Bear-baiting Make not a sport of a common calamity Be not insensible of the displeasure of God expressed in so great a judgement What a sad condition is it to your selves to be imployed in destroying others If they be good how sad a thought is it that you must kill them If they are wicked how sad is it that by killing them you cut off all their hopes of mercy and send them suddenly to Hell How sad an employment is it to spoil and undo the poor inhabitants where you come To cast them into terrors to deprive them of them of that which they have long been labouring for To prepare for famine and be like a consuming pestilence where you come Were it but to see such desolations it should melt you into compassion much more to be the executioners your selves How unsuitable a work is it to the grace of Love Though I doubt not but it is a service which the Love of God our Countrey and our Rulers may sometimes justifie and command yet as to the Rulers and Masters of the business it must be a very clear and great necessity that can warrant a War And as to the Souldiers they must needs go with great regret to kill men by thousands whom they Love as themselves He that Loveth his neighbour as himself and blesseth and doeth good to his persecuting enemy will take it heavily to be employed in killing him even when necessity maketh it his duty But the greatest calamity of War is the perniciousness of it to mens souls Armies are commonly that to the soul as a City infected with the Plague is to the body The very Nurseries and Academies of pride and cruelty and drunkenness and whoredome and robbery and licentiousness and the bane of Piety and common Civility and Humanity Not that every Souldier cometh to this pass the hottest Pestilence killeth not all But O how hard is it to keep up a life of faith and godliness in an Army The greatness of their business and of their fears and cares doth so wholly take up their minds and talk that there is scarce any room found for the matters of their souls though unspeakably greater They have seldome leisure to hear a Sermon and less to pray The Lords Day is usually taken up in matters that concern the lives and therefore can pretend necessity So that it must be a very resolute confirmed vigilant person that is not alienated from God And then it is a course of life which giveth great opportunity to the Tempter and advantage to temptations both to errors in judgement and vitiousness of heart and life He that never tryed it can hardly conceive how difficult it is to keep up piety and innocency in an Army If you will suppose that there is no difference in the Cause or the Ends and Accidents I take it to be much more desirable to serve God in a Prison than in an Army and that the condition of a Prisoner hath far less in it to tempt the foolish or to afflict the wise than a military Excepting those whose life in Garrisons and lingring Wars doth little differ from a state of peace I am not simply against the lawfulness of War Nor as I conceive Erasmus himself though he saw the sinfulness of that sort of men and use to speak truly of the horrid wickedness and misery of them that thirst for blood or rush on Wars without necessity But it must be a very extraordinary Army that is not constituted of Wolves and Tygers and is not unto common honesty and piety the same that a Stews or Whore-house is to chastity And O how much sweeter is the work of an honest Physicion that saveth And though I ignore not that it is a much more fashionable and celebrated practice in young Gentlemen to kill men than to cure them and that mistaken mortals think it to be the noblest exercise of vâ—rtue to destroy the noblest workmanship of nature and indeed in some few cases the requisiteness and danger of destructive vaâ—ouâ— may makâ— its actions become a virtuous Patriot yet when I consider the character given of our great Master and Exemâ—lar that he went ab uâ— doing good and healing all manner of sicknesses I cannot but think such an employment worthy of the very noblest of lâ—â— Discipâ—es Mr. Boyles Experiment Philos p. 303 304. mens lives than of a Souldier whose vertue is shewed in destroying them Or a Carpenters or Masons that adorneth Cities with comely buildings than a Souldiers that consumeth them by fire § 5. Direct 5. Be sure first that your cause be better than your lives and then resolve to venture Direct 5. your lives for them It is the hazarding of your Lives which in your Calling you undertake And therefore be not unprepared for it but reckon upon the worst and be ready to undergo what ever you undertake A Souldiers life is unfit for one that dare not dye A Coward is one of the most pernicious murderers He verifieth Christs saying in another sense He that saveth his life shall lose it While men stand to it it is usually but few that dye because they quickly daunt the enemy and keep him on the defensive part But when once they rowt and run away they are slain on heaps and fall like leaves in a windy Autumn Every Coward that pursueth them is emboldned by their fear and dare run them through or shoot them behind that durst not so near have looked them in the face and maketh it his sport to kill a fugitive or one that layeth down his weapons that would flye himself from a daring presence Your cowardly fear betrayeth the cause of your King and Countrey It betrayeth the lives of your fellow Souldiers while the running of a few affrighted dastards lets in ruine upon all the rest And it casteth away your own lives which you think to save If you will be Souldiers resolve to conquer or to dye It is not so much skill or strength that conquereth as boldness It is Fear that loseth the day and fearlesness that winneth it The Army that standeth to it getteth the Victory though they fight never so weakly For if you will not run the enemy will And if the lives of a few be lost by courage it usually saveth the lives of many Though wisdom still is needful in the Conduct And if the cause be not worth your lives you should not meddle with it § 6. Direct 6. Resolve
the truth yet it is seldome the way of doing good to those whom you dispute with It engageth men in partiality and passionate provoking words before they are aware And while they think they are only pleading for the truth they are militating for the honour of their own understandings They that will not stoop to hear you as learners while you orderly open the truth in its coherent parts will hardly ever profit by your contendings when you engage a proud person to bend all his wit and words against you The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach c. 1 Tim 6. 4 5 6. 2 Tim. 2. 24. § 9. Direct 8. Have as little to do with men in matters which their commodity is concerned in Direct 8. as you can As in chaffering or any other thing where Mine and Thine is much concerned For few men are so just as not to expect that which others account unjust And the nearest friends have been alienated hereby § 10. Direct 9. Buy peace at the price of any thing which is not better than it Not with the Direct 9. loss of the favour of God or of our innocency or true peace of conscience or with the loss of the Gospel or the ruine of mens souls But you must often part with your Right for peace and put up wrongs in word or deed Money must not be thought too dear to buy it when the loss of it will be worse than the loss of money to your selves or those that you contend with If a soul be endangered by it or societies ruined by it it will be dear bought money which is got or saved by such means He is no true friend of Peace that will not have it except when it is cheap § 11. Direct 10. Avoid Censoriousness which is the judging of men or matters that you have no Direct 10. call to meddle with and the making of matters worse than sufficient proof will warrant you Be neither busie-bodies meddling with other mens matters nor pievish aggravaters of all mens faults Iudge not that ye be not judged for with what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again Matth. 7. 1 2. You shall be censured if you will censure And if Christ be a true discerner of minds it is they that have beams in their own eyes who are the quickest perceivers of the motes in others Censorious persons are the great dividers of the Church and every where adversaries to peace while they open their mouths wide against their neighbour to make the worst of all that they say and do and thus sow the seeds of discord amongst all § 12. Direct 11. Neither talk against men behind their backs nor patiently hearken to them that Direct 11. use it Though the detecting of a dangerous enemy or the prevention of anothers hurt may sometimes make it a duty to blame them that are absent yet this case which is rare is no excuse to the backbiters sin If you have any thing to say against your neighbour tell it him in a friendly manner to his face that he may be the better for it If you tell it only to another to make him odious or hearken to backbiters that defame men secretly you shew that your business is not to do good but to diminish love and peace § 13. Direct 12. Speak more of the good than of the evil which is in others There is none so Direct 12. bad as to have no good in them Why mention you not that which is more useful to the hearer than to hear of mens faults But of this more afterward § 14. Direct 13. Be not strange but lovingly familiar with your neighbours Backbiters and slanders Direct 13. and unjust suspicions do make men seem that to one another which when they are acquainted they find is nothing so Among any honest well meaning persons familiarity greatly reconcileth Though indeed there are some few so proud and fiery and bitter enemies to honest peace that the way to peace with them is to be far from them where we may not be remembred by them But it is not so with ordinary neighbours nor friends that are fallen out nor differing Christians Its nearness that must make them friends § 15. Direct 14. Affect not a distance and sowre singularity in lawful things Come as near them Direct 14. as you can as they are men and neighbours and take it not for your duty to run as far from them lest you run into the contrary extream § 16. Direct 15. Be not over-stiff in your own opinions as those that can yield in nothing to another Direct 15. Nor yet â—o facile and yielding as to betray or lose the truth It greatly pleaseth a proud mans mind when you seem to be convinced by him and to change your mind upon his arguments or to be much informed and edified by him But when you deny this honour to his understanding and contradict him and stifly maintain your opinion against him you displease and lose him And indeed a wise man should gladly learn of any that can teach him more and should most easily of any man let go an error and be most thankful to any that will increase his knowledge And not only in errors to change our minds but in small and indifferent things to submit by silence beseemeth a modest peaceable man § 17. Direct 16. Yet build not Peace on the foundation of impiety injustice cruelty or faction Direct 16. for that will prove but the way to destroy it in the end Traytors and Rebells and Tyrants and Persecutors and ambitious covetous Clergy men do all pretend peace for their iniquity But what peace will Iezebels Whoredoms bring Satans Kingdom is supported by a Peace in sin which Christ came to break that he might destroy it while this strong man armed keepeth his house his goods are in peace till a stronger doth bind him overcome him and cast him out Deceitful sinful means of Peace have been the grand Engine of Satan and the Papal Clergy by which they have banished and kept out Peace so many ages from most of the Christian world Impiis mediis Ecclesiae paci consulere was one of the three means which Luther foretold would cast out the Gospel Where perjury or false doctrine or any sin or any unjust or inconsistent terms are made the condition of Peace men build upon stubble and bryars which God will set fire to and soon consume and all that peace will come to nought Directions for Church-peace I have laid down before to which I must refer you CHAP. XVIII Directions against all Theft and Fraud or injurious getting and keeping that which is anothers or desiring it § 1. HE that will know what Theft is must know what Propriety is And it is that plenary title to a thing by which it is called Our Own It is that right to any
you should perform your trust or would discharge you of it If it be some great and unexpected dangers which you think upon good grounds the Parent would acquit you from if he were living you fulfill your trust if you avoid them and do that which would have been his will if he had known it Otherwise you must perform your promise though it be to your loss and suffering Quest. 16. But what if it was only a trust imposed by his desire and will without my acceptance or promise Quest. 16. to perform it Answ. You must do as you would be done by and as the common good and the Laws of love and friendship do require Therefore the quality of the person and your obligations to him and especially the comparing of the consequent good and evil together must decide the case Quest. 17. What if the surviving kindred of the Orphane be nearer to him than I am and they censure Quest. 17. me and calumniate me as injurious to the Orphane may I not ease my self of the trust and cast it upon them Answ. In this case also the measure of your suffering must first be compared with the measure of the Orphanes good And then your Conscience must tell you whether you verily think the Parent who entrusted you would discharge you if he were alive and knew the case If he would though you promised it is to be supposed that it was not the meaning of his desire or your promise to incur such sufferings And if you believe that he would not discharge you if he were alive then if you promised you must perform But if you promised not you must go no farther than the Law of love requireth Quest. 18. What is a Minister of Christ to do if a penitent person confess secretly some heynous or Quest. 18. capital crime to him as Adultery theft robbery murder Must it be concealed or not Answ. 1. If a purpose of sinning be antecedently confessed it is unlawful to farther the crime or give opportunity to it by a concealment But it must be so far opened as is necessary for the prevention of anothers wrong or the persons sin Especially if it be Treason against the King or Kingdom or any thing against the common good 2. When the punishment of the offender is apparently necessary to the good of others especially to right the King or Countrey and to preserve them from danger by the offender or any other it is a duty to open a past fault that is confessed and to bring the offender to punishment rather than injure the innocent by their impunity 3. When Restitution is necessary to a person injured you may not by concealment hinder such Restitution but must procure it to your power where it may be had 4. It is unlawful to promise universal secresie absolutely to any penitent But you must tell him before he confesseth If your crime be such as that opening it is necessary to the preservation or righting of King or Countrey or your Neighbour or to my own safety I shall not conceal it That so men may know how far to trust you 5. Yet in some rare cases as the preservation of our Parents King or Countrey it may be a duty to promise and perform concealment when there is no hurt like to follow but the loss or hazard of our own lives or liberties or estates And consequently if no hurt be like to follow but some private loss of another which I cannot prevent without a greater hurt 6. If a man ignorant of the Law and of his own danger have rashly made a promise of secresie and yet be in doubt he should open the case in hypothesi only to some honest able Lawyer enquiring if such a case should be what the Law requireth of the Pastor or what danger he is in if he conceal it that he may be able farther to judge of the case 7. He that made no promise of secresie virtual or actual may caeteris paribus bring the offender to shame or punishment rather than fall into the like himself for the concealment 8. He that rashly promised universal secresie must compare the penitents danger and his own and consider whose suffering is like to be more to the publick detriment all things considered and that must be first avoided 9. He that findeth it his duty to reveal the crime to save himself must yet let the penitent have notice of it that he may flye and escape unless as aforesaid when the Interest of the King or Countrey or others doth more require his punishment 10. But when there is no such necessity of the offenders punishment for the prevention of the hurt or wrong of others nor any great danger by concealment to the Minister himself I think that the Crime though it were capital should be concealed My reasons are 1. Because though every man be bound to do his best to prevent sin yet every man is not bound to bring offenders to punishment He that is no Magistrate nor hath a special call so to do may be in many cases not obliged to it 2. It is commonly concluded that in most cases a capital offender is not bound to bring himself to punishment And that which you could not know but by his free Confession and is confest to you only on your promise of concealment seemeth to me to put you under no other obligation to bring him to punishment than he is under himself 3. Christs words and practice in dismissing the Woman taken in Aduâ—tery sheweth that it is not alwayes a duty for one that is no Magistrate to prosecute a capital offender but that sometime his repentance and life may be preferred 4. And Magistrates pardons sheweth the same 5. Otherwise no sinner would have the benefit of a Counsellor to open his troubled Conscience to For if it be a duty to detect a great crime in order to a great punishment why not a less also in order to a less punishment And who would confess when it is to bring themselves to punishment 11. In those Countries where the Laws allow Pastors to conceal all crimes that penitents freely confess it is left to the Pastors judgement to conceal all that he discerneth may be concealed without the greater injury of others or of the King or Common-wealth 12. There is a knowledge of the faults of others by Common â—ame especially many years after the committing which doth not oblige the hearers to prosecute the offender And yet a crime publickly known is more necessarily to be punished lest impunity embolden others to the like than an unknown crime revealed in Confession Tit. 2. Directions about Trusts and Secrets Direct 1. BE not rash in receiving secrets or any other trusts But first consider what you are thereby Direct 1. obliged to and what difficulties may arise in the performance and foresee all the consequents as far as is possible before you undertake the trust that you cast not
your selves into snares by meer inconsiderateness and prepare not for perplexities and repentance Direct 2. Be very careful what persons you commit either trusts or secrets to And be sure they be trusty Direct 2. by their wisdom ability and fidelity Direct 3. Be not too forward in revealing your own secrets to anothers trust For 1. You cannot be Direct 3. certain of any ones secresie where you are most confident 2. You oblige your self too much to please Quod â—aâ—itum esse velis nemini diâ—eris Si â—bi non imperastâ— quomodo ab alto silentium speras Martiâ— Dumiens de morib that person who by revealing your secrets may do you hurt And are in fear lest carelesness or unfaithfulness or any accident should disclose it 3. You burden your friend with the charge and care of secresie Direct 4. Be faithful to your friend that doth entrust you remembring that perfidiousness or Direct 4. falseness to a friend is a crime against humanity and all society as well as against Christianity and stigmatizeth the guilty in the eyes of all men with the brand of an odious unsociable person Direct 5. Be not intimate with too many nor confident in too many For he that hath too many Direct 5. intimates will be opening the secrets of one to another Direct 6. Abhor Covetousness and ambition Or else a bribe or the promise of preferment will Direct 6. tempt you to perfidiousness There is no trusting a selfish worldly man Direct 7. Remember that God is the avenger of perfidiousness who will do it severely And that even Direct 7. they that are pleased and served by it do yet secretly disdain and detest the person that doth it because they would not be so used themselves Direct 8. Yet take not friendship or fidelity to be an obligation to perfidiousness to God or the King or Direct 8. Common-wealth or to another or to any sin whatsoever CHAP. XXVI Directions against Selfishness as it is contrary to the Love of our Neighbours § 1. THE two Tables of the Law are summed up by our Saviour in two comprehensive precepts Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and might and Thou shalt Love thy neighbour aâ— thy self In the Decalogue the first of these is the true meaning of the first Commandment put first because it is the principle of all obedience And the second is the true meaning of the tenth Commandment which is therefore put last because it is the comprehensive sum of all other duties to our Neighbour or injuries against him which any other particular instances may contain and also the principle of the duty to or sin against our Neighbour The meaning of the tenth Commandment is variously conjectured at by Expositors Some say that it speaketh against inward concupiscence and the sinful thoughts of the heart But so do all the â—est in the true meaning of them and must not be supposed to forbid â—he outward action only nor to be any way defective Some say that it forbiddeth â—oveâ—ing and commandeth contentment with our state so doth the eighth Commandment yet there is some part of the truth in both these And the plain truth is as far as I can understand it that the sin forbidden is SELFISHNESS as opposite to the Love of others and the duty commanded is to LOVE our Neighbours and that it is as is said the sum of the second Table Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self As the Captain leadeth the Van and the Lieutenant bringeth up the rear so Thou shalt Love God above all is the first Commandment and Thou shalt Love thy Neighbour as thy self is the last for the aforesaid reason I shall therefore in these following Directions speak to the two parts of the tenth Commandment Direct 1. The first help against SELFISHNESS is to understand well the nature and malignity Direct 1. of the sin For want of this it commonly prevaileth with little suspicion lamentation and opposition Let me briefly therefore anatomize it § 3. 1. It is the Radical positive sin of the soul comprehending seminally or causally all the rest The corruption of mans nature or his radical sin hath two parts The Positive part and the Privâ—tive part The Positive part is SELFISHNESS or the inordinate Love of Carnal Self The Privative part is UNGODLINESSE or want of the LOVE of GOD. Mans fall was his turning from GOD to HIMSELF And his regeneration consisteth in the turning of him from HIMSELF to GOD or the generating of the LOVE of GOD as comprehending faith and obedience and the mortifying of SELF-LOVE SELFISHNESSE therefore is all positive sin in One as want of the LOVE of GOD is all privative sin in One. And SELFDENYAL and the LOVE of GOD are all duties virtually For the true LOVE of MAN is comprehended in the LOVE of GOD. Understand this and you will understand what original and actual sin is and what Grace and duty is § 3. 2. Therefore SELFISHNESSE is the cause of all sin in the world both Positive and Privative and is virtually the breach of every one of Gods Commandments For even the want of the LOVE of GOD is caused by the inordinate LOVE of SELF As the consuming of other parts is caused by the Dropsie which â—umiâ—ieth the belly It is only selfishness which breaketh the fifth Commandment by causing Rulers to oppress and persâ—â—ute their Subjects and causeth subjects to be seditious and rebellious and causâ—â—â—â— all the bitterness and quarrellings and uncomfortableness which ariseth among all relations It is only selfishness which causeth the cursed Wars of the earth and desolation of Countreys by plundering and burning the murders which cry for revenge to Heaven whether Civil Military or Religious Which causeth all the railings fightings envyings malice the Schisms and proud overvaluings of mens own understandings and opinions and the contending of Pastors who shall be the greatest and who shall have his Will in proud usurpations and tyrannical impositions and domination It is selfishness which hath set up and maintaineth the Papacy and causeth all the divisions between the Western and the Eastern Churches and all the cruelties lyes and treachery exercised upon that account It is selfishness which troubleth families and Corporations Churches and Kingdoms which violateth Vows and bonds of friendship and causeth all the tumults and strises and troubles in the world It is selfishness which causeth all Covetousness all Pride and Ambition all Luxury and Voluptuousness all surfetting and drunkenness chambering and wantonness time-wasting and heart-corrupting sports and all the royots and revellings of the sensual all the contendings for honours and preferments and all the deceit in buying and selling the stealing and robbing the bribery and Simony the Law-suits which are unjust the perjuries false witnessing unrighteous judging the oppressions the revenge and in one word all the uncharitable and unjust actions in the world This is the true
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
consenteth to the Covenant may boldly come and signifie his Consent and receive the sealed Covenant of God For Consent is your preparation or the necessary condition of your Right If you Consent not you refuse all the mercy of the Covenant And dare you live in such a state Suppose a Pardon be offered to a condemned Thief but so that if he after cast it in the dirt or turn Traytor he shall dye a sorer death will he rather choose to dye than take it and say I am afraid I shall abuse it To refuse Gods Covenant is certain death but to Consent is your preparation and your life § 25. Quest. 7. But what if Superiours compell such a Christian to communicate or else they will excommunicate Quest. 7. and imprison him What then should he choose Answ. If he could do it without his own souls hurt he should obey them supposing that it is nothing but that which in it self is good that they command him But they have their power to 2 Cor. 13. 10. Matth. 10. 28. edification and not to destruction and he must value his soul above his body and therefore it is past question that it is a smaller hurt to be excommunicated and lye and dye in Prison than to cast his soul into despair by doing that which he thinketh is a grievous sin and would be his damnation But all means must be used to cure the mistake of his own understanding § 26. Quest. 8. Is not the case of an Hypocrite that knoweth not himself to be an hypocrite and of Quest. 8. a sincere Christian that knoweth not himself to be sincere all one as to communicating when both are equally in doubt Answ. No For Being and Seeing are things that must be distinguished The one hath grace in Being though he see it not and therefore hath a Right to the blessings of the Covenant and therefore at once remaineth obliged both to Discern his Title and to Come and take it And therefore if he come doubtingly his sin is not that he Receiveth but in the Manner of receiving that he doth it doubtingly And therefore it will be a greater sin not to receive at all unless in the last mentioned case wherein the consequents are like to be worse to him But the other hath no true Repentance or Faith or Love in Being and therefore hath no Right to the blessings of the Covenant and therefore at present is obliged to discern that he is graceless and to Repent of it and it is not his sin that he doubteth of his title but that he demandeth and taketh what he hath no title to And therefore it is a greater sin in him to Take it than to delay in order to his recovery and preparation Yea even in point of Comfort there is some disparity For though the true Christian hath far greater terrors than hypocrites when he taketh himself to be an unworthy Receiver as being more sensible and regardful of the weight of the matter yet usually in the midst of all his fears there are some secret testimonies in his heart of the Love of God which are a Cordial of hope that keep him from sinking into despair and have more life and power in them than all the hypocrites false perswasions of his own sincerity § 27. Quest. 9. Wherein lyeth the sin of an hypocrite and ungodly person if he do receive Quest. 9. Answ. His sin is 1. In lying and hypocrisie in that he professeth to Repent unfeignedly of his sin and to be resolved for a holy life and to Believe in Christ and to Accept him on his Covenant-terms and to give up himself to God as his Father his Saviour and his Sanctifier and to forsake the flesh the world and the Devil when indeed he never did any of this but secretly abhorreth it at his heart and will not be perswaded to it And so all this profession and his very Covenanting it self and his Receiving as it is a professing-Covenanting-sign is nothing but a very lye And what it is to lye to the Holy Chost the case of Ananias and Sapphira telleth us 2. It is usurpation to come and lay claim to those Benefits which he hath no title to 3. It is a prophanation of these holy mysteries to be thus Commandment 2. 3. Lev. 10. 2 3. used and it is a taking of Gods Name in vain who is a jealous God and will be sanctified of all that draw near unto him 4. And it is a wrong to the Church of God and the Communion of Saints and the honour of the Christian Religion that such ungodly hypocrites intrude as members As it is to the Kings Army when the enemies spies creep in amongst them or to his Marriage-feast to have a guest in rags Matth. 22. 11 12. Object But it is no Lye because they think they say true in their profession Answ. That is through their sinful negligence and self-deceit And he is a lyar that speaks a falshood which he may and ought to know to be a falshood though he do not know it There is a Lyar in Rashness and Negligence as well as of set purpose § 28. Quest. 10. Doth all unworthy receiving make a man lyable to damnation Or what unworthiness Quest. 10. is it that is so threatned 1 Cor. 11. 28 29. Answ. There are three sorts of unworthiness or unfitness and three sorts of judgement answerably to be feared 1. There is the utter unworthiness of an Infidel or Impenitent ungodly hypocrite And damnation to Hell fire is the punishment that such must expect if conversion prevent it not 2. There is an unworthiness through some great and scandalous crime which a regenerate person falleth into and this should stop him from the Sacrament for a time till he have repented and cast away his sin And if he come before he rise from his fall by a particular Repentance as the Corinthians that sinned in the very use of the Sacrament it self they may expect some notable Vid. Synod Doâ—â—draâ— suffrag Theol. Brittan in Artic 5. temporal judgement at the present and if Repentance did not prevent it they might fear eternal punishment 3. There is that measure of unworthiness which consisteth in the ordinary infirmities of a Saint and this should not at all deterr them from the Sacrament because it is accompanied with a greater worthiness yea though their weakness appear in the time and manner of their Receiving But yet ordinary corrections may follow these ordinary infirmities The grosser abuse of the Sacrament it self I joyn under the second rank Quest. 11. What is the particular preparation needful to a fit Communicant Quest. 11. Answ. This bringeth me up to the next Direction § 29. Direct 5. Let your Preparation to this Sacrament consist of these particulars following Direct 5. 1. In your duty with your own consciences and hearts 2. In your duty towards God 3. And in your duty towards your neighbour
§ 30. 1. Your duty with your hearts consisteth in these particulars 1. That you do your best in the close Examination of your hearts about your states and the sincerity of your Faith Repentance and Obedience To know whether your hearts are true to God in the Covenant which you are to renew and seal Which may be done by these enquiries and discerned by these signs 1. Whether Marks of Sincerity you truly lothe your selves for all the sins of your hearts and lives and are a greater offence and burden to your selves because of your imperfections and corruptions than all the world beside is ☜ Ezek. 6. 9. 20. 43. 36. 31. Rom. 7. 24. 2. Whether you have no sin but what you are truly desirous to know and no known sin but what you are truly desirous to be rid of and so desirous as that you had rather be perfectly freed from sin than from any affliction in the world Rom. 7. 22 18 24. 8. 18. 3. Whether you Love the searching and reforming light even the most searching parts of the Word of God and the most searching Books and searching Sermons that by them you may be brought to know your selves in order to your setled peace and reformation Iohn 3. 19 20 21. 4. Whether you truly love that degree of Holiness in others which you have not yet attained your selves and love Christ in his children with such an unseigned love as will cause you to relieve them according to your abilities and suffer for their sakes when it is your duty 1 Iohn 3. 14 16. 1 Pet. 1. 22. 3. 8. Iames 2. 12 13 14 15. Matth. 25. 40 c. 5. Whether you can truly say that there is no degree of Holiness so high but you desire it and had rather be perfect in the Love of God and the obedience of his Will than have all the riches and pleasures of this world Rom. 7. 18 21 24. Psal. 119. 5. Matth. 5. 6. and had rather be one of the Holiest Saints than of the most renowned prosperous Princes upon earth Psal. 15. 4. 16. 2. Psal. 84. 10. 65. 4. 6. Whether you have so far laid up your treasure and your hopes in Heaven as that you are resolved to take that only for your portion and that the hopes of Heaven and interest of your souls hath the preheminence in your hearts against all that stands in competition with it Col. 3. 1 3 4. Matth. 6. 20 21. 7. Whether the chiefest care of your hearts and endeavour of your lives be to serve and please God and to enjoy him for ever rather than for any worldly thing Matth. 6. 33. Iohn 5. 26. 2 Cor. 5. 1 6 7 8 9. 8. Whether it be your daily desire and endeavour to mortifie the flesh and master its rebellious opposition to the Spirit and you so far prevail as not to live and walk and be led by the flesh but that the course and drift of your life is spiritual Rom. 8. 1 6 7 8 9 10 13. Gal. 5. 17. 21 22. 9. Whether the world and all its honour wealth and pleasure appear to you so small and contemptible a thing as that you esteem it as dung and nothing in comparison of Christ and the Love of God and Glory and are Resolved that you will rather let go all than your part in Christ and which useth to carry it in the time of tryal in your deliberate choice Phil. 3. 7 8 9 13 14 18 19 20. 1 Iohn 2. 15. Luke 14. 26 30 33. Matth. 13. 19 21. 10. Whether you are resolved upon a course of holiness and obedience and to use those means which God doth make known to you to be the way to please him and to subdue your corruption and yet feeling the frailties of your hearts and the burden of your sins do trust in Christ as your Righteousness before God and in the Holy Ghost whose grace alone can illuminate sanctifie and confirm you Acts 11. 23. Psal. 119. 57 63 69 106. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Rom. 8. 9. Iohn 15. 5. 2 Cor. 12. 9. By these signs you may safely try your states § 31. 2. When this is done you are also to try the strength and measure of your grace that you may perceive your weakness and know for what help you should seek to Christ And to find out what inward Corruptions and sinful inclinations are yet strongest in you that you may know what to lament and to ask forgiveness of and help against My Book called Directions for weak Christians will give you fuller advice in this § 32. 3. You are also to take a strict account of your Lives and to look over your dealings with God and men in secret and publick especially of late since the last renewal of your Covenant with Psal. 4. 4 5 6. God and to hear what God and Conscience have to say about your sins and all their aggravations Psal. 139. 23. 1 Cor. 11. 28. § 33. 4. And you must labour to get your hearts affected with your condition as you do discover it To be humbled for what is sinful and to be desirous of help against your weakness and thankful for the Grace which you discern § 34. 5. Lastly you must consider of all the work that you go to do and all the mercies which you are going to receive and what Graces are necessary to all this and how they must be used and accordingly look up all those Graces and prepare them for the exercise to which they are to be called out I shall name you the particulars anon § 35. II. Your duty towards God in your Preparation for this Sacrament is 1. To cast down your selves before him in humble penitent confession and lamentation of all the sins which you discover And to beg his pardon in secret before you come to have it publickly sealed and delivered 2. To look up to him with that Thankfulness Love and Ioy as becomes one that is going to receive so great a mercy from him And humbly to beg that grace which may prepare you and quicken you to and in the work § 36. III. Your duty towards others in this your preparation is 1. To forgive those that have done you wrong and to confess your fault to those whom you have wronged and ask them forgiveness and make them amends and restitution so far as in your power and to be reconciled to those with whom you are fallen out and to see that you love your neighbours as is your selves Matth. 5. 23 24 25 26 44. Iames 5. 16. 2 That you seek advice of your Pastors or some fit persons in cases that are too hard for your selves to resolve and where you need their special help 3. That you lovingly admonish them that you know do intend to communicate unworthily and to come thither in their ungodliness and gross sin unrepented of that you shew not such hatred of your Brother as to suffer sin upon