have a higher birth than they and higher hopes and higher hearts by setting light by that which their hearts are set upon as their felicity When seeming Christians are as worldly and ambitious as others and make as great a matter of their gain and wealth and honour it sheweth that they do but cover the base and sordid Spirit of worldlings with the visor of the Christian name to deceive themselves and bring the faith of Christians into scorn and dishonour the holy name which they usâ—r◠§ 35. Dirâ—ct 4. It much hâ—noureth God when his servants can quietly and fearlesly trust in him Diâ—â—ct 4. iâ— the â—â—ce of all the dangers and threatnings which Devils or men can cast before them and can joyfully sufâ—er pain or dâ—ath in obedience to his commands and in confidence on his promise of everlasting happinesâ— This sheweth that we believe indeed that there is a God and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. and that he is true and just and that his promises are to be trusted on and that he is able to make them good in despight of all the malice of his enemies and that the threats or frowns of sinful Worms are câ—ntemptible to him that feareth God Psal. 58. 11. Sâ— that men shall say Verily there is a reward for the righteous Verily there is a God that judâ—eth in the earth and that at last will judge the world in righteousness Paul glâ—ried in the Thâ—ssal â—iaâ—s for their faith and paâ—ience in all their persecutions and tâ—ibulations which they endured as a mâ—nifest tâ—ken â—f the righteous judgement of God that they might be accounted worthy of the Kingdâ—m 〈…〉 God fâ—r which they suffered Seeing it is a righteous thing with Gâ—d to recompence tribulation to them that trouble us and rest with his Saints to those that are troubled 2 Thess. 1. 4 5 6 7. If ye be rep 〈…〉 d for the name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you â—â— their part he is evil spâ—ken of but on your part he is glorified 1 Pet. 4. 14. If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf Vers. 16. When confidence in God and assurance of the great reward in Heaven Matth. 5. 11 12. doth cause a believer undâ—untedly to say as the three Witnesses Dan. 3. We are not careful O King to answer thee in this mâ—tter The God whâ—m we serve is able to deliver us when by faith we can go through the tryal of carnal mâ—ckings and scourgings of bonds and imprisonment to be destitute and afflicted yea and toâ—tured not accepting deliverance upon sinful terms thus God is glorified by believers List up your voices O ye afflicted Saints and sing fâ—r the Mâ—jesty of the Lord Glorifie ye the Lord in the fires even the name of the Lord God of Israel in the Islâ—s of the Sea Iâ—a 24. 14 15. Sing to his Praise with Paul and Silas though your feet be in the stocks Iâ— God call for your lives remember that you are nâ—t your own you are bought with a price therefâ—re glorifie God in your bodies and Spiâ—its which are his 1 Cor. 6. 20. Rejoyce in it if you bear in your bodies the marks of the Lord Iesus Gal 6. 17. And if you alwayes bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Iesus that the life also of Iesus may be manifested in your bodies 2 Cor. 4. 10. And with all boldness see that Christ be magnified in your bodies whether it be by life or death Phil. 1. 20. Hâ— dishonoureth and reproacheth Christ and faith that thinks he is not to be trusted even unto the death § 36. Direct 5. It much honoureth God when the hopes of everlasting joyes do cause believers to Direct 5. liâ—e much more jâ—yfully than the most prosperous worldlings not with their kind of doting mirth in vain sports and pleasures and foolish talking and uncomely jests But in that constant cheerâ—ulness and gladness which beseemeth the heirs of glory Let it appear to the world that indeed you hope to live with Christ and to be equal with the Angels Doth a dejected countenance and a mournâ—ul troubled and complaining life express such hopes or rather tell men that your hopes are small and that God is a hard Master and his service grievous Do not thus dishonour him by your inordinate dejectedness Do not affright and discourage sinners from the pleasant service of the Lord. § 37. Direct 6. When Christians live in a readiness to dye and can rejoyce in the approach of death Direct 6. and lâ—ve and long for the ay of Iudgement when Christ shall justifie them from the slanders of the woâ—ld and shall judge them to eternaâ— joyes this is to the glory of God and our profession When death which is the King of fears to others appeareth as disarmed and conquered to believers when Iudgement which is the terror of others is their desire this sheweth a triumphant faith and that godliness is not in vain It must be something above nature that can make a man desire to depart and be with Christ as best of all and to be absent from the body and present with the Lord and to comfort one another with the mention of the glorious coming of their Lord and the day when he shall judge the world in righteousness Phil 1. 21. 2 Cor. 5. 8. 1 Thess. 4 18. 2. 1 10. § 38 Direct 7. The Humility and Meekness and Patience of Christians much honour God and their Direct 7. holy faith as Pride and Passion and Impatience dishonour him Let men see that the Spirit of God doth cast down the devillish sin of Pride and maketh you like your Master that humbled himself to assume our flesh and to the death of the Cross and to the contradiction and reproach of foolish sinners and made himself of no reputation but endured the shame of being derided spit upon and crucified Phil. 2. 7 8 9. Heb. 12. 2. and stooped to wash the feet of his Disciples It is not stoutness and lifting up the head and standing upon your terms and upon your honour in the world that is the honouring of God When you are as little children and as nothing in your own eyes and seek not the honour that is of men but say Not to us O Lord not to us but to thy Name be the glory Psal. 115. 1. and are content that your honour decrease and be trodden into the dirt that his may increase and his name be magnified this is the glorifying of God So when you shew the world that you are above the impotent passions of men not to be insensible but to be angry and sin not and to give place to wrath and not to resist and avenge your selves Rom. 12. 19. and to be meâ—k and lowly in heart Matth. 11. 29. It will appear that
case by comparing the good and the evil effects 7. To be bare when others lay the honour of the King or Superiours upon it is a Ceremony that on the aforesaid reason may be complyed with 8. When to avoid a greater evil we are extrordinarily put on any such Ceremony it is meet that we joyn such words where we have liberty as may prevent the scandal or hardening any present in sin 9. And it is a duty to avoid the company which will put us upon such inconveniences as far as our Calling will allow us V. But because it is the Drunkards heart or will that needs perswasion more than his understanding needs Direction I shall before the Directions yet endeavour his fuller conviction if he will but read and consider soberly if ever he be sober these following Questions and not leave them till he answer them to the satisfaction of his own Conscience § 42. Quest. 1. Dost thou know that thou art a man and what a man is Dost thou know that Quest. 1. Reason differenceth him from a beast that is ruled by Appetite and hath no Reason If thou do let thy Reason do its office and do not drown it or set the beast above it § 43. Quest. 2. Dost thou believe that there is a God that is the Governour of the world or not If Quest. 2. not tell me how thou camest to be a man And how came thy tongue and palate to taste thy drink or meat any more than thy finger Look on thy finger and on thy tongue and thou canst see no reason why one should taste and not the other If thou live in the midst of such a world which he hath made and daily governeth and yet believest not that there is a God thou art so much worse already than drunk or mad that it is no wonder if thou be a Drunkard But if thou do believe indeed that there is a God hear further thou stupid beast and tremble Is he the Governour of Heaven and Earth and is he not worthy to be the Governour of thee Is all the World at his dispose and is he not worthy to dispose of thy throat and appetite Are Crowns and Kingdoms Heaven and Hell at his dispose and will and is he not worthy to be master of thy Cup and Company wilt thou say to him by thy practice Go rule Sun and Moon and rule all the world except my Appetite and my Cup § 44. Quest. 3. Dost thou verily believe that God is present with thee and seeth and heareth all that Quest. 3. is done and said among you If not thou believest not that he is God! For he that is absent and ignorant and is not Infinite Omnipresent and Omniscient is not God And if God be not there thou art not there thy self For what can uphold thee and continue thy life and breath and being But if thou believe that God is present darest thou drink on and darest thou before him waste thy time in prating over a Pot with thy Companions § 45. Quest. 4. Tell me dost thou believe that the Holy Scripture is true If thou do not no wonder Quest. 4. if thou be a drunkard But if thou do remember that then it is true that drunkards shall not Iâ—â—ane magno Christianâ—s opprobrio est Ingam Regem barbarum idolis deditum ab ebrietate subditos sibi populos cohibuisse nostros vero quos opportebat mores quoque perditos emendaâ—e temulentiae incrementa tanta fecisse Acosta â— 3. c. 2â— inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 10. And then mark what the Scripture saith Isa. 21. 1. Woe to the Crown of Pride to the drunkards of Ephraim Hab. 2. 15. Woe to him that giveth his Neighbour drink that puttest thy bottle to him and makest him drunk also Isa. 5. 11. woe to them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink that continue till night till wine inflame them and the Harp and the Viol and the Tabret and the Pipe and Wine are in their Feasts but they regard not the work of the Lord nor consider the operation of his hands v. 22. Wâ—e unto them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink Prov. 31. 4 5 6. It is not for Kings to drink wine nor for Princes strong drink lest they drink and â—â—rget the Law and pâ—rvert the judgement of any of the â—fflicted Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish and wine to those that be of heavy hearts Sâ—e Amos 6. 6. Luk. 21. 34. Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts â—e overcharged with surfetting and drunkenness and â—ares of this life and so that day come upon you unâ—wares Rom. 13 13 14. Nâ—t in gluttony and drunkenness not in chambering and wantâ—nâ—ess not in strife and envying but put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ and make no provision for the flâ—sh to satisfie the lâ—sts thereof Prov. 20. 1. Wine is a mecker strong drink is raging and whâ—sâ—ever is deceived thereby is nâ—t wise Prov. 23. 29 30 31 32. who hath wâ—e who hath sâ—rrow who hath contentions who hath babling who hath wounds without cause who hath redness of eyes They that tarry long at the wine they that go to seek mixt wine Look not thâ—u upon the wine when it is red when it giveth his colour in the cup when it moveth it self aright At last it â—iteth liâ—e a Serpent and sâ—ingeth like an Adder Thine eyes shall behold strange Women and thy heart shall utter perverse things yea thou shalt be as he that lyeth down in the midst of the Sea or as he that lyeth upon the top of a mast Hos. 4. 11. whâ—redom and wine and new wine take away the heart Joel 1. 5. Awake ye drunkards and weep and â—â—wle all ye drinkers of wine c. If thou do indeed believe the Word of God why do not such passages make thee tremble § 46. Quest. 5. Dost thou consider into how dangerous a case thou puttest thy self when thou art drunk Quest. 5. or joynest thy self with drunkards What abundance of other sin thou art lyable to And in what peril thou art of some present judgement of God Even those examples in Scripture which encourage thee should make thee tremble To think that even a Noah that was drunken but once is recorded to his shame for a warning unto others How horrid a crime even Lot fell into by the temptation 2 Sam 11. 1â— 2 Sam. 13. 28. of drunkenneâ—s How Uriah was made drunk by a David to have hid his sin How Davids son Amnon in Gods just revenge was murdered by his brother Absaloms command when his heart was merry with wine How Nabal was strucken dead by God after his drunkenness 1 Sam. 25. 36 Dan. 5. 1. 30 37 38. How King Elâ— was murdered as he was drinking himself drunk 1 Sam. 16. 9. And how the
salvation as the ungodly world doth Oh with what scorn and holy indignation would they refuse a world if it were offered them instead of God with what detestation would they reject the motion to any sin § 10. Direct 10. When you would revive in your minds a right apprehension and estimation of all earthly Direct 10. things as Riches and Honours and Greatness and Command and full provisions for the flesh bethink you then how the blessed souls with Christ esteem them How little do they set by all those things that worldlings make so great a stir for and for which they â—ell their God and their salvation How contemptible are Crowns and Kingdoms in their eyes Their judgement is more like to Gods than ours is Luk. 16. 15. That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God All the world would not hire a Saint in Heaven to tell one lie or take the name of God in vain or to forget God or be estranged from him for one hour § 11. Direct 11 When you see the Godly under the contempt of sinners here accounted as the filth of Direct 11. the world and the off-scouring of all things defamed reviled hated and persecuted Look up then to the 1 Cor. 4. 12 13. Saints with Christ and think how they are esteemed and used And when you would truly know what â—am 3. 45. a Believer is think not how they are esteemed and used by men but how they are esteemed and used by Christ. Judge not of them by their short afflictions nor by their meanness in the flesh but by their endless happiness and their glory above Look up to the home and world of Saints if you would know what Saints are and not to the few scattered imperfect passengers in this world that is not Heb 11. 33. worthy of them § 12. Direct 12. When you are tempted to think meanly of the Kingdom of Christ as if his flock were Direct 12. so small and poor and sinful as to be inconsiderable look up to the world of blessed souls which dwell above And there you shall see no such paucity or imperfections or blemishes as are here below The Subjects there are such as dishonour not their King Christs Kingdom is not of this world Joh. 18. 36. If you would know it in its Glory look up to the world where it is Glorious If when you hear men contemn the Kingdom of the Saints of Christ and at the same time did but see as Stephen did a glimpse into that Kingdom and all the Glory of the blessed there what thoughts would you have of the words which did dishonour it § 13. Direct 13. When you hear sinners boast of the Wisdom or Numbers of their party and appealing Direct 13. to the learned or great ones of the world look up to the blessed souls with Christ and ask whether they are not more wise and numerous than all the sinners upon earth The greatest Doctors are ignorant and unlearned in comparison of the meanest soul with Christ The greatest Monarchs are but worms in comparison of the Glorified Spirits with God If they say to you Are you wiser than so many and so wise and Learned men ask them Are you or all the ungodly wiser than all the blessed souls with Christ Let the wiser party carry it § 14. Direct 14. When you are tempted to be weary of a holy life or to think all your labour is vain Direct 14. look up to the blessed souls with Christ and there you will see the end of Holiness There you will see that of all the labour of your lives there is none that you are so sure to gain by and that in due time you shall reap if you faint not and if you sow to the spirit of the spirit you shall reap everlasting life Gal. 6. 8 9. And that when you have done the will of God if you have but patience you shall inherit the promise Heb. 10. 36. Ask your selves whether any of those blessed souls Repent now of the Holiness of their lives on earth or of their mortifying the flesh and denying themselves the delights of sin § 15. Direct 15. When you are tempted to turn back in the day of tryal and to forsake Christ or Direct 15. his cause when persecution ariseth then look to the blessed souls above and see what is the end of suffering for the sake of Christ and righteousness To foresee the great reward in Heaven will convince you that instead of being terrified by sufferings you should rejoyce and be exceeding glad Are you to lie Mat. 5. 11 12. in Prison or to burn in the Flames so did many thousands that are now in Heaven And do you think that they repent it now Ignatius Polycarp Cyprian and many such holy men were once used as hardly as you are now and put to death by cruel men Rogers Bradford Hooper Glover and multitudes with them were once in Prison and burnt in the Flames but where are they now and what is the end of all their pains Now whether do you think the case of Bonner or Bradford to be best Now had you rather be Gardiner or Philpot Now which think you doth most repent the poor Waldenses that were murdered by thousands or the Popes and Persecutors that murdered them § 16. Direct 16. When you are dismayed under the burden of your sins the greatness of your corruptions Direct 16. the weakness of your graces the imperfection of your duties look up to the blessed souls with Christ and remember that all those Glorified spirits were once in flesh as you now are and once they lay at the feet of God in tears and groans and cryes as you do They were once fain to cry out of the burden of their sins and mourn under the weakness of their graces as you now do They were once as much clog'd with flesh as you are and once as low in doubts and fears and bruised under the sense of Gods displeasure They once were as violently assaulted with temptations and had the same corruptions to lament and strive against as you have They were once as much afflicted by God and man But is there any of the smart of this remaining § 17. Direct 17. When you are deterred from the presence of the dreadful God and think he will not Direct 17. accept such worms as you look up to the blessed souls with Christ and remember how many millions of your brethren are there accepted to greater familiarity than that which you here desire Remember that those souls were once as dark and distant from God and unworthy of his acceptance as you now are A fearful Child receiveth boldness to see his Brethren in his Fathers arms § 18. Direct 18. When you are afraid of Satan lest he should prevail against you and devour you Direct 18. look up to the blessed souls with Christ and
us Q. 9. May be pray for Grace who desireth it not Q. 10. May he pray that doubteth of his interest in God and dare not call him Father as his Child Q. 11. May a wicked man pray or is he ever accepted Q. 12. May a wicked man use the Lords Prayer Q. 13. Is it Idolatry or sin alwayes to pray to Saints or Angels Q. 14. Must the same man pray secretly that hath before prayed in his family Q. 15. Is it best to keep set hours for prayer Q 16. May we joyn in family prayers with ungodly persons Q. 17 What if the Master or speaker be ungodly or a Heretick Q. 18. May we pray absolutely for outward mercies or only conditionally Q. 19. May we pray for all that we may lawfully desire Q. 20. How may we pray for the salvation of all the world Q. 21. Or for the Conversion of all Nations Q. 22. Or that a whole Kingdom may be converted and saved Q. 23. Or for the destruction of the enemies of Christ or the Kingdom Q. 24. What is to be judged of a particular faith Q. 25. Is every lawful prayer accepted Q. 26. With what faith must I pray for the souls or bodies of others Q. 27. With what faith may we pray for the Continuance of the Church or Gospel Q. 28. How to know when our prayers are heard Q. 29. How to have fulness and constant supply of matter in our prayers Q 30. How to keep up fervency in prayer Q 31. May we look to speed ever the better for any thing in our selves or our prayers Or may we put any trust in them Q. 32. How must that person and prayer be qualified which God will accept to p. 598 Tit. 3. Special Directions for family prayer ibid. Tit. 4. Special Directions for secret prayer p. 599 CHAP XXIV Directions fâ—r families about the Sacrament of the Lords Supper p. 600 What are the Ends of the Sacrament What are the Parts of it Q. 1. Should not the Sacrament have â—â—â—â— preparation than the other parts of worship Q 2. How oft should it be administred Q. 3. Must all members of the visible Church communicate Q. 4. May any man receive it that knoweth himself unsanctified Q. 5. May an ungodly man receive it that knoweth not himself to be ungodly Q. 6. Must a Christian receive who doubteth of his sincerity Q. 7. What if Superiours compell a doubting Christian to receive it by excommunication or imprisonment What should be choose Q. 8. Is not the case of an hypocrite that knoweth not himself to be an hypocrite and of the sincere who knoweth not himself to be sincere all one as to communicating Q. 9. Wherein lyeth the sin of an ungâ—dly person if he receive Q. 10. Doth all unworthy receiving make one lyable to damnation or what Q 11. What is the particular preparation needful to a fit Communicant p. 653. Marks of sincerity ibid. Preparing duties Q 1. May we receive from an ungodly Minister Q 2. May we communicate with unworthy persons in an undisciplined Church Q. 3. What if I cannot communicate unless I conform to an imposed gesture as sitting standing or kneeling Q. 4. What if I cannot receive it but as administered by the Common Prayer Q. 5. If my conscience be not satisfied may I come doubting Obj. Is it not a duty to follow conscience as Gods Officer What to do in the time of administration 1. What Graces must be exercised 2. On what objects 3. The Season and Order of Sacramental duties ad p. 610 CHAP. XXV Directions for fearful troubled Christians who are perplexed with doubts of their sincerity and justification Causes and Cure p. 612 CHAP. XXVI Directions for declining back-sliding Christians about perseverance p. 616 The way of falling into Sects and Heresies and Errors And of declining in Heart and Life Signs of declining Signs of a graceless state Dangerous signs of impenitency False signs of declining Motives against declining Directions against it p. 616 Tit. 2. Directions for perseverance or to prevent back-sliding p. 618 Antidotes against those doctrines of presumption which would binder our perseverance p. 623 CHAP. XXVII Directions for the poor The Temptations of the poor The special Duties of the poor p. 627 CHAP. XXVIII Directions for the Rich. p. 632 CHAP. XXIX Directions for the weak and aged p. 634 CHAP. XXX Directions for the sick p. 637 Tit. 1. Directions for a safe death to secure salvation I. For the unconverted in their sickness A sad case 1. For Examination 2. For Repentance 3. For faith in Christ 4. For a new heart love to God and resolution for obedience Q. Will â—ate Repentance serve the turn in such a case II. Directions to the Gâ—dly for a safe departure Their Temptations to be resisted p. 637 Tit. 2. How to profit by our sickness p 642 Tit. 3. Directions for a comfortable or peaceable Death p. 644. Directions for resisting the Temptations of Satan in time of sickness p. 648 Tit. 4. Directions for doing good to others in our sickness p. 651 CHAP. XXXI Directions to the friends of the sick that are about them p. 653 Q. Can Physick lengthen mens lives Q. Is it meet to make known to the sick their danger of death Q Must we tell bad men of their sin and misery when it may exasperate the disease by troubling them Q. What can be done in so short a time Q. What to do in doubtful cases Q. What order should be observed in counselling the ignorant and ungodly when time is so short Helps against excessive sorrow for the death of friends Yea of the worst A Form of Exhortation to be read in Sickness to the Ungodly or those that we justly fear are such p. 657 A Form of Exhortation to the Godly in Sickness For their comfort Their dying groans and joyes p. 662 TOME III. Christian Ecclesiasticks PART I. CHAP. I. OF the Worship of God in General The Nature and Reasons of it and Directions for it How to know right Ends in worship c. p. 673 CHAP. II. Directions about the Manner of worship to avoid all corruptions and false unacceptable worshipping of God p. 680. The disadvantages of ungodly men in judging of holy worship Q. How far the Scriptures are the Rule or Law of Worship and Discipline and how far not Instances of things undetermined in Scripture What Commands of Scripture are not universal or perpetual May danger excuse from duty and when Rules for the right manner CHAP. III. Directions about the Christian Covenant with God and Baptism p. 688. The Covenant what The Parties Matter Terms Forms necessary Modes Fruits c. External Baptism what Compleat Baptism what Of Renewing the Covenant CHAP. IV. Directions about the Profession of our Religion to others The greatness of the duty of open Profession VVhen and how it must be made p. 692 CHAP. V. Directions about Vows and particular Covenants with God p. 694 VVhat a Vow is The sorts of
as Simon Magus or Iulian or Porphiry of the gifts of the Holy Ghost These Honourable miserable men will bear no contradiction or reproof Who dare be so unmannerly disobedient or bold as to tell them that they are out of the way to Heaven and strangers to it that I say not Enemies and to presume to stop them in the way to Hell or to hinder them from damning themselves and as many others as they can They think this talk of Christ and grace and life eternal if it be but serious and not like their own in form or levity or scorn is but the troublesome preciseness of hypocritical humorous crackt-brained fellows And say of the godly as the Pharisees John 7. 47 48 49. Are ye also deceived Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him but this people who knoweth not the Law are cursed § 4. Well Gentlemen or poor men whoever you be that savour not the things of the Spirit Rom. 8. 5 6 7. 13. but live in ignorance of the mysteries of salvation be it known to you that Heavenly Truth and Holiness are works of Light and never prosper in the dark And that your best understanding should be used for God and your salvation if for any thing at all It is the Devil and his deceits that fear the light Do but Understand well what you do and then be wicked if you can and then set light by Christ and holiness if you dare O come but out of darkness into the light and you will see that which will make you tremble to live ungodly and unconverted another day And you will see that which will make you with penitent remorse lament your so long neglect of Heaven and wonder that you could live so far and so long besides your wits as to choose a course of vanity and beasâ—iality in the chains of Satan before the joyful liberty of the Saints And though we must not be so uncivil as to tell you where you are and what you are doing you will then more uncivilly call your selves exceedingly mad and foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures as one did that thought himself before as wise and good as any of you Acts 26. 11. Tit. 3. 3. Live not in a sleepy state of ignorance if ever you would have saving grace Direction 2. ESpecially labour first to understand the true nature of a state of sin and a state Direct 2. of Grace § 1. It 's like you will say that All are sinners and that Christ dyed for sinners and that you were Pâ—â—itâ—nti optimus est tortus mâ—tatio consâ—â—i Cic. Phil. 12. Regenerate in your Baptism and that for the sins that since then you have committed you have Repented of them and therefore you hope they are forgiven But stay a little man and understand the matter well as you go for it is your salvation that lyeth at the stake It 's very true that All are sinners But it is as true that some are in a state of sin and some in a state of grace some are converted sinners and some unconverted sinners some live in sins inconsistent with Holiness which therefore may be called Mortal others have none but infirmities which consist with spiritual life which in this sense may be called Venial some hate their sin and long to be perfectly delivered from it and others so love it as they are lothe to leave it And is there no difference think you between these § 2. It is as true also that Christ dyed for sinners Or else where were our hope But it is true also that he dyed to save his people from their sins Matth. 1. 21. and to bring them from darkness â—â—â—â—â— Gratiâ—â—nius hominis majus est quam bonum naturae totius universi Aquin. 12. q. 113. art 9. unto light and from the power of Satan unto God Acts 26. 18. and to redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. and that except a man be born again and converted and become as a little child in humility and beginning the world anew he cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven John 3. 3 5. Matth. 18. 3. and that even he that dyed for sinners will at last condemn the workers of iniquity and say Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire Matth. 25. I never knew you Matth. 7. 23. § 3. It is very true that you were sacramentally regenerate in Baptism and that he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and all that are the children of promise and have that promise sealed to them by Baptism are regenerate The Ancients taught that Baptism puts men into a state of grace that is that all that sincerely renounce the world the Devil and the flesh and are sincerely given up to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost according to the Covenant of Grace and profess and seal this by their Baptism shall be pardoned and made the heirs of life But as it is true that Baptism thus Qâ—icquid Deo gratum dignumque offertur de bono tâ—esâ—â— o cordis desertuâ— Intrâ— nos quippe est quod Deo offâ—rimus omnâ— viz. acâ—â—ptabile â—unus Ibi timoâ— Dei ibi confâ—ssio ibi largitas ibi sobrietas ibi paupâ—rtas spiritus ibi compassio c. Potho Prumiens de Domo Dei li. 2. De regno Dei quod intra nos est meditamur vanitatâ—s iâ—saâ—iaâ— falsas dum interioâ—ibus ani nâ—â— viâ—tutibus in quibus regnum Dei consistit privati ad exteriora quaedam studia ducimur circa corporalâ—s exâ—rcitationâ—s quae ad modicum utiles esse videntur occupamur fructus spiritus qui sunt charitas pax gaudium c. intus minime possidemus exterius qâ—arundam coâ—suâ—â—udinum observantias sectamur in exercitiis tantum corporalibus quae sunt jejunia vigisiae asperitas seu vilitas vâ—â—tis c. regulam nobis vivendi quasi perfectam statuentes Idem ibid. saveth so is it as true that it is not the outward washing only the filth of the flesh that will suffice but the answer of a good conscience towards God 1 Pet. 2. 21. And that no man can enter into the Kingdom of God that is not born of the Spirit as well as of water Iohn 3. 5. And that Simon Magus and many another have had the water of Baptism that never had the Spirit but still remain in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity and had no part nor lot in that business their hearts being not right in the sight of God Acts 8. 13. 21 23. And nothing is more sure than that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ for all his Baptism he is none of his Rom. 8. 9. And that if you have his Spirit you walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and are not carnally but spiritually minded and are alive to God and as dead to
indeed in a graceless state in which if they died they were past all hope that they would not quickly look about them and better understand the offers of a Saviour and live in continual solicitude and fear till they found themselves in a safer state If you were sure your selves that you must yet be made new creatures or be damned would it not set you on work to seek more diligently after grace than ever you have done The Devil knoweth this well enough that he could scarce keep you quiet this night in his snares but you would be ready to repent and beg for mercy and resolve on a new life before to morrow if you were but sure that you are yet in a state of condemnation And therefore he doth all that he can to hide your sin and danger from your eyes and to quiet you with the conceit that though you are sinners yet you are penitent pardoned and safe § 3. Well Sirs there can be no harm in knowing the truth And therefore will you but try your selves Whether you are unsanctified or not You were baptized into the name of the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier and if now you neglect or mock at sanctification what do you but deride your Baptism or neglect that which is its sense and end It doth not so much concern you to know that you live the life of nature as to know whether sanctification have made you spiritually alive to God § 4. And let me tell you this to your encouragement that we do not call you to know that you are unconverted and unpardoned and miserable as men that have no remedy but must sit down in despair and be tormented with the fore-knowledge of your endless pains before the time No it is but that you may speedily and thankfully accept of Christ the full remedy and turn to God and quickly get out of your sin and terror and enter into a life of safety and of peace We desire not your continuance in that life which tendeth to despair and horror we would have you out of it if it were in our power before to morrow and therefore it is that we would have you understand what danger you are in that you may go no further but speedily turn back and seek for help And I hope there is no hurt though there be some present trouble in such a discovery of your danger as this is Well if you are but willing to know I shall help you a little to know what you are § 5. 1. IF you are persecutors or haters or deriders of men for being serious and diligent in the service Marks of 〈…〉 of God and fearful of sinning and because they go not with the multitude to do evil it is a certain sign that you are in a state of death Yea if you love not such men and desire not rather to be such your selves than to be the greatest of the ungodly See Gal. 4. 29. Acts 26. 11. 1 Tim. 1. 13. 1 Pet. 4. 2 3 4 5. Psal. 15. 4. 1 Iohn 3. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15. Iohn 13. 35. Psal. 84. 10. § 6. 2. If you love the world best and set your affections most on things below and mind most earthly things nay if you seek not first Gods Kingdom and the righteousness thereof and if your hearts be not in Heaven and your affections set on the things that are above and you prefer not your hopes of life eternal before all the pleasures and prosperity of this world it is a certain sign that you are but worldly and ungodly men See this in Matth. 6. 19 20 21 33. Phil. 3. 18 19 20. Col. 3. 1 2 3 4. Psal. 73. 25. 1 Iohn 2 15 16 17. Iames 1. 27. Luke 12. 20 21. 16. 25. § 7. 3. If your estimation belief and hopes of everlasting life through Christ be not such as will prevail with you to deny your selves and forsake Father and Mother and the nearest friends and house and land and life and all that you have for Christ and for these hopes of a happiness hereafter you are no true Christians nor in a state of saving grace See Luke 14. 26 33. Matth. 10. 37 38 39. Matth. 13. 21 22. § 8. 4. If you have not been converted regenerated and sanctified by the Spirit of Jesus Christ making you spiritual and causing you to mind the things of the Spirit above the things of the flesh If this Spirit be not in you and you walk not after it but after the flesh making provision for the flesh to satisfie its desires and preferring the pleasing of the flesh before the pleasing of God it is certain that you are in a state of death See Matth. 18. 3. Iohn 3. 3 5 6. Heb. 12. 14. Rom. 8. 1. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13. 13. 13 14. Luke 16. 19 25. 12. 20 21. Heb. 11. 25 26. 2 Cor. 4. 16 17 18. 5. 7. Rom. 8. 17 18. § 9. 5. If you have any known sin which you do not hate and had not rather leave it than keep it and do not pray and strive and watch against it as far as you know and observe it but rather excuse it plead for it desire it and are loth to part with it so that your will is habitually more for it than against it it is a sign of an impenitent unrenewed heart 1 Iohn 3. 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 24. Gal. 5. 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25. Rom. 7. 22 24. 8. 13. Luke 13. 3 5. Matth. 5. 19 20. 2 Tim. 2. 19 Psal. 5. 5. Luke 13. 27. § 10. 6. If you Love not the Word as it is a light discovering your sin and duty but only as it is a general truth or as it reproveth others If you love not the most searching preaching and would not know how bad you are and come not to the light that your deeds may be manifest it is a sign that you are not children of the light but of the darkness Iohn 3. 19 20 21. § 11. 7. If the Laws of your Creator and Redeemer be not of greatest power and authority with you and the will and word of God cannot do more with you than the word or will of any man and the threatnings and promises of God be not more prevalent with you than the threats or promises of any men it is a sign that you take not God for your God but in heart are Atheists and ungodly men Luke 19. 27. Matth. 7. 21 22 23 26. Dan. 3. 16 17 18. 6. 5 10. Ier. 17. 5 6. Luke 12. 4. Acts 5. 29. Psal. 14. 1 c. § 12. 8. If you have not in a deliberate Covenant or resolution devoted and given up your selves to God as your Father and felicity to Jesus Christ as your only Saviour and your Lord and King and to the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier to be made holy by him desiring that your heart and life
Holy Ghost Read Luke 19. 27. Some think it strange that any men should be called Haters of God And I believe you will find it hard to meet with that man that will confess it by himself till converting Grace or Hell constrain him And indeed if God himself had not charged men with that sin and called them by that name we should scarce have found belief or patience when we had endeavoured to convince the world of it Intreat but the worst of men to repent of Hating God and try how they will take it Yet they may read that name in Scripture Rom. 1. 30. Psal. 81. 15. Luke 19. 14. Did not the Iews hate Christ think you when they murdered him and when they hated all his followers for his sake Matth. 10. 22. Mar. 13. 13. And doth not Christ say that they shall be hated for his sake not only of the Jews but also of all Nations and all men Matth. 24. 9. 10. 22. Even by the world Iohn 17. 14. 15 17 18 19 c. And this was a hating both Christ and his Father Iohn 15. 23 24. But you will say It is not possible that any man can hate God I answer How then come the Devils to hate him Yea every ungodly man hateth God Indeed no man hateth him as Good or as Merciful to them But they hate him as Holy and Iust as one that will not let them have the pleasure of sin without damning them as one engaged in justice to cast them into Hell if they dye without conversion and as one that hath made so pure and precise a Law to govern them and convinceth them of sin and calls them to that repentance and Holiness which they hate Why did the world hate Christ himself He tells you John 7. 7. The world cannot hate you but me it hateth because I testifie against it that the works thereof are evil John 3. 19. This is the condemnation that Light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil Nay it is a wonder of blindness that this God-hating world and age should not perceive that they are God-haters while they hate his servants to the death and implacably rage against them and hate his holy wayes and Kingdom and bend all their power and interest in most of the Kingdoms of the world against his interest and his people upon earth While the Devil fighteth his battels against Christ through the world by their hands they will yet confess the Devils malice against God but deny their own as if he used their hands without their hearts Well poor wretched worms instead of denying your enmity to him lament it and know that he also taketh you for his enemies and will prove too hard for you when you have done your worst Read Psal. 2. and tremble and submit This is especially the case of persecutors and open enemies but in their measure also of all that would not have him to reign over them And therefore Christ came to Reconcile us unto God and God to us and it is only the sanctified that are Reconciled to him See Col. 1. 21. Phil. 3. 18. 1 Cor. 15. 25. Rom. 5. 10. The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God nor indeed can be Rom. 8. 7. Mark that Text well § 2. 2. As long as you are unsanctified you are unjustified and unpardoned you are under the guilt of all the sins that ever you committed Every sinful thought word and deed of which the least deserveth Hell is on your score to be answered for by your self And what this signifieth the threatnings of the Law will tell you See Acts 26. 18. Mar. 4. 12. Col. 1. 14. There is no sin forgiven to an impenitent unconverted sinner § 3. 3. And no wonder when the unconverted have no special interest in Christ. The pardon and life that is given by God is given in and with the Son God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 John 5. 10 Rom. 8. 9. 11 12. Till we are members of Christ we have no part in the pardon and salvation purchased by him And ungodly sinners are not his members So that Jesus Christ who is the hope and life of all his own doth leave thee as he found thee and that is not the worst for § 4. 4. It will be far worse with the impenitent rejecters of the grace of Christ than if they had never heard of a Redeemer For it cannot be that God having provided so precious a Remedy for sinful miserable souls should suffer it to be despised and rejected without encreased punishment Was it not enough that you had disobeyed your Great Creator but you must also set light by a most Gracious Redeemer that offered you pardon purchased by his blood if you would but have come to God by him Yea the Saviour that you despised shall be himself your judge and the Grace and Mercy which you set so light by shall be the heaviest aggravation of your sin and misery For how shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation Heb. 2. 3. And of how much sorer punishment then the despisers of Moses Law shall they be thought worthy who have trodden under foot the Son of God c. Heb. 10. 29. § 5. 5. The very prayers and sacrifice of the wicked are abominable to God except such as contain their returning from their wickedness So that terror ariseth to you from that which you expect should be your help See Prov. 15. 8. 21. 27. Isa. 1. 13. § 6. 6. Your common Mercies do but increase your sin and misery till you return to God Your carnal hearts turn all to sin Tit. 1. 15. Unto the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled § 7. 7. While you are unsanctified you are impotent and dead to any holy acceptable work when you should redeem your time and prepare for eternity and try your states or pray or meditate or do good to others you have no heart to any such spiritual works your minds are byassed against them Rom. 8. 7. And it is not the excusable impotency of such as would do good but cannot but it is the malicious impotency of the wicked the same with that of Devils that cannot do good because they will not and will not because they have blind malicious and ungodly hearts which makes their sin so much the greater Tit. 1. 16. § 8. 8. While you have unsanctified hearts you have at all times the seed and disposition unto every sin And if you commit not the worst it is because some providence restraining the Tempter hindereth you No thanks to you that you do not daily commit Idolatry Blasphemy Theft
to hear an Atheist proving that there is no God You may believe the Scripture to be the Word of God and Christ to be the Saviour and the soul to be immortal long before you will be fit to manage or study Controversies hereupon For nothing is so false or bad which a wanton or wicked Wit may not put a plausible gloss upon And your raw unfurnished understandings will scarce be able to see through the pretence or escape the cheat When you cannot answer the Arguments of Seducers you will find them leave a doubting in your minds For you know not how plain the answer of them is to wiser men And though you must prove all things you must do it in due order and as you are able and stay till your furnished minds are capable of the tryal If you will need read before you know your Letters or pretend to judge of Greek and Hebrew Authors before you can read English you will but become ridiculous in your undertaking § 2. II. When you do come to smaller Controverted points let them have but their due proportion of your time and zeal And that will not be one hour in many dayes with the generality of private Christians By that time you have well learned the more necessary truths and practised daily the more necessary duties you will find that there will be but little time to spare for lesser Controversies Opinionists that spend most of their Time in studying and talking of such points do steal that time from greater matters and therefore from God and from themselves Better work is undone the while And they that here lay out their chiefest zeal divert their zeal from things more necessary and turn their natural heat into a Feavor § 3. III. The Essential necessary Truths of your Religion must imprint the Image of God upon your hearts and must dwell there continually and you must live upon them as your bread and drink and daily necessary food All other points must be studied in subserviency to those All lesser duties must be used as the exercise of the Love of God or man and of a humble heavenly mind The Articles of your Creed and points of Catechism are fountains ever running affording you matter for the continual exercise of Grace It is both plentiful and solid nourishment to the soul which these great substantial points afford To know God the Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier the Laws and Covenant of God and his Judgement and Rewards and Punishments with the parts and method of the Lords Prayer which must be the daily exercise of our desires and Love this is the Wisdom of a Christian and in these must he be continually exercised You 'l say perhaps that the Apostle saith Heb. 6. 1. Leaving the Principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on to perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works c. Answ. 1. By leaving he meaneth not passing over the practice of them as men that have done with them and are past them But his leaving at that time to discourse of them or his supposing them taught already Though he lay not the foundation again yet he doth not pluck it up 2. By Principles he meaneth the first points to be taught and learnt and practised And indeed Regeneration and Baptism is not to be done again But the Essentials of Religion which I am speaking of contain much more especially to live in the love of God which Paul calls the more excellent way 1 Cor. 12. 13. 3. Going on to perfection is not by ceasing to believe and Love God but by a more distinct knowledge of the mysteries of salvation to perfect our Faith and Love and Obedience The points that Opinionists call Higher and think to be the principal matter of their growth and advancement in understanding are usually but some smaller less necessary truths if not some uncertain doubtful questions Mark well 1 Tim. 1. 4. 6. 4. 2 Tim. 2. 23. Tit. 3. 9. compared with Iohn 17. 3. Rom. 13. 8 9 10. 1 Cor. 13. 1 Iohn 3. 1 Cor. 1. 23. 15. 1 2 3. 2. 2. Gal. 6. 14. Iames 2. 3. 1. Direct 5. BE very thankful for the great mercy of your Conversion but yet overvalue not your Direct 5. first degrees of knowledge or holiness but remember that you are yet but in your infancy and must expect your growth and ripeness as the consequent of Time and Diligence § 1. You have great reason to be more glad and thankful for the least measure of true Grace than if you had been made the Rulers of the Earth it being of a far more excellent nature and entitling you to more than all the Kingdoms of the world See my Sermon called Right Rejoycing on those words of Christ Rejoyce not that the Spirits are subject to you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in Heaven Luke 10. 20. Christ will warrant you to Rejoyce though enemies envy you and repine both at your victory and triumph If there be joy in Heaven in the presence of the Angels at your Conversion there is great reason you should be glad your selves If the Prodigals Father will needs have the best Robe and Ring brought forth and the fat Calf killed and the Musick to attend the Feast that they may eat and be merry Luke 15. 23. there is great reason that the Prodigal Son himself should not have the smallest share of joy though his Brother repine § 2. But yet take heed lest you think the measure of your first endowments to be greater than it Fear is a cautelous preserving grace I aâ—rt saith of Cleanthes Cum aliquando probro illi daretur quod esset timidus At ideo inquit parum pecco is Grace imitateth Nature in beginning usually with small Degrees and growing up to maturity by leisurely proceeding We are not new born in a state of manhood as Adam was created Though those Texts that liken the Kingdom of God to a grain of Mustard-seed and to a little leaven Matth. 13. 31 33. be principally meant of the small beginnings and great encrease of the Church or Kingdom of Christ in the world yet it is true also of his Grace or Kingdom in the soul. Our first Stature is but to be New born babes desiring the sincere milk of the word that we may grow by it 1 Pet. 2. 2. Note here that the new birth bringeth forth but babes but growth is by degrees by feeding on the Word The Word is received by the heart as seed into the ground Matth. 13. And seed useth not to bring forth the blade and fruit to ripeness in a day § 3. Yet I deny not but that some men as Paul may have more Grace at their first Conversion than many others have at their full growth For God is free in the giving of his Own and may give more or less as pleaseth himself But yet in Paul himself
love of Christ and one another and 1 John 3. 16. that we forgive and pray for them that persecute us 24. In all this suffering from men he feels also so much of the fruit of our sin upon his soul that he cryeth out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me To teach us if we fall into such calamity of soul as to think that God himself forsaketh us to remember for our support that the Son of God himself before us cryed out My God why hast thou forsaken me And that in this also we may expect a tryal to seem to our selves Forsaken of God when our Saviour underwent the like before us I will instance in no more of his example because I would not be tedious Hither now let believers cast their eyes If you love your Lord you should love to imitate him and be glad to find your selves in the way that he hath gone before you If He lived a worldly or a sensual life do you do so If He was an enemy to preaching and praying and holy living be you so But if he lived in the greatest contempt of all the wealth and honours and pleasures of the world in a life of holy obedience to his Father wholly preferring the Kingdom of Heaven and seeking the salvation of the souls of others and patiently bearing persecution derision calumnies and death then take up your Cross and follow him in joyfully to the expected Crown § 7. Direct 6. If you will Learn of Christ you must Learn of his Ministers whom he hath appointed Direct 6. under him to be the Teachers of his Church He purposely enableth them enclineth them and sendeth them to instruct you Not to have dominion over your faith but to be your spiritual Fathers and the Ministers by whom you believe as God shall give ability and success to every one as he pleases to plant and water while God giveth the encrease to open mens eyes and turn them from darkness to light and to be labourers together with God whose husbandry and building you are and to be helpers of your joy See 2 Cor. 24. Acts 26. 17 18. 1 Cor. 3. 5 6 7 8 9. 4. 15. Seeing therefore Christ hath appointed them under him to be the ordinary Teachers of his Church he that heareth them speaking his message heareth him and he that despiseth them despiseth him Luke 10. 16. And he that saith I will hear Christ but not you doth say in effect to Christ himself I will not hear thee nor learn of thee unless thou wilt dismiss thy Ushers and teach me immediately thy self § 8. Direct 7. Hearken also to the secret Teachings of his Spirit and your consciences not as makeing Direct 7. you any new Law or Duty or being to you instead of Scriptures or Ministers but as bringing that truth into your Hearts and practices which Scriptures and Ministers have first brought to your eyes and ears If you understand not this how the office of Scripture and Ministers differ from the office of the Spirit and your Consciences you will be confounded as the Sectaries of these times have been that separate what God hath joyned together and plead against Scripture or Ministers under pretence of extolling the Spirit or the Light within them As your meat must be taken into the stomach and pass the first concoction before the second can be performed and chilification must be before sanguification so the Scripture and Ministers must bring truth to your eyes and ears before the Spirit or Conscience bring them to your Hearts and Practice But they lye dead and uneffectual in your brain or imagination if you hearken not to the secret teachings of the Spirit and Conscience which would bring them further As Christ is the principal Teacher without and Ministers are but under him so the Spirit is the principal Teacher within us and Conscience is but under the Spirit being excited and informed by it Those that learn only of Scriptures and Ministers by hearing or reading may become men of Learning and great ability though they hearken not to the sanctifying teachings of the Spirit or to their Consciences But it is only those that hearken first to the Scriptures and Ministers and next to the Spirit of God and to their Consciences that have an inward sanctifying saving knowledge and are they that are said to be Taught of God Therefore hearken first with your ears what Christ hath to say to you from without and then hearken daily and diligently with your hearts what the Spirit and Conscience say within For it is their office to preach over all that again to your Hearts which you have received § 9. Direct 8. It being the office of the present ordinary Ministry only to expound and apply the doctrine Direct 8 of Christ already recorded in the Scriptures believe not any man that contradicteth this recorded doctrine what Reason Authority â—r Revelation soever he pretend Isa. 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimâ—ny if they speak not according to these it is because there is no Light in them No Reason can be Reason indeed that is pretended against the Reason of the Creator and God of Reason Authority pretended against the Highest Authority of God is no Authority God never gave Authority to any against himself nor to deceive mens souls nor to dispense with the Law of Christ nor to warrant men to sin against him nor to make any supplements to his Law or Doctrine The Apostles had their â— Câ—â— 10 8. â—â—â—â—â— 1â— â—â— Power only to â—diâ—ication but not to destruction There is no Revelation from God that is contrary to his own Revelation already delivered as his perfect Law and Rule unto the Church and therefore none supplemental to it If an Apostle or an Angel from Heaven per possibile vel impossibile shall Evangelize to us besides what is Evangelized and we have received he must be held accursed Gal. 1. 6 7 8. § 10. Direct 9. Come not to Learn of Christ with self conceitedness pride or confidence in your prejudice 〈◊〉 9. and errors but as little Children with humble teachable tractable minds Christ is no Teacher for those that in their own eyes are wise enough already unless it be first to teach them to become fools in their own esteem because they are so indeed that they may be wise 1 Cor. 3. 18. They that are prepossessed with false opinions and resolve that they will never be perswaded of the contrary are unmeet to be Scholars in the School of Christ. He resisteth the proud but giveth more grace unto the 1 Pâ—â— 5. â— humble Men that have a high conceit of their own understandings and think they can easily know truth from falshood as soon as they hear it and come not to learn but to censure what they hear or read as being able presently to judge of all these are fitter for the School of the Prince of Pride and
temper mixt will help him to draw men to lust and and filthiness and levity and wantonness and time-wasting pleasures A sanguine temper mixt with a pituitous much helpeth him to make men blockish and regardless and insensible of the great concernments of the soul A flegmatick temper helpeth him to draw people to drowzy sluggishness and to an idle slothful life and so to ill means to maintain it and to a backwardness to every work that is good A healthful temper much helpeth him to draw people to gluttony drunkenness lust ambition covetousness and neglect of life eternal A sickly temper helpeth him to tempt us to pievishness and impatiency And a Melancholy temper helpeth him in all the temptations mentioned but even now § 23. 2. He useth his greatest Skill to get the greatest fleshly interest on his side so that it may be a matter of Great pleasure Great advancement and honour and applause or Great commodity to a man if he will sin Or a matter of Great suffering and Great disgrace and Great loss to him that will not sin or that will be holy and obedient to God For Fleshly Interest being the common matter of all his Temptations his main business is to greaten this as much as may be § 24. 3. He maketh very great advantage of the Common Customs of the Countrey that men live in This carrieth away thousands and millions at once When the common vote and custom is for sin and against Christ and holiness particular persons think themselves excused that they are no wiser or better than all the Countrey about them And they think they are much the safer for sinning in so great a crowd and doing but as most men do and he that contradicteth them cometh on great disadvantage in their eye when he is to oppose an Army of adversaries and seemeth to think himself wiser than so many § 25. 4. Also he is exceeding industrious to get Education on his side He knoweth how apt men are to retain the form which they were molded or cast into at first If he get the first possession by actual as well as Original sin he is not easily cast out Especially when Education doth conspire with Common Custom it delivereth most of the people and Kingdoms of the Earth into his hands § 26. 5. Also he is industrious to get the approved Doctrine of the Teachers of the people on his side If he can get it to pass once for a Revelation or Command of God he will quickly conquer conscience by it and take down all resistance He never doth war more successfully against God than when he beareth the name of God in his colours and fighteth against him in his own name Mahometans Jews Papists and all Hereticks are the Trophies and Monuments of his victories by this way Mischief is never so much reverenced nor proceedeth so successfully as when it is made a Religion When the Devil can charge men to do his business in the Name of God and upon pain of damnation he hath got the strongest weapons that ever he can make use of His ordinary bait is some fleshly pleasure but he goeth high indeed when he presumeth to offer the everlasting pleasures He tempted Christ with all the Kingdoms and glory of the world But he tempteth many millions of souls with the offers of the Kingdom of Heaven it self For he will offer it to them that he is endeavouring to keep from it and make it the bait to draw men from it into the way to Hell § 27. 6. He is exceeding diligent to get the wealth and prosperity of the world on his side That he may not seem to flatter his servants with empty promises but to reward them with real felicity and wealth And then he would make the sinner believe that Christ is the deceiver and promiseth a Kingdom which none of them ever saw and which he will not give them but that he himself will not deceive them but make good his promises even in this life without delay For they see with their eyes the things which he promiseth and they shall have them presently in possession to secure them from deceit § 28. 7. He is exceeding industrious to get common fame and reputation on his side That he may be able to keep his cause in credit and to keep the cause of Christ and holiness in disgrace For he knoweth how exceeding prone men are to fall into the way of honour and esteem and which most men praise and how loth they are to go in the way which is hated and evil spoken of by the most of men 8. He is very diligent to get the Sword and Government of Kingdoms and States and Countreys and Cities and Corporations into his hands or on his side For he knoweth the multitude of the ignorant and vulgar people are exceeding prone to be of the Religion of those that are able to help or hurt them and to follow the stronger side And that the will and example of the Ruler is as the first sheet or stamp which all the rest are printed after Therefore he will do his worst to give the greatest power to the most ungodly If the Turk be the Emperor the most of the vulgar are like quickly to be Turks If a Papist be their King the most of them are likely to be Papists Look into the present state of the Heathen Infidel Mahometane Papal and prophane parts of the world and into the History of all ages past and you will see with grief and admiration how much the Devil hath got by this § 29. 9. Also he is very desirous to get our Society and Companions on his side who are near us and have frequent opportunities to do us good or hurt For he knoweth by long and great experience how powerfully they draw and how frequently they speed § 30. 10. And he is very industrious to get our friends that have power over us and greatest interest in us on his side For then he hath won our out-works already § 31. 11. Lastly he is desirous sometimes to get the name and appearance of vertue and piety on his side That those that are to do his work may have a winning carriage and so a venerable name and the cloak of vertue may serve his turn for the promoting of the destruction of piety it self § 32. IV. By what hath been said you may understand what kind of Officers and Instruments the Tempter useth 1. He commonly useth men that are themselves first deceived and corrupted as fit instuments to deceive and corrupt others These will carry it on with confidence and violence The employment seemeth Natural to them they are so fit for it They will be willing to make other men of their mind and to have the company of others in their way A drunkard is fit to make a drunkard and a filthy fornicator to entise another into the sin and a gamester to make a gamester â—â—d a wanton time-waster
things and greatest interest of our souls being there will greatly raise us to the Love of God if any thing will do it To foresee how near him we shall be ere long and what a glorious proof we shall have of his good will and how our souls will be ravished everlastingly with his Love To think what hearts the blessed have that see his glory and live with Christ How full of love they are and what a delight it is to them thus to love must needs affect the heart of a Believer Lift up thy head poor drowsie sinner Look up to Heaven and think where thou must live for ever Think what the holy ones of God are doing Do they love God or do they not Must it not be then thy life and work for ever And canst thou forbear to love him now that is bringing thee to such a world of Love Thou wouldst love him more that would give thee security to possess a Kingdom which thou never sawest than him that giveth thee but some toy in hand And let it not seem too distant to affect thee The time is as nothing till thou wilt be there Thou knowest not but thou maist be there this night There thou shalt see the Maker of the worlds and know the mysteries of his wonderous works There thou shalt see thy blessed Lord and feel that love which thou readest of in the Gospel and enjoy the fruits of it for ever There thou shalt see him that suffered for thee and rose again whom Angels see and worship in his glory Thou shalt see there a more desirable sight than those that saw him heal the blind and lame and sick and raise the dead or those that saw him in his transfiguration or than those that saw him on the Cross or after his resurrection or than Stephen saw when he was stoned or Paul when he was converted yea more than it is like he saw when he was in his rapture in the third Heavens O who can think believingly on the life which we must there shortly live the glory which we must see the love which we must receive and the love which we must exercise and not feel the fire begin to flame and the Glass in which we see the Lord become a burning-glass to our affections CHRIST and HEAVEN are the Books which we must be often reading the Glasses in which we must daily gaze if ever we will be good proficients and practitioners in the Art of holy Love § 34. Direct 13. Exercise your souls so frequently and diligently in this way of Love that the Method Direct 13. of it may be familiar to you and the means and motives still at hand and you may presently be able to fall into the way as one that is well acquainted with it and may not be distracted and lâ—st in generals as not knowing where to fix your thoughts I know no Methods alone will serve to raise the dead and cause a carnal senseless heart to love the Lord But I know that many honest hearts that have the Spirit of Love within them have great need to be warned that they quench not the Spirit and great need to be directed how to stir up the grace which is given them and that many live a more dull or distracted uncomfortable life than they would do if they wanted not Skill and Diligence The soul is most backward to this highest work and therefore hath the greater need of helps And the best have so much need as that it is well if all will serve to keep up Loving and Grateful thoughts of God upon their minds And when every Trade and Art and Science requireth diligence exercise and experience and all are Bunglers at it at the first can we reasonably think that we are like to attain any high degrees with sleight and short and seldom thoughts § 35. Direct 14. Yet let not weak-headed or melâ—ncholly persons set themselves on those Methods Direct 14. or lengths of Meditation which their heads cannot bear lest the Tempter get advantage of them and abate their Love by making Religion seem a torment to them but let such take up with shorter obvious Meditations and exercise their Love in an active obediential way of living That is the best Physick that is fitted to the Patients strength and case And that 's the best Shoo that is meetest for the foot and not that which is the biggest or the finest It is a great design of Satan to make all duties grievous and burdensome to us and thereby to cast us into continual pain and fear and trouble and so destroy our delight in God and consequently our Love Therefore pretend not to disability for carnal unwillingness and laziness of mind but yet marr not all by grasping at more than you are able to bear Take on as you are able and increase your work if God increase your strength If a melancholly person crack his brain with immoderate unseasonable endeavours he will but disable himself for all § 36. Direct 15. Keep clear and hold fast the Evidences of thy Sincerity that thou maist perceive Direct 15. thy interest in the Love of God and resist the temptations which would hide his Love to thee and cause thee to doubt of it or deny it Satan hath not his end when he hath troubled thee and robbed thee of thy peace and comfort It is worse that he is seeking to effect by this His malice is more against God than against thee and more against God and thee in this point of Love than in any other grace or duty He knoweth that God esteemeth this most And he knoweth if he could kill thy love he kills thy soul. And he knoweth how natural it is to man to love those that love him and hate those that hate him be they never so excellent in themselves And therefore if he can perswade thee into despair and to think that God hateth thee and is resolved to damn thee he will not despair of drawing thee to hate God Or if he do but bring thee to fear that he loveth thee not he will think accordingly to abate thy love I know that a truly gracious soul keepeth up its love when it loseth its assurance and mourneth and longeth and seeketh in love when it cannot triumph and rejoyce in love But yet there are some prints left on the heart of its former apprehensions of the love of God And such souls exceedingly disadvantage themselves as to the exercises of love and make it a work of wondrous difficulty O it will exceedingly kindle love when we can see Gods surest Love-tokens in our hearts and look to the promises and say They are all mine and think of Heaven as that which shall certainly be our own and can say with Thomas My Lord and my God and with Paul that The life which I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God that loved me and gave himself for
Actions divers from that which commandeth my affections As those that put children relations families neighbours under our especiall charge and care though often others must be more loved 20. That Good which is the object of Love is not a meer Universal or General notion but is allwaies some particular or singular being in esse reali vel in esse cognito As there is no such thing in rerum natura as Good in a meer General which is neither the Good of natural existence or of moral perfection or of Pleasure Profit Honour c. Yea which is not in this or in that singular subject or so conceived so there is no such thing as Love which hath not some such singular object As Rada and other Scotists have made plain 21. All Good is either GOD or a CREATURE or a Creatures Act or Work 22. GOD is GOOD Infinitely Eternally Primitively Independently Immutably Communicatively of whom and by whom and to whom are all things The Beginning or first efficient the Dirigent and ultimately ultimate cause of all created Good As Making and Directing All things For Himself 23. Therefore it is the duty of the Intellectual Creature to Love God Totally without any exceptions or restrictions with all the Power Mind and Will not only in degree above our selves and all the world But also as GOD with a Love in kind transcending the Love of every Creature 24. All the Goodness of the Creature doth formally consist in its threefold Relation to GOD viz. 1. In the Impresses of God as its first Efficient or Creator as it is his Image or the effect and demonstration of his perfections viz. his Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness 2 In its Conformity to his Directions or Governing Laws and so in its Order and Obedience 3. And in its Aptitude and Tendency to God as its final cause even to the demonstration of his Glory and the Complacency of his Will 25. All Created Good is therefore Derivative Dependant Contingent Finite Secondary From God By God and To God receiving its Form and Measure from its respect to Him 26. Yet as it may be subordinately From man as the Principle of his own Actions and By man as a subordinate Ruler of himself or others and To man as a subordinate End so there is accordingly a subordinate sort of Goodness which is so denominated from these respects unto the Creature that is himself Good subordinately 27. But all this subordinate Goodness Bonum à nobis Bonum per nos Bonum nobis is but Analogically so and dependantly on the former sort of Goodness and is something in due subordination to it and against it nothing that is not properly Good 28. The best and excellentest Creatures in the foresaid Goodness-related to God are most to be loved and all according to the Degree of their Goodness more than as Good in relation to our selves 29. But seeing their Goodness is formally their Relation unto God it followeth that they are Loved 〈◊〉 only for his sake and consequently Gods Image or Glory in them is first Loved and so the true Love of any Creature is but a secondary sort of the Love of God 30. The best being next to God is the universe or whole Creation and therefore next him most to be loved by us 31. The next in Amiableness is the whole coelestial society Christ Angels and Saints 32. The next when we come to distinguish them is Christs own Created Glorified Nature in the Person of the Mediator Because Gods Glory or Image is most upon him 33. The next in Amiableness is the whole Angelical society or the orders of Intellectual Spirits above man 34. The next is the spirits of the Just made perfect or the Triumphant Church of Saints in Heaven 35. The next is all this lower world 36. The next is the Church in the world or militant on earth 37. The next are the particular Kingdoms and Societies of the world and so the Churches according to their various degrees 38. The next under societies and multitudes are those individual persons who are Best in the three fore-mentioned respects Whether our selves or others And thus by the objects should our Love that is Rational be diversified in Degree and that be Loved best that is best 39. The Amiable Image of God in man is as hath oft been said 1. Our Natural Image of God or the Image of his three Essential properties as such that is Our Vital Active Power our Intellect and our will 2. Our Moral Image or the Image of his said properties in their perfections viz. Our Holiness that is Our Holy Life or spiritual vivacity and Active Power Our Holy Light or Wisdom our Holy Wills or Love 3. Our Relative Image of God or the Image of his Supereminencie Dominion or Majesty which is 1. Common to Man in respect to the Inferiour Creatures that we are their Owners Governâ—rs and End and Benefactors 2. Eminently in Rulers of Men Parents and Princes who are Analogically sub-owners sub-rulers and sub-benefactors to their inferiors in various degrees By which it is discernable what it is that we are to Love in man and with what variety of kinds and degrees of Love as the Kinds and degrees of amiableness in the objects differ 40. Even the Sun and Moon and frame of Nature the Inanimates and Bruits must be Loved in that Degree Compared to Man and to one another as their Goodness before described that is the Impressions of the Divine perfections do more or less Gloriously appear in them and as they are adapted to him the ultimate end 41. As God is in this life seen but darkly and as in a Glass so also proportionably to be Loved For our Love cannot exceed our Knowledge 42. Yet it followeth not that we must Love him only as he appareth in his works which demonstrate him as effects do their cause For both by the said works improved by Reason and by his word we know that he is before his works and above them and so distinct from them as to transcend and comprehend and cause them all by a continual causality And therefore he must accordingly be Loved 43. It greatly hindereth our Love to God when we overlook all the intermediate excellencies between Him and us which are much better and therefore more amiable than our selves such as are before recited 44. The Love of the universe as bearing the liveliest Image or impress of their Cause is an eminent secondary Love of God and a great help to our Primary or Immediate Love of him Could we comprehend the Glorious excellency of the universal Creation in its matter form parts order and uses we should see so Glorious an Image of God as would unspeakably promote the work of Love 45. Whether the GLORY of God in HEAVEN which will for ever beatifie the beholders and possessors be the Divine Essence which is every where or a Created Glory purposely there placed for the felicity of holy spirits and
have it No nor with any perfection of your intellectual nature meerly as such and for your selves without the Pleasing and Glorifying God in it If you practically perceive that every thing is therefore and so far Good and Amiable as God shineth in it as its cause or as it conduceth to Glorifie him and Please his Will If accordingly you Love that person best on whom you perceive most of God and that is most serviceable to him though not at all beneficial to your self If you Love the wellfare of the Church the Kingdom the World and of the Heavenly society Saints Angels and Christ as the Divine Nature interest Image or impress maketh all Lovely in their several degrees and would rather be annihilated were it put upon your choice than Saints Angels Kingdoms Church should be annihilated If your hearts have devoted themselves and all that you have to God as his own to be used to his utmost service If your chief desire and endeavour in the world be to please his blessed will and in that will and the comtemplation of his infinite perfections you seek your rest If you desire your own everlasting happiness in no other kind but as consisting in the perfect sight of Gods Glory and in your perfect Loving of him and being pleasant or beloved to him and this as resting more in the Infinite Amiableness of God than the felicity which hence will follow to your selves though that also must be desired If now you deny your own glory for his Glory if your chief desire and endeavour be to Love him more and more and you Love your selves best when you Love him most In a word If nothing more take up your care than how to Love God more and nothing in the whole world your self or others seem more Amiable to your sober practical judgement and your wills than the Infinite Goodness of God as such If all this be so you have not only attained sincerity which is not now the question but this Divine nature and high confirmed Holiness Though withall you never so much desire your own salvation which is but to desire more of this Love And though your Nature have such a sensitive selfish desire of Life and Pleasure as is brought into subjection to this Divine Love If any be offended that so many propositions must be used in opening the case and say that they rather confound mens witts than inform them I Answer 1. The matter is high and I could not ascend by a shorter ladder Nor have I the faculty of climbing it per saltum stepping immediately from the lowest to the highest part If any will make the case plainer in fewer words and with less ado I shall thankfully accept his labour as a very great benefit when I see it 2. Either all these particulars are really diverse and really pertinent to the matter in question or not If not it is not blaming the number that will evince it but naming such particulars as are either unjustly or unnecessarily either distinguished or inserted And if it be but repeating the same things that is blamed I shall be glad if all these words and more would make such weighty cases clear and do confess that after all I need more light and am allmost stalled with the difficulties my self But if the particulars can be neither proved false nor needless but the Reader be only overset with multitude I would intreat him to be patient with other men that are more laborious and more capable of knowledge And let him know that if his difficulties do not rather engage him in a diligent search than tempt him to impatience and accusation I number him not only with the slothful contemners but therefore also with the enemies of knowledge even as I reckon the neglecters and contemners and accusers of Piety among its enemies But ere I end I must answer some Objections Object 1. Some will say Doth not every man Love God above himself and all while he knoweth him to be Better and so more Lovely For there is some Act of the will that answereth this of the understanding Answ. 1. You must know that the carnal mind is first captivated to carnal self and sensuality And therefore the most practical and powerful apprehensions of Goodness or Amiableness in every such person doth fasten upon Life and Pleasure or sensual prosperity And the sense having here engaged the mind and will the contrary conclusions that God is Best are but superficial and uneffectual like dreams and though they have answerable effects in the will they are but uneffectual velleities or wishes which are born down with far stronger desires of the contrary And though God be loved as one that is notionally conceived to be Best and Most to be Loved yet he is not loved Best or Most Yea though ordinarily the understanding say God is Best and Best to me and for me and Most to be loved when it cometh to volition or choice there is a secret apprehension which saith more powerfully hic nunc this sensible pleasure is Better for me and more eligible Why else is it chosen Unless you will say that the motion is principally sensitive and the force of the sensitive Appetite suspendeth all forcible opposition of the Intellect and so ruleth the Locomotive facultie it self But whether the Intellect be Active or but Omissive in it the sin cometh up to the same height of evil However it be it is most evident that while such men say God is most to be Loved they love him not most when they will not leave a lust or known sin for his Love Nor shew any such love but the contrary in their lives Object 2. But do not all men practically Love God best when they Love Wisdom Honesty and Goodness in all men Even in strangers that will never profit them And what is God but Wisdom Goodness and Greatness it self Answ. They first Idolize themselves and their sensual delights and then they Love such Wisdom Goodness and Greatness as is suitable to their self ish sensual lust and interest And it is not the Prime Good which is above them and to be preferred before them which they love as such but such Goodness as is fitted to their fleshly concupiscence and ends And therefore Holiness they Love not And though they love that which is never like to benefit them that is but as it is of the same kind with that which in others nearer them may benefit them and therefore is suitable to their minds and interest And yet we confess that the mind of man hath some principles of virtue and some footsteps and witnesses of a Deity left upon it But though these work up to an approbation of Good and a dislike of evil in the General notion of it and in particulars so far as it crosseth not their Lust yet never to prefer the Best things practically before their Lust And God is not Loved Best nor as God
that we can use to help them and none but the Almighty can cast him out and deliver them Let Husband or Wife or Parents or the dearest friends intreat a hardned sinner to be converted and he will not hear them Let the learnedst or wisest or holiest man alive both preach and beseech him and he will not turn At a distance he may reverence and honour a great Divine and a learned or a holy man especially when they are dead But let the best man on earth be the Minister of the place where he liveth and intreat him daily to repent and he will either hate and persecute him or neglect and disobey him What Minister was ever so learned or holy or powerful a Preacher that had not sad experience of this When the Prophet Isa. 53. 1. cryeth out Who hath believed our report And the Apostles were fain to shake off the dust of their feet against many that rejected them and were abused and scorned and persecuted by those whose souls they would have saved Nay Jesus Christ himself was refused by the most that heard him And no Minister dare compare himself with Christ. If our Lord and Master was blasphemed scorned and murdered by sinners what better should his ablest Ministers expect St. Augustine found drunkenness so common in Africk that he motioned that a Council might be called for the suppression of it But if a General Council of all the Learned Bishops and Pastors in the world were called they could not convert one hardned sinner by all their Authority Wit or diligence without the power of the Almighty God For will they be converted by Man that are hardned against God What can we devise to say to them that can reach their hearts and get within them and do them good Shall we tell them of the Law and Judgements of the Lord and of his wrath against them Why all these things they have heard so often till they sleep under it or laugh at them Shall we tell them of Death and Judgement and Eternity Why we speak to the posts or men asleep They hear us as if they heard us not Shall we tell them of endless Ioy and Torments They feel not and therefore fear not nor regard not They have heard of all these till they are a weary of hearing them and our words seem to them but as the noise of the Wind or Water which is of no signification If Miracles were wrought among them by a Preacher that healed the sick and raised the dead they would wonder at him but would not be converted For Christ did thus and yet prevailed but with few Iohn 11. 48. 53. And the Apostles wrought Miracles and yet were rejected by the most Acts 7. 57. 22. 22. Nay if one of their old companions should be sent from the dead to give them warning he might affright them but not convert them for Christ hath told us so himself Luke 16. 31. Or if an Angel from Heaven should preach to them they would be hardned still as Balaam and others have been Christ rose from the dead and yet was after that rejected We read not of the Conversion of the Souldiers that watcht his Sepulchâ—e though they were affrighted with the sight of the Angels but they were after that hired for a little money to lye and say that Christs Disciples stole him away If Magistrates that have power on their bodies should endeavour to bring them to Godliness they would not obey them nor be perswaded King Hezekiahs messengers were but mocked by the people David and Solomon could not convert their hardned subjects Punish them and hang them and they will be wicked to the death Witness the impenitent Thief that dyed with Christ and dyed reproaching him Though God afflict them with rod after rod yet still they sin and are the same Psal. 78. Hâ—s 7. 14. Amos 4. 9. Ier. 5. 3. Isa. 1. 5. Let death come near and look them in the face and let them see that they must presently go to judgement it will affright them but not convert them Let them know and confess that sin is bad that Holiness is best that death and eternity are at hand yet are they the same and all will not win their hearts to God Till Grace take away their stony hearts and give them tender fleshy hearts Ezek 36. 26. § 8. Direct 6. Take notice of the doleful effects of hard heartedness in the world This fills the Direct 6. world with wickedness and confusion with Wars and bloodshed and leaveth it under that lamentable desertion and delusion which we behold in the far greatest part of the Earth How many Kingdoms are left in the blindness of Heathenism and Mahometanism for hardning their hearts against the Lord How many Christian Nations are given up to the most gross deceits of Popery and Princes and people are enemies to Reformation because they hardned their hearts against the light of truth What vice so odious even beastly filthiness and bitterest hatred and persecution of the wayes of God which men of all degrees and rancks do not securely wallow in through the hardness of their hearts This is the thing that grieves the godly that wearieth good Magistrates and breaks the hearts of faithful Ministers when they have done their best they are fain as Christ himself before them to grieve for the hardness of mens hearts Alas we live among the dead Our Towns and Countreys are in a sadder case than Aegypt when every house had a dead man Even in our Churches it were well if the dead were only under ground and most of our seats had not a dead man that sitteth as if he heard and kneeleth as if he prayed when nothing ever pierced to the quick We have studied the most quickning words we have preached with tears in the most earnest manner and yet we cannot make them feel As if we cryed like Baals worshippers O Baal hear us or like the Irish to their dead Why wouldst thou dye and leave thy house and lands and friends So we talk to them about the death of their souls and their wilful misery who never feel the weight of any thing we say we are left to ring them a peal of lamentation and weep over them as the dead that are not moved by our tears we cast the seed into stony ground Matth. 13. 5 20. It stops in the surface and it is not in our power to open their hearts and get within them I confess that we are much too blame our selves that ever we did speak to such miserable souls without more importunate earnestness and tears and it is because the stone of the heart is much uncured in our selves for which God now justly layeth so many of us by But yet we must say our importunity is such as leaveth them without excuse we speak to them of the greatest matters in all the world we speak it to them in the name of God we shew them his
their opinion or sâ—ct We little consider how great a hand this Pride hath had in our desolations God hath been scattering the proud of all sorts in the imaginations of their own hearts â—â—ke 1. 51. § 88. Direct 7. Look to a humbled Christ to humble you Can you be proud while you believe Direct 7. that your Saviour was cloathed with flesh and lived in meanness and made himself of no reputation and was despised and scorned and spit upon by sinners and shamefully used and nailed as a malefactor to a cross The very incarnation of Christ is a condescension and humiliation enough to pose both â—â—th â—â—4 Mâ—â—â—â—0 men and Angels transcending all belief but such as God himself produceth by his supernatural testimony and spirit And can Pride look a crucified Christ in the face or stand before him Did God take upon him the form of a servant and must thou domineer and have the highest place Had Joâ—â— 1â— â—◠〈◊〉 2 â— 8 9 10. not Christ a place to lay his head on and must thou needst have thy adorned well-furnished rooms Must thou needs brave it out in the most fantastick fashion instead of thy Saviours seamless coat Doth he pray for his murderers And must thou be revenged for a word or petty wrong Is he patiently spit upon and buffeted And art thou ready through proud impatiencie to spit upon or busâ—â—t others Surely he that condemned sin in the flesh condemned no sin more than Pride § 89. Direct 8. Look to the examples of the most eminent saints and you will see they were all Direct 8. most eminent in humility The Apostles before the coming down of the Holy Ghost on them contended which of them should be the greatest which Christ permitted that he might most sharply rebuke it and leave his warning to all his Ministers and Disciples to the end of the world that they 〈◊〉 12. 7. 〈◊〉 44 13. that would be greatest must be the servants of all and that they must by conversion become as little children or never enter into the Kingdom of God But afterward in what humility did these Apostles labour and live and suffer in the world Paul made himself a servant unto all that he might gain the more though he was free from all men 1 Cor. 9. 19. They submitted themselves to all the injuries and affronts of men to be accounted the plagues and troublers of the world and as the scorn 1 Cor. 4. 12 13 14 15. Acts 24. 5. and off-scouring of all things and a gazing stock to Angels and to men And are you better than they If you are you are more humble and not more proud § 90. Direct 9. Look to the holy Angels that condescend to minister for man and think on the blessed Direct 9. souls with God how far they are from being proud And remember if ever thou come to Heaven how far thou wilt he from pride thy self Such a sight as Isaiahs would take doâ—n pride Isa. 6. 1 2 3. I saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne high and lifted up and his train filled the Temple Above it stood the Sâ—raphims Each one had six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he fled signifying Humility Purity and obedience And one cryed unto another and said Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts His Glory is the fulness of the whole earth So Rev. 4. 8. and vers 10. The Elders fâ—ll down and â—ast down their Crowns before him that sitteth on the Throne Look up to Heaven and you 'l abhor your pride § 91. Direct 10. Look upâ—n the great imperfection of thy grace and duties Should that man be Direct 10. proud that hath so little of the spirit and image of Jesus Christ That believeth no more and feareth God no more And loveth him no more And can no better trust in him nor rest upon his word and love Nor no more delight in him nor in his holy laws and service One would think that the lamentable weakness of any one of all these graces should take down pride and abase you in your own eyes Is he a Christian that doth not even abhor himself when he perceiveth how little he loveth his God and how little all his meditations on the Love and blood of Christ and of the infinite Goodness of God and of the heavenly Glory do kendle the fire and warm his heart Can we observe the darkness of our minds and ignorance of God and strangness to the life to come and the woful weakness of our faith and not be abased to a loathing of our selves Can we choose but even abhor those hearts that can love a friend and love the toys and vanities of this life and yet can love their God no more That take no more pleasure in his name and praise and word and service when they can find pleasure in the accomodations of their flesh Can we choose but loath those hearts that are so averse to God so loth to think of him so loth to pray to him so weary of prayer or holy meditation or any duty and yet so forward to the business and recreations of the flesh Can we feel how coldly and unbelievingly we pray how ignorantly or carnalâ—y we discourse how confusedly and vainly we think and how slothfully we work and how unprofitably we live and yet be proud and not be covered with shame O for a serious Christian to feel how little of God of Christ of Heaven is upon his heart and how little appeareth in any eminent holiness and fruitfullness and heavenliness of life is so humbling a consideration that we have much ado to own our selves and not lie down as utterly desolate Should that soul admit a thought of pride that hath so little Grace as to be uncertain whether he have any at all in sincerity or not That cannot with assurance call God Father or plead his interest in Christ or in the promises nor knoweth not if he dye this hour whether he shall go to Heaven or Hell Should he be proud that is no readier to dye and no more assured of the pardon of sin nor willinger to appear before the Lord If one pained member will make you groan and walk dejectedly though all the rest do feel no pain a soul that hath this universal weakness a weakness that is so sinful and so dangerous hath cause to be continually humbled to the dust § 92. Direct 11. Look upon thy great and manifold sins which dwell in thy heart and have been Direct 11. committed in thy life and there thou wilt see cause for great humiliation If thy body were full of Toads and Serpents and thou couldst see or feel them crawling in thee wouldst thou then be proud Why so many sins are ten thousand fold worse and should make thee far viler in thy own esteem If thou were possessed with Devils and knewest it wouldst
and appear before the Holy God When the Bell is ready to toll for thee and thy Winding-â—heet to be fâ—tcht out and thy Coffin prepared and the Bier to be fetcht to carry thee to tâ—â— Grave and leave thee in the dark with worms and rottenness Wilt thou then be proud Where then â—re your high looks and lofty minds and splendid ornaments and honours Then will you be climbing into higher rooms and seeking to be revenged on those that did eclipse your honour Saith David even of Princes and all the sons of men Psal. 146. 3 4. His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish § 100. Direct 19. Look on the lamentable effects of Pride about you in the world and that will help Direct 19. you to see the odiousness and perniâ—â—ous nature of it Do you not see how it setâ—eth the whole world on 〈…〉 â—ow it raisâ—r Wars and ruineth Kingdoms and draweth out mens blood and filleth the world with malice and haâ—â—ed and cruelty 〈…〉 nd injustice and treasons and rebellions and destroyeth mercy truth and honesty and all that is 〈◊〉 of God upon the mind of man Whence is all the confusion and calamity all the câ—nsoriousneâ—â— reviliâ—gs and cruelties which we have seen or felt or heard of but from Pride What is it that hath trampled upon the Intâ—â—â—â—st of Christ and his Gospel through the world but pride What else is it that hath burnt his Martyrs and made havock of his sâ—â—vants and distracted and divided his Church with Schisms and set up so many Sect-masters and Sects and câ—usâ—d them almost all to set against others but this cursed unmorâ—â—fied Pride He that hath seen but what Pride hath been doing in England in this age and yet discerneth not its hatefulness and perniciousness is strangely blind Every proud man is a plague or burden to the place he liveth in If he get high he is a Nabal a man can scarce speak to him He thinks all under him are made but to serve his will and honour as inferiour creatures are made for man If he be an iâ—â—â—â—riour he scorneth at the honour and government of his Superiours and thinks they take too much upon them and that it is below him to obey If he be rich he thinks the poor mu 〈…〉 bow to him as to 〈…〉 Golden Calf or Nebuchadnezzars Golden Image If he poor he envieth the rich and is impatâ—â—nt of the state that God hath set him in If he be learned he thinks himself an Oracle â—â— uâ—learned he dâ—spiseth the knowledge which he wanteth and scorneth to be ta 〈…〉 What staâ—â— soâ—ver he is in he is a very Salamander that liveth in the fire he troubleth House a 〈…〉 own and Counâ—â—â—â— if his power be answerable to his heart he is an unpolished stone that will never lye even in any building he is a natural enemy to quietness and peace § 101. Direct 20 Consider well how God hath designed the humbling of all that he will save in his Direct 20. â—â—â—â—le con 〈…〉 nce of the work of our Redemption He could have saved man by keeping him in his prâ—â—itive innocency if he had pleased Though he causeth not sin he knoweth why he permitteth it He thought it 〈◊〉 enough that man should have the thought of creation to humble him as being taken from the dust and made of nothing but he will also have the sense of his moral nothingness and sinfulness to humble him He will have him beholden to his Redeemer and Sanctifier for his new life and his salvation as much as to his Creator for his natural life He is permitted first to undo himself and bring himself under condemnation to be a child of death and near to Hell before he is ransâ—med and delivered that he may take to himself the shame of his misery and ascribe all his hopes and recovery to God No flesh shall be justified by the works of the Law or by a righteousness of his own performance but by the satisfaction and merits of his Redeâ—mer that so all boasting may be excluded and that no flesh might glory in his sight and that man Rom. 3. 19 20 â—â— 27 4. â— 1 Cor. 1. 29. â—phes 2. 9. might be humbled and our Redeemer have the praise to all eternity And therefore God prepareth men for faith and pardon by humbling works and forceth sinners to condemn themselves before he will justifie them § 102. Direct 21. Read over the character which Christ himself giveth of his true Disciples and you will Direct 21. see what great self-denyal and humility he requireth in all In your first conversion you must become as little children Matth. 18. 3. Instead of contending for superiority and greatness you must be ambitious of being servants unto all Matth. 23. 11. 20. 27. You must learn of him to be meek and lowly of heart Matth. 11. 28 29. and to â—â—oop to wash your brethrens feet Iohn 13. 5. 14. Instead of revenge or unpeaceable contending for your right you must rather obey those that injuriously Luke 22. 26. Mark 10. 44. Maâ— 9 35 36 2 Tim. 2. 24. command you and turn the other cheâ—k to him that smiteth you and let go the rest to him that hath injuriously taken from you and bless them that curse you and pray for them that huâ—t and persecuâ—e you and dâ—spightfully use you Matth. 5. 39 40 41 44. These are the followers of Christ. § 103. Direct 22. Remember how Pride contradicteth it self by exposing you to the hatred or contempt Direct 22. of all All men abhor that Pride in others which they cherish in themselves A humble man is well thought of by all that know him and a proud man is the mark of common obloquy The rich disdain him the poor envy him and all hate him and many deride him This is his success § 104. Direct 23. Look still unto that dismal end which Pride doth tend unto It threatneth Apostasie Direct 23. If God forsake any one among you and any of you forsake God his Truth and your Consciences and be made as Lots Wife a monument of his vengeance for a warning unto others it will be the proud and self-conceited person It maketh all the mercies of God your duties and parts and objectively your very graces to be its food and fewel It is a sign you are near some dreadful fall or heavy judgement For God hath given you this prognostick Luke 14. 11. 1. 51. Prov. 15. 25. 16. 5. Isa. 2. 11 12. An Ahab is safer when he humbleth himself and an Hezekiah is falling when he is lifted up They are the most hardned sinners scorning reproof and therefore ordinarily forsaken both by God and man and left to their self-delusion till they perish § 105. Direct 24. Converse with humbled and afflicted persons and not with proud secure worldlings Direct 24. Be much in the house of
senâ—lis Quid â—nâ—m absurdâ—us quam quo mi 〈…〉 viae 〈…〉 stat eo plus vâ—atici 〈…〉 ere â—i 〈…〉 â—at Maâ— thou hast provided So is every one that layeth up Riches for himself and is not Rich towards God If If thou be rich to day and be in another world tomorrow had not poverty been as good Distracted soul Dost thou make so great a matter of it whether thou have much or little for so short a time and takest no more care either where thou shalt be or what thou shalt have to all eternity Dost thou say thou wilt cast this care on God I tell thee he will make thee care thy self and care again before he will save thee And why canst thou not cast the care of smaller matters on him when he commandeth thee Is it any great matter whether thou be Rich or poor that art going so fast unto another world where these are things of no signification Tell me if thou were sure that thou must die tomorrow yea or the next month or year wouldst thou not be more indifferent whether thou be Rich or Poor And look more after greater things Then thou wouldst be of the Apostles mind 2 Cor. 4. 18. We look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Our eye of faith should be so fixed on invisible eternal things that we should scarce have leisure or mind to look at or once regard the things that are visible and temporal A man that is going to execution scarce looks at all the bussle or business that is done in Streets and Shops as he passeth by because these little concern him in his departing case And how little do the wealth and honours of the world concern a soul that is going into another world and knows not but it may be this night Then keep thy wealth or take it with thee if thou canst § 25. Direct 4. Labour to feel thy greatest wants which worldly wealth will not supply Thou Direct 4. hast sinned against God and money will not buy thy pardon Thou hast incurred his displeasure and money will not reconcile him to thee Thou art condemned to everlasting misery by the Law Prov. 11. 4. Riches 〈…〉 fiâ— not in the â—ay of wâ—ath and money will not pay thy ransom Thou art dead in sin and polluted and captivated by the flesh and money will sooner encrease thy bondage than deliver thee Thy Conscience is ready to tear thy heart for thy willful folly and contempt of grace and money will not bribe it to be quiet Iudas brought back his money and hanged himself when Conscience was but once awaked Money will not enlighten a blinded mind nor soften a hard heart nor humble a proud heart nor justifie a guilty soul. It will not keep off a Feavor or Consumption nor ease the Gowt or Stone or Tooth-ache It will not keep off ghastly death but dye thou must if thou have all the world Look up to God and remember that thou art wholly in his hands and think whether he will love or favour thee for thy wealth Look unto the day of Judgement and think whether money will there bring thee off or the Rich speed better than the poor § 26. Direct 5. Be often with those that are sick and dying and mark what all their Riches will Direct 5. do for them and what esteem they have then of the world and mark how it useth all at last Then you shall see that it forsaketh all men in the hour of their greatest necessity and distress when they Jer. 17. 11. would cry to friends and wealth and honour if they had any hopes If ever you will help me let it be now If ever you will do any thing for me O save me from death and the wrath of God Jam. 5. 1 2 3. But alas such cryes would be all in vain Then O then one drop of mercy one spark of grace the smallest well gâ—ounded hope of Heaven would be worth more than the Empire of Caesar or Alexander Is not this true sinner Dost thou not know it to be true And yet wilt thou cheat and betray thy soul Is not that best now which will be best then And is not that of little value now which will be then so little set by Dost thou not think that men are wiser then than now Wilt thou do so much and pay so dear for that which will do thee no more good and which thou wilt set no more by when thou hast it Doth not all the world cry out at last of the deceitfulness of riches and the vanity of pleasure and prosperity on Earth and the perniciousness of all worldly cares And doth not thy conscience tell thee that when thou comest to dye thou art like to have the same thoughts Chilon in Laâ—rt p. 43. Damnum potius quam â—uâ—pe lucrum eligendum nam id semel tantum dolori esse hâ—c semper thy self And yet wilt thou not be warned in time Then all the content and pleasure of thy plenty and prosperity will be past And when its past it s nothing And wilt thou venture on everlasting wo and cast away everlasting joy for that which is to day a dream and shadow and to morrow or very shortly will be nothing The poorest then will be equal with thee And will honest poverty or over-loved wealth be sweeter at the last How glad then wouldst thou be to have been without thy wealth so thou mightst have been without the sin and guilt How glad then wouldst thou be to dye the death of the poorest Saint Do you think that Poverty or Riches are liker to make a man loth to dye or are usually more troublesome to the Conscience of a dying man O look to the end and live as you dye and set most by that and seek that now which you know you shall set most by at last when full experience hath made you wiser § 27. Direct 6. Remember that Riches do make it much harder for a man to be saved and the love Direct 6. of this world is the commonest cause of mens damnation This is certainly true for all that Poverty also hath its temptations and for all that the poor are far more â—umerous than the rich For even Socrates dixit Opes nobiâ—itates non solum nihil in se habere honestatis verum omne malum ex eis oboâ—iâ—i Laâ—rt in Socrat the poor may be undone by the love of that wealth and plenty which they never get and those may perish for over-loving the world that yet never prospered in the world And if thou believe Christ the point is out of Controversie For he saith Luke 18. 24 25 26 27. How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God For it is easier for a Camel to go
this to encrease and multiply your pleasure Is not health and friends and food and convenient habitation much sweeter as the â—ruit of the Love of God and the fore-tastes of everlasting mercies and as our helps to Heaven and as the means to spiritual comfort than of themselves alone All your mercies are from God He would take nâ—ne from you but sanctifie theâ— and give you more § 26. Direct 5. See that Reason keep up its authority as the Governour of sense and appetite And Direct 5. so take an accounâ— whatâ—ver the Appetite would have of the Ends and Reasons of the thing and to what it doth câ—â—duce Take nothing and do nothing meerly because the sense or appetite would have it but because you have Reason so â—â— do and to gratifie the appetite Else you will deal as Brutes if Reason be laid by in humane acts § 27. Direct 6. Go to the Gâ—ave and see there the end of fleshly pleasure and what is all that it Direct 6. will do for you at the last One would think iâ— should cure the mad desire of plenty and pleasure to see where all our wealth and mirth and sport and pleasure must be buryed at last § 28. Direct 7. Lastly be still sensible that flesh is the grand Enemy of your souls and flesh-pleasing Direct 7. the greatest hinderance of your salvation The Devils enmity and the worlds are both but subordinate to this of the Flesh For its Pleasure is the End and the world and Satans temptations are both but the means to attain it Besides the malignity opened before consider 1. How contrary a voluptuous life is to the blessed example of our Lord and of his servant Paul The enmity of the Flesh. and all the Apostles Paul tamed his body and brought it into subjection left having preached to others himself should be a castaway 1 Cor. 9. 27. And all that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof Gal. 5. 24. This was signified in the antient manner of baptizing and so is still by Baptism it self when they went over head in the water and then rose out of it to signifie that they were dead and buried with Christ Rom. 6. 3 4. and rose with him to newness of life This is called our being Baptized into his death And seems the plain sense of 1 Cor. 15. 29. of being Baptized for the dead that is for dead or to shew that we are dead to the world and must dye in the world but shall rise again to the Kingdom of Christ both of Grace and Glory 2. Sensuality sheweth that there is no true belief of the life to come and proveth so far as it prevaileth the absence of all grace 3. It is a home-bred continual traytor to the soul A continual tempter and nurse of all sin The great withdrawer of the heart from God and the common cause of Apostacy it self It still fighteth against the Spirit Gal. 5. 17. And is seeking advantage from all our Liberties Gal. 5. 13. 2 Pet. 2. 10. 4. It turneth all our outward mercies into sin and strengthneth itself against God by his own benefits 5. It is the great cause of our afflictions For God will not spare that Idol which is set up against him Flesh rebelleth and flesh shall suffer 6. And when it hath brought affliction it is most impatient under it and maketh it seem intollerable A flesh-pleaser thinks he is undone when affliction depriveth him of his pleasure 7. Lastly It exceedingly unfitteth men for Death For then Flesh must be cast into the dust and all its pleasure be at an end O doleful day to those that had their good things here and their portion in this life When all is gone that ever they valued and sought and all the true felicity lost which they brutishly contemned If you would joyfully then bear the dissolution and ruine of your flesh O master it and mortifie it now Seek not the ease and pleasure of a little walking breathing clay when you should be seeking and fore-tasting the everlasting pleasure Here lyeth your danger and your work Strive more against your own flesh than against all your Enemies in Earth and Hell If you be saved from this you are saved from them all Christ suffered in the flesh to tell you that it is not pampering but suffering that your flesh must expect if you will reign with him CHAP. V. Further Subordinate Directions for the next great duties of Religion necessary See the Directions how to spend every day Tom. 2. Chap. 17. to the right performance of the former Directions for REDEEMING or well improving TIME § 1. TIME being Mans opportunity for all those works for which he liveth and which his Creator doth expect from him and on which his endless life dependeth the REDEEMING or well improving of it must needs be of most high importance to him And therefore it is well made by holy Paul the great mark to distinguish the Wise from fools Ephes. 5. 15 16. See then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise Redeeming the time So Col. 4. 5. I shall therefore give you special Directions for it when I have first opened the nature of the duty to you and told you what is meant by Time and what by Redeeming it § 2. Time in its most common acception is taken generally for all that space of this present life What 's meant by Time which is our opportunity for all the works of life and the measure of them Time is often taken more strictly for some special Opportunity which is fitted to a special work which we call the season or the fittest time In both these senses Time must be Redeemed § 3. As every work hath its season which must be taken Eccles. 3. 1. So have the greatest works What are the special seasons of duty assigned us for God and our souls some special seasons besides our common time 1. Some Times God hath fitted by Nature for his service So the Time of Youth and health and strength is specially fit for holy work 2. Some Time is made specially fit by Gods Institution As the Lords Day above all other dayes 3. Some Time is made fit by Governours appointment as the hour of publick Meeting for Gods Worship and Lecture-dayes and the hour for family-worship which every Master of a family may appoint to his own houshold 4. Some Time is made fit by the temper of mens Bodies The Morning hours are best to most and to some rather the Evening and to all the Time when the Body is freest from pain and disabling weaknesses 5. Some Time is made fit by the course of our necessary natural or civil business as the day is fitter than the sleeping time of the night and as that hour is the fittest wherein our other imployments will least disturb us 6. Some Time is made fit by a special showr of Mercy publick
now abroad in the world Of the millions of Heathens and Mahometanes and other strangers or enemies to Christ Of the obstinate Jews of the dark corrupted lamentable state of the Greek Armenian Ethiopian and Roman Churches where Religion is so wofully obscured and dishonoured by ignorance error superstition and prophaneness Of the Papal tyranny and usurpation and of the divided state of all the Churches and the prophaness and persecution and uncharitableness and contentions and mutual reproaches and revilings which make havock for the Devil among the members of Christ. Tit. 5. Directions against sinful Hopes HOPE is nothing but a Desirous expectation Therefore the Directions given before against sinful Dâ—â—h any man doubt that if there were taken out of mens minds vain opinions flattering hopes false valuations imaginations c. but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things full of melancholy and indisposition and uncomfortable to themselves Lord Bacoâ— Essay of Lâ—es Love and Desire may suffice also against sinful Hopes save only for the expecting part Hope is sinful 1. When it is placed ultimately upon a forbidden object as to Hope for some evil to your selves which you mistakingly think is good To hope for felicity in the creature or to hope for more from it than it can afford you To hope for the hurt of other men for the ruine of your enemies for the hindrance of the Gospel and injury to the Church of Christ. 2. When you hope for a Good thing by evil means as to Hope to please God or to come to Heaven by persecuting his servants or by ignorance or superstition or schism or Heresie or any sin 3. To Hope ungroundedly for that from God which he never promised 4. To Hope deceitfully for that from God which he hath declared he will never give All these are sinful Hopes But it is not these last that I shall here say much to because I have said so much already of them in many other writings § 2. Direct 1. Hope for nothing from God against faith or without faith that is for nothing Direct 1. which he hath said he will not give nor for any thing which he hath not promised to give or given you some reason to expect To hope for that which God hath told us he will not give or that which is against the Holiness and Iustice of God to give this is but to Hope that God will prove a lyer or unholy or unjust which are wicked and blaspheaming hopes Such are the Hâ—pes which abundance of ignorant and ungodly persons have who hope to be saved without regeneration and without true Holiness of heart or life and hope to be saved in their willful impenitence and beloved sins who hope that God forgiveth them those sins which they hate not nor will not be perswaded to forsake And hope that the saying over some words of prayer or doing something which they call a good work shall save them though they have not the spirit of Christ Or that hope to be saved though they are unsanctified because they are not so bad as some others and live not in any notorious disgraceful sin All these believe the Devil who tells them that an unholy person may be saved and believe that the Gospel is false which saith without Holiness none shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. and they Hope that God will prove unholy unjust and false to save them and yet this they call a Hoping in God Hope for that which God hath promised and spare not but not for that which he hath said he will not do yea protested cannot be Iohn 3. 3 5. § 3. Direct 2. When thou Hopest for any evil to others or thy self remember what a monstrous thing Direct 2. it is to make evil the object of thy Hope and how those Hopes are but thy hastning unto chosen misery and contradict themselves For thou Hopest for it as Good and to be greedy for evil on supposition that its good doth shew thy folly that wilt try no better the objects of thy Hopes Like a sick man that longs and hopeth for that which if he take it will be his death Thus sinners hope for the poysoned bait § 4. Direct 3. Understand how much of the root of worldliness consisteth in your worldly Hopes Direct 3. Poor worldlings have little in possession to delight in but they keep up a Hope of more within them Many a covetous or ambitious wretch that never reacheth that which he desireth yet liveth upon the Hopes of it And Hope is it that setteth and keepeth men at work in the service of the world the flesh and the Devil as Divine Hope doth set and keep men at work for Heaven for their souls and for Jesus Christ. And many an Hypocrite that loseth much upon the account of his Religion yet sheweth his rottenness by keeping up his worldly hopes and going no further than will stand with those § 5. Direct 4. Hath not the world deceived all that have hoped in it unto this day Consider what is Direct 4. become of them and of their Hopes What hath it done for them and where hath it left them And wilt thou place thy Hopes in that which hath deceived so many generations of men already § 6. Direct 5. Remember that thy worldly Hopes are a sin so fully condemned by natural demonstration Direct 5. that thou art utterly left without excuse Thou art certain before-hand that thou must die Thou knowest how vain the world will be then to thee and how little it can do for thee And yet art thou Hoping for more of the world § 7. Direct 6. Consider that the world declareth its vanity in the very Hopes of worldlings In that it Direct 6. is still drawing them by Hopes and never giveth them satisfaction and content Almost all the life of a worldlings pleasure is in his Hopes The very thing which he hopeth for doth not prove so sweet to him in the possession as it was in his hopes A Hoping and Hoping still for that which they never shall attain is the worldlings life § 8. Direct 7. O turn your souls to those blessed Hopes of life eternal which are sent you from Heaven Direct 7. by Iesus Christ and set before you in the holy Scriptures and proclaimed to you by the messengers of grace Doth God offer you sure well-grounded hopes of living for ever in his Ioy and Glory And do you neglect them and lie hoping for that felicity in the world which cannot be attained and which will give no content when you have attained it This is more foolish than to toyl and impoverish your selves in Hope to find the Philosophers stone and refuse a Kingdom freely offered Tit. 6. Directions against sinful Hatred Aversation or Backwardness towards Of Hatred to men I shall speak anon God § 1. THe hatred to God and backwardness to his service which is
the chief part of this sin is to be cured according to the Directions in the first Chapter as a state of wickedness is and more I shall say anon about the Worship of God and Chap. 3. Direct 11. containeth the cure also Only here I shall add a few Directions to a God-hating Generation § 2. Direct 1. The first thing you have to do is to discover this to be your sin For you are confident Direct 1. that you love God above all while you hate him above all even above the Devil You will confess that this is horrid wickedness where it is found and well deserveth damnation Take heed lest thy own confession judge thee Remember then that it is not the bare Name that we now speak of I know that Gods Name is most honoured and the Devils name is most hated Nor is it every thing in God that is hated None hateth his Mercifulness and Goodness as such Nor is it every thing in the Devil that is loved None love his hatred to man nor his cruelty in tormenting men But the Holiness of God which is it that man must receive the Image of and be conformed to is hated by the unholy And the Devils unholiness and friendship to mens sin and sensuality is loved by the sensual and unholy And this hatred of God and Love of the Devil one would think you might casily perceive § 3. 1. In that you had rather God were not so Iust and Holy you had rather he had never commanded you to be Holy but leâ—t you to live as your flesh would have you you had rather God were indifferent as to your sins and would give you leave to follow your lusts Such a God you would have And a God that will damn you unless you be Holy and hate your sins and forsake them you like not you cannot abide but indeed do hate him § 4. 2. Therefore you will not Believe that God is such a holy sin-hating God Because you would Malunâ— nescire quia jam oderunt Tertul. Apoâ—get c. â— not have him so you will not believe he is so and so hate his nature while you believe that you love him and love but an Idol of your unholy fantasies Psal. 50. 21 22. These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtst that I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thy eyes Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver § 5. 3. You love not the Holiness of the Word of God which beareth his Image You love not these strict and holy passages in it Ioh. 3. 3 5. Luke 14. 26 33. Matth. 18. 3. Rom. 8. 13. Col. 3. 1 2 3 4. 2 Cor. 5. 17. with abundance more You had rather have had a Scripture that would have left your ambition covetousness lust and appetite to their liberties and that had said nothing for the absolute necessity of Holiness nor had condemned the ungodly § 6. 4. You love not the holiest Ministers or servants of Christ that most powerfully preach his holy Word or that most carefully seriously and zealously obey it your hearts rise against them when they bring in the Light which sheweth that your deeds and you are evil Iohn 3. 19 20. They are an eye-sore to you your hearts rise not so much against Whoremongers Swearers Lyars Drunkards Atheists or Infidels as against them What sort of persons on the face of the earth are so hated by the ungodly in all Nations and of all degrees and used by them so cruelly and pursued by them so implacably as the holiest servants of the Lord are § 7. 5 You love not to call upon God in serious fervent spiritual prayer praises and thanksgiving You are quickly weary of it you had rather be at a Play or Gaming or a Feast your hearts rise against holy Worship as a tedious irksome thing § 8. 6. You love not holy edifying discourse of God and of heavenly things Your hearts rise against it and you hate and scorn it as if all serious talk of God were but hypocrisie and God were to be banished out of our discourse § 9. 7. You cannot abide the serious frequent Thoughts of God in secret but had rather stuff your minds with thoughts of your Horses or Hawks or bravery or honour or preferments or sports or entertainments or business and labours in the world So that one hour of a thousand or ten thousand was never spent in serious delightful thoughts of God his holy truths or works or Kingdom § 10. 8. You love not the blessed day of Judgement when Christ will come with his holy Angels to judge the world to justifie his accused and abused servants to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that do believe 2 Thess. 1. 8 9 10 11. And can you be so blind after all this as not to see that you are HATERS OF GOD § 11. Direct 2. Know God better and thou canst not hate him especially know the beauty and Direct 2. glorious excellency of that Holiness and Iustice which thou hatest Should the Sun be darkned or disgraced because sore eyes cannot endure its light Must Kings and Judges be all corrupt or change their Laws and turn all men loose to do what they list because Malefactors and licentious men would have it so § 12. Direct 3. Know God and Holiness as they are to thee thy self and then thou wilt know them not only to be Best for thee as the Sun is to the world and as life and health is to thy body but to be thy only good and happiness and then thou canst not choose but love them Thy prejudice and false conceits of God and Holiness cause thy Hatred § 13. Direct 4. Cast away thy cursed unbelief If thou believe not what the Scripture saith of God Direct 4. and man and of the souls immortality and the life to come thou wilt then hate all that is Holy as a deceit and needless troubler of the world But if once thou believe well the Word of God and the life everlasting thou wilt have another heart § 14. Direct 5. Away with thy beastly blinding sensuality While thou art a slave to thy flesh Direct 5. and lusts and appetite and its interest reigneth in thee thou canst not choose but hate that Holiness which is against it and hate that God that forbiddeth it and tells thee that he will judge thee and damn thee for it if thou forsake it not This is the true cause of the Hatred of God and Pene omnis sermâ— Div nus habet aemuloâ— suos Quot genera prâ—â—â—ptorum sunt â—â—t adversa â—oâ—um si larg 〈…〉 esse 〈…〉 buâ— juâ—â—t Dominus avarus irascitur si parsimomam eâ—gâ—â— prodigus execratur Sermones sacros improbi hostes suos dicunt Salvian li. 4 ad Eccles. Cath. Non ego tibi
Idolatry of the Israelites it is as they feared their Idols of Wood and Stone To fear them shewed that they took them for their Gods 2 Kings 17. 38 39. Dan. 6. 26. § 7. Direct 7. Consider that it is a folly to be inordinately fearful of that which never did befall Direct 7. thee and never befalleth one of many hundred thousand men I mean any terrible appearance of the Devil Thou never sawest him nor hearest credibly but of very few in an age that see him besides Witches This fear therefore is irrational the danger being utterly improbable § 8. Direct 8. Consider that if the Devil should appear to thee yea and carry thee to the top of Direct 8. a Mountain or the pinnacle of the Temple and talk to thee with blasphemous temptations it would be no other than what thy Lord himself submitted to who was still the dearly beloved of the Father Matth. 4. One sin is more terrible than this § 9. Direct 9. Remember that if God should permit him to appear to thee it might turn to thy very Direct 9. great advantage by killing all thy unbelief or doubts of Angels and Spirits and the unseen world It would sensibly prove to thee that there is indeed an unhappy race of Spirits who envy man and seek his ruine and so would more convince thee of the evil of sin the danger of souls the need of godliness and the truth of Christianity And it is like this is one cause why the Devil no more appeareth in the world not only because it is contrary to the ordinary Government of God who will have us live by faith and not by fight but also because the Devil knoweth how much it would do to destroy his Kingdom by destroying Infidelity Atheism and security and awakening men to faith and fear and godliness The Fowler or the Angler must not come in sight lest he spoil his Game by frighting it away § 10. Direct 10. If it be the spiritual temptations and molestations only of Satan which you fear Direct 10. remember that you have more cause to fear your selves for he can but tempt you and if you do not more against your selves than all the Devils in Hell can do you will never perish And if you are willing to accept and yield to Christ you need not inordinately fear either Satan or your selves For it is in the name and strength of Christ and under his conduct and protection that you are to begin and finish your warfare And the Spirit that is in us is greater and stronger than the Spirit that is in the world and that molesteth us 1 Iohn 4. 4. And the Father that giveth us to Christ is greater than all and none can pluck us out of his hands John 10. 29. And the God of peace will tread down Satan under our feet Rom. 16. 20. If it were in his power he would molest us daily and we had never escaped so far as we have done Our daily experience telleth us that we have a Protector Directions against the sinful fear of men and sufferings by them § 1. Direct 1. Bottom thy soul and hopes on Christ and lay up thy treasure in Heaven be not a Direct 1. worldling that liveth in hope of happiness in the creature and then thou art so far above the fear of men Omma Christe tuâ— superant tormenta ferendo Tollere quae nâ— queunt haec toleraâ—e queunt His vita â—aruisse fâ—uâ— est posâ—isse potiri Et superasse paâ—â— est superesse mori as knowing that thy treasure is above their reach and thy foundation and fortress safe from their assaults It is a base hypocritical worldly heart that maketh you immoderately afraid of men Are you afraid lest they should storm and plunder Heaven Or lest they cast you into Hell or lest they turn God against you or lest they bribe or over-awe your Judge No no these are none of your fears No you are not so much as afraid lest they hinder one of your prayers from prevailing with God nor lest their Prison walls and chains should keep out God and his Spirit from you and force you from your communion with him You are not afraid lest they forcibly rob you of one degree of grace or heavenly mindedness or hopes of the life to come If it be lest they hinder you from these by tempting or affrightning you into sin which is all the hurt they can do your souls then you are the more engaged to cast away the fears of their hurting your bodies because that is their very temptation to hurt your souls No it is their hurting of your flesh the diminishing your estates the depriving you of your liberty or worldly accommodations or of your Ad tribunal aeternum judicis justâ— provocatio salva est â—â— solet is perperam judicata resemderâ— Pâ—tra â—h Dial. 66. li. 2. lives which is the thing you fear And doth not this shew how much your hearts are yet on earth and how much unmortified worldliness and fleshliness is still within you and how much yet your hearts are false to God and Heaven O how the discovery should humble you to find that you are yet no more dead to the things of the world and that the Cross of Christ hath yet no more crucified it to you to find that yet the fleshly interest is so powerful in you and the interest of Christ and Heaven so low That God seemeth not enough for you and that you cannot take Heaven alone for your portion but are so much afraid of losing earth O presently search into the bottom of this corruption in your hearts and lament your worldliness and hypocrisie and work it out and set your hearts and hopes above and be content with God and Heaven alone and then this inordinate fear of man will have nothing left to work upon § 2. Direct 2. Set God against man and his wisdom against their policy and his Love and mercy Direct 2. against their malice and cruelty and his power against their impotency and his truth and omniscience and righteousness against their slanders and lies and his promises against their threatnings and then if yet thou art inordinately afraid of man thou must confess that in that measure thou believest not in God If God be not wise enough and good enough and just enough and powerful enough to save thee so far as it is â—est for thee to be saved then he is not God Away with Atbeism and then fear not man § 3. Direct 3. Remember what man is that thou art afraid of He is a bubble raised by Providence Direct 3. to 〈…〉 ut the world and for God to honour himself by or upon He is the meer product Joâ— 13. â—5 Psal. 1. 5 6. 68. 2. Psal. 73 20. Job 20. 8. Victor uticâ—â—â—â— saith of Au gustine that he dyed of fear Nunc illud eloquentiae quod ubertim per omnes
that murder those they find alive shall honour those whom their fore-fathers murdered Matth. 23. 29 30 31. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because ye build the Tombes of the Prophets and garnish the Sepulchres of the righteous And say if we had been in the dayes of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them of the blood of the Prophets Comfort and Honour attend the pain and shame of the Cross. Act. 5. 41. They departed from the presence of the Council rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name Acts 16. 25. Paul and Silas sang praises to God at midnight in the prison and stocks when their backs were sore with stripes It s written of some of the Christians that were imprisoned by Iulian that they would not forbear in the Emperours hearing as he passed by to sing Let God arise and his enemies shall be scattered § 7. Direct 7. Love better the holy Image of God upon your souls and then you will be glad of the Direct 7. great helps to holiness which sufferings do afford Who findeth not that adversity is more safe and profitable to the soul than prosperity Especially that adversity which Christ is engaged to bless to his servants as being undergone for him Rom. 10. 3 4 5. We glory in tribulation also knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed God chastneth us for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness Now no chastisement for the present seemeth joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12. 10 11. Moses esteemed the very reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt and therefore rather chose to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11. 25 26. It is but now for a season and if need be that we are in heaviness through manifold temptations that the tryal of our faith being much more pretious than of Gold that perisheth might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Iesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 6 7. Who is it that knoweth himself that feeleth not a need of some afflictions to awake us from our drowsiness and quicken us from our dulness and refine us from our dross and wean us from the world and help us to mortifie the flesh and save us from the deceits of sin § 8 Direct 8. Remember that sufferings are the ordinary way to Heaven Love Heaven better and Direct 8. your sufferings will seem lighter and your fear of them will be less Christ hath resolved on it that Anachaâ—sts in Laertiâ— percontauâ—i quaenam esset securissima navis â—a inquit quae in portum venerit In Heaven we shall be quiet from all these tumults If any man come to him and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be his disciple And who ever doth not bear his Cross and follow him cannot be his disciple and whoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be his disciple Luke 14. 26 27 33. In the world we shall have tribulation but peace in him John 16. 33. Through much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God Acts 14. 22. If so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified with him For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us Rom. 8. 17 18. Therefore we both labour and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God 1 Tim. 4. 10. In preaching the Gospel Paul saith he suffered as an evil doer even unto bonds but the Word of God is not bound 2 Tim. 2. 9. I suffer these things saith he nevertheless I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day 2 Tim. 1. 12. Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Iesus shall suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3. 12. Our patience in sufferings is the joy of our friends and therefore they are not too much to be feared 2 Thess. 1. 4 5. So that we our selves glory in you in the Churches of God for your patience Ingenii Philosophici est ex inimicorum odio decerpere aliquid quod vertat in suum bonum Paul Sâ—alig p. 728. and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure A manifest token of the righteous judgement of God that ye may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which ye also suffer Therefore take the conclusion of all from God Rev. 2. 10. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer Behold the Devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tryed and ye shall have tribulation ten dayes Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of life Phil. 1. 28 29 30 And in nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to them an evident token of perdition but to you of salvation and that of God For to you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake And shall we fear so great a gift § 9. Direct 9. Remember how small and short the suffering will be and how great and long the glorious Direct 9. reward It is but a little while and the pain and shame will all be past but the glory will be never past What the worse now is Stephen for his stones or Iohn Baptist for being beheaded or Paul for his bonds and afflictions which did every where abide him or any holy Martyr for the torment and death which they underwent O how the case is altered with them now God hath wiped away all tears from their eyes Are we so tender that we cannot endure the grief that is but for Psal. 30. 5. a night when we know that joy will come in the morning 2 Cor. 4. 16 17 18. For this cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inner man is renewed day by day For our light Extinctus amâ—bitur idem affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Heb. 10. 35 36 37 38. Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompence of reward For ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will
Fornication and all Uncleanness § 1. THough as it is a sin against another Adultery and Fornication is forbidden in the seventh Commandment and should there be handled yet as it is a sin against our own bodies which should be members of Christ and Temples of the Holy Ghost as 1 Cor. 6. 15 18 19. So it is here to be handled among the rest of the sins of the senses And I the rather choose to take it up here because what I have said in the two last Titles against Gluttony and Drunkenness serve also for this The same arguments and convincing questions and directions will almost all serve if you do but change the name of the sin And as the Reader loveth not needless tediousness so I am glad of this means to avoid the too often naming of such an odious filthy sin yet something most proper to it must be spoken And 1. I shall shew the Greatness of the sin and 2. give Directions for the cure § 2 1. There is no sin so odious but Love to it and frequent using it will do much to reconcile the very judgement to it either to think it lawful or tolerable and venial to think it no sin or but a little sin and easily forgiven And so with some brutish persons it doth in this But 1. It is Reason enough against any sin that it is forbidden by the most wise infallible universal King of all the world Thy Makers will is enough to condemn it and shall be enough to condemn those that are the servants of it He hath said Thou shalt not commit adultery 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor esseminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind shall inherit the Kingdom of God V. 15 16 17 18 19. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid What Know ye not that he which is joyned to an harlot is one body for two saith he shall be one flesh But he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit Flee fornication every sin that a man doth is without the body but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body What! know ye not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you Mark that he speaketh not this to fornicators for their bodies are not Temples of the Holy Ghost but to them that by filthy Hereticks in those times were tempted to think fornication no great sin So Ephes. 5. 3 4 5 6. But fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness let it not be once named among you as becometh Deut. 23 Prov. 25. 2â— Prov. 5. 3 5. Prov. 7. 5 6 7 Prov. 9. â—â— 14 15 Prov. 2â— 14 Eccles. 7. 27 Gen. 38. 24. Saints Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of God Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience be not ye therefore partakers with them Gal. 5. 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Thess. 4. 3. For this is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence as the Gentiles which know not God See also Col. 3. 5 6. Heb. 13. 4. Marriage is honourable and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge Rev. 21. 8. The abominable and whoremongers shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 22. 15. For without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers Jude 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire I shall add no more lest I be tedious § 3. 2. Besides Scripture God hath planted in nature a special pudor and modesty to restrain this sin Saith Boniface alias Wiâ—frid of the English Mercian King Ethilbald a fornicator Opprobrium generis nostri paâ—imur sive à Christianis sive Paganis dicentibus quod gens Anglorum spâ—eâ—o more caeterarum gentium c. â—inâ—â—entium equorum consuâ—tudâ—ne vel rudentum asinorum more luxuriando adulterando omnia turpitâ—r foedet coâ—fundâ—t Epist. Bonif. 10. ad Peâ—â—â—â—rid Salvagus Sarzanensis Episcopus Pauli 5. justu Visitationem Ecclesiarum Stiriae Carinthiae Carniolae instituerat Qua peracta sex omnino Sacerdotes qui non essent concubinaâ—iâ— in tribus illis Provinciis inveniâ— cum tamen magna pars ex Jesuitaâ—um disciplina prodiâ—sset c. Girald Apolog. pro Senatâ— Venet. p. â—65 Maechum in adulterio deprehensum necato was a Roman Law 12. tâ—â— and they that commit it do violate the Law of Nature and sin against a witness and condemner that is within them And scarce any one of them ever committeth it boldly quietly and fearlesly till first they have hardned their hearts and seared their consciences and overcome the light of nature by frequent wilful sinning Nature hideth the obscene parts and teacheth man to blush at the mention of any thing that is beyond the bounds of modesty Say not that it is meer custom for the vitiated nature of man is not so over precise nor the villany of the world so rare and modest but before this day it had quite banished all restraints of this sin above most others if they could have done it and if God had not written the Law which condemneth it very deep in nature with almost indelible Characters So that in despight of the horrid wickedness of the earth though mankind be almost universally inclined to lust yet there be universally Laws and Customs restraining it so that except a very few Savages and Cannibals like beasts there is no Nation on the earth where filthiness is not a shame and modesty layeth not some rebukes upon uncleanness Ask no further then for a Law when thy Nature it self is a Law against it And the better any man is the more doth he abhor the lusts of uncleanness So that among Saints saith the Apostle it is not to be named that is not without need and detestation Ephes. 5. 3. v. 12. For it is a shame even to speak of those things that are done of them in secret And when drunkenness had uncovered the shame of Noah his Son Cham is cursed for beholding it and the other Sons blest for their modest and reverent
Direct 1. God in vain the first Direction must be this General one to use all the Directions given in Chap. 1. for a wicked mans attaining true Conversion and withal to observe how great an Evidence this sin is of a graceless ungodly miserable soul. For it is supposed to be an ordinary or frequent sin and therefore to have no effectual principle in the heart which is against it and therefore to have the principal room in the will and therefore to be unrepented of as to any saving renewing Repentance If thou hadst any true grace it would teach thee to fear and honour God more To make light of God is inconsistent with Godliness if it be in a predominant degree for they are directly contrary § 9. Direct 2. Get thy heart sensible of the intrinsick evil of thy sin It would never be so easily and Direct 2. familiarly committed by thee if thou didst not think it small That thou maist know it consider Saith Fitz Hâ—beâ—t l. 1. c â—3 â—n 17. I cannot but lament that so great an impiety as Blasphemy is being so common doth pass unpunished where as in other Countrâ—â—s the least blasphemies are severely chastened Insomuch that in Spain I have known a man set in the Market-place the greatest part of a day gaping with a gagg in his mouth for swearing only By the Life of God of these following aggravations § 10. 1. Consider who that God is whom thou abusest Is he not the Great and terrible Majesty See Jer. 5. 21 22. Job 42. 5 6. 38. 2 3 c. that made the world and upholdeth it and ordereth it by his will the Governour and Judge of all the earth infinitely excelling the Sun in glory A God most Holy and in holiness to be mentioned And wilt thou make a by-word of his Dreadful Name Wilt thou prophanely swear by this Holy Name and use the Name of God as thou wouldst scarce use the Name of thy Father or thy King Wilt thou unreverently and contemptuously toss it like a foot-ball Dost thou know no more difference between God and Man Know God and thou wilt sooner tremble at his Name than thus unreverently abuse it § 11. 2. Consider who thou art that thus venturest to prophane the holy Name of God Art thou not his creature and his subject bound to honour him Art thou not a Worm unable to resist him Can â—e not tread thee into Hell or ruine thee and be avenged on thee with a word or less He need to say no more but Thus I will have it to execute his vengeance on the greatest of his enemies If he will it it will be done And art thou then a person fit to despise this God and abuse his Name Is it not a wonder of condescension in him that he will give leave to such Worms as we to Pray to him and to praise and worship him and that he will accept it at our hands And yet canst thou venture thus to slight him and despise him I have oft heard the same impious tongue reproach the Prayers of the godly as if they were too bold and familiar with God and pleading against long or often praying because man must not be so bold with God and perswading others that God accepts it not which yet it self was bold familiarly to swear by his Name and use it lightly and in common talk And indeed Gods servants must take heed of rude and unreverent boldness even in prayer How much more then is the boldness of thy prophaning Gods holy Name to be condemned Must they take heed how they use it in prayer and praise and darest thou abuse it by Oaths and Curses and vain speech § 12. 3. Dost thou not sometime pray by that Name which thou prophanely swearest by If not thou seemest utterly to renounce God and art a miserable wretch indeed But it thou do what an Hypocrite dost thou shew thy self to be in all thy prayers that takest on thee to reverence that Name of God which thou canst toss unreverently and swear and curse by when thou art off thy knees It is part of Bishop Hall's Character of the Hypocrite that he boweth to the Name of Iesus and sweareth by the Name of God and prayeth to God at Church whom he forgets or sweareth by the rest of the Week Doth not thy conscience gripe thee for this Hypocrisie when in thy prayers thou thinkest of this abuse of God § 13. 4. Think man what use thou wilt have for that Holy Name in thy distress which thou now abusest When sickness and death cometh then thou wilt cry Lord Lord Then the Name of God will be called on more reverently And darest thou now make a foot-ball of it Dost thou nor fear lest it should be then thy terror to remember on thy death-bed when thou art calling upon God O this is the Name that I was wont to swear by or to take in vain § 14. 5. Remember that millions of Glorious Angels are magnifying that great and holy Name which thou art prophaning and taking in vain And dost thou not wonder that they do not some of them become the executioners of the vengeance of God against thee and that the earth doth not open and swallow thee up Shall a Worm on Earth be tossing that holy Name or swearing by it prophanely which a world of Glorious Angels are magnifying § 15. 6. Consider that thou art more impious than they that prophane things hallowed and consecrated to God Was Belshazzar punished with the loss of Kingdom and life for carousing in the Vessels of the Sanctuary Wouldst thou think him to be prophane that should make a Stable of the Church and should feed his Swine with the Communion Cup And dost thou not know that the Name of God himself hath a higher degree of Holiness than any place or utensils of his Worship have and therefore that it is a greater prophaneness to abuse his Name than to abuse any of these Doth not thy tongue then condemn thee of Hypocrisie when thou wouldst exclaim against any that should thus prophane the Church or Font or Communion Cup or Table and yet thy self dost ordinarily prophane the very Holy Name of God and use it as a common Name § 16. 7. Consider how unworthily thou requitest God for giving thee thy tongue and speech He gave thee this noble faculty to honour him by And is this thy thanks to use it to dishonour him by swearing and taking his Name in vain § 17. 8. Thy infectious breath corrupteth others It tendeth to bring God into common contempt among his own creatures when they hear his name contemptuously spoken of § 18. 9. Thou forgettest how tender and jealous God hath shewed himself to be of the honour Psal 20 2 〈…〉 â—sâ—l 66 2 68 4 34 3. 6 2 Isa 9 6 12 4 41. â—5 â—â—â—â— 34. 16 Ezek. 36 2â— 23. â— King 8. 16 18 19 29. 9. 3 7.
2. 1â— see God and that Christ shall come in flaming fire to render vengeance to them that obey not his Gospel and that all they shall be damned that obey not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness when God hath resolved that Hell shall be the wages of ungodliness dost thou not desire them to damn themselves when thou desirest them to be ungodly If thou believe that there is any Hell at all then tell me what its possible for any man to do to murder his soul and damn himself but only to be ungodly If this way do it not there is no danger of any other Tell me dost thou think that the Devil deserveth to be called A Murderer of souls If not it seems thou wilt openly take the Devils part But if he do deserve it then the reason of all the World be judge whether that man deserve it not much more that will do much more against himself than the Devil ever did or can do The Devil can but tempt but thou wouldst have men do the thing that he tempts them to and actually to sin and neglect a holy life And which is the worse he that doth the evil or he that only perswadeth them to it If the Devil be called Our Adversary that like a roaring Lyon goeth about night and day seeking whom he 1 Pâ—t 5. 8. may devour what should that man be called that doth far more against himself than all the Devils in Hell do against him Sure he is a devourer or destroyer of himself Tell me thou distracted scorner Is the Devils work thinkest thou Good or Bad If it be Good take thy part of it and boast of it when thou seest the end If it be Bad to deceive souls and entise them to sin and Hell why wouldst thou have men do worse by themselves He that sinneth doth worse than he that tempteth Tell me what way doth the Devil take to do men hurt and damn their souls but only by drawing them to sin He hath no other way in the World to undoe any man but by tempting him to that which thou temptest men to even to sin against God and to neglect a Holy life So that it 's plain that thou scornest and opposest men because they will not be worse than Devils to themselves § 19. 13. Moreover thou opposest men for not forsaking God! What is it to forsake God but to refuse to Love and honour and obey him as God He hath told us himself that He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. And is it not this diligent seeking him that thou deridest It 's plain then that thou wouldst scorn men away from God and have them forsake him as thou hast done § 20. 14. Thou scornest men for not being Hypocrites Because they will be that in good earnest which thou hypocritically callest thy self and wouldst be thought Thou callest thy self a Christian and what is it but for being serious Christians that thou deridest them Thou takest on thee to believe in God and what is it but for obeying and serving God that thou deridest them Thou takest on thee to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God And what is it but for following the holy Scriptures that thou deridest them Thou saist thou believest the Communion of Saints and deridest them that hold the Communion of Saints in practice Thou saist thou believest that Christ shall judge the world and yet scornest them that are serious in preparing for his judgement Thou prayest that Gods name may be hallowed and his Kingdom come and his will-be done on Earth as it is in Heaven And yet thou deridest them that Hallow his name and are Subjects of his Kingdom and endeavour to do his will O wretched Hypocrite And yet that tongue of thine pretendeth that it is their Hypocrisie for which thou hatest and deridest them when thou dost it because they be not such blind and sensless Hypocrites as thy self Can there be grosser Hypocrisie in the World than to hate and scorn the serious practice of thy own profession and the diligent living according to that which thy own tongue professeth to believe If thou say that it is for doing too much and being too strict I answer thee If it be not the will of God that they do though I would not deride them I would seek to change them as well as thou But if it be the will of God then tell me dost thou think they do more than those that are in Heaven do or do they live more strictly than those in Heaven If they do then oppose them and spare not If not why prayest thou that Gods will may be done on Earth as it is in Heaven § 21. 15. Thou deridest men for doing that which they were made for and that which they have their Reason and will and all their faculties for Take them off this and they are good for nothing A Beast is good to serve Man and the Plants to feed him But what is Man good for or what was he made for but to serve his Maker And dost thou scorn him for that which he came into the World for Thou maist as well hate a Knife because it can cut or a Sythe for Mowing or a Clock for telling the hour of the day when it was made for nothing else § 22. 16. Thou deridest men for being saved by Christ and for imitating his example What came Christ for into the World but to destroy the works of the Devil and to save his people from 1 Joh. Matth. 1. 21. Tit. 2. 12. their sins and to redeem us from all iniquity and Purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And hath Christ to the astonishment of men and Angels come down into flesh and lived among men and given them his holy doctrine and example and suffered death for them and all this but to bring men to zealous Purity and darest thou make a scorn of it after this What is this but to scorn thy Saviour and scorn all the work of Redemption and tread under foot the Son of God and despise his blood his life and precepts § 23. 17. Thou scornest men for being renewed and sanctified by the Holy Ghost What is the work of the Holy Ghost on us but to sanctifie us And what is it to sanctifie us but to cleanse us from sin and cause us entirely to devote our souls and lives to God Dost thou believe in the Holy Ghost or not If thou do what is that but to Believe in him as the sanctifier of Gods Elect. And what didst thou take Sanctification to be but this purity and holiness of heart and life And yet darest thou deride it § 24. 18. Thou deridest men for imitating those ancient Saints whose names thou seemest thy self to honour and in honour of whom thou keepest Holy-days Thou takest on thee
unclean use and to devote it God to be employed in his service To alienate this from God or not to use it for God when it is dedicated to him or sanctified by his own election and separation of it from common use is Sacriledge God hath a double Right of Creation and Redemption to all persons But a treble Right to the sanctified Ananias his fearful judgement was a sad example of Gods wrath on those that withhold from him what was devoted to him If Christian families as such be sanctified to God they must as such worship him in their best capacity That Christian families are sanctified to God I prove thus 1. A Society of holy persons must needs be a holy Society But a family of Christians is a society of holy persons Therefore 2. We find in Scripture not only single persons but the societies of such sanctified to God Deut. 7. 6. Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God he hath chosen thee to be a special people to himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth So Deut. 14. 20 21. So the body of that Commonwealth did all jointly enter into Covenant with God and God to them Deut. 29. 30. 26. 17 18 19. Thou hast vouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his wayes And the Lord hath vouched thee this day to be his peculiar people that thou maist be an holy people to the Lord. So 28. 9. Dan. 8. 24. 12. 7. Josh. 24. devoteth himself and his house to the Lord I and my house will serve the Lord. And Abraham by Circumcision the Covenant or seal of the Covenant of God consecrated his whole houshold to God and so were all families after him to do as to the Males in whom the whole was consecrated And whether besides the typifying Intent there were not somewhat more in the sanctifying of all the first born to God who if they lived were to be the heads of the families may be questioned The Passeover was a family duty by which they were yet further sanctified to God Yea it is especially to be observed how in the New Testament the Holy Ghost doth imitate the language of the old and speak of Gods people as of holy societies as the Iews were As in many Prophesies it was foretold that Nations and Kingdoms should serve him of which I have spoken more in my Book of Baptism and among those who should mourn over him whom they have pierced in Gospel times when the Spirit of grace and supplication is powred forth are the family of the House of David apart and their Wives apart the family of the house of Nathan apart and their Wives apart Every family even all the families that remained apart and their Wives apart Zach. 11. 12 13 14. So Christ sendeth his Disciples to baptize Nations having discipled them and the Kingdoms of the World shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ. And as Exodus 19. 5 6. saith of the Jews Ye shall be êa peculiar treasure to me above all people and ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation so doth Peter say of all Christians 1 Pet. 2. 5 6 7 9. Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house a holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Iesus Christ V. 9. But ye are a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an Holy Nation a peculiar people that you should shew forth the praises of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light Mark how fully this Text doth prove all that we are about It speaks of Christians Collectively as in Societies and in societies of all the most eminent sorts A Generation which seems especially to refer to Tribes and Families A Priesthood Nation People which comprehendeth all the orders in the Nation oft times And in all these respects they are holy and peculiar and chosen to shew that Gods people are sanctified in these Relations and Societies And then mark the End of this sanctification V. 5. to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Iesus Christ. V. 9. to shew forth the praises of him that hath called you c. Yea it seems that there was a special dedication of families to God And therefore we read so frequently of housholds converted and baptized Though none at age were baptized but such as seemed believers yet when they professed faith they were all together initiated as A Houshold And it seems the Masters Interest and Duty were taken to be so great for the conversion of the rest that as he was not to content himself with his own Conversion but to labour presently even before his Baptism that his houshold should joyn with him that so the whole family at once might be devoted to God so God did bless this his own Order and Ordinance to that End And where he imposed Duty on Masters he usually gave success so that commonly the whole family was Converted and Baptized with the Ruler of the family So Acts 18. 8. Crispus believed on the Lord with all his house and they were Baptized And Acts 16. 32. Paul promiseth the Gaoler Believe on the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house and he and all his were Baptized straight way for he believed in God with all his house Ver. 33 34. And Lydia is described a Worshipper of God Acts 16. 14. ver 15. She was Baptized and her houshold And the Angel told Cornelius that Peter should tell him words whereby he and all his houshold should be saved Acts 11. 14. who were Baptized accordingly And 1 Cor. 1. 16. Paul baptized the houshold of Stephanus And Christ told Zacheus Salvation was come that day unto his house and he and all his houshold believed So that Noble man John 4. 53. Therefore when Christ sâ—nt â—orth his Disciples he â—aith If the house be worthy let your peace come upon it but if it be not worthy lâ—t yâ—ur peace return to you So that as it is apparently the Duty of every Christian Soveraign to do what he is able to make all his peâ—ple Gods people and so to dedicate them to God as a Holy Nation in a National Covenant as the Israelites were So is it the unquestionable Duty of every Christian Ruler of a family to improve his interest power and parts to the uttermost to bring all his family to be the people of Christ in the Baptismal Covenant and so to dedicate all his family to Christ. Yet farther I prove this in that believers themselves being all sanctified to God it must needs follow that all their Lawful Relations and especially all commanded states of Relation are also sanctified to God for when themselves are dedicated to God it is absolutely without reserve to serve him with all that they have and in every Relation and Capacity that he shall set them It were a
when the next sickness cometh to remember that they were unthankful for their last recovery and how falsly they dealt with God in the breaking of their promises Foresee this that you may prevent it Tit. 3. Directions for a Comfortable or Peaceable Death COmfort is not desirable only as it Pleaseth us but also as it strengtheneth us and helpeth us in our greatest duties And when is it more needful than in sickness and the approach of death I shall therefore add such Directions as are necessary to make our departure comfortable or peaceful at the least as well as safe Direct 1. Because I would make this Treatise no longer than I needs must in order to overcome Direct 1. the fears of Death and get a chearful willingness to dye I desire the sick to read over those twenty Considerations and the following Directions which I have laid down in my Book of Self-denyal And when the fears of death are overcome the great impediment of their comfort is removed § 2. Direct 2. Misunderstand not sickness as if it were a greater evil than it is but observe how Direct 2. great a mercy it is that Death hath so suitable a harbinger or fore-runner That God should do so much before he taketh us hence to wean us from the world and make us willing to be gone that the unwilling flesh hath the help of pain and that the senses and appetite languish and decay which did draw the mind to earthly things and that we have so lowd a call and so great a help to true Mr. Vinâ—s Mr. Capell Mr. Holli gâ—orth Mr Aâ—hhâ—ost Mr A bâ—osâ— M 〈…〉 Bâ—raell c. repentance and serious preparation I know to those that have walked very close with God and are alwayes ready a sudden death may be a mercy as we have lately known divers holy Ministers and others that have dyed either after a Sacrament or in the Evening of the Lords Day or in the midst of some holy exercise with so little pain that none about them perecived when they dyed But ordinarily it is a mercy to have the flesh brought down and weakned by painful sickness to help to conquer our natural unwillingness to dye § 3. Direct 3. Remember whose Messenger sickness is and who it is that calleth you to dye It is Direct 3. he that is the Lord of all the world and gave us the Lives which he taketh from us And it is he that must dispose of Angels and Men of Princes and Kingdoms of Heaven and Earth and therefore there is no reason that such Worms as we should desire to be excepted You cannot deny him to be the Disposer of all things without denying him to be God It is he that Loveth us and never meant us harm in any thing that he hath done to us that gave the life of his Son to Redeem us and therefore thinketh not Life too good for us Our sickness and death are sent by the same Love that sent us a Saviour and sent us the powerful Preachers of his Word and sent us his Spirit and secretly and sweetly changed our hearts and knit them to himself in Love which gave us a life of pretious mercies for our souls and bodies and hath promised to give us life eternal And shall we think that he now intendeth us any harm Cannot he turn this also to our good as he hath done many an affliction which we have repined at § 4. Direct 4. Look by faith to your dying buryed risen ascended glorified Lord. Nothing will Direct 4. more powerfully overcome both the poyson and the fears of Death than the believing thoughts of him that hath triumphed over it Is it terrible as it separateth the soul from the body So it did by our Lord who yet overcame it Is it terrible as it layeth the body in the grave So it did by our Saviour though he saw not corruption but quickly rose by the power of his Godhead He dyed to teach us believingly and boldly to submit to death He was buried to teach us not overmuch to fear a grave He rose again to conquer death for us and to assure those that rise to newness of life that they shall be raised at last by his power unto glory and being made partakers of the first resurrection the second death shall have no power over them He liveth as our Head that we might live by him and that he might assure all those that are here risen with him and seek first the things that are above that though in themselves they are dead yet their life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 1 2 4 5. What a comfortable word is that John 14. 19. Because I live ye shall live also Death could not hold the Lord of life Nor can it hold us against his will who hath the keyes of death and Hell Rev. 1. 18. He loveth every one of his sanctified ones much better than you love an eye or a hand or any other member of your body which you will not lose if you are able to save it When he ascended he left us that message full of comfort for his followers John 20. 17. Go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father to my God and your God which with these two following I would have written before me on my sick-bed John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there also shall my servant be And Luke 23. 43. Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise O what a joyful thought should it be to a Believer to think when he is dying that he is going to his Saviour and that our Lord is risen and gone before us to prepare a place for us and take us in season to himself Iohn 14. 2 3 4. As you believe in God believe thus in Christ and then your hearts will be less troubled Ver. 1. It is not a stranger that we talk of to you but your Head and Saviour that loveth you better than you love your selves whose office it is there to appear continually for you before God and at last to receive your departing souls and into his hand it is that you must then commend them as Stephen did Acts 7. 59. § 5. Direct 5. Choose out some Promises most suitable to your condition and roll them over and over Direct 5. in your mind and feed and live on them by faith A sick man is not usually fit to think of very many things and therefore two or three comfortable promises to be still before his eyes may be the most profitable matter of his thoughts such as those three which I named before If he be most troubled with the greatness of his sin let it be such as these Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the world
that be gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Act. 13. 39. And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Heb. 8. 12. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more If it be the weakness of his grace that troubleth him let him choose such passages as these Isa. 40. 11. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bâ—som and shall gently lead those that are with young Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Matth. 26. 41. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Joh. 6. 37. All that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Luk. 17. 5. The Apostles said unto the Lord Increase our faith If it be the fear of death and strangeness to the other world that troubleth you remember the words of Christ before cited and 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 4 5 6 8. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Phil. 1. 23. For I am in a strait between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them 1 Cor. 15. 55. O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Act. 7. 59. Lord Iesus receive my spirit Fix upon some such word or promise which may support you in your extremity § 6. Direct 6. Look up to God who is the Glory of Heaven and the Light and Life and Ioy of souls Direct 6. and believe that you are going to see his face and to live in the perfect everlasting fruition of his fullest Love among the glorified If it be delectable here to know his works what will it be to see the Cause of all All Creatures in Heaven and Earth conjoyned can never afford such content and joy to holy souls as God alone O if we knew him whom we must there behold how weary should we be of this dungeon of mortality and how fervently should we long to see his face The Chicken that cometh out of the shell or the Infant that newly cometh from the womb into this illuminated world of humane converse receiveth not such a joyful change as the soul that is newly loosed from the flesh and passeth from this mortal life to God One sight of God by a blessed soul is worth more than all the Kingdoms of the earth It is pleasant to the eyes to behold the Sun But the Sun is as darkness and useless in his Glory Rev. 21. 23. And the City had no need of the Sun nor of the Moon to shine in it For the Glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the Light thereof Rev. 22. 3 4 5. And there shall be no more curse but the Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him and they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads and there shall be no night there and they need no candle nor light of the Sun for the Lord God giveth them Light and they shall reign for ever and ever If David in the Wilderness so impatiently thirsted to appear before God the living God in his Sanctuary at Ierusalem Psal. 42. How earnestly should we long to see his Glory in the Heavenly Ierusalem The glimpse of his back-parts was as much as Moses might behold Exod. 34. yet that much put a shining glory upon his face v. 29 30. The sight that Stephen had when men were ready to stone him was a delectable sight Act. 7. 55 56. The glimpse of Christ in his transfiguration ravished the three Apostles that beheld it Mat. 17. 2 6. Pauls vision which rapt him up into the third Heavens did advance him above the rest of mankind But our Beatifical sight of the Glory of God will very far excell all this When our perfected bodies shall have the perfect Glorious Body of Christ to see and our perfected souls shall have the God of Truth the most perfect uncreated Light to know what more is a created understanding capable of And yet this is not the top of our felicity For the Understanding is but the passage to the Heart or Will and Truth is but subservient to Goodness And therefore though the Understanding be capable of no more than the Beatifical Vision yet the Man is capable of more even of receiving the fullest communications of Gods Love and feeling it poured out upon the heart and living in the returns of perfect Love and in this entercourse of Love will be our highest Ioyes and this is the top of our heavenly felicity O that God would make us foreknow by a lively faith what it is to behold him in his Glory and to dwell in perfect Love and Ioy and then death would no more be able to dismay us nor should we be unwilling of such a blessed change But having spoken of this so largely in my Saints Rest I must stop here and refer you thither § 7. Direct 7. Look up to the Blessed Society of Angels and Saints with Christ and remember their Direct 7. blessedness and joy and that you also belong to the same society and are going to be numbred with them It will greatly overcome the fears of death to see by faith the Joyes of them that have gone before us and withall to think of their relation to us As it will encourage a man that is to go beyond Sea if the far greatest part of his dearest friends be gone before him and he heareth of their safe arrival and of their Joy and happiness Those Angels that now see the face of God are our special friends and guardians and entirely Love us better than any of our friends on earth do They rejoiced at our Conversion and will rejoice at our Glorification And as they are better and Love us better so therefore our Love should be greater to them than to any upon earth and we should more desire to be with them Those blessed souls that are now with Christ were once as
we are here on earth They were compassed with temptations and clog'd with flesh and burdened with sin and persecuted by the world and they went out of the world by sickness and death as we must do and yet now their tears are wiped away their pains and groans and sears are turned into unexpressible blessedness and joy And would we not be with them Is not their company desirable and their felicity more desirable The glory of the new Ierusalem is not described to us in vain Rev. 21. 22. God will be all in all there to us as the only sun and Glory of that world and yet we shall have pleasure not only to see our Glorified Redeemer but also to converse with the Heavenly society and to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of God and to Love and Praise him in consort and harmony with all those holy blessed spirits And shall we be afraid to follow where the Saints of all Generations have gone before us And shall the company of our best and most and happiest friends be no inducement to us Though it must be our highest joy to think that we shall dwell with God and next that we shall see the Glory of Christ yet is it no small part of my comfort to consider that I shall follow all those holy persons whom I once conversed with that are gone before me and that I shall dwell with such as Henoch and Elias and Abraham and Moses and Iob and David and Peter and Iohn â—nd Paul and Timothy and Ignatius and Polycarpe and Cyprian and Reader bear with this mixture For God will own his image when piâ—vish contenders do deny it or blaspheam it and will receive those whom faction and proud domination would cast ouâ— and vilifie with scorn and slanders Naziaâ—zene and Augustine and Chrysostome and Bernard and Gerson and Savonarola and Miraâ—dula and Taulerus and Kempisius and Melancthon and Alasco and Calvin and Bucholâ—zer and Bullinger and Musculus and Zanchy and Bâ—cer and Paraeus and Grynaeus and Chemnitius and Gerhard and Chamier and Capellus and Blondel and Rivet and Rogers and Bradford and Hooper and Latimer and Hildersham and Amâ—sius and Langley and Nicolls and Whitaker and Cartwright and Hooker and Bayne and Preston and Sibbes and Perkins and Dod and Parker and Ball and Usher and Hall and Gataker and Bradshaw and Vines and Ash and millions more of the family of God I name these for my own delight and comfort it being pleasant to me to remember what companions I shall have in the heavenly joyes and praises of my Lord. How few are all the Saints on earth in comparison of those that are now with Christ And alas how weak and ignorant and corrupt how selfish and contentious and froward are Gods poor infants here in flesh when above there is nothing but Holiness and Perfection If Knowledge or Goodness or any excellency do make the creatures truly amiable all this is there in the highest degree but here alas how little have we If the Love of God or the Love of us do make others Lovely to us it is there and not here that these and all perfections flourish O how much now do I find the company of the wise and learned the godly and sincere to differ from the company of the ignorant bruitish the proud and malitious the false-hearted and ungodly rabble How sweet is the converse of a holy wise experienced Christian O then what a place is the new Ierusalem and how pleasant will it be with Saints and Angels to See and Love and Praise the Lord. § 8. Direct 8. That sickness and death may be comfortable to you as your passage to Eternity Direct 8. take notice of the seal and earnest of God even the spirit of grace which he hath put into your hearts That which emboldened Paul and such others to groan after immortality and to be most willing to be absent from the body and present with the Lord was because God himself had wrought or made them for it and given them the earnest or pledge of his spirit 2 Cor. 5. 4 5 8. For this is Gods mark upon his chosen and justified ones by which they are sealed up to the day of their redemption Ephes. 4. 30. Ephes. 1. 13. In whom also after ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise 2 Cor. 1. 21 22. God hath annointed us and sealed us and given us the pledge or earnest of his spirit into our hearts This is the pledge or earnest of our inheritance Ephes. 1. 14. And what a comfort should it be to us when we look towards Heaven to find such a pledge of God within us If you say I fear I have not this earnest of the spirit Whence then did your desires of holiness arise what weaned you from the world and made you place your hopes and happiness above whence came your enmity to sin and opposition to it and your earnest desires after the Glory of God the prosperity of the Gospel and the good of souls The very Love of Holiness and holy persons and your desires to know God and perfectly Love him do shew that heavenly nature or spirit within you which is your surest evidence for eternal life For that spirit was sent from heaven to draw up your hearts and fit you for it And God doth not give you such natures and desires and preparations in vain This also is called The witness of the spirit with or to our spirit that we are the children of God and if Children then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ Rom. 8. 15 16 17. It witnesseth our adoption by evidencing it as a seal or pledge doth witness our title to that which is so confirmed to us The nature of every thing is suited to its use and end God would not have given us a heavenly nature or desire if he had not intended us for Heaven § 9. Direct 9. Look also to the testimony of a holy life since grace hath imployed you in seeking after Direct 9. the heavenly inheritance It is unlawful and perillous to look after any works or righteousness of So Hezektah your own so as to set it in whole or in part instead of Christ or to ascribe to it any honour that is proper to him As to imagine that you are innocent or have fulfilled the Law or have made God a compensation by your merits or sufferings for the sin you have committed But yet you must judge your selves on your sick beds as near as you can as God will judge you And he will judge every man according to his work and will recompense and reward men according to their works Matth. 25 39 40 c. Well done good and faithful servant Thou hast been faithful over a little I will make thee ruler over much Come ye blessed of my father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you for I was hungry
you and tell you that as you are the subjects of the Pope you are none of the Church of Christ at all From this treasonable conspiracy we withdraw our selves But as Coacil Tolâ—t 4. c. 61. 28. q. 1. Ca. Iudai qui allow separation from a Jewish husband if afâ—er admonition he will not be a Christian and so doth Aâ—osta and his Coâ—cil Lirâ—â—s l. 6. c. 21. and other Jesuits and allow the marrying of another And sure the Conjugal bond is faster than that of a Pastor and his sâ—ock may not a man then change his Pastor when his soul is in apparent hazzard you are the subjects of Christ we never divided from you nor denyed you our Communion Let Reason judge now who are the Dividers And is it not easie to know which is the Church in the Division It is all those that are still united unto Christ If you or we be divided from Christ and from Christians that are his Body we are then none of the Church But if we are not Divided from Christ we are of the Church still If part of a Tree though the far greater part be out off or separated from the rest it is that part how small soever that still groweth with the Root that is the living Tree The Indian Fig-tree and some other Trees have branches that take root when they touch the ground If now you ask me whether the branches springing from the second Root are members of the first Tree I answer 1. The rest that have no new Root are more undoubtedly members of it 2. If any branches are separated from the first Tree and grow upon the new root alone the case is out of doubt 3. But if yet they are by continuation joyned to both that Root which they receive their nutriment most from is it which they most belong to Suppose a Tyrant counterseit a Commission from the King to be Vice-King in Ireland and proclaimeth all them to be Traytors that receive him not The King disclaimeth him the wisest subjects renounce him and the rest obey him but so as to profess they do it because they believe him to be commissioned by the King Let the question be now who are the Dividers in Ireland and who are the Kings truest subjects and what Head it is that denominateth the Kingdom and who are the Traytors This is your case § 58. 2. Divisions are the deformities of the Church Cut off a nose or pluck out an eye or dismember either a man or a picture and see whether you have not deformed it Ask any compassionate Christian ask any insulting enemy whether our Divisions be not our deformity and shame the lamentation of friends and the scorn of enemies § 59. 3. The Churches Divisions are not our own dishonour alone but the injurious dishonour of Christ and Religion and the Gospel The World thinketh that Christ is an impotent King that cannot keep his Kingdom at unity in it self when he hath himself told us that every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every City or House divided against it self shall not stand Mat. 12. 25. They think the Gospel tendeth to Division and is a doctrine of dissention when they see divisions and dissentions procured by it They impute all the faults of the subjects to the King and think that Christ was confused in his Legislation and knew not what to teach or command because men are confounded in their opinions or practices and know not what to think or do If men misunderstand the Law of Christ and one saith This is the sense and another saith that is the sense they are ready to think that Christ spake non-sense or understood not himself because the ignorant understand him not Who is there that converseth with the ungodly of the World that heareth not by their reproach and scorns how much God and Religion are dishonoured by the Divisions of Religious people § 60. 4. And thus also our Divisions do lamentably hinder the progress of the Gospel and the conversion and salvation of the ungodly World They think they have small encouragement to be of your Religion while your Divisions seem to tell them that you know not what Religion to be of your selves Whatever Satan or wicked men would say against Religion to discourage the ungodly from it the same will exasperated persons in these Divisions say against each others way And when every one of you condemneth another how should the Consciences of the ungodly perswade them to expect salvation in any of those ways which you thus condemn Doubtless the Divisions of the Christian world have done more to hinder the conversion of Infidels and keep the Heathen and Mahometane World in their damnable ignorance and delusions than all our power is able to undoe and have produced such desolations of the Church of Christ and such a plentiful harvest and Kingdom for the Devil as every tender Christian heart is bound to lament with tears of bitterness If it must be that such offence shall come yet woe to those by whom they come § 67. 5. Divisions lay open the Churches of Christ not only to the scorn but to the malice will and fury of their enemies A Kingdom or house divided cannot stand Matth. 12. 25. where hath the Church been destroyed or Religion rooted out in any Nation of the Earth but divisions had a Rev. 17. 13. principal hand in the effect O what desolations have they made among the flocks of Christ As Seneca and others opened their own veins and bled to death when Nero or such other Tyrants did send them their commands to Die even so have many Churches done by their divisions to the gratifying of Satan the enemy of souls § 62. 6. Divisions among Christians do greatly hinder the edification of the members of the Church while they are possessed with envyings and distaste of one another they lose all the benefit of each others gifts and of that holy communion which they should have with one another And they are possessed with that zeal and wisdom which Iames calleth earthly sensual and devillish which corrupteth Eph. 4. 16. 1 Tim. 1. 4. Rom. 15. 19. Acts 9. 3â— all their affections and turneth their food to the nourishment of their disease and maketh their very worshipping of God to become the increase of their sin Where divisions and contentions are the members that should grow up in humility meekness self-denyal holiness and love do grow in pride and perverse disputings and passionate strivings and envious wranglings The Spirit of God departeth from them and an evil Spirit of malice and vexation taketh place though in their passion they know not what Spirit they are of Whereas if they be of one mind and live in peace the God of love and peace will be with them What lamentable instances of this calamity have we in many of the Sectaries of this present time Especially in the people called Quakers that while they
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he fall into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6. And if such Starrs fall from Heaven no wonder if they bring many down headlong with them Humble souls dwell most at home and think themselves unworthy of the communion of their brethren and are most quarrelsome against their own corruptions They do nothing in grife and vain glory but in lowliness of mind each one esteemeth other better than themselves Phil. 2. 2 3. and judge not lâ—st they he judged Matth. 6. 1. And is it likely such should be Dividers of the Church But Proud men must either be great and domineer and as Diotrephes 3 John 9 10. love to have the preheminence and cast the Brethren out of the Church and prate against their faithfullest Pastors with malitious words or else must be noted for their supposed excellencies and set up themselves and speak perverse things to draw away disciples after them and think the brethren unworthy of their Communion and esteem all others below themselves and as the Church of Act. 20. 30. Rome confound Communion and Subjection and think none fit for their Communion that obey them not or compâ—y not with their opinion and will There is no hope of Concord where Pride hath power to prevail § 86. Direct 9. Take heed of singularity and narrowness of mind and unacquaintedness with the Direct 9. former and present state of the Church and world Men that are bred up in a corner and never read nor heard of the common condition of the Church or world are easily mislead into Sschism through ignorance of those matters of fact that would preserve them Abundance of this sort of honest people that I have known have known so little beyond the Town or Countrey where they lived that they have thought they were very Catholick in their Communion because they had one or two Congregations and divided not among themselves But for the avoiding of Schism 1. Look with pity on the Unbelieving world and consider that Christians of all sorts are but a sixth part of the whole earth And then 2. Consider of this sixth part how small a part the reformed Churches are And if you be willing to leave Christ any Church at all perhaps you will be lothe to separate yet into a narrower party which is no more to all the world than one of your Cottages is to the whole Kingdom And is this all the Kingdom on earth that you will ascribe to Christ Is the King of the Church the King only of your little party Though his flock be but a little flock make it not next to none As if he câ—â—e into the World on so low a design as the gathering of your sect only The less his stock is the more sinful it is to rob him of it and make it lesser than it is It is a little flock if it contained all the Christians Protestants Greeks Armenians Abassines and Papists on the Eâ—â—th Be singular and separate from the unbelieving world and spare not And be singular in Hâ—liness from Prophane and nominal hypocritical Christians But affect not to be singular in opinion or practice or separated in Communion from the universal Church or generality of sound believers or if you forsake some common errour yet hold still the Common Love and Communion with all the faithful according to your opportunities 3. And it will be very useful when you are tempted to separate from any Church for the defectiveness of its manner of Worship to enquire how God is worshipped in all the Churches on Earth and then consider whether if you lived ☞ That â—oâ— above that knoweth the heart dâ—â—â—â— disâ—ern that frail mâ—n â—â— some of theâ—r conâ—radictions iâ—tâ—nâ— the same thing and aâ—â—eâ—â—eth bâ—th I. Vâ—â—â—â— â—sâ—aâ— 3. 7. 15. among them you would forsake Communion with them all for such defects while you are not forced to justifie or approve them 4. And it is very useful to read Church history and to understand what Heresies have been in times past and what havock Schisms have caused among Christians For if this much had been known by well-meaning persons in our dayes we should not have seen those same Opinions applauded as new light which were long agoe exploded as old Heresies nor should we have seen many honest people taking that same course to reform the Church now and advance the Gospel which in so many ages and Nations hath heretofore destroyed the Church and cast out the Gospel A narrow soul that taketh all Christs interest in the world to lye in a few of their separated meetings and shutteth up all the Church in a Nutshell must needs be guilty of the foulest schisms It is a Catholick spirit and Catholick principles loving a Christian as a Christian abhorring the very names of Sects and Parties as the Churches wounds that must make a Catholick indeed § 87. Direct 10. Understand well the true difference between the visible Church and the world Direct 10. lest you should think that you are bound to separate as much from a corrupted Church as from the world It is not True faith but the Profession of true faith that maketh a man fit to be acknowledged a member of the Visible Church If this Profession be unsound and accompanied with a vitious life it is the sin and misery of such an Hypocrite but it doth not presently put him as far unrelated to you as if he were an infidel without the Church If you ask what advantage have such unsound Church-members I answer with the Apostle Rom. 3. 1 2. Much every way chiefly because unto them are committed the Oracles of God Rom. 9. 4. To them pertaineth the Adoption and the glory and Covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the promises Till the Church find cause to cast them out they have the external priviledges of its Communion It hath made abundance to incur the guilt of sinful separation to misunderstand those Texts of Scripture that call Christians to separate from Heathens Infidels and Idolaters As 2 Cor. 6. 17. Wherefore come out frâ—m among them and be ye separate saith the Lord c. The Text speaketh only of separating from the world who are Infidels and Idolaters and no members of the Church and ignorant people ordinarily expound it as if it were meant of separating from the Church because of the ungodly that are members of it But that God that knew why he called his people to separate from the World doth never call them to separate from the Church universal nor from any particular Church by a mental separation so as to unchurch them We read of many loathsome corruptions in the Churches of Corinth Galatia Laâ—dicea c. but yet no command to separate from them So many abuse Rev. 18. 4. Come out of her my people As if God commanded them to come out of a true Church because of its corruptions or imperfections because
to believe it To the first I say 1. There are many Antichrists And we must remove the ambiguity of the name before we can resolve the question If by Antichrist be meant One that usurpeth the Office of a Universal Vicar of Christ and Constitutive and Governing Head of the whole Visible Church and hereby layeth the ground of Schisms and Contentions and Bloodshed in the world and would rob Christ of all his members who are not of the Popes Kingdom and that formeth a multifarious Ministry for this service and corrupteth much of the Doctrine Worship and Discipline of the Church in this sense no doubt but the Pope is Antichrist But if by Antichrist be meant him particularly described in the Apocalyps and Thessalonians then the controversie de re is about the exposition of those dark Prophecies Of which I can say no more but this 1. That if the Pope be not He he had ill luck to be so like him 2. That Dr. Moors Moral Arguments and Bishop Downhams and many others expository arguments are such as I cannot answer 3. But yet my skill is not so great in interpreting those obscure Prophecies as that I can say I am sure that it is the Pope they speak of and that Lyra learned Zanchy and others that think it is Mahomet or others that otherwise interpret them were mistaken II. But to the second Question I more boldly say 1. That every one that indeed knoweth this to be the sense of those Texts is bound to believe it 2. But that God who hath not made it of necessity to salvation to understand many hundred plainer Texts nor absolutely to understand more than the Articles and fundamentals of our Religion hath much less made it necessary to salvation to understand the darkest Prophecies 3. And that as the suspicion should make all Christians cautelous what they receive from Rome so the obscurity should make all Christians take heed that they draw from it no consequences destructive to Love or order or any truth or Christian duty And this is the advice I give to all Quest. 5. Whether we must hold that a Papist may be saved THis question may be resolved easily from what is said before 1. A Papist as a Papist that is by Popery will never be saved no more than a mans life by a Leprosie 2. If a Papist be saved he must be saved against and from Popery either by turning from the opinion Viâ— Hâ—â— Eâ—â—l Rom. not est Christiana 〈◊〉 A Papist cannot go beyond a Reprobate and then he is no Papist or by preserving his heart from the power of his own opinions And the same we may say of every error and sin He that is saved must be saved from it at least from the Power of it on the heart and from the guilt of it by forgiveness 3. Every one that is a true sincere Christian in Faith Love and true Obedience shall be saved what error soever he hold that doth consist with these 4. As many Antinomians and other erroneous persons do hold things which by consequence subvert Christianity and yet not seeing the inconsistence do hold Christianity first and faster in heart and sincere practice and would renounce their error if they saw the inconsistence so is it with many Papists And that which they hold first and fastest and practically doth save them from the power operations and poyson of their own opinions As an Antidote or the strength of nature may save a man from a small quantity of poyson 5. Moreover we have cause to judge that there are millions among the Papists corrupted with many of their lessor errors who yet hold not their greater that believe not that none are Christians but the Popes subjects and that Christs Kingdom and the Popes are of the same extent or that he can remit mens pains in another world or that the Bread and Wine are no Bread and Wine or that men merit of God in point of Commutative Justice or that we must adore or worship the Bread or yet the Cross or Image it self c. Or that consent to abundance of the Clergies tyrannical usurpations and abuses And so being not properly Papists may be saved if a Papist might not And we the less know how many or few among them are really of the Clergies Religion and mind because by terror they restrain men from manifesting their judgement and compell them to comply in outward things 6. But as fewer that have Leprosies or Plagues or that take poyson scape than of other men so we have great cause to believe that much fewer Papists are saved than such as escape their errors And therefore all that love their souls should avoid them 7. And the trick of the Priests who perswade people that theirs is the safest Religion because we say that a Papist may be saved and they say that a Protestant cannot is so palpable a cheat that it should rather deterr men from their way For God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God And all men must know us to be Christs Disciples by loving one another And he that saith he loveth God and loveth not his Brother is a lyar And charity believeth all things credible That Religion is likest to be of God which is most charitable and not that which is most uncharitable and malicious and like to Satan To conclude no man shall be saved for being no Papist much less for being a Papist And all that are truly holy heavenly humble lovers of God and of those that are his servants shall be saved But how many such are among the Papists God only knoweth who is their Judge THe Questions whether the Greeks Abassines Nestorians Eutychians Antinomians Anabaptists c. may be saved must be all resolved as this of the Papists allowing for the different degrees of their corruption And therefore I must desire the Reader to take up with this answer for all and excuse me from unnecessary repetition As for such disputers as my Antagonist Mr. Iohnson who insisteth on that of Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an Heretick is condemned of himself when he hath proved that the word Heretick hath but one signification I will say as he doth Till then if he will try who shall be damned by bare equivocal words without the definition let him take his course for I will be none of his imitators Quest. 6. Whether those that are in the Church of Rome are bound to separate from it And whether it be lawful to go to their Mass or other Worship THese two also for brevity I joyn together I. To the first we must distinguish of separation 1. It is one thing to judge that evil which is evil and separate from it in Judgement 2. It is another thing to express this by forbearing to subscribe swear or otherwise approve that evil 3. And another thing to forbear communion with them in the Mass and Image Worship and gross or known
Authority of the Pastors Because the Pastors of several Churches do not Lose any of Grotius dâ— Iâ—perio sum pot circ â—acr most solidly resolveth this Question their Power by their Assembling but exercise it with the greater advantage of Concord But as they are made only to oblige the present or absent Pastors who separatedly are of equal Office-power so they are no Laws except in an equivocal sense but only Agreements or Contracts So Bishop Usher profest his judgement to be And before him the Council of Carthage in Cyprians time But it needs no proof no more than that a Convention of Kings may make no Laws to bind the Kings of England but Contracts only 13. But yet we are aliunde obliged even by God to keep these Agreements in things lawful for the Churches peace and concord when greater contrary reasons à fine do not disoblige us For when God saith You shall keep Peace and Concord and keep Lawful Covenants The Canons afford us the Minor But these are Lawful Contracts or Agreements and means of the Churches Peace and Concord Therefore saith Gods Law you shall observe them So though the Contracts as of Husband and Wife Buyer and Seller c. be not Laws yet that is a Law of God which bindeth us to keep them 14. Seing that even the obliging Commands of Pastors may not by them be enforced by the Sword 1 Pet. 5. 2 3. 2 Cor. 1. 24. but work by the power of Divine Authority or Commission manifested and by holy Reason and Love therefore it is most modest and fit for Pastors who must not Lord it over Gods heritage but be examples to all to take the Lower name of Authoritative Directions and perswasions rather than of Laws Especially in a time when Papal Usurpation maketh such ruinating use of that name and Civil Magistrates use to take it in the nobler and narrower sense THe Questions 1. If one Pastor make Orders for his Church and the multitudes or Synods be against them which must be obeyed you may gather from what is said before of Ordination And 2. What are the particulars proper Materially to the Magistrates decision and what to the Pastors I here pass by Quest. 26. Whether Church-Canons or Pastors Directive Determinations of matters pertinent to their Office do bind the Conscience And what accidents will disoblige the people you may gather before in the same case about Magistrates Laws in the Political Directions As also by an impartial transferring the Case to the Precepts of Parents and Schoolmasters to Children without respect to their Power of the Rod or supposing that they had none such Quest. 27. What are Christs appointed means of the Unity and Concord of the Universal Church and consequently of its preservation if there be no Humane Universal Head and Governour of it upon Earth And if Christ have instituted none such Whether Prudence and the Law of Nature oblige not the Church to set up and maintain an Universal Ecclesiastical Monarchy or Aristocracy Seeing that which is Every mans work is as No mans and omitted by all I. TO the first question I must refer you in part to two small popular yet satisfactory Tractates Catholick Unity and The True Catholick and Church described written long ago that I do not one thing too oft Briefly now 1. The Unity of the Universal Church is founded in and maintained by their Common Relation to Christ the Head as the Kingdom in its Relation to the King 2. A Concord in Degrees of Goodness and in Integrals and Accidentals of Christianity will never be obtained on earth where the Church is still imperfect And perfect Holiness and Wisdom are necessary to Perfect Harmony and Concord Phil. 3. 12 13 14. 3. Experience hath long taught the Church if it will learn that the claim of a Papal Headship and Government over the Church Universal hath been the famous incendiary and hinderer of Concord in the Christian world 4. The means to attain such a measure of concord and harmony which is to be hoped for or endeavoured upon earth I have so distinctly fully and yet briefly described with the contrary Impediments in my Treatise of the Reasons of Christian Religion Part 7. Chap. 14. pag. 470 471. in about two leaves that I will not recite them If you say You are not bound to read the Books which I refer you to I answer Nor thiâ— II. To the latter Question I answer 1. To set up such an Universal Head on the supposition of natural Reasons and Humane Policy is 1. To cross Christs Institution and the Laws of the Holy Ghost as hath been long proved by Protestants from the Scripture 2. It is Treason against Christs Soveraign Office to usurp such a Vicegerency without his Commission 3. It is against the notorious light of Nature which telleth us of the Natural Incapacity of Mortal man to be such an Universal Governour through the world 4. It is to sin against long and dreadful common experience and to keep in that fire that hath destroyed Euperours Kings and Kingdoms and set the Churches Pastors and Christian world in those divisions which are the great and serviceable work of Satan and the impediment of the Churches increase purity and peace and the notorious shame of the Christian profession in the eyes of the Infidel world And if so many hundred years sad experience will not answer them that say If the Pope were a good man he might unite us all I conclude that such deserve to be deceived 2 Thess. 2. 10 11 12. Quest. 28. Who is the Iudge of Controversies in the Church 1. About the Exposition of the Scripture and Doctrinal points in themselves 2. About either Heresies or wicked Practices as they are charged on the persons who are accused of them That is 1. Antecedently to our Practice by way of Regulation 2. Or Consequently by Iudicial Sentence and Execution on Offenders I Have answered this question so oft that I can perswade my self to no more than this short yet clear solution The Papists use to cheat poor unlearned persons that cannot justly discern things that differ by puzling them with this confused ambiguous question Some things they cunningly and falsly take for granted As that there is such a thing on Earth as a Political Universal Church headed by any Mortal Governour Some things they shuffle together in equivocal words They confound 1. Publick Iudgement of Decision and private judgement of discerning 2. The Magistrates Iudgement of Church-controversies and the Pastors and the several Cases and Ends and Effects of their several judgements 3. Church-judgement as Directive to a particular Church and as a means of the Concord of several Churches Which being but distinguished a few words will serve to clear the difficulty 1 As there is no Universal Humane Church Constituted or Governed by a Mortal Head so there is no Power set up by Christ to be an Universal Iudge of either sort of Controversies
as much as they can whether by Synods or other meet wayes of correspondency And though this be not a distinct Government it is a distinct mode of Governing Object But that there be Pastors with fixed Churches or Assemblies is not of the Law of Nature Answ. 1. Hath Christ no Law but the Law of Nature Wherein then differ the Christian Religion and the Heathenish 2. Suppose but Christ to be Christ and man to be what he is and Nature it self will tell us that this is the fittest way for ordering the Worship of God For Nature saith God must be solemnly and ordinarily worshipped and that qualified persons should be the official Guides in the performance And that people who need such conduct and private oversight besides should where they live have their own stated Overseers Object But particular Congregations are not de primaria intentione divina For if the whole world could joyn together in the publick Worship of God no doubt that would be properly a Church But particular Congregations are only accidental in reference to Gods intention of having a Church because of the Impossibility of all mens joyning together for Ordinances c. Answ. 1. The question with me is not whether they be of primary Intention but whether stated Churches headed with their proper Bishops or Pastors be not of Gods institution in the Scripture 2. This Objection confirmeth it and not denyeth it For 1. It confesseth that there is a necessity of joyning for Gods Worship 2. And an Impossibility that all the world should so joyn 3. But if the whole world could so joyn it would be properly a Church So that it confesseth that to be a society joyned for Gods publick Worship is to be properly a Church And we confess all this If all the world could be one family they might have one Master or one Kingdom they might have one King But when it is confessed that 1. A Natural Impossibility of an Universal Assembly necessitateth more particular assemblies 2. And that Christ hath instituted such actually in his Word what more can a considerate man require 3. I do not understand this distinction de primaria intentione divina and accidental c. The Primary Intention is properly of the Ultimate End only And no man thinketh that a Law de mediis of the means is no Law or that God hath made no Laws de mediis For Christ as a Mediator is a Means But suppose it be limited to the Matter of Church Laws If this be the meaning of it that it is not the principal means but a subordinate means or that it is not instituted only propter finem ultimum no more than propter se but also in order to a higher thing as its immediate end we make no question of that Assemblies are not only that there may be assemblies but for the Worship and Offices there performed And those for Man And all for God But what or all this Hath God made no Laws for subordinate means No Christian denyeth it Therefore the Learned and Judicious Disputer of this point declareth himself for what I say when he saith I engage not in the Controversie Whether a particular Congregation be the first political Dr. Stillingflects Iâ—en p. 154 so p. 170. By Church here I mean not a particular Congregation c. So h gâ—anteth that 1 the Universal Church 2. Particular Congregations are of Divine Institution one ex intentione primaria and the other as he calls it accidentally but yet of Natural necessity Church or no It sufficeth for my purpose that there are other Churches besides The thing in question is Whether there be no other Church but such particular Congregations Where it seemeth granted that such particular Churches are of Divine institution And for other Churches I shall say more anon In the mean time note that the question is but de nomine here whether the Name Church be fit for other societiâ—s and not de re But lest any should grow to the boldness to deny that Christ hath instituted Christian stated Societies consisting of Pastors and flocks associate for personal Communion in publick Worship and holy living which is my detinition of a particular Church as not so confined to one assembly but that it may be in divers and yet not consisting of divers such distinct stated assemblies with their distinct Pastors nor of such as can have no personal communion but only by Delegates I prove it thus from the Word of God 1. The Apostles were commissioned by Christ to deliver his commands to all the Churches and settle them according to his will Iohn 20. 21. Matth. 28. 19 20 c. 2. These commissioned persons had the promise of an infallible Spirit for the due performance of their work Iohn 16. 13 14 15. 15. 26. 14. 26. Matth. 28. 20. 3. These Apostles where ever the success of the Gospel prepared them materials did settle Christian stated societies consisting of Pastors or Elders with their flocks associated for personal communion in publick worship and holy living These setled Churches they gave orders to for their direction and preservation and reformation These they took the chief care of themselves and exhorted their Elders to fidelity in their work They gave command that none should forsake such assemblies and they so fully describe them as that they cannot easily be misunderstood All this is proved Acts 14. 23. Titus 1. 5. Rom. 16. 1. 1 Cor. 11. 18 20. 22 26. 1 Cor. 14. 4 5 12 19 23 28 33 34. Col. 4. 16. Acts 11. 26. 13. 1. 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. Acts 14. 27. 15. 3. to omit many more Here are proofs enow that such particular Churches were de facto setled by the Apostles Heb. 10. 25. Forsake not the assembling of your selves together So Iames 2. 2. they are called Synagogues 2. It is confessed that there is a natural necessity of such stated Churches or Assemblies supposing but the Institution of the Worship it self which is there performed And if so then we may say that the Law of Nature it self doth partly require them 1. It is of the Law of Nature that God be publickly worshipped as most Expositors of the fourth Commandment do confess 2. It is of the Law of Nature that the people be taught to know God and their duty by such as are able and fit to teach them 3. The Law of Nature requireth that man being a sociable creature and conjunction working strongest affections we should use our sociableness in the greatest matters and by conjunction help the zeal of our prayers and praises of God 4. Gods institution of publick Preaching Prayer and Praise are scarce denyed by any Christians 5. None of these can be publickly done but by assembling 6. No Assembly can suffice for these without a Minister of Christ Because it is only his Office to be the ordinary Teacher and to go before the people in prayer and praise and to administer the
to true penitent believers with a right to everlasting life and as to the obligation to sincere obedience for salvation though not as to the yet future coming of Christ in the flesh And this Law of Grace was never 2 Tim. 3. 15. Rom. 15. 4. 16. 26. yet repealed any further than Christs coming did fulfill it and perfect it Therefore to the rest of the world who never can have the Gospel or perfecter Testament as Christians have the former ☞ Law of Grace is yet in force And that is the Law conjoyned with the Law of Nature which now the world without the Church is under Under I say as to the force of the Law and a former Matth. 22. 29. Luke 24. 27 32 45. John 5. â—9 Acts 17. 2. 11. 18. 24 25. John 20. 9. John 7. 38 42. 10. 35. 13. 18. 19. 24 28. Luke 4. 18. 21. 2 Tim. 3. 16. 2 Pet. 1. 19 20. Acts 8. 32 33 35. Rom. 1. 2. promulgation made to Adam and Noah and some common intimations of it in merciful forbearances pardons and benefits though how many are under it as to the knowledge reception belief and obedience of it and consequently are saved by it is more than I or any man knoweth 6. There are many Prophecies of Christ and the Christian Church in the Old Testament yet to be fulfilled and therefore are still Gods Word for us 7. There are many Precepts of God to the Jews and to particular persons given them on Reasons common to them with us where parity of Reason will help thence to gather our own duty now 8. There are many holy expressions as in the Psalms which are fitted to persons in our condition and came from the Spirit of God and therefore as such are fit for us now 9. Even the fulfilled Promises Types and Prophecies are still Gods Word that is his Word given to their several proper uses And though much of their Use be changed or ceased so is not all They are yet useful to us to confirm our faith while we see their accomplishment and see how much God still led his Church to Happiness in one and the same way 10. On all these accounts therefore we may still Read the Old Testament and preach upon it in the publick Churches Quest. 156. Must we believe that Moses Law did ever bind other Nations or that any other parts of the Scripture bound them or belonged to them or that the Iews were all Gods Visible Church on Earth Answ. I Conjoyn these three Questions for dispatch I. 1. Some of the Matter of Moses Law did Rom. 2. Rom. 1. 20 21 Enod 12. 19 43 48 49. 20. 10. Lev. 17. 12 15. 18. 26. 24. 16 22. Numb 9. 14. 15. 14 15 16 29 30. 19. 10. Deut. 1. 16. bind all Nations that is The Law of nature as such 2. Those that had the knowledge of the Jewish Law were bound â—ollaterally to believe and obey all the expositions of the Law of nature in it and all the Laws which were given upon reasons common to all the world As about degrees of Marriage particular rules of Justice c. As if I heard God from Heaven tell another that standeth by me Thou shalt not marry thy fathers Widow for it is abominable I ought to apply that to me being his subject which is spoken to another on a common reason 3. All those Gentiles that would be proselytes and joyn with the Jews in their policy and dwell among them were bound to be observers of their Laws But 1. The Law of Nature as Mosaical did not formally and directly bind other Nations 2. Nâ—r were they bound to the Laws of their peculiar policy Civil or Ecclesiastical which were positives The reason is 1. Because they were all one body of Political Laws given peculiarly to one political body Even the Decalogue it self was to them a political Law 2. Because Moses was not authorized or sent to be the Mediator or deliverer of that Law to any Nation but the Jews And being never in the enacting or Promulgation sent or directed to the rest of the World it could not bind them II. As to the second Question Though the Scripture as a writing bound not all the World yet 1. The Law of Nature as such which is recorded in Scripture did bind all 2. The Covenant of Psal. 145. 9 103. 19. Psal. 100. 1. Rom. 14. 11. Act. 34 35. Jud. 14. 15. Grace was made with all mankind in Adam and Noe And they were bound to promulgate it by Tradition to all their off-spring And no doubt so they did whether by word as all did or by writing also as it 's like some did as Henochs Prophesies were it 's like delivered or else they had not in terms been preserved till Iudes time 3. And God himself as aforesaid by actual providences pardoning and benefits given to them that deserved hell did in part promulgate it himself 4. The neighbour Nations might learn much by Gods doctrine and dealing with the Jews III. To the third Question I answer 1. The Jews were a people chosen by God out of all the Deut. 14. 2 3. 7. 2. 6 7. Exod. 19. 5. 6. 7 8. Lev. 20. 24 26. Deut. 4. 20 33. 29. 13. 33. 29. Rom. 3. 1 2 3. Nations of the Earth to be a holy Nation and his peculiar treasure having a peculiar Divine Law and Covenant and many great priviledges to which the rest of the World were strangers so that they were advanced above all other Kingdoms of the world though not in wealth nor worldly power nor largeness of Dominion yet in a special dearness unto God 2. But they were not the only people to whom God made a Covenant of Grace in Adam and Noe as distinct from the Law or Covenant of Innocency 3. Nor were they the only people that professed to Worship the true God neither was holiness and salvation confined to them but were found in other Nations Therefore though we have but little notice of the state of other Kingdoms in their times and scarcely know what National Churches that is whole Nations professing saving faith there were yet we may well conclude that there were other visible Churches besides the Jews For 1. No Scripture denyeth it and charity then must hope the best 2. The Scriptures of the Old Testament give us small account of other Countreys but of the Jews alone with some of their Neighbours 3. Sem was alive in Abrahams dayes yea about 34 years after Abrahams death and within 12 years of Ismaels death viz. till about An. Mundi 2158. And so great and blessed a man as Sem cannot be thought to be less than a King and to have a Kingdom governed according to his holiness and so that there was with him not only a Church but a National Church or holy Kingdom 4. And Melchizedeck was a holy King and
Priest and therefore had a Kingdom holily governed and therefore not only a visible but also a National Church supposing that he was not Sem as the Jews and Broughton c. think For the scituation of his Countrey doth make many desert that opinion 5. And Iob and his friends shew that there were Churches then besides the Jews 6. And it is not to be thought that all Ismaels posterity suddenly apostatized 7. Nor that Esau's posterity had no Church state for both retained Circumcision 8. Nor is it like that Abrahams off-spring by Keturah were all apostates being once inchurched For though the special promise was made to Isaac's seed as the peculiar holy Nation c. yet not as the only Children of God or persons in a state of salvation 9. And the passages in Ionah about Ninive It is this Jewish pride of their own prerogatives which Paul so much laboureth in all his Epistles to pull down give us some such intimations also 10. And Iaphet and his seed being under a special blessing it is not like that they all proved Apostates And what was in all other Kingdoms of the World is little known to us We must therefore take heed of concluding as the proud Jews were at last apt to do of themselves that because they were a chosen Nation priviledged above all others that therefore the Redeemer under the Law of Grace made to Adam had no other Churches in the World and that there were none sâ—vâ—d but the Jews and proselytes Quest. 157. Must we think accordingly of the Christian Churches now that they are only advanced above the rest of the World as the Iews were but not the only people that are saved Answ. THis question being fitter for another place what hope there is of the salvation of the people that are not Christians I have purposely handled in another Treatise in my Method Theologiae and shall only say now 1. That those that receive not Christ and the Mark 16 16. Joh. 3. 16 17 18 19 20. Joh. 1. 11 12. Gospel revealed and offered to them cannot be saved 2. That all those shall be saved if such there be who never had sufficient means to know Christ incarnate and yet do faithfully perform the common conditions of the Covenant of Grace as it was made with Adam and Noe And particularly All that are truly sanctified who truly hate all known sin and Love God as God above all as their merciful reconciled pardoning Father and lay up all their hopes in Heaven in the everlasting fruition of him in glory and set their hearts there and for those hopes deny the interest of the flesh and all Psal. 19. 1 2 3 4 5. Act. 10. 2 3 35. Rom. 2. things of this World 3. But how many or who doth this abroad in all the Kingdoms of the World who have not the distinct knowledge of the Articles of the Christian faith it is not possible for us to know 4. But as Aquinas and the Schoolmen ordinarily conclude this question we are sure that the Church hath this prerogative above all others that salvation is incomparably more common to Christians than to any others as their Light and helps and means are more The opinions of Iustin and Clem. Alexandr Origen and many other Ancients of the Heathens salvation I suppose is known In short 1. It seems plain to me that all the World that are no Christians and have not the Gospel are not by Christs incarnation put into a worse condition than they were in before But may be saved on 1 1 Tim. 2. 4. 4. 10. Tit. 2. 11. Joh. 1. 29. Joh. 3. 17. 4. 42. Rom. 1. 21. the same terms that they might have been saved on before 2. That Christs Apostles were in a state of salvation before they believed the Articles of Christs dying for sin his Resurrection Ascension the giving of the Holy Ghost and Christs coming to judgement as they are now to be believed 3. That all the faithful before Christs coming were saved by a more general faith than the 2 Joh. 5. â— c. 9. 12 c. Mat. 16. 22. Joh. 12. 16. Luk. 18. 34. Apostles had as not being Terminated in This person Iesus as the Messiah but only expected the Messiah to come 4. That as more articles are necessary to those that have the Gospel than to those that have it not and to those since Christs Incarnation that hear of him than to the Iews before so before there were more things necessary even to those Iews that had a shorter Creed than that which the Apostles believed 3 Mal. 3. 1 2. Joh. 4. 25. before the Resurrection than was to the rest of the World that had not promises prophecies types and Laws so particular distinct and full as they had 4 Rom. 2. 12 14 26. Luk. 12. 47 48. 16. 10. 5. That the Promises Covenant or Law of Grace was made to all lapsed mankind in Adam and Noe. 6. That this Law or Covenant is still of the same tenour and not repealed 5 Gen. 3. 15. Gen. 9. 1 2 3 4. 7. That this Covenant giveth pardoning mercy and salvation and promiseth Victory over Satan to and by the holy seed 6 Psal. 136. 103. â—7 100. 5. 8. That the condition on mans part is Repentance and faith in God as a merciful God thus pardoning sin and saving the penitent believer But just how particular or distinct their belief of the incarnation of Christ was to be is hard to determine 7 Gen. 3. 15. Jonah 3. 9 10. 4. 2. 9. But after Christs Incarnation even they that know it not yet are not by the first Covenant bound to believe that the Messiah is yet to be incarnate or the Word made flesh For they are not bound 8 Jonah ib. Rom. 2. 4. Luk. 13. 3 5. Act. 10. 35. Joh. 3. 19 20 21. to believe an untruth and that as the condition of salvation 10. Men were saved by Christ about 4000 years before he was man and had suffered satisfied or merited as man 11. The whole course of Gods actual providence since the fall hath so filled the world with mercies contrary to mans demerit that it is an actual universal proclamation of the pardoning Law of 9 1 Joh 4. 2 3. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Grace which is thereby now become even a Law of nature that is of Lapsed pardoned nature as the first was the natural Law of Innocence 11 Rom. 1. 20. 21. Act. 14. 17. Rom. 2. 15 16. Psal. 19. 1 2 3. Prov. 1. 20 21 22 23. 24. Exod. 34. 6. â—â—â—â— 3. 12. â—â—h 4. 2. Luk. 6. 36. Luk. 18. 13. 12. Christ giveth a great deal of mercy to them that never heard of him or know him And he giveth far more mercy to believers than they have a particular knowledge and belief of 13. There is no salvation but by Christ the saviour of the world Though there be
Father Word and Spirit are undivided But yet some things are more eminently attributed to one person in the Trinity and some to another 2. By the Law and Covenant of Innocency the Creator eminently ruled Omnipotently And the Joh. 5. 22 25. Prov. 1. 20 21 c. Son Ruled eminently sapientially initially under the Covenant of promise or grace from Adam till his Incarnation and the descent of the Holy Ghost and more fully and perfectly afterward by the Holy Ghost And the Holy Ghost ever since doth Rule in the Saints as the Paraclete Advocate or Agent of Christ and Christ by him eminently by holy Love which is yet but initially But the same Holy Ghost by perfect Love shall perfectly Rule in Glory for ever even as the spirit of the Father and the Son We have already the Initial Kingdom of Love by the spirit and shall have the perfect Kingdom in Heaven And besides the initial and the perfect there is no other Nor is the perfect Kingdom to be expected before the day of judgement or our removal unto Heaven For our Kingdom is not of this World And they that sell all and follow Christ do make the exchange for Mat. 5. 11 12. Luk. 18. 22 23. Mat. 10. 41 32. Luk. 6. 23. 16. 20. 1 Cor. 12. 2 3. 5. 1 3 8. Mat. 18. 10. 1 Thes. 4. 17 18. Mar. 12. 25. 2 Pet. 3. 11 12 13. 1 Pet. 1. 4. Heb. 10. 34. 12. 23. Col. 1. 5. Phil. 3. 20. 21. a Reward in Heaven And they that suffer persecution for his sake must rejoice because their reward in Heaven is great And they that relieve a prophet or righteous man for the sake of Christ and that lose any thing for him shall have indeed an hundred fold in value in this life but in the world to come eternal life We shall be taken up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord And those are the words with which we must comfort one another and not Jewishly with the hopes of an earthly Kingdom And yet we look for a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness according to his promise But who shall be the inhabitants and how that Heaven and Earth shall diffâ—r and what we shall then have to do with Earth Whether to be Overseers of that Righteous Earth and so to judge or Rule the World as the Angels are now over us in this World are things which yet I understand not Quest. 162. May we not look for Miracles hereafter Answ. THe answer to Quest. 160. may serve to this 1. God may work Miracles if he please Lâ—ke 23. 8. and hath not told us that he never will 2. But he hath not promised us that he will and therefore we cannot believe such a promise not expect them as a certain thing Nor may any pray for the gift of miracles 3. But if there be any probability of them it will be to those that are converting Infidel Nations when they may be partly of such use as they were at first 4. Yet it is certain that sometimes God still worketh Miracles But arbitrarily and rarely which may not put any individual person in expectation of them Object Is not the promise the same to us as to the Apostles and primitive Christians if we could but believe as they did Answ. 1. The promise to be believed goeth before the faith that believeth it and not that faith before the promise 2. The promise of the Holy Ghost was for perpetuity to sanctifie all believers 1 Cor. 1â— 2â— 29. Heb. 2. 3 4. John 1â— 41. But the promise of that special gift of Miracles was for a time because it was for a special use that is to be a standing seal to the truth of the Gospel which all after ages may be convinced of in point of fact and so may still have the use and benefit of And providence ceasing Miracles thus expoundeth the promise And if Miracles must be common to all persons and ages they would be as no Miracles And we have seen those that most confidently believed they should work them all fail But I have written so largely of this point in a set Disputation in my Treatise called The Unreasonableness of Infidelity fully proving those first Miracles satisfactory and obligatory to all following ages that I must thither now refer the Reader Quest. 163. Is the Scripture to be tryed by the Spirit or the Spirit by the Scripture and which of them is to be preferred Answ. I Put the question thus confusedly for the sake of those that use to do so to shew them how to get out of their own Confusion You must distinguish 1. Between the Spirit in it self considered and the Scripture in it self 2. Between the several operations of the Spirit 3. Between the several persons that have the Spirit And so you must conclude 1. That the Spirit in it self is infinitely more excellent than the Scripture For the Spirit is God and the Scripture is but the work of God 2. The operation of the Spirit in the Apostles was more excellent than the operation of the same Spirit now in us As producing more excellent effects and more infallible 3. Therefore the holy Scriptures which were the infallible dictates of the Spirit in the Apostles 1 Joh. 4. 1 2 6. John 18. 37. 8. 47. are more perfect than any of our apprehensions which come by the same Spirit which we have not in so great a measure 4. Therefore we must not try the Scriptures by our most spiritual apprehensions but our apprehensions Acts 17. 11 12. Matth. 5. 18. Rom. 16. 26. by the Scriptures that is we must prefer the Spirits inspiring the Apostles to indite the Scripture before the Spirits illuminating of us to understand them or before any present inspirations the former being the more perfect Because Christ gave the Apostles the Spirit to deliver us infallibly Matth. 28. 20. Luke 10. 16. his own Commands and â—o indite a Rule for following ages But he giveth us the Spirit but to understand and use that Rule aright 5. This trying the Spirit by the Scriptures is not a setting of the Scripture above the Spirit it Rev. 2. 2. Jude 17. a Pet. 3. â— Ephes. 4. 11 12. 1 Cor. 12. 28 29. Ephes. 2. 20. self but is only a trying the Spirit by the Spirit that is the Spirits operations in our selves and his Revelations to any pretenders now by the Spirits operations in the Apostles and by their Revelations recorded for our use For they and not we are called Foundations of the Church Quest. 164. How is a pretended Prophet or Revelation to be tryed Answ. 1. IF it be contrary to the Scripture it is to be rejected as a deceit Acts 17. 11. 1 Cor. 15. 3 4 John 10. 35. John 19. 24 28 36 37. 2. If it be the same thing which is
Nobles and thy Princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness It is an abomination to Kings to commit wickedness for the Throne is established by Righteousness Prov. 16. 12. 4. To remember alwayes the End of Holiness How sure a way it is to Glory hereafter and to leave a sweet and glorious name and memorial upon earth when wickedness is the certain way to shame on earth and misery for ever § 18. Memorand 18. Rulers should not be contented to do good at home and to be the Joy and Memor 18. blessing of their own subjects but also set their hearts to the promoting of faith and holiness and Concord throughout the Churches of the World And to improve their interests in Princes and States by amicable correspondencies and treaties to these ends that they may be blessings to the utmost extent of their capacities As Constantine interceded with the Persian King to forbear the Eâ—sâ—b in vitâ Coast. persecuting of Christians in his Dominion c But I shall presume to speak no farther to my Superiours In the Golden Age these Memorandum's will be practised I will only annex Erasmus his Image of a Good Prince and of a Bad recited by Alstedius Encyclop l. 23. Polit. c. 3. pag. 173 174. The Image of a good Prince out of Erasmus If you will draw the picture of a good Prince delineate some Coelestial wight liker to God than to a man absolute in all perfections of virtue Given for the good of all yea sent from Heaven for the relief of mortal mens affairs which being oculaâ—issimum most discerning looketh to all to whom nothing is more regarded nothing more sweet than the Common-wealth who hath more than a fatherly affection unto all To whom every ones life is dearer than his own who night and day is doing and endeavouring nothing else but that it may be very well with all who hath Rewards in readiness for all that are good and pardon for the bad if so be they will betake them to a better course That so freely desireth to deserve well of his Subjects that if it be needful he will not stick to preserve their safety by his own peril that taketh his Countrys Commodity to be his own gain that alwayes watcheth that others may sleep quietly that leaveth himself no quiet vacancy that his Countrey may live in quiet vacancy or peace that afflicteth himself with successive cares that his Subjects may enjoy tranquellity To conclude on whose Virtue it is that the Publick happiness doth depend The Image of a bad Prince Ibid. If you would set forth a bad Prince to the eye you must paint some savage horrid beast made up of such monstrosities as a Dragon a Wolf a Lyon a Viper a Bear c. every way armed with six hundred eyes every way toothed every way terrible with hooked talons of an insatiable paunch fed with mens bowels drunk with mans blood that watcheth to prey upon the lives and fortunes of all the people troublesome to all but specially to the good a fatal evil to the World which all curse and hate who wish well to the Common-wealth which can neither be endured because of his cruelty nor yet taken away without the great calamity of the World because wickedness is armed with Guards and Riches CHAP. III. Directions for Subjects concerning their duty to their Rulers BEing now to speak of the duties which I must practise and to those of my own rank I shall do it with some more freedom confidence and expectation of regard and practice § 1. Direct 1. Though I shall pass by most of the theory and especially of the controversal points in Politicks and not presume to play the Lawyers part yet I must advise you to understand so much of the cause and nature and end of Government as is necessary to direct you in your obedience and to preserve you from all temptations to rebellion Especially take heed of those mistakes which confound soveraignty and subjection and which delude the people with a conceit that they are the Original of power and may entrust it as they please and call their Rulers to account and take the forfeiture and recall their trust c. It is not to flatter Kings but to give God his due that I shall caution you against these mistakes of Popularity And first I shall briefly lay down the truth and then answer some few of the chief objections § 2. Propos. 1. That there be Government in genere and obedience thereto is determined even in Nature Nihil Deo qui omnem mundum hunc regit acceptius quam concilia caetusque homiâ—â—â—â— quae ci 〈…〉 appellantur Cicero by the God of Nature in making man a sociable creature and each man insufficient for himself and in making Republicks necessâ—â—â—â— to the welfare and safety of individuals and Government necessary to these Republicks This therefore is not left to the peoples wills Though some odd cases may be imagined in which some individual persons may live out of a Common-wealth and not bâ— obliged to live under Civil-Government yet that exception doth but confirm the general Rule Even as all men ordinarily are bound to live in Communion with some particular Church and know their own Pastor though yet some few may be excepted as some Embassadours Travellers Seamen Souldiers banished men c. So here the obligation to live under Government lyeth upon the generality of the World though some few may be excepted § 3. Prop. 2. Rulers therefore are Gods officers placed under him in his Kingdom as he is the Universal absolute Soveraign of the World And they receive their power from God who is the only Original of Power Not only their strength from his strength but their Authority or Governing power which is Ius regendi from his supream authority as Mayors and Bayliffs in Corporations receive their power from the King Rom. 13. 1 2 3. There is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God § 4. Prop. 3. This Governing power in genere is not an empty name but in the very institution containeth in it those things Materially which are absolutely necessary to the end of Government § 5. Prop. 4. Yet God hath left that which is commonly called the specification of Government and some lower parts of the Matter and Manner of exercise undetermined as also the Individual persons or families that shall Rule In these three therefore it is that Communities interpose 1. Whether the soveraignty shall be in one or two or ten or how many and how divided for their exercise God hath not determined 2. Nor hath he determined of every particular whether the Power shall extend Grotius de Imper sum Potest c. 1. p. 7 8. Sunt qui objiciant Reges quaedam impâ—rare non posse nisi consensus Ordinum accesserit sed hi non vident quibus in locis id juris est ibi summum Imperium
non esse penes Regeâ— sed aut penes Ordines aut certe penes id corpus quod Rex juncti constituunt ut Bodinus Suarezius Victoria aliique abunde demonstratunt Certum summum Imperium totum aliquid imperare non posse ideo tantum quod alter veteâ— aut intercedat plane sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this or that or the other thing or not Nor whether it shall be exercised thus or thus by standing Courts or temporary Judges c. 3. Nor hath he named the person or family that shall rule § 6. Prop. 5. Though these in the constitution are determined of by explicite or implicite contract or consent between the Ruler and the Community yet by none of these three can the people be truly and properly said to Give the Ruler his Power of Government Not by the first or last for both those do but determine who shall be the Recipient of that power whether one or more and who individually Not the second for that is but a limiting or bounding or regulating the Governing power that it be not exercised to their hurt The bounding and regulating of their power is not the Giving them power The People having the strength cannot be ruled against their concordant wills And therefore if they contract with their Governours that they will be Ruled thus and thus or not at all this is not to Give them power Yet Propriety they have and there they may be Givers So that this Bounding or Regulating and Choosing the form and Persons and giving of their propriety is all that they have to do And the choosing of the Family or person is not at all a Giving the Power They are but sine quibus non to that They do but open the door to let in the Governour They do but name the family or man to whom God and not they shall Give the power As when God hath already determined what authority the Husband shall have over the Wife the Wife by choosing him to be her Husband giveth him not his power but only chooseth the man to whom God giveth it by his standing Law Though about the disposing of her estate she may limit him by pre-contracts But if she contract against his Goâ—ernment it is acontradiction and null Nor if he abuse his power doth it at all fall into her hands If the King by Charter give power to a Corporation to choose their Mayor or other Officer they do but nominate the persons that shall receive it but it is the Kings Charter and not they that give him the power If a Souldier voluntarily list himself under the Kings General or other Commanders he doth but choose the man that shall command him but it is the Kings Commission that giveth him the power to command those that voluntarily so list themselves And if the authority be abused or forfeited it is not into the Souldiers hands but into the Kings § 7. Prop. 6. The Constituting-Consent or Contract of Ancestors obligeth all their posterity if Prop. 6. they will have any of the protection or other benefit of Government to stand to the constitution Else Governments should be so unsetled and mutable as to be uncapable of their proper End § 8. Prop. 7. God hath neither in nature or Scripture estated this Power of Government in whole or Prop. 7. in part upon the people of a meer Community much less on Subjects whether Noble or Ignoble So foolish and bad â—s the 〈◊〉 tâ—o 〈…〉 man shâ—uâ—d not endanger himself for his Countrey because wisdom is not to be cast away for the commodity of fools Laert. in Aristip. But a wise man must be wise for others and not only for himself Learned or unlearned the part of the Community or the whole body Real or Representative The people as such have not this Power either to Use or to Give But the absolute Soveraign of all the world doth communicate the Soveraign power in every Kingdom or other sort of Common-wealth from himself Immediately I say Immediately not without the Mediation of an Instrument signifying his will for the Law of Nature and Scripture are his Instrument and the Charter of Authority nor yet so Immediately as without any kind of medium for the Consent and Nomination of the Community before expressed may be Conditio sine qua non so far as aforesaid But it is so Immediately from God as that there is no immediate Recipient to receive the power first from God and convey it to the Soveraign § 9. Prop. 8. The Natural power of individual persons over themselves is tota specie different from Prop. 8. this Political or Civil Power And it is not the Individuals resignation of this Natural power of selfdisposal It was one of the Roman Laws of the twelve Tables Vendendi filium patri potestas esâ—o But this Law rather giveth the Father that power than declareth it to be naturally in him Nature alloweth him no other selling of him than what is for his Child 's own good unto one or more which is the efficient Cause of Soveraignty or Civil Power § 10. Prop. 9. If you take the word Law properly for the expression of a Rulers Will obliging Prop. 9. the Governed or making their duty and not improperly for meer Contracts between the Soveraign and the people then it is clear in the definition it self that neither Subjects nor the Community as such have any Legislative power Neither Nature nor Scripture hath given the people a Power of making Laws either by themselves or with the Soveraign Either the sole power or a part of it But the very Nature of Government requireth that the whole Legislative power that is the power of making Governing Laws belong to the summa Majestas or Soveraign alone Unless when the summa potestas is in many hands you compare the partakers among themselves and call one Party the Soveraign as having more of the Soveraignty than the rest For those that are no Governours at all cannot perform the chief act of Government which is the making of Governing-Laws But the people are no Governours at all either as a Community or as Subjects So that you may easily perceive that all the Arguments for a natural Democracy are built upon false suppositions and where ever the People have any part in the Soveraignty it is by the after-Constitution and not by Nature And that Kings receive not their Power from the peoples gift who never had it themselves to use or give but from God alone § 11. Prop. 10. Though God have not made an Universal determination for any one sort of Government against the rest whether Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy because that is best for one people which may be worse for others yet ordinarily Monarchy is accounted better than Aristocracy and Aristocracy better than Democracy So much briefly of the Original of Power § 12. Object 1. But saith worthy Mr. Richard Hooker
will be governed on no other terms But if the contract limit them not but they be chosen simply to be the summae Potestates without naming any particular powers either by concession or restraint than as to Ruling they are Absolute as to men and limited only by God from whose highest Power they can never be exempt who in Nature and Scripture restraineth them from all that is impious and unjust against his Laws and honour or against the publick happiness and safety And here also remember that if any shall imagine that God restraineth a Magistrate when it is not so and that the commands of their Governours are contrary to the Word of God when it is no such matter their error will not justifie their disobedience Though I have answered these Passages of this Reverend Author it is not to draw any to undervalue his learned Writings but to set right the Reader in the Principles of his Obedience on which the Practice doth so much depend And I confess that other Authors of Politicks say as much as Mr. Hooker saith both Papists and Protestants but not all nor I think the soundest I will instance now in Alstedius only an excellent person but in this mistaken who saith Encyclop l. 23. Polit. c. 3. p. 178. Populus Universus dignior potior est tum magistratu tum Ephoris Hinc recte docent Doct. Politici populum obtinere regnum jura Majestatis proprietate dominio Principem Ephoros Usu administratione whereas the people have not the Regnum vel jura Majestatis any way at all Si administratores efficium suum facere nolint si impia iniqua mandent si contra dilectionem Dei proximi agant populus propriae salutis curam arripiet imperium male utentibus abrogabit in locum eorum alios substituet Porro Ephori validiora ipso Rege imperia obtinent Principem enim constitâ—â—nt deponunt id quod amplissimum est praeeminentiae argumentum Atque haec prerogativa mutuis pactis stabilitur Interinâ— princeps summam potestatem obtinere dicitur quatenus Ephori administrationem imperii cumulum potestatis ipsi committunt Denique optimatum universorum potestas non est infinita absoluta sed certis veluti rhetris clathris definita utpote non ad propriam libidinem sed ad utilitatem salutem populi alligata Hinc illorum munia sunt Regem designare constituere inaugurare constitutum consiliis auxiliis juvare sine consensu approbatione Principis quamdiu ille suum officium facit nihil in Reipublicae negotiis suscipere Nonnâ—â—quam conventum inscio Principe agere necessitate reipublicae exigente Populum contra omnis generis turbatores violatores defendere I suppose Mr. Hookers Principles and Alstedius's were much the same I will not venture to recite the Conclusion cap. 12. pag. 199. R. 5. de resistendo Tyranno Many other Authors go the same way and say that the people have the Majestas Realis both Papists and Protestants and Heathens But I suppose that what I have said against Hooker will serve to shew the weakness of their grounds Though it is none of my purpose to contradict either Hooker or any other so far as they open the odiousness of the sin of Tyranny which at this day keepeth out the Gospel from the far greatest part of the world and is the greatest enemy to the Kingdom of Christ nor yet as they plead for the just Liberties of the People But I am not for their Authority § 24. Direct 2. Begin with an Absolute Universal resolved Obedience to God your Creator and Redeemer Direct 2. who is your Soveraign King and will be your final righteous Iudge As he that is no loyal Subject to the King can never well obey his Officers so he that subjecteth not his soul to the Original Power of his Creator can never well obey the Derivative Power of earthly Governours Object But you may say experience teacheth us that many ungodly people are obedient to their superiours as well as others I answer Materially they are but not Formally and from a right principle and to right ends As a Rebel against the King may obey a Justice of Peace for his own Ends as long as he will let him alone or take his part But not formally as he is the Kings Officer So ungodly men may flatter Princes and Magistrates for their own ends or on some low and by account but not sincerely as the Officers of God He is not like to be truly obedient to man that is so foollish dishonest and impious as to rebel against his Maker nor to obey that authority which he first denyeth in its Original and first efficient cause What ever Satan and his servants may say and however some hypocrites may contradict in their practices the Religion which they profess yet nothing is more certain than that the most serious godly Christians are the best subjects upon earth As their principles themselves will easily demonstrate § 25. Direct 3. Having begun with God obey your Governours as the Officers of God with an obedience Direct 3. ultimately Divine All things must be done in Holiness by the Holy That is God must be Greg. Nazianz. cited by Bilson of Subject p. 361. Thou reignest together with Christ Thou rulest with him Thy Sword is from him Thou art the Image of God discerned obeyed and intended in all And therefore in Magistrates in a special manner In two respects Magistrates are obeyed or rather flattered by the ungodly First as they are men that are able to do them corporal good or hurt As a Horse or Dog or other Bruit will follow you for his belly and loveth to be where he fareth best Secondly As the Head of his Party and encourager of him in his evil way when he meets with Rulers that will be so bad Wicked men Love wicked Magistrates for being the servants of Satan But faithful men must Honour and Obey a Magistrate as an Officer of God Even a Magistrate as a Magistrate and not only as Holy is an Officer of the Lord of all Therefore the fifth Commandment is as the hinge of the two Tables Many of the Antients thought that it was the last Commandment of the first Table and the Moderns think it is the first Comandment of the last Table For it commandeth our duty to the noblest sort of men but not meerly as men but as the Officers of God They debase Magistrates that look at them meerly as those that master other men as the strongest Beast doth by the weaker Nothing will make you sincere and constant in your honouring and obeying them but taking them as the Officers of God and remembring by whose commission they rule and whose work they do that They are Ministers of God to us for good Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5. If you do not this 1. You wrong God whose servants they are For he
Consider the great temptations of the Rich and great and pity them that stand Direct 16. in so dangerous a station instead of murmuring at them or envying their greatness You little know what you should be your selves if you were in their places and the world and the flesh had so great a stroke at you as they have at them He that can swim in a calmer water may be carryed down a violent stream It is harder for that bird to fly that hath many pound weights tyed to keep her down than that which hath but a straw to carry to her nest It is harder mounting Heaven-wards with Lordships and Kingdoms than with your less impediments Why do you not pity them that stand on the top of barren mountains in the stroke of every storm and wind when you dwell in the quiet fruitful vales Do you envy them that must go to Heaven as a Camel through a needles eye if ever they come there And are you discontented that you are not in their conâ—â—tion will you rebel and fight to make your salvation as difficult as theirs Are you so unthankful to God for your safer station that you murmur at it and long to be in the more dangerous place § 40. Direct 17. Pray constantly and heartily for the spiritual and corporal welfare of your Governours Direct 17. And you have reason to believe that God who hath commanded you to put up such prayers will not suffer them to be wholly lost but will answer them some way to the benefit of them that perform the duty 1 Tim. 2. 1 2 3. And the very performance of it will do us much good of it self For it will keep the heart well disposed to our Governours and keep out all sinful desires of their hurt or controll them and cast them out if they come in Prayer is the exercise of Love and good desires And exercise increaseth and confirmeth habits If any ill wishes against your Governours should stâ—al into your minds the next time you pray for them conscience will accuse you of hypocrisie and either the sinful desires will corrupt or end your Prayers or else your prayers will cast out those ill desires Certainly the faithful fervent prayers of the Righteous do prevail much with God And things would go better than they do in the world if we prayed for Rulers as heartily as we ought § 41. Obj. For all the prayers of the Church five parts of six of the World are yet Idolaters Heathens Object Infidels and Mahometans And for all the prayers of the Reformed Churches most of the Christian part of the world are drowned in Popery or gross ignorance and superstition and the poor Greek Churches have Mahometane or tyrannical Governours and carnal proud usurping Prelates domineer over the Roman Church and there are but three Protestant Kings on the whole earth And among the Israelites themselves who had Priests and Prophets to pray for their Princes a good King was so rare that when you have named five or six over Judah and never a one after the division over Israel you scarce know where to find the rest What good then do your Prayers for Kings and Magistrates Answ. 1. As I said before they keep the hearts of subjects in an obedient holy frame 2. Were Answ. it not for prayers those few good ones would be fewer or worse than they are and the bad ones might be worse or at least do more hurt to the Church than they now do 3. It is not to be expected that all should be granted in kind that believers pray for For then not only Kings but all the world should be converted and saved For we should pray for every one But God who knoweth best how to distribute his mercies and to honour himself and refine his Church by the malice and persecution of his enemies will make his peoples prayers a means of that measure of good which he will do for Rulers and by them in the world And that 's enough to encourage us to pray 4. And indeed if when Proud ungodly worldlings have sold their souls by wicked means to climb up into places of power and command and domineer over others the Prayers of the faithful should Obj. Si id jâ—ris obâ—ineat status religionis eâ—â—t instabilis Mutato regis animo religio muta bitur presently convert and save them all because they are Governours this would seem to charge God with respect of persons and defect of Justice and would drown the world in wickedness treasons bloodshed and confusion by encouraging men by flatteries or treacheries or murders to usurp such places in which they may both gratifie their lusts and after save their souls while the godly are obliged to pray them into Heaven It is no such hearing of prayers for Governours which God hath promised 5. And yet I must observe that most Christians are so cold and formal in their Prayers for the Rulers of the world and of the Church that we have great reason to impute the unhappiness Resp. Unicum hic solatium in Divina est providentia Omnium animos Deus in potestate sua habet sed speciali quodam modo Cor Regis in manu Domini Deus per bonos per malos Reges opus suum operatur Interdum tranquillitas interdum tempestas ecclesiae utilior Nempe si pius est qui imperat si diligens lector sacrae scripturae si assiduus in precibus si Ecclesiae Catholicae reverens si peritos attente audiens multum per illum proficit veritas Sin distorto est corrupto judicio pejus id ipsi cedit quam ecclesiae Nam ipsum grave manet judicium Regis ecclesiae qui ecclesiam inultam non sinet Grotius de Impeâ— p. 210. Joh. 18. 36. of Governours very much to their neglect Almost all men are taken up so much with their own concernments that they put off the publick concernments of the world and of the Church and State with a few customary heartless words and understand not the meaning of the three first Petitions of the Lords Prayer and the Reason of their precedency or put them not up with that feeling as they do the other three If we could once observe that the generality of Christians were more earnest and importunate with God for the Hallowing of his name through all the world and the coming of his Kingdom and the obeying of his will in Earth as it is in Heaven and the Conversion of the Kings and Kingdoms of the world than for any of their personal concernments I should take it for a better prognostick of the happiness of Kings and Kingdoms than any that hath yet appeared in our dayes And those that are taken up with the expectations of Christs visible reign on earth would find it a more lawful and comfortable way to promote his Government thus by his own appointed officers than to rebell against Kings and seek
g. The Law against relieving a beggar bindeth not when he is like to dye if he be not relieved or in such a case as after the burning of London when there was no Parish to bring him to A Law that is but for the ordering of mens charity to soul or body by preaching or alms will not disoblige me from the Duties of Charity themselves in cases where Scripture or Nature proveeth them to be imposed by God A Law for fasting will not bind me when it would be destructive to my body even on Gods Sabbaths duties of mercy were to be preferred to Rest and Sacrifices 14. If Gods own Laws must be thus expounded that When two duties come together and both cannot be done the lesser ceaseth at that time to be a duty and the greater is to be preferred mans Laws must also be necessarily so expounded And the rather because mans Laws may be contradictory when Gods never are so rightly understood 15. Where the subject is to obey so far he must discern which of the Laws inconsistent is to be preferred But in the Magistratical execution the Magistrate or Judge must determine E. g. One Law commandeth that all the needy poor be kept on the Parish where they were born or last lived Another Law saith that Non-conformable Ministers of the Gospel who take not the Oxford Oath shall not come within five miles of City or Corporation though they were born there or any place where they have been Preachers In case of necessity what shall they do Answ. Whither they shall go for relief they must discern as well as they can But whither they shall be carried or sent the Magistrate or Constable must discern and judge Also Whether he shall go with a Constable that by one Law bringeth him to a place which by the other Law he is forbid on pain of six months imprisonment in the Common Gaol to come to Answ. If he be not voluntary in it it is not his fault And if one bring him thither by force and and another imprison him for being there he must patiently suffer it 16. But out of such excepted Cases the Laws of our Rulers as the commands of Parents do bind us as is afore explained And it is a sin against God to violate them 17. Yea When the reason of the Law reacheth not our particular case and person yet when we have reason to judge that it is the Rulers will that all be bound for the sake of some and the common order and good will be hindered by our exemption we must obey to our corporal detriment to avoid the publick detriment and to promote the publick good CHAP. IV. Directions to Lawyers about their Duty to God GEntlemen you need not meet these Directions with the usual censures or suspicions that Divines are busying themselves with the matters of your Calling which belong not to them and which they do not understand You shall see that I will as much forbear such matters as you can well desire If your Calling be not to be sanctified by serving God in it and regulating it by his Law it is then neither honourable nor desirable But if it be permit me very Legum mihi placet autoritas sed earum usus hominum nequitia depravatur Itaque piguit perdiscere quo inhoneste uti nollem honeste vix possem etsi vellem Petrarch i◠vita sua briefly so far to Direct you § 1. Direct 1. Take the whole frame of Polity together and study each part in its proper place and Direct 1. know it in its due relation to the rest that is Understand first the Doctrine of Polity and Laws in genere and next the Universal Polity and Laws of God in specie and then study Humane Polity and Laws as they stand in their due subordination to the Polity and Laws of God as the by-Laws of Corporations do to the General Laws of the Land § 2. He that understandeth not what Polity and Law is in genere is unlike to understand what Divine or Humane Polity or Law is in specie He that knoweth not what Government is and what a community and what a politick society is will hardly know what a Common-wealth or Church is And he that knoweth not what a Common-wealth is in genere what is its End and what its constitutive parts and what the efficient causes and what a Law and Judgement and Execution is will study but unhappily the Constitution or Laws of the Kingdom which he liveth in § 3. 2. And he that understandeth not the Divine Dominium Imperium as founded in Creation and refounded in Redemption and mans subjection to his Absolute Lord and the Universal Laws which he hath given in Nature and Scripture to the world can never have any true understanding of the Polity or Laws of any Kingdom in particular No more than he can well understand the true state of a Corporation or the power of a Mayor or Justice or Constable who knoweth nothing of the state of the Kingdom or of the King or of his Laws What ridiculous discourses would such a man make of his Local Polity or Laws He knoweth nothing worth the knowing who knoweth not that all Kings and States have no power but what is derived from God and subservient to him and are all his Officers much more below him than their Justices and Officers are to them and that their Laws are of no force against the Laws of God whether of Natural or Supernatural Revelation And therefore it is most easie to see that he that will be a good Lawyer must first be a Divine And that the Atheists that deride or slight Divinity do but play the fools in all their independent broken studies A man may be a good Divine that is no Lawyer but he can be no good Lawyer that understandeth not Theology Therefore let the Government and Laws of God have the first and chiefest place in your studies and in all your observation and regard 1. Because it is the Ground of Humane Government and the Fountain of mans Power and Laws 2. Because the Divine Polity is also the End of Humane Policy Mans Laws being ultimately to promote our Obedience to the Laws of God and the honour of his Government 3. Because Gods Laws are the measure and bounds of Humane Laws against which no man can have power Male se rectum putat qui regulam summae rectitudinis ignorat Ambros. de Offic. 4. Because Gods Rewards and Punishments are incomparably more regardable than mans Eternal joy or misery being so much more considerable than temporal peace or suffering Therefore though it be a dishonour to Lawyers to be ignorant of Languages History and other needful parts of Learning yet it is much more their dishonour to be ignorant of the Universal Government and Laws of God § 4. Direct 2. Be sure that you make not the getting of money to be your principal end in the
of Iesus of Nazareth which thing I also did c. And 1 Tim. 1. 13. that it was ignorantly in unbelief that he was a blaspheamer a persecutor and injurious And on the other side some Persâ—cute Truth and Goodness while they know it to be so Not because it is Truth or Goodness but because it is against their carnal worldly interest and inclination As the Conscience of a worldling a drunkard a whoremonger beareth witness against his sin while he goeth on in it so oft-times doth the Conscience of the Persâ—cutor and he hath secret convictions that those whom he persecuteth are better and happier than himself § 5. 3. As to the cause sometime persecution is for Christianity and Godliness in the gross or for some great essential point And sometimes it is only for some particular Truth or duty and that perhaps of a lower nature so small or so dark that it is become a great Controversie whether it be Truth or errour duty or sin In some respects it is more comfortable to the persecuted and more heynous in the persecutor that the suffering be for the Greatest things For this leaveth no doubt in the mind whether our cause be good or not and this sheweth that the persecutors mind is most aliene from God and truth But in some other respect it is an aggravation of the sin of the persecutor and of the comfort of the persecuted when it is for smaller truths and duties For it is a sign of great uncharitableness and cruelty when men can find in their hearts to persecute others for little things And it is a sign of a heart that is true to God and very sincere when we will rather suffer any thing from Man than renounce the smallest truth of God or commit the smallest sin against him or omit the smallest duty when it is a duty 4. Sometime persecution is directly for Religion that is for matters of professed Faith or Worship And sometimes it is for a civil or a common cause Yet still it is for our Obedience to God or else it is not the persecution which we speak of though the Matter of it be some common or civil thing As if I were persecuted meerly for giving to the poor or helping the sick or for being Loyal to my Prince and to the Laws or for doing my duty to my Parents or because I will not bear false-witness or tell a lye or subscribe a falshood or any such like This is truly persecution whatever the matter of it be as long as it is truly for Obeying God that we undergo the suffering § 6. I omit many other less considerable distributions And also those afflictions which are but improperly called persecutions as when a man is punished for a fault in a far greater measure than it deserveth this is Injustice but not persecution unless it be his Religion and Obedience to God which is the secret cause of it § 7. Direct 2. Understand well the greatness of the sin of Persecution that you may be kept in a Direct 2. due fear of being tempted to it Here therefore I shall shew you how Great a sin it is § 8. 1. Persecution is a fighting against God So it is called Act. 5. 39. And to fight against God is odious Malignity and desperate folly 1. It is Venemous malignity for a Creature to fight against his Creator and a sinner against his Redeemer who would save him and for so blind a worm to rise up against the wisdom of the All-knowing God! and for so vile a sinner to oppose the fountain of Love and Goodness 2. And what Folly can be greater than for a Mole to reproach the Sun for darkness or a lump of Earth to take up Arms against the Almighty terrible God Art thou able to make good thy cause against him or to stand before him when he is offended and chargeth thee with sin Hear a Pharisee Act. 6. 38 39. And now I say unto you refrain from these men and let them alone for if this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought But if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest happily ye be found even to fight against God Or hear Christ himself Act. 9. 4 5. I am Iesus whom thou persecutest It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks with bare feet or hands to beat the thorns How unmeet a match is man for God! He needeth not so much as a word to take away thy soul and crush thee to the lowest Hell His will alone can lay thee under thy deserved pains Canst thou Conquer the Almighty God Wilt thou assault the Power which was never overcome or storm Jehovahs Throne or Kingdom First try to take down the Sun and Moon and Stars from the Firmament and to stop the course of the Rivers or of the Sea and to rebuke the Winds and turn night into day and Winter into Summer and decrepit Age into vigorous Youth Attempt not greater matters till thou hast performed these It is a greater matter than any of these to conquer God whose cause thou fightest against Hear him again Isa. 45. 9. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker Let the potsherd strive with the Potsherds of the Earth Shall the Clay say to him that fashioneth it What makest thou Or thy work He hath no hands And Isa. 45. 9. who would set the bryars and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together Wo to the man that is not content to fight with men but chooseth the most dreadful God to be his enemy It had been better for thee that all the World had been against thee § 9. 2. Persecution opposeth the gracious design of our Redeemer and hindereth his Gospel and work of mercy to the world and endeavoureth the ruine of his Kingdom upon earth Christ came to save men and persecutors raise up their power against him as if they envyed salvation to the World And if God have made the work of mans Redemption the most wonderful of all his works which ever he revealed to the sons of men you may easily conceive what thanks he will give them that resist him in so high and glorious a design If you could pull the Stars out of the Firmament or hinder the motions of the Heavens or deny the rain to the thirsty Earth you might look for as good a reward for this as for opposing the merciful Redeemer of the World in the blessed work of mans salvation § 10. 3. Persecution is a resisting or fighting against the Holy Ghost Act. 7. 51. saith Stephen to the Jews Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye If you silence the Ministers who are the means by which the spirit worketh in the illuminating and sanctifying of souls Act. 26. 17 18. or if you afflict men for those Holy duties which the
the Jews Instances of this desperate sin are innumerable There is no way so common by which Satan hath engaged the Rulers of the world against the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and against the Preachers of his Gospel and the people that obey him than by perswading them as Haman did Ahasuerus Esther 3. 8 9. There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the Provinces of thy Kingdom and their Laws are divers from all people neither keep they the Kings Laws therefore it is not for the Kings profit to suffer them if it please the King let it be written that they may be destroyed When once the Devil hath got men by error or sensuality to espouse an interest that Christ is against he hath half done his work For then he knoweth that Christ or his servants will never bend to the wills of sinners nor be reconciled to their wicked wayes nor take part with them in a sinful cause And then it is easie for Satan to perswade such men that these precise Preachers and people are their enemies and are against their interest and honour and that they are a turbulent seditious sort of people unfit to be governed because they will not be false to God nor take part with the Devil nor be friends to sin When once Nebuchadnezzar hath set up his golden Image he thinks he is obliged in honour to persecute them that will not bow down as refractory persons that obey not the King When Ieroboam is once engaged to set up his Calves he is presently engaged against those that are against them and that is against God and all his servants Therefore as Rulers love their souls let them take heed what cause and interest they espouse § 26. Direct 6. To Love your neighbours as your selves and do as you would be done by is the Direct 6. infallible means to avoid the guilt of persecution For Charity suffereth long and is kind it envieth not it is not easily provoked it thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth it beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things 1 Cor. 13. 4 5 6 7. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom 13. 10. And if it fulfill the Law it wrongeth no man When did you see a Man persecute himself imprison banish defame slander revile or put to death himself if he were well in his wits Never fear persecution from a man that Loveth his neighbour as himself and doth as he would be done by and is not selfish and uncharitable § 27. Direct 7. Pride also must be subdued if you would not be persecutors For a proud man Direct 7. cannot endure to have his word disobeyed though it contradict the Word of God Nor can he endure to be reproved by the Preachers of the Gospel but will do as Herod with Iohn Baptist or as Asa or Amaziah by the Prophets Till the soul be humbled it will not bear the sharp remedies which our Saviour hath prescribed but will persecute him that would administer them § 28. Direct 8. Passion must be subdued and the mind kept calm if you would avoid the guilt of Direct 8. persecution Asa was in a rage when he imprisoned the Prophet A fit work for a raging man And Nebuchadnezzar was in a rage and fury when he commanded the punishment of the three witnesses Dan. 3. 13. The wrath of man worketh not the will of God Iames 1. 20. The nature of wrathfulness tendeth to hurting those you are angry with And wrath is impatient and unjust and will not hear what men 〈…〉 say but rashly passeth unrighteous sentence And it blindeth Reason so that it cannot see the truth § 29. Direct 9. And hearkning to malitious backbiters and slanderers and favouring the enemies Direct 9. of Godliness in their calumnies will engage men in persecution ere they are aware For when the wicked are in the favour and at the ear of Rulers they have opportunity to vent those false reports which they never want a will to vent And any thing may be said of men behind their backs with an appearance of truth when there is none to contradict it If Haman may be heard the Jews shall be destroyed as not being for the Kings profit nor obedient to his Laws If Sanballat and Tobiah may be heard the building of the Walls of Ierusalem shall signifie no better than an intended rebellion They are true words though to some ungrateful which are spoken by the Holy Ghost Prov. 29. 12. If a Ruler hearken to lyes all his servants are wicked for they will soon accommodate themselves to so vitious a humour Prov. 25. 4 5. Take away the dross from the silver and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer Take away the wicked from before the King and his Throne shall be established in righteousness If the Devil might be believed Iob was one that served God for gain and might have been made to curse him to his face And if his servants may be believed there is nothing so vile which the best men are not guilty of § 30. Direct 10. Take heed of engaging your selves in a Sect or Faction For when once you depart Direct 10. from Catholick Charity there groweth up instead of it a partial respect to the interest of that Sect to which you joyn And you will think that whatsoever doth promote that Sect doth promote Christianity and what ever is against that Sect is against the Church or cause of God A narrow Sectarian separating mind will make all the truths of God give place to the opinions of his party and will measure the prosperity of the Gospel in the world by the prosperity of his party as if he had forgot that there are any more men on the face of the earth or thought God regarded none but them He will not stick to persecute all the rest of the Church of Christ if the interest of his Sect require it When once men incorporate themselves into a party it possesseth them with another spirit even with a strange uncharitableness injustice cruelty and partiality What hath the Christian world suffered by one Sects persecuting another and faction rising up in fury to maintain its own interest as if it had been to maintain the being of all Religion The blood-thirsty Papists whose Inquisition Massacres and manifold murders have filled the earth with the blood of innocents is a sufficient testimony of this And still here among us they seem as thirsty of blood as ever and tell us to our faces that they would soon make an end of us if we were in their power As if the two hundred thousand lately murdered in so short a time in Ireland had rather irritated than quencht their thirst And all faction naturally tendeth to persecution Own not therefore any dividing opinions or names Maintain the Unity of the
is good neither to eat flesh or drink wine or any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth or is scandalized or offended or made weak It is a making weak So 2 Cor. 11. 29. Who is offended that is stumbled or hindered or ready to apostatize So much for the nature and sorts of Scandal § 22. IV. You are next to observe the Aggravations of this â—in Which briefly are such as these 1. Scandal is a murdering of souls It is a hindering of mens salvation and an enticing or driving them towards Hell And therefore in some respect worse than murder as the soul is better than the body 2. Ssandal is a fighting against Jesus Christ in his work of mans salvation He came to seek and to save that which was lost and the scandalizer seeketh to lose and destroy that which Christ would seek and save 3. Scandal robbeth God of the hearts and service of his creatures For it is a raising in them a distaste of his people and word and wayes and of himself and a turning from him the hearts of those that should adhere unto him 4 Scandal is a serving of the Devil in his proper work of enmity to Christ and perdition of souls Scandalizers do his work in the world and propagate his Cause and Kingdom § 23. V. The means of avoiding the guilt of Scandal are as followeth § 23. Direct 1. Mistake not with the vulgar the nature of scandal as if it lay in that offending Direct 1. men which is nothing but grieving or displeasing them or in making your selves to be of evil report But remember that Scandal is that offending men which tempteth them into sin from God and Godliliness and maketh them stumble and fall or occasioneth them to think evil of a holy life It is a piâ—iâ—ul thing to hear religious persons plead for the sin of man-pleasing under the name of avoiding scandal yea to hear them set up a Usurped dominion over the lives of other men and all by the advantage of the word scandal misunderstood So that all men must avoid what ever a censorious person will call scandalous when he meaneth nothing else himself by scandal than a thing that is of evil report with such as he Yea Pride it self is often pleaded for by this misunderstanding of Scandal and men are taught to overvalue their reputations and to strain their consciences to keep up their esteem and all under pretence of avoiding scandal And in the mean time they are really scandalous even in that action by which they think they are avoiding it I need no other instance than the case of unwarrantable separation Some will hold communion with none but the re-baptized Some think an imposed Liturgy is enough to prove communion with such a Church unlawful at least in the use of it And almost every Sect do make their differences a reason for their separating from other Churches And if any one would hold communion with those that they separate from they presently say that it is scandalous to do so and to joyn in any worship which they think unlawful and by scandal they mean no more but that it is among them of evil report and is offensive or displeasing to them Whereas indeed the argument from scandal should move men to use such communion which erroneous uncharitable dividing men do hold unlawful For else by avoiding that communion I shall lay a stumbling block in the way of the weak I shall tempt him to think that a duty is a sin and weaken his charity and draw him into a sinful separation or the neglect of some Ordinances of God or opportunities of getting good And it is this Temptation which is indeed the scandal This is before proved in the instance of Peter Gal. 2. who scandalized or hardened the Jews by yielding to a sinful separation from the Gentiles and fearing the Censoriousness of the Jews whom he sought to please and the offending of whom he was avoiding when he really offended them that is was a scandal or temptation to them § 24. Direct 2. He that will escape the guilt of Scandal must be no contemner of the souls of others Direct 2. but must be truly charitable and have a tender love to souls That which a man highly valueth and dearly loveth he will be careful to preserve and loth to hurt Such a man will easily part with his own rights or submit to losses injuries or disgrace to preserve his Neighbours soul from sin Whereas a despiser of souls will insist upon his own power and right and honour and will entrap and damn a hundred souls rather than he will abate a word or a Ceremony which he thinks his interest requireth him to exact Tell him that it will ensnare mens souls in sin and he is ready to say as the Phariseâ—s to Iudâ—s What 's that to us See thou to that A Dog hath as much pity on a Hare or a Hawk on a Partridge as a carnal worldly ambitious Diotrephes or an Elymas hath of souls Tell him that it will occasion men to sin to wound their Consciences to offend their God it moveth him no more than to tell him of the smallest incommodity to himself He will do more to save a Horse or a Dog of his own than to save anothers soul from sin To lay snares in their way or to deprive them of the preaching of the Gospel or other means of their salvation is a thing which they may be induced to by the smallest interest of their own yea though it be but a point of seeming honour And therefore when carnal worldly men do become the disposers of matters of Religion it is easie to see what measure and usage men must expect Yea though they assume the office and name of Pastors who should have the most tender fatherly care of the souls of all the flocks yet will their carnal inclinations and interests engage them in the work of Wolves to entrap or famish or destroy Christs Sheep § 25. Direct 3. Also you must be persons who value your own souls and are diligently exercised in Direct 3. saving them from temptations or else you are very like to be scandalizers and tempters of the souls of others And therefore when such a man is made a Church Governour as is unacquainted with the renewing work of grace and with the inward Government of Christ in the soul what Devilish work is he like to make among the sheep of Christ under the name of Government What corrupting of the Doctrine Worship or Discipline of Christ What inventions of his own to ensnare mens Consciences and driving them on by armed force to do that which at least to them is sin and which can never countervail the loss either of their souls or of the Church by such disturbances How merciless will he be when a poor member of Christ shall beg of him but to have pity on his soul and tell him I cannot do this or swear
and that all strict Religion is but hypocrisie or at least to refuse their help and counsels Even Plutark noted that It so comes to pass that we entertain not virtue nor are â—apt into a desire of imitating it unless we highly honour and love the person in whom it is discerned And if they see or think the Preacher to be himself of a loose and careless and licentious life they will think that the like is very excusable in themselves and that his doctrine is but a form of speech which his office bindeth him to say but is no more to be regarded by them than by himself Two wayes is mens damnation thus promoted 1. By the ill lives of hypocritical ungodly preachers who actually bring their own persons into disgrace and thereby also the persons of others and consequently their sacred work and function 2. By wicked Preachers and people who through a malignant hatred of those that are abler and better than themselves and an envy of their reputation do labour to make the most zealous and faithful Preachers of the Gospel to be thought to be the most hypocritical or erroneous or factious and schismatical § 5. 5. The neglect of Ministerial duties is a common cause of sin and of mens damnation When they that take the charge of souls are either unable or unwilling to do their office when they teach them too seldome or too unskilfully in an unsuitable manner not choosing that doctrine which they most need or not opening it plainly and methodically in a fitness to their capacities or not applying it with necessary seriousness and urgency to the hearers state When men preach to the ungodly who are neer to damnation in a formal pase like a School-boy saying his lesson or in a drowsie reading tone as if they came to preach them all asleep or were afraid of wakening them When they speak of sin and misery and Christ of Heaven and Hell as if by the manner they came to contradict the matter and to perswade men that there are no such things The same mischief followeth the neglect of private personal inspection When Ministers think that they have done all when they have said a Sermon and never make conscience of labouring personally to convince the ungodly and reclaim offenders and draw sinners to God and confirm the weak And the omission much more the perversion and abuse of sacred Discipline hath the like effects When the Keys of the Church are used to shut out the good or not used when they ought to rebuke or to shut out the impenitent wicked ones nor to difference between the precious and the vile it hardeneth multitudes in their ungodliness and perswadeth them that they are really of the same family of Christ as the Godly are and have their sins forgiven because they are partakers of the same Holy Sacraments Not knowing the difference between the Church mystical and visible nor between the judgement of ministers and of Christ himself § 6. 6. Parents neglect of instructing Children and other parts of holy education is one of the greatest causes of the perdition of mankind in all the World But of this elsewhere § 7. 7. Magistrates persecution or opposition to Religion or discountenancing those that preach it or most seriously practise it tendeth to deceive some who over-reverence the judgement of superiours and to affright others from the obedience of God § 8. 8. Yea the negligence of Magistrates Masters and other Superiours omitting the due rebuke of sinners and due correction of the offenders and the due encouragement of the good is a great cause of the wickedness and damnation of the World § 9. 9. But above all when they make Laws for sin or for the contempt or dishonour or suppression of Religion or the serious practice of it this buildeth up Satans Kingdom most effectually and turneth Gods Ordinance against himself Thousands under Infidel and ungodly Princes are conducted by Obedience to damnation and their Rulers damn them as honourably as the Physicion kill'd his Patients who boasted that he did it secundum artem according to the rules of art § 10. 10. The vulgar example of the multitude of the ungodly is a great cause of mens impiety and damnation They must be well resolved for God and holiness who will not yield to the major Vote nor be carryed down the common stream nor run with the rabble to excess of ryot When Christianity is a Sect which is every where spoken against it proveth so narrow a way that Act. 2. 8. few have a mind to walk in it Men think that they are at least excusable for not being wiser and better than the multitude Singularity in honour or riches or strength or health is accounted no crime but singularity in godliness is at least thought unnecessary What! will you be wiser than all the Town or than such and such superiours is thought a good reprehension of Godliness where it is rare Even by them who hereby conclude their superiours or all the Town to be wiser than God § 11. 11. Also the vulgars scorning and deriding Godliness is a common cause of Murdering souls Because the Devil knoweth that there cannot one Word of solid Reason be brought against the Reason of God and so against a Holy life he therefore teacheth men to use such weapons as they have A Dog hath teeth and an Adder hath a sting though they have not the Weapons of a man A fool can laugh and jeer and rail and there is no great wit or learning necessary to smile or grin or call a man a Puritan or precisian or Heretick or Schismatick or any name which the malice of the age shall newly coin Mr. Robert Bolton largely sheweth how much the malignity of his age did vent it self against Godliness by the reproachful use of the word Puritan When Reason can be bribed to take the Devils part either natural or literate reason he will hire it at any rate But when it cannot he will make use of such as he can get Barking or hissing may serve turn where talking and disputing cannot be procured Drum and Trumpets in an Army serve the turn instead of Oratory to animate cowards and drown the noise of dying mens complaints and groans Thousands have been mocked out of their Religion and salvation at once and jeered into Hell who now know whether a scorn or the fire of Hell be the greater suffering As Tyrants think that the Greatest and Ablest and wisest men must either be drawn over to their party or destroyed so the Tyrant of Hell who ruleth in the Children of disobedience doth think that if Reason Learning and wit cannot be hired to dispute for him against God they are to be suppressed silenced and disgraced which the noise of rude clamours and foolish jeers is fit enough to perform § 12. 12. Also idle sensless prating against Religion as a needless thing doth serve turn to deceive the simple Ignorant people
away meerly to make this one man the Ruler of the rest and subdue the persons of others to his will Who perhaps when he hath done will say that he is no Tyrant but maketh the Bonum publicum his end and is kind to men against their wills and killeth and burneth and depopulateth Countreys for mens corporal well-fare as the Papists poison and burn and butcher men for the saving of souls Cuncta ferit dum cuncta timet desaevit in omnes They are the turbines the Herricanes or Whirlwinds of the World whose work is to overturn and ruine Tantum ut noceat cupit esse potens Whether they burn and kill by right or wrong is little of their enquiry but How many are killed and how many have submitted to their pride and wills As when Q. Flavius complained that he suffered innocently Valerius answered him Non sua re interesse dummodo periret That was nothing to his business or concernment so he did but perish Which was plainer dealing than these glorious Conquerours used but no whit worse He that cannot command the putrid humours out of his Veins nor the Worms out of his bowels nor will be able shortly to forbid them to crawle or feed upon his face will now damn his soul and shed mens blood to obtain the predomination of his will And when he hath conquered many he hath but made him many enemies and may find that in tot populis vix una fides A quiet man can scarce with all his wit tell how to find a place where he may live in peace where pride and cruelty will not pursue him or the flames of War will not follow him and find him out And perhaps he may be put to say as Cicero of Pompey and Caesar Quem sugiam sâ—io quem sequar nescio And if they succeed by Conquest they become to their Subjects almost as terrible as to their Enemies So that he that would approach them with a petition for justice must do it as Augustus spake to a fearful petitioner as if he did assem dare Elephanto Or as if they dwelt in the inaccessible light and must be served as God with tear and trembling And those that flatter them as glorious Conquerours do but stir up the fire of their pride to make more ruines and calamities in the Earth and do the work of a rageing Pestilence As an Athenian Orator said to the men of Athens when they would have numbered Alexander with the Gods Cavete ne dum Coelum liberaliter donetis terram domicilia propria amittatis Take heed while you so liberally give him Heaven lest he take away your part of Earth And when their Pride hath consumed and banished Peace What have they got by it That which a Themistâ—cles after tryal would prefer a grave to Si una via ad solium duceret altera ad sepulchrum That which Demosthenes preferred banishment before That which the wisest Philosophers refused at Athens The great trouble of Government Inexpertus ambit expertus odit Cyneas asked Pyrrhus when he was preparing to invade the Romans What shall we do when we have Conquered the Romans He answered We will go next to Sicily And what shall when we do when Sicily is Conquered said he Pyrrhus said We will go next to Africk And what shall we do next said the other Why then said he We will be quiet and merry and take our ease And said Cyneas If that be last and best Why may we not do so now It is for quietness and peace that such pretend to fight and break peace But they usually die before they obtain it as Pyrrhus did And might better have permitted Peace to stand than pull it down to build it better As one askt an old man at Athens Why they called themselves Philosophers who answered Because we seek after Wisdom Saith he If you are but seeking it at this age when do you think to find it So I may say to the proud Warriers of the World If so many men must be kill'd and so many Conquered in seeking peace when will it that way be found But perhaps they think that their wisdom and goodness is so great that the World cannot be happy unless they govern it But what could have perswaded them to think so but their pride Nihil magis aegris prodest quam ab eo curari à quo voluerint saith Seneca Patients must choose their own Physicions Men use to give them but little thanks who drench them with such benefits and bring them the potion of peace so hot as that the touch of the Cup must burn their lips and who in their goodness cut the throats of one part that their Government may be a blessing to the survivers In a word it is Pride that is the great incendiary of the World whether it be found in high or low It will permit no Kingdom family or Church to enjoy the pleasant fruits of peace § 3. Direct 2. If you would be Peaceable be not covetous lovers of the World but be contented with Direct 2. your daily bread Hungry Dogs have seldome so great plenty of meat as to content them all and keep them from falling out about it If you overlove the World you will never want occasions of discord Either your neighbour sâ—llâ—th too dear or buyeth too cheap of you or over-reacheth you or gets before you or some way or other doth you wrong as long as he hath any thing which you desire or doth not satisfie all your expectations Ambitious and Covetous men must have so much room that the World is not wide enough for many of them And yet alas too many of them there are And therefore they are still together by the ears like Boyes in the Winter nights when the Bâ—d cloaths are too narrow to cover them One pulleth and another pulleth and all complain You must be sure that you trespass not in the smallest measure not incroach on the least of his commodity that you demand not your own nor deny him any thing which he desireth nor get any thing which he would have himself no nor ever give over feeding his greedy expectations and enduring his injustice and abuse if you will live peaceably with a worldly-minded man § 4. Direct 3. If you will be Peaceable Love your neighbours as your selves Love neither imagineth Direct 3. nor speaketh nor worketh any hurt to others It covereth infirmities It hopeth all things It endureth all things 1 Cor. 13. Selfishness and want of Love to others causeth all the contentions in the World You can bear with great faults in your selves and never fall out with your selves for them But with your Neighbours you are quarrelling for those that are less Do you fall out with another because he hath spoken dishonourably or slightly of you or slandered you or some way done you wrong You have done a thousand times worse than all that against your selves and yet can
called Love of benevolence But properly it is only to be called A will to make Paul good and lovely It being only God himself who is the original and ultimate end of that will and purpose and himself only which he then loveth there being nothing but himself to Love till in that instant that Paul is existent and so really lovely For Paul in esse cognito is not Paul Yet no reality doth oriri de novo in God but a new respect and denomination and in the creature new effects Of which elsewhere Quest. 4. Must I love every one as much as my self in degree or only some Quest. 4. Answ. You must love every one impartially as your self according to his goodness and you must wish as well to every one as to your self But you must love no man complacentially so much as your self who is not or seemeth not to have as much loveliness that is as much goodness or as much of God as your self Quest. 5. Must I love any one more than my self Quest. 5. Answ. Yes every one that is and appeareth better that your self Your sensitive Love to another cannot be as much as to your self And your beneficence ordinarily must be most to your self because God in nature and his Laws hath so appointed it And your benevolence to your self and to others must be alike But your rational estimation and Love or complacence with the honour and praise attending it must be more to every one that is better than your self For that which is best is most amiable and that which hath most of God Quest. 6. Will it not then follow that I must love another mans wife and children better than my own Quest. 6. when they are really better Answ. Yes no doubt but it is only with that rational estimative Love But there is besides a Love to Wife and Children which is in some measure sensitive which you are not obliged to give to others And rationally they are more amiable to you in their peculiar relations and respects though others are more amiable in other respects And besides though you value and rationally love another more yet the expressions must not be the same For those must follow the Relation according to Gods command You may not cohabite nor embrace nor maintain and provide for others as your own even when you rationally love them more The common good requires this order in the expressive part as well as Gods command Quest. 7. Who is my neighbour whom I must love as my self Quest. 7. Answ. Not Devils nor damned souls who are under justice and from under mercy and are none of our society But 1. Every natural man in via being a member of Gods Kingdom in the same world is to be loved as my natural self And every spiritual man as a member of the same Kingdom of Christ must be loved as my spiritual self And every spiritual man as such above my natural self as such And no natural man as such so much as my spiritual self as such so that no man on earth is excluded from your love which must be Impartial to all as to your self but proportioned to their goodness Quest. 8. Is not Antichrist and those that sin against the Holy Ghost excepted out of this our Love and Quest. 8. out of our prayers and endeavours of their good Answ. Those that with Zanchy think Mahomet to be Antichrist may so conclude because he is dead and out of our Communion Those that take the Papacy to be Antichrist as most Protestants do cannot so conclude Because as there is but one Antichrist that is one Papacy though an hundred Popes be in that seat so every one of those Popes is in via and under mercy and recoverable out of that condition And therefore is to be loved and prayed for accordingly And as for those that blaspheam the Holy Ghost it is a sin that one man cannot certainly know in another ordinarily at least and therefore cannot characterize a person unfit for our love and prayers and endeavours Quest. 9. May we not hate the enemies of God How then must we love them as our selves Quest. 9. Answ. We may and must hate sin in every one And where it is predominant as God is said to hate the sinner for his sin so must we And yet still love him as our selves For you must hate sin in your selves as much or more than in any other And if you are wicked you must hate your selves as such Yea if you are Godly you must secundum quid or in that measure as you are sinful abhor and loath and hate your selves as such And yet you must Love your selves according to the measure of all that Natural and Moral Goodness which is in you And you must desire and endeavour all the good to your selves that you can Just so must you hate and love another Love them and hate them impartially as you must do your selves Quest. 10. May I not wish hurt sometimes to another more than to my self Answ. You may wish a mediate hurt which tendeth to his good or to the good of others but you Quest. 10. must never wish any final hurt and misery to him You may wish your friend a vomit or blood-letting for his cure And you may wish him some affliction when it is needful and apt to humble him and do him good or to restrain him from doing hurt to others And on the same accounts and for the publick good you may desire penal Justice to be done upon him yea sometimes unto death But still with a desire of the saving of his soul. And such hurt you may also wish your self as is necessary to your good But you are not to wish the same penalties to your self 1. Because you have somewhat else hisâ— to wish and do even to repent and prevent it 2. Because you are not bound ordinarily to do execution upon your self It is more in your power to repent your self and make penalty less necessary by humble confession and amendment than to bring another to repentance Yet I may add also that hypothetically you may wish that destruction to the enemies of God in this life which absolutely you may not wish That is you must desire first that they may repent and secondly that they may be restrained from hurting others But if neither of these may be attained that they may be cut off Tit. 2. Directions for Loving our Neighbours as our selves Direct 1. TAke heed of selfishness and Covetousness the two great Enemies of Love of which I have Direct 1. spoken more at large before Direct 2. Fall out with no man or if you do be speedily reconciled For passions and dissentions Direct 2. are the extinguishers of love Direct 3. Love God truly and you will easily Love your Neighbour For you will see Gods Image Direct 3. on him or interest in him and feel all his precepts and mercies
to corruption as it doth the bruits but to live in joy with Christ and his Church-triumphant § 14. Direct 14. Remember both how vile your body is and how great an enemy it hath proved to Direct 14. your soul And then you will the more patiently bear its dissolution It is not your dwelling house but your tent or Prison that God is pulling down And yet even this vile body when it is corrupted shall at last be changed into the likeness of Christs glorious body by the working of his unresistible power Phil. 3. 20 21. And it is a flesh that hath so rebelled against the spirit and made your way to Heaven so difficult and put the soul to so many conflicts that we should the easilier submit it to the will of justice and let it perish for a time when we are assured that mercy will at last recover it § 15. Direct 15. Remember what a world it is that you are to leave and compare it with that Direct 15. which you are going to and compare the life which is near an end with that which you are next to enter upon Was it not Henochs reward when he had walkt with God to be taken to him from a polluted world 1. While you are here you are your selves defiled sin is in your natures and your graces are all imperfect sin is in your lives and your duties are all imperfect You cannot be free from it one day or hour And is it not a mercy to be delivered from it Is it not desirable to you to sin no more and to be perfect in holiness to know God and Love him as much and more than you can now desire You are here every day lamenting your darkness and unbelief and estrangedness from God and want of Love to him How oft have you prayed for a cure of all this And now would you not have it when God would give it you why hath God put that spark of Heavenly life into you but to fight against sin and make you weary of it And yet had you rather continue sinning than have the victory and be with Christ 2. It is a life of Grief as well as sin And a life of cares and doubts and fears When you are at the worst you are fearing worse If it were nothing but the fears of death it self it should make you the willinger to submit to it that you might be past those fears 3. You are daily afflicted with the infirmities of that flesh which you are so loth should be dissolved To satisfie its hunger and thirst to cover its nakedness to provide it a habitation and supply all its wants what care and labour doth it cost you Its infirmities sicknesses and pains do make you oft aweary of your selves so that you groan being burdened as Paul speaketh 2 Cor. 5. 3 4 6. And yet is it not desirable to be with Christ 4. You are compassed with temptations and are in continual danger through your weakness And yet would you not be past the danger Would you have more of those horrid and odious temptations 5. You are purposely turned here into a Wilderness among wild beasts you are as Lambs among Wolves and through many tribulations you must enter into Heaven You must deny your selves and take up your Cross and forsake all that you have and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution in the world you must have trouble the seed of the Serpent must bruise your heel before God bruise Satan under your feet And is such a life as this more desirable than to be with Christ Are we afraid to land after such storms and tempests Is a wicked world a malitious world a cruel world an implacable world more pleasing to us than the joy of Angels and the sight of Christ and God himself in the Majesty of his Glory Hath God on purpose made the world so bitter to us and permitted it to use us unjustly and cruelly and all to make us love it less and to drive home our hearts unto himself and yet are we so unwilling to be gone § 16. Direct 16. Settle your estates betime that worldly matters may not distract or discompose you Direct 16. And if God have endowed you with Riches dispose of a due proportion to such pious or charitable uses in which they may be most serviceable to him that gave them you Though we should give what we can in the time of life and health yet many that have but so much as will serve to their necessary maintenance may well part with that to good uses at their death which they could not spare in the time of their health especially they that have no Children or such wicked Children as are like to do hurt with all that is given them above their daily bread § 17. Direct 17. If it may be get some able faithful guide and comforter to be with you in your Direct 17. sickness to counsel you and resolve your doubts and pray with you and discourse of heavenly things when you are disabled by weakness for such exercises your selves Let not carnal persons disturb you with their vain bablings Though the difference between good company and bad be very great in the time of health yet now in sicknes it will be more discernable And though a faithful friend and spiritual Pastor be alwayes a great mercy yet now especially in your last necessity Therefore make use of them as far as your pain and weakness will permit § 18. Direct 18. Be fortified against all the Temptations of Satan by which he useth to assault men Direct 18. in their extremity Stand it out in the last conflict and the Crown is yours I shall instance in particulars Directions for resisting the Temptations of Satan in the time of sickness § 19. Tempt 1. The most ordinary Temptation against the Comfort of Believers for I have already Tempt 1. spoken of those that are against their safety is to doubt of their own sincerity and consequently of their part in Christ Saith the Tempter All that thou hast done hath been but in hypocrisie Thou wast never a true Believer nor never didst truly Repent of sin nor truly love God and therefore thou art unjustified and shalt speedily be condemned § 20. Against this Temptation a Believer hath two Remedies The first is to confute the Tempter by those Evidences which will prove that he hath been sincere such as I have often mentioned before And by refelling those reasonings by which the Tempter would prove him to have been an Hypocrite As when it is objected Thou hast repented and been humbled but slightly and by the halves Answ. Yet was it sincerely and weak grace is not no grace Obj. Thou hast been a lover of the world and a neglecter of thy soul and cold in all that thou didst for thy salvation Answ. Yet did I set more by Heaven than earth and I first sought the
Kingdom of God and his righteousness as esteeming it above all the Riches of the world Object Thou hast kept thy sins while thou wentest on in a profession of Religion Answ. I had no sin but what in the habitual ordinary temper of my soul I hated more than I loved it and had rather have been delivered from it than have kept it and none but what I unfeignedly repented of Object Thou didst not truly believe the promises of God and the life to come or else thou wouldst never have doubted as thou hast done nor sought such a Kingdom with such weak desires Answ. Though my faith was weak it overcame the world I so far believed the promise of another life as that I preferred it before this life and was resolved rather to forsake all the world than to part with my hopes of that promised blessedness And that faith is sincere how weak soever that can do this Object But thou hast done thy works to be seen of men and been troubled when men have not approved thee nor honoured thee and what was this but meer hypocrisie Answ. Though I had some hypocrisie yet was I not an hypocrite because it was not in a reigning and prevalent degree Though I too much regarded the esteem of men yet I did more regard the esteem of God Thus if a Christian discern his evidences the false reasonings of Satan are to be refuted § 21. 2. But ordinarily it is a readier way to take the second course which is At present to Believe and Repent and so confute Satan that saith you are not penitent believers But then you must truly John 1. 10 11 12. 3. 16. 19 20. Rom. 7. 21 22 23 24 25. Psal. 119 1 4 5. understand what Believing and Repenting is or else you may think that you do not Believe and Repent when you do Believing in Christ is a Believing that he is the Saviour of the world and a consent of will that he be your Saviour to justifie you by his blood and sanctifie you by his Spirit To Repent is to be so sorry that you have sinned that if it were to do again you would not do it as to gross sin and a state of sin and the smallest infirmities your will is so far set against that you desire to be delivered from them Believing to Justification is not the Believing that you are already justified and your sins forgiven you And Repenting consisteth not in such degrees of sorrow as some expect but in the change of the mind and will from a life of sensuality to a life of holiness When you know this then answer the Tempter thus If I should suffer thee to deprive me of the comfort of all my former uprightness yet shalt thou not so deprive me of the comfort of my present sincerity and of my hopes I am now too weak and distempered to try all that is past and gone Past actions are now known but by remembring them And they are seldome judged of as indeed they then were but according to the temper and apprehension of the mind when it revieweth them And I am now so changed and weakned my self that I cannot tell whether I truly remember the just temper and thoughts of my heart in all that 's past or not Nor doth it most concern me now to know what I have been but to know what I am Christ will not judge according to what I was but according to what he findeth me Never did he refuse a penitent believing soul because he repented and believed late I do now unfeignedly repent of all my sins and am heartily willing to be both pardoned and cleansed and sanctified by Christ and here I give up my self to him as my Saviour and to this Covenant I will stand And this is true Repenting and Believing Thus a poor Christian in the time of sickness may oft-times much easier clear it up to himself that he Repenteth now than that he Repented formerly And it is his surest way § 25. Tempt 2. And yet sometimes he cometh with the quite contrary Temptation and must be Tempt 2. resisted by the contrary way When he findeth a Christian so perplexed and weakned and distempered with sickness that his understanding is disabled from any composed thoughts then he asketh him Now where is thy Faith and Repentance If thou hast any or ever hadst any let it now appear In this case a Christian is to take up with the remembrance of his former sincerity and tell the Tempter I am sure that once I gave up my self unfeignedly to my Lord and those that come to him he will in no wise cast out And if now I be disabled from a composed exercise of grace he will not impute my sickness to me as my sin § 26. Tempt 3. Another ordinary Temptation is that Its now too late God will not now accept Tempt 3. repentance the day of grace is past and gone or at least a death-bed Repentance is not sincere To this the Tempted soul must reply 1. That if faith and repentance were not accepted at any time in this life then Gods promise were not true which saith that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life John 3. 16. So Luke 24. 47. Acts 5. 31. 11. 18. 20 21. 2 Tim. 2. 25. 2 Pet. 3. 9. There is a time in this life in which some resisters of the truth are given up to their own lusts to the love of sin and hatred of holiness so that they will not Repent But there was never a time in this life in which God refused to justifie a true repenting sinner upon his belief in Christ. 2. That if a death-bed Repentance do truly turn the heart from the world to God and from sin to holiness so that the penitent person if he should recover would lead a new and holy life then that Repentance hath as sure a promise of pardon and salvation as if it had been sooner And yet delay must be confessed to be dangerous to all and casteth men under very great difficulties and their loss is exceeding great though at last they repent and are forgiven § 27. Tempt 4. Sometime the Tempter saith Thou art not elected to salvation and God saveth Tempt 4. none but his Elect and so puzzleth the ignorant by setting them on doubting of their Election To this we must answer that every soul that is chosen to faith and Repentance and perseverance is certainly chosen to salvation And I know that God hath chosen me to Faith and Repentance because he hath given them me And I have reason enough to trust on him for that upholding grace which will cause me to persevere § 28. Tempt 5. But saith the Tempter Christ did not dye for thee and no one can be saved that Tempt 5. Christ did not dye for To this it must be answered That Christ dyed for all men so far as to be a sufficient