more of the reproach that falleth upon themselves Their case is to be pitied but the case of their inferiours more For it is their own wilful choice which hath imprisoned their understandings with-such informers and it is their unexcusable negligence which keepeth them from seeking truer information A good Landlord will be familiar with the meanest of his Tenants and will encourage them freely to open their complaints and will labour to inform himself who is in poverty and distress and how it cometh to pass that when he hath heard all he may understand whether it be his own oppression or his Tenants fault that is the cause when proud self-seeking men disdain such inferiour converse and if they have servants that do but tell them their Tenants have a good bargain and are murmuring unthrifty idle persons they believe them without any more enquiry and in negligent ignorance oppress the poor § 18. Direct 5. Mortifie your own lusts and sinful curiosity which maketh you think that you need Direct 5. so much as tempteth you to get it by oppressing others Know well how little is truly necessary And how little nature well-taught is contented with And what a priviledge it is to need but little Pride and curiosity are an insatiable gulf Their daily trouble seemeth to them a necessary accommodation Such abundance must be laid out on superfluous recreations buildings ornaments furniture equipage attendants entertainments visitations braveries and a world of need-nots called by the names of handsomness cleanliness neatness conveniences delights usefulness honours civilities comeliness c. So much doth carnal concupiscence pride and curiosity thus devour that hundreds of the poor must be oppressed to maintain it And many a man that hath many score or hundred Tenants who with all their families daily toil to get him provision for his fleshly lusts doth find at the years end that all will hardly serve the turn but this greedy devourer could find room for more when one of his poor Tenants could live and maintain all his family comfortably if he had but as much as his Landlord bestoweth upon one suit of Clothes or one proud entertainment or one Horse or on a pack of Hounds I am not perswading the highest to level their garb and expences equal with the lowest But mortifie pride curiosity and gluttony and you will find less need to oppress the poor or to feed your concupiscence with the sweat and groans of the afflicted § 19. Direct 6. Be not the sole Iudge of your own actions in a controverted case but if any complain Direct 6. of you hear the judgement of others that are wise and impartial in the case For it is easie to mis-judge where self-interest is concerned § 20. Direct 7. Love your poor brethren as your selves and delight in their welfare as if it Direct 7. were your own And then you will never oppress them willingly and if you do it ignorantly you will quickly feel it and give over upon their just complaint As you will quickly feel when you hurt your selves and need no great exhortation to forbear Tit. 2. Cases of Conscience about Oppression especially of Tenants Quest. 1. IS it lawful for a mean man who must needs make the best of it to purchase tenanted Quest. 1. Land of a liberal Landlord who setteth his Tenants a much better pennyworth than the buyer can afford Answ. Distinguish 1. Between a seller who understandeth all this and one that doth not 2. Between a Tenant that hath by custome a half-title to his easier Rent and one that hath not 3. Between a Tenant that consenteth and one that consenteth not 4. Between buying it when a liberal man might else have bought it and buying it when a worse else would have bought it 5. Between a case of scandal and of no scandal And so I answer 1. If the Landlord that selleth it expect that the buyer do use the Tenants as well as he hath done and sell it accordingly it is unrighteous to do otherwise ordinarily 2. In many Countreys it is the custome not to turn out a Tenant nor to raise his rent so that many generations have held the same Land at the same rent which though it give no legal title is yet a half-title in common estimation In such a case it will be scandalous and infamous and injurious and therefore unlawful to purchase it with a purpose to raise the rent and do accordingly 3. In case that a better Landlord would buy it who would use the Tenant better than you can do it is not ordinarily lawful for you to buy it I either express or imply ordinarily in most of my solutions because that there are some exceptions lye against almost all such answers in extraordinary cases which the greatest Volume can scarce enumerate But if 1. It be the sellers own doing to withdraw his liberality so far from his Tenants as to sell his Land on hard rates on supposition that the buyer will improve it 2. And if it be a Tenant that cannot either by custome or any other plea put in a claim in point of equity to his easie-rented Land 3. And if as bad a Landlord would buy it if you do not 4. If it be not a real scandal I say if all these four concurr 5. Or alone if the Tenant consent freely to your purchase on those terms then it is no injury But the common course is for a covetous man that hath money never to consider what a loser the Tenant is by his purchase but to buy and improve the Land at his own pleasure which is no better than Oppression Quest. 2. May not a Landlord take as much for his Land as it is worth Quest. 2. Answ. 1. Sometimes it is Land that no man can claim an equitable title to hold upon any easier rent and sometimes it is otherwise as aforesaid by custome and long possession or other reasons 2. Sometimes the Tenant is one that you are obliged to shew Mercy to and sometimes he is one that no more than commutative Justice is due to And so I answer 1. If it be an old Tenant who by custome or any other ground can claim an equitable title to his old pennyworth you may not enhaunse the Rent to the full worth 2. If it be one that you are obliged to shew Mercy as well as Justice to you may not take the full worth 3. The common case in England is that the Landlords are of the Nobility or Gentry and the Tenants are poor men who have nothing but what they get by their hard labour out of the Land which they hold And in this case some abatement of the full worth is but such a necessary Mercy as may be called Justice Note still that by the full worth I mean so much as you could set it for to a stranger who expecteth nothing but strict Justice as men buy and sell things in a Market But 1. If you
deal with a Tenant as rich or richer than your self or with one that needeth not your mercy or is no fit object of it 2. And if it be Land that no man can by custome claim equitably to hold on lower terms and so it is no injury to another nor just scandal then you may lawfully raise it to the full worth Sometimes a poor man setteth a House or Land to a rich man where the scruple hath no place Quest. 3. May a Landlord raise his Rents though he take not the full worth Quest. 3. Answ. He may do it when there is just reason for it and none against it There is just reason for it when 1. The Land was much underset before 2. Or when the Land is proportionably improved 3. Or when the plenty of money maketh a greater summ to be in effect no more than a lesser heretofore 4. Or when an increase of persons or other accident maketh Land dearer than it was But then it must be supposed 1. That no Contract 2. Nor Custome 3. Nor Service and Merit do give the Tenant any equitable right to his better penny-worth And also that Mercy prohibite not the change Quest. 4. How much must a Landlord set his Land below the full worth that he may be no oppressor Quest. 4. or unmerciful to his Tenants Answ. No one proportion can be determined of because a great alteration may be made in respect to the Tenants ability his merit to the time and place and other accidents Some Tenants are so rich as is said that you are not bound to any abatement Some are so bad that you are bound to no more than strict Justice and common humanity to them Some years like the last when a longer drowth than any man alive had known burnt up the Grass disableth a Tenant to pay his Rent Some Countreys are so scarce of money that a little abatement is more than in another place But ordinarily the common sort of Tenants in England should have so much abated of the fullest worth that they may comfortably live on it and follow their labours with cheerfulness of mind and liberty to serve God in their families and to mind the matters of their salvation and not to be necessitated to such toil and care and pinching want as shall make them liker Slaves than Free-men and make their lives uncomfortable to them and make them unfit to serve God in their families and seasonably mind eternal things Quest. 5. What if the Landlord be in debt or have some present want of money may be not then raise Quest. 5. the Rent of those Lands which were under-let before Answ. If his pride pretend want where there is none as to give extraordinary portions with his daughters to erect sumptuous buildings c. this is no good excuse for oppression But if he really fall into want then all that his Tenants hold as meer gifts from his liberality he may withdraw as being no longer able to give But that which they had by custome an equitable title to or by contract also a legal title to he may not withdraw And yet all this is his sin if he brought that poverty culpably on himself it is his sin in the cause though supposing that cause the raising of his Rent be lawfulâ— But it is not every debt in a rich man who hath other wayes of paying it which is a true necessity in this Case And if a present debt made it necessary only at that time it is better by Fine or otherwise make a present supply than thereupon to lay a perpetual burden on the Tenants when the cause is ceased Quest. 6. What if there be abundance of honest people in for greater want than my Tenants are Quest. 6. yea perhaps Preachers of the Gospel and I have no other way to relieve them unless I raise my Rents Am I not bound rather to give to the best and poorest than to others Answ. Yes if it were a case that concerned meer giving But when you must take away from one to give to another there is more to be considered in it Therefore at least in these two cases you may not raise your Tenants Rents to relieve the best or poorest whosoever 1. In case that he have some equitable title to your Land as upon the easier Rent 2. Or in case that the scandal of seeming injustice or cruelty is like to do more hurt to the interest of Religion and mens souls than your relieving the poor with the addition would do good which a prudent man by collation of probable consequents may satisfactorily discern But if it were not only to preserve the comforts but to save the lives of others in their present famine nature teacheth you to take that which is truly your own both from your Tenants and your Servants and your own mouths to relieve men in such extream distress and Nature will teach all men to judge it your duty and no scandalous oppression But when you cannot relieve the ordinary wants of the poor without such a scandalous raising of your Rents as will do more harm than your alms would do good God doth not than call you to give such Alms but you are to be supposed to be unable Quest. 7. May I raise a Tenants Rent or turn him out of his House because he is a bad man by a Quest. 7. kind of penalty Answ. A bad man hath a title to his Own as well as a good man And therefore if he have either legal or equitable title you may not Nor yet if the scandal of it is like to do more hurt than the good can countervail which you intend Otherwise you may either raise his Rent or turn him out if he be a wicked profligate incorrigible person after due admonition Yea and you ought to do it lest you be a cherisher of wickedness If the Parents under Moses Law were bound to accuse their own Son to the Judges in such a case and say This our Son is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey our voice he is a glutton and a drunkard and all the men of the City must stone him till he dye to put away evil from among them Deut. 21. 18 19 20 21. Then surely a wicked Tenant is not so far to be spared as to be cherished by bounty in his sin It is the Magistrates work to punish him by Governing Justice But it is your work as a prudent Benefactor to withhold your gifts of bounty from him And I think it is one of the great sins of this age that this is not done it being one of the notablest means imaginable to reform the Land and make it happy if Landlords would thus punish or turn out their wicked incorrigible Tenants It would do much more than the Magistrate can do The vulgar are most effectually ruled by their interest as we rule our Dogs and Horses more by the Government of their bellies than
6. Cases about losing and finding Q. 1. Must we seek out the loser to restore what we find Q. 2. May I take a reward as my due for restoring what I found Q. 3. May I wish to find any thing in my way or be glad that I find it Q. 4. May I not keep it if no owner be found Q. 5. If others be present when I find it may I not conceal or keep it to my self Q 6. Who must stand to the loss of goods trusted to another p. 130 Tit. 7. Directions to Merchants Factors Travellers Chaplains that live among Heathens Infidels or Papists p. 131 Q. 1. Is it lawful to put ones self or servants specially young unsetled Apprentices into the temptations of an Infidel or Popish Countrey meerly to get Riches as Merchants do p. 131 Q. 2. May a Merchant or Embassadour leave his Wife to live abroad p. 132 Q. 3. Is it lawful for young Gentlemen to travail into other Kingdoms as part of their education The danger of Common Traveling p. 133 Directions for all these Travellers in their abode abroad p. 135 CHAP. XX. Motives and Directions against Oppression The sorts of it The greatness of the sin of Oppression The Cure p. 137 Tit. 2. Cases about Oppression especially of Tenants p. 140 Q. 1. Is it lawful to buy land of a liberal Landlord when the buyer must needs set it dearer than the Sâ—lâ—er did Q. 2. May one take as much for his Land as it is worth Q. 3. May he raise his Rents Q. 4. How much below the full worth must a Landlord set his Land Q. 5. May not a Landlord that is in debt or hath a payment to pay raise his Rents to pay it Q. 6. If I cannot relieve the honest poor without raising the Rent of Tenants that are worthy of less charity may I do it Q. 7. May I penally raise a Tenants Rent or turn him out because he is a bad man Q. 8. May one take house or Land while another is in possession of it Q. 9. May a rich man put out his Tenants to lay the Lands to his own dâ—mesnes Q. 10. May one Tenant have divers Tenements Q. 11. May one have divers Trades Q. 12. Or keep shops in several Market Towns CHAP. XXI Cases and Directions about Prodigality and sinful waste What it is p. 143. Wayes of sinful waste Q. 1. Are all men bound to fare alike Or what is excess Q. 2. What cost on visits and entertainments is lawful Whether the greatest good is still to be preferred Q. 3. What is excess in buildings Q. 4. May we not in building dyet c. be at some charge for our Delight as well as for Necessity Q. 5. When are Recreations too costly Q. 6. When is Apparel too costly Q. 7. When is Retinue Furniture and other pomp too costly Q. 8. When is House-keeping too costly Q. 9. When are Childrens Portions too great Q. 10. How far is frugality in small matters a duty Q. 11. Must all labour in a Calling Q. 12. May one desire to increase and grow rich Q. 13. Can one be prodigal in giving to the Church Q. 14. May one give too much to the poor Q. 15. May the Rich lay out on conveniences pomp or pleasure when multitudes are in deep necessities Directions against Prodigality p. 143 c. CHAP. XXII Cases and Directions against injurious Law suits witnessing and judgement p. 148 Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Law suits and proceedings Q. 1. When is it Lawful to go to Law Q. 2. May I Sue a poor man for a Debt or Trespass Q. 3. May I Sue a Surety whose interest was not concerned in the debt Q. 4. May I Sue for the Use of Money Q. 5. May Law Suits be used to vex and humble an insolent bad man Q. 6. May a rich man use his friends and purse to bear down a poor man that hath a bad cause Q. 7. May one use such forms in Law Suits Declarations Answers c. as are false according to the proper sense of the words Q. 8. May a guilty person plead Not guilty Q. 9. Is a man bound to accuse himself and offer himself to justice Q. 10. May a witness voluntarily speak that truth which he knoweth will be ill used Q. 11. May a witness conceal part of the truth Q. 12. Must a Iudge or Iury proceed secundum allegata probata when they know the witness to be false or the Cause bad but cannot evince it T it 2. Directions against these sins p. 150. The evil of unjust Suits The evil of false witness The evil of unjust judgements The Cure p. 150 CHAP. XXIII Cases of Conscience and Directions against backbiting Slandering and Evil speaking p. 152 Tit. 1. Q. 1. May we not speak evil of that which is evil Q. 2. May not the contrary be sinful silence and befriending mens sins Q. 3. What if Religious credible persons report it Q. 4. If I may not speak it may I not believe them Q. 5. May we not speak ill of open persecutors or enemies of Godliness Q. 6. What if it be one whose reputation countenanceth his ill Cause and his defamation would disable him Q. 7. If I may not make a true Narrative of matters of fact how may we write true Histories for posterity Q. 8. What if it be one that hath been ofâ— admonished Q. 9. Or one that I cannot speak to face to face Q. 10. In what Cases may we open anothers faults Q. 11. What if I hear men praise the wicked or their sins T it 2. Directions against back-biting slandering and evil speaking p. 154 Tit. 3. The great evil of these sins p. 155 CHAP. XXIV Cases of and Directions against Censoriousness and sinful judging p. 157 Tit. 1. Cases Q. 1. Am I not bound to judge truly of every one as he is Q. 2. How far may we judge ill of one by outward appearance as face gesture c. Q. 3. How far may we censure on the report of others Q. 4. Doth not the fifth Command bind us to judge better of Parents and Princes than their lives declare them to be Q. 5. Whom must we judge sincere and holy Christians Q. 6. Is it not a sin to err and take a man for better than he is Q. 7. Whom must I take for a visible Church member Q. 8. Whom must I judge a true Worshipper of God Q. 9. Which must I take for a true Church Q. 10. Whom must we judge true Prophets and true Pastors of the Church p. 157 Tit. 2. Directions for the Cure of sinful Censoriousness p. 159 Tit. 3. The evil of the sin of Censoriousness p. 160 Tit. 4. Directions for those that are rashly censured by others p. 162 CHAP. XXV Cases and Directions about Trusts and Secrets p. 163 Tit. 3. The Cases Q. 1. How must we not put our Trust in man Q. 2. Whom to choose for a Trust Q. 3. When may I commit a
you if they do not stop you you choose a life of constant close and great temptations Whereas your grace and comfort and salvation might be much promoted by the society of such as are wise and gracious and suitable to your state To have a constant companion to open your heart to and joyn with in prayer and edifying conference and faithfully help you against your sins and yet to be patient with you in your frailties is a mercy which worldlings neither deserve nor value Direct 16. MAke careful choice of the Books which you read Let the Holy Scriptures ever have Direct 10. the preheminence and next them the solid lively heavenly Treatises which best expound and apply the Scriptures and next those the credible Histories especially of the Church and Tractates upon inferiour Sciences and Arts But take heed of the poyson of the Writings of false Teachers which would corrupt your understandings and of vain Romances Play-books and false Stories which may bewitch your fantasies and corrupt your hearts § 1. As there is a more excellent appearance of the Spirit of God in the Holy Scriptures than in any other Book whatever so it hath more power and fitness to convey the Spirit and make us spiritual by imprinting it self upon our hearts As there is more of God in it so it will acquaint us more with God and bring us nearer him and make the Reader more reverent serious and Divine Let Scripture be first and most in your hearts and hands and other Books be used as subservient to it The endeavours of the Devil and Papists to keep it from you doth shew that it is most necessary and desirable to you And when they tell you that all Hereticks plead the Scriptures they do but tell you that it is the common Rule or Law of Christians which therefore all are fain to pretend As all Lawyers and wranglers plead the Laws of the Land be their cause never so bad and yet the Laws must not be therefore concealed or cast aside And they do but tell you that in their concealment or dishonouring the Scriptures they are worse than any of those Hereticks When they tell you that the Scriptures are misunderstood and abused and perverted to maintain mens errors they might also desire that the Sun might be obscured because the purblind do mistake and Murderers and Robbers do wickedly by its light And that the earth might be subverted because it bears all evil doers and High-wayes stopt up because men travell in them to do evil And food prohibited because it nourisheth mens diseases And when they have told you truly of a Law or Rule whether made by Pope or Council which bad men cannot misunderstand or break or abuse and misapply than hearken to them and prefer that Law as that which preventeth the need of any judgement § 2. The Writings of Divines are nothing else but a preaching the Gospel to the eye as the voice preacheth it to the ear Vocal preaching hath the preheminence in moving the affections and being diversified according to the state of the Congregations which attend it This way the Milk cometh warmest from the breast But Books have the advantage in many other respects you may read an able Preacher when you have but a mean one to hear Every Congregation cannot hear the most judicious or powerful Preachers but every single person may read the Books of the most powerful and judicious Preachers may be silenced or banished when Books may be at hand Books may be kept at a smaller charge than Preachers We may choose Books which treat of that very subject which we desire to hear of but we cannot choose what subject the Preacher shall treat of Books we may have at hand every day and hour when we can have Sermons but seldom and at set times If Sermons be forgotten they are gone But a Book we may read over and over till we remember it and if we forget it may again peruse it at our pleasure or at our leisure So that good Books are a very great mercy to the world The Holy Ghost chose the way of writing to preserve his Doctrine and Laws to the Church as knowing how easie and sure a way it is of keeping it safe to all generations in comparison of meer Verbal Tradition which might have made as many Controversies about the very terms as there be memories or persons to be the preservers and reporters Books are if well chosen domestick present constant judicious pertinent yea and powerful Sermons and alwayes of very great use to your salvation but especially when Vocal preaching faileth and Preachers are ignorant ungodly or dull or when then they are persecuted and forbid to preach § 3. You have need of a judicious Teacher at hand to direct you what Books to use or to refuse For among Good Books there are some very good that are sound and lively and some are good but mean and weak and somewhat dull and some are very good in part but have mixtures of error or else of incautelous injudicious expressions fitter to puzzle than edifie the weak I am loth to name any of these later sorts of which abundance have come forth of late But to the young beginner in Religion I may be bold to recommend next to a sound Catechism Mr. Rutherfords Letters Mr. Robert Boltons Works Mr. Perkins Mr. Whateleyes Mr. Ball of Faith Dr. Prestons Dr. Sibbes Mr. Hildershams Mr. Pinkes Sermons Mr. Io. Rogers Mr. Rich. Rogers Mr. Ri. Allen's Mr. Gurnall Mr. Swinnocke Mr. Ios. Simonds And to stablish you against Popery Dr. Challoners Credo Eccles. Cathol Dr. Field of the Church Dr. Whites Way to the Church with the Defence Bishop Ushers Answer to the Jesuite and Chillingworth with Drelincourts Summary And for right Principles about Redemption c. Mr. Trumans Great Propitiation and of Natural and Moral Impotency and Mr. William Fenner of Wilful Impenitency Mr. Hotchkis of Forgiveness of Sin To pass by many other excellent ones that I may not name too many § 4. To a very judicious able Reader who is fit to censure all he reads there is no great danger in the reading the Books of any Seducers It doth but shew him how little and thin a cloak is used to cover a bad causâ— But alas young Souldiers not used to such Wars are startled at a very Sophism or at a terrible threatning of damnation to diffenters which every censorious Sect can use or at every confident triumphant boast or at every thing that hath a fair pretence of truth or godliness Injudicious persons can answer almost no deceiver which they hear and when they cannot answer them they think they must yield as if the fault were not in them but in the cause and as if Christ had no wiser followers or better defenders of his truth than they Mâ—ddle not therefore with poyson till you better know how to use it and may do it with less danger as long
thy meditations And though these thoughts be not the sweetest 8. 〈…〉 and wants yet thy own folly hath made them necessary If thou be dangerously sick or but painfully sore thou canst scarce forget it If poverty afflict thee with pinching wants thy Thoughts are taken up with cares and trouble day and night If another wrong thee thou canst easily think on it And hast thou so often wronged thy God and Saviour and so unkindly vilified his mercy and so unthankfully set light by saving Grace and so presumptuously and securely ventured on his wrath and yet dost thou find a scarcity of matter for thy meditations Hast thou all the sins of thy youth and ignorance to think on and all the sins of thy rashness and sensuality and of thy negligence and sloth and of thy worldliness and selfishness ambition and pride thy passions and thy omissions and all thy sinful thoughts and words and yet art thou scanted of matter for thy thoughts Dost thou carry about thee such a body of death so much selfishness pride worldliness and carnality so much ignorance unbelief averseness to God and backwardness to all that is spiritual and holy so much passion and readiness to sin and yet dost thou not find enough to think on Look over the sins of all thy life see them Thus Evil may be made the object and occasion of good It is good to meditate on evil to hate it and avoid it Keep acquaintanâ—â— with Conscience and read over its Books and it will furnish your thoughts with humbling matter in all their aggravations as they have been committed against knowledge or means and helps against mercies and judgements and thy own vows or promises in prosperity and under affliction it self in secret and with others in thy general and particular calling and in all thy relations in every place and time and condition that thou hast lived in thy sins against God directly and thy injuries or neglects of man sins against holy duties and sins in holy duties in prayer hearing reading Sacraments meditation conference reproofs and receiving of reproofs from others thy negligent preparations for death and judgement the strangeness of thy soul to God and Heaven Is not here work enough for thy Meditations certainly if thou think so it is because thy heart never felt the bitterness of sin nor was ever yet acquainted with true Repentance but the time is yet to come that Light must shew thee what sin is and what thou art and what thou hast done and how full thy heart is of the Serpents brood and that thy sin must find thee out Dost thou not know that thy sins are as the Sands of the Shore or as the hairs upon thy head for number and that every sin hath deadly poyson in it and malignant enmity to God and holiness and yet are they not enough to keep thy Thoughts from being idle Judge by their language whether it be so with penitents Psal. 51. 2 3. Wash me throughly from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me Psal. 40. 12. For innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more than the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me Psal. 119. 57. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies True Repentance is thus described Ezek. 36. 31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your own iniquities and for your abominations Yea Gods forgiving and forgetting your sins must not make you forget them Ezek. 16. 60 61 62 63. I will establish to thee an everlasting Covenant Then thou shalt remember thy ways and be ashamed And I will establish my Covenant with thee That thou maist remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God of Hosts § 9. Direct 9. Be not a stranger to the methods and subtleties and diligence of Satan in his Temptations Direct 9. to undo thy soul and thou wilt find matter enough to keep thy thoughts from idleness He is 9. Satans Temptations thinking how to deceive thee and destroy thee and doth it not concern thee to think how to defeat him and escape and save thy self If the hare run not as fast as the dog he is like to dye for it O that thy eyes were but opened to see the snares that are laid for thee in thy nature in thy temperature and passions in thy interests thy relations thy friends and acquaintance and ordinary company in thy businesses and possessions thy house and goods and lands and cattel and tenants and servants and all that thou tradest with or hast to do with in thine apparel and recreations in thy meat and drink and sleep and ease in prosperity and adversity in mens good thoughts or bad thoughts of thee in their praise and in their dispraise in their benefits and their wrongs their favour and in their falling out in their pleasing or displeasing thee in thy thinking and in thy speaking and in every thing that thou hast to do with Didst thou but see all these temptations and also see to what they tend and whither they would bring thee thou wouldst find matter to cure the idleness or impertinencies of thy thoughts § 10. Direct 10. The world and every creature in it which thou daily seest and which revealeth to Direct 10. thee the great Creator might be enough to keep thy Thoughts from idleness If Sun and Moon and Stars if Heaven and Earth and all therein be not enough to employ thy thoughts let thy idleness have some excuse I know thou wilt say that it is upon some of these things that thou dost employ them Yea but dost thou not first destroy and mortifie and make nonsense of that on which thou meditatest Dost thou not first separate it from God who is the life and glory and end and meaning of every creature Thou killest it and turnest out the soul and thinkest only on the Corps or on the Creature made another thing as food for thy sensual desires As the Kite thinketh on the Birds and Chickens to devour them to satisfie her greedy appetite Thus you can think of all Gods works so far as they accommodate your flesh But the World is Gods book which he set man at first to read and every Creature is a Letter or Syllable or Word or Sentence more or less declaring the name and will of God There you may behold his wonderful Almightiness his unsearchable Wisdom his unmeasurable Goodness mercy and compassions and his singular regard of the sons of men Though the ungodly proud and carnal wits do but play with and study the shape and comeliness and order
a costly sin and consumeth more than would serve to many better purposes How great a part of the riches of most Kingdoms are spent in Luxury and Excess § 28. 13. It is a sin that is a great enemy to the common good Princes and Common-wealths have reason to hate it and restrain it as the enemy of their safety Men have not money to defray the publick charges necessary to the safety of the Land because they consume it on their Guts Armies and Navies must be unpaid and Fortifications neglected and all that tendeth to the glory of a people must be opposed as against their personal interest because all is too little for the throat No great works can be done to the honour of the Nation or the publick good no Schools or Almshouses built and endowed no Colledges erected no Hospitals nor any excellent work because the Guts devour it all If it were known how much of the Treasure of the Land is thrown down the Sink by Epicures of all degrees this sin would be frowned into more disgrace § 29. 14. Gluttony and Excess is a sin greatly aggravated by the Necessities of the poor Whâ—â— an incongruity is it that one member of Christ as he would be thought should be feeding himself deliciously every day and abounding with abused superfluities whilst another is starving and pining in a Cottage or begging at the door and that some families should do worse than cast their delicates and abundance to the Dogs whilst thousands at that time are ready to famish and are fain to feed on such unwholsome food as killeth them as soon as Luxury kills the Epicure Do these men believe that they shall be judged according to their feeding of the poor Or do they take themselves Matth â—5 â— to be members of the same body with those whose sufferings they so little feel 1 Cor. 12 26. It may be you 'll say I do relieve many of the poor But are there not more yet to be relieved As long as there are any in distress it is the greater sin for you to be luxurious Deut. 15. 7. If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren in thy land thou shalt not harden thy heart nor shut thy hand against thy poor brother but thou shalt open thy hand wide unto him c. Nay how often are the poor oppressed to satisfie luxuâ—iâ—us appetites Abundance must have hard bargains and hard usage and toil like Horses and scarce be able to get bread for their families that they may bring in all to belly-god Landlords who consume the fruit of other mens labours upon their devouring flesh § 30. 15. And it is the heinouser sin because of the common calamities of the Church and Servants of Christ throughout the world One part of the Church is oppressed by the Turk and another by the Pope and many Countreys wasted by the cruelties of Armies and persecuted by proud impious enemies and is it fit then for others to be wallowing in sensuality and gluttony Amos 6. 1 3 4 5 6. Wo to them that are at ease in Zion Ye that put far away the evil day and cause the seat of violence to come near That lye upon beds of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches and eat the Lambs out of the flock and the Calves out of the midst of the stall that châ—unt to the sound of the Viol That drink Wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the chief oyntments but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph It is a time of great humiliation and are you now given up to fleshly luxury Read Isa. 22. 12 13 14. And in that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth and behold joy and gladness slaying Oxen and killing Sheep eating Flesh and drinking Wine let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye dye saith the Lord of Hosts § 31. 16. Luxury is a sin most unseemly for men in so great misery and incongruous to the state of the Gluttonous themselves O man if thou hadst but a true sight of thy sin and misery of death and judgement and of the dreadful God whom thou dost offend thou wouldst percieve that fasting and prayer and tears become one in thy condition much better than glutting thy devouring flesh What a man unpardoned unsanctified in the power of Satan ready to be damned if thus thou dye for so I must suppose of a Glutton for such a man to be taking his fleshly pleasure For a Dives to be faring sumptuously every day that must shortly want a drop of water to cool his tongue is as foolish as for a Thief to feast before he goeth to hanging yea and much more For you might yet prevent your misery and another posture doth better beseem you to that end Fasting and crying mightily to God is fitter to your state See Ionah 3. 8. Ioel 1. 14. Ioel 2. 15. § 32. 17. Gluttony is a sin so much the greater by how much the more Will and Delight you have in the committing of it The sweetest most voluntary and beloved sin is caeteris paribus the greatest And few are more pleasant and beloved than this § 33. 18. Those are the worst sins that have least Repentance But Gluttony is so far from being truly Repented of by the luxurious Epicure that he loveth it and careth and contriveth how to commit it and buyeth it with the price of much of his estate § 34. 19. It is the greater sin because it is so frequently committed Men live in it as their daily practice and delight They live for it and make it the end of other sins It is not a sin that they seldom fall inâ—â— â—ut it is almost as familiar with them as to eat and drink Being turned into Beasts they live like Beasts continually § 35. 20. Lastly It is a spreading sin and therefore is become common even the sin of Countreys of rich and poor For both sorts love their bâ—llies though both have not the like provision for them And they are so far from taking warning one of another that they are encouraged one by another and the sin is scarce noted in one of a hundred that daily liveth in it Nor is there almost any that reprove it or help one another against it unless by impoveâ—â—shing each other but most by perswasions and examples do encourage it though some much more than others So that by this time you may see that it is no rare noâ— venial little sin § 36. And now you may see also that it is no wonder if no one of the Commandments expresly forbid this sin not only because it is a sin against our selves directly but also because it is against every one almost of the Commandments And think not that either Riches or Poverty will excuse it when even
by him It is men forsaken of God that ordinarily come to this dâ—sperate Hoâ—â—â—â— 10. Part â— â—oâ— 2. pag 150 cited before in my Now or N 〈…〉 p. 125. degree of sin Insomuch that the Book of Homilies thus describing them saith The third sort he calleth scorners that is a sort of men whose hearts are so stuffed with malice that they are not contended to dwell in sin and to lead their lives in all kind of wickedness but also they do contemn and scorn in others all Godliness true Religion all honesty and virtue Of the two first sorts of men I will not say but they may take repentance and be converted unto God Of the third sort I think I may without danger of Gods judgement pronounce that never any yet were converted unto God by Repentance but continued still in their abominable wickedness heaping up to themselves damnation against the day of Gods inevitable judgement Though I take this to be too severe yet it 's the judgement of the Church of England and terrible to scorners that profess their assent to it § 49. Direct 3. Take heed of scorning at the very circumstances or modes of worship which you dislike For Direct 3. such scornes come so near to the worship it self that the minds of the hearers may easily be hence drawn to dishonour the substance for the sake of the derided mode or circumstance and it plainly savoureth of a hold prophaneness which grave and sober Christians do abhor In the case of Idolatry or where the very substance of the worship is impious and forbidden I deny not but Elias may sometime and with wariness be imitated who derided Baals Priests But to do thus upon smaller differences in the Manner or circumstances of worship is the way to teach men to turn all Religion into matter of derision and contempt If you see about the King some circumstance of cloathing ornament or attendance of his followers which you dislike or judge ridiculous if you look towards him with a scornful laughter it will not excuse you to say I laughed not at the King but at such or such a thing about him For his presence should have restrained you from that which seemeth to be a deriding of him So here I know Nicknames themselves are the great engines of the Devil and to be avoided It was well with the Church when there was no other name but Christiaâ—s put by Christs Disciples on each other though by the enemies they were scornâ—â—â—â—ly called Nazarâ—nâ—s and a Sect and heresie you will say it is not at Gods worship but at such words or gestures of the Minister that I scorn But take heed of dallying with holy things Play not so near the consuming fire Give not others occasion to deride the thing it self by your deriding the circumstances though they were unapt Have we not seen while factious Christians raise jeasts and nicknames and scornes against each other how the prophane and common enemies of Religion do take them up and turn them against all serious godliness to the trouble of others and their own damnation And we have had experience in these contentious times that it is the Sectaries and the Prophane that are apt to use these scoffs and scorns against the things and persons that they mislike and that sober peaceable judicious men of all sides do abhor it How unsavoury and prophane have all sober men thought it when they heard some young and hot-braind persons mocking at the Common-prayer by the name of Pâ—ttage and at the Surplice by the name of the Whore of Babylons Smock And from hence the same spirit led them as proudly and bitterly to deride at Ministers Universities Learning Temples Tythes and all the appurtenances of worship Yea at the Lords-Day and singing Psalms and Preaching and almost all the duties of Religion For when once men will pretend to strive for God with the spirit and weapons of Satan and the world and flesh there is no stop till they come to the bottom of impiety and do Satans work in Satans way And so on the other side while some have too reproachfully scorned such as Precisians or Puritans who differed from them about the form of Church government and Ceremonies the rabble of the prophane soon get advantage by it and turned these words to so common and bitter reproaches of the godly sober peaceable pleople of the Land that Mr. Rob. Bolton saith I am perswaded Disc. of Happiness p. 193 there was never poor persecuted Word since malice against God first seized on the damned Angels and the graces of Heaven dwelt in the heart of man that passed through the mouths of all sorts of unregenerate men with more distastefulness and gnashing of teeth than the name of Puritan doth at this day which notwithstanding as it is now commonly meant and ordinarily proceeds from the spleen and spirit of prophaneness and good-fellowship is an honourable nickname that I may so speak of Christianity and grace See more cited out of him and Bishop Downam Bishop Abbot c. in my Formal Hypocrite pag. 210. 212 c. § 50. Direct 4. Be very fearful of making the persons of the Godly contemptible though for their real Direct 4. faults lest the ungodly easily step thence to the contempt of Godliness it self For it is easie to observe how commonly the vulgar judge of the Doctrine and Religion by the Person that professeth it If a Papist or a Sectary live a holy life take heed of making a scorn of their persons notwithstanding thou takest the rise of thy derision from their mistakes For even a mistaking Saint is dearly beloved and honoured of God And where ever Holiness is it is the most great resplendent and predominant thing in him that hath it And therefore puts a greater honour on him than any mistake or infirmity can dishonour him As the person of a King must not be dishonoured by a reproachful mention of his infirmities lest it reflect upon his office So neither must the person of a holy man lest it reflect on his Pliâ—â— saith that as Pearles though they lie in the bottom of the sea are yet much nearer kin to Heaven as their splenâ—or and excellency showeth so a godly and generous soul hath more dependance on Heaven whence it comes than on earth where it abideth A good sâ—â—ing for a Heaâ—hen Religion Not that any mans person should credit or secure his faults Nor that we should judge of the faults or manners by the men instead of judging of the men by their manners But you must judge of them by that which is predominant and so blame their faults as to preserve the honour of their Virtues and Religion and of their persons for their virtues sake So blame the falls of Noah and Lot and David and Peter as may make the sin more odious but not so as may make their persons contemptible lest it make their Religion next to
Disciple to some other Pastor 1. THat Timothy was still Pauls Son in point of Learning and his Disciple and so that under Apostles the same persons might be stated in both relations at once seemeth evident in Scripture 2. But the same that is a Pastor is not at once a meer Lay-man 3. That men in the same Office may so differ in Age Experience and degrees of knowledge as that young Pastors may and often ought many years to continue not only in occasional reception of their help but also in an ordinary stated way of receiving it and so be Related to them as their ordinary Teachers by such gradual advantages is past all doubt And that all Juniors and Novices owe a certain reverence and audience and some obedience to the elder and wiser 4. But this is not to be a Disciple to him as in lower Order or Office but as of lower Gifts and Grace 5. It is lawful and very good for the Church that some Ordained persons continue long as Pupils to their Tutors in Schools or Academies e. g. to learn the holy Languages if they have them not c. But this is a relation left to voluntary Contractors 6. In the antient Churches the particular Churches had one Bishop and some Presbyters and Deacons usually of much lower parts who lived all together single or chaste in the Bishops or Church-house which was as a Colledge where he daily edified them by Doctrine and Example 7. The Controversie about different Orders by Divine Institution belongeth not to me here to meddle with But as to the Natural and Acquired Imparity of age and gifts and the unspeakable benefit to the Juniors and the Churches that it is desirable that there were such a way of their education and edification I take to be discernable to any that is impartial and judicious Ambrose was at once a Teacher and a Learner Beda Eccl. Hist. mentioneth one in England that was at once a Pastor and a Disciple And in Scotland some that became Bishops were still to be under the Government of the Abbot of their Monasteries according to their first devotion though the Abbot was but a Presbyter 8. Whether a setled private Church-member may not at once continue his very formal Relation to the Pastor of that Church and yet be of the same Order with him in another Church as their Pastor at the same time As he may in case of necessity continue his Apprentiship or civil service is a case that I will not determine But he that denyeth it must prove his opinion or affirmation of its unlawfulness by sufficient evidence from Scripure or Nature which is hard Quest. 31. Who hath the power of making Church Canons THis is sufficiently resolved before 1. The Magistrate only hath the power of making such Canons or Laws for Church matters as shall be enforced by the Sword 2. Every Pastor hath power to make Canons for his own Congregation that is to determine what hour and at what place they shall meet what Translation of Scripture or Version of Psalms shall be used in his Church what Chapter shall be read what Psalm shall be sung c. Except the Magistrate contradict him and determine it otherwise in such points as are not proper to the Ministerial Office 3. Councils or Assemblies of Pastors have the power of making such Canons for many Churches as shall be Laws to the people and Agreements to themselves 4. None have power to make Church Laws or Canons about any thing save 1. To put Gods own Laws in execution 2. To determine to that end of such Circumstances as God hath left undetermined in his Word 5. Canon-making under pretence of Order and Concord hath done a great deal of mischief to the Churches whilest Clergy men have grown up from Agreements to Tyrannical Usurpations and Impositions and from Concord about needful Accidents of Worship to frame new Worship Ordinances and to force them on all others but especially 1. By encroaching on the power of Kings and telling them that they are bound in Conscience to put all their Canons into execution by force 2. And by laying the Union of the Churches and the Communion of Christians upon things needless and doubtful yea and at last on many sinful things whereby the Churches have been most effectually divided and the Christian world set together by the Ears and Schisms yea and Wars have been raised And these maladies cannot possibly be healed till the tormenting tearing Engines be broken and cast away and the Voluminous Canons of numerous Councils which themselves also are matter of undeterminable Controversie be turned into the primitive simplicity and a few necessary things made the terms of Concord Doubtless if every Pastor were left wholly to himself for the ordering of Worship Circumstances and Accidents in his own Church without any Common Canons save the Scriptures and the Laws of the Land there would have been much less division than that is which these numerous Canons of all the Councils obtruded on the Church have made Quest. 32. Doth Baptism as such enter the Baptized into the Universal Church or into a particular Church or both And is Baptism the Particular-Church Covenant as such Answ. 1. BAptism as such doth enter us into the Universal Church and into it alone and is no particular Church-Covenant but the solemnizing of the great Christian Covenant of Grace between God and a believer and his seed For 1. There is not essentially any mention of a particular Church in it 2. A man may be baptized by a general unfixed Minister who is not the Pastor of any particular Church And he may be baptized in solitude where there is no particular Church The Eunuch Mat. 28 19 20. Act. 8. was not baptized into any particular Church 3. Baptism doth but make us Christians But a man may be a Christian who is no member of any particular Church 4. Otherwise Baptism should oblige us necessarily to a man and be a Covenant between the Baptized and the Pastor and Church into which he is baptized But it is only our Covenant with Christ. 5. We may frequently change our particular Church relation without being baptized again But we never change our relation to the Church which we are baptized into unless by Apostasie 2. Yet the same person at the same time that he is baptized may be entred into the universal Church and into a particular And ordinarily it ought to be so where it can be had 3. And the Covenant which we make in baptism with Christ doth oblige us to obey him and consequently to use his instituted means and so to hear his Ministers and hold due Communion with his Churches 4. But this doth no more enter us into a particular Church than into a particular family For we as well oblige our selves to obey him in family relations as in Church relations 5. When the baptized therefore is at once entered into the universal and particular
doth And if you intend it as an assertion obliging you in point of Veracity it doth so oblige you that you must not lye But it is no contract nor giveth any man a title to what you tacitely thought of § 24. Quest. 17. May I promise an unlawful thing simply so without an intention of performing Quest. 17. it to save my life from a thief or persecutor Answ. No Because it is a lye when the tongue agreeth not with the heart Indeed those that think a lye is no sin when it hurteth not another may justifie this if that would hold good But I have before confuted it Tom. 1. in the Chapter against Lying § 25. Quest. 18. May any thing otherwise unlawful become a duty upon a promise to do it Quest. 18. Answ. This is answered before Tom. 1. Chapter of Perjury and Vows A thing simply unlawful will be so still notwithstanding a Vow or promise And some say so of that also which is unlawful antecedently but by accident As e. g. It is not simply unlawful to cast away a cup of Wine or a piece of Silver for it is lawful upon a sufficient cause But it is unlawful to do it without any sufficient cause Now suppose I should contract with another that I will do it am I bound by such a contract Many say No because the matter is unlawful though but by accident and the contract cannot make it lawful I rather think that I am bound in such a case But yet that my obligation doth not excuse me wholly from sin It was a sin before I promised it or Vowed it to cast away a farthing causelesly And if I causelesly promised it I sinned in that promise But yet there may be cause for the performance And if I have entangled my self in a necessity of sinning whether I do it or not I must choose the lesser sin for that is then my duty Though I should have chosen neither as long as I could avoid it In a great and hurtful sin I may be obliged rather to break my Covenant than to commit it yet it is hard to say so of every accidental evil My reasons are 1. Because the Promise or Covenant is now an accident to be put into the ballance and may weigh down a lighter accident on the other side But I know that the great difficulty is to discern which is indeed the preponderating accident 2. I think if a Magistrate command me to do any thing which by a small accident is evil as to spend an hour in vain to give a penny in vain to speak a word which antecedently was vain that I must do it and that then it is not vain because it manifesteth my obedience Otherwise obedience would be greatly straightned Therefore my own Contract may make it my duty because I am able to oblige my self as well as a Magistrate is 3. Because Covenant-breaking and Perjury is really a greater sin than speaking a vain word And my error doth not make it no sin but only entangle me in a necessity of sinning which way soever I take § 26. Quest. 19. If a man make a contract to promote the sin of another for a reward as a corrupt Quest. 19. Iudge or Lawyer Officer or Clerk to promote injustice or a resetter to help a Thief or a Bawd or Whore for the price of fornication may he take the reward when the sin is committed suppose it repented of Answ. The offender that promised the reward hath parted with his title to the money Therefore you may receive it of him and ought except he will rightly dispose of it himself But withal to confess the sin and perswade him also to repent But you may not take any of that money as your own For no man can purchase true propriety by iniquity But either give it to the party injured to whom you are bound to make satisfaction or to the Magistrate or the poor according as the case particularly requireth § 27. Quest. 20. If I contract or bargain or promise to another between us two without any legal Quest. 20. form or witness doth it bind me to the performance Answ. Yes in foro conscientiae supposing the thing lawful But if the thing be unlawful in foro Dei and such as the Law of the Land only would lay hold of you about or force you to if it had been witnessed then the Law of the Law of the Land may well be avoided by the want of legal forms and witnesses § 28. Quest. 21. May I buy an Office for money in a Court of Iustice Quest. 21. Answ. Some Offices you may buy where the Law alloweth it and it tendeth not to injustice But other Offices you may not The difference the Lawyers may tell you better than I and it would be tedious to pursue instances § 29. Quest. 22. May one buy a place of Magistracy or Iudicature for money Quest. 22. Answ. No◠when your own honour or commodity is your end Because the common good is the end of Government and to a faithful Governour it is a place of great labour and suffering and requireth much self-denyal and patience Therefore they that purchase it as a place of honour gain or pleasure either know not what they undertake or have carnal ends Else they would rather purchase their liberty and avoid it But if a King or Judge or other Magistrate see that a bad man more unfit to Govern is like to be put in if he be put by it is lawful for him to purchase the peoples deliverance at a very dear rate even by a lawful War which is more than money when the Soveraigns power is in such danger But the Heart must be watcht that it pretend not the common Whether the consequent good or hurt is like to be greater must be well considered good and intend your own commodity and honour And the probable consequents must be weighed And the Laws of the Land must be consulted also For if they absolutely prohibite the buying of a place of Judicature they must be obeyed And ill effects may make it sinful § 30. Quest. 23. May one sell a Church-benefice or Rectory or Orders Answ. If the Benefice be originally of your own gift it is at first in your power to give part or all to take some deductions out of it or not But if it be already given to the Church and you have Quest. 23. but the Patronage or Choice of the Incumbent it is sacriledge to sell it for any commodity of your own But whether you may take somewhat out of a greater Benefice to give to another Church which is poorer dependeth partly on the Law of the Land and partly upon the probable consequents If the Law absolutely forbid it supposing that unlawful contracts cannot be avoided unless some lawful ones be restrained it must be obeyed for the common good And if the consequent of a lawful contract be like
few men can but get money enough to purchase all the Land in a County they think that they may do with their own as they list and set such hard bargains of it to their Tenants that they are all but as their servants yea and live a more troublesome life than servants do when they have laboured hard all the year they can scarce scrape up enough to pay their Landlords rent Their necessities are so urgent that they have not so much as leisure to pray Morning or Evening in their families or to read the Scriptures or any good Book nor scarce any room in their thoughts for any holy things Their minds are so distracted with necessities and cares that even on the Lords Day or at a time of prayer they can hardly keep their minds intent upon the sacred work which they have in hand If the freest minds have much adoe to keep their thoughts in seriousness and order in meditation or in the worshipping of God how hard must it needs be to a poor oppressed man whose body is tired with wearisome labours and his mind distracted with continual cares how to pay his rent and how to have food and rayment for his family How unfit is such a troubled discontented person to live in thankfulness to God and in his joyful praises Abundance of the Voluptuous great ones of the world do use their Tenants and servants but as their Beasts as if they had been made only to labour and toil for them and it were their chief felicity to fulfil their will and live upon their favour § 9. Direct 1. The principal means to overcome this sin is to understand the Greatness of it For Direct 1. the flesh perswadeth carnal men to judge of it according to their self ish interest and not according to the interest of others nor according to the true principles of Charity and Equity and so they justifie themselves in their oppression § 10. 1. Consider That Oppression is a sin not only contrary to Christian Charity and Self-denyal but even to Humanity it self We are all made of one earth and have souls of the same kind There is as near a kindred betwixt all mankind as a specifical identity As between one Shâ—ep one Dovâ— one Angel and another As between several drops of the same water and several sparks of the same fire which have a natural tendency to Union with each other And as it is an inhumane thing for one brother to oppress another or one member of the same body to set up a proper interest of its own and make all the rest how painfully soever to serve that private interest So is it for those men who are children of the same Creator Much more for them who account themselves members of the same Redeemer and brethren in Christ by grace and regeneration with those whom they oppress Mal. 2. 10. Have we not all one Father Hath not one God created us Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother By profaning the Covenant of our Fathers If we must not lye to one another because we are members one of another Ephes. 4. 25. And if all the members must have the same care of one another 1 Cor. 12. 25. Surely then they must not oppress one another § 11. 2. An Oppressor is an Anti-christ and an Anti-god He is contrary to God who delighteth to do good and whose bounty maintaineth all the world Who is kind to his enemies and causeth his Psal. 145. Matth. 5. Lam. 3. Sun to shine and his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust and even when he afflicteth doth it as unwillingly delighting not to grieve the Sons of men He is contrary to Jesus Christ who gave himself a ransome for his enemies and made himself a curse to redeem them from the curse and condescended in his incarnation to the nature of man and in his passion to the Cross and suffering which they deserved and being rich and Lord of all yet made himself poor that we by his poverty might be made rich He endured the Cross and despised the shame and made himself of as no reputation accounting it his honour and joy to be the Saviour of mens souls even of the poor and despised of the world And these Oppressors live as if they were made to afflict the just and to rob them of Gods mercies and to make crosses for other men to bear and to tread on their brethren as stepping stones of their own advancement The Holy Ghost is the Comforter of the just and faithful And these men live as if it were their Calling to deprive men of their comfort § 12. 3. Yea an Oppressor is not only the Agent of the Devil but his Image It is the Devil that is the destroyer and the devourer who maketh it his business to undo men and bring them into misery and distress He is the grand Oppressor of the world Yet in this he is far short of the malignity of men-devils 1. That he doth it not by force and violence but by deceit and hurteth no man till he hath procured his own consent to sin whereas our Oppressors do it by their brutish force and power 2. And the Devil destroyeth men who are not his brethren nor of the same kind But these oppressors never stick at the violating of such relations § 13. 4. Oppression is a sin that greatly serveth the Devil to the damning of mens souls as well as to the afflicting of their bodies And it is not a few but millions that are undone by it For as I shewed before it taketh up mens Minds and Time so wholly to get them a poor living in the world that they have neither mind nor time for better things They are so troubled about many things that the one thing needful is laid aside All the labours of many a worthy able Pastor are frustrated by oppressors To say nothing of the far greatest part of the world where the tyranny and oppression of Heathen Infidel and Mahometane Princes keepeth out the Gospel and the means of life nor yet of any other Persecutors If we exhort a Servant to read the Scriptures and call upon God and think of his everlasting state he telleth us that he hath no time to do it but when his weary body must have rest If we desire the Masters of families to instruct and catechise their children and servants and pray with them and read the Scriptures and other good Books to them they tell us the same that they have no time but when they should sleep and that on the Lords Day their tired bodies and careful minds are unfit to attend and ply such work So that necessity quietteth their consciences in their ignorance and neglect of heavenly things and maketh them think it the work only of Gentlemen and rich men who have leisure but are further alienated from it by prosperity than these are by their poverty And
by force They will most obey those on whom they apprehend their good or hurt to have most dependance If Landlords would regard their Tenants souls so much as to correct them thus for their wickedness they would be the greatest benefactors and reformers of the Land But alas who shall first reform the Landlords And when may it be hoped that many or most Great men will be such Quest. 8. May one take a House over anothers head as they speak or take the Land which he is a Quest. 8. Tenant to before he be turned out of possession Answ. Not out of a greedy desire to be rich nor coveting that which is anothers Nor yet while he is any way injured by it nor yet when the act is like to be so scandalous as to hurt mens souls more than it will profit your body If you come with the offer of a greater Rent than he can give or than the Landlord hath just cause to require of him to get it out of his hands by over-bidding him this is meer covetous oppression But in other cases it is lawful to take the House and Land which another Tenant hath possession of As 1. In case that he willingly leave it and consent 2. Or if he unwillingly but justly be put out and another Tenant must be provided against the time that he is to be dispossessed 3. Yea if he be unjustly put out if he that succeed him have no hand in it nor by his taking the House or Land do promote the injury nor scandalously countenance injustice For when a Tenement is void though by injury it doth not follow that no man may ever live in it more But if the title be his that is turned out then you may not take it of another because you will possess another mans habitation But if it should go for a standing rule that no man may in any case take a House over another mans head as the Countrey people would have it then every mans House and Land must be long untenanted to please the will of every contentious or unjust possessor And any one that hath no title or will play the knave may injure the true Owner at his pleasure Quest. 9. May a rich man put out his Tenants to lay their Tenements to his own Demesnes and so lay Quest. 9. House to House and Land to Land Answ. In two cases he may not 1. In case he injure the Tenant that is put out by taking that from him which he hath right to without his satisfaction and consent 2. And in case it really tend to the injury of the Common-wealth by depopulation and diminishing the strength of it Otherwise it is lawful and done in moderation by a pious man may be very convenient 1. By keeping the Land from beggery through the multitudes of poor families that overset it 2. By keeping the more Servants among whom he may keep up a better order and more pious government in his own House making it as a Church than can be expected in poor families And his Servants will for soul and body have a much better life than if they married and had families and small Tenements of their own But in a Countrey that rather wanteth people it is otherwise Quest. 10. May one man be a Tenant to divers Tenements Quest. 10. Answ. Yes if it tend not 1. To the wrong of any other 2. Nor to depopulation or to hinder the livelihood of others while one man ingrosseth more than is necessary or meet For then it is unlawful Quest. 11. May one man have many Trades or Callings Quest. 11. Answ. Not when he doth in a covetous desire to grow rich disable his poor neighbours to live by him on the same Callings seeking to engross all the gain to himself nor yet when they are Callings which are inconsistent or when he cannot manage one aright without the sinful neglect of the other But otherwise it is as lawful to have two Trades as one Quest. 12. Is it lawful for one man to keep Shops in several Market Towns Quest. 12. Answ. The same answer will serve as to the foregoing question CHAP. XXI Cases about and Directions against Prodigality and sinful Wastefulness § 1. BEcause mens carnal interest and sensuality is predominant with the greatest part of the world and therefore governeth them in their judgement about Duty and Sin it thence cometh to pass that Wastefulness and Prodigality are easily believed to be faults so far as they bring men to shame or beggery or apparently cross their own pleasure or commodity But in other cases they are seldome acknowledged to be any sins at all Yea all that are gratified by them account them virtues and there is scarce any sin which is so commonly commended Which must needs tend to the increase of it and to harden men in their impenitency in it And verily if covetousness and selfishness or poverty did not restrain it in more persons than true conscience doth it were like to go for the most laudable quality and to be judged most meritorious of present praise and future happiness Therefore in directing you against this sin I must first tell you What it is and then tell you wherein the malignity of it doth consist The first will be best done in the definition of it and enumeration of the instances and examination of each one of them § 2. Direct 1. Truly understand what necessary frugality or parsimony and sinful wastefulness Direct 1. are Necessary frugality or sparing is An act of fidelity obedience and gratitude by which we use all What necessary Frugality is our estates so faithfully for the chief Owner so obediently to our chief Ruler and so gratefully to our chief Benefactor as that we waste it not any other way As we hold our estates under God as Owner Ruler and Benefactor so must we devote them to him and use them for him in each relation And Christian parsimony cannot be defined by a meer negation of active wastefulness because idleness it self and not using it aright is real wastefulness § 3. Wastefulness or prodigality is that sin of unfaithfulness disobedience and ingratitude by which Wastefulness what it is either by action or omission we mis-spend or waste some part of our estates to the injury of God our Absolute Lord our Ruler and Benefactor that is Besides and against his interest his command and his pleasure and glory and our ultimate end These are true Definitions of the duty of frugality and the sin of wastefulness § 4. Inst. 1. One way of sinful wastefulness is In pampering the belly in excess curiosity or costliness Inst. 1. of meat or drink Of which I have spoken Chap. 8. Tom. 1. Quest. 1. Are all men bound to fare alike Or when is it wastefulness and excess Quest. 1. Answ. This question is answered in the foresaid Chapter of Gluttony Par. 4. Tit. 1. 1. Distinguish between mens
uncertain searchable and unsearchable revealed and unrevealed And lay the first as your foundation yea rather keep the knowledge of them as your Science of Physick by it self and let no obscurity in the rest cause you to question certain things nor ever be so perverse as to try things known by things unknown and to argue à minùs notis Lay no stress on small or doubtful things § 13. Direct 9. Metaphysicks as now taken is a mixture of Organical and Real Knowledge And part of it belongeth to Logick the Organical part and the rest is Theologie and Pneumatologie and the highest parts of Ontologie or Real Science § 14. Direct 10. In studying Philosophy 1. See that you neither neglect any helps of those that have gone before you under pretence of taking nothing upon trust and of studying the naked Things themselves For if every man must begin all a new as if he had been the first Philosopher knowledge will make but small proficiency 2. Nor yet stick not in the bare Belief of any Author whatsoever but study all things in their naked natures and proper evidences though by the helps that are afforded you by others For it is not science but humane belief else whoever you take it from § 15. Direct 10. So certain are the numerous errours of Philosophers so uncertain a multitude of their assertions so various their sects and so easie is it for any to pull down much which the rest have built and so hard to set up any comely structure that others in like manner may not cast down that I cannot perswade you to fall in with any one sort or sect who yet have published their sentiments to the World The Platonists made very noble attempts in their enquiries after spiritual beings But they run into many unproved fanaticisms and into divers errours and want the desirable helps of true method The wit of Aristotle was wonderful for subtility and solidity His knowledge vast His method oft accurate But many precarious yea erroneous conceptions and assertions are so placed by him as to have a troubling and corrupting influence into all the rest The Epicureans or Democratists were still and justly the contempt of all the sober sects And our late Somatists that follow them yea and Gassendus and many that call themselves Cartesians yea Cartesius himself much more Berigardus Regius and Hobbes do give so much more to meer Matter and Motion than is truly due and know or say so much too little of Spirits Active Natures Vital Powers which are the true principles of motion that they differ as much from true Philosophers as a Carkass or a Clock from a living man The Stoicks had noble Ethical principles and they and the Platonists with the Cynicks were of the best lives But their writings are most lost and little of their Physicks fully known to us and that also hath its errours Patricius is but a Platonist so taken with the nature of Light as insisting on that in Phanatical terms to leave out a great deal more that must be conjoyned Telesius doth the like by Heat and Cold Heaven and Earth and among many observable things hath much that is unsound and of ill consequence Campanella hath improved him and hath many hints of better Principles especially in his Primalities than all the rest But he phanatically runs them up into so many unproved and vain yea and mistaken superstructures as that no true Body of Physicks can be gathered out of all his works The attempt that pious Commenius hath made in his small Manual hath much that is of worth but far short of accurateness The Hermetical Philosophers have no true method of Philosophy among them And to make their three or five Principles to be so many Elements or simple bodies constituting all compounds and form up a systeme of Philosophy on their suppositions will be but to trifle and not to satisfie judicious minds especially considering how defective their Philosophy is made by their omissions Lullius and his followers fit not their Method to the true order of the Matter Scaliger Scheggius Wendeline and Sennertus especially in his Hypomnemata were great men and have many excellent things But too much of Aristotles goeth for currant with them My worthy Learned and truly pious friend Mr. Sam. Gott in his new Book on Gen. 1. hath many excellent notions and much that is scarce elsewhere to be met with But the tedious paragraphs the defect of method and several unproveable particulars make it like all humane works imperfect Therefore if I must direct you according to my judgement I must advise you 1. To suppose that Philosophers are all still in very great darkness and there is much confusion defectiveness errour and division and uncertainty among them 2. Therefore addict not your selves absolutely to any Sect of them 3. Let your first studies of them all leave room for the changing of your judgement and do not too hastily fix on any of their sentiments as sure till you have heard what others say and with ripened understandings have deeply and long studied the Things themselves 4. Choose out so much of the Certainties and Useful parts of Physicks as you can reach to and make them know their places in subserviency to your holy principles and ends and rather be well content with so much than to lose too much time in a vain fatigation of your brains for more I have made some attempt to draw out so much especially de Mundo de Homine in my Methodus The logiae though I expect it should no more satisfie others than any of theirs have satisfied me § 16. Direct 11. When you have well stated your Ontologie or Real Science then review your Logick and Organical part of Metaphysicks and see Verba rebus aptentue Fetch then your words and Organical notions from the Nature of the Things Abundance are confounded by taking up Logical Notions first which are unsuitable to true Physical beings § 17. Direct 12. Somewhat of Ethicks may be well learnt of Philosophers but it 's nothing to the Scriptures Christian Ethicks § 18. Direct 13. Somewhat of artificial Rhetorick and Oratory should be known But the Oratory which is most natural from the evidence of things well managed by a good understanding and elocution which hath least of appearing art or affectation is ever the most effectual and of best esteem § 19. Direct 14. The doctrine o◠Politicks especially of the Nature of Government and Laws in General is of great use to all that will ever understand the Nature of Gods Government and Laws that is of Religion Though there be no necessity of knowing the Government and Laws of the Land or of other Countreys and further than is necessary to our obedience or our outward concernments yet so much of Government and Laws as Nature and Scripture make common to all particular forms and Countreys must be known by him that will understand Morality or Divinity or
will ever study the Laws of the Land And it is a preposterous course and the way of Ignorance and errour for a Divine to study Gods Laws and a Lawyer mans Laws before either of them know in general what a Law or what Government is as nature notifieth it to us § 20. Direct 15. When you come to Divinity I am not for their way that would have you begin with the Fathers and thence form a body of Divinity to your selves If every young student must be put on such a task we may have many Religions quickly but shall certainly have much ignorance and errour We must not be so blind or unthankful to God as to dâ—ny that later times have brought forth abundance of Theological writings incomparably more methodical judicious full clear and excellently fiâ—ted also by application to the good of souls than any that are known to us since the writing of the Sacred Scriptures Reverence of antiquity hath its proper place and use but is not to make men fools non-proficients or contemners of Gods greater mercies My advice therefore is that you begin with a conjunction of English Catechisms and the Confessions I mention not your reading the Scripture as supposing it â—ust be your constant work of all the Churches and the Practical holy writings of our English Divines And that you never separate these asunder These Practical Books do commonly themselves contain the Principles and do press them in so warm a working manner as is likest to bring them to the heart And till they are there they are not received according to their use but kept as in the porch Get then six or seven of the most judicious Catechisms and compare them well together and compare all the Confessions of the Churches where you may be sure that they put those which they account the weightiest and surest truths And with them read daily the most spiritual heart-moving Treatises of Regeneration and our Covenant with God in Christ of Repentance faith Love obedience hope and of a Heavenly mind and life as also of Prayer and other particular duties and of Temptations and particular sins And when you have gone through the Catechisms read over three or four of the soundest systemes of Divinity And after that proceed to some larger Theses and then to the study of the clearest and exactest Methodists And think not that you well understand Divinity till 1. You know it as methodized and joynted in a due Scheme and the several parts of it in their several Schemes seeing you know not the beauty nor the true sense of things if you know them not in their proper places where they stand in their several respects to other points And 2. Till it be wrought into your very hearts and digested into a holy nature For when all is done it is only a holy and Heavenly life that will prove you wise and make you happy and give you solid peace and comfort § 21. Direct 16. When you have gone so far set your selves to read the Ancients 1. And take them in order as they lived 2. Observe most the Historical part what doctrines and practises de factâ— did then obtain 3. Some must be read wholly and some but in part 4. Councils and Church History here have a chief place § 22. Direct 17. With them read the best Commentators on the Scriptures old and new § 23. Direct 18. And then set your selves to the study of Church Controversies Though those that the Times make necessary must be sooner lookt into Look first and most into those which your own Consciences and practice require your acquaintance with And above all here read well those Writings that confute Atheists and Infidels and most solidly prove the truth of the Christian Religion And then those that defend the greatest points And think not much to bestow some time and labour in reading some of the old School Divines § 24. Direct 19. When you come to form up your Belief of certainties in Religion take in nothing as sure and necessary which the ancient Churches did not receive Many other things may be taken for truths and in perspicuity and method the late times much excell them But Christian Religion is still the same thing and therefore we must have no other Religion in the great and necessary parts than they had § 25. Direct 20. Still remember that mens various capacities do occasion a great variety of Duties some men have clear and strong Understandings by nature These should study Things as much as Books For possibly they may excell and correct their Authors Some are naturally of duller or less-judicious heads that with no study of Things can reach half so high as they may do by studying the Writings of those who are wiser than ever they are like to be These must take more on trust from their Authors and confess their weakness § 26. Direct 21. After or with all Controversies be well verst in the Writings of those Reconcilers who pretend to narrow or end the differences For usually they are such as know more than the Contenders I proceed now to give you some Names of Books Quest. 174. What Books Especially of Theologie should one choose who for want of money or time can read but few Answ. General THe truth is 1. It is not the reading of many Books which is necessary to make a man wise or good But the well reading of a few could he be sure to have the best 2. And it is not possible to read over very many on the same subjects without a great deal of loss of pretious time 3. And yet the Reading of as many as is possible tendeth much to the increase of knowledge and were the best way if greater matters were not that way unavoidably to be omitted Life therefore being short and work great and Knowledge being for Love and Practice and no man having leisure to learn all things a wise man must be sure to lay hold on that which is most useful and necessary 4. But some considerable acquaintance with many Books is now become by accident necessary to a Divine 1. Because unhappily a young Student knoweth not which are the best till he hath tryed them And when he should take another mans word he knoweth not whose word it is that he should take For among grave men accounted great Scholars it s few that are truly judicious and wise and he that is not wise himself cannot know who else are so indeed And every man will commend the Authors that are of his own opinion And if I commend to you some Authors above others what do I but commend my own judgement to you even as if I commended my own Books and perswaded you to read them when another man of a different judgement will commend to you Books of a different sort And how knoweth a raw Student which of us is in the right 2. Because no one man is so full and perfect as to say all
Christians Armenians Greeks Papists who will hear them and among Heathens in Indostan and elsewhere and Mahometans especially the Persians who allow a liberty of discourse But above all the Chaplains of the several Embassies and Factories O what an opportunity have they to sow the seeds of Christianity among the Heathen Nations and to make known Christ to the Infidel people where they come And how heavy a guilt will lye on them that shall neglect it And how will the great industry of the Jesuites rise up in judgement against them and condemn them Direct 10. The more you are deprived of the benefit of Gods publick Worship the more industrious Direct 10. must you be in Reading Scripture and good Books and in secret Prayer and Meditation and in the improvement of any one godly friend that doth accompany you to make up your loss and to be instead of publick means It will be a great comfort among Infidels or Papists or ignorant Greeks or prophane people to read sound and holy and spiritual Books and to conferr with some one godly friend and to meditate on the sweet and glorious subjects which from Earth and Heaven are set before us and to solace our selves in the praises of God and to powre out our suites before him Direct 11. And that your work may be well done be sure that you have right ends and that it be Direct 11. not to please a ranging fancy nor a proud vain mind nor a Covetous desire of being Rich or high Peregrinatio omnis obscura sordida est iis quorum industria in patria potest esse illustris Cicer. that you go abroad but that you do it purposely and principally to serve God abroad and to be able to serve him the better when you come home with your wit and experience and estates If sincerely you go for this end and not for the Love of money you may expect the greater comfort Direct 12. Stay abroad no longer than your lawful ends and work require And when you come home let it be seen that you have seen sin that you might hate it and that by the observation of the errors and evils of the world you love sound doctrine spiritual worship and holy sober and righteous Direct 12. living better than you did before and that you are the better resolved and furnished for a godly exemplary fruitful life One thing more I will warn some Parents of who send their Sons to travel to keep them from Note untimely marrying lest they have part of their estates too soon That there are other means better than this which prudence may find out If they would keep them low from fulness and idleness and bad company which a wise self-denying diligent man may do but another cannot and engage them in as much study and business conjunct as they can well perform and when they must needs marry let it be done with prudent careful choice and learn themselves to live somewhat lower that they may spare that which their Son must have this course would be better than that hazardous one in question CHAP. XX. Motives and Directions against Oppression § 1. OPpression is the injuring of inferiours who are unable to resist or to right themselves when men use Power to bear down right Yet all is not Oppression which is so called by the poor or by inferiours that suffer For they are apt to be partial in their own cause as well as others There may be injustice in the expectations of the poor as well as in the actions of the rich Some think they are oppressed if they be justly punished for their crimes And some say they are oppressed if they have not their wills and unjust desires and may not be suffered to injure their superiours And many of the poor do call all that In omni certamine qui opulentior est etiamsi accipit injuriam tamen quia plus potest facere videtur Salust in Iugurth Oppression which they suffer from any that are above them as if it were enough to prove it an injury because a Rich man doth it But yet Oppression is a very common and a heynous sin § 2. There are as many wayes of oppressing others as there are advantages to men of power against them But the principal are these following § 3. 1. The most common and heinous sort is the malignant injuries and cruelties of the ungodly against men that will not be as indifferent in the matters of God and salvation as themselves and that will not be of their opinions in Religion and be as bold with sin and as careless of their souls as they These are hated reproached slandered abused and some way or other pesecuted commonly where ever they live throughout the world But of this sort of Oppression I have spoken before § 4. 2. A second sort is the Oppression of the Subjects by their Rulers either by unrighteous Laws or cruel executions or unjust impositions or exactions laying on the people greater Taxes tributes or servitude than the common good requireth and than they are able well to bear Thus did Pharaoh oppress the Israelites till their groans brought down Gods vengeance on him But I purposely forbear to meddle with the sins of Magistrates § 5. 3. Souldiers also are too commonly guilty of the most inhumane barbarous oppressions plundering the poor Countrey-men and domineering over them and robbing them of the fruit of their hard labours and of the bread which they should maintain their families with and taking all that they can lay hold on as their own But unless it be a few that are a wonder in the world this sort of men are so barbarous and inhumane that they will neither read nor regard any counsel that I shall give them No man describeth them better than Erasmus § 6. 4. The Oppression of Servants by their Masters I have said enough to before And among us where servants are free to change for better Masters it is not the most common sort of Oppression But rather servants are usually negligent and unfaithful because they know that they are free Except in the case of Apprentices § 7. 5. It is too common a sort of Oppression for the Rich in all places to domineer too insolently over the poor and force them to follow their wills and to serve their interest be it right or wrong So that it is rare to meet with a poor man that dare displease the rich though it be in a cause where God and Conscience do require it If a rich man wrong them they dare not seek their remedy at Law because he will tire them out by the advantage of his friends and wealth and either carry it against them be his cause never so unjust or lengthen the suit till he hath undone them and forced them to submit to his oppressing will § 8. 6. Especially unmerciful Landlords are the common and sore oppressors of the Countrey-men If a