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
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
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
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
Treason against their King or reviled Magistrates and Superiours and perhaps attempted and done mischief as well as spoken it If you are superiours how unfit are you to judge or govern Is it not lawful for any to appeal from you as the Woman did from Philip drunk to Philip sober You will be apter to abuse your inferiours than well to govern them Also Drunkenness destroyeth civility justice and charity It inflameth the mind with anger and rage It teacheth the tongue to curse and rail and slander It makes you unfaithful and uncapable of keeping any secret and ready to betray your chiefest friend as being master neither of your mind or tongue or actions Drunkenness hath made men commit many thousand murders It hath caused many to murder themselves and their nearest relations many have been drowned by falling into the water or broke their neâ—ks with falling from their Horses or dyed suddenly by the suffocation of nature It draweth men to idleness and taketh them off their lawfull calling It maketh a multitude of thieves by breeding necessity and emboldening to Villany It is a principal cause of lust and filthiness and the great maintainer of whoredomes and taketh away all shame and fear and wit which should restrain men from this or any sin What sin is it that a drunken man may not commit no thanks to him that he forbeareth the greatest wickedness Cities and Kingdoms have been betrayed by Drunkenness Many a drunken Garrison hath let in the enemy There is no confidence to be put in a drunken man nor any mischief that he is secure from 12. Lastly Thou sinnest not alone but temptest others with thee to perdition It is the great crime of Ieroboam that he made Israel to sin The judgement of God determineth those men to death that not only do wickedness but have pleasure in them that do it Rom. 1. 32. And is not this thy case Art thou not Satans instrument to tempt others with thee to waste their Time and neglect their souls and abuse God and his creatures Yea some of you glory in your shame that you have drunk down your companions and carryed it away the honour of a sponge or a tub which can drink up or hold liquor as well as you And what is that man worthy of that would thus transform himself and others into such Monsters of iniquity § 55. IV. Next let us hear the drunkards excuses for even drunkenness will pretend to Reason and Obj. 1. men will not make themselves mad without an argument to justifie it 1. Saith the Tipler I take no mâ—re than doth me good you allow a man to eat as much as doth him good and why not to drink as much No man is fiâ—â—er to judge this than I For I am sure I feel it do me good Answ. What good dost thou mean man Doth it fit thee for holy thoughts or words or deeds Answ. Doth it help thee to live well or fit thee to die well Art thou sure that it tendeth to the health of thy bâ—dy Thou canst not so say without the imputation of folly or self-conceitedness when all the wise Physicions in the world do hold the contrary No it doth as Gluâ—tony doth It pleaseth thee in the drinking but it filleth thy body with crudities and flegme and prepareth for many Mortal sicknesses It maketh thy body like grounds after a flood that are covered with stinking slime or like fenny Lands that are drowned in water and bear no fruit or like grounds that have too much rain that are dissolved to dirt but are unfit for use It maketh thee like a leaking ship that must be pumpt and emptied or it will sink If thou have not Vomits or Purges to empty thee thou wilt quickly drown or suffocate thy life As Basil saith A drunkard is like a Ship in a Tempest when all the goods are cast over-boord to disburden it lest it â—ink Physicions must pump thee or disburden thee or thou wilt be drowned And all will not serve if thou hold on to fill it up again For intemperance maketh most diseases uncurable A Historian speaketh of two Physicions that differed in their Prognosticks about a Patient one forsook him as uncurable the other undertook him as certainly curable but when he came to his remedies he prescribed him so strict abstinence as he would not undergo and so they agreed in the issue when one judged him uncurable because intemperate and the other curable if he would be temperate Thou that feelest the drink do thee good dost little think how the Devil hath a design in it not only to have thy soul but to have it quickly that the mud walls of thy body being washt down may not hold it long And I must tell thee that thou hast cause to value a good Physicion for greater reasons than thy life and art more beholden to him than many others even that he may help to keep thy soul out of Hell a little longer to see if God will give thee repentance that thou mayest escape out of the snare of the Devil who taketh thee captive at his will 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. As Aelian writeth of King Antigonus that having great respect for Zeno the Philosopher he once met him when he was in drink and embracing him urged him to ask of him what he would and bound himself with many Oaths to give it him Zeno thanked him and the request he made to him was that he would go home and Vomit To tell him that he more needed to be disburdened of his drink than â—e himself did need his gifts The truth is the good that thou feelest the drink do thee is but the present pleasing of thy appetite and tickling thy fantasie by the exhilerating vapours And so the Glutton and the Whoremonger and every sensual wretch will say that he feeleth it do him good But God bless all sober men from such a good So the Gamester feeleth the sport do him good but perhaps he is quickly made a Beggar by it It is Reason and faith and not thy appetite or present feeling that must tell thee what and how much doth thee good § 36. Obj. 2. But I have heard some Physicions say that it is wholsome to be Drunk sometimes Obj. 2. Answ. None but some Sot that had first drunk away his own understanding I have known Physicions Answ. that have been Drunkards themselves and they have been apt to plead for their own vice Q. May one be Mâ—dicinally Drunk But they quickly killed themselves and all their skill could not save their lives from the effects of their own Beastiality even as the knowledge and doctrine of a wicked Preacher will not save his soul if he live contrary to his Profession And what if the Vomiting of a Drunkard did him some good with all the harm Are there not easier safer lawfuller means enough to do the same good without the harm He is a Bruit
Christ and his Disciples But walk with the most Holy and blameless and charitable that live upon that truth which others talk of and are seeking to please God by the wisdom which is first pure and then peaceable and gentle Jam. 3. 17 18 when others are contending for their several sects or seeking to please Christ by killing him or censuring him or slandering him in his servants Ioh. 16. 2 3. Matth. 25. 45. 40. Direct 8. § 8. Direct 8. Keep a just account of your Practice Examine your selves in the end of every day and week how you have spent your time and practised what you were taught and judge your selves before God according at you find it Yea you must call your selves to account every hour what you are doing and how you do it whether you are upon Gods work or not And your hearts must be watcht and followed like unfaithful servants and like loitering Scholars and driven on to every duty like a dull or tired horse § 9. Direct 9. Above all set your hearts to the deepest contemplations of the wonderful Love of God Direct 9. in Christ and the sweetness and excellency of a holy life and the certain incomprehensible glory which it tendeth to that your souls may be in Love with your dear Redeemer and all that is holy and Love and obedience may be as natural to you And then the practice of holy doctrine will be easie to you when it is your delight § 10. Direct 10. Take heed that you receive not ungrounded or unnecessary prejudices against the Direct 10. person of the Preacher For that will turn away your heart and lock it up against his doctrine And therefore abhor the spirit of uncharitableness cruelty and faction which alway bendeth to the suppressing or vilifying and disgracing all those that are not of their way and for their interest And be not so blind as not to observe that the very design of the Devil in raising up divisions among Christians is that he may use the tongues or hands of one another to vilifie them all and make them odious to one another and to disable one another from hindering his Kingdom and doing any considerable service to Christ. So that when a Minister of Christ should be winning souls either he is forbidden or he is despised and the hearers are saying O he is such or such a one according to the names of reproach which the Enemy of Christ and Love hath taught them CHAP. XX. Directions for profitable Reading the holy Scriptures § 1. SEeing the diversity of mens tempers and understandings is so exceeding great that it is impossible that any thing should be pleasing and suitable to some which shall not be disliked and quarrelled with by others and seeing in the Scriptures there are many things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3. 16. and the Word is to some the savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2. 16. You Mar. 4. 24. have therefore need to be careful in Reading it And as Christ saith Luke 8. 18. Take heed how you hear so I say Take heed how you read § 2. Direct 1. Bring not an evil heart of Unbelief Open the Bible with holy Reverence as the Book Direct 1. Read Chap. 3. Dir. 1. and against Unbelief Tom. 1. of God indited by the Holy Ghost Remember that the Doctrine of the New Testament was revealed by the Son of God who was purposely sent from Heaven to be the Light of the world and to make known to men the Will of God and the matters of their salvation Bethink you well if God should but send a Book or Letter to you by an Angel how reverently you would receive it How carefully you would peruse it and regard it above all the Books in the world And how much rather should you do so by that Book which is indited by the Holy Ghost and recordeth the doctrine of Christ himself whose authority is greater than all the Angels Read it not therefore as a common Book with a common and unreverent heart but in the dread and Love of God the Author Direct 2. § 3. Direct 2. Remember that it is the very Law of God which you must live by and be judged by at last And therefore read it with a full Resolution to obey what ever it commandeth though flesh and men and Devils contradict it Let there be no secret exceptions in your heart to baulk any of its Precepts and shift off that part of obedience which the flesh accounteth difficult or dear § 4. Direct 3. Remember that it is the Will and Testament of your Lord and the Covenant of most Direct 3. full and gracious Promises which all your Comforts and all your hopes of pardon and everlasting life are built upon Read it therefore with Love and great delight Value it a thousand fold more than you would do the letters of your dearest friend or the Deeds by which you hold your Lands or any thing else of low concernment If the Law was sweeter to David than honey and better than thousands of Gold and Silver and was his delight and meditation all the day O what should the sweet and pretious Gospel be to us Direct 4. § 5. Direct 4. Remember that it is a Doctrine of unseen things and of the greatest Mysteries and therefore come not to it with arrogance as a Iudge but with Humility as a Learner or Disciple And if any thing seem difficult or improbable to you suspect your own unfurnished understanding and not the sacred Word of God If a Learner in any Art or Science will suspect his Teacher and his Books when ever he is stalled or meeteth with that which seemeth unlikely to him his pride would keep possession for his ignorance and his folly were like to be uncurable Direct 5. § 6. Direct 5. Remember that it is an Universal Law and Doctrine written for the most ignorant as well as for the curious and therefore must be suited in plainness to the capacity of the simple and yet have matter to exercise the most subtile wits and that God would have the style to savâ—ur more of the innocent weakness of the instruments than the matter Therefore be not offended or troubled when the style dâ—th seem less polite than you might think beseemed the Holy Ghost nor at the plainness of some parts or the mysteriousness of others But adore the wisdom and tender condescension of God to his poor creatures § 7. Direct 6. Bring not a carnal mind which savoureth only fleshly things and is enslaved to those Direct 6. sins which the Scripture doth condemn For the carnal mind is enmity against God and neither is nor can be subject to his Law Rom. 8. 7 8. And the things of God are not discerned by the meer natural man for they are foolishness to him and they must be spiritually
can any man with reason think Object 5. but that the first institution of Kings a sufficient consideration wherefore their power should alwayes depend on that from which it did alwayes flow by original influence of power from the Body into the King is the cause of Kings dependency in power upon the body By dependency we mean subordination and subjection ☜ Answ. 1. But it their institution in genere was of God and that give them their power and it never Answ. flowed from the Body at all then all your superstructure falleth with your ground-work 2. And here you seem plainly to confound all Kingdoms by turning the pars imperans into the pars subdita vice versa If the King be subject how are they his subjects I will not inferr what this will lead them to do when they are taught that Kings are in subordination and subjection to them Sad experience hath shewed us what this very principle would effect § 17. Object 6. Ibid. A manifest token of which dependency may be this as there is no more certain Object 6. argument that Lands are held under any as Lords than if we see that such lands in defect of heirs So Lib 8 â— 211 p 218 p. 220. fall unto them by Escheat In like manner it doth follow rightly that seeing Dominion when there is none to inherit it returneth unto the body therefore they which before were inheritors of it did hold it in dependance on the body So that by comparing the Body with the Head as touching power it seemeth alwayes to reside in both fundamentally and radically in one in the other derivatively in one the Habit in the other the Act of Power Answ. Power no more falleth to the multitude by Escheat than the Power of the Pastor falls to the Answ. Church or the Power of the Physicion to the Hospital or the Power of the Schoolmaster to the Scholars that is not at all When all the Heirs are dead they are an ungoverned Community that have power to choose a Governour but no Power to Govern neither as you distinguish it in Habit nor in act originally nâ—r derivatively As it is with a Corporation when the Mayor is dead the power falleth not to the people Therefore there is no good ground given for your following question May a body politick than at all times withdraw in whole or in part the influence of dominion which passeth from it if inconveniences do â—row thereby Though you answer this question soberly your self its easie to see how the multitude may be tempted to answer it on your grounds especially if they think your inconvenience turn into a necessity and what use they will make of your next words It must be presumed that Supream Governours will not in such cases oppose themselves and be stiff in detaining that the use whereof is with publick detriment A strange presumption § 18. Object 7. The Axioms of our Regal Government are these Lex facit Regem The Kings Object 7. grant of any favour made contrary to Law is void Rex nihil potest nisi quod jure potest Answ. If Lex be taken improperly for the constituting contract between Prince and people and Answ. if your facit have respect only to the species and person and not the substance of the Power it self Lib. 8. p. 195. Trita in Scholis Nem nem sibi impâ—râ—e possâ— nominem sibi legem posse dicere à qua mutata voluntate nequeat recedere Summum ejus esse Imperium qui ordinario jure derogare valeat Equibus evinâ—itur jus summae potestaâ—â—s non limâ—tari per legem positivam Hinc Augustinus dixit Imperatorem non esse subjectum legibus suis Gâ—â—iuâ— de Imp. p. 149 150. then I contradict you not But if Lex be taken properly for Authoritativa constitutio debiti or the signification of the Soveraigns will to oblige the Subject then Lex non facit Regem sed Rex Legem § 19 Object 8. Lib. 8. p. 210. When all which the wisdom of all sorts can do is done for the devising Object 8. of Laws in the Church it is the general consent of all that giveth them the form and vigor of Laws without which they could be no more to us than the Councils of Physicions to the sick Well might they seem is wholesome admonitions and instructions but Laws could they never be without consent of the whole Church to be guided by them whereunto both nature and the practice of the Church of God set down in Scripture is found every way so fully consonant that God himself would not impose no not his own Laws upon his people by the hand of Moses without their free and open consent ☜ Answ. 1. Wisdom doth but prepare Laws and Governing power enacteth them and giveth them Answ. their form But the whole Body hath no such Governing power Therefore they give them not their form 2. The peoples consent to Gods Laws gave them not their form or authority This opinion I Hanc video sapien issimorum fuisse sentâ—ntiam Leâ—em nec homâ—num ingeniis excogitatam nec sâ—itum aliquod esse populorum sed aeterâ—um quiddam quod universum mundum regeret â—mperandi prohibendique sapientia Cicero de Leg. have elsewhere confuted against a more erroneous Author Their consent to Gods Laws was required indeed as naturally necessary to their obedience but not as necessary to the Being or Obligation of the Law Can you think that it had been no sin in them to have disobeyed Gods Laws unless they had first consented to them Then all the world might escape sin and damnation by denying consent to the Laws of God 3. This doctrine will teach men that * How considerable a part of England is London Yet in this Convocation which hath made the Neâ— Changes in the Liturgy and Book of Ordination London had not one Clerk of their choosing For being to choose but two they chose only Mr. Calaâ—y and my self who were neither of us accepted or ever thâ—re Now if your opinion be true Quar. 1. Whether you make not this Convocations Decrees to be but Counsels to us a. Or at least whether the City of London or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministers be not made free from detriment as not consenters You will free them and me especially from Detriment for our Not Conforming to this Convocations Acts as such upon reasons which I do not own my self as generally by you laid down we have no Church-Laws For the whole Church never signified their consent Millions of the poorer sort have no voices in choosing Parliament men or Convocations And this will teach the minor dissenting part to think themselves disobliged for want of consenting and will give every dissenting part or person a Negative voice to all Church Laws 4. A single Bishop hath a Governing power over his particular Church and they are bound to obey
and have Consciences still objecting something or other against their obedience and are so obstinate in their way as thinking it is for their salvation that all Ages and Nations have been fain to govern them by force as beasts which they have called persecution Answ. 1. There is no doctrine in the world so much for Love and Peace and Concord as the doctrine Answ. of Christ is What doth it so much urge and frequently inculcate What doth it contain but Love and peace from end to end Love is the sum and end of the Gospel and the fulfilling of the Law To Love God above all and our neighbours as our selves and to do as we would be done by is the Epitome of the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles 2. And therefore Christianity is only the occasion and not the Cause of the divisions of the earth It is mens blindness and passions and carnal interests rebelling against the Laws of God which is the make-bate of the world and filleth it with strife The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits It blesseth the peace-makers and the meek But it is the rebellious wisdom from beneath that is earthly sensual and devillish which causeth envy and strife and thereby confusion and every evil work Iam. 3. 15 16 17. Matth. 5. 6 7 8. So that the true genuine Christian is the best subject and peaceablest man on earth But seriousness is not enough to make a Christian A man may be passionately serious in an errour Understanding must lead and seriousness follow To be zealous in errour is not to be zealous in Christianity For the errour is contrary to Christian verity 3. As I said before it is a testimony of the excellency of Religion that it thus occasioneth contention Dogs and Swine do not contend for Crowns and Kingdoms nor for sumptuous houses or apparel nor do Infants trouble the world or themselves with Metaphysical or Logical or Mathematical disputes Ideots do not molest the World with Controversies nor fall thereby into Sects and parties Nor yet do wise and learned persons contend about chaff or dust or trifles But as excellent things are matter of search so are they matter of Controversie to the most excellent wits The hypocritical Christians that you speak of who make God and their salvation give place to the unjust commands of men are indeed no Christians as not taking Christ for their Soveraign Lord And it is not in any true honour of Magistracy that they are so ductile and will do any thing but it is for themselves and their carnal interest and when that interest requireth it they will betray their Governours as Infidels will do If you can reduce all the world to be Infants or Ideots or Bruits yea or Infidels they will then trouble the State with no contentions for Religion or matters of salvation But if the Governed must be bruitified what will the Governours be 4. All true Christians are agreed in the substance of their Religion There is no division among them about the necessary points of faith or duty Their agreement is far greater than their disagreement which is but about some smaller matters where differences are tolerable Therefore they may all be Governed without any such violence as you mention If the common Articles of faith and precepts of Christian duty be maintained then that is upheld which all agree in and Rulers will not find it needful to oppress every party or opinion save one among them that hold the common truths Wise and sober Christians lay not mens salvation upon every such Controversie nor do they hold or manage them unpeaceably to the wrong of Church or State nor with the violation of Charity peace or justice 5. Is there any of the Sciences which afford not matter of Controversie If the Laws of the Land did yield no matter of Controversie Lawyers and Judges would have less of that work than now they have And was there not greater diversity of Opinions and Worship among the Heathens than ever was among Christians What a multitude of sects of Philosophers and Religions had they And what a multitude of Gods had they to Worship And the number of them still increased as oft as the Senate pleased to make a God of the better sort of their Emperours when they were dead Indeed one Emperour of the Religion of some of these Objectors Heliogabalus bestir'd himself with all his power to have reduced all Religion to Unity that is he would have all the Worship brought to his God to whom he had been Priest Saith Lampridius in his life Dicebat Iudaeâ—rum Samaritanorum religiones Christianam devotionem illue transferendam c. And therefore he robbed and maimed and destroyed the other Gods id agens ne quis Romae Deus nisi Heliogabalus coleretur But Jactavit caput inter praecisos phanaticos genitalia sibi devinxit c. Lamprid. as the effect of his monstrous abominable filthiness of life was to be thrust into a privy killed and drag'd about the streets and drowned in Tybur so the effect of his desired Unity was to bring that one God or Temple into contempt whereto he would confine all Worship The differences among Christians are nothing in comparison of the differences among Heathens The truth is Religion is such an illustrious noble thing that diffentions about it like spots in the Moon are much more noted by the world than about any lower common matters Men may raise Controversies in Philosophy Physick Astronomy Chronologie and yet it maketh no such noise nor causeth much offence or hatred in the World But the Devil and corrupted nature have such an enmity against Religion that they are glad to pick any quarrel against it and blame it for the imperfections of all that learn it and should practise it As if Grammar should be accused for every errour or fault that the Boyes are guilty of in learning it Or the Law were to be accused for all the differences of Lawyers or contentions of the people or Physick were to be accused for all the differences or errours of Physicions or meat and drink were culpable because of mens excesses and diseases There is no doctrine nor practice in the World by which true Unity and Concord can be maintained but by seriousness in the true Religion And when all contention cometh for want of Religion it 's impudence to blame Religion for it which is the only cure If Rulers will protect all that agree in that which is justly to be called the Christian Religion both for doctrine and practice and about their small and tolerable differences will use no other violence but only to compell them to live in peace and to suppress the seditious and those that abuse and injure Government or one another they will find that Christianity tendeth not to divisions nor to the hindrance or disturbance of Government or
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