good Books where the Duties themselves are Practically and Particularly treated of But besides this seeing what Means are fitteâ—â— for the Discharge of any Duties Another part oâ— Prudence is to see in such Discharge what wayâ— are fittest for its or our own outward Encouragement or that we may Do it with most Ease Convenience and Safety to our selves This Prudence looks at in all our Ways whether the Discharge of Duty or any others that are free and left to our selves And this Prudence Christianity must moderate that our Care for our Safety neveâ— carry us against or make us careless of our Duty And upon both these viz. The ways of Securing both Religion and our selves I shall observe severaâ— Limitations which in regard to the Nature and Rules of Christianity Spiritual Prudence lays on us whilst a Latitude is given therein by Fleshly Wisdom and taken by the worldly Wise. 1. In the first place then I observe of Spiritual Wisdom that it is never for doing Evil that Good may come This Good is any Fleshly Convenience or Benefit of this World that concerns us either as Men or Christians And this whose worldly Convenience soever it serves whether our own or our Friends and Relations whether of few or many private or publick of Religion or Civil Government Church or State These things are the main Care of the Wisdom of the Flesh and the great Mark which the Prudence of this World drives at And Spiritual Prudence allows the seeking thereof so long as it is without Sin but it gives no leave to Do ill i. e. to omit any Duty or transgress any Commandment for them I speak of Commandments that require things of a Natural or Moral Obligation In mere Positives as Circumcision Shew-Bread and the Sabbatick-Râ—st God sometimes allows more Liberty in case of Necessity or Great Convenience As the Omission of Circumcision was Conniv'd at for the extream Burdensomness thereof whilst they were in a Travelling State in the Wilderness But Natural or Moral Obligations are not to give way to any outward Convenience In case of these Spiritual Prudence is not for Doing a Spiritual Ill for any Worldly Good It will rather suffer any Ill than Do it It gets by the Ill it suffers if it can suffer with Patience and Innocence But it always loses by the Ill it doth Tho it get a worldly Convenience it parts with what is incomparably better its Integrity and a good Conscience It will never yield to commit a Sin no not for the Worldly Convenience of the things of God and Religion not owning that corrupt and ungodly Maxim of breaking Religion to preserve Religion Be wise as Serpents but simple and innocent as Doves saith our Saviour Mat. 10.16 That is says an old and learned Comment to speak in a word be wise as Serpents that you may understand and shun what is ill But be simple as Doves that you may not Do any thing that is ill It may seem needless perhaps to prove this to be a Rule and Precept of true Spiritual Wisdom to Christians or indeed to any Persons of Natural Honesty and good Moral Tempers But yet we see by sad Experience when they are brought to the Pinch and cannot have the Good they seek without Doiâ—g Ill for it That not only Christians but Christians of all Persuasions are ready to think and profess 't is otherwise This is the General Effect of the VVisdom of the Flesh and in their Necessities offers it self and too oft God knows with over-much Success to all that have Fleshly Natures and is not confin'd to any Sects or Parties They that will blame it when they do not need it and cry out of it in others are ready alass most shamefully many times to justifie it in their need and practise by it themselves But when they do thus it is only at the Incitation of Fleshly Wisdom of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Craftiness that makes use of any thing which will help on a Design and which the Scripture notes and taxes in VVorldly wise Men Eph. 4.14 1 Cor. 3.19 But is what Religion and Christian Prudence which contrives more for God and Goodness than for VVorldly Convenience will never allow of This Doing a Spirituall Ill that a Worldly Good or Convenience may come thereby is not to be justified 1. First by any Pretence of Serviceableness or Ends of Piety towards God VVe must never Sin for him or Transgress his Laws to please or do him Service He has no need of our Sins for 't is only human Impotence which has no place in him that is the Parent of and puts upon all unlawful Expedients And he will never accept or be served by them For our Service is not so much to Do him Good who being all Fullness and perfectly happy in himself stands in no need of any thing from us as to shew our Obedience And if the acceptance of all our Services lies in our Obedience we cannot think he will ever count himself served by seeing his Laws broken and himself therein disobey'd When Saul spared the Fat things the best of the Sheep and Oxen of the Amalekites it was indeed a Breach of Duty God having expresly commanded him to destroy all and spare none but it was upon a Pretence of Piety They were spared as he pleads for himself only for a Sacrifice which he thought was more for God's Glory and Service 1 Sam. 15 15. But what says God to Saul's committing this ill to do good to him or sinning for his Glory and Interest Hath the Lord as great delight in Sacrifice and Burnt-offerings as in obeying the Voice of the Lord Behold to obey is better than Sacrifice i. e. than to yield to an Act of Disobedience that we may have a Sacrifice and to hearken than the Fat of Rams v. 22. When well-meaning Uzzah put forth his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it to bear it up when the Oxen shook it and it tottered in the Cart he did ill 't is true for he touch'd it with a forbidden hand God having order'd on any Carriage of the Sanctuary and of the Ark that no unhallowed hand of those that bare it should touch any holy thing lest they dye Num. 4.5 15. But this ill thing he did in an apparent danger and with a most visible appearance of Good to come to the Things of God thereby What might Uzzah think may not I especially in a seeming little thing transgress one Precept when there is an apparent necessity for it to save even the Ark of God that Glory and Strength of Israel as 't is called or to keep and Preserve a Church already tottering from tumbling to the Ground But how doth God receive this unlawful indeed but well meant Course of committing a seemingly little Sin to save the things of his own House which he himself had made of highest Dignity and Importance The Anger of the
all of Almighty God It overthrows as all the Rules so all the Design of Religion and the Grounds of good Practice It can come into the Thoughts only of worldly-wise not of truly Religious Persons who never urged a Temporal Necessity against a Spiritual Duty being not men of this World but of a better There can never be any Necessity of Sinning to him that dare suffer And he who is resolved against Suffering may think himself a worldly-wise man but God will account him no good Christian. But this now is otherwise in the Wisdom of this World Necessity it thinks a Reason not to be argued or disputed And what it calls Necessary is what is necessary to one who is resolved to keep this World not to one who can part with it What is necessary not to one that would set God and Religion above the World but that sets the World uppermost and so makes a God of it If it talk of any thing being necessary for the Interest of God and Religion it means only for the worldly things about them It looks not what is necessary to keep Innocence for other things it accounts more necessary than that but what is necessary for carnal worldly Convenience It is more for things necessary to present Safety than for those which are necessary to good Hopes of Eternity And to make men safe here by affording visible Humane Securities not by ingaging the Protection of God and the Guard of an unseen Providence 2. Secondly Spiritual Prudence will never allow us to justifie any Breach of Duty by the Plea of Providence This is the way of worldly-wise men who are ready to catch at any thing as a good Argument of a way 's being approved by God and pleasing to him if it profits them If God give Success when they use unlawful ways and Expedients especially if in bringing that success about there are any surprising or remarkable Circumstances they cry up the Hand of God and think his prospering it so signally is his approbation God himself here say they is willing to become a Party and such Success is his Testimony But Spiritual Wisdom teaches us to take the Morality of Actions and the goodness or illness of things from Laws not from Providence It is the Laws of God in Nature or Scripture that must teach us our Duty and tell us what will please God or what will offend him Sin is the Transgression of a Law as St. John says and Obedience is the keeping of them And these Laws are publish'd in the Nature of things and the Word of God which are a plain and sure Promulgation of them But as for Providence its Design is not to be a Publisher of Precepts God's Providence is not an Act of his Legislation but of Judicature and Execution It s part is not first to shew and promulge Laws but supposing those promulged before to supervise the Carriage of those they were promulged to and execute their Sanctions Or to recompense Actions by suitable Events according as they have either transgressed or kept them The Judgments of God according to his Will before promulged we may read in the Events and Issues of Providence But what his Will is the Observance or Breach whereof Providence thus rewards or punishes we must read in the Moral Nature of Things and the Holy Scriptures 'T is a bad Use therefore of Providence to make it take off our Eyes from the Morality of Things and the plain Voice of Laws and look for what is pleasing to God and according to his Will only in the Events of Actions Which is like leaving the clear Light of the Sun to go to read by that of a Glow-worm 'T is to go read our Duty where it was not intended to be writ and Neglect or over-look the perusal of that where it is writ And 't is worse when we see both to make Providence carry against plain Laws and the Moral Nature of Things which is to turn the Signification of Providence not only against the Laws but against it self For the use of Providence is to be a Government according to those Laws and the Morality of Things It is to be a Maintainer of them by just Retribution and so is only to back and strengthen but never to oppose them And therefore Providence must never be urged in Favour of an ill and unlawful thing For since its right use is to be a Retribution of Laws and to reward Dutifulness all its right Signification and all our right Remarks thereupon must be only for Encouragement to keep our Duty but not to transgress it It must never be pressed against Laws but always for them and must only draw us to trust and depend upon God in a good thing but never in an ill one which Nature or the Holy Scriptures have forbidden Indeed as Providence is the Administration of God's Judicature here on Earth and he permits or disposes of Events of things or Actions in way of Government and Justice there is a Signification of his Liking or Disliking in these Disposals But 't is hard and unsure to fix this on Persons and Actions to say from these Issues of Providence alone who or what he is Pleased or Displeased withal For in the same Issues and Events Providence is Concerned with a Number of Persons of the most contrary Qualifications they are fatal to one and favourable to another But yet since therein he has an Eye at both from the Event alone we cannot say which God likes and which he dislikes whether the Success is to Reward the Actors Righteousness or to punish the Sufferers Wickedness Nay oft-times in the Justice of Providence God makes some Sinners the Executioners of others and punishes one by anothers Offences making them Grind each other to Pieces So that here on which side soever the Shew of Favor or Success falls it doth not Signifie that God is pleased with either He will speed one to punish another when he is offended with both The Assyrians Success was only as the Rod of God's Anger to scourge the wicked Nations Which once done he and his Ways being no more pleasing to God than the others were he was to be broken himself and fall under like Judgments Is. 10.5 12 16 c. The wicked who in their Course of Wickedness are far from being pleasing to him yet says the Psalmist are a Sword of thine and so long find Success therein Psal. 17.13 Yea as the Thriving of some is not always to shew Favor so the Sufferings of others in Events of Providence is not always to shew Displeasure For many times their Sufferings are not Designed to punish the Sufferers but only to try their Patience and refine and manifest their Virtues and rowze a sluggish World with the Sight of brave Examples Such was the meaning of David's Sufferings and Persecutions under Saul Such was the Signification of Providence in the Sufferings of Job of the holy Prophets of
we live in a time when to the greatest Numbers Popery that is indeed a very Corrupt Religion seems more formidable than any other thing And to call a way Popish sounds worse in the ears of the Populace than to say it is Unchristian And therefore to conclude this Subject I shall note in the last place how all the foresaid Methods of the Worldly Wise which I have taxed before are no better than Popish Corruptions There are Popish Morals as well as Popish Superstitions and Idolatries The Depravations of Good Practice and of Moral Honesty and Justice by a Number of their Casuists have been as scandalous and will prove as fatal to those Souls who are deluded by them as their Depravations in Matters of Faith and Devotion And the forecited Rules of the Worldly Wise are among those very ways whereby too many Papists have Corrupted Christian Morals Nay they are the Morals of Jesuits who are the worst of Papists and whose scandalous accommodations of Christ's Rules and Precepts to comply with Fleshly Passions and Interests suiting Religion to Self-Ends and basely bending Moral Duties to serve Corrupt Turns and Worldly Necessities are Condemned in these and such other Points by the sober Papists themselves And this I the rather note because I see so many Reverend and Worthy Persons who seem the strictest and truest Examples of Moral Integrity among us and stand out against all these Unlawful Compliances and Insincerities of the Fleshly Wise appearing as the Patterns and Confessors for Honesty and Morality in a Day of General Temptation and Defection are yet among other Marks of common hatred and scorn branded with the Name of Papists notwithstanding all the opposition they made to Popery and some of them most Eminently when the Day of Tryal was for these their brave and truly Christian oppositions of Popish Morals Yea and that by those who content with a Zeal against Popish Errors in Faith and Superstitious Devotions in the midst of all their heat against them are running into the worst parts of their Morality sucking in the rankest Poyson of Jesuitish Honesty unawares For as to the Points before mentioned such as these are the Jesuits Principles all Taught by some or other for God forbid I should Charge all therewith in that Order They are for Doing Evil that Good may come This is the meaning of that Grand Salvo so much magnified and made use of among them viz. The Right Direction of the Intention which affords them such wonderful help in an unlawful Thing Thus they clear men of the worst Crimes as Simony False Witness Thefts Duels and Murther it self Plead but Necessity and say there is need of it for Religion or the Church or their Society for the Publick or a Man 's own Private Good to preserve his Life Estate or Reputation and then the Breach of the Precept they make to be without Guilt if therein a Man â—oth but Direct his Intention aright permitting the Evil of the Action if the Actor doth but take care to purifie his Intention They are Notorious for Giving a Discharge of Relative Duties particularly towards Princes when those Duties grow Burthensom or Vnsafe under Impious or Oppressive Rulers For of all others they are the men that are foremost leading others and fullest in Asserting the Deposition and Dethroning of Kings the Absolution and Discharge of Subjects from the Obligation of their Natural Allegiance and the Lawfulness of Rising in Arms against Heretical or Tyrannical Princes There is scarce any one thing wherewith for so many years last past not only this Order of 〈◊〉 but the Church of Rome have been more â—earnedly Charged and more Shamefully Silent'd Yea 't is the Test of Popery by our Laws the Legal Conviction of Papists being by the Tender of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which were made to Secure and Defend our Princes against the Poison of these Tenets They are infamous for all Arts of Insincerity and Fallaciousness Having been the Pest of Humane Society by their Doctrines of Equivocation or using of Doubtful Words and Ambiguous Speeches which the Parties concern'd shall take otherwise than they mean them And of Mental Reservation Reserving in their own Minds some hidden and unexpressed Clauses in their Declarations or secret and unexpected Conditions in their Promises So to make their Speech a Truth to themselves though it be a Lye to others Of getting and compassing their Ends by Deceitful Suggestions or setting out so much Truth as to serve the turn and craftily hiding what would hinder it And instead of that Plainness and Simplicity which is prescribed by Religion studiously assuming all counterfeit Shapes and inventing and propagating all those Fallacious ways or Liberties of Dissembling which the Father of Lyes can suggest to their hearts whereby to overthrow the Faith of Men. Whilst they Reserve their Minds or inward Service for God they are for Giving the External Service or outward Appearance to any Wickedness expected from them Thus as the Author of the Provincial Letters observe◠〈◊〉 they allow'd the Chinese to worship a Chines◠〈◊〉 if they were careful to hide under their Cloaths an Image of Jesus Christ to which by a Mental Reserve they were to pay those Publick Adorations which in visible Appearance the Idol Receiv'd They are for Tempering their Duty to Circumstances of outward Convenience Doing so much as they safely may without Worldly Loss or Disadvantage Contenting themselves as they did in the Indies to Preach up a Glorified Jesus to those that would not hear of a Crucified Jesus And abating the Duties of Religion till they have brought them Down to the Pitch and Proportion the Wants and Worldly Necessities of those that consult them They are for Changing Doctrines as they Change Turns and Interests Not only in Different Turns of their own or their Societies Affairs but of their Disciples Having one Resolution for one man and at one time and a contrary at another By this looseness taking in all comers and fitting and reconciling all Times and Persons to their own Ends. They are for Holding and Maintaining what is once ill got And make Unjust Possession a Just Title to it And order Easie Amends and Restitutions for Wrongful and Evil-Deeds no more than can consist with the Offenders own Credit and Convenience They have invented Salvo's whereby men may keep innocent and yet Act in an Vnlawful Business and Minister and help other Men to Sin without Sinning themselves They vacate at their Pleasure and put by the Laws of Morality as they lye in their way rendring them insignificant and of little or no Force or Obligation Either by Interpretation of Terms or so expounding the Terms used in Prohibiting any Sins as shall exempt all or almost all their own Transgressions from coming under them Or by allowing the Thing not under the Name whereby it stands forbidden but the very same thing in another Form like to what they Resolved in the
each of these Duties so must he hereafter to answer and be tryed by them Now Christian Prudence is to prevent this by storing up clear Notions of every Duty and of the Offices thereof against such time as we shall have a call and opportunity to discharge them The Wisdom of the prudent says Solomon is to understand his way i. e. to know what he ought to do on all occasions Prov. 14.8 And this the Scripture expresses by having our Senses exercised to discern both good and evil Heb. 5.14 and calls for as a necessary Preparative to our walking accurately or exactly The walking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumspectly or accurately which S. Paul requires Eph. 5.15 he tells them is to walk as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as fools but as wise or prudent Wherefore adds he be ye not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imprudent or unwise but understanding what the Will of the Lord is Since if they did not understand it they were not like to be very exact in keeping it v. 17. Now opposite in this matter to both these is the way of fleshly or worldly Wisdom For 1. Instead of proposing in every Point above all things to do our Duty It aims and Proposes in the first place to secure our external Quiet to serve our worldly Peace Prosperity or Temporal Interests It seeks not in all things what is virtuous but what is safe And being for worldly Safety it never seeks to do what 't is like to suffer by It s Eye is first for keeping or encreasing these worldly Emoluments and enjoyments for our selves our Friends or Families for the Church or State It may fix upon Religion as well as the things of this Life and carry us out for the Church as well as for the Common-Wealth But then what it aims at or seeks in rhe first place to secure in these is not the inward Excellence but the outward Appendages not their integral Parts and Spiritual Substance but their worldly Accoutrements and Advantages If Religion is taken in among the Good things of this World and stands guarded and enriched by secular Laws and Privileges Riches and Honors Worldly Wisdom will be carried out as far to secure these worldly Appendages when they are about Religion as when they are about any thing else But as for the proper and essential Parts of Religion it self which lies in doing our Duty in every thing or in the integrity of Faith and good Life the Wisdom of this World sets them only in the second place It may shew fair respect and carry Decently towards them even where it will give it self no trouble about them As we see several that have no serious value for Religion will yet be Civil to it in point of good Breeding and as sensible of the need there is however 't is neglected by them that it should be kept up in the esteem yea and practice too of other Men. Nay worldly Wisdom when it rightly understands it self will aim at it in most Cases as serving its own wise Purposes beyond any thing else True Virtue being for the most part best fitted and conducing to the Happiness and Enjoyment of both Worlds But where it thus bâ—ars the best good Will to the inward and essential Ingredients of Religion it is only whilst they are subservient or consistent with its own worldly Designs being ready to thrâ—w them aside when once they oppose it On such Competitions The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be Rom. 8.7 It considers then not their intrinsick Goodness and Excellence but their Expedience and will give them up for what it accounts higher Ends or dearer Interests On such occasions its Questions are not What will become of this Duty or another of Innocence and a clear Conscience but what will become of our Estates our Liberties our outward Peace Powers Honors Privileges or other Enjoyments of this Life by such or such a Course when 't is deliberated on 2. Instead of seeing in every Case what is our Duty worldly Wisdom is for continuing ignorant of and not seeing a Losing Duty It cares not for the Knowledge of troublesom or afflicted Truths It is ready to look upon and let in such as consist with worldly Ease and Interests But afraid to understand because 't is loth to practice others Conviction of a Duty serving only to encrease the Guilt and disturb the Quiet of those who will not practise it Hence comes that sleightful Saying of fleshly Wisdom in these Cases of Leaving every Man to his own Persuasion and not censuring any much if he act therein according to his own Conscience They represent such Cases as if it mattered not much which Side a Man takes and there were no important difference in the things themselves but only in the different Opinions and Belief of Men about them So that let a Man but have a Persuasion of that Side which is most easie and favourable to worldly Interest as Men are ready enough to have in trying Cases if that will Do and nothing else will greatly harm him in these matters Hence comes also that backwardness of Conversing and Discoursing with those of the other Opinion who are both ready to practise and able to plead for a Duty when 't is oppressed and has the Cross upon it 'T is a Rule of fleshly Wisdom at such times to look on such as dangerous Persons whose Company is not safe Their Discourses such Men imagine can only serve to make them more uneasie in the way they have a mind to go They will start Scruples to dissatisfie and unsettle a Mind that had no such Doubts before but had easily satisfied and settled it self upon the saving side Or if they come in the way of such Discourses especially when fit to do Right to Truth by setting it off to advantage they receive them against their Wills and meet them not with a religious Desire but worldly Fear They are not thankful for the offer of a saving Truth but sorry for and troubled at it and ready to say to the Messengers thereof as Ahab did to the Prophet who still called upon them to hear what they had no Will to understand that he was his Enemy and the Troubler of Israel 1 Kings 18.17 and Ch. 21.20 When they seâ— worldly Safeties above religious Innocence they fear and hate the Light as our Saviour says which reproves the secure ways they desire to take Minding not to follow it they use care not to be hamper'd and troubled with it and as the Scripture speaks will not have the knowledg of his ways Job 21.14 Hence lastly when they allow themselves to enquire and examin the Truth comes that Hastiness and Partiality in taking any thing for sufficient proof that makes for the safe side Any serviceable but ill grounded Presumptions about Words or Things shall hastily be taken up and pass for
alone but when they have Company enough to back and stand by them They are for Truth and Goodness when they have the strongest Parties and the Cry of a Crowd to approve and justifie them in that Cause But not when the Cry goes against them and they see no Numbers to joyn with So that 't is not Spiritual Truth and Goodness but Worldly Strength and Number which is highest in their Opinion and takes most with them We may likewise observe from the same influence and interposition of Fleshly Wisdom even among well-disposed Men the great Difference between Suffering Duties when cryed up and the saâ—â— when decryed by the Multitude Men find it much easier to suffer for a good thing when the Shout of the People is for them but very hard when it runs all against them Nay there is a Terror in the Clamor of Rabbles which frights many thaâ— dare even stand the face of Regular Justice Fleshly Wisdom looks out still for some visible Support and a fleshly Arm which when it cannot have from Authority and the Higher Powers it would fain have from the Number of Partakers Where it has inclination it needs moreover to bâ— heartened and commended in a good thing It is not mortifyed enough to the Countenance and Cry of Men Looking too much without it self to their Applauses and too little within to the Commendations of God and a Good Conscience Whereas by all the Rules of God and true Wisdom if a way is bad no Authority of Numbers or Press of the Multitude must bear us along with it Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil saith the Law Exod. 23.2 If sinners entice thee whether more or fewer whether a Sinful Man or a Sinful Nation consent thou not saith Wisdom Prov. 1.10 When ill Men list themselves in Numbers and Combine in Errors or ill things they are ungodly Conspiracies and all that Love God or themselves must take care not to be drawn in or go along with them Say not ye a Confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a Confederacy neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear Is. 8.12 13. Thus must not we run in with their wrong Opinion or fear what affrights them but instead thereof what will offend him When the World is bent upon ill things as it ordinarily is Good Christians must not think it will excuse them to say they were born away in the same with the Torrent But they must remember that in their Baptism they renounced the World that Christ tho he found his Followers in the World yet has called or chosen them out of or from among the World John 15.19 and that they must not be conformed to this World but transformed into a quite different Stamp by the Renewal of their Mind Rom. 12.2 And on the contrary if a way or thing is truly Virtuous and Good no smallness of Numbers on its side or scarcity of Adherents can warrant us to forsake it Our owning it at such times instead of being excused is more highly requisite and most of all needed For then under all the Attaques of its Enemies it is to be supported by its Followers and can worst Dispense with their Service It is then in want of Adherents and so can least of all spare us It is then like to be left Destitute and without help in its greatest need which instead of Releasing any must incite every one who would approve himself its true Friend a Friend being born for Adversity instead of flinching from to appear for it and put to his helping hand And accordingly the best Persons have not Cowardly slunk away but Couragiously stuck to God and their Duty when they had the least Company and were left to own and stand to it by themselves When Jesus Christ that absolute Patron and Advocate for Virtue appeared in the World He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sign spoken against Luc. 2.34 When the Apostles after him came to embarque in its Cause and Interest they were a Sect every where decryed Acts 28.2 the whole World in a manner stood at gaze and they were made a gazing-stock to the World by Reproacheâ— and Afflictions Heb. 10.33 being made a Spectacle or Theatrical Show to the World to Angels and to men 1 Cor. 4.9 Confessing the Truth bravely and undauntedly as did all the Primitive Saints under all the Discouraging Crys and Persecutions of Popular Tumults and Uproars as well as of Courts and Judicatures Noah was a Pattern and Preacher of Righteousness to the old World when the whole Earth had corrupted themselves with one Voice Decrying his Virtue and Deriding his Preaching and Provision of the Ark and were full ripe for Ruin by the Flood Gen. 7.1 2 Pet. 2.5 Elias was true to God and Religion and jealous for them when he had none visibly to side with him and take his part all the Prophets as he complains to God being slain with the Sword and I even I only am left and they seek my Life to take it away 1 Kings 19.10 Jeremy asserted the Truth and way of God when he alone was to be a Defenced City and a Brazen Wall against the whole Land Jerem. 1.18 when he was a Derision to all his People and their Song all the day Lam. 3.14 In the great Article of the Divinity of our Lord S. Athanasius was almost left by himself and there was as it was said Athanasius contra Mundum or Athanasius on one side and the whole World on the other And to those who then objected the Paucity of its Numbers and measured the Authority of a Doctrine by the multitude of Applauders he suggests that Christ chose twelve Apostles and armed these twelve who were all simple illiterate and poor Men with Truth against the whole World who tho so many more in Number were yet all in the wrong And these twelve were not to follow ten Thousand But the ten Thousand were to Compose themselves to the Way and Belief of these Twelve Who as he goes on when St. Stephen stood alone Derided by all and Stoned to Death would not rather have been on the Side of this single oppressed Man than of the Numerous and Persecuting Vulgar Or on Phineas 's who went out alone for God among the Jews Or on Noah 's to have been saved with those few Souls in the Ark when the universal World were destroyed by a Deluge 'T is Good 't is Good for a just Man tho he be but one and stands alone to shew a Confessorian Liberty and Profess the Truth boldly and freely and this way to break the Power of Error and Wickedness tho standing on the united Votes and concurrent agreement and approbation of the Multitude And as for the Weight of Numbers a Multitude without Demonstration Proceeding only by Will is fit to imprint Fear not to persuade Belief Tho some Multitudes I
our Blessed Lord and his Apostles and of all the Noble and Heroick Spirits the Martyrs and Confessors of all Ages whose Sufferings came not from Providence in a penal Way but as a Privilege Nay sometimes as in an useful especially in a publick Person they suffer so much not altogether to prove or punish themselves as to perplex others and punish the People thereby For the Sins and Transgressions of a People many are the Changes of Princes says Solomon Prov. 28.2 As on the contrary others Success is oft-times only to complete the time of their Respit before they are Dragged to Punishment or to allow them their full Measure of good things which as our Saviour intimates are more liberally proportioned out to them in this Life because they are to have none in the next till they have filled up the Measuâ—e of their Sins and so are Ripe for the Judgment of Providence So that as it is no Signification of God's Dislike that one Suffers by Providence for what Son or beloved is it the Father chasteneth not saith the Apostle Heb. 12.7 So neither is it of his liking and Favor that another succeeds by it there being as to this one Event as the Wise Man says both to the Righteous and the wicked Eccles. 9.2 I add lastly that what Favor or Disfavor the Event of Providence in way of Human Appearance carries with it is not to be soon Determined till the whole Train is seen the upshot whereof may and often doth lie very Remote and till it appears which Party is most Prosperous and Successful in the End The greatest present Unsuccessfulness is most Ordinarily made use of by Providence as a Step to much more valuable future Successes It s Method is to bring Light out of Darkness and to compass Final Successes by intermediate Disappointments And who then can say assuredly that Providence is for one or against another till they have run out the whole Length of the Chain of Effects and the End appears And this oft lies very far off much further it may be than we are like to live to see what it will prove And till this is seen all judging of the Favor or Disfavor of Providence from what Events went before is most uncertain not Right Judgment but Self-Flattery and Delusion whereof each Party serves and wherewithal it pleases it self according as its turn comes in the Ebbs and Flows and various Vicissitudes of the intermediate Successes Thus upon all these Accounts to name no more tho there is a Real Liking or Disliking in the Events of Providence which is known to and Design'd by God himself Yet is the Application of this to things or Persons so much all Uncertainties and the Favor or Disfavor of Issues so promiscuous as appears to us that from the Events of Providence alone we cannot learn whom he loves or whom he hates what is Pleasing or Displeasing to him No man as Solomon says in this case can know either Love or Hatred Good or Evil by all that is before him Eccl. 9.1 To learn this from Providence besides the visible Events we must weigh the Merit of Actions from Laws and stay the Final End of Successes which are the Recompence of them And when those are seen but not before from the Qualities of Persons and Attempts we must read whether any Success were for a just Encouragement of the Actors Righteousness or Punishment of the Sufferers Wickedness whether it is for Proof and Trial or for Recompence Always making the Voice of Providence to assert and establish the Moral Nature of things and the Laws and Duties Revealed in Scripture but never in any wise to Deny or Gainsay them And therefore the Signification of Providence is not to teach those that are ignorant of their Duty or of Good and Ill but only those that already understand it It is no Expositor of the Will of God to those who know it not but only an encourager of its Observance to those who know what it is Hence Men ought never to Cry up the hand of God or Call in Providence to Prove the Goodness of any Actions but only to press those which were Proved before It is not to instruct Men what is their Duty but to carry them on to the observance of those Duties wherein they are otherwise already instructed Hence also we must not think it enough in any Attempts to say we follow Providence and go as God makes way for us We are to follow Laws not Opportunities For Providence affords us Opportunities to break Laws as well as to keep them Power and Opportunity are among the necessary Causes of all that is Done And Providence puts things in Mens Power and Gives them Opportunity to Do them But Opportunities for ill things are not Warranties but only Trials and Temptations All ill Men follow Providence when they accomplish ill things which they could not Do without Providence Gave Opportunities and when Good Men whom they are pursuing for ill Ends falâ— into their Hands If any therefore are ignorant what their Duty is and trust to learn it from the Issues of Providenceâ— taking any Way for the Will and Command oâ— God when they see the hand of God or some remarkable Success attending it this will lead them into infinite Delusions It will carry them to justifie the most wicked Actions recorded in Scripture or in Daily Experience infinite Numbers whereof in all Times and Places God for wise Ends permits or speeds and prospers and thaâ— against the most Beloved Persons not excepting his own Son or the holy Church Besides as it is made to justifie the Urgers of it in their Waâ— to Day it may be and ordinarily is as well made to Shame and Condemn them to Morrow Successes usually running as at one time remarkably for so at another time as remarkably against them It is no Rule for the wise and well instructed who never take it for a Rule of Duty but always bring it to the Rule and expound the Liking or Disliking of God therein by their known Duty It is only a Rule for the Ignorant to take up and those as it finds so it will leave ignorant of their Duty nay which is worse it will mislead them as I say into the Greatest Errors and Violations thereof carrying them into Sin and Shame enough too before they have Done It is a way for Men that know or may know they are Doing ill to flatter themselves or abuse others with faint but false Colors of God's acceptance And this may pass among the Worldly Wise who seek to be in Ease and Credit in their Worldly Injoyments 'T is a Part of Worldly Prudence so to expound these Events of Providence not as may best serve their Duty but their Worldly Ends. But he who would be Spiritually Wise or Wise for his Duty must always fetch it from the Laws of God which are the Rule of Duty And never make Providence which
or no as may be justly questioned in some instances usually alledged in this case particularly the Midwives Answer to Pharaoh 2. But besides this Instance of Veracity or not lying in Words there is also another Part of it which Christian Simplicity takes care of too and that is not to tell a Lye or deceive in Actions There is a Signification in several Actions as well as there is in Words and Expressions Some 't is true are more arbitrary and unsetled in their meanings and may signifie as men please But others are of more fixed and stated Significations I mean not only as Natural Signs and Indications of our Approbation or Dislike or other inward Sentiments But there is also as good Authority of Law or Institution or common and received Use and Custom to settle the Signification of some Actions as there is for Words themselves And accordingly in all reasonable Apprehension men are as much understood to have professed or declared things by some Actions and in all Courts shall stand as firmly bound by them as if they had utter'd the same things with their Mouths And being there is equally a setled Signification in Actions there is also room for our being true or false for affirming or denying in them as well as there is in words themselves Thus the Scripture mentions those who deny God in their works Tit. 1.16 And if my mouth hath kissed my hand the known and received Profession of Worship to the Sun or Moon saith Job I should therein have denied the God that is above Yea says he it had been an iniquity to be punished by the Judge or as good a Declaration of his being an Idolater whereof the Judges then took Cognizance as if he had professed so with his Lips Job 31.26.27 28. Thus they thought and believed in the Primitive Church teaching that men might confess or deny with other Faculties as well as with their Tongues by complying in Actions as well as by verbal Declarations If says the Ancient and Learned Author of the Commentary on St. Matthew whom for his Skill in expounding Scripture Erasmus in his Preface to the Reader Equals to St. Chrysostom himself If any one says he shall say unto thee Thou shalt not eat of things offer'd to the Idol but only view and behold the Idols how beautiful they are If thou lookest upon them on such a provocation thou hast denied Christ with thine eyes Not that 't is any thing to look on an Idol but herein is the Sin to look on such an invitation And if thou shalt refuse to look by such Refusal thou confessest Christ. Therefore it is written Turn away thine eyes lest they behold Vanity Psal. 118. But if he shall say to thee I ask not that thou shouldst look upon the Idol only listen and give ear how that Gentile blasphemes Christ that he may glorifie his own Gods if thou standest to hearken with thine ears thou hast denied Christ. If he shall say to thee I seek not to have thee hear Christ blasphemed but lo how they are offering Incense to the Gods only stand and receive the Odour of that Incense if thou comest near and smellest it by thy Smell thou hast offended Christ. Again if he says to thee Do not chew the flesh with thy teeth but only seem as if thou didst and feigâ— thy self to eat of the Sacrifice if thou shalt feign a Taste tho thou dost not taste it by thy Taste thou hast that way denied Christ. But if thou wilt not feign thou hast therein confessed him as Eleazar who by eating flesh that was really of his own provision would not fallaciously make as if he had eaten that of the Sacrifice commanded by the King 2 Macch. 6. If he shall say to thee I would not have thee feign thy self to eat of the Sacrifice but only touâ—h the Idol with thine hand or hold an 〈…〉 if thou touchest or handlest it by thy touch thou hast denied Christ but if thou refusest by thy Touch thou hast confessed him as it is written If there be any iniquity in my hands For all the Faculties and Members either of thy Soul or Body God hath created not only with an Eye to thee for use but also to himself for his own Glory And since men may thus affirm or deny in their Actions as well as in their Expressions they may be alike true or false shew Veracity or Lying in both We may do a Lye as well as tell a Lye and deceive by working no less than by speaking as the Scripture tells us of working Deceit Psal. 101.7 and of Deceitful workers 2 Cor. 11.13 calling those False Apostles So who as Chrysostom notes assuming only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Person and outward appearance of Truth thus acting a Part served the Purposes of Errour all their fair shews being only acting a Part to deceive men And as this is true of Facts so likewise of Non-Facts or Omissions in things which we are bound to do and profess The not doing these as I formerly noted when we are called to them signifies our being ashamed of them or denying them as the same would be signified by our Expression Confession of a Duty may be by our Practice as truly as by our Words and Denial thereof may be by the same And therefore if we refuse to do it when God gives us a just Call thereto in our visible Practice we disown tho it may be at the same time inwardly in our hearts we joyfully embrace it Now Christian Simplicity will not allow us to falsifie any of these ways As we may not lye concerning any of the Articles of Faith So neither concerning any of the Duties or Laws of Practice And as it is against the Duty of speaking the Truth in our heart to speak against what we inwardly believe of them in Words so likewise to do against it in Actions Truth must be kept in Doing as well as in Speaking the same Sincerity shewn in the use of either Sign since both are of fixed and instituted Signification Among significant Actions there is more particularly a Signification in the Observance of Days which are known and plain Professions of what is aimed at in such Observations To observe a Day of Thanksgiving for instance for any Event is to profess that we are glad of that Event and thankful to God for it To observe a Day of Fasting if it be impetratory or for obtaining something future is a Profession that we are desirous of that future thing and would ingage God to bring it about Or if it be chiefly penitentiary and for bewailing something past that we are sorry for it and seek to appease his Wrath provoked thereby Now if men would deal with the Simplicity of Christians in these Observances unless in heart they are inwardly affected as the keeping of these Days testifies and rejoyce or desire as such Observance professes they should not joyn or
is not founded in Grace Indeed Grace confers Titles and has its Claims but those are in another Life where all Possessions will be measured out according to the Degrees of Mâ—ns Graces and Religious Performances But here without any regard to the Graciousness of their Hearts or Carriage this World's Properties are all to pass among men according to humane Rights and Titles No man can make out that he has Right to anothers Power or Property by pleading that his Faith is more Orthodox or his Life more just and holy i. e. that he is more Gracious Nor that the Legal Owner has forfeited his Right to them by his Apostasie from Truth or Holiness or turning Graceless The Truth is the World needs nothing more to make them sensible of the iniquity of this than to bring it home to their own Case For if one man may turn another out of his Legal Power and Property on Pretence he has not the Grace to keep in the Right way to the other World nor to use and employ them well for the Good of this what Change would this make among Proprietors and how would it Dispossess the Greatest Part of the Inhabitants of the Earth Yea particularly of those who are most uneasie and cast the most envious and malignant Eye at the Power and Property of others So that it would quite throw out this Pretence of Discharging our selves of Relative Duties or Disseising Relatives of their Legal Rights and Claims because of Heresie Non-Performance c. i. e. of Ungraciousness if men would but allow their Relatives and Rulers common Justice who if any â—ure should have Preference and do by them as they would be willing to be dealt by themselves Honour thy Father and Mother and Thou shalt not steal are Precepts universal securing the Powers and Properties of the Graceless as much as of the Gracious Just therefore we must be to Power and Property wheresoever we meet it lodged by Law whether in the good or bad And thus just we shall be to the worst and most ungracious Relatives if we will allow them the common Benefit of God's Laws as made for their Protection as well as ours and grant them to whom we owe not only Justice but Reverence what in common Right and Equality we all claim for our selves From all this I observe when men stand in Relation to any Person we must distinguish what they do in discharge of Duty to him as a Relation and what in Favour of his ways and Religion It is either a Great weakness or a Great wickedness in men to suspect all those that are for shewing inviolate Duty to a Popish King as being Favourers of the Popish Religion and for paying all that is due to a King when he breaks the Laws as if they affected and were for setting up a Power Arbitrary and lawless As if there could be no Duty to his Power and Person without inclination to his way and Religion What would these Persons have said to St. Paul and the holy Apostles had they lived in those days Would they have accused them as secret Friends to Heathenism and as having heathen Gods as now they are wont to say of others that they have a Pope in their Bellies because they preach'd up a strict and inviolate Subjection to the Emperors and other Powers for all they were Heathens Or that they were Enemies and Betrayers of the Roman Liberties and for making the Empire more absolute than it was because those Emperors were for grasping at the small remains of Liberty and for being more and more lawless Their Duty as I have shewn they must perform to them and do all that is just to such an one both as a man and a King in Duty to his Person and Relation Tho at the same time they bear the most unmoveable averseness and opposition standing out to the last in such ways as their Duty to God and him allows them to make use of against his way and Religious Persuasion 'T is only in Conscience of what he is not in good liking or approbation of what he doth that they pay these things to such a Person I note also That in speaking of these Duties even in the Case of such Persons we must not talk as if we performed them not from Principles of Conscience but only from Humane inducements 'T is the way of too many God knows to discourse in these things as if the hank these Duties have on us towards such unpleasing Relatives were not on our Conscience but on our Convenience Their Care and good Carriage they will allow as a Reason of our Duty and Observance but their Faults and Failures as a Reason also to justifie ours They insist upon Reasons of Ingenuity in this Case and ask How one could expect more that perform'd no more or dealt no better And look on the ripping up their Rulers Non-performance as a Reason to vindicate their own All which is as if God had required nothing in the Relation but all we owed were to the Carriage of the Person 'T is to act only by Principles of Interest or at best of Ingenuity but not out of Principle of Conscience which is the same when they go wrong and when they go right or not from any regard to God or sense of Duty at all CHAP. VIII Of the Imprudence of pursuing our Ends by unlawful Means HAving said thus much of this First Rule of Spiritual Wisdom viz. Not doing Evil that Good may come or not making use of any unlawful ways for the compassing our Ends or Desires Besides what I have hitherto said of the Religion I will now add a little in the last Place of the Wisdom of this Course and shew how prudent it is never to take up with any Sin in Pursuit the most desired Design Prudent I mean not only for the next World but for the accomplishment of our Designs here in this If worldly men would really be wise for worldly things and take the way that is best here at present they must not sin against God to bring their Ends about which however promising it may seem to them is not really the way to make but to mar them The Reason of this is because the compassing of any Effects depends more upon God and his Providence than on any humane Means The best and likeliest Preparations can never bring them about when he goes not along with them and the lowest and most unlikely are sure to do it when he doth Now the way to have God with us is by trusting him and keeping in his ways If we dare rely on Providence and trust God he will not fail those that trust him but take the tenderest care of them and shew himself remarkably in preserving and speeding their matters on I mean those matters which in consistence with the Designs of his Providence he sees fit to take effect and no means or methods can bring about any things else As
Ends and Ways are likewise necessary Requisites of Prudence which is not only for Doing a Good thing but for Doing it well and wisely And Christianity is for Ruling this Part of Prudence by the Laws of Christ and lays on us sundry Restraints which in this matter are easily and ordinarily broke through by the worldly wise 1. First in the Execution of our Purposes by the ways aforesaid Christian Prudence is for taking the most Advantageous Seasons To every thing and to every purpose as the Wise Man says there is a Season Eccles. 3.1 And every thing is both most easie to effect and most Beneficial and Beautiful when it is effected in its Season He hath made every thing Beautiful in its time Eccles. 3.11 And a word fitly spoken or in its Season is like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver says Solomon Prov. 25.11 'T is the work of Prudence to see these Seasons or to Discern Opportunities and take them A Fool still slips his Opportunities and sees them not but a wise man's heart Discerns both time and judgment Eccles. 8.5 His Eyes says he again are in his head to look before him and round about or to espy both what to Do and when Eccles. 2.14 And this is one part of that Circumspection or walking Circumspectly which the Scripture calls upon us to use that we may appear to act not as Fools but as Wise Eph. 5.15 For that Circumspection or looking about us is as for the most commodious ways so for the fittest times and best opportunities of Performing Actions or bringing about any Business And as the Prudence of Worldly Men is shewn in taking their best opportunities for the things of this Life So must the Prudence of Christians be shewn in a Commodious Timing and Watching the most Advantageous Seasons for what they Do in care of their Souls and in Service or Honour of Christ Jesus But here care must be taken in determining what are Good Seasons for Religious Actions either Professions of some Points of Faith or Practice of some Duties Of this there is the more Danger because Religion says one thing and Flesh and Blood another in this Matter So that when Spiritual Prudence that minds Religion says one time is a Good Season for such a Profession or Practice Worldly Prudence that minds outward Ease will often â—ry they are most unseasonable But Christian Prudence must not take its Seasons from the Serviceableness of any Duty to worldly Purposes but to its own Ends. To prevent our setting aside any Duties as out of Season at the Suggestion of Carnal Wisdom when indeed we have an obliging Call and Season to Discharge them I shall note these things following 1. First in Determining the Seasonableness or Unseasonableness of Professing any necessary Truths of Christ or Practising any Christian Duties we must not say there is no Season for such Practice or Profession when there is hazard in them This indeed is the way of Worldly Wisdom which thinks Suffering in this World to be Seasonable at no Time and so accounts persecuted Suffering Duties to be ever out of Season To call for the Fruits of Righteousness or Morality when 't is Loss of Power or Place of Goods or it may be of Life it self to produce them it looks upon as a most unreasonable and unskilful miss-timing of things As bad as to come to the Trees to gather Fruit in the Spring e're 't is put forth or in the Depth of Winter when both Fruit and Leaves are fallen off long before The only Season it owns of Doing them is when it is like to Do it self no worldly hurt thereby but when they bring Suffering it cries out This is no time to talk of them But this is to Rate the Seasons for Spiritual Duties not by Ends of Virtue and Religion or the Advancement and Honour thereof which are Spiritual Considerations but only by Present Interest and Security which are Worldly Motives and lye ever closest to a Worldly Mind It is to make the Duties of our Religion not to be Duties at all times As if the Truths thereof were not to be professed or the Laws practised when we are call'd to Suffer but only when in Worldly account we are like to get or at least to save by them But these men never consider that Christianity as I observed before is a Doctrine of the Cross or a Suffering Religion all the Truths whereof were published and its Duties prescribed not for a Thriving but for a Suffering time Instead of excepting them it was Calculated for Days of Persecution since in such it enter'd and begun in such it got footing and daily maintained and enlarged what it had got among men All its Duties look for their Reward in another world and so must be duly observed when they draw after them the Greatest Dangers or Losses in this world Persecution tho' 't is no Good Season for getting or keeping any worldly Goods by Discharge of Duties yet is as Good as any nay better than others for getting Heaven thereby Though 't is no Season to serve Flesh and Blood 't is the properest Season to serve Truth and Virtue which are then most especially to be defended by us when others attack them and to be own'd by their stedfast Friends when their Enemies Explode and their own Dependants are ready to Desert them And these being the Ends of Spiritual Prudence instead of esteeming Persecutions which conduce so much thereto as unseasonable for Christian Duties it accounts them as I have before shewn the most obliging and Advantageous Seasons 2. Secondly We must not say there is no Season for Christian Duties when there is no worldly Appearance of Doing Good by Discharging them This is usually taken up by Worldly Wisdom when any necessary Truth or Virtue is born down with a Torrent They say it is in vain for the Servants and Professors thereof to practise or appear for it which would be only to oppose their single selves against an Host and to endeavor by their own Strength to stem a tide when the course thereof is most violent and drives away all before it This they think is only to Destroy themselves without doing their Duty any Good which however it may be pitiable as well intended yet say they is not commendable as being a Service altogether miss-timed and most imprudent But here men should consider that their Obligation to profess the necessary Truths or perform the Laws of God as they are call'd to them is not only for their Serviceableness as an Expedient but for their own sakes In Free and Discretionary things indeed men are to look to the usefulness and to go according to the probability of doing Good therewith But in the necessary Truths and Laws of Christianity which are bounden Duty towards God there Duty its self is their End and they have enough to ingage them to any Act without looking further if they do their Duty therein They