filled and animated with divine Fear follow the ways of Godliness which Fear as we have said is the beginning or principal part of Knowledg that is it is a reverent care to avoid sin obey the Will and worship the Majesty of God And therefore the holy Mother of our Lord affirms Luke 1. That his Mercy is on them that fear him from Generation to Generation thereby intimating that that divine and inexhaustible Mercy was in no Age ever wanting to those who Fear and religiously Serve the Lord. And indeed divine Wisdom hath by many and frequent Testimonies and Oracles out of the mouths of all the Prophets and Holy Men asserted the Dignity and Excellence of the Fear of God and amongst others by that of the Son of Sirach Ecclus. 25. Oh how great is he that findeth Wisdom yet there is none above him that feareth the Lord. For Knowledg and Wisdom do indeed illuminate and instruct the Mind but that holy Fear of the Lord turns the heart effectually unto God and inclines it to the Obedience and Observation of the Precepts of the divine Law As the same Son of Sirach does expresly teach Ecclus. 2. saying My Son if thou come to serve the Lord prepare thy Soul for Temptation Set thy Heart aright and constantly endure and make not hast in time of trouble Cleave unto him and depart not away that thou maist be encreased at thy last end Whatsoever is brought unto thee take chearfully and be patient when thou art changed to a low estate For Gold is tried in the Fire and acceptable Men in the Furnace of Adversity Believe in him and he will help thee order thy way aright and trust in him Ye that fear the Lord wait for his Mercy and go not aside lest ye fall Ye that fear the Lord believe him and your reward shall not fail Ye that fear the Lord hope for good and for everlasting Joy and Mercy Look at the Generations of old and see did ever any trust in the Lord and was confounded Or did any abide in his fear and was forsaken Or whom did he ever despise that called upon him For the Lord is full of Compassion and Mercy Long-Suffering and very Pitiful and forgiveth Sins and saveth in time of Affliction Wo be to fearful hearts and faint hands and the sinner that goeth two ways Wo unto him that is faint-hearted for he believeth not therefore shall he not be defended Wo unto you that have lost Patience and what will ye do when the Lord shall visit you They that fear the Lord will not disobey his Word and they that love him will keep his ways They that fear the Lord will seek that is well pleasing unto him and they that love him shall be filled with the Law They that fear the Lord will prepare their heart and humble their Souls in his sight saying we will fall into the hands of the Lord and not into the hands of men for as his Majesty is so is his Mercy Nor do the holy Scriptures affirm only that the Fear of God is an useful proper and effectual means for working out our own Salvation but also that it is absolutely necessary and without which no Man can be saved seeing he who is not endowed with this Religious and Godly Fear can neither rightly set about nor with a steddy and constant purpose of mind go through with the work of Repentance nor yet faithfully keep the Laws of God as they ought to do who endeavour to approve themselves to God and procure the blessing of Justification and Christian Sanctification And therefore it was the Decree and Purpose of Heaven that a messenger of the Salvation which was coming into the World should as a fore-runner be sent before to Preach the Repentance and observation of the Divine Laws to Men and by that means prepare the way for Christian Righteousness Mat. 3. For John the Baptist came preaching in the Wilderness of Judea and saying Repent ye For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand For this is he that was spoken of by the Prophet Esaias saying The voice of one crying in the Wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths streight For the same purpose the Apostles were sent out by Jesus Christ the Author and High-Priest of our Salvation to Publish and Preach this necessary Duty of Repentance for as the Evangelist saith Mark 6. They went out and Preached that Men should Repent The Apostles excepted none that heard them and desired to be partakers of the Salvation which they Preached from the Duty and Care of Repentance The Apostle Paul affirms before King Agrippa that he was enjoyned and had performed the same duty both towards the Jews and Gentiles without any distinction Preaching throughout all the wasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn of God and do works meet for repentance When the Jews and others at Jerusalem asked the question what was to be done by those who desired to be saved St. Peter answered Acts 2. Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of Sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost For the Promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call It might be proved by above six hundred Testimonies from the Holy Scripture that without the fear of the Lord and Repentance which is the second Head of Doctrine we now treat of and without the keeping and observation of the Laws of God no Man that is come to Age and that knows God and the nature of good and evil can obtain remission of sins and the inheritance and enjoyment of the Kingdom of Heaven This our Saviour himself the best Interpreter of his Fathers will asserts saying Luke 13. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Mat. 5. and except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Now seeing the word Repentance is often to be mentioned in this little Book that it may clearly appear what we mean we are to take notice that Repentance comprehends two things a detestation and forsaking of our sins and ill life past and an earnest and sincere practice and performance of those Virtues Acts and Deeds which are known to be acceptable to God As to the first part that is the detestation and forsaking of sin and a sinful life that Repentance chiefly relates to it which is enjoyned and taught by the Christian Church of which the particulars are the sorrow and contrition of heart the confession of the mouth and satisfaction in deed to use the common phrase and expression of the learned for knowing the nature whereof we shall refer you to the Books of the Learned who have fully handled and discussed that Point being resolved here
Call by Faith alone unless we also pay Obedience to him that hath called us What Man is he that will say that it is enough for him to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven by Faith that is by believing tho he never attain to the actual fruition and enjoyment of the Kingdom of God Did God do so with the Israelites and the Seed of Abraham that the Promises which they laid hold on by Faith were never made good unto them No for the blessing of God whom they believed and obeyed they obtained the enjoyment and possession of the earthly Promises Of Abraham a great Nation was really made and from one Isaac in whom God would have his Seed to be called there sprang so great a People that Moses confessed Deut. 1. I am not able to bear you my self alone The Lord your God hath multiplied you and behold you are this day as the Stars of Heaven for multitude The Lord God of your Fathers make you a thousand times se many as you are and bless you as he hath promised you The People that were brought out of Egypt who continued in Faith and Holy Obedience did actually obtain and possess the promised Land of Canaan as it is written Josh 1. Arise go over this Jordan thou and all this People unto the Land which I do give to them even to the Children of Israel Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon that have I given unto you as I said unto Moses From the Wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great River the River Euphrates all the Land of the Hittites and unto the great Sea toward the going down of the Sun shall be your Coast God not long after confirmed the truth of all this Josh 24. I have given you a Land for which ye did not labour and Cities which ye built not and ye dwell in them of the Vineyards and Oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat David also believing the promise that he should obtain the Kingdom endured and overcame the hardest of times and dangers and having at length obtained the Kingdom thus did sing Psal 116. I believed therefore have I spoken I was greatly afflicted I said in my hast all Men are liars What shall I render unto the Lord for all his Benefits towards me c. So that all these Ancients not only by Faith laid hold on the earthly Promises but really obtained them through the blessing of God that promised to fulfil them to those who believed and obeyed him And therefore they obeyed the Law-giver not by Faith and in words only but with all care and dutifulness they also practised true Piety and performed the Precepts and Commandments nor did any of those who expected the desired Promises think or say it was enough for him that his fore-fathers Predecessors or Friends had obeyed the Commands and Precepts of God unless he himself did his duty in obeying and fulfilling the Law Abraham himself being called went out David being anointed King and having obtained a Promise of the Kingdom believed did and suffered all those things which we read with admiration So also that we may return to our selves if we desire as we ought to do to be truly and indeed made partakers of the Spiritual Promises if we have a real love for our selves and aspire to everlasting bliss we must not only believe the Promises but likewise in all sincerity practise Piety and perform our several duties in obeying those things that are enjoyned and commanded us Nor must we think it enough that Christ hath fulfilled for us the Law and all Righteousness unless believing in Christ we also submit to that part of the Law which belongs to us to wit the Precepts and Commands of the Decalogue wherein is comprehended the summ of the Will of God and Law of Nature and to whatsoever may be lawfully deduced and inferred from thence and so obey the Law that we may not be called Hearers only or Readers Interpreters or Expounders thereof but rather Doers of the same and become like to those of whom it is written Luke 1. And they were both righteous before God walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless Rom. 2. For not the Hearers of the Law are Just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified Wherefore whosoever being called to the Marriage of the Son desires to approve himself faithfully to him that calleth him He is chiefly to mind that there is nothing hidden from him who searcheth the secrets of the heart and reins and knoweth the thoughts of Men afar off And therefore let him seriously set about the duty of true and unfeigned Repentance and being grieved for all the offences of his ill-spent wicked past life let him with a contrite and humble heart sincerely confess his sins and plead guilty in the presence of God and his Church that iâ— of the lawful Ministers of the Church Piously and Religiously obey the Counsels Admonitions and Instructions that are given him and having received Ecclesiastical Absolution from the sins and wickedness which he hath promised to God and to his Minister as a Witness and Judge upon Earth to forsake let him turn with all his mind and might from that wicked life and filthy conversation from all impure thoughts all Guile Malice and corrupt Manners and then having shaken off and overcome the Temptations of Pride Vanity Covetousness Lust Earthly delights and Pleasures and of whatsoever may and is wont to turn Men from God let him constantly persist in the right way and by diligent and frequent Prayer call upon God and beg his favourable and gracious assistance whose Mercy and provident care over him he will to his experience certainly find if from a pure and holy heart he earnestly craves the same For no less hath been offered and promised to all sinners by him who willeth not nor desireth their death but that rather they may repent and live Jer. 3. Return ye back-sliding children and I will heal your back-slidings Jer. 4. If thou wilt return O Israel saith the Lord return unto me and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight then shalt thou not remove O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Jer. 29. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you saith the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end Then shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart And I will be found of you saith the Lord. And again Joel 2. Turn ye unto me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning And rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious
Masters because we are all apt to learn and imitate wicked and bad examples for as the divine Oracle saith Gen. 8. The imagination of Mans heart is evil from his Youth Nor would any reason of State allow if the fear of the Lord Repentance and Brotherly-love dwelt as they ought in the hearts of Princes that open Malefactors disturbers of the publick Peace and those that hurt and corrupt the Innocent and Simple who by the Authority of divine Law are utterly to be expelled and cast out of Christian Governments should either be suffered to live in their own Country or be received protected and defended by other Princes or secured by Pass-ports and safe conducts lest thereby they might be continued alive to the ruine and destruction either of the Princes and Magistrates from whom they have fled or of those by whom they are received If this were punctually observed we should find greater reverence paid to the Law less licentiousness and wanton and rash Factiousness amongst Christians For neither is divine Justice divided nor is any wicked impure or incorrigible person tho transported to any place of the Earth approved of or accepted of God nor ought good and godly Princes ever to admit such to any place in their favour or affairs for it is written Psal 5. For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all workers of iniquity Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing the Lord will abher the bloody and deceitful Man Now that this Judgment and Counsel of God ought to be followed by those Princes who study and endeavour to approve themselves to the Lord and Prince of Princes that holy profession of the Prince according to Gods own heart plainly demonstrates Psal 101. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes I hate the work of them that turn aside it shall not cleave to me A froward heart shall depart from me I will not know a wicked person Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour him will I cut off him that hath a high look and a proud heart will not I suffer Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the Land that they may dwell with me he that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight I will early destroy all the wicked of the Land that I may cut off all wicked doers from the City of the Lord. The authority of divine Justice is perpetual and unalterable which ought equally to be regarded by all Christian Princes nor must they think it is divided or to be executed by halves but they must observe it wholly and entirely squaring it by the Will and Precept of the King of Kings and Lord of all the Earth who when he had appointed Cities of Refuge or Sanctuaries amongst his People whither they who had killed any one without malice or inveterate and confirmed hatred might fly to escape revenge concerning others who with a deliberate purpose of mind committed the fact he thus Enacts Deut. 19. If any Man hate his neighbour and lie in wait for him and rise up against him and smite him mortally that he dies and fleeth into one of these Cities then the Elders of his City shall send and fetch him thence and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood that he may die thine eye shall not pity him but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with thee The same Justice he commands to be executed Deut. 17. 19 22 24. against Thieves Robbers Cheats Ravishers Adulterers and other open Offenders and publick violators of Justice Truth and Honesty all whom he will have taken out of the way that the evil may be put away from Israel and therefore to the several sentences he adds And so shalt thou put away the evil from among you And since the Christian Doctrine hath taught the rest of the Officers of Kingdoms and Commonwealths all Judges Lawyers Advocates Proctors Clerks and other subservient Ministers of Magistrates and Courts of Judicature the fear of the Lord Repentance and Brotherly-love it will not allow them to Practise or get Estates by Fraud Deceit Cavilling Petty-fogging malicious interpretation of the Law protracting of Suits starting of litigious Processes superfluous invention of Pleas or by false information against the Innocent or unjust defence of the Guilty For this Doctrine condemns all haughtiness of mind Luxury Pride and Ambition and all vices that are fed and cherished by riches even innocently got but much more severely condemns Men who get Estates and live splendidly of the sweat and blood of their Christian Brethren and by their Fraud Craft cunning and over-reaching and such ways as exceed the perverseness of which God sadly complaining thus threatens by the Prophet Jer. 5. Among my People are found wicked Men they lay wait as he that setteth snares they set a trap they catch Men. As a Cage is full of Birds so are their Houses full of Deceit therefore they are become great and waxen rich They are waxen fat they shine yea they over pass the deeds of the wicked they Judge not the Cause the Cause of the Fatherless yet they prosper and the right of the needy do they not Judge Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord Shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this from such crimes must all the Officers of a State flee who in prospect of Salvation endeavour to live Godly Justly and Honestly in this present wicked world and they ought to make it their whole care and business that Equity Justice and Moderation may flourish both in publick and private and that the powerful rich and crafty may not unjustly impose upon the weak poor and simple since that charge is seriously pressed upon them by God himself Isa 1. Learn to do well seek Judgment relieve the oppressed Judge the fatherless plead for the widow Now as to the Rich and such as The Duty of the Rich. endeavour to be so if they would remember their promise made in holy Baptism and confirmed by covenant with the Lord if they resolve to follow after and practise holiness according to the rules of Christian Piety they may easily and plainly learn from the Doctrine of our Lord and Master contained in the three aforementioned Heads how far otherwise they ought to behave themselves both in getting and spending of Estates than most part of Rich Men usually do For the Unjust Covetous and Insatiable Desire of Riches and the vain superfluous ambitious or selfish use of them are not consistent with the fear of the Lord the duty of Repentance and Brotherly-love of Christians which approve not those advantages that wealth abuses to pleasures and
I speak concerning Christ and the Church Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his Wife even as himself and the Wife see that she reverence her Husband Now those houses Domestick Discipline and families are most acceptable to God which are reared upon the Foundations of the fear of the Lord Repentance and Brotherly love where Children and Servants are both by institution and example instructed in the duties of Virtue and true Piety and taught to discharge the several offices of their stations to fear and reverence their Fathers and Masters and to submit to the Authority of the Master of the Family as appointed and established by the Laws of God Wherefore it ought to be the care and study both of Masters of Families and of Children and Servants That all should diligently discharge their several parts the one in commanding the others in obeying and all in mutual helping and assisting of one another in promoting the good of the Family the practice of Piety and the salvation of their Souls For so are Families enjoyned by the Holy Ghost to know and practise their duties Ephes 6. Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father and thy Mother which is the first Commandment with Promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth And ye Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Servants be obedient to them that are your Masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ not with eye-service as Men-pleasers but as the Servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to Men knowing that whatsoever good thing any Man doth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free And ye Masters do the same things unto them forbearing threatning knowing that your Master also is in Heaven neither is there respect of persons with him Nor is it consistent with Christian Doctrine and Truth that Children who ought to be educated by their Parents in the fear of the Lord and in the knowledge and practice of Piety should be bred up in the Principles of corrupt and perverse Doctrine and led in the broad way that tends to destruction being from their infancy indulged and pampered in Pomp and Pride countenanced in Luxury Worldly Delights and Lustful Pleasures taught all the lewd Songs Sports and Exercises of the Age and made acquainted with the factious Principles Feuds and Animosities of their Parents which from their Cradle upward they pursue and promote seeing thereby it happens that the Children of Christians who ought to be holy and imitable examples to all the World of Religion Honesty Reverence and Piety towards God become the scandalous patterns of Dishonesty Uncleanness Irreverence and Impiety both against God and their Parents Servants and Domesticks also encouraged by the publick and private examples of wickedness both in societies abroad and families at home grow through the neglect of those who should punish and correct them proper instruments of Unfaithfulness Disobedience Robberies Thefts Oppressions and the disgrace of Families so that all those employments almost which in themselves are good and lawful run out of course and degenerate into corrupt Nuysances Now it is manifest that this perverseness and depravation of manners always happens when Christian People are not taught the pure simple true and severe Discipline of the Gospel or if they be taught it either through an inveterate habit of sinning wholly slight and neglect it or if they commend and approve it yet think it not so absolutely necessary as that they ought to prefer it before all other things that come in competition therewith and so receive the word that is sown by the Husband-man in stony or thorny ground But we ought greatly to fear and have a care that that complaint of the Lord may not seem to be uttered against us Jer. 5. A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the Land The Prophets prophesie falsely and the Priests bear rule by their means and my People love to have it so and what will ye do in the end thereof Now to conclude what sinner soever moved by the fear of the Lord shall seriously consider upon the wrath and indignation of God that he hath deserved and the severe and terrible Judgment to which he has made himself liable and shall again meditate in his own thoughts that Grace Mercy and the blessing of Heaven is ready prepared for him if he will but carefully and heartily endeavour to be cloathed with the Wedding Garment that is to follow the rule of Piety above described unless he be more than impious and given over to a reprobate sense there is no doubt but that he will turn with full purpose of heart and soul from Vice to Virtue from corruption to integrity from madness and folly to a sound mind and in a word from the slavery of the Devil to that merciful Lord who is so pleased with the serious and true Repentance of Sinners that with an Oath he has sworn he desires it and has freely promised his blessings to those who hope in his Mercy and turn to him with their heart As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live He that hath ears to hear let him hear and turn to Repentance if he desire to obtain mercy from the most High who healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds by whose grace assistance good will and pleasure we have written this practical Rule of Christian Piety for the instruction of our fellow-Christians hoping that the meditation and study thereof may be useful to them for obtaining salvation through the goodness of God to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen It hath not been our purpose to set off this Christian Institution with the ornaments and flowrishes of exquisite Language and Rhetorick but rather in few and plain words to accommodate this Doctrine of Piety to the capacities of all Christians who might thereby more easily both learn and retain it it being our desire rather to deliver and teach useful and good sense than gay and painted words Now the sum of all that hath been said is shortly this That extraordinary and supernatural gifts and graces are promised to all Men who will believe and accept the same not only in this life but also more especially in that which is to come and the same purchased and conveyed to them by the virtue and efficacy of that wonderful mystery of the conception birth death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God who is ready to bestow them on every one who in the fear of the Lord obeys the holy dictates and precepts of the Law and is diligent and sincere in the practice of Brotherly-love and Charity For God requires that Men should fear obey worship and serve him and upon these conditions gave us his promises to the performance of which he obliged himself out of meer grace and bounty And this is the duty which every Christian whether high or low learned or unlearned ought to know and practise But for all other things which Men may desire to know and learn relating either to their private capacities or to the rank and quality which they bear amongst Men and wherein they may be deceived mistaken and err since all Men are not competent Judges of such things we have purposely omitted them exhorting all and every one that having diligently considered and observed the abovementioned three heads they would keep that station wherein by right and Law they are placed not declining to the right or to the left from their common duty which being faithfully performed God of his goodness will impart to all what is necessary to be known and practised by every one in the place and degree that he is called to in society Now if any thing appear unseemly and not altogether so justifiable in the actions and conduct of others it is not the part of any private Man to Judg and Censure it or to endeavour any change or alteration in the Duties and Offices of others but to leave the care of that to the lawful Ministers and Magistrates and to pray the Lord of the Vineyard that he would send fit Labourers into his Vineyard and that he would advance protect and defend his own Harvest Without doubt the Lord will have pity on his inheritance and take care of the welfare and prosperity of his people and will highly approve that no Man for the fault or errour of another withdraw himself from the unity and concord of the established Church and Government but that every Man mind not what other people do but what be ought to do and perform himself and with heart and soul set about it FINIS
And so after he had patiently endured he obtained the Promise For Men verily swear by the greater and an Oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the Heirs of Promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an Oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us which hope we have as an anchor of the Soul both sure and stedfast and which entereth into that within the Vail whither the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus made an High Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedec It remains then which is the design of this little Book that we handle the Parts and Offices that are incumbent on Believers and the Scholars of Christ but especially those which indifferently concern all ranks ages and conditions of Men and without which their learning will be in vain and the Doctine insignificant Let every one then whether King or Priest Prince or States-man private or publick rich or poor Bond or Free Father or Son Husband or Wife Young or Old Merchant or Artificer Soldier or Peasant Learned or Unlearned provided he profess himself to be a Disciple and Follower of Christ and Christian Doctrine provided he be Baptized into the Faith of the Catholick Church without which there is no Salvation let every one I say learn in what Station soever he be how he ought to keep his Post behave and carry himself in this World and that from the Precepts and Institutions of the Holy Ghost himself who ought to be his Guide and not from us who do but as Students in the same School deliver to our fellow Scholars the Precepts and Doctrine of our great Master who hath called us from Darkness to his marvellous Light and let him take it in good part if perchance we inculcate some things which way seem hard and uneasie to the Manners Customs and Opinions of this present Age not interpreting what we say as a reproof to any person in particular but judging it the duty of a faithful Minister and Servant to declare and manifest to his fellow servants the Will of the Lord in his own words whereby if any Man out of Conscience Ignorance or Fear shal think himself censured he must not be offended with the Doctrine and Precepts which are Just and Holy nor with his fellow Servant who delivers them but with himself his faults and vices who having professed this Doctrine hath not submitted himself to the Laws and Conditions thereof which are Constant Universal and Immutable and not made and published that according to the desire humour lust and counsels of every private man they may be altered and changed but which command Obedience by changing all those Desires Passions Lusts and Counsels that may be a hindrance to the punctual observation of the same our Lord himself having said Mat. 5. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill That is to make those who believe in me pure holy and faithful in observing and fulfilling the same For verily I say unto you till Heaven and Earth pass one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach Men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Now if the entry into the Kingdom of Heaven be denied to those whose righteousness and obedience to the Laws of God does not exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees not of the wicked and hypocrites but of the good Scribes and Pharisees who seemed most to excell in the study of observing the Law what will become of him who through hatred or favour of Man shall pervert change conceal dissemble or any other ways make void the rules of righteousness that he is to deliver to his fellow Christians and teach so He shall indeed be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven and deemed unworthy to be admitted into that Heavenly Communion and Society into which all that are received are called Kings and great Now to be a King and to be the least are inconsistent hence it follows that in the Kingdom of Heaven it is the same thing to be the least and to be none for no man that breaketh the Commandments of God and teacheth others so to do shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but they only shall enter whose righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and who being not only hearers but doers of the Law shall be justified before God Wherefore if in the Precepts Rules and Instructions of the Doctrine that hath been delivered unto us any thing may seem to any Man stricter than his own Will Opinion or predominant Affections can comply with or submit unto let him if he intends to enter into life be persuaded that neither the way which God hath once fenced in is to be changed or enlarged nor that strait and narrow Gate made wider for the sake of any particular Person and that he must become Humble Lowly and poor in Spirit striving to walk in the narrow way and to enter at the strait Gate which will not be difficult to those who truly love this Doctrine and earnestly implore the assistance of Divine Grace that will be denied to none who dutifully and carefully submit to the rules and dictates of this Discipline For Psal 145. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him to all that call upon him in truth He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him he also will hear their cry and will save them And so he shall underderstand that the ways of the Lord are broad and pleasant to those who as Pilgrims and Strangers abstaining from and renouncing the carnal desires that war against the Soul and becoming poor in Spirit undertake that holy Journey and enter into the right way as the Royal Psalmist saith Psal 119. And I will walk at liberty for I seek thy Precepts I will speak of thy Testimonies also before Kings and will not be ashamed And I will delight my self in thy Commandments which I have loved My hands also will I lift up unto thy Commandments which I have loved and I will meditate in thy Statutes I know that good and holy Men will willingly listen to their fellow Christian and not so much mind the language and learning of him that writes as the sayings which proceed out of the mouth of the living God whose sacred and infallible
plainly declares to those who moved with a pious study and zeal yet proposed to themselves other courses than were enjoyned them by his Counsel and Precepts Isa 48. Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldst go Oh that thou hadst hearkned to my Commandments then had thy Peace been as a River and thy Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea From which holy Sentences it follows that every Disciple ought at least to know the chief Heads of the Discipline that is profitable unto him those I mean which may be known retained and practiseâ— by all and require neither mucâ— Labour great Study a deep Wiâ—â— length of Time nor far Travâ—â— for attaining to the knowledge them as it is written Deut. 3â— For this Commandment which I command thee this day is not hiddâ—â— from thee neither is it far off 〈◊〉 is not in Heaven that thou should say who shall go up for us to Heâ—ven and bring it unto us that 〈◊〉 may hear it and do it Neither it beyond the Sea that thou should say who shall go over the Sea for 〈◊〉 and bring it unto us that we 〈◊〉 hear it and do it But the Wordâ— very nigh unto thee in thy moutâ— and in thy heart that thou maâ— do it This Piety then that is to 〈◊〉 known and practised by us is dâ—vided into three parts to wit Fear Repentance and Charity with the observation of the Laws of God which whosoever being rightly taught shall keep and observe they will through the most bountiful Promise and Covenant of God confirm and encrease to him the Grace and Mercy of the Lord to his own Salvation and at length bring him to the possession and enjoyment of the Kingdom of Heaven For such is the efficacy that the Will and bounteous Liberality of God hath granted to these three Parts or Virtues if you had rather call them so that he whose mind is filled and endowed with them may thereby avoid the wrath and dreadful Judgment of God and find Grace and Mercy in the Eyes of the Almighty In the first place then they who would practise the Duties of Christian Piety must have their minds filled with a divine Fear that is with an awe reverence and watchful observation of those things which are known to be either acceptable or displeasing to God that they may wholly detest flie and abhor the last and with all care and diligence pursue and seek after the first For that disposition whereby the mind so reverences God that it wills nothing which may offend that immence goodness and rejects nothing which it knows to be conform to the Will of God that disposition of mind I say is called the fear of the Lord and is said to be the beginning of all true Wisdom which by another name also the Latins have called Religion Philosophers have divided this into a servile and filial fear and the Christian School have admitted the same distinction condemning the servile fear so far as it was a forerunner to and made way for the filial But we whose design it is not so much to dispute nicely about these matters as to accommodate them to vulgar capacities and to square our discourse according to the rule of sacred Oracles following the definition given by the Holy Ghost call this fear of the Lord Religion or Reverence whereby the mind of an holy Man being affected observes and follows what he knows to be acceptable to God and on the contrary rejects and shuns what is displeasing to him Wherefore this pious disposition of mind is by Wisdom so defined The fear of the Lord is the beginning or principal part of Wisdom that is to say a Religious observation of those things which by Knowledg or Wisdom we know to be desired or shunned Now by Wisdom in this place is to be understood the knowledg and notices oâ— the divine Will whether attained by word writing or tradition or by revealed rules and rational intimations Now this divine Fear puts him in whose heart it is upon the exercise of true repentance incline him to the Study and observation of the Laws of God and stiâ— him up to a search and diligent enquiry into the nature oâ— both For when once a Maâ— hath resolved with himself tâ— reverence and practise all thaâ— he knows to be acceptable to God and to flie and shun those things which do displease him he makes it his chief care to learn what it is that God approves of and what he condemns and being so taught he implores the assistance of the divine Grace repents of the former sins of his mispent life and proposes to himself the way of Gods Commandments wherein persisting in a steddy and uninterrupted course he is made partaker of the Heavenly Promises stipulated by the Covenant of Grace and enjoys the fellowship and communion of that blessing which the Father of Love has promised can and will make good to them who believe in him and which in effect he hath fulfilled to those who have obeyed his most Just and Holy Will Wherefore the Wisdom of God knowing what extraordinary fruits spring from this root of divine fear that it might dehort Men from the violation of the Laws of God and deter them form the danger of everlasting Wrath and indignation by the mouth of the Son of Sirach callâ—â— Ecclus. 1. The fear of the Lord a Crown of Wisdom Honour and Glory and Gladness and a Crown of Rejoycing And to explain and commend it more effectually and plainly saith that the fear of the Lord is a Fountain of Life The fear of God is therefore called the beginning and fountain of Life because reclaiming Man from the violation of the Laws of God and inducing him to true repentance it sets him upon the keeping and performance of the Commandments that he may obtain Grace and Mercy in the sight of the Almighty whereby he becomes the son of God and heir of eternal Life through the most gracious Promise and Covenant of that God who freely and of his own accord takes upon himself the care conduct instruction and sanctification of all those who cleave unto him by Faith and true Obedience and therefore the Royal Psalmist sings Psal 145. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him he also will hear their cry and will save them and in another place Psal 103. For as the Heaven is high above the Earth so great is his Mercy toward them that fear him As far as the East is from the West so far hath he removed our transgressions from us Like as a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him And again The Mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him By all which we are taught that the never failing Mercy of God is infinite eternal to those who
and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil Nevertheless we must always be upon our guard and take diligent heed lest securely trusting to past Pardons and the confident expectation of Gods future mercy we never cease to do evil and learn to do good that is not the use but the abuse of divine Clemency and Mercy The Mercy of God is indeed from Generation to Generation but upon those that fear him and I will hear saith the Psalmist Psal 85. what God the Lord will say for he will speak Peace unto the People and to his Saints but let them not return again to Folly Again Isai as saith Isa 30. Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you The Lord will wait that he may be gracious saith he not that they who are waited for should heap sin upon sin and return unto the vomit but because he hath promised mercy to them who with their whole heart so turn unto him that they stand in awe and greatly fear any more to offend him otherwise as the same Prophet saith Therefore will the Lord be exalted that he may have Mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of Judgment who denies not his promised Mercy to any that rightly seek it but withall does not for ever delay but in due time inflict the punishments which are appointed to those whose heart is not right and stedfast with him There is no time with God void of Mercy towards those who hinder not their own Mercy Now they do hinder it who after the hardness and impenitence of their heart treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath Isa 66. To this Man will I look saith the Lord even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word But concerning those who are not truly poor of a contrite spirit and tremble at his word he hath pronounc'd this Sentence He that killeth an Ox is as if he flew a Man he that Sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck he that Offereth an Oblation as if he Offered Swines Blood he that burneth Incense as if he blessed an Idol 1 Kings 8. they have chosen their own ways and their Soul delighteth in their abominations They therefore that have committed sin for as Solomon saith there is no Man that sinneth not must constantly keep in the way of Repentance and denying themselves hear and follow him who hath said Not he that beginneth but he that endureth to the end the same shall be saved They must from their whole heart and Soul Renounce the Devil and all his works the pomps and vanities of this wicked world as they have promised and vowed in their Baptism otherwise Jer. 8. thus saith the Lord shall they fall and not arise shall he turn away and not return why then is this People of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual back-sliding The Lord calls it a perpetual back-sliding when men in their manners retain and follow that wicked course of life which in word or thought they may have condemned and falsly professing and boasting of their Repentance do not conscientiously perform the duty of it but belying their own hearts deceive themselves and not God nor his Minister to whom they promised a serious amendment of life This the Lord finds fault with by the same Prophet They hold fast deceit they refuse to return I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no Man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done Every one turned to his Course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel The Lord indeed waits that he may have mercy upon us and uses patience not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance Come to Repentance saith that Apostle who knew that Repentance was necessary to sinners for appeasing the wrath and obtaining the mercy of God Now the Holy Spirit does plainly tell us that the long-suffering of God is not everlasting tho we believe and confess his Mercy to be infinite Psal 7. God Judgeth the Righteous and God is angry with the Wicked every day if he turn not he will whet his Sword he hath bent his Bow and made it ready he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death He ordaineth his arrows against the Persecutors When God Almighty was about to destroy the old World because of sin he allotted them a certain time to repent in as it is written Gen 6. And the Lord said my Spirit shall not always strive with Man for that he also is Flesh yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years At the end of which all Mankind perished in the Flood save only the Family of Noah who in that Age was found Righteous in the sight of God The People of Niniveh being warned by the Prophet that after forty days they should be destroyed delayed not their Repentance until the last day but set about it so soon as they heard the denunciation all that time I say was employed and spent in fasting and prayer for averting the wrath of God imploring divine mercy and amending their sinful lives as it is written Jona 3. And Jonah began to enter into the City a days Journey and he cried and said yet fourty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown So the People of Nineveh believed God and Proclaimed a Fast and put on Sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them for word came unto the King of Nineveh and he arose from his Throne and he laid his Robe from him and covered him with Sackcloth and sate in Ashes and he caused to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the Decree of the King and his Nobles saying let neither Man nor Beast Herd nor Flock tast any thing let them not feed nor drink water But let Man and Beast be covered with Sackcloth and cry mightily unto God yea let them turn every one from their evil way and from the violence that is in their hands Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not and God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not The Men of Nineveh will rise in Judgment against those who having been warned not once but often yet have not turned from their evil ways or who have delayed the duty of a serious Repentance to the last day of their life living in the mean time wickedly and following the Vanities Lusts Ambition Pride and Vices of the World whereas no Man ought or can say that he is allowed to put off the exercise of Repentance to the extremity of life since upon the first call and admonition all Men are commanded to turn and be converted unto the Lord. To day saith the Holy Ghost if you will hear his voice harden
end the same shall be saved And no Man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God He that hath ears to hear let him hear God deceiveth no Man Let every one take heed then that he deceive not himself nor suffer himself to be deceived by others This is the plain sure and safe way that hath the promise of good success Repentance I mean which every one ought carefully to set about persist in and prosecute to the end This is the way that never deceived any Man but will certainly bring those that walk therein to eternal Salvation at last For it is written Psal 69. Psal 105. Your hearts shall live that seek God Seek the Lord and his strength seek his face ever more He that seeketh his face always in what manner soever he may end this mortal life yet his Son shall live Psal 9. For thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee The death of Lazarus was mean and obscure in the eyes of Men but that of the rich Man conspicuous and his Funeral pompous The rich Man died and was buried however the Soul of the former was received into Abraham's bosom when this Mans Soul was sent down into Hell Wherefore let those who either never set about the work of Repentance aright or put it off to the hour of death or often in their life-time begin it and as often again leave it off let them I say consider what ground they have to do so and what divine promise they can pretend to trust to for it is not in our power to command our time when we would and whether God will grant it to us according to our wishes is much to be doubted As 't is written Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy Statutes for their deceit is falshood No Doctor of the Christian Church for what I know ever taught us to put off and delay Repentance and amendment of life till the last day of living nor promised any happy success to those that did so nay St. Austin doubts of the condition of those delayers of serious Repentance till the hour of death and we have no reason but with St. Austin to doubt of the same Wo be to fearful hearts and faint hands and the sinner that goeth two ways Wo will be unto many to whom opportunity and the advantages of amending their lives has been offered and granted whilst they were alive and in health and whilst God waited for them and who still persisting in their wickedness their too late desire of Repentance will through their own fault be unprofitable to them Many instances of wicked Men who die without Repentance happen daily some snatcht away by sudden death others killed some cast away at Sea others slain in Battel or brought to their end by thunder lightning and many other ways who perhaps if their lives had been longer would have seriously set about the work of Repentance but it hath seemed otherwise to the Judgment and Decree of God who seeing he does all that is necessary for reclaiming of sinners is not always wont to superadd more than ought to be expected Mat. 11. Had God done the mighty works in Tyre and Sidon which he did in Chorazin and Bethsaida he knew that they would have repented in Sack-cloth and ashes And if the mighty works which were done in Capernaum had been done in Sodom it also upon the word of our Saviour would have remained until this day But seeing the Almighty had done for those places what was enough in his most righteous Judgment he was not willing to add more than was sufficient How many of those who have led a wicked and sinful life and still professed an inclination and desire to die well have either had the death they wished for or a blessed and happy end How every Man shall end his days depends not on himself but on the Counsel and Decree of God as it is written Psal 68. He that is our God is the God of Salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death But God shall wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his Trespasses Most terrible also and yet most certain is that Sentence pronounced by divine Oracle Psal 34. Evil shall slay the wicked and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate But great are the Promises and hopes that the Scripture gives to those who love piety and are of a penitent and obedient heart which we should always have before our eyes The Lord redeemeth the Soul of his Servants and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate Let us then a little consider what these Men do who leaving off to after he had left his The Example of Abraham Country Kindred and Fathers House never returned again into Chaldea or Mesopotamia but travelled and So journed in several places according to the will and appointment of God spending his whole life even to death in the obedience of Gods commands and that he would not die nor be buried any where but there where he had received the Promises nor move a foot from those places wherein he was warned from Heaven to tarry and abide Wherefore the Holy Scripture admonishing those who are the true children of Abraham that is his spiritual Children who is called the Father of many Nations of their duty in imitation of their fathers example saith Isa 51. Hearken to me ye that follow after righteousness ye that seek the Lord look unto the rock whence ye are hewen and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged Look unto Abraham your Father and unto Sarah that bare you for I called him alone and blessed him and encreased him as being a Man who firmly believed and diligently obeyed God that called him Col. 3. So then they which be of the Faith and imitate the example of Abraham are blessed with faithful Abraham Wherefore my dear fellow Christians being furnished with all these precepts and instructions of God the Father and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord and Master let us in the first place take diligent heed that we sin not For that indeed is best but because all the Sons of Adam are under sin the wisest counsel and most acceptable to God that can be given in the next place is that he who hath sinned would with all his heart and mind turn to God 1 John 2. for we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world If he be sought of us with a contrite and humble heart which the Lord himself declares To this Man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word Wherefore the Apostle St. John admonishes us saying 1 John 3. Beloved if our heart
condemn us not then have we confidence towards God And whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight St. John expressly affirms that we shall obtain what we ask of God in order to our Salvation who will give his good spirit to those that seek him if our heart condemn us not which he saith may be proved by this if we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight Our Lord and Master commands the same John 14. If ye love me keep my commandments And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive seein the Lust and Pride the Pomp and Vanity with all the other Vices of this World are an abomination to him 2 Tim. 2. But if a Man purge himself from these he shall be a Vessel unto Honour sanctified and meet for the Masters use and prepared unto every good work The sum then of all that hath been said in short is this whoever with a pure and holy heart believes the promises of God to his own salvation let him sincerely renounce the pomps and vanities of this World and the sinful Lusts and Desires of the Flesh and make good his profession of Repentance by a true and earnest forsaking of all sin and vice and a following after Righteousness and obedience to the commands of God with a zealous and constant care Of this care we shall speak hereafter having first laid down for a certain truth which we cannot inculcate too often that the holy spirit cannot dwell in a heart polluted with the sinful lusts pleasures and other corruptions of the flesh the spirit I say of sanctification by which who are acted are the Sons of God For this is the express sentence of God Almighty himself which hath been alledged already and ought often to be cited Gen. My spirit shall not always strive with Man for that he also is Flesh that is to say so long as Man is flesh and obeys the will and lusts of the flesh he shall not be partaker of my spirit And this sentence was pronounced by God at that time when the Sons of God coming in unto the Daughters of Men perverted all the rules of Piety and Virtue and turned Righteousness into Iniquity Now they who believed the Promises of God made unto Adam the common Parent of Mankind and being endowed with that Faith exercised themselves in the practice of Piety are in holy Scripture called the Sons of God for amongst them was preserved the knowledg of the Redemption and Salvation of Mankind by the holy Seed of the Woman and they being animated with the Faith and Hope of this promised Salvation shunned all worldly ambition and corruption leading a life neither magnificent nor splendid nor attended with the glory and delights which Men admire but low modest and mean living in the forry habitations of cottages tents caves and dens and were satisfied with sober poverty in imitation of their common Parents Adam and Eve whom God having cloathed them with coats made of Beasts skins commanded to live contented willing that they who by their own fault had forfeited the sovereignty of the World should live like strangers and sojourners in it This example the Sons of God followed But on the other hand the Sons of Men who either believed not the divine Promises or lived in pomp and splendor gave themselves over to delights and pleasures courted glory and worldly greatness and built to themselves stately Houses Towns and Castles being not a little incited to that course of life by the humour and counsel of Women by whose blandishments and conversation the Sons of God also being first allured and then wholly overcome they took to themselves wives of all which they chose That is to say when the Sons of God perceived the delights and pleasures the pomp and splendor that was amongst Men which might tempt humane frailty to prefer them before the rigours of an austere frugality but especially being enticed by the sight of Women among whom Vanity and Luxury both in diet and apparel was most conspicuous they forsook the hardships of an austere life continence and poverty that they might embrace riches wealth pleasures and luxury and making Marriages with the Daughters of Men they overturned Piety and perverted the antient discipline of primitive virtue and integrity Whereupon that divine Sentence was pronounced My spirit shall not always strive with Man for that he also is flesh because of the Sons of God they not only became like unto the Sons of Men but begat a race much more corrupt than themselves more licentious in their lives indulging themselves in all sorts of vice and voluptuousness and prone to all kind of injustice barbarity and cruelty Gen. 6. These are the Giants which were in the Earth in those days and also after that when the Sons of God came in unto the Daughters of Men and they bare children unto them the same became mighty Men which were of old Men of Renown And God saw that the wickedness of Man was great in the Earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And it repented the Lord that he had made Man on the Earth So much did the licentious wickedness of the dissolute life of Men offend God that holy Oracles assure us it repented him that he had made Man on the Earth and that he resolved to destroy all Mankind these only excepted who continued in the discipline and duty of the Sons of God tho they were but very few in number as it is written But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord because he was a Just Man being not only endowed with that Faith of the Sons of God but through the exercise of true Repentance and Obedience to the commandments of God accepted also of the Lord as one who having spent so many years in building of an Ark and by frequent Sermons forewarning the Men of that age of the imminent wrath of God endeavoured to perswade them to Repentance and amendment of life for which he got the title and name of a Preacher of Righteousness Now this practice of Repentance which as we have said is necessary to all the Disciples and followers of Christ must be accompanied with an endeavour of amendment of life and of following after Righteousness and Honesty which for illustration sake we shall call by the name of Obedience and define Obedience Obedience to be an ordering and framing of all the actions of our life according to the counsel and will of God And this is performed by the knowledg and diligent practice of the commands of God For it is not enough to know the precepts and institutions of our Christian discipline or to talk of and commend them in quaint and
pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie We are also plainly and largely taught by our Lord and Master how grievous a sin the sin of hatred is and how great an impediment it lays in our way to salvation not only when it appears outwardly in evil deeds but even when but conceited inwardly in the heart Mat. 5. I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment and whosoever shall say to his brother Raca shall be in danger of the Council but whosoever shall say thou fool to wit moved with anger and with design to hurt him shall be in danger of hell fire Wherefore our Lord and Master in his divine wisdom that he might shew how expedient it is to be free from that vice and perturbation of mind plainly tells his Disciples that he who hath not first satisfied this command of Charity must not think to obtain the favour of God by any Sacrifice or other Religious performance Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee leave thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift In many other passages he confirms the same saying Luke 6. Be ye merciful as your Father also is merciful forgive and ye shall be forgiven give and it shall be given unto you Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Now the charity which our Lord so much commendeth is not a cold and ordinary but a burning and fervent charity ready to do good whereby he bids us to become like unto God who makes his Sun to shine upon the good and the bad and causeth it to rain upon the just and the unjust And when our Saviour taught his Disciples to pray he enlarged more upon the Subject of Charity Mercy and Beneficence than upon any other as being of all others the chief and most convincing argument of Piety which by the Apostle also is called the bond oâ— perfection seeing all the commands and duties whatsoever of the Law are easily obeyed and performed by those who are so quickned by Charity as not so much to seek their own as the things of others according as it is written 1 Cor. 13. Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things Whereas 1 John He that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth because that darkness hath blinded his eyes The summ then of all The summ of the rule common to all Men. that a Scholar of Christ ought to know hold meditate upon and practise is briefly comprehended under these three Heads to wit the Fear of the Lord Repentance and Charity Now Charity is not here considered only as it relates to God whom we ought to love above all things but also as it is to be practised towards Men. 1 John 3. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren But whosa hath this Worlds good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him My little children let us not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him 1 John 4. Let us love him because he first loved us If a Man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a liar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen and this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also Whoever therefore shall carefully observe these three heads will by experience find the mercy goodness and clemency of God towards him the excellency whereof the thought of Man is not able to conceive and far less his tongue to express For the gracious God is always ready to fulfill the promises of salvation which have been made and often confirmed to Believers as it is written Jer. 18. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it if that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil that I though to do unto them Ezek. 18. And if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die All his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die saith the Lord and not that he should return from his ways and live So that the Oracles of God do often confirm the Promimises of life and salvation made even to wicked Men who turn from their ways to those I say who turning from the evil of their way and following a course of true Repentance make it their care and study to obey the commands of God and to do Judgment and Justice for whoever do so shall live not by an idle lasie and unactive Faith which is also called a dead Faith but through the righteousness which they have wrought they shall indeed obtain life and salvation from God the author and fountain of life which he hath promised to all who believe in him and obey his world according to that infinite mercy of his which the Scripture celebrates in many places Psal 145. The lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works And therefore he bears with the sins of men that he may bring them to Repentance Wisdom 11. For he loveth all the things that are and abhorreth nothing that he hath made for never would he have made any thing if he had hated it And therefore it is that he freely offers and promises his mercy unto all who with a true heart and purpose of mind desire to be converted and to return to him as it is written Ezek. 33. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die O House of Israel For the Lord is most gracious and desirous of our
salvation who when he would have Men to turn to him with their whole heart and mind and so obtain life he patiently waits for their Repentance and this the holy Scriptures clearly testifie Isa 30. Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you And the Apostle St. Peter saith The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise as some Men count slackness but is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Now that the Conversion and true Repentance of sinners is most acceptable and pleasing to God his own Son shews us in that saving Sermon which he made in the three Parables of the prodigal Son the lost sheep and groat whereby he exhorted all Men that they would endeavour by their conversion to please God and cause joy in the whole Court of Heaven that so they might tast of the wonderful goodness of God who is rich in mercy towards all that call upon him with a pure and single heart and upon whom if they approve themselves by Faith and the practice of true Repentance and Obedience he bestows great mercies and the spirit of sanctification with all his gifts and graces which St. Peter affirms was given to all that obey him and our Saviour promised to be given saying John 14. If ye love me keep my commandments And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive Now in the sence of St. John the world are they who live according to the lust of the eye the lust of the flesh or the pride of life that is who are slaves to lust delights pleasures or ambition for those shall not feel the power and virtue of that holy spirit abiding in them as the Lord himself pronounces Gen. 6. My spirit shall not always strive with Man for that he also is flesh With Man who is flesh and striveth not to mortifie the deeds of the Flesh as the Apostle saith if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live to wit through the spirit of God given and communicated unto you for so it is written Isa 66. Thus saith the Lord the Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool where is the house that ye build unto me and where is the place of my rest for all those things hath mine hand made and all those things have been saith the Lord but to this Man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word Those divine gifts and graces whereby Men upon Earth are changed into other creatures and become almost celestial avoiding the corruption that is in the World through lust and having their conversation in heaven examples and instances of these gifts I say which were very frequent of old are now rare to be found on the Earth because we have neither that strong and lively faith in the Promises of God nor purely and sincerely obey his Precepts neither are we filled with the holy fear of the Lord but by a double and deceitful heart wicked and perverse thoughts and actions we are wanting to our selves and to the grace and goodness of God of God I say who trieth the heart and searcheth the reins and sees us wholly given over to impure thoughts the delights and pleasures of the flesh and to pride and ambition like adulterous Women dealing treacherosly against their lawful husbands which kind of hearts estranged from or divided in their chief love he neither loves nor approves of The mind must be pure and single and fervent in love that aspires to the heavenly marriage of this bridegroom and would have it confirmed and made good to it The wise Son of Sirach advises us to endeavour that as much as we can when he saith Ecclus 1. 2. Distrust not the fear of the Lord and come not unto him with a double heart Wo be to fearful hearts and faint hands and the sinner that goeth two ways And the word of God by the mouth of his holy Prophets does also in many places expresly admonish us heartily to renounce the vanities sins and pollutions of this World and make it our whole care to forsake them Jer. 4. O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved how long shall thy vain thoughts lodg within thee Whosoever come so provided to seek the Lord shall certainly find him to be loving gracious and bountiful Jer. 29. Ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart and I will be found of you saith the Lord whose blessed Son hath also said Mat. 5. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God God is to be seen by the pure in heart saith our Saviour He is to be seen dwelling in them whom he consecrates for a holy Temple to himself as it is written Isa 57. For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Psal 147. He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up then wounds This contrition of heart so acceptable unto God and so much commended in Scripture doth not dwell nor abide with the anxious desire of worldly things and of the pomp and glory of the age which are hateful to the Lord. Nor let any Man perswade himself that he can serve two Masters that is that he can please God and at the same time fulfil the lusts of the flesh pursue the vanities pride and ambition of the World and obey the dictates of carnal wisdom The Apostle St. James declares it to be impossible Jam. 4. Ye adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the World is enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a friend of the World is the enemy of God Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy And therefore we are earnestly warned by the Apostle St. John that being deluded by vain arguments or any idle and groundless hope and opinion we should not retain the love of this World but wholly reject it if we would approve our selves to God whom we ought to love for our own salvation John 2. Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world And the world passeth
Men of all conditions proceed from the neglect of these three Parts of Christian discipline which are as certain first Principles of practical Piety known to all Men who are in their right senses And the necessity of these three Principles to wit of the Fear of the Lord Repentance and Brotherly-love is manifest not only to all Christians by the light and revealed will of God preached unto them but also to the unlearned and those who know not the written Law by the similitude and image of the Deity stamped on their minds tho as we have said they be not proved and confirmed to them by so many sentences and oracles of holy Scripture which perhaps is their own fault seeing they mind nothing less than the serious learning of those things which make for their own salvation and whilst they heedlesly and negligently run over these diligently study to know and practise the contrary But though they have not at all learn'd or neglect to be taught the Law Rom. 2. Yet they are a Law to themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Now if these three heads of a Christian life were well known and carefully practised by all we should experience another kind of efficacy of the grace of God in us find another chearfulness of mind and other evidences of Faith also Other proofs of our Religion would appear both in publick and private nor would there so many detestable instances of vice and impiety so openly abound in City and in Country in Courts and private Families and in all the societies of Christians where monstrous and flagitious wickedness doth but two much and two often reign and the divine Laws are despised and violated by bloody contentions enmity hatred strife calumnies fraud deceit bitter and frequent quarrels robberies thefts extorsions and defrauding of the poor besides the innumerable arts of violence and oppression whoredom and uncleanness adultery fornication incest and many other heinous abominations not to be named So many places of the Christian World would not abound in surfeiting and drunkenness chambering and wantonness sinful and sensual delights and pleasures and corrupt luxury nor would there be so much vanity and ostentation so immoderate and useless expensiveness so great emulation and pride nor so vast a number of other sins and monstrous wickednesses and impieties as to woful experience we daily see But on the contrary if the fear of the Lord accompanied with Repentance and Charity dwelt in the hearts of all Christians the actions of their lives would be ordered aright It would then be the chiefest care of every one first to stand in a we and fear lest they fall into the hands of the living God and next that they may obtain forgiveness and mercy from him and so every one would endeavour to perform what they promised in the holy Sacrament of Baptism having entred into Covenant before a mortal Man indeed yet with the immortal God the Just Judg of all the World the Lord of Hosts and the avenger of all sin and wickedness Psal 5. Who is a God that hath not pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with him The foolish shall not stand in his sight he hateth all workers of iniquity He shall destroy them that speak leasing the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful Man The summ of which promise was To renounce the devil and all his works the pomps and vanities of this wicked World and to lead his life according to the Laws of him whose Son he would be accounted and every one being endowed with divine fear incited by the desire of amending his life by Repentance and inflamed with Brotherly love and Charity would direct all his works and actions to the advancement not only of private and particular but also of common and publick Peace Faith Justice Righteousness Mercy Honesty and in a word of the general virtue and sanctity of all Men and carefully perform the duties incumbent upon him that he may receive his reward from him who cannot lie Of the several Duties and Offices of all ranks and conditions of Men to be examined according to this Rule The Second Part. NOW if these three heads of pure Religion and undefiled before God the Father were observed by all Men we should see many lively instances and effects of that practice whereof the summ is James 1. To visit the Fatherless and Widows and to keep himself unspotted from the World And from these fountains of all humane actions that is the Fear of the Lord the study of Repentance and exercise of Charity the offices and duties of all degrees ranks and conditions of Men might easily be drawn and deduced so that the whole body of the Christian Common-wealth from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot would be more healthful and sound than at present we see and would in all its Members worthily perform its several functions There would be no trouble nor discord amongst the various degrees of Men but all would conspire for the mutual good and profit one of another For the variety of degrees orders Ministeries and Offices is not to be condemned but rather approved of and commended amongst a Christian People as being found to be of great use and advantage when they are instituted and executed according to the Laws and Precepts of God for as St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 11. The body is not one Member but many If the foot shall say because I am not the hand I am not of the body is it therefore not of the body and if the ear shall say because I am not the eye I am not of the body is it therefore not of the body if the whole body were an eye where were the hearing if the whole were hearing where were the smelling But now hath God sit the Members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him And a little after he subjoyns That there should be no Schism in the body but that the Members should have the same care one for another And whether one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it or one Member be honoured all the Members rejoyce with it Now ye are the Body of Christ and Members in particular When the several Members are once perswaded of this and in the fear of the Lord in the study of Repentance and practice of Brotherly love and Charity they know their Duties and Offices there is no doubt but that they will religiously set about the performance of the same That we may then begin with the first and chief orders The Duty of Pastors Rulers and Governors of the Christian state it is manifest that it is the duty of Rulers and Governours and of those who are to guide and direct others to take care to maintain the honour of God and to provide what is
necessary as well for the salvation of the souls as for the honest and lawful concerns of the bodies of Christian People and faithfully and diligently to discharge their part of the Office and Care that they have severally taken upon them not to give themselves over to sloth and idleness to luxury delights and pleasures but by day and by night though with hunger and thirst colds and heats losses and crosses perils and dangers both of life and fortune to behave themselves as becomes good faithful and approved Ministers and Servants and as that honest Keeper of another Mans Cattel affirmed of himself in relation to the Flocks committed to his care Gen. 30. This twenty years have I been with thee thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten That which was torn of Beasts I brought not unto thee I bare the loss of it of my hand didst thou require it whether stoln by day or stoln by night Thus I was in the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night and my sleep departed from mine eyes And as that excellent shepherd did whose task was neither more easie nor less dangerous as he himself intimates 1 Sam. 17. Thy Servant kept his Fathers Sheep and there came a Lion and a Bear and took a Lamb out of the Flock and I went out after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth and when he arose against me I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him Since these holy Shepherds then shewed so much care and diligence so much faithfulness and assiduity for sheep goats and brute beasts that their owners might suffer no loss what care then behoveth it them to take Psal 78. who feed Jacob the People of the Lord and Israel his Inheritance that they may feed them according to the iniegrity of their heart and guide them by the skilfulness of their hands whom they know to be the Flocks not of an earthly and mortal but of an eternal and immortal Lord and Master 1 Pet. 1. Not redeem'd with corruptible things is Silver and Gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot Now they must be led out and fed not in strange Pastures but in the Meadows and Fields of the Lord as it was the care of Jesus Christ himself who enjoyned the same to the Pastors who lawfully discharge that duty not once or twice but a third time saying John 21. Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me more than these to which when he had answered yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee he saith unto him feed my Lambs He saith unto him again Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me and he answering yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee he saith unto him feed my Sheep And he said unto him a third time Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me and when he had answered the third time Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee he saith unto him feed my Sheep This care which Jesus Christ so earnestly and affectionately commended to Pastors the Ancients Religiously undertook and gloried in the performance and discharge of the same as particularly St. Paul 2 Cor. 11. In labours more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths oft of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one Thrice was I beaten with rods once was I stoned thrice I suffered Ship-wreck a night and a day I have been in the deep In Journeying often in perils of waters in perils of Robbers in perils by mine own country-men in perils by the heathen in perils in the city in perils in the wilderness in perils in the sea in perils among false brethren in weariness and painfulness in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakedness Besides those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily the care of all the Churches Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not The Apostle was not only satisfied that he had suffered these things for the sake of the souls committed to his charge but also as we have already observed gloried and greatly rejoyced that by undergoing such troubles and care he might approve himself unto God wherefore he subjoyned 2 Cor. 12. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions in Distresses for Christs sake Of the like mind were the other holy Ministers of the Gospel also Acts 5. who departed from the presence of the Council rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name And daily in the Temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ Such endeavours and such instances of duty and faithful obedience God always expects of his Pastors and Ministers and when they are needful requires them Now when are they not needful what time is there that affords not occasion and opportunity for a strenuous discharge of the Ministry what reason colour or pretext can be given for idleness and neglecting of the Sheep what if there be no dangers but all things in peace and quietness yet opportunities and seasons of doing those things which concern the salvation of Souls are never wanting there is always occasion for procuring and encreasing the favour and love of God and for avoiding such a complaint and reproof as this Ezek. 34. Wo be to the Shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves should not the Shepherds feed the Flocks ye eat the fat and ye cloath you with the wooll ye kill them that are fed but ye feed not the Flock The diseased have ye not strengthned neither have ye healed that which was sick neither have ye bound up that which was broken neither have ye brought again that which was driven away neither have ye sought that which was lost but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them And they were scattered because there is no Shepherd and they became meat to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered My Sheep wandred through all the Mountains and upon every high hill yea my Flock was scattered upon all the face of the Earth and none did search or seek after them Therefore ye Shepherds hear the word of the Lord as I live saith the Lord God surely because my Flock became a prey and my Flock became meat to every beast of the field because there was no Shepherd neither did my Shepherds search for my Flock but the Shepherds fed themselves and not my Flock Therefore O ye Shepherds hear the word of the Lord Thus saith the Lord God behold I am against the Shepherds and I will require my Flock at their hand c. Consonant to these complaints and dreadful threatnings of the Lord God are the rebukes given by our Saviour to the Lazy Ambitious Covetous and negligent Ministers and Pastors
Dexterity and Success and thereby for the working out of their own Salvation the very Offices and Charges which they bear do declare For such Ministers are appointed by God not that they should only consult their own interests and indulge and please their own humours but that they should with all care and industry provide for the people of God those things that are known to conduce to the promoting of true Christian Piety publick honesty peace and tranquillity innocence and uprightness according to the Precepts and directions of the divine wisdom Now they who endeavour and study to do so must shew themselves to be Princes indeed not slaves to pride ambition strife hatred deceit frauds and avarice not approving desiring or admitting any thing that is not good just and honest not imitating crafty arts the slyness of dissimulation and humane cunning nor out of private revenge or for fulfilling their own lusts or ambitious desires being the authors of the devastations plundrings and ruine of Countrys Cities Towns and Villages nor vexing and oppressing poor Christian People with heavy and insupportable Taxes and Impositions but proposing themselves as patterns and examples to other Men of publick equity innocence and righteousness and making their lives and conversations a rule to private Men of continence modesty and godliness reckoning themselves no less than other Christians bound and obliged by that Covenant which they entered into in their Baptism and diligently observing that necessary renunciation which they then made of the Devil and all his works If these things were rightly observed one Prince would not invade the Kingdoms Cities Towns and Rights of other Christians nor detain what he had unjustly usurped By this means mutual Charity and Peace would keep not only Princes themselves but also their Vassals and Subjects in their duty honesty would commend and Majesty and Authority adorn them Justice would reign amongst People the zeal of Gods honour every where appear in exact obedience to the precepts and holy commandments of God and lastly in common and united desires purposes words and works that promise would be fulfilled which was made by all Christians none excepted in Baptism For if the true nature of Regal Imperial and Princely Authority be considered it will manifestly appear that these high and supreme dignities have for that end been instituted by God that they who are honoured with them should be the Guardians asserters and avengers of the holy Laws of God be and have the title of the fathers of their People that they should rightly administer Justice punish the guilty and transgressors of the Law put to death open and incorrigible Malefactors protect the poor and weak from the violence and oppression of the powerful and rich defend the innocent against the attempts of the wicked and maintain the fatherless and widows In a word that they should endeavour what in them lyes to keep and preserve all the Members of the State both high and low great and small rich and poor in peace concord tranquillity and security This I say is the true end for which the dignity and authority of Kings Princes and chief Magistrates is appointed by God from whence it follows that needless Pomp and ostentation with voluptuous greatness the affectation of Arbitrary dominion the designs of boundless ambition and the consequents thereof the dangers and losses of souls bodies and estates and the excessive harassing and overcharging Subjects are both displeasing to God and grievous to the people Nor is it only the Office of Kings and Princes to cause the rest of Mankind to be instructed and kept in the duties of Religion Piety Honesty and in the fear of God and to shew themselves the Ministers of the Will of God and Ecclesiastical Discipline but it is their proper duty also as they are Princes To know the Law of God carefully attend to and diligently practise and obey the same being led by the fear of the Lord in all the actions of their lives and administrations of their Government As it is enjoyned by this singular Precept Deut. 17. It shall be when the King sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom that he shall write him a copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priests and the Levites And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to do them that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turn not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left neither shall he multiply Wives to himself that his heart turn not away neither shall he greatly multiply to himself Silver and Gold lest trusting therein he fall into avarice and covetousness which the Apostle calls Idolatry and the root of all evil They are not to respect persons in Judgment nor to take bribes Eccles 20. For Presents and Gifts blind the eyes of the Wise and make them liable to that dreadful Sentence pronounced against those that pervert Judgment Deut. 27. Cursed be he that perverteth the Judgment of the Stranger Fatherless and Widow Of which execrable practice these Judges and Magistrates are taxed of whom it is written 1 Sam. 8. They turned aside after lucre and took bribes and perverted Judgment But seeing it is impossible that so many Provinces The Duty of inferiour Magistrates Cities and Towns as may happen to be in one Christian Kingdom can be Governed by the pains and care of the Prince alone divine Providence has appointed that Judges Magistrates and other publick Ministers should be constituted who may carefully and dutifully discharge the Offices and Trust that is reposed upon them Deut. 16. As it is written Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee in all thy Gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout all thy Tribes and they shall Judge the People with just Judgment Thou shalt not wrest Judgment thou shalt not respect persons neither take a gift for a gift doth blind the eyes of the Wise and pervert the words of the Righteous That which is altogether Just shalt thou follow And in another place Exod. 18. Provide out of all the People able Men such as fear God Men of Truth hating Covetousness and place such over them to be Rulers of Thousands and Rulers of Hundreds Rulers of Fifties and Rulers of Tens And let them Judge the People at all Seasons c. Which kind of Men when Jehosaphat had chosen he thus admonished them 2 Chron. 19. Take heed what ye do for ye Judge not for Man but for the Lord who is with you in Judgment Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you take heed and do it for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God nor respect of Persons nor taking of Gifts Thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord faithfully and with
luxury but rather condemn them The Christian Doctrine that advises those who would be saved not to trust to Riches commending Honesty Modesty Temperance Innocence Continence Mercy Bounty Liberality and the other Duties of Piety and Religion and on the contrary detesting and disswading from the opposite vices as Pride and Haughtiness Delights and Pleasures Injuries Robberies and Oppression of the Poor detaining or Cheating the Labourers Wages Usury Monopolies enhaunsing of prices and every thing else that is either disgraceful to the doer hurtful to our Christian Brethren or inconsistent with the publick good in the Judgment of God himself For he who reckons all Christians his Brethren and Children of one Common Father the Just Merciful and Bountiful God and shall know that they stand in need of his help ought to assist them partly by giving and partly by lending without any hope of profit benefit or interest and thereby magnifie God the Father who hath enabled him to shew that kindness to his Brethren which the liberal goodness of God hath promised to recompense with a sure and excellent reward For so it is written Luke 6. Do good and lend hoping for nothing again and your reward shall be great and ye shall be the children of the highest for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil Be ye therefore Merciful as your Father also is Merciful To this duty of beneficence enjoyned by Christ to his Disciples we may add that strict command of God Deut. 15. If there be among you a poor Man of one of thy brethren within any of thy Gates in thy Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee thou shalt not harden thy heart nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart saying the seventh year the year of release is at hand and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother and thou givest him nought and he cry unto the Lord against thee and it be sin unto thee Thou shalt surely give him and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him because that for that thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto For the poor shall never cease out of the Land therefore I command thee saying Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother to thy poor and to thy needy in the Land The sincere Disciples of Christ ought to set before their eyes and think on that command of God that is backed with so many reasons commended by so many promises and armed with so many threatnings against the neglecters of it and freely bestow and lend according to their abilities avoiding what in them lies that sentence pronounced by the Holy Ghost against the rich Men of this World and not in good works Jam. 5. Go to now ye rich Men weep and houl for your miseries that shall come upon you Your riches are corrupted and your Garments are Moth-eaten your Gold and Silver is Cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire ye have heaped treasure together for the last days Behold the hire of the Labourers which have reaped dawn your Fields which is of you kept back by Fraud erieth and the cries of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth Ye have lived in pleasure on the Earth and been wanton ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter Consonant to this sentence is that dreadful commination of Christ Luke 6. Wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation Wo unto you that are full for ye shall hunger wo unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep And is it not a very terrible sentence that is pronounced and with an asseveration confirmed by our Saviour against rich Men Mat. 19. Verily I say unto you that a rich Man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And again I say unto you it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of God The reason of this difficulty the Holy Ghost affirms to be because the desire and love of riches deceives Men and turns them often out of the streight road of Equity and Justice For he that desires to be rich hastens to be so but then what respect is there to the Law what fear or shame in him who sets his soul upon wealth nay plenty and opulency when once it is acquired debauches both Men and Women from an innocent modest and honest way of living into luxury vanity and pomp into pride and strife and into other violations of the divine commandments and contempt of Christian simplicity setting off enormous vices with great and plausible names so prone is the sinful appetite of Man to abuse even the advantages and blessings of earthly things a fault carefully to be avoided as the Apostle admonisheth 1 Tim. 6. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown Men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows And therefore that good Men may be ware of that deceitfulness of riches Psal 62. The holy Ghost by the mouth of the Prophet gives this admonition If riches encrease set not your heart upon them Nor is the holy Doctrine of our Lord and Master The duty of Merchants and Tradesmen more remiss or obscure in informing all those who live and endeavour to get Estates by Traffick and Trades For such are taught by the fear of the Lord the study of Repentance and Brotherly Love to deceive no Man not to adulterate or change diminish or increase their goods and commodities nor to neglect any thing that relates to them which the nature of the goods require not to change and raise their prices nor to deal fraudulently in weights and measures for the holy Scriptures assure us that all such frauds and cheats argue a contempt of divine Justice Christian simplicity and uprightness and are extremely offensive to the supreme Judge of all Men. Prov. 11. A false ballance is abomination to the Lord but a just weight is his delight And again Prov. 20. Divers weights and divers measures both of them are alike abomination to the Lord. Nor is that custom of cheating and circumventing our brethren by false prices and oaths and a cunning wheadle of words less abominable to God as it is written Amos 8. Hear this O ye that swallow up the needy even to make the poor of the Land to fail saying when will the new Moon
a perfect heart And that this course was followed by Princes and Magistrates who were approved of God Holy History assures us Now so much holier ought Christian Princes and Magistrates to be so much more versed in the study and knowledge of Law and Equity by how much they have obtained a more perfect Testament than the Ancients did not only because of the clear and plain exposition of the divine Precepts made by Christ and his Apostles but also because of more abundant grace promised and prepared for Believers under the Gospel It is very far from their duty then either by commission or omission to break the Law and violate the sacred Precepts and that they who are commanded always to read and meditate on the Law and not to turn aside from the right neither to the right hand nor to the left should mind nothing but pleasures pomp ambition and avarice and go astray after their own inventions making and imposing Laws upon others which make more for the appetites and desires the greatness State Majesty and Glory as they are pleased to call it of the Governors and for establishing many new titles of Authority Prerogative and Superiority which they daily invent than for the true Worship of God and good of the People Besides it is a sort of perverseness most odious to God for Princes or inferiour Magistrates to covet to be rich and to leave great Estates to their Children out of the publick Revenues and not being satisfied with an honest reward for their labours that is with a modest competency of subsistence according to their quality to be insatiably set upon the getting of wealth and riches either by the liberality of Princes or defrauding the Publick and to make it the whole desire of their Souls that they may raise great Houses and Families whereby they may perpetuate their Names upon Earth rather by a long Succession of Heirs than by the Monuments and Examples of Virtue Innocence Sanctity and real Honour Samuel born in Ramah a little Town and in a Montainous Country being from his childhood brought up in the sacred Ministeries of the Temple had a garment given him yearly by his Parents suitable to the meanness of their Fortune When he was grown up to be a Man by the command of God he took upon him the Government of the Common-wealth and during the space of fourty years as Prince Judg and Ruler in Peace and in War Ruled the populous rich and flourishing State of the whole twelve Tribes of Israel being as painful and assiduous as vigilant and active as any Governor either before or since and yet during that whole time he neither encreased his Estate nor changed his abode from his own mean native habitation to a more conspicuous City at least in his own Tribe nor for his pleasure made use of the delights and varieties that other places did afford but having in War recovered and re-established the State of the Israelites and setled a firm Peace all over the Country he kept Assemblies at certain times for administring Justice to the People and when he had done so that he might not be troublesom or chargeable to any Town or Family he returned home to his own mean but contentful habitation where he neither excused himself from business nor omitted any opportunity of promoting the worship of God As it is written 1 Sam. 7. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel And the Cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron even unto Gath and the Coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistins And there was Peace between Israel and the Amorites And Samuel Judged Israel all the days of his life And he went from year to year in Circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpeh and Judged Israel in all those places And his return was to Ramah for there was his house and there he Judged Israel and there he built an Altar unto the Lord. By the short description of this instance the Holy Ghost manifestly shews us with how much care diligence innocence piety continence and abstinence that great Man discharged the Offices of a valiant and expert General in War and of an excellent Prince and Magistrate in Peace who when afterward he had dimitted the Government and resigned up the Authority to a chosen King was neither richer nor more wealthy nor was his Family advanced to greater dignity or splendor but he contentedly returned to the same statâ— wherein he was born For Samuel went to Ramah where he spent the rest of his days neither did he build Palaces or stately Houses either in Ramah or in any other more conspicuous place nor erected for himself a magnificent Monument or burying place on which either at Jerusalem or any other City taken in War he might transmit to Posterity the Trophies of his Atchievements or the Titles of his Fame 1 Sam. 25. But Samuel died and all the Israelites were-gathered together and lamented him and buried him in his house at Ramah For they who aim to be rich by their Magistracy must of necessity either cheat the King or defraud the Publick and apply that to their own private use which might far better and more profitably be expended on the Publick Now the publick treasure being exhausted the people must needs be harassed with new Taxes and Impositions and so the Wealth and Riches of a few must cause the want and poverty of many But how much God is offended at these covetous desires the Prophet plainly declares Isa 5. Wo unto them that joyn house to house that lay field to field till there be no place that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth In mine ears said the Lord of Hosts of a truth many houses shall be desolate even great and fair without Inhabitant Now if it be unbeseeming a Christian Magistrate to heap up riches from the Salaries or larger Perquisits of their Offices how detestable and accursed must it be in the sight of God to get Estates and Dignities by accepting of Persons Injustice Rapine Fraud Bribes Oppression Calumny and Cheating God forbids Kings Princes and Magistrates to multiply to themselves Gold and Silver for the greedy thirst after Gold and Riches sets the minds of those who are infected therewith upon the committing of any Sin and Wickedness it is the cause of the Oppression of People with grievous and heavy Impositions of Quarrels Strife and Wars amongst Princes themselves of the slaughter and murdering of Subjects and other abominable and flagitious cruelties that are committed by Soldiers and in a word of the ruine and loss of many Souls as the Holy Ghost himself assures us Jam. 4. From whence come Wars and Fightings among you Come they not hence even of your Lusts that War in your Members ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain ye fight and war