As no man can serve two Masters so no man can well please two contrary friends And if you whisper to one the failings of another it tendeth directly to the dissolution of your friendship Direct 12. Think not that love will warrant your partial erroneous estimation of your friend Direct 12. You may judge him fittest for your intimacy but you must not judge him better than all other men unless you have special evidence of it as the reason of such a judgement Direct 13. Let not the love of your friend draw you to love all or any others the less and below Direct 13. their worth Let not friendship make you narrow hearted and confine your charity to one But give all their due in your valuation and your conversation and exercise as large a charity and benignity as possibly you can Especially to Societies Churches and Common-wealth and to all the world It is a sinful friendship which robbeth others of your charity Especially those to whom much more is due than to your friend Direct 14. Exercise your friendship in Holiness and well-doing Kindle in each other the Love of Direct 14. God and Goodness and provoke each other to a heavenly conversation The more of God and Heaven is in your friendship the more holy safe and sweet and durable it will prove It will not wither when an everlasting subject is the fewel that maintaineth it If it will not help you the better to Holiness and to Heaven it is worth nothing Eccles. 4. 11. If two lye together then they have heat but how can one be warm alone See that your friendship degenerate not into common carnal love and evaporate not in a barren converse instead of prayer and heavenly discourse and faithful watchfulness and reproof Direct 15. Prepare each other for suffering and death and dwell together in the house of mourning Direct 15. where you may remember your nearer everlasting friendship and not only in the house of mirth as if it were your work to make each other forget your latter end CHAP. XXIX Cases and Directions for Loving and doing good to enemies MOst which belongeth to this subject is said before Chap. 9. about forgiving enemies and therefore thither I refer the Reader Tit. 1. Cases about loving and doing good to enemies Quest. 1. WHom must I account an enemy and love under that name Quest. 1. Answ. 1. Not every one that is angry with you or that giveth you soul words or that undervalueth you or that speaketh against you or that doth you wrong But he that hateth you and seeketh or desireth your destruction oâ— your hurt as such designedly 2. And no man must be taken for such that doth not manifest it or by whom you cannot prove it 3. But if you have reasonable suspicion you may carry your self the more warily for your own preservation lest he should prove your enemy and his designs should take you unprovided Quest. 2. With what kind of Love must an enemy be loved and on what accounts Quest. 2. Answ. Primarily with a love of Complacence for all the good which is in him natural or moral He must be loved as a man for the goodness of his nature and his understanding and virtues must be acknowledged as freely and loved as fully as if he were no enemy of ours Emnity must not blind and pervert our judgement of him and hinder us from discerning all that is amiable in him nor must it corrupt our affections and hinder us from loving it and him 2. Secondarily we must love him with a love of benevolence desiring him all that happiness which we desire to our selves and endeavouring it according to our opportunities Quest. 3. Must I desire that God will pardon and save him while he repeuteth not of the wrong he doth Quest. 3. me and being impenitent is uncapable of pardon Answ. 1. You must desire at once that God will give him repentance and forgiveness 2. If he be impenitent in a state and life of ungodliness or in a known and wilful sin he is indeed uncapable of Gods pardon and salvation in that case But if you know him not to be ungodly and if mistake or passion only or some personal offence or falling out have made him your enemy and you are not sure that the enmity is so predominant as to exclude all true charity or if he think you to be a bad person and be your enemy on that account you must pray for his pardon and salvation though he should not particularly repent Quest. 4. What if he be my enemy upon the account of Religion and so an enemy to God Quest. 4. Answ. There are too many who have too much enmity to each other upon the account of different opinions and parties in Religion in an erroneous zeal for Godliness who are not to be taken for enemies to God What acts of hostility have in this age been used by several Sects of zealous Christians against each other 2. If you know them to be enemies of God and Godliness you must hate their sin and love their humanity and all that is good in them and wish their repentance welfare and salvation Quest. 5. What must I do for an enemies good when my benefits are but like to embolden encourage Quest. 5. and enable him to do hurt to me or others Answ. 1. Usually kindness tendeth to convince and melt an enemy and to hinder him from doing hurt 2. Such wayes of kindness must be chosen as do most engage an enemy to returns of kindness without giving him ability or opportunity to do mischief in case he prove implacable You may shew him kindness without putting a Sword into his hand Prudence will determine of the way of benefits upon consideration of circumstances Quest. 6. May I not defend my self against an enemy and hurt him in my own defence And may I Quest. 6. not wish him as much hurt as I may do him Answ. When you can save your self by fair words or flight or some tolerable loss without resisting him to his hurt you should rather choose it and Resist not evil Matth. 5. 39. When you cannot do so you must defend your self with as little hurt to your enemy as you can And if you cannot save your self from a lesser hurt without doing him a greater you must rather suffer it Object But if I hurt him in my own defence it is his own fault Answ. So it may and yet be yours too you are bound to Charity to your enemy and not to Iustice only Object But if I run away from him or resist him not it will be my dishonour And I may defend my honour as well as my life Answ. Such objections and reasonings which the Jesuites use against Jesus were fitter for the mouth of an Atheist than of a Christian. It is Pride which setteth so much by the esteem of men yea of bad and foolish men as to plead
company or outward advantages to his Religion nor avoideth sin for want of a temptation but is Religious though against the stream and innocent when cast unwillingly upon temptations and is Godly where Godliness is accounted singularity hypocrisie faction humour disobedience or heresie and will rather let go the reputation of his honesty than his honesty it self Direct 2. TAke heed of being Religious only in Opinion without Zeal and holy practice or only in Direct 2. Zealous affection without a sound well grounded judgement But see that Iudgement Zeal and practice â—e conjunct § 1. Of the first part of this advice against a bare Opinionative Religion I have spoken already in my Directions for a Sound Conversion To change your Opinions is an easier matter than to change the Heart and Life A holding of the truth will save no man without a Love and practice of the truth This is the meaning of Iames 2. where he speaketh so much of the unprofitableness of a dead uneffectual belief that worketh not by love and commandeth not the soul to practice and obedience To believe that there is a God while you neglect him and disobey him is unlike to please him To believe that there is a Heaven while you neglect it and prefer the world before it will never bring you thither To believe your duty and not to perform it and to believe that sin is evil and yet to live in it is to sin with aggravation and have no excuse and not the way to be accepted or justified with God To be of the same Belief with holy men without the same hearts and conversations will never bring you to the same felicity He that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not shall be so far from being accepted for it that he shall be beaten with many stripes To believe that Holiness and Obedience is the best way will never save the disobedient and unholy § 2. And yet if Iudgement be not your Guide the most zealous affections will but precipitate you Scientiâ— quae est 〈…〉 ota à just 〈…〉 caâ—â—iditaâ— poâ—â—us quam sapientia 〈◊〉 est ◠〈◊〉 Of the necessity of Pâ—udence in Religious men â—ead 〈…〉 The unprudenciâ—s of welâ—-meaning men have done as much hurt to the Church sometimeâ— as the persecution of enemies e. g. When Coâ—stantine the Son of Constans was Emperour some busie men would prove from the Orthodoâ— Doctrine of the Trinity That his two Brethren Tibtrius and Heraclius should reign with him saying Si iâ— Trinitate creâ—iâ—â—is â—res etiam 〈…〉 which cost the chief of them a hanging Abbas Urspergens Edit Melancth p. 162. and make you run though quite out of the way like the Horses when they have cast the Coachman or the Riders To ride Post when you are quite out of the way is but laboriously to lose your time and to prepare for further labour The Jews that persecuted Christ and his Apostles had the testimony of Paul himself that they had a zeal of God but not according to knowledge And Paul saith of the deceivers and troublers of the Galathians whom he wisheth even cut off that they did zealously affect them but not well Rom. 10. 2. Gal. 4. 17. And he saith of himself while he persecuted Christians to prison and to death I was zealous towards God as ye are all this day Acts 22. 3 4. Was not the Papists Saint Dominick that stirred up the persecution against the Christians in France and Savoy to the murdering of many thousands of them a very zealous man And are not the Butchers of the inquisition zealous men And were not the Authors of the third Canon of the General Council at the Laterane under Pope Innocent the third very zealous men that decreed that the Pope should depose Temporal Lords and give away their Dominions and absolve their Subjects if they would not exterminate the godly called Hereticks Were not the Papists Powder-Plotters zealous men Hath not zeal caused many of later times to rise up against their lawful Governours and many to persecute the Church of God and depriue the people of their faithful Pastors without compassion on the peoples souls Doth not Christ say of such Zealots The time cometh when whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service John 16. 2. or offereth a service acceptable to God Therefore Paul saith It is good to be zealously affected alwayes in a good matter Gal. 4. 18. Shewing you that zeal indeed is good if sound judgement be its guide Your first question must be Whether you are in the right way and your second Whether you go apace It is sad to observe what odious actions are committed in all Ages of the world by the instigation of mis-guided zeal And what a shame an imprudent Zealot is to his profession while making himself ridiculous in the eyes of the adversaries he brings his prosession it self into contempt and maketh the ungodly think that the Religious are but a company of transported brain-sick Zealots And thus they are hardened to their perdition How many things doth unadvised affection provoke well-meaning people to that afterwards will be their shame and sorrow § 3. Labour therefore for knowledge and soundness of understanding that you may know truth from falshood good from evil and may walk confidently while you walk safely and that you become not a shame to your profession by a furious prosecution of that which you must afterwards confess to be an error by drawing others to that which you would after wish that you had never known your selves And yet see that all your knowledge have its efficacy upon your heart and life And take every truth as an instrument of God to reveal himself to you or to draw your heart to him and conform you to his holy will Direct 3. LAbour to understand the true Method of Divinity and see Truths in their several degrees Leg. Acost l. 4. c. 21. 22 de fructu catechizandi Et Li. 5. and order that you take not the last for the first nor the lesser for the greater Therefore see that you be well grounded in the Catechism and refuse not to learn some Catechism that is sound and full and keep it in memory while you live § 1. Method or right order exceedingly helpeth understanding memory and practice Truths Opas est imprimis duplici Catechismo Uno compendaâ—io brevi quem memoâ—iter addiscant ubi summa sit eorum omnium quae ad fidem mores Christiano sunt necessaria altero ubeâ—iore ubi eadem amplius dilucidiusque dicantur copiosius confirmentur Ut ille prioâ— discipulis potius hic posterior ipsâ— praeceptoribus usu sit Acosta l. 5. c. 14. p 490. have a dependance on each other The lesser branches spring out of the greater and those out of the stock and root Some duties are but means to other duties or subservient to them and to be measured accordingly And if it be not
Essential Truths by errors of their own nor the doctrine of Godliness by wicked malicious applications 4. Such as drive not on any ambitious tyrannical designs of their own but deny themselves and aim at your salvation 5. Such as are not too hot in proselyting you to any singular opinion of their own it being the prediction of Paul to the Ephesians Acts 20. 30. Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them 6. Such as are judicious with holy zeal and zealous with judgement 7. Such as are of experience in the things of God and not young beginners or Novices in Religion 8. Such as bear reverence to the judgements of the generality of wise and godly men and are tender of the Unity of the Church and not such as would draw you into a Sect or party to the contempt of other Christians no not to a party that hath the favour of Rulers and the people to promote them 9. Such as are gentle peaceable and charitable and not such as burn with hellish malice against their Brethren nor with an ungodly or cruel consuming zeal 10. Such as not live not sensually and wickedly contrary to the doctrine which they preach but shew by their lives that they believe what they say and feel the power of the truths which they preach § 4. And your familiar companions have great advantage to help or hinder your salvation as well Imperat Reâ— ut nostrae religionis illorum mensa nullum communem haberent neque cum Catholicis omino vescerentur Quae res non ipâ—â—s aliquod praestitit beneficium sed nobis maximum conâ—ulit lucrum Nam si sermo â—oâ—â—m sicut cancer consuevit serpere quanto magis communis mensa ciborum potuit inquinare cum dicat Apostolus cum nefariis nec cibum habere communem Victor Utic p. 418. Magnum virtutis praesidium societas bonoâ—um socius exemplo excitat sermone recreat consilio instâ—uiâ— orationibus adjuvat autoritate continet quae omnia so itudini desunt Ios. Acosta l. 4. c. 13. Dicunt Stoici Amicitiam solos inter bonâ—s quos sibi invicem studiorum similitudo conciliet posse consistere Porro amicitiam ipsam societatem quandam esse dicunt omnium quae sunt ad vitam necessaria cum amicis ut nobismet ipsis utamur atque ob id amicum eligendum amicorumque multitudinem â—â—â—â—er expetenda ponunt inter malos non posse constare amicitiam Laert. in Zenone as your Teachers The matter is not so great whom you meet by the way or travell with or trade and buy and sell with as whom you make your intimate or familiar friends For such have both the advantage of their interest in your affections and also the advantage of their nearness and familiarity and if they have but also the advantage of higher abilities than you they may be powerful instruments of your good or hurt If you have a familiar friend that will defend you from error and help you against temptations and lovingly reprove your sin and feelingly speak of God and the life to come inditing his discourse from the inward power of faith and love and holy experience the benefit of such a friend may be more to you than of the learnedst or greatest in the world How sweetly will their speeches relish of the Spirit from which they come How deeply may they pierce a careless heart How powerfully may they kindle in you a love and zeal to God and his Commandments How seasonably may they discover a temptation prevent your fall reprove an error and recover your souls How faithfully will they watch over you How profitably will they provoke and put you on and pray with you fervently when you are cold and mind you of the Truth and duty and mercy which you forget It is a very great mercy to have a judicious solid faithful companion in the way to Heaven § 5. But if your ears are daily filled with froth and folly with ribaldry or idle stories with Oaths and Curses with furious words or scorns and jears against the godly or with the Sophistry of deceivers is it likely this should leave a pleasant or wholsome relish on your minds Is it likely that the effect should not be seen in your lean or leprous hearts and lives as well as the effects of an infected or unwholsome air or diet will be seen upon your diseased bodies He is ungodly that liketh such company best And he is proud and presumptuous that will unnecessarily cast himself upon it in confidence that he shall receive no hurt And he is careless of himself that will not cautelously avoid it And few that long converse with such come off without some notable loss except when we live with such as Lot did in Sodom grieving for their sin and misery or as Christ conversed with publicans and sinners with a holy zeal and diligence to convert and save them or as those that have not liberty who bear that which they have not power to avoid § 6. Among the rest your danger is not least from that are eager to proselite you to some party or unsound opinion that they think they are in the right and that they do it in love and that they think it necessary to your salvation and that Truth or Godliness are the things which they profess all this makes the danger much the greater to you if it be not Truth and Godliness indeed which they propose and plead for And none are in more danger than the ungrounded and unexperienced that yet are so wise in their own esteem as to be confident that they know Truth from Error when they hear it and are not afraid of any deceit nor much suspicious of their own understandings But of this before § 7. The like danger there is of the familiar company of lukewarm ones or the prophane At Non tamen at corporum sic animorum moâ—bi transseunt ad nolentes Imo vero nobilis animus viâ—iorum odro ad amorem vâ—rtutis accâ—nditur Petraâ—â—h Dialog de aâ—iâ— moriâ— first you may be troubled at their sinful or unsavoury discourse and make some resistance against the infection But before you are aware it may so cool and damp your graces as will make your decay discernable to others First You will hear them with less offence and then you will grow indifferent what company you are in and then you will laugh at their sin and folly and then you will begin to speak as they and then you will grow cold and seldomer in prayer and other holy duties and if God prevent it not at last your judgements will grow blind and you will think all this allowable § 8. But of all bad company the nearest is the worst If you choose such into your families or into your nearest conjugal relations you cast water upon the fire you imprison your selves in such â—etters as will gall and grieve
minded man being denominated from what is predominant in him And yet because he knoweth that he must dye and for ought he knows he may then find against his will that there is another life which he must enter upon leâ—t the Gospel should prove true he must have some Religion And therefore he will take up as much as will stand with his temporal welfare hoping that he may have both thaâ— and Heaven hereafter and he will be as Religious as the predominant interest of the flesh will give him leave He is resolved rather to venture his soul than to be here undone and that 's his first principle But he is resolved to be as godly as will stand with a worldly fleshly life that 's his second principle And he will hope for Heaven as the end of such a way as this that 's his third Therefore he will place most of his Religion in those things which are most consistent with worldliness and carnality and will not cost his flesh too dear as in being as this or that opinion Church or party whether Papist Prot 〈…〉 t or some smaller party in adhering to that party and being zealous for them in acquiring and usiâ—g such parts and gifts as may make him highly esteemed by others and in doing such good works as cost him not too dear and in forbearing such sins as would procure his disgrace and shame and cost his flesh dearer to commit them than forbear them and such other as his flesh can spare This is his fourth principle And he is resolved when tryal calleth him to part with God and his conscience or with the world that he will rather let go God and Conscience and venture upon the pains hereafter which he thinks to be uncertain than to run upon a certain calamity or undoing here At least he hath no Resolution to the contrary which will carry him out in a day of tryal This is his fifth principle And his sixth principle is That yet he will not torment himself or blot his name with confessing himself a temporizing worldling resolved to turn any way to save himself And therefore he will be sure to believe nothing to be Truth and duty that is dangerous but will furnish himself with Arguments to prove that it is not the will of God and that sin is no sin Yea perhaps conscience and duty shall be pleaded for his sin It shall be out of tenderness and piety and charity to others that he will sin and will charge them to be the sinners that comply not and do not wickedly as well as he He will be one that shall first make a Controversie of every sin which his flesh calls necessary and of every Duty which his flesh counts intollerably dear And then when it is a Controversie and many reputed Wise and some reputed Good are on his side he thinks he is on equal terms with the most honest and sincere He hath got a burrow for his Conscience and his Credit He will not believe himself to be an Hypocrite and no one else must think him one lest they be uncharitable For then the censure must fall on the whole party and then it is sufficient to defend his reputation of piety to say Though we differ in opinion we must not differ in affection and must not condemn each other for such differences A very great Truth where rightly applyed But what is it O Hypocrite that makes thee differ in cases where thy flesh is interessed rather than in any other And why wast thou never of that mind till now that thy worldly interest requireth it And how cometh it to pass that thou artâ— alwayes on the self-saving opinion And whence is it that thou consultest with those only that are of the opinion which thou desirest should be true and either not at all or partially and slightly with those that are against it Wast thou ever conscious to thy self that thou hast accounted what it might cost thee to be saved and reckoned on the worst and resolved in the strength of grace to go through all Didst thou ever meddle with much of the self-denying part of Religion or any duties that would cost thee dear May not thy Conscience tell thee that thou never didst believe that thou shouldst suffer much for thy Religion that is thou hadst a secret purpose to avoid it § 3. O Sirs take warning from the mouth of Christ who hath so oft and plainly warned you of this sin and danger and told you how necessary self-denyal and a suffering disposition is to all that are his Disciples and that the worldly fleshly principle predominant in the Hypocrite is manifest by his self-saving course He must take up his Cross and follow him in a Conformity to his sufferings that will indeed be his Disciple We must suffer with him if we will reign with him Rom. 8. 17 18. Mat. 13. 20 21 22. He that received the seed in stony places the same is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it yet hath he not root in himself but dureth for a while for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word by and by he is offended He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful If thou have not taken Heaven for thy part and art not resolved to let go all that would keep thee from it I must say to thy Conscience as Christ to one of thy Predecessors Luke 18. 22. Yet lâ—ckest thou one thing and such a One as thou wilt find of flat necessity to thy salvation And it 's likely some trying time even in this life will detect thine Hypocrisie and make thee Go away sorrowful for thy riches sake as he ver 23. If godliness with contentment seem not sufficient gain to thee thou wilt make thy Gain go instead of Godliness that is thy Gain shall be next thy heart and have the precedency which Godliness should have and thy gain shall choose thee thy Religion and over-rule thy Conscience and sway thy life O Sirs take warning by the Apostates and temporizing hypocrites that have lookt behind them and with Demas for the world forsaken their duty and are set up by Justice as Pillars of Salt for your warning and remembrance And as ever you would make sure work in turning to God and escape the too late repentance of the hypocrite see that you go to the root and resign the world to the will of God and reckon what it may cost you to be followers of Christ and look not after any portion but the favour of God and life eternal and see that there be no secret reserve in your hearts for your worldly interest or prosperity and think not of halfing it between God and the world nor making your Religion complyant with the desires and interest of the flesh Take God
our faith Help thou our unbelief But he that approveth of his Doubting and would have it so and thinks the revelation is uncertain and such as will warrant no firmer a belief I should scarcely say this man is a Christian. Christianity must be received as of Divine infallible revelation But controversies about less necessary things cannot be determined peremptorily by the ignorant or young beginners without hypocrisie or a humane faith going under the name of a Divine I am far from abating your Divine belief of all that you can understand in Scripture and implicitely of all the rest in general And I am far from diminishing the credit of any truth of God But the Reasons of this Direction are these § 2. 1. When it is certain that you have but a dark uncertain apprehension of any point to think it is clear and certain is but to deceive your selves by pride And to cry out against all uncertainty as sceptiâ—isme which yet you cannot lay aside is but to revile your own infirmity and the common infirmity of mankind and foolishly to suppose that every man can be as wise and certain when he list as he should be Now Reason and experience will tell you that a young unfurnished understanding is not like to see the evidence of difficult points as by nearer approach and better advantage it may do § 3. 2. If your conclusions be peremptory upon meer self-conceitedness you may be in an error for ought you know and so you are but confident in an error And then how far may you go in seducing others and censuring dissenters and come back when you have done and confess that you were all this while mistaken your selves § 4. 3. For a man to be confident that he knoweth what he knoweth not is but the way to keep him ignorant and shut the door against all means of further information When the Opinion is fixt by prejudice and conceit there is no ready entrance for the light § 5. 4 And to be ungroundedly confident so young is not only to take up with your Teachers word instead of a faith and knowledge of your own but also to forestall all diligence to know more and so you may lay by all your studies save only to know what those men hold whose judgements are your Religion Too Popish and easie a way to be safe § 6. 5. If you must never change your first opinions or apprehensions how will you grow in understanding Will you be no wiser at age than you were in childhood and after long study and experience than before Nature and Grace do tend to increase § 7. Indeed if you should be never so peremptory in your opinions you cannot resolve to hold them to the end For Light is powerful and may change you whether you will or no you cannot tell what that Light will do which you never saw But prejudice will make you resist the light and make it harder for you to understand § 8. I speak this upon much experience and observation Our first unripe apprehensions of things will certainly be greatly changed if we are studious and of improved understandings Study the Conâ—roveâ—â—â—â—s about Grace and Free-will or about other such points of difficulty when you are young and â—â—s two to one that ripeness will afterward make them quite another thing to you For my own â—â—â—â—t my judgement is altered from many of my youthful confident apprehensions And where it heldeth the same conclusion it rejecteth abundance of the arguments as vain which once it rested in And where I keep to the same Conclusions and Arguments my apprehension of them is not the saâ—â— â—ut I see more satisfying light in many things which I took but upon trust before And if I had resolved to hold to all my first Opinions I must have forborn most of my studies and lost much truth which I have discovered and not made that my own which I did hold and I must have resolved to live and dye a child § 9. The su 〈…〉 is Hold fast the substance of Religion and every clear and certain Truth which you see in its own evidence and also reverence your Teachers especially the Universal Church or the generality of wise and godly men and be not hasty to take up any private opinion And especially to contradict the Opinion of your Governours and Teachers in small and controverted things But yet in such matters receive their Opinions but with a humane faith till indeed you have more and therefore with a supposition that time and study is very like to alter your apprehensions and with a reserve impartially to study and entertain the truth and not to sit still just where you were bâ—rn Direct 12. IF Controversies â—ccasion any Divisions where you live be sure to look first to the interest of Common Truth and Good and to the exercise of Charity And become not passionate contenders for any party in the division or censurers of the peaceable or of your Teachers that will not â—ver 〈…〉 their own understandings to obtain with you the esteem of being Orthodox or zealous men But suspect your own unripe understandings and silence your Opinions till you are clear and certain and jâ—yn rather with the moderate and the peace-makers than with the Contenders and Dividers § 1. You may easily be sure that Division tendeth to the ruine of the Church and the hinderance of the Gospel and the injury of the common interest of Religion You know it is greatly condemned in the Scriptures You may know that it is usually the exercise and the increase of Pride uncharitableness and passion and that the Devil is best pleased with it as being the greatest gainer by it But on the other side you are not easily certain which party is in the right And if you were you are not sure that the matter will be worth the cost of the contention Or if it be it is to be considered whether the Truth is not like to get more advantage by managing it in a more peaceable way that hath no contention nor stirreth not up other men so much against it as the way of controversie doth And whatever it prove you may and should know that young Christians that want both parts and helps and time and experience to be throughly seen in controversies are very unfit to make themselves parties And that they are yet more unfit to be the hottest leaders of those parties and to spur on their Teachers that know more than they If the work be fit for another to do that knoweth on what ground he goeth and can foresee the end yet certainly it is not fit for you And therefore forbear it till you are more fit § 2. I know those that would draw you into such a contentious zeal will tell you that their cause is the cause of God and that you desert him and betray it if you be not zealous in it and that it is but the counsel
of flesh and blood which maketh you pretend Moderation and Peace and that it is a sign that you are hypocrites that are so lukewarm and carnally comply with error and that the cause of God is to be followed with the greatest zeal and self denyal And all this is true if you be but sure that it is indeed the cause of God and that the greater works of God be not neglected on such pretences and that your Zeal be much greater for Faith and Charity and Unity than for your opinions But upon great experience I must tell you that of the zealous contenders in the world that cry up The Cause of Consuming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 use at 〈◊〉 â—o 〈◊〉 up the owners of it Whatever tâ—â—y say oâ— do against others in theâ—â— inâ—â—mperaâ—e violâ—nce they teach otherâ— at last to say and do against them when they have opportunity How the Orâ—â—odox taught the Aâ—â—iaâ—s to use severity against them may be sâ—en in Victor utic p. 447 448 449. in the Edict of Hunneâ—yâ—hus â—â—gem quam dudum Christiani Imperatores nostri contra eos alios haereticos pro honorisicentia Ecclesiae Catholiâ—ae dedâ—runâ— adversus nos illi proponere non eâ—ubuerunt v. g. Rex Hun. c. Triumphalis Majestatis Regiae probatur esâ—e virtutis mâ—â—a in autores conâ—lia retorquere Quisquis enim pravitatis aliquid invenerit sibi imputet quod incurrit Nullâ—s 〈◊〉 homâ—usion Saceâ—doâ—es assumanâ— nec aliquid mysteriâ—â—um quae magis polluunt sibi vendicenâ— Nullam habeant oâ—dinandi licentiam Quod ipsaâ—um legum continentia demonstratur quas induxiâ—â—e Imperaâ—oâ—ibuâ— c. viz. Ut nulla exceptâ—s superstiti 〈…〉 s suae â—nâ—stibus Ecclesia pateret nuâ—lâ—s liceret aliis aut convictus agere aut exercere convâ—ntâ—s nec Ecclesias auâ— in uâ—â—iâ—â—â—â— aut in quibuâ—dam 〈◊〉 locis God and Truth there is not one of very many that understandeth what he talks of but some of them cry up the Cause of God when it is a brat of a proud and ignorant brain and such as a judicious person would be ashamed of And some of them are rashly zealous before they have parts or time to come to any judicious tryal and some of them are mis-guided by some person or party that captivateth their minds and some of them are hurried away by passion and discontent and many of the ambitious and worldly are blinded by their carnal interests and many of them in meer pride think highly of an Opinion in which they are somewhat singular and which they can with some glorying call their Own as either invented by them or that in which they think they know more than ordinary men do And abundance after longer experience confess that to have been their own erroneous cause which they before entitled the Cause of God Now when this is the case and one cryeth Here is Christ and another There is Christ one saith This is the cause of God and another saith That is it no man that hath any care of his Conscience or of the honour of God and his profession will leap before he looketh where he shall alight or run after every one that will whistle him with the name or pretence of truth or a good cause It is a sad thing to go on many years together in censuring opposing and abusing thâ—se that are against you and in seducing others and mis-imploying your zeal and parts and time and poysoning all your prayers and discourses and in the end to see what mischief you have done for want of knowledge and with Paul to confess that you were mad in opposing the truth and servants of God though you did it in a zeal of God through ignorance Were it not much better to stay till you have tryed the ground and prevent so many years grievous sin than to scape by a sad repentance and leave behind you stinking and venemous fruits of your mistake And worse if you never repent your selves Your own and your Brethrens souls are not so lightly to be ventured upon dangerous untryed wayes It will not make the Truth and Church amends to say at last I had thought I had done well Let those go to the Wars of disputing and 〈◊〉 and câ—nsuâ—ing and siding with a Sect that are riper and better understand the cause Wars are not for Children Do you suspend your judgement till you can solidly and certainly inform it and serve God in Charity quietness and peace And it s two to one but you will live to see the day that the contenders that would have led you into their Wars will come off with so much loss themselves as will teach them to approve your peaceable course or teach you to bless God that kept you in your place and duty § 3. In all this I deny not but every truth of God is to be valued at a very high rate and that he that shall carry himself in a neutrality when Faith or Godliness is the matter in controversie or shall do it meerly for his worldly ends to save his stake by temporizing is a false-hearted hypocrite and at the heart of no Religion But withal I tell you that all is not matter of Faith or Godliness that the Autonomian-Papist the Antinomian-Libertine or other passionate parties shall call so And that as we must avoid contempt of the smallest Truth so we must much more avoid the most heinous sins which we may commit for the defending of an error And that some Truths must be silenced for a time though not denyed when the contending for them is unseasonable and tendeth to the injury of the Church If you were Masters in the Church you must not teach your Scholars to their hurt though it be truth you teach them And if you were Physicions you must not cramm them or Medicate them to their hurt Your power and duty is not to Destruction but to Edification The good of the Patient is the end of your Physick All Truth is not to be spoken nor all Good to be done by all men nor at all times He that will do contrary and take this for a carnal principle doth but call folly and sin by the name of zeal and duty and set the house on fire to rost his Egg and with the Pharisees prefer the outward rest of their Sabbath before his Brothers life or health Take heed what you do when Gods honour and mens souls and the Churches peace are concerned in it § 4. And let me tell you my own observation As far as my judgement hath been able to reach the men that have stood for Pacification and Moderation have been the most judicious and those that have best understood themselves in most controversies that ever I heard under debate among good Christians And those that suriously censured them as lukewarm or corrupted have been men that had least judgement and most passion pride and foul mistakes in the points in question § 5. Nay I will tell you
more of my observation of which these times have given us too much proof Profane and formal Enemies on the one hand and ignorant self-conceited wranglers on the other hand who think they are champions for the truth when they are venting their passions and fond opinions are the two Thieves between whom the Church hath suffered from the beginning to this day The first are the Persecutors and the other the Dividers and disturbers of the Church Mark what the Holy Ghost saith in this case 2 Tim. 2. 23 24. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strife and the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men Phil. 2. 14 15. Do all things without murmurings and disputings that ye may be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world 1 Tim. 6. 3 4 5 6. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Iesus Christ and the doctrine which is according to godliliness he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife raylings evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds c. So 1 Tim. 1. 4 5. Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which Minister Questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned § 6. Yet I must here profess that if any falsehearted worldly hypocrite that resolveth to be on the saving side and to hold all to be lawful that seemeth necessary to his safety or preferments shall take any encouragement from what I have here said to debauch his conscience and sell his soul and then call all those furious zealots that will not be as false to God as he let that man know that I have given him no cloak for so odious a sin nor will he find a cover for it at the barr of God though he may delude his conscience and bear it out by his carnal advantages before the world Direct 13. KNow that true Godliness is the Best Life upon Earth and the only may to perfect Direct 13. Happiness Still apprehend it therefore and Use it as the best and with great diligence â—â—sist those Temptations which would make it seem to you a confounding grievous or unpleasant thing § 1. There are all things concurrent in a Holy life to make it the most delectable life on earth to a rational purified mind that is not captivated to the flesh and liveth not on Air or Dung The Object of it is the Eternal God himself the Infallible Truth the only satisfactory Good and all these condescending and appearing to us in the mysterious but suitable glass of a Mediator Redeeming Reconciling teaching governing sanctifying justifying and glorifying all that are his own The End of it is the pleasing and glorifying of our Maker Redeemer and Sanctifier and the everlasting happiness of our selves and others The Rule of it is the infallible Revelation of God delivered to the Church by his Prophets and his Son and his Apostles and comprized in the Holy Scriptures and sealed by the Miracles and operations of the Holy Ghost that did indite them The work of Godliness is a living unto God and preparing for everlasting life by foreseeing foretasting seeking and rejoycing in that endless Happiness which we shall have with God and by walking after the Spirit and avoiding the filthiness delusions and vexations of the world and the flesh The nature of man is not capable of a more noble profitable and delectable life than this which God hath called us to by his Son And if we did but rightly know it we should follow it with continual alacrity and delight Be sure therefore to conceive of Godliness as it is and not as it is mis-represented by the Devil and the ungodly Read what I have written of this in my A Saint or a Brute § 2. As long as a man conceiveth of Religion as it is even the most sweet and delectable life so long he will follow it willingly and with his heart and despise the temptations and avocations of flâ—shly gain and pleasure He will be sincere as not being only drawn by other men or outward advantages nor frightned into it by a passion of fearfulness but loving Religion for it self and for its excellent ends And then he will be chearful in all the duties and under all the sufferings and difficulties of it And he will be most likely to persevere unto the end We cannot expect that the Heart or Will should be any more for God and Godliness than the Understanding practically apprehendeth them as Good Nay we must alwayes perceive in them a transcendent Goodness above all that is to be found in a worldly life Or else the appearing Goodness of the Creature will divert us and carry away our minds We may see in the very Brutes what a power apprehension hath upon their actions If your Horse be but going to his home or pasture how freely will he go through thick and thin but if he go unwillingly his travell is troublesome and slow and you have much ado to get him on It will be so with you in your way to Heaven § 2. It is therefore the principal design of the Devil to hide the Goodness and Pleasantness of Religion from you and to make it appear to you as a terrible or tedious life By this means it is that he keeps men from it and by this means he is still endeavouring to draw you back again and frustrate your good beginnings and your hopes If he can thus mis-represent Religion to your understandings he will suddenly alienate your wills and corrupt your lives and make you turn to the world again and seek for pleasure somewhere else and only take up with some heartless lip-service to keep up some deceitful hope of being saved And the means which Satan useth to these ends are such as these § 3. 1. He will do his worst to overwhelm you with appearing doubts and difficulties and bring How Satan would make Religion seem to be a câ—nfounding unpâ—â—aâ—an thing â— By difficulties you to a loss and to make Religion seem to you a confounding and not a satisfying thing This is one of his most dangerous assaults upon the weak and young beginners Difficulties and Passions are the things which he makes use of to confound you and put you out of a regular cheerful seeking of salvation When you read the Scriptures he will mind you of abundance of difficulties in all you read or hear He will shew you seeming contradictions and tell you that you will never be able to understand these things He will cast in thoughts of Unbelief and Blasphemy and cause you if he can to â—owl them in your
nature of them Direct 5. or runing into extreams I have told you the true nature of Humility before Abundance oâ— Christians are tempted by Satan to think it consisteth much much more than it doth in passionate grief and tears and bodily exercises of long and frequent fastings and confessions and penance or â—uch like And thus Satan diverteth them from true endeavors for true Humiliation by keeping them imployed all their days in striving for tears or in these external exercises Whereas you should most strive for such a â—ight of your sinfullness and nothingness as will teach you highly to esteem of Christ and to loath your selves and take your selves to be as vile and sinful as you are and will make you humbly beg for mercy and stoop to any means to obtain it and will make you patient under the rebukes and chastisements of God and under the contempts and injuries of men This is the Humility which you must labour for But in order to this external exercises of Humiliation must be used Especially studying the holy Law of God and searching your selves and confession of sin and moderate seasonable fastings and â—aming of the flesh And indeed the exercises of Humiliation do most become those that are most prone to Pride And the doctrine of those men who cry down true Humiliation doth come from Pride and is made to cherish Pride in others A humble soul cannot receive it but is pâ—oner here to run into excess § 87. Direct 6. There is no more powerful means to take down Pride than to look seriously to God and Direct 6. set your selves before his eyes and consider how he loveth the humble and abhorreth the Proud One sight of God by a lively faith would make you know with whom you have to do and â—each you to abhor your selves as vile A glow-worm is not discerned in the sunshine though it gliâ—ter in the dark A glimpse of the Majesty of God would make thee with Isaiah 6. cry out Wâ—e is me for I am undone a man of unclean lips c. and with the Israelites desire that Moses and not God might speak unto you lest you die Men are Proud because they know not God and look not to him but to fellow sinners with whom they think they may be bold to compare themselves Remember also that God is as it were engaged against the proud both in the holiness of his nature and in honour For a proud man sets up himself against him and is such an Idol as God will either take down by grace or spurn into the fire of destruction And if he do appear before God among others in days and external exercises of humiliation you may judge how much an abhorred person will be accepted It is not to all that are clothed in saâ—kcloath but to the humble soul that God hath respect Even to the â—elâ— abhorring person who judgeth himself unworthy to come among the people oâ— God or to be door-keepers in his house or to eat oâ— the crums of the childrens bread that ☜ subject themselves to one another and think no office of love and service too low for them to perform A summary of the signs of Humility to the least believer that in charitable meekness instruct opposers and bear contradiction and contempt from men that patiently suffer the injuries of enemies and friends and hartily forgive and love them that bear the most sharp and plain reproofs with gentleness and thanks that think the lowest place in mens esteem affections and respects the â—itâ—est for them that are much more sollicitous how they love others than how others love them and how they discharge their duties to others than how others do what they ought for them that will take up with smaller evidence to think well of the hearts or actions of others than of their own that reprove themselves ofter and sharplier than other men reprove them and are readier to censure themselves than others or than most others are to censure them that have a low esteem of their own understandings and parts and doings and therefore are readier to learn than teach and to hear than speak that highly value every bit and drop of mercy especially Christ and Grace and Glory These are the humble that God accepteth and this is the fast that he requireth These are they that pray effectually and that must save the land These only are sensible what sin is when others feel it not or are proud in the midst of their largest confessions and tears These only do from their hearts acknowledge their desert of Gods severest judgements and justifie God when he afflicteth them Others rather marvel at the greatness and continuance of judgements and expostulate with God as dealing hardly and unkindly with them and tell him how good a people he afflicteth These only understand the sinfullness of their very humiliations and prayers through the weakness of that good which should be in them and the mixture of much â—vil when the proud are marvelling if God hear them not at the first word These only wait in patience for Gods answer and accept of mercy in his time and measure when the proud are short-winded and if God come not just when they expected they do with Saul make 1 Sam. 13 9 10 11 12. hâ—ste or murmure at his providence and say it is in vain to serve the Lord and begin to think of forsaking him and taking some better way These proud ones that have joyned in outward Humiliations and have lift up themselves in heart while they cast down their bodies are they that have turned the heart of God so much against us to break us in pieces because he hath found among us so many of the proud whom he taketh for his enemies We have had those humbling themselves in our assemblies that were wise in their own eyes despising and scorning and reviling their ☞ Teachers such as undervalued and censured others that were not for their opinions and interest Sig 〈…〉 Pâ—â—de that overloved the respect and honour that is from men and could not endure to be disesteemed or little set by that could not bear an injury or a foul word but were prone to anger if not revenge that could not seek peace nor stoop to others nor bear plain-dealing in reproof nor forgive a wrong without much submission that had high expectations from others and loved those best that most esteemed them that counted it baseness to stoop to the meanest places or services for others good yea that quarrelled with God his word and providences and valued no other mercies but those that exalted themselves or pleased their flesh which proved judgements And yet while they thus by pride excommunicated themselves from the face of God and made themselves abhorred by him they separated from the holiest assemblies and servants of God in the land as unworthy of communion with such as they unless they would first become of
the great enemies of health and nurseries of diseases And is not the concurrent judgement of Physicions more valuable about matters of health than your private opinions or appetites Yet when sickness requireth Variety it is necessary § 53. 3. Sit not too long at meat for besides the sin of wasting time it is but the way to tice down a little and a little more And he that would be Temperate if you sate but a quarter of an hour which is ordinarily enough will exceed when he hath the temptation of half an hour which is enough for the entertainment of strangers much more when you must sit out an hour which is too much of all conscience Though greedy eating is not good yet sober feeding may satisfie Nature in a little time § 54. 4. See that your provisions be not more costly than is necessary Though I know there must be The old fashion in Country-mens houses was not amiss where the story of this Rich Glutton and Lazarus was wont to be painted over their Tables on their Walls a difference allowed for Persons and Times yet see that no cost be bestowed unnecessarily And let sober Reason and not Pride and Gluttony judge of the necessity we commonly call him the Rich Glutton Luke 16. that fared sumptuously every day It is not said that he did eat any more than other men but that he fared sumptuously You cannot answer it comfortably to God to lay that out upon the belly which might do more good another way It s a horrid sin to spend such store of wealth unnecessarily upon the belly as is ordinarily done The cheapest dyet caeteris paribus must be preferred § 55. Object But the scandal of Covetousness must be avoided as well as Gluttony Folks will say that all this is done meerly from a miserable worldly mind Answ. 1. It is easier to bear that censure than the displeasure of God 2. No scandal must be avoided by sin It is a scandal taken and not given 3. With Temperate persons your excess is much more scandalous 4. I 'll teach you a cure for this in the next Direction § 56. Object But what if I set variety and plenty on my Table May not men choose whether they will eat too much Do you think men are Swine that know not when they have enough Answ. Yes we see by certain experience that most men know not when they have enough and do exceed when they think they do not There is not one of many but is much more prone to exceed than to come short and abundance sin in excess for one that sinneth by defect And is sin so small a matter with you that you will lay snares before men and then say They may take heed So men may choose whether they will go into a Whore-house and yet the Pope doth scarce deal honestly to license them at Rome much less is it well to prepare them and invite men to them Will you excuse the Devil for tempting Eve with the forbidden fruit because she might choose whether she would meddle with it What doth that on your Table which is purposely cooked to the tempting 1 Cor â— 9. Lev. 19 14. Rom. 14. 13. Rom. 11 9. Rev. 2. 14. of the appetite and is fitted to draw men to Gulosity and Excess and is no way needful Wo to him that layeth a stumbling block before the blind Let no man put a stumbling block in his brothers way It is the wickeds curse Let their Table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block And it was Balaams sin that he taught Balaack to tempt Israel or lay a stumbling block before them § 57. Direct 9. Resolve to bestow the cost of such superfluities upon the poor or some other charitable Direct 9. use that so it become not a sacrifice to the belly Let the greatest and needfullest uses be first served It is no time for you to be glutting your appetites and wallowing in excess when any yea so many about you do want even clothes and bread If you do thus lay out all upon the poor which you spare from feeding your own and other mens excess then none can say that your sparing is through covetous nigardize and so that reproach is taken off The price of one Feast will buy bread for a great many poor people It s small thanks to you to give to the poor some leavings when your bellies are first glutted with as much as the appetite desired This costeth you nothing A Swine will leave that to another which he cannot eat But if you will a little pinch your flesh or deny your selves and live more sparingly and thriftily that you may have the more to give to the poor this is commendable indeed § 58. Direct 10. Do not over-perswade any to eat when there is no need but rather help one Direct 10. another against running into excess by seasonable discourses of the sinfulness of Gluttony and of the excellency of abstinence and by friendly watchings over and warning one another Satan and the flesh and its unavoidable baits are temptation strong enough we need not by unhappy kindness to add more § 59 Direct 11. When you feel your appetites eager against reason and conscience check them and Direct 11. resolve that they shall not be pleased Unresolvedness keepeth up the temptation If you would but Resolve once you would be quiet But when the Devil findeth you yielding or wavering or unresolved he will never give you rest Prov. 23. 1 2 3. When thou fittest to eat with a Ruler consider diligently what is before thee and put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite Be not desirous of his dainties for they are deceitful meat The words translated If thou be a man given to appetite agreeable to the Septuagint and the Arabick are translated by Montanus and in the Vulgar Latin and the Chaldee Paraphrase If thou have the power of thy own soul or be master of thy soul Compos animae Shew that thou art master of thy self by thy abstinence Instead of Put a knife to thy throat that is Threaten thy self into abstinence the Syriack and divers Expositors translate it Thou Prov. 2â— 2â— dost or lest thou dost put a knife to thy throat that is Thou art as bad as cutting thy throat or destroying thy self when thou art gluttonously feeding thy self Keep up Resolution and the power of Reason § 60. Direct 12. Remember what thy Body is and what it will shortly be and how lothesome and Direct 12. vile it will be in the dust And then think how far such a Body should be pampered and pleased and See 1 Cor. 6 13. at what rates Pay not too dear for a feast for Worms Look into the grave and see what is the end of all your pleasant meats and drinks of all your curious costly fare You may see there the Qâ—i Châ—istâ—◠〈◊〉
desired by qualifying our selves for it as if indeed they moved the mind of God to a real change Even as he that is in a Boat and by his hook layeth hold of the banck doth as truly by his labour get nearer the banck as if he drew the banck to him § 4. Direct 3. Labour above all to know that God to whom you pray To know him as your Maker Direct 3. your Redeemer and your Regenerater as your Owner your Ruler and your Father Felicity and End as All-sufficient for your relief in the infiniteness of his Power his Wisdom and his Goodness and to know your own dependance on him and to understand his Covenant or Promises upon what terms he is engaged and resolved either to give his mercies or to deny them He that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. He that calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved But how shall they call on him on whom they have not believed Rom. 10. 13 14. § 5. Direct 4. Labâ—ur when you are about to pray to stir uâ— in your souls the moâ—t lively Direct 4. and â—â—riâ—uâ— bâ—lief of thâ—se uâ—seen things that your Prayers have respect to and to pray as if you saw them all the while Even as if you saw God in his Glâ—ry and saw Heaven and Hell the glorified and the damned and Iesus Christ your Mediator interceding for you in the Heavens As you would pray if your eyes beheld all these so strive to pray while you believe them And say to your selves Are they not as sure as if I saw them Are they not made known by the Son and Spirit of God § 6. Direct 5. Labour for a constant aâ—cuaintance with your selves your sins and manifold Direct 5. wants and necâ—ssiâ—ies and also to take an actual special notice of your case when you go to prayer If you get not a former câ—â—stant acquaintance with your own case you cannot expect to know it aright upon a suddâ—n as you go to pray And yet if you do not actually survâ—y your hâ—â—â—â—ts and lives when you go to prayer your souls will be unhumbled and want that lively sense of your necessities which must put life into your prayers Know well what sin is and what Gods wrath and Hell and Iudgement is and whâ—t sin you have committed and what duty you have omitted and failed in and what wants and corruptions are yet within you and what mercy and grace you stand in need of and then all this will make you pray and pray to purpose with all your hearts But when men are wilful strangers to themselves and never seriously look backwards or inwards to see what is amiss and wanting nor look not forwards to see the danger that is before them no wonder if their hearts be dead and dull and if they are as unfit to pray as a sleeping man to work § 7. Direct 6. See that you hate hypâ—crisie and let not your lips go against or without your hearts Direct 6. but that your hearts be the spring of all your words That you love not sin and be not â—â—th to 〈…〉 quum navis tâ—â—pestaâ—e qâ—â—â—â—e eâ—uâ— 1 lique Dâ—â—s invocarent Sâ—lâ—te inquit neâ—vâ—s â—â—c illi nâ—â—igarâ— sâ—ntâ—ant 〈…〉 p 55. leave it when you seem to pray against it and that you truly desire the grace which you ask and ask not for that which you would not have And that you be ready to use the lawful means to get the mercies which you ask and be not like those lazy wishers that will pray God to give them increase at harvest when they lye in bed and will neither plow or sow or that pray him to save them from fire or water or danger while they run into it or will not be at the pains to go out of the way O what abundance of wretches do offer up hypocritical mock-prayers to God! blaspheming him thereby as if he were an Idol and knew not their hypocrisie and searched not the hearts Alas how commonly do men pray in publick that the rest of their lives hereafter may be pure and holy that hate purity and holiness at the heart and deride and oppose that which they sâ—em to pray for As Austin confesseth of himself before he was converted that he prayed against his filthy sin and yet was afraid lest God should grant his prayers So many pray against the sins which they would not be delivered from or would not use the means that is necessary to their conquest and deliverance Let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me Psal. 66. 18. See Ezek. 14. 3 4 14. Alas how easie is it for anâ— ungodly person to learn to say a few words by rote and to run them over without any sense of what he speaketh while the tongue is a stranger to the heart and speaketh not according to its desires § 8. Direct 7. Search your hearts and watch them carefully lest some beloved Vanity alienate Direct 7. them from the work in hand and turn away your thoughts or prepossess your affections so that you want them when you should use them If the mind be set on other matters prayer will be a heartless lifeless thing Alas what a dead and pitiful work is the prayer of one that hath his heart ensnared in the Love of money or in any ambitious or covetous design The thoughts will easily follow the affections § 9. Direct 8. Be sure that you pray for nothing that is disagreeable to the will of God and Direct 8. that is not for the good of your selves or others or for the honour of God And therefore take heed lest an erring judgement or carnal desires or passions should corrupt your prayers and turn them into sin If men will ignorantly pray to God to do them hurt it is a mercy to them if God will but pardon and deny such prayers and a judgement to grant them And it is an easie thing for fleshly interest or partiality or passion to blind the judgement and consequently to corrupt mens prayers An Ambitious or Covetous man will easily be drawn to pray for the grant of his sinful desires and think it would be for his good And there is scarce an heretical or erroneous person but thinketh that it would be good that the world were all reduced to his opinion and all the opposers of it were born down There are few zealous Antinomians Anabaptists or any other Dividers of the Church but they put their Opinions usually into their prayers and plead with God for the interest of their Sâ—cts and Errors And its like that the Jews that had a persecuting Zeal for God Rom. 10. 2. did pray according to that Zeal as well as persecute as its like Paul himself
by the examples of your blameless humble holy lives O how abundantly would this course promote the success of the publick preaching of the Gospel If you would cause those men to see the glory and power of the Gospel in your holy and heavenly lives who cannot see it in it self Then many that would not be won by the Word might be won without it to seek after it at least by your conversations Thus all must preach and be helpers of the Ministers of Christ. § 35. Direct 10. Forsake not your faithful Pastors to follow deceivers but adhere to them who spend and are spent for you Defend their innocency against false accusers and refuse them not such maintenance as is needful to their entire giving up themselves to that holy work to which they are devoted Read and study well Ephes. 4. 13 14 15. Acts 20. 30. It is for your sakes that your faithful 2 Tim. 2. 10. 2 Cor. 4. 15. 1 Thess. 3. 9. 1 Thess. 1. 5. Matth. 26. 56. 2 Tim. 4. 16. Gal. 6. 6 10. 1 Cor. 9. Col. 1. 24. Pastors are singled out in the world to bear the slanders and contradictions of the wicked and to lead the way in the fiery tryal If they would forsake you and that sacred truth and duty that is needful to your salvation and sell you up into the hands of cruell and deceitful men it were as easie for them to have the applause of men and the prosperity of the world as others It is perfidious ingratitude to forsake them in every tryal that must lose their lives and all the world rather then forsake you or betray your souls Or to grudge them food and rayment that lay by the gainful employments of the world that they may attend continually on the service of your souls CHAP. VII Directions for the discovery of the Truth among Contenders and the escape of Heresie and Deceit § 1. THough Truth be naturally the Object of mans Understanding to which it hath a certain Niâ—ebatur Socrates summo ingenii acumine non tam illos ex sententia reâ—ellere quam ipse quid verum esset invenâ—re inclination and though it be a delightful thing to know the truth yet that which is saving meeteth with so much opposition in the flesh and in the world that while it is applauded in the general it is resisted and rejected in particulars And yet while the Use of holy truth is hated and obstinately cast away the name and the barren profession of it is made the matter of the glorying of hypocrites and the occasion of reproaching dissenters as Hereticks and the world is filled with bloody persecutions and inhumane implacable enmities and divisions by a wonderful zeal for the Name of Truth even by those men that will rather venture on damnation than they will obey the Truth which they so contend for Multitudes of men have Laert. iâ— Socrat. tormented or murdered others as Hereticks who themselves must be tormented in Hell for not being Christians It concerneth us therefore to deal very wisely and cautelously in this business § 2. Direct 1. Take heed lest there be any carnal interest or lust which maketh you unwilling to Direct 1. receive the truth or inclineth you to error that it may serve that interest or lust It is no small number of men that are strangers or enemies to the truth not because they cannot attain the knowledge of it but because they would not have it to be truth And men of great learning and natural parts are frequently thus deceived and led into error by a naughty carnal byassed heart Either because that error is the vulgar opinion and necessary to maintain their popular reputation and avoid reproach or because it is the way of men in power and necessary to their preferment and greatness in the world or because the Truth is contrary to their fleshly lusts and pleasures or contrary to their honour and worldly interest and would hazard their reputations or their lives How loth Heb 12. 14. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Rom. 8. 9 13. is a sensual ungodly man to believe that without Holiness none shall see God and that he that is in Christ is a new creature and that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his and that if they live after the flesh they shall dye How loth is the ambitious Minister to believe that the way of Christs service lyeth not in worldly pomp or ease or pleasures but in taking up the Cross and following Christ in self-denyal and in being as the servant of all in the unwearied performance of careful oversight and compassionate exhortations unto all the flock Let a controversie be raised about any of these points and the mind of lazy ambitious men doth presently fall in with that part which gratifieth their fleshly lusts and excuseth them from that toilsome way of duty which they already hate The secret lusts and vices of a false hypocritical heart are the commonest and the powerfullest arguments for error And such men are glad that Great men or Learned men will give so much ease to their consciences and shelter to their reputations as to countenance or make a Controversie at least of that which their lusts desire to be true Above all therefore see that you come not to enquire after Truth with an unsanctified heart and unmortified lusts which are a byass to your minds and make you warp from the truth which you enquire after For if the carnal mind neither is nor can be subject to the Law of God you may easily perceive that it will be loth to believe it when in so doing they believe their own condemnation An honest sanctified heart is fittest to entertain the truth § 3. Direct 2. Seek after the truth for the love of truth and love it especially for its special use as Direct 2. it formeth the heart and life to the Image and Will of God and not for the fanciful delight of knowing Socrates de Ethâ—ce in Offiâ—inis in publico quotidie Philosophans ea potius inquirenda hortabatur quae mores instruerent quorum usus nobis domi esset necessarius Laert. in Socrat. much less for carnal worldly ends No means are used at all as means where the End is not first determined of And to do the same thing materially to another end is not indeed to do the same For thereby it s made another thing Your Physicion will come to you if you you seek to him as a Physicion but not if you send to him to mend your Shoos So if you seek knowledge for the true ends of knowledge to fill your hearts with the Love of God and guide your lives in holiness and righteousness God is engaged to help you in the search But if you seek it only for to please your pride or fansie no wonder if you miss of it and it is no great matter
you do evil with double violence and with blasphemous fathering your sins on God and with impenitence and justification of your sin This made Paul mad in persecuting the Church Prov. 15. 21. Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom but a man of understanding walketh uprightly No man can do that well which he understandeth not well Therefore you must study and take unwearied pains for knowledge Wisdom never grew up with idleness though the conceit of wisdom doth no where more prosper This age hath told us to what desperate precipices men will be carryed by ignorant zeal 2. And the understanding must be large or it cannot be solid When many particulars are concerned in an action the over-looking of some one may spoil the work Narrow minded men are turned as the weather-cock with the wind of the times or of every temptation and they seldome avoid one sin but by falling into another It is Prudence that must manage an upright life And Prudence seeth all that must be seen and putteth every circumstance into the ballance For want of which much mischief may be done while you seem to be doing the greatest good The prudent man looketh well to his going Prov. 14. 15 See therefore that ye walk circumspectly at a hairs breadth not as fools but as wise 6. But because you will object that alas few even of the upright have wits so strong as to be fit Psal. 119. 98. Prov. 1 6 7. 8. 12. 15 18. 13. 1. 14 20. 15. 2. 7 12. 31. 22. 17. 25. 12. Eccles. 12. 11. Dan. 12. 3 10. Matth. 24. 45. Psal. 37. 30. Eccles. 2. 13. Isa. 33. 6. Matth. 12. 42. Luke 1. 17. 21. 15. Acts 6. 3. 2 Pet. 3. 15. Mal. 2. 6 7. 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. Heb. 13. 7 17. Tit. 1. 9 13. 2. 1 8. 2 Tim. 4. 3. for this I add that he that will walk uprightly must in the great essential parts of Religion have this foresaid knowledge of his own and in the rest at least he must have the conduct of the wise And therefore 1. He must be wise in the great matters of his salvation though he be weak in other things 2. And he must labour to be truly acquainted who are indeed wise men that are meet to be his guides And he must have recourse to such in Cases of Conscience as a sick man to his Physicion It is a great mercy to be so far wise as to know a wise man from a fool and a Counsellor from a deceiver 7. He that will walk uprightly must be the master of his passions not stupid but calm and sober Though some passion is needful to excite the understanding to its duty yet that which is Prov. 14. 29. Col. 3. 8. inordinate doth powerfully deceive the mind Men are very apt to be confident of what they passionately apprehend And passionate judgements are frequently mistaken and ever to be suspected It being exceeding difficult to entertain any passion which shall not in some measure pervert our reason which is one great reason why the most confident are ordinarily the most erroneous and blind Be sure therefore when ever you are injured or passion any way engaged to set a double guard upon your judgements 8. He that will walk uprightly must not only difference between simple Good and Evil but between a greater Good and a less For most sin in the world consisteth in preferring a Lesser Good before Matth. 9. 13. 12. 7. Psal. 40. 6. 51. 16. 1 Sam. 15. 22. a Greater He must still keep the ballance in his hand and compare good with good Otherwise he will make himself a Religion of sin and preferr Sacrifice before mercy and will hinder the Gospel and mens salvation for a ceremony and violate the bonds of love and faithfulness for every opinion which he calleth Truth and will tythe Mint and Cummin while he neglecteth the great things of the Law When a lesser good is preferred before a greater it is a sin and the common way of sinning It is not then a duty when it is inconsistent with a greater good 2 Cor. 10. 8. 13. 10. Rom. 15. 2. 14. 19. 1 Cor. 14. 26. 2 Cor. 12. 19. Rom. 3. 8. Eph. 4. 12 c. 1 Cor. 12. 9. He must ever have a conjunct respect to the Command and the End The good of some actions is but little discernable any where but in the Command and others are evidently good because of the good they tend to We must neither do evil and break a Law that good may come by it Nor yet pretend obedience to do mischief as if God had made his Laws for Destruction of the Church or mens souls and not for Edification 10. He must keep in Union with the Universal Church and preferr its interest before the interest of any party whatsoever and do nothing that tendeth to its hurt 11. He must love his neighbour as himself and do as he would be done by and love his enemies and Matth. 22 39. 5. 43 44. 7. 12. forgive wrongs and hear their defamations as his own 12. He must be Impartial and not lose his Iudgement and Charity in the opinion or interest of a Jam. 3. 15 16 17 18. Party or Sect Nor think all right that is Held or Done by those that he best liketh nor all wrong that is held or done by those that are his adversaries But judge of the Words and Deeds of those Gal. 2 13 14. Deut. 25. 16. 1 Cor. 6. 9. that are against him as if they had been said or done by those of his own side Else he will live in slâ—ndering backbiting and gross unrighteousness 13. He must be deliberate in judging of Things and Persons not rash or hasty in believing reports Matth. 7. 1 2. John 7. 24. Râ— 14. 10 13. 1 Pet. 1. 17. or receiving opinions not judging of Truths by the first appearance but search into the naked evidence Nor judging of persons by prejudice fame and common talk 14. He must be willing to receive and obey the Truth at the dearest rate especially of laborious Luke 14. 26. 33. 1â— 4. Prov. 23. 23. Matth. 1â— 3. Prov. 26. 12. 16 28 11. 1 Cor. 3. 18 Prov. â— 7. study and a self-denying life Not taking all to be Truth that costeth men dear nor yet thinking that Truth indeed can be over-prized 15. He must be Humble and self-suspicious and come to Christs School as a little child and not have a proud over-valuing of himself and his own understanding The proud and selfish are blind and cross and have usually some opinions or interests of their own that lye cross to duty and to other mens good 16. He must have an eye to posterity and not only to the present time or age and to other Nations Judg. 8. 27. 1 Cor. 7. 35. 1 King 14. 16. 15. 26.
this or subscribe this without the guilt of a deliberate sin and I cannot sin without displeasing God and hindering my salvation He that dare wilfully sin himself and make it his deliberate choice and dare play away his own salvation at the poorest game that the Devil will invite him to and will sell his own soul at the basest price even for a little pelf or pleasure or high titles for so short a time certainly this man is unlike to be very tender of the souls of others or to stick at scandalizing and ensnaring them or to care any more to murder souls than a Butcher doth to kill a Hog Iudas's heart will make them sell their Lord or his flock at Iudas's price and prepare themselves for Iudas's reward And hence it is that the Carnal seed even within the Church hath ordinarily persecuted the spiritual seed For saith Paul As he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now Gal. 4. 29. § 26. Direct 4. To be well acquainted with the methods of Satan and the way of particular temptations Direct 4. is a great help against your scandalizing others He that seeth the Devil as the principal in each temptation and knoweth in what manner he engageth his instruments to carry on his work and whither all this tendeth at the last will scarce be willing to serve such a master in so bad a work Remember that scandalizers and tempters of others and hinderers of mens salvation are the servants of the Devil and are executing his malice for the damnation of their brethrens souls And what reward can they expect for such a work from such a master The Devil useth them but as men do Ferrets whose mouths are sealed because they must not partake of the prey but only bring it to their masters hand Live in a constant watchful resistance of temptations your selves and you will have no mind to the drudgery of tempting others § 27. Direct 5. Set not your selves upon any worldly ambitious design For the Love of the Riches Direct 5. and Honours of the World will not only engage you in a course of sinning but also make it seem your interest to make others as bad and miserable as your selves and to drive them on to serve your interests by their sin § 28. Direct 6. Take â—heed lest a fleshly inclination do draw you to the Love of fleshly pleasures Direct 6. and that your minds be not set upon the pleasing of your fansies sense or appetite either in meat or drink or cloaths or dwellings or recreations or any such delights If once the Love of these grow strong it will conquer your reason and seduce it into Libertinism and make you think that a voluptuous flesh-pleasing life so it be not by gross disgraced sins is but the lawful use of the Creature which Christ hath purchased not only for our necessity but for our delight and that the contrary opinion is but the too much rigour of such as understand not their Christian liberty § 29. Direct 7. Be not rashly and ignorantly zealous in soliciting and importuning others to your Direct 7. private opinions before you are certain that they are of God O what abundance of zeal and labour hath many a man laid out to make others of his mind in the points of Antinomiâ—nism Aâ—abaptism Separation Popery c. thinking that the saving of their souls had lain upon it And at last they find that as they erred themselves so all their labour was but to scandalize the weak and lay a stumbling block in their way to Heaven § 30. Direct 8. Never perswade any man much less compell him to any thing unnecessary Direct 8. which be taketh to be a sin whatever you take it for your selves For if he judge it a sin it is a sin to him No man can innocently do that which he thinketh is forbidden him of God And shall a thing unnecessary be preferred before the saving of a soul Yea before the souls of thousands as by many merciless men it is Indeed if there be an Antecedent necessity as well as a lawfulness in the thing and such a necessity as is not in your power to take away then the Doing it will be his sin and the not doing it his greater sin and the greater sin is greatliest to be avoided but by convenient means § 31. Direct 9. Remember the charge which you have of the souls of one another Though you Direct 9. be not Magistrates or Pastors For their care of souls is so unquestionable and so great that scandal in them is like Parents murdering their own Children Yet no private man must say as Cain Am I my brothers keeper Every man is bound to do his best for the saving of his Neighbour Much more to forbear infecting seducing scandalizing and destroying him § 32. Direct 10. Keep up a special tenderness of the weak So doth God himself and so must Direct 10. we He gathereth the Lambs with his arms c. Isa. 40. 11. If his Infants cry he doth not therefore knock out their brains or turn them out of doors Nor doth he say they are not his Children for every ignorance or pievish passion which they are guilty of Christ doth not turn men out of his School because they want knowledge For why then will he have little Children come and what do they come for but to learn He doth not hate his new born babes but feedeth and nurseth them with a special tenderness And he hath commanded and communicated the like tenderness to his Ministers who must not be weak with the weak and froward with the froward but in meekness and patience must bear with the weak and endure their bitterest censures and requitals For the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves c. 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. And if they are long learning before they come to the Knowledge of the truth they are not therefore to be cast off He that can read Rom. 14. 15. 1 Cor. 12. 12. 8. Gal. 6. and yet can be so merciless and cruel as to cast men out of the Ministry or Church or to ruine them for tolerable weakness which God hath so earnestly charged us to bear with in our Brethren either he doth not understand what he readeth or not believe it or hath somewhat else which he more regardeth at his heart than the Authority or Love of God § 33. Direct 11. Do not censure every man to be wilful or obstinate who is not of your opinion Direct 11. when he hath heard your reasons how clear soever they may may seem to you Alas how many things are there besides wilful obstinacy to hinder one man from being as wiâ—e as another If a few times repeating over the Reasons of an opinion is
Motive 7. are our fellow Souldiers and Travellers with whom only we can have sweet and holy converse and a Heavenly conversation when the carnal favour not the things of God Mot. 8. Consider how serviceable their graces render them for the pleasing of God and the good of Motive 8. men They are the work of God created to good works Ephes. 2. 10. They are fitted by grace to Love and praise their Maker and Redeemer and to obey his Laws and to honour him in their works as shining lights in a dark generation They are the blessings of the place where God hath planted them They pray for sinners and exhort them and give them good examples and call them from their sins and lovingly draw them on to conversion and salvation For their sakes God useth others the better where they live Ten righteous persons might have saved Sodom They are lovely therefore for the service which they do Mot. 9. All their graces will be shortly perfected and all their infirmities done away They are Motive 9. already pardoned and justified by Christ and every remaining spot and wrinkle will be shortly taken away Ephes. 5 26 27. and they shall be presented perfect unto God And they that shall be so perfect then are amiable now Mot. 10. They shall see the Glory of God and live for ever in his presence They shall be employed Motive 10. in his perfect Love and praise and we shall be their companions therein And those that must sing Halleluja's to God in perfect amity and concord in such an harmonious blessed chore should live in great endearedness in the way Tit. 4. The Hinderances and Enemies of Christian love Enemy 1. THE first Enemy of Christian Love is the inward unregeneracy and carnality of the mind Enemy 1. For the carnal mind is enmity to God and neither is nor can be subject to his law Rom. 8. 6 7. And therefore it is at enmity with Holiness and with those that are seriously holy The excellency of a Christian is seen only by faith believing what God speaketh of them and by spiritual discerning of their spiritual worth But the natural man discerneth not the things of the spirit but they are as foolishness to him because they must be spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. There must be a suitableness of nature before there can be true love And he that will love them as holy must first love holiness himself Enemy 2. Another Enemy to Christian Love is selfishness or inordinate self-love For this will Enemy 2. make men love no one heartily but as they serve or love or honour them and according to the measures of their self ish interest If a Godly man will not flatter such persons and serve their proud or covetous humours they cannot love him A selfish person maketh so great a matter of every infirmity which crosseth his interest or every mistake which crosseth his opinon or every little injury that his done him that he cryeth out presently O what wicked and unconscionable people are these What hypocrites are they Is this their Religion Is this justice or charity All virtues and vices are estimated by them according to their own ends and interests chiefly They can think better of a common Whoremonger or Swearer or Atheist or Infidel that loveth and honoureth and serveth them than of the most holy and upright servant of God who thinketh meanly or hardly of them and standeth in their way and seemeth to be against their interest It is no commendations to him in this mans account that he loveth God and all that are godly if he seem to injure or cross a selfish man A carnal self-lover can love none but himself and for himself and maketh all faults which are against himself to be the characters of an odious person rather than those which are committed against God Enemy 3. Christian love is often diminished and marred by Degenerating into a Carnal sort of Enemy 3. Love through the prevalency of some Carnal Vice Thus they that loved a man for Godliness turn it into a selfish love for some honour or favour or benefits to themselves And young persons of different Sexes begin to love each other for piety and by undiscreet and unwary and sinful familiars are drawn before they are aware to carnal fond and sinful love And these persons think that their holy love is stronger than before when as it is stifled consuming and languishing as natural heat by a burning Feavor and is overcome and turned into another thing Enemy 4. Passion and Impatiency is a great enemy to Christian Love It is stirring up displeasing Enemy 4. words and carriage and then cannot bear them It meeteth every where with matter of displeasure and offence and is still casting water on this sacred fire and feigning or finding faults in all Enemy 5. Self-ignorance and partiality is a great enemy to love when it maketh men overlook Enemy 5. their own corruptions and extenuate all those faults in themselves which in others they take for heinous crimes And so they want that compassion to others which would bear with infirmities because they know not how bad they are themselves and what need they have of the forbearance of others Enemy 6. Censoriousness is an enemy to brotherly love as is aforesaid A censorious person will Enemy 6. tell you how dearly he loveth all the godly But he can allow so few the acknowledgement of their godliness that few are beholden to him for his love His sinful humour blindeth his mind that he cannot see anothers godliness He will love them for their sincerity when he can see it but that will not be till he hath better eyes Timon was a great lover of wisdom but a hater of all men because he took no man to be wise Enemy 7. Faction and Parties or siding in Religion is one of the greatest enemies of Christian Enemy 7. love For this causeth Censoriousness and maketh men so overvalue the Opinions which they have chosen and the interest of their party that they hardly see goodness in any that are not of their mind and quickly find faults or devise them in those that are against them Enemy 8. Conversing with malicious wicked or censorious persons is a great hinderance of the love Enemy 8. of godly men For he that heareth them daily slandered and represented as brainsick seditious self-conceited humorous hypocritical people will easily take them as odious but hardly as amiable unless he come nearer them and know them better than by a lyars words Enemy 9. Too high expectations is a great enemy to love When men either look that Saints on Enemy 9. earth should be like Saints in Heaven who have no infirmity or look for greater parts of nature or art ingenuity or excellency of speech than is in other persons or when selfishness and covetousness or pride doth make men look for great respect and