8. marry than to burn 1 Cor. 7. 9. It is Gods Ordinance partly for this end Marriage is honourable and the bed undefiled Heb. 13. 4. It is a resemblance of Christs Union with his Church and is sanctified to believers Eph. 5. 1 Cor. 7. Perhaps it may cast thee upon great troubles in the world if thou be unready for that state as it is with Apprentices Forbear then thy sin at easier rates or else the lawful means must be used though it undo thee It s better thy Body be undone than thy soul if thou wilt needst have it to be one of them But if thou be marryed already thou art a monster and not a man if the remedy prevail not with thee But yet the other directions may be also serviceable to thee § 26. Direct 9. If less means prevâ—il not open thy case to some able faithful friend and engage Direct 9. them to watâ—h ever thee and tell them when thou art most endangered by the temptation This will shame thee from the sin and lay more engagements on thee to forbear it If thou tell thy friend Now I am tempted to the sin and now I am going to it he will quickly stop thee Break thy secresie and thou losest thy opportunity Thou canst do this if thou be willing If ever thy Conscience prevail so far with thee as to resolve against thy sin or to be willing to escape then take the time while Conscience is awake and go tell thy friend And tell him who it is that is thy wicked companion and let him know all thy haunts that he may know the better how to help thee Dost thou say that this will shame thee It will do so to him that it s known to But that is the benefit of it and that 's the reason I advise thee to it that shame may help to save thy soul. If thou go on the sin will both shame and damn thee and a greater â—hame than this is a gentle remedy in so foul and dangerous a disease § 27. Direct 10. Therefore if yet all this will not serve turn Tell it to many yea rather tell it all Direct 10. the Town than not be â—ured And then the publick shame will do much more Confess it to thy Pastor and desire him â—penly to beg the prayers of the Congregation for thy pardon and recovery Begin thus to crave the fruit of Church Discipline thy self so far shouldst thou be from flying from it and spâ—rning against it as the desperate hardened sinners do If thou say This is a hard lesson remember that the suffering of Hell is harder Do not say that I wrong thee by putting thee upon scandal and open shame It is thou that puttest thy self upon it by making it necessary and refusing all easier remedies I put thee on it but on supposition that thou wilt not be easilier cured Almost as Christ puts thee upon cutting off a right hand or plucking out a right eye lest all the body be cast into hell This is not the way that he commandeth thee first to take he would have thee avoid the need of it but he tells thee that its better do so than worse and that this is an easie suffering in comparison of Hell And so I advise thee if thou love thy credit forbear thy sin in a cheaper way but if thou wilt not do so take this way rather than damn thy soul. If the shame of all the Town be upon thee and the Boys should hoot after thee in the Streets if it would drive thee from thy sin how easie were thy suffering in comparison of what it is like to be Concealment is Satans great advantage It would be hard for thee to sin thus if it were but opened Tit. 2. Directions against inward filthy Lusts. § 1. Direct 1. BEcause with most the temperature of the Body hath a great hand in this sin Direct 1. your first care must be about the body to reduce it unto a temper less inclined to lust And here the chief remedy is fasting and much abstinence And this may the better be born because for the most part it is persons so strong as to be able to endure it that are under this temptation If your Temptation be not strong the less abstinence from meat and drink may serve turn For I I would prescribe you no stronger Physick than is needful to cure your disease But if it be violent and lesser means will not prevail it s better your bodies be somewhat weakened than your souls corrupted and undone Therefore in this case 1. Eat no Breakfast nor Suppers but one meal a day unless a bit or two of Bread and a sup or two of Water in the morning and yet not too full a dinner and nothing at night 2. Drink no Wine or strong Drink but Water if the stomach can bear it without sickness and usually in such hot bodies it is healthfuller than Beer 3 Eat no hot Spices or strong or heating or windy meats Eat Lettice and such cooling Herbs 4. If need require it be often let blood or purged with such purges as copiously evacuate serosity and not only irritate 5. And oft bath in cold Water But the Physicion should be advised with that they may be safely done § 2. If you think this course too dear a cure and had rather cherish your flesh and lust you are not the persons that I am now Directing for I speak to such only as are willing to be cured and to use the necessary means that they may be cured If you be not brought to this your Conscience had need of better awakening I am sure Christ saith that when the Bridegroom was taken from them his Disciples should fast Mar. 2. 19 20. And even painful Paul was in fasting often 2 Cor. 6. 5. 11. 27. and kept under his body and brought it into subjection lest by any means when he had Preached to others himself should be a castaway 1 Cor. 9. 27. And I am sure that the ancient Christians that lived in solitude and eat many of them nothing but bread and water or meaner fare than Act 10. 30. 14 23. â—uâ— â— 37. bread did not think this cure too dear Yea smaller necessities than this engaged them in fasting 1 Cor. 7. 5. This unclean Devil will scarcely be cast out but by prayer and fasting Mar. 9. 29. § 3. And I must tell you that Fulness doth naturally cherish Lust as fewel doth the fire Fulness of bread prepared the Sodomites for their filthy lusts It s no more wonder that a stuffed paunch hath a lustful fury than that the water runs into the Pipes when the Cistern is full or than it is wonder to see a dunghill bear weeds or a Carrion to be full of crawling Magots Plutarch speaks of a Spartan that being asked why Lycurgus made no Law against Adultery answered There are no Adulterers with us But saith the other what if
save thee as the Devil Direct 47. can be to damn thee and which then should prevail 2. Be you as constant in resistance Be as oft in prayer and other confirming means Do as Paul 2 Cor. 12. 7 8. who prayed thrice as Christ did in his agony when the prick in the flesh was not removed 3. Tempt not the Tempter by giving him encouragement A faint denyal is an invitation to ask again Give him quickly a flat denial and put him out of hope if you would shorten the temptation § 119 Tempt 48. Lastly the Divel would sink the sinner in despair and perswade him now it Tempt 48. is too late § 120. Direct 48. Observe his design that it is but to take off that Hope which is the weight Direct 49. to set the wheels of the soul a going In all he is against God and you In other sins he is against Gods Authority In this he is against his Love and Mercy Read the Gospel and you will find that Christs death is sufficient the promise is universal full and free and that the day of Grace is so far continued till the day of death that no man shall be denied it that truly desireth it And that the same God that forbiddeth thy presumption forbiddeth also thy despair Tit. 3. Temptations to draw us off from duty § 1. Tempt 1. THe greatest Temptation against duty is by perswading men that it is no duty Tempt 1. Thus in our dayes we have seen almost all duty cast off by this erroneous fancy One saith that the â—â—ly observation of the Lords day is not commanded of God in Scripture Another saith What Scripture have you for family-family-prayer or singing Psalms or baptizing Infants or praying before and aâ—ter Sâ—rmâ—n or for your Office Ordination Tythes Churches c. Another saith that Church-Government and Discipline aâ—e not of Divine Institution Another saith that Baptism and the Lords Supper â—â—re but for that age And thus all duty is taken down instead of doing it § 2. Direct 1. Read and fear Matth. 5. 19. Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments Direct 1. and shall teach men sâ— he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall â—e called great in the Kingdom of Heaven Denying duty is too easie a way of â—vâ—â—ing obedience to serve turn Denying the Laws that bind you to publick payments will not save you from them but for all that if you deny you must be distrained on And God will make it deaâ—â—â—â— to you if you put him to distrain on you for duty Must he go to Law with you for it He 'll quickly shâ—w you Law for it and prove that it was your duty Open your doubts to able men and you will hear more evidence than you know But if pride and false-heartedness blind you you must bear your punishment § 3. Tempt 2. Saith the Tempter It is a duty to weak ones but not for you You must not be Tempt 2. still under Ordinances in the lower form every day must be a Sabbath to you and every bit a Sacrament and every place as a Church you must live above Ordinances in Christ. § 4. Direct 2. We must live above Mosaical Ordinances Col. 2. 18. 21. but not above Christs Ordinances Direct 2. unless you will live above obedience and above the Government of Christ Hath not Christ appointed the Ministry and Church helps till we all come to a perfect man Ephes. 4. 13. and promised to be with them to the end of the world Matth. 28. 20. It is befooling Pride that can make you think you have no need of Christs instituted means § 5. Tempt 3. But thou art unworthy to pray or recieve the Sacrament It 's not for Dogs Tempt â— Direct ◠§ 6. Direct 3. The wilful impenitent refusers of Grace are unworthy The willing soul that fain would be what God would have him hath an accepted worthiness in Christ. § 7. Tempt 4. But while you doubt you do it not in faith and therefore to you it is sin Tempt 4. Direct 4. § 8. Direct 4. But is it not a greater sin to leave it undone Will doubting of all duty excuse you from it Then you have an easie way to be free from all Do but doubt whether you should believe in God or Christ or love him or live a godly life and it seems you think it will excuse you But if you doubt whether you should feed your child you deserve to be hanged for murthering it if you famish it If you doubt of duty it is duty still and you are first bound to lay by your doubts But things indifferent left to your choice must not be done with a doubting conscience It was of such things that Paul spake § 9. Tempt 5. The Devil puts somewhat still in the way that seemeth necessary to thrust out Tempt 5. duty § 10. Direct 5. God hath not set you work which he alloweth you no Time for Is all your Direct 5. time spent in better things Is it not your carnal mind that makes you think carnal things most needful Christ saith One thing is needful Luke 10. 42. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you Had you that love and delight in holiness as you Matth. 6. 33. should you would find time for it An unwelcome Guest is put off with any excuse Others as poor as you can find time for duty because they are willing Set your business in order and let every thing keep its proper place and you may have time for every duty § 11. Tempt 6. But you are so unable and unskilful to pray to learn that it 's as good never Tempt 6. mâ—ddle with it § 12. Direct 6. Set your selves to learn and mark those that have skill and do what you can Direct 6. You must learn by practice The unskilfullest duty is better than none Unworded groans come oft from the Spirit of God and God understandeth and accepteth them Rom. 8. 26 27. § 13. Tempt 7. It will be so hard and long to learn that you will never overcome it Tempt 7. Direct 7. § 14. Direct 7. Willingness and diligence have the promise of Gods help Remember it is a thing that must be done When your own disuse and sin hath made it hard will you put God and your souls off with that as an excuse If you had neglected to teach your child to speak or go when it is young should he therefore never learn Will you despair and let go all your hope on this pretence or will you hope to be saved without prayer and other holy duty How foolish are both these Sick men must eat though their stomachs be against it they cannot live else § 15. Tempt 8. But thou findest thou art but the worse for duty and
never the better Tempt 8. for it § 16. Direct 8. Satan will do what he can to make it go worse with you after than before He Direct 8. will discourage you if he can by hindering your success that he may make you think it is to no purpose so many Preachers because they have fished long and catcht nothing grow cold and heartless and ready to sit down and say as Jer. 20. 9. I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his name So in Prayer Sacrament Reproof c. the Devil makes great use of this What good hath it done thee But patience and perseverance win the Crown The beginning is seldom a time to perceive success The Carpenter is long at work before he rear a house Nature brings not forth the Plant or birth the first day Your life-time is your working time Do your part and God will not fail on his part It is his part to give success and dare you accuse him or suspect him There is more of the success of prayer to be believed than to be felt If God have promised to hear he doth hear and we must believe it whether we feel it or not Prayers are oft heard long before the thing is sent us that we prayed for We pray for Heaven but shall not be there till death If Moses his message to Pharaoh ten times seem lost it is not lost for all that What work would ever have been done iâ— on the first conceit of unsuccessfulness it had been given off Be glad that thou hast time to plow and sow to do thy part and if God will give thee fruit at last § 17. Tempt 9. But saith the Tempter it gâ—eth worse with thee in the world since thou settest thy Tempt 9. sâ—â—f to read and pray and live obediently Thou hast been poorer and sicker and more despised since than ever before Jer. 20. 8. Thou art a derision daily every one mocketh thee This thou gettest by it § 18. Direct 9. He began not well that counted not that it might cost him more than this to be Direct 9. a holy Christian If God in Heaven be not enough to be thy portion never serve him but find something better if thou canst He that cannot lose the world cannot use it as he ought If thou hadâ—t rather be at the Devils finding and usage than at Gods thou art worthy to speed accordingly Nay if thou think thy soul it self worse remember that we are not worst when we are troubled most Physick makes sick when it works aright § 19. Tempt 10. Satan filleth many with abundance of scruples about every duty that they come Tempt 10. tâ— it as sick persons to their meat with a pievish quarrelling disposition This aileth and that aileth it something is still amiss that they cannot get it down This fault the Minister hath in praying or preaching or the other circumstance is amiss or the other fault is in the company that joyn with them and all is to turn them off from all § 20. Direct 10. But do you mend the matter by casting off all or by running into greater inconveniences Direct 10. Is not their imperfect prayer and communion better than your idle neglect of all or unwarrantable division It is a sign of an upright heart to be most about heart-observation and quarrelsome with themselves and the mark of hypocrites to be most quarrelsome against the manner of other mens performances and to be easily driven by any pretences from the Worship of God and communion of Saints § 21. Tempt 11. The Devil will set one duty against another Reading against hearing praying Tempt 11. against preaching private against publick outward and inward worship against each other mercy and justice piety and charity against each other and still labour to eject the greater § 22. Direct 11. The work of God is an harmonious and well composed frame If you leave out a Direct 11. part you spoil the whole and disadvantage your selves in all the rest Place them aright and each part helpeth and not hindâ—reth another Plead one for another but cast by none § 23. Tempt 12. The commonest and sorest temptation is by taking away our appetite to holy duties Tempt 12. by abating our feeling of our own necessity when the soul is sleepy and feeleth no need of prayer or reading or hearing or meditating but thinks it self tolerably well without it or else grows sick and is against it and troubled to use it so that every duty is like eating to a sick stomach then it is easie to tempt it to neglect or omit many a duty A little thing will serve to put it by when men feel no need of it § 24. Direct 12. O keep up a lively sense of your necessities Remember still that Time is Direct 12. short and death is near and you are too unready Keep acquaintance with your hearts and lives and every day will tell you of your necessities which are greatest when they are least perceived § 25. Tempt 13. The Tempter gets much by ascribing the success of holy means to our own endeavour Tempt 13. or to chance or something else and making us overlook that present benefit which would greatly encourage us As when we are delivered from sickness or danger upon prayer he tells you so you might have been delivered if you had never prayed Was it not by the Physicians â—are and skill and by such an excellent medicine If you prosper in any business was it not by your own contrivance and diligence § 26. Direct 13. This separating God and means when God worketh by means is the folly of Direct 13. Atheists When God heareth thy prayer in sickness or other danger he sheweth it by directing the Physicion or thy self to the fittest means and blessing that means and he is as really the cause and prayer the first means as if he wrought thy deliverance by a Miracle Do not many use the same Physicion and Medicine and labour and diligence who yet miscarry Just observation of the answers of prayer might do much to cure this All our industry may say as Peter and Iohn Acts 3. 12. Why look ye so earnestly on us as if by our own power or holiness we had done this When God is glorifying his grace and owning his appointed means § 27. Tempt 14. Lastly the Devil setteth up something else in opposition to holy duty to make it Tempt 14. seem unnecessary In some he sets up their good desires and saith God knoweth thy heart without expressing it and thou maist have as good a heart at home as at Church In some he sets up superstitious fopperies of mans devising instead of Gods Institution In some he pretendeth the Spirit against external duty and saith The Spirit is all the flesh profitteth nothing yea in some he sets up Christ himself against Christs Ordinances and saith It is not these
the Nature and the signs or effects of PRIDE consider next Direct 3. of the dreadful consequents and tendencie of it both as it leadeth to farther sin and unto misery Which I shall briefly open to you in some particulars § 82. 1. At the present it is the Heart of the old man and the root and life of all corruption and Aenaeas Sylvius it Boâ—m c. 65. Speaking of the boasting of the Monk Capistâ—inus saith superaverat seculi pompas calcaverat avaritiam libidinem sub egeraâ— gloriam contemnere non potuiâ— Nemo est tam sanctus qui dulcedine gloriae non capiatur Facilius regna viri excellenâ—es quam gloriam contemnunt Inter omnia vitia tu semper es prima semper es ultima nam omne peccatum te accedente committitur te recedente dimittâ—tur Innocent de contemp munai l. 2. c. 31. of dreadful signification if it be predominant If any mans heart be lifted up the Lord will have no pleasure in him or it is not upright in him Hab. 2. 4. I had rather have my soul in the case of an obscure humble Christian that is taken notice of by few or none but God and is content to approve himself to him than in the case of the highest and most eminent and honourable in Church or State that looks for the observation and praise of men God judgeth not of men by their great parts and profession and name but justifieth the humbled soul that is ashamed to lift up his face to Heaven and thinketh himself unworthy to speak to God or to have communion with his Church or to come among his servants but standing a far off smiteth upon his breast and saith in true Repentance O God be merciful to me a sinner Luke 18. 13. Pride is as a plague-mark on the soul. § 83. 2. There is scarce a sin to be thought on that is not a spawn in the bowels of Pride To stance in some few besides all that are expressed in the signs 1. It maketh men Hypocrites and 〈◊〉 what they are not for the praise of men 2. It makes men Lyars Most of the Lyes that are 〈◊〉 in the world are to avoid some disgrace and shame or to get men to think highly of them 〈◊〉 sin is committed against God or your superiors instead of humble confession Pride would coveâ—â—â—â— with a lye 3. It causeth covetousness that they may not want provision for their Pride 4. 〈◊〉 maketh men flatterers and time-servers and man-pleasers that they may win the good esteem others 5. It makes men run into profaneness and riotousness to do as others do to avoid 〈◊〉 shame of their reproach and scorn that else would account them singular and precise 6. It can talâ—â— men off from any duty to God that the company is against They dare not pray nor speak a serioâ—â— word of God for fear of a jear from a scorners mouth 7. It is so contentious a sin that it makes men firebrands in the societies where they live There is no quiet living with them longer than they have their own saying will and way They must bear the sway and not be crossed And when all is done there is no pleasing them for the missing of a word or a look or a complement will catch on their hearts as a spark on gunpowder 8. It tears in pieces Church and State Where was ever civil war raised or Kingdom endangered or ruined or Church divided oppressed or persecuted but Pride was the great and evident cause 9. It devoureth the mercies and good creatures of God and sacrificeth them to the Devil It is a chargeable sin What a deal doth it consume in cloaths and buildings and attendance and entertainments and unnecessary things 10. It is an odious thief and prodigal of precious time How many hours that should be better employed and must one day be accounted for are cast away upon the foresaid works of Pride Especially in the needless complements and visits of Gallants and the dressings of some vain light-headed women in which they spend allmost half the day and can scarce find an hour in a morning for prayer or meditation or reading the scriptures because they cannot be ready Forgetting how they disgrace their wretched bodies by telling men that they are so filthy or deformed that they cannot be kept sweet and cleanly and seemly without so long and much ado 11. It is odiously unjust A proud man makes no bones of any falshood slander deceit or cruelty if it seem but necessary to his greatness or honour or preferment or ambitious ends He careth not who he wrongeth or betrayeth that he may rise to his desired height or keep his greatness Never trust a Proud man further than his own interest bids you trust him 12. Pride is the pander of whoredom and uncleaneness It is an incentive to lust in themselves and draws the proud to adorn and set forth themselves in the most enticing manner as tends to provoke the lust of others Fain they would be thought comly that others may admire them and be taken with their comliness If they thought that none would see them they would spare their ornaments And if a common decencie were all that they affected they would spare their curiosities and fashionable superfluities Even they that would not be unclean in gross fornication with any yet would be esteemed beautiful and desirable and do that which tendeth to corrupt the minds of â—ools that see them These and indeed allmost all sin are the natural progenie of Pride § 85. 3. As to the misery which they bring on themselves and others 1. The greatest is that they forsake God and are in danger to be forsaken by him For God abhorreth the Proud and beholdeth them as afar off So far as you are Proud your are hated by him and have no acceptance or communion with him Pride is the highway to utter appostacie It blindeth the mind It maketh men confident in their own conceits and venturous upon any new opinion and ready to quarrel with the word of God before they understand it When any thing seems hard to them they presently suspect the truth of the matter when they should suspect their dark unfurnished minds Mark those that are Prâ—ud in any Town or any company of professors of piety and if any infection of heresie or infidelity come into that place these are the men that will soonest catch it Mark those that have turned from â—â—â—â— 4 6. â—â—â—â—â— â— â— Iâ—â— 5â— 1â— Prov. 16 19. Prov. 29 23. Vaâ—◠〈…〉 â—â—n are the â—â—â—â—rn of wise men â—he admâ—ration of tools the Idols oâ—â—â—attereâ—s and the slaveâ— oâ— their own Pride 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—â— â—â—â—â— â— 54. Truth or Godliness and see whether they be not such as were proud and superficial in Religion before But God giveth Grace and more Grace to the humble He dwelleth with them and delighteth in them 2. A proud man is a tormenter of himself
You will not leave it nasty and unclean You will not leave it common to every dirty unsuitable companion to intrude at pleasure and disturb your friend So Love and Pleasure will be readily and composedly careful to keep clean the heart and shut out vain and filthy thoughts and say This room is for a better guest Nothing shall come here which my Lord abhorreth Is he willing so wonderfully to condescend as to take up so mean a habitation and shall I streighten him or offend him by letting in his noysome enemies Will he dwell in my heart and shall I suffer thoughts of pride or lust or malice to dwell with him or to enter in Are these fit companions for the spirit of grace Do I delight to grieve him I know as soon as ever they come in he will either resist them till he drive them out again or he will go out himself And shall I drive away so dear a friend for the love of a filthy pernicious enemy Or do I delight in warr Would I have a continual combat in my heart Shall I put the spirit of Christ to fight for his habitation against such an ignominous foe Indeed there is no true cure for sinful vain unprofitable thoughts but by the contrary by calling up the thoughts unto their proper work and finding them more profitable employment And this is by consecrating the Heart and them entirely to the Love and service of him that hath by the wonders of his Love and by the strange design of his purchase and merits so well deserved them Let Christ come in and deliver him the Key and pray him to keep thy heart as his own and he will cast out buyers and sellers from his temple and will not suffer his house of prayer to be a den of thieves But if you receive Christ with reserves and keep up designs for the world and flesh marvel not if Christ will be no partners with them but leave all to those guests which you would not leave for him Tit. 2. Directions to furnish the Mind with good Thoughts 〈…〉 TO have the mind well furnished with Matter for holy and profitable thoughts is necessary to all that have the use of Reason though not to all alike But I shall here present you only with such materials as are necessary to a holy life and to be used in our daily walk with God and not meddle with such as are proper to Pastors Magistrates or other special callings though I may give some general Directions also for Students in the End of this § 1. Direct 1. Understand well your own Interest and great Concernments and be well resolved what Direct 1. you live for and what is your true felicity and End and then this will command your Thoughts to 1. Our own Interest and End serve it The End is it that the Means are all chosen for and used for A mans estimation directeth his Intention and designs And his Intention and designs command his thoughts These will certainly have the first and chiefest the most serious and practical and effectual thoughts though some by thoughts may run out another way As the Miller will be sure to keep so much water as is necessary to grind his grist though he may let that run by which he thinks he hath no need of As you gather in all your Corn and Fruit for your selves at harvest though perhaps you will leave some scatterings which you do not value much for any that will to gather so whatever a man taketh for his ultimate end and true felicity will have the store and stream of his cogitations though he may scatter some few upon other things when he thinks he may do it without any detriment to his main design As a travellers face is ordinarily towards his journeys end though so far as he thinks it doth not stop him he may look behind him or on each side so our main end will in the main carry on our thoughts And therefore unholy souls that know not practically any higher end than the prosperity and pleasure of the flesh and the plenty and honour of the world cannot possibly exercise any holy Government over their thoughts but their minds and consciences are defiled and their thoughts made carnal as is their end Nor is there any possibility of curing their vicious wicked thoughts and of ordering them acceptably to God but by curing their worldly carnal minds and causing them to change their designs and ends And this must be by understanding what is their interest Know well but what it is that is most Necessary for you and Best for you and it will change your hearts and save your souls Know this and your Thoughts will never want matter to be employed on nor will they be suffered to wander much abroad Therefore it is that the expectation of death and the thought of coming presently to judgement do use more effectually to supply the mind with the wisest and most useful thoughts than the learnedst Book or ordinary means can That which tells a man best what he hath to do doth best tell him what he hath to think on But the approach of death and the appearance of eternity doth best tell a dull and fleshly sinner what he hath to do This tells and tells him roundly that he must presently search his heart and life and judge himself as one that is going to the final judgement and that it is high time for him to look out for the remedy for his sin and misery c. And therefore it will command his thoughts this way Ask any Lawyer Physicion or Tradesman what commands his Thoughts and you will find that his Interest and his Ends and work command them Know what it is to have an immortal soul that must live in Joy or Wo for ever and what it is to be alwayes so near to the irreversible determining sentence and what it is to have this short uncertain time and no more to make our preparation in and then its easie to foretell which way your thoughts will go A man that knoweth his house is on fire will be thinking how to quench it A man that knoweth he is entring into a mortal sickness will be thinking how to cure it There is no better way to have your Thoughts both furnished and acted aright than to know your Interest and right End § 2. Direct 2. Know God aright and behold him by the eye of an effectual faith and you shall never Direct 2. want matter for holy thoughts His Greatness and continual presence with you may command your 2. God thoughts and awe them and keep them from masterless vagaries His wisdom will find them continual employment upon the various excellent and delectable subjects of his natural and supernatural revelation but no where so much as upon himself In God thou maist find matter for thy cogitations and affections most high and excellent delighting the mind with
alloweth and requireth him to make the exercises of his mind on things sublime and holy and the affecting of his heart with them to be his principal business which taketh up the most of his time And we call that an Active obediential life when a mans state and calling requireth him to spend the chief part of his time in some external labour or vocation tending to the good of our selves and others As Artificers Tradesmen Husbandmen Labourers Physicions Lawyers Pastors and Preachers of the Gospel Soldiers and Magistrates all live an Active life which should be a life of Obedience to God Though among these some have much more time for contemplation than others And some few there are that are exempt from both these and are called to live a Passive obediential life that is such a life in which their obedient bearing of the Cross and patient suffering and submission to the chastising or trying will of God is the most eminent and principal service they can do him above Contemplation or Action § 2. Quest. 2. Must every man do his best to â—ast off all worldly and external labours and to retire Quest. 2. himself to a contemplative life as the most excellent Answ. No No man should do so without a special necessity or call For there are general precepts Gal. 6. 10. 2 Thess. 3. on all that are able that we live to the benefit of others and prefer the common good and as we have opportunity do good to all men and love our neighbours as our selves and do as we would be done by which will put us upon much action and that we labour before we eat And for a man unnecessarily to cast off all the service of his life in which he may be profitable to others is a burying or hiding his Masters talents and a neglect of charity and a sinning greatly against the Law of Love As we have Bodies so they must have their work as well as our souls § 3. Quest. 3. Is a life of Contemplation then lawful to any man and to whom Quest. 3. Answ. It is lawful and a duâ—y and a great mercy to some to live almost wholly yea all together Who are called to a contemplative life in contemplation and prayer and such holy exercises And that in these cases following 1. In case that Age hath disabled a man to be serviceable to others by an active life and when a man hath already spent his dayes and strength in doing all the good he can and being now disabled hath special reason to improve the rest of his decrepite age in more than ordinary preparations for his death and in holy communion with God 2. So also when we are disabled by sickness 3. And when imprisonment restraineth us from an active life or profitting others 4. And when persecution forceth Christians to retire into solitudes and Desarts to reserve themselves for better times and places or when prudence telleth them that their prayers in solitude may do more good than at that time their Martyrdom were like to do 5. When a Student is preparing himself for the Ministry or other active life â—o which a contemplative life is the way 6. When poverty or Wars or the rage of enemies disableth a man from all publick converse and driveth him into solitude by unavoidable necessity 7. When the number of those that are fit for action is so sufficient and the parts of the person are so insufficient and so the need and use of them in an active life so small that all things considered holy impartial prudence telleth him that the good which he could do to others by an active life is not like to countervail the losses which he should himself receive and the good which his very example of a holy and heavenly life might do and his occasional counsels and precepts and resolutions to those who come to him for advice being drawn by the estimation of his holy life in this case it is lawful to give up ones self to a contâ—mplâ—tiâ—â— life For that which maketh most to his own good and to others is past doubt lawful and a duâ—y Anna departed not from the Temple but served God with â—â—sting and prayer night and day Luke 2. 36 37. Whether the meaning be that she strictly kept the hours of prayer in the Temple and the fasting twice a Week or frequently or whether she took up her habitation in the houses of some of the Officers of the Temple devoting her self to the service of the Temple it is plain that either way she did something besides praying and fasting Even as the Widows under the Gospel who were also to continue in prayer and supplication night and day 1 Tim. 5. 5. and yet were employed in the service of the Church in over-seeing the younger and â—eaching them to be sober c. Tit. 2. 4. which is an active life But however Anna's practice be expounded if this much that I have granted would please the Monasticks we would not dâ—â—â—â—r with them § 4. Quest. 4. How far are those in an active life to use Contemplation Quâ—â—â—â— 4. Answ. With very great difference 1. According to the difference of their Callings in the world and the Offices in which they are ordinarily to serve God 2. And according to the difference of their Abilities and fitness for Contemplation or for Action 3. According to the difference of their particular opportunities 4. According to the difference of the necessities of others which may require their help 5. And of their own necessities of Action or Contemplation Which I shall more particularly determine in certain Rules § 5. 1. Every Christian must use so much contemplation as is necessary to the Loving of God Rule 1. above all and to the worshipping of him in Spirit and in truth and to a heavenly mind and conversation and to his due preparation for death and judgement and to the refâ—rring all his common works to the glory and pleasing of God that Holiness to the Lord may be written upon all and all that he hath may be sanctified or devoted with himself to God § 6. 2. The calling of a Minister of the Gospel is so perfectly mixt of contemplation and Rule 2. action that though Action denominate it as being the End and Chief yet he must be excellent in both If they be not excellent in contemplation they will not be meet to stand so much nearer to God than the people do and to sanctifie him when they draw near him and glorifie him before all the people nor will they be fit for the opening of the heavenly mysteries and working that on the peoples hearts which never was on their own And if they be not Excellent in an Active life they will betray the peoples souls and never go through that painful diligence and preaching in season and out of season publickly and from house to house day and night with tears which Paul
crime 12. Their Consciences are quick in telling them of sin and putting them upon any dejection as a duty but they are dead to all duties that tend to consolation as to Thanksgiving for mercies Praises of God meditating on his Love and grace and Christ and promises Put them never so hard on these and they feel not their duty nor make no conscience of it but think it is a duty for others but unsuitable to them 13. They alway say that they cannot believe and therefore think they cannot be saved Because that commonly they mistake the nature of faith and take it to be a Believing that they themselves are forgiven and in favour with God and shall be saved And because they cannot believe this which their disease will not suffer them to believe therefore they think that they are no believers whereas saving faith is nothing but such a Belief that the Gospel ☜ is true and Christ is the Saviour to be trusted with our souls as causeth our Wills to Consent that he be ours and that we be his and so to subscribe the Covenant of Grace Yet while they thus consent and would give a world to be sure that Christ were theirs and to be perfectly holy yet they think they believe not because they believe not that he will forgive or save them 14. They are still displeased and discontended with themselves just as a pievish froward person is apt to be with others see one that is hard to be pleased and is finding fault with every thing that they see or hear and offended at every one that comes in their way and suspicious of every body that they see whispering and just so is a Melancholy person against himself suspecting displeased and finding fault with all 15. They are much addicted to solitariness and weary of company for the most part 16. They are given up to fixed musings and long poring thoughts to little purpose so that deep musings and thinkings are their chief employments and much of their disease 17. They are much averse to the labours of their callings and given to idleness either to lye in bed or sit thinking unprofitably by themselves 18. Their thoughts are most upon themselves like the mill-stones that grind on themselves when they have no grist so one thought begets another Their thoughts are taken up about their thoughts when they have been thinking irregularly they think again what they have been thinking on They meditate not much on God unless on his wrath nor Heaven nor Christ nor the state of the Church nor any thing without them ordinarily but all their thoughts are contracted and turned inwards on themselves self-troubling is the sum of their thoughts and lives 19. Their thoughts are all perplexed like ravelled Yarn or Silk or like a man in a maze or wilderness or that hath lost himself and his way in the night He is poring and groping about and can make little of any thing but is bewildred and moithered and entangled the more full of doubts and difficulties out of which he cannot find the way 20. He is endless in his scruples afraid lest he sin in every word he speaketh and in every thought and every look and every meal he eateth and all the Cloaths he weareth And if he think to amend them he is still scrupling his supposed amendments He dare neither travel nor stay at home neither speak nor be silent but he is scrupling all as if he were wholly composed of self perplexing scruples 21. Hence it comes to pass that he is greatly addicted to superstition to make many Laws to himself that God never made Col. 2. 18 19 20 21 22 23. him and to ensnare himself with needless Vows and resolutions and hurtful austerities Touch not taste not handle not and to place his Religion much in such Outward self-imposed tasks to spend so many hours in this or that act of devotion to wear such cloaths and forbear other that are finer to forbear all dyet that pleaseth the appetite with much of the like A great deal of the Perfection of Popish devotion proceeded from Melancholy though their Government come from Pride and Covetousness 22. They have lost the power of Governing their thoughts by Reason so that if you convince them that they should cast out their self-perplexing unprofitable thoughts and turn their thoughts to other subjects or be vacant they are not able to obey you They seem to be under a necessity or constraint They cannot cast out their troublesome thoughts They cannot turn away their minds They cannot think of Love and mercy They can think of nothing but what they do think of no more than a man in the Tooth-ache can forbear to think of his pain 23. They usually grow hence to a disability to any private prayer or meditation Their thoughts are presently cast all into a confusion when they should pray or meditate They scatter abroad a hundred wayes and they cannot keep them upon any thing For this is the very point of their disease a distempered confused fantasie with a weak reason which cannot govern it Sometime terrour driveth them from Prayer they dare not hope and therefore dare not pray and usually they dare not receive the Lords Supper here they are fearfullest of all And if they do receive it they are cast down with terrours fearing that they have taken their own damnation by receiving unworthily 24. Hence they grow to a great aversness to all holy duty Fear and dispair make them go to prayer hearing reading as a Bear to the stake And then they think they are haters of God and Godliness imputing the effects of their disease to their souls when yet at the same time those of them that are Godly would rather be freed from all their sins and be perfectly holy than have all the riches or honour in the world 25. They are usually so taken up with busie and earnest thoughts which being all perplexed do but strive with themselves and contradict one another that they feel it just as if something were speaking within them and all their own violent thoughts were the pleadings and impulse of some other And therefore they are wont to impute all their fantasies either to some extraordinary actings of the Devil or to some extraordinary motions of the spirit of God And they are used to express themselves in such words as these It was set upon my heart or it was said to me that I must do thus and thus and then it was said I must not do this or that and I was told I must do so or so And they think that their own imagination is something talking in them and saying to them all that they are thinking 26. When Melancholy groweth strong they are almost alwayes troubled with hideous Blaspheamous temptations against God or Christ or the Scripture and against the immortality of the soul which cometh partly from their own fears which make them think most against their
Idolatry of the Israelites it is as they feared their Idols of Wood and Stone To fear them shewed that they took them for their Gods 2 Kings 17. 38 39. Dan. 6. 26. § 7. Direct 7. Consider that it is a folly to be inordinately fearful of that which never did befall Direct 7. thee and never befalleth one of many hundred thousand men I mean any terrible appearance of the Devil Thou never sawest him nor hearest credibly but of very few in an age that see him besides Witches This fear therefore is irrational the danger being utterly improbable § 8. Direct 8. Consider that if the Devil should appear to thee yea and carry thee to the top of Direct 8. a Mountain or the pinnacle of the Temple and talk to thee with blasphemous temptations it would be no other than what thy Lord himself submitted to who was still the dearly beloved of the Father Matth. 4. One sin is more terrible than this § 9. Direct 9. Remember that if God should permit him to appear to thee it might turn to thy very Direct 9. great advantage by killing all thy unbelief or doubts of Angels and Spirits and the unseen world It would sensibly prove to thee that there is indeed an unhappy race of Spirits who envy man and seek his ruine and so would more convince thee of the evil of sin the danger of souls the need of godliness and the truth of Christianity And it is like this is one cause why the Devil no more appeareth in the world not only because it is contrary to the ordinary Government of God who will have us live by faith and not by fight but also because the Devil knoweth how much it would do to destroy his Kingdom by destroying Infidelity Atheism and security and awakening men to faith and fear and godliness The Fowler or the Angler must not come in sight lest he spoil his Game by frighting it away § 10. Direct 10. If it be the spiritual temptations and molestations only of Satan which you fear Direct 10. remember that you have more cause to fear your selves for he can but tempt you and if you do not more against your selves than all the Devils in Hell can do you will never perish And if you are willing to accept and yield to Christ you need not inordinately fear either Satan or your selves For it is in the name and strength of Christ and under his conduct and protection that you are to begin and finish your warfare And the Spirit that is in us is greater and stronger than the Spirit that is in the world and that molesteth us 1 Iohn 4. 4. And the Father that giveth us to Christ is greater than all and none can pluck us out of his hands John 10. 29. And the God of peace will tread down Satan under our feet Rom. 16. 20. If it were in his power he would molest us daily and we had never escaped so far as we have done Our daily experience telleth us that we have a Protector Directions against the sinful fear of men and sufferings by them § 1. Direct 1. Bottom thy soul and hopes on Christ and lay up thy treasure in Heaven be not a Direct 1. worldling that liveth in hope of happiness in the creature and then thou art so far above the fear of men Omma Christe tuâ— superant tormenta ferendo Tollere quae nâ— queunt haec toleraâ—e queunt His vita â—aruisse fâ—uâ— est posâ—isse potiri Et superasse paâ—â— est superesse mori as knowing that thy treasure is above their reach and thy foundation and fortress safe from their assaults It is a base hypocritical worldly heart that maketh you immoderately afraid of men Are you afraid lest they should storm and plunder Heaven Or lest they cast you into Hell or lest they turn God against you or lest they bribe or over-awe your Judge No no these are none of your fears No you are not so much as afraid lest they hinder one of your prayers from prevailing with God nor lest their Prison walls and chains should keep out God and his Spirit from you and force you from your communion with him You are not afraid lest they forcibly rob you of one degree of grace or heavenly mindedness or hopes of the life to come If it be lest they hinder you from these by tempting or affrightning you into sin which is all the hurt they can do your souls then you are the more engaged to cast away the fears of their hurting your bodies because that is their very temptation to hurt your souls No it is their hurting of your flesh the diminishing your estates the depriving you of your liberty or worldly accommodations or of your Ad tribunal aeternum judicis justâ— provocatio salva est â—â— solet is perperam judicata resemderâ— Pâ—tra â—h Dial. 66. li. 2. lives which is the thing you fear And doth not this shew how much your hearts are yet on earth and how much unmortified worldliness and fleshliness is still within you and how much yet your hearts are false to God and Heaven O how the discovery should humble you to find that you are yet no more dead to the things of the world and that the Cross of Christ hath yet no more crucified it to you to find that yet the fleshly interest is so powerful in you and the interest of Christ and Heaven so low That God seemeth not enough for you and that you cannot take Heaven alone for your portion but are so much afraid of losing earth O presently search into the bottom of this corruption in your hearts and lament your worldliness and hypocrisie and work it out and set your hearts and hopes above and be content with God and Heaven alone and then this inordinate fear of man will have nothing left to work upon § 2. Direct 2. Set God against man and his wisdom against their policy and his Love and mercy Direct 2. against their malice and cruelty and his power against their impotency and his truth and omniscience and righteousness against their slanders and lies and his promises against their threatnings and then if yet thou art inordinately afraid of man thou must confess that in that measure thou believest not in God If God be not wise enough and good enough and just enough and powerful enough to save thee so far as it is â—est for thee to be saved then he is not God Away with Atbeism and then fear not man § 3. Direct 3. Remember what man is that thou art afraid of He is a bubble raised by Providence Direct 3. to 〈…〉 ut the world and for God to honour himself by or upon He is the meer product Joâ— 13. â—5 Psal. 1. 5 6. 68. 2. Psal. 73 20. Job 20. 8. Victor uticâ—â—â—â— saith of Au gustine that he dyed of fear Nunc illud eloquentiae quod ubertim per omnes
dreams and lustful dreams and hath its ill effects by night and by day § 4. Direct 2. Endeavour the cure of those sinful distempers of the mind which cause sinful dreams Direct 2. The cure of a worldly mind is the best way to cure worldly covetous dreams And the cure of a lustful heart is the best way to cure lustful dreams and so of the rest Cleanse the fountain and the waters will be the sweeter day and night § 5. Direct 3. Suffer not your Thoughts or tongue or actions to run sinfully upon that in the day Direct 3. which you would not dream sinfully of in the night Common experience telleth us that our dreams Cogitationeâ— sanctiores sequuntur somnâ—a blandiora delectabilioria Greg. Moral are apt to follow our foregoing thoughts and words and deeds If you think most frequently and affectionately of that which is good you will dream of that which is good If you think of lustful filthy objects or speak of them or meddle with them you will dream of them and so of covetous and ambitious dreams And they that make no conscience to sin waking are not like much to scruple sinning in their sleep § 6. Direct 4. Commend your selves to God by prayer before you take your rest and beseech him to Direct 4. set a guard upon your fantasie when you cannot guard it Cast the cure upon him and fly to him for help by faith and prayer in the sense of your insufficiency § 7. Direct 5. Let your last Thoughts still before your sleep be holy and yet quieting and consolatory Direct 5. thoughts The dreams are apt to follow our last Thoughts If you betake your selves to sleep Iturus in somnum aliquid tecum defer in memoria cogitatione in quo placide obdormies quod etiam somniare juvet sic tibi noâ— ut dies illuminatur in deliciis tuis placide obdormies in pace quiesces facilè evigilabis surgens promptus eris ad redeundum in id unde non totus discessisti with worldliness or vanity in your minds you cannot expect to be wiser or better when you are asleep than when you are awake But if you shut up your dayes thoughts with God and sleep find them upon any Holy subject it is like to use them as it finds them Yet if it be distrustful unbelieving fearful thoughts which you conclude with your dreams may savour of the same distemper Frightful and often sinful dreams do follow sinful doubts and fears But if you sweeten your last Thoughts with the Love of Christ and the remembrance of your former mercies or the foresight of eternal joyes or can confidently cast them and your selves upon some promise it will tend to the quietness of your sleep and to the savouriness of your dreams And if you should dye before morning will it not be most desirable that your last thoughts be holy § 8. Direct 6. When you have found any corruption appearing in your dreams make use of them Direct 6. for the renewing of your repentance and exciting your endeavours to mortifie that corruption A corruption may be perceived in dreams 1. When such dreams as discover it are frequent 2. When they are earnest and violent 3. When they are pleasing and delightful to your fantasies Not that any certain knowledge can be fetcht from them but some conjecture as added to other signs As if you should frequently earnestly and delightfully dream of preferments and honours or the favour of great men suspect ambition and do the more to discover and mortifie it If it be of riches and gain and money suspect a covetous mind If it be of revenge or hurt to any man that you distaste suspect some malice and quickly mortifie it So if it be of lust or feasting or drinking or vain recreations sports and games do the like § 9. Direct 7. Lay no greater stress upon your dreams than there is just cause As 1. When you Direct 7. have searcht and find no such sin prevailing in you as your dreams seem to intimate do not conclude that you have more than your waking evidence discovers Prefer not your sleeping signs before your waking signs and search 2. When you are conscious that you indulge no corruption to occasion such a dream suppose it not to be faulty of it self and lay not the blame of your bodily temperament or unknown causes upon your soul with too heavy and unjust a charge 3. Abhor the presumptuous folly of those that use to prognosticate by their dreams and measure their expectations by them and cast themselves into hopes or fears by them Saith Diogenes What fâ—lly is it to be careless of your waking thoughts and actions and inquisitive about your dreams A mans happiness or misery lyeth upon what he doth when he is awake and not upon what he suffereth in his sleep CHAP. IX See the Directions for holy Conference Tâ— 2. â—â— 1â— Directions for the Government of the Tongue Tit. 1. The General Directions § 1. Direct 1. UNderstand in general of what moment and concernment it is that the Tongue Direct 1. be well governed and used For they that think words are inconsiderable will use them inconsiderately The conceit that words are of small moment as some say of Thoughts that they are free doth cause men to use their Tongues as if they were free saying Our lips are our own who is Lord over us Psal. 12. 4. § 2. 1. The tongue of man is his glory by which expressively he excelleth the brutes And a The Greatness of the sins and duties of the Tongue Psal. 57. 8. Psal. 16. 9. Psal. 30 12. wonderful work of God it is that a mans tongue should be able to articulate such an exceeding number of words And God hath not given man so admirable a faculty for vanity and sin The nobler and more excellent it is the more to be regarded and the greater is the fault of them that do abuse it Hilary compareth them to an ill Barber that cuts a mans face and so deformeth him when his work was to have made him more neat and comely So it is the Office of the tongue to be excellently serviceable to the good of others and to be the glory of mankind The shame therefore of its faults is the more unexcusable § 3. 2. The tongue is made to be the Index or expresser of the mind Therefore if the mind Matth. 7 16 17 18. Matth. 12. 33 34. be regardable the tongue is regardable And if the mind be not regardable the man is not regardable For our Lord telleth us that the Tree is known by its fruit an evil Tree bringeth forth evil fruits and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And Aristotle saith that Such as Lingua index menâ—is Aristippus being asked Quid differat sapiens ab insipiente Mitte inquit ambos nudos ad ignotos disces
them to contempt so that Servants and Children will be apt to sleight them and disobey them if the Husband interpose not to preserve their honour and authority Yet this must be done with such Cautions as these 1. Justifie not any error vice or weakness of your Wives They may be concealed and excused as far as may be but never owned or defended 2. Urge not obedience to any unlawful Command of theirs No one hath Authority to contradict the Law of God or disoblige any from his Government You will but diminish your own authority with persons of any understanding if you justifie any thing that is against Gods authority But if the thing commanded be lawful though it may have some inconveniences you must rebuke the disobedience of inferiours and not suffer them to sleight the commands of your Wives nor to set their own reason and wills against them and say We will not do it How can they help you in Government if you suffer them to be disobeyed § 5. Direct 4. Also you must preserve the Honour as well as the Authority of your Wives I◠they Direct 4. have any dishonourable infirmities they are not to be mentioned by Children or Servants As in the natural body we cover most carefully the most dishonourable parts for our comely parts have no need 1 Cor. 12. 23 24. So must it be here Children or Servants must not be suffered to carry themselves contemptuously or rudely towards them nor to despise them or speak unmannerly proud or disdainful words to them The Husband must vindicate them from all such injury and contempt § 6. Direct 5. The Husband is to excell the Wife in Knowledge and be her Teacher in the matters Direct 5. that belong to her salvation He must instruct her in the Word of God and direct her in particular duties and help her to subdue her own corruptions and labour to confirm her against temptations If she doubt of any thing that he can resolve her in she is to ask his resolution and he to open to her at home the things which she understood not in the Congregation 1 Cor. 14. 35. But if the husband be indeed an ignorant sot or have made himself unable to instruct his wife she is not bound to ask him in vain to teach her that which he understandeth not himself Those husbands that despise the word of God and live in wilful ignorance do not only despise their own souls but their families also and making themselves unable for their duties they are usually themselves despised by their inferiours For God hath told such in his message to Eli 1 Sam. 2. 30. Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed § 7. Direct 6. The Husband must be the principal Teacher of the family He must instruct Direct 6. them and examine them and rule them about the matters of God as well as his own service and see that the Lords Day and Worship be observed by all that are within his gates And therefore he must labour for such understanding and ability as is necessary hereunto And if he be unable or negligent it is his sin and will be his shame If the wife be wiser and abler and it be cast upon her it is his dishonour But if neither of them do it the sin and shame and suffering will be common to them both § 8. Direct 7. The Husband is to be the mouth of the family in their daily conjunct prayers unto Direct 7. God Therefore he must be able to pray and also have a praying heart He must be as it were the Priest of the houshold and therefore should be the most Holy that he may be fit to stand between them and God and to offer up their prayers to him If this be cast on the Wife it will be his dishonour § 9. Direct 8. The Husband is to be the chief Provider for the family ordinarily It is supposed Direct 8. that he is most able for mind and body and is the chief disposer of the estate Therefore he must be specially careful that wife and children want nothing that is fit for them so far as he can procure it Direct 9. The Husband must be strongest in Family-patience bearing with the weakness and passions Direct 9. of the wife not so as to make light of any sin against God but so as not to make a great matter of any frailty as against himself and so so as to preserve the Love and Peace which is to be as the natural temper of their Relation Direct 10. The manner of all these Duties must also be carefully regarded As 1. That they Direct 10. be done in Prudence and not with folly rashness and inconsiderateness 2. That all be done in conjugal Love and tenderness as over one that is tender and the weaker vessel and that he do not teach or command or reprove a wife in the same imperious manner as a child or servant 3. That due familiarity be maintained and that he keep not at a distance and strangeness from his wife 4. That Love be confident without base suspicions and causless jealousies 5. That all be done in Gentleness and not in Passion roughness and sourness 6. That there be no unjust and causless concealment of secrets which should be common to them both 7. That there be no foolish opening of such secrets to her as may become her snare and she is not able to bear or keep 8. That none of their own matters which should be kept secret be made known to others His teaching and reproving her should be for the most part secret 9. That he be constant and not weary of his Love or duty This briefly of the Manner CHAP. IX The special Duties of Wives to Husbands THE Wife that expecteth comfort in a Husband must make conscience of all her own Duty to her Husband For though it be his duty to be kind and faithful to her though she prove unkind and froward yet 1. Men are frail and apt to fail in such difficult duties as well as women 2. And it is so ordered by God that comfort and duty shall go together and you shall miss of comfort if you cast off duty § 1. Direct 1. Be specially loving to your Husbands Your natures give you the advantage in his Direct 1. and Love feedeth Love This is your special requital for all the troubles that your infirmities put them to § 2. Direct 2. Live in a voluntary subjection and obedience to them If their softness or yieldingness Direct 2. cause them to relinquish their authority and for peace they are fain to let you have your wills yet remember that it is God that hath appointed them to be your Heads and Governours If they are so silly as to be unable you should not have chosen such to Rule you as are unfit but having chosen them you must assist them with your
on to Heaven All your labour must be as the labour of a traveller which is all for his journeys end And all your respect or affection to any place or thing in your way must be in respect to your attainment of the end as a Traveller loveth a good Way a good Horse a good Inn a dry Cloak or good Company But nothing must be loved here as your end or home Lift up your hearts to Heaven and say If this work and way did not tend thither directly or indirectly it were no work or way for me Whatever you do do all to the Glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 31. § 8. Direct 8. Follow the labours of your calling painfully and diligently From hence will follow Direct 8. many commodities 1. You will shew that you are not sluggish and servants to your flesh as those that cannot deny its ease And you will further the mortification of all fleshly lusts and desires which are sed by â—ase and idleness 2. You will keep out idle thoughts from your mind which swarm in the minds of idle persons 3. You will scape the loss of pretious Time which idle persons are daily guilty of 4. You will be in a course of obedience to God when the slothful are Eph. 4 28. Prov. 10 4. 12. 24 27. 13 4. 21. 5. 22. 29. 18. 9. 21. 25. 24. 30. in a constant sin of omission 5. You may have the more time to spare for holy exercises if you follow your labour close when you are at it when idle persons can have no time for Prayer or Reading because they lose it by loitering at their work and leave their business still behind hand 6. You may expect Gods blessing for the comfortable provision for your selves and families and to have to give to them that need when the slothful are in want themselves and cast by their want into abundance of temptations and have nothing to do good with 7. And it will also tend to the health of your bodies which will make them the fitter for the service of your souls When flothfulness wasteth time and health and estate and wit and grace and all § 9. Direct 9. Be throughly acquainted with your Corruptions and Temptations and watch against Direct 9. them all the day especially the most dangerous sort of your corruptions and those Temptations which Antequam domo quit exeat quid acturus sit apud se pertractâ—â— Rursus â—â—m redier â—â— quid â—gâ—â—i recogâ—et Câ—eobulus iâ— Laâ—t p. 59. your company or business will unavoidably lay before you Be still watching and working against the master radical sins of Unbelief Hypocrisie Selfishness Pride Sensuality or flesh-pleasing and the inordinate Love of earthly things Take heed lest under pretence of diligence in your Calling you be drawn to earthly mindedness and excessive cares or covetous designs for rising in the World If you are to trade or deal with others take heed of selfishness which desireth to draw or save from others as much as you can for your selves and your own advantage Take heed of all that savoureth of Injustice or Uncharitableness in all your dealings with others If you converse with vain talkers be still provided against the temptation of Vanity of talk If you converse with angry persons be still fortified against their provocations If you converse with wanton persons or such as are tempting those of the other Sex maintain that modesty and necessary distance and cleanness of speech which the laws of Chastity require If you have servants that are still faulty be so provided against the temptation that their faults may not make you faulty and you may do nothing that is unseemly or unjust but only that which tendeth to their amendment If you are poor be still provided against the Temptations of Poverty that it bring not upon you an evil far greater than it self If you are Rich be most diligent in fortifying your hearts against those more dangerous temptations of Riches which very few escape If you converse with flatterers or those that much admire you be fortified against swelling Pride If you converse with those that despise and injure you be fortified against impatient revengeful Pride These works at first will be very difficult while sin is in any strength But when you have got an habitual apprehension of the poisonous danger of every one of these sins and of the tendency of all Temptations your hearts will readily and easily avoid them without much tiring thoughtfulness and care even as a man will pass by a house infected with the Plague or go out of the way if he meet a Cart or any thing that would hurt him § 10. Direct 10. When you are alone in your labours improve the time in practical fruitful not Direct 10. speculative and barren meditations especially in Heart-work and Heaven-work Let your chiefest meditations be on the Infinite Goodness and perfections of God and the life of Glory which in the Love and praise of him you must live for ever And next let Christ and the mysteries of Grace in mans Redemption be the matter of your thoughts And next that your own hearts and lives and the rest before expressed Chap. 16. Dir. 6. § 8. If you are able to manage meditations methodically it will be best But if you cannot do that without so much striving as will confound you and distract you and cast you into Melancholy it is better let your Meditations be more short and easie like ejaculatory prayers But let them usually be operative to do some good upon your hearts § 11. Direct 11. If you labour in company with others be provided with Matter Skill Resolution Direct 11. and Zeal to improve the time in profitable conference and to avoid diversions as is Directed Chap. 16. § 12. Direct 12. Whatever you are doing in company or alone â—â—eâ— the day be spontâ—in the inward Direct 12. excitation and exercise of the Graces of the soul as well as in external bodily duties And to that end know that there is no external duty but must have some internal grace to animate it or else it is but an image or carkass and unacceptable to God When you are praying and reading there are the Graces of Faith Desire Love Repentance c. to be exercised there when you are alone Meditation may help to actuate any Grace as you find-most needful when you are conferring with others you must exercise Love to them and Love to that truth about which you do confer and other Graces as the subject shall require When you are provoked or under suffering you have patience to exercise But especially it must be your principal daily business by the exercise of faith to keep your hearts warm in the Love of God and your dear Redeemâ—â— and in thâ—â—â—ipâ—m and delightful thoughts of Heaven As the means are various and admit of deliberation and châ—ice because they are to
order to our Absolution and Communion 4. Especially so far as is necessary to subdue our fleshly lusts and tame our bodies and bring them into a due subjection to our faith and to avoid our sin for the time to come And also by 2 Cor. 7. 9 10 11. 1 Cor. 9 27. Col. 1. 5 6. Rom. 13 13 14. the exercise of sober mortification prudently to keep under all our worldly phantasies and love of this present world without unfitting our selves for duty 5. And so far as is needful by such mortification to fit us for fervent prayer especially by fasting on dayes of humiliation and to help us in our meditations of death and judgement and to further our heavenly contemplations and conversation 6. The greatest difficulty is Whether any self-revenge be lawful or due which is answered by Psal. 69. 10. Lev. 16. 29 31. â—3 27 32. Numb 29. 7. 30. 13. Ezra 8. 21. what is said already None such as disableth us for Gods service is lawful But true Repentance is an anger or great displeasure with our selves for sin and a hatred of sin and loathing of our selves for it And to judge condemn and afflict our own souls by a voluntary self-punishing is but that exercise of justice on our selves which is fit for pardoned sinners that are not to be condemned by the Lord and indeed the just exercise of Repentance and displeasure against our selves On which accounts of sober self-revenge we may cherish such degrees of godly sorrow fasting course cloathing as Sackcloth and denying our selves the pleasures of this world as shall not be hurtful but helpful to our duty And if great and heinous sinners have of old on these terms exceeded other men in their austerities and self-afflictings we cannot condemn them of superstition unless we more particularly knew more cause for it But popishly to think that self-afflicting without respect to Isa. 58. 5. such causes or necessities is a meritorious perfection fit for others is superstition indeed And â—o think as many of the Melancholy do that self-murder is a lawful self-revenge is a heinous sin and leadeth to that which is more heinous and dangerous Quest. 101. Is it lawful to observe stated times of fasting imposed by others without extraordinary occasion And particularly Lent Answ. REmember that I here meddle not with the question how far it is lawful for Rulers to 2 Chron. 20 3. Ezâ—a 8. 21. Jonah 3. 5. Zech. 8. 19. Joel 2. 15. Read Dallaeus Treatise de Iejuniis impose such Fasts on others save only to say 1. That it is undoubtedly fit for Kings to do it by Precepts and Churches by Consent in extraordinary cases of defection sin or judgements 2. That it is undoubtedly sinful usurpation for either Pope or any pretended Ecclesiastical Universal Rulers to impose such on the Universal Church Because there are no Universal Rulers Or for a neighbour Bishop by usurpation to impose it on a neighbour Church 3. And that it is sinful in all or many Churches to make by their Agreements such things to be necessary to their Union or Communion with their neighbour Churches so that they will take all those for Schismaticks that differ from them in such indifferent things But as to the Using of such fasts omitting the imposing I say I. 1. Thâ—â— so great and extraordinary a duty as holy fasting must not be turned into a meer Isa. 58. 3 5 6 7 8. formality oâ— ceremony 2. No particular man must be so observant of a publick commanded anniversary fast as for it to neglect any duty commanded him by God which is inconsistent with it As to rejoyce or keep a day of Thanksgiving in Lent upon an extraordinary obliging cause To keep the Lords day in Lent as a day of Thanksgiving and Rejoycing To preserve our own health c. It is not lawful in obedience to man to fast so much or use such dyet as is like to destroy our lives or health These being not so far put into the power of man Nor can man dispence with us as to the duty of self-preservation If God himself require us not to offer him our lives and health needlesly as an acceptable Sacrifice nor ever maketh self-destruction our duty no nor any thing that is not for mans own good then we are not to believe without very clear proof that either Prince or Prelates have more power than ever God doth use himself 3. Such an Anniversary fast as is meet for the remembrance of some sin or judgement if commanded is to be kept both for the Reason of it and for the Authority of the Commander For 1. It is not unlawful as Anniversary For 1. It is not forbidden and 2. There may be just occasion Some arbitrarily keep an anniversary fast on the day of their Nativity as I have long done and some on the day that they fell into some great sin and some on the day of the death of a friend or of some personal domestick or National Calamity and none of this is forbidden 2. And that which is not unlawful in it self is not therefore unlawful to be done because it is commanded seeing obedience to superiours is our duty and not our sin unless in sinful things 4. Whether it be lawful or meet to commemorate Christs sufferings by anniversary fasts is next to be considered II. As for Lent in particular We must distinguish 1. Between the antient Lent and the later Lent 2. Between keeping it on a Civil account and on a Religious 3. Between true fasting and change of dyet 4. Between the Imitation of Christs fourty dayes fasting and the meer Commemoration of it Which premised I conclude 1. The keeping a true Fast or Abstinence from food for fourty dayes on what account soever being impossible or self-murder is not to be attempted 2. The Imitation of Christ in his fourty dayes fasting is not to be attempted or pretended to Because his miraculous works were not done for our imitation And it is presumption for us to pretend to such a power as is necessary to Miracles or yet to make any Essayes at such an imitation any more than at the raising of the dead 3. The pretending of a fast when men do but change their dyet Flesh for Fish Fruit Sweet-meats c. is but hypocritical and ridiculous Most poor labourers and temperate Ministers do live all the year on a more flesh-denying dyet and in greater abstinence than many Papists do in Lent or on their fasting dayes And what a ridiculous dispute is it to hear e. g. a Calvin that never eateth but one small meal a day for many years to plead against the keeping of the Popish fasts and their Clergy call him voracious and carnal and an Epicure and plead for fasting as holy mortification who eat as many meals and as much meat on a Lent day or fasting day as Calvin did in three feasting dayes and drink as much Wine in
Consider the great temptations of the Rich and great and pity them that stand Direct 16. in so dangerous a station instead of murmuring at them or envying their greatness You little know what you should be your selves if you were in their places and the world and the flesh had so great a stroke at you as they have at them He that can swim in a calmer water may be carryed down a violent stream It is harder for that bird to fly that hath many pound weights tyed to keep her down than that which hath but a straw to carry to her nest It is harder mounting Heaven-wards with Lordships and Kingdoms than with your less impediments Why do you not pity them that stand on the top of barren mountains in the stroke of every storm and wind when you dwell in the quiet fruitful vales Do you envy them that must go to Heaven as a Camel through a needles eye if ever they come there And are you discontented that you are not in their conâ—â—tion will you rebel and fight to make your salvation as difficult as theirs Are you so unthankful to God for your safer station that you murmur at it and long to be in the more dangerous place § 40. Direct 17. Pray constantly and heartily for the spiritual and corporal welfare of your Governours Direct 17. And you have reason to believe that God who hath commanded you to put up such prayers will not suffer them to be wholly lost but will answer them some way to the benefit of them that perform the duty 1 Tim. 2. 1 2 3. And the very performance of it will do us much good of it self For it will keep the heart well disposed to our Governours and keep out all sinful desires of their hurt or controll them and cast them out if they come in Prayer is the exercise of Love and good desires And exercise increaseth and confirmeth habits If any ill wishes against your Governours should stâ—al into your minds the next time you pray for them conscience will accuse you of hypocrisie and either the sinful desires will corrupt or end your Prayers or else your prayers will cast out those ill desires Certainly the faithful fervent prayers of the Righteous do prevail much with God And things would go better than they do in the world if we prayed for Rulers as heartily as we ought § 41. Obj. For all the prayers of the Church five parts of six of the World are yet Idolaters Heathens Object Infidels and Mahometans And for all the prayers of the Reformed Churches most of the Christian part of the world are drowned in Popery or gross ignorance and superstition and the poor Greek Churches have Mahometane or tyrannical Governours and carnal proud usurping Prelates domineer over the Roman Church and there are but three Protestant Kings on the whole earth And among the Israelites themselves who had Priests and Prophets to pray for their Princes a good King was so rare that when you have named five or six over Judah and never a one after the division over Israel you scarce know where to find the rest What good then do your Prayers for Kings and Magistrates Answ. 1. As I said before they keep the hearts of subjects in an obedient holy frame 2. Were Answ. it not for prayers those few good ones would be fewer or worse than they are and the bad ones might be worse or at least do more hurt to the Church than they now do 3. It is not to be expected that all should be granted in kind that believers pray for For then not only Kings but all the world should be converted and saved For we should pray for every one But God who knoweth best how to distribute his mercies and to honour himself and refine his Church by the malice and persecution of his enemies will make his peoples prayers a means of that measure of good which he will do for Rulers and by them in the world And that 's enough to encourage us to pray 4. And indeed if when Proud ungodly worldlings have sold their souls by wicked means to climb up into places of power and command and domineer over others the Prayers of the faithful should Obj. Si id jâ—ris obâ—ineat status religionis eâ—â—t instabilis Mutato regis animo religio muta bitur presently convert and save them all because they are Governours this would seem to charge God with respect of persons and defect of Justice and would drown the world in wickedness treasons bloodshed and confusion by encouraging men by flatteries or treacheries or murders to usurp such places in which they may both gratifie their lusts and after save their souls while the godly are obliged to pray them into Heaven It is no such hearing of prayers for Governours which God hath promised 5. And yet I must observe that most Christians are so cold and formal in their Prayers for the Rulers of the world and of the Church that we have great reason to impute the unhappiness Resp. Unicum hic solatium in Divina est providentia Omnium animos Deus in potestate sua habet sed speciali quodam modo Cor Regis in manu Domini Deus per bonos per malos Reges opus suum operatur Interdum tranquillitas interdum tempestas ecclesiae utilior Nempe si pius est qui imperat si diligens lector sacrae scripturae si assiduus in precibus si Ecclesiae Catholicae reverens si peritos attente audiens multum per illum proficit veritas Sin distorto est corrupto judicio pejus id ipsi cedit quam ecclesiae Nam ipsum grave manet judicium Regis ecclesiae qui ecclesiam inultam non sinet Grotius de Impeâ— p. 210. Joh. 18. 36. of Governours very much to their neglect Almost all men are taken up so much with their own concernments that they put off the publick concernments of the world and of the Church and State with a few customary heartless words and understand not the meaning of the three first Petitions of the Lords Prayer and the Reason of their precedency or put them not up with that feeling as they do the other three If we could once observe that the generality of Christians were more earnest and importunate with God for the Hallowing of his name through all the world and the coming of his Kingdom and the obeying of his will in Earth as it is in Heaven and the Conversion of the Kings and Kingdoms of the world than for any of their personal concernments I should take it for a better prognostick of the happiness of Kings and Kingdoms than any that hath yet appeared in our dayes And those that are taken up with the expectations of Christs visible reign on earth would find it a more lawful and comfortable way to promote his Government thus by his own appointed officers than to rebell against Kings and seek
enough to implant it in all the hearers why do your Children go so long to School and after that to the Universities and why are you so long Preaching to all your Parishioners Sure you preach not novelties to them as long as you live And yet thirty or fourty years painful preaching even of the same fundamentals of Religion shall leave many ignorant of them in the best Parishes in the Land There must be a right and ripe disposition in the hearers or else the clearest reasoning may be uneffectual A disused or unfurnished mind that hath not received all the truths which are presupposed to those which you deliver or hath not digested them into a clear understanding may long hear the truest reasons and never apprehend their weight There is need of more adoe than a bare unfolding of the truth to make a man receive it in its proper evidence Perhaps he hath been long pre-possessed with contrary opinions which are not easily rooted out Or if he be but confident of the truth of some one opinion which is inconsistent with yours no wonder if he cannot receive that which is contrary to what he so verily believeth to be the truth There is a marvellous variety of mens apprehensions of the same opinions or reasons as they are variously represented to men and variously pondered and as the natural capacity of men is various and as the whole course of their lives their education company and conversation have variously formed their minds It is like the setting together all the parts of Watch when it is in pieces If any one part of many be misplaced it may necessitate the misplacing of those that follow without any wilful obstinacy in him that doth it If in the whole frame of sacred Truth there be but some one misunderstood it may bring in other mistakes and keep out many truths even from an honest willing mind And who is there that can say he is free from errour Have not you perceived in your selves that the truths which you heard an hundred times over to little purpose when you were Children were received more convincingly and satisfyingly when you were men And that you have found a delightful clearness in some points on a sudden which before you either resisted or held with little observation or regard And yet it is common with the scandalizers of souls to cry out against all that conform not to their opinions and will as soon as they have heard their reasons that they are stubborn and refractory and wilful and factious and so turn from arguments to Clubs as if they had never known themselves or others nor how weak and dark the understandings of almost all men are But they shall have judgement without mercy who shew no mercy And when their own errours shall all be opened to them by the Lord they will be loth they should all be imputed to their wilful obstinacy And perhaps these very censorious men may prove themselves to have beenonthe wrong side For Pride and uncharitableness are usually erroneous § 34. Direct 12. Engage not your selves in an evil cause For if you do it will engage you to Direct 12. draw in others You will expect your friends should take your part and think as you think and say as you say though it be never so much against truth or righteousness § 35. Direct 13. Speak not rashly against any cause or persons before you are acquainted with Direct 13. them or have well considered what you say Especially take heed how you believe what a man of any Sect in Religion doth speak or write against his Adversaries of a contrary sect If experience had not proved it in our dayes beyond contradiction it would seem incredible how little men are to be believed Psal. 119. 69. in this case and how the falsest reports will run among the people of a Sect against those whom the interest of their opinion and party engageth them to mis-represent Think not that you are excusable for receiving or venting an ill report because you can say he was an honest man that spoke it For many that are otherwise honest do make it a part of their honesty to be dishonest in this They think they are not zealous enough for those opinions which they call their Religion unless Vix equidem credar sed cum sint praemia falsi Nulla â—atam dâ—bet testis habere fidem Oâ—iâ— l. Rom. 3. 7 8. Jam. 3. 14. â—â—â—â—â— â— 8. they are easie in believing and speaking evil of those that are the Adversaries of it When it may be upon a just tryal all proveth false And then all the words which you ignorantly utter against the truth or those that follow it are scandals or stumbling blocks to the hearers to turn them from it and make them hate it I am not speaking against a just credulity There must be humane belief or else there can be no humane converse But ever suspect partiality in a party For the interest of their Religion is a more powerful charm to the Consciences of evil speakers than personal interest or bribes would be How many Legends tell us this how easily some men counted Godly have been prevailed with to Lie for God § 36. Direct 14. Take heed of mocking at a Religious life yea or of breaking any jeasts or scorns Diâ—â—â—â— 14. at the weaknesses of any in Religious exercises which may possibly reflect upon the exercises themselves Many a thousand souls have been kept from a holy life by the scorns of the vulgar that speak of it as a matter of derision or sport Reading the Scriptures and holy conference and prayer and instructing our families and the holy observation of the Lords day and Church-discipline are commonly the derision of ungodly persons who can scorn that which they can neither confute nor learn And weak people are greatly moved by such senseless means A mock or jear doth more with them than an argument They cannot endure to be made a laughing-stock Thus was the name of a Crucified God the derision of the Heathens and the scandal of the World both Jews and Gentiles And there is scarce a greater scandal or stumbling block at this day which keepeth multitudes from Heaven than when the Devil can make it either a matter of danger or of shame to be a Christian or to live a holy mortified life Persecution and Derision are the great successful scandals of the World And therefore seeing men are so apt to be turned off from Christ and Godliness never speak unreverently or disrespectfully of them It is a prophane and scandalous course of some that if a Preacher have but an unhansome tone or gesture they make a jeast of it and say He whined or he spoke through the nose or some such scorn they cast upon him which the hearers quickly apply to all others and turn to a scorn of Preaching or Prayer or Religion it self Or if men differ from each other