5. Take special notice of the Reasons why God commandeth you to Delight in him and Direct 5. consequently how much of Religion consisteth in these Delights 1. Thou vilifiest and dishonourest him Reasons for Delight in God if thou judge him not the worthiest for thy Delights 2. If thou Delight not in him thy Thoughts of God will be seldom or unwelcome and unpleasant Thoughts 3. And thy speeches of him will be seldom or heartless forced speeches Who knoweth not how readily our thoughts and tongues â—â—tari in Deo est â—es omnium summa in terrâ—s Bâ—â—â—â—oâ—t â—er do follow our Delight Be it House or Land or Books or Friends or Actions which are our delight we need no force to bring our thoughts to them The worldling thinks and tasteth of his wealth and business the proud man of his dignities and honour the voluptuous beast of his lusts and sports and meats and drinks because they most delight in these And so must the Christian of his God and Hopes and Holy business as being his Delight 4. It will keep you away from Holy duties in which you should have communion with God if you have no Delight in God and them This makes so many neglect both publick and secret worship because they have no delight in it when those that Delight in it are ready in taking all opportunities 5. It will corrupt your judgements and draw you to think that a little is enough and that serious diligence is unnecessary preciseness and that one quarter of your duty is an excess A man that hath no Delight in God and Godliness is easily drawn to think that little and seldom and cold and formal and heartless lifeless Preaching and Praying may serve the turn and any lip-service is acceptable to God and that more is more ado than needs And hence he will be further drawn to reproach those that go beyond him to quiet his own Conscience and save his own reputation and at last to be a forloâ—n satanical reviler hater and persecuter of the serious holy worshippers of God Jâ—r 6. 10. Behold the word of the Lord is a reproach to them thy have no delight in it Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord 6. If you Delight not in it you will do that which you do without a heart with backwardness and weariness as your Oxe draweth unwillingly in the yoak and is glad when you unyoak him and as your horse that goeth against his will and will go no longer than he feels the spuâ— when Delight would cause alacrity and unweariedness 7. It makes men apt to quarrel with the word and every weakness in the Minister offendeth them as sick stomachs that have some fault or other still to find with their meat 8. It greatly enclineth men to carnal and fobidden pleasures because they tast not the higher and more excellent delights Taverns and Ale houses Plays and Whores Cards and Dice and excess of recreation must be sought out for them as Saul sought a Witch and a Musician instead of God It would be the most effectual Answer to all the silly reasonings of the Voluptuous when they are pleading for the lawfullness of their unnecessary foolish time-wasting sports if we could but help them to the Heavenly nature and Hearts that more delight in God This better pleasure is an Argument that would do more to confute and banish their sinful pleasure than a twelve-months disputing or preaching will do with them while they are strangers to the souls Delight in God Then they would rather say to their companions O come and tast those high delights which we have found in God! 9. The want of a Delight in God and Holiness doth leave the soul as a prey to sorrows Every affliction that assaulteth it may do its worst and hath its full blow at the naked unfortified heart For creature delights will prove but a poor preservative to it 10. This want of a Delight in God and Holiness is the way to Apostacie it self Few men will hold on in a way that they have no delight in when all other delights must be forsaken for it The caged Hypocrite while he is coopt up to a stricter life than he himself desires even while he seemeth to serve him is lothsom to God For the Body without the Will is but a carkase or carrion in his eyes If you had rather not serve God you do not serve him while you seem to serve him If you had rather live in sin you do live in sin reputatively while you forbear the outward act For in Gods account the Heart or Will is the man and what a man had rather be habitually that he is indeed And yet this Hypocrite will be still looking for a hole to get out of his cage and forsake his unbeloved outside of Religion Like a beast that is driven in a way that he is loth to go and will be turning out at every gap All these mischiefs follow the want of Delight in God § 6. On the contrary the Benefits which follow our Delight in God besides the sweetness of it are unspeakable Those which are contrary to the forementioned hurts I leave to your own consideration 1. Delight in God will prove that thou Knowest him and lovest him and that thou art prepared for his Kingdom For all that truly Delight in him shall enjoy him 2. Prosperity which is but the small addition of earthly things will not easily corrupt thee or transport thee 3. Adversity which is the withholding of earthly delights will not much grieve thee or easily deject thee 4. Thou wilt receive more profit by a sermon or good book or conference which thou Delightest in than others that delight not in them will do in many 5. All thy service will be sweet to thy self and acceptable to God If thou Delight in him he doth certainly delight in thee Psalm 149. 4. and 147. 11. 1 Chron. 29. 17. 6. Thou hast a continual feast with thee which may sweeten all the crosses of thy life and afford thee greater joy than thy sorrow is in thy saddest case 7. When you Delight in God your creature-delight will be sanctified to you and warrantable in its proper place which in others is idolatrous or corrupt These with many other are the benefits of Delight in God § 7. Direct 6. Consider how suitable God and Holiness are to be the matter of thy Delight and take Direct 6. heed of all temptations which would represent him as unsuitable to you He is 1. Most perfect and Blessed in himself 2. And full of all that thou canst need 3. He hath all the world at his command for thy relief 4. He is nearest to thee in presence and relation in the world 5. He hath fitted all things in Religion to thy Delight for matter variety and benefit 6. He will be a certain and constant Delight to thee and a durable delight when all others fail Thy
my mouth Mal. 3. 18. Psal. 1. 15. 4. Affect not a dead and heartless way of worship which tendeth not to convince and waken the ungodly nor to make men serious as those that have to do with God § 9. Direct 8. Let the manner of your worshipping God be suited to the matter that you have in hand Direct 8. Remember that you are speaking either to or of the Eternal God that you are employed about the everlasting salvation of your own or others souls that all is high and holy that you have to do See then that the Manner be answerable hereunto § 10. Direct 9. Offer God nothing as a part of Worship which is a lye much less so gross a lye as Direct 9. to be disproved by the common senses and Reason of all the world God needeth not our Lye unto his glory What worship then do Papists offer him in their Mass who take it for an article of their faith Rom. 3. 7. that there is no Bread or Wine left after the Consecration it being all Transubstantiate into the very Body and Blood of Christ. And when the Certainty of all mens senses is renounced then all certainty of faith and all Religion is renounced for all presuppose the certainty of sense § 11. Direct 10. Worship not God in a manner that is contrary to the true nature and order and Direct 10. operations of a rational soul. I mean not to the corrupted nature of man but to Nature as Rational in it self considered As 1. Let not your meer Will and inclination over-rule your understandings Read Plutarch of Superstition and say not as blind Lovers do I love this but I know not why or as Children that eat unwholsome meat because they love it 2. Let not passion overtop your Reason Worship God with such a zeal as is according to knowledge 3. Let not your Tongues lead your hearts much less over-go them Words may indeed reflect upon the Heart and warm it more but that is but the secondary use the first is to be the expressions of the Heart You must not speak without or against your hearts that is falsly that by so speaking you may better your hearts and make the words true that at first were not true unless it be when your words are but reading-recitations or narratives and not spoken of your selves The Heart was made to lead the tongue and the tongue to express it and not to lead it Therefore speak not to God either the words of a Parrot which you do not understand or the words of a lyar or Hypocrite which express not the meaning or desires or feeling of your hearts but first understand and feel what you should speak and then speak that which you understand and feel § 12. Quest. How then can a prayer be lawful that is read or heard from a Book Answ. There is in Reading the Eye and in Hearing the Ear that is first to affect the Heart and then the Tongue is to perform its office And though it be sudden yet the passage to the Heart is first and the passage from the heart is last and the soul is quick and can quickly thus both Receive and be Affected and express it self And the case is the same in this whether it be from a Book or from the words of another without book For the soul must do the same as quickly in joyning with another that speaketh before us without a book as with it § 13. Direct 11. Understand well how far Christ hath given a Law and Rule for worship to his Direct 11. Church in the holy Scriptures and so far see that you take it as a perfect Rule and swerve not from How far the Scriptureis the Law or Rule of Worship and Discipline and how far not it by adding or diminishing This is a matter of great importance by reason of the danger of erring on either side 1. If you think that the Scripture containeth not any Law or Rule of Worship at all or not so much as indeed it doth you will deny a principal part of the Office of Christ as the King and Teacher of the Church and will accuse his Laws of insufficiency and be tempted to worship him with a humane kind of worship and to think your selves at liberty to worship him according to your own imaginations or change his worship according to the fashion of the Age or the Countrey where you are And on the other side if you think that the Scripture is a Law and Rule of Worship more particular than Christ intended it you will involve your selves and others in endless scruples and controversies and find fault with that which is lawful and a duty because you find it not particularly in the Scriptures And therefore it is exceeding needful to understand how far it is intended to be herein our Law and Rule and how far not To handle this fully would be a Dâ—gression but I shall briefly answer it § 14. 1. No doubt but Christ is the only Universal Head and Law-giver to his Church and that Legislation Isa. 2. 3 1. 10. 42. 4. Mic. 4. 2. Heb. 3. â— 3 5. Heb. 10. 28. Acts 7. 37 38. Acts 3. 23. Psal. 19. 7. Isa. 5. 24. is the first and principal part of Government And therefore if he had made no Laws for his Church he were not the full Governour of it And therefore he that arrogateth this power to himself to be Law-giver to the Church universal as such doth usurp the Kingly Office of Christ and committeth Treason against his Government unless he can prove that Christ hath delegated to him this chief part of his Government which none can do There being no Universal Law-giver to the Church but Christ whether Pope or Council no Law that is made by any meer man can be universally obligatory Therefore seeing the making of all Universal Laws doth belong only to ☜ Christ we may be sure that he hath perfectly done it and hath left nothing out of his Laws that was fit to be there nor nothing at liberty that was fit to be determined and commanded Therefore whatsoever is of equal Use or Consideration to the Universal Church as it is to any one part of iâ— and to all times as it is to any time of the Church should not be made a Law by man to any part of the Church if Christ have not made it a Law to the whole because else they accuse him of being defective in his Laws and because all his subjects are equally dependant on him as their King and Iudge And no man must step into his Throne pretending to amend his work which he hath done amiss or to make up any wants which the chief Law giver should have made up § 15. 2. These Laws of Christ for the Government of his Church are fully contained in the holy Scriptures For so much as is in Nature is there also
your help or liberty to do it afterward when that once or few times doing it were like to hinder you from doing it any more it would be your duty then to forbear it for that time unless in some extraordinary case For even for the life of an Oxe or an Asse and for Mercy to mens bodies the rest and holy work of a Sabbath might be interrupted much more for the souls of many Again I warn you as you must not pretend the interest of the end against a peremptory absolute command of God so must you not easily conclude a command to be absolute and peremptory to that which certainly contradicts the End nor easily take that for a Duty which certainly is no means to that good which is the end of duty or which is against it Though yet no seeming aptitude as a means must make that seem a duty which the prohibition of God hath made a sin § 26. Direct 15. It is ever unseasonable to perform a lesser duty of Worship when a greater Direct 15. should be done Therefore it much concerneth you to be able to discern when two duties are inconsistent which is then the greater and to be preferred In which the Interest of the end must much direct you that being usually the greatest which hath the greatest tendency to the greatest good § 27. Direct 16. Pretend not one part of Gods Worship against another when all in their Direct 16. place and order may be done Set not Preaching and Praying against each other nor publick and private Worship against each other nor internal Worship against external but do all § 28. Direct 17. Let not an inordinate respect to man or common custome be too strong a byas to Direct 17. pervert your judgements from the Rule of Worship nor yet any groundless prejudice make you distaste that which is not to be disliked The errour on these two extreams doth fill the World with corruption and contentions about the Worship of God Among the Papists and Russians and other ignorant sort of Christians abundance of corruptions are continued in Gods Worship by the Majus fidei impedimentum ex inveâ—eraâ—â consuetudine proficiscitur Ubique consuetudo magnas vires habet sed in barbaris longe maximas quippe ubi rationis est minimum ibi consueâ—udo radices profundiâ—â—imas agit In omni natura motio eò diuturnioâ— ac vehemenâ—ior quo magis est ad unum determinaâ—a Ios. Acosta de Iâ—d l. 2. p. 249. meer power of custome tradition and education and all seemeth right to which they have been long used and hence the Churches in South East and West continue so long overspread with ignorance and refuse reformation And on the other side meer prejudice makes some so much distaste a prescribed form of Prayer or the way of Worship which they have not been used to and which they have heard some good men speak against whose judgements they highlyest esteemed that they have not room for sober impartial reason to deliberate try and judge Factions have engaged most Christians in the World into several parties whereby Satan hath got this great advantage that instead of Worshipping God in Love and Concord they lay out their zeal in an envious bitter censorious uncharitable reproaching the manner of each others Worship And because the interest of their Parties requireth this they think the interest of the Church and Cause of God requireth it and that they do God service when they make the Religion of other men seem odious when as among most Christians in the World the errours of their modes of Worship are not so great as the adverse parties represent them except only the two great crimes of the Popish Worship 1. That it 's not understood and so is See Bishop Ier. Tailours late Book against Popery souleless 2. They Worship bread as God himself which I am not so able as willing to excuse from being Idolatry Judge not in such cases by passion partiality and prejudice § 29. Direct 18. Yet judge in all such Controversies with that reverence and charity which Direct 18. is due to the universal and the Primitive Church If you find any thing in Gods Worship which the primitive or universal Church agreed in you may be sure that it is nothing but what is consistent with acceptable Worship For God never rejected the Worship of the primitive or universal Church And it is not so much as to be judged erroneous without great deliberation and very good proof We must be much more suspicious of our own understandings § 30. Direct 19. In circumstances and modes of Worship not forbidden in the Word of God affect Direct 19. not singularity and do not easily differ from the practice of the Church in which you hold Communion nor from the commands or directions of your lawful Governours It 's true if we are forbidden with Dan. 3. Act. 4. 17 18. 5. 28. Daniel to Pray or with the Apostles to speak any more in the name of Christ or are commanded as the three witnesses Dan. 3. to Worship Images we must rather obey God than man and so in case of any sin that is commanded us But in case of meer different modes and circumstances and order of Worship see that you give authority and the consent of the Church where you are their due § 31. Direct 20. Look more to your own hearts than to the abilities of the Ministers or the Ceremonies Direct 20. or manner of the Churches Worship in such lesser things It is Heart-work and Heaven-work that the sincere believer comes about and it is the corruption of his heart that is his heaviest burden which he groaneth under with the most passionate complaints A hungry soul enflamed with Love to God and man and tenderly sensible of the excellency of common truths and duties would make up many defects in the manner of publick administration and would get nearer God in a defective imperfect mode of Worship than others can do with the greatest helps When Hypocrites find so little work with their Hearts and Heaven that they are Jam. 3. 15 16 17. taken up about words and forms and ceremonies and external things applauding their own way and condemning other mens and serving Satan under pretence of Worshipping God CHAP. III. Directions about the Christian Covenant with God and Baptism § 1. THough the first Tome of this Book is little more than an explication of the Christian Covenant with God yet being here to speak of Baptism as a part of Gods Worship it is needful that I briefly speak also of the Covenant it self § 1. Direct 1. It is a matter of great importance that you well understand the nature Direct 1. of the Christian Covenant what it is I shall therefore here briefly open the nature of it and then speak of the Reasons of it and then of the solemnizing it by Baptism and next of our Renewing it
Love are the Churches dissolution which first causeth sissures and separations and in process crumbleth us all to dust And therefore the Pastors of the Church are the fittest instruments for the cure who are the Messengers of Love and whose Government is paternal and hurteth not the body but is only a Government of Love and exercised by all the means of Love All Christians in the world confess that LOVE is the very â—â—â—â— and perfection of all Grace and the End of all our other duties and that which maketh us like to God and that iâ— Love dwelleth in us God dwelleth in us and that it will be the everlasting Grace and the work of Heaven and the Happiness of souls and that it is the excellent way and the character of Saints and the Nâ—w Commandmâ—nt And all this being so it is most certain that no way is the 1 â—â—â—â— 4. 7. 8. â—â—â—â— 13 35. 〈…〉 way of God wâ—â—câ—â—â— not the way of Love And therefore what specious pretences soever they may have and one may cry up Truth and another Holiness and another order and another Unity it seâ—â— to jâ—â—â—â—â— their â—nvyings hatred cruelties it is most certain that all such pretences are Satanical deceiâ—â— And â—â— they bile and devour one another they are not like the sheep of Christ but shall be dâ—â—â—â—â—â—d one of another Gal. 5. 15. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling 〈…〉 4. 2. 〈…〉 of the Law Rom. 13. 10. When Papists that shew their love to mens souls by racking their bodies and fryâ—â—g them in the fire can make men apprehensive of the excellency of that kind of Love they may â—â—â—â— it to the healing of the Church In the mean time as their Religion is such is their Concord while all those are called Members of their Union and Professors of their Religion who must be burnt to ashes if they say the contrary They that give God an Image and Carkass of Religion â—â—â—â— 1. 4 are thus content with the Image and Carkass of a Church for the exercise of it And if there were nothing â—llâ— but this to detect the sinfulness of the Sect of Quakers and many more it is enough to satisfie any sober man that it cannot be the way of God God is not the author of that Spirit and way which tends to wrath emulation hatred railing and the extinction of Christian Love to all â—â—vâ— their own Sect and party Remember as you love your souls that you shun all wayes that are destructive to universal Christian Love § 83. Direct 6. Make nothing necessary to the unity of the Church or the communion of Christians Direct 6. which God hath not made necessary or directed you to make so By this one â—olly the Papists are become see 〈…〉 p. 52â— the most notorious Schismaticks on earth even by making new Articles of faith and new parts of worship and imposing them on all Christians to be sworn subscribed professed or practised so as that no man shall be accounted a Catholick or have communion with them or with the Universal Church if they could hinder it that will not follow them in all their Novelties They that would subscribe to all the Scriptures and to all the antient Creeds of the Church and would do any thing that Christ and his Apostles have enjoyned and go every step of that way to Heaven that Peter and Paul went as far as they are able yet if they will go no further and believe no more yeâ— if they will not go against some of this must be condemned cast out and called Schismaticks by these notorious Schismaticks If he hold to Christ the Universal Head of the Church and will not be subject or sworn to the Pope the Usurping Head he shall be taken as cut off from Christ. And there is no certainty among these men what measure of faith and worship and obedience to them shall be judged necessary to constitute a Church-member For as that which served in the Apostles dayes and the following ages will not serve now nor the subscribing to all the other pretended Councils until then will not serve without subscribing to the Creed or Council of Trâ—nt so no body can tell what New Faith or Worship or Test of Christianity the next Council if the world see any more may require and how many thousand that are Trent-Catholicks now may be judged Hereticks or Schismaticks then if they will not shut their eyes and follow them any whither and change their Religion as oft as the Papal interest requireth a change Of this Chillingworth Hales and Dr. H. More have spoken plainly If the Pope had imposed but one lye Dâ— H. More saith Myst. Redemp p. 495. l. 10. c. 2. There is scarce any Church in Christâ—ndome at this day that doth not obtrude not only falshood but such falsehoods that will appear to any free Spirit pure contradictiors and impossibilities and that with the same gravity authority and importunity that they do the holy Oracles of God Now the consequence of this must needs be sad For what knowing and conscientious man but will be driven off if he cannot assert the truth without open asserting of a gross lye Id. p. â—26 And as for Opinions though some may be better than other some yet none should exclude from the fullest enjoyment of either private or publick rights supposing there be no venome of the persecutive spirit mingled with them But every one that professeth the faith of Christ and believeth the Scriptures in the Historical sense c. to be subscribed or one sin to be done and said All Nations and persons that do not this are no Christians or shall have no communion with the Church the man that refuseth that imposed lye or sin is guiltless of the Schism and doth but obey God and save his soul And the Usurper that imposeth them will be found the heinous Schismatick before God and the cause of all those Divisions of the Church And so if any private Sectary shall feign an opinion or practice of his own to be necessary to salvation or Church communion and shall refuse communion with those that are not of his mind and way it is he and not they that is the cause of the uncharitable separation * See Hales of Schisme p. 8. § 84. Direct 7. Pray against the Usurpations or intrusions of intrusions of impious carnal ambitious Direct 7. covetous Pastors into the Churches of Christ. For one wicked man in the place of a Pastor may do more In Ecclesiâ—s plus certaminum gignunt verba hominum quam Dei magâ—sque pugnatur fere de Apolline Petro Paulo quam de Christo Retine divina Relinque humana Bucholcer to the increase of a Schism or faction than many private men can do And carnal men have carnal minds and carnal interests which are both unreconcileable to the spiritual holy mind and interest For the
seen the Direct 18. fruits of the various courses of professors of Religion than of the young unripe unexperienced hot-headed sort Zeal is of great use to execute the resolutions of a well-informed man And the Zeal of others is very useful to warm the hearts of such as do converse with them But when it comes to matter of Iudgement once to decide a case of difficulty aged experience hath far the advantage And in no cases more than in those where Peace and Concord are concerned where rash hot-headed youth is very prone to precipitant courses which must be afterward repented of § 102. Direct 19. When fervent self conceited people would carry down all by censoriousness and passion Direct 19. it is time for the Pastâ—â—s and the aged and riper sort of Christians openly to rebuke them and appear against them and stand their ground and not to comply with the mis-guided sort to escape their censures Nothing hath more caused schisms in the Church except the Pride and ambition of the Clergie than that the riper and more judicious sort of people together with the Ministers themselves have been so loth to lye under the bitter censures of the unexperienced younger hotter sort and to avoid such censures and keep in with them they have followed those whom they should have led and have been drawn quite beyond their own understandings God hath made WISDOM to be the Guiâ—e of the Church and ZEAL to follow and diligently execute the commands of Wisdom Let ignorant well-meaning people censure you as bitterly as they please yet keep your ground and be not so proud or weak as to prefer their good esteem before their benefit and before the pleasing of God Sin not against your knowledge to escape the censure of the ignorant If you do God will make those men your scourges whom you so much over-valued And they shall prove to their spiritual Fathers as cockered children like Absalom do to their natural fathers and perhaps be the breaking of your hearts But if the Pastors and the riper experienced Christians will stand their ground and slick together and rebuke the exorbitancies of the censorious younger-ones they will maintain the credit of the Gospel and keep the truth and the Churches Peace and the hott spurs will in time either repent and be sober or be shamed and disabled to do much hurt § 103. Direct 20. Take heed how you let loose your zeal against the Pastors of the Church lest you Direct 20. bring their persons and next their effice into contempt and so break the bâ—nds of the Churches Unity and Peace There is no more hope of maintaining the Churches Unity and Concord without the Ministry than of keeping the strength or Unity of the members without the Nerves If these nerves be weak or labour of a Convulsion or other disease it is curing and strengthening them and not the cutting them asunder that mâ—st prove to the welfare and safety of the body Middle with the faults of the Ministry only so far as tendeth to a cure of them or of the Church but not to bring them into disgrace and weaken their interest in the people and disable them from doing good Abhor that proud rebellious spirit that is prone to set up it self against the officers of Christ and under pretence of greater Wisdom or Holiness to bring their Guides into contempt and is picking quarrels with them behind their back to make them a scorn or odious to the hearers Indeed a Minister of Satan that doth more harm in the Church than good must be so detected as may best disable him from doing harm But he that doth more good than hurt must so be disswaded from the hurt as not to be disabled from the Good My brethren be not many Masters or Teachers knowing that ye shall receive the greater Jam. 3. 1. condemnation § 104. Direct 21. Look more with an eye of Charity on what is Good in others and their worship of Direct 21. God than with an eye of malice to carp at what appeareth evil Some men have such distempered eyes that they can see almost nothing but faultiness in any thing of another party which they look at envy and faction maketh them carp at every word and every gesture And they make no Conscience of aggravating every failing and making Idolatry of every mistake in Worship and making Heresie or Blaspheamy of every mistake in judgement and making Apostacy of every fall nay perhaps the truth it self shall have no better a representation As Dr. H. More well noteth It would do much more good in the world if all parties were forwarder to find out and commend what is good in the doctrine and worship of all that differ from them This would win them to heaâ—ken to reforming advice and would keep up the credit of the common truths and duties of Religion in the world when this envious snarling at all that others do doth tend to bring the world to Aâ—hâ—ism and banish all reverence of Religion together with Christian Charity from the Earth § 105. Direct 22. Keep not strange to those from whom you differ but be acquainted with them Direct 22. and placidly hear what they have to say for themselves Oâ— else converse with them in Christian Love in Read the next Chap. 24. Sect. 20. all thâ—se duties in which you are agreed and this if you never talk of your differences will do much to reconcile you in all the rest It is the common way of division uncharitableness yea and cruelty ☜ at last to receive hard reports of those that differ from us behind their backs and to believe and aggravate Prince Frederick of Moâ—pelgard being instructed into a distaste of the Reformed Protestants when he had been at Câ—â—â—â—a and Hâ—â—vâ—tia was went to far Gâ—â—â—â— â—â— Hâ—lvetia viâ—i multa de qâ—ibus nihil paâ—â— coâ—â—â—â—â— quibus sâ—â—e aâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—t Tossaâ—us ad â—â—â—â—lium â—â—â—â—te Sâ—ult to iâ— Curric p 26. all and proceed to detraction and contention at a distance and in the dark and never be familiarly acquainted with them at all There is something in the apprehension of places and persons and things by the eye sight which no reports are able to match And so there is that satisfaction about men by familiar acquaintance which we cannot attain by hearsay from any how judicious soever All factions commonly converse together and seek no familiar converse with others but believe them to be any thing that 's naught and then report them to be so before they ever knew the persons of whom they speak I am perswaded this is one of the greatest feeders of enmity uncharitableness contention and slanders in the world I speak it upon great observation and experience I have seldom heard any man bitterly oppose the servants of Christ but either the grosly wicked or those that never had much acquaintance with them And I see commonly how bitter soever
absolutely subjected to God will obey none against him whatever it cost them as Dan. 3. 6. Heb. 11. Luk. 14. 26 33. Matth. 5. 10 11 12. therefore it hath proved the occasion of bloody persecutions in the Churches by which professed Christians draw the guilt of Christian blood upon themselves 12. And hereby it hath dolefully hindered the Gospel while the persecutors have silenced many worthy Conscionable Preachers of it 13. And by this it hath quenched Charity in the hearts of both sides and taught the sufferers and the afflicters to be equally bitter in censuring if not Rom. 14 15. detesting one another 14. And the Infidels seeing these dissensions and bitter passions among Christians deride and scorn and hate them all 15. Yea such causes as these in the Latine and Greek Churches have engaged not only Emperours and Princes against their own subjects so that Chronicles and Books of Martyrs perpetuate their dishonour as Pilate's name is in the Creed but also have set them in bloody Wars among themselves These have been the fruits and this is the tendency of usurping Christs prerogative over his Religion and Worship in his Church And the greatness of the sin appeareth in these aggravations 1. It is a mark of pitiful Ignorance and Pride when dust shall thus like Nebuchadnezzar exalt it self against God to its certain infamy and abasement 2. It sheweth that men little know themselves that think themselves fit to be the makers of a Religion for so many others And that they have base thoughts of all other men while they think them unfit to Worship God any other way than that of their making And think that they will all so far deny God as to take up a Religion that 's made by man 3. It shews that they are much void of Love to others that can thus use them on so small occasion 4. And it sheweth how little true sense or reverence of Christian Religion they have themselves who can thus debase it and equal their own inventions with it 5. And it leaveth men utterly unexcusable that will not take warning by so many hundred years experiences of most of the Churches through the World Even when we see the yet continued divisions of the Eastern and Western Churches and all about a humane Religion in the parts most contended about When they read of the Rivers of Blood that have been shed in Piedmont France Germany Belgia Poland Ireland and the flames in England and many other Nations and all for the humane parts of mens Religion He that will yet go on and take no warning may go read the 18th and 19th of the Revelation and see what Joy will be in Heaven and Earth when God shall do Justice upon such But remember that I speak all this of no other than those expresly here described Quest. 135. What are the mischiefs of mens error on the other extream who pretend that Scripture is a Rule where it is not and deny the foresaid lawful things on pretence that Scripture is a perfect Rule say some for all things Answ. 1. THey fill their own minds with a multitude of causeless scruples which on their principles can never be resolved and so will give themselves no rest 2. They make themselves a Religion of their own and superstition is their daily devotion which being erroneous will not hang together but is full of contradictions in it self and which being humane and bad can never give true stability to the soul. 3. Hereby they spend their dayes much in melancholy troubles and unsetled distracting doubts and fears instead of the Joyes of solid faith and hope and love 4. And if they escape this their Religion is contentious wrangling censorious and factious and their zeal flyeth out against those that differ from their peculiar superstitions and conceits 5. And hereupon they are usually mutable and unfetled in their Religion This year for one and the next for another because there is no Certainty in their own inventions and conceits 6. And hereupon they still fall into manifold parties because each man maketh a Religion to himself by his mis-interpretation of Gods Word So that there is no end of their divisions 7. And they do a great deal of hurt in the Church by putting the same distracting and dividing conceits into the heads of others And young Christians and Women and ignorant well meaning people that are not able to know who is in the right do often turn to that party which they think most strict and godly though it be such as our Quakers And the very good conceit of the people whom they take it from doth settle so strong a prejudice in their mind as no argument or evidence scarcely can work out And so Education Converse and humane estimation breedeth a succession of dividers and troublers of the Churches 8. They sin against God by calling good evil and light darkness and honouring superstition which is the work of Satan with holy names Isa. 5. 20 21. 9. They sin by adding to the Word of God while they say of abundance of Lawful things This is unlawful and that is against the Word of God and pretend that their Touch not taste not handle Col. 2. 22 23. not is in the Scriptures For while they make it a Rule for every Circumstance in particular they must squeeze and force and wrest it to find out all those Circumstances in it which were never there and so by false expositions make the Scriptures another thing 10. And how great a sin is it to Father Satans works on God and to say that all these and these things are forbidden or commanded in the Scripture and so to belye the Lord and the Word of Truth 11. It engageth all Subjects against their Rulers Laws and Government and involveth them in the sin of denying them just obedience while all the Statute Book must be found in the Scriptures or else condemned as unlawful 12. It maintaineth disobedience in Churches and causeth Schisms and Confusions unavoidably For they that will neither obey the Pastors nor joyn with the Churches till they can shew Scriptures particularly for every Translation Method Metre Tune and all that 's done must joyn with no Churches in the world 13. It bringeth Rebellion and Confusion into families while Children and Servants must learn no Catechism hear no Minister give no account observe no hours of prayer nay nor do no work but what there is a particular Scripture for 14. It sets men on Enthusiastical expectations and irrational scandalous worshipping of God while all men must avoid all those Methods Phrases Books Helps which are not expresly or particularly in Scripture and men must noâ— use their own Inventions or prudence in the right ordering of the works of Religion 15. It destroyeth Christian Love and Concord while men are taught to censure all others that use any thing in Gods Worship which is not particularly in Scripture and so to censure
obedience shall be rewarded and disobedience punished The worst that ever Infidel could say was that He thinketh there is no other life None of you dare deny the Possibility of it nor can with any reason deny the probability Well then Let this be remembred while we proceed a little further with you § 14. 11. I suppose or expect that you have so much Use of sense and reason as to know the Breâ—ity 11. That yâ—u are sure of the brevity and vanity of this life And that the probability or possibility of an endless Joy or misery should command all the care and diligence of a Rational Creature against all that can be set against â—â— and Vanity of all the glory and pleasures of the flesh and that they are all so quickly gone that were they greater than they are they can be of no considerable value Alas what is Time How quickly gone and then it 's nothing and all things then are nothing which are passed with it So that the Ioyes or Sorrows of so short a life are no great matter of Gain or Loss I may therefore suppose that thou canst easily conclude that the bare probability or possibility of an Endless Happiness should be infinitely preferred before such transitory Vanity even the greatest matters that can be expected here And that the probability or possibility of endless misery in Hâ—ll should engage us with far greater care and diligence to avoid it than is due for the avoiding any thing that you can think to scape by sinning or any of the sufferings of this momentany life If you see not this you have lost your Reason that the meer probability or possibility of a Heaven and Hell should much more command our care and diligence than the fading vanities of this dreaming transitory life § 15. 12. Well then We have got thus far in the clearest light You see that a Religious holy life is every mans duty not only as they owe it to God as their Creator their Owner Governour and Benefactor but also because as Lovers of our selves our Reason commandeth us to have ten thousand fold 12. Therefore that a holy life is â—â—â—â—ry mans duty were it but on the account of such a possibility or probability And therefore that realâ—y there is such a joy and misery hereafter because God doth not make our faculties in vain nor make us to follow deceiâ—s and lies more regard of a Probable or Possible Ioy and Torment which are Endless than of any that is small and of short continuance And if this be so that a Holy Life is every mans duty with respect to the life that is to come then it is most evident that there is such a life to come indeed and that it is more than probable or possible even certain For if it be but Mans duty to manage this life by the Hopes and Fears of another life then it must follow that either there is such a life to come or else that God hath made it mans duty to hope and fear and care and labour and live in vain and that he himself doth Tantalize and Cheat his creatures and rule the world by Motives of deceit and make Religion and Obedience to our Maker to be a life of â—olly delusion and our loss And he that believeth this of God doth scarce believe him to be God Though I have mentioned this Argument in another Treatise I think it not unmeet here to repeat it for thy benefit § 16. 13. And seeing I suppose thee to be convinced of the Life to come and that mans Happiness and Misery is there I must needs suppose that thou dost confess that all things in this life whether prosperity or adversity honour or dishonour are to be esteemed and used as they referr to the life to come For nothing is more plain than that the Means are to have all their esteem and use in order to their End That only is Good in this life which tendeth to the Happiness of our Endless life And that is Evil indeed in this life that tendeth to our endless hurt and to deprive us of the everlasting 13. That all tâ—e matters of this transitory life are to be estimated as they refer to the life to come Good And therefore no price or motive should hire us to sin against God and to forfeit or hinder our endless happiness § 17. 14. I may suppose if thou have reason that thou wilt confess that God cannot be too much loved nor obeyed too exactly nor served too diligently especially by such backward sinners that have scarce any mind to Love or Worship him at all and that no man can make too sure of Heaven or pay too dear for it or do too much for his salvation if it be but that which God hath appointed 14. That no man can love God too much nor make too sure of his salvation him to do And that you have nothing else that is so much worth your Time and Love and Care and Labour And therefore though you have need to be stopt in your love and care and labour for the world because for it you may easily pay too dear and do too much yet there is no need of stopping men in their love and care and labour for God and their salvation which is worth more than ever we can do and where the best are apt to do too little § 18. 15. I also suppose thee to be one that knowest that this present life is given us on tryal to 15. That this life is given us for tryal and preparation to the life to come Noâ— temerè nâ—â— sortuiâ—o sati crâ—ati sâ—mus sed profecto â—uit quaedam vis quae generi consuleret humano 〈…〉 aut alâ—ret quod cum exantlavisset omnes labores tum iâ—cideret iâ— moâ—tis malâ—m sâ—mpiterâ—un Cic. 1. Tus. uâ— Nec unquam bono quicquam mali evâ—â—iâ—e potest nec vivo nec mortâ—o Nec â—es ejus à Diâ—s â—â—gâ—â—â—â—untur Idem 1. Tus. prepare for the life that shall come after and that as men live here they shall speed for ever and that time cannot be recalled when it 's gone and therefore that we should make the best of it while we have it § 19. 16. I suppose thee also to be easily convinced that seeing man hath his Reason and life for 16. That mans thoughts should be serious and frequent about his future state 17. That you can tell or may do which way your hearts and diligence are bâ—â—â—â— whether â—â—â—â— for this lâ—â—â—â— or for that to come matters of everlasting consequence his Thoughts of them should be frequent and very serious and his Reason should be used about these things by retired sober deliberation § 20. 17. And I suppose thee to be a man and therefore so far acquainted with thy self as that thou maist know if thou wilt whether thy Heart and Life do answer thy convictions and whether they are
clean and delectable and paved with mercies and fortified and secured by Divine protection and where Christ is your Conductor and so many have sped so well before you and the wisest and best in the world are your companions Live then as men that have changed their Master their end their hopes their way and work Religion layeth not men to sleep though it be the only way to Rest. It awakeneth the sleepy soul to higher thoughts and hopes and labours than ever it was well acquainted with before He that is in Christ is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. 17. You never sought that which would pay for all your cost and diligence till now You never were in a way that you might make haste in without repenting of your haste till now How glad should you be that Mercy hath brought you into the right way after the wanderings of such a sinful life And your gladness and thankfulness should now be shewed by your cheerful diligence and zeal As Christ did not raise up Lazarus from the dead to do nothing or live to little purpose though the Scripture giveth us not the history of his life So did he not raise you from the death of sin to live idely or to be unprofitable in the world He that giveth you his Spirit to be a principle of heavenly life within you expecteth that you stir up the gift that he hath given you and live according to that heavenly principle Direction 16. ENgage thy self in the chearful constant use of the means and helps appointed by God Direct 16. for thy confirmation and salvation § 1. He can never expect to attain the end that will not be perswaded to use the means Of your selves you can do nothing God giveth his help by the means which he hath appointed and fitted to your help Of the use of these I shall treat more fully afterwards I am now only to name them to thee that thou maist know what it is that thou hast to do 1. That you must hear or read the Word of God and other good Books which expound it and How Paenitents of old did rise even from a particular sin judge by these words of Pacianus Paâ—â—â—â—â—â— ad Poeâ—â—t Bibl. Pat. To. 3. p. 74. You must not only do that which may be seen of the Priest and praised by the Bishop to weep before the Church to lament a lost or sinful life in a â—ordid garment to fast pray to role on the earth if any invite you to the Bath or such pleasures to refuse to go If any bid you to a Feast to say These things are for the happy I have sinned against God and am in danger to perish for ever What should I do at Banquets who have wronged the Lord Besides these you must take the poor by the hand you must beseech the Widdow lye at the feet of the Presbyters beg of the Church to forgive you and pray for you you must try all means rather than perish apply it I shewed you before The new born Christian doth encline to this as the new born child doth to the breast 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. Laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as new born babes that desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby Psal. 1. 2 3. The blessed mans delight is in the Law of the Lord and therein doth he meditate day and night § 2. 2. Another means is the publick worshipping of God in communion with his Church and people Besides the benefit of the word there preached the prayers of the Church are effectual for the members and it raiseth the soul to holy joyes to joyn with well ordered Assemblies of the Saints in the Praises of the Almighty The Assemblies of holy worshippers of God are the places of his delight and must be the places of our delight They are most like to the Celestial Society that sound forth the praises of the glorious Iebovah with purest minds and cheerful voice In his Temple doth every one speak of his glory Psal. 29. 9. In such a Chore what soul will not be rapt up with delight and desire to joyn in the consort and harmony In such a flame of united desires and praises what soul so cold and dull that will not be enflamed and with more than ordinary facility and alacrity fly up to God § 3. 3. Another means is private prayer unto God When God would tell Ananias that Paul was converted he saith of him Behold he prayeth Acts 9. 11. Prayer is the breath of the new creature The Spirit of Adoption given to every child of God is a Spirit of prayer and teacheth them to cry Abba Father and helpeth their infirmities when they know not what to pray as they ought and when words are wanting it as it were intercedeth for them with groans which they cannot express in words Gal. 4. 6. Rom. 8. 15 26 27. And God knoweth the meaning of the Spirit in those groans The first workings of grace are in Desires after grace provoking the soul to servent prayer by which more grace is speedily obtained Ask then and ye shall have seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened to you Luke 11. 9. § 4. 4. Another means to be used is Confession of sin not only to God for so every wicked man may do because he knoweth that God is already acquainted with it all and this is no addition to his shame He so little regardeth the eye of God that he is more ashamed when it is known to men But in three Cases Confession must be made also to Man 1. In case you have wronged man and are thus bound to make him satisfaction As if you have robbed him defrauded him slandered him or born false witness against him 2. In case you are Children or Servants that are under the government of Parents or Masters and are called by them to give an acount of your actions You are bound then to give a true account 3. In case you have need of the Counsel or Prayers of others for the setling of your consciences in peace In this case you must so far open your case to them as is necessary to their effectual help for your recovery For if they know not the disease they will be unfit to apply the remedy In these cases it is true that He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Prov. 28. 13. § 5. 5. Another Means to be used is the familiar company and holy converse with humble sincere experienced Christians The Spirit that is in them and breatheth and acteth by them will kindle the like holy flames in you Away with the company of idle prating sensual men that can talk of nothing but their worldly wealth or business or their reputations or their appetites and lusts
Associate your selves with them that go the way to Heaven if you resolve your selves to go it O what a deal of difference will you find between these two sorts of companions The one sort if you have any thoughts of Repentance would stifle them and laugh you out of the use of your reason into their own distracted mirth and dotage And if you have any serious thoughts of your salvation or any inclinations to repent and be wise they will do much to divert them and hold you in the power and snares of Satan till it be too late If you have any zeal or heavenly mindedness they will do much to quench it and fetch down your minds to earth again The other sort will speak of things of so great weâ—â—â—â—t and moment and that with seriousness and reverence as will tend to raise and quicken your souâ— and possess you with a taste of the heavenly things which they discourse of They will encourage you by their own experiences and direct you by that truth which hath directed them and zealously communicate what they have received They will pray for you and teach you how to pray They will give the example of holy humble obedient lives and lovingly admonish you of your duties and reprove your sins In a word as the carnal mind doth savour the things of the flesh and is enmity against God the company of such will be a powerful means to infect you with their plague and make you such if you were escaped from them much more to keep you such if you are not escaped And as they that are spiritual do mind the things of the Spirit so their converse tendeth to make you spiritually minded as they are Rom. 8. 7 8. Though there are some useful qualities and gifts in some that are ungodly and some lamentable faults in many that are spiritual yet experience will shew you so great a difference between them in the main in heart and life as will make you the more easily to believe the difference that will be between them in the life to come § 6. 6. Another means is serious Meditation on the life to come and the way thereto Which though all cannot manage so methodically as some yet all should in some measure and season be acquainted with it § 7. 7. The last Means is to choose some prudent faithful Guide and Counsellor for your soul to Of how great concernment faithful Pastors are for the Conversion of the ungodly see a Jesuite Acosta li. 4. c. 1. 2 3 4. Infinitum esset caetera persequi quae contra hos satuos principes Tanaos contra Pastores stultos vel potius idola pastorum contra seipsos potius pascentes contra vaesâ—nos Prophetas contra Sacerdotes contemptores atque arrogantes contra â—lercus solennitatum contra popularis plausus captatores contra inexplebiles pecuniae gurgites caeâ—erasque pestes Propheticus sermo declamat Vix alias sancti Patres plenioribus velis feruntur in Pelagus quam cum de sacerdotali contumelia oratio est Acosta ib. p. 353. Non est iste sacerdos non est sed infestus atrox dolosus illusor sui lupus in dominicum gregem ovina pelle armatus Ibid. open those cases to which are not fit for all to know and to resolve and advise you in cases that are too hard for you Not to lead you blindfold after the interest of any seduced or ambitious men nor to engage you to his singular conceits against the Scripture or the Church of God but to be to your soul as a Physicion to your body or a Lawyer to your estates to help you where they are wiser than you and where you need their helps Resolve now that instead of your idle company and pastime your excessive cares and sinful pleasures you will wait on God in the seasonable use of these his own appointed means and you will find that he appointed them not in vain and that you shall not lose your labour Direction 17. THat in all this you may be sincere and not deceived by an hypocritical change be sure Direct 17. that God â—e all your Confidence and all your hopes be placed in Heaven and that there be no secret reserve in your hearts for the world and flesh and that you divide not your hearts between God and the things below nor take not up with the Religion of an hypocrite which giveth God what the flesh can spare § 1. When the Devil cannot keep you from a change and reformation he will seek to deceive you with a superficial change and half reformation which goeth not to the root nor doth not recover the heart to God nor deliver it entirely to him If he can by a partial deceitful change perswade you that you are truly renewed and sanctified and fix you there that you go no further you are as surely his as if you had continued in your grosser sins And of all other this is the most common and dangerous cheat of souls when they think to halve it between God and the world and to secure their fleshly interest of pleasure and prosperity and their salvation too and so they will needs serve God and Mammon § 2. This is the true Character of a self-deceiving hypocrite He is neither so fully perswaded of The â—ull desâ—â—iption of a 〈…〉 e câ—nâ—ersiâ—n and of an Hypocriâ—e Whâ—â—â—â—â—â— there are two great and grievous â—oâ—â—â—â— of â—roâ—ble â—â—â—â—â—d â—â—nâ— in the Churchâ—â— at the tryal of members and another â—n mens Consciences in trying their staâ—â—s about this Question How to know true Conversion or Sanctification I must tell them in boâ—h theâ—e troubles plainly that Christianity is but one thing the same in all Ages which is thâ—â—â—â— Consent to the Baptismal Covenant And there is no such way to resolve this question as to write or set before you the Covenant of Baptism in its proper sense and then ask your hearts whether you unâ—eignedly and resolvedly Consent He that consenteth truly is Converted and Justified and he that professeth Consent is to be received into the Church by Baptism if his Parents Coâ—â—â—â—t did not bring him in before which he is to do nevertheless himself at age the certain truth of the Scripture and the life to come nor yet so mortified to the flesh and world as to take the joyes of Heaven for his whole portion and to subject all his worldly prosperity and hopes thereunto and to part with all things in this world when it is necessary to the securing of his salvation And therefore he will not lose his hold of present things nor forsake his worldly interest for Christ as long as he can keep it Nor will he be any further religious than may stand with his bodily welfare resolving never to be undone by his godliness but in the first place to save himself and his prosperity in the world as long as he can And therefore he is truly a carnal worldly
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
lay down some previous Instructions proper to those that are but newly entred into Religion presupposing what is said in my Book of Directions to those that are yet under the work of Conversion to prevent their miscarrying by a false or superficial change Direct 1. TAke heed lest it be the Novelty or reputation of Truth and Godliness that takes with Direct 1. you more than the solid Evidence of their Excellency and Necessity lest when the Novelty and reputation are gone your Religion wither and consume away § 1. It is said of Iohn and the Jews by Christ He was a burning and a shining light and ye were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light John 5. 35. All men are affected most with things that seem new and strange to them It is not only the infirmitie of Children that are pleased with new Cloaths and new Toyes and Games but even to graver wiser persons new things are most affecting and commonness and custom dulls delight Our habitations and possessions and honours are most pleasing to us at the first And every condition of life doth most affect us at the first If nature were not much for Novelty the publishing of News-books would not have been so gainful a Trade so long unless the matter had been truer and more desirable Hence it is that Changes are so welcome to the world though they prove ordinarily to their cost No wonder then if Religion be the more acceptable when it comes with this advantage When men first hear the doctrine of Godliness and the tydings of another world by a powerful Preacher opened and set home no wonder if things of so great moment affect them for a time It is said of them that received the seed of Gods Word as into stony ground that forthwith it sprung up and they anon with joy received it Matth. 13. 5 20. but it quickly withered for want of rooting These kind of hearers can no more delight still in one Preacher or one profession or way than a Glutton in one Dish or an Adulterer in one Harlot For it is but a kind of sensual or natural pleasure that they have in the highest truths And all such delight must be fed with Novelty and variety of objects The Athenians were inquisitive after Pauls doctrine as Novelty though after they rejected it as seeming to them incredible Acts 17. 19 20 21. May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears we would know therefore what these things mean For all the Athenians and Strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but to tell or hear some new thing § 2. To this kind of Professors the greatest Truths grow out of fashion and they grow weary of them as of dull and ordinary things They must have some New Light or new way of Religion that lately came in fashion Their souls are weary of that Manna that at first was acceptable to them as Angels food Old things seem low and New things high to them And to entertain some Novelty in Religion is to grow up to more maturity And too many such at last so far overthrive their old apparel that the old Christ and old Gospel are left behind them § 3. The Light of the Gospel is speedilier communicated than the Heat And this first part being most acceptable to them is soon received and Religion seemeth best to them at first At first they have the Light of Knowledge alone and then they have the warmth of a new and prosperous profession There must be some time for the operating of the heat before it burneth them and then they have enough and cast it away in as much haste as they took it up If Preachers would only lighten and shoot no thunderbolts even a Herod himself would hear them gladly and do many things after them But when their Herodias is medled with they cannot bear it If Preachers would speak only to mens fansies or understandings and not meddle too smartly with their Hearts and Lives and carnal interests the world would bear them and hear them as they do Stage-players or at least as Lecturers in Philosophy or Physick A Sermon that hath nothing but some general toothless notions in a handsome dress of words doth seldom procure offence or persecution It is rare that such mens preaching is distasted by carnal hearers or their persons hated for it It is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the Sun Eccles. 11. 7. But not to be scorched by its heat Christ himself at a distance as promised was greatly desired by the Jews but when he came they could not bear him his doctrine and life were so contrary to their expectations Mal. 3. 1 2 3. The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come into his Temple even the Messenger of the Covenant whom you delight in behold he shall come saith the Lord of Hosts But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a Refiners fire and like Fullers soap Many when they come first by profession to Christ do little think that he would cast them into the fire and refine them and purge away their dross and cast them anew into the mould of the Gospel Rom. 6. 17. Many will play awhile by the Light that will not endure to be melted by the fire When the Preacher cometh once to this he is harsh and intolerable and loseth all the praise which he had won before and the pleasing Novelty of Religion is over with them The Gospel is sent to make such work in the soul and life as these tender persons will not endure It must captivate every thought to Christ and kill every lust and pleasure which is against his will and put a new and heavenly life into the soul It must possess men with deep and lively apprehensions of the great things of eternity It is not wavering dull Opinions that will raise and carry on the soul to such vigorous constant victorious action as is necessary to salvation When the Gospel cometh to the Heart to do this great prevailing work then these men are impatient of the search and smart and presently have done with it They are like Children that love the Book for the gilding and sineness of the Cover and take it up as soon as any but it is to play with and not to learn They are weary of it when it comes to that At first many come to Christ with wonder and will needs be his servants for something in it that seemeth fine till they hear that the Son of Man hath not the accommodation of the Birds or Foxes and that his doctrine and way hath an enmity to their worldly fleshly interest and then they are gone They first entertained Christ in complement thinking that he would please them or not much contradict them But when they find that they have received a guest
seriousness in Religion made odious or banished from the earth and that themselves may be taken for the Center and Pillars and Law-givers of the Church and the Consciences of all men may be taught to cast off all scruples or fears of offending God in comparison of â—â—â—â—â—â—ing them and may absolutely submit to them and never stick at any feared disobedience to 〈…〉 t They are the scorners and persecutors of strict obedience to the Laws of God and take those that â—ear his judgements to be men affrighted out of their wits and that to obey him exactly which alas who can do when he hath done his best is but to be hypocritical or too precise but to question their domination or break their Laws imposed on the world even on Kings and States without any Authority this must be taken for Heresie Schism or a Rebellion like that of Corah and his company This Luciferian Spirit of the proud Autonomians hath filled the Christian world with bloodshed and been the greatest means of the miseries of the earth and especially of hindering and persecuting the Gospel and setting up a Pharisaical Religion in the world It hath fought against the Gospel and filled with blood the Countreys of France Savoy Rhaetia Bohemia Belgia Helvetia Polonia Hungary Germany and many more that it may appear how much of the Satanical nature they have and how punctually they fulfill his will § 3. And natural corruption containeth in it the seeds of all these damnable Heresies nothing more natural to lapsed man than to shake off the Government of God and to become a Law-giver to himself and as many others as he can and to turn the grace of God into wantonness Therefore the prophane that never heard it from any Hereticks but themselves do make themselves such a Creed as this that God is merciful and therefore we need not fear his threatnings for he will be better than his word It belongeth to him to save us and not to us and therefore we may cast our souls upon his care though we care not for them our selves If he hath predestinated us to salvation we shall be saved and if he have not we shall not what ever we do or how well soever we live Christ dyed for sinners and therefore though we are sinners he will save us God is stronger than the Devil and therefore the Devil shall not have the most That which pleaseth the flesh and doth God no harm can never be so great a matter or so much offend him as to procure our damnation What need of so much ado to be saved or so much haste to turn to God when any one that at last doth but repent and cry God mercy and believe that Christ dyed for him shall be saved Christ is the Saviour of the world and his grace is very great and free and therefore God forbid that none should be saved but those few that are of strict and holy lives and make so much ado for Heaven No man can know who shall be saved and who shall not and therefore it is the wisest way to do no body any harm and to live merrily and trust God with our souls and put our salvation upon the venture no body is saved for his own works or deservings and therefore our lives may serve the turn as well as if they were more strict and holy This is the Creed of the ungodly by which you may see how natural it is to them to abuse the Gospel and plead Gods grace to quiet and strengthen them in their sin and to embolden themselves on Christ to disobey him § 4. But this is but to set Christ against himself even his Merits and Mercy against his Government and Spirit and to set his Death against the Ends of his death and to set our Saviour against our salvation and to run from God and rebell against him because Christ dyed to recover us to God and to give us Repentance unto life and to sin because he dyed to save his people from their sins and to purifie a peculiar people to himself zealous of good works Matth. 1. 21. Tit. 2. 14. He that committeth sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3. 8. John 8. 44. Direct 18. WAtch diligently hath against the more discernable decayes of grace and against Direct 18. the degenerating of it into some carnal affections or something counterfeit and of another kind And so also of Religious duties § 1. We are no sooner warmed with the coelestial flames but natural corruption is enclining us to grow cold Like hot water which loseth its heat by degrees unless the fire be continually kept under it Who feeleth not that as soon as in a Sermon or Prayer or holy Meditation his heart hath got a little heat as soon as it is gone it is prone to its former earthly temper and by a little remisness in our duty or thoughts or business about the world we presently grow cold and dull again Be watchful therefore lest it decline too far Be frequent in the means that must preserve you from declining when faintness telleth you that your stomachs are emptied of the former meat supply it with another lest strength abate You are rowing against the stream of fleshly interest and inclinations and therefore intermit not too long lest you go faster down by your ease then you get up by labour § 2. The Degenerating of Grace is a way of backsliding very common and too little observed How Grace may degenerate It is when good affections do not directly cool but turn into some carnal affections somewhat like them but of another kind As if the body of a man instead of dying should receive the life or soul of a Beast instead of the reasonable humane soul. For instance 1. Have you Believed in God and in Iesus Christ and Loved him accordingly You shall seem to do so still as much as formerly when your corrupted minds have received some false representation of him and so it is indeed another thing that you thus corruptly Believe and Love 2. Have you been fervent in Prayer you shall be fervent still iâ— Satan can but corrupt your prayers by corrupting your judgement or affections and get you to think that to be the cause of God which is against him and that to be against him which he commandeth and those to be the troublers of the Church which are its best and faithfullest members Turn but your prayers against the cause and people of God by your mistake and you may pray as fervently against them as you will The same I may say of preaching and conference and zeal Corrupt them once and turn them against God and Satan will joyn with you for zealous and frequent preaching or conference or disputes 3. Have you a confidence in Christ and his promise for
your salvation Take heed lest it turn into carnal security and a perswasion of your good estate upon ill grounds or you know not why 4. Have you the Hope of glory Take heed lest it turn into a careless venterousness of your soul or the meer laying aside of fear and cautelous suspicion of your selves 5. Have you a Love to them that fear the Lord Watch your hearts lest it degenerate into a carnal or a partial Love Many unheedful young persons of different Sexes at first love each other with an honest chaste and pious Love but imprudently using too much familiarity before they were well aware it hath turned into a fleshly Love which hath proved their snare and drawn them further into sin or trouble Many have honoured them that fear the Lord who insensibly have declined to honour only those of them that were eminent in wealth and worldly honour or that were esteemed for their parts or place by others and little honoured the humble poor obscure Christians who were at least as good as they Forgetting that the things that are highly esteemed among men are abomination in the sight of God Luke 16. 15. and that God valueth not men by their places and dignities in the world but by their graces and holiness of life Abundance that at first did seem to Love all Christians as such as far as any thing of Christ appeared in them have first fallen into some Sect and over admiring their party and have set light by others as good as them and censured them as unfound and then withdrawn their special Love and confined it to their party or to some few and yet thought that they loved the godly as much as ever when it was degenerate into a factious Love 6. Are you zealous for God and truth and holiness and against the errors and sins of others Take heed lest you lose it not while you think it doth increase in you Nothing is more apt to degenerate than zeal In how many thousand hath it turned from an innocent charitable peaceable tractable healing profitable heavenly zeal into a partial zeal for some Party or Opinions of their own and into a fierce censorious uncharitable scandalous turbulent disobedient unruly hurting and destroying zeal ready to wish for fire from Heaven and kindling contention confusion and every evil work Read well Iames 3. 7. So if you are meek or patient take heed lest it degenerate into stupidity or contempt of those you suffer by To be patient is not to be meerly insensible of the affliction but by the power of faith to bear the sense of it as over-ruled by things of greater moment § 3. How apt men are to corrupt and debase all duties of Religion is too visible in the face of the far greatest part of the Christian world Throughout both the Eastern and the Western Churches the Papists the Greeks the Armenians the Abassines and too many others though the Essentials of Religion through Gods mercy are retained yet how much is the face of Religion altered from what it was in the dayes of the Apostles The ancient simplicity of Doctrine is turned into abundance of new or private opinions introduced as necessary Articles of Religion and alas how many of them â—alse So that Christians being too proud to accept of the ancient test of Christianity cannot now agree among themselves what a Christian is and who is to be esteemed a Christian and so they deny one another to be Christians and destroy their Charity to each other and divide the Church and make themselves a scom by their divisions to the Infidel world And thus the Primitive Unity Charity and Peace is partly destroyed and partly degenerate into the Unity Charity and Peace of several Sects among themselves The primitive simplicity in Government and Discipline is with most turned into a â—orâ—â—ble Secular Government exercised to advance one man above others and to satisfie his will and lusts and make him the Rule of other mens lives and to suppress the power and spirituality of Religion in the world The primitive simplicity of Worship is turned into such a Masque of Ceremony and such a task of formalities and bodily exercise that if one of the Apostolical Christians should come among them he would scarce think that this is the same employment which formerâ—y the Church was exercised in or scarce know Religion in this antick dress So that the amiable glorious face of Christianity is so spotted and defiled that it is hidden from the Unbelieving world and they laugh at it as irrational or think it to be but like their own And the principal hinderance of the conversion of Heathens Mahometans and other Unbelievers is the corruption and deformity of the Churches that are near them or should be the instruments of their conversion And the probablest way to the conversion of those Nations is the true Reformation of the Churches both in East and West which if they were restored to the ancient spirituality rationality and simplicity of Doctrine Discipline and Worship and lived in charity humility and holiness as those whose hearts and conversations are in Heaven with all worldly glory and honour as under their feet they would then be so illustrious and amiable in the eyes even of Heathens and other Infidels that many would flock in to the Church of Christ and desire to be such as they And their light would so shine before these men that they would see their good works and glorifie their heavenly Father and embrace their faith § 4. The commonest way of the degenerating of all Religious duties is into this dead formality or lifeless Image of Religion If the Devil can but get you to cast off the spirituality and life of duty he will give you leave to seem very devout and make much ado with outward actions words and beads and you shall have so much zeal for a dead Religion or the Corpse of Worship as will make you think that it is indeed alive By all means take heed of this turning the Worship of God into lip-service The commonest cause of it is a carnality of mind Fleshly men will think best of the most fleshly Religion or else a slothfulness in duty which will make you sit down with the easiest part It is the work of a Saint and a diligent Saint to keep the soul it self both regularly and vigorously employed with God But â—o say over certain words by rote and to lift up the hands and eyes is â—asie And hypocrites that are conscious that they are void of the life and spirituality of Worship do think to make all up with this formality and quiet their consciences and delude their souls with a hansome Image Of this I have spoken more largely in a Book called The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite § 5. Yet run not here into the contrary extream as to think that the Body must not worship God as well as the soul or that the
thy most comprehensive odious sin and observe this as the life of all thy particular sins and hate it above all the rest This is the very death and greatest deformity of the soul the absence of Gods Image and Spirit and objectively of himself I never lothe my heart so much as when I observe how little it loveth the Lord. Methinks all the sins that ever I committed are not so lothsome to me as this want of Love to God And it is this that is the venom and malignity of every particular sin I never so much hate my self as when I observe how little of God is within me and how far my heart is estranged from him I never do so fully approve of the Justice of God if he should condemn me and thrust me for ever from his presence as when I observe how far I have thrust him from my heart If there were any sin which proceeded not from a want of Love to God I could easilier pardon it to my self as knowing that God would easilier pardon it But not to Love the God of Love the Fountain of Love the felicity of souls is a sin unfit to be pardoned to any till it be repented of and partly cured Christ will forgive it to none that keep it And when it is uncurable it is the special sin of Hell the badge of Devils and damned souls If God will not give me a heart to Love him I would I had never had a heart If he will give me this he giveth me all Happy are the poor the despised and the persecuted that can but live in the Love of God O miserable Emperours Kings and Lords that are strangers to this Heavenly Love and love their lusts above their Maker Might I but live in the fervent Love of God what matter is it in what Countrey or what Cottage or what Prison I live If I live not in the Love of God my Countrey would be worse than banishment a Palace would be a Prison a Crown would be a miserable comfort to one that hath cast away his comfort and is going to everlasting shame and woe Were we but duly sensible of the worth of Love and the odiousness and malignity that is in the want of it it would keep us from being quiet in the daily neglect of it and would quicken us to seek it and to stir it up § 23. Direct 6. Improve the principle of self-love to the promoting of the Love of God by considering Direct 6. what he hath done for thee and what he is and would be to thee I mean not carnal inordinate self-love which is the chiefest enemy of the Love of God But I mean that rational Love of Happiness and self-preservation which God did put into innocent Adam and hath planted in mans nature as necessary to his Government This natural innocent self-love is that remaining principle in the Heart of man which God himself doth still presuppose in all his Laws and Exhortations and which he taketh advantage of in his works and word for the conversion of the wicked and the perswading of his servants themselves to their obedience This is the common principle in which we are agreed with all the wicked of the world that all men should desire and seek to be happy and choose and do that which is best for themselves or else it were in vain for Ministers to preach to them if we were agreed in nothing and we had not this ground in them to cast our seed into and to work upon And if self-love be but informed and guided by understanding it will compell you to Love God and tell you that nothing should be so much Loved Every one that is a man must Love himself We will not intreat him nor be beholden to him for this And every one that Loveth himself will Love that which he judgeth Best for himself And every wise man must know that he never had nor can have any good at all but what he had from God Why do men Love lust or wealth or honour but because they think that these are good for them And would they not Love God if they practically knew that he is the Best of all for them and instead of all Unnatural unthankful heart Canst thou Love thy self and not Love him that gave thee thy self and gives thee all things Nature teacheth all men to love their most entire and necessary friends Do we deserve a reward by loving those that love us when Publicans will do the like Matth. 5. 46. Art thou not bound to love them that hate thee and curse and persecute thee ver 44 45. What reward then is due to thy unnatural ingratitude that canst not love thy chiefest friend All the friends that ever were kind to thee and did thee good were but his messengers to deliver what he sent thee And canst thou love the bearer and not the giver He made thee a man and not a beast He cast thy lot in his visible Church and not among deluded Infidels or miserable Heathens that never heard unless in scorn of the Redeemers name He brought thee forth in a Land of light In a Reformed Church where Knowledge and Holiness have as great advantage as any where in all the world and not among deluded ignorant Papists where ambition must have been thy Governour and Pride and Tyranny have given thee Laws and a formal Ceremonious Image of Piety must have been thy Religion He gave thee Parents that educated thee in his fear and not such as were prophane and ignorant and would have restrained and persecuted thee from a holy life He spoke to thy Conscience early in thy childhood and prevented the gross abominations which else thou hadst committed He bore with the folly and frailties of thy youth He seasonably gave thee those Books and Teachers and company and helps which were fittest for thee and blest them to the further awakening and instructing of thee when he past by others and left them in their sins He taught thee to pray and heard thy prayer He turned all thy fears and groans to thy spiritual good He pardoned all thy grievous sins and since that how much hath he endured and forgiven He gave thee seasonable and necessary stripes and brought thee up in the School of affliction so moderating them that they might not disable or discourage thee but only correct thee and keep thee from security wantonness stupidity and contempt of holy things and might spoil all temptations to ambition worldliness voluptuousness and fleshly lust By the threatnings of great calamities and death he hath frequently awakened thee to cry to Heaven and by as frequent and wonderful deliverances he hath answered thy prayers and encouraged thee still to wait upon him He hath given thee the hearty prayers of many hundreds of his faithful servants and heard them for thee in many a distress He hath strangely preserved thee in manifold dangers He hath not made thee of the
me the time of grace is past when God never said so Thy heart may say I am undone I can find no comfort in any friend no evidence of grace within me no comfort in God in Christ or in the promises no comfort in my life which is but a burden to me I cannot pray I cannot believe I cannot answer the Objections of Satan I can strive no longer against my fears I cannot bear my wounded conscience All this is the failing of the Heart but proveth not any failing of God whose grace is sufficient for thee and his strength is manifested perfect in thy weakness The heart hath a thousand sayings and conceits which God is utterly against § 22. Direct 15. When you cannot exercise a Trust of Assurance exercise the Trust of general faith Direct 15. and hope and the quiet submission of thy self to the holy Will of God The common pretence of distrust is I know not that I am a Child of God and it beseems the ungodly to fear his wrath But as the Gospel is tydings of great joy to any people where it cometh so is it a word of hope and trust At least trust God so far as Infinite Goodness should be trusted who will damn none but the finally obstinate Of Hope and Assurance I have spoken afterward refusers of his saving grace And with Aaron Lev. 10. 3. hold your peace when he is glorifying himself in his corrections Remember that the will of God is never mis-guided that it is the Beginning and End of all things Rev. 4. 11. Rom. 11. 36. that it never willeth any thing but good that it is the Center and End of all our wills There is no rest or quietness for our wills but in the will of God And his will is alwayes for the good of them that truly desire to be conformed to it by obedience to his commands and submission to his disposals Say therefore with your Saviour Father if it be thy will let this cup pass from me but not as I will but as thou wilt There is nothing got by strugling against the will of God nor nothing lost by a quiet submission to it And if thou love it and desire to obey and please it Trust in it for it will surely save thee DIRECT XIII Diligently labour that God and Holiness may be thy chief DELIGHT and this â—r Dir. 13. 〈…〉 in Gâ—d holy DELIGHT may be the ordinary temperament of thy Religion Directions for DELIGHTING our selves in God § 1. Direct 1. RIghtly understand what Delight in God it is that you must seek and exercise It Direct 1. is not a meer sensitive Delight which is exercised about the objects of sense O◠〈…〉 I havâ— saâ—d more in my Du 〈…〉 oâ— the 〈◊〉 of Church divisions and in the Deâ—en 〈…〉 and in other books or phâ—ntasie and is common to beasts with men Nor is it the delights of immediate intuition of God such as the blessed have in Heaven nor is it an Enthusiastick delight consisting in irrational raptures and joys which we can give no account of the Reason of them Nor is it a Delight inconsistent with sorrow and fear when they are duties But it is the solid rational complacencie of the soul in God and Holiness arising from the apprehensions of that in him which is justly delectable to us And it is such as in estimation of its object and inward complacency and gladness though not in passionate joy or mirth must excel our delight in temporal pleasure and must be the end of all our humiliations and other inferior duties § 2. Direct 2. Understand how much of this holy Delight may be hoped for on earth Though too Direct 2. many Christians feel much more fear and sorrow in their Religion than Delight yet every true Christian doth esteem God more Detectable or fit and worthy of his Delights if he could enjoy him whereas to the carnal fleshly things do seem more fit to be their Delights And though most Christians reach not very high in their Delights in God yet God hath prescribed us such means in which if we faithfully used them we might reach much higher And this much we might well expect 1. So much as might make our lives incomparably more quiet contented and pleasant to us than are the lives of the greatest or happiest worldlings 2. So much as might make our thoughts of God and the life to come to be ready welcom pleasant thoughts to us 3. So much as might greatly prevail against our inordinate griefs and fears and our backwardness to duties and weariness in them and might make Religion an ordinary Pleasure 4. So much as might take off our hankering desire after unnecessary recreations and unlawful pleasures of the flesh 5. So much as might sweeten all our mercies to us with a spiritual perfume or relish 6. So much as might make some sufferings joyful and the rest more easie to us 7. And so much as might make the thoughts of death less terrible to us and make us desire to be with Christ. § 3. Direct 3. Understand what there is in God and Hâ—liness which is fit to be the souls Delight Direct 3. As 1. Behold him in the infinite perfections of his Being his Omnipotence Omniscience and his Psal 99 2 3. 1 Chro. 16. 34. 2 Chro 5. 13. Psal 31. 7. 86 5. 108 3 4. Psal. 92. 4 5 136 4. 145 5 6 7 11 1â— 119. 64. 〈◊〉 36 24 26. Psal. 107. 22. 104 31 Psaâ— 67. 6. Rev. 1. 5. Joh â—â— 9. Gal. 2. 20. Eph 1 17 18. 2 6 7. 3 18 19. Psal. 130 6 7. Psal 91. 2 9. 94. 22. 59. 16. 62 7 8. 91. 2. 9. 57. 1. 59. 16. 4â— 1. 7. 11. Pâ—al â—9 1. 1. 6. 1. 2 3 1 3. 1 2 3. 〈◊〉 13 16. 1â— 34. 1 2 3. Goodness his Holiness Eternity Immutability c. And as your eye delighteth in an excellent picture or a comely building or fields or gardens not because they are yours but because they are a delectable object to the eye so let your minds delight themselves in God considered in himself as the only object of highest delight 2. Delight your selves also in his Relative Attributes in which is expressed his Goodness to his Creatures As his All sufficiency and faithfulness or truth his benignity his mercy and compassion and patience to sinners and his justice unto all 3. Delight your selves in him as his Glory appeareth in his wondrous works of Creation and daily Providence 4. Delight your selves in him as he is Related to you as your God and Father and as all your interest hope and happiness is in him alone 5. Delight your selves in him as his excellencies shine forth in his blessed Son 6. And as they appear in the wisdom and goodness of his Word in all the precepts and promises of the Gospel Psalm
many creatures and comforts for their bodies That live continually upon the plenty of his Love That have received so much and are still receiving Should we not bless him every day with Praise that blesseth us every day with benefits Should we not praise the bridge that we go over The friend that we have tryed so oft And resolve as Psalm 145. 2. Every day will I bless thee I will praise thy name for ever and ever Psalm 63. 3 4. Because thy loving kindness is better than life my lips shall praise thee Thus will I bless thee while I lâ—â—e I will lift up my hands in thy name Are they not bound to praise him on earth that must reign with Christ for ever in Heaven Rom. 8. 17 33. Rev. 1. 5 6. Col. 1. 12. 1 Pet. 1. 4. 6. The Praises of God do exercise our highest Graces Praise is the very breath of Love and Ioy and Gratitude It tendeth to raise us above our selves and make our hearts to burn within us while the glorious name of God is magnified It hath the most pure and spiritual and elevating effect upon the soul and therefore tendeth most effectually to make us more holy by the encrease of these graces § 19. 7. To be much employed in the Praise of God doth tend exceedingly to the vanquishing of all hurtful doubts and fears and sorrows Ioy and Praise promote each other And this it doth 1. By keeping the soul near to God and within the warmth of his love and goodness Psal. 140. 13. 2. By the exercise of Love and Joy which are the cordial reviving strengthning graces Psal. 94. 19. 116. 1. 3. By dissipating distrustful vexing thoughts and diverting the mind to sweeter things Psal. 104. 34. 4. By keeping off the Tempter who usually is least able to follow us with his molestations when we are highest in the praises of our God 5. By bringing out the Evidences of our sincerity into the light while the chiefest graces are in exercise 2 Cor. 3 18. 6. And by way of Reward from God that loveth the Praises of his meanest servants And here I would commâ—nd this experiment to uncomfortable troubled souls that have not found comfort by long searching after evidence in themselves Exercise your selves much in the Praises of God This is a duty that you ☜ have no pretence against Against Thanksgiving for his grace you pretend that you know not that you have received his grace But to praise him in the excellency of his perfections his power and wisdom and goodness and mercy and truth is the duty of all men in the world While you are doing this you will feel your graces stir and feel that comfort from the face of God which you are not like to meet with in any other way whatsoever Evidences are exceeding useful to our ordinary stated peace and comfort But it is oft long before we confidently discern them and they are oft discerned when yet the soul is not excited to much sense of comfort and delight and we quickly lose the sight of evidences if we be not very wise and careful But a life of praise bringeth ☜ comfort to the soul as standing in the Sunshine bringeth light and warmth Or as labouring doth warm the body or as the sight and converse of our dearest friend or the hearing of glad tydings doth rejoyce the heart without any great reasoning or arguing the case This is the way to have comfort by feeling to be much in the hearty praises of the Lord When we come to Heaven we shall have our Joy by immediate Vision and the delightful exercise of Love and Praise And if you would taste the Heavenly Joyes on earth you must imitate them in Heaven as near as possibly you can And this is your work of nearest imitation § 20. 8. To live a life of praising God will make Religion sweet and easie to us and take off the wearisomness of it and make the work of God a pleasure to us Whereas they that set themselves only to the works of humiliation and leave out these soul-delighting exercises do cast themselves into exceeding danger by making Religion seem to them a grievous and undesirable life This makes men backward to every duty and do it heartlesly and easily yield to temptations of omission and neglect if not at last fall off through weariness whereas the soul that is daily employed in the high and holy Prayses of his God is still drawn on by encouraging experience and doth all with a willing ready mind § 21. 9. No duty is more pleasing to God than the cheerful Praises of his Servants He loveth your prayers tears and groans but your Praises much more And that which pleaseth God most must be most pleasing to his servants For to please him is their End This is the End of all their labour that whether present or absent they may be accepted of him 2 Cor. 5 9. So that it is a final enjoying and therefore a delighting duty § 22. 10. To be much employed in the Praises of God will acquaint the world with the nature of true Religion and remove their prejudice and confute their dishonourable thoughts and accusations of it and recover the honour of Christ and his holy wayes and servants Many are averse to a holy life because they think that it consisteth but of melancholly fears or scrupulosity But who dare open his mouth against the joyful praises of his Maker I have heard and read of several enemies and murderers that have broke in upon Christians with an intent to kill them or carry them away that finding them on their knees in prayer and reverencing the work so much as to stay and hear them till they had done have reverenced the persons also and departed and durst not touch the heavenly worshippers of God This life of praise is a continual pleasure to the soul clean contrary to a Melancholly life It is recreating to the Spirits and healthful to the body which is consumed by cares and fears and sorrows It is the way that yieldeth that mirth which doth good like a medicine and is a continual feast Prov. 17. 22. 15. 15. Therefore saith the Apostle Iames 5. 13. Is any merry Let him sing Psalms He cannot better exercise mirth than in singing praises to his God This keeps the soul continually on the wing desiring still to be nearer God that it may have more of these delights And so it overcomes the sense of persecutions and afflictions and the fears of death and is a most excellent cordial and companion in the greatest sufferings Was it not an excellent hearing to have been a witness of the joy of Paul and Silas when in the Prison and Stocks with their backs sore with scourges they sang at midnight the praises of the Lord Acts 16. 25. so that all the doors were opened and all the prisoners bonds were loosed that had been their auditors so great was Gods
20. Insomuch as it sâ—â—mâ—th one of the greatest impediments to the Conversion of the Heathen and Mahomâ—tan world and the chiefest means of confirming them in their Iâ—â—â—â—delity and making them hate and scorn Christianity that the Romish and the Eastern and Southern Churches within their view do worship God so dishonourably as they do as if our God were like a little Child that must have pretty toyes bought him in the Fair and brought home to please him Whereas it the unreformed Churches in the East West and South were Reformed and had a Learned Pious Able Ministry and clearly preached and seriously applyed the Word of God and worshipped God with understanding gravity reverence and serious spirituality and lived a holy heavenly mortified self-denying conversation this would be the way to propagate Christianity and win the Infidel world to Christ. § 43. Direct 12. If you will glorifie God in your lives you must be above a selfish private narrow Direct 12. mind and must be chiefly intent upon the publick good and the spreading of the Gospel through the world A selfish private narrow soul brings little honour to the cause of God It s alwayes taken up about it self or imprisoned in a corner in the dark to the interest of some Sect or Party and seeth not how things go in the world Its desires and prayers and endeavours go no further than they can see or travel But a larger soul beholdeth all the earth and is desirous to know how it goeth with the Cause and Servants of the Lord and how the Gospel gets ground upon the unbelieving Nations and such are affected with the state of the Church a thousand miles off almost as if it were at hand as being members of the whole body of Christ and not only of a Sect. They pray for the Hallowing of Gods Name and the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his will throughout the Earth as it is in Heaven before they come to their own necessities at least in order of esteem and desire The prosperity of themselves or their Party or Countrey satisfieth them not while the Church abroad is in distress They live as those that know the Honour of God is more concerned in the welfare of the whole than in the success of any party against the rest They pray that the Gospel may have free course and be glorified abroad as it is with them and the Preachers of it be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men 2 Thess. 3. 1 2. The silencing the Ministers and suppressing the interest of Christ and souls is the most grievous tydings to them Therefore they pray for Kings and all in authority not for any carnal ends but that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty 1 Tim. 2. 1 2 3. Thus God must be glorified by our Lives DIRECT XVI Let your life on Earth be a conversation in Heaven by the constant work of Gr. Dir. 16. Faith and Love even such a faith as maketh things future as now present and the unseen world as if it were continually open to your sight and such a Love as makes you long to see the glorious face of God and the glory of your dear Redeemer and to be taken up with blessed Spirits in his perfect endless Love and Praise MY Treatise of The Life of Faith and the fourth Part of The Saints Rest being written wholly or mostly to this use I must refer the Reader to them and say no more of it in this Direction DIRECT XVII As the soul must be carried up to God and devoted to him according to all the Gr. Dir. 17. foregoing Directions so must it be delivered from carnal selfishness or flesh-pleasing I pass not this by as a small matter to be passed by also by the Reader For I take the Love of God kindled by Faith in Christ with the full Denyal of our carnal selves to be the sum of all Religion But because I would not injure so great a duty by saying but a little of it And therefore desire the Reader who studieth for Practice and needeth such helps to peruse the mentioned Books of Self-denyal and Crucifying the World which is the grand enemy to God and Godliness in the world and from the three great branches of this Idolatry viz. the Love of sensual pleasures the Love of worldly wealth and the proud desire and Love of worldly honour and esteem And the mortifying of these must be much of the labour of your lives OF this also I have written so much in a Treatise of Self-denyal and in another called The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ that I shall now pass by all save what will be more seasonable anon under the more Particular Directions in the fourth Tome when I come to speak of Selfishness as opposed to the Love of others I Have now given you the General Grand Directions containing the very Being and Life of Godliness and Christianity with those particular sub-directions which are needful to the performance of them And I must tell you that as your life and strength and comfort principally depend on these so doth your success in resisting all your particular sins And therefore if you first obey not these General Directions the more particular ones that follow will be almost useless to you even as branches cut off from the Stock of the Tree which are deprived thereby of their support and life But upon supposition that first you will maintain these Vital parts of your Religion I shall proceed to Direct you first in some particulars most nearly subordinate to the forementioned duties and then to the remoter branches APPENDIX The true Doctrine of LOVE to GOD to HOLINESS to OUR SELVES and to OTHERS opened in certain Propositions Especially for resolving the Questions what self-love is lawful What sinful Whether God must be loved above our own felicity And how Whether to Love our felicity more than God may stand with a state of saving grace Whether it be a middle state between sensuality and the Divine nature to Love God more for our selves than for Himself Whether to Love God for our selves be the state of a Believer as he is under the promise of the New Covenant And whether the spirit and sanctification promised to Believers be the Love of God for himself and so the Divine nature promised to him that chooseth Christ and God by him out of self-love for his own felicity How God supposeth and worketh on the principle of self-love in mans Conversion With many such like To avoid the tediousness of a distinct debating each Question THough these things principally belong to the Theorie and so to another Treatise in hand called Methodus Theologiae yet because they are also Practical and have a great influence upon the more Practical Directions and the right understanding of them may help the Reader himself to determine a multitude of Cases of Conscience the
it as some of a higher degree The thing pretended by Eminent Hypoâ—â—ites is to be zealous eminent Christians or at least to be sincere in a special manner while they discern the common Hypocrite not to be sincere 2. The cloak of seeming or pretense by which they would be thought to be what they are not is any thing in gâ—neral that hath an appearance of Godliness and is apt to make others think them godly And thus there are diverse sorts of Hypocrites according to the variety of their cloaks or ways of dissimulation though hypocrisie it self be in all of them the same thing As among the very Mahometanes and Heathens there oft arise some notable Hypocrites that by pretended Revelations and austerity of life profess themselves as Mahomet did to be Holy persons that had some extraordinary familiarity with God or Angels So among the Papists there are besides the common ones as many sorts of Hypocrites as they have self-devised Orders And every where the cloak of the common Hypocrite is so thin and transparent that it sheweth his nakedness to the more intelligent sort And this puts the Eminent Hypocrite upon some more laudable pretense that is not so transparent As for instance the Hypocrisie of common Papists whose cloak is made up of penances and ceremonies of saying over latine words or numbering words and beads for prayers with all the rest of their trumpery before named Chap. 3. Gr. Dir. 15. Dir. 11. is so thin a cloak that it will not â—atisfie some among themselves but they withdraw into distinct societies and orders the Church and the profession of Christianity being not enough for them that they may be Religious as if they saw that the rest are not Religious And then the common sort of ungodly Protestants have so much wit as to see through the cloak of all the Popish Hypocrisie and therefore they take up a fitter for themselves and that is the name of a Protestant Reformed Religion and Church joyned to the Common Profession of Christianity The Name or Profession of a Christian and a Protestant with going to Church and a heartless lip-service or saying their Prayers is the cloak of all ungodly Protestants Others discerning the thinness of this cloak do think to make themselves a better and they take up the strictest opinions in Religion and own those which they account the strictest party and own that which they esteem the purest and most spiritual worship The cloak of these men is their opinions pâ—rty and way of worship while their carnal lives detect their Hypocrisie Some that see through all these pretenses do take up the most excellent cloak of all and that is An appearance of serious spirituality in Religion with a due observation of all the outward parts and means and a Reformation of life in works of piety Iustice and charity I say An appearance of all these which if they had indeed they were sincere and should be saved in which the Godly Christian goeth beyond them all § 4. By this it is plain that among us in England all men that are not Saints are Hypocrites because that all except here or there a Jew or Infidel profess themselves to be Christians and every true Christian is a Saint They know that none but Saints or Godly persons shall be saved And there is few of them that will renounce their hopes of Heaven and therefore they must pretend to be all godly And is it not most cursed horrid hypocrisie for a man to pretend to Religion as the only way to his salvation and confidently call himself a Christian while he hateth and derideth the power and practice of that very Religion which he doth profess Of this see my Treat of The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite When Pâ—â—â—â— in vita sua speaketh of others extolling his eloquence he addeth his own neglect of it Ego modo bene vixisâ—em qualiter dixisâ—em parvi sacerem Venâ—osa gloria est de solo verborum splendore famam quaerere Conscientiam potius quam famam attende Falli saepe poterit fama Conscientia nunquam Seâ—ec § 5. The Hypocrites Ends in his pretenses and dissemblings are not all the same One intendeth the pleasing of Parents or some friends on whom he doth depend that will else be displeased with him and think ill of him Another intendeth the pleasing of the higher powers when it falls out that they are friends to Godliness Another intends the preserving of his esteem with religious persons that they may not judge him wicked and prophane Another intendeth the hiding of some particular villany or the success of some ambitious enterprise But the most common end is to quiet and comfort their guilty souls with an Image of that Holiness which they are without and to steal some peace to their Consciences by a lie And so because they will not be Religious indeed they will take up some shew or image of Religion to make themselves as well as others believe that they are Religious § 6. Direct 1. To escape Hypocrisie understand well wherein the life and power of Godliness doth consist Direct 1. and wherein it differeth from the lifeless Image or Corps of Godliness The life of Godliness is expressed in the 17 Grand Directions in Chap. 4. It principally consisteth in such a faith in Christ as causeth us to Love God above all and obey him before all and prefer his favour and the hopes of Heaven before all the pleasures or profits or honours of the world and to worship him in spirit and truth according to the direction of his word The Images of Religion I shewed you before § 3. Take heed of such a lifeless Image § 7. Direct 2. See that your chief study be about the Heart that there Gods Image may be planted Direct 2. and his interest advanced and the interest of the world and flesh subdued and the Love of every sin cast out and the Love of Holiness succeed and that you content not your selves with seeming to do goâ—d in outward acts when you are bad your selves and strangers to the great internal duties The first and Sic vivendum est quaâ—i in coâ—â—â—â—ctu â—â—â—amuâ— Sic cogitandum tanquam aliquis pectus intimum prospicere poâ—â—iâ— Senec. Rem dâ—â—am ex qua mâ—â—â—â—s a stimes nâ—straâ— Vix quempiam invenâ—es qui possit aperto ostiâ—â—ivâ—re jâ—â—itores conscientia nostra suposuit sic vivimus ut deprehendi sit sabiâ—â— aspici Senec. Ep. 96. great work of a Christian is about his heart There it is that God dwelleth by his spirit in his Saints And there it is that sin and Satan reign in the ungodly The great duties and the great sins are those of the heart There is the root of Good and Evil The tongue and life are but the fruits and expressions of that which dwelleth within The inward habit of sin is as a second nature And a sinful nature is worse than a sinful
in a divided heart and Direct 2â— life See therefore that you serve God in singleness of heart or simplicity and integrity as being â—â—s alone Think not of serving God and Mammon A deep reserve at the heart for the world â—â—ile Matth. 23 â—â— â—â—â—â—h 4. 2 3 4 5. Luke 1â— 4â— Matth. 6. 4â— 2 Pet. 1. 1â— Joh. 6. 27. they seem to give up themselves in Covenant to God is the grand Character of an Hypocrite Live as those that have One Lord and Master that all power stoopeth to and One End or Scâ—pe to which all other are but means and One work of absolute Necessity to do and one Kingdom to seek first and with greatest care and diligence to make sure of and that have your hearts and faces still one way and that agree with your selves in what you think and say and do A double heart and a double tongue is the fashion of the Hypocrite Psal. 12. 2. 1 Tim. 3. 8. He hath a heart for the world and pride and lust which must seem sometimes to be lifted up to ask forgiveness that he may sin with quietness and hope of salvation you would not think when you see him drop his Beads or lift up his hands and eyes and seem devoutly to say his prayers how lately he came from a Tavern or a Whore or a Lie or from scorning at serious godliness As Bishop Hall saith He seemeth to serve that 〈…〉 m 2. 5. Jaâ—â—es 4. 1â— Hoâ— 10. 2. God at Church on Holy-dayes whom he neglecteth at home and â—â—weth at the Name of Jesus and sweareth prophanely by the Name of God Remember that there is but one God one Heaven for us one Happiness and one Way And this one is of such moment as calls for all the intention and attention of our souls and is enough to satisfie us and should be enough to call us off from all that would divert us A divided heart is a false and self-deceving heart Are there two Gods or is Christ divided While you grasp at both God and the world you will certainly lose one and it is like you will lose both To have two Gods two Rules two Heavens is to have no God no true Rule no Heaven or happiness at all Halt not therefore between two opinions If God be God obey him and love him If Heaven be Heaven be sure it be first sought But if thy Belly be 〈…〉 3. â—â— thy God and the World be thy Heaven then serve and seek them and make thy best of thâ—m § 31. Direct 26. Take heed of all that fleshly policy or craft and worldly wisdom which is contrary 〈…〉 26. to the wisdom of the Word of God and would draw thee from the plain and open heartedness which godly sincerity requireth Let that which was Pauls rejoycing be yours that in simplicity and godly sincerity nâ—t in fleshly wisdom you have had yâ—ur conversation in the world Christianity renounceth not wisdom and â—â—nest self-preservation But yet it maketh men plain-hearted and haters of crafty â—â—â—â—dulent minds What is the famous hypocritical Religion superadded to Christianity and called â—â—â—â—â—â— but that which Paul feared in his godly jealousie for the Corinthians lest as the Serpent begâ—â—leâ— â—â—ve by his sâ—btility so their minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. A forsaking thâ— Christian simplicity of DOCTRINE DISCIPLINE WORSHIP and CONVERSATION is the Hypocrisie of Religion and of liâ—e Equivocating and dishonest â—hiâ—â—s and hiding beseemeth those that have an ill cause or an ill conscience or an ill Master whom they dâ—â—â—â— not trust and not those that have so good a cause and God as Christians have § 32. Direct 27. Remember how much of sincerity consisteth in seriousness and how much of Hypocrite Direct 27. the 〈…〉 pleaâ—â—â—â—g and â—â—â—â—al Riâ—es and Ceremo 〈…〉 of outward and 〈◊〉 holiness Over-great 〈…〉 of traditions which â—aâ—â— of but â—ad â—he Church The 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 an◠〈…〉 aâ—d lucâ—â— The 〈…〉 goâ—d in 〈◊〉 which openeth a gate to 〈…〉 and noveltieâ— Lord 〈…〉 describeth â—â—â—â—ila that he was a de 〈◊〉 of â—lesh and â—â—â—â— â—â—nd yet Religione persuasion 〈◊〉 basque de Dâ—s a gente sua 〈◊〉 usque ad sâ—perstitionem addictâ—◠〈…〉 3â—9 Pâ—al 78 37. 2 Cor. 7. 11. consisteth in seeming and dreaming and trifling in the things of God and our salvation see therefore that you keep your souls awake in a sensible and seriâ—us frame Read over the fifty Considerations which in the third Part of my Saints Rest I have given to convince you of the necessity of being serious See that there be as much in your faith as in your Creed and as much in your Hearts and Lives as in your Belief Remember that seeming and dreaming will not mortifie deep-rooted sâ—s nor conquer strong and subtile enemies nor make you acceptable to God nor save your sâ—â—ls from his revenging justice Remember what a mad kind of prophaneness it is to jâ—â—st and â—â—ifle about Heaven and Hell and to dally with the great and dreadful God Seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conâ—â—â—â—sation and godliness 2 Pet. 3. 11. You pray for an obedience answering the pattern of the heavenly society when you say Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven And will you be such Hypocrites as to pray that you may iâ—itate Saints and Angels in the purity and obedience of your hearts and lives and when you have done take up with shews and seemings and saying a few words and a lifeless Image of that Holiness which you never had yea and perhaps deride and persecute in others the very thing which you daily pray for O horrible abuse of the All-seeing God! Do you no more believe or fear his justice When the Apostle saith Gal. 6. 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked he intimâ—â—â—â—th that Hypocrites go about to put a scorn on God by a Mock-religion though it is not he but themselves that will prove mocked in the end They offer God a deaf Nutt or an empty Shell or Caâ—k for a Sacrifice An Hypocrite differeth from a true Christian as a Fencer from a Souldier He playeth his part very formâ—lly upon a Stage with much applause but you may perceive that he is not in good sadness by his tâ— flâ—ng and formality and never killing any of his sins Would men shew no more of the great everlasting matters of their own proâ—est Belief in any seriousness of affection or endeavour than most men do if they were not Hypocrites Would they hate and scorn men for doing but that and part of that which they pray and profess to do themselves if they were not hypocrites Wo to the world because of Hypocrisie Wo to the carnal members of the Church Wo to Idol Shepheards and the seeming 〈◊〉 lifeless Christians of what Sect soever For God will not be mocked They
will find that Hell is no jeasting matter If you mock your selves out of your salvation where are you then If you play with time and means and mercy till they are gone you are undone for ever O dally not till you are past remedy Alas poor dreaming trifling Hypocrites Is time so swift and life so short and death so sure and near and God so holy just and terrible and Heaven so glorious and Hell so hot and both everlasting and yet will you not be in earnest about your work Up and be doing as you are men and as ever you care what becomes of you for ever Depart from iniquity if you will name the name of Christ 2 Tim. 2. 19. Let not a cheating world delude you for a moment and have the kernel the heart while God hath but the empty shell A mock-mock-Religion will but keep up a mock-hope a mock-peace and a mock-joy and comfort till Satan have done his work and be ready to unhood you and open your eyes Job 8. 13. So aâ—e the paths of all that forget God and the Hypocrites hope shall perish Job 27. 8 9. For what is the hope of the hypocrite though he bath gained when God taketh away his soul Will God hear his â—ry when trouble cometh upon him Job 20. 4 5 6 7. Knowest thou not this of old that the triumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment Though his excellency mount up to the Heavens and his head reach unto the Clouds yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung they which have seen him shall say where is he Away then with hypocritical formality and dalliance and be serious and sincere for thy soul and with thy God PART IV. Directions against inordinate Man-pleasing or that Over-valuing the Favour and Censure of Man which is the fruit of Pride and a great Cause of Hypocrisie Or Directions against IDOLIZING MAN § 1. AS in other cases so in this iniquity consisteth not simply in the hearts Neglect of God but in the preferring of some competitor and prevalence of some object which standeth up for an opposite interest And so the obeying man before God and against him and the valuing the favour and approbation of man before or against the approbation of God and the fearing of mans censure or displeasure more than Gods is an IDOLIZING MAN or setting him up in the place of God It turneth our chiefest observance and care and labour and pleasure and grief into this humane fleshly channel and maketh all that to be but Humane in our hearts and lives which objectively should be Divine Which is so great and dangerous a sin partaking of so much Impiety Hypocrisie and Pride as that it deserveth a special place in my Directions and in all watchfulness and consideration to escape it § 2. As all other Creatures so specially Man must be regarded and valued only in a due subordination and subserviency to God If they be valued otherwise they are made his enemies and so are to be hated and are made the principal engine of the ruine of such as overvalue them See what Luke 14. 26 27. the Scripture saith of this sin Isa. 2. 22. Cease ye from Man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Matth. 23 9. And call no Man your Father upon the earth for Magna animi sublimiâ—ate carpentes se atque objuâ—gantes Soâ—â—ates conâ—emnebat 〈…〉 Socrat. one is your Father which is in Heaven 8. And be not ye called Rabbi for one is your Master even Christ but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant Jer. 20. 15. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm Psal. 118. 6 8 9. The Lord is on my side I will not fear what man can do unto me It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man yea in Princes Job 32. 21 22. Let me not accept any mans person neither let me give flattering titles unto man For I know not to give flattering titles in so doing my Maker would soon take me away Job 21. 4. As for me is my complaint to man Gal. 1. 10. Do I seek to please men For if I yet When 〈◊〉 was asked why â—he exercised not himself with the most he answered If I should do as the mâ—st dâ— I should be no Philosopher La 〈…〉 p. Adulatâ—onâ—â—â—â—â—dum crimen servitutis malâ—gnitati falsa species libertatis inest Taâ—itus â—b 17. Secure Conscience first Qua semel amisâ—a postea nullus â—â—â—â—s pleased men I should not be a servant of Christ. 1 Cor. 4. 3. But with me it is a very small thing to be judged of you or of mans judgement Luke 14. 26. If a man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven Matth. 5. 11 12. Not with eye-service as men-pleasers Ephes. 6 6. Col. 3. 22. 1 Thess. 2. 4. So we speak not as pleasing men but God who tryeth our hearts Jude 16. Having mens persons in admiration because of advantage This is enough to shew you what Scripture saith of this inordinate man-pleasing or respect to man And now I shall proceed to Direct you to escape it § 3. Direct 1. Understand well wherein the nature of this sin consisteth that you may not run into the Direct 1. contrary extream but may know which way to bend your opposition I shall therefore first shew you how far we may and must please men and how far not § 4. 1. Our Parents Rulers and Superiours must be honoured obeyed and pleased in all things which they require of us in the several places of authority which God hath given them over us And this must be not meerly as to man but as to the Officers of God from whom and for whom and not against him they have all their power Rom. 13. Exod. 20. 12. Titus 3. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 13. 2. 2 10. § 5. 2. We must in charity and condescension and meekness of behaviour seek to please all men in order to their salvation We must so thirst for the conversion of sinners that we must become all things lawful to all men that we may win them We must not stand upon our terms and Rom. 14. 15. 1 2 3. keep at a distance from them but condescend to the lowest and bear the infirmities of the weak and in things indifferent not take the course that pleaseth our selves but that which by pleasing him may edifie our weak brother We must forbear and forgive and part with our right and deny our selves the use of our Christian
Direct 14. Remember how base a sin it is and how dishonourable and debasing to the mind of Direct 14. man If earth be baser than Heaven and money than God than an earthly mind is baser than a heavenly mind As the Serpents feeding on the dust is a baser life than that of Angels that are employed in admiring and obeying and praising the Mâ—st Holy God § 36. Direct 15. Call your selves to a daily reckoning how you lay out all that God committeth to Direct 15. your trust and try whether it be so as you would hear of it at judgement If you did but use to sit Pecunia apud cum nunquam mansâ—â—â—â—e probatur nisi 〈◊〉 hora oâ—â—eraâ—ur quando sol â—â—â—â— expâ—â—ans cursum nâ—cturnis tenebris daret locum Victor ut de Eugen. Epise Caâ—th Plato compareth our life to a Game at Tables We may wish for a good throw but what ever it be we must play it as well as we can Plutarch dâ— tranquil anim in judgement daily upon your selves as those that believe the judgement of God it would make you more careful to use well what you have than to get more And it would quench your thirst after plenty and prosperity when you perceived you must give so strict an account of it The flesh it self will less desire it when it finds it may not have the use of it § 37. Direct 16. When you find your Covetousness most eager and dangerous resolve most to cross Direct 16. it and give more to pious or charitable uses thoâ—â—â—â—t another time For a man hath reason to fly furthest from that sin which he is most in danger of And the acts tend to the encrease of the habit Obeying your Covetousness doth increase it And so the contrary acts and the disobeying and displeasing it do destroy it This course will bring your Covetousness into a despair of attaining its desires and so will make it sit down and give over the pursuit It is an open protesting against every covetous desire and an effectual kind of repenting and a wise and honest disarming sin and turning its motions against it self to its own destruction Use it thus oft and Covetousness will think it wisdom to be quiet § 38. Direct 17. Above all take heed that you think not of reconciling God and Mammon and Direct 17. mixing Heaven and Earth to be your felicity and of dreaming that you may keep Heaven for a reserve at last when the world hath been loved as your best so long as you could keep it Nothing so much defendeth worldliness as a cheating hope that you have it but in a subdued pardoned degree and that you are not worldlings when you are And nothing so much supports this hope as because you confess that Heaven only must be your last refuge and full felicity and therefore you do something for it on the by But is not the world more loved more sought more delighted in and â—aster Luke 14. 26 27 30 33. held Hath it not more of your hearts your delight desire and industry If you cannot let go all for Heaven and forsake all this world for a treasure above you cannot be Christs true Disciples § 39. Direct 18. If ever you would overcome the love of the world your great care must be to mortifie Direct 18. the Flesh for the world is desired but as its provision A mortified man hath no need of that which is a sensualists felicity Quench your hydropical feavorish thirst and then you will not make Socrates saepe cum eorum quae publice vendebantur multitudinem intueretur secum ista volvebat Quam multis ipse non egeo Laert. in Socr. Pecuniam perdidisti Bene si te illa non peâ—didit quod jam multis possessoribus suis fecit Gaude tibi ablatum unde infici posses teque illaesum inter pericula transivisse Petrarch l. 2. Dial. 13. such a stir for drink Cure the disease which enrageth your appetite and that is the safest and cheapest way of satisfying it Then you will be thankful to God when you look on other mens wealth and gallantry that you need not these things And you will think what a trouble and burden and interruption of your better work and comfort it would be to you to have so much land and so many servants and goods and business and persons to mind as rich men have And how much better you can enjoy God and your self in a more retired quiet state of life But of this more in the next Part. § 40. Did men but know how much of an ungodly damnable state doth consist in the Love of the world and how much it is the enemy of souls and how much of our Religion consisteth in Exod. 18. 21 2 Pet. 2. 14. 1 Tim. 3. â— Col. 3. 5. the contempt and conquest of it and what is the meaning of their renouncing the World in their baptismal Covenant and how many millions the Love of the world will damn for ever they would not make such a stir for nothing and spend all their dayes in providing for their perishing flesh nor think them happiest that are richest nor boast themselves of their hearts desire and bless the Covetous whom the Lord abhorreth Psal. 10. 3. They would not think that so small a sin which Christians should not so much as name but in detestation Ephes. 5. 3. When God hath resolved that the covetous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 10. Ephes. 5. 5. And a Christian must not so much as eat with them 1 Cor. 5. 11. Did Christ say in vain Take heed and beware of Covetousness Luke 12. 15. Wo to him that coveteth an evil Covetousness to his house that he may set his nest on high that he may be delivered from the power of evil Hab. 2. 9. O what deserving servants hath the world that will serve it so diligently so constantly and at so dear a rate when they before hand know that besides a little transitory deluding pleasure it will pay them with nothing but everlasting shame O wonderful deceiving power of such an empty shadow or rather wonderful folly of mankind That when so many ages have been deceived before us and almost every one at death confesseth it did but deceive them so many still should be deceived and take no warning by such a world of examples I conclude with Heb. 13. 5. Let your conversation be without Covetousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee PART VII Directions against the Master sin SENSUALITY FLESH-PLEASING or Voluptuousness § 1. I Shall be the shorter on this also because I have spoken so much already in my Treatise of Self-denyal Before we come to more particular Directions it is needful that we discern the nature and evil of the sin which we speak against I shall therefore 1. Telly you what
now abroad in the world Of the millions of Heathens and Mahometanes and other strangers or enemies to Christ Of the obstinate Jews of the dark corrupted lamentable state of the Greek Armenian Ethiopian and Roman Churches where Religion is so wofully obscured and dishonoured by ignorance error superstition and prophaneness Of the Papal tyranny and usurpation and of the divided state of all the Churches and the prophaness and persecution and uncharitableness and contentions and mutual reproaches and revilings which make havock for the Devil among the members of Christ. Tit. 5. Directions against sinful Hopes HOPE is nothing but a Desirous expectation Therefore the Directions given before against sinful Dâ—â—h any man doubt that if there were taken out of mens minds vain opinions flattering hopes false valuations imaginations c. but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things full of melancholy and indisposition and uncomfortable to themselves Lord Bacoâ— Essay of Lâ—es Love and Desire may suffice also against sinful Hopes save only for the expecting part Hope is sinful 1. When it is placed ultimately upon a forbidden object as to Hope for some evil to your selves which you mistakingly think is good To hope for felicity in the creature or to hope for more from it than it can afford you To hope for the hurt of other men for the ruine of your enemies for the hindrance of the Gospel and injury to the Church of Christ. 2. When you hope for a Good thing by evil means as to Hope to please God or to come to Heaven by persecuting his servants or by ignorance or superstition or schism or Heresie or any sin 3. To Hope ungroundedly for that from God which he never promised 4. To Hope deceitfully for that from God which he hath declared he will never give All these are sinful Hopes But it is not these last that I shall here say much to because I have said so much already of them in many other writings § 2. Direct 1. Hope for nothing from God against faith or without faith that is for nothing Direct 1. which he hath said he will not give nor for any thing which he hath not promised to give or given you some reason to expect To hope for that which God hath told us he will not give or that which is against the Holiness and Iustice of God to give this is but to Hope that God will prove a lyer or unholy or unjust which are wicked and blaspheaming hopes Such are the Hâ—pes which abundance of ignorant and ungodly persons have who hope to be saved without regeneration and without true Holiness of heart or life and hope to be saved in their willful impenitence and beloved sins who hope that God forgiveth them those sins which they hate not nor will not be perswaded to forsake And hope that the saying over some words of prayer or doing something which they call a good work shall save them though they have not the spirit of Christ Or that hope to be saved though they are unsanctified because they are not so bad as some others and live not in any notorious disgraceful sin All these believe the Devil who tells them that an unholy person may be saved and believe that the Gospel is false which saith without Holiness none shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. and they Hope that God will prove unholy unjust and false to save them and yet this they call a Hoping in God Hope for that which God hath promised and spare not but not for that which he hath said he will not do yea protested cannot be Iohn 3. 3 5. § 3. Direct 2. When thou Hopest for any evil to others or thy self remember what a monstrous thing Direct 2. it is to make evil the object of thy Hope and how those Hopes are but thy hastning unto chosen misery and contradict themselves For thou Hopest for it as Good and to be greedy for evil on supposition that its good doth shew thy folly that wilt try no better the objects of thy Hopes Like a sick man that longs and hopeth for that which if he take it will be his death Thus sinners hope for the poysoned bait § 4. Direct 3. Understand how much of the root of worldliness consisteth in your worldly Hopes Direct 3. Poor worldlings have little in possession to delight in but they keep up a Hope of more within them Many a covetous or ambitious wretch that never reacheth that which he desireth yet liveth upon the Hopes of it And Hope is it that setteth and keepeth men at work in the service of the world the flesh and the Devil as Divine Hope doth set and keep men at work for Heaven for their souls and for Jesus Christ. And many an Hypocrite that loseth much upon the account of his Religion yet sheweth his rottenness by keeping up his worldly hopes and going no further than will stand with those § 5. Direct 4. Hath not the world deceived all that have hoped in it unto this day Consider what is Direct 4. become of them and of their Hopes What hath it done for them and where hath it left them And wilt thou place thy Hopes in that which hath deceived so many generations of men already § 6. Direct 5. Remember that thy worldly Hopes are a sin so fully condemned by natural demonstration Direct 5. that thou art utterly left without excuse Thou art certain before-hand that thou must die Thou knowest how vain the world will be then to thee and how little it can do for thee And yet art thou Hoping for more of the world § 7. Direct 6. Consider that the world declareth its vanity in the very Hopes of worldlings In that it Direct 6. is still drawing them by Hopes and never giveth them satisfaction and content Almost all the life of a worldlings pleasure is in his Hopes The very thing which he hopeth for doth not prove so sweet to him in the possession as it was in his hopes A Hoping and Hoping still for that which they never shall attain is the worldlings life § 8. Direct 7. O turn your souls to those blessed Hopes of life eternal which are sent you from Heaven Direct 7. by Iesus Christ and set before you in the holy Scriptures and proclaimed to you by the messengers of grace Doth God offer you sure well-grounded hopes of living for ever in his Ioy and Glory And do you neglect them and lie hoping for that felicity in the world which cannot be attained and which will give no content when you have attained it This is more foolish than to toyl and impoverish your selves in Hope to find the Philosophers stone and refuse a Kingdom freely offered Tit. 6. Directions against sinful Hatred Aversation or Backwardness towards Of Hatred to men I shall speak anon God § 1. THe hatred to God and backwardness to his service which is
covering him § 4. 3. And that God hath not put this Law into mans nature without very great cause albeit the Implicite belief and submission due to him should satisfie us though we knew not the causes particularly yet much of them is notorious to common observation As that if God had not restrained lust by Laws it would have made the female sex most contemptible and miserable and used worse by men than dogs are For first rapes and violence would deflowre them because they are too weak to make resistance And if that had been restrained yet the lust of men would have been unsatisfied and most would have grown weary of the same woman whom they had abused and taken another at least when she grew old they would choose a younger and so the aged women would be the most calamitous creatures upon earth Besides that lust is addicted to variety and groweth weary of the same the fallings out between men and women and the sicknesses that make their persons less pleasing and age and other accidents would expose them almost all to utter misery And men would be Law-makers and therefore would make no Laws for their relief but what consisted with their lusts and ends So that half the world would have been ruined had it not been for the Laws of matrimony and such other as restrain the lusts of men § 5. 4. Also there would be a confused mixture in procreation and no men would well know what children are their own which is worse than not to know their Lands or Houses § 6. 5. Hereby all natural affection would be diminished or extinguished As the love of Husband and Wife so the Love between Fathers and Children would be diminished § 7. 6. And consequently the due education of children would be hindered or utterly overthrown The mothers that should first take care of them would be disabled and turned away that fresh harlots might be received who would hate the offspring of the former So that by this means the world and all societies and civility would be ruined and men would be made worse than bruits whom nature hath either better taught or else made for them some other supply Learning Religion and civility would be all in a manner extinct as we see they are among those few savage Cannibals that are under no restraint For how much all these depend upon education experience telleth us In a word this confusion in procreation would introduce such confusion in mens hearts and families and all societies by corrupting and destroying necessary affection and education that it would be the greatest plague imaginable to mankind and make the world so base and beastly that to destroy mankind from off the earth would seem much more desirable Judge then whether God should have left mens Lusts unrestrained § 8. Object But you 'll say there might have been some moderate restraint to a certain number as Object it is with the Mahometans without so much strictness as Christ doth use Answ. That this strictness is necessary and is an excellency in Gods law appeareth thus 1. By Answ. the greatness of the mischief which else would follow To be remiss in preventing such a confusion in the world would be an enmity to the world 2. In that mans nature is so violently inclined to break over that if the hedge were not close there were no sufficient restraining them they would quickly run out at a little gap 3. The wiser and the better any nation or persons are even among the Heathens the more fully do they consent to the strictness of Gods Laws 4. The cleanest sort of bruits themselves are taught by nature to be as strict in their copulations Though it be otherwise with the meer terrestrial beasts and birds yet the aërial go by couples Those that are called the fowles of the Heavens that fly in the air are commonly taught this chastity by nature as if God would not have lust come near to Heaven 5. The families of the Mahometans that have more wives than one do shew the mischief of it in the effects in the hatred and disagreement of their wives and the great slavery that women are kept in making them like slaves that they may keep them quiet And when women are thus enslaved who have so great a part in the education of children by which all virtue and civility are maintained in the world it must needs tend to the debasing and brutifying of mankind § 9. 7. Children being the pretiousest of all our treasure it is necessary that the strictest Laws be made for the securing of their good education and their welfare If it shall be treason to debase or counterfeit the Kings coyn and if men must be hanged for robbing you of your goods or money and the Laws are not thought too strict that are made to secure your estates how much more is it necessary that the Laws be strict against the vitiating of mankind and against the debasement of your image on your children and against that which tendeth to the extirpation of all virtue and the ruine of all societies and souls § 10. 8. God will have a holy seed in the world that shall bear his image of holiness and therefore he will have all means fitted thereunto Bruitish promiscuous generation tendeth to the production of a bruitish seed And though the word preached is the means of sanctifying those that remain unsanctified from their youth yet a holy marriage and holy dedication of children to God and holy education of them are the former means which God would not have neglected or corrupted and to which he promiseth his blessing As you may see 1 Cor. 7. 14. Mal. 2. 15. Did not he make one Yet had he the residue of the spirit And wherefore one That he might seek a godly seed Therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth For the Lord bateth putting away § 11. 9. Yea lust corrupteth the mind of the person himself if it be not very much restrained and moderated It turneth it from the only excellent pleasure by the force of that bruitish kind of pleasure It carrieth away the thoughts and distempereth the passions and corrupteth the phantasie and Solomons wives turned away his heart aâ—ter other Gods 1 Kings 11. 4. The wisdom of Solomon preserved him not from the power of lust and the deceit of women 1 Pet. 2. 10. Fleshly â—â—â—â—ts that fight against the â—oâ—l thereby doth easily corrupt the intellect and heart Pleasure is so much of the End of man which his Nature leadeth him to desire that the chief thing in the world to make a man Good and Happy is to engage his heart to those Pleasures which are Good and make men Happy And the chief thing to make him Bad and Miserable is to engage him in the pleasures which make men Bad and end in Misery And the principal thing by which you may know
all their labour and suffering To think of the blessed end of all their pains and patience and how far they are now from repenting of it methinks should stir us up to zeal and diligence § 24. 8. To foresee what thoughts all the world will have of holy diligence at last how the best will wish they had been better and had done much more for God and their salvation and how the worst will wish when it is too late that they had been as zealous and diligent as the best How earnestly they will then knock and cry Lord open to us when it is all in vain and say to the watchful diligent souls Give us of your Oyle for our Lamps are gone out Matth. 25. To think how glad the most ungodly would then be if they might but have dyed the death of the righteous and their latter end might be Num. 23. 10. as his And what heart-tearing grief will seize upon them for ever to think how madly they lost their souls and sluggishly went to Hell to spare their pains of that sweet and holy work that should have prevented it Will not such forethoughts awaken the most sluggish stupid souls that will but follow them till they can do their work § 25. 9. Remember that thou must be zealous and diligent in this or nothing For there is nothing else that is worth thy seriousness in comparison of this To be earnest and laborious for perishing vanities is the disgrace of thy mind and will prove thy disappointment and leave thee at last in shame and sorrow when holy diligence will recompence all thy pains § 26. 10. Remember also that thou hast been slothful and negligent too long And how dost thou repent of thy former sloth if thou wilt be as slothful still Art thou grieved to think how many duties slothfulness hath put by and how many it hath murdered and frustrated and made nothing of and how much Grace and Mercy and Comfort it hath already deprived thee of and how much better thy case were if thou hadst lived in as much holy diligence as the best thou knowest And yet wilt thou be slothful still § 27. 11. Remember that thou hast thy Life and health and wit and parts for nothing else but by thy present duty to prepare for everlasting joyes that all Gods mercies bind thee to be diligent and every Ordinance and all his helps and means of grace are given to further thee in the work and Sun and Moon and Air and Earth and all attend thee with their help And yet wilt thou be cold and slothful and frustrate all these means and mercies § 28. 12. Remember how diligent thy Enemy is Satan goeth about even night and day like a 1 Pet. 5. ◠roaring Lyon seeking to devour And wilt thou be less diligent to resist him § 29. 13. Think what an example of diligence Christ himself hath left thee And how laboriously blessed Paul and all the holy Servants of Christ did follow their Masters work Did they Pray and watch and work as slothfully as thou dost § 30. 14. Remember how hot and earnest thou wast formerly in thy sin And wilt thou now be cold and negligent in thy duty when God hath set thee in a better way § 31. 15. Observe how eager and diligent worldlings are for the world and flesh-pleasers for their sports and pleasures and proud persons for their greatness and honour and malignant persons to oppose the Gospel of Christ and their own and other mens salvations Look on them and think what a shame it is to thee to be more cold and remiss for God § 32. 16. Observe how an awakening pang of Conscience or the sight of death when it seems to be at hand can waken the very wicked to some kind of serious diligence at the present so that by their confessions and cryes and promises and amendments while the fit was on them they seemed more zealous than many that were sincere And shall not saving grace do more with you than a fit of fear can do with the ungodly § 33. 17. Remember of how sad importance it is and what it signifieth to be cold and slothful If it be predominant so as to keep thee from a holy life it is damnable The spirit of slumber is a most dreadful judgement But if it do not so prevail yet though thou be a Child of God it signifieth a great debility of soul and foretelleth some sharp affliction to befall thee if God mean to do thee good by a recovery The decay of natural heat is a sign of old age and is accompanied with the decay of all the powers And sicknesses and pains do follow such decays of life And as you will make your Horse feel the rod or spur when he grows dull and heavy expect when you grow cold and dull to feel the spur of some affliction to make you stir and mend your pace § 34. 18. Remember that thy sloth is a sinning against thy knowledge and against thy experience and against thy own Covenants promises and profession and therefore an aggravated sin These and such like serious thoughts will do much to stir up a slothful soul to Zeal and Diligence § 35. Direct 4. Drown not your hearts in worldly business or delights for these breed a Direct 4. loathing and aversness and weariness of holy things They are so contrary one to the other that Luk. 8. 14. the mind will not be eagerly set on both at once but as it relisheth the one it more and more disrelisheth the other There is no heart left for God when other things have carryed it away § 36. Direct 5. Do all you can to raise your hearts to the Love of God and a delight in holy things Direct 6. and then you will not be slothful nor weary nor negligent Love and Delight are the most excellent remedy against a slow unwilling kind of duty Know but how good it is to walk with God and do his work and thou wilt do it chearfully § 37. Direct 6. A secret root of unbelief is the mortal enemy of zeal and diligence Labour for a Direct 7. well-grounded belief of the word of God and the world to come and stir up that belief into exercise when you would have your slothful hearts stird up When there is a secret questioning in the heart What if there should be no life to come What if the grounds of Religion are unsound This blasteth the vigor of all endeavors and inclineth men to serve God only with hypocritical halving and reserves and maketh men resolve to be no further Religious than stands with present fleshly happiness § 38. Direct 7. Take heed of debauching Conscience by venturing upon doubtful things much more Direct 7. by known and willful sin For when once Conscience is taught to comply with sin and is mastered in Rom. 14 21. 22. 1 Cor. 5. 6. Eph. 4. 29 30. one thing
Rich men may want great sums or larger provisions which the poor can easily be without And their condition lifting them up to greater pride doth torment them with greater discontents How few in all the world that have families are content with their estates § 24. 4. Hereupon a married life containeth far more temptations to worldliness or covetousness than a single state doth For when you think you need more you will desire more And when you find all too little to satisfie those that you provide for you will measure your estate by their desires and be apt to think that you have never enough Birds and Beasts that have young ones to provide for are most hungry and rapacious You have so many now to scrape for that you will think you are still in want It is not only till Death that you must now lay up but you must provide for children that survive you And while you take them to be as your selves you have two Generations now to make provisions for And most men are as Covetous for their posterity as if it were for themselves § 25. 5. And hereupon you are hindred from works of Charity to others Wife and Children are the devouring gulf that swalloweth all If you had but your selves to provide for a little would serve And you could deny your own desires of unnecessary things and so might have plentiful provision for good works But by that time Wife and Children are provided for and all their importunate desires satisfied there is nothing considerable left for pious or charitable uses Lamentable experience proclaimeth this § 26. 6. And hereby it appeareth how much a married state doth ordinarily hinder men from honouring their profession It is their vows of single life that hath occasioned the Papists to do so many works of publick charity as is boasted of for the honour of their Sect For when they have no Children to bequeath it to and cannot keep it themselves it is easie for them to leave it to such uses as will pacifie their Consciences most and advance their names And if it should prove as good a work and as acceptable to God to educate your own Children piously for his service as to relieve the children of the poor yet is it not so much regarded in the world nor bringeth so much honour to Religion One hundred pound given to the poor shall more advance the repution of your liberality and virtue than a thousand pound given to your own children though it be with as pious an end to train them up for the service of the Church And though this is inconsiderable as your own honour is concerned in it yet it is considerable as the honour of Religion and the good of souls is concerned in it § 27. 7. And it is no small patience which the natural imbecility of the female sex requireth you to prepare Except it be very few that are patient and manlike women are commonly of potenâ— fantasies and tender passionate impatient spirits easily cast into anger or jealousie or discontent and of weak understandings and therefore unable to reform themselves They are betwixt a man and a child Some few have more of the man and many have more of the child but most are but in a middle state Weakness naturally inclineth persons to be froward and hard to please as we see in children old people and sick persons They are like a sore distempered body You can scarce touch them but you hurt them With too many you can scarce tell how to speak or look but you displease them If you should be very well verst in the art of pleasing and set your selves to it with all your care as if you made it your very business and had little else to do yet it would put you hard to it to please some weak impatient persons if not quite surpass your ability and skill And the more you love them the more grievous it will be to see them still in discontents aweary of their condition and to hear the clamorous expressions of their disquiet minds Nay the very multitude of words that very many are addicted to doth make some mens lives a continual burden to them Mark what the Scripture saith Prov. 21. 9. It is better to dwell in a corner of the house top than with a brawling woman in a wide house Vers. 19. It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and an angry woman So 25. vers 24. And Prov. 27. 15. A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike Eccles. 7. 28. One man among a thousand have I found but a woman among all those have I not found § 28. 8. And there is such a meeting of faults and imperfections on both sides that maketh it much the harder to bear the infirmities of others aright If one party only were froward and impatient the stedfastness of the other might make it the more tolerable But we are all sick in some measure of the same disease And when weakness meeteth with weakness and pride with pride and passion with passion it exasperateth the disease and doubleth the suffering And our corruption is such that though our intent be to help one another in our duties yet we are apter far to stir up one anothers distempers § 79. 9. The business care and trouble of a married life is a great temptation to call down our thoughts from God and to divert them from the one thing necessary Luk. 10. 42. and to distract the mind and make it indisposed to holy duty and to serve God with a divided heart as if we served him not How hard is it to pray or meditate with any serious fervency when you come out of a crowd of cares and businesses Hear what St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 7. 7 8. For I would that all men were as I my self I say to the unmarried and the widows It is good for them if they abide even as I. 26 27 28. I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress that it is good fâ—r a man so to be such shall have trouble in the flesh 32 33. But I would have you be without carefulness He that is unmarried careth for the things of the Lord how he may please the Lord But he that is married careth for the things of the world how he may please his wife 34 35. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord that she may be holy both in body and in Spirit but she that is married careth for the things of the world how she may please her husband And this I speak for your own profit not that I may cast a snare upon you but for that which is comely and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction 37 38. He that standeth stedfast in his heart having no necessity but hath power over his own will and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his
together There is no room for repentance nor casting about for a way to escape them Death only must be your relief And therefore such a change of your condition should be seriously fore-thought on and all the troubles be foreseen and pondered § 40. 20. And if Love make you dear to one another your parting at death will be the more grievous And when you first come together you know that such a parting you must have Through all the course of your lives you may foresee it One of you must see the Body of your beloved turned into a cold and ghastly clod You must follow it weeping to the grave and leave it there in dust and darkness There it must lye rotting as a loathsome lump whose sight or smell you cannot endure till you shortly follow it and lye down your self in the same condition All these are the ordinary concomitants and consequents of Marriage easily and quickly spoken but long and hard to be endured No fictions but realities and less than most have reason to expect And should such a life be rashly ventured on in a pang of lust or such a burden be undertaken without fore-thought § 41. But especially the Ministers of the Gospel should think what they do and think again before Of Ministers Marriage they enter upon a married life Not that it is simply unlawful for them or that they are to be tyed from it by a Law as they are in the Kingdom of Rome for carnal ends and with odious effects But so great a hinderance ordinarily is this troublesome state of life to the Sacred Ministration which they undertake that a very clear call should be expected for their satisfaction That I be not tedious consider well but of these four things 1. How well will a life of so much care and business agree to you that have time little enough for the greater work which you have undertaken Do you know what you have to do in publick and private in reading meditating praying preaching instructing personally and from house to house And do you know of how great importance it is even for the saving of mens souls And have you time to spare for so much worldly cares and business Are you not charged 1 Tim. 4. 15. Meditate on these things give thy self wholly to them 2 Tim. 2. 4. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him that hath chosen him to be a Souldier Is not this plain Souldiers use not to look to Farms and Servants If you are faithful Ministers I dare confidently say you will find all your time so little for your proper work that many a time you will groan and say O how short and swift is time and O how great and slow is my work and duty 2. Consider how well a life of so great diversions avocations and distractions doth suit with a Mind devoted to God that should be alwayes free and ready for his service Your studies are on such great and mysterious subjects that they require the whole mind and all too little To resolve the many difficulties that are before you to prepare those suitable convincing words which may pierce and perswade the hearers hearts to get within the bosome of an hypocrite to follow on the Word till it attain its effect and to deal with poor souls according to their great necessity and handle Gods Word according to its Holiness and Majesty these are things that require Non bene fit quod occupato animo fit Hieron Epist. 553. ad Paulin. a whole man and are not employments for a divided or distracted mind The talking of Women and the crying of children and the cares and business of the world are ill preparations or attendants on these studies 3. Consider well whether a life of so great disturbance be agreeable to one whose Affections should be taken up for God and whose work must be all done not formally and affectedly with the lips alone but seriously with all the heart If your Heart and warm Affections be at any time left behind the life and power the beauty and glory of your work is lost How dead will your studies and praying and preaching and conference be And can you keep those Affections warm and vigorous for God and taken up with Heaven and Heavenly things which are disturbed with the cares and crosses of the world and taken up with carnal matters 4. And consider also how well that indigent life will agree to one that by charity and good works should second his Doctrine and win mens souls to the love of holiness If you feed not the bodies of the poor they will less relish the food of A single life doth well with Church-men for Charity will hardly water the ground where it must fill a pool Lord Bacon Essay 8. The greatest works and foundations have been from childless men who have sought to express the image of their minds that have none of their body So the care of posterity hath been most in them that had no posterity Lord Bacon Essay 9. He that hath a Wife and Children hath given hostages to Fortune For they are impediments to great Enterprises The best works and of greatest merit for the publick have proceeded from unmarried and childless men I◠Ibid. Essay 8. the soul Nay if you abound not above others in good works the blind malicious world will see nothing that is good in you but will say You have good words but where are your good works What abundance have I known hardned against the Gospel and Religion by a common fame that these Preachers are as covetous and worldly and uncharitable as any others And it must be something extraordinary that must confute such fame And what abundance of success have I seen of the labours of those Ministers who give all they have in works of Charity And though a rich and resolved man may do some good in a married state yet commonly it is next to nothing as to the ends now mentioned Wife and Children and Family-necessities devour all if you have never so much And some provision must be made for them when you are dead And the maintenance of the Ministry is not so great as to suffice well for all this much less for any eminent works of Charity besides Never reckon upon the doing of much good to the poor if you have Wives and Children of your own Such instances are rarities and wonders All will be too little for your selves Whereas if all that were given to the poor which goeth to the maintenance of your families you little know how much it would reconcile the minds of the ungodly and further the success of your Ministerial work § 42. Direct 3. If God call you to a married life expect all these troubles or most of them and make a particular preparation for each Temptation Cross and Duty which you must expect Think not that you are entring into
and breed up children for the devil Their natural corruption is advantage enough to Satan to engage them to himself and use them for his service But when Parents shall also take the Devils part and teach their children by precepts or example how to serve him and shall estrange them from God and a holy life and fill their minds with false conceits and prejudice against the means of their salvation as if they had sold their children to the Devil no wonder then if they have a black posterity that are trained up to be heirs of Hell He that will train up children for God must begin betimes before sensitive objects take too deep possession of their hearts and custom increase the pravity of their nature Original sin is like the arched Indian Fig-tree whose branches turning downwards and taking root do all become as trees themselves The acts which proceed from this habitual viciousness do turn again into vicious habits And thus sinful nature doth by its fruits increase it self And when other things consume themselves by breeding all that sin breedeth is added to it self and its breeding is its feeding and every act doth confirm the habit And therefore no means in all the world doth more effectually tend to the happiness of souls than wise and holy education This dealeth with sin before it hath taken the deepest root and boweth nature while it 's but a twig It preventeth the increase of natural pravity and keepeth out those deceits corrupt opinions and carnal fantasies and lusts which else would be serviceable to sin and Satan ever after It delivereth up the heart to Christ betime or at least doth bring him a Disciple to his School to learn the way to life eternal and to spend those years in acquainting himself with the ways of God which others spend in growing worse and in learning that which must be again unlearned and in fortifying Satans garrison in their hearts and defending it against Christ and his saving grace But of this more anon § 5. Motive 5. A holy well-governed family is the preparative to a holy and well-governed Church If Masters of families did their parts and sent such polished materials to the Churches as they ought to Motive 5 do the work and life of the Pastors of the Church would be unspeakably more easie and delightful It would do one good to Preach to such an auditory and to Catechise them and instruct them and examine them and watch over them who are prepared by a wise and holy education and understand and love the doctrine which they hear To lay such polished stones in the building is an easie and delightful work How teachable and tractable will such be And how prosperously will the labours of their Pastors be laid out upon them And how comely and beautiful the Churches be which are composed of such persons And how pure and comfortable will their communion be But if the Churches be sties of unclean beasts if they are made up of ignorant and ungodly persons that savour nothing but the things of the flesh and use to worship they know not what we may thank ill-governed families for all this It is long of them that Ministers preach as to idiots or barbarians that cannot understand them and that they must be always feeding their auditors with milk and teaching them the principles and Catechizing them in the Church which should have been done at home Yea it is long of them that there are so many Wolves and Swine among the Sheep of Christ and that holy things are administred to the enemies of holiness and the godly live in communion with the haters of God and Godliness and that the Christian Religion is dishonoured before the heathen world by the worse-than-heathenish lives of the Professors and the pollutions of the Churches do hinder the conversion of the unbelieving world whilest they that can judge of our Religion no way but by the people that profess it do judge of it by the lives of them that are in heart the enemies of it when the haters of Christianity and Godliness are the Christians by whose conversations the Infidel world must judge of Christianity you may easily conjecture what judgement they are like to make Thus Pastors are discouraged the Churches defiled Religion disgraced and Infidels hardned through the impious disorder and negligence of families What Universities were we like to have if all the Grammar-Schools should neglect their duties and send up their scholars untaught as they received them and if all Tutors must teach their pupils first to spell and read Even such Churches we are like to have when every Pastor must first do the work which all the Masters of families should have done and the part of many score or hundreds or thousands must be performed by one § 6. Motive 6. Well-governed Families tend to make a happy State and Commonwealth A good Motive 6. education is the first and greatest work to make good Magistrates and good Subjects because it tends to make good men Though a good man may be a bad Magistrate yet a bad man cannot be a very good Magistrate The ignorance or worldliness or sensuality or enmity to godliness which grew up with them in their youth will shew it self in all the places and relations that ever they shall come into When an ungodly family hath once confirmed them in wickedness they will do wickedly in every state of life when a perfidious Parent hath betrayed his Children into the power and service of the Devil they will serve him in all relations and conditions This is the School from whence come all the injustice and cruelties and persecutions and impieties of Magistrates and all the murmurings and rebellions of subjects This is the soil and seminary where the seed of the Devil is first sown and where he nurseth up the plants of Covetousness and Pride and Ambition and Revenge Malignity and Sensuality till he transplant them for his service into several Offices in Church and State and into all places of inferiority where they may disperse their venome and resist all that is good and contend for the interest of the flesh and Hell against the interest of the Spirit and of Christ. But O what a blessing to the world would they be that shall come prepared by a holy education to places of Government and Subjection And how happy is that Land that is ruled by such superiours and consisteth of such prepared subjects as have first learnt to be subject to God and to their Parents § 7. Motive 7. If the Governours of Families did faithfully perform their duties it would be a Motive 7. great supply as to any defects in the Pastors part and a singular means to propagate and preserve Religion in times of publick negligence or persecution Therefore Christian Families are called Churches because they consist of holy persons that worship God and learn and love and obey his word If you lived among
and temperature of your children which is a great advantage for the choosing and applying of the best remedy 8. You have opportunity of watching over them and discerning all their faults in time But if a Minister speak to them he can know no more what fault to reprehend than others tell him or the party will confess You may also discern what success your former exhortations had and whether they amend or still go on in sin and whether you should proceed to more severe remedies 9. You have opportunity of speaking to them in the most familiar manner which is better understood than the set speech of a Minister in the Pulpit which few of them mark or understand You can quicken their attention by questions which put them upon answering you and so awaken them to a serious regard of what you say 10. You are so frequently with them that you can repeat your instructions and drive them home that what is not done at one time may be done at another Whereas other men can seldom speak to them and what is so seldome spoken is easily neglected or forgotten 11. You have power to place them under the best means and to remove many impediments out of their way which usually frustrate other mens endeavours 12. Your example is near them and continually in their sight which is a continual and powerful Sermon By all these advantages God hath enabled you above all others to be instruments of your Childrens good and the first and greatest promoters of their salvation § 6. Motive 6. Consider how great a Comfort it would be to you to have your children such as you Motive 6. may confidently hope are the children of God being brought to know him and love and serve him through your own endeavours in a pious education of them 1. You may love your children upon an higher account than as they are yours even as they are Gods adorned with his Image and quickned with a divine celestial life And this is is to love them with a higher kind of Love than meer Natural affection is It would rejoyce you to see your children advanced to be Lords or Princes But O how much greater cause of joy is it to see them made the members of Christ and quickned by his Spirit and sealed up for life eternal 2. When once your children are made the children of God by the Regeneration of the Spirit you may be much more free from care and trouble for them than before Now you may boldly trust them on the care of their heavenly Father who is able to do more for them than you are able to desire He loveth them better than you can love them He is bound by promise to protect them and provide for them and to see that all things work together for their good He that clotheth the Lillies of the fields and suffereth not the young Lions or Ravens to be unprovided for will provide convenient food for his own children though he will have you also do your duty for them as they are your children While they are the children of Satan and the servants of sin you have cause to fear not only lest they be exposed to miseries in this world but much more lest they be snatched away in their sin to Hell Your children while they are ungodly are worse than among Wolves and Tygâ—rs But when once they are renewed by the Spirit of Christ they are the charge of all the blessed Trinity and under God the charge of Angels Living or dying they are safe For the Eternal God is their portion and defence 3. It may be a continual comfort to you to think what a deal of drudgery and calamity your child is freed from To think how many Oaths he would have sworn and how many lyes and curses he would have uttered and how bâ—aftly and fleshly a life he would have lived how much wrong he would have done to God and men and how much he would have pleased the Devil and what torments in Hâ—ll he must have endured as the reward of aâ—â—â—â— and then to think how mercifully God hath prevented all this and what service he may do God in the world and finally live with Christ in glory What a joy is this to a considering believing Parent that taketh the mercies of his children as his own 4. Religion will teach your children to be more dutiful to your selves than Nature can teach them It will teach them to Love you even when you have no more to give them as well as if you had the wealth of all the world It will teach them to honour you though you are poor and contemptible in the eyes of others It will teach them to obey you and if you â—all into want to relieve you according to their power It will â—it them to comfort you i st the time of your sickness and distress when ungodly children will be as thorns in your feet or eyes and cut your hearts and prove a greater grief than any enemies to you A gracious child will bear with your weaknesses when a Châ—m will not cover his Fathers nakedness A gracious Child can pray for you and pray with you and be a blessing to your house when an ungodly Child is fitter to curse and prove a curse to those he liveâ— with 5. And is it not an exceeding joy to think of the everlasting happiness of your Child and that you may live togâ—ther in Heaven for ever When the foresâ—en misâ—ry of a gracâ—lâ—ss Child may grieve you when ever you look him in the face 6. Lastly It will be a great addition to your joy to think that God blessed your diligent instructions and made you the instrument of all that good that is done upon your children and of all that good that is done by them and of all the happiness they have for ever To think that this was conveyed to them by your means will give you a larger share in the delights of it § 7. Motive 7. Remember that your Childrens Original sin and misery is by you and therefore in Motive 7. juâ—â—ice you that have undone them are bound to do your best to save them If you had but conveyed a leprosiâ— or some hereditary Disease to their bodies would you not have done your best to cure them O that you could do them but as much good as you do them hurt It is more than Adamâ— sin that runneth down into the natures of your Children yea and that bringeth judgements on them And even Adams sin cometh not to them but by you § 8. Motive 8. Lastly Consider what exceeding great need they have of the utmost help you can afford Motive 8. them It is not a corporal disease an easie enemy a tolerable that we call unto you for their helpâ—â— But it is against Sin and Satan and Hell fire It is against a body of sin not one but many â—oâ— small but pernicious having seized upon the heart
sin 2. And such as lose the very Resolution of the Will also and grow unresolved what to do if not resolved to do evil and to omit that which is good § 4. The third sort Backsliders in Life comprehendeth 1. Those that fall from Duty towards God or Man 2. And those that fall into positive sins and turn to sensuality in voluptuousness worldliness or pride § 5. II. 1. Backsliders in judgement do sometimes fall by slow degrees and sometimes suddenly at once Those that fall by degrees do some of them begin in the failing of the understanding but most of them begin at the failing or falseness of the Heart and the corrupted Will corrupteth the understanding § 6. 1. Those that fall by degrees through the failing of the Understanding are those simple souls that never were well grounded in the truth And some of them reason themselves into error or unbelief and others of them which is most usual are led into it by the cunning and diligence of seducers And for the Degrees They grow first to doubt of some Arguments which formerly seemed valid to them and then they doubt of the truth it self Or else they hear some argument from a seducer which through their own weakness they are unable to answer And then they yield to it as thinking that it is right because they see not what is to be said against it and know not what others know to the contrary nor how easily another can confute it And when once they are The method of falling into Heresie or Sects brought into a suspicion of one point which they formerly held they quickly suspect all the rest and grow into a suspicion and disaffection to the persons whom they did before most highly value And then they grow into a high esteem of the persons and party that seduced them and think that they that are wiser in one thing are wiser in the rest and so are prepared to receive all the errors which follow that one which they first received And next they imbody with the Sect that seduced them and separate from the sober united part of the Church And so they grow to a zealous importunity for the increase of their party and to lose their charity to those that are against their way and to corrupt their Morals in thinking all dishonesty lawful which seemeth necessary to promote the interest of their Sect which they think is the interest of the Truth and of God And at last its like they will grow weary of that Sect and hearken to another and another till in the end they come to one of these periods either to settle in Popery as the easiest Religion and being taken with their pretence of Antiquity Stability Unity and Universality or else to turn to Atheism or Infidelity and take all Religion for a meer deceit or else if they retained an honest heart in their former wanderings God sheweth them their folly and bringeth them back to Unity and Charity and maketh them see the vanity of those Reasonings which before seduced them and which once they thought were some spiritual coelestial light This is the common course of error when the Understanding is the most notable cause But sometimes a deceiver prevaileth with them on a sudden by such false appearances of truth which they are unable to confute But still an ill-prepared unfurnished Mind is the chiefest Cause § 7. 2. But those whose Iudgements are conquered by the perverse inclination of their Wills are usually carnal worldly hypocrites who never conquered the fleshly mind and interest nor overcame the world nor ever were acquainted with the heavenly Nature and Life nor with the power of Divine Love and these having made a change of their profession through the meer conviction of their understandings and benefit of Education or Government or the advantages of Religion in the Countrey where they live without a renewed holy Heart the byas of their Hearts doth easily prevail against the Light of their Understandings And because they would fain have those Doctrines to be true which save them from sufferings or give them liberty for a fleshly ambitious worldly life therefore they do by degrees prevail with their understandings to receive them § 8. 2. Backsliders in Heart do fall by divers degrees and means for Satans Methods are not alwayes the same Some of them fall through the corruption of their Judgements for every error hath much influence on the heart Some are tempted suddenly into some gross or sensual sin and so the errors of their lives call away their hearts from God Not but that some sin of the Heart or Will doth still go first but yet the extraordinary declension and pravity of the heart may sometimes be caused by the errors of the Iudgement or the Life But sometimes the beginning and progress is almost observable in the Appetite and Will it self And here the Inclining to Evil that is to sensual or carnal good and the declining from true spiritual good do almost alwayes go together And it is most usually by this method and by these degrees 1. The Devil usually beginneth with the fantasie and appetite and representeth some worldly fleshly thing as very pleasant and desirable 2. Next that he causeth this Complacency to entice the Thoughts so that they are much and oft in thinking on this pleasure 3. Next that the Will is drawn into a liking of it and he wisheth he might enjoy it whether it be riches or pleasant dwellings or pleasant company or pleasant meats or drinks or fleshly accommodations or apparel or honour or command or ease or lust or sports and recreations or whatever else 4. Next that the understanding is drawn into the design and is casting and contriving how it may be obtained and all lawful means are first considered of that if possible the business might be accomplished without the hazard of the soul. 5. Next to that Endeavours are vsed to that end by such means as are supposed lawful and the conscience quieted with the conceit of the harmlesness and security 6. By this time the man is engaged in his carnal cause and course and so the difficulty of returning is increased And the inclination of the heart groweth stronger to the sensual pleasure than before 7. And then he is drawn to prosecute his design by any means how sinful soever if it be possible making himself believe by some reasonings or other that all is lawful still or if the case be too palpable to be so cloaked conscience at last is cast asleep and seared and stupified that it may be silent under all Till either Grace or Vengeance awake the sinner and make him amazed at his madness and stupidity This is the most usual Method of the Hearts relapse to positive evil § 10. 2. And by such degrees doth the heart decline from the Love of God and Goodness As 1. The thoughts are diverted to some carnal vanity that is overloved And the thoughts
Kingdom of God and his righteousness as esteeming it above all the Riches of the world Object Thou hast kept thy sins while thou wentest on in a profession of Religion Answ. I had no sin but what in the habitual ordinary temper of my soul I hated more than I loved it and had rather have been delivered from it than have kept it and none but what I unfeignedly repented of Object Thou didst not truly believe the promises of God and the life to come or else thou wouldst never have doubted as thou hast done nor sought such a Kingdom with such weak desires Answ. Though my faith was weak it overcame the world I so far believed the promise of another life as that I preferred it before this life and was resolved rather to forsake all the world than to part with my hopes of that promised blessedness And that faith is sincere how weak soever that can do this Object But thou hast done thy works to be seen of men and been troubled when men have not approved thee nor honoured thee and what was this but meer hypocrisie Answ. Though I had some hypocrisie yet was I not an hypocrite because it was not in a reigning and prevalent degree Though I too much regarded the esteem of men yet I did more regard the esteem of God Thus if a Christian discern his evidences the false reasonings of Satan are to be refuted § 21. 2. But ordinarily it is a readier way to take the second course which is At present to Believe and Repent and so confute Satan that saith you are not penitent believers But then you must truly John 1. 10 11 12. 3. 16. 19 20. Rom. 7. 21 22 23 24 25. Psal. 119 1 4 5. understand what Believing and Repenting is or else you may think that you do not Believe and Repent when you do Believing in Christ is a Believing that he is the Saviour of the world and a consent of will that he be your Saviour to justifie you by his blood and sanctifie you by his Spirit To Repent is to be so sorry that you have sinned that if it were to do again you would not do it as to gross sin and a state of sin and the smallest infirmities your will is so far set against that you desire to be delivered from them Believing to Justification is not the Believing that you are already justified and your sins forgiven you And Repenting consisteth not in such degrees of sorrow as some expect but in the change of the mind and will from a life of sensuality to a life of holiness When you know this then answer the Tempter thus If I should suffer thee to deprive me of the comfort of all my former uprightness yet shalt thou not so deprive me of the comfort of my present sincerity and of my hopes I am now too weak and distempered to try all that is past and gone Past actions are now known but by remembring them And they are seldome judged of as indeed they then were but according to the temper and apprehension of the mind when it revieweth them And I am now so changed and weakned my self that I cannot tell whether I truly remember the just temper and thoughts of my heart in all that 's past or not Nor doth it most concern me now to know what I have been but to know what I am Christ will not judge according to what I was but according to what he findeth me Never did he refuse a penitent believing soul because he repented and believed late I do now unfeignedly repent of all my sins and am heartily willing to be both pardoned and cleansed and sanctified by Christ and here I give up my self to him as my Saviour and to this Covenant I will stand And this is true Repenting and Believing Thus a poor Christian in the time of sickness may oft-times much easier clear it up to himself that he Repenteth now than that he Repented formerly And it is his surest way § 25. Tempt 2. And yet sometimes he cometh with the quite contrary Temptation and must be Tempt 2. resisted by the contrary way When he findeth a Christian so perplexed and weakned and distempered with sickness that his understanding is disabled from any composed thoughts then he asketh him Now where is thy Faith and Repentance If thou hast any or ever hadst any let it now appear In this case a Christian is to take up with the remembrance of his former sincerity and tell the Tempter I am sure that once I gave up my self unfeignedly to my Lord and those that come to him he will in no wise cast out And if now I be disabled from a composed exercise of grace he will not impute my sickness to me as my sin § 26. Tempt 3. Another ordinary Temptation is that Its now too late God will not now accept Tempt 3. repentance the day of grace is past and gone or at least a death-bed Repentance is not sincere To this the Tempted soul must reply 1. That if faith and repentance were not accepted at any time in this life then Gods promise were not true which saith that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life John 3. 16. So Luke 24. 47. Acts 5. 31. 11. 18. 20 21. 2 Tim. 2. 25. 2 Pet. 3. 9. There is a time in this life in which some resisters of the truth are given up to their own lusts to the love of sin and hatred of holiness so that they will not Repent But there was never a time in this life in which God refused to justifie a true repenting sinner upon his belief in Christ. 2. That if a death-bed Repentance do truly turn the heart from the world to God and from sin to holiness so that the penitent person if he should recover would lead a new and holy life then that Repentance hath as sure a promise of pardon and salvation as if it had been sooner And yet delay must be confessed to be dangerous to all and casteth men under very great difficulties and their loss is exceeding great though at last they repent and are forgiven § 27. Tempt 4. Sometime the Tempter saith Thou art not elected to salvation and God saveth Tempt 4. none but his Elect and so puzzleth the ignorant by setting them on doubting of their Election To this we must answer that every soul that is chosen to faith and Repentance and perseverance is certainly chosen to salvation And I know that God hath chosen me to Faith and Repentance because he hath given them me And I have reason enough to trust on him for that upholding grace which will cause me to persevere § 28. Tempt 5. But saith the Tempter Christ did not dye for thee and no one can be saved that Tempt 5. Christ did not dye for To this it must be answered That Christ dyed for all men so far as to be a sufficient
know by your own experience thâ—se Joyes or Torments which the wicked will not know by faith And O what a preparation doth such a change require II. You are next to know what persons they are and how they differ who must abide for ever in these different states As we are the Children of Adam we are all corrupted our minds are carnal and set upon this world and savour nothing but the things of the flesh And the further we go in sin the worse we are being strangers to the Life of faith and to the Love of God and the Life to come taking the prosperity and pleasure of the flesh for the felicity which we most desire and seek The name of this state in Scripture is Carnal and ungodly and unholy because such men live in a meer flâ—shly nature or disposition for fleshly ends in a fleshly manner and are not at all Devoted to God and carryed up to Heavenly Desires and Delights but live chiefly for this life and not for the life to come And though they may take up some kind of Religion in a second place and upon the by for fear of being damned when they can keep the world no longer yet is it this world which they principally value love and seek and their Religion is subject to their worldly and fleshly interest and delights And though God hath provided and offered them a Saviour to teach them better and reclaim and sanctifie them by his word and spirit and forgive them if they will believe in him and return yet do they sottishly neglect this mercy or obstinately refuse it and continue their worldly fleshly lives till time be past and mercy hath done and there is no remedy These are the men that God will condemn and this is the true description of them And it will not stand with the Governing-Justice and Holiness and truth of God to save them But on the other side all those that God will save do heartily believe in Iesus Christ who is sent of God to be the Saviour of souls and he maketh them know by his word and spirit their grievous sin and misery in their state of corrupted nature and he humbleth them for it and bringeth them to true Repentance and maketh them loath themselves for their iniquities and seeing how they have cast away and undone themselves and are no better than the slaves of Satan and the heirs of hell they joyfully accept of the remedy that is offered them in Christ They heartily take him for their Saviour and King and give up themselves in Covenant to him to be justified and sanctified by him whereupon he pardoneth all their sin and further enlighteneth and sanctifieth them by his spirit He sheweth them by faith the infinite Love of God and the sure everlasting Holy Ioyes which they may have in Heaven with him and how blessed a life they may there obtain through his purchase and gift with all the blessed Saints and Angels He maketh them deliberately to compare this offer of Eternal Happiness with all the pleasures and seeming commodities of sin and all that this deceitful world can do for them And having considered of both they see that there is no comparison to be made and are ashamed that ever they were so mad as to prefer Earth before Heaven and an inch of Time before Eternity and a dream of pleasure before the Everlasting Ioyes and to love the pleasures of a transitory world above the presence and favour and Glory of God! And for the time to come they are firmly Resolved what to do Even to take Heaven for their only Happiness and there to lay up their Hopes and Treasure and to live to God as they have done to the flesh and to make sure of their salvation whatever become of their worldly interest And thus the spirit doth dwell and work in them and renew their Hearts and give them a hatred to every sin and a Love to every holy thing even to the holy word and worship and wayes and servants of the Lord and in a word he maketh them New Creatures and though they have still their sinful imperfections yet the bent of their Hearts and Lives is Holy and Heavenly and they long to be perfect and are labouring after it and seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and live above the world and flesh And shortly Christ will make them perfect and Iustifie them in the day of their judgement and give them the Glorious end of all their faith obedience and patience These are the persons and none but these among us that have the use of Reason that shall live with God III. Now this being the infallible truth of the Gospel and this being the true difference between the Righteous and the wicked the Iustified and Condemned souls O how neerly doth it now concern you to try which of these is your own condition Certainly it may be known For God will judge the world in righteousness by the same Law or Covenant by which he Governeth them Know but whom the Law of Christ condemneth or justifieth and you may soon know whom the Judge will condemn and justifie For he will proceed according to this Law If you should die in an unrenewed state in your sins your Hopes of Heaven would all die with you And if you should think never so well of your self till death and pretend never so confidently to trust on Christ and the Mercy of God one hour will convince Mat. 18. 3. Heb. 12. 14. Joh. 3. 3 5 6. you to your everlasting woe that Gods mercy and Christs merits did never bring to Heaven an unsanctified soul. Self flattery is good for nothing but to keep you from Repenting till time be past and to quiet you in Satans snares till there be no remedy Therefore presently as you love your soul examine your self and try which of these is the condition that you are in and accordingly judge you self before God judge you May you not know if you will whether you have most minded Earth or Heaven and which you have preferred and sought with the highest esteem and Resolution and whether your Worldly or Heavenly interest have born sway and which of them it is that gave place unto the other Cannot a man tell if he will what it is which his very soul hath practically taken for his chief concernment and what it is that haâ—â— had most of his Love and Care and what hath been next his heart and which he hath preferred wheâ—â—hey came to the parting and one was set against the other Cannot you tell whether you have lived principally to the flesh for the prosperity of this world and the pleasures of sin or whether the spirit of Christ by his word hath enlightned you and shewed you your â—in and misery and humbled you for it and shewed you the Glory of the life to come and the happiness of living in the Love of God and hereupon hath
you and tell you that as you are the subjects of the Pope you are none of the Church of Christ at all From this treasonable conspiracy we withdraw our selves But as Coacil Tolâ—t 4. c. 61. 28. q. 1. Ca. Iudai qui allow separation from a Jewish husband if afâ—er admonition he will not be a Christian and so doth Aâ—osta and his Coâ—cil Lirâ—â—s l. 6. c. 21. and other Jesuits and allow the marrying of another And sure the Conjugal bond is faster than that of a Pastor and his sâ—ock may not a man then change his Pastor when his soul is in apparent hazzard you are the subjects of Christ we never divided from you nor denyed you our Communion Let Reason judge now who are the Dividers And is it not easie to know which is the Church in the Division It is all those that are still united unto Christ If you or we be divided from Christ and from Christians that are his Body we are then none of the Church But if we are not Divided from Christ we are of the Church still If part of a Tree though the far greater part be out off or separated from the rest it is that part how small soever that still groweth with the Root that is the living Tree The Indian Fig-tree and some other Trees have branches that take root when they touch the ground If now you ask me whether the branches springing from the second Root are members of the first Tree I answer 1. The rest that have no new Root are more undoubtedly members of it 2. If any branches are separated from the first Tree and grow upon the new root alone the case is out of doubt 3. But if yet they are by continuation joyned to both that Root which they receive their nutriment most from is it which they most belong to Suppose a Tyrant counterseit a Commission from the King to be Vice-King in Ireland and proclaimeth all them to be Traytors that receive him not The King disclaimeth him the wisest subjects renounce him and the rest obey him but so as to profess they do it because they believe him to be commissioned by the King Let the question be now who are the Dividers in Ireland and who are the Kings truest subjects and what Head it is that denominateth the Kingdom and who are the Traytors This is your case § 58. 2. Divisions are the deformities of the Church Cut off a nose or pluck out an eye or dismember either a man or a picture and see whether you have not deformed it Ask any compassionate Christian ask any insulting enemy whether our Divisions be not our deformity and shame the lamentation of friends and the scorn of enemies § 59. 3. The Churches Divisions are not our own dishonour alone but the injurious dishonour of Christ and Religion and the Gospel The World thinketh that Christ is an impotent King that cannot keep his Kingdom at unity in it self when he hath himself told us that every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every City or House divided against it self shall not stand Mat. 12. 25. They think the Gospel tendeth to Division and is a doctrine of dissention when they see divisions and dissentions procured by it They impute all the faults of the subjects to the King and think that Christ was confused in his Legislation and knew not what to teach or command because men are confounded in their opinions or practices and know not what to think or do If men misunderstand the Law of Christ and one saith This is the sense and another saith that is the sense they are ready to think that Christ spake non-sense or understood not himself because the ignorant understand him not Who is there that converseth with the ungodly of the World that heareth not by their reproach and scorns how much God and Religion are dishonoured by the Divisions of Religious people § 60. 4. And thus also our Divisions do lamentably hinder the progress of the Gospel and the conversion and salvation of the ungodly World They think they have small encouragement to be of your Religion while your Divisions seem to tell them that you know not what Religion to be of your selves Whatever Satan or wicked men would say against Religion to discourage the ungodly from it the same will exasperated persons in these Divisions say against each others way And when every one of you condemneth another how should the Consciences of the ungodly perswade them to expect salvation in any of those ways which you thus condemn Doubtless the Divisions of the Christian world have done more to hinder the conversion of Infidels and keep the Heathen and Mahometane World in their damnable ignorance and delusions than all our power is able to undoe and have produced such desolations of the Church of Christ and such a plentiful harvest and Kingdom for the Devil as every tender Christian heart is bound to lament with tears of bitterness If it must be that such offence shall come yet woe to those by whom they come § 67. 5. Divisions lay open the Churches of Christ not only to the scorn but to the malice will and fury of their enemies A Kingdom or house divided cannot stand Matth. 12. 25. where hath the Church been destroyed or Religion rooted out in any Nation of the Earth but divisions had a Rev. 17. 13. principal hand in the effect O what desolations have they made among the flocks of Christ As Seneca and others opened their own veins and bled to death when Nero or such other Tyrants did send them their commands to Die even so have many Churches done by their divisions to the gratifying of Satan the enemy of souls § 62. 6. Divisions among Christians do greatly hinder the edification of the members of the Church while they are possessed with envyings and distaste of one another they lose all the benefit of each others gifts and of that holy communion which they should have with one another And they are possessed with that zeal and wisdom which Iames calleth earthly sensual and devillish which corrupteth Eph. 4. 16. 1 Tim. 1. 4. Rom. 15. 19. Acts 9. 3â— all their affections and turneth their food to the nourishment of their disease and maketh their very worshipping of God to become the increase of their sin Where divisions and contentions are the members that should grow up in humility meekness self-denyal holiness and love do grow in pride and perverse disputings and passionate strivings and envious wranglings The Spirit of God departeth from them and an evil Spirit of malice and vexation taketh place though in their passion they know not what Spirit they are of Whereas if they be of one mind and live in peace the God of love and peace will be with them What lamentable instances of this calamity have we in many of the Sectaries of this present time Especially in the people called Quakers that while they
3. Else there should be seldome any Church in the world for want of a Head yea never any For I have proved there and to Iohnson that there never was a true General Council of the Universal See also in my Reasons of Christian Religion Coâ—s 2. of the Interest of the Church Church But only Imperial Councils of the Churches under one Emperours power and those that having been under it had been used to such Councils And that it is not a thing ever to be attempted or expected as being unlawful and morally impossible Quest. 13. Whether there be such a thing as a Visible Catholick Church And what it is THe Antients differently used the terms A Catholick Church and The Catholick Church By the first they meant any particular Church which was part of the Universal By the second 1 Cor. 12. 12. and throughout they meant the Universal Church it self And this is it that we now mean And I answer Affirmatively There is a Visible Universal Church not only as a Community or as a Kingdom distinct from the King but as a Political Society 2. This Church is the Universality of Baptized Visible Christians Headed by Iesus Christ himself Eph. 4. 1 5 6 7 16. There is this and there is no other upon earth The Papists say that this is no Visible Church because the Head is not Visible I answer 1. It is not necessary that he be seen but visible And is not Christ a Visible person 2. This Church consisteth of two parts the Triumphant part in Glory and the Militant part And Christ is not only Visible but seen by the triumphant part As the King is not seen by the ten thousandth part of his Kingdoms but by his Courtiers and those about him and yet he is King of all 3. Christ was seen on earth for above thirty years and the Kingdom may be called visible in that the King was once visible on earth and is now visible in Heaven As if the King would shew himself to his people but one year together in all his life 4. It ill becometh the Papists of any men to say that Christ is not visible who make him see him taste him handle him eat him drink him digest him in every Church in every Mass throughout the year and throughout the world And this not as divided but as whole Christ. Object But this is not quatenus Regent Answ. If you see him that is Regent and see his Laws and Gospel which are his Governing instruments together with his Ministers who are his Officers it is enough to denominate his Kingdom visible 5. The Church might be fitly denominated Visible secundum quid if Christ himself were invisible Because the Politick Body is visible the dispersed Officers Assemblies and Laws are visible But sure all these together may well serve for the denomination Quest. 14. What is it that maketh a Visible Member of the Universal Church And who are to be accounted such 1. BAptism maketh a Visible member of the Universal Church and the Baptized as to entrance Matth. 28. 19. 〈…〉 1â— 16. unless they go out again are to be accounted such 2. By Baptism we mean open devotion or dedication to God by the Baptismal Covenant in which the adult for themselves and Parents for their Infants do Profess Consent to the Covenant of Grace which includeth a Belief of all the Essential Articles of the faith and a Resolution for sincere obedience and a Consent to the Relations between God and us viz. that he be our Reconciled Father our Saviour and our Sanctifier 3. The Continuance of this Consent is necessary to the continuance of our visible membership 4. He that through ignorance or incapacity for want of water or a Minister is not baptized and yet is solemnly or notoriously dedicated and devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in the same Covenant though without the outward Sign and professeth openly the same Religion is a visible Christian though not by a compleat and regular visibility As a Souldier not listed nor taking his Colours or a Marriage not regularly solemnized c. 5. He that forsaketh his Covenant by Apostacy or is totally and duly excommunicated ceaseth to be a visible member of the Church Quest. 15. Whether besides the Profession of Christianity either Testimony or Evidence of Conversion or Practical Godliness be necessary to prove a man a Member of the Universal Visible Church 1. AS the Mediator is the way to the Father sent to recover us to God so Christianity includeth John 14. 6. 1 Tim. 3. 16. 6 3 11. Godliness And he professeth not Christianity who professeth not Godliness 2. He that professeth the Baptismal Covenant professeth Christianity and Godliness and true Conversion 2 Pet. 1. 3. And therefore cannot be rejected for want of a Profession of Conversion or Godliness 3. But he that is justly suspected not to understand his own profession but to speak general words without the sense may and ought to be examined by him that is to baptize him And therefore though the Apostles among the Jews who had been bred up among the Oracles of God did justly presume of so much understanding as that they baptized men the same day that they professed to believe in Christ yet when they baptized converted Gentiles we have reason to think that they Acts 2. 38 39. first received a particular account of their Converts that they understood the three essential Articles of the Covenant 1. Because the Creed is fitted to that use and hath been ever used thereunto by the Churches as by tradition from the Apostles practice 2. Because the Church in all ages as far as Church History leadeth us upward hath used catechising before baptizing yea and to keep men as Catechumens some time for preparation 3. Because common experience telleth us that multititudes can say the Creed that understand it not If any yet urge the Apostles example I will grant that it obligeth us when the case is the like And I will not fly to any conceit of their heart-searching or discerning mens sincerity When you bring us to a people that before were the Visible Church of God and were all their life time trained up in the knowledge of God of sin of duty of the promised Messiah according to all the Law and Prophets and want nothing but to know the Son and the Holy Ghost that this Iesus is the Christ who will reconcile us to God and give us the sanctifying Spirit then we will also baptize men the same day that they profess to believe in Iesus Christ and in the Father as reconciled by him and the Holy Ghost as given by him But if we have those to deal with who know not God or sin or misery or Scripture Prophecies no nor natural verities we know no proof that the Apostles so haâ—â—ily baptized such Of this I have largely spoken in my Treatise of Confirmation 4. It is
Authority of the Pastors Because the Pastors of several Churches do not Lose any of Grotius dâ— Iâ—perio sum pot circ â—acr most solidly resolveth this Question their Power by their Assembling but exercise it with the greater advantage of Concord But as they are made only to oblige the present or absent Pastors who separatedly are of equal Office-power so they are no Laws except in an equivocal sense but only Agreements or Contracts So Bishop Usher profest his judgement to be And before him the Council of Carthage in Cyprians time But it needs no proof no more than that a Convention of Kings may make no Laws to bind the Kings of England but Contracts only 13. But yet we are aliunde obliged even by God to keep these Agreements in things lawful for the Churches peace and concord when greater contrary reasons à fine do not disoblige us For when God saith You shall keep Peace and Concord and keep Lawful Covenants The Canons afford us the Minor But these are Lawful Contracts or Agreements and means of the Churches Peace and Concord Therefore saith Gods Law you shall observe them So though the Contracts as of Husband and Wife Buyer and Seller c. be not Laws yet that is a Law of God which bindeth us to keep them 14. Seing that even the obliging Commands of Pastors may not by them be enforced by the Sword 1 Pet. 5. 2 3. 2 Cor. 1. 24. but work by the power of Divine Authority or Commission manifested and by holy Reason and Love therefore it is most modest and fit for Pastors who must not Lord it over Gods heritage but be examples to all to take the Lower name of Authoritative Directions and perswasions rather than of Laws Especially in a time when Papal Usurpation maketh such ruinating use of that name and Civil Magistrates use to take it in the nobler and narrower sense THe Questions 1. If one Pastor make Orders for his Church and the multitudes or Synods be against them which must be obeyed you may gather from what is said before of Ordination And 2. What are the particulars proper Materially to the Magistrates decision and what to the Pastors I here pass by Quest. 26. Whether Church-Canons or Pastors Directive Determinations of matters pertinent to their Office do bind the Conscience And what accidents will disoblige the people you may gather before in the same case about Magistrates Laws in the Political Directions As also by an impartial transferring the Case to the Precepts of Parents and Schoolmasters to Children without respect to their Power of the Rod or supposing that they had none such Quest. 27. What are Christs appointed means of the Unity and Concord of the Universal Church and consequently of its preservation if there be no Humane Universal Head and Governour of it upon Earth And if Christ have instituted none such Whether Prudence and the Law of Nature oblige not the Church to set up and maintain an Universal Ecclesiastical Monarchy or Aristocracy Seeing that which is Every mans work is as No mans and omitted by all I. TO the first question I must refer you in part to two small popular yet satisfactory Tractates Catholick Unity and The True Catholick and Church described written long ago that I do not one thing too oft Briefly now 1. The Unity of the Universal Church is founded in and maintained by their Common Relation to Christ the Head as the Kingdom in its Relation to the King 2. A Concord in Degrees of Goodness and in Integrals and Accidentals of Christianity will never be obtained on earth where the Church is still imperfect And perfect Holiness and Wisdom are necessary to Perfect Harmony and Concord Phil. 3. 12 13 14. 3. Experience hath long taught the Church if it will learn that the claim of a Papal Headship and Government over the Church Universal hath been the famous incendiary and hinderer of Concord in the Christian world 4. The means to attain such a measure of concord and harmony which is to be hoped for or endeavoured upon earth I have so distinctly fully and yet briefly described with the contrary Impediments in my Treatise of the Reasons of Christian Religion Part 7. Chap. 14. pag. 470 471. in about two leaves that I will not recite them If you say You are not bound to read the Books which I refer you to I answer Nor thiâ— II. To the latter Question I answer 1. To set up such an Universal Head on the supposition of natural Reasons and Humane Policy is 1. To cross Christs Institution and the Laws of the Holy Ghost as hath been long proved by Protestants from the Scripture 2. It is Treason against Christs Soveraign Office to usurp such a Vicegerency without his Commission 3. It is against the notorious light of Nature which telleth us of the Natural Incapacity of Mortal man to be such an Universal Governour through the world 4. It is to sin against long and dreadful common experience and to keep in that fire that hath destroyed Euperours Kings and Kingdoms and set the Churches Pastors and Christian world in those divisions which are the great and serviceable work of Satan and the impediment of the Churches increase purity and peace and the notorious shame of the Christian profession in the eyes of the Infidel world And if so many hundred years sad experience will not answer them that say If the Pope were a good man he might unite us all I conclude that such deserve to be deceived 2 Thess. 2. 10 11 12. Quest. 28. Who is the Iudge of Controversies in the Church 1. About the Exposition of the Scripture and Doctrinal points in themselves 2. About either Heresies or wicked Practices as they are charged on the persons who are accused of them That is 1. Antecedently to our Practice by way of Regulation 2. Or Consequently by Iudicial Sentence and Execution on Offenders I Have answered this question so oft that I can perswade my self to no more than this short yet clear solution The Papists use to cheat poor unlearned persons that cannot justly discern things that differ by puzling them with this confused ambiguous question Some things they cunningly and falsly take for granted As that there is such a thing on Earth as a Political Universal Church headed by any Mortal Governour Some things they shuffle together in equivocal words They confound 1. Publick Iudgement of Decision and private judgement of discerning 2. The Magistrates Iudgement of Church-controversies and the Pastors and the several Cases and Ends and Effects of their several judgements 3. Church-judgement as Directive to a particular Church and as a means of the Concord of several Churches Which being but distinguished a few words will serve to clear the difficulty 1 As there is no Universal Humane Church Constituted or Governed by a Mortal Head so there is no Power set up by Christ to be an Universal Iudge of either sort of Controversies
that is eldest and ablest and be ruled by him 24. Whether there shall be any Deaconesses in the Church 25. Whether a Church shall have one Minister two or more 26. Who shall be the men 27. What space of ground shall be the Church bounds for the cohabitation of the members 28. How many Neighbour Churches shall make a Synod and which be they 29. How many members a Synod shall consist of 30. Who shall be president Or whether any And who shall gather the Votes 31. Who shall record their Acts as Scribe 32. What Messenger shall carry them to the Churches 33. What Letters for Correspondence and Communion shall be written to the Churches 34. When Pastors shall remove from one Church to another And to which 35. Who shall be ordained Ministers to Preach Baptize and gather Churches 36. How many the Ordainers shall be 37. Whether there shall be any Musick by Instruments in the Church or house for the praises of God and what 38. Who shall lead the Psalm 39. Who shall read 40. What words the Churches Profession of faith shall be expressed by 41. By what signes the Church shall signifie their consent Whether lifting up the hand standing up bowing the head or by voice or writing 42. By what sign or ceremony men shall take an oath Whether lifting up the hand toward Heaven or laying it on a Book or kissing the Book c. 43. Whether the people at the Sacrament sit neer the Table or keep farther off 44. Whether it be put into each persons hand or they take it themselves With many more such like 4. And it is a lawful Invention to determine of meer Circumstances of Time and place which God hath not determined of in Scripture As 1. At how many times in the year or week Baptism shall be administred 2. At what age persons be admitted to the Lords Supper 3. On what dayes and hours of the week there shall be Lectures or Church-assemblies 4. How oâ—t and when Ministers shall Caâ—echise and instruct the people privately 5. On what hour the Church shall assemble on the Lords dayes and receive the Sacrament 6. How long Prayer Reading and Sermon shall be 7. At what hour to end the publick exercises 8. At what hours to pray in Families or in secret 9. How often Disciplinary meetings shall be held for the trying of accused members 10. How often Synods shall meet and how long continue Of Holy dayes before 5. The same is to be said for the Places of Holy Exercises 1. What Edifices the Churches shall have for such uses 2. In what places they shall be scituate 3. Where the Pulpit shall stand 4. And where the Font 5. And where the Table 6. Where each of the people shall sit 7. Where Synods shall meet 8. How many Temples shall be in a City c. 6. The same is to be said of all Accidental subordinate Offices As Lectors Clerks Door-keepers Church-wardens and many more before mentioned 7. The same is to be said of Church Utensils As Table Cups Linen Pulpits Fonts Clock Hour-glass Bells Seats decent Habit of Cloaths c. 8. The same may be said of Decent Gestures not particularly commanded As what Gesture to Preach in standing or sitting What Gesture to Read in What Gesture to Hear in What Gesture to sing Psalms in Whether to be covered or bare-headed In what gesture to receive the Lords Supper In which Scripture no more regulateth us than of the room the hour of communicating the number of Communicants the place in all which Christs example was not a particular Law 9. The same may be said of Order 1. Whether the Pastor shall begin with Prayer reading or exhortation 2. Whether the people shall begin with prayer or ejaculations privately 3. Whether we shall make but one or two long continued prayers or many short ones 4. Whether we shall pray before Sermon immediately and after in the Pulpit or in the Reading place 5. When the Psalms shall be said or sung and how many 6. How many Chapters shall be read and which and in what order 7. Whether Baptism shall be before or after or when 8. When the Catechumens and Learners shall be dismissed and the proper Eucharistical Church Exercises begin 9. When Collections made c. But O Lord have compassion on thy scattered flocks who are afflicted and divided by the Imperiousness of those Pastors who think it not enough for the exercise of their Domination to promote all thine own holy Laws and doctrines and to make their own Canons in all these cases or such like but they must needs make more work than all this cometh to for themselves and for the flocks even unto those distractions and dissâ—pations and fierce persecutions and contentions which many hundred years have exercised the Greek and Latine Churches and many more throughout the World Quest. 134. What are the mischiefs of unlawful Additions in Religion Answ. ALas many and great 1. They tend to dethrone Christ from his Soveraignty and Legislative prerogative 2. And to advance Man blind and sinful man into his place 3. And thereby to debase Religion making it but a humane or a mixed thing And it can be no more noble than its Author is 4. And thereby they debase also the Church of God and the Government of it while they make it to be but a Humane policy and not Divine 5. They tend to depose God from his Authority in mens Consciences and to level or joyn him there but with man 6. They tend to mens doubtfulness and uncertainty of their Religion seeing man is fallible and so may his constitutions be 7. They tend to drive out all true Religion from the World while Man that is so Bad is the maker of it and it may be suspected to be bad that is made by so bad an Author 8. And it taketh off the fear of God and his judgement For it is man that must be feared so far as man is the maker of the Law And it destroyeth the consolation of believers which consisteth in the hopes of a reward from God For he that serveth man must be rewarded by man And though they do not exclude God but joyn him with themselves yet this mixture debaseth and destroyeth Religion as the mixture of God and Mammon in mens Love and as mixt and debased metals do the Soveraign's coin 9. It hardeneth Infidels and hindereth their Conversion For they will reverence no more of our Religion than we can prove to be Divine And when they find one part of it to be humane they suspect the rest to be so too and contemn it all Even as Protestants do Popery for the abundance of humane trinkets and toyes with which we see them exercise and delude their silly followers 10. It is the great engine of dividing all the Churches and breeding and feeding conâ—â—ntions in the Christian World 11. And because men that will command will be obeyed and they that are
all true Worshippers in the world 16. Yea it will tempt men at last to be weary of their own Religion because they will find it an unsatisfactory uncomfortable tiresome thing to do their own superstitious work 17. And they will tempt all that they draw into this opinion to be weary of Religion also And truly had not Gods part which is wise and good and pleasant prevailed against the hurtfulness of mens superstition which is foolish bad and unpleasant Religion had ere this been cast off as a wearisome distracting thing or which is as bad been used but to delude men 18. Yea it will tempt men at last to Infidelity For Satan will quickly teach them to argue that if Scripture be a perfect particular Rule for forty things that were never there then it is defective and is not of God but an undertaking of that which is not performed and therefore is but a deceit 19. And the notoriousness and ridiculousness of this error will tempt the prophane to make Religious people a scorn 2o Lastly And Rulers will be tempted in Church and State to take such persons for intolerable 〈…〉 cieties and such whose principles are inconsistent with Government And no thanks to this 〈◊〉 if they be not tempted to dislike the Scripture it self and instead of it to fly to the Papists Traditions and the Churches Legislative Soveraignty or worse But here also remember that I charge none with all this but those before described Quest. 136. How shall we know what parts of Scripture Precept or Example were intended for universal constant obligations and what were but for the time and persons that they were then directed to Answ. IT is not to be denyed but some things in Scripture even in the New Testament are not Laws much less universal and perpetual And the difference is to be found in the Scripture it self As 1. All that is certainly of universal and perpetual obligation which is but a Transcript of the Universal and perpetual Law of Nature 2. And all that which hath the express Characters of Universality and Perpetuity upon it And such are all the substantial parts of the Gospel As Except ye Repent ye shall all perish Luke 13. 3 5. Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven John 3. 3 5. He that believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life John 3. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16. 16. Without Holiness none shall see God Heb. 12. 14. Go preach the Gospel to all Nations baptizing them c. teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you Matth. 28. 19 20. Abundance such Texts have the express Characters of Universality and Perpetuity which many call Morality 3. And with these we may number those which were given to all the Churches with commands to keep them and propagate them to posterity 4. And those that have a plain and necessary connexion to these before mentioned 5. And those which plainly have a full parity of reason with them And where it is evident that the Command was given to those particular times and persons upon no reasons proper to them alone but such as were common to all others I deny not but as Amesius noteth after others many ceremonial and temporary Laws are urged when they are made with natural and perpetual motives But the reasons of making them were narrower what ever the reasons of obeying them may be On the other side Narrow and temporary precepts and examples 1. Are void of all these foresaid characters 2. They are about Materials of temporary use 3. Or they are but the ordering of such customes as were there before and were proper to those Countreys 4. And many speeches are plainly appropriated to the time and persons 5. And many actions were manifestly occasional without any intimation of reason or purpose of obliging others to imitation For instance 1. Christs preaching sometimes on a Mountain sometimes in a Ship sometimes in a House and sometimes in the Synagogues doth shew that all these are lawful in season on the like occasion But he purposed not to oblige men to any one of them alone 2. So Christs giving the Sacrament of his Body and Blood in an upper room in a private house after Supper to none but Ministers and none but his family and but to twelve and on the fifth day of the Week only and in the gesture of a decumbent leaning sitting all these are plainly occasional and not intended as obliging to imitation For that which he made a Law of he separated in his speeches and commanded them to do it in remembrance of him till his coming And Paul expoundeth the distinction 1 Cor. 11. in his practice So the promise of the Spirit of Revelation and Miracles is expounded by the event as the feal of the Gospel and Scripture proper to those times in the main So the primitive Christians selling their estates and distributing to the poor or laying it down at the Apostles feet was plainly appropriated to that time or the like occasions by the Reason of it which was suddenly to shew the world what the belief of Heaven through the promises of Christ could make them all and how much their Love was to Christ and one another and how little to the world And also by the cessation of it when the persecutions abated and the Churches came to any setlement Yea and at first it was not a thing commanded to all but only voluntarily done So the womens Vail and the custome of kissing each other as a token of Love and mens not wearing long hair were the customes of the Countrey there ordered and improved by the Apostles about sacred things but not introduced into other Countreys that had no such custome So also Anointing was in thâ—se Countreys taken for salubrious and refreshing to the body and a ceremony of initiation into places of great honour Whereupon it was used about the sick and Gods giving the gift of healing in those times was frequently conjunct with this means So that hence the anointing of the sick came up and the antient Christians turned it into an initiating Ceremony because we are Kings and Priests to God Now these occasions extend not to those Countreys where Anointing neither was of such use or value or signification So also Pauls becoming a Jew to the Jews and being shaved and purifying himself and circumcising Timothy are evidently temporary complyances in a thing then lawful for the avoiding of offence and for the furtherance of the Gospel and no obligatory perpetual Law to us And so most Divines think the eating of things strangled and blood were forbidden for a time to them only that conversed with the Jews Acts 15. Though Beckman have many Reasons for the perpetuity not contemptible So the Office of Deaconesses and some think of Deacons seemeth to be fitted to that time and
3. Either Christianity is something and discernable or nothing and undiscernable If the latter then Christians are not to be distinguished from Heathens and Infidels If the former then Christianity hath its Constitutive parts by which it is what it is And then it hath essential parts distinguishable from the rest 4. The word Fundamentals being but a Metaphor hath given room to deceivers and Contenders to make a Controversie and raise a dust about it Therefore I purposely use the word Essentials which is not so lyable to mens Cavils 5. Those are the Essentials of Christianity which are necessary to the Baptism of the Adult Know but that and you answer all the pratings of the Papists that bawle out for a list of Fundamentals And sure it is not this day unknown in the Christian world either what a Christian is or who is to be baptized Do not the Priests know it who baptize all that are Christened in the world And why is Baptism called our Christening if it make us not Christians And why hath Christ promised that He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved Mark 16. 16. if that so much faith as is necessary to baptism will not also serve to a mans state of salvation 6. The Baptismal Covenant of Grace therefore is the Essential part of the Gospel and of the Christian Religion And all the rest are the Integrals and Accidents or Adjuncts 7. This Covenant containeth I. Objectively 1. Things True as such 2. Things Good as such 3. Things Practicable or to be done as such The Credenda Diligenda Eligenda Agenda as the objects of mans Intellect Will and Practical power The Credenda or things to be known and believed are 1. God as God and our God and Father 2. Christ as the Saviour and our Saviour 3. The Holy Ghost as such and as the Sanctifier and our Sanctifier as to the offer of these Relations in the Covenant The Diligenda are the same three persons in these three Relations as Good in themselves and unto us which includeth the grand benefits of Reconciliation and Adoption Justification and Sanctification and Salvation The Agenda in the time of baptism that make us Christians are 1. The actual Dedition resignation or dedication of our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in these Relations 2. A Promise or Vow to endeavour faithfully to live according to our undertaken relations though not in perfection that is as Creatures to their Creator and their Reconciled God and Father as Christians to their Redeemer their Teacher their Ruler and their Saviour And as willing Receivers of the Sanctifying and Comforting operations of the Holy Spirit II. The Objects tell you what the Acts must be on our part 1. With the Understanding to know and believe 2 With the Will to love choose desire and resolve and 3. Practically to deliver up our selves for the present and to promise for the time to come These are the Essentials of the Christian Religion 8. The Creed is a larger explication of the Credenda and the Lords Prayer of the Diligenda or things to be willed desired and hoped for and the Decalogue of the Natural part of the Agenda 9. Suffer not your own Ignorance or the Papists Cheats to confound the Question about Fundamentals as to the Matter and as to the expressing words It is one thing to ask What is the Matter ☞ Essential to Christianity And another What Words Symbols or Sentences are Essential to it To the first I have now answered you To the second I say 1. Taking the Christian Religion as it is an Extrinsick Doctrine in signis so the Essence of it is Words and Signs expressive or significant of the Material Essence That they be such in specie is all that is essential And if they say But which be those words I answer 2. That no particular Words in the world are essential to the Christian Religion For 1. No one Language is essential to it It is not necessary to salvation that you be baptized or learn the Creed or Scriptures in Hebrew or Greek or Latin or English so you learn it in any Language understood 2. It is not necessary to salvation that you use the same words in the same Language as long as it hath more words than one to express the same thing by 3. It is not necessary to salvation that we use the same or any one single form method or order of words as they are in the Creeds without alteration And therefore while the Antients did tenaciously cleave to the same Symbol or Creed yet they used various words to express it by As may be seen in Irenâ—â—s Tertullian Origen and Ruffin elsewhere cited by me so that its plain that by the same Symbol they See the Appendix to my Reformed Pastor meant the same Matter though exprest in some variety of words Though they avoided such variety as might introduce variety of sense and matter 10. Words being needful 1. To make a Learner understand 2. To tell another what he understandeth it followeth that the great variety of mens capacities maketh a great variation in the necessity of Words or Forms An Englishman must have them in English and a Frenchman in French An understanding man may receive all the Essentials in a few words But an Ignorant man must have many words to make him understand the matter To him that Understandeth them the words of the Baptismal ☞ Covenant express all the Essentials of Christianity But to him that understands them not the Creed is necessary for the explication And to him that understandeth not that a Catechism or larger Exposition is necessary This is the plain explication of this question which many Papists seem loth to understand Quest. 139. What is the Use and Authority of the Creed And is it of the Apostles framing or not And is it the Word of God or not Answ. 1. THe Use of the Creed is to be a plain explication of the Faith professed in the Baptismal Covenant 1. For the fuller instruction of the duller sort and those that had not preparatory knowledge and could not sufficiently understand the meaning of the three Articles of the Covenant what it is to believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost without more words 2. And for the satisfaction of the Church that indeed men understood what they did in baptism and professed to believe 2. The Creed is the Word of God as to all the Doctrine or Matter of it what ever it be as to the order and composition of words 3. That is oft by the Antients called the Apostles which containeth the matter derived by the Apostles though not in a form of words compiled by them 4. It is certain that all the words now in our Creed were not put in by the Apostles 1. Because Vid. 〈…〉 Vossiâ—m de Symbolis some of them were not in till long after their dayes 2. Because the
to pull them down on pretence of setting up him that hath appointed them whose Kingdom personal is not of this world § 42. Direct 18. When you are tempted to dishonourable thoughts of your Governours look over the Direct 18. face of all the earth and compare your case with the nations of the world and then your murmurings may be turned into thankfulness for so great a mercy What cause hath God to difference us from other nations and give us any more than an equal proportion of mercy with the rest of the world Have we deserved to have a Christian King when five parts of the world have Rulers that are Heathens and Mahometans Have we deserved to have a Protestant King when all the world hath but two more How happy were the world if it were so with all nations as it is with us Remember how unthankfulness forfeiteth our happiness § 43. Direct 19. Consider as well the Benefits which you receive by Governours as the sufferings Direct 19. which you undergo And especially consider of the common benefits and value them above your own He that knoweth what man is and what the world is and what the Temptations of Great men are and what he himself deserveth and what need the best have of affliction and what good they may get by the right improvement of it will never wonder nor grudge to have his earthly mercies mixt with crosses and to find some salt or sowreness in the sawce of his pleasant dishes For the most luscious is not of best concoction And he that will more observe his few afflictions than his many benefits hath much more selfish tenderness of the flesh than ingenuous thankfulness to his benefactor It is for your good that Rulers are the Ministers of God Rom. 13. 3 4 5. Perhaps you will think it strange that I say to you what I have oft said that I think there are not very many Rulers no not Tyrants and persecutors so bad but that the Godly that live under them do receive from their Government more good than hurt and though it must be confest that better Governours would do better yet almost Dicunt Stoici sapientes non modo liberos este verum Reges cum sit Regnum imperium nemini obnoxium quod de sapientibus soliâ— asseritur Statuere eâ—im oportere principem de bonis malis haec autem malorum scire neminem Similiter ad Magistrarus judicia oratoriam solos illos idoneos neminemque malorum Laâ—rt in Zenone the worst are better than none And none are more beholden to God for Magistrates than the Godly are however none suffer so much by them in most places of the world My reason is 1. Because the multitude of the needy and the dissolute Prodigals if they were all ungoverned would tear out the throats of the more wealthy and industrious and as Robbers use men in their houses and on the high way so would such persons use all about them and turn all into a constant war And hereby all honest industry would be overthrown while the fruit of mens labours were all at the mercy of every one that is stronger than the owner and a robber can take away all a night which you have been labouring for many years or may set all on fire over your heads And more persons would be killed in these wars by those that sought their goods than Tyrants and persecutors use to kill unless they be of the most cruel sort of all 2. And it is plain that in most Countreys the universal enmity of corrupted nature to serious Godliness would inflame the rabble if they were but ungoverned to commit more murders and cruelties upon the Godly than most of the persecutors in the world have committed Yet I deny not that in most places there are a sober sort of men of the middle rank that will hear reason and are more equal to Religion than the Highest or the Lowest usually are But suppose these sober men were the more numerous yet is the vulgar rabble the more violent and if Rulers restrained them not would leave few of the faithful alive on earth As many volumes as are written of the Martyrs who have suffered by persecuters I think they saved the lives of many more than they murdered Though this is no thanks to them it is a mercy to others As many as Queen Mary Martyred they had been far more if She had but turned the rabble loose upon them and never meddled with them by Authority I do not think Nero or Dioclesian Martyred near so many as the people turned loose upon them would have done Much more was Iulian a protector of the Church from the popular rage though in comparison of a Constantine or Theodosius he was a plague If you will but consider thus the benefits of your common protection your thankfulness for Rulers would overcome your murmurings In some places and at some times perhaps the people would favour the Gospel and flock after Christ if Rulers hindered them not But that would not be the ordinary case and their unconstancy is so great that what they built up one day in their zeal the next day they would pull down in fury § 44. Direct 20. Think not that any change of the form of Government would cure that which is Direct 20. caused by the peoples sin or the common pravity of humane nature Some think they can contrive such Eam Rempublicam optimam dicunt Stoici quae sit mixta ex regno populari dominatu optimor umque potentia Laâ—rt in Zenone forms of Government as that Rulers shall be able to do no hurt But either they will disable them to do good or else their engine is but glass and will fail or break when it comes to execution Men that are themselves so bad and unhumbled as not to know how bad they are and how bad mankind is are still laying the blame upon the form of Government when any thing is amiss and think by a change to find a cure As if when an Army is infected with the Plague or composed of Cowards the change of the General or form of Government would prove a cure But if a Monarch be faulty in an Aristocracy you will but have many faulty Governours for one and in a Democracy a multitude of Tyrants § 45. Direct 21. Set your selves much more to study your Duty to your Governours than the duty Direct 21. of your Governours to you as knowing that both your temporal and eternal happiness dependeth much more upon your selves than upon them God doth not call you to study other mens duties so much as Bad people make bad Governours In most places the people are so willful and tenacious of their sinful customes that the best Rulers are not able to reform them Yea many a Ruler hath cast off his Government being wearyed with mutinous and obstinate people Plato would not meddle
and have Consciences still objecting something or other against their obedience and are so obstinate in their way as thinking it is for their salvation that all Ages and Nations have been fain to govern them by force as beasts which they have called persecution Answ. 1. There is no doctrine in the world so much for Love and Peace and Concord as the doctrine Answ. of Christ is What doth it so much urge and frequently inculcate What doth it contain but Love and peace from end to end Love is the sum and end of the Gospel and the fulfilling of the Law To Love God above all and our neighbours as our selves and to do as we would be done by is the Epitome of the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles 2. And therefore Christianity is only the occasion and not the Cause of the divisions of the earth It is mens blindness and passions and carnal interests rebelling against the Laws of God which is the make-bate of the world and filleth it with strife The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits It blesseth the peace-makers and the meek But it is the rebellious wisdom from beneath that is earthly sensual and devillish which causeth envy and strife and thereby confusion and every evil work Iam. 3. 15 16 17. Matth. 5. 6 7 8. So that the true genuine Christian is the best subject and peaceablest man on earth But seriousness is not enough to make a Christian A man may be passionately serious in an errour Understanding must lead and seriousness follow To be zealous in errour is not to be zealous in Christianity For the errour is contrary to Christian verity 3. As I said before it is a testimony of the excellency of Religion that it thus occasioneth contention Dogs and Swine do not contend for Crowns and Kingdoms nor for sumptuous houses or apparel nor do Infants trouble the world or themselves with Metaphysical or Logical or Mathematical disputes Ideots do not molest the World with Controversies nor fall thereby into Sects and parties Nor yet do wise and learned persons contend about chaff or dust or trifles But as excellent things are matter of search so are they matter of Controversie to the most excellent wits The hypocritical Christians that you speak of who make God and their salvation give place to the unjust commands of men are indeed no Christians as not taking Christ for their Soveraign Lord And it is not in any true honour of Magistracy that they are so ductile and will do any thing but it is for themselves and their carnal interest and when that interest requireth it they will betray their Governours as Infidels will do If you can reduce all the world to be Infants or Ideots or Bruits yea or Infidels they will then trouble the State with no contentions for Religion or matters of salvation But if the Governed must be bruitified what will the Governours be 4. All true Christians are agreed in the substance of their Religion There is no division among them about the necessary points of faith or duty Their agreement is far greater than their disagreement which is but about some smaller matters where differences are tolerable Therefore they may all be Governed without any such violence as you mention If the common Articles of faith and precepts of Christian duty be maintained then that is upheld which all agree in and Rulers will not find it needful to oppress every party or opinion save one among them that hold the common truths Wise and sober Christians lay not mens salvation upon every such Controversie nor do they hold or manage them unpeaceably to the wrong of Church or State nor with the violation of Charity peace or justice 5. Is there any of the Sciences which afford not matter of Controversie If the Laws of the Land did yield no matter of Controversie Lawyers and Judges would have less of that work than now they have And was there not greater diversity of Opinions and Worship among the Heathens than ever was among Christians What a multitude of sects of Philosophers and Religions had they And what a multitude of Gods had they to Worship And the number of them still increased as oft as the Senate pleased to make a God of the better sort of their Emperours when they were dead Indeed one Emperour of the Religion of some of these Objectors Heliogabalus bestir'd himself with all his power to have reduced all Religion to Unity that is he would have all the Worship brought to his God to whom he had been Priest Saith Lampridius in his life Dicebat Iudaeâ—rum Samaritanorum religiones Christianam devotionem illue transferendam c. And therefore he robbed and maimed and destroyed the other Gods id agens ne quis Romae Deus nisi Heliogabalus coleretur But Jactavit caput inter praecisos phanaticos genitalia sibi devinxit c. Lamprid. as the effect of his monstrous abominable filthiness of life was to be thrust into a privy killed and drag'd about the streets and drowned in Tybur so the effect of his desired Unity was to bring that one God or Temple into contempt whereto he would confine all Worship The differences among Christians are nothing in comparison of the differences among Heathens The truth is Religion is such an illustrious noble thing that diffentions about it like spots in the Moon are much more noted by the world than about any lower common matters Men may raise Controversies in Philosophy Physick Astronomy Chronologie and yet it maketh no such noise nor causeth much offence or hatred in the World But the Devil and corrupted nature have such an enmity against Religion that they are glad to pick any quarrel against it and blame it for the imperfections of all that learn it and should practise it As if Grammar should be accused for every errour or fault that the Boyes are guilty of in learning it Or the Law were to be accused for all the differences of Lawyers or contentions of the people or Physick were to be accused for all the differences or errours of Physicions or meat and drink were culpable because of mens excesses and diseases There is no doctrine nor practice in the World by which true Unity and Concord can be maintained but by seriousness in the true Religion And when all contention cometh for want of Religion it 's impudence to blame Religion for it which is the only cure If Rulers will protect all that agree in that which is justly to be called the Christian Religion both for doctrine and practice and about their small and tolerable differences will use no other violence but only to compell them to live in peace and to suppress the seditious and those that abuse and injure Government or one another they will find that Christianity tendeth not to divisions nor to the hindrance or disturbance of Government or
peace It is passion and pride and selfishness that doth this and not Religion Therefore let these and not Religion be restrained But if they will resolve to suffer none to live in peace but those that in every punctilio are all of one opinion they must have but one subject that is sincere in his Religion Euâ—apius saith of his Master Chrysâ—nthius that when Iulian had made him Primarium Pontificem totius illius ditionis in munere tamen suo non mâ—rose ac superbè se gessit junioribus urgendo haud gravis sicut plerique omnes in unum consenâ—ientes calidâ— ferventerque faciundum censebant neque Christianis molestus admodum quippe tanta erat morum in eo lenitas atque simplicitas ut per Lydiam prâ—pemodum ignorata fuerit sacrorum in pristinum restitutio Eo factum est ut cum priora aliter cecidissent nihil innovatum neque mutatio insignis accepta videretur sed praeter expectationem cuncta placide sopirentur Moderation in a Heathen was his benefit for no two will be in every thing of the same apprehension no more than of the same complexion and all the rest must be worldly hypocrites that while they are heartily true to no Religion will profess themselves of any Religion which will serve their present turns And these nominal Christians will be ready to betray their Rulers or do any mischief which their carnal interest requireth § 83. Obj. 5. What witness need we more than their own accusations of one another For the Papists Object 5. hâ—w many volumes have the Protestants written against them as enemies to all Civil Government alledging Vestra doctrina est nisi princeps vobis ex animo sit quâ—ntumvis legitimus haeres sit Regno excludi alium eligi posse Posse dixi immo oportâ—re Haec Clementina vestra fuit B. Andrews of the Papists Tort. Tort. p. 327. So p. 381 382. If others do but stand on their guard to keep their lives and Families from the bloody rage of their enemies seeking to put whole Towns and Provinces of them to the sword against all Law and Reason and to disturb the Kingdoms in the minority of the right Governours Or if they defend their ancient and Christian liberties covenanted and agreed on by those Princes to whom they first submitted themselves and ever since confirmed and allowed by the Kings thâ—t have succeeded If in either of these two cases the Godly require their right and offer no wrong impugn not their Princes but only save their own lives you cry Rebellious hereticks rebellious Calvinists furie phrensie mutinie and I know not what You may pursue depose and murder Princes when the Bishop of Rome biddeth you and that without breach of Duty Law or Conscience to God or man as you vaunt though neither life nor limbs of yours be touched We may not so much as beseech Princes that we may be used like subjects not like slaves like men not like beasts that we may be convented by Laws before Judges not murthered in corners by inquisitors We may not so much as hide our heads nor pull our necks out of the greedy jaws of that Romish Wolf but the foam of your unclean mouth is ready to call us by all the names you can devise So far Bilson even the Decrees of their General Councils as Later sub Innoc. 3. Can. 3. And for the Protestants they are as deeply charged by the Papists as you may see in The Image of both Churches and Philanax Anglicus and abundance more For Calvin and the Presbyterians and Puritans let the Prelates tell you how peaceable they are And the Papists and Puritans say that the Prelatists are of the same mind and only for their own ends pretend to greater loyalty than others There are no two among them more famous for defending Government than Hooker and Bilson And what Hooker saith for Popular power his first and eighth Books abundantly testifie And even B. Bilson himself defendeth the French and Germane Protestants Wars and you may judge of his loyal doctrine by these words Pag. 520. Of Christian subjection If a Prince should go about to subject his Kingdom to a forraign Realm or change the form of the Common-wealth from Impery to Tyranny or neglect the Laws established by common consent of Prince and people to excute his own pleasure In these and other cases which might be named if the Nobles and Commons joyn together to defend their ancient and accustomed liberty regiment and Laws they may not well be counted Rebels Answ. 1. If it be clear that Christianity as to its Principles is more for Love and Concord and Answ. Subjection than any other ratinoal doctrine in the world then if any sect of Christians shall indeed be found to contradict these principles so far they contradict Christianity And will you blame Religion because men contradict it or blame Christs doctrine because men disobey it Indeed every sect that hath something of its own to make it a sect besides Christian Religion which maketh men meer Christians may easily be guilty of such errour as will corrupt the Christian Religion And as a sect they have a divided interest which may tempt them to dividing principles But none more condemn such divisions than Christ. 2. And indeed though a Christian as such is a credible witness yet a sect or faction as such doth use to possess men with such an envious calumniating disposition that they are little to be believed when they accuse each other This factious zeal is not from above but is earthly sensual and devillish and therefore where this is no wonder if there be strife and false accusing and confusion and every evil work But as these are no competent witnesses so whether or no they are favoured by Christ you may judge if you will read but those three Chapters Matth. 5. Rom. 12. Iam. 3. I may say here as B. Bilson in the place which is accused pag. 521. IT IS EASIE FOR A RUNNING AND RANGING HEAD TO SIT AT HOME IN HIS CHAMBER AND CALL MEN REBELS HIMSELF BEING THE RANKEST 3. For the Papists I can justifie them from your accusation so far as they are Christians but as they are Papists let him justifie them that can Indeed Usurpation of Government is the very essence of Popery for which all other Christians blame them And therefore there is small reason that Christianity should be accused for them 4. And for the Protestants both Episcopal and Disciplinarians the sober and moderate of them speak of one another in no such language as you pretend For the Episcopal I know of none but railing Papists that accuse them universally of any doctrines of Rebellion And for the Practices of some particular men it is not to be alledged against their doctrine Do you think that Queen Elizabeth to whom B. Bilsons Book was Dedicated or K. Charles to whom Mr. Hookers Book was Dedicated took either of
the authority which he committed to their trust § 86. 3. The Christian Religion bindeth subjects to obedience upon sorer penalties than Magistrates can inflict even upon pain of Gods displeasure and everlasting damnation Rom. 13. 2 3. And how great a help this is to Government it is so easie to discern that the simpler sort of Atheists do perswade themselves that Kings devised Religion to keep people in obedience with the fears of Hell Take away the fears of the life to come and the punishment of God in Hell upon the wicked and the world will be turned into worse than a den of Serpents and wild beasts adulteries and murders and poysoning Kings and all abomination will be freely committed which wit or power can think to cover or bear out Who will trust that man that believeth not that God doth judge and punish § 87. 4. The Christian Religion doth encourage obedience and peace with the Promise of the Reward of endless happiness caeteris paribus Heaven is more than any Prince can give If that will not move men there is no greater thing to move them Atheism and Infidelity have no such motives § 88. 5. Christianity teacheth subjects to obey not only good Rulers but bad ones even Heathens themselves and not to resist when we cannot obey Whereas among Heathens Princes ruled no longer than they pleased the Souldiers or the people so that Lampridius marvelled that Heliogabalus was no sooner butchered but suffered to reign three years Mirum fortasse cuipiam videatur Constantine venerabilis quod haec clades quam retuli loco principum fuerit quidem propè trienio ita ut nemo inventus Cicero saith that every Good man was in his heart or as much as in him lay one that killed Caesar. fuerit qui istum à gubernaculis Romonanae majestatis abduceret cum Neroni Vitellio Caligulae caeterisque hujusmâ—di nunquam tyranniceda defuerit § 89. 6. Christianity and Godliness do not only restrain the outward acts but rule the very hearts and lay a charge upon the thoughts which the power of Princes cannot reach It forbiddeth to curse the King in our bed-chamber or to have a thought or desire of evil against him It quencheth the first sparks of disloyalty and disorder And the rule of the outward man followeth the ordering of the heart And therefore Atheism which leaveth the Heart free and open to all desires and designes of rebellion doth kindle that fire in the minds of men which Government cannot quench It corrupteth the fountain It breaketh the spring that should set all a going It poisoneth the heart of Common-wealths § 90. 7. Christianity and Godliness teach men Patience that it may not seem strange to them to bear the Cross and suffer injuries from high and low And therefore that Impatience which is 1 Pet. 4. 12. the beginning of all rebellion being repressed it stayeth the distemper from going any further § 91. 8. Christianity teacheth men self-denyal as a great part of their religion And when selfishness Luk. 14. 29 33. is mortified there is nothing left to be a principle of Rebellion against God or our superiors Selfishness is the very predominant principle of the ungodly It is only for themselves that they obey when they do obey No wonder therefore if the Author of Leviathan allow men to do any thing when the saving of themselves requireth it And so many selfish persons as there be in a Kingdom so many several Interests are first sought which for the most part stand cross to the Interests of others The Godly have all one common center They unite in God and therefore may be kept in concord For Gods will is a thing that may be fulfilled by all as well as one But the selfish and ungodly are every one his own Center and have no common center to unite in their interests being ordinarily cross and inconsistent § 92. 9. Christianity teacheth men by most effectual arguments so set light by the Riches and honours of the world and not to strive for superiority but to mind higher things and lay up our Ungebantur Reges non pet dominum sed qui caeteris crudeliores existerent paulo post ab unctoribus non pro veri examinatione trucidabantur aliis electis trucioribuâ— Gildas de exc Brit. treasure in a better world and to condescend to men of low degree It forbiddeth men to exalt themselves lest they be brought low and commandeth them to humble themselves that God may exalt them And he that knoweth not that Pride and Covetousness are the great disquieters of the world and the cause of contentions and the ruine of States knoweth nothing of these matters Therefore if it were but by the great urging of humility and heavenly mindedness and the strict condemning of Ambition and Earthly-mindedness Christianity and Godliness must needs be the greatest preservers of Government and of order peace and quietness in the World § 93. 10. Christianity teacheth men to live in the Love of God and man It maketh Love the very heart and life and sum and end of all other duties of Religion Faith it self is but the bellows to kindle in us the sacred flames of Love Love is the end of the Gospel and the fulfilling of the Law To Love all Saints with a special Love even with a pure heart and fervently and to Love all men heartily with a common love To love our Neighbour as our selves and to Love our very enemies this is the life which Christ requireth upon the penalty of damnation And if Love thus prevail what should disturb the Government peace or order of the world § 94. 11. Christianity teacheth men to be exact in Justice distributive and commutative and to do to others as we would they should do to us And where this is followed Kings and States will have little to molest them when Gens sine justitiâ est sine remige navis in undâ § 95. 12. Christianity teacheth men to do good to all men as far as we are able and to abound in good works as that for which we are Redeemed and new made And if men will set themselves wholly to do good and be hurtful and injurious to none how easie will it be to govern such § 96. 13. Christianity teacheth men to forbear and to forgive as ever they will be forgiven of Rom. 14 15. 1. God and the strong to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please themselves but one another to their edification Not to be censorious harsh or cruel nor to place the Kingdom of Gal. 6. 1 2 3 4. Jam â—3 15 16 17. Titus 3. 2. God in meats and drinks and dayes but in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost To bear one anothers burdens and to restore them with the Spirit of meekness that are overtaken in a fault and to be peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good
the Jews Instances of this desperate sin are innumerable There is no way so common by which Satan hath engaged the Rulers of the world against the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and against the Preachers of his Gospel and the people that obey him than by perswading them as Haman did Ahasuerus Esther 3. 8 9. There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the Provinces of thy Kingdom and their Laws are divers from all people neither keep they the Kings Laws therefore it is not for the Kings profit to suffer them if it please the King let it be written that they may be destroyed When once the Devil hath got men by error or sensuality to espouse an interest that Christ is against he hath half done his work For then he knoweth that Christ or his servants will never bend to the wills of sinners nor be reconciled to their wicked wayes nor take part with them in a sinful cause And then it is easie for Satan to perswade such men that these precise Preachers and people are their enemies and are against their interest and honour and that they are a turbulent seditious sort of people unfit to be governed because they will not be false to God nor take part with the Devil nor be friends to sin When once Nebuchadnezzar hath set up his golden Image he thinks he is obliged in honour to persecute them that will not bow down as refractory persons that obey not the King When Ieroboam is once engaged to set up his Calves he is presently engaged against those that are against them and that is against God and all his servants Therefore as Rulers love their souls let them take heed what cause and interest they espouse § 26. Direct 6. To Love your neighbours as your selves and do as you would be done by is the Direct 6. infallible means to avoid the guilt of persecution For Charity suffereth long and is kind it envieth not it is not easily provoked it thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth it beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things 1 Cor. 13. 4 5 6 7. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom 13. 10. And if it fulfill the Law it wrongeth no man When did you see a Man persecute himself imprison banish defame slander revile or put to death himself if he were well in his wits Never fear persecution from a man that Loveth his neighbour as himself and doth as he would be done by and is not selfish and uncharitable § 27. Direct 7. Pride also must be subdued if you would not be persecutors For a proud man Direct 7. cannot endure to have his word disobeyed though it contradict the Word of God Nor can he endure to be reproved by the Preachers of the Gospel but will do as Herod with Iohn Baptist or as Asa or Amaziah by the Prophets Till the soul be humbled it will not bear the sharp remedies which our Saviour hath prescribed but will persecute him that would administer them § 28. Direct 8. Passion must be subdued and the mind kept calm if you would avoid the guilt of Direct 8. persecution Asa was in a rage when he imprisoned the Prophet A fit work for a raging man And Nebuchadnezzar was in a rage and fury when he commanded the punishment of the three witnesses Dan. 3. 13. The wrath of man worketh not the will of God Iames 1. 20. The nature of wrathfulness tendeth to hurting those you are angry with And wrath is impatient and unjust and will not hear what men 〈…〉 say but rashly passeth unrighteous sentence And it blindeth Reason so that it cannot see the truth § 29. Direct 9. And hearkning to malitious backbiters and slanderers and favouring the enemies Direct 9. of Godliness in their calumnies will engage men in persecution ere they are aware For when the wicked are in the favour and at the ear of Rulers they have opportunity to vent those false reports which they never want a will to vent And any thing may be said of men behind their backs with an appearance of truth when there is none to contradict it If Haman may be heard the Jews shall be destroyed as not being for the Kings profit nor obedient to his Laws If Sanballat and Tobiah may be heard the building of the Walls of Ierusalem shall signifie no better than an intended rebellion They are true words though to some ungrateful which are spoken by the Holy Ghost Prov. 29. 12. If a Ruler hearken to lyes all his servants are wicked for they will soon accommodate themselves to so vitious a humour Prov. 25. 4 5. Take away the dross from the silver and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer Take away the wicked from before the King and his Throne shall be established in righteousness If the Devil might be believed Iob was one that served God for gain and might have been made to curse him to his face And if his servants may be believed there is nothing so vile which the best men are not guilty of § 30. Direct 10. Take heed of engaging your selves in a Sect or Faction For when once you depart Direct 10. from Catholick Charity there groweth up instead of it a partial respect to the interest of that Sect to which you joyn And you will think that whatsoever doth promote that Sect doth promote Christianity and what ever is against that Sect is against the Church or cause of God A narrow Sectarian separating mind will make all the truths of God give place to the opinions of his party and will measure the prosperity of the Gospel in the world by the prosperity of his party as if he had forgot that there are any more men on the face of the earth or thought God regarded none but them He will not stick to persecute all the rest of the Church of Christ if the interest of his Sect require it When once men incorporate themselves into a party it possesseth them with another spirit even with a strange uncharitableness injustice cruelty and partiality What hath the Christian world suffered by one Sects persecuting another and faction rising up in fury to maintain its own interest as if it had been to maintain the being of all Religion The blood-thirsty Papists whose Inquisition Massacres and manifold murders have filled the earth with the blood of innocents is a sufficient testimony of this And still here among us they seem as thirsty of blood as ever and tell us to our faces that they would soon make an end of us if we were in their power As if the two hundred thousand lately murdered in so short a time in Ireland had rather irritated than quencht their thirst And all faction naturally tendeth to persecution Own not therefore any dividing opinions or names Maintain the Unity of the
Body of Christ not of the body of the Pope Let Christian and Catholick be all your titles as to your Religion Mark those that cause divisions and offences and avoid them Rom. 16. 17. § 31. Direct 11. To this end Overvalue not any private or singular opinions of your own or Direct 11. others For if once spiritual pride and ignorance of your own weakness hath made you espouse some particular opinion as peculiarly your own you will dote on the brats of your own brains and will think your conceits to be far more illuminating and necessary than indeed they are as if mens sincerity lay in the embracing of them and their salvation on the receiving of them And then you will make a party for your opinion and will think all that are against it deserve to be cast out as enemies to reformation or to the truth of God or to the Church And perhaps twenty years after experience may bring you to your wits and make you see either the falshood or the smalness of all those points which you made so great a matter of and then what comfort will you have in your persecutions § 32. Direct 12. Obey not the solicitations of selfish passionate disputers Bishops and Divines falling Direct 12. out among themselves and then drawing Princes to own their quarrels when they find their arguments will not serve hath been the distraction division and ruine of the Christian world And he that falleth in with one of the parties to bear out that by the ruines of the other is lost himself in their contentions Would Rulers let wrangling Bishops and Disputers alone and never lend them their Swords to end their differences unless the substance of Religion be endangered they would be weary of quarrelling and would chide themselves friends and no such tragical consequents would follow as do when the Sword interposeth to suppress the discountenanced party and to end their Syllogisms and wranglings in blood § 33. Direct 13. Take heed lest an uncharitable hurting spirit do prevail under the name of holy Direct 13. Zeal As it did with Iames and Iohn when they would have fire from Heaven to have revenged the contempt of their Ministry To whom Christ saith Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of Luke 9. 55. The difference between a Christian zeal and an envious contentious censorious hurtful zeal is excellently described by the Apostle Iames Chap. 3. throughout Where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good works without partiality and hypocrisie § 34. Direct 14. The Catholick Church and Particular Churches and our Communion with each Direct 14. must be distinguished and a man must not be cast out of our Catholick Communion because by some tolerable difference he is uncapabable of Communion with some particular Church If a man be impenitent in any Heresie or sin which is contrary to the common nature of Christianity or Godliness and so unfit for Catholick Communion he is to be cast out of Christian Communion But if some particular Church do impose any unnecessary doctrine or practice and he dare not approve it or joyn in it be it right or wrong yea or if he withdraw himself from one Church through the badness of the Minister or through any falling out between them and joyn to another that hath a Minister more suitable to his case these are not crimes to be punished with ejection from Catholick Communion He that is not fit for Communion with some one particular Church may be fit for Communion with many others that give him no such occasion of difference or distaste Without Catholick principles persecution will not be avoided § 35. Direct 15. Let Church Union and Communion be laid upon none but Catholick terms which Direct 15. are possible and fit for all to be agreed in Common Reason will tell any impartial man that there See my Treatise of A True Catholick and Cath. Church can be no more effectual engine to divide the Churches and raise contentions and persecutions than to make Laws for Church-communion requiring such conditions as it is certain the members cannot consent to If any man knew that my opinion is against the doctrine of Transubstantiation or of the Dominicans Predetermination and he would make a Law that no man shall have Communion with that Church who subscribeth not to these he unavoidably excludeth me Unless I be such a Beast as to Believe nothing soundly and therefore to say any thing If ever the Churches agree and Christians be reconciled it must be by leaving out all dividing impositions and requiring nothing as necessary to Communion which all may not rationally be expected to consent in Now these Catholick principles of Communion must be such as these 1. Such points of faith only as constitute Christianity and which every upright Christian holdeth and therefore only such as are contained in our Baptismal Covenant or Profession which maketh us Christians And not those other which only some stronger Christians believe or understand Because the weak are not to be cast out of the family of Christ. 2. Such points as the Primitive Churches did agree in and not innovations which they never Sâ—e Viâ—cent Lâ—â—iaens practised or agreed in For they are our pattern and were better than we and no more can be necessary to our Concord and Communion than was to theirs 3. Such points as all the Church hath sometime or other at least agreed in For what reason can we have to think that the Churches should now agree in that which they never hitherto agreed in 4. Such points as all the true Christians in the world are now agreed in For otherwise we shall exclude some true Christians from our Christian Communion 5. No points of Worship much less of Modes and Circumstances which are not necessary and more necessary to the Churches good than is the Communion of all those persons who by dissenting are like to be separated or cast out and whose omission would not do more hurt than this separation and division is like to do 6. Especially no such things must be made necessary to communion as the most conscientious are ordinarily fearful of and averse to and may be forborn without any great detriment to godliness § 36. Object But it will be said that Catholick Communion indeed requireth no more than you say Object But particular Churches may require more of their members For that may be necessary or fit for a member of this particular Church which is not to at all Answ. Catholick Communion is that which all Christians and Churches have with one another and the terms of it are such as all Christians may agree in Catholick Communion is principally existent and exercised in particular Churches as there is no existent Christianity or faith which existeth not in
in opinion in matters of Religion they are presently enclined to deride them for something in their Worshipping of God! And while they deride a man as an Anabaptist as an Independant as a Presbyterian as Prelatical they little know what a malignant tincture it may leave upon the hearers mind and teach carnal persons to make a jeast of all alike § 37. Direct 15. Impute not the faults of men to Christ and blame not Religion for the faults of Direct 15. them that sin against it This is the malignant trick of Satan and his blinded instruments If an Hypocrite miscarry or if a man that in all things else hath walked uprightly be overthrown by a temptation in some odious sin they presently cry out These are your Professours your Religious people that are so precise and pure and strict Try them and they 'll appear as bad as others If a Noah be once drunk or a Lot be overthrown thereby or a David commit adultery and murder or a Peter deny his Master or a Iudas betray him they presently cry out They are all alike and turn it to the scorn of Godliness it self Unworthy beasts As if Christs Laws were therefore to be scorned because men break them and Obedience to God were bad because some are disobedient Hath Christ forbidden the sins which you blame or hath he not If he have not blame them not for they are no sins If he have commend the justness and holiness of his Laws Either the offenders you blame did well or ill If they did well why do you blame them If they did ill why do you not commend Religion and the Scripture which condemneth them Either it is best for all men to live in such sins as those which these lapsed persons or hypocrites committed or it is not If it be why are you offended with them for that which you allow If it be not why do you sooth up the wicked in their sins and excuse an ungodly life because of the falls of such as seem Religious There is no common ingenuity in this but malicious spite against God and holiness of which more in the next Chapter § 38. Direct 16. Make not use of Civil quarrels to lay an odium upon religion It is ordinary with Direct 16. ungodly malicious men to labour to turn the displeasure of Rulers against men of integrity and if there be any broiles or Civil Wars to snatch any pretence how false soever to call them Traytors and Enemies to Government If it be but because they are against a Usurper or because some Fanatick persons whom they oppose have behaved themselves rebelliously or disobediently a holy life which is the greatest friend to Loyalty must be blamed for all And all is but to gratifie the Devil in driving poor souls from God and holiness § 39. Direct 17. When you think it your duty to speak of the faults of men that profess a Godly life Direct 17. lay the blame only on the person but speak as much and more in commendations of Godliness it self and commend that which is good in them while you discommend that which is evil Is their Praying bad Is their instructing their families and sanctifying the Lords day bad Is their fearing sin and obeying God bad If not why do you not say as much to commend them for these or at least to commend these in themselves as you do to discommend them for their faults Why do you not fear lest the hearers should be drawn to dislike a Godly life by your disgracing persons accounted Godly and therefore warn them to think never the worse of Godliness for this You that give the poyson should in reason give an Antidote if it be not your design to poyson souls Is it really your design by speaking against men accounted Godly to draw the hearers to the hatred of Godliness or is it not If it be you are incarnate Devils If it be not why do you endeavour it by making odious the persons under the name of Professâ—urs and Godly men And why do you not speak more to draw people to a Godly life And to imitate them in that which is good while they disclaim them in that which is evil Direct 18. § 40. Direct 18. Be especially tender of the reputations of those that the souls of men have most dependance Iâ—a comparatum est ut virtutem non suspiciâ—mus neque ejus imitandae studio corripimur nisi eum in quo ea conspicitur summo honore amore prosequamur Plutar. in Cat. Uâ—ic on As the Preachers of the Gospel and the eminentest men for Knowledge and Religiousness Not that I desire that sin should be the better thought of for being theirs or that evil should be called good in any But experience hath told the World since God and the Devil had their several wayes and servants upon earth that it hath been the Devils most usual successful course to wound Religion through the sides of the Religious and to blame the persons when he would turn men from the way For he knoweth that Religious persons have their faults and in them his malice may find somewhat to fasten on but Religion hath no fault and malice it self is seldome so impudent as to speak directly against a Holy Heavenly life But the way is to make those disgraceful and odious who are noted to lead such a life and then secretly to infer If those that seem Godly be no better you need not be Godly you are as well as you are This Religion is but a fansie a needless if not a troublesome hurtful thing Seeing therefore that the Devil hath no blow at Religion so fair as by striking at the persons of the Preachers and professours of it every friend of Christ must be acquainted with his design and must not serve him in it but counterwork him and preserve the reputation even of the persons of the Religious Not so much in Charity to them but for the peoples souls and the honour of Christ. § 41. Direct 19. Let all that preach and profess the Gospel and a Godly life be sure that they live Direct 19. according to their profession That the name of God be not evil spoken of among the wicked through their misdoings Rom. 2. It was the aggravation of Davids sin which God would not quite forgive that he made the enemies of the Lord blaspheam 2 Sam. 12. 14. Servants must count their masters worthy of all honour that the name of God and his doctrine be not blaspheamed 1 Tim. 6. 1. The duties Rom. 2. 24. of good women are particularly named by the Apostle Tit. 2. 3 4 5. with this motive to the practice of them that the word of God be not blaspheamed Obedience to Government is commanded with this motive 1 Pet. 2. 15. For so is the will of God that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men And vers 11
and that all strict Religion is but hypocrisie or at least to refuse their help and counsels Even Plutark noted that It so comes to pass that we entertain not virtue nor are â—apt into a desire of imitating it unless we highly honour and love the person in whom it is discerned And if they see or think the Preacher to be himself of a loose and careless and licentious life they will think that the like is very excusable in themselves and that his doctrine is but a form of speech which his office bindeth him to say but is no more to be regarded by them than by himself Two wayes is mens damnation thus promoted 1. By the ill lives of hypocritical ungodly preachers who actually bring their own persons into disgrace and thereby also the persons of others and consequently their sacred work and function 2. By wicked Preachers and people who through a malignant hatred of those that are abler and better than themselves and an envy of their reputation do labour to make the most zealous and faithful Preachers of the Gospel to be thought to be the most hypocritical or erroneous or factious and schismatical § 5. 5. The neglect of Ministerial duties is a common cause of sin and of mens damnation When they that take the charge of souls are either unable or unwilling to do their office when they teach them too seldome or too unskilfully in an unsuitable manner not choosing that doctrine which they most need or not opening it plainly and methodically in a fitness to their capacities or not applying it with necessary seriousness and urgency to the hearers state When men preach to the ungodly who are neer to damnation in a formal pase like a School-boy saying his lesson or in a drowsie reading tone as if they came to preach them all asleep or were afraid of wakening them When they speak of sin and misery and Christ of Heaven and Hell as if by the manner they came to contradict the matter and to perswade men that there are no such things The same mischief followeth the neglect of private personal inspection When Ministers think that they have done all when they have said a Sermon and never make conscience of labouring personally to convince the ungodly and reclaim offenders and draw sinners to God and confirm the weak And the omission much more the perversion and abuse of sacred Discipline hath the like effects When the Keys of the Church are used to shut out the good or not used when they ought to rebuke or to shut out the impenitent wicked ones nor to difference between the precious and the vile it hardeneth multitudes in their ungodliness and perswadeth them that they are really of the same family of Christ as the Godly are and have their sins forgiven because they are partakers of the same Holy Sacraments Not knowing the difference between the Church mystical and visible nor between the judgement of ministers and of Christ himself § 6. 6. Parents neglect of instructing Children and other parts of holy education is one of the greatest causes of the perdition of mankind in all the World But of this elsewhere § 7. 7. Magistrates persecution or opposition to Religion or discountenancing those that preach it or most seriously practise it tendeth to deceive some who over-reverence the judgement of superiours and to affright others from the obedience of God § 8. 8. Yea the negligence of Magistrates Masters and other Superiours omitting the due rebuke of sinners and due correction of the offenders and the due encouragement of the good is a great cause of the wickedness and damnation of the World § 9. 9. But above all when they make Laws for sin or for the contempt or dishonour or suppression of Religion or the serious practice of it this buildeth up Satans Kingdom most effectually and turneth Gods Ordinance against himself Thousands under Infidel and ungodly Princes are conducted by Obedience to damnation and their Rulers damn them as honourably as the Physicion kill'd his Patients who boasted that he did it secundum artem according to the rules of art § 10. 10. The vulgar example of the multitude of the ungodly is a great cause of mens impiety and damnation They must be well resolved for God and holiness who will not yield to the major Vote nor be carryed down the common stream nor run with the rabble to excess of ryot When Christianity is a Sect which is every where spoken against it proveth so narrow a way that Act. 2. 8. few have a mind to walk in it Men think that they are at least excusable for not being wiser and better than the multitude Singularity in honour or riches or strength or health is accounted no crime but singularity in godliness is at least thought unnecessary What! will you be wiser than all the Town or than such and such superiours is thought a good reprehension of Godliness where it is rare Even by them who hereby conclude their superiours or all the Town to be wiser than God § 11. 11. Also the vulgars scorning and deriding Godliness is a common cause of Murdering souls Because the Devil knoweth that there cannot one Word of solid Reason be brought against the Reason of God and so against a Holy life he therefore teacheth men to use such weapons as they have A Dog hath teeth and an Adder hath a sting though they have not the Weapons of a man A fool can laugh and jeer and rail and there is no great wit or learning necessary to smile or grin or call a man a Puritan or precisian or Heretick or Schismatick or any name which the malice of the age shall newly coin Mr. Robert Bolton largely sheweth how much the malignity of his age did vent it self against Godliness by the reproachful use of the word Puritan When Reason can be bribed to take the Devils part either natural or literate reason he will hire it at any rate But when it cannot he will make use of such as he can get Barking or hissing may serve turn where talking and disputing cannot be procured Drum and Trumpets in an Army serve the turn instead of Oratory to animate cowards and drown the noise of dying mens complaints and groans Thousands have been mocked out of their Religion and salvation at once and jeered into Hell who now know whether a scorn or the fire of Hell be the greater suffering As Tyrants think that the Greatest and Ablest and wisest men must either be drawn over to their party or destroyed so the Tyrant of Hell who ruleth in the Children of disobedience doth think that if Reason Learning and wit cannot be hired to dispute for him against God they are to be suppressed silenced and disgraced which the noise of rude clamours and foolish jeers is fit enough to perform § 12. 12. Also idle sensless prating against Religion as a needless thing doth serve turn to deceive the simple Ignorant people
5. The subtilty of Satan and his instruments in tempting 6. The weakness and unconstancy of man that hath need of constant solicitation 7. The want of holy faithful Pastors which maketh private mens diligence the more necessary And in such necessity to shut up our mouths is to shut up the bowels of our compassion when we see our brothers need And how then doth the Love of God dwell in us 1 Ioh. 3. 17. To withhold our exhortation is as the withholding of Corn from the poor in a time of famine which procureth a Curse Prov. 11. 26. And though in this case men are insensible of their want and take it not ill to be past by yet Christ that dyed for them will take it ill § 20. Mot. 20. Lastly consider how short a time you are like to speak and how long you must be silent Death will quickly stop your breath and lay you in the dark and tell you that all your opportunities are at an end Speak now for you have not long to speak Your Neighbours lives are hasting to an end and so are yours They are dying and must hear no more till they hear their doom and you are dying and must speak no more And they will be lost for ever if they have not help Pity them then and call on them to foresee the final day Warm them now for it must be now or never There is no instructing or admonishing in the grave Those sculls which you see cast up had once tongues which should have praised their Creator and Redeemer and have helpt to save each others souls but now they are tongueless It is a great grief to us that are now here silenced that we used not our Ministry more laboriously and zealously while we had time And will it not be so with you when death shall silence you that you spake not for God while you had a tongue to speak Let all these Considerations stir up all that God hath taught a holy language to use it for their Masters service while they may and to repent of sinful silence Tit. 2. Directions for Christian Conference and Edifying speech § 1. Direct 1. THE most necessary direction for a fruitful tongue is to get a well-furnished Direct 1. mind and a holy heart and to walk with God in holiness your selves For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak That which you are fullest of is readiest to come forth 1. Spare for no study or labour to get understanding in the things of God It is a weariness to hear men talk foolishly of any thing but no where so much as about Divine and Heavenly things A wise Christian instructed to the Kingdom of God hath a treasury in his mind out of which he can bring forth things new and old Mat. 13. 52. Prov. 14. 7. Go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge 2. Get all that holiness in your selves to which you would perswade another There is a strange communicating power in the course of nature for every thing to produce its like Learning and good utterance is very helpful But it is holiness that is aptest to beget holiness in others Words which proceed from the Love of God and a truly Heavenly mind do most powerfully tend to breed in others that Love of God and Heavenly-mindedness 3. Live in the practice of that which you would draw your Neighbour to practice A man that cometh warm from holy meditation or fervent prayer doth bring upon his heart a fulness of matter and an earnest desire and a fitness to communicate that good to others which he himself hath felt § 2. Direct 2. Especially see that you soundly Believe your selves what you are to speak to others Direct 2. He that hath secret infidelity at his heart and is himself unsatisfied whether there be a Heaven and Hell and whether sin be so bad and holiness so necessary as the Scripture speaks will speak but heartlesly of them to another But if we believe these things as if we saw them with our eyes how heartily shall we discourse of them § 3. Direct 3. Keep a compassionate sense of the misery of ignorant ungodly impenitent souls Direct 3. Think what a miserable bondage of darkness and sensuality they are in and that it is light that must recover them Think oft how quickly they must dye and what an appearance they must make before the Lord and how miserable they must be for ever if now they be not convinced and sanctified And sure this will stir up your bowels to pity them and make you speak § 4. Direct 4. Subdue foolish shame or bashfulness and get a holy fortitude of mind Remember Direct 4. what a sin it is to be ashamed of such a master and such a cause and work which all would be glad to own at last And that when the wicked are not ashamed of the service of the Devil and the basest works And remember that threatning Mark 8. 38. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the holy Angels § 5. Direct 5. Be alwayes furnished with those particular truths which may be most useful in this Direct 5. service Study to do your work in your degree as Ministers study to do theirs Who are not contented with the habitual furniture of their minds but they also make particular prepartions for their particular work If you are to go into the field to your labour you will take those tools with you by which it must be done so do when you go abroad among any that you may do good to and be not unfurnished for edifying discourse § 6. Direct 6. Speak most of the greatest things the folly of sin the vanity of the World the Direct 6. certainty and neerness of death and judgement the overwhelming weight of Eternity the necessity of Holiness the work of Redemption c. and choose not the smaller matters of Religion to spend your time upon unless upon some special reason Among good men that will not lose their time on vanity the Devil too oft prevaileth to make them lose it by such religious conference as is little to edification that greater matters may be thereby thrust out such as Paul calleth vain janglings and doting about questions which engender strife and not Godly edifying As about their several opinions or parties or comparing one Preacher or person with another or such things as tend but little to make the hearers more wise or holy or Heavenly § 7. Direct 7. Suit all your discourse to the quality of your Auditors That which is best in it self Direct 7. may not be best for every hearer You must vary both your subject and manner of discourse 1. According to the variety of mens
tempted to Popery or Infidelity In some Countreys they learn to drink Wine instead of Beer and arising from the smaller sort to the stronger if they turn not drunkards they contract that appetite to Wine and strong drink which shall prove as Clemens Alexandrinus calleth gluttony and tipling a Throat-madness and a Belly-devil and keep them in the sin of gulosity all their dayes And in some Countreys they shall learn the art of Gluttony to pamper their guts in curious costly uncouth fashions and to dress themselves in novel fantastical garbs and to make a business of adorning themselves and setting themselves forth with proud and procacious fancies and affections to be lookt upon as comely persons to the eyes of others In some Countreys they shall learn to waste their precious hours in Stage-playes and vain spectacles and ceremonious attendances and visits and to equalize their life with death and to live to less use and benefit to the world than the Horse that carryeth them In most Countreys they shall learn either to prate against Godliness as the humour of a few melancholy fools and be wiser than to believe God or obey him or be saved or at least to grow indifferent and cold in holy affections and practices For when they shall see Papists and Protestants Lutherans and Calvinists of contrary minds and hear them reproaching and condemning one another this cooleth their zeal to all Religion as seeming but a matter of uncertainty and contention And when also they see how the wise and holy are made a scorn in one Countrey as Bigots and Hugonots and how the Protestants are drunkards and worldlings in another Countrey and how few in the world have any true sense and savour of sound and practical Religion and of a truly holy and heavenly life as those few they are seldome so happy as to converse with this first accustometh themselves to a neglect of holiness and then draweth their minds to a more low indifferent opinion of it and to think it unnecessary to salvation For they will not believe that so few shall be saved as they find to be holy in the world And then they grow to think it but a fancy and a troubler of the world And it addeth to their temptation that they are obliged by the carnal ends which drew them out Read Bishop Halls Quo Vadis on this subject to be in the worst and most dangerous company and places that is at Princes Courts and among the splendid gallantry of the world For it is the fashions of the Great ones which they must see and of which when they come home they must be able to discourse So that they must travel to the Pesthouses of pomp and lust of idleness gluâ—â—ony drunkenness and pride of Atheism irreligiousness and impiety that they may be able to glory what acquaintance they have got of the grandeur and gallantry of the Suburbs of Hell that they may represent the way to damnation delectable and honourable to others as well as to themselves But the greatest danger is of corrupting their Intellectuals by converse with deceivers where they come either Infidels or jugling Iesuits and Fryars For when these are purposely trained up to deceive how easie is it for them to silence raw unfurnished Novices yea even where all their five senses must be captivated in the doctrine of Transubstantiation And when they are silenced they must yield or at least they have deluding stories enough of the Antiquity Universality Infallibility Unity of their Church with a multitude of lyes of Luther Calvin Zuinglius and other Reformers to turn their hearts and make them yield But yet that they may be capable of doing them the more service they are instructed for a time to dissemble their perversion and to serve the Roman Pride and Faction in a Protestant garb and name Especially when they come to Rome and see its glory and the monuments of antiquity and are alluned with their splendour and civilities and made believe that all the reports of their Inquisitions and cruelties are false this furthereth the fascination of unexperienced youths 2. And usually all this while the most of them lay by all serious studies and all constant employment and make Idleness and Converse with the Idle or with Tempters to be their daily work And what a mind is like to come to which is but one half year or twelvemonth accustomed to idleness and vain spectacles and to a pleasing converse with idle and luxurious persons it is easie for a man of any acquaintance with the world or with humane nature to conjecture 3. And they go forth in notable peril of their health or lives Some fall into Feavors and dye by change of air and drinks Some fall into quarrels in Taverns or about their Whores and are murdered Some few prove so steadfast against all the temptations of the Papists that it is thought conducible to the holy cause that they should be killed in pretence of some quarrel or be poysoned Some by drinking Wine do contract such sickness as makes their lives uncomfortable to the last And the brains of many are so heated by it that they fall mad 4. And all this danger is principally founded in the quality of the persons sent to travel which Peregrinaâ—io â—evia taedâ—a quaedam animorum veâ—uâ—i nause as toâ—â—â—â—t Non tollâ—t mâ—rbos quâ— altiuâ— penetrarunt quam â—t externa ulla m dicina huc pâ—râ— ngâ—t Id. eb are ordinarily empty Lads between eighteen and twenty four years of age which is the time of the Devils chief advantage when naturally they are proâ—e to those Vices which prove the ruine of the most though you take the greatest care of them that you can 1. Their lust is then in the highest and most untamed rage 2. Their appetites to pleasing meats and drinks are then strongest 3. Their frolick inclinations to sports and recreations are then greatest 4. And ignorant and procacious Pride beginneth then to stir 5. All things that are most Vile and Vain are then apt to seem excellent to them by reason of the novelty of the matter as to them who never saw such things before and by reason of the false esteem of those carnal persons to whose pomp and consequently to whose judgement they would be conformed 6. And they are at that age exceedingly inclined to think all their own apprehensions to be right and to be very confident of their own conceptions and wise in their own eyes Because their juvenile intellect being then in the most affecting activity it seemeth still clear and sure to them because it so much affects themselves 7. But above all they are yet unfurnished of almost all that solid wisdome and setled holiness and large experience which is most necessary to their improvement of their travels and to their resistance of all these temptations Alas how few of them are able to deal with a Jesuite or hold fast their Religion against
nature of Carnal-selfishness and it is no better § 4. 3. SELFISHNESSE is the corruption of all the faculties of the soul. It is the sin of the mind by self-conceitedness and pride It is the sin of the will and affections by self-love and all the selfish passions which attend it Selfish desires angers sorrows discontents jealousies fears audacities c. It is the corruption of all the inferiour faculties and the whole conversation by self-seeking and all the forementioned evils § 5. 4. Selfishness is the commonest sin in the world Every man is now born with it and hath it more or less And therefore every man should fear it § 6. 5. Selfishness is the hardest sin in the world to overcome In all the unregenerate it is predominant For nothing but the sanctifying Spirit of God can overcome it And in many thousands that seem very zealous in Religion and very mortified in all other respects yet in some way or other selfishness doth so lamentably appear yea and is so strong in many that are sincere that it is the greatest dishonour to the Church of Christ and hath tempted many to infidelity or to doubt whether there be any such thing as true sanctification in the world The persons that seemed the most mortified Saints if you do but cross them in their self-interest or opinion or will or seem to slight them and have a low esteem of them what swellings what heart-burnings what bitter censurings what proud impatience if not Schisms and separations will it cause God hath better servants but too many which seem to themselves and others to be the best are no better How then should every Christian abhor and watch against this Universal Evil § 7. Direct 2. Consider oft how amiable a creature man would be and what a blessed condition the Direct 2. world and all societies would be in if selfishness were but overcome There would then â—e no pride no covetousness no sensuality no tyranny or oppressing of the poor no malice cruelty or persecution no Church-divisions no scandals nothing to dishonour Religion or to hinder the saving progress of the Gospel no fraud or treacheries no over-reaching or abusing others no lying noâ— deceit no neglect of our duty to others In a word no injustice or uncharitableness in the world § 8. Direct 3. Iudge of good and evil by sober Reason and not by bruitish sense And then oft Direct 3. consider whether really there be not a more excellent end than your self ish interest Even the publick good of many and the pleasing and glorifying of God And whether all mediate good or evil should not be judged of principally by those highest ends Sense leadeth men to selfishness and privateness of design But true Reason leadeth men to prefer the publick or any thing that is better than our self-interest § 9. Direct 4. Nothing but returning by converting Grace to the true Love of God and of Man for Direct 4. his sake will conquer selfishness Make out therefore by earnest prayer for the Spirit of Sanctification And be sure that you have a true apprehension of the state of Grace that is that it is indeed The Love of God and Man Love is the fulfilling of the Law Therefore Love is the Holiness of the soul Set your whole study upon the exercise and increase of Love and selfishness will dye as Love reviveth § 10. Direct 5. Study much the self-denying example and precepts of your Saviour His life and Direct 5. doctrine are the liveliest representation of self-denyal that ever was given to the World Learn Christ and you will learn self-denyal He had no sinful selfishness to mortifie yet natural-self was so wonderfully denyed by him for his Fathers Will and our Salvation that no other Book or Teacher in the world will teach us this lesson so perfectly as he Follow him from the Manger or rather from the Womb to the Cross and Grave Behold him in his poverty and contempt enduring the contradiction and ingratitude of sinners and making himself of no reputation Behold him apprehended accused condemned crowned with thorns clothed in purple with a reed in his hand scourged and led away to execution bearing his Cross and hanged up among Thieves forsaken by his own Disciples and all the world and in part by him who is more than all the world And consider why all this was done For whom he did it and what lesson he purposed hereby to teach us Consider why he made it one half the condition of our salvation and so great a part of the Christian Religion to Deny our selves and take up our Cross and follow him and will have no other to be his Disciples Luke 14. 26 31 33. Were a Crucified Christ more of our daily study and did we make it our Religion to learn and follow his holy example self-denyal would be better known and practised and Christianity would appear as it is and not as it is misunderstood adulterated and abused in the world But because I have long ago written a Treatise of Self-denyal I shall add no more CHAP. XXVII Cases and Directions for Loving our Neighbour as our selves Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Loving our Neighbour Quest. 1. IN what sense is it that I must love my neighbour as my self Whether in the kind of Quest. 1. love or in the degree or only in the reality Answ. The true meaning of the Text is You must love him according to his true worth without the diversion and hinderance of selfishness and partiality As you must love your self according to that degree of Goodness which is in you and no more so must you as impartially love your neighbour according to that degree of Goodness which is in him So that it truly extendeth to the reality the kind and the degree of love supposing it in both proportioned to the goodness of the object But before this can be understood the true nature of Love must be well understood Quest. 2. What is the true Nature of Love both as to my self and neighbour Quest. 2. Answ. Love is nothing but the prime motion of the Will to its proper object which is called Complacence The object of it is simple Goodness or Good as such It ariseth from suitableness between the Object and the Will as appetite doth from the suitableness of the appetent faculty and the food This GOOD as it is variously modified or any way differeth doth accordingly cause or require a difference in our Love Therefore that Love which in its prime act and nature is but one is diversly denominated as its objects are diversified To an object as simply Good in it self it followeth the Understandings Estimation and is called as I said meer Complacence or Adhesion To an Object as not yet attained but absent or distant and attainable it is called Desire or Desiring Love And as expected Hope or Hoping Love which is a conjunction of Desire
your selves their Riches their health their Honours their Lordships their Kingdoms yea more their knowledge and learning and grace and happiness are partly to you as your own As the comforts of Wife and Children and your dearest friends are And as our Love to Christ and the blessed Angels and Saints in Heaven doth make their joyes to be partly ours How excellent and easie and honest a way is this of making all the world your own and receiving that benefit and pleasure from all things both in Heaven and Earth which no distance no malice of enemies can deny you If those whom you truly Love have it you have it Why then do you complain that you have no more health or wealth or honour or that others are preferred before you Love your neighbours as your selves and then you will be comforted in his health his wealth and his preferment and say Those have it whom I love as my self and therefore it is to me as mine own When you see your neighbours Houses Pastures Corn and Cattle Love will make it as good and pleasant to you as if it were your own Why else do you rejoyce in the portions and estates of your children as if it were your own The covetous man saith O how glad should I be if this House this Land this Corn were mine But love will make you say It is all to me as mine own What a sure and cheap way is this of making all the world your own O what a mercy doth God bestow on his servants souls in the day that he sanctifieth them with unfeigned love How much doth he give us in that one grace And O what a world of blessing and comforts do the ungodly the malitious the selfish and the censorious cast away when they cast away or quench the love of their neighbours And what abundance of calamity do they bring upon themselves In this one summary instance we may see how much Religion and obedience to God doth tend to our own felicity and delight And how easie a work it would be if a wicked heart did not make it difficult And how great a plague sin is unto the sinner And how fore a punishment of it self And by this you may see what it is that all fallings-out divisions and contentions tend to And all temptations to the abatement of our love And who it is that is the greater loser by it when love to our neighbour is lost And that backbiters and censurers who speak ill of others come to us as the greatest enemies and thieves to rob us of our chiefest jewel and greatest comfort in this world And accordingly should they be entertained CHAP. XXVIII Special Cases and Directions for Love to Godly persons as such Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Love to the Godly WHom we must take for Godly I answered before Chap. 24. Tit. 1. Quest. 5. Quest. 1. How can we love the Godly when no man can certainly know who is sincerely Quest. 1. godly Answ. Our love is not the love of God which is guided by infallibility but the love of man which is guided by the dark and fallible discerning of a man The fruits of piety and charity we infallibly see in their lives But the saving truth of that grace which is or ought to be the root we must judge of according to the probability which those signs discover and love men accordingly Quest. 2. Must we love those as godly who can give no sensible account of their conversion for the Quest. 2. time or manner or evidence of it Answ. We must take none for godly who shew no credible evidence of true conversion that is of true faith and Repentance But there is many a one truly godly who through natural defect of understanding or utterance are not able in good sense to tell you what Conversion is not to describe the manner in which it was wrought upon them much less to define exactly the time or Sermon when it was first wrought which few of the best Christians are able to do especially of them who had pious education and were wrought on in their childhood But if the Covenant of Grace be wisely opened to them according to their capacity and they deliberately and soberly and voluntarily profess their present assent and consent thereto they do thereby give you the credible evidence of a true conversion till you have sufficient contrary evidence to disprove it For none but a converted man can truly repent and believe in God the Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier according to the Baptismal Covenant Quest. 3. But what if he be so ignorant that he cannot tell what faith or repentance or redemption or Quest. 3. sanctification or the Covenant of Grace is Answ. If you have sufficient evidence that indeed he doth not at all understand the essentials of the Sacramental Covenant you may conclude that he is not truly godly Because he cannot consent to what he knoweth not Ignorantis non est consensus And if you have no evidence of such knowledge you have no evidence of his godliness but must suspend your judgement But yet many a one understandeth the essentials of the Covenant who cannot tell another what they are Therefore his mind in case of great disability of utterance must be fished out by Questions to which his Yea or No will discover what he understandeth and consenteth to You would not refuse to do so by one of another language or a dumb man who understood you but could answer you but by broken words or signs And verily ill education may make a great many of the phrases of Scripture and religious language as strange to some men though spoken in their native tongue as if it were Greek or Latin to them who yet may possibly understand the matter A wise Teacher by well composed questions may without fraud or formality discern what a man understandeth though he say but Yea or No when an indiscreet unskilful man will make his own unskilfulness and uncharitableness the occasion of contemptuous trampling upon some that are as honest as himself If a mans desires and endeavours are to that which is good and he be willing to be taught and use the means it must be very gross ignorance indeed and well-proved that must disprove his profession of faith If he competently understand what it is to believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier he understandeth all that is absolutely necessary to salvation And his Yea or No may sometime signifie his understanding it Quest. 4. Must I take the visible members of the Church because such for truly godly Quest. 4. Answ. Yes except when you have particular sufficient proof of their hypocrisie Certainly no man doth sincerely enter into the Baptismal Covenant but he that is sincerely a penitent believer if at age For that Covenant giveth actual pardon and adoption to those that sincerely enter into it the very
observance and esteem or gifts or commodity from others When sin and error raiseth these unreasonable expectations and the imperfect graces of Christians do not answer them such persons think contemptibly of good men and call them hypocrites and as bad as others because they are not such as they expected Enemy 10. The placing of mens goodness in lesser matters in which it doth not consist is also a Enemy 10. common enemy of Love When a man is himself so carnal as not to know what spiritual excellency is but prefer some common gifts before it such a one can never be satisfied in the ordinary sort of upright men Thus some make a great matter of Complement and Courtship and handsome deportment when some holy persons are so taken up with the great matters of God and their salvation and so retired from the company of Complementers that they have neither time nor mind nor skill nor will for such impertinencies Some place so much in some particular opinions or Ceremonies or Forms of Church-Government and Worship that they can think well of no man that is against them Whereas good men on earth are so imperfect that they are and will be of several opinions about such things And so these persons oblige themselves by their own Opinionativeness to be alwayes against one part of the sincerest servants of Christ. One man can think well of none that is not for his Church-party or way of Government and Worship and another can think well of none that is not for his way One can think well of none that prayeth not by his Book and doth not turn and bend and look just in the same manner garb and poâ—iure with himself and that useth not all the Ceremonies which he affecteth or at least if his weakness make him guilty of any unhansome tone or gesture or of any incompt and unapt expressions or needless repetitions or unpleasing stile which all we wish that all good men were free from Another can think well of no man that is for pomp and force in Church-Government or for Ceremonies Forms and Books in prayer and for prescribed words in worshipping God And thus placing Religion where they should not causeth too many to take up with a mistaken Religion for themselves and to dislike all that are not of their mind and certainly destroyeth Christian love in one part of Christians towards the other Enemy 11. Pride also is a pestilent extinguisher of love For a proud man is so much overwise in Enemy 11. his own eyes that he can without remorse stigmatize all that dissent from him with the names of ignorant or erroneous Schismatical Heretical or what other name the humour or advantage of the times shall offer him And he is so Good in his own eyes that he measureth mens goodness and godliness by their agreement with him or complyance with his will And he is so Great in his own eyes that he thinketh himself and his complices only fit to make Laws for others and to rule them in their opinions and in the Worship of God and no man fit to say any thing publickly to God but what he putteth into their mouths He can think well of none that will not obey him Like the Pope of Rome that saith no man on earth hath Church-communion with him that is not subject to him A humble Christian thinketh that himself and the Gospel have great and unusual prosperity in the world when they have but Liberty But proud men think that Religion is ruinated and they are persecuted when they have not their will upon their brethren and when their brethren will be but brethren and deny them obedience Subjects they can think well of and command but Brethren they cannot love nor tolerate Enemy 12. Lastly The Counterfeits of Christian love deceive abundance and keep them from that Enemy 12. which is Love indeed They might be brought to it if they had not thought that they had it already when they have it not Tit. 5. The Counterfeits of Christian Love Counterfeit 1. IT is but Counterfeit Love to Christians when they are loved only for being of the Count. 1. common Religion of the Countrey and the same that you say you are of your selves As one Mahometan loveth another Count. 2. Or to love one only Sect or party of Christians which you espouse as the only party or Count. 2. Church and not to love a Christian as a Christian and so to love all true Christians whom you can discern to be such Count. 3. To love only those Christians who are your kindred or relations or those that have been Count. 3. some way benefactors to you Count. 4. To love Christians only for their familiarity or kind and loving conversation and civil Count. 4. obliging deportment among men Count. 5. To love them only because they are Learned or have better wits and abilities of speech Count. 5. in preaching prayer or conference than others Count. 6. To love them only upon the praise which common commendations may sometimes give Count. 6. them and for being magnified by fame and well spoken of by all men Thus many wicked men do love the Saints departed when they hate those that are alive among them Count. 7. To love them only for being godly in themselves at a distance so they will not trouble Count. 7. them with their godliness while they love not those that reprove them and would draw them to be as godly Count. 8. To love them only for suffering with them in the same cause Thus a prophane person Count. 8. taken by the Turks may love his fellow Captives who refuse to renounce Christ. And thus a sufferer for an ill cause or in an erroneous Sect may love those that suffer with him above others Count. 9. To love them only for holding strict and right opinions while they will not endure to live Count. 9. accordingly Thus many love the light that cannot bear the heat and motion Many love an Orthodox person of a sound judgement that is against loosness and prophaneness in his opinion and do not like the folly of the licentious who yet like licentious practice best Count. 10. To love them for some parts of Godliness only while some other essential part will not Count. 10. be endured of which before Count. 11. To love them in a kind fit only as Soul with tears professed to do his Son David but Count. 11. to have no habitual constant Love Direct 12. Lastly To love godly men a little and the world and fleshly interest more To love Count. 12. them only so as will cost them nothing To wish them fed but not to feed them and to wish them clothed but not to clothe them and to wish them out of Prison but not to dare to visit them for fear of suffering themselves He that hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother have need and
as you have no need § 5. As for Play books and Romances and idle Tales I have already shewed in my Book of Self-dâ—nyal how pernicious they are especially to youth and to frothy empty idle wits that know not what a man is nor what he hath to do in the world They are powerful baits of the Devil to keep more necessary things out of their minds and better Books out of their hands and to poyson the mind so much the more dangerously as they are read with more delight and pleasure and to fill the minds of sensual people with such idle fumes and intoxicating fancies as may divert them from the serious thoughts of their salvation And which is no small loss to rob them of abundance of that precious time which was given them for more important business and which they will wish and wish again at last that they had spent more wisely I know the fantasticks will say that these things are innocent and may teach men much good like him that must go to a Whore-house to learn to hate uncleanness and him that would go out with Robbers to learn to hate Theevery But I shall now only ask them as in the presence of God 1. Whether they could spend that time no better 2. Whether better Books and practices would not edifie them more 3. Whether the greatest Lovers of Romances and Playes be the greatest Lovers of the Book of God and of a holy life 4. Whether they feel in themselves that the Love of these vanities doth increase their love to the Word of God and kill their sin and prepare them for the life to come or clean contrary And I would desire men not to prate against their own experience and reason nor to dispute themselves into damnable impenitency nor to befool their souls by a few silly words which any but a sensualist may perceive to be meer deceit and falshood If this will not serve they shall be shortly convinced and answered in another manner Direct 17. TAke heed that you receive not a Doctrine of Libertinism as from the Gospel nor conceive Direct 17. of Christ as an encourager of sin nor pretend free grace for your carnal security or sloth For this is but to set up another Gospel and another Christ or rather the Doctrine and works of the Devil against Christ and the Gospel and to turn the Grace of God into wantonness § 1. Because the Devil knoweth that you will not receive his doctrine in his own Name his usual Siquis est hoc robore aniâ—â—t atque hoc indole virtuâ—s aâ— continentiâ— ut respâ—at omnes vo 〈…〉 omnemâ—â—â— vitae â—uae â—â—rsâ—m â—aâ—â—â—â— co 〈…〉 aequalium fludia non â—udi non convivia delectant nihil in vita expeâ—endum putet nisi quod est cum laude honore conjunâ—tum hunc mea sententia divinis quibusdam bonis instructum atque ornatum puto Ciâ— pâ—o Cal. method is to propound and preach it in the name of Christ which he knoweth you reverence and regard For if Satan concealed not his own Name and Hand in every temptation it would spoil his game And the more excellent and splendid is his pretence the more powerful the temptation is They that gave heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils no doubt thought better of the Spirits and the Doctrines especially seeming strict for the Devil hath his strictnesses as forbidding to marry and abstinence from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving 1 Tim. 4. 1 3. But the strictnesses of the Devil are alwayes intended to make men loose They shall be strict as the Pharisees in Traditions and vain Ceremonies and building the Tombs of the Prophets and garnishing the Sepulchres of the Righteous that they may hate and murder the living Saints that worship God in Spirit and in truth Licentiousness is the proper Doctrine of the Devil which all his strictness tendeth to promote To receive such principles is pernicious but to father them upon Christ and the Gospel is blasphemous § 2. The Libertines Antinomians and Autonomians of this age have gathered you too many instances The Libertine saith The Heart is the man therefore you may deny the truth with your tongue you may be present at false Worship as at the Mass you need not suffer to avoid the speaking of a word or subscribing to an untruth or error or doing some little thing but as long as you keep your hearts to God and mean well or have an honest mental reservation and are forced to it by therâ— rather than suffer you may say or subscribe or swear any thing which you can your selves put a lawful sense upon in your own minds or comply with any outward actions or customs to avoid â—ffence and save your selves The Antinomians tell you that The Moral Law is abrogated and that the Gospel is no Law and if there be no Law there is no Governour nor Government no duty no sin no judgement nâ— punishment no before they are born or repent or believe that their sin is pardoned 〈…〉 that God tâ—â—k them as suffering and fulfilling all the Law in Christ as if it had been they that diâ— iâ— in â—iâ— that we are justified by faith only in our consciences that justifying faith iâ— but t 〈…〉 we are justified that every man must believe that he is pardoned that he may 〈…〉 ed in â—is câ—â—science and this he is to do by a Divine faith and that this is the sense of the Aâ—tiâ—le I beliâ—â—â—â— the forgiveness of sins that is that my sâ—ns are forgiven and that all are forgi 〈…〉 it that it is legal and sinful to work or do any thing for salvation that sin once pa 〈…〉 ssed and lamented or at least we need not ask pardon of sin daily or of one 〈…〉 t that 〈◊〉 are no punishments and yet no other punishment is threatned to believers for their sins and consequently that Christ hath not procured them a pardon of any sin after believing but prevented all necessity of pardon and therefore they must not ask the pardon of them nor do any thing to obtain it that fear of Hell must have no hand in our obedience or restraint from sin And some add that he that cannot repent or believe must comfort himself that Christ repented and believed for him 〈…〉 a contradiction Many such Doctrines of Licentiousness the abusers of Grace have brought forth And the Sect which imitateth the Father of Pride in affecting to be from under the Government of God and to be the Law-givers and Rulers of themselves and all others which I therefore call the Antonomians are Licentious and much more They equally contend against Christs Government and for their own They fill the world with Wars and bloodshed oppression and cruelty and the ears of God with the cryes of the Martyrs and oppressed ones and all that the spiritual and holy Discipline of Christ may be suppressed and
for the soul is that which least endangereth it by being over-pleasing to the Body and in which the flesh hath the smallest interest to set up and plead against the Spirit Not but that the largest stock must be accepted and used for God when he trusteth us with it for when he setteth us the hardest work we may expect his greatest help But a dwelling as in Tents in a constant unsetledness in a moveable condition having little and needing little never feeling any thing in the creature to tempt us to say Soul take thy Rest this is to most the safest life which giveth us the freâ—st advantages for Heaven § 5. Take heed therefore as you love your souls of falling into the snare of worldly Hopes and laying designs for rising and riâ—hâ—s and pleasing your selves in the thoughts and prosecution of these things â—â—r then you are in the readiest way to perdition even to idolatrous worldliness and apostacy of heart from God and opening a door to every sin that seems but necessary to your worldly ends and to odious Hypocrisie for a cloke to all this and to quiet your guilty minds with something that is like Religion When once you are saying with worldly security as he Luke 12. 17 18. 19. I will pull down my barn and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and goods and I will say to my soul Soul thou hast much goâ—ds laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and â—e mercy you are then befooling your selves and near being called away as fools by dâ—â—th â— 20 21. And when without a sense of the uncertainty of your lives you are saying as those in â—ames 4. 13 14. To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas you know not what will be on the morrow You forget what your lives are that they are a vapour appearing a little while and then vanishing away Ver. 14. Boast not thy self therefore of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Prov. 27. 1. Direct 20. SEe that your Religion be purely Divine and animated all by God as the Beginning the Direct 20. D 〈…〉 ma 〈…〉 dâ—â—â—â—â—â—bat â—iaâ—◠〈…〉 nem 〈◊〉 â—e◠〈◊〉 â—eâ—i 〈◊〉 sufficere quâ—dem ad bene beateque vivendum â—aeâ—erum instrumentis indigere corporis bonis robore sanitate integritate 〈◊〉 c. Exterioribus etiam opiâ—â—â—â— genâ—ris claâ—itate gloria c. Ea si non affluerint nihilominus tamen beatum foâ—â—â—apiâ—â—tem Arbitratur Deos humana câ—rnere atque curare daemones esse Porro in dialogâ—â— justitiam Divinâ—m legem â—â—bitratus est ut ad juâ—e agendum poâ—entius persuâ—deret nè post mortem poenas improbi luerent Laert. in Plaâ— .. Way and the End and that first upon thy Soul and then upon all that thou hast or dost there be written HOLINESS TO THE LORD and that thou corrupt not all with an inordinate hypâ—critical respect to man § 1. To be Holy is to be Divine or devoted to God and appropriated to Him and his Will and Use and that our Hearts and Lives be not Common and Unclean To be Godly is to Live to God as those that from their hearts believe that he is God indeed and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him that he is our God All-sufficient our shield and exceeding great reward Heb. 11. 6. Gen. 15. 1. 17. 1. And that Of Him and Through Him and To Him are all things that all may give the Glory for ever unto him Rom. 11. 36. As God is infinitely above all Creatures so Living upon God and unto God must needs advance us above the highest sensual life And therefore Religion is transcendently above all Sciences or Arts so much of God as is in you and upon you so much you are more excellent than the highest worldly perfection can advance you to GOD should be the First and Last and All in the mind and mouth and life of a believer God must be the Principal Matter of your Religion The Understanding and Will must be exercised upon him When you awake you should be still with him Psal. 139. 8. Your Meditatiâ—ns of him should be sweet and you should be glad in the Lord Psal. 104. 34 Yet creatures under Him may be the frequent less principal matter of your Religion but still as referred unto Him God must be the Author of your Religion God must institute it if you expect he should accept it and reward it God must be the Rule of your Religion as Revealing his Will concerning it in his Word God must be the Ultimate End of your Religion It must be intended to Please and Glorifie Him God must be the continual Motive and Reason of your Religion and of all you do you must be able truly to fetch your Reason from Heaven and to say I do it because it is his will I do it to please and glorifie and enjoy him God must be taken as the Soveraign Iudge of your Religion and of you and of all you do And you must wholly look to his Justification and approbation and avoid what ever he condemneth Can you take God for your Owner your Soveraign your Saviour your sufficient Protector your Portion your All If not you cannot be godly nor be saved If his Authority have not more Power upon you than the authority of the Greatest upon earth you are Atheistical Hypocrites and not truly Religious whatever you pretend If HOLINESS TO THE LORD be written upon you and all that 's yours you are devoted to him as his Own peculiar ones If your Names be set upon your Sheep or Plate or Clothes you will say if another should take them They are mine Do you not see my mark upon them Slavery to the Flesh the World and the Devil is the mark that is written upon the ungodly upon the foreheads of the prophane and upon the Hearts of Hypocrites and all and Satan the world and the flesh have their service If you are Conseerated to God and bear his Name and Mark upon you tell every one that would lay claim to you that you are His and resolved to live to Him to Love Him to Trust Him and to stand or fall to him alone Let God be the very Life and Sense and End of all you do § 2. When once Man hath too much of your regard and observation that you set too much by his favour and esteem or eye him too much in your profession and practice when mans approbation too much comforteth you and manâ— displeasure or dispraise doth too much trouble you when your fear and love and care and obedience are too much taken up for Man You so far withdraw your selves from God and are becoming the servants of men and friends of the world and turning back to bondage and forsaking your Rock and Portion and
your excellency The soul of Religion is departing from you and it is dying and returning to the dust And if once Man get the preheminence of God and be preferred and set above him in your hearts or lives and feared trusted and obeyed before him you are then dead to God and alive to the world and as Men are taken for your Gods you must take up with such a salvation as they can give you If your Alms and Prayers are done to be seen of men and to procure their good thoughts and words if you get them make your best of them For verily your Judge hath said unto you You have your reward Matth. 6. 1 2 3. Not that man is absolutely to be contemned or disregarded No under God your Superiours must Aâ—te 〈◊〉 sâ— voles aâ—â— haâ—e sedâ—m ae 〈…〉 am domum contuâ—â—t re 〈…〉 Sermoâ—â—bâ—s vuâ—gâ— dedeâ—â—s te nec in praeviâ—s humamanis â—pem posueris rerum tuarum suis te illecebrâ—s oportet ipsa viâ—tâ—s trahat ad verum dâ—â—uâ— Ciâ—râ— somâ— Sâ—â—p Cael stia sâ—mper â—pâ—â—tato â—â—â—â—a humana contemnito Id. Ibid. be obeyed you must do wrong to none and do good to all as far as in you lyeth you must avoid offence and give good example and under God have so much regard to men as to become all things to all men for their salvation But if once you set them above their rank and turn your selves to an inordinate dependance on them and make too great a matter of their opinion or words concerning you you are losing your godliness or divine disposition and turning it into man-pleasing and hypocrisie When man stands in competition with God for your first and chief regard or in opposition to him or as a sharer in co-ordination with him and not purely in subordination to him he is to be numbred with things to be forsaken Even good men whom you must love and honour and whose communion and help you must highly value yet may be made the object of your sin and may become your snare Your honouring of them or love to them must not entice you to desire inordinately to be honoured by them nor cause you to set too much by their approbation If you do you will find that while you are too much eying man you are losing God and corrupting your Religion at the very heart And you may fall among those that how Holy soever may have great mistakes in matters of Religion tending to much sin and may be somewhat censorious against those that are not of their mind and so the retaining of their esteem and the avoiding of their censures may become one of the greatest temptations of your lives And you will find that man-pleasing is a very difficult and yet unprofitable task Love Christ as he appeareth in any of his servants and be followers of them as they are followers of Christ and regard their approbation as it agreeth with Christs But O see that you are able to Live upon the favour of God alone and to be quietted in his acceptance though man despise you and to be Pleased so far as God is pleased though man be displeased with you and to rejoyce in his Justification though men condemn you with the odiousest slanders and the greatest infamy and cast out your names as evil doers See that God be taken as Enough for you or else you take him not as your God Even as Enough without man and Enough against man That you may be able to say If God be for us who can be against us Who is he that condemneth it is God that justifieth Rom. 8. 31 33 34. Do I seek to please men For if I yet pleased men I should not be a servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. Jer. 17. 5. Thus saith the Lord Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord For he shall be like the Heath in the Desert and shall not see when good cometh Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is for he shall be as a Tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her roots by the Rivers and shall not see when heat cometh but her leaf shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought neither shall cease from yielding fruit Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is be to be accounted of Isa. 2. 22. § 3. HAving given you these Directions I must tell you in the Conclusion that they are like foed that will not nourish you by standing on your Table or like Physick that will not cure you by standing in the Box They must be taken and digested or you will find none of the benefit It is not the Reading of them that will serve the turn to so great use as the safe proceeding and confirmation of beginners or Noâ—ices in Religion It will require humility to perceive the need of them and labour to learn digest and practise them Those slothful souls that will refuse the labour must bear the sad effects of their negligence There is not one of all these Directions as to the Matter of them which can be spared Study them Understand them and Remember them as things that must be done If either a senselesness of your necessity or a conceit that the Spirit must do it without so much labour and diligence of your own do prevail with you to put off all these with a meer approbation the consequent may be sadder than you can yet foresee Though I suppose you to have some beginnings of Grace I must tell you that it will be comparatively a sad kind of life to be erroneous and scandalous and troublesome to the Church or full of doubts and fears and passions and to be burdensome to others and your selves Yea it is reason that you be very suspicious of your Sincerity if you desire not to increase in grace and be not willing to use the means which are necessary to your encrease He is not sincere that desireth not to be perfect And he desireth not sincerely who is not willing to be at the labour and cost which is necessary to the obtaining of the thing desired I beseech you therefore as you love the happiness of prudent strong and comfortable Christians and would escape the misery of those grievous diseases which would turn your lives into languishing unserviceableness and pain that you seriously study these Directions and get them into your minds and memories and hearts and let the faithful practice of them be your greatest care and the constant employment of your lives CHAP. III. The General Grand Directions for Walking with God in a Life of Faith and Holiness Containing the Essentials of Godliness and Christianity I Am next to Direct you in that Exercise of Grace which is common to all Christians Habits are for Use Grace is given you not only that you may have it