good his satisfaction to whom we swear and for the ending and not the beginning of strife els we prostitute Gods name eyther to our own or other mens lusts Common and light swearing argues such a degree of irreverence of Gods Majestie as we may truly boldly say that the heart of a common and customary swearer is voyd of all grace and true fear of God And in weighing with my self with admiration and horrour the customarie swearing amongst so many considering that there is nothing in it as in other sins eyther profitable or pleasant or of credit in the world or that brings eyther reasonable or sensuall good I have made account that besides imitation of one another and custom which makes it half naturall to some and a conscience guiltie of want of credit in others which moves many to swear that they may be beleeved and want of wit in not a few who strive by accessory oaths to supply their defect of matter or other inabilitie of speach there is in this swearing veyn a deeper mysterie of mischeif then ordinary and that indeed men take it up specially in the divels intention who sets them a work and not a litle in their own in direct opposition of God and because he in his law hath so severely prohibited it If God had not in his word so expresly and severely forbidden it as he hath done certeynly there would not be the least part of it used that is Gracelesse men seem therein to affect a professed contempt of God and withall an opinion from men that they fear nothing neyther God nor divell as they say But God will make them feel that fear not the guilt of taking his glorious name in vayn which all creatures ought to honour and reverence This sin being directly against Gods majestie he reservs by his providence the punishment of it ordinarily to himself spiritually by hardnes of heart and impenitencie in this life usually to the end thereof and both bodily and ghostly by hell-fire for ever Where it is also like that the divels and damned men do and will swear and curse in their utter rejection from God and intollerable torment and so make their sin and course of blaspheaming as endlesse as their punishment for it CHAP. L. Of Zeal ZEal is by some well defyned the heat and intention of all affections and not eyther any one simple affection or composition of divers I add of the understanding also So men meditate zealously and love zealously and hate zealously and rejoyce zealously and mourn zealously and with great intention of heart The like is to be sayd of all the rest of the affections As nothing lives without naturall heat so neyther lives he the life of Christ indeed who is destitute of christian zeal to warm him in his affections and actions specially in matter of Gods worship and service in which whether wrong or right luke-warmnes is odious and loathsom The Lord will spue out of his mouth the luke-warm whether wyne or water Worldly wise-men despise zeal as prejudiciall to wisdom discretion So Festus judged Paul mad Michall accounted David as one of the fools for the singular zeal of God which they manifested But even this foolishnes of God is wiser then men Yet is it certeyn that men of great knowledg and judgment do seldom make that manifestation of Zeal which weaker persons do The former have their spirits most in their brayns and are exercised specially in the disquisition and discerning of truth from falshood and of good from evill The latter have them most in their hearts and accordingly give themselvs to the affectionate pursuit of that which they conceav to be true and good and alike to the avoyding and impugning of the contrarie Some deceav others by the pretence of zeal which they put on for their advantage as stage-players do vizours till their part be played And thus Ismaell deceaved the fortie men of Samaria with his crocodiles tears Also there are not a few who deceav both others and themselvs by seeming to both eyther to have the Zeal of God which they wholly want or much more then they have And of this number was Iehu how loud soever he cryed to Ionadab Behold the zeal which I have for the house of the Lord whereas in truth that which most set him awork was zeal for his own house though it may be he thought not so Besides craftines in this Iehues zeal there are two other properties the one suspitious where it is found and the other odious The former is a furious march against evill without an answerable pursuit of and affection unto the contrarie good Many are vehemently carryed against Antichristian devises in truth or so appearing unto them in whom yet appears litle love and affection to that which is of Christ in their own judgment Such are rayther carried by their own flesh then led by the spirit of God The other is crueltie To be aright and truely zealous cannot but be good seeing so many and those wise men desire at times to seem so though they be not True zeal must be for God and from God and according to God and having God both for beginning and end and rule of direction it cannot but it self be good and godly It must be for the Lord and for the furtherance of his glorie in the obedience of his will and in mans salvation and not for our own or other mens by-purposes And if it so fall out that by one and the same thing Gods cause and our own profit credit or other worldly advantage be promoted we had need keep a jealous eye over our selvs that we serv not our turn on God by making his ends as it were a bridg to our own as Iehu did Secondly as the fire of the altar came from heaven so must our coal of zeal be fetched thence as being the work of Gods spirit in our hearts in the use of prayer meditation upon the word of God read and heard the examples of others godly as it were ryding in the fierie chariot of Elyas and the like holy means by which this divine fire is kindled and nourished in mens breasts Thirdly it must be according to God both for the qualitie of the matter and quantity of the intention of affection For the former It is good alwayes even then and then onely to be zealous in a good matter and that neyther lightly presumed nor partially conceipted so to be but certeynly known els we burn not sweet incense with holy fire but dirt and doung in stead thereof Our zeal also must be apportioned to the object and that not onely considered in it self but also in the circumstances attending upon it in regard whereof things not alwayes the most good or evill in themselvs may justly deserv at our hands a great bent eyther of love to them or hatred against them And amongst other circumstances we must be carefull
a flipperie way bids him hold him fast by his hand lest he fall which he also puts forth unto him yea wherewith he takes hold of the Childe that so by communicating his strength with him he may stand and not fall The Lord that saith unto his Seek ye my face and gives them a heart to answer Thy face Lord do we seek gives ech of them also when he warns them to stand fast and not to fall away and the like to answer effectually Lord by these thy Commandements thy Seruant is warned to stand fast and to beware lest I fall away as hypocrites do And whensoever God either promiseth unto men or purposeth in himself absolutely an event touching any his good work in or by them he withall both purposes and promises and accordingly affords them both means conuenient and skill and will to use them and therewith an answerable blessing upon them for infallible successe In regard of this grace of perseverance the truly godly haue an advantage above Adam in innocencie He receaved to himself at the first his portion of grace and goodnesse from God being made after his Image and full freedom and power both to use and encrease it But instead thereof he soon mispent and lost all by transgression God therefore as a gracious and wise Father hath prouided better against our misgouernment and made Christ Iesus our Head and Feoffer of trust for our state of grace that he in whom dwelleth all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily might still furnish and supply us as we have need lest we having all put into our own hands as Adam had should mispend and cast away all as he did And so the same Christ our Lord and Head partly by his mediation and intercession with the Father partly by the continuall supply of his Spirit assisting us in our weaknesses and recovering us in our falls and partly by his Divine power restraining the enemies of our Saluation most faithfully preservs us in the grace of God not suffering the living members of his body to be plucked from it nor the habitation of his holy Spirit wholy and for ever to be possessed by his and his elects enemie Satan The Scriptures speak of mens falling from the grace of God as they do of their receiving it When the Apostles entitle particular Churches or persons Saints sanctified in Christ partakers of the heavenly calling and such as in whom God will perfit the good work begun in them untill the day of Christ as it is meet to speak and judg of them all they do not so judg and speak in respect of the inward truth of the things as certainly being in their hearts which they neither did nor could ordinarily know for God onely knoweth the hearts of all the children of men the things of a man no man knoweth save the Spirit of a man which is in him but according to the outward appearance and profession made in word and deed So when they speak of the falling away of particular Churches or persons from God they are to be understood as they mean and mean as they know that is according to the outward appearance and profession which men formerly have made and then do make leaving to God and mens selvs which onely know them the inward and hidden things of the heart which too many causlesly make shew of sometimes deceaving themselvs and sometimes others and sometimes both till the time of revelation of hidden things come And whereas weak Christians might unhappily stumble at the revolt from Faith and holynesse formerly professed by many as if there were not that stablenesse satisfaction and comfort in the Gospel and grace thereof which it promiseth the Lord in great wisdom and mercie removes this stone of offence out of their way by intimating plainly that those Apostates were never truly and throughly made partakers of the Gospels grace from the former profession whereof they had unfaithfully declined Thus the Holy Ghost teacheth that the ground what shew soever it made in which the seed sown was either withered by persecution or choaked by worldly cares or pleasures and which brought not forth fruit to the harvest was never good but either stonie or thornie ground that they whose Faith was overthrown were not vessels to honour but to dishonour nor truly built upon the steadie foundation of God nor of them who had the seal of his Spirit nor were of his known ones that those who fell away and crucified to themselvs the Son of God afresh were but formerly as the earth which drinks in the rain which comes oft upon it and yet brings not forth hearbs but thorns and briers that they who bring in damnable errors and they who follow their pernitious waies both the one and other departing from the holy Commandment delivered unto them and turning the grace of God into wantonnesse were at their best but as dogs though having for a time cast up their stomack and vomited and as Swine washed from their mire and as Iude saith ungodly men of old ordained to that condemnation and crept in to wit into the Churches unawares and to conclude that they which went out from the Apostles and Churches by heresies and profanenesse were not to wit truly and indeed of them before Thus Gods wisdom and mercie provides a shield of Faith against the fierie darts of mens hypocrisie and perfidiousnesse wherewith otherwise the tender hearts of weak Christians might be deeply wounded by Satan CAP. VII Of Religion and the differences and disputations thereabout ONely men of all Earthly Creatures are capable of Religion which is also so naturall unto all men how barbarous soever that rather then any Countrey Citie or Family would want whereon to bestow their devotions they would worship they know not what yea which is more that which they do know not onely to be base and vile as stocks and stones but also hurtfull and evill As then Religion in the generall is naturall and false Religion of corrupt nature so is true and Christian Religion by supernaturall revelation For how can that worship of God please him which is not according to his will And who knoweth Gods will but by revelation of his Spirit But vain men are readie to deem God like themselvs imagining that the things which please them please him as well Herevpon the Heathens have devised to themselvs Gods and Goddesses of Theft Murther and all manner of filthinesse And even Christians in name at least because the Kings and Lords of the Earth account themselvs honoured by their Subjects when they entertain them with pompous shews and pageants of wittie devise are readie fondly to imagine that their wittie specially stately devises and fancies please the Lord himself as they do them and therein denie unto him his two properties of simplicitie in the things and power in appointing them But if we will give God his
Tongues in an Expositour judgment in things That Translation is most exact which agreeth best with the Originall word for word so far as the idiom or proprietie of the Language will bear so as for words or phrases in the Originall proper or common simple or figurative perspicuous or doubtfull words and phrases of the same sort proper or common and so of the rest be put and retained in the version lest the Interpreter bring his own Commentarie for the Scriptures Text. On the contrarie the Commentarie is best which shews most clearly the sense scope and meaning of the Text in what words soever As the Law-maker best knows the meaning of the Law and how it is to be expounded so for the exposition of the Holy Scriptures the Spirit of God as the Authour thereof is first and most to be consulted with by faithfull and earnest prayer from a good conscience that God may fulfill his promise made of giving his holy Spirit to them that ask it and of revealing his secrets to them that fear him And so some speciall Instruments of renuing the Gospels light in the former Age have professed that they learned more this way by prayer then by much studie otherwise There is in a Scripture but one proper and immediate sense others are rather collections from it relations unto it or illustrations of it then immediate senses The literall sense is to be followed as being most naturall what may be and not to be refused if it may stand without danger without blasphemie and according to other Scriptures And here it must be noted that Christ and his Apostles in expounding Moses and the Prophets did not onely infallibly expresse their conceptions and meanings but the meaning of the Spirit speaking in them and that by reason of their more plentifull measure of the same Spirit and experience withall in some particulars as I conceav further then the Prophets themselvs understood albeit they alwaies knew the immediate drift of the Spirit and meaning of the things which they spake and were not as the Pythonists or other the like Instruments of the Divell uttering Oracles which they themselvs understood not The Lawyers have a rule and the same competent to the matter whereof they treat that Laws of fauour are to be extended as largely as may be but odious Laws as they speak as much straitned and confined within the narrowest bounds of interpretation But all Gods Laws and Instructions must in honour of the Lawgiver be expounded in the largest sense that they can beare that so they may reach as far and binde as fast as may be This the infinitenesse of his wisdom challengeth in directing us of his authority in commanding us of his mercy in promiseing and justice in threatning Which by so interpreting and applying his word we acknowledg and honour as is meet And as they are blame-worthy who out of a scrupulous fear lest they should ad to the Scriptures allow them no further meaning then the words expresse so is their sin greater and full of presumption who shorten and straiten the Scriptures instruction to that which is expressed in so many words that they may make room thereby for their own devises A Scripture commandeth promiseth or threatneth whatsoever is contained in it though not expressed And that is contained in it which can truly and iustly be gathered from it though by never so many consequences or inferences though the fewer the lesse dangerous by reason of our weaknesse of discourse Particular words and phrases more obscure are to be interpreted according to the scope mind of the speaker the Holy Ghost in the place which is both in time and excellencie before the thing spoken and that for which the Spirit speaketh as it doth in the place neither is the Scripture profitable except the scope be first found And to hang upon a word phrase or sentence in a Text without looking to the main drift is if any other the character of an hereticall disposition With this that other most necessarie rule hath affinitie namely that the words are to be understood according to the subject matter the words of Law and Gospel according to the different nature of Law and Gospel the words of an Historie Historically of a Sacrament Sacramentally and mystically and accordingly notes of universalitie according to the extent of the matter or person spoken of As we oft finde out learn mens meaning by some of their companie of such as are about them which we could not learn of themselvs so may we gather the meaning of a Scripture otherwise hard to be understood by marking the things which accompanie it and which are above and below as the Iews use to speak and Christians with them Like as the Lamps in the Golden Candlestick did one help anothers light so doth one place of Holy Scripture anothers And though a thing found in one place if in one indeed be as true binde as strongly as if it were a thousand times written yet so to insist upon any one place in a difference as to neglect others is the high-way to error and to loose the right sense by breaking the Scriptures golden chain whose links are all fastened together And as one place must be expounded by another so must the more brief and obscure by the more plain and larg and not the contrarie crosse way for that were not to lighten the darknesse of a Text but to darken its light according to that of the Father The fewer must be understood according to the more and one saying must rather be taken according to all then against all Touching precepts affirmative and negative First They are usually either kept or broken together He who doth not what he should do commonly doth what he should not do If a man be drawn away from God he is easily ensnared by his own lust On the contrarie he that doth his dutie faithfully hath as it were a Supersedeas from the Lord against the temptations of sin and Satan The way not to fulfill the lusts of the flesh is to walk in the Spirit Secondly The receaved rule that affirmative precepts binde alwayes but not to alwayes as negatives do is true being rightly understood We are to take no time for doing evill and but some time for the doing of the best good to wit as we have opportunitie and abilitie Thirdly In the prohibition of an evill we must ever understand the command of the opposite vertue and so on the contrarie He that saith expresly Thou shalt not kill means also as well Thou shalt preserv thy neighbours life Lastly There is both more vertue more vice practised in affirmatives then in negatives It is more good to do good then not to do evill and more evill to do evill then not to do good though both the tree that brings forth evill fruit and that brings forth no
choaked for ever As on the contrary if a man do the thing which good is the conscience gives testimonie of Gods acceptance and therewith boldnes before him making him chearfull even in the sorrows of the world quiet in its turmoyl and happy in all extremitie of torments and withall satisfying him with the testimony from within himself against mens unjust accusations This Conscience makes a man eyther a conquerer over the whole world or a craven and ready specially in danger and being wakened to thrust his head in a hole But now the comforts are not greater in having this good conscience then are the dangers in mistaking it Many do craftily pretend it without cause merely for their credits before men whose hearts condemn them before God and whom God who is greater will condemn much more Many more are securely presumptuous and being ready to beleev that which they wish true are bold upon their good conscience so deemed not because they know and try themselvs and their wayes before the Lord by his word as they ought but because they know not nor will know and examine them And this is the vulgar conscience of ignorant persons that are free from those grosser sins which the light of nature condemns and of some others also not without understanding being of bold spirits and stout hearts and which will not easily be in fault eyther before the world or God himself There are besides these whose consciences are benummed and seared with an hâ—at iron who by practising at first and continuing after in sins against their naturall conscience have obteyned from the Lord this miserable priveledg and seal of their condemnation that their mindes should be voyd of understanding and hearts of sense and feeling even of heynous sins in time Better sayd the godly martyr sit in the stocks of this world then of an ill or accusing conscience And yet better a conscience accusing if not desperately then benummed and without feeling The dead flesh must be eaten out of the wound and sorenes come before soundnes so must a benummed conscience become accusing before it can become excusing aright The larger conscience the better if rightly informed To know that to be lawfull for me which indeed is lawfull is the perfection of understanding and strength of fayth as on the other side to be ignorant of it is to be weak both in knowledg and fayth But we must here put a difference between the conscience it self and the use of it for the largest use of conscience is not alwayes best though the judgment be Some things are so commaunded as they absolutely bynde conscience as to love God and our neighbour c. Some things again are so commanded in the generall as for example the obedience of the Magistrate keeping peace with all men and the like as yet they have this particular exception If we can without sinning on our parts for we must not do evill that we may do good But yet in these cases we are to be as large as we can and to go as far as possibly we can see it lawfull in conscience of the commandement of God Other things are in their kinde indifferent and such as we perform for our profit pleasure credit or other worldly commoditie In these we are to use lesse liberrie of conscience and to take heed that we give not the divell advantage by some blast of temptation or other to blow us into the ditch if we go to near the side of it And in observing this difference we have a conscionable use of our conscience It is a great question whether an erroneous conscience be to be followed or no and as ill resolved by many affirmatively after much dispute Not to follow it is evill and to do or leav undone that wherein the man so doing or not doing condemns himself and therein hath God also condemning him To follow it is for the blinde to follow the blinde the blinde person his blinde conscience into the ditch and to have God condemning him in his word though he justifie himself Besides then the violation of the conscience which is alwayes evill and a by-path on the left hand and the following it in evill as a by-path on the right which is sometimes worse then the former as in sins against the light of nature there is a third and midle way safe and good and that is the informing of the conscience better by Gods word and following it accordingly unto which also every person is bound for the duties of his generall and speciall calling It is the first dutie of a man to inform his conscience aright and then to follow the direction which it gives A good conscience is as the ship in which fayth sayleth to heaven and which they that put away make shipwrack of fayth We must therefore first get a good conscience by the sprinkling of the heart with the blood of Christ from the guilt of sin and with his spirit from the filth thereof and having got it must keep the same with all care and tendernes specially by eschewing presumptuous sins in which is much transgression and by which the conscience is wasted and consumed as iron by the rust We offend too much alasse through ignorance and infirmitie let us not ad to provoke the Lord by sinns against conscience in which we sin against a double voyce of God first speaking in his law and secondly in our own hearts Where this is no marvayl though the voyce of fayth and witnes of Gods spirit cease and that the conscience so violated excuse not but accuse CHAP. XLVIII Of Prayer NO christian exercise hath so many counterfeyts as prayer which whilst all would seem to practise few in truth experimentally know We may say prayers sing prayers and read prayers and hear prayers and yet not pray indeed Yea we may out of a kinde of naturall instinct by reason of the indissolible relation between the creature and creatour be caryed towards God so far as to appeal unto him or heartily wish good from him wherein as one sayth the soul gives testimonie to God and yet be far from praying aright that is from making known our requests to God according to his will with fayth in his love and the feeling of our own wants in our hearts And the reason why this true prayer is not every mans work is because God must first work it in mens hearts by powring upon them the spirit of grace and supplication thereby to teach them both what to pray as they ought for matter and how for manner and without the hand-leading of which spirit we dare not in truth approach unto God but do by reason of the guilt of sin flye from his presence as Adam did how nigh unto him soever we seem to draw Where with the Apostle I speak of making our requests known to God my meaning is not