of Men be fed with Dung No No the Famine is in the Appetites of covetous Patrons who care not what silly refuse of men they Present nor how they infect or starve the Souls of men so they can but fill their own Pockets with the Shekels of the Sanctuary with Gold Chymically Extracted out of these Leaden Priests There are a more wary Sort that can make a shift to escape the Censure of the Law who are yet acted by as strong a Worldly Love as these That can match a Daughter or an Hâ—ndmaid with a Presentation saying to their Clerk as Boaz to his Kinsman At what time thou buyest the Field thou must buy it also at the hands of Ruth Or if sufficient Security be given for the Resignation of it to see how grateful the Clerk will prove within that time or to see whether by that time a Son or Daughter may not need it for a Portion it makes the matter a little the more safe but never a whit the more honest For considering the great importance of this matter whosoever prefers Consanguinity or Affinity Acquaintance Importunity of Friends before Learning and Piety and Aptness to Teach must needs appear to be acted by a Worldly Spirit and to bear the black Brand of our Apostle Alas How rare is this pure sincere ingenuous judicious proceeding in this matter How few Pastors are married to their Flocks without the predominant mediation of Friends Monies Importnity good Turns received or expected Relation or some such thing which is Alien to the true Qualifications of a Minister MEDITAT XVII Of Chaplains THE Employment of a Chaplain is accounted Honourable by vertue of the Relation that they bear to Princes or Peers or Persons of great Estate of Quality But it seems to be more Honourable upon the account of the Relation thâ—â— they bear to the great God whose Agents and 〈◊〉 they are For as the Pastors and Rectors of 〈◊〉 and Parishes are accounted God's 〈◊〉 even by Scripture Authority so these 〈◊〉 may well â—e accounted his Nuncio's or Envoys and their duty no doubt is to deliver Errands from God to them that are called gods but must die like men And they seem to have a greater advantage and a fairâ—r oppartunity of doing Good than their Brethren If Timothy who for ought I can perceive was no Chaplain was yet charg'd to charge the Great and Rich to be Humble and Religious much more is it the Duty of these who may have the care of their Prince or Patron when the Bishop or the Pastor cannot And to be the Instrument of converting one Prince and his Court yea or one Peer and his Family to the serious and diligent Service of God of how great Honour and Use would this be Oh that all our Chaplains would propound to themselves the Prophet Nathan for their pattern and his success in bringing David to Repentance would be for their Encouragement It is not fit indeed to be so Clownish as to say to Princes Ye are wicked but yet it is fit enough to say Ye are the men with Nathan and with Elijah Ye are the troublers of Israel And the same Elihu says It is not fit to give flattering Titles to men I would fain know of these men if they do not charge their Patrons and warn them who shall and where their Blood will be required if they die in their Sins I hope there are many upright men in this Relation in the World who design not so much to live upon their Patrons as that their Patrons may live to God to sanctifie their Tables rather than to be fed at them But if there be any that prefer Ease and Secular Advantage before the Discharge of a good Conscience that seek to be accepted of their Patrons more than to approve themselves to God their great Master the Sacredness of their Function will not excuse them from being Lovers of the World What then shall we think of those That because One puts into their Mouths and Purses are silent and say nothing or to no purpose in matters that ought to be spoken loud and often plainly and frequently and so for a Bribe betray the Souls of them whom they are entertain'd on purpose to preserve or as the Text speaks Transgress for a morsel of Bread That stand by and see the Sinful Sensual Proud Covetous Prophane Conversation of their Patrons and of their Families and Retinue and never yet so much as once Expostulate with them as Eli Why do ye such things Nor softly whisper in their Ears Nay my Brethren do not so wickedly Such a Chaplain was Amaziah who prophesied at Bethel And what of those that do plainly encourage their Patrons to Pride Idleness Excess Oppression and to a Formality and Indifference in Religion persuading them that so much Strictness and Exactness does not become their Quality magnifying an Half-faced Devotion for perfect and that for a very good Deed which they know is done by halves And what of those who run into the same Excess of Riot the same Sensuality it may be into the same Prophaneness too for Compliance-sake and to humour those upon whom they have dependance Such a Chaplain was the young Levite of Bethlehem Judah who for a Suit of Apparel and about Twenty shillings a Year and his Victuals did not stick at any Idolatry that his Master Micah was given to Judges 17. In any way to prefer Self-Entertainment or Advancement or the Humouring Pleasuring or Gratifying of Men before the Exercise of Grace the using of a good Conscience the Reformation of Sin the Promotion of Godliness and the Advancement of the Glory of God is a Symptom of a Worldly Mind though it be found amongst Pastors of Congregations or Chaplains of Families MEDITAT XVIII Of Judges and Magistrates THE Great Judge of the World has deputed here and there some amongst men to be his Vicegerents in the Administration of Justice This certainly renders their Employment very Honourable and he is a very bold and wicked man that dare contemn so much as the Reflections of the Authority of God or the Majesty of Heaven at what Rebound soever But as this Relation renders them Honourable and a sort of Gods or Sons of God so it does engage them to the greatest Purity and Impartiality imaginable lest they bring a Reproach upon their Lord and the sons of Belial take occasion to invert the Proverb and say As are the servants such is their Master The Truth is They that are Imitators of the Divine Purity Justice and Goodness are in a far better sense the Sons of God than they that only act in the World by his Commission For how far soever the inferior multitude are bound to obey them it is evident that the God whose pure Eyes cannot endure to behold Iniquity does not farther own them for his than as they act by his Authority that is agreeably to his holy Nature and just Laws I wish it were
Scripture speaks in other cases Thus it speaks of Christ frequently as a Person in the whole History of his Life sometimes as a New and Divine Nature Christ formed in you and Christ in you the hope of glory The like may be said of Antichrist The Spirit of Deceit and Delusion is called Antichrist This is a Deceiver and an Antichrist These apostate Spirits for there are many of them are frequently spoken of in Scripture in the singular number and call'd the Devil the Wicked One and Satan although there be Devils many and Satans many The reason of this I conceive is either because one and the same Principle of Rebellion and Malignity acts them all as if they were but one Person Or one is call'd the Devil by way of Eminence as being Ring leader and Prince of Devils Or in opposition to God who is but one the wicked Spirits are call'd the Devil to make the opposition the plainer between the two Principles of Good and Evil the two Kingdoms of Light and Darknâ—â—â— This Apostate Spirit though he have no issue of his own Body yet is said to have many Children amongst those that are properly the Children of men The Apostle Jâ—hn makes their number very great when he divides the whole World into the Children of God and the Children of the Devil 1 John 3. our Saviour whose Reflections were always very modest yet makes their number very considerable when he affirms to the whole Generation of the malignant Jews Ye are of your Father the Devil therefore they must needs be his Children According to the Hebrew Idiom of Speech Persons and Things are said to be the Children of those whom they most resemble For Resemblance seems to result from the Relation of a Child to his Parent and therefore they lie under some suspicion of Illegitimate who carry nothing of their Parents about with them but their Names onely Thus they are the Children of God who do the Works of God John 8. 41. Who are followers of him as the Apostle speaks They are the Children of Abraham who imitate the Faith and Piety of Abraham John 8. and the Daughters of Sarah who resemble her 1 Pet. 3. 6. Whose Daughters ye are so long as ye do well Thus Men are called the Children of the Devil Ob simile pravit at is ingenium imitationem And oh good God what a numerous Off-spring has this Apostate Spirit How great a part of Earth is inhabited with the Children of Hell of the Proud Envious False Mâ—licious Contentious and others who are the Children of the Devil I have already meditated Besides all which I find two things more that make Men much like to that Wicked One and denominates them his Children viz. Self-will and Ingratitude Self-will or the Unsubduedness of our own will to the Will of God expressing it self in Discontent Fretfulness Murmuring or Impatience is the express Image of that Apostate proud restless Spirit The Heathens expressed this wicked Temper by an elegant Invention of the Giants the Sons of the Earth making War against Heaven Away with Fables says Lâ—â—sius somewhere Vos queruli â—â—â—stis The impatient querulous and self-will'd are those Monsters that do indeed take up Arms against God and rebelliously oppose the Sovereignty of Heaven Oh the Divine and Lovely Temper of the Blessed Jesus who in the sharpest Case in the bitterest Cup shew'd forth the Exinanition of his own Will Not my Will but thy Will be done Oh dear Redeemer redeem me also from the remainder of all Enmity and Opposition that I may account the Will of my heavenly Father absolutely pure and perfect and more elegible than mine own if I were lift to my choice Yea rather that I may be so perfectly swall w'd up in the Divine Will that I may have no will of my own distinct from his but that as a true Friend of God Oh sweet Character I may will and nill the very same things with him MEDITAT XCVIII Of Ingratitude THE proper Notion of Ingratitude is not to be sensible of a good Turn done to us when we know it Nothing can excuse Ingratitude but Ignorance Impotence cannot A man may be grateful although he cannot act no nor speak Ingratitude is the most notorious when it is malignant and wishes ill or does ill to a person that we know has done us good To proceed justly against any Benefactor is not simply Ingratitude for my Love to Truth and Righteousness ought to prevail against any particular affections or the sense of any personal kindness And yet Gratitude will oblige me to abate something of my own interest and to more remiss in the prosecution of my private Injury But to be injurious to a person that I am beholden to adds Ingratitude to Injustice This is the very natural complexion of the Devil who hates the God from whom he has receiv'd his very Being All sin in man wilfully committed against God has Ingratitude in it but especially the rebellious disposition of the Devil who knows when he sins and has receiv'd greater obligations from God than Mankind What greater obligation could God have laid upon any Creature than he laid upon the Devil in creating him in so happy a state and of so noble a capacity his extract divine his capacity large his condition not only happy but glorious And now for the Son of the morning to despise his own Native glory and brightness and sink into sin and hellish darkness to forsake his own mercies and to be stillendeavouring to put himself and poor Mankind out of a capacity of receiving mercies to fall from the glorious Image of his Creator and then to hate and oppose it wherever it is found to take up Arms against the Eternal God from whom he had his very Being and Existence to flie from the very light and to hate Love it self Lord what created understanding can compreheâ—d such horrible Ingratitude And oh poor wretched man how dost thou resemble this black and devilish temper whose Ingratitude â—f thy obligations had been equal to his would have been as great and if thou refuse the offers of mâ—rcy made to thee by a Redeemer which are not made to him will be accounted greater What a Generation of Vipers is Mankind become who do what in them lies to be the death of him who gave them life Lord Do I well to be angry at the Affronts and Injuries the Neglects and Unkindnesses done to me by those of whom I have deserved well Let the sense of my own more abominable Ingratitude towards thee abate my resentment of theirs towards me Is not the wilful Prophaner of the Sabbath an ungrateful Wretch to deny one day to his Maker who gives him six for one Is it not shamefully ungrateful by Oaths and Blasphemies to speak evil of him by whom alone it is that we speak at all To murmur against him for taking away any thing who gives us all things To lift up our selves
Ward and constituent Members of their Family In the distribution of the Holy Land God gave no lot to Levi whom yet he loved as well as any of the rest intending that the Levites should be maintained at the Charge of the respective Tribes amongst whom they resided It is partly thus in the distribution of the World where God could easily have made provision of Land for every man and have made all the Inhabitants of the Earth Freeholders but he has past by one Tribe even all the Poor of the Earth on purpose as it seems to employ the Care and Charity and Pity of their Brethren about them It is a reasonable Maxim in Law Cujus est lucrum ejus est damnum That he that receives the Gains should bear the loss according to the Custom of the Holy Common-wealth that he that bought the Land should also charge himself with the Widow and content to have Ruth for his Wife so should every man who inherits or purchases a Lordship consider with what stock of poor Tenants it is charged and take care that by some honest means or other they be maintained But how dwells the Love of God in those Landlords who never considering the Charge that God has laid upon them nor the Relation wherein their Tenants stand to them exact the utmost worth of the Land by their good wills allowing nothing for the labor and pains of the Tenants nor for their Hazards nor Losses neither It is a Prerogative competible to God alone to do what he will with his own For all men are Stewards and ought to eye the Will of God more than their own It is true indeed every Landlord may yea and ought to make the best of his own But then if it must be considered in what sense his Lands are his own sure I am they are so his own that he must give an account of the management of them to a higher Landlord And it must be considered what it is to make the best of ones own He makes the best of his Estate Not who improves it and racks it to the utmost Penny Not who studiously adds Land to Land and Lordship to Lordship Not he who lays up Goods and Monies for many Years But he who puts his Estate to the best Use and improves it to the best Ends that does most glorifie God with his substance who loves to give rather than to receive Go now Gentlemen and in God's Name make the best of your own And how dwells the Love of God in those Landlords who purchasing or inheriting open Lordships where from Generation to Generation many poor Families partly by their Labour and partly by their Right to Commons have lived comfortably do inclose them to their own proper use without any just respect to the meaner sort that have some small interest there or any charitable respect to the poorest of all and so drive those away from them whom Christ has foretold they should always have with them Job speaks somewhat Rhetorical of the First-born of the Poor whom he would have disdain'd to have set with the Dogs of his Flock this is he would not have them his Shepherds But these men by a barbarous Metamorphosis turn the Poor of the Land into Dogs of the Flock a Shepherd and his Dog supplying the place and employment of many Families It was a grievous Complaint when they cry'd Jam Seges est ubi Troja fuit The Complaint is as just though the Poetry be not so good Jam Canis est ubi Seges erat And how dwells the Love of God in those Landlords who when by their severe Usage they have made their industrious Tenants poor or when some extraordinary hand of God hath touch'd them and made them uncapable of punctual payment presently cry Let all that they have be sold and payment made of cast the insâ—fficient Tenant into Prisâ—n let him not come out thence till he have paid the utmost farâ—hing and let his Wife and Children seek their Bread in dâ—sâ—late places or starve the whâ—le Good God thou hast not dealt so with prodâ—gal Mankind who have spent their primâ—â—ive substance and stock in riotous living and by their own faulâ— reduc'd themselves to Husks but â—â—st provided a Ransome for them and put a fresh Stock into their hands to trade with And what mercy can be expect who shews no mercy to his Fâ—llâ—w-servant He shall have judgment without mercy c. But on the other hand as Landlords do too frequently offend through Pride Luxury Covetousness or Cruelty so the Tenants through Idleness and Knavery do no less demonstrate themselves to be Lovers of the World more than of God It seems by the Prophet Malachi That God himself may be Rob'd sure I am Landlords are often defrauded and many by the Idleness and Carelesness of their Tenants in not paying their Rents or by the Greediness and Kâ—avery of their Tenants in impoverishing and dilapidating their Lands and Houses are very much wronged and perhaps by frequent such Abuses straitned and made less capable of paying their Debts keeping Hospitality or befriending their other industrious Tenants that deserve well For the Poor to oppress the Rich is not so usual but it is as certain a Symptom of a Worldly Mind as for the Rich to oppress the Poor MEDITAT XXI Of Tradesmen SOme are of Opinion concerning Trades as the Apostle speaks concerning the Law 1 Tim. 1. 8. That they are all good if a man use them lawfully Which for ought I know if it be meant of the Trades that are allowed by Law concerning which the Law has made Rules and to which the Law has annext Priviledges is very true But yet these two things must be confest That all Trades are not alike self and laudable nor may every Age and Temper be committed to any Trade indifferently Tradesmen are a very substantial and useful part of a Nation and their way of living seems preferable to the living of Gentlemen or Husbandmen as requiring more Industry than the former and more Ingenuity than the latter The All-wise God doth instruct them to discretion Bezaâ—â—l and Aholiab did receive the Spirit of Architecture from him as well as Saul the Spirit of Government But yet as if they were not beholding to him how great a part of them do prefer the World that great Anti-Deity before him So do all they that make the getting of Wealth and the raising of themselves or their Friends or Children to a singular and unwieldly Greatness the main and highest end of all their Occupations little or nothing respecting Charity to the Poor or the Good of the Publick And so do they who by making false or unserviceable Wares put a Cheat upon Mankind and elude the Necessities of the World instead of relieving them What can be more directly a preferring of Private Gain before the Publick Good And so do they who by Lying or Equivocations by dark Shops or false Weights or
The True Christians Test OR A DISCOVERY Of the LOVE and LOVERS OF THE WORLD In Two Parts I. Of MAN Considered in his Moral Capacity in an Hundred Meditations Derived from 1 John 2. 15. II. Of MAN Considered in his Political Capacity in Forty nine Meditations Derived from 1 John 2. 15. Non dubium est quam illud magis amemus quod anteponimus Salv. In so saying thou reprovest us also By Samuel Shaw Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed by Thomas James for Samuel Tidmarsh at the Kings-head in Corn-hill MDCLXXXII To the Right Honourable THEOPHILUS Earl of Huntingdon Lord Hastings Hungerford Botreaux Molyns and Moyls RIGHT HONOURABLE WHen Men are once firmly perswaded of the certainty of another World and do verily believe the Doctrine of Eternal Life revealed in the Holy Scriptures of God there is all reason in the World methinks to conclude that the first Enquiry should be How they themselves shall become partakers of it For who can be imagin'd to be sincere in his belief of so Glorious and Blissful a State that takes no thoughts how he shall obtain it or not so many thoughts as what he shall eat and drink and put on that sits down contented having given himself that cold answer which was once given to the Mother of Zebedees Children It shall be given to them for whom it is prepared Therefore to justifie the sincerity of their belief most Men do fancy to themselves something or other that will entitle them to this happiness though not so much perhaps because they account it so blessed a thing to obtain as dangerous and shameful to miss of it Amongst the many particulars that men do imagine will give them a claim to Everlasting Life The Love of God is one of the greatest and as much pretended to as any It is so Universal a Plea that I scarce think there is any Man who calls himself a Christian but he will make it Not to love God sounds so ill that it makes the Ears of the most Profligate Christian to Tingle when it is charg'd upon him But notwithstanding all these pretences to the Love of God it is most Evident that a great part of the pretenders are indeed strangers to it inasmuch as they may be convicted of the Love of the World which is inconsistant with it To find out and cast out therefore the Love of the World must needs be the most important Enquiry and Endeavour of Man of every man in the World Your Lordship will easily believe me if I tell you that although Men be never so great and high in the World if the World be great and high in their Hearts the Love of God is not in them Although Men have never so much of this worlds Good if at the same time they be unmerciful and uncharitable the Love of God dwells not in them This is expresly the Apostle James his Doctrine But to speak a little the closer though a man be instructed in all Wisdome and furnisht with all Variety of Arts and Sciences that he can name all things as properly as Adam or discourse of their Natures as learnedly as Solomon if yet the Love of the World be Predominant in him he is but a vain pretender to the Kingdom of Heaven a great stranger to the Life of Angels Though a Man know and believe all the wonderful Doctrines deliver'd in the Holy Book if this Faith do not operate to the purifying of the Heart from the Love of the World he is at present as far from having a true title to the Kingdom of Heaven as they of whom the Apostle gives this Character That they Believe and Tremble In a word though a Man be a Member of the Purest and most Reformed Church be never so Orthodox in his Judgment never so constant and specious in External Acts of Worship never so even and blameless in his Conversation never so exact in Works of Righteousness and abundant in Works of Charity and Mercy if yet in his heart he prefer the World before God he will be interpreted a Lover of the World and consequently an Enemy of the Father I do verily believe my Lord that I do here present you with a Treatise written about the most Important Enquiry in the World They are Morning Meditations stollen from the ordinary Employment of my Life which I do present to the World meerly to advance the Love and Honour of God amongst Men and do Dedicate to your Lordship in a grateful acknowledgment of your kind Respects to me and in Testimony of the Honour that I bear to your Lordships good Design of promoting Piety and establishing Peace in this Nation I beseech your Lordship favourably to accept the Oblation and I heartily pray God that as his Providence hath made you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very Illustrious amongst the English Families so by his Grace you may ever approve your self Tam re quam nomine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh how Blessed and Honourable a thing will it be found to be sooner or later to be a Sâ—ncere and Ardent Lover of God! To his good Grace and Guidance I heartily recommend your Lordship and rest My Lord Your Honours most humble Servant SAM SHAW The True Christians Test OR A DISCOVERY Of the LOVE and LOVERS OF THE WORLD In Forty nine Meditations Derived From 1 John 2. 15. The Second Part. Of MAN Considered in his Political Capacity By Sam. Shaw Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed by Tho. James for Samuel Tidmarsh at the Kings-head in Cornhill MDCLXXXII To the Right Honourable THOMAS Earl of Stamford Lord Gray of Grooby MY LORD I Have little more to recommend me to your Lordship than that I am your Countreyman and Neighbour which yet is a Relation that your singular Humility and Affability is not wont to despise though in a person otherwise despicable ethough But your Lordships Love of and great desâ—re to serve the Interest of your Countrey does recommend you abundantly to the World and does tempt me to speak of it in this Dedication My Lord I intend not a Panigyrick of your Lordship which they that are acted by a Worldly Spirit and design Worldly Advantages might think worth their while to contrive May your praise be of God and not of Men And of God I am sure your praise will be if you be a Predominant Lover of him I beseech your Lordship to strip your self of all your Worldly Quality bâ—t an hour or two whilst you peruse the black Characters of a Lover of the World and the just Motives to the Love of God and then whatever exceptions Learned or Witty or Worldly men may make against these Meditations which I believe will be many if you do not judiciously account the Love of God to be the highest Honour and purest Happiness of Man I will be content how loath soever to be accounted not to be what really I am Your Honours Most humble Servant SAM SHAW THE HEADS Of
belong to Beasts Love properly belongs to the rational Creature neither can there be any proper Love without understanding and choice And those Species of the rational Creation that are most able to love or able to love most are the most Noble and Divine Love is the Union of the Soul with the Object beloved and makes it as much one with it as it 's possible to be with a thing that is not our self Now how shameful a thing is it that such Noble Affections should match themselves so basely especially when such an excellent Object is in view The Daughter of a mighty Prince chusing a Scullion Boy for her Husband is not so unseemly a sight as the Soul of Man enamor'd of the World neither is the Eagle catching Flyes or the King of Israel hunting a Flea so ridiculous The Prodigal Gentleman turn'd Fellow-Commoner with the Swine or great Nebuchadnezzar herding himself with the Oxen is not so absurd The beautiful Sun indeed in its kind Condescension doth visit the very Dunghils as the glorious God is said to be even in Hell it self but will not lodge his Beams there But alas this Noble Off spring of Heaven the rational Soul how familiarly doth it lodge and lie down with the World and rest in the Embraces of that which is not God! A Debauchery every whit as abominable as a Humane Body lying down before a Beast Our Bodies indeed are a part of the Machine of the World and it is no great wonder if they be delighted in it as the Beasts are But for Souls and Spirits to immerse themselves in to unite themselves to material Objects and mundane Things is as odious and as monstrous to behold as the coupling of living Men to dead Bodies which the Poet describes as a great piece of Cruelty in the Tyrant Mezentius The style of the Prophets makes it an Argument of extreme Desolation when filthy Birds and Beasts do rest in a Land when wild Beasts of the Desart lie there when their Houses are full of doleful Creatures and Owls dwell there and Satyrs dance there and wild Beasts of the Wood cry in their Houses and Dragons in their pleasant Palaces as the Prophet Isaiah elegantly expresseth it Isa 13. 21 22. when the wild Beasts of the Desart meet with the wild Beasts of the Islands and the Satyr cryes to his Fellow the Shrich-Owl rests there the great Owl makes her Nest and lays and hatches and the Vultures be gathered every one with his Mate as the same Prophet expresseth it Isa 34. 14 15. Filthy Affections do certainly argoe a desolate Soul forsaken of God and forlorn and do extremely desile that which was once and ought to be the Temple of God And what shall be the Portion of these Profaners the Apostle Paul tells us 1 Cor. 3. 17. If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy MEDITAT VI. Of the Love of the World YET we must consider what this Love of the World is that is so dangerous And here sure it must be granted even by the devoutest Lovers of the Father Negatively First That it is not every kind glance toward the World that is it If so we may well stand and wonder and ask with the Disciples of old Who then can be saved Although one may apply our Saviours words hither and say If any Man look upon the World to lust after it in his heart he hath committed Adultery with it Although Discontent nay even the very rathering of Things is to be suspected yet certainly it is too severe to determine every single fond glance toward the World to be this damnable love of it There was a famous time wherein the Sons of God beheld the Daughters of Men and I think there will be no time wherein they will be perfectly blind to them whil'st we carry about with us these Bodies it is to be feared that the Beauties and Gayeties of this World will be creeping in at our Senses or Fancies and more or less infesting and infecting our hearts Secondly That a moderate seeking of the World so as to provide Things honest in the sight of God and Man is not it If it were as the Apostle speaks in another Case We must go out of the World For we see there is no living in it without some degree of caring for it No it must needs be an immoderate an excessive Love that is so dangerous and fatal If it be ask'd When that is I answer Whenever it prefers the World or any thing therein before God and that which God is Alas then every single Act of Covetousness wherein the World is preferred before God is Vicious Yes so it is and pernicious and necessarily to be repented of And if it be a Temper it is that damnable Love of the World here spoken of This Love must be predominant and it must be a Temper or else it cannot denominate the Man a damnable Lover of the World Lot committed Incest and I doubt was drunk too but I do not think the love of Wine or Women was predominant in him David committed Adultery but I do not think that he was of an Adulterous Temper But they that are carried by a predominant and habitual Love of the World are the Lovers of the World here spoken of whether they be the Covetous whom God abhorreth or the Proud whom he resisteth or the Voluptuous who are dead to the living Lord MEDITAT VII Men are to try themselves by their Love IF any Man love c. It seems that God doth estimate Men by their Loves not by their Impulses nor their Professions not by their Words no nor by their Actions neither For although it is true That pure Affections will ordinarily produce pure Actions and that as Faith worketh by Love so Love sheweth it self by Works yet Actions materially good do often prom a Principle not Divine and Pure but Carnal and Corrupt Therefore the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Tryes of the Reins visits and views the hearts of Men and from thence he values them It doth not only appear from this Text but indeed from the whole current of Scripture that the Estimate that God makes of Men is from their hearts Hence it is that we read so often concerning such and such men that they had such and such Faults and Failings in their Conversation or Government yet nevertheless their hearts are perfect with the Lord And other men were thus and thus specious and zealous in their Conversation yet their hearts were not perfect with the Lord And of others that they were very formal and forward Professors but in the mean time their heart went after their Covetousness It were endless to shew the special regard that God has to the hearts and affections of men And ought not we to estimate our selves as God estimates us If any man love c. This sure is the chiefest and one would think the easiest thing in the world to
be known It is without Controversie the chiefest thing and most material for Man to know concerning himself what he loves best If I know that God is the Supreme Good and that it is my greatest Duty and highest Perfection to love him best it must needs follow that it is my greatest Concernment to know that I do so For if I once attain to this understanding I will not be beholden to any Fortune-teller to acquaint me with my future condition in this World nay I will thank no Divine to fore-tell me my condition in another Man has nothing Better than his Affections nothing Nobler than his Heart Love is better than Beneficence Lazarus in being able to Love had a nobler Portion than Dives in being able to Give And shall this Heart this Love be given to the World A Man may converse in the World and be concern'd about it and yet not love it that 's well that may comfort us But a Man may also know God talk of him profess him perform many Duties to him worship him with much Pomp and seeming Sanctimony and yet not love him that may startle us It is easie in all other things for a Man to tell what he loves best Cannot every man tell what Dish of Meat or what Sort of Drink pleases him best or what Neighbor he prefers most And it is not a wonder that Men should not know whether they love God or the World best Is' t not a wonder that Men should be so mad or blind as not to see themselves Lovers of the World Surely the heart of Man is deceitful and that not only to other Men as some would have the meaning of the Text to he but to himself also I never yet knew a Man that would confess himself to be covetous though all the Symptoms of Covetousness were upon him Though the Plague-spots and Sores are upon them yet they will not confess themselves to be infected To undeceive if it may be the Lovers of the World is the design of the Publication of these Meditations Lord be merciful unto its and suffer not our hearts to be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin MEDITAT VIII Of the Extent of Worldly Love IF any man c. Methinks this Phrase supposes that all sorts of Men are subject to this Evil and liable to this Disease And indeed the more I think of it whether the Text suppose it or no the truer it seems to be When I consider great Men I do not see that they are so above the World as to despise it neither are the Poor so below the World as to despair of it as it is in some Cases No all sorts of men are subject to this Plague nothing secures us from it Riches do not it should seem by the Psalmist that the increase of them rather causes Men to set their hearts upon the World If Riches increase set not your heâ—â—ts upon them Poverty does not the poorer the prouder oftentimes and sometimes the covetouser too Holy Orders do not witness the greediness of the Clergy of all Churches Retiring into a Monastery cannot as the many unclean Practices committed there will testifie Holy Profession or an early resolution in Baptism cannot witness the multitudes that fight under the Worlds Banners who then protested to fight against it to their Lives end It is a close Evil or Devil rather and is found in company with Learning with Inspiration and the Spirit of Prophecy as in Balaam in company with Prayers and Sacrifices as in Saul in company with Fortitude as in Jeroboam in company with Zeal and Profession as in Jehu in company with legal Righteousness much Gravity Demureness seeming Self-denial and Maceration as in them who in the Gospel are said to love the praise of Men more than the praise of God It is found in conjunction with Circumcision neither is it washt away by that Ordinance that is called a putting away of the filth of the flesh But if we will come to a strict Examination we must consider Man in his Moral and in his Political Capacity And this God willing I intend to do in its proper place MEDITAT IX Of the Evil of worldly Love IF any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Lord what a terrible thing is this that is predicated of so small a fault He doth not love God! Why what could have been said worse of him If a man do not love God he is as bad as a Devil he is cursed with the chiefest curse If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathemamaranatha Who would believe that so fearful a thing should be predicated of so small a matter If he had said If any man blaspheme God maliciously oppose him spitefully commit Murder be rebellious against all Superiors beastly in all Behavior dwelleth in all Pride and Malice or the like then it had been likely enough that he should be esteemed a hater of God But to say If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Who can believe this Is it so great a matter to love the world Yes from the Predicate we may infer how great a matter it is The Spirit of God would not have predicated this of a thing of an ordinary size every body declares against the sins of the Flesh rails at Drunkenness Adultery Murder Injustice Extortion every Body brands Thieves and such like People But the sins of the Spirit go unespy'd and damn mens Souls more effectually See how damning a thing it is to misplace affections Oh how sadly is the world mistaken How weakly do men judge How many will find themselves in Hell shortly who had hoped that they were in the Suburbs of Heaven The common cry is A very good man a very honest man a civil good-natur'd Neighbor but a little with the closest Paulo attentior ad rem A small fault they think But is Idolatry and Adultery a small Fault This love of the world is really they one had as good bow down before a graven Image as love the world It is very observable how the Commands of the Gospel are mostly calculated for the regulating of the affections of Love Care Joy Grief and how it forbids and inveighs against the sins of the Spirit Pride Malice Distruct Envy Covetousness and the like The renovation of the Will and regulation of the Affections is the great work of Regenerating Grace It is paltry Pharisaism to mind paying of Tythes and to neglect the love of God Say not oh say not it is a small thing to love the world but say oh how it defiles how it exposes how it damns what Idolatry and Adultery and Blasphemy is it Arise O my precious Soul fully not thy beautful wings by resting upon so filthy a Dunghil by preying upon so loathsom a Carrion How evil and abominable the love of the world is I shall have occasion to consider more
men to be rich as he prefer'd the Dog Hazael to be King of Syria for no good will to him but ill will to Israel Neither is Revengefulness the sin of great men only A poor man may be as revengeful and take as much pleasure in fancying and meditating Revenge as the Blades of the World in executing it who for a word spoke awry forsooth presently term'd an Affront must have Satisfaction And to the Carnal whether Rich or Poor no doubt but Revenge is very sweet and the Fancy as much tickled and delighted with the speeulation of it as the bodily Senses with any Act of Intemperance or Uncleanness Who can chuse but apprehend the pleasure that the swaggering Giant took in fancying Revenge to be taken upon Ulysses who had befool'd and blinded him when he hears the Poet expressing it thus O si quis referat mihi casus Ulyssem Aut aliquem ex sociis in quem mea saeviat ira viscera cujusdam c. Oh that some happy luck would bring That Rogue Ulysses who 's the King Of that damn'd Crew or any other Belonging to him Son or Brother That I might tear him limb from limb Before Life hath forsaken him Whose very Guts I 'ld rend and eat My fattest Venison not such meat How would I make my Teeth to meet In 's trembling Head and Hands and Feet Oh how I 'ld quaff the Rogues Hearts blood Till in my Throat I made a Flood One would think he saw him tearing the Flesh and drinking the Blood of these men And indeed what was the greatest part of the Renowned Bravery of the Romans and Grecians in their Wars but Revenge But if we will stand a little and compare the provocations done to Christ Jesus and his Behavior under them all we must confess and say so great Fortitude all the revengeful Champions in the World never shew'd as he in not revenging himself at all as he in his Father forgive them they know not what they do No nor as his dear Disciple Stephen in his Lord lay not this sin to their charge Acts 7. ult I do not think it is simply unlawful to go to Law But if any man go to Law without the least mixture of Uncharitableness or Revengefulness the same is a perfect man I doubt Lawyers do as truly live upon the Diseases of mens Minds as Physicians of their Bodies Well I see there is no Revenge allow'd me towards my Neighbor and yet there is such a kind of Appetite in my Nature I will spend it therefore upon its proper Object Though Self-Murder is the worst of of Murders yet Self-Revenge is the best of Revenges Be reveng'd upon thine eyes O my Soul not by pulling them out but by shutting them by bringing them into Covenant Have thy Senses betray'd thee Deny them their liberty in some things lawful Keep under that Body that has been petulam and troublesome It was too severe Revenge in the Pepish Saint who cut off his right hand that had suffered a too affectionate kiss of a Female But if thy Senses abuse their liberty retrench them deny them sometimes of things lawful if they will adventure upon things unlawful Oh blessed God whose infinite Purity impartial Justice all-wise Love do render thee alone fit to take Revenge and to retaliate thine own injuries and mine too perfectly mortifie in me this Appetite and all that Pride and Self-love that are the fuel of it And inasmuch as I see it is by no means safe that such a Sword be committed into the hands of such a mad fool as I am help me to commit my Cause to him that judgeth righteously without forestalling him or prescribing to him not determining the way nor hastening the time nor so much as desiring the thing Oh that I may be able to say I have not desired the evil day Lord thou knowest that I may seek the peace of Babylon though I be a Captive in it yea though in her peace I should be no sharer MEDITAT LIII Of Cursing AS a Species of Revenge or at least a Product of a revengeful mind I may here seasonably meditate a little upon Cursing There is a solemn Cursing or delivering up to mischief performed by Church-Censure which is a kind of revenging of God's quarrel a Discipline that he himself has committed into the hands of Men which they must take heed to use for him not for themselves The greatest thing for ought I know that God has committed into the hands of men This is easily but wretchedly perverted when the Ministers of it revenge their own Cause and Quarrel serve their own interest and not Gods Gratifie their own Lusts more than the Will of God when they had rather that men suffer'd than were reform'd were damn'd than amended There is an Extraordinary and Prophetical Cursing proceeding from an extraordinary motion of the Holy Spirit found only in pure minds and yet but seldom in them neither Such was Elisha's cursing the ill-bred Children 2 Kings 2. Those passages of David in the Psalms I rather take to be a Prophetical Denunciation than a Cursing of the Wicked Let us be sure we know what spirit we are of before we adventure to imitate these inspired men And alas Why should we curse the Wicked who are hastening to greater Evil than we can wish them Besides Charity would rather command us to pity them and pray for them So did Christ Jesus so did holy Stephen so did St. Paul for his Judge Agrippa and his Persecutors the Jews Acts 26. 29. There is an extraordinary Self-cursing by way of Protestation to be used sparingly in weighty matters I refer this to extraordinary Swearing There is a prophane Cursing And this is either extraordinary or ordinary and both symptoms of a worldly mind Extraordinary prophane Cursing is when People in cool blood knowing what they say from a malicious mind and sometimes with great solemnity of kneeling down lifting up their hands putting off the Hat do imprecate mischief upon a person that has wrong'd them or offended them This when it is done in its Formalities looks like a Sacrament of the Devil an Ordinance of Hell a kind of an Exorcism But a horrible presumption certainly it is a prescribing to Infinite Wisdom a taking of Gods Work out of his hands an usurpation of Divine Prerogative Wicked bold man How darest thou take upon thee the government of the world and judge any man before his time Dar'st thou imploy the Almighty in a work wherein he takes no pleasure engage Love it self to act against his own nature unmercifully To pray God not to have mercy upon man is the highest blasphemy It is as if one should pray him to cease to be God Ordinary prophane cursing is either of our selves or others and each is threefold upon slight occasion upon none at all or worse than none First of our selves When men upon every slight occasion to confirm every inconsiderable truth which it is
the other repented and call'd himself a many Fools yet neither escap'd punishment The Church did not so Not unto us Lord Not unto us c. Christ Jesus the Head of the Church did not so he sought not his own honour but his Fathers The Church Triumphant do not do so they cast down their Crowns before the Throne Do not thou so O my Soul for what hast thou that thou hast not received MEDITAT LXIII Concerning the seeking of the Approbation of Men more than of God TO prefer the applause of men before the acceptance of God is to prefer a great Name before a good Conscience and consequently the World before God the good word of the World before the good will of our heavenly Father It is impossible to act sincerely in any thing and to do that which is right and good if we intemperately seek or thirst after the applause of men if we love the praise of men more than the praise of God forths will corrupt the judgment dispense with things that are sins as if they were none and divert the mind from truth and rectitude When Saul had more mind to humor the People than to approve himself to God as his Executioner of the Amalekites we see how it perverted his administration and caused him to spare that which God had bann'd Men are incompetent Judges They cannot discern the heart nor the integrity of it And the approbation of men is at best but silly and not fit for any wise man to estimate himself by Alas What profits it it makes no man the better man yea it often hinders them from being so good as they might Oftentimes it is false For those things that are highly esteemed in the sight of men are abominable before God It is always fickle and uncertain The good word of men is soon lost He that is cry'd up for a King to day shall be voted to the Cross to morrow Paul and Barnabas that are this hour cry'd up for Gods the next must die like men and be stoned as the vilest of men Every man is subject to Error and Mistake and he that once mistakes forfeits all his reputation for wisdom he that once sins destroys all the good Name that he had got as Solomon assures us Eccles 9. 18. One Sinner destroyeth much good and explains it well in the following Verse Dead Flies cause the Ointment of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking savour so doth a little Folly him that is in Reputation for Wisdom and Honour O my Soul study to approve thy self to God the Searcher of Hearts who judgeth righteous judgment by whose judgment thou must stand or fall at the last For do'st thou not know that the ill opinion of men is one of the Crosses that thou must take up And why should'st thou covet that which makes thee miserable that is declar'd a Woe unto thâ—â— Would'st thou have all men to speak well of thee And do'st thou believe it can be done without a Woe Woe unto you when all men speak well of you Art thou better than thy Saviour who suffered himself to be contradicted by sinners and endur'd their contradictions against himself Lord Though I may not expect a voice from Heaven saying Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased yet let me hear the voice of thy Spirit witnessing with my spirit that I do always the things that please thee And then though the earth murmur and the great waters rear there will be a Calm within Oh blessed Calm like that of the upper Regions which the Winds and Clouds and Vapors below cannot infest or disturb MEDITAT LXIV Of Pride in Birth TO be proud of and glory in our Descent and Parentage is to be a Lover of the World If it be asked Who these are that are proud of their Birth I confess I cannot tell how many are guilty but I conclude these that follow are Those that prefer being Sons of Princes before being Sons of God Those that glory mâ—re that they are born of Noble Parents than of Christian Parents Those that value their Birth so highly that they think Religion to be below them or a disparagement to their quality Those that undervalue Holy Bishops or Pastors or any other Holy Men in their hearts because they were not born Gentlemen Those that esteem Men because of their Birth and prefer Nobility before Virtue in whose eyes not the vile are contemned but the poor are vile The Apostle James was no Quaker and yet he accounted it carnal to prefer a Gentleman in affection or at least in judgment before a meaner man We receive only our Bodies from our Parents our better part is the Noblest as being immediately from God and so a Beggar if the denomination be taken from the Nobler part may well enough be said to be Noble How can any man be proud that he is descended of an ancient Family that he is the thousandth from Inachus or the Etrurian Kings The original of all men is the same and if we reckon right the Beggar is as well descended from the beginning as the Prince Oh what a brave Brag it is I and my Ancestors have dwelt in this House and been Owners of this Estate so many hundred Years when perhaps every Batt or Owl or Swallow may say as much of their Wall or Barn or Chimney Oh but the Family has been all along noble and honourable It is an hundred to one that in a few Generations some oâ— other of them have been Deformed or Vicious or Cowards or Fools or Traytors or Idolaters or Factious Nay do but look into the present Generation and those that are at present alive of the same Family and one may well nigh reckon with the Italians That he that hath neither Rogue nor Whore nor Beggar of his Kindred was born of a flash of lightning But suppose all this What cause of Pride have I in it Am I really the better or the more honourable for what others have been or done Quae non fecimus ipsi vix ea nostra voco Or what thank is it to me that out of my first nothing I sprung up in this place rather than in another that I crept into the world a wretched Infant by this Crevice rather than by that I was so sar from being call'd to counsel to chuse of what Womb I would be born or what Body I would animate that I know not so much as how I came into the World and am more beholden to my Mothers Midwife for my Nobility than to my self or any thing that I could contribute Wretched man Dost thou not believe such plain and easie things as these And yet shall neither Philosophers and Poets laugh thee out of thy folly nor Divinity reform thee Blessed God the Father of Lights and the Fountain of Honour let me esteem it most noble to be a kiâ— to thee and that to be like thee MEDITAT LXV Of Pride in
weakness and be afraid of such boldness lest the jealous God should interpret that damnable Idolatry which possibly thou art not convinc'd of but yet hast a suspicion of and at best hast no need of Canst thou not as well worship and pray to the invisible God without the help of a monitory Image as love and delight in thy absent Friend without the assistance of his Picture or a Present How dost thou think to see and serve God shortly when thy bodily eyes shall be full of dust and all corporeal Organs so utterly out of Tune that thou shalt not be able to make use of any of them Do that now which thou must do then And if there be any need of any Monitor of any visible help to Devotion inasmuch as in this complex state I find my Soul to be much assisted by my Senses or at least that it does desire and depend upon their help and direction Lord from what Object should I rather look for Direction and Admonition than from those that do most clearly represent thy infinite Power and Wisdom The things that thou hast made do more clearly demonstrate the invisible things of thee even thy Eternal Power and Godhead than all makements of mortal men can do Shall I that have the Heavens above me the Seas round about me and the Earth under my Feet need any humane Figment to represent thee to me or me admonish me of thy Divine Perfections If I must have have an Image Is not this glorious beautiful World a more excellent a more lively one than any thing that man can make of Gold that is one of the meanest things in it That very light yea if it be but the light of a Candle whereby I may see my monitory Image has more in it to admonish me of my God and direct me to him than the Image that I see by it Lord Help me devoutly and seriously to observe and contemplate the operation of thy hands to regard the footsteps of thy Power Wisdom and Goodness in the whole Creation to rise up by every thing that I see and hear and taste to the meditation and love of thy Name and by all these to excite my self to a dependance upon thy Power and Goodness And then I shall find no need of Admonition Direction or Excitation from any workmanship of man the finest of which is not nigh so regardable or worshipful as the skill of the Mechanist that made it MEDITAT XCV Of Formal Witchcraft THE second sort of the Devils Followers are his Allies that are in Covenant with him either Formal or Implicite It is credibly reported to us by those that have heard the Confeâ—â—â—ons of Witches that there are some who have so perfectly put off Humane Nature that they have entred into a Covenant with the Devil a League with Hell so as to profess to pâ—t their Trust in the Devil to be obedient to him to depend upon him for assistance to pray unto him to 〈◊〉 him in all difficulties And for Ratification of this Covenant they have signed Articles written with their own blood or given him a kind of possession of themselves by yielding themselves to be Nurses to the impure Spirits And yet these are professed Christians And others that have been so great with the Devil as to entertain him for their Bedfellow these impure Spirits in their assumed Bodies dallying with Mortals both as Incubi and Succubae I will not stand to question the Generation of those Heroes that are ascribed to Jupiter Apollo and the rest of them This if any thing is as the ancient Philosophy speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And men are disposed and prepared thereunto by that spiritual acquaintance and converse which they have with the Devil by the lusts of Pride Covetousness Envy and Revengefulness We read of some that have been so transported with Pride that they have entred into a formal Covenant with the Devil to be eminently instructed in some Art or indu'd with something that they accounted a great accomplishment And it is not to be doubted but that he is a great Scholar and has a singular Faculty in communicating Others have been so mad of the World that they have devoted themselves to the God of this World to be enriched by him And no doubt of it he is as good as it as any Mercury or Hercules of old was supposed to be both in recovering for them the things that they had lost or causing them to find things lost or hidden by others Oâ—hers to gratifie their Envy and Revengefulness have confest that they have bargain'd with the great 〈◊〉 or Aâ—ollyon who has accordingly when the righteous Governor of the World has been pleas'd to permit him executed their Malice upon the Goods Children and Persons of such as they have hated When the Devil espies any one of a discontent ed troubled raging mind full of Wrath and Jealousies and Blasphemies against God or fretful Envy and Malice against Men then is he ready to offer his service and to give his hand in a way of assistance if they will give him their hand in a way of Covenant And so the Bargain the fatal Bargain is struck up and the miserable Soul is gratify'd to its own destruction Neither need it seem strange the Transition is easie for having already obtain'd a possession of the Soul need it seem hard for him to get a possession of the Body for so I reckon he has of Witches having engag'd their hearts it is easie to suppose he may get them to set to their hands Neither need it seem strange that God in his righteous judgment should suffer them to give up themselves to the Father of Lyes to believe him anâ— believe in him too who have been long wilfully disobedient to the Truth that they should be suffered to enter into a Covenant with Hell who wilfully burst the Bonds of Heaven and violate their Covenant with God Lord What swift progress does Sin make in the Souls of men in how short a time do the shades of Hell over-spread the whole face of the Soul Of how great moment is it to resist the Wicked One in his first insinuations and to pluck up those Seeds that when they are grown up will make such snares for the Soul O my heart Give all diligence to keep thy self pure if it may be entertain not the first motions of Pride Covetousness Revenge or Discontent However take heed of sitting upon the Cockatrice Eggs lest thou batch them into Serpents deadly Serpents MEDITAT XCVI Of Interpretative Witchcraft BEsides this gross and formal Witchcraft there is another sort not so gross and palpable which yet denominates men Allies to the God of this World There are amongst men Allies by Covenants Articles and Formal Ratification And there are also Allies by Kindness Conjunctness of Interest and Faithful Correspondence So it is here There are many that keep Correspondence with the evil Spirit that have
and Ambition they 〈◊〉 the Devil of Dissention by the Devil of Revenge like King Jehu casting out Baal to make room for the Golden Calves and shewing much zeal for the Lord as they would have it thought when indeed they are acted by the Satanical Spirit of Pride and Malice and their design is nothing but to Rule or be Reveng'd If a man had as good eyes as Jacob had he might see the Rams that leap upon these Cattle to be speckled and grizled the Spirit that impregnates them to be no other than the Spirit of Apostasie and a black Incubus ascending up out of the Bottomless Pit Neither let any one think that the spiritual Sins of Pride Malice and the like are only to be called the Devilish Nature For what though the person of the Devil do neither eat nor drink nor heap up Silver and Gold nor acquaint himself with strange Flesh Yet Drunkenness and Gluttony Covetousness and Lasciviousness are really Branches of the Devilish Nature and belong to the Spirit of Apostusie For so it is describ'd by our Saviour Mat. 16. 23. That is Satanical be it what it will that savoureth not the Things of God Get thee behind me Sathan And why Sathan Because he though ignorantly oppos'd the redemption of Mankind True but our Saviour puts it into a more general Phrase Thou savourest not the Things of God implying That whatsoever opposes the Will and Ways of God is Satanical Men fear Hell as a bad place rather than as an evil and wicked state and so they hate and bann the Devil as a Name or Person at most rather than as a sinful and apostate Nature We read indeed of the Devil possessing the Bodies of men which ordinarily occur'd in the days of the Son of man But though it be not so much observ'd nor does so much astonish the possession that he has of the Souls of men is much more common and far more dreadful Is it not much more lamentable that the Devil should possess the Souls of men than their Bodies And does he not really possess all unregenerate minds Is not that Spirit that apostate Nature which worketh in the Children of Disobedience he Is not Diabolical Impression a real Impregnation As good men are the Children of God and pleni Deo more than wicked men by a God-like Nature so are all unregenerate men all Lovers of the World Children of the Devil under his Dominion possest by him impregnated by him and indeed by Scripture-warrant they are so many Satans in the flesh and Devils incarnate Learned men think that in Zech. 3. 1. the word Satan is to be read Apostate as if the Spirit of Apostasie did denominate the Devil And the wicked and apostate Nature wherever it is found predominant denominates men devilish otherwise Judas was no more a Devil than any of us The Devilish Nature is mischievous and unrighteous and ever opposing and perverting the right ways of the Lord. And they that are acted by it are upon this very account by the Apostle call'd Children of the Devil Acts 13. 10. The War that the Captain of our Salvation manages is not so much against the damned Regiments the Apostate Spirits though he has plainly triumph'd over them and I suppose his bright Legions do still under his Banner oppose and rout them as manifest Hostility being kept up amongst them as we read of between the Troops of Joab and Abner as against that wicked nature and those wicked works which estrange the Souls of Men from God as the Apostle John compendiously tells us when he describes the design and errand of the Redeemer he says It was to destroy the works of the Devil So then all that work the works of darkness and wickedness are his Followers and each man of them in his measure a little Devil Or whether you call them his Subjects Servants Slaves Children Apprentices with relation to his work his inspired ones his Scholars the Scripture will warrant all these Lord How unpleasant and wearisome a Meditation is this What an universal Defection is here How strong is the Conspiracy What a numerous Issue hath the God of this world who although they are thy Creatures yet are his Children What no less than a world wondring after the Beast No less than a whole world lying in wickedness No fewer than all men seeking their own Things Sure there is something Tropical in these sad expressions Yes for besides the whole world that lies in wickedness there are a certain number there are a We that are of God 1 John 5. 19. The Apostasie is not so Epidemical but that there are Seven thousand knees that have not bowed themselves to Baal The whole rational Nature hath not so herded it self under the Beast but that there remains a little Flock The whole Field of the World is not so overspread with Tares but thou hast some handfuls of Wheat in it Blessed be thou O God who hast not quite thrown away the World out of thy hands who hast not utterly forsaken thy own Workmanship or rather hast not suffer'd them utterly and everlastingly to forsake thee Be comforted O my Soul in the great number of Glorious Angelical Loyal Natures who are yet Faithful and reign with their God And do not desperately conclude but that there may be abundance of other intellectual Beings pure and unspotted who still deserve to be called the Children of God Be comforted in what thou hast seen and dost see daily I mean the great Shepherd of Souls rescuing out of the mouth of the Liou two Legs and a piece of an Ear Amos 7. 12. The Lord of the Harvest gathering sâ—mâ— gleaning Grapes two or three Berries in the top of the uppermost Bough four or five in the outmost fruitful Branches 〈◊〉 17 6. The mighty Angel with the everlasting Gospel in his hand calling now and then one of a City and two of a Tribe out of darkness into his marvellous light And oh cease not to pray the Lord of the Hâ—â—vest the compassionate Father of Spirits that 〈◊〉 will mercifully look down upon the miserable apostate World rebuke the Power retrench the Dominious of the Wicked One and reap unto himself a more plentiful Harvest of Souls MEDITAT C. Cautionary AND now what Oedipus shall solve this Riddle What Divine Philosopher what Secretary of Heaven shall give us an account of this strange Phaenomenon Is there any greater wonder to man in the World than a worldly man What Decrees of Heaven what Providence of God what Fate of Providence what Temptations from without what Inclinations from within shall we run to to give an account of this fearful Apostasie of so great so noble a part of the Creation from his blessed Centre his pure Life his paradisic State Whether we think of the corruption of the humane Nature in Adam yet it is a marvellous Mystery how a Person of his purity and soundness came to sin and how persons of that
when People live single meerly that they may live It was accounted bad Devotion in Saul when he forced himself and offered a Sacrifice And how shall she be accounted an acceptable Virgin who though she flies from other men forces her self Pure Virginity is indeed a Delicate and Divine Thing if it be any where to be found but this does not at all disparage Conjugal Love justly placed and purely exercised and observed Nay I do verily think that there is as much or more Chastity to be found in a Conjugal state as in a Single To the Conjugal Bed it is that the Apostle gives the Epithete of undefiled I wish the Virgins can any of them say as much of theirs more I 'm sure they cannot I will allow a pure Virgin state to be excellent perhaps more excellent than a Conjugal but it 's enough for the Conjugal to be accounted Honourable and that is in plain terms by the holy Author of it God himself But whatever excellencies in some sense or other may be found in the Virgin state yet I hope its Virgin modesty is such as will forbid it to vie with the Conjugal for usefulness which I 'm sure is one famous species of excellency And indeed for goodness or excellency in general I cannot see how that can be bad now which even in the state of Innocency it self was declared to be good Gen. 2. It is good for man to have a wife MEDITAT III. Of the Votaries of Penance AS for the Votaries of Penance though it may well be doubted whether they feel a smart answerable to the shrugs and sowre faces that they make and though it may be charitably suppos'd that they sustain themselves very well with rich cordials and good fare whereby many Pilgrimages of an hundred or two hundred miles long become less troublesome to them than many a poor mans journey or labour of a day and so their pretensions are not just yet suppose all to be true that is pretended how will it certainly conclude a contempt of the World For will not Diogenes amongst the Heathens pretend to as much neglect of the pleasures of the World and the ease of the flesh by lying in his Tub as any body can do by travelling abroad bare-foot and bare-leg'd Will not the Disciples of the Pharisees put in for the severity of frequent Fasts and match the Disciples of John outdoe the Disciples of Jesus And will not the Priests of Baal put in for a share of the honour due to Lashing and Slashing Devotion as well as any Gospel Priests There will never be any firm and comfortable inference so long as it may be required what do you more than others those none of the best neither So then the Enquiry will be at whose command out of what principle for what end all these severities are executed If any of these fail the contempt of the World is but a pretence And who knows not but that the worship of the Gentiles and of the Baalitish Jews too perform'd with so much smart and sacred horror is accounted of God and all good men slavishly superstitious and a hateful will-worship If the Principle out of which all these severities are perform'd be so pure as it ought it will produce an uniform self-denial and holy obedience and a contempt of the World in all the branches of it as well as in the pleasures so that if there be not an Humility Charity Faith Hope Zeal answerable to these bodily exercises they will profit nothing If a man give his body to be burnt and in the mean time have a mind to burn his Brother he is no Martyr no nor Saint neither And may not the Worldly Life be maintain'd and cherisht in the acts of Self-love Self-seeking Self-confidence Pride and Self-feeling amidst all this abstemiousness and these severities excercis'd upon the body Yea what if all these things should be nothing but to bribe the Justice of God to tye the hands of his vengeance to establish a righteousness of ones one to purchase by merit a sorry carnal kind of heaven merely external and future If so then they are symptoms of a slavish and superstitious but are utterly inconsistent with a holy and religious mind And who knows not but that all this may be yea and evey discerning Christian does vehemently suspect that it often is From hence O my Soul take an occasion to consider that thou as to thy natural Capacity art able to act without the help of the flesh and without any dependance thereupon and consequently capable of committing sins of the Spirit as well as sins of the Flesh however in a lax sense whatever is contrary to God may in Scripture be call'd flesh and so all sins may be call'd Works of Flesh When thou hast laid aside this Flesh thou canst not reasonably think of nor patiently endure to think of a long sleep till the time that thou shalt re-assume it and if after thy release from Flesh thou shalt still be able to act then sure it may be fairly concluded that even some of thy Acts even whil'st thou art in the Body are purely spiritual and do little or nothing depend upon the Body Though thou canst not be guilty of Adultery or Drunkenness without the help of the Body yet it is no fault of the Body or a very remote one that thou art proud self-will'd unbelieving and uncharitable All filthy and unrenewed Souls will not be the less but rather much more such by leaving the Flesh Distinguish therefore carefully between the sins of the Flesh and of the Spirit and reckon that thy firm and chaste adherence to the ever blessed God thy Centre and entire Resignation of thy self to him is thy Virginity and much to be preferr'd before Temperance and Continency What if thou have kept thy hands from picking and stealing if in the mean time by Pride thou rob God of his Honour or by Unbelief Christ of his Glory How art thou honest What if thou hast not smitten with the Fist of Wickedness or Violence if by Self-Will thou have Rebelliously contended against the Authority of Heaven and secretly opposed the Will of God How art thou Loyal What if thou have not prostituted any of thy fleshly Members to Adulterous Aspects or Embraces yet if thou have in a way of Self-love fondly admired and wantonly dallied with thy own Perfections as something distinct from God How art thou Chaste What if thou hast so severely chastised the Body that thou may'st seem to have battered the Out-works of Sin yet if it still lodge in the Castle of thy Heart if thy â—ody be empty with Fasting and the Heart full of Pride and Conceits of thy own Righteousness and Merits if the Flesh by severe Discipline and many Macerations be made obsequious to thee and thou in the mean time remainest unsubdued to the Authority and Will of God What real profit hast thou by this bodily Exercise or how canst
thou think without Blasphemy to commute with God If thou think by Penance to commute for true Conversion and Repen ance as men by money commute for Penance thou art in the worst sense Simoniacal and it will be said to thee Thy Penance perish with thee Lord Make me to feel the mighty power of Holy Religion upon my Soul subjecting it to thy Authority reconciling it to thy Will uniting it to thy Perfection and consorming it to thy Purity purging me from all secret Selfishness cleansing me from all Hypocrisie Unbelief Pride and Sacrilegious Conceits of my own Worthiness And then I will not fear whether in a Virgin or Conjugal state whether by the austerity of John or the freedom of Jesus to be accepted of thee and either wholly to escape or victoriously to prevail against the sins of the Flâ—sh MEDITAT IV. Of Quakers FRom these False Despisers of Pleasures I will now proceed to consider a generation of men that pretend to be mighty Lovers of God inasmuch as they reject and undervalue the Honours of the World For as the predominant love of honour will certainly denominate a man a Lover of the World so it seems that the just contempt of it should argue a Lover of God And here though there be many pretenders yet the People call'd Quakers seem to be the most famous species I beg their pardon that I call them Quakers which name they seem not to rellish well for I profess I do it not out of a way of reproach but merely for distinction sake I confess I do not know what the proprium quarto modo of a Quakâ—r is for he has many things common with other separates and with other men that are not separates so that I sahll not meddle with him under any consideration but this of undervaluing the World exprest either in words actions or fashions because he pretends more to this then any sort of men that I can think of and yet herein I will not judge him neither but in kindness put him upon judging of himself And I will digest my Meditations into this order First briefly lay down as far as I know the Quakers judgment and most general practice about this matter Secondly shew what Authority or Argument he brings for it Thirdly examine the strength of those Arguments and consider what Answers may be given to them And Lastly suggest some things whereby he may try his sincerity and spirituality in this matter I will willingly grant by way of Premise that Worldly Honour Respect and Applause are very dear and grateful to the Animal Life and Fleshly Mind so dear that he does prefer it before the approbation of God and the witness of a good Conscience I do grant that to love the praise of men more than the praise of God is a symptom of a Pharisaical and Hypocritical Person That all Honour in a Scripture sense is due to God and that all the glory of men is nothing but a reflection of Divine Glory That the proper honour consists in due estimation and reverence of mind and that the external expressions of it by words of gestures are less properly called Honour That it 's an Argument of a weak corrupt and carnal mind to honour those whom he knows to be unworthy of Honours to Bless those whom God abhors That it 's a great perfection to be mortified to the sense and expectation of Worldly Honour and Approbation and Applause and Respect of men and an excellent Christ like Attainment and Fortitude to be able rightly to bear contempt and in no degree to complain of unjust neglect And now I shall proceed to the first Head which I propound to my self in this Meditation viz. Which is the Quakers Judgement and most general Practice about this matter I think indeed they are not all agreed whether it be because some are less perfect then others or because some are more deluded then others I know not but yet their most receiv'd opinion is that they ought not to give honour to men And yet this they mostly limit to External Honour for I never met with any of them that seemed unwilling to be lov'd to be esteem'd well of and to be valued according to his Worth or Wealth either And so with them the bowing of the body in a way of Reverence looks like Idolatry the putting off the Hat is Superstitious the giving Titles of Honour is Carnal and so much as to thank the Fellow creature is at best vain and so are all Worldly Fashions in Apparel Complements in words Civil distinction and the like MEDITAT V. Of the Quakers Arguments FOR this serve kind of denying of Honours and Fashions of the World they alledge many plain Precepts and Noble Examples Neither will I dissemble there seems to be a great deal to be said for it They will tell you That as to this matter the great Moses was a Quaker as much as they when he refus'd to be call'd The Son of Pharaoh's Daughter preferr'd the Profession of a despis'd Religion with the professed Israelites before the worldly Honor of the Egyptian Court when he undervalued his own Reputation for a Prophet and would not ingross that Honor to himself but was desirous that all the Lord's People should share in it when he married an Ethiopian Woman at a time when he might have had Rich and Noble Matches and took so meekly the reproachful Reflections that his Brother and Sister had made upon him for his so great undervaluing of himself Of the same spirit was the Prophet Elijah who treated the King of Israel as like a Quaker as ever you heard 2 Kings 3. 12 14. What have I to do with thee Get thee to the Prophets of thy Father and of thy Mother And he swears and therein he seems to be less perfect than a Quaker As the Lord liveth Were it not that I regard the presence of the King of Judah I would not look at thee Somewhat like this freedom of Spirit and plainness of Speech void of Compliment and Courtly Respect of Persons may be found in the Story of all the Prophets almost from Samuel down to Malachi And lest this should be thought to be only an unpolish'd Old Testament Spirit they come as near to the Gospel Times as may be and quote the Baptist a greater than whom the Daughters of Men had not born whose plain and unfashionable Dress and Diet severe Conversation and uncomplimental Usage of all sorts of men even Herod the King and the Viperous Generation of the Formal Pharisees they fansie does much resemble and justifie the Evangelical Quaker They think they resemble him in his Looks and Doctrine and Life and say They would not stick to be Conformable to him in his Death too But if John seem also to have a little too much of the sowreness of the Law in him and so his Example should be rejected they hope the Author of the Gospel and his most intimate
Friends and constant Followers will justifie their Spirit and Behaviour The sharp Answer that Jesus sent to Herod the Fox the plain Reprehensions that he gave to the Hypocritical Blind and Superstitious Pharisees notwithstanding their great Authority in the Church his poor and harmless way of Living his disowning of Relations in comparison of the Doers of the Will of God his free and friendly Converse with the Poorest and the Worst too in order to their good shews how little of Stateliness or compliment or worldly Respects was in him And he taught men so too He ever and anon commands a simple and irrespective Discourse and Behaviour Let your Speech be Yea and Nay Call no man Father or Master upon earth Be not called of men Rabbi Affect not the uppermost places in Synagogues or at Feasts love not Greetings in the Markets when thou makest a Feast call not the Rich who can requite thy kindness but the poor that cannot to thy Table He reproved the Fashionable Robes of the Pharisees which they us'd to conciliate respect he prefer'd honest John in his Camels hair before the Courtiers of the World in their Carnelet Coats and soft raiment poor Fishermen before the Nimrods of the Earth beggarly Lazarus before the voluptuous rich man whom he does not deign to name although according to the flesh he was the Son of Abraham He magnified the two Mites given by the poor Widow above the costly Oblations of the 〈◊〉 and commemorates a Box of Oyntment 〈◊〉 bestow'd by a poor Woman more than all the 〈◊〉 I casts he was ever bidden to by the Wealthy â—ay he seems to make the giving and receiving at honour one from another to be inconsistent with the Gospel Faith when he says How can ye believe that receive Honour one of another And elsewhere gives this reason why many did not profess because they lov'd the Praise of men more than the Praise of God And were not his Apostles and Disciples followers of his simplicity and plainness Jacob was a plain man dwelling in Tents and so was Paul too and a maker of Tents to dwell in and he tells us of himself and the rest that they used great plainness of speech 2 Cor. 3. 12. Peter and James were angry at the honorable thoughts that they perceived the Jews had of them Why look ye upon us c. And the same Peter refused the compliment of Captain Cornelius Paul and Barnabas were grieved at the respects offered them by the Heathen People insomuch that they rent their cloaths and cry'd out These Apostles are still exhorting to uncomplimental Speech Speech not according to Mens Wisdom or the Wisdom of the World plain and unfashionable Apparel and commending a Dress of Grace and good Works before an adorning with Silver and Gold and costly Apparel They require men not to be Respecters of Persons and not to be Conform'd to this World In all things to give thanks to God the Father by Christ Col. 3. 17. In a word Who knows not what a Quaker Mordâ—cai was under the Law who would rather lose his Head than put off his Hat to prophane Haman And the Apostle James under the Gospel who requires us not to be many Masters whereas now adays every Body almost will be a Master not to have the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with Respect of Persons and does so plainly tax the Worldly Partiality of his days for giving Honour and Respect to the gaudy Genâ—leman with Gold Rings and Goodly Apparel rather than to the poor Saint in mean Apparel as if he had by the Spirit of Prophesie seen the Partiality of our Conversation or to allude to the Story of the Prophet As if his heart had gone along with us when the man lighâ— down from his Chariot to 〈◊〉 us â—â—d now what can be said more except we say that 〈◊〉 very Angels resuse Honour from their Fellow-creaâ—â—res and refer it all to God And God himself to whom it justly belongs to receive Honour from all yet is pure and impartial in his Regards to every one having often declared himself to be no Respecter of persons MEDITAT VI. The Strength of the Quakers Arguments considered I Suppose we are all agreed thus far That when the Scripture forbids or seems to forbid giving or receiving of Honour it cannot be understood of the real proper inward Honour which is no other than Reverence or due Estimation and is little else than the Love that we bear to a Superior The Text has commanded us expresly To honour our Parents to honour the King to honour all Men. This must be understood at the least of this inward Honour and Reverence which indeed is primarily due to God The Father of Lights but secondarily and for his sake to men also to whom he has communicated most of himself And according to this greater or lesser Communication of himself I suppose our Honour or Estimation of men ought to be greater or lesser And so consequently we are all agreed That there is no real Honour due where there is no real Worth or Excellency And to esteem Persons unduly is an Imperfection in the Judgment and a Departure from Truth which must needs be Evil. But the Excellency and Worthiness that God gives to men is of several sorts Natural Political Moral Supernatural and all these the Objects of Honour So that there is an Honour due to Parents though they be never so unkind to Kings and Magistrates though they be bad men to a Moralist although he never heard of Christ and especially to the Saints though they be never so poor and otherwise unaccomplisht by reason of the supernatural Worth that God has communicated to them And because the Image of God in Knowledge Righteousness and True Holiness is the most excellent Communication of God to Man therefore the Saints are in the Psalmists Phrase the Excellent of the earth and the greatest honour is due to them upon that account let Christ Jesus himself be Judge who esteem'd the supernatural excellency of them that did the Will of God more then the natural excellency of all relations accord-to the flesh and let his Apostâ—â— Paul be Judge who honoured Christ himself more upon a spiritual account than upon any fleshly consideration whatever though we have known Christ after the Flesh 〈◊〉 The Controversie then will be about the external and less proper honour or rather the outward expression of honour by words or gestures That there may and ought to be such expressions of honour according to the different Custom of different Countreys is plain both by Precept and Example To rise up before the Hoary is expresly commanded and it is made the same with honouring of Old Men Lev. 19. 32. The relieving of Parents is accounted an honouring of them by our Saviour Mat. 7. 10. And the paying of Tribute is an external expression of honour that is due to Kings and it 's expresly required For this cause
pay ye Tribute also c. It is needless and it would be almost endless to record all the Examples of the Wise and Holy Men in Scripture that do justify the giving and receiving expressions of honour in words and gestures Neither can we reasonably imagine that all Nations and Ages of the World are bound to the very same expressions of honour which the Jews used or those Ages of the World that the Scripture writes the History of If the Jews fall flat before a Prince or a Prophet and we only kneel before them we are not more Complimental than they but less There is less suspicion or appearance of Worship in giving the right Hand of Fellowship and putting off the Hat which we use than there is in their Bowings and Prostrations of old which were so common amongst them And as for Verbal Expressions of Honour we are no more Complimental than the best of men have ever been in commending things well done and praising them that do them in praying for the long Life and Prosperity of Kings and Magistrates in saluting our Neighbours and wishing them A Good Day or Good Speed inquiring after their Welfare rejoycing in it or thanking them for their Good Will or any Good Turn That very Apostle who so often gave Thanks to God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ does not boggle to give Thanks to his Fellow-creatures Rom. 16. 4. This I think is enough to justifie the sober use of these Civilities in Words and Gestures which they call Complimenrs But I do not think any thing of this does justifie the Hypocrisie Falsity Flattery and either undue or excessive Expressions of Respect which all sober men do complain of as well as the Quakers And oh would to God we were all so Wise and Righteous as to Honour and Respect all men agreeably to their real Worth and so simple and sincere as to use only such outward Expressions as for their Nature and Degree are agreeable to that Honour MEDITAT VII The Quakers Arguments answered BUT still it remains that I do invalidate or moderate the Arguments taken from Scripture Examples and Doctrine against giving and receiving Honour Moses indeed was a person of admirable Humiity Fortitude Patience Meekness and Contempt of the World but far from our modern Quakers For however he refus'd a cerâ—ain kind of Honour that was offered him at one time as being upon the matter inconsistent with the Religious course he had entred 〈◊〉 yet at other times we read that he was very much honour'd by the People and it was the pleasure of God that he should be honour'd by them God himself did magnifie him in the sight of all Israel I believe he esteem'd it as great an Honour to be accounted the Son of Abraham as the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter and to lead and feed so great a People so miraculously in the Wilderness as to live in the Pomp and Ease of the Egyptian Court. As for the Instances that are brought out of the Behaviour of Mordecai who would not vouchsafe his Cap and Knee to the proud Agagite of Elishah who would not vouchsafe a Look to the wicked King of Israel By that time something be allow'd to the Constitution of these men something to their extraordinary Spirit and something to the extraordinariness of their Circumstances especially the former the Argument from hence will be very much moderated And when it shall be observ'd that these very men at other times both gave Honour to men and themselves receiv'd great Honour from men as is very evident in their story it will appear that they were no Quakers in this point In the mean time I confess I could heartily wish that this civil respect might not be so indifferently bestow'd and prostituted by being made common to all men alike both good and bad For if all men professing the Gospel were of that purity and fortitude as becomes them and so free from folly and flattery slavishness and partiality as the true Spirit of the Gospel requires there would be a great distinction between the precious and the vile in honour and all expressions of it although there would be a just respect kept up to all men with relation had to their authority which is something divine For honour ought to be agreeable to the worth and it 's reasonable to think that the outward Expressions of Honour which we shew ought to be proportionable to the Honour we bear otherwise we shall be chargeable with something of Hypocrisie Flattery or Partiality which the Simplicity of the Gospel knows not The Baptist indeed was an austere man a Nazarite but his particular Fashion of Apparel and his way of Diet and Converse were not intended to be an Example to the rest of the World for neither did his Lord and Master conform to his Guise John came neither eating nor drinking nor yet do the Quakers themselves take themselves bound to gird themselves as he did nor with him to feed upon Locusts and wild Honey If they imitate him in the Doctrine of Repentance it 's no other than what every Evangelical Minister will consent to be a Quaker in as well as they only perhaps he will not be content to preach it so Nakedly as they do sometimes and as I my self have seen them As for that familiar Phrase and plain Reprehensions which both the Baptist and Christ Jesus used toward Herod and the Pharisees let all Divines that have the same understanding in Points of Divinity and the same Spirit of discerning Hearts be as plain and as positive as they And oh that the smooth Flatteries and colloguing Addresses of many Ministers did not so much tempt the Quakers to a contrary Extreme of handling men Rudely and without any Respect to their Civil Quality as they do at this day As for the familiar Converse that Christ held with the worst sort of men for their Edification his loving and undisdainful Behaviour to the Poor his valuing of all Persons according to their real Worth and preferring the spiritual Cognation before the Carnal I would to God we were all thus far Quakers I mean faithful Followers of his Humility Patience Zeal Charity and Compassion which I doubt not but many men are as much or more than these that call themselves Quakers But what shall I say to the plain Commands of not being call'd Rabbi of not calling any man Father or Master upon Earth of sitting down in the lowest places at Feasts and the like Why I have this to say That they are not plain Commands nor must they be understood in the plainest and most literal sense It is not fair for the Quakers to make Christ speak for them so as to make him speak against himself These Passages can no way be understood to establish the Doctrine of not giving and receiving Honour for we know Christ himself was called Rabbi and commends elsewhere the good Manners of his Disciples in calling him Master
exact as most Men can pretend to so exact that they would not Cozen the Levite of a little Mint or Cummin How many of these Righteous Men may we see every where who not withstanding their Pretensions to Justice make no Conscience of Robbing God of the Time which he has Consecrated for his own Service and the Poor of that part of their Estates which God has Assigned for their use They are so Punctual in matter of Commutative Justice that they Challenge any Man to say Black is their eyes and yet all their Neighbours know them to be black mouth'd which they shew by their prophane Cursing or Swearing whereby they wrong God or their Reviling Calumniations Back-bitings and Detractations whereby they wrong their Neighbour However Righteousness is a lovely Character and a Character of a Lover of God yet 't is very necessary we should examine well whether our Righteous Conversation proceed from a Righteous Principle whether it be universal and permament and whether it be accompanied with the Faith and Charity which go for the Constitution of it or whether it be not superstitiously designed as meritorious of Favor and â—riendship at the hands of God If so thy Righteousness becomes Unrighteousness MEDITAT XI Of Nonconformists LOrd what a dust is raised in this Nation about Conformity and Nonconformity let the Dew of thy â—race lay it before the Rain fall and there come a Shower of Persecution to do it Alas what pity it is that so many Men so Wise so Pious and so Learned should so differ one from another and that in a matter of so great Consequence and yet all of them so doubtful that they can scarce say themselves are in the right or a least so modest that they will scarce say the other is in the wrong It is not so great a Controversy as was of Old when the Question was who were the Prophets of the Lord and who the Priests of Baal and yet it is to be feared that God must â—â—nifest himself by Fire before it will be determin'd Is it not strange and sad That they that profess One and the same God Faith Baptism should yet themselves not be One Lord How hast thou forsaken the Earth How hast thou hid Truth from the eyes of men How is the Spirit of discerning fail'd from amongst us Here is utterly a fault amongst us somewhere and a great one too and yet be it where it will it must needs be that many learned and holy men are guilty of it For they are as shie to impute it to their Adversaries as they are loth to assume it to themselves This indeed makes the Case less sad but it makes it more strange It is neither in my Skill nor Will to enter into the Controversie between them for it 's very Nice and I see no hopes of accommodating the difference by any amicable Interposition or Argument But what then Shall I sit down and be satisfied saying with my Saviour It must needs be that offences come Alas This affords me no satisfaction so long as the next words stand of equal Divine Authority Wo unto that man by whom they come If I in the integrity of my heart only lament the breach some stander by or other will be ready with the Midwise in the Story Gen. 38. 29. to let flie at the one Party or the other and cry This Breach be upon thee and in despight of them either the Conformist or the Nonconformist shall be a Pharez in the House of Israel What shall I do then Why possibly amongst the one and the other there may be found some that are Lovers of the World more than of God I will endeavor to separate these the Vile from the Precious And then as for the sincere Lovers of God of what Persuasions soever they will be sure to escape at the last though it should be as by fire Now methinks I may divide these disabled persons as our Saviour did his Eunuchs into Three Sorts First Such as have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom c. Secondly Such as are born Eunuchs Thirdly Such as are made Eunuchs of men Nonconformists out of Judgment by vertue of Education or out of some Worldly Respects or Carnal Principle The Ecclesiastical Eunuchs that are such for the Kingdom of Heavens sake do not fall under my Consideration That they are such themselves do averr and their charitable adversaries are loth to suspect nay they are ready to say of them as the Pharasaical Scribes said of St. Paul Act. 23. 9. We find no evil in these men but if a Spirit or an Angel have spoken to them let us not fight against God We find no fault with the temper or conversation of these men therefore if they be thus perswaded in their Consciences let us not oppress or persecute them seeing the root of the matter is found in them By what Arguments they come to be perswaded in their Consciences to be such I need not consider Themselves have propounded them openly and plentifully enough insomuch that all men know the men and their Argumentations The 2d sort therefore are such as are Nonconformists by Education as it were from their mothers Womb who thereby receiv'd a prejudice before they could judge of things that differ I do not know that there are any such but 't is said they are and 't is not unlikely for we know what the former times were and what Power Breeding and Education has to form the Nations and fashion the Opinions of Men. If these should hit of the right way it is no thanks to them However not choosing it by a mature Judgment but being fashioned thereunto by company and converse it cannot be suppos'd that they act ingenuously or rationally And if there be any that give no better account of their Nonconformity then this that they were so bred and so taught I think they themselves are Carnal though the things they hold are never so Orthodox It is a vain Nonconformity as well as Conversation that has no other gound but this that it is receiv'd by Tradition from the Fore-Fathers And it may truly be said they Worship they know not what that have nothing to say for their way of Worship but Our Fathers Worshipt upon this Mountain They say there are of the Third sort that are made Eunuchs of Men that in their dissenting are acted as Carnal men by obstinate humour or worldly interest Some say they are proud and wilful and conceited some say they are idle and therefore they cry let us have our liberty let us Sacrifice unto our God in our way Some say they are obstinate and unruly They regard not thee O King nor the Decree that thou hast Sign'd Others say they are acted by Worldly Interest either the Interests of their Reputations which by their levity they are loth to forfeit with the People or their Estates which are advanc'd and not impair'd by their sufferings I confess some
their Females Maidens that had not known Men to the Lusts of the Sons of Behal For ought I know it was in just judgment of God that Lot was left to commit Incest with those Daughters of his whom he was so forward to prostitute to other men But to play the Pander or the Pimp for money is sure filthy Lucre if there be any in the World and to sell at the same time both Humane Souls and Bodies must needs be the Merchandize of Babylon What is predominant with those Parents or Guardians think we who although they do not dispose of Children into Callings and Imployments absolutely unlawful yet into those that are apparently dangerous and ensnaring and which a well confirmed Christian can scarce manage safely Or commit them to the Tuition of ignorant carnal prophane Masters that can teach them nothing that is good save their Trades and it is ten to one will teach them many things which are naught Or that dispose of their Children as Servants into such Families where they shall never have either Precepts or Examples to lead them to Vertue many Temptations and Inducements to Sin and Sensuality and in the mean time Employment only for the Hands and Entertainment only for the Back and Belly Whether these People be acted by a worldly Spirit or by the Spirit of God is easie for any man whose eyes are open to discern For do not they proclaim that they prefer the Body before the Soul and meer Living before Living well Although this be not down-right destroying them because the grace of God may miraculously intervene and preserve the poor Children in the midst of Fire yet it is no Thanks to these merciless Tyrants that put them in for they devote them to destruction I do not see but that they are as much guilty of Murder as David and of a worse Murder than he whom yet the kindest Divine that I have met with would never undertake to excuse who though he did not fall upon Uriah himself yet placed him in the Fore-front of the Battel and then deserted him And therefore the Spirit of God the best Casuist sayes plainly That he slew him with the Sword of the Children of Ammon And although these Parents do not themselves put out the eyes of their Children yet if they dispose of them into an Enemies Countrey and let in the Philistines up on them to do it if they resign them up wholly to an ignorant carnal and graceless Society they are as treacherous as Delilah though ere while they were fond of them and hugg'd them in their Bosomes and dandled them upon their Knees MEDITAT XV. Of Persons that Marry and give in Marriage MArriage is now become necessary to the greatest part of Mankind and is made warrantable yea and honourable too by the Ordination of God I have already allow'd its just praises to a Single State vide Meditat. 2. and I hope there are many that live in that State pure and undefiled But to oblige our selves or any that are under our power so to live I doubt proves a Snare to many and perhaps an Inconvenience to all But besides those that vow Virginity upon a Religious Account there are a great many that prolong the Single State of their Children in despight of their Inclinations upon a Worldly Account in the grosfest Sense And what can I think of those Parents who knowing the Inclinations of their Children of a just Age Constitution and Discretion and having fair opportunities of Matching them comfortably do yet constrain them to pass the Flower of their Youth as the Apostle stiles it and to stay for so many Hundreds or Thousands before they will part with them I know there are a great many shuffling Excuses but to prefer Portions or Jointures an Honourable or Worshipful Alliance a particular Serviceableness to our Selves or to our Affairs before that Peace Purity Satisfaction and Contentment which is in a desired Conjugal State must needs be a Symptom of a Worldly Mind If these Parents do not behave themselves harshly and bitterly against their Children according to the Apostles Phrase Eph. 6. 4. yet I am sure they behave themselves unseemly towards them according to this Phrase elsewhere It does not belong to my Meditations at this time to shew the mischievous consequences of such restraint whether Whoreing and Wantonness inconvenient and pernicious Matching of themselves uncomfortable Melancholy Diseases and perhaps Death it self But I am heartily sorry to find this Symptom of Worldliness there where it ought least of all to be found The lord pity all those who never saw that they offended in this matter till it was too late to see it Of the like Character are all those Parents and Guardians who by Threatnings or other Severities by perpetual Importunities and Solicitations do force their Children for meer Worldly Respects to accept of Matches against their Inclination and Approbation If there can be any Ravishing of a Maid without Deflowring her this is it and it is the more abominable because it is Parents Ravishing their own Children And we need not wonder to see so bad consequences of so bad premises no wonder if they prove to Love where they Marry not who were forced to Marry where they Loved not But of all kinds of violences methinks Self-forcing is the most unnatural and merely for the Love of Land or Money to commit a Rape upon ones own Reason Judgment Affection and Discretion is next to Barbarous nay I question whether there be any thing in Barbarity like it It was good Policy and is brought for an Example of good Oratory Sic Sacrilegus sic Fur sic Flagitiorum omnium Vitiorumque Princeps ac est bonus Imperator But how it should be good Divinity or how it should ever be the language of the heart of any Divines She is ignorant of the things of Religion proud carnal vain and many ways unsuitable but yet she will make me a good Wife for she has so much Land or so much Money That this I say should be the Language of any Christians heart I should be loth to believe but how shall I help it For what pretence can I have for my unbelief when I do see so frequent Examples before my Eyes Does not every Body every day see Men and Women professing Religion Marrying or Giving themselves in Marriage to Mates that are little else than Enemies to Religion plainly preferring the advancement of their Estates and Worldly Interest before their spiritual Advantages and the comfort of their Souls or indeed Lives either Oh but they themselves know no hurt by them they have better thoughts of them Love is blind Would to God Christian People would deal sincerely with themselves and then let any of these answer and say whether they run upon Marriage or blind fold or no. If not then they have either observed or enquired And if both upon observation and enquiry they have found nothing very desirable