evil examples I hate the profane Rout and all their customes of Swearing Lying Stealing c. and tend towards a harmony of rational Judgment and will with sensual Apprehension and Desire 2. By universal liberty of spirit in Judgment and Will Chap. 3. Liberty The judgment of a Wise-man trieth all things yet is not tied to any thing is open and free yet captivates its understanding to the obedience of Faith The spiritual man judgeth all things 1 â—or 2.15 but he himself is judged of no man Many are deceived by approving and following customes because they are in credit and use without examination We may and must live in obedience to laws Chap. 4. Obedience and Customes speak and do as the Vulgar but not Judge as they do but rather judge them Powers and Laws and Customes may govern my hand and my tongue least I disturb the peace of the World but not my Spirit my outward but not my inward man Behold I shew you a more excellent way Chap. 5. Dogmatists not to be Dogmatical or Magisterial in Proud Determinations or Definitions Scimus nihil opinamur verisimilia fingunt docti magis quam nôrint We know little we guess at the most likely things learned Men fancy more then they know There is a vain Philosophy and oppositions of Sciences falsly so call'd by men that are vainly pufft up with their fleshly minds and such as dote about Questions not knowing whereof they spake nor whereof they do affirm Plato never intended to tye us to his Idaea's nor Pythagoras to his Numbers nor Epicurus to his Atoms they only abounded in their own sense to themselves and the solacing of their own spirits with their own Notions Dogmatists are most Pedantick Socrates was far from them and was therefore counted the Wisest man Cogitationes mortalium timidae incertae sunt inventiones nostrae The thoughts of Mortals are fearful and our Inventions uncertain God knows the thoughts of Man that they are but vain 1 Cor. 8.2 If any man thinketh that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing as he ought to know Who can obtrude Principles upon the World but God himself who only is to be believed Let the obtruders of Principles agree in them if they can and then I shall submit Purge out therefore the old Leaven that ye may become a new Lump Put off the old man and put on the new man Be as white Paper fit to receive fair Impression Be biassed no way but respect the Truth equally As new born Babes receive the sincere Milk of the Word which is able to save your Soules Be Academicks and Pyrrhonians for men of that Temper are never Hereticks Fanaticks Opiniators Troublers of the World as Dogmatists Pedantick Magisterial and Definitive Gnosticks O homines ad servitutem nati A generation of Men born to continual Thraldome and will not be released Like them Men in Plato's Cave that never had knowledge but of Shadows and if they be told of the Beauty of the Substances they will not believe it And if any offer to drag them out of the Dungeon to behold the fair Glory of the Sun and the Truth of all things discovered by the light thereof they will shut their eyes and strive to run back to their old darkness again In Love with bondage Violent not hearkning to any thing wiser then themselves Malè cuncta ministrat impetus Festina lente All haste makes waste It is good to try all things 1 Thes 5.21 and hold fast that which is good Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest Phil. 4.8 whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise think on these things 3. By true essential simple Honesty Chap. 6. Honesty and plainness of Spirit A true manly generous free cheerful equal pliable Genius A spirit freely good not for fear of Punishment or hope of Reward Not only natural Innocency and goodness not acquired virtue and honesty but High and stately Resolutions of Grace and Perfection more then Nature Art or Law require Covet after the best things and yet I shew you a more excellent way And this Temper of down right simplicity and well meaning is the Mercury that points justly to the High-way of Grace and Glory The Stoicks aimed at this Disposition and Spicures more witness Seneca though blasted by others of unequal Credit to be above Want Pain Grief Joy Shame c. And surely they were not all sullen and morose but very firme grave severe as Cato was and pleasant too 4. By Practicing true Piety Chap. 7. Piety and Superstition An opinion contrary to this prevailes in the Carnal World As That God is appeased with satisfactions of Penance moved with Gifts and offerings Delighted with the Torments and Ruins of his poor Creatures with the Sacrifices of innocent Beasts and sometimes men as presents to appease his Wrath affected with Austerities Sack-cloth and Hair-shirts Ashes and hard cold Stones Macerated bodies Wan-looks Whining or Yelling noises Cuttings Launcings Pilgrimages Incense Candles Holy-waters c. as are practiced in Hermitages and Cells A madness to flatter the Divinity with Inhumanity To think to satisfy Gods Justice with Cruelty Of what nature do they judge God to be Surely they think him such a one as themselves And who hath required these things at their hands Is God delighted or ever was or ever will be with burnt Sacrifices with Calves of a yeer old with Rivers of Oil or the Cattel upon a thousand Hills or with the fruit of the Body for the sin of the Soul God is a Spirit and they that worship him truely must worship him in Spirit and in Truth The most noble service of God is without too much External and Carnal service It draws the Soul into its self and raises it by pure contemplation to a Heavenly worship Si Deus est Animus nobis ut carmina dicunt Hic tibi praecipuè sit purâ mente colendus It was the humour of the Jewes Chap. 8. Judaisme and Heathenisme that knew no better to dote upon a Material Temple and cry out The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord to be ravished with numerous laborious and costly Ceremonies and the Purer sort to superadd of their own Inventions innumerable Traditions imposed equally to be observed with those that God had commanded yea more Thus their Religion exuberated into these excrescencies and formalities which destroyed the Power of Godliness God gave them a Carnal Commandment because it fitted their low Estate and he kept them busied with many chargeable services to please them as children with outward performances semblable to the Heathen worship and to keep them busy from doing the same Devotions to the Idol Gods to which he knew they had a great wambling But with these services God was never fully
damnable they shall most certainly rise up in Judgement against them that know more and do less Let me add now certain Reasons applyable to the several Cases of the Persons before specified A former life well led in the use of Reason and Faith Chap. 10. A good Life denominates Ju◠is sufficient to denominate that Person Righteous that afterwards did fall into Frenzy or into a Lethargy or Apoplexie or any other stupifying or distracting Disease to his dying houre as also into a Pit or into Fire or Water or any other danger never to be escaped Nor can the Principles and Seeds of Moral or Divine Virtues be rooted out of the Soul by the violence or permanence of any bodily Distemper or by any sudden deadly chance whatsoever The Reason of this Reason may be because the Body is but the Organ of the Soul and that very weak and dull whereby it may operate in this World and therefore the indisposition that is is of the Instrument only and not of the rational and sanctified Spirit which is untouched all this while and when the Body fails can work better without it 'till it be Spiritualized and fitted for the mind to act by for ever in the World to come 2. Besides All Spirits of good men made perfect or not made perfect out of the Body or in the Body in this World or in the World to come have communion with God still and with the whole Church which is the Body of Christ the Head and therefore safe with the Father of the Spirits of all flesh before in and after all bodily discomposures 3. Consider farther That a Disease may and can kill the Body so can Poyson a Sword a Fly and other accidents of all sorts But nothing can hurt or kill the Soul but Sin Fear not therefore that that can kill the Body and go no farther but fear that that can destroy both Body and Soul in Hell-fire which is living and dying in Sin I say Fear that As for idle or profane Words or Actions Chap. 11. Idle Words or Actions spoken or done by children fools or madmen in Sickness or out of Sickness They ought not in the least to be censured for them as guilty of such words or actions 4. Because when a Man falls into an estate or condition which he could not help and in which he cannot deliberate nor choose at all Those Words or Deeds that are spoken or done by him during that state or condition they are none of his Therefore these miserable Persons are never censured by any Laws for ought they say or do Chap. 12. Censur s. though never so irregular Because it is not in their Power to help this infirmity at all and in the judgment of the Law they have no will because they cannot use any And they are already too miserable from the hand of God and that 's Punishment enough to free them from the hands of Men. He that knows not what he sayes or does is next to him that is Innocent They that cannot deliberate or choose are neither good nor bad Ignorance involuntary and invincible must needs excuse because the Law sayes Errantis nulla voluntas nullus Consensus Ignorants have no Will consent not discerne not therefore they are not Criminal for none can sin without or against his Will as none can do good without or against his Will Thus Children born blind dumb deaf lame c. must not be upbraided for their misery for that is a reproach to their maker cannot be upbraided for their sin Their tender Age preserves their Innocence they are yet white Paper and cannot be sullied with the World the Flesh or the Devil In like manner any sickness or any other disaster that takes away the Wits or the Life and comes not by our fault these things being out of our Power they keep the Innocent party from being polluted When therefore such poor Innocent Souls are surprized by the hand of God lying so sore upon them as to bereave them of their Sense or Life alas They are to be pityed not condemned for why much evil have they suffered but what evil have they done What if they talk idly or filthily Chap. 13. Sleep and Waking or rave and take on furiously We well know that in sleep when men are in their health and wits the fancy is awake and very idle which occasions talking and doing agreeable to that idle fancy in them that dream and talk and walk in their sleep So likewise in Sickness and Distraction withall the fancy is heigthened to stir more then in Health and Sobriety which occasions words and deeds both agreeable to such a disturbed fancy Now if the Body be awake and not overcharged with wild vapours flying up into the Head then the Soul can hinder the Tongue and Hand from expressing or acting as the toyish fancy did dictate in sleep otherwise And though a thousand ridiculous and impertinent conceipts flutter about in my brain yet my sober understanding will disapproves and rejects them all not owning them in the least if I be my own man and so never suffering them to be uttered or performed But when I am asleep or dream or am stark mad I know neither what I say nor what I do and therefore all that I say or do then is nothing to me because none of mine Chap. 14. Innocence preserved Solus cùm te praestare potest Furor insontem Proxima puris Sors est Manibus Nescire nefas Since thy fury only makes the guilt less thy condition is next to the pure Wights that know no evil Innocens si furere coeperit aut innocens resipiscet aut innocent morietur If an innocent person grow mad either when he returns to his Wits again he shall be innocent as he was before or if he dye distracted he shall dye innocent as he lived innocently Nulla Aetas nulla Sanctitas nulla Custodia sic innocentem conservat ut Furor Qualem invenit talem reddit No Age no-Mortification no close Custody can so preserve a mans innocency from being tainted as doth distraction of the mind for just as it found a man when it first took him so shall it leave him Infancy and Madness is without all Crime which is the root of punishment Chap. 15. Drunkenness and Passion As for Drunkards with Wine or Rage that speak and act monstrously and most illegally and irreligiously The Case is otherwise with them They might have helped it They have brought this condition upon themselves They should not have looked upon the Wine when it was red and moved its self aright by sparkling in the Glass for the riches of the spirits thereof It was in their power to have withstood strife and hatred at the first before it came to the heighth of fury and revenge They should have considered Wine and Love and Malice if not restrained by Prudence in time inflame the heart with unruly
Right and expected the future blessing by faith and Hope And so the faithful accept the present Right and expect the future Blessing by Jesus Christ and have it by Faith and Hope And though we dye before we possess it yet we dye in faith and lye down in hope to rise again to the possession of Eternal Glory For so the faithful are said to be perswaded of Gods promises having seen them a far off and imbraced them All these dyed in faith Heb. 11.13 having not yet received the full fruition of the Promises and their flesh rested in hope to put on a glorious and blessed Immortality Therefore my Deerly beloved Brethren be ye stedfast and unmoveable allwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. For Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Coroll This faith is a Passive Act of mans Will receiving and embracing that state or condition into which Gods love puts us to have a present Right to a future Reward Thus in making faith the Action is on Gods part and in taking faith the Action is on Mans part And this is noble and free in God to promise and perswade and in Man to be perswaded and to receive what God gives What can be more easy and reasonable then to say Amen to Gods Promises only this Fiat quod dicitur Lord here I am to do whatsoever thou wilt have me to do Thus the Blessed Virgin answered Be it unto me even as thou hast said Give Lord for thy servant is ready to receive And that with a glad heart too to obtain such rich Grace from the God of all Grace This is Gods drawing of us with the Cords of a Man which makes his Yoke easy and his Burden light and all that refuse to be perswaded are left without all excuse For how often hath God stood at their door and knockt how often would he have gathered them together into his congregation to be partakers of his Benefits with his faithfull People but they would not therefore these things are justly hid from their Eyes Chap. 10. Of both Covenants This is to be in Covenant with God When Gods Sponsions are Double Acts of his Will devising a present Right to a future Blessing and Mans Responsions are Double Acts of mans Will accepting this present Right to a future Glory And so our will becomes agreeable to Gods will touching one thing to be had of God which makes a perfect Covenant of Grace justly so called because God was moved to make that Covenant meerly by his Grace and because the Matter of it is very gracious So Gods Commands are Double Acts of his Will for a present obligation to a future duty and mans yeeldings are double Acts of his Will to a present Band to a future duty So our Will becomes agreeable to Gods Will touching one Thing to be done of man which makes a perfect Covenant of Works justly so called because mans duty is a work and the matter of it is Labour For God Covenanted with Abraham that he should walk before God and be upright and that every male of his should be Circumcised And God covenants with us That we should be poor in Spirit mourn Matth. 5. hunger and thirst after Righteousness be pure in heart merciful meek c. which is laborious Concl. Therefore Gods Promise is a Covenant of Grace and Gods Precept is a Covenant of works and Gods Judgment is a Covenant of Curses which we unwillingly enter into but the two former willingly Therefore a full Right Interest Claim or Title of an Inheritance to come together with an earnest penny given and received is the substance and evidence of that inheritance to the Heir thereof and he is as sure if he hold his Right given as if he actually enjoyed it Therefore the Scripture saith Eph. 1.3 We are already in heavenly places in Christ Jesus And God hath raised us up together and made us to set in heavenly places in Christ He that Believeth hath everlasting life Eph. 2.6 and I will raise him up at the last day Christ is the first fruits of them that sleep Now if the first fruits be holy then the whole Lump is holy If Christ be the first fruits of the Resurrection to Glory then all that are Christs even the whole Harvest of the Faithful shall rise to the same Glory And therefore Christ is called the First Born from the Dead our Elder Brother the first Born among many Brethren and if the first Born be risen then shall the second and third Born and all the Brethren that are born of the same God rise from the Dead and be partakers of the same Inheritance of Glory with Christ their Elder Brother in whom and by whom they have right to be the sons of God by the Grace of Adoption and Regeneration as he had by Nature and Generation If Christ be the Head then the Faithfull are the Body And if the Head be risen the Body shall follow after For our Flesh is in Heaven already And as sure as Christ is in Heaven so sure shall we be also For where he is there we shall also be and Christ is gone before to prepare a place for us that where he is there we might also be And in his Fathers house there are many Mansions and Portions for all his Children And where the Carcass is thither will the Eagles be gathered together Application Chap. 12. Of Comfort For Comfort and satisfaction to all Godliness hath the Promise of this life and of that which is to come Things to come are made Present and things unseen are made to be seen by Faith God will have us to walk here by Faith and hereafter by sight Here we believe and see a farre off hereafter we shall enjoy and see cleerly Here we know and see darkly as in a Glass there we shall see Face to Face and know even as we our selves are known We are sure we are now the Sons of God we know not yet what we shall be but this we know that when Christ shall appear we shall appear also with him in Glory Chap. 12. Of Priviledges by Faith For look what Right Christ hath by Nature to the Love of his Father who hath made him Heir of all things The same in kind though not in degree have we by Grace in and through Jesus Christ to be the Heirs of God and Coheirs with Christ Jesus and consequently as younger brothers to Tast of the same Inheritance By Faith we see and feel these absent and invisible things of God and know the heighth and length and depth and breadth of the Love of God in Christ Jesus which otherwise passeth all knowledge For neither Eye hath seen nor Ear hath heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what things God hath