they are sins § 73. Direct 6. And indeed do you not know that it is a sin to love the world better than God Direct 6. and fleshly pleasure better than Gods service and Riches better than grace and holiness and to do more for the body than for the soul and for earth than for Heaven Are you uncertain whether these are sins And do you not feel that they are your sins You cannot pretend ignorance for these But what causeth your Ignorance Is it because you would fain know and cannot Do you read and hear and study and enquire and pray for knowledge and yet cannot know Or is it not because you would not know or think it not worth the pains to get it or because you love your sin And will such wilful ignorance as this excuse you No it doth make your sin the greater It sheweth the greater dominion of sin when it can use thee as the Philistines did Sampson put out thy eyes and make a â—rudge of thee and conquer thy Reason and make thee believe that evil is good and good is evil Now it hath mastered the principal fortress of thy soul when thy understanding is mastered by it He is reconciled indeed to his enemy who taketh him to be a friend Do you not know that God should have your heart and Heaven should have your chiefest care and diligence and that you should make the Word of God your Rule and your delight and meditation day and night If you know not these things it is because you would not know them And it is a miserable case to be given up to a blinded mind Take heed lest at last you commit the horridst sins and do not know them to be sins For such there are that mock at Godliness and persecute Christians and Ministers of Christ and know not that they do ill but think they do God service John 16. 2. If a man will make himself drunk and then kill and steal and abuse his neighbours and say I knew not that I did ill it shall not excuse him This is your case You are drunken with the love of fleshly pleasure and worldly things and these carry you so away that you have neither heart nor time to study the Scriptures and hear and think what God saith to you and then say that you did not know § 74. Tempt 7. But saith the Tempter it cannot be a mortal reigning sin because it is not committed Tempt 7. with the whole heart nor without some strugling and resistance Dost thou not feel the Spirit striving against the flesh And so it is with the Regenerate Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 7. 20 21 22 23. The good which thou dost not do thou wouldst do and the evil which thou dost thou wouldst not do so then it is no more thou that dost it but sin that dwelleth in thee In a sensual unregenerate person there is but one party there is nothing but flesh but thou feelest the combat between the Flesh and the Spirit within thee § 75. Direct 7. This is a snare so subtile and dangerous that you have need of eyes in your head Direct 7. to scape it Understand therefore 1. That as to the two Texts of Scripture much abused by the Tempter they speak not at all of mortal reigning sin but of the unwilling infirmities of such as had subdued all such sin and walked not after the flesh but after the Spirit and whose wills were habitually bent to good and fain would have been perfect and not have been guilty of an idle thought or word or of any imperfection in their holiest service but lived up to all that the Law requireth but this they could not do because the flesh did cast many stops before the will in the performance But this is nothing to the case of one that liveth in gross sin and an ungodly life and hath strivings and convictions and uneffectual wishes to be better and to turn but never doth it This is but sinning against Conscience and resisting the Spirit that would convert you and it maketh you worthy of many stripes as being rebellious against the importunities of Grace Sin may be resisted where it is never conquered It may Reign nevertheless for some contradiction Every one that resisteth the King doth not depose him from his Throne It 's a dangerous deceit to think that every good desire that contradicteth sin doth conquer it and is a sign of saving grace It must be a desire after a state of godliness and an effectual desire too There are degrees of Power some may have a less and limited power and yet be Rulers As the evil Spirits that possessed mens bodies were a Legion in one and What Resistance of sin may be in the ungodly but one in others yet both were possessed So is it here Grace is not without resistance in a holy Soul there is some remnants of corruption in the will it self resisting the good and yet it followeth not that Grace doth not Rule So is it in the sin of the unregenerate No man in this life is so good as he will be in Heaven or so bad as he will be in Hell Therefore none is void of all moral good And the least good will resist evil in its degree as Light doth darkness As in these cases § 76. 1. There is in the unregenerate a remnant of natural knowledge and conscience some discoveries of God and his will there are in his works God hath not left himself without witness See Acts 14. 17. 17. 27. Rom. 1. 19 20. 2. 7 8 9. This Light and Law of Nature governed the Heathens And this in its measure resisteth sin and assisteth conscience § 77. 2. When supernatural extrinsick Revelation in the Scripture is added to the Light and Law of Nature and the ungodly have all the same Law as the best it may do more § 78. 3. Moreover an ungodly man may live under a most powerful Preacher that will never let him alone in his sins and may stir up much fear in him and many good purposes and almost perswade him to be a true Christian and not only to have some uneffectual wishings and strivings against sin but to do many things after the Preacher as Herod did after Iohn and to escape the common pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2. 20. § 79. 4. Some sharp affliction added to the rest may make him seem to others a true penitent when he is stopt in his course of sin as Balaam was by the Angel with a drawn Sword and feeth that he cannot go on but in danger of his life and that God is still meeting him with some cross and hedging up his way with thorns for such mercy he sheweth to some of the ungodly this may not only breed resistance of sin but some reformation When the Babylonians were planted in Samaria they feared not God and he sent Lyons among them and then they feared him and
grace which he hath given us 2. And by shewing us the truth of the Promise made to all believers 3. And by helping us from those Promises to conclude with boldness that we are the children of God 4. And by helping us to rejoyce therein § 12. II. I have been the longer though too short in acquainting you with the Office of the Holy Ghost supposing your Belief that he is the third person in the Trinity because it is an Article of grand importance neglected by many that profess it and because there are so many and dangerous errors in the world about it Your great care now must be 1. To find this Spirit in you as the Principle of your operations and 2. To obey it and follow its motions as it leadeth you up to communion with God Of the first I have spoken in the first Chapter For the second observe these few Directions § 13. Direct 1. Be sure you mistake not the Spirit of God and its motions nor receive instead of Direct 1. them the motions of Satan or of your passions pride or fleshly wisdom It is easie to think you are obeying the Spirit when you are obeying Satan and your own corruptions against the Spirit By these fruits the Spirit of God is known 1. The Spirit of God is for Heavenly Wisdom and neither for Foolishness or treacherous craftiness Psal. 19. 7. 94. 8. Jer. 4. 22. 1 Cor. 2. 4 5 6 7. 2. The Spirit of God is a Spirit of Love delighting to do good its doctrine and motions are for Love and tend to Good abhorring both selfishness and hurtfulness to others Gal. 5. 21 22. 3. He is a Spirit of Concord and is ever for the Unity of all believers abhorring both Divisions among the Saints and carnal complyances and â—onfederacies with the wicked 1 Cor. 12. Ephes. 4. 3 4 5 6 13. 1 Cor. 1. 10. Nâ—mo magnus sine aâ—iquo afflaâ—â— Dâ—vâ—â—o â—nquam suit â—â—â—â— 2. â—â— Nâ—â— Dâ—o 3. 3. Rom. 16 17 18. 4. He is a Spirit of humility and self-denyal making us and our knowledge and gifts and worth to be very little in our own eyes Abhorring pride ambition self-exalting boasting as also the actual debasing of our selves by earthliness or other sin Matth. 18. 3. Eph. 4. 2. 5. He is a Spirit of meekness and patience and â—orbearance Abhorring stupidity and inordinate passion boisterousness tumult envy contention reviling and revenge Math. 11. 28 29. Ephes. 4. 2. Iames 3. 1 Pet. 2. 20 21 23. Gal. 5. 20. Rom. 12. 18 19 20. Eph. 4. 31. Col. 3. 8. 6. He is a Spirit of zeal for God resolving men against known sin and for known truth and duty Abhorring a furious destroying zeal and also an indifferency in the cause of God and a yielding complyance with that which is against it Gal. 4. 18. Numb 25. 11 13. Titus 2. 14. Iames 3. 15. 17. Luke 9. 55. Rev. 3. 16. 7. He is a Spirit of Mortification crucifying the flesh and still conâ—ending against it and causeing men to live above all the Glory and Riches and Pleasures of the world Abhorring both carnal licentiousness and sensuality and also the destroying and disabling of the Body under preâ—ence of true mortification Rom. 8. 1. 13. Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 13. 13 14. 1 Cor. 9. 27. 2 Pâ—t 2. 19. Col. 2. 18 21 23. 8. The Spirit of Christ contradicteth not the doctrine of Christ in the holy Scripture but moveth us to an exact conformity thereto Isa. 8. 20. This is the sure Rule to try pretences and motions of every Spirit by For we are sure that the Spirit of Christ is the Author of that word and we are sure he is not contrary to himself 9. The motions of the Spirit do all tend to our Good and are neither Ludicrous impertinent or hurtful finally They are all for the perfecting of sanctification obedience and for our salvation Therefore unprofitable trifles or despair and hurtful distractions and disturbances of mind which drive from God unfit for duty and hinder salvation are not the motions of the Spirit of God 2 Tim. 1. 7. Rom. 8. 15. Isa. 11. 2. Gal. 5. 22. Zech. 12. 10. 1 Pet. 4. 14. 2 Cor. 3. 6. 10. Lastly The Spirit of God subjecteth all to God and raiseth the heart to him and maketh us spiritual and divine and is ever for Gods glory 1 Iohn 4 5 6. 1 Cor. 6. 11. 17 20. Ephes. 2. 18 22. Phil. 3. 3 19 20. 1 Pet. 1. 2. 4 6. Examine the Texts here cited and you will find that by all these fruits the Spirit of God is known from all seducing Spirits and from the fancies or passions of self-conceited men § 14. Direct 2. Quench not the Spirit either by wilful sin or by your neglecting of its offered help Direct â— It is as the spring to all your spiritual motions as the Wind to your Sails You can do nothing without it Therefore reverence and regard its help and pray for it and obey it and neglect it not When you are sure it is the Spirit of God indeed that is knocking at the door behave not your selves as if you heard not 1. Obey him speedily Delay is a present unthankful refusal and a kind of a denyal 2. Obey him throughly A half obedience is disobedience Put him not off with Ananias and Saphira's gift the half of that which he requireth of you 3. Obey him constantly not sometime hearkning to him and more frequently neglecting him but attending him in a learning obediential course of life § 15. Direct 3. Neglect not those means which the Spirit hath appointed you to use for the receiving Direct 3. of us help and which be useth in his holy operations If you will meet with him attend him in his own way and expect him not in by-wayes where he useth not to go Pray and meâ—itaâ—e and hear and read and do your best and expect his blessing Though your plowing and sâ—winâ— will not give you a plentiful harvest without the Sun and Rain and the blessing of God yet these will not do â—t neither unless you plow and sow God hath not appointed a course of means in Nature or Morality in vain nor will he use to meet you in any other way § 16. Direct 4. Do most when the Spirit helpeth you most Neglect not the extraordinary measures Direct 4. of his assistance If he extraordinarily help you in prayer or meditation improve that help and break not â—st so soon as at other times without necessity Not that you should omit duty till you seel his help For he useth to come in with help in the performance and not in the neglect of duty But tire not out your self with affected length when you want the life § 17. Direct 5. Be not unthankful for the assistance he hath given you Deny not his grace Direct 5. Ascribe it not to nature Remember it to encourage your future expectations
and Sanctifier of souls and in what order he doth all this by the Ministry of the Word 12. In the next open to them the office and use and duty of the ordinary Ministry and their duty toward them especially as Hearers and the nature and use of publick Worship and the nature and Communion of Saints and Churches 13. In the next open to them the Nature and use of Bâ—pâ—ism and the Lords Supper 14. In the next open to them the shortness of life and the state of souls at death and after death and the day of Judgement and the Justification of the Righteous and the Condemnation of the wicked at that day 15. In the next open to them the Joyes of Hâ—aven and the miseries of the damned 16. In the next open to them the vanity of all the pleasure and profits and honour of this World and the method of Temptations and how to overcome them 17. In the next open to them the reason and use of suffering for Christ and of self denyal and how to prepare for sickness and death And after this go over also the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments § 13. Direct 13. After all your instructions make them briefly give you an account in their own Direct 13. words of what they understand and remember of all or else the next time to give account of the fâ—rmer And encourage them for all that is well done in their endeavours § 14. Direct 14. Labour in all to keep up a â—akened serious attention and still to print upon their Direct 14. hearts the greatest things And to that end For the Matter of your teaching and discourse let nothing be so much in your mouths as 1. The Nature and Relations of God 2. A Crucified and a Glorified Christ with all his grace and priviledges 3. The operations of the spirit on the soul. 4. The madness of sinners and the vanity of the world 5. And endless Glory and Joy of Saints and misery of the ungodly after death Let these five points be frequently urged and be the life of all the rest of your discourse And then for the Manner of your speaking to them let it be alwayes with such a mixture of familiarity and seriousness that may carry along their serious attentions whether they will or no Speak to them as if they or you were dying and as if you saw God and Heaven and Hell § 15. Direct 15. Take each of them sometime by themselves and there describe to them the work Direct 15. of Renovation and ask them whether ever such a work was wrought upon them Shew them the true Marks of Grace and help them to try themselves Urge them to tell you truly whether their Love to God or the Creature to Heaven or Earth to Holiness or Flesh-pleasing be more and what it is that hath their hearts and care and chief endeavour And if you find them regenerate help to strengthen them If you find them too much dejected help to Comfort them And if you find them unregenerate help to convince them and then to humble them and then to shew them the remedy in Christ and then shew them their duty that they may have part in Christ and drive all home to the end that you desire to see But do all this with Love and gentleness and privacy § 16. Direct 16. Some pertinent Questions which by the answer will engage them to teach themselves Direct 16. or to judge themselves will be sometimes of very great use As such as these Do you not know that you must shortly dye Do you not believe that immediately your souls must enter upon an endless life of joy or misery Will worldly wealth and honours or fleshly pleasures be pleasant to you then Had you then rather be a Saint or an ungodly sinner Had you not then rather be one of the holiest that the World despised and abused than one of the greatest and richest of the wicked When Time is past and you must give account of it had you not then rather it had been spent in holiness and obedience and diligent preparation for the life to come than in pride and pleasure and pampering the flesh How could you make shift to forget your endless life so long Or to sleep quietly in an unregenerate state What if you had died before conversion what think you had become of you and where had you now been Do you think that any of those in Hell are glad that they were ungodly or have now any pleasure in their former merriments and sin What think you would they do if it were all to do again Do you think if an Angel or Saint from Heaven should come to decide the Controversie between the Godly and the Wicked that he would speak against a Holy and Heavenly life or plead for a loose and fleshly life or which side think you he would take Did not God know what he did when he made the Scriptures Is he or an ungodly scorner to be more regarded Do you think every man in the World will not wish at last that he had been a Saint what ever it had cost him Such kind of Questions urge the Conscience and much convince § 17. Direct 17. Cause them to learn some one most plain and pertinent text for every great Direct 17. and necessary duty and against every great and dangerous sin and often to repeat them to you As Luk. 13. 3 5. Except ye Repent ye shall all perish Joh. 3. 5. Except a man be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven So Mat. 18. 3. Rom. 8. 9. Heb. 18. 14. Ioh. 3. 16 Luk. 18. 1 c. So against lying swearing taking Gods name in vain flesh-pleasing Gluttony pride and the rest § 18. Direct 18. Drive all your Convictions to a Resolution of Endeavour and amendment and Direct 18. make them sometime promise you to do that which you have convinced them of And sometimes before witnesses But let it be done with these necessary Cautions 1. That you urge not a promise in any doubtful point or such as you have not first convinced them of 2. That you urge not a promise in things beyond their present strength As you must not bid them promise you to Believe or to Love God or to be tender-hearted or heavenly-minded but to do those duties which tend to these as to hear the Word or read or pray or meditate or keep good company or avoid temptations c. 3. That you be not too often upon this or upon one and the same strain in the other methods lest they take them but for words of course and custome teach them to contemn them But seasonably and prudently done their promises will lay a great engagement on them § 19. Direct 19. Teach them how to pray by formes or without as is most suitable to their â—ase and Direct 19. parts And either your self or
in the Scripture we have it more certainly revealed already Therefore the Revelation can be nothing but an assistance of the persons faith or a call to obedience or a reproof of some sin which every man is to believe according as there is true evidence that indeed it is a Divine Revelation or Vision which if it be not the same thing is still sure to us in the Scripture 3. If it be something that is only Besides the Scripture as about events and facts or Prophecies of what will befall particular places or persons we must first see whether the evidence of a Divine revelation be clear in it or not And that is known 1. To the person himself by the self-attesting and convincing power of a Divine Revelation which no man knoweth but he that hath it And we must be very cautelous lest we take false conceptions to be such But to himself and others it is known 1. At present by clear uncontrolled Miracles which are Gods attestation which if men shew we are bound in this case to believe them 2. For the Future by the event when things so plainly John 3. 2. John 13. 19. 14. 20. Luke 21. 7 9 28 31 36. Matth. 5. 18. 24. 34. 21. 4. come to pass as prove the prediction to be of God He therefore that giveth you not by certain Miracles uncontrolled a just proof that he is sent of God is to be heard with a suspended belief you must stay till the event shew whether he say true or not And not act any thing in the mean time upon an unproved presumption either of the truth or falshood of his words 4. If you are in doubt whether that which he speaketh be contrary to Gods Word or not you must hear him with a proportionable suspicion and give no credit to him till you have tryed whether it be so or not 5. It is a dangerous snare and sin to believe any ones Prophecies or Revelations meerly because they are very Holy persons and do most confidently averr or swear it For they may be deceived themselves As also to take hysterical or melancholy delirations or conceptions for the Revelations of the Spirit of God and so to father falshood upon God Quest. 165. May one be saved who believeth that the Scripture hath any mistake or error and believeth it not all Answ. THe chief part of the answer to this must be fetcht from what is said before about Fundamentals Rev. 6. 10. 19. 9 11. 21. 5. 22. 6. 1 John 2. 8. 5. 20. 2 Cor. 1. 18. 1 Cor. 15. 1 2 3 c. 1. No man can be saved who believeth not that God is no lyar and that all his Word is true Because indeed he believeth not that there is a God 2. No man can be saved who believeth not the points that are essential to true Godliness nor any man that heareth the Word who believeth not all Essential to Christianity or the Christian Covenant and Religion 3. A man may be saved who believeth not some Books of Scripture as Iude 2 Pet. 2 Iohn 3 Iohn Revelations to be Canonical or the Word of God so he heartily believe the rest or the Essentials 4. He that thinketh that the Prophets Sacred Historians Evangelists and Apostles were guided to Mark 16. 16. Rom. 10. 12 13. John 3. 16 18. 1 John 4. 2 3. an Infallible delivery and recording of all the great substantial necessary points of the Gospel but not to an Infallibility in every by-expression phrase citation or circumstance doth disadvantage his own faith as to all the rest but yet may be saved if he believe the substance with a sound and practical belief Quest. 166. Who be they that give too little to the Scriptures and who too much and what is the danger of each extream Answ. I. IT is not easie to enumerate all the errors on either extream but only to give some instances of each 1. They give too little to the Scriptures who dâ—ny it to be indited by inspiration of the Infallible Spirit of God and to be wholly true 2. And they that detract from some parts or Books of it while they believe the rest 3. And they that think it is not given as a Law of God and as a Rule of faith and life 4. And they that think it is not an Universal Law and Rule for all the world but for some parts only supposing the predication of it 5. And they that think it an Imperfect Law and Rule which must be made up with the supplement of Traditions or Revelations 6. And they that think that it was adapted only to the times it was written in and James 4. 12. Isa. 33. 22. Râ—v 22. 18 19. Matth. 28. 20. Isa. 8. 16 20. Psal. 19. 7 8. 119. 130. Prov. 14. 20 22. 8 5. Deut. 12. 32. not to ours as not foreseeing what would be 7. And they that think it is culpably defective in Method 8. And they that think it culpably defective in phrase or aptness or elegancy of style 9. And they that think that it containeth not all that was necessary or fit for universal determination of that kind of things which it doth at all universally determine of As e. g. that it made two Sacraments but not all of that kind that are fit to be made but hath left men to invent and make more of the same nature and use 10. And those that think that it is fitted only to the Learned or only to the unlearned only to Princes or only to subjects c. 11. And those that think that it is but for a time and then by alteration to be perfected as Moses Law was 12. And those that think that the Pope Princes or Prelates or any men may change or alter it II. Those give too much in bulk but too little in vertue to the Scriptures 1. Who would set them up instead of the whole Law and Light of Nature as excluding this as useless where the Scripture is 2. And they that â—eign it to be instead of all Grammars Logick Philosophy and all other Arts and Sciences and to be a perfect particular Rule for every Ruler Lawyer Physicion Marriner Architect Husbandman and Tradesman to do his work by 3. And they that â—eign it to be fully sufficient to all men to prove its own authority and truth without 1 Joh. 1. 1 2 3. 3 John 12. Heb. 2. 3 4. John 21. 24. the subsidiary use of that Church-History and Tradition which telleth us the supposed Matters of fact and must help us to know what Books are Canonical and what not and without historical evidence that these are the true Books which the Prophets and Apostles wrote and the Miracles and Providences which have attested them 4. And those that think that it is sufficient for its own promulgation or the peoples instruction Ephes. 4. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. John 6.
their happiness to live idly and take that for the best Service where they have least work But have you nothing to do for your selves for soul nor body If you have leisure from your Masters service you should thankfully improve it in Gods service and your own § 31. Direct 3. Settle your selves in a lawful Calling which will keep you under a necessity of ordinary Direct 3. and orderly employment As we cannot so easily bring our minds to a close attendance upon God in the Week days when we have our common businesses to divert us as we can do on the Lords Day which is purposely set apart for it and in which we have the use of his stated Ordinances to assist us even so a man that is out of a stated course of labour cannot avoid idleness so well as he that hath his ordinary time and course of business to keep him still at work It is a dangerous life to live out of a Calling § 32. Direct 4. Take heed of excess of meat and drink and sleep For these drown the senses and Direct 4. dull the spirits and load you with a burden of flesh or humours and greatly undispose the body to all diligent useful labours A full Belly and drowsie Brain are unfit for work It will seem work enough to such to carry the load of flesh or flegm which they have gathered A pampered body is more disposed to lust and wantonness than to work § 33. Direct 5. A man-like Resolution is an effectual course against sloth Resolve and it will be Direct 5. done Give not way to a slothful disposition Be up and doing you can do it if you will but resolve To this end be never without Gods quickning motives before-mentioned on your minds Think what a sin and shame it is to waste your Time to live like the dead to bury a rational soul in flesh to be a slave to so base a thing as sloth to neglect all Gods work while he supporteth and maintaineth you and looketh on to live in sloth with such miserable souls so neer to judgement and Eternity Such thoughts well set home will make you stir when a drowsie soul makes an idle body § 34. Direct 6. Take pleasure in your work and then you will not be slothful in it Your very Direct 6. Horse will go heavily where he goeth unwillingly and will go freely when he goeth thither where he would be Either your work is Good or bad If it be bad avoid it If it be good why should you not take pleasure in it It should be pleasant to do good § 35. Direct 7. To this end be sure to do all your work as that which God requireth of you Direct 7. and that which he hath promised to reward and believe his acceptance of your meanest labours which are done in obedience to his will Is it not a delightful thing to serve so great and good a master and to do that which God accepteth and promiseth to reward This interest of God in your lowest and hardest and servilest labour doth make it honourable and should make it sweet § 36. Direct 8. Suffer not your fancies to run after sensual vain delights for these will make you Direct 8. weary of your callings No wonder if foolish youths be idle whose minds are set upon their sports nor is it wonder that sensual Gentlemen live idly who glut themselves with corrupting pleasures The idleness of such sensualists is more unexcusable than other mens because it is not the labour it self that they are against but only such labour as is honest and profitable For they can bestow more labour in playing or dancing or running or hunting or any vanity than their work required And it is the folly and sickness of their minds that is the cause and not any disability in their bodies The busiest in evil are slothfullest to good § 37. Direct 9. Mortifie the flesh and keep it in an obedient dependance on the soul and you will Direct 9. not be captivated by sloth For idleness is but one way of Flesh-pleasing He that is a sensual slave to his flesh will please it in the way that it most desireth One man in Fornication and another in ambition and another in Ease But he that hath overcome and mortified the flesh hath mastered this with the rest of its Concupiscence § 38. Direct 10. Remember still that Time is short and Death makes haste and judgement will be just Direct 10. and that all must be judged according to what they have done in the body and that your souls are pretious and Heaven is Glorious and Hell is terrible and work is various and great and hinderances are many and that it is not idleness but labour that is comfortable in the reviews of time and this will powerfully expell your sloth § 39. Direct 11. Call your selves daily or frequently to account how you spend your time and what Direct 11. work you do and how you do it Suffer not one hour or moment so to pass as you cannot give your Consciences a just account of it § 40. Direct 12. Lastly Watch against the slothfulness of those that are under your charges as well Direct 12. as against your own Some persons of honour and greatness are diligent themselves and bestow their time for the Service of God their King and Countrey and their souls and Families and I would we had more such But if in the mean time their Wives and Children and many of their Servants spend most of the day and year in idleness and they are guilty of it for want of a through endeavour to reform it their burden will be found greater at last than they imagined In a word though the labour and diligence of a believing Saint and not that of a Covetous Worldling is it that tends to save the soul and diligence in doing evil is but a making haste to Hell yet sloth in it self is so great a nourisher of vice and deadly an enemy to all that 's good and idleness is such a course and swarm of sin that all your understandings resolution and authority should be used to cure it in your selves and others Tit. 3. Directions against Sloth and Laziness in things spiritual and for zeal and Diligence § 1. ZEal in things spiritual is contrary to sloth and coldness and remissness and Diligence is contrary to Idleness Zeal is the fervour or earnestness of the soul Its first subject is the will Rev. 3. 15 â—9 and affections excited by the judgement and thence it appeareth in the Practice It is not a distinct Grace or Affection but the vigor and livelyness of every grace and their fervent operations § 2. Direct 1. Be sure that you understand the nature and use of zeal and diligence and mistake Direct 1. The kinds of false zeal not a carnal degenerate sort of zeal for that which is spiritual and
blesseth those that furthered him 1 Sam. 23. 21. Blessed be ye of the Lord for ye have compassion on me He justifieth himself in murdering the Priests because he thought that they helped David against him and Doeg seemeth but a dutiful subject in executing his bloody command 1 Sam. 22. And Shimei thought he might boldly curse him 2 Sam. 16. 7 8. And he could scarce have charged him with more odious sin than to be a bloody man and a man of Belial If the Prophet speak against Ieroboams political Religion he will say Lay hold on him 1 King 13. 4. Even Asa will be rageing wrathful and imprison the Prophet that reprehendeth his sin 2 Chron. 16. 10. Ahab will feed Michaiah in a Prison with the Bread and Water of affliction if he contradict him 1 King 22. 27. And even Ierusalem killed the Prophets and stoned them which were sent to gather them under the gracious wing of Christ Matth. 23. 37. Which of the Prophets did they not persecute Act. 7. 52. And if you consider but what streams of blood since the death of Christ and his Apostles have been shed for the sake of Christ and righteousness it will make you wonder that so much cruelty can consist with humanity and men and Devils should be so like The same man as Paul as soon as he ceaseth to shed the blood of others must look in the same way to lose his own How many thousands were murdered by Heathen Rome in the ten persecutions And how many by the Arian Emperours and Kings And how many by more Orthodox Princes in their particular distasts And yet how far hath the pretended Vicar of Christ out-done them all How many hundred thousands of the Albigenses Waldenses and Bohemians hath the Papal rage consumed Two hundred thousand the Irish murdered in a little space 〈…〉 o outgo the thirty or forty thousand which the French Massacre made an end of The sacrifices offered by their fury in the flames in the Marian persecution here in England were nothing to what one day hath done in other parts What Volumes can contain the particular Histories of them what a Shambles was their Inquisition in the Low-Countries and what is the employment of it still so that a doubting man would be inclined to think that Papal Rome is the murderous Babylon that doth but consider how drunken she is with the blood of the Saints and the Martyrs of Iesus and that the blood of Saints will be found in her in her day of tryal Rev. 17. 6. 18. 24. If we should look over all the rest of the World and reckon up the the torments and murders of the innocent in Iapan and most parts of the World where ever Christianity came it may increase your wonder that Devils and men are still so like Yea though there be as lowd a testimony in humane nature against this bloodiness as almost any sin whatsoever and though the names of persecutors alwayes stink to following Generations how proudly soever they carryed it for a time and though one would think a persecutor should need no cure but his own pride that his name may not be left as Pilates in the Creed to be odious in the mouths of the Ages that come after him Yet for all this so deep is the Enmity so potent is the Devil so blinding a thing is sin and interest and passion that still one Generation of persecuters doth succeed the others and they kill the present Saints while they honour the dead ones and build them Monuments and say If we had lived in the dayes of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the Prophets blood Read well Matth. 23. 29. to the end What a Sea of righteous blood hath malignity and persecuting zeal drawn out § 5. 4. Another cause of Murder is Rash and unrighteous judgement When Judges are ignorant or partial or perverted by passion or prejudice or respect of persons But though many an innocent hath suffered this way I hope among Christians this is one of the rarest Causes § 6. 5. Another way of murder is by oppression and uncharitableness when the poor are kept destitute of necessaries to preserve their lives Though few of them die directly of famine yet thousands of them dye of those sicknesses which they contract by unwholsome food And all those are guilty of their death either that cause it by oppression or that relieve them not when they are able and obliged to it Iam. 5. 1 2 3 4 5. § 7. 6. Another way and cause of murder is by Thieves and Robbers that do it to possess themselves of that which is another mans when riotousness or idleness hath consumed what they had themselves and sloath and pride will not suffer them to labour nor sensuality suffer them to endure want then they will have it by right or wrong what ever it cost them Gods Laws or mans the Gallows or Hell shall not deter them but have it they will though they rob and murder and are hang'd and damn'd for it Alas how dear a purchase do they make How much easier are their greatest wants than the wrath of God and the pains of Hell § 8. 7. Another cause of murder is Guilt and Shame When wicked people have done some great disgraceful sin which will utterly shame them or undo them if it be known they are tempted to murder them that know it to conceal the crime and save themselves Thus many a Whoremonger hath murdered her that he hath committed fornication with And many a Whore hath murdered her Child before the birth or after to prevent the shame But how madly do they forget the day when both the one and the other will be brought to light and the righteous judge will make them know that all their wicked shifts will be their confusion because there is no hiding them from him § 9. 8 Another cause is Furious anger which mastereth Reason and for the present makes them mad And Drunkenness which doth the same Many a one hath killed another in his fury or his drink So dangerous is it to suffer Reason to lose its power and to use our selves to a Bedlam course And so necessary is it to get a sober meek and quiet spirit and mortifie and master these turbulent and beastly vices § 10 9. Another cause of Murder is Malice and Revenge When mens own wrongs or sufferings are so great a matter to them and they have so little learnt to bear them that they hate that man that is the cause of them and boile with a revengeful desire of his ruine And this sin hath in it so so much of the Devil that those that are once addicted to it are almost wholly at his command He maketh witches of some and Murderers of others and wretches of all who set themselves in the place of God and will do Justice as they call it for themselves as if God were not just enough to