Tongues in an Expositour judgment in things That Translation is most exact which agreeth best with the Originall word for word so far as the idiom or proprietie of the Language will bear so as for words or phrases in the Originall proper or common simple or figurative perspicuous or doubtfull words and phrases of the same sort proper or common and so of the rest be put and retained in the version lest the Interpreter bring his own Commentarie for the Scriptures Text. On the contrarie the Commentarie is best which shews most clearly the sense scope and meaning of the Text in what words soever As the Law-maker best knows the meaning of the Law and how it is to be expounded so for the exposition of the Holy Scriptures the Spirit of God as the Authour thereof is first and most to be consulted with by faithfull and earnest prayer from a good conscience that God may fulfill his promise made of giving his holy Spirit to them that ask it and of revealing his secrets to them that fear him And so some speciall Instruments of renuing the Gospels light in the former Age have professed that they learned more this way by prayer then by much studie otherwise There is in a Scripture but one proper and immediate sense others are rather collections from it relations unto it or illustrations of it then immediate senses The literall sense is to be followed as being most naturall what may be and not to be refused if it may stand without danger without blasphemie and according to other Scriptures And here it must be noted that Christ and his Apostles in expounding Moses and the Prophets did not onely infallibly expresse their conceptions and meanings but the meaning of the Spirit speaking in them and that by reason of their more plentifull measure of the same Spirit and experience withall in some particulars as I conceav further then the Prophets themselvs understood albeit they alwaies knew the immediate drift of the Spirit and meaning of the things which they spake and were not as the Pythonists or other the like Instruments of the Divell uttering Oracles which they themselvs understood not The Lawyers have a rule and the same competent to the matter whereof they treat that Laws of fauour are to be extended as largely as may be but odious Laws as they speak as much straitned and confined within the narrowest bounds of interpretation But all Gods Laws and Instructions must in honour of the Lawgiver be expounded in the largest sense that they can beare that so they may reach as far and binde as fast as may be This the infinitenesse of his wisdom challengeth in directing us of his authority in commanding us of his mercy in promiseing and justice in threatning Which by so interpreting and applying his word we acknowledg and honour as is meet And as they are blame-worthy who out of a scrupulous fear lest they should ad to the Scriptures allow them no further meaning then the words expresse so is their sin greater and full of presumption who shorten and straiten the Scriptures instruction to that which is expressed in so many words that they may make room thereby for their own devises A Scripture commandeth promiseth or threatneth whatsoever is contained in it though not expressed And that is contained in it which can truly and iustly be gathered from it though by never so many consequences or inferences though the fewer the lesse dangerous by reason of our weaknesse of discourse Particular words and phrases more obscure are to be interpreted according to the scope mind of the speaker the Holy Ghost in the place which is both in time and excellencie before the thing spoken and that for which the Spirit speaketh as it doth in the place neither is the Scripture profitable except the scope be first found And to hang upon a word phrase or sentence in a Text without looking to the main drift is if any other the character of an hereticall disposition With this that other most necessarie rule hath affinitie namely that the words are to be understood according to the subject matter the words of Law and Gospel according to the different nature of Law and Gospel the words of an Historie Historically of a Sacrament Sacramentally and mystically and accordingly notes of universalitie according to the extent of the matter or person spoken of As we oft finde out learn mens meaning by some of their companie of such as are about them which we could not learn of themselvs so may we gather the meaning of a Scripture otherwise hard to be understood by marking the things which accompanie it and which are above and below as the Iews use to speak and Christians with them Like as the Lamps in the Golden Candlestick did one help anothers light so doth one place of Holy Scripture anothers And though a thing found in one place if in one indeed be as true binde as strongly as if it were a thousand times written yet so to insist upon any one place in a difference as to neglect others is the high-way to error and to loose the right sense by breaking the Scriptures golden chain whose links are all fastened together And as one place must be expounded by another so must the more brief and obscure by the more plain and larg and not the contrarie crosse way for that were not to lighten the darknesse of a Text but to darken its light according to that of the Father The fewer must be understood according to the more and one saying must rather be taken according to all then against all Touching precepts affirmative and negative First They are usually either kept or broken together He who doth not what he should do commonly doth what he should not do If a man be drawn away from God he is easily ensnared by his own lust On the contrarie he that doth his dutie faithfully hath as it were a Supersedeas from the Lord against the temptations of sin and Satan The way not to fulfill the lusts of the flesh is to walk in the Spirit Secondly The receaved rule that affirmative precepts binde alwayes but not to alwayes as negatives do is true being rightly understood We are to take no time for doing evill and but some time for the doing of the best good to wit as we have opportunitie and abilitie Thirdly In the prohibition of an evill we must ever understand the command of the opposite vertue and so on the contrarie He that saith expresly Thou shalt not kill means also as well Thou shalt preserv thy neighbours life Lastly There is both more vertue more vice practised in affirmatives then in negatives It is more good to do good then not to do evill and more evill to do evill then not to do good though both the tree that brings forth evill fruit and that brings forth no
OBSERVATIONS DIVINE AND MORALL FOR THE FURTHERING of knowledg and vertue By Iohn Robbinson Prov. 9. 9. Give Instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser teach a just man and he will encrease in learning Printed in the year M. DC XXV THE PREFACE IN framing these myne OBSERVATIONS Christian Reader I have had as is meet first and most regard to the holy Scriptures in which respect I call them DIVINE next to the memorable Sayings of wise learned men which I have read or heard and carefully stored up as a pretious treasure for mine own and others benefit and lastly to the great volume of mens manners which I have diligently observed and from them gathered no small part thereof having also had in the dayes of my pilgrimage speciall opportunitie of conversing with persons of divers nations estates and dispositions in great varietie The names of the authors specially known out of whom I gathered any thing I have for the most part expressed partly to give them their due and partly that the authoritie of their persons might procure freer passage for their worthy and wise sayings with others and make the deeper impression of them in the readers heart In the method I have been neyther curious nor altogether negligent as the reader may observ Now as this kinde of study and meditation hath been unto me full sweet and delightfull and that wherein I have often refreshed my soul and spirit amids many sad sorrowfull thoughts unto which God hath called me so if it may finde answerable acceptance with the christian Reader and a blessing from the Lord it is that which I humbly crave specially at his hands who both ministreth seed to the sower fruit to the reaper Amen IOHN ROBBINSON CAP. I. Of Mans knowledg of God THe Lord giveth wisdom and out of his mouth cometh knowledg and understanding saith Salomon and therein warneth us to lay our ear close to the mouth of God and when he speaketh once we may hear twice and having our closed hearts opened by his Spirit may attend to the words of grace and wisdom which proceed from him and are able to make us wise to salvation As all our wisdom to happinesse consists summarily in the knowledg of God and of our selues so is it not easie to determine whether of the two goes before the other But as neither can be without other in any competent or profitable measure or manner and as in vain the ey of the mind is lifted up to see God which is not fit to see it self so seem the reasons of most weight which prefer the knowledg of God to the first place For first God in his Word and Works is the rule and measure of mans goodnesse and man at his best but formed and reformed after Gods Image As in Nature the rule is before that which is to be ruled by it so must it be in our knowledg Secondly such is our in-bred pride and hipocrisie as that whilst we looke only upon our selus and upon other Creatures here below we think we are some-body for goodnesse and vertue but are then brought to that confusion in our selus which is requisite for our humiliation when we come to take some knowledg of the super-excellencie of God even as our bodily ey forth-with dazeleth being cast upon the bright Sun how quick and strong-sighted soever it seem whilst it is set onely upon earthly objects Thirdly so absolutely necessarie is the knowledg of God as that we can ascribe nothing as is meet unto him of whom and for whom we and all things are till we first know him in his Word and Works but even in our best devotions with the superstitious Athenians shall build our Altars to the unknown God and with the blinde Samaritans worship we know not what To conclude He that pretends the service of God yet knows him not in his Word and Works of Creation Redemption also wherein his face is seen is like him that counterfeits himself to be the houshold Servant of some great Lord whose face he never saw nor once came within his Court gates Some ambitious and curious wits but not able no marvail to raise up advance their notions to God his infinitenesse for the comprehending of it have laboured to depresse pull him down to their dwarfish conceptions of him and have indeed rather made him some great and giant like man or Angel then as he is in truth an infinite God allowing him an essence power and wisdom hugely great but not properly infinite and immence as though God could not be that which they cannot conceive of him The essence of God is known onely to himself but is undiscernable to all men and Angels partly by reason of its infinitenes which therefore no finite understanding can comprehend and partly for that no voice signe or form can sufficiently expresse it either to sence or reason And if God have placed such light glorie in some created bodies as that we cannot intentively fix our bodily ey upon them without dazeling what marvail is it though the ey of the understanding of all men and Angels dazle in the too curious intentive contemplation of his infinite infinitely glorious Majestie it self So as if the most wise learned Christians should with the heathen Phylosopher undertake to descry Gods being they would be compelled as he was after one daies respite to crave two and after two four so still to double the time with acknowledgment that the more they searched into it the more unsearchable it appeared Albeit the understanding of man though glorified cannot possibly comprehend Gods infinite being yet shall we coming to enjoy the blessed uision of God where of the Angels and Spirits of iust men perfited are made partakers know in a far both greater measure more excellent and immediate manner then now we do We now walk by faith not by sight as we then shall do We now see through a glasse darkly but then face to face knowing him even as we are known of him And for the present we are by the means of revelation vouchsafed us his Word Works partly within and partly without us to be led in our praiers praises meditations of God to such a being for the object thereof as in which first there is nothing which hath the least affinity with the imperfection found in any creature for the expressing whereof those attributes serve which we call negative as immortall invisible a spirit that is no body the like shewing what God is not though not what he is 2 Which is that eminently infinitely essentially which we in the creature call power wisdom goodnesse whatsoever els imports any perfection and thirdly which is that first fountain originall of all goodnes in all creatures And by these three stayers doth our understanding raise up it self frō created things
by occasion of temptation practise some particular and the same grosse evils Out of which in time he recovers himself by repentance Who not foolish himself will say that David was simply a fool even when by occasion of speciall temptation of Satan he did a verie foolish act in numbring the people We are not therefore to measure a persons state by some one or few acts done as it were by the way and upon instance of some strong temptation but according to the tenour and course of his life Els what wise man should not be a fool also Or what fool should not be a wise man What Nabal should not be liberall yea bounteous when he makes a feast like a King A Rebell lurking in a Kingdom may by some advantage watched and taken prevail against the lawfull King in a conflict or two and yet for all that not raign in the Kingdom so may the treacherous flesh lurking in a Spirituall man get the masterie in some combat and yet not therefore drive the Lord quite out of his Kingdom there Yea the same flesh ever lusting against the Spirit even in them which are led of the Spirit and leading them into captivitie to the law of sin doth oft so far prevail in them as to captive them in some particular by-paths both of judgment and practise not so easily discerned all their life long For who can understand his errours And for these particular enormities whether actions or courses of godly persons howbeit considering them in themselvs and in their externall acts there appear in them no difference from those of the same kind practised by men utterly godlesse yet is there a great difference in Gods ey not onely in the person of the doer in Gods account but also in his own heart and affection even in the verie doing of them In which the Lord sees the inward struglings of grace though alas too weak by the persons default tending and bending the clean contrarie way and therein plainly differencing the doer from the profane contemners of God doing the same things in whom there is either altogether peace without any strife and resistance whilst the strong man keeps the house or that resistance which is meerely of naturall conscience terrifying with fear of punishment onely without the hatred of sin which is though too weak and feeble in the other Although it be a greater work of grace to become of vicious and evill good and vertuous then so to continue or to grow therein yet considering the mightie and many enemies of our salvation and the great stumbling stones in our way and with these the heavie clog of our own corruption which we draw after us it will be and is found a matter of no small difficultie not to be wearie of well doing nor to faint before we come to reap in due time that which we have formerly sown to the Spirit And this the experience of all ages confirmeth in which there are few which do the first works and leav not their first love fewer that bring forth more fruit in old age and are fat and green And yet we know that albeit of the labourers in the Vineyard who receaved ech his pennie some entered sooner and some later and some not till the very last hower of the day yet all continued their labour till the evening So for our selvs we must make account that at what time soever any begins onely he that continues to the end shall be saved And indeed it is a great honour to God when a good man notwithstanding all discouragements either from within or from without persevers in the course of goodnesse begun and gives not over till he come at the Goal how tirering soever his way be Such a one shews that the Lord is faithfull and that there is no unrighteousnesse with him To which purpose the saying of Polycarpus is verie remakable who being provoked by the Proconsul to blaspheme Christ answered that he had served him now eightie and sixe yeeres and had never had hurt by him in any thing why then should he speak evill of him On the contrarie he that departs from the Lord in the course of godlinesse formerly held greatly dishonours him as the Servant doth his Master in leaving him before his time be out Such a one makes shew as if out of judgment and experience he disliked goodnesse and therein really accuseth God as if he had found some evill in him or at least not that good which he promised and the other expected And to that purpose the Lord in great indignation expostulates with the Iews and asks What iniquitie they or their Fathers had found in him that they were gone from him after their vanities It is dangerous in course of Religion and godlinesse to fall forward by errours preposterous zeal or other misguidance yet not so much as to fall backward by an unfaithfull heart The former may break his face thereby and loose his comfort in a great measure both with God and men but the latter is in danger utterly to break the neck of his conscience as old Ely brake his neck bodily by falling backward from his seat and dyed Are there not many Elyes in all Ages And as the least declension from God is dangerous so is totall desperate neither will God ever forgive that sin or give repentance to any so sinning but hath utterly excluded everie such a one out of the otherwise infinite bounds of his mercie in Christ. The Preaching of the Word of God is the means to beget Faith and grace but for the nourishing and encreasing thereof we must therewith joyn the observation in our places of whatsoever Christ hath appointed his Apostles to teach in the vse whereof as the sanctified means for the obtaining of that end we shall keep our selvs in the fear of God and not fall from our stedfastnesse and withall grow in grace and in the acknowledgment of the Lord Iesus if not in bulk yet in firmnesse as when the body leavs growing in bignesse it knits better then before Neither indeed can we be safe from being drawn away from God otherwise then by continuall drawing nearer unto him For our way to Heaven is up a hill and we drag a Cart load of our corruptions after us which except we keep going will pull us backward ere we be aware The Holy Ghost in those vehement exhortations of the faithfull to perseverance inforced with so many promises and threatnings both shews therein mans pronenesse and danger in himself to fall away and also affoards the means by which God will preserv his sanctified ones from Apostacie using the same as Evangelicall conducts of grace for his working of that perseverance in them which he requires of them and that rather by our being apprehended of Christ as the Apostle speaks then by our apprehending him As the Father leading his weak Childe in
reliev its Father Faith in time of need whereupon the Apostle saith of the Faithfull that if they had hope onely in this life they were of all men the most miserable For what availeth it a man in miserie to beleev eternall life if he had not hope in time to obtain it and therewith freedom and redemption from distresse But we have therefore comfort in beleeving because we have hope of enjoying in due time Love is the affection of union in regard of the loving and of well-wishing in regard of the Creature loved And Divine love is the affection of union with God in his grace and glorie in which mans happinesse consists and with the Creature according unto God Faith is the root and Love the sap spreading forth it self for the fruits of good works throughout all the branches of our lives Faith the beginning and love the end of our conversation By faith we live the life of the Son of God and receav all good from him by Love we are moved and perswaded to use what we have to the good of men and prayse of God And whereas Faith makes a man some great thing richer then the richest and Lord of the whole World Love makes him a Servant unto all men in humbling and applying himself unto them in all lawfull things for their good Now albeit Love have these two prerogatives First that it perswades most effectually and immediately to the use and imployment of all the good things which we have receaved from God to the benefit of others and secondly that whereas Faith and Hope are determined formally in this life and ended in sight in the life to come Love abideth there also and that in these two respects the Apostle ascribes an excellencie and chiefnesse to Love above the other Yet herein Faith hath his singular preheminence that whereas by Love we and what we are become Gods and mens for God by Faith not onely all other things but even God himself becomes ours for all-sufficient good unto us as he saith I am thy God all sufficient By it the will and Word of God is ours for our instruction and direction his righteousnesse ours for our justification his Spirit for our sanctification his power for our protection and his glory for our happinesse in the fruition thereof This Faith in Christ is a gift supernaturall not onely in regard of nature corrupted but even created which therefore is not so properly repaired in men by grace as are some other vertues but after a sort new built from the ground as directing to that attribute in God primarily for its object whereof Adam in innocencie had no need which is mercie through Christ against the miserie of sin and punishment Vnto this Faith most precious promises are made and most excellent things affirmed of it And that not onely for the excellencie of the grace in it self which yet is great and greatly honoureth God in his truth which it beleeveth in his power as able and love as willing to bestow all good things upon us but specially for an attractive and applying facultie which it hath above other vertues to make God ours and all Creatures with him according unto God as is aforesaid To beleev in Christ is to receav him and the promises touching him And hereupon it is said of that cloud of witnesses that by faith they quenched the violence of fire stopped the mouths of Lyons put to flight the armies of alients c. The reason whereof seems to be for that as by justifying Faith they applyed the righteousnesse of God to salvation so by the Faith of myracles they apprehended and applyed the infinite power of God to the producing of those supernaturall effects The strength of true Christian Faith the Divel knows to his cost as that by which he the Prince with his whole Armie the World hath been so often foyled and overcome For being by Faith perswaded that in doing or suffering according to the will of God we please him and are under his protection and blessing we stedfastly persevere in well-doing and patiently endure all things for his names sake whereupon he specially in the day of their distresse assaults the Faith of the godly that that might fail as knowing that if the root of Faith be shaken loose the fruit of good works will wither Faith therefore must as a welcome passenger be well carried and conveied through the Sea of temptations in the Vessell of a good conscience that it suffers not shipwrack by the leaks of an evill directed by the chart of Gods Word and promises rightly understood that it run not a wrong course and having ever in a readinesse the sure and stedfast Anchour of Hope against a stresse and continually gathering into the out-spread sails of a heart enlarged by prayer and meditation the sweet and prosperous gusts of Gods holy Spirit to drive it to the desired Haven This Faith if it be not grounded upon Gods Word is fancie if it receav not the same Word in everie part but where it lists it is sawsinesse if it work not as well yea more in an afflicted state as in a prosperous it is nothing but fleshly presumption if it be not fruitfull in all good works as we have opportunitie and are able it is dead and will in the end like the Faith of the Divels affoard onely matter of trembling Lastly it must be firm and not ambiguous or going by peradventures els it is not faith but opinion Yet are we not here to imagine an Idea of faith free in this infirmitie of our flesh from doubting The tree may stand and grow also though shaken and bended with the wind so may Faith hold its both standing and life notwithstanding such doubtings as the flesh ever lusting against the Spirit mingleth with it Against which weaknesse and imperfection of our Faith we have this firm comfort that we are not saved for no nor by the perfection of the instrument which Faith is but of the object Christ which it apprehendeth and so may with a true though palsie hand of faith receav and keep both Christ and all his benefits This weaknesse and disease of Faith we must not commend as Papists do nor nourish like secure persons but cure with all diligence by the holy and diligent use of the Ministrations sanctified of God and given by Christ for the perfiting of the Saints and edifying of the body till we attain in the unitie of faith and acknowledgment of the Son of God unto a perfit man according to the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ. Also we must nourish Faith by frequent meditations of Gods love and promises in Christ and of the gracious effects of them and must as the Prophet and Apostle teach us live by it both doing in faith and assurance of acceptance at Gods hands what we do not onely in
afoot yet will rayther chuse to ride Secondly to free us from such temptations unto sin as povertie puts many upon Thirdly that they may minister unto us and ours more plentifull matter of exerciseing vertue and goodnes specially of mercy towards the poore and them in need God could if he would eyther have made mens states more equall or haue given every one sufficient of his own But he hath rayther chosen to make some rich and some poore that one might stand in need of another and help another that so he might try the mercy and goodnes of them that are able in supplying the wants of the rest And the richer sort that make not this account know not wherefore God hath given them theyr goods and are as poore in grace as rich in the world Both poverty and riches if they be in any extreamity haue their temptations and those not small In which regard Agur prayes God to give him neyther of both but to feed him with food convenient for him And in truth the middle state is freest from the greatest danger eyther of sin or misery in the world as Icarus his father told him that the middle way was safest for his waxen wings neyther to be moystned with the water nor molten with the heat of the sunne And of the two states the wise man insinuates in that his prayer to the Lord that the temptations of riches are the more dangerous Povertie may drive a man to steale or deal unjustly with others and after to lye or it may be and as the Holy Ghost insinuates by swearing to take the name of God in vain to cover it But if a man be rich and full he is in danger to deny God and to say in pride and contempt of him in effect as Pharaoh did who is the Lord For hardly doth any thing cause the mynd to swell more with pryde then riches both by reason of the ease and plenty of worldly good things which they bring with them as also of the credit which rich men or their purses have in the world and both those specially if they have gotten their wealth by their own art or industrie He that is proud in a poore estate would in a rich be intollerable before men as he is in the meane while abhominable in Gods sight He that is humble in a prosperous is a good scholler of Christ and hath taken out a hard lesson which the Apostle would haue Timothy to charge the rich withall which is that they should not be high minded nor trust in uncertayn riches From rich mens pride in themselvs ariseth commonly contempt of others specially of the poore I have known Nabals who in my conscience have thought that all that were not rich were fools notwithstanding any eminencie in them of gifts or graces But thus to mock or despise the poore is to reproach God that made him so and besides if the person be wise and godly as he may well be for any bar that his povertie puts against him it is withall to despise the image of Gods wisdom and goodnes in him But for us considering how the truly wise by the spirit of God pronounceth that the poore who walketh in his uprightnes is better then he that is perverse in his way though rich as also that a poore and wise child is better then an old and foolish king we should have that strength of fayth against sense and carnall reason as in all resolvednes to prefer an honest or wise poore man before a rich Naball Besides though still the rich man be and will be wise in his own eyes yet the poore that hath understanding searcheth him out and by searching oftens findes that litle witt being imployed wholy thereabout and lesse grace servs to get wealth with A poore and playn person seeing a Dives ruffle in silcks glitter in gold and silver is half readie to worship him as a petty God many times But after findes by his speech and other caryage by which a fool and wise man are differenced that if he had so done he had but worshipped a golden calf God sends poverty upon men to humble them both in the want of bodily comforts and specially in regard of the contempt which it ever casts upon men in the worlds ey And blessed indeed are they who by povertie and other worldly crosses are humbled so as to become poore in spirit not being of those of whom the complaynt is that they are humiliati not humiles As if a rich man be humble he is not of the rich of the world so if a poore man be proud he is not of the Lords poore and blessed ones Some are of opinion that none but rich folks can be proud But the pride of many as was said of Diegenes may be seen through their rags And who ever saw any prouder then some such worms as in whom no others could discern any thing outward or inward saving the divell that should make them so God in his good and wise providence many tymes sends poverty and other calamities upon such to restreyn them whose overswellings of pride if they enjoyed a prosperous state would make them both odious and troublesome to all societies There be some who out of a kynde of naturall diligence patience parsimony and contentment with mean things seem so fitted for a poore and mean state as that if they were ever pressed with want they would ever be good and vertuous but being rich and wealthy are eyther base mynded or arrogant in the eyes of all men There are also who by their kynde and courteous disposition seem so fitted for prosperitie and plentie that if they ever enjoyed it they would be no meanly good people and yet falling into a poore and needie condition they appear not onely impatient but unconscionable also But the truth is that howsoever some be fitter for the one estate then the other and so carry it better to the world yet he that is not in his measure fit for eyther is indeede fit for neyther The Apostle had learned and so must all good Christians with him both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need He that is not faithfull in a litle would not be faythfull in a great deal and so for the contrary He that is impatient or unhonest in poverty would be and is wanton or arrogant or otherwise faultie though more closely in aboundance neyther is any broken with an afflicted state save he who is too much inveigled with a prosperous He again whose course is either to high or too low in plentie would never keep a mean in want The over-valuation of riches drives divers men to divers yea contrarie appearances some to make themselvs rich though they have nothing and others to make show of poverty though they have all aboundance The former so much esteem
good his satisfaction to whom we swear and for the ending and not the beginning of strife els we prostitute Gods name eyther to our own or other mens lusts Common and light swearing argues such a degree of irreverence of Gods Majestie as we may truly boldly say that the heart of a common and customary swearer is voyd of all grace and true fear of God And in weighing with my self with admiration and horrour the customarie swearing amongst so many considering that there is nothing in it as in other sins eyther profitable or pleasant or of credit in the world or that brings eyther reasonable or sensuall good I have made account that besides imitation of one another and custom which makes it half naturall to some and a conscience guiltie of want of credit in others which moves many to swear that they may be beleeved and want of wit in not a few who strive by accessory oaths to supply their defect of matter or other inabilitie of speach there is in this swearing veyn a deeper mysterie of mischeif then ordinary and that indeed men take it up specially in the divels intention who sets them a work and not a litle in their own in direct opposition of God and because he in his law hath so severely prohibited it If God had not in his word so expresly and severely forbidden it as he hath done certeynly there would not be the least part of it used that is Gracelesse men seem therein to affect a professed contempt of God and withall an opinion from men that they fear nothing neyther God nor divell as they say But God will make them feel that fear not the guilt of taking his glorious name in vayn which all creatures ought to honour and reverence This sin being directly against Gods majestie he reservs by his providence the punishment of it ordinarily to himself spiritually by hardnes of heart and impenitencie in this life usually to the end thereof and both bodily and ghostly by hell-fire for ever Where it is also like that the divels and damned men do and will swear and curse in their utter rejection from God and intollerable torment and so make their sin and course of blaspheaming as endlesse as their punishment for it CHAP. L. Of Zeal ZEal is by some well defyned the heat and intention of all affections and not eyther any one simple affection or composition of divers I add of the understanding also So men meditate zealously and love zealously and hate zealously and rejoyce zealously and mourn zealously and with great intention of heart The like is to be sayd of all the rest of the affections As nothing lives without naturall heat so neyther lives he the life of Christ indeed who is destitute of christian zeal to warm him in his affections and actions specially in matter of Gods worship and service in which whether wrong or right luke-warmnes is odious and loathsom The Lord will spue out of his mouth the luke-warm whether wyne or water Worldly wise-men despise zeal as prejudiciall to wisdom discretion So Festus judged Paul mad Michall accounted David as one of the fools for the singular zeal of God which they manifested But even this foolishnes of God is wiser then men Yet is it certeyn that men of great knowledg and judgment do seldom make that manifestation of Zeal which weaker persons do The former have their spirits most in their brayns and are exercised specially in the disquisition and discerning of truth from falshood and of good from evill The latter have them most in their hearts and accordingly give themselvs to the affectionate pursuit of that which they conceav to be true and good and alike to the avoyding and impugning of the contrarie Some deceav others by the pretence of zeal which they put on for their advantage as stage-players do vizours till their part be played And thus Ismaell deceaved the fortie men of Samaria with his crocodiles tears Also there are not a few who deceav both others and themselvs by seeming to both eyther to have the Zeal of God which they wholly want or much more then they have And of this number was Iehu how loud soever he cryed to Ionadab Behold the zeal which I have for the house of the Lord whereas in truth that which most set him awork was zeal for his own house though it may be he thought not so Besides craftines in this Iehues zeal there are two other properties the one suspitious where it is found and the other odious The former is a furious march against evill without an answerable pursuit of and affection unto the contrarie good Many are vehemently carryed against Antichristian devises in truth or so appearing unto them in whom yet appears litle love and affection to that which is of Christ in their own judgment Such are rayther carried by their own flesh then led by the spirit of God The other is crueltie To be aright and truely zealous cannot but be good seeing so many and those wise men desire at times to seem so though they be not True zeal must be for God and from God and according to God and having God both for beginning and end and rule of direction it cannot but it self be good and godly It must be for the Lord and for the furtherance of his glorie in the obedience of his will and in mans salvation and not for our own or other mens by-purposes And if it so fall out that by one and the same thing Gods cause and our own profit credit or other worldly advantage be promoted we had need keep a jealous eye over our selvs that we serv not our turn on God by making his ends as it were a bridg to our own as Iehu did Secondly as the fire of the altar came from heaven so must our coal of zeal be fetched thence as being the work of Gods spirit in our hearts in the use of prayer meditation upon the word of God read and heard the examples of others godly as it were ryding in the fierie chariot of Elyas and the like holy means by which this divine fire is kindled and nourished in mens breasts Thirdly it must be according to God both for the qualitie of the matter and quantity of the intention of affection For the former It is good alwayes even then and then onely to be zealous in a good matter and that neyther lightly presumed nor partially conceipted so to be but certeynly known els we burn not sweet incense with holy fire but dirt and doung in stead thereof Our zeal also must be apportioned to the object and that not onely considered in it self but also in the circumstances attending upon it in regard whereof things not alwayes the most good or evill in themselvs may justly deserv at our hands a great bent eyther of love to them or hatred against them And amongst other circumstances we must be carefull
fond love of parents the family This love Salomon respecting the effect more then the affection cals hatred saying He that spareth his rod hateth his son Notwithstanding this and that God hath left power and charge also of punishments in all societies family church and common wealth which they that exercise bear the image of Gods justice and holynes the honour whereof they are to preserv and to breed and continue in them over whom they are set a reverend aw of their authoritie for their good yet considering both mans frailtie and pronenes to offend and miserie in suffering for offences all in authoritie should still encline to the more favourable part and rayther to come short then to exceed measure in punishing even where the offence is evident and where it is doubtfull to forbear at any hand He that punisheth another whether as judg or exequutioner eyther must know legally that he hath done evill and deserved it otherwise the authoritie of the whole world cannot bear him out from being a murtherer before God The law which sayth Thou shalt not murther forbids specially violence in judgment Besides punishments must be administred with sorrow and commiseration as rewards with joy and gladnes It is pittie men should deserv punishments and deserving them pittie but they should have them yet are we to pitty them in their miserie also which he that doth remembers himself to be a man Lastly it is worthy the observing which one hath that in all punishments respect is to be had to things to come rayther then past For howsoever the punishment be just onely in lieu of the offence committed yet is it profitable onely because it tends to prevent after offences eyther in the person punished or in others warned by it And hereupon another would not have a wise man punish because an offence is committed but least it should be committed afterwards of which the former renders this reason that things past cannot be recalled but things to come may be prevented Temporary torments specially those more great are greivous to conceav of how much more to undergoe yet will the sad and serious consideration of those that are eternall eat them up as it were and make them seem nothing in comparison Whereupon it was that Polycarpus tould the proconsul who threatned to burn him if he did not renounce Christ Thou threatnest me with the fire which would burn for a time but presently after should be extinguished because thou art ignorant of the fire of the judgment to come prepared for the eternall punishment of the wicked Fear not them then which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul But rayther fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell CHAP. LIIII Of the Affections of the minde OVR affections as love sorrow fear and the rest are common to us with bruit beasts which therefore the understanding must order that they be not bruiteish and with them the will for its yeilding of consent to their motions or withholding it from them But as the litle sticks set the greater wood a burning so do they most what set the understanding and will aworking in sensuall objects For example One sees a naturally pleasing good thing but belonging to another or not to him as Achans wedg of gold His affection of love and appetite is inordinately caryed unto it and is ready to sollicit the will to consent to the getting and enjoying of it But now if the understanding do its dutie it steps in represseth the affection and restreyneth the will by discerning and discovering that the good thing desyred is anothers and therefore not to be desyred or had by him But as the fumes arysing from a corrupt stomack darken and dim the bodily eyes so in sensuall persons the understanding is commonly besides its own inherent blyndnes so corrupted with partiall and brutish affections as that it neglecteth all due search and disquisiâ—ion and unadvisedly judgeth that good which is pleasing to appetite and sense and so being sweyed and led by the affections as a foolish waggoner by his horses draws with it the wils consent which obteyned the evill is done in Gods account and wants onely opportunitie for outward effect Although the seat of the affections be the soul whose motions they are and not the bodyes yet do they more or lesse vehemently and efficatiously act and exercise themselvs as the blood and spirits the souls immediate instruments are more or lesse fitted to their hand Hence is it that anger in the heart moved by some occasion is so vehement in a cholerick body sorrow or fear in a melancholick and so for the rest These our affections are eyther merely naturall in us or sanctifyed by grace or morally corrupt and inordinate Nature and so naturall affections is content with a litle corruption not with a great deal as the thirst which is naturall is quenched with a draught or two but that which is unnaturall and agueish not with a whole vessell of drink This and the reason of it he layes down wittily that sayth Naturall desires are finite but those arysing from false opinion have no limits as he that goes his right way hath some end of his journey he that wanders none And as for sanctified affections they alasse are too feeble in us and as Iehu was known by his furtous marching so may they be by their soft and lazy pace neyther if they were excessive were they sanctified that is directed by grace and good reason nor are they easily so if they be any thing vehement but have commonly too much flesh mingled with them And no marvayl for setting our affections above where Christ is and whither the spirit of grace advanceth them we clime up the hill and withall draw after us the clog of our flesh lusting the contrarie way whereas sensuall men led by their lusts goe down the hill and are caryed headlong to evill Besides sensuall objects are present to the outward senses by which the affections are moved but things spirituall are seen a far of as needing the direction and discourse of fayth for provokeing of affection unto them which makes their work in this case more weak and slow Yet being created faculties they are the greater the better if rightly ordered And so it is not unbrobably sayd by some that Christ had the greatest fear sorrow anger c. upon him that ever man had or could have But as the stronger the horses in the waggon are though the better yet the more dangerous so are those horses of the soul in us lest by misguidance they overthrow all And as for violent and inordinate affections the person in whom they are found how wise or wel meaning soever otherwise or howsoever bent upon some good course is no more to be trusted to then the charyot drawn by unbroken horses going for the present quietly on and in a good way