from above quae à seipsis sunt simul inferre and to contribute in like manner what they can themselves and therefore after that he had said Ask seek knock he plainly teacheth men themselves to be studious and diligent and therefore subjoyns All things whatsoever And again saith he Non simpliciter dicit omnia sed addidit ergo He saith not barely All things whatsoever but he adds a Therefore to it q. d. Si vultis audiri cum illis quae dixi haec facite If you would be heard of God mind this with the rest that I have spoken of All things whatsoever A good Disposition and Life must accompany our Prayers to render them acceptable and successful The Sacrifice of the wicked Prov. 15.8 saith the Wise man is an abomination to the Lord but the Prayer of the upright is his delight and Chap. 28.9 He that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law his Prayer shall be abomination Impeditur orationis effectus per impiam conversationem The effect and success of Prayer is hindred by a wicked life and conversation S. Jam. 5.16 The effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous man saith S. James availeth much It must not only be fervent and importunate such as is intimated by our Saviours Phrases of asking seeking and knocking but it must be also of a righteous man that it may avail much Isa 1.15 16 17 18 19. When ye spread forth your hands saith God unto the wicked I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many Prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood And therefore that such may pray successfully the direction is Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widow Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord. Particularly there must be a disposition of goodness and charity towards others that we may our selves obtain good things from God Prov. 21.13 Whoso stoppeth his ears saith Solomon at the cry of the poor he also shall cry himself but shall not be heard To this sense S. Augustine enlargeth upon the Text. God Vide Citat in Caten D. Tho. saith he had promised that he would give good things to them that ask But that he may own us his Beggars let us in like manner look upon ours and that we may know what we ought to bestow on our Neighbour asking of us begging Alms of us to the intent that we in like manner may be heard in what we crave of God we may consider from this what we would that others in a like case should bestow upon us ideò dixit omnia ergo And for this cause our Blessed Saviour said Therefore all things One thing more I find suggested by the ordinary Gloss upon that of the precedent Verse How much more will your Heavenly Father give good things to them that ask For which S. Luke reads S. Luke 11.13 The Holy Spirit Whereupon saith the Gloss Omnium bonorum spiritualium distributor est Spiritus Sanctus ut opera charitatis impleantur unde subdit Omnia ergo quaecunque The Holy Ghost is the distributer of all spiritual goods to the end that the works of Charity may be fulfilled and thence he subjoyns All things therefore whatsoever The Holy Spirit given by God is within us a Principle of Goodness a Principle of Good Works Wherefore since God is so ready to bestow on us his Holy Spirit and therewith all spiritual Goods upon our Prayers unto him we should for that very reason shew forth the fruits of that good Spirit in all goodness our selves in such good Works as are the result of this General Rule here prescribed Therefore all things Therefore viz. that you may not pray without success that you may shew your selves rightly disposed and qualified for prevailing with God in your Prayers and that you may bring forth fruit becoming of that great gift of the Holy Ghost obtained of God by Prayer But so much shall suffice to have spoken of that Illative Particle and the dependent Sense of the Words on the account thereof SECT II. WE will now look upon them as absolute and compleat in themselves as an entire Map of Christian Duty without that Fragment of bordering Vertues decyphered in the word of Inference Therefore And setting aside that Particle we have considerable in the words 1. A General and Comprehensive Rule of Life All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them And 2. The enforcement of this Rule or Precept For this is the Law and the Prophets Of both which I shall treat by Gods help in their order I begin with the General and Comprehensive Rule of Life as it is here laid down Wherein we may observe more distinctly 1. Regulatum or Regulandum the Actions ruled or to be ruled hereby viz. our own Actions and our own Actions towards other men i. e. our Neighbours Do ye even so to them 2. Regulam the Rule it self and that is All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you Concerning the former I have onely two or three things briefly to suggest 1. We are prone enough to prescribe to other men to oversee and order and appoint their Actions We are generally willing enough they should act by Rule towards us But our Blessed Saviour here calls his Disciples thoughts home to themselves and gives them every one the special charge of directing and managing their own Actions aright Quae dicis aliis dic tibi ipsi ut audias We are principally concerned to regulate our own Actions We are every one to amend our own ways to sweep before our own doors as we are wont to speak And 2. The Actions here ruled are such as concern our Neighbour such as have respect and reference to our Neighbour i.e. to all other men with whom we live and converse for so we are taught in Holy Writ to reckon every man our Neighbour S. Paul significantly puts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13.5 He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law of loving his Neighbour In our Actions towards one another we are not left without Law and Rule we may not do as we list as it seemeth good in our own eyes Nay 3. Together with our outward Actions our Will it self is to be ordered by the Rule here prescribed for it must be always remembred that the Laws of Christ are spiritual and reach also to the inward man Scelus intra se tacitus qui cogitat ullum facti crimen habet To will covet resolve and intend is in the account of our supreme Law-maker and Judge to do The Thoughts Desires and Affections of our Souls i. e. our inner man are reputed and censured by him as our Actions So that
banish'd by the former Particular which requir'd all sincerity uprightness and integrity in our behaviour towards others I have given these Instances only to shew how much people are in love with Humility in the carriage of others towards themselves since the very shadows and resemblances of it have been of so noted influence and how much on the other side they hate Pride and Insolency in others to themselves since a few rough and harsh words and answers have been able to effect so much mischief So that if we will deal with others as we desire they should deal with us 't is certain we shall learn from hence the Practice of Humility SECT VIII THirdly This Rule trains us up to an universal Innocency that we do wrong to no man but in the Language of the Apostle Phil. 2.15 Be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke though in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation Now wrong we may do to others either in their Persons or Relations or Possessions or Good Names and Reputation and in reference to each of these we are taught Innocency that Innocency or Negative Justice Pythagorean Justice which as Hierocles Hierocl defines it consists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In abstaining from what is anothers and not hurting of another nor raising ones own Profit and Gains from anothers Misery and Calamities First We must not wrong or injure the Person of our Neighbour because we would not that any other should wrong or injure ours Now a Mans Person you know consists of these two parts Soul and Body in either of which he is capable of receiving wrong and injury and therefore in reference unto both we are obliged by this Rule before us to preserve and maintain Innocency 1. Then we may not wrong and injure the Soul of another And that we do aither in the natural sense as often as we grieve and offend anothers mind occasion the trouble of his thoughts and the disquiet and discomposure of his spirit that sorrow of heart whereby as Solomon speaks Prov. 15.13 the spirit is broken or in the spiritual sense as often as we make others to sin whereby they wrong their own Souls in the highest degree and hazard their eternal loss and punishment We must not where we may avoid it vex and disturb the mind of our Neighbour give our selves to cross and displease others for we would not that others should do so to us Thus to do is an apparent wrong and injury for when once the mind is broken with grief and vexed with disquiet the man is exposed to great temptations and unfitted for the chearful serving of God or enjoyment of himself 'T is a chief part of our happiness to be at ease within our selves contented and pleased in our own minds tranquil and calm in our thoughts and this we rob another of by wilful offences 'T is a devilish piece of malice and spite of which we can give no tolerable account to delight our selves in the affliction and trouble of anothers Soul We are not willing others should provoke us we should not therefore as the Apostle speaks provoke one another Gal. 5.26 But the chiefest sort of Offences is when we cause others to sin This is that scandal which the Holy Scripture denounceth so heavy and severe a Woe against the Authors of Wo be to that man by whom such offences come Sin is indeed the greatest injury of the Soul the disease and the death of the Soul the spiritual death and torment of that which can never undergo a natural death or destruction the eternal undoing of that which can never cease to be 'T is sin only which separates the Soul from God the Fountain of Life and Happiness 'T is sin only which breeds the Worm that dieth not and kindles the Fire which cannot be quenched And therefore the greatest hatred we can shew to another is to be a means either of his committing sin or continuing in it unrepented of as I noted also before from Leviticus 19.17 True it is in propriety of speech we cannot make another man to sin we cannot force any man to sin Sin as it is the greatest wrong unto the Soul so it is also at the sinners choice whether he will admit of it or no. Voluntas non cogitur And so in this case Nemo laeditur nisi à seipso Every sinner stands accountable for the injury he doth himself But yet we may be capable of doing very much towards the determining of his choice towards the tempting of him into sin or the encouraging of him in it And whenever we do that willingly upon the occasion whereof our Neighbour is drawn and moved to consent unto sin or continue in it we are so far guilty of his sin We bring the guilt of anothers sin and of the wrong redounding to him by it so far upon our selves as we are Authors or Accessaries for here as in case of High-treason both Principal and Accessary are deemed alike guilty Now many are the ways Divines reckon up whereby we may become accessary to the sins of others reputed authors and occasions of their sins If we are Superiours in Authority over them by commanding them to sin by decreeing of unrighteous Decrees Isa 10.1 in the language of the Prophet Isaiah Thus was Nebuchadnezzar guilty of the Peoples Idolatry Dan. 3.4 5 6. by commanding that a Golden Image should be set up and that all at the sound of a Trumpet should fall down and worship it 1 Sam. 22.18 Thus was Saul guilty of killing the Priests whom Doeg slew at his command 3 Sam. 11.15.12.9 Thus David of Vriah's death by commanding Joab on purpose to put him in the front of the Battel Or else by toleration permission or connivence at others sins not restraining of them when we may 1 Sam. 3. Thus Eli became guilty of his Sons wickedness because he restrained them not And the wicked Kings we read of in the Old Testament of the Peoples Idolatry who destroyed not their High-places those Nests of their Idols But all men may become partakers instruments and means of others sins by counselling advising provoking urging perswading alluring or enticing them to sin by assisting and helping them in their sins by giving their consent and furtherance by going before them with a bad example by undue silence and not reproving men for sin as we have opportunity by commending and pleading for their sin by justifying of or flattering them up in their sin by bringing up an evil report on the ways of Religion and affrighting others from Goodness and Vertue by threats or reproaches I should be over-large in giving you particular Instances of all those Heads and Methods whereby directly or indirectly we may become the causes of other mens sins of their profaneness and irreligion of their drunkenness and uncleanness of their Sacrilege and Idolatry of their Schism and Disorder c. of
rather than he would falsifie and violate his Faith and Promise But we must renew the Psalmists complaint Psal 12.1 2. Help Lord for the godly man ceaseth the faithful fail from among the Children of men they speak vanity every one with his Neighbour with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak They lie in their hearts when they promise and after their promise made lie again to men in their performance they esteem their words but as wind and their Covenants in writing little more than scribbled Papers wherein they are not concerned In the exacting of their Debts from others they are like the Servant in the Parable who finding his fellow-servant that ought him an hundred pence S. Mat. 18. laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying Pay me what thou owest despising his submission slighting his entreaties stopping his ears to his Requests using no forbearance but casting him forthwith into Prison till he should pay the Debt But when they should come to discharge their own to others good words at best are their present payment Sir have patience with me and I will pay you all Forbearance is the thing they intentionally drive at but the payment of all goes slowly on Now did men as they would be done by they would not only in cases of apparent necessity forbear others upon their requests as themselves in the like cases would desire to be forborn but would as faithfully and seasonably pay their Debts to others as they desire other men should discharge theirs to themselves Every one would look upon the violation of his own Word Promise or Oath with as evil and censorious an eye as he doth on the unfaithfulness of others Here let me drop a Remarque upon the notorious injustice of such who have plighted their Faith to each other in the solemn Promises and Precontracts of Matrimony For either of them to fail without a mutual Release is an injury the Heathens would blush at And they need no more to excite them to be honest and punctual each with other than the consideration of what the one Party expects and desires from the other How ill would he that breaks his Faith have taken it should she have broken hers first And the same may be said of the Woman Besides that in this case the injury is valuable not only according to the prejudice resulting from this unfaithfulness but according to that degree of affection which the Party is engaged in with whom the Faith is broken To this I will yet add one other I would to God it were especially laid to heart by men how indispensibly they stand obliged to their Sovereign by vertue of the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance sworn by them and that all Officers would impartially consider how strongly they are engaged by the respective Oaths taken by them at their entrance upon their Offices and then I am sure a discharge of the same would be look'd upon as an undeniable Branch of Justice which they would as readily set themselves about as they require and expect any others should do about the performance of what they swear to But because of the monstrous breach of Oaths this horrid dishonesty injustice and perjury the Land mourneth 4. The same Rule teacheth us to be true and faithful in all our Trusts for that we desire and expect from others our selves Now 1. Every mans Calling and Office is his Trust We expect men should be both skilful and faithful in their Callings and Imployments and therefore such should we approve our selves to be 2. He that leaves another a pledge of his Fidelity in the performance of his Contract as a Trust to be returned again upon the performance may after that performance challenge the same in the nature of a Depositum to be rendred and restored again without hurt or impairing for thus we expect other men should deal with us 3. He that commits his Secrets to another to be concealed admits him to a Trust which he is not to violate Discover not the secret of another Prov. 25.9 saith Solomon This disclosing of Secrets however common it be in the babbling Age wherein we live is the highest affront and injury to Friendship imaginable the bane of Amity and no man is willing to be served so himself 'T is supposed always that nothing is to be communicated by way of Secret which tends to Treason and Conspiracy for in this case to conceal is to partake of the Guilt and become a Partner in the Iniquity 4. The Executors and Administrators of the Goods of the Deceased have a great Trust lying upon them by vertue of the Will of the Deceased and the Will of the Deceased hath always been esteemed a most sacred Band of Fidelity The last Trust we can leave with any is the Execution of our Will and Pleasure when we are gone hence and though the Parties that have left the Trust are in no capacity it may be of taking cognizance of the performance yet we may reckon with our selves that God takes so much the more notice of it and will exact so much a stricter account at the hands of those who are concerned And they who presume to rob the Dead or thwart their last Will and Pleasure should methinks have the Ghosts of their departed Friends continually haunting of their Phansies and upbraiding them with their injustice unfaithfulness and breach of trust Who would be thus dealt with himself Nay it would add to the dissatisfaction of our Spirits at our decease did we not confidently rely upon the faithfulness of others in the observing of our last Appointments Of the same nature are Feoffees intrusted with the Conveyance of Lands unto Pious uses only their injustice is the more aggravated by the injury they do the Poor and their impiety towards God as well as their contempt and unfaithfulness to the Wills of the Dead 5. To these might be added Tutors and Guardians who are intrusted with the Persons and Estates of others during their Minority Governors and Protectors in like manner with their Infant Prince and they who become Sponsors and Sureties to the Church at the Baptizing of Infants to see to their Instruction and Education in order to a Vertuous and Christian Life The violation and breach of Trusts is an inexcusable Branch of Injustice which we our selves would be most ready to exclaim against in others and therefore Fidelity in every Trust committed to us is a piece of Justice we are by this Rule to charge our selves withal Lastly to mention no more 'T is a point of Justice to render Tribute and Custom to our Governours in order to their Honourable Maintenance and for the defraying of the great Expences of their Place and the supplies of the emergent necessities of their Government to render Tribute and Custom as well as Fear Honour and Obedience and this we should expect and look for our selves were we in their room But this