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
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
is or can be false in Divinitie The truth in the inferiour facultie is subordinate to that in the superiour in all things and comes short of it in many things but can in nothing be contrarie unto it seeing God and his Spirits work cannot be contrarie to himself I ad though the truth be uttered by the Divel himself yet is it originally of God When he speaks a ly he speaks of himself but when he speaks the truth he speaks of God who so far useth or rather abuseth him as to utter and professe that which he hateth We ought to reverence excellent men but the truth more as Dionisius said of Nepos and Aristotle of Plato and Socrates And good reason seeing a main cause of our reverencing of men is their knowledg and profession of the truth No prescription say the Lawyers lies against the King say we with the Father against the truth which by the Verdict of a great King himself and his Nobles with him is greater then the King no space of time no patronage of person no priviledg of place from which blind or simple custom commonly getting footing and growing into use by succession is brought to coap with truth it self and that the most violently where the persons are the most bruitish and godlesse But our Lord Christ called himself Truth not Custom neither is Falshood Errour or Heresie convinced by Noveltie but by Truth This Truth is alwayes the same whilst The God of Truth is in Heaven what entertainment soever it finde with men upon Earth It is alwayes praise-worthy though no man praise it and hath no reason or just cause to be ashamed though it oft go with a scratcht face They that fight against it are like the Floods beating upon the strong Rocks which are so much the more miserably dashed in pieces by how much they are the more violently carried Though Fire and Sword assault it yet will it not be killed or dy and though by violence it be buried quick yet will it rise again and if not before yet when all Flesh shall rise again and when Truth which was first and before Falshood and Errour shall be last and abide for ever We must love and attain to the knowledg of the Truth in our selvs First Lest we be Clouds without rain promising that to others which we our selvs want and must in our places afterwards make manifestation and profession of it and not be like the grave insatiable in receaving in and barren in returning any thing back but must be alwayes readie as we see hope of doing good to propagate it like the Phylosopher who being found fault with for disputing with all that he met with wished that the bruit beasts also could understand him that he might impart something even to them yea in our kind like God himself that gives wisdom to all that asks it of him and to Christ the Lord that Word of God and true Light which inlightens everie one that comes into the World and sometimes even when we see no hope of doing good if dutie bind us though hope fail us that so the non-proficients may have cause rather to complain of themselvs for not learning then of us for not manifesting the truth unto them And albeit all truth is not to be spoken at all times A fool uttereth all his mind but a wise man keeps it in for afterwards yet nothing not true at any time or for any cause He that hath but a right Philosophicall spirit and is but morally honest would rather suffer many deaths then call a Pin a Point or speak the least thing against his understanding or perswasion A man in pleading for the Truth may shew his judgment and understanding best in the matter but his grace and godlinesse in the manner when he handles a good cause well and the Lords cause after the Lords manner Sometimes men pretend Gods Truth and zeal for it when indeed they make their pleas for Truth serv onely for hackneys for their lusts to ride on whither they would have them Sometimes men seriously intend Truth and yet mingle both with their good intention and it may be true assertion also such their personall corruptions and distempers as Christ looseth more by their inordinatenesse that way then he gaines both by their sound knowledg and fervent zeal of and for his Truth The most account a ly more shamefull then sinfull and therefore make it a matter of great disgrace to take the ly specially in the hearing of others and yet make it no matter of conscience to make the ly before God and his Angels Ah foollish People thus to honour your selvs and other vile men your likes more then God himself and the Angels with him and with all base in your Pryde who will rather bear the ly at your own mouth then at an others When a man speakes against his knowledg his own heart tels his tongue it lyeth which to put up quietly argues both a gracelesse and an abject spirit Whereas both grace and true courage also may be shewen in bearing the ly at an others mouth by overcoming such indignation and anger ryseing thereat as is harder to conquer then a Citty The Divell is the father of lyes which whilst they in the womb of whose heart he begets them impute to other and better causes mooveing them thereunto they are but like harlots who for theyr credits sake father theyr bastards upon honest men Many things even good may occasion lying as all good may do all evill but no thing can bring it forth and cause it save the womb of our own corrupt heart imprignated by the divell Now if both by the Law of God and light of nature it be an abhominable confusion for a woman to lie down before a beast what is it for man or woman to prostitute themselvs to Sathan for the gendring of so mis-shapen a monster as a ly is And very rightly is a ly called monstrous considering both the divels kindes of which it comes and also the disproportion in it often between the speach and the thing spoken and alwayes between the tongue and heart of the speaker Neyther doth the goodnes of the meaning though never so good excuse the evill of the doing when as a ly is told He that tels a ly for God is an accepter of persons and God wil surely reprove him saith Iob. And no marvayl Since his own heart condemnes him God which is greater then his heart and knoweth all things will condemn him much more And if a ly told that through it the truth of God may more abound to his glory procure just condemnation what may they expect that use to ly for meaner though good ends He that tels a ly for a good end puts the Divell into Gods service which neyther his truth needs nor his holynes will endure but he that tels a ly for an evill