and instruction 3. If they may do so in the Psalms in Metre there can no reason be given but they may lawfully do so in the Psalms in prose For saying them and singing them are but modes of utterance both are the speaking of Prayer and praise to God And the ancient singing was liker our saying than to our tunes as most judge 4. The primitive Christians were so full of the zeal and Love of Christ that they would have taken it for an injury and a quenching of the spirit to have been wholly restrained from bearing their part in the praises of the Church 5. The use of the tongue keepeth awake the mind and stirreth up Gods graces in his servants 6. It was the decay of zeal in the people that first shut out Responses while they kept up the ancient zeal they were inclined to take their part vocally in the Worship And this was seconded by the pride and usurpation of some Priests thereupon who thought the people of God too prophane to speak in the assemblies and meddle so much with holy things Yet the very remembrance of former zeal caused most Churches to retain many of the words of their predecessours even when they lost the Life and spirit which should animate them And so the same words came into the Liturgies and were used by too many customarily and in formality which their ancestors had used in the fervour of their souls 6. And if it were not that a dead hearted formal people by speaking the Responses carelesly and hypocritically do bring them into disgrace with many that see the necessity of seriousness I think few good people would be against them now If all the serious zealous Christians in the assembly speak the same words in a serious manner there will appear nothing in them that should give offence If in the fulness of their hearts the people should breakout into such words of prayer or confession or praise it would be taken for an extraordinary pang of zeal and were it unusual it would take exceedingly But the better any thing is the more loathsome it appeareth when it is mortified by hypocrisie and dead formality and turned into a mockery or an affected scenical act But it is here the duty of every Christian to labour to restore the Life and spirit to the words that they may again be used in a serious and holy manner as heretofore 7. Those that would have private men pray and prophesie in publick as warranted by 1 Cor. 14. Ye may all speak c. do much contradict themselves if they say also that Lay man may say nothing but Amen 8. The people were all to say Amen in Deut. 27. 15 16 18 19 20 c. And yet they oftentimes said more As Exod. 19. 8. in as solemn an Assembly as any of ours when God himself gave Moses a Sermon in a form of words to Preach to the people and Moses had repeated it as from the Lord it being the Narrative of his mercies the command of obedience and the promises of his great blessings upon that condition all the people answered together and said All that the Lord hath spoken we will do The like was done again Exod. 24. 3. And Deut. 5. 27. And lest you should think either that the Assembly was not as solemn as ours or that it was not well done of the people to say more than Amen God himself who was present declared his approbation even of the words when the speakers hearts were not so sincere in speaking them as they ought vers 28 29. And the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spake unto me and the Lord said unto me I have heard the voice of the words of this people They have well said all that they have spoken O that there were such a heart in them Obj. But this is but a speech to Moses and not to God Answ. I will reciâ—e to you a form of prayer which the people themselves were to make publickly to God Deut. 26 13 14 15. Then shalt thou say before the Lord thy God I have brought away the ☞ hallowed things out of my house and also have given them to the Levite and to the stranger to the fatherless and the Widow according to all thy Commandments which thou hast commanded me I have not transgressed thy Commandments neither have I forgotten them I have not eaten thereof in my mourning neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use nor given ought thereof for the dead but I have â—earkened to the voice of the Lord my God and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me Look down from thy holy habitation from Heaven and bless thy people Israel and the Land which thou hast given us as thou swarest unto our Fathers a Land that floweth with milk and honey Is not here a full form of Prayer to be used by all the people And remember that Ioseph and Mary and Christ himself were under this Law and that you never read that Christ found fault with the peoples speech nor spake a word to restrain it in his Churches In Lev. 9. 24. When all the people saw the Glory of the Lord and the fire that came out from it and consumed the burnt Offering they shouted and fell on their faces which was an acclamation more than bare Amen 2 King 23. 2 3. King Iosiah went up into the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah c. And the Priests and the Prophets and all the people both small and great and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the Covenant And the King stood by a pillar and made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his Commandments c with all their heart and all their soul c. and all the people stood to the Covenant Where as a King is the speaker it 's like that the people used some words to express their consent 1 Chron. 16. 35 36. When David delivered a Psalm for a form of praise in which it is said to the people v. 35. And say ye save us O God of our salvation and gather us together and deliver us from the Heathen that we may give thanks to thy holy name and glory in thy praise blessed be the Lord God of Israel for ever and ever All the people said Amen and praised the Lord. Where it is like that their praising the Lord was more than their Amen And it is a command Psal. 67. 3 5. Let all the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee And he that will limit this to single persons or say that it must not be Vocally in the Church or it must be only in metre and never in prose or only in tunes and not without must prove it lest he be proved an adder to Gods word But it would be tedious to recite all the repeated sentences in the Psalms
interâ—ss him in all § 26. Direct 12. Let every meditation be undertaken in a humble sense of thy own insufficiency Direct 12. with a believing dependance on thy Head and Saviour to guide and quicken thee by his holy Spirit and to cover the infirmities of thy holiest thoughts Whatever good is written upon our hearts must be written by the Spirit of the living God and this trust we must have through Christ to Godward not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. 3. 3 4 5. How heavily will all go on or rather how certainly shall we labour in vain and cast off all if Christ cast us off and leave us to our selves Think not that your life and strength is radically in your selves Go to him by renewed acts of faith by whom you must be quickned § 27. Direct 13. Let not your holy thoughts be so seldom as to keep you strange to the matter of Direct 13. your meditations nor so short as to be gone before you have made any thing of it Now and then a cursory thought will not acquaint the soul with God nor bring it to a habit and temperament of holiness Whereas that which you think on frequently and seriously as your business and delight will become the nutriment and nature of your souls As the air which we daily breathe in and the food which we daily live upon doth to our bodies And you will find that as use will breed skill and strength so it will cause such acquaintance and familiarity as will very much tend to the fruit and comfort of the work Whereas they that only cast now and then a look at God and holiness or are seldom and short in holy thoughts do lose so quickly the little which they get that it makes no great alteration on them § 28. Direct 14. Yet do not over-do in point of violence or length but carry on the work sincerely Direct 14. according to the abilities of your minds and bodies lest going beyond your strength you craze your brains and discompose your minds and disable your selves to do any thing at all Though we cannot estimatively love God too much yet is it possible to think of him with too much passion or too long at once Because it may be more than the Spirits and brain can bear And if once they be overstrained if they break not like a Lute-string screwed too high they will be like a legg that is out of joint that can pain you but not bear you While the soul â—ideth on so lame or dull a Horse as the body is it must not go the pace which it desireth but which the body can bear or else it may quickly be dismounted or like one that rideth on a tired Horse It is not the Horse that goeth at first with chafing heat and violence which will travel best But you must put on in the pace that you are able to hold out You little know how lamentable and distressed a case you will be in or how great an advantage the Tempter hath if once he do but tire you by over-doing § 29. Direct 15. Choâ—se not unnecessarily or ordinarily the bitterest or most unpleasant subjects for Direct 15. your meditation lest you make it grow a burden to you but dwell most on the sweet delightful thoughts of the infinite Love of God revealed by Christ and the eternal glory purchased by him and the wonderful helps and mercies in the way As it is the Gospel which Christs Ministers must preach to others so it is the Gospel which in your Meditations you must preach most to your selves It s Love and Pleasure which you must principally endeavour to excite And you must do it by contemplating amiableness and felicity the objects of love and pleasure For the thoughts of terror and wrath and misery are unfit to stir up these Though to the unconverted dull secure presumptuous or sensual sinner such thoughts are very necessary to awake him and prepare him for the thoughts of love and peace It is the principal part of this art to keep off loathing and aversness and to keep up readiness and delight § 30. Direct 16. When you are in company let out the fruit of your secret meditations in holy Direct 16. edifying discourse Gather not for your selves only but that you may communicate to others The good Scribe instructed to the Kingdom of God must bring forth out of his treasure things new and old Matth. 13. 52. That is Good which doth good God is communicative and the best men are likest to him Nay a fluent discourse sometimes is a great instructer to our selves and bringeth those things into our minds with clearness which long meditation would not have done For one thing leadeth in another and in a warm discourse the Spirits are excited and the understanding and memory are engaged to a close attention so that just in the speaking we have oft-times such a sudden appearance of some truth which before we took no notice of that we find it is no small addition to our knowledge which comes in this way As some find that vocal prayer doth more excite them and keep the mind from wandring than meer mental prayer doth so free discourse is but a vocal meditation And what mans thoughts are not more guilty of disorder vagaries and interruptions than his discourse is § 31. Direct 17. Obey all that God revealeth to you in your meditations and turn them all into Direct 17 faithful practice and make not thinking the end of thinking Else you will but do as the ungodly and disobedient in their prayers Eccles. 5. 1 2. who offer to God the Sacrifice of fools and consider not that they do evil Away with the sin and do the duty on which you think § 32. Direct 18. Think not that the same measure of contemplation and striving with their own affections Direct 18. is necessary to all but that an obediential active life may be as acceptable to God when he calleth men to it as a more contemplative life This leadeth me necessarily to give you some Directions about the difference of these wayes Tit. 4. The Difference between a Contemplative life and an obedient active life with Directions concerning them THis task will be best performed by answering those Questions which here need a Solution § 1. Quest. 1. What is a Contemplative Life and what is an Active obediential life Quest. 1. Answ. Every active Christian is bound to somewhat of contemplation and all contemplative persons What is a contemplative life are bound to Obedience to God and to so much of Action as may answer their abilities and opportunities But yet some are much more called to the one and some to the other And we denominate from that which is most eminent and the chief We call that a Contemplative life when a mans state and calling
Wilderness than with a contentious angry woman Prov. 29. 22. An angry man stirreth up strife and a furious man aboundeth in transgression There is no ruling the tongue if you cannot rule the passions Therefore it 's good counsel Prov. 22. 24. Make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man thou shalt not go lest thou learn his way and get a snare to thy soul. § 47. Direct 9. Foresee your opportunities of profitable discourse and your temptations to evil Direct 9. speeches For we are seldom throughly prepared for sudden unexpected accidents Consider when you go forth what company you are like to fall into and what good you are like to be called to or what evil you are likest to be tempted to especially consider the ordinary stated duties and temptations of your daily company and converse § 48. Direct 10. Accordingly besides your aforesaid general preparations be prepared particularly Direct 10. for these duties and those temptations carry still about with you some special preservatives against those particular sins of speech which you are most in danger of and some special provisions and helps to those duties of speech which you may be called to As a Surgeon will carry about with him his instruments and Salves which he is like to have use for among the persons that he hath to do with And as a Traveller will carry such necessaries still with him as in his travail he cannot be without If you are to converse with angry men be still furnished with patience and firm resolutions to give place to wrath Rom. 12. 19. If you are to converse with ignorant ungodly men go furnished with powerful convincing reasons to humble them and change their minds If you are to go amongst the cavilling or scorning enemies of holiness go furnished with well digested arguments for the defence of that which they are likest to oppose that you may shame and stop the mouths of such gainsayers This must be done by the word of the spirit which is the word of God Ephes. 6. 17. Therefore be well acquainted with the Scripture and with particular plain Texts for each particular use By them the man of God is compleat throughly furnished to every good work 2 Tim. 3. 17. § 49. Direct 11. Continually walk as in the presence of God and as under his Government and Direct 11. Law and as those that are passing on to Iudgement Ask your selves whatever you say 1. Whether Psal. 1 9. 4. it be fit for God to hear 2. Whether it be agreeable to his holy Law 3. Whether it be such speech as you would hear of at the day of judgement If it be speech unmeet for the hearing of a grave and reverend man will you speak it before God will you speak wantonly or filthily or foolishly or maliciously when God forbiddeth it and when he is present and heareth every word and when you must certainly give account to him of all § 50. Direct 12. Pray every morning to God for preservation from the sins of speech that you are Direct 12. lyable to that day Commit the custody of your tongues to him Not so as to think your selves discharged of it but so as to implore and trust his grace Pray as David Psal. 141. 3 4. Set a watch O Lord before my mouth keep the door of my lips encline not my heart to any evil thing and that the Psal. 19. 14. words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart may be acceptable to him § 51. Direct 13. Make it part of your continual work to watch your tongues Carelesness and negligence Direct 13. will not serve turn in so difficult a work of government Iames telleth you that to tame and rule the tongue is harder than to tame and rule wild beasts and birds and serpents and as the ruling of a horse by the bridle and of a Ship that 's driven by fierce winds and that the tongue is an unruly evil and that he that offendeth not in word is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body Jam. 3. Make it therefore your study and work and watch it continually § 52. Direct 14. Call your tongues daily to account and ask your selves what evil you have Direct 14. spoken and what good you have omitted every day and be humbled before God in the penitent confession of the sin which you discover and renew your resolution for a stricter watch for the time to come If your servant be every day faulty and never hear of it he will take it as no fault and be little careful to amend Nay you will remember your very Ox of his fault when he goeth out of the Furrow by a prick or stroke and your Horse when he is faulty by a spur or rod And do you think if you let your selves even your tongues be faulty every day and never tell them of it or call them to account that they are ever like to be reformed and not grow careless and accustomed to the sin Your first care must be for preventing the sin and doing the duty saying as David Psalm 39. 1 2 3. I said I will take heed to my ways that I offend not with my tongue I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me I was dumb with silence I held my peace Psalm 35. 28. My tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long Psal. 71. 24. Psal. 119. 172. My tongue shall speak of thy word Psalm 45. 1. My tongue is as the pen of a ready writer But your next care must be to repent of the faults which you commit and to judge your selves for them and reform Remembering that there is not a word in your tongues but it is altogether known to God Psalm 139. 4. § 53. Direct 15. Make use of a faithful monitor or reprover We are apt through custom and partiality Direct 15. to overlook the faults of our own speech A friend is here exceeding useful Desire your friend therefore to watch over you in this And amend what he telleth you of And be not so foolish as to take part with your fault against your friend Tit. 2. Special Directions against prophane swearing and using Gods name unreverently and in vain § 1. I. TO swear is an affirming or denying of a thing with an appeal to some other thing or person as a witness of the truth or avenger of the untruth who is not producible as Witness What an Oath is or Iudge in humane courts An affirmation or negation is the matter of an oath The peculiar appellation is the form It is not every appeal or attestation that maketh an Deu 6. 13 10 20. oath To appeal to such a witness as is credible and may be produced in the Court from a partial incredible witness is no oath To appeal from an incompetent Iudge or an inferior Court to
by God only And that man hath a power to oblige himself is discerned by the light of Nature and is the ground of the Law of Nations and of humane Converse And though this is no Divine Obligation yet is it not therefore none at all 2. But moreover he that voweth doth induce upon himself a New Divine obligation by making himself the subject of it For example God hath said Honour the Lord with thy substance This command obligeth me to obey it whether I vow it or not The same God hath said Pay thy Vows to the Most High Psal. 50. 14. And When thou vowest a Vow to God defer not to pay it Eccles. 5. 4. This layeth no obligation on me till I vow but when I have vowed it doth so that now I am under a double Divine obligation one to the matter of the duty and another to keep my Vow and under a self-obligation of my own Vow Whence also a greater penalty will be due if I now offend then else would have been § 5. Hence you may see what to think of the common determination of Casuists concerning Vows materially sinful when they say A man is not obliged to keep them It is only thus far true that God obligeth ☜ him not to do that particular thing which he voweth For God had before forbidden it And he changeth not his Laws upon mans rash Vowings But yet there is a self-obligation which he laid upon himself to do it And this self-obligation to a sinful act was it self a sin and to be repented of and not performed but it bringeth the person under a double obligation to penalty as a perjured person even Gods obligation who bindeth the perjured to penalty and the obligation of his own consent to the punishment if there was any Oath or imprecation in the Vow If it were true that such a person had brought himself under no kind of obligation at all then he could not be properly called Perjured nor punished as Perjured But he that sweareth and voweth to do evil as the Jews to kill Paul though he ought not to do the thing because God forbiddeth it yet he is a perjured person for breaking his Vow and deserveth the penalty not only of a rash Vower but of one perjured Thus Error may make a man sinful and miserable though it cannot warrant him to sin § 6. Direct 2. Tâ—y well the matter of your Vows and venture not on them till you are sure that they Direct 2. are not things forbidden Things sinful or doubtful are not fit matter for a Vow In asserting subscribing and witnessing you should take care that you know assuredly that the matter be True and â—enture not upon that which may prove false Much more should you take care that you venture not Vid. Sanderson de Juram Praelect 7. Sect. 14. Iuramentum oblatum reluctante vel dubitante conscientia non est suscipiendum 1. Quia quod non est ex fide peccatum est 2. Quia jurandum est in judicio quod certè is non facit qui contra conscientiae suae judicium facit c. ad finem doubtingly in Vows and Oaths They are matters to be handled with dread and tenderness and not to be played with and rashly ventured on as if it were but the speaking of a common word Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God Eccles. 5. 2. It is a grievous snare that men are oft brought into by ignorant and rash Vows As the case of Iephtha and Herod and many another tell us for our warning An error in such cases is much more safely and cheaply discerned before than afterward To have a rash vow or perjury to repent of is to set a bone in joynt or pull a thorn out of your very eye and who would choose such pain and smart Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say thou before the Angel that it was an error Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thy hands Eccles. 5. 6. It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy and after vows to make enquiry Prov. 20. 25. Be careful and deliberate to prevent such snares § 7. Direct 3. Vow not in a Passion Stay till the storm be over whether it be anger or desire Direct 3. or what ever the Passion be delay and deliberate before you Vow For when Passion is up the judgement is upon great disadvantage In your Passion you are apt to be most peremptory and confident when you are most deceived If it be your Duty to Vow it will be your duty to morrow when you are calm If you say that Duty must not be delayed and that you must do it while the Spirit moveth you I answer Was it not as much a duty before your passion was kindled as now It is no sinful delaying of so great a duty to stay till you have well proved whether it be of God If it be the Spirit of Christ that moveth you to it he will be willing that you deliberate and try it by that Word which the same Spirit hath endited to be your rule Gods Spirit worketh principally upon the judgement and the will by setled convictions which will endure a rational tryal It is liker to be your own Spirit which worketh principally on the passion and will not endure the tryal nor come into the light Iohn 3. 18 19. Isa. 8. 20. § 8. Direct 4. Make not a Vow of things indifferent and unnecessary If they be not good in a true Direct 4. comparing practical judgement which considereth all accidents and circumstances they are no fit matter for a Vow Some say Things indifferent are the fittest matter both for Vows and humane Laws But either they speak improperly or untruly and therefore dangerously at the best If an idle word be a sin then an idle action is not a thing to be vowed because it is not a thing to be done being as truly a sin as an idle word And that which is wholly indifferent is idle For if it be good for any thing it is not wholly indifferent And because it is antecedently useless it is consequently sinful to be done § 9. Object 1. But those that say things Indifferent may be Vowed mean not things useless or unprofitable Object 1. to any good end but only those things that are Good and Useful but not commanded such as are the matter of Gods Counsells and tend to mans perfection as to Vow Chastity Poverty and absolute obedience Answ. There are no such things as are morally Good and not commanded This is the fiction of men that have a mind to accuse Gods Laws and Government of imperfection and think sinful man See the fourteenth Article of the Church of 〈…〉 against Voluntary Works over and above Gods Comâ—andments as imâ—ion can do better than he is
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell even together in unity It is like the pretious oyntment upon the head that ran down upon the heard even Aarons beard that went down to the skirts of his garment As the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion for there the Lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore The Translators well put this as the Contents of this Psalm The benefit of the communion of Saints § 53. 5. The concord of Believers doth greatly conduce to the successes of the Ministery and propagation of the Gospel and the conviction of unbelievers and the conversion and salvation of ungodly souls When Christ prayeth for the Unity of his Disciples he redoubleth this argument from the effect or end that the world may believe that thou hast sent me and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them c. Joh. 17. 21 23. Would this make the world believe that Christ was sent of God Yes undoubtedly if all Christians were reduced to a Holy Concord it would do more to win the Heathen world than all other means can do without it It is the Divisions and the wickedness of professed Christians that maketh Christianity so contemned by the Mahometanes and other Infidels of the world And it is the Holy Concord of Christians that would convince and draw them home to Christ. Love and Peace and concord are such vertues as all the world is forced to applaud notwithstanding natures enmity to good When the first Christian Church were all with one accord in one place and continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house partook of food with gladness and singleness of heart and when the multitude of believers were of one heart and of one soul c. Act. 2. 1 46. 4. 32. then did God send upon them Act. 2. 41. Act. 4. 33. the Holy Ghost and then were three thousand converted at a Sermon And with great power gave the Apostles witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Iesus and great grace was upon them all How our Concord would promote the Conversion of Infidels Our Concord in Religion hath all these advantages for the converting of unbelievers and ungodly men 1. It is a sign that there is a constraining evidence of truth in that Gospel which doth convince so many A concurrent satisfaction and yielding to the truth is a powerful testimony for it 2. They see then that Religion is not a matter of worldly Policy and design when so many men of contrary interests do embrace it 3. And they see it is not the fruit of a Melancholy constitutions when so many men of various temperatures entertain it 4. They may see that the Gospel hath Power to conquer that self-love and self interest which is the most potent thing in vitiated nature Otherwise it could never make so many unite in God as their common interest and end 5. They may see that the Gospel and spirit of Christ is stronger than the devil and all the allurements of the flesh and world when it can make so many agree in the renouncing of all earthly vanities for the hopes of everlasting life 6. They will see that the Design and doctrine of Christianity is Good and excellent beseeming God and desirable to man when they see that it doth produce so good effects as the Love and Unity and Concord of manking 7. And it is an exceeding great and powerful help to the Conversion of the World in this respect because it is a thing so conspicuous in their sight and so intelligible to them and so approved by them They are little wrought on by the doctrine of Christ alone because it is visible or audible but to few and understood by fewer and containeth many things which nature doth distaste But the holy Concord of Believers is a thing that they are more able to discern and judge of and do more generally approve The HOLY CONCORD of Christians must be the CONVERSION of the unbelieving world if God have so great a mercy for the world which is a consideration that should not only deter us from ☜ Divisions but make us zealously study and labour with all our interest and might for the healing of the lamentable Divisions among Christians if we have the hearts of Christians and any sense of the interest of Christ. § 54. 6. The Concord of Christians doth greatly conduce to the ease and peace of particular Believers The very exercise of Love to one another doth sweeten all our lives and duties We sail towards Heaven in a pleasant Calm with wind and tide when we live in Love and peace together How easie doth it make the work of Godliness How light a burden doth Religion seem when we are all as of one heart and soul § 55. 7. Lastly Consider whether this be not the likest state to Heaven and therefore have not in it the most of Christian excellency and perfection In Heaven there is no discord but a perfect consort of glorified spirits harmoniously loving and praising their Creator And if Heaven be desirable holy Concord on earth is next desirable § 56. III. On the contrary consider well of the Mischiefs of Divisions 1. It is the killing of The Mischiefs of Division the Church as much as lyeth in the dividers or the wounding it at least Christs Body is One and it is sensible and therefore Dividing it tendeth directly to the destroying it and at least will cause its smart and pain To Reform the Church by Dividing it is no wiser than to cut out the Liver or Spleen or Gall to cleanse them from the filth that doth obstruct them and hinder them in their office you may indeed thus cleanse them but it will be a mortal cure As he that should Divide the Kingdom into two Kingdoms dissolveth the old Kingdom or part of it at least to erect two new ones so he that would divide the Catholick Church into two must thereby destroy it if he could succeed or destroy that part which divideth it self from the rest Can a member live that is cut off from the Body or a branch that is separated from the tree § 57. Quest. O but say the Romanists why then do you cut off your selves from us The Division Quest. is made by you and we are the Church and you are dead till you return to us How will you know which part is the Church when a Division is once made Answ. Are you the Church Are you the Answ. Whether Papists or Protestants are Schismaticks only Christians in the World The Church is all Christians united in Christ their Head You traiterously set up a new usurping Head and proclaim your selves to be the whole Church and condemn all that are not subjects to your new Head We keep our station and disclaim his Usurpation and deny subjection to
nature of Carnal-selfishness and it is no better § 4. 3. SELFISHNESSE is the corruption of all the faculties of the soul. It is the sin of the mind by self-conceitedness and pride It is the sin of the will and affections by self-love and all the selfish passions which attend it Selfish desires angers sorrows discontents jealousies fears audacities c. It is the corruption of all the inferiour faculties and the whole conversation by self-seeking and all the forementioned evils § 5. 4. Selfishness is the commonest sin in the world Every man is now born with it and hath it more or less And therefore every man should fear it § 6. 5. Selfishness is the hardest sin in the world to overcome In all the unregenerate it is predominant For nothing but the sanctifying Spirit of God can overcome it And in many thousands that seem very zealous in Religion and very mortified in all other respects yet in some way or other selfishness doth so lamentably appear yea and is so strong in many that are sincere that it is the greatest dishonour to the Church of Christ and hath tempted many to infidelity or to doubt whether there be any such thing as true sanctification in the world The persons that seemed the most mortified Saints if you do but cross them in their self-interest or opinion or will or seem to slight them and have a low esteem of them what swellings what heart-burnings what bitter censurings what proud impatience if not Schisms and separations will it cause God hath better servants but too many which seem to themselves and others to be the best are no better How then should every Christian abhor and watch against this Universal Evil § 7. Direct 2. Consider oft how amiable a creature man would be and what a blessed condition the Direct 2. world and all societies would be in if selfishness were but overcome There would then â—e no pride no covetousness no sensuality no tyranny or oppressing of the poor no malice cruelty or persecution no Church-divisions no scandals nothing to dishonour Religion or to hinder the saving progress of the Gospel no fraud or treacheries no over-reaching or abusing others no lying noâ— deceit no neglect of our duty to others In a word no injustice or uncharitableness in the world § 8. Direct 3. Iudge of good and evil by sober Reason and not by bruitish sense And then oft Direct 3. consider whether really there be not a more excellent end than your self ish interest Even the publick good of many and the pleasing and glorifying of God And whether all mediate good or evil should not be judged of principally by those highest ends Sense leadeth men to selfishness and privateness of design But true Reason leadeth men to prefer the publick or any thing that is better than our self-interest § 9. Direct 4. Nothing but returning by converting Grace to the true Love of God and of Man for Direct 4. his sake will conquer selfishness Make out therefore by earnest prayer for the Spirit of Sanctification And be sure that you have a true apprehension of the state of Grace that is that it is indeed The Love of God and Man Love is the fulfilling of the Law Therefore Love is the Holiness of the soul Set your whole study upon the exercise and increase of Love and selfishness will dye as Love reviveth § 10. Direct 5. Study much the self-denying example and precepts of your Saviour His life and Direct 5. doctrine are the liveliest representation of self-denyal that ever was given to the World Learn Christ and you will learn self-denyal He had no sinful selfishness to mortifie yet natural-self was so wonderfully denyed by him for his Fathers Will and our Salvation that no other Book or Teacher in the world will teach us this lesson so perfectly as he Follow him from the Manger or rather from the Womb to the Cross and Grave Behold him in his poverty and contempt enduring the contradiction and ingratitude of sinners and making himself of no reputation Behold him apprehended accused condemned crowned with thorns clothed in purple with a reed in his hand scourged and led away to execution bearing his Cross and hanged up among Thieves forsaken by his own Disciples and all the world and in part by him who is more than all the world And consider why all this was done For whom he did it and what lesson he purposed hereby to teach us Consider why he made it one half the condition of our salvation and so great a part of the Christian Religion to Deny our selves and take up our Cross and follow him and will have no other to be his Disciples Luke 14. 26 31 33. Were a Crucified Christ more of our daily study and did we make it our Religion to learn and follow his holy example self-denyal would be better known and practised and Christianity would appear as it is and not as it is misunderstood adulterated and abused in the world But because I have long ago written a Treatise of Self-denyal I shall add no more CHAP. XXVII Cases and Directions for Loving our Neighbour as our selves Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Loving our Neighbour Quest. 1. IN what sense is it that I must love my neighbour as my self Whether in the kind of Quest. 1. love or in the degree or only in the reality Answ. The true meaning of the Text is You must love him according to his true worth without the diversion and hinderance of selfishness and partiality As you must love your self according to that degree of Goodness which is in you and no more so must you as impartially love your neighbour according to that degree of Goodness which is in him So that it truly extendeth to the reality the kind and the degree of love supposing it in both proportioned to the goodness of the object But before this can be understood the true nature of Love must be well understood Quest. 2. What is the true Nature of Love both as to my self and neighbour Quest. 2. Answ. Love is nothing but the prime motion of the Will to its proper object which is called Complacence The object of it is simple Goodness or Good as such It ariseth from suitableness between the Object and the Will as appetite doth from the suitableness of the appetent faculty and the food This GOOD as it is variously modified or any way differeth doth accordingly cause or require a difference in our Love Therefore that Love which in its prime act and nature is but one is diversly denominated as its objects are diversified To an object as simply Good in it self it followeth the Understandings Estimation and is called as I said meer Complacence or Adhesion To an Object as not yet attained but absent or distant and attainable it is called Desire or Desiring Love And as expected Hope or Hoping Love which is a conjunction of Desire
upon Justification c. which I have seen de nomine and neither of them seemed to take notice of it Be sure as soon as you peruse the terms of your question to sift this throughly and dispute verbal controversies but as verbal and not as real and material We have real differences enow we need not make them seem more by such a blind or heedless manner of Disputing § 22. Direct 11. Suffer not a rambling mind in study nor a rambling talker in Disputes to interrupt Direct 11. your orderly procedure and divert you from your argument before you bring it to the natural issue Both deceiving Sophisters and giddy headed praters will be violent to start another game and spoil the chase of the point before you But hold them to it or take them to be unworthy to be disputed with and let them go except it be where the weakness of the Auditors requireth you to follow them in their Wild-goose Chase. You do but lose time in such rambling studies or disputes § 23. Direct 12. Be caâ—telous of admitting false suppositions or at least of admitting any inference Direct 12. that dependeth upon them In some cases a supposition of that which is false may be made while it no way tends to infer the truth of it But nothing must be built upon that falshood as intimating it to be a truth False suppositions cunningly and secretly workt into arguments are very ordinary instruments of deceit § 24. Direct 13. Plead not uncertainties against certainties But make certain points the measure Direct 13. to try the uncertain by Reduce not things proved and sure to those that are doubtful and justly controverted But reduce points disputable to those that are past doubt § 25. Direct 14. Plead not the darker Texts of Scripture against those that are more plain Direct 14. and clear nor a few texts against many that are as plain For that which is interpreted against the most plain and frequent expressions of the same Scripture is certainly mis-interpreted § 26. Direct 15. Take not obscure Prophecies for Precepts The obscurity is enough to make Direct 15. you cautelous how you venture your self in the Practice of that which you understand not But if there were no obscurity yet Prophecies are no warrant to you to fulfill them no though they be for the Churches good Predictions tell you but de eventu what will come to pass but warrant not you to bring it to pass Gods Prophesies are oft-times fulfilled by the wickedest men and the wickedest means As by the Jews in killing Christ and Pharaoh in refusing to let Israel go and Iehu in punishing the house of Ahab Yet many self-conceited persons think that they can fetch that out of the Revelations or the Prophecies of Daniel that will justifie very horrid crimes while they use wicked means to fulfil Gods Prophecies § 27. Direct 16. Be very cautelous in what cases you take mens practice or example to be instead of Direct 16. precept in the sacred Scriptures In one case a Practice or example is obligatory to us as a Precept and that is when God doth give men a commission to establish the form or orders of his Church and Worship as he did to Moses and to the Apostles and promiseth them his Spirit to lead them into all truth in the matters which he employeth them in here God is engaged to keep them from miscarrying for if they should his work would be ill done his Church would be ill constituted and framed and his servants unavoidably deceived The Apostles were authorized to constitute Church officers and orders for continuance and the Scripture which is written for a great part historically acquaints us what they did as well as what they said and wrote in the building of the Church in obedience to their commission at least in declaring to the World what Christ had first appointed And thus if their practice were not obligatory to us their words also might be avoided by the same pretenses And on this ground at least the Lords day is easily proved to be of Divine appointment and obligation Only we must see that we carefully distinguish between both the Words and Practices of the Apostles which were upon a particular and temporary occasion and obligation from those that were upon an universal or permanent ground § 28. Direct 17. Be very cautelous what Conclusions you raise from any meer works of Providence Direct 17. For the bold and blind exposition of these hath lead abundance into most heynous sins No providence is instead of a Law to us But sometimes and oft-times providence changeth the Matter of our duty and so occasioneth the change of our obligations As when the husband dyeth the Wise is disobliged c. But men of worldly dispositions do so over-value worldly things that from them they venture to take the measure of Gods Love and hatred and of the causes which he approveth or disapproveth in the World And the wisdom of God doth seem on purpose to cause such wonderful unexpected mutations in the affairs of men as shall shame the principles or spirits of these men and manifest their giddiness and mutability to their confusion One year they say This is sure the cause of God or else be would never own as he doth Another year they say If this had been Gods cause he would never have so disowned it Just as the Barbarians judged of Paul when the Viper seized on his hand And thus God is judged by them to own or disown by his prospering or afflicting more than by his Word § 29. Direct 18. In controversies which much depend on the sincerity or experience of Godly men take Direct 18. heed that you affect not singularity and depart not from the common sense of the Godly For the workings of Gods spirit are better judged of by the ordinary tenour of them than by some real or supposed case that is extraordinary § 30. Direct 19. In Controversies which most depend on the testimony of Antiquity depart not from Direct 19. the judgement of the ancients They that stood within View of the dayes of the Apostles could better tell what they did and what a condition they left the Churches in than we can do To appeal to the Ancients in every cause even in those where the later Christians do excell them is but to be fools in reverence of our fore-fathers wisdom But in points of History or any thing in which they had the advantage of their posterity their testimony is to be preferred § 31. Direct 20. In Controversies which depend on the Experience of particular Christians or of the Direct 20. Church regard most the judgement of the most experienced and prefer the judgement of the later ages of the Church before the judgement of less experienced ages except the Apostolical age that had the greater help of the spirit An ancient experienced Christian or Divine is
more to be regarded in many points which require experience than many of the younger sort that are yet more zealous and of quicker understanding and expression than the elder So those that we call the Fathers or Ancients were indeed in the younger ages of the Church and we that are faln into the later and more exprienced age have all the helps of the wisdom and experience of the Ages that were before us And therefore God will require at our hands an account of these greater talents which we have received As it were unexcusable now in a Physicion that hath the help of such Voluminous institutions observations and experiments of former ages to know no more than those former times that had no such helps so would it be as unexcusable for this present age of the Church to be no wiser than those former ages When Aquinas Scotus Ariminensis and other Schoolmen delivered the Doctrine of Christianity to the Church in a dress so far different from Ignatius Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian or any of those former ages they certainly thought that they had attained to a far greater excellency and accurateness in the Knowledge of Divinity than those their Ancestors had attained And whatever they swear in the Trent Oâ—th of not expounding any Scripture otherwise than the Fathers do I doubt not but Suarez and Vasquez and others of their modern Schoolmen thought so too and would have been loth to be accounted wise in the measure only of those ancients The later and elder ages of the Church have had abundant experience e. g. of the tendâ—ncy of Ambition and Papal aspirings and usurpations of the mischiefs of composing and imposing the Popish Missals and numerous ceremonies and of their implicite faith and their concealment of the Scriptures from the Vulgar and many such points And if we are never the wiser for all this experience we are the more unexcusable and may be judged as the neglâ—cters of our greater helps § 32. Direct 21. In Controversies which depend most upon skill in the Languages Philosophy or other Direct 21. parts of common learning prefer the judgement of a few that are the most Learned in those matters before the judgement of the most ancient or the most Godly or of the greatest numbers even whole Churches that are unlearned In this case neither Numbers nor Antiquity nor Godliness will serve turn but as one clear eye will see further then ten thousand that are purblind so one Hierome or Origen may judge better of a translation or the Grammatical sense of a Text than a hundred of the other Fathers could One man that understandeth a Language is fitter to judge of it than a whole Nation that understand it not One Philosopher is fitter to judge of a philosophical question than a thousand illiterate persons Every man is most to be regarded in the matters which he is best acquainted with § 33. Direct 22. In Controversies of great difficulty where Divines themselves are disagreed and a Direct 22. clear and piercing wit is necessary regard more the judgement of a few acute judicious well studied Divines that are well verst in those Controversies than of a multitude of dull and common wits that think to carry it by the reputation of their number It is too certainly attested by experience that Judicious Satis triumphâ—t Vâ—ritas si apud paucos bonosque accepta nec indoles ejus est placere multis Lipsius men are very few and that the multitude of the injudicious that have not wit enough to underderstand them nor humility enough to confess it and to learn of them have yet pride and arrogoncy enough to contradict them and often malice enough to vilifie them In such differences it is not only a sign of a wise man to be content with the approbation of a few but also to have but few approvers except where the injudicious do implicitly believe those few that are judicious Commonly a very few that are wiser than the multitude are fain to stand by and compassionate not only the World but the Church and see the disease and the easie remedy and all in vain while they are but neglected or despised by the rest that will not be made wiser by them § 34. Direct 23. In all contentions hold close to that which all sides are agreed in There is so Direct 23. much agreed on even between the Papists and the Protestants as would certainly save them all if all of them did sincerely believe Love and Practise it For they all confess that the whole Canonical Scripture is true Therefore be more studious sincerely to hold and improve those common truths which they all profess than to oppose the particular opinions of any further than that common truth requireth it See that the Articles of the common Creed which all profess be unfeignedly believed by you and that the Petitions in the Lords Prayer be sincerâ—ly and earnestly put up to God and that the ten Commandments be heartily and entirely obeyed and then no errour or difference will be damning to you § 35. Direct 24. Take nothing as necessary to salvation in point of faith nor as universally necessary Direct 24. in point of practice which the universal Church in every age since Christ did not receive For if any thing be necessary to salvation which the Church received not in every age then the Church it self of that age could not be saved and then the Church was indeed no Church For Christ is the Saviour of his body But certainly Christ had in every age a Church of saved-ones who openly professed all that was of common necessity to salvation An opinion may be true which accuseth the generality in the Church of some errour or imperfection For it is most certain that the Church on Earth is composed of none that have the use of reason but erring and imperfect members But no opinion can be true that condemneth all the Church to Hell in any one age For the Head and Husband of the Church must be her Judge § 36. Direct 25. Be not born down by the censoriousness of any to overrun your own understanding Direct 25. and the truth and to comply with them in their errours and extreams But hold to the truth Thus Peter and Barâ—abas erred Gal. 2. and keep your station Jer. 15. 19. Let them return unto thee but return not thou unto them It is too usual for the younger and more injudicious sort of Christians to be most zealous about some little Opinions Ceremonies and Words and to censure all those that differ from them with such bitter censures as ungodly flashearted c. that hereupon some of the more judicious forsake the truth and simplicity of the Gospel to comply with these censurers meerly to escape them or as some say that they may keep an interest in them to do them good But such carnal compliances though with the most zealous men will bring