to it 14. To defend the cause of the just and innocent and vindicate them against false accusers and excuse those causes and persons that deserve excuse 15. To communicate and convey to others the same good impressions and affections of mind which God hath wrought on us and not only the bare truths themselves which we have received 16. Lastly To be instruments of common converse of expressing our mutual affections and respects and transacting all our worldly business for learning arts manufactures c. These are the Uses and Duties of the Tongue § 11. Direct 3. Understand and remember what are the sins of the Tongue to be avoided And they Direct 3. are very many and many of them very great The most observable are these The sins of the Tongue § 12. 1. Not to say any more of the sins of omission because it is easie to know them when I have named the Duties which are done or omitted among the sins of Commission the first that I shall name is Blasphemy as being the greatest which is the Reproaching of God to speak contemptuously of God or to vilifie him or dishonour him by the denying of his perfections and to debase him by false Titles Doctrines Images Resemblances as likening him to man in any of our imperfections any thing that is a Reproaching of God is Blasphemy Such as Rabshakeh used when he threatned Hezekiah and such as Infidels and Hereticks use when they deny his Omnipresence Omniscience Government Justice particular Providence or Goodness and affirm any evil of him as that he is the author of sin or false of his word or that he governeth the world by meer deceit or the like § 13. 2. Another sin of the Tongue is false Doctrine or teaching things false and dangerous as from God If any falsly say he had such or such a point by Divine Inspiration Vision or Revelation that maketh him a false Prophet But if he only say falsly that this or that Doctrine is contained in the Scripture or delivered by tradition to the Church this is but to be a false Teacher which is a sin greater or less according to the aggravations hereafter mentioned § 14. 3. Another of the sins of the Tongue is an opposing of Godliness indirectly by false application of true Doctrine and an opposing of godly persons for the sake of godliness and cavelling against particular truths and duties of Religion or indirectly opposing the Truth or duty under pretence of opposing only some controverted mode or imperfection in him that speaketh or performeth it A defending of those points and practices which would subvert or undermine Religion A secret endeavour to make all serious godliness seem a needless thing There are many that seem Orthodox that are impious and malicious opposers of that Truth in the application which themselves do notionally hold and positively profess § 15. 4. Another great sin of the Tongue is the prophane deriding of serious Godliness and the mocking and jeasting and scorning at godly persons as such or scorning at some of their real or supposed imperfections for their piety sake to make them odious that piety through them might be made odious When men so speak that the drift and tendency of their speech is to draw men to a dislike of Truth or holiness and their mocks or scorns at some particular opinion or practice or more doth tend to the contempt of Religion in the serious practice of it When they mock at a Preacher of the Gospel for some expressions or imperfections or for truth it self to bring him and his doctrine into contempt or at the Prayers and Speeches of Religious persons to the injury of Religion § 16. 5. Another great sin of the Tongue is unjustly to Forbid Christs Ministers to preach his Gospel or speak in his Name or to stand up against them and contradict resist and hinder them in the preaching of the truth and as Gamaliel calls it to fight against God Acts 5. 39. Yet thus they did by the Apostles v. 40. When they had called the Apostles and beaten them they commanded that they should not speak in the Name of Iesus and let them go So Acts 4. 18 19. And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the Name of Iesus But Peter and John answered and said unto them Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard 1 Thess. 2. 15 16. Who bâ—th killed the Lord Iesus and their own Prophets and have persecuted us and they please not God and are contrary to all men Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sins alway for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost As Dr. Hammond Paraphraseth it And this generally is the ground of their quarrell to us that in spight of their prohibition we preach to the Gentiles § 17. 6. Another sin of the Tongue is Prophane swearing either by God or by Creatures And also all light and unreverent use of the Name and Attributes of God of which more afterwards § 18. 7. Much more is Perjury or Fâ—rswearing a most heinous sin it being an appealing to God the author and defender of Truth to bear witness to an untruth and to judge the offender and so a craving of Vengeance from God § 19. 8. Lying also is a great and common sin of the Tongue of which more anon § 20. 9. Another sin of the Tongue is hypocritical dissembling which is worse than meer lying when mens tongues agree not with their hearts but speak good words in prayer to God or conference with men to cover evil intentions or affections and to represent themselves to the hearers as better than they are § 21. 10. Another is Ostentation or proud boasting either of mens wit and learning or greatness Quod facere instituâ—s noli praedicare nam si facere nequiveâ—is rideberis Pâ—ttaâ—â— Sâ—â—t in Laâ—â—t or riches or honour or strength or beauty or parts or piety or any thing that men are proud of As the faithful do make their boast in God Psal. 34. 2. Psal. 44. 8. and in the Cross of Christ by which they are crucified to the world Gal. 6. 14. So the covetous boast themselves in the multitude of their riches Psal. 49. 6. and the workers of iniquity boast themselves against the righteous and the proud do triumph and speak hard things Psal. 94. 2 3 4. Even against the Lord do they boast in their boasting against his people Ezek. 35. 13. So far as Pride prevaileth with men they are apt to boast themselves to be some body Acts 5. 36. Either openly as the more foolish do or cunningly by the help of fair pretences as the more ingenious proud ones do § 22. 11. Another sin of the Tongue is unseasonable speaking of common things when
last place in teaching learning and most serious consideration § 3. Two sorts do most dangerously sin against or abuse the Holy Ghost The first is the Prophane who through custom and education can say I believe in the Holy Ghost and say that He sanctifieth them and all the Elect people of God but hate or resist all sanctifying works and motions Deus est principium eâ—â—ectivum in Creatione refectivum in redemptione perfectivum in sanctificatione Ioh. Con. bis comp Theol. l. 4. c. 1. of the Holy Ghost and hate all those that are sanctified by him and make them the objects of their scorn and deride the very name of sanctification or at least the thing The second sort is the Enthusiasts or true Fanaticks who advance extoll and plead for the Spirit Rejectis propheticis Apostolicis scriptis Manichaei novum Evangelium scripserunt ut antecellere communi hominum multitudini semi-d 〈…〉 rentur simularunt Enthusiaâ—mos seu afflatus subâ—â—o in â—urâ—a se in terram objâ—â—â—â—entes c vâ—lut 〈◊〉 dâ—â— tacentes deinde tanquam redeuntes ex specu Trophonio plorantes multa vaticinati sunt Prorsus ut Anabaptistae recens fâ—ceruâ— in seditione Monasteriensi Etsi autem in quibusdam manifesta simulatio fuit tamen aliquibus reipsa à Diabolis surâ—tes immisses esse certum est Carioâ— Chron. l. 3. p. 54. against the Spirit covering their greatest sins against the Holy Ghost by crying up and pretending to the Holy Ghost They plead the Spirit in themselves against the Spirit in their Brethren yea and in almost all the Church They plead the authority of the Spirit in them against the authority of the Spirit in the holy Scriptures and against particular truths of Scripture and against several great and needful Duties which the Spirit hath required in the Word and against the Spirit in their most judicious godly faithful Teachers But can it be the Spirit that speaks against the Spirit Is the Spirit of God against it self Are we not all baptized by One Spirit and not divers or contrary into one body 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. But it is no marvel for Satan to be transformed into an Angel of light or his Ministers into the Ministers of Christ and of Righteousness whose end shall be according to their works 2 Cor. 11. 13 14 15. The Spirit himself therefore hath commanded us that we believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world 1 John 4. 1. Yea the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4. 1. Therefore take heed that you neither Mistake nor abuse the Holy Spirit § 4. 1. The Doctrine concerning the Holy Ghost to be believed is briefly this 1. That the Holy Ghost as given since the Ascension of Christ is his Agent on earth or his Advocate with men called by him the Paraclete Instead of his bodily presence which for a little space he vouchsafed to a few being John 16. 7. â— ascended he sendeth the Holy Spirit as better for them to be his Agent continually to the end and John 15 2â— John 16. 13. Gal. 3. 1 2 3 4 Heb. 2. 3 4. unto all and in all that do believe 2. This Holy Spirit so sent infallibly inspired the holy Apostles and Evangelists first to preach and then to write the Doctrine of Christ contained as indited by him in the Holy Scriptures perfectly imprinting therein the Holy Image of God 3. The same Spirit in them sealed this holy Doctrine and the Testimony of these holy men by many Miracles and wonderful Gifts by which they did actually convince the unbelieving world and plant the Churches 4. The same Spirit having first by the Apostles given a Law or Canon to the Universal Church constituting its Offices and the duty of the Officers and the manner of their entrance Eph. 3 2 3 4 8 13. dâ—tâ— Qualifie and â—ispose men for the stated ordinary Ministerial work which is to Explain and Apâ—â—â—â— â—he â—oresaid Scriptures and directeth those that are to Ordain and Choose them they being not wanting on their part and so he appointeth Pastors to the Church 5. The same Spirit assisteth the Ministers thus sent in their faithful use of the means to Teach and Apply the holy Scriptures according to the necessities of the peoplâ— the weight of the matter and the Majesty of the Word of God 6. The same Spirit doth by this Word heard or read renew and sanctifie the souls of the Elect illuminating their minds opening and quickning their hearts prevailing with changing and Actâ— 26. 18. resolving their wills thus writing Gods Word and imprinting his Image by his Word upon their hearts making it powerful to conquer and cast out their strongest sweetest dearest sins and bringing John 14 16 26 them to the saving knowledge love and obedience of God in Jesus Christ. 7. The same holy Spirit assisteth the sanctified in the exercise of this grace to the increase of it by blessing and concurring with the means appointed by him to that end And helpeth them to use those means perform their duties conquer temptations oppositions and difficulties and so confirmeth and preserveth them to the end 8. The same Spirit helpeth believers in the exercise of grace to feel it and discern the sincerity of it in themselves in that measure as they are meet for and in these seasons when it is fittest for them 9. The same Spirit helpeth them hereupon to conclude that they are justified and reconciled to God and have right to all the benefits of his Covenant 10. Also he assisteth them actually to rejoyce in the discerning of this Conclusion For though Reason of it self may do something in these acts yet so averse is man to all that is holy and so many are the difficulties and hinderances in the way that to the effectual performance the help of the Spirit of God is necessary § 5. By this enumeration of the Spirits operations you may see the errors of many detected and many common Questions answered 1. You may see their blindness that pretend the Spirit within them against Scripture Ministry or the use of Gods appointed means when the same Spirit first indited the Scripture and maketh it the Instrument to illuminate and sanctifie our souls Gods Image is 1. Primarily in Jesus Christ his Son 2. Derivatively by his Spirit imprinted perfectly in the holy Scriptures 3. And by the Scripture or the holy Doctrine of it instrumentally impressed on the soul. So that the Image of God in Christ is the Cause of his Image in his holy Word or Doctrine and his Image in his Word is the Cause of his Image on the heart So a King may have his Image 1. Naturally on his Son who is like his Father 2. Expressively in his Laws which express
keeping a good house and a good table tipling is called drinking a cup with a friend Lust and filthiness is called Love worldliness is called thriftiness and good husbandry Idleness and loss of Time is called the leasure of a Gentleman slothfulness is called a nâ—t being too worldly Time wasting sports are called Recreations Pride is called Decency and Handsomness Proud revenge is called Honour and Gallantry Romish cruelty and persecution and 〈…〉 ing the Church is called keeping up order obedience and unity Disobedience to superiors is câ—llâ—d not â—â—aâ—ing mâ—n Church-divisions are called strictness and zeal 2. Specially if a sâ—n be not iâ— dis 〈…〉 among the stricter sort it greatly prepareth men to commit it As breaking the Lords day beyond sâ—â— in many râ—fâ—rmâ—d Churches And at home spiritual pride cens riousâ—â—ss baâ—kâ—iting disobedience â—â—d Church-divisions are not in half that disgrace among many professors of strictness as they deserve and as swearing c. is § 100. Direct 38. Remember that what ever be the Name or Cloak God judgeth righteously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the truth Names may deceive us but not our Iudge And sin is still in disgrace with God however it be with men Remember the comlier the paint and cover is the greater is the danger and the more watchful and cauâ—â—lous we should be It is not imperfect man but the perfect Law of God which must be our Rule The great succâ—ss of this Temptation should deterr uâ— from entertaining it What abundance of mischief hath it done in the world § 101. Tempt 39. Sometime the Devil tempteth men to some â—â—ynous sin that if he prevail not at Tempt â—9 lâ—â—st he may draw them into a less As cheating chafferers will ask twice the price of their commodity that by abating much they may make you willing to give too much He that would get a little must ask a great deal He will tempt you to drunkenness and if he draw you but to tipling or time-wasting he hath got something If he tempt you to fornication and he get you but to some filthy thoughts or immodest lascivious talk or actions he hath done much of that which he intended If he tempt you to sâ—me horrid cruelâ—y and you yield but to sâ—me less degree or to some unjust or uncharitable censures you think you have conquered when it 's he that conquereth § 102. Direct 39. Remember that the least degree of sin is sin and death the wages of it Direct 39. Romans 6. 23. Think not that you have scapt well if your heart have taken any of the infection â—r if you have been wounded any where though it might have been worse If the Tempter had tempted you no further but to a lustful malicious or proud thought or word you would perceive that if he prevail he conquereth so may you whâ—n he getteth this much by a shameless asking more § 103. Tempt 40. He tempteth us sometime to be so fearful and carefull against one sin or Tempt 40. about sâ—me â—ne danger as to be mindless of some other and lie open to his temptation Like a Fâ—â—â—â—r that will seem to aime all at one place that he may strike you in another while you are guarding that Or like an enemy that giveth all the allarm at one end of the City that he may draw the people thither while he stormeth in another place So Satan makes some so afraid of worldliness that they watch not against Idleness or so fearful of hard-heartedness and deadness and hypocrisie that they watch not against Passion neglect of their callings or dejectedness or so fearful of sinning or being deceived about their salvation that they fear not the want of Love and Joy and Thankfulness for all the mercy they have received nor the neglect of holy Praise to God § 104. Direct 40. Remember that as obedience must be entire and universal so is Satans Direct 41. temptation against all parts of our obedience and our care must extend to all if we will escape It would cure your inordinate fear in some one point if you extended it to all the â—â—â—â—t § 105. Tempt 41. Sometime by the suddenness of a temptation he surprizeth men before they are Tempt 41. aware § 106. Direct 41. Be never unarmed nor from your watch especially as to Thoughts Direct 41. or sudden Passions or rash words which are used to be committed for want of deliberation § 107. Tempt 42. Sometime he useth a violent earnestness especially when he getteth Passion on Tempt 42. his side So that Reason is born down and the sinner saith I could not forbear § 108. Direct 42. But remember that the very eager unruliness of your passion is a sin it self Direct 42. and that none can compel you to sin and that Reason must deliberate and rule or else any murder or wickedness may have the excuse of urgent passions § 109. Tempt 43. Sometime he useth the violence of men They threaten men to frighten them Tempt 43. into sin § 110. Direct 43. But is not God and his threatnings more to be feared Do men Direct 43. threaten imprisonment or death or ruine And doth not God threaten everlasting misery And can he not defend you from all that man shall threaten if it be best for you See the portion of the fearful Rev. 21. 8. § 111. Tempt 44. Sometime variety of temptations distracteth men that they do not look to all at Tempt 44. once § 112. Direct 44. Remember that one part of the City unguarded may lose the whole in a general Direct 44. assault § 113. Tempt 45. Sometime he ceaseth to make us secure and lay by our armes and then Tempt 45. surpriseth us § 114. Direct 45. Take heed of security and Satans ambushments Distinguish between cessation Direct 45. and conquest You conquer not every time that you have rest and quietness from temptation Till the sin be hated and the contrary grace or duty in practice you have not at all overcome And when that 's done yet trust not the Devil or the flesh nor think the warr will be shorter than your lives For one assault will begin where the former ended Make use of every cessation but to prepare for the next encounter § 115. Tempt 46. He will tempt you to take striving for overcoming and to think because Tempt 46. you pray and make some resistance that sin is conquered And because your Desires are good all is well § 116. Direct 46. But all that fight do not overcome If a man strive for Masteries yet is he Direct 46. not crowned except he strive lawfully 1 Tim. 2. 5. Many will seek to enter and shall not be able Luke 13 24. § 117. Tempt 47. He followeth the sinner with frequency and importunity till he weary him and Tempt 47. make him yield § 118. Direct 47. Remember that Christ is as importunate with thee to
Laws for the preservation of so excellent a thing as Truth he should not secure the happiness of the world As to the securing of mens lives it is not enough to make a Law that you shall not kill men without just cause though that be all that the Law intendeth to attain for then every man being left to judge would think there were just cause whenever his passion or interest told him so But the Law is You shall not kill at all without the judgement of the Magistrate So if the Law against Lying did intend no more than the securing men from the injuries of errour and deceit yet would it not have been a sufficient means to have said only You shall not injure men by Lying for then men would have judged of the injury by their own interests and passions But much more is it needful to have a stricter Law when Truth it self is the thing that God intendeth to secure as well as the interest of men In the eyes of Christians and Heathens and all mankind that have not unmand themselves there appeareth a singular beauty and excellency in Truth Aristotle could say that the Nature of man is made for Truth Cicero could say that Qâ—â—d verum simplex sincerumque est id naturae bominis accommodatissimum est Verity and Virtue were ever taken as the inseparable perfections of man Pythagoras could say that to Love Truth and do Good were the two things that made man likest to God and therefore were his two most excellent gifts Plato could say that Truth was the best rhetorick and the sweetest oration Epictetus could say that Truth is a thing immortal eternal of all things most precious better than friendship as being less obnoxious to blind affections Iamblichus could say that as Light naturally and constantly accompanyeth the Sun so Truth accompanyeth God and all that follow him Epaminondas is praised for that he would not Lye no not in jeast Pomponius Atâ—icus was so great a hater of a lye that all his friends were desirous to Trust him with their â—â—â—â—y lye iâ— evil and to be avoided saâ—â—h Aristot. Eâ—hâ—c l 4 See Psal. 5. â— Prov. 6 17 19. 12. 22. 19. 5 9. 21 18 Rev. 21. 27. 22 15. Joh. 8. 44. Col. 3. 9. business and use him as their Counsellor He knoweth not what use mans understanding or his tongue were made for that knoweth not the excellency of Truth Let a Pilate only ask as a stranger what is Truth Joh. 18. 38. as Pharaoh asked who is the Lord For this end Christ himself came into the world to bear witness to the Truth and every one that is of the Truth will hear him Joh. 18. 37. He is the Truth Joh. 14. 6. and full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. Grace and Truth came by him Joh. 1. 17. His spirit is given to guide his servants into the Truth Joh. 16. 13. and to sanctifie them by the truth Joh. 17. 19. that knowing the truth it might make them free Joh. 8. 32. The fruit of the spirit is in all truth Ephes. 5. 9. His Ministers can do nothing against the truth but for the truth 2 Cor. 13. 8. Truth is the girdle that must gird our loins Ephes 6. 14. The Church is the pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. The faithful are they that believe and know the Truth 1 Tim. 4. 3. Speaking the truth in Love is the way of the Churches growth and edification Ephes. 4. 15. Repentance is given men to the acknowledging of the Truth that they may escape out of the power of the Devil 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. The dullards are they that are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth 2 Tim. 3. 7. They are men of perverse minds that resist the Truth 2 Tim. 3. 8. They that receive not the Truth in the Love of it cannot be saved 2 Thes. 2. 10. All they are damned that believe not the Truth 2 Thes. 2. 12 13. You see what Truth is in the judgement of God and all the sober world Therefore a Lye that is contrary to Truth as darkness to Light must be equally odious as truth is amiable No wonder therefore if it be absolutely forbidden of God § 21. 3. You may the easilyer perceive this by considering that other faults of the tongue as idle talk swâ—aring and such like are forbidden not only because they are a hurt to others but for the intrinsical evil in the thing it self Great reason therefore that it should be so in this § 22. 4. Lying is a vice which maketh us most unlike to God For he is called the God of truth Psal. 31. 5. Deut. 32. 4. All his ways are mercy and truth Psal. 25. 10. His judgement is according to truth Rom. 2. 2. It is impossible for God to lye Heb. 6. 18. Tit. 1. 2. His word is the word Numb 23. 19. 1 Sam. 15. 29. 1 Joh. 5. 10. of truth Psal. 119. 43. Col. 1. 5. 2 Tim. 2. 15. Jam. 1. 15. 2 Cor. 6. 7. And who shall dwell in his Tabernacle but thâ—se that speak the truth in their hearts Psal. 15. 2. The disconformity of the soul to God then being its greatest dâ—formity in things wherein it is made to be conform to him it may hence appear that Lying is an odious sin And this may the easilyer appear if you consider what a case the world were in if God could lye and were not of undoubted truth we should then be sure of nothing and therefore could have no sure information by his word no sure direction and guidance by his precepts and no sure consâ—lation in any of his promises Therefore that which maketh us so unlike to the true and holy God must needs be odious § 23. 5. Lying is the Image or work of the Devil and Lyars are his Children in a special sort For Christ telleth us that he abode not in the truth for there is no truth in him when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it Joh. 8. 44. The Proud the Malicious and 1 King 22. 22 23. I will be a lying spirit in the moâ—â—hâ— of all his Prophets 2 Chron 18. 21 22. the Lyars are in a special sort the Children of the Devil for these three are in Scripture in a special manner made the Devils sins Therefore sure there is an intrinsical evil and odiousness in a lye It was Satan that filled the hearts of Ananias and Saphira to Lye to the Holy Ghost Act. 5. 3. To change the Truth of God into a lye and to make God a lyar are therefore the most odious sins Rom. 1. 25. 1 Joh. 5. 10. because it is a feigning him to be like the Devil And should we make our selves like him then by the same vice If you love not the Devils sin and image love not a lye § 24. 6. Lying destroyeth humane converse and bringeth
help to overcome their sensual inclinations and give reason the mastery of their lives and you will under God do as much as any one thing can do to help them to a healthful temper of body which will be a very great mercy to them and fit them for their duty all their lives § 11. Direct 11. For sports and recreations let them be such and so much as may be needful to Direct 10. their health and cheerfulness but not so much as may carry away their minds from better things and draw them from their Books or other duties nor such as may tempt them to gaming or covetousness Children must have convenient spâ—rt for the health of the body and alacrity of the mind such as well exerciseth their bodies is best and not such as little stirreth them Cards and Dice and such idle sporâ—s are every way most unfit as tending to hurt both body and mind Their time also must be limited them that their play may not be their work As soon as ever they have the use of any reason and speech they should be taught some better things and not left till they are five or six years of age to do nothing but get a custome of wasting all their time in play Children are very early capable of learning something which may prepare them for more § 12. Direct 12. Use all your wisdom and diligence to root out the sin of Pride And to that end Direct 12. dâ— not as is usual with foolish Parents that please them with making them fine and then by telling them how fine they are But use to commend humility and plainness to them and speak disgracefully of Pride and fineness to breed an aversness to it in their minds Cause them to learn such Texts of Scripture as speak of Gods abhorring and resisting the proud and of his loving and honouring the humble When they see other Children that are finely cloathed speak of it to them as their shame that they may not desire to be like them Speak against boasting and every other way of Pride which they are lyable to And yet give them the Praise of all that 's well for that is but their due encouragement § 13. Direct 13. Speak to them disgracefully of the Gallantry and pomp and Riches of the world Direct 13. and of the sin of selfishness and covâ—tousness and diligently watch against it and all that may tempt them tâ— it When they see great houses and attendance and gallantry tell them that these are the Devils baits to â—ice poor sinners to love this world that they may lose their souls and the world to come Tell them how much Heaven excelleth all this and that the lovers of the world must never come thither but the humble and meek and poor in spirit Tell them of the Rich Glutton in Luk. 16. that was thus cloathed in purple and silk and fared deliciously every day but when he came to Hâ—ll could not get a drop of Water to cool his tongue when Lazarus was in the joyes of Paradice Do not as the wicked that entice their Children to worldliness and covetousness by giving them money and letting them game and play for money and promising them to make them fine or rich and speaking highly of all that are rich and great in the world But tell them how much happier a poor believer is and withdraw all that may tempt their minds to Covetousness Teach them how good it is to love their brethren as themselves and to give them part of what they have and praise them for it and dispraise them when they are greedy to keep or heap up all to themselves And all will be little enough to cure this pernicious sin Teach them such Texts as Psal. 10. 3. They bless the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth § 14. Direct 14. Narrowly watch their tongues especially against Lying railing ribbald talk Direct 14. and taking the name of God in vain And pardon them many lighter faults about common matters sooner than one such sin against God Tell them of the odiousness of all these sins and teach them such Texts as most expresly condemn them and never pass it by or make light of it when you find them guilty § 15. Direct 15. Keep them as much as may be from ill company especially of ungodly play-fellows Direct 14. It is one of the greatest dangers for the undoing of Children in the world especially when they are sent to common Schools For there is scarce any of those schools so good but hath many rude and ungodly ill-taught Children in it that will speak prophanely and filthily and make their ribbald and railing speeches a matter of boasting besides fighting and gaming and scorning and neglecting their lessons and they will make a scorn of him that will not do as they if not beat and abuse him And there is such tinder in nature for these sparks to catch upon that there are very few Children but when they hear others take Gods name in vain or sing wanton songs or talk filthy words or call one another by reproachful names do quickly imitate them And when you have watched over them at home as narrowly as you can they are infected abroad with such beastly vices as they are hardly ever after cured of Therefore let those that are able either educate their Children most at home or in private and well ordered Schools and those that cannot do so must be the more exceeding watchful over them and charge them to associate with the best and speak to them of the odiousness of these practises and the wickedness of those that use them and speak very disgracefully of such ungodly Children and when all 's done it 's a great mercy of God if they be not undone by the force of the contagion notwithstanding all your antidotes Those therefore that venture their Children into the rudest Schools and company and after that to Rome and other prophane or Popish Countries to learn the fashions and customes of the world upon pretence that else they will be ignorant of the course of the world and ill bred and not like others of their rank may think of themselves and their own reasonings as well as they please for my part I had rather make a Chimney Sweeper of my Son if I had any than be guilty of doing so much to sell or betray him to the Devil Quest. But is it not lawful for a man to send his son to travel Answ. Yes in these cases 1. In case he be a ripe confirmed Christian that is not in danger of being perverted but able to resist the enemies of the truth and to Preach the Gospel or do good to others and withall have sufficient business to invite him 2. Or if he go in the company of wise and godly persons and such be his companions and the probability of his gain be greater than of his loss and danger 3. Or if he go only into
will ever study the Laws of the Land And it is a preposterous course and the way of Ignorance and errour for a Divine to study Gods Laws and a Lawyer mans Laws before either of them know in general what a Law or what Government is as nature notifieth it to us § 20. Direct 15. When you come to Divinity I am not for their way that would have you begin with the Fathers and thence form a body of Divinity to your selves If every young student must be put on such a task we may have many Religions quickly but shall certainly have much ignorance and errour We must not be so blind or unthankful to God as to dâ—ny that later times have brought forth abundance of Theological writings incomparably more methodical judicious full clear and excellently fiâ—ted also by application to the good of souls than any that are known to us since the writing of the Sacred Scriptures Reverence of antiquity hath its proper place and use but is not to make men fools non-proficients or contemners of Gods greater mercies My advice therefore is that you begin with a conjunction of English Catechisms and the Confessions I mention not your reading the Scripture as supposing it â—ust be your constant work of all the Churches and the Practical holy writings of our English Divines And that you never separate these asunder These Practical Books do commonly themselves contain the Principles and do press them in so warm a working manner as is likest to bring them to the heart And till they are there they are not received according to their use but kept as in the porch Get then six or seven of the most judicious Catechisms and compare them well together and compare all the Confessions of the Churches where you may be sure that they put those which they account the weightiest and surest truths And with them read daily the most spiritual heart-moving Treatises of Regeneration and our Covenant with God in Christ of Repentance faith Love obedience hope and of a Heavenly mind and life as also of Prayer and other particular duties and of Temptations and particular sins And when you have gone through the Catechisms read over three or four of the soundest systemes of Divinity And after that proceed to some larger Theses and then to the study of the clearest and exactest Methodists And think not that you well understand Divinity till 1. You know it as methodized and joynted in a due Scheme and the several parts of it in their several Schemes seeing you know not the beauty nor the true sense of things if you know them not in their proper places where they stand in their several respects to other points And 2. Till it be wrought into your very hearts and digested into a holy nature For when all is done it is only a holy and Heavenly life that will prove you wise and make you happy and give you solid peace and comfort § 21. Direct 16. When you have gone so far set your selves to read the Ancients 1. And take them in order as they lived 2. Observe most the Historical part what doctrines and practises de factâ— did then obtain 3. Some must be read wholly and some but in part 4. Councils and Church History here have a chief place § 22. Direct 17. With them read the best Commentators on the Scriptures old and new § 23. Direct 18. And then set your selves to the study of Church Controversies Though those that the Times make necessary must be sooner lookt into Look first and most into those which your own Consciences and practice require your acquaintance with And above all here read well those Writings that confute Atheists and Infidels and most solidly prove the truth of the Christian Religion And then those that defend the greatest points And think not much to bestow some time and labour in reading some of the old School Divines § 24. Direct 19. When you come to form up your Belief of certainties in Religion take in nothing as sure and necessary which the ancient Churches did not receive Many other things may be taken for truths and in perspicuity and method the late times much excell them But Christian Religion is still the same thing and therefore we must have no other Religion in the great and necessary parts than they had § 25. Direct 20. Still remember that mens various capacities do occasion a great variety of Duties some men have clear and strong Understandings by nature These should study Things as much as Books For possibly they may excell and correct their Authors Some are naturally of duller or less-judicious heads that with no study of Things can reach half so high as they may do by studying the Writings of those who are wiser than ever they are like to be These must take more on trust from their Authors and confess their weakness § 26. Direct 21. After or with all Controversies be well verst in the Writings of those Reconcilers who pretend to narrow or end the differences For usually they are such as know more than the Contenders I proceed now to give you some Names of Books Quest. 174. What Books Especially of Theologie should one choose who for want of money or time can read but few Answ. General THe truth is 1. It is not the reading of many Books which is necessary to make a man wise or good But the well reading of a few could he be sure to have the best 2. And it is not possible to read over very many on the same subjects without a great deal of loss of pretious time 3. And yet the Reading of as many as is possible tendeth much to the increase of knowledge and were the best way if greater matters were not that way unavoidably to be omitted Life therefore being short and work great and Knowledge being for Love and Practice and no man having leisure to learn all things a wise man must be sure to lay hold on that which is most useful and necessary 4. But some considerable acquaintance with many Books is now become by accident necessary to a Divine 1. Because unhappily a young Student knoweth not which are the best till he hath tryed them And when he should take another mans word he knoweth not whose word it is that he should take For among grave men accounted great Scholars it s few that are truly judicious and wise and he that is not wise himself cannot know who else are so indeed And every man will commend the Authors that are of his own opinion And if I commend to you some Authors above others what do I but commend my own judgement to you even as if I commended my own Books and perswaded you to read them when another man of a different judgement will commend to you Books of a different sort And how knoweth a raw Student which of us is in the right 2. Because no one man is so full and perfect as to say all
a Zeal against Error and for Truth Object V. Are all these Numerous Directions to be found in Scripture Shew us them in Scripture or you trouble the Church with your own inventions Answ. 1. Are all your Sermons in the Scripture And all the good Books of your Library in the Scripture 2. Will you have none but Readers in the Church and put down Preachers Sure it is the Reader that delivereth all and only the Scripture 3. Are we not Men before we are Christians And is not the Light and Law of Nature Divine And was the Scripture written to be instead of Reason or of a Logick or other subservient Sciences Or must they not all be sanctified and used for Divinity 4. But I think that as all good Commentaries and Sermons and Systems of Theology are in Scripture so is the Directory here given and is proved by the evidence of the very thing discourst of or by the plainest Texts Object VI. You confound your Reader by Curiosity of distinctions Answ. 1. If they are vain or false shame them by detecting it or you shame your selves by blaming them when you cannot shew the error Expose not your selves to laughter by avoiding just distinction to escape confusion that is avoiding knowledge to escape Ignorance or Light to escape darkness 2. It is ambiguity and confusion that breedeth and feedeth almost all our pernitious Controversies And even those that bring in error by vain distinction must be confuted by better distinguishers and not by ignorant Confounders I will believe the Holy Ghost 2 Tim. 2. 14 15 16. that Logomachie is the plague by which the hearers are subverted and ungodliness increased and that Orthotomie or right dividing the Word of Truth is the Cure And Heb. 5. 15. Discerning both good and evil is the work of long and well exercised senses Object VII Is this your reducing our faith to the primitive simplicity and to the Creed What a toilsome task do you make Religion by overdoing Is any man able to remember all these numberless Directions Answ. 1. I pray mistake not all these for Articles of Faith I am more zealous than ever I was for the reduction of the Christian faith to the primitive simplicity and more confident that the Church will never have Peace and Concord till it be so done as to the test of mens Faith and Communion But he that will have no Books but his Creed and Bible may follow that Sectary who when he had burnt all his other Books as bumane inventions at last burnt the Bible when he grew Learned enough to understand that the translation of that was Humane too 2 If men think not all the Tools in their Shops and all the Furniture of their Houses or the number of their Sheep or Cattle or Lands nor the number of Truths received by a Learning intellect c. to be a trouble and toil why should they think so of the number of Helps to facilitate the practice of their duty If all the Books in your Libraries make your Studies or Religion toilsome why do you keep them and do not come to the Vulgar Religion that would hear no more but Think well speak well and do well or Love God and your neighbour and do as you would be done by He that doth this truly shall be saved But there goeth more to the building of a house than to say Lay the foundation and raise the superstructure Universals exist not but in individuals and the whole consisteth of all the parts 3. It is not expected that any man remember all these Directions Therefore I wrote them because men cannot remember them that they may upon every necessary occasion go to that which they have present use for and cannot otherwise remember In summ to my quarrelsome Brethren I have two requests 1. That instead of their unconscionable and yet unreformed custome of backbiting they would tell me to my face of my offences by convincing evidence and not tempt the hearers to think them envious and 2. That what I do amiss they would do better and not be such as will neither laboriously serve the Church themselves nor suffer others and that they will not be guilty of Idleness themselves nor tempt me to be a slothful servant who have so little time to spend For I dare not stand before God under that guilt And that they will not joyn with the enemies and resisters of the publication of the Word of God And to the Readers my request is 1. That what ever for Quantity or Quality in this Book is an impediment to their regular universal obedience and to a truly holy life they would neglect and cast away 2. But that which is truly Instructing and Helpful they would diligently Digest and Practice And I encourage them by my testimony that by long experience I am assured that this PRACTICAL RELIGION will afford both to Church State and Conscience more certain and more solid Peace than contending Disputers with all their pretences of Orthodoxness and Zeal against Errors for the Truth will ever bring or did ever attain to I crave your pardon for this long Apology It is an Age where the Objections are not feigned and where our greatest and most costly services of God are charged on us as our greatest sins and where at once I am accused of Conscience for doing no more and of men for doing so much Being really A most unworthy Servant of so good a Master RICHARD BAXTER THE CONTENTS OF THE First TOME Christian Ethicks The Introduction page 1 2. CHAP. I. DIrections to Unconverted graceless sinners for the attainment of saving Grace § 1. What is presupposed in the Reader of these Directions p. 3 Containing Reasons against Atheism and Ungodliness § 2 Twenty Directions p. 6 § 3. Thirty Temptations by which Satan hindereth mens conversion p. 26 Ten Temptations by which he would perswade men that their heinous mortal sins which prove them unconverted are but the pardoned infirmities of the penitent p. 33 CHAP. II. Directions to weak Christians for their establishment and growth p. 36 Direct 1. Against receiving Religion meerly for the Novelty or Reputation of it ibid. Direct 2. Let Judgement Zeal and Practice go equally together p. 38 Direct 3. Keep a short Method of Divinity or a Catechism still in your memory p. 39 Direct 4. Certain Cautions about Controversies in Religion Heb. 6. 1. opened p. 40 Direct 5. Think not too highly of your first degrees of Grace or Gifts Time and diligence are necessary to growth How the Spirit doth illuminate The danger of this sin p 41 Direct 6. Let neither difficulties nor oppositions in the beginning discourage you Reasons p. 43 Direct 7. Value and use a Powerful faithful Mininistry Reasons Objections answered p. 45 Direct 8. For Charity Unity and Catholicism against Schism Pretences for Schism confuted p. 47 Direct 9. Let not sufferings make you sin by passion or dishonouring authority p. 49 Direct 10. Take
heed of running from one extream into another p. 50 Direct 11. Be not too confident in your first apprehensions or opinions but modestly suspicious of them p. 51 Direct 12. What to do when Controversies divide the Church Of silencing truth p. 52 Direct 13. What Godliness is The best life on earth How Satan would make it seem troublesome and ungrateful 1. By difficulties 2. By various Sects 3. By scrupulosity 4. By your over-doing in your own inventions 5. By perplexing fears and sorrows 6. By unmortified lusts 7. By actual siâ—s 8. By ignorance of the Covenant of grace p. 54 Direct 14. Mortifie the flesh and rule the senses and the appetite p. 57 Direct 15. Be wary in choosing not only your Teachers but your Company also Their Characters p. 58 Direct 16. What Books to prefer and read and what to reject P. 60 Direct 17. Take not a Doctrine of Libertinism for Free Grace p. 61 Direct 18. Take heed lâ—st Grace degenerate into Counterfeits formality c. p. 63 Direct 19. Reckon not on prosperity or long life but live as dying p. 65 Direct 20. See that your Religion be purely Divine That God be your First and Last and All Man nothing p. 66 CHAP. III. The General Grand Directions for walking with God in a life of faith and Holiness Containing the Essentials of Godliness and Christianity p. 69 Gr. Dir. 1. Understand well the Nature Grounds Reason and Order of Faith and Godliness Propositions opening somewhat of them The Reader must note that here I blotted out the Method and Helps of Faith having fullier opened them in a Treatise called The Reasons of the Christian Religion and another of the Unreasonableness of Infidelity Gr. Dir. 2. How to live by Faith on Christ. How to make Use of Christ in twenty necessities p. 72 Gr. Dir. 3. How to Believe in the Holy Ghost and live by his Grace His Witness Seal Earnest c. Q. When good effects are from Means from our Endeavour and when from the Spirit p. 77 78 Gr. Dir. 4. For a True Orderly and Practical Knowledge of God A Scheme of his Attributes p. 81 82 Gr. Dir. 5. Of self resignation to God as our Owner Motives Marks Means p. 83 Gr. Dir. 6. Of subjection to God as our Soveraign King What it is How to bring the soul into subjection to God How to keep up a Ready and Constant Obedience to him p. 85 Gr. Dir. 7. To Learn of Christ as our Teacher How The Imitation of Christ. p. 90 Gr. Dr. 8. To obey Christ our Physicion or Saviour in his Repairing healing work p. 95 How each faculty is diseased or depraved The Intellect its acts and maladies The Wiâ—â— Q. Whether the Locomotive and sense can move us to sin without the Consent of the Will â—r Reason upon its bare Omission The sin of the Memory Imagination affections sensitive appetite exterior parts which need a Cure Forty intrinsecal evils in sin which make up its Malignity The common Aggravations of sin Special aggravations of the sins of the Regenerate Directions to get a hatred of sin How to cure it p. 95 Gr. Dir. 9. Of the Christian Warfare under Christ Who are our Enemies Of the Devil The state of the Armies and of the War between Christ and Satan The ends grounds advantages auxiliaries instruments and methods of the Tempter p. 104 How Satan keepeth off the forces of Christ and frustrateth all means Christs contrary Methods p. 109 Tit. 2. Temptations to particular sins with Directions for preservation and Remedy 1. How Satan prepareth his baits of Temptation p. 111 2. How he applyeth them p. 114 Tit. 3. Temptations to draw us off from duty p. 124 Tit. 4. Temptations to frustrate holy duties p. 126 Gr. Dir. 10. How to work as servants to Christ our Lord. The true doctrine of Good Works p. 128 Directions for our serving Christ in well doing p. 130. Where are many Rules to know what are good works and how to do them acceptably and successfully Q. Is doing good or avoiding sin to be most looked at in the choice of a Calling or Employment of life p. 133 Q. May one change his Calling for advantages to do good Q. Who are excused from living in a Calling or from Work p. 124 Q. Must I do a thing as a Good work while I doubt whether it be good indifferent or sin p. 134 Q. Is it not every mans duty to obey his Conscience p. 135 Q. Is it not a sin to go against Conscience Q. Whether the formal cause alone do constitute obedience Q. How sin must be avoided by one that hath an erroneus conscience Q. How can a man lawfully resist or strive against an erring conscience when he striveth against a supposed truth Q Is not going against conscience sinning against Knowledge p. 136 Q. When the information of conscience requireth a long time is it not a duty to obey it at the present Q. May one do a Great Good when it cannot be done but by a Little sin as a Lye Q Must I not forbear all Good Works which I cannot do without sin Q Must I forbear a certain great duty as preaching the Gospel for fear of a small uncertain sin Q. What shall a man do that is in doubt after all the means that he can use p. 137 Sixteen Rules to guide a doubting conscience and to know among many seeming duties which is the greatest and to be preferred p. 137 Gr. Dir. 11. To LOVE GOD as our Father and Felicity and End The Nature of holy Love God must be Loved as the Universal Infinite Good Whether Passionately What of God must be loved p. 141 What must be the Motive of our first Love Whether Gods special Love to us The sorts of holy Love Why Love is the highest Grace p. 143 The Contraries of holy Love How God is Hated The Counterfeits of Love p. 144 Directions how to excite and exercise Divine Love ibid. How to see God Signs of true Love p 154 Gr. Dir. 12. Absolutely to Trust God with Soul Body and all with full acquiâ—scence The Nature of Trust of which see more in my Life of Faith and Disp. of Saving Faith p. 157. The Contraries The Counterfeits Q. Of a particular faith The Uses of Trust. p. 158. Fifteen Directions for a quieting and comforting Trust in God p. 158 Gr. Dir. 13. That the temperament of our Religion may be a DELIGHT in God and Holiness Twenty Directions to procure it with the Reasons of it 162 Gr. Dir. 14. Of THANKFULNESS to God our grand Benefactor The signs of it Eighteen Directions how to obtain and exercise it 167 c. Gr. Dir. 15. For GLORIFYING God Ten Directions how the Mind must Glorifie God Ten Directions for Praising God or Glorifying him with our Tongues Where are the Reasons for Praising God Twelve Directions for Glorifying God by our Lives p. 172 Gr. Dir. 16. For Heavenly mindedness and Gr. Dir. 17. For Self-denyal
6. Cases about losing and finding Q. 1. Must we seek out the loser to restore what we find Q. 2. May I take a reward as my due for restoring what I found Q. 3. May I wish to find any thing in my way or be glad that I find it Q. 4. May I not keep it if no owner be found Q. 5. If others be present when I find it may I not conceal or keep it to my self Q 6. Who must stand to the loss of goods trusted to another p. 130 Tit. 7. Directions to Merchants Factors Travellers Chaplains that live among Heathens Infidels or Papists p. 131 Q. 1. Is it lawful to put ones self or servants specially young unsetled Apprentices into the temptations of an Infidel or Popish Countrey meerly to get Riches as Merchants do p. 131 Q. 2. May a Merchant or Embassadour leave his Wife to live abroad p. 132 Q. 3. Is it lawful for young Gentlemen to travail into other Kingdoms as part of their education The danger of Common Traveling p. 133 Directions for all these Travellers in their abode abroad p. 135 CHAP. XX. Motives and Directions against Oppression The sorts of it The greatness of the sin of Oppression The Cure p. 137 Tit. 2. Cases about Oppression especially of Tenants p. 140 Q. 1. Is it lawful to buy land of a liberal Landlord when the buyer must needs set it dearer than the Sâ—lâ—er did Q. 2. May one take as much for his Land as it is worth Q. 3. May he raise his Rents Q. 4. How much below the full worth must a Landlord set his Land Q. 5. May not a Landlord that is in debt or hath a payment to pay raise his Rents to pay it Q. 6. If I cannot relieve the honest poor without raising the Rent of Tenants that are worthy of less charity may I do it Q. 7. May I penally raise a Tenants Rent or turn him out because he is a bad man Q. 8. May one take house or Land while another is in possession of it Q. 9. May a rich man put out his Tenants to lay the Lands to his own dâ—mesnes Q. 10. May one Tenant have divers Tenements Q. 11. May one have divers Trades Q. 12. Or keep shops in several Market Towns CHAP. XXI Cases and Directions about Prodigality and sinful waste What it is p. 143. Wayes of sinful waste Q. 1. Are all men bound to fare alike Or what is excess Q. 2. What cost on visits and entertainments is lawful Whether the greatest good is still to be preferred Q. 3. What is excess in buildings Q. 4. May we not in building dyet c. be at some charge for our Delight as well as for Necessity Q. 5. When are Recreations too costly Q. 6. When is Apparel too costly Q. 7. When is Retinue Furniture and other pomp too costly Q. 8. When is House-keeping too costly Q. 9. When are Childrens Portions too great Q. 10. How far is frugality in small matters a duty Q. 11. Must all labour in a Calling Q. 12. May one desire to increase and grow rich Q. 13. Can one be prodigal in giving to the Church Q. 14. May one give too much to the poor Q. 15. May the Rich lay out on conveniences pomp or pleasure when multitudes are in deep necessities Directions against Prodigality p. 143 c. CHAP. XXII Cases and Directions against injurious Law suits witnessing and judgement p. 148 Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Law suits and proceedings Q. 1. When is it Lawful to go to Law Q. 2. May I Sue a poor man for a Debt or Trespass Q. 3. May I Sue a Surety whose interest was not concerned in the debt Q. 4. May I Sue for the Use of Money Q. 5. May Law Suits be used to vex and humble an insolent bad man Q. 6. May a rich man use his friends and purse to bear down a poor man that hath a bad cause Q. 7. May one use such forms in Law Suits Declarations Answers c. as are false according to the proper sense of the words Q. 8. May a guilty person plead Not guilty Q. 9. Is a man bound to accuse himself and offer himself to justice Q. 10. May a witness voluntarily speak that truth which he knoweth will be ill used Q. 11. May a witness conceal part of the truth Q. 12. Must a Iudge or Iury proceed secundum allegata probata when they know the witness to be false or the Cause bad but cannot evince it T it 2. Directions against these sins p. 150. The evil of unjust Suits The evil of false witness The evil of unjust judgements The Cure p. 150 CHAP. XXIII Cases of Conscience and Directions against backbiting Slandering and Evil speaking p. 152 Tit. 1. Q. 1. May we not speak evil of that which is evil Q. 2. May not the contrary be sinful silence and befriending mens sins Q. 3. What if Religious credible persons report it Q. 4. If I may not speak it may I not believe them Q. 5. May we not speak ill of open persecutors or enemies of Godliness Q. 6. What if it be one whose reputation countenanceth his ill Cause and his defamation would disable him Q. 7. If I may not make a true Narrative of matters of fact how may we write true Histories for posterity Q. 8. What if it be one that hath been ofâ— admonished Q. 9. Or one that I cannot speak to face to face Q. 10. In what Cases may we open anothers faults Q. 11. What if I hear men praise the wicked or their sins T it 2. Directions against back-biting slandering and evil speaking p. 154 Tit. 3. The great evil of these sins p. 155 CHAP. XXIV Cases of and Directions against Censoriousness and sinful judging p. 157 Tit. 1. Cases Q. 1. Am I not bound to judge truly of every one as he is Q. 2. How far may we judge ill of one by outward appearance as face gesture c. Q. 3. How far may we censure on the report of others Q. 4. Doth not the fifth Command bind us to judge better of Parents and Princes than their lives declare them to be Q. 5. Whom must we judge sincere and holy Christians Q. 6. Is it not a sin to err and take a man for better than he is Q. 7. Whom must I take for a visible Church member Q. 8. Whom must I judge a true Worshipper of God Q. 9. Which must I take for a true Church Q. 10. Whom must we judge true Prophets and true Pastors of the Church p. 157 Tit. 2. Directions for the Cure of sinful Censoriousness p. 159 Tit. 3. The evil of the sin of Censoriousness p. 160 Tit. 4. Directions for those that are rashly censured by others p. 162 CHAP. XXV Cases and Directions about Trusts and Secrets p. 163 Tit. 3. The Cases Q. 1. How must we not put our Trust in man Q. 2. Whom to choose for a Trust Q. 3. When may I commit a
When ever the Spirit of God knocks at thy door thou art so taken up with other company or other business that thou canst not hear or wilt not open to him Many a time he hath been ready to teach thee but thou wast not at leisure to hear and learn Many a time he secretly jog'd thy conscience and checkt thee in thy sin and called thee aside to consider soberly about thy spiritual and everlasting state when the noise of foolish mirth and pleasures or the busles of encumbring cares and business have caused thee to stop thy ears and put him off and refuse the motion And if the abused Spirit of God depart and leave thee to thy beloved mirth and business and to thy self it is but just And then thou wilt never have a serious effectual thought of Heaven perhaps till thou have lost it nor a sober thought of Hell till thou art in it unless it be some despairing or some dull uneffectual thought § 2. O therefore as thou lovest thy soul do not love thy pleasure or business so well as to refuse to treat with the Spirit of God who comes to offer thee greater pleasures and to engage thee in a more important business O lay by all to hear a while what God and conscience have to say to thee They have greater business with thee than any others that thou conversest with They have better offers and motions to make to thee than thou shalt hear from any of thy old companions If the Devil can but take thee up a while with one pleasure one day and another business another day and keep thee from the work that thou camest into the world for till time be gone and thou art slipt unawares into damnation then he hath his desire and hath the end he aimed at and hath won the day and thou art lost for ever § 3. It 's like thou settest some limits to thy folly and purposest to do thus but a little while But when one Pleasure withereth the Devil will provide a fresh one for thee and when one business is over which caused thee to pretend Necessity another and another and another will succeed and thou wilt think thou hast such Necessity still till time is gone and thou see too late how grosly thou wast deceived Resolve therefore that whatever company or pleasure or business would divert thee that thou wilt not be befooled out of thy salvation nor taken off from minding the One thing Necessary If Company plead an interest in thee know of them whether they are better company than the Spirit of God and thy Conscience If Pleasure would detain thee enquire whether it be more pâ—re and durable pleasures than thou maist have in Heaven by hearkening unto grace If business still pretend Necessity enquire whether it be a greater business than to prepare thy soul and thy accounts for judgement and of greater Necessity than thy salvation If not let it not have the precedency If thou be wise do that first that must needs be done and let that stand by that may best be spared What will it profit thee to win all the world and lose thy soul. At least if thou durst say that thy Pleasure and business is better than Heaven yet might they sometime be forborn while thou seriously thinkest of thy salvation Direction 7. IF thou wouldst be converted and saved be not a malicious or pievish enemy to those Direct 7. that would convert and save thee Be not angry with them that tell thee of thy sin or duty as if they did thee wrong or hurt § 1. God worketh by instruments When he will convert a Cornelius a Peter must be sent for and willingly heard When he will recall and save a sinner he hath usually some publick Minister or private friend that shall be a messenger of that searching and convincing truth which is fit to awaken them enlighten them and recover them If God furnish these his instruments with compassion to your souls and willingness to instruct you and you will take them for your enemies and pievishly quarrel with them and contradict them and perhaps reproach them and do them a mischief for their good will what an inhumane barbarous course of ingratitude is this Will you be angry with men for endeavouring to save you from the fire of Hell Do they endeavour to make any gain or advantage by you or only to help your souls to Heaven Indeed if their endeavours did serve any ambitious 1 Pet. 5. 2 3 4. 2 Cor. 10. 4. 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. 2 Cor. 1. 24. 1 Cor. 4. 1. 2 Cor. 3 6. 11. 23. Joel 1. 9 13. 2 Cor 4. 5. Mark 10 44. Matth. 10. 27. â—uke 22. 24 25 26. design of their own to bring the world as the Pope and his Clergy would do under their own jurisdiction you had reason then to suspect their fraud But the truth is Christ hath purposely appointed his greatest Church-Officers to be but Ministers even the servants of all to rule and save men as Volunteers without any coercive Power by the Management of his powerful Word upon their consciences and to beseech and intreat the poorest of the flock as those that are not Lords over Gods heritage nor masters of their faith but their servants in Christ and helpers of their joy that so when ever we deliver our message to them they may see that we exercise not dominion over them and aim at no worldly honours or gain or advantage to our selves but at the meer conversion and saving of their souls whereas if he had allowed us to exercise authority as the Kings of the Gentiles and to be called Gracious Lords and to incumber our selves with the affairs of this life our doctrine would have been rejected by the generality of the world and we should alwayes have come to them on this great disadvantage that they would have thought that we sought not them but theirs and that we preached not for them but for our selves to make a prize of them As the Jesuites when they attempt the conversion of the Indians do still find this their great impediment the Princes and people suppose them to pretend the Gospel but as a means to subjugate them and their Dominions to the Pope because they tell them that they must be all subject to the Pope if they will be saved Now when Christ hath appointed a poor self-denying intreating Ministry against whom you can have none of these pretences to sloop to your feet with the most submissive intreaties that you would but turn to God and live you have no excuse for your own barbarous ingratitude if you will fly in their faces and use them as your enemies and be offended with them for endeavouring to save you You know they can hold their Tythes and Livings by smoothing and cold and general preaching as well as by more faithful dealing if not better You know they can get no worldly advantage by
company or outward advantages to his Religion nor avoideth sin for want of a temptation but is Religious though against the stream and innocent when cast unwillingly upon temptations and is Godly where Godliness is accounted singularity hypocrisie faction humour disobedience or heresie and will rather let go the reputation of his honesty than his honesty it self Direct 2. TAke heed of being Religious only in Opinion without Zeal and holy practice or only in Direct 2. Zealous affection without a sound well grounded judgement But see that Iudgement Zeal and practice â—e conjunct § 1. Of the first part of this advice against a bare Opinionative Religion I have spoken already in my Directions for a Sound Conversion To change your Opinions is an easier matter than to change the Heart and Life A holding of the truth will save no man without a Love and practice of the truth This is the meaning of Iames 2. where he speaketh so much of the unprofitableness of a dead uneffectual belief that worketh not by love and commandeth not the soul to practice and obedience To believe that there is a God while you neglect him and disobey him is unlike to please him To believe that there is a Heaven while you neglect it and prefer the world before it will never bring you thither To believe your duty and not to perform it and to believe that sin is evil and yet to live in it is to sin with aggravation and have no excuse and not the way to be accepted or justified with God To be of the same Belief with holy men without the same hearts and conversations will never bring you to the same felicity He that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not shall be so far from being accepted for it that he shall be beaten with many stripes To believe that Holiness and Obedience is the best way will never save the disobedient and unholy § 2. And yet if Iudgement be not your Guide the most zealous affections will but precipitate you Scientiâ— quae est 〈…〉 ota à just 〈…〉 caâ—â—iditaâ— poâ—â—us quam sapientia 〈◊〉 est ◠〈◊〉 Of the necessity of Pâ—udence in Religious men â—ead 〈…〉 The unprudenciâ—s of welâ—-meaning men have done as much hurt to the Church sometimeâ— as the persecution of enemies e. g. When Coâ—stantine the Son of Constans was Emperour some busie men would prove from the Orthodoâ— Doctrine of the Trinity That his two Brethren Tibtrius and Heraclius should reign with him saying Si iâ— Trinitate creâ—iâ—â—is â—res etiam 〈…〉 which cost the chief of them a hanging Abbas Urspergens Edit Melancth p. 162. and make you run though quite out of the way like the Horses when they have cast the Coachman or the Riders To ride Post when you are quite out of the way is but laboriously to lose your time and to prepare for further labour The Jews that persecuted Christ and his Apostles had the testimony of Paul himself that they had a zeal of God but not according to knowledge And Paul saith of the deceivers and troublers of the Galathians whom he wisheth even cut off that they did zealously affect them but not well Rom. 10. 2. Gal. 4. 17. And he saith of himself while he persecuted Christians to prison and to death I was zealous towards God as ye are all this day Acts 22. 3 4. Was not the Papists Saint Dominick that stirred up the persecution against the Christians in France and Savoy to the murdering of many thousands of them a very zealous man And are not the Butchers of the inquisition zealous men And were not the Authors of the third Canon of the General Council at the Laterane under Pope Innocent the third very zealous men that decreed that the Pope should depose Temporal Lords and give away their Dominions and absolve their Subjects if they would not exterminate the godly called Hereticks Were not the Papists Powder-Plotters zealous men Hath not zeal caused many of later times to rise up against their lawful Governours and many to persecute the Church of God and depriue the people of their faithful Pastors without compassion on the peoples souls Doth not Christ say of such Zealots The time cometh when whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service John 16. 2. or offereth a service acceptable to God Therefore Paul saith It is good to be zealously affected alwayes in a good matter Gal. 4. 18. Shewing you that zeal indeed is good if sound judgement be its guide Your first question must be Whether you are in the right way and your second Whether you go apace It is sad to observe what odious actions are committed in all Ages of the world by the instigation of mis-guided zeal And what a shame an imprudent Zealot is to his profession while making himself ridiculous in the eyes of the adversaries he brings his prosession it self into contempt and maketh the ungodly think that the Religious are but a company of transported brain-sick Zealots And thus they are hardened to their perdition How many things doth unadvised affection provoke well-meaning people to that afterwards will be their shame and sorrow § 3. Labour therefore for knowledge and soundness of understanding that you may know truth from falshood good from evil and may walk confidently while you walk safely and that you become not a shame to your profession by a furious prosecution of that which you must afterwards confess to be an error by drawing others to that which you would after wish that you had never known your selves And yet see that all your knowledge have its efficacy upon your heart and life And take every truth as an instrument of God to reveal himself to you or to draw your heart to him and conform you to his holy will Direct 3. LAbour to understand the true Method of Divinity and see Truths in their several degrees Leg. Acost l. 4. c. 21. 22 de fructu catechizandi Et Li. 5. and order that you take not the last for the first nor the lesser for the greater Therefore see that you be well grounded in the Catechism and refuse not to learn some Catechism that is sound and full and keep it in memory while you live § 1. Method or right order exceedingly helpeth understanding memory and practice Truths Opas est imprimis duplici Catechismo Uno compendaâ—io brevi quem memoâ—iter addiscant ubi summa sit eorum omnium quae ad fidem mores Christiano sunt necessaria altero ubeâ—iore ubi eadem amplius dilucidiusque dicantur copiosius confirmentur Ut ille prioâ— discipulis potius hic posterior ipsâ— praeceptoribus usu sit Acosta l. 5. c. 14. p 490. have a dependance on each other The lesser branches spring out of the greater and those out of the stock and root Some duties are but means to other duties or subservient to them and to be measured accordingly And if it be not
understood which is the chief the other cannot be referred to it When two things materially good come together and both cannot be done the greater must take place and the lesser is no duty at that time but a sin as preferred before the greater Therefore it is one of the commonest difficulties among Cases of Conscience to know which duty is the greater and to be preferred Upon this ground Christ healed on the Sabbath day and pleaded for his Disciples rubbing the ears of corn and for Davids eating the shew bread and telleth them that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath and that God will have mercy and not Sacrifice Divinity is a curious well composed frame As it is not enough that you have all the parts of your Watch or Clock but you must see that every part be in its proper place or else it will not go or answer its end so it is not enough that you know the several parts of Divinity or duty unless you know them in their true order and place You may be confounded before you are aware and led into many dangerous errors by mistaking the Order of several Truths And you may be misguided into heinous sins by mistaking the Degrees and Order of Duties As when duties of Piety and Charity seem to be competitors And when you think that the commands of men contradict the commands of God and when the substance and the circumstances or modes of duty are in question before you as inconsistent or when the means seemeth to cease to be a means by crossing of the end and in abundance of such cases you cannot easily conceive what a snare it may prove to you to be ignorant of the Methods and Ranks of duty § 2. Object If that he so what man can choose but be confounded in his Religion when there be so few that observe any Method at all and few that agree in Method and none that hath published a Scheme or Method so exact and clear as to be commonly approved by Divines themselves What then can ignorant Christians do Answ. Divinity is like a Tree that hath one Trunk and thence a few greater arms or boughs and Stoici dâ—â—unt virtutes sibi invicem ita esse connexas ut qui unam habuerit omnes habâ—at â—â—â—â—â—ius â—n 〈◊〉 thence a thousand smaller branches Or like the veins or nervs or arteries in the body that have first one or few trunks divided into more and those into a few more and those into more till they multiply at last into more than can easily be seen or numbered Now it is easie for any man to begin at the chief trunk and to discern the first divisions and the next though not to comprehend the number and order of all the extream and smaller branches So is it in Divinity It is not very hard to begin at the Unity of the Eternal God-head and see there a Trinity of Persons and of Primary attributes and of Relations and to arise to the principal attributes and works of God as in these Relations and to the Relations of man to God and to the great Duties of these Relations to discern Gods Covenants and chiefest Laws and the duty of man in obedience thereto and the Judgement of God in the execution of his sanctions though yet many particular truths be not understood And he that beginneth and proceedeth as he ought doth know methodically so much as he knoweth And he is in the right way to the knowledge of more And the great Mercy of God hath laid so great a necessity on us to know these few points that are easily known and so much less need of knowing the many small particulars that a mean Christian may live uprightly and holily and comfortably that well understandeth his Catechism or the Creed Lords Prayer and ten Commandments and may find daily work and consolation in the use of these § 3. A sound and well composed Catechism studied well and kept in memory would be a good measure of knowledge to ordinary Christians and make them solid and orderly in their understanding and in their proceeding to the smaller points and would prevent a great deal of â—rror and miscarriage that many by ill teaching are cast upon to their own and the Churches grief Yea it were to be wished that some Teachers of late had learnt so much and orderly themselves Direct 4. BEgin not too early with Controversies in Religion and when you come to them let them Direct 4. have but their due proportion of your time and zeal But live daily upon these certain great substantials which all Christians are agreed in § 1. I. Plunge not your selves too soon into Controversies For 1. It will be exceedingly to your loss by diverting your souls from greater and more necessary things You may get more encrease of holiness and spend your time more pleasingly to God by drinking in deeper the substantials of Religion and improving them on your hearts and lives 2. It will corrupt your minds and instead of humility charity holiness and heavenly mindedness it will feed your Pride and kindle faction and a dividing zeal and quench your charity and possess you with a wrangling contentious Spirit and you will make a Religion of these sins and lamentable distempers 3. And it is the way to deceive and corrupt your judgements and make you erroneous or heretical to your own perdition and the disturbance of the Church For it 's two to one but either you presently err or else get such an itch after Notions and Opinions that will lead you to error at the last Because you are not yet ripe and able to judge of those things till your minds are prepared by those truths that are first in order to be received When you undertake a work that you cannot do no wonder if it be ill done and must be all undone again or worse Perhaps you will say That you must not take your Religion upon trust but must prove all things and held fast that which is good Answ. Though your Religion must not be taken upon trust there are many controverted smaller Opinions that you must take upon trust till you are capable of discerning them in their proper evidence Till you can reach them your selves you must take them on trust or not at all Though you must believe all things of common necessity to salvation with a Divine faith yet many subservient truths must be received first by a humane faith or not received at all till you are more capable of them Nay there is a humane faith necessarily subservient to the Divine faith about the substance of Religion and the Officers of Christ are to be trusted in their Office as helpers of your faith Nay let me tell you that while you are young and ignorant you are not fit for Controversies about the fundamentals of Religion themselves You may believe that there is a God long before you are fit
to hear an Atheist proving that there is no God You may believe the Scripture to be the Word of God and Christ to be the Saviour and the soul to be immortal long before you will be fit to manage or study Controversies hereupon For nothing is so false or bad which a wanton or wicked Wit may not put a plausible gloss upon And your raw unfurnished understandings will scarce be able to see through the pretence or escape the cheat When you cannot answer the Arguments of Seducers you will find them leave a doubting in your minds For you know not how plain the answer of them is to wiser men And though you must prove all things you must do it in due order and as you are able and stay till your furnished minds are capable of the tryal If you will need read before you know your Letters or pretend to judge of Greek and Hebrew Authors before you can read English you will but become ridiculous in your undertaking § 2. II. When you do come to smaller Controverted points let them have but their due proportion of your time and zeal And that will not be one hour in many dayes with the generality of private Christians By that time you have well learned the more necessary truths and practised daily the more necessary duties you will find that there will be but little time to spare for lesser Controversies Opinionists that spend most of their Time in studying and talking of such points do steal that time from greater matters and therefore from God and from themselves Better work is undone the while And they that here lay out their chiefest zeal divert their zeal from things more necessary and turn their natural heat into a Feavor § 3. III. The Essential necessary Truths of your Religion must imprint the Image of God upon your hearts and must dwell there continually and you must live upon them as your bread and drink and daily necessary food All other points must be studied in subserviency to those All lesser duties must be used as the exercise of the Love of God or man and of a humble heavenly mind The Articles of your Creed and points of Catechism are fountains ever running affording you matter for the continual exercise of Grace It is both plentiful and solid nourishment to the soul which these great substantial points afford To know God the Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier the Laws and Covenant of God and his Judgement and Rewards and Punishments with the parts and method of the Lords Prayer which must be the daily exercise of our desires and Love this is the Wisdom of a Christian and in these must he be continually exercised You 'l say perhaps that the Apostle saith Heb. 6. 1. Leaving the Principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on to perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works c. Answ. 1. By leaving he meaneth not passing over the practice of them as men that have done with them and are past them But his leaving at that time to discourse of them or his supposing them taught already Though he lay not the foundation again yet he doth not pluck it up 2. By Principles he meaneth the first points to be taught and learnt and practised And indeed Regeneration and Baptism is not to be done again But the Essentials of Religion which I am speaking of contain much more especially to live in the love of God which Paul calls the more excellent way 1 Cor. 12. 13. 3. Going on to perfection is not by ceasing to believe and Love God but by a more distinct knowledge of the mysteries of salvation to perfect our Faith and Love and Obedience The points that Opinionists call Higher and think to be the principal matter of their growth and advancement in understanding are usually but some smaller less necessary truths if not some uncertain doubtful questions Mark well 1 Tim. 1. 4. 6. 4. 2 Tim. 2. 23. Tit. 3. 9. compared with Iohn 17. 3. Rom. 13. 8 9 10. 1 Cor. 13. 1 Iohn 3. 1 Cor. 1. 23. 15. 1 2 3. 2. 2. Gal. 6. 14. Iames 2. 3. 1. Direct 5. BE very thankful for the great mercy of your Conversion but yet overvalue not your Direct 5. first degrees of knowledge or holiness but remember that you are yet but in your infancy and must expect your growth and ripeness as the consequent of Time and Diligence § 1. You have great reason to be more glad and thankful for the least measure of true Grace than if you had been made the Rulers of the Earth it being of a far more excellent nature and entitling you to more than all the Kingdoms of the world See my Sermon called Right Rejoycing on those words of Christ Rejoyce not that the Spirits are subject to you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in Heaven Luke 10. 20. Christ will warrant you to Rejoyce though enemies envy you and repine both at your victory and triumph If there be joy in Heaven in the presence of the Angels at your Conversion there is great reason you should be glad your selves If the Prodigals Father will needs have the best Robe and Ring brought forth and the fat Calf killed and the Musick to attend the Feast that they may eat and be merry Luke 15. 23. there is great reason that the Prodigal Son himself should not have the smallest share of joy though his Brother repine § 2. But yet take heed lest you think the measure of your first endowments to be greater than it Fear is a cautelous preserving grace I aâ—rt saith of Cleanthes Cum aliquando probro illi daretur quod esset timidus At ideo inquit parum pecco is Grace imitateth Nature in beginning usually with small Degrees and growing up to maturity by leisurely proceeding We are not new born in a state of manhood as Adam was created Though those Texts that liken the Kingdom of God to a grain of Mustard-seed and to a little leaven Matth. 13. 31 33. be principally meant of the small beginnings and great encrease of the Church or Kingdom of Christ in the world yet it is true also of his Grace or Kingdom in the soul. Our first Stature is but to be New born babes desiring the sincere milk of the word that we may grow by it 1 Pet. 2. 2. Note here that the new birth bringeth forth but babes but growth is by degrees by feeding on the Word The Word is received by the heart as seed into the ground Matth. 13. And seed useth not to bring forth the blade and fruit to ripeness in a day § 3. Yet I deny not but that some men as Paul may have more Grace at their first Conversion than many others have at their full growth For God is free in the giving of his Own and may give more or less as pleaseth himself But yet in Paul himself
that greater measure is but his smallest measure and he himself is capable of increase to the last And so great a measure at first is as rare as his greater measure at last in his full growth is rare and scarce to be expected now § 4. And if God should give a great measure of Holiness at first to any now as possibly he may yet their measure of gifts is never great at first unless they had acquired or received them before conversion If Grace find a man of great parts and understanding which by study and other helps he had attained before no wonder if that man when his parts are sanctified be able in knowledge the first day For he had it before though he had not a heart to use it But if Grace find a man ignorant unlearned and of mean abilities he must not expect to be suddenly lifted up to great understanding and high degrees of knowledge by Grace For this knowledge is not given now by sudden infusion as Gifts were extraordinarily in the Primitive Church You need no other proof of this but experience to stop the mouth of any gain-sayer Look about you and observe whether those that are men of knowledge did obtain it by infusion in a moment Or whether they did not obtain it by diligent study by slow degrees Though I know God blesseth some mens studies more than others Name one man that ever was brought to great understanding but by Means and Labour and slow dâ—grees Or that knoweth any Truth in Nature or Divinity but what he read or heard or studied for 〈…〉 e result of what he read or heard The person that is proudest of his knowledge must confess that 〈…〉 me to it in this way himself § 5. But you 'l ask What then is the Illumination of the Spirit and enlightening the mind which the Scripture ascribeth to the Hâ—ly Ghost Hath not our understanding need of the Spirit for light as well as the Heart â—r Will fâ—r Liâ—e Answ. Yes no doubt and it is a great and wonderful mercy and I 'l tell you what it is 1. The Holy Spirit by immediate inspiration revealed to the Apostles the doctrine of Christ and caused them iâ—â—allibly to indite the Scriptures But this is not that way of ordinary illumination now 2. The Holy Spirit assisteth us in our hearing reading and studying the Scriptures that we may come by diligence to the true understanding of it but doth not give us that understanding without hearing reading or study Faith cometh by hearing Rom. 10. It blesseth the use of means to us but blesseth us not in the neglect of means 3. The Holy Spirit doth open the eyes and heart of a sinner who hath heard and notionally understood the substance of the Gospel that he may know that piercingly and effectually and practically which before he knew but notionally and uneffectually so that the knowledge of the same truth is now become powerfull and as it were of another kind And this is the Spirits sanctifying of the mind and principal work of saving illumination Not by causing us to know any thing of God or Christ or Heaven without means But by opening the heart that through the means it may take in that knowledge deeply which others have but notionally and in a dead opinion and by making our knowledge clear and quick and powerful to affect the heart and rule the life 4. The Holy Spirit sanctifieth all that notional knowledge which men had before their renovation All their learning and parts are now made subservient to Christ and to the right End and turned into their proper channell 5. And the Holy Ghost doth by sanctifying the heart possess it with such a Love to God and Heaven and Holiness and Truth as is a wonderful advantage to us in our studies for the attaining of further knowledge Experience telleth us how great a help it is to knowledge to have a constant love delight and desire to the thing which we would know All these wayes the Spirit is the â—nlightner of believers The not observing this Direction will have direful effects which I will name that you may see the necessity of avoiding them § 6. 1. If you imagine that you are presently men of great understanding and abilities and holiness T 〈…〉 r of 〈◊〉 â—â— â—â—ur young 〈◊〉 o◠〈◊〉 while you are young beginners and but new born babes you are entring into the sâ—are and condemnation of the Devil even into the odious sin of Pride yea a Pride of those spiritual gifts which are most câ—ntrâ—ry to Pride yea and a Pride of that which you have not which is most foolish Pride Mark the words of Paul when he forbids to choose a young beginner in Religion to the Ministry 1 Tim. 3. 6. Not a Nâ—vice that is a young raw Christian lest being lifted up or besotted with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil Why are young beginners more in danger of this than Qui dâ—sâ—ipulum â—udem clatum habet 〈◊〉 ventum adverâ—â—â—â—â—mine navigat Seâ—pentem nutrit acoâ—itum â—â—colit hostem doâ—â— Pâ—â— arch Dial. 41. li. 2. other Christians One would think their Infancy should be conscious of its own infirmity But Paul knew what he said It is 1. Partly because the suddenness of their change coming out of darkness into a light which they never saw before doth amaze them and transport them and make them think they are almost in Heaven and that there is not much more to be attained Like the Beggar that had an hundred pound given him having never seen the hundredth part before imagined that he had as much money as the King 2. And it is partly because they have not knowledge enough to know how many things there are that yet they are ignorant of They never heard of the Scripture-difficulties and the knots in School-divinity nor the hard cases of Conscience Whereas one seven years painful studies will tell them of many hundred difficulties which they never saw and forty or fifty years study more will clothe them with shame and humility in the sense of their lamentable darkness 3. And it is also because the Devil doth with greatest industry lay this Net to entrap young Converts it being the way in which he hath the greatest hope 2. Your hasty conceits of your own goodness or ability will make you presumptuous of your own strength and so to venture upon dangerous temptations which is the way to ruine You will think you are not so ignorant but you may venture into the company of Papists or any Hereticks or deceivers or read their Books or be present at their Worship And I confess you may scape but it may be otherwise and God may leave you to shew you all that was in your hearts as it is said of Hezekiah 2 Chron. 32. 31 25 26. 3. And your overvaluing your first grace will make you too secure when your souls have need of holy
Essential Truths by errors of their own nor the doctrine of Godliness by wicked malicious applications 4. Such as drive not on any ambitious tyrannical designs of their own but deny themselves and aim at your salvation 5. Such as are not too hot in proselyting you to any singular opinion of their own it being the prediction of Paul to the Ephesians Acts 20. 30. Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them 6. Such as are judicious with holy zeal and zealous with judgement 7. Such as are of experience in the things of God and not young beginners or Novices in Religion 8. Such as bear reverence to the judgements of the generality of wise and godly men and are tender of the Unity of the Church and not such as would draw you into a Sect or party to the contempt of other Christians no not to a party that hath the favour of Rulers and the people to promote them 9. Such as are gentle peaceable and charitable and not such as burn with hellish malice against their Brethren nor with an ungodly or cruel consuming zeal 10. Such as not live not sensually and wickedly contrary to the doctrine which they preach but shew by their lives that they believe what they say and feel the power of the truths which they preach § 4. And your familiar companions have great advantage to help or hinder your salvation as well Imperat Reâ— ut nostrae religionis illorum mensa nullum communem haberent neque cum Catholicis omino vescerentur Quae res non ipâ—â—s aliquod praestitit beneficium sed nobis maximum conâ—ulit lucrum Nam si sermo â—oâ—â—m sicut cancer consuevit serpere quanto magis communis mensa ciborum potuit inquinare cum dicat Apostolus cum nefariis nec cibum habere communem Victor Utic p. 418. Magnum virtutis praesidium societas bonoâ—um socius exemplo excitat sermone recreat consilio instâ—uiâ— orationibus adjuvat autoritate continet quae omnia so itudini desunt Ios. Acosta l. 4. c. 13. Dicunt Stoici Amicitiam solos inter bonâ—s quos sibi invicem studiorum similitudo conciliet posse consistere Porro amicitiam ipsam societatem quandam esse dicunt omnium quae sunt ad vitam necessaria cum amicis ut nobismet ipsis utamur atque ob id amicum eligendum amicorumque multitudinem â—â—â—â—er expetenda ponunt inter malos non posse constare amicitiam Laert. in Zenone as your Teachers The matter is not so great whom you meet by the way or travell with or trade and buy and sell with as whom you make your intimate or familiar friends For such have both the advantage of their interest in your affections and also the advantage of their nearness and familiarity and if they have but also the advantage of higher abilities than you they may be powerful instruments of your good or hurt If you have a familiar friend that will defend you from error and help you against temptations and lovingly reprove your sin and feelingly speak of God and the life to come inditing his discourse from the inward power of faith and love and holy experience the benefit of such a friend may be more to you than of the learnedst or greatest in the world How sweetly will their speeches relish of the Spirit from which they come How deeply may they pierce a careless heart How powerfully may they kindle in you a love and zeal to God and his Commandments How seasonably may they discover a temptation prevent your fall reprove an error and recover your souls How faithfully will they watch over you How profitably will they provoke and put you on and pray with you fervently when you are cold and mind you of the Truth and duty and mercy which you forget It is a very great mercy to have a judicious solid faithful companion in the way to Heaven § 5. But if your ears are daily filled with froth and folly with ribaldry or idle stories with Oaths and Curses with furious words or scorns and jears against the godly or with the Sophistry of deceivers is it likely this should leave a pleasant or wholsome relish on your minds Is it likely that the effect should not be seen in your lean or leprous hearts and lives as well as the effects of an infected or unwholsome air or diet will be seen upon your diseased bodies He is ungodly that liketh such company best And he is proud and presumptuous that will unnecessarily cast himself upon it in confidence that he shall receive no hurt And he is careless of himself that will not cautelously avoid it And few that long converse with such come off without some notable loss except when we live with such as Lot did in Sodom grieving for their sin and misery or as Christ conversed with publicans and sinners with a holy zeal and diligence to convert and save them or as those that have not liberty who bear that which they have not power to avoid § 6. Among the rest your danger is not least from that are eager to proselite you to some party or unsound opinion that they think they are in the right and that they do it in love and that they think it necessary to your salvation and that Truth or Godliness are the things which they profess all this makes the danger much the greater to you if it be not Truth and Godliness indeed which they propose and plead for And none are in more danger than the ungrounded and unexperienced that yet are so wise in their own esteem as to be confident that they know Truth from Error when they hear it and are not afraid of any deceit nor much suspicious of their own understandings But of this before § 7. The like danger there is of the familiar company of lukewarm ones or the prophane At Non tamen at corporum sic animorum moâ—bi transseunt ad nolentes Imo vero nobilis animus viâ—iorum odro ad amorem vâ—rtutis accâ—nditur Petraâ—â—h Dialog de aâ—iâ— moriâ— first you may be troubled at their sinful or unsavoury discourse and make some resistance against the infection But before you are aware it may so cool and damp your graces as will make your decay discernable to others First You will hear them with less offence and then you will grow indifferent what company you are in and then you will laugh at their sin and folly and then you will begin to speak as they and then you will grow cold and seldomer in prayer and other holy duties and if God prevent it not at last your judgements will grow blind and you will think all this allowable § 8. But of all bad company the nearest is the worst If you choose such into your families or into your nearest conjugal relations you cast water upon the fire you imprison your selves in such â—etters as will gall and grieve
decent and editying determination of the outward circumstances of Religion and the right ordering of Worship is a needless thing or sinful or that a form of prayer in it self or when imposed is unlawful But let the Soul and Body of Religion go together and the alterable adjuncts be used as things alterable while the life of Holiness is still kept up Direct 19. PRomise not your selves long life or prosperity and great matters in the world lest it entangle Direct 19. your hearts with transitory things and engage you in ambitious or covetous designs and steal away your hearts from God and destroy all your serious apprehensions of Eternity § 1. Our own experience and the alterations which the approach of death makes upon the most doth sensibly prove that the expectation of a speedy change and reckoning upon a short life doth greatly help us in all our preparation and in all the work of Holiness through our lives Come to a man that lyeth on his death-bed or a prisoner that is to dye to morrow and try him with Nemini exploratum potest esse quomodo seâ—e habiturum sit corpus non dico ad annum sed ad vesperum Câ—ceâ—o 2. de fit Dii boni quid est in hominis vita diu Mihi ne diuturnum quidem quicquam videtur in quo est aliquid extremum Cum enim id advenit tum illud praeterâ—it eâ—fluxit tan tum remanet quod virtute recte factis fit consecutus hoâ—ae quidem â—edunt diâ—â— meâ—ses anni nec praeteritum tempus unquam revertitur nec quid sequatur sciri potest Cic. in Cat. Maj. Quem saepe transit casus aliquando invenâ— discourse of riches or honours or temptations to lust or drunkenness or excess and he will think you are mad or very impertinent to tell him of such things If he be but a man of Common Reason you shall see that he will more easily vilifie such temptations than many religious persons will do in their prosperity and health O how serious are we in repenting and perusing our former lives and casting up our accounts and asking What we shall do to be saved when we see that death is indeed at hand and time is at an end and we must away Every sentence of Scripture hath then some life and power in it Every word of Exhortation is savoury to us Every reproof of our negligence and sin is then well taken Every thought of sin or Christ or Grace or Eternity goes then to the quick Then time seems precious and if you ask a man whether it be better spent in Cards and Dice and Playes and Feastings and needless recreations and idleness or in prayer and holy conference and reading and meditating on the Word of God and the life to come and the holy use of our lawful labours How easily will he be satisfied of the truth and confute the Cavils of voluptuous time-wasters Then his judgement will easilier be in the right than Learning or Arguments before could make it In a word the expectation of the speedy approach of the soul into the presence of the Eternal God and of our entring into an unchangeable endless life of joy or torment hath so much in it to awaken all the powers of the soul that if ever we will be serious it will make us serious in every thought and speech and duty And therefore as it is a great mercy of God that this life which is so short should be as uncertain and that frequent dangers and sicknesses call to us to look about us and be ready for our change so usually the sickly that look for death are most considerate and it is a great part of the duty of those that are in youth and health to consider their frailty and the shortness and uncertainty of their lives and alwayes live as those that wait for the coming of their Lord. And we have great reason for it when we are certain it will be ere long and when we have so many perils and weaknesses to warn us and when we are never sure to see another hour and when time is so swift so quickly gone so unrecoverable and Nothing when it is past Common reason requireth such to live in a constant readiness to dye § 2. But if youth or health do once make you reckon of living long and make you put away the Nihil tam sirmum câ—â— periculum 〈◊〉 sâ—â— etiam â—â—â—â—vilido day of your departure as if it were far off this will do much to deceive and dull the best and take away the power of every truth and the life of every good thought and duty and all will be apt to dwindle into customariness and form You will hardly keep the faculties of the soul awake if you do not still think of death and judgement as near at hand The greatest Certainty of the greatest Change and the greatest Joy or Misery for ever will not keep our stupid hearts awake unless we look at all as near as well as certain This is plain in the common difference that we find among all men between their thoughts of death in health and when they see indeed that they must presently dye They that in health could think and talk of death with laughter or lightly without any awakening of soul when they come to dye are oftentimes as much altered as if they had never heard before that they are mortal By which it is plain that to live in the house of mirth is more dangerous than to live in the house of mourning and that the expectation of long life is a grievous enemy to the operations of grace and the safety of the soul. § 3. And it is one of the greatest strengtheners of your temptations to luxury ambition worldliness and almost every sin When men think that they shall have many years leisure to repent they are apt the more boldly to transgress when they think that they have yet many years to live it tempteth them to pass away Time in idleness and to loiter in their race and trifle in all their work and to over-value all the pleasures and honours and shadows of felicity that are here below He that hath his life in his House or Land or hath it for inheritance will set more by it and bestow more upon it than if he thought he must go out of it the next year To a man that thinks of liveing many years the favour of great ones the raising of his estate and name and family and the accommodations and pleasing of his flesh will seem great matters to him and will do much with him and will make self-denyal a very hard work § 4. Therefore though Health be a wonderful great mercy as Enabling him to duty that hath a heart to use it to that end yet it is by accident a very great danger and snare to the heart it self to turn it from the way of duty The best life
but also that you may Use it And it is fit that we Direct you how to Use it before we direct you how to know that you have it because it is Grace in exercise that you must discern and Habits are not perceived in themselves but by their Acts And the more lively and powerful the exercise is the more easily is Grace perceived So that this is the nearest and surest way to a Certainty of our own sincerity He that Useth Grace most and best hath most Grace And he that hath most and useth it most may most easily be Assured that he hath it in sincerity and truth In these Directions I shall begin with those great internal duties in which the very Life of all Religion doth consist and the General Practice of these Principles and Graces and all these Generals shall be briefly set together for the easiness of Understanding and Remembring them And then I shall give you such Particular Directions as are needful in subordination to those Generals DIRECT I. Labour to understand well the Nature Grounds Reason and Order of Faith and Gr. Dir. 1. Godliness and to Believe upon such grounds so well understood as will not suffer For a well-grounded Faith you to stagger or entertain a contrary belief § 1. IGnorance and ungrounded or ill-grounded perswasions in matters of Religion are the cause that abundance of people delude themselves with the empty name and dead profession of a Faith and Religion which they never were indeed possessors of I know there are low degrees of knowledge comparatively in many that are true believers and that there may be much Love and Holiness where knowledge is very small or narrow as to the objective extent of it And that there is a knowledge that puffeth up while Charity edifieth And that in many that have the narrower knowledge there may be the fastest faith and adherence to the truth which will conquer in the time of tryal But yet I must tell you that the Religion which you profess is not indeed your own Religion if you know not what it is and know not in some measure the true Grounds and Reasons why you should be of that Religion If you have only learnt to say your Creed or repeat the words of Christian Doctrine while you do not truly understand the sense or if you have no better Reasons why you profess the Christian faith than the custom of the Countrey or the command of Princes or Governours or the Opinion of your Teachers or the example of your Parents friends or neighbours you are not Christians indeed You have a humane belief or opinion which objectively is true but subjectively in your selves you have no true divine belief I confess there may be some insufficient yea and erroneous Reasons which a true Believer may mistakingly make use of for the proof of certain fundamental truths But then that same man hath some other Reason for his reception of that truth which is more sound and his faith is sound because of those sound infallible principles though there be a mixture of some other Reasons that are unsound The true Believer buildeth on the Rock and giveth deep rooting to the holy seed Matth. 7. 24. 13. 5 8. Though some deluded men may tell you that Faith and Reason are such enemies that they exclude each other as to the same object and that the less Reason you have to prove the truth of the things believed the stronger and more laudable is your faith yet when it cometh to the tryal you will find that Faith is no unreasonable thing and that God requireth you to believe no more than you have sufficient reason for to warrant you aâ—â— bâ—â—r you out and that your faith can be no more than is your perception of the Reasons why you should believe and that God doth suppose Reason when he infuseth Faith and useth Reason in â—â—e usâ— of faith They that Believe and know not why or know no sufficient Reason to warâ—ant their Belief do take a fansie an Opinion or a dream for faith I know that many honest hearted Christians are unable to dispute for their Religion or to give to others a satisfactory account of the Reasons of their faith or hâ—pe But yet they have the true apprehension of some solid Reasons in themselves and they are not Christians they know not why And though their knowledge be small as to the number oâ— propositions known yet it doth alwayes extend to all that is essential to Christianity and Godliness and they do not believe they know not what And their knowledge is greater intensively and in its value and operation than the knowledge of the learnedst ungodly man in the world § 2. Though I may not here digress or stay so long as largely to open to you the Nature Grounds Reason and Method of Faith and Godliness which I am perswading you to understand yet I shall first â—â—y before you a few Propositions which will be useful to you when you are enquiring into these things and then a little open them unto you Prop. 1. A life of Godliness is our living unto God as God as being absolutely addicted to him 2. A life of Faith is a living upon the unseen everlasting Happiness as purchased for us by Christ with all the necessaries thereto and freely given us by God 3. The contrary life of sense and unbelief is a living in the prevalency of sense or flesh to this present world for want of such believing apprehensions of a better as should elevate the soul thereto and conquer the fleshly inclination to things present 4. Though man in innocency needing no Redeemer might live to God without faith in a Redeemer yet lapsed man is not only unable to Redeem himself but also unable to live to God without the grace of the Redeemer It was not only necessary that he satisfie Gods justice for us that he may pardon and save us without any wrong to his Holiness Wisdom or Government but also that he be our Teacher by his Doctrine and his Life and that he Reveal from Heaven the Fathers will and that Objectively in him we may see the wonderful condescending Love and Goodness of a Reconciled God and Father and that effectually â—e illuminate sanctifie and quicken us by the operations of his Word and Spirit and that he protect and govern justifie and glorifie us and be the Head of Restored Man as Adam was the Root of lapsed man and as the lapsed Spirits had their Head And therefore we must wholly Live upon him as the Mediator between God and man and the only Saviour by Merit and by â—fficacy 5. Faith is a knowledge by certain credible Testimony or Revelation from God by means supernatural or extraordinary 6. The knowledge of things naturally revealed as the cause by the effect c. is in order before the Knowledge or Belief of things revealed supernaturally 7. It is matter of natural Revelation
of honour than of obscurity and contempt of mens praises and applause than of their disprâ—â—ses slanders and repâ—â—â—â—h of preâ—erment and greatness than of a low and mean condition of a delicious than of lâ—ss tempting meats and drinks of curious costly than of mean and cheap and plain attire Let those that have hired out their reason to the service of their fleshly lusts and have delivered the Crown and Sâ—epter to their appetites think otherwise No wonder if they that have sold the birthright of their intellects to their senses for a meâ—s of Pottage for a Whore or a high place or a domineering power over others or a belly full of pleasant Meats or Liquors do deride all this and think it but a melancholy conceit more suitable to an Eremiâ—e or Anchorite than to men of society and business in the world As Heaven is the portion of serious believers and mortified Saints alone so it shall be proper to them alone to understand the doctrine and example of their Saviour and practically to know what it is to deny themselves and forsake all they have and take up their Cross and follow Christ and by the Spirit to mortifiâ— the deeds of the body Luke 14. 26 27 28 29 33. Rom. 8. 5 6 7 13. Col. 3. 1 2 3 4. Such know that millions part with God for Pleasures but none for Griefs and that Hell will be stored with those that preferred Wealth and Honour and Sports and gluttony drink and filthy lusts before the Holiness and happiness of believers but none will be damn ed for preferring poverty and disgrace and abstinence hunger and thirst and chastity before them It must be something that seemeth good that must entice men fâ—om the chiefest Good Apparent Evil is no fit bait for the Devils hook Men will not displease God to be themselves displeased nor choose present sorrows instead of everlasting joyes but for the pleasures of sin for a season many will despise the endless pleasures § 23. Direct 10. Meet every motion to disobedience with an Army of holy Graces with wisdom and Direct 10. fear and hatred and resolution with Love to God with Zeal and courage and quench every spark that falls upon your hearts befâ—re it break out into a flame When sin is little and in its infancy it is weak and easily resisted It hath not then turned away the mind from God nor quenched grace and disablâ—d it to do its office But when it s grown strong then grace grows weak and we want its help and want the sense of the presence and Attributes and truths of God to rebuke it O stay not till your hearts are gone out of hearing and stragled from God beyond the observance of his Calls The Habit of Obedience will be dangerously abated if you resist not quickly the acts of sin § 24. Direct 11. Labour for the clearest understanding of the Will of God that doubtfulness about Direct 11. your duty do not make you flag in your obedience and doubtfulness about sin do not weaken your detestation and resistance and draw you to venture on it When a man is sure what is his Duty it is a great help against all temptations that would take him off And when he is sure that a thing is sinful it makes it the easier to resist And therefore it is the Dâ—vils Method to delude the understanding and make men believe that duty is no duty and sin is no sin and then no wonder if duty be neglected and sin committed And therefore he raiseth up one false Prâ—phet or other to say to Ahab Go and prosper or to say There is no hurt in this To dispute for sin and to dispute against Duty And it is almost incredible how much the Devil hath got when he hath once but made it a matter of Controversie Then every hypocrite hath a cloke for his sin and a dose of Opium for his Conscience when he can but say It is a Controversie some are of one mind and some of another you are of that Opinion and I am of this Especially if there be wise and learned on both sides and yet more if there be Religious men on both sides And more yet if he have an equal number on his side And most of all if he have the major Vote as error and sin have commonly in the world If Ahab have but four hundred lying flattering Prophets to one Micaiah he will think he may hate him reproach him and persecute him without any sâ—â—â—â—ple of Conscience If it be made a Controversie whether Bread be Bread and Wine be Wine when we see and taste it some will think they may venture to subscribe or swear that they hold the Negative if their credit or livings or lives lie upon it much more if they can say It is the judgement of the Church If it be once made a Controversie whether perjury be a sin or whether a Vow materially lawful bind or whether it be lawful to equivocate or lye with a mental reservation for the truth or to do the greatest evil or speak the falsest thing with a true and good intent and meaning almost all the hypocrites in the Countrey will be for the sinful part if their fleshly interest require it And will think themselves wronged if they are accounted hypocrites lyâ—rs or perjured as long as it is but a Point of Controversie among learned men If it be once made a Controversie whether an Excommunicate King become a private man and it be lawful to kill him and whether the Pope may absolve the subjects of Temporal Lords from their Allegiance notwithstanding all their Oaths and if such Learned men as Zuarez Bellarmine Perron c. are for it to say nothing of Santarellus Mariana c. you shall have a Clement a Ravilliack a Faux yea too great choice of instruments that will be satisfied to strike the blow If many hold it may or must be dâ—ne some will be found too ready to do it especially if an approved General Council Lateran sub Innâ—c 3. Can. 3. be for such Papal absolution We have seen at home how many will be emboldned to pull down Government to sit in Judgement on their King and condemn him and to destroy their Brethren if they can but say that such and such men think it lawful If it were but a Controversie once whether drunkenness whoredom swearing stealing or any villany be a sin or not it would be committed more commonly and with much less regret of conscience Yea good men will be ready to think that modesty requireth them to be less censorious of those that commit it because in controverted cases they must suspect their own understandings and allow something to the judgement of dissenters And so all the Rules of Love and Peace and Moderation which are requisite in Controversies that are about small and difficult points the Devil will make use of and apply them all to the patronage of
holy fetcht from Heaven § 19. Tempt 9. He would keep you in a lazy sluggish coldness to read and hear and pray as asleep Tempt 9. as if you did it not § 20. Direct 9. Awake your selves with the presence of God and the great concernment of what Direct 9. you are about and yield not to your sloth § 21. Tempt 10. He would make you bring a divided distracted heart to duty that is half about your Tempt 10. worldly business § 22. Direct 10. Remember God is jealous your business with him is great much lyeth on it Direct 10. call off your hearts and let them not stay behind all the powers of your souls are little enough in such a work Ezek. 33. 31. § 23. Tempt 11. Ignorance unskilfulness and unacquaintedness with duty is a great impediment Tempt 11. to most § 24. Direct 11. Learn by study joyned with practice Be not weary and difficulties will be Direct 11. overcome § 25. Tempt 12. Putting duty out of its place and neglecting the season that is fittest makes it oft Tempt 12. done slightly § 26. Direct 12. Redeem time and dispatch other business that idleness deprive you not of leisure Direct 12. and do all in order § 27. Tempt 13. Neglecting one duty is the Tempters snare to spoil another If he can keep you Tempt 13. from reading you will not understand well what you hear If he keep you from meditating you will not digest what you hear or read If he keep you from hearing you will want both matter and life for prayer and meditation and conference If he keep you from godly company you will be hindered in all and in the practice No one is omitted but you are disadvantaged by it in all the rest § 28. Direct 13. Observe how one duty helpeth another and take all together each one in its Direct 13. place § 29. Tempt 14. Sometime the Tempter doth call you off to other duty and puts in unseasonable Tempt 14. motions to that which in its time is good he interrupts prayer by meditation he sets seeming truth against Love and Peace and Concord § 30. Direct 14. Still know which duties are greatest and which is the due season for each and do Direct 14. all in order § 31. Tempt 15. He spoileth duty by causing you to do it only as a duty and not as a means for the Tempt 15. good of your own souls or only as a Means and not as a Duty If you do it only as a Duty then you will not be quickned to it by the ends and benefits nor carryed by Hope nor fit all to the end nor be so fervent or vigorous in it as the sense of your own good would make you be And if you do it only as a Means and not as a Duty then you will give over or faint when you want or question the success Whereas the sense of both would make you vigorous and constant § 32. Direct 15. Keep under the sense of Gods Authority that you may feel your selves bound Direct 15. to obey him whatever be the success and may resolve to wait in an obedient way And withall admire his wisdom in fitting all Duties to your Benefit and commanding you nothing but what is for your own or others good or to his honour And mark the Reason and tendency of all and your own Necessity § 33. Tempt 16. The Tempter hindereth you in duty as well as from duty by setting you a quarrelling Tempt 16. with the Minister the words the company the manner the circumstances that these things may divert your thoughts from the matter or distract your mind with causeless scruples § 34. Direct 16. Pray and labour for a clear judgement and an upright self-judging humble Direct 16. heart wihch dwelleth most at home and looketh most at the spiritual part and affecteth not singularity § 35. Tempt 17. The Tempter spoileth duty by your unconstancy While you read or pray so seldom Tempt 17. that you have lost the benefit of one duty before you come to another and cool by intermissions § 36. Direct 17. Remember that it is not your divertisement but your Calling and is to your Direct 17. soul as eating to your Bodies § 37. Tâ—mpt 18. Sometime Satan corrupteth Duty by mens private passions interest and opinions Tempt 1â— making men in preaching and praying to vent their own conceits and spleen and inveigh against those that diâ—â—er from them or ofâ—end them and prophane the name and work of God or proudly to seek the praise of men § 38. Direct 18. Remember that God is most jealous in his Worship and hateth hypocritical prophanâ—ss Tempt 18. above all prophaness Search your hearts and mortifie your passions and specially selfishness Remembring that it is a poysonous and insinuating sin and will easily hide it self with a Cloke of â—eal § 39. Tempt 19. False-hearted Reservedness is a most accursed corrupter of holy duty when the soul Tempt 19. is not wholy given up to God but sets upon duty from some common motive as because it is in credit or to pleasâ— sâ—me friend purposing to try it a while and leave it if they like it not § 40. Direct 19. Fâ—ar God thou Hypocrite and halt not between two opinions If the Lord be Direct 12. God â—bâ—y and sâ—rve him with all thy heart But if the Devil and the flesh be better Masters follow them and let him go § 41. Tempt 20. Lastly The Tempter hindereth holy duty much by wandring thoughts and melancholy Tempt 20. perplexities and a hurry of Temptations which torment and distract some Christians so that they â—ry out I cannot pray I cannot meditate and are weary of duty and even of their lives § 42. Direct 20. This sheweth the malice of the Tempter and thy weakness but if thou hadst Direct 20. rather be delivered from it it hindereth not thy acceptance with God Read for this what I have said Chap. 5. Part. 2. at large specially in my Directions to the Melancholy § 43. I have been forced to put off many things briefly here which deserved a larger handling and I must now omit the discovery of those Temptations by which Satan keepeth men in sin when he hath draâ—n them into it 2. And those by which he causeth declining in grace and Apâ—staâ—y 3. And those by which he discomforteth true Believers because else this Direction would swell to a Treatiâ—â— and most will think it too long and tedious already though the Brevity which I use to avoid prâ—liâ—ity doth wrong the matter through the whole Acquaintance with Temptations is needful to our overcoming them DIRECT X. Your lives must be laid out in doing God service and doing all the good you can in Gr. Dir. 10 â—â—â—â— sâ—rving Christ ouâ— Master in good works works of piety justice and charity with prudence fidelity industry
zeal and delight remembring that you are engaged to God as servants to their Lord and Master and are entrusted with his talents of the improvement whereof you must give account § 1. THe next Relation between Christ and us which we are to speak of subordinate to that of King and Subjects is this of MASTER and SERVANTS Though Christ saith to the Apostles John 15. 5. Henceforth I call you not servants but friends the meaning is not that he calleth them not servants at all hut not meer servants they being more than servants having such acquaintance with his counsels as his friends For he presently verse 20. bids them Remember that the servant is not greater than the Lord. And John 13. 13. Ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for so I am And Matth. 23. 8. One is your Master Christ and all ye are brethren So Ver. 10. And the Apostles called themselves the servants of Iesus Christ Rom. 1. 1. 1 Cor. 4. 1. Phil. 1. 1. and of God Tit. 1. 1 c. § 2. He is called our Master and we his servants because he is our Rector ex pleno dominio with What it is to be Christâ— Servants absolute propriety and doth not give us Laws to Obey while we do our own work but giveth us his work to do and Laws for the right doing of it And it is a service under his eye and in dependance on him for our daily provisions as servants on their Lord. God hath WORK for us to do in the world and the performance of it he will require God biddeth his Sons Go work to day in my Vineyard Matth. 21. 28. and expecteth that they do it Ver. 31. His Servants are as Husbandmen to whom he entruâ—â—â—â—th his Vineyard that he may receive the fruit Ver. 33 34 41 43. Faithful servants shall be made Rulers over his houshold Matth. 24. 45 46. Christ delivereth to his servants his talents to improve and will require an account of the improvement at his coming Mat. 25. 14. GOOD WORKS in the proper comprehensive sense are all actions internal and external that are morally good But in the narrâ—weâ— acception they are Works not only formally good as acts of Obedience in general but also materially good such as a servant doth for his Master that tend to his advantage or the proâ—it of some other whose welfare he regardeth Because the doctrine of GOOD WORKS is controverted in these times I shall first open it briefly and then give you the Directions § 3. 1. Nothing is more certain than that God doth not need the service of any creature and that he receiveth no addition to his perfection or felicity from it and consequently that on terms of commutative Iustice which giveth one thing for another as in selling and buying no creature is capable of meriting at his hands 2. It is certain that on the terms of the Law of Works which required perfect obedience as the condition of life no sinner can do any work so good as in point of distributive governing Iustice shall merit at his hands 3. It is certain that Christ hath so fulfilled the Law of Works as to Merit for us 4. The Redeemed are not Masterless but have still a Lord who hath now a double Right to govern them And this Governour giveth them a Law And this Law requireth us to do good works as much as we are able though not so terribly yet as obligingly as the Law of Works And by this Law of Christ we must be Iudged And thus we must be judged according to our works and to be judged ☜ is nothing else but to be Iustified or Condemned Such works therefore are Rewardable according to the Distributive Iustice of the Law of Grace by which we must be Iudged And the antient Fathers who without any opposition spoke of Good works as Meritorious with God meant no more but that they were such as the Righteous Iudge of the world will Reward according to the Law of Grace by which he judgeth us And this doctrine being agreed on as certain truth there is no controversie left with them but whether the word Merit was properly or improperly used And that both Scripture and our common speech alloweth the Fathers use of the word I have shewed at large in my Confession 5. Christ is so far from Redeeming us from a necessity of good works that he dyed to restore us to a capacity and ability to perform them and hath new-made us for that end Tit. 2. 14. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Ephes. 2. 10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus to good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them 6. Good works opposed to Christ or his satisfaction merit righteousness mercy or free-grace in the matter of Justification or Salvation are not good works but proud self-confidence and sin But good works in their due subordination to Gods mercy and Christs merits and grace are necessary and Rewardable 7. Though God need none of our works yet that which is good materially pleaseth him as it tendeth to his glory and to our own and others benefit which he delighteth in 8. It is the communicating of his goodness and excellencies to the creature by which God doth glorifie himself in the world and in Heaven where is the fullest Communication he is most glorified Therefore the praise which is given to the creature who receiveth all from him is his own praise And it is no dishonour to God that his creature be honoured by being good and being esteemed good Otherwise God would never have created any thing lest it should derogate from himself Or he would have made them bad lest their goodness were his dishonour and he would be most pleased with the wicked and least pleased with the best as most dishonouring him But madness it self abhorreth these conceits 9. Therefore as an act of Mercy to us and for his own Glory as at first he made all things very good so he will make the new creature according to his Image which is Holy and Iust and Good and will use us in good works and it is our honour and gain and happiness to be so used by him As he will not communicate Light to the world without the Sun whose glory derogateth not from his honour So will he not do good works in the world immediately by himself only but by Vir bonus est qui prodest quibus potest nocet autem nemiâ—â— P. Scalig. Ne pigeat Evangelicum Ministrum aegâ—otum visitare xenio aliquo recreare famelicum cibario saltem pane pascere nuâ—um operire paupâ—râ—m cuâ— non est adjutor a divitum calumniis potentia eripere pro afflictis principem magistratumve convenire râ—m familiaâ—em câ—nsili augegere morientibus sedulo benigne astare lites dissidia
certain obedience for uncertain sin Or if a Priest among them say I am certain that it is a duty to preach Gods word but I am not certain that the Trent Articles which I must swear or subscribe are sinful or false therefore I must not leave a great and certain duty for an uncertain sin The answer to them both is easie 1. It is your sin that you are uncertain of the sinfullness of those things which God hath forbidden And God biddeth you first to search the Scriptures and cure that error He made his Law before your doubts arose and will not change it because you doubt 2. You contradict your selves by a mistake you have no more certainty that you should obey your Teachers in these particulars than you have that the things which they teach or command you are not against that Law of God You are certain that you must obey them in all things not forbidden by God and within the reach of their office to require And you are as certain that it is unlawful to obey them against the Law of God and that God must be obeyed before man But whether you must obey them in this particular case you cannot be certain while you are uncertain whether it be forbidden of God And the Priest must be as uncertain whether it be any duty of his at all to preach Gods word as he is uncertain of the lawfullness of the Trent-Oath or subscription unless he can do it without If a subject say I am certain that to Govern the Kingdom well is a great good work and duty but I am uncertain whether to depose the King if he Govern not well and set up my self be a sin therefore the Certain good must overrule the uncertain evil I give him the same answer It is your sin to be uncertain whether Rebellion be a sin and God bindeth you to lay by the sin of your judgement and not to make it a shooing-horn to more 2. You are sure that Governing well is a Good work but you should be as sure that it is no duty of yours nor no Good work for you to do as you are sure that you are but a private man and a subject and never called to do the Good of anothers office A private man may say I am sure preaching is a good work but I am not sure that a private unordained man may not statedly separate himself to do it But he can be no surer that it is a duty to him than he is that he is called to it § 43. Quest. 12. Well suppose my ignorance be my sin and suppose that I am equally uncertain of Quest. the duty and of the sin annexed yet if I have done all that I am able and remain still unresolved and after my most diligent enquiry am as much in doubt as ever what should I then do Answ. 1. If you had by any former sin so forfeited Gods assistance as that he will leave you Answ. to your blindness this altereth not his Law and your obligations which are still the same to Learn understand and practise 2. But if you are truly willing to understand and practise and use his means you have no cause to imagine that he will thus forsake you undoubtedly he appointeth you no means in vain If you attain not sufficient resolution to guide you in your duty it is either because your hearts are false in the enquiry and byassed or unwilling to know the truth or do it or because you use not the true appointed means for resolution but in partiality or laziness neglect it § 44. Quest. 13. Suppose still my ignorance be my sin which is the Greater sin to neglect the Quest. good work or to venture on the feared evil that is annexed I am not conscious of any unfaithfullness but humane frailty that keepeth me from certainty And no man is so perfect as to have no culpable ignorance and to be certain in every point of duty Therefore I must with greatest caution avoid the greatest sin when I am out of hope of avoiding all On one side it is a common Rule that I must do nothing against Conscience no not a doubting Conscience though I must not allwaies do what it biddeth me For he that doubteth is condemned if he eat for whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom. 14. 23. On the other side if all duty be omitted which conscience doubteth of I may be kept from allmost every duty Answ. The heart is so deceitful that you have great cause to watch lest humane frailty be pretended Answ. for that error which a corrupted byassed partial mind or willful lazyness is the cause of Diligent study and enquiry and prayer with a sincere desire to know the truth may succeed at least to so much satisfaction as may keep your minds in quietness and peace and give you comfort in your way and preserve you from all such sin as is inconsistent with this your safety and acceptance with God But yet it is true that humane frailty will occasion in the best uncertainties in some particular cases and though God make it not our duty of two sins to choose the less but to refuse both yet he maketh it our duty more diligently to avoid the greater than the less And oft times the case is so sudden that no enquiry can be made And therefore I confess a Christian should know which sins are greatest and to be most avoided At present I shall lay down these following Rules premising this that where accidents and circumstances which make sins Great or Small are to be compared they are oft times so numerous and various that no Rules can be laid down before hand that will serve all turns no more than in Law and Physick any Law-books or Physick-books will serve all cases without a present experienced judicious Counsellor Present PRUDENCE and SINCERITY must do most § 45. Rule 1. In things altogether indifferent nothing must be done that Conscience doubteth of Rule because there is a possibility or fear of sinning on the one side but none on the other And in that case it is a certain sin to venture on a feared sin But then it is supposed that the thing be indifferent as cloathed with all its circumstances and that there be no accident that taketh away its indifferencie § 46. Rule 2. â—â—â—aâ—e the thing be really unlawful and I think it to be lawful but with sâ—me 〈…〉 ing â—ut aâ—â— clear that the forbearing it is no sin there the sin is only in the doing it because all â—s clâ—â—r and sâ—sâ— on the other side § 47. Rule 3. There are many sins which are allwaies and to all persâ—ns in all cases sins and not dâ—uâ—teâ— â—â—â—â— any witâ—â—ut gâ—â—â—â— unfaithfullness or negligence and â—ere there is no room for any dâ—ubting whether we must do that â—â—â—â—d which cannot be done without that sin it being certain that nâ— sâ—â—â—â— Goâ—d can be
took thee into his favour and adopted thee for his son and an heir of Heaven He will glorifie thee with Angels in the presence of his Glory How should such a friend as this be loved How far above all mortal friends Their love and friendship is but a token and message of his Love Because he Loveth thee he sendeth thee kindness and mercy by thy friend and when their kindness ceaseth or can do thee no good his kindness will continue and comfort thee for ever Love them therefore as the messengers of his Love but Love him in them and love them for him and love him much more § 40. Direct 17. Think oft how delightful a life it would be to thee if thou couldst but live in the Direct 17. Love of God And then the complacencie will provoke desire and desire will turn thy face towards God till thou feel that thou lovest him The Love of a friend hath its sweetness and delight and when we Love them we feel such pleasure in our Love that we Love to Love them How pleasant then would it be to Love thy God O blessed joyful life if I could but love him as much as I desire to love him How freely could I leave the ambitious and the covetous and the sensual and voluptuous to their doting delusory swinish love How easily could I spare all earthly pleasures How near should I come to the Angelical life Could I love God as I would love him it would fill me with continual pleasure and be the sweetest feast that a soul can have How easily would it quench all carnal love How far would it raise me above these transitory things How much should I contemn them and pitty the wretches that know no better and have their portion in this life How readily should I obey And how pleasant would obedience be How sweet would all my Meditations be when every thought is full of Love How sweet would all my prayers be when constraining Love did bring me unto God and indite and animate every word How sweet would Sacraments be when my ascending flaming love should meet that wonderful descending love which cometh from Heaven to call me thither and in living bread and spiritful wine is the nourishment and cordial of my soul How sweet would all my speeches be when Love commanded them and every word were full of Love How quiet would my Conscience be if it had never any of this accusation against me to cast in my face to my shame and confusion that I am wanting in Love to the blessed God O could I but Love God with such a powerful Love as his Love and Goodness should command I should no more question my sincerity nor doubt any more of his Love to me How freely then should I acknowledge his grace and how heartily should I give him thanks for my justification sanctification and adoption which now I mention with doubt and fear O how it would lift up my soul unto his praise and make it my delight to speak good of his name What a purifying fire would Love be in my breast to burn up my corruptions It will endure nothing to enter or abide within me that is contrary to the will and interest of my Lord but hate every motion that tendeth to dishonour and displease him It would fill my soul with so much of Heaven as would make me long to be in Heaven and make death welcome which is now so terrible Instead of these withdrawing shrinking fears I should desire to depart and to be with Christ as being best of all O how easily should I bear any burthen of reproach or loss or want when I thus Loved God and were assured of his Love How light would the Cross be And how honourable and joyful would it seem to be imprisoned reviled spit upon and buffeted for the sake of Christ How desirable would the flames of Martyrdom seem for the testifying of my love to him that loved me at dearer rates than I can love him Lord is there no more of this blessed life of Love to be attained here on earth When all the world reveals thy Goodness when thy Son hath come down to declare thy love in so full and wonderful a manner When thy word hath opened us a window into Heaven where afar off we may discern thy Glory yet shall our hearts be clods and ice O pitty this unkind unnatural soul This dead insensible disaffected soul Teach me by thy spirit the art of Love Love me not only so as to convince me that I have abundant cause to Love thee above all but Love me so as to constrain me to it by the magnetical attractive power of thy Goodness and the insuperable operations of thy omnipotent Love § 41. Direct 18. In thy Meditations upon all these incentives of Love preach them over earnestly to Direct 18. thy Heart and expostulate and plead with it by way of soliloquy till thou feel the fire begin to burn Do not only Think on the Arguments of Love but dispute it out with thy Conscience and by expostulating earnest reasonings with thy heart endeavour to affect it There is much more moving force in this earnest talking to our selves than in bare cogitation that breaks not out into mental words Imitate the most powerful Preacher that ever thou wast acquainted with And just as he pleadeth the case with his hearers and urgeth the truth and duty on them by reason and importunity so do thou in secret with thy self There is more in this than most Christians are aware of or use to practise It is a great part of a Christians skill and duty to be a good preacher to himself This is a lawful and a gainful way of preaching No body here can make question of thy call nor deny thee a License nor silence thee if thou silence not thy self Two or three sermons a week from others is a fair proportion but two or three sermons a day from thy self is ordinarily too little Therefore I have added soliloquies to many of these Directions for Love to shew you how by such pleadings with your selves to affect your hearts and kindle Love § 42. And O that this might be the happy fruit of these Directions with thee that art now reading or hearing them That thou wouldst but offer up thy flaming Heart to Jesus Christ our Great High-Priest to be presented an acceptable sacrifice to God! Or if it flame not in Love as thou desirest yet give it up to the Holy Spirit to increase the flames Thou little knowest how much God setteth by a Heart He calleth to thee himself My son give me thy heart Prov. 23. 26. Without it he cares not for any thing that thou canst give him He cares not for thy fairest words without it He cares not for thy lowdest prayers without it He cares not for thy costliest alms or sacrifices if he have not thy heart If thou give all thy goods to
and expectation is but self-promising and self-deceiving And wise men will not easily take themselves for Prophets nor take any thing for an inspiration or divine extraordinary revelation which bringeth not the testimony of cogent evidence § 6. IV. There are three Great Uses and benefits of this Trust in God which highly commend it to us and make it necessary 1. It is necessary to our Acknowledgement and Honouring of God It is a cordial practical confession of his Power and Wisdom and Goodness and Truth For where any one of these are wanting there is no ground of rational Trust. And the greater the danger or assault against us is the more God is acknowledged and honoured by our Trust For then we declare that no creature or impediment can disappoint his will but that his Power is above all Power and his Wisdom above all Wisdom and his goodness and fidelity constant and invincible Whereas Distrust is a denying of God in some of his attributes or a suspecting of him 2. It is necessary to our selves for the quiet and peace and comfort of our minds which else will be left unavoidably to continual disquietness and pain by vexatious fears and griefs and cares unless stupidity or deceit should ease them 3. It is necessary to prevent the errors and sinful miscarriage of our lives For if we Trust not in God we shall spend all our thoughts and labours in the use of sinful means we shall be trusting idolatrously to the creature and we shall be shifting for our selves by lyes or any unlawful means and lose our selves by saving our selves as from God or without God § 7. Hence it is that Trust in God is so frequently and earnestly commanded in the Scriptures and such blessings promised to it as if it were the sum of Godliness and Religion Jer. 17. 5. 7. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is Prov. 16. 20. Who so trusteth in the Lord happy is he Psalm 2. 12. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him So Psal. 84. 12. 34. 8. O taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him Psal. 32. 10. 57. 1. 86. 2. 22. 4 5 8. Safety stability comfort salvation all mercies are promised to them that trust in God Psal. 34. 22. 37. 3 5. 40. 91. 2 4. 125. 1. Isa. 50. 10. So faith in Christ is called Trust Matth. 12. 21. Ephes. 1. 12 13. And Idolaters and worldlings are described by Trusting in their Idols and their Wealth Psalm 115. 8. 135. 18. Amos 6. 1. Mar. 10. 24. Prov. 11. 28. 28. 26. §. 7. Directions for a quieting and comforting Trust in God Direct 1. Let thy soul retain the deepest impressions of the Allmightiness Wisdom Goodness and faithfulness Direct 1. of God and how certainly all persons things and events are in his power and how impotent all the world is to resist him and that nothing can hurt thee but by his consent The principal means for a confirmed confidence in God is to know him and to know that all things that we can fear are nothing and can do nothing but by his command and motion or permission I am not afraid of a Bird or a Worm because I know it is too weak for me And if I rightly apprehend how much all creatures are too weak for God and how sufficient God is to deliver me his Trust would quiet me Isa. 41. 10. Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee So v. 13 14. 43. 1. 44. 2. 8. Psal. 9. 10. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee Isa. 51. 7 8. Hâ—arken unto me ye that know righteousness the people in whâ—se heart is my Law Fear ye not the reproach of men neither be afraid of their revilings for the moth shall eat them up like a garment the Worm shall eat them like Wooll § 9. Direct 2. Labour for a sound and clear understanding of the promises of God that thou maist know how far he calleth thee to trust him For to think that he promiseth what he doth not is not to trust him but to deceive thy self And to think that he doth not promise what indeed he doth is to cast away the Ground of trust § 10. Direct 3. Yield not to the Tempter who would either entiâ—e thee into terrifying guilt and Direct 3. blot thine evidences or else hide them from thee and keep thee doubtful and suspicious of the Love of God For almost all that the distrustful soul hath to say for it self to justifie its distrust is I am not sure that the promises are mine Remember still that a Heart dedicated to God or consenting to his Covenant is your fullest Evidence And suffer not this to be hid or blotted Wilful sin and guiltiness breeds fears and will interrupt your trust and quiet till it be forsaken § 11. Direct 4. Remember the Grounds of confidence and quietness which God hath given you in Direct 4. his Son his Covenant his Spirit his Sacraments and your own and others manifold experiences I name them all together because I would have you set them all together before your eyes Will he not give you all things with him that hath given you his Son Rom. 8 32. Is not Christ a sufficient undertaker and encourager Is not his Covenant Promise and Oath sufficient security for you Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an Oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have a strong consolation Heb. 6. 17 18. And is not the Heavenly seal and earnest of his Spirit sufficient to confirm us 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. Ephes. 1. 13 14. 4. 30. And have you tryed God so oft and yet cannot you trust him Our frequent experiences though the least of all these helps of Trust are very powerful because they are near us and almost satisfie sense it self When all our bones say Lord who is like unto thee who deliverest the poor c. Psal. 35. 10. § 12. Direct 5. Consider of the greatness of the sin of distrust how it denyeth God in his Attributes Direct 5. and usually supposeth the creature to be above him Either thou doubtest of or denyest his Power to help thee or his Wisdom as deficient in making his promises or finding out the means of thy deliverance or his Goodness and Love as if he would deceive thee and so his Truth and faithfulness in his promises And if thou fear a man how great soever when God calleth thee to Trust him for thy help what dost
Gospel Leave out this Gratitude and it is no Evangelical Repentance And what is our saving faith in Christ but the Assent to the truth of the Gospel with a Thankful Acceptance of the good which it offereth us even Christ as our Saviour with the Benefits of his Redemption The Love to God that is there required is the Thankful Love of his Redeemed ones And the Love to our very enemies and the forgiving of wrongs and all the Love to one another and all the works of Charity there required are the exercises of Gratitude and are all to be done on this account because Christ hath loved us and forgiven us and that we may shew our thankful Love to him Preaching and Praying and Sacraments and publick praises and communion of Saints and obedience are all to be animated with Gratitude and they are no further Evangelically performed than Thankfulness is the very life and complexion of them all The dark and defective opening of this by Preachers gave occasion to the Antinomians to run into the contrary extream and to derogate too much from Gods Law and our Obedience But if we obscure the doctrine of Evangelical Gratitude we do as bad or worse than they Obedience to our Ruler and Thankfulness to our Benefactor conjoyned and co-operating as the Head and Heart in the Natural body do make a Christian indeed Understand this well and it will much incline your hearts to Thankfulness § 4. Direct 2. Let the greatness of the manifold mercies of God be continually before your eyes Direct 2. Thankfulness is caused by the due apprehension of the greatness of mercies If you either know them not to be mercies or know not that they are mercies to you or believe not what is said and promised in the Gospel or forget them or think not of them or make light of them through the corruption of your minds you cannot be thankful for them I have before spoken of Mercy in order to the kindling of Love and therefore shall now only recite these following to be alwayes in your memories 1. The Love of God in giving you a Redeemer and the Love of Christ in giving his life for us and in all the parts of our Redemption 2. The Covenant of Grace the pardon of all our sins the justification of our persons our adoption and title to eternal life 3. The aptness of means for calling us to Christ The gracious and wise disposals of providence to that end the gifts and compassion of our instructers the care of Parents and the helps and examples of the servants of Christ. 4. The efficacy of all these means â—he giving us to will and to do and opening of our hearts and giving us repentance unto life and the Spirit of Christ to mortifie our sins and purifie our nature and dwell within us 5. A standing in his Church under the care of faithful Pastors the liberty comfort and frequent benefit of his Word and Sacraments and the publick communion of his Saints 6. The company of those that fear the Lord and their faithful admonitions reproofs and encouragements the kindness they have shewed us for body or for soul. 7. The mercies of our Relations or habitations our estates and the notable alterations and passages of our lives 8. The manifold preservations and deliverances of our souls from errors and seducers from terrors and distress from dangerous temptations and many a soul-wounding sin and that we are not leâ—t to the errors and desires of our hearts to seared Consciences as forsaken of God 9. The manifold deliverances of our bodies from enemies hurts distresses sicknesses and death 10. The mercies of adversity in wholesome necessary chastisements or honourable sufferings for his sake and support or comfort under all 11. The communion which our souls have had with God in the course of our private and publick duties in Prayer Sacraments and Meditation 12. The use which he hath made of us for the good of others that our time hath not been wholly lost and we have not lived as burdens of the world 13. The mercies of all our friends and his servants which were to us as our own and our interest in the mercies and publick welfare of his Church which are more than our own 14. His patience and forbearance with us under our constant unprofitableness and provocations and his renewed mercies notwithstanding our abuse our perseverance untill now 15. Our hopes of everlasting Rest and Glory when this sinsul life is at an end Aggravate these mercies in your more enlarged meditations and they will sure constrain you to cry out Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies Psal. 102. 1 2 3 4. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise be thankful to him and bless his name For the Lord is good his Mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations Psal. 100. 4 5. The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy For as the Heaven is high above the Earth so great is his mercy to them that fear him Psal. 103. 8 11. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Psal. 136. 1 c. O give thanks unto the Lord call upon his name make known his deeds among the people sing ye unto him sing Psalms unto him talk ye of all his wondrous works glory ye in his holy name Let the heart of them rejoyce that seek him Psal. 105. 1 2 3. § 5. Direct 3. Be well acquainted with the greatness of your sins and sensible of them as they are Direct 3. the aggravation of Gods Mercies to you This is the main end why God will humble those that he will save Not to drive them to despair of mercy nor that he taketh pleasure in their sorrows for themselves But to work the heart to a due esteem of saving mercy and to a serious desire after it that they may thankfully receive it and carefully retain it and faithfully use it An unhumbled soul sets light by Christ and Grace and Glory It relisheth no spiritual mercy It cannot be thankful for that which it findeth no great need of But true humiliation recovereth our appetite and teacheth us to value mercy as it is Think therefore what sin is as I have opened to you Dir. 8. and think of your manifold aggravated sins and then think how great those mercies are that are bestowed on so great unworthy sinners Then mercy will melt your humbled hearts when you confess that you are unworthy to be called Sons Luke 15. and that you are not worthy to look up to Heaven Luke 18. 13. and that you are not worthy of the least
and all the secrets of the heart Psalm 44. 21. 94. 11. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Acts 15. 18. His understanding is infinite Psalm 147. 5. What praise doth that Goodness and Mercy deserve which is diffused throughout all the world and is the life and hope and happiness of men and Angels His Mercy is Great unto the Heavens and his Truth unto the Clouds Psalm 57. 10. O how great is his Goodness to them that fear him Psalm 31. 10. and therefore how great should be his Praise Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord and who can shew forth all his Praise Psalm 106. 2. For great is the Glory of the Lord Psalm 138. 5. § 15. 2. It is the end of all Gods wondrous works and especially the end which man was made for that all things else might Praise him Objectively and men and Angels in estimation and expression that his Glorious excellency might be visible in his works and be admired and extolled by the rational creature For this all things were created and are continued For this we have our understanding and our speech This is the fruit that God expecteth from all his works Deny him this and you are guilty of frustrating the whole creation as much as in you lieth You would have the Sun to shine in vain and the Heavens and Earth to stand in vain and man and all things to live in vain if you would not have God have the praiâ—e and Glory of his works Therefore Sun and Moon and Starrs and Firmament are called on to Praise the Lord Psalm 148. 2 3 4. as they are the matter for which he must by us be praised O praise him therefore for his mighty acts Praise him according to his excellent greatness Psalm 150. 2. O that men would praise the Lord for his Goodness and declare his wondrous works for the children of men Psalm 107. 8 c. Yea it is the end of Christ in the Redemption of the world and in saving his elect that God might in the Church in Earth and Heaven have the praise and glory of his grace Ephes. 1. 6 12 14. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that iâ— the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name Heb. 13. 15. And let the redeemed of the Lord say that his mercy endureth for ever Psalm 107. 2. For this all his Saints are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people that they should shew forth the praises of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. § 16. 3. The Praise of God is the highest and noblest work in it self 1. It hath the highest object even the glorious excellencies of God Thanksgiving is somewhat lower as having more respect to our selves and the Benefits received But Praise is terminated directly on the perfections of God himself 2. It is that work that is most immediately neerest on God as he is Our end And as the end as such is better than all the means set together as such so are the final duties about the end greater than all the mediate duties 3. It is the work of the most excellent creatures of God the holy Angels They proclaimed the coming of Christ by way of Praise Luke 2. 13 14. Glory to God in the highest on earth peace Good-will towards men Psalm 103. 20. 148. 2. And as we must be equal to the Angels it must be in equal Praising God or else it will not be in equality of Glory 4. It is the work of Heaven the place and state of all perfection And that is best and highest which is nearest Heaven Where they rest not day nor night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Allmighty which was and is and is to come Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4. 8. 10. Rev. 19. 5. A voice came out of the throne saying Praise our God all ye his servants and ye that fear him both small and great verse 6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thundrings saying Allelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth Let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready § 17. 4. It beseemeth us and much concerneth us to learn and exercise that work which in Heaven we must do for ever and that is to Love and joyfully Praise the Lord. For earth is but the place of our apprentiship for Heaven The preparing works of mortifying repentance must in their place be done but only as subservient to these which we must ever do When we shall sing the new song before the Lamb Thou art worthy For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and hast made us Kings and Priests unto our God Rev. 5. 9 10. Therefore the Primitive Church of believers is described as most like to Heaven Luke 24. 53. with great joy they were continually in the Temple Praising and blessing God O Praise the Lord therefore in the congregations of the Saints Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King Psalm 149. 1 2. Let the Saints be joyful in glory Let the high praises of God be in their mouths verse 5 6. § 18. 5. Though we are yet diseased sinners and in our warfare among enemies dangers and perplexities yet Praise is seasonable and suitable to our condition here as the greatest part of our duty which all the rest must but promote Pretend not that it is not fit for you because you are sinners and that humiliation only is suitable to your state For the design of your redemption the tenour of the Gospel and your own condition engage you to it Are they not engaged to Praise the Lord that are brought so near him to that end 1 Pet. 2 5. 9. that are reconciled to him To whom he hath given and forgiven so much 1 Tim. 1. 15. Tit. 3. 3 5. Psalm 103. 1 2 3. that have so many great and precious promises 2 Pet. 1. 4. that are the Temples of the Holy Ghost who dwelleth in them and sanctifieth them to God That have a Christ interâ—â—ding for them in the highest Rom. 8. 33 34. That are allways safe in the arms of Christ that are guarded by Angels and Devils and enemies forbidden to touch them further than their father sâ—eth necessary for their good That have the Lord for their God Psalm 33. 12. 4. 8. That have his Saints for their companions and helpers That have so many ordinances to help their souls And so
you have the wisdom which is from above if you be first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and hypocrisie James 3. 17. But if you have hitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lye not against the truth as if this were the wisdom from above which glorifieth God For this wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish v. 14 15. A mâ—â—k and quiet Spirit is of great price in the sight of God 1 Pet. 3 4. An Ornament commended to women by the Scripture which is amiable in the eyes of all § 39. Direct 8. It honoureth God and your profession when you abound in love and in good works Direct 8. Loving the godly with a special love but all men with so much love as makes you earnestly desirous of their wâ—lâ—aâ—e and to love your enemies and put up wrongs and to study to do good to all and hurt to none To be abundant in love is to be like to God who is LOVE it self 1 Iohn 4. 7 11. and shâ—wâ—th that God dwelleth in us v. 12. All men may know that we are Christs Disciples if we love one another Iohn 13. 35. This is the new and the great commandment The fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13. 10. John 15. 12 17 13. 34. You will be known to be the children of your heavenly Father if you love your enemies and bless them that curse yâ—u and pray for them that hate and persecute you and dâ—spightfully use you Matth. 5. 44. Do all the good that possibly you can if you would be like him that doth good to the evil and whose mercies are over all his works Shew the world that you are his workmanship created to good works in Christ Iesus which he hath ordained for you to walk in Eph. 2. 10. Herein is your Father glorified that ye bring forth much fruit John 15. 8. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Matth. 5. 16. Honour God with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thy increase Prov. 3. 9. And thâ—se that honour him he will honour 1 Sam. 2. 30. When barren worldly hypocrites that honour God only with their lips and flattering words shall be used as those that really dishonour him § 40. Direct 9. The Unity Concord and Peace of Christians doth glorifie God and their profession Direct 9. when their divisions contentions and malicious persecutiâ—ns of one another doth heinously dishonour him Men reverence that faith and practice which they see us unanimously accord in And the same men will despise both it and us when they see us together by the ears about it and hear us in a Babel of confusion one saying This is the way and another That is it one saying Lo here is the true Church and Worship and another saying Lo it is there Not that one man or a few must make a Shoo meet for his own foot and then say All that will not dishonour God by discord must wear this Shâ—â— Think as I think and say as I say or else you are Schismaticks But we must all agree in believing and obeying God and walking by the same rule so far as we have attained Phil. 3. 15 16. The strong must bear the infirmities of the weak and not please themselves but every one of us please his neighbour for good to edification and be like minded one towards another according to Christ Iesus that we may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God Receiving one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God Rom. 15. 1 2 5 6 7. § 41. Direct 10. Iustice commutative and distributive private and publick in bargainings and in Direct 10. Government and Iudgement doth honour God and our profession in the eyes of all when we do no wrong but do to all men as we would they should do to us Matth. 7. 12. That no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter for the Lord is the avenger of all such 1 Thess. 4 6. That a mans word be his Master and that we lye not one to another nor equivocate or deal subtilly and deceitfully but in plainness and singleness of heart and in simplicity and godly sincerity have our conversation in the world Perjured persons and Covenant-breakers that dissolve the bonds of humane society and take the name of God in vain shall find by his vengeance that he holdeth them not guiltless § 42. Direct 11. It much glorifieth God to worship him rationally and purely in Spirit and in truth Direct 11. according to the glory of his wisdom and goodness and it dishonoureth him to be worshipped ignorantly and carnally with spells and mimical irrational actions as if he were less wise than serious grave underderstanding men The worshippers of God have great cause to take heed how they behave themselves Lest they meet with the reward of Nadab and Abihu and God tell them by his judgements that he will be sanctified in all them that come nigh him and before all the people he will be glorified Lev. 10. 1 2 3. The second Commandment is enforced by the Iealousie of God about his Worship Ignorant rude unseemly words or unhansome gestures which tend to raise contempt in the auditors or levity of speech which makes men laugh is abominable in a Preacher of the Gospel And so is it to pray irrationally incoherently confusedly with vain repetitions and tautologies as if men thought to be heard for their babling over so many words while there is not so much as an appearance of a well composed serious rational and reverent address of a fervent soul to God To worship God as the Papists do with Images Agnus Dei's Crucifixes Crossings Spittle Oyl Candles Holy Water kissing the Pax dropping Beads praying to the Virgin Mary and to other Saints repeating over the Name of Iesus nine times in a breath and saying such and such sentences so oft praying to God in an unknown Tongue and saying to him they know not what adoring the consecrated Bread as no Bread but the very flesh of Christ himself choosing the tutelar Saint whose name they will invocate fasting by feasting upon Fish instead of Flesh saying so many Masses a day and offering Sacrifice for the quick and the dead praying for souls in Purgatory purchasing Indulgences for their deliverance out of Purgatory from the Pope carrying the pretended bones or other Relicts of their Saints the Popes canonizing now and then one for a Saint pretending Miracles to delude the people going on Pilgrimages to Images Shrines or Relicks offering before the Images with a multitude more of such parcâ—lls of Devotion do most heinously dishonour God and as the Apostle truly saith do make unbelievers say They are mad 1 Cor. 14. 23. and that they are children in understanding and not men v.
Unhumbledness Impurity Unreformedness and all sin in general as sin In the ninth you are directed against †Of Presumption and false hope enough is said in the Saints Rest and here about Temptation Hope and other Heads afterward Security Unwatchfulness and yielding to temptations and in general against all danger to the soul. In the tenth you are directed against Barrenness Unprofitableness and Sloth and Uncharitableness and against mistakes in matter of duty or good works In the eleventh you are directed against all Aversness Disaffection or cold Indifferency of heart to God In the twelfth you are directed against Distrust and sinful Cares and Fears and Sorrows In the thirteenth you are directed against an over sad or heartless serving of God as meerly from fear or forcedly without delight In the fourteenth you are directed against Unthankfulness In the fifteenth you are directed against all unholy or dishonourable thoughts of God and against all injurious speeches of him or barrenness of the tongue and against all scandal or barrenness of life In the Books referred to in the sixteenth and seventeenth you are directed against selfishness self-esteem self-love self-conceit self-will self-seeking and against all worldliness and fleshliness of mind or life But yet leâ—t any necessary helps should be wanting against such heinous sins I shall add some more particular Directions against such of them as were not fully spoken to before PART I. Directions against UNBELIEF § 1. I Know that most poor troubled Christians when they complain of the sin of Unbelief do mean by it their not Believing that they are sincere believers and personally justified and shall be saved â— Whether not to believe that my sins are pardoned â—e indeed Unbelieâ— And I know that some Divines have affirmed that the sense of that Article of the Creed I believe the Remission of sins is I believe my sins are actually forgiven But the truth is to believe that I am elect or justified or that my sins are forgiven or that I am a sincere Believer is not to Believe any word of God at all For no word of God doth say any of these nor any thing equivalent nor any thing out of which it can be gathered For it is a Rational Conclusion and one of the premises which do infer it must be found in my self by reflexion or internal sense and self-knowledge The Scripture only saith He that truly believeth is justified and shall be saved But it is Conscience and not Belief of Scripture which must say I do sincerely believe Therefore the Conclusion that I am justified and shall be saved is a Rational Collection from what I find in Scripture and in my self set together and resulting from both can be no firmer or surer than is the weaker of the premises Now Certainty is objective or subjective in the Thing or in my Apprehension As to Objective Certainty in the thing it self all truths are equally true But all Truths are not equally discernable there being much more cause of doubting concerning some which are less evident than concerning others which are more evident And so the Truth of Gods promise of Justification to believers is more certain that is hath fuller surer Evidence to be discerned by than the Truth of my sincere believing And that I sincerely believe is the more Debile of the premises and therefore the conclusion followeth this in its Debility And so can be no article of faith And as to the subjective Certainty that varyeth according to mens various apprehensions The premises as in their evidence or aptitude to ascertain us are the cause of the Conclusion as evident or knowable And the premises as apprehended are the Cause of the Conclusion as known Now it is a great doubt with some Whether a man can possibly be more certain that he believeth Whether a man can be more certain that he believeth than he is that the thing believed is true than he is that the thing believed is true because the act can extend no further than the object and to be sure I believe is but to be sure that I take the thing believed to be true But I shall grant the contrary that a man may possibly be surer that he believeth than he is that the thing believed is true because my believing is not alwayes a full subjective certainty that the thing is true but a believing that its true And though you are fully certain that all Gods word is true yet you may believe that this is his word with some mixture of unbelief or doubting And so the question is but this Whether you may not certainly without doubting know that you Believe the Word of God to be true though with some doubting And it seems you may But then it is a further question Whether you can be surer of the saving sincerity of your faith than you are that this Word of God is true And that ordinarily men doubt of the first as much as they doubt of the later I think is an experimented truth But yet grant that with some it may be otherwise Because he believeth sincerely that so far believeth the Word of God as to trust his life and soul upon it and forsake all in obedience to it And that I do so I may know with less doubting than I yet have about the Truth of the Word so believed All that will follow is but this That of those men that doubt of their Iustification and Salvation some of their doubts are caused more by their doubting of Gods Word than by the doubting whether they sincerely though doubtingly believe it and the doubts of others whether they are justified and shall be saved is caused much more by their doubting of their own sincere belief than by their doubting of the truth of Scriptures And the far greatest number of Christians seem to themselves to be of this later sort For no doubt but though a man of clear understanding can scarcely believe and yet not know that he believeth yet he may believe sincerely and not know that he believeth sincerely But still the knowledge of our own justification is but the effect or progeny of our Belief of the Word of God and of our Knowledge that we do sincerely believe it which conjunctly are the Parents and Causes of it And it can be no stronger than the weaker of the Parents which in esse cognoscibili is our faith but in esse cognito is sometime the one and sometime the other And the effect is not the cause The effect of faith and knowledge conjunct is not faith it self It is not a Believing the Word of God to believe that you believe or that you are Iustified But yet because that faith is one of the Parents of it some call it by the name of faith though they should call it but an effect of faith as one of the causes And well may our doubtings of our own salvation be said to be from Unbelief because
Unbelief is one of the Causes of them and the sinfullest Cause § 2. And that the Article of Remission of sin is to be Believed with application to our selves is certain The Article of Remission of sin to be believed applyingly But not with the application of Assurance Perswasion or Belief that we are already pardoned but with an applying Acceptance of an offered pardon and Consent to the Covenant which maketh it ours We believe that Christ hath purchased Remission of sin and made a Conditional Grant of it in his Gospel to all viz. if they will Repent and Believe in him or take him for their Saviour or become Penitent Christians And we consent to do so and to accept it on these terms And we believe that all are actually pardoned that thus consent § 3. By all this you may perceive that those troubled Christians which doubt not of the truth of the Word of God but only of their own sincerity and consequently of their Justification and Salvation do ignorantly complain that they have not faith or that they cannot believe For it is no act of unbelief at all for me to doubt whether my own heart be sincere This is my ignorance of my self but it is not any degree of unbelief For Gods Word doth no where say that I am sincere and therefore I may doubt of this without doubting of Gods Word at all And let all troubled Christians know that they have no more unbelief in them than they have doubting or unbelief of the truth of the Word of God Even that despair it self which hath none of this in it hath no unbelief in it iâ— there be any such I thought it needful thus far to tell you what unbelief is before I come to give you Directions against it And though the meer doubting of our own sincerity be no unbelief at all yet real unbelief of the very truth of the Holy Scriptures is so common and dangerous a sin and some degree of it is latent in the best that I think we can no way so much further the work of Grace as by destroying this The weakness of our faith in the truth of Scriptures and the remnant of our unbelief of it is the principal cause of all the languishings of our Love and Obedience and every Grace and to strengthen faith is to strengthen all What I have â—ullier written in my Saints Rest Part 2. and my Treatise against Infidelity I here suppose § 4. Direct 1. Consider well how much of Religion Nature it self teacheth and Reason without Direct 1. supernatural Revelation must needs confess as that there is another life which man was made for and that he is obliged to the fullest Love and Obedience to God and the rest before laid down 〈…〉 in the world are perpetual visible Evidences in my eyes of the truth of the Holy Scriptures 1 That there should be so Universal and implacable a hatred against the godly in the common sort â—f unrenewed men in all Agâ—â— and Nations of the Earâ—h when thâ—se men deserve so well of them and do them no wrong â—s a visible proof of Adams fall and he 〈◊〉 of a Saviour and a Sanctifier 2 That all those who are seriously Christians should be so far renewed and recovered from the common corruption as their heavenly â—inds and lives and their wonderful difference from other men sheweth this is a visible proof that Christianity is of God 3. That God doth â—o â—lainly shew a particular special Providence in the converting and confirming souls by differencing Grace and work on the soul as the sanctified feel doth shew that indeed the work is his 4. That God doth so plainly grant many of his Servants prayers by special Providences doth prove his owning them and his 〈◊〉 5. That God suffereth his Servants in all times and places ordinarily to suffer so much for his Love and Service from the world and flâ—sh dâ—â—h shew that there is a Judgement and Rewards and Punishments hereafter Or else our highest duty would be our greatest losâ— and thâ—n how should his Government of men be just 6. That the Renewed Nature which maketh men better and therefore is of God doth wholly look at the life to come and lead us to â—t and live upon it this sheweth that such a life there is or else this would be delusory and vain and Goodness it self would be a deceit 7. When it is undenyable that de facto esse the world is not Governed without the Hopes and Fears of another life almost all Nations among the Heathens believing iâ— and shewing by their very worshipping their dead Heroes as Gods that they believed that their soulâ— did live and even the wicked generally being restrained by those hopes and fears in themselves And also that de posse it is not pâ—â—â—â—ible the world should be governed agreeably to mans rational nature without the hopes and fears of another life But men would be wâ—â—se than Beasts and all Villanies would be the allowed practice of the world As every man may feel in himself what he were like to be and do if he had no such restraint And there being no Doctrine or Life comparable to Christianity in their tendency to the life to come All these are visible staâ—ding evidences assisted so much by common sense and reason and still apparent to all that they leave Infidelity without excuse and are ever at hand to help our faith and resist temptations to unbelief 8. And if the world had not had a Beginning according to the Scriptures 1. We should have found Monuments of Antiquity above sâ—x thousand years old 2. Arts and Sciences would have come to more perfection and Printing Guns c. not have been of so late invention 3. And so much of America and other parts of the world would not have been yet uninhabited unplanted or undiscovered Of Aâ—heâ—sm I have spoken before in the Introduction and Nature so clearly revealeth a God that I take it as almost needless to say much of it to sober men in the Introduction And then observe how congruously the doctrine of Christ comes in to help where Nature is at a loss and how exactly it suits with Natural Truths and how clearly it explaineth them and fully containeth so much of them as are necessary to salvation and how suitable and proper a means it is to attain their Ends and how great a testimony the Doctrines of Nature and Grace do give unto each other § 5. Direct 2. Consider that mans End being in the life to come and God being the righteous and Direct 2. merciful Governour of man in order to that End it must needs be that God will give him sufficient means to know his will in order to that end And that the clearest fullest means must needs demonstrate most of the Government and Mercy of God § 6. Direct 3. Consider what full and sad experience the world hath of its pravity and great
of this but live as quietly and talk as pleasantly as if all were well with them and their souls were safe and their calling and election were made sure Alas if these souls were not hardned in sin we should see it in their tears or hear it in their complaints they would after Sermon sometime come to the Minister as they Acts 2. 37. Acts 16. 30. Sirs what must we do to be saved or we should see it in their lives or hear of it by report of others who would observe the change that grace hath made and Sermons would stick longer by them and not at best be turned off with a fruitless commendation and saying it was a good Sermon and there is an end of it Judge now by this true description which I have given you what a hardned sinner is And then the godly may so see cause to bewail the remnants of this mischief as yet to be daily thankful to God that they are not in the power of it § 10. Direct 7. Live if you can possibly under a lively quickning Ministry and in the company of Direct 7. seriâ—us lively Christianâ— It is true that we should be deeply affected with the truths of God how coldly soever they be delivered But the question is not what is our duty but what is our disease and 〈…〉 and the proper remedy All men should be so holy as not to need any exhortations to 〈◊〉 at all But shall Ministers therefore neglect such exhortations or they that need them â—â—â—â— away their â—ars Hear if possible that Minister that first feels what he speaks and so speaks what â—â— feels as tendeth most to make you feel Isa. 58. 1 2. Cry aloud spare not lift up thy â—â—â—â—â— like a Trumpet and shew my people their transgressions and the house of Israel their sins Though â—â—câ—â—â— seek me daily and delight to know my wayes as a Nation that did righteousness and forsook nâ—t â—â—â—â— Orâ—inanceâ— of their God God is the chief agent but he useth to work according to the â—â—â—â—â—â— of the instrument O woful case to hear a dead Minister speaking to a dead people the living truths of the living God! As Christ said If the blind lead the blind both will fall into the ditch And if the dead must raise the dead and the ungodly enemies of a holy life must bring men to godliness and to a holy life it must be by such a power as once made use of clay and spittle to open the eyes of the blind It seems it was a Proverb in Christs dayes Let the dead bury their dead 2 â—â—â—â— 13 â—1 But not Let the dead raise the dead God may honour the bones of the dead Prophet with the raising a Corps that is cast into its grave and toucheth them A meeting of a dead Minister and a dead people is like a place of graves and though it be a lamentable thing to hear a man speak without any life of life eternal yet God can concurr to the quickning of a soul. But sure we have no great reason to expect that ordinarily he should convert men so miraculously without the moral aptitude of means It is most incongruous for any man in his familiar discourse to speak without great seriousness and reverence of things concerning life eternal But for a Preacher to talk of God of Christ of Heaven and Hell as coldly and sleepily as if he were perswading men not to believe him or regard him that no more regards himself is less tolerable It is a sad thing to hear a man draw out a dreaming dull discourse about such astonishing weighty things and to speak as if it were the business of his art to teach men to sleep while the names of Heaven and Hell are in their ears and not to be moved while they hear the message of the living God about their life or death everlasting If a man tell in the Streets of a fire in the Town or a Souldier bring an Allarm of the enemy at the Gates in a reading or jeasting tone the hearers will neglect him and think that he believeth not himself I know it is not meer noise that will convert a soul A bawling fervency which the hearers may discern to be but histrionical and affected and not to come from a serious heart doth harden the auditors worst of all A rude unreverent noise is unbeseeming an Embassador of Christ But an ignorant saying of a few confused words or a sleepy recital of the most pertinent things do as little beseem them Christ raised not Lazarus by the lowdness of his voice But where the natural ears are the passage to the mind the voice and manner should be suitable to the matter Noise without seriousness and pertinent matter is like Gunpowder without Bullet that causeth sound and no execution And the weightiest matter without clear explication and lively application is like Bullet without Powder If you will throw Canon Bullets at the enemy with your hands they will sooner fall on your feet than on them And it is deadness aggravated by hypocrisie when a lifeless Preacher will pretend moderation as if he were afraid of speaking too lowd and earnestly leâ—t he should awake the dead whom lightning and thunder will not awake and when he will excuse himself by accusing those that are not as drowzie or dead as he and would make men believe that seriousness is intemperate rage or madness If you are cast upon a cold and sleepy Minister consider the matter more than the manner But choose not such a one for the cure of hardness and insensibility of heart § 11. Direct 8. Take notice how sensible tender hearted Christians are of sins far less than those Direct 8. that you make a jeast of And how close those matters come to their hearts that touch not yours And have not you as much cause to be moved as they and as much need to lay such things to heart Did you but know what a trouble it is to them to be haunted with temptations to the unbelief and Atheism which prevaileth with you though they are far from choosing them or delighting in them Did you see how involuntary thoughts and frailâ—ies make some of them aweary of themselves and how they even hate their hearts for believing no more and loving God no more and for being so strange to God and Heaven when yet there is nothing in the world so dear to them nor hath so much of their Estimation or Endeavour You would think sure that if such hearts had your sin and misery to feel they would feel it to their grief indeed unless the sin it self did hinder the feeling as it doth with you Let tender hearted Christians instruct you and not be witnesses against you § 12. Direct 9. Take heed of hardning Company Examples and Discoursâ— To hear men rail and Direct 9. sâ—â—ffe at Holiness and curse and swear and blaspheme the Name and Truth of God
that they are zealous for the faith when they are but contending for their honour or conceits Passion covers much deceit from the passionate § 22. Direct 17. Suspect your selves most among the great the wise the learned and the godly or Direct 17. any whose favour opinion or applause you most esteem It is easie for an arrant Hypocrite to despise the favour or opinion of the vulgar of the ignorant of the prophane or any whose judgement he contemneth It is no great honour or dishonour to be praised or dispraised by a child or fool or a person that for his ignorance or prophaness is become contemptible But Hypocrisie and Pride do work most to procure the esteem of those whose judgement or parts you most admire One most admireth worldly greatness and such a one will play the Hypocrite most to flatter or please the great ones he admireth Another that is wiser more admireth the judgement of the wise and learned and he will play the Hypocrite to procure the good esteem of such though he can sleight a thousand of the ignorant and his pride it self will make him sleight them Another that is yet wiser is convinced of the excellency of Godly men above all the Great and Learned of the world And this man is more in danger of Pride and Hypocrisie in seeking the good opinion of the Godly and therefore can despise the greatest multitudes of the ignorant and prophane Yea pride it self will make him take it as an addition to his glory to be vilified and opposed by such miscreants as these § 23. Direct 18 Remember the perfections of that God whom you worship that he is a Spirit and Direct 18. therefore to be worshipped in Spirit and in truth and that he is most great and terrible and therefore to be worshipped with sâ—ri usnâ—ss and reverence and not to be dallyed with or served with toyes or lifeless lip-service and that he is most holy pure and jealous and therefore to be purely worshipped and that â—e is still present with you and all things are naked and open to him with whom we have to do The knowledge of God and the remembrance of his all-seeing presence is the most powerful means against Hypocrisie Christ himself argueth from the Nature of God who is a Spirit against the hypocritical ceremoniousness of the Samaritans and Iews Iohn 4. 23 24. Hypocrites offer that to God which they know a man of ordinary wisdom would scorn if they offered it to him If a man knew their hearts as God doth would he be pleased with words and complements and gestures which are not accompanied with any suitable seriousness of the mind Would he be pleased with affected histrionical actions One that seeth a Papist Priest come out in his Formalities and there lead the people in a Language which they understand not to worship God by a number of Ceremonies and canting repeated customary words would think he saw a Stage-player acting his part and not a wise and holy people seriously worshipping the most holy God And not only in worship but in private duties and in converse with men and in all your lâ—ves the remembrance of Gods presence is a powerful rebuke for all hypocrisie It is more foolish to sin in the sight of God because you can hide it from the world than to steal or commit adultery in the open Market-place before the crowd and be careful that Dogs and Crows discern it not If all the world see you it is not so much as if God in secret see you Be not deceived God is not mocked Gal. 6. 7. § 24. Direct 19. Remember how Hypocrisie is hated of God and what punishment is appointed for Direct 19. Hypocrites They are joyned in torment with unbelievers and as wicked mens punishment is aggravated by their being condemned to the fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels so the punishment of ordinary ungodly persons is aggravated by this that their portion shall be with hypocrites and unbelievers How oft find you the Lamb of God himself denouncing his thundering Woes against the hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees How oft doth he inculcate to his Disciples Be not as the Hypocrites Matth. 6. 2 5 16. And no wonder if Hypocrites be hateful to God when they and their services are lifeless Images and have nothing but the Name and outside of Christianity and some antick dress to set them off and humane ornaments of Wit and Parts as a Corpse is more drest with Flowers than the living as needing those Ceremonies for want of life to keep them sweet And a Carrion is not amiable to God And the Hypocrite puts a scorn on God as if he thought that God were like the Heathens Idols that have eyes and see not and could not discern the secret dissemblings of his heart or as if he were like fools and children that are pleased with fair words and little toyes God must needs hate such abuse as this § 25. Direct 20. Come into the Light that your hearts and lives may be throughly known to you Direct 20. Love the most searching faithul Ministry and Books and be thankful to reprovers and plain dealing friends Permanent tepidi â—gnavi neglâ—gâ—ntes Vaâ—â— leves voluptâ—â—si delâ—caâ—â— commoda corporis supersâ—ua sectantur suâ—m compendium in omnibus quaeâ—unt ubicunque honoâ—em existimationem nominis sui integra seâ—vaâ—e possunt Iâ—â—us prâ—priae voluntaâ—â— perâ—â—nacâ—ter addâ—â—â—â— irreâ—â—gnâ—â— minime abnegati superbi curiosi contumaces sunt in omnibuâ— licet â—â—terne coram hominibus bene mâ—â—ati videantur In tentationibus impatientes amari procaces iracundi â—risâ—es aliis molestâ— verbis tamen ingenioque seâ—â—â—â— In prosperis nimium eâ—aâ—i hilaâ—es In adversis nâ—mâ—um turbaâ—i sunt pusilâ—animes Aâ—iorum temeraâ—â—â—â— sunt judices aliorum vitia accuratissime perscrutari de aliorum defectibus frequenter gaâ—â—â—â—re aâ— gloâ—â—ari egregium putant Ex istis simiâ—â—bus operibus facillime cognosci poterunt nam moribus gestibusque suis câ—u sorex quispiam suopte sâ—met judicio produâ—â— Thaâ—le â—loâ— pag. 65 66. Darkness is it that cherisheth deceit It is the office of the Light to manifest Justly do those wretches perish in their hypocrisie who will not endure the light which would undeceive them but fly from a plain and powerful Ministry and hate plain reproof and set themselves by excuses and cavils to defend their own deceit § 26. Direct 21. Be very diligent in the examining of your hearts and all your actions by the Word Direct 21. of God and call your selves often to a strict account Deceit and guilt will not endure strict examination The Word of God is quick and powerful discovering the thoughts and imaginations of the heart There is no Hypocrite but might be delivered from his own deceits if by the assistance of an able Guide he would faithfully go on in the work of self-trying without partiality oâ— sloth § 27. Direct
it We must not only contemn it as compared to the approbation and favour of God but we must value it but as other transitory things in it self considered estimating it â—s a means to some higher end the service of God and our own or other mens greater â—â—â—â—d And further than it conduceth to some of these it must be allmost indifferent to us what men â—â—â—â—â— or say of us And the displeasure of all men if unjust must be reckâ—ned with our light afâ—flâ—â—â—â—iâ—ns § 17. 6. One truth of God and the smallest duty must be preferred before the pleasing and favor of all the men in the world Though yet as a means to the promoting of a greater truth or duty the favor and plâ—â—sing of men must be preferred before the uttering of a lesser truth or doing a lessâ—r â—â—od at that â—â—â—â— because it is no duty then to do it § 18. 7. Our hearts are so â—â—lâ—â—sh and deceitful naturally that when we are very sollicitous about â—â—â—◠〈…〉 we must carefully watch them lest self be intended while God is pretended And w◠〈◊〉 take special care that we be sure it be the honour of God and Religion and the good of soulâ—â—◠〈◊〉 greater benefit than honour it self that we value our honour and reputation for § 19. 8. Mans nature is so prone to go too far in valuing our â—steem with men that we should more fâ—â—r â—â—â—â— we â—rr on that hand than on the other in undervaluing it And it is far safer to do too little than too much in the vindicating of our own reputation whether by the magistrates justice or by dâ—sâ—uting or any contentious means § 20. 9. Wâ— must not wholy rest on the judgement of any about the state of our souls nor take their judgement of us for inâ—â—llible but use their help that we may know our selves § 21. 10. If Ministers or Councils called General do err and contradict the word of God we must do our best to discern it and discerning it must desert their error rather than the truth of God As Calvin and after him Paraeus on 1 Cor. 4. 3. say We must give an account of our doctrine to all men that require it especially to Ministers and Councils But when a faithful Pastor perceiveth himself oppressed with unrighteous and perverse designs and factions and that there is no place for equity and truth he â—ught to be careless of mans esteem and to appeal to God and fly to his tribunal And if we see our selves condemned our cause being unpleaded and judgement passed our cause being unheard let us lift up our minds to this magnanimity as despising mens judgement to expect with boldness the judgement of God and say with Paul With me it is a smal matter to be judged of you or of mans judgement I have one that judgeth me even the Lord. § 22. 11. God must be enough for a gracious soul and we must know that in his favour is life Psalm 30 5. Psalm 63. 3. 2 Câ—â— â— 9. Rom. 8. 33 34. and his loving kindness is better than life it self and this must be our care and labour that whether living or dying we may be accepted of him and if we have his Approbation it must satisfie us though all the world condemn us Therefore having faithfully done our duty we must leave the matter of our reputation to God who if our waies please him can make our enemies to be at peace with us or be harmless to us as if they were no enemies As we must quietly leave it to him what measure of wealth we shall have so also what measure of honour we shall have It is our duty to Love and Honor but not to be beloved and honoured § 23. 12. The prophesie of our Saviour must be still believed that the world will hate us and his Mâ—â— 10. â—â—â—â—n 15. Maâ— 27. Hâ—b 12. 1 2 3. â— Pet. 2. 21 22. example must be still before our eyes who submitted to be spit upon and scorned and buffeted and slandered as a traytor or usurper of the Crown and made himself of no reputation and indured the Cross and despised the shame leaving us an example that we should fâ—llow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but câ—mmitted all to him that judgeth righteously This is the usage that must be the Christians expectation and not to be well spoken of by all nor to have the applause and honor of the world § 24. 13. It is not only the approbation of the ignorant and ungodly that we must thus set light We must go further than Sâ—â—â—â—ca who said Maâ—e dâ— mâ— loqâ—â—â—â—â— â—ed mâ—lâ—â— mâ—â—eâ—er si de me Mâ—â— Caâ—e si â—â—â—â—s sapiens si duo Scipioâ—es ista loquerentur nunc malis disâ—â—â—â—ceâ—e â—audari est by but even of the most Learned and Godly themselves so as to bear their censures as an easie burden when God is pleased this way to try us and to be satisfied in God alone and the expectation of his final judgement § 25. Direct 2. Remember that the favour and pleasing of man is one of your snares that would Direct 2. prevail against your pleasing God Therefore watch against the danger of it as you must do against other earthly things § 26. Direct 3. Remember how silly a creature man is and that his favour can be no better than Direct 3. himself The thoughts or words of a mortal worm are matters of no considerable value to us § 27. Direct 4. Remember that it is the judgement of God alone that your life or death for ever Direct 4. doth depend upon and how little you are concerned in the judgement of man 1. An humbled soul that hath felt what it is to have displeased God and what it is to be under his curse and what it is to be reconciled to him by the death and intercession of Jesus Christ is so taken up in seeking the favour of God and is so troubled with every fear of his displeasure and is so delighted with the sense of his Love as that he can scarce have while to mind so small a matter as the favour or displeasure of a man Gods favour is enough for him and so precious to him that if he find that he hath this so small a matter as the favour of a man will scarce be mist by him § 28. 2. God only is our supream judge and our Governors as Officers limited by him But for others if they will be usurpers and set themselves in the throne of God and there let fly their censures upon things and persons which concern them not why should we seem much concerned in it If a beggar step up into a seat of judicature and there condemn one and fine another will you fear him or laugh at him Who art thou that judgest another mans servant To
knoweth not in this age shall not know for me We need not go to Paul and Barnabas for an instance that was a far lighter case Nor to Epiphanius Hierom and Chrysostome nor to those Agâ—s and Tragedies of contending Bishops that in the Eastern and Western Churches have been before us Every one thinking his cause so plain I may aâ—d that you have 〈…〉 to 〈…〉 Aâ—d th 〈…〉 are 〈…〉 speaks like onâ— that â—aâ—h an Uâ—â—â—â—r that at first is hurt with every touch and at last even with the suspicion of a touch Tutuâ— aliqua â—es in 〈…〉 praestat nulla securum Putat enim eâ—iamsi non deprehenditur se posse deprâ—hendi inter somnos moveâ—ur 〈…〉 loquitur de suo cogâ—tat Sen. Epis. 106. Et. Ep. 97. Prima maxima peccantium poena est peccassâ— Hâ—â—â—â— â—â—â—â—ndâ— poenâ— prâ—munt sequuntur tâ—â—ere sempeâ— expavescere securitaâ—i diffidere Tyraâ—no amici quoque saepe â—â—â—â—â—ctâ— suâ—â— Tu eâ—go si tyrannâ—dâ—m tuto tenere cupâ—s atque in ea constabiliri civitatis principes tolle sive illi amicâ— sive inimici vâ—dâ—antur 〈…〉 iâ—â—â—â—â—st Pâ—â—iaâ—d iâ— Laâ—rtio Pleâ—oâ—umque ingenium est ut errata aliorum vel minima persâ—â—utentur beâ—eâ—acta vâ—â—o vel in pâ—opatulo posita praeteâ—eant sicuâ— Vultures corpora viva saâ—a non sentiunt morticina vero cadavera tamâ—â—â—â—â—enge remota odore persequuntur Gaâ—â—â—â—dus iâ— Aâ—can Iâ—suit p. 55. as to justifie himself in all that he saith and doth against those that presume to differ from him And surely you may well expect some displeasure even from good and learned men when the Churches have felt such dreadful concussions and bleedeth to this day by so horrid divisions through the remnants of that Pride and Ignorance which her Reverend Guides have still been guilty of § 47. 12. You have men of great Mutability to please That one hour may be ready to worship you as Gods and the next to stone you or account you as Devils as they did by Paul and Christ himself What a Weather-cock is the mind of man especially of the vulgar and the temporizers When you have spent all your dayes in building your reputation on this Sand one blast of Wind or Storm at last doth tumble it down and all your â—â—st and labour is lost Serve men as submissively and carefully as you can and after all some accident or failing of their unrighteous expectations may make all that ever you did forgotten and turn you out of the world with Wolsey's groans If I had served God as faithfully as man I had been better rewarded and not forsaken in my distrâ—ss How many have fallen by the hands or frowns of those whose favour they had dearly purchased perhaps at the price of their salvation If ever you put such confidence in a friend as not to consider that it is possible he may one day prove your enemy you know not man and may perhaps be better taught to know him to your cost § 48. 13. Every man living shall unavoidably be engaged by God himself in some duties which are very lyable to misconstruction and will have an outside and appearance of evil to the offence of those that know not all the inside and circumstances And hence it comes to pass that a great part of History is little worthy of regard Because the actions of publick persons are discerned but by the halves by most that write of them They write most by hearsay or know but the outside and seemings of things and not the Spirit and life and reality of the case Men have not the choosing of their own duties but God maketh them by his Law and Providence And it pleaseth him oft to try his servants in this kind Many of the circumstances of their actions shall remain unknown to men that would justifie them if they knew them and account them as notorious scandalous persons because they know them not How like to evil was the Israelites taking the goods of the Egyptians and how likely to lay them open to their censure So was Abrahams attempt to sacrifice his Son And so was Davids eating the Shew-bread and dancing almost naked before the Ark Christs eating and drinking with publicans and sinners Pauls circumcising Timothy and purifying in the Temple with abundance such like which fall out in the life of every Christian. No wonder if Iâ—seph thought once of putting Mary away till he knew the evidence of her miraculous conception And how lyable was she to censure by those that knew it not O therefore how vain is the judgement of man And how contrary are they frequently to the truth And with what caution must History be read And O how desirable is the great day of God when all humane censure shall be justly censured § 49. 14. The perversness of many is so great that they require contradictions and impossibilities of you to tell you that they are resolved never to be pleased by you If Iohn use fasting they say He hath a Devil If Christ come eating and drinking they say behold a gluttonous person and a wine-bibber a Matth. 11 18 19. friend of publicans and sinners If your judgement and practice be conformable to superiours especially if it have admitted of a change you shall be judged meer Knaves and Temporizers If it be not you shall be judged disobedient refractory and seditious If you speak fair and pleasingly they will call you flatterers and dissemblers If you speak more freely though in a necessary case they will say you rail Iâ— I accept of prefâ—rment they will say I am ambitious proud and worldly If I refuse it how modestly soever they will say I am discontented and have seditious designs If I preach not when I am forbidden I shall be accused as forsaking the Calling I undertook and obeying man against God Iâ— I do preach I shall be accounted disobedient and seditious If a friend or kinsman desire me to help him to some place or preferment which he is not â—it for or which would tend to anothers wrong if I should grant his desire I shall be taken for dishonest that by partiality wrong another If I deny it him I shall be called unnatural or unfriendly and worse than an Infidel If I give to the poor as long as I have it I shall be censured for ceasing when I have no more They that know not whether you have it to give or not will be displeased if you do not And if many years you should maintain them freely it is all as nothing as soon as you cease either because your stock is spent or because some other is made the necessary object of your Charity If you be wronged in your estate if you go to Law they will say you are contentious If you let go your estate to avoid contention they will say you are silly fools or ideoâ—s If you do any good works of charity to the knowledge of men they will
they shall be sure to be accounted Proud and Hypocrites And yet they accuse not that child or servant of Pride who excelleth all the rest in pleasing them and doing their work Nâ—r do they take a sick man to be proud if he be carefuller than others to recover his health But he that will do mosâ— for Heaven and most carefully avoideth sin and Hell and is most serious in his Religion and most industrious to please his God this man shall be accounted Proud 3. He that will not forsake his God and betray the truth and wound his conscience by willful sin but will do as Daniel and the three confessors did Dan. 6. 3. and answer as they answered will be accounted Proud But it is no Pride to prefer God before men and to fear damnation more than imprisonment or death The army of Martyrs did not in Pride prefer their own judgements before their superiors that condemned them but they did it in obedience to God and truth when that was revealed to babâ—s which was hid from the wise and prudent and great and noble of the world 4. When those that are faithful to the honour of Christs soverainty dare not approve of Papâ—l usurpations against his Laws and over his Church and the Consciences of his Subjects they shall by the Popish usurpers be called Proud and despisers of Government as if a Usurper of the Kingly power should call us proud because we dare not consent to his pride or call us Traytors for not being Traytors as he is himself 5. When a man that hath the sense of the matters of God and mens salvation upon his heart is zealous and diligent to teach them to others and if he be a Minister be servent and laborious in his ministry he is called Proud as one that must needs have all men of his mind Though compassion to souls and aptness to teach and Preaching instantly in season and out of season be his necessary duty required of God And what is the Ministry for but to change mens minds and bring them to the full obedience of the truth 6. If a man understandeth the truth in any point of Divinity better than most others and holdeth any truth which is not there in credit or commonly received he shall be accounted Proud for presuming to be so singular and seeming wiser than those that think they are wiser than he But Humility teacheth us not to err for company nor to grow no wiser when once we arrive at the common stature nor to forsake the truth which others understand not nor to forbear to teach it because it is not known allready If some of the Pastors in Abassia Syria Armenia Russia Greece or Italy or Spain were as wise as the Ministers in England are it were no evidence of their Pride 7. If a man that understandeth any thing contrary to the judgement of another cannot forsake it Siquid agere instituis lenâ—e progredere in eo autem quod elegeâ—â—s firmiter persiste Bias in Laâ—rt and think or say as another would have him especially if you contradict him in disputation he will take it to be your pride and overvaluing your own understanding and being too tenacious of your own conceits Erroneous men that in their Pride are over eager to have others of their mind will call you Proud because you yield not to their pride They think that the evidence is so clear on their side that if you were not Proud you could not choose but think as they do 8. Some humble men are naturally of a warm and earnest manner of discourse and their natural Pertinaâ—ior tamen erat Chrysanthius nec de sententia â—acile discedebat inquit Eunapius humilitatem ejus laudans heat and eagerness of speech is frequently mis-judged to come from pride till fuller acquaintance with their humble lives do rectifie the mistake It is written of Bishop Hooper the Martyr that those that visited him once condemned him of over-austerity they that repaired to him twice only suspected him of the same those that conversed with him constantly not only acquitted him of all morosity but commended him for sweetness of manners So that his ill nature consisted in other mens little acquaintance with him Tho. Fullers Church Hist. lib. 7. pag. 402. and Godwin in Glocest. Bishops The same is true of very many worthy men Bullingero ob eruditionem non contemnendam morumque tam sanctitatem quam suavitatem percharus fuit pag 591. 9. If we zealously contend for the saith or the Peace of the Church against Heretical or Dividing persons and their dangerous waies they will call us Proud though God command it us Iud. 2. 3. especially if we avoid them and bid them not Good speed Tit. 3. 10. 2 Joh. 10. 10. When a man of understanding openeth the ignorance of another and speaketh words of pity concerning him though it be no more than truth and charity command they will be taken to be the words of supercilious pride 11. That plain dealing in reproof which God commandeth especially to his Ministers towards high and low great and small and which the Prophets and Servants of God have used will be misjudged as arrogancie and Pride Amos 7. 12 13. 2 Chron. 25. 16. Acts 23. 4. As if it were Pride to Gen. 19. 8 9 10. be true to God and to pity souls and seek to save them and tell them in time of that which conscience will more closely and terribly tell them of when it is too late 12. Self-idolizing Papists accuse their inferiors for Pride if they do but modestly exercise a judgement Cum humilitatis causa mentiris si non eras peccator antequam mentiris mentiendo efficiens quod evitaâ—as Augustin de Verb. Apost of discretion about the matters that their salvation is concerned in and do not implicitly believe as they believe and forbear to prove or try their sayings and swallow not all without any chewing and offer to object the commands of God against any unlawful commands of men As if God were contented to suspend his Laws when ever mens commands do contradict them or humility required us to please and obey men at the price of the loss of our salvation They think that we should not busy our selves to enquire into such matters but trust them with our souls and that the Scriptures are not for the laity to read but they must wholly relie upon the clergie And if a lay man enquire into their Doctrine or Commands they say as Davids brother to him 1 Sam. 17. 28. With whom hast thou left the sheep in the wilderness I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thy heart 13. If a zealous humble preacher of the Gospel that preacheth not himself but Christ be highly esteemed and honoured for his works sake and crowded after and greatly followed by those that are 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. edified by him it is ordinary for the envious
the Holy Ghost to lead men by obedience to felicity Behold it with reverence as a Letter or Message sent from Heaven and as a thing of grand importance to your souls When you meditate of any Grace think on it as a part of the Image of God implanted and actuated by the Holy Ghost to advance the soul into communion with God and prepare it for him When you meditate on any Duty remember who commandeth it and whom you are chiefly to respect in your obedience and what will be the end of obeying or disobeying When you meditate on any sin remember that it is the defacing or privation of Gods image and the rebell that riseth up against him in all his attributes to depose him from the Government of the soul and of the world and foresee the End to which it tendeth Take in God if you would feel Life and Power in all that you meditate on § 21. Direct 7. Let your ordinary Meditations be on the Great and Necessary things and think Direct 7. less frequently on the less Necessary matters Meditation is but a means to a further end It is to work some good upon the soul Use therefore those subjects which are most powerful and fit to work it Great truths will do great works upon the heart They are usually the surest and most past controversie and doubt There is more weight and substance and power in one Article of the Creed or one Petition in the Lords Prayer or one Commandment in the Decalogue to benefit the soul than in abundance of the controverted opinions which men have troubled themselves and others with in all ages As one purse of Gold will buy more than a great quantity of Farthings Meditating on Great and weighty truths makes Great and weighty Christians And meditating inordinately on light and controverted opinions makes light opinionative contentious professors Little things may have their time and place but it must be but little time and the last place except when God maketh any little thing to be the matter of our lawful calling and employment as all the common matters of the world are little And then they may have a larger proportion of our time though still they must have the lowest place in our estimation and in our hearts § 22. Direct 8. When ever you are called to meditate on any smaller truth or thing see that you Direct 8. take it not as separated from the greater but still behold it as connexed to them and planted and growing in them and receiving their life and beauty from them so that you may still preserve the life and interest of the greatest matters in your hearts and may not mortifie the least and turn it into a deceit or idol We are to climb upwards and not to descend downwards and therefore we begin at the body of the Tree and so pass up to the few and greatest boughs and thence to the smaller numerous branches which as they are hard to be discerned numbred and remembred so are they not all strong enough to bear us but are fitted rather to be looked on than trodden and rested on But if you take them not as growing from the greater boughs but cut them off they lose their life and beauty and fruitfulness If all the Controversies in the Church had been managed with due honour and preservation of Holiness Charity Unity Peace and greater truths and if all the circumstantials in Religion had been ordered with a salvo and due regard and just subsâ—rviency to the power and spirituality of holy Worship the Christian world would have had more Life and strength and fruitfulness and less imagery unholy ludicrous complement and hypocrisie § 23. Direct 9. Let the end and order of your meditations be first for the setling of your judgements Direct 9. and next for the resalving and setling of your wills and thirdly for the reforming and bettering of your lives and but in the fourth place after all these for the raising of your holy passions or lively feeling which must have but its proper room and place But indeed where some of these are done already they may be supposed and we may proceed to that which is yet to do As if you know what is sin and duty but do it not your meditation must be not to make you know what you knew not but first to consider well of what you know and set the powerful truth before you and then labour hereby to bring your wills to a fixed Resolution of obedience But if it be a Truth whose principal use is on the Will and Affections as to draw up the heart to the Love of God by the meditating on his attractive excellencies then the most pains must there be taken Of which see Chap. 3. Direct 11. § 24. Direct 10. Turn your cogitations often into soliloquies methodically and earnestly preaching Direct 10. to your own hearts as you would do on that subject to others if it were to save their souls As this will keep you in order from rambling and running out and will also find you continual matter Of this see the third part of my Saints Rest more fully For method is a wonderful help both to invention memory and delight so it will bring things soonest to your affections An earnest pleading of convincing reasons with our own Hearts is a powerful way to make the fire burn and to kindle desire fear love hatred repentings shame sorrow joy resolution or any good effect Convictions upbraidings expostulations reprehensions and self-perswasions may be very powerful when a dull way of bare thinking is but like a dull way of preaching without any lively application which little stirs the hearers Learn purposely of the liveliest Books you read and of the best and liveliest Preachers you hear to preach to your hearts and use it orderly and you will find it a most powerful way of meditating § 25. Direct 11. Turn your meditations often into ejaculatory prayers and addresses unto God For Direct 11. that will keep you reverent serious and awake and make all the more powerful because the more Divine When you meditate on sin turn sometimes to God by penitent lamentation and say Lord what a wretch and rebell was I to entertain such an enemy of thine into my heart and for nothing to offend thee and violate thy Laws O pardon O cleanse me O strengthen me Conquer and â—ast out this odious enemy of thee and me So when you are seeking to excite or exercise any grace send up a fervent request to God to shew his Love and power upon thy dead and sluggish heart and to be the principal agent in a work which is so much his own Prayer is a most holy duty in which the soul hath so nearly to do with God that if there be any holy seriousness in the heart it will be thus excited A dull and wandring mind will bear some reverence to God and therefore
from the ignorance or unbelief of some of these or not considering and applying them to the cause that is before you Psal. 9. 10. They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee § 4. Direct 2. Know God in Iesus Christ the Mediator and come to him by him And then you Direct 2. may have access with boldness and confidence Ephes. 3. 12. We have boldness to enter into the holiest by his blood by the new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh And having an High Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith Heb. 10. 19 20 21 22. The sight of Christ by faith should banish immoderate fear Matth. 14. 27. Be of good chear it is I be not afraid § 5. Direct 3. Understand the tenour of the Gospel and the freeness of the Covenant of Grace and Direct 3. then you will there find abundant encouragement against the matter of inordinate fears § 6. Direct 4. Employ your selves as much as possible in Love and praise for Love expelleth tormenting Direct 4. fear there is no fear in Love 1 John 4. 18. § 7. Direct 5. Remember Gods particular mercies to your selves for those will perswade you that Direct 5. he will use you kindly when you find that he hath done so already As when Manoah said We shall surely dye because we have seen God his Wife answered If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received an offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things Judg. 13. 22 23. § 8. Direct 6. Labour to clear up your title to the promises and special interest in Christ. Otherwise Direct 6. the doubts of that will be still feeding and justifying your fears § 9. Direct 7. Consider what a horrible injury it is to God to think of him as you do of the Devil Direct 7. as an enemy to humble willing souls and a destroyer of them and an adversary to them that diligently seek him of whom he is a lover and rewarder And so to think of God as Evil and fear him upon Heb. 11. 6. such misapprehensions § 10. Direct 8. Observe the sinfulness of your fear in the effects how it driveth you from God and Direct 8. hindereth faith and love and thankfulness and discourageth you from prayer and Sacraments and all duty And therefore it must needs be pleasing to the Devil and displeasing to God and no way to be pleaded for or justified § 11. Direct 9. Mark how you contradict the endeavours of God in his Word and by his Ministers Direct 9. Do you find God driving any from him and frightning away souls that would fain be his Or doth he not prepare the way himself and reconcile the world to himself in Christ and then send his Embassadors 2 Cor. 5. 19. Luke 14. 17. Matth. 22. 8. in his name and stead to beseech them to be reconciled unto God and to tell them that all things are ready and compell them to come in § 12. Direct 10. Consider how thou wrongest others and keepest them from coming home to God When Direct 10. they see thee terrified in the way of piety they will fly from it as if some enemies or robbers were in the way If you tread fearfully others will fear there is some quicksand If you tremble when you enter the Ship with Christ others will think he is an unfaithful Pilot or that its a leaking Vessel Your fear discourageth them § 13. Direct 11. Remember how remediless as to comfort you leave your selves while you inordinately Direct 11. fear him who alone must comfort you against all your other fears If you fear your Remedy what shall cure the fear of your disease If you fear your meat what shall cure your fear of hunger If you fear him that is most Good and faithful and the friend of every upright soul what shall ease you of your fear of the wicked and the enemies of holy souls If you fear your Father who shall comfort you against your foes You cast away all peace when you make God your terrour § 14. Direct 12. Yet take heed lest under this pretence you cast away the necessary fear of God Direct 12. even such as belongeth to men in your condition to drive them out of their sin and security unto Christ and such as the truth of his threatnings require For a sensless presumption and contempt of God are a sin of a far greater danger Directions against sinful fear of the Devil § 1. Direct 1. Remember that the Devil is chained up and wholly at the will and beck of God He Direct 1. could not touch Iob nor an Ox nor an Ass of his till he had permission from God He cannot appear Job 1. to thee nor hurt thee unless God give him leave § 2. Direct 2. Labour therefore to make sure of the Love of God and then thou art safe Then thou Direct 2. hast God his Love and Promise alwayes to set against the Devil § 3. Direct 3. Remember that Christ hath conquered the Devil in his temptations on the Cross by Direct 3. his Resurrection and Ascension He destroyed through death him that had the power of death even the Devil that he might deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2. 14 15. The Prince of this world is conquered and cast out by him and wilt thou fear a conquered foe § 4. Direct 4. Remember that thou art already delivered from his power and dominion if thou he Direct 4. renewed by the Spirit of God And therefore let his own be afraid of him that are under his power and not the free men and redeemed ones of Christ God hath delivered thee in the day that he converted thee from a thousand fold greater calamity than the seeing of the Devil would be And having been saved from his greatest malice you should not over-fear the less § 5. Direct 5. Remember what an injury it is to God and to Christ that conquered him to fear the Direct 5. Devil while God is your protector any otherwise than as the instrument of Gods displeasure It seemeth as much as to say I fear lest the Devil be too hard for God or lest God cannot deliver me from him § 6. Direct 6. Remember how you honour the Devil by fearing him and pleasure him by thus honouring Direct 6. him And will you not abhor to honour and please such an enemy of God and you This is it that he would have to be feared instead of God He glorieth in it as part of his dominion As Tyrants rejoyce to see men fear them as those that can destroy them when they will so the Devil triumpheth in your fears as his honour When God reprehendeth the
of the world III. If laying the hand on the Book and Kissing it be unlawful for any special matter or manner forbidden more than other significant acts it is for some of the reasons named by you which now I will answer I. Object It savoureth of the Romish superstition Answ. 1. Not at all Prove that if you can 2. Superstition is the feigning of things to be Pleasing or Displeasing to God which are not and using or disusing them accordingly whatever be the Etymologie of the word Superstitum Cultus or supra Statutum c. it is certain that the common use of it among Heathens as Plutark at large and Christians was for an erroneous undue fear of God thinking this or that was displeasing or pleasing to him to be done or to be avoided which was not so but was the conceit of a frightned mistaking mind Therefore to say that God is displeased with this signification of the mind when it is not so nor can be proved is superstition And this is not the solitary instance of Satans introducing superstition under pretense of avoiding superstition 3. The sense of the Law is to be judged of by the Law and by the notorious doctrine and profession of the Law-makers and of the Land which here renounceth the superstitious use of it But I confess I was more afraid that the Papists had too much derogated from the Scripture than given too much to it And they profess that they swear not by a creature Vid. Perer. ubi sup in Gen. 24. 2. Object But Paraeus c. in Gen. 24. 2. saith Non absque superstitione fit cum super crucifixum aut codicem Evangelii digitis impositis juratur ut fit in Papatu Answ. 1. But that same Act which in Papatu is superstitious because of superstitious conceits and ends is not so in all others that have none such 2. It is no new thing to be quick in accusing our adversaries But Paraeus addeth not a syllable of proof And if he had it must have been such as toucht not us or else invalid Object Some good men have scrupled it Answ. 1. Ten thousand to one such have not scrupled it 2. They are not our Gods nor Law 3. The Quakers and the old Anabaptists and they say Origen scrupled yea condemned all swearing or all imposed Oaths And if we avoid all as sin which some good men have scrupled we shall make superstition a great part of our Religion And when on the same grounds we have but practised all as Duty which some good men have taken for Duty we shall quite out-go the Papists He that readeth Beda Boniface and abundance such pious writers will soon see that Godly or Fanatical Religious persons dreams visions strict opinions confident assertions and credulous believing one another with the hope of improving such things against Pagans and Jews for Christianity brought in almost all the Legends and superstitions of the Papists II. Object 2. Our Common-Law Commissions that give authority to examine persons direct it to be Object done super sacramenta sua per sancta Dei evangelia fideliter prestanda And in the form of Administrations in Ecclesiastical Courts the words are Ad sancta Dei Evangelia rite legitime jurati Whether these forms do not infer that in their first use at least persons either swore by the Evangelists or offended in that mode of swearing And our Common-Law calls it a Corporal Oath from touching the Book Answ. 1. To know the sense of our present Law it is not necessary that we know the sense of the Answ. first users of the form For the Law is not now the Kings Law that first made it He hath no Law that hath no Government but the Kings Law that now Reigneth and beareth his sense 2. To justifie our obedience to a Law it is not necessary that we prove every phrase in that Law to be fitly expressed 3. But examine it well and try whether it be not also fit and laudable 1. There are three things conjoyned in the Oaths in question 1. A testimony assertory or a promise 2. An Oath 3. An Imprecation The Assertory Testimony here is the first thing intended and the Oath and Imprecation are but as a means to make that Testimony or Promise valid 2. The published Doctrine of England in the 39. Articles the book of Ordination c. is that the Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to Salvation as being Gods Law or Rule of our Faith and Life All our Duty to God is there commanded All the promises on which we hope are there contained All the punishments which the perjured or any sinner must feel and should fear are there threatned Therefore 3. The Laying on the hand and Kissing the book is an Action directly related to the Imprecation and not to the Oath but only by consequence as the Imprecation is subservient to the Oath as the Oath is to the Assertion So that this is the plain paraphrase of the whole I do believe that God the Ruler of all the world is the Iudge of secrets which are above mans judgement the searcher of hearts and the hater and avenger of perjury according to this his holy word by which he governeth us And to this God I appeal as to the truth of this my testimony consenting my self to lose all the benefit of his promises to the just and to bear all the punishments here threatned to the Perjured if I lie And what could be said more fitly 1. To own the Protestant doctrine that the Scripture is Gods perfect word that the evil to be feared and the good to be hoped for is all there contained and is all the fulfilling of that word 2. And to put the word in its due subordination to God And our ordinary form of swearing sheweth this So help you God and the Contents of this Book Whether you will call this swearing upon or by the Gospel or call it a corporal Oath or a spiritual Oath is only de nomine and is nothing to the matter thus truly described Sacramentum signifieth the Oath it self and Ad sancta evangelia is a fit phrase or if super sacramenta signifie the two Sacraments of the Gospel it can mean no more than As one that by the reception of the Sacrament doth profess to believe this Gospel to be true I do renounce the benefits of it if I lie And in this sense it hath been some mens custom to receive the Sacrament when they would solemnly swear III. Object Some seem to object against kissing the Book as having the greater appearance of giving Object too much to it or putting some adoration on it and because this Ceremony of kissing is held to be of later date than laying on the hand Answ. The Ceremony signifieth that I love and approve the Gospel and place the hope of my salvation Answ. in it And the publick Doctrine of the Kingdom before cited sheweth as a
Charity or Justice is sinful 2. And all deceit that is performed by a lye As Augustine saith There are some lyes which are spoken for anothers safety or commodity not in malice but in benignity as the Midwives to Pharaoh These lyes are not commended in themselves but in the deceit or charity of them They that thus lye will deserve that is be in the way to be at last delivered from all lying There is also a lying in jeast which deceiveth not because he that it is spoken to knoweth it to be spoken in jeast And these two sorts are not faultless but the fault is not great A perfect man must not lye to save his life But it is lawful to silence the truth though not speak falsly In Psal. And in Enchirid he saith Mihi non absurdum c. It seemeth not absurd to me that every lye is a sin But it is a great matter or difference with what mind and in what matters a man lyeth Some think a Physicion may lye to entice his Patient to take a Medicine to save his life He may lawfully deceive him by hiding a Medicine and by true speeches and dark which he thinketh will be misunderstood but not by falshood § 15. Quest. 11. Wherein lyeth the proper vice of lying Is it in deceiving or in speaking falsly Quest. 11. or in speaking contrary to the thoughts Answ. It is the Aggravation of a lye that it be an injurious deceit But the malignity of the sin doth not consist in the meer deceit of another mans intellect For as is said it may be a great benefit to many men to be be deceived A Patients life may be saved by it when his Physicion findeth it necessary to his taking a Medicine which without deceit he will not take And so children and weak-headed people must be used Now such a charitable deceit as such can be no sin Therefore the common nature of a lye consisteth not only in the purpose of deceiving ☜ but in the speaking falsly contrary to the mind Else it would follow either that all deceit is sin or that all lying or false speaking is lawful where the deceit of another is charitable or lawful which are neither of them to be granted Yet is it not every untruth that is a lye Some Schoolmen distinguish between mentiri as being contra mentem ire and mendacium dicere as if to tell a lye were not alwayes to lye because not contrary to the mind But then by mendacium they mean no more than falsum § 16. I conclude then that A Lye is the voluntary asserting of a falshood And the more it What a Lye is tendeth to the injury of another the more it is aggravated but it is one thing to be injurious and another thing to be a lye When I name a falshood I mean that which is apt to deceive the hearer So that it is necessary to the Being of a lye that it be deceitful though the purpose of deceiving be found only in the more explicite sort of lyes For falsum dicitur à fallendo It were not false if it were not deceitful or apt to deceive For an unapt or figurative expression which hath a right sense as used by the speaker and hearer is no falshood In one Language a double negative affirmeth and in another a double negative is a more vehement kind of denyal and yet neither is to be called by the others an untruth By asserting I mean any expression that maketh the falshood our own as distinct from a historical narration For it is not lying to repeat a lye as only telling what another said By Voluntary How sin is Voluntary Tolle voluntatem nec erit discrimen in actu I mean not only that which is done knowingly upon actual will and deliberate choice or consent but also that which is done ex culpa voluntatis by the fault of the will and is to be imputed to the will For it is of great necessity to observe this about every sin that whereas we truly say that all sin is Voluntary and no further sin than Voluntary yet by Voluntary here is not meant only that which is actually willed but all that the will is guilty of For it is true that Austin saith Ream linguam non facit nisi rea mens The tongue is not made guilty but by a guilty mind But then it must be known that the Mind or Will is guilty of forbidden Omissions as well as Actions And so it is a lye or Voluntary untruth when the mind and will do not restrain the tongue from it when they ought As 1. When a man erreth or is ignorant through willful sloth or negligence and so speaketh falsly when he thinks it true this is a culpable falshood and so a lye because he might have avoided it and did not And this is the case of most false Teachers and Hereticks So also if a man will through passion custome or carelesness let his tongue run before his wits and speak falsly for want of considering or heeding what he faith this is a culpable untruth and a lye and it is Voluntary because the will should have prevented it and did not though yet there was no purpose to deceive § 17. You see then that there are two degrees of Lying 1. The grossest is the speaking of a known falshood with a pâ—rpose to deceive 2. The other is the speaking falsly through culpable ignorance errour or inconsiderateness § 18. Direct 1. Be well informed of the evil of the sin of Lying For the common cause of it Direct 1. is that men think that there is no great harm in it unless some one be greatly wronged by it But it is not forbidden by God only because it wrongeth others but it hath all this evil in i◠§ 19. 1. Lying is the perverting of mans noble faculties and turning them clean contrary to their natural use God gave man a tongue to express his mind and reveal the Truth and Lying doth monstrously Verba propterea instituta sunt non ut pâ—r ea se invâ—câ—m bominâ—s fallanâ— sed ut eis quisque in alterius noâ—itiam â—â—gitationes suas pâ—oferat Verbis ergo uti ad fallaciam non ad quod sunt instituta peccatum est Aâ—g Eâ—chi id turn it to the hindering of the mind and truth yea to the venting of the contrary to both And as it is the evil of Drunkenness to be a voluntary madness or corruption of so noble a faculty as Reason so it is the fault of Lying to be the corrupting perverting and deforming both of the mind and tongue and by confusion a destroying of Gods work and creature as to its proper use § 20. 2. Lying is the enemy and destrâ—yer of Truth And Truth is a thing Divine of unspeakable excellency and use It is Gods instrument by which he maketh man wise and good and happy Therefore if he should not make strict
most pernicious confusion into the affairs of mankind Iâ— Truth be excluded men cannot buy and sell and trade and live together It would It was one of the Roman Lawâ— â—aâ— 12. Qui â—aâ—sâ—m tâ—stâ—monium dâ—â—â—â—se convictus erit e saâ—o Taâ—pâ—iâ— dejiciatur be sufficient to destroy their rational converse if they had no tongues But much more to have false tongues Silence openeth not the mind at all Lying openeth it not when it pretendeth to open it and falsly representeth it to be what it is not And therefore though you say that your Lyes do no such hurt yet seeing this is the nature and tendency of Lying as such it is just and merciful in the Righteous God to banish all Lying by the strictest Laws As the whole nature of Serpents is so far at enmity with the nature of man that we hate and kill them though they never did hurt us because it is in their nature to hurt us so God hath justly and mercifully condemned all lying because it 's nature tendeth to the desolation and confusion of the World and if any indulgence were given to it all iniquity and injustice would presently like an inundation overwhelm us all § 25. 7. Lying tendeth directly to perjury it self It is the same God that forbiddeth them both And when once the heart is hardened in the one it is but a step further to the other Cicero could observe that He that is used to lye will easily be perjured A sâ—ared Conscience that tollerateth one will easily be brought to bear the other § 26. 8. There is a partiality in the Lyar that condemneth himself and the sin in another which in himself he justifieth For there is no man that would have another lye to him As Austin saith Hic autem homâ—nes fallunâ— falluntur Misericres suâ—t cum mentiendo fallunt quam cum mentientibus credendo falluntur Uâ—que adeo tamen rationalis natura refugit falsitatem quantum potest devitat errorem ut falli nolint etiam quicunque amant fallere August Enchyrid c. 17. I have known many that would deceive but never any that would be deceived If it be good why should not all others lye to thee If it be bad why wilt thou lye to others Is not thy tongue under the same Law as theirs Dost thou like it in thy Children and in thy Servants If not it should seem much worse to thee in thy self as thou art most concerned in thy own actions § 27. 9. Iudge what lying is by thy own desire and expectation to be believed Wouldst thou not have men believe thee whether thou speak truth or not I know thou wouldst For the Lyar loseth his end if he be known to lye and be not believed And is it a reasonable desire or expectation in thee to have men to believe a Lye If thou wouldst be believed speak that which is to be believed § 28. 10. Lying maketh thee to be always incredible and so to be useless or dangerous to others For he that will lye doth leave men uncertain whether ever he speak truth unless there be better Evidence of it than his credibility As Aristotle saith A Lyar gets this by Lying that no body will believe him when he speaks the truth How shall I know that he speaketh true to day who lyed yesterday unless open Repentance recover his credibility Truth will defend it self and credit him that owneth it at last But falshood is indefensible and will shame its Patrons Saith Petrarch excellently Petrarâ—h l 1. de vit solit As Truth is immortal so a fiction and lye endureth not long Dissembled matters are quickly opened as the hair that is combed and set with great diligence is ruffled with a little blast of wind and the paint that is laid on the face with a deal of labour is washed off with a little sweat the craftyest lye cannot stand before the truth but is transparent to him that neerly looketh into it every thing that is covered is soon uncovered shadows pass away and the native colour of things remaineth It is a great labour to keep hidden long No man can long live under water he must needs come forth and shew the face which he concealed At the farthest God in the day of judgement will lay open all § 29. Direct 2. If you would avoid lying take heed of guilt Unclean bodies need a cover Direct 2. and are most ashamed to be seen Faultiness causeth Lying and Lying increaseth the fault When Sâ—epe delinquentibus promptissimum est mentiri Ciâ—â—r men have done that which they are afraid or ashamed to make known they think there is a necessity of using their art to keep it secret But wit and craft is no good substitute for honesty such patches make the rent much worse But because the corrupted heart of man will be thus working and flying to deceitful shifts prevent the cause and occasion of your lying Commit not the fault that needs a lye Avoiding it is much better than hiding it if you were sure to keep it never so close As indeed you are not for commonly truth will come to light It is the best way in the World to avoid lying to be innocent and do nothing which doth fear the light Truth and honesty do not blush nor desire to be hid Children and Servants are much addicted to this crime when their folly or wantonness or appetites or slothfulness or carelesness hath made them faulty they presently study a lye to hide it with which is to go to the Devil to intreat him to defend or cover his own works But wise and obedient and careful and diligent and conscionable Children and Servants have need of no such miserable shifts § 30. Direct 3. Fear God more than man if you would not be Lyars The excessive fear of man Direct 3. is a common cause of Lying This maketh Children so apt to lye to escape the rod and most persons Iâ—â—e veâ—â—tatâ—â— Defeâ—â—or esse debeâ— quâ— cum râ—cteâ—â—â—â—ntâ— loquâ— non metuâ—t nec erubeâ—â—â—â—t Ambâ— â—yarâ— are â—aliant against God cowardâ— against men Montaâ—â—a â—sâ— that are obnoxious to much hurt from others are in danger of Lying to avoid their displeasure But why fear you not God more whose displeasure is unspeakably more terrible Your Parents or Master will be angry and threaten to correct you But God threatneth to damn you and his wrath is a consuming fire No mans displeasure can reach your souls and extend to eternity will you run into Hell to escape punishment on Earth Remember whenever you are tempted to escape any danger by a lye that you run into a thousand fold greater danger and that no hurt that you escape by it can possibly be half so great as the hurt it bringeth It 's as foolish a course as to cure the tooth-ach by cutting off the head § 31. Direct 4. Get down your Pride and overmuch regard
of the thoughts of men if you would not be lyars Pride makes men so desirous of reputation and so impatient of the hard opinion of others that all the honest endeavours of the Proud are too little to procure the reputation they desire and Direct 4. therefore Lying must make up the rest Shame is so intolerable a suffering to them that they make lyes the familiar cover of their nakedness He that hath not Riches hath Pride and would be thought some body and therefore will set out his estate by a lye He that hath not eminency of Parentage and Birth if he have Pride will make himself a Gentleman by a lye He that is a contemptible person at home if he be Proud will make himself honourable among strangers by a lye He that wanteth Learning Degrees or any thing that he would be proud of will endeavour by a lye to supply his wants Even as wanton Women by the actual lye of Painting would make themselves Beautiful through a proud desire to be esteemed Especially he that committeth a shameful crime if he be Proud will rather venture on a lye than on the shame But if your Pride be cured your temptation to lying will be as nothing You will be so indifferent in matters of honour or reputation as not to venture your souls on Gods displeasure for it Not that any should be impudent Avoid both the extreams which Pâ—tâ—ach mâ—ntiâ—neth Nam ut multi qui se bonos â—ic aâ—â—quâ— qui se malos fingeâ—enâ— sunt reperti quod vel humani favoris pâ—stilentem auram vel invisam bonorum temporalium sarcinam declinâ—rent Quod de Ambrosio lectum est Quam similis amiciuae aduâ—atio non imitatur tanâ—um â—â—â—â—am sed vincit eo ipso gratiosos facit quo laed t. Sâ—â—ec or utterly regardless of their reputation But none should over-value it nor prefer it before their souls nor seek it by unlawful means Avoid shame by well-dâ—ing and spare not Only see that you have a higher end Seneca saith There are more that abstain from sin through shame than through virtue or a good will It 's well when virtue is so much in credit and vice in discredit that those that have not the virtue would fain have the name and those that will not leave the vice would scâ—pe the shame And it 's well that there are humane motives to restrain them that care not for Divine ones But as humane motives cause no saving virtues so devillish and wicked means are far from preventing any pernicious hurt being the certain means to procure it § 32. Direct 5. Avoid Ambition and humane unnecessary dependance if you would avoid lying Direct 5. For the ambitious give up themselves to men and therefore flattering must be their trade And how much of lying is necessary to the composition of flattery I need not tell you Truth is seldom taken for the fittest instrument of flattery It 's contrarily the common road to hatred Libere sine adulatione veritatem praedicantes gesta pravae vitae arguentes gratiam non habent apud homines saith Ambros. They that Preach Truth freely and without flattery and reprove the deeds of a wicked Hieâ—oâ— iâ— Gal 4. life find not favour with men Veritatem semper inimicitiae persequuntur Hatred is the shadow of Truth as envy is of Happiness When Aristippus was asked why Dionysius spake so much against him he answered for the same reason that all other men do Intimating that it was no wonder if the Tyrant was impatient of Truth and plain dealing when it is so with almost all mankind They are so culpable that all but flatterers seem to handle them too hard and hurt their sores Cujus aures clausae veritati sunt ut ab aâ—â—â—â—o verum auâ—ire nequeat hujuâ— salus despeâ—anda est Ci â—â— â—hâ—t li 1. Nâ—mo parasitum caâ—um amaâ— Materia quoque fâ—ngendi tempore conseâ—esâ—â—t Athâ—â—â—â—â—s Malum hominem â—landiloquâ—ntâ—m agâ—â—sce tuum laqueum esse Habâ—t suum venenum blanda Oraâ—â—o Sâ—â—ec And herein lyeth much of the misery of Great men that few or none deal truly with them but they are flattered into perdition Saith Seneca Divites cum omnia habent unum illis deest scilicet qui verum dicat si enim in clientelam foelicis hominis potentumque perveneris aut veritas aut amicitia perdenda est One thing Rich men want when they have all things that is a man to speak the truth For if thou become the dependant or client of prosperous or great men thou must cast away or lose either the Truth or their friendship Hierome thought that therefore Christ had not a house to put his head in because he would flatter no body and therefore no body would entertain him in the City And the worst of all is that where flattery reigneth it is taken for a duty and the neglect of it for a vice As Hieron ad Cel. saith Quodque gravissimum est quia humilitatis aâ— benevolentiae loco ducitur ita fit utqui adulari nescit aut invidus aut superbus reputetur i. e. And which is most grievous because it goes for humility and kindness it comes to pass that he that cannot flatter is taken to be envious or proud But the time will come that the flatterer will be hated even by him that his fallacious praises pleased Deceit and lyes do please the flattered person but a while even till he find the bitterness of the effects and the fruit have told him that it was but a sugered kind of enmity And therefore he will not be long pleased with the flatterer himself Flattery ever appeareth at last to be but perniciosa dulcedo as Austin calls it Saith the same Austin in Psal. 59. There are two sorts of persecutors the opposer or dispraiser and the flatterer but the tongue of the flatterer hurteth more than the hand of the persecuter And think not that any mans Prov. 12. 19. greatness or favour will excuse thee or save thee harmless in thy lyes for God that avengeth them is greater than the greatest Saith Austin li. de mendac Quisquis autem esse aliquod genus mendacii quod peccatum non sit putaverit decipiet semetipsum turpiter cum honestum se deceptorem arbitretur aliorum i. e. whoever thinks that there is any kind of lye that is no sin he deceiveth himself fouly whilest he thinks himself an honest deciever of others Be not the servants of men if you would be true 1 Cor. 7. 23. § 33. Direct 5. Love not Covetousness if you would not be lyars A lye will seem to a Covetous Direct 6. man an easie means to procure his gain to get a good bargain or put off a crackt commodity for Read Prov. 21. 6. more than it is worth Rupêre foedus impius luâ—ri furor ira praeceps Sen. Hip. He that loveth money better than God and Conscience will
for money displease God and Conscience by this or any other sin § 34. Direct 7. Learn to trust God if you would not be lyars For lying is the practice of him Direct 7. that thinks he must provide and shift for himself Even Abraham's and Isaac's equivocation saying Ier. 7. 4 8. their Wives were their Sisters and Davids feigning himself mad proceeded from some distrust in God They would not have thought it necessary so to shift for their lives if they had fully trusted God with their lives Gehezi's Covetousness and lying did both proceed from a want of confidence in God If a man were confident of Gods Protection and that he had better stand to Gods choice in all things than his own what use could he think he hath for lying or for any sinful shift § 35. Direct 8. Be not too credulous of bad reports if you would not be lyars Malice is so mad Direct 8. and so unconscionable a sin and the tongues of men are commonly so careless of what they say that if you easily believe evil you do but easily believe the Devil and thereby make your selves his servants in divulging malicious lyes You think because they are spoken by many and spoken confidently you may lawfully believe or report what you hear But this is but to think that the Commonness of Lyars and their malice and impudence will warrant you to follow them even because they are so bad Will you bâ—rk and bite because that Dogs do so If a man be stung with Temere affirmare de altero est periculosum propter occultas homâ—num voluntates multiplicesque naturas Ci. er Prov. 17 4. Hos. 7 3. Nah. 3. 1. an Adder you should help to cure him and not desire your selves to sting him selfish and interessed and malicious and partial factious persons are so commonly lyars and impudent in their lyes that it behoveth you if you would not be lyars your selves to take heed of reporting any thing they say These Spiders will weave a Web of the Air or out of their own bowels § 36. Direct 9. Be not rash in speaking things before you have tryed them Consider what you say Direct 9. and know before you speak Is it not a shame when you have spoken falsly to come off with saying I thought it had been true But why will you speak upon thought and not stay till you better understood the case If the matter required such haste in speaking you should have said no more than I think it is so Prove all things and then hold that which is good and assert that which is true Saith Cicero de Nat. Deor. l. 1. Nihil est temeritate turpius nec quiâ—quam tam indiguum sapientis gravitate aut Insignis est temeritas cum aut falsa aut incognita â—es approbatur Nec quicquam est turpius quam cognitioni assertionem approbationemque praecurrere Cicer. Acad. l. â— constantiâ quam aut falsum sentire aut quod non satis explorate perceptum sit cognitum sine ulla dubitatione defendere Nothing is more unseemly than temerity nor any thing so unworthy the gravity or constancy of a wise man than either to hold a falshood or confidently to defend that which is not received and known upon sufficient tryal § 37. Direct 10. Foresee that which is like to intrap you in a lye that you may prevent it Let not Direct 10. the occasion and temptation surprize you unprepared Foresight will make the temptation easie to be overcome which unforeseen will be too strong for you § 38. Direct 11. Get a tender Conscience and walk as in the sight and hearing of God and as one Direct 11. that is passing to his judgement A feared Conscience dare venture upon lyes or any thing but the Act. 5. 4. â—sa 59. 13. Ezek. 13. 9. 19. fear of God is the souls preservative What makes men lye but thinking they have to do with none but men For they think by a lye to deceive a man and hide the truth But if they remembred that they have most to do with God and that he is always present who cannot be deceived and that his judgment will bring all secret things to light and detect all their lyes before all the world they would not hire a torn and dirty Cloak at so dear a rate for so short a time No wonder if men are lyars that fear not God and believe not the day of judgement § 39. Direct 12. To save others from lying as well as your selves be sure to watch against it in Direct 12. your Children and wisely help them to see the evil of it For Children are very prone to it and unwise correction frightneth them into lyes to save themselves as indulgence and connivence doth encourage them to it Make them oft read such Texts as these Lev. 19. 11. Ye shall not steal nor deal falsly nor lye one to another Psal. 15. 2. He that speaketh the truth from his heart c. Isa. 63. 8. He Prov. 17 7. Hos 4. 8. said surely they are my people Children that will not lye so he was their Saviour Ioh. 8. 44. The Devil is a lyar and the father of it Rev. 21. 27. 22. 15. There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth or maketh a lye For without are dogs and whoever loveth and maketh a lye Psal. 63. 11. The mouth of him that speaketh lyes shall be stopped Psal. 101. 11. He that speaketh lyes shall not tarry in my sight Prov. 19. 5 9. A false witness shall not be unpunished and he that speaketh lyes shall not escape shall perish 9. Prov. 29. 12. If a Ruler hearken to lyes all his servants are wicked So Psal. 31. 18. 52. 3. Psal. 119. 163. I hate and abhor lying but thy Law do I love Prov. 13. 5. A righteous man hateth lying Ephes. 4. 25. Wherefore putting away lying speak every man truth with his neighbour for we are members one of another q. d. A man would not lye to deceive his own members no more should we to deceive one another In a word where the Love of God and man prevaileth there truth prevaileth but where self-love partiality and carnal self-interest prevail there lying is a houshold servant and thought a necessary means to these ends But because Lying is so common and so great a sin and many cases occur about it daily though I think what is said offereth matter enough to answer them I shall mention some more of them distinctly to help their satisfaction who cannot accommodate general answers to all their particular cases Quest. 1. Is frequent known lying a certain sign of a graceless state that is a mortal sin proving the Quest. 1. sinner to be in a state of damnation Answ. The difficulty of this case doth no more concern Lying than any other sin of equal malignity Therefore I must refer you to
genuine 1. There is a zeal and activity meerly Natural which is the effect of an active temperature of body 2. There is an affected zeal which is hypocritical about things that are good when men speak and make an outward stir as if they were truly zealous when it is not so 3. There is a selfish zeal when a proud and selfish person is fervent in any matter that concerneth himself for his own opinions his own honour his own estate or friends or interest or any thing that is his own 4. There is a partial factioâ—s zeal when errour or pride or worldliness hath engaged men in a party and they think it is their duty or interest at least to side with the Sect or Faction which they have chosen they will be zealous for all the Mat. 23. 15. Opinions and wayes of their espoused Party 5. There is a superstitious Childish carnal zeal for small indifferent inconsiderable things Like that of the Pharisees and all such hypocrites for their Washings and Fastings and other ceremonious Observances 6. There is an envious malicious zeal against those that have the precedency and cross your desires or cloud your honour in the World or that contradict you in your conceits and ways such is that at large described Iam. 3. 7. There is a pievish contentious wrangling zeal that is assaulting every man who is not squared just to your conceits 8. There is a malignant zeal against the Cause and Servants of the Lord which carryeth men to persecute them See that you take not any of these or any such like for holy zeal § 3. If you should so mistake these mischiefs would ensue 1. Sinful zeal doth make men The mischiefs of false zeal doubly sinful As holy zeal is the fervency of our grace so sinful zeal is the intention and fervency of sin 2. It is an honouring of sin and Satan as if sin were a work and Satan a Master worthy to be fervently and diligently followed 3. It is the most effectual violent way of sinning making men do much evil in a little time and making them more mischievous and hurtful to others than other sinners are 4. It blindeth the judgement and maketh men take truth for falshood and good for evil and disableth Reason to do its office 5. It is the violent resister of all Gods means and teacheth men to rage against the truth that should convince them It stops mens ears and turns away their hearts from the Counsel which would do them good 6. It is the most furious and bloody persecutor of the Saints and Church of Jesus Christ It made Paul once exceeding mad against them Act. 26. 10 11. and shut them up in Prison and punish them in the Synagogues See Jam. 3. and câ—mpel them to blaspheam and persecute them even unto strange Cities and vote for their death Thus concerning zeal he persecuted the Church Phil. 4. 6. 7. It is the turbulent disquieter of all Societies A destroyer of Love a breeder and fomenter of contention and an enemy to order peace and quietness 8. It highly dishonoureth God by presuming to put his name to sin and errour and Rom. 10. 2. Act. 21. 20 22. to entitle him to all the wickedness it doth Such zealous sinners commit their sin as in the Name of God and fight against him ignorantly by his own pretended or abused authority 9. It is an impenitent way of sinning The zealous sinner justifieth his sin and pleadeth reason or Scripture for it and thinketh that he doth well yea that he is serving God when he is murdering his Servants Ioh. 16. 2. 10. It is a multiplying sin and maketh men exceeding desirous to have all others of the sinners mind The zealous sinner doth make as many sin with him as he can Yea if it be but a zeal for small and useless things or about small Controversies or Opinions in Religion 1. It sheweth a mind that 's lâ—mentably strange to the tenour of the Gospel and the mind of Christ and the practice of the great substantial things 2. It destroyeth Charity and peace and breedeth censuring and abusing others 3. It dishonoureth holy zeal by accident making the prophane think that all zeal is no better than the foolish passion of deceived men 4. And it disableth the persons that have it to do good even when they are zealous for holy truth and duty the people will think it is but of the same nature with their erroneous zeal and so will disregard them § 4. The signs of holy zeal are these 1. It is guided by a right Judgement It is a zeal for The signs of holy zeal Truth and Good and not for falshood and Evil Rom. 10. 2. 2. It is for God and his Church or cause and not only for our selves It consisteth with meekness and self-denyal and patience as to our own concernments and causeth us to prefer the interest of God before our own Numb 12. 3. Exod. 32. 19. Gal. 4. 12. Act. 13. 9 12. 3. It is always more careful of the substance than the circumstances It preferreth great things before small It contendeth not for small Controversies to Mat. 23. 22 23. Tit. 2. 14. the loss or wrong of greater truths It extendeth to every known truth and duty but in due proportion being hottest in the greatest things and coolest in the least It maketh men rather zealous of good works than of their controverted Opinions 4. Holy Zeal is alway charitable It is not cruel 2 Pet. 2. 7 8. â—â—â—â—k 9. 4. 1 Cor. 5. and bloody nor of a hurting disposition Luk. 9. 55. but is tender and merciful and maketh men burn with a desire to win and save mens souls rather than to hurt their bodies 1 Cor. 13. Zeal against the sin is conjunct with Love and pity to the sinner 2 Cor. 12. 21. 5. Yet it excludeth that foolish pity which cherisheth the sin Rev. 2. 2. 1 King 15. 13. 6. True zeal is tender of the Churches Unity and Peace It is not a dividing tearing zeal It is first pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits Jam. 3. 17. 7. True zeal is impartial and is Gâ—n 38. 24. 2 Sam. 12. 5. as hot against our own sins and our Childrens and other relations sins as against anothers Mat. 7. 4. 8. True zeal respecteth all Gods Commandments and is not hot for one and contemptuous of another It aimeth at perfection and stinteth not our desires to any lower degree It maketh a man desirous to be like to God even Holy as he is Holy It consisteth principally in the fervour of our Love to God when false Zeal consisteth principally in censorious wranglings against other mens actions or opinions It first worketh towards good and then riseth up against the hindering-evil 9. It maketh 2 Cor. 8. 3. Act 18. 25. Exod. 36. 6. a man laborious in holy duty to God and diligent in
sin and misery of Cain and take warning by him Give place to others and in honour prefer others and seek not to be preferred before them Rom. 12. 10 16. God delighteth to exalt the humble that abase themselves and to cast down those that exalt themselves When the interest of your flesh can make you hate or fall out with each other what a fearful sign is it of a fleshly mind Rom. 8. 6 13. § 2. Direct 2. Take heed of using provoking words against each other For these are the bellows Direct 3. to blow up that which the Apostle calleth the fire of Hell Jam. 3. 6. A foul tongue setteth on fire the course of nature and therefore it may set a family on fire Jam. 3. 5 6. Where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work V. 15 16. If ye be angry refrain your tongues and sin not and let not the Sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the Devil Ephes. 4. 26 27. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Ephes. 4. 31 32. Revilers shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 10. § 3. Direct 3. Help one another with love and willingness in your labours and do not grudge at Direct 4. one another and say such a one doth less than I but be as ready to help another as you would be helpt your selves It is very amiable to see a family of such children and servants that all take one anothers concernments as their own and are not selfish against each other Psal. 133. 1. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity c. § 4. Direct 4. Take heed that you prove not Tempters to draw each other to sin and misery Either Direct 5. by joyning together in ryotousness or wronging your Masters or secret revelling and then in lying to conceal it Or lest immodest familiarity draw those of different sexes into a snare Abundance of sin and misery hath followed such tempting familiarity of men and maids that were fellow servants Their nearness giveth them opportunity and the Devil provoketh them to take their opportunity and from immodest wanton dalliance and unchaste words they proceed at last to more lasciviousness to their own undoing Bring not the straw to the fire if you would not have it burn § 5. Direct 5. Watch over one another for mutual preservation against the sin and temptations which Direct 6. you are most in danger of Agree to tell each other of your faults not proudly or passionately but in love and resolve to take it thankfully from each other If any one talk foolishly and idly or wantonly and immodestly or tell a lye or take Gods name in vain or neglect their duty to God or man or deal unfaithfully in their trust or labour let the other seriously tell him of his sin and call him to repentance And let not him that is guilty take it ill and angrily snap at the reprover or justifie or excuse the fault or hit him presently in the teeth with his own but humbly thank him and promise amendment O how happy might servants be if they would faithfully watch over one another § 6. Direct 6. When you are together and your work will allow it let your discourse be such as Direct 7. tendeth to edification and to the spiritual good of the speaker or the hearers Some work there is that must be thought on and talked of while it is doing and will not allow you leisure to think or speak of other things till it is done But very much of the work of most servants may be as well done though they think and speak together of heavenly things besides all other times when their work is over O take this time to be speaking of good to one another It is like that some one of you hath more knowledge than the rest Let the rest be asking his counsel and instructions and let him bend himself to do them good Or if you are equal in knowledge yet stir up the grace that is in you if you have any or stir up your desires after it if you have none Waste not your pretious time in vanity Multiply not the sin of idle words O what a load doth lye on many a soul that feeleth it not in the guilt of these two sins Lâ—ss of time and idle words To be guilty of the same sins over and over every day and make a constant practice of them and this against your own knowledge and conscience is a more grievous case than many think of Whereas if you would live together as the heirs of Heaven and provoke one another to the Love of God and holy duty and delightfully talk of the Word of God and the life to come what blessings might you be to one another and your service and labour would be a sanctified and comfortable life to you all Ephes. 4. 29 30. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying and may minister grace to the hearers and grieve not the holy Spirit of God 5. 3 4. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness or rather inordinate fleshly desire let it not be once named among you as becometh Saints neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jeasting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks Of this more anon § 7. Direct 7. Patiently bear with the failings of one another towards your selves and hide those Direct 7. faults the opening of which will do no good but stir up strife But conceal not those faults which will be cherished by concealment or whose concealment tendeth to the wrong of your Master or any other For it is in your power to forgive a fault against your selves but not against God or another And to know when you should reveal it and when not you must wisely fore-know which way is like to do more good or harm And if yet you be in doubt open it first to some secret friend that is wise to advise you whether it should be further opened or not § 8. Direct 8. If weakness or sickness or want afflict a Brother or Sister or fellow-servant be Direct 8. kind and helpful to them according to your power Love not in word only but in dead and truth 1 John 3. 18. Jam 2. CHAP. XVI Directions for holy Conference of Fellow-servants or others BEcause this is a duty so frequently to be performed and therefore the peace and edification of Christians is very much concerned in it I shall give a few brief Directions about it § 1. Direct 1. Labour most for a full and lively heart which hath the feeling of those things Direct 1. which your tongues should
of God you will easily be assured that you love them When you strongly hate sin and live in universal constant obedience you will easily discern your Repentance and obedience But weak grace will have but weak assurance and little consolation § 12. Direct 3. Set your selves with all your skill and diligence to destroy every sin of heart Direct 3. and life and make it your principal eare and business to do your duty and please and honour God in your place and to do all the good you can in the world and trust God with your souls as long as you wait upon him in his way If you live in wilful sin and negligence be not unwilling to be reproved and delivered If you cherish your sensual fleshly lusts and set your hearts too eagerly on the world or defend your unpeaceableness and passion or neglect your known duty to God or man and make no Conscience of a true reformation it is not any enquiries after signes of grace that will help you to assurance You may complain long enough before you have case while such a thorn is in your foot Conscience must be better used before it will speak a word of sound well grounded peace to you But when you set your selves with all your care and skill to do your Duties and please your Lord he will not let your labour be in vain He will take care of your peace and comfort while you take care of your duty And in this way you may boldly trust him Only think not hardly and falsly of the Goodness of that God whom you study to serve and please § 13. Direct 4. Be sure whatever condition you are in that you understand and hold fast and Direct 4. improve the General grounds of Comfort which are common to mankind so far as they are made known to them and they are three which are the Foundation of all our comfort 1. The Goodness and Mercifulness of God in his very Nature 2. The sufficiency of the satisfaction or sacrifice of Christ. 3. The universality and freeness and sureness of the Covenant or promise of pardon and salvation to all that by final impenitence and unbelief do not continue obstinately to reject it or to all that unfeignedly Repent and Believe 1. Think not meanly and poorly of the infinite Goodness of God Psal. 103 8 11 17. 89. 2. 86. 5 15. 25. 10. 119. 64. 138. 8. 1â—6 5. Even to Moses he proclaimeth his name at the second delivery of the Law The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin Exod. 34. 6 7. His mercy is over all his works It is great and reacheth to the Heavens It is firm and endureth for ever And he hath pleasure in those that hope in his mercy Psal. 147. 11. 100. 5. 33. 18. 57. 10. 108. 4. 2. Extenuate not the Merits and Sacrifice of Christ but know that never man was damned for want of a Christ to dye and be a sacrifice for his sin but only for want of Repentance and faith in him Ioh. 3. 16. 3. Deny not the universality of the conditional promise of pardon and salvation to all that it is offered to and will accept it on the offerers terms And if you do but feel these three foundations firm and stedfast under you it will encourage every willing soul. The Love of God was the cause of our Redemption by Christ Redemption was the foundation of the Promise or new Covenant And he that buildeth on this threefold foundation is safe § 14. Direct 5. When you come to try your particular Title to the blessings of the Covenant be Direct 5. sure that you well understand the condition of the Covenant and look for the performance of that condition in your selves as the infallible Evidence of your title And know that the condition is nothing but an unfeigned Consent unto the Covenant Or such a Belief of the Gospel as makeeth you truly willing of all the mercies offered in the Gospel and of the Duties required in order to those mercies And That nothing depriveth any man that heareth the Gospel of Christ and pardon and salvation but obstinate unwillingness or refusal of the mercy and the necessary annexed duties Understand this well and then peruse the Covenant of Grace which is but to take God for your God and Happiness your Father your Saviour and your Sanctifier and then ask your hearts whether here be any thing that you are unwilling of and unwilling of in a prevailing degree when it is greater than your willingness And if truly you are willing to be in Covenant with your God and Saviour and Sanctifier upon these terms know that your Consent or Willingness or Acceptance of the mercy offered you is your true performance of the Condition of your title and consequently the infallible evidence of your title even as Marriage Consent is a title-condition to the person and priviledges And therefore if you find this your doubts are answered You have found as good an evidence as Scripture doth acquaint us with And if this will not quiet and satisfie you you understand not the business nor is it Reason or Evidence that can satisfie you till you are better prepared to understand them But if really you are unwilling and will not consent to the terms of the Covenant then instead of doubting be past doubt that you are yet unsanctified And your work is presently to consider better of the terms and benefits and of those unreasonable reasons that make you unwilling till you see that your happiness lyeth upon the business and that you have all the reason in the world to make you willing and no true Reason for the withholding of your Consent And when the light of these considerations hath prevailed for your Consent the match is made and your Evidence is sure § 15. Direct 6. Iudge not of your hearts and Evidences upon every sudden glance or feeling Direct 6. but upon a sober deliberate examination when your minds are in a clear composed frame And as then you find your selves record the judgement or discovery and believe not every sudden inconsiderate appearance or passionate fear against that Record Otherwise you will never be quiet or resolved but carryed up and down by present sense The case is weighty and not to be decided by a sudden aspect nor by a scattered or a discomposed mind If you call your unprovided or your distempered understandings suddenly to so great a work no wonder if you are deceived You must not judge of colours when your eye is blood-shotten or when you look through a coloured Glass or when the object is far off It is like casting up a long and difficult account which must be done deliberately as a work of time and when it is so done and the summs
conference or meditation or reading or hearing as formerly they had But though they are as much as ever Resolved for God against sin and Vanity yet they are colder and duller and have less zeal and fervency and delight in holy exercises 4. When age or weakness or melancholy hath decayed or confounded their Imaginations and ravelled their Thoughts so that they cannot order them and command them as formerly they could 5. And when age or melancholy hath weakened their parts and gifts so that they are of flower understandings and unabler in prayer or preaching or conference to express themselves than heretofore All these are but bodily changes and such hinderances of the soul as depend thereon and not to be taken for signs of a soul that declineth in holiness and is less accepted of God § 18. Direct 2. When you know the Marks of a Backslider come into the light and be willing to Direct 2. know your selves whether this be your condition or not and do not foolishly cover your disease Enquire whether it be with you as in former times when the light of God did shine upon you and you delighted in his wayes when you hated sin and loved holiness and were glad of the company of the heirs of life when the Word of God was pleasant to you and when you poured out your souls to him in prayer and thanksgivings When you were glad of the Lords day and were quickned and confirmed under the teaching and exhortation of his Ministers when you took worldly wealth and pleasures as childish toyes and fooleries in comparison of the contents of holy souls when you hungred and thirsted after Christ and righteousness and had rather have been in Heaven to enjoy your God and be free from sinning than to enjoy all the pleasures and prosperity of this World And when it was your daily business to prepare for death and to live in expectation of the everlasting Rest which Christ hath promised If this were once your case enquire whether it be so still or what alterations are made upon your hearts and lives § 19. Direct 3. If you find your selves in a Backsliding case by all means endeavour the awakening of your souls by the serious consideration of the danger and misery of such a state To which end I shall here set some such awakening thoughts before you For security is your greatest danger § 20. 1. Consider that to fall back from God was the sin of the Devils They are Angels that Direct 3. kept not their first estate but left their own habitations and are now reserved in chains under darkness to the judgement of the great day Jud. 6. And shall they entise you into their own condemnation § 21. 1. It was the sin of our first Parents Adam and Eve to revolt from God and lose their holiness And is there any sin that we should more carefully avoid than that which all the world hath so much suffered by Every one of the Creatures that you look on and every pain and misery you feel doth mind you of that sin and and call to you to take heed by the warning of your first Parents that you suffer not your hearts to be drawn from God § 22. 3. It is a part of Hell that you are choosing upon earth Depart from me ye cursed is the sentence on the damned Matth. 25. 41. 7. 23. And will you damn your selves by departing from God and that when he calleth you and obligeth you to him To be separated from God is one half the misery of the damned § 23. 4. You are drawing back toward the case that you were in in the dayes of your unconverted state And what a state of darkness and folly and delusion and sin and misery was that Iâ— it were good or tolerable why turned you from it and why did you so lament it and why did you so earnestly cry out for deliverance But if it were as bad as you then apprehended it to be why do you again turn towards it Would you be again in the case you were would you perish in it or would you have all those heart-breakings and terrours to pass through again May I not say to you as Paul to the Galatians O foolish sinners who hath bewitched you that you are so soon turned back who have seen that of sin and of God and of Christ and of Heaven and of Hell as you have done Gal. 3. 1 2 3 4. § 24. 5. Yea it is a far more doleful state that you are drawing towards than that which you were in before For the guilt of an Apostate is much greater than if he had never known the truth And his recovery is more difficult and of smaller hope Because he is twice dead and pluckt up by the root Jud. 12. 2 Pet. 2. 20 21 22. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ they are again entangled therein and overcome the later end is worse with them than the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment delivered unto them But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb The Dog is turned to his own vomit again and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Heb. 10. 26 27. For if we sin wilfully by Apostacy after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries I know this speaketh only of total apostacy from Christ such being worthy of fâ—r sorer punishment than he that despised Moses Law v. 28 29. But it is a terrible thing to draw towards so desperate a state A habit is easier introduced upon a negation than a privation in him that never had it than in him that hath totally lost it § 25. 6. What abundance of Experience do you sin against in your Backsliding You have had experience of the evil of sin and of the smart of repentance and of the deceitfulness of all that can be said for sinning and of the goodness of God and of the safety and sweetness of Religion And will you sin against so great experience If your horse fall once into a quicksand he will scarce be forced into it again And will you be less wise § 26. 7. What abundance of promises and Covenants which you have made to God do you violate in your backsliding How often in your fears and dangers and sicknesses at Sacraments and dayes of humiliation have you bound your selves afresh to God! And will you forget all these and sin against them § 27. 8. By what multitudes of mercies hath God obliged you mercies before your repentance and mercies that drew you to repent and mercies since How mercifully hath he kept
been truly taught that to deny our foundations is the horrid crime of Infidelity And therefore because it is so horrid a crime to deny or question them we thought we need not study to prove them And so most have taken their Foundation upon trust and indeed are scarce able to bear the tryal of it and have spent their dayes about the superstructure and in learning to prove the controverted less necessary points Insomuch that I fear there are more that are able to prove the points which an Antinomian or an Anabaptist do deny than to prove the immortality of the soul or the truth of Scripture or Christianity and to dispute about a Ceremony or form of prayer or Church-government than to dispute for Christ against an Infidel So that their work is prepared to their hands and it is no great victory to overcome such â—aw unsetled souls § 2. Direct 2. Get every sacred Truth which you believe into your very hearts and lives and Direct 2. see that all be digested into Holy Love and Practice When your food is turned into vital nuâ—â—iment into flesh and blood it is not cast up by every thing that maketh you sick and turneth your stomachs as it may be before it is concocted distributed and incorporated Truth that is but barely known is but like meat that is undigested in the stomach But Truth which is turned into the Lâ—ve of God and of a holy life is turned into a new nature and will not so easily be let go § 3. Direct 3. Take heed of Doctrines of presumption and security and take heed lest you fall Direct 3. away by thinking it so impossible to fall away that you are past all danger The Covenant of Vâ—â—tu â—â—â—â— Chrysippus â—â—â—â—â—â—â—ossâ— â—leaâ— hâ—â—â—â—â—â— nâ—n â—â—â—â—se aâ—â—â—â—e posse aâ—â—â—â—â— pâ—r 〈◊〉 aâ—ram bâ—â—em 〈…〉 posse o 〈…〉 aâ— stabâ—es comprehension â—â— c.. Lâ—â—t in Zâ—â—oâ—â— Grace doth sufficiently encourage you to obey and hope against temptations to despair and casting off the means But it encourageth no man to presume or sin or to cast off means as needlesâ— things Remember that if ever you will stand the fear of falling must help you to stand and if ever you will persevere it must be by seeing the danger of backsliding so far as to make you afraid and quicken you in the means which are necessary to prevent it It is no more certain that you shall persevere than it is certain that you shall use the means of persevering And one means is by seeing your danger to be stirred up to fear and caution to escape it Because it is my meaning in this Direction to save men from perishing by security upon the abuse of the Doctrine of Perseverance I hope none will be offended that I lay down these Antidotes § 4. 1. Consider That the Doctrine of Perseverance hath nothing in it to encourage security The very Controversies about it may cause you to conclude that a certain sin is not to be built upon a Controverted Doctrine Till Augustines time it is hard to find any antient Writers that clearly asserted the certain perseverance of any at all Augustine and Prosper maintain the certain perseverance of all the Elect but deny the certain perseverance of all that are Regenerated Justified or Sanctified For they thought that more were Regenerate and Justified than were Elect of whom some stood even all the Elect and the rest fell away So that I confess I never read one antient Father or Christian Writer that ever maintained the certainty of the perseverance of all the Justified of many hundred if not a thousand years after Christ And a Doctrine that to the Church was so long unknown hath not that certainty or that necessity as to encourage you to any presumption or security The Churches were saved many hundred years without believing it § 5. 2. The Doctrine of Perseverance is against security because it uniteth together the End and the Means For they that teach that the Justified shall never totally fall from Grace do also teach that they shall never totally fall into security or into any reigning sin For this is to fall away from Grace And they teach that they shall never totally fall from the use of the necessary means of their preservation nor from the cautelous avoiding of the danger of their souls God doth not simply Decree that you shall persevere but that you shall be kept in perseverance by the fear of your danger and the careful use of means and that you shall persevere in these as well as in other graces Therefore if you fall to security and sin you fall away from grace and shew that God never decreed or promised that you should never fall away § 6. 3. Consider how far many have gone that have fallen away The instances of our times are much higher than any I can name to you out of History Men that have seemed to walk humbly and holily fearing all sin blameless in their lives zealous in Religion twenty or thirty years together have fallen to deny the truth or certainty of the Scriptures the Godhead of Christ if not Christianity it self And many that have not quite fallen away have yet fallen into such grievous sins as make them a terrible warning to us all to take heed of presumption and carnal security § 7. 4. Grace is not in the nature of it a thing that cannot perish or be lost For 1. It is a separable quality 2. Adam did lose it 3. We lose a great degree of it too oft And the remaining degrees are of the same nature It is not only possible in it self to lose it but too easie and not possible without co-operating grace to keep it § 8. 5. Grace is not Natural to us To love our ease and honour and friends is natural but to love Christ and his holy wayes and servants is not Natural to us Indeed when we do it it is Nature as not lapsed and Nature as restored incline the soul to the Love of God but not Nature as corrupâ— nor is it an act performed per 〈…〉 â— â— nâ—â—â—â—ssario our Natural powers that do it But not as Naturally disposed to it but as inclined by the Cure of supernatural Grace Eating and drinking and sleeping we forget not because Nature it self remembreth us of them but Learning and acquired habits may be lost if not very deeply radicated And it s commonly concluded as to the Nature of them that Habitus infusi habent se ad modum acquisitorum Infused Habits are like to acquired ones § 9. 6. Grace is as it were a stranger or new-comer in us It hath been there but a little while And therefore we are but raw and too unacquainted with the right usage and improvement of it and are the apter to â—orget our duty or to neglect it or ignorantly to do that which tendeth to its destruction § 10. 7. Grace dwelleth in a heart which
sects and parties and what divisions and contentions tend to as you have done And therefore it belongeth to your gravity and experience to call them unto Unity Charity and Peace and to keep them from proving fire-brands in the Church and rashly over-running their understandings and the truth § 8. Direct 8. Of all men you must live in the greatest contempt of earthly things and least entangle Direct 8. your selves in the Love or needless troubles of the world You are like to need it and use it but a little while A little may serve one that is so neer his journeys end You have had the greatest experience of its vanity You are so near the great things of another World that methinks you should have no leisure to remember this or room for any unnecessary thoughts or speeches of it As your bodies are less able for worldly employment than others so accordingly you are allowed to retire from it more than others for your more serious thoughts of the life to come It is a sign of the bewitching power of the world and of the folly and unreasonableness of sin to see the Aged usually as Covetous as the young and men that are going out of the world to love it as fondly and scrape for it as eagerly as if they never lookt to leave it You should rather give warning to the younger sort to take heed of Covetousness and of being ensnared by the world and while they labour in it faithfully with their hands to keep their hearts entirely for God § 9. Direct 9. You should highly esteem every minute of your time and lose none in idleness or unnecessary Direct 9. things but be alwayes doing or getting some good and do what you do with all your might For you are sure now that your time will not be long How little have you left to make all the rest of your preparation in for eternity The young may die quickly but the old know that their time will be but short Though Nature decay yet grace can grow in life and strength and when your outward man perisheth the inner man may be renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4. 16. Time is a most pretious commodity to all but especially to them that have but a little more to determine the question in Whether they must live in Heaven or Hell for ever Though you cannot do your worldly businesses as heretofore yet you have variety of holy exercises to be imployed in Bodily ease may beseem you but Idleness is worse in you than in any § 10. Direct 10. When the decay of your strength or memory or parts doth make you unable to read Direct 10. or pray or meditate by your selves so much or so well as heretofore make the more use of the more lively gifts and help of others Be the more in hearing others and in joyning with them in prayer that their memory and zeal and utterance may help to lift you up and carry you on § 11. Direct 11. Take not a decay of nature and of those gifts and works which depend thereon Direct 11. for a decay of grace Though your memory and utterance and fervour of affection abate as your Natural heat abateth yet be not discouraged but remember that you may for all this grow in grace if you do but grow in holy wisdom and judgement and a higher esteem of God and holiness and a greater disesteem of all the vanities of the world and a firmer resolution to cleave to God and trust on Christ and never to turn to the world and sin This is your growth in grace § 12. Direct 12. Be patient under all the infirmities and inconveniences of old age Be not discontented Direct 12. at them nor repine not nor grow pievish and froward to those about you This is a common temptation which the Aged should carefully resist You knew at first that you had a body that must decay If you would not have had it till a decaying age why were you so unwilling to dye If you would why do you repine Bless God for the dayes of youth and strength and health and ease which you have had already and grudge not that corruptible flesh decayeth § 13. Direct 13. Understand well that passive obedience is that which God calleth you to in your Direct 13. age and weakness and in which you must serve and honour him in the conclusion of your labour When you are unfit for any great or publick works and active obedience hath not opportunity to exercise it self as heretofore it is then as acceptable to God that you honour him by patient suffering And therefore it is a great errour of them that wish for the death of all that are impotent decrepit and bed-rid as if they were utterly unserviceable to God I tell you it is no small service that they may do not only by their prayers and their secret Love to God but by being examples of faith and patience and heavenly-mindedness and confidence and joy in God to all about them Grudge not then if God will thus imploy you § 14. Direct 14. Let your thoughts of death and preparations for it be as serious as if death were Direct 14. just at hand Though all your life be little enough to prepare for death and it be a work that should be done as soon as you have the use of Reason yet age and weakness call lowder to you presently to prepare without delay Do therefore all that you would fain find done when your last sickness cometh that unreadiness to die may not make death terrible nor your age uncomfortable § 15. Direct 15. Live in the joyful expectations of your change as becometh one that is so near to Direct 15. Heaven and looketh to live with Christ for ever Let all the high and glorious things which faith apprehendeth now shew their power in the Love and joy and longings of your soul. There is nothing in which the weak and aged can more honour Christ and do good to others than in joyful expectation of their change and an earnest desire to be with Christ. This will do much to convince unbelievers that the promises are true and that Heaven is real and that a holy life is indeed the best which hath so happy an end When they see you highest in your joyes at the time when others are deepest in distress and when you rejoyce as one that is entring upon his happiness when all the happiness of the ungodly is at an end this will do more than many Sermons to perswade a sinner to a holy life I know that this is not easily attained But a thing so sweet and profitable to your selves and so useful to the good of others and so much tending to the honour of God should be laboured after with all your diligence and then you may expect Gods blessing on your labours Read to this use the fourth part of my Saints Rest. CHAP.
been tempted to But you are sure that Heaven is better than Earth and that it is far better for them to be with Christ. 6. You allwayes knew that your friends must die To grieve that they were mortal is but to grieve that they were but men 7. If their mortality or death be grievous to you you should rejoice that they are arrived at the state of Immortality where they must Live indeed and die no more 8. Remember how quickly you must be with them again The expectation of living long your selves is the cause of your excessive grief for the death of friends If you lookt your selves to die to morrow or within a few weeks you would lâ—ss grieve that your friends are gone before you 9. Remember that the world is not for one Generation only Others must have our places when we are gone God will be served by successive Generations and not only by one 10. If you are Christians indeed it is the highest of all your Desires and Hopes to be in Heaven And will you so grieve that your friends are gone thither where you most Desire and Hope to be § 19. Obj. All this is reason if my friend were gone to Heaven But he dyed impenitently and Object how should I be comforted for a soul that I have cause to think is damned Answ. Their misery must be your grief But not such a grief as shall deprive you of your greater Answ. Joyes or disable you for your greater duties 1. God is fitter than you to judge of the measures Helps to moderate our sorrow for the dâ—mned of his mercy and his judgements and you must neither pretend to be more merciful than he nor to reprehend his Justice 2. All the works of God are Good and all that is Good is amiable Though the misery of the creature be Bad to it yet the works of Justice declare the Wisdom and Holiness of God and the perfecter we are the more they will be amiable to us For 3 God himself and Christ who is the merciful Saviour of the World approve of the damnation of the finally ungodly 4. And the Saints and Angels in Heaven do know more of the misery of the souls in Hell than we do And yet it abateth not their Joyes And the perfecter any is the more he is like-minded unto God 5. How glad and thankful should you be to think that God hath delivered your selves from those eternal flâ—mes The misery of others should excite your Thankfulness 6. And should not the Joyes of all the Saints and Angels be your Ioy as well as the sufferings of the wicked be your sorrows But above all the thoughts of the Blessedness and Glory of God himself should over-top all the concernments of the creature with you If you will mourn more for the Thieves and Murderers that are hanged than you will rejoice in the Justice prosperity and honour of the King and the wellfare of all his faithful subjects you behave not your selves as faithful subjects 7. Shortly you hope to come to Heaven Mourn now for the damned as you shall do then or at least let not the difference be too great when that and not this is your perfect state A Form of Exhortation to the Ungodly in their Sickness or those that we fear are such DEar Friend The God that must dispose of us and all things doth threaten by this sickness to call away your soul and put an end to the time of your pilgrimage and therefore your friends that Love and pity you must not now be silent if they can speak any thing for your preparation and salvation because it must be Now or Never When a few days are past they must never have any such opportunity more If now we prevail not with you you are likely to be quickly out of hearing and past our advice and help for ever And because I know your weakness bids me be but short and your memory is not to be burdened with too much and yet your Necessity must not be neglected I shall reduce all that I have to say to you to these four heads 1. Of the change which you seem near to and the world which you are going to 2. Of the Preparation that must be made by all that will be saved and who they be that the Gospel doth Iustifie or Condemn 3. I would fain help you to understand which of these conditions you are in and what will become of your soul if it thus goeth hence And 4. If your case be bad I would direct you how you may come out of it and what is yet to be done while there remaineth any time and hope And I pray you set your heart to what I say for I will speak nothing but the certain truth of God revealed to the world by his son and spirit expressed in the Scripture and believed by all the Church of Christ. I. God knoweth the change is great which you are near You are leaving this world where you have spent the dayes of your preparation for eternity and leaving this flesh to corrupt and turn to common earth and must here converse with man no more You are going now to see that world which the Gospel told you of and you have often heard of but neither you nor we did ever see Before your friends have laid your body in the grave your soul must enter into its endless state and at the Resurrection your Body be joyned with it Either Heaven or Hell must be your lot for ever If it be Heaven you will there find a world of Light and Love and Peace A world of Angels and glorified souls who are all made perfect in Knowledge and Holiness living in the perfect flames of Love to their Glorious Creator Redeemer and Regenerater And with them you will be thus perfected your self your soul will see the Glory of God and be rapt up in his Love and filled with his Joyes and employed triumphantly in his Maâ— 13. 2 Thes 1. 6 7 8 9 10 11. praises and this for ever If Hell should be your portion you will there be thrust away as a hated thing from the face of God and there you will find a world of Devils and unholy damned miserable souls among whom you must dwell in the flames of the wrath of God and the horrours of your own Conscience remembring with anguish the mercy which you once rejected and the warnings and time which once you lost and at the Resurrection your Soul and Body must be reunited and live there in torment and despair for ever I know these things are but half believed by the â—ngodly world while they profess to believe them And therefore they must feel that which they refuseâ— to believe But God hath revealed it to us and we will believe our Maker You are now going to see the great difference between the end of Holiness and of sin between the Godly and the ungodly and to
judgement about the controverted part is not much to be regarded God is not so likely to direct profane ones and false hearted hypocrites and bless them with a sound judgement in holy things where their Lives shew that their practical judgements are corrupt as the sincere that obey him in that which he revealeth to them We are all agreed that Gods Word must be your daily meditation and delight Psal. 1. 2. and that you should speak of it lying down and rising up at home and abroad Deut. 6. 6 7 8. and that we must be constant and fervent and importunate in prayer both in publick and private 1 Thess. 5. 17. Luke 18. 1. Iames 5. 16. Do you perform this much faithfully or not If you do you may the more confidently expect that God should further reveal his will to you and resolve your doubts and guide you in the way that is pleasing to him But if you omit the duty which all are agreed on and be unfaithful and negligent in what you know how unmeet are you to dispute about the controverted circumstances of duty To what purpose is it that you meddle in such controversies Do you do it wilfully to condemn your selves before God and shame your selves before men by declaring the hypocrisie which aggravateth your ungodliness What a lothesome and pitiful thing is it to hear a man bitterly reproach those that differ from him in some circumstances of worship when he himself never seriously worshippeth God at all When he meditateth not on the Word of God and instead of delighting in it maketh light of it as if it little concerned him and is acquainted with no other prayer than a little customary lip service Is such an ungodly neglecter of all the serious worship of God a fit person to fill the world with quarrels about the Manner of his worship § 3. Direct 3. Differ not in Gods worship from the common sense of the most faithful godly Christians Direct 3. without great suspicion of your own understandings and a most diligent tryal of the case For if in such practical cases the common sense of the faithful be against you it is to be suspected that the teaching of Gods Spirit is against you For the Spirit of God doth principally teach his servants in the matters of worship and obedience There are several errors that I am here warning you to avoid 1. The error of them that rather incline to the judgement of the ungodly multitude who never knew what it was to worship God in The disadvantages of ungodly men in judging of holy worship Spirit and truth Consider the great disadvantages of these men to judge aright in such a case 1. They must judge then without that teaching of the Spirit by which things spiritual are to be discerned 1 Cor. 2. 13 15. He that is blind in sin must judge of the mysteries of godliness 2. They must judge quite contrary to their natures and inclinations or against the diseased Habits of their Wills And if you call a drunkard to judge of the evil of drunkenness or a whoremonger to judge of the evil of fornication or a covetous or a proud or a passionate man to judge of their several sins how partial will they be And so will an ungodly man be in judging of the duties of godliness You set him to judge of that which he hateth 3. You set him to judge of that which he is unacquainted with It 's like he never throughly studyed it but its certain he never seriously tryed it nor hath not the experience of those that have long made it a great part of the business of their lives And would you not sooner take a mans judgement in Physick that hath made it the study and practice of his life than a sick mans that speaketh against that which he never studyed or practised meerly because his own stomach is against it Or will you not sooner take the judgement of an antient Pilot about Navigation than ones that never was at Sea The difference is as great in the present case § 4. 2. And I speak this also to warn you of another error that you prefer not the judgement of a Sect or Party or some few godly people against the common sense of the generality of the faithful For the Spirit of God is liklier to have forsaken a small part of godly people than the generality in such particular opinions which even good men may be forsaken in Or if it be in greater things it is more unreasonable and more uncharitable for me to suspect that most that seem godly are hypocrites and forsaken of God than that a party or some few are so § 5. Direct 4. Yet do not absolutely give up your selves to the judgement of any in the worshipping Direct 4. of God but only use the advice of men in a due subordination to the Will of God and the Teaching of Iesus Christ. Otherwise you will set man in the place of God and will reject Christ in his Prophetical Office as much as using co-ordinate Mediators is a rejecting him in his Priestly Office None must be called Master but in subordination to Christ because he is our Master Matth. 23. 8 9 10. § 6. Direct 5. Condemn not all that in others which you dare not do your selves and practise not Direct 5. all that your selves which you dare not condemn in others For you are more capable of judging in See Rom. 14. 15. 1. Cor. 8. 13. your own cases and bound to do it with more exactness and diligent enquiry than in the case of others Oft-times a rational doubt may necessitate you to suspend your practice as your belief or judgement is suspended when yet it will not allow you to condemn another whose judgement and practice hath no such suspension Only you may doubt whether he be in the right as you doubt as to your self And yet you may not therefore venture to do all that you dare not condemn in him for then you must wilfully commit all the sins in the world which your weakness shall make a doubt or controversie of § 7. Direct 6. Offer God no worship that is clearly contrary to his nature and perfections but such Direct 6. as is suited to him as he is revealed to you in his Word Thus Christ teacheth us to worship God as Lev. 19. 2. 20. 7. 1 Pet. 1. 16. he is and thus God often calleth for Holy worship because he is Holy 1. God is a Spirit therefore they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth which Christ opposeth to meer external Ceremony or shadows John 4. 23 24. for the Father seeketh such to worship him 2. God is Incomprehensible and Infinitely distant from us Therefore worship him with Admiration and make not either visible or mental Images of him nor debase him not by undue resemblance of him The 2d Commandment Câ—â—â—â—o de Nat.
your help or liberty to do it afterward when that once or few times doing it were like to hinder you from doing it any more it would be your duty then to forbear it for that time unless in some extraordinary case For even for the life of an Oxe or an Asse and for Mercy to mens bodies the rest and holy work of a Sabbath might be interrupted much more for the souls of many Again I warn you as you must not pretend the interest of the end against a peremptory absolute command of God so must you not easily conclude a command to be absolute and peremptory to that which certainly contradicts the End nor easily take that for a Duty which certainly is no means to that good which is the end of duty or which is against it Though yet no seeming aptitude as a means must make that seem a duty which the prohibition of God hath made a sin § 26. Direct 15. It is ever unseasonable to perform a lesser duty of Worship when a greater Direct 15. should be done Therefore it much concerneth you to be able to discern when two duties are inconsistent which is then the greater and to be preferred In which the Interest of the end must much direct you that being usually the greatest which hath the greatest tendency to the greatest good § 27. Direct 16. Pretend not one part of Gods Worship against another when all in their Direct 16. place and order may be done Set not Preaching and Praying against each other nor publick and private Worship against each other nor internal Worship against external but do all § 28. Direct 17. Let not an inordinate respect to man or common custome be too strong a byas to Direct 17. pervert your judgements from the Rule of Worship nor yet any groundless prejudice make you distaste that which is not to be disliked The errour on these two extreams doth fill the World with corruption and contentions about the Worship of God Among the Papists and Russians and other ignorant sort of Christians abundance of corruptions are continued in Gods Worship by the Majus fidei impedimentum ex inveâ—eraâ—â consuetudine proficiscitur Ubique consuetudo magnas vires habet sed in barbaris longe maximas quippe ubi rationis est minimum ibi consueâ—udo radices profundiâ—â—imas agit In omni natura motio eò diuturnioâ— ac vehemenâ—ior quo magis est ad unum determinaâ—a Ios. Acosta de Iâ—d l. 2. p. 249. meer power of custome tradition and education and all seemeth right to which they have been long used and hence the Churches in South East and West continue so long overspread with ignorance and refuse reformation And on the other side meer prejudice makes some so much distaste a prescribed form of Prayer or the way of Worship which they have not been used to and which they have heard some good men speak against whose judgements they highlyest esteemed that they have not room for sober impartial reason to deliberate try and judge Factions have engaged most Christians in the World into several parties whereby Satan hath got this great advantage that instead of Worshipping God in Love and Concord they lay out their zeal in an envious bitter censorious uncharitable reproaching the manner of each others Worship And because the interest of their Parties requireth this they think the interest of the Church and Cause of God requireth it and that they do God service when they make the Religion of other men seem odious when as among most Christians in the World the errours of their modes of Worship are not so great as the adverse parties represent them except only the two great crimes of the Popish Worship 1. That it 's not understood and so is See Bishop Ier. Tailours late Book against Popery souleless 2. They Worship bread as God himself which I am not so able as willing to excuse from being Idolatry Judge not in such cases by passion partiality and prejudice § 29. Direct 18. Yet judge in all such Controversies with that reverence and charity which Direct 18. is due to the universal and the Primitive Church If you find any thing in Gods Worship which the primitive or universal Church agreed in you may be sure that it is nothing but what is consistent with acceptable Worship For God never rejected the Worship of the primitive or universal Church And it is not so much as to be judged erroneous without great deliberation and very good proof We must be much more suspicious of our own understandings § 30. Direct 19. In circumstances and modes of Worship not forbidden in the Word of God affect Direct 19. not singularity and do not easily differ from the practice of the Church in which you hold Communion nor from the commands or directions of your lawful Governours It 's true if we are forbidden with Dan. 3. Act. 4. 17 18. 5. 28. Daniel to Pray or with the Apostles to speak any more in the name of Christ or are commanded as the three witnesses Dan. 3. to Worship Images we must rather obey God than man and so in case of any sin that is commanded us But in case of meer different modes and circumstances and order of Worship see that you give authority and the consent of the Church where you are their due § 31. Direct 20. Look more to your own hearts than to the abilities of the Ministers or the Ceremonies Direct 20. or manner of the Churches Worship in such lesser things It is Heart-work and Heaven-work that the sincere believer comes about and it is the corruption of his heart that is his heaviest burden which he groaneth under with the most passionate complaints A hungry soul enflamed with Love to God and man and tenderly sensible of the excellency of common truths and duties would make up many defects in the manner of publick administration and would get nearer God in a defective imperfect mode of Worship than others can do with the greatest helps When Hypocrites find so little work with their Hearts and Heaven that they are Jam. 3. 15 16 17. taken up about words and forms and ceremonies and external things applauding their own way and condemning other mens and serving Satan under pretence of Worshipping God CHAP. III. Directions about the Christian Covenant with God and Baptism § 1. THough the first Tome of this Book is little more than an explication of the Christian Covenant with God yet being here to speak of Baptism as a part of Gods Worship it is needful that I briefly speak also of the Covenant it self § 1. Direct 1. It is a matter of great importance that you well understand the nature Direct 1. of the Christian Covenant what it is I shall therefore here briefly open the nature of it and then speak of the Reasons of it and then of the solemnizing it by Baptism and next of our Renewing it
here is not meant the substance of the Christian belief or any one necessary Article of it But a Belief of the indifferency of such things as Paul spake of in meats and drinks If thou know these things to be Lawful when thy weak brother doth not and so thou be wiser than he thank God for thy knowledge and use it to thy own salvation but do not proudly or uncharitably contend for it and use it uncharitably to the danger of anothers soul much less to the wrong of the Church and Gospel and the hinderance of greater truths 2 Tim 2. 14. Of these things put them in remembrance that is of the Saints hope in Gods faithfulness charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit but the subverting of the hearers Yet for the faith we must earnestly contend Jude 2 3. So 2 Tim. 2. 2. 23 24. But foolish and unlearned questi 〈…〉 avoid knowing that they do gender strife And the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men § 8. But that which is the chiefest matter of our Profession is The being and perfections of God himself His love to man and power over him and mans subjection and obligations unto God The person and office and works and benefits of our Redeemer with all the duty that we owe to him in perfect holiness and all the hopes that we have in him the happiness of the Saints the odiousness of sin and the misery of the wicked These and such as these are things that we are called to Profess yet so as not to deny or renounce the smallest truth § 9. Direct 3. Understand also the manner how we must make Profession of Religion 1. There is Direct 3. a Professing by words and a professing by Actions 2. There is a solemn profession by Gods publick ordinances and an occasional or privater profession by conference or by our conversations And all these wayes must Religion be professed § 10. Direct 4. Understand also the season of each sort of Profession that you omit not the season nor do it Direct 4. unseasonably 1. Profession by Baptism Lords Supper and Church-assemblies must be done in their season which the Church-guides are the conducters of 2. Profession by an innocent blameless obedient life is never out of season 3. Profession by private conference and by occasional acts of piety must be when opportunity inviteth us and they are likely to attain their ends 4. The whole frame of a Believers life should be so Holy and Heavenly and mortified and above the world as may amount to a serious profession that he liveth in confident hope of the life to come and may shew the world the difference between a Worldling and an heir of Heaven between corrupted nature and true grace The Professors of Godliness must be a peculiar people zealous of good works and adorned with them Tit. 2. 14. 1 Tim. 2. 10. § 11. Direct 5. Take special care that your Profession be sincere and that you be your selves as good Direct 5. as you profess to be Otherwise 1. Your profession will condemn your selves 2. And it will dishonour the truth which you deceitfully profess There can scarce a greater injury befall a good cause than to have a bad and shameful patron to defend it Rom. 2. 3. And thinkest thou this O man that judgest them which do such things and dost the same that thou shalt escape the judgement of God Vers. 13. to 25. Thou that makest thy boast of the Law through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God For the name of God is blaspheamed among the Gentiles through you § 12. Direct 6. Let not your profession be so much of your own sincerity as of God and his excellencies Direct 6. Boast not of your selves but of God and Christ and the promise and the Hope of true believers and do it to Gods praise and not for your own Be sure that in all your profession of Religion you be seeking honour to God and not unto your selves And then in this manner he that doubteth of his own sincerity yet may and must make profession of Christ and true Religion when you cannot proclaim the uprightness of your own hearts you may boldly proclaim the excellencies of Religion and the happiness of Saints § 13. Direct 7. Live upon God alone and trust his Alsufficiency and abhor that pusillanimity and Direct 7. baseness of spirit which maketh men afraid or ashamed openly to own the truth Remember the example of your Lord who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession 1 Tim. 6. 13. who came for this end into the world to bear witness to the truth Fear not the face of man whose breath is in his Joh. 18. 37. The Arrians under Valens and the Vandal◠still silenced the Orthodox Preachers and forbad their meetings and yet the people adhered to their Pastors and kept their meetings while they could Saepius prohibitum est ut sacerdotes vestri conventus minime celebrarent nec sua seditione animas subverterent Chistianas Praecept Hunner in Victor◠uticers p. 414. nostrils and is perishing even while he is threatning If thou believe not that Christ can secure thee from the rage of man thou believest not indeed in Christ If thou believe not that Heaven will satisfie for all that by scorns or cruelties thou sufferest from sinners thou hast not indeed the hope of a believer And no wonder if thou profess not that which thou believest not But if thou believe that God is God and Christ is Christ and Heaven is Heaven and the Gospel is true thou hast enough in thy Belief to secure thee against all the scorns and cruelties of man and to tell thee that Christ will bear thy charges in all that thou sufferest for his sake O what abundance are secretly convinced of the truth and their Consciences bear witness to the wisdom of the Saints and a holy life and yet they dare not openly own and stand to the truth which they are convinced of for fear of being mockt by the tongues of the profane or for fear of losing their places and preferments O wretch dost thou not tremble when thou art ashamed of Christ to think of the day when he will be ashamed of thee Then when he comes in Glory none will be ashamed of him Then where is the tongue that mockt him and his servants Who then will deride his holy wayes Then that will be the greatest Glory which thou art now ashamed of Canst thou believe that day and yet hide thy profession through cowardly fear or shame of man Is man so great and is Christ no greater in thine eyes than so If he be not more regardable than man believe not in him If he be regard him more and let not a worm be preferred before thy Saviour § 14. Direct 8. If any doubt arise whether thou shouldst now make particular Profession of
by the examples of your blameless humble holy lives O how abundantly would this course promote the success of the publick preaching of the Gospel If you would cause those men to see the glory and power of the Gospel in your holy and heavenly lives who cannot see it in it self Then many that would not be won by the Word might be won without it to seek after it at least by your conversations Thus all must preach and be helpers of the Ministers of Christ. § 35. Direct 10. Forsake not your faithful Pastors to follow deceivers but adhere to them who spend and are spent for you Defend their innocency against false accusers and refuse them not such maintenance as is needful to their entire giving up themselves to that holy work to which they are devoted Read and study well Ephes. 4. 13 14 15. Acts 20. 30. It is for your sakes that your faithful 2 Tim. 2. 10. 2 Cor. 4. 15. 1 Thess. 3. 9. 1 Thess. 1. 5. Matth. 26. 56. 2 Tim. 4. 16. Gal. 6. 6 10. 1 Cor. 9. Col. 1. 24. Pastors are singled out in the world to bear the slanders and contradictions of the wicked and to lead the way in the fiery tryal If they would forsake you and that sacred truth and duty that is needful to your salvation and sell you up into the hands of cruell and deceitful men it were as easie for them to have the applause of men and the prosperity of the world as others It is perfidious ingratitude to forsake them in every tryal that must lose their lives and all the world rather then forsake you or betray your souls Or to grudge them food and rayment that lay by the gainful employments of the world that they may attend continually on the service of your souls CHAP. VII Directions for the discovery of the Truth among Contenders and the escape of Heresie and Deceit § 1. THough Truth be naturally the Object of mans Understanding to which it hath a certain Niâ—ebatur Socrates summo ingenii acumine non tam illos ex sententia reâ—ellere quam ipse quid verum esset invenâ—re inclination and though it be a delightful thing to know the truth yet that which is saving meeteth with so much opposition in the flesh and in the world that while it is applauded in the general it is resisted and rejected in particulars And yet while the Use of holy truth is hated and obstinately cast away the name and the barren profession of it is made the matter of the glorying of hypocrites and the occasion of reproaching dissenters as Hereticks and the world is filled with bloody persecutions and inhumane implacable enmities and divisions by a wonderful zeal for the Name of Truth even by those men that will rather venture on damnation than they will obey the Truth which they so contend for Multitudes of men have Laert. iâ— Socrat. tormented or murdered others as Hereticks who themselves must be tormented in Hell for not being Christians It concerneth us therefore to deal very wisely and cautelously in this business § 2. Direct 1. Take heed lest there be any carnal interest or lust which maketh you unwilling to Direct 1. receive the truth or inclineth you to error that it may serve that interest or lust It is no small number of men that are strangers or enemies to the truth not because they cannot attain the knowledge of it but because they would not have it to be truth And men of great learning and natural parts are frequently thus deceived and led into error by a naughty carnal byassed heart Either because that error is the vulgar opinion and necessary to maintain their popular reputation and avoid reproach or because it is the way of men in power and necessary to their preferment and greatness in the world or because the Truth is contrary to their fleshly lusts and pleasures or contrary to their honour and worldly interest and would hazard their reputations or their lives How loth Heb 12. 14. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Rom. 8. 9 13. is a sensual ungodly man to believe that without Holiness none shall see God and that he that is in Christ is a new creature and that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his and that if they live after the flesh they shall dye How loth is the ambitious Minister to believe that the way of Christs service lyeth not in worldly pomp or ease or pleasures but in taking up the Cross and following Christ in self-denyal and in being as the servant of all in the unwearied performance of careful oversight and compassionate exhortations unto all the flock Let a controversie be raised about any of these points and the mind of lazy ambitious men doth presently fall in with that part which gratifieth their fleshly lusts and excuseth them from that toilsome way of duty which they already hate The secret lusts and vices of a false hypocritical heart are the commonest and the powerfullest arguments for error And such men are glad that Great men or Learned men will give so much ease to their consciences and shelter to their reputations as to countenance or make a Controversie at least of that which their lusts desire to be true Above all therefore see that you come not to enquire after Truth with an unsanctified heart and unmortified lusts which are a byass to your minds and make you warp from the truth which you enquire after For if the carnal mind neither is nor can be subject to the Law of God you may easily perceive that it will be loth to believe it when in so doing they believe their own condemnation An honest sanctified heart is fittest to entertain the truth § 3. Direct 2. Seek after the truth for the love of truth and love it especially for its special use as Direct 2. it formeth the heart and life to the Image and Will of God and not for the fanciful delight of knowing Socrates de Ethâ—ce in Offiâ—inis in publico quotidie Philosophans ea potius inquirenda hortabatur quae mores instruerent quorum usus nobis domi esset necessarius Laert. in Socrat. much less for carnal worldly ends No means are used at all as means where the End is not first determined of And to do the same thing materially to another end is not indeed to do the same For thereby it s made another thing Your Physicion will come to you if you you seek to him as a Physicion but not if you send to him to mend your Shoos So if you seek knowledge for the true ends of knowledge to fill your hearts with the Love of God and guide your lives in holiness and righteousness God is engaged to help you in the search But if you seek it only for to please your pride or fansie no wonder if you miss of it and it is no great matter
whether you find it or not for any good its like to do you Every Truth of God is appointed to be his Instrument to do some holy work upon your heart Let the Love of Holiness be it that maketh you search after Truth and then you may expect that God should be your teacher § 4. Direct 3. Seek after Truth without too great or too small regard to the judgement of others neither contemn them nor be captivated to them Use the help of the wise but give not up your Direct 3. Reason absolutely to any Engage not your selves in a Party so as to espouse their errors or Non tam autoritatis in disputando quam rationis momenta quaerenda sunt Cic. Nat. Deo p. 6. Obest plerumque iis qui discere volunt autoritas eorum qui se docere profitentur Desinunt enim suum judicium adhibere Id habent ratum quod ab eo quem probant judicatum vident Cic. de Nat. Deo p. 7. implicitely to believe whatever they say For this breedeth in you a secret desire to please your party and interesseth you in their dividing interest and maketh you betray the Truth to be accounted Orthodox by those you value § 5. Direct 4. Take heed of Pride which will make you dote upon your own conceits and cause Direct 4. you to slight the weightiest reasons that are brought by others for your conviction And if once you have espoused an error it will engage all your wit and zeal and diligence to maintain it It will make you uncharitable and furious against all that cross you in your way and so make you either Persecutors if you stand on the higher ground or Sect-leaders or Church-dividers and turbulent and censorious if you are on the lower ground There is very great reason in Pauls advice for the choice of a Bishop 1 Tim. 3. 6. Not a Novice lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil It is no more wonder to see a Proud man erroneous and in the confidence of his own understanding to rage against all that tell him he is mistaken than to hear a drunken man boasting of his wit to the increase of his shame § 6. Direct 5. Take heed of slothfulness and impatience in searching after Truth and think not Direct 5. to find it in difficult cases without both hard and patient studies and ripeness of understanding to enable you therein And suspect all opinions which are the off-spring of idleness and ease what ever Divine illumination they may pretend except as you take them from others upon trust in a slothful way who attained them by diligent studies For God that hath called men to labour doth use to give his blessing to the laborious And he that hath said by his Spirit 1 Tim. 4. 15. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all doth accordingly cause those men to profit who seek it in this laborious way of his appointment And he that hath said The desire of the slothful killeth him doth not use to bless the slothful with his teachings He that Prov. 24. 30. Prov. 21. 25. Matth. 25. 26. will say to him in judgement Thou wicked and slothful servant will not encourage the slothfulness which he condemneth My Son if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee so that thou incline thine ear to wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding Yea if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding If thou seekest her as Silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God For the Lord giveth Wisdom Prov. 2. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Mark here to whom God giveth wisdom All the godly are taught of God But mark here how it is that he teacheth them Not while they scorn at Studies and Universities and look that their knowledge should cost them nothing or that the Spirit should be instead of serious studies or that their understandings should discern what 's true or false at the first appearance But while they think no pains or patience too great to learn the truth in the School of Christ. § 7. Direct 6. Keep out Passion from your Disputes and in the management of all your controversies Direct 6. in Religion For though Passion be useful both antecedently to the the Resolution of the Will and consequently Quae duae virtutes in Disputatore primae sunt eas ambas in Hubero deprehendi Patientiam adversarium prolixe sua explicantem audiendi lenitatem etiam aspere dicta perserendi inq Scultetus post disâ— Cuâ—â—ic p. 33. to the effectual execution of its Resolutions yet it is commonly a very great seducer of the understanding and strangely blindeth and perverteth judgement so that a Passionate man is seldome so far from the truth as when he is most confident he is defending it When Passion hath done boyling and the heart is cooled and leaveth the judgement to do its work without any clamour and disturbance its strange to see how things will appear to you to be quite of another tendency and reason than in your Passion you esteemed them § 8. Direct 7. Keep up a sense of the evil and danger of both extreams and be not so wholly intent Direct 7. upon the avoiding of one extream as to be fearless of the other The narrow minds of unexperienced men are hardly brought to look on both sides them and to be duly sensible of the danger of both extreams But while they are taken up only with the hating and opposing one sort of errors they forget those on the other side And usually the sin or error which we observe not is more dangerous to us than that which we do observe if the wind of temptation sit that way Direct 8. § 9. Direct 8. When you detect any antient error or corruption enquire into its original and see whether Reformation consist not rather in a restitution of the primitive state than in an extirpation of the whole Even in Popery it self there are many errors and ill customs which are but the corruption of some weighty truth and the degenerating of some duty of Gods appointment And to reduce all in such cases to the primitive verity is the way of wise and true reformation and not to throw away that which is Gods because it is fallen into the dirt of humane depravation But in cases where all is bad there all must be rejected § 10. Direct 9. Pretend not Truth and Orthodoxness against Christian Love and Peace and so follow Direct 9. Rom. 12. 13. 1 Cor. 13. Truth as that you lose not Love and Peace by it As much as in you lyeth live peaceably with all men Charity is the End of Truth And it is a mad use of Means to use them against the End
Make sure of the sincerity of your Charity and hold it fast and then no error that you hold will be destructive to you But if you know more than others and use your knowledge to the weakning of your Love you are but as our first Parents deceived and destroyed by a dâ—sire of fleshly uneffectual knowledge Such knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth 1 Cor. 8. 1. To contend for Truth to the lâ—ss of Love in your selves and the destruction of it among others is but to choak your selves with excellent food and to imitate that Orthodox Catholick Physicion that gloried that he killed his Patients secundum artem by the most accurate method and excellent Rules of Art that men could dye by § 11. Direct 10. Pretend no Truth against the power and practice of Godliness For this also is Direct 10. its prâ—pâ—â— End Iâ—â—â— be not Truth that is accâ—rding to Godliness it is no truth worthy our seeking or 1 Tim. 6 3. Tâ—â— 1. 1. 1 Tiâ— 4. 7 8 1 Tim. 6. 5 6 11. câ—ntending â—or And if it be contrary to Godliness in it self it is no truth at all Therefore if it be used agaiâ—st Godliness it is used contrary to the Ends of Truth Those men that suppress or hinder tâ—e 〈◊〉 Knowledge and Holiness and Concord and Edification under pretence of securing dâ—â—â—â—nding or propâ—gating the Orthâ—dâ—x belief will find one day that God will give them as 2 Pet. 1. â— 3. 11. little thanks for their blâ—â—d prâ—posterous zeal â—oâ— truth as a tender Father would do to a Physicion that killed his Children bâ—câ—usâ— they distasted or spit out his Medicines It is usually a pitiful defence of Truth that is made by the Enemies of Godliness More near and particular Directions against Error § 12. Direct 1. Begin at the Greatest most Evident Certain and Necessary Truths and so proceed Direct 1. orderly to the knowledge of the less by the help of these As you climb by the Body of the Tree unto See Ch. 2. D. 3. the branches If you begin at those truths which spring out of greater common truths and know not the premises while yoâ— plead for the conclusion you abuse your Reason and lose the Truth and your labour both For thâ—re is no way to the branches but by ascending from the stock The Principles wâ—ll laid must bâ— your help to all your following knowledge § 13. Direct 2. The two first Things which you are to learn are what man is and what God is Direct 2. the Nâ—ture and Relâ—tion of the two Parties is the first thing to be known in order to the knowledge of the Câ—venant it self and all following transâ—ctions between God and man One error here will introduce abundance A thousand other points in Natural Philosophy you may safely be ignorant of bâ—t if you know not what Man is what Reason is what Natural Free-will is and what the inferiâ—ur sensitive U Deum noâ—is etâ—â— ignâ—â—â—â—s â—cum faâ—iem 〈◊〉 â—bi â—â—â—â—â—â— noâ—um eslâ—â—◠〈◊〉 etiamsi â—gâ—oreâ— â—â—cum 〈…〉 Direct 3. Nulla â—â—ga Dâ—â—â—â— pâ—â—â—â—â— est nisi hâ—nâ—stâ—â—â— nâ—mâ—nâ— Dâ—oâ—â—m ac 〈…〉 o Plaâ—â— facultiâ—s are as to their Uses it will lay you open to innumerable errors In the Nature of man you must see the foundation of his relations unto God And if you know not those Great Relâ—â—iâ—ns the duties of which must take up all our lives you may easily foresee the consâ—quents of such ignorance or error So if you know not what God is and what his Relations to us are so far as is necessary to our living in the duties of those Relations the consequents of your ignorance will bâ— sad If learned men be but perverted in their apprehensions of some onâ— Attribuâ—e of God as those that think his Goâ—dness is nothing but his Benignity or proneness to do good or that he is a Nâ—â—â—â—sâ—â—ry agâ—â—t dâ—ing good ad ultimum posse c. what abundance of hoâ—rid and impious consequâ—nts will follow § 14. Direct 3. Hâ—ving sâ—undly understood both these and other Principles of Religion try all the subsequent truths â—erâ—â—y and receive nothing as truth that is certainly inconsistent with any of these principles Even Principles that are not of sense may be disputed till they are wâ—ll râ—ceived and with those that have â—â—t received them But afterward they are not to be called iâ— question for then you wâ—uld never proceed â—or build higher if you still stand questioning all your grounds Indeed no truth is inconsistent with any other truth But yet when two dark or doubâ—ful points are compared together it is hard to know which of them to reject But here it is easie Nothing that contradicteth the trâ—e Nature of Gâ—d or man or any Principle must be hâ—ld § 15. Direct 4. Bâ—lieve notâ—ing which certainly contradicteth the End of all Religion If it be of a Direct 4. naâ—â—râ—l or necessary tendency to ungodliness against the Love of God or against a holy and heavenly mind and conversation it cannot bâ— truth what ever it preâ—end § 16. Direct 5. Be sure to distinguish well betwixt revealed and unrevealed things And before you Direct 5. dispute any question search first whetâ—er thâ—â—â—solution be Revealed oâ— not And if it be not lay it ☞ by and take it as part of your necessary submission to be ignorant of what God would have you ignorant as it is part of your obedience to labour to know what God would have you know And when some things unrâ—veâ—lâ—d are mixed in the controversie take out those and lay them by before you go any further and see that the resolution of the râ—st be not laid upon them nor twisted with them to â—ntangle the whole in uncertainty or confusion Thus God instructed Iob by convincing him of Job 38. 39. 40. 41. Non 1 sumu quâ—bâ—s nihil vâ—rum essvâ—dâ—aâ—uâ— sâ—d ii qui â—â—â—â—bâ—s â—â—â—â—â— faâ—sae â—â—aeâ—am adjunâ—â—â—â— est 〈◊〉 camuâ— â—an â simâ—â—â—â—â—â—â— uâ— c. Ciâ— dâ— Nat. Dâ—or p. 7. his ignorance and shâ—wing him how many things were past his knowledge Thus Christ instructed Nic dâ—mus about the work of Regeneration so as to let him know that though the Necessity of it must be known yâ—t the manner of the Spirits accâ—sses to the soul cannot be known Iohn 3. 7 8. And Paul in his discâ—urse of Election takes notice of the unsearchable depths and the creatures unfitness to dispute with God Rom. 9. When you find any dispuâ—es about Predetermination or Predestination resolved into such points as thâ—se Whether God do by physical premoving influx or by concourse or by moral operation ut finiâ— determine or spâ—cifie moral acts of man Whether a Positive Decâ—ee quoad actum be necessary to the Nâ—gation of effects as that such a one shall not have grace given him or be câ—â—verted or saved that all the millions of possible persons names and things shall not be
Rom. 10. 15 1â— translate it Age it is the Age of the Church of the Messiah incarnate which is all one 4. Because it was a small part of the world comparatively that heard the Gospel in the Apostles dayes And the far greatest part of the world is without it at this day when yet God our Saviour would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth 5. Even where the Gospel hath long continued for the most part there are many still that are in infidelity And so great a work is not left without an appointed suitable means for its performance And if an Office was necessary for it in the first age it is not credible that it is left to private mens charity ever since 6. Especially considedering that private men are to be supposed insufficient 1. Because they are not educated purposely for it but usually for something else 2. Because that they have other Callings to take them up 3. Because they have no special obligation And that which is no mans peculiar work is usually left undone by all II. The peoples Call or Consent is not necessary to a Ministers reception of his Office in General nor for this part of his work in special But only to his Pastoral Relation to themselves 1. It is so in other functions that are exercised by skill The Patients or People make not a man a Physicion or a Lawyer but only choose what Physicion shall be their Physicion and what Lawyer shall be their Counsellor 2. If the peoples Call or Consent be necessary it is either the Infidels or the Churches Not the Infidels to whom he is to preach for 1. He is Authorized to preach to them as the Apostles were before he goeth to them 2. Their Consent is but a Natural-consequent-requisite for the Reception and success of their Teaching but not to the Authority which is pre-requisite 3. Infidels cannot do so much towards the making of a Minister of Christ. 4. Else Christ would have few such Ministers 5. If it be Infidels either all or some If some why those rather than others Or is a man made a Minister by every Infidel auditory that heareth him 2. Nor is it Christian people that must do this much to the making of a General Minister For 1. They have no such Power given for it in Nature or the Word of God 2. They are generally unqualified and unable for such a work 3. They are no where obliged to it nor can fitly leave their Callings for it Much less to get the abilities necessary to judge 4. Which of the people have this power Is it any of them or any Church of private men Or some one more than the rest Neither one nor all can lay any claim to it There is some reason why this Congregation rather than another should choose their own Pastors But there is no Reason nor Scripture that this Congregation choose a Minister to convert the World III. I conclude therefore that the Call of a Minister in General doth consist 1. Dispositively in the due Qualifications and â—nablement of the person 2. And the Necessity of the people with opportunity is a providential part of the Call 3. And the ordainers are the Orderly Electors and determineâ—s of the person that shall receive the power from Christ. 1. For this is part of the power of the Keyes or Church-Government 2. And Paul giveth this direction for exercising of this power to Timothy which sheweth the ordinary way of Calling 2 Tim. 2 Tim. 3. 6 7. Tâ—t 1. 5 6. 2. 2. And the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also Act. 13. 1 2 3. There were in the Church at Antioch certain Prophets As they ministred to the Lord the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away And they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed In this whether it be to be called an Ordination or rather a Mission there is somewhat Ordinary that it be by men in office and somewhat extraordinary that it be by a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost And Timothy received his Gifts and Office by the Imposition of the hands of Paul and of the Presbytery 1 Tim. 4. 14. 2 Tim. 1. 6. 1 Tim. 5. 22. Lay hands suddenly on no man These instances make the case the clearer 1. Because it is certain that all that Governing power which is given by Christ to the Church under the name of the Keyes is given to the Pastors 2. Because there are no other competitors to lay a reasonable claim to it Quest. 19. Wherein consisteth the Power and Nature of Ordination And to whom doth it belong And is it an Act of Iurisdiction And is Imposition of hands necessary in it I. THis is resolved on the by before 1. Ordination performeth two things 1. The designation election or determination of the person who shall receive the Office 2. The Ministerial Investiture of him in that office which is a Ceremonial delivery of Possession As a servant doth deliver possession of a house by delivering him the Key who hath before received the power or Right from the Owner 2. The office delivered by this Election and Investiture is the sacred Ministerial office in General to be after exercised according to particular Calls and opportunities As Christ called the Apostles and the Spirit called the ordinary general Teachers of those times such as Barnabas Silas Silvanus Timothy Epaphroditus Apollo c. And as is before cited 2 Tim. 2. 2. As a man is made in General a Licensed Physicion Lawyer c. 3. This Ordination is Ordinis gratiâ necessary to order and therefore so far necessary as Order is necessary which is Ordinarily when the greater interest of the substantial duty or of the Thing Ordered is not against it As Christ determined the case of Sabbath keeping and not eating the Shew-bread As the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath and the end is to be preferred before the separable means so ordination was instituted for order and order for the thing ordered and for the work of the Gospel and the good of souls and not the Gospel and mens souls for that Order Therefore when 1. The death 2. Distance 3. Or malignity of the Ordainers depriveth a man of Ordination these three substitutes may notifie to him the Will of God that he is by him a person called to that office 1. Fitness for the works in Understanding Willingness and Ability 2. The Necessity of souls 3. Opportunity II. The power of ordaining belongeth not 1. To Magistrates 2. Or to private men either single or as the body of a Church but 3. To the Senior Pastors of the Church whether Bishops or Presbyters
by decisive Iudicial â—entence Nor any Universal Civil Monarch of the world 2. The publick Governing Decisive judgement obliging others belongeth to publick persons or Officers Eph. 4. 7 13 14 15 16. of God and not to any private man 1 Cor. 12. 28 29. 17. 3. The publick decision of Doubts or Controversies about Faith it self or the true sense of Gods Word and Laws as obliging the whole Church on Earth to believe that decision or not gainsay it Acts 15. See my Key for Catholicks because of the Infallibility or Governing authority of the Deciders belongeth to none but Jesus Christ Because as is said he hath made no Universal Governour nor Infallible Expositor It belongeth to the Law-giver only to make such an Universally obliging Exposition of his own Laws 4. True Bishops or Pastors in their own particular Churches are Authorized Teachers and Guides in Expounding the Laws and Word of Christ And the people are bound as Learners to reverence their Teaching and not contradict it without true cause yea and to believe them fide humanâ in things pertinent to their Office For oportet discentem credere 5. No such Pastors are to be Absolutely believed nor in any case of notorious Error or Heresie where the Word of God is discerned to be against them 6. For all the people as Reasonable creatures have a judgement of private discerning to judge what they must Receive as Truth and to discern their own duty by the help of the Word of God and of their Teachers 7. The same power of Governing-Iudgement Lawful Synods have over their several flocks as a Pastor over his own but with greater advantage 8. The power of Judging in many Consociate Churches who is to be taken into Communion as Orthodox and who to be refused by those Churches as Hereticks in specie that is what Doctrine they will judge sound or unsound as it is Iudicium discernendi belongeth to every one of the Council â—ingly As it is a Iudgement obliging themselves by Contract and not of Governing each other it is in the Contracters and Consenters And for peace and order usually in the Major Vote But with the Limitations before expressed 9. Every true Christian believeth all the Essentials of Christianity with a Divine faith and not by a meer humane belief of his Teachers though by their Help and Teaching his faith is generated and confirmed and preserved Therefore no essential Article of Christianity is left to any obliging decision of any Church but only to a subservient obliging Teaching As whether there be a God a Christ a Heaven a Hell an Immortality of souls whether God be to be believed loved feared obeyed before man Whether the Scripture be Gods Word and true Whether those that contradict it are to be believed therein Whether Pastors Assemblies publick Worship Baptism Sacrament of the Lords Supper be Divine institutions And the same I may say of any known Word of God No mortals may judge in partem utramliâ—et but the Pastors are only Authorized Teachers and helpers of the peoples faith And so they be partly to one another 10. If the Pope or his Council were the Infallible or the Governing Expositors of all Gods Laws and Scriptures 1. God would have enabled them to do it by an Universal Commentary which all men should be obliged to believe or at least not to contradict For there is no Authority and Obligation given to men yea to so many successively to do that for the needful decision of Controversies which they never have Ability given them to do For that were to oblige them to things impossible 2. And the Pope and his Council would be the most treacherous miscreants on earth that in so many hundred years would never write such an Infallible nor Governing Commentary to end the differences of the Christian world Indeed they have judged with others against Arrius that Christ is true God and one with the Father in substance c. But if they had said the contrary must we have taken it for Gods truth or have believed them 11. To judge who for Heresie or Seandal shall be punished by the Sword belongeth to none but the Magistrate in his own dominions As to judge who shall have Communion or be excommunicated from the Church belongeth as aforesaid to the Pastors And the said Magistrate hath first as a man his own Iudgement of discerning what is Heresie and who of his subjects are guilty of it in order to his publick Governing Judgement 12. The Civil Supream Ruler may Antecedently exercise this Judgement of Discerning by the Teaching of their proper Teachers in order to his consequent sentences on offenders And so in his Laws may tell the subjects what Doctrines and practices he will either Tolerate or punish And thus may the Church Pastors do in their Canons to their several flocks in relation to Communion or non-communion 13. He that will condemn particular persons as Hereticks or offenders must allow them to speak for themselves and hear the proofs and give them that which justice requireth c. And if the Pope can do so at the Antipodes and in all the world either per se or per alium without giveing that other his essential claimed power let him prove it by better experience than we have had 14. As the prime and sole-universal Legislation belongeth to Jesus Christ so the final Judgement universal and particular belongeth to him which only will end all Controversies and from which there is no appeal Quest. 29. Whether a Parents power over his Children or a Pastor or many Pastors or Bishops over the same Children as parts of their flock be greater or more obliging in matters of Religion and publick Worship THis being toucht on somewhere else I only now say 1. That if the case were my own I would 1. Labour to know their different Powers as to the matter commanded and obey each in that which is proper to his place 2. If I were young and ignorant Natural necessity and natural obligation together would give my Parents with whom I lived such an advantage above the Minister whom I seldome see or understand as would determine the case de eventu and much de jure 3. If my Parents commanded me to hear a Teacher who is against Ceremonies or certain Forms and to hear none that are for them natural necessity here also ordinarily would make it my duty first to hear and obey my Parents And in many other cases till I came to understand the greater power of the Pastors in their own place and work 4. But when I come to Church or know that the judgement of all Concordant Godly Pastors condemneth such a thing as damnable Heresie or Sin which any Father commandeth me to receive and profess I would more believe and follow the Judgement of the Pastors and Churches Quest. 30. May an Office Teacher or Pastor be at once in a stated Relation of a Pastor and a
against forms of prayer that all the years that he lived at Middleburg and Anâ—werp he constantly used the same form before Sermon and mostly after Sermon and also did read prayers in the Church and that since he seldome concluded but with the Lords Prayer of England Cartwright Hildersham Greenham Perkins Baine Amesius c. And I less fear erring in all this company than with those on either of the extreams Quest. 79. Is it lawful to forbear the preaching of some Truths upon mans prohibition that I may have liberty to preach the rest yea and to promise before hand to forbear them Or to do it for the Churches peace Answ. 1. SOme Truths are of so great moment and necessity that without them you cannot preach the Gospel in a saving sort These you may not forbear nor promise to forbear 2. Some Truths are such as God at that time doth call men eminently to publish and receive as against some Heresie when it is in the very height or the Church in greatest danger of it Or concerning some Duty which God then specially calleth men to perform As the duty of Loyalty just in the time of a perillous Rebellion c. Such preaching being a Duty must not be forborn when it can be performed upon lawful terms 3. But some Truths are Controverted among good men and some are of a lower nature and usefulness And concerning these I further say 1. That you may not renounce them or deny them not subscribe to the smallest untruth for liberty to preach the greatest truth 2. But you may for the time that the Churches benefit requireth it both forbear to preach them and promise to forbear both for the Churches peace and for that Liberty to preach the Gospel which you cannot otherwise obtain The Reasons are 1. Because it is not a duty to preach them at that time For no duty is a duty at all times Affirmative Precepts bind not ad semper because man cannot alwayes do them 2. It is a sin to prefer a lesser truth or good before a Greater You cannot speak all things at once When you have all done some yea a thousand must be by you omitted Therefore the less should be omitted rather than the greater 3. You have your Office to the Churches Edification Preaching is made for man and not man for preaching But the Churches Edification requireth you rather to preach the Gospel than that opinion or point which you are required to forbear Without this the hearers may be saved but not without the Gospel And what a man may do and must do he may on good occasion promise to do He that thinketh Diocesans or Liturgies or Ceremonies unlawful and yet cannot have leave to preach the Gospel in time of need unless he will forbear and promise to forbear to preach against them may and ought so to doâ— and promise rather than not to preach the Gospel Object But if men imprison or hinder me from preaching that is their fault But if I voluntarily forbear any duty it is my own fault Answ. 1. It is to forbear a sin and not a duty at that time It is no more a duty than reading or singing or praying at Sermon time 2. When you are in Prison or know in all probability you shall be there though by other mens fault it is your own fault if you will deny a lawful means to avoid it For your not preaching the Gospel is then your own sin as well as other mens And theirs excuseth not yours Quest. 80. May or must a Minister silenced or forbid to Preach the Gospel go on still to preach it against the Law Answ. DIstinguish between 1. Iust silencing and Unjust 2. Necessary preaching and unnecessary 1. Some men are justly forbidden to preach the Gospel as 1. Those that are utterly unable and do worse than nothing when they do it 2. Those that are Hereticks and subvert the Essentials of Christianity or Godliness 3. Those that are so Impious and Malignant that they turn all against the Practice of that Religion which they profess In a word All that do directly more hurt than good 2. In some places there are so many able preachers that some tolerable men may be spared if not accounted supernumeraries and the Church will not suffer by their silence But in other Countreys either the Preachers are so few or so bad or the people so very ignorant and hardened and ungodly or so great a number that are in deep necessity that the need of preaching is undenyable And so I conclude 1. That he that is justly silenced and is unfit to Preach is bound to forbear 2. He that is silenced by just Power though unjustly in a Countrey that needeth not his Preaching must forbear there and if he can must go into another Coâ—â—â—â—â—y where he may be more serviceable 3. Magistrates may not Ecclesiastically Ordain Ministers or degrade them But only either give them Liberty or deny it them as there is cause 4. Magistrates are not the â—ountain of the Ministerial Office as the Soveraign is of all the Civil power of inferiour Magistrates But both offices are immediately from God 5. Magistrates have not power from God to forbid men to Preach in all cases nor as they please but justly only and according to Gods Laws 6. Men be not made Ministers of Christ only pro tempore or on tryal to go off again if they dislike it But are absolutely dedicated to God and take their lot for better and for worse which maketh the Romanists say that ordination is a Saâ—ramenâ— and so it may be aptly called and that we receive an indelible character that is an obligation during life unless God himself disable us 7. Aâ— we are â—â—â—â—rlier devoted and relaâ—ed to God than Church lands goods and temples are so the sacriledge of alienating a consecrated person unjustly is greater and more unquestionable than the sacriledge of alienating Consecrated houses lands or things And therefore no Minister may Sacrilegiously alienate himself from God and his undertaken office and work 8. We must do â—â—y Lawful thing to procure the Magistrates Licence to Preach in his Dominions 9. All men silenced or forbidden by Magistrates to Preach are noâ— thereby obliged or warranted to forbear Foâ— â— The Apostles expresly determine it Act. 4. 19. Whether it be better to hearken to God rather than to you judge ye 2. Christ oâ—â— foreâ—old his servants that they must Preach against the will of Rulers and suffer by them 3. The Apostles and ordinary Ministers also for 300 years after Christ did generally preach against the Magistrates will throughout the Roman Empire and the World 4. The Orthodox Bishops commonly took themselves bound to Preach when Arrian or other Heretical Emperours forâ—ad them 5. A moral duty of stated necessity to the Church and mens salvation is noâ— subjected to the will of men for Order sake For Order is for the thing Ordered and for the End Magistrates
than to have no publick helps and Worship Quest. 150. Is it lawful to read the Apocrypha or any good Books besides the Scriptures to the Church as Homilies c. Answ. 1. IT is not lawful to Read them as Gods Word or to pretend them to be the Holy Scriptures for that is a falshood and an addition to Gods Word 2. It is not lawful to read them scandalously in a title and manner tending to draw the people to believe that they are Gods Word or without a sufficient distinguishing of them from the holy Scriptures 3. If any one of the Apocryphal books as Iudith Tobit Bell and the Dragon c. be as fabulous false and bad as our Protestant Writers Reignoldus Amesius Whitakers Chamier and abundance more affirm them to be it is not lawful ordinarily to Read them in that honourable way as Chapters called Lessons are usually read in the assemblies Nor is it lawful so to Read heretical fabulous or erroneous books But it is lawful to Read publickly Apocryphal and humane Writings Homilies or edifying Sermons on these conditions following 1. So be it they be indeed sound doctrine holy and fitted to the peoples edification 2. So be it they be not read scandalously without sufficient differencing them from Gods Book 3. So they be not Read to exclude or hinder the Reading of the Scriptures or any other necessary Church-duty 4. So they be not Read to keep up an ignorant lazy Ministry that can or will do no better nor to exercise the Ministers sloth and hinder him from preaching 5. And specially if Authority command it and the Churches Agreement require it as a signification what doctrine it is which they profess 6. Or if the Churches Necessities require it As if they have no Minister or no one that can do so much to their Edification any other way 7. Therefore the use of Catechisms is confessed lawful in the Church by almost all Quest. 151. May Church Assemblies be held where there is no Minister Or what publick Worship may be so performed by Lay-men As among Infidels or Papists where Persecution hath killed imprisoned or expelled the Ministers Answ. 1. SUch an Assembly as hath no Pastor or Minister of Christ is not a Church in a political sense as the word signifieth a Society consisting of Pastor and flock But it may be a Church in a larger sense as the word signifieth only a Community or Association of private Christians for mutual help in holy things 2. Such an Assembly ought on the Lords dayes and at other fit times to meet together for mutual help and the publick worshipping of God as they may rather than not to meet at all 3. In those meetings they may do all that followeth 1. They may pray together a Lay-man being ☞ the Speaker 2. They may sing Psalms 3. They may Read the Scriptures 4. They may read some holy edifying Writings of Divines or repeat some Ministers Sermons 4. Some that are ablest may speak to the instruction and exhortation of the rest as a Master may do in his family or neighbours to stir up Gods graces in each other as was opened before 5. And some such may Catechize the younger and more ignorant 6. They may by mutual Conference open their cases to each other and communicate what knowledge or experience they have to the praise of God and each others edification 7. They may make a solemn profession of their Faith Covenant and Subjection to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost And all this is better than nothing at all But 1. None of them may do any of this as a Pastor Ruler Priest or Office-Teacher of the Church 2. Nor may they Baptize 3. Nor administer the Lords Supper 4. Nor excommunicate by sentence but only executively agree to avoid the notoriously impenitent 5. Nor Absolve Ministerially or as by authority nor exercise any of the power of the Keyes that is of Government 6. And they must do their best to get a Pastor as soon as they are able Quest. 152. Is it lawful to subscribe or profess full Assent and Consent to any Religious Books besides the Scripture seeing all are fallible Answ. 1. IT is not lawful to profess or subscribe that any Book is truer or better than it is or that there is no fault in any that is faulty or to profess that we believe any mortal man to be totally Infallible in all that he shall write or say or impeccable in all that he shall do 2. Because all men are fallible and so are we in judging it is not lawful to say of any large and dubious Books in which we know no fault that there is no fault or error in them we being uncertain and it being usual for the best men even in their best writings prayers or works to be faulty as the consequent or effect of our common culpable imperfection But we may say That we know no fault or error in it if indeed we do not know of any 3. It is lawful to profess or subscribe our Assent and Consent to any humane Writing which we judge to be True and Good according to the measure of its Truth and Goodness As if Church-Confessions that are found be offered us for our Consent we may say or subscribe I hold all the Doctrine in this Book to be true and good And by so doing I do not assert the Infallibility of the Authors but only the Verity of the Writing I do not say that He cannot err or that he never erreth but that he erreth not in this as far as I am able to discern Quest. 153. May we lawfully swear Obedience in all things Lawful and honest either to Usurpers or to our lawful Pastors Answ. 1. IF the question were of Imposing such Oaths I would say that it was many a hundred years before the Churches of Christ either under persecution or in their prosperity and glory did ever know of any such practice as the people or the Presbyters swearing obedience to the Bishops And when it came up the Magistracy Princes and Emperours fell under the feet of the Pope and the Clergy grew to what we see it in the Roman Kingdom called a Church And far should I be from desiring such Oaths to be imposed 2. But the question being only of the Taking such Oaths and not the Imposing of them I say that 1. It is not lawful to swear obedience to an Usurper Civil or Ecclesiastical in licitis honestis Because it is a subjecting our selves to him and an acknowledging that authority which he hath not For we can swear no further to obey the King himself but in things lawful and honest And to do so by an Usurper is an injury to the King and unto Christ. 2. But if the King himself shall command us to swear obedience to a subordinate Civil Usurper he thereby ceaseth to be an Usurper and receiveth authority and it becometh our duty And if he that
was an Ecclesiastical Usurper quoad personam that had no true Call to a Lawful Office shall after have a Call or if any thing fall out which shall make it our duty to Consent and Call him then the impediment from his Usurpation is removed 3. It is not lawful though the Civil Magistrate command us to swear obedience even in licitis honestis to such an Usurper whose Office it self is unlawful or forbidden by Christ as he is such an Officer No Protestant thinketh it lawful to swear obedience to the Pope as Pope nor do any that take Lay-Elders to be an unlawful Office think it lawful to swear obedience to them as such 4. If one that is in an unlawful Ecclesiastical Office be also at once in another that is lawful we may swear obedience to him in respect of the Lawful Office So it is Lawful to swear obedience to the Pope in Italy as a Temporal Prince in his own Dominions And to a Cardinal as Richelieu Mazarine Ximenes c. as the Kings Minister exercising a power derived from him So it is lawful for a Tenant where Law and Custome requireth it to swear fidelity to a Lay Elder as his Landlord or Temporal Lord and Master And so the old Non-conformists who thought the English Prelacy an unlawful Office yet maintained that it is Lawful to take the Oath of Canonical obedience because they thought it was imposed by the King and Laws and that we swear to them not as Officers claiming a Divine Right in the Spiritual Government but as Ordinaries or Officers made by the King to exercise so much of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction under him as he can delegate according to the Oath of Supremacy in which we all acknowledge the King to be Supream in all Ecclesiastical Causes that is Not the Supream Pastor Bishop or Spiritual Key-bearer or Ruler but the Supream Civil Ruler of the Church who hath the power of the Sword and of determining all things extrinsick to the Pastoral Office and so of the Coercive Government of all Pastors and Churches as well as of other Subjects And if Prelacy were proved never so unlawful no doubt but by the Kings Command we may swear or perform formal obedience to a Prelate as he is the Kings Officer Of the Non-conformists judgement in this read Bradshaw against Canne c. 5. But in such a case no Oath to Inferiours is lawful without the Consent of the Soveraign power or at least against his will 6. Though it be a duty for the flock to obey every Presbyter yet if they would make all the people swear obedience to them all wise and conscionable Christians should dissent from the introduction of such a custome and deny such Oaths as far as lawfully they may that is 1. If the King be against it we must refuse it 2. If he be neutral or meerly passive in it we must refuse unless some apparent necessity for the Churches good require it 1. Because it favoureth of Pride in such Presbyters 2. Because it is a new Custome in the Church and contrary to the antient practice 3. It is not only without any authority given them by Christ that they exact such Oaths but Mat. 22. 4 10. Luke 22. 27 c. Mark 9. 35. 1 Pet. 5. 2 3. 1 Cor. 9. 19. 1 Cor. 4. 1. 2 Cor. 4. 5. also contrary to the great humility lowliness and condescension in which he describeth his Ministers who must be Great by being the servants of all 4. And it tendeth to corrupt the Clergy for the future 5. And such new impositions give just reason to Princes and to the People to suspect that the Presbyters are aspiring after some inordinate exaltation or have some ill project for the advancement of themselves 7. But yet if it be not only their own ambition which imposeth it but either the King and Laws command it or necessity require it for the avoidance of a greater evil it may be Lawful and a duty to take an Oath of Obedience to a Lawful Presbyter or Bishop Because 1. It is a ☜ duty to Obey them 2. And it is not forbidden us by Christ to promise or swear to do our duty even when they may sin in demanding such an Oath 8. If an Office be Lawful in the essential parts and yet have unlawful integrals or adjuncts or be abused in exercise it will not by such additions or abuses be made unlawful to swear Obedience to the Officer as such 9. If one Presbyter or Bishop would make another Presbyter or Bishop to swear obedience to him without authority the Case is the same as of the Usurpers before mentioned Quest. 154. Must all our preaching be upon a Text of Scripture Answ. 1. IN many Cases it may be lawful to preach without a Text to make Sacred Orations Act◠2 3. like Greg. Nazianzenes and Homilies like Macarius's Ephrem Syrus's and many other antients and like our own Church-Homilies 2. But ordinarily it is the fittest way to preach upon a Text of Scripture 1. Because it is our Luke 4. 18. very Office to Teach the people the Scripture The Prophets brought a new word or message from God but the Priests did but keep interpret and teach the Law already received And we are not Mal. 2. 7. successors of the inspired Prophets but as the Priests were Teachers of Gods received Word And this practice will help the people to understand our Office 2. And it will preserve the due esteem and reverence of the Holy Scriptures which the contrary practice may diminish Quest. 155. Is not the Law of Moses abrogated and the whole Old Testament out of date and therefore not to be Read publickly and preached on Answ. 1. THe Covenant of Innocency is ceased cessante subditorum capacitate as a Covenant or promise And so are the Positive Laws proper to Adam in that state and to many particular persons since 2. The Covenant mixt of Grace and Works proper to the Jews with all the Jewish Law as such was never made to us or to the rest of the world and to the Jews it is ceased by the coming and perfecter Laws and Covenant of Christ. 3. The Prophecies and Types of Christ and the Promises made to Adam Abraham and others of his Coming in the flesh are all fulfilled and therefore not useful to all the ends of their first making And the many Prophecies of particular things and persons past and gone are accomplished 4. But the Law of Nature is still Christs Law And that Law is much expounded to us in the Old Testament And if God once for another use did say This is the Law of Nature the truth of these words as a Divine Doctrine and Exposition of the Law of Nature is still the same 5. The Covenant of Grace made with Adam and Noah for all mankind is still in force as to the great benefits and main condition that is as to pardon given by it
you do evil with double violence and with blasphemous fathering your sins on God and with impenitence and justification of your sin This made Paul mad in persecuting the Church Prov. 15. 21. Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom but a man of understanding walketh uprightly No man can do that well which he understandeth not well Therefore you must study and take unwearied pains for knowledge Wisdom never grew up with idleness though the conceit of wisdom doth no where more prosper This age hath told us to what desperate precipices men will be carryed by ignorant zeal 2. And the understanding must be large or it cannot be solid When many particulars are concerned in an action the over-looking of some one may spoil the work Narrow minded men are turned as the weather-cock with the wind of the times or of every temptation and they seldome avoid one sin but by falling into another It is Prudence that must manage an upright life And Prudence seeth all that must be seen and putteth every circumstance into the ballance For want of which much mischief may be done while you seem to be doing the greatest good The prudent man looketh well to his going Prov. 14. 15 See therefore that ye walk circumspectly at a hairs breadth not as fools but as wise 6. But because you will object that alas few even of the upright have wits so strong as to be fit Psal. 119. 98. Prov. 1 6 7. 8. 12. 15 18. 13. 1. 14 20. 15. 2. 7 12. 31. 22. 17. 25. 12. Eccles. 12. 11. Dan. 12. 3 10. Matth. 24. 45. Psal. 37. 30. Eccles. 2. 13. Isa. 33. 6. Matth. 12. 42. Luke 1. 17. 21. 15. Acts 6. 3. 2 Pet. 3. 15. Mal. 2. 6 7. 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. Heb. 13. 7 17. Tit. 1. 9 13. 2. 1 8. 2 Tim. 4. 3. for this I add that he that will walk uprightly must in the great essential parts of Religion have this foresaid knowledge of his own and in the rest at least he must have the conduct of the wise And therefore 1. He must be wise in the great matters of his salvation though he be weak in other things 2. And he must labour to be truly acquainted who are indeed wise men that are meet to be his guides And he must have recourse to such in Cases of Conscience as a sick man to his Physicion It is a great mercy to be so far wise as to know a wise man from a fool and a Counsellor from a deceiver 7. He that will walk uprightly must be the master of his passions not stupid but calm and sober Though some passion is needful to excite the understanding to its duty yet that which is Prov. 14. 29. Col. 3. 8. inordinate doth powerfully deceive the mind Men are very apt to be confident of what they passionately apprehend And passionate judgements are frequently mistaken and ever to be suspected It being exceeding difficult to entertain any passion which shall not in some measure pervert our reason which is one great reason why the most confident are ordinarily the most erroneous and blind Be sure therefore when ever you are injured or passion any way engaged to set a double guard upon your judgements 8. He that will walk uprightly must not only difference between simple Good and Evil but between a greater Good and a less For most sin in the world consisteth in preferring a Lesser Good before Matth. 9. 13. 12. 7. Psal. 40. 6. 51. 16. 1 Sam. 15. 22. a Greater He must still keep the ballance in his hand and compare good with good Otherwise he will make himself a Religion of sin and preferr Sacrifice before mercy and will hinder the Gospel and mens salvation for a ceremony and violate the bonds of love and faithfulness for every opinion which he calleth Truth and will tythe Mint and Cummin while he neglecteth the great things of the Law When a lesser good is preferred before a greater it is a sin and the common way of sinning It is not then a duty when it is inconsistent with a greater good 2 Cor. 10. 8. 13. 10. Rom. 15. 2. 14. 19. 1 Cor. 14. 26. 2 Cor. 12. 19. Rom. 3. 8. Eph. 4. 12 c. 1 Cor. 12. 9. He must ever have a conjunct respect to the Command and the End The good of some actions is but little discernable any where but in the Command and others are evidently good because of the good they tend to We must neither do evil and break a Law that good may come by it Nor yet pretend obedience to do mischief as if God had made his Laws for Destruction of the Church or mens souls and not for Edification 10. He must keep in Union with the Universal Church and preferr its interest before the interest of any party whatsoever and do nothing that tendeth to its hurt 11. He must love his neighbour as himself and do as he would be done by and love his enemies and Matth. 22 39. 5. 43 44. 7. 12. forgive wrongs and hear their defamations as his own 12. He must be Impartial and not lose his Iudgement and Charity in the opinion or interest of a Jam. 3. 15 16 17 18. Party or Sect Nor think all right that is Held or Done by those that he best liketh nor all wrong that is held or done by those that are his adversaries But judge of the Words and Deeds of those Gal. 2 13 14. Deut. 25. 16. 1 Cor. 6. 9. that are against him as if they had been said or done by those of his own side Else he will live in slâ—ndering backbiting and gross unrighteousness 13. He must be deliberate in judging of Things and Persons not rash or hasty in believing reports Matth. 7. 1 2. John 7. 24. Râ— 14. 10 13. 1 Pet. 1. 17. or receiving opinions not judging of Truths by the first appearance but search into the naked evidence Nor judging of persons by prejudice fame and common talk 14. He must be willing to receive and obey the Truth at the dearest rate especially of laborious Luke 14. 26. 33. 1â— 4. Prov. 23. 23. Matth. 1â— 3. Prov. 26. 12. 16 28 11. 1 Cor. 3. 18 Prov. â— 7. study and a self-denying life Not taking all to be Truth that costeth men dear nor yet thinking that Truth indeed can be over-prized 15. He must be Humble and self-suspicious and come to Christs School as a little child and not have a proud over-valuing of himself and his own understanding The proud and selfish are blind and cross and have usually some opinions or interests of their own that lye cross to duty and to other mens good 16. He must have an eye to posterity and not only to the present time or age and to other Nations Judg. 8. 27. 1 Cor. 7. 35. 1 King 14. 16. 15. 26.
that despiseth despiseth not man but God 2. You wrong the Magistrate as much as you should do an Ambassador if you took him to be the messenger of some Iack Straw or some fellow that signifieth no more than his personal worth importeth 3. And you wrong your selves For while you neglect the Interest and authority of God in your Rulers you forfeit the acceptance protection and reward of God Subjects as well as servants must learn that great lesson Col. 3. 23. 24 25. And whatsoever ye do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ But he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong that he hath done and there is no respect of persons So Eph. 6. 5 6 7 8. Magistrates are as truly Gods Officers as Preachers And therefore as he that heareth Preachers heareth him so he that obeyeth Rulers obeyeth him The exceptions are but the like in both cases It is not every thing that we must receive from Preachers nor every thing that we must do at the command of Rulers But both in their proper place and work must be regarded as the officers of God and not as men that have no higher Authority than their own to bear them out § 26. Direct 4. Let no vices of the person cause you to forget the dignity of his office The authority Direct 4. of a sinful Ruler is of God and must accordingly be obeyed Of this read Bishop Bilson at large in his excellent Treatise of Christian Subjection against the Papists that excommunicate and depose Princes whom they account Hereticks or favourers of them Those sins which will damn a mans soul and deprive him of Heaven will not deprive him of his Kingdom nor disoblige the subjects Victor utic saith of Victorianus Proconsul of Carthage that even to an Arrian persecuting usurping Tyrant Pro rebus sibi commissis semper fidelissimus habebatur and the like of Sebastian and others p. 460. from their obedience An Infidel or an ungodly Christian that is an Hypocrite is capable of being a Prince as well as of being a Parent Husband Master And the Apostle hath taught all as well as servants their duty to such 1 Pet. 2. 18 19 20 21. Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear and not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward For this is thank-worthy if a man for conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully For what glory is it if when you are buffeted for your faults you take it patiently but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God For even hereunto were ye called Though it be a rare mercy to have Godly Rulers and a great judgement to have ungodly ones it is such as must be born § 27. Direct 5. Do not either divulge or aggravate the vices of your Governours to their dishonour Direct 5. For their Honour is necessary to the publick good If they have not care of their own honour yet their subjects must have a care of it If once they be dishonoured they will the more easily be contemned hated and disobeyed Therefore the dishonouring of the Rulers tendeth to the dissolution of the Government and ruine of the Common-wealth Only in two cases did the ancient Christians aggravate the wickedness of their Governours 1. In case they were such cruel monsters as Nero who lived to the misery of mankind 2. In case they were not only open enemies of the Church of Christ but their Honour stood in competition with the Honour of Christianity piety and honesty as in Iulians case I confess against Nero and Iulian both living and dead and many like them the tongues and pens of wise and sober persons have been very free But the fifth Commandment is not to be forgotten Honour thy Father and Mother And 1 Pet. 2. 17. Fear God Honour the Mark 7. 10. 10. 19. King Though you must not call evil good yet you may conceal and hide evil Cham was cursed for opening his fathers nakedness Though you must flatter none in their fins nor hinder their Repentance but further it by all righteous means yet must you speak Honourably of your Rulers and endeavour to breed an Honourable esteem of them in the peoples minds and not as some that think they do well if they can secretly make their Rulers seem odious by opening and aggravating their faults § 28. Direct 6. Subdue your passions that no injuries which you may suffer by them may Direct 6. disturb your reason and make you dishonour them by way of revenge If you may not revenge your selves on private men much less on Magistrates And the Tongue may be an unjust revenger as well as the hand Passion will provoke you to be telling all men Thus and thus I was used and to perswade you that it is no sin to tell the truth of what you suffered But remember that the publick good and the honour of Gods officers are of greater value than the righting of a particular person that is injured Many a discontented person hath set Kingdoms on fire by divulging the faults of Governours for the righting of themselves Obj. But shall cruel and unrighteous or persecuting men do mischief and not hear of it nor be humbled for it Answ. 1. Preachers of the Gospel and others that have opportunity may privately tell them of it to bring them to repentance if they will endure it without dishonouring them by making it publick 2. Historians will tell posterity of it to their perpetual infamy if repentance Lamprid. saith of Alex. Severus that Amavit literatos homines vehementer eos etiam reformidans nequid de se asperum scriberent uâ—lversal Histor p. 132. Tiberius bellua luto sanguine macerata sui tegendi peritissimus artifex totus tamen posteritatis oculis patuit Deo hypocrisim detractione larvae plectente and well-doing recover not their honour Flatterers abuse the living but Truth will dishonour their wickedness when they are dead For it is Gods own decree that the memory of the just is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot Prov. 10. 7. 3. And God himself will fully be avenged upon the impenitent for ever having told you that it were better for him that offendeth one of his little ones that a milstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the Sea And is not all this enough without the revenge of your passionate tongues * Matth. 18. 6. Mark 9. 42. Luk. 17. 2. Jud. 7. 8 9. To speak evil of dignities and despise dominion and bring railing accusations are the sins of the old licentious Hereticks Christ left us his example not to revile the meanest when we are reviled 1 Pet. 2. 23. If you believe that God will justifie the innocent and avenge
them speedily Luk. 18. 7 8. what need you be so forward to justifie and avenge your selves Obj. If God will have their names to rot and spoken evil of when they are dead why may I not do it while they are alive Answ. There is a great deal of difference between a true Historian and a self-avenger in the reason of the thing and in the effects To dishonour bad Rulers while they live doth tend to excite the people to rebellion and to disable them to govern But for Truth to be spoken of them when they are dead doth only lay an odium upon the sin and is a warning to others that they follow them not in evil And this no wicked Prince was ever so Great and powerful as to prevent For it is a part of Gods resolved judgement Yet must Historians so Sâ—rt Aâ—râ—l Victor de Calig De quo nescio an decuerit memoriae prodi nisi forte quia juvat de principibus nosse omnia ut improbi saltem famae metu talia declinent open the faults of the person as not to bring the office into contempt but preserve the reverence due to the authority and place of Governours § 29. Direct 7. By all means overcome a selfish mind and get such a Holy and a publick spirit as Direct 7. more regardeth Gods honour and the publick interest than your own It is SELFISHNESS that is the great Rebel and Enemy of God and of the King and of our Neighbour A selfish private spirit careth not what the Common-wealth suffereth if he himself may be a gainer by it To revenge himself or to rise up to some higher place or increase his riches he will betray and ruine his King his Countrey and his nearest friends A selfish ambitious covetous man is faithful to no man longer than he serveth his ends nor is he any further to be trusted than his own interest will allow Self-denyal and a publick spirit are necessary to every faithful subject § 30. Direct 8. Wish not evil to your Governours in your secret thoughts but if any such thought Direct 8. would enter into your hearts reject it with abhorrence Eccles. 10. 20. Curse not the King no not in thy thought and curse not the rich in thy bed-chamber for a bird of the air shall carry the voice and that which hath wings shall tell the matter A feaverish misguided Zeal for Religion and a passionate discontent for personal injuries do make many greatly guilty in this point They would be much pleased if God would shew some grievous judgement upon persecutors and take no warning by Christs rebukes of Iames and Iohn but secretly are wishing for fire from Heaven not knowing what manner of spirit they are of They cherish such thoughts as are pleasing to them though they dare not utter them in words And he that dare wish hurt is in danger of being drawn by temptation to do hurt Obj. But may we not pray for the cutting off of persecutors And may we not give God thanks for it if he do it himself without any sinful means of ours Answ. Every Ruler that casteth down one sect or party of Christians and setteth up another perhaps as true to the interest of Christianity as they is not to be prayed against and his destruction wished by the suffering party 2. If he be a persecuter of Christianity and Piety it self as Heathens and Infidels are yet if his Government do They are dangerous passages which Petrarch hath though a good and learned and moderate man Dial. 49. Non tot passim essent Domini nec tam late â—urerent nisi populi insanirent cuique civium pro se charior â—oret res privata quam publica voluptas quam gloria pecunia quam libertas Vita quam Virtus Et statim Et sane si vel unum patria civem bonum habeat malum Dominum diutius non habebit The meaning is too plain Abundance of the most learned writers have such passages which must be read with caution Though I would draw none to the other extream Pâ—trarchs 68. Dial 85. Dialog de boâ—o Domino is as smart as the former but yet speaketh not all that contra Reges which be doth contra Dominos However he say that Inter Regem Tyrannum non discernunt Gâ—aii c. So Sr. Thoâ— More in his Poems Regibus è multis Regnum bene qui â—egat unum Vix tamen unus erit si tamen unus erit And that of Senec. Trag. ult Tantum ut noceat cupit esse potens more good than his persecution doth harm you may not so much as wish his downfall 3. If he were a Nero or a Iulian you must pray first for his conversion and if that may not be then next for his restraint and never for his destruction but on supposition that neither of the former may be attained which you cannot say 4. You must pray for the deliverance of the persecuted Church and leave the way and means to God and not prescribe to him Hurtful desires and prayers are seldom of God 5. You may freelyer rejoyce afterwards than desire it before because when a Iulian is cut off you know that Gods righteous will is accomplished when before you knew not that it was his will Yet after it is the deliverance of the Church and not the hurt of a persecuter as such that you must give thanks for Be very suspicious here lest partiality and passion blind you § 31. Direct 9. Learn how to suffer and know what use God can make of your sufferings and think Direct 9. not better of prosperity and worse of suffering than you have cause It is a carnal unbelieving heart that maketh so great a matter of poverty imprisonment banishment or death as if they were undone Bias interrogatus quidnam esset difficile Ferre inquit fortiter mutationem rerum in deterius Laert. p. 55. if they suffer for Christ or be sent to Heaven before the time As if Kingdoms must be disturbed to save you from suffering This better beseems an infidel and a worldling that takes his earthly prosperity for his portion and thinks he hath no other to win or lose Do you not know what the Church hath gained by suffering How pure it hath been when the fire of persecution hath refined it and how prosperity hath been the very that that hath polluted it and shattered it all to pieces by letting in all the ungodly world into the visible Communion of the Saints and by setting the Bishops on contending for superiority and overtopping Emperours and Kings Many thousands that would be excellent persons in adversity cannot bear a high or prosperous state but their brains are turned and pride and contention maketh them the scorn of the adversaries that observe them § 32. Direct 10. Trust God and live by faith and then you will find no need of rebellions or any Direct 10. sinful means
matters Conscire The knowledge of our selves our duties our faults our fears our hopes our diseases c. 2. Or more limitedly and narrowly The knowledge of our selves and our own matters in relation to Gods Law and Iudgement Iudicium hominis de seipso prout subjicitur judicio Dei as Amesius defineth it 2. Conscience is taken 1. Sometime for the Act of self-knowing 2. Sometime for the Habit 3. Sometime for the Faculty that is for the Intellect it self as it is a faculty of self-knowing In all these senses it is taken properly 2. And sometimes it is used by custome improperly for the Person himself that doth Conscire or for his Will another faculty 3 The Conscience may be said to be bound 1. Subjectively as the subjectum quod or the faculty obliged 2. Or Objectively as Conscire the Act of Conscience is the thing ad quod to which we are obliged And upon these necessary distinctions I thus answer to the first question Prop. 1 The Act or the Habit of Conscience are not capable of being the subject obliged no more than any other act or duty The Act or duty is not bound but the man to the act or duty 2. The Faculty or Iudgement is not capable of being the Object or Materia ad quam the thing to which we are bound A man is not bound to be a man or to have an Intellect but is made such 3. The Faculty of Conscience that is the Intellect is not capable of being the immediate or nearest subjectum quod or subject obliged The reason is Because the Intellect of it self is not a free-working faculty but acteth necessarily per modum naturae further than it is under the Empire of the Will And therefore Intellectual and Moral habits are by all men distinguished 4. All Legal or Moral Obligation falleth directly upon the Will only and so upon the Person as a Voluntary agent So that it is proper to say The Will is bound and The Person is bound 5 Improperly and remotely it may be said The Intellect or faculty of Conscience is bound or the tongue or hand or foot is bound as the Man is bound to use them 6. Though it be not proper to say that the Conscience is bound it is proper to say that the Man is bound to the Act and Habit of Conscience or to the exercise of the faculty 7. The common meaning of the phrase that we are bound in conscience oâ— that conscience is bound is that we are bound to a thing by God or by a Divine obligation and that it is a fin against God to violate it So that Divines use here to take the word Conscience in the narrower Theological sense as respect to Gods Law and Iudgement doth enter the definition of it 8. Taking Conscience in this narrower sense To ask Whether mans Law as Mans do bind us in Conscience Having spoken of this Controversie in my Life of Faith as an easie thing in which I thought we were really agreed while we seemed to differ which I called A pitiful Case some Bâ—ethren who say nothing against the truth of what I said are offended at me as speaking too confidently and calling that so easie which Bishop Saâ—derâ—oa and so many others did make a greater matter of I retract the words if they â—e unsuittable either to the matter or the Readers But as to the matter and the truth of the words I desire the Reader but to consider how easie a case Mr. P. maketh of it Eccl. Pol. and how heinous a matter he maketh of our supposed dissent And if after all this it shall appear that the Non-conformists do not at all differ from Hooker Bilson and the generality of the Conformists in this point let him that is willing to be represented as odious and intolerable to Rulâ—rs and to mankind for that in which we do not differ proceed to backbite me for saying that it is a pitiful case and pretending that we are agreed is all one as to ask Whether Man be God 9. And taking Conscience in the large or General sense to ask whether Mans Laws bind us in Conscience subjectively is to ask whether they bind the Understanding to know our duty to man And the tenour of them will shew that While they bind us to an outward Act or from an outward Act it is the man that they bind to or from that act and that is as he is a Rational Voluntary Agent so that a humane obligation is laid upon the Man on the Will and on the Intellect by humane Laws 10. And humane Laws while they bind us to or from an outward Act do thereby bind us as Rational-free agents knowingly to choose or refuse those acts Nor can a Law which is a Moral Instrument any otherwise bind the hand foot or tongue but by first binding us to choose or refuse it knowingly that is conscientiously so that a humane bond is certainly laid on the mind soul or conscience taken in the larger sense 11. Taking Conscience in the stricter sense as including essentially a relation to Gods obligation the full sense of the question plainly is but this Whether it be a sin against God to break the Laws of man And thus plain men might easily understand it And to this it must be answered that it is in two respects a sin against God to break such Laws or Commands as Rulers are authorized by God to make 1. Because God commandeth us to obey our Rulers Therefore he that so obeyeth them not sinneth against a Law of God God obligeth us in General to obey them in all things which they are authorized by him to command But their Law determineth of the particular matter Therefore God obligeth us in Conscience of his Law to obey them in that particular 2. Because by making them his Officers by his Commission he hath given them a certain beam of Authority which is Divine as derived from God Therefore they can command us by a power derived from God Therefore to disobey is to sin against a power derived from God And thus the General case is very plain and easie How man sinneth against God in disobeying the Laws of man and consequently how in a tolerable sense of that phrase it may be said that mans Laws do or do not bind the conscience or rather bind us in point of Conscience or by a Divine obligation Man is not God and therefore as man of himself can lay no Divine obligation on us But Man being Gods Officer 1. His own Law layeth on us an obligation derivatively Divine For it is no Law which hath no obligation and it is no authoritative obligation which is not derived from God 2. And Gods own Law bindeth us to obey mans Laws Quest. 2. BUt is it a sin to break every Penal Law of man Answ. 1. You must remember that Mans Law is essentially the signification of mans Will And therefore obligeth no further than it
act of sin And when an unmortified lust or love of the world doth hurry you to the halter by sinful discontent And what hope of pardon without Repentance How exceeding likely therefore is it that when ever you put your selves out of your present pain and trouble you send your souls to endless torments And will it ease you to pass from poverty or crosses into Hell Or will you damn your souls because another wrongeth you O the madness of a sinner Who will you think hath wronged you most when you feel Hell fire Are you aweary of your lives and will you go to Hell for ease Alas how quickly would you be glad to be here again in a painfuller condition than that which you were so weary of yea and to endure it a thousand years Suppose you saw Hell before your eyes Would you leap into it Is not time of Repentance a mercy to be valued Yea a little reprieve from endless misery is better than nothing What need you make haste to come to Hell Will it not be soon enough if you stay thence as long as you can And why will you throw away your hopes and put your selves past all possibility of recovery before God put you so himself § 6. Direct 6. Understand the wonders of mercy revealed and bestowed on mankind in Iesus Christ Direct 6. and understand the tenour of the Covenant of Grace The ignorance of this is it that keepeth a bitter taste upon your Spirits and maketh you cry out Forsaken and Undone when such Miracles of mercy are wrought for your salvation And the ignorance of this is it that maketh you foolishly cry out There is no hope The day of grace is past It is too late God will never shew me mercy When his Word assureth all that will believe it that who ever confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy Prov. 28 13. And if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive 1 John 1. 9. And that whoever will may freely drink of the waters of life Rev. 22. 17. And that whoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life John 3. 17. I have no other hope of my salvation but that Gospel which promiseth pardon and salvation unto all that at any time repent and turn to God by faith in Christ And I dare lay my salvation on the truth of this that Christ never rejected any sinner how great soever that at any time in this life was truly willing to come to him and to God by him John 6. 37. He that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out But the malitious Devil would â—ain make God seem odious to the soul and representeth Love it self as our enemy that we might not Love him Despair is such a part of Hell that if he could bring us to it he would think he had us half in Hell already and then he would urge us to dispatch our selves that we might be there indeed and our despair might be uncurable How blind is he that seeth not the Devil in all this CHAP. IX Directions for the forgiving of Enemies and those that injure us Against Wrath See Tom. 1. Ch. against Anger and Malice and Revenge and Persecution § 1. IT is not only actual Murder which is forbidden in the sixth Commâ—ndment but also all inordinate Wrath and Malice and desires of Revenge and injuring the person of our neighbour or our enemy For so the Prophet and Judge of the Church hath himself expounded it Mat. 5. 21 22. Anger hath a hurting inclination and Malice is a fixed Anger and Revenge is the fruit of both or either of them He that will be free from injurious actions must subdue that wrath and malice which is their cause Heart-murders and injuries must be carefully rooted up For out of the Heart proceed evil thoughts and murders c. Matth. 15. 19. This is the fire of Hell on which an evil tongue is set Iames 3. 6. and this must be quenched if you would be innocent § 2. Direct 1. See God in your neighbour and Love him for that of God which is upon him If he Direct 1. be Holy he hath the Moral Image of God If he be unholy he hath his Natural Image as he is a man He is not only Gods Creature but his Reasonable Creature and the Lord of his inferiour works And art thou a child of God and yet canst not see him and love him in his works Without God he is nothing whom thou art so much offended with And though there be somewhat in him which is not of God which may deserve thy hatred yet that is not his substance or person Hate not or wrong not that which is of God It would raise in you such a reverence as would asswage your wrath if you could but see God in him that you are displeased with § 3. Direct 2. To this end observe more the Good which is in your neighbour than the evil Malice Direct 2. overlooketh all that is good and amiable and can see nothing but that which is bad and detestable It hearkeneth more to them that dispraise and open the faults of others than to those that praise them and declare their virtues Not that Good and Evil must be confounded But the Good as well as the Evil must be acknowledged We have more use our selves for the observation of their virtues than of their faults and it is more our duty And were it never so little good that is in them the right observing of it at least would much diminish your dislike § 4. Direct 3. Learn but to Love your neighbour as your self and this will make it easie to you both Direct 3. to forbear him and forgive him With your self you are not apt to be so angry Against your self you bear no malice nor desire no revenge that shall do you hurt As you are angry with your self penitently for the faults you have committed but not so as to desire your own destruction or final hurt but with such a displeasure as tendeth to your recovery so also must you do by others Direct 4. To this end be sure to mortifie your self ishness For it is the inordinate respect Direct 4. that men have to themselves which maketh them aggravate the faults of all that are against them or offend them Be humble and self-denying and you will think your selves so mean and inconsiderable that no fault can be very great nor deserve much displeasure meerly as it is against you A proud self-esteeming man is easily provoked and hardly reconciled without great submission because he thinketh so highly of himself that he thinketh heinously of all that is said or done against him and he is so over-dear to himself that he is impatient with his adversary § 5. Direct 5. Be not your own Iudge in cases of setled malice or revenge but let some impartial Direct 5. sober by
of Iesus of Nazareth which thing I also did c. And 1 Tim. 1. 13. that it was ignorantly in unbelief that he was a blaspheamer a persecutor and injurious And on the other side some Persâ—cute Truth and Goodness while they know it to be so Not because it is Truth or Goodness but because it is against their carnal worldly interest and inclination As the Conscience of a worldling a drunkard a whoremonger beareth witness against his sin while he goeth on in it so oft-times doth the Conscience of the Persâ—cutor and he hath secret convictions that those whom he persecuteth are better and happier than himself § 5. 3. As to the cause sometime persecution is for Christianity and Godliness in the gross or for some great essential point And sometimes it is only for some particular Truth or duty and that perhaps of a lower nature so small or so dark that it is become a great Controversie whether it be Truth or errour duty or sin In some respects it is more comfortable to the persecuted and more heynous in the persecutor that the suffering be for the Greatest things For this leaveth no doubt in the mind whether our cause be good or not and this sheweth that the persecutors mind is most aliene from God and truth But in some other respect it is an aggravation of the sin of the persecutor and of the comfort of the persecuted when it is for smaller truths and duties For it is a sign of great uncharitableness and cruelty when men can find in their hearts to persecute others for little things And it is a sign of a heart that is true to God and very sincere when we will rather suffer any thing from Man than renounce the smallest truth of God or commit the smallest sin against him or omit the smallest duty when it is a duty 4. Sometime persecution is directly for Religion that is for matters of professed Faith or Worship And sometimes it is for a civil or a common cause Yet still it is for our Obedience to God or else it is not the persecution which we speak of though the Matter of it be some common or civil thing As if I were persecuted meerly for giving to the poor or helping the sick or for being Loyal to my Prince and to the Laws or for doing my duty to my Parents or because I will not bear false-witness or tell a lye or subscribe a falshood or any such like This is truly persecution whatever the matter of it be as long as it is truly for Obeying God that we undergo the suffering § 6. I omit many other less considerable distributions And also those afflictions which are but improperly called persecutions as when a man is punished for a fault in a far greater measure than it deserveth this is Injustice but not persecution unless it be his Religion and Obedience to God which is the secret cause of it § 7. Direct 2. Understand well the greatness of the sin of Persecution that you may be kept in a Direct 2. due fear of being tempted to it Here therefore I shall shew you how Great a sin it is § 8. 1. Persecution is a fighting against God So it is called Act. 5. 39. And to fight against God is odious Malignity and desperate folly 1. It is Venemous malignity for a Creature to fight against his Creator and a sinner against his Redeemer who would save him and for so blind a worm to rise up against the wisdom of the All-knowing God! and for so vile a sinner to oppose the fountain of Love and Goodness 2. And what Folly can be greater than for a Mole to reproach the Sun for darkness or a lump of Earth to take up Arms against the Almighty terrible God Art thou able to make good thy cause against him or to stand before him when he is offended and chargeth thee with sin Hear a Pharisee Act. 6. 38 39. And now I say unto you refrain from these men and let them alone for if this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought But if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest happily ye be found even to fight against God Or hear Christ himself Act. 9. 4 5. I am Iesus whom thou persecutest It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks with bare feet or hands to beat the thorns How unmeet a match is man for God! He needeth not so much as a word to take away thy soul and crush thee to the lowest Hell His will alone can lay thee under thy deserved pains Canst thou Conquer the Almighty God Wilt thou assault the Power which was never overcome or storm Jehovahs Throne or Kingdom First try to take down the Sun and Moon and Stars from the Firmament and to stop the course of the Rivers or of the Sea and to rebuke the Winds and turn night into day and Winter into Summer and decrepit Age into vigorous Youth Attempt not greater matters till thou hast performed these It is a greater matter than any of these to conquer God whose cause thou fightest against Hear him again Isa. 45. 9. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker Let the potsherd strive with the Potsherds of the Earth Shall the Clay say to him that fashioneth it What makest thou Or thy work He hath no hands And Isa. 45. 9. who would set the bryars and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together Wo to the man that is not content to fight with men but chooseth the most dreadful God to be his enemy It had been better for thee that all the World had been against thee § 9. 2. Persecution opposeth the gracious design of our Redeemer and hindereth his Gospel and work of mercy to the world and endeavoureth the ruine of his Kingdom upon earth Christ came to save men and persecutors raise up their power against him as if they envyed salvation to the World And if God have made the work of mans Redemption the most wonderful of all his works which ever he revealed to the sons of men you may easily conceive what thanks he will give them that resist him in so high and glorious a design If you could pull the Stars out of the Firmament or hinder the motions of the Heavens or deny the rain to the thirsty Earth you might look for as good a reward for this as for opposing the merciful Redeemer of the World in the blessed work of mans salvation § 10. 3. Persecution is a resisting or fighting against the Holy Ghost Act. 7. 51. saith Stephen to the Jews Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye If you silence the Ministers who are the means by which the spirit worketh in the illuminating and sanctifying of souls Act. 26. 17 18. or if you afflict men for those Holy duties which the
Body of Christ not of the body of the Pope Let Christian and Catholick be all your titles as to your Religion Mark those that cause divisions and offences and avoid them Rom. 16. 17. § 31. Direct 11. To this end Overvalue not any private or singular opinions of your own or Direct 11. others For if once spiritual pride and ignorance of your own weakness hath made you espouse some particular opinion as peculiarly your own you will dote on the brats of your own brains and will think your conceits to be far more illuminating and necessary than indeed they are as if mens sincerity lay in the embracing of them and their salvation on the receiving of them And then you will make a party for your opinion and will think all that are against it deserve to be cast out as enemies to reformation or to the truth of God or to the Church And perhaps twenty years after experience may bring you to your wits and make you see either the falshood or the smalness of all those points which you made so great a matter of and then what comfort will you have in your persecutions § 32. Direct 12. Obey not the solicitations of selfish passionate disputers Bishops and Divines falling Direct 12. out among themselves and then drawing Princes to own their quarrels when they find their arguments will not serve hath been the distraction division and ruine of the Christian world And he that falleth in with one of the parties to bear out that by the ruines of the other is lost himself in their contentions Would Rulers let wrangling Bishops and Disputers alone and never lend them their Swords to end their differences unless the substance of Religion be endangered they would be weary of quarrelling and would chide themselves friends and no such tragical consequents would follow as do when the Sword interposeth to suppress the discountenanced party and to end their Syllogisms and wranglings in blood § 33. Direct 13. Take heed lest an uncharitable hurting spirit do prevail under the name of holy Direct 13. Zeal As it did with Iames and Iohn when they would have fire from Heaven to have revenged the contempt of their Ministry To whom Christ saith Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of Luke 9. 55. The difference between a Christian zeal and an envious contentious censorious hurtful zeal is excellently described by the Apostle Iames Chap. 3. throughout Where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good works without partiality and hypocrisie § 34. Direct 14. The Catholick Church and Particular Churches and our Communion with each Direct 14. must be distinguished and a man must not be cast out of our Catholick Communion because by some tolerable difference he is uncapabable of Communion with some particular Church If a man be impenitent in any Heresie or sin which is contrary to the common nature of Christianity or Godliness and so unfit for Catholick Communion he is to be cast out of Christian Communion But if some particular Church do impose any unnecessary doctrine or practice and he dare not approve it or joyn in it be it right or wrong yea or if he withdraw himself from one Church through the badness of the Minister or through any falling out between them and joyn to another that hath a Minister more suitable to his case these are not crimes to be punished with ejection from Catholick Communion He that is not fit for Communion with some one particular Church may be fit for Communion with many others that give him no such occasion of difference or distaste Without Catholick principles persecution will not be avoided § 35. Direct 15. Let Church Union and Communion be laid upon none but Catholick terms which Direct 15. are possible and fit for all to be agreed in Common Reason will tell any impartial man that there See my Treatise of A True Catholick and Cath. Church can be no more effectual engine to divide the Churches and raise contentions and persecutions than to make Laws for Church-communion requiring such conditions as it is certain the members cannot consent to If any man knew that my opinion is against the doctrine of Transubstantiation or of the Dominicans Predetermination and he would make a Law that no man shall have Communion with that Church who subscribeth not to these he unavoidably excludeth me Unless I be such a Beast as to Believe nothing soundly and therefore to say any thing If ever the Churches agree and Christians be reconciled it must be by leaving out all dividing impositions and requiring nothing as necessary to Communion which all may not rationally be expected to consent in Now these Catholick principles of Communion must be such as these 1. Such points of faith only as constitute Christianity and which every upright Christian holdeth and therefore only such as are contained in our Baptismal Covenant or Profession which maketh us Christians And not those other which only some stronger Christians believe or understand Because the weak are not to be cast out of the family of Christ. 2. Such points as the Primitive Churches did agree in and not innovations which they never Sâ—e Viâ—cent Lâ—â—iaens practised or agreed in For they are our pattern and were better than we and no more can be necessary to our Concord and Communion than was to theirs 3. Such points as all the Church hath sometime or other at least agreed in For what reason can we have to think that the Churches should now agree in that which they never hitherto agreed in 4. Such points as all the true Christians in the world are now agreed in For otherwise we shall exclude some true Christians from our Christian Communion 5. No points of Worship much less of Modes and Circumstances which are not necessary and more necessary to the Churches good than is the Communion of all those persons who by dissenting are like to be separated or cast out and whose omission would not do more hurt than this separation and division is like to do 6. Especially no such things must be made necessary to communion as the most conscientious are ordinarily fearful of and averse to and may be forborn without any great detriment to godliness § 36. Object But it will be said that Catholick Communion indeed requireth no more than you say Object But particular Churches may require more of their members For that may be necessary or fit for a member of this particular Church which is not to at all Answ. Catholick Communion is that which all Christians and Churches have with one another and the terms of it are such as all Christians may agree in Catholick Communion is principally existent and exercised in particular Churches as there is no existent Christianity or faith which existeth not in
named 3. What are the particular wayes and sorts of scandal 4. The greatness of this sin 5. Directions to avoid it § 2. I. I shall not need to stand upon the Etymologie of the word Scandal whether it come Scandal what it is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 claudico as Erasmus thought or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 curvum c. Martinius Stephanus Lyserus c. have sufficiently done it whither I referr you As for the sense of the word it is past doubt that the ordinary use of it in Scripture is for a stumbling block for a man to fall upon or a trap to ensnare a man And in the Old Testament it is oft used for a stumbling stone on which a man may fall into any corporal calamity or a snare to hurt or ruine a man in the world As Exod. 10. 7. 1 Sam. 18. 21. 25. 31. Psal. 119. 165. Ezek. 7. 19. Sept. But in the New Testament which speaketh more of spiritual hurts it is taken for a stumbling block or temptation by which a man is in danger of falling into sin or spiritual loss or ruine or dislike of Godliness or any way to be turned from God or hindered in a Religious holy way And if sometimes it be taken for Grieving or Troubling it is as it hereby thus hindereth or ensnareth So that to scandalize is sometimes taken for the doing of a blameless action from which another unjustly taketh occasion to fall or sin or be perverted But when it signifieth a sin as we take it in this place then to scandalize is By something unlawful of it self or at least unnecessary which may occasion the spiritual hurt or ruine of another 1. The matter is either something that is simply sinful and then it is a double sin or something Indifferent or unnecessary and then it is simply the sin of scandal 2. It must be that which may occasion anothers fall I say occasion For no man can forcibly cause another man to sin but only occasion it or tempt him to it as a Moral Cause § 3. II. By this you may see 1. That to scandalize is not meerly to displease or grieve another What is not Scandal that is by many so called For many a man is displeased through his folly and vice by that which tendeth to his good and many a man is tempted that is scandalized by that which pleaseth him When Christ saith If thy right eye or hand offend or scandalize thee pluck it out or cut it off c. Mat. 5. he doth not by offending mean displeasing or grieving For by so offending it may profit us But he plainly meaneth If it draw thee to sin or else he had never added that it is better to enter maimed into life than having two eyes or hands to be cast into Hell That is in a word Thy damnation is a greater hurt than the loss of hand or eye and therefore if there were no other way to avoid it this would be a very cheap way So pedem offendere in lapidem is to stumble upon a stone The most censorious and humorous sort of men have got a notion that what ever offendeth or displeaseth them is scandalous And they think that no man must do any thing which grieveth or displeaseth them lest he be guilty of scandal And by this trick who ever can purchase impatiency and pievishness enough to be alwayes displeased with the actions of others shall rule the world But the truth is the ordinary way of scandalizing these men is by pleasing them § 4. I will give you one instance of scandal in Scripture which may help this sort of people better to understand it Gal. 2. 10. to 16. Peter there giveth true scandal to the Jews and Gentiles He walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel but laid a stumbling block before the Jews and Gentiles And this was not by displeasing the Jews but by pleasing them The Jews thought it a sin to eat with the Gentiles and to have communion with uncircumcised men Peter knew the contrary but for fear of them of the circumcision lest they should be offended at him as a sinner he withdrew and separated himself This scandal tended to harden the Jews in their sinful separation and to seduce the Gentiles into a conceit of the necessity of circumcision and Barnabas was carryed away with the dissimulation Here you may see that if any think it a sin in us to have communion in such or such Congregations with such persons in such worship which God alloweth us not to separate from it is a sin of scandal in us to separate to avoid these mens offence We scandalize them and others even by pleasing them and by avoiding that which they falsly called scandalous And if we would not scandalize them we must do that which is just and not by our practice hide the sound doctrine which is contrary to their separating error § 5. 2. And it is as apparent that to scandalize another is not as is vulgarly imagined by the ignorant to do that which is commonly reputed sinful or which hath the appearance of a sin or which will make a man evil thought of or spoken of by others Yet commonly when men say This is a scandalous action they mean it is an action which is reproachful or of evil report as a sin And therefore in our English speech it is common to say of one that slandereth another that he raised a scandal of him But this is not the meaning of the word in Scripture Materially indeed scandal may consist in any such thing which may be a stumbling block to another But formally it is the Tempting of another or occasioning his fall or ruine or hurt which is the nature of scandalizing And this is done more seldome by committing open disgraceful sins and doing that which will make the doer evil spoken of For by that means others are the more assisted against the temptation of imitating him But scandal is most commonly found in those actions which are under least reproach among men or which have the most plausible appearance of good in them when they are evil For these are apter to deceive and overthrow another § 6. 3. And it is also apparent that it is no sinful scandalizing to do a duty or necessary action which I have not power to forbear though I know that another will be offended or fall by it into sin If God have made it my duty even at this time I must not disobey him and omit my duty because another will make it an occasion of his sin It must be either a sinful or an indifferent action that is scandal or something that is in my own power to do or to forbear Yet this must be added that Affirmatives binding not ad semper to all times and no duty being a duty at every moment it may oft fall out that that which else would have been my duty at
is the way to make the sinner think that it is a small or jeasting matter To perswade men to conversion or a godly life without a melting love and pity to their souls and without the reverence of God and seriousness of mind which the nature and weight of the thing requireth is the way to harden them in their sin and misery All these wayes may a man be guilty 1. Of the sin and 2. The perdition of another § 27. But here on the Negative part take notice of these things following How we are not guilty of other mens â—in or ruine 1. That properly no man doth partake of the same formal numerical sin which is anothers Noxa caput sequitur The sin is individuated and informed by the individual will of the offender It is not possible that another mans sin should be properly and formally mine unless I were individually and formally that same man and not another If two men set their hands to the same evil deed they are distinct causes and subjects of the distinct formal guilt though Con-causes and partial causes of the effect So that it is only by multiplication that we make the sin or guilt of another to become the matter of sin to us the form resulting from our selves § 28. 2. All men that are guilty of the sin and damnation of other men are not equally guilty Not only as some are pardoned upon repentance and some remain impenitent and unpardoned But as some contribute wilfully to the mischief and with delight and in a greater measure and some only in a small degree by an oversight or small omission or weak performance of a duty by meer infirmity or surprize § 29. 3. All that do not hinder sin or reprove it are not guilty of it No more than all that do not punish it But those only that have power and opportunity and so are called by God to do it § 30. 4. If another man will sin and destroy his soul by the occasion of my necessary duty I must not cease my duty to prevent such mens sin or hurt Else one or other will by their perverseness excuse me from almost all the duty which I should do I must not cease praying hearing Sacraments nor withdraw from Church-communion because another will turn it to his sin Else Satan should use the sin of others to frustrate all Gods worship Yet I must add that many things cease to be a duty when another will be so hurt by them § 31. 5. I am not guilty of all mens sins which are committed in my presence no though I know before hand that they will sin For my calling or duty may lead me into the presence of those that I may â—ore know will sin Wicked men sin in all that they do And yet it followeth not that I must have nothing to do with them Many a failing which is his sin may a Minister or Church be guilty of even in that publick Worship of God which yet I am bound to be present at But of all these somewhat is said before Chap. 12. CHAP. XV. General Directions for the furthering of the salvation of others THE great Means which we must use for the salvation of our Neighbours are § 1. Direct 1. Sâ—und Doctrine Let those who are their instructors inculcate the wholsome Principles of Godliness which are Self-denyal Mortification the Love of God and man the Hopes of Heaven universal absolute obedience to God and all this by faith in Iesus Christ according to the Holy Scriptures Instead of Novelties or vain janglings and perverse disputings teach them these Principles here Direct 1. briefly named over and over an hundred times Open these plainly till they are well understood These are the necessary saving things This is the doctrine which is according to godliness which will make sound Christians of sound judgements sound hearts sound conversations and sound consciences God sanctifieth his chosen ones by these Truths § 2. Direct 2. Therefore do your best to help others to the benefit of able and faithful Pastors and Direct 2. Instructers A fruitful soil is not better for your seed nor a good pasture for your Horse or Cattel nor wholsome dyet for your selves than such instructers are for your neighbours souls If you love them you should be more desirous to help them to good Teachers or plant them under a sound and powerful Ministry than to procure them any worldly benefits One time or other the Word may prevail with them It is hopeful to be still in mercies way § 3. Direct 3. The concord of their Teachers among themselves is a great help to the saving of the Direct 3. flock John 17. 21 25. That they all may be One as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me Concord much furthereth reverence and belief and consequently mens salvation so it be a holy concord § 4. Direct 4. The Concord also of godly private Christians hath the same effect When the ignorant Direct 4. see here a Sect and there a Sect and hear them condemning one another it teacheth them to contemn them all and think contemptibly of piety it self But concord layeth an awe upon them § 5. Direct 5. The blameless humble loving heavenly lives of Christians is a powerful means of Direct 5. winning souls Preach therefore every one of you by such a conversation to all your neighbours whom you desire to save § 6. Direct 6. Keep those whom you would save in a humble patient learning posture and keep Direct 6. them from proud wranglings and running after novelties and Sects The humble Learner takes root downward and silently groweth up to wisdom But if once they grow self conceited they turn to wranglings and place their Religion in espoused singular Opinions and in being on this or that side or Church and fall into divided Congregations where the business is to build up souls by destroying Charity and teaching Sectaries to overvalue themselves and despise dissenters Till at last they run themselves out of breath and perhaps fall out with all true Religion § 7. Direct 7. Do what you can to place them in good families and when they are to be maâ—â—ied Direct 7. to joyn them to such as are fit to be their helpers In families and relations of that sort people are so near together and in such constant converse that it will be very much of the help or hinderance of their salvation § 8. Direct 8. Keep them also as much as is possible in good company and out of bad seducing Direct 8. company Especially those that are to be their familiars The worlds experience telleth us what power Company hath to make men better or worse And what a great advantage it is to work any thing on mens minds to have interest in them and intimacy with them Especially with those
created for § 2. Mot. 2. There is no subject so sublime and honourable for the Tongue of man to be imployed about as the matters of God and life eternal Children will talk of childish toyes and Countreymen talk of their Corn and Cattel and Princes and Statesmen look down on these with contemptuous smiles as much below them But Crowns and Kingdoms are incomparably more below the business of a holy soul The higher subjects Philosophers treat of the more honourable if well done are their discourses But none is so high as God and glory § 3. Mot. 3. It is the most profitable subject to the hearers A discourse of Riches at the most can but direct them how to grow rich A discourse of Honours usually puffeth up the minds of the ambitious And if it could advance the auditors to Honour the fruit would be a vanity little to be desired But a discourse of God and Heaven and Holiness doth tend to change the hearers minds into the nature of the things discourst of It hath been the means of converting and sanctifying many a thousand souls As learned discourses tend to make men learned in the things discourst off so holy discourses tend to make men holy For as natural Generation begetteth not Gold or Kingdoms but a Man so speech is not made to communicate to others directly the wealth or health or honours or any extrinsecal things which the speaker hath but to communicate those Mental Excellencies which he is possest of Prov. 16. 21 22. The sweetness of the lips increaseth learning Understanding is a well-spring of life to him that hath it Prov. 10. 13 21. In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found The lips of the righteous feed many Prov. 15. 7. The lips of the wise disperse knowledge but the heart of the foolish doth not so Prov. 20. 15. There is Gold and a multitude of Rubies but the lips of knowledge are a precious Iewel Prov. 10. 20. The tongue of the just is as choice Silver the heart of the wicked is little worth § 4. Mot. 4. Holy discourse is also most profitable to the speaker himself Grace increaseth by the exercise Even in instructing others and opening truth we are oft times more powerfully led up to further truth our selves than by solitary studies For Speech doth awaken the intellectual faculty and keepeth on the thoughts in order and one truth oft inferreth others to a thus excited and prepared mind And the tongue hath a power of moving own our hearts When we blow the fire to warm another both the exercise and the fire warm our selves It kindleth the flames of holy love in us to declare the praise of God to others It increaseth a hatred of sin in us to open its odiousness to others We starve our selves when we starve the souls which we should cherish § 5. Mot. 5. Holy and Heavenly discourse is the most delectable I mean in its own aptitude and to a mind that is not diseased by corruption That which is most Great and Good and Necessary is most delectable What should best please us but that which is best for us And best for others And best in it self The excellency of the subject maketh it delightful And so doth the exercise of our Graces upon it And serious conference doth help down the truth into our hearts where it is most sweet Besides that Nature and Charity make it pleasant to do good to others It can be nothing better than a subversion of the appetite by carnality and wickedness that maketh any one think idle jeasts or tales or plays to be more pleasant than spiritual Heavenly conference and the talking of Riches or Sports or Lusts to be sweeter than to talk of God and Christ and grace and glory A holy mind hath a continual feast in it self in meditating on these things and the communicating of such thoughts to others is a more Common and so a more pleasant feast § 6. Mot. 6. Our faithfulness to God obligeth us to speak his praise and to promote his truth â—â—d plead his cause against iniquity Hath he given us tongues to magnifie his name and set before us the admirable frame of all the World to declare his Glory in And shall we be backward to so sweet and great a work How precious and useful is all his holy word What light and life and comfort may it cause And shall we bury it in silence What company can we come into almost where either the bare-faced committing of sin or the defending it or the opposition of truth or Godliness or the frigidity of mens hearts towards God and supine neglect of holy things do not call to us if we are the servants of God to take his part and if we are the Children of light to bear our testimony against the darkness of the World and if we love God and truth and the souls of men to shâ—w it by our prudent seasonable speech Is he true to God and to his cause that will not open his mouth to speak for him § 7. Mot. 7. And how precious a thing is an immortal soul and therefore not to be neglected Did Christ think souls to be worth his Mediation by such strange condescension even to a shameful death Did he think them worth his coming into flesh to be their teacher And will you not think them worth the speaking to § 8. Mot. 8. See also the greatness of your sin in the negligence of unfaithful Ministers It is easie to see the odiousness of their sin who preach not the Gospel or do no more than by an hours dry and dead discourse shift off the serious work which they should do and think they may be excused from all personal oversight and helping of the peoples souls all the Week after And why should you not perceive that a dumb private Christian is also to be condemned as well as a dumb Minister Is not profitable conference your duty as well as profitable preaching is his How many persons condemn themselves while they speak against unfaithful Pastors being themselves as unfaithful to Families and Neighbours as the other are to the flock § 9. Mot. 9. And consider how the cheapness of the means doth aggravate the sin of your neglect and shew much unmercifulness to souls Words cost you little Indeed alone without the company of good works they are too cheap for God to accept of But if an Hypocrite may bring so cheap a sacrifice who is rejected what doth he deserve that thinketh it too dear What will that man do for God or for his Neighbours soul who will not open his mouth to speak for them He seemeth to have less love than that man in Hell Luk. 16. who would so fain have had a messenger sent from another World to have warned his brethren and saved them from that place of torment § 10. Mot. 10. Your fruitful conference is a needful help to the ministerial work When
rend us Much more if it be some potent enemy of the Church who will not only rend us but the Church it self if he be so provoked Reproving him then is not our duty 3. Particularly When a man is in a passion or drunk usually it is no season to reprove him 4. Nor when you are among others who should not be witnesses of the fault or the reproof or whose presence will shame him and offend him except it be only the shaming of an incorrigible or malicious sinner which you intend 5. Nor when you are uncertain of the fact which you would reprove or uncertain whether it be a sin 6. Or when you have no witness of it though you are privately certain with some that will take advantage against you as slanderers a reproof may be omitted 7. And when the offenders are so much your superiours that you are like to have no better success than to be accounted arrogant A groan or tears is then the best reproof 8. When you are so utterly unable to manage a reproof that imprudence or want of convincing reason is like to make it a means of greater hurt than good 9. When you foresee a more advantageous season if you delay 10. When another may be procured to do it with much more advantage which your doing it may rather hinder In all these cases that may be a sin which at another time may be a duty § 18. But still remember 1. That pride and passion and slothfulness is wont to pretend such reasons falsly upon some sleight conjectures to put by a duty 2. That no man must account another Gen. 20. 36. a Dog or Swine to excuse him from this duty without cogent evidence And it is not every wrangling opposition nor reproach and scorn which will warrant us to give a man up as remediless Job 31. 13. Heb. 13. 22. 2 Pet. 1. 13. 2 Tâ—m 2. 25 26. and speak to him no more but only such 1. As sheweth a heart utterly obdurate after long means 2. Or will procure more suffering to the reprover than good to the offender 3. That when the thing is ordinarily a duty the reasons of our omission must be clear and sure before they will excuse us § 19. Quest. Must we reprove Infidels or Heathens What have we to do to judge them that are without Answ. Not to the ends of excommunication because they are not capable of it which is meant Deut. 22. 1. 1 Cor. 5. But we must reprove them 1. In common compassion to their souls What were the Apostles and other Preachers sent for but to call all men from their sins to God 2. And for the defence of truth and godliness against their words or ill examples CHAP. XVII Directions for keeping Peace with all men § 1. PEace is so amiable to Nature it self that the greatest destroyers of it do commend it and those persons in all times and places who are the cause that the world cannot enjoy it will yet speak well of it and exclaim against others as the enemies of peace as if there were no other name but their Own sufficient to make their adversaries odious As they desire salvation so do the ungodly desire Peace which is with a double error one about the Nature of it and another about the Conditions and other Means By Peace they mean the quiet undisturbed enjoyment of their honours wealth and pleasures that they may have their lusts and will without any contradiction And the Conditions on which they would have it are the complyance of all others with their opinions and wills and humble submission to their domination passions or desires But Peace is another thing and otherwise to be desired and sought Peace in the mind is the delightful effect of its internal harmony as Peace in the body is nothing but its pleasant health in the natural position state action and concord of all the parts the humours and spirits And Peace in Families Neighbourhoods Churches Kingdoms or other Societies is the quietness and pleasure of their order and harmony and must be attained and preserved by these following means § 2. Direct 1. Get your own hearts into a humble frame and abhor all the motions of Pride and Direct 1. self exalting A humble man hath no high expectations from another and therefore is easily pleased or quieted He can bow and yield to the pride and violence of others as the Willow to the impetuous winds His language will be submissive his patience great he is content that others go before him He is not offended that another is preferred A low mind is pleased in a low condition But Pride is the Gun-powder of the mind the family the Church and State It maketh men ambitious and setteth them on striving who shall be the greatest A proud mans Opinion must alwayes go for truth and his will must be a Law to others and to be sleighted or crossed seemeth to him an unsufferable wrong And he must be a man of wonderful complyance or an excellent artificer in man-pleasing and flâ—ttery that shall not be taken as an injurious undervaluer of him He that overvalueth himself will take it ill of all that do not also overvalue him If you forgetfully go before him or overlook him or neglect a complement or deny him something which he expected or speak not honourably of him much more if you reprove him and tell him of his faults you have put fire to the Gun-powder you have broke his peace and he will break yours if he can Pride broke the Peace between God and the apostate Angels but nothing unpeaceable must be in Heaven and therefore by self-exâ—lting they descended into darkness And Christ by self-humbling ascended unto Glory It is a matter of very great difficulty to live peaceably in family Church or any society with any one that is very Proud They expect so much of you that you can never answer all their expectations but will displease them by your omissions though you never speak or do any thing to displease them What is it but the lust of Pride which causeth most of the wars and bloodshed throughout the World The Pride of two or three men must cost many thousands of their subjects the loss of their Peace Estates and Lives Delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi What were the Conquests of those Emperours Alexander Caesar Tamerlane Machumet c. but the pernicious effects of their infamous Pride Which like Gun-powder taking fire in their breasts did blow up so many Cities and Kingdoms and call their Villanies by the name of Valour and their Murders and Robberies by the name of War If one mans Pride do swell so big that his own Kingdom cannot contain it the Peace of as much of the World as he can conquer is taken to be but a reasonable sacrifice to this infernal vice The lives of thousands both Subjects and Neighbours called enemies by this malignant spirit must be cast
man is bound to punish himself As when the Law against Swearing Cursing or the like doth give the poor a certain mulct which is the penalty He ought to give that money himself And in cases where it is a necessary cure to himself And in any case where the publick good requireth it As if a Magistrate offend whom none else will punish or who is the Judge in his own cause he should so far punish himself as is necessary to the suppression of sin and to the preserving of the honour of the Laws As I have heard of a Justice that swore twenty Oaths and paid his twenty shillings for it 2. A man may be bound in such a Divine Vengeance or Judgement as seeketh after his particular sin to offer himself to be a sacrifice to Justice to stop the Judgement As Ionah and Achan did 3. A man may be bound to confess his guilt and offer himself to Justice to save the innocent who is falsly accused and condemned for his crime 4. But in ordinary cases a man is not bound to be his own publick accuser or executioner Quest. 10. May a Witness voluntarily speak that truth which he knoweth will further an unrighteous Quest. 10. cause and be made use of to oppress the innocent Answ. He may never do it as a confederate in that intention Nor may he do it when he knoweth that it will tend to such an event though threatned or commanded except when some weightier accident doth preponderate for the doing it As the avoiding of a greater hurt to others than it will bring on the oppressed c. Quest. 11. May a witness conceal some part of the truth Quest. 11. Answ. Not when he sweaâ—â—â—â—h to deliver the whole truth Nor when a good cause is like to suffer or a bad cause to be furâ—â—â—â—ered by the concealment Nor when he is under any other obligation to reveal the whole Quest. 12. Must a Iudge and Iury proceed secundum allegata probata according to evidence and Quest. 12. proof when they know the witness to be false and the truth to be contrary to the testimony but are not able to evince it Answ. Distinguish between the Negative and the Positive part of the Verdict or Sentence In the Negative they must go according to the evidence and testimonies unless the Law of the Land leave the case to their private knowledge As for example They must not sentence a Thief or Murderer to be punished upon their secret unproved knowledge They must not adjudge either Moneys or Lands to the true Owner from another without sufficient evidence and proof They must forbear doing Iustice because they are not called to it nor enabled But Positively they may do no Injustice upon any evidence or witness against their own knowledge of the truth As they may not upon known false witness give away any mans Lands or Money or condemn the innocent But must in such a case renounce the Office The Judge must come off the Bench and the Jury protest that they will not meddle or give any Verdict what ever come of it Because God and the Law of Nature prohibit their injustice Object It is the Law that doth it and not we Answ. It is the Law and you And the Law cannot justifie your agency in any unrighteous sentenâ—e The case is plain and past dispute Tit. 2. Directions against Contentious Suits False Witnessing and Oppressive Iudgements § 1. Direct 1. THe first Cure for all these sins is to know the intrinsick evil of them Good Direct 1. thoughts of sin are its life and strength When it is well known it will be hated and when it is hated it is so far cured § 2. I. The Evil of Contentious and unjust Law-Suits 1. Such contentious Suits do shew the power of selfishness in the sinner How much self-interest is inordinately esteemed 2. They shew the excessive love of the world How much men over-value the things which they contend for 3. They shew mens want of Love to their neighbours How little they regard another mans interest in comparison of their own 4. They shew how little such mens care for the publick good which is maintained by the concord and love of neighbours 5. Such contentions are powerful Engines of the Devil to destroy all Christian Love on both sides and to stir up mutual enmity and wrath and so to involve men in a course of sin by further uncharitableness and injuries both in heart and word and deed 6. Poor men are hereby robbed of their necessary maintenance and their innocent families subjected to distress 7. Unconscionable Lawyers and Court-Officers who live upon the peoples sins are hereby maintained encouraged and kept up 8. Laws and Courts of Justice are perverted to do men wrong which were made to right them 9. And the offender declareth how little sense he hath of the authority or Love of God and how little sense of the grace of our Redeemer And how far he is from being himself forgiven through the blood of Christ who can no better forgive another § 3. II. The Evil of False Witness 1. By False Witness the innocent are injured Robbery and Murder are committed under pretence of truth and justice 2. The Name of God is horribly abused by the crying sin of Perjury of which before 3 The Presence and Justice of God are contemned When sinners dare in his sight and hearing appeal to his Tribunal in the attesting of a lye 4. Vengeance is begged or consented to by the sinner who bringeth Gods curse upon himself and as it were desireth God to plague or damn him if he lye 5. Satan the Prince of malice and injustice and the Father of lyes and murders and oppression is hereby gratified and eminently served 6. God himself is openly injured who is the Father and Patron of the innocent and the cause of every righteous prson is more the cause of God than of man 7. All Government is frustrated and Laws abused and all mens security for their reputations or estates or lives is overthrown by false witnesses And consequently humane converse is made undesirable and unsafe What good can Law or right or innocency or the honesty of the Judge do any man where false-witnesses combine against him What security hath the most innocent or worthy person for his fame or liberty or estate or life if false witnesses conspire to defame him or destroy him And then how shall men endure to converse with one another Either the innocent must seek out a Wilderness and flye from the face of men as we do from Lyons and Tygers or else Peace will be worse than War For in War a ma 〈…〉 ay fight for his life but against false witnesses he hath no defence But God is the avenger of the innocent and above most other sins doth seldome suffer this to go unpunished even in this present world but often beginneth their Hell on Earth to such perjured
worst they can against another as an enemy but as loving friends do use an amicable arbitration resolving contentedly to stand to what the Iudge determineth without any alienation of mind or abatement of brotherly love § 12. Direct 9. Be not too confident of the righteousness of your own cause but ask counsel of some Direct 9. understanding godly and impartial men and hear all that can be said and patiently consider of the case and do as you would have others do by you § 13. Direct 10. Observe what terrors of Conscience use to haunt awakened sinners especially on a Direct 10. death-â—ead for such sins as false witnessing and false judging and oppressing and injuâ—ing the innocent even above most other sins CHAP. XXIII Cases of Conscience and Directions against Backbiting Slandering and Evil Speaking Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Backbiting and Evil Speaking Quest. 1. MAy I not speak evil of that which is evil And call every one truly as Quest. 1. he is Answ. You must not speak a known falshood of any man under pretence of Charity or speaking well But you are not to speak all the evil of every man which is true As opening the faults of the King or your Parents though never so truly is a sin against the fifth Commandment Honour thy Father and Mother So if you do it without a call you sin against your neighbours honour and many other wayes offend Quest. 2. Is it not sinful silence and a consenting to or countenancing of the sins of others to say Quest. 2. nothing against them as tender of their honour Answ. It is sinful to be silent when you have a call to speak If you forbear to admonish the offender in love between him and you when you have opportunity and just cause it is sinful to be silent then But to silence backbiting is no sin If you must be guilty of every mans sin that you talk not against behind his back your whole discourse must be nothing but backbiting Quest. 3. May I not speak that which honest religious credible persons do report Quest. 3. Answ. Not without both sufficient evidence and a sufficient call You must not judge of the action by the person but of the person by the action Nor must you imitate any man in evil doing If a good man abuse you are you willing that all men follow him and abuse you more Quest. 4. May I believe the bad report of an honest credible person Quest. 4. Answ. You must first consider Whether you may hear it or meddle with it For if it be a case that you have nothing to do with you may not set your judgement to it either to believe it or disbelieve it And if it be a thing that you are called to judge of yet every honest mans word is not presently to be believed You must first know whether it be a thing that he saw or is certain of himself or a thing which he only taketh upon report And what his evidence or proof is and whether he be not engaged by interest passion or any difference of opinion Or be not engaged in some contrary faction where the interest of a party or cause is his temptation Or whether he be not used to rash reports and uncharitable speeches And what concurrence of testimonies there is and what is said on the other side Especially what the person accused saith in his own defence If it be so heinous a crime in publick Judgement to pass sentence before both parties are heard and to condemn a man before he speak for himself it cannot be justifiable in private judgement Would you be willing your selves that all should be believed of you which is spoken by any honest man And how uncertain are we of other mens honesty that we should on that account think ill of others Quest. 5. May I not speak evil of them that are enemies to God to Religion and godliness and are Quest. 5. open persecutors of it or are enemies to the King or Church Answ. You may on all meet occasions speak evil of the sin and of the persons when you have a just call but not at your own pleasure Quest. 6. What if it be one whose honour and credit countenanceth an ill cause and his dishonour would Quest. 6. disable him to do hurt Answ. You may not belye the Devil nor wrong the worst man that is though under pretence of doing good God needeth not malice nor calumnies nor injustice to his glory It is an ill cause that cannot be maintained without such means as these And when the matter is true you must have a call to speak it and you must speak it justly without unrighteous aggravations or hiding the better part which should make the case and person truly understood There is a time and due manner in which that mans crimes and just dishonour may be published whose false reputation injureth the truth But yet I must say that a great deal of villany and slander is committed upon this plausible pretence and that there is scarce a more common cloak for the most inhumane lyes and calumnies Quest. 7. May I not lawfully make a true Narration of such matters of fact as are criminal and Quest. 7. dishonourable to offenders Else no man may write a true History to posterity of mens crimes Answ. When you have a just cause and call to do it you may But not at your own pleasure Historians may take much more liberty to speak the truth of the dead than you may of the living Though no untruth must be spoken of either yet the honour of Princes and Magistrates while they are alive is needful to their Government and therefore must be maintained oft times by the concealment of their faults And so proportionably the honour of other men is needful to a life of love and peace and just society But when they are dead they are not subjects capable of a right to any such honour as must be maintained by such silencing of the truth to the injury of posterity And posterity hath usually a right to historical truth that good examples may draw them to imitation and bad examples may warn them to take heed of sin God will have the name of the wicked to rot and the faults of a Noah Lot David Solomon Peter c. shall be recorded Yet nothing unprofitable to posterity may be recorded of the dead though it be true nor the faults of men unnecessarily divulged much less may the dead be slandered or abused Quest. 8. What if it be one that hath been oft admonished in vain May not the faults of such a one be Quest. 8. mentioned behind his back Answ. I confess such a one the case being proved and he being notoriously impenitent hath made a much greater forfeiture of his honour than other men And no man can save that mans honour who will cast it away himself But yet it is
will at first make you tremble But if you wilfully cast your self ordinarily into such Company by degrees your sense and tenderness will be gone and you will find a very great Hardning power in the company and frequent discourse and practices which your selves condemn § 13. Direct 10. Take heed of wilful sinning against knowledge much more of lying in such sin Direct 10. unrepented of It greatly hardneth to sin against knowledge and much more to commit such sins over and over This grieveth and driveth away the Spirit and dangerously provoketh God to leave men to themselves § 14. Direct 11. Take heed of being customary in the use of those means that must be the means of Direct 11. curing hardned hearts If once the lively preaching and holy living and fervent praying of the servants of God be taken by thee but as matters of course and thou go with them to Church and to prayers but as to eat or drink or kneel with them but for custom thou wilt be as the Smiths Dog that can sleep by the Anvile while the Hammers are beating and the Sparks are flying about his ears It is dangerous to grow Customary and dull under powerful lively helps § 15. Direct 12. Be often with the sick and in the house of mourning and read thy lesson in Direct 21. the Church-yard and let the grave and bones and dust instruct thee When thou seest the End of all the living perhaps thou wilt somewhat lay it to heart Sight will sometime do more than the hearing of greater things Fear may possibly touch the heart that hath not yet so much ingenuity as to be melted by the force of Love And ordinarily the humbling and softning of a hard impenitent heart begins in Fear and ends in Love The work of preparation is in a manner the work of Fear alone The first work of true Conversion is begun in a great measure of fear and somewhat of Love but so little as is scarce perceived because of the more sensible operations of Fear And as a Christian groweth his Love encreaseth till perfect Love in the state of perfection have cast out all tormenting fear though not our Reverence or filial fear of God Look therefore into the grave and remember man that thou must dye thou must dye it is past all controversie that thou must dye And dost thou know where thou must appear when death hath once performed its office Dost thou not believe that after Death comes Judgement Dost thou not know that thou art now in a life of tryal in order to endless Ioy or misery and that this life is to be lived but once and if thou miscarry now thou art undone for ever and that all the hope of preventing thy damnation is Now while this life of tryal doth continue Now is the accepted time this is the day of salvation If Hell be prevented it must be Now prevented If ever thou wilt pray if ever thou wilt be converted if ever thou wilt be made an heir of Heaven it must be Now O man how quickly will patience have done with thee and time be gone and then O then it will be too late Knowest thou not that all the care and labour and hope of the Devil for thy damnation is laid out this way if it be possible to find thee other work or take thee up with other thoughts or keep thee asleep with presumptuous hopes and carnal mirth and pleasures and company or quiet thee by delayes till time be gone and it be too late And wilt thou let him have his will and pleasure him with thy own perdition Dost thou think these are not things to be considered on Do they not deserve thy speediest seriousest thoughts At least use thy Reason and self-love to the awakening and moving and softning thy Hardned heart PART III. Directions against Hypocrisie § HYpâ—crisie is the acting the part of a Religious person as upon a stage by one that is not Religious 〈…〉 sin â—â—â—â— obseâ—â—aâ—eque cavâ—r◠〈◊〉 nequid de â—e meâ—â—â—â— quam sit coâ—mendaâ—e pâ—â— mu fu 〈…〉 aliqua mâ—â—a 〈◊〉 bâ—na quâ—â— insâ—nâ—â—pparâ—â—e facienâ—e ac â—ircumcidâ—â—e â—ociâ— on nem fâ—ctionem I â—â—â—â— iâ—â—â—â—â—â—â— Philosophia â—es adâ—o difficiliâ— est uâ—â—â—m veâ— sâ—mulare magna sit parâ— philosophiae Paâ—l â—â—â—â—g It was one of the Roman â—aws of the 12. tables Impiuâ—â—e audeto pâ—acaâ—e donis â—â—am Deâ—rum Let no ungodly person dare to goe about to appeale tâ—e â—â—spleasure of the Gods by guifts viz. He must appâ—ase them first bâ— râ—formation Boâ—a â—â—â—â—scienâ—ia pâ—odâ—re â—ult câ—nspâ—ci â—â—â—â—â— nequa 〈…〉 indeed A seeming in Religion to be what you are not or to do what you do not Or a dissâ—mâ—ling or câ—unterfeiting that piety which you have not To counterfeit a state of Godliness is the sin only of the unregenerate who at the present are in a state of misery To câ—â—terfeit some particular act of Godliness or some higher degree is an odious sin but such as a regenâ—â—â—â—â— person may be tempted into This act of Hypocrisie doth not denominate the person an Hypocrite but the state of Hypocrisie doth Every Hypocrite therefore is an ungodly person seeming Godly or one that indeed is no true Christian professing himself a Christian. Of Hypocrites there be two sorts some desire to deceive others but not themselves but know themselves to be but dissemblers and these are commonly called Gross Hypocrites And some deceive both themselves and others and think they are no Hypocrites but are as confident of their honesty and sincerity as if they were no dissemblers at all But yet they are as verily Hypocrites as the former because they seem to be Religious and sincere when indeed they are not though they think they are and profess themselves to be true Christians when they are nothing less These are called Close Hypocrites because they know not themselves to be Hypocrites though they might know it if they would This is the commonest sort of Hypocrites § 2. There are also two Degrees of Hypocrites Some of them have only a General profession of Christianity and Godliness which is the professed Religion of the Country where they live and these are Hypocrites because they profess to be what they are not And others make a greater and extraordinary profession of special strictness in their Religion when they are not sincere And these are Eminently called Hypocrites Such as the Pharisees were among the Jews and many Fryers and Jesuits and Nuns among the Papists who by their separating Vows and Orders and Habits profess extraordinarily an extraordinary measure of devotion while they want the life of Godliness § 3. In all Hypocrisie there is considerable 1. The thing pretended 2. The pretence or means of seeming or the cloke of their deceit 1. The thing pretended by common Hypocrites is to be true Christians and servants of God and heirs of Heaven though not to be so zealous in
7. 26. 13. Mat. 23. 14. Mar. 1â— 40. Exod. 6. 30. Deuâ— 7. 12. 11. 13. 13. 18. 15. 5. 26. 17. 28. 1. Psal. 81. 8 9 10 11 12. of promoting unity and obedience and the Catholick Church while the Cloak or Cover of it is but the thin transparent Spider-web of humane Traditions and numerous Ceremonies and childish complementing with Goâ— And when they have nothing but the prayers of a long Liturgie to cover the effects of their earthly sensual and diabolical zeal and wisdom as St. Iames calls it 3. 15 16. and to concâ—ct the Widdows houses which they devour and to put a reverence upon the office and work which they labour all the week to render reproachful by a sensual luxurious idle life and by perfidious making merchandize of souls As ever you care what becometh of your souls take heed lest sin grow bold under Prayers and grow familiar and contemptuous of Sermons and holy speeches and lest you keep a custome of Religious exercises and wilful sins For oh how doth this harden now and wound hereafter He is the best hearer that is the holiest liver and faithfullest obeyer Direct 14. Be not a bare hearer of the Prayers of the Pastor whether it be by a Liturgie or Direct 14. without For that is but hypocrisie and a sin of omission You come not thither only to hear prayers but to pray And kneeling is not praying but it is a profession that you pray And will you be prayerless even in the house of Prayer and when you profess and seem to pray and so add hypocrisie to impiety I fear many that seem Religious and would have those kept from the Sacrament that Pray not in their Families do very ordinarily tolerate themselves in this gross omission and mocking of God and are Prayerless themselves even when they seem to Pray Direct 15. Stir up your hearts in a special manner to the greatest alacrity and joy in speaking Direct 15. and singing the Praises of God The Lords day is a day of Joy and Thanksgiving and the Praises of God are the highest and holyest employment upon Earth And if ever you should do any thing with all your might and with a joyful and triumphing frame of soul it is this Be glad that you may joyn with the Sacred Assemblies in heart and voice in so Heavenly a work And do not as some humersome pievish persons that know not the danger of that proud disease fall to quarreling with Davids Psalms as unsuitable to some of the hearers or to nauseate every failing in the Metâ—â— so as to turn so holy a duty into neglect or scorn for alas such there are near me where I dwell nor let prejudice against melody or Church-musick if you dwell where it is used possess you with a spleneâ—ick disgust of that which should be your most joyful work And if you know how much the incorporate soul must make use of the body in harmony and in the joyful praises of Iehovah do not then quarrel with lawful helps because they are sensible and corporeal Direct 16. Be very considerate and serious in Sacramental renewings of your Covenant with God Direct 16. O think what great things you come thither to Receive And think what a holy work you have to See Mâ— Rawlâ—â—s Book of Sacramental Covenanting do And think what a Life it is that you must promise So solemn a Covenanting with God and of so great importance requireth a most holy reverent and serious frame of soul. But yet let not the unwarrantable differencing this Ordinance from Gods praises and the rest seduce you into the common errours of the times I mean 1. Of those that hence are brought to think that the Sacrament should never be received without a preparatory day of humiliation above the preparation for an ordinary Lords days work 2. And therefore receive it seldom whereas the primitive Churches never spent a Lords day together without it 3. Those that turn it into a perplexing terrifying thing for fear of being unprepared when it should be their greatest comfort and when they are not so perplexed about their unpreparâ—dness to any other duty 4. Those that make so great a difference betwixt this and Church-prayers praises and other Church-woâ—ship as that they take this Sacrament only for the proper work and priviledge of Church-members And thereupon turn it into an occasion of our great contentions and divisions while they fly from Sacramental Communion with others more than from Communion in the other Church-worship O what hath our subtle enemy done against the Love Peace and Unity of Christians especially in England under pretence of Sacramental purity Direct 17. Perform all your Worship to God as in heart-Communion with all Christs Churches Direct 17. upon Earth Even those that are faulty though not with their faults Though you can be present but with one yâ—â— consent as present in spirit with all and separate not in heart from any one any further than they separate from Christ. Direct 18. Accordingly let the Interest of the Church of Christ be very much upon your heart Direct 18. and pray as hard for it as for your self Direct 19. Yâ—â— remember in all what Relation you have to the Heavenly Society and Chore and Direct 19. think how they Worship God in Heaven that you may strive to imitate than in your degree Of which more anâ—n Direct 20. Let your whole course of life after savour of a Church-frame Live as the servants of Direct 20. that God whâ—m you Worship and as ever before him Live in the Love of those Christians with whom you have Communion and do not quarrel with them at home nor despise nor persecute them with whom you joyn in the Worshipping of God And do not needlesly open the weaknesses of the Minister to prejudice others against him and the Worship And be not Religious at the Church alone for then you are not truly Religious at all CHAP. X. Directions about our Communion with Holy Souls Departed and now with Christ. THE oversight and neglect of our duty concerning the souls of the blessed now with Christ I have said more of â—his since in my â—â—â—â—e of Faith doth very much harden the Papists in their erroneous excesses here about And if we will ever reduce them or rightly confute them it must be by a judicious asserting of the Truth and observing so much with them as is our duty and commending that in them which is to be commended and not by running away from truth and duty that we may get for enough from them and errour For errour is an ill way of confuting errour The practical Truth lyeth in these following Precepts § 1. Direct 1. Remember that the departed souls in Heaven are part and the noblest part of the Body Direct 1. of Christ and family of God of which you are inferiour members and therefore that you owe
them greater Love and Honour than you ow 〈…〉 ny Saints on Earth Eph. 3. 15. The whole â—â—â—â—ly in Heaven and Earth is named of Christ. Those are the happiest and noblest paâ—â—s that are most pure and perfect and dwell in the highest and most glorious habitations nearest unto Christ yea with him If Holiness be lovely the most Holy are the most lovely We have many obligations therefore to Love them more than the Saints on earth They are more excellent and amiable and Christ Loveth them more And if any be Honourable it must especially be those spirits that are of greatest excellencies and perfections and advanced to the greatest Glory and nearness to their Lord. Make Conscience therefore of this as your duty not only to Love and Honour blessed souls but to Love and Honour them more than those that are yet on Earth And as every Duty is attended with Benefiâ— so we shall find this exceeding great benefit in the performance of this duty that iâ— will incline our â—earts to be the more Heavenly and draw up our Desires to the society which we so much Love and Honour § 2. Direct 2. Remember that it is a part of the life of faith to see by it the Heavenly Society of Direct 2. the blessed and a part of your Heavenly Conversation to have frequent serious and delightful thoughts Heb. 11. 1. of thâ—se Crowned souls that are with Christ. Otherwise God would never have given us such descriptions of the Heavenly Ierusalem and told us so much of the Hosts of God that must inhabit it for ever that must come from the East and from the West and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God When it is said that our conversatiâ—n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. the meaning extendeth both to our Relation Priviledges and Converse We are Denizâ—ns or Citizens of the Heavenly Society and our title to their happiness is our highest Priviledge and Honour and therefore our daily business is there and our sweetest and most serious converse is with Christ and all those blessed spirits Whatever we are doing here our Eye and Heart should still be there For we look not at the temporal things which are seen but at the eternal things which are not seen 2 Cor. 4. 18. A wise Christian that hath forsaken the Kingdom of darkness will be desirous to know what the Kingdom of Christ is into which he is translated and who are his fellow Subjects and what are their several ranks and dignities so far as tendeth to his congruous converse with them all And how should it affect us to find that we are come unto Mount Zion and unto the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the spirits of Iust men made perfect and to Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant Heb. 12. 22 23 24. Live then as the members of this society and exclude not the chief members from your thoughts and converse though our local visible communion be only with these rural inferiour inhabitants and not with the Courtiers of the King of Heaven yet our Mental Communion may be much with them If our home and treasure be there with them our Hearts will be there also Mat. 6. 21. § 3. Direct 3. It is the will of God that the Memory of the Saints be honoured on earth when they are Direct 3. dead It is some part of his favour which he hath promised to them Prov. 10. 7. The memory of the just is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot Matth. 26. 13. Verily I say unto you wheresoever this Gospel shall be Preached in the whole world there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her The history of the Scripture recordeth the Lives of the Saints to their perpetual honour And God will have it so also for the sake of his abused servants upon earth that they may see that the slanders of malicious tongues shall not be able to obscure the glory of his Grace and that the lies of the ungodly prevail but for a moment And God will have it so for the sake of the ungodly that they may be ashamed of their malicious enmity and lyes against the godly while they perceive that the departed Saints do leave behind them a surviving testimony of their sanctity and innocency sufficient to confound the venemous calumnies of the Serpents Seed Yea God will have the Names of his eminent servants to be honoured upon earth for the honour of their Head and of his Grace and Gospel so that while malice would cast dishonour upon Christ from the meanness and failings of his servants that are alive the memory of the dead who were once as much despised and slandered shall rise up against them to his honour and their shame And it is very observable how God constraineth the bitter enemies of Holiness to bear this Testimony for the honour of Holiness against themselves that many who are the cruelest persecutors and murderers of the Living Saints do honour the Dead even to excess How zealous are the Papists for the multitude of their Holy dayes Concil Later sub Innoc. 3. can 3. and the honouring of their Names and Relicts and pretending many Miracles to be wrought by a very touch of their Shrines or Bones whilest they revile and muder those that imitate them and deprive Temporal Lords of their Dominions that will not exterminate them Yea while they burn the living Saints they make it part of their crime or Heresie that they honour not the Dayes and Relicts of the Dead so much as they To shew us that the things that have been shall be and that wickedness is the same in all generations Matth. 23. 29 30 31 32 33. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites because ye build the Tâ—mbes of the Prophets and garnish the Sepulchres of the righteous and say If we had been in the dayes of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets wherefore ye be witnesses to your selves that ye are the Children of them which killed the Prophets Filâ— ye up then the measure of your fathers Ye Serpents ye generation of Vipers how can ye escape the damnation of Hell I know that neither did the Pharisees nor do the Papists believe that those whom they murdered were Saints but Deceivers and Hereticks and the troublers of the World But if Charity be the grace most necessary to salvation then sure it will not keep any man from damnation that he had malice and uncharitableness sufficient to perswade him that the members of Christ were Children of the Devil But thus God will force even the persecutors and haters of his Saints to honour them And