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
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 Qââd 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 Atâicus was so great a hater of a lye that all his friends were desirous to Trust him with their âââây lye iâ evil and to be avoided saââh Aristot. Eâhâc 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 swâaring 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 thâse that speak the truth in their hearts Psal. 15. 2. The disconformity of the soul to God then being its greatest dâformity 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 consâlation 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 moââhâ 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
Associate your selves with them that go the way to Heaven if you resolve your selves to go it O what a deal of difference will you find between these two sorts of companions The one sort if you have any thoughts of Repentance would stifle them and laugh you out of the use of your reason into their own distracted mirth and dotage And if you have any serious thoughts of your salvation or any inclinations to repent and be wise they will do much to divert them and hold you in the power and snares of Satan till it be too late If you have any zeal or heavenly mindedness they will do much to quench it and fetch down your minds to earth again The other sort will speak of things of so great weâââât and moment and that with seriousness and reverence as will tend to raise and quicken your souâ and possess you with a taste of the heavenly things which they discourse of They will encourage you by their own experiences and direct you by that truth which hath directed them and zealously communicate what they have received They will pray for you and teach you how to pray They will give the example of holy humble obedient lives and lovingly admonish you of your duties and reprove your sins In a word as the carnal mind doth savour the things of the flesh and is enmity against God the company of such will be a powerful means to infect you with their plague and make you such if you were escaped from them much more to keep you such if you are not escaped And as they that are spiritual do mind the things of the Spirit so their converse tendeth to make you spiritually minded as they are Rom. 8. 7 8. Though there are some useful qualities and gifts in some that are ungodly and some lamentable faults in many that are spiritual yet experience will shew you so great a difference between them in the main in heart and life as will make you the more easily to believe the difference that will be between them in the life to come § 6. 6. Another means is serious Meditation on the life to come and the way thereto Which though all cannot manage so methodically as some yet all should in some measure and season be acquainted with it § 7. 7. The last Means is to choose some prudent faithful Guide and Counsellor for your soul to Of how great concernment faithful Pastors are for the Conversion of the ungodly see a Jesuite Acosta li. 4. c. 1. 2 3 4. Infinitum esset caetera persequi quae contra hos satuos principes Tanaos contra Pastores stultos vel potius idola pastorum contra seipsos potius pascentes contra vaesânos Prophetas contra Sacerdotes contemptores atque arrogantes contra âlercus solennitatum contra popularis plausus captatores contra inexplebiles pecuniae gurgites caeâerasque pestes Propheticus sermo declamat Vix alias sancti Patres plenioribus velis feruntur in Pelagus quam cum de sacerdotali contumelia oratio est Acosta ib. p. 353. Non est iste sacerdos non est sed infestus atrox dolosus illusor sui lupus in dominicum gregem ovina pelle armatus Ibid. open those cases to which are not fit for all to know and to resolve and advise you in cases that are too hard for you Not to lead you blindfold after the interest of any seduced or ambitious men nor to engage you to his singular conceits against the Scripture or the Church of God but to be to your soul as a Physicion to your body or a Lawyer to your estates to help you where they are wiser than you and where you need their helps Resolve now that instead of your idle company and pastime your excessive cares and sinful pleasures you will wait on God in the seasonable use of these his own appointed means and you will find that he appointed them not in vain and that you shall not lose your labour Direction 17. THat in all this you may be sincere and not deceived by an hypocritical change be sure Direct 17. that God âe all your Confidence and all your hopes be placed in Heaven and that there be no secret reserve in your hearts for the world and flesh and that you divide not your hearts between God and the things below nor take not up with the Religion of an hypocrite which giveth God what the flesh can spare § 1. When the Devil cannot keep you from a change and reformation he will seek to deceive you with a superficial change and half reformation which goeth not to the root nor doth not recover the heart to God nor deliver it entirely to him If he can by a partial deceitful change perswade you that you are truly renewed and sanctified and fix you there that you go no further you are as surely his as if you had continued in your grosser sins And of all other this is the most common and dangerous cheat of souls when they think to halve it between God and the world and to secure their fleshly interest of pleasure and prosperity and their salvation too and so they will needs serve God and Mammon § 2. This is the true Character of a self-deceiving hypocrite He is neither so fully perswaded of The âull desââiption of a ãâ¦ã e cânâersiân and of an Hypocriâe Whââââââ there are two great and grievous âoââââ of âroâble âââââd âânâ in the Churchââ at the tryal of members and another ân mens Consciences in trying their staââs about this Question How to know true Conversion or Sanctification I must tell them in boâh theâe troubles plainly that Christianity is but one thing the same in all Ages which is thââââ Consent to the Baptismal Covenant And there is no such way to resolve this question as to write or set before you the Covenant of Baptism in its proper sense and then ask your hearts whether you unâeignedly and resolvedly Consent He that consenteth truly is Converted and Justified and he that professeth Consent is to be received into the Church by Baptism if his Parents Coâââât did not bring him in before which he is to do nevertheless himself at age the certain truth of the Scripture and the life to come nor yet so mortified to the flesh and world as to take the joyes of Heaven for his whole portion and to subject all his worldly prosperity and hopes thereunto and to part with all things in this world when it is necessary to the securing of his salvation And therefore he will not lose his hold of present things nor forsake his worldly interest for Christ as long as he can keep it Nor will he be any further religious than may stand with his bodily welfare resolving never to be undone by his godliness but in the first place to save himself and his prosperity in the world as long as he can And therefore he is truly a carnal worldly
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 entruââââth 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 narrâweâ 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 proâit 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 â 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 nemiââ P. Scalig. Ne pigeat Evangelicum Ministrum aegâotum visitare xenio aliquo recreare famelicum cibario saltem pane pascere nuâum operire paupârâm cuâ non est adjutor a divitum calumniis potentia eripere pro afflictis principem magistratumve convenire râm familiaâem cânsili augegere morientibus sedulo benigne astare lites dissidia
advantage of a Tempt 1. Christians bodily weakness to shake his faith and question his foundations and call him to dispute Hic labor extremus longaâum haec meta viarum est Virgil. over his principles again Whether the soul be immortal and there be a Heaven and a Hell and whether Christ be the Son of God and the Scriptures be Gods Word c. As if this had never been questioned and scanned and resolved before It is a great deal of advantage that Satan expecteth by this malitious course If he could he would draw you from Christ to infidelity But Christ prayeth for you that your faith may not fail If he cannot do this he would at least weaken your faith and hereby weaken every grace And he would hereby divert you from the more needful thoughts which are suitable to your present state and he would hereby distract you and destroy your comforts and draw you in your perplexities to dishonour God Away therefore with these blasphemous and unseasonable motions Cast them from you with abhorrence and disdain It is no time now to be questioning your foundations You have done this more seasonably when you were in a fitter case A paiâed languishing body and a disturbed discomposed mind is unfit upon a surprize to go back and dispute over all our principles Tell Satan you owe him not so much service nor will you so cast away those few hours and thoughts for which you have so much better work You have the witness in your selves even the Spirit and Image and Seal of God You have been converted and renewed by the power of that word which he would have you question and you have found it to be owned by the Spirit of grace who hath made it mighty to pull down the strongest holds of sin Tell Satan you will not gratifie him so much as to turn your holy heavenly desires into a wrangling with him about those truths which you have so often proved You will not question now the being of that God who hath maintained you so long and witnessed his being and goodness to you by a life of mercies nor will you now question the being or truth of him that hath Redeemed you or of the Spirit or Word that hath sanctified guided comforted and confirmed you If he tell you that you must prove all things tell him that this is not now to do you have long proved the truth and goodness of your God the mercy of your Saviour and the power of his Holy Spirit and Word It is now your work to live upon that Word and fetch your hopes and comforts from it and not to question it § 10. Tempt 2. Another dangerous Temptation of Satan is when he would perswade you to Tempâ â Despair by causing you to mis-understand the tenour of the Gospel or by thinking too narrowly and unworthily of Gods mercy or of the satisfaction of Christ. But because this Temptation doth usually tend more to discomfort the soul than to damn it I shall speak more to it under Tit. 3. § 11. Tempt 3. Another dangerous Temptation is when Satan would draw you to overlook your Tempt 3. sins and overvalue your graces and be proud of your good works and so lay too much of your comfort upon your selves and lose the sense of your need of Christ or usurp any part of his office or hiâ honour I shall afterward shew you how far you must look at any thing in your selves But certainly that which lifteth you up in pride or incroacheth on Christs Office or would draw you to undervalue him is not of God Therefore keep humble in the sense of your sinfulness and unworthiness and cast away every motion which would carry you away from Christ and make your selves and your works and righteousness as a Saviour to your selves § 12. Tempt 4. Another perillous Temptation is by causing the thoughts of death and the grave Tempt 4. and your doubts and fears about the world to come to overcome the Love of God and not only the comforts but also the desires and willingness of your hearts to be with Christ. It will abate your Love to God and Heaven to think on them with too much estrangedness and terror The Directions under Tit. 3. will help you against this Temptation § 13. Tempt 5. Another dangerous Temptation is fetcht from the remnants of your worldly Tempt 5. mindedness when your dignity or honor your house or lands your relations and friends or your pleasures and contentments are so sweet to you that you are loth to leave them and the thoughts of death are grievous to you because it taketh you from that which you over-love and God and Heaven are the less desired because you are loth to leave the world Watch carefully against this great Temptation Observe how it seeketh the very destruction of your grace and souls and how it fighteth against your Love to God and Heaven and would undo all that Christ and his Spirit have been doing so long Observe what a root of matter it findeth in your selves and therefore be the more humbled under it Learn now what the world is and how little the accommodations of the flesh are worth when you perceive what the end of all must be Would you never dye Would you enjoy your worldly things for ever Had you rather have them than to live with Christ in the Heavenly glory of the New Ierusalem If you had it is your grievous sin and folly And yet you know that it is a desire that you can never hope to attain Dye you must whether you will or not What is it then that you would stay for Is it till the world be grown less pleasant to you and your Love and minds be weaned from it When should that rather be than now And what should more effectually do it than this dying condition that you are in It is time for you to spit out these unwholsome pleasures and now to look up to the true the holy the unmeasurable everlasting pleasures Tit. 2. Directions how to Profit by our Sickness WHether it shall please God to recover you or not it is no small Benefit which you may get by his Visitation if you do your part and faithfully improve it according to these Directions following § 1. Direct 1. If you hear Gods call to a closer tryal of your hearts concerning the sincerity of your Direct 1. conversion and thereby are brought to a more exact examination and come to a truer acquaintance with your state be it good or bad the benefit may be exceeding great For if it be good you may be much comforted and confirmed and fitted to give thanks and praise to God And if it be bad you may be awakened speedily to look about you and seek for a recovery § 2. Direct 2. If in the review of your lives you find out those sins which before you overlookâ or Direct 2. perceive
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 ââd 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 shâw 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
A Christian Directory Or A SUMM of PRACTICAL THEOLOGIE AND CASES OF CONSCIENCE Directing Christians how to USE their Knowledge and Faith How to improve all Helps and Means and to Perform all Duties How to Overcome Temptations and to escape or mortifie every Sin In Four Parts I. CHRISTIAN ETHICKS or private Duties II. CHRISTIAN OECONOMICKS or Family Duties III. CHRISTIAN ECCLESIASTICKS or Church Duties IV. CHRISTIAN POLITICKS or Duties to our Rulers and Neighbours By RICHARD BAXTER Mal. 2. 7 8. The Priests lips should keep Knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts But ye are departed out of the way Ye have Caused many to stumble at the Law ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi Matth. 13. 52. Every SCRIBE which is instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is an Housholder which bringeth forth out of his Treasure things New and Old Heb. 5. 13 14. For every one that useth Milk is unskilful in the Word of Righteousness for he is a Babe But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age Those who by reason of USE have their senses exercised to discern both Good and Evil. 2 Tim. 2. 14 15 16. Of these things put them in remembrance charging them before God that they STRIVE not about WORDS to no profit but to the subverting of the Hearers Study to shew thy self approved UNTO GOD a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed RIGHTLY DIVIDING the word of Truth But shun profane and vain Bablings for they will increase unto more Ungodliness and their Word will eat as doth a Canker 2 Pet. 3. 16. In which Pauls Epistles are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons at the Sign of the Princes Arms in S t. Pauls Church-yard 1673. Advertisements READERS THE Book is so big that I must make no longer Preface than to give you this necessary short account 1. Of the Quality 2. And the Reasons of this Work I. The matter you will see in the Contents As Amâsius his Cases of Conscience are to his Medulla the second and Practical part of Theologie so is this to a Methodus Theologiae which I have not yet published And 1. As to the Method of this it is partly natural but principally Moral that is partly suitable to the real order of the Matter but chiefly of usefulness secundum ordinem Intentionis where our reasons of each location are fetcht from the End Therefore unless I might be tedious in opening my reasons à fine for the order of every particular I know not how to give you full satisfaction But in this Practical part I am the less solicitous about the Accurateness of method because it more belongeth to the former Part the Theory where I do it as well as I am able 2. This Book was written in 1664. and 1665. except the Ecclesiastick Cases of Conscience and a few sheets since added And since the Writing of it some invitations drew me to publish my Reasons of the Christian Religion my Life of Faith and Directions for weak Christians by which the work of the two first Chapters here is fullier done And therefore I was inclined here to leave them out But for the use of such Families as may have this without the other I forbore to dismember it 3. But there is a great disproportion between the several parts of the Book 1. The first Part is largest because I thought that the Heart must be kept with greatest diligence and that if the Tree be good the fruit will be good and I remember Pauls counsel 1 Tim. 4. 16. Take heed to thy self and unto thy Doctrine Continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee Nothing is well done by him that beginneth not at home As the man is so is his strength and work 2. The two first Chapters are too course and tedious for those of the higher form who may pass them over But the rest must be spoken to To whom that is unprofitable which is most suitable and pleasant to more exercised and accurate wits The Grand Directions are but the explication of the essentials of Christianity or of the Baptismal Covenant even of our Relation-duties to God the Father Son in several parts of his Relation and of the Holy Ghost The doctrine of Temptations is handled with brevity because they are so numerous lest a due amplification should have swelled the Book too much when a small part of their number maketh up so much of Mr. Iohn Downame's great and excellent Treatise called The Christian Welfare The great radical sins are handled more largely than seemeth proportionable to the rest because all die when they are dead And I am large about Redeeming Time because therein the sum of a holy obedient life is included 4. If any say Why call you that a sum of Practical Theologie which is but the Directing part and leaveth out the explication reasons various Uses marks motives c I answer 1. Had I intended Sermonwise to say all that might well be said on each subject it would have made many Volumes as big as this 2. Where I thought them needful the explication of each duty and sin is added with marks contraries counterfeits motives c. And Uses are easily added by an ordinary Reader without my naming them 5. I do especially desire you to observe that the resolving of practical Cases of Conscience and the reducing of Theoretical knowledge into serious Christian Practice and promoting a skilful facility in the faithful exercise of universal obedience and Holiness of heart and life is the great work of this Treatise And that where I thought it needful the Cases are reduced to express Questions and Answers But had I done so by all many such Volumes would have been too little And therefore I thought the Directing way most brief and fit for Christian practice For if you mark them you will find few Directions in the Book which may not pass for the answer of an implyed Question or Case of Conscience And when I have given you the Answer in a Direction an ingenious Reader can tell what Question it is that is answered And so many hundred Cases are here resolved especially in the two first Parts which are not interrogatively named 6. And I must do my self the right as to notifie to the Reader that this Treatise was written when I was for not-subscribing Declaring c. forbidden by the Law to Preach and when I had been long separated far from my Library and from all Books saving an inconsiderable parcel which wandred with me where I went By which means this Book hath two defects 1. It hath no Cases of Conscience but what my bare memory brought to hand And Cases are so
called to preach and not to write But I must reverence you more than to suppose you so absurd Other men forbid you but less publick preaching and you reproach me for more publick Preaching that 's the difference How hard is it to know what Spirit we are of Did you think that you had been Patrons of idleness and Silencers of Ministers while you declaim so much against it Your pretence that you would have me preach more is feigned Are you sure that you preach ofter than I do When I perswaded Ministers heretofore to Catechize and instruct all their Parishes personally family by family you said it was more toil than was our duty and now you are against much Writing too and yet would be thought laborious Ministers And as to the number and length of my Writings it is my own labour that maketh them so and my own great trouble that the world cannot be sufficiently instructed and edified in fewer words But 1. Would not all your Sermons set together be as long And why is not much and long preaching blameable if long Writings be 2. Are not the works of Augustine and Chrysostome much longer Who yet hath reproached Aquinas or Suarez Calvin or Zanchy c. for the number and greatness of the Volumes they have written Why do you contradict your selveâ by affecting great Libraries 3. When did I ever perswade any one of you to buy or read any Book of mine What harm will they do those that let them alone Or what harm can it do you for other men to read them Let them be to you as if they had never been written and it will be nothing to you how many they are And if all others take not you for their Tutors to choose for them the Books that they must read that is not my doing but their own If they err in taking themselves to be fitter Judges than you what tendeth most to their own Edification why do you not teach them better 4. Either it is Gods Truth or Error which I write If Error Why doth no one of you shew so much Charity as by Word or Writing to instruct me better nor evince it to my face but do all to others by backbiting If Truth What harm will it do If men had not leisure to read our Writings the Booksellers would silence us and save you the labour For none would Print them 5. But who can please all men Whilest a few of you cry out of too much what if twenty or an hundred for one be yet for more How shall I know whether you or they be the wiser and the better men Readers you see on what terms we must do the work of God Our slothful flesh is backward and weary of so much labour Malignant enemies of piety are against it all Some slothful brethren think it necessary to cloak their fleshly ease by vilifying the diligence of others Many Sects whom we oppose think it the interest of their cause which they call Gods cause to make all that 's said against them seem vain contemptible and odious which because they cannot do by Confutation they 'le do by backbiting and confident chat And one or two Reverend Brethren have by the wisdom described exactly Iames 3. 15 16. arrived at the liberty of backbiting and Magisterial sentencing the works of others which they confess they never read that their Reputation of being most Learned Orthodox Worthy Divines may keep the Chair at easier rates than the wasting of their flesh in unwearied labours to know the truth and communicate it to the world And some are angry who are forward to write that the Booksellers and Readers silence not others as well as them Object II. Your Writings differing from the common judgement have already caused offence to the godly Answ. 1. To the Godly that were of a contrary opinion only Sores that will not be healed use to be exasperated by the Medicine 2. It was none but healing Pacificatory Writings that have caused that offence 3. Have not those dissenters Writings more offended the Godly that were against them They have but one trick to honour their denyal which more dishonoureth it even by unsanctifying those that are not of their minds 4. If God bless me with opportunity and help I will offend such men much more by endeavouring further than ever I have done the quenching of that fire which they are still blowing up and detecting the folly and mischief of those Logomachies by which they militate against Love and Concord and enflame and tear the Church of God And let them know that I am about it But some Pastors as well as people have the weakness to think that all our Preachings and Writings must be brought under their dominion and to their barr by the bare saying that We offend the Godly that is those of their opinion which they falsly call by the name of scandal 5. But I think they will find little Controversie to offend them in this Book Object III. You should take more leisure and take other mens judgement of your Writings before you thrust them out so hastily Answ. 1. I have but a little while to live and therefore must work while it is day Time will not stay 2. I do shew them to those that I take to be most judicious and never refused any mans censure But it is not many that have leisure to do me so great a kindness But that I commit them not to the perusal of every Objector is a fault uncurable by one that never had an Amanuensis and hath but one Copy usually 3. And if I could do it how should I be sure that they would not differ as much among themselves as they do from me And my Writings would be like the Picture which the great Painter exposed to the censure of every passenger and made it ridiculous to all when he altered all that every one advised him to alter And to tell you the truth I was never yet blamed by one side as not sufficiently pleasing them but I was blamed also by the contrary side for coming so near them And I had not wit enough to know which party of the accusers was the wiser And therefore am resolved to study to please God and Conscience and to take man-pleasing when inconsistent for an impossible and unprofitable work and to cease from man whose breath is in his Nostrils whose thoughts all perish as he passeth off the Judicature of his Stage to the Judicature of God Object IV. Your Ecclesiastical Cases are dangerously reconciling tending to abate mens zeal against Error Answ. The world hath long enough escaped the danger of Peace and Reconciliation It had been well if they had as long escaped the danger of your Conceited-Orthodox strife which hath brought in confusion and all evil works I take it to be a Zeal effectively against Love and against Unity and against Christ which with the Preachers of extreams goeth under the name of
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 Sâlâer 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 dâmesnes 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 pâre 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. âuke 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
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 ipââs aliquod praestitit beneficium sed nobis maximum conâulit lucrum Nam si sermo âoââm 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 bonoâum socius exemplo excitat sermone recreat consilio instâuiâ orationibus adjuvat autoritate continet quae omnia so itudini desunt Ios. Acosta l. 4. c. 13. Dicunt Stoici Amicitiam solos inter bonâs 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 ââââer 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 moâbi transseunt ad nolentes Imo vero nobilis animus viâiorum odro ad amorem vârtutis accânditur Petraââh Dialog de aâiâ 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 âetters as will gall and grieve
as you have no need § 5. As for Play books and Romances and idle Tales I have already shewed in my Book of Self-dânyal how pernicious they are especially to youth and to frothy empty idle wits that know not what a man is nor what he hath to do in the world They are powerful baits of the Devil to keep more necessary things out of their minds and better Books out of their hands and to poyson the mind so much the more dangerously as they are read with more delight and pleasure and to fill the minds of sensual people with such idle fumes and intoxicating fancies as may divert them from the serious thoughts of their salvation And which is no small loss to rob them of abundance of that precious time which was given them for more important business and which they will wish and wish again at last that they had spent more wisely I know the fantasticks will say that these things are innocent and may teach men much good like him that must go to a Whore-house to learn to hate uncleanness and him that would go out with Robbers to learn to hate Theevery But I shall now only ask them as in the presence of God 1. Whether they could spend that time no better 2. Whether better Books and practices would not edifie them more 3. Whether the greatest Lovers of Romances and Playes be the greatest Lovers of the Book of God and of a holy life 4. Whether they feel in themselves that the Love of these vanities doth increase their love to the Word of God and kill their sin and prepare them for the life to come or clean contrary And I would desire men not to prate against their own experience and reason nor to dispute themselves into damnable impenitency nor to befool their souls by a few silly words which any but a sensualist may perceive to be meer deceit and falshood If this will not serve they shall be shortly convinced and answered in another manner Direct 17. TAke heed that you receive not a Doctrine of Libertinism as from the Gospel nor conceive Direct 17. of Christ as an encourager of sin nor pretend free grace for your carnal security or sloth For this is but to set up another Gospel and another Christ or rather the Doctrine and works of the Devil against Christ and the Gospel and to turn the Grace of God into wantonness § 1. Because the Devil knoweth that you will not receive his doctrine in his own Name his usual Siquis est hoc robore aniâât atque hoc indole virtuâs aâ continentiâ ut respâat omnes vo ãâ¦ã omnemâââ vitae âuae âârsâm âaââââ co ãâ¦ã aequalium fludia non âudi non convivia delectant nihil in vita expeâendum putet nisi quod est cum laude honore conjunâtum hunc mea sententia divinis quibusdam bonis instructum atque ornatum puto Ciâ pâo Cal. method is to propound and preach it in the name of Christ which he knoweth you reverence and regard For if Satan concealed not his own Name and Hand in every temptation it would spoil his game And the more excellent and splendid is his pretence the more powerful the temptation is They that gave heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils no doubt thought better of the Spirits and the Doctrines especially seeming strict for the Devil hath his strictnesses as forbidding to marry and abstinence from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving 1 Tim. 4. 1 3. But the strictnesses of the Devil are alwayes intended to make men loose They shall be strict as the Pharisees in Traditions and vain Ceremonies and building the Tombs of the Prophets and garnishing the Sepulchres of the Righteous that they may hate and murder the living Saints that worship God in Spirit and in truth Licentiousness is the proper Doctrine of the Devil which all his strictness tendeth to promote To receive such principles is pernicious but to father them upon Christ and the Gospel is blasphemous § 2. The Libertines Antinomians and Autonomians of this age have gathered you too many instances The Libertine saith The Heart is the man therefore you may deny the truth with your tongue you may be present at false Worship as at the Mass you need not suffer to avoid the speaking of a word or subscribing to an untruth or error or doing some little thing but as long as you keep your hearts to God and mean well or have an honest mental reservation and are forced to it by therâ rather than suffer you may say or subscribe or swear any thing which you can your selves put a lawful sense upon in your own minds or comply with any outward actions or customs to avoid âffence and save your selves The Antinomians tell you that The Moral Law is abrogated and that the Gospel is no Law and if there be no Law there is no Governour nor Government no duty no sin no judgement nâ punishment no before they are born or repent or believe that their sin is pardoned ãâ¦ã that God tââk them as suffering and fulfilling all the Law in Christ as if it had been they that diâ iâ in âiâ that we are justified by faith only in our consciences that justifying faith iâ but t ãâ¦ã we are justified that every man must believe that he is pardoned that he may ãâ¦ã ed in âis cââscience and this he is to do by a Divine faith and that this is the sense of the Aâtiâle I beliââââ the forgiveness of sins that is that my sâns are forgiven and that all are forgi ãâ¦ã it that it is legal and sinful to work or do any thing for salvation that sin once pa ãâ¦ã ssed and lamented or at least we need not ask pardon of sin daily or of one ãâ¦ã t that ãâã are no punishments and yet no other punishment is threatned to believers for their sins and consequently that Christ hath not procured them a pardon of any sin after believing but prevented all necessity of pardon and therefore they must not ask the pardon of them nor do any thing to obtain it that fear of Hell must have no hand in our obedience or restraint from sin And some add that he that cannot repent or believe must comfort himself that Christ repented and believed for him ãâ¦ã a contradiction Many such Doctrines of Licentiousness the abusers of Grace have brought forth And the Sect which imitateth the Father of Pride in affecting to be from under the Government of God and to be the Law-givers and Rulers of themselves and all others which I therefore call the Antonomians are Licentious and much more They equally contend against Christs Government and for their own They fill the world with Wars and bloodshed oppression and cruelty and the ears of God with the cryes of the Martyrs and oppressed ones and all that the spiritual and holy Discipline of Christ may be suppressed and
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 seâe habiturum sit corpus non dico ad annum sed ad vesperum Câceâo 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 praeterâit eâfluxit tan tum remanet quod virtute recte factis fit consecutus hoâae quidem âedunt diââ meâses 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 cââ periculum ãâã sââ etiam ââââvilido 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
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 eââectivum 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 ãâ¦ã rentur simularunt Enthusiaâmos seu afflatus subââo in âurâa se in terram objââââentes c vâlut ãâã dââ tacentes deinde tanquam redeuntes ex specu Trophonio plorantes multa vaticinati sunt Prorsus ut Anabaptistae recens fâceruâ in seditione Monasteriensi Etsi autem in quibusdam manifesta simulatio fuit tamen aliquibus reipsa à Diabolis surâtes 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. dâtâ Qualifie and âispose men for the stated ordinary Ministerial work which is to Explain and Apââââ âhe âoresaid 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
that is bestowed in sin upon Gods enemies is used against him and noâ as his Own 6. And that he that hideth his Talent or useth it not at all cannot be said to Use it for God Both idleness and alienating the gifts of God are a robbing him of his own § 9. III. To help you in this work of self-resignation often consider 1. That if you were your Own you were most miserable You could not support preserve or provide for your selves who should save you in the hour of temptation or distress Alas if you are humbled Christians you know so much of your Own insufficiency and feel your selves such a daily burden to your selves that you have sure enough of your selves ere now And beg of God above all your enemies to save you from your selves and of all judgements to save you from being forsaken of God and given up to your selves 2. Remember that none in the world hath sufficient Power Wisdom and Goodness to take the full care and charge of you but God None else can save you or sanctifie you or keep you alive one hour And therefore it is your happiness and honour that you are His. 3. His Right is absolute and none hath Right to you but he None else did Create you Redeem you or Regenerate you 4. He will Use you only in safe and honourable services and to no worse an end than your endless happiness 5. What you deny him or steal from him you give to the Devil the World and the flesh And do they better deserve it 6. You are his own in Tiâle whether you will or not and he will fulfil his will upon you Your Consent and Resignation is necessary to your good to âase you of your cares and secure you from present and eternal misery DIRECT VI. Gr. Dir. 6. Remember that God is your Soveraign King to Rule and Iudge you And that it is your Rectitude and happiness to obey and please him Labour therefore to bring Of subjection to God as our Supream Governour your souls and bodies into the most absolute subjection to him and to make it your Delight and business sincerely and exactly to obey his Will § 1. HAving Resigned your selves absolutely to God as your Owner you are next to subject your selves absolutely to God as your Governour or King How much of our Religion consisteth in this you may see in the nature of the thing in the design of the Law and Word of God in the doctrine and example of Jesus Christ in the description of the last judgement and in the common consent of all the world Though Love is the highest work of man yet is it so far from discharging Aristipâus rogatus aliquando quiâ haberent ex mâum Philosophi Si omnes inquit leges interâant aequabiliter vivemus Laâtius us from our subjection and obedience that it constraineth us to it most powerfully and most sweetly and must it self be judged of by these effects John 14. 15. If ye love me keep my Commandments 21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me 23. If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will Love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him 24. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings John 15. 10. If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my Love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his Love 14. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you John 13. 17. If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them 1 John 5. 3. For this is the Love of God that ye keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous 1 John 2. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him 5. But who so keepeth his word in him verily is the Love of God perfected hereby know we that we are in him 6. He that saith he is in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked 29. If ye know that he is Righteous you know that every one that doth Righteousness is born of him 1 John 3. 6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not whosoever sinneth hath not seen him neither known him 7. Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righeeous 8. He that committeth sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God 10. In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God 22. And whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight Rev. 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life and may enter in by the gates into the City I set together these testimonies of the Scripture that the stream of Divine authority may carry you to a lively sense of the necessity of Obedience § 2. I shall here first tell you what this full subjection is and then I shall Direct you how to attain it I. As in God there is first his Relation of our King and then his actual Government of us by his Laws and Iudgement so in us there is first our Relation of Subjects to God and then our actual obedience Subjection what We are Subjects by Divine obligation before we consent as Rebels are but our Consent or self-obligation is necessary to our Voluntary obedience and acceptation with God Subjection is our stated obligation to Obedience This subjection and habit of Obedience is then right and full 1. When the sense of Gods authority over us is Practical and not notional only 2. And when it is deep-rooted and fixed and become as a Nature to us As a mans intention of his End is that hath a long journey to go which carryeth him on to the last step or as a Childs subjection to his Parents or a Servant to his Master which is the Habit or principle of his daily course of life 3. When it is Lively and ready to put the soul upon obedience 4. When it is constant keeping the soul in a continual attendance upon the Will of God 5. When it hath universal respect to all his Commandments 6. When it is resolute powerful and victorious against temptations to disobedience 7. When it is superlative respecting God as our supream King and owning no authority against him nor any but what is subordinate to him 8. When it is Voluntary Pleasant Chearful and delectable to us to Obey him to the utmost of our Power § 3. II. To bring
Father of lyes and error than for the School of Christ. Except Conversion make men as little children that come not to caâp and cavil but to learn they are not meet for the Kingdom of Christ. Matth. 18. 3. John 3. 3 5. Know how blind and ignorant you are and how dull of learning and humbly beg of the Heavenly Teacher that he will accept you and illuminate you and give up your understandings absolutely to be informed by him and your Hearts to be the Tables in which his Spirit shall write his Law Believing his doctrine upon the bare account of his infallible Veracity and resolving to obey it and this is to be the Disciples of Christ indeed and such as shall be taught of God § 11. Direct 10. Come to the School of Christ with honest willing hearts that Love the truth and Direct 10. âain would know it that they may obey it and not with false and byassed hearts which secretly hinder the understanding from entertaining the truth because they love it not as being contrary to their carnal inclinations and interest The word that was received into Honest hearts was it that was as the seed that brought forth plentifully Matth. 13. 23. When the Heart saith unfeignedly Speak Lord for thy servant heareth Teach me to know and do thy will God will not leave such a Learner in the dark Most of the damnable ignorance and error of the world is from a wicked heart that perceiveth that the Truth of God is against their fleshly interest and lusts and therefore is unwilling to obey it and unwilling to believe it lest it torment them because they disobey it A will that 's secretly poysoned with the Love of the world or of any sinful lusts and pleasures is the most potent impediment to the believing of the truth § 12. Direct 11. Learn with quietness and peace in the School of Christ and make not divisions and Direct 11. meddle not with others lessons and matters but with your own Silence and quietness and minding your own business is the way to profit The turbulent wranglers that are quarrelling with others and are religions contentiously in envy and strife are liker to be corrected or ejected than to be edified Read Iames 3. § 13. Direct 12. Remember that the School of Christ hath a Rod and therefore learn with fear and Direct 12. reverence Heb. 12. 28 29. Phil. 2. 12. Christ will sharply rebuke his own if they grow negligent and oftend And if he should cast thee out and forsake thee thou art undone for ever See therefore that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they sâaped not that refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we if we refuse him that is from Heaven Heb. 12. 25. For how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that âeard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will Heb. 2. 3 4. Serve the Lord therefore with fear and rejoyce with trembling Kiss the Son left he be angry and you perish in the kindling of his wrath Psal. 2. 11 12. DIRECT VIII Gr. Dir. 6. To obev Christ as our Physicion in his healing work and his Spirit in its cleansing mortifying work Remember that you are Related to Christ as the Physicion of your souls and to the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier Make it therefore your serious study to be cured by Christ and cleansed by his Spirit of all the sinful diseases and defilements of your hearts and lives § 1. THough I did before speak of our Believing in the Holy Ghost and using his help for our access to God and converse with him yet I deferred to speak fully of the Cleansing and Mortifying part of his work of Sanctification till now and shall treat of it here as it is the same with the Curing work of Christ related to us as the Physicion of our souls it being part of our Subjection and Obedience to him to be Ruled by him in order to our cure And what I shall here write against sin in general will be of a twofold use The one is to help us against the inward corruptions of our hearts and for the outward obedience of our lives and so to further the work of Sanctification and prevent our sinning The other is to help us to Repentance and Humiliation habitual and actual for the sins which are in us and which we have already at any time committed § 2. The General Directions for this curing and cleansing of the soul from sin are contained for the most part in what is said already and many of the particular Directions also may be fetcht from the sixth Direction before going I shall now add but two General Directions and many more Particular ones Direct 1. I. The two General Directions are these 1. Know what corruptions the soul of man is naturally Direct 1. defiled with And this containeth the knowledge of those faculties that are the seat of thâse corruptions and the knowledge of the corruptions that have tainted and perverted the several faculties Direct 2. 2. Know what sin is in its nature or intrinsick evil as well as in the effects Direct 2. How the several faculties of the soul are corrupted and diseased § 3. 1. The Parts or faculties to be cleansed and cured are both the Superiour and Inferiour 1. The Understanding though not the first in the sin must be first in the cure For all that is done upon the Lower faculties must be by the Governing power of the will And all that is done upon the will ac cording to the order of humane nature must be done by the Understanding But the Understanding hath its own diseases which must be known and cured It s malady in general is Ignorance which is not only a privation of actual knowledge but an undisposedness also of the understanding to know the truth A man may be deprived of some actual knowledge that hath no disease in his mind that causeeth In what cases a sound understanding may be ignorant it as in case that either the object be absent and out of reach or that there be no sufficient Revelation of it or that the mind be taken up wholly upon some other thing or in case a man shut out the thoughts of such an object or refuse the evidence which is the act of the will even as a man that is not blind may yet not see a particular object 1. In case it be out of his natural reach 2. Or if it be night and he want extrinsick light 3. Or in case he be wholly taken up with the observation of other things 4. Or in case he wilfully either shut or turn away his eyes It is a very hard question to resolve how far and wherein the
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 nât 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 ãâ¦ã ing the Church is called keeping up order obedience and unity Disobedience to superiors is câllâd not ââaâing mân Church-divisions are called strictness and zeal 2. Specially if a sân be not iâ dis ãâ¦ã among the stricter sort it greatly prepareth men to commit it As breaking the Lords day beyond sââ in many râfârmâd Churches And at home spiritual pride cens riousââss baâkâiting disobedience ââd 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 ãâã ãâã 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 cauââlous we should be It is not imperfect man but the perfect Law of God which must be our Rule The great succâss 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 ââynous sin that if he prevail not at Tempt â9 lââst 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 sâme horrid cruelây and you yield but to sâme 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 âr 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 whân 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 sâme âne danger as to be mindless of some other and lie open to his temptation Like a Fââââr 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 âââât § 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
Unhumbledness Impurity Unreformedness and all sin in general as sin In the ninth you are directed against â 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 leât 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 âe 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 âullier 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 ãâ¦ã 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 âf unrenewed men in all Agââ and Nations of the Earâh when thâse men deserve so well of them and do them no wrong âs a visible proof of Adams fall and he ãâã 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 âinds and lives and their wonderful difference from other men sheweth this is a visible proof that Christianity is of God 3. That God doth âo âlainly 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 ãâã 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 flâsh dââh shew that there is a Judgement and Rewards and Punishments hereafter Or else our highest duty would be our greatest losâ and thân 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 ât 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 pââââible the world should be governed agreeably to mans rational nature without the hopes and fears of another life But men would be wââse 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 staâding 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 sâx 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 Aâheâsm 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. seriâus 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 ãâ¦ã and the proper remedy All men should be so holy as not to need any exhortations to ãâã at all But shall Ministers therefore neglect such exhortations or they that need them ââââ away their âars Hear if possible that Minister that first feels what he speaks and so speaks what ââ feels as tendeth most to make you feel Isa. 58. 1 2. Cry aloud spare not lift up thy âââââ like a Trumpet and shew my people their transgressions and the house of Israel their sins Though ââcâââ seek me daily and delight to know my wayes as a Nation that did righteousness and forsook nât ââââ Orâinanceâ of their God God is the chief agent but he useth to work according to the ââââââ 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 ââââ 13 â1 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 leât 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 frailâies 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. sââffe at Holiness and curse and swear and blaspheme the Name and Truth of God
it as some of a higher degree The thing pretended by Eminent Hypoââites is to be zealous eminent Christians or at least to be sincere in a special manner while they discern the common Hypocrite not to be sincere 2. The cloak of seeming or pretense by which they would be thought to be what they are not is any thing in gâneral that hath an appearance of Godliness and is apt to make others think them godly And thus there are diverse sorts of Hypocrites according to the variety of their cloaks or ways of dissimulation though hypocrisie it self be in all of them the same thing As among the very Mahometanes and Heathens there oft arise some notable Hypocrites that by pretended Revelations and austerity of life profess themselves as Mahomet did to be Holy persons that had some extraordinary familiarity with God or Angels So among the Papists there are besides the common ones as many sorts of Hypocrites as they have self-devised Orders And every where the cloak of the common Hypocrite is so thin and transparent that it sheweth his nakedness to the more intelligent sort And this puts the Eminent Hypocrite upon some more laudable pretense that is not so transparent As for instance the Hypocrisie of common Papists whose cloak is made up of penances and ceremonies of saying over latine words or numbering words and beads for prayers with all the rest of their trumpery before named Chap. 3. Gr. Dir. 15. Dir. 11. is so thin a cloak that it will not âatisfie some among themselves but they withdraw into distinct societies and orders the Church and the profession of Christianity being not enough for them that they may be Religious as if they saw that the rest are not Religious And then the common sort of ungodly Protestants have so much wit as to see through the cloak of all the Popish Hypocrisie and therefore they take up a fitter for themselves and that is the name of a Protestant Reformed Religion and Church joyned to the Common Profession of Christianity The Name or Profession of a Christian and a Protestant with going to Church and a heartless lip-service or saying their Prayers is the cloak of all ungodly Protestants Others discerning the thinness of this cloak do think to make themselves a better and they take up the strictest opinions in Religion and own those which they account the strictest party and own that which they esteem the purest and most spiritual worship The cloak of these men is their opinions pârty and way of worship while their carnal lives detect their Hypocrisie Some that see through all these pretenses do take up the most excellent cloak of all and that is An appearance of serious spirituality in Religion with a due observation of all the outward parts and means and a Reformation of life in works of piety Iustice and charity I say An appearance of all these which if they had indeed they were sincere and should be saved in which the Godly Christian goeth beyond them all § 4. By this it is plain that among us in England all men that are not Saints are Hypocrites because that all except here or there a Jew or Infidel profess themselves to be Christians and every true Christian is a Saint They know that none but Saints or Godly persons shall be saved And there is few of them that will renounce their hopes of Heaven and therefore they must pretend to be all godly And is it not most cursed horrid hypocrisie for a man to pretend to Religion as the only way to his salvation and confidently call himself a Christian while he hateth and derideth the power and practice of that very Religion which he doth profess Of this see my Treat of The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite When Pââââ in vita sua speaketh of others extolling his eloquence he addeth his own neglect of it Ego modo bene vixisâem qualiter dixisâem parvi sacerem Venâosa gloria est de solo verborum splendore famam quaerere Conscientiam potius quam famam attende Falli saepe poterit fama Conscientia nunquam Seâec § 5. The Hypocrites Ends in his pretenses and dissemblings are not all the same One intendeth the pleasing of Parents or some friends on whom he doth depend that will else be displeased with him and think ill of him Another intendeth the pleasing of the higher powers when it falls out that they are friends to Godliness Another intends the preserving of his esteem with religious persons that they may not judge him wicked and prophane Another intendeth the hiding of some particular villany or the success of some ambitious enterprise But the most common end is to quiet and comfort their guilty souls with an Image of that Holiness which they are without and to steal some peace to their Consciences by a lie And so because they will not be Religious indeed they will take up some shew or image of Religion to make themselves as well as others believe that they are Religious § 6. Direct 1. To escape Hypocrisie understand well wherein the life and power of Godliness doth consist Direct 1. and wherein it differeth from the lifeless Image or Corps of Godliness The life of Godliness is expressed in the 17 Grand Directions in Chap. 4. It principally consisteth in such a faith in Christ as causeth us to Love God above all and obey him before all and prefer his favour and the hopes of Heaven before all the pleasures or profits or honours of the world and to worship him in spirit and truth according to the direction of his word The Images of Religion I shewed you before § 3. Take heed of such a lifeless Image § 7. Direct 2. See that your chief study be about the Heart that there Gods Image may be planted Direct 2. and his interest advanced and the interest of the world and flesh subdued and the Love of every sin cast out and the Love of Holiness succeed and that you content not your selves with seeming to do goâd in outward acts when you are bad your selves and strangers to the great internal duties The first and Sic vivendum est quaâi in coââââctu âââamuâ Sic cogitandum tanquam aliquis pectus intimum prospicere poââiâ Senec. Rem dââam ex qua mââââs a stimes nâstraâ Vix quempiam invenâes qui possit aperto ostiââivâre jââitores conscientia nostra suposuit sic vivimus ut deprehendi sit sabiââ aspici Senec. Ep. 96. great work of a Christian is about his heart There it is that God dwelleth by his spirit in his Saints And there it is that sin and Satan reign in the ungodly The great duties and the great sins are those of the heart There is the root of Good and Evil The tongue and life are but the fruits and expressions of that which dwelleth within The inward habit of sin is as a second nature And a sinful nature is worse than a sinful
liberty were it as long as we live if it be necessary to the saving of our brethrens souls by removing the offence which hindereth them by prejudice We mâst not seek our own carnal ends but the benefit of others and do them all the good we can § 6. 3. As our neighbour is commanded to Love us as himself we are bound by all lawful means to render our selves amiable to him that we may help and facilitate this his Love as it is more necessary to him than to us For to help him in obeying so great a command must needs be a great duty And therefore if his very sin possess him with prejudice against us or cause him to distaste us for some indifferent thing we must as far as we can lawfully remove the cause of his prejudice and dislike Though he that hateth us for obeying God must not be cured by our disobeying him we are so far from being obliged to displease men by surliness and morasity that we are bound to pleasing gentleness and brotherly kindness and to all that carriage which is necessary to care their sinful hatred or dislike § 7. 4. We must not be self-conceited and prefer a weak unfurnished judgement of our own before the greater wisdom of another but in honor must prefer each other and the ignorant must honour the knowledge and parts of others that excel them and not be stiff in their own opinion nor wise in their own eyes nor undervalue another mans reasons or judgement but be glad to learn of any that can teach them in the humble acknowledgement of their own insufficiency § 8. 5. Especially we must reverence the judgement of our able faithful Teachers and not by pride set up our weaker judgement against them and resist the truth which they deliver to us from God Neither must we set light by the censures or admonitions of the lawful Pastors of the Church When they are agreeable to the word and judgement of God they are very dreadful As Tertullian Gal. 5. 10. 1 Cor. 5. saith If any so offend as to be banished from communion of prayer and assembly and all holy commerce it is a judgement foregoing the great judgement to come Yea if the Officers of Christ should wrong you in their censures by passion or mistake while they act in their own charge about matters belonging to their cognisance and judgement you must respectfully and patiently bear the wrong so as not to dishonour and contemn the authority and office so abused § 9. 6. If sober godly persons that are well acquainted with us do strongly suspect us to be faulty where we discern it not our selves it should make us the more suspitious and fearful and it judicious persons fear you to be Hypocrites and no sound Christians by observing your temper and course of life it should make you search with the greater fear and not to disregard their judgement And if judicious persons especially Ministers shall tell a poor fearful doubting Christian that they verily think their state is safe it may be a great stay to them and must not be sleighted as nothing though it cannot give them a certainty of their case Thus far mans judgement must be valued § 10. 7. A good name among men which is the reputation of our integrity is not to be neglected as a thing of naught for it is a mercy from God for which we must be thankful and it is a useful means to our succesful serving and honouring God And the more eminent we are and the more the honour of God and Religion is joyned with ours or the good of mens souls dependeth Qui ãâ¦ã Non solem veritas in hac parte sed etiam opinio studiose quaerenda est ut te hypoââââam agere interdum mânâme poeââtâat said ãâ¦ã harshly enough to Acosta âââi 4. c. 17. p. 413. on our reputation the more careful we should be of it and it may be a duty sometimes to vindicate it by the Magistrates justice against a slander Especially Preachers whose success for the saving of their hearers depends much on their good name must not despise it § 11. 8. The censurers of the most petulant and the scorns of enemies are not to be made light of as they are their sins which we must lament nor as they may provoke us to a more diligent search and careful watchfullness over our waies Thus far mans judgement is regardable § 12. But 1. We must know how frail and erroneous and unconstant a thing man is and therefore not be too high in our expectations from man We must suppose that men will mistake us and wrong us and slander us through ignorance passion prejudice or self-interest And when this befals us we must not account it strange and unexpected § 13. 2. We must consider how far the enmity that is in lapsed man to holiness and the ignorance 1 Pet. 4 1â 13 c. 1 Cor. 4. 12 13. Acts ââ â2 Acts 24 5 6. Mat. 5. 10. ââ 1â prejudice and passion of the ungodly will carry them to despise and scorn and slander all such as seriously and zealously serve God and cross them in their carnal interest And therefore if for the sake of Christ and righteousness we are accounted as the scorn and off-scouring of all things and as pestilent fellows and movers of sedition among the people and such as are unworthy to live and have all manner of evil spoken of us falsly it must not seem strange or unexpected to us nor cast us down but we must bear it patiently yea and exceedingly rejoyce in hope of our reward in Heaven § 14. 3. Considering what remnants of pride and self-conceitedness remain in many that have true grace and how many Hypocrites are in the Church whose Religion consisteth in Opinions and their several modes of worship we must expect to be reproached and abused by such as in Opinions and Modes and Circumstances do differ from us and take us therefore as their adversaries A great deal of injustice sometime by slanders or reproach and sometimes by greater violence must be expected from contentious professors of the same Religion with our selves especially when the interest of their faction or cause requireth it and especially if we bring any truth among them which seemeth new to them or crosseth the opinions which are there in credit or would be Reformers of them in any thing that is amiss § 15. 4. No men must be Pleased by sin nor their favour preferred before the pleasing of God Mans favour as against God is to be despised and their displeasure made light of It doing our duty will displease them let them be displeased we can but pitty them § 16. 5. We must place none of our happiness in the favor or approbation of men but account it as to our selves to be a matter of no great moment neither worth any great care or endeavour to obtain it or grief for losing
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 Nâr 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 babâs 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 Papâl 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 lenâe progredere in eo autem quod elegeââs firmiter persiste Bias in Laârt 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 Pertinaâior tamen erat Chrysanthius nec de sententia âacile 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 evitaâas 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
supposed Greatness when the Sign 1. Greatness of God should shew them their contemptible vileness and to magnifie themselves when they should magnifie their Maker It makes the strong man glory in his strength and the rich man in his wealth and the Conquerour in his Victories and Princes and Rulers and Lords of the Earth Jer. 9. 23 24. Psal. 49. 6. 2 Chron. 25. 19. in their Dominions and Dignities and power to do hurt or good to others and say as Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 4. 30. Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the House of the Kingdom by the might of my power for the honour of my Majesty How hard is it to be Great and truly Humble and not to swell and be lifted up in Heart as they rise in Power This God abhorreth as unsuitable to worms and dust and injurious to his honour and will make them know that Power and Riches and Strength are his and that the Most High doth rule in the Kingdom of men and giveth it to whom be will Dan. 4. 32. § 11. Sign 2. Pride causeth men to set up their supposed Worth and Goodness above or against the Sign 2. Lord So that they make themselves their principal End and practise that which some of late presume to teach that it is not God that can or ought to be mans End but himself alone As if we were made only for our selves and not for our Creator Pride makes men so considerable in their own esteem that they live wholly to themselves as if the world were to stand or fall with them If they be well all is well with them If they are to dye they take it as if the world were at an end They Ut lumen lunae in praesentia solis non apparet paâi ratione esse secundum in praesentia pââââ nec meritum nostrum praesente merito Christi Paul Scaâââââ Tââââ â3 74. âe Mââdo ãâã Epist. â 14 value God but as they do their food or health or pleasure even as a means to their own felicity not as preferring him before themselves nor making him the chiefest in their End They love themselves much better than God And so far is man fallen from God to Himself that he feeleth himself disposed to this as strongly as that he taketh it to be his primitive nature and therefore warrantable and that it is impossible to go higher § 12. God is to be mans End though we can add nothing to him The highest Love supposeth no want in him that we love but an excellency of Glory Wisdom and Goodness to which all our How God is mans End faculties offer up themselves in Admiration Love and Praise not only for the Delights of these nor only tâat our persons may herein be happy but chiefly that God may have his due and his will may be pleased and fulfilled and because his Excellencies deserve all this from men and Angels When Idem sânant sumâe aâari esse finem ultimum at proculdubio Deus summe amandus est Uâum vero finem Aristoteles declaravit esse Usum virtutis in vita sancta integra Heââââh Illust. in A istot we love a man of wonderful Learning and Wisdom and Meekness and Charity and Holiness and other Goodness it is not chiefly for our selves that we love him that we may receive something from him âor we feel his Excellency command our Love though we were sure that we should never receive any thing from him Nor is the Delight of Loving him our chief end but a consequent or the lesser parâ of our End For we feel that we Love him before we think of the Delight The Admiration Love and Praise of God our ultimate End hath no End beside their proper object For it is it self the final act even mans Perfection Amiableness magnetically attracteth Love If you ask an Angel why he loveth God he will say because he is infinitely amiable And though in such motions nature secretly aimeth at its own perfection and felicity and lawfully interesceth it self in this final motion yet the Union being of such as are infinitely unequal O how little do the glorified Spirits respect themselves in comparison of the blessed glorious God See what I said of this before Chap. 3. Direct 11. 15. § 13. Sign 3. Pride maketh men more desirous to be over-loved themselves than that God be Sign 3. loved by themselves or others They would fain have the eyes and hearts of all men turned upon them as if they were as the Sun to be admired and loved by all that see them § 14. Sign 4. Pride causeth men to depend upon themselves and contrive inordinately for themselves Sign 4. and trust in themselves as if they lived by their own wit and power and industry more than by the favour and providence of God Isa. 9. 9. Obad. 3. § 15. Sign 5. Pride makes men return the thanks to themselves which is due to God for the Sign 5. mercies which they have received God is thanked by them but in complement But they seriously Dan. 4. 30. Hab. 1. 16. Laâât in Tâal speaketh of the Oraâle of Deâphos adjudging the Tââpos to the Wisest So it was sent to Thales and from him to another till it came to Sâlon who sent it to the Oracle saying None is wiser than God So should we all send back to God the praise and glory of all that is ascribâd to us ascribe it to their care or skill or industry or power They sacrifice to their Net and say our hand our contrivance our power our good husbandry hath done all this § 16. Sign 6. Pride setteth up the wisdom of a foolish man against the infinite wisdom of God It Sign 6. makes men presume to judge their Judge and judge his Laws before they understand them and to Laârt saith that Pythagoras first called himself a Philosopher Nullum enim hominum sed sâlum Deum esse sepienteâ asserit Antea ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã dicta quae nuâc Philosophia qui hanc profitebantur ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã appellati Quicunque ad summam animi virtutem exâreverunt hos nunc honestiore vocabulo authore Pythagora Philosophos appellamus pag. 7. quarrell with all that they find unsuitable to their own conceits and say How improbable is this or that and how can these things be He that cannot undo a pair of Tarrying Irons or unriddle a Riddle till it be taught him which afterwards appeareth plain will question the truth of the Word of God about the most high unsearchable mysteries Proud men think they could mend Gods Word and they could better have ordered matters in the world and for the Church and for themselves and for their friends tha then providence of God hath done § 17. Sign 7. Pride maketh men set up their own Love and Mercy above the Love and Mercy of Sign 7. God Augustine mentioneth a sort of
Hereticks called Misericordes Merciful men And Origen was led hereby into his errors When they think of Hell fire and the number of the miserable and the fewness of the saved they consult with their ignorant compassion and think that this is below the Love and Mercy which is in themselves and that they would not thus use an enemy of their own and therefore they censure the holy Scripture and Pride inclineth them strongly to unbelief while they forget the narrowness and darkness of their souls and how unfit they are to censure God and how many truths may be unseen of them which would fully satisfie them if they knew them and how quickly God will shew them that which shall justifie his Word and all his Works and convince them of the folly and arrogancy of their unbelief and censures § 18. Sign 8. Pride makes men pretend to be more Just than God and to think that they could Sign 8. more justly Govern the world and to censure Gods threatnings and the sufferings of the good and the prosperity of the wicked as things so unjust as that they thereby incline to atheism So Iames and Iohn would be more just than Christ and call down fire on the rejecters of the Gospel And the Prodigals Brother Luke 15. repined at his Fathers lenity § 19. Sign 9. Pride maketh men sleight the authority and commands of God and despise his Sign 9. messengers and choose to be ruled by their own conceits and lusts and interests when the humble ââr 13. 15 17. 43. 2 3. tremble at his Word and readily obey it Isa. 57. 15. Neh. 9. 16. 29. Isa. 9. 9. § 20. Sign 10. A proud man in power will expect that his will be obeyed before the will of God Sign 10. and that the subjects of God displease their Master rather than him He will think it a crime for a man to enquire first what God would have him do or to plead conscience and the commands of the God of Heaven against the obeying of his unjust commands If he offer you preferment as Balack did Balaam he looketh you should be more taken with it than with Gods offer of eternal life If he threaten you as Nebuchadnezzar did the three Witnesses he looks that you should be more afraid of him than of God who threatneth your damnation and is angry if you be not § 21. Sign 11. A proud man is more offended with one that would question his authority or speak Sign 11. diminutively of his power or displease his will or cross his interest than with one that sinneth against the authority and will and interest of God He is much more zealous for himself and his own honor than for Gods and grieved more for his own dishonour and hateth his own enemies more than Gods and can tread down the interest of God and souls if it seem but necessary to his honor or revenge He is much more pleased and delighted with his own applause and honor and greatness than with the glory of God or the fulfilling of his will § 22. Sign 12. Proud men would fain steal from God himself the honor of many of his mosâ excellent Sign 12. works If they are Rulers they are more desirous that the thanks for the order and peace of Quicquid âonââgeris in deos refer Bias in Laâât Societies be given by the people to them than unto God If they are Preachers they would fain have more than their due of the honour of mens Conversion and Edification If they are Pastors they would encroach upon Christs part of the Government of his Church If they be bountiful to the poor and do any good works they would have more of the praise than belongeth to a Steward or Messenger that delivereth the gifts of God If they be Physicions they would have the real honor of the Cure and have God to have but a barren complement Like the Atheistical Physicion that reviled and beat his Patient for thanking God that he was well when saith he it was I that cured you and do you thank God for it § 23. Sign 13. A proud man will give more to his Honour than to God His estate is more at the Sign 13. command of his Pride than of God He giveth more in the view or knowledge of others than he could perswade himself to do in secret He is more bountiful in gifts that tend to keep up the credit of his liberality than he is to truly indigent persons It is not the good that is done but the honor which he expecteth by it which is his principal motive He had rather be scant in works of greatest secret charity than in apparel and a comely port and the entertaining of friends or any thing that is for ostentation and for himself § 24. Sign 14. A proud man would have as great a dependance of others upon him as he can He Sign 14. would have the estates and lives and welfare of all others at his will and power That he might be much feared and loved and thanked and that many may be beholden to him as the God or great Benefactor of the world He is not contented that good is done and mens wants supplyed unless he have the doing of it that so he may have the praise If he save his enemy it is but to make him beholden to him and be said to have given him his life Fain he would be taken to be as the Sun to the world which mankind cannot be without § 25. Sign 5. A proud man is very patient when men ascribe to him that which he knoweth to Sign 15. be above his due though it be to the injury of God He can easily forgive those that value and love him more than he deserveth though they sin in doing it He is seldom offended with any for over-praising him nor for reverencing or honouring him too much nor for setting him too high or for giving or ascribing too much power to him nor for obeying him before God himself He careth not how much love and honour and praises and thanks he hath when a humble soul saith as Psal. 115. 1. Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the glory And as the Angel to Iohn that would have worshipped him See thou do it not for I am thy fellow servant They Psal. 22. 6. Gen. 32. 10. Iâphâl 3. 8. 1 Tim. 1. 15. know God will not give his glory to another Isa. 42. 8. In his Temple every one speaketh of his glory Psal. 29. 9. But of themselves they say I am a worm and no man I am less than the least of all thy mercies less than the least of all Saints the chiefest of sinners How unfit am I for so much love and praise and honour § 26. Sign 16. A proud man would have his Reason to be the Rule of all the world or at least of Sign 16.
to needless recreations and from the deadly plague of youthful lusts when your daily labour is a greater pleasure to you § 21. Direct 10. Get some judicious man to draw you up the titles of a threefold Common-place-Book Direct 10. One part for definitions distinctions axioms and necessary doctrines Another part for what is useful for ornament and oratory And another for References as a common Index to all the Books of that Science which you read For memory will not serve for all § 22. Ordinarily Students have not judgement enough to form their own Common-place-Books till they are old in Studies and have read most of the authors which they would remember And therefore the young must here have a judicious helper And when they have done injudiciousness will be apt to fill it with less necessary things and to make an unmeet choice of matter if they have not care and an instructer § 23. Direct 11. Highly esteem of a just Method in Divinity and in all your studies and labour to Direct 11. get an accurate Scheme or Skeleton where at once you may see every part in its proper place But remember Since the writing of this I have begun a Methodus Theologiae that if it be not sound it will be a snare and one error in your Scheme or Method will be apt to introduce abundance more § 24. It s a poor and pitiful kind of knowledge to know many loose parcels and broken members of truth without knowing the whole or the place and relation which they have to the rest To know letters and not syllables or syllables and not words or words and not sentences or sentences and not the scope of the discourse are all but an unprofitable knowledge He knoweth no Science rightly that hath not anatomized it and carryeth not a true Scheme or Method of it in his mind But among the many that are extant to commend any one to you which I most esteem or take to be without error is more than I dare do § 25. Direct 12. Still keep the primitive fundamental verities in your mind and see every other Direct 12. truth which you learn as springing out of them and receiving their life and nourishment from them And Read well Vincentius Lirinencâsis still keep in your minds a clear distinction between the Truths of several Degrees both of Necessity and Certainty alwayes reducing the less Necessary to the more Necessary and the less certain to the more certain and not contrarily § 26. If God had made all points of faith or Scripture revelation of equal necessity our Baptism would not only have mentioned our Belief in the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost nor should we ever have seen the antient Creed nor the ten Commandments And if all points were of equall Evidence and plainness and certainty to us we should not have some so much controverted above others Some things in Scripture are hard to be understood but not all things 2 Pet. 3. 16. To pretend that any Truth is more necessary than it is doth tend to uncharitableness and contention And to say that any is less necessary than it is doth tend to the neglect of it and to the danger of souls To pretend any point to be more plain and certain than it is doth but shew our pride and ignorance But to set up uncertain and unnecessary points and make a Religion of them and reduce things certain or necessary to them this is the method of turbulent Hereticks § 27. Direct 13. Take nothing as universally Necessary in Religion which was not so taken in the Direct 13. dayes of the Apostles and Primitive Church and take that for the safest way to Heaven which the Apostles went who certainly are there value the Apostolical purity simplicity charity and unity and follow not them that by being wise and pious overmuch corrupt our sacred pattern by their additions and fill the Church with uncharitableness and strife § 28. If it were not a thing too evident that Dominion and Riches go for Religion with them and gain for Godliness and honour and money instead of argument it would be a most stupendious wonder that so many learned men should be found among Christians in the world to hinder the peace and unity of the Church as do it vehemently and implacably in the Church of Rome when so easie a thing and so reasonable would unite almost all the Christian world as is the requiring no more as necessary to our Union than what was made necessary in the dayes of the Apostles and the obtruding nothing as necessary to salvation which the Apostles and primitive Church were saved without This easie reasonable thing which no man hath any thing of seeming sense and weight to speak against would end all the ruinating differences among Christians § 29. Direct 14. Be desirous to know all that God would have you know and be willing to be ignorant Direct 14. of all that God would have you ignorant of and pry not into unrevealed things and much less make them the matter of any uncharitable strife § 30. Abundance of contentious Volumes between the Dominicans and Jesuites and many others are stuft with bold enquiries wranglings or determinations of unsearchable mysteries utterly unknown to those that voluminously debate them and never revealed in the Word or Works of God Keep off with reverence from concealed mysteries Talk not as boldly of the Divine influx and the priority posteriority dependance or reason of Gods Decrees as if you were talking of your common affairs Come with great reverence when you are called of God to search into those high and holy truths which he hath revealed But pretend not to know that which is not to be known For you will but discover your ignorance and arrogance and know never the more when you have doted about Questions never so long § 31. Direct 15. Avoid both extreams of them that study no more but to know what others have Direct 15. written and held before them and of them that little regard the discoveries of others Learn all of your Teachers and Authors that they can teach you but make all your own and see things in their proper evidence and improve their discoveries by the utmost of your diligence abhorring a proud desire of singularity or to seem wiser than you are § 32. Most Students through slothfulness look no further for knowledge than into their Books and their learning lyeth but in knowing what others have written or said or held before them especially where the least differing from the judgement of the party which is uppermost or in reputation doth tend to hazzard a mans honour or preferments there men think it dangerous to seem to know more than is commonly known and therefore think it needless to study to know it Men are backward to take much pains to know that which tendeth to their ruine to be known but doth
the Love of God we must be content to be shut out from the Love of God § 47. Inst. 9. Thus also the vulgar separate the Mercy and the Iustice of God! As if God knew Instance 9. not better than man to whom his mercy should extend And as if God be not merciful if he will be a righteous Governour and unless he will suffer all the world to spit in his face and blaspheme him and let his enemies go all unpunished § 48. Inst. 10. Thus many separate Threatnings and Promises Fear and Love a perfect Law and a pardonining Instance 10. Gospel As if he that is a man and hath both fear and Love in his nature must not make use of both for God and his salvation and the Law-giver might not fit his Laws to work on both As if Hell may not be feared and Heaven loved at once § 49. Inst. 11. Thus hypocrites separate in conceit their seeming Holiness and devotion to God from Instance 11. duties of Iustice and Charity to men As if they could serve God acceptably and disobey him wilfully Or as if they could love him whom they never saw and not love his Image in his works and children whom they daily see As if they could hate and persecute Christ in his little ones or at least neglect him and yet sincerely love him in himself § 50. Inst. 12. Thus by many Scripture and Tradition Divine faith and humane faith are commonly Instance 12. opposed Because the Papists have set Tradition is a wrong place many cast it away because it fits not that place When mans Tradition and Ministerial Revelation is necessary to make known and bring down Gods Revelation to us And a subservient Tradition is no disparagement to Scripture though a supplemental Tradition be And man must be believed as man though not as God! And he that will not believe man as man shall scarce know what he hath to believe from God § 51. Inst. 13. Thus many separate the sufficiency of the Law and Rule from the usefulness of an Instance 13. Officer Minister and Iudge As if the Law must be imperfect or else need no Execution and no Iudge for execution Or as if the Iudges execution were a supplement or addition to the Law As if the Question Who shall be the Iudge Did argue the Law of insufficiency and the promulgation and execution were not supposed § 52. Inst. 14. Thus also many separate the necessity of a publick Iudge from the lawfulness and Instance 14. necessity of a private judgement or discerning in all the rational subjects As if God and man did govern only Brutes or we could obey a Law and not judge it to be a Law and to be obeyed and not understand the sense of it and what it doth command us As if fools and mad men were the only subjects As if our learning of Christ as his Disciples and meditating day and night in his Law and searching for Wisdom in his Word were a disobeying him as our King As if it were a possible thing for subjects to obey without a private judgement of discretion Or as if there were any repugnancy between my judging what is the Kings Law and his judging whether I am punishable for disobeying it or as if judging our selves contradicted our being judged of God! § 53. Inst. 15. So many separate between the operation of the Word and Spirit the Minister and Instance 15. Christ As if the Spirit did not usually work by the Word and Christ did not preach to us by his Ministers and Embassadors And as if they might despise his Messengers and not be taken for despisers of himself Or might throw away the dish and keep the milk § 54. Inst. 16. Thus many separate the special Love of Saints from the common Love of man as man Instance 16. As if they could not Love a Saint unless they may hate an enemy and despise all others and deny them the Love which is answerable to their Natural Goodness § 55. Inst. 17. Thus many separate Universal or Catholick Union and Communion from particular Instance 17. And some understand no Communion but the Universal and some none but the particular Some say we separate from them as to Catholick Communion if we hold not local particular Communion with them yea if we joyn not with them in every mode As if I could be personally in ten thousand thousand Congregations at once or else did separate from them all Or as if I separated from all mankind if I differed from all men in my visage or complexion Or as if I cannot be absent from many thousand Churches and yet honour them as true Churches of Christ and hold Catholick communion with them in Faith Hope and Love Yea though I durst not joyn with them personally in Worship for fear of some sinful condition which they impose Or as if I need not be a member of any ordered worshipping Congregation because I have a Catholick faith and Love to all the Christians in the world § 56. Inst. 18. Thus are the outward and inward worship separated by many who think that all Instance 18. which the Body performeth is against the due spirituality or that the spirituality is but fansie and contrary to the form or outward part As if the heart and the knee may not fitly bow together nor decency of order concur with Spirit and truth § 57. Inst. 19. Thus many separate faith and obedience Pauls Iustification by faith without the Instance 19. works of the Law from Iames's Iustification by works and not by faith only and Christs Justification by our words Matth. 12. 37. And thus they separate free Grace and Iustification from any necessary condition and from the rewardableness of obedience which the Antients called Merit But of this at large elsewhere § 58. Inst. 20. And many separate Prudence and zeal meekness and resolution the wisdom of the Instance 20. Serpent and the innocency of the Dove yielding to no sin and yet yielding in things lawful maintaining our Christian liberty and yet becoming all things to all men if by any means we may save some These Instances are enow I will add no more § 59. Direct 18. Take heed of falling into factions and parties in Religion be the party great or Direct 18. small high or low in honour or dishonour and take heed lest you be infected with a factious censorious uncharitable hurting zeal For these are much contrary to the interest Will and Spirit of Christ Therefore among all your readings deeply suck in the doctrine of charity and peace and read much Reconciling moderating Authors Such as Drury Hall Davenant Crocius Bergius Martinius Amyraldus Dallaeus Testardus Calixtus Hottonus Junius Paraeus and Burroughs their Irenicons § 60. The reading of such Books extinguisheth the consuming flame of that infernal envious zeal described Iames 3. and kindleth charity and meekness and mellowness and
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 bâth 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 Fârswearing 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 instituâs noli praedicare nam si facere nequiveâis rideberis Pâttaââ Sâât in Laâât 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
is we must first know what Truth is and what is the What Truth is Use of Speech Truth is considerable 1. As it is in the things known and spoken of 2. As it is in the conception or knowledge of the mind 3. As it is in the expressions of the tongue 1. Truth Vid. Aquin. de Veritat in the things known is nothing but their Reality that indeed they are that which their names import or the mind apprehendeth them to be This is that which is called both Physical and Metaphysical Truth 2. Truth in the conception or knowledge of the mind is nothing else but the agreement or conformity of the knowledge to the thing known To conceive of it truly is to conceive of it as it is Mistake or error is contrary to this Truth 3. Truth as it is in the expressions is indeed a twofold relation 1. The primary relation is of our words or writings to the matter expressed And so Truth of speech is nothing but the agreeableness of our words to the things expressed when we speak of them as they are 2. The secondary relation of our words is to the mind of the Speaker For the natural use of the tongue is to express the mind as well as the matter And thus Truth of Speech is nothing but the agreeableness of our words to our thoughts or judgements Truth as it is the agreement of Thoughts or words to the matter may be called Logical Truth And this is but the common Matter of Moral or Ethical Truth which may be âound partly in a Clock or Watch or Weather-cock or a Seamans Chart. The agreement of our words to our minds is the more proper or special matter of Moral Truth The form of it as a Moral Virtue is its agreement to the Law of the God of Truth And as the Terminus entereth the definition of relations so our words have respect to the Mind of the hearer or reader as their proper Terminus their use being to acquaint him 1. With the matter expressed 2. With our minds concerning it Therefore it is necessary to the Logical Truth of speech that it have an aptitude rightly to inform the hearer and to the Ethical Truth that it be intended by the speaker really to inform him and not to deceive him Supposing that it is another that we speak to § 2. You see then that to a Moral Truth all these things are necessary 1. That it be an agreement of the words with the matter expressed as far as we are obliged to know the matter 2. That it be an agreement of the words with the speakers mind or judgement 3. That the expressions have an aptitude to inform the hearer of both the former truths 4. That we really intend them to inform him of the truth so far as we speak it 5. That it be agreeable to the Law of God which is the Rule of duty and discoverer of sin § 3. In some speeches the Truth of our words as agreeing to the Matter and to the Mind is all one viz. when our own conception or judgement of a thing is all that we assert As when we say I think or I believe or I judge that such a thing is so Here it is no whit necessary to the Truth of my words that the Thing be so as I think it to be For I affirm it not to be so but that indeed I think as I say I think But that our words and minds agree is alwayes and inseparably necessary to all Moral Truth § 4. We are not bound to make known all that is true for then no man must keep a secret How far we are bound to speak the truth much less to every man that asketh us Therefore we are not bound to endeavour the Cure of every mans ignorance or error in every matter For we are not bound to talk at all to every man And if I be not bound to make known the truth at all or my mind at all I am not bound to make known all the truth or all that is in my mind No not to all those to whom I am bound to make known part of both If I find a man in an ignorance or error which I am not bound to cure nay possibly it were my sin to cure it as to open the secrets of the Kings Counsels or Armies to his Enemies c. I may and must so fit my speech to that man even about those matters as not to make him know what he should not know either of the matter or of my mind I may either be silent or speak darkly or speak words which he understandeth not through his own imperfection or which I know his weakness will misunderstand But I must speak no falshood to him Also there is a great difference between speaking so as not to cure the ignorance or error of the hearer which I found him in and so speaking as to lead him into some new error I may do the former in many cases in which I may not do the latter And there is great difference between speaking such words as in the common use of men are apt to inform the hearers of the truth though I may know that through some weakness of their own they will misunderstand them and be deceived by them and the speaking of words which in common use of men have another signification than that which I use them to By the former way the hearer sometime is the deceiver of himself and not the speaker when the speaker is not bound to reveal any more to him But by the later way the speaker is the deceiver Also there is great difference to be made between my speaking to one to whom it is my duty to reveal the truth and my speaking to a man to whom I am not bound to reveal it yea from whom my duty to God and my King or Country bind me to conceal it By these grounds and distinctions you may know what a Lye is and may resolve the ordinary doubts that are used to be raised about our speaking truth or falshood As § 5. Quest. 1. Am I bound to speak the Truth to every one that asketh me Answ. You are not Quest. 1. bound to speak at all in every case to every one that asketh you And he that is silent speaketh not the truth § 6. Quest. 2. Am I bound to speak the Truth to every one that I answer to Answ. Your Answer Quest. 2. may sometimes be such as signifieth but a denying to answer or to reveal what is demanded of you § 7. Quest. 3. Am I bound to speak all the Truth when ever I speak part of it Answ. No It is Quest. 3. Gods Word that must tell you when and how much you must reveal to others And if you go as ãâ¦ã â6 63. Maâ 1â 61. 15. 5 Luke 23. 9. Jâân 19 9. ââr 8 26 27. far as God alloweth you it followeth not that
therefore you must go further A Souldier taken by the enemy may tell the truth when he is asked in things that will do no harm to his King and Country but he must conceal the rest which would advantage the enemy against them § 8. Quest. 4. Is it alwayes a sin to speak a Logical falshood that is to speak disagreeably to the thing which I speak of Answ. Not alwayes For you may sometimes believe an untruth without sin Quest. 4. For you are to believe things according to their evidence and appearance Therefore if the deceit be unavoidably caused by a false appearance or evidence without any fault of yours it is not then your fault to be mistaken But then your expressions must signifie no more certainty than you have nor no more confidence than the evidence will warrant When you say such a thing is so the meaning must be but I am perswaded it is so For if you say I am certain it is so when you are not certain you offend § 9. Quest. 5. Is it alwayes a sin to speak falsly or disagreeably to the matter when I know it to be Quest. 5. false that is Is it alwayes a sin to speak contrary to my judgement or mind Answ. Yes for God hath forbidden it and that upon great and weighty Reasons as you shall hear anon § 10. Quest. 6. Is it a sin when I speak not a known untruth nor contrary to my opinion nor with Quest. 6. a purpose to deceive Answ. Yes it is oft a sin when there is none of this For if it be your Duty to know what you say and to deliberate before you speak and your duty to be acquainted with the truth or falshood which you are ignorant of and your duty to take heed that you deceive not another negligently and yet you neglect all these duties and by a culpable ignorance and negligence deceive both your selves and others then this is a sin as well as if you knowingly deceived them § 11. Quest. 7. But though it be a sin it remaineth doubtful whether it be a lye Answ. This is Quest. 7. but liss de nomine a Controversie about the Name and not the Thing As long as we are agreed that is a sin against God and to be avoided whether you call it a Lye or by another name is no great matter But I think it is to be called a Lye Though I know that most definers follow Cicero and say that a Lye is A falshood spoken with a purpose to deceive yet I think that where the Will is culpably neglective of not deceiving an untruth so negligently uttered deserveth the name of a Lye § 12. Quest. 8. Must my words to free them from falshood be alwayes true in the proper literal Quest. 8. sense Answ. No Augustin's determination in this case is clear truth Quod figurate dicitur non est mendacium i. e. eo nomine To speak Ironically Metonymically Metaphorically c. is not therefore to lye For the truth of words lying in that aptitude to express the thing and mind which is suited to the intellect of the hearers they are True words that thus express them whether properly or figuratively But if the words be used figuratively contrary to the hearers and the common sense of them with a purpose to deceive then they are a lye not withstanding you pretend a Figure to verifie them § 13. Quest. 9. Must my words be used by me in the common sense or in the hearers sense Answ. No Quest. 9. doubt but so far as you intend to inform the hearer you are to speak to him in his own sense If he have a peculiar sense of some word differing from the common sense and this be known to you you must speak in his peculiar sense But if it be in a case that you are bound to conceal from him the question is much harder Some think it an untruth and sinful to speak to him in words which you know he will use to his own deceit Others think that you are not bound to fit your selves to his infirmity and speak in his dialect contrary to common sense And that it is not your fault that he misunderstandeth you though you foresee it where it will not profit him to understand you nor your selves are obliged to make him understand you but the contrary The next will open this § 14. Quest. 10. Is it lawful by speech to deceive another yea and to intend it Supposing it be by Quest. 10. truth Answ. It is not a sin in all cases to contribute towards another mans error or mistake For Acts 23. 6 7 8 9. Licitum est aliquando salva veritate illa verba proferre ex quibus probabiliter novimus auditores aliquid conclusuâos falsi Hoc enâm non est mentiri vel falsum testaâi sed tantum occasionem alteri praebere errandi non ad peccatum committendum sed potius vitandum Ames Cas. Conse l. 5. c. 53. See Luke 24. 28. John 7. 8 10. 1. There are many cases in which it is no sin in him to mistake nor any hurt to him Therefore to contribute to that which is neither sin or hurt is of it self no sin yea there are some cases in which an error though not as such may be a duty As to think charitably and well of an hypocrite as long as he seemeth to be sincere Here if by charitable reports I contribute to his mistake it seemeth to be but my duty For as he is bound to believe so I am bound to report the best while it is probable 2. There are many cases in which a mans ignorance or mistake may be his very great benefit His life or estate may lye upon it and I may know that if he understood such or such a thing he would make use of it to his ruine 3. There are many cases in which a mans innocent error is necessary to the safety of others or of the Commonwealth 4. It is lawful in such cases to deceive such men by Actions as an Enemy by Military Stratagems or a Traytor by signs which he will mistake And words of truth which we fore-know he will mistake not by our fault but by his own do seem to be less questionable than actions which have a proper tendency to deceive 5. God himself hath written and spoken those words which he fore-knew that wicked men would mistake and deceive themselves by and he hath done those works and giveth those mercies which he knoweth they will turn to a snare against themselves And his Dominion or Prerogative cannot here be pleaded to excuse it if it were unholy And in this sense as to Permitting and Occasioning it is said Ezek. 14. 9. And if the Prophet be deceived I the Lord have deceived that Prophet Yet must we not think with Plato that it is lawful to lye to an enemy to deceive him For 1. All deceit that is against
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 bârk and bite because that Dogs do so If a man be stung with Temere affirmare de altero est periculosum propter occultas homânum 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 quiâquam tam indiguum sapientis gravitate aut Insignis est temeritas cum aut falsa aut incognita âes 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. âsa 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
as all metaphors are equivocal and yet may be used 2. When the equivocal sense is the most usual or obvious and if it be not understood it is through the hearers fault or extraordinary dulness 3. When a Robber or usurping Tyrant or any cruel enemy that hath no authority to do it shall seek to ensnare my life by questions I may lawfully answer him in such doubtful words as purposely are intended to deceive him or leave him ignorant of my sense so be it they be not lies or false in the ordinary usage of those words 4. And to such a person I may answer doubtfully when it is apparent that it is a doubtful answer and that I do it as professing that I will answer him no more particularly nor plainly but will conceal the rest Quest. 6. Whether all mental reservation be unlawful Quest. 6. Answ. This needeth no other answer than the former If the expressed words be a Lie the mental Answ. reservation will not make them justifiable as a truth But if the expressed words of themselves be true then the mental reservation may be lawful when it is no more than a concealment of part of the truth in a case where we are not bound to reveal it But of both these cases I must refer the Reader to what I have said about Vows Tom. 3. Chap. 5. Tit. 2. without which he will not know my meaning Quest. 7. May Children Servants or Subjects in danger use words which tend to hide their faults Quest. 7. Answ. 1. When they are bound not to hide the fault they may not Which is 1. When due obedience Answ. or 2. the greater good which will follow require them to open it 2. When they are not bound to open it they may hide it by just means but not by Lies or any evil In what cases they may hide a fault by just means I shall here say no more to Quest. 8. May I speak that which I think is true but am not sure Quest. 8. Answ. If you have a just call you may say you think it is true but not flatly that it is so Answ. Quest. 9. May I believe and speak that of another by way of news discourse or character which I hear Quest. 9. reported by godly credible persons or by many Answ. 1. The main doubt is when you have a call to speak it which is answered after Tom. 4. at Answ. large 2. You may not so easily believe and report evil of another as good 3. You must not believe ill of another any further than evidence doth constrain you Yet you may believe it according to the degree of evidence or credibility and make use of the report for just caution or for good But not to defame another upon uncertainty or without a call 4. The sin of Receiving and spreading false reports of others upon hearsay is now so common among those that do profess Sobriety and Religion that all men should take heed of it in all company as they would do of the Plague in an infectious time And now it is so notorious that false news and slanders of others are so common neither good mens words nor common fame will allow you or excuse you to believe or report any evil of another till you are able to prove that it is your duty But all Christians should joyn in Lamenting and reproving this common uncharitable sin Tit. 4. Special Directions against Idle talk and Babling § 1. Direct 1. UNderstand well what is idle talk For many take that to be vain which is not Direct 1. and many take not that to be vain which is I shall therefore open this before I go any further § 2. The judgement of infidels and impious men here are of little regard 1. Some of them What is not idle talk think prayer to be but vain words because God knoweth our wants and hearts Iob. 22. 2 3. and our service is not profitable to him As if he had bid us seek him in vain Isa. 45. 19. These I have elsewhere Jâb 21 15. Mal. 3. â4 confuted 2. Others think frequent preaching vain and say as the Infidels of Paul Act. 17. 18. What will this Babler say and as Pharaoh Exod. 5. 9. Let them not regard vain words But God saith Deut. 32. 46 47. Set your hearts to all the words which I testifie among you for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life 3. Some carnal wretches think all vain in Gods service which is spiritual and which they understand not or which is above the reach of a fleshly mind 4. And some think all vain in Preaching Conference Writing or Prayer which is long But Christ spake Job 34 9 Heb. 13. â5 no vain words when he prayed all night Luk. 6. 12. Nor are we bid pray in vain when we are bid pray continually instantly and importunately 1 Thes. 5. 17. Act. 6. 4. Luk. 18. 1 2. Nor did Paul speak idly when he preacht till midnight Act. 20. Godliness is not vain which is profitable to all things 1 Tim. 4. 8. Indeed as to their own salvation the wicked may make our preaching vain but the word of God returneth not empty The oblations of the disobedient are vain Isa. 1. 13. and the prayer of the wicked abominable to the Lord but the prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15. 8. 4. Some think all preaching vain of that which they know already whereas they have most need to hear of that lest they condemn themselves by sinning against their knowledge 2 Pet. 1. 12 13. Rom. 14. 22. 6. Some think it vain if the same things be often preached on or repeated see Phil. 3. 1. though yet they never received and obeyed them Or if the same words be oft repeated in prayer though it be not from emptiness or affectation but fervencie Mark 14. 39. Psalm 136. 119. 7. Unbelievers Isa. 49. 4â 5. think our boasting in God is vain 2 King 18. 20. 8. And some malitious adversaries charge it on Ministers as Preaching in vain whenever the hearers are not converted See Heb. 4. 2. Gal. 5. 2. 3. 4. 4. 11. Isa. 53. 1. § 3. On the other side many that are godly mistake in thinking 1. That all talk is vain which is not of absolute necessity to some great use and end 2. And that all mirth and pleasant discourse 1 King 18 27. Prov. 29. 9. is vain Whereas the Holy Ghost saith Prov. 17. 22. A merry heart doth good like a medicine but a broken spirit dryeth the bones Prov. 15. 13. A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken Gen. 26. 8. King Abimelech saw Isaack sporting with Rebekah his wife Laughing as the Hebrew is or playing as the Chaldee and Samaritan and Sept. or jeasting as the Syriack Arabick and Vulgar Latine § 4. Observe these
some queazy stomachs distaste even the more wholsome food Pompey was so weary of Tully's talkativeness that he wisht he had been on Caesars side for then he would have feared me saith he whereas now his familiarity wearieth me Omne supervacuum pleno de pectore manat § 16. 2. It is an aggravation of the sin of loquacity and idle talk when it is done in a proud self-conceitedness of your own wit with an unmannerly contempt of others This is the case of abundance that have not the manners or patience to stay till another man hath done his speech They think others so long that their list will not hold till they come to the end Yea many pretended learned men and disputants have this disease that without any shame or respect to order or their own reputation they are in such hast to answer and talk themselves that they cut off the speech of others in the midst as if they should say Hold your tongue and let me speak that am wiser And their excuse is You are so long that I shall forget half before you come to the end But if it be in Disputation or about great matters it is usually much more to the advantage of the truth and hearers to speak all that necessarily must be considered together in a continued speech For the parts of truth have such a dependance one upon another like the members of a body or the wheels of a watch that they are not understood disjunctly half the sense of them being respective to the other parts Therefore to deliver it in such cases by fragments and chopping of words and frequent interruptions one of another is to chat or contend and not to open the truth with the clearness and gravity as it requireth These therefore that accuse others of speaking too long to excuse their uncivil interruptions may take their answer from Augustine Absit ut multiloquium deputem quando necessaria dicuntur quantalibet sermonem multitudine aut prolixitate dicantur The huge volumes of Augustin Chrysostom Suarez Calvin yea Tostatus himself are seldom accused of idle words If you depute to each their equal share of time a composed discourse is fitter and spareth time better than interrupting alterations and exchange of words And if your memory cannot hold all that 's said either take notes or crave the help of some repetition or answer the part which you do remember § 17. 3. Idle talk is worst when it is about Holy things and tendeth to profane them when men unreverently bable about the Scriptures or controversies of Religion Or when by fluent tongues men design the increase of some faction or propagating of some error or the setting forth their parts Sâith Hierom ad Nepot Verba volvere apud imperitum vulgus admirationem sui facere indoctorum hominum est Nihil tam facile quam vilem plebem indâctam volubilitate linguae decipere quae quicquid non intelligit plus miratur Profane loquacity is the worst kind of loquacity § 18. 4. Idle words are the greater sin when they are magnified and justified and taken to be lawful if not some excellent thing As some unhappy Scholars that spend whole days and months about some Col. 2. â trivial unnecessary studies while Christ the wisdom of God or the subject of Divine Philosophy is neglected He that heareth some of their supposed critical curiosities would say with Paul 1 Cor. 3. 20. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain And if he compare their lives with their studies perhaps he will remember Rom. 1. 21. They became vain in their imaginations their foolish hearts were darkned and professing themselves wise they became fools § 19. 5. Idle words are an aggravated sin when they are studied and pompously set forth at great labour and cost as a matter to be gloried in As in Playes and Romances worse than Tobacco-houses where men sell smoak The pleasure the love the labour the cost the time the deceit the temptation the impenitency are great aggravations of this sin § 20. Direct 3. Understand and consider the mischief of the sin of babling idle talk For the common Direct 3. The sinfulness of much idle talk cause of it is that men take it to be so small a sin that they think there is no danger in it and therefore they fear it no more than a scratcht finger § 21. 1. Besides the general evil mentioned Tit. 1. Direct 1. consider that much idle talk is a multitude of sins Though one idle word were never so small a sin yet when it cometh to hundreds and thousands and is your daily hourly custome all set together cannot be small Many thousand pence is more than one shilling or pound And your frequent custome of idle talk may amount to a greater sinfulness than Noah's once drunkenness or David's once adultery or Peter's once denying Christ. If a swearer should swear as oft or a lyar lye as oft or a Thief steal as oft as many women and men too speak idly what Monsters should we take them for § 22. 2. Idle talk excludeth all the good discourse and edifying speech that should have been used all ââd ââ6 â7 Ephes. 4 â9 ââaâ 10â 1. that time We have many greater uses for our tongues You have your business to talk of and your God and your souls and your duties and your sins and the life to come to talk of O how many great and necessary things And will you shut out all this edifying speech by your idle chat Will you hinder others as well as your selves § 23. 3. Idle talk is a sinful consumer of time You have greater business to spend your hours in If you saw what a world you are ready to go to and saw how near you are to it you would think your selves that you had greater business than idle chat to spend your time in Do you know what you lose in losing all those hours § 24. 4. Idle talk corrupts the hearers minds and tendeth to make them light and vain and empty even as good discourse doth tend to make them good Why do you talk to others but to communicate your sense and affections to them by your words And for all that many take it for a little sin I am sure it is not a little hurt that it doth If men were not used to be entertained with so much vain discourse they could not tell how to keep better things from their minds or mouths nor would their thoughts be so habituated to vanity nor would they make such returns of idle words whereas one vain discourse begets another and it is a multiplying and very infectious sin § 25. 5. As your tongues are mis-employed so your wits and minds are dishonoured by vain talk Even good words will grow contemptible when they are too cheap and common A Fidler at the door goes but for a Rogue though Musick and Musicions be honoured
thou deridest men for doing but some part of their duty and discharging but a little of his debt For the holiest man whom thou deridest for doing too much doth less than what he ought to do Thou knowest that the best of men do Love God and serve him less than he deserveth and that the carefullest come short of the perfect keeping of his Laws And yet wilt thou scorn men for doing so much when they know and thou confessest that they do too little could they do all they did but their duty Luk. 17. 10. § 12. 6. Thou scornest men because they will not set up themselves their own wit and will against their maker God hath commanded them to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. and to strive to enter in at the strait gate and day and night to meditate in his Law and Maâ 7. 13. Psal. 1 2. 1 Thes. 5. 17. to Love him with all their heart and might and to pray continually And thou deridest men for obeying these commands Why what wouldst thou have us do man should we tell God that we are wiser than he and that he shall not have his will but we will have our own and that we know a better way than he hath appointed us and that he is mistaken and would deceive us by his Laws Wouldst thou have men thus to be voluntarily mad and profess themselves open Robels against God § 13. 7. Thou scornest men because they trust him that is Truth and Goodness it self We cannot imagine that he can deceive us by his word or that he maketh any Law for us that is not good or requireth any duty of us that shall be to our hurt or that we shall be losers by And therefore we resolve to obey him as carefully as we can because we are confident that Goodness it self will not Maâignity so blandeth the understanding that it maketh men ascribe all the evil that befalleth them to that which is the only way to happiness every bad success that the Heather Romans had they impâred to the Christians saith Paul Diacoâus lib 3. when Radagusus the Goth invaded the Romans Pavor infinitus Romam invadit Decâamatur à cââctis se haeâ ideo perpeti quod neglecta fuerunt magnorum sacra Deorum Magnis querelis ubique agere continuo de repetendis sacrâs câlebrandisque tractatur âere in tota urbe blasphemiae ad nomen Christi tanquam lues aliqua probris ingravantur conduâânâur Romanis adversus Radagusum duo Pagani duces c. abuse us and Truth it self will not deceive us And is this a matter to be scorned for should not Children trust their Father § 14. 8. Thou deridest men for not sinning against their certain knowledge and experience They know that a Holy life is best though thou dost not They know the Reasonableness of it They know Saith Châysost As those that âân oâ act in publick Games bâsideâ the ãâ¦ã which they h ãâ¦ã do mââââ increasâ ãâ¦ã strength and hâalth by preparing their bodys for it So besides the hopes of Heaven it is no small comfort and advantage here in the way which Christians gât by their holy lives the sweetness of it They know the Necessity of it And must they renounce their own understandings must they be ignorant because thou art ignorant and put out their eyes because thou art blind Is it a crime for men to be wiser than thou and that in the matters of God and their salvation They have tryed what a Holy life is and so hast not thou They have tryed what a life of faith and obedience is And must they renounce their own experience Must they that have tasted it say Honey is bitter because thou that never didst taste it saist so Alas what unreasonable men have we to deal with § 15. 9. Thou opposest and scornest men for Loving themselves yea for Loving their souls and taking care of its health and welfare For how can a man truly Love himself and not Love his soul which is himself And how can a man Love his soul and not prefer it before the low concernments of his flesh and not take the greatest care of its greatest everlasting Happiness Can a man truly Love himself and yet damn himself or lose the little time in which he must if ever work out his salvation You will not scorn him that is careful of your Children or your very Cattle you Love them and therefore are careful of them your selves And shall not he that Loveth his soul be careful of it To Love our selves is natural to us as men And how shall he Love his Neighbour that Loveth not himself § 16. 10. Thou scornest men because they Love Heaven above earth and because they are desirous to live for ever with God and all the holy Hosts of Heaven For what is it that these men do so diligently but seek to be saved What do they but seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and labour for the meat that perisheth not Ioh. 6. 27. and lay up their treasure in Heaven Mat. 6. 20. and set their hearts there Mat. 6. 21. and seek the things that are above and have their conversation in Heaven Col. 3. 1 2 3. Phil. 3. 19 20. And if it be so scornful a matter to seek for Heaven sure thou never thinkest of coming to Heaven thy self Unless thou think to come thither by scorning at the seekers of it § 17. 11. Thou deridest men because they are unwilling to be damned and unwilling to do that which they know would damn them or to neglect that without which there is no hope of scaping Hell They believe the threatnings of God and therefore they think no pains too great to escape his wrath They think a Holy Life is both a necessary and an easie way to prevent everlasting torment But if thou think otherwise keep thy opinion till Grace or Hell shall make thee wiser and mock not a man that will not play with his own damnation and leap into Hell as desperately as thy self § 18. 12. Thou deridest men because they will not be the voluntary destroyers of themselves Were it not enough for thee to betray them unto others or to murther any of thy neighbours thy self but thou must with them do it with their own hands and deride them if they will not O cruel Monster that wouldst wish a man to lye in the fire of Hell for evermore and to go thither wilfully of his own accord which is ten thousand times worse than to wish him to cut his own throat Dost thou say God forbid I desire no such thing Why man dost thou do thou knowest not what Doth not he tempt a man to be hanged that tempteth him to kill and steal When the righteous God hath unchangeably determined in his Law that without Holiness none shall Heb. 12. 14. 2 Thes. 1. â 9 10. 2 Thes.
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 Lâss 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
subscribed if afterwards you will question that account again you must take as full a time to do it and that when you are as calm and vacant as before and not unsettle an exact account upon a sudden view or a thought of some one particular Thus must you trust to no examinations and decisions about the state of your souls but those that in long and calm deliberation have brought it to an issue § 16. Direct 7. And in doing this neglect not to make use of the assistance of an able Direct 7. faithful Guide so far as your own weakness makes it necessary Your doubting sheweth that you are not sufficient to dispatch it satisfactorily your selves The Question then is What help a wiser man can give you Why he can clearlier open to you the true nature of Grace and the marks that are infallible and the extent of the Grace and tenour of the Covenant and he can help you how to trace your hearts and observe the discoveries of good or evil in them he can shew you your mistakes and help you in the application and tell you much of his own and others experiences And he can pass a strong Conjecture upon your own Case in particular if he be one that knoweth the course of your lives and is intimately acquainted with you For Sin and Grace are both expressive operative things like Life that ordinarily will stir or Fire that will be seen Though their judgement cannot be infallible of you and though for a while Hypocrisie may hide you from the knowledge of another yet ficâa non diâ c. ordinarily Nature will be seen and that which is within you will shew it self so that your familiar acquaintance that see your lives in private and in publick may pass a very strong conjecture at your state whether you sât your selves indeed to please God in sincerity or no. Therefore if possible choose such a man to help you as is 1. Able 2. Faithful and 3. Well acquainted with you And undervalue not his judgement § 17. Direct 8. When you cannot attain to a Certainty of your case undervalue not and Direct 8. neglect not the Comforts which a bare probability may afford you I know that a Certainty in so weighty a case should be earnestly desired and endeavoured to the uttermost But yet it is no small comfort which a likelihood or hopefulness may yield you Husband and Wife are uncertain every day whether one of them may kill the other And yet they can live comfortably together because it is an unlikely thing and though it be possible it is not much to be feared All the comforts of Christians dependeth not on their Assurance It is but few Christians in the world that reach to clear Assurance For all the Papists Lutherans and Arminians are without any Certainty of their salvation because they think it cannot be had And all those Jansenists or Protestants that are of Augustines judgement are without Assurance of salvation though they may have assurance of their Justification and Sanctification Because their judgement is that the justified and sanctified though not the Elect may fall away And of those that hold the Doctrine of Perseverance how few do we find that can say they are certain of their sincerity and salvation Alas not one of very many And yet many thousands of these do live in some peace of Conscience and quietness and comfort in the hopefulness and probabilities to which they have attained § 18. Direct 9. Resolve to be much in the great delightful duties of Thanksgiving and the Direct 9. Praise of God and to spend a considerable part ordinarily of all your prayers herein especially to spend the Lords Day principally in these And thus you will have three great advantages 1. The very actings of Love and Thanks and Joy will help you to comfort in a nearer way than arguments and self-examination will do even in a way of feeling as the fire maketh you warm 2. The custome of exercising those sweetest graces will habituate your souls to it and in time wear out the sadder impression 3. God will most own you in those highest duties § 19. Direct 10. Mark well how far your doubtings do help or hinder you in your sanctification Direct 10. So far as they turn your heart from God and from the Love and sweetness of a holy life and unfit you for thankfulness and chearful obedience so far you may be sure that Satan is gratified by them and God displeased and therefore they should be resisted But so far as they keep you humble and obedient and make you more tenderly afraid of sin and quicken your desires of Christ and grace so far God useth them for your benefit And therefore be not too impatient under them but wait on God in the use of his means and he will give his comforts in the fittest season Many an one hath sweet assurance at his death or in his sufferings for Christ when he needed it most that was fain to live long before without it Especially take care 1. That you miss not of Assurance through your own neglect 2. And that your doubtings work no ill effects in turning away your hearts from God or discouraging you in his service and then you may take them as a tryal of your patience and they will certainly have a happy end CHAP. XXVI Directions for Declining or Backsliding Christians and about Perseverance THe case of Backsliders is so terrible and yet the mistakes of many Christians so common in thinking unjustly that they are backsliders that this subject must be handled with the greater care And when I have first given some Directions for the Cure I shall next give some to others for Prevention of so sad a state § 1. Direct 1. Understand well wherein Backsliding doth consist the sorts and the degrees of it that so you may the more certainly and exactly discern whether it be indeed your case or not To this end I shall here open to you I. The several sorts of Backsliders II. The several steps or degrees of backsliding III. The signs of it § 2. I. There are in general three sorts of Backsliders 1. Such as decline from the Truth by the error of their Understanding 2. Such as turn from the Goodness of God and Holiness by the corruption of their Will and Affections 3. Such as turn from the Obedience of God and an upright conversation by the sinfulness of their lives The first sort containeth in it 1. Such as decline to Infidelity from Faith and doubt of the Truth of the Word of God 2. Such as decline only to error about the meaning of the Scriptures though they doubt not of the Truth of them This corrupted Iudgement will presently corrupt both Heart and Life § 3. The second sort Backsliders in Heart containeth 1. Such as only lose their Affections to Good their complacency and desire and lose their averseness and zeal against
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 fâr 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
know by your own experience thâse Joyes or Torments which the wicked will not know by faith And O what a preparation doth such a change require II. You are next to know what persons they are and how they differ who must abide for ever in these different states As we are the Children of Adam we are all corrupted our minds are carnal and set upon this world and savour nothing but the things of the flesh And the further we go in sin the worse we are being strangers to the Life of faith and to the Love of God and the Life to come taking the prosperity and pleasure of the flesh for the felicity which we most desire and seek The name of this state in Scripture is Carnal and ungodly and unholy because such men live in a meer flâshly nature or disposition for fleshly ends in a fleshly manner and are not at all Devoted to God and carryed up to Heavenly Desires and Delights but live chiefly for this life and not for the life to come And though they may take up some kind of Religion in a second place and upon the by for fear of being damned when they can keep the world no longer yet is it this world which they principally value love and seek and their Religion is subject to their worldly and fleshly interest and delights And though God hath provided and offered them a Saviour to teach them better and reclaim and sanctifie them by his word and spirit and forgive them if they will believe in him and return yet do they sottishly neglect this mercy or obstinately refuse it and continue their worldly fleshly lives till time be past and mercy hath done and there is no remedy These are the men that God will condemn and this is the true description of them And it will not stand with the Governing-Justice and Holiness and truth of God to save them But on the other side all those that God will save do heartily believe in Iesus Christ who is sent of God to be the Saviour of souls and he maketh them know by his word and spirit their grievous sin and misery in their state of corrupted nature and he humbleth them for it and bringeth them to true Repentance and maketh them loath themselves for their iniquities and seeing how they have cast away and undone themselves and are no better than the slaves of Satan and the heirs of hell they joyfully accept of the remedy that is offered them in Christ They heartily take him for their Saviour and King and give up themselves in Covenant to him to be justified and sanctified by him whereupon he pardoneth all their sin and further enlighteneth and sanctifieth them by his spirit He sheweth them by faith the infinite Love of God and the sure everlasting Holy Ioyes which they may have in Heaven with him and how blessed a life they may there obtain through his purchase and gift with all the blessed Saints and Angels He maketh them deliberately to compare this offer of Eternal Happiness with all the pleasures and seeming commodities of sin and all that this deceitful world can do for them And having considered of both they see that there is no comparison to be made and are ashamed that ever they were so mad as to prefer Earth before Heaven and an inch of Time before Eternity and a dream of pleasure before the Everlasting Ioyes and to love the pleasures of a transitory world above the presence and favour and Glory of God! And for the time to come they are firmly Resolved what to do Even to take Heaven for their only Happiness and there to lay up their Hopes and Treasure and to live to God as they have done to the flesh and to make sure of their salvation whatever become of their worldly interest And thus the spirit doth dwell and work in them and renew their Hearts and give them a hatred to every sin and a Love to every holy thing even to the holy word and worship and wayes and servants of the Lord and in a word he maketh them New Creatures and though they have still their sinful imperfections yet the bent of their Hearts and Lives is Holy and Heavenly and they long to be perfect and are labouring after it and seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and live above the world and flesh And shortly Christ will make them perfect and Iustifie them in the day of their judgement and give them the Glorious end of all their faith obedience and patience These are the persons and none but these among us that have the use of Reason that shall live with God III. Now this being the infallible truth of the Gospel and this being the true difference between the Righteous and the wicked the Iustified and Condemned souls O how neerly doth it now concern you to try which of these is your own condition Certainly it may be known For God will judge the world in righteousness by the same Law or Covenant by which he Governeth them Know but whom the Law of Christ condemneth or justifieth and you may soon know whom the Judge will condemn and justifie For he will proceed according to this Law If you should die in an unrenewed state in your sins your Hopes of Heaven would all die with you And if you should think never so well of your self till death and pretend never so confidently to trust on Christ and the Mercy of God one hour will convince Mat. 18. 3. Heb. 12. 14. Joh. 3. 3 5 6. you to your everlasting woe that Gods mercy and Christs merits did never bring to Heaven an unsanctified soul. Self flattery is good for nothing but to keep you from Repenting till time be past and to quiet you in Satans snares till there be no remedy Therefore presently as you love your soul examine your self and try which of these is the condition that you are in and accordingly judge you self before God judge you May you not know if you will whether you have most minded Earth or Heaven and which you have preferred and sought with the highest esteem and Resolution and whether your Worldly or Heavenly interest have born sway and which of them it is that gave place unto the other Cannot a man tell if he will what it is which his very soul hath practically taken for his chief concernment and what it is that haââ had most of his Love and Care and what hath been next his heart and which he hath preferred wheââhey came to the parting and one was set against the other Cannot you tell whether you have lived principally to the flesh for the prosperity of this world and the pleasures of sin or whether the spirit of Christ by his word hath enlightned you and shewed you your âin and misery and humbled you for it and shewed you the Glory of the life to come and the happiness of living in the Love of God and hereupon hath
among them and defile them 7. It is the duty of the several members of the flock if a Brother trespass against them to tell him his faults between them and him and if he hear not to take two or three and if he hear not them to tell the Church 8. It is the Pastors duty to admonish the unruly and call them to Repentance and pray for their Conversion 9. And it is the Pastors duty to declare the obstinately impenitent uncapable of Communion with the Church ând to charge him to forbear it and the Church to avoid him 10. It is the peoples duty to avoid such accordingly and have no familiarity with them that they may be ashamed and with such no not to eat 11. It is the Pastors duty to Absolve the Penitent declaring the remission of their sin and re-admitting to the Communion of the Saints 12. It is the peoples duty to re-admit the absolved to their Communion with joy and to take them as Brethren in the Lord. 13. Though every Pastor hath a General power to exercise his office in any part of the Church where he shall be truly called to it yet every Pastor hath a special obligation and consequently a special power to do it over the flock of which he hath received the special charge and oversight 14. The Lords day is separated by Gods appointment for the Churches ordinary holy Communion in Gods Worship under the conduct of these their Guides 15. And it is requisite that the several particular Churches do maintain as much agreement among themselves as their capacity will allow them and keep due Synods and correspondencies to that end Thus much of Gods Worship and Church-order and Government at least is of Divine institution and determined by Scripture and not left to the will or liberty of man Thus far the Form of Government at least is of Divine Right § 21. But on the contrary 1. About Doctrine and Worship the Scripture is no Law in any of these following cases but hath left them undetermined 1. There are many natural Truths which the Scripture meddleth not with As Physicks Metaphysicks Logick c. 2. Scripture telleth not a Minister what particular Text or Subject he shall Preach on this day or that 3. Nor what method his Text or Subject shall be opened and handled in 4. Nor what day of the week besides the Lords day he shall preach nor what hour on the Lords day he shall begin 5. Nor in what particular place the Church shall meet 6. Nor what particular sins we shall most confess nor what personal mercies we shall at this present time first ask nor for what we shall now most copiously give thanks For special occasions must determine all these 7. Nor what particular Chapter we shall now read nor what particular Psalm we shall now sing 8. Nor what particular translation of the Scripture or version of the Psalms we shall now use Nor into what Sections to distribute the Scripture as we do by Chapters and Verses Nor whether the Bible shall be Printed or Written or in what Characters or how bound 9. Nor just by what sign I shall express my consent to the truths or duties which I am called to express consent to besides the Sacraments and ordinary words 10. Nor whether I shall use written Notes to help my memory in Preaching or Preach without 11. Nor whether I shall use a writing or book in prayer or pray without 12. Nor whether I shall use the same words in preaching and prayer or various new expressions 13. Nor what utensils in holy administrations I shall use as a Temple or an ordinary house a Pulpit a font a Table cups cushions and many such which belong to the several parts of Worship 14. Nor in what particular gesture we shall preach or read or hear 15. Nor what particular garments Ministers or people shall wear in time of Worship 16. Nor what natural or artificial helps to our natural faculties Of which I have spoke more fully in my Disput. 5. of Church-Government p. 400. c. we shall use as medicaments for the Voice tunes musical instruments spectacles hour-glasses These and such like are undetermined in Scripture and are left to be determined by humane prudence not as men please but as means in order to the proper end according to the General Laws of Christ. For Scripture is a General Law for all such circumstances but not a particular Law So also for Order and Government Scripture hath not particularly determined 1. What individual persons shall be the Pastors of the Church 2. Or of just how many persons the Congregations shall consist 3. Or how the Pastors shall divide their work where there are many 4. Nor how many every Church shall have 5. Nor what particular people shall be a Pastors special charge 6. Nor what individual persons he shall Baptize receive to Communion admonish or absolve 7. Nor in what words most of these shall be expressed 8. Nor what number of Pastors shall meet in Synods for the communion and agreement of several Churches noâ how oft nor at what time or place nor what particular order shall be among them in their consultations with many such like § 22. When you thus understand how far Scripture is a Law to you in the Worship of God it will be the greatest Direction to you to keep you both from disobeying God and your Superiours that you may neither pretend obedience to man for your disobedience to God nor pretend obedience to God against your due obedience to your Governours as those will do that think Scripture is a more particular Rule than ever Christ intended it And it will prevent abundance of unnecessary scruples contentions and divisions § 23. Direct 12. Observe well in Scripture the difference between Christs Universal Laws which Direct 12. bind all his Subjects in all times and places and those that are but local personal or alterable Laws What commands of God are not universal noâ perpetual lest you think that you are bound to all that ever God bound any others to The Universal Laws and unalterable are those which result from the Foundation of the universal and unalierable nature of persons and things and those which God hath supernaturally revealed as suitable constantly to all The particular local or temporary Laws are those which either resulted from a particular or alterable nature of persons and things as mutually related as the Law of nature bound Adams Sons to marry their Sisters which bindeth others against it or those which God supernaturally enacted only for some particular people or person or for a time If you should mistake all the Iewish Laws for universal Laws as to persons or duration into how many errours would it lead you So also if you mistake every personal mandate sent by a Prophet or Apostle to a particular man as obliging all you would make a snare of it Every man is not to abstain
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 ãâ¦ã 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 Vandalâ 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 Victorâ 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
he may not be forced nor constrained with terror but only perswaded to return entirely to the truth A Bishop cannot cure men with such authority as a Shepheard doth his sheep For of all men Christian Bishops may least correct the faults of men by force pag. â26 but Ministerial And though the Papists make a scorn of the word Minister it is but in that pride and pâssion and malice which maketh them speak against their knowledge For their Pope himself calleth himself the Servant of Gods Servants and Paul saith 1 Cor. 4. 1. Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God 1 Cor. 3. 5. Who then is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed 2 Cor. 3. 6. Who made us able Ministers Matth. 20. 26. Mar. 10. 43. See Psal. 103. 21. 104. 4. Isa. 61. 6. Jer. 33 21. Joel 1 9 13. 2 17. of the New Testament 2 Cor. 6. 4. In all things approving our selves as the Ministers of God Even Magistrates yea and Angels are not too good to be called and used as the Ministers of God for the good of his servants Rom. 13. 3 6. Heb. 1. 7. and to minister for them shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1. 14. Yea Christ himself is so called Rom. 15. 8. And therefore you have no more excuse for your disobedience than for refusing his help that would pull you out of fire or water when you are perishing You see here that your Pastors cannot command you what they list nor a Cor. 11. 23. Acts 26 26 Rom. 15. 16. Ephes. 3. 7. Col. 1. 23 25. 1 Tim. 4. 6. 1 Thess. 3. 2. Col. 1. 7. how they list They have nothing to do with the Magistrates work nor can they usurp the Power of a Master over his Servants nor command you how to do your work and worldly business except in the Morality of it In the fifteen particulars before mentioned their work and office doth consist and in those it is that you owe them a rational obedience § 8. Direct 2. Know your own Pastors in particular and know both what you owe to a Minister as a Minister of Christ in common and what you owe him moreover as your Pastor by special relation and charge When any Minister of Christ delivereth his Word to you he must be heard as a Minister of Christ and Direct 2. not as a Private man But to your own Pastor you are bound in a peculiar relation to an ordinary âunââââ nes in ââcâ sia pârpâtuâe sunt dâae Presbyterorum Diaâororumn Presbyt râs voco cum omni Ecclesia veteri eos qui Ecclesiam pascunt verbi pâaedicatione Sacramentis clavibus quae Juâe Divinâ sunt individua Croâius dâ Imperio pag. 267. c. 10. and regular attendance upon his Ministry in all the particulars before mentioned that concern you Your own Bishop must in a special manner be obeyed 1. As one that laboureth among you and is over you in the Lord and admonisheth you and preacheth to you the Word of God watching for your souls as one that must give account 1 Thess. 5. 12. Bish. Ier. Tailor of Repentance Pâef I aââure we caânot give account of soâls of which we have no notice Heb. 13. 7. 17. and as one that Ruleth well and especially that laboureth in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5. 17. teaching you publickly and from house to house taking heed to himself and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made him an Overseer not ceasing to warn every one night and day with tears Acts 20. 19 20 24 28 31 33. Preaching Christ and warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that he may present every man perfect in Christ Col. 1. 28. 2. He is to be obeyed as the Guide of the Congregation in the management of Gods publick worship you must seriously and reverently joyn with him every Lords Day at least in the publick Prayers and Praises of the Church and not ordinarily go from him to another 3. You must receive from him or with him the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ which of old was administred every Lords Day and that only in the Church where the Bishop was Iânat Epis. ad Phiâad Viâ Meads Disâ of Churches p. 48 49 50. that is in every Church of the faithful for as Ignatius most observably saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã UNUM ALTARE OMNI ECCLESIAE ET UNUS EPISCOPUS CUM PRESBITERIO ET DIACONIS IN EVERY CHURCH there is ONE ALTAR and ONE BISHOP WITH THE PRESBYTERY and DEACONS So in his Epist. ad Magnes Come all as one to the Temple of God as to one Altar as to one Iesus Tertull. de Coroa Miâiâ c. 3. Christ And saith Tertullian Eucharistae Sacramentum nec de aliorum manu quam praesidentium sumimus We take not the Sacrament of the Eucharist from the hand of any but the President 4. You must have recourse to him especially for the resolution of your weighty doubts in It is very observable that Acosta saith l. 6. c. 12. that they found it an old custome among the Indians to confess their sirs to the Priests before the Gospel came thither private 5. You must hear your Bishops and Repent when in Meekness and Love they convince and admonish you against your sins and not resist the Word of God which they powerfully and patiently lay home to your Consciences nor put them with grief to cut you off as impentient in scandalous sins from the Communion of the Church 6. You must after any scandalous sin which hath brought you under the censure of the Church go humble your selves by penitent confession and crave absolution and restoration to the Communion of the Church 7. Your publick Church-alms should ordinarily be deposited into the Bishops hands who relieveth the See more in Dr. Hammond ibid. Orphans and Widows and is the Curator or Guardian to all absolutely that are in want saith Ignatius to Polyâ cited by Dr. Hammond on 1 Cor. 12. 28. 8. You must send for him in your sickness to pray with you and advise you See Dr. Hammond on Iames 5. 14. And on 1 Cor. 12. 28. he saith Polycarp himself speaking of the Elders or Bishops saith They visit and take care of all that are sick not neglecting the Widows the Orphans or the poor And Dr. Hammond on Iam. 5. 14. sheweth out of Antiquity that One part of the Bishops Office is Vid. Canon Aâost 5. 32. Concil Antâoch c. â ââ Concil Carthag 4. Caâ 35. set down that they are those that Visit all the sick Not but that a stranger may be made use of also but ordinarily and especially your own Bishop must be sent for Because as you are his special charge and he watcheth for your souls as one that must give account Heb. 13. 17. So it is supposed
man may be made a Priest that hath sinned mortally after baptism and Si is qui taâ in Episcopaâââel Presbyteriâ positus mortale pââcatââ aââââod admâââârit noâ debât oâââârre pââes Domino quaâto magis patienter retrahat se ab hoc non tam honore quam onere aliorum locum qui digni sunt non ambiat occupaâe Qui cuim in erudiendiâ instituendis ad virtutem populis praeest âecesse est ut in omnibus sanctus sit in nullo reprehensibilis habeatur Qui enim aliquem de peccato arguit ipse a peccâo debet esse immuniâ Auct Bib. Paâ To. 2. p. Sâ If there were somewhat too much strictness in the ancient exclusion of them that heynously sinnâd after Baptism from the Priesthood let not us be as much too loose God of this world having blinded their minds It must be no small matter that must satisâie a serious Christian to cast his soul upon any hurtful or dangerous disadvantage Though Daniel and his company may live well on pulse yea and Ezekiel upon bread baked with dung when God will have it so yet no wise man will choose such a dyet especially if his diseases require the exactest dyet or his weakness the most restorative and all toâ little which alas is the common case Yet this caution you must here take with you 1. That you pretend not your own Benefit to the common loss or hurt of others 2. And that you consider as well where you may do most good as where you may get most For the way of greatest service is the way of Greatest gain § 12. Direct 5. Understand what sort and measure of Belief it is that you owe to your Teachers that Direct 5. so your incredulity hinder not your faith in Christ nor your overmuch credulity betray you not to heresie nor make you the servants of men contrary to Matth. 23. 8 9 10. Ephes. 4. 13. 2 Cor. 1. 24. Act. 20. 30. We see on one side how many poor souls are cheated into Schism and dangerous ârrours by forsaking their âeachers and refusing their necessary help and all upon this pretence that they must not make men the Lords of their faith nor pin their faith on the Ministers sleeve nor take their Religion upon trust And on the other side we see among the Papists and in every Sect what lamentable work is made by an overmuch credulity and belief of ambitious worldly factious The Order and Credit of Ministerial Teaching the doctrine of salvation proud and erroneous Guides That you may escape both these extreams you must observe the truth of these conclusions following which shew you what it is that your Teachers have to Reveal unto you and in what Order and how far the several particulars are or are not to be taken upon their words § 13. And first as a preparative it is presupposed 1. That you find your self ignorant and one that needeth a Teacher For iâ you think you know all that you need to know already you are like a full bottle that will hold no more 2. It is presupposed that you take the man that you learn of to be wiser than your self and fit to teach you either because fame or other mens reports have told you so as the Woman Ioh. 4. drew the Samaritans to Christ or because his own Profession of skill doth make you think so as you will hearken to him that professeth to be able to Teach you any Art or Science Or else because your present hearing his discourse doth convince you of his Wisdom By one of these means you are brought to think that he is one that you may learn of and is fit for you to hear so that here is no need that first you take him to be infallible or that you know which is the true Church as the Papists say These are presupposed § 14. The Doctrines which he is to teach you are these and in this method to be taught 1. He 1. To know your self will teach you the natural knowledge of your self that being a man you are a Rational free agânt made by another for his will and use and by him to be Ruled in order to your ultimate end being wholly his and at his dispose § 15. 2. He will next teach you that there is a God that made you and what he is and what 2. To know God and Holiness relation he standeth in to you and you to him as your Creatour your Owner your Ruler and your Benefactor and your End And what duty you owe him in these Relations to submit to him and resign your selves to him as his own to be obedient to all his Laws and to Love him and delight in him and this with all your heart and soul and might even to serve him with all the Powers of your soul and Body and with your estates and all his blessings § 16. 3. He will next teach you that this God hath made your souls immortal and that there is 3. To know ââââ Life to come a lite after this where everlasting Happiness or Mâsery will be your part and where the Great Rewards and Punishments are executed by the Judge oâ all the World as men have behaved themselves in this present life That your End and happiness is not here but in the life to come and that this Life is thâ way and time of preparation in which everlasting Happiness is won or lost § 17. Thus far he needeth no supernatural proof of what he saith but can prove it all to you from the light of nature And these things you are not primarily to receive of him as a Testifier by mâer Believing him but as a Teacher by Learning of him the Evidences by which you may by degrees come to know these things your selves § 18. Yet it is supposed that all along you give him so much credit as the difference between his Knowledge and yours doth require so far as it appeareth to you As you will hear a Physicion a Lawyer a Philosopher or any man with reverence while he discourseth of the matters of his own profession as confessing his judgement to be better than yours and therefore more suspecting your own apprehensions than his Not but that the Truth may compell you to discern it though you should come with no such reverence or respect to him but then you cast your self upon much disadvantage irrationally And this humane belief of him is but a medium to your Learning and so to the knowledge of the matter so that you do not stop and rest in his authority or credibility but only use it in order to your discovery of that evidence which you rest in which as a Teacher he acquaints you with § 19. These things being thus far revealed by natural light are usually at first apprehended by natural reason not so as presently to put or prove the soul in a state of saving grace but so as to awaken it
to make further enquiry and so when the soul is come so far as to see the same truths by supernatural Grace in the supernatural revelation of the Holy Scriptures then they become more effectual and saâing which before were known but preparatorily And so the same Truths are then both the objects of Knowledge and of faith § 20. 4. Having acquainted you with mans ultimate End and Happiness in the life to come the 4. To know that Christ faith Repentance and obedience is the way to it next thing to be taught you by the Ministers of Christ is that Christ as our Saviour and faith and repentance and sincere obedience to be performed by us through his grace is the way to Heaven or the means by which we must attain this end Though the Knowledge of the Preachers wisdom piety and credibility remove some impediments which would make the receiving of this the more difficult to you yet you are not to take it barely on his word as a point of humane faith but you are to call for his proof of it that you may see better reasons than his affirmations for the entertainment of it § 21. 5. The proof that he will give you is in these two Propositions 1. Gods Revelations are all 5. To know that this is True because God hath revealed it or it is his Word true 2. This is one of Gods Revelations This is an argument Whatsoever God saith is true But this God saith Therefore this is true The first Proposition you âre not to take upon the trust of his word but to learn of him as a Teacher to know it in its proper Evidence For it is the formal object of your faith The veracity of God is first known to you by the same Evidence and means as you know that there is a God And then it is by the force of this that you believe the particular truths which are the material object of faith 2. And the second Proposition that God hath revealed this is orderly to be first proved and so received upon its proper evidence and not taken meerly upon your Teachers word Yet if you do believe him by a humane faith as a man that is likely to know what he saith and this in order to a Divine faith it will not hinder but help your Divine faith and salvation and is indeed no more than is your duty § 22. Here not 1. That primarily these two Great Principles of faith God is True and this is Gods revelation are not themselves Credenda the Material objects of Divine faith but of Knowledge â 2. That yet the result of both is de fide matter of faith 3. And the same principles are secondarily de fide as it is that there is a God For though they are first to be known by natural evidence yet when the Scripture is opened to us we shall find them there revealed And so the same thing may be the object both of knowledge and of faith 4. And Faith it self is a sort of Knowledge For though humane faith have that uncertainty in its premises for the most part as forbiddeth us to say properly I know this to be true because such a man said it Yet Divine faith hath that certainty which may make it an excellent sort of Knowledge as I have proved copiously elsewhere In believing man we argue thus Whatsoever so wise and honest a man saith is credible that is most â likely to be true But this he saith Therefore c. But in believing God we argue thus Whatever God saith is credible that is as infallible truth But this God saith Therefore c. So that the word Credible signifieth not the same thing in the two arguments nor is Divine Faith and Humane faith the same § 23. 6. The next thing that the Preacher hath to teach you is the proof of the foresaid Minor 6. To knâw that the Gospel is his Word Proposition for the Major was proved in the proof of a Deity And that is thus The Gospel which Christ and his Apostles first Preached and is now delivered in the Sacred Scriptures is the Word or infallible revelation of God But this doctrine that Christ with faith and Repentance and obedience on our parts are the way to life Eternal is the Gospel which Christ and his Apostles first Preached c. Therefore it is the Word of God For the Minor you need not take your Teachers word if you can read for you may see it in the Books of which more anon But the Major is that which all men will desire to be assured of that the Gospel is Gods word And for that though a Belief of your Teacher is a help and good preparatory yet you are not there to stop but to use him as a Teacher to shew you the Truth of it in the proofs else you must take any thing for Gods Word which your Teacher affirmeth to be such And the proof which he will give you must be some Divine attestation which may be shewed to those whom we would convince § 24. 7. This Divine attestation which he is next to shew you hath many parts that it may be 7. The Divine attestation of the Gospel compleat and satisfactory 1. Gods antecedent Testimony 2. His inherent or impressed testimony 3. His adherent concomitant Testimony 4. His subsequent Testimony 1. Gods Antecedent Testimony by which he attesteth the Gospel is the train of Promises Prophesies Types and the preparing Ministry of Iohn which all foretold Christ and were fulfilled in him 2. Gods impressed â testimony is that Image and superscription of God in his Governing-wisdom Holiness and Love which is unimmitably engraven on the Gospel as an Image upon a seal which is thereby made the Instrument to imprint the same on other things Thus as the Sun the Gospel shineth and proveth it self by its proper light 3. The conâomitant attestation of God is that of multitudes of certain uncontrouled miracles done by Christ and his Apostles which proved the approving hand of God and oblige all rational creatures to believe a testimony so confirmed to them Among these Christs own Resurrection and Ascension and the Gifts of his Apostles are the chief 4. The subsequent attestation of God is the power and efficacy of the Gospel in calling and sanctifying unto Christ a peculiar people zealous of good works and directing and confirming them against all temptations and torments to the end Producing that same Image of God on the souls of his Elect which is more perfectly engraven on the word it self making such changes and gathering such a people unto God as no other doctrine ever did And all these four attestations are but one even the Holy Spirit â who is become the great witness of Christ and his Gospel in the World viz. 1. The spirit of Prophesie is the antecedent attestation 2. The Holy Image which the spirit hath Printed on the Gospel it self
under pretence of Government Discipline and Zeal denyeth that Liberty and forbearance even to Hereticks and Offenders much more when to the faithful Ministers of Christ which humane frailty hath made necessary and Christ hath commanded his servants to grant Concluding Ubi solitudinem fecerant pacem appellabant as Tertull. Et his omnibus obtendi solet studium Divini nominis sed plerumque obtendi tantum Nam Deus dedignatur coacta servitia nec placere illi potest quod vi humana exprimitur Reipsa solent qui id faciunt non nomini divino sed suis honoribus suis commodis tranquillitati consulere quod scit ille qui mentes intrâspicit Atque ita sit ut lolium evellatur cum tritico innocemes cum nocentibus immo ut triticum saepe sumatur pro lâliâ Non enim tam bene agitur cum rebus humanis ut semper meliora pluribus aut validioribus placeant sed ut in grege taurus ita inter homines qui viribus est editior imbecilliorem coedit iidem saepe quae pati se querebantur mox in alios audent Lege caetera Again I intreat those that would escape the sin of Schism to read seriously the foresaid Treatises of Peacemakers especially Bishop Halls Peacemaker Bishop Ushers Sermon on Eph. 4. 3. and Mr. Ieremy Burroughs Irenicum to which I may add Mr. Stillin fleets Irenicum for the hot contenders about Church-Government though I believe all the substance of Church Order to be of Divine institution and Iac. Acontii Stratag Satanae And it must be carefully noted that one way by which Satan tempteth men into Church-Divisions is by an over-vehement zeal against Dividers and so he would draw the Rulers of the world under pretence of a zeal for Unity and Peace to raise persecutions against all that are guilty of any excess of scrupulosity about Church-communion or of any principles or practices which a little swerve from true Catholicism And so by the cruelty of their penalties silencing Ministers and vexing the people they much increase the divisions which they would heal For when Satan cannot do his work bare-faced and directly he useth to be the forwardest in seeming to do good and to take part with Christ and Truth and Godliness And then his way is to over-do He will be over-orthodox and over-gââdly and over-peaceable that hâ hug the truth and Church to death by his too hard embracements As in families and neighbourhoods some cross words must be passed over if we would have peace And he that for every provoking unpeaceable word of another will raise a storm shall be himself the most unpeaceable so is it in the Church He that cannot bear with the weaknesses of the younger sort of Christians who are too much inclined by their zeal against sin to dividing wayes but will presently let fly at them as Schismaticks and make them odious and excommunicate or punish them according to his wrath shall increase the zeal and the number of dividers and prove himself the greatest divider And by this violence and destroying zeal of Orthodox Rulers against the real faults and infirmities of some separating well meaning men a far greater number of Heterodox Rulers are encouraged to persecute the most learned sober and peaceable Ministers and the most godly and faithful of their Subjects who dare not conform to all their unrighteous Edicts and Ecclesiastical Laws in things forbidden by the Law of Christ And all this is done upon pretence of promoting Unity and Peace and suppressing Heresie and Schism And so persecution becometh the Devils Engine to keep out the Gospel and Godliness from the Infidel world and to keep them under in the Christian world Sed tamen sive illud Origânis de Redemptione futura diabolorum Error est ut ego sentio sive Haerâsâs ut putatur non solum reprimi non potuit multis animadversionibus Sacerdotum sed nequaquam tam late se pââuissât offundere nisi contentione crevisset inquit Posthumianus in Sulp. Severi Dialog 1. Sed non fuit animus ibi consiââere ubi recens fraternae cladis fervebat invidia Nam etsi fortasse vidâântur parere Epise pis debuisse non ob hanc tamen causam multitudinem tantam sub Christi confessione viventem praesertim ab Episcopis oportuisset affligi Id. ibid. Speaking of the Bishops provoking the Secular Power to afflict the Monks of Alexandria for defending Origene When the Emperour Constantius would by violence force the Orthodox to hold Communion with the Arrians he did but make the breach the wider Read Lucifer Calaritanus de non conveniendo cum Haereticis in Biblioth Patr. Tom. 9. p. 1045 c. The Emperour saith that the Orthodox were enemies to peace and unity and brotherly Love and that he was resolved to have unity and peace in his Dominions Therefore he imprisoned the Orthodox and banished them Propterea odis nos quia concilium vestrum malignantium execremur propterea in exilio sumus propterea in carcere necamur propterea nobis solis prohibetur conspectus idâirco reclusi in tenebras custodimur ingenti custodia hujus rei causa nullus ad nos visendos admittitur hominum quia videlicet noluerimus vobiscum impiis sacrilegis ullam scelerum vestrorum habere societatem Ibid. pag. 1050. which stirred up this Bishop in particular to go too far from free communion even with the penitent Arrians and heap up more Scriptures against that communion which the Emperour commanded than any had done before Nobis dicebas Pacem volo fieri in corde tuo manens adversarius religionis nostrae cogitabat per te facere nos idololatras c. p. 1051. Consilia vestra contra suam prolata Ecclesiam reprobat Deus Nec enim potest odire populum suum haereditatem suam amare vos filios pestilentiae vos persecutores servorum suorum Dixisti Facite pacem cum Episcopis sectae meae Arrianis estote in unum dicit Dei Spiritus Vias impiorum noli exequi neque aemuleris viam iniquorum c. Dulce quibusdam videtur quo tibi Regi in amicitias jungantur suscipiendo haeresin tuam sed amarius felle sensuri cum tecum torqueri in perpetuum caeperint in perpetua gehenna sentire qui tecum esse deligerunt tunc dicturi Vae nobis qui Constantium Imperatorem Deo praeposuerimus Abundance more he writeth to prove that the Emperour being a Heretick they must have no communion with him or his Bishops And when the Emperour complained hereupon that they wronged and dishonoured him whom they should honour the said Lucifer wrote his next book de non parcendo in Deum delinquentibus which beginneth Superatum te Imperator a Dei servis ex omni cum conspexisses parte dixisti pâssum te ac pâti a nobis contra monita sacrarum Scripturarum contumeliam dicis nos insolentes extitisse circa te quem honorari decuerit
intercision as I have proved it hath had as to lawful Popes the whole Catholick Church is nullified and it is impossible to give it a new being but by a new Pope But the best is that by their Doctrine indeed they need not to plead for an uninterrupted succession either of Popes Bishops or Presbyters but that they think it a useful cheat to perplex all that are not their subjects For if the Papacy were extinct an hundred years Christ is still alive And seeing it is no matter ad esse who be the Electors or Consecrators so it be but made known conveniently to the people and Men only Elect and Receive the person and Christ only giveth the power by his stated Law what hindereth after the longest extinction or intercision but that some body or some sort of persons may choose a Pope again and so Christ make him Pope And thus the Catholick Church may dye and live again by a new Creation many times over And when the Pope hath a Resurrection after the longest intercision so may all the Bishops and Priests in the world because a new Pope can make new Bishops and new Bishops can make new Priests And where then is there any shew of necessity of an uninterrupted succession of any of them All that will follow is that the particular Churches dye till a Resurrection And so doth the whole Church on earth every time the Pope dyeth till another be made if he be the Constitutive Head 2. But as they say that Christ only Efficiently giveth the Power to the Pope so say we to the Bishops or Pastors of the Church For there is no act of Christs Collation to be proved but the Scripture Law or Grant And if that standing Law give Power to the Pope when men have but designed the Person the same Law will do the same to Bishops or Pastors For it establisheth their Office in the same sort Or rather in truth there is no word that giveth power to any such Officer as an Universal Head or Pope but the Law for the Pastoral Office is uncontrovertible And what the Spanish Bishops at Trent thought of the Divine Right of the Bishops Office I need not mention I shall therefore thus truly resolve the question 1. In all Ordinations and Elections man doth but first choose the Recipient person 2. And Ceremoniously and Ministerially Invest him in the Possession when God hath given him the power But the efficient Collation or Grant of the Power is done only by Christ by the Instrumentality of his Law or Institution As when the King by a Charter saith Whoever the City shall choose shall be their Mayor and have such and such power and be Invested in it by the Recorder or Steward Here the person elected receiveth all his Power from the King by his Charter which is a standing Efficient conveying it to the Capable Chosen person and not from the Choosers or Recorder only the last is as a servant to deliver possession So is it in this case 2. The regular way of entrance appointed by Christ to make a person capable is the said Election and Ordination And for order sake where that may be had the unordained are not to be received as Pastors 3. If any get Possession by false pretended Ordination or Mission and be Received by the Church I have before told you that he is a Pastor as to the Churches use and benefit though not to his own And so the Church is not extinct by every fraudulent usurpation or mistake and so not by want of a true Ordination or Mission 4. If the way of regular Ordination fail God may otherwise by the Churches necessity and the notorious aptitude of the person notifie his will to the Church what person they shall receive As if a Lay-man were cast on the Indian shoar and converted thousands who could have no Ordination And upon the peoples Reception or Consent that man will be a true Pastor And seeing the Papists in the conclusion as Iohnson ubi supra are fain to cast all their cause on the Churches Reception of the Pope they cannot deny reasonably but ad esse the Churches reception may serve also for another Officer And indeed much better than for a Pope For 1. The Universal Church is so great that no man can know when the Greater part Receiveth him and when not except in some notorious declarations 2. And it is now known that the far greater part of the Universal Church the Greeks Armenians Abassines Copties Protestants c. do not receive the Roman Head 3. And when one part of Europe received one Pope and another part another Pope for above fourty years together who could tell which of the parties was to be accounted the Church It was not then known nor it is not known yet to this day And no Papist can prove it who affirmeth it As a Church e. g. Constantinople may be gathered or oriri de novo where there is none before so may it be restored where it is extinct And possibly a Lay-man as Frumentius and Edesiâs in the Indies may be the instrument of mens conversion And if so they may by consent become their Pastors when regular Ordination cannot be had I have said more of this in my Disputations of Church-Government Disp. 2. The truth is this pretence of a Necessity of uninterrupted successive Ordination Mission or Jurisdictional Collation ad esse to the being of Ministry or Church is but a cheat of men that have an interest of their own which requireth such a plea when they may easily know that it would overthrow themselves Quest. 12. Whether there be or ever was such a thing in the world as one Catholick Church Constituted by any Head besides or under Christ THe greatest and first controversie between us and the Papists is not What man or Politick person is the Head of the whole Visible Church But Whether there be any such Head at all eiPersonal or Collective Monarchical Aristocratical or Democratical under Christ of his appointment or allowance Or any such thing as a Catholick Church so Headed or Constituted Which they affirm and we deny That neither Pope nor General Council is such a Head I have proved so fully in my Key for Catholicks and other Books that I will not here stay to make repetition of it That the Pope is no such Head we may take for granted 1. Because they bring no proof of it whatever they vainly pretendââ 2. Because our Divines have copiously disproved it to whom I refer you 3. Because the Universal Church never received such a Head as I have proved against Iohnson 4. And whether it be the Pope their Bishop of Calcedon ubi sup Sancta Clara System âid say is not de fide That a Council is no such Head I have largely proved as aforesaid Part 2. Key for Cath. And 1. The use of it being but for Concord proveth it 2. Most Papists confess it
by decisive Iudicial âentence 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 âingly 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 utramliâet 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
Spirit for his Sanctifier So that he must be a lyar or a sound believer that maketh this profession But for an Infant to be born of true believers and sincerely by them dedicated in Covenant to God is all the Condition that ever God required to an Infant-title to his Covenant And it is not the failure of the true Condition as a false profession is Indeed if the proportion were thus laid it would hold good As we know not who sincerely covenanteth for himself and yet must baptize all that soberly profess it so we know not who doth sincerely Covenant for his Infant and yet we must baptize all whom the Parents bring with such a profession for themselves and them But if the sincere dedication of a sound believer shall be accounted but equal to the lying profession of the adult which is neither commanded nor hath any promise then Infants are not in the Covenant of Grace nor is their sincerest dedication to God either commanded or hath any promise If I were but sure that the profession of the Adult for himself were sincere I were sure that he were in a state of Grace And if I am not sure of the same concerning the Parents dedication of his Infant I must conclude that this is not a condition of the same Covenant and therefore that he is not in the same Covenant or Conditional promise of God unless there be some other Condition required in him or for him But there is no other that can be devised Object Election is the Condition Answ. Election is Gods act and not mans and therefore may be an Antecedent but no Condition required of us And man is not called to make Profession that he is Elected as he is to make profession of his faith and consent to the Covenant And God only knoweth who are his by Election and therefore God only can baptize on this account And what is the probability which the objectors mean that many of the Infants of the faithful are elected Either it is a promise or but a prediction If no promise it is not to be sealed by baptism If a promise it is absolute oâ conditional If any absolute promise As I will save many children of believers 1. This terminateth not on any singular person as baptism doth and 2. It is not the absolute promise that baptism is appointed by Christ to seal This is apparent in Mark 16. 16. and in the case of the adult And it is not one Covenant which is sealed to the adult by baptism and another to infants Else baptism also should not be the same But if it be any conditional Covenant what is it and what is the condition And what is it that baptism giveth to the seed of believers if they be not justified by it from original sin You will not say that it conveyeth Inherent sanctifying Grace no not into all the Elect themselves which many are many years after without And you cannot say that it sealeth to them any promise so much as of visible Church-priviledges For God may suffer them presently to be made Ianizaries and violently taken from their Parents and become strangers and despisers of Church-priviledges as is ordinary with the Greeks Children among the Turks Now God either promised such Church-priviledges absolutely or conditionally or not at all Not absolutely for then they would possess them If conditionally what is the Condition If not at all what promise then doth baptism seal to such and what benefit doth it secure God hath instituted no baptism which is a meer present delivery of possession of a Church-state without sealing any Promise at all True baptism first sealeth the promise and then delivereth possession of some benefits Yea indeed outward Church-priviledges are such uncertain blessings of the promise that as they Matth. 6. 33. Rom. 8. 28 32 c. are but secondary so they are but secondarily given and sealed so that no man should ever be baptized if these were all that were in the promise The holiest person may be cast into a Wilderness and deprived of all visible Church-communion And doth God then Break his promise with him Certainly no It is therefore our saving Relations to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost which the promise giveth and baptism sealeth and other things but subordinately and uncertainly as they are means to these So then its plain that believers Infants have a promise of salvation or no promise at all which baptism was instituted to seal I have said so much more of this in my Appendix to the Treatise of Infant Baptism to Mr. Bedford in defence of Dr. Davenants judgement as that I must refer the Reader thither 8. I think it very probable that this ascertaining promise belongeth not only to the natural seed of believers but to all whom they have a true power and right to dedicate in Covenant to God which seemeth to be all that are properly their Own whether Adopted or bought But there is more darkness and doubt about this than the former because the Scripture hath said less of it 9. I am not able to prove nor see any probable reason for it that any but sound believers have such a promise for their children nor that any hypocrite shall certainly save his child if he do but dedicate him to God in baptism For 1. I find no promise in Scripture made to such 2. He that doth not sincerely believe himself nor consent to Gods Covenant cannot sincerely believe for his child nor consent for him 3. And that faith which will not save the owner as being not the condition of the promise cannot save another Much more might be said of this I confess that the Church is to receive the children of hypocrites as well as themselves And their baptism is valid in foro externo Ecclesiae and is not to be reiterated But it goeth no further for his child than for himself 10. Therefore I think that all that are Rightfully baptized by the Minister that is baptized so as that it s well done of him are not certainly saved by baptism unless they be also rightfully baptized in regard of their right to claim and receive it Let them that are able to prove more do it for I am not able 11. Whereas some mis-interpret the words of the old Rubrick of Confirmation in the English Liturgy as if it spake of all that are baptized whether they had Right or not the words themselves may serve to rectifie that mistake And that no man shall think any detriment shall come to children by deferring of their Confirmation he shall know for truth that it is certain by Gods Word that children being baptized have all things necessary for their salvation and be undoubtedly saved Where it is plain that they mean they have all things necessary ex parte Ecclesiae or all Gods applying Ordinances necessary though they should dye unconfirmed supposing that they have all things necessary to just baptism on their
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 â 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 â 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 Actâ 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
in the Scripture we have it more certainly revealed already Therefore the Revelation can be nothing but an assistance of the persons faith or a call to obedience or a reproof of some sin which every man is to believe according as there is true evidence that indeed it is a Divine Revelation or Vision which if it be not the same thing is still sure to us in the Scripture 3. If it be something that is only Besides the Scripture as about events and facts or Prophecies of what will befall particular places or persons we must first see whether the evidence of a Divine revelation be clear in it or not And that is known 1. To the person himself by the self-attesting and convincing power of a Divine Revelation which no man knoweth but he that hath it And we must be very cautelous lest we take false conceptions to be such But to himself and others it is known 1. At present by clear uncontrolled Miracles which are Gods attestation which if men shew we are bound in this case to believe them 2. For the Future by the event when things so plainly John 3. 2. John 13. 19. 14. 20. Luke 21. 7 9 28 31 36. Matth. 5. 18. 24. 34. 21. 4. come to pass as prove the prediction to be of God He therefore that giveth you not by certain Miracles uncontrolled a just proof that he is sent of God is to be heard with a suspended belief you must stay till the event shew whether he say true or not And not act any thing in the mean time upon an unproved presumption either of the truth or falshood of his words 4. If you are in doubt whether that which he speaketh be contrary to Gods Word or not you must hear him with a proportionable suspicion and give no credit to him till you have tryed whether it be so or not 5. It is a dangerous snare and sin to believe any ones Prophecies or Revelations meerly because they are very Holy persons and do most confidently averr or swear it For they may be deceived themselves As also to take hysterical or melancholy delirations or conceptions for the Revelations of the Spirit of God and so to father falshood upon God Quest. 165. May one be saved who believeth that the Scripture hath any mistake or error and believeth it not all Answ. THe chief part of the answer to this must be fetcht from what is said before about Fundamentals Rev. 6. 10. 19. 9 11. 21. 5. 22. 6. 1 John 2. 8. 5. 20. 2 Cor. 1. 18. 1 Cor. 15. 1 2 3 c. 1. No man can be saved who believeth not that God is no lyar and that all his Word is true Because indeed he believeth not that there is a God 2. No man can be saved who believeth not the points that are essential to true Godliness nor any man that heareth the Word who believeth not all Essential to Christianity or the Christian Covenant and Religion 3. A man may be saved who believeth not some Books of Scripture as Iude 2 Pet. 2 Iohn 3 Iohn Revelations to be Canonical or the Word of God so he heartily believe the rest or the Essentials 4. He that thinketh that the Prophets Sacred Historians Evangelists and Apostles were guided to Mark 16. 16. Rom. 10. 12 13. John 3. 16 18. 1 John 4. 2 3. an Infallible delivery and recording of all the great substantial necessary points of the Gospel but not to an Infallibility in every by-expression phrase citation or circumstance doth disadvantage his own faith as to all the rest but yet may be saved if he believe the substance with a sound and practical belief Quest. 166. Who be they that give too little to the Scriptures and who too much and what is the danger of each extream Answ. I. IT is not easie to enumerate all the errors on either extream but only to give some instances of each 1. They give too little to the Scriptures who dâny it to be indited by inspiration of the Infallible Spirit of God and to be wholly true 2. And they that detract from some parts or Books of it while they believe the rest 3. And they that think it is not given as a Law of God and as a Rule of faith and life 4. And they that think it is not an Universal Law and Rule for all the world but for some parts only supposing the predication of it 5. And they that think it an Imperfect Law and Rule which must be made up with the supplement of Traditions or Revelations 6. And they that think that it was adapted only to the times it was written in and James 4. 12. Isa. 33. 22. Râv 22. 18 19. Matth. 28. 20. Isa. 8. 16 20. Psal. 19. 7 8. 119. 130. Prov. 14. 20 22. 8 5. Deut. 12. 32. not to ours as not foreseeing what would be 7. And they that think it is culpably defective in Method 8. And they that think it culpably defective in phrase or aptness or elegancy of style 9. And they that think that it containeth not all that was necessary or fit for universal determination of that kind of things which it doth at all universally determine of As e. g. that it made two Sacraments but not all of that kind that are fit to be made but hath left men to invent and make more of the same nature and use 10. And those that think that it is fitted only to the Learned or only to the unlearned only to Princes or only to subjects c. 11. And those that think that it is but for a time and then by alteration to be perfected as Moses Law was 12. And those that think that the Pope Princes or Prelates or any men may change or alter it II. Those give too much in bulk but too little in vertue to the Scriptures 1. Who would set them up instead of the whole Law and Light of Nature as excluding this as useless where the Scripture is 2. And they that âeign it to be instead of all Grammars Logick Philosophy and all other Arts and Sciences and to be a perfect particular Rule for every Ruler Lawyer Physicion Marriner Architect Husbandman and Tradesman to do his work by 3. And they that âeign it to be fully sufficient to all men to prove its own authority and truth without 1 Joh. 1. 1 2 3. 3 John 12. Heb. 2. 3 4. John 21. 24. the subsidiary use of that Church-History and Tradition which telleth us the supposed Matters of fact and must help us to know what Books are Canonical and what not and without historical evidence that these are the true Books which the Prophets and Apostles wrote and the Miracles and Providences which have attested them 4. And those that think that it is sufficient for its own promulgation or the peoples instruction Ephes. 4. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. John 6.
â3 Rom. 8. 9. 1 John 3. 24. John 3. 5 6. Many Romish Priests and others do so without the Ministry of man to preserve deliver translate expound and preach it to the people 5. And those that think it sufficient to sanctifie men without the concourse of the Spirits illumination vivification and inward operation to that end 6. And they that say that no man can be saved by the knowledge belief love and practice of all the substantial parts of Christianity brought to him by Tradition Parents or Preachers who tell him nothing of the Scriptures but deliver him the Doctrines as attested by Miracles and the Spirit without any notice of the Book 7. And those that say that Scripture alone must be made use of as to all the History of Scripture Times and that it is unlawful to make use of any other Historians as Iosephus and such others 8. And they that say no other Books of Divinity but Scripture are useful yea or lawful to be read of Christians or at least in the Church 9. And they that say that the Scriptures are so Divine not only in Matter but in Method and Style as that there is nothing of humane inculpable imperfection or weakness in them 10. And those that say that the Logical Method and the phrase is as perfect as God was able to make them 11. And they that say that all passages in Scripture historically related are Moral Truths And so make the Devils words to Eve of Iob to Christ c. to be all true 12. And they that say that all passages in the Scripture were equally obligatory to all other places and ages as to those that first received them As the kiss of peace the Vails of women washing feet anointing the sick Deaconesses c. 13. And they that make Scripture so perfect a Rule to our belief that nothing is to be taken for certain that cometh to us any other way As natural knowledge or historical 14. And those that think men may not translate the Scripture turn the Psalms into Metre tune them divide the Scripture into Chapters and Verses c. as being derogatory alterations of the perfect Word 15. And those that think it so perfect a particular rule of all the Circumstances Mâdes Adjuncts and external expressions of and in Gods Worship as that no such may be invented or added by man 1 Cor. 14. 33 40. 26. that is not there prescribed As Time Place Vesture Gesture Utensils Methods Words and many other things mentioned before 16. And those that Jewishly feign a multitude of unproved mysteries to lye in the Letters Orders Numbers and proper Names in Scriptures though I deny not that there is much mysterie which we little observe 17. They that say that the Scripture is all so plain that there is no obscure or difficult passages in them which men are in danger of wresting to their own destruction 18. And they that say that All in the Scripture is so necessary to salvation even the darkest Prophecies Heb. 5. 10 11 12. that they cannot be saved that understand them not all or at least endeavour not studiously and particularly to understand them 19. And they that say that every Book and Text must of necessity to salvation be believed to be Canonical and true 20. And those that say that God hath so preserved the Scripture as that there are no various readings Of which see Lud. Capellus Crit. Saââ and doubtful Texts thereupon and that no written or printed Copies have been corrupted when Dr. Heylin tells us that the Kings Printer printed the seventh Commandment Thou shalt commit adultery All these err in over-doing III. The dangers of the former detracting from the Scripture are these 1. It injureth the Spirit who is the author of the Scriptures 2 It striketh at the foundation of our faith by weakning the Records which are left us to believe And emboldneth men to sin by diminishing the authority of Gods Law And weakneth our Hopes by weakning the promises 3. It shaketh the universal Government of Christ by shaking the anthority or perfection of the Laws by which he governeth 4. It maketh way for humane Usurpations and Traditions as supplements to the holy Scriptures And leaveth men to contrive to amend Gods Word and Worship and make Co-ordinate Laws and Doctrines of their own 5. It hindereth the Conviction and Conversion of sinners and hardneth them in unbelief by questioning or weakning the means that should convince and turn them 6. It is a tempting men to the Cursed adding to Gods Word IV. The dangers of over-doing here are these 1. It leadeth to downright Infidelity For when men find that the Scripture is imperfect or wanting in that which they fansie to be part of its perfection and to be really insufficient e. g. to teach men Physicks Logick Medicine Languages c. they will be apt to say It is not of God because it hath not that which it pretends to have 2. God is made the Author of defects and imperfections 3. The Scripture is exposed to the scorn and confutation of Infidels 4. Papists are assisted in proving its imperfection But I must stop having spoke to this point before in Quest. 35. and partly Quest. 30. 31. 33. more at large Quest. 167. How far do good men now Preach and Pray by the Spirit Answ. 1. NOt by such Inspiration of new matter from God as the Prophets and Apostles had which indited the Scriptures 2. Not so as to exclude the exercise of Reason Memory or Diligence which must be as much and more than about any common things 3. Not so as to exclude the use and need of Scripture Ministry Sermons Books Conference Examples Use or other means and helps But 1. The Spirit indited that Doctrine and Scripture which is our Rule for prayer and for preaching 2. The Spirits Miracles and works in and by the Apostles seal that doctrine to us and confirm Heb. 2. 3 4. 1 Peâ 1. 2 22. 2 Thess. 1. 13. John 3. 5 6. Rom. 8. 9. Rom. 8. 15 16 26 27. 2 Tim. 1. 7. Nehem. 9. 20. Isa. 11 â Ezek. 36. 26. 37. 14. Gal. 4. 6. Zech. 12. 10. Ezek. 18. 31. 11. 19. Rom. 7. 6. John 4. 23 24. 7. 38 39. 1 Cor. 2 10 11. 1 Cor. 6. 11 17. 2 Cor. 4. 13. Gal. 5. 5 16 17 18 25. Ephes. 3. 16. 5. 9 18. 6. 18. 1 Thess. 5. 19. our faith in it 3. The Spirit in our faithful Pastors and Teachers teacheth us by them to pray and preach 4. The Spirit by Illumination Quickning and Sanctification giveth us an habitual acquaintance with our sins our wants with the word of precept and promise with God with Christ with Grace with Heaven And it giveth us a Habit of holy Love to God and Goodness and Thankfulness for mercy and faith in Christ and the life to come and desires of perfection and hatred of sin And he
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 dâny that later times have brought forth abundance of Theological writings incomparably more methodical judicious full clear and excellently fiâted 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 âust 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
of them confess For if once the Sword were taken from them the world would quickly see that their Church had the hearts of few of those multitudes whom by Fire and Sword they forced to seem their members or at least that when the windows were opened the light would quickly deliver poor souls from the servitude of those men of darkness For then few would fear the unrighteous excommunications of meer Usurpers It is a manifold Usurpation by which their Kingdom is upheld For a Kingdom it is rather to be called than a Church 1. They Usurp the Power of the Keyes or Ecclesiastical Government Lege Epist. Caroli Calvi ad Papam inter Hincâari Rhemeâsis Epistolas cont Papae usurpationes Isidor Hispal sent 3. c. 51. Cognoscant Principes seculi Deo debere se rationem reddere propter Ecclesiam quam a Christo tuândam suscipiuât Nam five augeatur pax disciplina Ecclesiae per fideles Principes sive solvatur ille ab eis rationem exigit qui eorum potestati suam Ecclesiam credidit Leo Ep. ad Lâonem Imp. Debes incunctanâer advertere Regiam potestatem tibi non solum ad mundi regimen sed maxime ad Ecclesiae praesidium esse collatam See the judgement of Io. Paâisiensis Francis Victoria and Widdrington in Groâ de Imper. p. 23. Lege Lud. Molinâi Discourse of the Powers of Cardinal Chigi over all the world and make themselves Pastors of those Churches which they have nothing to do to Govern Their Excommunications of Princes or people in other Lands or Churches that never took them for their Pastors is an Usurpation the more odious by how much the power usurped is more holy and the performance in so large a Parish as the whole World is naturally impossible to the Roman Usurper 2. Under the name of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction they usurp the Magistrates Coercive power in such causes as they call Ecclesiastical 3. Yea and they claim an immunity to their Clergy from the Civil Government as if they were no subjects of the King or the King had not power to punish his offending subjects 4. In ordine ad spiritualia they claim yet more of the Magistrates power 5. And one part of them give the Pope directly in Temporals a Power over Kings and Kingdoms 6. Their most eminent Divines do ordinarily maintain that the Pope may excommunicate Kings and interdict Kingdoms and that an excommunicated King is no King and may be killed It is an Article of their Religion determined of in one of their approved General Councils Later sub Innoc. 3. Can. 3. that if Temporal Lords will not exterminate Hereticks from their Lands such as the Albigenses that denyed Transubstantiation mentioned Can. 2. the Pope may give their Dominions to others and absolve their Vassals from their fealty And when some of late would have so far salved their honour as to invalidate the authority of that Council they will not endure it but have strenuously vindicated it And indeed what ever it be to us with them it is already enrolled among the Approved General Councils Between the Erastians who would have no Government but by Magistrates and the Papists who give the Magistrates power to the Pope and his Prelates the truth is in the middle that the Pastors have a Nunciative and Directive Power from Christ and a Discipline to exercise by the Word alone on Volunteers much like the Power of a Philosopher in his School or a Physicion in his Hospital supposing them to be by Divine Right § 55. Direct 26. Refuse not to swear Allegiance to your lawful Soveraign Though Oaths are Direct 26. fearful and not to be taken without weighty cause yet are they not to be refused when the cause is weighty as here it is Must the Soveraign be sworn to do his Office for you and must he undertake so hard and perillous a charge for you which he is no way able to go through if his Subjects be not faithful to him and shall those Subjects refuse to promise and swear fidelity This is against all reason and equity § 56. Direct 27. Think not that either the Pope or any power in the world can dispense with this Direct 27. your Oath or absolve you from the bond of it or save you from the punishment due from God to the perjured and perfidious Of this see what I have written before against Perjury § 57. Direct 28. Do nothing that tendeth to bring the sacred bonds of Oaths into an irreligious contempt Direct 28. or to make men take the horrid crime of Perjury to be a little sin Soveraigns have no sufficient Perjurii poenâ diviââa exitium humana dedecus Cicero Agesilaus sent thanks to his enemies for their perjury as making then no question of their overthrow Perjuri numinis contemptores Plutarch Thâodosius execrabatur cum legisset superbâam dominantium praecipue perfidos ingratos Paul Diaconus l. 2. security of the fidelity of their Subjects or of their lives or Kingdoms if once Oaths and Covenants be made light of and men can play fast and loose with the bonds of God which lye upon them He is virtually a Traytor to Princes and States who would bring perjury and perfidiousness into credit and teacheth men to violate Oaths and Vows For there is no keeping up humane Societies and Governments where there is no trust to be put in one another And there is no trust to be put in that man that maketh no Conscience of an Oath or Vow § 58. Direct 29. Be ready to your power to defend your Governours against all Treasons Conspiracies Direct 29. and Rebellions For this is a great part of the duty of your relation The Wisdom and Goodness necessary to Government is much personal in the Governours themselves But the strength without which Laws cannot be executed nor the people preserved is in the People and the Princes interest See the instance of loyalty in Mascelzer against his own Brother Gildo a Rebel Paul Diacon l. 3. initio in them Therefore if you withdraw your help in time of need you desert and betray your Rulers whom you should defend If you say It is they that are your Protectors I answer True but by your selves They protect you by Wisdom Counsel and Authority and you must protect them by obedience and strength Would you have them protect you rather by mercenaries or foreigners If not you must be willing to do your parts and not think it enough in Treasons Invasions or Rebellions to sit still and save your selves and let him that can lay hold on the Crown possess it What Prince would âs the Governour of a people that he knew would forsake him in his need § 59. Direct 30. Murmurr not at the payment of those necessary Tributes by which the common safety Direct 29. must be preserved and the due honour of your Governours kept up Sordid Covetousness hath been the ruine of
them to be teachers of Rebellion It is not every different opinion in politicks that proveth men to be against subjection He that can read such a Book as Bilsons for Christian subjection against Antichristian rebelion and yet deny him to be a Teacher of Subjection hath a very hard forhead For the Controversies I shall say no more of them here but what I have said before to Mr. Hooker And as for Calvin and the Disciplinarians or Puritans as they are called They subscribe all the same confessions for Magistracy and take the same oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy as others do and they plead and write for them so that for my part I know not of any difference in their Doctrine Hear what B. Andrews saith who was no rebel in his Tortura Torti pag. 379 380. Calvinus autem ut Papam Regem ita Regem Papam non probavit Neque nos quod in Papâ detestamur in Rege approbamus At ille nobiscum nos cum illo sentimus easdem esse in Ecclesia Christiana Regis Iacobi partes quae Iosiae fuerunt in Iudaica nec nos ultra quicquam fieri ambimus that is But Calvin neither liked a Pope King nor a King Pope Nor do we approve of that in the King which we detest in the Pope But he with us and we with him do judge that King James hath as much to do in a Christian Church as Josias had in the Iewish Church and we go not about to get any more And after Sub Primatus nomine Papatum novum Rex non invebit in Ecclesiam sic enim statuit ut non Aaroni Pontifici ita nec Ieroboamo Regi jus ullam esse conflatum à se vitulum populo proponendi ut adoret idest non vel fidei novos articulos vel cultus Divini novas formulas procudendi that is The King doth not bring into the Church a new Papacy under the name of Primacy For thus he judgeth or determineth that neither Aaron the Priest nor Jeroboam the King had any Right to propose the Calf which they had made to the people to be adored that is neither to hammer or make new articles of faith or new forms of Divine Worship And pag. 379 380. Quos vero Puritanos appellat si Regium primatum detestantur detestandi ipsi Profitentur enim subscribunt jurant indies sed illi quod faciunt ingenuè faciunt societatem in hoc Torti ipsumque adeo Tortum tanquam mendacem hominem alibi de aliis hic de se ac sycophantem egregium detestantur that is And for those he calleth Puritans if they detest the Kings Supremacy they are to be detested For they daily profess subscribe and swear to it And what they do they do ingenuously and they detest the society of Tortus in this and Tortus himself as a lying man elsewhere of others and here of themselves and an egregious sycophant By these testimonies judge what Protestants think of one another in point of loyalty 5. And why are not all the other Christians taken into your enumeration The Armenians Abassins and all the Greek Churches whom the Papists so frequently reproach as flatterers or servile because they still gave so much to their Emperours Have you any pretence for your accusation as against them Unless perhaps from the tumults which Alexandria in its greatness was much addicted to which is nothing to the doctrine of Christianity nor to the practice of all the rest § 84. Having answered these cavils of the late Atheistical or Infidel Politicians I shall next shew Christianity is most for Loyalty and subjection though briefly yet by plentiful evidence that Christianity and true Godliness is the greatest strength of Government and bond of subjection and means of Peace that ever was revealed to the World which will appear in all these Evidences following 1. Christianity teacheth men to take the higher powers as ordained of God and to obey them as Gods Ministers or Officers having an Authority derived immediately from God so that it advanceth the Magistrate as Gods officer as much higher than Infidels advance him who fetch his Rom. 13. 1. 2 3 4. power no higher than Force or Choice as a servant of God is above a servant of men which is more than a man is above a Dog § 85. 2. Christianity telleth us that our obedience to Magistrates is Gods own command and so that we must obey him by obeying them And as obedience to a Constable is more procured by the Kings Laws than by his own commands so obedience to a King is far more effectually procured by Gods Laws than by his own If God be more above a King than a King is above a a Worm the command of God must be a more powerful obligation upon every understanding person than the Kings And what greater advantage can a King have in Governing than to have subjects whose Consciences do feel themselves bound by God himself to obey the King and all his officers Obj. But this is still with exception If it be not in things forbidden of God And the subjects are Object made judges whether it be so or no. Ans. And woe to that man that grudgeth that God must be obeyed Answ. before him and would be himself a God to be obeyed in things which God is against The subjects are made no publick Judges but private discerners of their duties And so you make them your selves or else they must not judge whether the King or a Usurper were to be obeyed or whether the word of the King or of a Constable if they be contradictory is to be preferred To judge what we B. âilsoâ ubi sup p. 259. As Bishops ought to discern which is truth before they teach so must the people discern who teacheth right before they believe Pag. 261 262. Princes as well as others must yield obedience to Bishops speaking the word of God But if bishops pass their commission and speak besides the Word of God what they list both Prince and people may despise them See him further pag. 259 260 261 262. proving that all have a judiciun discretionis must choose or refuse is proper to a Rational Creature even bruits themselves will do something like it by instinct of nature and will not do all things according to your will You would have us obey a Justice of Peace no further than our Loyalty to the King will give leave and therefore there is greater reason that we should obey the higher powers no farther than our Loyalty to God will give leave But if men pretend Gods commands for any thing which he commandeth not Magistrates bear not the sword in vain and subjects are commanded by God not to resist If they punish them rightfully God will bear the Rulers out in it If they punish them wrongfully or persecute them for well-doing God will severely punish them who so wronged his subjects and abused
Sword in their own hands and not have put it into the Clergies hands to fulfill their wills by For 1. By this means the Clergy had escaped the odium of usurpation and domineering by which atheistical Politicians would make Religion odious to Magistrates for their sakes 2. And by this means greater unity had been preserved in the Church while one faction is not armed with the Sword to tread down the rest For if Divines contend only by dint of Argument when they have talkt themselves and others aweary they will have done But when they go to it with dint of Sword it so ill becometh them that it seldom doth good but the party often that trusteth least to their Reason must destroy the other and make their cause good by Iron arguments 3. And then the Romish Clergy had not been armed against Princes to the terrible concussions of the Christian world which Histories at large relate if Princes had not first lent them the Sword which they turned against them 4. And then Church Discipline would have been better understood and have been more effectual which is corrupted and turned to another thing and so cast out when the Sword is used instead of the Keys under pretence of making it effectual None but Consenters are capable of Church-communion No man can be a Christian nor Godly nor saved against his will And therefore Consenters and Volunteers only are capable of Church-discipline As a Sword will not make a Sermon effectual no more will it make Discipline effectual which is but the management of Gods Word to work upon the conscience So far as men are to be driven by the Sword to the use of means or restrained from offering injury to Religion the Magistrate himself is fittest to do it It is noted by Historians as the dishonour of Cyrill of Alexandria though a famous Bishop that he was the first Bishop that like a Magistrate used the Sword there and used violence against Hereticks and dissenters 5. Above all abuse not the name of Religion for the resistance of your lawful Governours Religion must be defended and propagated by no irreligious means It is easie before you are aware to catch the feavor of such a passionate zeal as Iames and Iohn had when they would have had fire from Heaven to consume the refusers and resisters of the Gospel And then you will think that any thing almost is lawful which doth but seem necessary to the prosperity of Religion But no means but those of Gods allowance do use to prosper or bring home that which men expect They may seem to do wonders for a while but they come to nothing in the latter end and spoil the work and leave all worse than it was before § 101. Direct 40. Take heed of mistaking the nature of that Liberty of the people which is truly Direct 40. valuable and desirable and of contending for an undesirable Liberty in its stead It is desirable to have 1 Pet. 2. 16. Gal. 5. 13. 2 Pet. 2. 19. Gal. 4. 26. 2 Cor. 3. 17. Liberty to do good and to possess our own and enjoy Gods mercies and live in peace But it is not desirable to have Liberty to sin and abuse one another and hinder the Gospel and contemn our Governours Some mistake Liberty for Government it self and think it is the peoples Liberty to be Governours And some mistake Liberty for an exemption from Government and think they are most free when they are most ungoverned and may do what their list But this is a misery and not a mercy and therefore was never purchased for us by Christ. Many desire servitude and calamity under the name of liberty Optima est Reipublicae forma saith Seneca ubi nulla Libertas deest nisi licentia pereundi As Mr. R. Hooker saith Lib. 8. p. 195. I am not of opinion that simply in Kings the Most but the Best limited power is best both for them and the people The Most limited is that which may deal in fewest things the best that which in dealing is tyed to the soundest perfectest and most indifferent Rule which Rule is the Law I mean not only the Law of Nature and of God but the National Law consonant thereunto Happier that people whose Law is their King in the greatest things than that whose King is himself their Law Yet no doubt but the Law-givers are as such above the Law as an Authoritative instrument of Government but under it as a man is under the obligation of his own Consent and Word It ruleth subjects in the former sense It bindeth the summam Potestatem in the later § 102. Direct 41. When you have done all that you can in just obedience look for your reward Direct 41. from God alone Let it satisfie you that he knoweth and approveth your sincerity You make it a holy work if you do it to please God and you will be fixed and constant if you take Heaven for your Reward which is enough and will not fail you But you make it but a selfish carnal work if you do it only to please your Governours or get preferment or escape some hurt which they may do you and are subject only in flattery or for fear of wrath and not for conscience sake And such obedience is uncertain and unconstant For when you fail of your hopes or think Rulers deal unjustly or unthankfully with you your subjection will be turned into passionate desires of revenge Remember still the example of your Saviour who suffered death as an enemy to Caesar when he had never failed of his duty so much as in one thought or word And are you better than your Lord and Master If God be All to you and you have laid up all your hopes in Heaven it is then but little of your concernment further than God is concerned in it whether Rulers do use you well or ill and whether they interpret your actions rightly or what they take you for or how they call you But it is your concernment that God account you Loyal and will judge you so and justifie you from mens accusations of disloyalty and reward you with more than man can give you Nothing is well done especially of so high a nature as this which is not done for God and Heaven and which the Crown of Glory is not the motive to I have purposely been the larger on this subject because the times in which we live require it both for the setling of some and for the confuting the false accusations of others who would perswade the world that our doctrine is not what it is when through the sinful practices of some the way of truth is evil spoken of 2 Pet. 2. 2. Tit. 2. A fuller resolution of the Cases 1. Whether the Laws of men do bind the Conscience 2. Especially smaller and Penal Laws THe word Conscience signifieth either 1. In general according to the notation of the word The knowledge of our own
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 Bâethren 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 Saâderâoa and so many others did make a greater matter of I retract the words if they âe 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 Rulârs 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
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã claudico as Erasmus thought or from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
think their own understanding and stability is sufficient to preserve them do shew by their pride that they are near a fall 1 Cor. 10. 2. The company of sensual persons at Stage-playes Gaming inordinate playes and wanton dalliance For this is to bring your Tinder and Gunpowder to the fire And the less you fear it the greater is your danger § 24. Direct 7. Look more at the good that is in others than at their faults and falls The Flye Direct 7. that will fall on none but the galled ulcerous place doth feed accordingly Is a professor of Religion Covetous Drunk or other wayes scandalous Remember that it is his Covetousness or drunkenness that is bad Reprove that and fly from it and spare not But Religion is good Let that therefore be commended and imitated Leave the Carrion to Dogs and Crows to feast upon But do you choose out the things that are commendable and mind and mention and imitate those § 25. Direct 8. Lastly Think and speak as much against the sin and danger of taking-scandal as Direct 8. against the sin and danger of giving it When others cry out These are your religious people Do you cry out as much against their malignity and madness who will dislike or reproach Religion for mens sins Which is to blame the the Law-makers or Laws because they are broken or to fall out with Health because many that once were in health fall sick or to find fault with eating because some are lean or with clothing because some are cold Open to your selves and others what a wicked and perillous thing this is to fall out with Godliness because some are ungodly that seemed godly Many cry out against Scandal Scandal that never think what a heinous sin it is to be scandalized or to suffer mens sins to be a scandal to you and to be the worse because that others are so bad No one must differ from them in an opinion or a fashion of apparel or in a mode or form of Worship but some are presently scandalized Not knowing that it is a greater sin in them to be scandalized than in the other by such means supposing them to be faulty to give them the occasion Do you know what it is to be scandalized or offended in the Scripture sense It is not meerly to be displeased or to dislike anothers actions as is before said But it is to be drawn into some sin or hindered from some duty or stopt in the course of Religion or to think the worse of truth or duty or a godly life because of other mens words or actions And do you think him a good Christian and a faithful or constant friend to godliness who is so easily brought to quarrel with it Or is so easily turned from it or hindered in it Some pievish childish persons are like sick stomachs that no meat can please you cannot dress it so curiously but they complain that it is naught or this ayleth it or that ayleth it when the fault is in themselves Or like children or sick persons that can scarce be toucht but they are hurt Do you think that this sickliness or curiosity in Religion is a credit to you This is not the tenderness of Conscience which God requireth to be easily hurt by other mens differences or faults As it is the shame of many Ladies and Gentlewomen to be so curious and troublesomely neat that no servant knoweth how to please them so is it in Religion a sign of your childish folly and worse to be guilty of such proud curiosity that none can please you who are not exactly of your mind and way All men must follow your humours in gestures fashions opinions formalities and modes or else you are troubled and offended and scandalized As if all the world were made to please and humour you Or you were wise enough and great and good enough to be the rule of all about you Desire and spare not that your selves and all men should please God as exactly as is possible But if the want of that exactness in doubtful things or a difference in things disputable and doubtful among true Christians do thereupon abate or hinder your Love or estimation of your brethren or communion with them or any other Christian duty or tempt you into censoriousness or contempt of your brethren or to Schism Persecution or any other sin it is you that are the great offenders and you that are like to be the sufferers and have cause to lament that sinful aptness to be thus scandalized CHAP. XIV Directions against soul-murder and partaking of other mens sins THE special Directions given Part 3. Ch. 22. to Parents and Masters will in this case be of great use to all others But because it is here seasonable to speak of it further under the sixth Commandment and the matter is of greatest consequence I shall 1. Tell you how men are guilty of soul-murder 2. And then give you some General Directions for the furthering of mens salvation 3. And next give you some special Directions for Christian Exhortation and Reproofs § 1. 1. Men are guilty of soul-murder by all these wayes 1. By preaching false soul-murdering doctrine such as denyeth any necessary point of faith or holy living such as is opposite to a holy life or to any particular necessary duty such as maketh sin to be no sin which call good evil and evil good wich putteth darkness for light and light for darkness § 2. 2. By false application of true doctrine indirectly reflecting upon and disgracing that holiness of life which in terms they preach for By prevarication undermining that cause which their office is appointed to promote As they do who purposely so describe any vice that the hearers may be drawn to think that strict and Godly practices are either that sin it self or but a Cloak to hide it § 3. 3. By bringing the persons of the most religious into hatred by such false applications reflections or secret insinuations or open calumnies Making men believe that they are all but Hypocrites or Schismaticks or seditious or fanatical self-conceited persons Which is usually done either by impudent slanders raised against some particular men and so reflected on the rest or by the advantage of factions controversies or Civil Wars or by the falls of any professours or the crimes of Hypocrites whereupon they would make the World believe that they are all alike As if all Christs family were to be judged of by Peters fall or Iudas falshood And the odious representation of Godly men doth greatly prevail to keep others from Godliness and is one of the Devils most successful means for the damnation of multitudes of souls § 4. 4. The disgrace of the persons of the Preachers of the Gospel doth greatly further mens damnation For when the people think their Teachers to be Hypocrites Covetous Proud and secretly as bad as others they are very like to think accordingly of their doctrine
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 âin 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 âore 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. Sâund 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 maââied 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
knowledge The wise and the foolish must not be spoken to alike 2. According to the variety of their moral qualities One may be very pious and another weak in grace and another only teachable and tractable and another wicked and impenitent and another obstinate and scornful These must not be talkt to with the same manner of discourse 3. According to the variety of particular sins which they are inclined to which in some is pride in some sensuality lust or idleness in some covetousness and in some an erroneous zeal against the Church and cause of Christ Every wise Physicion will vary his remedies not only according to the kind of the disease but according to its various accidents and the complexion also of the patient § 8. Direct 8. Be sure to do most where you have most authority and obligation He that will Direct 8. neglect and slight his Family Relations Children and Servants who are under him and alwayes with him and yet be zealous for the Conversion of strangers doth discover much hypocrisie and sheweth that it is something else than the love of souls or sense of duty which carryeth him on § 9. Direct 9. Never speak of holy things but with the greatest reverence and seriousness you can Direct 9. The manner as well as the matter is needful to the effect To talk of sin and conversion of God and eternity in a common running careless manner as you speak of the men and the matters of the world is much worse than silence and tendeth but to debauch the hearers and bring them to a contempt of God and holiness I remember my self that when I was young I had sometime the company of one antient godly Minister who was of weaker parts than many others but yet did profit me more than most because he would never in prayer or conference speak of God or the life to come but with such marvellous seriousness and reverence as if he had seen the Majesty and Glory which he talkt of § 10. Direct 10. Take heed of inconsiderate imprudent passages which may marr all the rest and Direct 10. give malignant auditors advantage of contempt and scorn Many honest Christians through their ignorance thus greatly wrong the cause they manage I would I might not say Many Ministers Too few words is not so bad as one such imprudent foolish word too much § 11. Direct 11. Condescend to the weak and bear with their infirmity If they give you foolish Direct 11. answers be not angry and impatient with them yea or if they perversly cavil and contradict For the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing opposers if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. He is a foolish Physicion that cannot bear the words of a phrenetick or delirant Patient § 12. Direct 12. When you are among those that can teach you be not so forward to teach as to Direct 12. learn Be not eager to vent what you have to say but desirous to hear what your betters have to say Questions in such a case should be most of your part It requireth great skill and diligence to draw that out of others which may profit you And be not impatient if they cross your opinions or open your ignorance Yea those that you can teach in other things yet in some things may be able to add much to your knowledge Tit. 3. Special Directions for Reproof and Exhortation for the Good of Others THis duty is so great that Satan hindereth it with all his power and so hard that most men quite omit it unless an angry reproach may go for Christian Exhortation And some spoil it in the management And some proud censorious persons mistake the exercise of their pride and passion for the exercise of a charitable Christian duty and seem to be more sensible of their neighbours sin and misery than of their own Therefore that you miscarry not in so needful a work I shall add these following Directions § 1. Direct 1. Be sure first that your reproof have a right end and then let the manner be suited to Direct 1. that end If it be to convince and convert a soul it must be done in a manner likely to prevail If it be only to bear down the arguments of a deceiver to preserve the standers by to vindicate the honour of God and godliness and to dishonour sin and to disgrace an obstinate factor for the Devil then another course is fit Therefore resolve first by the quality of the cause and person what must be your end § 2. Direct 2. Be sure that you reprove not that as a sin which is no sin either by mistaking the Direct 2. Law or the fact To make duties and sins of our own opinions and inventions and then to lay out our zeal on these and censure or reprove all that think as hardly of such things as we this is to make our selves the objects of the hearers pity and not to exercise just pity towards others Such reproofs deserve reproof For they discover great ignorance and pride and self-conceitedness and very much harden sinners in their way and make them think that all reproof is but the vanity of fantastical hypocrites In some cases with a child or servant or private friend or for prevention we may speak of faults upon hearsay or suspicion But it must be as of things uncertain and as a warning rather than a reproof In ordinary Reproof you must understand the case before you speak It is a shame to say after I thought it had been otherwise Such an erroneous reproof is worse than none § 3. Direct 3. Choose not the smallest sins to reprove nor the smallest duties to exhort them to For Direct 3. that will make them think that all your zeal is taken up with little matters and that there is no great necessity of regarding you and conscience will be but little moved by your speech when greater things will greatly and more easily affect men § 4. Direct 4. Stop not with unregenerate men in the mention of particular sins or duties but Direct 4. make use of particulars to convince them of a state of sin and misery It is easie to convince a man that he is a sinner and when that is done he is never the more humbled or converted For he will tell you that All are sinners and therefore he hopeth to speed as well as you But you must make him discern his sinful state and shew him the difference between a penitent sinner and an impenitent a converted sinner and an unconverted a justified pardoned sinner and an unjustified unpardoned one or else you 'l do him but little good § 5. Direct 5. Suit the manner of your reproof to the quality of the person It is seldome that a Direct 5. Parent Master or
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 Tâm 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 flâttery 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-exâlting 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
the truth yet it is seldome the way of doing good to those whom you dispute with It engageth men in partiality and passionate provoking words before they are aware And while they think they are only pleading for the truth they are militating for the honour of their own understandings They that will not stoop to hear you as learners while you orderly open the truth in its coherent parts will hardly ever profit by your contendings when you engage a proud person to bend all his wit and words against you The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach c. 1 Tim 6. 4 5 6. 2 Tim. 2. 24. § 9. Direct 8. Have as little to do with men in matters which their commodity is concerned in Direct 8. as you can As in chaffering or any other thing where Mine and Thine is much concerned For few men are so just as not to expect that which others account unjust And the nearest friends have been alienated hereby § 10. Direct 9. Buy peace at the price of any thing which is not better than it Not with the Direct 9. loss of the favour of God or of our innocency or true peace of conscience or with the loss of the Gospel or the ruine of mens souls But you must often part with your Right for peace and put up wrongs in word or deed Money must not be thought too dear to buy it when the loss of it will be worse than the loss of money to your selves or those that you contend with If a soul be endangered by it or societies ruined by it it will be dear bought money which is got or saved by such means He is no true friend of Peace that will not have it except when it is cheap § 11. Direct 10. Avoid Censoriousness which is the judging of men or matters that you have no Direct 10. call to meddle with and the making of matters worse than sufficient proof will warrant you Be neither busie-bodies meddling with other mens matters nor pievish aggravaters of all mens faults Iudge not that ye be not judged for with what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again Matth. 7. 1 2. You shall be censured if you will censure And if Christ be a true discerner of minds it is they that have beams in their own eyes who are the quickest perceivers of the motes in others Censorious persons are the great dividers of the Church and every where adversaries to peace while they open their mouths wide against their neighbour to make the worst of all that they say and do and thus sow the seeds of discord amongst all § 12. Direct 11. Neither talk against men behind their backs nor patiently hearken to them that Direct 11. use it Though the detecting of a dangerous enemy or the prevention of anothers hurt may sometimes make it a duty to blame them that are absent yet this case which is rare is no excuse to the backbiters sin If you have any thing to say against your neighbour tell it him in a friendly manner to his face that he may be the better for it If you tell it only to another to make him odious or hearken to backbiters that defame men secretly you shew that your business is not to do good but to diminish love and peace § 13. Direct 12. Speak more of the good than of the evil which is in others There is none so Direct 12. bad as to have no good in them Why mention you not that which is more useful to the hearer than to hear of mens faults But of this more afterward § 14. Direct 13. Be not strange but lovingly familiar with your neighbours Backbiters and slanders Direct 13. and unjust suspicions do make men seem that to one another which when they are acquainted they find is nothing so Among any honest well meaning persons familiarity greatly reconcileth Though indeed there are some few so proud and fiery and bitter enemies to honest peace that the way to peace with them is to be far from them where we may not be remembred by them But it is not so with ordinary neighbours nor friends that are fallen out nor differing Christians Its nearness that must make them friends § 15. Direct 14. Affect not a distance and sowre singularity in lawful things Come as near them Direct 14. as you can as they are men and neighbours and take it not for your duty to run as far from them lest you run into the contrary extream § 16. Direct 15. Be not over-stiff in your own opinions as those that can yield in nothing to another Direct 15. Nor yet âo facile and yielding as to betray or lose the truth It greatly pleaseth a proud mans mind when you seem to be convinced by him and to change your mind upon his arguments or to be much informed and edified by him But when you deny this honour to his understanding and contradict him and stifly maintain your opinion against him you displease and lose him And indeed a wise man should gladly learn of any that can teach him more and should most easily of any man let go an error and be most thankful to any that will increase his knowledge And not only in errors to change our minds but in small and indifferent things to submit by silence beseemeth a modest peaceable man § 17. Direct 16. Yet build not Peace on the foundation of impiety injustice cruelty or faction Direct 16. for that will prove but the way to destroy it in the end Traytors and Rebells and Tyrants and Persecutors and ambitious covetous Clergy men do all pretend peace for their iniquity But what peace will Iezebels Whoredoms bring Satans Kingdom is supported by a Peace in sin which Christ came to break that he might destroy it while this strong man armed keepeth his house his goods are in peace till a stronger doth bind him overcome him and cast him out Deceitful sinful means of Peace have been the grand Engine of Satan and the Papal Clergy by which they have banished and kept out Peace so many ages from most of the Christian world Impiis mediis Ecclesiae paci consulere was one of the three means which Luther foretold would cast out the Gospel Where perjury or false doctrine or any sin or any unjust or inconsistent terms are made the condition of Peace men build upon stubble and bryars which God will set fire to and soon consume and all that peace will come to nought Directions for Church-peace I have laid down before to which I must refer you CHAP. XVIII Directions against all Theft and Fraud or injurious getting and keeping that which is anothers or desiring it § 1. HE that will know what Theft is must know what Propriety is And it is that plenary title to a thing by which it is called Our Own It is that right to any
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 sweaââââh to deliver the whole truth Nor when a good cause is like to suffer or a bad cause to be furââââered 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 sentenâe 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 ãâ¦ã 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