genuine 1. There is a zeal and activity meerly Natural which is the effect of an active temperature of body 2. There is an affected zeal which is hypocritical about things that are good when men speak and make an outward stir as if they were truly zealous when it is not so 3. There is a selfish zeal when a proud and selfish person is fervent in any matter that concerneth himself for his own opinions his own honour his own estate or friends or interest or any thing that is his own 4. There is a partial factioâ—s zeal when errour or pride or worldliness hath engaged men in a party and they think it is their duty or interest at least to side with the Sect or Faction which they have chosen they will be zealous for all the Mat. 23. 15. Opinions and wayes of their espoused Party 5. There is a superstitious Childish carnal zeal for small indifferent inconsiderable things Like that of the Pharisees and all such hypocrites for their Washings and Fastings and other ceremonious Observances 6. There is an envious malicious zeal against those that have the precedency and cross your desires or cloud your honour in the World or that contradict you in your conceits and ways such is that at large described Iam. 3. 7. There is a pievish contentious wrangling zeal that is assaulting every man who is not squared just to your conceits 8. There is a malignant zeal against the Cause and Servants of the Lord which carryeth men to persecute them See that you take not any of these or any such like for holy zeal § 3. If you should so mistake these mischiefs would ensue 1. Sinful zeal doth make men The mischiefs of false zeal doubly sinful As holy zeal is the fervency of our grace so sinful zeal is the intention and fervency of sin 2. It is an honouring of sin and Satan as if sin were a work and Satan a Master worthy to be fervently and diligently followed 3. It is the most effectual violent way of sinning making men do much evil in a little time and making them more mischievous and hurtful to others than other sinners are 4. It blindeth the judgement and maketh men take truth for falshood and good for evil and disableth Reason to do its office 5. It is the violent resister of all Gods means and teacheth men to rage against the truth that should convince them It stops mens ears and turns away their hearts from the Counsel which would do them good 6. It is the most furious and bloody persecutor of the Saints and Church of Jesus Christ It made Paul once exceeding mad against them Act. 26. 10 11. and shut them up in Prison and punish them in the Synagogues See Jam. 3. and câ—mpel them to blaspheam and persecute them even unto strange Cities and vote for their death Thus concerning zeal he persecuted the Church Phil. 4. 6. 7. It is the turbulent disquieter of all Societies A destroyer of Love a breeder and fomenter of contention and an enemy to order peace and quietness 8. It highly dishonoureth God by presuming to put his name to sin and errour and Rom. 10. 2. Act. 21. 20 22. to entitle him to all the wickedness it doth Such zealous sinners commit their sin as in the Name of God and fight against him ignorantly by his own pretended or abused authority 9. It is an impenitent way of sinning The zealous sinner justifieth his sin and pleadeth reason or Scripture for it and thinketh that he doth well yea that he is serving God when he is murdering his Servants Ioh. 16. 2. 10. It is a multiplying sin and maketh men exceeding desirous to have all others of the sinners mind The zealous sinner doth make as many sin with him as he can Yea if it be but a zeal for small and useless things or about small Controversies or Opinions in Religion 1. It sheweth a mind that 's lâ—mentably strange to the tenour of the Gospel and the mind of Christ and the practice of the great substantial things 2. It destroyeth Charity and peace and breedeth censuring and abusing others 3. It dishonoureth holy zeal by accident making the prophane think that all zeal is no better than the foolish passion of deceived men 4. And it disableth the persons that have it to do good even when they are zealous for holy truth and duty the people will think it is but of the same nature with their erroneous zeal and so will disregard them § 4. The signs of holy zeal are these 1. It is guided by a right Judgement It is a zeal for The signs of holy zeal Truth and Good and not for falshood and Evil Rom. 10. 2. 2. It is for God and his Church or cause and not only for our selves It consisteth with meekness and self-denyal and patience as to our own concernments and causeth us to prefer the interest of God before our own Numb 12. 3. Exod. 32. 19. Gal. 4. 12. Act. 13. 9 12. 3. It is always more careful of the substance than the circumstances It preferreth great things before small It contendeth not for small Controversies to Mat. 23. 22 23. Tit. 2. 14. the loss or wrong of greater truths It extendeth to every known truth and duty but in due proportion being hottest in the greatest things and coolest in the least It maketh men rather zealous of good works than of their controverted Opinions 4. Holy Zeal is alway charitable It is not cruel 2 Pet. 2. 7 8. â—â—â—â—k 9. 4. 1 Cor. 5. and bloody nor of a hurting disposition Luk. 9. 55. but is tender and merciful and maketh men burn with a desire to win and save mens souls rather than to hurt their bodies 1 Cor. 13. Zeal against the sin is conjunct with Love and pity to the sinner 2 Cor. 12. 21. 5. Yet it excludeth that foolish pity which cherisheth the sin Rev. 2. 2. 1 King 15. 13. 6. True zeal is tender of the Churches Unity and Peace It is not a dividing tearing zeal It is first pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits Jam. 3. 17. 7. True zeal is impartial and is Gâ—n 38. 24. 2 Sam. 12. 5. as hot against our own sins and our Childrens and other relations sins as against anothers Mat. 7. 4. 8. True zeal respecteth all Gods Commandments and is not hot for one and contemptuous of another It aimeth at perfection and stinteth not our desires to any lower degree It maketh a man desirous to be like to God even Holy as he is Holy It consisteth principally in the fervour of our Love to God when false Zeal consisteth principally in censorious wranglings against other mens actions or opinions It first worketh towards good and then riseth up against the hindering-evil 9. It maketh 2 Cor. 8. 3. Act 18. 25. Exod. 36. 6. a man laborious in holy duty to God and diligent in
a Zeal against Error and for Truth Object V. Are all these Numerous Directions to be found in Scripture Shew us them in Scripture or you trouble the Church with your own inventions Answ. 1. Are all your Sermons in the Scripture And all the good Books of your Library in the Scripture 2. Will you have none but Readers in the Church and put down Preachers Sure it is the Reader that delivereth all and only the Scripture 3. Are we not Men before we are Christians And is not the Light and Law of Nature Divine And was the Scripture written to be instead of Reason or of a Logick or other subservient Sciences Or must they not all be sanctified and used for Divinity 4. But I think that as all good Commentaries and Sermons and Systems of Theology are in Scripture so is the Directory here given and is proved by the evidence of the very thing discourst of or by the plainest Texts Object VI. You confound your Reader by Curiosity of distinctions Answ. 1. If they are vain or false shame them by detecting it or you shame your selves by blaming them when you cannot shew the error Expose not your selves to laughter by avoiding just distinction to escape confusion that is avoiding knowledge to escape Ignorance or Light to escape darkness 2. It is ambiguity and confusion that breedeth and feedeth almost all our pernitious Controversies And even those that bring in error by vain distinction must be confuted by better distinguishers and not by ignorant Confounders I will believe the Holy Ghost 2 Tim. 2. 14 15 16. that Logomachie is the plague by which the hearers are subverted and ungodliness increased and that Orthotomie or right dividing the Word of Truth is the Cure And Heb. 5. 15. Discerning both good and evil is the work of long and well exercised senses Object VII Is this your reducing our faith to the primitive simplicity and to the Creed What a toilsome task do you make Religion by overdoing Is any man able to remember all these numberless Directions Answ. 1. I pray mistake not all these for Articles of Faith I am more zealous than ever I was for the reduction of the Christian faith to the primitive simplicity and more confident that the Church will never have Peace and Concord till it be so done as to the test of mens Faith and Communion But he that will have no Books but his Creed and Bible may follow that Sectary who when he had burnt all his other Books as bumane inventions at last burnt the Bible when he grew Learned enough to understand that the translation of that was Humane too 2 If men think not all the Tools in their Shops and all the Furniture of their Houses or the number of their Sheep or Cattle or Lands nor the number of Truths received by a Learning intellect c. to be a trouble and toil why should they think so of the number of Helps to facilitate the practice of their duty If all the Books in your Libraries make your Studies or Religion toilsome why do you keep them and do not come to the Vulgar Religion that would hear no more but Think well speak well and do well or Love God and your neighbour and do as you would be done by He that doth this truly shall be saved But there goeth more to the building of a house than to say Lay the foundation and raise the superstructure Universals exist not but in individuals and the whole consisteth of all the parts 3. It is not expected that any man remember all these Directions Therefore I wrote them because men cannot remember them that they may upon every necessary occasion go to that which they have present use for and cannot otherwise remember In summ to my quarrelsome Brethren I have two requests 1. That instead of their unconscionable and yet unreformed custome of backbiting they would tell me to my face of my offences by convincing evidence and not tempt the hearers to think them envious and 2. That what I do amiss they would do better and not be such as will neither laboriously serve the Church themselves nor suffer others and that they will not be guilty of Idleness themselves nor tempt me to be a slothful servant who have so little time to spend For I dare not stand before God under that guilt And that they will not joyn with the enemies and resisters of the publication of the Word of God And to the Readers my request is 1. That what ever for Quantity or Quality in this Book is an impediment to their regular universal obedience and to a truly holy life they would neglect and cast away 2. But that which is truly Instructing and Helpful they would diligently Digest and Practice And I encourage them by my testimony that by long experience I am assured that this PRACTICAL RELIGION will afford both to Church State and Conscience more certain and more solid Peace than contending Disputers with all their pretences of Orthodoxness and Zeal against Errors for the Truth will ever bring or did ever attain to I crave your pardon for this long Apology It is an Age where the Objections are not feigned and where our greatest and most costly services of God are charged on us as our greatest sins and where at once I am accused of Conscience for doing no more and of men for doing so much Being really A most unworthy Servant of so good a Master RICHARD BAXTER THE CONTENTS OF THE First TOME Christian Ethicks The Introduction page 1 2. CHAP. I. DIrections to Unconverted graceless sinners for the attainment of saving Grace § 1. What is presupposed in the Reader of these Directions p. 3 Containing Reasons against Atheism and Ungodliness § 2 Twenty Directions p. 6 § 3. Thirty Temptations by which Satan hindereth mens conversion p. 26 Ten Temptations by which he would perswade men that their heinous mortal sins which prove them unconverted are but the pardoned infirmities of the penitent p. 33 CHAP. II. Directions to weak Christians for their establishment and growth p. 36 Direct 1. Against receiving Religion meerly for the Novelty or Reputation of it ibid. Direct 2. Let Judgement Zeal and Practice go equally together p. 38 Direct 3. Keep a short Method of Divinity or a Catechism still in your memory p. 39 Direct 4. Certain Cautions about Controversies in Religion Heb. 6. 1. opened p. 40 Direct 5. Think not too highly of your first degrees of Grace or Gifts Time and diligence are necessary to growth How the Spirit doth illuminate The danger of this sin p 41 Direct 6. Let neither difficulties nor oppositions in the beginning discourage you Reasons p. 43 Direct 7. Value and use a Powerful faithful Mininistry Reasons Objections answered p. 45 Direct 8. For Charity Unity and Catholicism against Schism Pretences for Schism confuted p. 47 Direct 9. Let not sufferings make you sin by passion or dishonouring authority p. 49 Direct 10. Take
of flesh and blood which maketh you pretend Moderation and Peace and that it is a sign that you are hypocrites that are so lukewarm and carnally comply with error and that the cause of God is to be followed with the greatest zeal and self denyal And all this is true if you be but sure that it is indeed the cause of God and that the greater works of God be not neglected on such pretences and that your Zeal be much greater for Faith and Charity and Unity than for your opinions But upon great experience I must tell you that of the zealous contenders in the world that cry up The Cause of Consuming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 use at 〈◊〉 â—o 〈◊〉 up the owners of it Whatever tâ—â—y say oâ— do against others in theâ—â— inâ—â—mperaâ—e violâ—nce they teach otherâ— at last to say and do against them when they have opportunity How the Orâ—â—odox taught the Aâ—â—iaâ—s to use severity against them may be sâ—en in Victor utic p. 447 448 449. in the Edict of Hunneâ—yâ—hus â—â—gem quam dudum Christiani Imperatores nostri contra eos alios haereticos pro honorisicentia Ecclesiae Catholiâ—ae dedâ—runâ— adversus nos illi proponere non eâ—ubuerunt v. g. Rex Hun. c. Triumphalis Majestatis Regiae probatur esâ—e virtutis mâ—â—a in autores conâ—lia retorquere Quisquis enim pravitatis aliquid invenerit sibi imputet quod incurrit Nullâ—s 〈◊〉 homâ—usion Saceâ—doâ—es assumanâ— nec aliquid mysteriâ—â—um quae magis polluunt sibi vendicenâ— Nullam habeant oâ—dinandi licentiam Quod ipsaâ—um legum continentia demonstratur quas induxiâ—â—e Imperaâ—oâ—ibuâ— c. viz. Ut nulla exceptâ—s superstiti 〈…〉 s suae â—nâ—stibus Ecclesia pateret nuâ—lâ—s liceret aliis aut convictus agere aut exercere convâ—ntâ—s nec Ecclesias auâ— in uâ—â—iâ—â—â—â— aut in quibuâ—dam 〈◊〉 locis God and Truth there is not one of very many that understandeth what he talks of but some of them cry up the Cause of God when it is a brat of a proud and ignorant brain and such as a judicious person would be ashamed of And some of them are rashly zealous before they have parts or time to come to any judicious tryal and some of them are mis-guided by some person or party that captivateth their minds and some of them are hurried away by passion and discontent and many of the ambitious and worldly are blinded by their carnal interests and many of them in meer pride think highly of an Opinion in which they are somewhat singular and which they can with some glorying call their Own as either invented by them or that in which they think they know more than ordinary men do And abundance after longer experience confess that to have been their own erroneous cause which they before entitled the Cause of God Now when this is the case and one cryeth Here is Christ and another There is Christ one saith This is the cause of God and another saith That is it no man that hath any care of his Conscience or of the honour of God and his profession will leap before he looketh where he shall alight or run after every one that will whistle him with the name or pretence of truth or a good cause It is a sad thing to go on many years together in censuring opposing and abusing thâ—se that are against you and in seducing others and mis-imploying your zeal and parts and time and poysoning all your prayers and discourses and in the end to see what mischief you have done for want of knowledge and with Paul to confess that you were mad in opposing the truth and servants of God though you did it in a zeal of God through ignorance Were it not much better to stay till you have tryed the ground and prevent so many years grievous sin than to scape by a sad repentance and leave behind you stinking and venemous fruits of your mistake And worse if you never repent your selves Your own and your Brethrens souls are not so lightly to be ventured upon dangerous untryed wayes It will not make the Truth and Church amends to say at last I had thought I had done well Let those go to the Wars of disputing and 〈◊〉 and câ—nsuâ—ing and siding with a Sect that are riper and better understand the cause Wars are not for Children Do you suspend your judgement till you can solidly and certainly inform it and serve God in Charity quietness and peace And it s two to one but you will live to see the day that the contenders that would have led you into their Wars will come off with so much loss themselves as will teach them to approve your peaceable course or teach you to bless God that kept you in your place and duty § 3. In all this I deny not but every truth of God is to be valued at a very high rate and that he that shall carry himself in a neutrality when Faith or Godliness is the matter in controversie or shall do it meerly for his worldly ends to save his stake by temporizing is a false-hearted hypocrite and at the heart of no Religion But withal I tell you that all is not matter of Faith or Godliness that the Autonomian-Papist the Antinomian-Libertine or other passionate parties shall call so And that as we must avoid contempt of the smallest Truth so we must much more avoid the most heinous sins which we may commit for the defending of an error And that some Truths must be silenced for a time though not denyed when the contending for them is unseasonable and tendeth to the injury of the Church If you were Masters in the Church you must not teach your Scholars to their hurt though it be truth you teach them And if you were Physicions you must not cramm them or Medicate them to their hurt Your power and duty is not to Destruction but to Edification The good of the Patient is the end of your Physick All Truth is not to be spoken nor all Good to be done by all men nor at all times He that will do contrary and take this for a carnal principle doth but call folly and sin by the name of zeal and duty and set the house on fire to rost his Egg and with the Pharisees prefer the outward rest of their Sabbath before his Brothers life or health Take heed what you do when Gods honour and mens souls and the Churches peace are concerned in it § 4. And let me tell you my own observation As far as my judgement hath been able to reach the men that have stood for Pacification and Moderation have been the most judicious and those that have best understood themselves in most controversies that ever I heard under debate among good Christians And those that suriously censured them as lukewarm or corrupted have been men that had least judgement and most passion pride and foul mistakes in the points in question § 5. Nay I will tell you
our faith Help thou our unbelief But he that approveth of his Doubting and would have it so and thinks the revelation is uncertain and such as will warrant no firmer a belief I should scarcely say this man is a Christian. Christianity must be received as of Divine infallible revelation But controversies about less necessary things cannot be determined peremptorily by the ignorant or young beginners without hypocrisie or a humane faith going under the name of a Divine I am far from abating your Divine belief of all that you can understand in Scripture and implicitely of all the rest in general And I am far from diminishing the credit of any truth of God But the Reasons of this Direction are these § 2. 1. When it is certain that you have but a dark uncertain apprehension of any point to think it is clear and certain is but to deceive your selves by pride And to cry out against all uncertainty as sceptiâ—isme which yet you cannot lay aside is but to revile your own infirmity and the common infirmity of mankind and foolishly to suppose that every man can be as wise and certain when he list as he should be Now Reason and experience will tell you that a young unfurnished understanding is not like to see the evidence of difficult points as by nearer approach and better advantage it may do § 3. 2. If your conclusions be peremptory upon meer self-conceitedness you may be in an error for ought you know and so you are but confident in an error And then how far may you go in seducing others and censuring dissenters and come back when you have done and confess that you were all this while mistaken your selves § 4. 3. For a man to be confident that he knoweth what he knoweth not is but the way to keep him ignorant and shut the door against all means of further information When the Opinion is fixt by prejudice and conceit there is no ready entrance for the light § 5. 4 And to be ungroundedly confident so young is not only to take up with your Teachers word instead of a faith and knowledge of your own but also to forestall all diligence to know more and so you may lay by all your studies save only to know what those men hold whose judgements are your Religion Too Popish and easie a way to be safe § 6. 5. If you must never change your first opinions or apprehensions how will you grow in understanding Will you be no wiser at age than you were in childhood and after long study and experience than before Nature and Grace do tend to increase § 7. Indeed if you should be never so peremptory in your opinions you cannot resolve to hold them to the end For Light is powerful and may change you whether you will or no you cannot tell what that Light will do which you never saw But prejudice will make you resist the light and make it harder for you to understand § 8. I speak this upon much experience and observation Our first unripe apprehensions of things will certainly be greatly changed if we are studious and of improved understandings Study the Conâ—roveâ—â—â—â—s about Grace and Free-will or about other such points of difficulty when you are young and â—â—s two to one that ripeness will afterward make them quite another thing to you For my own â—â—â—â—t my judgement is altered from many of my youthful confident apprehensions And where it heldeth the same conclusion it rejecteth abundance of the arguments as vain which once it rested in And where I keep to the same Conclusions and Arguments my apprehension of them is not the saâ—â— â—ut I see more satisfying light in many things which I took but upon trust before And if I had resolved to hold to all my first Opinions I must have forborn most of my studies and lost much truth which I have discovered and not made that my own which I did hold and I must have resolved to live and dye a child § 9. The su 〈…〉 is Hold fast the substance of Religion and every clear and certain Truth which you see in its own evidence and also reverence your Teachers especially the Universal Church or the generality of wise and godly men and be not hasty to take up any private opinion And especially to contradict the Opinion of your Governours and Teachers in small and controverted things But yet in such matters receive their Opinions but with a humane faith till indeed you have more and therefore with a supposition that time and study is very like to alter your apprehensions and with a reserve impartially to study and entertain the truth and not to sit still just where you were bâ—rn Direct 12. IF Controversies â—ccasion any Divisions where you live be sure to look first to the interest of Common Truth and Good and to the exercise of Charity And become not passionate contenders for any party in the division or censurers of the peaceable or of your Teachers that will not â—ver 〈…〉 their own understandings to obtain with you the esteem of being Orthodox or zealous men But suspect your own unripe understandings and silence your Opinions till you are clear and certain and jâ—yn rather with the moderate and the peace-makers than with the Contenders and Dividers § 1. You may easily be sure that Division tendeth to the ruine of the Church and the hinderance of the Gospel and the injury of the common interest of Religion You know it is greatly condemned in the Scriptures You may know that it is usually the exercise and the increase of Pride uncharitableness and passion and that the Devil is best pleased with it as being the greatest gainer by it But on the other side you are not easily certain which party is in the right And if you were you are not sure that the matter will be worth the cost of the contention Or if it be it is to be considered whether the Truth is not like to get more advantage by managing it in a more peaceable way that hath no contention nor stirreth not up other men so much against it as the way of controversie doth And whatever it prove you may and should know that young Christians that want both parts and helps and time and experience to be throughly seen in controversies are very unfit to make themselves parties And that they are yet more unfit to be the hottest leaders of those parties and to spur on their Teachers that know more than they If the work be fit for another to do that knoweth on what ground he goeth and can foresee the end yet certainly it is not fit for you And therefore forbear it till you are more fit § 2. I know those that would draw you into such a contentious zeal will tell you that their cause is the cause of God and that you desert him and betray it if you be not zealous in it and that it is but the counsel
head-strong Horse that must be kept in at first and is hardly restrained if it once break loose and get the head If you are bred up in temperance and modesty where there are no great temptations to gluttony drinking sports or wantonness you may think a while that your natures have little or none of this concupiscence and so may walk without a guard But when you come where baits of lust abound where Women and Playes and Feasts and Drunkards are the Devils snares and tinder and bellows to enflame your lusts you may then find to your sorrow that you had need of watchfulness and that all is not mortified that is asleep or quiet in you As a man that goeth with a Candle among Gunpowder or near Thatch should never be careless because he goeth in continual danger so you that are young and have naturally eager appetites and lusts should remember that you carry fire and Gunpowder still about you and are never out of danger while you have such an enemy to watch § 2. And if once you suffer the fire to kindle alas what work may it make ere you are aware James 1. 14 15. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Little knoweth the Fish when he is catching or nibling at the bait that he is swallowing the hook which will lay him presently on the bank When you are looking on the cup or gazing on alluring beauty or wantonly dallying and pleasing your senses with things unsafe you little know how far beyond your intentions you may be drawn and how deep the wound may prove how great the smart or how long and difficult the cure As you love your souls observe Pauls counsel 2 Tim. 2. 22. Flee youthful lusts Keep at a full distance Come not near the bait If you get a wound in your consciences by any wilful heinous sin O what a case will you be in How heartless unto secret duty afraid of God that should be your joy deprived of the comforts of his presence and all the pleasure of his wayes How miserably will you be tormented between the tyranny of your own concupiscence the sting of sin the gripes of conscience and the terrors of the Lord How much of the life of faith and love and heavenly zeal will be quenched in a moment I am to speak more afterwards of this and therefore shall only say at present to all young Converts that care for their salvation Mortifie the flesh and alwayes watch and avoid temptations Direct 15. BE exceeding wary not only what Teachers you commit the guidance of your souls unto Direct 15. Nam si falsi solo nomine tumidi non modo non consulendi sed vitandi sunt quibus nihil est importunius nihil insu siâ—s c. Pâ—tâ—a câ— Dâ—al 117. li. 2. but also with what company you familiarly converse That they be neither such as would corrupt your minds with error or your hearts with viciousness profâ—neness lukewarmness or with a feavorish factious zeal But choose if possible judicious holy heavenly humble unblameable self-denying persons to be your ordinary companions and familiars but especially for your near Relations § 1. It is a matter of very great importance what Teachers you choose in order to your salvation In this the free grace of God much differenceth some from others For as poor Heathens and Infidels have none that know more than what the Book of Nature teacheth if so much so in the several Nations of Christians it is hard for the people to have any but such as the Sword of the Magistrate forceth on them or the stream of their Countreys Custom recommendeth to them And it is a wonder Scientiâ— est posse dâ—cere Provâ—â—b Sub indocto tamen doctus evadâ—re potes â—fflaâ—u aliquo divino ut Ciâ—â—ro loquitur Augustinus de seipso testatur cui non omnia credere nefas est quod Aristotelicas Categorias quae inter difficillima numerantur artes liberales quas singulas a praeceptoribus didicisse magnum dicitur nullo tradeâ—te omnes intellexit â—â—â—â—ardus item vir doctrina sanctitate clarissimus omnes suas literas quarum inter cunctos sui temporis abundantissimus fuâ—â— in sâ—lvis in agris didicit non hominum magisterio sed meditando orando nec ullos unquam alios praeceptores habuit quam quercus sagos Pâ—trâ—â—ch li. 2. Dialog 40. if pure Truth and Holiness be countenanced by either of these But when and where his mercy pleaseth God sendeth wise and holy Teachers with compassion and diligence to seek the saving of mens souls so that none but the malignant and obstinate are deprived of their help § 2. Ambitious proud covetous licentious ungodly men are not to be chosen for your Teachers if you have your choice In a Nation where true Religion is in credit and hath the Magistrates countenance or the Major Vote some graceless men may joyn with better in preaching and defending the purity of doctrine and holiness of life And they may be very serviceable to the Church herein especially in expounding and disputing for the truth But even there more experienced spiritual Teachers are much more desirable They will speak most feelingly who feel what they speak And they are fittest to bring others to faith and love who believe and love God and holiness themselves They that have life will speak more lively than the dead And in most places of the world the ungodliness of such Teachers makes them enemies to the Truth which is according to godliness Their natures are at enmity to the life and power of the doctrine which they should preach And they will do their worst to corrupt the Magistrates and make them of their mind And if they can but get the Sword to favour them they are usually the cruellest persecutors of the sincere As it is notorious among the Papists that the baits of Power and Honour and Wealth have so vitiated the body of their Clergy that they conspire to uphold a worldly Government and Religion and in express contradiction to Sense and Reason and to Antiquity and the judgement of the Church and to the holy Scriptures they captivate the ignorant and sensual to their tyranny and false worship and use the seduced Magistrates and multitude to the persecuting of those that will not follow them to sin and to perdition Take heed of proud and worldly Guides § 3. And yet it is not every one that pretendeth Piety and Zeal that is to be heard or taken for a Teacher But 1. Such as preach ordinarily the substantial Truths which all Christians are agreed in 2. Such as make it the drift of their preaching to raise your souls to the Love of God and to a holy heavenly life and are zealous against confessed sins 3. Such as contradict not the
That if you Tempt 10. are weak he may either discourage you or which is more usual and dangerous make you think better of them than they are and to think you know much when its next to nothing and to make you wise in your own eyes and easily to receive an error and then to be confident in it not to discern between things that differ but to be deceived into false zeal and false wayes by the specious pretences and shews of truth and then to be zealous for the deceiving of others Also that you may be a dishonour to truth and godliness by your weakness and ill management of good causes and may give them away through your unskilfulness to the adversary If you are of stronger wits and parts the Tempter will draw you to despise the weak to take common gifts for special grace or to undervalue holiness and humility and overvalue learning and acuteness He will tempt you dangerously to lothe the simplicity of Christianity and â—f the Scriptures as to style and method and to be offended at the Cross of Christ. So that such persons are usually in greater danger of Infidelity Heresie Pride and insolent domineering over the flock of Christ than vulgar Christians that have lower parts § 20. Direct 10. Labour to be well acquainted with your selves If you are weak know your Direct 10. weakness that you may be humble and fearful and seek for strength and help If you are comparatively strong remember how weak the strongest are and how little it is that the wisest know And study well the Ends and use of knowledge that all that you know may be conâ—â—cted into Love and Holiness and use it as remembring that you have much to give account of § 21. Tempt 11. Moreover the Tempter will fetch advantage against you from your former life Tempt 11. and actions If you have gone out of the way to Heaven he would harden you by custom and make you think it such a disgrace or trouble to return as that it s as good go on and put it to the venture If you have done any work materially good while your heart and course of life is carnal and worldly he would quiet you in your sinful miserable state by applauding the little good that you have done If a good man have erred or done ill he will engage his honour in it and make him study to defend it or excuse it left it prove his shame and tempt men as he did David to hide one sin with another If he gâ—t hâ—ld of one link he will draw on all the chain of sin § 22. Direct 11. Take heed therefore what you do and foresee the end Let not the Devil get Direct 11. in one foot Try your way before you enter it But if you have erred come off and that throughly and betime whatever it cost for be sure it will cost more to go on And if he would make a snare of the good that you have done remember that this is to turn it into the greatest evil And that there must be a concurrence and integrity of good to make you acceptable and to save you Heart and life must be good to the End § 23. Tempt 12. Lastly He fitteth his Temptations to the season He will take the season just Tempt 12. when an evil thought is likest to take with you and when the Winds and Tyde dâ— serve him that will take at one time when a man hath his wits and heart to seek which would be abhorred at another In afflicting Times he will draw you to deny Christ with Peter or shift for your selves by sinful means In prosperous Times he will tempt you to security worldliness and forgetfulness of the night and Winter which approacheth The Timing his Temptations is his great advantage § 24. Direct 12. Dwell as with God and you dwell as in Eternity and will see still that as Time Direct 12. so all the pleasure and advantages and dangers and sufferings of Time are things in themselves of little moment Keep your eye upon Iudgement and Eternity where all the errors of Time will be rectified and all the inequalities of Time will be levelled and the sorrows and joyes that are transitory will be no more And then no reasons from the frowns or flatteries of the Times will seem of any force to you And be still employed for God and still armed and on your watch that Satan may never find you disposed to take the bait The Tempters Method in applying his prepared baits § 25. Tempt 1. The Devils first work is to present the Tempting bait in all its alluring deceiving Tempt 1. properties To make it seem as true as may be to the understanding and as good and amiable as may be to the will To say as much as can be said for an evil cause He maketh his Image of Truth and Goodness as beautiful as he can Sin shall be sugared and its pleasure shall be its strength Heb. 11. 25. Sin shall have its wages paid down in hand 2 Pet. 2. 15. He will set it out with full mouthed praises O what a fine thing it is to be rich and please the flesh continually to have command and honour and lusts and sports and what you desire Who would refuse such a condition that may have it All this will I give thee was the Temptation which he thought fit to assault Christ himself with And he will corrupt the History of Time past and tell you that it went well with those that took his way Jer. 44. 17. And for the future he will promise them that they shall be gainers by it as he did Eve and shall have peace though they please their flesh in sinning See Deut. 29. 19. § 26. Direct 1. In this case first enquire what God saith of that which Satan so commendeth Direct 1. The commendations and motions of an enemy are to be suspected God is most to be believed 2. Then consider not only whether it be good but how long it will be good and what it will prove at the end and how we shall judge of it at the parting And withal consider what it tendeth to whether it tend to good or evil and whether it be the greatest good that we are capable of And then you will see that if there were no good or appearance of good in it it could do a voluntary agent no hurt and were not fit to be the matter of a Temptation And you 'll see that it is temporal good set up to deceive you of the Eternal Good and to entice you into the greatest evil and misery Doth the Devil shâ—w thee the world and say All this will I give thee Look to Christ who sheweth thee the glory of the world to come with all things good for thee in this world and saith more truly All this will I give thee The world and Hell are in one end of the ballance
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 Sâ—ith Hierom ad Nepot Verba volvere apud imperitum vulgus admirationem sui facere indoctorum hominum est Nihil tam facile quam vilem plebem indâ—ctam 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 â—â—d â—â—6 â—7 Ephes. 4 â—9 â—â—aâ— 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
here is not meant the substance of the Christian belief or any one necessary Article of it But a Belief of the indifferency of such things as Paul spake of in meats and drinks If thou know these things to be Lawful when thy weak brother doth not and so thou be wiser than he thank God for thy knowledge and use it to thy own salvation but do not proudly or uncharitably contend for it and use it uncharitably to the danger of anothers soul much less to the wrong of the Church and Gospel and the hinderance of greater truths 2 Tim 2. 14. Of these things put them in remembrance that is of the Saints hope in Gods faithfulness charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit but the subverting of the hearers Yet for the faith we must earnestly contend Jude 2 3. So 2 Tim. 2. 2. 23 24. But foolish and unlearned questi 〈…〉 avoid knowing that they do gender strife And the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men § 8. But that which is the chiefest matter of our Profession is The being and perfections of God himself His love to man and power over him and mans subjection and obligations unto God The person and office and works and benefits of our Redeemer with all the duty that we owe to him in perfect holiness and all the hopes that we have in him the happiness of the Saints the odiousness of sin and the misery of the wicked These and such as these are things that we are called to Profess yet so as not to deny or renounce the smallest truth § 9. Direct 3. Understand also the manner how we must make Profession of Religion 1. There is Direct 3. a Professing by words and a professing by Actions 2. There is a solemn profession by Gods publick ordinances and an occasional or privater profession by conference or by our conversations And all these wayes must Religion be professed § 10. Direct 4. Understand also the season of each sort of Profession that you omit not the season nor do it Direct 4. unseasonably 1. Profession by Baptism Lords Supper and Church-assemblies must be done in their season which the Church-guides are the conducters of 2. Profession by an innocent blameless obedient life is never out of season 3. Profession by private conference and by occasional acts of piety must be when opportunity inviteth us and they are likely to attain their ends 4. The whole frame of a Believers life should be so Holy and Heavenly and mortified and above the world as may amount to a serious profession that he liveth in confident hope of the life to come and may shew the world the difference between a Worldling and an heir of Heaven between corrupted nature and true grace The Professors of Godliness must be a peculiar people zealous of good works and adorned with them Tit. 2. 14. 1 Tim. 2. 10. § 11. Direct 5. Take special care that your Profession be sincere and that you be your selves as good Direct 5. as you profess to be Otherwise 1. Your profession will condemn your selves 2. And it will dishonour the truth which you deceitfully profess There can scarce a greater injury befall a good cause than to have a bad and shameful patron to defend it Rom. 2. 3. And thinkest thou this O man that judgest them which do such things and dost the same that thou shalt escape the judgement of God Vers. 13. to 25. Thou that makest thy boast of the Law through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God For the name of God is blaspheamed among the Gentiles through you § 12. Direct 6. Let not your profession be so much of your own sincerity as of God and his excellencies Direct 6. Boast not of your selves but of God and Christ and the promise and the Hope of true believers and do it to Gods praise and not for your own Be sure that in all your profession of Religion you be seeking honour to God and not unto your selves And then in this manner he that doubteth of his own sincerity yet may and must make profession of Christ and true Religion when you cannot proclaim the uprightness of your own hearts you may boldly proclaim the excellencies of Religion and the happiness of Saints § 13. Direct 7. Live upon God alone and trust his Alsufficiency and abhor that pusillanimity and Direct 7. baseness of spirit which maketh men afraid or ashamed openly to own the truth Remember the example of your Lord who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession 1 Tim. 6. 13. who came for this end into the world to bear witness to the truth Fear not the face of man whose breath is in his Joh. 18. 37. The Arrians under Valens and the Vandal◠still silenced the Orthodox Preachers and forbad their meetings and yet the people adhered to their Pastors and kept their meetings while they could Saepius prohibitum est ut sacerdotes vestri conventus minime celebrarent nec sua seditione animas subverterent Chistianas Praecept Hunner in Victor◠uticers p. 414. nostrils and is perishing even while he is threatning If thou believe not that Christ can secure thee from the rage of man thou believest not indeed in Christ If thou believe not that Heaven will satisfie for all that by scorns or cruelties thou sufferest from sinners thou hast not indeed the hope of a believer And no wonder if thou profess not that which thou believest not But if thou believe that God is God and Christ is Christ and Heaven is Heaven and the Gospel is true thou hast enough in thy Belief to secure thee against all the scorns and cruelties of man and to tell thee that Christ will bear thy charges in all that thou sufferest for his sake O what abundance are secretly convinced of the truth and their Consciences bear witness to the wisdom of the Saints and a holy life and yet they dare not openly own and stand to the truth which they are convinced of for fear of being mockt by the tongues of the profane or for fear of losing their places and preferments O wretch dost thou not tremble when thou art ashamed of Christ to think of the day when he will be ashamed of thee Then when he comes in Glory none will be ashamed of him Then where is the tongue that mockt him and his servants Who then will deride his holy wayes Then that will be the greatest Glory which thou art now ashamed of Canst thou believe that day and yet hide thy profession through cowardly fear or shame of man Is man so great and is Christ no greater in thine eyes than so If he be not more regardable than man believe not in him If he be regard him more and let not a worm be preferred before thy Saviour § 14. Direct 8. If any doubt arise whether thou shouldst now make particular Profession of
Make sure of the sincerity of your Charity and hold it fast and then no error that you hold will be destructive to you But if you know more than others and use your knowledge to the weakning of your Love you are but as our first Parents deceived and destroyed by a dâ—sire of fleshly uneffectual knowledge Such knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth 1 Cor. 8. 1. To contend for Truth to the lâ—ss of Love in your selves and the destruction of it among others is but to choak your selves with excellent food and to imitate that Orthodox Catholick Physicion that gloried that he killed his Patients secundum artem by the most accurate method and excellent Rules of Art that men could dye by § 11. Direct 10. Pretend no Truth against the power and practice of Godliness For this also is Direct 10. its prâ—pâ—â— End Iâ—â—â— be not Truth that is accâ—rding to Godliness it is no truth worthy our seeking or 1 Tim. 6 3. Tâ—â— 1. 1. 1 Tiâ— 4. 7 8 1 Tim. 6. 5 6 11. câ—ntending â—or And if it be contrary to Godliness in it self it is no truth at all Therefore if it be used agaiâ—st Godliness it is used contrary to the Ends of Truth Those men that suppress or hinder tâ—e 〈◊〉 Knowledge and Holiness and Concord and Edification under pretence of securing dâ—â—â—â—nding or propâ—gating the Orthâ—dâ—x belief will find one day that God will give them as 2 Pet. 1. â— 3. 11. little thanks for their blâ—â—d prâ—posterous zeal â—oâ— truth as a tender Father would do to a Physicion that killed his Children bâ—câ—usâ— they distasted or spit out his Medicines It is usually a pitiful defence of Truth that is made by the Enemies of Godliness More near and particular Directions against Error § 12. Direct 1. Begin at the Greatest most Evident Certain and Necessary Truths and so proceed Direct 1. orderly to the knowledge of the less by the help of these As you climb by the Body of the Tree unto See Ch. 2. D. 3. the branches If you begin at those truths which spring out of greater common truths and know not the premises while yoâ— plead for the conclusion you abuse your Reason and lose the Truth and your labour both For thâ—re is no way to the branches but by ascending from the stock The Principles wâ—ll laid must bâ— your help to all your following knowledge § 13. Direct 2. The two first Things which you are to learn are what man is and what God is Direct 2. the Nâ—ture and Relâ—tion of the two Parties is the first thing to be known in order to the knowledge of the Câ—venant it self and all following transâ—ctions between God and man One error here will introduce abundance A thousand other points in Natural Philosophy you may safely be ignorant of bâ—t if you know not what Man is what Reason is what Natural Free-will is and what the inferiâ—ur sensitive U Deum noâ—is etâ—â— ignâ—â—â—â—s â—cum faâ—iem 〈◊〉 â—bi â—â—â—â—â—â— noâ—um eslâ—â—◠〈◊〉 etiamsi â—gâ—oreâ— â—â—cum 〈…〉 Direct 3. Nulla â—â—ga Dâ—â—â—â— pâ—â—â—â—â— est nisi hâ—nâ—stâ—â—â— nâ—mâ—nâ— Dâ—oâ—â—m ac 〈…〉 o Plaâ—â— facultiâ—s are as to their Uses it will lay you open to innumerable errors In the Nature of man you must see the foundation of his relations unto God And if you know not those Great Relâ—â—iâ—ns the duties of which must take up all our lives you may easily foresee the consâ—quents of such ignorance or error So if you know not what God is and what his Relations to us are so far as is necessary to our living in the duties of those Relations the consequents of your ignorance will bâ— sad If learned men be but perverted in their apprehensions of some onâ— Attribuâ—e of God as those that think his Goâ—dness is nothing but his Benignity or proneness to do good or that he is a Nâ—â—â—â—sâ—â—ry agâ—â—t dâ—ing good ad ultimum posse c. what abundance of hoâ—rid and impious consequâ—nts will follow § 14. Direct 3. Hâ—ving sâ—undly understood both these and other Principles of Religion try all the subsequent truths â—erâ—â—y and receive nothing as truth that is certainly inconsistent with any of these principles Even Principles that are not of sense may be disputed till they are wâ—ll râ—ceived and with those that have â—â—t received them But afterward they are not to be called iâ— question for then you wâ—uld never proceed â—or build higher if you still stand questioning all your grounds Indeed no truth is inconsistent with any other truth But yet when two dark or doubâ—ful points are compared together it is hard to know which of them to reject But here it is easie Nothing that contradicteth the trâ—e Nature of Gâ—d or man or any Principle must be hâ—ld § 15. Direct 4. Bâ—lieve notâ—ing which certainly contradicteth the End of all Religion If it be of a Direct 4. naâ—â—râ—l or necessary tendency to ungodliness against the Love of God or against a holy and heavenly mind and conversation it cannot bâ— truth what ever it preâ—end § 16. Direct 5. Be sure to distinguish well betwixt revealed and unrevealed things And before you Direct 5. dispute any question search first whetâ—er thâ—â—â—solution be Revealed oâ— not And if it be not lay it ☞ by and take it as part of your necessary submission to be ignorant of what God would have you ignorant as it is part of your obedience to labour to know what God would have you know And when some things unrâ—veâ—lâ—d are mixed in the controversie take out those and lay them by before you go any further and see that the resolution of the râ—st be not laid upon them nor twisted with them to â—ntangle the whole in uncertainty or confusion Thus God instructed Iob by convincing him of Job 38. 39. 40. 41. Non 1 sumu quâ—bâ—s nihil vâ—rum essvâ—dâ—aâ—uâ— sâ—d ii qui â—â—â—â—bâ—s â—â—â—â—â— faâ—sae â—â—aeâ—am adjunâ—â—â—â— est 〈◊〉 camuâ— â—an â simâ—â—â—â—â—â—â— uâ— c. Ciâ— dâ— Nat. Dâ—or p. 7. his ignorance and shâ—wing him how many things were past his knowledge Thus Christ instructed Nic dâ—mus about the work of Regeneration so as to let him know that though the Necessity of it must be known yâ—t the manner of the Spirits accâ—sses to the soul cannot be known Iohn 3. 7 8. And Paul in his discâ—urse of Election takes notice of the unsearchable depths and the creatures unfitness to dispute with God Rom. 9. When you find any dispuâ—es about Predetermination or Predestination resolved into such points as thâ—se Whether God do by physical premoving influx or by concourse or by moral operation ut finiâ— determine or spâ—cifie moral acts of man Whether a Positive Decâ—ee quoad actum be necessary to the Nâ—gation of effects as that such a one shall not have grace given him or be câ—â—verted or saved that all the millions of possible persons names and things shall not be
more to be regarded in many points which require experience than many of the younger sort that are yet more zealous and of quicker understanding and expression than the elder So those that we call the Fathers or Ancients were indeed in the younger ages of the Church and we that are faln into the later and more exprienced age have all the helps of the wisdom and experience of the Ages that were before us And therefore God will require at our hands an account of these greater talents which we have received As it were unexcusable now in a Physicion that hath the help of such Voluminous institutions observations and experiments of former ages to know no more than those former times that had no such helps so would it be as unexcusable for this present age of the Church to be no wiser than those former ages When Aquinas Scotus Ariminensis and other Schoolmen delivered the Doctrine of Christianity to the Church in a dress so far different from Ignatius Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian or any of those former ages they certainly thought that they had attained to a far greater excellency and accurateness in the Knowledge of Divinity than those their Ancestors had attained And whatever they swear in the Trent Oâ—th of not expounding any Scripture otherwise than the Fathers do I doubt not but Suarez and Vasquez and others of their modern Schoolmen thought so too and would have been loth to be accounted wise in the measure only of those ancients The later and elder ages of the Church have had abundant experience e. g. of the tendâ—ncy of Ambition and Papal aspirings and usurpations of the mischiefs of composing and imposing the Popish Missals and numerous ceremonies and of their implicite faith and their concealment of the Scriptures from the Vulgar and many such points And if we are never the wiser for all this experience we are the more unexcusable and may be judged as the neglâ—cters of our greater helps § 32. Direct 21. In Controversies which depend most upon skill in the Languages Philosophy or other Direct 21. parts of common learning prefer the judgement of a few that are the most Learned in those matters before the judgement of the most ancient or the most Godly or of the greatest numbers even whole Churches that are unlearned In this case neither Numbers nor Antiquity nor Godliness will serve turn but as one clear eye will see further then ten thousand that are purblind so one Hierome or Origen may judge better of a translation or the Grammatical sense of a Text than a hundred of the other Fathers could One man that understandeth a Language is fitter to judge of it than a whole Nation that understand it not One Philosopher is fitter to judge of a philosophical question than a thousand illiterate persons Every man is most to be regarded in the matters which he is best acquainted with § 33. Direct 22. In Controversies of great difficulty where Divines themselves are disagreed and a Direct 22. clear and piercing wit is necessary regard more the judgement of a few acute judicious well studied Divines that are well verst in those Controversies than of a multitude of dull and common wits that think to carry it by the reputation of their number It is too certainly attested by experience that Judicious Satis triumphâ—t Vâ—ritas si apud paucos bonosque accepta nec indoles ejus est placere multis Lipsius men are very few and that the multitude of the injudicious that have not wit enough to underderstand them nor humility enough to confess it and to learn of them have yet pride and arrogoncy enough to contradict them and often malice enough to vilifie them In such differences it is not only a sign of a wise man to be content with the approbation of a few but also to have but few approvers except where the injudicious do implicitly believe those few that are judicious Commonly a very few that are wiser than the multitude are fain to stand by and compassionate not only the World but the Church and see the disease and the easie remedy and all in vain while they are but neglected or despised by the rest that will not be made wiser by them § 34. Direct 23. In all contentions hold close to that which all sides are agreed in There is so Direct 23. much agreed on even between the Papists and the Protestants as would certainly save them all if all of them did sincerely believe Love and Practise it For they all confess that the whole Canonical Scripture is true Therefore be more studious sincerely to hold and improve those common truths which they all profess than to oppose the particular opinions of any further than that common truth requireth it See that the Articles of the common Creed which all profess be unfeignedly believed by you and that the Petitions in the Lords Prayer be sincerâ—ly and earnestly put up to God and that the ten Commandments be heartily and entirely obeyed and then no errour or difference will be damning to you § 35. Direct 24. Take nothing as necessary to salvation in point of faith nor as universally necessary Direct 24. in point of practice which the universal Church in every age since Christ did not receive For if any thing be necessary to salvation which the Church received not in every age then the Church it self of that age could not be saved and then the Church was indeed no Church For Christ is the Saviour of his body But certainly Christ had in every age a Church of saved-ones who openly professed all that was of common necessity to salvation An opinion may be true which accuseth the generality in the Church of some errour or imperfection For it is most certain that the Church on Earth is composed of none that have the use of reason but erring and imperfect members But no opinion can be true that condemneth all the Church to Hell in any one age For the Head and Husband of the Church must be her Judge § 36. Direct 25. Be not born down by the censoriousness of any to overrun your own understanding Direct 25. and the truth and to comply with them in their errours and extreams But hold to the truth Thus Peter and Barâ—abas erred Gal. 2. and keep your station Jer. 15. 19. Let them return unto thee but return not thou unto them It is too usual for the younger and more injudicious sort of Christians to be most zealous about some little Opinions Ceremonies and Words and to censure all those that differ from them with such bitter censures as ungodly flashearted c. that hereupon some of the more judicious forsake the truth and simplicity of the Gospel to comply with these censurers meerly to escape them or as some say that they may keep an interest in them to do them good But such carnal compliances though with the most zealous men will bring
adversaries for Hypocrisie as if he were not an Hypocrite himself Because he can accuse them of a Heart-sin without any visible control If he called them Drunkards or Swearers or Persecutors or Oppressors all that know them could know that he belyeth them but when he speaks about matters in the It is one of Thaâ—es sayings in Laâ—â—t Q. Quomodo optime ac justissime vâ—vemus Resp. si quae in aliis reprehendimâ—s ipsi non faciamus To judge of our selves as we judge of others is the way of the since re dark he thinks the reputation of his lies have more advantage Many a word you hear from him how bad his adversaries are but if such hypocritical talk did not tell you he would not tell you how bad he is himself § 15. Direct 10. Be impartial and set your selves before your consciences in the Case of others Direct 10. Think with your selves How should I Judge of this in such and such a man that I use to blame What should I say of him if my adversary did as I do And is it not as bad in me as in him Is not the sin most dangerous to me that is nearest me And should I be more vigilant over any mans faults than my own My damnation will not be caused by his sin but by my own it may Instead of seeing the gnat in his eye I have more cause to cast out a gnat from my own than a camel from his § 16. Direct 11. Study first to be whatever judiciously you desire to seem Desire a thousand Direct 11. times more to be Godly than to seem so and to be liberal than to be thought so and to be blameless Cato homo virtuâ—â— simillimus qui nunquam rectè fecit ut facere videretur sed quia aliter faceâ—e non poterat cuique id solum visum est rationem habere quod haberet justitiam Veleâ—us Patâ—râ—â—l l. 2. from every secret or presumptuous sin than to be esteemed such And when you feel a desire to be accounted good let it make you think how much more necessary and desirable it is to be good indeed To be godly is to be an heir of Heaven Your salvation followeth it But to be esteemed Godly is of little profit to you § 17. Direct 12. Overvalue not man and set no more by the approbation or applause of his thoughts Direct 12. or speeches of you than they are worth Hypocrisie much consisteth in overvaluing man and making too great a matter of his thoughts and words The Hypocrites Religion is Divine in Name but Humane Jâ—m in ecclesiis ista quâ—tuntur omissa Apâ—sâ—olicorum simplicitaâ—e puritate verborum quasi ad Athenaeâ—nâ— ad auditoria converitus ut plauâ—us circumstantiuâ— suscitentur ut oratio rhâ—toâ—icae artis facata mendacio quasi quaedam meretricula procedaâ— in publiâ—um non tam eâ—udâ—tura populos quam favorem populi quaesiâ—uâ—a Hi. oâ— iâ— prâ—s l. 3. in Galat. in deed It is man that he serveth and observeth most and the shame of the world is the evil which he most studiously avoideth And the high esteem and commendation of the world is his Reward O think what a silly worm is man And of how little moment are his thoughts or speeches of you in comparison of the Love of God His thoughts of you make you not the better or the worse And if they either lift you up or trouble you it is your proud and foolish fantasie that doth it when you might choose If you have not lost the key and government of your hearts shut you the door and keep all thence and let mens reproaches go no further than your ears and then what the worse will you be for all the liyâ—s and slanders of the world And besides the pleasing of an effeminate mind what the better are you for their applause § 18. Direct 13. Look upon all men that you converse with as ready to die and turn to dust and Direct 13. passing into that world where you will be little concerned in their censure or esteem of you If you do any thing before an infant you little care for his presence or observation of you Much less if it be before the dead If you knew that a man were to die to morrow though he were a Prince you would not be much sollicitous to avoid his censure or procure his applause because his thoughts all perish with him and it is a small matter what he thinks of you for a day Seeing therefore that all men are hasting to their dust and you are certain that all that applaud or censure you will be quickly gone how little should you regard their judgement Look that man in the face whose applause you desire or whose censure you fear and remember that he is a breathing clod of clay and how many such are now in the grave whose thoughts you once as much esteemed and this will make you more indifferent in the case § 19. Direct 14. At least remember that you are passing out of the world your selves and look every Direct 14. moment when you are called away and certainly know that you shall be here but a little while And is it any great matter what strangers think of you as you are passing by You can be contented that your name and worth and vertues be concealed in your Inn where you stay but a night and that they be unknown to travellers that meet you on the road The foolish expectation of more time on earth than God hath given you warrant to expect is the cause that we overvalue the judgement of man as well as other earthly things and is a great maintainer of every sensual vice § 20. Direct 15. Set your selves to the mortifying of Self-love and Pride For Hypocrisie is but Direct 15. the exercise of these Hypocrisie is dead so far as Pride is dead and so far as self-denial and humility prevail Hypocrisie is a proud desire to appear better than you are Be throughly humbled and vile in your own eyes and Hypocrisie is done § 21. Direct 16. Be most suspicious of your hearts in cases where self-interest or Passions are engaged Direct 16. For they will easily deal deceitfully and cheat your selves in the smoke and dust of such distempers Interest and Passion so blind the mind that you may verily think you are defending the truth and serving God in sincerity and zeal when all the while you are but defending some error of your own and serving your selves and fighting against God The Pharisees thought they took part with Gods Law and truth against Christ The Pope and his Cardinal and Prelates think as in charity I must think that it is for Christ and Unity and Truth that they endeavour to subject the world to their own power And what is it but Interest that blindeth them into such Hypocrisie So passionate disputers do ordinarily deceive themselves and think verily
that they are zealous for the faith when they are but contending for their honour or conceits Passion covers much deceit from the passionate § 22. Direct 17. Suspect your selves most among the great the wise the learned and the godly or Direct 17. any whose favour opinion or applause you most esteem It is easie for an arrant Hypocrite to despise the favour or opinion of the vulgar of the ignorant of the prophane or any whose judgement he contemneth It is no great honour or dishonour to be praised or dispraised by a child or fool or a person that for his ignorance or prophaness is become contemptible But Hypocrisie and Pride do work most to procure the esteem of those whose judgement or parts you most admire One most admireth worldly greatness and such a one will play the Hypocrite most to flatter or please the great ones he admireth Another that is wiser more admireth the judgement of the wise and learned and he will play the Hypocrite to procure the good esteem of such though he can sleight a thousand of the ignorant and his pride it self will make him sleight them Another that is yet wiser is convinced of the excellency of Godly men above all the Great and Learned of the world And this man is more in danger of Pride and Hypocrisie in seeking the good opinion of the Godly and therefore can despise the greatest multitudes of the ignorant and prophane Yea pride it self will make him take it as an addition to his glory to be vilified and opposed by such miscreants as these § 23. Direct 18 Remember the perfections of that God whom you worship that he is a Spirit and Direct 18. therefore to be worshipped in Spirit and in truth and that he is most great and terrible and therefore to be worshipped with sâ—ri usnâ—ss and reverence and not to be dallyed with or served with toyes or lifeless lip-service and that he is most holy pure and jealous and therefore to be purely worshipped and that â—e is still present with you and all things are naked and open to him with whom we have to do The knowledge of God and the remembrance of his all-seeing presence is the most powerful means against Hypocrisie Christ himself argueth from the Nature of God who is a Spirit against the hypocritical ceremoniousness of the Samaritans and Iews Iohn 4. 23 24. Hypocrites offer that to God which they know a man of ordinary wisdom would scorn if they offered it to him If a man knew their hearts as God doth would he be pleased with words and complements and gestures which are not accompanied with any suitable seriousness of the mind Would he be pleased with affected histrionical actions One that seeth a Papist Priest come out in his Formalities and there lead the people in a Language which they understand not to worship God by a number of Ceremonies and canting repeated customary words would think he saw a Stage-player acting his part and not a wise and holy people seriously worshipping the most holy God And not only in worship but in private duties and in converse with men and in all your lâ—ves the remembrance of Gods presence is a powerful rebuke for all hypocrisie It is more foolish to sin in the sight of God because you can hide it from the world than to steal or commit adultery in the open Market-place before the crowd and be careful that Dogs and Crows discern it not If all the world see you it is not so much as if God in secret see you Be not deceived God is not mocked Gal. 6. 7. § 24. Direct 19. Remember how Hypocrisie is hated of God and what punishment is appointed for Direct 19. Hypocrites They are joyned in torment with unbelievers and as wicked mens punishment is aggravated by their being condemned to the fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels so the punishment of ordinary ungodly persons is aggravated by this that their portion shall be with hypocrites and unbelievers How oft find you the Lamb of God himself denouncing his thundering Woes against the hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees How oft doth he inculcate to his Disciples Be not as the Hypocrites Matth. 6. 2 5 16. And no wonder if Hypocrites be hateful to God when they and their services are lifeless Images and have nothing but the Name and outside of Christianity and some antick dress to set them off and humane ornaments of Wit and Parts as a Corpse is more drest with Flowers than the living as needing those Ceremonies for want of life to keep them sweet And a Carrion is not amiable to God And the Hypocrite puts a scorn on God as if he thought that God were like the Heathens Idols that have eyes and see not and could not discern the secret dissemblings of his heart or as if he were like fools and children that are pleased with fair words and little toyes God must needs hate such abuse as this § 25. Direct 20. Come into the Light that your hearts and lives may be throughly known to you Direct 20. Love the most searching faithul Ministry and Books and be thankful to reprovers and plain dealing friends Permanent tepidi â—gnavi neglâ—gâ—ntes Vaâ—â— leves voluptâ—â—si delâ—caâ—â— commoda corporis supersâ—ua sectantur suâ—m compendium in omnibus quaeâ—unt ubicunque honoâ—em existimationem nominis sui integra seâ—vaâ—e possunt Iâ—â—us prâ—priae voluntaâ—â— perâ—â—nacâ—ter addâ—â—â—â— irreâ—â—gnâ—â— minime abnegati superbi curiosi contumaces sunt in omnibuâ— licet â—â—terne coram hominibus bene mâ—â—ati videantur In tentationibus impatientes amari procaces iracundi â—risâ—es aliis molestâ— verbis tamen ingenioque seâ—â—â—â— In prosperis nimium eâ—aâ—i hilaâ—es In adversis nâ—mâ—um turbaâ—i sunt pusilâ—animes Aâ—iorum temeraâ—â—â—â— sunt judices aliorum vitia accuratissime perscrutari de aliorum defectibus frequenter gaâ—â—â—â—re aâ— gloâ—â—ari egregium putant Ex istis simiâ—â—bus operibus facillime cognosci poterunt nam moribus gestibusque suis câ—u sorex quispiam suopte sâ—met judicio produâ—â— Thaâ—le â—loâ— pag. 65 66. Darkness is it that cherisheth deceit It is the office of the Light to manifest Justly do those wretches perish in their hypocrisie who will not endure the light which would undeceive them but fly from a plain and powerful Ministry and hate plain reproof and set themselves by excuses and cavils to defend their own deceit § 26. Direct 21. Be very diligent in the examining of your hearts and all your actions by the Word Direct 21. of God and call your selves often to a strict account Deceit and guilt will not endure strict examination The Word of God is quick and powerful discovering the thoughts and imaginations of the heart There is no Hypocrite but might be delivered from his own deceits if by the assistance of an able Guide he would faithfully go on in the work of self-trying without partiality oâ— sloth § 27. Direct