if any means serve the Flesh and be desirable upon that account it little troubles or concerns it self whether it savour of Veracity or Deceit whether in the account of Conscience and Religion it be good or bad Now this virtuous Simplicity is an undisguised and invariable Tenour of Truth and Innocence It excludes all doing hurt and is especially opposite to all the ways and Methods of Deceit It speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen marks of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Simplicity of his Father i. e. undisguisedness of Soul and unfallaciousness of Manners or Conversation Whatever it seems it is and it never is what will vex or harm others It is â—eracity without Lyes Singleness without Double-dealings or corrupt Mixtures Openness without studied Concealment and close Reserves of what it is call'd to profess Plainness without amusing or misleading Dress of what it professes and Harmlesness without doing any Wrong or Hurt to others Such an uniform Veracity and Undeceitfulness both of Mind and Carriage is that Simplicity which Christian Prudence requires of us And which God calls for when he bids us to throw out all Deceit Mar. 7.22 to lay aside all Guile and Hypocrisies 1 Pet. 2.1 to be no Deceitful workers 2 Cor. 1â— 13 And declares him only to be fit to stay in God's Tabernacle and dwell in his holy Hill who speaketh the Truth in his heart or whose words never go against the thoughts and intents of his Heart but always express and bear out what is there Psal. 15.1 2. 1. The First thing implied in virtuous Simplicity which Christian Prudence injoyns is Veracity in opposition to Falshood and Lyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesychius explains by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being sincere by being true or veracious Simplicity bottoms all on Truth which it never tempers or brews together or daubs over with Falshood He that is for Simplicity in Truth must needs abhor Lyes never speaking contrary to what he thinks which sure is not to speak the Truth in his heart as God requires nor giving in a False Testimony of Persons or Relation of things 1. This will exclude all spontaneous use of False Speeches when of themselves men are ready to frame or tell Lyes for Ends. Contrary to the Rule of Spiritual Wisdom which every where most plainly forbids Lying and says Lye not one to another Brethren seeing ye have put off the Old man Col. 3.9 and tells us of the Lake of Fire for those that love and make Lyes Rev. 21.8 27. And also all speaking Lyes out of Fear or Compliance when for escaping Rebuke or soothing men any Persons expresly assent to things against their own Judgments or say and unsay in different Companies Thus to the Deacons who going about from house to house were like to be under the Temptation to say and unsay or speak different things as might best suit with different Companies St. Paul gives it as a particular Charge not to be double-tongued 1 Tim. 3.8 Nâ—t double-tongued that is says Theophylact 〈◊〉 thinking one thing and saying another or saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one thing to one and another thing to another And to the Ephesians that putting away lying they speak every man truth with his neighbour as being members one of another forbidding Lyes not only in direct Assertions but in Soothing and Dissimulation against those as Grotius observes who to curry Favour with Jews or Gentiles were apt to speak contrary to what they thought Eph. 4.25 'T is not for such virtuously simple Persons to speak Lyes in Officiousness or with intent to hurt none but to do others a kindness For ill is not to be done that good may come of it and therefore to do others a kindness they may no more break this than they may any other Precept The Rule of Kindness to our Neighbour is to love him as our selves but tell a Lye we dare not for the sake of our own Advantage and so not for his Nay we must not tell a Lye in hopes to do good thereby to Religion or for the sake of God himself This really was the Case of Job's Friends They were forgers of lyes against him Job 13.4 But all those were officious Lyes or out of their Officiousness as I before noted to God himself And yet Job's was a just Reproof against them Will ye speak wickedly for God and deceitfully for him v. 7. Veracity or speaking Truth we must carefully practise not only for its Usâ—fulness or doing Kindness but for the Truth 's sake We must bear a conscientious regard to it as it bears the Image of God wherein we were at first formed and whereto we are renewed in Christ. Put on the new man says the Apostle which after God is created in true Holiness or the holiness of Truth Wherefore putting away lying speak every man Truth c. Eph. 4.24 25. God is the God of Truth and of Veracity or true speaking And the Devil God's grand Enemy is particularly noted as the Father of Lyes and a Spirit of Falshood And as the Authors and Heads themselves are so are their Children distinguish'd by the same They that love and speak Truth are Children of the God of Truth as they that love and utter Lyes are Children of the Father of Lyes For his Children they are as our Saviour told the Jews whose works and lusts they do And he abode not in the Truth from the beginning because there is no Truth in him When he speaks a Lye he speaks it of his own for he is a Lyar and the Father of it Joh. 8.39 44. Veracity then or speaking Truth is what we are bound to not only as beneficial to our Neighbours but as resembling God or bearing his Image and being a Divine Perfection And accordingly this is the injunction of the Scriptures not to lye one to another whatever be the Pretence to speak as the Psalmist says that Truth which is in our heart not that Falshood which makes for our Brother's convenience To put away all guile and hypocrisies which admits not of retaining any to serve turns as St. Peter says 1 Pet. 2.1 Some indeed have fetch'd a Plea for Officious Lyes from the Case of the Egyptian Midwives or the Practice of David in his Distress when he fled from Saul or other Scripture-instances But the Practice of a Good Man is no Argument a thing is well done if it be visibly against the Rule of Well-doing No not tho it have encouragement from God as in the Case of the Midwives whose houses God built for their sparing the Israelitish infants For in such mixt Actions a Gracious God is prone to reward the Good which is predominant and over-look the ill which is compassionably interwoven with it as he did with the Midwives if they spoke falsly recompensing their Charity not their officious Falseness Not to dispute whether what they said was really false
we live in a time when to the greatest Numbers Popery that is indeed a very Corrupt Religion seems more formidable than any other thing And to call a way Popish sounds worse in the ears of the Populace than to say it is Unchristian And therefore to conclude this Subject I shall note in the last place how all the foresaid Methods of the Worldly Wise which I have taxed before are no better than Popish Corruptions There are Popish Morals as well as Popish Superstitions and Idolatries The Depravations of Good Practice and of Moral Honesty and Justice by a Number of their Casuists have been as scandalous and will prove as fatal to those Souls who are deluded by them as their Depravations in Matters of Faith and Devotion And the forecited Rules of the Worldly Wise are among those very ways whereby too many Papists have Corrupted Christian Morals Nay they are the Morals of Jesuits who are the worst of Papists and whose scandalous accommodations of Christ's Rules and Precepts to comply with Fleshly Passions and Interests suiting Religion to Self-Ends and basely bending Moral Duties to serve Corrupt Turns and Worldly Necessities are Condemned in these and such other Points by the sober Papists themselves And this I the rather note because I see so many Reverend and Worthy Persons who seem the strictest and truest Examples of Moral Integrity among us and stand out against all these Unlawful Compliances and Insincerities of the Fleshly Wise appearing as the Patterns and Confessors for Honesty and Morality in a Day of General Temptation and Defection are yet among other Marks of common hatred and scorn branded with the Name of Papists notwithstanding all the opposition they made to Popery and some of them most Eminently when the Day of Tryal was for these their brave and truly Christian oppositions of Popish Morals Yea and that by those who content with a Zeal against Popish Errors in Faith and Superstitious Devotions in the midst of all their heat against them are running into the worst parts of their Morality sucking in the rankest Poyson of Jesuitish Honesty unawares For as to the Points before mentioned such as these are the Jesuits Principles all Taught by some or other for God forbid I should Charge all therewith in that Order They are for Doing Evil that Good may come This is the meaning of that Grand Salvo so much magnified and made use of among them viz. The Right Direction of the Intention which affords them such wonderful help in an unlawful Thing Thus they clear men of the worst Crimes as Simony False Witness Thefts Duels and Murther it self Plead but Necessity and say there is need of it for Religion or the Church or their Society for the Publick or a Man 's own Private Good to preserve his Life Estate or Reputation and then the Breach of the Precept they make to be without Guilt if therein a Man â—oth but Direct his Intention aright permitting the Evil of the Action if the Actor doth but take care to purifie his Intention They are Notorious for Giving a Discharge of Relative Duties particularly towards Princes when those Duties grow Burthensom or Vnsafe under Impious or Oppressive Rulers For of all others they are the men that are foremost leading others and fullest in Asserting the Deposition and Dethroning of Kings the Absolution and Discharge of Subjects from the Obligation of their Natural Allegiance and the Lawfulness of Rising in Arms against Heretical or Tyrannical Princes There is scarce any one thing wherewith for so many years last past not only this Order of 〈◊〉 but the Church of Rome have been more â—earnedly Charged and more Shamefully Silent'd Yea 't is the Test of Popery by our Laws the Legal Conviction of Papists being by the Tender of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which were made to Secure and Defend our Princes against the Poison of these Tenets They are infamous for all Arts of Insincerity and Fallaciousness Having been the Pest of Humane Society by their Doctrines of Equivocation or using of Doubtful Words and Ambiguous Speeches which the Parties concern'd shall take otherwise than they mean them And of Mental Reservation Reserving in their own Minds some hidden and unexpressed Clauses in their Declarations or secret and unexpected Conditions in their Promises So to make their Speech a Truth to themselves though it be a Lye to others Of getting and compassing their Ends by Deceitful Suggestions or setting out so much Truth as to serve the turn and craftily hiding what would hinder it And instead of that Plainness and Simplicity which is prescribed by Religion studiously assuming all counterfeit Shapes and inventing and propagating all those Fallacious ways or Liberties of Dissembling which the Father of Lyes can suggest to their hearts whereby to overthrow the Faith of Men. Whilst they Reserve their Minds or inward Service for God they are for Giving the External Service or outward Appearance to any Wickedness expected from them Thus as the Author of the Provincial Letters observe◠〈◊〉 they allow'd the Chinese to worship a Chines◠〈◊〉 if they were careful to hide under their Cloaths an Image of Jesus Christ to which by a Mental Reserve they were to pay those Publick Adorations which in visible Appearance the Idol Receiv'd They are for Tempering their Duty to Circumstances of outward Convenience Doing so much as they safely may without Worldly Loss or Disadvantage Contenting themselves as they did in the Indies to Preach up a Glorified Jesus to those that would not hear of a Crucified Jesus And abating the Duties of Religion till they have brought them Down to the Pitch and Proportion the Wants and Worldly Necessities of those that consult them They are for Changing Doctrines as they Change Turns and Interests Not only in Different Turns of their own or their Societies Affairs but of their Disciples Having one Resolution for one man and at one time and a contrary at another By this looseness taking in all comers and fitting and reconciling all Times and Persons to their own Ends. They are for Holding and Maintaining what is once ill got And make Unjust Possession a Just Title to it And order Easie Amends and Restitutions for Wrongful and Evil-Deeds no more than can consist with the Offenders own Credit and Convenience They have invented Salvo's whereby men may keep innocent and yet Act in an Vnlawful Business and Minister and help other Men to Sin without Sinning themselves They vacate at their Pleasure and put by the Laws of Morality as they lye in their way rendring them insignificant and of little or no Force or Obligation Either by Interpretation of Terms or so expounding the Terms used in Prohibiting any Sins as shall exempt all or almost all their own Transgressions from coming under them Or by allowing the Thing not under the Name whereby it stands forbidden but the very same thing in another Form like to what they Resolved in the
Truths which a little deliberation and enquiry would shew to be Falshoods Former Tenets and Opinions which usually are so very tedious and difficult to be extirpated shall be laid aside upon much less Argument and offer of proof than that whereby they had before been maintained Yea the very same things shall be offered as good Arguments which when offered by others had been cast out and confuted as false ones Variety of Topicks shall be started to make up in number what they lack in weight And tho all are so uncertain that they who use them keep themselves upon the reserve and are afraid to stand or fall by any one alone yet they shall conclude that some or other of them is right and sufficient to prove what they draw from it Which I think is not the way of seeking Truth but serving Interest 'T is to resolve upon the conclusion before one sees the Reason which can make it good Worldly Wisdom says this must be held and then if one Topick that is pressed for proof cannot make it out another must Yea confessedly weak and false Arguments shall pass for Evidence and great Names or Numbers when they fall on this side fleshly Wisdom will call in its own Case a proof of Right Tho looking abroad every where else in the World where store of Opinions about other matters have these same Supports and yet are condemned by our selves at the same time in our Neighbors Case it shall be ready to Declare that Names and Numberâ— are no sure Argument of Truth but too commonly the false colour and fair show of Errour These and such like are the effects of that affected ignorance which worldly Wisdom would be held in of any Duties which it is like to lose by And this is quite opposite to spiritual Prudence and must never be yielded to by any that would make sure their eternal concerns or pass for truly religious honest virtuous Dispositions In matters of Salvation the best and truest security is being in the right way And I know no relief for any man in the wrong but a sincere willingness to see and follow the right when the Providence of God shall lay it sufficiently before him Which gives no relief at all to those who for want of love to a saving Truth especially when persecuted and through too much love of this world are afraid to come in the way thereof and unwilling to let it in 1. It is not enough for one that seeks to approve himself a good man that he follow that Duty which he sees but he must also take care to see every thing which is his Duty that he may follow it The Knowledge of our Duty must not sure be ranked among indifferent things for Faith as well as Obedience makes up the Gospel-terms To believe and know what Christianity makes necessary to be known is as requisite as to Do what it makes necessary to be Done Nay to know those things which are necessary to be Done is as necessary as to Do them since we cannot do them till we know them Indeed if the Ptovidence of God affords not an honest mind the opportunity of such Knowledge he will graciously connive both at the want of Knowledge and Practice But if we have no mind to know what we might know we shall suffer both for the want of Practice and Knowledge 'T is plainly there a want of Virtue in the heart that causes a want of Understanding in the head such evil doers as our Lord says love darkness and hate the light and will not come to it lest their deeds should be reproved Joh. 3.19 20. An honest mind must never be unwilling or afraid to see its Duty no not where 't is most costly It must have a Love for it when 't is persecuted as well as when 't is applauded when in the eye of the world it is a losing as well as when it is a gaining Virtue They must receive the love of the Truth that they may receive the belief thereof and to keep off as St. Paul says from being of their number that perish in their unrighteousness by believing lyes because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved thereby 2 Thess. 2.10 11 12. This Love will not only make them to listen to it but to be inquisitive after it where sufficient instruction is not voluntarily offer'd and thankfully to see and receive the will of God whether it be with their worldly interest and fleshly inclination or against them And this is true Docility and Teachableness of Temper which is what the Scripture calls the ear to hear or the necessary Preparative profitably to hear a Religious or Moral Lecture 'T is necessary to Faith especially of those Truths or Laws of God which are more unsavoury and uneasie to flesh and blood And being such a previous Requisite of Faith and implied in it 't is sometimes in Scripture expressed thereby Pray that I may be delivered from unreasonable men says St. Paul for all men have not faith 2 Thess. 3.2 Noting those who receive or reject what is tender'd only by Humour or inclination of Flesh and Blood not by Reason as men void of Faith i. e. of a teachable Temper and Disposition 3. Thirdly Christian Prudence is alike for taking care of both Tables or for discharging faithfully as all the Duties of Piety so equall all others of Justice and Morality Since both are equally parts of God's will they are equally a matter of its care and its constant aim and study is how it may inviolably observe both and transgress neither but never to set one against the other Both Tables it receives as coming from one Authority and claiming one Obedience Well knowing that he that said Thou shalt not worship an Idol said also Thou shalt not kill or steal And if thou keep free from Idolatry yet if thou kill as St. James argues in this case thou art become a Transgressor of the Law Jam. 2.11 There is no transgressing of one to save another nay there is no breaking of one to save all For whosoever shall keep the whole Law besides saith the same Apostle and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all v. 10. And if for breaking that one he will be punish'd as if he had broke all there cannot be any room left to think of breaking one tho it were upon pretence to save all Which I call a Pretence because indeed it is a mere Pretence For the Commandments never oppose one another and we can never reasonably pretend to break the latter that we may keep the former since if we please we may at all times keep both and as we never can have any Authority so neither can we be under any necessity of breaking either The Effect and Consequence I shall observe from hence is 1. First That we never oppose the first to the second Table As the Pharisees who to keep
they Patronize by their own Sincerity and Fairness They must never teach us how to cozen or insnare others They must never lie in Quirks and evasive Senses which Deceitfulness of the Laws themselves will ungird and prostitute them and only teach People how to cheat in their Obedience It will cut off the Simplicity of Obedience and call Subjects only to the invention of Subtleties to out-wit Laws instead of observing them For Laws are not kept but cozen'd and abused by evasive Glosses 〈◊〉 that this Simplicity as it must be most in â—â—â—mises chiefly when backed by solemn Oaths 〈◊〉 more especially when these are made by 〈◊〉 or Magistrates who are Sacred Persons 〈◊〉 most especially when they are made also in â—â—â—dience to Laws and in Words prescribed by 〈◊〉 â—aws themselves 〈◊〉 now contrary to all these Ways and 〈◊〉 of Simplicity is the Way of Worldly 〈◊〉 It may sometimes be for taking things 〈◊〉 and by bare-faced Violence where it 〈◊〉 â—ower enough But it s ordinary Method is â—â—â—ctise more covertly and its great Instruâ—â—â—â— is Craft and Deceit When there is need 〈◊〉 it is not apt to stick at forging a 〈◊〉 Lye and unpalliable Falshood to bring its 〈◊〉 about But where it practises with more 〈◊〉 facedness it will deceive as effectually by 〈◊〉 but deceitful Truths which are only 〈◊〉 Truths but real Falshoods Sometimes 〈◊〉 the end it may be mistaken it will hide it self 〈◊〉 Mist of Words At others it will play upon 〈◊〉 Faith of Men by Ambiguities of Words and â—â—â—â—ences expecting they will bite at one meanâ—â—â—â— whilst it reserves another to it self Or if 〈◊〉 doth not fall upon them to deceive directly iâ— will lead them about craftily by a Circle of Words or Circumlocutions intermixing secretly 〈◊〉 and false and laying Snares till it has got them within the Compass of Deceit at last It will be open in so much as shall serve its turn and artificially conceal what makes against it It represents things not as they are in themselves but in such Dress as best suits its own purpose amplifying or detracting palliating or disguiâ—sing not so as sets off its own Thoughts but 〈◊〉 Convenience Or if it is so nice as to boggle at the Abuse of Words it will more easily swallow a like Juggle and Deceit in Actions It will give the outward Appearances without inward Realities seem to be what it is not and not to be what it is Do in all things like those that profess what it thinks not or that denies what it really believes The outward Shews of its Belief or Expectations Mind and Judgmentâ— of its Desires or Affections what pleases or dislikâ—â— it are not the true Draught of its inward Sentiments but only of its outward Interests It pretends what it gets by not what it really is or believes and seeks it self not what it shews in all its Pretences Its Appearances are Hypocrisie its secret end still self-design its Method not Truth but Delusion not harmlesness to others but preventing tho by any Loss of theirs all Harm Dissatisfaction or Disappointment to it self So that instead of being true and single plain and open innocent and undesigning a worldly wise Man is all Lyes and Falshood Trick and Deceit full of Turnings and Windings Shifts and Evasions Mists and false Colors meer Shews and Pretences pretending and appearing one thing but being and intending another and never true to what he seems further than that happens to run true to his own self-ends and carnal Convenience He is not fixt to any just and â—â—nest Principles but is for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for accommodating his manners to serve turns 〈◊〉 for being quick-sighted at serving his own Adâ—â—â—tage by Deceit as I noted from S. Basil. By 〈◊〉 which deceitful Shews and false Seemings 〈◊〉 the Injury to Truth he violates Charity 〈◊〉 Justice oftentimes drawing Men in thereby 〈◊〉 their Prejudice And abuses Confidence 〈◊〉 to an ingenuous Spirit should lay on one 〈◊〉 highest Obligation working their harm by 〈◊〉 very Faith and Trust they repose in him 〈◊〉 for the most part highly abuses good things 〈◊〉 and that virtuous forwardness well meaning 〈◊〉 have to promote them whilst under a false 〈◊〉 and Shew thereof he steals away their â—â—ncurrence to his own unlawful Purposes or 〈◊〉 Self-Designs CHAP VII Of not discharging Relative Duties for ends of Religion or of our own Ease THE other Instance which I mentioned of Doing ill to bring about some Good desired in throwing off Relative Duties And this is another Care of Spiritual Prudence viz. in the Second Place that in any Relations when 〈◊〉 grow burdensome to us for ends either of Religiâ—â—â— or of our own Ease it doth not admit of any Discharge of Relative Duties God both in Nature and Scripture has required us as to be just to all Men so to be Grateful to our Benefactors and Dutiful to our Superiors to honor obey and keep subject to our Parents our Princes and other Powers whom he has placed over us 1. And these Duties and Returns he calls for towards them whatever their Religion be whether true or false Be they Christians or Heathens Jews or Mahometans true Worshipers or Idolaters Children must honor and obey support and succor their Parents and Wives their Husbands and Servants their Masters and Subjects their Sovereigns These are among those things which Nature it self has writ in all Mens Hearts and wherein as S. Paul says they that 〈◊〉 not the written Law are a Law unto themselves their own Consciences bearing witness to them without the need of any further Revelation 〈◊〉 their thoughts accusing or excusing them according as they have kept or transgressed them Rom. â— 14 15. So that if the Relatives were all 〈◊〉 yet their natural Conscience without the 〈◊〉 of Scripture would teach one to call for at this Duty and another to shew and pay it 〈◊〉 accuse them if they did it not Accordingly when the Apostles went out to 〈◊〉 among Heathens and to proselyte those 〈◊〉 Relations were Worshipers of false Gods 〈◊〉 set up unclean Spirits or Devils for Gods 〈◊〉 do not in the least exempt them from any â—â—lative Duties towards such Idolaters but 〈◊〉 a greater Heartiness and Conscientiousness 〈◊〉 the due Discharge thereof Children obey your 〈◊〉 in all things as what is well-pleasing to the 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul Col. 3.20 And Servants 〈◊〉 in all things your Masters according to the Flesh 〈◊〉 all things in singleness of Heart as to the 〈◊〉 as serving therein the Lord Christ Vers. 22. 〈◊〉 Wives be in subjection to your own 〈◊〉 says S. Peter yea to those that obey not the Word but are to be won by the Wives good Conversation without the Word 1 Pet. 3.1 Honor the King says he again and submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lord's sake whether to the King as supreme or unto Governors as sent by him c. 2.13 14 17. Ye