is we must first know what Truth is and what is the What Truth is Use of Speech Truth is considerable 1. As it is in the things known and spoken of 2. As it is in the conception or knowledge of the mind 3. As it is in the expressions of the tongue 1. Truth Vid. Aquin. de Veritat in the things known is nothing but their Reality that indeed they are that which their names import or the mind apprehendeth them to be This is that which is called both Physical and Metaphysical Truth 2. Truth in the conception or knowledge of the mind is nothing else but the agreement or conformity of the knowledge to the thing known To conceive of it truly is to conceive of it as it is Mistake or error is contrary to this Truth 3. Truth as it is in the expressions is indeed a twofold relation 1. The primary relation is of our words or writings to the matter expressed And so Truth of speech is nothing but the agreeableness of our words to the things expressed when we speak of them as they are 2. The secondary relation of our words is to the mind of the Speaker For the natural use of the tongue is to express the mind as well as the matter And thus Truth of Speech is nothing but the agreeableness of our words to our thoughts or judgements Truth as it is the agreement of Thoughts or words to the matter may be called Logical Truth And this is but the common Matter of Moral or Ethical Truth which may be â—ound partly in a Clock or Watch or Weather-cock or a Seamans Chart. The agreement of our words to our minds is the more proper or special matter of Moral Truth The form of it as a Moral Virtue is its agreement to the Law of the God of Truth And as the Terminus entereth the definition of relations so our words have respect to the Mind of the hearer or reader as their proper Terminus their use being to acquaint him 1. With the matter expressed 2. With our minds concerning it Therefore it is necessary to the Logical Truth of speech that it have an aptitude rightly to inform the hearer and to the Ethical Truth that it be intended by the speaker really to inform him and not to deceive him Supposing that it is another that we speak to § 2. You see then that to a Moral Truth all these things are necessary 1. That it be an agreement of the words with the matter expressed as far as we are obliged to know the matter 2. That it be an agreement of the words with the speakers mind or judgement 3. That the expressions have an aptitude to inform the hearer of both the former truths 4. That we really intend them to inform him of the truth so far as we speak it 5. That it be agreeable to the Law of God which is the Rule of duty and discoverer of sin § 3. In some speeches the Truth of our words as agreeing to the Matter and to the Mind is all one viz. when our own conception or judgement of a thing is all that we assert As when we say I think or I believe or I judge that such a thing is so Here it is no whit necessary to the Truth of my words that the Thing be so as I think it to be For I affirm it not to be so but that indeed I think as I say I think But that our words and minds agree is alwayes and inseparably necessary to all Moral Truth § 4. We are not bound to make known all that is true for then no man must keep a secret How far we are bound to speak the truth much less to every man that asketh us Therefore we are not bound to endeavour the Cure of every mans ignorance or error in every matter For we are not bound to talk at all to every man And if I be not bound to make known the truth at all or my mind at all I am not bound to make known all the truth or all that is in my mind No not to all those to whom I am bound to make known part of both If I find a man in an ignorance or error which I am not bound to cure nay possibly it were my sin to cure it as to open the secrets of the Kings Counsels or Armies to his Enemies c. I may and must so fit my speech to that man even about those matters as not to make him know what he should not know either of the matter or of my mind I may either be silent or speak darkly or speak words which he understandeth not through his own imperfection or which I know his weakness will misunderstand But I must speak no falshood to him Also there is a great difference between speaking so as not to cure the ignorance or error of the hearer which I found him in and so speaking as to lead him into some new error I may do the former in many cases in which I may not do the latter And there is great difference between speaking such words as in the common use of men are apt to inform the hearers of the truth though I may know that through some weakness of their own they will misunderstand them and be deceived by them and the speaking of words which in common use of men have another signification than that which I use them to By the former way the hearer sometime is the deceiver of himself and not the speaker when the speaker is not bound to reveal any more to him But by the later way the speaker is the deceiver Also there is great difference to be made between my speaking to one to whom it is my duty to reveal the truth and my speaking to a man to whom I am not bound to reveal it yea from whom my duty to God and my King or Country bind me to conceal it By these grounds and distinctions you may know what a Lye is and may resolve the ordinary doubts that are used to be raised about our speaking truth or falshood As § 5. Quest. 1. Am I bound to speak the Truth to every one that asketh me Answ. You are not Quest. 1. bound to speak at all in every case to every one that asketh you And he that is silent speaketh not the truth § 6. Quest. 2. Am I bound to speak the Truth to every one that I answer to Answ. Your Answer Quest. 2. may sometimes be such as signifieth but a denying to answer or to reveal what is demanded of you § 7. Quest. 3. Am I bound to speak all the Truth when ever I speak part of it Answ. No It is Quest. 3. Gods Word that must tell you when and how much you must reveal to others And if you go as 〈…〉 â—6 63. Maâ— 1â— 61. 15. 5 Luke 23. 9. Jâ—â—n 19 9. â—â—r 8 26 27. far as God alloweth you it followeth not that
seen the Direct 18. fruits of the various courses of professors of Religion than of the young unripe unexperienced hot-headed sort Zeal is of great use to execute the resolutions of a well-informed man And the Zeal of others is very useful to warm the hearts of such as do converse with them But when it comes to matter of Iudgement once to decide a case of difficulty aged experience hath far the advantage And in no cases more than in those where Peace and Concord are concerned where rash hot-headed youth is very prone to precipitant courses which must be afterward repented of § 102. Direct 19. When fervent self conceited people would carry down all by censoriousness and passion Direct 19. it is time for the Pastâ—â—s and the aged and riper sort of Christians openly to rebuke them and appear against them and stand their ground and not to comply with the mis-guided sort to escape their censures Nothing hath more caused schisms in the Church except the Pride and ambition of the Clergie than that the riper and more judicious sort of people together with the Ministers themselves have been so loth to lye under the bitter censures of the unexperienced younger hotter sort and to avoid such censures and keep in with them they have followed those whom they should have led and have been drawn quite beyond their own understandings God hath made WISDOM to be the Guiâ—e of the Church and ZEAL to follow and diligently execute the commands of Wisdom Let ignorant well-meaning people censure you as bitterly as they please yet keep your ground and be not so proud or weak as to prefer their good esteem before their benefit and before the pleasing of God Sin not against your knowledge to escape the censure of the ignorant If you do God will make those men your scourges whom you so much over-valued And they shall prove to their spiritual Fathers as cockered children like Absalom do to their natural fathers and perhaps be the breaking of your hearts But if the Pastors and the riper experienced Christians will stand their ground and slick together and rebuke the exorbitancies of the censorious younger-ones they will maintain the credit of the Gospel and keep the truth and the Churches Peace and the hott spurs will in time either repent and be sober or be shamed and disabled to do much hurt § 103. Direct 20. Take heed how you let loose your zeal against the Pastors of the Church lest you Direct 20. bring their persons and next their effice into contempt and so break the bâ—nds of the Churches Unity and Peace There is no more hope of maintaining the Churches Unity and Concord without the Ministry than of keeping the strength or Unity of the members without the Nerves If these nerves be weak or labour of a Convulsion or other disease it is curing and strengthening them and not the cutting them asunder that mâ—st prove to the welfare and safety of the body Middle with the faults of the Ministry only so far as tendeth to a cure of them or of the Church but not to bring them into disgrace and weaken their interest in the people and disable them from doing good Abhor that proud rebellious spirit that is prone to set up it self against the officers of Christ and under pretence of greater Wisdom or Holiness to bring their Guides into contempt and is picking quarrels with them behind their back to make them a scorn or odious to the hearers Indeed a Minister of Satan that doth more harm in the Church than good must be so detected as may best disable him from doing harm But he that doth more good than hurt must so be disswaded from the hurt as not to be disabled from the Good My brethren be not many Masters or Teachers knowing that ye shall receive the greater Jam. 3. 1. condemnation § 104. Direct 21. Look more with an eye of Charity on what is Good in others and their worship of Direct 21. God than with an eye of malice to carp at what appeareth evil Some men have such distempered eyes that they can see almost nothing but faultiness in any thing of another party which they look at envy and faction maketh them carp at every word and every gesture And they make no Conscience of aggravating every failing and making Idolatry of every mistake in Worship and making Heresie or Blaspheamy of every mistake in judgement and making Apostacy of every fall nay perhaps the truth it self shall have no better a representation As Dr. H. More well noteth It would do much more good in the world if all parties were forwarder to find out and commend what is good in the doctrine and worship of all that differ from them This would win them to heaâ—ken to reforming advice and would keep up the credit of the common truths and duties of Religion in the world when this envious snarling at all that others do doth tend to bring the world to Aâ—hâ—ism and banish all reverence of Religion together with Christian Charity from the Earth § 105. Direct 22. Keep not strange to those from whom you differ but be acquainted with them Direct 22. and placidly hear what they have to say for themselves Oâ— else converse with them in Christian Love in Read the next Chap. 24. Sect. 20. all thâ—se duties in which you are agreed and this if you never talk of your differences will do much to reconcile you in all the rest It is the common way of division uncharitableness yea and cruelty ☜ at last to receive hard reports of those that differ from us behind their backs and to believe and aggravate Prince Frederick of Moâ—pelgard being instructed into a distaste of the Reformed Protestants when he had been at Câ—â—â—â—a and Hâ—â—vâ—tia was went to far Gâ—â—â—â— â—â— Hâ—lvetia viâ—i multa de qâ—ibus nihil paâ—â— coâ—â—â—â—â— quibus sâ—â—e aâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—t Tossaâ—us ad â—â—â—â—lium â—â—â—â—te Sâ—ult to iâ— Curric p 26. all and proceed to detraction and contention at a distance and in the dark and never be familiarly acquainted with them at all There is something in the apprehension of places and persons and things by the eye sight which no reports are able to match And so there is that satisfaction about men by familiar acquaintance which we cannot attain by hearsay from any how judicious soever All factions commonly converse together and seek no familiar converse with others but believe them to be any thing that 's naught and then report them to be so before they ever knew the persons of whom they speak I am perswaded this is one of the greatest feeders of enmity uncharitableness contention and slanders in the world I speak it upon great observation and experience I have seldom heard any man bitterly oppose the servants of Christ but either the grosly wicked or those that never had much acquaintance with them And I see commonly how bitter soever
with Government in Athens Quia plebs aliis institutis moribus assueverat Laert. in Platone and many other Philosophers that were fittest for Government refused it on the same account through the disobedience of the people your own If your Rulers sin you shall not answer for it but if you sin your selves you shall If you should live under the Turk that would oppress and persecute you your souls shall speed never the worse for this It is not you but He that should be damned for it If you say But it is we that should be oppressed by it I answer 1. How small are temporal things to a true believer in comparison of eternal things Have not you a greater hurt to fear than the killing of your bodies by men Luke 12. 4. 2. And even for this life do you not believe that your lives and liberties are in the power of God and that he can relieve you from the oppression of all the world by less than a word even by his will If you believe not this you are Atheists If you do you must needs perceive that it concerneth you more to care for your duty to your Governours than for theirs to you and not so much to regard what you receive as what you do nor how you are used by others as how you behave your selves to them Be much more afraid lest you should be guilty of murmuring dishonouring disobeying flattering not praying for your Governours than lest you suffer any thing unjustly from them 1 Pet. 4. 13 14 15 16 17. Let none of you suffer as a muderer or as a thief or as an evil doer or as a busiâ—-body in other mens matters yet if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf If ye be reproached for the name of Christ ye are happy Live so that all your Adversaries may be forced to say as it was said of Daniel Dan. 6. 5. We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God Let none be able justly to punish you as drunkards or thieves or slanderers or fornicators or perjurâ—d or deceivers or rebellious or seditious and then never fear any suffering for the sake of Christ or Righteousness Yea though you suffer as Christ himself did under a false accusation of disloyalty fear not the suffering nor the infamy as long as you are free from the Guilt See that all be well at home and that you be not faulty against God or your Governours and then you may boldly commit your selves to God 1 Pet. 2. 23 24. § 46. Direct 22. The more Religious any are the more obedient should they be in all things lawful Direct 22. Exâ—â—l others in Loyalty as well as in Piety Religion is so far from being a just pretence of rebellion that it is the only effectual bond of sincere subjection and obedience § 47. Direct 23. Therefore believe not them that would exempt the Clergy from subjection to the Direct 23. Civil powers As none should know the Law of God so well as they so none should be more obedient to Kings and States when the Law of God so evidently commandeth it Of this read Bilson of Christian subjection who besides many others saith enough of this The Arguments of the Papists from the supposed incapacity of Princes would exempt Physicions and other Arts and Sciences from undâ—r their Government as well as the Clergy § 48. Direct 24. Abase not Magistrates so far as to think their office and power extendeth not to Direct 24. matters of Religion and the worship of God Were they only for the low and contemptible matters of this world their office would be contemptible and low To help you out in this I shall answer some of the commonest doubts § 49. Quest. 1. Is the Civil Magistrate Iudge in Controversies of faith or Worship Answ. It hath Quest. 1. many a time grieved me to hear so easie a Question frequently propounded and pitifully answered Who shall be Iudge in poâ—nts of faith and Worship by such as the publick good required to have had more understanding in such things In a word Iudgement is Publick or Private The Private judgement which is nothing but a Rational discerning of truth and duty in order to our own Choice and practice belongeth to every Rational person The Publick Iudgement is ever in Order to execution Now the execution is of two sorts 1. By the Sword Of thâ—se things see my Prâ—positions of the Difference of the Magistrates and Pastors power to Dr. L d. Moul. 2. By Gods word applyed to the case and person One is upon the Body or Estate The other is upon the Conscience of the person or of the Church to bring him to Repentance or to bind him to avoid Communion with the Church and the Church to avoid Communion with him And thus Publick Judgement is Civil or Ecclesiastical Coercive and violent in the execution or only upon Consenters and volunteers In the first the Magistrate is the only Iudge and the Pastors in the second About faith or worship if the Question be who shall be protected as Orthodox and who shall be punished by the Sword as Hereâ—ical Idolatrous or irreligious here the Magistrate is the only Judge If the Question be who ☞ shall be admitted to Church Communion as Orthodox or ejected and excommunicate as Heretical or prophane The Rex sacrorum among the Romans was debarred from exercising any Magistracy Plut. Rom. Quest. 63. here the Pastors are the proper Judges This is the truth and this is enough to end all the voluminous wranglings upon the Question Who shall be Iudge and to answer the cavils of the Papists against the Power of Princes in matters of Religion It is pity that such gross and silly sophisms in a case that a Child may answer should debase Christian Princes and take away their chief Power and give it to a proud and wrangling Clergy to persecute and divide the Church with § 50. Quest. 2. May our Oath of Supremacy be lawfully taken wherein the King is pronounced supream Quest. 2. Governour in all causes Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Answ. There is no reason of scruple to him that Of the Oath of Supremacy understandeth 1. That the title Causes Ecclesiastical is taken from the ancient usurpation of the Pope and his Prelates who brought much of the Magistrates work into their Courts under the name of Causes Ecclesiastical 2. That our Canons and many Declarations of our Princes have expounded it fully by disclaiming all proper Pastoral power 3. That by Governour is meant only one that Governeth coercively or by the sword so that it is no more than to swear that In all causes See Bilson of subject p. 238 256. Princâ—s only be Governours in things and causes Ecclesiastical that iâ— With the Sword But if you
A Christian Directory Or A SUMM of PRACTICAL THEOLOGIE AND CASES OF CONSCIENCE Directing Christians how to USE their Knowledge and Faith How to improve all Helps and Means and to Perform all Duties How to Overcome Temptations and to escape or mortifie every Sin In Four Parts I. CHRISTIAN ETHICKS or private Duties II. CHRISTIAN OECONOMICKS or Family Duties III. CHRISTIAN ECCLESIASTICKS or Church Duties IV. CHRISTIAN POLITICKS or Duties to our Rulers and Neighbours By RICHARD BAXTER Mal. 2. 7 8. The Priests lips should keep Knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts But ye are departed out of the way Ye have Caused many to stumble at the Law ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi Matth. 13. 52. Every SCRIBE which is instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is an Housholder which bringeth forth out of his Treasure things New and Old Heb. 5. 13 14. For every one that useth Milk is unskilful in the Word of Righteousness for he is a Babe But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age Those who by reason of USE have their senses exercised to discern both Good and Evil. 2 Tim. 2. 14 15 16. Of these things put them in remembrance charging them before God that they STRIVE not about WORDS to no profit but to the subverting of the Hearers Study to shew thy self approved UNTO GOD a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed RIGHTLY DIVIDING the word of Truth But shun profane and vain Bablings for they will increase unto more Ungodliness and their Word will eat as doth a Canker 2 Pet. 3. 16. In which Pauls Epistles are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons at the Sign of the Princes Arms in S t. Pauls Church-yard 1673. Advertisements READERS THE Book is so big that I must make no longer Preface than to give you this necessary short account 1. Of the Quality 2. And the Reasons of this Work I. The matter you will see in the Contents As Amâ—sius his Cases of Conscience are to his Medulla the second and Practical part of Theologie so is this to a Methodus Theologiae which I have not yet published And 1. As to the Method of this it is partly natural but principally Moral that is partly suitable to the real order of the Matter but chiefly of usefulness secundum ordinem Intentionis where our reasons of each location are fetcht from the End Therefore unless I might be tedious in opening my reasons à fine for the order of every particular I know not how to give you full satisfaction But in this Practical part I am the less solicitous about the Accurateness of method because it more belongeth to the former Part the Theory where I do it as well as I am able 2. This Book was written in 1664. and 1665. except the Ecclesiastick Cases of Conscience and a few sheets since added And since the Writing of it some invitations drew me to publish my Reasons of the Christian Religion my Life of Faith and Directions for weak Christians by which the work of the two first Chapters here is fullier done And therefore I was inclined here to leave them out But for the use of such Families as may have this without the other I forbore to dismember it 3. But there is a great disproportion between the several parts of the Book 1. The first Part is largest because I thought that the Heart must be kept with greatest diligence and that if the Tree be good the fruit will be good and I remember Pauls counsel 1 Tim. 4. 16. Take heed to thy self and unto thy Doctrine Continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee Nothing is well done by him that beginneth not at home As the man is so is his strength and work 2. The two first Chapters are too course and tedious for those of the higher form who may pass them over But the rest must be spoken to To whom that is unprofitable which is most suitable and pleasant to more exercised and accurate wits The Grand Directions are but the explication of the essentials of Christianity or of the Baptismal Covenant even of our Relation-duties to God the Father Son in several parts of his Relation and of the Holy Ghost The doctrine of Temptations is handled with brevity because they are so numerous lest a due amplification should have swelled the Book too much when a small part of their number maketh up so much of Mr. Iohn Downame's great and excellent Treatise called The Christian Welfare The great radical sins are handled more largely than seemeth proportionable to the rest because all die when they are dead And I am large about Redeeming Time because therein the sum of a holy obedient life is included 4. If any say Why call you that a sum of Practical Theologie which is but the Directing part and leaveth out the explication reasons various Uses marks motives c I answer 1. Had I intended Sermonwise to say all that might well be said on each subject it would have made many Volumes as big as this 2. Where I thought them needful the explication of each duty and sin is added with marks contraries counterfeits motives c. And Uses are easily added by an ordinary Reader without my naming them 5. I do especially desire you to observe that the resolving of practical Cases of Conscience and the reducing of Theoretical knowledge into serious Christian Practice and promoting a skilful facility in the faithful exercise of universal obedience and Holiness of heart and life is the great work of this Treatise And that where I thought it needful the Cases are reduced to express Questions and Answers But had I done so by all many such Volumes would have been too little And therefore I thought the Directing way most brief and fit for Christian practice For if you mark them you will find few Directions in the Book which may not pass for the answer of an implyed Question or Case of Conscience And when I have given you the Answer in a Direction an ingenious Reader can tell what Question it is that is answered And so many hundred Cases are here resolved especially in the two first Parts which are not interrogatively named 6. And I must do my self the right as to notifie to the Reader that this Treatise was written when I was for not-subscribing Declaring c. forbidden by the Law to Preach and when I had been long separated far from my Library and from all Books saving an inconsiderable parcel which wandred with me where I went By which means this Book hath two defects 1. It hath no Cases of Conscience but what my bare memory brought to hand And Cases are so
called to preach and not to write But I must reverence you more than to suppose you so absurd Other men forbid you but less publick preaching and you reproach me for more publick Preaching that 's the difference How hard is it to know what Spirit we are of Did you think that you had been Patrons of idleness and Silencers of Ministers while you declaim so much against it Your pretence that you would have me preach more is feigned Are you sure that you preach ofter than I do When I perswaded Ministers heretofore to Catechize and instruct all their Parishes personally family by family you said it was more toil than was our duty and now you are against much Writing too and yet would be thought laborious Ministers And as to the number and length of my Writings it is my own labour that maketh them so and my own great trouble that the world cannot be sufficiently instructed and edified in fewer words But 1. Would not all your Sermons set together be as long And why is not much and long preaching blameable if long Writings be 2. Are not the works of Augustine and Chrysostome much longer Who yet hath reproached Aquinas or Suarez Calvin or Zanchy c. for the number and greatness of the Volumes they have written Why do you contradict your selveâ— by affecting great Libraries 3. When did I ever perswade any one of you to buy or read any Book of mine What harm will they do those that let them alone Or what harm can it do you for other men to read them Let them be to you as if they had never been written and it will be nothing to you how many they are And if all others take not you for their Tutors to choose for them the Books that they must read that is not my doing but their own If they err in taking themselves to be fitter Judges than you what tendeth most to their own Edification why do you not teach them better 4. Either it is Gods Truth or Error which I write If Error Why doth no one of you shew so much Charity as by Word or Writing to instruct me better nor evince it to my face but do all to others by backbiting If Truth What harm will it do If men had not leisure to read our Writings the Booksellers would silence us and save you the labour For none would Print them 5. But who can please all men Whilest a few of you cry out of too much what if twenty or an hundred for one be yet for more How shall I know whether you or they be the wiser and the better men Readers you see on what terms we must do the work of God Our slothful flesh is backward and weary of so much labour Malignant enemies of piety are against it all Some slothful brethren think it necessary to cloak their fleshly ease by vilifying the diligence of others Many Sects whom we oppose think it the interest of their cause which they call Gods cause to make all that 's said against them seem vain contemptible and odious which because they cannot do by Confutation they 'le do by backbiting and confident chat And one or two Reverend Brethren have by the wisdom described exactly Iames 3. 15 16. arrived at the liberty of backbiting and Magisterial sentencing the works of others which they confess they never read that their Reputation of being most Learned Orthodox Worthy Divines may keep the Chair at easier rates than the wasting of their flesh in unwearied labours to know the truth and communicate it to the world And some are angry who are forward to write that the Booksellers and Readers silence not others as well as them Object II. Your Writings differing from the common judgement have already caused offence to the godly Answ. 1. To the Godly that were of a contrary opinion only Sores that will not be healed use to be exasperated by the Medicine 2. It was none but healing Pacificatory Writings that have caused that offence 3. Have not those dissenters Writings more offended the Godly that were against them They have but one trick to honour their denyal which more dishonoureth it even by unsanctifying those that are not of their minds 4. If God bless me with opportunity and help I will offend such men much more by endeavouring further than ever I have done the quenching of that fire which they are still blowing up and detecting the folly and mischief of those Logomachies by which they militate against Love and Concord and enflame and tear the Church of God And let them know that I am about it But some Pastors as well as people have the weakness to think that all our Preachings and Writings must be brought under their dominion and to their barr by the bare saying that We offend the Godly that is those of their opinion which they falsly call by the name of scandal 5. But I think they will find little Controversie to offend them in this Book Object III. You should take more leisure and take other mens judgement of your Writings before you thrust them out so hastily Answ. 1. I have but a little while to live and therefore must work while it is day Time will not stay 2. I do shew them to those that I take to be most judicious and never refused any mans censure But it is not many that have leisure to do me so great a kindness But that I commit them not to the perusal of every Objector is a fault uncurable by one that never had an Amanuensis and hath but one Copy usually 3. And if I could do it how should I be sure that they would not differ as much among themselves as they do from me And my Writings would be like the Picture which the great Painter exposed to the censure of every passenger and made it ridiculous to all when he altered all that every one advised him to alter And to tell you the truth I was never yet blamed by one side as not sufficiently pleasing them but I was blamed also by the contrary side for coming so near them And I had not wit enough to know which party of the accusers was the wiser And therefore am resolved to study to please God and Conscience and to take man-pleasing when inconsistent for an impossible and unprofitable work and to cease from man whose breath is in his Nostrils whose thoughts all perish as he passeth off the Judicature of his Stage to the Judicature of God Object IV. Your Ecclesiastical Cases are dangerously reconciling tending to abate mens zeal against Error Answ. The world hath long enough escaped the danger of Peace and Reconciliation It had been well if they had as long escaped the danger of your Conceited-Orthodox strife which hath brought in confusion and all evil works I take it to be a Zeal effectively against Love and against Unity and against Christ which with the Preachers of extreams goeth under the name of
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
or a member of a particular Church who liveth so far from it as to be uncapable of personal communion with them p. 843 Q. 66. If a man be injuriously suspended or Excommunicated by the Pastor or people which way shall he have remedy ibid. Q. 67. Doth presence always make us guilty of the â—vils or faults of the Pastor in Gods Worship or of the Church or In what cases are we guilty ibid. Q. 68. Is it lawful to communicate in the Sacrament with wicked men p. 844 Q. 69. Have all the members of the Church right to the Lords Table and is suspension Lawful ibid. Q. 70. Is there any such thing in the Church as a rank or Classis or species of Church-members at age who are not to be admitted to the Lords Table but only to the hearing the Word and Prayer between Infant members and adult-confirmed ones p. 845 Q. 71. Whether a form of Prayer be lawful p. 847 Q. 72. Are formes of prayer or Preaching in the Church Lawful ibid. Q. 73. Are publick forms of mans devising or composing Lawful ibid. Q. 74. Is it lawful to Impose forms on the Congregation or the people in publick Worship p. 848 Q. 75. Is it Lawful to use forms composed by man and imposed not only on the people but on the Pastors of the Churches ibid. Q. 76. Doth not the calling of a Minister so consist in the exercise of his own ministerial gifts that he may not officiate without them nor make use of other mens gifts instead of them p. 849 Q. Is it lawful to read a Prayer in the Church p. 850 Q. 77. Is it Lawful to Pray in the Church without a prescribed or premeditated form of words ibid. Q. 78. Whether are set forms of words or free praying without them the better way and what are the Commodities and Incommodities of each way p. 851 Q. 79. Is it Lawful to forbear the Preaching of some truths upon mans prohibition that I may have liberty to Preach the rest yea and to promise to forbear them or to do it for the Churches peace p. 853 Q. 80. May or must a Minister silenced or forbid to Preach the Gâ—spel go on still to Preach it against the Law p. 854 Q. 81. May we lawfully keep the Lords day as a fast p. 855 Q. 82. How should the Lords day be spent in the main ibid. Q. 83. May the people bear a vocal part in Worship or do any more than say Amen p. 856 Q. 84. Is it not a sin for our Clerks to make themselves the mouth of the people who are not ordained Ministers of Christ p. 857 Q. 85. Are repetitions of the same words in Churchpraâ—ers lawful p. 858 Q. 86. Is it lawful to bow at the name of Iesus ibid. Q. 87. Is it Lawful to stand up at the Gospel as we are appointed ibid. Q. 88. Is it lawful to kneel when the Deâ—alogue is read p. 859 Q 89. What Gestures are fittest in all the publick Worship ibid. Q. 90. What if the Pastor and Church cannot agree about singing Psalms or what Version or Translation to use or time or place of meeting c. ibid. Q. 91. What if the Pastor excommunicate a man and the people will not forbear his Communion as thinking him unjustly excommunicated p. 860 Q. 92. May a whole Church or the greater part be excommunicated ibid. Q. 93. What if a Church have two Pastors and one excommunicate a man and the other absolve him what shall the Church and the Dissenter do p. 861 Q. 94. For what sins may a man be denyed Communion or Excommunicated Whether for impenitence in every little sin Or For great sin without impenitence ibid. Q. 95. Must the Pastor examine the people before the Sacrament ibid. Q. 96. Is the Sacrament of the Lords Supper a Converting Ordinance p. 862 Q. 97. Must no man come to the Sacrament that is uncertain or doubtful of the sincerity of his faith and repentance ibid. Q. 98. Is it Lawful or a duty to joyn oblations to the Sacrament and how p. 863 Q. 99. How many Sacraments are there appointed by Christ ibid. Q. 100. How far is it lawful needful or unlawful for a man to afflict himself by external penances for sin p. 864 Q. 101. Is it lawful to observe stated times of fasting imposed by others without extraordinary occasions And particularly Lent p. 865 Q. 102. May we continue in a Church where some one Ordinance of Christ is wanting as Discipline Prayer Preaching or Sacraments though we have all the rest p. 866 Q 103. Must the Pastors remove from one Church to another when ever the Magistrate commandeth us though the Bishops contradict it and the Church consent not to dismiss us And so of other cases of disagreement p. 867 Q. 104. Is a Pastor â—bliged to his flock for life or is it Lawful so to oblige himself And may he remove without their Consent And so also of a Chuch member the same questions are put p. 868 Q. 105. When many men pretend at once to be the true Pastors of a particular Church against each others title through differences between the Magistrates the Ordainers and the flocks what should the people do and whom should they adhere to p. 869 Q. 106. To whom doth it belong to Reform a Corrupted Church To the Magistrates Pastors or People p 869 Q. 107. Who is to call Synods Princes Pastors or People ibid. Q. 108. To whom doth it belong to appoint dayes and Assemblies for publick Humiliation and Thanksgiving p. 870 Q. 109. May we omit Church Assemblies on the Lords day if the Magistrate forbid them ibid. Q. 110. Must we obey the Magistrate if he only forbid us Worshipping God in such a place or Countrey or in such numbers or the like circumstances p. 871 Q. 111. Must Subjects or Servants forbear weekly Lectures Reading or such helps above the Lords days worship if Princes or Masters do forbid them p. 871 Q. 112. Whether Religious Worship may be given to a Creature and what p. 872 Q. 113. What Images and what use of Images is Lawful or Unlawful p. 873 Q. 114 Whether Stage-plays where the virtuous and vitious are personated be lawful p. 877 Q. 115. Is it ever unlawful to use the known Symbols and badges of Idolatry p. 878 Q. 116. Is it unlawful to use the Badge or Symbol of any errour or sect in the Worship of God p. 879 Q. 117. Are all Indifferent things made unlawful to us which shall be abused to Idolatrâ—us Worship p. 879 Q. 118. May we use the names of week dayes which Idolatâ—rs honoured their Idols with â—s Sunday Munday Saturday and the rest And so the Months p. 880 Q. 119. Is it lawful to pray secretly when we come first into the Church especially when the Church is otherwise employed ibid. Q. 120. May a Preacher kneel down in the Pulpit and use his private prayers when he is in the Assembly p. 881
6. Cases about losing and finding Q. 1. Must we seek out the loser to restore what we find Q. 2. May I take a reward as my due for restoring what I found Q. 3. May I wish to find any thing in my way or be glad that I find it Q. 4. May I not keep it if no owner be found Q. 5. If others be present when I find it may I not conceal or keep it to my self Q 6. Who must stand to the loss of goods trusted to another p. 130 Tit. 7. Directions to Merchants Factors Travellers Chaplains that live among Heathens Infidels or Papists p. 131 Q. 1. Is it lawful to put ones self or servants specially young unsetled Apprentices into the temptations of an Infidel or Popish Countrey meerly to get Riches as Merchants do p. 131 Q. 2. May a Merchant or Embassadour leave his Wife to live abroad p. 132 Q. 3. Is it lawful for young Gentlemen to travail into other Kingdoms as part of their education The danger of Common Traveling p. 133 Directions for all these Travellers in their abode abroad p. 135 CHAP. XX. Motives and Directions against Oppression The sorts of it The greatness of the sin of Oppression The Cure p. 137 Tit. 2. Cases about Oppression especially of Tenants p. 140 Q. 1. Is it lawful to buy land of a liberal Landlord when the buyer must needs set it dearer than the Sâ—lâ—er did Q. 2. May one take as much for his Land as it is worth Q. 3. May he raise his Rents Q. 4. How much below the full worth must a Landlord set his Land Q. 5. May not a Landlord that is in debt or hath a payment to pay raise his Rents to pay it Q. 6. If I cannot relieve the honest poor without raising the Rent of Tenants that are worthy of less charity may I do it Q. 7. May I penally raise a Tenants Rent or turn him out because he is a bad man Q. 8. May one take house or Land while another is in possession of it Q. 9. May a rich man put out his Tenants to lay the Lands to his own dâ—mesnes Q. 10. May one Tenant have divers Tenements Q. 11. May one have divers Trades Q. 12. Or keep shops in several Market Towns CHAP. XXI Cases and Directions about Prodigality and sinful waste What it is p. 143. Wayes of sinful waste Q. 1. Are all men bound to fare alike Or what is excess Q. 2. What cost on visits and entertainments is lawful Whether the greatest good is still to be preferred Q. 3. What is excess in buildings Q. 4. May we not in building dyet c. be at some charge for our Delight as well as for Necessity Q. 5. When are Recreations too costly Q. 6. When is Apparel too costly Q. 7. When is Retinue Furniture and other pomp too costly Q. 8. When is House-keeping too costly Q. 9. When are Childrens Portions too great Q. 10. How far is frugality in small matters a duty Q. 11. Must all labour in a Calling Q. 12. May one desire to increase and grow rich Q. 13. Can one be prodigal in giving to the Church Q. 14. May one give too much to the poor Q. 15. May the Rich lay out on conveniences pomp or pleasure when multitudes are in deep necessities Directions against Prodigality p. 143 c. CHAP. XXII Cases and Directions against injurious Law suits witnessing and judgement p. 148 Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Law suits and proceedings Q. 1. When is it Lawful to go to Law Q. 2. May I Sue a poor man for a Debt or Trespass Q. 3. May I Sue a Surety whose interest was not concerned in the debt Q. 4. May I Sue for the Use of Money Q. 5. May Law Suits be used to vex and humble an insolent bad man Q. 6. May a rich man use his friends and purse to bear down a poor man that hath a bad cause Q. 7. May one use such forms in Law Suits Declarations Answers c. as are false according to the proper sense of the words Q. 8. May a guilty person plead Not guilty Q. 9. Is a man bound to accuse himself and offer himself to justice Q. 10. May a witness voluntarily speak that truth which he knoweth will be ill used Q. 11. May a witness conceal part of the truth Q. 12. Must a Iudge or Iury proceed secundum allegata probata when they know the witness to be false or the Cause bad but cannot evince it T it 2. Directions against these sins p. 150. The evil of unjust Suits The evil of false witness The evil of unjust judgements The Cure p. 150 CHAP. XXIII Cases of Conscience and Directions against backbiting Slandering and Evil speaking p. 152 Tit. 1. Q. 1. May we not speak evil of that which is evil Q. 2. May not the contrary be sinful silence and befriending mens sins Q. 3. What if Religious credible persons report it Q. 4. If I may not speak it may I not believe them Q. 5. May we not speak ill of open persecutors or enemies of Godliness Q. 6. What if it be one whose reputation countenanceth his ill Cause and his defamation would disable him Q. 7. If I may not make a true Narrative of matters of fact how may we write true Histories for posterity Q. 8. What if it be one that hath been ofâ— admonished Q. 9. Or one that I cannot speak to face to face Q. 10. In what Cases may we open anothers faults Q. 11. What if I hear men praise the wicked or their sins T it 2. Directions against back-biting slandering and evil speaking p. 154 Tit. 3. The great evil of these sins p. 155 CHAP. XXIV Cases of and Directions against Censoriousness and sinful judging p. 157 Tit. 1. Cases Q. 1. Am I not bound to judge truly of every one as he is Q. 2. How far may we judge ill of one by outward appearance as face gesture c. Q. 3. How far may we censure on the report of others Q. 4. Doth not the fifth Command bind us to judge better of Parents and Princes than their lives declare them to be Q. 5. Whom must we judge sincere and holy Christians Q. 6. Is it not a sin to err and take a man for better than he is Q. 7. Whom must I take for a visible Church member Q. 8. Whom must I judge a true Worshipper of God Q. 9. Which must I take for a true Church Q. 10. Whom must we judge true Prophets and true Pastors of the Church p. 157 Tit. 2. Directions for the Cure of sinful Censoriousness p. 159 Tit. 3. The evil of the sin of Censoriousness p. 160 Tit. 4. Directions for those that are rashly censured by others p. 162 CHAP. XXV Cases and Directions about Trusts and Secrets p. 163 Tit. 3. The Cases Q. 1. How must we not put our Trust in man Q. 2. Whom to choose for a Trust Q. 3. When may I commit a
more for Heaven or Earth And therefore that thou art capable of self-judging in this case Perhaps you will say that while I am directing you to be Holy I suppose you to be Holy first For all this seemeth to go far towards it But I must profess that I see not any thing in all these suppositions but what I may suppose to be in a Heathen And that I think all this is but supposing thee to have the use of thy Reason in the points in hand Speak freely Is there any one of all these points that thou canst or darest deny I think there is not And therefore if Heathens and wicked men deny them in their practise that doth but shew that sin doth bruitifie them and that as men asleep or in a crowd of business they have not the use of the Reason which they possess in the matters which their minds are turned from § 21. 18. Yea one thing more I think I may suppose in all or most that will read this Book 18. That most among us profess to believe in Christ and confess the Gospel to be true c. that you take on you also to believe in Iesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier and that the Scriptures are the Word of God And if you do so indeed I may then hope that my work is in a manner done before I begin it But if you do it but opinionatively and uneffectually yet God and man may plead with you the truths which you profess § 22. Having told you what I presuppose in you I proceed now to the Directions But I again intreat and charge thee Reader as thou lovest thy soul and wouldst not be condemned for Hypocrisie and sloth that thou dost not refuse to put in practise what is taught thee and shew thereby that Abâ—â—nt omâ—ia â—â—d oâ—ta sunt Câ—â— in Cat. Maj. Dii immortales sparserunt animos iâ— corpora humana ut essâ—nt qui terras tuerentur quique coelestem ordinem contemplantes imitarentur eum vitae â—odo atque Constantia Câ—c in Cato majore Ex terrâ sunt homines non ut iâ—colae habitatores sed quasi spectatores superarum rerum atque 〈…〉 tium quâ—â—um spâ—ctacuâ—um ad nullum aliud genus animantium pertinet Cicero 2. de Nat. Deor. Sic habeto te non esse mortalem sed 〈…〉 us hoc Idem Somn. Scip. Cum natura caeteras animantes abjecisset ad pastum solum hominâ—m erexit ad coeli quasi cognationis doâ—â—ciâ—iique pristini conspectum excâ—tavit tum speciem ita formavit oris ut in ea penitus reconditos mores effingeret Cic. 1. de Legib. Nisi Deus 〈◊〉 tâ— coâ—poris custodiis liberaverit ad coelum aditus patere non potest Cicero Somn. Scip. Animi omnium sunt immortales sed bonorum diâ—iâ—i Cic. 2. de â—egib Boaorum mentes mihi divinae atque aeternae videntur ex hominum vita ad deorum religionem sanctimoniamque migrare Idem Animus est ingeneâ—atus à Deo ex quo vere vel agnatio nobis cum coelestibus vel genus vel stirps appellaâ—i potest Idem 1. de Leg. whatever thou pretendest thou are not willing to do thy part for thy own salvation no not in the most reasonable necessary things Direction 1. IF thou be truly willing to be sanctified and a child of God Remain not in a state of Ignorance Direct 1. but do thy best to come into the light and understand the Word of God in the matters of salvation § 1. If knowledge be unnecessary why have we Understanding And wherein doth a man excell Qui seipsâ—m cognoverit cogno â—â—t in sâ— omnia Deum ad cujus imaâ—iâ—â—â—â— factus est M 〈…〉 d on câ—jus si â—ula 〈…〉 n geâ—it 〈…〉 as omnes cum quibus symboâ—â—m habet Paul Scaligeâ— Thes. p. 72â— a Beast If any knowledge at all be necessary certainly it must be the knowledge of the greatest and most necessary things And nothing is so great and necessary as to Obey thy Maker and to save thy soul. Knowledge is to be valued according to its Usefulness If it be a matter of as great concernment to know how to do your worldly business and to trade and gather worldly wealth and to understand the Laws and to maintain your honour as it is to know how to be reconciled unto God to be pardoned and justified to please your Creator to prepare in time for death and judgement and an endless life then let worldly wisdom have the preheminence But if all earthly things be dreams and shadows and valuable only as they serve us in the way to Heaven then surely the Heavenly Wisdom is the best Alas how far is that man from being wise that is acquainted with all the punctilio's of the Law that is excellent in the knowledge of all the Languages Sciences and Arts and yet knoweth not how to Live to God to mortifie the flesh to conquer sin to deny himself nor to answer in Judgement for his fleshly life nor to escape damnation As far is such a Learned man from being wise as he is from being happy § 2. Two sorts among us do quietly live in damning ignorance First Abundance of poor people who think they may continue in it because they were bred in it and that because they are not Book-learned therefore they need not learn how to be saved and because their Parents neglected to teach them when they were young therefore they may neglect themselves ever after and need not learn the things they were made for Alas Sirs What have you your lives your time and Reason for Do you think it is only to know how to do your worldly business Or is it to prepare for a better world It is better that you knew not how to eat or drink or speak or go or dress your selves than that you know not the will of God and the way to your salvation Hear what the Holy Ghost saith 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. But if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them Darkness is unsafe and full of fears the Light is safe and comfortable A man in ignorance is never like to hit his way Nor can he know whether he be in or out nor what enemy or danger he is near It is the Devil that is the Prince of Darkness and his Kingdom is a Kingdom of darkness and his works are works of darkness See Ephes. 6. 12. Col. 1. 13. 1 Iohn 2. 11. Luke 11. 34 35. Grace turneth men from darkness to light Acts 26. 18. and causeth them to cast off the works of darkness Rom. 13. 12. Because we are the children of light and of the day and not of darkness or of night 1
Thess. 5. 5. They that were sometimes darkness are light in the Lord when they are converted and must walk as the children of the light Ephes. 5. 8. In the dark the Devil and wicked men may cheat you and do almost what they list with you You will not buy your wares in the dark nor travel or do your work in the dark And will you judge of the state of your souls in the dark and do the work of your salvation in the dark I tell you the Devil could never entice so many souls to Hell if he did not first put out the light or put out their eyes They would never so follow him by crowds to everlasting torments by day-light and with open eyes If men did but know well what they do when they are sinning and whither they go in a carnal life they would quickly stop and go no further All the Devils in Hell could never draw so many thither if mens Ignorance were not the advantage of temptations § 3. Another sort among us that are Ignorant of the things of God are sensual Gentlemen and Schollars Cum quâ—m paenitet pâ—câ—asse pene innoceâ—s est Maxima pâ—rgationum pars est volunta ia poeâ—iâ—entia dâ—lictoâ—um Scal. Thes. p. 74â— Faâ—ilius iis ignos itur qâ—i non peâ—severaâ—e sed ab â—râ—ato se revâ—care moâ—iâ—ntur est enim hâ—r aâ—â—m peccare sed belluinâ—m iâ— errore persâ—verare Cicero in Vat. Even Aristotle could say that he that believed as he ought of the Gods should think as well of himself as Alexander that commandeth so many men Plutarch de Tranquil Anim. p. 155. Nullus suavior animo cibus est quam cognitio vtâ—itatis Lactant. Instit. l. 1. c. 1. It is a marvelous and doleful case to think how ignorant some people live even to old age under constant and excellent Teaching Some learn neither words nor sense but hear as it they heard not Some learn words and know the sense no more than if they had learnt but a tongue unknown And will repeat their Creed and Catechism when they know not what it is that they say A worthy Minister of Helvetia told me that their people are very constant at their Sermons and yet most of them grosly ignorant of the things which they most frequently hear It is almost incredible what ignorance some Ministers report that they have found in some of the eldest of their auditors Nay when I have examined some that have professed strictness in Religion above the common sort of people I have found some ignorant of some of the fundamentals of the Christian faith And I remember what an ancient Bishop about twelve hundred years ago saith Maximus Taurinensis in his Homilies that when he had long preached to his people even on an evening after one of his Sermons he heard a cry or noise among the people and hearkening what it was they were by their outcry helping to deliver the Moon that was in labour and wanted help His words are Quis non moleste ferat sic vos esse vestrae salutis immemores ut etiam coelo teste peccetis Nam cum ante dies plerosque cum cupiditate pulsaverim ipsa die circiter vesperam tanta vociferatio populi extitit ut irreligiositas ejus penetraret ad coelum Quod cum requirerim quid sibi clamor hic velit dixerunt mihi quod Laboranti Lunae vestra vociferatio subveniret defectum ejus suis clamoris adjuvaret Risi equidem miratus sum vanitatem quod quasi devoti Christiani Deo â—erebatis auxilium Claâ—abatis enim ne â—acentibus vobis elementum tanquam infirmus enim imbecillis nisi vestâ—is adjuvaretur vocibus noâ— possâ—t luminaria defendere quae creavit It is cited also by Papiriuâ— Massonus in vita Hilarii Papae â—ol 67. Therefore Popery is suitable to the children of darkness and unsuitable to the children of light because it greatly befriendeth ignorancé hindering the people from reading the holy Scriptures and quieting them with the opiate of an easie implicite faith in believing as the Roman Church believeth though they know not what it believeth or mistake and think it believeth that which it doth not Ockam lib. de Sa ram Altar cap. 1. citeth Innocent Extra de sum Trin. to prove the great benefit and efficacy of implicite faith that it would prove an error to be no sin In tantum inquit valet fides iâ—plicita ut dicunt aliqui ut si aliquis eam habet quod scilicet credit quicquid Ecclesia credit si false opinatur ratione naturali motus quia pater est vel prior filio vel quod tres pâ—rjonae sint tâ—es â—â—s ab invicem distantes non est haeâ—eticus nec peccat dâ—mmodo hunc errorem non defendat hoc ipsum credit quia credit Ecclesiam sic credeâ—e suam opinionem fidei Ecclesiae supponit Quia licet sic male opinâ—tur non tamen est illa fides sua immo fides sua est fides Ecclesiae This implicite faith being nothing but to believe that the Church erreth not is not an Implicite faith in God to believe that all that God revealeth is true which all men have that believe in God as rational an excuse for ignorance and error as a belief in the Church of â—ome This is too short and easie a faith to be effectual to the true ends of faith Si igitur tantae sit efficaciae fides implâ—câ—â—a ut excuset ignoranter erraâ—tem ciâ—ca illa quae in Scriptura Canonica sunt expressa multo magis excusaâ—it ignoranter opinaâ—tem aliqâ—id quod nec in Scripâ—uâ—a Canonica reperituâ— expressum Okam ibid. that have so much breeding as to understand the words and speak somewhat better than the ruder sort but indeed never knew the nature truth and goodness of the things they speak of They are many of them as ignorant of the nature of faith and sanctification and the workings of the Holy Ghost in planting the Image of God upon the soul and of the Saints communion with God and the nature of a holy life as if they had never heard or believed that there is such a thing as any of these in being Nicodemus is a lively instance in this case A Ruler in Israel and a Pharisee and yet knew not what it was to be born again And the pride of these Gallants maketh their ignorance much harder to be cured than other mens because it hindereth them from knowing and confessing it If any one would convince them of it they say with scorn as the Pharisees to Christ Iohn 9. 40. Are we blind also Yea they are ready to insult over the Children of the Light that are wise to salvation because they differ from the loose or hypocritical Opinions of these Gentlemen in some matters of Gods Worship of which their Worships are as competent Judges as the Pharisees of the doctrine of Christ or as Nicodemus of Regeneration or
the world Rom. 8. 1 5 6 7 8 10 13 14. Whether all that were baptized are such as these when they come to age judge you § 4. It is true also that if you truly Repent you are forgiven But it is as true that true Repentance is the very Conversion of the soul from sin to God and leaveth not any man in the power of sin It is not for a man when he hath had all the pleasure that sin will yield him to wish then that he had not committed it which he may do then at an easie rate and yet to keep the rest that are still pleasant and profitable to his flesh Like a man that casts away the bottle which he hath drunk empty but keeps that which is full Or as men sell off their barren Kine and buy milch ones in their stead This kind of Repentance is a mockery and not a cure for the soul. If thou have true Repentance it hath so far turned thy heart from sin that thou wouldst not commit it if it were to do ☞ again though thou hadst all the same temptations And it hath so far turned thy heart to God and Holiliness that thou wouldst live a holy life if it were all to do again though thou hadst the same temptations as afore against it Because thou hast not the same heart This is the nature of true Repentance such a Repentance indeed is never too late to save but I am sure it never comes too soon § 5. Mark now I beseech you what a state of sin and what a state of Holiness is He that is in a state of sin hath habitually and predominantly a greater love to some pleasures or profits or honours of this world than he hath to God and to the glory which he hath promised He preferreth and seeketh and holdeth if he can his fleshly prosperity in this world before the favour of God and the happiness of the world to come His heart is turned from God unto the creature and is principally set on things on earth Thus his sin is the blindness and madness and perfidiousness and Idolatry of his soul and his forsaking of God and his salvation for a thing of nought It is that to his soul which poyson and death and sickness and lameness and blindness are to his body It is such dealing with God as that man is guilty of to his dearest friend or Father who should hate him and his company and love the company of a Dog or a Toad much better than his and obey his enemy against him And it is like a mad mans dealing with his Physicion who seeks to kill him as his enemy because he crosseth his appetite or will to cure him Think of this well and then tell me whether this be a state to be continued in This state of sin is something worse than a meer inconsiderate act of sin in one that otherwise liveth an obedient holy life § 6. On the other side a state of Holiness is nothing else but the Habitual and predominant devotion Nulla Religio vera est nisi 〈◊〉 virâ—â—t justitiâ— constat Id. ibid. and dedication of soul and body and life and all that we have to God An esteeming and loving and serving and seeking him before all the pleasures and prosperity of the flesh Making his favour and everlasting Happiness in Heaven our End and Jesus Christ our way and referring all things in the world unto that end and making this the scope design and business of our lives It is a turning from a deceitful world to God and preferring the Creator before the creature and Heaven before Earth and Eternity before an inch of Time and our souls before our corruptible bodies and the authority and Laws of God the Universal Governour of the world before the word or will of any man how great soever and a subjecting our sensitive faculties to our Reason and advancing this Reason by Divine Revelation and living by faith and not by sight In a word it is a laying up our treasure in Heaven and setting our hearts there and living in a Heavenly conversation setting our affections on the things above and not on the things that are on earth and a rejoicing in hope of the glory to come when sensualists have nothing but transitory bruitish pleasures to rejoyce in This is a state and life of Holiness when we perswade you to be Holy we perswade you to no worse than this When we commend a life of Godliness to your Choice this is the life that we mean and that we commend to you And can you understand this well and yet be unwilling of it It cannot be Do but know well what Godliness and Ungodliness is what Grace and Sin are and the work is almost done Direction 3. TO know what a life of Holiness is believe the Word of God and those that have Direct 3. tryed it and believe not the slanders of the Devil and of ungodly men that never tryed or knew the things which they reproach § 1. Reason cannot question the reasonableness of this advice Who is wiser than God or who is to be believed before him And what men are liker to know what they talk of then such as speak from their own experience Nothing more familiar with wicked men than to slander and reproach the holy wayes and servants of the Lord. No wisdom no measure of Holiness or righteousness will exempt the Godly from their malice Otherwise Christ himself at least would have been exempted if not his Apostles or other Saints whom they have slandered and put to death Christ hath foretold us what to expect from them John 15. 18 19 20 21. If the world hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you If you were of the world the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you Remember the word that I said unto you The servant is not greater than the Lord If they have persecuted me they will also persecute you if they have kept my sayings they will keep yours also § 2. The truth is wicked men are the seed and children of the Devil and have his image and obey him and think and speak and do as he would have them And the Godly are the seed and members of Christ and bear his Image and obey him And do you think that the Devil will bid Victor utic saith that the Arrian Goths tormented the devoted Virgins to force them to confess that their Pastors had committed fornication with them but no torment prevaâ—â—ed with them though manâ— were killed with it pag. 407 408. lib. 2. Terrent praecepâ—â—s â—â—ralibus ut in medio Vandalorum nostri nâ—llatâ—â—us respirarent Neâ— usâ— quaâ—â—e orandi aut immolandi conâ—edâ—retâ—r gâ—mâ—ntibus locus Nam diversae calumniae non dâ—erant quotidie etiam illis sacerdotibus qui in his
indeed in a graceless state in which if they died they were past all hope that they would not quickly look about them and better understand the offers of a Saviour and live in continual solicitude and fear till they found themselves in a safer state If you were sure your selves that you must yet be made new creatures or be damned would it not set you on work to seek more diligently after grace than ever you have done The Devil knoweth this well enough that he could scarce keep you quiet this night in his snares but you would be ready to repent and beg for mercy and resolve on a new life before to morrow if you were but sure that you are yet in a state of condemnation And therefore he doth all that he can to hide your sin and danger from your eyes and to quiet you with the conceit that though you are sinners yet you are penitent pardoned and safe § 3. Well Sirs there can be no harm in knowing the truth And therefore will you but try your selves Whether you are unsanctified or not You were baptized into the name of the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier and if now you neglect or mock at sanctification what do you but deride your Baptism or neglect that which is its sense and end It doth not so much concern you to know that you live the life of nature as to know whether sanctification have made you spiritually alive to God § 4. And let me tell you this to your encouragement that we do not call you to know that you are unconverted and unpardoned and miserable as men that have no remedy but must sit down in despair and be tormented with the fore-knowledge of your endless pains before the time No it is but that you may speedily and thankfully accept of Christ the full remedy and turn to God and quickly get out of your sin and terror and enter into a life of safety and of peace We desire not your continuance in that life which tendeth to despair and horror we would have you out of it if it were in our power before to morrow and therefore it is that we would have you understand what danger you are in that you may go no further but speedily turn back and seek for help And I hope there is no hurt though there be some present trouble in such a discovery of your danger as this is Well if you are but willing to know I shall help you a little to know what you are § 5. 1. IF you are persecutors or haters or deriders of men for being serious and diligent in the service Marks of 〈…〉 of God and fearful of sinning and because they go not with the multitude to do evil it is a certain sign that you are in a state of death Yea if you love not such men and desire not rather to be such your selves than to be the greatest of the ungodly See Gal. 4. 29. Acts 26. 11. 1 Tim. 1. 13. 1 Pet. 4. 2 3 4 5. Psal. 15. 4. 1 Iohn 3. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15. Iohn 13. 35. Psal. 84. 10. § 6. 2. If you love the world best and set your affections most on things below and mind most earthly things nay if you seek not first Gods Kingdom and the righteousness thereof and if your hearts be not in Heaven and your affections set on the things that are above and you prefer not your hopes of life eternal before all the pleasures and prosperity of this world it is a certain sign that you are but worldly and ungodly men See this in Matth. 6. 19 20 21 33. Phil. 3. 18 19 20. Col. 3. 1 2 3 4. Psal. 73. 25. 1 Iohn 2 15 16 17. Iames 1. 27. Luke 12. 20 21. 16. 25. § 7. 3. If your estimation belief and hopes of everlasting life through Christ be not such as will prevail with you to deny your selves and forsake Father and Mother and the nearest friends and house and land and life and all that you have for Christ and for these hopes of a happiness hereafter you are no true Christians nor in a state of saving grace See Luke 14. 26 33. Matth. 10. 37 38 39. Matth. 13. 21 22. § 8. 4. If you have not been converted regenerated and sanctified by the Spirit of Jesus Christ making you spiritual and causing you to mind the things of the Spirit above the things of the flesh If this Spirit be not in you and you walk not after it but after the flesh making provision for the flesh to satisfie its desires and preferring the pleasing of the flesh before the pleasing of God it is certain that you are in a state of death See Matth. 18. 3. Iohn 3. 3 5 6. Heb. 12. 14. Rom. 8. 1. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13. 13. 13 14. Luke 16. 19 25. 12. 20 21. Heb. 11. 25 26. 2 Cor. 4. 16 17 18. 5. 7. Rom. 8. 17 18. § 9. 5. If you have any known sin which you do not hate and had not rather leave it than keep it and do not pray and strive and watch against it as far as you know and observe it but rather excuse it plead for it desire it and are loth to part with it so that your will is habitually more for it than against it it is a sign of an impenitent unrenewed heart 1 Iohn 3. 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 24. Gal. 5. 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25. Rom. 7. 22 24. 8. 13. Luke 13. 3 5. Matth. 5. 19 20. 2 Tim. 2. 19 Psal. 5. 5. Luke 13. 27. § 10. 6. If you Love not the Word as it is a light discovering your sin and duty but only as it is a general truth or as it reproveth others If you love not the most searching preaching and would not know how bad you are and come not to the light that your deeds may be manifest it is a sign that you are not children of the light but of the darkness Iohn 3. 19 20 21. § 11. 7. If the Laws of your Creator and Redeemer be not of greatest power and authority with you and the will and word of God cannot do more with you than the word or will of any man and the threatnings and promises of God be not more prevalent with you than the threats or promises of any men it is a sign that you take not God for your God but in heart are Atheists and ungodly men Luke 19. 27. Matth. 7. 21 22 23 26. Dan. 3. 16 17 18. 6. 5 10. Ier. 17. 5 6. Luke 12. 4. Acts 5. 29. Psal. 14. 1 c. § 12. 8. If you have not in a deliberate Covenant or resolution devoted and given up your selves to God as your Father and felicity to Jesus Christ as your only Saviour and your Lord and King and to the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier to be made holy by him desiring that your heart and life
decent and editying determination of the outward circumstances of Religion and the right ordering of Worship is a needless thing or sinful or that a form of prayer in it self or when imposed is unlawful But let the Soul and Body of Religion go together and the alterable adjuncts be used as things alterable while the life of Holiness is still kept up Direct 19. PRomise not your selves long life or prosperity and great matters in the world lest it entangle Direct 19. your hearts with transitory things and engage you in ambitious or covetous designs and steal away your hearts from God and destroy all your serious apprehensions of Eternity § 1. Our own experience and the alterations which the approach of death makes upon the most doth sensibly prove that the expectation of a speedy change and reckoning upon a short life doth greatly help us in all our preparation and in all the work of Holiness through our lives Come to a man that lyeth on his death-bed or a prisoner that is to dye to morrow and try him with Nemini exploratum potest esse quomodo seâ—e habiturum sit corpus non dico ad annum sed ad vesperum Câ—ceâ—o 2. de fit Dii boni quid est in hominis vita diu Mihi ne diuturnum quidem quicquam videtur in quo est aliquid extremum Cum enim id advenit tum illud praeterâ—it eâ—fluxit tan tum remanet quod virtute recte factis fit consecutus hoâ—ae quidem â—edunt diâ—â— meâ—ses anni nec praeteritum tempus unquam revertitur nec quid sequatur sciri potest Cic. in Cat. Maj. Quem saepe transit casus aliquando invenâ— discourse of riches or honours or temptations to lust or drunkenness or excess and he will think you are mad or very impertinent to tell him of such things If he be but a man of Common Reason you shall see that he will more easily vilifie such temptations than many religious persons will do in their prosperity and health O how serious are we in repenting and perusing our former lives and casting up our accounts and asking What we shall do to be saved when we see that death is indeed at hand and time is at an end and we must away Every sentence of Scripture hath then some life and power in it Every word of Exhortation is savoury to us Every reproof of our negligence and sin is then well taken Every thought of sin or Christ or Grace or Eternity goes then to the quick Then time seems precious and if you ask a man whether it be better spent in Cards and Dice and Playes and Feastings and needless recreations and idleness or in prayer and holy conference and reading and meditating on the Word of God and the life to come and the holy use of our lawful labours How easily will he be satisfied of the truth and confute the Cavils of voluptuous time-wasters Then his judgement will easilier be in the right than Learning or Arguments before could make it In a word the expectation of the speedy approach of the soul into the presence of the Eternal God and of our entring into an unchangeable endless life of joy or torment hath so much in it to awaken all the powers of the soul that if ever we will be serious it will make us serious in every thought and speech and duty And therefore as it is a great mercy of God that this life which is so short should be as uncertain and that frequent dangers and sicknesses call to us to look about us and be ready for our change so usually the sickly that look for death are most considerate and it is a great part of the duty of those that are in youth and health to consider their frailty and the shortness and uncertainty of their lives and alwayes live as those that wait for the coming of their Lord. And we have great reason for it when we are certain it will be ere long and when we have so many perils and weaknesses to warn us and when we are never sure to see another hour and when time is so swift so quickly gone so unrecoverable and Nothing when it is past Common reason requireth such to live in a constant readiness to dye § 2. But if youth or health do once make you reckon of living long and make you put away the Nihil tam sirmum câ—â— periculum 〈◊〉 sâ—â— etiam â—â—â—â—vilido day of your departure as if it were far off this will do much to deceive and dull the best and take away the power of every truth and the life of every good thought and duty and all will be apt to dwindle into customariness and form You will hardly keep the faculties of the soul awake if you do not still think of death and judgement as near at hand The greatest Certainty of the greatest Change and the greatest Joy or Misery for ever will not keep our stupid hearts awake unless we look at all as near as well as certain This is plain in the common difference that we find among all men between their thoughts of death in health and when they see indeed that they must presently dye They that in health could think and talk of death with laughter or lightly without any awakening of soul when they come to dye are oftentimes as much altered as if they had never heard before that they are mortal By which it is plain that to live in the house of mirth is more dangerous than to live in the house of mourning and that the expectation of long life is a grievous enemy to the operations of grace and the safety of the soul. § 3. And it is one of the greatest strengtheners of your temptations to luxury ambition worldliness and almost every sin When men think that they shall have many years leisure to repent they are apt the more boldly to transgress when they think that they have yet many years to live it tempteth them to pass away Time in idleness and to loiter in their race and trifle in all their work and to over-value all the pleasures and honours and shadows of felicity that are here below He that hath his life in his House or Land or hath it for inheritance will set more by it and bestow more upon it than if he thought he must go out of it the next year To a man that thinks of liveing many years the favour of great ones the raising of his estate and name and family and the accommodations and pleasing of his flesh will seem great matters to him and will do much with him and will make self-denyal a very hard work § 4. Therefore though Health be a wonderful great mercy as Enabling him to duty that hath a heart to use it to that end yet it is by accident a very great danger and snare to the heart it self to turn it from the way of duty The best life
his Wisdom Clemency and Justice 3. And effectively on his Subjects and Servants who are by his Laws reduced to a Conformity to his mind As a man may first cut his Arms or Image on his seal and then by that seal imprint it on the wax and though it be perfectly cut on the seal it may be imperfectly printed on the wax so Gods Image is naturally perfect in his Son and Regularly or expressively perfect on the seal of his holy Doctrine and Laws but imperfectly on his subjects according to their reception of it in their several degrees § 6. Therefore it is easie to discern their error that tell men the Light or Spirit within them is their Rule and a perfect Rule yea and that it is thus in all men in the world when Gods Word and experience flatly contradict it telling us that Infidels and enemies of God and all the ungodly are in Darkness and not in the Light and that all that speak not according to this Word the Law and Testimony have No Light in them and therefore no perfect Light to be their Rule Isa. 8. 20. The Ministry is sent to bring them from darkness to Light Therefore they had not a sufficient Light in them before Acts 26. 17 18. Wo to them that put darkness for light and light for darkness Isa. 5. 20. telling the children of darkness and the haters of the Light that they have a perfect Light and Rule within them when God saith They have no Light in them See 1 John 1. 5. 4 6 7 8. He that saith he is in the Light and hateth his brother is in darkness even till now 1 John 2. 9 10 11. The Light within a wicked man is darkness and blindness and therefore not his Rule Matth. 6. 23. Ephes. 5. 8. Even the Light that is in godly men is the knowledge of the Rule and not the Rule it self at all nor ever called so by God Our Rule is perfect our knowledge is imperfect for Paul himself saith We know in part But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away Now we see through a glass darkly 1 Cor. 13. 9 10 12. The Gospel is bid to them that are lost being blinded by Satan 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. § 7. There is an admirable unsearchable concurrence of the Spirit and his appointed means and the will of man in the procreation of the new creature and in all the exercises of grace as there is of Male and Female in natural generation and of the Earth the Sun the Rain the industry of the Gardiner and the seminal vertue of Life and specification in the production of Plants with their flowers and fruits And as wise as it would be to say It is not the Male but the Female or the Female but the Male that generateth or to say It is not the Earth but the Sun or not the Sun but the Rain or not the Rain but the seminal Vertue that causeth Plants with Flowers and Fruits So wise is it to say It is not the Spirit but the Word and Means or it is not the Word and Means but the Spirit or it is not the Reason and Will and industry of man but the Spirit Or if we have not wisdom enough to assign to each cause its proper interest in the effect that therefore we should separate what God hath conjoyned or deny the truth of the causation because we comprehend not the manner and influence this is but to choose to be befooled by Pride rather than confess that God is wiser than we § 8. 2. You may here discern also how the Spirit assureth and comforteth believers and how palpably they err that think the Spirit comforteth or assureth us of our salvation without the use of its Evidencing grace The ten things mentioned § 4. is all that the Spirit doth herein But to expect his Comforts without any measure of discerning his graces which can only rationally prove our right to the blessings of the Promise this is to expect that he should comfort a Rational Creature not as Rational but darkly cause him to rejoyce he knoweth not why and that he should make no use of faith to our comfort For faith resteth understandingly upon the Promise and expecteth the performance of it to those that it is made to and not to others Indeed there is a common encouragement and comfort which all men even the worst may take from the universal conditional Promise and there is much abatement of our fears and troubles that may be fetcht from probabilties and uncertain hopes of our own sincerity and interest in the Promise But to expect any other assurance or comfort from the Spirit without Evidence is but to expect immediate revelations or inspirations to do the work which the Word of promise and faith should do The souls Consent to the Covenant of ☜ Grace and fiducial Acceptance of an offered Christ is justifying saâ—ing faith Every man hath an object in the Promise and offer of the Gospel for this act and therefore may rationally perform it Though all have not hearts to do it This may well be called Faith of adherence and is it self our evidence from which we must conclude that we are true Believers The discerning of this Evidence called by some the Reflex act of faith is no act of faith at all it being no believing of another but the act of Conscience knowing what is in our selves The discerning and concluding that we are the children of God participateth of faith and conscientious knowledge which gave us the premises of such a conclusion § 9. 3. You may hence perceive also how we are said to be sealed by the Spirit Even as a mans Eph. 1. 13. Rom. 8. 9. Ephes. 4 30. seal doth signifie the thing sealed to be his own So the Spirit of holiness in us is Gods seal upon us signifying that we are his 2 Tim. 2. 19. Every one that hath the Spirit is sealed by having it and that is his Evidence which if he discern he may know that he is thus sealed § 10. 4. Hereby also you may see what the earnest and first fruits of the Spirit is The Spirit is 2 Coâ— 1. 22. given to us by God as the earnest of the Glory which he will give us To whomsoever he giveth the Spirit of Faith and Love and Holiness he giveth the seed of life eternal and an inclination thereto which is his earnest of it § 11. 5. Hereby also you may see how the Spirit witnesseth that we are the children of God The word Witness is put here principally for Evidence If any one question our adoption the Witness or Evidence which we must produce to prove it is the Spirit of Iesus sanctifying us and dwelling in us This is the chief part at least of the sense of the Text Rom. 8. 16. Though it is true that the same Spirit witnesseth by 1. Shewing us the
diseases of the Understanding may be How the understanding can be the subject oâ— sin called sin Because the Understanding is not a Free but a Necessitated faculty And there can be no sin where there is no Liberty But to clear this it must be considered 1. That it is not this or that faculty that is the full and proper subject of sin but the Man the fulness of sin being made up of the vice of both faculties understanding and will conjunct It s properer to say The man sinned than the Intellect or Will sinned speaking exclusively as to the other 2. Liberum arbitrium Free choice is belonging to the Man and not to his Will only though principally to the Will 3. Though the Will only be Free in it self originally yet the Intellect is Free by participation so far as it is commanded by the Will or dependeth on it for the Exercise of its acts 4. Accordingly though the Understanding primitively and of it self be not the subject of morality of moral Virtues or of moral Vices which are immediately and primarily in the Will yet participatively its Virtues and Vices are moralized and become graces or sins laudable and rewardable or vituperable and punishable as they are imperate by the will or depend upon it Consider then the Acts and Habits and disposition of the Understanding And you will find 1. That some acts and the privation of them are Necessary Naturally Originally and unalterably and these are not virtues or sinful at all as having no morality As to know unwillingly as the Devils do and to Believe when it cannot be resisted though they would this is no moral Vertue at all but a natural perfection only So 1. To be ignorant of that which is no object of knowledge or which is naturally beyond our knowledge as of the Essence of God is no sin at all 2. Nor to be ignorant of that which was never revealed when no fault of ours hindred the revelation is no sin 3. Nor to be without the present actual knowledge or consideration of one point at that moment when our thoughts are lawfully diverted as in greater business or suspended as in sleep 4. But to be ignorant wilfully is a sin participatively in the intellect and originally in the will 5. And to be ignorant for want of Revelation when our selves are the hinderers of that revelation or the meritorious cause that we want it is our sin Because though that ignorance be immediately necessary and hypâ—thâ—tically yet originally and remotely it is Free and Voluntary So as to the Habits and Dispositions of the intellect It is no sin to want those which mans Understanding in its entire and primitive Nature was without As not to be able to know without an object or to know an unrevealed or too distant object or actually to know all things know able at onâ—â— But there are defects or ill dispositions that are sinfully contracted and though these are now immediately natural and necessary yet being originally and remotely voluntary or free they are participatively sinful Such is the natural mans disability or undisposedness to know the things of the Spirit when the Word revealeth them This lyeth not in the want of a Natural faculty to know them but 1. Radically in the will 2. And thence in contrary false apprehensions which the Intellect is prepossessed with which resisting the truth may be called its blindness or impotency to know them And 3. In a strangeness of the mind to those spiritual things which it is utterly unacquainted with Note here 1. That the will may be guilty of the understandings ignorance two wayes either by Pâ—sitive averseness prohibiting or diverting it from beholding the evidence of truth Or by a Privation and forbearance of that command or excitation which is necessary to the exercise of the acts of the understanding This last is the commonest way of the sin in the understanding and that may be truly called Voluntary which is from the wills neglect of its office or suspension of its act though there be no actual Volition or Nolition 2. That the will may do more in causing a disease in the understanding than it can do in curâ—â—â—â— it I can put out a mans eyes but I cannot restore them 3. That yet for all that God hath so ordered it in his gracious dispensation of the â—â—aâ—â— of the Redeemer that certain means are appointed by him for man to use in order to the obtaining of his grace for his own recovery And so though grace cure not the understanding of its primitive natural weakness yet it cureth it of its contracted weakness which was voluntary in its Original but necessary being contracted And as the will had a hand in the causing of it so must it have in the Voluntary use of the foresaid means in the Cure of it So much to shew you how the Understanding is guilty of sin § 4. Though no actual knowledge be so immediate as to be without the Mediation of the sense 〈…〉 and ma 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 and fantasie yet supposing these Knowledge is distinguished into Immediate and Mediate The Immediate is when the Being Quality c. of a thing or the Truth of a proposition is known immediately in it self by its proper evidence Mediate knowledge is when the Being of a thing or the truth of a proposition is known by the means of some other intervenient thing or proposition whose evidence affordeth us a light to discern it The understanding is much more satisfied when it can see Things and Truths immediately in their proper evidence But when it cannot it is glad of any means to help it The further we go in the series of Means knowing one thing by another and that by another and so on the more unsatisfied the understanding is as apprehending a possibility of mistake and a difficulty in escaping mistake in the use of so many media's When the evidence of one thing in its proper nature sheweth us another this is to know by meer discourse or argument When the Medium of our knowing one thing is the Credibility of another mans report that knoweth it this is though a discourse or argument too yet in special called Belief which is strong or weak certain or uncertain as the evidence of the reporters Credibility is certain or uncertain and our apprehension of it strong or weak In both cases the understandings fault is either an utter privation of the act or disposition to it or else a privation of the rectitude of the act When it should know by the proper evidence of the Thing the privation of its act is called Ignorance or Nescience and the privation of its rectitude is called Error which differ as not-seeing and seeing-falsly When it should know by Testimony the privation of its act is simple unbelief or not-believing and the privation of its rectitude is either Disbelief when they think the reporter erreth or Mis-belief when it
took thee into his favour and adopted thee for his son and an heir of Heaven He will glorifie thee with Angels in the presence of his Glory How should such a friend as this be loved How far above all mortal friends Their love and friendship is but a token and message of his Love Because he Loveth thee he sendeth thee kindness and mercy by thy friend and when their kindness ceaseth or can do thee no good his kindness will continue and comfort thee for ever Love them therefore as the messengers of his Love but Love him in them and love them for him and love him much more § 40. Direct 17. Think oft how delightful a life it would be to thee if thou couldst but live in the Direct 17. Love of God And then the complacencie will provoke desire and desire will turn thy face towards God till thou feel that thou lovest him The Love of a friend hath its sweetness and delight and when we Love them we feel such pleasure in our Love that we Love to Love them How pleasant then would it be to Love thy God O blessed joyful life if I could but love him as much as I desire to love him How freely could I leave the ambitious and the covetous and the sensual and voluptuous to their doting delusory swinish love How easily could I spare all earthly pleasures How near should I come to the Angelical life Could I love God as I would love him it would fill me with continual pleasure and be the sweetest feast that a soul can have How easily would it quench all carnal love How far would it raise me above these transitory things How much should I contemn them and pitty the wretches that know no better and have their portion in this life How readily should I obey And how pleasant would obedience be How sweet would all my Meditations be when every thought is full of Love How sweet would all my prayers be when constraining Love did bring me unto God and indite and animate every word How sweet would Sacraments be when my ascending flaming love should meet that wonderful descending love which cometh from Heaven to call me thither and in living bread and spiritful wine is the nourishment and cordial of my soul How sweet would all my speeches be when Love commanded them and every word were full of Love How quiet would my Conscience be if it had never any of this accusation against me to cast in my face to my shame and confusion that I am wanting in Love to the blessed God O could I but Love God with such a powerful Love as his Love and Goodness should command I should no more question my sincerity nor doubt any more of his Love to me How freely then should I acknowledge his grace and how heartily should I give him thanks for my justification sanctification and adoption which now I mention with doubt and fear O how it would lift up my soul unto his praise and make it my delight to speak good of his name What a purifying fire would Love be in my breast to burn up my corruptions It will endure nothing to enter or abide within me that is contrary to the will and interest of my Lord but hate every motion that tendeth to dishonour and displease him It would fill my soul with so much of Heaven as would make me long to be in Heaven and make death welcome which is now so terrible Instead of these withdrawing shrinking fears I should desire to depart and to be with Christ as being best of all O how easily should I bear any burthen of reproach or loss or want when I thus Loved God and were assured of his Love How light would the Cross be And how honourable and joyful would it seem to be imprisoned reviled spit upon and buffeted for the sake of Christ How desirable would the flames of Martyrdom seem for the testifying of my love to him that loved me at dearer rates than I can love him Lord is there no more of this blessed life of Love to be attained here on earth When all the world reveals thy Goodness when thy Son hath come down to declare thy love in so full and wonderful a manner When thy word hath opened us a window into Heaven where afar off we may discern thy Glory yet shall our hearts be clods and ice O pitty this unkind unnatural soul This dead insensible disaffected soul Teach me by thy spirit the art of Love Love me not only so as to convince me that I have abundant cause to Love thee above all but Love me so as to constrain me to it by the magnetical attractive power of thy Goodness and the insuperable operations of thy omnipotent Love § 41. Direct 18. In thy Meditations upon all these incentives of Love preach them over earnestly to Direct 18. thy Heart and expostulate and plead with it by way of soliloquy till thou feel the fire begin to burn Do not only Think on the Arguments of Love but dispute it out with thy Conscience and by expostulating earnest reasonings with thy heart endeavour to affect it There is much more moving force in this earnest talking to our selves than in bare cogitation that breaks not out into mental words Imitate the most powerful Preacher that ever thou wast acquainted with And just as he pleadeth the case with his hearers and urgeth the truth and duty on them by reason and importunity so do thou in secret with thy self There is more in this than most Christians are aware of or use to practise It is a great part of a Christians skill and duty to be a good preacher to himself This is a lawful and a gainful way of preaching No body here can make question of thy call nor deny thee a License nor silence thee if thou silence not thy self Two or three sermons a week from others is a fair proportion but two or three sermons a day from thy self is ordinarily too little Therefore I have added soliloquies to many of these Directions for Love to shew you how by such pleadings with your selves to affect your hearts and kindle Love § 42. And O that this might be the happy fruit of these Directions with thee that art now reading or hearing them That thou wouldst but offer up thy flaming Heart to Jesus Christ our Great High-Priest to be presented an acceptable sacrifice to God! Or if it flame not in Love as thou desirest yet give it up to the Holy Spirit to increase the flames Thou little knowest how much God setteth by a Heart He calleth to thee himself My son give me thy heart Prov. 23. 26. Without it he cares not for any thing that thou canst give him He cares not for thy fairest words without it He cares not for thy lowdest prayers without it He cares not for thy costliest alms or sacrifices if he have not thy heart If thou give all thy goods to
Unhumbledness Impurity Unreformedness and all sin in general as sin In the ninth you are directed against †Of Presumption and false hope enough is said in the Saints Rest and here about Temptation Hope and other Heads afterward Security Unwatchfulness and yielding to temptations and in general against all danger to the soul. In the tenth you are directed against Barrenness Unprofitableness and Sloth and Uncharitableness and against mistakes in matter of duty or good works In the eleventh you are directed against all Aversness Disaffection or cold Indifferency of heart to God In the twelfth you are directed against Distrust and sinful Cares and Fears and Sorrows In the thirteenth you are directed against an over sad or heartless serving of God as meerly from fear or forcedly without delight In the fourteenth you are directed against Unthankfulness In the fifteenth you are directed against all unholy or dishonourable thoughts of God and against all injurious speeches of him or barrenness of the tongue and against all scandal or barrenness of life In the Books referred to in the sixteenth and seventeenth you are directed against selfishness self-esteem self-love self-conceit self-will self-seeking and against all worldliness and fleshliness of mind or life But yet leâ—t any necessary helps should be wanting against such heinous sins I shall add some more particular Directions against such of them as were not fully spoken to before PART I. Directions against UNBELIEF § 1. I Know that most poor troubled Christians when they complain of the sin of Unbelief do mean by it their not Believing that they are sincere believers and personally justified and shall be saved â— Whether not to believe that my sins are pardoned â—e indeed Unbelieâ— And I know that some Divines have affirmed that the sense of that Article of the Creed I believe the Remission of sins is I believe my sins are actually forgiven But the truth is to believe that I am elect or justified or that my sins are forgiven or that I am a sincere Believer is not to Believe any word of God at all For no word of God doth say any of these nor any thing equivalent nor any thing out of which it can be gathered For it is a Rational Conclusion and one of the premises which do infer it must be found in my self by reflexion or internal sense and self-knowledge The Scripture only saith He that truly believeth is justified and shall be saved But it is Conscience and not Belief of Scripture which must say I do sincerely believe Therefore the Conclusion that I am justified and shall be saved is a Rational Collection from what I find in Scripture and in my self set together and resulting from both can be no firmer or surer than is the weaker of the premises Now Certainty is objective or subjective in the Thing or in my Apprehension As to Objective Certainty in the thing it self all truths are equally true But all Truths are not equally discernable there being much more cause of doubting concerning some which are less evident than concerning others which are more evident And so the Truth of Gods promise of Justification to believers is more certain that is hath fuller surer Evidence to be discerned by than the Truth of my sincere believing And that I sincerely believe is the more Debile of the premises and therefore the conclusion followeth this in its Debility And so can be no article of faith And as to the subjective Certainty that varyeth according to mens various apprehensions The premises as in their evidence or aptitude to ascertain us are the cause of the Conclusion as evident or knowable And the premises as apprehended are the Cause of the Conclusion as known Now it is a great doubt with some Whether a man can possibly be more certain that he believeth Whether a man can be more certain that he believeth than he is that the thing believed is true than he is that the thing believed is true because the act can extend no further than the object and to be sure I believe is but to be sure that I take the thing believed to be true But I shall grant the contrary that a man may possibly be surer that he believeth than he is that the thing believed is true because my believing is not alwayes a full subjective certainty that the thing is true but a believing that its true And though you are fully certain that all Gods word is true yet you may believe that this is his word with some mixture of unbelief or doubting And so the question is but this Whether you may not certainly without doubting know that you Believe the Word of God to be true though with some doubting And it seems you may But then it is a further question Whether you can be surer of the saving sincerity of your faith than you are that this Word of God is true And that ordinarily men doubt of the first as much as they doubt of the later I think is an experimented truth But yet grant that with some it may be otherwise Because he believeth sincerely that so far believeth the Word of God as to trust his life and soul upon it and forsake all in obedience to it And that I do so I may know with less doubting than I yet have about the Truth of the Word so believed All that will follow is but this That of those men that doubt of their Iustification and Salvation some of their doubts are caused more by their doubting of Gods Word than by the doubting whether they sincerely though doubtingly believe it and the doubts of others whether they are justified and shall be saved is caused much more by their doubting of their own sincere belief than by their doubting of the truth of Scriptures And the far greatest number of Christians seem to themselves to be of this later sort For no doubt but though a man of clear understanding can scarcely believe and yet not know that he believeth yet he may believe sincerely and not know that he believeth sincerely But still the knowledge of our own justification is but the effect or progeny of our Belief of the Word of God and of our Knowledge that we do sincerely believe it which conjunctly are the Parents and Causes of it And it can be no stronger than the weaker of the Parents which in esse cognoscibili is our faith but in esse cognito is sometime the one and sometime the other And the effect is not the cause The effect of faith and knowledge conjunct is not faith it self It is not a Believing the Word of God to believe that you believe or that you are Iustified But yet because that faith is one of the Parents of it some call it by the name of faith though they should call it but an effect of faith as one of the causes And well may our doubtings of our own salvation be said to be from Unbelief because
Unbelief is one of the Causes of them and the sinfullest Cause § 2. And that the Article of Remission of sin is to be Believed with application to our selves is certain The Article of Remission of sin to be believed applyingly But not with the application of Assurance Perswasion or Belief that we are already pardoned but with an applying Acceptance of an offered pardon and Consent to the Covenant which maketh it ours We believe that Christ hath purchased Remission of sin and made a Conditional Grant of it in his Gospel to all viz. if they will Repent and Believe in him or take him for their Saviour or become Penitent Christians And we consent to do so and to accept it on these terms And we believe that all are actually pardoned that thus consent § 3. By all this you may perceive that those troubled Christians which doubt not of the truth of the Word of God but only of their own sincerity and consequently of their Justification and Salvation do ignorantly complain that they have not faith or that they cannot believe For it is no act of unbelief at all for me to doubt whether my own heart be sincere This is my ignorance of my self but it is not any degree of unbelief For Gods Word doth no where say that I am sincere and therefore I may doubt of this without doubting of Gods Word at all And let all troubled Christians know that they have no more unbelief in them than they have doubting or unbelief of the truth of the Word of God Even that despair it self which hath none of this in it hath no unbelief in it iâ— there be any such I thought it needful thus far to tell you what unbelief is before I come to give you Directions against it And though the meer doubting of our own sincerity be no unbelief at all yet real unbelief of the very truth of the Holy Scriptures is so common and dangerous a sin and some degree of it is latent in the best that I think we can no way so much further the work of Grace as by destroying this The weakness of our faith in the truth of Scriptures and the remnant of our unbelief of it is the principal cause of all the languishings of our Love and Obedience and every Grace and to strengthen faith is to strengthen all What I have â—ullier written in my Saints Rest Part 2. and my Treatise against Infidelity I here suppose § 4. Direct 1. Consider well how much of Religion Nature it self teacheth and Reason without Direct 1. supernatural Revelation must needs confess as that there is another life which man was made for and that he is obliged to the fullest Love and Obedience to God and the rest before laid down 〈…〉 in the world are perpetual visible Evidences in my eyes of the truth of the Holy Scriptures 1 That there should be so Universal and implacable a hatred against the godly in the common sort â—f unrenewed men in all Agâ—â— and Nations of the Earâ—h when thâ—se men deserve so well of them and do them no wrong â—s a visible proof of Adams fall and he 〈◊〉 of a Saviour and a Sanctifier 2 That all those who are seriously Christians should be so far renewed and recovered from the common corruption as their heavenly â—inds and lives and their wonderful difference from other men sheweth this is a visible proof that Christianity is of God 3. That God doth â—o â—lainly shew a particular special Providence in the converting and confirming souls by differencing Grace and work on the soul as the sanctified feel doth shew that indeed the work is his 4. That God doth so plainly grant many of his Servants prayers by special Providences doth prove his owning them and his 〈◊〉 5. That God suffereth his Servants in all times and places ordinarily to suffer so much for his Love and Service from the world and flâ—sh dâ—â—h shew that there is a Judgement and Rewards and Punishments hereafter Or else our highest duty would be our greatest losâ— and thâ—n how should his Government of men be just 6. That the Renewed Nature which maketh men better and therefore is of God doth wholly look at the life to come and lead us to â—t and live upon it this sheweth that such a life there is or else this would be delusory and vain and Goodness it self would be a deceit 7. When it is undenyable that de facto esse the world is not Governed without the Hopes and Fears of another life almost all Nations among the Heathens believing iâ— and shewing by their very worshipping their dead Heroes as Gods that they believed that their soulâ— did live and even the wicked generally being restrained by those hopes and fears in themselves And also that de posse it is not pâ—â—â—â—ible the world should be governed agreeably to mans rational nature without the hopes and fears of another life But men would be wâ—â—se than Beasts and all Villanies would be the allowed practice of the world As every man may feel in himself what he were like to be and do if he had no such restraint And there being no Doctrine or Life comparable to Christianity in their tendency to the life to come All these are visible staâ—ding evidences assisted so much by common sense and reason and still apparent to all that they leave Infidelity without excuse and are ever at hand to help our faith and resist temptations to unbelief 8. And if the world had not had a Beginning according to the Scriptures 1. We should have found Monuments of Antiquity above sâ—x thousand years old 2. Arts and Sciences would have come to more perfection and Printing Guns c. not have been of so late invention 3. And so much of America and other parts of the world would not have been yet uninhabited unplanted or undiscovered Of Aâ—heâ—sm I have spoken before in the Introduction and Nature so clearly revealeth a God that I take it as almost needless to say much of it to sober men in the Introduction And then observe how congruously the doctrine of Christ comes in to help where Nature is at a loss and how exactly it suits with Natural Truths and how clearly it explaineth them and fully containeth so much of them as are necessary to salvation and how suitable and proper a means it is to attain their Ends and how great a testimony the Doctrines of Nature and Grace do give unto each other § 5. Direct 2. Consider that mans End being in the life to come and God being the righteous and Direct 2. merciful Governour of man in order to that End it must needs be that God will give him sufficient means to know his will in order to that end And that the clearest fullest means must needs demonstrate most of the Government and Mercy of God § 6. Direct 3. Consider what full and sad experience the world hath of its pravity and great
â—â—l Câ—â—is c. 1. revelations without any credible seal or Divine attestation and obtruded on the world by the power of the sword 2. And God hath given the world sufficient preservatives against them in the nullity of the proof of them and the evident foppery of the writings and the things themselves So that honesty and diligence will easily escape them § 18. Direct 15. Observe the supernatural effects of the Gospel upon the souls of believers How it Direct 15. planteth on man the Image of the Holy God Powerfully subduing both sense and the greatest interest Preâ—as fundamentum est omnium vâ—â—tutum 〈◊〉 pâ—o 〈◊〉 of the flesh to the will of God and making men Wise and Good and putting an admirable difference between them and all other men And then judge whether it be not Gods seal having his Image first upon it self which he doth use and honour to be the instrument of imprinting his Image upon us § 19. Direct 16. Mark well the certain Vanity of all other Religions that prevail on the earth Idolatry Direct 16. and Mahometanism which openly bear the mark of their own shame have shared between them allmost all the rest of the earth For meer Deisme is scarce any where in Possession and Iudaism hath no considerable inheritance and both of them as sensibly confuted by mans corruption necessity and desert § 20. Direct 17. Mark the great difference between the Christian part of the world those that receive Direct 17. Christianity seriously and in sincerity and all the rest Those that are farthest from Christianity are Zeaophoâ— reporteth Cyrus as saâ—ing If all my familiars wrre â—ndued with piety to God they would 〈…〉 evil to one anâ— the and to mâ— l. 8. furthest from piety honesty civility or any laudable parts or conversations Most of them are beastly and ungodly And the rest are but a little better And ignorance and bruitishness cannot be the perfection of a man Nay among professed Christians the multitudes that have but the Name and hate the Nature and Practice of it are like Swine or Wolves and some of the worst near kin to Devils When all that receive Christianity practically into their hearts and lives are heavenly and holy and in the same measure that they receive it their sins are all mortified and they are devoted to God and possessed with Justice Charity and Patience to men and are carried up above this world and contemn that which the rest do make their felicity and delight So that if that â—e Good which doth Good then is the Goodness of the Christian faith apparent to all that have any acquaintance reason and in partiality to judge § 21. Direct 18. Bethink you what you should have been your selves if you had not been Christians Direct 18. Yea what would yet be the consequent if you should fall from the Christian faith Would you not look at the life to come as doubtful And resolve to take your pleasure in the world and to gratifie Pâ—eâ—aâ—e adâ—erâ—â—s Deos â—ubâ—â—â—â—a â—ides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humanâ— generâ—◠〈…〉 vâ— uâ—â—â—â—â—â—a toâ—â—a uâ—â—ecessâ—â—â— Cicâ—o â—d Naâ— Dâ—o 1. the flesh and to neglect your souls and to venture upon allmost any vice that seemeth necessary to your caâ—nal ends Christianity hath cleansed and sanctified you if you are sanctified And if which God forbid you should forsake Christianity it is most likely you would quickly shew the difference by your dirty fleshly worldly lives § 22. Direct 19. When you see the evidence of Divine Revelation and authority it is enough to silence Direct 19. your doubts and cavils about particular words or circumstances For you know that God is True and Infallible and you know that you are silly ignorant worms that are utterly at a loss when you have â—ot one at hand to open every difficulty to you And that all arts and sciences seem full of difficulties and contradictions to ignorant unexperienced novices § 23. Direct 20. Allow all along in your learning for the difficulties which must needs arise from Direct 20. the translation ambiguity of all humane language change and variety of words and customs time place and other circumstances and especially from your own unacquaintedness with all these That so your own infirmities and ignorance and mistakes in reasoning may not be ascribed to the truth § 24 Direct 21. Understand the proper use of holy Scripture and so how far it is Divine that so you Direct 21. be not tempted to unbelief by expecting in it that which never was intended and then finding your causeless expectations frustrate It is not so Divine as to the terms and style and order and such modal and circumstantial matters as if all the exactness might be expected in it that God could put into a Book Nor is it intended as a system of Physicks or Logick or any subservient sciences or arts But it is an Infallible Revelation of the will of God for the Government of the Church and the conducting men to life eternal And it is ordered and worded so as to partake of such humane infirmity as yet shall no way impeach the Truth or efficacy of it but rather make it more suitable to the generality of men whose infirmity required such a style and manner of handling So that as a child of God hath a Body from Parents which yet is of God but sâ— of God as to partake of the infirmities of the parents or rather as Adam had a body from God but yet from Earth and accordingly frail but a soul more immediately from God which was more pure and divine so ☞ Scripture hath its style and language and method so from God as to have nothing in it unsuitable to its ends but not so from God as if he himself had shewed in it his own most perfect wisdom to the utmost and as if there were nothing in it of humane imperfection But the Truth and Goodness which is the soul of Scripture is more immediately from God The style and method of the penmen may be various but the same soul animateth all the parts It is no dishonour to the Holy Scriptures if Cicero be preferred for purity of style and phrase and oratory as for other common uses But certainly it is to be preferred as to its proper use that being the best style for an Act of Parliament which is next to the worst in an Oration The means are for the end § 25. Direct 22. Consider how great assistance Apparitions and Witch-crafts and other sensible Evidences Direct 22. of Spirits conversing with mankind do give to faith Of which I have written in the forementioned Treatises and therefore now pass it over § 26. Direct 23. Consider what advantage faith may have by observing the nature and tendencie of Direct 23. the soul and its hopes and fears of a life to come together with the superior glorious worlds which See mâ— Book
it We must not only contemn it as compared to the approbation and favour of God but we must value it but as other transitory things in it self considered estimating it â—s a means to some higher end the service of God and our own or other mens greater â—â—â—â—d And further than it conduceth to some of these it must be allmost indifferent to us what men â—â—â—â—â— or say of us And the displeasure of all men if unjust must be reckâ—ned with our light afâ—flâ—â—â—â—iâ—ns § 17. 6. One truth of God and the smallest duty must be preferred before the pleasing and favor of all the men in the world Though yet as a means to the promoting of a greater truth or duty the favor and plâ—â—sing of men must be preferred before the uttering of a lesser truth or doing a lessâ—r â—â—od at that â—â—â—â— because it is no duty then to do it § 18. 7. Our hearts are so â—â—lâ—â—sh and deceitful naturally that when we are very sollicitous about â—â—â—◠〈…〉 we must carefully watch them lest self be intended while God is pretended And w◠〈◊〉 take special care that we be sure it be the honour of God and Religion and the good of soulâ—â—◠〈◊〉 greater benefit than honour it self that we value our honour and reputation for § 19. 8. Mans nature is so prone to go too far in valuing our â—steem with men that we should more fâ—â—r â—â—â—â— we â—rr on that hand than on the other in undervaluing it And it is far safer to do too little than too much in the vindicating of our own reputation whether by the magistrates justice or by dâ—sâ—uting or any contentious means § 20. 9. Wâ— must not wholy rest on the judgement of any about the state of our souls nor take their judgement of us for inâ—â—llible but use their help that we may know our selves § 21. 10. If Ministers or Councils called General do err and contradict the word of God we must do our best to discern it and discerning it must desert their error rather than the truth of God As Calvin and after him Paraeus on 1 Cor. 4. 3. say We must give an account of our doctrine to all men that require it especially to Ministers and Councils But when a faithful Pastor perceiveth himself oppressed with unrighteous and perverse designs and factions and that there is no place for equity and truth he â—ught to be careless of mans esteem and to appeal to God and fly to his tribunal And if we see our selves condemned our cause being unpleaded and judgement passed our cause being unheard let us lift up our minds to this magnanimity as despising mens judgement to expect with boldness the judgement of God and say with Paul With me it is a smal matter to be judged of you or of mans judgement I have one that judgeth me even the Lord. § 22. 11. God must be enough for a gracious soul and we must know that in his favour is life Psalm 30 5. Psalm 63. 3. 2 Câ—â— â— 9. Rom. 8. 33 34. and his loving kindness is better than life it self and this must be our care and labour that whether living or dying we may be accepted of him and if we have his Approbation it must satisfie us though all the world condemn us Therefore having faithfully done our duty we must leave the matter of our reputation to God who if our waies please him can make our enemies to be at peace with us or be harmless to us as if they were no enemies As we must quietly leave it to him what measure of wealth we shall have so also what measure of honour we shall have It is our duty to Love and Honor but not to be beloved and honoured § 23. 12. The prophesie of our Saviour must be still believed that the world will hate us and his Mâ—â— 10. â—â—â—â—n 15. Maâ— 27. Hâ—b 12. 1 2 3. â— Pet. 2. 21 22. example must be still before our eyes who submitted to be spit upon and scorned and buffeted and slandered as a traytor or usurper of the Crown and made himself of no reputation and indured the Cross and despised the shame leaving us an example that we should fâ—llow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but câ—mmitted all to him that judgeth righteously This is the usage that must be the Christians expectation and not to be well spoken of by all nor to have the applause and honor of the world § 24. 13. It is not only the approbation of the ignorant and ungodly that we must thus set light We must go further than Sâ—â—â—â—ca who said Maâ—e dâ— mâ— loqâ—â—â—â—â— â—ed mâ—lâ—â— mâ—â—eâ—er si de me Mâ—â— Caâ—e si â—â—â—â—s sapiens si duo Scipioâ—es ista loquerentur nunc malis disâ—â—â—â—ceâ—e â—audari est by but even of the most Learned and Godly themselves so as to bear their censures as an easie burden when God is pleased this way to try us and to be satisfied in God alone and the expectation of his final judgement § 25. Direct 2. Remember that the favour and pleasing of man is one of your snares that would Direct 2. prevail against your pleasing God Therefore watch against the danger of it as you must do against other earthly things § 26. Direct 3. Remember how silly a creature man is and that his favour can be no better than Direct 3. himself The thoughts or words of a mortal worm are matters of no considerable value to us § 27. Direct 4. Remember that it is the judgement of God alone that your life or death for ever Direct 4. doth depend upon and how little you are concerned in the judgement of man 1. An humbled soul that hath felt what it is to have displeased God and what it is to be under his curse and what it is to be reconciled to him by the death and intercession of Jesus Christ is so taken up in seeking the favour of God and is so troubled with every fear of his displeasure and is so delighted with the sense of his Love as that he can scarce have while to mind so small a matter as the favour or displeasure of a man Gods favour is enough for him and so precious to him that if he find that he hath this so small a matter as the favour of a man will scarce be mist by him § 28. 2. God only is our supream judge and our Governors as Officers limited by him But for others if they will be usurpers and set themselves in the throne of God and there let fly their censures upon things and persons which concern them not why should we seem much concerned in it If a beggar step up into a seat of judicature and there condemn one and fine another will you fear him or laugh at him Who art thou that judgest another mans servant To
they shall be sure to be accounted Proud and Hypocrites And yet they accuse not that child or servant of Pride who excelleth all the rest in pleasing them and doing their work Nâ—r do they take a sick man to be proud if he be carefuller than others to recover his health But he that will do mosâ— for Heaven and most carefully avoideth sin and Hell and is most serious in his Religion and most industrious to please his God this man shall be accounted Proud 3. He that will not forsake his God and betray the truth and wound his conscience by willful sin but will do as Daniel and the three confessors did Dan. 6. 3. and answer as they answered will be accounted Proud But it is no Pride to prefer God before men and to fear damnation more than imprisonment or death The army of Martyrs did not in Pride prefer their own judgements before their superiors that condemned them but they did it in obedience to God and truth when that was revealed to babâ—s which was hid from the wise and prudent and great and noble of the world 4. When those that are faithful to the honour of Christs soverainty dare not approve of Papâ—l usurpations against his Laws and over his Church and the Consciences of his Subjects they shall by the Popish usurpers be called Proud and despisers of Government as if a Usurper of the Kingly power should call us proud because we dare not consent to his pride or call us Traytors for not being Traytors as he is himself 5. When a man that hath the sense of the matters of God and mens salvation upon his heart is zealous and diligent to teach them to others and if he be a Minister be servent and laborious in his ministry he is called Proud as one that must needs have all men of his mind Though compassion to souls and aptness to teach and Preaching instantly in season and out of season be his necessary duty required of God And what is the Ministry for but to change mens minds and bring them to the full obedience of the truth 6. If a man understandeth the truth in any point of Divinity better than most others and holdeth any truth which is not there in credit or commonly received he shall be accounted Proud for presuming to be so singular and seeming wiser than those that think they are wiser than he But Humility teacheth us not to err for company nor to grow no wiser when once we arrive at the common stature nor to forsake the truth which others understand not nor to forbear to teach it because it is not known allready If some of the Pastors in Abassia Syria Armenia Russia Greece or Italy or Spain were as wise as the Ministers in England are it were no evidence of their Pride 7. If a man that understandeth any thing contrary to the judgement of another cannot forsake it Siquid agere instituis lenâ—e progredere in eo autem quod elegeâ—â—s firmiter persiste Bias in Laâ—rt and think or say as another would have him especially if you contradict him in disputation he will take it to be your pride and overvaluing your own understanding and being too tenacious of your own conceits Erroneous men that in their Pride are over eager to have others of their mind will call you Proud because you yield not to their pride They think that the evidence is so clear on their side that if you were not Proud you could not choose but think as they do 8. Some humble men are naturally of a warm and earnest manner of discourse and their natural Pertinaâ—ior tamen erat Chrysanthius nec de sententia â—acile discedebat inquit Eunapius humilitatem ejus laudans heat and eagerness of speech is frequently mis-judged to come from pride till fuller acquaintance with their humble lives do rectifie the mistake It is written of Bishop Hooper the Martyr that those that visited him once condemned him of over-austerity they that repaired to him twice only suspected him of the same those that conversed with him constantly not only acquitted him of all morosity but commended him for sweetness of manners So that his ill nature consisted in other mens little acquaintance with him Tho. Fullers Church Hist. lib. 7. pag. 402. and Godwin in Glocest. Bishops The same is true of very many worthy men Bullingero ob eruditionem non contemnendam morumque tam sanctitatem quam suavitatem percharus fuit pag 591. 9. If we zealously contend for the saith or the Peace of the Church against Heretical or Dividing persons and their dangerous waies they will call us Proud though God command it us Iud. 2. 3. especially if we avoid them and bid them not Good speed Tit. 3. 10. 2 Joh. 10. 10. When a man of understanding openeth the ignorance of another and speaketh words of pity concerning him though it be no more than truth and charity command they will be taken to be the words of supercilious pride 11. That plain dealing in reproof which God commandeth especially to his Ministers towards high and low great and small and which the Prophets and Servants of God have used will be misjudged as arrogancie and Pride Amos 7. 12 13. 2 Chron. 25. 16. Acts 23. 4. As if it were Pride to Gen. 19. 8 9 10. be true to God and to pity souls and seek to save them and tell them in time of that which conscience will more closely and terribly tell them of when it is too late 12. Self-idolizing Papists accuse their inferiors for Pride if they do but modestly exercise a judgement Cum humilitatis causa mentiris si non eras peccator antequam mentiris mentiendo efficiens quod evitaâ—as Augustin de Verb. Apost of discretion about the matters that their salvation is concerned in and do not implicitly believe as they believe and forbear to prove or try their sayings and swallow not all without any chewing and offer to object the commands of God against any unlawful commands of men As if God were contented to suspend his Laws when ever mens commands do contradict them or humility required us to please and obey men at the price of the loss of our salvation They think that we should not busy our selves to enquire into such matters but trust them with our souls and that the Scriptures are not for the laity to read but they must wholly relie upon the clergie And if a lay man enquire into their Doctrine or Commands they say as Davids brother to him 1 Sam. 17. 28. With whom hast thou left the sheep in the wilderness I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thy heart 13. If a zealous humble preacher of the Gospel that preacheth not himself but Christ be highly esteemed and honoured for his works sake and crowded after and greatly followed by those that are 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. edified by him it is ordinary for the envious
the Nature and the signs or effects of PRIDE consider next Direct 3. of the dreadful consequents and tendencie of it both as it leadeth to farther sin and unto misery Which I shall briefly open to you in some particulars § 82. 1. At the present it is the Heart of the old man and the root and life of all corruption and Aenaeas Sylvius it Boâ—m c. 65. Speaking of the boasting of the Monk Capistâ—inus saith superaverat seculi pompas calcaverat avaritiam libidinem sub egeraâ— gloriam contemnere non potuiâ— Nemo est tam sanctus qui dulcedine gloriae non capiatur Facilius regna viri excellenâ—es quam gloriam contemnunt Inter omnia vitia tu semper es prima semper es ultima nam omne peccatum te accedente committitur te recedente dimittâ—tur Innocent de contemp munai l. 2. c. 31. of dreadful signification if it be predominant If any mans heart be lifted up the Lord will have no pleasure in him or it is not upright in him Hab. 2. 4. I had rather have my soul in the case of an obscure humble Christian that is taken notice of by few or none but God and is content to approve himself to him than in the case of the highest and most eminent and honourable in Church or State that looks for the observation and praise of men God judgeth not of men by their great parts and profession and name but justifieth the humbled soul that is ashamed to lift up his face to Heaven and thinketh himself unworthy to speak to God or to have communion with his Church or to come among his servants but standing a far off smiteth upon his breast and saith in true Repentance O God be merciful to me a sinner Luke 18. 13. Pride is as a plague-mark on the soul. § 83. 2. There is scarce a sin to be thought on that is not a spawn in the bowels of Pride To stance in some few besides all that are expressed in the signs 1. It maketh men Hypocrites and 〈◊〉 what they are not for the praise of men 2. It makes men Lyars Most of the Lyes that are 〈◊〉 in the world are to avoid some disgrace and shame or to get men to think highly of them 〈◊〉 sin is committed against God or your superiors instead of humble confession Pride would coveâ—â—â—â— with a lye 3. It causeth covetousness that they may not want provision for their Pride 4. 〈◊〉 maketh men flatterers and time-servers and man-pleasers that they may win the good esteem others 5. It makes men run into profaneness and riotousness to do as others do to avoid 〈◊〉 shame of their reproach and scorn that else would account them singular and precise 6. It can talâ—â— men off from any duty to God that the company is against They dare not pray nor speak a serioâ—â— word of God for fear of a jear from a scorners mouth 7. It is so contentious a sin that it makes men firebrands in the societies where they live There is no quiet living with them longer than they have their own saying will and way They must bear the sway and not be crossed And when all is done there is no pleasing them for the missing of a word or a look or a complement will catch on their hearts as a spark on gunpowder 8. It tears in pieces Church and State Where was ever civil war raised or Kingdom endangered or ruined or Church divided oppressed or persecuted but Pride was the great and evident cause 9. It devoureth the mercies and good creatures of God and sacrificeth them to the Devil It is a chargeable sin What a deal doth it consume in cloaths and buildings and attendance and entertainments and unnecessary things 10. It is an odious thief and prodigal of precious time How many hours that should be better employed and must one day be accounted for are cast away upon the foresaid works of Pride Especially in the needless complements and visits of Gallants and the dressings of some vain light-headed women in which they spend allmost half the day and can scarce find an hour in a morning for prayer or meditation or reading the scriptures because they cannot be ready Forgetting how they disgrace their wretched bodies by telling men that they are so filthy or deformed that they cannot be kept sweet and cleanly and seemly without so long and much ado 11. It is odiously unjust A proud man makes no bones of any falshood slander deceit or cruelty if it seem but necessary to his greatness or honour or preferment or ambitious ends He careth not who he wrongeth or betrayeth that he may rise to his desired height or keep his greatness Never trust a Proud man further than his own interest bids you trust him 12. Pride is the pander of whoredom and uncleaneness It is an incentive to lust in themselves and draws the proud to adorn and set forth themselves in the most enticing manner as tends to provoke the lust of others Fain they would be thought comly that others may admire them and be taken with their comliness If they thought that none would see them they would spare their ornaments And if a common decencie were all that they affected they would spare their curiosities and fashionable superfluities Even they that would not be unclean in gross fornication with any yet would be esteemed beautiful and desirable and do that which tendeth to corrupt the minds of â—ools that see them These and indeed allmost all sin are the natural progenie of Pride § 85. 3. As to the misery which they bring on themselves and others 1. The greatest is that they forsake God and are in danger to be forsaken by him For God abhorreth the Proud and beholdeth them as afar off So far as you are Proud your are hated by him and have no acceptance or communion with him Pride is the highway to utter appostacie It blindeth the mind It maketh men confident in their own conceits and venturous upon any new opinion and ready to quarrel with the word of God before they understand it When any thing seems hard to them they presently suspect the truth of the matter when they should suspect their dark unfurnished minds Mark those that are Prâ—ud in any Town or any company of professors of piety and if any infection of heresie or infidelity come into that place these are the men that will soonest catch it Mark those that have turned from â—â—â—â— 4 6. â—â—â—â—â— â— â— Iâ—â— 5â— 1â— Prov. 16 19. Prov. 29 23. Vaâ—◠〈…〉 â—â—n are the â—â—â—â—rn of wise men â—he admâ—ration of tools the Idols oâ—â—â—attereâ—s and the slaveâ— oâ— their own Pride 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—â— â—â—â—â— â— 54. Truth or Godliness and see whether they be not such as were proud and superficial in Religion before But God giveth Grace and more Grace to the humble He dwelleth with them and delighteth in them 2. A proud man is a tormenter of himself
distress that if he would but spare them and try them once again they would amend their lives and live more holily and spend their time more carefully and diligently for their souls and shew all about them the truth of their Repentance by the greatness of their change and an exemplary life O it is a most dangerous terrible thing to return to security sloth and sin and break such promises to God! such are often given over to woful hard-heartedness or despair for God will not be mocked with delusory words § 70. Thus I have opened this great duty of Redeeming Time the more largely because it is of unspeakable importance and my soul is frequently amazed with admiration that the sluggish world can so insensibly and impenitently go on in wasting precious time so near Eternity and in so needy and dangerous a case Though I bless my God that I have not wholly lost my Time but have long lived in a sense of the odiousness of that sin yet I wonder at my self that such over-powring motives compell me not to make continual haste and to be still at work with all my might in a case of everlasting consequence CHAP. VI. Directions for the Government of the Thoughts I Have shewed you in my Treatise of walking with God how much mans Thoughts are regarded by God and should be regarded by himself and what agents and instruments they are of very much Good or Evil This therefore I shall suppose and not repeat but only Direct you in the Governing of them The work having three parts they must have several Directions 1. For the avoiding of evil thoughts 2. For the exercise of good thoughts 3. For the improvement of good thoughts that they may be effectual Tit. 1. Directions against evil and idle Thoughts § 2. Direct 1. KNow which are evil Thoughts and retein such an odious Character of them continually Direct 1. on your minds as may provoke you still to meet them with abhorrence Evil thoughts are such as these 1. All thoughts against the Being or Attributes or Relations or honour or works of God Atheistical and Blasphemous Idolatrous and unbelieving thoughts All thoughts that tend to disobedience or opposition to the will or word of God And all that savour of unthankfullness or want of Love to God or of discontent and distrust or want of the fear of God or that tend to any of these Also sinful selfish covetous proud studies to make a meer trade of the Ministry for gain To be able to overtalk others Searching into unrevealed forbidden things Inordinate curiosity and hasty conceitedness of your own opinions about Gods Decrees or obscure Prophecies Prodigies Providence mentioned before about Pride of our understandings All thoughts against any particular word or truth or precept of God or against any particular duty against any part of the worship and ordinances of God that tend to unreverent neglects of the name or Holy Day of God All impious thoughts against publick duty or family duty or secret duty and all that would hinder or marr any one duty All thoughts of dishonour contempt neglect or disobedience to the authority or higher powers set over us by God either Magistrates Pastors Parents Masters or any other Superiors All thoughts of Pride self-exalting ambition self-seeking Covetousness Voluptuous sensual Thoughts proceeding from or tending to the corrupt inordinate pleasures of the flesh Thoughts which are unjust and tend to the hurt and wrong of others Envyous malicious reproachful injurious contemptuous wrathful revengeful thoughts Lustful wanton filthy thoughts Drunken gluttonous fleshly thoughts Inordinate careful fearful anxious vexatious discomposing thoughts Presumptuous and secure despairing and dejecting thoughts Slothful delaying negligent and discouraging thoughts Uncharitable cruel false censorious unmerciful thoughts And idle unprofitable thoughts Hate all these as the Devils spawn § 3. Direct 2. Be not insensible what a great deal of Duty or sin is in the Thoughts and of how Direct 2. dangerous a signification and consequence a course of evil thoughts is to your souls They shew what a Man is as much as his words or actions do For as be thinketh in his heart so is he Prov. 23. 7. A good man or evil is denominated by the good or evil treasure of the heart though known to men but by the fruits O the vile and numerous sins that are committed in mens thoughts and proceed from mens thoughts O the pretious Time that is lost in idle and other sinful thoughts O the good that is hindered hereby both in heart and life But of this having spoken in the Treatise aforementioned I proceed § 4. Direct 3. Above all be sure that you cleanse the Fountain and destroy those sinful inclinations Direct 3. of the heart from which your evil thoughts proceed In vain else will you strive to stop the streams Or if you should stop them that very Heart it self will be lothsom in the eyes of God Are your Thoughts all upon the world either coveting or caring or grieving for what you want or pleasing your selves with what you have or hope for Get down your deceived estimation of the world cast it under your feet and out of your heart and count all with Paul but as loss and dung for the excellent knowledge of God in Christ For till the world be dead in you your worldly thoughts will not be dead But all will stand still when once this poise is taken off Crucifie it and this breath and pulse will cease So if your thoughts do run upon matter of preferment or honour disgrace or contempt or if you are pleased with your own preheminence or applause Mortifie your Pride and beg of God a humble self-denying contrite heart For till Pride be dead you will never be quiet for it but it will stir up swarms of self-exalting and yet self-vexing thoughts which make you hateful in the eyes of God So if your thoughts be running out upon your back and belly what you shall eat or drink or how to please your appetite or sense Mortifie the flesh and subdue its desires and master your appetite and bring them into full obedience unto reason and get a habit of temperance or else your thoughats will be still upon your guts and throats For they will obey the ruling power And a violent passion and desire doth so powerfully move them that it is hard for the reason and will to rule them So if your thoughts are wanton and filthy you must cleanse that unclean and lustful heart and get Christ to cast out the unclean spirit and become chast within before you will keep out your unchast cogitations So if you have confusion and vanity in your thoughts you must get a well-furnished and well-composed mind and heart before you will well cure the maladie of your thoughts § 5. Direct 4. Keep at a sufficient distance from those tempting objects which are the fuel and incentives Direct 4. of your evil
Laert. in Aristip. a man is such are his speeches such his works and such his life Therefore by vain or sinful words you tell men the vanity and corruption of your minds § 4. 3. Mens works have a great dependance on their words Therefore if their deeds be regardable their words are regardable Deeds are stirred up or caused by words Daily experience telleth us the power of speech A speech hath saved a Kingdom and a speech hath lost a Kingdom Great actions depend on them and greater consequents § 5. 4. If the men that we speak to be regardable words are regardable For words are powerful instruments of their good or hurt God useth them by his Ministers for mens conversion and salvation And Satan useth them by his Ministers for mens subversion and damnation How many thousand souls are hurt every day by the words of others Some deceived some puffed up some hardned and some provoked to sinful passions And how many thousand are every day edified by words either instructed admonished quickned or comforted Paul saith The weapons of our warfare are 2 Cor. 10. 4. mighty through God And Pythagoras could say that Tongues cut deeper than swords because they reach even to the soul Tongue sins and duties therefore must needs be great § 6. 5. Our Tongues are the Instruments of our Creators praise purposely given us to speak good of Psal. 66. 2. â—â— 2 135. 3. 148. 13. â—9 2. 100. his Name and to declare his works with rejoycing It is no small part of that service which God expects from man which is performed by the Tongue nor a small part of the end of our Creation The use of all our highest faculties parts and graces are expressively by the Tongue Our Wisdom and Knowledge our Love and Holiness are much lost as to the Honour of God and the good of others if not expressed The tongue is the Lanthorn or Casement of the soul by which it looketh out and shineth unto others Therefore the sin or duty of so noble an instrument are not to be made light of by any that regard the honour of our Maker § 7. 6. Our words have a great reflection and operation upon our own hearts As they come from them so they recoil to them as in prayer and conference we daily observe Therefore for our own good or hurt our words are not to be made light of § 8. 7. Gods Law and Iudgement will best teach you what regard you should have to words Christ telleth you that by your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned Matth. Matth. 12. 32. They who use but few words need not many Laws said Charyllus when he was asked why â—yâ—â—â—â—gus made so few Laws Pâ—â—t Apophâ—hâ—g p. 423. 12. 37. And it is words of Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which are the unpardonable sin Jam. 3. 2. If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man and able to bridle the whole body v. 6. The tongue is a fire a world of iniquity so is the tongue amongst our members that it defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of Hell Jam. 1. 26. If any man among you seem to be Religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart this mans Religion is vain 1 Pet. 3. 10. For he that will love life and see good dayes let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile Matth. 12. 36. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement The third Commandment telleth us that God will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain And Psal. 15. 1 2 3. Speaking the truth in his heart and not backbiting with the tongue is the mark of him that shall abide in Gods Tabernacle and dwell in his holy Hill And the very work of Heaven is said to be the perpetual praising of God Rev. 14. 11. Judge now how God judgeth of your words § 9. 8. And some conjecture may be made by the judgement of all the world Do you not care your selves what men speak of you and to you Do you not care what language your children or servants or neighbours give you Are not words against the King treasonable and capital as well as deeds The wheel of affairs or course of nature is set on fire by words Jam. 3. 6. I may conclude then with Prov. 18. 21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue and Prov. 21. 23. Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from trouble § 10. Direct 2. Understand well and remember the particular duties of the Tongue For the meer Direct 2. restraint of it from evil is not enough And they are these 1. To glorifie God by the magnifying of The Duties of the Tongue his Name To speak of the praises of his Attributes and Works 2. To sing Psalms of Praise to him and delight our souls in the sweet commemoration of his excellencies 3. To give him thanks for the mercies already received and declare to others what he hath done for our souls and bodies for Plato Rectâ— diceâ—e in quatuor scindit 1. Quid dicere oportet 2. Quam multa dicere 3. Ad quos 4. Quando sit dicendum Ea oportet dicere quae sint utilia dicenti auditori Nec nimis multa nec pauciora quam satis est Sâ—ad peccâ—ntes seniores dicendum sit verba illi aetati congrua loquamur sin vero ad juniores dicâ—ndum sit majore autoritate uâ—amur in dicendo Laâ—rt in Plat. his Church and for the world 4. To pray to him for what we want and for our brethren for the Church and for the conversion of his and our enemies 5. To appeal to him and swear by his Name when we are called to it lawfully 6. To make our necessary Covenants and Vows to him and to make open profession of our belief subjection and obedience to him before men 7. To preach his Word or declare it in discourse and to teach those that are committed to our care and edifie the ignorant and erroneous as we have opportunity 8. To defend the truth of God by conference or disputation and consute the false doctrine of deceivers 9. To exhort men to their particular duties and to reprove their particular sins and endeavour to do them good as we are able 10. To confess our own sins to God and man as we have occasion 11. To crave the advice and help of others for our souls and enquire after the will of God and the way to salvation 12. To praise that which is good in others and speak good of all men superiours equals and inferiors so far as there is just ground and cause 13. To bear witness to the truth when we are called
holy things should be preferred as on the Lords day or at the time of publick worship or when the company occasion or opportunity call for holy speeches Worldlings are talking as Saul of their Asses when they should talk of a Kingdom 1 Sam. 9. 10. To speak about your Callings and common affairs is lawful so it be moderately and in season But when you talk all of the world and vanity and never have done and will scarce have any other talk in your mouths and even on Gods day will speak your own words Isa. 58. 13. this is prophane and sinful speaking § 23. 12. Another common sin of the Tongue is a tempting and perswading others to sin enticing them to gluttony drunkenness wantonness sornication or any other crime as men that not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them Rom. 1. 32. This is to be the instruments and servants of the Devil and most directly to do his work in the world The same I may say of unjust excusing extenuating or defending the sins of others or commanding alluring affrighting or encouraging them thereto § 24. 13. Another is a carnal manner of handling the sacred things of God as when it is done with lightness or with unsuitable curiosity of words or in a ludicrous toyish manner especially by the Preachers of the Gospel themselves and not with a style that 's grave and serious agreeable to the weight and majesty of the truth § 25. 14. Another is an imprudent rash and slovenly handling of holy things when they are spoken Didy 〈…〉 on 〈◊〉 3. of 〈◊〉 the Toâ—gue saith Non putandum est de peccato prolativi sermonis quae solaecismos barbatismos quidam vocant haec fuisse dicta of so ignorantly unskilfully disorderly or passionately as tendeth to dishonour them and frustrate the desired good success § 26. 15. Another sin of the tongue is the reviling or dishonouring of superiours When Children speak unreverently and dishonourably to or of their Parents or Subjects of their Governours or servants of their Masters either to their faces or behind their backs 2 Pet. 2. 10. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities Jud. 8. § 27. 16. Another is the imperious contempt of inferiours insulting over them provoking and discouraging them Ephes. 6. 4. Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath § 28. 17. Another sin of the Tongue is Idle talk and multitude of useless words a babling loquacity or unprofitableness of speech when it is speech that tendeth to no edification nor any good use for mind or body or affairs § 29. 18. Another sin is Foolish talk or jeasting in levity and folly which tendeth to possess the minds of the hearers with a disposition of levity and folly like the speakers Ephes. 5. 4. Foolish talking and jeasting are things not convenient Honest mirth is lawful and that is the best which is most sanctified as being from a holy principle and about a holy matter or to a holy end as Rejoycing in the Lord always Phil. 4. 4. If any be merry let him sing Psalms Jam. 5. 13. But such a light and frothy jeasting as is but the vent of habitual levity by idle words is not allowable But especially those persons do most odiously abuse their tongues and Reason who counterfeit ideots or fools and use their wit to cover their jeasts with a seeming folly to make them the more ridiculous and make it their very profession to be the jeasters of great men They make a trade of heynous sin § 30. 19. Another sin is Filthy speaking Ephes. 5. 4. Obscene and ribbald talk which the Apostle calls corrupt or rotten communication Ephes. 4. 29. when wanton filthy minds do make themselves merry with wanton filthy speeches This is the Devils preparative to whoredom and all abominable uncleanness For when the tongue is first taught to make a sport of such filthy sins and the ear to be delighted in it or be indifferent to it there remaineth but a small step to actual filthiness § 31. 20. Another sin of the tongue is cursing when men wish some mischief causlesly or unwarrantably to others If you speak but in passion or jeast and desire not to them in your hearts the hurt which you name it is nevertheless a sin of the tongue as it is to speak blasphemy or treason in a passion or in jeast The tongue must be ruled as well as the heart But if really you desire the hurt which you wish them it is so much the worse But it is worst of all when passionate factious men will turn their very prayers into cursings calling for fire from Heaven and praying for other mens destruction or hurt and pretending Scripture examples for it as if they might do it unwarrantably which others have done in other cases in a warrantable manner § 32. 21. Slandering is another sin of the tongue when out of malice and ill will men speak evil falsly of others to make them odious or do them hurt Or else through uncharitable credulity do easily believe a false report and so report it again to others or through rashness and unruliness of tongue divulge it before they try it or receive either just proof or any warrantable call to mention it 5. 33. 22. Another sin is Backbiting and venting ill reports behind mens backs without any warrant Be the matter true or false as long as you either know it not to be true or if you do yet vent it to make the person less respected or at least without a sufficient cause it is a sin against God and a wrong to men § 34. 23. Another sin is rash censuring when you speak that evil of another which you have but Existimant loquacitatem esse facundiam maledicere omnibus bonae conscientiae signum arbritrantur Hieron Cont. Helâ—id an uncharitable surmise of and take that to be probable which is but possible or that to be certain which is but probable against another § 35. 24. Another sin is Railing reviling or passionate provoking words which tend to the diminution of charity and the breach of peace and the stirring up of discord and of a return of railing words from others contrary to the Love and patience and meekness and gentleness which becometh Saints § 36. 25. Another sin is cheating deceiving over-reaching words when men use their tongues to defraud their Neighbours in bargaining for their own gain § 37. 26. Another sin of the tongue is false witness-bearing and false accusing a sin which crys to God for vengeance who is the justifier of the innocent § 38. 27. Another sin of the tongue is the passing an unrighteous sentence in judgement when Rulers absolve the guilty or condemn the just and call evil good and good evil and say to the Righteous Thou art wicked Prov. 24. 24. § 39. 28. Another sin of the Tongue is Flattery which is the more heynous by how much more hurtful And it
of the world III. If laying the hand on the Book and Kissing it be unlawful for any special matter or manner forbidden more than other significant acts it is for some of the reasons named by you which now I will answer I. Object It savoureth of the Romish superstition Answ. 1. Not at all Prove that if you can 2. Superstition is the feigning of things to be Pleasing or Displeasing to God which are not and using or disusing them accordingly whatever be the Etymologie of the word Superstitum Cultus or supra Statutum c. it is certain that the common use of it among Heathens as Plutark at large and Christians was for an erroneous undue fear of God thinking this or that was displeasing or pleasing to him to be done or to be avoided which was not so but was the conceit of a frightned mistaking mind Therefore to say that God is displeased with this signification of the mind when it is not so nor can be proved is superstition And this is not the solitary instance of Satans introducing superstition under pretense of avoiding superstition 3. The sense of the Law is to be judged of by the Law and by the notorious doctrine and profession of the Law-makers and of the Land which here renounceth the superstitious use of it But I confess I was more afraid that the Papists had too much derogated from the Scripture than given too much to it And they profess that they swear not by a creature Vid. Perer. ubi sup in Gen. 24. 2. Object But Paraeus c. in Gen. 24. 2. saith Non absque superstitione fit cum super crucifixum aut codicem Evangelii digitis impositis juratur ut fit in Papatu Answ. 1. But that same Act which in Papatu is superstitious because of superstitious conceits and ends is not so in all others that have none such 2. It is no new thing to be quick in accusing our adversaries But Paraeus addeth not a syllable of proof And if he had it must have been such as toucht not us or else invalid Object Some good men have scrupled it Answ. 1. Ten thousand to one such have not scrupled it 2. They are not our Gods nor Law 3. The Quakers and the old Anabaptists and they say Origen scrupled yea condemned all swearing or all imposed Oaths And if we avoid all as sin which some good men have scrupled we shall make superstition a great part of our Religion And when on the same grounds we have but practised all as Duty which some good men have taken for Duty we shall quite out-go the Papists He that readeth Beda Boniface and abundance such pious writers will soon see that Godly or Fanatical Religious persons dreams visions strict opinions confident assertions and credulous believing one another with the hope of improving such things against Pagans and Jews for Christianity brought in almost all the Legends and superstitions of the Papists II. Object 2. Our Common-Law Commissions that give authority to examine persons direct it to be Object done super sacramenta sua per sancta Dei evangelia fideliter prestanda And in the form of Administrations in Ecclesiastical Courts the words are Ad sancta Dei Evangelia rite legitime jurati Whether these forms do not infer that in their first use at least persons either swore by the Evangelists or offended in that mode of swearing And our Common-Law calls it a Corporal Oath from touching the Book Answ. 1. To know the sense of our present Law it is not necessary that we know the sense of the Answ. first users of the form For the Law is not now the Kings Law that first made it He hath no Law that hath no Government but the Kings Law that now Reigneth and beareth his sense 2. To justifie our obedience to a Law it is not necessary that we prove every phrase in that Law to be fitly expressed 3. But examine it well and try whether it be not also fit and laudable 1. There are three things conjoyned in the Oaths in question 1. A testimony assertory or a promise 2. An Oath 3. An Imprecation The Assertory Testimony here is the first thing intended and the Oath and Imprecation are but as a means to make that Testimony or Promise valid 2. The published Doctrine of England in the 39. Articles the book of Ordination c. is that the Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to Salvation as being Gods Law or Rule of our Faith and Life All our Duty to God is there commanded All the promises on which we hope are there contained All the punishments which the perjured or any sinner must feel and should fear are there threatned Therefore 3. The Laying on the hand and Kissing the book is an Action directly related to the Imprecation and not to the Oath but only by consequence as the Imprecation is subservient to the Oath as the Oath is to the Assertion So that this is the plain paraphrase of the whole I do believe that God the Ruler of all the world is the Iudge of secrets which are above mans judgement the searcher of hearts and the hater and avenger of perjury according to this his holy word by which he governeth us And to this God I appeal as to the truth of this my testimony consenting my self to lose all the benefit of his promises to the just and to bear all the punishments here threatned to the Perjured if I lie And what could be said more fitly 1. To own the Protestant doctrine that the Scripture is Gods perfect word that the evil to be feared and the good to be hoped for is all there contained and is all the fulfilling of that word 2. And to put the word in its due subordination to God And our ordinary form of swearing sheweth this So help you God and the Contents of this Book Whether you will call this swearing upon or by the Gospel or call it a corporal Oath or a spiritual Oath is only de nomine and is nothing to the matter thus truly described Sacramentum signifieth the Oath it self and Ad sancta evangelia is a fit phrase or if super sacramenta signifie the two Sacraments of the Gospel it can mean no more than As one that by the reception of the Sacrament doth profess to believe this Gospel to be true I do renounce the benefits of it if I lie And in this sense it hath been some mens custom to receive the Sacrament when they would solemnly swear III. Object Some seem to object against kissing the Book as having the greater appearance of giving Object too much to it or putting some adoration on it and because this Ceremony of kissing is held to be of later date than laying on the hand Answ. The Ceremony signifieth that I love and approve the Gospel and place the hope of my salvation Answ. in it And the publick Doctrine of the Kingdom before cited sheweth as a
therefore you must go further A Souldier taken by the enemy may tell the truth when he is asked in things that will do no harm to his King and Country but he must conceal the rest which would advantage the enemy against them § 8. Quest. 4. Is it alwayes a sin to speak a Logical falshood that is to speak disagreeably to the thing which I speak of Answ. Not alwayes For you may sometimes believe an untruth without sin Quest. 4. For you are to believe things according to their evidence and appearance Therefore if the deceit be unavoidably caused by a false appearance or evidence without any fault of yours it is not then your fault to be mistaken But then your expressions must signifie no more certainty than you have nor no more confidence than the evidence will warrant When you say such a thing is so the meaning must be but I am perswaded it is so For if you say I am certain it is so when you are not certain you offend § 9. Quest. 5. Is it alwayes a sin to speak falsly or disagreeably to the matter when I know it to be Quest. 5. false that is Is it alwayes a sin to speak contrary to my judgement or mind Answ. Yes for God hath forbidden it and that upon great and weighty Reasons as you shall hear anon § 10. Quest. 6. Is it a sin when I speak not a known untruth nor contrary to my opinion nor with Quest. 6. a purpose to deceive Answ. Yes it is oft a sin when there is none of this For if it be your Duty to know what you say and to deliberate before you speak and your duty to be acquainted with the truth or falshood which you are ignorant of and your duty to take heed that you deceive not another negligently and yet you neglect all these duties and by a culpable ignorance and negligence deceive both your selves and others then this is a sin as well as if you knowingly deceived them § 11. Quest. 7. But though it be a sin it remaineth doubtful whether it be a lye Answ. This is Quest. 7. but liss de nomine a Controversie about the Name and not the Thing As long as we are agreed that is a sin against God and to be avoided whether you call it a Lye or by another name is no great matter But I think it is to be called a Lye Though I know that most definers follow Cicero and say that a Lye is A falshood spoken with a purpose to deceive yet I think that where the Will is culpably neglective of not deceiving an untruth so negligently uttered deserveth the name of a Lye § 12. Quest. 8. Must my words to free them from falshood be alwayes true in the proper literal Quest. 8. sense Answ. No Augustin's determination in this case is clear truth Quod figurate dicitur non est mendacium i. e. eo nomine To speak Ironically Metonymically Metaphorically c. is not therefore to lye For the truth of words lying in that aptitude to express the thing and mind which is suited to the intellect of the hearers they are True words that thus express them whether properly or figuratively But if the words be used figuratively contrary to the hearers and the common sense of them with a purpose to deceive then they are a lye not withstanding you pretend a Figure to verifie them § 13. Quest. 9. Must my words be used by me in the common sense or in the hearers sense Answ. No Quest. 9. doubt but so far as you intend to inform the hearer you are to speak to him in his own sense If he have a peculiar sense of some word differing from the common sense and this be known to you you must speak in his peculiar sense But if it be in a case that you are bound to conceal from him the question is much harder Some think it an untruth and sinful to speak to him in words which you know he will use to his own deceit Others think that you are not bound to fit your selves to his infirmity and speak in his dialect contrary to common sense And that it is not your fault that he misunderstandeth you though you foresee it where it will not profit him to understand you nor your selves are obliged to make him understand you but the contrary The next will open this § 14. Quest. 10. Is it lawful by speech to deceive another yea and to intend it Supposing it be by Quest. 10. truth Answ. It is not a sin in all cases to contribute towards another mans error or mistake For Acts 23. 6 7 8 9. Licitum est aliquando salva veritate illa verba proferre ex quibus probabiliter novimus auditores aliquid conclusuâ—os falsi Hoc enâ—m non est mentiri vel falsum testaâ—i sed tantum occasionem alteri praebere errandi non ad peccatum committendum sed potius vitandum Ames Cas. Conse l. 5. c. 53. See Luke 24. 28. John 7. 8 10. 1. There are many cases in which it is no sin in him to mistake nor any hurt to him Therefore to contribute to that which is neither sin or hurt is of it self no sin yea there are some cases in which an error though not as such may be a duty As to think charitably and well of an hypocrite as long as he seemeth to be sincere Here if by charitable reports I contribute to his mistake it seemeth to be but my duty For as he is bound to believe so I am bound to report the best while it is probable 2. There are many cases in which a mans ignorance or mistake may be his very great benefit His life or estate may lye upon it and I may know that if he understood such or such a thing he would make use of it to his ruine 3. There are many cases in which a mans innocent error is necessary to the safety of others or of the Commonwealth 4. It is lawful in such cases to deceive such men by Actions as an Enemy by Military Stratagems or a Traytor by signs which he will mistake And words of truth which we fore-know he will mistake not by our fault but by his own do seem to be less questionable than actions which have a proper tendency to deceive 5. God himself hath written and spoken those words which he fore-knew that wicked men would mistake and deceive themselves by and he hath done those works and giveth those mercies which he knoweth they will turn to a snare against themselves And his Dominion or Prerogative cannot here be pleaded to excuse it if it were unholy And in this sense as to Permitting and Occasioning it is said Ezek. 14. 9. And if the Prophet be deceived I the Lord have deceived that Prophet Yet must we not think with Plato that it is lawful to lye to an enemy to deceive him For 1. All deceit that is against
Laws for the preservation of so excellent a thing as Truth he should not secure the happiness of the world As to the securing of mens lives it is not enough to make a Law that you shall not kill men without just cause though that be all that the Law intendeth to attain for then every man being left to judge would think there were just cause whenever his passion or interest told him so But the Law is You shall not kill at all without the judgement of the Magistrate So if the Law against Lying did intend no more than the securing men from the injuries of errour and deceit yet would it not have been a sufficient means to have said only You shall not injure men by Lying for then men would have judged of the injury by their own interests and passions But much more is it needful to have a stricter Law when Truth it self is the thing that God intendeth to secure as well as the interest of men In the eyes of Christians and Heathens and all mankind that have not unmand themselves there appeareth a singular beauty and excellency in Truth Aristotle could say that the Nature of man is made for Truth Cicero could say that Qâ—â—d verum simplex sincerumque est id naturae bominis accommodatissimum est Verity and Virtue were ever taken as the inseparable perfections of man Pythagoras could say that to Love Truth and do Good were the two things that made man likest to God and therefore were his two most excellent gifts Plato could say that Truth was the best rhetorick and the sweetest oration Epictetus could say that Truth is a thing immortal eternal of all things most precious better than friendship as being less obnoxious to blind affections Iamblichus could say that as Light naturally and constantly accompanyeth the Sun so Truth accompanyeth God and all that follow him Epaminondas is praised for that he would not Lye no not in jeast Pomponius Atâ—icus was so great a hater of a lye that all his friends were desirous to Trust him with their â—â—â—â—y lye iâ— evil and to be avoided saâ—â—h Aristot. Eâ—hâ—c l 4 See Psal. 5. â— Prov. 6 17 19. 12. 22. 19. 5 9. 21 18 Rev. 21. 27. 22 15. Joh. 8. 44. Col. 3. 9. business and use him as their Counsellor He knoweth not what use mans understanding or his tongue were made for that knoweth not the excellency of Truth Let a Pilate only ask as a stranger what is Truth Joh. 18. 38. as Pharaoh asked who is the Lord For this end Christ himself came into the world to bear witness to the Truth and every one that is of the Truth will hear him Joh. 18. 37. He is the Truth Joh. 14. 6. and full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. Grace and Truth came by him Joh. 1. 17. His spirit is given to guide his servants into the Truth Joh. 16. 13. and to sanctifie them by the truth Joh. 17. 19. that knowing the truth it might make them free Joh. 8. 32. The fruit of the spirit is in all truth Ephes. 5. 9. His Ministers can do nothing against the truth but for the truth 2 Cor. 13. 8. Truth is the girdle that must gird our loins Ephes 6. 14. The Church is the pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. The faithful are they that believe and know the Truth 1 Tim. 4. 3. Speaking the truth in Love is the way of the Churches growth and edification Ephes. 4. 15. Repentance is given men to the acknowledging of the Truth that they may escape out of the power of the Devil 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. The dullards are they that are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth 2 Tim. 3. 7. They are men of perverse minds that resist the Truth 2 Tim. 3. 8. They that receive not the Truth in the Love of it cannot be saved 2 Thes. 2. 10. All they are damned that believe not the Truth 2 Thes. 2. 12 13. You see what Truth is in the judgement of God and all the sober world Therefore a Lye that is contrary to Truth as darkness to Light must be equally odious as truth is amiable No wonder therefore if it be absolutely forbidden of God § 21. 3. You may the easilyer perceive this by considering that other faults of the tongue as idle talk swâ—aring and such like are forbidden not only because they are a hurt to others but for the intrinsical evil in the thing it self Great reason therefore that it should be so in this § 22. 4. Lying is a vice which maketh us most unlike to God For he is called the God of truth Psal. 31. 5. Deut. 32. 4. All his ways are mercy and truth Psal. 25. 10. His judgement is according to truth Rom. 2. 2. It is impossible for God to lye Heb. 6. 18. Tit. 1. 2. His word is the word Numb 23. 19. 1 Sam. 15. 29. 1 Joh. 5. 10. of truth Psal. 119. 43. Col. 1. 5. 2 Tim. 2. 15. Jam. 1. 15. 2 Cor. 6. 7. And who shall dwell in his Tabernacle but thâ—se that speak the truth in their hearts Psal. 15. 2. The disconformity of the soul to God then being its greatest dâ—formity in things wherein it is made to be conform to him it may hence appear that Lying is an odious sin And this may the easilyer appear if you consider what a case the world were in if God could lye and were not of undoubted truth we should then be sure of nothing and therefore could have no sure information by his word no sure direction and guidance by his precepts and no sure consâ—lation in any of his promises Therefore that which maketh us so unlike to the true and holy God must needs be odious § 23. 5. Lying is the Image or work of the Devil and Lyars are his Children in a special sort For Christ telleth us that he abode not in the truth for there is no truth in him when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it Joh. 8. 44. The Proud the Malicious and 1 King 22. 22 23. I will be a lying spirit in the moâ—â—hâ— of all his Prophets 2 Chron 18. 21 22. the Lyars are in a special sort the Children of the Devil for these three are in Scripture in a special manner made the Devils sins Therefore sure there is an intrinsical evil and odiousness in a lye It was Satan that filled the hearts of Ananias and Saphira to Lye to the Holy Ghost Act. 5. 3. To change the Truth of God into a lye and to make God a lyar are therefore the most odious sins Rom. 1. 25. 1 Joh. 5. 10. because it is a feigning him to be like the Devil And should we make our selves like him then by the same vice If you love not the Devils sin and image love not a lye § 24. 6. Lying destroyeth humane converse and bringeth
for money displease God and Conscience by this or any other sin § 34. Direct 7. Learn to trust God if you would not be lyars For lying is the practice of him Direct 7. that thinks he must provide and shift for himself Even Abraham's and Isaac's equivocation saying Ier. 7. 4 8. their Wives were their Sisters and Davids feigning himself mad proceeded from some distrust in God They would not have thought it necessary so to shift for their lives if they had fully trusted God with their lives Gehezi's Covetousness and lying did both proceed from a want of confidence in God If a man were confident of Gods Protection and that he had better stand to Gods choice in all things than his own what use could he think he hath for lying or for any sinful shift § 35. Direct 8. Be not too credulous of bad reports if you would not be lyars Malice is so mad Direct 8. and so unconscionable a sin and the tongues of men are commonly so careless of what they say that if you easily believe evil you do but easily believe the Devil and thereby make your selves his servants in divulging malicious lyes You think because they are spoken by many and spoken confidently you may lawfully believe or report what you hear But this is but to think that the Commonness of Lyars and their malice and impudence will warrant you to follow them even because they are so bad Will you bâ—rk and bite because that Dogs do so If a man be stung with Temere affirmare de altero est periculosum propter occultas homâ—num voluntates multiplicesque naturas Ci. er Prov. 17 4. Hos. 7 3. Nah. 3. 1. an Adder you should help to cure him and not desire your selves to sting him selfish and interessed and malicious and partial factious persons are so commonly lyars and impudent in their lyes that it behoveth you if you would not be lyars your selves to take heed of reporting any thing they say These Spiders will weave a Web of the Air or out of their own bowels § 36. Direct 9. Be not rash in speaking things before you have tryed them Consider what you say Direct 9. and know before you speak Is it not a shame when you have spoken falsly to come off with saying I thought it had been true But why will you speak upon thought and not stay till you better understood the case If the matter required such haste in speaking you should have said no more than I think it is so Prove all things and then hold that which is good and assert that which is true Saith Cicero de Nat. Deor. l. 1. Nihil est temeritate turpius nec quiâ—quam tam indiguum sapientis gravitate aut Insignis est temeritas cum aut falsa aut incognita â—es approbatur Nec quicquam est turpius quam cognitioni assertionem approbationemque praecurrere Cicer. Acad. l. â— constantiâ quam aut falsum sentire aut quod non satis explorate perceptum sit cognitum sine ulla dubitatione defendere Nothing is more unseemly than temerity nor any thing so unworthy the gravity or constancy of a wise man than either to hold a falshood or confidently to defend that which is not received and known upon sufficient tryal § 37. Direct 10. Foresee that which is like to intrap you in a lye that you may prevent it Let not Direct 10. the occasion and temptation surprize you unprepared Foresight will make the temptation easie to be overcome which unforeseen will be too strong for you § 38. Direct 11. Get a tender Conscience and walk as in the sight and hearing of God and as one Direct 11. that is passing to his judgement A feared Conscience dare venture upon lyes or any thing but the Act. 5. 4. â—sa 59. 13. Ezek. 13. 9. 19. fear of God is the souls preservative What makes men lye but thinking they have to do with none but men For they think by a lye to deceive a man and hide the truth But if they remembred that they have most to do with God and that he is always present who cannot be deceived and that his judgment will bring all secret things to light and detect all their lyes before all the world they would not hire a torn and dirty Cloak at so dear a rate for so short a time No wonder if men are lyars that fear not God and believe not the day of judgement § 39. Direct 12. To save others from lying as well as your selves be sure to watch against it in Direct 12. your Children and wisely help them to see the evil of it For Children are very prone to it and unwise correction frightneth them into lyes to save themselves as indulgence and connivence doth encourage them to it Make them oft read such Texts as these Lev. 19. 11. Ye shall not steal nor deal falsly nor lye one to another Psal. 15. 2. He that speaketh the truth from his heart c. Isa. 63. 8. He Prov. 17 7. Hos 4. 8. said surely they are my people Children that will not lye so he was their Saviour Ioh. 8. 44. The Devil is a lyar and the father of it Rev. 21. 27. 22. 15. There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth or maketh a lye For without are dogs and whoever loveth and maketh a lye Psal. 63. 11. The mouth of him that speaketh lyes shall be stopped Psal. 101. 11. He that speaketh lyes shall not tarry in my sight Prov. 19. 5 9. A false witness shall not be unpunished and he that speaketh lyes shall not escape shall perish 9. Prov. 29. 12. If a Ruler hearken to lyes all his servants are wicked So Psal. 31. 18. 52. 3. Psal. 119. 163. I hate and abhor lying but thy Law do I love Prov. 13. 5. A righteous man hateth lying Ephes. 4. 25. Wherefore putting away lying speak every man truth with his neighbour for we are members one of another q. d. A man would not lye to deceive his own members no more should we to deceive one another In a word where the Love of God and man prevaileth there truth prevaileth but where self-love partiality and carnal self-interest prevail there lying is a houshold servant and thought a necessary means to these ends But because Lying is so common and so great a sin and many cases occur about it daily though I think what is said offereth matter enough to answer them I shall mention some more of them distinctly to help their satisfaction who cannot accommodate general answers to all their particular cases Quest. 1. Is frequent known lying a certain sign of a graceless state that is a mortal sin proving the Quest. 1. sinner to be in a state of damnation Answ. The difficulty of this case doth no more concern Lying than any other sin of equal malignity Therefore I must refer you to
as all metaphors are equivocal and yet may be used 2. When the equivocal sense is the most usual or obvious and if it be not understood it is through the hearers fault or extraordinary dulness 3. When a Robber or usurping Tyrant or any cruel enemy that hath no authority to do it shall seek to ensnare my life by questions I may lawfully answer him in such doubtful words as purposely are intended to deceive him or leave him ignorant of my sense so be it they be not lies or false in the ordinary usage of those words 4. And to such a person I may answer doubtfully when it is apparent that it is a doubtful answer and that I do it as professing that I will answer him no more particularly nor plainly but will conceal the rest Quest. 6. Whether all mental reservation be unlawful Quest. 6. Answ. This needeth no other answer than the former If the expressed words be a Lie the mental Answ. reservation will not make them justifiable as a truth But if the expressed words of themselves be true then the mental reservation may be lawful when it is no more than a concealment of part of the truth in a case where we are not bound to reveal it But of both these cases I must refer the Reader to what I have said about Vows Tom. 3. Chap. 5. Tit. 2. without which he will not know my meaning Quest. 7. May Children Servants or Subjects in danger use words which tend to hide their faults Quest. 7. Answ. 1. When they are bound not to hide the fault they may not Which is 1. When due obedience Answ. or 2. the greater good which will follow require them to open it 2. When they are not bound to open it they may hide it by just means but not by Lies or any evil In what cases they may hide a fault by just means I shall here say no more to Quest. 8. May I speak that which I think is true but am not sure Quest. 8. Answ. If you have a just call you may say you think it is true but not flatly that it is so Answ. Quest. 9. May I believe and speak that of another by way of news discourse or character which I hear Quest. 9. reported by godly credible persons or by many Answ. 1. The main doubt is when you have a call to speak it which is answered after Tom. 4. at Answ. large 2. You may not so easily believe and report evil of another as good 3. You must not believe ill of another any further than evidence doth constrain you Yet you may believe it according to the degree of evidence or credibility and make use of the report for just caution or for good But not to defame another upon uncertainty or without a call 4. The sin of Receiving and spreading false reports of others upon hearsay is now so common among those that do profess Sobriety and Religion that all men should take heed of it in all company as they would do of the Plague in an infectious time And now it is so notorious that false news and slanders of others are so common neither good mens words nor common fame will allow you or excuse you to believe or report any evil of another till you are able to prove that it is your duty But all Christians should joyn in Lamenting and reproving this common uncharitable sin Tit. 4. Special Directions against Idle talk and Babling § 1. Direct 1. UNderstand well what is idle talk For many take that to be vain which is not Direct 1. and many take not that to be vain which is I shall therefore open this before I go any further § 2. The judgement of infidels and impious men here are of little regard 1. Some of them What is not idle talk think prayer to be but vain words because God knoweth our wants and hearts Iob. 22. 2 3. and our service is not profitable to him As if he had bid us seek him in vain Isa. 45. 19. These I have elsewhere Jâ—b 21 15. Mal. 3. â—4 confuted 2. Others think frequent preaching vain and say as the Infidels of Paul Act. 17. 18. What will this Babler say and as Pharaoh Exod. 5. 9. Let them not regard vain words But God saith Deut. 32. 46 47. Set your hearts to all the words which I testifie among you for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life 3. Some carnal wretches think all vain in Gods service which is spiritual and which they understand not or which is above the reach of a fleshly mind 4. And some think all vain in Preaching Conference Writing or Prayer which is long But Christ spake Job 34 9 Heb. 13. â—5 no vain words when he prayed all night Luk. 6. 12. Nor are we bid pray in vain when we are bid pray continually instantly and importunately 1 Thes. 5. 17. Act. 6. 4. Luk. 18. 1 2. Nor did Paul speak idly when he preacht till midnight Act. 20. Godliness is not vain which is profitable to all things 1 Tim. 4. 8. Indeed as to their own salvation the wicked may make our preaching vain but the word of God returneth not empty The oblations of the disobedient are vain Isa. 1. 13. and the prayer of the wicked abominable to the Lord but the prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15. 8. 4. Some think all preaching vain of that which they know already whereas they have most need to hear of that lest they condemn themselves by sinning against their knowledge 2 Pet. 1. 12 13. Rom. 14. 22. 6. Some think it vain if the same things be often preached on or repeated see Phil. 3. 1. though yet they never received and obeyed them Or if the same words be oft repeated in prayer though it be not from emptiness or affectation but fervencie Mark 14. 39. Psalm 136. 119. 7. Unbelievers Isa. 49. 4â— 5. think our boasting in God is vain 2 King 18. 20. 8. And some malitious adversaries charge it on Ministers as Preaching in vain whenever the hearers are not converted See Heb. 4. 2. Gal. 5. 2. 3. 4. 4. 11. Isa. 53. 1. § 3. On the other side many that are godly mistake in thinking 1. That all talk is vain which is not of absolute necessity to some great use and end 2. And that all mirth and pleasant discourse 1 King 18 27. Prov. 29. 9. is vain Whereas the Holy Ghost saith Prov. 17. 22. A merry heart doth good like a medicine but a broken spirit dryeth the bones Prov. 15. 13. A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken Gen. 26. 8. King Abimelech saw Isaack sporting with Rebekah his wife Laughing as the Hebrew is or playing as the Chaldee and Samaritan and Sept. or jeasting as the Syriack Arabick and Vulgar Latine § 4. Observe these
some queazy stomachs distaste even the more wholsome food Pompey was so weary of Tully's talkativeness that he wisht he had been on Caesars side for then he would have feared me saith he whereas now his familiarity wearieth me Omne supervacuum pleno de pectore manat § 16. 2. It is an aggravation of the sin of loquacity and idle talk when it is done in a proud self-conceitedness of your own wit with an unmannerly contempt of others This is the case of abundance that have not the manners or patience to stay till another man hath done his speech They think others so long that their list will not hold till they come to the end Yea many pretended learned men and disputants have this disease that without any shame or respect to order or their own reputation they are in such hast to answer and talk themselves that they cut off the speech of others in the midst as if they should say Hold your tongue and let me speak that am wiser And their excuse is You are so long that I shall forget half before you come to the end But if it be in Disputation or about great matters it is usually much more to the advantage of the truth and hearers to speak all that necessarily must be considered together in a continued speech For the parts of truth have such a dependance one upon another like the members of a body or the wheels of a watch that they are not understood disjunctly half the sense of them being respective to the other parts Therefore to deliver it in such cases by fragments and chopping of words and frequent interruptions one of another is to chat or contend and not to open the truth with the clearness and gravity as it requireth These therefore that accuse others of speaking too long to excuse their uncivil interruptions may take their answer from Augustine Absit ut multiloquium deputem quando necessaria dicuntur quantalibet sermonem multitudine aut prolixitate dicantur The huge volumes of Augustin Chrysostom Suarez Calvin yea Tostatus himself are seldom accused of idle words If you depute to each their equal share of time a composed discourse is fitter and spareth time better than interrupting alterations and exchange of words And if your memory cannot hold all that 's said either take notes or crave the help of some repetition or answer the part which you do remember § 17. 3. Idle talk is worst when it is about Holy things and tendeth to profane them when men unreverently bable about the Scriptures or controversies of Religion Or when by fluent tongues men design the increase of some faction or propagating of some error or the setting forth their parts 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
to honour the names of Peter and Paul and Stephen and Iohn of Augustin Hierom Chrysostom and other such saints of God And yet wilt thou make a scorn of those that strive to imitate them Search and see if any of these men did after their conversion live in luxury carding dicing prophaneness and if any of them was against a Holy life against much Praying Hearing Reading the Scriptures meditating exact obedience to God then let not the shame be thine but mine He that is most unlike them let him have the scorn § 25. 19. Thou deridest men for Repenting of their former sins and for accepting that mercy which Christ hath purchased and God hath offered them and sent his messengers to intreat them to accept Can they Repent of their former ungodliness and not turn from it and amend If thou knewest what they know thou wouldst repent thy self and not deride men for repenting If thou knewest the gift of God thou wouldst beg it and gladly accept of it thy self and not deride them that accept it § 26. 20. Thou scornest men for keeping that Covenant which thou also madest with God in thy Baptism thy self At the same time thou speakest against the Anabaptists that will not have their children baptised and deridest those that keep their Covenant which in baptism they made What a monster of contradictions is an ungodly Hypocrite Didst thou not in Baptism renounce the flesh the world and the Devil and give up thy self in Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost And dost thou not yet know what thou didst But scorn them that perform it What is it to be given up to God in Baptism but to take him for thy God thy Saviour and Sanctifier whom thou must Love and seek and obey in Holiness with all thy Heart and Soul and Might He is a Covenant-breaker indeed that hates the keeping of it I have hitherto been shewing thee what it is that thou opposest and deridest I shall now tell thee further what thou dost in shewing thee the Aggravations of thy sin and its importance § 27. 2. Consider in all this what an open enemy thou art to God and an open Souldier for the Devil What canst thou do more against God and do thy worst than make a scorn of all his work and sâ—â—vants He feareth not thy power or rage thou canst not hurt him How many millions of such woâ—ms as thou can he tread to Hell or destroy in a moment It is in his servants and service that he is honoured or opposed here and that mortals shew their Love or hatred to him And how canst thou devise if thou wouldst do thy worst to serve the Devil more notoriously than by opposing and deriding the service of God If such be not Satans Servants he hath none § 28. 3. Consider what a terrible badge of misery thou carriest about thee thou bearest the mark of Satan Death and Hell in thy forehead as it were If there were any doubt whether a Swearer or drunkard or Fornicator may be in a state of Grace yet it is past all doubt that a Scorner of Godliness is not It were strange indeed for that man to be Holy that derideth Holiness There is scarce any sort of men in the world that are more undoubtedly in a state of damnation than thou art It is dark to us what God will do with Infidels and Heathens that never had the means of salvation But what he will do with all the unbelieving and ungodly that have had the means we know past doubt much more what he will do with those that are not only void of Holiness but deride it I deny not but yet if thou be converted thou maist be saved And O that God would give the repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that thou mightest escape out of the Devils snares who leads thee captive at his will 2 Tim. 2. 25. 26. It is written of Basil that by his prayers he caused the Devil to give back a writing by which a wretched man had sold his soul to him that he might enjoy his Masters daughter and that the man repented and was delivered If thou maist be so recovered it will be a happy day for thee But till then it is as sure as the Scripture is sure that thou art a miserable creature and an undone â—â—â—â—iâ—â—us Arriaâ—â—â—â—um Episâ—â—â—â—uâ— Hâ—â—nâ—riâ—â—m Râ—gâ—m pâ—rsâ—â—sit non pâ—sâ—â— pacaâ—um atque longaevum obtinere regnum nisi nomen perderet innocentum Qui tamen Dei judicio post non mulâ—os dâ—es turpâ—ssâ—ma moâ—te prâ—ventus scateâ—s vermibus expiravit Victor Vâ—ic p. 369. man if thou die in that condition that thou art in O with what fear shouldst thou rise and lie down if thou hadst thy wiâ—s about thee lest thou shouldst die before thou art converted § 29. 4. To scorn at Holiness is a defiance of grace as if thou didst renounce Gods mercy Thou dost thy worst to drive away all hope and make thy case uncurable and desperate For if ever thou be saved it must be by this gâ—â—ce and Holy life which thou deridest And is scorning grace the way to get it And is it likely that the Holy-Ghost will come and dwell in the man that scorneth his sanctifying works § 30. 5. To scorn at Godliness is a daring of God to give over his patience and presently to execute his vengeance on thee Canst thou wonder if he should make thee a monument of his Justice and set thee up for all others to take warning by Who is fitter for this than the scornful opposers of his grace and service Hasten not vengeance man it will come time enough Will a worm defie the God of Heaven § 31. 6. How little dost thou understand of all that thou opposest Didst thou ever try a holy life If thou hadst thou wouldst not speak against it If thou hadst not art thou not ashamed to speak evil of that which thou dost not understand It is a thing that none can througly know without experience Try it a while and then speak thy mind § 32. 7. Didst thou ever consider how many judgements are against thee and whom thou dost contradict and scorn 1. If thou scorn at serious Godliness at Preaching hearing reading Praying Meditating and strict avoiding sin thou contradictest God himself for none in all the world is so Holy or so much for Holiness as he And therefore ultimately it is him that all thy malice is against even God the Father and the Redeemer and the Sanctifier 2. Thou settest thy self against all the evidence of Scripture 3. And against all the works of God For all conspire to call the world to Holiness and strict obedience to God 4. And thou contradictest all the Prophets and Apostles and all the ancient Fathers of the Church and all the Martyrs and Saints of God that ever were in the world and all the learned faithful Ministers and Pastors of the Church that are
sin and misery of Cain and take warning by him Give place to others and in honour prefer others and seek not to be preferred before them Rom. 12. 10 16. God delighteth to exalt the humble that abase themselves and to cast down those that exalt themselves When the interest of your flesh can make you hate or fall out with each other what a fearful sign is it of a fleshly mind Rom. 8. 6 13. § 2. Direct 2. Take heed of using provoking words against each other For these are the bellows Direct 3. to blow up that which the Apostle calleth the fire of Hell Jam. 3. 6. A foul tongue setteth on fire the course of nature and therefore it may set a family on fire Jam. 3. 5 6. Where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work V. 15 16. If ye be angry refrain your tongues and sin not and let not the Sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the Devil Ephes. 4. 26 27. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Ephes. 4. 31 32. Revilers shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 10. § 3. Direct 3. Help one another with love and willingness in your labours and do not grudge at Direct 4. one another and say such a one doth less than I but be as ready to help another as you would be helpt your selves It is very amiable to see a family of such children and servants that all take one anothers concernments as their own and are not selfish against each other Psal. 133. 1. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity c. § 4. Direct 4. Take heed that you prove not Tempters to draw each other to sin and misery Either Direct 5. by joyning together in ryotousness or wronging your Masters or secret revelling and then in lying to conceal it Or lest immodest familiarity draw those of different sexes into a snare Abundance of sin and misery hath followed such tempting familiarity of men and maids that were fellow servants Their nearness giveth them opportunity and the Devil provoketh them to take their opportunity and from immodest wanton dalliance and unchaste words they proceed at last to more lasciviousness to their own undoing Bring not the straw to the fire if you would not have it burn § 5. Direct 5. Watch over one another for mutual preservation against the sin and temptations which Direct 6. you are most in danger of Agree to tell each other of your faults not proudly or passionately but in love and resolve to take it thankfully from each other If any one talk foolishly and idly or wantonly and immodestly or tell a lye or take Gods name in vain or neglect their duty to God or man or deal unfaithfully in their trust or labour let the other seriously tell him of his sin and call him to repentance And let not him that is guilty take it ill and angrily snap at the reprover or justifie or excuse the fault or hit him presently in the teeth with his own but humbly thank him and promise amendment O how happy might servants be if they would faithfully watch over one another § 6. Direct 6. When you are together and your work will allow it let your discourse be such as Direct 7. tendeth to edification and to the spiritual good of the speaker or the hearers Some work there is that must be thought on and talked of while it is doing and will not allow you leisure to think or speak of other things till it is done But very much of the work of most servants may be as well done though they think and speak together of heavenly things besides all other times when their work is over O take this time to be speaking of good to one another It is like that some one of you hath more knowledge than the rest Let the rest be asking his counsel and instructions and let him bend himself to do them good Or if you are equal in knowledge yet stir up the grace that is in you if you have any or stir up your desires after it if you have none Waste not your pretious time in vanity Multiply not the sin of idle words O what a load doth lye on many a soul that feeleth it not in the guilt of these two sins Lâ—ss of time and idle words To be guilty of the same sins over and over every day and make a constant practice of them and this against your own knowledge and conscience is a more grievous case than many think of Whereas if you would live together as the heirs of Heaven and provoke one another to the Love of God and holy duty and delightfully talk of the Word of God and the life to come what blessings might you be to one another and your service and labour would be a sanctified and comfortable life to you all Ephes. 4. 29 30. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying and may minister grace to the hearers and grieve not the holy Spirit of God 5. 3 4. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness or rather inordinate fleshly desire let it not be once named among you as becometh Saints neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jeasting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks Of this more anon § 7. Direct 7. Patiently bear with the failings of one another towards your selves and hide those Direct 7. faults the opening of which will do no good but stir up strife But conceal not those faults which will be cherished by concealment or whose concealment tendeth to the wrong of your Master or any other For it is in your power to forgive a fault against your selves but not against God or another And to know when you should reveal it and when not you must wisely fore-know which way is like to do more good or harm And if yet you be in doubt open it first to some secret friend that is wise to advise you whether it should be further opened or not § 8. Direct 8. If weakness or sickness or want afflict a Brother or Sister or fellow-servant be Direct 8. kind and helpful to them according to your power Love not in word only but in dead and truth 1 John 3. 18. Jam 2. CHAP. XVI Directions for holy Conference of Fellow-servants or others BEcause this is a duty so frequently to be performed and therefore the peace and edification of Christians is very much concerned in it I shall give a few brief Directions about it § 1. Direct 1. Labour most for a full and lively heart which hath the feeling of those things Direct 1. which your tongues should
more to hinder them from the same priviledge than what is of Necessity § 14. Direct 14. At Supper spend the time as is aforesaid at Dinner Alwayes remembring Direct 14. that though it be a day of Thansgiving it is not a day of gluttony and that you must not use too full a dyet lest it make you heavy and drowsie and unfit for holy duty § 15. Direct 15. After Supper examine your Children and Servants what they have learnt all Direct 15. day and sing a Psalm of praise and conclude with prayer and thanksgiving § 16. Direct 16. If there be time after both you and they may in secret review the duties Direct 16. and mercies and failings of the day and recommend your selves by Prayer into the bands of God for the night following and to betake your selves to your rest § 17. Direct 17. And to shut up all let your last thoughts be holy in the thankful sense of Direct 17. the mercy you have received and the goodness of God revealed by our Mediator and comfortably trusting your souls and bodies into his hands and longing for your nearer approach unto his Glory and the beholding and full enjoying of him for ever § 18. I have briefly named this order of duties for the memory of those that have opportunity to observe it But if any mans place and condition deny him opportunity for some of these he must do what he can but see that carnal negligence cause not his omission And now I appeal to Reason Conscience and Experience whether this employment be not more suitable to the principles ends and hopes of a Christian than idleness or vain talk or Cards or Dice or Dancing or Ale-house haunting or worldly business or discourse And whether this would not exceedingly conduce to the increase of Knowledge Holiness and Honesty And whether there be ever a worldling or voluptuous sensualist of them all that had not rather be found thus at death or look back when Time is past and gone upon the Lords days thus spent than as the idle fleshly and ungodly spend them CHAP. XIX Directions for profitable Hearing the Word Preached OMitting those Directions which concern the external modes of Worship for the Reasons mentioned Tom. 2. and known to all that know me and the time and place I live in I shall give you such Directions about the personal internal management of your duty as I think most necessary to your Edification And seeing that your Duty and benefit lyeth in these four General points 1. That you hear with understanding 2. That you Remember what you hear 3. That you be duly affected with it 4. And that you sincerely practise it I shall more particularly Direct you in order to all these ends and duties Tit. 1. Directions for the Understanding the Word which you hear § 1. Direct 1. REad and meditate on the holy Scriptures much in private and then you will be Direct 1. the better able to understand what is Preached on it in publick and to try the doctrine whether it be of God Whereas if you are unacquainted with the Scriptures all that is treated of or alledged from it will be so strange to you that you will be but little edified by it Psal. 1. 2. Psal. 119. Deut. 6. 11 12. § 2. Direct 2. Live under the clearest distinct convincing teaching that possibly you can procure Direct 2. There is an unspeakable difference as to the edification of the hearers between a judicious clear distinct and skilful Preacher and one that is ignorant confused general dry and only scrapeth together a Cento or mingle-mangle of some undigested sayings to fill up the hour with If in Philosophy Physicks Grammar Law and every Art and Science there be so great a difference between one Teacher and another it must needs be so in Divinity also Ignorant Teachers that understand not what they say themselves are unlike to make you men of understanding as Erroneous Teachers are unlike to make you Orthodox and Sound § 3. Direct 3. Come not to hear with a careless heart as if you were to hear a matter that little Direct 3. concerned you but come with a sense of the unspeakable weight necessity and consequence of the holy word which you are to bear and when you understand how much you are concerned in it and truly Love it as the word of Life it will greatly help your Understanding of every particular truth That which a man Loveth not and perceiveth no necessity of he will hear with so little regard and heed that it will make no considerable impression on his mind But a good understanding of the Excellency and Necessity exciting Love and â—â—rioâ—s attention would make the particulars easie to be understood when else you will be like â—â— stopt oâ— narrow mouthed bottle that keepeth out that which you desire to put in I know that understanding must go before affections But yet the understanding of the concernments and worth of your own souls must first procure such a serious care of your salvation and a general regard to the word of God as is needful to your further understanding of the particular instructions which you shall after hear § 4. Direct 4. Suffer not vain thoughts or drowsie negligence to hinder your attention If you mark Direct 4. not what is taught you how should you understand and learn set your selves to it as for your Prâ—â— 4. 1 20 ◠〈…〉 7. 24. lives Be as earnest and diligent in attending and learning as you would have the Preacher be in Teaching If a drowsie careless Preacher be bad a drowsie careless hearer is not good Saith Mâ—ses Dâ—ut 32. 46. Set your hearts to all the words which I testifie among you this day Neâ— 1 6. 1â— Psal. 130. 2. Prov. 28. 9. 47. For it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life You would have God attentive to your pâ—ayers in your distresses and why will you not then be attentive to his words when the prayers of him are abominable to God that turneth away his ear from hearing the Law â—â—ik 19. 48. All the people were very attentive to hear Christ. Neh. 8. 3. when Ezra read the Law from morning till mid day the ears of all the people were attentive to it when Paul continued his Lords day exercise Act 16. 14. Act. 10. 9. and speech untill midnight one young man that full asleep did fall down dead as a warning to them that will sleep when they should hear the message of Christ. Therefore you are excused that day from worldly business that you may attend oâ— the Lord with out distraction 1 Cor. 7. 35. Lydia's attending to the words of Paul accompanied the opening of her heart and her Conversion Act. 16. 14. § 5. Direct 5. Mark specially the design and drift and principal doctrine of the Sermon Both because Direct 5. that is the chief thing
§ 10. Direct 10. Make Conscience of Teaching and provoking others Pity the souls of the ignorant Direct 10. about you God often blesseth the grace that is most improved in doing him service and our stock is like the Womans Oyle which increased as long as she poured out and was gone when she stopped 1 King 17. 12 14 16. Doing good is the best way for receiving good He that in pity to a poor man that is almost starved will but fall to rubbing him shall get himself heat and both be gainers Tit. 4. Directions to bring what we Hear into Practice WIthout this the rest is vain or Counterfeit and therefore somewhat must be said to this § 1. Direct 1. Be acquainted with the failings of your hearts and lives and come on purpose to get Direct 1. directions and help against thâ—se particular failings You will not know what Medicine you need much less how to use it if you know not what aileth you Know what duties you omit or carelesly perform and know what sins you are most guilty of and say when you go out of doors I go to Christ for Physick for my own disease I hope to hear something before I come back which may help me more against this sin and fit me better for my duty or provoke me more effectually Are those men like to practise Christs directions that either know not their disease or love it and would not have it cured § 2. Direct 2. The three forementioned are still presupposed viz. that the word have first done its Direct 2. part upon your understandings memory and Hearts For that word cannot be practised which is not understood nor at all remembred nor hath not procured Resolutions and Affections It is the due work upon the Heart that must prevail for the reformation of the Life § 3. Direct 3. When you understand what it is in point of Practice that the Preacher driveth at Direct 3. observe especially the Uses and the Moving reasons and plead them with your own hearts and let Conscience be Preaching over all that the Minister Preacheth to you You take them to be soul-murderers that silence able faithful Preachers and also those Preachers that silence themselves and feed not the flock committed to their care And do you think it a small matter to silence your own Conscience which must be the Preacher that must set home all before it can come to Resolution or Practice Keep Conscience all the while at work preaching over all that to your hearts which you hear with your ears and urge your selves to a speedy Resolution Remember that the whole body of Divinity is practical in its end and tendency and therefore be not a meer notional hearer but consider of every word you hear what Practice it is that it tendeth to and place that deepest in your memory If you forget all the words of the Reasons and Motives which you hear be sure to remember what Practice they were brought to urge you to As if you heard a Sermon against uncharitableness censoriousness or hurting others though you should forget all the Reasons and Motives in particular yet still remember that you were convinced in the hearing that censâ—rious and hurtful uncharitableness is a great sin and that you heard Reason enough to make you resolve against it And let Conscience Preach out the Sermon to the end and not let it dye in bare conviction but Resolve and be past wavering before you stir And above all the Sermon remember the Directions and Helps for Practice with which the truest method usually shuts up the Sermon § 4. Direct 4. When you come home let Conscience in secret also repeat the Sermon to you Between Direct 4. God and your selves consider what there was delivered to you in the Lords message that your souls were most concerned in what sin reproved which you are guilty of what duty pressed which you omit And there meditate seriously on the weight and Reasons of the thing and resist not the light but yet bring all to a fixed Resolution if till then you were unresolved Not ensnaring your selves with dangerous Vows about things doubtful or peremptory Vows without dependance on Christ for strength But firmly Resolving and cautelously engaging your selves to duty not with carnal evasions and reserves but with humble dependance upon grace without which of your selves you are able to do nothing § 5. Direct 5. Hear the most Practical Preachers you can well get Not those that have the finest Direct 5. Notions or the cleanest stile or neatest words but those that are still urging you to Holiness of Heart and life and driving home every truth to Practice not that false doctrine will at all bear up a holy life but true doctrine must not be left in the pâ—rch or at the doors but be brought home and used to its proper end and seated in the heart and placed as the poise upon the Clock where it may set all the wheels in motion § 6. Direct 6. Take heed especially of two sorts of false Teachers ANTINOMIAN LIBERTINES Direct 6. and AUTONOMIAN PHARISEES The first would build their sins on Christ not pleading for sin it self but taking down many of the chief helpes against it and disarming us of the weapons by which it should be destroyed and reproaching the true Preachers of obedience as Legalists that preach up works and call men to Doing when they Preach up Obedience to Christ their King upon the terms and by the Motives which are used by Christ himself and his Apostles Not understanding aright the true doctrine of Faith in Christ and Iustification and free grace which they think none else understand but they they pervert it and make it an enemy to the Kingly office of Christ and to sanctification and the necessary duties of obedience The other sort do make void the Commandments of God by their Traditions and instead of the holy Practice of the Laws of Christ they would drive the world with fire and sword to practise all their superstitious sopperies so that the few plain and necessary precepts of the Law of the Universal King is drowned in the greater body of their Canon Law and the Ceremonies of the Popes imposing are so many in comparison of the Institutions of Christ that the worship of God and work of Christianity is corrupted by it and made as another thing The wheat is lost in a heap of Chaff by them that will be Lawgivers to themselves and all the Church of Christ. § 7. Direct 7. Associate your selves with the most holy serious practical Christians Not with the Direct 7. ungodly nor with barren opinionists that talk of nothing but their Controversies and the way or interest of their sects which they call the Church nor with outside formal Ceremonious Pharisees that are pleading for the washing of Cups and tithing of Mint and the tradition of their Fathers while they hate and persecute
subscribed if afterwards you will question that account again you must take as full a time to do it and that when you are as calm and vacant as before and not unsettle an exact account upon a sudden view or a thought of some one particular Thus must you trust to no examinations and decisions about the state of your souls but those that in long and calm deliberation have brought it to an issue § 16. Direct 7. And in doing this neglect not to make use of the assistance of an able Direct 7. faithful Guide so far as your own weakness makes it necessary Your doubting sheweth that you are not sufficient to dispatch it satisfactorily your selves The Question then is What help a wiser man can give you Why he can clearlier open to you the true nature of Grace and the marks that are infallible and the extent of the Grace and tenour of the Covenant and he can help you how to trace your hearts and observe the discoveries of good or evil in them he can shew you your mistakes and help you in the application and tell you much of his own and others experiences And he can pass a strong Conjecture upon your own Case in particular if he be one that knoweth the course of your lives and is intimately acquainted with you For Sin and Grace are both expressive operative things like Life that ordinarily will stir or Fire that will be seen Though their judgement cannot be infallible of you and though for a while Hypocrisie may hide you from the knowledge of another yet ficâ—a non diâ— c. ordinarily Nature will be seen and that which is within you will shew it self so that your familiar acquaintance that see your lives in private and in publick may pass a very strong conjecture at your state whether you sâ—t your selves indeed to please God in sincerity or no. Therefore if possible choose such a man to help you as is 1. Able 2. Faithful and 3. Well acquainted with you And undervalue not his judgement § 17. Direct 8. When you cannot attain to a Certainty of your case undervalue not and Direct 8. neglect not the Comforts which a bare probability may afford you I know that a Certainty in so weighty a case should be earnestly desired and endeavoured to the uttermost But yet it is no small comfort which a likelihood or hopefulness may yield you Husband and Wife are uncertain every day whether one of them may kill the other And yet they can live comfortably together because it is an unlikely thing and though it be possible it is not much to be feared All the comforts of Christians dependeth not on their Assurance It is but few Christians in the world that reach to clear Assurance For all the Papists Lutherans and Arminians are without any Certainty of their salvation because they think it cannot be had And all those Jansenists or Protestants that are of Augustines judgement are without Assurance of salvation though they may have assurance of their Justification and Sanctification Because their judgement is that the justified and sanctified though not the Elect may fall away And of those that hold the Doctrine of Perseverance how few do we find that can say they are certain of their sincerity and salvation Alas not one of very many And yet many thousands of these do live in some peace of Conscience and quietness and comfort in the hopefulness and probabilities to which they have attained § 18. Direct 9. Resolve to be much in the great delightful duties of Thanksgiving and the Direct 9. Praise of God and to spend a considerable part ordinarily of all your prayers herein especially to spend the Lords Day principally in these And thus you will have three great advantages 1. The very actings of Love and Thanks and Joy will help you to comfort in a nearer way than arguments and self-examination will do even in a way of feeling as the fire maketh you warm 2. The custome of exercising those sweetest graces will habituate your souls to it and in time wear out the sadder impression 3. God will most own you in those highest duties § 19. Direct 10. Mark well how far your doubtings do help or hinder you in your sanctification Direct 10. So far as they turn your heart from God and from the Love and sweetness of a holy life and unfit you for thankfulness and chearful obedience so far you may be sure that Satan is gratified by them and God displeased and therefore they should be resisted But so far as they keep you humble and obedient and make you more tenderly afraid of sin and quicken your desires of Christ and grace so far God useth them for your benefit And therefore be not too impatient under them but wait on God in the use of his means and he will give his comforts in the fittest season Many an one hath sweet assurance at his death or in his sufferings for Christ when he needed it most that was fain to live long before without it Especially take care 1. That you miss not of Assurance through your own neglect 2. And that your doubtings work no ill effects in turning away your hearts from God or discouraging you in his service and then you may take them as a tryal of your patience and they will certainly have a happy end CHAP. XXVI Directions for Declining or Backsliding Christians and about Perseverance THe case of Backsliders is so terrible and yet the mistakes of many Christians so common in thinking unjustly that they are backsliders that this subject must be handled with the greater care And when I have first given some Directions for the Cure I shall next give some to others for Prevention of so sad a state § 1. Direct 1. Understand well wherein Backsliding doth consist the sorts and the degrees of it that so you may the more certainly and exactly discern whether it be indeed your case or not To this end I shall here open to you I. The several sorts of Backsliders II. The several steps or degrees of backsliding III. The signs of it § 2. I. There are in general three sorts of Backsliders 1. Such as decline from the Truth by the error of their Understanding 2. Such as turn from the Goodness of God and Holiness by the corruption of their Will and Affections 3. Such as turn from the Obedience of God and an upright conversation by the sinfulness of their lives The first sort containeth in it 1. Such as decline to Infidelity from Faith and doubt of the Truth of the Word of God 2. Such as decline only to error about the meaning of the Scriptures though they doubt not of the Truth of them This corrupted Iudgement will presently corrupt both Heart and Life § 3. The second sort Backsliders in Heart containeth 1. Such as only lose their Affections to Good their complacency and desire and lose their averseness and zeal against
advantage of a Tempt 1. Christians bodily weakness to shake his faith and question his foundations and call him to dispute Hic labor extremus longaâ—um haec meta viarum est Virgil. over his principles again Whether the soul be immortal and there be a Heaven and a Hell and whether Christ be the Son of God and the Scriptures be Gods Word c. As if this had never been questioned and scanned and resolved before It is a great deal of advantage that Satan expecteth by this malitious course If he could he would draw you from Christ to infidelity But Christ prayeth for you that your faith may not fail If he cannot do this he would at least weaken your faith and hereby weaken every grace And he would hereby divert you from the more needful thoughts which are suitable to your present state and he would hereby distract you and destroy your comforts and draw you in your perplexities to dishonour God Away therefore with these blasphemous and unseasonable motions Cast them from you with abhorrence and disdain It is no time now to be questioning your foundations You have done this more seasonably when you were in a fitter case A paiâ—ed languishing body and a disturbed discomposed mind is unfit upon a surprize to go back and dispute over all our principles Tell Satan you owe him not so much service nor will you so cast away those few hours and thoughts for which you have so much better work You have the witness in your selves even the Spirit and Image and Seal of God You have been converted and renewed by the power of that word which he would have you question and you have found it to be owned by the Spirit of grace who hath made it mighty to pull down the strongest holds of sin Tell Satan you will not gratifie him so much as to turn your holy heavenly desires into a wrangling with him about those truths which you have so often proved You will not question now the being of that God who hath maintained you so long and witnessed his being and goodness to you by a life of mercies nor will you now question the being or truth of him that hath Redeemed you or of the Spirit or Word that hath sanctified guided comforted and confirmed you If he tell you that you must prove all things tell him that this is not now to do you have long proved the truth and goodness of your God the mercy of your Saviour and the power of his Holy Spirit and Word It is now your work to live upon that Word and fetch your hopes and comforts from it and not to question it § 10. Tempt 2. Another dangerous Temptation of Satan is when he would perswade you to Tempâ— â— Despair by causing you to mis-understand the tenour of the Gospel or by thinking too narrowly and unworthily of Gods mercy or of the satisfaction of Christ. But because this Temptation doth usually tend more to discomfort the soul than to damn it I shall speak more to it under Tit. 3. § 11. Tempt 3. Another dangerous Temptation is when Satan would draw you to overlook your Tempt 3. sins and overvalue your graces and be proud of your good works and so lay too much of your comfort upon your selves and lose the sense of your need of Christ or usurp any part of his office or hiâ— honour I shall afterward shew you how far you must look at any thing in your selves But certainly that which lifteth you up in pride or incroacheth on Christs Office or would draw you to undervalue him is not of God Therefore keep humble in the sense of your sinfulness and unworthiness and cast away every motion which would carry you away from Christ and make your selves and your works and righteousness as a Saviour to your selves § 12. Tempt 4. Another perillous Temptation is by causing the thoughts of death and the grave Tempt 4. and your doubts and fears about the world to come to overcome the Love of God and not only the comforts but also the desires and willingness of your hearts to be with Christ. It will abate your Love to God and Heaven to think on them with too much estrangedness and terror The Directions under Tit. 3. will help you against this Temptation § 13. Tempt 5. Another dangerous Temptation is fetcht from the remnants of your worldly Tempt 5. mindedness when your dignity or honor your house or lands your relations and friends or your pleasures and contentments are so sweet to you that you are loth to leave them and the thoughts of death are grievous to you because it taketh you from that which you over-love and God and Heaven are the less desired because you are loth to leave the world Watch carefully against this great Temptation Observe how it seeketh the very destruction of your grace and souls and how it fighteth against your Love to God and Heaven and would undo all that Christ and his Spirit have been doing so long Observe what a root of matter it findeth in your selves and therefore be the more humbled under it Learn now what the world is and how little the accommodations of the flesh are worth when you perceive what the end of all must be Would you never dye Would you enjoy your worldly things for ever Had you rather have them than to live with Christ in the Heavenly glory of the New Ierusalem If you had it is your grievous sin and folly And yet you know that it is a desire that you can never hope to attain Dye you must whether you will or not What is it then that you would stay for Is it till the world be grown less pleasant to you and your Love and minds be weaned from it When should that rather be than now And what should more effectually do it than this dying condition that you are in It is time for you to spit out these unwholsome pleasures and now to look up to the true the holy the unmeasurable everlasting pleasures Tit. 2. Directions how to Profit by our Sickness WHether it shall please God to recover you or not it is no small Benefit which you may get by his Visitation if you do your part and faithfully improve it according to these Directions following § 1. Direct 1. If you hear Gods call to a closer tryal of your hearts concerning the sincerity of your Direct 1. conversion and thereby are brought to a more exact examination and come to a truer acquaintance with your state be it good or bad the benefit may be exceeding great For if it be good you may be much comforted and confirmed and fitted to give thanks and praise to God And if it be bad you may be awakened speedily to look about you and seek for a recovery § 2. Direct 2. If in the review of your lives you find out those sins which before you overlookâ— or Direct 2. perceive
and endeavours do contain the seed of life eternal and are such a preparation for it as cannot be in vain Would God concurr thus with any word which is not true and holy and good to make it effectual for the renovation of so many millions of souls Have you not found that his work of Grace is earryed on by heavenly Wisdom Love and Power and is a witness of his special providence and containeth his own Image upon the soul And shall we then question the Author of the seal when we see that the Image and superscription which it imprinteth is Divine And have you not had such experiences your 5. self of the fulfilling of this word in the answer of prayers manifest both on mens souls and bodies which are enough to confute the Tempter that would shake your faith when he seeth you in your weakness unfit to call up all those Evidences which at another time you have discerned For my own part I must bear this witness to the truth that I have known and felt and seen and heard such wonders wrought upon servent prayer as have many a time convinced me of the truth of the promises and the special providence of God to his poor petitioners I have oft known the Acute and Chronical Diseases of afflicted ones relieved by prayer without any natural means Some of the most violent cured in an hour and some by more slow degrees Besides the effects upon mens souls and estates and publick affairs which plainly demonstrated the means and cause And shall a promise thus sealed to us be ever questioned again Nay have you not the Witness in your self 6. 1 John 5. 10 11 12. Even the Spirit of Christ which is the pledge and earnest of your inheritance and the seal and mark of God upon you In a word it is an unquestionable truth that the rational 7. world neither is nor ever was nor can be governed agreeably to its nature without an End to move and rule them which is beyond this life and without the Hopes and fears of a Reward and Punishment hereafter Were this but taken out of the world man would no longer live like man but as the most odious noxious creature upon earth And it is as sure that it agreeth not with the Omnipotence Wisdom and Goodness of God to Govern so noble a Creature by a lye and to make a Nature that must be so governed And it is as certain that all other Revelation is defective and that Life and Immortality the end and the way were never so brought to light as they are in the Gospel by 2 Tim. 1. 10. Christ and by his Spirit Say then to the malitious Tempter The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke theâ— Zech. 3. 2. O full of all subtilty and mischief thou enemy of God and righteousness Wilt thou not cease to be a lying Spirit and to pervert the truth and right wayes of the Lord Act 13. 10. Lift up your soul to God and say I believe Lord help mine unbelief Though Satan stand to resist me at my right hand am I not a brand pluckt out of the fire Am I not thine and have I not resigned this soul to thee and didst thou not accept it in thy holy Covenant O then defend it as thine own Plead thou my Cause and confirm thy work and justifie both thy truth and me against the malitious enemy of both O let the intercession of my Saviour prevail that my faith fail not And take away the filthy garments from me Zech. 3. 3 4. and cause mine iniquities to pass away And though my soul be troubled what shall I say Father save me from this hour But then what passage shall I have into thy presence I was born a mortal wight John 12. 23 27 28. John 17. 1. and go but the way as all Generations have gone before me and follow my Lord and all his Saints Father receive and glorifie thy servant that thy servant may glorifie thy name for ever Receive O Father the soul which thou hast made Receive O Saviour the soul which thou hast so dearly bought and loved to the death Acts 7. 59. and washed in thy blood Receive the soul which thou hast regenerated by thy Spirit and in some measure quickned Psal. 39. 5 7 8 11. Psal. 32. 1 2 3. Rom. 4. 7 8. 24. Psal. 25. 7. Psal. 19. 12 13. 1 Pet. 2. 22. Matth. 3. 15. Heb. 9. 26. Isa. 53. 10. 3 4 6 7 8 9. Matth. 3 17. 17. 5. 12. 18. Rom. 5. 1 2 3 5 10. Ephes. 2. 14. Heb. 10. 10 12 14 18. Heb 7. 26 2â— Ephes. 1. 6 7 11 13. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Phil. 3. 9 10 11. Eph. 5. 26 27. Psal. 139. 16 17 18. Psal. 16. 6 7. Psal. 6â— 9. Psal. 46. 4. Psal. 42. 3 4. Psal. 89. 15. Psal. 36. 8. John 4. 10 13 14. Psal. 42. 4. Psal. 107. 6. 13. Psal. 107. 17 14. by the immortal seed Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand breadth my age before thee is as nothing and every man at his best estate is vanity When thy rebukes correct us for iniquity thou makest our beauty to câ—nsume as a nâ—oth And now O Lord what wait I for Is not my hope alone in thee Deliver me from my transgressions and impute not to me the sins which I have done Remember not against me the sins of my youth and forgive the iniquities of my riper years Charge not upon me my grieving of thy Spirit and neglects and resistances of thy grace Forgive my sins of ignorance and of knowledge my sins of slâ—thfulness rashness and presumption especially those which I have wilfully committed against thy warnings and the warnings of my Conscience Who can understand his errors Cleanse thou me from secret sins O pardon my unprofitableness and abuse of thy mercies and my sluggish loss of pretious time that I have served thee no better and loved thee no more and improved no better the day of grace Though folâ—y and sin have darknâ—d my light and blemished my most holy services and my transgressions have been multiplyed in thy sight yet is the Sacrifice sufficient which thou hast accepted from our great High Priest who made his soul an offering for sin In him thou art well pleased He is our peace In him I trust He was holy harmless undefiled and separate from sinners He did no iniquity He fulfilled all Righteousness and by once offering of himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified He is able to save to the utmost them that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Accept me O Father in him thy well beloved Let my sinful soul be healed by his stripes who bare our sins in his body on the Cross. Let me be found in him not having any Legal righteousness of my own but that which
among them and defile them 7. It is the duty of the several members of the flock if a Brother trespass against them to tell him his faults between them and him and if he hear not to take two or three and if he hear not them to tell the Church 8. It is the Pastors duty to admonish the unruly and call them to Repentance and pray for their Conversion 9. And it is the Pastors duty to declare the obstinately impenitent uncapable of Communion with the Church â—nd to charge him to forbear it and the Church to avoid him 10. It is the peoples duty to avoid such accordingly and have no familiarity with them that they may be ashamed and with such no not to eat 11. It is the Pastors duty to Absolve the Penitent declaring the remission of their sin and re-admitting to the Communion of the Saints 12. It is the peoples duty to re-admit the absolved to their Communion with joy and to take them as Brethren in the Lord. 13. Though every Pastor hath a General power to exercise his office in any part of the Church where he shall be truly called to it yet every Pastor hath a special obligation and consequently a special power to do it over the flock of which he hath received the special charge and oversight 14. The Lords day is separated by Gods appointment for the Churches ordinary holy Communion in Gods Worship under the conduct of these their Guides 15. And it is requisite that the several particular Churches do maintain as much agreement among themselves as their capacity will allow them and keep due Synods and correspondencies to that end Thus much of Gods Worship and Church-order and Government at least is of Divine institution and determined by Scripture and not left to the will or liberty of man Thus far the Form of Government at least is of Divine Right § 21. But on the contrary 1. About Doctrine and Worship the Scripture is no Law in any of these following cases but hath left them undetermined 1. There are many natural Truths which the Scripture meddleth not with As Physicks Metaphysicks Logick c. 2. Scripture telleth not a Minister what particular Text or Subject he shall Preach on this day or that 3. Nor what method his Text or Subject shall be opened and handled in 4. Nor what day of the week besides the Lords day he shall preach nor what hour on the Lords day he shall begin 5. Nor in what particular place the Church shall meet 6. Nor what particular sins we shall most confess nor what personal mercies we shall at this present time first ask nor for what we shall now most copiously give thanks For special occasions must determine all these 7. Nor what particular Chapter we shall now read nor what particular Psalm we shall now sing 8. Nor what particular translation of the Scripture or version of the Psalms we shall now use Nor into what Sections to distribute the Scripture as we do by Chapters and Verses Nor whether the Bible shall be Printed or Written or in what Characters or how bound 9. Nor just by what sign I shall express my consent to the truths or duties which I am called to express consent to besides the Sacraments and ordinary words 10. Nor whether I shall use written Notes to help my memory in Preaching or Preach without 11. Nor whether I shall use a writing or book in prayer or pray without 12. Nor whether I shall use the same words in preaching and prayer or various new expressions 13. Nor what utensils in holy administrations I shall use as a Temple or an ordinary house a Pulpit a font a Table cups cushions and many such which belong to the several parts of Worship 14. Nor in what particular gesture we shall preach or read or hear 15. Nor what particular garments Ministers or people shall wear in time of Worship 16. Nor what natural or artificial helps to our natural faculties Of which I have spoke more fully in my Disput. 5. of Church-Government p. 400. c. we shall use as medicaments for the Voice tunes musical instruments spectacles hour-glasses These and such like are undetermined in Scripture and are left to be determined by humane prudence not as men please but as means in order to the proper end according to the General Laws of Christ. For Scripture is a General Law for all such circumstances but not a particular Law So also for Order and Government Scripture hath not particularly determined 1. What individual persons shall be the Pastors of the Church 2. Or of just how many persons the Congregations shall consist 3. Or how the Pastors shall divide their work where there are many 4. Nor how many every Church shall have 5. Nor what particular people shall be a Pastors special charge 6. Nor what individual persons he shall Baptize receive to Communion admonish or absolve 7. Nor in what words most of these shall be expressed 8. Nor what number of Pastors shall meet in Synods for the communion and agreement of several Churches noâ— how oft nor at what time or place nor what particular order shall be among them in their consultations with many such like § 22. When you thus understand how far Scripture is a Law to you in the Worship of God it will be the greatest Direction to you to keep you both from disobeying God and your Superiours that you may neither pretend obedience to man for your disobedience to God nor pretend obedience to God against your due obedience to your Governours as those will do that think Scripture is a more particular Rule than ever Christ intended it And it will prevent abundance of unnecessary scruples contentions and divisions § 23. Direct 12. Observe well in Scripture the difference between Christs Universal Laws which Direct 12. bind all his Subjects in all times and places and those that are but local personal or alterable Laws What commands of God are not universal noâ— perpetual lest you think that you are bound to all that ever God bound any others to The Universal Laws and unalterable are those which result from the Foundation of the universal and unalierable nature of persons and things and those which God hath supernaturally revealed as suitable constantly to all The particular local or temporary Laws are those which either resulted from a particular or alterable nature of persons and things as mutually related as the Law of nature bound Adams Sons to marry their Sisters which bindeth others against it or those which God supernaturally enacted only for some particular people or person or for a time If you should mistake all the Iewish Laws for universal Laws as to persons or duration into how many errours would it lead you So also if you mistake every personal mandate sent by a Prophet or Apostle to a particular man as obliging all you would make a snare of it Every man is not to abstain
the truth Direct 8. as in the presence of scorners or when required by magistrates or others c. let not the advise or interest Mat. 10. 18 23 32 33 38 39. 12. 14 15. 14. 13. Joh. 10. 39. Heb. 11. 27. Act. 9. 25. of the flesh have any hand at all in the resolving of the case but let it be wholly determined as the interest of Christ requireth Spare thy self when the interest of Christ requireth it not for thy self but for him But when his interest is most promoted by thy suffering rejoice that thou art any way capable of serving him § 15. Direct 9. Though sometimes a particular profession of the faith may be unseasonable yet you Direct 9. must never make any profession of the contrary either by words or actions Truth may be sometimes silenced but a Lye may never be professed or approved § 16. Direct 10. If any that Profess Christianity reproach you for the profession of Holiness and Diligence convince them that they Hypocritically profess the same and that Holiness is essential to Christianity Open their Baptismal Covenant to them and the Lords Prayer in which they daily pray that Gods will may be done on earth even as it is in Heaven which is more strictly than the best of us can reach The difference between them and you is but this whether we should be Christians hypocritically in jeast or in good earnest CHAP. V. Directions about Vows and particular Covenants with God Tit. 1. Directions for the right making such Vows and Covenants § 1. Direct 1. UNderstand the Nature of a Vow and the Use to which it is appointed What a Vow is A Vow is a Promise made to God 1. It is not a bare Assertion or Negation 2. It is not a meer Pollicitation or expression of the purpose or resolution of the mind For he that saith or meaneth no more than I am purposed or resolved to do this may upon sufficient reason do the contrary For he may change his mind and resolution without any untruth or injury to any 3. It is not a meer Devoting of a thing to God for the present by actual resignation For the present actual Delivery of a thing to Sacred Uses is no Promise for the future Though we usually joyn them both together yet Devovere may be separated from Vovâ—re 4. It must be therefore a Promise which is A voluntary obliging ones self to another de futuro for some Good 5. It is therefore implyed that it be the Act of a Rational creature and of one that in that act hath some competent use of Reason and not of a fool or ideot or mad man or a child that hath Viris gravibus vehementer displicere animadveâ—ti quod ab Indis testimonium jurejurando exigitur cum constet eos facillime pejeraâ—e utpote qui neque juramenti vim sentiant neque veritatis studio tanganâ—ur sed testimonium eo modo dicant quâ— credunt Judici gratissimum fore â—ut a primo suae factionis homine edocti sunt Hos igitur jurare compellere ipsis exitiosum propter perjuria c. Aâ—osta p. 345. not reason for such an act no nor of a brainsick or melancholy person who though he be caetera sanus is either delirant in that business or is irresistibly born down and necessitated by his Disease to Vow against the sober deliberate conclusion of his reason at other times having at the Time of Vowing Reason enough to strive against the Act but not self-government enough to restrain a passionate Melancholy Vow 6. Whereas some Casuists make Deliberation necessary it must be understood that to the Being of a Vow so much Deliberation is requisite as may make it a rational humane act it must be an act of Reason but for any further Deliberation it is necessary only to the well-being and not to the being of a Vow and without it it is a Rash Vow but not No Vow 7. When we say It must be a Voluntary Act the meaning is not that it must be totally and absolutely Voluntary without any fear or threatning to induce us to it but only that it be really Voluntary that is an act of choice by a free agent that considering all things doth choose so to do He that hath a Sword set to his breast and doth Swear or Vow to save his life doth do it Voluntarily as choosing rather to do it than to dye Man having free-will may choose rather to dye than Vow if he think best His will may be moved by fear but cannot be forced by any one or any means whatsoever 8. When I say that a Vow is a Promise I imply that the Matter of it is necessarily some real or supposed good to be good or to do good or not to do evil Evil may be the matter of an Oath but it is not properly a Vow if the matter be not supposed good 9. It is a promise made to God that we are now speaking of Whether the name of a Vow belong to a promise made only to man is a question de nomine which we need not stop at § 2. A Vow is either a simple Promise to God or a Promise bound with an Oath or imprecation The sorts of Vows Some would appropriate the Name of a Vow to this last sort only when men swear they will do this or that Which indeed is the most formidable sort of vowing but the true nature of a Vow is found also in a simple self-obliging Promise § 3. The true Reason and Use of Vows is but for the more certain and effectual performance of The Use of Vows our Duties not to make new Laws and Duties and Religions for us but to drive on the backward lingering soul to do its duty and to break over difficulties and delayes that by strengthening our bonds and setting the danger before our eyes we may be excited to escape it § 4. It is a great question whether our own Vows can add any new obligation to that which before The Obligation of Vows lay upon us from the command of God Amesius saith Cas. Consc. l. 4. c. 16. Non addituâ— prâ—prie in istis nova obligatio neque augetur in se prior sed magis agn scitur recipitur a nobis Passive in istis aeque fuimus antea obligati sed activa recognitione arctivùs nobis applicatur a nobismeâ—ipsis Others commonly speak of an additional obligation And indeed there is a double obligation added by a Vow to that which God before had laid on us to the Matter of that Vow Premising this distinction between Obligatio imponentis a Governing obligation which is the effect of Governing right or Authority and obligatio consentientis a self-obliging by voluntary consent which is the effect of that dominion which a Rational free agent hath over his own actions I say 1. He that ☜ voweth doth oblige himself who before was obliged
that he is better acquainted with your spiritual state and life than others are and therefore in less danger of wronging you by mistake and misapplications For it s supposed that you have acquainted him with your personal condition in your health having taken him as your ordinary Counsellor for your souls and that he hath acquainted himself with your condition and confirmed you and watcht over you by name as Ignatius to Polycarpe Bishop of Smyrna saith Saepe Congregationes fiant ex nomine omnes quaere servos ancillas ne despicias as Bishop Ushers old Latine Transl. hath Vid. Iastiâ— Marâ— Apol. 2. Vid. Tertul. Apol. c. 39. it Let Congregations be often held Enquire after all by name Despise not Servants and Maids The Bishop took notice of every Servant and Maid by name and he had opportunity to see whether they were in the Congregation 9. You must use him as your Leader or Champion against all Hereticks Infidels and subtle adversaries of the truth with whom you are unable to contend your selves that your Bishop may clear up and defend the cause of Christ and righteousness and by irresistible evidence stop the mouths of all I hope all this will tell you what a Bishop indeed is gain-sayers It is for your own benefit and not for theirs that you are required in all these works of their office to use them and readily obey them And what hurt can it do you to obey them in any of these § 9. Direct 3. Understand how it is that Christ doth authorize and send forth his Ministers lest Direct 3. Wolves and deceivers should either obtrude themselves upon you as your lawful Pastors or should alienate you from thâ—se that God hath set over you by puzling you in subtle questioring or disputing against their call Not only Pauls warnings Act. 20. 30. and 2 Tim. 3. 6. but lamentable experience telleth us what an eager desire there is in Proud and Self-conceited men to obtrude themselves as Teachers and Pastors on the Churches to creep into houses and lead people captive and draw away Disciples after them and say and perhaps think that others are deceivers and none are the true Teachers indeed but they And the first part of the art and work of wolves is to separate you from your Pastors and catch up the straglers that are thus separated The malice and slanders and lies and railing of hirelings and deceivers and all the powers of Hell are principally poured out on the faithful Pastors and leaders of the flocks The principal work of the Jesuits against you is to make you believe that Gâ—ot de Imp. p. 273. Pastorum est ordinare Pastores Neque id officâ—um eis competit quâ hujus aut illius ecclesiae Pastores sunt sed quâ uâ— nistriâ— ecclesiae Catholicae your Pastors are no true Pastors but uncalled private persons and meer usurpers and the reason must be because they have not an Ordination of Bishops successively from the Apostles without interruption I confess if our interruptions had been half as lamentable as theirs by their Schisms and variety of Popes at once and Popes accused or condemned by General Councils for Hereticks and their variety of wayes of electing Popes and their incapacities by Simony Usurpation c. I should think at least that our Ancestors had cause to have questioned the calling of some that were then over them But I will help you in a few words to discern the jugling of these deceivers by shewing you the truth concerning the way of Christs giving his commission to the Ministers that are truly called and the needlesness of the proof of an uninterrupted succession of regular ordination to your reception of your Pastors and their Ministrations § 10. The ministerial commission is contained in and conveyed by the Law of Christ which is the See in Grotius de Imper. sum potest p. 269. The necessary distinction of 1. Ipsa facultas praedicandi sacramenta claves administrandi quod Mandatum vocat 2. Applicatio hujus facultatis ad certam personam viz. Ordinatio 3. Applicatio hujus personae ad certum coeâ—um locum viz. Electio 4. Iliud quo certa persona in certo loco ministerium suum exercet publico praesidio ac publicâ authoritate viz. Coâ—fiâ—matio p. 273. Constat munetis institutionem à Deo esse Ordinationem à Pastoribus Confirmationem publicam à summa potestate So that the doubt is only about election Which yet must be differenced from consenâ— Charter of the Church and every true Bishop or Pastor hath his Power from Christ and not at all from the efficient conveyance of any mortal man Even as Kings have their power not from man but from God himself but with this difference that in the Church Christ hath immediatly determined of the species of Church offices but in the Civil Government only of the Genus absolutely and immediatly You cannot have a plainer illustration than by considering how Mayors and Bailiffs and Constables are annually made in Corporations The King by his Charter saith that every year at a certain time the freemen or Burgesses shall meet and choose one to be their Mayor and the Steward or Town Clerk shall give him his oath and thus or he shall be invested in his place and this shall be his power and work and no other So the King by his Law appointeth that Constables and Church-wardens shall be chosen in every Parish Now let our two questions be here decided 1. Who it is that giveth these Officers their Power 2. Whether an uninterrupted succession of such officers through all generations since the enacting of that Law be necessary to the validity of the present officers authority To the first It is certain that it is the King by his Law or Charter that giveth the officers their power and that the Corporations and Parishes do not give it them by electing or investing them yea though the King hath made such election and Investiture to be in a sort his instrument in the conveying it it is but as the opening of the door to let them in sine quo non but it doth not make the Instruments to be at all the Givers of the Power nor were they the receiving or containing mediate causes of it The King never gave them the Power which the officers receive either to Use or to Give but only makes the Electors his Instruments to determine of the person that shall receive the Power immediately from the Law or Charter and the Investers he ma keth his Instruments of solemnizing the Tradition and admission which if the Law or Charter make absolutely Necessary ad esse officii it will be so but if it make it necessary only ad melius esse or but for order and regular admittance when no necessity hindereth it the necessity will be no more And to the second question It is plain that the Law which is the Fundamentum
to make further enquiry and so when the soul is come so far as to see the same truths by supernatural Grace in the supernatural revelation of the Holy Scriptures then they become more effectual and saâ—ing which before were known but preparatorily And so the same Truths are then both the objects of Knowledge and of faith § 20. 4. Having acquainted you with mans ultimate End and Happiness in the life to come the 4. To know that Christ faith Repentance and obedience is the way to it next thing to be taught you by the Ministers of Christ is that Christ as our Saviour and faith and repentance and sincere obedience to be performed by us through his grace is the way to Heaven or the means by which we must attain this end Though the Knowledge of the Preachers wisdom piety and credibility remove some impediments which would make the receiving of this the more difficult to you yet you are not to take it barely on his word as a point of humane faith but you are to call for his proof of it that you may see better reasons than his affirmations for the entertainment of it § 21. 5. The proof that he will give you is in these two Propositions 1. Gods Revelations are all 5. To know that this is True because God hath revealed it or it is his Word true 2. This is one of Gods Revelations This is an argument Whatsoever God saith is true But this God saith Therefore this is true The first Proposition you â—re not to take upon the trust of his word but to learn of him as a Teacher to know it in its proper Evidence For it is the formal object of your faith The veracity of God is first known to you by the same Evidence and means as you know that there is a God And then it is by the force of this that you believe the particular truths which are the material object of faith 2. And the second Proposition that God hath revealed this is orderly to be first proved and so received upon its proper evidence and not taken meerly upon your Teachers word Yet if you do believe him by a humane faith as a man that is likely to know what he saith and this in order to a Divine faith it will not hinder but help your Divine faith and salvation and is indeed no more than is your duty § 22. Here not 1. That primarily these two Great Principles of faith God is True and this is Gods revelation are not themselves Credenda the Material objects of Divine faith but of Knowledge ☞ 2. That yet the result of both is de fide matter of faith 3. And the same principles are secondarily de fide as it is that there is a God For though they are first to be known by natural evidence yet when the Scripture is opened to us we shall find them there revealed And so the same thing may be the object both of knowledge and of faith 4. And Faith it self is a sort of Knowledge For though humane faith have that uncertainty in its premises for the most part as forbiddeth us to say properly I know this to be true because such a man said it Yet Divine faith hath that certainty which may make it an excellent sort of Knowledge as I have proved copiously elsewhere In believing man we argue thus Whatsoever so wise and honest a man saith is credible that is most ☞ likely to be true But this he saith Therefore c. But in believing God we argue thus Whatever God saith is credible that is as infallible truth But this God saith Therefore c. So that the word Credible signifieth not the same thing in the two arguments nor is Divine Faith and Humane faith the same § 23. 6. The next thing that the Preacher hath to teach you is the proof of the foresaid Minor 6. To knâ—w that the Gospel is his Word Proposition for the Major was proved in the proof of a Deity And that is thus The Gospel which Christ and his Apostles first Preached and is now delivered in the Sacred Scriptures is the Word or infallible revelation of God But this doctrine that Christ with faith and Repentance and obedience on our parts are the way to life Eternal is the Gospel which Christ and his Apostles first Preached c. Therefore it is the Word of God For the Minor you need not take your Teachers word if you can read for you may see it in the Books of which more anon But the Major is that which all men will desire to be assured of that the Gospel is Gods word And for that though a Belief of your Teacher is a help and good preparatory yet you are not there to stop but to use him as a Teacher to shew you the Truth of it in the proofs else you must take any thing for Gods Word which your Teacher affirmeth to be such And the proof which he will give you must be some Divine attestation which may be shewed to those whom we would convince § 24. 7. This Divine attestation which he is next to shew you hath many parts that it may be 7. The Divine attestation of the Gospel compleat and satisfactory 1. Gods antecedent Testimony 2. His inherent or impressed testimony 3. His adherent concomitant Testimony 4. His subsequent Testimony 1. Gods Antecedent Testimony by which he attesteth the Gospel is the train of Promises Prophesies Types and the preparing Ministry of Iohn which all foretold Christ and were fulfilled in him 2. Gods impressed ☞ testimony is that Image and superscription of God in his Governing-wisdom Holiness and Love which is unimmitably engraven on the Gospel as an Image upon a seal which is thereby made the Instrument to imprint the same on other things Thus as the Sun the Gospel shineth and proveth it self by its proper light 3. The conâ—omitant attestation of God is that of multitudes of certain uncontrouled miracles done by Christ and his Apostles which proved the approving hand of God and oblige all rational creatures to believe a testimony so confirmed to them Among these Christs own Resurrection and Ascension and the Gifts of his Apostles are the chief 4. The subsequent attestation of God is the power and efficacy of the Gospel in calling and sanctifying unto Christ a peculiar people zealous of good works and directing and confirming them against all temptations and torments to the end Producing that same Image of God on the souls of his Elect which is more perfectly engraven on the word it self making such changes and gathering such a people unto God as no other doctrine ever did And all these four attestations are but one even the Holy Spirit ☞ who is become the great witness of Christ and his Gospel in the World viz. 1. The spirit of Prophesie is the antecedent attestation 2. The Holy Image which the spirit hath Printed on the Gospel it self
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
by decisive Iudicial â—entence Nor any Universal Civil Monarch of the world 2. The publick Governing Decisive judgement obliging others belongeth to publick persons or Officers Eph. 4. 7 13 14 15 16. of God and not to any private man 1 Cor. 12. 28 29. 17. 3. The publick decision of Doubts or Controversies about Faith it self or the true sense of Gods Word and Laws as obliging the whole Church on Earth to believe that decision or not gainsay it Acts 15. See my Key for Catholicks because of the Infallibility or Governing authority of the Deciders belongeth to none but Jesus Christ Because as is said he hath made no Universal Governour nor Infallible Expositor It belongeth to the Law-giver only to make such an Universally obliging Exposition of his own Laws 4. True Bishops or Pastors in their own particular Churches are Authorized Teachers and Guides in Expounding the Laws and Word of Christ And the people are bound as Learners to reverence their Teaching and not contradict it without true cause yea and to believe them fide humanâ in things pertinent to their Office For oportet discentem credere 5. No such Pastors are to be Absolutely believed nor in any case of notorious Error or Heresie where the Word of God is discerned to be against them 6. For all the people as Reasonable creatures have a judgement of private discerning to judge what they must Receive as Truth and to discern their own duty by the help of the Word of God and of their Teachers 7. The same power of Governing-Iudgement Lawful Synods have over their several flocks as a Pastor over his own but with greater advantage 8. The power of Judging in many Consociate Churches who is to be taken into Communion as Orthodox and who to be refused by those Churches as Hereticks in specie that is what Doctrine they will judge sound or unsound as it is Iudicium discernendi belongeth to every one of the Council â—ingly As it is a Iudgement obliging themselves by Contract and not of Governing each other it is in the Contracters and Consenters And for peace and order usually in the Major Vote But with the Limitations before expressed 9. Every true Christian believeth all the Essentials of Christianity with a Divine faith and not by a meer humane belief of his Teachers though by their Help and Teaching his faith is generated and confirmed and preserved Therefore no essential Article of Christianity is left to any obliging decision of any Church but only to a subservient obliging Teaching As whether there be a God a Christ a Heaven a Hell an Immortality of souls whether God be to be believed loved feared obeyed before man Whether the Scripture be Gods Word and true Whether those that contradict it are to be believed therein Whether Pastors Assemblies publick Worship Baptism Sacrament of the Lords Supper be Divine institutions And the same I may say of any known Word of God No mortals may judge in partem utramliâ—et but the Pastors are only Authorized Teachers and helpers of the peoples faith And so they be partly to one another 10. If the Pope or his Council were the Infallible or the Governing Expositors of all Gods Laws and Scriptures 1. God would have enabled them to do it by an Universal Commentary which all men should be obliged to believe or at least not to contradict For there is no Authority and Obligation given to men yea to so many successively to do that for the needful decision of Controversies which they never have Ability given them to do For that were to oblige them to things impossible 2. And the Pope and his Council would be the most treacherous miscreants on earth that in so many hundred years would never write such an Infallible nor Governing Commentary to end the differences of the Christian world Indeed they have judged with others against Arrius that Christ is true God and one with the Father in substance c. But if they had said the contrary must we have taken it for Gods truth or have believed them 11. To judge who for Heresie or Seandal shall be punished by the Sword belongeth to none but the Magistrate in his own dominions As to judge who shall have Communion or be excommunicated from the Church belongeth as aforesaid to the Pastors And the said Magistrate hath first as a man his own Iudgement of discerning what is Heresie and who of his subjects are guilty of it in order to his publick Governing Judgement 12. The Civil Supream Ruler may Antecedently exercise this Judgement of Discerning by the Teaching of their proper Teachers in order to his consequent sentences on offenders And so in his Laws may tell the subjects what Doctrines and practices he will either Tolerate or punish And thus may the Church Pastors do in their Canons to their several flocks in relation to Communion or non-communion 13. He that will condemn particular persons as Hereticks or offenders must allow them to speak for themselves and hear the proofs and give them that which justice requireth c. And if the Pope can do so at the Antipodes and in all the world either per se or per alium without giveing that other his essential claimed power let him prove it by better experience than we have had 14. As the prime and sole-universal Legislation belongeth to Jesus Christ so the final Judgement universal and particular belongeth to him which only will end all Controversies and from which there is no appeal Quest. 29. Whether a Parents power over his Children or a Pastor or many Pastors or Bishops over the same Children as parts of their flock be greater or more obliging in matters of Religion and publick Worship THis being toucht on somewhere else I only now say 1. That if the case were my own I would 1. Labour to know their different Powers as to the matter commanded and obey each in that which is proper to his place 2. If I were young and ignorant Natural necessity and natural obligation together would give my Parents with whom I lived such an advantage above the Minister whom I seldome see or understand as would determine the case de eventu and much de jure 3. If my Parents commanded me to hear a Teacher who is against Ceremonies or certain Forms and to hear none that are for them natural necessity here also ordinarily would make it my duty first to hear and obey my Parents And in many other cases till I came to understand the greater power of the Pastors in their own place and work 4. But when I come to Church or know that the judgement of all Concordant Godly Pastors condemneth such a thing as damnable Heresie or Sin which any Father commandeth me to receive and profess I would more believe and follow the Judgement of the Pastors and Churches Quest. 30. May an Office Teacher or Pastor be at once in a stated Relation of a Pastor and a
Spirit for his Sanctifier So that he must be a lyar or a sound believer that maketh this profession But for an Infant to be born of true believers and sincerely by them dedicated in Covenant to God is all the Condition that ever God required to an Infant-title to his Covenant And it is not the failure of the true Condition as a false profession is Indeed if the proportion were thus laid it would hold good As we know not who sincerely covenanteth for himself and yet must baptize all that soberly profess it so we know not who doth sincerely Covenant for his Infant and yet we must baptize all whom the Parents bring with such a profession for themselves and them But if the sincere dedication of a sound believer shall be accounted but equal to the lying profession of the adult which is neither commanded nor hath any promise then Infants are not in the Covenant of Grace nor is their sincerest dedication to God either commanded or hath any promise If I were but sure that the profession of the Adult for himself were sincere I were sure that he were in a state of Grace And if I am not sure of the same concerning the Parents dedication of his Infant I must conclude that this is not a condition of the same Covenant and therefore that he is not in the same Covenant or Conditional promise of God unless there be some other Condition required in him or for him But there is no other that can be devised Object Election is the Condition Answ. Election is Gods act and not mans and therefore may be an Antecedent but no Condition required of us And man is not called to make Profession that he is Elected as he is to make profession of his faith and consent to the Covenant And God only knoweth who are his by Election and therefore God only can baptize on this account And what is the probability which the objectors mean that many of the Infants of the faithful are elected Either it is a promise or but a prediction If no promise it is not to be sealed by baptism If a promise it is absolute oâ— conditional If any absolute promise As I will save many children of believers 1. This terminateth not on any singular person as baptism doth and 2. It is not the absolute promise that baptism is appointed by Christ to seal This is apparent in Mark 16. 16. and in the case of the adult And it is not one Covenant which is sealed to the adult by baptism and another to infants Else baptism also should not be the same But if it be any conditional Covenant what is it and what is the condition And what is it that baptism giveth to the seed of believers if they be not justified by it from original sin You will not say that it conveyeth Inherent sanctifying Grace no not into all the Elect themselves which many are many years after without And you cannot say that it sealeth to them any promise so much as of visible Church-priviledges For God may suffer them presently to be made Ianizaries and violently taken from their Parents and become strangers and despisers of Church-priviledges as is ordinary with the Greeks Children among the Turks Now God either promised such Church-priviledges absolutely or conditionally or not at all Not absolutely for then they would possess them If conditionally what is the Condition If not at all what promise then doth baptism seal to such and what benefit doth it secure God hath instituted no baptism which is a meer present delivery of possession of a Church-state without sealing any Promise at all True baptism first sealeth the promise and then delivereth possession of some benefits Yea indeed outward Church-priviledges are such uncertain blessings of the promise that as they Matth. 6. 33. Rom. 8. 28 32 c. are but secondary so they are but secondarily given and sealed so that no man should ever be baptized if these were all that were in the promise The holiest person may be cast into a Wilderness and deprived of all visible Church-communion And doth God then Break his promise with him Certainly no It is therefore our saving Relations to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost which the promise giveth and baptism sealeth and other things but subordinately and uncertainly as they are means to these So then its plain that believers Infants have a promise of salvation or no promise at all which baptism was instituted to seal I have said so much more of this in my Appendix to the Treatise of Infant Baptism to Mr. Bedford in defence of Dr. Davenants judgement as that I must refer the Reader thither 8. I think it very probable that this ascertaining promise belongeth not only to the natural seed of believers but to all whom they have a true power and right to dedicate in Covenant to God which seemeth to be all that are properly their Own whether Adopted or bought But there is more darkness and doubt about this than the former because the Scripture hath said less of it 9. I am not able to prove nor see any probable reason for it that any but sound believers have such a promise for their children nor that any hypocrite shall certainly save his child if he do but dedicate him to God in baptism For 1. I find no promise in Scripture made to such 2. He that doth not sincerely believe himself nor consent to Gods Covenant cannot sincerely believe for his child nor consent for him 3. And that faith which will not save the owner as being not the condition of the promise cannot save another Much more might be said of this I confess that the Church is to receive the children of hypocrites as well as themselves And their baptism is valid in foro externo Ecclesiae and is not to be reiterated But it goeth no further for his child than for himself 10. Therefore I think that all that are Rightfully baptized by the Minister that is baptized so as that it s well done of him are not certainly saved by baptism unless they be also rightfully baptized in regard of their right to claim and receive it Let them that are able to prove more do it for I am not able 11. Whereas some mis-interpret the words of the old Rubrick of Confirmation in the English Liturgy as if it spake of all that are baptized whether they had Right or not the words themselves may serve to rectifie that mistake And that no man shall think any detriment shall come to children by deferring of their Confirmation he shall know for truth that it is certain by Gods Word that children being baptized have all things necessary for their salvation and be undoubtedly saved Where it is plain that they mean they have all things necessary ex parte Ecclesiae or all Gods applying Ordinances necessary though they should dye unconfirmed supposing that they have all things necessary to just baptism on their
absolutely subjected to God will obey none against him whatever it cost them as Dan. 3. 6. Heb. 11. Luk. 14. 26 33. Matth. 5. 10 11 12. therefore it hath proved the occasion of bloody persecutions in the Churches by which professed Christians draw the guilt of Christian blood upon themselves 12. And hereby it hath dolefully hindered the Gospel while the persecutors have silenced many worthy Conscionable Preachers of it 13. And by this it hath quenched Charity in the hearts of both sides and taught the sufferers and the afflicters to be equally bitter in censuring if not Rom. 14 15. detesting one another 14. And the Infidels seeing these dissensions and bitter passions among Christians deride and scorn and hate them all 15. Yea such causes as these in the Latine and Greek Churches have engaged not only Emperours and Princes against their own subjects so that Chronicles and Books of Martyrs perpetuate their dishonour as Pilate's name is in the Creed but also have set them in bloody Wars among themselves These have been the fruits and this is the tendency of usurping Christs prerogative over his Religion and Worship in his Church And the greatness of the sin appeareth in these aggravations 1. It is a mark of pitiful Ignorance and Pride when dust shall thus like Nebuchadnezzar exalt it self against God to its certain infamy and abasement 2. It sheweth that men little know themselves that think themselves fit to be the makers of a Religion for so many others And that they have base thoughts of all other men while they think them unfit to Worship God any other way than that of their making And think that they will all so far deny God as to take up a Religion that 's made by man 3. It shews that they are much void of Love to others that can thus use them on so small occasion 4. And it sheweth how little true sense or reverence of Christian Religion they have themselves who can thus debase it and equal their own inventions with it 5. And it leaveth men utterly unexcusable that will not take warning by so many hundred years experiences of most of the Churches through the World Even when we see the yet continued divisions of the Eastern and Western Churches and all about a humane Religion in the parts most contended about When they read of the Rivers of Blood that have been shed in Piedmont France Germany Belgia Poland Ireland and the flames in England and many other Nations and all for the humane parts of mens Religion He that will yet go on and take no warning may go read the 18th and 19th of the Revelation and see what Joy will be in Heaven and Earth when God shall do Justice upon such But remember that I speak all this of no other than those expresly here described Quest. 135. What are the mischiefs of mens error on the other extream who pretend that Scripture is a Rule where it is not and deny the foresaid lawful things on pretence that Scripture is a perfect Rule say some for all things Answ. 1. THey fill their own minds with a multitude of causeless scruples which on their principles can never be resolved and so will give themselves no rest 2. They make themselves a Religion of their own and superstition is their daily devotion which being erroneous will not hang together but is full of contradictions in it self and which being humane and bad can never give true stability to the soul. 3. Hereby they spend their dayes much in melancholy troubles and unsetled distracting doubts and fears instead of the Joyes of solid faith and hope and love 4. And if they escape this their Religion is contentious wrangling censorious and factious and their zeal flyeth out against those that differ from their peculiar superstitions and conceits 5. And hereupon they are usually mutable and unfetled in their Religion This year for one and the next for another because there is no Certainty in their own inventions and conceits 6. And hereupon they still fall into manifold parties because each man maketh a Religion to himself by his mis-interpretation of Gods Word So that there is no end of their divisions 7. And they do a great deal of hurt in the Church by putting the same distracting and dividing conceits into the heads of others And young Christians and Women and ignorant well meaning people that are not able to know who is in the right do often turn to that party which they think most strict and godly though it be such as our Quakers And the very good conceit of the people whom they take it from doth settle so strong a prejudice in their mind as no argument or evidence scarcely can work out And so Education Converse and humane estimation breedeth a succession of dividers and troublers of the Churches 8. They sin against God by calling good evil and light darkness and honouring superstition which is the work of Satan with holy names Isa. 5. 20 21. 9. They sin by adding to the Word of God while they say of abundance of Lawful things This is unlawful and that is against the Word of God and pretend that their Touch not taste not handle Col. 2. 22 23. not is in the Scriptures For while they make it a Rule for every Circumstance in particular they must squeeze and force and wrest it to find out all those Circumstances in it which were never there and so by false expositions make the Scriptures another thing 10. And how great a sin is it to Father Satans works on God and to say that all these and these things are forbidden or commanded in the Scripture and so to belye the Lord and the Word of Truth 11. It engageth all Subjects against their Rulers Laws and Government and involveth them in the sin of denying them just obedience while all the Statute Book must be found in the Scriptures or else condemned as unlawful 12. It maintaineth disobedience in Churches and causeth Schisms and Confusions unavoidably For they that will neither obey the Pastors nor joyn with the Churches till they can shew Scriptures particularly for every Translation Method Metre Tune and all that 's done must joyn with no Churches in the world 13. It bringeth Rebellion and Confusion into families while Children and Servants must learn no Catechism hear no Minister give no account observe no hours of prayer nay nor do no work but what there is a particular Scripture for 14. It sets men on Enthusiastical expectations and irrational scandalous worshipping of God while all men must avoid all those Methods Phrases Books Helps which are not expresly or particularly in Scripture and men must noâ— use their own Inventions or prudence in the right ordering of the works of Religion 15. It destroyeth Christian Love and Concord while men are taught to censure all others that use any thing in Gods Worship which is not particularly in Scripture and so to censure
that is said by all others But though one man excell in one or many respects another may excell him in some particulars and say that which he omitteth or mistaketh in 3. But especially because many errors and adversaries have many Books necessary to some for to know what they say and to know how to confute them especially the Papists whose way is upon pretence of Antiquity and Universality to carry every Controversie into a Wood of Church History and antient Writers that there you may first be lost and then they may have the finding of you And if you cannot answer every corrupted or abused Citation of theirs out of Councils and Fathers they triumph as if they had justified their Church-tyranny 4. And the very subjects that are to be understood are numerous and few men write of all 5. And on the same subject men have several Modes of Writing As one excelleth in accurate Method and another in clear convincing argumentation and another in an affectionate taking style And the same Book that doth one cannot well do the other because the same style will not do it Object But the antient Fathers used not so many Books as we do no not one for our hundreds And yet we honour them above the Neotericks They lived before these Libraries had a being Yea they exhort Divines to be learned in the holy Scriptures and the fourth Council of Carthage forbad the reading of the Heathens Books And many Hereticks are accused by the Fathers and Historians as being studied in Logick and curious in common Sciences And Paul saith that the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation Answ. 1. And yet the New Testament was written or most of it after Paul said so which sheweth that he meant not to exclude more writing 2. The Scriptures are sufficient for their proper use which is to be a Law of Faith and Life if they be understood But 1. They are not sufficient for that which they were never intended for 2. And we may by other Books be greatly helpt in understanding them 3. If other Books were not needful Teachers were not needful For Writing is but the most advantagious way of Teaching by fixed Characters which flye not from our memory as transient words do And who is it that understandeth the Scriptures that never had a Teacher And why said the Eunuch How should I understand what I read unless some man guide me Acts 8. 31. And why did Christ set Teachers in his Church to the end till it be perfected Eph. 4. 11 12 13. if they must not Teach the Church unto the end Therefore they may write unto the end 4. Reverence to Antiquity must not make us blind or unthankful Abundance of the Fathers were unlearned men and of far less knowledge than ordinary Divines have now And the chief of them were far short in knowledge of the chiefest that God of late hath given us And how should it be otherwise when their helps were so much less than ours 5. Knowledge hath abundantly encreased since Printing was invented Therefore Books have been a means to it 6. The Fathers then wrote voluminously Therefore they were not against more writing 7. Most of the Bishops and Councils that cryed down Common Learning had little of it themselves and therefore knew not how to judge of it no more than good men now that want it 8. They lived among Heathens that gloried so in their own Learning as to oppose it to the Word of God as may be seen in Iulian and Porphyry and Celsus Therefore Christians opposed it and contemned it and were afraid while it was set in competition with the Scriptures lest it should draw men to Infidelity if overvalued 9. And finally the truth is that the sacred Scriptures are now too much undervalued and Philosophy much overvalued by many both as to Evidence and Usefulness And a few plain certain truths which all our Catechisms contain well pressed and practised would make a better Church and Christians than is now to be found among us all And I am one that after all that I have written do heartily wish that this were the ordinary state of our Câ—urches But yet by Accident much more is needful as is proved 1. For the â—uller understâ—nding of these principles 2. For the defending of them especially by those that are called to that work 3. To keep a Minister from that Contempt which may else frustrate his labours 4. And to be ornamental and subservient to the substantial Truths And now I will answer the Question more Particularly in this order I. I will name you the Poorest or Smallest Library that is tolerable II. The Poorer though not the poorest where a competent addition is made III. The Poor mans Library which yet addeth somewhat to the former but cometh short of a Rich and Sumptuous Library I. THe Poorest Library is 1. The Sacred Bible 2. A Concordance Downames the least or Newmans the best 3. A sound Commentary or Annotations either Diodates the English Annotations or the Dutch 4. Some English Catechisms the Assemblies two Mr. Gouges Mr. Crooks Guide Amesius his Medulla Theologiae Casus Conscientiae which are both in Latin and English and his Bellarminus Enervatus 5. Some of the soundest English Books which open the Doctrine of Grace Justification and Free-will and Duty as Mr. Truman's Great Propiâ—iation Mr. Bradshaw of Iustification Mr. Gibbons Sermon of Iustification in the Morning Exercises at St. Giles in the Fields Mr. Hochkis of Forgiveness of Sin 6. As many Affectionate Practical English Writers as you can get Especially Mr. Richard Allens Works Mr. Gournall's Dr. Preston Dr. Sibbes Mr. Robert Bolton Mr. Whateley Mr. Râ—yner Mr. Scudder Mr. T. Ford Mr. How of Blessedness Mr. Swinocke Mr. Gouges The Practice of Piety The Whole Duty of Man Dr. Hammonds Practical Catechism Dr. Pierson on the Creed Dr. Downame on the Lords Prayer Mr. Dod on the Commandments Bishop Andrewes on the Commandments Mr. Io. Brinsleyes True Watch Mr. Greenhams Works Mr. Hildershams Works Mr. Anthony Burges Works Mr. Perkins Works Dr. Harris Works Mr. Burroughs Mr. Thomas Hooker Mr. Pinkes Sermons Io. Downames Christian Warfare Richard Rogers Iohn Rogers of Faith and Love Dr. Stoughton Dr. Thomas Tailor Mr. Elâ—on Mr. Daniel Dike Ieremy Dike Mr. Io. Ball of Faith of the Covenant c. Culverwell of Faith Mr. Ranew Mr. Teate Mr. Shaw Mr. Rawlet Mr. Ianoway Mr. Vincent Mr. Doâ—little Mr. Samuel Wards Sermons Mr. W. Fenner Mr. Ruâ—herfords Letters Mr. Ioseph Allens Life and Letters and Treatise of Conversion Mr. Samuel Clarks Lives and his Martyrologie The Morning Exercises at St. Giles Cripplegate and at St. Giles in the Fields Mr. Benjamin Bâ—xters Sermons Mr. George Hopkins Salvation from Sin Dr. Edward Reignolds Mr. Meades Works Mr. Vines Sermons Henry Smith Samuel Smith Tho. Smith Mr. Strong Ios. Simonds as many of them as you can get 7. And for all other Learning Alstedius his Encyclopaedia
them to be teachers of Rebellion It is not every different opinion in politicks that proveth men to be against subjection He that can read such a Book as Bilsons for Christian subjection against Antichristian rebelion and yet deny him to be a Teacher of Subjection hath a very hard forhead For the Controversies I shall say no more of them here but what I have said before to Mr. Hooker And as for Calvin and the Disciplinarians or Puritans as they are called They subscribe all the same confessions for Magistracy and take the same oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy as others do and they plead and write for them so that for my part I know not of any difference in their Doctrine Hear what B. Andrews saith who was no rebel in his Tortura Torti pag. 379 380. Calvinus autem ut Papam Regem ita Regem Papam non probavit Neque nos quod in Papâ detestamur in Rege approbamus At ille nobiscum nos cum illo sentimus easdem esse in Ecclesia Christiana Regis Iacobi partes quae Iosiae fuerunt in Iudaica nec nos ultra quicquam fieri ambimus that is But Calvin neither liked a Pope King nor a King Pope Nor do we approve of that in the King which we detest in the Pope But he with us and we with him do judge that King James hath as much to do in a Christian Church as Josias had in the Iewish Church and we go not about to get any more And after Sub Primatus nomine Papatum novum Rex non invebit in Ecclesiam sic enim statuit ut non Aaroni Pontifici ita nec Ieroboamo Regi jus ullam esse conflatum à se vitulum populo proponendi ut adoret idest non vel fidei novos articulos vel cultus Divini novas formulas procudendi that is The King doth not bring into the Church a new Papacy under the name of Primacy For thus he judgeth or determineth that neither Aaron the Priest nor Jeroboam the King had any Right to propose the Calf which they had made to the people to be adored that is neither to hammer or make new articles of faith or new forms of Divine Worship And pag. 379 380. Quos vero Puritanos appellat si Regium primatum detestantur detestandi ipsi Profitentur enim subscribunt jurant indies sed illi quod faciunt ingenuè faciunt societatem in hoc Torti ipsumque adeo Tortum tanquam mendacem hominem alibi de aliis hic de se ac sycophantem egregium detestantur that is And for those he calleth Puritans if they detest the Kings Supremacy they are to be detested For they daily profess subscribe and swear to it And what they do they do ingenuously and they detest the society of Tortus in this and Tortus himself as a lying man elsewhere of others and here of themselves and an egregious sycophant By these testimonies judge what Protestants think of one another in point of loyalty 5. And why are not all the other Christians taken into your enumeration The Armenians Abassins and all the Greek Churches whom the Papists so frequently reproach as flatterers or servile because they still gave so much to their Emperours Have you any pretence for your accusation as against them Unless perhaps from the tumults which Alexandria in its greatness was much addicted to which is nothing to the doctrine of Christianity nor to the practice of all the rest § 84. Having answered these cavils of the late Atheistical or Infidel Politicians I shall next shew Christianity is most for Loyalty and subjection though briefly yet by plentiful evidence that Christianity and true Godliness is the greatest strength of Government and bond of subjection and means of Peace that ever was revealed to the World which will appear in all these Evidences following 1. Christianity teacheth men to take the higher powers as ordained of God and to obey them as Gods Ministers or Officers having an Authority derived immediately from God so that it advanceth the Magistrate as Gods officer as much higher than Infidels advance him who fetch his Rom. 13. 1. 2 3 4. power no higher than Force or Choice as a servant of God is above a servant of men which is more than a man is above a Dog § 85. 2. Christianity telleth us that our obedience to Magistrates is Gods own command and so that we must obey him by obeying them And as obedience to a Constable is more procured by the Kings Laws than by his own commands so obedience to a King is far more effectually procured by Gods Laws than by his own If God be more above a King than a King is above a a Worm the command of God must be a more powerful obligation upon every understanding person than the Kings And what greater advantage can a King have in Governing than to have subjects whose Consciences do feel themselves bound by God himself to obey the King and all his officers Obj. But this is still with exception If it be not in things forbidden of God And the subjects are Object made judges whether it be so or no. Ans. And woe to that man that grudgeth that God must be obeyed Answ. before him and would be himself a God to be obeyed in things which God is against The subjects are made no publick Judges but private discerners of their duties And so you make them your selves or else they must not judge whether the King or a Usurper were to be obeyed or whether the word of the King or of a Constable if they be contradictory is to be preferred To judge what we B. â—ilsoâ— ubi sup p. 259. As Bishops ought to discern which is truth before they teach so must the people discern who teacheth right before they believe Pag. 261 262. Princes as well as others must yield obedience to Bishops speaking the word of God But if bishops pass their commission and speak besides the Word of God what they list both Prince and people may despise them See him further pag. 259 260 261 262. proving that all have a judiciun discretionis must choose or refuse is proper to a Rational Creature even bruits themselves will do something like it by instinct of nature and will not do all things according to your will You would have us obey a Justice of Peace no further than our Loyalty to the King will give leave and therefore there is greater reason that we should obey the higher powers no farther than our Loyalty to God will give leave But if men pretend Gods commands for any thing which he commandeth not Magistrates bear not the sword in vain and subjects are commanded by God not to resist If they punish them rightfully God will bear the Rulers out in it If they punish them wrongfully or persecute them for well-doing God will severely punish them who so wronged his subjects and abused
matters Conscire The knowledge of our selves our duties our faults our fears our hopes our diseases c. 2. Or more limitedly and narrowly The knowledge of our selves and our own matters in relation to Gods Law and Iudgement Iudicium hominis de seipso prout subjicitur judicio Dei as Amesius defineth it 2. Conscience is taken 1. Sometime for the Act of self-knowing 2. Sometime for the Habit 3. Sometime for the Faculty that is for the Intellect it self as it is a faculty of self-knowing In all these senses it is taken properly 2. And sometimes it is used by custome improperly for the Person himself that doth Conscire or for his Will another faculty 3 The Conscience may be said to be bound 1. Subjectively as the subjectum quod or the faculty obliged 2. Or Objectively as Conscire the Act of Conscience is the thing ad quod to which we are obliged And upon these necessary distinctions I thus answer to the first question Prop. 1 The Act or the Habit of Conscience are not capable of being the subject obliged no more than any other act or duty The Act or duty is not bound but the man to the act or duty 2. The Faculty or Iudgement is not capable of being the Object or Materia ad quam the thing to which we are bound A man is not bound to be a man or to have an Intellect but is made such 3. The Faculty of Conscience that is the Intellect is not capable of being the immediate or nearest subjectum quod or subject obliged The reason is Because the Intellect of it self is not a free-working faculty but acteth necessarily per modum naturae further than it is under the Empire of the Will And therefore Intellectual and Moral habits are by all men distinguished 4. All Legal or Moral Obligation falleth directly upon the Will only and so upon the Person as a Voluntary agent So that it is proper to say The Will is bound and The Person is bound 5 Improperly and remotely it may be said The Intellect or faculty of Conscience is bound or the tongue or hand or foot is bound as the Man is bound to use them 6. Though it be not proper to say that the Conscience is bound it is proper to say that the Man is bound to the Act and Habit of Conscience or to the exercise of the faculty 7. The common meaning of the phrase that we are bound in conscience oâ— that conscience is bound is that we are bound to a thing by God or by a Divine obligation and that it is a fin against God to violate it So that Divines use here to take the word Conscience in the narrower Theological sense as respect to Gods Law and Iudgement doth enter the definition of it 8. Taking Conscience in this narrower sense To ask Whether mans Law as Mans do bind us in Conscience Having spoken of this Controversie in my Life of Faith as an easie thing in which I thought we were really agreed while we seemed to differ which I called A pitiful Case some Bâ—ethren who say nothing against the truth of what I said are offended at me as speaking too confidently and calling that so easie which Bishop Saâ—derâ—oa and so many others did make a greater matter of I retract the words if they â—e unsuittable either to the matter or the Readers But as to the matter and the truth of the words I desire the Reader but to consider how easie a case Mr. P. maketh of it Eccl. Pol. and how heinous a matter he maketh of our supposed dissent And if after all this it shall appear that the Non-conformists do not at all differ from Hooker Bilson and the generality of the Conformists in this point let him that is willing to be represented as odious and intolerable to Rulâ—rs and to mankind for that in which we do not differ proceed to backbite me for saying that it is a pitiful case and pretending that we are agreed is all one as to ask Whether Man be God 9. And taking Conscience in the large or General sense to ask whether Mans Laws bind us in Conscience subjectively is to ask whether they bind the Understanding to know our duty to man And the tenour of them will shew that While they bind us to an outward Act or from an outward Act it is the man that they bind to or from that act and that is as he is a Rational Voluntary Agent so that a humane obligation is laid upon the Man on the Will and on the Intellect by humane Laws 10. And humane Laws while they bind us to or from an outward Act do thereby bind us as Rational-free agents knowingly to choose or refuse those acts Nor can a Law which is a Moral Instrument any otherwise bind the hand foot or tongue but by first binding us to choose or refuse it knowingly that is conscientiously so that a humane bond is certainly laid on the mind soul or conscience taken in the larger sense 11. Taking Conscience in the stricter sense as including essentially a relation to Gods obligation the full sense of the question plainly is but this Whether it be a sin against God to break the Laws of man And thus plain men might easily understand it And to this it must be answered that it is in two respects a sin against God to break such Laws or Commands as Rulers are authorized by God to make 1. Because God commandeth us to obey our Rulers Therefore he that so obeyeth them not sinneth against a Law of God God obligeth us in General to obey them in all things which they are authorized by him to command But their Law determineth of the particular matter Therefore God obligeth us in Conscience of his Law to obey them in that particular 2. Because by making them his Officers by his Commission he hath given them a certain beam of Authority which is Divine as derived from God Therefore they can command us by a power derived from God Therefore to disobey is to sin against a power derived from God And thus the General case is very plain and easie How man sinneth against God in disobeying the Laws of man and consequently how in a tolerable sense of that phrase it may be said that mans Laws do or do not bind the conscience or rather bind us in point of Conscience or by a Divine obligation Man is not God and therefore as man of himself can lay no Divine obligation on us But Man being Gods Officer 1. His own Law layeth on us an obligation derivatively Divine For it is no Law which hath no obligation and it is no authoritative obligation which is not derived from God 2. And Gods own Law bindeth us to obey mans Laws Quest. 2. BUt is it a sin to break every Penal Law of man Answ. 1. You must remember that Mans Law is essentially the signification of mans Will And therefore obligeth no further than it
enough to implant it in all the hearers why do your Children go so long to School and after that to the Universities and why are you so long Preaching to all your Parishioners Sure you preach not novelties to them as long as you live And yet thirty or fourty years painful preaching even of the same fundamentals of Religion shall leave many ignorant of them in the best Parishes in the Land There must be a right and ripe disposition in the hearers or else the clearest reasoning may be uneffectual A disused or unfurnished mind that hath not received all the truths which are presupposed to those which you deliver or hath not digested them into a clear understanding may long hear the truest reasons and never apprehend their weight There is need of more adoe than a bare unfolding of the truth to make a man receive it in its proper evidence Perhaps he hath been long pre-possessed with contrary opinions which are not easily rooted out Or if he be but confident of the truth of some one opinion which is inconsistent with yours no wonder if he cannot receive that which is contrary to what he so verily believeth to be the truth There is a marvellous variety of mens apprehensions of the same opinions or reasons as they are variously represented to men and variously pondered and as the natural capacity of men is various and as the whole course of their lives their education company and conversation have variously formed their minds It is like the setting together all the parts of Watch when it is in pieces If any one part of many be misplaced it may necessitate the misplacing of those that follow without any wilful obstinacy in him that doth it If in the whole frame of sacred Truth there be but some one misunderstood it may bring in other mistakes and keep out many truths even from an honest willing mind And who is there that can say he is free from errour Have not you perceived in your selves that the truths which you heard an hundred times over to little purpose when you were Children were received more convincingly and satisfyingly when you were men And that you have found a delightful clearness in some points on a sudden which before you either resisted or held with little observation or regard And yet it is common with the scandalizers of souls to cry out against all that conform not to their opinions and will as soon as they have heard their reasons that they are stubborn and refractory and wilful and factious and so turn from arguments to Clubs as if they had never known themselves or others nor how weak and dark the understandings of almost all men are But they shall have judgement without mercy who shew no mercy And when their own errours shall all be opened to them by the Lord they will be loth they should all be imputed to their wilful obstinacy And perhaps these very censorious men may prove themselves to have beenonthe wrong side For Pride and uncharitableness are usually erroneous § 34. Direct 12. Engage not your selves in an evil cause For if you do it will engage you to Direct 12. draw in others You will expect your friends should take your part and think as you think and say as you say though it be never so much against truth or righteousness § 35. Direct 13. Speak not rashly against any cause or persons before you are acquainted with Direct 13. them or have well considered what you say Especially take heed how you believe what a man of any Sect in Religion doth speak or write against his Adversaries of a contrary sect If experience had not proved it in our dayes beyond contradiction it would seem incredible how little men are to be believed Psal. 119. 69. in this case and how the falsest reports will run among the people of a Sect against those whom the interest of their opinion and party engageth them to mis-represent Think not that you are excusable for receiving or venting an ill report because you can say he was an honest man that spoke it For many that are otherwise honest do make it a part of their honesty to be dishonest in this They think they are not zealous enough for those opinions which they call their Religion unless Vix equidem credar sed cum sint praemia falsi Nulla â—atam dâ—bet testis habere fidem Oâ—iâ— l. Rom. 3. 7 8. Jam. 3. 14. â—â—â—â—â— â— 8. they are easie in believing and speaking evil of those that are the Adversaries of it When it may be upon a just tryal all proveth false And then all the words which you ignorantly utter against the truth or those that follow it are scandals or stumbling blocks to the hearers to turn them from it and make them hate it I am not speaking against a just credulity There must be humane belief or else there can be no humane converse But ever suspect partiality in a party For the interest of their Religion is a more powerful charm to the Consciences of evil speakers than personal interest or bribes would be How many Legends tell us this how easily some men counted Godly have been prevailed with to Lie for God § 36. Direct 14. Take heed of mocking at a Religious life yea or of breaking any jeasts or scorns Diâ—â—â—â— 14. at the weaknesses of any in Religious exercises which may possibly reflect upon the exercises themselves Many a thousand souls have been kept from a holy life by the scorns of the vulgar that speak of it as a matter of derision or sport Reading the Scriptures and holy conference and prayer and instructing our families and the holy observation of the Lords day and Church-discipline are commonly the derision of ungodly persons who can scorn that which they can neither confute nor learn And weak people are greatly moved by such senseless means A mock or jear doth more with them than an argument They cannot endure to be made a laughing-stock Thus was the name of a Crucified God the derision of the Heathens and the scandal of the World both Jews and Gentiles And there is scarce a greater scandal or stumbling block at this day which keepeth multitudes from Heaven than when the Devil can make it either a matter of danger or of shame to be a Christian or to live a holy mortified life Persecution and Derision are the great successful scandals of the World And therefore seeing men are so apt to be turned off from Christ and Godliness never speak unreverently or disrespectfully of them It is a prophane and scandalous course of some that if a Preacher have but an unhansome tone or gesture they make a jeast of it and say He whined or he spoke through the nose or some such scorn they cast upon him which the hearers quickly apply to all others and turn to a scorn of Preaching or Prayer or Religion it self Or if men differ from each other
created for § 2. Mot. 2. There is no subject so sublime and honourable for the Tongue of man to be imployed about as the matters of God and life eternal Children will talk of childish toyes and Countreymen talk of their Corn and Cattel and Princes and Statesmen look down on these with contemptuous smiles as much below them But Crowns and Kingdoms are incomparably more below the business of a holy soul The higher subjects Philosophers treat of the more honourable if well done are their discourses But none is so high as God and glory § 3. Mot. 3. It is the most profitable subject to the hearers A discourse of Riches at the most can but direct them how to grow rich A discourse of Honours usually puffeth up the minds of the ambitious And if it could advance the auditors to Honour the fruit would be a vanity little to be desired But a discourse of God and Heaven and Holiness doth tend to change the hearers minds into the nature of the things discourst of It hath been the means of converting and sanctifying many a thousand souls As learned discourses tend to make men learned in the things discourst off so holy discourses tend to make men holy For as natural Generation begetteth not Gold or Kingdoms but a Man so speech is not made to communicate to others directly the wealth or health or honours or any extrinsecal things which the speaker hath but to communicate those Mental Excellencies which he is possest of Prov. 16. 21 22. The sweetness of the lips increaseth learning Understanding is a well-spring of life to him that hath it Prov. 10. 13 21. In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found The lips of the righteous feed many Prov. 15. 7. The lips of the wise disperse knowledge but the heart of the foolish doth not so Prov. 20. 15. There is Gold and a multitude of Rubies but the lips of knowledge are a precious Iewel Prov. 10. 20. The tongue of the just is as choice Silver the heart of the wicked is little worth § 4. Mot. 4. Holy discourse is also most profitable to the speaker himself Grace increaseth by the exercise Even in instructing others and opening truth we are oft times more powerfully led up to further truth our selves than by solitary studies For Speech doth awaken the intellectual faculty and keepeth on the thoughts in order and one truth oft inferreth others to a thus excited and prepared mind And the tongue hath a power of moving own our hearts When we blow the fire to warm another both the exercise and the fire warm our selves It kindleth the flames of holy love in us to declare the praise of God to others It increaseth a hatred of sin in us to open its odiousness to others We starve our selves when we starve the souls which we should cherish § 5. Mot. 5. Holy and Heavenly discourse is the most delectable I mean in its own aptitude and to a mind that is not diseased by corruption That which is most Great and Good and Necessary is most delectable What should best please us but that which is best for us And best for others And best in it self The excellency of the subject maketh it delightful And so doth the exercise of our Graces upon it And serious conference doth help down the truth into our hearts where it is most sweet Besides that Nature and Charity make it pleasant to do good to others It can be nothing better than a subversion of the appetite by carnality and wickedness that maketh any one think idle jeasts or tales or plays to be more pleasant than spiritual Heavenly conference and the talking of Riches or Sports or Lusts to be sweeter than to talk of God and Christ and grace and glory A holy mind hath a continual feast in it self in meditating on these things and the communicating of such thoughts to others is a more Common and so a more pleasant feast § 6. Mot. 6. Our faithfulness to God obligeth us to speak his praise and to promote his truth â—â—d plead his cause against iniquity Hath he given us tongues to magnifie his name and set before us the admirable frame of all the World to declare his Glory in And shall we be backward to so sweet and great a work How precious and useful is all his holy word What light and life and comfort may it cause And shall we bury it in silence What company can we come into almost where either the bare-faced committing of sin or the defending it or the opposition of truth or Godliness or the frigidity of mens hearts towards God and supine neglect of holy things do not call to us if we are the servants of God to take his part and if we are the Children of light to bear our testimony against the darkness of the World and if we love God and truth and the souls of men to shâ—w it by our prudent seasonable speech Is he true to God and to his cause that will not open his mouth to speak for him § 7. Mot. 7. And how precious a thing is an immortal soul and therefore not to be neglected Did Christ think souls to be worth his Mediation by such strange condescension even to a shameful death Did he think them worth his coming into flesh to be their teacher And will you not think them worth the speaking to § 8. Mot. 8. See also the greatness of your sin in the negligence of unfaithful Ministers It is easie to see the odiousness of their sin who preach not the Gospel or do no more than by an hours dry and dead discourse shift off the serious work which they should do and think they may be excused from all personal oversight and helping of the peoples souls all the Week after And why should you not perceive that a dumb private Christian is also to be condemned as well as a dumb Minister Is not profitable conference your duty as well as profitable preaching is his How many persons condemn themselves while they speak against unfaithful Pastors being themselves as unfaithful to Families and Neighbours as the other are to the flock § 9. Mot. 9. And consider how the cheapness of the means doth aggravate the sin of your neglect and shew much unmercifulness to souls Words cost you little Indeed alone without the company of good works they are too cheap for God to accept of But if an Hypocrite may bring so cheap a sacrifice who is rejected what doth he deserve that thinketh it too dear What will that man do for God or for his Neighbours soul who will not open his mouth to speak for them He seemeth to have less love than that man in Hell Luk. 16. who would so fain have had a messenger sent from another World to have warned his brethren and saved them from that place of torment § 10. Mot. 10. Your fruitful conference is a needful help to the ministerial work When
5. The subtilty of Satan and his instruments in tempting 6. The weakness and unconstancy of man that hath need of constant solicitation 7. The want of holy faithful Pastors which maketh private mens diligence the more necessary And in such necessity to shut up our mouths is to shut up the bowels of our compassion when we see our brothers need And how then doth the Love of God dwell in us 1 Ioh. 3. 17. To withhold our exhortation is as the withholding of Corn from the poor in a time of famine which procureth a Curse Prov. 11. 26. And though in this case men are insensible of their want and take it not ill to be past by yet Christ that dyed for them will take it ill § 20. Mot. 20. Lastly consider how short a time you are like to speak and how long you must be silent Death will quickly stop your breath and lay you in the dark and tell you that all your opportunities are at an end Speak now for you have not long to speak Your Neighbours lives are hasting to an end and so are yours They are dying and must hear no more till they hear their doom and you are dying and must speak no more And they will be lost for ever if they have not help Pity them then and call on them to foresee the final day Warm them now for it must be now or never There is no instructing or admonishing in the grave Those sculls which you see cast up had once tongues which should have praised their Creator and Redeemer and have helpt to save each others souls but now they are tongueless It is a great grief to us that are now here silenced that we used not our Ministry more laboriously and zealously while we had time And will it not be so with you when death shall silence you that you spake not for God while you had a tongue to speak Let all these Considerations stir up all that God hath taught a holy language to use it for their Masters service while they may and to repent of sinful silence Tit. 2. Directions for Christian Conference and Edifying speech § 1. Direct 1. THE most necessary direction for a fruitful tongue is to get a well-furnished Direct 1. mind and a holy heart and to walk with God in holiness your selves For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak That which you are fullest of is readiest to come forth 1. Spare for no study or labour to get understanding in the things of God It is a weariness to hear men talk foolishly of any thing but no where so much as about Divine and Heavenly things A wise Christian instructed to the Kingdom of God hath a treasury in his mind out of which he can bring forth things new and old Mat. 13. 52. Prov. 14. 7. Go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge 2. Get all that holiness in your selves to which you would perswade another There is a strange communicating power in the course of nature for every thing to produce its like Learning and good utterance is very helpful But it is holiness that is aptest to beget holiness in others Words which proceed from the Love of God and a truly Heavenly mind do most powerfully tend to breed in others that Love of God and Heavenly-mindedness 3. Live in the practice of that which you would draw your Neighbour to practice A man that cometh warm from holy meditation or fervent prayer doth bring upon his heart a fulness of matter and an earnest desire and a fitness to communicate that good to others which he himself hath felt § 2. Direct 2. Especially see that you soundly Believe your selves what you are to speak to others Direct 2. He that hath secret infidelity at his heart and is himself unsatisfied whether there be a Heaven and Hell and whether sin be so bad and holiness so necessary as the Scripture speaks will speak but heartlesly of them to another But if we believe these things as if we saw them with our eyes how heartily shall we discourse of them § 3. Direct 3. Keep a compassionate sense of the misery of ignorant ungodly impenitent souls Direct 3. Think what a miserable bondage of darkness and sensuality they are in and that it is light that must recover them Think oft how quickly they must dye and what an appearance they must make before the Lord and how miserable they must be for ever if now they be not convinced and sanctified And sure this will stir up your bowels to pity them and make you speak § 4. Direct 4. Subdue foolish shame or bashfulness and get a holy fortitude of mind Remember Direct 4. what a sin it is to be ashamed of such a master and such a cause and work which all would be glad to own at last And that when the wicked are not ashamed of the service of the Devil and the basest works And remember that threatning Mark 8. 38. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the holy Angels § 5. Direct 5. Be alwayes furnished with those particular truths which may be most useful in this Direct 5. service Study to do your work in your degree as Ministers study to do theirs Who are not contented with the habitual furniture of their minds but they also make particular prepartions for their particular work If you are to go into the field to your labour you will take those tools with you by which it must be done so do when you go abroad among any that you may do good to and be not unfurnished for edifying discourse § 6. Direct 6. Speak most of the greatest things the folly of sin the vanity of the World the Direct 6. certainty and neerness of death and judgement the overwhelming weight of Eternity the necessity of Holiness the work of Redemption c. and choose not the smaller matters of Religion to spend your time upon unless upon some special reason Among good men that will not lose their time on vanity the Devil too oft prevaileth to make them lose it by such religious conference as is little to edification that greater matters may be thereby thrust out such as Paul calleth vain janglings and doting about questions which engender strife and not Godly edifying As about their several opinions or parties or comparing one Preacher or person with another or such things as tend but little to make the hearers more wise or holy or Heavenly § 7. Direct 7. Suit all your discourse to the quality of your Auditors That which is best in it self Direct 7. may not be best for every hearer You must vary both your subject and manner of discourse 1. According to the variety of mens
the truth yet it is seldome the way of doing good to those whom you dispute with It engageth men in partiality and passionate provoking words before they are aware And while they think they are only pleading for the truth they are militating for the honour of their own understandings They that will not stoop to hear you as learners while you orderly open the truth in its coherent parts will hardly ever profit by your contendings when you engage a proud person to bend all his wit and words against you The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach c. 1 Tim 6. 4 5 6. 2 Tim. 2. 24. § 9. Direct 8. Have as little to do with men in matters which their commodity is concerned in Direct 8. as you can As in chaffering or any other thing where Mine and Thine is much concerned For few men are so just as not to expect that which others account unjust And the nearest friends have been alienated hereby § 10. Direct 9. Buy peace at the price of any thing which is not better than it Not with the Direct 9. loss of the favour of God or of our innocency or true peace of conscience or with the loss of the Gospel or the ruine of mens souls But you must often part with your Right for peace and put up wrongs in word or deed Money must not be thought too dear to buy it when the loss of it will be worse than the loss of money to your selves or those that you contend with If a soul be endangered by it or societies ruined by it it will be dear bought money which is got or saved by such means He is no true friend of Peace that will not have it except when it is cheap § 11. Direct 10. Avoid Censoriousness which is the judging of men or matters that you have no Direct 10. call to meddle with and the making of matters worse than sufficient proof will warrant you Be neither busie-bodies meddling with other mens matters nor pievish aggravaters of all mens faults Iudge not that ye be not judged for with what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again Matth. 7. 1 2. You shall be censured if you will censure And if Christ be a true discerner of minds it is they that have beams in their own eyes who are the quickest perceivers of the motes in others Censorious persons are the great dividers of the Church and every where adversaries to peace while they open their mouths wide against their neighbour to make the worst of all that they say and do and thus sow the seeds of discord amongst all § 12. Direct 11. Neither talk against men behind their backs nor patiently hearken to them that Direct 11. use it Though the detecting of a dangerous enemy or the prevention of anothers hurt may sometimes make it a duty to blame them that are absent yet this case which is rare is no excuse to the backbiters sin If you have any thing to say against your neighbour tell it him in a friendly manner to his face that he may be the better for it If you tell it only to another to make him odious or hearken to backbiters that defame men secretly you shew that your business is not to do good but to diminish love and peace § 13. Direct 12. Speak more of the good than of the evil which is in others There is none so Direct 12. bad as to have no good in them Why mention you not that which is more useful to the hearer than to hear of mens faults But of this more afterward § 14. Direct 13. Be not strange but lovingly familiar with your neighbours Backbiters and slanders Direct 13. and unjust suspicions do make men seem that to one another which when they are acquainted they find is nothing so Among any honest well meaning persons familiarity greatly reconcileth Though indeed there are some few so proud and fiery and bitter enemies to honest peace that the way to peace with them is to be far from them where we may not be remembred by them But it is not so with ordinary neighbours nor friends that are fallen out nor differing Christians Its nearness that must make them friends § 15. Direct 14. Affect not a distance and sowre singularity in lawful things Come as near them Direct 14. as you can as they are men and neighbours and take it not for your duty to run as far from them lest you run into the contrary extream § 16. Direct 15. Be not over-stiff in your own opinions as those that can yield in nothing to another Direct 15. Nor yet â—o facile and yielding as to betray or lose the truth It greatly pleaseth a proud mans mind when you seem to be convinced by him and to change your mind upon his arguments or to be much informed and edified by him But when you deny this honour to his understanding and contradict him and stifly maintain your opinion against him you displease and lose him And indeed a wise man should gladly learn of any that can teach him more and should most easily of any man let go an error and be most thankful to any that will increase his knowledge And not only in errors to change our minds but in small and indifferent things to submit by silence beseemeth a modest peaceable man § 17. Direct 16. Yet build not Peace on the foundation of impiety injustice cruelty or faction Direct 16. for that will prove but the way to destroy it in the end Traytors and Rebells and Tyrants and Persecutors and ambitious covetous Clergy men do all pretend peace for their iniquity But what peace will Iezebels Whoredoms bring Satans Kingdom is supported by a Peace in sin which Christ came to break that he might destroy it while this strong man armed keepeth his house his goods are in peace till a stronger doth bind him overcome him and cast him out Deceitful sinful means of Peace have been the grand Engine of Satan and the Papal Clergy by which they have banished and kept out Peace so many ages from most of the Christian world Impiis mediis Ecclesiae paci consulere was one of the three means which Luther foretold would cast out the Gospel Where perjury or false doctrine or any sin or any unjust or inconsistent terms are made the condition of Peace men build upon stubble and bryars which God will set fire to and soon consume and all that peace will come to nought Directions for Church-peace I have laid down before to which I must refer you CHAP. XVIII Directions against all Theft and Fraud or injurious getting and keeping that which is anothers or desiring it § 1. HE that will know what Theft is must know what Propriety is And it is that plenary title to a thing by which it is called Our Own It is that right to any