to be very unjust if we may not speak against injustice to this purpose the best that can be Nay when they have been sufficiently injust to others they will afterwards shew themselves unjust to themselves if they will not let the spiritual edge of an wholesome reproof to enter into them We ought not to escape the edge of the spiritual sword It will be worse for us if we do Until we be thus wounded we shall never be whole Unrighteousness respects others and our selves others in the object our selves in the guilt and sometimes in the loss Almost as hath been said in that wherein we look for gain we make loss And as the Eastern Fable is a Woolf took away a Pig and as he was carrying it away a Lion met him took it away againfrom him whereupon the Woolf admired how that which was not well gotten did not wel thrive So it cometh to pass sometimes that although justice be another mans good yet unrighteousness is our own loss But why do we make any words against unrighteousness in the Kingdom of Christ Is there any more of it then the meer notion of it in all Christendom Hath this accident any inherence in any subject amongst Christians If we would find an example of this inquity must we not travail for it to the Getes or Massagetes shall we go to see an action of unrighteousness or to those who in cruelty savagenes differ little from what they live amongst wilde beasts Oh! those that do not give every one their due dwell hard by And they are those who go under the account of Christians The name of Christ is named upon them and they would think men should doe some of them a great deal of wrong if they should not esteem them to be very good Christians although they can wrong others These are the Spleen of the Common-wealth who draw all from others to swell their bags These are the Leeches which suck the bloud of mens estates until they burst asunder as Judas did after he had betrayed his Master for money these are as Moles that keep a pudder and a grubbling in the earth to make their hillocks of earth a little bigger and they spend their pains in this Earth as if their eyes like those of Moles were fitted only to work in the ground and by and by cometh a foot that throws down the hill or a spear that entreth into the Earth-grubber These are not the servants of the high God no but they are the servants of the low and base Mammon which if they did not deceive others for yet will certainly deceive them and therefore is called the unrighteous Mammon by our Saviour for deceit is comprehended under unrighteousness Righteousness is comprehensive of significates which we have no reason here to give account of We take it here as a quality to be inherent in us for the disposing us to be obedient to the Laws of God in the second Table and specially to the eighth Commandement There is a right sense of righteousness which doth run through every Precept and the veins as it were of every Law of the second Table and doth give obedience which is due to Parents in the fifth Natural or Civil or Ecclesiastical doth give obedience to God in the proserving the life of our neighbor according to the sixth in preserving the just relations in the seventh in preserving the estate of our neighbour in the eighth the good name of our neighbour in the ninth doth keep our desires in due proportion of contentedness against coveting what is our neighbours according to the tenth As it is divided against piety which doth immediately in regard of object respect God and against temperance which doth immediately likewise respect our selves so it doth take in all that duty which we owe to our neighbour As it is contradistinguished unto the fifth sixth seventh ninth and tenth Commanmandements so it is taken restrictively with relation to the eighth Take we it how we will I would we had it any way For if we had it any way upon true principles we should have it every way For true principles are intrinsecally influxive unto universal obedience since there is the same law and reason of obedience to all Have we indeed considered our Master Christ who took not away that which was anothers unless their sins which would never do them good He took upon him the nature of man that man might be restored to himself and redeemed from those enemies which necessarily would have destroyed him Christian what canst thou see in him which can afford thee any intimation of unrighteousness if thou wouldst be ruled as thou shouldst be by his example whatsoever he was as man he was for thee Whatsoever he did he did for thee Whatsoever he suffered he suffered for thee He so far from unrighteousness that he would be poor He emptied himself for thee Whatsoever thou seest in him was mercy He came not to any purpose but to pay for thee a price infinite He came not to take away thine inheritance but to make thee coheir with him He put not in his head into another mans house for he had not where to lay his head He shewed not his just Dominion over the creature but that thou mightst see his Dominion over thee He took not up the sword even in his own defence but when it was drawn by one of his servants he caused the sword to be put up and he did put up the injury He got nothing in his conversation for thee but reproaches and hunger and weariness and blows and wounds and death all for thee What canst thou read in all that is said by him or those who were sent by him to teach thee salvation and duty but laws of righteousness and truth and mercy Look upon thy Copy is it not written exactly straight and right and every letter hath its due proportion and every word duly and orderly joyned Why is then thy writing wrong Why are some letters left out Why one letter for another Why doth one letter take the place of another Why dost thou write such an hand which no man can read whether it be a Christian hand or not Why dost thou write a red letter or a letter in red and a theta too which should not be in red nor such Thus thou dost write the Roman hand but this is not the Christian hand Christ did not write thus we have not so learned Christ Indeed he did write some letters in red but in passion in suffering so his example is so his copy It is the notion of St. Peters and his expression in his 1. Epistle 2.21 For unto this are ye called for Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example that ye should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered did not threaten but committed it to him that judgeth
White Salt OR A Sober Correction OF A MAD WORLD In some Wel-wishes to GOODNESS By John Sherman B. D. St. MARK 9.50 Have Salt in your selves and have peace one with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ar. LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane 1654. To the Reader READER ON purpose I would not have thee look for any thing in this paper for the Kingdome of heaven commeth not with expectation Yet if any read it he shall not lose much time for he shall soon have done and if none read it I have not lost much time for being short it was not long in doing The design of it is such as I desire the successe of it may not differ It is thus The world is now old and earthy It is cold and dry and hath need to be made warm with Charity and moist with Repentance And God is wont to make use of mans morall suasion to work himself effectually by But upon whom this lot shall fall whose lot is it to understand Where is he that shall dip his pen in discretion with sweet reproof as Jonathan did his rod in honey to enlighten the eyes of the people as he did his own I dare not aske the question Master Jesu is it I that shall do thee this service Could this be done by me and were there two felicities this should be my second The men of this age rejoyce in goods but oh the joy of doing good Is there no balme in Gilead is there no Physician there Alas why is there not a Colledge of Divines to consult the publick cure of these ill humours Vntill there be such every one may exercise a generall duty without any need of a revelation and though none is bound to convert yet every one to endevour it And therefore though I know nothing in my self towards this end yet am I not me thinks thereby justifyed in my neglect since infirmities are of use to Gods glory And if he will do us the honour to honour himself by them we have reason to be glad that we had them for him O my Saviour since I have nothing else to serve thee with let me serve thee with them If any one then or every one finds the defects of this piece he shall not finde me to be of another opinion Here 's no depth of judgment no strength of reason no curiosities of phansie no patness of history no fringing of the margent with variety of choise reading Such things I do not pretend to Others make the world more learned Would I could make it more good Neither is there such usefulnesse of exact Scholarship in this morality as also is it not now so much in fashion Yea it may seem now seasonable because we have sometimes to do with them which do not love their enemies whereof Learning is one So that I am in the more capacity to be loved because I have as little in me of that against them as I have of malice Let them do what they will to me it is more then they can do to make me their enemy Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth as St. Paul saâ—d It is naturall to men as the Historian notes to hate those whom they have wronged yet is it necessary for Christians to do well to their enemies because they love them And if we love virtue we hate no man because we are more afraid that men should do evill then that we should suffer it We do not desire that they should have their desire upon us in our confusion but we do desire to have our desire upon them in their conversion This Goodness is the theme which I would commend to all Christians who cannot construe that name without it Certainly those who have taken the ingagement of the Gospell should be obedient to the Law And why should Righteousness be so far from Piety and Piety from Righteousness in the Subject when he is not a right Christian in whom both do not dwell together Indeed he that hath righteousness and no true piety is as an Heathen and yet he that hath but a shew of piety and no righteousness and he that hath no righteousness hath but a shew of piety is worse then an Heathen Oh that we had one heart for the two Tables Had we had this Goodness which is spoken for we had not had a Church more miserable then can be spoken Goodness is then reall when the principle of it is in the heart and the end of it not on earth And had we so intended it the Gospell would not have been pleaded to destry Polities or Churches St. Cyprians rule and saying would have saved us this harm Mali non possunt obesse bonis sed boni possunt prodesse malis The bad cannot hurt the good but the good may do good to the bad Had we been good we would have loved them till they had been better and then have loved them better because they were better but Goodness is not belonging to the nature of Separation one or other Some parts of Goodness I have not pursued as Charity which is part of our obedience to God Indeed there is no necessitie any thing should be spoken for this part of a clear and pure conversation Neither needs any thing be said against Vncleanness which doth so foully and enormously profane the temple of the holy Ghost and therefore like filth should be swept out with the besome of ancient Discipline It is a sin which the Sun will not look upon and they ashamed to be seen when they do it therefore doth not ordinarily as other sins come into open rebuke And since it is a sin against the body as the Apostle speaks it makes naturally its punishment in it So that I had no great reason to say much against this vice whith is plainly bestiall but hardly discovered So thou hast the project of this Script with the easing of my mind in the discharge thereof Who can endure to see his Nation and the Church in the dust before him And why should we not redeem our own misery may some thinke when we can never be safe till men be good This is all towards a Preface which according to art should be last made and I was not very forward to it Is is but as the cackling of the hen when an egge is laid and in this regard I should have made none for here 's nothing laid More might have been it may be had we not been driven out of our nest If any thing seem to be amisse take it with a grain of Salt If any thing smart that is not my fault No more Love thy enemies whereof I am none And if thou doest love thy enemies thou wilt certainly love him who desires no greater favour then to think so well of him as to let him do thee good Now I leave it to thee and thee to God Farewell J. Sherman WHITE SALT
righteously who himself took up our sins or bare our sins upon the cross in his body that we being dead to sin should live to righteousness by whose stripes we are healed such his example such his copy as it is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we find it to be to write under Tell it not in Gath neither publish it in Askelon that any one of all the Christians in the world hath shewed more unrighteousness then would have become him though he had not been such What true Christians and not true men Incompossibility of incompossibilities Shal the Turk from us take occasion to insult over Christ and his Religion by our unrighteousness we take the honour of our Masters livery to his infinite dishonour The Roman souldiers took off his own coat and put on another and then abused him but we abused him as it were in his own clothes We make use of his name for our advantage of unrighteousness as if we would have him undo himself Blessed God! must those be accounted such as do make the Word of God the rule and measure of their faith whose word we cannot in any degree make the measure of our belief of them Or are they the singular professors of Truth Theological who have in them so little of Truth Moral Lye not against the truth saith St. James 3.14 If you lye and yet will be esteemed to be good Christians and true Christians you lye against the Truth He that lyeth is an open enemy to the Truth That which he doth beareth witness against what he pretends And most disingenuous souls they are who go about to cousen all the world of all comfortable society for if all men were thus disposed to what purpose or how should we live one with another If we will not speak truth what do we amongst men Wherefore did God put speech into our mouths but that thereby when there is occasion we should faithfully interpret our mindes in what we think and what we intend Hath God given us a tongue to be an instrument of deceit or as a false Alarum to betray men or to catch men as we do birds with a false call or as a clapper to toll men to their destruction Is our language given us to tell others what is not Let all the letters be mutes and the hedge of our teeth for ever quick-set if our heart be not always at our mouth when we answer or promise when we are to say what is or what we will do Or let our tongue for ever keep within doores rather then it should go our to deceive our neighbour Hath God made our speech to pass through so many instruments that we should make nothing of a lye When the paint of outward holiness shall melt at the fire of Gods Tribunal and the frame of Nature taken apieces and every thing discovered the gloss which is set upon bad actions will go off every thing will be naked in its principles and lying will be then found to be worse then swearing in several regards 1. Because swearing is not absolutely unlawful If it be in the right form upon due occasion and the object be God it is an act of Religion but there is no right form of lying there can be no just occasion there is no object for it it is against judgement truth and righteousness We ought not therefore to ly though thereby we could save a world although what so frequent as to tell a lye to save or get a farthing 2. Lying is worse because it is more unreasonable For it is opposite to the principles of beeing It is impossible that the same thing should be and not be is a prime principle now the lye in the nature of it doth thwart this principle for it would make the matter of the lye to be and not to be As in the example of Gehezi the Prophet asked him where he had been he said he went no whither here was the lye he spake contrary to the thing known for he did go after Naaman for his advantage That he did go was true in the fact and that he did not go he would have true in his word and so the effect of the lye is to have both the parts of the contradiction true that he did go and he did not go And if this might be granted it would unravel all the world and we could not affirm God or any thing This is the minde of going against our minde in speech so it is repugnant to prime principles and the prime verity who is 3. It is more hainous because it is more destructive of all communion with men swearing is not in it self destructive but is if duely performed of use to preserve the rights of men in their good name or estate or life as when an Oath is made before a lawful Judge for the ending of debates 4. God cannot lye for it is sin and therefore he cannot do it and all in him is beeing and therefore he cannot lye but God hath sworn in his wrath if they shall enter into his rest as in the 95. Psalm 5. Because lying is an act as we may speak of filial obedience to the god of this world the Devil who is the Father of a lye as St. John describes him Joh. 8.44 He was a lyer from the beginning and so he destroyed man And that which is symbolical to the first sin is like to be a chief sin We do not read of the Devils swearing for they have no minde to do that which upon any conditions should be a religious act and also men will believe him without swearing 6. This sin of lying was odious to the very Heathens and as odious as hell was he that said one thing and meant another So haynous this vice is which I have not taken such notice of as if I would favour swearing for I shall give it its correction in its due place But I have given it the sharper censure because it deserves it and because it is more common and more abominable in those who abominate Oaths Were there any Christian bloud running in our veins we would blush at such enormity which had we not been Professors of Christianity we might have scorned Can we make any pretence of interest in the God of Truth when there is no truth in us Let us not therefore any longer dishonour the faith of a Christian in making that to be a cloak of our iniquity which when we put it on was made to signifie that we would put off lyes Lye not one to another since you have put off the old man with his works and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge according to the Image of him that created him as St. Paul exhorts us Col. 3.9 When God created the world he saw all things good which supposeth them to be conformable to his forms of them in his own minde and when God re-creates renews man he puteth in