in the sense of your natural sin and misery to stir up the lively sense of the wonderful Love of God and our Redeemer and to spend all the day in the special exercises of Faith and Love And seeing it is the Christian weekly festival or day of Thanksgiving for the greatest mercy in the world spend it as a day of Thanksgiving should be spent especially in Ioyful Praises of our Lord and let the huâbling and instructing exercisâs of the day he all subordinate to these laudatory exercises I know that much time must be spent in teaching and warning the ignorant and ungodly because their poverty and labours hinder them from other such opportunities and we must speak to them then or not at all But if it were not for their meer necessity and if we could as well speak to them other dayes of the Week the Churches should spend all the Lords Day in such praises and thanksgivings as are suitable to the ends of the institution But seeing that cannot be expected methinks it is desirable that the antient custome of the Churches were more imitated and the morning Sermon being fuited to the state of the more ignorant and unconverted that the rest of the day were spent in the exercises of Thanksgiving to the Joy and encouragement of believers and in doctrine suited to their state And yet I must add that a skilfull Preacher will do both together and so declare the Love and Grace of our Redeemer as by a meet application may both draw in the ungodly and comfort those that are already sanctified and raise their hearts in Praise to God § 4. Direct 4. Remember that the Lords day is appointed specially for publick worship and personal Direct 4. Communion of the Churches therein see therefore that you spend as much of the day as you can in this publick worship and Church-communion especially in the celebration of that Sacrament which is appointed for the memorial of the death of Christ untill his coming 1 Cor. 11. 25 26. This Sacrament in the Primitive Church was celebrated every Lords day yea and ofter even ordinarily on every other day of the week when the Churches assembled for Communion And it might be so now without any hinderance to Preaching or Prayer if all things were ordered as they should be For those Prayers and instructions and exhortations which are most suited to this Eucharistical action would be the most suitable Prayers and Sermons for the Church on the Lords dayes In the mean time sâe that so much of the day as is spent in Church-communion and publick worship be accordingly improved by you and be not at that time about your secret or family services but take only those hours for such private duties in which the Church is not assembled And remember how much the Love of Saints is to be exercised in this Communion and therefore labour to keep alive that Love without which no man can celebrate the Lords day according to the end of the institution § 5. Direct 5. Understand how great a mercy it is that you have leave thus to wait upon God for the receiving and exercise of grace and to cast off the distracting thoughts and businesses of the world and Direct 5. what an opportunity is put into your hand to get more in one day than this world can affârd you all your lives And therefore come with gladness as to the receiving of so great a mercy and with desire after it and with hope to speed and not with unwillingness as to an unpleasant task as carnal hearts that Love not God or his Grace or Service and are aweary of all they do and glâd when it is done as the Ox that is unyoaked Isa. 58. 13 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a Delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own waies nor finding thine own pleasuâe nor speaking thine own words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord The affection that you have to the Lords day much sheweth the temper of the heart A holy person is glad when it cometh as loving it for the holy exercises of the day A wicked carnal heart is glad of it only for his carnal ease but weary of the spiritual duties § 6. Direct 6. Avoid both the extreams of Prophaneness and Superstition in the point of your external rest And to that end Observe 1. That the work is not for the day but the day for the holy Direct 6. work As Christ saith Mark 2. 27. The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath It is appointed for our good and not for our hurt 2. The outward rest is not appointed for it self but as a means to the freedom of the mind for inward and spiritual employments And therefore all those outward and common labours and discourses are unlawful which any way distract the mind and hinder either our outward or inward attendance upon God and our edification 3. And whatever it was to the Jews no common words or actions are unlawful which are no hinderance to this communion and worship and spiritual edification 4. Yea those things that are necessary to the support of nature and the saving of the Life or health or estate and goods of our selves or our neighbours are needful duties on that day Not all those works which are truly charitable for it may be a work of mercy to build Hospitals or make Garments for the poor or Till their ground but such works of mercy as cannot be put off to another day and such as hinder not the duties of the day 5. The same word or action on the Lords day which is unlawful to one man may be lawful to another as being no hinderance yea a duty to him As Christ saith The Priests in the Temple break or prophane the Sabbath that is the outward rest but not the command and are blameless Matth. 12. 15. And the Cook may lawfully be employed in dressing meat when it were a sin in another to do it voluntarily without need 6. The Lords day being to be kept as a day of Thanksgiving the dressing of such meat as is fit for a day of Thanksgiving is not to be scrupled The primitive Christians in the Apostles time had their Love-feasts constantly with the Lords Supper or after on the Evening of the day And they could not feast without dressing meat 7. Yet that which is lawful in it self must be so done as consisteth with care and compassion of the souls of servants that are employed about it that they may âe deprived of no more of their spiritual benefit than needs 8. Also that which is lawful must sometimes be forborn when it may by scandal tempt others that are loose or weak to do that which is unlawful not that the meer displeasing of the erroneous should put us out of the right
3. Either Christianity is something and discernable or nothing and undiscernable If the latter then Christians are not to be distinguished from Heathens and Infidels If the former then Christianity hath its Constitutive parts by which it is what it is And then it hath essential parts distinguishable from the rest 4. The word Fundamentals being but a Metaphor hath given room to deceivers and Contenders to make a Controversie and raise a dust about it Therefore I purposely use the word Essentials which is not so lyable to mens Cavils 5. Those are the Essentials of Christianity which are necessary to the Baptism of the Adult Know but that and you answer all the pratings of the Papists that bawle out for a list of Fundamentals And sure it is not this day unknown in the Christian world either what a Christian is or who is to be baptized Do not the Priests know it who baptize all that are Christened in the world And why is Baptism called our Christening if it make us not Christians And why hath Christ promised that He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved Mark 16. 16. if that so much faith as is necessary to baptism will not also serve to a mans state of salvation 6. The Baptismal Covenant of Grace therefore is the Essential part of the Gospel and of the Christian Religion And all the rest are the Integrals and Accidents or Adjuncts 7. This Covenant containeth I. Objectively 1. Things True as such 2. Things Good as such 3. Things Practicable or to be done as such The Credenda Diligenda Eligenda Agenda as the objects of mans Intellect Will and Practical power The Credenda or things to be known and believed are 1. God as God and our God and Father 2. Christ as the Saviour and our Saviour 3. The Holy Ghost as such and as the Sanctifier and our Sanctifier as to the offer of these Relations in the Covenant The Diligenda are the same three persons in these three Relations as Good in themselves and unto us which includeth the grand benefits of Reconciliation and Adoption Justification and Sanctification and Salvation The Agenda in the time of baptism that make us Christians are 1. The actual Dedition resignation or dedication of our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in these Relations 2. A Promise or Vow to endeavour faithfully to live according to our undertaken relations though not in perfection that is as Creatures to their Creator and their Reconciled God and Father as Christians to their Redeemer their Teacher their Ruler and their Saviour And as willing Receivers of the Sanctifying and Comforting operations of the Holy Spirit II. The Objects tell you what the Acts must be on our part 1. With the Understanding to know and believe 2 With the Will to love choose desire and resolve and 3. Practically to deliver up our selves for the present and to promise for the time to come These are the Essentials of the Christian Religion 8. The Creed is a larger explication of the Credenda and the Lords Prayer of the Diligenda or things to be willed desired and hoped for and the Decalogue of the Natural part of the Agenda 9. Suffer not your own Ignorance or the Papists Cheats to confound the Question about Fundamentals as to the Matter and as to the expressing words It is one thing to ask What is the Matter â Essential to Christianity And another What Words Symbols or Sentences are Essential to it To the first I have now answered you To the second I say 1. Taking the Christian Religion as it is an Extrinsick Doctrine in signis so the Essence of it is Words and Signs expressive or significant of the Material Essence That they be such in specie is all that is essential And if they say But which be those words I answer 2. That no particular Words in the world are essential to the Christian Religion For 1. No one Language is essential to it It is not necessary to salvation that you be baptized or learn the Creed or Scriptures in Hebrew or Greek or Latin or English so you learn it in any Language understood 2. It is not necessary to salvation that you use the same words in the same Language as long as it hath more words than one to express the same thing by 3. It is not necessary to salvation that we use the same or any one single form method or order of words as they are in the Creeds without alteration And therefore while the Antients did tenaciously cleave to the same Symbol or Creed yet they used various words to express it by As may be seen in Irenââs Tertullian Origen and Ruffin elsewhere cited by me so that its plain that by the same Symbol they See the Appendix to my Reformed Pastor meant the same Matter though exprest in some variety of words Though they avoided such variety as might introduce variety of sense and matter 10. Words being needful 1. To make a Learner understand 2. To tell another what he understandeth it followeth that the great variety of mens capacities maketh a great variation in the necessity of Words or Forms An Englishman must have them in English and a Frenchman in French An understanding man may receive all the Essentials in a few words But an Ignorant man must have many words to make him understand the matter To him that Understandeth them the words of the Baptismal â Covenant express all the Essentials of Christianity But to him that understands them not the Creed is necessary for the explication And to him that understandeth not that a Catechism or larger Exposition is necessary This is the plain explication of this question which many Papists seem loth to understand Quest. 139. What is the Use and Authority of the Creed And is it of the Apostles framing or not And is it the Word of God or not Answ. 1. THe Use of the Creed is to be a plain explication of the Faith professed in the Baptismal Covenant 1. For the fuller instruction of the duller sort and those that had not preparatory knowledge and could not sufficiently understand the meaning of the three Articles of the Covenant what it is to believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost without more words 2. And for the satisfaction of the Church that indeed men understood what they did in baptism and professed to believe 2. The Creed is the Word of God as to all the Doctrine or Matter of it what ever it be as to the order and composition of words 3. That is oft by the Antients called the Apostles which containeth the matter derived by the Apostles though not in a form of words compiled by them 4. It is certain that all the words now in our Creed were not put in by the Apostles 1. Because Vid. ãâ¦ã Vossiâm de Symbolis some of them were not in till long after their dayes 2. Because the
antient formulae agree not in words among themselves 5. It is not to be doubted of but the Apostles did appoint and use a Creed commonly in their â dayes And that it is the same with that which is now called the Apostles and the Nicene in the main but not just the same composure of words nor had they any such precise composure as can be proved But this much is easily provable 1. That Christ Composed a Creed when he made his Covenant and instituted Baptism Matth. 28. 19. 2. That in the Jewish Church where men were educated in the knowledge of the Scriptures and expectation of the Mâssiah it was supposed that the people had so much preparatory knowledge as made them the more capable of Baptism as soon as they did but seriously profess to Believe and Consent to the terms of the Covenant And therefore they were presently baptized Acts 2. 38 39 40. 3. That this could not be rationally supposed among the Gentiles and common Ignorant people of the world And Ignorantis non est Consensus He doth not Covenant who understandeth not the Covenant as to what is promised him and what he promiseth 4. That the Apostles baptized and caused others to baptize many thousands and settle many Churches before any part of the New Testament was written even many and many years 5. That the Apostles did their work as well and better than any that succeeded them 6. That their successors in the Common Ministery did as far as any Church History leadeth us up Instruct and Catechise men in the meaning of the Baptismal Covenant which is the Christian faith before they baptized them Yea they kept them long in the state of Catechumens usually before they would baptize them And after baptized but twice a year at Easter and Whitsontide as our Liturgy noteth And they received an account of their tolerable understanding of Religion before they would receive them into the Church 7. No doubt then but the Apostles did cause the baptizable to understand the three Articles of Christs own Creed and Covenant and to give some account of it before they baptized them ordinarily among the Gentiles 8. No doubt therefore but they used many more Explicatory words to cause them to understand those few 9. There is neither proof nor probability that they used a Composure of just the same words and no more or less Because they had to do with persons of several capacities some knowing who needed fewer words and some ignorant and dull who needed more Nor is any such Composure Heb. 5. 11 12. 6. 1 2 3. come down to our hands 10. But it is more than probable that the Matter opened by them to all the Catechumens was still the same when the words were not the same For Gods Promises and mans Conditions are still the same where the Gospel cometh Though since by the occasion of Heresies some few material clauses are inserted For all Christians had one Christianity and must go one way to Heaven 11. It is also more than probable that they did not needlesly vary the words lest it should teach men to vary the matter But that all Christians before baptism did make the same profession of faith as to the sense and very much the same as to the very words using necessary caution and yet avoiding unnecessary preciseness of formality But so as to obviate damnable Heresies that the Christian profession might attain its ends 12. Lastly No doubt but this practice of the Apostles was exemplary and imitated by the Churches and that thus the Essentials of Religion were by the tradition of the Creed and Baptism delivered 2 Tim. 1 13. 2 Cor. 3. 2 3 7. Heb. 8. 10. 10. 16. by themselves as far as Christianity went long before any Book of the New Testament was written And every Christian was an Impress or Transcript or Specimen of it And that the following Churches using the same Creed wholly in sense and mostly in words might so far well call it The Apostles Creed As they did both the Western and the Nicene Quest. 140. What is the use of Catechisms Answ. TO be a more familiar explication of the Essentials of Christianity and the principal Integrals in a larger manner than the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue do that the ignorant may the more easily understand it Every man cannot gather out of the Scripture the Greatest matters in the true method as distinct from all the rest And therefore it is part of the work of the Churches Teachers to do it to the hands and use of the ignorant Quest. 141. Could any of us have known by the Scriptures alone the Essentials of Religion from the Rest if Tradition had not given them to us in the Creed as from Apostolical Collection Answ. YEs For the Scripture it self telleth us what is necessary to salvation It describeth to us the Covenant of Grace both Promises and Conditions And it were strange if so large a Volume should not as plainly tell us what is necessary to salvation as fewer words The Scripture hath not Less than the Creed but more Quest. 142. What is the best Method of a true Catechism or Summ of Theology Answ. GOd willing I shall tell the Church my opinion of that at large in a peculiar Latin Treatise called Methodus Theologiae which here I cannot do Only I shall say that among all the great variety of Methods used in these times I think none cometh nearer the Order of the Matter which is the true Commendation of a Method than those which open Theology 1. In the breviate of the Baptismal Covenant 2. In the three explicatory summs the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue with the added Gospel Precepts 3. In the Largest form which is the whole Scripture And that our common English Catechism and Paraeus or Ursine and many such who use that common easie Method are more truly Methodical than most that pretend to greater accu ãâ¦ã ness Though I much commend the great industry of such as Dudley Fenner Gomarrus and ãâ¦ã cially George Sohenius Quest. 143. What is the use of various Church Confessions or Articles of Faith Answ. I Will pass by the very ill use that is made of them in too many Countreys where unnecessary opinions or uncertain are put in and they that can get into favour with the Secular Power take advantage under pretence of Orthodoxness and Uniformity Truth and Peace to set up their opinions and judgements to be the common rule for all to bow to though wiser than themselvâs And to silence all Ministers and scatter and divide the flocks that will not say or swear as they do that is that they are wise men and are in the right The true and commendable use of various Church Professions or Confessions of faith is 1. To be an Instruction to the more ignorant how to understand the Scriptures in most of the most weighty points 2. To be an enumeration of
regionibus versabantur quae palatio triouta pendebaât Et si forsitaâ quisââaâ ut moris est duâ Dei popâlum admoâcret Pharaonem Nabuchodonosor Holosernum aut aliquem similem nominasâât Objiciebatâr illi quod in personam Râgâs ita dixissât staâim exilio trad batur Hoâ enim tempore persâcutionis genus agebatur hic apârtè alibi occultè ut piorum nomen talibus insidiis inteâiret NB. Victor Uticens p. miâi 382. Abundance of Pastors were then banished from their Churches and many tormented and Augâstine himself dyed with fear saith Victor ib. p. 376. when he had written saiâh he two hundred thirty two Books besides innumerable Epistles Homilies Expositions on the Psalms Evangelists c. his children speak well of the wayes or followers of Christ I must confess till I had found the truth of it by experience I was not sensible how Impudent in belying and cruel in abusing the servants of Christ his worldly malicious enemies are I had read oft how early an Enmity was put between the Womans and the Serpents seed and I had read and wondered that the first man that was born into the world did murder his Brother for worshipping God more acceptably than himself because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous 1 John 3. 12. I had read the inference ver 13. Marvel not my brethren if the world hate you But yet I did not so fully understand that wicked men and Devils are so very like and so near of kin till the words of Christ Iohn 8. 44. expounded by visible demonstrations had taught it me Indeed the Apostle saith 1 Iohn 3. 12. that Cain was of that wicked one that is the Devil But Christ saith more plainly Ye are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your Father ye will do He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because 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 Here note that cruel murdering and lying are the principal actions of a Devil and that as the Father of these he is the Father of the wicked who are most notoriously addicted to these two courses against the most innocent servants of the Lamb. How just is it that they dwell together hereafter that are here so like in disposition and action even as the Righteous shall dwell with Christ who bore his image and imitated his holy suffering life § 3. I conclude then that if thou wilt never turn to God and a holy life till wicked men give over belying and râproaching them thou maist as well say that thou wilt never be reconciled to God till the Devil be first reconciled to him and never love Christ till the Devil love him or bid thee love him or never be a Saint till the Devil be a Saint or will give thee leave and that thou wilt not be saved till the Devil be willing that thou be saved Direction 4. THat thy understanding may be enlightned and thy heart renewed be much and serious Direct 4. in Reading the Word of God and those Books that are fitted tomen in an unconverted state and especially in hearing the plain and searching preaching of the word § 1. There is a heavenly light and power and Majesty in the Word of God which in the serious Reading or hearing of it may pierce the heart and prick it and open it that corruption may go out and grace come in The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart Psal. 19. 7 8. Moreover by them it is that we are warned and in keeping of them there is great reward ver 11. The Eunuch was Reading the Scripture when Philip was sent to expound it to him for his conversion Acts 8. The preaching of Peter did prick many thousands to the heart to their conversion Acts 2. 37. The heart of Lydia was opened to attend to the preaching of Paul Acts 16. 14. The word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit Heb. 4. 11. These weapons are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 4. 5. Hâst thou often read and heard already and yet findest no change upon thy heart Yet read and hear again and again Ministers must not give over preaching when they have laboured without success Why then should you give over hearing or reading As the Husbandman laboureth and looketh to God for rain and for the blessing so must we and so must you Look up to God remember it is his Word in which he calleth you to Repentance and offereth you mercy and treateth with you concerning your everlasting happiness Lament your former negligence and disobedience and beg his blessing on his Word and you shall find it will not be in vain § 2. And the serious Reading of Books which expound and apply the Scriptures suitably to your case may by the blessing of God be effectual to your conversion I have written so many to this use my self that I shall be the shorter on this subject now and desire you to read them or some of them if you have not fitter at hand viz. A Call to the Unconverted A Treatise of Conversion Now or Never Directions for a sound Conversion A Saint or a Bruit A Treatise of Iudgement A Sermon against making light of Christ A Sermon of Christs Dominion Another of his Soveraignty c. Direction 5. F thou wouldst not be destitute of saving Grace let thy Reason be exercised about the Direct 5. matters of thy salvation in some proportion of frequent sober serious Thoughts as thou art convinced the weight of the matter doth require § 1. To have Reason is common to all men even the sleepy and distracted To use Reason is common to 1 Cor. 1â 5. Pâa 4. 4 5 6 7. 1 Cor. 11. 28. The word ât sâlf exciteth Reason and Preachers are by Reason to shame all sin as a thing unreasonâble And the want of such exââtation by ãâ¦ã and plâân instructing and the persons considering is a great cause of the worlds undoing For those Preachers that lay all the blame on the peoples stupidity or maligââââ I desire them to read a satisfactory answer in Acosta the Jesuite li. 4. c. 2 3 4. Few souls perish comparatively where all the means is used which should be used by their superiours for their salvation If every Parish had holy skilful laborious Pastors that would publickly and privately do their part great things might be expected in the world But saith Acosta Itaque praecipâa causa ad Ministros par
to hear an Atheist proving that there is no God You may believe the Scripture to be the Word of God and Christ to be the Saviour and the soul to be immortal long before you will be fit to manage or study Controversies hereupon For nothing is so false or bad which a wanton or wicked Wit may not put a plausible gloss upon And your raw unfurnished understandings will scarce be able to see through the pretence or escape the cheat When you cannot answer the Arguments of Seducers you will find them leave a doubting in your minds For you know not how plain the answer of them is to wiser men And though you must prove all things you must do it in due order and as you are able and stay till your furnished minds are capable of the tryal If you will need read before you know your Letters or pretend to judge of Greek and Hebrew Authors before you can read English you will but become ridiculous in your undertaking § 2. II. When you do come to smaller Controverted points let them have but their due proportion of your time and zeal And that will not be one hour in many dayes with the generality of private Christians By that time you have well learned the more necessary truths and practised daily the more necessary duties you will find that there will be but little time to spare for lesser Controversies Opinionists that spend most of their Time in studying and talking of such points do steal that time from greater matters and therefore from God and from themselves Better work is undone the while And they that here lay out their chiefest zeal divert their zeal from things more necessary and turn their natural heat into a Feavor § 3. III. The Essential necessary Truths of your Religion must imprint the Image of God upon your hearts and must dwell there continually and you must live upon them as your bread and drink and daily necessary food All other points must be studied in subserviency to those All lesser duties must be used as the exercise of the Love of God or man and of a humble heavenly mind The Articles of your Creed and points of Catechism are fountains ever running affording you matter for the continual exercise of Grace It is both plentiful and solid nourishment to the soul which these great substantial points afford To know God the Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier the Laws and Covenant of God and his Judgement and Rewards and Punishments with the parts and method of the Lords Prayer which must be the daily exercise of our desires and Love this is the Wisdom of a Christian and in these must he be continually exercised You 'l say perhaps that the Apostle saith Heb. 6. 1. Leaving the Principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on to perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works c. Answ. 1. By leaving he meaneth not passing over the practice of them as men that have done with them and are past them But his leaving at that time to discourse of them or his supposing them taught already Though he lay not the foundation again yet he doth not pluck it up 2. By Principles he meaneth the first points to be taught and learnt and practised And indeed Regeneration and Baptism is not to be done again But the Essentials of Religion which I am speaking of contain much more especially to live in the love of God which Paul calls the more excellent way 1 Cor. 12. 13. 3. Going on to perfection is not by ceasing to believe and Love God but by a more distinct knowledge of the mysteries of salvation to perfect our Faith and Love and Obedience The points that Opinionists call Higher and think to be the principal matter of their growth and advancement in understanding are usually but some smaller less necessary truths if not some uncertain doubtful questions Mark well 1 Tim. 1. 4. 6. 4. 2 Tim. 2. 23. Tit. 3. 9. compared with Iohn 17. 3. Rom. 13. 8 9 10. 1 Cor. 13. 1 Iohn 3. 1 Cor. 1. 23. 15. 1 2 3. 2. 2. Gal. 6. 14. Iames 2. 3. 1. Direct 5. BE very thankful for the great mercy of your Conversion but yet overvalue not your Direct 5. first degrees of knowledge or holiness but remember that you are yet but in your infancy and must expect your growth and ripeness as the consequent of Time and Diligence § 1. You have great reason to be more glad and thankful for the least measure of true Grace than if you had been made the Rulers of the Earth it being of a far more excellent nature and entitling you to more than all the Kingdoms of the world See my Sermon called Right Rejoycing on those words of Christ Rejoyce not that the Spirits are subject to you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in Heaven Luke 10. 20. Christ will warrant you to Rejoyce though enemies envy you and repine both at your victory and triumph If there be joy in Heaven in the presence of the Angels at your Conversion there is great reason you should be glad your selves If the Prodigals Father will needs have the best Robe and Ring brought forth and the fat Calf killed and the Musick to attend the Feast that they may eat and be merry Luke 15. 23. there is great reason that the Prodigal Son himself should not have the smallest share of joy though his Brother repine § 2. But yet take heed lest you think the measure of your first endowments to be greater than it Fear is a cautelous preserving grace I aârt saith of Cleanthes Cum aliquando probro illi daretur quod esset timidus At ideo inquit parum pecco is Grace imitateth Nature in beginning usually with small Degrees and growing up to maturity by leisurely proceeding We are not new born in a state of manhood as Adam was created Though those Texts that liken the Kingdom of God to a grain of Mustard-seed and to a little leaven Matth. 13. 31 33. be principally meant of the small beginnings and great encrease of the Church or Kingdom of Christ in the world yet it is true also of his Grace or Kingdom in the soul. Our first Stature is but to be New born babes desiring the sincere milk of the word that we may grow by it 1 Pet. 2. 2. Note here that the new birth bringeth forth but babes but growth is by degrees by feeding on the Word The Word is received by the heart as seed into the ground Matth. 13. And seed useth not to bring forth the blade and fruit to ripeness in a day § 3. Yet I deny not but that some men as Paul may have more Grace at their first Conversion than many others have at their full growth For God is free in the giving of his Own and may give more or less as pleaseth himself But yet in Paul himself
hold it with any that will drive us from it unless we will commit some sin Statedly we must hold it with the Church which regularly we are joyned to and live with and Occasionally we must hold it with all others where we have a call and opportunity who in the substance worship God according to his Word and force us not to sin in conformity to them It is not Schism to lament the sins of any Church or of all the Churches in the world The Catholick Church on earth consists of sinners It is not Schism to refuse to be partaker in any sin of the purest Church in the world Obedience to God is not Schism It is not Schism that you joyn not Bodily with those Congregations where you dwell not nor have any particular call to joyn with them Nor that you choose the pureââ and most edifying Society rather than one that is less pure and profitable to you âaeteris paribus supposing you are at liberty nor that you hold not Bodily Communion with that Church that will not suffer you to do it without sinning against God Nor that you joyn not with the purest Church when you are called to abide with one less pure But it is worse than Schism to separate from the Universal Church To separate from its Faith iâ Apostasie to infidelity To separate from it in some one or few essential Articles while you pretend to hold to Christ the Head is Heresie To separate from it in Spirit by refusing Holiness and not loveing such as are truly holy is damning ungodliness or wickedness To differ from it by any error of judgement or life against the Law of God is sin To magnifie any one Church or party so as to deny due Love and Communion to the rest is Schism To limit all the Church to your Party and deny all or any of the rest to be Christians and parts of the Universal Church is Schism by a dangerous breach of Charity And this is the principal Schism that I here admonish you to avoid It is Schism also to condemn unjustly any particular Church as no Church And it is Schism to withdraw your Bodily Communion from a Church that you were bound to hold that Communion with upon a false supposâtion that it is no Church or is not lawfully to be communicated with And it is Schism to make Divisions or parties in a Church though you divide not from that Church Thus I have briefly told you what is Schism § 4. 1. One pretence for Schism is Usurped Authority which some one Church may claim tâ Command others that owe them no subjection Thus Pride which is the Spirit of Hell having crepâ into the Church of Christ and animated Usurpations of Lordship and Dominion and contending for superiority hath caused the most dangerous Schisms in the Church that ever it was infested with The Bishop of Rome advantaged by the Seat and Constitution of that Empire having claimed the Government of all the Christian world condemneth all the Churches that will not be his subjects And âo hath made himself the Head of a Sect and of the most pernicious Schism that ever did rend the Church of Christ And the Bishop of Constantinople and too many more have followed the same Method in a lower degree exalting themselves above their Brethren and giving them Laws and then condemning and persecuting them that obey them not And when they have imposed upon other Churches their own usurped Authority and Laws they have laid the plot to call all men Schismaticks and Sectaries that own not their tyrannical Usurpation and that will not be Schismaticks and Sectaries with them And the cheat lyeth in this that they confound the Churches Unity with their pretended Authority and Schism with the refusal of subjection to them If you will not take them for your Lords they cry out that you divide from the Church As if we could hold Communion with no Churches but those whose Bishops we obey Communion with other Churches is maintained by Faith and Charity and Agreement in things necessary without subjection to them As we may hold all just Communion with the Churches in Armenia Arabia Russia without subjection to their Bishops so may we with any other Church besides that of which we are members Division or Schism is contrary to Unity and Concord and not to a Usurped Government Though disobedience to the Pastârs which God hath set over us is a sin and dividing from them is a Schism Both the Pope and all the lower Usurpers should do well first to shew their Commission from God to be our Rulers before they call it Schism to refuse their Government If they had not made better advantage of Fire and Sword than of Scripture and Argument the world would but have laughed them to scorn when they had heard them say All are Schismaticks that will not be our Subjects Our Dominion and will shall be necessary to the Unity of the Church The Universal Church indeed is One united under One Head and Governour but it is only Jesus Christ that is that Head and not any Usurping Vicar or Vice-Christ The Bishops of particular Churches are his Officers but he hath Deputed no Vicar to his own Office as the Universal Head Above all Sects take heed of this pernicious Sect who pretend their Usurped Authority for their Schism and have no way to promote their Sect but by calling all Sectaries that will not be Sectaries and Subjects unto them § 5. 2. Another pretence for Schism is the Numbers of the Party This is another of the Papists motives As if it were lawful to Divide the Church of Christ if they can but get the greater party They say We are the most and therefore you should yield to us And so do others where by the Sword they force the most to submit to them But we answer them As many as they are they are too few to be the Universal Church The Universal Church containing all true professing Christians is much more than they The Papists are not a third part if a fourth of the whole Church Papists are a corrupted Sect of Christians I will be against Dividing the Body of Christ into any Sects rather than to be one of that Sect or divided party which is the greatest § 6. 3. Another pretence for Schism is the soundness or Orthodoxness of a Party Almost all Sects pretend that they are wiser and of sounder judgement than all the Christian World besides yea those that most palpably contradict the Scriptures as the Papists in their half-communion and unintelligible service and have no better reason why they will so Believe or Do but because others have so Believed and Done already But 1. The greatest pretenders to Orthodoxness are not the most Orthodox 2. And if they were I can value them for that in which they excell without abating my due respect to the rest of the Church 3. For the whole Church is Orthodox in
above in a Heavenly conversation and then your souls will be alwayes Direct 11. in the light and as in the sight of God and taken up with those businesses and delights which put them out of rellish with the baits of sin § 43. Direct 12. Let Christian watchfulness be your daily work And cherish a preserving though Direct 12. not a distracting and discouraging fear § 44. Direct 13. Take heed of the first approaches and beginnings of sin Oh how great a matter Direct 13. doth a little of this fire kindle And if you fall rise quickly by sound repentance whatever it may cost you § 45. Direct 14. Make Gods Word your only Rule and labour diligently to understand it Direct 14. § 46. Direct 15. In doubtful Cases do not easily depart from the unanimous judgement of the generality of the most wise and godly of all ages § 47. Direct 16. And in doubtful Cases be not passionate or rash but proceed deliberately and Direct 15. prove things well before you fasten on them § 48. Direct 17. Be acquainted with your bodily temperature and what sin it most enclineth you Direct 16. to and what sin also your Calling or converse doth lay you most open to that there your watch may be the stricter Of all which I shall speak more fully under the next Grand Direction § 49. Direct 18. Keep in a life of holy Order such as God hath appointed you to walk in For Direct 18. there is no preservation for straglers that keep not Rank and File but forsake the order which God commandeth them And this order lyeth principally in these points 1. That you keep in Union with the Universal Church Separate not from Christs body upon any pretence whatever With the Church as Regenerate hold spiritual communion in faith love and holiness with the Church as Congregate and Visible hold outward Communion in Profession and Worship 2. If you are not Teachers live under your particular faithful Pastors as obedient Disciples of Christ. 3. Let the most godly if possible be your familiars 4. Be laborious in an outward Calling § 50. Direct 19. Turn all Gods Providences whether of prosperity or adversity against your sins If Direct 19. he give you health and wealth remember he thereby obligeth you to obedience and calls for special service from you If he afflict you remember that it is sin that he is offended at and searcheth after and therefore take it as his Physick and see that you hinder not but help on its work that it may purge away your sin § 51. Direct 20. Wait patiently on Christ till he have finished the cure which will not be till this Direct ââ trying life be finished Persevere in attendance on his Spirit and Means for he will come in season and will not tarry Hos. 6. 3. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord His going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain as the later and former rain upon the earth Though you have oft said There is no healing Jer. 14. 19. He will heal your back-slidings and love you freely Hos. 14. 4. Unto you that fear his name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings Mal. 4. 2. And blessed are all they that wait for him Isa. 30. 18. Thus I have given such Directions as may help for Humiliation under sin or hatred of it and deliverance from it DIRECT IX Spend all your dayes in a skilful vigilant resolute and valiant War against the Flesh Gr. Dir. 9. Our Warfare under Christ against the Tempter the World and the Devil as those that have covenanted to follow Christ the Captain of your Salvation § 1. THe Flesh is the End of Temptation for all is to please it Rom. 13. 14. and therefore is Sâe my Trea ãâ¦ã the greatest enemy The world is the Matter of Temptation And the Devil is the first mover or efficient of it and this is the Trinity of enemies to Christ and us which we renounce in Baptism and must constantly resist Of the world and flesh I shall speak Chap. 4. Here I shall open the Methods of the Devil And first I shall prepare your understanding by opening some presupposed truths § 2. 1. It is presupposed that there is a Devil He that believeth not this doth prove it to others by shewing how grosly the Devil can befool him Apparitions Witchcrafts and Temptations are full proofs of it to sense besides what Scripture saith § 3. 2. It is supposed that he is the deadly enemy of Christ and us He was once an Angel and âf the Temptations to hinder Conversion see before Chap. 1. sell from his first estate by sin and a world of evil Spirits with him and it is probable his envy against mankind might be the greater as knowing that we were made to succeed him and his followers in their state of glory For Christ saith that we shall be equal with the Angels Luke 20. 36. He shewed his enmity to man in our innocency and by his temptation caused our fall and misery But aâter the fall God put an enmity into the nature of man against Devils as a merciful preservative against temptation so that as the whole nature of man abhorreth the nature of Serpents so doth the soul abhor and dread the diabolical nature And therefore so far as the Devil is seen in a temptation now so far it is frustrated till the enmity in nature be overcome by his deceits And this help nature hath against temptation which it seems our nature had not before the fall as not knowing the malice of the Devil against us § 3. There is a Natural enmity to the Devil himself put into all the womans natural seed But the moral enmity against his sinful temptations and works is put only into the spiritual seed by the Holy Ghost except what remnants are in the light of Nature I will be brief of all this and the next having spoken of them more largely in my Treatise against Infidelity Part. 3. page 190. § 13 c. § 4. The Devils names do tell us what he is In the Old Testament he is called 1. The Serpent Gen. 3. 2. The Hebrew word translated Devils in Levit. 17. 7. and Isa. 13. 21. signifieth Viâ Pools Sy ãâ¦ã Levit. 1. 77 Iââhese later ãâ¦ã th the ãâã disposition which Satan as a Tempter causeth and so he is known by it as his Off-spring ââiây as Satyrs are described and sometime Hee-goats Because in such shapes he oft appeareth 3. He is called Satan Zech. 3. 1. 4. An evil Spirit 1 Sam. 18. 10. 5. A lying Spirit 1 Kings 22. 22. For he is a lyar and the Father of it John 8. 44. 6. His off-spring is called A Spirit of uncleanness Zech. 13. 2. 7. And he or his Spawn is called A Spirit of fornication Hos. 4. 12. that is
life in sickness or danger when you may after have time to seek the saving of his soul. Not only works of mercy may be thus preferred before sacrifice but the ordinary conveniences of our lives as to rise and dress us and do other business may go before prayer when Prayer may afterwards be done as well or better and would be hindered if these did not go before § 22. Direct 19. Though caeteris paribus the duties of the first table are to be preferred before Direct 19. those of the second yet the Greater duties of the second table must be preferred before the lesser duties of the first The Love of God is a greater duty than the Love of man and they must never be separated But yet we must preferr the saving a mans life or the quenching of a fire in the Town before a Prayer or Sacrament or observation of a Sabbath David eat the shew bread and the Disciples rubbed out the corn on the Sabbath day because the preserving of Life was a greater duty than the observing of a Sabbath or a positive ceremonial law And Christ bids the Pharisees Go learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice The blood of our brethren is an unacceptable means of pleasing God and mainteining piety or promoting mens several opinions in religion § 23. Direct 20. Choose that employment or calling so far as you have your choice in which Direct 20. you may be most serviceable to God Choose not that in which you may be most Rich or Honourable in the world but that in which you may do most good and best escape sinning § 24. Quest. But what if in one calling I am most serviceable to the Church but yet have most Quest. â doing goâd or avoidââg sin to be ââst âââââ at in our choice oââaâlings Answ. temptations to sin And in another I have least temptations to sin but am least serviceable to the Church which is the ordinary difference between men in Publick places and men in solitude which of these should I choose Answ. 1. Either you are allready engaged in your Calling or not If you are you must have greater reasons to desert it than such as might require you at first not to choose it 2. Either the Temptations to sin are such as good men ordinarily overcome or they are extraordinarily great You may more warrantably avoid such great ones as you are not like to overcome than small or ordinary ones 3. Either you are well furnished against these temptations or not If not you must be more cautelous in approaching them But if you are you may trust God the boldlier to help you out 4. Either they are temptations to ordinary humane frailties in the manner of duty or temptations to more dangerous sin The first will not so much warrant you to avoid doing good for to escape them as the latter will 5. The service that you are called to being supposed great and necessary to be done by somebody is either such as others will do better or as well if you avoid it or not If the Church or common good receive no detriment by your refusal you may the more insist on your own preservation But if the necessities of the Church or State and the want of fitter instruments or any apparent call of God do single you out for that service you must obey God whatever the difficulties and temptations are For no temptation can necessitate you to sin and God that calleth you can easily preserve you But take heed what you thrust your selves upon § 25. Quest. But may I change my calling for the service of the Church when the Apostle bids Quest. âââââing may be changed Answ. every man abide in the calling in which he was called Cor. 7. 20. Answ. The Apostle only requireth men to make no unlawful change such as is the forsaking of a Wife or Husband nor no unnecessary change as if it were necessary as in the case of circumcision But in the next words he saith Art thou called being a servant Care not far it But if thou maist be made free use it rather He bids every man abide with God in the place he is called to but forbids them not to change their state when they are called to change it verse 24. He speaks more of relations of single persons and married servants and free c. than oâ trades or offices And yet no doubt but a single person may be marryed and the marryed must be separated and servants may be free No man must take up or change any calling without sufficient cause to call him to it But when he hath such cause he sinneth if he change it not The Apostles changed their Callings when they became Apostles and so did multitudes of the Pastors of the Church in every age God no where forbids men to change their employment for the better upon a sufficient cause or call § 26. Direct 21. Especially be sure that you live not out of a calling that is such a stated course Direct 21. of employment in which you may best be serviceable to God Disability indeed is an unresistible impediment Otherwise no man must either live idely or content himself with doing some little charres Who excused from â calling as a recreation or on the by But every one that is able must be statedly and ordinarily imployed in such work as is serviceable to God and the common Good Quest. But will not wealth excuse us Answ. It may excuse you from some sordid sort of work by making you more serviceable in other but you are no more excused from service and work of one kind or other than the poorest man Unless you think that God requireth least where He giveth most Quest. Will not age excuse us Answ. Yes so farr as it disableth you but no further Object But I am turned out of my calling Answ. You are not turned out of the service of God He calleth you to that or to another Quest. But may I not cast off the world that I may only think of my salvation Answ. You may cast off all such excess of worldly cares or business as unnecessarily hinder you in spiritual things But you may not cast off all bodily employment and mental labour in which you may serve the common Good Every one that is a member of Church or common-wealth must employ their parts to the utmost for the good of the Church and common-wealth Publick service is Gods greatest service To neglect this and say I will pray and meditate is as if your servant should refuse your greatest work and tie himself to some lesser easie part And God hath commanded you some way or other to labour for your daily bread and not to live as drones on the sweat of others only Innocent Adam was put into the Garden of Eden to dress it And fallen man must eat his bread in the sweat of his brows Gen. 3.
ever the world had who taught it not only by his words but by his blood by his life and by his death If thou canst not learn it of him thou canst never learn it Love is the greatest commander of Love and the most effectual argument that can insuperably constrain us to it And none ever loved at the measure and rates that Christ hath loved To stand by such a fire is the way for a congealed heart to melt and the coldest affections to grow warm A lively faith still holding Christ the Glass of infinite Love and Goodness before our faces is the greatest Lesson in the Art of Love § 28. 2. Behold God also in his Covenant of Grace which he hath made in Christ. In that you may see sucâ sârâ such great and wonderful mercies freely given out to a world of sinners and to your selves among the rest as may afford abundant matter for Love and Thankfulness to feed on while you live There you may see how loth God is that sinners should perish How he delighteth in mercy And how great and unspeakable that mercy is There you may sâe an Act of Pardon and Oblivion granted upon the reasonable condition of Believing Penitent Acceptance to all mankind The sins that men have been committing many years together their willâul hâynous aggravated sins you may there see pardoned by more aggravated Mercy and the enemies of God reconciled to him and condemned rebels sav'd from Hell and brought into his family and made his sons O what an Image of the Goodness of God is apparent in the tenor of his word and Covenant Hâliness and Mercy make up the whole They are exprest in every leaf and line The precepts which seem too strict to sinners are but the perfect Rules of Holiness and Love for the health and happiness of man What Loveliness did David find in the Law it self And so should we if we read it with his eyes and heart It was sweeter to him than hony he loved it above gold Psalm 119. 127 and 97. he crieth out O how I love thy Law it is my meditation all the day And must not the Law-giver then be much more lovely whose Goodness here appeareth to us Good and upright is the Lord therefore will he teach sinners in the way Psalm 25. 8. I will delight my self in thy Commandments which I have loved My hands also will I lift up to thy Commandments which I have loved and I will meditate in thy statutes Psalm 119. 47 48. How delightfully then should I love and meditate on the Blessed Author of this holy Law But how can I read the history of Love the strange design of Grace in Christ the mystery which the Angels desirously pry into the pâomises of life to lost and miserable sinners and not feel the power of Love transform me Behold with what Love the Father hath Loved us that we shâuld be called the sons of God 1 John 3. 1. How doth God shed abroad his Love upon our hearts but by opening to us the superabundance of it in his word and opening our hearts by his spirit to perceive it O when a poor sinner that first had felt the load of sin and the wrath of God shall feelingly read or hear what mercy is rendered to him in the Covenant of Grace and hear Christs messengers tell him from God that All things are now ready and therefore invite him to the heavenly feast and even compel him to come in what melting Love must this affect a sinners heart with When we see the Grant of Life eternal sealed to us by the blood of Christ and a pardoning justifying saving Covenant so freely made and surely confirmed to us by that God whom we had so much offended O what an incentive is here for Love § 29. When I mention the Covenant I imply the Sacraments which are but its appendants or confirming seals and the investing the believer solemnly with its benefits But in these God is pleased to condescend to the most familiar communion with his Church that Love and Thankfulness might want no helps There it is that the Love of God in Christ applyeth it self most closely to particular sinners And the meat or drink will be sweet in the mouth which was not sweet to us on the table at all O how many a Heart hath this affected How many have felt the stirrings of that Love which before they felt not when they have seen Christ crucified before their eyes and have heard the Minister in his name and at his command bid them Take and Eat and Drink commanding them not to refuse their Saviour but Take him and the benefits of his blood as their own assuring them of his good will and readiness to forgive and save them § 30. 3. Behold also the Loveliness of God in his Holy ones who bear his Image and are advanced by his Love and Mercy If you are Christians indeed you are taught of God to Love his servants and to see an excellency in the Saints on earth and make them the people of your delight Psalm 16. 1 2. 1 Thes. 4. 9. And this must needs acquaint you with the greater Amiableness in the most Holy God that made them Holy O how oft have the feeling and heavenly prayers of lively believers excited those affections in me which before I felt not How oft have I been warmed with their Heavenly discourse How amiable is that Holy Heavenly disposition and conversation which appeareth in them Their faith their Love their trust in God their cheerful obedience their hatred of sin their desire of the good of all their meekness and patience how much do these advance them above the ignorant sensual proud malignant and ungodly world How Good then is that God that makes men Good And how little is the Goodness of the best of men compared to his unmeasurable Goodness Whenever your converse with holy men stirs up your Love to them rise by it presently to the God of Saints and let all be turned to him that giveth all to them and you § 31. And as the excellency of the saints so their priviledge and great advancement should shew you the Goodness of God that doth advance them As oft as thou seest a saint how poor and mean in the world soever thou seest a living monument of the abundant kindness of the Lord Thou seest a child of God a member of Christ an heir of Heaven Thou seest one that hath all his sins forgiven him and is snatcht as a brand out of the fire and delivered from the power of Satan and translated into the Kigdom of Christ Thou seest one for whom Christ hath conquered the powers of Hell and one that is freed from the bondage of the flesh and one that of the Devils slave is made a Priest to offer up the sacrifices of Praise to God Thou seest one that hath the spirit of God within him and one that hath daily intercourse with
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
that they are zealous for the faith when they are but contending for their honour or conceits Passion covers much deceit from the passionate § 22. Direct 17. Suspect your selves most among the great the wise the learned and the godly or Direct 17. any whose favour opinion or applause you most esteem It is easie for an arrant Hypocrite to despise the favour or opinion of the vulgar of the ignorant of the prophane or any whose judgement he contemneth It is no great honour or dishonour to be praised or dispraised by a child or fool or a person that for his ignorance or prophaness is become contemptible But Hypocrisie and Pride do work most to procure the esteem of those whose judgement or parts you most admire One most admireth worldly greatness and such a one will play the Hypocrite most to flatter or please the great ones he admireth Another that is wiser more admireth the judgement of the wise and learned and he will play the Hypocrite to procure the good esteem of such though he can sleight a thousand of the ignorant and his pride it self will make him sleight them Another that is yet wiser is convinced of the excellency of Godly men above all the Great and Learned of the world And this man is more in danger of Pride and Hypocrisie in seeking the good opinion of the Godly and therefore can despise the greatest multitudes of the ignorant and prophane Yea pride it self will make him take it as an addition to his glory to be vilified and opposed by such miscreants as these § 23. Direct 18 Remember the perfections of that God whom you worship that he is a Spirit and Direct 18. therefore to be worshipped in Spirit and in truth and that he is most great and terrible and therefore to be worshipped with sâri usnâss and reverence and not to be dallyed with or served with toyes or lifeless lip-service and that he is most holy pure and jealous and therefore to be purely worshipped and that âe is still present with you and all things are naked and open to him with whom we have to do The knowledge of God and the remembrance of his all-seeing presence is the most powerful means against Hypocrisie Christ himself argueth from the Nature of God who is a Spirit against the hypocritical ceremoniousness of the Samaritans and Iews Iohn 4. 23 24. Hypocrites offer that to God which they know a man of ordinary wisdom would scorn if they offered it to him If a man knew their hearts as God doth would he be pleased with words and complements and gestures which are not accompanied with any suitable seriousness of the mind Would he be pleased with affected histrionical actions One that seeth a Papist Priest come out in his Formalities and there lead the people in a Language which they understand not to worship God by a number of Ceremonies and canting repeated customary words would think he saw a Stage-player acting his part and not a wise and holy people seriously worshipping the most holy God And not only in worship but in private duties and in converse with men and in all your lâves the remembrance of Gods presence is a powerful rebuke for all hypocrisie It is more foolish to sin in the sight of God because you can hide it from the world than to steal or commit adultery in the open Market-place before the crowd and be careful that Dogs and Crows discern it not If all the world see you it is not so much as if God in secret see you Be not deceived God is not mocked Gal. 6. 7. § 24. Direct 19. Remember how Hypocrisie is hated of God and what punishment is appointed for Direct 19. Hypocrites They are joyned in torment with unbelievers and as wicked mens punishment is aggravated by their being condemned to the fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels so the punishment of ordinary ungodly persons is aggravated by this that their portion shall be with hypocrites and unbelievers How oft find you the Lamb of God himself denouncing his thundering Woes against the hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees How oft doth he inculcate to his Disciples Be not as the Hypocrites Matth. 6. 2 5 16. And no wonder if Hypocrites be hateful to God when they and their services are lifeless Images and have nothing but the Name and outside of Christianity and some antick dress to set them off and humane ornaments of Wit and Parts as a Corpse is more drest with Flowers than the living as needing those Ceremonies for want of life to keep them sweet And a Carrion is not amiable to God And the Hypocrite puts a scorn on God as if he thought that God were like the Heathens Idols that have eyes and see not and could not discern the secret dissemblings of his heart or as if he were like fools and children that are pleased with fair words and little toyes God must needs hate such abuse as this § 25. Direct 20. Come into the Light that your hearts and lives may be throughly known to you Direct 20. Love the most searching faithul Ministry and Books and be thankful to reprovers and plain dealing friends Permanent tepidi âgnavi neglâgântes Vaââ leves voluptââsi delâcaââ commoda corporis supersâua sectantur suâm compendium in omnibus quaeâunt ubicunque honoâem existimationem nominis sui integra seâvaâe possunt Iââus prâpriae voluntaââ perâânacâter addââââ irreââgnââ minime abnegati superbi curiosi contumaces sunt in omnibuâ licet ââterne coram hominibus bene mââati videantur In tentationibus impatientes amari procaces iracundi ârisâes aliis molestâ verbis tamen ingenioque seââââ In prosperis nimium eâaâi hilaâes In adversis nâmâum turbaâi sunt pusilâanimes Aâiorum temeraââââ sunt judices aliorum vitia accuratissime perscrutari de aliorum defectibus frequenter gaââââre aâ gloââari egregium putant Ex istis simiââbus operibus facillime cognosci poterunt nam moribus gestibusque suis câu sorex quispiam suopte sâmet judicio produââ Thaâle âloâ pag. 65 66. Darkness is it that cherisheth deceit It is the office of the Light to manifest Justly do those wretches perish in their hypocrisie who will not endure the light which would undeceive them but fly from a plain and powerful Ministry and hate plain reproof and set themselves by excuses and cavils to defend their own deceit § 26. Direct 21. Be very diligent in the examining of your hearts and all your actions by the Word Direct 21. of God and call your selves often to a strict account Deceit and guilt will not endure strict examination The Word of God is quick and powerful discovering the thoughts and imaginations of the heart There is no Hypocrite but might be delivered from his own deceits if by the assistance of an able Guide he would faithfully go on in the work of self-trying without partiality oâ sloth § 27. Direct
are Christians but it is with a Mock-Christianity while their souls are strange to the true esteem and use of Christ. They are Believers but with a mock belief described Iames 2. They believe God should be loved above all but they love him not They believe that Holiness is better than all the pleasures of sin yet they choose it not but hate it They are Religious with a seeming vain Religion which will not so much as humble them nor bâidle their tongues Iam. 1. 26 They are wise with a mock-wisdom They are wise enough to prove their sins to be all lawfull or but venial sins And wise enough to cast away the Medicine that would âeal them and to confuâe the Physicion and to answer the learnedst Preacher of them all and to scapâ salvation and to secure themselves a place in Hell and keep themselves ignorant of it till they are there They are converted but with a mock-conversion which leaveth them as carnal and proud and worldly as before being born of Water but not of the Spirit and being sensual still Iohn 3. 5 6. Iude 19. They Repent but with a mock-repentance They Repent but they will not leave their sin nor confess and bewail it but hate reproof and excuse their sin They are Honest but with a mock honesty Though they swear and curse and rail and slander and backbite and scorn at piety it self yet they mean well and have honest hearts Though they receive not the Word with deep roââing in their hearts but are abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate they are honest for all that âuâe 8. 15. Tit. 1. 16. They Love God above all though they love not to think or speak of him seriously but hate his Holiness and Justice his Word and holy wayes and servants and are such as the Scripture calleth hâters of God and keep nor his Commandments nor live not to his glory ãâ¦ã â5 4 6 â 8 20 â 3. Matâh 10 37. They Love the servants of God but they care not if the world were rid of them all and take them to be but a company of self conceited troublesome fellows and as very hypocrites as themselves And the poor Christians that are cruelly used by them think they are neither in good sadness nor in âeast when they profess to love the worshippers of God They love not their money nor lands noâ lusts with such a kind of love I am sure They have also alwayes good desires but they are such mock-desires as those in Iames 2. 15. that wished the poor were sed and clothed and warmed but gave them nothing towards it And such good desires as the sluggard hath that lyeth in bed and wisheth that all his work were done Prov. 21. 25. The desire of the sluggard killeth him because his hands refuse to labour They pray but with mock-prayers you would little think that they are speaking to the most holy God for no less than the saving of their souls when they are more serious in their very games and sports They pray for grace but they cannot abide it They pray for Holiness but they are resolved they 'll have none of it They pray against their sin but no entreaty can perswade them from it They would have a Mock-ministry a Mock-discipline a Mock-Church a Mock-Sacrament as they make a Mock-profession and give God but a Mock-obedience as I might shew you through all the particulars but for being tedious And all is because they have but a Mock-faith They believe not that God is in good earnest with them in his commands and threatnings and fore-telling of his judgements As Lât to his Sons-in-law Gen. 19. 14. He seemeââ to them as one that mocked and therefore they serve him as those that would mock him O wretched hypocrites Is this agreeable to your holy profession You call your selves Christians and profess to believe the doctrine of Christ Is this agreeable to Christianity to your Creed to the ten Commandments to the Lords Prayer and to the rest of the Word of God Had you none but The similitude of âuperstition to Religion maketh ât the more dââormed And as who som meat corrupteth into little Worms so good forms and orders corrupt into a number of pâtty observances Lord Bacon Essay of Supeâst the holy Jealous God to make a mock of Had you nothing less than Religion and matters of salvation and damnation to play with Do you serve God as if he were a child or an Idol or a man of straw that either knoweth not your hearts or is pleased with toyes and complements and shews and saying over certain words or acting a part before him as on a stage Do you know what you offer and to whom His Power is Omnipotency his Glory is ten thousand fold above that of the Sun his Wisdom is infinite Millions of Angels adore him continually He is thy King and Judge he abhorreth hypocrites If thou didst but see one glimpse of his glory or the meanest of his Angels the sight would awake thee from thy dreaming and dallying and frighten thee from thy canting and trifling into a serious regard of God and thy everlasting sâate Mal. 1. 8. Offer this now to thy Governour Will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of Hâsts If your servants set before you upon your Table the Feathers instead of the Fowl and the Hair and Wooll instead of the Flesh and the Scales instead of the Fish would you not think they rather mockt than served you How dear have some paid even in this life for mocking God Let the case of Aarons Sons Lev. 10. 1 2 3. and of Ananias and Saphira Acts 5. inform you If with the big-tree Matth. 21. 19. you offer God Leaves only instead of fruit you are nigh unto cursing and your end is to be burnt Do you not read what he saith to the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3. 15 16. I would thou were cold or hot Because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will spue thee out of my mouth that is either be an open Infidel or a holy downright zealous Christian But because thou callest thy self a Christian and hast not the life or zeal of a Christian but coverest thy wickedness and carnality with that holy name I will cast thee away as an abominable vomit It would make the heart of a believer ake to think of the Hypocrisie of most that usurp the name of Christians and how cruelly they mock themselves What a glory is offered them and they lose it by their dallying What a price is in their hands What mercy is offered them and they lose it by their dallying What danger is before them and they will fall into it by their dallying Doth not the weight of your salvation forbid this trifling You might better set the Town on fire and make a jeast of it than jeast your souls into the fire of Hell Then you
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 âs a means to some higher end the service of God and our own or other mens greater ââââd And further than it conduceth to some of these it must be allmost indifferent to us what men âââââ or say of us And the displeasure of all men if unjust must be reckâned with our light afâflââââiâns § 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 plââsing of men must be preferred before the uttering of a lesser truth or doing a lessâr ââod at that ââââ because it is no duty then to do it § 18. 7. Our hearts are so ââlââsh and deceitful naturally that when we are very sollicitous about ââââ ãâ¦ã we must carefully watch them lest self be intended while God is pretended And wâ ãâã take special care that we be sure it be the honour of God and Religion and the good of soulâââ ãâã 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 âsteem with men that we should more fââr ââââ we ârr 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 dâsâuting 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 inââllible 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 âught 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 Cââ 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 Mââ 10. âââân 15. Maâ 27. Hâb 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 fâllow 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 câmmitted 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 Sââââca who said Maâe dâ mâ loqâââââ âed mâlââ mââeâer si de me Mââ Caâe si ââââs sapiens si duo Scipioâes ista loquerentur nunc malis disââââceâe âaudari 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
his own Master doth he stand or fall Men may step up into the throne of God and there presume to judge others according to their interests and passions but God will quickly pull them down and teach them better to know their places How like is the common censure of the world to the game of boyes that will hold an Assize and make a Judge and try and condemn one another in sport And have we not a greater Iudge to fear § 29. 3. It is God only that passeth the final sentence from whom there is no appeal to any other See Dr ââââs ãâã pag. 42 43. Ma ãâ¦ã ââ 1 Coâ 4. 3. But from humane judgement there lyeth an appeal to God Their judgement must be judged of by him Things shall not stand as now men censure them Many a bad cause is now judged good through the Multitude or Greatness of those that favour it And many a good cause is now condemned Many a one is taken as a Malefactor because he obeyeth God and doth his duty But all these things must be judged over again by him that hath denounced a Woâ to them that call evil Isa â 20. good and good evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness He that saith to the wicked thou art Righteous peâple shall curse him nations shall abhor him Prov. 24. 24. It were ill with the best of the servants of Christ if the judgement of the world must stand who condemn them as fools and hypocrites and what they list Then the Devils judgement would stand But he is the wise man that God will judge to be wise at last and he only is the happy man that God calls happy The erring judgement of a creature is but like an ignorant mans writing the names of several things upon an Apothecaries boxes If he write the names of Poysons upon some and of Antidotes on others when ãâ¦ã ãâ¦ã dâth nât ãâã the Maâquââ and Mummeââââ and triumphââf the âoââd haââo stately and gallanâ as candlâ-light doâh Lord ãâã Eâââây of Tââââ Why Lââs are Loved there are no such things within them they are not to be estimated according to those names How different are the names that God and the world do put upon things and persons now And how few now approve of that which God approveth of and will justifie at last How many will God judge heterodox and wicked that men judged orthodox and worthy of applause And how many will God judge orthodox and sincere that were called Hereticks and Hypocrites by men God will not verifie every word against his servants which angry men or contentious disputants say against them The learning or authority or other advantages of the contenders may now bear down the reasons and reputations of more wise and righteous men than they which God will restore and vindicate at last The names of Luther Zuinglius Calvin and many other excellent servants of the Lord are now made odious in the writings and reports of Papists by their impudent lies But God judgeth otherwise with more righteous judgement O what abundance of persons and causes will be justified at the dreadful day of God which the world condemned And how many will be there condemned that were justified by the world O blessed day most desirable to the just most terrible to the wicked and every Hypocrite How many things will be then set strait that now are crooked And how many innocents and saints will then have a resurrection of their murdered names that were buryed by the world in a heap of lies and their enemies never thought of their reviving O look to that final judgement of the Lord and you will take mens censures but as the shaking of a leaf § 30. 4. It is God only that hath power to execute his sentence to our Happinâss or Misery There is one Lawgivâr that is able to save and to destroy Iam. 4. 12. If he say to us Come ye blessed we shall be happy though Devils and men should curse us For those that he blesseth shall be blessed If he condemn to hell the applause of the world will âetch no man out nor give him ease A great name on earth or histories written in their applause or a guilded monument over their bones are a poor relief to damned souls And the barking of the wicked and their scorns on earth are no diminution to the joy or glory of the souls that shine and triumph with Christ. It is our Lord that hath the keys of death and Hell Rev. 1. 18. Please him and you are sure to scape though the Pope and all the wicked of the world should thunder out against you their most direful curses Woe to us if the wicked could execute all their malicious censures Then how many Saints would be in Hell But if it be God that justifie us how inconsiderable a matter is it who they are that condemn us Or what be their pretenses Rom 8. 33. § 31. Direct 5. Remember that the judgement of ungodly men is corrupted and directed by the Devil Direct 5. And to be over-ruled by their censures or too much to fear them is to be ovâr-ruled by the Devil and to be afraid of his censures of us And will you honour him so much Alas it is he that puts those thoughts into the minds of the ungodly and those reproachful words into their mouths To prefer the judgement of a man before Gods is odious enough though you did not prefer the Devils judgement § 32. Direct 6. Consider what a slavery you choose when you thus make your selves the servants of Direct 6. every man whose censures you fear and whose approbation you are ambitious of 1 Cor. 7. 23. Yee are bought with a price be not ye the servants of men that is Do not needlesly enthrall your selves Jam. 4. 4. What a task have men-pleasers They have as many Masters as beholders No wonder if it take them off from the service of God For the friendship of the world is enmity to God and he that will thus Oâââân let âe supââbus contemptuâ diââs ãâã peââlaâs ââ urâa ãâ¦ã malignitate pugnax contentione ventosus mendax vanitaâe non ââres a suspicioso timârâ a pertiâace vinci a deââcaâo fâstââirs Secec dâ Iâaâ 3. c. 8. be a friend of the world is in enemy to God They cannot serve two Masters God and the world You know men will condemn you if you be true to God It therefore you must needs have the favour of men you must take it alone without Gods favour A man pleaser cannot be true to God because he is a servant to the enemies of his service The wind of a mans mouth will drive him about as the chasâ from any duty and to any sin How servile a person is a Man-pleaser How many Masters hath he and how mean ones It perverteth the course of your hearts and lives and turneth all from God to this
they shall be sure to be accounted Proud and Hypocrites And yet they accuse not that child or servant of Pride who excelleth all the rest in pleasing them and doing their work Nâr do they take a sick man to be proud if he be carefuller than others to recover his health But he that will do mosâ for Heaven and most carefully avoideth sin and Hell and is most serious in his Religion and most industrious to please his God this man shall be accounted Proud 3. He that will not forsake his God and betray the truth and wound his conscience by willful sin but will do as Daniel and the three confessors did Dan. 6. 3. and answer as they answered will be accounted Proud But it is no Pride to prefer God before men and to fear damnation more than imprisonment or death The army of Martyrs did not in Pride prefer their own judgements before their superiors that condemned them but they did it in obedience to God and truth when that was revealed to babâs which was hid from the wise and prudent and great and noble of the world 4. When those that are faithful to the honour of Christs soverainty dare not approve of Papâl usurpations against his Laws and over his Church and the Consciences of his Subjects they shall by the Popish usurpers be called Proud and despisers of Government as if a Usurper of the Kingly power should call us proud because we dare not consent to his pride or call us Traytors for not being Traytors as he is himself 5. When a man that hath the sense of the matters of God and mens salvation upon his heart is zealous and diligent to teach them to others and if he be a Minister be servent and laborious in his ministry he is called Proud as one that must needs have all men of his mind Though compassion to souls and aptness to teach and Preaching instantly in season and out of season be his necessary duty required of God And what is the Ministry for but to change mens minds and bring them to the full obedience of the truth 6. If a man understandeth the truth in any point of Divinity better than most others and holdeth any truth which is not there in credit or commonly received he shall be accounted Proud for presuming to be so singular and seeming wiser than those that think they are wiser than he But Humility teacheth us not to err for company nor to grow no wiser when once we arrive at the common stature nor to forsake the truth which others understand not nor to forbear to teach it because it is not known allready If some of the Pastors in Abassia Syria Armenia Russia Greece or Italy or Spain were as wise as the Ministers in England are it were no evidence of their Pride 7. If a man that understandeth any thing contrary to the judgement of another cannot forsake it Siquid agere instituis lenâe progredere in eo autem quod elegeââs firmiter persiste Bias in Laârt and think or say as another would have him especially if you contradict him in disputation he will take it to be your pride and overvaluing your own understanding and being too tenacious of your own conceits Erroneous men that in their Pride are over eager to have others of their mind will call you Proud because you yield not to their pride They think that the evidence is so clear on their side that if you were not Proud you could not choose but think as they do 8. Some humble men are naturally of a warm and earnest manner of discourse and their natural Pertinaâior tamen erat Chrysanthius nec de sententia âacile discedebat inquit Eunapius humilitatem ejus laudans heat and eagerness of speech is frequently mis-judged to come from pride till fuller acquaintance with their humble lives do rectifie the mistake It is written of Bishop Hooper the Martyr that those that visited him once condemned him of over-austerity they that repaired to him twice only suspected him of the same those that conversed with him constantly not only acquitted him of all morosity but commended him for sweetness of manners So that his ill nature consisted in other mens little acquaintance with him Tho. Fullers Church Hist. lib. 7. pag. 402. and Godwin in Glocest. Bishops The same is true of very many worthy men Bullingero ob eruditionem non contemnendam morumque tam sanctitatem quam suavitatem percharus fuit pag 591. 9. If we zealously contend for the saith or the Peace of the Church against Heretical or Dividing persons and their dangerous waies they will call us Proud though God command it us Iud. 2. 3. especially if we avoid them and bid them not Good speed Tit. 3. 10. 2 Joh. 10. 10. When a man of understanding openeth the ignorance of another and speaketh words of pity concerning him though it be no more than truth and charity command they will be taken to be the words of supercilious pride 11. That plain dealing in reproof which God commandeth especially to his Ministers towards high and low great and small and which the Prophets and Servants of God have used will be misjudged as arrogancie and Pride Amos 7. 12 13. 2 Chron. 25. 16. Acts 23. 4. As if it were Pride to Gen. 19. 8 9 10. be true to God and to pity souls and seek to save them and tell them in time of that which conscience will more closely and terribly tell them of when it is too late 12. Self-idolizing Papists accuse their inferiors for Pride if they do but modestly exercise a judgement Cum humilitatis causa mentiris si non eras peccator antequam mentiris mentiendo efficiens quod evitaâas Augustin de Verb. Apost of discretion about the matters that their salvation is concerned in and do not implicitly believe as they believe and forbear to prove or try their sayings and swallow not all without any chewing and offer to object the commands of God against any unlawful commands of men As if God were contented to suspend his Laws when ever mens commands do contradict them or humility required us to please and obey men at the price of the loss of our salvation They think that we should not busy our selves to enquire into such matters but trust them with our souls and that the Scriptures are not for the laity to read but they must wholly relie upon the clergie And if a lay man enquire into their Doctrine or Commands they say as Davids brother to him 1 Sam. 17. 28. With whom hast thou left the sheep in the wilderness I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thy heart 13. If a zealous humble preacher of the Gospel that preacheth not himself but Christ be highly esteemed and honoured for his works sake and crowded after and greatly followed by those that are 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. edified by him it is ordinary for the envious
22. 3. A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself but the simple pass on and are punished § 41. Sign 11. Pride maketh men murmure if the work of God be never so well done if they Sign 11. had not the doing of it and sometimes by contending to have the honour of doing it they destroy the work If they are officers of Christ they look more at the Power than their obligation at the Dignity than at the Duty and at what the people owe to them than what they owe to God and to the people They are like dogs that snarl at any other that would partake with them or come into the house They say not as Moses would all the Lords people were prophets Yea the peace and unity of Church and state is often sacrificed to this cursed pride § 42. Sign 12. Pride makes men ashamed of the service of God in a time and place where it is Sign 12. disgraced by the world and if it have dominion Christ and holiness shall be denyed or forsaken by them rather than their honour with men shall be forsaken If they come to Jesus it is as Nicodemus did by night They are ashamed to own a reproached truth or scorned cause or servant of Christ If men will but mock them with the nick-names or calumnies hatcht in Hell they will do as others or forbear their duty A scorn will do more to make them forbear praying in their families to God than the Lyons den would do with Daniel or the fiery-furnace with the three Confessors Dan. 3. 6. Especially if they be persons of honour and greatness in the world then God must be merciful to them while they bow down in the house of Rimmon As the Rich man Luke 18. 23. when he heard Christs terms was very sorrowful for he was very rich so these because their honours and dignities are so great do think them too good to let go for the sake of Christ Had they but the proportion of the obscure vulgar to lay down they could forsake it but they cannot forsake so fair a portion nor endure the reproach of so honourable a name But O what contemptible things are these to a humble soul He marvelleth what dreaming worldlings find in the doting thoughts and breath of fools which men call Honour that they should prefer it before the honour of God and their real honour When Christ hath told them Mark 8. 38. That whosoever shall be ashamed of him and his words in an adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with his holy Angels I now proceed to the signs of Pride in particular duties The Signs of Pride in and about Religious duties § 43. Sign 1. A Proud person is most sollicitous in and about that part of duty which is visible to Sign 1. man and tendeth to advance him in mens esteem And therefore he is more regardful of the outside His ergo qui loquendi arte caeteris hominibus excellere videntur sedulo monendi sunt ut humilitate induti Christianâ discant non contemnere quos cognoverint morum vitia quam verbârum amplius devitare Aug. de Cat. âudib c. 9. than of the inside of the words than of the heart He taketh much pains if he be a preacher to cast his sermon into such a form as tendeth to set forth his parts according to the quality of them that he would please If he live where wit is valued above grace or pedantick gingling above a solid clear judicious masculine discourse he bends himself to the humour of his auditors and acts his part as a stage-player for applause If he live where serious earnest exhortations are in more request he studieth to put an affected fervency into his stile which may make the hearers believe that he believes himself and to seem to be what indeed he is not and to feel what he feeleth not But all this while about his Heart he is little sollicitous and takes small pains to affect it with the reverence of God and with a due estimation of his truth and a due compassion of mens souls and indeed to believe and feel what he would seem to believe and feel So also in prayer and discourse his chief study is to speak so as may best procure applause And it is seldom that he is so cunning as to hide this his design from the observation of judicious men that know him They may usually perceive that he is the Image of a Preacher or Christian by affectation forcing himself to that which he is not truly serious in He is sounding brass a tinkling Cymbal a bladder full of wind a skin full of words wise and devout in publick on the stage but at home and with his companions in his ordinary converse he is but common if not unclean He is the admiration of fools and the compassion of the wise An Oracle at the first congress to those that know him not and the pity of those that have seen him at home and without his mask He is like proud Gentlewomen that bestow a great part of the morning in mundifying and adorning themselves when they are to be seen and go abroad but at home are very homely And usually the Proud being Hypocrites are secret haters of the most serious and judicious Christians because these are more quick-sighted than others to see through the cloak of their Hypocrisie Unless as their Charity constraining them to conceal their fears and jealousies may reconcile the Hypocrite to them § 44. Sign 2. Proud men art apt to put on themseves to any publick duty which may tend to magnifie Sign 2. them or set out their parts and think themselves fitter to be preferred before others and imployed than indeed they are They are forward to speak in preaching or praying among others or Non potest non indoctus esse qui se doctum credit Hermar Barbarus in ordinary talk A little knowledge maketh them think that they are fit to be preachers Whereas the humble say with Moses who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh c. Exod. 3. 11. I am not eloquent but slow of speech O my Lord send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send Exod. 4. 10 13. Or as Isaiah 16. 5. Wâ is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips c. or as Paul 2 Cor. 2. 16. Who is sufficient for these things How many a Sermon hath Pride both studied and preached And how many a prayer hath it formed And how well are they like to be heard of God § 45. Sign 3. The Proud are loath to be clouded by the greater abilities of others They are content Sign 3. that weaker men pray or preach with them that will not obscure but put off their parts that they Pliny saith In commending another you
into the causes of all the oppressions rapines cruelties and inhumanity which have made men so like to Devils Look into the corrupted lacerated Churches and enquire into the cause of their contentions divisions usurpations malignity and cruelty against each other And you will find that Pride and Worldliness are the Causes of all When men of a Proud and Worldly mind have by fraud and friendship and Simony Usurped the Pastorship of the Churches according to their Minds and Eâds they turn it into a Malignant Domination and the Carnal worldly part of the Church is the great enemy and Persecutor of the spiritual part and the fleshly Hypocrite as Cain against Abel is filled with envy against the serious believer even out of the bitter displeasure of his mind that his deceitful Sacrifice is less respected What Covetousness hath done to the advancement of the pretended Holy Catholick Church of Rome I will give you now but in the words of an Abbot and Chronicler of their own Abbas Urspergens Chron. p. 3ââ Vix remansit aliquis Episcopatus sive dignitas Ecclesiastica vel etâam Parochialis Ecclesiae quae ron fieâet litigâosa Romam deduceretur ipsa causa sed non manu vacua Gaude mater nostra Roma quonâam aperiuntur cataractae thesaurorum in teâra ut ad te consâuant rivi aggeres nummoâum in magna copia Laetare super iniquitate filiorum hominum quonâam in recompensationem tantorum malorum datur tibi precâum Jocundare super adjutrice tua discordia quia erupit de puteo infernalis abyssi ut accumulentur tibi multa pecuniaâum praemia Habes quod semper sitisti decanta Canticum quia per malitiam hominum non pââ tuam Religionem orbem vicistâ Ad te trahit homines non ipsorum devotio aut pura Conscientia sed sââlerum multiplicium perpetratio litium decisio precio comparata Foâtun Galindas speaking of Pope Paul the fifth his love to the Iesuites for helping him to money saith Adeo praestat acquirendarum pecuniarum quam animarum studiosum peritum esse apud illos qui cum animarum Christi sanguine redemptarum in se curam receperint vel quid anima sit nesciunt vel non pluris animam hominis quam piscis faciunt quod credo suum officium Piscatum quendam esse aliquando per strepitum inaudierint quibus propterea gratior fuerit qui Animam auri cum Paracelso quam animam Saxoniae Electoris invenisse nuntiet Arcan Soci Iesu. pag. 46. Lege ibid. Iâstruct secret de Iesuitarum pâaxi Et Ioh. Sarisbur l. 7. c. 21. de Monach. Potentiores ditiores favore vel mercede recepta facilius absolutione exânerant peccatis alienis humeros supponentes jubent abire in tunicas vestes pullas quicquid illi se commisisse deplorant Si eis obloquetâs Religionis inimicus veritatis diceris impugnator hand It is the departing of the heart from God to creatures See the malignity of it before Good men have been overtaken with heinous sins but its hard to find where Scripture calleth any of them Covetous A heart secretly cleaving most to this present world and its prosperity is the very killing sin of every hypocrite yea and of all ungodly men 2. Worldliness makes the Word unprofitable and keepeth men from believing and repenting and coming home to God and minding seriously the everlasting world What so much hindereth the Conversion of sinners as the love and caâes of earthly things They cannot serve God and Mammon Their treasure and hearts cannot be chiefly be both in Heaven and Earth They will not yield to the terms of Christ that love this world They will not forsake all for a treasure in Heaven In a word as you heard The love of money is the root of all evil and the Love of the Father is not in the lovers of the world 3. It destroyeth holy meditation and conference and turneth the thoughts to worldly things And it corrupteth Prayer and maketh it but a means to serve the flesh and therefore maketh it odious to God 4. It is the great hinderance of mens necessary preparation for death and judgement and stealeth away their hearts and time till it is too late 5. It is the great cause of contentions even among the nearest relations and the cause of the Wars and calamities of Nations and of the woful divisions and persecutions of the Church when a worldly generation think that their worldly interest doth engage them against self-denying and spiritual principles practices and persons 6. It is the great cause of all the injustice and oppression and cruelty that rageth in the world They would do as they would be done by were it not for the love of money It maketh men perfidious and false to all their friends and engagements No vows to God nor obligations to men will hold a Lover Iâm â 1. 2 3 4 5. 1 Iohn â ââ of the world The world is his God and his worldly interest is his rule and law 7. It is the great destroyer of Charity and Good works No more is done for God and the poor because the Love of the world forbids it 8. It disordereth and proâaneth families and betrayeth the souls of Children and Servants to the Devil It turneth out prayer and reading the Scripture and good books and all serious speeches of the liâe to come because their hearts are taken up with the world and they have no relâsh of any thing but the provisions of their flesh Even the Lords own Day cannot be reserved for holy works nor a duty performed but the world is interposing or diverting the mind 9. It tempâeth mân to sin against their knowledge and to forsake the truth and fit themselves to the rising side and save their bodies and estates whatever become of their souls It is the very price that the Dâvil gives for souls With this he bought the soul of Iudas who went to the Pharisâes with a What will you give me and I will deliver him to you With this he attempted Christ himself 2 Tim 4. 10. Matth. 4. 9. All these will I give thee if thâu wilt fall down and worship me It is the cause of Apââââacy and unfaithfulness to God And it s the price that sinners sell their God their Conscience and their salvation for 10. It depriveth the soul of holy communion with God and comfort from 1 âim 6. 17 1â him and of all foretaste of the life to come and finally of Heaven it self For as the Love of the world keepeth out the Love of God and Heaven it must needs keep out the hopes and comforts Christs Sheep mark is ãâã on the Sheep that are shorâ When the Hâece groweth long the Mark wears out which should arise from holy love It would do much to cure the love of money and of the world if you knew how pernicious a sin it is § 35.
any more than Spirit or any thing else If it were only in respect of their object they should be called the World also because that is their object It is a certain Rule that That faculty is most predominant in man whose Object is made his chiefest End Sensitive delights being made the felicity and end of the unsanctified it followeth that the sensitive faculties are predominant which being called Flesh by a nearer Trope the Mind from it receives the denomination The Scriptures also shew this plainly I remember not any one place in the Old Testament where there is any probability that the word flesh should signifie only the Rational soul as unrenewed Matth. 16. 17. Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee that is mortal man hath not revealed it Matth. 26. 41. The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak that is your Bodies are weak and resist the willingness of your souls For sinful habits are not here called weak John 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh that is Man by natural Generation can beget but natural man called Flesh from the visible part and not the spiritual life which nature is now destitute of Rom 7. 25. With my flesh I serve the Law of sin that is with my sensitive powers and my mind so far as captivated thereto Rom. 8. 1 5. Flesh and Spirit are oft opposed They that are of the flesh mind the things of the flesh c. that is They in whom the sensitive interest and appetite are predominant For it is called the Body here as well as the flesh v. 10 11 13. The mind is here included but it is as serving the flesh and its interest Gal. 5. 16 17 19. Flesh and Spirit are in the same manner opposed And 2 Pet. 2. 18. the Lusts of the flesh are in this sense mentioned And Ephes. 2. 3. Rom. 7. 18. Rom. 13. 14. 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 11. in which there is mention of fleshly lusts which fight against the Spirit and fleshly wisdom making provision for the flesh c. And Col. 2. 18. there is indeed the name of a fleshly mind which is but a mind deceived and subservient to the flesh so that the flesh it self or sensitive interest and appetite are first signified in all or most places and in some the Mind as subservient thereto § 4. It is of the greater consequence that this be rightly understood lest you be tempted to imitate the Libertines who think the flesh or sensitive part is capable of no moral good or evil and therefore all its actions being indifferent we may be indifferent about them and look only to the superiour powers And others that think that the Scripture by flesh meaneth only the Rational soul â as unâenewed do thereupon cherish the Flesh it self and pamper it and feed its unruly lusts and never do any thing to tame the body but pray daily that God would destroy the flesh within them that is their sinful habits of Reason and Will while they cherish the cause or neglect a chief part of the cure And on the contrary some Papists that look only at the Body as their enemy are much in fastings and bodily exercises while they neglect the mortifying of their carnal minds § 5. II. How far flesh-pleasing is a sin I shall distinctly open to you in these propositions What Flesh-pleasing is a sin 1. The Pleasing or displeasing of the sensitive appetite in it self considered is neither sin nor duty good or evil but as commanded or forbidden by some Law of God which is not absolutely done 2. To please the flesh by things forbidden is undoubtedly a sin and so it is to displease it too Therefore this is not all that is here meant that the Matter that pleaseth it must not be things forbidden 3. To overvalue the Pleasing of the Flesh is a sin And to prefer it before the Pleasing of God and the holy preparations for Heaven is the state of carnality and ungodliness and the common cause of the Damnation of souls The Delight of the Flesh or Senses is a Natural Good and the natural desire of it in it self as is said is neither vice nor vertue But when this little natural Good is preferred before the Greater Spiritual Moral or Eternal Good this is the sin of Carnal minds which is threatned with death Rom. 8. 1 5 6 7 8 13. 4. To buy the pleasing of the flesh at too dear a rate as the loss of time or with care and trouble above its worth and to be too much set on making provisions to please it doth shew that it is overvalued and is the sin forbidden Rom. 13. 14. 5. When any desire of the Flesh is inordinate immoderate or irregular for matter or manner quantity quality or season it is a sin to please that inordinate desire 6. When Pleasing the flesh doth too much pamper it and cherish filthy lusts or any other sin and ãâã ãâã aââââo sufficiâââââââââ satâs est ââââum ââââpus namque propter animi servitium seciffe naturam nemo tam corporis servus est qui nesciat Id si proprio munere fungitur quid ãâã ãâã quid ampâius requiras Petraâch li. 2 Dial. 2 Vires corporis sunt vires carceris ut Petrarch li. 1. Dial. 5. What mean you to make your prison so strong said Plato to one that over-pampered his flesh Mars Ficin iâ Vita Plat. is not necessary on some other account as doing greater good it is a sin But if Life require it lust must be subdued by other means 7. When pleasing the flesh doth hurt it by impairing health and so making the body less fit for duty it is a sin And so almost all intemperance tendeth to breed diseases And God commandeth Temperance even for the Bodies good 8. When unnecessary Flesh-pleasing hindereth any duty of Piety Justice Charity or self-preservation in thought affection word or deed it is sinful 9. It any Pleasing of the Flesh can be imagined to have no tendency directly or indirectly to any moral Good or Evil it is not the Object of a moral Choosing or Refusing but like the winking of the eye which falls not under deliberation it is not within the compass of morality 10. Every Pleasing of the flesh which is capable of being referred to a higher end and is not so referred and used is a sin And there is scarce any thing which is eligible which a vacant waking man should deliberate on but should be referred to a higher end even to the glory of God and our salvation by cheering us up to Love and Thankfulness and strengthening or fitting us some way for some duty This is apparently a sin 1. Because else Flesh-pleasing is made our ultimate end and the Flesh an Idol if ever we desire it only for it self when it may be referred to a higher end For though the sensitive Appetite of it self hath no intended end yet
the appetite The first the Appetite it self was in innocency and is yet no sin But the other two the violence of it and the obeying it were not in innocency and are both sinful § 18. Object 4. But why would God give innocent man an Appetite that must be crost by Reason and that desired that which Reason must forbid Answ. The sensitive nature is in order of generation before the Rational And Reason and Gods Laws do not make sense to be no sense You may as well ask why God would make Beasts which must be restrained and ruled by men and therefore have a desire to that which man must restrain them from You do but ask Why God made us men and not Angels Why he placed our souls in flesh He oweth you no account of his creation But you may see its meet that Obedience should have some tryal by difficulties and opposition before it have its commendation and reward He gave you a Body that was subject to the soul as the Horse unto the rider and you should admire his Wisdom and thank him for the governing-power of Reason and not murmur at him because the Horse will not go as well without the guidance of the rider or because he maketh you not able to go as fast and well on foot So much for the Sensualists Objections § 19. V. The signs of a Flesh-pleaser or Sensualist are these which may be gathered from what Signs of Sensuality is said already 1. When a man in desire to please his appetite referreth it not actually or habitually to a higher end viz. the fitting himself to the service of God but sticketh only in the delight 2. When he looks more desirously and industriously after the prosperity of his Body than of his Soul 3. When he will not part with or forbear his pleasures when God forbiddeth them or when they hurt his soul or when the necessities of his soul do call him more lowdly another way But he must have his delight whatever it cost him and is so set upon it that he cannot deny it to himself 4. When the pleasures of his flesh exceed his delights in God and his holy Word and Wayes and the fore-thoughts of endless pleasure and this not only in the passion but in the estimation choice and prosecution When he had rather be at a Play or Feast or Gaming or getting good bargains or profits in the world than to live in the life of faith and love a holy and heavenly conversation 5. When men set their minds to contrive and study to make provision for the pleasures of the flesh and this is first and sweetest in their thoughts 6. When they had rather talk or hear or read of fleshly pleasures than of spiritual and heavenly delights 7. When they love the company of merry sensualists better than the Communion of Saints in which they may be exercised in the praises of their Maker 8. When they account that the best calling and condition and place for them to live in where they have the pleasure of the flesh where they have ease and fare well and want nothing for the body rather than that where they have far better help and provision for the soul though the flesh be pinched for it 9. When he will be at more cost to please his flesh than to please God 10. When he will believe or like no Doctrine but Libertinism and hateth mortification as too strict preciseness By these and such other signs sensuality may easily be known Yea by the main bent of the life § 20 VI. Many flesh-pleasers flatter themselves with better titles being deceived by such means as Counterfeits of Mortification these 1. Because they are against the doctrine of Libertinism and hold as strict opinions as any But flesh-pleasing may stand with the doctrine of mortification and the strictest opinions as long as they are not put in practice 2. Because they live not in any gross disgraced vice They go not to Stage-playes or unseasonably to Ale-houses or Taverns they are not drunken nor gamesters nor spend not their hours in unnecessary recreations or pastimes They are no fornicators nor wallow in wealth But the flesh may be pleased and served in a way that hath no disgrace accompanying it in the world May not a man make his ease or his prosperity or the pleasing of his appetite without any infamous excesses to be as much his felicity and highest end and that which practically he taketh for his Best as well as if he did it in a shameful way Is not many a man a gluttonous flesh-pleaser that maketh his delight the highest end of all his eating and drinking and pleaseth his appetite without any restraint but what his health and reputation put upon him though he eat not till he vomit or be sick Even the flesh it self may forbid a sensualist to be drunk or to eat till he be sick For sickness and shame are displeasing to the flesh Many a man covereth a life of sensuality not only with a seeming temperance unreproved of men but also with a seeming strictness and austerity But conscience might tell them where they have their good things Luke 16. 25. 3. Some think they are no sensual flesh-pleasers because they live in constant misery in poverty and want labouring hard for their daily bread and therefore they hope that they are the Lazarus's that have their sufferings here But is not all this against thy Will Wouldst thou not fare as well as the rich and live as idly and take thy pleasure if thou hadst as much as they What thou wouldst do that thou dost in Gods account It is thy will that thou shalt be judged by A Thief doth not become a true man when the Prison or Stocks do hinder him from stealing but when a changed heart doth hinder him 4. Others think that they are no flesh-pleasers because their wealth and places and degrees of honour allow them to live high in dyet and delights It s like the Rich man Luke 16. who was clothed with purple and fine linnen and fared sumptuously every day did live upon his own and as he thought agreeably to his rank and place And the fool Luke 12. 19 20. that said Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry did intend to please himself but with his own which God had given him as a blessing on his land and labour But no mans Riches allow him to be voluptuous The commands of taming and mortifying the flesh and not living after it nor making provision for it to satisfie it lusts belong as much to the rich as to the poor Though you are not to live in the same garb with the poor you are as much bound to mortification and self-denyal as the poorest If you are Richer than others you have more to serve God with but not more than others to serve the flesh with If poverty deny them any thing which might better enable
understand thy self that thou hadst never lost one minutes Time and never known those sinful vanities and temptations which did occasion it O spend thy Time as thou wouldst review it § 12. Direct 5. Go hear and mark how other men at Death do set by Time and how they wish then Direct 5. that they had spent it It is hardly possible for men in health especially in prosperity and security to Imagine how pretious Time appeareth to an awakened dying man Ask them then whether liâe be too long and men have any Time to spare Ask them then whether slugging or working playing or praying be the better spending of our Time Both Good and Bad saints and sensualists do use then to be high esteemers of Time O then what would an ungodly unprepared sinner give for some of the Time which he used before as nothing worth Then the most Holy servants of Christ are sensible how they sinned in lâsing any of their Time O then how earnestly do they wish that they had made much of every minute And they that did most for God and their souls that they had done much more Now if they were to pray over their prayers again how earnestly would they beg And how much more good would they do if Time and talents were restored I knew familiarly a most holy grave and Râvârend Divine who was so affected with the words of a Godly woman wâo at her death did often and vââââmântly cry out O Call Time again O Call Time again that the sense of it seemed to remain on his heart and appear in his praying preaching and conversation to his death Now you have Time to cast away upon every nothing But then you will say with David Pâalm 89. 47. Remember how short my Time is And as Hagar sate down and wept when her water was spent Gen. 21. 15 16. So then you will lament when Time is gone or just at an end that you set no more by it while you had it O sleepy sinner Thy heart cannot now conceive how thou wilt set by Time when thou hearest the Physicion say You are a dead man and the Divine say you must prepare now for another world When thy heart saith All my daies are gone I must live on earth no more all my preparing time is at end Now what is undone must be undone for ever O that thou hadst now but the esteem of Time which thou wilt have then or immediately after Then O pray for me that God will recover me and try me once again O then how I would spend my time And is it not a most incongruous thing to see the same persons now idle and toy away their time and perhaps think that they do no harm who know that shortly they must cry to God O for a little more Time Lord to do the great work that 's yet undone A little more Time to make sure of my salvation May not God then tell you you had Time till you knew not what to do with it You had so much Time that you had many and many an hour to spare for idleness and vanity and that which you were not ashamed to call Pastime § 13. Direct 6. Remember also that when Iudgement comes God will call you to account both for Direct 6. every hour of your mispent Time and for all the Good which you should have done in all that time and did it not If you must give account for every idle word then sure for every idle hour Matth. 12. 36. And if we must be judged according to all the talents we have received and the improvement of them required of us then certainly for so precious a talent as our Time Mat. 25. And how should that man spend his Time that believeth he must give such account of all Even to the most just and Holy God who will judge all men according to their works and cause them all to reap as they have sowed O spend your Time as you would hear of it in Judgement § 14. Direct 7. Remember how much time you have lost already and therefore if you are not impenitent Direct 7. and insensible of your loss it will provoke you to redeem with the greater diligence the remnant which mercy shall vouchsafe you How much lost you in childhood youth and riper age How much have you lost in ignorance How much in negligence How much in fleshly pleasure and vanity How much in worldliness and many other sins O that you knew but what a loss it was if it had been but one year or week or day Do you think you have spent your Time as you should have done And as beseemed those that had such work to do If not do you repent of it or do you not If you do not you have no hope to be forgiven If you do Repent you will not sure go on to do the same Who will believe that he Repents of gaming revelling or other idle loss of time who doth so still while he professeth to Repent He that hath lost the beginning of the day must go the faster in the end if he will perform so great a journey Can you remember the hours and years that you have mispent in the follies of childhood and the vanities of inconsiderate youth and yet still trifle and not be provoked by penitent shame and fear to diligence Have you not yet cast away enough of such a precious treasure but you will vilifie also the little which remains § 15. Direct 8. Remember the swift and constant motion of your neglected Time What hast it Direct 8. makes And never stays That which was here while you spake the last word is gone before you can speak the next Whatever you are doing or saying or thinking of its passing on without delay It stayeth not while you sleep Whether you remember and observe it and make use of it or not it glides away It stayeth not your leisure It hasteth as fast while you play as while you work while you sin as when you repent No Monarch so potent as to command it a moment to attend his will We have no more Ioshuas to stop the Sun It is above the jurisdiction of the Princes of the earth It will not hear them if they command or request it to delay its hast but the smallest moment Crowns and Kingdoms would be no price to hiâe it to loiter but while you draw another breath Your lives are not like the cloaths of the Israelites in the wilderness that wax not old But like the provisions of the Gibeonites worn and wasted while you are passing but a little way And is Time so swift and you so slow Will you stand still and see it pass away as if you had no use for it no work to do nor no account to give § 16. Direct 9. Consider also how unrecoverable Time is when its past Take it now or it s lost for Direct 9. ever All
that many turne from other sects to the Epicureans but none from the Epicureans to any other sect The reason was because nature is inclined to sensuality in all and when it is confirmed by use and doctrine Philosophy is too weak to master it But Christ calleth and saveth Epicures and Publicans and Harlots and hath cleansed many such by his grace which teacheth men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in the world Philostratus tells us of a sudden change upon one Isaeus that turned him from Luxury to exceeding temperance so that when one asked him Is not yonder a handsom woman he answered The diseases of my eyes are cured when they askt him which dish was the pleasantest he answered Desii curare I have done regarding such things and told them the reason that marvelled at his change Because he found that he did but gather fruits out of Tantalus garden They are deceitful lusts Eph. 4. 22. And Satan himself will reproach thee for ever if he can deceive thee by them As Alexander when he had taken Darius his gallantây and sumptuous Houses and Furniture reproaches him with it saying Hoccine erat imperare was this to rule so Satan would shew thee thy lusts and say was this to be a Christian and seek salvation PART VI. Directions against sinful Excess of Sleep § 1. OF this something is said already Chap. 5. Part 1. § 51. and more afterwards in the Directions against Idleness Therefore I shall say but little now 1. I shall shew you when sleep is excessive 2. Wherein the sinfulness of it consisteth 3. What to do for the Cure of it § 2. I. Sleep is given us for the necessary remission of the animal operations and of the labour or motion of the exteriour parts by the quieting of the senses or shutting them up that the Natural and Vital operations may have the less disturbance It is necessary 1. To our Rest 2. To Concoction Therefore Weariness and want of Concoction are the chief indications to tell us how much is needful for us Sleep is sinfully excessive 1. When it is Voluntarily more than is needful to our health 2. When it is unseasonable at forbidden times § 3. It is not all weariness or sleepiness that maketh sleep lawful or needful for some is contracted by laziness and some by many diseases and some by other constant causes which make men almost alwayes weary Nor is it all want of concoction that sleep is a remedy for some may be caused by excess of eating which must be cured a better way and many diseases may cause it which require other cure Therefore none must indulge excess upon these pretences Nor must a present sense of the pleasure of sleeping or the displeasure of waking be the judge For sluggards may think they feel it do them good and that early rising doth them hurt but this good is but their pleasant ease and this hurt is but a little trouble to their head and eyes and lazy flesh just at the time But Reason and experience must judge what Measure is best for your Health and that you must not exceed To some five hours is enough To the ordinary sort of healthful persons six hours is enough To many weak valetudinary persons seven hours is needful To sick persons I am not to give Directions § 4. 2. Sleep is excessive at that particular Time when it is unseasonable As 1. When we are asleep when we should be doing some necessary business which calls for present dispatch 2. Or when we should be hearing the Sermon or praying in publick or private In a word when it puts by any greater duty which we should then perform As when the Disciples slept when Christ was in his agony Could ye not watch with me one hour watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation Matth. 26. 40 41. § 5. It is a foppery and abuse of God and our selves to think that the breaking of our sleep is a thing that of it self pleaseth God or that rising to pray at midnight is more acceptable to God than at another hour usually such rising to pray is sinful 1. Because it is done in an erroneous conceit that God accepts it better than in the day time 2. Because they waste time in dressing and undressing 3. Or else hurt their health by cold in the Winter and so lose more time than they redeem by shortning their lives 4. And usually they are more drousie and unfit But to rise in the night to prayer is meet on some extraordinary occasion that calls for it as to pray with or for a dying person or such like or when an extraordinary fervour and fitness prepareth us for it and when we can stay up when we are up and not lose time in going to bed again But ordinarily that way is to be chosen that best Redeemeth time and that is to consider just how much sleep our health requireth and to take it if we can together without interruption and to rise then and go about our duties But those that cannot sleep in the Night must redeem that Time as discretion shall direct them § 6. It is the Voluntariness of the excess that the sinfulness principally consisteth in And therefore the more voluntary the more sinful In a Lethargie or Caros it is no sin And when long watching or some bodily weakness or distemper make it almost unavoidable the sin is the smaller Therefore in case of long watching and heaviness Christ partly excused his Disciples saying The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Matth. 26. 41. But when it cometh from a flesh-pleasing sloth or from a disregard of any holy exercise that you are about it is a grievous sin And though it be involuntary just at the time and you say I would fain forbear sleeping now if I could yet if it be Voluntary remotely and in its Causes it is your sin You would now forbear sleeping but you would not forbear that pampering your body and stuffing your Guts which causeth it you would not deny the flesh its ease to avoid it § 7. II. The sinfulness of excess of sleep lyeth in these particulars 1. That it is a sinful wasting Nil temporis tam perit de vita nostra quam quod somno deputatur ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of every minute of that time which is consumed in it And this is a very grievous thing to a heart that is sensible of the pretiousness of time when we think how short our lives are and how great our work is it should tell us how great a sin it is to cast away any of this little time in needless sleep And yet what abundance of it with many is thus spent Almost half their whole lives is spent in bed by many drones that think they may sleep because they are Rich and have not a necessity of labouring to supply their wants I was never tempted that
imployment for all thy time Direct 3. which Gods immediate service spareth Yea which somewhat urgeth thee to diligence Otherwise thou wilt lye in bed and say thou hast time to spare or nothing to do You can rise when you have a journey to be gone or a business of pressing necessity to be done Keep your selves under some constant necessity or urgency of business at the least § 14. Direct 4. Take pleasure in your Callings and in the service of God Sluggards themselves Direct 4. can rise to that which they take much pleasure in As to go to a Merriment or Feast or Play or Game or to a good bargain or any thing which they delight in If thou hadst a Delight in thy Calling and in reading the Scripture and praying and doing good thou couldst not lye contentedly in bed but wouldst long to be up and doing as Children to their play The wicked can rise early to do wickedness because their hearts are set upon it They can be drunk or steal or whâre or plot ârâv 4 16 1 Thess. 5. 6 7. their ambitious and covetous designs when they should sleep And if thy heart were set as much on good as theirs is on evil wouldst not thou be as wakeful and as readily up § 15. Direct 5. Remember the grand importance of the business of your souls which alwayes lyeth Direct 5. on your hands that the greatness of your work may rowze you up What lye slugging in bed when you are so far behind hand in knowledge and grace and assurance of salvation and have so much of the Scripture and other Books to read and understand Hast thou not grace to beg for a needy soul Is not Prayer better work than excess of sleeping Great business in the world can make you rise and why not Greater § 16. Direct 6. Remember that thou must answer in judgement for thy time And what comfort Direct 6. wilt thou have to say I slug'd away so many hours in a morning And what comfort at death when time is gone to review so much cast away in sleep § 17. Direct 7. Remember that God beholdeth thee and is calling thee up to work If thou understoodst Direct 7. his Word and Providence thou wouldst hear him as it were saying as the Marriners to Ionah What meanest thou O sleeper Arise call upon thy God Wilt thou lye sleeping inordinately when God Jonah 1. 6. stands over thee and calls thee up If the King or any great person or friend did but knock at thy door thou wouldst rise presently to wait upon them Why God would speak with thee by his Word or hear thee speak to him by prayer and wilt thou lye still and despise his Call § 18. Direct 8. Remember how many are attending thee while thou sleepest If it be Summer the Direct 8. Sun is up before thee that hath gone so many thousand miles while thou wast asleep It hath given a dayes light to the other half of the world since thou laist down and is come again to light thee to thy work and wilt thou let it shine in vain All the creatures are ready in their places to assist thee and art thou asleep § 19. Direct 9. Consider whether thou wilt allow thy servants to do the like They must be up Direct 9. and at work or you will be offended and tell them that they are no servants for you and that you hire them not to sleep And do you not owe God more service than they owe you Doth God hire you to sleep Is it any lawfuller for you than them to sleep one minute more than is needful to your health No not a minute If you are sicklier than they that 's another matter But see that fulness and idleness cause it not But otherwise your Riches are no excuse to you Will you loyter more than they because you receive more and do less service because you have more pay Or is it your priviledge to be so miserable as to lose that time which poor men save § 20. Direct 10. Remember that your morning hours are the choicest part of all the day for any holy Direct 10. exercise or special employment of the mind The mind is fresh and clear and there is less interruption by worldly business whereas when others are up and about their business you will have interpellations Those that have tryed it can say by experience that the morning hours are the flower of their time for prayer or studies and that early rising is a great part of the art of Redeeming Time § 21. Direct 11. Remember how many are condemning you by their diligence while you are slugging Direct 11. away your time How many holy persons are then at prayer in secret wrestling fervently with God for their salvation or reading and meditating in his word What do they get while you are sleeping The blessed man doth delight in the Law of the Lord and meditate in it day and night and you love your ease and are sleeping day and night Will not all these be witnesses against you So will the diligent in their Callings and so will the worldlings and wicked that rise early to their sin How many thousand are hard at work while you are sleeping Have you not work to do as well as they § 22. Direct 12. Remember that sensuality or flesh-pleasing is the great condemning sin that Direct 12. turns the heart from God And if it be odious in a drunkard or fornicator why is it not so in you Mortifie the flesh and learn to deny it its inordinate desires and your sin is almost cured § 23. Direct 13. For then the executive part is easie when you are willing It is but agreeing Direct 13. with some one to awaken you and a little cold water will wash away your drowsiness if you consent PART VII Directions against sinful Dreams § 1. DReams are neither good nor sinful simply in themselves because they are not rational and voluntary nor in our power But they are often made sinful by some other voluntary Act They may be sinful by participation and consequently And the acts that make them sinful are either such as go before or such as follow after § 2. 1. The antecedent causes are any sinful act which distempereth the body or any sin which inclineth the fantasie and mind thereto or the omission of what was necessary to prevent them 2. The causes which afterwards make them objectively sinful are the ill uses that men make of them As when they take their dreams to be Divine Revelations and trust to them or are affrighted by them as ominous or as prophetical and make them the ground of their actions and seduce themselves by the phantasms of their own brains § 3. Direct 1. Avoid those bodily distempers as much you can which cause sinful dreams especially Direct 1. fulness of dyet A full stomach causeth troublesome
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. ââ 2 135. 3. 148. 13. â9 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 âyââââgus made so few Laws Pâât Apophâhâg 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 diceâe 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 Sâad peccântes seniores dicendum sit verba illi aetati congrua loquamur sin vero ad juniores dicândum sit majore autoritate uâamur in dicendo Laârt 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
men are never unprovided for wise speech But the mouth of fools bewrayeth their folly Prov. 15. 2. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness Prov. 14. 3. In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride but the lips of the wise shall preseve them Prov. 18. 6 7. A fools lips enter into contention and his mouth calleth for strokes A fools mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul. But you 'll say To tell us that we should get wisdom is a word soon spoken but not a thing that 's easily or quickly done It 's very true And therefore it 's as true that the tongue is not easily well used and governed for men cannot express the wisdom which they have not unless it be by rote Therefore you must take Solomons counsel Prov. 2. 1 2 3 4 5. My son if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee so that thou encline thine ear to wisdom and apply thy heart to understanding yea if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for unstanding If thou seâkest her as silver and searchest for her as for hidden treasures Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God For the Lord giveth wisdom c. § 44. Direct 6. In the mean time learn to be silent till you have learnt to speak Let not your Direct 6. tongues run before your wits speak not of that which you do not well understand unless as Learners to ââm 1 19. Slow to speak slow to wâath Prov. 17. 28. receive instruction Rather of the two speak too little than too much Those that will needs talk of things which they understand not do use either to speak evil of them as Iud. 10. when they are good or to speak evilly of them be they good or bad He that cannot hold his tongue well cannot speak well There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak Eccles. 3. 9. Amos 5. 13. There is a time so evil that the prudent should keep silence At such a time Nihil aequè proderit quam quiescere minimum cum aliis loqui plurimum secum saith Seneca It 's then the best way to be quiet and to say little to others and much to your selves You have two ears and one tongue Hear twice and speak once we oftner repent of speaking then of being silent Few words are quickly answered for To be wary and sparing of your speech doth not only avoid abundance of contention danger and repentance but also procureth you a reputation of wisdom Plutark saith well that Pauca loquentibus paucis legibus opus est There needs but few Laws for them that speak but few words When one said to the Cynick when he was much silent If thou art a wise man thou dost foolishly If thou be a fool thou dost wisely He answered Nemo stultus tacere potest A fool cannot hold his tongue And he that cannot hold his tongue cannot hold his peace Pythagoras his counsel in this agreeth with Christs Aut sile aut affer silentio meliora either be silent or say something that is better than silence It was a wise answer of him that being asked whom covetous Landlords and whom covetous Lawyers hated most did answer to the first Those that eat little and sweat much For they usually live long and so their Leases are not soon expired and to the second Those that speak little and love much For such â seldom make any work for Lawyers Two things are requisite in the matter of your speech that it be somewhat needful to be spoken and that it be a thing which you understand Till then be silent § 45. Direct 7. Take heed of hasty rashness in your speech and use deliberation especially in great Direct 7. or in doubtful things Think before you speak It 's better to try your words before you speak them Noli cito loqui est enim insaniae indicium Bias iâ Laert. than after A preventing tryal is better than a repenting tryal But if both be omitted God will try them to your greater cost I know in matters that are throughly understood a wise man can speak without any further premeditation than the immediate actuating of the knowledge which he doth express But when there is any fear of mis-understanding or a disability to speak fiâly and safely without fore-thoughts there hasty speaking without deliberation especially in weighty things must be avoided Prov. 29. 20. seest thou a man that is hasty in his words there is more hope of a fool than of him especially take heed in speaking either to God in prayer or in the name of God or as from God in preaching or exhortation or about the holy matters of God in any of thy discourse Eccles. 5. 1 2. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evil that is watch thy self in publick worship and be forwarder to learn of God and to obey him as sensible of thy ignorance and subject to his will than to offer him thy sacrifice as if he stood in need of thee while thou neglectest or rejectest his commands Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few For a dream cometh through multitude of business and a fools voice is known by multitude of words that is Come to God as an obedient learner and a receiver and not as a giver and therefore be readier to hear what he hath to command thee than to pour out many words before him as if he would accept and hear thee for thy babling If loquacity and forwardness to talk many undigested words be a sign of folly among men how much more when thou speakest to God that is in Heaven § 46. Direct 8. Keep a holy government over all your passions as aforesaid and especially try all Direct 8. those words with suspicion which any passion urgeth you to vent For Passion is so apt to blind the judgement that even holy passions themselves must be warily managed and feared as you carry fire among straw or other combustible matter As grievous words stir up anger Prov. 15. 1. so anger causeth grievous words Be not hasty in thy spirit to he angry for anger resteth in the bosom of fools Eccles. 7. 9. To govern the tongue when you are in any Passion either Love or fear or grief or anger is like the governing of a Ship in storms and Tempests or the managing of a Horse that is fierce and heated Prov. 14. 16 17. The fool rageth and is confident He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly Prov. 21. 19. It is better to dwell in the
full exposition what we ascribe to it But as some scrupulous Brethren in Scotland gratifie the Papists by rejecting the Oath of Supremacy which is the most thorny hedge against them and this while they cry out against Popery so others would gratifie the Papists by suggesting that we give too much to the Bible and adore it when the very sum of Englands Protestantism is their just ascribing to the Holy Scriptures its sufficiency as to all things necessary to salvation Thus Satan undoeth still by overdoing IV. Object Laying on the hand and kissing the Book seem of the same nature with the Cross in Object Baptism and other significant Ceremonies And an Oath is part of the Worship of God Therefore not to be taken with these Ceremonies or else will seem to justifie the other Answ. 1. Significant words gestures or actions are not therefore evil because they are significant Answ. unless bruitishness be a Vertue Nor because any call them by the name of Ceremonies else that name might be put on any thing by an enemy to deprive us of our liberty Therefore I can judge of no Ceremony by that General name alone till it be named it self in specie 2. Of the Cross in Baptism see my Disputations of Church-Government of Ceremonies written long ago There are these notorious differences in the Case 1. The Cross is an Image used in Gods Worship Though not a Permanent yet a Transient Image and used as an Image of the Cross of Christ though but in Water or Oyle And God hath more specially forbidden Images used in his Worship than he hath done a Professing significant Word Gesture or Action which is no Image nor used as such 2. The Cross seemeth to be a third Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace while it is used as a Symbol of Christianity and a dedicating Sign as the Canon calleth it by which before the Church there is made a solemn self-obligation as Sacramentally to Renounce the Devil the World and the Flesh and manfully to fight under Christs banner as his faithful servants and souldiers to our lives end Implying our trust and hope in Christ crucified for the benefits of his death So that if it be not a compleat third Sacrament it hath so much of that which is proper to a Sacrament like the Sacramentum Militare whence the name came into the Church that for my part I dare not use it though I presume not to censure those that do nor to condemn all other uses of the Cross which the Antients abounded in as sudden particular professing Signs much below this solemn covenanting use And as I think the King would not take it well when he hath made the Star the Badge of the Knights of the Garter if any Subject will presume to make another Symbolum Ordinis though yet many a significant Gesture or Act may be used without offence So I fear Christ would not take it well of me if I presume to make or use another Symbole or Tessera of Christianity Especially with so much of a Covenanting Sacramental Nature But what 's this to things or Gestures significant of no such kind You see then the difference of these Cases But if you were able to prove the Cross as harmless as the Swearing Ceremony I would be for the Cross and not against the laying the hand on the Book and kissing it For 1. I am not of their mind that form their judgment of other particulars to suit with their preconceived opinions of things of the same rank or quality nor make the Interest of my former conceptions to be the measure of my after judging 2. Nor do I think it so great an honour to be strict in my opinions as dishonour to be superstitious and to add to Gods Law by saying that he forbiddeth what he doth not or to be affectedly singular in denying lawful things with a Touch not taste not handle not c. Nor do I esteem him to be the wisest best or holiest person who is narrowest or strictest in his opinions but who is Rightest nor him that maketh most things to be sins but him that committeth least sin which is such indeed nor him that maketh most Laws to himself and others but him that best obeyeth Gods Laws Quest. 1. MAy one that scrupleth thus swearing himself yet Commissioned give an Oath thus to another Quest. that scrupleth it not Answ. 1. If the thing be as is proved lawful his scruple will not make him innocent in neglecting Answ. the duty of his place 2. If the substance of the Oath were lawful and only the Mode or Ceremony were sinful as suspected then 1. If the Commissioner must himself particularly command that Mode it were unlawful for him to do it 2. But if he only command and give the Oath as an Oath leaving the Mode without his Approbation or Command to the Taker and the Law he may so give the Oath And thus Christians in all Ages have taken it for Lawful to make Covenants even with Infidels and Idolaters and to take a Turks Oath by Mahomet when it is only the Oath that we demand and the Mode is his own which we had rather be without and give no approbation of And if a King may thus demand an Infidels or Idolaters Oath as God himself doth mens duty when he knoweth that they will sin in doing it much more may one do so in case of a doubtful Ceremony which he is neither the author nor approver of But I think this in question is lawful fit and laudable § 7. III. As to the case of Taking Gods Name in vain which for brevity I joyn with swearing How Gods Name is taken in vain it is done 1. Either in the grossest and most hainous sort 2. Or in a lower sort 1. The grossest sort of taking Gods Name in vain is by Perjury or calling him in for witness to a lye For among the Jews Vanity and a Lye were words frequently taken in the same signification 2. But the lower sort of taking Gods Name in vain is when it is used lightly unreverently contemptuously jeastingly or See Dr. Haââoâds Pract. Catâch on the thârd Commandment Jer. 5. 2. Lev. 19. 12. without just cause And in these also there is prophaneness and a very great sin which is aggravated according to the Degree of the contempt or prophanation It is a great sin unreverently in common talk to make a by-word of saying O Lord or O God or O Iesus or God help us or Lord have mercy on us or God send this or that or any way to take Gods Name in vain But to use it in jears and scorns at Religion or make Play-books or Stage-playes with such prophane contemptuous jears is one of the greatest villanies that mans tongue can be guilty of against his Maker Of which anon § 8. IV. Direct 1. For the avoiding of all this prophaneness in swearing and taking the Name of
is we must first know what Truth is and what is the What Truth is Use of Speech Truth is considerable 1. As it is in the things known and spoken of 2. As it is in the conception or knowledge of the mind 3. As it is in the expressions of the tongue 1. Truth Vid. Aquin. de Veritat in the things known is nothing but their Reality that indeed they are that which their names import or the mind apprehendeth them to be This is that which is called both Physical and Metaphysical Truth 2. Truth in the conception or knowledge of the mind is nothing else but the agreement or conformity of the knowledge to the thing known To conceive of it truly is to conceive of it as it is Mistake or error is contrary to this Truth 3. Truth as it is in the expressions is indeed a twofold relation 1. The primary relation is of our words or writings to the matter expressed And so Truth of speech is nothing but the agreeableness of our words to the things expressed when we speak of them as they are 2. The secondary relation of our words is to the mind of the Speaker For the natural use of the tongue is to express the mind as well as the matter And thus Truth of Speech is nothing but the agreeableness of our words to our thoughts or judgements Truth as it is the agreement of Thoughts or words to the matter may be called Logical Truth And this is but the common Matter of Moral or Ethical Truth which may be âound partly in a Clock or Watch or Weather-cock or a Seamans Chart. The agreement of our words to our minds is the more proper or special matter of Moral Truth The form of it as a Moral Virtue is its agreement to the Law of the God of Truth And as the Terminus entereth the definition of relations so our words have respect to the Mind of the hearer or reader as their proper Terminus their use being to acquaint him 1. With the matter expressed 2. With our minds concerning it Therefore it is necessary to the Logical Truth of speech that it have an aptitude rightly to inform the hearer and to the Ethical Truth that it be intended by the speaker really to inform him and not to deceive him Supposing that it is another that we speak to § 2. You see then that to a Moral Truth all these things are necessary 1. That it be an agreement of the words with the matter expressed as far as we are obliged to know the matter 2. That it be an agreement of the words with the speakers mind or judgement 3. That the expressions have an aptitude to inform the hearer of both the former truths 4. That we really intend them to inform him of the truth so far as we speak it 5. That it be agreeable to the Law of God which is the Rule of duty and discoverer of sin § 3. In some speeches the Truth of our words as agreeing to the Matter and to the Mind is all one viz. when our own conception or judgement of a thing is all that we assert As when we say I think or I believe or I judge that such a thing is so Here it is no whit necessary to the Truth of my words that the Thing be so as I think it to be For I affirm it not to be so but that indeed I think as I say I think But that our words and minds agree is alwayes and inseparably necessary to all Moral Truth § 4. We are not bound to make known all that is true for then no man must keep a secret How far we are bound to speak the truth much less to every man that asketh us Therefore we are not bound to endeavour the Cure of every mans ignorance or error in every matter For we are not bound to talk at all to every man And if I be not bound to make known the truth at all or my mind at all I am not bound to make known all the truth or all that is in my mind No not to all those to whom I am bound to make known part of both If I find a man in an ignorance or error which I am not bound to cure nay possibly it were my sin to cure it as to open the secrets of the Kings Counsels or Armies to his Enemies c. I may and must so fit my speech to that man even about those matters as not to make him know what he should not know either of the matter or of my mind I may either be silent or speak darkly or speak words which he understandeth not through his own imperfection or which I know his weakness will misunderstand But I must speak no falshood to him Also there is a great difference between speaking so as not to cure the ignorance or error of the hearer which I found him in and so speaking as to lead him into some new error I may do the former in many cases in which I may not do the latter And there is great difference between speaking such words as in the common use of men are apt to inform the hearers of the truth though I may know that through some weakness of their own they will misunderstand them and be deceived by them and the speaking of words which in common use of men have another signification than that which I use them to By the former way the hearer sometime is the deceiver of himself and not the speaker when the speaker is not bound to reveal any more to him But by the later way the speaker is the deceiver Also there is great difference to be made between my speaking to one to whom it is my duty to reveal the truth and my speaking to a man to whom I am not bound to reveal it yea from whom my duty to God and my King or Country bind me to conceal it By these grounds and distinctions you may know what a Lye is and may resolve the ordinary doubts that are used to be raised about our speaking truth or falshood As § 5. Quest. 1. Am I bound to speak the Truth to every one that asketh me Answ. You are not Quest. 1. bound to speak at all in every case to every one that asketh you And he that is silent speaketh not the truth § 6. Quest. 2. Am I bound to speak the Truth to every one that I answer to Answ. Your Answer Quest. 2. may sometimes be such as signifieth but a denying to answer or to reveal what is demanded of you § 7. Quest. 3. Am I bound to speak all the Truth when ever I speak part of it Answ. No It is Quest. 3. Gods Word that must tell you when and how much you must reveal to others And if you go as ãâ¦ã â6 63. Maâ 1â 61. 15. 5 Luke 23. 9. Jâân 19 9. ââr 8 26 27. far as God alloweth you it followeth not that
qualifications and your mirth and sporting talk will not be idle 1. Let it be such and so much as is useful to maintain that cheerfulness of mind and alacrity of spirits which is profitable to your health and duty For if bodily recreations be lawful then tongue-recreations are lawful when they are accommodate to their end 2. Let your speech be savoury seasoned with salt and not corrupt and rotten communication Jeast not with filthiness or sin 3. Let it be harmless to others Make not your selves merry with the sins or miseries of other men Jeast not to their wrong 4. Let it be seasonable and not when another frame of mind is more convenient nor when graver or weightier discourse should take place 5. Let it be moderate and not excessive either wasting time in vain or tending to habituate the mind of the speakers or hearers to levity or to estrange them from things that should be preferred 6. See that all your mirth and speech be sanctified by a holy end that your intent in all be to whet your spirits and cheer up and fit your selves for the service of God as you do in eating and drinking and all other things 7. And mix with cautelous reverence some serious things that the end and use be not forgotten and your mirth may not be altogether as empty and fruitless as that of the unsanctified is Sporting pleasant and recreating talk is not vain but lawful upon these conditions 8. Still remembring that the most holy and profitable discourse Iam. 5. 13. Is any merry Let him sing Psalms What is idle talk The sorts of it Otiosum verbum est quod justae necessitatis aut intentione piae utilitatis ca ãâ¦ã t. Gregor Moral must be most pleasant to us and we must not through a weariness of it divert to carnal mirth as more desirable but only use natural honest mirth as a necessary concomitant to exhilerate the spirits § 5. Idle or vain words then are such as are unprofitable and tend not to do good I here forbear to speak of those Idle words which are also worse than vain as mentioned before among the sins of the tongue Idle words are 1. Either simply such which tend to no good at all 2. Or comparatively such which are about some small or inconsiderable good when you should be speaking of greater things The former sort are always idle and therefore always sinful The latter sort are sometimes lawful in themselves that is when greater matters are not to be talked of In its season it is lawful to speak about the saving of a penny or a point or a pin But out of season when greater matters are in hand this is but idle sinful talk § 6. Also there is a great deal of difference between now and then an Idle word and a babling prating custom by which it becometh the daily practice of some loose-tongued persons so that the greater part of the words of all their lives are meerly vain § 7. The particular kinds of Idle talk are scarce to be numbred Some of them are these § 7. 1. When the tongue is like a vagrant beggar or masterless dog that is never in the way and never out of the way being left to talk at random about any unprofitable matter that comes before it And such will never want matter to talk of every thing they see or hear is the subject of their chat And one word begetteth occasion and matter for another without end § 8. 2. Another sort of idle talk is the vain discourses by word or writing of some learned 1 Cor. 3. 20. Rom. 1. 21. men in which they bestow an excessive multitude of words about some small impertinent thing not to edifie but to shew their wit which Sâneca reprehends at large § 9. 3. Another sort of idle talk is vain and immoderate Disputings about the smaller circumstances oâ Religion or frequent discourses about such unedifying things while greater matters should be talkt of Tit. 3. 9. But avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the Law for they are unprofitable and vain 1 Tim. 1. 5 6 7. Now the end of the Commandment is charity out of a pure âeart and of a good Conscience and of faith unfeigned from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling desiring to be teachers of the Law understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm 1 Tim. 6. 20. O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust avoiding profane and vain bablings and opposition of sciences falsly so called which some professing have erred concerning the faith 2 Tim. 2. 16. But shun prophane and vain bablings for they will increase unto more ungodliness Tit. 1. 10 11. There are many unruly and vain talkers c. § 10. 4. Another sort of Idle talk is the using of a needless multitude of words even about that âââââ â5 16. Saith Hugo thâre is a time when âo ââag and a time when soââthia should be spâken but never â time whân All should be spoken which is good and necessary in it self but might better be opened in a briefer manner Even in preaching or praying words may be vain which is when they are not suited to the matter and the hearers For you must note that the same words are necessary to one sort of hearers which are vain as to another sort And therefore as Ministers must take heed that they suit their manner of speech to their auditors so hearers must take heed lest they censoriously and rashly call that vain which is unnecessary to them or such as they There may be present many ignorant persons that the preacher is better acquainted with than you And the ignorant lose that which is concisely uttered They must have it at large in many words and oft râpeated or else they understand it not or remember not that which they understand But yet a real excess of words even about holy things must be avoided Eccles. 5. 23. Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God The Spartans banished an Oraâor for saying He could speak all day of any suoâect ââasn See the Manual of prayers printed at ãâã 1658. pag. 507. for God is in Heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few for a dream cometh through the multitude of business and a fools voice is known by the multitude of words Two causes of idle words in prayer must be avoided 1. Emptiness and rashness 2. Affectation that is 1. Affectation to words as if you should be heard for saying so many words over and over as the Papists in their Iesus Psalter say over the name Iesu nine times together and those nine times fifteen times over besides all their repetitions of it in the petitions themselves between So in the Titles of the B. Virgin in her Litany p. 525. Hypocrites in all ages and Religions have the same
Ephes. 5. 18 19. Be not drunk with Wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord giving thanks alwayes for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Iesus Psal 119. 172. Psal. 49 3 3â 28. Christ 1 Pet. 4. 11. If any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God Sinful omission of good discourse is the cause of sinful commission of vanity Specially when the heart it self is vain For as a man is so is he apt to speak 1 John 4. 5. They are of the world therefore speak they of the world Isa. 32. 6. For the vile person will speak villany and his heart will work iniquity to practise hypocrisie and to utter error against the Lord. § 34. Direct 5. Walk alwayes with God as in his presence and in the awe of his Laws and judgement Direct 5. that conscience may be kept awake and tender You will be restrained from vain talk if you perceive Jer. 8. 6. Prov. 6. 22. Psal. 7â 12. 105 2. 114. 27. 149. 11. that God is hearing you and if you remember that your tongue is under a Law and that for every idle word men shall give account in the day of judgement Matth. 12. 36 37. and that by your words you shall be justified or condemned If the Law of God were in your hearts Psal. 40. 8. and hidden there Psal. 119. 11. Your heart would be fixed Psal. 57. 7. His word then would be the rejoycing of your heart Psal. 119. 111. and your tongues would then be talking of judgement Psal. 37. 30. A tender conscience will smart more with an idle world than a seared senseless conscience with an Oath or lye or slander For the Fear of God is clean Psal. 19. 9. and by it men depart from evil Proverbs 16. 6. Be thou therefore in the fear of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23. 17. § 34. Direct 6. Avoid idleness if you would avoid idle talk The drones of the Commonwealth Direct 6. that have nothing else to do but visit and complement and prate of other mens matters and that 1 Tim. 5. 13. 1 Pet. 4. 15. can have while to sit whole hours together upon no business are they that are most guilty of idle chat Idle Gentlemen and Beggars and idle gossipping Women and Old men that are void of the fear of God and Children that have no business to do are they that can sit talking away their time to as little purpose as if they had been all the time asleep All idle persons swarm with the Vermine of idle thoughts and words § 36. Direct 7. If you would avoid idle talk avoid idle talkative companions or if you cannot Direct 7. avoid them answer them not but let them talk alone unless it be to reprehend them or turn them to Gaââulo non respondeâe convitium est more profitable talk For when you hear vanity it will incline you to speak vanity And these ungodly persons speak every one vanity to his neighbour as if their tongues were so their own that no Lord might controll them Psal. 12. 1 2 5 6. The Philosopher could say That which you would not hear do not speak and that which you would not speak do not hear Most are like Parrots that will oftest speak the words which they oftest hear How hard is it to avoid idle talk amongst idle talkers One vain word draws on another and there is no end § 37. Direct 8. Avoid vain works if you would avoid vain words For a man that engageth himself Direct 8. in vain employment doth lose all the words as vain which he useth about that employment What a life then do they live that have an unlawful Calling When their very business and Trade is sin the adjuncts the words about it must be sin and so all their lives are a continued sin I had rather therefore be the basest drudge than one of these men Especially Stage-players should think of this And those that spend whole hours yea half dayes if not nights in gaming and vain or sinful sports what abundance of idle words do they use about them Every cast of the Dice and every Card they play hath an idle word so that a sober man would be aweary and ashamed to hear them § 38. Direct 9. Plunge not your selves into excess of worldly business as some do that undertake more Direct 9. without necessity than they can discharge For such necessitate a variety of thoughts and words And all that are spent in serving them in those their vain employments are vain though the work for the matter of it be not vain § 39. Direct 10. Let not a vicious mind make that seem necessary or convenient which is vain Direct 10. Carnal hearts that are acquainted with no better things think nothing vain that pleaseth their sensual inclinations or which their carnal interest doth require A man-pleaser thinketh Civility obligeth him to observe his unnecessary visits and complements and to answer idle talkers and not sit silent by them noâ contradict them And so it must be a point of good manners to break the Law of God And as they think it uncivil not to pledge every drinker in his healths so not to answer every twatler in his talk § 40. Direct 11. Take heed of a proud self-conceited mind that thinks too well of your own discourse Direct 11. Gât but Humility and you will rather chooâe to hear than to speak But when all your fansies and Prov. 3. 7. 26. 12. 1 Cor. 3. 18. impertinânâies seem some excellent matters to you then you are with child till you are delivered of them and then all must reverence and silently attend your pride and folly or be taken as neglecters of you for disregarding it § 41. Direct 12. Avoid Passion and passionate companions For passion is talkative and will not be Direct 12. chââkt but resisteth the restraint of reason and multiplyeth words which are worse than vain Prov. 14. 17 1â 18. Eccles 7 8 9 § 42. Direct 13. Take heed of an inordinate jeasting vain For it habituateth the mind to foolish lâvity and knows no bounds and breeds idle words as thick as putrified flesh breeds Vermine And it is the greater sin because it is ordinary and with a certain pleasure and pride and glorying in vanity Direct 13. Eccles. 2. 2 Eccles. 7. 6. Epheâ 5. 4 and sinful levity and folly § 43 Direct 14. Understand particularly what service you have to do for God or men in every company you come in and so fit your words to the present duty and company For those words Direct 14. are vain and inconvenient in one company that are necessary or convenient in another If you be to Prov. 2â 17. Prov. 1â 1â
2. 1â see God and that Christ shall come in flaming fire to render vengeance to them that obey not his Gospel and that all they shall be damned that obey not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness when God hath resolved that Hell shall be the wages of ungodliness dost thou not desire them to damn themselves when thou desirest them to be ungodly If thou believe that there is any Hell at all then tell me what its possible for any man to do to murder his soul and damn himself but only to be ungodly If this way do it not there is no danger of any other Tell me dost thou think that the Devil deserveth to be called A Murderer of souls If not it seems thou wilt openly take the Devils part But if he do deserve it then the reason of all the World be judge whether that man deserve it not much more that will do much more against himself than the Devil ever did or can do The Devil can but tempt but thou wouldst have men do the thing that he tempts them to and actually to sin and neglect a holy life And which is the worse he that doth the evil or he that only perswadeth them to it If the Devil be called Our Adversary that like a roaring Lyon goeth about night and day seeking whom he 1 Pât 5. 8. may devour what should that man be called that doth far more against himself than all the Devils in Hell do against him Sure he is a devourer or destroyer of himself Tell me thou distracted scorner Is the Devils work thinkest thou Good or Bad If it be Good take thy part of it and boast of it when thou seest the end If it be Bad to deceive souls and entise them to sin and Hell why wouldst thou have men do worse by themselves He that sinneth doth worse than he that tempteth Tell me what way doth the Devil take to do men hurt and damn their souls but only by drawing them to sin He hath no other way in the World to undoe any man but by tempting him to that which thou temptest men to even to sin against God and to neglect a Holy life So that it 's plain that thou scornest and opposest men because they will not be worse than Devils to themselves § 19. 13. Moreover thou opposest men for not forsaking God! What is it to forsake God but to refuse to Love and honour and obey him as God He hath told us himself that He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. And is it not this diligent seeking him that thou deridest It 's plain then that thou wouldst scorn men away from God and have them forsake him as thou hast done § 20. 14. Thou scornest men for not being Hypocrites Because they will be that in good earnest which thou hypocritically callest thy self and wouldst be thought Thou callest thy self a Christian and what is it but for being serious Christians that thou deridest them Thou takest on thee to believe in God and what is it but for obeying and serving God that thou deridest them Thou takest on thee to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God And what is it but for following the holy Scriptures that thou deridest them Thou saist thou believest the Communion of Saints and deridest them that hold the Communion of Saints in practice Thou saist thou believest that Christ shall judge the world and yet scornest them that are serious in preparing for his judgement Thou prayest that Gods name may be hallowed and his Kingdom come and his will-be done on Earth as it is in Heaven And yet thou deridest them that Hallow his name and are Subjects of his Kingdom and endeavour to do his will O wretched Hypocrite And yet that tongue of thine pretendeth that it is their Hypocrisie for which thou hatest and deridest them when thou dost it because they be not such blind and sensless Hypocrites as thy self Can there be grosser Hypocrisie in the World than to hate and scorn the serious practice of thy own profession and the diligent living according to that which thy own tongue professeth to believe If thou say that it is for doing too much and being too strict I answer thee If it be not the will of God that they do though I would not deride them I would seek to change them as well as thou But if it be the will of God then tell me dost thou think they do more than those that are in Heaven do or do they live more strictly than those in Heaven If they do then oppose them and spare not If not why prayest thou that Gods will may be done on Earth as it is in Heaven § 21. 15. Thou deridest men for doing that which they were made for and that which they have their Reason and will and all their faculties for Take them off this and they are good for nothing A Beast is good to serve Man and the Plants to feed him But what is Man good for or what was he made for but to serve his Maker And dost thou scorn him for that which he came into the World for Thou maist as well hate a Knife because it can cut or a Sythe for Mowing or a Clock for telling the hour of the day when it was made for nothing else § 22. 16. Thou deridest men for being saved by Christ and for imitating his example What came Christ for into the World but to destroy the works of the Devil and to save his people from 1 Joh. Matth. 1. 21. Tit. 2. 12. their sins and to redeem us from all iniquity and Purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And hath Christ to the astonishment of men and Angels come down into flesh and lived among men and given them his holy doctrine and example and suffered death for them and all this but to bring men to zealous Purity and darest thou make a scorn of it after this What is this but to scorn thy Saviour and scorn all the work of Redemption and tread under foot the Son of God and despise his blood his life and precepts § 23. 17. Thou scornest men for being renewed and sanctified by the Holy Ghost What is the work of the Holy Ghost on us but to sanctifie us And what is it to sanctifie us but to cleanse us from sin and cause us entirely to devote our souls and lives to God Dost thou believe in the Holy Ghost or not If thou do what is that but to Believe in him as the sanctifier of Gods Elect. And what didst thou take Sanctification to be but this purity and holiness of heart and life And yet darest thou deride it § 24. 18. Thou deridest men for imitating those ancient Saints whose names thou seemest thy self to honour and in honour of whom thou keepest Holy-days Thou takest on thee
by him It is men forsaken of God that ordinarily come to this dâsperate Hoââââ 10. Part â âoâ 2. pag 150 cited before in my Now or N ãâ¦ã p. 125. degree of sin Insomuch that the Book of Homilies thus describing them saith The third sort he calleth scorners that is a sort of men whose hearts are so stuffed with malice that they are not contended to dwell in sin and to lead their lives in all kind of wickedness but also they do contemn and scorn in others all Godliness true Religion all honesty and virtue Of the two first sorts of men I will not say but they may take repentance and be converted unto God Of the third sort I think I may without danger of Gods judgement pronounce that never any yet were converted unto God by Repentance but continued still in their abominable wickedness heaping up to themselves damnation against the day of Gods inevitable judgement Though I take this to be too severe yet it 's the judgement of the Church of England and terrible to scorners that profess their assent to it § 49. Direct 3. Take heed of scorning at the very circumstances or modes of worship which you dislike For Direct 3. such scornes come so near to the worship it self that the minds of the hearers may easily be hence drawn to dishonour the substance for the sake of the derided mode or circumstance and it plainly savoureth of a hold prophaneness which grave and sober Christians do abhor In the case of Idolatry or where the very substance of the worship is impious and forbidden I deny not but Elias may sometime and with wariness be imitated who derided Baals Priests But to do thus upon smaller differences in the Manner or circumstances of worship is the way to teach men to turn all Religion into matter of derision and contempt If you see about the King some circumstance of cloathing ornament or attendance of his followers which you dislike or judge ridiculous if you look towards him with a scornful laughter it will not excuse you to say I laughed not at the King but at such or such a thing about him For his presence should have restrained you from that which seemeth to be a deriding of him So here I know Nicknames themselves are the great engines of the Devil and to be avoided It was well with the Church when there was no other name but Christiaâs put by Christs Disciples on each other though by the enemies they were scornââââly called Nazarânâs and a Sect and heresie you will say it is not at Gods worship but at such words or gestures of the Minister that I scorn But take heed of dallying with holy things Play not so near the consuming fire Give not others occasion to deride the thing it self by your deriding the circumstances though they were unapt Have we not seen while factious Christians raise jeasts and nicknames and scornes against each other how the prophane and common enemies of Religion do take them up and turn them against all serious godliness to the trouble of others and their own damnation And we have had experience in these contentious times that it is the Sectaries and the Prophane that are apt to use these scoffs and scorns against the things and persons that they mislike and that sober peaceable judicious men of all sides do abhor it How unsavoury and prophane have all sober men thought it when they heard some young and hot-braind persons mocking at the Common-prayer by the name of Pâttage and at the Surplice by the name of the Whore of Babylons Smock And from hence the same spirit led them as proudly and bitterly to deride at Ministers Universities Learning Temples Tythes and all the appurtenances of worship Yea at the Lords-Day and singing Psalms and Preaching and almost all the duties of Religion For when once men will pretend to strive for God with the spirit and weapons of Satan and the world and flesh there is no stop till they come to the bottom of impiety and do Satans work in Satans way And so on the other side while some have too reproachfully scorned such as Precisians or Puritans who differed from them about the form of Church government and Ceremonies the rabble of the prophane soon get advantage by it and turned these words to so common and bitter reproaches of the godly sober peaceable pleople of the Land that Mr. Rob. Bolton saith I am perswaded Disc. of Happiness p. 193 there was never poor persecuted Word since malice against God first seized on the damned Angels and the graces of Heaven dwelt in the heart of man that passed through the mouths of all sorts of unregenerate men with more distastefulness and gnashing of teeth than the name of Puritan doth at this day which notwithstanding as it is now commonly meant and ordinarily proceeds from the spleen and spirit of prophaneness and good-fellowship is an honourable nickname that I may so speak of Christianity and grace See more cited out of him and Bishop Downam Bishop Abbot c. in my Formal Hypocrite pag. 210. 212 c. § 50. Direct 4. Be very fearful of making the persons of the Godly contemptible though for their real Direct 4. faults lest the ungodly easily step thence to the contempt of Godliness it self For it is easie to observe how commonly the vulgar judge of the Doctrine and Religion by the Person that professeth it If a Papist or a Sectary live a holy life take heed of making a scorn of their persons notwithstanding thou takest the rise of thy derision from their mistakes For even a mistaking Saint is dearly beloved and honoured of God And where ever Holiness is it is the most great resplendent and predominant thing in him that hath it And therefore puts a greater honour on him than any mistake or infirmity can dishonour him As the person of a King must not be dishonoured by a reproachful mention of his infirmities lest it reflect upon his office So neither must the person of a holy man lest it reflect on his Pliââ saith that as Pearles though they lie in the bottom of the sea are yet much nearer kin to Heaven as their splenâor and excellency showeth so a godly and generous soul hath more dependance on Heaven whence it comes than on earth where it abideth A good sââing for a Heaâhen Religion Not that any mans person should credit or secure his faults Nor that we should judge of the faults or manners by the men instead of judging of the men by their manners But you must judge of them by that which is predominant and so blame their faults as to preserve the honour of their Virtues and Religion and of their persons for their virtues sake So blame the falls of Noah and Lot and David and Peter as may make the sin more odious but not so as may make their persons contemptible lest it make their Religion next to
to your souls the later must be preferred And next to the publick good the souls advantage must guide your choice As suppose that a Lawyer were as profitable to the publick good as a Divine and that it is the way to far more wealth and honour yet the Sacred Calling is much more desirable for the benefit of your souls Because it is an exceeding great help to be engaged by our Callings to have the Word and Doctrine of Christ still before us and in our minds and mouths when others must be glad to be now and then exercised in it when their hearts are cooled by the frequent and long diversions of their worldly business So that our Calling and work is to an honest heart a continual recreation and preserving and edifying help to Grace So a Schoolmasters Calling is usually but poor and very painful requiring much close attendance but yet it is of so great use to the common good and alloweth the mind so much leisure and advantage to improve it self in honest studies that it is fitter to be chosen and delighted in by a well tempered mind than richer and more honoured employments It s sweet to be all day doing so much good § 23. Direct 8. If it be possible choose a Calling which so exerciseth the body as not to overwhelm Direct 1. you with cares and labour and deprive you of all leisure for the holy and noble employments of the mind and which so exerciseth your mind as to allow you some exercise for the body also 1. That Calling which so taketh up body and mind as neither to allow you commixed thoughts of greater things nor convenient intermissions for them is a constant snare and prison to the soul which is the case of many who plunge themselves into more and greater business than they can otherwise dispatch and yet are contented to be thus continually alienated in their minds from God and Heaven to get more of the world Many poor Labourers as Clothiers Taylors and other such can work with their hands and meditate or discourse of heavenly things without any hinderance of their work when many men of richer Callings have scarce room for a thought or word of God or Heaven all day 2. On the contrary if the Body have not also its labour as well as the mind it will ruine your health and body and mind will both grow useless § 24. Direct 9. It is lawful and meet to look at the commodity of your Calling in the third place Direct 2. that is after the publick good and after your personal good of soul and bodily health Though it is said Prov. 23. 4. Labour not to be rich the meaning is that you make not Riches your chief end Riches for our fleshly ends must not ultimately be intended or sought But in subordination to higher things they may That is you may labour in that manner as tendeth most to your success and lawful gain You are bound to improve all your Masters Talents But then your end must be that you may be the better provided to do God service and may do the more good with what you have If God shew you a way in which you may lawfully get more than in another way without wrong to your soul or to any other if you refuse this and choose the less gainful way you cross one of the ends of your Calling and you refuse to be Gods Steward and to accept his gifts and use them for him when he requireth it You may labour to be Rich for God though not for the flesh and sin § 25. Direct 10. It is not enough that you consider what Calling and labour is most desirable but Direct 10. you must also consider what you or your children are fittest for both in mind and body For that Calling Omnes qui suâ quique erunt aut fuerunt virtutibus aut doctrinis claâi non possunt unum ingenium accendeâe nisi aâiquae inâuâ in animo sciutillae sint quae pâaeceptoris spiritu excitatae adjutae generosum disciplinae fomitem aââipi anâ Petrarch Dial. 41. l. 2. may be one mans blessing which would be anothers misery and undoing A weak body cannot undergo those labours which require strength And a dull and heavy mind and wit cannot do the works which require great judgement and ingenuity It hath been the calamity of the Church and undoing of many Ministers themselves that well meaning Parents out of love to the sacred work of God have set their Children to be Ministers that were unfit for it And many self-conceited persons themselves are ready to thrust themselves into that holy Office when they have some inconsiderable smattering knowledge and some poor measure of gifts overvalued by themselves that know not what is required to so great a work Be sure that you first look to the natural ingenuity of your children or your selves and then to their Grace and Piety and see that none be devoted to the Ministry that hath not naturally a quickness of understanding and a freedom of expression unless you would have him live upon the ruine of souls and wrong of the Church and work of God and turn an enemy to the best of his flock when he seeth that they value him but as he deserves And let none be so unwise as to become a Preacher of that Faith and Love and Holiness which he never had himself And even to the Calling of a Physicion none should be designed that have not a special ingenuity and sagacity and natural quickness of apprehension unless he should make a Trade of killing men For it is a Calling that requireth a quick and strong conjecturing ability which no study will bring a man that hath not a natural accuteness and aptitude thereto Thus also as to all other Callings you must consider not only the Will of the Child or Parents but their natural fitness of body and mind § 26. Direct 11. Choose no Calling especially if it be of publick consequence without the advice Direct 11. of some judicious faithful persons of that Calling For they are best able to judge in their own profession Never resolve on the Sacred Ministry without the advice of able Ministers Resolve not to be a Physicion but by the counsel of Physicions and so of the rest For abundance of persons ignorantly conceit themselves sufficient that are utterly insufficient and so live all their dayes as wrongs and burdens unto others and in sin and misery to themselves § 27. Direct 12. If thou be called to the poorest laborious Calling do not carnally murmur at it because it is Direct 12. wearisome to the flesh nor imagine that God accepteth the less of thy work and thee But cheerfully follow it and make it the matter of thy pleasure and joy that thou art still in thy heavenly Masters service though it be about the lowest things And that he who knoweth what is best for thee hath
knoweth what he is and what he hath done and what he hath deserved and in what a dangerous case his soul yet standeth must needs have his soul habituated to a humble frame Every penitent soul is vile in its own eyes and doth loath it self for its inward corruptions and actual sins And he that loatheth himself as vile will not be very desirous to have his sinful corruptible body seem fine nor by curious ornaments to attract And no wonder when the light of Nature reduced the serious sort of Philosophers to so plain a Garb no Socrates Zenocrates with almost all the Stâicks and Cyââks and many of the Academicks and Pythagoreans the eyes of vain spectators How oft have I seen a proud vain Gallant suddenly cast off their bravery and gawdy gay attire and clothe themselves in plainness and sobriety as soon as God hath but opened their eyes and humbled their souls for sin and made them better know themselves and brought them home by true Repentance So that the next week they have not seemed the same persons And this was done by meer Humiliation without any arguments against their fashions or proud âttire As old Mr. Dod said when one desired him to preach against long hair Preach them once to Christ and true Repentance and they will cut their hair without our preaching against it As Pride would be seen in Proud apparel so humility will appear in a dress like it self though it desire not to be seen Maâk 1 Pet. 3. 3 4 5. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair or of wearing of Gold or of putting on of apparel that is curious dressing for adorning the body beyond plain simplicity of attire But let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which in the sight of God is of great price For after this manner that is with inward Holiness and outward plainness in the old time the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves being in subjection to their own husbands O that God would print those words upon your hearts 1 Pet. 5. 5. Yea all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble Plainness among Christians is a greater honour than fine clothing Jam. 2. 2 3 4 5. 1 Tim. 2. 9 10. In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefasteness and sobriety not with broidered hair or Gold or Pearl or costly array but which becometh women professing godliness with good works I intreat those that are addicted to bravery or curiosity to read Isa. 3. from ver 16. to the end § 21. Direct 12. Make not too great a matter of your clothing but use it with such indifferency as a Direct 12. thing so indifferent should be used Set not your hearts upon it For that is a worse sign that the excess in it self Take no thought wherewith ye shall be cloathed but remember how God clotheth the Lillies of the field Matth 6. 28. If you have food and rayment be therewith content though it be never so plain 1 Tim. 6. 8. § 22. Direct 13. Be not too censorious of others for different fashions of apparel Be as plain and Direct 13. modest your selves as you can But lay no greater stress on the fashions of others than there is cause If they be grosly impudent disown such fashions and seek to reform them But to carp at every one that goeth âââââ than your selves or to censure them as proud because their fashions are not like yours may be of worse signification than the fashions you find fault with I have oft observed more pride in such censures than I could observe in the fashions which they censured When you have your eye upon every fashion that is not according to your breeding or the custom of your rank or place and are presently branding such as proud or vain it sheweth an arrogant mind that steppeth up in the judgement seat and sentenceth those that you have nothing to do with before they are heard or you know their reasons Perhaps their fashion was as common among the modest sort where they have lived as your fashion is among those that you have converst with Custom and common opinion do put much of the signification upon fashions of apparel I Should next have given you special Directions about the Using of your Estates about your Of the proportion of our Estates to be given see my Letter to Mr. Goâge Dwellings about your Meat and Drink and about your Honour or good Name But being loth the Book should prove too tedious I shall refer you to what is said before against Covetousness Pride and Gluttony c. and what is said before and after of Works of Charity and Family-Government AS to Sacred Habits and the different Garbs Laws Orders of Life Dyet c. of those called Religious Orders among the Papists Regular and Secular whether and how far such are lawful or sinful they are handled so largely in the Controversies of Protestants and Papists that I shall pass them by Only remembring the words of the Clergy of Ravenna to Carolus Iunior King of France inter Epist. Hincmari Rhemensis Discernendi à plebe vel caeteris sumus doctrina non veste conversatione non habitu mentis puritate non cultu Docendi enim potius sunt populi quam ludendi nec imponendum est eorum oculis sed mentibus praecepta sunt infundenda The End of the first Tome A Christian Directory Or A SUMM of PRACTICAL DIVINITY THE SECOND PART VIZ. Christian Oeconomicks OR THE FAMILY DIRECTORY Containing Directions for the true Practice of all Duties belonging to Family Relations with the Appurtenances By RICHARD BAXTER Josh. 24. 15. And if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord choose you this day whom you will serve But as for Me and my House we will serve the Lord. Deut. 6. 6 7 8. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart And thou shalt teach them diligently to thy Children and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy House and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up c. Dan. 6. 10. When Daniel knew that the Writing was signed he went into his House and his Window being open in his Chamber towards Jerusalem he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and Prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did aforetime Acts 10. 1. 2. Cornelius a devout man and One that feared God with all his House which gave much Alms to the people and Prayed to God alwayes Ephes. 6. 4. Ye Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath but bring them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. Psal. 101. 6 7. He that walketh in a perfect way
these houses yet Beza Grotius and many others acknowledge it to be meant of a family or dâmestick Church according to that of Tertullian ubi tres licet laici ibi Ecclesia yet I say not that such a family Church is of the same species with a particular organized Church of many families But it could not so much as Analogically be called a Church if they might not and must not pray together and praise God together for these therefore it fully concludeth Argument 10. If Rulers must teach their families the word of God then must they pray with them But they must teach them Therefore The Antecedent is fully proved by express Scripture already See also Psalms 78 4. 5. 6. Ministers must teach from house to house therefore Rulers themselves must do it Acts 5. 42. 20. 20. The Consequence is proved good 1. The Apostles prayed when they Preached or Instructed Christians in private Assemblies Acts 20. 36. and other places 2. We have special need of Gods Assistance in reading the Scriptures to know his mind in them and to make them profitable to us therefore we must seek it 3. The Reverence due to so holy a business requireth it 4. We are commanded in all things to make our requests known to God with Prayers Supplications and thanksgiving and that with all manner of prayer in all places without ceasing therefore specially on such occasions as the reading of Scriptures and instructing others And I think that few men that are convinced of the duty of reading Scripture and solemn instructing their families will question the duty of praying for Gods blessing on it when they set upon the work Yea a Christians own Conscience will provoke him reverently to begin all with God in the imploring of his acceptance and aid and blessing Argument 11. If Rulers of families are bound to teach their families to Pray then are they bound to Pray with them But they are bound to teach them to Pray Therefore In the foregoing Argument I speak of teaching in general Here I speak of teaching to Pray in special The Antecedent of the major I prove thus 1. They are bound to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Eph. 6. 44. Therefore to teach them to Pray and Praise God For the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord containeth that 2. They are bound to teach them the fear of the Lord and train them up in the way that they should go and that is doubtless in the way of Prayer and Praising God The Consequence Appeareth here to be sound in that men cannot be well and effectually taught to Pray without Praying with them or in their hearing herefore they that must teach them to Pray must Pray with them It is like Musick which you cannot well teach any man without playing or singing to him seeing teaching must be by practising And in most practical Doctrines it is so in some degree If any question this I appeal to Experience I never knew any man that was well taught by man to pray without practising it before them They that ever knew any such may have the more colour to object but I did not Or if they did yet so rare a thing is not to be made the ordinary way of our Endeavouâs no more than we should forbear teaching men the most curious Artifices by ocular demonstration because some Wits have learnt them by few words or of their own Invention They are cruel to Children and Servants that teach them not to pray by practice and example Argument 12. From 1 Tim. 4. 3 4 5. Meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer Here mark That all our Meat is to be received with thanksgiving not only with a disposition of thankfulness 2. That this is twice repeated here together expresly yea thrice in sense 3. That God created them so to be received 4. That it is made a Condition of the goodness that is the blessing of the Creature to our use 5. That the Creature is said to be sanctified by Gods Word and Prayer and so to be unsanctified to us before 6. That the same thing which is called thanksgiving in the two former verses is called Prayer in the last Else the consequence of the Apostle could not hold when he thus argues It s good if it ââ received with thanksgiving because it is sanctified by Prayer Hence I will draw these two Arguments 1. If families must with thanksgiving receive their meat as from God then is the thanksgiving of families a duty of Gods appointment But the former is true therefore so is the latter The Antecedent is plain All must receive their meat with thanksgiving Therefore families must They eat together therefore they must give thanks together And that Prayer is included in thanksgiving in this Text I manifested before 2. It is the Duty of families to use means that all Gods Creatures may be sanctified to them Prayer is the means to be used that all Gods Creatures may be sanctified to them Therefore it is the duty of families to use prayer Argument 13. From 1 Pet. 3. 7. Likewise ye Husbands dwell with them according to knowledge giving honour to the Wife as to the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered That Prayer which is especially hindered by ignorant and unkind converse is it that is especially meant here in this Text. But it is conjunct Prayer that is especially so hindered Therefore c. I know that secret personal prayer is also hindered by the same causes but not so directly and notably as conjunct prayer is With what hearts can Husband and Wife joyn together as one soul in prayer to God when they abuse and exasperate each other and come hot from chidings and dissentions This seemeth the true meaning of the Text And so the conjunct prayer of Husband and Wife being proved a duty who sometime constitute a family the same reasons will include the rest of the family also Arg. 14. From Col 3. 16 17. to Col. 4. 4. Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord and whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Iesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him Wives submit your selves c. 4. 2. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving Hence I may fetch many arguments for family-prayers 1. It appeareth to be family prayers principally that the Apostle here speaketh of For it is families that he speaks to For in verse 16 17. he speaketh of prayer and thanksgiving and in the next words he speaketh to each family-relation Wives Husbands Children Parents Servants Masters And in the next words continuing his speech to the same
and breed up children for the devil Their natural corruption is advantage enough to Satan to engage them to himself and use them for his service But when Parents shall also take the Devils part and teach their children by precepts or example how to serve him and shall estrange them from God and a holy life and fill their minds with false conceits and prejudice against the means of their salvation as if they had sold their children to the Devil no wonder then if they have a black posterity that are trained up to be heirs of Hell He that will train up children for God must begin betimes before sensitive objects take too deep possession of their hearts and custom increase the pravity of their nature Original sin is like the arched Indian Fig-tree whose branches turning downwards and taking root do all become as trees themselves The acts which proceed from this habitual viciousness do turn again into vicious habits And thus sinful nature doth by its fruits increase it self And when other things consume themselves by breeding all that sin breedeth is added to it self and its breeding is its feeding and every act doth confirm the habit And therefore no means in all the world doth more effectually tend to the happiness of souls than wise and holy education This dealeth with sin before it hath taken the deepest root and boweth nature while it 's but a twig It preventeth the increase of natural pravity and keepeth out those deceits corrupt opinions and carnal fantasies and lusts which else would be serviceable to sin and Satan ever after It delivereth up the heart to Christ betime or at least doth bring him a Disciple to his School to learn the way to life eternal and to spend those years in acquainting himself with the ways of God which others spend in growing worse and in learning that which must be again unlearned and in fortifying Satans garrison in their hearts and defending it against Christ and his saving grace But of this more anon § 5. Motive 5. A holy well-governed family is the preparative to a holy and well-governed Church If Masters of families did their parts and sent such polished materials to the Churches as they ought to Motive 5 do the work and life of the Pastors of the Church would be unspeakably more easie and delightful It would do one good to Preach to such an auditory and to Catechise them and instruct them and examine them and watch over them who are prepared by a wise and holy education and understand and love the doctrine which they hear To lay such polished stones in the building is an easie and delightful work How teachable and tractable will such be And how prosperously will the labours of their Pastors be laid out upon them And how comely and beautiful the Churches be which are composed of such persons And how pure and comfortable will their communion be But if the Churches be sties of unclean beasts if they are made up of ignorant and ungodly persons that savour nothing but the things of the flesh and use to worship they know not what we may thank ill-governed families for all this It is long of them that Ministers preach as to idiots or barbarians that cannot understand them and that they must be always feeding their auditors with milk and teaching them the principles and Catechizing them in the Church which should have been done at home Yea it is long of them that there are so many Wolves and Swine among the Sheep of Christ and that holy things are administred to the enemies of holiness and the godly live in communion with the haters of God and Godliness and that the Christian Religion is dishonoured before the heathen world by the worse-than-heathenish lives of the Professors and the pollutions of the Churches do hinder the conversion of the unbelieving world whilest they that can judge of our Religion no way but by the people that profess it do judge of it by the lives of them that are in heart the enemies of it when the haters of Christianity and Godliness are the Christians by whose conversations the Infidel world must judge of Christianity you may easily conjecture what judgement they are like to make Thus Pastors are discouraged the Churches defiled Religion disgraced and Infidels hardned through the impious disorder and negligence of families What Universities were we like to have if all the Grammar-Schools should neglect their duties and send up their scholars untaught as they received them and if all Tutors must teach their pupils first to spell and read Even such Churches we are like to have when every Pastor must first do the work which all the Masters of families should have done and the part of many score or hundreds or thousands must be performed by one § 6. Motive 6. Well-governed Families tend to make a happy State and Commonwealth A good Motive 6. education is the first and greatest work to make good Magistrates and good Subjects because it tends to make good men Though a good man may be a bad Magistrate yet a bad man cannot be a very good Magistrate The ignorance or worldliness or sensuality or enmity to godliness which grew up with them in their youth will shew it self in all the places and relations that ever they shall come into When an ungodly family hath once confirmed them in wickedness they will do wickedly in every state of life when a perfidious Parent hath betrayed his Children into the power and service of the Devil they will serve him in all relations and conditions This is the School from whence come all the injustice and cruelties and persecutions and impieties of Magistrates and all the murmurings and rebellions of subjects This is the soil and seminary where the seed of the Devil is first sown and where he nurseth up the plants of Covetousness and Pride and Ambition and Revenge Malignity and Sensuality till he transplant them for his service into several Offices in Church and State and into all places of inferiority where they may disperse their venome and resist all that is good and contend for the interest of the flesh and Hell against the interest of the Spirit and of Christ. But O what a blessing to the world would they be that shall come prepared by a holy education to places of Government and Subjection And how happy is that Land that is ruled by such superiours and consisteth of such prepared subjects as have first learnt to be subject to God and to their Parents § 7. Motive 7. If the Governours of Families did faithfully perform their duties it would be a Motive 7. great supply as to any defects in the Pastors part and a singular means to propagate and preserve Religion in times of publick negligence or persecution Therefore Christian Families are called Churches because they consist of holy persons that worship God and learn and love and obey his word If you lived among
works of charity the other is covetous and is alwayes hindring them § 37. Direct 12. Lastly It is a great part of the duty of Husbands and Wives to be helpers and Direct 12. comforters of each other in order to a safe and happy death 1. In the time of Health you must often and seriously remember each other of the time when death will make the separation and live together in your daily converse as those that are still expecting the parting hour Help to awaken each others souls to make ready all those graces which then will prove necessary and to live in a constant preparation for your change Reprove all that in one another which will be unsavoury and ungrateful to your review at death If you see each other dull and slow in your preparations or to live in vanity worldliness or sloth as if you had forgotten that you must shortly dye stir up one another to do all that without delay which the approach of such a day requireth 2. And when Death is at hand O then what abundance of tenderness and seriousness and skill and diligence is needful for one that hath the last office of love to perform to the departing soul of so near a friend O then what need will there be of your most wise and faithful and diligent help When nature faileth and the pains of flesh divert the mind and temptations are strongest while the body is weakest when a languishing body and a doubting fearful troubled mind do call for your compassion and help O then what skill and holy seriousness will be necessary O what a calamity is it to have a carnal unsanctified Husband or Wife which will neither help you to prepare for death nor can speak a serious word of counsel or comfort to you at a dying hour that can do nothing but stand by and weep over you but have not a sensible word to say about the life that you are going to nor about the duty of a departing soul nor against the temptations and fears which then may be ready to overwhelm you They that are utterly unprepared and unfit to dye themselves can do little to prepare or help another But they that live together as the heirs of Heaven and converse on earth as fellow-travellers to the Land of Promise may help and encourage the souls of one another and joyfully part at death as expecting quickly to meet again in life eternal § 38. Were it not lest I be over tedious I should next speak of the Manner how Husbands and Wives must perform their duties to each other As 1. That it should be all done in such entire Love as maketh the case of one another to you as your own 2. That therefore all must be done in Paâience and mutual forbearance 3. And in familiarity and not with strangeness distance sowerness noâ affected complement 4. And in secresie where I should have shewed you in what cases secresie may be broken and in what not 5. And in confidence of each others fidelity and not in suspicion jealousie and distrust 6. And in prudence to manage things aright and to foresee and avoid impediments and inconveniences 7. And in holiness that God may be the first and last and all in all 8. And in constancy that you cease not your duties for one another until death But necessary abbreviation alloweth me to say no more of these CHAP. VIII The special Duties of Husbands to their Wives § 1. HE that will expect Duty or Comfort from his Wife must be faithful in doing the duty of a Husband The failing of your selves in your own duty may cause the failing of another to you or at least will some other way as much afflict you and will be bitterer to you in the end than if an hundred failed of their duty to you A good Husband will either make a good Wife or easily and profitably endure a bad one I shall therefore give you Directions for your own part of duty as that which your happiness is most concerned in § 2. Direct 1. The Husband must undertake the principal part of the Government of the whole family Direct 1. even of the Wife her self And therefore I. He must labour to be fit and able for that Government which he undertaketh This ability consisteth 1. In holiness and spiritual wisdom that he may be acquainted with the End to which he is to conduct them and the Rule by which he is to guide them and the principal works which they are to do An ungodly irreligious man is both a stranger and an enemy to the chiefest part of family-government 2. His ability consisteth in a due acquaintance with the works of his Calling and the labours in which his servants are to be employed For he that is utterly unacquainted with their business will be very unfit to govern them in it unless he commit that part of their government to his Wife or a Steward that is acquainted with it 3. And he must be acquainted both with the common temper and infirmities of mankind that he may know how much is to be born with and also with the particular temper and faults and virtues of those whom he is to govern 4. And he must have Prudence to direct himself in all his carriage to them and Iustice to deal with every one as they deserve and Love to do them all the good he can for soul and body II. And being thus able he must make it his daily work and especially be sure that he govern himself well that his example may be part of his government of others § 3. Direct 2. The Husband must so unite Authority and Love that neither of them may be omitted Direct 2. or concealed but both be exercised and maintained Love must not be exercised so imprudently as to destroy the exercise of Authority And Authority must not be exercised over a Wife so Magisterially and imperiously as to destroy the exercise of Love As your Love must be a Governing Love so your Commands must all be Loving Commands Lose not your Authority for that will but disable you from doing the Office of a Husband to your Wife or of a Master to your servants Yet must it be maintained by no means inconsistent with Conjugal Love and therefore not by fierceness or cruelty by threatnings or stripes unless by distraction or loss of reason they cease to be uncapable of the carriage otherwise due to a Wife There are many cases of equality in which Authority is not to be exercised but there is no case of inequality or unworthiness so great in which Conjugal Love is not to be exercised and therefore nothing must exclude it § 4. Direct 3. It is the duty of Husbands to preserve the Authority of their Wives over the Children Direct 3. and Servants of the family For they are joint-governours with them over all the inâeriors And the infirmities of women are apt many times to expose
that the Preacher would have marked and because the understanding of that will much help you to understand all the rest which dependeth on it and relateth to it § 6. Direct 6. Mark most those things which are of greatest weight and ânâeââent to your souls And Direct 6. do not âix upon some little sayings and by discourses or witty sentences like Children thââ bring home some scraps and words which they do but play with § 7. Direct 7. Learn first your Catechisms at home and the great Essential points of Religion Direct 7. contained in the Creâd the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments And in your Hearing first labour to get a clearer understanding of these And then the lesser branches which grow out of these will be the better understood You can scarce bestow too much care and pains in learning these great essential points It is the fruitfullest of all your studies Two things further I here advise you to avoid 1. The hasly climbing up to smaller points which some call Higher before you have well received these and the receiving of those higher points independently without their due respect to these which they depend upon 2. The feeding upon dry and barren Controversies and delighting in the chaffe of âingling words and impertinent unedifying things or discourses about to ââaliââes and circumstances § 8. Direct 8. Meditate on what you hear when you come home till you better understand it Direct 8. Psal. 1. 2. § 9. Direct 9. Enquire where you doubt of those that can resolve and teach you It sheweth a Direct 9. careless mind and a contempt of the Word of God in most people and servants that never come to ask the resolution of one doubt from one weeks or years end to another though they have Passors or Masters that have ability and leisure and willingness to help them Matth. 13. Mark 4. 10. When Christ was alone they that were about him with the twelve asked him the meaning of his Parable § 10. Direct 10. Read much those holy Books which treat best of the doctrine which you would Direct 10. understand § 11. Direct 11. Pray earnestly for wisdom and the illumination of the spirit Ephes. 1. 18. Act. Direct 11. 26. 18. Jâm 1. 5. § 12. Direct 12. Conscionable Practising what you know is an excellent help to understanding Direct 12. Joh. 7. 17. Tit. 2. Directions for Remembering what you Hear THat want of Memory which cometh from Age and decay of Nature is not to be cured Nor should any servant of Christ be overmuch troubled at it Seeing Christ will no more cast off his servants for that than he will for age or any sickness But for that want of memory which is curable and is a fault I shall give you these Directions following § 1. Direct 1. It greatly helpeth Memory to have a full Understanding of the matter spoken which you would remember And ignorance is one of the greatest hinderances to Memory Common experience telleth you this how easily you can remember any discourse which you throughly understand For your very knowledge by invention will revive your memory And how hard it is to remember any words which are insignificant or which we understand not Therefore labour most for a clear understanding according to the last Directions § 2. Direct 2. A deep awakened affection iâ a very powerful help to memory We easily remember any thing which our estates or lives lye on when trifles are neglected and soon forgotten Therefore labour to get all to your hearts according to the next following Directions § 3. Direct 3. Method is a very great help to memory Therefore be acquainted with the Preachers Method And then you are put into a path or tract which you cannot easily go out of And therefore it is that Ministers must not only be Methodical and avoid prolix confused and involved discourses and that malicious pride of hiding their Method but must be as oft in the use of the same method as the Subject will bear and choose that method which is most easie to the hearers to understand and remember and labour to make them perceive your tract § 4. Direct 4. Numbers are a great help to memory As if the Reasons the Uses the Motives the Signes the Directions be six or seven or eight when you know just the number it helpeth you much to remember which was the first second third c. § 5. Direct 5. Names also and signal words are a great help to memory He may remember one word that cannot remember all the sentence And that one word may help him to remember much of the rest Therefore Preachers should contrive the force of every Reason Use Direction c. as much as may be into some one emphatical word And some do very profitably contrive each of those words to begin with the same Letter which is good for memory so it be not too much strained and put them not upon greater inconveniences As if I were to direct you to the chiefest Helps to your salvation and should name 1. Powerful Preaching 2. Prayer 3. Prudence 4. Piety 5. Painfulness 6. Patience 7. Perseverance though I opened every one of these at large the very names would help the hearers memory It is this that maketh Ministers that care more for their peoples souls than the pleasing of curious ears to go in the common road of Doctrine Reason Uses Motives Helps c. and to give their Uses the same titles of Information Reproof Exhortation c. And yet when the Subject shall direct us to some other method the hearers must not be offended with us For one Method will not serve exactly for every Subject and we must be loth to wrong the Text or Matter § 6. Direct 6. It is a great help to memory often in the time of hearing to call over and repeat to your selves the names or heads which have been spoken The mind of man can do two things at once You may both hear what is said and recall and repeat to your selves what is past Not to stand long upon it but oft and quickly to name over e. g. the Reasons Uses Motives c. To me this hath been next to understanding and Affection the greatest help of any that I have used For otherwise to hear a Head but once and think of it no more till the Sermon is done would never serve my turn to keep it § 7. Direct 7. Grasp not at more than you are able to hold lest thereby you lose all If there be more particulars than you can possibly remember lay hold on some which most concern you and let go the rest Perhaps another may rather take up those which you leave behind Yet say not that it is the Preachers fault to name more than you can carry away For 1. Then he must leave out his enlargement much more and the most of his Sermon for it 's like you leave
5. 9 10. Rev. 4. 11 8. Rev. 15. 3. Heb. 12. 9. Matth. 6. 13. thâu not said Behold I come quickly Even so Come Lord and let the great Marriage day of the Lamb make haste when thy Spouse shall be presented spotless unblamable and glorious and the glory of God in the New Jerusalem shall be Revealed to all his holy ones to delight and glorifie them for ever In the mean time Remember Lord thy promise Because I live therefore shall ye live also And let the dead that dye in thee be blessed And thou that art made a quickning Spirit and art the Lord and Prince of life and hast said that not a hair of our heads shall perish Gather our departing souls unto thy self into the Heavenly Jerusalem and Mount Zion the City of the living God and to the Myriads of holy Angels and to the general Assembly and Church of the first born and to the perfected Spirits of the just where thou wilt make us Kings and Priests to God whom we shall See and Love and Praise for ever For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things and for his pleasure they are and were created And O thou the blessed God of Love the Father of Spirits and King of Saints receive this unworthy Member of thy Son into the heavenly Chore which sing thy Praise who rest not saying night and day Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty who Is and Was and Is to Come For Thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen The End of the Second TOME A Christian Directory The Third Part. Christian Ecclesiasticks OR DIRECTIONS TO PASTORS PEOPLE About Sacred Doctrine Worship and Discipline and their mutual Duties With the Solution of a multitude of Church-Controversies and Cases of Conscience By RICHARD BAXTER 1 Cor. 12. 25 27 28. That there should be no Schism in the body but the Members should have the same care one for another Now ye are the Body of Christ and Members in particular And God hath set some in the Church first Apostles c. Eph. 4. 3 4 12 c. Endeavouring to keep the Unity of the SPIRIT in the bond of Peace There is one Body one Spirit one Hope one Lord one Faith one Baptism Not One Ministerial Head one God * And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Till we all come into the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ That we henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every wind of doctrine by the cogging or sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive But keeping the Truth in Love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ From whom the whole body compacted and cemented together by every joynt of supply according to its power in proportion of each part worketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in Love 1 Tim. 3. 15. That thou maist know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the living God as A pillar and basis of the truth 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake and be at peace among your selves LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons at the Sign of the Princes-Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1673. Reader THat this part and the next are Imperfect and so much only is written as I might and not as I would I need not excuse to thee if thou know me and where and when I live But some of that which is wanting if thou desire thou maist find 1. In my Universal Concord 2. In my Christian Concord 3. In our Agreement for Catechising and my Reformed Pastor 4. In the Reformed Lyturgie offered to the Commissioned Bishops at the Savoy Farewel A Christian Directory TOM III. Christian Ecclesiasticks CHAP. I. Of the Worship of God in general § 1. THAT God is to be Worshipped solemnly by man is confessed by Qui totos dies precabantur immolabant ut sui liberi sibi superstites essent Superstitiosi sunt appellati quod nomen paâuit postea latius Qui autem omnia quae ad cultum Deorum pertinerent diligenter pertractarent tanquam relegerent sunt dicti Religiosi ex relegendo ut elegantes ex eligendo à diligendo diligentes ex intelligendo intelligentes Superstitiosi Religiosi alterum vitii nomen alterum laudis Cicer. nat Deor. lib. 2. pag. 73 74. all that acknowledge that there is a God But about the Matter and Manner of his Worship there are no small dissensions and contentions in the world I am not now attempting a reconciliation of these contenders The sickness of mens minds and wills doth make that impossible to any but God which else were not only possible but easie the terms of reconciliation being in themselves so plain and obvious as they are But it is Directions to those that are willing to worship God aright which I am now to give § 2. Direct 1. Understand what it is to worship God aright lest you offer him Vanity and sin for Direct 1. Worship The worshipping of God is the direct acknowledging of his Being and Perfections to his honour Indirectly or consequentially he is acknowledged in every obediential act by those that truly obey and serve him And this is indirectly and participatively to worship him And therefore all things are Holy to the Holy because they are Holy in the use of all and Holiness to the Lord is as it were written upon all that they possess or do as they are Holy But this is not the worship which we are here to speak of but that which is Primarily and Directly done to glorifie him by the acknowledgement of his excellencies Thus God is worshipped either inwardly by the soul alone or also outwardly by the body expressing the worship of the soul. For that which is done by the Body alone without the concurrence of the Heart is not true worship but an Hypocritical Image or shew of it equivocally called Worship The inward worship of the Heart alone I have spoken If they that serve their God with meer word and ceremony and mimâca actions were so served themselves they might be âilââced with Aristâppââ his defence of his gallantry and sumptuâuâ fare Si vituâârandum ait hoc essât in celebritatibus deorum profectò non fieret Laert. iâ Aristip. So Plato allowed drunkenness only in the Feasts oâ Baâchâs of in the former Tome The outward or expressive worship
among them and defile them 7. It is the duty of the several members of the flock if a Brother trespass against them to tell him his faults between them and him and if he hear not to take two or three and if he hear not them to tell the Church 8. It is the Pastors duty to admonish the unruly and call them to Repentance and pray for their Conversion 9. And it is the Pastors duty to declare the obstinately impenitent uncapable of Communion with the Church ând to charge him to forbear it and the Church to avoid him 10. It is the peoples duty to avoid such accordingly and have no familiarity with them that they may be ashamed and with such no not to eat 11. It is the Pastors duty to Absolve the Penitent declaring the remission of their sin and re-admitting to the Communion of the Saints 12. It is the peoples duty to re-admit the absolved to their Communion with joy and to take them as Brethren in the Lord. 13. Though every Pastor hath a General power to exercise his office in any part of the Church where he shall be truly called to it yet every Pastor hath a special obligation and consequently a special power to do it over the flock of which he hath received the special charge and oversight 14. The Lords day is separated by Gods appointment for the Churches ordinary holy Communion in Gods Worship under the conduct of these their Guides 15. And it is requisite that the several particular Churches do maintain as much agreement among themselves as their capacity will allow them and keep due Synods and correspondencies to that end Thus much of Gods Worship and Church-order and Government at least is of Divine institution and determined by Scripture and not left to the will or liberty of man Thus far the Form of Government at least is of Divine Right § 21. But on the contrary 1. About Doctrine and Worship the Scripture is no Law in any of these following cases but hath left them undetermined 1. There are many natural Truths which the Scripture meddleth not with As Physicks Metaphysicks Logick c. 2. Scripture telleth not a Minister what particular Text or Subject he shall Preach on this day or that 3. Nor what method his Text or Subject shall be opened and handled in 4. Nor what day of the week besides the Lords day he shall preach nor what hour on the Lords day he shall begin 5. Nor in what particular place the Church shall meet 6. Nor what particular sins we shall most confess nor what personal mercies we shall at this present time first ask nor for what we shall now most copiously give thanks For special occasions must determine all these 7. Nor what particular Chapter we shall now read nor what particular Psalm we shall now sing 8. Nor what particular translation of the Scripture or version of the Psalms we shall now use Nor into what Sections to distribute the Scripture as we do by Chapters and Verses Nor whether the Bible shall be Printed or Written or in what Characters or how bound 9. Nor just by what sign I shall express my consent to the truths or duties which I am called to express consent to besides the Sacraments and ordinary words 10. Nor whether I shall use written Notes to help my memory in Preaching or Preach without 11. Nor whether I shall use a writing or book in prayer or pray without 12. Nor whether I shall use the same words in preaching and prayer or various new expressions 13. Nor what utensils in holy administrations I shall use as a Temple or an ordinary house a Pulpit a font a Table cups cushions and many such which belong to the several parts of Worship 14. Nor in what particular gesture we shall preach or read or hear 15. Nor what particular garments Ministers or people shall wear in time of Worship 16. Nor what natural or artificial helps to our natural faculties Of which I have spoke more fully in my Disput. 5. of Church-Government p. 400. c. we shall use as medicaments for the Voice tunes musical instruments spectacles hour-glasses These and such like are undetermined in Scripture and are left to be determined by humane prudence not as men please but as means in order to the proper end according to the General Laws of Christ. For Scripture is a General Law for all such circumstances but not a particular Law So also for Order and Government Scripture hath not particularly determined 1. What individual persons shall be the Pastors of the Church 2. Or of just how many persons the Congregations shall consist 3. Or how the Pastors shall divide their work where there are many 4. Nor how many every Church shall have 5. Nor what particular people shall be a Pastors special charge 6. Nor what individual persons he shall Baptize receive to Communion admonish or absolve 7. Nor in what words most of these shall be expressed 8. Nor what number of Pastors shall meet in Synods for the communion and agreement of several Churches noâ how oft nor at what time or place nor what particular order shall be among them in their consultations with many such like § 22. When you thus understand how far Scripture is a Law to you in the Worship of God it will be the greatest Direction to you to keep you both from disobeying God and your Superiours that you may neither pretend obedience to man for your disobedience to God nor pretend obedience to God against your due obedience to your Governours as those will do that think Scripture is a more particular Rule than ever Christ intended it And it will prevent abundance of unnecessary scruples contentions and divisions § 23. Direct 12. Observe well in Scripture the difference between Christs Universal Laws which Direct 12. bind all his Subjects in all times and places and those that are but local personal or alterable Laws What commands of God are not universal noâ perpetual lest you think that you are bound to all that ever God bound any others to The Universal Laws and unalterable are those which result from the Foundation of the universal and unalierable nature of persons and things and those which God hath supernaturally revealed as suitable constantly to all The particular local or temporary Laws are those which either resulted from a particular or alterable nature of persons and things as mutually related as the Law of nature bound Adams Sons to marry their Sisters which bindeth others against it or those which God supernaturally enacted only for some particular people or person or for a time If you should mistake all the Iewish Laws for universal Laws as to persons or duration into how many errours would it lead you So also if you mistake every personal mandate sent by a Prophet or Apostle to a particular man as obliging all you would make a snare of it Every man is not to abstain
here is not meant the substance of the Christian belief or any one necessary Article of it But a Belief of the indifferency of such things as Paul spake of in meats and drinks If thou know these things to be Lawful when thy weak brother doth not and so thou be wiser than he thank God for thy knowledge and use it to thy own salvation but do not proudly or uncharitably contend for it and use it uncharitably to the danger of anothers soul much less to the wrong of the Church and Gospel and the hinderance of greater truths 2 Tim 2. 14. Of these things put them in remembrance that is of the Saints hope in Gods faithfulness charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit but the subverting of the hearers Yet for the faith we must earnestly contend Jude 2 3. So 2 Tim. 2. 2. 23 24. But foolish and unlearned questi ãâ¦ã avoid knowing that they do gender strife And the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men § 8. But that which is the chiefest matter of our Profession is The being and perfections of God himself His love to man and power over him and mans subjection and obligations unto God The person and office and works and benefits of our Redeemer with all the duty that we owe to him in perfect holiness and all the hopes that we have in him the happiness of the Saints the odiousness of sin and the misery of the wicked These and such as these are things that we are called to Profess yet so as not to deny or renounce the smallest truth § 9. Direct 3. Understand also the manner how we must make Profession of Religion 1. There is Direct 3. a Professing by words and a professing by Actions 2. There is a solemn profession by Gods publick ordinances and an occasional or privater profession by conference or by our conversations And all these wayes must Religion be professed § 10. Direct 4. Understand also the season of each sort of Profession that you omit not the season nor do it Direct 4. unseasonably 1. Profession by Baptism Lords Supper and Church-assemblies must be done in their season which the Church-guides are the conducters of 2. Profession by an innocent blameless obedient life is never out of season 3. Profession by private conference and by occasional acts of piety must be when opportunity inviteth us and they are likely to attain their ends 4. The whole frame of a Believers life should be so Holy and Heavenly and mortified and above the world as may amount to a serious profession that he liveth in confident hope of the life to come and may shew the world the difference between a Worldling and an heir of Heaven between corrupted nature and true grace The Professors of Godliness must be a peculiar people zealous of good works and adorned with them Tit. 2. 14. 1 Tim. 2. 10. § 11. Direct 5. Take special care that your Profession be sincere and that you be your selves as good Direct 5. as you profess to be Otherwise 1. Your profession will condemn your selves 2. And it will dishonour the truth which you deceitfully profess There can scarce a greater injury befall a good cause than to have a bad and shameful patron to defend it Rom. 2. 3. And thinkest thou this O man that judgest them which do such things and dost the same that thou shalt escape the judgement of God Vers. 13. to 25. Thou that makest thy boast of the Law through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God For the name of God is blaspheamed among the Gentiles through you § 12. Direct 6. Let not your profession be so much of your own sincerity as of God and his excellencies Direct 6. Boast not of your selves but of God and Christ and the promise and the Hope of true believers and do it to Gods praise and not for your own Be sure that in all your profession of Religion you be seeking honour to God and not unto your selves And then in this manner he that doubteth of his own sincerity yet may and must make profession of Christ and true Religion when you cannot proclaim the uprightness of your own hearts you may boldly proclaim the excellencies of Religion and the happiness of Saints § 13. Direct 7. Live upon God alone and trust his Alsufficiency and abhor that pusillanimity and Direct 7. baseness of spirit which maketh men afraid or ashamed openly to own the truth Remember the example of your Lord who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession 1 Tim. 6. 13. who came for this end into the world to bear witness to the truth Fear not the face of man whose breath is in his Joh. 18. 37. The Arrians under Valens and the Vandalâ still silenced the Orthodox Preachers and forbad their meetings and yet the people adhered to their Pastors and kept their meetings while they could Saepius prohibitum est ut sacerdotes vestri conventus minime celebrarent nec sua seditione animas subverterent Chistianas Praecept Hunner in Victorâ uticers p. 414. nostrils and is perishing even while he is threatning If thou believe not that Christ can secure thee from the rage of man thou believest not indeed in Christ If thou believe not that Heaven will satisfie for all that by scorns or cruelties thou sufferest from sinners thou hast not indeed the hope of a believer And no wonder if thou profess not that which thou believest not But if thou believe that God is God and Christ is Christ and Heaven is Heaven and the Gospel is true thou hast enough in thy Belief to secure thee against all the scorns and cruelties of man and to tell thee that Christ will bear thy charges in all that thou sufferest for his sake O what abundance are secretly convinced of the truth and their Consciences bear witness to the wisdom of the Saints and a holy life and yet they dare not openly own and stand to the truth which they are convinced of for fear of being mockt by the tongues of the profane or for fear of losing their places and preferments O wretch dost thou not tremble when thou art ashamed of Christ to think of the day when he will be ashamed of thee Then when he comes in Glory none will be ashamed of him Then where is the tongue that mockt him and his servants Who then will deride his holy wayes Then that will be the greatest Glory which thou art now ashamed of Canst thou believe that day and yet hide thy profession through cowardly fear or shame of man Is man so great and is Christ no greater in thine eyes than so If he be not more regardable than man believe not in him If he be regard him more and let not a worm be preferred before thy Saviour § 14. Direct 8. If any doubt arise whether thou shouldst now make particular Profession of
to make further enquiry and so when the soul is come so far as to see the same truths by supernatural Grace in the supernatural revelation of the Holy Scriptures then they become more effectual and saâing which before were known but preparatorily And so the same Truths are then both the objects of Knowledge and of faith § 20. 4. Having acquainted you with mans ultimate End and Happiness in the life to come the 4. To know that Christ faith Repentance and obedience is the way to it next thing to be taught you by the Ministers of Christ is that Christ as our Saviour and faith and repentance and sincere obedience to be performed by us through his grace is the way to Heaven or the means by which we must attain this end Though the Knowledge of the Preachers wisdom piety and credibility remove some impediments which would make the receiving of this the more difficult to you yet you are not to take it barely on his word as a point of humane faith but you are to call for his proof of it that you may see better reasons than his affirmations for the entertainment of it § 21. 5. The proof that he will give you is in these two Propositions 1. Gods Revelations are all 5. To know that this is True because God hath revealed it or it is his Word true 2. This is one of Gods Revelations This is an argument Whatsoever God saith is true But this God saith Therefore this is true The first Proposition you âre not to take upon the trust of his word but to learn of him as a Teacher to know it in its proper Evidence For it is the formal object of your faith The veracity of God is first known to you by the same Evidence and means as you know that there is a God And then it is by the force of this that you believe the particular truths which are the material object of faith 2. And the second Proposition that God hath revealed this is orderly to be first proved and so received upon its proper evidence and not taken meerly upon your Teachers word Yet if you do believe him by a humane faith as a man that is likely to know what he saith and this in order to a Divine faith it will not hinder but help your Divine faith and salvation and is indeed no more than is your duty § 22. Here not 1. That primarily these two Great Principles of faith God is True and this is Gods revelation are not themselves Credenda the Material objects of Divine faith but of Knowledge â 2. That yet the result of both is de fide matter of faith 3. And the same principles are secondarily de fide as it is that there is a God For though they are first to be known by natural evidence yet when the Scripture is opened to us we shall find them there revealed And so the same thing may be the object both of knowledge and of faith 4. And Faith it self is a sort of Knowledge For though humane faith have that uncertainty in its premises for the most part as forbiddeth us to say properly I know this to be true because such a man said it Yet Divine faith hath that certainty which may make it an excellent sort of Knowledge as I have proved copiously elsewhere In believing man we argue thus Whatsoever so wise and honest a man saith is credible that is most â likely to be true But this he saith Therefore c. But in believing God we argue thus Whatever God saith is credible that is as infallible truth But this God saith Therefore c. So that the word Credible signifieth not the same thing in the two arguments nor is Divine Faith and Humane faith the same § 23. 6. The next thing that the Preacher hath to teach you is the proof of the foresaid Minor 6. To knâw that the Gospel is his Word Proposition for the Major was proved in the proof of a Deity And that is thus The Gospel which Christ and his Apostles first Preached and is now delivered in the Sacred Scriptures is the Word or infallible revelation of God But this doctrine that Christ with faith and Repentance and obedience on our parts are the way to life Eternal is the Gospel which Christ and his Apostles first Preached c. Therefore it is the Word of God For the Minor you need not take your Teachers word if you can read for you may see it in the Books of which more anon But the Major is that which all men will desire to be assured of that the Gospel is Gods word And for that though a Belief of your Teacher is a help and good preparatory yet you are not there to stop but to use him as a Teacher to shew you the Truth of it in the proofs else you must take any thing for Gods Word which your Teacher affirmeth to be such And the proof which he will give you must be some Divine attestation which may be shewed to those whom we would convince § 24. 7. This Divine attestation which he is next to shew you hath many parts that it may be 7. The Divine attestation of the Gospel compleat and satisfactory 1. Gods antecedent Testimony 2. His inherent or impressed testimony 3. His adherent concomitant Testimony 4. His subsequent Testimony 1. Gods Antecedent Testimony by which he attesteth the Gospel is the train of Promises Prophesies Types and the preparing Ministry of Iohn which all foretold Christ and were fulfilled in him 2. Gods impressed â testimony is that Image and superscription of God in his Governing-wisdom Holiness and Love which is unimmitably engraven on the Gospel as an Image upon a seal which is thereby made the Instrument to imprint the same on other things Thus as the Sun the Gospel shineth and proveth it self by its proper light 3. The conâomitant attestation of God is that of multitudes of certain uncontrouled miracles done by Christ and his Apostles which proved the approving hand of God and oblige all rational creatures to believe a testimony so confirmed to them Among these Christs own Resurrection and Ascension and the Gifts of his Apostles are the chief 4. The subsequent attestation of God is the power and efficacy of the Gospel in calling and sanctifying unto Christ a peculiar people zealous of good works and directing and confirming them against all temptations and torments to the end Producing that same Image of God on the souls of his Elect which is more perfectly engraven on the word it self making such changes and gathering such a people unto God as no other doctrine ever did And all these four attestations are but one even the Holy Spirit â who is become the great witness of Christ and his Gospel in the World viz. 1. The spirit of Prophesie is the antecedent attestation 2. The Holy Image which the spirit hath Printed on the Gospel it self
men were before when once they converse together and grow acquainted they are more reconciled The reason is partly because they find less evil and more good in one another than before they did believe to be in them and partly because uncharitableness and malice being an ugly monster is bolder at a distance but ashamed of it self before your face And therefore the pens of the Champions of malice are usually more bitter than their tongues when they speak to you face to face Of all the furious adversaries that have raged against me in the later part of my life I remember not one enemy that I have or ever had that was ever familiar or acquainted with me And I have my self heard ill reports of many which by personal acquaintance I have found to be all false Keep together and either silence your differences or gently debate them yea rather chide it out than withdraw asunder Familiarity feedeth Love and Unity § 106. Direct 23. When ever you look at any corruption in the Church look also at the contrary exârâam Direct 23. and see and avoid the danger of one as well as of the other Be sure every error and Church-corruption hath its extream And if you do not see it and the danger of it you are the liker to run into it Look well on both sides if you would be safe § 107. Direct 24. Worship God your selves in the purest manner and under the most edifying Ministry Direct 24. that lawfully you can attain but be not too forward to condemn others that reach not to your measure or attain not so much happiness And deny not personal communion sometimes with Churches that are more blemished and fit for Communion And when you cannot joyn locally with them let them have the communion of your Hearts in faith and charity and prayer for each other I fear not here openly to tell the world that if I were turned loose to my own liberty I would ordinarily worship God in that manner that I thought most pure and agreeable to his Will and Word but I would sometimes go to the Churches of other Christians that were fit for Christian communion if there were such about me Sometime to the Independants sometime to the moderate Anabaptists sometime to such as had a Liturgie as faulty as that of the Greek or the Ethiopian Churches to shew by my practice what communion my heart hath with them all § 108. Direct 25. Take heed that you interess not Religion or the Church in Civil differences This Direct 25. error hath divided and ruined many famous Churches and most injuriously made the holy truth and worship of God to be a reproach and infamy among selfish partial carnal men When Princes and Since the writing of this I have published a Book called The Curt of Church-Divistoâs and a Defence of it which handle these things more fully States fall out among themselves they will needs draw the Ministers to their sides and then one side will certainly condemn them and call them all that self-interest and malice can invent And commonly when the controversie is only in point of Law or Politicks it is Religion that bears the blame of all and the differences of Lawyers and Statesmen must be charged upon Divines that the Devil may be able to make them useless as to the good of all that party that is against them and may make Religion it self be called Rebellion And O that God would maintain the Peace of Kingdoms and Kings and Subjects were all Lovers of peace the rather because the differences in States do cause so commonly divisions in the Church It would make a man wonder and a lover of History to lament to observe in the differences between the Pope and Henry the fourth and other Emperours how the Historians are divided one half commending him that the other half condemneth and how the Bishops and Churches were one half for the Pope and the other for the Emperour and one half still accounted Rebels or Schismaticks by the other though they were all of one Religion It is more to ruine the Church than Kingdoms that Satan laboureth so much to kindle Warrs and breed Civil differences in the world And therefore let him that loveth the Churches Peace be an obedient Subject and an enemy of Sedition and a Lover and defender of the Civil Peace and Government in the place that God hath set him in For this is pleasing unto God § 109. I know there are some that with too bloody and calamitous success have in most ages given other kind of Directions for the extirpation of Error Heresie and Schism than I have here given But God hath still caused the most wise and holy and charitable and experienced Christians Bââa Hist. Ecâlâsââib 1. cap. 26. Didicerat enim Rex Edilberth a Doctoribut auctoribusque suae salutis servitium Christi voluntarium non coactitium debeâe esse to bear their testimony against them And he hath ever caused their way of cruelty to turn to their own shame And though like Treasons and Robberies it seem for the time present to serve their turn it is bitterness in the end and leaveth a stinking memorial of their names and actions to posterity And the Treatises of Reconcilers such as our Halls Ushers Bergius Burroughs and many other by the delectable savour of Unity and Charity are sweet and acceptable to prudent and peaââable persons though usually unsuccessful with the violent that needed them Besides the fore-cited witness of Sr. Francis Bacon c. I will here add one of the most antient and one or two of this age whom the contrary-minded do mention with the greatest honour Iustin Martyr Dial. cum Tryph. doth at large give his judgement that a Judaizing Christian who thinketh it best to be circumciââd and keep the Law of Moses be suffered in his opinion and practice and admitted to the communion and priviledges of the Church and loved as one that may be saved in that way so be it he do not make it his business to perswade others to his way and teach it as necessary to salvation or communion For such he doth condemn King Iames by the Pen of Is. Causabone telleth Cardinal du Perron that His Majesty thinketh that for Concord there is no nearer way than diligently to separate things necessary from the unnecessary and to bestow all our labour that we may agree in the things necessary and that in things unnecessary there may be place given for Christian Liberty The King calleth these things simply necessary which either the Word of God expresly commandeth to be believed or done or which the antient Church did gather from the Word of God by necessary consequence Grotius Annot. in Matth. 13. 41. is so full and large upon it that I must intreat the Reader to peruse his own words where by arguments and authority he-vehemently rebuketh the Spirit of fury cruelty and uncharitableness which
and not under the scandal of Heresie Schism or gross corruption among those that live about 4. That it be under the countenance and encouraging favour of the Christian Magistrate 5. That it be the same Church of which the rest of the family which we are of be members That Husband and Wife Parents and Children Masters and Servants be not of several Churches 6. That the Pastors be able Teachers prudent Guides and of holy lives and diligent in their office 7. That the Pastors be regularly called to their office 8. That the members be intelligent peaceable and of holy temperate and righteous lives But when all these cannot be had together we must choose that Church which hath those qualifications which are most needful and bear with tolerable imperfections The most needful are the first second and sixth of these qualifications Prop. 27. He that is free should choose that Church which is the fittest for his own edification that is The best Pastors people and administrations Prop. 28. A mans freedom is many wayes restrained herein As 1. When it will tend to a greater publick hurt by disorder ill example division discouragement c. 2. When superiours forbid it Of these things I have said so much in my Cure of Church Divisions and in the Defence of it and in the end of my Reas. of Christ. Relig. Consect 1. 2. that I pass them over here with the more brevity As Husbands Parents Masters Magistrates 3. By some scandal 4. By the distance or inconvenience of our dwelling 5. By differences of Judgement and other causes of contention in the said Churches And many other wayes Prop. 29. A free man who removeth from one Church to another for his edification is not therefore a Separatist or Schismatick But it must not be done by one that is not free but upon such necessity as freeth him Prop. 30. It is schism or sinful separation to separate from 1. A true Church as no true Church 2. From Lawful Worship and Communion as unlawful But of this more in its proper place Quest. 2. Whether we must esteem the Church of Rome a true Church And in what sense some Divines affirm it and some deny it WAnt of some easie distinguishing hath made that seem a Controversie here which is so plain ââââ Mr. Bur ãâ¦ã ând ãâ¦ã 's contest hereabout that it can hardly be any at all to Protestants if the question had been but truly stated Remember therefore that by a Church is meant not a meer company of Christians any how related to each other but a society consisting of an Ecclesiastical Head and Body such as we call a Political society 2. And that we speak not of an Accidental Head such as the King is because he Governeth them suo modo by the sword for that is not an Essential Constitutive Part But of a Constitâtive Ecclesiastical Head and body 3. That the question is not Whether the Church of Rome be a Part of the Church but whether it be a true Church And now I answer 1. To affirm the Church of Rome to be the Catholick or Universal Church is more than to affirm it to be a true Catholick Church that is a true part of the Catholick Church and is as much as to say that it is the whole and only Church and that there is no other which is odious falshood and usurpation and slander against all other Churches 2. The Church of Rome is so called in the Question as it is a Policy or Church in a general sense And the meaning of the Question is Whether it be a Divine or a Humane or Diabolical Policy A Lawful Church 3. The Church of Rome is considered 1. Formally as a Church or Policy 2. Materially as the singular persons are qualified It is the Form that denominateth Therefore the Question must be taken of the Roman Policy or of the Church of Rome as such that is As it is one Ruler pretending to be the â Vicarious constitutive Governing Head of all Christs Visible Church on earth and the Body which owneth him in this Relation 4. Therefore I conclude and so do all Protestants that this Policy or Church of Rome is no true Church of Christs Instituting or approbation but a Humane sinful Policy formed by the Temptation of Satan the Prince of Pride deceit and darkness The proof of which is the matter of whole loads of Protestant Writings And indeed the proof of their Policy being incumbent on themselves they fail in it and are still fain to fly to pretended false Tradition for proof in which the Sophisters know that either they must be Judges themselves and it must go for truth because they say it or else that if they can carry the Controversie into a Thicket or Wood of Fathers and Church History at least they can confound the ignorant and evade themselves Of this see my Disput. with Iohnson and my Key for Catholicks c. 5. The Bishop of the English Papists Smith called Bishop of Chalcedon in his Survey cap. 5. saith To us it sufficeth that the Bishop of Rome is St. Peters successour and this all the Fathers testifie and all â the Catholick Church believeth But whether it be jure Divino or humano is no point of faith The like hath * System Fidâi Davenport called Fransc. à Sancta Clarâ more largely By this let the Reader judge whether we need more words to prove their Church to be such as Christ never instituted when the belief of their Divine right is no part of their own faith 6. If the Church of Rome in its formal Policy be but of humane institution it is 1. Unnecessary to salvation 2. Unlawful Because they that first instituted it had no Authority so to do and were Usurpers For either the makers of it were themselves a Church or no Church If no Church they could not lawfully make a Church Infidels or Heathens are not to be our Church-makers If a Church then there was a Church before the Church of Rome and that of another form And if that former form were of Christs institution man might not change it If not who made that form And so on 7. Our Divines therefore that say that the Church of Rome is a True Church though corrupt do not speak of it formally as to the Papal Policy or Headship but materially 1. That all Papists that are visible Christians are visible Parts of the universal Church 2. That their particular Congregations considered abstractedly from the Roman Headship may be true particular Churches though corrupt which yet being the only difficulty shall be the matter of our next enquiry Quest. 3. Whether we must take the Romish Clergy for true Ministers of Christ And whether their Baptism and Ordination be nullities I Joyn these two distinct Questions together for brevity 1. As True signifieth Regularly called so they are commonly Irregular and not True Ministers But as True signifieth
sins 4. And another thing to forbear all communion with them even as to Baptism and other lawful things 5. And another thing to use some open detestations or protestations against them 2. And we must distinguish much of persons whether they be Ministers or people free or bound as Wives Children c. And now I answer 1. There is no question but it is a duty to judge all that evil which is evil among the Papists or any other 2. It is the duty of all to forbear subscribing swearing to or otherwise approving evil 3. It is the duty of all Mass-Priests to renounce that part of their calling and not to administer their Mass or any other unlawful thing 4. It is the duty of all private Christians to forbear communion in the Mass because it is a kind of Idolatry while they worship a piece of Bread as God As also Image-Worship and all other parts of their Religion in which they are put upon sin themselves or that which is notorious scandal and symbolizing with them in their Bread-worship or other corruptions of the substance of Gods Ordinances 5. It is their duty who have fit opportunity when it is like to do more good than harm to protest against the Papal corruptions where they are and to declare their detestation of them 6. It is the duty of those that have children to be baptized or catechized to make use of more lawful and sound Ministers when they may be had rather than of a Papist Priest 7. But in case they cannot remove or enjoy better I think it is lawful 1. To let such baptize their children rather than leave them unbaptized 2. To let their children be taught by them to read or in Arts and Sciences or the Catechism and common principles of Religion so they will mix no dangerous errors 3. And to hear those of them preach who preach soundly and piously such as were Gerrhard Zuâphaniensis Thaulerus Ferus and many more 4. And to read such good Books as these now mentioned have written 5. And to joyn with them in such Prayers as are âound and pious so they go no further 8. And Wives Children and such other as are bound and cannot lawfully remove may stay among them and take up with thâse helps dealing faithfully in abstaining from the rest II. The second Question is answered in this Only I add that it is one thing to be present as Elias was in a way of opposition to them or as Disputants are that open their errors or as a wise man may go to hear or see what they do without complyance as we read their Books And it is another thing to joyn with them in their sinful worship or scandalously to encourage them in it by seeming so to do See Calv. Contr. Nicod c. Quest. 7. Whether the true Calling of the Minister by Ordination or Election c. be necessary to the Essence of the Church BY a Church here we mean a Political Society of Christians and not any Assembly or Community And no doubt but Pastor and Flock are the constitutive parts of such a Church And where either of them are notoriously wanting it is notorious that there is no true Church Therefore all the doubt is whether such parts of his Call be necessary to the being of the Ministry or not And here we must conclude that the word Ministry and Church are ambiguous By a Mister or Pastor is meant either one that God so far owneth as to accept and justifie his administrations as for himself even his own good and salvation or one whose administrations God will own accept and bless to the people I. In the former sense 1. He is no true Minister that wanteth the essential qualifications of a Minister viz. that hath not 1. The understanding and belief of all the essential Articles of faith without Heresie 2. Tolerable Ability to teach these to the people and perform the other essentials of his office 3. Sincere Godliness to do all this in Love and obedience to God as his Servant in order to life eternal 2. And he is thus no true Pastor as to Gods acceptance of himself who hath not a lawful Calling that is 1. Ordination when it may be had 2. The Consent or Reception of that Church of which he pretendeth to be Pastor which is still necessary and must be had if Ordination cannot II. But in the second sense he is a Pastor so far as that God will own his Administrations as to the Peoples Good who 1. Hath possession 2. And seemeth to them to have necessary qualifications and a lawful call though it prove otherwise so be it it be not through their wilful fault that he is culpable or they mistaken in him If he be not a true Believer but an Infidel or Heretick he is no Minister as Act. 1. 17. Mat. 7. 22. to himself that is God will use him as an Usurper that hath no title But if he profess to be a believer when he is not he is a true Pastor visibly to the people Otherwise they could never know when they have a Pastor Even as real faith makes a real Christian and Professed faith maketh a visible Christian so is it as to the Ministry If he seem to understand the Articles of faith and do not or if he seem to have due ordination when he hath not if he be upon this mistake Accepted by the people he is a true Visible Pastor as to them that is as to their Duty and Benefit though not as to himself Yea the peoples consent to his entrance is not necessary ad esse nor to his Relation neither so far as to justifie himself but to his Administrations and to his Relation so far as their own Right and benefit is interessed in it So that two things are necessary to such a Visible Pastor as shall perform valid administrations to the Church 1. Seeming necessary qualifications and Calling to it 2. Possession by the peoples Reception or Consent to his Administrations and Relation so far as to their benefit And II. Thus also we must distinguish of the word Church It is 1. Such an entire Christian society as hath a Minister or Pastor whose office is valid as to himself and them Or it is such a society only as hath a Pastor whose office is valid to them but not to himself Let us not confound the question de re and de nomine These societies differ as is said Both may fitly be called True Churches As it is with a Kingdom which hath a Rightful Prince and one that hath an Usurper so is it here 1. If it have a Rightful King accepted it is a Kingdom in the fullest sense 2. If it have an Usurper accepted as King it is a Kingdom but faulty 3. If the Usurper be only so far accepted as that the people consent not to his entrance no nor his Relation so as to justifie his title but wish him cast out
every qualified person for a member of that Church where his habitation is called a Parish and to which he ordinarily resorteth the Pastor that undertaketh that charge doth thereby seem to consent to be Pastor to all such persons in that Parish And there Cohabitation and ordinary conjunction with the Church may go for a signification of consent and instead of more particular Contract or Covenant by virtue of the exposition of the said Laws and Customs Yet so that a man is not therefore to be taken for a member of the Church meerly because he liveth in the Parish For so Atheists Infidels Hereticks and Papists may do But because he is 1. A Parishioner 2. Qualified 3. Joyning with the Church and actually submitting to the Ministry 12. Where there is this much only it is a sinful slander to say that such a Parish is no true Church of Christ however there may be many desirable orders wanting to its better being Who hath the power of trying and receiving we shall shew anon Quest. 17. Wherein doth the Ministerial Office essentially consist THe Office of the Sacred Ministry is a mixt Relation not a simple 1. As the Minister is related to Christ he is His Servant or Minister by Office that is one Commissioned by him for that John 20. 21. 13 20. Luke 10 3 Rom. 10. 15. Acts 20 28. sacred work where there is 1. The Commission it self which is not Particular but General in a General Law applicable to each singular person when qualified 2. The determination of the individual person who is to receive it which consisteth in the Call which I have opened before and therefore repeat not Only note again that by virtue of the General Commission or Institution of the Office in specie the power is conveyed from Christ to the Individual person and that the Church Electors or Ordainers are not the Donors Authorizers or Obligers but only instruments of designing an apt recipient and delivering him possession 2. That by virtue of this Institution Charter or Law-Commission it is that the acts of a man seemingly or visibly called are valid to the Church though Phil 1. 15 16 17. really he were not ordained or truly called but deceived them by hypocritical intrusion Matth. 7. 22 Rom. 15. 14. Eââââs 4. 7 8. 2 Tim 2 2. â Tim 1. 5 7. Ephes. 6. 19. Col. 4. 3. 2 âor â 4 5. Tâtuâ 1. â 2 Cor. 3 6. 1 Cor. 4. 1 2. Tâtus 1. 7. 2. The Causation or Efficiency of Christ in the making any one a Minister is 1. Dispositive makeing him a qualified fit recipient 2. Then Applying the General Commission to him or giving him the Function it self 1. The Dispositive acts of Christ are 1. Giving him competent Knowledge for a Minister 2. Giving him competent Goodness that is Love to God Truth and Souls and willingness for the work 3. Giveing him competent Power or Abilities for Execution which is principally in Vtterance and so qualifying his Intellect Will and Executive Power 2. The Immediate Conveyance or act of Collation is 1. An Obligation laid on the person to do the work 2. Authority given him to warrant him and to oblige others That is a Ius docendi gubernandi c. 3. The form of the Relation is denominated 1. From the Reception of these Efficiencies in general 2. From the subordination which hereby they are placed in to Christ as their Relation is denominated a Termino 1. Formally the Office consisteth in 1. An Obligation to do the work of the Office 2. Authority to do it and to oblige others to submit to it 2. These make up an Office which being denominated also from the Terminus is considered 1. As to the nearest term which is the work to be done 2. The remote which is the object of that work 2 Tâm 2. 2. 3 2. 4. 11. â 2 3. 1 ââââss 5. 12 13. The work is 1. Teaching 2. Ruling 3. Worshipping And so it is essentially An Obligation and Power of Ministerial Teaching Ruling and Worshipping God 2. As to the object it is 1. The world to be Converted 2. The Converted to be Baptized and Congregated or ordered into particular Societies so far as may be 3. The Baptized and Congregate to be Heb. 13. 7 17 Acts 6. 4. Acts 9. 40. Acts 20. 36. Mal. 2. 7. Heb. 10. 11. Rev. 1. 6. 5 10. 20. 6. â Pet. 2. 5 6. 1. Taught 2. Ruled 3. Guided in Worship From all which resulteth an Office which is Ministerially subordinate to Christ as 1. The Prophet or Teacher 2. The Ruler 3. The High Priest and Lover of his Church And it may be aptly called both a Teaching Ministry a Ruling Ministry not by the Sword but by the Word and a Priesthood or Priestly Ministry II. As the Pastor is related to the Church he is 1. A Constitutive part of particular Political Churches 2. He is Christs Minister for the Church and for Christ that is to Teach Rule and Worship with Rom. 1. 1â Col. 4. 12. 2 Pet. 11. 1. 1 Cor. 4. 1 2. 3. 5. 2 Cor. 3. 6. 6. 4. 11. 23 Matth. 24. 45 46 48. the Church He is Above the Church and Greater than it as to Order and Power and not the Minister of the Church as the Efficient of the Ministry But he is less and worse than the Church Finally and Materially and is finally the Churches Minister as the Physicion is the Patients Physicion not made a Physicion by him but chosen and used as his Physicion for his cure So that to speak properly he is not from them but for them He is Christs Minister for their good As the Shepherd is his Masters Servant for his Flock and so finally only the servant of the Sheep The whole uncontrovertible work of the Office is laid down in my small Book called Universal 1 Cor. 9. 19. Concord to which I must refer you Quest. 18. Whether the Peoples Choice or Consent is necessary to the Office of a Minister in his first work as he is to Convert Infidels and Baptize them And whether this be a work of Office And what Call is necessary to it I Conjoyn these three distinct Questions for expedition I. That it is part of the Ministers Office-work to Teach Convert and Baptize men to bring them out of the world into the Church is undenyable 1. In Christs express Commission Mat. 28. 19 20. Go disciple me all Nations baptizing them 2. In the execution of this Commission 2. That this was not peculiar to the Apostles or their age is proved 1. Because not an extraordinary work like Miracles c. but the first great business of the Gospel and Ministry in the world 2. Because others as well as the Apostles did it in that age and ever since 3. Because the promise is annexed to the Office thus described I am with you alway to the end of the world Or if you
was not And so I answer 1. He that seemed Ordained and indeed was not is not Re-ordained when he is after Ordained 2. It is needful therefore to know the Essentials of Ordination from the Integrals and Accidentals 3. He that was truly Ordained before may in some cases receive again the Repetition of the bare words and outward Ceremonies of Ordination as Imposition of hands Where I will 1. Tell you in what Cases 2. Why. 1. In case there wanted sufficient witnesses of his Ordination and so the Church hath not sufficient means of notice or satisfaction that ever he was ordained indeed Or if the witnesses die before the notification Whether the Church should take his word or not in such a case is none of my question but Whether he should submit to the Repetition if they will not 2. Especially in a time and place which I have known when written and sealed Orders are often counterfeited and so the Church called to extraordinary care 3. Or if the Church or Magistrate be guilty of some causeless culpable incredulity and will not believe it was done till they see it done again 4. Or in case that some real or supposed Integral though not essential part was omitted or is by the Church or Magistrate supposed to be omitted And they will not permit or receive the Minister to exercise his office unless he repeat the whole Action again and make up that defect 5. Or if the person himself do think that his ordination was insufficient and cannot exercise his Ministry to the satisfaction of his own Conscience till the defect be repaired 1. In these cases and perhaps such others the outward Action may be repeated 2. The Reasons are 1. Because this is not a being twice ordained For the word Ordination signifieth a Moral action and not a Physical only As the word Marriage doth c. And it essentially includeth the new Dedication and Designation to the Sacred office by a kind of Covenant between the Dedicated person and Christ to whom he is consecrated and devoted And the external words are but a part and a part only as significant of the action of the mind Now the oft expressing of the same mental dedication doth not make it to be as many distinct dedications For 1. If the Liturgy or the persons words were tautological or at the Ordination should say the same thing often over and over or for confirmation should say often that which else might be said but once this doth not make it an often or multiplyed Ordination It was but one Love which Peter expressed when Christ made him say thrice that he Loved him nor was it a threefold Ordination which Christ used when he said thrice to him Feed my Lambs and Sheep 2. And if thrice saying it that hour make it not three Ordinations neither will thrice saying it at more hours dayes or months or years distance in some Cases For the Time maketh not the Ordinations to be many It is but one Moral Action But the common errour ariseth from the custom of calling the outward action alone by the name of the whole moral Action which is ordinarily done to the like deceit in the case of the Baptismal Covenant and the Lords Supper 3. The common judgement and custome of the World confirmeth what I say If persons that are marryed should for want of witness or due solemnity be forced to say and do the outward action all over again it is by no wise man taken in the proper moral full sense for a second Marriage but for one marriage twice uttered And if you should in witness bearing be put to your Oath and the Magistrate that was absent should say Reach him the Book again I did not hear him swear The doing it twice is not Morally two witnessings noâ Oaths but one only twice Physically uttered If you Bind your Son Apprentice or if you make any Indentures or Contract and the Writings being lost or faulty you write and sign and seal them all again this is not morally another Contract but the same done better or again recorded And so it is plainly in this case 4. But Re-ordination morally and properly so called is unlawful For 1. It is or implyeth a lyâ viz. that we were not truly Dedicated and Separated to this office before 2. It is a Sacrilegious renunciation of our former dedication to God whereas the Ministerial dedication and Covenant is for Life and not for a tryal which is the meaning of the Indelible Character which is a perpetual Relation and obligation 3. It is a taking the Name of God in vain thus to do and undoe and do again and to promise and renounce and promise again and to pretend to receive a power which we had before 4. It tendeth to great confusions in the Church As to make the people doubt of their Baptism or all the Ministerial Administrations of such as are re-ordained while they acted by the first Ordination 5. It hath ever been condemned in the Churches of Christ as the Canons called the Apostles and the Churches constant practice testifie 5. Though the bare Repetition of the outward Action and words be not Re-ordination yet he that on any of the forementioned occasions is put to repeat the said words and actions is obliged so to do it as that it may not seem to be a Re-ordination and so be a scandal to the Church Or if it outwardly seem so by the action he is bound to declare that it is no such thing for the counterpoising that appearance of evil 6. When the Ordainers or the common estimation of the Church do take the Repetition of the words and Action for a Re-ordination though the Receiver so intend it not yet it may become unlawful to him by this accident because he scandalizeth and hardeneth the erroneous by doing or receiving that which is Interpretative Re-ordination 7. Especially when the Ordainers shall require this Repetition on notoriously wicked grounds and so put that sense on the action by their own doctrines and demands As for instance 1. If Hereticks should as the Arrians say that we are no Ministers because we are not of their Heresie or Ordained by such as they 2. If the Pope or any proud Papal Usurpers shall say You are no Ministers of Christ except we ordain you And so do it to establish a trayterous usurped Regiment in the Church It is not lawful to serve such an usurpation As if Cardinals or Arch-bishops should say none are true Ministers but those that we Ordain Or Councils or Synods of Bishops or Presbyters should say None are true Ministers but those that we Ordain Or if one Presbyter or one Bishop without Authority would thus make himself master of the rest or of other Churches and say You are no Ministers unless I Ordain you we may not promote such Tyranny and Usurpation 3. If Magistrates would usurp the power of the Keys in Ecclesiastical Ordination and say that
There are two things more in question 1. His Office whether he be a Minister 2. His Regularity whether he came Regularly to it and also his Comparative relation whether this man or another is to be preferred I answer therefore 1. If the person be utterly uncapable the one Bishop or the many whosoever taketh him for uncapable is for the Truth sake to be believed and obeyed 2. If the man be excellently qualified and his Ministry greatly Necessary to the Church whoever would deprive the Church of him be it the One or the Many is to be disobeyed and the ordainers preserred Obj. But who shall judge Answ. The Esse is before the Scire The thing is first True or false before I judge it to be so And therefore whoever judgeth falsly in a case so notorious and weighty as that the welfare of the Church and souls is consideratis considerandis injured and hazarded by his errour is not be believed nor obeyed on pretence of order Because all Christians have judicium discretionis a discerning judgement 3. But if the case be not thus to be determined by the persons notorious qualifications then either it is 1. The man ordained 2. Or the People that the case is debated by whether they should take him for a Minister 3. Or the neighbour Ministers 1. The person himself is caeteris paribus more to regard the judgement of many concordant Bishops than of one singular Bishop And therefore is not to take orders from a singular Bishop when the Generality of the wise and faithful are against it unless he be sure that it is some notorious faction or errour that perverteth them and that there be notorious necessity of his labour 2. The Auditors are either Infidels to be converted and these will take no man upon any of their Authorities or else Christians converted These are either of the particular charge of the singular Bishop who ordaineth or not If they be then pro tempore for orders sake they owe him a peculiar obedience till some further process or discovery disoblige them Though the most be on the other side But yet they may be still bound in Reason most to suspect the Judgement of their singular Bishop while for orders sake they submit to it But if they are not of his flock then I suppose the Judgement and Act of many is to prevail so much against the Act of a single and singular person as that both neighbour Ministers and people are to disown such an ordained person as unfit for their Communion under the notion of a Minister Because Communion of Churches is maintained by the Concord of Pastors But whether the ordained mans Ministry be by their contradictory declaration Eph. 4. 3. 1 Cor. 12. Rom. 14 17 19. or degradation made an absolute nullity to himself and those that submit to him neither I will determine nor should any other Strangers to the particular case For if he be rejected or degraded without such cause and proof as may satisfie other sober persons he hath wrong But if he be so 1 Cor. 14. 33. 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. degraded on proved sufficient cause to them that it is known to it giveth the degraders the advantage And as 1. All particular members are to be obedient to their proper Pastor Phil. 2. 1 2 3. Eph. 4. 15 16. 1 Cor. 1. 10. 2. And all particular Churches are to hold correspondency and communion according to their capacity so must men act in this and such like cases respectively according to the Laws of Obedience to their Pastor and of Concord of the Churches Quest. 24. Hath one Bishop power by Divine right to Ordain Degrade or Govern or Excommunicate or Absolve in anothers Diocess or Church either by his consent or against it And doth a Minister that officiateth in anothers Church act as a Pastor and their Pastor or as a private man And doth the Ministerial office cease when a man removeth from his flock I Thrust these questions all together for their affinity and for brevity 1. Every true Minister of Christ Bishop or Pastor is related to the universal Church by stronger obligations than to his particular charge As the whole is better than the parts and its wellfare to be preferred 2. He that is no Pastor of a particular Church may be a Pastor in the universal obliged as a consecrated person to endeavour its good by the works of his office as he hath particular opportunity and call 3. Yet he that hath a particular charge is specially and neerlyer related and obliged to that charge or Church than to any other part of the universal though not then to the whole And consequently hath a peculiar Authority where he hath a peculiar obligation and work 4. He that is without degrading removed from a particular Church doth not cease to be a General Minister and Pastor related to the Universal Church As a Physicion put out of a Hospital charge is a Physicion still And therefore he needeth no new ordination but only a special Designation to his next particular charge 5. No man is the Bishop of a Diocess as to the measure of ground or the place by divine right that is by any particular Law or determination of God But only a Bishop of the Church or people For your office essentially containeth a Relation to the People but Accidentally only to the Place 6. Yet natural Convenience and Gods General Laws of Order and Edification do make it usually but not alwayes best and therefore a duty to distinguish Churches by the peoples habitation Not taking a man for a Member eo nomine because he liveth on that ground But for order sake taking none for members that live not on that ground and not intruding causelesly into each others bounds 7. He that by the Call or Consent of a Neighbour Pastor and people doth officiate by Preaching Sacraments Excommunication or Absolution in anothers special charge for a day or week or month or more without a fixed relation to that flock doth neither officiate as a Lay-man nor yet unlawfully or irregularly But 1. As a Minister of Christ in the Church Universal 2. And as the Pastor of that Church for the present time only though not statedly Even as a Physicion called to help another in his Hospital or to supply his place for the time doth perform his work 1. As a Licensed Physicion 2. And as the Physicion of that patient or Hospital for that time though not statedly 8. No man is to intrude into anothers Charge without a Call Much less to claim a particular stated Oversight and Authority For though he be not an Usurper as to the Office in General he is an Usurper as to that particular flock It is no error in Ordination to say Take thou authority to preach the Word of God and administer the holy Sacraments when thou shalt be thereto lawfully called that is when thou hast a particular call to the
were only for Counsel or for Agreement by way of contractor mutual Consent to the particular Bishops But they degenerated into a form of Government and claimed a Ruling or Commanding power 4. The Patriarcks Primates and Metropolitans at first claimed but a power about circumstantials extrinsical to the Pastoral office such as is the Timing and Placing of Councils the siâting above others c. And the exercise of some part of the Magistrates power committed to them that is the deposing of other Bishops or Pastors from their station of such Liberty and Countenance as the Magistrate may grant or deny as there is cause But in time they degenerated to claim the spiritual power of the Keys over the other Bishops in point of Ordination Excommunication Absolution 5. These Patriarks Primates and Metropolitans at first claimed their extrinsick power but from Man that is either the Consent and Agreement of the Churches or the grant of the Emperours But in time they grew to claim it as of Divine or Apostolical appointment and as unalterable 6. At first they were taken only for Adjuncts ornaments supports or conveniences to the Churches But afterwards they pretended to be integral parts of the Church universal and at last the Pope would needs be an Essential part And his Cardinals must claim the power of the Church Universal in being the choosers of an Universal Head or a King-Priest and Teacher for all the Christians of the World 7. At first Lay men now called Chancellors c. were only the Bishops Counsellors or officers to the Magistrate or them in performing the extrinsecal work about Church adjuncts which a Lay man might do But at last they came to exercise the Intrinsick power of the Keys in Excommunications and Absolutions c. 8. At first a number of particular Churches consociated with their several Bishops were taken to be a Community or company of true Churches prudentially cantonized or distributed and consociated for Concord But after they grew to be esteemed proper political societies or Churches of Divine appointment if not the Ecclesiae minimae having turned the particular Churches into Oratories or Chappels destroying Ignatius his character of one Church To every Church there is one Altar and one Bishop with his Presbyters and Deacons Abundance more such instances may be given Obj. Wherever we find the Notion of a Church particular there must be Government in that Church And why a national society incorporated into one civil Government joyning into the profession of Christianity and having a right thereby to participate of Gospel Ordinances in the convenient distributions of them in the particular Congregations should not be called a Church I confess I can see no reason Answ. 1. Here observe that the question is only of the Name whether it may be called a Church and not of the thing whether all the Churches in a Kingdom may be under one King which no sober man denyeth 2. Names are at mens disposal much But confess I had rather the name had been used no otherwise or for no other societies than Scripture useth it My Reasons are 1. Because when Christ hath appropriated or specially applyed one name to the sacred societies of his institution it seemeth somewhat bold to make that name common to other societies 2. Because it tendeth to confusion misunderstanding and to cherish errours and controversies in the Churches when all names shall be made common or ambiguous and holy things shall not be allowed any name proper to themselves nor any thing can be known by a bare name without a description If the name of Christ himself should be used of every anointed King it would seem not a little thus injurious to him If the name Bible Scripture Preachers c. be made common to all that the notation of the names may extend to it will introduce the aforesaid inconveniences so how shall we in common talk distinguish between sacred societies of Divine institution and of humane if you will allow us no peculiar name but make that common which Christ hath chosen 3. And that the name is here used equivocally is manifest For the body political is informed and denominated from the pars imperans the Governing part or Head Therefore as a Head of Divine institution authorized for the spiritual or Pastoral work denominateth the society accordingly so a civil Head can make but a civil society and a head of mans making but a humane society It is certain that Christ hath appointed the Episcopal or Pastoral office and their work and consequently Episcopal or Pastoral Churches And it is certain that a King is no constitutive part of one of these Churches but Accidental And therefore that he is an Accidental Head to a Pastoral Church as such to which the Pastor is essential Therefore if you will needs call both these societies Churches you must distinguish them into Pastoral Churches and Regal Churches or Magistratical Churches for the word national notifieth not the Government which is the constitutive part and may be used of Consociated Churches though under many Civil Governours as in the Saxon Heptarchy So that our question is much like this Whether all the Grammar Schools in England as under one King may be called one National School Answ. Not without unfitness and inconveniences But rather than breed any quarrel they may call them so that please But 1. They must confess that a particular School is the famosius significatum 2. That the King is King of Schools but not a Schoolmaster nor a constitutive part of a School 3. That if you will needs denominate them from the Regent part as One you must call them all one Royal School if you will leave the well known sense of words for such uncouth phrases But give us leave to call the Body which is essentiated by a King by the name of a Kingdom only though it have in it many Schools Academies Colledges Cities Churches which they that please may call all one Royal School Academy Colledge City and Church if they love confusion 4. Christianity giveth men right to communion in particular Churches when they also make known their Christianity to the Bishops of those Churches and are received as stated or transient members by mutual consent but not otherwise nor doth meer Regal Government give any subject right to Church Communion except by a Church you mean a Kingdom Obj. A particular Church then I would describe thus It is a society of men joyned together in the visible profession of the true faith having a right to and enjoying among them the ordinances of the Gospel Answ. 1. When you tell us by your description what you will mean by a particular Church we may understand your denomination But yet while it is unusual you must not expect that other men so use the Word Had you called your description a definition I would have asked you 1. Whether by a society you mean not strictly a Political society constituted
Relation or a Right duly to receive the Sacrament that is To receive it understandingly and seriously at those seasons when by the Pastors it is administred 2. But if upon faults or accusations this Right be duly questioned in the Church it is become a controverted right and the possession or admission may by the Bishops or Pastors of the Church be suspended if they see cause while it is under tryall till a just decision 3. Though Infants are true members yet the want of natural capacity duly to receive maketh it unlawful to give them the Sacrament because it is to be Given only to Receivers and Receiving is more than eating and drinking It is Consenting to the Covenant which is the real Receiving in a moral sense or at least Consent professed So that they want not a state of right as to their Relation but a natural capacity to Receive 4. Persons at age who want not the Right of a stated Relation may have such actual Natural and Moral indispositions as may also make them for that time unmeet to Receive As Sickness Infection a Journey persecution scattering the Church a Prison And morally 1. Want of necessary knowledge of the nature of the Sacrament which by the negligence of Pastors or Parents may be the case of some that are but newly past their childhood 2. Some heinous sin of which the sinner hath not so far repented as to be yet ready to receive a sealed pardon or which is so scandalous in the Church as that in publick respects the person is yet unfit for its priviledges 3. Such sins or accusations of sin as make the persons Church-title justly Controverted and his Communion suspended till the case be decided 4. Such fears of unworthy Receiving as were like to hurt and distract the person if he should receive till he were better satisfied These make a man uncapable of present Reception and so are a barr to his plenary right They have still right to Receive in a due manner But being yet uncapable of that due Receiving they have not a plenary right to the thing 5. The same may be said of other parts of our duty and priviledges A man may have a Relative habitual or stated right to praise God and give him thanks for his justification and sanctification and adoption and to godly conference to exercises of humiliation c. who yet for want of present actual preparation may be uncapable and so want a plenary right 6. The understanding of the double preparation necessary doth most clearly help us to understand this case A man that is in an unregenerate state must be visibly cured of that state of utter ignorance unbelief ungodliness before he can be a member of the Church and lay a claim to its priviledges But when that is done besides this general preparation a particular preparation also to each duty is necessary to the right doing it A man must understand what he goeth about and must consider of it and come with some suitable affections A man may have right to go a journey that wants a Horse or may have a Horse that is not sadled He that hath clothes must put them on before he is fit to come into company He that hath right to write may want a pen or have a bad one Having of Gracious habits may need the addition of bringing them into such acts as are suitable to the work in hand Quest. 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 hearing the Word and Prayer between Infant members and adult confirmed ones Answ. SOme have excogitated such a classis or species or order for convenience as a prudent necessary thing Because to admit all to the Lords Table they think dangerous on one side And to cast all that are unfit for it out of the Church they think dangerous on the other side and that which the people would not bear Therefore to preserve the reverence of the Sacrament and to preserve their own and the Churches peace they have contrived this middle way or rank And indeed the controversie seemeth to be more about the title whether it may be called a middle order of meer Learners and Worshippers than about the Matter I have occasionally written more of it than I can here stay to recite And the accurate handling of it requireth more words than I will here use This breviate therefore shall be all 1. It is certain that such Catechumens as are in meer preparation to faith repentance and baptism are no Church-members or Christians at all and so in none of these ranks 2. Baptism is the only ordinary regular door of enterance into the visible Church and no man unless in extraordinary cases is to be taken for a Church-member or visible Christian till Baptized Two Objections are brought against this 1. The Infants of Christians are Church-members as such before baptism and so are believers They are baptized because members and not members by baptism Answ. This case hath no difficulty 1. A Believer as such is a member of Christ and the Church What makes a visible member invisible but not of the visible Church till he be an orderly Professor of that belief And this Profession is not left to every mans will how it shall be made but Christ hath prescribed and instituted a certain way and manner of profession which shall be the only ordinary symbol or badge by which the Church shall know visible members and that is baptism Indeed when baptism cannot be had an open profession without it may serve For Sacraments are made for Man and not Man for Sacraments But when it may be had it is Christs appointed Symbol Tessera and Church-door And till a person be baptized he is but Irregularly and initially a Professor As an Embrio in the Womb is a man or as a Covenant before the writing sealing and delivering is initially a Covenant or as persons privately contracted without solemn Matrimony are married or as a man is a Minister upon Election and Tryal before Ordination He hath only in all these cases the beginning of a title which is not compleat nor at all sufficient in foro Ecclesiâ to make a man Visibly and Legally A married man a Minister and so here a Christian. For Christ hath chosen his own visible badge by which his Church-members must be known 2. And the same is to be said of the Infant-title of the children of believers They have but an initial right before baptism and not the badge of visible Christians For there are three distinct gradations to make up their visible Christianity 1. Because they are their own and as it were parts of themselves therefore Believers have power and obligation to dedicate their children in Covenant with God 2. Because every believer is himself dedicated to God with all that is his own according
for the edification of many persons At least those that cannot otherwise do so well Therefore those persons must use a form Full experience doth prove the Minor and nothing but strangeness to men can contradict it Quest. 72. Are Forms of Prayer or Preaching in the Church lawful Answ. YEs Most Ministers study the Methodical form of their Sermons before they preach God gave forms of preaching to Moses and the Prophets See a large form of prayer for all the people Deut. 26. 13 14 15. And so elsewhere there are many them And many write the very words or study them And so most Sermons are a form And sure it is as lawful to think before hand what to say in praying as in preaching 1. That which God hath not forbidden is lawful But God hath not forbidden Ministers to study their Sermons or Prayers either for matter method or words and so to make them many wayes a form 2. That which God prescribed is lawful if he reverse it not But God prescribed publick forms of prayer As the titles and matter of many of the Psalms prove which were daily used in the Jewish Synagogues Object Psalms being to be sung are more than Prayers Answ. They were Prayers though more They are called Prayers and for the Matter many of them were no more than prayers but only for the measures of words Nor was their singing like ours now but liker to our saying And there are many other prayers recorded in the Scripture 3. And all the Churches of Christ at least these thirteen or fourteen hundred years have taken publick forms for lawful which is not to be gainsayed without proof Quest. 73. Are publick Forms of mans Devising or Composing lawful Answ. YEs 1. The Ministers afore mentioned throughout the Christian world do devise and compose the form of their own Sermons and Prayers And that maketh them not unlawful 2. And who ever speaketh ex tempore his words are a form when he speaketh them though not a premeditated form 3. And when Scripture so vehemently commandeth us to search meditate study the Scriptures and take heed to our selves and unto doctrine c. What a person is that who will condemn prayer or preaching only because we before hand studied or considered what to say As if God abhorred diligence and the use of reason Men are not tyed now from thinking before hand what to say to the Judge at the Bar for estate or life or what to say on an Embassage or to a King or any man that we converse with And where are we forbidden to forethink what to say to God Must the people take heed how they hear and look to their foot when they go into the house of God And must not we take heed what we speak and look to our words that they be fit and decent Object Forms are Images of prayer and preaching forbidden in the second Commandment Answ. Prove it and add not to the Word of God 1. Then Scripture and Gods servants even Christ himself had broken the second Commandment when they used or prescribed forms 2. Forms are no more Images than extemporate words are as they signifie our minds Are all the Catechisms printed and written Sermons and Prayers Images or Idols All forms that Parents teach their children O charge not such untruths on God and invent not falshoods of his Word while you cry down mans inventions Quest. 74. Is it lawful to Impose Forms on the Congregation or the people in publick Worship YEs and more than Lawful It is the Pastors duty so to do For whether he fore-think what to pray or not his prayer is to them a form of words And they are bound in all the lawful parts to concur with him in Spirit or desire and to say Amen So that every Minister by Office is daily to impose a form of prayer on all the people in the Congregation Only some men impose the same form many times over or every day and others impose every day a new one Quest. 75. Is it lawful to use Forms Composed by man and imposed not only on the people but on the Pastors of the Churches Answ. THe question concerneth not the Lawfulness of Imposing but of using forms imposed And 1. It is not unlawful to use them meerly on that account because they are imposed or commanded without some greater reason of the unlawfulness For else it would be unlawful for any other to use imposed forms as for a Scholar or Child if the Master or Parent impose them or for the Congregation when the Pastor imposeth them which is not true 2. The using of Imposed forms may by other accidents be sometimes good and sometimes evil as the Accidents are that make it so 1. These accidents may make it evil 1. When the form is bad for matter or manner and we voluntarily prefer it before that which is better being willing of the imposition 2. When we do it to gratifie our slothfulness or to cover our wilful ignorance and disability 3. When we voluntarily obey and strengthen any unlawful usurping Pastors or powers that impose it without authority and so encourage Church-tyranny 4 When we choose a singular form imposed by some singular Pastor and avoid that which the rest of the Churches agree in at a time when it may tend to division and offence 5. When the weakness and offence of the Congregation is such that they will not joyn with us in the imposed form and so by using it we drive them from all publick Worship or divide them 2. And in the following circumstances the using of an imposed form is lawful and a duty 1. When the Minister is so weak that he cannot pray well without one nor compose so good a one himself 2. Or when the errors or great weakness of the generality of Ministers is such as that they usually corrupt or spoil Gods Worship by their own manner of praying and no better are to be had and thereupon the wise and faithful Pastors and Magistrates shall impose one sound and apt Liturgy to avoid error and division in such a distempered time and the Ablest cannot be left at liberty without the relaxing of the rest 3. When it is a means of the Concord of the Churches and no hinderance to our other prayers 4. When our hearers will not joyn with us if we use them not For error and weakness must be born with on one side as well as on the other 5. When obedience to just Authority requireth it and no command of Christ is crost by it 6. When the imposition is so severe that we must so worship God publickly or not at all and so all Gods publick Worship will be shut out of that Congregation Countrey or Nation unless we will use imposed prayers â7 In a word when the good consequents of Obedience Union avoiding offence Liberty for Gods publick Worship and preaching the Gospel c. are greater than the bad consequents which are
in his office and be satisfied that he hath discharged his own duty and leave them under the guilt of their own faults 3. But if it be an intolerable wickedness or Heresie as Arrianism Socinianism c. and the people own the errour or sin as well as the person the Pastor is then to admonish them also and by all means to endeavour to bring them to Repentance And if they remain impenitent to renounce Communion with them and desert them 4. But if they own not the crime but only think the person injured the Pastor must give them the proof for their satisfaction And if they remain unsatisfied he may proceed in his office as before Quest. 92. May a whole Church or the greater part be Excommunicated Answ. 1. TO excommunicate is by Ministerial Authority to pronounce the person unmeet for Christian Communion as being under the guilt of impenitence in heynous sin and to charge the Church to forbear Communion with him and avoid him and to bind him over to the bar of God 2. The Pastor of a particular Church may pronounce all the Church uncapable of Christian Communion and salvation till they repent e. g. If they should all be impenitent Arrians Socinians Blaspheamers c. For he hath authority and they deserve it But he hath no Church that he is Pastor of whom he can command to avoid them 3. The neighbour Pastors of the Churches about them may upon full proof declare to their own Churches that such a neighbour Church that is faln to Arrianism c. is unmeet for Christian Communion and to be owned as a Church of Christ and therefore charge their flocks not to own them nor to have occasional Communion with their members when they come among them For there is Authority and a meet object and necessity for so doing And therefore it may be done 4. But a single Pastor of another Church may not usurp authority over any neighbour Church to judge them and excommunicate them where he hath neither call nor 2 Joh. 10 11. 3 Joh 9. 10. Rev. 2. 5 16. 3. 3â 15 6. full proof as not having had opportunity to admonish them all and try their repentance Therefore the Popes Excommunications are rather to be contemned than regarded 5. Yet if many Churches turn Hereticks notoriously one single neighbour Pastor may renounce their Communion and require his flock for to avoid them all 6. And a Pastor may as lawfully excommunicate the Major part of his Church by charging the Minor part to avoid them as he may do the Minor part Except that accidentally the inconveniences of a division may be so great as to make it better to forbear And so it may oft fall out also if it were the minor part Quest. 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 Answ. IT was such cases that made the Churches of old choose Bishops and ever have but one Bishop in one Church But 1. He that is in the wrong is first bound to repent and yield to the other 2. If he will not the other in a tolerable ordinary case may for peace give way to him though not Consent to his injurious dealing 3. In a dubious case they should both forbear proceeding till the case be cleared 4. In most cases each party should act according to his own judgement if the Counsel of neighbour Pastors be not able to reconcile them And the people may follow their own judgements and forbear obeying either of them formally till they agree Quest. 94. For what sins may a man be denied Communion or Excommunicated Whether for impenitence in every little sin Or for great sin without impenitence Answ. 1. I Have shewed before that there is a suspension which is but a forbearance of giving a man the Sacrament which is only upon an Accusation till his cause be tryed And an Innocent person may be falsly accused and so tryed 2. Some sins may be of so heynous scandal that if the person repent of them this day his absolution and reception may be delayed till the scandal be removed 1. Because the publick good is to be preferred before any mans personal good 2. And the Churches or Enemies about cannot so suddenly know of a mans repentance If they hear of a mans Murder Perjury or Adultery to day and hear that he is absolved to morrow they will think that the Church consisteth of such or that it maketh very light of sin Therefore the ancient Churches delayed and imposed penances partly to avoid such scandal 3. And partly because that some sins are so heynous that a sudden profession is not a sufficient Evidence of repentance unless there be also some evidence of Contrition 3. But ordinarily no man ought to be Excommunicate for any sin whatsoever unless Impenitence be Luk. 13. 3 5. Act. 2. 37 38 39 c. added to the sin Because he is first to be admonished to Repent Matth. 18. 15 16. Tit. 3. 10. And Repentance is the Gospel condition of pardon to believers 4. A man is not to be excommunicated for every sin which he repenteth not of Because 1. Else all men should be Excommunicated For there are in all men some errours about sin and duty and so some sins which men cannot yet perceive to be sins 2. And Ministers are not Inâallible and may take that for a sin which is no sin and so should excommunicate the innocent 3. And daily unavoidable infirmities though repented of yet awaken not the soul sometimes to a notable contrition Gâl 6. 1 2 3 4. Jam. 3. 1 2 3. nor are they fit matter for the Churches admonition A man is not to be called openly to repentance before the Church for every idle word or hour 4. Therefore to Excommunication these two must concur 1. A heynousness in the sin 2. Impenitence after due admonition and patience Quest. 95. Must the Pastors examine the people before the Sacrament Answ. 1. REgularly they should have sufficient notice after they come to age that they own their Baptismal Covenant and that they have that due understanding of the Sacrament and the Sacramental work and such a Christian Profession as is necessary to a due participation 2. But this is fitlyest done at their solemn transition out of their Infant-Church-state into their adult And it is not necessarily to be done every time they come to the Lords Table unless the person desire help for his own benefit but only once before their first communicating if it be the satisfaction of the Pastor or Church that is intended by it Quest. 96. Is the Sacrament of the Lords Supper a Converting Ordinance Answ. YOu must distinguish 1. Between the Conversion of Infidels without the Church and of Hypocrites within it 2. Between the primary and the secondary intention of the Instituter 3. Between the primary duty of the receiver and the
Father Mother c. for his service and swearing to prefer it and his safety before them all See Martinius reciting the Oath out of divers Authors This is our sense of the word Let no man now that taketh it in other sense pretend therefore that we differ in doctrine 2. Seeing it is no Scripture word it is not of necessity to the faith or peace of the Church but when disputers agree not of the sense of the word they are best lay it by and use such terms whose sense they can agree on 3. The name Sacrament is either taken from the Covenant sworn to or from the Sign or Ceremony of Consent by which we oblige our selves or from both together 4. The Covenant of Christianity is different from a particular Covenant of some Office And accordingly the Sacrament is to be distinguished 5. As Civil Oeconomical and Ecclesiastical Offices are distinct so are their several Sacraments 6. The solemn renewing of the sacred Vow or Covenant without any instituted obliging sign is to be distinguished from the renewing it by such a sign of Gods institution And now I conclude 1. As the word Sacrament is taken improperly secundum quid from the nobler part only that is the Covenant as a mans âoul is called the Man so there are as many Sacraments as Covenants and there is in specie but one Covenant of Christianity and so but one Sacrament of Christianity variously expressed 2. As the word Sacrament is taken properly and fully according to the foresaid description so there are properly two Sacraments of Christianity or of the Covenant of Grace that is Baptism the Sacrament of initiation most âully so called and the Lords Supper or the Sacrament of Confirmation Exercise and Progress 3. As the word Sacrament is taken less properly defectively secundum quid for the same Covenant of Grace or Christianity renewed by any arbitrary sign of our own without a solemn Ceremony of Divine institution so there are divers Sacraments of Christianity or the Covenant of Grace that is Divers solemn renewals of our Covenant with God As 1. At our solemn transition from the state of Infant-membership unto that of the Adult when we solemnly own our baptismal Covenant which Calvin and many Protestants and the English Rubrick call Confirmation 2. The solemn owning the Christian Faith and Covenant in our constant Church-assemblies when we stand up at the Creed or profession of our saith and all renew our Covenant with God and dedication to him 3. At solemn dayes of Fasting or humiliation and of Thanksgiving when this should be solemnly done Specially upon some publick defection 4. Upon the publick Repentance of a particular sinner before his absolution 5. When a man is going out of the world and recommending his soul to God by Christ All these are solemn renewings of our Covenant with God in which we may use any Lawful Natural or Arbitrary signs or expressions to signifie our own minds by as speaking subscribing standing up lifting up the hand laying it upon a book kissing the book c. These Sacraments are improperly so called And are Divine as to the Covenant renewed but Humane as to the expressing signs 4. Ordination is not improperly or unfitly called a Sacrament because it is the solemnizing of a mutual Covenant between God and man for our dedication to his special service and his reception of us and blessing on us though Imposition of hands be not so solemn a Ceremony by meer Institution as Baptism and the Lords Supper But then it must be noted that this is not Sacramentum Christianitaâis a Sacrament of the Christian Covenant but Sacramentum Ordinis vel officii particularis a Sacrament of Orders or a particular Office but yet of Divine institution 5. The solemn Celebration of Marriage is an Oeconomical Sacrament that is a solemn obligation of man and woman by Vow to one another and of both to God in that relation which may be arbitrarily expressed by lawful signs or ceremonies 6. The solemn Covenant of a Master with his servant is on the same account an Oeconomical Sacrament 7. The inauguration of a King in which he is sworn to his subjects and dedicated to God in that Office and his subjects sworn or consent to him is a Civil Sacrament whether Unction be added or not And so is a Judges entrance on his Office when it is done so solemnly by an obliging Vâw or Covenant 8. Confirmation in the Papists sense as conferred by Chrysm on Infants for giving them the Holy Ghost is but an unwarrantable imitation of the old miraculous operation by the Apostles and neither a Christian Sacrament nor a warrantable practice but a presumption 9. The same may be said of their Sacrament of Extream Unction 10. Their Sacrament of Marriage is no otherwise a Sacrament than the Inauguration of a King is which is approved by God as well as Marriage and signifieth also an honourable Collation of Power from the Universal King 11. Their Sacrament of Penance is no otherwise a Sacrament than many other fore-mentioned renewings of our Covenant are 12. Therefore the Papists seven Sacraments or septenary distribution is confused partly redundant partly defective and unworthy to be made a part of their faith or Religion or the matter of their pievish and ignorant contendings And they that peremptorily say without distinguishing that there are but two Sacraments in all do but harden them by the unwarrantable narrowing of the word Quest. 100. How far is it lawful needful or unlawful for a man to afflict himself by external Penances for sin Answ. Neg. 1. NOt to the destroying of his body life or health or the disabling or unfitting Isa. 58. â 5 6 7 8 c. Matth. 9. 13. 12. 7. Matth. 6 1 3 5 6 17. Zâch 8. 19. 2 Cor. 2. 7. Col. 2 22 23 24. Joel 1. 14. 2. 15. Dan. 9. 3. Aââââ 10. 13. 1 Cor 7. 5. âuke 2 37. Maââh 4. 2. â Sâm 12. 22. âuke 18. 12. body or mind for the service of God 2. Not to be the expression of any sinful inordinate dejection despondency sorrow or despair 3. Not so as may be an outward appearance of such inordinate passions or as may be a scandal to others and deter them from Religion as a melancholy hurtful thing 4. Not as if God would accept the meer external self-afflicting for it self or as if he loved our hurt or as if we merited of him by our unprofitable voluntary troubles But 1. It is a duty to express true godly sorrow by its proper exercise and signs so far as either the acting of it or the increase or continuance by the means of those expressions is profitable to our selves 2. And also so far as is needful to the profiting of others by shewing them the evil of sin and drawing them to repentance 3. And so far as is necessary to the satisfying of the Church of the truth of our Repentance in
will not make them so Nor hath God appointed or promised to bless any such imagery 17. It is sinful to use such amorous Images of the persons towards whom your lust is kindled as tendeth to increase or keep up that lust or to make profession or ostentation of it As Lustful persons use to carry or keep the pictures of those on whom they dote 18. It is unlawful to make such use of the pictures of our deceased friends as tendeth to increase our inordinate sorrow for them 19. It is unlawful to make such Images Monuments or Memorials of the best and holiest persons or Martyrs as may endanger or tempt men to any inordinate veneration of or confidence in the persons honoured 20. Inward Images of God imprinted on the phantasie are sinful And so are other such false and sinful Images as aâorementioned though they be not made externally for the use of the eye 21. I think it is unlawful to make an Image or any equal instituted sign to be the publick common Symbol of the Christian Religion though it be but a Professing sign Because God having already instituted the Symbols or publick Tesserae of our Christian profession or Religion it is usurpation to do the like without his commission As the King having made the wearing of a George and Star the Badge of the Order of the Garter would take it ill if any shall make another Badge of the Order much more if they impose it on all of the Order though I presume not to condemn it 1. All Images painted or Engraven are not unlawful For God himself commanded and allowed 2 Chron. 3. 10. Mat. 22. 20. Numb 21. 9. 2 Kings 16. 17. 1 King 7. 25 26 29 36 18 19. the use of many in the Old Testament And Christ reprehendeth not Caesars Image on his Coin 2. The civil use of Images in Coins sign-posts banners ornaments of Buildings or of Books or Chambers or Gardens is not unlawful 3. As the word Image is taken in general for signes there is no question but they are frequently to be used As all a mans words are the Images that is the signifiers of his mind And all a mans writings are the same made visible It is therefore a blind confounding errour of some now among us otherwise very sober good men who accuse all Forms of prayer and of Preaching as sinful because say they they are Idols or Images of Prayer and of Preaching They are neither engraven nor painted Images of any Creature But all words are or should be signes of the speakers mind And if you will secundum quid call only the inward Desires by the name of Prayer then the words are the signes of such prayer But because Prayer in the full sense is Desire expressed therefore the expressions are not the signes of such prayer but part of the prayer it self as the body is of the man nor is a form that is fore-conceived or premeditated words whether in mind or writing any more an Image of prayer than extemporate prayer is All words are signes but never the more for being premeditated or written And according to this opinion all Books are sinful Images and all Sermon-notes and the Printing of the Bible it self and all pious Letters of one friend to another and all Catechisms Strangers will hardly believe that so monstrous an opinion as this should in these very instances be maintained by men otherwise so understanding and truly godly and every way blameless as have and do maintain it at this day 4. The making and using of the Image of Christ as born living preaching walking dying a Crucifix rising ascending is not unlawful in it self though any of the forementioned accidents may make it so in such cases As Christ was man like one of us so he may be pictured as a man Obj. His Divine nature and humane soul are Christ and thâse cannot be pictured Therefore an Image of Christ cannot be made Answ. It is not the name but the thing which I speak of Choose whether you will call it an Image of Christ secundum corpus or an Image of Christs body You cannot picture the soul of a man and yet you may draw the picture of a mans body 5. It is a great part of a believers work to have Christs Image very much upon his imagination and Rom. 8. 29. Rev. 1. 12 c. 2 Cor. 4. 4. Col. 1. 15. Phil. 3. 8 9 10 c. so upon his mind As if he saw him in the Manger in his temptations in his preaching in his praying watching fasting weeping doing good as crown'd with thornes as crucified c. that a Crucified Saviour being still as it were before our eyes we may remember the price of our Redemption and the example which we have to imitate and that we are not to live like a Dives or a Caesar but like the servants of a Crucified Christ. A Crucifix well befitteth the Imagination and mind of a believer 6. It is a great part of true Godliness to see Gods Image in the Glass of the Creation to Love and 1 Cor. 1â 7. 2 Cor. 3. 18. Col. 3. 10. honour his Image on his Saints and all the Impressions of his Power Wisdom and Goodness on all his works and to Love and honour Him as appearing in them 7. It is lawful on just occasion to make the Image of fire or light as signifying the inaccessible Light Exod. 25. 18 19. 37. 8 9. 1 King 6. 24 25 26 27. Ezek. 10. 2 4 7 9 14. 1 King 7. 29 36. 8. 6 7. 1 Sam. 4. 4. 2 King 19. 15. Psal. 80. 1. 99. 1. Isa. 6. 2 6. in which God is said to dwell and the Glory in which he will appear to the blessed in Heaven For by many such resemblances the Scripture setteth these forth in Rev. 1. 21. 22 c. And Moses saw Gods back parts viz. a Created Glory 8. It is lawful to represent an Angel on just occasions in such a likeness as Angels have assumed in apparitions Or as they are described in Ezekiel or elsewhere in Scripture so be it we take it not for an Image of their true spiritual nature but an improper representation of them like a Metaphor in speech 9. It is lawful seasonably and in fit circumstances to use Images 1. For memory 2. For clearer apprehension 3. For more passionate affection even in Religious cases which is commonly called The Historical use of them For these ends the Geneva Bible and some other have the Scripture Histories in Printed Images To shew the Papists that it is not all Images or all use of them that they were against And so men were wont to picture Dives in his feasting with Lazarus in rags over their Tables to mind them of the sinfulness of sensuality And so the Sacred Histories are ordinarily painted as useful ornaments of rooms which may profit the spectators 10. Thus it is lawful to
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 hath all these hath a constant Habit of prayer in him For prayer is nothing but the expression with the tongue of these Graces in the heart So that the Spirit of Sanctification is thereby a Spirit of Adoption and of Supplication And he that hath freedom of utterance can speak that which Gods Spirit hath put into his very heart and made him esteem his greatest and nearest concernment and the most necessary and excellent thing in all the world This is the Spirits principal help 5. The same Spirit doth incline our hearts to the diligent use of all those means by which our abilities may be increased As to read and hear and confer and to use our selves to prayer and to meditation self-examination c. 6. The same Spirit helpeth us in the use of all these means to profit by them and to make them all effectual on our hearts 7. The same Spirit concurreth with Means Habits Reason and our own endeavours to help us in the very act of praying and preaching 1. By illuminating our minds to know what to desire and say 2. By actuating our Wills to Love and holy desire and other affections 3. By quickning and exciting us to a liveliness and âervency in all And so bringing our former habits into acts the Grace of prayer is the heart and soul of gifts And thus the Spirit teacheth us to pray Yea the same Spirit thus by common helps assisteth even bad men in praying and preaching giving them common habits and acts that are short of special saving grace Whereas men left to themselves without Gods Spirit have none of all these forementioned helps And so the Spirit is said to intercede for us by exciting our unexpressible groans and to help our infirmities when we know what Rom. 8. 26. to ask as we ought Quest. 168. Are not our own Reasons Studies Memory Strivings Books Forms Methods and Ministry needless yea a hurtful quenching or preventing of the Spirit and setting up our own instead of the Spirits operations Answ. 1. YEs if we do it in a conceit of the sufficiency of our selves our reason memory John 15 1 3 4 5 7. studies books forms c. without the Spirit Or if we ascribe any thing to any of these which is proper to Christ or to his Spirit For such proud self-sufficient despisers of the Spirit cannot reasonably expect his help I doubt among men counted Learned and Rational there are too many such * Even among them that in their Ordination heard Receive yâ the Holy Ghost and Oveâ which the Holy Gâââââath made you ãâ¦ã that know not mans insufficiency or corruption nor the necessity and use of that Holy Ghost into whose name they were baptized and in whom they take on them to believe But think that all that pretend to the Spirit are but Phanaticks and Enthusiasts and self-conceited people when yet the Spirit himself saith Rom. 8 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his And Gal. 4. 6. Because we are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father 2. But if we give to Reason Memory Study Books Methods Forms c. but their proper place in subordination to Christ and to his Spirit they are so far from being quenchers of the Spirit that they are necessary in their places and such means as we must use if ever we will expect the Spirits help For the Spirit is not given to a Bruit to make him a man or rational nor to a proud despiser or idle neglecter of Gods appointed means to be instead of means nor to be a Patron to the vice of pride or idleness which he cometh chiefly to destroy But to bless men in the laborious use of the means which God appointeth him Read but Prov. 1. 20 c. 2. 3. 5. 6. 8. and you will see that knowledge must be laboured for and instruction heard And he that will lye idle till the Isa. 64. 7. Mat. 7. 13 14. 2 Pet. 1. 10. Spirit move him and will not stir up himself to seek God nor strive to enter in at the streight gââe nor give all diligence to make his Calling and Election sure may find that the Spirit of sloth hath destroyed him when he thought the Spirit of Christ âad been saving him He that hath but two Articles in his Creed must make this the second For he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. Quest. 169. How doth the Holy Ghost set Bishops over the Churches Answ. 1. BY making the Office it self so far as the Apostles had any hand in it Christ himself Acts 20. 28. having made their Office 2. The Holy Ghost in the Electors and Ordainers directeth them to discern the fitness of the persons Acts 1. 24. Act. 13. 2. 15. 28 c. 14. â3 elected and ordained and so to call such as God approveth of and calleth by the Holy Ghost in them Which was done 1. By the extraordinary gift of discerning in the Apostles 2. By the ordinary help of Gods Spirit in the wise and faithful Electors and Ordainers ever since 3. The Holy Ghost doth qualifie them for the work by due Life Light and Love Knowledge Willingness and Active ability and so both enâlining them to it and marking out the persons by his gifts whom he would have elected and ordained to it Which was done 1. At first by extraordinary gifts 2. And ever since by ordinary 1. Special and saving in some 2. Common and only fitted to the Churches instruction in others So that who ever is not competently qualified is not called by the Holy Ghost When Christ ascended he gave gifts to men some Apostles Prophets and Evangelists 1 Cor. 12. 12 13 28 29. some Pastors and Teachers for the edifying of his body c. Eph. 4. 7 8 9 10. Quest. 170. Are Temples Fonts Utensils Church-lands much more the Ministers holy And what reverence is due to them as holy Answ. THe question is either de nomine whether it be fit to call them holy or de re whether they have that which is called Holiness I. The word Holy signifieth in God essential transcendent Perfection and so it cometh not into our question In creatures it signifieth 1. A Divine nature in the Rational Creature Angels and Men by which it is made like God and disposed to him and his service by Knowledge Love and holy Vivacity which is commonly called Real saving Holiness as distinct from meer Relative 2. It is taken for the Relation of any thing to God as his own peculiar appropriated to him so Mar. 6. 20. Col. 1. 22. Tit. 1. 8. 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. 3. 5. 2 Pet. 3. 11. Exod. 22. 31. 1 Cor. 1. 1 2 3. 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. Heb. 12.
serve the Devil and the Flesh. God must be our First and Last and All. § 4. Not that any exact or full Body or Method of Divinity is to be Learnt so early But 1. The Baptismal Covenant must be well opened betime and frequently urged upon their hearts 2. Therefore the Creed the Lords Prayer and Decalogue must be opened to such betime that is They must be wisely Catechised 3. They must be taught the Scripture History especially Genesis and the Gospel of Christ. 4. They must with the other Scriptures read the most plain and suitable Books of practical Divinâs after named 5. They must be kept in the company of suitable wise and exemplary Christians whose whole conversation will help them to the sense and Love of Holiness And must be kept strictly from perverting wicked company 6. They must be frequently lovingly familiarly yet seriously treated with about the state of their own souls and made to know their need of Christ and of his holy spirit of Justification and Renovation 7. They must be trained up in the Practice of Godliness in Prayer pious speeches and obedience to God and man 8. They must be kept under the most powerful and profitable Ministers of Christ that can be had 9. They must be much urged to the study of their own hearts To know themselves what it is to be a Man to have Reason Free-will and an Immortal soul what it is to be a Child of Lapsed Adam and an unregenerate unpardoned sinner what it is to be a Redeemed and a sanctified Justified person and an adopted heir of life eternal And by close examination to know which of these conditions is their own To know what is their daily duty and what their danger and what their Temptations and impediments and how to escape § 5. For if once the soul be truly sanctified then 1. Their salvation is much secured and the main work of their lives is happily begun and they are ready to Die safely when ever God shall call them hence 2. It will possess them with a right end in all the studies and labours of their lives which is an unspeakable advantage both for their pleasing of God and profiting themselves and others without which they will but prophane Gods name and word and turn the Ministry into a worldly fleshly life and study and Preach for Riches Preferment or applause and live as he Luk. 12. 18 19. Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry and they will make Theology the way to hell and study and preach their own condemnation 3. A Holy heart will be alwayes under the Greatest Motives and therefore will be constantly and powerfully impelled as well in secret as before others to diligence in studies and all good endeavours 4. And it will make all sweet and easie to them as being a noble work and relishing of Gods Love and the endless Glory to which it tendeth A holy soul will all the year long be employed in sacred studies and works as a good stomach at a feast with constant pleasure And then O how happily will all go on When a carnal person with a dull unwilling weary mind taketh now and then a little when his carnal interest it self doth prevail against his more slothful sensual inclinations but he never followeth it with hearty affections and therefore seldom with good success 4. And a holy soul will be a continual Treasury and fountain of holy matter to pour out to others when they come to the Sacred Ministry so that such a one can say more from the feeling and experience of his soul than another can in a long time gather from his Books 5. And that which he saith will come warm to the hearers in a more lively experimental manner than usual carnal Preachers speak 6. And it is liker to be attended by a greater blessing from God 7. And there are many Controversies in the Church which an experienced holy person caeteris paribus hath great advantage in above all others to know the right and be preserved from errours § 6. Direct 2. Let young mens time till about 18 19 or 20 be spent in the improvement of their Memories rather than in studies that require much judgement Therefore let them take that time to get Organical knowledge such as are the Latine and Greek tongues first and chiefly and then the Hebrew Chaldee Syriack and Arabick with the exactest acquaintance with the true Precepts of Logick And let them learn some Epiâome of Logick without Book In this time also let them be much conversant in History both Civil Scholastical of Philosophers Orators Poets c. and Ecclesiastical And then take in as much of the Mathematicks as their more necessary studies will allow them time for still valuing Knowledge according to the various degrees of usefulness § 7. Direct 3. When you come to seek after more abstruse and real wisdom joyn together the study of Physicks and Theologie and take not your Physicks as separated from or independant on Theologie But as the study of God in his works and of his works as leading to himself Otherwise you will be but like a Scrivener and Printer who maketh his Letters well but knoweth not what they signifie § 8. Direct 4. Unite all ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or knowledge of Real eâtities into one science both spirits and Bodies God being taken in as the First and last the Original Director and End of all And study not the doctrine of Bodies alone as separated from spirits For it is but an imaginary separation and a delusion to mens minds Or if you will call them by the name of several sciences be sure you so link those severals together that the due dependance of bodies on spirits and of the Passive natures on the Active may still be kept discemable And then they will be one while you call them divers § 9. Direct 5. When you study only to know what is True you must begin at the Primum câgnoscibile and so rise in ordine cognoscendi But when you would come to see things in their proper Order by a more perfect satisfying knowledge you must draw up a synthetical sebeme juxta ordinem âssendi where God must be the First and Last the first Efficient Governour and End of all § 10. Direct 6. Your first study of Philosophy therefore should be of your selves To know a man And the Knowledge of mans soul is a part so necessary so neer so useful that it should take up both the first and largest room in all your Physicks or knowledge of Gods works Labour therefore to be accurate in this § 11. Direct 7. With the knowledge of your selves joyn the Knowledge of the rest of the works of God but according to the usefulness of each part to your moral duty and as all are Related to God and You. § 12. Direct 8. Be sure in all your progress that you keep a distinct knowledge of things certain and things
though the Kings of the Nations rule over them and exercise authority and are called Benefactours yet with them it shall not be so Answ. These were the old cavils of Celsus Porphyry and Iulian but very impudent As though Answ. Love and Patience were against peace and Government Christ commandeth nothing in all these words but that we love our neighbour as our selves and love his soul above our wealth and that we do as we would be done by and use not private revenge and take not up the Magistrates work And is this doctâine against Government It is not Magistrates but Ministers and private Christians whom he commandeth not to resist evil and not to exercise Lordship as the Civil Rulers do When it will do more hurt to the soul of another than the benefit amounteth we must not seek our own right by Law nor must private men revenge themselves All Law-suits and contentions and hurting of others which are inconsistent with loving them as our selves are forbidden in the Gospel And when was Government ever disturbed by such principles and practices as these Nay when was it disturbed but for want of these when was there any sedition rebellion or unlawful wars but through self-love and Love of earthly things and want of Love to one another How easily might Princes rule men that are thus ruled by Love and patience § 81. Obj. 3. Christianity teacheth men to obey the Scriptures before their Governours and to obey no Object 3. Law that is contrary to the Bible And when the Bible is so large and hath so many passages hard to be understood and easily perverted some of these will be alwayes interpreted against the Laws of men And then they are taught to fear no man against God and to endure any pains or death and to be unmoved by all the penalties which should enforce obedience and to rejoyce in this as a blessed martyrdom Le Blank in his Travails pag. 88. saith of some Heathen Kângs They are all jealous of our Religion holding that the Christians adore one God great above the rest that will not suffer any others and that he sets a greater esteem and value upon innocent poor and simple people than upon the rich Kings and Princes and that Princes had need to preserve to themselves the affections and esteem of their subjects to reign with greater ease to the face of Kings and thâse that punish them are reproached as persecutors and threatned with damnation and made the vilest men on earth and represented odious to all Answ. The sum of all this Objection is that That there is a God For if that be not denyed no Answ. man can deny that he is the Universal Governour of the world and that he hath his proper Laws and judgement and rewards and punishments or that Magistrates are his Ministers and have no power So B. Bilson of subject p. 243. Princes be supream not in respect that all things be subject to their wills which were plain Tyranny not Christian authority But that all persons within their Realms are bound to obey their Laws or abide their pains So p. 242. but from him and consequently that the commands and threats and promises of God are a thousand fold more to be regarded than those of men He is a beast and not a man that feareth not God more than man and that feareth not Hell more than bodily sufferings And for the Scriptures 1. Are they any harder to be understood than the Law of nature it self Surely the Characters of the will of God in naturâ rerum are much more obscure than in the Scriptures Hath God sent so great a Messenger from Heaven to open to mankind the mysteries of his Kingdom and tell them what is in the other world and bring life and immortality to light and yet shall his revelation be accused as more obscure than nature it self is If an Angel had been sent from Heaven to any of these Infidels by name to tell them but the same that Scripture telleth us sure they would not have reproached his message with such accusations 2. And are not the Laws of the Land about smaller matters more voluminous and difficult And shall that be made a reproach to Government And for misinterpretation it is the fault of humane nature that is ignorant and rash and not of the Scriptures Will you tell God that you will not obey him unless he will make his Laws so as no man can misinterpret them when or where were there ever such laws God will be God and the Judge of the world whether you will or not And he will not be an underling to men nor set their Laws above his own to avoid your accusations If there be another Life of joy or misery it is necessary that there be Laws according to which those rewards and punishments are to be adjudged And if Rulers oppose these who are appointed to promote obedience to them they must do it at their perils For God will render to all according to their works § 82. Obj. 4. Doth not experience tell the world that Christianity every where causeth divisions and Object 4. sets the world together by the ears What a multitude of sects are there among us at this day And every The differences are oft among the Lawyers which set the Common-wealth on fire and then they are charged on Divines â g. Grotius de Imper. p. 53. Si ârma in eos reges sumpta sânt in quos totum populi jus translatum erat ac qui proinde non precariò sed proprio jure imperabant laudari salva piâtate non possânt quâmcunque tandâm praetâxtum aut eventum habuerint Sin alicubi Reges tales suere qui pactis sive positivis legibus Seraâus aliâujus aut Ordinum decretis astâingerentur in hos ut summum Imperium non obtinent arma ex optimatum tanquam superioâum sententia sumi justis de causis poâuerinâ Multi enim Reges etiam qui sanguinis jure succedunt Reges sunt nomine magâs quam Imperio Sed fallit imperitos quod illam quotidianam maximè in oculoâ in curâentem rerum administrationem quae saepe in optimatum statu penes unum est ab interiore Reipublicae constitutione non satis disceruunt Quod de Regibus dixi idem multo âagis de iis acceptum volo qui âe nomine non Reges sed Principes fuere h. e. non summi sed Priâi p. 54. one thinketh that his salvation lyeth upon his opinion And how can Princes govern men of so contrary minds when the pleasing of one party is the losing of the rest We have long seen that Church-divisions shake the safety of the State If it were not that few that are called Christians are such indeed and serious in the Religion which themselves profess there were no quietness to be expected For those that are most serious are so full of scruples
matters Conscire The knowledge of our selves our duties our faults our fears our hopes our diseases c. 2. Or more limitedly and narrowly The knowledge of our selves and our own matters in relation to Gods Law and Iudgement Iudicium hominis de seipso prout subjicitur judicio Dei as Amesius defineth it 2. Conscience is taken 1. Sometime for the Act of self-knowing 2. Sometime for the Habit 3. Sometime for the Faculty that is for the Intellect it self as it is a faculty of self-knowing In all these senses it is taken properly 2. And sometimes it is used by custome improperly for the Person himself that doth Conscire or for his Will another faculty 3 The Conscience may be said to be bound 1. Subjectively as the subjectum quod or the faculty obliged 2. Or Objectively as Conscire the Act of Conscience is the thing ad quod to which we are obliged And upon these necessary distinctions I thus answer to the first question Prop. 1 The Act or the Habit of Conscience are not capable of being the subject obliged no more than any other act or duty The Act or duty is not bound but the man to the act or duty 2. The Faculty or Iudgement is not capable of being the Object or Materia ad quam the thing to which we are bound A man is not bound to be a man or to have an Intellect but is made such 3. The Faculty of Conscience that is the Intellect is not capable of being the immediate or nearest subjectum quod or subject obliged The reason is Because the Intellect of it self is not a free-working faculty but acteth necessarily per modum naturae further than it is under the Empire of the Will And therefore Intellectual and Moral habits are by all men distinguished 4. All Legal or Moral Obligation falleth directly upon the Will only and so upon the Person as a Voluntary agent So that it is proper to say The Will is bound and The Person is bound 5 Improperly and remotely it may be said The Intellect or faculty of Conscience is bound or the tongue or hand or foot is bound as the Man is bound to use them 6. Though it be not proper to say that the Conscience is bound it is proper to say that the Man is bound to the Act and Habit of Conscience or to the exercise of the faculty 7. The common meaning of the phrase that we are bound in conscience oâ that conscience is bound is that we are bound to a thing by God or by a Divine obligation and that it is a fin against God to violate it So that Divines use here to take the word Conscience in the narrower Theological sense as respect to Gods Law and Iudgement doth enter the definition of it 8. Taking Conscience in this narrower sense To ask Whether mans Law as Mans do bind us in Conscience Having spoken of this Controversie in my Life of Faith as an easie thing in which I thought we were really agreed while we seemed to differ which I called A pitiful Case some Bâethren who say nothing against the truth of what I said are offended at me as speaking too confidently and calling that so easie which Bishop Saâderâoa and so many others did make a greater matter of I retract the words if they âe unsuittable either to the matter or the Readers But as to the matter and the truth of the words I desire the Reader but to consider how easie a case Mr. P. maketh of it Eccl. Pol. and how heinous a matter he maketh of our supposed dissent And if after all this it shall appear that the Non-conformists do not at all differ from Hooker Bilson and the generality of the Conformists in this point let him that is willing to be represented as odious and intolerable to Rulârs and to mankind for that in which we do not differ proceed to backbite me for saying that it is a pitiful case and pretending that we are agreed is all one as to ask Whether Man be God 9. And taking Conscience in the large or General sense to ask whether Mans Laws bind us in Conscience subjectively is to ask whether they bind the Understanding to know our duty to man And the tenour of them will shew that While they bind us to an outward Act or from an outward Act it is the man that they bind to or from that act and that is as he is a Rational Voluntary Agent so that a humane obligation is laid upon the Man on the Will and on the Intellect by humane Laws 10. And humane Laws while they bind us to or from an outward Act do thereby bind us as Rational-free agents knowingly to choose or refuse those acts Nor can a Law which is a Moral Instrument any otherwise bind the hand foot or tongue but by first binding us to choose or refuse it knowingly that is conscientiously so that a humane bond is certainly laid on the mind soul or conscience taken in the larger sense 11. Taking Conscience in the stricter sense as including essentially a relation to Gods obligation the full sense of the question plainly is but this Whether it be a sin against God to break the Laws of man And thus plain men might easily understand it And to this it must be answered that it is in two respects a sin against God to break such Laws or Commands as Rulers are authorized by God to make 1. Because God commandeth us to obey our Rulers Therefore he that so obeyeth them not sinneth against a Law of God God obligeth us in General to obey them in all things which they are authorized by him to command But their Law determineth of the particular matter Therefore God obligeth us in Conscience of his Law to obey them in that particular 2. Because by making them his Officers by his Commission he hath given them a certain beam of Authority which is Divine as derived from God Therefore they can command us by a power derived from God Therefore to disobey is to sin against a power derived from God And thus the General case is very plain and easie How man sinneth against God in disobeying the Laws of man and consequently how in a tolerable sense of that phrase it may be said that mans Laws do or do not bind the conscience or rather bind us in point of Conscience or by a Divine obligation Man is not God and therefore as man of himself can lay no Divine obligation on us But Man being Gods Officer 1. His own Law layeth on us an obligation derivatively Divine For it is no Law which hath no obligation and it is no authoritative obligation which is not derived from God 2. And Gods own Law bindeth us to obey mans Laws Quest. 2. BUt is it a sin to break every Penal Law of man Answ. 1. You must remember that Mans Law is essentially the signification of mans Will And therefore obligeth no further than it
also are distinguishable by the effects which are such as these 1. Some Scandals do tempt men to actual infidelity and to deny or doubt of the truth of the Gospel 2. Some scandals would draw men but into some particular error and from some particular Truth while he holds the rest 3. Some scandals draw men to dislike and distaste the way of Godliness and some to dislike the servants of God 4. Some scandals tend to confound men and bring them to utter uncertainties in Religion 5. Some tend to terrifie men from the way of Godliness 6. Some only stop them for a time and discourage or hinder them in their way 7. Some tend to draw them to some particular sin 8. And some to draw them from some particular duty 9. And some tend to break and weaken their spirits by grief or perplexity of mind 10. And as the word is taken in the Old Testament the snares that malitious men lay to entrap others in their lives or liberties or estates or names are called scandals And all these wayes a man may sinfully scandalize another § 19. And that you may see that the scandal forbidden in the New Testament is alwayes of this nature let us take notice of the particular Texts where the word is used And first to scandalize is used actively in these following Texts In Matth. 5. before cited and in the other Evangelists citing the same words the sense is clear That the offending of a hand or eye is not displeasing nor seeking of ill report but hindering our salvation by drawing us to sin So in Matth. 18. 8. Mar. 9. 42 43. where the sense is the sâmâ In Matth. 17. 27. Lest we should offend them c. is not only Lest we displease them but lest we give them occasion to dislike Religion or think hardly of the Gospel and so lay a stumbling bloâk to the danger of their souls So Matth. 18. 6. Mark 9. Who so shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me c. that is not who shall displease them but who so by threats persecutions cruelties or any other means shall go about to turn them from the faith of Christ or stop them in their way to Heaven or hinder them in a holy life Though these two Texts seem nearest to the denyed sense yet that is not indeed their meaning So in Joh. 6. 6. Doth this offend you that is Doth this seem incredible to you or hard to be believed or digested Doth it stop your faith and make you distaste my doctrine So 1 Cor. 8. 13. If meat scandalize my brother our Translators have turned it If meat make my brother to offend So it was not displeasing him only but tempting him to sin which is the scandalizing here reproved § 20. View also the places where the word Scandal is used Mat. 13. 41. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã all scandals translated all things that offend doth not signifie all that is displeasing but all temptations to sin and hinderances or stumbling blocks that would have stopt men in the way to Heaven So in Matth. 16. 23. a Text as like as any to be near the denyed sense yet indeed Thou art a scandal to me translated an offence doth not only signifie Thou displeasest me but Thou goest about to hinder me in my undertaken Office from suffering for the redemption of the world It was an Aptitudinal scandal though not effectual So Matth. 18. 7. It must be that scandals come translated Offences that is that there be many stumbling blocks set before men in their way to Heaven So Luke 17. 1. to the same sense And Rom. 9. 33. I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of scandal translated of offence that is such as will not only be displeasing but an occasion of utter ruine to the unbelieving persecuting Jews according to that of Simeon Luke 2. 34. This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel Rom. 11. 9. Let their table be made a snare a trap and a stumbling block The Greek word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã doth not signifie a displeasure only but an occasion of ruine So Rom. 14. 13. expoundeth it self That no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his Brothers way The Greek word is or a scandal This is the just So Rev. 2. 14. Balaam did ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã lay a scandal or stumbling block before the Israelites that is a temptation to sin exposition of the word in its ordinary use in the New Testament So Rom. 16. 17. Mark them which cause divisions and scandals translated offences that is which lay stumbling blocks in the way of Christians and would trouble them in it or turn them from it So 1 Cor. 1. 23. To the Iews a stumbling block that is a scandal as the Greek word is as before expounded So Gal. 5. 11. The scandal of the Cross translated the offence doth signifie not the bare reproach but the reproach as it is the tryal and stumbling block of the world that maketh believing difficult So 1 John 2. 10. There is no scandal in him translated No occasion of stumbling These are all the places that I remember where the word is used § 21. The passive Verb ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to be scandalized is used often As Matth. 11. 6. Blessed is Luke 7. 23. he that is not scandalized translated offended in me that is who is not distasted with my person and doctrine through carnal prejudices and so kept in unbelief There were many things in the person life and doctrine of Christ which were unsuitable to carnal reason and expectation These men thought to be hard and strange and could not digest them and so were hindered by them from believing And this was being offended in Christ So in Matth. 13. 57. Mar. 6. 3. They were offended in or at him that is took a dislike or distaste to him for his words And Matth. 13. 21. Mark 6. 3. When persecution ariseth by and by they are offended that is they stumble and fall away And Mark 4. 17. Matth. 15. 12. The Pharisees were offended or scandalized that is so offended as to be more in dislike of Christ. And Matth. 24. 10. Then shall many be offended or scandalized that is shall draw back and fall away from Christ. And Mat. 26. 31 33. Mar. 14. 27 29. All ye shall be offended because of me c. Though all men shall be offended or scandalized yet will I never be scandalized that is brought to doubt of Christ or to forsake him or deny him or be hindered from owning their relation to him So John 16. 1. These things have I spoken that ye should not be offended that is that when the time cometh the unexpected trouble may not so surprize you as to turn you from the faith or stagger you in your obedience or hope Rom. 14. 21. doth exactly expound it It
and that all strict Religion is but hypocrisie or at least to refuse their help and counsels Even Plutark noted that It so comes to pass that we entertain not virtue nor are âapt into a desire of imitating it unless we highly honour and love the person in whom it is discerned And if they see or think the Preacher to be himself of a loose and careless and licentious life they will think that the like is very excusable in themselves and that his doctrine is but a form of speech which his office bindeth him to say but is no more to be regarded by them than by himself Two wayes is mens damnation thus promoted 1. By the ill lives of hypocritical ungodly preachers who actually bring their own persons into disgrace and thereby also the persons of others and consequently their sacred work and function 2. By wicked Preachers and people who through a malignant hatred of those that are abler and better than themselves and an envy of their reputation do labour to make the most zealous and faithful Preachers of the Gospel to be thought to be the most hypocritical or erroneous or factious and schismatical § 5. 5. The neglect of Ministerial duties is a common cause of sin and of mens damnation When they that take the charge of souls are either unable or unwilling to do their office when they teach them too seldome or too unskilfully in an unsuitable manner not choosing that doctrine which they most need or not opening it plainly and methodically in a fitness to their capacities or not applying it with necessary seriousness and urgency to the hearers state When men preach to the ungodly who are neer to damnation in a formal pase like a School-boy saying his lesson or in a drowsie reading tone as if they came to preach them all asleep or were afraid of wakening them When they speak of sin and misery and Christ of Heaven and Hell as if by the manner they came to contradict the matter and to perswade men that there are no such things The same mischief followeth the neglect of private personal inspection When Ministers think that they have done all when they have said a Sermon and never make conscience of labouring personally to convince the ungodly and reclaim offenders and draw sinners to God and confirm the weak And the omission much more the perversion and abuse of sacred Discipline hath the like effects When the Keys of the Church are used to shut out the good or not used when they ought to rebuke or to shut out the impenitent wicked ones nor to difference between the precious and the vile it hardeneth multitudes in their ungodliness and perswadeth them that they are really of the same family of Christ as the Godly are and have their sins forgiven because they are partakers of the same Holy Sacraments Not knowing the difference between the Church mystical and visible nor between the judgement of ministers and of Christ himself § 6. 6. Parents neglect of instructing Children and other parts of holy education is one of the greatest causes of the perdition of mankind in all the World But of this elsewhere § 7. 7. Magistrates persecution or opposition to Religion or discountenancing those that preach it or most seriously practise it tendeth to deceive some who over-reverence the judgement of superiours and to affright others from the obedience of God § 8. 8. Yea the negligence of Magistrates Masters and other Superiours omitting the due rebuke of sinners and due correction of the offenders and the due encouragement of the good is a great cause of the wickedness and damnation of the World § 9. 9. But above all when they make Laws for sin or for the contempt or dishonour or suppression of Religion or the serious practice of it this buildeth up Satans Kingdom most effectually and turneth Gods Ordinance against himself Thousands under Infidel and ungodly Princes are conducted by Obedience to damnation and their Rulers damn them as honourably as the Physicion kill'd his Patients who boasted that he did it secundum artem according to the rules of art § 10. 10. The vulgar example of the multitude of the ungodly is a great cause of mens impiety and damnation They must be well resolved for God and holiness who will not yield to the major Vote nor be carryed down the common stream nor run with the rabble to excess of ryot When Christianity is a Sect which is every where spoken against it proveth so narrow a way that Act. 2. 8. few have a mind to walk in it Men think that they are at least excusable for not being wiser and better than the multitude Singularity in honour or riches or strength or health is accounted no crime but singularity in godliness is at least thought unnecessary What! will you be wiser than all the Town or than such and such superiours is thought a good reprehension of Godliness where it is rare Even by them who hereby conclude their superiours or all the Town to be wiser than God § 11. 11. Also the vulgars scorning and deriding Godliness is a common cause of Murdering souls Because the Devil knoweth that there cannot one Word of solid Reason be brought against the Reason of God and so against a Holy life he therefore teacheth men to use such weapons as they have A Dog hath teeth and an Adder hath a sting though they have not the Weapons of a man A fool can laugh and jeer and rail and there is no great wit or learning necessary to smile or grin or call a man a Puritan or precisian or Heretick or Schismatick or any name which the malice of the age shall newly coin Mr. Robert Bolton largely sheweth how much the malignity of his age did vent it self against Godliness by the reproachful use of the word Puritan When Reason can be bribed to take the Devils part either natural or literate reason he will hire it at any rate But when it cannot he will make use of such as he can get Barking or hissing may serve turn where talking and disputing cannot be procured Drum and Trumpets in an Army serve the turn instead of Oratory to animate cowards and drown the noise of dying mens complaints and groans Thousands have been mocked out of their Religion and salvation at once and jeered into Hell who now know whether a scorn or the fire of Hell be the greater suffering As Tyrants think that the Greatest and Ablest and wisest men must either be drawn over to their party or destroyed so the Tyrant of Hell who ruleth in the Children of disobedience doth think that if Reason Learning and wit cannot be hired to dispute for him against God they are to be suppressed silenced and disgraced which the noise of rude clamours and foolish jeers is fit enough to perform § 12. 12. Also idle sensless prating against Religion as a needless thing doth serve turn to deceive the simple Ignorant people
rend us Much more if it be some potent enemy of the Church who will not only rend us but the Church it self if he be so provoked Reproving him then is not our duty 3. Particularly When a man is in a passion or drunk usually it is no season to reprove him 4. Nor when you are among others who should not be witnesses of the fault or the reproof or whose presence will shame him and offend him except it be only the shaming of an incorrigible or malicious sinner which you intend 5. Nor when you are uncertain of the fact which you would reprove or uncertain whether it be a sin 6. Or when you have no witness of it though you are privately certain with some that will take advantage against you as slanderers a reproof may be omitted 7. And when the offenders are so much your superiours that you are like to have no better success than to be accounted arrogant A groan or tears is then the best reproof 8. When you are so utterly unable to manage a reproof that imprudence or want of convincing reason is like to make it a means of greater hurt than good 9. When you foresee a more advantageous season if you delay 10. When another may be procured to do it with much more advantage which your doing it may rather hinder In all these cases that may be a sin which at another time may be a duty § 18. But still remember 1. That pride and passion and slothfulness is wont to pretend such reasons falsly upon some sleight conjectures to put by a duty 2. That no man must account another Gen. 20. 36. a Dog or Swine to excuse him from this duty without cogent evidence And it is not every wrangling opposition nor reproach and scorn which will warrant us to give a man up as remediless Job 31. 13. Heb. 13. 22. 2 Pet. 1. 13. 2 Tâm 2. 25 26. and speak to him no more but only such 1. As sheweth a heart utterly obdurate after long means 2. Or will procure more suffering to the reprover than good to the offender 3. That when the thing is ordinarily a duty the reasons of our omission must be clear and sure before they will excuse us § 19. Quest. Must we reprove Infidels or Heathens What have we to do to judge them that are without Answ. Not to the ends of excommunication because they are not capable of it which is meant Deut. 22. 1. 1 Cor. 5. But we must reprove them 1. In common compassion to their souls What were the Apostles and other Preachers sent for but to call all men from their sins to God 2. And for the defence of truth and godliness against their words or ill examples CHAP. XVII Directions for keeping Peace with all men § 1. PEace is so amiable to Nature it self that the greatest destroyers of it do commend it and those persons in all times and places who are the cause that the world cannot enjoy it will yet speak well of it and exclaim against others as the enemies of peace as if there were no other name but their Own sufficient to make their adversaries odious As they desire salvation so do the ungodly desire Peace which is with a double error one about the Nature of it and another about the Conditions and other Means By Peace they mean the quiet undisturbed enjoyment of their honours wealth and pleasures that they may have their lusts and will without any contradiction And the Conditions on which they would have it are the complyance of all others with their opinions and wills and humble submission to their domination passions or desires But Peace is another thing and otherwise to be desired and sought Peace in the mind is the delightful effect of its internal harmony as Peace in the body is nothing but its pleasant health in the natural position state action and concord of all the parts the humours and spirits And Peace in Families Neighbourhoods Churches Kingdoms or other Societies is the quietness and pleasure of their order and harmony and must be attained and preserved by these following means § 2. Direct 1. Get your own hearts into a humble frame and abhor all the motions of Pride and Direct 1. self exalting A humble man hath no high expectations from another and therefore is easily pleased or quieted He can bow and yield to the pride and violence of others as the Willow to the impetuous winds His language will be submissive his patience great he is content that others go before him He is not offended that another is preferred A low mind is pleased in a low condition But Pride is the Gun-powder of the mind the family the Church and State It maketh men ambitious and setteth them on striving who shall be the greatest A proud mans Opinion must alwayes go for truth and his will must be a Law to others and to be sleighted or crossed seemeth to him an unsufferable wrong And he must be a man of wonderful complyance or an excellent artificer in man-pleasing and flâttery that shall not be taken as an injurious undervaluer of him He that overvalueth himself will take it ill of all that do not also overvalue him If you forgetfully go before him or overlook him or neglect a complement or deny him something which he expected or speak not honourably of him much more if you reprove him and tell him of his faults you have put fire to the Gun-powder you have broke his peace and he will break yours if he can Pride broke the Peace between God and the apostate Angels but nothing unpeaceable must be in Heaven and therefore by self-exâlting they descended into darkness And Christ by self-humbling ascended unto Glory It is a matter of very great difficulty to live peaceably in family Church or any society with any one that is very Proud They expect so much of you that you can never answer all their expectations but will displease them by your omissions though you never speak or do any thing to displease them What is it but the lust of Pride which causeth most of the wars and bloodshed throughout the World The Pride of two or three men must cost many thousands of their subjects the loss of their Peace Estates and Lives Delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi What were the Conquests of those Emperours Alexander Caesar Tamerlane Machumet c. but the pernicious effects of their infamous Pride Which like Gun-powder taking fire in their breasts did blow up so many Cities and Kingdoms and call their Villanies by the name of Valour and their Murders and Robberies by the name of War If one mans Pride do swell so big that his own Kingdom cannot contain it the Peace of as much of the World as he can conquer is taken to be but a reasonable sacrifice to this infernal vice The lives of thousands both Subjects and Neighbours called enemies by this malignant spirit must be cast
worst they can against another as an enemy but as loving friends do use an amicable arbitration resolving contentedly to stand to what the Iudge determineth without any alienation of mind or abatement of brotherly love § 12. Direct 9. Be not too confident of the righteousness of your own cause but ask counsel of some Direct 9. understanding godly and impartial men and hear all that can be said and patiently consider of the case and do as you would have others do by you § 13. Direct 10. Observe what terrors of Conscience use to haunt awakened sinners especially on a Direct 10. death-âead for such sins as false witnessing and false judging and oppressing and injuâing the innocent even above most other sins CHAP. XXIII Cases of Conscience and Directions against Backbiting Slandering and Evil Speaking Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Backbiting and Evil Speaking Quest. 1. MAy I not speak evil of that which is evil And call every one truly as Quest. 1. he is Answ. You must not speak a known falshood of any man under pretence of Charity or speaking well But you are not to speak all the evil of every man which is true As opening the faults of the King or your Parents though never so truly is a sin against the fifth Commandment Honour thy Father and Mother So if you do it without a call you sin against your neighbours honour and many other wayes offend Quest. 2. Is it not sinful silence and a consenting to or countenancing of the sins of others to say Quest. 2. nothing against them as tender of their honour Answ. It is sinful to be silent when you have a call to speak If you forbear to admonish the offender in love between him and you when you have opportunity and just cause it is sinful to be silent then But to silence backbiting is no sin If you must be guilty of every mans sin that you talk not against behind his back your whole discourse must be nothing but backbiting Quest. 3. May I not speak that which honest religious credible persons do report Quest. 3. Answ. Not without both sufficient evidence and a sufficient call You must not judge of the action by the person but of the person by the action Nor must you imitate any man in evil doing If a good man abuse you are you willing that all men follow him and abuse you more Quest. 4. May I believe the bad report of an honest credible person Quest. 4. Answ. You must first consider Whether you may hear it or meddle with it For if it be a case that you have nothing to do with you may not set your judgement to it either to believe it or disbelieve it And if it be a thing that you are called to judge of yet every honest mans word is not presently to be believed You must first know whether it be a thing that he saw or is certain of himself or a thing which he only taketh upon report And what his evidence or proof is and whether he be not engaged by interest passion or any difference of opinion Or be not engaged in some contrary faction where the interest of a party or cause is his temptation Or whether he be not used to rash reports and uncharitable speeches And what concurrence of testimonies there is and what is said on the other side Especially what the person accused saith in his own defence If it be so heinous a crime in publick Judgement to pass sentence before both parties are heard and to condemn a man before he speak for himself it cannot be justifiable in private judgement Would you be willing your selves that all should be believed of you which is spoken by any honest man And how uncertain are we of other mens honesty that we should on that account think ill of others Quest. 5. May I not speak evil of them that are enemies to God to Religion and godliness and are Quest. 5. open persecutors of it or are enemies to the King or Church Answ. You may on all meet occasions speak evil of the sin and of the persons when you have a just call but not at your own pleasure Quest. 6. What if it be one whose honour and credit countenanceth an ill cause and his dishonour would Quest. 6. disable him to do hurt Answ. You may not belye the Devil nor wrong the worst man that is though under pretence of doing good God needeth not malice nor calumnies nor injustice to his glory It is an ill cause that cannot be maintained without such means as these And when the matter is true you must have a call to speak it and you must speak it justly without unrighteous aggravations or hiding the better part which should make the case and person truly understood There is a time and due manner in which that mans crimes and just dishonour may be published whose false reputation injureth the truth But yet I must say that a great deal of villany and slander is committed upon this plausible pretence and that there is scarce a more common cloak for the most inhumane lyes and calumnies Quest. 7. May I not lawfully make a true Narration of such matters of fact as are criminal and Quest. 7. dishonourable to offenders Else no man may write a true History to posterity of mens crimes Answ. When you have a just cause and call to do it you may But not at your own pleasure Historians may take much more liberty to speak the truth of the dead than you may of the living Though no untruth must be spoken of either yet the honour of Princes and Magistrates while they are alive is needful to their Government and therefore must be maintained oft times by the concealment of their faults And so proportionably the honour of other men is needful to a life of love and peace and just society But when they are dead they are not subjects capable of a right to any such honour as must be maintained by such silencing of the truth to the injury of posterity And posterity hath usually a right to historical truth that good examples may draw them to imitation and bad examples may warn them to take heed of sin God will have the name of the wicked to rot and the faults of a Noah Lot David Solomon Peter c. shall be recorded Yet nothing unprofitable to posterity may be recorded of the dead though it be true nor the faults of men unnecessarily divulged much less may the dead be slandered or abused Quest. 8. What if it be one that hath been oft admonished in vain May not the faults of such a one be Quest. 8. mentioned behind his back Answ. I confess such a one the case being proved and he being notoriously impenitent hath made a much greater forfeiture of his honour than other men And no man can save that mans honour who will cast it away himself But yet it is
that you must there exercise II. What there is objectively presented before you in the Sacrament to exercise all these Graces III. At what seasons in the administration each of these inward works are to be done § 47. I. The Graces to be exercised are these besides that holy fear and reverence common to all Worship 1. A humble sense of the odiousness of sin and of our undone condition as in our selves and a displeasure against our selves and loathing of our selves and melting Repentance for the sins we have committed as against our Creator and as against the Love and Mercy of a Redeemer and against the holy Spirit of Grace 2. A hungring and thirsting desire after the Lord Jesus and his Grace and the favour of God and communion with him which are there represented and offered to the soul. 3. A lively faith in our Redeemer his death resurrection and intercession and a trusting our miserable souls upon him as our sufficient Saviour and help And a hearty Acceptance of him and his benefits upon his offered terms 4. A Ioy and gladness in the sense of that unspeakable mercy which is here offered us 5. A Thankful heart towards him from whom we do receive it 6. A fervent Love to him that by such Love doth seek our Love 7. A triumphant Hope of life eternal which is purchased for us and sealed to us 8. A willingness and resolution to deny our selves and all this world and suffer for him that hath suffered for our Redemption 9. A Love to our Brethren our neighbours and our enemies with a readiness to relieve them and to forgive them when they do us wrong 10. And a firm Resolution for future obedience to our Creator and Redeemer and Sanctifier according to our Covenant § 48. II. In the naming of these Graces I have named their Objects which you should observe as distinctly as you can that they may be operative 1. To help your Humiliation and Repentance you bring thither a loaden miserable soul to receive a pardon and relief And you see before you the sacrificed Son of God who made his soul an offering for sin and became a Curse for us to save us who were accursed 2. To draw out your Desires you have the most excellent gifts and the most needful mercies presented to you that this world is capable of Even the Pardon of sin the Love of God the Spirit of Grace and the hopes of Glory and Christ himself with whom all this is given 3. To exercise your Faith you have Christ here first represented as crucified before your eyes and then with his benefits freely given you and offered to your Acceptance with a Command that you refuse him not 4. To exercise your Delight and Gladness you have this Saviour and this Salvation tendered to you and all that your souls can well desire set before you 5. To exercise your Thankfulness what could do more than so great a Gift so dearly purchased so surely sealed and so freely offered 6. To exercise your Love to God in Christ you have the fullest manifestation of his attractive Love even offered to your eyes and taste and heart that a soul on earth can reasonably expect in such wonderful condescension that the greatness and strangeness of it surpasseth a natural mans belief 7. To exercise your Hopes of Life Eternal you have the price of it here set before you you have the Gift of it here sealed to you and you have that Saviour represented to you in his suffering who is now there reigning that you may remember him as expectants of his Glorious Coming to judge the world and glorifie you with himself 8. To exercise your self-denyal and resolution for suffering and contempt of the world and fleshly pleasures you have before you both the greatest Example and Obligation that ever could be offered to the world when you see and receive a Crucified Christ that so strangely denyed himself for you and set so little by the world and flesh 9. To exercise your Love to Brethren yea and enemies you have his example before your eyes that Loved you to the death when you were enemies And you have his holy servants before your eyes who are amiable in him through the workings of his Spirit and on whom he will have you shew your Love to himself 10. And to excite your Resolution for future Obedience you see his double Title to the Government of you as Creator and as Redeemer and you feel the obligations of Mercy and Gratitude and you are to renew a Covenant with him to that end even openly where all the Church are witnesses So that you see here are powerful objects before you to draw out all these Graces and that they are all but such as the work requireth you then to exercise § 49. III. But that you may be the readier when it cometh to practice I shall as it were lead you by the hand through all the parts of the administration and tell you when and how to exercise every grace and those that are to be joyned together I shall take together that needless distinctness do not trouble you 1. When you are called up and going to the Table of the Lord exercise your Humility Desire and Thankfulness and say in your hearts What Lord dost thou call such a wretch as I What! me that have so oft despised thy mercy and wilfully offended thee and preferred the filth of this world and the pleasures of the flesh before thee Alas it is thy wrath in Hell that is my due But if Love will choose such an unworthy guest and Mercy will be honoured upon such sin and misery I come Lord at thy call I gladly come Let thy will be done and let that mercy which inviteth me make me acceptable and gratiously entertain me and let me not come without the wedding garment nor unreverently rush on holy things nor turn thy mercies to my bane § 50. 2. When the Minister is confessing sin prostrate your very souls in the sense of your unworthiness and let your particular sins be in your eye with their heinous aggravations The whole need not the Physicion but the sick But here I need not put words into your mouths or minds because the Minister goeth before you and your hearts must concurr with his Confessions and put in also the secret sins which he omitteth § 51. 3. When you look on the Bread and Wine which is provided and offered for this holy use remember that it is the Creator of all things on whom you live whose Laws you did offend and say in your hearts O Lord how great is my offence who have broken the Laws of him that made me and on whom the whole Creation doth depend I had my Being from thee and my daily bread and should I have requited thee with disobedience Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son § 52. 4. When the
words of the Institution are read and the Bread and Wine are solemnly Consecrated by separating them to that sacred use and the acceptance and blessing of God is desired admire the mercy that prepared us a Redeemer and say O God how wonderful is thy Wisdom and thy Love How strangely dost thou glorifie thy mercy over those sins that gave thee advantage to glorifie thy justice Even thou our God whom we have offended hast out of thy own treasury satisfied thy own justice and given us a Saviour by such a Miracle of Wisdom Love and Condescension as men or Angels shall never be able fully to comprehend so didst thou love the sinful world as to give thy Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life O thou that hast prepared us so full a remedy and so pretious a gift sanctifie these creatures to be the Representative Body and Blood of Christ and prepare my heart for so great a gift and so high and holy and honourable a work § 53. 5. When you behold the Consecrated Bread and Wine discern the Lords Body and reverence it as the Representative Body and Blood of Iesus Christ and take heed of prophaning it by looking on it as common Bread and Wine Though it be not Transubstantiate but still is very Bread and Wine in its Natural Being yet it is Christs Body and Blood in representation and effect Look on it as the consecrated Bread of life which with the quickning Spirit must nourish you to life eternal § 54. 6. When you see the Breaking of the Bread and the Pouring out of the Wine let Repentance and Love and Desire and Thankfulness thus work within you O wondrous Love O hateful sin How merciful Lord hast thou been to sinners and how cruel have we been to our selves and thee Could Love stoop lower Could God be merciful at a dearer rate Could my sin have done a more horrid deed than put to death the Son of God How small a matter hath tempted me to that which must cost so dear before it was forgiven How dear payed my Saviour for that which I might have avoided at a very cheap rate At how low a price have I valued his blood when I have sinned and sinned again for nothing This is my doing My sins were the thorns the nails the spear Can a murderer of Christ be a a small offendor O dreadful justice It was I and such other sinners that deserved to bear the punishment who were guilty of the sin and to have been fewel for the unquenchable flames for ever O pretious Sacrifice O hateful sin O gracious Saviour How can mans dull and narrow heart be duly affected with such transcendent things or Heaven make its due impression upon an inch of flesh Shall I ever again have a dull apprehension of such Love Or ever have a favourable thought of sin Or ever have a fearless thought of Iustice O break or melt this hardned heart that it may be somewhat conformed to my crucified Lord The tears of Love and true Repentance are easier than the flames from which I am redeemed O hide me in these wounds and wash me in this pretious blood This is the Sacrifice in which I trust This is the Righteousness by which I must be justified and saved from the Curse of thy violated Law As thou hast accepted this O Father for the world upon the Cross Behold it still on the behalf of sinners and hear his blood that cryeth unto thee for mercy to the miserable and pardon us and accept us as thy Reconciled Children for the sake of this Crucified Christ alone We can offer thee no other Sacrifice for sin and we need no other § 55. 7. When the Minister applyeth himself to God by Prayer for the efficacy of this Sacrament that in iâ he will give us Christ and his Benefits and pardon and justifie us and accept us as his reconciled Children joyn heartily and earnestly in these requests as one that knoweth the need and worth of such a mercy § 56. 8. When the Minister delivereth you the consecrated Bread and Wine look upon him as the messenger of Christ and hear him as if Christ by him said to you Take this my broken body and blood and feed on it to everlasting life and take with it my sealed Covenant and therein the sealed testimony of my Love and the sealed pardon of your sins and a sealed gift of life eternal so be it you unfeignedly consent unto my Covenant and give up your selves to me as my Redeemed ones Even as in delivering the possession of House or Lands the deliverer giveth a Key and a twig and a turfe and saith I deliver you this house and I deliver you this land so doth the Minister by Christs authority deliver you Christ and pardon and title to eternal life Here is an Image of a sacrificed Christ of Gods own appointing which you may lawfully use And more than an Image even an Investing instrument by which these highest mercies are solemnly delivered to you in the name of Christ. Let your hearts therefore say with Ioy and Thankfulness with faith and Love O matchless bounty of the eternal God! what a gift is this and unto what unworthy sinners And will God stoop so low to man and come so neer him and thus reconcile his worthless enemies Will he freely pardon all that I have done and take me into his family and love and feed me with the flesh and blood of Christ I believe Lord help mine unbelief I humbly and thankfully accept thy gifts Open thou my heart that I may yet more joyfully and thankfully accept them Seeing God will glorifie his Love and mercy by such incomprehensible gifts as these behold Lord a wretch that needeth all this mercy And seeing it is the offer of thy Grace and Covenant my soul doth gladly take thee for my God and Father for my saviour and my sanctifier And here I give up my self unto thee as thy Created Redeemed and I hope Regenerate one as thy Own thy Subject and thy Child to be saved and sanctified by thee to be beloved by thee and to Love thee to everlasting O seal up this Covenant and pardon by thy Spirit which thou sealest and deliverest to me in thy Sacrament that without reserve I may be entirely and for ever thine § 57. 9. When you see the Communicants receiving with you let your very hearts be united to the Saints in love and say How goodly are thy tents O Jacob How amiable is the family of the Nââb 24. 5. Psal 13. 15. 4. 16. 2 3. Iuk 19 8. Psal. 84. 10. Lord How good and pleasant is the unity of brethren How dear to me are the pretious members of my Lord though they have yet all their spots and weaknesses which he pardoneth and so must we My goodness O Lord extendeth not unto thee but unto thy Saints the excellent ones on earth in
bear too patiently with your selves If another speak evil of you he doth not make you evil It 's worse to make you bad than to call you so And this you do against your selves Doth your Neighbour wrong you in your honour or Estate But he endangereth not your soul He doth not forfeit your salvation He doth not deserve damnation for you nor make your soul displeasing to God But all this you do against your selves even more than all the Devils in Hell do and yet you are too little offended with your selves see here the power of blind self-love If you loved your Neighbours as your selves you would agree as peaceably with your Neighbours almost as with your selves Love them more and you will bear more with them and provoke them less § 5. Direct 4. Compose your minds to Christian gentleness and meekness and suffer not Passion to Direct 4. make you either turbulent and unquiet to others or impatient and troublesome to your selves A gentle and quiet mind hath a gentle quiet tongue It can bear as much wrong as another can do according to its measure It is not in the power of Satan He cannot at his pleasure send his Emissary and by injuries or foule words procure it to sin But a Passionate person is frequently provoking or provoked A little thing maketh him injurious to others and a little injury from others disquieteth himself He is daily troubling others or himself or both Coals of fire go from his lips It is his very desire to provoke and vex those that he is angry with His Neighbours Peace and his own are the fuel of his anger which he consumeth in a moment To converse with him and not provoke him is a task for such as are eminently meek and self-denying He is as the leaves of the Aspe tree that never rest unless the day be very calm The smallest breath of an angry tongue can shake him out of his tranquillity and turn him into an Ague of disquietness The Sails of the Windmill are scarce more at the winds command than his heart and tongue is at the command of Satan He can move him almost when he please Bid but a Neighbour speak some hard speeches of him or one of his Family neglect or cross him and he is presently like the raging Sea whose waves cast up the mire and dirt An impatient man hath no security of his own peace for an hour Any enemy or angry person can take it from him when they please And being troubled he is troublesome to all about him If you do not in your patience possess your souls they will be at the mercy of every one that hath a mind to vex you Remember then that no peace can be expected without Patience nor patience without a meek and gentle mind Remember that the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is of great price in the sight of God 1 Pet. 3. 4. And that the wisdom from above is first pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated Jam. 3. 17. And that the eternal wisdom from above hath bid you learn of him to be meek and lowly in spirit as ever you would find rest to your souls Matth. 11. 28 29. And he that loseth his own peace is likest to break the peace of others § 6. Direct 5. Be careful to maintain that order of Government and obedience which is appointed Direct 5. of God for the preservation of Peace in families Churches and Common-wealths If you will break this vessel peace will flow out and be all quickly spilt What peace in Schools but by the authority of the Schoolmaster Or in Armies but by the authority of the General If an unwise and ungodly Governour do himself violate the foundations and boundaries of peace and either weakly or wilfully make dividing Laws no wonder if such wounds do spend the vital blood and spirits of that society It being more in the power of the Governours than of the Subject to destroy Peace or to preserve it And if the Subjects make not conscience of their duty to their Superiours the banks of peace will soon be broken down and all will be overwhelmed in tumult and confusion Take heed therefore of any thing which tendeth to subvert or weaken Government Disobedience or Rebellion seldome wanteth a fair pretence but it more seldome answereth the agents expectation It usually pretendeth the weaknesses miscarriages or injurious dealings of superiours But it as usually mendeth an inconvenience with a mischief It setteth fire on the house to burn up the Rats and Mice that troubled it It must be indeed a grievous malady that shall need such a mischief for its remedy Certainly it is no means of Gods appointment Take heed therefore of any thing which would dissolve these bonds Entertain not dishonourable thoughts of your Governours and receive not nor utter not any dishonourable words against them If they be faulty open not their shame Their honour is their interest and the peoples too Without it they will be disabled for effectual Government When subjects or servants or children are sawcily censorious of superiours and make themselves Judges of all their actions even those which they do not understand and when they presume to defame them and with petulant tongues to cast contempt upon them the fire is begun and the sacred bonds of peace are loosed When superiours rule with Piety Justice and true love to their subjects and Inferiours keep their place and rank and all conspire the publick good then Peace will fourish and not till then § 7. Direct 6. Avoid all revengeful and provoking words When the poyson of Asps is under mens Direct 6. lips Rom. 3. 13. no wonder if the hearers minds that are not sufficiently antidoted against it fester Death and life are in the power of the tongue Prov. 18. 21. When the tongue is as a Sword yea a sharp sword Psal. 57. 4. and when it is purposely whetted Psal. 64. 3. But no marvel if it pierce and wound them that are unarmed But by long forbearing a Prince is perswaded and a soft tongue breaketh the bone Prov. 25. 15. A railer is numbered with those that a Christian must not eat with 1 Cor. 5. For Christianity is so much for Peace that it abhorreth all that is against it Our Lord when he was reviled reviled not again and in this was our example 1 Pet. 2. 21 23. A scorning railing reproachful tongue is set as Iames saith 3. 6. on fire of Hell and it setteth on fire the course of nature even persons families Churches and Common-wealths Many a a ruined society may say by experience Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth James 3. 5. § 8. Direct 7. Engage not your selves too forwardly or eagerly in disputes nor at any time without Direct 7. necessity And when necessity calleth you set an extraordinary watch upon your passions Though disputing is lawful and sometime necessary to defend
the truth yet it is seldome the way of doing good to those whom you dispute with It engageth men in partiality and passionate provoking words before they are aware And while they think they are only pleading for the truth they are militating for the honour of their own understandings They that will not stoop to hear you as learners while you orderly open the truth in its coherent parts will hardly ever profit by your contendings when you engage a proud person to bend all his wit and words against you The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach c. 1 Tim 6. 4 5 6. 2 Tim. 2. 24. § 9. Direct 8. Have as little to do with men in matters which their commodity is concerned in Direct 8. as you can As in chaffering or any other thing where Mine and Thine is much concerned For few men are so just as not to expect that which others account unjust And the nearest friends have been alienated hereby § 10. Direct 9. Buy peace at the price of any thing which is not better than it Not with the Direct 9. loss of the favour of God or of our innocency or true peace of conscience or with the loss of the Gospel or the ruine of mens souls But you must often part with your Right for peace and put up wrongs in word or deed Money must not be thought too dear to buy it when the loss of it will be worse than the loss of money to your selves or those that you contend with If a soul be endangered by it or societies ruined by it it will be dear bought money which is got or saved by such means He is no true friend of Peace that will not have it except when it is cheap § 11. Direct 10. Avoid Censoriousness which is the judging of men or matters that you have no Direct 10. call to meddle with and the making of matters worse than sufficient proof will warrant you Be neither busie-bodies meddling with other mens matters nor pievish aggravaters of all mens faults Iudge not that ye be not judged for with what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again Matth. 7. 1 2. You shall be censured if you will censure And if Christ be a true discerner of minds it is they that have beams in their own eyes who are the quickest perceivers of the motes in others Censorious persons are the great dividers of the Church and every where adversaries to peace while they open their mouths wide against their neighbour to make the worst of all that they say and do and thus sow the seeds of discord amongst all § 12. Direct 11. Neither talk against men behind their backs nor patiently hearken to them that Direct 11. use it Though the detecting of a dangerous enemy or the prevention of anothers hurt may sometimes make it a duty to blame them that are absent yet this case which is rare is no excuse to the backbiters sin If you have any thing to say against your neighbour tell it him in a friendly manner to his face that he may be the better for it If you tell it only to another to make him odious or hearken to backbiters that defame men secretly you shew that your business is not to do good but to diminish love and peace § 13. Direct 12. Speak more of the good than of the evil which is in others There is none so Direct 12. bad as to have no good in them Why mention you not that which is more useful to the hearer than to hear of mens faults But of this more afterward § 14. Direct 13. Be not strange but lovingly familiar with your neighbours Backbiters and slanders Direct 13. and unjust suspicions do make men seem that to one another which when they are acquainted they find is nothing so Among any honest well meaning persons familiarity greatly reconcileth Though indeed there are some few so proud and fiery and bitter enemies to honest peace that the way to peace with them is to be far from them where we may not be remembred by them But it is not so with ordinary neighbours nor friends that are fallen out nor differing Christians Its nearness that must make them friends § 15. Direct 14. Affect not a distance and sowre singularity in lawful things Come as near them Direct 14. as you can as they are men and neighbours and take it not for your duty to run as far from them lest you run into the contrary extream § 16. Direct 15. Be not over-stiff in your own opinions as those that can yield in nothing to another Direct 15. Nor yet âo facile and yielding as to betray or lose the truth It greatly pleaseth a proud mans mind when you seem to be convinced by him and to change your mind upon his arguments or to be much informed and edified by him But when you deny this honour to his understanding and contradict him and stifly maintain your opinion against him you displease and lose him And indeed a wise man should gladly learn of any that can teach him more and should most easily of any man let go an error and be most thankful to any that will increase his knowledge And not only in errors to change our minds but in small and indifferent things to submit by silence beseemeth a modest peaceable man § 17. Direct 16. Yet build not Peace on the foundation of impiety injustice cruelty or faction Direct 16. for that will prove but the way to destroy it in the end Traytors and Rebells and Tyrants and Persecutors and ambitious covetous Clergy men do all pretend peace for their iniquity But what peace will Iezebels Whoredoms bring Satans Kingdom is supported by a Peace in sin which Christ came to break that he might destroy it while this strong man armed keepeth his house his goods are in peace till a stronger doth bind him overcome him and cast him out Deceitful sinful means of Peace have been the grand Engine of Satan and the Papal Clergy by which they have banished and kept out Peace so many ages from most of the Christian world Impiis mediis Ecclesiae paci consulere was one of the three means which Luther foretold would cast out the Gospel Where perjury or false doctrine or any sin or any unjust or inconsistent terms are made the condition of Peace men build upon stubble and bryars which God will set fire to and soon consume and all that peace will come to nought Directions for Church-peace I have laid down before to which I must refer you CHAP. XVIII Directions against all Theft and Fraud or injurious getting and keeping that which is anothers or desiring it § 1. HE that will know what Theft is must know what Propriety is And it is that plenary title to a thing by which it is called Our Own It is that right to any